Movementum
 
 

Start here | My training philosophy

 

Tough times don't last. Tough people do.

We can’t always predict when something out of the blue might happen; we could be walking down the road when are needed to help save someone trapped underneath a car or see a child dangling from a balcony and resolve to climb up to save it from certain death. Our ability to be strong, resilient and adaptable can determine the outcome of a situation for better or worse.

How would you feel if you couldn’t save yourself, your loved ones or others around you - not because of circumstances beyond your control, but because you were incapable?

This may seem far-fetched and unlikely, yet take a look at the compilations of real life heroes and see how they stepped out of their everyday lives and made a difference.


i want you to Become Anti-Fragile

I’ve come from the traditional way of training with repetition, ‘good’ form and regular workout routines. I have competed at a national level in running, climbing and obstacle course racing. And, you know what? When I was 20 it felt as though my body was falling apart. Sure, I was ‘gym-strong’ but I couldn’t understand why I had shin splints, tendinitis in my knees and a bad back. Was this it?

I kept reading, studying and experimenting with different types of training and found something that worked and because we’re all pretty much the same physiologically, it not only worked for me but for my clients as well.

What I started to do differently

I began to base my training on what our ancestors would do in our natural habitat and I discovered that in life, training, diet, maybe in everything, the body thrives on chaos and actually flourishes when we add randomness into the mix. If I wanted to be able to handle future, unknown and unpredictable situations, I’d need to add elements of it into my training. In short, by incorporating uncertainty, chaos, failure and challenge I became ready for anything.

It’s given my training a purpose and meaning outside of getting the best beach body. I’ve seen how my clients develop self-confidence as their abilities grow and they feel capable of dealing with whatever comes their way. We’ve seen time and time again ‘normal’ people step-up when it’s most needed to become exceptional.


The stress of captivity, and the lethargy induced by confinement, often lead to neurotic behaviours such as pacing and self-mutilation. Naturally wide-ranging species show the most evidence of stress and/or psychological dysfunction.

What's 'Natural' Anyway?

Maybe chronic niggles aren’t a sign you’re getting older, but a sign you’ve spent too long being sedentary. Perhaps it’s worth considering that, like other mammals, if you’ve spent a life in captivity you aren’t going to be as fit and strong as if you were in your natural environment.

Once I realised that our lives are essentially spent in captivity, a lot of the issues we face began to make much more sense. We may have been felled by a lion back in the day, but now we deal with the slow decline brought on by our modern diet and lifestyle and must dodge the bullets of chronic stress, mental health issues and a whole host of degenerative diseases.

In a sense, we are all still hunter-Gatherers and, although we can’t replicate our natural habitat entirely, we can optimise our lives to fit into the modern constraints we face.

Despite us living in plush houses and driving around in our cars, we’re still physiologically adapted to be in the environments we’ve spent the majority of our time in as a species. And, for the most part, we weren’t lounging in Starbucks on our smartphones. We know we feel better after a walk in the woods than we do an afternoon of shopping. In the rare times we’re alone with our thoughts, in silence, we feel that gap, we know there’s something missing but can’t put our finger on it; it’s a disconnection from the world around us, from the weather, the plants, the animals. We plug this gap by buying pets and houseplants, but if we get quiet enough, turn off our phones and the TV, we’ll still feel the pull to the wild, because that’s our real home.

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Natural Movement

Balance | Carry | Climb | Crawl | Fight | Hang | Jump | Lift | Run | Swim | Throw | Walk

what would our ancestors do?

I know you’re thinking, ‘they weren’t building websites or working in offices’, and I’m not going to encourage you to go feral and live in a cave. My mission is to find the workaround for this modern age; we may exist in enclosures, but it doesn’t mean we can’t try and emulate life in the natural world as best we can. One of the ways to do this is what Katy Bowman calls stacking:

In multitasking, we’re trying to do many things at one time (sometimes unrelated things). Stacking, on the other hand, is the concept of doing one thing that accomplishes many goals. In other words, the results we seek are layered—or stacked—in one single activity.

Deep down we all are painfully aware that our current way of life is slowly destroying us and the planet we live on. Comfort and convenience has brought with it unintended consequences and I believe that by moving more we can make a positive impact on the world, even if it feels small and insignificant; as Lao Tzu said, ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’.

 

women’s Fitness

My approach to training women differs slightly from the way I train men but the principles are the largely the same. So, it’s important to understand that although men and women can do the same exercises, it’s how they’re applied and structured that determines its effectiveness.

In reality everyone is different and unique in their physical and mental make-up, so it’s not right to broadly classify someone as likely to benefit from a particular training approach just because they’re a man or a woman. I acknowledge there are differences, but I also use progressions and scalability to set motivating, performance-driven goals you want to achieve.

