Simplicity

I've just managed my first workout of what might loosely be called 'cardio' since injuring my foot.
It wasn't by any means a biggie: 24 minutes of sit ups, press ups, medicine ball twists (but with a 10kg weight), woodchops, dips, pull ups etc... basically anything I could think of that didn't involve putting pressure on my foot. It felt good. Better than good actually. If you're used to regular exercise, you don't realise what a mood-enhancer it is until you stop. So, right now I'm smiling - and not just because the Inbetweeners Movie is on.

I've not been totally lazy. I've been using my new barbell and bench – cleans, presses etc. I've never been overly keen on simple weight training. I like to get out of breath. If I'm going to lift heavy things then I like kettlebells, sandbags, things that I can throw, swing, move about with. But it's not as bad as I thought, particularly power moves like cleans and, of course, who doesn't love a snatch? Ho ho.

Anyway, it's got me thinking... the world has got very complicated. Read the average ladies mag (that is, a magazine FOR the ladies, not a magazine OF ladies) and each month there's a new way to lose weight, get fit, achieve that perfect beach body and attract the perfect man (tip: if you're spending all your time worried about finding the perfect man by looking good, the perfect man will think you're an idiot). But the truth is, weight loss is fairly simple. Fitness is fairly simple. Training is fairly simple.

Weight loss is very simple in fact: expend more calories than you consume. Other factors come into play, of course, but follow this rule and you will, eventually, lose weight.

Fitness is fairly simple too. It depends on your goals of course, but it basically involves movement. That's it.

So, training is simple too. It's movement. It needn't require electrodes placed on your body, or plates that shake you around, pulleys, 'ab machines', mats that let you slide across the floor, suspension systems and all the other overpriced pieces of equipment people are trying to sell us every day.

Not to say that none of these can be useful. But really you can work out with nothing but body weight. Or simply something heavy to lift - anything. On holiday I've done workouts with rocks. Movement is the key, in all planes. Don't worry about muscle groups. Push and pull, both arms and legs; add in some  core work – both static holds like planks, and movements like seated twists – and that's it. For peak fitness, add in running, swimming, cycling, any other sporting activity that engages the entire body and gets you breathless. You can do all of this without fancy equipment. Pulling is hard without something to pull against, but really you can create a great workout with just your body, or a slightly harder one with something heavy to lift. You can lose weight and get fit with nothing more than a swimming pool or a road and a will to get breathless.

So, my thoughts for the day. Apologies if they're incomplete or disconnected, but it's hard to concentrate when the Inbetweeners is on and I keep laughing out loud.

When I can concentrate I'll post some ideas on simple but incredibly effective workouts that don't require fancy equipment. I'll also post some ideas on exercises that do require equipment, but equipment that is freely available in the average household, or can be made easily and cheaply. If you train with me, you'll already have met my beast of a sandbag... it cost less than a tenner.

To finish, here's an amazing video from someone called Ross Enamait. Subscribe to his blog, facebook page, whatever... he is incredible and speaks only sense. He is a god of training simplicity. This is him skipping.

First Post

So, this is the second attempt I've ever made at blogging. The first died a not-so-slow death. I'm resolved to make more effort this time round.

These pages, I hope, will be somewhat similar to my favourite Blog, The Straight Dope. The SD does have a slight agenda in pushing a particular type of training regime, popular in the US, called PX90 – as well as other similar workouts with silly names like BeachBody, Ripped and TonsOfGuns (I imagine). But it also keeps an open mind in discussing different training theories, is happy to learn from various sports including climbing, cycling and running, and never takes itself too seriously. Most importantly, sometimes it doesn't discuss any of those things but will just post a really great video.

I will, obviously, be discussing the things that I find most interesting regarding fitness, conditioning, weight loss, sports etc. I will also be documenting my life as a personal trainer and kickboxing instructor, and my own training as a runner, kickboxer, and someone who generally wants to achieve and maintain good, all-round strength and fitness.

Which leads me to the here and now. Currently I'm not really doing much in the way of training. Almost two weeks ago I suffered a stress fracture in the third metatarsal of the right foot. It's hardly life-threatening but it's painful and makes getting around on two feet quite awkward. How I got the stress fracture is probably a good lesson in how not to train for an ultra marathon.

I've run at least one ultra every year for the past 4 or 5 years now. This year, as my first full year as a self-employed personal trainer, I simply haven't found the time to put in the miles. Up until April I was doing regular long runs coaching a client for the London Marathon. The rest of my training at that time was geared towards the short-term energy pathways: sprints, circuits, lots of kickboxing. However, the new mix of training was working and in March I smashed my half-marathon PB, running 1hr 25mins. Since then, I hadn't run more than about 7 miles in one go. But, I wanted to get an ultra in this year.

Scanning the Runner's World website I noticed an easy-ish looking 30-miler along flat footpaths in Bishop's Stortford, home to one of my very best friends. A chance to combine pleasure and pleasure... But I only had two weeks to train for it, and the first was blighted with a heavy cold. I knew I was fit enough to run 30 miles – that is, my heart and lungs were more than up to the challenge – but, as any fitness professional will tell you, training is all about specificity. That is, if you want to play football well, you've got to practice playing football. If you want to run well, you've got to run.

The week of the run I decided to put some miles in my legs. Two runs of 15 miles were dealt with so easily, almost surprisingly so, I thought I was ready. Come race day, there had been a lot of wet weather. On the Thames-side paths I'd trained on I'd used my VivoBarefoot Neo Trail shoes, but the race director of the Stort 30 had said that this race would mainly be on graded footpaths. Hard-ish ground underfoot convinced me to put on my Vibram Five-Fingers Speeds. At 9 miles I was cruising. I was moving between 12 and 15th place but it was muddy. Very muddy. I could feel my feet digging for grip, no matter how much I tried to relax them. After a while, my right foot felt tight, as if the muscles in it were cramping. It didn't seem too serious, like something I'd run off. Then I hopped around a woman walking her dog. Suddenly the tightness in my foot changed to pain. I stopped, took off my shoe and tried a massage. But when I went to stand, I realised I was going to struggle to walk the mile to the next checkpoint, let alone run another 21 miles.

It was my first DNF in a race. I was less upset than I thought I'd be. The pain was such that I knew there was no way out other than to hand myself over to the race marshals (who were all wonderful by the way).

So, what's the lesson? Since April I've trained hard. I've thrown sandbags around, swung kettlebells, done plyometric drills, a hundred different varieties of lunges, squats and calf raises, push ups, pull ups, sit ups and medicine ball twists, done plenty of kickboxing – all in bare feet or barefoot trainers (in fact, I spend all day either bare foot or in barefoot trainers). It wasn't the footwear that got me injured. It wasn't a lack of fitness. It was a lack of specific strength.

My feet and legs are strong, but they were conditioned for short-ish, fast-ish work. Not the long, slow grind of 30 miles. Okay, I only got 9 miles in, but the week leading up to the race I'd suddenly placed a huge endurance demand on my body, quite out of the blue. It was idiotic. Suddenly upping my weekly mileage from about 14 miles to 60, in one week, was bound to lead to injury.

Since the injury, I've done very little exercise. I took a week off to brood on my stupidity. This week it's been the kids' half term and my free time is spent entertaining them. Now I'm focusing on a training program that will keep my fitness, build some strength, and doesn't require me going swimming. Sadly, I think the pool might be the only option to keep the cardio topped up. But I've acquired a weights bench and barbell, and I'm putting together the bones of a bodyweight circuit that keeps the weight off my right foot. Let's see what happens!