[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts.
[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today, we're talking about fitness lessons learned from the over 40s cricket world cup, where James has just been, um, good experience in, in many ways you want to quickly, I know this is a short podcast where you generally dive straight in, but what is one of the lessons learned that you don't go out, get in a taxi and then, uh, run away because you might get, you might get, um, chased down the street with a gun or something.
[00:00:32] James Breese: It's one way to start. I wasn't expecting the podcast to start off this way. So yeah, that is one good way. No names mentioned of who the person involved with. But yeah, if you're traveling in certain parts of the world and unfamiliar with those said places, it's probably a good idea not to go out at four in the morning and do silly things like that.
[00:00:52] I think that's the best way to put it. So that's definitely a lesson learned.
[00:00:56] Josh Kennedy: There's a, there's a lesson learned. Not necessarily a fitness lesson, but a life [00:01:00] lesson. So let's jump into, uh, yeah, let's jump into a fitness lesson. So yeah, you have just been to the over 40s cricket world cup. Generally, how was the
[00:01:08] James Breese: experience?
[00:01:08] First of all, Oh, it was amazing. Absolutely phenomenal experience of a lifetime. I think that's the closest I've ever been to perfect to living the life of a professional cricketer. It was incredible from. Everything from being picked up, looked after, at the games themselves, the venues we played at.
[00:01:24] People have seen my Instagram page with loads of like stories and stuff during that time. There's lots more videos coming out with the vlogs channel to see a bit more behind the scenes. But it was just incredible. What an experience. Playing against players I used to watch on TV. That was phenomenal. You know, it's even just just little things like singing the anthem before each game as well.
[00:01:42] It was just like a huge, huge moments that I want to go and do again. And there's a lot more to come in the next couple of years. So hopefully it's not my first World Cup and it won't be my last. So in terms of the experience, phenomenal Cape Town, a wonderful city. Dangerous in places if you go to the wrong places at [00:02:00] the wrong times a day.
[00:02:01] However, in terms of experience, fantastic place. Fantastic place from the scenery, to the beaches, to the Table Mountain, to the cricket venues. What an experience and it's given me a taste for wanting more, put it that way.
[00:02:13] Josh Kennedy: Absolutely. Like I said, one of the venues overlooking Table Mountain in the background, which is,
[00:02:17] James Breese: they all did, that's the incredible thing is all, everything was overlooking Table Mountain.
[00:02:21] So you saw it all. And like, it's just, yeah, it's just incredible. And Table Mountain itself was just somewhere where you just couldn't stop looking at, and you look at it and go, that's amazing. Then you got the top of it. It looks even more amazing from the top down. So yeah, really,
[00:02:34] Josh Kennedy: really special. So obviously in the, uh, in the few months preceding, we've been training you with specifically with the, uh, with the World Cup in mind, we've upped your weight loss, fat loss protocol.
[00:02:44] We've been doing the, uh, the weight vest, um, protocol with you. It's just helped you drop a good few. How many kilos was it? Ultimately five and a half, five and a half, uh, kilos get down to you, you're fighting cricketing weight. Um, so what would you say was the biggest lesson [00:03:00] then you learn?
[00:03:01] James Breese: So I think in terms of the training itself, everything was going really well up until Christmas.
[00:03:06] I think that's really important to state that now. I felt good. I felt honestly that program, the assault by Josh was amazing. I felt so good in terms of fitness, cardiovascular fitness and everything. I went skiing over Christmas and I was the best and lightest I've been on the snowboard for many, many years and it felt phenomenal.
[00:03:22] However, between New Year and the start of the World Cup, I was sick. There was this horrendous flu bug going around and COVID again around the UK and I got sick like three or four times in the space of that six week period. So I actually went out to the World Cup. So I was actually, I didn't, I wasn't able to train or do anything up until that, until that point properly, it was an absolute nightmare.
[00:03:46] Plus there was a couple of trips away I had to go and do with work and various things, but it was the illness that held me back. So feeling training wise, absolutely amazing up until December. And then sadly, the last period leading into the world cup, it wasn't the best prep because of [00:04:00] illness. And that's sadly life, isn't
[00:04:01] Josh Kennedy: it?
[00:04:01] Can't be helped though, could it? That's life. Yeah, that's
[00:04:04] James Breese: life. It is. So in terms of that, I think. The fitness lesson I learned going into this was consistency is important. Cardiovascular fitness is really important. And I think I've become an even bigger fan of the assault bike and the protocols we're doing on the assault bike in terms of particularly working with cricketers, and I'd say it's surpassed my love for the rowing was the concept to row, I think as well, just because of the results I had.
[00:04:30] using the salt bike so often. So both in terms of weight loss, but I was different protocol together, but just the overall fitness and power to weight ratio, absolutely brilliant. Can't say enough good things about that. I know you
[00:04:41] Josh Kennedy: had that, as you say, you had that bad period after, after Christmas leading up, but do you think the training did have some good carry over to it?
[00:04:48] Did you, did you feel it in the, in the field
[00:04:50] James Breese: when you were playing? Massively? I felt it, I felt could be even better. I think, and that was only because of the last, the last six weeks leading into it. So apart from that, I felt good. I felt light. [00:05:00] I felt agile. I felt I was able to move. So that was really good.
[00:05:04] But like I said that the lesson I had out there was not necessarily What we had working together going into it But it was the lessons learned by other players in the age group category not just for the welsh team But I mean for the all the teams in general. So what you saw was Because of the heat the fit of the player was the better they carried over to their game So we saw a number of players score runs and get starts You But then they fatigued very quickly in the heat, they were exhausted.
