Rightfully, few people want to admit to feeling that way. And the reality is many people do experience stress that is actually nothing like what I have just explained. I am such as person. Rebranding stress was crucial in my overcoming of it. Let me explain.

A big part of my rebranding of stress lied in recognising what stress actually is from a physiological perspective. I will try to expain this succinctly: Stress is the perception of a stimulus that results in the hypothalamus communicating neurologically and hormonally to the pituitary, which then communicates via hormones with the adrenal system to release epinephrine (acutely) and cortisol. This response basically gets us amped up for action. It is a good thing, if we didn’t have a HPA stress response we would resemble sloths. I deliberately used the word ‘stimulus’ instead of the more commonly used ‘threat’ as I feel ‘stimulus’ is more relevant to the stress I experienced.

The stress that I dealt with was related to a major flaw in human design. My brain was not fitted with an ‘off’ switch!

An analogy that I like that describes the landscape inside my brain was that it was like one of those stock market electronic ticker tapes, the ones with the 5 or 6 layers of messages over-lapping one-another. One layer would be what I was currently doing, the next on what I was going to cook for dinner, the next on some research and development I needed to do, the next on remembering to call my Mum, and so-on. I wasn’t thinking negatively about any of those things, often the feeling was benign or actually an excited anticipation.

But as a result of being constantly on alert about something that may potentially happen in the future, or analysing details of events past, I was constantly wired for action. This resulted in a number of unfortunate consequences, such as; compromised cognitive abilities relating to memory, problem solving and creativity because of my lack of present time awareness;   increased production of ‘stress’ hormones from the HPA axis resulting in disruption to sleep and eventually adrenal fatigue; increased muscle tension resulting in back and neck pain and headaches. Not fun.

I’ll remind you at this point that I experienced all of these consequences without  ever really  feeling anxious, depressed, frustrated or any other strong emotions typically associated with stress.

So what did I do to overcome stress?

• Firstly I recognised that the way I was functioning was not working for me- I accepted that I was chronically stressed.
• Next I removed basically everything from my diet that puts undue strain upon the adrenal system- namely caffeine containing foods and beverages and alcohol. I also added in some widely available nutritional supplements that are known to assist energy production at a cellular level.
• I reduced my exercise volume in the short term, then gradually built it back up again.
• I started writing myself to-do lists, and then actually did the things on my list!
• I rediscovered meditation and practiced for 20 mins daily. Meditation serves a number of different purposes- for me it was an exercise in bringing peace and quiet to my otherwise manic mind. It was the off-switch my brain needed.

Stress is not a bad thing if we can use it to our advantage and also disengage and enjoy silence in those moments between. Meaningful relaxation is a pillar of health that almost everyone in our busy society neglects. Find some quiet and you’ll be amazed at the what happens.

If you were thumbing through the Sunday paper over the weekend, you may have come across two separate full-page articles eight pages apart from each other.

The first carried the big bold headline ‘Exercise Won’t Make You Thin‘. The second had the headline ‘How I Went From Virtually Zero to $3.5 MILLION of Real Estate Wealth in Just 18 MONTHS!‘

OK seriously…how much more of this do we have to put up with?

Let me reiterate – full page articles – albeit prefaced with the tiny caption ‘Advertisement’, constructed to appear as normal news articles to lure the sleepy Sunday reader into a barrage of support for the sensational headline!

For all I would like to say about the lack of integrity in commercial advertising and journalism – I’ll keep it to this:

Clearly, for the right price, you can say whatever you want to whoever you want, shirking responsibility for the resultant trail of carnage from a skewed truth presented to make yourself a buck.

Now let me address the latter of the two articles. I’m no good with money! But I’m sure for most people aiming to build wealth it’s a matter of time, dedication, focus, common sense and educated application. These are values that ensure sustained and steady growth, holding one in good stead to maintain their success into the future.

I have also observed that wealth inherited has less value and sustainability to it. Lotto winners for example, suddenly find themselves with all that they’ve been hoping for – HOPING it would fall into their lap! No investment of structure, strategy or education. No effort. Rather a weekly commitment to buying a raffle ticket in the hope of those lucky stars shining down on them one night.

