Health and Fitness

Doom loop

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Dieting will not work long term.

You will not sustainably lose weight until you address the factors that made you fat in the first place. You may shed some timber for a specific event, or a short period, but it will not stay off and you are likely to get heavier if you don’t address the underlying factors.

Whats going on?

You are, in some way, a victim of the doom loop. You almost certainly weren’t born fat. You probably weren’t fat as a child, and then at some point you started to gain weight.

Lets start with a period of stress and inactivity. Perhaps exams, psychological issues, peer pressure and bullying at school, a family crisis, an illness leading to hospitalisation, or at least a time of recuperation. The inactivity is the important bit. This initial phase can be coupled with increased caloric intake for comfort eating / poor nutritional availability and so forth.

For most people, especially if there was a period of bed rest, some muscle mass is lost, or at least a significant reduction in exertion, as well as some fitness. This leads to a reduced caloric requirement as well as a shift in the endocrine (hormone) status. However, most people don’t account for this (and why would you, you’ve got other things on your mind), so gain a little bit of weight.

Not much, but just enough that, in combination with the loss of fitness, it adds up and the return to activity is hard work.

For most of us, the generally fit and healthy adults, especially if you’ve been reguarly active, we suck it up and get back on with it, the weight gain goes again and we break out of the issue.

However, far too many unconsiously remain inactive, or keep being kicked around the loop.

And, having seen the weight going up, the dress not fitting quite as well and generally not feeling quite so good about it all, we often attempt to correct course, either through exercise or through caloric restriction.

However. Both of these, and especially dieting is stressful. Cortisol increases, changing the way our body burns fuel, and for some of us, reducing the amount of energy the muscles use (probably an evolutionary throwback, since you are essentially inducing a famine state in the body by eating less so burning less is a good survival strategy). As we said ealier, you can lose weight short term but eventually the body will replenish the stores and it’ll all go back on again.

Now we’re into the doom loop. We are trapped in a cycle of stress / weight loss / weight gain / inactivity.

How to break out of it?

Don’t diet. Don’t even cut back on calories. To start with, don’t really go for it and hit the gym.

Your body needs to move regularly and have less stress to deal with.

And even if you can’t get rid of the external stress because the world is going crazy and the bills are stacking up and the dog next door like barking at the moon, then you can control the internal stress.

Drink less alcohol. Stop smoking. Go to bed for 8 to 10 hours. Turn off the social media firehose and stop scrolling netflix at 1am.

Then move. Just 5 minute movement snacks. You don’t even need to break a sweat, Non exercise related activity is how we should spend most of our lives.

On: Tendons and Ligaments

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Tendons tether muscle, ligaments link bone.

But both can be damaged, become weakened, or scarred.

So how can we, both as practitioners and people, prevent this, or at least minimise its impact?

Prevention is always better than a cure, and therefore ensuring the tendons (when reading tendons, assume ligaments as well, although there are differences in all sorts of subtle ways) remain strong is vital.

Note – If you are currently taking medications, especially certain antibiotics, check with the pharmacy regarding soft tissue effects. For example, Fluoroquinolone antibiotics have a rare side effect with regards to soft tissue, so if you are prescribed those, it may be sensible to reduce training load during and after the treatment.

Tendons can be trained, like any other tissue, and research indicates that they respond best to cycles of isometric tension, of approx 10 – 30 seconds, with 30 – 50 seconds rest. Initially, it doesn’t even matter what joint position you are in, as long as the tendon is under tension, and pain free. Over time, you can increase the load and the number of cycles you carry out, to ensure continued development.

There is also some evidence that longditudinal supplementation with collagen (preferably from biologically similar connective tissue) is beneficial, especially when consumed with vitamin C.

Once you have a stable, platform, you can work on repairing any scarring or weaknesses in the tissue by using long duration concentric / isometric / eccentric training movements, through the pain free range of motion. For example, a squat under light load, with all three phases taking 10 seconds, although this time is individual.

