I was upstairs in the landing area.

This is where I would do my little mobility routines.

Mostly stuff from YouTube or Instagram.

I was about 8 years into my chronic back pain.

Don't forget the chronic hip, knee, neck issues too.

I didn't think being 23 would feel like this.

I try a yoga stretch.

This one is apparently good for back pain.

It will help ease the tightness hopefully.

I try it.......and my back goes into a spasm.

My upper back locked up.

Oh for fuck sake.

I slowly get up carefully.

Pain and tightness were normal, but sometimes worse things happen and I have to be really careful.

I try to stand up straight...........BUT I CAN'T.

Oh my god.

I hobble into the bathroom.

I look in the mirror.

I look like the fucking hunchback of notre dam!!!

What has happened?!

Why can't I stand up straight?!

I try again and I get a sharp pain in my upper back.

Oh fuck......

I've tried so many things to overcome this.

But now it looks like my stubborn attitude of not giving up on this has got me into more trouble.

I think I've slipped a disc in my back. I must have.

I mean.............I can't even stand up straight?!

"MARRKKKKKKKK..........dinners ready!!!!!"

Fucking hell. I must do the lottery today eh? Lady luck taking the piss.

I'm so frustated and annoyed in the bathroom now that I don't want to go down for dinner.

I'm on the verge of tears.

Tears of anger and frustration.

"MARKKKKKK"

I go downstairs.

I sit at the table and don't say a word.

But I'm clearly moving like an old man with a hump on his back.

I say nothing.

Because if I do, I think I'll cry.

I'm just embarrassed by it all at this stage.

I don't want to burden my mam with this shit again.

She has enough to be worrying about.

"are you ok??....."

"............no...........I hurt my back again.......I can't really move properly"

And usually in these situations I would:

• Lie on the couch to 'rest it' (may or may not take a painkiller)

• Go to the physio/chiropractor/osteopath/doctor

I'd been going to the chiropractor for 8 years now.

All the good that did me eh?

Einstein says doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is insanity.

But I hadn't armed myself with critical thinking skills back then.

I hadn't armed myself with education on how the human body actually works.

I was part of the myopic masses following the fixes.

Withing nothing to show for it but nearly crying into my dinner 8 years later because I can't overcome this.

On this occasion Mam called the physio.

There is one in the same estate.

Down he comes. Does an assessment with me.

The conclusion?

"You're fine Mark. It's just a pulled muscle. You'll be grand"

............what?!Just a pulled muscle?! I don't think so??

I have a pretty high pain threshold.......surely it was worse than that?

You sure I didn't slip a disc or something?

Nope, it was just a pulled muscle.

And what happens then?

Knowing I didn't fuck myself up, that my back wasn't broken, that I didn't 'slip a disc'..........I could stand more upright now.

Oh for fuck sake......................you twat Mark.

All that fuss for nothing!!! You are able to stand up straight now!!!

I feel like an idiot.. I'm embarrassed.

The last thing I like doing is making a fuss. (martyrdom programming - everyone else needs to be ok except me. I can handle it. I'm tough. I don't need help. Don't fuss over me. Look after yourself)

I'm so sick of this shit happening.

And I never knew how tough I was on myself.

I hadn't learned how to Unlock Deep Self Awareness at that point.

But that's another topic.

I really thought I had fucked my back up there.

When in reality I obviously just had no clue what was going on.

Each incident just made me more confused......

Once we skip years later to me ditching the healthcare industry after 5 'experts' told me 5 different diagnosis of what's wrong with my body.

I went off on my own route following the results over doctorates and degrees.

Since then I've taken it all the way from:

• Fucked hips to the front splits

• Chronic back pain to bodyweight seated good mornings & 60kg jefferson curls

• From retiring to coming back and being the best athlete I ever have been

• From 'broken body' to running an untrained marathon in barefoot shoes

I showed myself firsthand how AMAZINGLY ADAPTABLE the human body is.

I showed myself the power of the Don't Settle Attitude.

I lived the amazing power of small gains over time.

All the things I preach about each week.

But one of the crucial aspects of regaining my Physical Freedom was the EDUCATION.

Actually diving deep on the human body and understanding how it works.

I dove so deep into the human body with my obsessive nature channeled in this direction.

