There are plenty of interviews in which the trainer asks questions of the competitor. What about  something different? How about the competitor asking the trainer questions about why they did what they did? Chose what they chose? Guided in the way they guided?We saw a hole in the market and we jumped in there! Here is our Reverse Interview. Candice asks me the hard questions about her training regime. Remembering Candice was and is still an incredibly close friend of both mine and Michelle's and I have to be honest that I was shit-scared about getting her ready for that comp.

Why? Because I already knew some of her weaknesses. I knew what she did and didn't like and some of it isn't negotiable in training. So the things we laughed and joked about in the past were things I knew I'd have to implement into her training.And seriously speaking here - for those that continuously mouth off with motherhood statements that sound something like, "I would never follow a trainer that .....(prescribed such little food/gave me too much cardio/allowed me to get hungry/didn't alter my program to suit my precious list of 'wants')" - you can feck off. Candice said it much more nicely than that in her interview but I'll say it straight. There are tons and tons and tons of liars on Facebook. You can debate and argue with them forever and a day but they'll never admit to the untruths so it's a waste of good energy.

I put that out there because I'd like to say that we could prep a person on tons of food with absolutely no cardio and the whole experience is mildly uncomfortable at worst. But that'd be bullshit. Your level of comfort is subjective and each person handles it differently. Some say they are uncomfortable and allow their support team to do just that - offer support. Others won't admit the discomfort, preferring to put on a "it's all bloody great!! Not hungry at all!! So much food - even when I'm leaning down - that I can't keep up with it!!" and that's a tactic in itself - a good one. But let's not forget that being "full" in comp prep is not the same as being "full" after the buffet sitting at the local Sizzler. So let's not assume that Miss Noname on FB who says she ploughs through 2000cals per day and is shredding before our eyes is being completely honest - chances are she's telling big pork pies.


Wow - that feels better. Now time to start;

Candice: Were you hesitant to take on a friend as a client? Why/Why not? When you started talking about competing and mentioned that you would like to train with us, my knees started shaking and my stomach went into a few knots. I had to really sit down and think about what was going on with me and why I was so nervous about the thought of training you. Firstly, you are an incredibly dear friend and I was terrified that you wouldn’t be happy and fulfilled with your end result. I trained someone once who did not fulfil what she wanted to and she clearly blamed me for that. I worried that this scenario might undo our friendship and that just couldn’t happen as far as I was concerned. So on one hand I would have been less anxious if you had gone with someone else as your coach….. BUT…. On the other hand, you are so precious to Michelle and I and we didn’t want to miss out on the chance of being right by your side as you got back up there and showed off what you had. I have a great memory and I could not ever forget the way you mesmerised the INBA Darwin stage that first year and took out the overall title. I wasn’t actually there but I saw the pics and heard what the audience had to say and clearly you have a special gift for being able to transform yourself into the most graceful and commandeering competitor – we cannot take any credit for your stage presence (unfortunately!) – but Candice - you’ve just got ‘it’! Don’t ever for get that.

Candice: Were you worried about how much weight I was carrying at the start of prep or did you see it as an achievable challenge?? 

Okay. Hard question. Yes. I certainly did have concerns that we were looking at about 10 kgs to have you in a competitive condition. My concerns were stronger than Michelle’s because I had ‘been there/done that’ and I knew how awful it was to claw back from being on the higher end of the weight spectrum than is optimal for prepping. Michelle consistently reminded me that we were going for a look and not a weight and that really helped me to keep my eyes on your physique changing in front of us and not just your scale weight.

I knew it was achievable but Michelle and I made a vow that we would not delve into the area of starvation and cardio combined – we are seriously opposed to anything that will cause hormonal damage. Of course I did not want egg on our face when we got close to the end and found that we needed some drastic measures to get the result we needed and we certainly did need to lower your food more than I would have liked to. Being a competitor myself, I am keenly aware of how much food I need in me to stay satisfied and I literally jumped right into your ‘diet’ with you because I just had to feel what you would be feeling so that I would know whether we were asking too much of you. Drastic measure I know!!! And it was uncomfortable for me too!! Haha. Not something I would do for any Tom, Dick or Harry!

So yes, I knew it was achievable but I knew it would be really hard work. And I have to mention how proud we were of what you managed – especially during those last few weeks. Michelle and I knew that you went through a terrible tragedy and we knew that the possibility was there that it would de-rail you. Instead you took the challenge of achieving your goal and you ran with it. And from there on in, nothing was a problem to you. If we could relay to you the difference in your psychological state from that point on ….

Candice: For you and Michelle, what were the hardest things about coaching a friend? From my end, it was a good mix of sympathy and tough love, but what did you guys think?

Hardest things … mmm … as opposed to training someone we don’t know;

-          The number one hardest thing is that we ‘chat’ on messenger every day (Muscle Chicks are still a force to be reckoned with!!), and we could not hide from you! And you could not hide from us!! Haha – and funnily enough we are closer than ever – thank god.

-          Making nutrition changes and impressing the importance of strict adherence. I can be a little sharp and to-the-point with trainees if they don’t get with the program. With you I always had that fear that I would upset you too much and that our friendship would be damaged. As I said before, that simply could not happen! And now and again I had to remember our old slogan – “friends that tan butt naked together, are friends forever” despite strong messages being sent and received.