Funnily enough, the quick-fix ticket leaves some 80% of Lotto winners filing bankruptcy within 5 years.

The parallel into health and fitness is EXACTLY the same. Real success stories come when people have a mindset of longevity and decide to align their lifestyle to support what they are aiming to achieve. Gimmicks, fads, weight-loss supplements – sure – they can work. But they’re like winning the lottery. You don’t have to invest all that much to get what you want, so you value your achievements less. And because you never had to implement any sustainable management practise, you end up back where you started.

For those who do take note of advertising – be it an amazing piece of equipment to make your ab’s pop, or be it a special shake that swells up to 50 times it’s original volume to take up space in your stomach and soak up fat and cholesterol (yes, that’s the alternative to exercise as presented in the Sunday Mail!):

BEWARE OF THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE THEY USE TO SELL YOU STUFF!

Even when they use terms like ’8-week double-blind clinical trial’! What this really means is that the product they are trying to flog off to us like a lottery ticket for our health has been validated against some other control over a period of 8 weeks to achieve more efficient results in this block of time. What is not presented is the sustainability of these results. And so I fork out to become the lotto winner – the guy that was in the right place, at the right time, with the right supplement – only to find that I had no grounding to manage myself sustainably and therefore squander something which I didn’t have to work that hard for!

With so much more that could be said in contention with this particular advertisement, I’ll throw a blanket over the fire of the specifics to cover all gimmick health advertising:

We’re not in this pickle of obesity and chronic illness because something internal to us has changed. We’re in it because our external world has made physical laziness acceptable.

Why do so many people go around in circles with health and weight? Because false advertising and manipulative interpretation of data allows us to hear what we want to hear – that our health shouldn’t require effort. That’s great news to a generation of people who don’t have time to look after themselves. A perfect pitch to make a buck, and we’re all too busy to keep the bastards honest!

Right up there for me with the Ab King Pro and other elaborate fold-out clothes hangers is the phenomenon of toning shoes.

 You’ve seen them: they kind of look like canoes for your feet. And that’s pretty much how they act as well.

Canoes were built to move in one direction. If you’ve ever been in a canoe and tried to steer it or turn it around, you know what I mean! In any plane other than forward motion they are clumsy and awkward.

I was recently asked for advice on these shoes, so here goes:

There are two issues at stake here. The first is the ‘toning’ aspect of the shoe, the second is the ‘shoe’ and it’s role in assisting foot function.

Toning

Let’s blow this buzz word up once and for all. What do people really want when they approach a health professional to help them ‘tone-up’?

They want to look buff, right?!

The concept of toning is a massive misconception, with the idea being that if you repeatedly contract a muscle it will become this beautiful contour beneath your skin.

Let me draw your attention to the heavy weight athletes. Olympic lifters and shot putters for example. In a field of these athletes, there will be some really buff dudes (and dudettes), and some who you’d pass on the street and judge as needing to do a bit of exercise.

Do you think the fat ones train any less?

I don’t, but I’d dare say they take their carb-loading a little more seriously! And there are of course genetics at play – the classic ‘opt-out’ clause for us professionals who can’t come up with a rational explanation! We can influence how we nourish ourselves to achieve ‘tone’, however ‘tone’ may present differently in varied genetic environments.

Shoe

The foot is an amazingly intricate construction. It consists of many joints and articulations which, by design, allow it to act in multiple planes at once. And when you consider the foot you must also consider the ankle, knee and hip.

The ankle is a multi-planar joint also, allowing us to absorb and re-distribute load in multiple directions throughout the cycle of gait.

Now I must confess to having never worn toning shoes. But I have seen them function first-hand.

The thing about shoes is that they should support the normal movements of the foot and ankle. As with anything movement based, if you restrict a link within a chain, the compensation will become evident at another point. Toning shoes are built to keep you moving forward. Any deviation to this momentum can become problematic to the knee and hip, as joints of the foot and ankle that are designed to absorb lateral and rotational force are fixed on a canoe-like platform.

