Playstrong Physio & Personal Training

The goal of dieting should be to stop dieting.
Look I can’t sit here and lie
No one likes dieting
What is there to like about it?

When it’s done properly, it’s not needed again for a long period of time instead of constantly starting a new diet.

I’ll tell you, aside from the finished product
There is the fact how you look
You can be sharper

You’ll perform better.

And you’ll gain control over your nutrition instead of feeling like it’s controlling you.

Once you have achieved your goal
You can be more flexible.

Most people spend years saying they’re “trying” to lose weight.
They start every Monday, stop every Friday, and repeat the cycle.
A proper diet might take 10–16 weeks, but then you’re done.

You stop thinking about losing weight because you’ve actually achieved it. That frees up a lot of headspace.

Again there’s nothing revolutionary about what I say.

It just should not be complicated.

If you’ve spent years trying and failing to lose weight, you’ll understand just how frustrating that can be.

The Key steps

1. Weigh yourself every morning after using the bathroom.
2. Track and Weigh your foods. Make sure you are in a calorie deficit.
3. Lift weights and Increase your steps.
4. Eat enough protein to help preserve muscle while dieting.

Fat loss has a purpose. Once you’ve achieved it, you should spend far longer maintaining your results—or, if your goal is building muscle, moving into a controlled surplus.

It’s hard and it’s annoying but in the end it’s worth it when you hit the target.

Once you’ve reached your goal, you have far more flexibility. You can enjoy holidays, nights out and meals with friends without constantly feeling like you’re failing another diet.

Diet properly once, maintain the result and stop starting again every other Monday.

Week in progress…

Entertaining week all round.

Finished it off at the Dublin All-Ireland semi-final. Unfortunately, not the result we wanted. 2 awful refereeing decisions didn’t help, and clearly robbed.

Think it’ll bring changes within the game but hopefully not like the football and Var.

Still, I really enjoyed the game and the atmosphere.

The rest of the week’s been busy too.

Moving forward with work, and I’ve got a few exciting things in the pipeline for after the holidays.

Had a big old week of football, got a few gym sessions in, and just kept ticking things over.

Dublin’s weather has been absolutely cracking as well. Looks like we’ve another few weeks of it before I’m off outta here ☀️✈️

Performance Cut – Week 7

This week’s been one of the hardest of the whole cut.
I really had to dig deep.
I’ve had every excuse imaginable pop into my head…
“I’m tired.”
“I’m busy.”
“I’ve football.”
“It’s roasting outside.”
“My bicep’s at me.”
“I genuinely can’t be arsed.”

Tuesday was the closest I’ve come to packing it in.
No big reason. I was just tired.
Bored.
Fed up.
But I rode that storm.

The funny thing is, once I got through it, my energy came back. Football felt good again, gym sessions picked up, and work felt easier too.

Sometimes it really is just a mental battle.
Nothing worth having is easy.

That was the thought going through my head as I walked through my front door at midnight after another 90-minute run.

At the end of this cut, whatever the result, I’ll know I left absolutely everything on the table.

Week 7 check-in:
• Weekly average: 63.3 → 62.5 kg
• Current weight: 62.5 kg
• Total loss over the last 4 weeks: 65.7 → 62.5 kg (-3.2 kg)
Training-wise, this week looked like:
● 4 gym sessions
● 4 Astro games
● Running after every Astro game
● 2 dedicated speed/endurance sessions
It’s no surprise I felt a dip in performance. Most sessions felt like I was running on low fuel, which is to be expected this deep into a cut.
Just over a week to go before the holidays, so there’s one last push.

Next week I’ve got:
● 4 gym sessions
● 3 Astro games, with runs afterwards
● Pre-season football training
● 2 additional speed/endurance sessions

I’m genuinely excited for pre-season.

One more week.

Time to empty the tank.

Upper body session because, honestly, my body was screaming after this week’s training and I just couldn’t face legs.

After a 7-to-7 day packed with patients, I moseyed into the gym and got this done yesterday.

It was the last thing I wanted to do after a long day, especially with another 90 minutes of cardio still to come afterwards, but needs must.

Holidays are fast approaching, and so is my deadline.

It’s absolutely boiling in Dublin at the minute, so it definitely wasn’t how I wanted to spend my evening… but there we are.

Strength has been moving in the right direction on pretty much everything lately. Chest presses, rows, everything is progressing week on week.

The only one I wasn’t happy with was the reclined bicep curls at the end. The gym was closing, so I had to rush the last few sets and my bicep started pulling on me again.

But sure look that’s how it is.

I’ll make some adjustments and

We keep moving forward 💪

One year ago I took the photo on the left.

I was absolutely shredded.

And I’ll tell you what… it felt incredible.

I promised myself I wasn’t going to let myself go again.

The last time I got that lean was before my trip to the US in March.

Then I managed to undo months of hard work in just 2 weeks 😂

Good old Ronald and those unbelievable pancakes…

After that trip I genuinely felt disappointed in myself.

I’d spent months getting into shape and then threw it away so quickly.

That’s what pushed me to change how I approached things.

This time I did it differently.

I reversed out of my diet properly.

Then I spent months in a controlled gaining phase.

Looking at these photos, what do you think?

I think it’s worked.

The photos don’t lie.

If you’re someone who diets regularly, I hope this shows there’s a better way.

You don’t have to bounce between getting shredded and starting all over again.

Learn from my mistakes.

I can tell you now I’ve worked bloody hard to get back to this point.

Looking at that photo, every bit of that work has been worth it.

So what about you?

A year from now, do you want to be standing in the same place…

Or are you ready to make a change?

Just 2 kg separates these before and after photos.

The photo on the left was taken just after a photoshoot.
The one on the right was taken last Friday.

Only 2 kg apart, but you can clearly see the difference.

My chest.
My shoulders.
My arms.

Everything looks fuller.

The interesting part is that I actually built up to 56.7 kg before starting this latest cut. After dieting back down, these photos are still only 2 kg apart, yet the difference in muscle is obvious.

This didn’t happen overnight. It took months.

First, I had to reverse out of my photoshoot diet without putting on unnecessary body fat.

Then, week by week, I slowly increased my calories, kept showing up in the gym, and focused on getting progressively stronger.

I also had to manage injuries while playing football, which made the process even more challenging.

I’m really happy with where I’m at.

People often say fat loss is the hardest part, and right now, being in a calorie deficit, I understand why.

Low energy.
Low mood.
Constant hunger.
Feeling flat.

But for me, that’s actually the easier phase.

The harder part comes afterwards.

Going back into a surplus.
Training hard, day after day.
Staying consistent when progress is slow and almost impossible to notice week to week.

Unless you track it.
Building muscle takes time.

It takes patience.
It takes consistency.
It takes smart training and the right nutrition.

The end result is worth it.

You just have to be willing to stick with the process.

This week’s been great.

The sun’s still splitting the trees here. It’s been a cracking summer so far, so I can’t really complain.

The week was mainly focused on work, with a couple of early starts, 4 gym sessions, 2 Astro matches and a good bit of extra running on top of that.

The Pilates course I mentioned before got cancelled because of some events, so the weekend opened up a bit. Ended up finishing the week with a nice barbecue.

Been enjoying some of the World Cup too, and next week pre-season kicks off with my new football team, so that’ll be good to get back into a proper routine with that.

Just over 2 weeks until my holiday as well, so there’s that to look forward to.

In the meantime it’s just more work, more solo running to keep things ticking over until training starts.

So that’s another week done. Bit battered after it all, early night tonight before another early start tomorrow.

What a time to be alive 💀💪