New Morning.

Where walls meet and coffee cups are made.

An oblate spheroid has spun round one more time and orbited a giant fireball. Due to an arbitrary decision made a millennia ago, you woke up and a new year had begun.

Over the last year practically every cell in your body has been replaced and renewed. You are a new version of yourself but a year older. The atoms that make you up have been around since the beginning of the universe... and still you can't figure out what your new year resolutions should be.

An infinite number of possibilities brought you to this exact moment, most of which are unknowable. I am typing on a computer invented by someone in California, containing precious elements mined in Africa or Asia, which lay buried in the ground for millions of years, drinking a coffee farmed somewhere in South America, in a cup made of earth fired in a kiln, with milk from a cow in England, all made using a machine made of metal dug out of the earth and run using electricity burning in a power station somewhere, I'm sitting in a room where the walls meet at a perfect right angle, built before I was born by a person who was skilled at things I can't even comprehend how to do. All of this is one moment, all of those things took thousands of humans, thousands of years to perfect, it is beyond the imagination of just one person.

We want to see certainty, meaning, patterns, logic and reason, and when we don't the universe seems like it was built on shaky ground.

No i ching throwing, fortune telling, tarot card reading, astrologer will be able to make sense of it for you, there are just too many variables.

All these infinite events will coalesce into moments you will remember over the next year.

Fragments.

Through a grubby bus window the sun will hit the hoar frost on the fields, and for a second the prosaic and poetic collide and everything will seem perfect, as it should be.

Other times. The sun comes up like a piss stain streaked across an old tramps blanket. But you will still get up and start another day.

But most days are in the middle. Most conversations you will forget, in a lifetime only a handful will stick; same with people.

3am and you'll wake up haunted by things that don't matter and somethings that do, and there will be nothing you can do.

Fragments will spin out of your brain; driving into Reno in the sleeting rain, watching a hillside fire in the Mediterranean, standing under an aircraft wing sheltering from the rain, watching the bodies burn at Pashupatinath. What seeps out of your brain will be unique to you and meaningful to you alone.

Memories, are they what make you 'you'?

Kindness and Gratitude.

The year in review, a long list things you've forgotten. Then your own year in review, for me I didn't read Proust or War and Peace, I didn't write a novel, didn't even have an idea for a novel. Didn't start a PhD or MSc in Neuroscience or anything, didn't run more than a few miles, did no events. But then, be kind to yourself. I do live in a great place with a great partner and a great son, I met some good people and had some good conversations; went to some new places. Everyday life is full of highlights, a cup of coffee here, a laugh at work there. These moments form a life.

Don't go in with too many fixed ideas. What you thought were your goals, may not ultimately be the ones you need to pursue.

The only responses that seem to make sense in the face of all this chaos and stuff is to be kind. Be kind to yourself and others, in a world where we are all trying to be happy and make connections.

And gratitude, to be thankful for the little things that make make up each day and manage to puncture through the hardness of it all.

Try and find a sense of purpose in the moment, every moment. This does not mean everything you do has to be imbued with mystical meaning. The fact that the sun comes up, rain falls from the sky and we are in a nondescript corner of the universe where I'm writing this and you are reading this, despite all the other infinite possibilities of things we could have been doing is mystical enough for any one day.

Goals. The Why.

'comfort is overrated' see the video below.



Anything that involves learning something new or doing something new will be uncomfortable. People like the idea of speaking a new language. They can visualize themselves sitting in an Italian cafe conversing with the locals fluently, what they don't want to visualize is the hard slog of remembering verbs and making mistakes. Ultimately they don't want to look or feel stupid, which is probably the main reason most adults don't try new things or learn new subjects, the ego is fragile.

In the words of Zen fella John Tarrant Roshi

"There is no end to the suffering caused by comparison."

Whether that be comparison with others or comparing yourself to what you think you should be.

Why do those new year resolutions fail? Is it because people are stuck in the future goal, they don't like the process, it brings them no satisfaction. There is no real sense of purpose, except some vague idea of capturing their lost youth by weighing the same as they did when they were eighteen. The most satisfied people love the process of training, gym or running or classes, or whatever they are learning or doing.

It's the reason your 1 day or 7 day free gym trial wont work. People who take these out have no investment in the process and 7 days isn't long enough for them to start enjoying it. It is long enough to remind them they can't achieve anything in 7 days, their goal is harder than they thought, will take longer than they thought and involves something they don't get that much pleasure from. It reminds them of their mortality, that life is short and to give up and go and do something they do enjoy doing like watching Netflix or going to the pub.

The guiding lights for the next year:

3 principles as outlined by Richard Nisbett (2015:225) and which underlie Eastern thought:

1) Principle of change: Reality is a process of change. What is currently true will shortly be false.
2) Principle of contradiction: Contradiction is the dynamic underlying change. Because change is constant, contradiction is constant.
3) Principle of relationships(holism): The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Parts are meaningful only in relation to the whole.

Is it worth having a goal, or plans, or resolutions?

Here is a little exchange:

Dizang asked "Where are you going?"
Fayan said "Around on pilgrimage."
Dizang asked "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"
Fayan replied "I don't know."
Dizang responded "Not knowing is most intimate."

Replace the word pilgrimage in the third line with the word 'goals', or 'resolutions' or 'relationshsips'.

If through all of the information, chaos, infinite decisions, fuzziness and confusion that life throws, you somehow become aware of a clear goal or subject or area of interest or something that sparks something in you; then go for it, cling to that life raft.

The burning questions and ideas that keep coming back to you, they are your life koan. The ones you carry around with you your entire life.

It's up to you, the most important thing is to enjoy the process, to find things that are satisfying, and mostly these are things that are out of your comfort zone. The years are spinning on, you are wearing down, but there are still infinite moments to enjoy, little things. You can always learn and renew.

You don't need to retreat to the woods to 'suck the marrow out of life' or 'to live deliberately', you can do it in everyday humdrum life and make it meaningful. You don't need someone elses list of goals.

And of course, sometimes the best thing to do is binge watch a TV series on Netflix and have a beer.

It's a new morning, a new day, a new beginning, a new moment. It always is.

Happy New Year, have a good 2018 or whichever year you are in.

"Great understanding is broad and unhurried; little understanding is cramped and busy. Great words are clear and limpid; little words are shrill and quarrelsome. In sleep, people’s spirits go visiting; in waking hours, their bodies hustle. With everything they meet they become entangled. Day after day they use their minds. in strife, sometimes grandiose, sometimes sly, sometimes petty. Their little fears are mean and trembly; their great fears are stunned and overwhelming. They bound off like an arrow or crossbow bolt, certain that they are arbiters of right and wrong. They cling to their position as though they had sworn before the gods, sure that they are holding on to victory. They fade like fall into winter—such is the way they dwindle day by day. They drown in what they do—you cannot make them turn back. They grow dark, as though sealed with seals—such are the excesses of their old age. And as they draw near to death, nothing can restore their minds to the light."

- The complete works of Zhuangzi, Burton Watson translation, Ch, 2, p.8 

Other references:

The idea of infinite unknowable things, pilgrimage quote and John Tarrant quote taken from a day workshop on Freedom & Intimacy by Kevin Jikai Pickard at Zenways.

Nisbett, R (2015) Mindware. Tools for Smart Thinking. Penguin.

Give yourself a break.

It's that time of the year when half the population is eating their body weight in chocolate and promising themselves they are going to get fit and lose in January.

And another smaller group of people are panicking that they will not be able to go the gym on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, wondering when they will fit in arm day. And waking up in a cold sweat about their fat percentage increasing by 1% when the ambassador offers them one more ferrero rocher.

Why yes ambassador I will have another Ferrero Rocher (and tomorrow I will spend 3 hours in the gym guilt ridden).

This is aimed at the second group of people.