Consider now the normal forces associated with gait, or even any single legged stance. When you stand on one leg, I’ll wager that falling directly forward or back is the least of your concerns (unless you are on the edge of a really tall building). You may actually find that you are more concerned with not tipping sideways, or at the very least diagonally, indicating the involvement of a transverse plane of movement as well as a frontal and a saggital plane.

Toning shoes make an intelligent series of joints dumb!

Restricting movement by blocking two planes of motion will not only contribute little to making your legs buff, but it will open your lower limb complex to weakness and dysfunction in essential movement planes. For real results in ‘toning’, there is no substitute for effort – a piece of equipment or engineered shoe that sounds too good to be true is exactly that. Address your nutrition and find an activity that you enjoy and that challenges you. That’s where the buffness will come from!

When you walk into iNform, you may notice our slightly more, ‘minimalist’ approach to equipment. Rather than machines, what we have in abundance is empty space (and if truth be told, we’d all like even more of that!). The two machines that hold centre stage on our floor, the two floating cables, have a potential range of exercises available that is limited only by our collective imagination.

These machines are kept company by a wide range of free-weights, balance equipment and gym-balls. This apparent lack of equipment  has nothing to do with penny pinching- it is completely by design.

For you to exercise well in iNform’s gym environment you have to learn to master movements of only one machine- and it is the most complex, amazing, finely tuned machine in all existence. Your body.

Exercising on simple machines such as those found in big gyms teaches you nothing about how to use your body. The strength gains that you may make according to the increasing numbers of plates you are lifting has next to no cr0ssover to improved functionality of your body. If you exercise your body in a more functional way, as is fundamentally required inside iNform’s gym you will gain strength that has a tangible effect upon your day-to-day activities.

Another positive is that if you use to use your body well, your body becomes a free piece of exercise equipment of almost limitless potential.  Here are three seemingly simple exercises that are tremendously challenging to do well and require nothing more than you and the floor.

Four-Point Alternating Arm Leg Lifts:

Starting on all-fours, lift one arm and slide the opposite foot back until it is lifted without dropping the rib-cage or

moving the pelvis side-to-side. This requires tremendous core strength and control.

Single Legged Squat: 

When you foam roll you are adopting a technique called ‘myofascial release’. Myofascia simply means the fascia (like the white connective tissue you find on a cut of meat) surrounding or separating the ‘myo’ (muscle). Fascia is a spider-web like material which weaves its way through, around, over and under every structure in your body. IT’S EVERYWHERE. Where there’s more need for load, such as a weight bearing task, the body lays down more fascia in those areas. Fascia increases its density in response to increased loads and stresses. When you went from crawling to standing for the first time, it was inevitable that you would have fallen over first because the fascia providing support hasn’t adapted to the new load.

“Fascia increases its density in response to increased loads and stresses”

Repetitive stresses and increasing loads causes a thickening of the connective tissue. Now think about your typical day to day activities. Do you sit at a desk, working on a computer for hours at a time? Do you go to the gym and do the same exercises over and over again? Hit a ball with the same hand or kick a ball with the same leg all the time? What you’re doing is increasing layers of connective tissue in those areas. I’m not saying that any of the above is either good or bad because everybody is different but I want you to simply understand the process that’s taking place. These increased loads could be the cause of some of your ongoing pains and aches or possibly set you up for more injury. How so? Well let’s take a look…

“Fish without water is a dead fish, Muscle without nutrients is a dead muscle”

Remember that myofascia means the connective tissue surrounding or separating muscle tissue. Think of it like a fish within a net. Give the fish room to move and have nutrients freely flowing and the fish will survive. Fascia and muscle is the same. Keep the fascia from binding up too tight and the surrounding tissue will be healthy. What if you don’t stop the net from binding up? 

