Here’s how to craft the right training strategies that will get you the results you’re after.

Hey, Mark Perkins here...

If you’re anything like me then what you really want to know is how to train efficiently and effectively around your time constraints so you can meet your goals, whether it’s to move without pain or achieve a new personal best.

And if you are ready to think differently to achieve it. Read this page because I’m going to teach you three pivotal ideas to do just that.

So get a coffee and grab of pen…

These fundamentals have helped me and my clients successfully avoid the common mistakes most people make so they can perform when it matters whilst juggling the huge demands of their work life.

So, I want you to read this page for a very specific reason.

Would you agree…

At your core what you most want is to be stronger and feel better?

Being weak and out of shape is not an option if you want to live longer, healthier.

No matter you’re lifestyle, what you’re in search of is actionable knowledge which shows you how to be healthy and pain free.

If you could just remove the guesswork and get your hands on the best strategies when it comes to getting and staying in your best shape whilst avoiding pain and injury.

If you are ready to Finally Get Results. Read on.

The biggest issue most people have is a shortfall in capacity. They end up struggling to get the progress they really want because their body is just not prepared for the activity or sport they want to do.

There are three basic systems we use for active movement. They are our joints, muscles and brain. Separately they won’t do a lot but together they can help us achieve our potential.

What we need to do is help these systems talk to each other so we can improve our neuromuscular system to trigger the right muscles to generate force at just the right time.

By improving this communication between the three systems we can improve the quality of our movement and life.

So I want to give you a different perspective, one which is about building a sustainable training practice which will allow you to build a body to last, not to break so you can crush your goals.

Specifically, Here’s What We’re Going To Cover Today…

These principles form the framework of everything you absolutely must do if your goal is to play your sport better, or even just be able to run further.

It doesn’t matter what kind of sport you are training for.

Whether it’s a Marathon, Ironman, Play Golf or Ski down mountains these 3 principles are the only way you’ll ever build a successful training practice.

This is how I maintain a consistent training practice that’s helping me to become a better and stronger athlete.

Alright, Let’s Jump In And First A Little Background…

I’m 50 years old.  I’ve been a trainer and sports rehab expert for almost 30 years spending the last 23yrs of those working with top CEO’s and executives in corporate London who want to perform in sport and in life.

I've run a marathon every year since 2005 and I finally ran sub 3hr when I was aged 46. And then got a bit faster. 2.56 in Berlin.

And it’s 32 years since I made the national championships in an event called Biathlon which was a Swim/Run event.

I don’t swim anymore, but I still train about 300 days a year running, lifting and moving following a principle of minimal effective dose for maximal return.

Interestingly, I am taking my performance to a whole new personal level, gaining flow, power and that extra bit I’ve been searching for.

From running efficiency, improving fitness and becoming leaner, I’m convinced my performances can still keep improving.

I’m not telling you this to brag but as a personal living testament of the potential we all have in athletics as we age.  

I should not be running my life’s best at age 50, but I am! Why? 

There are three reasons;

The first is consistency in training.

Regardless of your sport and regardless of your age, consistently doing your sport is what builds expertise and carries that improvement curve on long into the future.

What I mean by consistency is not just doing the same thing over and over in the same way.

I mean that you consistently make a commitment to refine the mechanics of how your body moves in the required motions of your sport.

You need to make it your goal to have your body learn something new each and every day that you train.

People who train without focusing on learning wear down.  

They get injured.  

They become rigid and less efficient as they age and they get frustrated.  

Without a commitment to body learning, it’s tough to keep any sport fresh, to keep outdistancing your age by gaining new skills that lead to new levels of performance.

However, those who continually search for more flow and fluidity, more power within the range of motion required of them.

The people who continually work just that small bit beyond what is required on race day, end up getting faster and better even into their later years.

The key mind set is a dedication to learning something new from the ground floor up every single time you go out and do your sport.

Here’s how it works for me on the roads.

First, running obviously requires conditioning (cardiovascular, muscular strength, endurance for racing, functional range of motion and the neuromuscular capacity to effectively absorb the load running places on my body). 

Clearly I’ve built a lot of cardio and endurance over the years and I continue to keep the ticker strong and I do heaps of strength work to keep every muscle healthy, strong and ready.  

All of this is focused not only on building a consistent training practice but also listening to my body, which for any athlete is the key to longevity in the sport.

Second, I watch how the best train.  What key skills are they performing? How often to they do it? 

What things do they emphasise and when do they do it to support their training and racing? How do they fuel themselves? 

Pre-race, post-race, and when recovering from sessions? What are they doing to recover from each training session and after each race? 

How to do they manage to peak just right? What’s their mental game plan? 

Whatever it is I want to pick up one element that I can implement and focus on until I can do it and it doesn’t feel like an effort or take any thinking on my part.

I know I don’t look like them, but I can feel like them.

I call this learning through modelling.

Throughout human history this has been the one tried and true path for learning a skill, craft, trade or profession - it’s to go study the masters.

I make that commitment to try and have that same feel in my movements whilst be strategic about optimising my energy levels.  

That commitment is paying off as I see improvements in my performance.

Perfect one area at a time until it becomes a new level of automatic. That’s body learning.  

I shifted into this mind-set when I turned 40 because I could see that my running was more or less the same as it had been for the last 10 years.

I wanted to try a new approach to see if I could actually improve, even though I was clearly ageing.

Having my body keep learning has been the critical skill to athletic performance and overall health.

We thrive on the pursuit of the challenge.

Equate hard work to more volume.

Most think it’s the person who trains the hardest who wins.