A break from training for a week or so will not make any difference unless:-

• You are training for the 2018 Olympics.
• You have a 100 mile race in late January.
• You are stepping on stage and need to be contest ready in the middle of January.

If none of these apply give yourself a break.

A break will do you good.

This a good time for a deload week or two. Go easy, have some back off sessions, no heavy lifting, or if you are a runner some easy runs.

You may not be near your usual gym or usual running routes. Take some time to do something different. Do the opposite of what you normally do, if you normally lift heavy go for a jog or a run, if you normally do endurance work then do some body weight work or mobility.

If you normally train 4 or 5 times a week and can't guarantee your normal routine or you're not sure how many times a week you can train then go total body.

For example, pick one exercise from each of the following:

Vertical Pull

Vertical Push

Horizontal Pull

Horizontal Push

Quad dominant

Hip Dominant

Accessory - core/ arms/ whatever

Which could be something like:-

Latpulldown

Dumbbell shoulder press

Seated Row

Lunge or goblet squat

Leg curl or dumbbell RDL

Plank or some bicep/ tricep supersets

2-3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.

Or if you don't have access to any equipment then try a simple body weight routine:

Press up

Body weight squat

Do a simple a ladder up routine, 1 rep of each then 2,3,4,5,6 up to 20.

Other things to consider:

A simple Christmas mobility routine, you spend days on end sitting down in a chair or in car stuck in traffic or stooped over a stove (or over a pint), time to reverse posture.

Something like:

Cat camel

Bird dog

Downward dog

Updog

Spidermans with overhead reach

Half kneeling hip flexor stretch with over head reach

Sit back into hamstring/ half splits stretch

Finish in puppy dog pose.

This is the type of routine you can bust out in your Christmas jumper. (In fact I will film it later this week and post it up).

But most importantly - ITS OKAY TO TAKE A DAY OFF!

Think outside the box.

You are in a house that has been centrally heated to the same temperature as the Sahara. This is a chance to do some heat acclimatization training for that desert race you have been considering. Put on your running kit and rucksack and run up and down the stairs.

Mass building phase. Been trying to bulk up and put on weight but can never get enough calories in? Now is your chance, you should have protein and carbs coming out of your ears. For once you can hit those 6000 calories. Train hard up to until Christmas day, over reach as  much as possible, then sit back and let the super-compensation happen while you watch you favourite Christmas film. You are literally resting for mass. Your biceps and quads will be growing as you lay there with the meat sweats.

How much does that turkey weigh? Quick press it over head for maximum reps before putting it in the oven, a chance for a sneaky shoulder workout.

Always wanted to get photo shoot ready? Now's your chance. Go low carb for the week before hand. Then start drinking alcohol from 8am Christmas day, bucks fizz, wine and beer should dehydrate you nicely combined with the indoor greenhouse, then add in all those carbs. Next thing you know, your muscles have refilled with glycogen, all the water has been drawn out from under your skin, you will be pumped and ripped and all you need to do is find someone to give you a fake tan on Boxing Day and get ready for that photoshoot. (Ask for a fake tanning kit as a gift, problem solved).

Burpee drink penalty. Every time you have a drink do 10 burpees.

Exercise food label. Use your Christmas gift tags to label the exact number of minutes of exercise it will take to burn off the calories in the food. Yes, labelling every Quality Street or Heroes will take some time.

Sleep penalty. First person to fall asleep has to do 50 mountain climbers or is made to join a crossfit gym in the new year.

Christmas cracker exercises. Get those crackers that you can put your own gifts and jokes in. Instead of jokes put in exercise routines. What better way to start dinner than 25 jumping jacks.

Television penalty. If anyone mentions any soap opera christmas special, 1000 burpee penalty. Enforce this.

Exercise charades. You have to mime a sport and everyone has to guess which one. For crossfitters, WOD charades, you start doing a WOD and everyone has to guess which one, of course that is Kelly or is that Fran? Wear the crossfit gear you got as a present while you do this.

Weighted cups and cutlery. You can be working on your biceps all day long. A great stocking filler.

Baileys protein shake. Of course you can put Baileys in a protein shake. And yes, I've now decided this is a real thing.

Protein eggnog. See above.

Alternatively, relax. Don't be so hard on yourself. Go for a walk in the fresh air. Don't get too stressed. All your progress will not be undone in one week. Consistency always wins, if you're consistent the rest of the year, give yourself a well earned break and enjoy yourself.

Christmas dinner is basically lean meat and vegetables. And if you are in the UK Boxing Day is more lean meats and vegetables.

All the stats about people putting on weight at Christmas and never losing it are about sedentary people with crappy diets all year round.

And as long as you don't drink until your liver dissolves or eat until you go into insulin shock, you'll be okay.

And hey, there's always next year.

May the Kwanzaa-bot bring you everything you wished for.

Happy Christmas one and all.

Getting Older (and training).

Do you need to train differently as you get older?

Recently there has been a spate of books and resources for the 'older' lifter, which the people providing these resources normally define as over 40. A few of them define it as over 30 or 35, which is of course laughable (these are normally the ones written by people in their 20's).

This trend seems to be because all the coaches writing these various programmes now find themselves in their 40's or 50's.

Full disclosure I haven't read any of the books aimed at the over 40 trainee or joined any of the online programmes ( I'm 43 by the way). I have purchased Bill Hartmans book on kindle but not read it yet. Therefore anything I write here is my take on it.

Notice I have generally referred to these as resources for the older 'lifter,' as most of the guys writing this stuff are coming from a lifting back ground and not so much the endurance background.

But do you need to train differently as you get older? Does anything need to change? And does it depend more on your training age or chronological age? Is it more to do with your training background, whether it be classic bodybuilding training, powerlifting, olympic weightlifting, endurance running 10k to 160k, or a sport like football (soccer)? And is it just a matter of getting wiser and not doing stupid stuff so much?

"Remember when you were you young, you shone like the sun"

When you're young you can pretty much get away with any stupid training regime and diet.

You can drink a gallon of milk, inhale some pre-workout, train for two hours, have a post workout KFC, go for a few beers, sleep in til 11am and repeat as necessary.

Remember those days you could spend 2-3 hours in the gym, with 30 minutes mobility, a chat, and a dedicated soleus and forearm day? No, me neither. Of course no one did any mobility work in the 1990's for a start.

And then you can do stupid stuff like deadlift maximum with no warm up because your friends are, keep running with an open wound on your foot because you want to finish a 5 day event, or run off a wall drunk in the dark, injure your knee and elbow, wake up covered in blood and don't bother seeking any medical treatment (okay, these are all things I did).

And then...

"With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older"

One day you wake up and things hurt. And the bit that hurts keeps changing, it could be your shoulder, or lower back, or neck, or forearm, or t-spine or knee (or is that just me?).

If you made it into your 40's without any injuries you are either a replicant or never did anything stupid or pushed out of your comfort zone. Well done either way.

And all those guys that were squatting maximum everyday, well they had hip replacements. Maybe there was no correlation and they were going to get them anyway. Who knows. And training like a Bulgarian weightlifter is probably okay if you are genetically gift, chemically assisted and are only doing it for a short window of time to win something.

One day you wake up and realise you are going to face the grim reaper, which means you need to do 2 things: 1) Improve your chess game 2) Not knock on heavens door with a Dad-bod.

"So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore"

Playing chess with death. Film reference for the day. The Seventh Seal. source:empire online magazine

I know quite a few guys lifting weights into their late 50's, and guys running into their 60's.

There are two interesting things I've observed, the guys still lifting in their 50's when I've talked to them never deadlifted or squatted heavy. Basically when they started in gyms in the UK there were no power racks, so they never did that type of training. And then when these things were popular they decided it was too late for them to take up that type of lifting. Coincidentally these guys don't have back or hip injuries, although they do have shoulder injuries from benching! These guys are still lifting heavier than I can on things like chest press, shoulder press, pulldowns etc.