 The fish (muscle) has less room to move and water (blood and nutrients) can’t move as freely through the gaps. Simply said, Fish without water is a dead fish, Muscle without nutrients is a dead muscle. What you may describe as a ‘knot’ or a ‘trigger point’ within the body is a dehydrated point in the muscle. To sum it all up, if you tighten up your fascia, you dehydrate the muscle and can end up with nasty knots, complaining of stiffness and pain. So how do we go about fixing this?

 We need to address the load that’s being placed on that particular area. For the office worker with poor posture, using techniques to improve your posture will decrease the load on their lower and upper back. Trying to change your patterns of repetitive load is ideal to prevent further adhesions but it’s important to control the tightness that’s already taken place. You now know that this process WILL take place so when you get the chance it’s important you manage it before you fall into a continuous cycle. How so?

FOAM ROLL. When you foam roll, you are breaking up this connective tissue at those areas of highest stress in your body. This breaks down the adhesions within the fascia to promote the movement of nutrients and rehydrate the surrounding tissue again.  Think about it, you are about to go and work your muscles, but they are dehydrated and not working effectively. Your body will now compensate and your chances of having an injury has just rapidly increased. It’s to prevent injury, get more out of your sessions and make you feel better that your trainers are always on your case.

Foam Rolling tips to make your life easier

DON’T LET IT HURT – The fascial system is controlled by the nervous system and if you are in a lot of pain and discomfort, you up-regulate the nervous system which will make it impossible to relax the fascia.

 WARM UP FIRST – Connective tissue is held together by a gelatinous like substance which is broken down when heated up. Think of trying to move a spoon through cold honey…it’s very sticky! Now heat it up and do it again…much easier.

 GE THE TIMING RIGHT – If you are an office worker, break up long bouts of sitting with a short walk and then some foam rolling. If you are an athlete you may need to do it before and after sport. Before, to facilitate effective movement and after to reduce the overactive laying down of fascia. This is one to ask your trainer about if you are unsure.

 READ THIS AGAIN – If you don’t understand it and don’t believe in it, you simply won’t do it. I urge you to read this one more time and understand it.

 GOOD LUCK

I was recently on a running track alongside a busy highway when I received a spray of abuse from a passenger in a car. It’s not  the first time it has happened – actually it’s surprisingly common. Obviously it didn’t hurt me, and I suppose it comes out of the joy within an action that bears no consequence. Whatever. I don’t really get it…but it leaves me thinking every time. In a twisted way it motivates me. I start to think about how I would respond if the abuser actually had the gaul to do it NOT from a car driving 80kph in the opposite direction to me!

So, with tongue slightly in cheek – and without wanting to be labelled an internet tough guy – I leave my response to destiny  in the hands of cyberspace.

Here’s why you’re better off undertaking some physical activity than riding shotgun in a passenger vehicle:

 

1. Lack of serotonin. All that sitting on your bum in a mate’s car leaves your system lagging in it’s production of this ‘feel good’ hormone that comes when you actually move your body. Being constantly grumpy due to inactivity would explain random outlays of abuse!

2. Too much cortisol. It must be stressful when you’re stuck in a butt-shaped print on a car seat all your life. And presumably the influence of drive-thru Macca’s (or whatever the kids are buying these days!) doesn’t help this predicament. With cortisol driving those adrenal glands in an attempt to get the body moving, but the grumpy old hypothalamus signalling that it’s way cooler to sit in a passenger seat and get fat, it’s no wonder such outbursts occur! How else are you going to deal with the systemic build up of excess energy.

3. A pea-sized brain. Considering that BDNF production (a protein best described as ‘miracle-gro’ for the brain) is a direct result of regular movement, we could surmise that the result of hours spent heckling from the passenger seat is the occurence of physical growth south of the brain. This becomes a vicious cycle – as the brain gets smaller and the gut gets bigger, the abuse continues to get dumber.

4. Napoleon complex – ‘Small man syndrome’ – or some other form of inferiority complex involving overcompensation, where mental limitations cause feelings of inferiority upon unfavorable comparison of oneself with the superior achievements of others.

Ok so point 4 is only mildly scientific – I just thought I’d throw it in with the unlikely event that my slanderer might come across this post – it’s more of a point in jest as this is the only forum for response that such an act has afforded me!

