LDNM – who we are

LDNM was created in 2013 as an interactive platform for us four guys – James, Tom, Lloyd and Max – to answer the ever-increasing number of questions we were receiving regarding our training and nutrition, health and fitness.

We started out working as lifeguards at Hampton Open Air Pool, our local leisure centre, and trained together at the humble poolside gym within the facility. We made a point of doing so steroid free, and did our best to help colleagues and other gym members reach their fitness goals.

We soon began to grow a small local following, and a reputation in the local area among younger guys and girls for delivering results. At this point the fifth member of Team LDNM approached us with the idea to create a website and social media platform to answer questions, and to provide content on realistic training and nutrition to build muscle or lose fat. We agreed, seeing it as a hobby and even a time saver, but we never saw it snowballing into the movement and brand it has become today!

Online engagement was strong from the outset, and incredibly exciting for us. After being burned by supplement companies and fitness models – wasting our pay cheques on supplements promising (and costing) the world – we set out to tell it like it is to normal people. Unsurprisingly we experienced a lot of friction from the fitness industry, which had been conning people unchallenged for too long, with supplement companies offering us sponsorships and individuals with more followers on social media trying to stamp us out. However, we kept true to our mission to expose the clouded industry of fitness, and to show people how they can get leaner, fitter and stronger without negatively affecting their bank balance and quality of life! Thankfully, people liked our message, and the LDNM movement is going from strength to strength.

We have come a long way since 2013, and built our following to over 400,000 people across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. It’s both our aim and our pleasure to maintain a personal rapport with our loyal and new followers alike!

Our LDNM transformation guides, which cover training, nutrition, supplements and lifestyle for men and women, have gone from simple Word documents to industry-leading guides in quality and quantity of information and support. These guides have allowed hundreds of thousands of normal people like ourselves, people with busy work, school and social lives, to progress their fitness goals sustainably, and we are proud of each and every success story, no matter how small.

We’ve also launched a successful line of apparel for training and outerwear, as well as developing effective, good-quality supplements that are available for a fair price. The LDNM Academy was developed to better the industry standard of teaching, as we felt that some operators were damaging their clients’ health, bank balance and attitude towards health and fitness. The Academy has come on leaps and bounds since it was started in 2015: personal training courses, nutrition coaching courses and social media events across London have all been sell outs.

Our website and social media channels are packed full of training, nutrition and lifestyle-based content (you can find us at www.ldnmuscle.com). We aim to show people how to achieve genuine balance and make fitness and nutrition an enjoyable and valuable part of their lives. Getting leaner, fitter and stronger should not be to the detriment of the lifestyle you enjoy.

We have invested time, energy and passion into LDNM from the moment it started. We wanted to create – and we believe we have created – a safe, sustainable and realistic approach to health and fitness, for anyone of any size or background. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the unprecedented level of support from you and everyone else reading this right now, and we are so truly grateful for it. We all want to say a huge personal thank you from all of us to all of you.

“ Success can come at any size ”

Lloyd

I’m the oldest of three – Max, Lilly and me – and we’ve always been competitive, whether it was eating, school or sport. Our parents were keen to channel this competitiveness in a more productive way, each finding time between their two jobs to ferry us to any sport club within a five-mile radius – everything from gymnastics (you could never tell now) to kayaking. Triathlon turned out to be the sport I was least bad at (it’s easier to be bad at three sports than it is one), and I spent most of my teenage years doing this, as well as playing football and riding bikes.

I left home to read chemistry at the University of Bristol, only to find that there was no university triathlon club. When a second-year student told me that rowing was the hardest thing he had ever done, I decided that sounded like the sport for me. It was here that my crewmate and good friend Pablo introduced me to weights, or ‘sculpting’, as he liked to call it, and I haven’t looked back. Being naturally very slight, those first few months of muscle gain felt great and I caught the lifting bug. I didn’t have any particular physique in mind, I just wanted to be bigger than the 10-stone triathlete I was! Over my three years at uni the majority of my time was dedicated to rowing and lifting, training anywhere between eight and twelve times a week, and my studies fitted around this.

We won some big races and I built some muscle, but ended up leaving with a 2:2 and no idea of the direction I was going to take next. In my gap year at Hampton Pool I worked and trained with Max, James and Tom while weighing up my options as a graduate in the middle of the recession. It was here I decided to pursue my lifelong ambition of becoming a Royal Marines Officer, something I didn’t undertake lightly.

Only taking one batch of around 50 officers each year, it was always going to be a tough process and in 2012 I fell just short at the Admiralty Interview Board; they suggested I retry the next year. It was this year that James, Tom, Max and I decided to start LDNM.

In 2013 I attempted to pass the AIB for the Royal Marines for the second time and I was offered a place for the 2013 intake. Taking up this place would have meant giving up LDNM as the two years of officer training would have taken up all of my time. I decided to take the biggest risk of my life and turn down my place in order to pursue LDNM, hoping it was the right thing to do.