I went from the likes of the story above, thinking I broke my back from a muscle strain and living in fear.

To years later breaking my leg, tearing my ankle ligaments & getting surgery.......and rehabbing it all myself against doctors advice.

Smashing the rehab timeline of 5 months, coming back in 9 weeks to Jiu Jitsu and the gym.

The day I walked out of the hospital with confirmation that the ligaments were all healed and the bone (when I should have walked in on crutches and only START rehab with a physio).

That's when I knew I had TAKEN BACK CONTROL.

From the man who relied on every healthcare practitioner to 'fix' me.

I had taken back my PHYSICAL FREEDOM.

There are 3 Steps to Regaining Your Physical Freedom that the healthcare route skips.

This newsletter about pain today dives deeper under point 3 of regaining your Physical Freedom. (educational change).

Lack of Education

I went 10 years down the healthcare route trying to overcome:

• pain

• tightness/stiffnesss

What was I never educated on?

• What pain is

• Why we get tight and stiff

Hmmmmm......how does that make any sense?

We don't understand pain.

We don't know how to manage pain.

It's like going to a maths teacher, but he doesn't teach you maths.

It just doesn't make any sense.

But yet this is how it is for most people.

Zero education.

And with this healthcare model, we will always have to go to the 'expert' for the 'fix'.

You will be stuck in that loop like I was for 10 years.

Until you decide to follow the results.

The Missing Link

"If you are lost, you need education. If you are educated, you need action. If you are taking action, you need consistency" - Dan Koe

We are all out here like the younger me taking "action".

Being "consistent".

But WITHOUT the baseline of education that you need on the human body, you are pissing in the wind.

It's like having a car full of fuel, but no GPS.

You will end up driving around in circles and extremely frustrated like I was.

It's your attitude & approach that will determine your progress.

If you have the right attitude BUT the wrong approach.

It's NEVER going to get you your Physical Freedom back long term.

And I don't want you to go through what I did.

Learn from my mistakes.

Become Empowered

Empowerment doesn't come from external factors.

Rather than relying on healthcare practicitoners to fix us, we need to educate ourselves.

It's time to stop looking outside to blame, and look inside to solve.

Believe me, I blamed.

I became resentful.

But what does that do for you?

Nothing.

Now you are a resentful person on top of your chronic pain.

Great.

The answer is taking OWNERSHIP & EDUCATING yourself

• Taking ownership of your own body and prioritising it

• Educating yourself by following the results

Think of it like this.

If you were going to buy a stock.....what would you do?

You'd do research on:

• When the company was founded

• Track its trajectory from inception to now

• Analyse the trends

• Then make a insightful decision based on the whole data set

But what do we do for the human body?:

• Look at the human body right now infront of me

• Diagnose the issue. Put a label on it.

• Without looking at where humans have come from

• Without looking at the evolution of humans over time

• Without looking at what the human body is designed for (hint - not modern life)

• Without looking at how the human body actually works

It's like seeing a photograph of someone and saying "they could never change".

If that was true, I'd still have a blond mullet from when I was 16 (thank god those pictures died with bebo!!! So it basically didn't happen right?!)

The approach of looking after the human body is extremely flawed from so many angles.

And this only became clear once I started taking ownership of my own body.

And developed my critical thinking around the problem.

You have taken ownership by reading this newsletter.

Now its time for the education.

What is Pain

1) Pain is an output from the brain

A) Pain is a survival instinct. It's an evolutionary adaptation to keep us alive

The truth is if pain didn't exist.

Me and you wouldn't be here.

None of us would.

The human species would have died off millions of years ago.

Because pain is a PROTECTIVE MECHANISM.

It enables us to NAVIGATE THROUGH LIFE.

Imagine if we didn't get pain?

Back in the hunter gatherer days, a dog could be eating your leg while you sleep and you wouldn't notice.

You'd bleed out in your sleep.

Young children who can't speak would die easily too.

They wouldn't be afraid of fire, and would easily wrestle and fall into it.

It's not painful? No reason to stay away.

Why worry about falling out of a tree? Why worry about anything dangerous?

Nothing hurts me.

You'd feel indestructible.

And be dead within a week.

Pain PROTECTS US.

It's there as a survival mechanism to help guide us through this world safely.

So that we can survive and reproduce and keep the species living on.

