1) Who is Andy McKenzie? (where are you from, what do you do, a bit about yourself (hobbies, etc)
Stephen, first off, thanks. I know how much you have persevered to get me to sit down and answer these questions.
I struggle to really give a concrete answer to what I currently do, because I still coach clients, I consult for a rugby league team in the South of France, where I currently live and on top of all that I am the founder of the Combined Strength Group.
My primary focus is developing the group and a big portion of that is delivering an education pathway for coaches that should remain ‘thinkers’ in the fitness industry. Supremely confident in their ability to provide a world class coaching service.
I was born in Paisley, Scotland although left at 16 years old to join the military. I left the service in 2008 to pursue a career in professional rugby and open my own facility. Having achieved those dreams much quicker than expected it forced me to look beyond the anchor of a gym and pursue my passion of travel.
At this moment in time, I am taking full advantage of travelling around the world and learning from world class coaches to continually stretch me as a professional. I am genuinely lucky that I have an understanding partner that supports me in all that I do!
I have really started to enjoy photography and any spare time I spend time immersing myself in that. Beyond that for hobbies, I really enjoy the fact that I live a life that pulls together everything that I love from training to travelling, reading and taking pictures.
The older I get, the more I appreciate that the small things, are genuinely the moments that make up a great life.
2) How many years have you been training?
Now I will show my age….if you call training with your brothers in your bedroom with a plastic weight set from Weider and punching bags after Bruce Lee and Rocky films, then around 12 years old and making it 30 years of training.
I started following a structured plan around 14 years old when I trained for Muay Thai and Kick Boxing. I remember reading a book called The Pursuit Of Excellence, based around training for martial arts and karate and followed the instructions in the book- I still have it and the demonstration of some of the exercises are…I will leave that there ;-)
Another book that I have to mention is Peak Physique by Albert Beckles at 15 years old this was my ‘beginner’ training plan, naturally, I chose the advanced, thinking the beginner was too easy and suffered some valuable lessons.
3) What has been the hardest part of your journey so far? and how have you overcome them (setbacks, rejections, injuries, basically anything difficult that you have had to overcome)
There is no hardest part as the reality of life is that whatever you experience is genuinely preparing you for things to come- you should simply embrace the learning and understand that ‘needs in life’ will teach you the way forward.
We all need hardship to jolt us out of current comforts and this will move us forward.
I have too many stories of people rejecting and not having faith, especially in the military where people will jump over ideas based around their own insecurity.
The biggest physical set back has been my greatest teacher; however, it really does limit me in a movement capacity that I find extremely frustrating.
Fracturing my spine in a few places and then subsequently damaging the discs, disrupting my AC joint, snapping my scapula in half (not good at all) and other impact injuries from falls, crashes and generally living a colourful life means that I constantly research, adjust and refine my training for performance.
There is one thing that I would like to share with readers and it’s this- all the little things that you keep skipping past in favour of an easy life- they always come back and bite you, the longer you leave them, the deeper the teeth marks.
4) What does your typical workout/diet routine look like?
My training sessions are longer than most people and sometimes I will be in the gym or outdoors for up to 3 hours. Why- I simply love training and have built my life and business around it all.
I typically split my week up with 3 full body sessions and then 2 conditioning based sessions and 2 recovery days, which are movement based.
The full body sessions are based around speed, strength and hypertrophy, with some phases of training focusing in on one performance goal- all depends on me and what I want to achieve. However, as a base, I like to make sure I am not far off from specialising if I have to.
The other 2 conditioning sessions can either be running based, or combination of ropes, kettlebells and bodyweight exercises.
Diet- I always focus on the quality of food, more than quantity. I simply can’t eat like I did in my early 20s and 30s.
Cooking from fresh, quality ingredients and with that taking the time out to focus on good eating habits has kept me in good shape and will continue to do so.
5) What have you learned over the past year regarding training, lifestyle and nutrition?
Nutrition as above, that quality is a must as you age, despite the simplicity of calories in versus calories out.
Lifestyle will never be balanced the way you think balance ought to be, therefore living a daily mantra of improving and making sure you have a BLT (Business, Life, Training) ticked off each day will ensure that you are ‘balanced’.
Viewing sleep in 90 minute blocks after reading a book by Nick Littlehales has really improved how I sleep and not worrying if I don’t get enough. Spreading it out over the week, 4-6 blocks per evening and having a standard wake up time has been huge!
6) What is your favourite Cheat/Treat meal?
This for me is a ridiculous way to view food- sorry.
Favourite meal will always be a well-cooked steak, or Italian food.
7) one supplement that you could not live without?
I get it from mainly food and when the need arises for convenience then a good protein powder.
8) If you had to start out from scratch with your
physique what would you do differently and why?
Okay, you simply won’t be doing your body any favours, or that of a client if you strengthen up a joint that does not have full active ROM.
Certainly, a mistake that I made with squats and when I took the time to change it, I went from 140kg to 170kg Back Squat at 70kg and there is more in the tank.
As a client approach and something I would go back and plan to build from a foundation of bodyweight movements and aerobic conditioning. This would allow me time to sort out mobility and stability issues, groove in quality movement patterns and get relative strength from bodyweight. I would then add kettlebell and other training tools like gymnastic rings to enhance the performance and function of the body before loading up with a barbell- that is, if I felt the body needed it.
The question I ask now-if I want to strengthen up this part of the body, what is the reason for doing so and what modality is the easiest.
Stretching and making sure that both active and passive range is in line with what my body is rightly capable off is a must to maintain.
I also wouldn’t ride down the Dragons Tail on the Marin Trail thinking I would need to brake ;-)
9) Who do you look up to in the fitness industry and why?
Thomas Plummer for his considerable time, wisdom and success with all that he has worked with.
I love Dave Tate for simply building something based on passion and have learned a tonne from over the years.
Dmitry Klokov for his pursuit towards perfection when an industry keeps telling you to just get it out there….
I admire Greg Glassman for what he has done with CrossFit and the tidal wave of change that has brought to training in general.
Nick Mitchell from UP Fitness – look at how many gyms he has across the globe – superb!
10) If you had to give one bit of advice to people starting out what would that be?
Focus on giving your clients the best experience you can during the session and the follow up afterwards- once you set that standard, improve on it.
Stop worrying about click funnels, Lead Pages and all the other marketing vomit that others simply want you to buy into.
Your results, and being known in the local area will grow you as a coach and your business- not a few thousand followers on Instagram and some paid likes.
11) What new goals are on the horizon? (new goals, aims, etc)
I am just about to launch a ‘New Breed Coach’ with the Combined Strength Group and continue to develop both the content and the quality of coaching standards in the UK and Europe.
My ‘No Weak Links’ online training group is taking off and the results have been off the charts- the plan is to develop that further with some focused training days and immersions.
I have a few more, however, much prefer to action them and not talk too much.
12) Where can people find you? (website, social media accounts)
Main site is www.combinedstrength.com
Social media for the above is:
Instagram: @combinedstrength
Facebook: Combined Strength Group
Personal Social Media
Twitter/Instagram: @ironmacfitness
Facebook: Andy ‘IRONMAC’ McKenzie
Pretty active on those and do my best to get back to each message.
If you want to get involved in the No Weak Links Online Training Group then email me direct at andy_mac@me.com and be ready for an upgrade in your training.