However, it’s the athlete who nails the fundamentals who does best because this allows consistency and it’s this that leads to success.

Yes you need to put in the time but there are things all athletes can do to improve their performance.

And it starts with being able to move better.

The biggest issue I see is a general lack of movement awareness.

Most people don’t have the least comprehension of how they stand in space. Completely unaware of how they hold themselves and the superfluous muscle activity going on just to hold them up.

And then they expect to be able to participate in sport. Seemingly impatient to get in front of the issues instead obsessed with this culture of pursuing the performance at all costs.

It should come as no surprise that our lifestyles built around modern conveniences create the default habits we have.

Third, we need to learn we must train to move better, because movement skill is critical. 

It’s no surprise over 80% of time-starved people get injured because they don’t engage any proper time in practicing the fundamentals.

More often they become hindered by their injuries. Often thinking the answer to rehab lays in taking a rest or chasing the pain.

Most identify the point of pain as the problem and not understanding the pain in the tissues often doesn’t correlate well to the underlying problem. It could be mechanical or it could be lifestyle. I find people train too hard too often for their ability. They get into a chronic pattern of training harder and harder equating it to better results but that almost never happens.

Any sport requires your body to move well, particularly when you’re under stress and fatigued. 

So think about where you are right now and where you’d like to be. For example, I’d like to feel like I’m still improving and even get a bit faster.

I’m guessing for you it’s something along the lines of just being able to juggle work, life and training so you can perform when it matters.

And maybe having a few key strategies for managing stress, avoiding burnout and finding an optimum balance between endurance, health and life.

Of course that throws up the time issue and how can I fit that in with everything else, and this comes from understanding what the key sessions are that will give the best return on investment of your time?

We need to learn how to move better, we need to learn to prepare ourselves for the load we want to place on our bodies.

As a trainer my question is always how can I help this person achieve more success?  

I see it as my job to pin point the problems and build a programme to help my client get the results they’re after.

I can say with confidence if you will address your individual imbalances it will lead to you getting the best out of yourself. 

I know if I give you the tools and you implement them with pigheaded discipline and determination you can push beyond the boundaries to better and stronger performances.

The goal is to help you move better by getting you to build better skills.

I don’t believe in shortcuts or hacks - if you ask me they are for the most part total nonsense - what does work is having the pigheaded discipline and determination to perform a few tiny habits each day. 

Let me paint you a picture of

how you might approach your Training.

You get up at 6am and, in addition to or instead of a cup of coffee, you down half a pint of water mixed with an electrolyte enhancer like Nuun.

As always, you walk about the house barefoot. 

While you drink your water/electrolyte solution to help restore the water you lost while sleeping.

You prepare your body for the training session you’re about to start, through a careful sequence of mobility, stability and light plyometric drills.

Now thoroughly warmed up you launch into your training session.

But instead of pounding yourself into the pavement, gasping for breath and trying to set a faster pace or new personal best time.

You’ve learnt that it’s not about trying to break yourself every time you train. Instead you train strategically to improve your endurance, movement and build strength because this is the pathway to better health and pain-free performance.

Simply put: Training too hard too often is the single most common and detrimental mistake the majority of people make.

You spend the last part of your training session warming down with something as simple as a five minute walk.

Knowing that you are helping your lymphatic system in doing its job of removing wastes from the interstitial fluids surrounding the muscles and connective tissues that just propelled you through your training session.

Later at the office you try to sit as little as possible so as not to shut off your lymphatic system or shorten the muscles that support a neutral spine position.

Instead you apply a strategy of variance and stand and walk instead of sitting idle, you are now paying attention to how you stand, move and position your feet.

You now hold yourself straight and maintain a light engagement of the muscles of your butt and core to set your pelvis and with your spine in a neutral position.

When you do sit you, you remain especially aware of maintaining a neutral posture.

And guess what?

That Chronic Pain Is No More Because You Focus On The Fundamentals

You have now built in the habit of blending short mobility drills every hour or two, focused on fixing your feet, improving your spinal position and working on parts that require better motor control and end range of motion.

No more trash eating.

Instead you understand the need for a predominantly plant-based approach to fuelling your body and supplementation to nourish, protect and renew your cells.

Properly hydrating and using compression to aid recovery and performance that help open up your pipes so that your lymphatic system replaces wastes products with nutrient flow.

You’ve dumped the Neurofen. Instead replacing it with strength work because you’ve learnt movement is positive and now you have tangible hope and a achievable plan.

You don’t panic at the slightest twinge or niggle, you’ve discovered how to become ‘anti'-fragile’. That hurt doesn’t generally = harm.

Being over-protective not only heightens sensitivity but leads to activity avoidance, rest does not = rehab

This is what leads to under-preparation but you now know that it’s not the activity that breaks you down but the activity you are not prepared for.

Being active is preventive for musculoskeletal pain and helps boost the immune function for recovering from pain, upper respiratory tract infections or GI distress and also promotes better mental and physical health.

Your worldview of resolving dysfunction has expanded far beyond the simple and ineffective hamstring stretch.

Rather your mission is correcting muscle imbalance and poor movement patterns.

You know that you are only as strong as your weakest link and this first principle of movement is what injects some solid performance boosting strategies into your running.

Look around and you’ll see 90% of your colleagues making the same mistakes. Who think the more hours you work or train the more productive and efficient you become.

When you’re on a time-starved schedule it’s not a strategy that will deliver the results you want. At least if you want to avoid pain and stay healthy.

If you want to move well, get strong and be pain-free…

“The MOST important thing you need to learn is HOW to craft the right training strategies that will get you the results you’re after more efficiently”

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