Catalyst Strength & Physique Coaching

17/04/2026

That’s a wrap!

Intense, fun couple of days at Mega Nats.

with 4th in the M1 57s, including some big PBs on her squat (10kg) and total in her first Nationals.

4th in the M2 83s in a tight battle for 3rd, smoking a 145kg bench PB and a 205kg deadlift PB.

stole the show with another 🥇at Nats in the 84kg+ M2, her 3rd one now 🙂in another close competition.

hit the goal of a regional qualifying total as well as 🥈in the 84kg M2’s.

Lovely trip with the oldies ❤️

Thank you immensely APA for another sick Nationals.

02/03/2026

Proud of this crew for a fun day at for Trilogy II!

Liam and Simon in their first competition which is always a daunting experience. Liam’s highlight was hitting a 150kg deadlift (+20 on training) with ease and getting massively out of his comfort zone.

Simon went 8/9 with a lot of PBs and also a massive deadlift PB of 175kg on his 3rd with room to spare. Hopefully both of them keep building and we see them at Masters Nats in due course.

Susie stealing the show as usual with a weight class drop to compete in the 63s for the first time (15kg or so down when we started last year!) with 8/9 (137.5/72.5/157.5 for 367.5) and best overall female 🌵. Very much excited for our entry into M1 next year.

Brodie .brodie.shw with his first 9/9 showing excellent ex*****on and confidence; PBs in all lifts - squat 217.5kg, bench 157.5kg, and a deadlift of 237.5kg to squeek out a PB.

Last but certainly not least, very proud of Eagle who has just turned 70 and is still going strong. She went 6/7 (did a token squat) and unoffically broke the Aus M4 63kg National record bench, deadlift, and total - each by about 20kg! ❤️

Shout out to Adam .insta for an awesome performance too, going at his prep and comp day solo but very much part of the team for a big total PB including a very impressive 150kg squat.

Next up on the calendar is Burnie next month 🔥

Massive thank you for the competition and volunteers, in particular , and .
The comp atmosphere was awesome so thank you supporters!

And of course for the opportunity and all of the back-end organising and promoting.

17/02/2026

💥Canterbury Novice Comp💥

Online clients Mason, Tyler and Sarah got some nice results over the weekend;

Mason in his 2nd comp, going 8/9 with a 205kg squat, 147.5kg bench, and a 247.5kg deadlift (very close miss at 260), for a 600kg total (+12) in the open 105’s. Mason and I have been working together for over eight years now and recently swapped from a more bodybuilding approach to a hybrid approach; lots of potential!

Mason’s brother Tyler crushed his first comp with a 9/9 day, with a 225kg squat, 150kg bench, and 250kg deadlift in the open 120s. Great to see him take the plunge and get up there under the pressure and smoke it.

Sarah also had an awesome first comp, going 7/9 with a 100kg squat, 60kg bench and a 140kg deadlift for a 300kg total ft. all the milestones! In the open 63’s.

Well done team 👏

13/01/2026

Cool weekend for the Level 2 IPF Coaching Course.

Lots of interesting teachings including those related to the recent rule amendments, and a really open forum of discussion amongst the coaches and the instructors .wolf.777 and from the IPF who were excellent.

Loads of fun talking about what we are all passionate about. Thanks City Strength for hosting and for giving us the opportunity.

21/11/2025

Congrats .bastin💥

Archie and I have been working towards improving his footy performance over the last few months with our goal being improving strength and size relevant to his sport.

Archie’s recently been selected for pre-season training with the Tasmania Devils U18 Program which is huge.

He’s shown a lot of improvements and is at the top of the class for his squat and deadlift strength whilst maintaining his aerobic fitness.

Well deserved Archie! Thank you to for investing in his strength coaching 💪

22/10/2025

🔥 First Meet Experience 🔥

Online client Mason with an awesome first meet.

He squatted 200kg, benched 138kg, and deadlifted 250kg in the 93kg class in a local NZ novice meet.

The day went well, just need to work on strengthening the bottom part of ROM on bench to bring that up. Squats and deads were big lifetime PBs & nice milestones.

Thanks to for the game day coaching and to all of the volunteers.

22/10/2025

06/04/2025

Training Recap ➡️

Lots of travel over the past fortnight with a few different gyms. Externals are all over the show but things are trending upwards as I’m wrapping up the third training block this year with the new boss

📍City Strength, Sydney
Bench feeling good on the Eleiko; new foot positioning and leg drive is starting to click to keep chest higher and scaps depressed. [email protected].

