The founder of Squires Fitness on form, versatility, nutrition, and the training partner he would choose above anyone else
Jason Squires is the founder of Squires Fitness and a certified personal trainer and diet and nutrition adviser. His approach is direct, results-focused, and built on the conviction that helping people achieve their fitness goals is genuinely rewarding work — not a professional transaction.
Seven questions. Seven straight answers from someone who has been in the gym long enough to know what actually works.
As a certified personal trainer, what is your favourite thing about your job?
Jason SquiresThat is easy. It has to be the positive feedback I receive from people who have reached their fitness goals from my training and diet advice. Helping people is what I love most, and seeing that my advice is creating a positive change in people's lives is the most rewarding part of what I do.
The clearest measure of whether coaching is working — not the methodology, not the philosophy, but the specific positive change in the person being coached. Jason's answer is the right one precisely because it focuses on the outcome rather than the process.
Who has been your biggest training influence and why?
Jason SquiresIt would have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. When I was growing up I watched his films and was struck by the physical presence he brought to them. Only later, in my teens, did I realise that he was also the person who had brought bodybuilding into the wider public consciousness.
I read his autobiography and that was what got me into lifting weights seriously. Nine years later, here we are.
The autobiography as the entry point to training is a pattern that recurs across the strength training world. Reading about what someone else built — and believing it is possible — is often the specific trigger that converts interest into commitment.
What is the number one training mistake?
Jason SquiresPoor form when weight lifting. In every gym, there are people who swing the dumbbells when performing bicep curls — using momentum rather than muscle. You will not build anything worth building if you do not perform the exercise correctly. More importantly, you are placing yourself at significant risk of injury.
Form is not a detail. It is the foundation. Every pound of weight that is added to a bar should be earned by a movement performed correctly at the previous weight — not by compromising the mechanics to shift heavier load.
Jason's form observation is the practical expression of progressive overload applied correctly — the weight only increases when the movement at the previous weight is genuinely mastered. The bicep curl example is the most visible manifestation of a problem that extends to every exercise in the gym.
You are stranded on a desert island — what single piece of training equipment would you take?
Jason SquiresDumbbells, without question. They are the most versatile training implement available. The range of exercises that can be performed with a pair of adjustable dumbbells covers every major muscle group and every fundamental movement pattern. I could train productively with nothing but dumbbells indefinitely.
An interesting contrast to Ross Enamait's answer to the same question — Enamait would take nothing and build what he needed. Jason's choice of dumbbells reflects a different but equally valid priority: versatility within a proven implement rather than resourcefulness without one. Both answers are correct for the person giving them.
In the same way someone might choose an ideal dinner guest, who would be your ideal training partner and why?
Jason SquiresArnold again. Watching the documentary Pumping Iron is one of the most reliable ways I know to top up motivation for training — the dedication and achievements on display are genuinely extraordinary. I am not particularly interested in bodybuilding as a competitive sport, but the level of commitment that Arnold brought to his training is applicable to any goal.
Having someone of that drive alongside you when pushing through the final repetitions of a heavy set is a different experience entirely from training alone. The right training partner raises the ceiling of what you believe is possible in any given session.
The training partner as motivation amplifier — the person whose presence changes what you believe you can do rather than simply the person who spots you. Jason's answer identifies the quality that matters most in a training partner: not their physical capacity, but their psychological effect on yours.
If you could travel back in time, what training advice would you give your teenage self?
Jason SquiresStay strict with your diet. I had no difficulty with training consistency or intensity from early on — putting full effort into every session came naturally. But nutrition was not something I understood when I first started.
Now, as a certified diet and nutrition adviser, I have a thorough understanding of how important nutrition is to the muscle building process. It is as important as the training itself — arguably more so for the beginner who is already committed to training hard but neglecting what happens outside the gym.
The third consecutive interview in this series to identify nutrition as the most underestimated variable — Steven Tyrie said the same thing in the previous interview. When three independent practitioners give the same answer to the same question, it warrants particular attention.
What are your training plans for the future?
Jason SquiresAt the moment I am coming toward the end of a bulking phase. Over the next few weeks I will be adjusting my programme and diet to focus on maintaining muscle mass and reducing body fat — interval training, higher repetitions with lower weight, and a focus on compound movements. After summer I will be looking to build again through the winter.
The periodisation approach described here — a deliberate alternation between building phases and leaning phases — is the practical expression of training as a long-term process rather than a series of disconnected efforts. The compound movements focus in the leaning phase is the right choice for preserving the muscle mass that the building phase produced.
Form before weight. Nutrition as seriously as training. Compound movements as the anchor throughout. Jason's seven answers consistently return to the principles that the Minimum Effective Strength System is built on — from a personal trainer's perspective rather than a theorist's.
Never compromise form for load. Take nutrition as seriously as training. Choose a training partner who raises your ceiling rather than simply sharing your floor. Three principles from seven questions — and the third consecutive interview in this series to name nutrition as the variable most beginners underestimate.
For the other interviews in the series, return to the muscle building tips hub page.