Happy New Year Healthy Humans!!, I’d like to use this opportunity to say thanks especially to my clients and everyone who supports my business and puts in the effort to improve, it makes it all worthwhile when I see you getting Fitter, Faster, Stronger, Leaner!
In the last newsletter I talked about the many good reasons to work on your Health & Fitness at any age in order to improve your healthspan - ie. the fight against age related decline and senescence, as nature prepares your redundancy package. Also how the best time to start investing in yourself is when you are young but if it is too late for that, the second best time is now.
If this has sparked something inside you, and you’re thinking of taking on the challenge of improving any aspect of your fitness, nutrition and overall health in 2025, then this newsletter will explain why it might be a good idea to initially get the support and guidance of a coach.
I have been coaching in various forms for about 14 years now. Starting with taking my Cycle Coaching qualifications and honing my craft with my club - Liverpool Century and progressing to starting my own little coaching business - fit360. I then studied for a Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training in order to join the PT dept of the Fire Service which eventually led to becoming the Health & Fitness advisor for MFRS. I’m constantly learning and developing my skills by doing various courses and qualifications including S&C for sports and working with Obese clients. I still enjoy the Cycle coaching and I will do a separate paragraph on that further down the page for all you cyclists.
The principles and process of coaching are basically the same whatever the clients goals are. Cycling goals can be very specific right down to peaking for one particular race or event in a season. But becoming a Healthier Human is a lot broader with many factors and some lifestyle changes involved.
One of the first things to discuss with a client is to establish what they want to achieve. A common objective is to lose weight. Why do you want to lose weight? There are many different reasons. What has happened to make you want to change? Are you ready to change? Sometimes a prospective client will like the idea of a positive outcome but aren’t ready or willing to make the small changes necessary. So that is the starting point - establishing readiness to change. This will usually involve a degree of reprioritising and replacing negative behaviours with more positive habits. My job at that point is to help overcome friction & the barriers to change, specific to the individual.
“If You Always Do What You’ve Always Done, You’ll Always Get What You’ve Always Got.”
Here are my Top 10 common barriers and some possible solutions -
“I don’t have enough time”. We all are given 168 hours per week. If you work 8 hours per day, 5 days a week, then that is 40 hours. If you sleep 8 hours a night that’s another 56 hours. That leaves 72 hours per week which may include commuting, cooking, family time, DIY and whatever else you crazy kids get up to. The first thing we can do is incorporate more activity into our everyday routine - active travel for example. Then upon further analysis, we can always prioritise at least a few of those 72 hours for specific exercise. If you are ready to change and really want to achieve something you will find the time, if you don’t you will find an excuse.
“I’m scared of getting injured”. Rowing hurts your back, running is bad for your knees, deadlifts are downright dangerous. This kind of advice is usually rolled out by someone having a negative experience in the past or used as a poor excuse by someone who doesn’t really want to do anything. Some exercises are technical and it is advisable to get some instruction on proper technique and form when starting out. The other reason for pain or discomfort is poor programming - in other words - going too hard/heavy too soon. Leave your ego at home and forget about Strava kudos (nobody really cares!). Record your sessions (TP basic acount is free) and make small progressive increments as you go.
“I don’t feel confident going to a gym”. You don’t have to. Especially in the early stages. There are plenty of outdoor activities that are free and available to everyone. There are also plenty of exercises that can be done at home with little or no equipment required. As we progress on to gym-based strength, you also have the option to come and train with me in my private Garden Globo Gym and learn the exercises and techniques that will give you the confidence if you want to progress to joining a gym. Most cardio training is better when done outside anyway. I’ve never understood driving to the gym to jog on a treadmill. We just find what works for you.
“I struggle with Motivation”. Motivation is overrated! It comes and goes. It can start high and fizzle out which is why most well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions have bitten the dust by February. The goal with any client is to achieve long-term consistency. This doesn’t mean being perfect but if we can achieve ‘good’ most of the time, this is when the magic happens. You do this by making a commitment to yourself and having the discipline to do the things we know we should do, even when we don’t feel like doing them. Getting the basics right everyday. The accountability of having a coach can make all the difference in these early stages.
“I get bored doing exercise”. Headphones! Get some headphones and listen to a podcast or audiobook. (The Lord of the Rings is free with premium on Spotify so there’s your first 60 hours sorted). Join a group, club or class and start exercising with others. Find a friend, colleague or family member to exercise with. There is nothing better for accountability than having to turn up because you have arranged to meet someone for a walk/run/ride/workout.
“I don’t have the energy”. The irony with this one is that once you make the effort and adopt a healthier active lifestyle, you will have more energy. Reducing the sugary and processed foods from your old diet and replacing with a wholefood diet with natural ingredients will give you the energy required and once you are exercising regularly it will change how your body uses the food that you give it. You will move away from thinking of exercise as a chore you need to do to earn your food, and reframe as fueling your workouts in order for your body to improve your function and performance.
“I can’t afford to buy healthy food all the time”. Don’t buy food - buy ingredients and make food. Get yourself down to Lidl or Aldi and fill your trolley with whole, minimally processed ingredients and buy a big pan or slow cooker. Learn how to cook 3 or 4 one-pot meals that include some protein, vegetables, legumes & pulses such as curries, chilli, stews (scouse!), and casseroles. Make a big pot of it and buy some reusable single-portion containers to freeze what’s left. (Top Tip - Never reheat your meals in a plastic container). Add some salads and stir frys during the week for variety and make a soup with all the leftover veggies (Consider buying a soup maker). Power porridge for brekkie and plenty of fresh fruit for snacks. Simples. Again, it comes down to investing some time and effort into cooking and perfecting your recipes. There’ll be more on this in the Nutrition newsletter.