Intrinsic motivation is the catalyst for a good mood. My poor ‘mate’ riding in a beat up old car hasn’t learned this yet. His motivation was external and reactionary, and he has gained nothing more than a short-lived chuckle from his actions.

It doesn’t have to be running. Any physical activity you choose to pursue to better yourself will benefit your immediate wellbeing. People who understand this have the capacity to lift others due to their own inner resolve.

Even exercising alone is essentially a pro-social act due to the subsequent release of ‘happy hormones’ which create a positive mood to project onto others.

Far better for all around me that I run hard whilst alone than I ‘socialise’ in an anti-social format.

Unfortunately I fear that I’m already preaching to the converted, but maybe if you see these guys around you could pass on my message!

‘Freedom of expression’ implies some sort of unbridled artistry is on display, but truth be told the way most people run is far from artistic and painfully bridled. The reason for this amazing variance in how human beings run is the same as that which gives large collections of animals their biomechanical uniformity. Environment.

When the sun rises, all antelope get up at about the same time, start grazing at the savannah in the the same way for about the same amount of time, move across the same landscape in the same temperature conditions for the same percentage of the day, then tuck in at night again, at about the same time. Their anatomical structures are uniform, their environment is uniform, and their needs and means to fulfill them are uniform. Therefore they move the same.

We on the other hand, experience an environment that is both inconsistent from person to person and contrary to what our body is actually built for.

We, like all animals adapt to the environment we are in and unfortunately those adaptations often conflict with the biomechanical and physiological requirements for high quality running.

An example- one that I see often. The species I shall name Computus Captivius from the Genus, Sendentarius. See image below.

Computus Captivius

This extremely common specimen is characterised by a depressed sternum, forward head, forward rolled shoulders, absence of apparent core musculature, glutes that serve only as cushions, shortened hip flexors, stiff feet and often short, tight, deconditioned deep lower limb muscles.

Basically this individual has adapted perfectly to her/his environment by making some muscles shorter and tighter  and allowing other muscles to switch off due to being surplus to requirements. This is not a problem if all  Computus Captivius wants to do is sit in front of a computer. But if they decided to take up running? I’m sorry but this animal simply does not have a body that is capable of running  well!

This, coupled with a simple lack of skill is why I see so many people running with their shoulders forward, head bobbing all over the place, hips flexed and shuddering on impact, and heels that are violently striking the earth like they hold some crazed vendetta against it.

In order to run well, the following physical traits must be yours:

• A thoracic spine that is mobile in extension and rotation.
• A set of core musculature that is correctly active. The core doesn’t have to be strong, just working properly. See my blog http://informhealth.com/the-core-what-is-it-and-why-should-i-care/ for further reading.
• Glutes that work- they know what to do and when to do it (and when not to).
• Hips that can extend ten degrees- meaning the thigh bone can lever backwards relative to the pelvis unrestricted.
• Lower limb muscles, such as the tibialis posterior, tibialis anterior, peroneals and big calf mucles (gastrocnemius and soleus) that are in good working order (not tight) and have great endurance.
• Intelligent feet- This means feet that are mobile but have their mobility finely tuned by the appropriate muscles plus an accurate and prompt information channel from the nervous system.

That sounds like a hell of a list. But each of those traits, if currently foreign to you, are quite simple to acquire through correct training. In order to run well you first need a body that is physically capable of doing so. As a species we have been ‘inteligent’ enough to manufacture an environment that is alien to our physical make-up. Fortunately we are also intelligent enough to correct the adaptations we make.

Entropy and Posture

The phenomenon of Entropy applies to all matter in existence.  Put simply, it is the unavoidable tendency for things to move from a more ordered to  a more disordered state. This quality is why the arrow of time travels only in one direction. This of course applies to us: Our physical body degrades over time and at some point in the future it will become dust, and then it will continue to degrade until our body is nothing more than uniform subatomic particles. That’s a nice thought isn’t it?!