The gender gap in athletic performance, as shown in records from Olympic competition, has remained stable since 1983. The mean difference has been about 10% between men and women for all events. 10% isn’t a very big difference and, as you can see in the women highlighted on this page, if given the chance and opportunity, they exceed limits imposed by mainstream culture and harbour a mental toughness that propels and motivates them to be strong, empowered women.

In 1967 Kathy Switze became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entrant. During her run, race official Jock Semple attempted to stop her and grab her official bib; however, he was shoved to the ground by Switzer's boyfriend, Tho…

In 1967 Kathy Switze became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entrant. During her run, race official Jock Semple attempted to stop her and grab her official bib; however, he was shoved to the ground by Switzer's boyfriend, Thomas Miller, who was running with her, and she completed the race. It was not until 1972 that women were allowed to run the Boston Marathon officially.

 

“You begin to realise there’s not just one body type you’re striving for. You realise how strong and fit you can be”

By focusing on total performance rather than appearance, embracing a healthy body, striving for strength and ability without a being limited by unrealistic images fed by the media and online means it is more likely to create the conditions where women are celebrated for their ability to be strong and capable and not judged for how they look.

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Professional athletes

beware the movement Curve-Ball

If you Google ‘ridiculous ways pro athletes have injured themselves’ you’ll be surprised by just how vulnerable professionals are to the risks of everyday life:

These could be explained away as freak accidents, but we could also see this as an example of the peril of over-specialisation. They may be at the top of their particular sport, but throw a movement curve-ball into the mix and you get to peek behind the curtain and see how fragile professional athletes really are.

Professional sports like to creates a world where every variable is controlled and everything can be measured. This creates amazing high-level athletes but the downside is that the world isn’t like this; the world always has and always will be inherently unpredictable. Doing the same movement all the time leaves you vulnerable; could this be one of the main reasons why so many professional athletes and performers are chronically injured?

Vintage Ladies Sports Race
 
Big Jump Olympics

become bulletproof

I’m here to help you become bulletproof; I want you to be able to train, sneeze, celebrate and run a bath without fear of injury. It’s said that true strength is being able to control your body mass in all situations. Note it says ALL situations and not CERTAIN situations.

Some things are so good they bear repeating, so here’s what I mention in the Private Coaching section, which applies equally well to professionals:

‘I use the principle of the dark zone, it’s like the quote plastered all over social media - if it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. Sometimes knee over toe isn’t an option and by spending time doing unfamiliar movements we expand our comfort zone; in a nutshell people should start moving wrong more.’

It’s a tall order to find what Perry Nickelston calls the three v’s in a gym: Variability, Variation and Variety. However, you’ll find them in abundance out in the natural world, which is why I incorporate them into my coaching. Natural movement addresses weakness, imbalance and asymmetry on a whole body level, optimising you to perform at your best by removing the downsides of high-level training: the curse of over-specialisation caused by domain dependence.

Cross-training is one of the best ways to improving overall performance whilst also minimising the risk of injury as well being a valuable active recovery tool.

competition preparation

I can liaise directly with your coach to ensure you get the maximum benefit from our time together (I can’t promise you’ll definitely win though).

 
 

Senior Fitness

It’s never too late to begin!

 

Movement is one of the best ways to maintain independence, reduce the symptoms of chronic conditions and prevent degenerative diseases.

Charles Atlas Strong at any age

Positive Ageing

Contrary to popular belief, poor balance, weakness and frailty are linked to extended periods of inactivity rather than age. This is great news because it means that if you start your movement journey now you still have the potential to become strong and capable, even if you’ve never seen yourself as that kind of person.

  • Did you used to be more active than you are now?

  • Have you spent most of your life avoiding exercise and movement?

  • Do you think training might be too hard on your body?

  • Are you concerned that you might get injured?

Learning natural movement and practical skills can help you improve muscle strength, bone density and reduce the risk of falls. I want you to have a great quality of life and maintain independence for as long as possible; after all, we all have to shuffle off this mortal coil, so let’s not go gentle into that good night.

facts and figures

  • The WHO say regular exercise can reduce the risk of having a hip fracture by 40%.

  • According to The National Osteoporosis Society, 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men will break a bone due to osteoporosis. Regular impact exercises dramatically reduce the risk of developing the disease.

  • Being sedentary in later years can increase the risk of developing dementia, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

  • Physical inactivity is estimated to be the primary cause of approximately 21-25% of breast and colon cancers, 27% of diabetes and approximately 30% of ischaemic heart disease.

 
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Because gorillas don’t do deadlifts
— Me
 
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