Like I said, if we didn't have pain - we wouldn't be here.

B) Like other survival instincts, it can't be 'fixed' or 'turned off'

Imagine thinking you could turn off your hunger signal?

What would the dietician say if you went them them like:

"Hey could you fix and turn off this hunger signal? It just makes me overeat and I'm overweight now. So yeah....fix that please"

.......the dietician would look at you like you have 2 heads.

Do you go to the doctor asking them to 'fix' your sexual desire and turn it off?

"Yeah doc, I get attracted to women when I see them on the street or on tv. I'm very busy in work though for the next few months. Can you just turn it off for now? And I'll be back in 3 months or so and you can turn it back on. Cheers"

The doctor would be sending you to the psych ward.

But what do we do???

We go to the doctor/physio/chiropractor/osteopath thinking they can FIX OUR PAIN.

IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.

And it pains me that you don't know this.

That barely anyone does.

And you are shooting yourself in the foot before you even start.

Looking for an answer that doesn't exist.

What is the answer?

YOU LEARN TO MANAGE IT.

Just like you learn to manage your hunger signal through the right process

• Education on food and macros

• Nutrition plan

• Coaching /guidance through the process

You learn to manage your pain through:

• Education on what pain actually is & how to manage it

• Paired with a mobility program for your movement limitations

• Coaching & guidance through the process

I hope the penny is dropping for you now.

It's not YOUR body that's the problem.

It's the whole approach.

It's the lack of education.

C) You can think of it like a request for change

This is a more empowering way to think of pain.

It doesn't mean you're 'fucked'.

It means your brain 'perceives' you to be in danger.

And it's a request for change.

The brain is only trying to protect you.

Just like a child touching the fire.

The pain is a request for change.

His finger isn't 'fucked'.

There's nothing 'wrong' with his finger.

It's just the brains protective mechanisms evolved over 6 million years through natural selection at work.

They are teaching the kid how to navigate safely through the world.

But while it can be useful to think of pain like a request for change.

It's not the full story by any means.

Pain is very complicated and anything but black and white.

And sometimes the 'request for change' signal can be going off when it doesn't need to be. (aka chronic pain)

D) Pain is a PERCEIVED threat coming from our brain.

The pain in your back?

It's not IN your back.

The pain in your hips?

It's not IN your hips.

The output of the protective mechanism of pain is coming from the brain.

If you have pain in your arm, and we pumped your arm with anesthetic and whacked your arm with a bat.......would you feel pain?

No.Why?

Because the nerves in your arm aren't able to send that information back to the brain that results in the pain signal.

Even that point there alone would have been extremely liberating for me.

Having back pain for 10 years.

Thinking I was fucked (like in the example at the start).

And little did I know, it was only my brain trying to protect me as I didn't have great control over my body (mobility limitations).

Another great analogy that helped me massively and clients love is the fire alarm.

Does the fire alarm only go off when the fire has engulfed the house and is starting to burn the plastic on the alarm?

No, it's way too late now.

Everyone in the house would be dead. That would be a pretty useless protective mechanism.

The fire alarm goes off at THE FIRST SIGN OF DANGER.

The fire alarm goes off at any PERCEIVED threat.

This is massively important to understand.

Once the fire alarm gets a hint of smoke......it will go off.

From the toaster, from cooking, from anything.

The fire alarm could go off 100 times, and there was only an ACTUAL threat one of those 100 times.

And this is similar to pain.

It doesn't wait until you are on the brink of a serious injury.

It will go off WAY BEFORE THAT.

At any hint of a PERCIEVED THREAT.

Why?

Because just like the fire alarm, it would rather be wrong 99 times to be right the 100th.

Than try to only go off when it's serious and then risk you dying.

That would be a very shit protective mechanism.

For pain or for a fire alarm.

And if you are putting the puzzle pieces together now, you might have been able to guess:

"so......chronic pain is essentually the fire alarm going off from toast in the toaster?....since we are not in danger? ...and pain should only have been reserved for actual injuries. But now it's just gone a bit faulty through modern life?"

Yep.

You can add to that the fact of modern life making us all immobile, stiff & weak compared to our ancestors.

Which is much more reason for things to seem like a PERCEIVED threat (which is all the brain needs).

I always remember the story of a client Tom.

