Are you fit but unhealthy?

Once upon a time, I believed that because I was a triathlete training twice a day, six days a week, I was not only super fit but also incredibly healthy. Have you ever thought the same?

As a coach, I now take a holistic view of fitness for myself and the athletes I work with. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of building robust health as the foundation for good fitness. That’s the inspiration behind this title: “You’ll be a human longer than you’ll be an athlete.”

It’s clear that without good health, achieving optimal fitness is impossible. Yet, we often focus more on the outcome than the process. Here are a few habits I was guilty of in my younger days:

• Sacrificing sleep for an early morning training session.
• Assuming I could eat cookies and cakes without consequences (hello, sweet tooth!).
• Training through a head cold because “it’s okay if it’s not on your chest.”
• Being overly hard on myself after a poor race, bad session, or missed workout, even if there was a valid reason.

Could prioritizing health over performance really require drastic changes?​
Not at all.

Good health can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity. Let’s start there.

For example, I know poor sleep leaves me feeling grumpy and impairs my decision-making. That affects what I eat, how I interact with others, and even my training performance. It’s a domino effect, and I used to beat myself up for it.

If you truly want to prioritise health, here are some simple lifestyle changes to consider:

1. Make Sleep a Priority

You might need to slightly reduce your training load, but sometimes less is more. Better recovery equals better performance.

2. Cut Back on Refined Sugar

Start small. Reduce sugar in your tea or coffee. Swap sodas for water or tea. If you enjoy a post-ride snack, skip the cake and opt for something savoury.

3. Respect Your Body When You’re Sick

If you catch a cold, skip training until you’re fully recovered. You’ll bounce back stronger and healthier, with fewer setbacks.

4. Incorporate Daily Mobility

Moving well without restriction or pain is vital. A simple 5–10 minutes of mobility work daily can help you build a sustainable habit. You can see an example of my morning mobility routine in the video below.

​

***You can also download a FREE 8 week mobility and bodyweight strength programme HERE​

5. Disconnect and Recharge

Take time away from screens. Turn off your phone, step away from your computer, and focus on total relaxation. This isn’t your workout time—it’s quiet time to meditate, practice deep breathing, or simply enjoy a good book.

6. Get a Health Screen

If you’re in your 50s or older, a health screening is essential. Prevention is better than cure, and a clean bill of health will give you peace of mind while reinforcing your commitment to other healthy habits.

As the year winds down, many athletes start planning their training for next season—often thinking about how to increase volume or intensity.

But what if improving your lifestyle habits and overall health had the same, if not better, impact on your performance?

Remember, even when you stop being an athlete, you are still a human, and you are investing for these days as well.

Have you ever felt fit but unhealthy? Feel free to share your thoughts on my Facebook page.

​

I really appreciate you being part of my tribe and I look forward to helping you achieve better health and better performance. Simon

​

Please check out these podcasts and articles

​ PODCAST: Sleep special: How to sleep smart to maximise health and performance. Have you ever tried tracking your sleep? I have, and while I learned a lot of really good lessons it also taught me that it isn't always positive. As an early adopter of tech I got into Whoop in 2017, right at the beginning. They even consider me one of their 'founding members', whatever that means! I loved being able to see how much sleep I was really getting versus what I thought I was getting. The splits between deep sleep, REM and light sleep were really interesting. The daily tracking of HRV and readiness to train was also fun. They even gamified sleep so that you could have league tables with friends and see who gets the best sleep score each night. It certainly puts sleep to the front of your thoughts. Listen now

​ ​ ARTICLE: Like paddling on a surfboard It’s curious which phrases stick in our minds. You can hear the same advice from a dozen different people, and then one of them says something in a way that completely resonates. And so it was when I spent some time with swim coach Karlyn Pipes. She told me to float face down and form a Y shape with my arms, like lying on a surfboard. Because of the width of the surfboard, she said, your hands will enter the water a lot wider than normal. Like creating a Y shape. Imagine paddling on a surfboard. Read More (2 min read)

Once upon a time, I believed that because I was a triathlete training twice a day, six days a week, I was not only super fit but also incredibly healthy. Have you ever thought the same?