Certainly if you look at our entire population as we age you will see a reasonably uniform rate of degradation across a wide number of our systems, our musculoskeletal system and the posture it produces is one such example. The rate in which our posture degrades (or collapses) is largely determined by time and gravity. Let me go back a step. Let’s think of age being merely an accumulation of time, and more precisely relating to our posture, an accumulation of time under gravity. Gravity is a force that is inescapable on earth, and it relentlessly pushes (or pulls, I forget which) us downwards towards the centre of the earth.

A Neutron Star

Our posture collapsing into the slouched, hunched position we so easily asign to aging is merely the accumulation of time under gravity. But time doing what exactly? We do have an active neuromuscular system which is more than capable of countering gravity’s relatively weak force here on earth. If we were living on a neutron star, where the gravitation field is around 2×10 to the eleventh power greater than that of the earth’s then we would struggle to stay upright, but fortunately we don’t.

So perhaps that typical elderly posture is resultant from an accumulation of time under gravity without adequate engagement of our neuromuscular system. Or in English, lots of time doing very little. So over the course of inactive time our intervertebral discs become more compressed and lose fluid, our vertebral bodies slowly collapse and the weight of our head drags our sternum down and curves our upper back. 

What if on the other hand, we were strengthening our postural muscles a few times per week?

The equation would then read ‘an accumulation of time actively resisting the force of gravity’ which would mean we would get stronger or develop greater neuromuscular tone as we get older (or at least dramatically slow the rate of degradation). We know that movement is great for re-hydrating discs and that weight bearing activity helps to strengthen both our bones and the muscles and nerves that use them.

If we started postural strength training during our middle-aged years, particularly if we have had a reasonably sedentary job in the preceding years it would almost certainly result in an increase in height, as we would be standing up taller. This is proven to me consistently when comparing postural photos during reviews with clients. From a postural point of view, clients often look younger as the photos become more recent.

 The next question is- was it my client that got taller or did the Doctor and Nurse shrink? I may have to drop them off some business cards!!

Recently I’ve noted a number of reports on Australians who aren’t taking holidays.

In fact, almost a third of Australian workers have no planned leave in the next 12 months.

In a rare moment of nostalgia over the weekend, my mind was cast back to my youth in the ’80′s. I saw a video clip from 1986, where a lady was dancing with total abandon to herself. It may have been my ignorance to the big bad world at the time, but I was taken by the simplicity of  it all. No special effects, REAL instruments, images of books with tangible paper pages. Classic ’80′s production epitomising the world in which I grew up.

Life seemed much simpler then! Although my parents would have me believe otherwise. Their constant ribbing of how easy we have it nowadays – EVERYTHING is literally at our finger tips. I’m grateful for a job that requires me to see and interact with real people as I could easily live out my life from the couch in my living room.

And sadly in this day and age, I could also see this as perfectly normal!

Life as we know it surely can’t get much more convenient. Yet we have never been more stressed – and are arguably the most stressed country in the world. I don’t need to reel off the stats on our national health status – but I will point out that they are indicative of the load that we are collectively under.

Convenience is the very poison that has led to a stressed out nation. In the ’80′s, the old brown briefcase was the limit to what we could bring home each night. And I was taught as a young lad that you never made phone calls around dinner time for fear of interrupting someone else’s dinner! The phone calls that we received on our old red phone with it’s numerical rotary dial were never related to business – low and behold we often had callers who wanted nothing but a good old fashioned ‘chin wag’ about anything other than work!

The nature of drip-fed stress infiltrating more of our waking hours makes us feel busier than we need to be. I’ve got a few mates who call my mobile and sometimes get no immediate response. They have dubbed me ‘Grandpa‘ because they are under the illusion that I forget to carry it with me sometimes. Truth be told, I deliberately leave it behind or, God forbid, turned off, regularly during the week. The world hasn’t yet ended because I missed an important phone call – or <insert mobile electronic media notification example here> – for that matter!