And then you have the runners, there is some evidence that people are actually get faster in their 60's than in middle age. I know at least one runner in this age category who is still running sub 18 minute 5k and sub 35 minute 10k, on three short training sessions a week.

Of course, this is not a random sample, it is my biased sample. And it will be interesting too see how todays younger generation look in their 40's and 50's after training in the current milieu.

Its not the age, its the responsibility.

Another thing I've noticed about the guys writing these over 40 resources, it seems to be much more a factor of having children than aging.

And I know where they are coming from (I have a 2 year old son).

For example, there is a big trend at the moment about the importance of sleep and how you should be getting 8 hours a night. Any new parent is laugh manically at such a suggestion.

I used to run ultras but then realised I didn't need to run 100 miles to experience sleep deprivation, a young baby will do the same for you.

Getting woken up every 2 hours by the sound of a crying baby, then having to get up and train, your pre-workout meal now consists of a biscuit you found on the floor and a cup of tea you are drinking out a bowl because you can't find any cups. You then go to work, stick your head in a vat of caffeine, then return home, look into your partners eyes which have developed the 1000 yard stare of Dien Bien Phu veteran and start all over again. Yes, its a combination of Guantanamo Bay and Special Forces training but with more nappy changes.

Suddenly your priorities change, you need to do more time efficient sessions. You need to get back home, you are not sure if one week you will be able to train 2 or 3 or 4 times. You can't go for a 7 hour run on a Sunday, and you don't want to.

You can't always hit it hard, as you are knackered and you are not going to get that precious recovery sleep that all those sanctimonious 20 something coaches keep going on about; at this point you are so tired you can't even figure out how to fit the coloured blocks into the right holes in that toy your baby has. And you start doing yoga purely for the 10 minute relaxation at the end, where you hope to catch a quick powernap.

(Of course, you wouldn't change it for the world, and you get to carry the baby around in a rucksack, basically doing weighted vest steady state cardio wherever you go).

'The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older'

At this point let me point out there is a difference between chronological age and training age.

Some people don't start lifting weights until their 50's. I know at least 2 women who are lifting heavy weights for the first time in their 50's. This means the accumulated trauma hasn't happened yet, I know one has recently been injured from lifting heavy (as in powerlifting world record for her age heavy). Same with some guys I know who started lifting weights in their 30's. They have a golden period of high volume training, lack of any periodisation or back off weeks until one day something snaps. If you started in your teens or 20's it just snaps earlier.

Same for running, the earlier you started, the more chance you didn't start by training intelligently and you've had more time to wear yourself down and amplify any movement impairments.

But do not despair..

"Too old to rock n roll: Too young to die"

We live in a time of unprecedented training information and modalities. Look at the evolution of mobility over the last 10 years or so.

This means you have more training options than ever before.

Do you need to train differently as you get older? In short no. Unless your circumstances and injury profile dictate you should.

But its probably time to accept a few home truths.

You are probably not going to crossfit regionals
You are not stepping into the MMA octagon for a world championship
Your are not going to win UTMB
You are not going to a club on a Friday to impress anyone with your biceps
You are not playing in the premiership (and you should probably give up football if you value your ACL's and dignity)

However, this does not mean you cannot train hard, it doesn't have to be darts and golf unless that's what you like.

Having said all that here are my top tips:

• Shorter more focused sessions.
• If you are unsure how many times a week you can train, go total body each session. If you know you can 3 or 4 times a week, you don't have to do this.
• Avoid too much spine compression, why are you heavy squatting, can you achieve the same in a different way?
• Technique is paramount
• Accept that some exercises are over for you. For example, due to an old injury I haven't done any dips for nearly 10 years. I still manage to work my triceps and chest without this exercise.
• I like rest pause sets and descending sets to maximise time efficiency and overload with the minimum number of sets. For example, with rest pause, 2 warm up sets, then one set where you get 6-8 reps, rest 10 seconds, get 1 or 2 reps more, if you are feeling good, rest another 10 seconds and get another 1-2 reps.
• You never need to do a 1 rep max
• Variety is your friend - dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, yoga, bodyweight, sprints.
• Meditate
• Warm up
• Mobilise, if pushed for time, pick 2 mobilisations for key areas you need to work on each session.
• Power, stop those sarcomeres withering, keep those fast twitch fibres. Sprints, and jumps (but warm up first!, build up sets and sprint speed).
• Strength, especially for endurance athletes do some strength work. 
• Run up hills.
• Probably stop drinking a gallon of milk a day.
• Probably stop eating like a teenager on holiday in Magaluf.
• Just keep going.
• Feel free to ignore all of the above, you're old enough to know your body by now.
• And if you are in your 70's enter Badwater or the Barkley Marathon, what've you got to lose?!

But most of all don't use age as an excuse, keep moving, keep learning.

(all things in quotes, songs, you can guess which ones, Springsteen, Pink Floyd, and even Jethro Tull for all the old heads).

Walk like a monster for glute activation.

Glute training is the de-jour training of the last few years.

If anything has defined the recent fitness zeitgeist its glutes.

There are now approximately 40 zillion glute exercise variation videos available on instagram. But are they all worth it and effective?

And what if you want to progress a client from bodyweight side lying clamshells? Which exercise is the next step? . Of course, there are a 1000 next steps, but the ones I like are the side mini band walk (aka sumo walk, x-band walk) and monster walk. (Also band resisted clamshells, but I will post them in a separate video/blog).

I do see quite a few people in the gym these days with their own mini bands (mainly women - thanks Insta coaches). Butt (see what I did there) nearly all of them places the band around the knees for doing band walks and various squat exercises.

Is this the best placement?

Well no, the research shows (see Cambridge et al 2012) that to get more glute medius activation and less Tensor fascia latae the band should be lower down around the ankles or feet.

And the most glute max activation is when the band is around the forefoot. I am assuming that most of the women in the gym (and guys) are looking for more glute max activation for either injury rehab purposes, athletic purposes or lets face it aesthetic reasons. Therefore the optimal placing of the band would be around the forefoot and then next best would be around the ankles.

Why do it?

• can help as part of a programme for lower back pain.
• can help as part of a hip programme (my hips always feel better after it).
• get more toned glutes!
• athletic purposes, in which case always go in different directions.
• warm up, activation and mobility either for a leg workout or sport.

In the 2 videos below my colleague Nick is demonstrating the side walk and monster walk. Now you may be asking why is the band around his ankles and not his forefoot, if forefoot is better? The answer is you can do both, but from a practical point of view the band around the foot can end up getting caught the floor depending on the surface you have, and the friction of the band on the floor can wear your band out quicker. But hey, try both.





Or the monster walk, I don't see too many people doing this one, but I find it hits the glutes just as much, all you have to do is pretend you are a zombie or Frankensteins monster!



  How to do it:

1. Place band around the ankles or foot!
2. Get into a quarter squat/ athletic position.
3. Don't step too narrow, you will lose tension on the band.
4. Don't step too wide, you will end up using your back and not your glutes. In fact, a common thing I see when looking at peoples lower backs while doing this, is their spine bending to the side and doing the movement and their hips are not really doing anything. Especially if someone is not used to using their glutes or activating them you will see this compensation.
5. To stop the above happening, get some light core bracing. Also, getting the client/patient to put their hand on their waist and lower back, try and breathe diaphragmatically into that whole core region and be cognizant of not moving through the lower back.
6. Also look out for the knees collapsing inwards, they don't have to be excessively forced out but you don't want to see knee collapse.
7. Keep a good neck and shoulder position too.
8. Top tip: a band around the ankle with bare skin can cause chaffing and pinching. Either wear longer socks or trousers/leggings. Or try the band around the foot position.

