Unleash the Monkey Army

As I'm a bit of a social media whore you may have already noticed that I' m trying something familiarly new. I say social media whore, I put a lot of burpees and coffee comments out there with some learning points along the way but am always pleasantly, if not awkwardly surprised when somebody tells me firstly that they read any of it and secondly that they enjoy it. I am not so much of a whore that I have yet accepted any of the direct offers to "collab? DM me" or buy followers. Honestly, and this probably makes me sound old but that makes less sense to me than putting every brain fart out into the ether as it is. Anyhoo. After about 15 years of throwing kettlebells around (literally in some cases) I've decided to give Kettlebell Sport ago. Crucially, I've also opted for working with a coach to do so. I've had the privilege of working with some very good coaches in their fields (and gyms) but in more recent years that has been occasional and with more of

Momentum, that sense of movement, of continuity of movement (sometimes when we’re stationary but that’s another story), and for a lot of us, the feeling that is missing this year. I’ve been lucky enough to have a go at a couple of truck pulls, scratching child itches that formed from an early age (Geoff Capes and Daley Thompson were childhood heroes) and reflecting on that and some of my other sporting endeavours helps draw out a couple of things which might be helpful in these times. The British readers of this will know the part of the Festive season ritual of sitting down with turkey leftovers or tin of sweets and watching World’s Strongest Man. With the growing popularity of strongman in recent years, others of you may have come across it in different ways.  The vehicle pull (mine are not even close to being in that league by the way) is a staple. It starts with a colossal effort, with every fibre of your being straining to overcome inertia, the “desire” of the object to remain sta

   Recently somebody said to me, in a grateful, good humoured way, “I wouldn’t want your job, you seem like an empathic chap”. Unusually for me, I took that as a compliment, but there are some echoes of other conversations in this which make it slightly disappointing if anything.  We need more human understanding in our world, not less. As long as we see this as something other, we’re missing an opportunity to learn and push on as a species. As Feynman said “Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.” Communication skills speak to all of these elements. Like many skills which get labelled as “soft skills”, there is a hard edge, practical utility and commercial benefit to be gained from investing the time in the development of empathy.  Empathy is the skill of understanding, putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes to view the world from their perspective. Where sympathy is a feeling of concern and wanting to see improvement (wh

It's the day after Trojan's Strongest Man 2017 and I've had a night's sleep and a chance to regain my customary composure. So, having picked up my dummy and put my toys back in my cot, here's my traditional reflection on my antics. It's the 6th year that the event had been run. Matty and the Trojan family put together a good occasion. It's easy to forget or overlook how much work goes into getting something started; keeping it ticking over and  clearing up after. Thank to everybody involved for giving us the opportunity to show off the product of our work. But it wasn't all about showing off. The proceeds from the day went to CLASP (Counselling Life Advice Suicide Prevention www.claspcharity.com), a charity close to the hearts of the Trojan family. An immaculately observed minute's silence before the young son of a fallen friend released two balloons in memoriam was a touching moment. Not at all unusually for a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK

I'm about a week out from competition and that means that my mind is starting to dwell a little. This gives me chances to rationalize and start to shape and control those mental processes.  2017 has been an interesting experience for me so far but we'll keep to my age and the training perspective for now. 2016 closed off with a focus on burpees (the annual 100 day ladder carrying through from September to December) and the indoor rowing Crazy Bear Challenge (30 Half-marathons in 44 days). I came through both ok, setting a personal best with my final 21km. But it meant that I hadn't done any kind of strength work since October. That's ok. Activities have a "season" as you shift focus.  So in January I joined the resolutioners crowd in the gym and started back at it. It was not long before my bicep tendon and brachioradialis were giving me grief and only a month of self-treatment/avoiding certain aspects of training before I sought treatment. Through thi

A couple of conversations I’ve had recently have started me thinking about strength and its importance to me. I list it as one of my core values and my social media feed would suggest obsession at almost dangerous levels. And yet, I don’t really think I look like it. Sure, I’m large but that’s easily dismissed as desk jockey/all-you-can-eat-buffet-fan. I have this bad habit of writing these blog posts without a plan, so I have no idea where this might end up, but I’d like to try to explain. The weights room is my happy place. Not in a nip-slip, Gym Shark vest, mirror-posing, cheat-curling-in-the-squat-rack, Brozilla kind of way. It’s also not about ego. I’m only moderately strong and body composition is not my target. I say moderately strong on an objective basis rather than any self-deprecation. I’m stronger than a lot of people but in a strong gym or even a college weights room there are plenty stronger. I enjoy the lifting. So much that normally occupies my mind falls a

Amongst the many, many things that I can be grateful for in my life to date, my parents exposing me to Monty Python is right up there! I remember hearing a song called "I'm so worried". I have had my issues with fear and worry but have, fortunately, never hit the debilitating near-universal concern of the song! Indeed, many people who interact with me on a day to day basis have commented on my  lack of worrying about almost everything (and people have remarked that it would be nice to see me look a little concerned once in a while!). So, what's occurring? As regular readers may remember, a couple of weeks ago I entered Ironworx Gymnasium's (in Westbury, Wiltshire @IronworxGym) strongman contest. I'd just got back from holiday and a good friend from Nailsworth Strength and Fitness (@NailsworthSF) mentioned it. I was feeling chunky, and aside from burpees, untrained but healthy. But we have established on here that I am a sucker for a challenge, so, what