Who is the best personal trainer in Poole?

Ian Wood is a highly experienced personal trainer in Poole, specialising in strength training, fat loss after 35, and practical, real-world coaching for busy people.

How can I lose fat after 35?

Losing fat after 35 is about moving consistently, doing strength training to preserve muscle, eating sufficient protein, managing stress and sleep, and following a simple, sustainable nutrition plan.

Do I need to train 6 days a week to see results?

No. Most people see better results with 3–4 focused strength sessions per week, combined with proper recovery and simple, consistent nutrition.

Can I still drink alcohol or eat out and lose fat?

Yes. Occasional alcohol or restaurant meals are manageable if the rest of your nutrition is consistent. Planning matters more than perfection.

What are the best exercises for fat loss after 35?

Compound movements like squats, deadlifts, push-ups, rows, and presses are highly effective. Adding some high-intensity intervals or circuit training can also boost calorie burn while preserving muscle.

How should I fit training around a busy schedule?

Short, structured workouts 3–4 times a week are often best. Focus on compound lifts and full-body sessions. Even 30–45 minutes per session can yield results if consistent.

How much protein should someone over 35 eat?

Aiming for 1.5–2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day helps maintain muscle, improve recovery, and support fat loss. Spread it across meals for best results.

What are the benefits of online coaching?

Online coaching allows flexible, structured programs, tailored guidance, and accountability without needing to travel to a gym. It’s ideal for busy people or those who prefer home or remote training.

Why should I hire a personal trainer in Poole?

A personal trainer can design a personalised plan, ensure exercises are done safely and effectively, provide accountability, and help you achieve strength, fat loss, and fitness goals efficiently.

Can I lose fat without dieting strictly?

Yes. Sustainable fat loss is built on habit consistency, balanced nutrition, and portion control — not extreme restriction. You can enjoy your favorite foods in moderation.

How do I stay consistent when life gets busy?

Focus on building repeatable, simple habits. Plan meals and workouts in advance, track progress, and allow flexibility for life events — consistency over perfection.

What results can I expect from online nutrition coaching?

Clients typically lose 3–6kg in 6–12 weeks, build better habits, feel more in control of their nutrition, and maintain results long-term without obsessive tracking.

Should I do cardio or strength training for fat loss?

Strength training should be your foundation — it preserves muscle and improves long-term metabolism. Cardio can supplement calorie burn but is less important than consistent resistance training.

How can I track progress without obsessing over the scale?

Use weekly averages, photos, measurements, and performance metrics instead of daily scale checks. This reduces stress and provides a clearer picture of progress.

Is fat loss slower after 35?

Not necessarily. Fat loss may feel slower due to lifestyle factors like reduced activity and recovery demands, but the same principles of nutrition and strength training apply.

Online vs in-person coaching — which is better?

Both can be effective. In-person coaching is ideal for hands-on guidance and motivation. Online coaching is flexible and perfect for busy lifestyles. Many clients combine both approaches.

Can I gain strength and lose fat at the same time?

Yes, especially for people over 35 who are new to structured strength training. Prioritising protein, compound lifts, and a moderate calorie deficit makes it possible to build muscle while losing fat.

How does sleep and stress affect fat loss?

Poor sleep and high stress increase hunger hormones, reduce energy, impair recovery, and make it harder to stick to nutrition plans. Managing these is often more impactful than supplements.

What Are The Benefits Of Zone 2 Training?

ianwoodsc
Jun 6, 2022
6 min read

Most clients I work with come into the gym to train with me under the impression that they need to go hard or go home, finish each session in a puddle of sweat, and leave the gym feeling absolutely exhausted. That couldn't be further from the truth. Sure there are times when you do need to hit high intensities with your conditioning work, but it's less frequent and for much shorter durations than you'd think. For that reason, I'm much more likely to get clients working on their aerobic base by doing Zone 2 cardio work, especially at the start or their training with me or the start of a new training cycle, than I am to get them doing disgusting 1:1 work to rest cardio repeats than get your heart thumping outside of your chest. (If you're unsure what I mean by Zone 2, or by any of the heart rate zones, check out my previous post on "Heart Rate Training Zones Made Simple" to get some base knowledge on the topic). The benefits of Zone 2 conditioning work are many and huge, whether your goals are to play your sport at a high intensity for repeated bursts, to compete in an endurance based sport like running, cycling or triathlons, or to be the fittest and healthiest version of yourself possible. Some happen at a physiological level (i.e. how your body adapts and improves to zone 2 training), some happen at a psychological or mindset level when you start to experience those adaptations and feel your improved performance, and some happen at the planning and programming level, which is really important to a coach delivering bespoke coaching to a client. Allow me to share those benefits with you. Physiological Benefits Of Zone 2 Training The main reason you do Zone 2 training is to focus in on training your heart, lungs and circulatory systems without your muscles or a build up of lactic acid becoming a limiting factor. It trains your aerobic energy system specifically, which is responsible for creating energy in the presence of oxygen. That means that the physiological adaptations you're going to experience are going to be related specifically to improvements in the efficiency of your heart in pumping blood, your lungs in oxygenating blood, your circulatory system in delivering that oxygen, and the muscles utilising that oxygen to perform. Here's what those adaptations are exactly:

Lower resting heart rate (greater cardiovascular efficiency at rest)
Increased stroke volume (more blood pumped per heartbeat)
Increased mitochondria in the cells (the intercellular engines that can burn a higher percentage of fat for fuel)
Increased capillary density (greater oxygenated blood delivery to muscles)
Improved venous return (quicker return of deoxygenated blood to the heart)
Increased VO2 max (maximum amount of oxygen you can utilise during exercise)
Improved slow twitch muscle fibre function (your endurance biased muscle mass).

