Because we’re not dead yet (Turner et al 2015)
You cannot remain in stasis. Even that requires the expenditure of energy, so with no input you will slip into slow decay.
Therefore, choose wisely. Put your shoes on. Expend energy in a positive direction. Get better at something. Move more, eat fewer junk snacks, spend less time scrolling mindlessly, spend more time reading and learning.
Make that choice every day. It’ll be worth it.
There is a relatively well known psychological study where the experimenters place a marshmallow, or other tempting treat, on a plate in front of a child.They then leave the room, promising that, if that item is still there when they return, the child can have more of them. Of course, many of the children cannot resist the sweet and will consume it immediately. Others find ways to distract themselves until the adult returns.
What is particularly interesting is that those who are able to delay gratification and not eat the sweet tend to do better in other areas of life as they grow and develop, as though this skill is transferable.
Almost everyone struggles with weight loss. We all know the benefits of optimising our weight for health, but the reality is that the process is incredibly challenging. At least with a marshmallow you get 2 when the tester returns, in weight loss you simply don’t get negative things a long way down the line. Frankly, its is the ultimate delayed gratification, if we ignore the Abrahmic concepts of Heaven. The true payoff comes at the end of a life hopefully well lived, when you perhaps get to enjoy a longer healthspan.
Assuming that the rest of the body’s homeostatic mechanisms (hormonal balance, neurochemistry, renal function, cardiac function etc) are correct, then for all the diet tea adverts and weight loss pills, weight management really is an energy management equation with no shortcuts. Precisely how that energy is composed and therefore how your body uses it is another matter, but for the purposes of most people’s understanding, if you consume more than you require, if goes in the baggage and you end up carrying it around, leading to pain, dysfunction, and increased risk of disease and early death.
However, don’t eat that nice pizza / pasta / curry / noodle bowl or we may have to chop your leg off in 20 years time doesn’t ring true with the hungry monkey deep inside who thinks that tomorrow might not come either, food is scarce and resources need to be hoarded. We struggle to make the long term interventions that will make a difference because the pay off simply doesn’t exist on most people’s radar.
To manage the monkey, we need to work with it, not try to beat it. Eat a little less (especially energy dense, processed foods) move a little more, use resistance training to optimise muscle mass and reward yourself for the small wins. Just don’t obsess over the scales and remember there are no cheat days.
When thinking about training planning, whether for personal development or competition, there are a number of variables we all need to consider, whether as the trainer or trainee.
Underlying it all and before we can even start planning, we need to work out where the following are:
Both for the immediate goal and the longer term structure. Once these have been identified, and there can be only one or two main intention points, then the next step can be assessed.
Here, we need to look at which phase of training we are in. If we are a beginner, or have been training for only a short period of time, then we are still in base development, where we are learning the mechanics and improving work capacity. As we improve, we can start working on the individual elements of our chosen discipline. These can include:
These lead to a development of work capacity. Or, the ability to do something faster, more accurately and for longer and more efficiently.
When looking at each days training plan, it goes through 4 phases, the length of which dependent on the above goals and the physiological status.
We first start to move, to explore the body’s capacity for work that day, consider recovery from the last training session or injury. We then start to groove in the movements that we will be training that day. Once warm and ready, we can finally get the load moving, whether that is under a barbell, a HIT phase or a bike ride. Once we have completed the scheduled work, we finally cruise down, checking in again to note how we went, and to feedback for the next session.
The final, often overlooked and probably as important element of training is the recovery and nutrition. However, we tend to look at the work rather than the recovery, believing that more is better, which for most people, it tends to be, given the rest of their lifestyles, but with that, the nutrition element still has to be considered, and for most people, should be one of their two main attention points. Nutrition is a huge, complex and troublesome area, can be generally be summed up succinctly as:
“Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat”
Greg Glassman
Now, forget everything, go and play.
It has been said many times before, especially here, that you evolved to run. The combination of an independent respiratory system (via diaphragmatic control), the ability to lose heat via sweat, the nuchal ligament in the neck, large gluteals and an achilles tendon all indicate that we run. There are also evolutionary theories that indicate our brains developed to allow us to predict the behaviours of animals we were hunting.
Running also has a fantastic effect on the skeleton, triggering hormones in the long bones that help control appetite (Lipocalin-2), driving osteogenesis (the continued creation of new bone) and preventing degeneration. It even helps neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells and nerve pathways, by flushing fresh blood through at a much higher rate for longer, as well as suppressing excessive glucose storage by forcing muscles to use it as fuel.
Many people, including respected orthopaedic surgeons, believe that running is not healthy for the joints, and that it will leave to early degeneration. There is some validity to this concern, but with a certain number of caveats. If you have not run for a significant period of time, or are overweight, then you may experience joint pain when you start. Similarly, if you are not biomechanically efficient, then you find it harder work than you expect. Not only that, if you look at indigenous runners, they don’t do it in the same way we consider standard, rather running and walking, depending on the terrain.
However, a number of studies (https://doi.org/10.1002/art.24840, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00167-013-2686-6) as well as others, show that there is no detrimental impact on the joints, with some evidence that it actually helps strengthen the tissues.
What is the practical upshot of this? If you can, start running. Carefully, steadily and allowing a great deal of time. The upside far outweighs the downs. If you can’t, cycle or walk.
If you want to start running, do so slowly. Follow the NHS couch to 5k program. Given that any weight over your theoretical optimal (BMI of 23 – 27 depending on muscle mass) is increased load on the joints, limit your long runs to reduce the chance of injury while you work on the weight. And, as you approach a maintainable weight, you will experience the benefits far more than the lows.
