Chronology / Cover Letter

I cannot describe how immersed my life has been in fitness, and all things movement and sport. Since struggling with injuries from the start of high school, I have been on an unintended, compulsory and somewhat unwanted journey through all things fitness. To others it wouldn’t have been much more than an inconvenience, but I loved sport (football, cricket), and despite not being exceptional, I was good, and it was definitely a key part of my identity as a kid. I used to get dejected; I wanted nothing more than to be able to play. Seemingly other kids could just do it, but I felt like i’d been given a bad lot. As anyone with a history of injuries will know, once you get on the injury train it’s hard to get off it. I was fairly switched on and researched incessantly right through my school days, but the internet didn’t have quite as much breadth and accessible knowledge, and I certainly didn’t have the experience. To me a lot of things seem simple now; I have the personal experience over and over, and I have seen a lot. As a teen things felt hopeless. I would play for a few weeks and have a few months out. I put my foot in a divet running cross country in PE yr7, which led to generic one sided lower back pain for months. I couldn’t run, football, cricket, PE, anything. This repeated for years, and the frequent lay offs were made a spiral through shin splints; tendonitis, achilles/ knee issues, plantar fascia or general foot/heel pain (& said back pain continuing). I couldn’t break it. I transitioned. Free gym pass at college, desire to gain muscle and look better, I slogged bro splits, too small tee shirts and too small shorts, and had a new fitness direction. I felt less athletic when I did play football; stopped due to hopelessness of at the time – shin splints – and I moved to uni with optimism of ‘solving’ my athletic puzzle and overcoming the what seemed unnecessary difficulties I had with injury. Alcohol, glandular fever, a new life, maintaining a still bodybuilding focussed gym approach; before long covid struck and i’d been out of sport/running for a long time. I had still toggled at ‘rehabbing’ but was astray from the point. I didn’t know the path back, and there always seemed to be something that would get me – shoulder pain or whatnot. I had a spell of haglunds deformity (think Coutinho footballer, he cut a whole in his boot for it). I had a stress fracture in my foot a couple years later from what I’d call ‘experiments’ with barefoot footwear and gait. A year of workarounds for generic lower back pain triggered by gardening. Shin splints again as I tried to return to this time just plain old running. It may appear as though no progress was made but the compass was starting to shift. I now had a breadth of training approaches under my belt- extensive many years long knowledge across standard weightroom exercises, different weightroom exercises, various specific lower leg training, overcoming real repetitive shoulder issues as most bro splitters will experience – rotator cuff/ balancing push & pull work?- I believe the whole gym standard approach for upper body training encourages shoulder dysfunction; kettlebells, bodyweight & calisthenics (& some minor gymnastics), feet focussed training and if it’s even needed, other areas like wrists/elbows/ tendonitis e.g. (also overcome bad wrist/elbow pain at times), myriad physio rehab exercises/routines/approaches and anatomy knowledge, foam rolling/myofascial, floss bands, mobility/flexibility, Olympic lifts, attempting to solve the riddle of core or core stability and is it the same thing and how do you train it? Knees over toes guy and range of motion (ROM) training was starting to come about..; .. of course there’s more.! All across this, over 13 years from myself aged 11, to now at 24, I was building a picture of how everything fitted together. Looking back it’s the thing I have worked hardest at – more so than my education for sure, but it never seemed it- it is just something my spare time has always been ploughed into.  For many the different training modalities sit separately- I have lived how they can work together. I do have a very defined training philosophy, but it is flexible to the needs/circumstances and capabilities of the individual. I would just as happily coach a beginner kettlebell/dumbbell and mainly bodyweight programme for the individual that needs it, as I would a heavy athletic programme for another. I have trained in more styles; approaches, I think, than most people out there, and have a broader knowledge/experience base. Despite sticking to a standard education and career path my fitness life has unintentionally covered all bases through all things intrigue, necessity and unaware compulsion. I want to get out there what I know, and I want to move things forward for some people. I feel I have to because I feel I have a lot to give.