The Fit Coach

Personal training is on your radar. The price gave you pause. Completely understandable.

So here is a free starting point instead.

One thing worth knowing before you begin. The biggest mistake new gym-goers make is attempting exercises that are simply beyond where they are right now.

One session becomes the evidence that you cannot do it - and the perfect excuse never to return.

So instead - two goals only. Show up. Build confidence in the movements.

Consistency follows confidence. Motivation follows consistency. In that order. Not the other way around.

The first session is 30 minutes. Eight exercises. One set each. A weight you can move for 10-12 reps without losing form. Note what felt manageable and what surprised you.

That is it, job done.

Free 2-week starter programme on the site - no sign-up required.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/your-first-session

The pain starts in your back and ends up in your leg. You have tried the stretches, watched the videos, and you are still looking for the one exercise that fixes it.

I will save you some time - there isn't one.

If such an exercise existed, every physio, PT and rehab specialist would speak of it. So for the influencers claiming they have the secret - swipe left, save yourself time and money.

That is not cynicism. It may be the most useful thing you hear about any "special" exercise.

Sciatica is not a single problem with a single solution. It is a symptom with multiple possible drivers. The exercise that helps one person can make another worse.

I have managed chronic back pain for thirty years. No matter how strong my core got, the pain didn't vanish. It just became more manageable. Frustrating as hell - but manageable is a different thing entirely.

And it is worth pursuing.

Full method on the site.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/sciatica-and-exercise

There is a difference between exercising and training.

Exercising is showing up and doing things. Training is showing up with a specific intention - and not just follow your routine. Training is more nuanced than sets, reps and load.

Training should target competency, movement efficiency, balance, control, pain management - and essentially get better at the thing you are doing, not just to get through it.

Most people walk into the gym chasing their long-term goals from day one. Lose two stone. Get stronger. Fix the back. All reasonable things.

But your body - especially as a beginner, or over 40 - is not ready for two-stone training on week one.

For the first four weeks, your only goal is competency. Not fitness. Not weight loss. Instead, focus on your ability to perform an exercise with control, consistency - a little style and grace.

Pick four or five exercises. Not twenty. A squat, a push, a pull, something for core. Perform them slowly - two seconds down, pause, two seconds up. After each session rate two things out of ten: how well you controlled the movement, and how you feel the following morning.

If both scores are improving, you are training.

Full method on the site.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/stop-exercising-start-training

Most people training with pain make one of two mistakes.

They push through regardless. Or they stop completely - convinced any pain means damage, and damage means rest - a perfect example of reinjury anxiety.

Neither is right. And both slow your progress.

I was working with a client managing chronic knee pain. During a barbell squat he mentioned pain at a specific point mid-rep. The instinct would have been to reduce the load.

Instead I tested the opposite. We increased the weight appropriately.

The pain disappeared!

This is how pain works. It is information, not a result. And it is why understanding it changes how you approach your training.

Before every set, rate your pain from 0-10. Not just at the start of the session - before each set of each exercise. Watch for preemptive breath holding before a movement. That involuntary brace against pain you expect to appear.

We need to not just listen and feel out pain, but learn from it. Especially if you want to recover faster, with more confidence.

Full method and pain protocol on the site.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/mad-about-pain

The first few steps out of bed can feel rough. Your joints are stiff, painful and for some feel unable to bear your weight.

That is not just an age thing. This is a strength, mobility, stability thing.

Neck. Shoulders. Spine. Hips. Ankles. Ten slow rotations each direction.

That's it.

Three minutes of gentle intentional movement tells your nervous system the day has started. Joints lubricate. Tension eases. The rest of the morning feels different.

Does it feel too small to matter? Maybe. But most people over 40 have never tried it - and the ones who do notice the difference soon enough.

Full C.A.R.s flow on the site.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/the-morning-habit-that-changes-everything

She'd tried for years. Physio. Osteopathy. Massage. Years of chronic lower back pain and nothing had stuck.

In our first session I took her through a simple mobility drill. Two minutes. Her range of motion increased and pain all but gone.

The pain came back after a few days. But now we had a window - a pain-free period to build strength through isometrics, but also resist this new found range of motion.