A big dude. Deadlifted over 200kg.

But had chronic back pain.

And now he couldn't even lift up his washing basket without back pain.

He hurt his back doing a heavy deadlift years previously. Bulging disc I think it was.

So there WAS an injury. There WAS a reason for pain at the time.

But years later? Nope (the fire alarm went off to a fire, now it's going off consistently from the toaster).

He was like me.

Nocebo'd (nocebo explained further down) and recruited into the fucking bubble wrap brigade by the healthcare industry.

Told to rest his back etc.

And what does that do?

Resting makes things WEAKER.

So his back got weaker and weaker over the years.

He was afraid after the injury and misinformation on how his body actually works.

But once I educated him on pain amongst other things.

And worked on the mobility program alongside that for his spine and other areas.

Months later he text's me during a check-in.

He's been lifting the washing basket without pain and had forgotten about it.

Education is integral to overcoming chronic pain.

If you don't undersrtand what pain is, you will never be empowered to manage it.

2) Pain is a UNIQUE EXPERIENCE for the individual

Pain is unique to us.

We all have our own experiences, beliefs, and emotions.

And this changes our relationship to pain and the reality we experience.

I'll give you 2 examples to make sense of this for you.

Let's say you & I go to get an injection:

Me:

• Experience: Have had vaccinations since I was a kid. Went fine

• Beliefs: Vaccines are good. They help protect us against illness

• Emotions: Calm. Not nervous. More concerned about what I am having for lunch afterwards

You:

• Experience: You have a bad memory of your dad pinning you down to get your first ever vaccination as a kid. It was horrible

• Beliefs: You don't understand why you need it? I am healthy. Is there hidden agendas here?

• Emotions: Anxious. Nervous. Fearful.

If we both go through and get the SAME injection from the SAME nurse in the EXACT SAME WAY.

And then afterwards we had to fill out a form of our pain levels from 1-10......

Will we have the same pain score?

Of course not.

I'll go in chilled out, not a big deal.

I feel SAFE.

You go in there in FEAR.

You are in fight or flight mode.

Your brain is on high alert.

The same mechanisms that are wired into us to fight for our lives in the hunter gatherer days are active here.

Your brain LITERALLY thinks you are at risk of death.

So it's ramping up all is resources to make you the most effective you can be in this moment.

• Your heart starts pumping blood to your brain so your can THINK

• You become HYPER AWARE of your surroundings

• Blood is pumped to your muscles to FIGHT

• You are the strongest you will ever be in this moment (which is why people amp themselves up to get PR's in the gym)

I am safe.......but you are on the verge of fighting for your life.

I could write down 1/10, or maybe 2/10 for pain.

Just from the prick of the needle.

You could write down 8/10. 10/10.

Even though everything 'external' to us was the same.

But INTERNALLY.........things were very different for us.

And this creates our unique reality.

Our unique experience of pain.

Ever been told "pain is in your head"?

Or made to think by a healthcare practitioner that you are imagining your pain?

They don't understand pain enough.

Saying pain is 'in your head' and making you feel like it's YOU that's the problem.

That's like saying 'hunger' is in your head.

Sexual arousal is in your head.

Just stop thinking these things, and they will go away.

Yeah, that's not how it works.

These survival instincts are DEEPLY INGRAINED in all humans.

As explained above, we wouldn't be here otherwise.

We can't 'turn them off'.

But we can learn how to mange them.

How to Manage Pain

1) Understand the Bio-Psycho-Social model of pain

A) There is no one cause for pain

Pain is a combination of factors across many areas.

Once you actually dive into pain science, you will see how most stuff out there is bullshit.

"top 5 exercises to fix back pain"

Pain can't be 'fixed', we learn how to manage it.

The truth is there is no ONE cause for pain.

It's a combination of many factors.

Then this person tries the 5 exercises, still has pain, and now thinks THEIR body is the problem.

And they are fucked (misinformation leading to nocebo effect again).

You could go on with so many more examples, but you get the point.

Basically 90% of stuff in the mainstream is horseshit and not the truth.

But the truth doesn't sell does it?

Most people have an attention span of a few seconds from social media.

They look for the flashy reel on how to FIX pain.

Get stuck in the disempowered loop of the fallacy of 'fixes'.

Try them all and still have pain.

