Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
My name is Sami, I’m currently living on the Gold Coast, Queensland, but I’m originally from Melbourne.
I’m an online health + fitness coach, and certified personal trainer. I’ve run my own business (Sami Rose Fitness) for over five years, and now work exclusively online, working with women all around the world to help them become the happiest, healthiest, most confident version of themselves.
I have a background in bodybuilding/bikini contests, which I did from 2014-2017, and competed in nine shows across three federations.
Since 2017, I’ve been focusing on living a health + balanced life with no restrictions, and I help my clients and followers achieve the same!
Describe a typical day of training
My absolute favourite lift is a sumo deadlift, but I also love Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, and any form of shoulder press.
My training style is mostly strength-based, I love working towards PB’s especially for my favourite lift – deadlifts!
I generally start my workout with one to two key compound lifts (such as squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, shoulder press, bench press, or some form of row) where I push to go heavy with a lower rep range (5-8) and then work into more accessory work and supersets/circuits to keep it fun and faster paced!
I’d say if it’s a day I’m really focusing on hitting a PB, my session might take me 90 minutes, so that I can really take my time working the weight up and having sufficient rest periods in between, before I get to the rest of my workout, but I’d say that’s only one to two days per week.
The rest of the week, I train for 40-60 minutes, and this would be around three days a week.
I prefer an upper/lower split, but not split by individual body parts, and I’ll occasionally do a full body session to change it up!
My absolute favourite lift is a sumo deadlift, but I also love Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts, and any form of shoulder press. If I could just train glutes + shoulders every day I would!!
I don’t do a lot of cardio, but I love to walk! I’ll throw in a run or some short bursts of sprints occasionally for heart health, but I do prefer to stick with mostly strength based training and minimal high intensity cardio.
How do you keep going and push harder?
I’m fairly self-motivated, however I do have my days that I struggle to get to the gym! I like to listen to my body – I know if I have a few off days where I’m not feeling it, there’s usually a reason.
I LOVE the gym so if I don’t want to go it’s most likely because I’m super run down, or drained from work, or just genuinely don’t have the time, and I’m okay with that!
After a few missed days of workouts I’ll be back in full force with better mojo so to me, I’m okay with just going with the flow, particularly as I don’t have any major aesthetic goals right now.
I used to be super rigid with my training, especially throughout my competing history, and trained six to seven days per week. For me, that wasn’t ideal, and I ended up feeling really resentful towards training because it was so forced. So having a more balanced approach right now helps me genuinely love my workouts and work them around how I’m feeling each day!
I do track the weights I use, particularly for my key lifts, so that I can work on progressive overload and increase weight over time. Each week I try to either increase weight, or increase by a rep or two – although this isn’t possible every week, it’s what I strive for! That in itself motivates me to work harder and harder each week towards my strength goals.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
At the moment, I’m really focusing more on my clients training than my own – helping them progress with strength goals, fitness goals, and body re-composition.
So most of my goals are business-related! I’m also working on a diploma of counselling so I can really focus on the mindset aspect of my health and fitness coaching, tapping into the WHY of clients behaviours, to help them find the best training + nutrition protocols that suit their lifestyle and mindset.
But I absolutely want to keep progressing with my own training to be a great example, so I’ll continue working towards my strength-based goals – a big one that I hope to tick off in 2020 is a deadlift – double my bodyweight for five reps (130kg x 5) – I’m getting close again, so fingers crossed I can reach that before the end of this year!
How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
I’m blessed that I’ve never had any major injuries, I’ve always been big on self-care to aid my recovery between sessions, so I ensure I always get at least seven hours of sleep each night, and do mobility work before and after every session.
I also take magnesium (just generic from the pharmacy) each night to help with sleep and muscle recovery, and if I’m feeling particularly sore/tight, I like to book in for a remedial massage – generally I only need two to three per year as maintenance unless I’m battling particular soreness!
The one time I’ve been out of training for an injury was after I travelled to Europe – carrying a heavy suitcase down cobblestone streets threw my spine out ever so slightly, and I needed some chiro work and about six weeks of no training when I got home, which was SUPER frustrating. After a couple of months of travelling, all I wanted to do was get back into the gym!
I had to be patient and just worked on lots of walking, and slowly integrated small exercises that didn’t flare up my injury – such as seated leg extensions, lying hamstring curls, and isolated bicep/tricep work – these felt fine so I could at least do bits and pieces while I waited for the all clear.
My strength came back fairly quickly once I could train at full capacity, so I’m pretty lucky my muscle memory and “bounce back” capabilities are strong!
How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I ensure I eat carbs before I train, and protein + carbs, after, to support my performance, but other than that I don’t follow any particular meal timing.
I used to track my calories/macros for YEARS, from about 2010 – 2019, but over the past six to 12 months, I’ve really just been focusing on eating more mindfully, without relying on an app.