Over time the window grew. Pain dropped to manageable levels, and no more medication.

More importantly - she stopped seeing her back as a restriction and started seeing it as something she could work with. Management is key to mindset when in pain.

Her shift - from no control to control - is what Excuseless is built on.

It's not about pushing through pain. It's about finding the version of the solution that removes the reason not to try.

Every excuse has an Excuseless answer.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/excuseless-what-it-really-means

You start exercising. The weight drops. You feel good. Then - nothing.

Same effort. Same routine. Barely any results.

That is not failure. That is biology, welcome to your body.

Your body is designed to compensate. When you increase activity it quietly dials down energy spent elsewhere to balance your total output within a narrow range. Scientists call it "Constrained Daily Energy Expenditure" - but I call it the reason most people quit, while thinking they've done something wrong.

They haven't. Their body is working as expected.

The fix is "Keep Calm, and Carry On". Yes, minor tweaks are required so keep nudging the system so it never fully settles. An extra rep, a slightly heavier weight, five more minutes, a few calories less.

BUT nothing dramatic.

And remember - weight loss comes from managing what you eat, while exercise is but one part of the jigsaw.

Full explanation on the site.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/the-metabolism-myth

He hadn't been able to flex his ankle properly for 17 years.

NHS specialists. Massage. Acupuncture. Chiropractic. Nothing helped.

Within one technique he flexed his ankle. But not through ankle exercises, but through an approach often looked down on by established professionals. The approach may lack research papers to prove this works conclusively. But the results speak for themselves.

He was emotional and frustrated how one simple exercise fixed his issue.

This is what M.A.D is built on. The body is a system, not a collection of separate parts. The source of a problem is not necessarily where you feel it.

Tight doesn't always mean short. Sometimes a muscle is tight because it is weak.

Stretching in some cases achieves nothing, but a temporary relief. And the irony even strength training provides little comfort.

Full story and method on the site.
thefitcoach.co.uk/quick-wins/mad-the-method

M.A.D: The Method That Moves What Nothing Else Could | The Fit Coach Movement Activation Drills. Developed over 23 years with clients who had tried everything else. Here is what M.A.D is and why it works.

The good news - my MRI results for my shoulder are back. The not so good news - there's way more going on than I assumed.

Widespread tendon damage, inflammation, and a few other things the scan picked up that I wasn't expecting.

While it's not the best - it's not the end of the world.

Does it help that I'm a PT? Yes it does. I've had time to reexamine my existing routine and modify it based on the updates.

My scan tells me what I'm working with - possible limitations. It's what you do with that information that matters.

So the programme changes. One circuit, four rounds, covering everything - shoulder rehab, core, upper body and legs. Nothing that overloads the shoulder. Everything that keeps momentum going.

Wyoming is still the goal. 41 days away.

The Excuseless mindset is not about ignoring bad news. It's about addressing the issues at hand - adjusting the plan, and pushing on appropriately.

Have you ever had a setback that made you rethink your approach rather than quit? What did you do?

I have (somehow) saved close to 1800 recipes on Instagram, and I have created a few meals at most. IG is a treasure trove of possible inspiration. But it's instantly forgotten as we doomscroll through endless other shiny things.

Whether this is the latest "best exercise for ?", "protein snack" and "top 10 tips to?" Instagram, social media and search engines offer us simply too much. The reality - we do not have a scarcity problem.

In fact it's often the opposite - especially with food, and fitness tips. Advice on how to eat better, move more, live healthier? It's all there. More than we could ever use - available 24/7.

And yet most of us have developed exactly one consistent habit - under exercising and over eating.

The problem was never finding the information. It was doing something with it consistently enough to make a lasting and meaningful change.

For me personally, I need a reset - and one I need to keep stupidly simple.

So instead of adding more recipes I am starting with six. Two snacks, two fish or chicken dinners, and two lunches I can rotate through the week. I'll experiment with these and ignore the other 1,794 options.

The same principle applies to your gym workout. You do not need more programmes, more tips, or more motivation. You need one thing you will actually do - and do it again next week. Repeat for 6-8 weeks, and then move on to a different training approach.

What is the one thing you keep meaning to start but haven't yet?