This week I’m joined by Jack Kavanagh to talk about resilience, inspiration, grief and change. Jack’s a pharmacist and speaker on health & wellbeing and his personal story is simultaneously tragic and uplifting. In 2012 he suffered a life changing spinal cord injury leaving him with just 15% muscle function, and as he shares his story there’s a real honesty and vulnerability that comes through as you realise this is a guy has really had to do the work to get to where he is today with his out...
Feb 20, 2023•59 min
I have always been fascinated by the power of the mind to help you accomplish more and effectively change your reality. It’s something I’ve leveraged in nearly every aspect of my life, from relationships to health and fitness, challenges and my business. When I read Dave Robson’s book ‘The Expectation Effect’ I made pages of notes and got some big takeaways that I’ve since gone on to apply. David is a science writer and his book was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and won a British Psychological ...
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr 5 min
in April 2020 Robert Glynn was given 12 months to live following a terminal cancer diagnosis, 2 months after losing his father to cancer. He was also offered the chance to be a part of a trial treatment at The Christie hospital, which he 'jumped at', and at the same time made some big changes to his lifestyle through nutrition and exercise. Two years later and Rob is not only still with us but his cancer is all but gone and he has a completely new approach to life. Speaking to Rob I wanted to fi...
Feb 06, 2023•37 min
I’m joined today by Emotional Empowerment and Wellbeing Coach Daniel Dzikowski to talk about ‘letting go’ of stuck emotions. This is something he introduced me to when we first met at an event and I was really intrigued to find out more, so I invited him on the podcast to explore it! Early on in our interview I became aware that understanding this was something that was going to take full concentration and I had to step out of ‘interviewer’ mode and into the role of ‘curious questioner’. Althoug...
Jan 30, 2023•52 min
My guest on this week’s episode is mental health nurse, speaker and educator, Alex Williams. Alex has almost 2 decades of clinical experience working with patients suffering from severe cases of mental ill health. Over the years as he has helped these people he has made a number of observations about mental health that don’t often get discussed. He also has a powerful personal story of overcoming significant trauma as he was growing up, and just a few years ago his own mental health was at it’s ...
Jan 23, 2023•39 min
Today’s guest is a friend of mine and fellow fitness enthusiast, Greg Williams, who has established himself as the go-to guy for everything and anything related to Hyrox - the emerging sport of fitness racing. Greg is the man behind the RoxLyfe website and YouTube channel, and as well as sharing information on tips and techniques to train for and approach a Hyrox event he has interviewed some of the sports biggest stars. I took part in my first Hyrox event in Birmingham in October 2022 with my t...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr
Today’s guest is a lady who I came across in a Facebook group for marathon runners, and after reading some of her jaw dropping story I knew that she’d make a great guest for the podcast. Rachel Kennedy is a runner, and just a few short years ago she was a complete beginner. In fact, she describes how she despised anything related to athletics - at school she was sick a lot with asthma, was - as she put it - the theatre nerd - and thought sports were a joke. I’ve spoken to many people over the ye...
Jan 09, 2023•57 min
I’m joined today by leading lifestyle behaviour change specialist Dr Heather Mckee to talk about one of my favourite topics, habits. Having studied health behaviour change psychology for 10 years, her mission is to offer a sustainable, evidence-based alternative to an industry saturated with quick fixes and health fads. In today’s conversation among other things we talk about: - What is a habit? - Frequency of habits (including annually!) - Why we get distracted from our new habits - The link be...
Jan 02, 2023•1 hr 15 min
The previous strategies I’ve been sharing in this series are applicable in most areas of life but the ones I have for you on today's episode are focused on training mindset. There may be some carry over to other areas as well but I wanted to put together some of the top strategies that I regularly use with my own training in case as some of them may be of value and benefit to you. There are 10 altogether - 3 that help me before a workout*, 5 during and 2 after. I wouldn't lean on all of them in ...
Dec 26, 2022•28 min
Part 5 of the mini-series of mindset strategies is 'deliberate discomfort'. Life inevitably involves brief moments of physical discomfort, whether it's carrying heavy bags around an airport or having to run to catch a bus. If you're used to training and pushing yourself as a part of your exercise routine, you can use the Deliberate Discomfort strategy to reframe these moments and boost the mental toughness you get from your workouts as well.
