Tom Clark Fitness

Tom Clark Fitness Personal Training. Strength training and transformations. All about making you happier, healthier and stronger.

13/10/2019

Summers around the corner- should you bust out a bunch of crunches?

03/06/2019

One of the things the fitness industry does terribly is treat weight loss/your ideal body composition as an end destination, rather than something you maintain.
One of the downsides of our current diet culture is the idea of people dieting down to a weight, and then simply returning to the way things are before. Then, they gain weight, often more than they initially lost. This is a big part of why I generally don’t endorse challenges.
When I was on front desk, it used to blow my mind with some of the people who bought one month passes. That some people would view “getting fit” as something they’d only have to do for a brief period of time, and then no more.
Getting someone to lose 10kg in 8 weeks is easy with a compliant client, and requires very little skill from the coach. As much as a sick before and after shot looks cool, it isn’t really hard to pull off.
What’s markedly more difficult comes next. Making sure they don’t regain that weight in that post challenge period. This is one of the biggest failures of many fad diets. People are either “on” the diet, or eating the same way as before. Instead, I’d prefer teaching people about food, educating, and developing skills.
I used to be against efforts at weight loss which aren’t sustainable, and that’s something I’m beginning to change my mind on. I think there’s no shame on doing something which is (within reason) unsustainable, but the emphasis then has to be on the plan afterwards. Sure, you might lose 10kg in the next 8 weeks, but what’s your plan for the 44 weeks of the year that follow? How will you stay there?
There are two ways I like to think about this.
1. If you have >5% of your bodyweight to lose, it’s probably a good idea to split it up into 2 (or more) efforts, with a diet break in the middle. Spend time at maintenance in between these dieting attempts. Go for 2-3 weeks eating without gaining any weight. It’ll help inform your decisions and work towards some idea of how to eat without tracking
2. Once you’re at your goal weight, how many calories can we get you to eat. Something I’ve recently enjoyed is trying to increase the amount of calories people can eat at maintenance.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, or if you’ve experienced this challenge or short weight loss and weight gain cycle yourself.
Tag a friend who needs to see this, and let me know what you think.

Insta influences, tracking calories, and the rise of insta worthy “cheat meal”It’s fairly safe to say that flexible diet...
01/06/2019

Insta influences, tracking calories, and the rise of insta worthy “cheat meal”
It’s fairly safe to say that flexible dieting is (at least to some extent) in vogue. Carbohydrate restriction has been traded out for all the carbs, some macro splits of varying logic, and counting calories, because this way you can have your cake and eat it too.
I generally think this is amazing. It’s good people can step away from fetishising food, and potentially improve their relationship with food.
Cue the rise of the insta “cheat meal” where people consume a huge amount of calories , whether it be in burger, pizza or dessert form.
Whilst I’m not at all against the consumption of foods like these, I think the blatant advertisement of these cheat meals alongside a ripped body/good physique can often be a bad idea.
Individuals who are fairly well trained, and have been eating appropriately for a long time can often significantly increase their calories. I’ve lost weight eating as much as 3850 calories. In this environment, eating 2000 calories is meaningful, but easy to fit in. Many people actually find as their calories climb higher, some kind of traditionally “unhealthy” high palatability and GI food may actually be useful to hit your calorie target.
But, if you’re a woman eating 1500 or 1600 calories, that 2000 calories fails to fit within your day. That’s not to say you can’t make accommodations for this (I’ve given some women calories as high as 2500-3000 on “high” days), by increasing your caloric needs over time, but it may definitely mean that expectations around huge amounts of calorie dense foods may not be appropriate, at least very often.
However, it’s very possible to increase the amount of calories you can eat/get away with. A post on this is coming up soon.
As always, this is a discussion of diet within the frame of weight loss and weight gain, rather than the more nuanced discussion of a registered dietician. Don’t take advice from PTs who have no qualifications for nutrition about your health and wellbeing
@ Oatley, New South Wales, Australia