📍AF, GrAfTon
Was feeling massively bleh leading into this one but hit a high bar PB of [email protected]. Squats have been painless for ages with the right amount of stimulus so the momentum’s flowing nicely. Finding the right level of stimulus that doesn’t p**s joints off > the level of stimulus that maximises hypertrophy per sesh has been a game changer mentally.

📍Powerhouse Gym, Brisbane
[email protected]. Loads more tentative on rushing progression with deads and keeping a slower pace of increase week to week is working good. Channeling my efforts into not being after a big top set (yet) on deads has helped keep me fresher for squats.

📍Franks Gym, Noosa
~77kg, slowly sticking to my weight gain rate of ~1kg each few months so I can settle into the 83s properly over a long time period without the urge to repeat fat loss phases each year. Another tricky mental thing to stay patient to! Happy with how it’s going so far!

📍Catalyst Strength, Hobart
Back home and dialled it up for 170 for a double on high bars at about 7.5. Stoked with depth staying good at these loads. It’s been 6 months of high bars and now next week low bars are coming back (+ the stiff sleeves). Damn keen to see where low bars get to after a couple months.

Thanks for tuning in.

23/03/2025

💥Meet Recap💥



Ana Lia’s second meet with some nice PBs and some takeaways for next time. Lots of strength added since November amidst a fat loss phase of ~4kg to get into the 69kg class.

Squats
110kg ⚪️⚪️⚪️
117.5kg 🔴🔴⚪️
120kg ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (+7.5kg PB)

Depth got us on the second attempt but it moved super easy, so we went up a little bit for 120 which was reasonably comfortable in the end. Always a bit of a risk going up after a miss on depth but she nailed it regardless. Big milestone here to celebrate.

Bench
75kg ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (equal PB)
80kg 🔴🔴🔴
80kg 🔴🔴🔴

Bench tech has come a long way and strength is up but unfortunately jumped the press call on 80 then was too gassed on the 3rd. Always a bit of debate on 2.5 v 5 jumps on bench at this kind of load, which made things a bit tricky as we thought potentially 82.5 was there on the best day. Massive PB coming next time.

Heading 3/6 leading into deads creates a bit of a mental struggle. We accepted the disappointment feeling for a moment then snapped back into gear to finish the day off on a high.

Deads
142.5kg ⚪️⚪️⚪️
150kg ⚪️⚪️⚪️
155kg ⚪️⚪️⚪️ (5kg PB)

Deads moved awesome, capitalising on a nice improvement in strength with likely more in the tank.

Total 350kg (12.5kg PB)
🥉69kg

Nice total PB including an awesome milestone AND qualified for the Tassie Cup primary selection for August! 🙂 When we click everything together and add some more prep time I don’t think 400 is too far out of reach this year.

08/01/2025

🔥One Year of Physique Stuff🔥

For the sports science nerds:

➡️ A cut followed the picture on the left, followed by a snail paced bulk which ended up at the same bodyweight with better composition.

➡️ I did one powerlifting comp for fun but most of the year was focused on improving delts, pecs, quads, adductors and forearms.

💭What worked

• Side delts like more. 3x/week with 3-4 sets per day hammering seated side laterals (the goat), as well as on a cable with a slow downwards tempo with big reps (15-20), and the re-intro of DB overhead press.

• Moving away from lots of BB benching with some more focus on incline neutral DB bench and dips. This definitely did not help my bench strength short term but it helped pec size so that should translate in the future.

• Hammering quad specific compound movements which suck ass but they work. Namely the belt squat and split squat, with a lot of intent around technique. I think I’ve made the most gains on my quads this year compared to any year and it’s because I’ve moved a bit away from low bar squats which I tend to not do well on joint recovery wise. Keeping cardio up helped me get through the leg work more productively.

• Adductor work via the hip rotation adductor machine to compensate for less squatting. Put this in the plan to compensate for the reduced adductor volume with less squatting and it filled a void in my legs and now I chafe worse.

💭 What didn’t

• Expecting I could get the best of both worlds strength wise with the hypertrophy focus. I think I do better hyper fixating on one thing to do rather than two especially at this point in my lifting journey.

• My method of weight tracking needed adjustment as I was searching for a smaller rate of change which is tricky on a small timeframe.

💭 When I would recommend the snail bulk

• If you’re natty and you feel the need to cut every summer.

❗️Reach out if you want help planning your long term body composition change. An effective long term change can be a tricky one to navigate by yourself, and training is hard enough already.

Bonus pic at the end for the aftermath of a 4000kcal off plan Fiji buffet breakfast binge 🥓🍗🥞🥚🍳☕️🍍🍑🍉