I found Wicklow Strength and Fitness in 2014 and it’s fair to say I was sceptical. Throughout my teens, I had joined various gyms on and off (mostly off), trying to mimic the workouts of the biggest, scariest guys in the room. While I saw some results, they were sporadic at best. When I joined, it was still primarily CrossFit. I didn’t even know it was a worldwide brand, I just thought it was a gym called CrossFit.
What struck me immediately was the lack of machines. There was a lot of… open space. It looked raw compared with the typical gym scene at the time. In recent years, this style of gym has become far more common, but in 2014 it just seemed alien.
Even stranger than that, everyone was being super friendly and talking to me. I had a coach leading the session and checking in on my progress and technique. I think the reason I found it so strange is that it was so unexpected. This level of care was not the norm for me but was in fact, completely alien.
Fast forward to 2024, and walking into a gym changed my life. Heck I own a gym now but it’s more than that. I made progress I never would have achieved if I kept gym hopping. I found a coach who was able to guide me through the myths of strength training and I got results that exceeded what I dreamed of.
A lot has changed in the gym too. We’ve grown and become so much more than just a CrossFit gym. We use CrossFit as a tool but have also extensively studied health and fitness from many different angles giving us a greater knowledge base to help us on our mission of enriching the lives of the people in Wicklow through fitness and community. It’s also helped us to expand. We provide more options now than I thought possible a few years back.
It wasn’t always a smooth road, it never is. I’ve made mistakes, lots of them. When it came to my own training, my enthusiasm was the killer really. God knows when I get something in my head, it’s just all or nothing. I wanted to do EVERYTHING. I wanted to try EVERY strength programme, gymnastics course, fad diet, supplement and more. There’s so much out there and I felt like I needed to do everything I possibly could to get better. I thought more was better and I went for more and more and more.
My friends will tell you that I was a nightmare. Obsessing over training, food, sleep and everything in between. I can laugh about it now because I’ve learned from it.
There’s a balance to find. I pushed myself so hard I overtrained and ultimately slowed down my results. I wasn’t recovering but I did it because I feared that if I did too little I wouldn’t get the results I wanted. I couldn’t find the balance of training enough and not overdoing it. I learned the hard way and had my ass handed to me in doing so. It’s this experience and the experiences of the other coaches which helps us to continue to improve and aim for better.
Our programming is the result of our experience and learning over the years. We design it to provide balance: It’s not too little and it’s not too much. But even as hard as the workouts are, many people are tempted to do more: to add a little bit extra or even to do multiple workouts in a day. This is NOT the path to success.
“But Insert Famous Athlete Name just put out this new programme and they’re so jacked I want to do it as accessory work”.
More is NOT better. Better is better and a coach can be your filter. A coach is there to tell you what’s best for you and your goals. Sometimes we will recommend some supplemental work but only when it suits your goals. We want to work with you to get there.
At Wicklow Strength and Fitness, our coaches want to talk to you every 3-4 months. One-on-one, in person. We want to put you on the InBody, ask about your goals, review your progress and then give you the best possible prescription.
If you're already a member, book your next goal review now. Don't wait, get a plan in place. Not a member yet? Click the link and book a free intro now so you don’t have to learn the hard way like I did.
What we DON’T want is for you to have to guess.
Liam
