Congratulations go to this year’s winner of PGPT’s Client of the Year – Chris Slater! At PGPT we believe hard work and sacrifice should be recognised and rewarded, and we are lucky to see the physical and mental rewards our fantastic clients achieve on a daily basis. None more so that this year’s Client of the Year, Chris. Chris is a former athlete who is now head of an Australian financial company on the stock exchange. He’s a career man who had lost his athletic fitness levels he once showed in his 20s. Now 52 Chris was having major issues with his knee and was desperate to shift 20kg. Thi ..read more

According to the Royal Collage of Psychiatrists (2019), just over half of men and just under half of women in the UK drink alcohol. For many this is a natural part of our social culture that we are fully aware of and feel comfortable with. It is shown that drinking at low risk is unlikely to have serious consequences (less than 14 units a week), which likely helps our level of comfort with it. However since 1980, alcohol has become much more affordable, making it more affordable and accessible to all (including younger age groups). Here are some awareness facts: In the UK… Over the past 5 yea ..read more

There are many things to consider when deciding to commit to a journey of improved health specifically relating to weight loss. We’ll highlight a few important traits needed for managing this journey, with good self-awareness, accountability and one that doesn’t knock your confidence when faced with setbacks that often occur during a weight loss journey. Accepting Change Firstly, it’s important to address the concept of ambivalence to change. We may feel indecisive about realistic goals or believe no matter how hard we try we’ll never reach them. This doesn’t mean you’re lazy, or unmotivated ..read more

Here at PGPT our expertise lie with helping busy men over 40, usually with stressful careers, transform their health, fitness and physical condition. We have completed 10s of thousands of hours of coaching sessions and supported the transformation of 100s of men. Some of the benefits they have enjoyed include: Reduced stress and anxiety Better physical shape Improved health Healthier joints (at times avoiding planned surgeries) Improved focus and productivity Improved mood The list goes on… So after doing this for 15 years we have picked up on a few things we know to work and difficulties to ..read more

Although summer in the UK is pretty unpredictable, and normally rather disappointing, it is still important to understand how to prepare for training in the heat. Many of our clients at pgpt travel and continue training abroad, and occasionally the UK challenges us with a hot and humid heatwave. So what should you do to hack the heat and continue training safely? Listen to Your Body If you are feeling dizzy, thirsty, lightheaded and have dry mouth chances are you are dehydrated and need to drink more water.  Symptoms including nausea, excessive sweating, fast breathing and cramps can ..read more

We’ve all experienced the emotional eating response to stress and overwhelm, with the following feelings of regret, shame, and lowered self-esteem. First let’s clarify that ‘emotional eating’, or trying to regulate emotions with food, can be on a spectrum from forms of disordered eating which range from restriction and control, bingeing, purging, avoidance etc. to a simple momentary comfort or gain for control. Most of us live on this spectrum, but understand that there is a history and complexity to each individual situation. Some more extreme cases should be handled by a registered dietician ..read more

By now, all of your new year’s resolutions should be set and hopefully not yet broken. With this in mind, we want to focus in on how you can still lose weight when work is building up and your schedule is out of whack. In 2019, 48% of people who made a new year resolution wanted to lose weight. Other popular resolutions included eating healthier (54%) and exercising more regularly (59%). Sticking to these resolutions proves to be very challenging; as many as 80% fail in the first year, and 20% of these are broken in January alone! It seems that events occurring in January can potentially make ..read more

When training, many people tend to use their heart rate as guidance for how hard they are working. With some styles of training you don’t need to worry about your heart rate, but for most it is a good way to see how much effort you are putting into each workout. To find out what level we should be working at you first need to calculate your max heart rate. The easiest way to do this is to subtract your age from 220 for men, and 225 for women. So if you are a 40 year old male, your max heart rate would be 180 bpm. This is only an average and some people may get a higher heart rate than this. So ..read more

With the days getting colder, the nights feeling longer and the winter break fast approaching, it is a particularly difficult time to stay focused on training goals. As we all know so well, seeking comfort and warmth in social activities, meals out and drinking alcohol is very tempting to get you through the winter period in the UK! So what can we do to prevent this weight gain over the festive holidays? The New England Journal of Medicine published a study of adults showing that the average holiday weight gain was 0.37 kilograms (just under a pound), and more than half the people in the study ..read more