All of these things combined mean that you can then, work more efficiently for longer, recover quicker between intervals of higher intensity, and utilise fat as an energy source for longer, as it needs the presence of oxygen to be utilised. So whether your goal is endurance based, or more short/sharp interval style work, that recovery and efficiency is going to play a huge part in your performance and sustained effort over time. Psychological Benefits Of Zone 2 Training With improved aerobic fitness comes benefits in confidence, cognition and mental performance simply by creating more mental space. When you hit zones 4 and 5, you can hold a conversation. Your responses to questions either don't exist, or are firmly in the one word answer territory. In zone 5 in particular, you won't reply because A) you can barely get enough air in as it is and B) you didn't even hear the damn question because you're solely focussing on working so hard. In zone 2 you can hold a conversation and form 10-12 word sentences unbroken. In zone 3 you can talk in 6-8 word blocks. Now imagine if you can increase your aerobic capacity to the point where what used to be zone 3 now is zone 2, and what used to be zone 4 is now zone 3. Layer than on top of in-game decision making, reactions and communication. If you can work at higher intensities easier, and recover quicker in between hard efforts, you leave a lot more space in your mind for the mental side of performance as you're no longer hanging on or surviving. You can be present and conscious for a lot longer, or get back to that state a lot quicker. Additionally there are the benefits in confidence that come from a bigger aerobic base. You can work harder for longer in the knowledge that you will recover quicker. Any discomfort you feel will be over sooner once you stop. You trust you body to provide the energy you need to keep going. You better understand your limits and build confidence in how and when to push them. There's nothing worse than feeling your heart rate climb when you don't want it to. Improved aerobic fitness helps prevent that. Programming Benefits Of Zone 2 Training So this may be a little nerdy from the coaches perspective, but it's really important that the athlete/client understands the benefits of zone 2 training from a programming perspective too. It's helps you understand and value the work, stick to it, and buy into the what and the why of its application. So what are the programming benefits? They mainly centre around 2 things.

It's so low intensity that it is very easy to recover from
It's so low intensity that it competes less with strength work

At this point, lets compare Zone 2 work to Zone 4/5 work (ignoring zone 3 as too beige to worry too much about) as you alternative forms of conditioning. Zone 2 by definition is done at around 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. It's not strenuous. You can hold a conversation throughout, breath totally through you nose if you wanted, and when you stop your recovery is near instant. This means you can do higher volumes or frequencies of it, without adding huge additional recovery demands to your week. Compare that to Zone 4/5 work, where you jack your heart rate up for 10-40 minutes, apply big stress to your system, and create big build-ups of lactic acid. That takes time to recover from. That can only be done in smaller doses. Zone 2 we can really accumulate because it doesn't kill us. Which brings us on to point 2, where it doesn't compete with strength work. If you hit a 60 minute Zone 2 cycle while answering a few emails, taking a call or doing some social posting (which is exactly what I do), you can very likely turn up and squat relatively heavy the next day. The legs never gave up, you didn't take your type 2 explosive fibres, and it didn't take hours to recover from. Compare that to 40 minutes of zone 4 work where you do tax those type 2 fibres, you do accumulate large amounts of lactic acid, and you do need a good amount of hours to recover. Try and squat heavy after that session and it will likely not go as well as it could. So from a programming perspective, it can be beneficial to work strength and fitness benefits concurrently by utilising zone 2 cardio on separate days, rather than either affecting your strength work with Zone 4/5 work on separate days, or having to take a very high/low approach to lifting and intense cardio on the same day, then complete rest for 1-2 days in-between. Summary Zone 2 cardio training is GREAT, and to many ends it is essential, even if endurance isn't your goal. Even if you want to work hard and fast, a bigger aerobic base will help you recover in between, and not lose all sense of competition during high intensity efforts. It can help improve your tolerance to discomfort, biuld confidence in your fitness, ad increase your performance through better use of effort. But it also doesn't compete with your strength work as you think it might. If you have felt tired from running or cycling alongside your lifting training, it's likely that you've just been going too fast (potentially spending time in the dreaded beige zone 3). If you genuinely slow down and stick to 60-70% of your max heart rate, you can accumulate 90-120 minutes of zone 2 cardio a week without it impacting your strength work at all, while greatly benefitting your aerobic fitness.

What Are The Benefits Of Zone 2 Training?

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