I like to do this exercise before a leg workout, just one or two sets of 10 in each direction. Or put it into your leg workout and superset with something like walking lunges or glutes thrusts.

For people with back pain, it might be one of the exercises you give them as part of their programme.

And as always, even though someone might be doing it on instagram there is no need to make this exercise more complicated by doing it sideways or backwards on an inclined treadmill or by jumping up the steps on a stairmill - yes I have seen people doing this in the gym!

If you want to feel a glute burn give these variations a go!

References:

Cambridge E, Sidorkewicz N, Ikeda D, McGill SM (2012). Progressive hip
rehabilitation: The effects of resistance band placement on gluteal activation during two
common exercises. Clin. Biomech. 27:719-724

Do this single leg exercise.

In the video below you can see me demonstrating a single leg balance exercise with multi-directional reach. Aka Star Balance aka Y Balance. Or if you really want to impress your friends call it a multiplanar exercise in the sagittal, frontal and transverse plane.



Of course, I didn't invent this exercise. As mentioned above, the Star Balance has been used for a long time in physio circles as an assessment and the FMS guys use the Y balance.

Why do it?

So much of gym work takes place on two feet and is very linear. The rise of S&C, squats and deadlifts are a good thing, but there is another dimension to training that should be addressed. Lateral movement and single leg work should also be part of a well rounded programme.

This exercise is good for

• anyone who needs balance training, fall prevention
• running or any sport that requires you to be on one leg
• post ankle, hip or knee injury to help build up proprioception (being aware of where you joints and body are in space) and strength.
• as part of a warm up drill

In the video I am reaching as far as I can in each direction, and I am using three directions (Y shape). But if someone has had a recent injury, is starting to work on their balance or is recovering from something such as a stroke then the movement can be small. Some other key points:

1. You could hold onto a chair to begin with and then try and do it with just finger tips resting on the chair.
2. Try and maintain spine integrity, it is unloaded so I wouldn't worry about some spine flexion, but try and hinge from the hips.
3. Keep an eye on that support knee, you don't want it collapsing in excessively.
4. Also think about neck position, keep the back of your neck smooth.
5. You can reach with the arms as well.

You can also do a reach forward with the leg (which I don't do in the video). Kind of like a mini pistol or heel dig. For some people this causes more issues with the knee and spine bending, so listen to your body. For others it helps to strengthen the muscles around the knee.

I used this exercise when running, and I think it helped me rehab a niggling knee issue I had. I think it also helped as I increased the miles and do more and more trail running.

You may feel it in the muscles around the hips and pelvis. I can particularly feel a stretch in the outer hip when I reach the leg behind me across the midline of the body.  It is also working the muscles around the knee and ankle.

This exercise is not trying to isolate anything, it is integrating the limbs and torso as happens in real life. You want your hips, knees and ankles to respond reflexively when running, jumping or even stepping down a curb.

Do three or four circuits on each leg as part of your warm up, or do it at any point during the day.

There is no need to 'progress' this exercise, you don't have to add in weight or stand on a bosu.

Keep it simple and effective.

Hill Sprints. Do Them!

In short: find a hill, run as hard as you can up it, rest, repeat a few times then run home. Feel better, look better.

Hills sprints are a great addition to your training.

They are not just for runners who want to improve their speed in shorter distances like 5k. But for anyone who wants to improve power and strength.

And for leg development (quads and glutes my friends). Have you ever seen a sprinter with poor legs!

They are also great for improving conditioning. I would also use them at the start of a phase for a long distance athlete (10k, marathon, and ultra distances).

If you don’t have access to a prowler or sled, hill sprints are the 'go to' for field athletes that need power and strength.

Of course, I didn’t invent hill sprints. I first became aware of them from running coach Brad Hudson, and by his own admission he took his approach from coach Renato Canova, who in turn took them from sprint coach Bud James.

According to Hudson (2008), hill sprints will

• Strengthen running muscles
• Make the runner less injury prone
• Increase power and efficiency of stride
• Take little time
• are fun to do!

But they also have benefits for the non runner.

Power!

Power is about recruiting more fast twitch muscle fibres. It is about building fast strength, not grinding strength. It is what makes athletes explosive.

A maximal hill sprint is about maximal muscle fibre recruitment in one of the safest and least technically demanding ways.

Traditional training for this would include the Olympic lifts, plyometrics (jumps, bounding) and medicine ball throws.

However, many of these methods are technically demanding. To get the most out of Olympic lifts, you need someone to coach you to make sure you are competent. And you need access to the equipment. Plyometrics are also technically demanding and there is a large amount of force going through joints and tendons when you land.

Hill sprints require no equipment. As you are running on a steep hill you are not absorbing force in the same way as when you jump off a box.

Power is the missing element in many peoples training. They may lift weights and work on strength in lifts such as the deadlift and squat. They may do hypertrophy training. They may do steady state endurance training. They may even do some conditioning – but this is not power.

As you get older power gets more important to train. And of course, for athleticism you need some power training.

Hill sprints are part of the training puzzle.

“Hill repetitions help build the ‘fitness bridge’between strength and speed.” (Hudson, p.81)

Of course, there is no reason why your training can't consist of Olympic lifts, plyometrics and hill sprints.

Why not flat sprints?

Many years ago a myself and a colleague ran a boot camp. As part of it we incorporated some track sprints. We had screened all the participants before hand to make sure they were injury free, did a long warm up and some build up sprints. Then we got them to sprint a bit harder, and 8 out of 10 of them suddenly grasped the middle of their quad.

What had happened? It was a rectus femoris strain. As their psoas muscle wasn’t used to having to flex the hip, suddenly the rectus femori was trying to flex the hip and straighten the knee fast, while putting in a near maximal effort. The muscle was pulled in 2 different directions and the middle of the muscle couldn’t cope and got strained.

As strength coach Mike Boyle says in is his book Functional Training for Sports

“The athlete will use the rectus femoris to create hip flexion. This can result in the mysterious quad pull seen in sprinters or on forty-yard dash day in football.”

(A similar thing can also happen in the hamstrings, where the hamstring tries to bend the knee and extend the hip as the glutes aren’t doing their job, this can also result in pain at the front of the hip, that the person attempts to correct by stretching, when in fact it is not tight. Thanks to physio Shirley Sahrmann for that!).

Flat sprinting is more technical than hill sprints. Hill sprints actually make your technique better, it is making you drive into the hill with the front part of the foot and use the posterior chain, it is making you lean, there is less shock absorption going on. There is less impact.

Plus on tracks, everyone feels the need to sprint 100 or 200m. And if you are putting in maximal effort, this is actually a very long way! Usain Bolt may make it look easy, but not until you’ve tried it do you realise it is hard to keep form, technique and effort over those distance.

It is much better to think of the shorter sprints of American sports like the NFL, where the 40 yard dash (36 metres) is the staple. A much shorter distance and time under tension.

Or if you are doing hill sprints, think about no more than 8 seconds to begin with.

Why not use the treadmill?

On the one hand you can control the exact gradient and speed on the treadmill.

However, I don’t find treadmills very good for very short maximal sprints of 8-10 seconds.

It takes too long to increase the speed up to where you want it. Or for extra danger, you can try jumping onto it after you have built it up to the speed you want to go. The first method makes the sprint too long and you are not going at max effort at the start. With the second method, all the benefits of driving hard to overcome inertia are loss, so some the muscle adaption is lost.

I would only use the treadmill for sprints of 30secs or longer interval work.

How/Format?

First of all build up!

If you are a beginner they will put a massive amount of load and stress on your joints and muscles. And as a beginner you may not be able to sprint at all, but can do some faster efforts.

Yes, in the long term they should help prevent injury and improve muscle recruitment, but you have to gradually progress.