Dec 19, 2022•15 min
Part 4 of this mini-series of mindset strategies is another one that can be boiled down to a short and snappy phrase: control the controllables. It’s one that could application across many different aspects of your life, particularly when you find yourself feeling overwhelmed. We’re going to take a look at what it means, where it comes from, and how adopting it could potentially benefit you.
Dec 11, 2022•20 min
Part 3 of the mini-series of mindset strategies is 'cast a vote'. This phrasing comes from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, where he talks about 'casting a vote for the person you want to be'. In this week's episode we take a look at how we can use small habits to reinforce a part of our identity that is important to us. Related quotes that we dig into is Aristotle's 'we are what we repeatedly do... excellence, therefore, is a habit, and not an act' (though it turns out this wasn't actuall...
Dec 05, 2022•13 min
Part 2 of the mini-series of mindset strategies, is the 'Fertile Garden'. This comes straight from a Bruce Lee quote where he says “The mind is a fertile garden – it will grow anything you wish to plant – beautiful flowers or weeds. And it is with successful, healthy thoughts or negative ones that will, like weeds, strangle and crowd the others. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind, for they are the weeds that strangle confidence.” In this episode I get into why this quote is so pow...
Nov 28, 2022•19 min
A Bit Of A Boost has had a bit of a break for a couple of months but we're back with a short series of mindset strategies that have helped me over the years. Some may resonate, some may not, but they're all practical with real world application. This week's episode descibes a strategy called 'Get Out Of The Chair', which I frequently call on when I'm tackling some big project or task.
Nov 21, 2022•15 min
My guest today is former World Rally Championship driver Penny Mallory, who became the first woman in the world to drive a Ford Focus World Rally car. I met Penny at an event a few years ago and having seen her presenting numerous car-related programs on TV and listening to her talk about her specialist topic of mental toughness, I knew she’d make a great guest for the show. We talk about her own incredible story, of homelessness and hopelessness, to winning trophies skidding around forests in h...
Sep 12, 2022•52 min
We all know people who are the absolute masters of their craft, whether that’s as an artist, in sports or in their job. We look at people who make it look so effortless and ask the question ‘how on earth do they do that!’, yet often when we have mastery of an aspect in our lives we dismiss it or don’t even notice it as being anything exceptional. Parenting, in our relationships, in our own approach to exercise or perhaps an aspect of our own jobs, there are likely to be areas that we have achiev...
Aug 15, 2022•54 min
20 years ago when I started out as a personal trainer answering the question of ‘what do you do?’ was an easy one. Over the course of the last 2 decades the scope of my work has expanded to include what can be broadly described as 'wellbeing & performance', but what do these words actually mean? There are many definitions depending on who you talk to, and although I don't claim to have the definitive answer I do believe that a part of it must include something that relates to the 'dynamic te...
Jul 12, 2022•52 min
There's been a bit of a pause on the podcast these last few weeks because my father sadly passed away at the beginning of the month. In today's episode I describe the process that has been helping me navigate the challenging landscape of grief in what feels to me to be a healthy and adaptive way. Often in times like this we know that we should 'take the pressure off' or 'go easy' on ourselves, but this can be a difficult thing to do in practice. On the one hand we don't want to let people down o...
Jun 27, 2022•42 min
We all have the capacity to survive and thrive in the presence of stress. In fact stress is the very thing that enables us to perform at our best but if the pressure grows too much we can slip into a paralysing feeling of overwhelm. In today's episode I explore some of the areas that a state of overwhelm can impact, and some practical techniques to bring you back to a more grounded, action-oriented state. To find out more about the 6 Week Boost fitness challenge I mention in this episode, head o...
May 30, 2022•33 min
Have you ever come away from an event with loads of ideas but then gone back to your day to day and not done anything with them? Or perhaps you've listened to a podcast, read a book or watched a video and felt motivated and inspired to put things into action but struggled to bridge the gap between knowing and doing. Today's short episode is dedicated to the simple idea of implementation, not just information. Creating movement, not just consuming content. It's about progress not perfection, and ...