As a coach, I now take a holistic view of fitness for myself and the athletes I work with. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of building robust health as the foundation for good fitness. That’s the inspiration behind this title: “You’ll be a human longer than you’ll be an athlete.”

It’s clear that without good health, achieving optimal fitness is impossible. Yet, we often focus more on the outcome than the process. Here are a few habits I was guilty of in my younger days:

• Sacrificing sleep for an early morning training session.
• Assuming I could eat cookies and cakes without consequences (hello, sweet tooth!).
• Training through a head cold because “it’s okay if it’s not on your chest.”
• Being overly hard on myself after a poor race, bad session, or missed workout, even if there was a valid reason.

Could prioritizing health over performance really require drastic changes?​
Not at all.

Good health can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity. Let’s start there.

For example, I know poor sleep leaves me feeling grumpy and impairs my decision-making. That affects what I eat, how I interact with others, and even my training performance. It’s a domino effect, and I used to beat myself up for it.

If you truly want to prioritise health, here are some simple lifestyle changes to consider:

1. Make Sleep a Priority

You might need to slightly reduce your training load, but sometimes less is more. Better recovery equals better performance.

2. Cut Back on Refined Sugar

Start small. Reduce sugar in your tea or coffee. Swap sodas for water or tea. If you enjoy a post-ride snack, skip the cake and opt for something savoury.

3. Respect Your Body When You’re Sick

If you catch a cold, skip training until you’re fully recovered. You’ll bounce back stronger and healthier, with fewer setbacks.

4. Incorporate Daily Mobility

Moving well without restriction or pain is vital. A simple 5–10 minutes of mobility work daily can help you build a sustainable habit. You can see an example of my morning mobility routine in the video below.

​

***You can also download a FREE 8 week mobility and bodyweight strength programme HERE​

5. Disconnect and Recharge

Take time away from screens. Turn off your phone, step away from your computer, and focus on total relaxation. This isn’t your workout time—it’s quiet time to meditate, practice deep breathing, or simply enjoy a good book.

6. Get a Health Screen

If you’re in your 50s or older, a health screening is essential. Prevention is better than cure, and a clean bill of health will give you peace of mind while reinforcing your commitment to other healthy habits.

As the year winds down, many athletes start planning their training for next season—often thinking about how to increase volume or intensity.

But what if improving your lifestyle habits and overall health had the same, if not better, impact on your performance?

Remember, even when you stop being an athlete, you are still a human, and you are investing for these days as well.

Have you ever felt fit but unhealthy? Feel free to share your thoughts on my Facebook page.

​

I really appreciate you being part of my tribe and I look forward to helping you achieve better health and better performance. Simon

​

Please check out these podcasts and articles

​ PODCAST: Sleep special: How to sleep smart to maximise health and performance. Have you ever tried tracking your sleep? I have, and while I learned a lot of really good lessons it also taught me that it isn't always positive. As an early adopter of tech I got into Whoop in 2017, right at the beginning. They even consider me one of their 'founding members', whatever that means! I loved being able to see how much sleep I was really getting versus what I thought I was getting. The splits between deep sleep, REM and light sleep were really interesting. The daily tracking of HRV and readiness to train was also fun. They even gamified sleep so that you could have league tables with friends and see who gets the best sleep score each night. It certainly puts sleep to the front of your thoughts. Listen now

​ ​ ARTICLE: Like paddling on a surfboard It’s curious which phrases stick in our minds. You can hear the same advice from a dozen different people, and then one of them says something in a way that completely resonates. And so it was when I spent some time with swim coach Karlyn Pipes. She told me to float face down and form a Y shape with my arms, like lying on a surfboard. Because of the width of the surfboard, she said, your hands will enter the water a lot wider than normal. Like creating a Y shape. Imagine paddling on a surfboard. Read More (2 min read)

Once upon a time, I believed that because I was a triathlete training twice a day, six days a week, I was not only super fit but also incredibly healthy. Have you ever thought the same?