Hudson recommends starting on a hill with a 6-8% gradient, and then going to a hill with a 10% gradient. In practice, you probably just have to find the steepest hill you can near you.

My preferred format is:

• jog, easy run to the hill you are going to use. About 7-12mins for me depending on the hill I’m running to.
• A couple of easy build up ‘sprints’, really more like striding out (pushing slightly above your coomfortable pace), for about 8-10 seconds. If you’re are a beginner, this might be all you do.
• Use the arms, lean in to the hill, visualise the glutes firing as you drive into the hill. Relax the face and shoulders.
• Walk back down to start, nice and easy between each effort. Or if it is a really long hill, I gradually make my way to the top, resting by walking across the hill between each rep.
• Then increase the effort, now near maximal for 2 x 8-10secs.
• Err on the side of caution, less time is better, 6-8 seconds might be enough.
• Then jog/ run home.
• Total session time is 20-30mins.

I would then increase the number of sprints by 1 or 2 a week.

“Most runners will achieve as much strength and power improvement as they can get by doing 10-12 hill sprints of 10-12 seconds each, twice a week.” (Hudson, p82)

Personally I think for the general athlete, once a week is enough. And 5 or 6 sprints might also be enough. Of course, it depends on how much time you have. Its also about listening to your body, if I start to lose speed and intensity on the sprints I stop, its no longer a maximal effort session.

You can also use markers us the hill such as trees, and sprint between them, gradually making your way up the hill, again making sure these are very short sprints. A kind of short burst hill sprint fartlek.

You could also be doing once every 2 weeks as part of a general training plan.

Even for an ultra runner I would still sprinkle them through a training cycle to stop them adopting the classic one speed, one gear, ‘ultrashuffle’, and problems of over use of the same muscles.

For a runner, you might then start to use longer hill repeats, 30-60seconds. Or if training for very long distances, I used hill repeats that were 1k or 1 mile long. (Of course, these are no where near maximal effort, and are about endurance and technical efficiency for mountain/trail running).

But I think these benefits go beyond runners. For the general athlete, and general population they are great for building strength, power, developing the legs and I believe do help with injury prevention. (and of course help you lose weight and tone up, joke).

But mostly you do them to go maximal, at the end you are stooped over with your heart beating hard and unable to catch your breath, your are in the moment, there isn't anything else to think about.

References.

Hudson B & Fitzgerald M(2008) Run Faster from the 5k to the Marathon.

Boyle M(2016) FunctionalStrength Training for Sports. Human Kinetics. Kindle edition.

Who Are You? The type of person who exercises?

You hear it all the time:

I'm no good at maths
I can't run
I'm no good with computers
I can't do this or that
I'm no good at learning languages
I'm not that type of person
I'm not a gym person
I'm more of a .....insert here what you believe you are... type of person.

Only yesterday I heard a guy in a coffee shop tell his friend he didn't have an ear for languages. And yet, he had learned one language fluently, the one he was speaking. He then told his friend he had an A-level in French. Despite this he had decided he was the type of person who was not good at learning languages.

At what point did you decide that was the type of person you were?
At what point did you decide there was a certain skill set you did not posses or there was a certain skill set that was your strong point?
Were you a child or a teenager? At what point did you think this is me?
And how many times have you changed your mind as an adult?

People adopt a series of habits and patterns and rituals and they become them.

Professor Michael Puett in his book The Path, about how we can apply some of the lessons of ancient Chinese philosophy to our modern lives, states

"What we in the West define as the true self is actually patterns of continuous responses to people and the world; patterns that have built up over time. For example, you might think, I'm just the type of person who gets annoyed easily. On the contrary, it's more likely that you have become the kind of person who does get irritated over minor things because of how you've interacted with people for years. But that's not because you are, in fact, such a person." (p.43)

A bad experience with maths or PE at school and that's you for life. Suddenly you are the type of person who doesn't like exercise or running.

Also, its easy, if that's who you are, then you never have to change, its just the type of person you are, its not your fault, you don't have to try new things.

Now this doesn't mean you have to try everything new thing in the world, every new activity. You don't have to be 'good' at everything and 'like' everything. For example, I'm never playing golf or watching Britains Got Talent.

Also, I'm not saying you have to be excellent at everything. There is a lot of ground in between saying 'I can't run' and being Mo Farah. And if you're not 7 foot tall you're probably not going to play in the NBA but you can still enjoy basketball.

However, don't dismiss activities because they may be hard or push you out of your comfort zone.

How many people leave school and never learn anything new? The pattern is set. It congeals and rusts.

You learned a series of habits and rituals and you accept them, you greet people in a certain way, in the West you use a knife and fork to eat, you drive on a certain side of the road - these were all learned - they are not you.

"We cling to a fixed idea of who we are and it cripples us. Nothing and no one is fixed." - Pema Chodron (2001)

There is no core self. It changes all the time. In the words of Chuck Palahniuk

But this means at any time you could start to choose something else, pick different 'china patterns', sit in a different place, brush your teeth with the wrong hand, be the type of person who buys a bicycle and cycles to work!

Was your view on the world and personality set by 16 years old by a few teachers, parents and friends. It doesn't mean you have to reject all this, and form a whole new personality, but don't be limited, build on this.

As a kid you learned the most complex things possible - how to walk, talk and read. And then at certain point many adults think, well I'm an adult now, I don't have try things that I may fail at or make me look 'bad', I will not push the envelope, I will seal it up and stay inside of it.

And if you only perceive the world in a certain way, and have already decided that you are not the type of person who takes up cycling or goes to a yoga, where does that leave you?

"But remember that who you think you are - and especially what you think is 'you' when you are making decisions - is usually just a set of patterns you've fallen into." (Puett & Gross- Loh, 2016).

And before you know it you never push out of your comfort zone or try something new.

Learning new things is fantastic for your brain health, learning new languages and new skills makes your brain form new connections. And the other thing that is good for brain health is exercise.

And this is where exercise rears its head. So many people like the idea of say running or being 'fit', but no, I can't do that, I'm not fit enough to go to a gym (cue flashback to running around a field in the snow at school while half the class hide behind the cricket pavilion for a smoke).

Its not easy.

Even confident successful people can crumble when faced with a new skill. Only the other day I was showing a lady around the gym, she was confident in herself, knew she wanted to get fit, she went on the cardio machines no problem, a few resistance machines no problem. Then we tried a goblet squat with a kettlebell, we were standing in the dreaded freeweights area. Her technique needed a bit of work, she couldn't get it straight away like she had on the machines. She was pitching forward a bit, had a bit of knee collapse. I gave her a bit of coaching, said not to worry, it was a new movement, just practice a bit and she would get it after a few sessions. But no, for her this was disastrous.

The next session in the gym she was adamant she did not like the goblet squat, did not want to do it again, despite the fact at this point she had probably only done 20 reps total in her life, and spent 2 minutes on the exercises. But because she had not grasped the technique and skill instantaneously she did not want to continue.

I have had a similar thing even on cardio equipment, a cross trainer that's a bit different to what people are used to, you say you just need to do this and this, and the technique needs a bit of work and next thing they are saying 'I don't like this machine I want to get off', after 90 seconds. This is code for 'I didn't come here to learn a new skill, or feel like you are judging me, or to look like I can't do something, I am adult now, I don't need anyone to teach me anything'.

What they expected and reality don't match and their brain doesn't like it, the ego kicks in, fear kicks in.

It is hard to break habits, set new patterns and learn new things, as Anders Ericsson says in his book Peak

"Getting started is easy, as anyone who has visited a gym after New Year's knows. You decide that you want to get in shape or learn to play the guitar or pick up a new language, and so you jump right in...Then after a while, reality hits. It'd hard to find the time to work out or practice as much as you should... you start missing sessions. You're not improving... It's why gyms that are were crowded in January are only half full in July. So that's the problem in a nutshell: purposeful practice is hard." (kindle edition of the book)

But as adults, its easy to duck out, no one is making us go back to school or go to the gym. The television and social media feeds are waiting to anaesthetize us as the end of another hard day.

