David Little - BodyDaemon's resident trainer
Hello and welcome to BodyDaemon, a site that will offer you unlimited support on the road to prolonged health and fitness. My name is David Little and I’m your resident personal trainer. Please let me help you produce outstanding results and achieve the body you have always wanted.
The Beginning
Fitness has always played a huge part in my life - whether it is competitively or for my own ego, I have enjoyed the benefits it offers. From a young age I competed in many athletic events and luckily got involved in 100 metre racing across the County of West Cumbria. It was a strange set up for a nine year old to be involved in because back then I was racing against 16 year olds. Luckily the 16 year olds would start 20 yards behind me but even still I was beating them on a regular basis. I was proud to say I never got beat by anybody older than me, although I found my own age group a problem! For 2 years I managed to win a few races and gained a couple of nice cups for the mantelpiece.
I enjoyed the races but I found the training more fulfilling, even at a young age. I remember running against my dog for training, every day I tried beating it although I think it died unbeaten. Before I knew it running became a distant memory and the lazy teenage years hit badly. During these years I remember watching my brother train in the garage, drinking protein shakes and wondered what the benefit was. He had a good physique and loved bodybuilding but I never really thought it would bite me like it did when I was in my twenties.
My Mistakes
Being honest and true to yourself is very important when it comes to fitness. I’ve heard so many people say "I was really fit 5 years ago, I had a six pack" - even worse are the people you see in the gym giving out advice, when they can’t even train correctly themselves. The bottom line is so many of these people don’t know what it takes to train hard and push their bodies to the extreme limit. I also believe that if you’ve never made a mistake yourself and learn from it, then generally you're not the person people should be gaining knowledge from.
Mistakes have been a big part of my training life. Luckily I’ve never had a severe injury from these errors in judgement, but I do believe they've put me in a much better position to give advice. Here are just some of them:
Too Much Weight!
I’ve always been competitive but when you're new to training you should always know your limits. On 2 separate occasions my lower back and front deltoid should have been injured but I managed to escape by the skin of my teeth.
Press-ups using gymnastic rings. You don't need to use lots of weight to get an intense workout!
The first occasion was during a deadlift session with my brother. My brother had been performing deadlifts for several years and had built up a good weight stack to back it up. However I was new to deadlifts but not to be outdone I managed to lift the same for the first 2 sets. I was fairly impressed until my brother said those first 2 were the warm up. The third set was a 150 kg stack, now bear in mind I had never performed deadlifts before - my core wasn’t exactly strong, and my legs and lower back were weak. I was a comfortable 80kg deadlifter at that point. I don’t know how I did it but I managed to perform the first rep quite well, the second rep was a disaster, I got halfway and dropped the bar. My back had given way and I spent the next 20 minutes lying on the bench. After a few stretches I managed to get my back to normal but lesson one had been learned - always lift within your limits.
Not consuming the right Nutrition.
Nutrition is simple - everybody should now know what is bad you and what are good for you. In my mid twenties I struggled with nutrition and my aim was to lose weight and tone up. I thought the best way was to eat very little, unfortunately this led to an illness that kept me away from training for the best part of 2 months. Nutrition is just as important as training - as a wise man once said, "a great body starts in the kitchen"!!
Quantity rather than Quality
I believed in my early twenties that I had to work out for an hour and a half - I wouldn’t even consider that now. One workout I used to do was 20 minutes versaclimber then Chest / Biceps - in total this took well over an hour. The 20 minutes of cardio was around 55% of my Maximum Heart Rate and chest and biceps consisted of heavy lifting, but towards the end my body felt so tired that it would affect my next session in the gym. One of my most memorable mistakes was completing a 10 mile run, then after a 20 minute rest completing an hour spinning session. When we had to do hill climbs in the spinning session I couldn’t because of the severe cramps in my legs, it was rather embarrassing.
Not many personal trainers admit to their mistakes but they aren’t true PT’s, I’ve gained 14 years experience now and throughout those years I have transformed my body at least three time successfully. I have also been drastically wrong in some of my training plans but I now know what works for me and what works for other people. Being a personal trainer isn’t all about having a certificate - it’s about practicing what you preach.
Who do you want to be?
Sylvester Stallone is my greatest idol ever, I grew up on Rocky movies and followed his career with one purpose in mind, to gain his philosophy on training. I recently bought his book Sly Moves and it was very refreshing. I was expecting a little bit of hype but it’s as honest as what I write about now. Here was a guy that fought to become Rocky, a man who has transformed his body successfully and tells us of the mistakes he made. Stallone tells of a time when he trained with Franco Columbu - an ex Mr Universe - for Rocky 2. During a bench press session he decided to compete with this man and after each set the weights increased. Eventually Stallone’s motivation got the better of him and his pectoral muscle tore. The Rocky music is still my favourite for getting me through workouts now - and I’m sure all of us will agree that Rocky inspired many people to train.
Inspiration is key and it's important to have someone you want to be like, it could be your Dad for example. With so many celebrities developing their bodies for the rigors of movies like 300, James Bond and Batman then the workouts become more well known.
If you want a physique like Daniel Craig then develop his training methods and follow that path. I truly believe that if you have a goal like this then you will achieve it.
Where I am now..
After 14 years of training my targets will never change - I always want to achieve my best and look for the very best training methods. I’m 32 now and along with that comes great knowledge but I certainly don’t know it all and never will. The greatest aspect of fitness is you never stop learning - and the internet helps you develop your knowledge even further.
Four years ago I decided to pursue a Personal Training Qualification and now I have gained a Level 3 REPS accreditation I feel that I’ve backed up my experience. My main job involves computing at Sellafield and if it wasn’t for that job I wouldn’t have had the opportunities I have. My aims are to fully develop my online personal training role at BodyDaemon and, in the future, branch out more with books and DVDs that will help others.
Having just bought my first house this year with my girlfriend I have converted the garage in to a gym and I’m rather pleased with the outcome. Many of the video demonstrations you'll see at BodyDaemon come from there and the equipment I have gives an intense workout. The gym is kitted out with:
- Treadmill
- Rowing Machine
- Powerbags
- Kettlebells
- Dumbells
- Olympic barbell & plates
- Pull-up / dip station
- Medicine ball
- Gymnastic Rings
- Weighted Vest
- Ab Roller
Me in the home gym, performing parallel bar dips.
I want to help everyone out there and along the way I want you all to achieve the results I’ve had over the years. Keep visiting BodyDaemon and let me kick-start your route to Fitness!
We've set up a discussion Forum - Ask the Trainer - where I'm going to offer help and advice to BodyDaemon members. I hope to see you there!