👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hi, I’m Nick Screeton, a health and fitness addict who lives, sleeps, and breathes all things to do with health, fitness, and improving general well being!
I’m always on the lookout for ways to improve myself, both mentally and physically.
I’ve been training and doing fitness for most of my life. I did all sports when I was younger, the main one I did was Karate 3x per week with my dad – here I achieve a black belt at nine years old.
In terms of specific fitness and weight training, I’ve been doing this for around 17 years – I started properly working out at 14 years old, this was to help me improve my Ice Hockey. I did things such as plyometrics, agility work, and lightweights.
Then I started working out to boost confidence, and it was all about the aesthetics and how I looked! This was my main focus for about ten years (through college and University!). It was all for vanity purposes!
I now workout to keep fit and have a good physique. BUT it’s a more rounded approach that focuses on both aesthetics but also performance – it’s no use looking good if you can’t run a mile without getting out of breath – like most bodybuilders!
Outside of health and fitness, I’m a pretty simple guy really who knows what he wants and who devotes his life to a few areas that are truly meaningful to me.
My life consists of working on five key areas – these are the things I value the most. In no particular order:
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
Typically I’ll train anything from 4-6x per week (usually six days!), and sometimes I’ll do seven days, even if that just means sitting on a bike and cycling for 30 minutes! I’m addicted to the endorphin high of exercise.
A typical day of training will look something like the following:
Weight Training Days (3-4 days per week)
Cardio Days (2-3 days per week)
I’ll usually do 20-30 minutes on either the assault bike, ski machine, or rower. Sometime I’ll do low-intensity work, other times I’ll do HIIT training.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
It’s so good for my mind that I can’t live without training!
I don’t train with 100% effort and intensity all year round. That said, I do train pretty much 50 weeks of the year – with maybe a couple of weeks off at Xmas. It’s so good for my mind that I can’t live without training!
I’ll go through cycles where I push hard, and then other times, I just try to maintain a decent level of fitness.
I’ll push harder when I want to get lean for a beach holiday – I’ll typically do a 12-week fat loss program or my 28 Day Keto Challenge – reducing calories, increasing intensity, and upping daily activity.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
My plans in 2020 are to increase my body weight to 90kg (I need to gain 8kg), and I want to pack on some size and stay lean (around 10-12% body fat).
I’m currently on a mini fat loss phase (2 weeks) after a heavy Xmas of chocolate, cakes, and too many high-calorie foods! Then after my stomach and body fat have returned to a healthy level (15% body fat) – I’ll then start to slowly increase my calories to gain muscle without gaining fat.
I’ll do this through strength training and progressive eating – adding 50-100 calories each week for approx 8-12 weeks – then I’ll reassess from that point.
In terms of business, my main goal is to help more people. To date, I’ve completed over 10,000 x 1-1 personal training sessions, and have just taken on another trainer for my business LEP Fitness – this is to help cope with the growing demand. My aim is to reach more and more people and continue to grow LEP Fitness.
I also want to make my health and fitness blog one of the best on the internet! There are already over 1,000 articles on my website, and that number grows weekly!
I love writing, and the blog has continued to grow over the last four years, so I want to keep going and see how far I can take it!
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
I’m not the best at this, to be honest! I’m a warrior that pushes past pain, BUT then ends up regretting it! Lol! That said as I’m getting older (31 years old now!) I do place more emphasis on recovery strategies such as:
- Sleep – aiming for 7 hours sleep (not always easy with two kids) But I do also take an afternoon nap (10-20 mins) sleep is key! Get it when you can!
- Foam Rolling – I foam roll every workout (usually before training).
- Mobility – I do lots of mobility work before training.
- Stretching – I typically stretch after every session.
I do foam rolling before training because it’s great for freeing up tight muscles and increasing blood flow before mobility work and training. I do sometimes foam roll after a workout, but always before a session – as it helps prep my body.
As well as the above, I also take time out from intense training and go on long walks (walking heals the mind and body). I also do lots of meditating (pretty much every day!), and I am continually looking for ways to improve performance.
I love the Ben Pakulski podcast for getting these performance tips.
In terms of injuries, I’ve been pretty lucky. If I do get an injury, I just work around it or know what to do to heal my injury – i.e. corrective exercises, etc.
If you look after your body and warm up/cool down properly, you’ll be fine most of the time, and injuries will be avoided.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I’m not a fan of protein shakes or other supplements.
My diet is pretty relaxed most of the time – I don’t ban any foods!
I eat protein sources at least 2x per day, I only eat organic meat (mainly because of the taste and quality), and I will eat foods such as chicken, eggs, and steak (these are my primary 3) but I will also occasionally have fish.
I also mainly follow an intermittent fasting diet approach, where I’ll only eat between the hours of 12pm-8pm. I find that eating two meals a day is much better for my digestive system.
When I’m trying to lean down and lose fat, I track my calories and increase my meals to 3-4 per day. I will eat protein most of the time and have carbs around my workouts.
It’s more of an extreme approach, BUT not too extreme. I know as long as I’m in a calorie deficit that I’ll lose weight.
That said, I’ll still eat chocolate, just less of it, and make sure my output is higher.
In terms of supplements, the ones I use all around are:
- Magnesium – both citrate and glycinate (fantastic for sleep)
- Zinc
- Turmeric
That’s what I’ll pretty much take year-round. I’m not a fan of protein shakes or other supplements. Natural food(s) will always beat any supplement on the market!
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
My biggest fitness inspiration is Greg Plitt – I used to watch all of his motivational videos, and he fired me up while I was at University!
Greg, who, unfortunately, passed away in 2015, had an amazing physique, and I learned lots from him, about how hard to train, and also about how to build a stronger mindset to succeed in life.
In terms of other role models, it would be people such as Tony Robbins, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dr. John Martini, Richard Branson, Alan Sugar!
Basically, a mixture of successful people who’ve achieved success in either fitness, business, or mastering the self – all of the things I love and am interested in studying.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Spend 30-60 minutes every day working on YOU. Read every day, or listen to an audibook or podcast. Make sure to allocate time every single day where you pursue what you love and read things that inspire you to lead a fulfilling life!
Here are some of my favourite books that have helped me the most. I hope they help you too:
- The Chimp Paradox – Steve Peters
- Values Factor – Dr. John Martini
- The Secret – Rhonda Byrne
- Mindset – Carol Dweck
- Breaking The Habit Of Being Your Self – Dr. Joe Dispenza
If all you did for the next year was to spend 30-60 mins on personal development each day, your life would dramatically improve! Do this for the next five years and see what happens!
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
I’m always looking for the right clients. Lots of people say they want to change, BUT their actions say otherwise.
I’ll work with most people providing they have the right attitude and are willing to learn. I want to help people, BUT you can only help people when they want to help themselves.
If somebody is fully committed, then I’m willing to work with them.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
The best place to catch me is on Instagram @lepfitness.
I also update my blog every week – adding at least one new article each week, and countless other from guest contributors.
You can also email me at [email protected]