Fast forward three years and LDNM has become a well-known, reputable brand with over 50,000 customers, providing realistic information that helps to change people’s lives. There has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears along the way, but it has definitely been worth it.

Working at LDNM is great, but at times unpredictable as my schedule can change at short notice. Mixing work with training while seeing my friends regularly for a social drink or two, means I often end up grabbing food on the go. Contrary to what you might believe – and what you’ve been told – you can do all of this and stay in great shape; you can enjoy your food (actual food, not just salads) and a social life and still get the physique you want. All will be explained later in the book!

Max

I’m a normal 25-year-old guy who loves a drink, a meal out, a holiday (or two) and spending time with my family and friends. I’ve always been involved in sports, competing in triathlon, cycling and football. Unfortunately, two to five hours of exercise a day caught up with me, leaving me with a chronic hip injury, which I’ve managed since I was 16.

It was then I started work at my local leisure centre, where my brother Lloyd and the Exton twins introduced me to weight training. Lifting replaced sports for me and at first it was as much about vanity as it was about fitness: I wanted to look good, plain and simple!

In my naïve enthusiasm, I wasted money on supplements that promised me a Hollywood-style physique. I also wasted my time and risked my health with ridiculous eating and training styles. At one point I would not eat any carbohydrates after midday as the fitness media had demonised carbohydrates so much that I thought this was the answer. In addition to this I would do one to two sessions of cardio a day in an attempt to burn fat. This was completely unsustainable and luckily I realised this after I rebounded – putting on weight quickly – and becoming ill after a lads’ holiday in Magaluf.

I’ve since completed a degree in geography (BSc) at the University of Birmingham while co-running LDNM. During this time I blogged about balancing university life with training and affordable nutrition, as well as co-writing the LDNM Guides. Finding time for the gym became relatively hard in my second and third years, but planning ahead of time and using exercise as my breaks and downtime resolved this more often than not.

Since I graduated in 2014 I have built a career as a personal trainer while also running LDNM full-time. My working week can be between 40 and 70 hours and is a constantly changing mix of clients and LDNM duties. This makes training and nutrition an issue, but planning my days as realistically as possible and training before breakfast means I rarely stop progressing towards my goals!

I absolutely love what I do, helping my clients reach their goals and couldn’t think of another job I would rather take on.

Tom

As a young chap, I used to do pretty much every sport under the sun alongside my twin: swimming, cross-country, tennis, football, triathlon – you name it. I think this was partly because James and I had far too much energy, and partly our parents’ way of getting us tired to give them some peace and quiet.

Fast forward a few years and I began ‘training’ in the gym while I was at university. By then, I had jacked in my sporting exploits in favour of lie-ins and going out. I put ‘training’ in inverted commas, because it was nothing more than cluelessly snatching at heavy things sporadically in the gym whenever I had a few minutes between lectures and daytime TV. This went on for about a year, until I actually started looking into what I was doing, and – most importantly – what I was eating. I’ve been ‘properly’ training now for about six years and am still learning every day.

My student days are long gone. These days I work full time, on top of my role with LDNM. Finding the time is often an issue; working for a bank in the City for the past five years, with an inhumane commute and running a business or two on the side – it’s tough sometimes to squeeze that session in. Even if I can find a small window, I sometimes have to dig deep and ask if I can be bothered. Ultimately, though, I ensure I find time as I always feel so much better for it. Even if it’s just 20–30 minutes – I’ll make it happen. I’ll just sacrifice a bit of dubious television in the evening. Something I can live with.

Currently I work out around five times a week. A lot of these sessions will be a ‘lunchtime’ 25–35 minute job in the city. I find it more than enough time for the smaller muscle groups if you keep it intense. This said – legs are often Saturdays, and chest sometimes finds its way into a Sunday.

I always get asked what my diet is like. Answer? By no means perfect. I try to follow my macros as best as I can, but given my work and social life, I often fail to prepare meals (shock horror). When this happens I make do with what I can find in ‘express’ supermarkets near the office. Not ideal, but I feel compromise can be found occasionally without ruining your life. I make sure I’ve always got healthy snacks in my desk for emergencies.

The main driving force at the very start of my ‘training’ was a mixture of curiosity, a touch of boredom and a desire to fill my T-shirt out a tad. Gradually, though, fitness developed into a routine and a way of life, and now I can’t see myself ever not being active in one form or other.

My motivation? It may seem shallow but I’m going to admit it: a large part is just wanting to look as good as I can. I’m sure many will echo this sentiment, possibly, just maybe not out loud… That said, being healthy and fit is just as important to me – there’s no point looking great if underneath you’re unhealthy, feel awful and can’t run for a bus.

James

I’ve always been active. When I wasn’t wrestling with my twin brother Tom, I’d be found playing a host of sports: football, rugby, tennis, swimming, triathlon.

But as education begun to take hold, with GCSEs and A-Levels, time became more limited, I was unable to commit to the training timetables required for competitive-level sports without affecting my studies. Sport became a hobby.