As a coach, I now take a holistic view of fitness for myself and the athletes I work with. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of building robust health as the foundation for good fitness. That’s the inspiration behind this title: “You’ll be a human longer than you’ll be an athlete.”

It’s clear that without good health, achieving optimal fitness is impossible. Yet, we often focus more on the outcome than the process. Here are a few habits I was guilty of in my younger days:

• Sacrificing sleep for an early morning training session.
• Assuming I could eat cookies and cakes without consequences (hello, sweet tooth!).
• Training through a head cold because “it’s okay if it’s not on your chest.”
• Being overly hard on myself after a poor race, bad session, or missed workout, even if there was a valid reason.

Could prioritizing health over performance really require drastic changes?​
Not at all.

Good health can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not just the absence of disease or infirmity. Let’s start there.

For example, I know poor sleep leaves me feeling grumpy and impairs my decision-making. That affects what I eat, how I interact with others, and even my training performance. It’s a domino effect, and I used to beat myself up for it.

If you truly want to prioritise health, here are some simple lifestyle changes to consider:

1. Make Sleep a Priority

You might need to slightly reduce your training load, but sometimes less is more. Better recovery equals better performance.

2. Cut Back on Refined Sugar

Start small. Reduce sugar in your tea or coffee. Swap sodas for water or tea. If you enjoy a post-ride snack, skip the cake and opt for something savoury.

3. Respect Your Body When You’re Sick

If you catch a cold, skip training until you’re fully recovered. You’ll bounce back stronger and healthier, with fewer setbacks.

4. Incorporate Daily Mobility

Moving well without restriction or pain is vital. A simple 5–10 minutes of mobility work daily can help you build a sustainable habit. You can see an example of my morning mobility routine in the video below.

​

***You can also download a FREE 8 week mobility and bodyweight strength programme HERE​

5. Disconnect and Recharge

Take time away from screens. Turn off your phone, step away from your computer, and focus on total relaxation. This isn’t your workout time—it’s quiet time to meditate, practice deep breathing, or simply enjoy a good book.

6. Get a Health Screen

If you’re in your 50s or older, a health screening is essential. Prevention is better than cure, and a clean bill of health will give you peace of mind while reinforcing your commitment to other healthy habits.

As the year winds down, many athletes start planning their training for next season—often thinking about how to increase volume or intensity.

But what if improving your lifestyle habits and overall health had the same, if not better, impact on your performance?

Remember, even when you stop being an athlete, you are still a human, and you are investing for these days as well.

Have you ever felt fit but unhealthy? Feel free to share your thoughts on my Facebook page.

​

I really appreciate you being part of my tribe and I look forward to helping you achieve better health and better performance. Simon

​

Please check out these podcasts and articles

​ PODCAST: Sleep special: How to sleep smart to maximise health and performance. Have you ever tried tracking your sleep? I have, and while I learned a lot of really good lessons it also taught me that it isn't always positive. As an early adopter of tech I got into Whoop in 2017, right at the beginning. They even consider me one of their 'founding members', whatever that means! I loved being able to see how much sleep I was really getting versus what I thought I was getting. The splits between deep sleep, REM and light sleep were really interesting. The daily tracking of HRV and readiness to train was also fun. They even gamified sleep so that you could have league tables with friends and see who gets the best sleep score each night. It certainly puts sleep to the front of your thoughts. Listen now

​ ​ ARTICLE: Like paddling on a surfboard It’s curious which phrases stick in our minds. You can hear the same advice from a dozen different people, and then one of them says something in a way that completely resonates. And so it was when I spent some time with swim coach Karlyn Pipes. She told me to float face down and form a Y shape with my arms, like lying on a surfboard. Because of the width of the surfboard, she said, your hands will enter the water a lot wider than normal. Like creating a Y shape. Imagine paddling on a surfboard. Read More (2 min read)