And give up things they love to do in time.

When the sad reality is they need to sit down for 15 mins with an article like this.

Actually LEARN how their body works and see the bigger picture.

And start working on the 3 Steps to Regaining their Physical Freedom.

B) It's a combination of biological/psychological/social factors

As you'll see in the diagram.

Pain is in the MIDDLE.

Pain is not due to 'any one factor'.

It's a combination of lots of things.

Pain is COMPLICATED.

I wish it wasn't like that.

I went on the search for what pain is.

Hoping that I would find one concrete answer.

So then I could push that button and eradicate my chronic pains in an instant forever!!!

But when I found out the truth here like you are.

I was frustrated.

I felt lied to.

Deceived for 10 years.

I chased something that never existed.

Time, effort, money, heartache and frustration.

But what was my ground zero now?

My Don't Settle Attitude.

I have 2 options from there:

• Make progress

• Make excuses

I chose progress.

And you can too.

C) Best Approach: Tick as many boxes as we can

There is no 'fix'.

All we can actually do, is tick as many boxes in these areas as we can.

And then things start to improve.

For example:

• Biology: A mobility program for our limitations

• Psychological: Education around what pain is & how to manage it (aka this email)

• Social: Be careful who you listen to for info. This bleeds into your psychology

It can work in a positive spiral or a negative spiral.

You can listen to most of the healthcare industry telling you that you are broken as their fixes didn't work (social).

This leads to you:

• THINKING that you will be tight & stiff forever and can't change.

• BELIEVING that your body is broken, because this is your current reality and it has been for years

• Becoming EMOTIONALLY feaful and anxious about moving. Which leads to less movement, and more tightness/stiffness/pain

That was me for 10 years.

Slowly spiralling downwards until I eventually it got so bad that I had to give up sports & activities I loved.

All starting from the SOCIAL.

From who I listened to for information (the 'experts').

The last 5 years, it's been spiralling upwards:

• THINKING that I can overcome this as a coach explained things much different to me. Showed me whats actually possible

• BELIEVING that I am finally on the right track, as I am seeing the small gains in how I am moving & feeling. Months of this has me feeling better than 10 years of the 'experts'

• Not EMOTIONALLY fearful of my body anymore. Of movements. Of pain. I understand now its just all survival mechanisms not being managed properly

Most people in chronic pain are on that spiral downwards.

My aim with this newsletter is to be the catalyst to change the direction for you.

Just like it was done for me.

2) Beware of the Nocebo Effect 

Most of us have heard of the placebo effect.

But when we get to the pain section with clients, nobody has heard of the NOCEBO effect.

I'm not surprised. I had no clue before either.

The nocebo effect is the placebo effects evil twin.

The placebo effect is when we BELIEVE in something so strongly, that we actually get some benefits.

This has been proven in countless scientific studfies, and can be quite mind-blowing if you are hearing about this for the first time.

It just shows the amazing power of the human brain and how integral our beliefs are to our reality (your beliefs run your life). They would have 2 groups of people:

• A group taking medication for some illness

• A group who THINK they are taking medication for the same illness (but the pills are duds. No actual medication in them)

And whats happens?

BOTH GROUPS will start to improve.

Even though only one group has ACTUALLY taken medication, and the other group hasn't.

But the main thing is that the other group BELIEVE they have taken the medication.

And thats still enough to get progress in that direction.

Cool............But now think of the nocebo effect.

It's the exact OPPOSITE.

If you BELIEVE that your body is fucked, fragile and made of glass.......what's going to happen?!

Exactly what happened in my intro story to this newsletter.

Small things will be blown WAY OUT OF PROPORTION.

A simple muscle strain went to me feeling like I'd seriously 'damaged' my back.

Why?

Because all I had heard for the previous 10 years was how I have:

• A weak fragile back with scoliosis

• My hips are out of place from sliding tackles in soccer

• One leg is longer than the other

• I have anterior pelvic tilt

• I have hip impingement

etc etc etc. I was NOCEBO'd like fuck!!!

All the way through those 10 years.

And I slowly started to believe it all.

They are the 'experts' after all eh?

The sad reality is that most of the world is nocebo'd into thinking their body is a piece of glass.

We are recruited into the bubble wrap brigade.