Finally, there is also some evidence that early, and safe return to loading after injury can help reduce the time to competition, since the stimulus causes the scar tissue to form beneficially, rather than scattered.

TLDR: tendons can be strengthed, healthy tendons can increase your overall performance, isometric exercises are beneficial to tendon health.

On: Obesity

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We all know what obesity looks like. Too many ‘spoons pie and pint nights, too many burgers, not enough gym time.

Except, we don’t.

It might be visually obvious if the T shirt barely covers the waistline, but how do you define it? If you use the BMI scale (weight in kilos divided by height in metres squared), then obesity is considered anything over a BMI of 30, overweight is over 25, healthy is 20-25 and so forth.

But then a lot of athletes, especially power althletes, are obese. Of course, the more mass you have to move around, the greater the load your body has to manage, both for joint health and cardiovascular load but this doesn’t take into consideration the positive effect of muscle mass, cardiovascular fitness, and any other number of markers for health. The only use for BMI in most aspects is to tell you what you already know, when its far too low or far too high. For reference, you probably don’t want to be below 20 (not enough muscle mass) and above 30 (increased risk of joint issues).

A preferred methodology, for a rapid ready reckoner, is height to waist ratio. This ignores mass, but can idicate central obesity, which has been shown to have a detrimental effect on internal organs and general health. This is simply calculated as a ratio of height to waist circumference (waist divided by height in m), and should be less than 0.5.

As for markers of fitness, define your own. Markers such as the amount you can lift, or how fast you can run, are spurious goal setting. And no matter what the companies might say, you can’t tell your fitness from blood tests. Those are for if you are sick. Otherwise the levels will constantly fluctuate and tell you very little.

Be able to run, if you have the physical capability. Then try to increase the distance you can cover. Lift heavy things safely, then do it again. Move regularly, as smoothly and freely as possible. Constantly develop your capacity.

Train as though your life depends on it.

It does.

On: failure

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If you try to do too much in one go, you’ll fail.

You’ll fail because change requires effort and energy to sustain and you only have so much of it to go around.

Getting up earlier requires going to be earlier. But you can’t do that if you have commitments that keep you busy.

Cleaning up your diet requires knowledge, planning, effort.

Going to the gym is bullshit. I love gyms, they’re generally my safe place, but they are not the panacea sold by fitness grifters. Gyms are a place of effort, learning, painful self reflection. Go when you are ready for the lesson and can take humility in your kitbag.

Meditation and mindfulness are not solutions, they’re tools. If you can’t accept the dancing monkeys in your head, you’re not going to want to spend any time with them.

And after all that negativity?

Get rid of something. Less is far easier to manage than more.

Stop drinking. Stop smoking. Stop scrolling. If you can’t, accept you might have an addition issue and ask for support.

Walk more, drive less.

Throw out something from your house. It’s almost certainly clutter and there’s a probability someone else could benefit.

Positive deeds are loops. One feeds another. Make space for positive things.

We can offer some of this support.

An exercise review. A safe space to work through basic coaching issues, treatment to give your body space in itself to heal. A motivating kick and gentle reminder that being human takes effort but is worth it.

But make space. Do less, just do less better.

Be kind, be curious.

On: You’re wrong about the gym

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A new gym opens, the marketing tells you that if you join, you can finally tone up, lose weight and get fitter.

Possibly.

But only if you know what you’re doing with the rest of your life.

Otherwise, its just a kind of fun place to hang out and move.

The gym should be a place of education (in ancient Greece, the gynasium was a place of practical learning, and its still grammar school in Germany). It should be a place where you find new boundaries, develop skills and work on yourself. It should be a structured, functional representation of the rest of life.

But. If you were to get a modern gym goer to take off their huge headphones, stop posing for IG reels and ask them why they’re there, it will more likely be that they want to get toned, or lose weight. Or both. If you managed to ask a teen boy, they’ll probably tell you they want to build muscle. The ironic thing being that a healthy teen is so awash with growth potential, almost any resistance training will create that effect. Less so a man over 30 but the potential is still there.