30/05/2019

That which you track- you can control.
If you’re looking to maximise your performance or outcome with your training, regardless of what it is, your best bet is often tracking some kind of measure around it.
Much like how if you keep getting speeding tickets, it makes sense to refer to your speedometer more often- so too does referring to metrics around your training and lifestyle to improve your chance at a result.
When you train:
Even if you don’t have a plan, record what you do in the gym. Each time you come in, find a way to get a tiny bit better (this is a post within itself)
When you eat:
Being aware of how many calories you’re putting in is easy, non restrictive, and gives you far better idea of why your weight and body composition is going the way it is.
Even your sleep:
as someone who’s always struggled to get enough sleep, tracking it has been a godsend. It keeps me accountable, but also helps me be more wary of good practice, and ways I can make my lifestyle more conducive towards improving.
What variables are you tracking with your training? Let me know in the comments below⬇️

17/05/2019

The average response and individualised training.
If you’re doing a program which is entirely generic, odds are it’s going to get the average person fairly average results. There’s no such thing as a perfect program.
But, doing a generic cookie cutter program isn’t the best way for everyone forward.
People have a natural tendency to be “good” will still excel on this kind of arrangement as a beginner, but it’s once you’re an intermediate, or if you’re coming off a different base that some kind of individualisation makes sense. There’s also some evidence to suggest “non responders” just receive insufficient stimulus, and are capable of improving with increased volume/stimulus.
This doesn’t mean everyone can’t have results. It just means you have to be smarter
This is especially the case if you’ve got a complex training/injury history, or are any number of variables. The more of these variables you can consider in approaches to training and getting your result, the more control you actually have.
Does your training consider
- training status
- Exercise history
- Injury history
- Current nutrition
- Lifestyle
- Gender
- Hormonal position (some women experience changes in performance across their cycle, and being on the pill can impact training efforts, but that’s a different post altogether)
- Your Goals, short and long term.
Now, to be realistic, if you’ve never trained much before, being on something generic will be close to as good as something which is personalised. But the longer you train, and the more stimulus you require to get better.
Don’t leave gains on the table by just doing what everyone else is doing. Instead think about what your specific needs and situation is, and use that to guide decision making.

23/04/2019

Warm ups as a means to solve a problem.
I see a lot of people do a lot of warm ups in and outside of the gym, often for magical reasons.
Instead, I encourage people to think about the why behind the warm up. Make them specific, and targeted.
Are you warming up to
1. increase passive range of motion
2. Increase active range of motion
3. As a means of developing some kind of awareness or “activation”
Once you’ve discerned what you need, figure out a way to apply it.
The example is use in the video is the bench press. Lots of people struggle with pulling their shoulder blades back (scapular retraction). If you have issues with this, doing some work like banded pullaparts, ytws, etc.
Another good example is doing some planks, 9090 hip lifts, or core positioning work before you squat/deadlift, if you struggle with positioning.
A really good way to evaluate this is using a test retest framework. See how the issue is without intervention, then apply the intervention, then retest- see:
Did it help?
Tag someone who needs to think about their warm ups, and comment what you do/your thoughts below

20/04/2019

One of the most important things I find myself tidying up in a lot of squats (and deadlifts) and pelvic position, and how the rib cage sits on the pelvis.

Many people (especially a lot of women) tend to squat in a fairly extended position (think lower back arched). These same people have issues with squat depth, and often complain about sore and tight lower backs.

I’m finding more and more often that this isn’t just a “mobility” issue, but rather an issue with positioning of the body and coordination.

If you’re finding it hard to hit depth, I encourage you to cue- rib cage down- and take a big breath through your diaphragm.

The boys at have some amazing videos of ways to practice this- particularly their 9090 breathing and hip lift video. Hit them up for some mad brain gains.

As always- let me know if this helped you, and tag a friend who needs to see this.
Huge shout out to for being the model for today, and on photography.