I studied law at Nottingham University, before being awarded a scholarship to Nottingham Law School to complete the BVC (Bar Vocational Course) to enable me to qualify as a barrister. It was during my first year at uni that I discovered the gym. Seeing other guys on campus with their tops off in summer and grabbing all the attention, made me realise, for the first time ever, that I wanted to be in ‘good shape’. By this I mean lean with a six pack. At the time I saw myself more as a skinny sausage-shaped body! I started going to the gym a couple of times a week with a few uni friends, and became more and more motivated to change the way I looked. I began to read up about training and nutrition, and started to radically change the way I looked.

When I came home for half-term, Tom said ‘How the hell did you do that?’ The progress was clear, and he was absolutely livid, so much so he got the bit between his teeth and started training with me and continued it back at his uni. There is nothing to compete with the rivalry between twins!

Following university and law school I was formally called to the bar and went to work in Oxford Street for a criminal law firm. Despite long hours and long commutes, I always made time for the gym. It was a good stress-release and I always found a way to effectively manage the work–play balance.

As criminal law is a predominantly government-funded sector, work became increasingly hard to source and more sporadic. It was at this time that LDNM engaged a loyal following and the brand started to become established. It became increasingly difficult to balance legal work and the creation and growth of LDNM. At the same time that this trade-off was occurring, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I soon found myself as a carer, lawyer and aspiring entrepreneur! I spent hours caring for my father, but with it being a digital company, I could be by his side and work on LDNM at the same time. It became a way to channel my emotions from what was happening. Dad took an active interest in the growing company; he was proud of us. A little over three months down the line, my father passed away following a truly savage battle with cancer. I was left holding a family together, but more determined than ever to make LDNM a success that he would be so proud of…

LDNM is now a way of life for me. I may have swapped professions, and a barrister’s wig for an equally awful haircut, but the work ethic is the same: this is a full-time, night and day, working commitment that is growing and evolving on a daily basis.

How to use this book

This book is broken up into four sections:

Getting Started: setting your goals

Leaner: diet and recipes

Fitter: fitness

Stronger: mindset and lifestyle

GETTING STARTED asks you to set your goals according to the SMART guide. Here, you will measure yourself, not just on the scales, but also by using the tape measure and progress selfies. You’ll determine how much weight you want to lose, or muscle you want to gain, by calculating your BMR and TDEE, and we’ll decode some diet and fitness jargon. We’ll also tell you that success shouldn’t be measured by a number, and that you can be successful at any size.

LEANER is where we will look at diet and the importance of macros, dispel some myths and set you up for success with some delicious kick-ass recipes that are healthy, nutritious and look great on your plate.

FITTER gives you the building blocks for weight-loss or muscle-gain success. You’ll be introduced to HIIT (high-intensity interval training), which is great for improving your fitness and cardiovascular health, and to exercises that you can do outside, with a buddy, or in the gym. Plus we give you fitness routines for whatever level of fitness you’re at.

STRONGER focuses on mindset and lifestyle. It acknowledges that becoming healthy and fit is an ongoing process that needs planning and perseverance to succeed. It looks at motivation, what it is, what kinds there are, and how to keep it going if you reach the dreaded plateau. It looks at changes to your lifestyle that you can make that don’t mean giving up going out with your friends or eating the kinds of foods you love. It looks at incremental gains and how you can use them to get the results you want.
 

LET’S DO THIS THING!

Getting started

If you’re anything like us, as soon as you decide that you want to get healthier, eat better, feel fitter and look great, you’ll want to start right away. We understand that need to get started as quickly as possible.

First, however, you need to lay down the foundation for your new and improved active lifestyle. You need to set goals, SMART achievable goals that will give you something to aim for. You need to give yourself a baseline by which to measure your progress, and then you have to work out how much weight you want to lose or muscle you want to gain.

“ The sooner you start the sooner you’ll see the results ”

MEASURING YOUR PROGRESS

If we want to lose weight or gain muscle, the natural thing to do is jump on the scales. It’s what we’ve been conditioned to do, after all, as many diet companies and weight-loss regimens see weight as the best indicator of progress.

But it’s not a great indicator of progress. And it can be very dispiriting to be doing the work and feeling better in yourself, only to have the scales tell you otherwise. Weight fluctuates so much during the day and over time and can change due to so many factors – how hydrated you are, what clothes you wear, what time of the month it is if you’re a woman… the list goes on and on.

Before you start, however, you need to take baseline measurements so that you can track your progress.

First of all, you should always track your weight and measurements at the same time of day every few days or week; if you need to, set a reminder on your phone. Wear the same clothes and make sure that your scales are on a flat and steady surface, ideally on the same spot each week, to get an accurate reading! Make sure you have a pen and paper handy to record your weight, or use an app on your phone (LDNM have a good one!), if that’s more convenient for you.

Once you’ve weighed yourself, break out the measuring tape and measure the following: bust/chest (at widest point), waist measurement and hip measurement.

To find your waist measurement, locate the bottom of your ribs with your fingers and then find the tops of your hips. Make sure you’re not holding your breath and take your waist measurement at the middle point. Write it down.