None of those will happen unless you have the rest of your life squared away. If you’re too stressed, if you’re not sleeping great, if you leave the gym and walk straight into Costa for a triple syrup latte with added cake, if you don’t get your protein intake dialed in, if you don’t allow yourself space to rest, then its going to be so much harder to achieve any of your desired outcomes.

Even if you have defined them well enough. But thats a subject for another day.

Go to the gym. take advice from a professional, not just an influencer. but get the rest of your life sorted as well.

Paused.

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Eventually everyone needs a break.

To sleep, to rest, to refuel, to focus.

Sometimes granting yourself the opportunity to have that creates guilt.

That if the rest of the world is still striving, how dare you stop for a moment.

This leads to burnout. The candle finally meets in the middle.

Chances are you saw it coming a while off but didn’t heed the warning light on the internal dash board.

Listen to that warning light before the engine shuts down and you’re forced to rest and wait for recovery.

The clinic is currently closed for a few months.

After 20 years in Alton, there is going to be a pause and recalibration while I figure out what’s next.

Thank you to all the people who have supported us in every way so far and hopefully the future will hold great things.

On: Fitness

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A colleague had started going to the gym “to get fitter”. While admirable and absolutely to be celebrated, I did wonder how they would know when they had achieved that goal.

After some reflection, and a walk, I developed the thought that fitness can be broken down into 2 main components. A duration / distance one, and a strength / durability one.

Duration / distance is comparatively simple. Can the person go further, for longer, or faster. These are goals that can be defined, measured and checked. Walk for a mile, walk for an hour, finish a 5k event, run a marathon, cycle for 3 hours, push the wheelchair to the shops.

The other component is harder to measure. Yes, strength can be measured by increasing the amount you can move against resistance and for how long. But that doesn’t tend to serve an end purpose. I would posit that the role of strength for the vast majority of people, athletes included, is to help them carry out a defined task with more capacity, to be more durable and to recover faster. In Crossfit this may be to complete the prescribed workout faster, or with less fatigue. For others, it may be to be able to carry a child, lift down a suitcase or spend longer with their family before tiring. And for all, it should help reduce the risk of injury.

By redefining our initial goal of fitness, we can review the strength component in this capacity and then prescribe the correct stimulus to get the desired response.

Instead of saying you want to get fitter, define a goal, and a measurable, meaningful outcome. Then tune the exercise to that.

Flow and glide

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To move smoothly, all your tissues need to flow and glide. If they cannot, or do not, then the body will attempt to compromise. And eventually, it can fail. This leads to restriction, pain and immobility. Which can of course create a viscious circle of reduced ability.

What can cause changes in the glide? Joints we all sort of understand. Pain, swelling, inflammation and instability will lead to changes around that joint. But the soft tissues can also experiene those, leading to a conceptual stickiness, where tissues simply don’t want to move over each other smoothly. Some stickiness can be temporary, some can be more permanent (scarring), but stickiness within the system can lead to drag on the tensegrity, reducing the adaption capabilities. This is why you can see limitations in the shoulder and find the solution in the ankle, why mobility exercises that improve tissue range of motion can reduce pain globally, and why it is sometimes so hard to achieve complete resolution in a presentation. You haven’t dealt with the underlying lesion.

The thing is, trying to get your head around this is only the first element of treatment. and it can be particularly difficult, to detach from the description and go looking, or listening, to where another problem lies.

Treat close, check the chain, look at the centre, improve the chain, repeat.

On: The power of words

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Words have power. This has been known for a very, very long time.

The words we say to each other, the words we say to ourselves and the words we use to describe the world around us.

By reframing the words we use, we can change the way we view the universe. Even the language we speak with changes the way we interact with the world around us.

The internal monologue we have can change our entire day, or even path of life. So does everyone elses. And of course, these things can be deep and challenging to deal with, so are far beyond the remit of such pages here.

