Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hi my name is Awaiz and I’m in my 30s. I’m from UK and I live in London West Hampstead. I work as a public health nutritional advisor, personal trainer, sports therapist, and a life coach.
I’m married and I have two gorgeous boys, ages eight and six. Apart from fitness and exercise, I love and enjoy reading and learning about history, personal development, and about digital marketing.
There are so many of my personal accomplishments and PR regarding to different events in my life depending what we are talking about. If we are talking about fitness then my biggest accomplishment to restart my fitness journey again in 2012, especially when I was grossly overweight and out of shape due to some mishaps.
My first child was born in 2012 and it was the biggest motivation for me, which led me to transform my physical shape to the best physical shape of my life.
During my teens and 20s, I participated in other sports and performed really well in Cricket and powerlifting, nevertheless, general fitness and weight training I enjoyed the most because my interest and passion never really abated with time.
The beauty of weight training is any one can do according to their physical capabilities anywhere with two dumbbells. My best fitness friend is my brother @umad_fitness and he’s one of the best in the world regarding natural weight training and muscle building and I’m not even exaggerating.
There are so many things in the fitness industry, which I don’t agree, one of the examples is spot reduction as it’s paddled in the industry that it’s not possible.
I believe it’s possible as if we try to define our biceps and if we only do our chest exercise or legs, would it be possible to define biceps? Of course not, although, it’ll help to build biceps, but in order to shape up you got to train it directly!
Describe a typical day of training
My training philosophy is to train for the longevity rather than just for few years just for fame or money.
My training philosophy is to train for the longevity rather than just for few years just for fame or money. My training split changes according to my fitness goals as well as my daily schedule.
Sometimes I follow single body part once a week split, sometimes I follow two body part twice a week split as both of these programs yielded tremendous results.
I tend to train three to five times a week, some times more if I feel like it, my daily workout is usually 60 minutes to 90 minutes, sometimes less depending on the time and other commitments of daily life.
For cardio training, I usually do supersets as well as depending on the mood other types of cardiovascular training like bike, running, etc.
If I wish to bulk up, I usually reduce my training time as well as splits whereas If I want to lean up, I simply increase my training time. I don’t use any supplements prior or post workout, instead I just eat some fruits to fuel my workout.
From the last six years, I’ve been training alone due to my brother moved to the different city. I train at West Hampstead at The Gym and I like training there as mostly people know me and encourage each other to excel in training.
My training bag usually has a weight training belt, a basic first aid kit, as well as some other personal protection kit and a spare shirt. I like wearing a step counter and I also log my training.
How do you keep going and push harder?
When my motivation is low, usually it happens when I’m not progressing or the other external factors, which directly impact on my energy level.
Those days I tell myself I’ll pop into the gym but will do a very light workout, which will just entail a little pump and it really helps me to keep going. I managed to keep training for all these years as it helped me a lot to get up when I was down in my life and it still does????????
My best hack for improving in the gym is that do not replicate other people training as you have no idea what programs they’re following and what goals they have. If you do it, I’ll be honest with you, it’ll really jeopardise your training and will stall your growth.
I don’t invariably push myself-harder, some days I train really hard while some days, I take a step back as you can’t continuously push yourself.
Taking time for training sometimes can be a insurmountable task but you gotta be an adaptable, sometimes you got to train at home if you’re short on time or if you have family commitments you got to train at the time when your partner and kids are busy in their daily activities.
Biggest challenge I faced in recent time is during lockdown when there was so much fear, uncertainty, and stress. When keeping myself calm, composed, sane, brave, as well looking after your family, and same time keeping your gains.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Due to lockdown from the last four months, I’ve been training at home and it was really challenging time to adapt and training without much equipment, etc.
I’ve been endeavouring to maintain the muscles and simultaneously not to get excessively heavy. I learnt considerably regarding home training during this time and this home fitness training does excites me.
For the next five years, I want to be even in the better shape I am at the moment and I’ll never underestimate the significance of home training. In order to achieve better shape, I need to ensure I stick to a specific program, which I carefully thought through and jotted down, and my absolute believe is that this will produce desired results, and I make sure down the line that I won’t detract and follow any unrelated training.