So, in sync with the ‘holiday season’, may I suggest the emergence of a new pattern – or perhaps the re-emergence of an old one: switch off the phone, shut down the computer, perhaps even leave the laptop at work…and rediscover the many joys that can be obtained outside of work. It’s fine to enjoy work: happy is he who’s work is his play – but remember that play can and should occur in many forms. And while we’re on cliches regarding work: Absence really can make the heart grow fonder!

Do you ever think that you would feel better if you could run 5km’s without stopping? Or 10km? And does your picture of health involve a person who does this multiple times per week, perhaps with the resemblance of a smile on their face?

Are your barriers to achieving this for yourself centred around time, ability or pain? If so, read on, because I’ve got some good news.

Chances are that you can do it. And it doesn’t have to be running! As you read on, please substitute your desired mode of exercise whenever you come across a reference to running!

The problem with things that appear unattainable is that it’s often based on an acute judgement.

“I just tried to run five k’s and broke down before I’d finished ONE! I guess I’m not made for running.”

But you just ran! It is with caution that I proceed with a preemptive reference to Scott Wood’s series Learn To Run (http://informhealth.com/learn-to-run-part-1/), as we must always take into account technical and mechanical issues when taking on a challenge such as running. But I’ll aim to address the concept of conditioning, to compliment the technical expertise that Scott has to offer.

I’m not great with money. But I understand that the right investments can bring reward over time. I have a great Financial Planner who helps me to see past what I could buy with my small sum of money today, by showing me what my future could look like if I put some of it into the right investments. The dividends are not instant, but the cumulative effect of interest calculated daily (or whatever!) will add up to something substantial over time. The thing is, I have to work at it now.

In the same way, one run neither makes you fit nor does it determine your capacity. If you can walk, you probably have some capacity to run. It may be three steps, it may be three minutes. But anyone who can hold themselves upright has some level of physical condition.

Condition is a totally trainable parameter.

If you’re still reading, here’s the really good news: One year from now, you can be running far further than you can now, and you can be doing it multiple times per week!

Let’s take 5 km as an achievable example. Here’s what it will cost you:

• A few minutes, invested three times a week with interest calculated weekly to a ceiling of about 30-40 minutes
• A watch with a timer on it
• A pair of shoes

I’d hazard a guess that you’ve already got at least 2 of those things!

What to do next:

Go and run as far as you can without hurting yourself. That’s your reference – your current level of condition.

Condition refers to the efficiency and effectiveness of numerous systems within your body that work simultaneously to achieve an output. Your metabolic system is responsible for energy production. Your respiratory system supplies oxygen to your bloodstream. Your cardiovascular system supplies oxygenated blood to working muscles. Your musculoskeletal system moves you through space. Your elastic (tendinous/ligamentous) system absorbs and disperses load. Your lymphatic system ensures that you recover. Your limbic systems tells you how you are feeling about your training. And so on…

Conditioning is the process by which these systems are loaded for growth. Your body has amazing adaptive capabilities, whereby upon repeated stimulus, it will learn to heighten it’s response so that ‘above normal’ stimulus becomes just a ‘normal’ stimulus. The balancing act with conditioning is finding the right amount of load to achieve mild shock, but to prevent large shock to some or all of the above systems.

“We’ll beat it by 10%!”

So here’s what you do next: Run again! Knowing how far you went last time, therefore knowing that you have at least that level of condition, aim to repeat the effort with the goal of beating it at least once out of your three weekly runs. A safe progression is to work on the common sales pitch – a 5-10% improvement on your weekly performance is adequate, if not optimal, for conditioning.

Remember we set the ceiling at 30-40 minutes per session, so your 5-10% progressions shouldn’t be limited to time. Covering the same distance faster is a progression; as is covering a longer distance over the same time; as is simply covering a longer distance over more time; and so it goes with fitness variables. The net result of training multiple variables is a better quality performance, and a greater outcome for your fitness and health.

The cumulative effect of this improvement will have you running faster and further in a matter of weeks, and I’ll wager that you’ll enjoy the thrill of beating your previous best! You know how fast a year goes? This time next year you could be doing more exercise than you thought possible of yourself, and your health, work and family life might just come along for the ride!