-          We were really, really tough on you at points. I’m not a huge fan of long preps – they did not work for me and I felt that weren’t the best way with you either. My experience is that long preps start with a hiss and a roar and they peter out after about 5-6 weeks and the weight loss either stalls or goes backwards and it’s quite hard to kickstart both the body and the mind. My preference is to maintain a weight within kicking distance of where I want to be and have a short sharp prep from there. I sense this would be a better option for you too but we started a long way out and the stalling happened and it took a few tough-love sessions to get back on the straight and narrow. Not my favourite thing to do but I’m so glad we persevered.

-          Not being at your comp and having to rely on messages was really, really hard!!! Getting teary-eyed at my computer and not being able to give you the biggest hug ever – hard!!!!

-          But I have to say that your comp prep and outcome is something I am immensely proud of.

Candice: Training with you guys was very different to what I had done in the past. Why did you opt for higher rep sessions? They definitely tested me mentally every single day and there were many,  many tears shed in the gym!! I fondly remember one of my leg sessions that contained about 7 billion friggin lunges...

I have to honestly say that your gym tantrums just brought a smile to my face .. haha!! In all seriousness though, we had spoken at length about training styles and, like myself, you had expressed that the low rep/ultra-heavy (relatively speaking) training programs were not a style that you enjoyed. We also canvassed your limitations and quickly ascertained that heavy squatting was never going to be an option for you. With all of that in mind, I took the mindset that what you enjoy doing, you’ll do your best with.

Okay – let’s just get one thing straight here too; I think you are an amazing competitor with some real spunk up your sleeve and a stage-auora that radiates for miles. But I don’t think for you, for me, for just about anyone I personally know – that it’s worth training in a way that you dislike just for the sake of a physique competition. I hold the opinion that what you love doing, you’ll do best, and long-term enjoyment and fulfilment in training is of way, way, way more importance than trying to conform to a certain style because it is supposed to be the optimal way to train for a comp. I firmly believe that relative intensity is the key to any workout, whether you are doing a high rep/ high volume session, or mid-range.  For me it doesn’t really matter whether your weights would be termed ‘heavy’ by the status quo – as long as you lift with the intensity that sends you to failure, then I’m happy. And if there truly was only one superior way to train, there wouldn’t be so many champion bodybuilders all doing it differently. So your high rep, quick-paced workouts were designed especially for you with the info I had about you in mind.

I knew they were going to get more challenging as we moved on and, to cut the cardio aspect as low as we could, we ‘upped’ the intensity of your weights sessions to include; volume, timed rest periods and varied reps/sets with a few added bonuses in there like; finishers, drop sets and supersets. We needed to cut your legs so I focussed your workouts around those legs and pretty much smashed them as much as I could while still allowing you to crawl to work each day. The tears were tears of gratitude really .. weren’t they?

Candice: They weren't gratitude tears I can assure you. Haha!! And in terms of nutrition - we followed IIFYM for the first portion (cue gasps, head shakes, snickers from the fitness community...) why? What are the merits of this? Again is it finding what works for you and what you will enjoy/stick to?

We followed IIFYM for a start for a few reasons. First and foremost, both you and I are what I would call ‘foodies’. We eat emotionally and love to jump on a bandwagon that tells us what to eat, when and how much. We don’t care for the ‘why’ as what we really want is someone to take responsibility for our choices and our outcomes. For both you and I, that resulted in too much weight gain – in my opinion anyhow. I don’t subscribe to unlimited weightgain all for the sake of gaining muscle. As per above, neither of us make a living from competing (thank god!!) and it is therefore important that we enjoy life day-to-day first and foremost. Being able to sculpt ourselves into a certain look is only a hobby that can be all-consuming but isn’t the be-all of life.

So I really wanted you to think about what you were eating, when you were choosing to eat it and why you chose what you chose. I wanted you to track your progress and be able to say that a certain formula of food combined with a certain training program would produce a certain result. Knowing what breakdowns of macro-nutrients you were eating, craving, cheating with and including or excluding is a huge key in the menu you should write for yourself, regardless of any competing. I really did not want Final Stage to be another meal plan system and I admit to forcing you to look at nutrition more than perhaps you wanted to at times.

It did become quite quickly obvious that simply following macro-nutrient splits was not going to be effective for the whole prep. You were prone to stock-piling your food to the end of the day .. eating minimally throughout the morning and afternoon and then having a disproportionate dinner. This still met your macro split but it wasn’t and isn’t an optimal way to eat and I think a system like Intermittent Fasting would be terrible for you (and don’t get me started on how many people I think bastardise this concept to suit their need for a semi-binge style of evening eating!). So that’s when we started giving you some pretty firm guidelines about when we thought it was best to eat, the spacing out of proteins in particular, and the clumping of carbohydrates around certain times of the day.

For the 5 weeks from one comp to the next (which is incredibly hard to maintain momentum in), I trialled a carbohydrate timing system where I changed your carb-intake weekly and we really did get some fab results in my opinion. Your feedback was that carbs pre-workout were great for training boosts so I gave you that timing twice but I insisted on changing it weekly to pre-empt any sort of plateau.

Yes – it’s always about finding out what suits someone best. And that is not all down to just physical results, it’s about keeping your head and heart as happy as possible too because, as I’ve said twice now, what you love most is what you’ll do best with.

CANDICE - FINAL RESULT
To summarise our final result with Candice - she was down by 8-9kgs for the first comp in which she came a fierce second. We then lifted the intensity and was down 11kg for the second comp in which she flew in at 3rd - we did it!!