For Strength and Performance Coach Eoin Lacey, Fitness Is a Personal Journey

Eoin Lacey’s multidiscipline education and work experience have enabled him to proudly introduce himself as an all around strength and performance consultant. He started his career in the health industry in 1996, in Fitness and Leisure Management. Eoin went on to be part of the management team of Irelands largest health clubs with over 11,000 members. Understanding that everyone responds differently to exercise, he began studying Physical Therapy, Corrective Exercise and Advanced Strength and Conditioning. He realized early on that in order to deliver a highly professional yet personalized approach to health and well being, more time is needed with each individual.

Since then, his Personal Training journey has brought him to the forefront of the industry as with John Connor and Stephen Ward, he forged the beginning of what is now the largest chain of Personal Training and Nutrition Centre in Ireland - the Irish Strength Institute. A fierce supporter of continuous education, Eoin now devotes his time into further studying functional medicine, sports nutrition, nutritional medicine, and biomedical acupuncture to name a few. His fitness motto?  Every person is different and so must their fitness routine!

Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you first start being interested in fitness?

I started off initially coaching football, soccer, and rugby teams. I was going to join the army to be a coach or to be a cadet and move on to physical training, but I finally decided to go down the fitness and leisure management route. I managed some of the best gyms at a very young age. So my evolution of education comes from direct exposure to athletes and executives, as I am doing the job for 25 years and walked in all aspects of health fitness, nutrition, athletic performance, and strength conditioning, it's been an interesting road set indeed!

What is your very personal concept on health and fitness?

It all depends on people's reason for participating in physical exercise. If you're a sports person, if you're a golfer, a tennis player, an MMA athlete, your strength conditioning and fitness has to have a direct impact on performance. So your training modality is your parameter, your periodization has to be very specific. However, if you're just involved in fitness for body composition or well-being, it doesn't have to be as regimented but it does have to be a bit more formed. You have to think of anti-aging, of joint longevity, and mental well-being.

So my approach is that it's the person who finally dictates the training. If your goal is to improve your body composition, well, walking won’t do the trick. Walking is good for general movement, but it will not change your body composition. You have to align your physical exercise with the goal or the reason behind why you're doing the exercise in the first place. The reason behind it is always very important.

So what do you think makes you stand out from the competition?

I have coached people for many, many years. I coach people to the Paralympics, I have coached more Olympic athletes medalists in Ireland than any other coach. I have my own chain of performance gyms and I've had the benefit of coaching other coaches all over the world. And because I have been doing the job for so long, I've learned what not to do. I've had so much exposure to a multitude of athletes and executives, that I've developed a system that can help anyone. I have clients with double lung transplants. I've got clients with cerebral palsy, I've got clients with autistic issues I've got to know, rugby players, MMA superstars, it doesn't matter who it is, I have a system to make sure that they get what they're looking for from strength conditioning and nutrition

 Any fitness tips you could share with the diPulse community?

One thing that people need to take into consideration when it comes to exercise is that it's not necessarily the length of time that you perform the exercise, it’s the consistency and the routine. I would much prefer somebody to train 20 minutes a day, six days a week rather than exercising twice a week for an hour. The amount of exposure is more important for me. A set amount of exposure with a higher frequency is better than less frequency or a higher amount of volume per session. Next thing is that exercise has to be complemented with nutrition and lifestyle.

Exercise is never and will never be the sole answer to people's problems. Exercise has to be taken into consideration with correct nutrition and sleep and if used correctly it can have great benefits for most people. Consistency is key. Having some sort of form is fundamental, but to get the best results from your training and your exercise you must complement them with good nutrition.

It’s interesting that you focus so much on consistency.

Let's say, for example, I had a client or an athlete training three times a week. And they were training really hard, let's say an hour and a half for two hours. It's very difficult to get to go from three times a week to every day of the week. However, if I had a client training four days a week, only doing half an hour, it's very easy to take that to 45 minutes because they're already doing it, they're already in a routine. And then if we need to back off, we can make some sessions hard and some sessions easy.

For some people, it doesn't have to be super high all the time, but it needs to be consistent. Some days might be stretching days, it could be like cardio, and some days might be more central nervous system focused. It's all about the person, their potential, drive, and recovery capabilities. We are all unique and so our fitness routine must also be unique.