BASIC INSTINCT
Henderson, a personal trainer who works out at
Energie Fitness in Coleraine, does his own contest
prep. “I think I know my body better than anyone else
does,” he says. His approach is refreshingly simple. “I
train every body part over six days,” he says. “That
way I can fully focus on each muscle, rather than,
say, train over four days and end up going half-assed
on some body parts.”
He’s methodical, and does plenty of volume. “I
usually do five exercises and five working sets so I do
25 working sets in total,” he says. “I work in a rep range
of between 8-15, going to failure, and my last set is
always either a triple drop set or rest-pause set, apart
from when I do supersets. I just do standard exercises
and absolutely hammer the muscle. Some people do
two or three working sets but I feel you have to do
more to really destroy the muscle.”
His cardio and diet are similarly straightforward.
“For the British I started off doing 30 minutes of cardio
every morning. At 12 weeks out I went up to 60 minutes
a day—30 in the morning and 30 in the afternoon—then
at six weeks out, I dropped back down to 30 minutes a
day because I was coming in too quickly. I was ready
four weeks out.” Four of his six meals a day were
identical (see meal plan sidebar). “It did get very boring
but it paid off,” he says. He has the trophy to prove it.Training at
M10 Fitness in
Nottingham32 FLEX| JUNE 2017