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……

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……

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……

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 #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……

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……

6 Ways to improve your weaknesses

We all have weaknesses; the only difference is between those who acknowledge it and those who don’t. In this post I’m talking specifically about addressing health weaknesses. What I mean by that is when it comes to our health, we’re only as healthy as our weakest link. Outside of our health, I believe the opposite to be true;……

Five ways to work out with intention

In my experience, most people tend to compete when they exercise; they want to beat their previous time or weight or training partner, and constantly set new personal bests. Whilst this may be motivating, we should primarily ensure that each workout has a purpose, and that purpose should move us closer toward our fitness goals.  When……

Preparing for the unknown

A form of adversity could be writing an exam, competing, or facing an unexpected challenge that life has thrown our way; regardless of adversity’s form, it’s impossible to control the outcome; what we can control, however, is our effort.  Let’s use golf as an example. When a golfer plays a round of golf, they’re testing themselves and……

The Goldilocks Rule

“The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.” – James Clear The key is to be ‘in the zone’ and fully immersed in an activity. Where we make small improvements over time, and the challenge keeps us fully engaged. ……