I’m still conscious of including as much lean protein + fibre in each day as I can, and minimizing my treats, but I find that for where I am at in my fitness journey, without any aesthetic/body-composition goals, I don’t need to be tracking rigidly.
I take minimal supplements – magnesium at night particularly after bigger training days, EHP Labs OxyWhey protein when I need a little top up of protein in the day, and vitamin C + D in the winter months to help with immunity and balance out the lessened sun time!
The only thing I really take regularly is EHP Labs OxyShred – I use this each morning as a bit of a pick me up – it contains caffeine and vitamins so it’s a great replacement for coffee, with almost no calories, and helps me drink a lot more water, so I prefer this to coffee. It also makes a great mild pre-workout with no crash!
I ensure I eat carbs before I train, and protein + carbs, after, to support my performance, but other than that I don’t follow any particular meal timing.
I suppose I unofficially follow some form of Intermittent Fasting, as I get up and work in the morning straight through to about lunch time, so I don’t tend to get hungry until closer to midday once I start to get more active, so my first meal is usually somewhere between 11 a.m. and 12.30 p.m., for no reason other than I just don’t need the fuel any earlier than that!
It’s great as it leaves more room later in the day to eat more when I’m more hungry, so I can have a decent sized dinner and dessert each night – it works really well for my lifestyle!
I wouldn’t say I have strong “cravings” for junk food – I do LOVE treats, but because I don’t limit myself, I know I can have it any time, so if I want chocolate, I satisfy that craving and move on, instead of thinking about it all day and ending up eating a block of chocolate!
Everything in moderation – food isn’t just fuel, it’s also important to enjoy it too!
What has inspired and motivated you?
I have a lot of friends in the industry so we all love to support and motivate each other!
Someone I really look up to on social media, who has become a friend of mine, is Sohee Lee (@soheefit) – she’s VERY smart, a fantastic coach, and posts a lot of great training and nutrition related content, but with a very balanced and inclusive approach. She’s someone I definitely aspire to be like, both personally and professionally!
I listen to a lot of different podcasts to gather inspiration, a few that I love are:
- Bodies, barbells and bagels
- The James Smith Podcast
- STC Fit Learning Podcast
- Leanne Ward Nutrition
Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
My biggest tip to someone who wants to get started on their health and fitness journey is to hire a coach – a GOOD one!
My biggest tip to someone who wants to get started on their health and fitness journey is to hire a coach – a GOOD one! One who is equal parts knowledgeable, and supportive.
You could have the most educated coach in the world, with fantastic programming, but if they don’t have the people skills required to translate the evidence-based practices into real life situations, it’s really hard for you to learn and implement their tips!
The one thing people tend to do wrong is try and go zero to 100, with both diet and training. This is where you’ll fail, because trying to overhaul your entire life in one go isn’t very easily sustained.
Try simply adding in more good things over time, working on being 10% better each week, so that it’s a seamless progression and just part of your new lifestyle.
When I coach my clients, I don’t take them straight from 0 workouts to five, we’ll set a slow and steady pace and start with two to three, then four, then five, once they become stronger and fitter.
Same deal with nutrition – you won’t immediately eat perfectly, in calorie controlled portions and optimal food choices, so replacing less nutritious meals/snacks over time, with healthier options, will help you find ways to still include foods you love while working on your goals.
And remember – everything in moderation, you don’t have to cut out entire food groups or any particular foods you love just to reach your goals, learn how to include it regularly and work around it for a balanced and enjoyable diet!
Are you taking on clients right now?
My coaching mainly focuses on women around the world who want to better their training, nutrition, and mindset, for a balanced-approach, which is equal parts effective and enjoyable!
I have a lot of clients who come to me struggling with overeating, or low body confidence, so I’d say my specialty is teaching clients how to appreciate the body they have, while working on improving themselves, both inside and out. We don’t just focus on fat loss or how you LOOK, but more importantly how you FEEL!
All my clients are online-based, so we’ll chat via WhatsApp with a formal weekly check-in to assess progress, as well as a seven-day support if they need anything at all in-between – help with their meal planning, video form checks for their lifts, or even just to reach out if they have a question or are struggling with anything in particular. I’m a very supportive coach – my clients think of me as a teacher, trainer, and hype-girl all in one!
Generally, I work with clients for a minimum of 12 weeks, but most stay on for 6+ even after they’ve achieved their initial goal – I love it when my clients enjoy working with me and love my programming and support so much that they stay on even when they don’t need me!
But of course my goal is to educate and empower them to do it on their own, so I also feel proud when a client decides they no longer need coaching and are happy to continue on their journey alone – that makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something – just like the saying goes, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”
Where can we learn more about you?
Website – samirosefitness.com
Instagram – @samirosefitness
TikTok – samirosefitness