My friend is learning to play guitar, its hard, he's an adult with a job. I can explain and show him things on the guitar which are easy to me, because I learned them when I was a teenager. Conversely, this same friend is a very good rock climber, he has been climbing for years. I'm trying to be better at climbing, but compared to him I'm terrible. He can free climb something in his flip flops which looks like El Capitan to me. But we are both trying to push out of our comfort zone, willing to fail and let go of that ego a little bit.

Ericsson talks about practice

"The hallmark of purposeful or deliberate practice is that you try to do something you cannot do - that takes you out of your comfort zone - and that you practice it over and over again, focusing on exactly how you are doing it, where you are falling short, and how you can get better. Real life - our jobs, our schooling, our hobbies - seldom gives us the opportunity for this sort of focused repetition..."

Fitness is a skill, many people perceive themselves as time poor, I don't have time to learn these exercises, I just need to get fit and lose weight. This is missing the point. They don't want it to be a skill or a process, they don't really want to change anything.

The future is wide open.

Something inside us likes the world to be stable and fixed, but if you never explore new things you may never find parts of you that you never knew existed. You go to a zumba class and suddenly find out you love dancing, you avoided swimming your whole life because you lacked confidence, you get a few lessons and suddenly you enjoy going for a swim to clear your head and like using the pool on holiday. You get the idea.

As coaches, it is up to us to show this to clients.

In 2009 I walked into a book shop in London and bought a book by Christopher McDougall. It was about a sport I hardly knew anything about; ultra running. Then a few years later I saw one of the lead protagonists talk in London. A couple of years after that I went to Leadville and run a 100 miles in a race that seemed mythical and for super humans to me 5 years before. If I had a fixed idea of who I was none of this would have happened.

Its funny how things end up.

So the final word to that person I saw talk in London, Caballo Blanco. During the talk someone asked him 'Can anyone run 100 miles?'. He answered 'If they want to'.

Can you be the type of person who exercises?
If you want to.

Can you change?
If you want to.
This applies to all things.

References.

For my tribute to Caballo and my thoughts when I went to see him talk
http://lostinfitness.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/micah-true-is-gone-caballo-blanco-runs.html
http://lostinfitness.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/evening-with-caballo-blanco-you-know.html

On why it is hard to form a new habit and how to do it
http://lostinfitness.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/forming-new-habits-how-long-will-you.html

On how habits are embedded in your memory and how you become them
http://lostinfitness.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/forming-new-habits-part-4-memory.html

On habits and choices
http://lostinfitness.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/forming-new-habits-part-5-choice.html

Michael Puett & Christine Gross-Loh (2016) The Path.

Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool. Peak, Secrets from the new science of expertise. Kindle edition quoted.

Pema Chodron (2001) The places that scare you.

And then everyone was a strength coach.

There was a time when people working in gyms were fitness instructors and personal trainers. But this wasn't cool enough.

It started to get a bad reputation, the barrier to entry was low, the qualifications were easy. And no one was going to pay an online 'fitness instructor guru', it just didn't have a cool ring to it.

Being a strength coach was much cooler. All those guys training people in American high schools, and in their garage and selling online products were strength coaches.

Before you knew it, power racks sprung up and people were powerlifters and following Westside. And there were dynamic effort days and bands and chains. And if you didn't know a buffalo bar from a Texas power bar you might as well have still been balancing on a swiss ball with Paul Chek.

And then Olympic lifting was a thing. 10 years ago there wasn't one Olympic lifting technique video on the internet – I know because I looked for them and couldn't find them, so I went and did the lifting course back in 2007/8.

On the same course were some guys who were going to open something called a 'crossfit gym'. None of us had lifting shoes, we all did it in trainers, the coaches running the course didn't even mention lifting shoes. And I went back to the gym and had to practice with metal weight plates on a normal floor.

Fast forward ten years and there are coaches on the internet who by rights should be coaching the Chinese team with the expertise they appear to have – not hanging out at the local gym or critiquing peoples technique on the internet.

And everyone expected a power rack and bumper plates.

And trainers wanted to be coaches, and everyone had to deadlift and squat. Because coaches had respect and weren't poorly paid cleaners in disguise. Who could blame them, '20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift'. And this stuff was way more interesting than standing next to a treadmill and asking someone if their RPE was 12 or 13.

And one of the safest sports started to throw up injuries. Things that were rare became common places such as end plate fractures in the spine. And your Doctor is not really looking for it because who fractures an end plate? Someone under massive spinal compression.

And heavy unilateral lifting without qualification ended up with people breaking their pelvic rings.
And then everyone wanted to train like an 'athlete' or train 'athletes'. Well kind of… Take some plyometrics and put them together in a long intense class format and give it to a bunch of people who haven't jumped off the ground since they were skipping in primary school. And there were blown ACLs and ruptured achilles.

And some of the biggest fitness/ class companies in the world started to put together HIIT/ plyometric workouts. But they didn't grasp it, they didn't fully understand it. They hadn't immersed themselves in it for years. And then 50 year old women started to rupture achilles because they were doing exercises designed for Soviet athletes.

And the strength coaches had everyone Olympic lifting, and I was guilty too. And those clients who just wanted a bit of weight loss and tone were doing cleans and jerks without screening, and had no business ever doing these exercises. Like suddenly introducing your client to the sport of javelin or hammer throwing when they are 60 years old.

And people who had no business putting a weight over their head in a deep squat were trained relentlessly for a sport they should never had started because strength was good and reps were bad unless they were metcon reps. And anything above 5 reps was cardio.

And cardio was a joke, because a fat man in a lifting suit said so.

And young injury free coaches who were used to training young injury free contemporaries who did sports like rugby thought this was a universal template. Regardless of spine disc shape, or injury history or training age.

And these coaches who were used to training high school athletes and college athletes, with GOMAD a gallon of milk a day protocol, and 5x5 was all you would ever need convinced the poor guys and girls in the local gym that everyone could be trained like this. Because they had never encountered anyone who couldn't do 10 pull ups straight off or who couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath.

But women started lifting weights, and lo it was good. For their body shape started to change. And booty was the new boobs, and fitness was this years model.

But don't talk about the back injuries and the stupid sit ups. And everyone wore lifting shoes all the time, and wondered why their knees hurt when they back squatted.

Now there were powerlifters, crossfitters, and strongmen and Olympic lifters in every gym, and the bodybuilders hid in the corner (even though they weren't really bodybuilders and had never entered a competition, but they clung onto their bodypart splits and preacher curls like the Golden fleece they knew it was) but their time would come again. The rise of the fitness model was about to happen, fake tan sales and posing stage costume sales were about to explode. And the fitness competition organisers knew this, and their were posing coaches, and online nutrition programmes, and people who placed top 50 in their local bikini comp were now not just strength coaches but figure coaches and body transformation coaches.

(and it was okay to objectify women and make them strut around in stripper heels as long as you tack the word 'fitness' to the event, because that's empowering, how very post modern, and as my friend heard the compere say at one of these event 'don't forget we're not just judging their bodies, but their faces as well'; at least they were being honest, T&A with quarter turns were now fine, we could all look and not feel bad like the bad old days of the 1970's and Miss World competitions. Now they didn't even pretend to want world peace, they just wanted a supplement sponsorship deal and 100,000 insta followers).

And of course, guys had fitness comps as well, where they wore board shorts and fake grins, but mostly everyone laughed at them because they weren't strength coaches.

And it was all fine, there was more choice than ever. But somewhere along the line, quality was forgotten.

