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Quantified Athlete

Maximising human performance through coaching, therapy and engineering

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Category: Supplements

Posted on April 4, 2014

Feed Your Ecosystem

Any of you who have been following this blog from the start, and I doubt there are many of you, may remember my initial blog…

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Posted on September 19, 2013September 19, 2013

Week One and Superior Gut Health

Damn you freshers I suppose I really shouldn't complain, we have an absolutely awesome facility with pretty much total access all of the year. It…

Continue reading → Week One and Superior Gut Health

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It's not amazing... Yet. For those who don't know, I used to compete in athletics, more specifically the pole vault. I am so glad that this sport was part of my development for 2 main reasons: you were measured and you learned how to improve at something. 1) Getting measured This is so important and avoided by many. Getting a true, quantifiable measure of where you are. No lies, no ego, if you do athletics you have a direct measure of exactly where you are on that day. And I think that can be important. Even team sports you can hide behind your team-mates, or a one-on-one match, there is all sorts of excuses you can tell yourself about how the other person had an above average performance. Athletics it's just you and the measurement. Measure yourself and keep your ego in check. 2) Growth and improvement Because you are measured, you can tell when you have improved. You have a previous best, and did you beat it today. You quickly learn that putting in work/effort/training leads to improvement. A growth mindset is forced upon you, it's great. You honestly always feel like you can be better at something if you dedicate more time and effort to it. Work, hobbies, sport, relationships. More work = better Summary So how does this relate to a video of me skydiving? I'm glad you asked. I'm not good at skydiving, yet. I'm not good at filming, yet. I'm not good at editting, yet. But give it time... Music by <a href="https://icons8.com/music/author/nordgroove">Nordgroove</a> from <a href="/music">Fugue</a> #coaching #skydiving #growthmindset #work #trainexerciseplay
There's layers to this stuff. "Cakes! Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have layers" Donkey (Shrek, 2001!??!) So, all the way back in 2015 when I delivered my first workshop on Mobility, I referenced the work of @drandreospina (sorry, Dre). I had the arrogance of youth and the time to be a keyboard warrior, I absorbed everything I could for free through the internet, and thought I knew it all. Enter age, experience and the dunning-kruger effect (ok, this is only 5 years on, but can't wait to see how much of an idiot I still am in another 5 years). I finally managed to get to get to not one but two whole #functionalrangesystems courses this year. And let me tell you now, there is layers to this s&*t! This is not just joint circles and stretching. Even if you come away from the course completely disagreeing with the whole concept, you can't help but admire the depth of understanding, the thought process and the research that has gone into it. As I said to Dre afterwards, this course has saved me time, it's taken the pieces of my current understanding of mobility, explained then to me better than I can explain them to myself and then saved me years by filling in the gaps. As much as you think you know, there's always someone who is willing to go deeper for longer on any subject, and I love that. I've done a fair few courses this year. Every one has been valuable. But you also start to see how everyone is right in their niche and there's actually much less disagreement between the people that know what they're talking about than may appear on the outside. So, to summarize my weekend: 1) I got to visit Las Vegas for the first time 2) I got to visit the UFC performance institute for the first time (and saw Forrest Griffin) 3) I got to learn from 4 of the best in the mobility game AND become #FRC certified 4) I found out I'm too tall to be a mobility guru so now I need to find a new career path Thank you @hunterfitness glad to finally meet you in real life. #coachesneedcoaches And an absolute pleasure so see @beardthebestyoucanbe smash out a sissy squat on really life #goals
Not your standard sausage picture.⁠ ⁠ Last week I had the pleasure to be in Belize with an incredible group of people. Each of them working and pushing at the top of their respective fields. Content creators, skydivers, organisers and other less easily defined skillsets. I'm used to being around athletes of this level, but seeing each person and their work process was inspiring.⁠ ⁠ The aim was to skydive into the blue hole. A Unesco heritage site 50 miles off the coast of Belize. The dark blue circle between my feet. A natural sink hole surrounded by reef that is over 120m deep, which looks unbelievable as you approach it from the sky⁠. Less than 500 people have ever done this, but because of the work done during the project the government is now trying to open this up to more people and ultimately boost tourism within Belize. ⁠ This is the first of a series of projects, so stay tuned to #projectuprise.⁠ ⁠ I am going to try harder to document the process through instagram ( #publicaccountability ) as we go, but all credit goes to @Nickleventis for being able to think big enough to make this happen and for assembling such an amazing group of humans. #Uprising⁠ ⁠ #Specialisttogeneralist⁠ #trainexerciseplay⁠ #quantifiedathlete⁠ #moretocome
Training knee rotation This is not a post about exercises you should go out and try straight away. These exercises have pre-requisites, they have regressions. There is no categorically "good" or "bad" exercises, just exercises, loads, volumes, intensities that you are unprepared for. This is just an example of where you can go once you have knee rotation capabilities, and have strength through range. There are also rotational and linear requirements of ROM at the hip and at the ankle as well. One squat variation emphasises external rotation, and the other internal rotation ( @sarahmoves this one is for you) In strength and conditioning I may refer to one as a "b-stance external tibial rotation bias squat" and the other as a "b-stance internal tibial rotation bias squat" but I think I need to work on my naming skills. #trainexerciseplay #trainlikeabeastplaylikeachild #learntrainplayrepeat #coach #strengthandconditioning #sportsmassage #personaltrainer #humanperformance #movement #training
Be yourself, its easier to accept the consequences.⁠ ⁠ Every decision we make has upsides, and it has downsides. Whether we like it or not. ⁠ ⁠ We make decisions all the time, and then have to face the consequences later. The decision not to think about something (or not to actively) make a decision, is a decision in itself.⁠ ⁠ If we try and be someone else, its easy to try and deflect the blame. "That only happened because i was trying to be who they wanted me to be" is missing the point; I made the decision to try and act like someone else.⁠ ⁠ Make a decision, own your decision, and even if it all goes wrong, you may still end up with a photo like this, so its not all bad.⁠ ⁠ Here's to being me, and if noone likes me, at least I can accept that. 3 friends is plenty right?⁠ ⁠ ⁠ #trainexerciseplay #trainlikeabeastplaylikeachild #learntrainplayrepeat #coaching #performancecoach ⁠#bumbag #onesie⁠ #fitness⁠
Feeling rusty.... Might delete later On #inspiration So this post was "inspired" by a conversation I had this morning with a guy who has just moved to a completely new country to open up a gym. Can we try and be an inspiration to others? Or can we only try and be ourselves, and let others find inspiration in that? So here's some inspiration I have found in a bunch of people recently: Joe @levelupbarbados you have inspired me with your leap of faith @benmedder you have inspired me to try new movements, even though I've now added weight 🙈 @sarahmoves handstand inspo @polevaultmax you have inspired me with your online program for @shathlete @shaneonei you have inspired me by how humble you were when we met recently @markdry you have inspired me with your single minded determination @bengregz for your constant Instagram graft @katespence17 you have inspired me because even though I knew you could, you still needed to prove it to yourself, so you did I'm going to stop there, before 1) I show too much emotion and 2) Instagram thinks I'm a spam robot. #mindset #coaching #wideangle #notiphone11pro #girlswholift

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