With that in mind, the following are suggestions that can allow us to catch ourselves in simple situations that may then offer benfit to the way we approach certain circumstances.

For example. You injure a knee on a run, which limits your mobility while it heals. If you start telling yourself that you cannot do things because of your knee, then you are creating limitations within your mindset. However, simply by saying that in spite of the knee you can do activities that maintain your fitness, you will optimise recovery, improve your mindset and view the current difficulty in a better light. That is not to say that it is not a difficulty, but the perspective shift of the barrier changes its height.

Or. Change “I can’t” to “how can I?” Shift the view of the problem.

Within a medical setting, we often get patients expressing suffering. Suffering is subjective, valid and to be believed. However, as a professional, you can help reframe the situation by the use of your language patterns to check in with what they are experiencing. From suffering to experiencing does not and should not invalidate their personal reality, but may help explore what it means at that point.

Again, within a medical or caring setting, empowerment is important. If we help someone, we can often disempower them and either create passisivity or an unbalanced dynamic. So instead of helping, consider or ask how you can support them. If they have limited abilities for any reason, then this can help set the correct tone for them to communicate their needs, rather than having your “help” thrust upon them.

If you have repetitive and perhaps tedious tasks to help those around us, from small children and work colleagues to aging relatives, and find yourself saying that you’ve got to, reframe it to get to. I’ve got to take the kids to football – I get to watch them learn new skills. I’ve got to see my grandfather this afternoon – I get to spend time with my grandfather. And so forth.

And sometimes, if you don’t know what to say, say nothing. Supportive silence is much underrated and certainly underused. Slow down, check in with yourself and say nothing.

In spite – because of

Can’t – how can

Suffering – experiencing

Got to – get to

Silence.

Onwards.

On: Rituals and routines

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It seems like every influencer has their own special ritual and routine that helps them optimise their productivity, create more wealth and still manage to find time for their side hustle / thruple / vanlife trip around the pacific north west. And you can learn the secret if you listen to their podcast / buy their e-book / subscribe to their youtube channel.

And if thats true then I’m pleased for them, they’ve achieved some sense of balance and awareness in their lives.

For the rest of us, those who don’t speak fluent Aspiranto (the common language of the Antisocial media personality), some of the ideas can still offer us a benefit, especially if we draw our attention to them.

First though, definitions.

A routine is a sequence of actions that are repeated regularly, often without much thought. They can be simple, like brushing your teeth before bed, or more complex, like going to the gym regularly. As well as saving time and energy, they can also provide us with a sense of structure and predictability.

Rituals are also a series of repeated actions, but they are typically more intentional and meaningful than routines. Rituals can be religious, spiritual, or secular. Often performed less frequently, they can be performed to mark important life events, to connect with others, or simply to find peace and calm.

However, it is important to note that the distinction between routines and rituals is not always clear-cut. For example, a morning routine of yoga and meditation could be considered both a routine and a ritual, depending on the individual’s intention.

And herein lie the key differences: Intention, Attention, Focus.

To turn a routine into a ritual, we have to be fully present in the process. We have to understand the why , not just the what, and allow that awareness to be part of the process. And, we can often use symbols and anchors to help us trigger those patterns more effectively.

If, for example, you were brought up in the Western Christian Catholic tradition, then the smells and the bells would automatically allow you to access the full script for the ritual taking place, whereas it could seem confusing and overwhelming if you had never experienced it before.

These symbols and anchors can all be used to create a sense of belonging in those who have been initiated, and may create a barrier to those who are outside.

So, to improve an aspect of our lives, we can create a routine to support it. Want to drink more water, put in place a structure that encourages this with the use of triggers and anchor points. Feel that a 5 minute mobility routine would offer some benefit to your overall health? Make it simple to carry out. Look at what is currently stopping you and remove those barriers.

And, to make the mobility a meditation, or to use the water break as a gratitude practice (both of which are backed by real science to offer benefit), then choose your focus in the moment to be on your breath, on the process, on reflection, rather than carrying out the motions.