And most of the strength coaches out there doing their job everyday had no internet presence. And knew training individuals was always an individual programming decision, and they thought deeply about methods of training and the philosophy of it all. But they were not trying to be all things to all people.

It was the best of the times, it was the worst of times. Everything it could ever be was right there, but it was ever so slightly off target. And it could have been so good, it could still be.

But wait long enough and everything will go full circle again and again and again.

Should you be honest with clients?

Should we tell clients the truth? I'm not saying we are outright lying to them, but much of the time we are not being entirely honest with them about what it will take to achieve their goals.

Imagine someone books a training session with you or enquires about training with you.

There are three key scenarios where you can be honest, or try and convince the client otherwise or essentially kick them into touch and realize your services are not the best for for them.

Scenario one: Being honest and about frequency and consistency.

Initial consultation or chat, the person tells you they can train once a week, maybe twice ( hint: this means they are coming once every 2 weeks at best). You know they can't achieve anything on this schedule. Should you be honest with them? Or start working with them, and hope they gradually form the habit, start enjoying exercise and build up to three times a week? Anyone who has worked in a commercial gym knows that option 2 is rarely successful.

We all know ideally it takes 3-5 sessions a week, focus and at least some acknowledgment that nutrition is part of the puzzle.

On the other hand, we don't want to burst anyones bubble. They have taken the step to walk into a gym, to push out of their comfort zone; however their expectations do not match the level of effort they are willing to put in.

Now. I'm not talking about the motivated people, who are going to train by themselves consistently, and want a programme and check in session once a month.

This is more the people,who decide they don't want to do anything in the programme you've written. And between follow up appointments it transpires they haven't done any training and have basically ignored your programme.

I was speaking to a colleague about all the programmes he has written, all the individual/ bespoke programmes. He was going through the names, and realized that at best 10% had actually done the programme.

That is a lot of wasted time and effort. The thing is you don't always know who is going to be the one who sticks with it.

Scenario two: I want to tone up, lose weight and not bulk up.

As the conversation moves on in your initial consultation, the client will tell you their goal, or a vague idea of a goal. If you have worked in fitness for more than a week, then the phrase you will hear nearly everyday from women is 'I want to lose weight, and tone up, I don't want to bulk up'.

Occasionally, you get a guy who also says they don't want to bulk up, but a more common guy phrase is 'I don't need to work on my legs, as I play football'. At which point you laugh in that guys face.

But seriously, back to toning. The great industry lie. We know that muscles either get bigger or smaller, fat percentage goes up or down. Yes, in the initially phase of training, a person may start by recruiting more of their current pool of muscle fibres, and become more 'neurally efficient' but at some point if you want to see an actual visual change, some muscle mass is going to have to be generated.

Mention this and a look of panic will wash over the woman's face. 'I don't want to bulk up'. It turns out they are the genetically gifted  0.001% of the female population who easily bulks up, who could have entered Ms Olympia if they had so wished and won based on training twice a week, eating 40 grams of protein a day and a post workout Prosecco.

So you point out all the guys in freeweight area who have taken enough pre-workout to stun a horse, and are trying to mainline protein to get an extra millimetre on their biceps, and are training 7 days a week.

But no, she is different, she will bulk up. You say weights and muscle mass and all she sees is Dorian Yates (or Gal Ferrera Yates, if you want to use the google). Now, of course, some women do want to do this, but mostly they aren't walking into a commercial gym to have a sit down with a trainer, 95% of women you will ever see will say they want to lose weight and tone up.

Dorian Yates back is so big: easily achieved on twice a week of a machine circuit and a bar of dairy milk. Source: every bodybuilding internet forum.

As my colleague once said to some women, 'why do you think it is my interest to make you look like something you don't want to be? If I did that, I would be out of a job, I wouldn't have any clients, Its in my interest to help you achieve the look and fitness you want.' I paraphrase here of course, I wasn't recording the conversation, but you get the idea.

You explain to the woman that lifting heavy weights at low reps might be the way to go, but this goes against the perceived wisdom, this is what big guys do. You explain all about testosterone levels in men compared to women, but she has already glazed over. She's thinking toning occurs with high reps and lots of volume, right, like in toning classes? Which bizarrely, is the thing that research shows causes increases in muscle mass given the right nutrition etc. (See Schoenfelds research on high rep ranges, 25 reps plus).

You could stay true to your ideals. Or nod your head, say you've got the perfect toning programme, mix in some machines, cardio, light dumbbells, and sprinkle in a couple of strength exercises under the guise of toning exercises. Bingo, everyones a winner, she gets results and you keep your client.

Scenario three: The trainer lies to themselves.

When you first start training people you need clients. And you may be paying monthly PT rent you need to cover. Therefore, how likely are you to turn down a client? You are just starting out, but suddenly your level 3 qualification means you can train everyone.

Can that person really be an expert on triathlon training, back pain, all injuries, marathon training, getting someone contest ready for figure competition and write comprehensive nutrition plans for everyones needs?

Or like the classic insta-chump coach, everyone get the same fully customized training and nutrition plan regardless.

You might get lucky, and someone you train wins something, gets a pro card or their injury heals up. Of course, genetics and time had nothing to do with this, it was your training programme.

This is where the industry is at now. Whereas, Alberto Salazaar is never going to coach 100m runners, some PTs can apparently coach everyone.

Wouldn't it be better to refer out, admit you don't actually have a nutrition qualification and are therefore not meant to write nutrition plans; and you don't have MRI x-ray vision and can't fix their injury, but they should go to an actual person who's job it is to do that. If Eric Cressey is referring out, then may be some trainers should do as well.

If you're in it, you're in it.

The above spiel wasn't meant to give any answers. It just is the way the industry is. Of course, adherence rates and the number of people achieving their goals is probably the same as it ever was, so what have we got to lose by telling the truth? If a business model is already broken, then abandoning it to try something new can't be any worse.

Ultimately, it comes down to the art of coaching. That indefinable ability to get the best out of people, to tell them what they want to hear when they start, and gradually shape the conversation as they continue to train. If they get results they wont care. But it's going to be difficult when so many coaches promise the earth, quick fixes and easy solutions. If you're new to the industry, do what it takes, don't starve because you think everyone should do 5x5 barbell work, but keep your integrity as a coach as well.

Slim Charles: The Wire

You've never had it so good. You are WEIRD.

If you are reading this you probably live in the Western world, can speak English, have a computer or device of some sort and access to an internet connection.

You are probably WEIRD
Western
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democratic

You are a freak, an aberration. Most of the world does not live like this, for most of human history for most people none of this was true.

As in you are rich compared to most of the world, you probably aren't homeless, and democratic as in you get to vote every so often. Educated, you probably finished at least Secondary (High School).

You have access to a clean water supply, antibiotics and can buy all the painkillers you want.

You can say and do what you want within a certain legal framework without fear of being put in prison or arrested.

You have access to more information and knowledge than any other humans in history ever did.

If you are involved in an accident (in the UK) a helicopter will take you to a state of the art medical facility and give you the best treatment in the world for free and may save your life.

You are not trying to grow food to survive on a poor scrap of land owned by a despot you have never met. Your kids are not working in a dangerous mining operation for a dollar a day for 15 hours a day, 7 days a week.

You probably have a gym membership, go to coffee shops, eat out every so often and try to eat healthily some of the time. Depending where you live, you may have access to free healthcare and probably can go for a walk without fearing for your life.

You've never had it so good...

And yet

You are probably stressed and angry, over 70% of work related health and safety issues are stress related.

In the UK, 7.8% of the population meet the criteria for diagnosing anxiety and depression.
1 in 6 adults have a common mental health disorder
19.7% of people aged 16 or over show symptoms of anxiety and depression in 2014.
1 in 3 adults have high blood pressure
More than 25% of the population are obese.
4.5 millions people have diabetes (of which 90% have type 2)
And the number one cause of death of men under 50 is suicide.