If you can’t run, do something that mimics the cardiovascular and skeletal load. Lift weights, row, walk at a rate that leaves you sweaty, it all helps.
Previously, the 3 basic movement skills were raised.
These were:
These use the primal movement patterns and the vast majority of us have been able to do them since the age of 2.
We can therefore advance these and actually start to develop them as a physical practice to improve our health, with very little other equipment.
If you have not exercised for a while, or have pre-existing medical conditions, please do consult your GP or practice nurse for a health check before starting any program.
As a test day, start by going for a brisk walk, sufficient to get you slightly breathless after 10 minutes, then aim for a mile, or 20 minutes. Once in a safe place and once you are warm, get on the ground. First, from your front, get up. Then from your back.
If that was challenging, or you struggled to get up, your first month would be simply practicing until you can do 10 from both front and back.
Once you can do that, you can add some more load.
With nothing more than a couple of bin liners, a reel of strong tape, an old rucksack and a bag of builder’s ballast (sand / gravel mix), you can create all you need for a very effective workout.
Fill a bin liner with a few kilos of the ballast. Tape it into a strong, short sausage shape and place this in another bag for safety. Create a few of these, of differing weights.
Once you have the weights, put sufficient in your rucksack to equal 5-10 kilos then do a 30 minute walk at a brisk pace.
Once back, adjust the load in the rucksack to about 2-5kg and perform 10 front get ups with the bag on. The, taking a sausage across your shoulder, perform 5 with it on the right before doing 5 on the left. As you get stronger, increase both the load in the rucksack for the walk and the getup challenge.
You should find that that provides a decent workout and can act as a gateway to more training techniques.
There are 5 habits we do every day, and that most of us take for granted. They are the basic skills needed to function well in everyday life, well before the more complex elements of household management and navigation in a modern society come in to play.
Yet when we are unable or unwilling to perform them, it’s time to ask for help from those around us, as they are the foundation stones on which all other skills rest. These are the things that our primary carers would have taught us to do by the time we were ready to leave home and almost all of us will have done today.
These can be viewed as a stack, and performing one allows the next to take place more efficiently. The inclusion of creation and productivity in the list, is in my mind, crucial, as it allows us to express an important element of our personality, and its presence or absence is an indicator in our mental, as well as physical health.
The habit most people will tend to misunderstand and misinterpret is that of movement and physical maintenance. Here, there are 3 basic skills that we should be able to perform unless we have a diagnosed impairment. And, as above, the inability to do these indicates that we need to check in with an appropriate professional for support and to allow us to regain them, or plan to mitigate the risk of losing that element of independence.
These use all the primal movements (push / pull / flex / twist / squat / lunge / walk), as well as the fundamental human expression of gait.
Physical maintenance is the skill of daily self care, being able to mobilise and strengthen the body, with stretching, joint position awareness, breathing exercises and strength training. If starting this practice, after a period of relative immobility, then it is recommended that you start gently, focusing on the ankles, hips and shoulder girdle, with breathing as a guide.
Rubbish.
It’s another day, 24 hours after you probably ate and drank to excess.
It’s one more rotation of the planet, on a calendar defined by an Italian pope several hundred years ago.
And it’s the chance, just like any other day, to start again, get disciplined, and change one thing.
I’ve written several times on finding the one or two things that have the most significant impact. In this case, think about what you can cut out. What, if you take it away, could have the most impact?
If you smoke or drink frequently, cutting it out not only improves health but improves your purse.
If you’re thinking of joining a gym, start by cutting out the worst rubbish from your diet instead and walking more.
Instead of turning on the tv, work through some basic mobility.
Don’t look at Facebook for the tenth time today, read a real book.
Make a small change, with consistency and reap huge benefits.
Stop.
Breathe.
Think: Do I really need to be putting myself through this, is there a more efficient way?
If you’ve been banging your head against the same problem 42 times, perhaps the 43rd attempt won’t solve it either.
If its a workout, or a programmed training session, then dig in buttercup, the outcome is worth the effort. The same if its a challenging work scenario with a defined goal.
But if the task has no defined goal, no finishing line and seems apparently insoluble, then perhaps you need to take a break and reflect.
It could be that someone has been down that route before and talking to experts could save you hours of time.
It could be that “we’ve always done it that way” isn’t actually the best anymore.
And it could be that, however good your intentions, the goal isn’t going to fit your long term plan.
Stop, breathe, think.
Then get going again.
All you need to do to make progress is 3 things.
Do it consistently and you will make huge progress.
What those three things are depends on what your goal is and where you are.
Want to make progress on a project? Do three things off your list. Some will be time orientated, some not.
Want to improve your health? Eat, move, rest.
And if you can consistently do 3, make it 5. But make sure you do them all before the end of the day.
The trick works because it helps break inertia and provides momentum, mentally and physically.
Just three things, for each thing you wish to achieve.
This even works if you’re suffering with depression or other mental health issues.
Focus on just doing three things.
A personal care item (shower,clean teeth, shave), a healthy meal, a walk.
Then, no matter how the rest of the day goes, you’ve done 3 positive things.
It doesn’t matter what supplements you take, what your morning ritual looks like, who your guru is or whether you prefer goji berries, blueberries or beetroot as your preferred superfood, if you’re not getting stronger, faster or any achieving any measure you’re aiming for, there’s something not working.
Nothing happens without enough sleep, enough water, enough high quality macronutrients. If you don’t get the basics sorted first, you’re building your castle on sand.
So before you start spending on the latest expensive magic product, check you’re getting:
7- 8 hours restful sleep
2-3L water / fluids
75-150g protein
Plenty of vegetables and berries
No?
Figure those out then move forwards. Basic consistent steps climb mountains.
The Camford Clinic 
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