Why just weighing yourself may not be actually tell yourself the full story.This photo is the result of 7 or so weeks at...
11/04/2019

Why just weighing yourself may not be actually tell yourself the full story.
This photo is the result of 7 or so weeks at maintenance calories for me. My weight doesn’t show any sort of meaningful trend in change, but fluctuates from a high of 86.9, to as low as 85.2.
Looking at these fluctuations, it’s very easy to understand how just by seeming “luck of the draw” taking your weight at the wrong time could result in a false positive or negative. This is especially true for women and fluctuations of water retention in their menstrual cycle. Day to day weight fluctuations are essentially meaningless
So what place does weighing yourself have? And what alternatives exist?
Generally, I use weight over time, averaging the last week of my weight every morning. I then look at what meaningful change occurs over a long period of time (2 weeks to 6 months). I think weighing yourself every morning also has the potential to reduce anxiety around your weigh in and your bodyweight through exposure.
It’s an unfortunate reality that for most trained individuals, you’re going to need to gain weight to gain a meaningful amount of muscle, and you’re going to have to lose weight to optimise any meaningful fat loss. Recomposition (where your body gets better over time at maintenance) can occur, but I’d rather slow, and generally less effective than a good structured plan around gaining and losing weight.
Other really useful metrics include
- Progress photos- most people train at least somewhat out of vanity
- Measurements- generally if your arms are going up, and your stomach is going down, you’re doing something right.
- Performance in the gym, especially with isolation exercises done with good technique.

07/04/2019

Ever feel like quitting?
I think it’s important to normalise feeling certain emotions, and acknowledge we’re all humans, and as such, are prone to temptation, quitting, messing up, and generally not always being perfect.
And that’s cool and ok. Everyone is like that at some stage.
What’s important is not the fact you feel that way, but what you do next. Shame is one of the only emotions which doesn’t diminish with exposure therapy- it gets worse.
This is why you should never “shame” someone (or yourself) for feeling a certain way. Acknowledge the way you feel, it’s valid, you feel that way for a reason.
And then acknowledge that you’re in control of what you do next.

April 15th sees the culmination of a lot of work in my first “Sack your Personal Trainer” Seminar, being held in the sch...
01/04/2019

April 15th sees the culmination of a lot of work in my first “Sack your Personal Trainer” Seminar, being held in the school Hall at St Joseph’s Oatley at 6:45pm.
Join me for a night of learning about my approach to training people, and the how I guarantee results for my clients.
We’ll discuss all things gym, whether it’s exercises, programs, or sets and reps, as well as talking briefly about nutrition and the psychology of adherence and motivation. We’ll also have several case studies where we dive deep into the rationale and decision making behind what we do in training.
I’m absolutely psyched to be presenting. We have a few tickets left, and the early bird special ends this Sunday. See the link in my bio to book.

21/03/2019

Think about the hierarchies within your training and important.
A lot of people love to focus on things whxih can seem magical, and apparently easier, even though they’re not what’s going to give you the most/any rate of return.
The classic question I get asked is about protein- should I eat my shake before or after my workout?
I tend to guide people who ask me these kind of questions toward thinking about what’s important.
Much like the big rocks in your training, it’s easier to knock over simple tasks
- train 3-4 times a week and get stronger and do more with good technique over time
- eat in a surplus/deficit depending your goal.
One of the issues with the way the fitness industry runs is results often end up commoditised and people assume a direct link between the consumption of xyz magic pattern at exactly 5:44 on the vernal equinox with results, rather than actually doing a good job with fundamentals.
I often conceptualise training this way
1) is technique executed correctly and exercise selection appropriate?
2) what is weekly volume like
3) is there a progression
4) what kind of programming are they using(often linked to 3)
5) what are their sets/reps on any given day
For diet
1) Calorie balance
2) appropriate protein intake
3) macronutrient ratios
4) nutrient timing
5) supplementation (caffeine, creatine, anything which your diet isn’t covering. Not fat burners)
It’s easier to get better doing simple things well than it is doing fancy things- even though it’s the fancy razzle dazzle which is more profitable for the fitness industry.

I love what I do.It blows my mind every day that I have a job where I get to hang out in a gym, make people fitter and s...
19/03/2019

I love what I do.
It blows my mind every day that I have a job where I get to hang out in a gym, make people fitter and stronger, and talk science to anyone who’ll listen (as well as a few people who won’t).
Not only that, but I somehow get paid for doing something I love.
One of my intermediate term goals is to build a team of powerlifters, and be able to spend more time making people stronger.
If you’re thinking of becoming stronger, whether you’re competing or not, send me a dm, or tag a mate who should get on board.
The team is growing.
Photography:
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