Quote from the film Crash. Source: QuoteHD

You may have have a skewed body image and control what you eat to an extreme level because it feels like the only thing you can control. You could look in the mirror and think you are too small or too big, and be wrong in both cases.

You may self medicate with alcohol, class A drugs, prescription drugs, food, shopping or soap operas.

You live in a filter bubble to confirm your world view.

You should be healthy, fit and happy. Everything is in your favour.

And yet...

The cult of the self overtook us, women who are still paranoid about lifting weights and putting on 1 gram of muscle in case they get big and bulky, despite the overwhelming benefits of strength training; standard body image never changes for the masses.

And the young guys taking anabolics who are never stepping on stage or competing in any sport ever but want their biceps to look good in a t-shirt down da club.

We don't have to think about clean water supply or not eating. But as soon as these needs were satisfied something else overtook us, we had time to think and confront ourselves.

You could be unhappy, despite having more than any other humans in history, you could be trapped on a hedonic treadmill.

And yet...

Nearly all the diseases and conditions listed above are preventable, treatable and manegeable with simple interventions.

Prevention.

Its a cliche but the health system is reactive, it waits for you to break before it tries to fix you, mostly with pharmaceutical intervention.

The holy trinity of exercise, nutrition and mindfulness (or call it spiritual connection, or relaxation or spending time in nature, or being in the moment - we know all these things have a powerful effect on emotions, physical health and brain health).

And the thing about most of these things is they are essentially free. Going for a walk in the park is free. Replacing sugary snacks and processed foods with some vegetables is cost neutral. Buying less stuff, spending more time with friends and in nature and less time watching 24 hour news disaster should cost you less and make you more time rich.

Industry fail.

I'm not saying these things are easy. But somehow, in some fashion the fitness industry and leisure industry should be playing its part. Yes joining gyms and going for a swim (unless you go to a lake or the sea) costs money.

And all these pursuits can end up being middle class, white activities. They need to be spread further and wider into the population.

I don't know the answer, I don't have the grand plan. But I do know that the health 'reckoning' is already here.

The media want quick sound bite answers, it's more nuanced than that. They need to grow up and so do we.

And it has to be authentic, its not about paying lip service to schemes and bids for community projects. It has to be more.

People are angry and stressed, but at the wrong things for the wrong reasons in (in my opinion).

The industry has to step up, fuck instagram and the cult of self we helped to make. We need to take it back, it needs to be about health and well being for everybody.

Let me know your thoughts.

Statistic sources:
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/loseweight/Pages/statistics-and-causes-of-the-obesity-epidemic-in-the-UK.aspx
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/fundamental-facts-about-mental-health-2016.pdf
https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Professionals/Position-statements-reports/Statistics/State-of-the-Nation-2016-Time-to-take-control-of-diabetes/
Various Office of National Statistics reports.

Why Run? (Last thoughts).

"This is already a long time ago, I can remember the feelings but I can't still have them. A common prayer for the over-attached: You'll let it go sooner or later, why not do it now?" - Michael Herr, Dispatches.

The eternal question?

'Because it's there' the quintessential mountaineering answer. Doesn't quite get to the heart of it.

The question should be why write, or paint or make films or sing or dance or play a musical instrument. Why create art? Running is the same, or maybe for you it's lifting weights or rock climbing or swimming in a cold lake.

Movement is a natural expression of being human, like art. To such an extent, that if you don't do any of the things listed above then there is something fundamentally missing from your life. It has to be more than being a passive consumer.

A moving koan. The answer is there, but you can't quite grasp it or vocalize it.

You run to escape, you run to go home, you run to remember, you run to forget, you run from the past, you run to ignore the future, you run for now, you run to be like someone else, you run to create your own identity, you run to lose yourself, you run to create your own myth, you run to think, you run to not think, you run because you have to, you run because it's a choice, you run because it's free, you run to be social, you run to be different, you run for your spirit, you run because no one understands you, you run to understand, you run for comradeship, you run to be part of something, you run for no one,  you run to disappear, you run to be alone, you run to feel, your run to not feel, you run to understand pain, you run yourself into the ground, you run to ground yourself, you run to see if you can find your breaking point, you run to be stronger, you run when you are angry, you run when you are sad, you run when you are happy, you run to cope, you run to create memories, your run to erase something and start again.

Some people run for PBs and split times. This seems limited in its scope. Too constrained.

You are compelled to run. In bitter cold, unforgiving heat, brilliant sunshine, drab dull dark wet mornings and endless mediocre grey days. With aching joints and a pounding head. Searching for a meaning. But mainly just running to go through the motions.

But mostly it's prosaic. I once made up the statistic that 1 in 20 workouts are sublime, 1 in 20 are terrible, and 18 in 20 are mediocre/ going through the motions/ get it done. In truth I probably overestimated the number of good workouts, but you are always chasing that golden moment.

The answer as to why you do something is always clearer when that activity is taken away from you. It is always easier to know what you don't want to do with your life than what you do want to do.

For me it was the usual story, running at night and then waking up to 2 litres of IV fluid in a strange room. Be careful, we don't know.

The moment was always coming, it had been encoded in me from birth, I just didn't know it at the time. Years later someone would tell me.

He told me to be careful going West (a true story, crossing time zones can kill). But I had spent my whole life heading West, like some 'Oakie' looking for the promised land of California.

I held my breath for a few years. They told me. And I breathed out.

There would be one last hurrah,, but my heart wasn't in it. I ran into Chamonix as the sun fell behind Mont Blanc. The mountains had kicked my ass. I knew it was over. Another chapter was forming, this one was closed. An unsatisfying unresolved ending. The kind that some people hate to read in fiction books. But life is like that.

There would be no Hardrock, or UTMB, or Badwater or 6 days in Mustang.

There would be no more endless beach run that went on forever, or 10 hours passing like a minute. There would be no more sunrising on the Downs, with a distant sketch of twin windmills, as horses run towards me through the mist, as I run on alone.

And after all that 20 minutes on the road was never going to be enough.

There are other Annapurnas in men's lives, but when Maurice Herzog wrote that, he had made it to the top of Annapurna, if he hadn't, he would have kept going back like all the other obsessed mad men and 'Conquistadors of the useless'.

Like telling Picasso he could only ever use an Etcha A Sketch (to be fair Picasso would have probably done pretty well with an Etch A Sketch) or telling Monet he could only use a paint by numbers. The 5k park run was never going to be enough, so I let it go. It's not that Etcha A Sketch, paint by numbers and 5ks are bad or worth less, you just can't go back.

The dopamine rush of equipment. Seeing the rucksacks, hydration options, trainers and GPS watches. Like the paraphernalia of drug addicts. It's best to go cold turkey.

Just another story about lost love. They all are. Me and the trail were never going to be just friends, it was more complicated than that.

Who the hell wants to take the road most taken?

Like a retired punch drunk boxer who keeps making ill advised comebacks trying to recapture the glory days and getting beaten to a pulp. It's best not to step into the ring again.

If you haven't got the answer to the question after running 100 miles, then you wont answer it, so you might as well let it go and move on.

Sense memory, the way the cool air hits on a clear morning in the forest near where I live (where there isn't actually a forest, another mystery), a faint odour of earth and passing rainstorm. Molecules of pine vapor. And it all comes rushing back. A Proustian Madeleine moment of memory recall.

A forest where there is no forest.

Songs from my youth resonate, fragments remembered 'Is a dream a lie if it don't come true, or is it something worse..' Yes, probably.
'You get used to anything, sooner or later it becomes your life'. Yes, may be you do.

You carry it with you.

Why run? All I can say is...

Sundown.
       Twin Lakes.
                I kept running.