May 16, 2022•13 min
A bit of an unusual episode this week as it was produced in two parts. I interviewed a friend of mine, Mat Poole, a couple of days before he departed for the Sahara desert to take part in the infamous Marathon des Sables. At the start of this episode I share the notes I made during this call with Mat, where I asked him about his hopes and fears, logistics and expectations of the event. Then in the interview itself we find out how it went, and how close to his expectations it came! In a challenge...
May 09, 2022•1 hr 5 min
My guest this week is cognitive neuroscientist Dr Lynda Shaw, and we spend the episode discussing the brain and neuroscience and how we can improve our wellbeing and performance. I seem to spend most of my free time reading journals and books and studies about neuroscience and we had a great conversation! I was really interested to hear from Lynda where the cross over lies between psychology and neuroscience, and how we can use the latest research to benefit us in our wellbeing and performance. ...
May 02, 2022•56 min
I’m joined this week by life coach and author Simon Ong, who’s new book Energize has just been published. We talk about the subject matter of the book and the importance of optimising your energy. This is a topic I’m passionate about and active with in my own work, and it was great to get Simon’s take on it. He shares some of his own journey through a decade in the corporate world and into the world of personal development and coaching, what he’s learned and how he applies it. I love it when my ...
Apr 25, 2022•51 min
If I look back at my life it’s been relatively straight forward. There was a bit of a course correction after I graduated with an engineering masters and moved into personal training, but from there on it’s more or less been a series of variations on the theme of wellbeing. I’m always fascinated by people who have lived a more unconventional life and finding out what makes them tick and I was delighted to be joined on the podcast by the ex-Scritti Politti drummer, Rockstar Activator Tom Morley. ...
Apr 18, 2022•45 min
In 2014 I ran 10 marathons in 10 days. My cover story was that it was for charity, but I knew there'd be something in it for me as well. What I got were a number of lessons that transcended the domain of running and positively affected every other aspect of my life. I reflected on 10 of these lessons after the event and wrote 95% of a piece of work that I never finished. When I came across them the other day I realised how much I have applied the lessons in the 8 years since the marathons, and I...
Apr 10, 2022•44 min
Chocolate, ice cream, alcohol, smoking, checking social media… most of us have something we indulge in a little more than is really good for us. The level of indulgence will determine how much - if at all - it is a problem for you but even if you’re not quite at the stage of sleeping on a park bench with a bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag, there’s a chance that overindulging could be having a negative impact on your life. My guest on the show today is coach and speaker Duncan Bhaskaran Brown ...
Apr 04, 2022•50 min
One of the things you hear a lot about when it comes to motivation, goals or high performance is the importance of mindset. But what is mindset and how do we make sure that we have the right one? My guest today to discuss this topic is a man who I’ve learned a lot from over the years, business psychologist and coach Bret Freeman. I know Bret through Toastmasters International and he’s forged a strong reputation for facilitating change and development programs in some of the world’s largest organ...
Mar 28, 2022•1 hr
For a decade and a half exercise was more than just a passion, it was also my career. I trained clients as a personal trainer and boot camp coach, and also taught on PT diploma courses and delivered masterclasses to other trainers. I was fully immersed in it and although my work these days is more holistic, it’s still clearly an important topic for me and I’m pleased to have the opportunity to share some of my philosophies, insights and approaches to exercise. In today's episode I talk about - T...
Mar 21, 2022•54 min
I live just outside a little town called Thame in Oxfordshire and one of the many things I love about the place is the independent health food store, Planet Health & Organics. It’s run by Nutritional Therapist and Practising Naturopath Peter Dewdney, and over the years we’ve had many a long conversation about wellbeing, supplements and health and I was delighted to get the opportunity to record some of his wisdom for today’s episode of the podcast. Supplements is such a vast topic and I want...
Mar 14, 2022•55 min
On today’s episode I’m joined by fellow coach Laura Brunton to talk about living life more authentically and as ‘Totally You’. When I first met Laura a few years ago she was in corporate and you wouldn't have known it to look at her but she was on the brink of burnout. We talk about some of the things that aligned for her to help her realise how she was holding herself back, how she was misaligned with her priorities and values, and what she did to start bringing about some pretty big changes in...
Mar 07, 2022•55 min