My plan beside fitness is to improve my online personal training and nutrition business and I would like to reach out as many as clients worldwide to help them to attain their health and fitness objectives.
I would never blindly emulate other people’s training if I had this magic wand to reverse the time, rather, I’ll just follow my goal specific training. My advice would be to my younger self that some time simple training generates more growth than just fancy training system.
How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
My personal faith regarding injuries is to train them with light weights, bring the blood flow and they’ll heal quicker.
Injuries are hideous and they can stagnate your growth and your entire life and it’ll prevent you to do anything productively. I always push my body with extreme cautious. I never recklessly train and never try to impress people with some foolhardy stunts.
Although, sometimes no matter what you do injuries are inevitable, I had some debilitating injuries in the past which can reappear if I’m not careful. I always train with really light weights for any area is injured and it helps recuperating.
My personal faith regarding injuries is to train them with light weights, bring the blood flow and they’ll heal quicker. I usually sleep seven hours but I’m really working on my sleep to prolong it to between eight to nine hours.
I’m not a big fan of travelling as it really disrupts my routine, however, whenever I travel I make sure I stick to the healthy eating as much as I can and train wherever it’s possible. Generally for recovery, I drink plenty of water, increase my calories and do a lot of stretching.
I wanted to play cricket professionally as I was really good at it, but at the time it wasn’t possible because of the other life commitments. I overcame it to channel my energy in fitness and taught my self to learn that not every thing is possible and you can’t reverse the time, now no point to regret but to carry on doing something amazing whatever I can do now.
How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I don’t follow any specific diet, however, I try to eat healthy balance diet which comprises of all the macros and micros. I don’t count calories, alternatively, I just try to listen to my body how much food it needs to function optimally.
Normally, my carbs are more than protein, and my protein are more than fats in my diet. When I go to attend any social occasion or a family get together I usually eat whatever is available and consider it as a cheat meal and then quickly go back to my good eating routine.
I don’t take any supplements at the moment and as I’m more interested in nutrition and ways to rely on more and more on healthy eating, by the way I’m not against supplements and if it works for you then all good????????I only drink black tea once a day at the moment and I don’t use any fitness app to track my calories etc, nevertheless, I do use step counter occasionally.
What has inspired and motivated you?
There are so many books ????which can help you if you about to start your fitness journey, my first book about bodybuilding/fitness was Arnold schwarznegger bodybuilding encyclopaedia I enjoyed it a lot and now I still read it sometimes as it’s really therapeutic????
I normally listen to the whatever gym music is there, sometimes I listen to the music ????through my headphones ????but overall I find it distracting and it wastes a lot of time to change tracks etc. I follow Umads_fitness on Instagram and he inspires me a lot and I believe he’s the best in the world????????
Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
My advice to lifters, please avoid any unnecessary stunts, which can scupper your lifting career.
If I were new to the fitness, first thing I’ll do is to pick the best course about nutrition or pick up a best book about nutrition then I’ll buy one the best book about fitness, I’ll read up and it’ll give me some ideas what to do then I’ll keep improving my knowledge and definitely I’ll learn what for works for me.
I’ve seen so many strange things in the gym and sadly sometimes it leads to the life changing injuries, for example I saw this young guy was trying to lift four dumbbells on the bench because gym didn’t have heavier dumbells. I also saw these guys trying doing 180 barbell curls together and one ruptured his bicep.
My advice to lifters, please avoid any unnecessary stunts, which can scupper your lifting career. I notice so many young lifters try to lift ridiculous amount of weights with no purpose.
Outside the gym, never stop learning and best £100 I spent for home gym buying some iron plates and barbell.
Are you taking on clients right now?
I really want to take more clients online as face to face there is a limit, which I can train people. My specialty is natural non-competitive muscle building or bodybuilding, as well as general weight loss, fitness and shape up.
Every individual is different and some clients see the results within a few weeks. People always ask how to get into shape and my answer is workout.
Where can we learn more about you?
You can see my work on my Instagram handles: @ptnutritionist @coachawaiz
On Facebook: @awaizptnutritionist @coachawaiz
On YouTube: Ptnutritionist
On LinkedIn: CoachAwaiz Ptnutritionist
On Twitter: @ptnutritionist
My website is ptnutritionist.com