“I have bad shoulders/back/knees/hips* ” (*Delete where applicable). There is always something positive that you can do. Niggly injuries as we get older can be due to bad posture, lack of use and loss of strength and stability of the muscles affecting the area. Don’t let this stop you before you start. Work on correcting the issue and then becoming fully functional with good technique and form. It might even be as simple as you are wearing the wrong footwear. Don’t give in to the niggles!! Remember - We should all be able to jog, lift, squat, carry, jump etc. even if we don’t need to.
“I can’t afford all the kit.” Firstly, one of the pearls of wisdom you learn as you get older is that no one is looking at you, no one cares. Everyone is in their own little world just getting through the day. If looking good adds to your enjoyment of exercise, then knock yourself out. But don’t get sucked into the online fitness influencers world. You don’t need to wear head-to-toe Gym Shark and Vaporfly running shoes to go for a jog. If you need proof, check out Rocky. Remember the scene in Rocky I on the first day of training in his build-up to the fight with Apollo Creed. He sets his alarm for 4am (not necessary), drinks 5 raw eggs (not recommended) and sets off into the cold dark Philadelphia streets for a run. All Rocky needed was a pair of Converse, a woolly hat and an old pair of grey trackies and sweatshirt. Be like Rocky.
“My family takes up all my spare time”. Get them involved!! You want your family to be Healthy Humans also, don’t you? If your family are invested in your goals, there is a much higher chance of you adhering to the lifestyle changes long-term. You can do activities together and support one another in sports and challenges, family Park Runs being a great example. You can also take turns at cooking meals from scratch. If you are meeting resistance, send them my newsletters!
I’m sure there are plenty more barriers that stop people taking the first steps. If yours didn’t make my Top 10, let me know and I’ll help you find a solution.
It is relatively easy to help someone diet and exercise for short-term weight loss or any other temporary goal but the ethos of my coaching is to guide, support and equip you with the principles and commitment for you to become a fit, strong, healthy human for rest of your life. All the positive habits that we create will be behaviours that you will still be doing in 5 or 10 year’s time. This means that weighing and logging every calorie you eat probably isn’t realistic, but batch cooking and prioritising a few hours per week for exercise and workouts that you enjoy and monitoring your progress is totally practical. So once you are ready to make small changes, you will first replace negative behaviours with positive habits. Stick with these habits consistently for a while and they will become behaviour, this, in turn, becomes your lifestyle.
“ A Goal without a Plan is just a Dream”
If you are interested in investing in some personal coaching to help guide you navigate through the Health & Fitness minefield get in touch using one of the methods at the bottom of the page, or even better tell me a bit about yourself using one of these forms - (Google) or (Microsoft), with no obligation.
1-2-1 Coaching starts at just £25/week (payable monthly) with no contract so you can start and stop whenever you like. I also do a one-off Healthy Lifestyle assessment (£75) in which I take a few measurements such as BMI, Blood Pressure, Grip strength etc and discuss your current circumstances, goals, barriers and exercise & nutrition habits. This is then followed up with an email summarising the assessment and some advice and guidance on how to make improvements.
Cycle Coaching
This triangle is the basis of all sports and athletic performance. Having a coach can help you get them right in order to go faster and further on the bike. A common mistake is to focus on just the Training side of the triangle or just doing all your training rides in the Goldilocks zone with no structure or progression. Not too hard and not too easy. You think you are doing a good workout because you are making yourself tired, but this doesn’t necessarily equate to making yourself better. My cycling clients are all aware of the term ‘Minimum Effective Dose’, meaning that we achieve the desired training effect whilst creating the least fatigue.
There are so many aspects of cycling that can be improved to make yourself better - Aerobic capacity, Sprinting, Climbing, Riding position, Race tactics, Aerodynamics, Equipment choice, Pacing, Body composition, Nutrition, Injury Prevention, Race fueling, Confidence riding in a group, Recovery, Strength Training, to name a few. Here at fit360 coaching, I can help you with all of these and more. Again it may just be a case of adding some structure/progression to your training and the accountability of having a coach who is also invested in your progress that makes the difference.
The coaching is done online using the Training Peaks platform so remote coaching is possible wherever you are to infinity and beyond, and if you live local to me we can also meet up for reviews and cafe rides. Use of Power meters and watt-based training is encouraged (but not compulsory) and indoor sessions incorporating digital platforms such as Zwift are utilised by most of my riders. (Other platforms are available).
So if you are interested in taking your cycling to the next level in 2025, just get in touch using one of the methods below or better yet, tell me a bit about yourself using this form - (Google) (Microsoft) with no obligation. Full 1-2-1 Coaching is just £25/week (payable monthly), there’s no contract, so you can start and stop whenever you like.
Finally thanks once again to everyone who has shared or forwarded my newsletters. It helps me more than you know.
In my next newsletter, we’ll look specifically at Cardio fitness and why your Aerobic capacity is important for Endurance sports performance, Health and Longevity, and how to improve it.
Contact me by any of the channels below to arrange a chat.
Email - Andy@fit360.co.uk
Txt/Whatsapp 07779 705971