How to deal with an injury

Regardless of how careful we are, we all inevitably experience an injury or limitation at some point in our life; therefore, knowing how to deal with an injury is crucial.  Before I begin, let me share my definition of what an injury is because it could mean different things in different contexts. For example, if……

Are your workouts random or varied?

Throughout this pandemic a lot of people have been faced with the inverse of a typical problem regarding exercise – not enough time. Almost everybody has been subject to some form of lockdown over the past year or so; in my observation, this has led to people trying other forms of exercise that they wouldn’t……

10 Habits we should avoid

Advice about what to do is in no short supply, particularly in the health and fitness industry. We’re endlessly bombarded with the advice to eat clean and regularly exercise (as if they hadn’t both already crossed our minds!).  I don’t simply want to echo things that most people already know, I want to provide as……

10 Ways to Promote Longevity

The primary reason ‘people like us’ exercise is for longevity. By ‘people like us’ I mean the general population who don’t specialise in any particular discipline. My definition of longevity would be “to prolong our functional life”. In this post I’m going to address longevity specifically in terms of exercise.  How fit can you stay as you age?  For me, longevity is……

Improving your mental toughness, part 6 of 6 – seek out practice

When it comes to improving our mental toughness, the value of practice cannot be emphasised enough. Without practice we will be like a deer in headlights when we’re faced with a real test.  Professional athletes such as golfers, tennis players, and formula one drivers spend significantly more time practicing than they do competing. They practice their swings, they simulate high-pressure situations, they visualise themselves playing……

Improving your mental toughness, part 5 of 6 – kill the critic

Everybody lives their lives based on paradigms. Those paradigms dictate the words we use and the actions we take. Our paradigms are the product of many influences from our upbringing and social mirrors, to our education and environment. Those influences condition us, shape our perspective of the world, and how we interact with it.  Perhaps the single greatest influence on our paradigms……

Improving your mental toughness, part 4 of 6 – learn your triggers

We’re all influenced by a variety of triggers and those triggers are unique to each individual. Examples of triggers could be something that we see, hear, smell, feel, read, or even recall from our memory.  “What I mean by triggers is that it’s an emotional response; it’s a hormonal thing; it’s that fight or flight feeling … If I was……

Improving your mental toughness, part 3 of 6 – set your sights

“Set your sights is all about realising what’s in your control and what’s not. The scoreboard is not in your control. People getting injured is not in your control … The only thing you can ultimately control is your mind … You could get a severe illness and it could take your body; you can be imprisoned in some foreign country;……

Improving your mental toughness, part 2 of 6 – expect adversity

In the famous words of Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” He should have added adversity to that sentence, because it’s not a matter of if, but when adversity will strike.   “You’re going to be down by 20 points, you’re going to be outside the top……

Improving your mental toughness, part 1 of 6 – becoming a learner

Mental toughness is not something that we’re born with; it’s something that we can learn and develop. The first step to becoming mentally tough, in my opinion, is the belief that we can do it. “Become aware of your thoughts, become aware of your words, because they’re going to dictate whether you believe that you can become mentally tough……

Improving your mental toughness – series preview

In this post I’m going to preview my upcoming series on improving mental toughness. It will be made up of six parts, in which I’m going to address various factors that I believe are essential to developing mental toughness. A very well-known quote comes to mind, “Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” This series……

Exercise and the menstrual cycle

As coaches of professional sports teams and athletes seek to maximise performance, a trend among coaches of women’s sports teams and female athletes have emerged where they’re now tracking menstrual cycles.  ABC News in Australia reported, “The Brisbane Lions Women’s team have begun tracking their menstrual cycles to optimise players recovery … Coach Matt Green said the monitoring has given staff important data to……

What implications could caffeine have on exercise and performance?

Caffeine is synonymous with a boost of energy, but what are the implications of consuming it, in particular with regards to exercise and performance? There’s isn’t any conclusive evidence as yet regarding its effect on exercise and performance, but I’ve done my best to shed some light on this topic below.  What is caffeine and how does……

Is there any correlation between heart rate and fitness?

220 – age = MHR. Look familiar?  It’s likely that anybody who exercises or has ever exercised will have seen or heard of this formula. It’s the standard formula for calculating the alleged maximum heart rate (MHR) of any given individual. In this post I’m going to delve into why I believe this formula is flawed. I’m also……

Principle #5: Relationships

The first four principles of health – nutrition, exercise, sleep and mindset shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anybody, but relationships is the principle that could, at first, appear to be out of place. In my preview of The 5 Principles of Health, I said that all 5 principles are interconnected. Relationships might not……

Principle #4: Mindset

Will Durant famously summed up a quote by Aristotle, “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” There’s no denying that our habits are incredibly powerful, however, in order to change them I believe that we need to address the underlying belief.  If we are able to change the underlying belief, then……

Principle #3: Exercise

We never know which task life may throw at us; therefore, I believe in preparing for the unknown and unknowable.  As a fitness professional, one of my jobs is to ensure that I prescribe the appropriate exercises at the appropriate intensity. You might think that a 17-year-old aspiring professional athlete’s program would look completely different to……

Principle #2: Sleep

It seems that regardless of how much sleep we get, we always want more!  Sleep affects everything to do with our body and mind, yet my assumption is that the majority of people neglect it or don’t fully understand the impact of getting a good night’s rest.  In the past, only sleeping for 4-5 hours a night and working 80-hour weeks……

Principle #1: Nutrition

When it comes to the topic of nutrition, there’s an abundance of information at our fingertips. In my experience, the trouble most people face when researching this topic is information overload; therefore, discernment is growing increasingly valuable. The irony, I guess, is that this is yet another post about nutrition! However, I want to be clear that I……

The 5 principles of health

In this post I’m going to share what I believe to be the 5 principles of health, however, before I reveal them I believe it’s important to first define the term, health.   There are many definitions out there, but I believe CrossFit defines it best, “Increased work capacity, across broad time, modal and age domains.”   What is work capacity? “Work capacity is the ability to perform real……