[00:05:35] And you can see the, you can see their level of skill drop completely. So what you had was very high school players on all sorts of teams, but in the heat, there was a dipping point. And there was always that same period within the first hour or two, they get to that stage where they start to drip off. So again, it comes down to, if you're playing sports, if you're not fit enough, irrespective of skill level, It's going to impact your [00:06:00] decision making and it's going to affect your performance.
[00:06:02] I think that's the huge takeaway is that a lot of people weren't cardiovascularly fit enough. To maintain their skillset on the field, which was then detrimental both to themselves as players, but also to the team as a whole as well. And that was the consistent theme I saw
[00:06:17] Josh Kennedy: across it. Yeah, and you get mentally fatigued as well if you're not as cardiovascularly fit, don't you?
[00:06:22] So you start making poorer decisions and you get out, etc. Was that something you noticed across quite a lot of teams then, not just Wales?
[00:06:30] James Breese: Massively, yeah, absolutely. Quite a few of the teams. Particularly the The low ranking teams. I think that was, that was what we saw across the board. And it also, it would ties into cardiovascular fitness was obviously weight loss and getting people over 40.
[00:06:43] It's like a, it's an amateur, a lot of ex pros in there, but there's a lot, it's mostly amateur. So what you're seeing is a lot of players carrying a lot of excess weight. So they were the ones that tied quickly as well. So there's a lot of factors going into it. So. If you're playing master sports or [00:07:00] any type of thing masters, I think the biggest thing to set you apart from everybody else is your, your weight.
[00:07:06] I think your level of cardiovascular fitness. I think particularly on the cricket field, but I think it goes through to most sports as well. So it's for those who can look after themselves the best, will have the longest longevity, can you say, in the game, but also have the biggest carry over to their skill set moving forward.
[00:07:23] Because there's a lot of equally skilled players, but the ones that stood out and made the The number one run score on the team was super light and super, super fit. If we're being honest, we saw that. So, you know, having that sort of skill set and I think for people to learn this moving forward is that you can't discount fitness the older you get, particularly when it comes to sports.
[00:07:44] In fact, it's the biggest separating factor, I think. So will that
[00:07:47] Josh Kennedy: be your, your number one tip then get you make sure you are cardiovascularly as fit as you possibly can. And also did you feel that it was, cause obviously cricket you're running between the wickets. So, you know, you, you did some running [00:08:00] as well in your program, but do you feel the assault bike had a really good carry over as well for that?
[00:08:04] James Breese: In terms of recovery? Absolutely. Absolutely. Cause we were working on 22nd, 32nd pieces, which was. was very, had a huge carrier to what we were doing in the, in the field. So it was also a way of sprinting without actually sprinting. And again, the older you get as, as aging athletes, you know, we've got to be mindful of like injuries, risk, you know, we've got to mitigate all these things as best as we possibly can.
[00:08:26] So it had that carryover effect. So I think combining the both was really, it was really useful. I'm trying to think what else was the biggest takeaway in terms of that. But yeah, so that, you know, the assault bike definitely, I think, should be part of any cricketers program, hands down, particularly in season, potentially, as a way of doing it.
[00:08:42] But I think what that cardiovascular fitness allowed me to do as well, and also the mobility stuff, and focusing on mobility and stretching before and after, because one of the things I did every day, like, religiously, was yoga every day, or some form of mobility every morning, 15 20 minutes. It allowed me to recover faster.[00:09:00]
[00:09:00] So a lot of people would go from, we play Monday, Tuesday, rest, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, rest, Saturday, Saturday, Monday games. It's quite intense. So we did, what I did was make sure we could recover well. Uh, I want to tell you one
[00:09:12] Josh Kennedy: thing. Did you have the other guys in the team doing that as well? Were they, were they doing the mobility stretching?
[00:09:17] James Breese: Some of the boys did, but I tell you what I was really impressed with was a lot of the boys did. I think cold water therapy, I think is the best way to put it, is like the pool in the hotel was freezing cold, so even though no matter how hot it was outside, it was always quite cold. So the boys did, religiously, they had a cold bath in the morning, in the pool, and then after the game as well, they went into the cold, into the cold water.
[00:09:39] So I think that helped a lot of them too, in terms of recovery.
[00:09:42] Josh Kennedy: Definitely. It's, it's well known to be good for recovery. It's not a magic pill, but it is good for recovery.
[00:09:47] James Breese: Yeah. So again, I think, again, just a quick recap on the lessons we've learned is that the older you get, if you're still playing in sports, the fitter you are.
[00:09:56] The greater the gap between [00:10:00] you and the opposing players will be because you can do any sport, you can do a multitude of things, right? But you can outrun them, outplay them, outlast them. You know, there's a whole lot of things here now if you're equally skilled. So I think that's a key takeaway there. And don't neglect mobility and your weight as well.
[00:10:17] I think that's those the three takeaways from what i've learned from the cricket world cup other than it being an absolutely great Fantastic time and I want to do it again.
[00:10:24] Josh Kennedy: Fantastic. When is the have you got another competition coming up anytime? We got
[00:10:28] James Breese: the season starting soon the seas cricket season starting up.
[00:10:31] So And then again, you know, there's another lesson as well is no matter with all good intentions When you're out in an environment like that So obviously I went down to 68 kilos, so I ended up putting a, a kilo and a half on because we were eating so much when we were out there. So, so even doing sports and competition, which is no fact in season, people put on weight all the time.
[00:10:52] So I ended up putting a kilo and a half. So I am, I'm in in mind now for the mindset, now for the coming season. So I've got a kilo and a half to lose. [00:11:00] We'll,
[00:11:01] Josh Kennedy: we'll get you there. No problem at all. Uh, thank you for that. James. Much appreciated. That is it for today. Please don't forget to rate review and subscribe.
[00:11:08] And if you want to find out more about our system of training, go to strengthmanners. com forward slash system.