And we pass it on without even realising: "mind your back". "rest your back".

Even if you haven't been to the healthcare route like me.

No doubt you have heard that or something similar.

We are all taking the imaginary pill.

And feeling the negative effects from it.

The only way out is spreading better education.

Send this newsletter to somone you know suffering with chronic pain.

You can change a life forever.

I honestly don't want to think what my life would be like if I just did retire from things and settle like I was told to.

And I don't want that for others.

It's my mission to bring as many as I can in the other direction with me.

3) Give your brain a different movement strategy

Your brain has to use a movement strategy to keep you alive and moving around.

You had none as a kid (hence not being able to walk).

Then you learned a movement strategy over time that had no chronic pain. (learning to walk....all the way up to teens).

Then we are in school sitting most the day.

Playing all the sports under the sun.

And not doing anything to look after the health of our body (no mobility. But we make sure to brush our teeth!)

And over time we can develop a movement strategy that has tightness/stiffness/pain.

WHY do we get tight and stiff?

Because the brain cares about SURVIVAL, not optimal.

We had a relatively pain-free one as a kid.

But only over time through modern life and not prioritising and looking after our body.

Our brain has been forced to use a more protective strategy.

The brain has taken control (with tightness/stiffness/pain).

Because you don't have control anymore.

Just like a driving instructor pulling up the handbrake on a learner driver.

He's doing it to PROTECT YOU.

Until you take back control yourself.

If we don't give our brain an ALTERNATIVE option.

Which involves more control over our body (better mobility), and hence less need for the brain to protect us from tightness & pain.

If we don't give our brain an alternative option.........then NOTHING WILL CHANGE LONG TERM.

How do we give the brain an alternative movement strategy?

We do that through the mobility program.

The specific exercises for your limitations.

4) Building SELF-EFFICACY is the ultimate goal over time

The end goal of all this pain education is to build self-efficacy.

"Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments"

It's essentially taking back control.

Becoming empowered.

Knowing that your Physical Freedom is in YOUR CONTROL.

Knowing you have the capacity to take ownership & educate yourself.

That you have the capacity to overcome this long term with the right attitude & approach.

And until you get to this stage, you can employ strategies to empower you on the journey to regaining your Physical Freedom.

If you cant do what you want, do what you can!".

It's the mindset & perspective that helped me back then and to this day.

Whenever I get an injury - this is the mindset I adopt again.

It takes you off the pity path to excuses.

And gets you onto the road to recovery.

Client & friend Eoghan is literally coming through this journey now.

And he talked about how helpful this perspective is in this post.

Never underestimate the amazing ADAPTABILITY of the human body over time.

When it's paired with the amazing power of SMALL GAINS.

If I can come from:

• fucked hips to the front splits

• forced to give up the gym & Jiu Jitsu to coming back as the best athlete I have ever been

• fragile body to running an untrained marathon in barefoot shoes

.......then what can you do???

I took it all the way to the other extreme to show you (and myself) what's actually possible.

If I can go from A to Z, and share this with the world.

Then the world will start to BELIEVE they can go from A to D.

If I can remove myself from this pedestal people place me on.

Be vulnerable and share my painful memories of the starting point and journey.

While giving them the blueprint that anyone could follow.

Then they will start to believe they can get their Physical Freedom back too.

And that's why I do it.

Pain can be your greatest TORMENTOR or your greatest TEACHER

We will all experience pain in our lives.

Physical. Emotional. Spiritual.

You name it.

But we have 2 divergent paths from there:

• Ignore/avoid it and let it become our greatest tormentor

• Learn from it and let it become life's greatest teacher.

Your choice.

I've been on both ends of that spectrum too.

Pain plagued my life for a long time. Too long.

But once I took ownership, it has taught me life's greatest lessons.

It depends on how well you understand pain, along with the process of navigating through it.

Listening to your body is another essential skill I teach all clients that is a big part of regaining your Physical Freedom.

Nobody can know your body as well as you can over time.

Only YOU know what you feel.

There are no Gurus

Want to know the truth?

All these great reviews from clients in the Physical Freedom 1:1 Coaching Program, come from just strategically ticking all the boxes for people.

And over time, progress is inevitable. To what extent, we will never know.

Because we have seen how complex pain actually is.

There is no 'secret'. No 'magic'.

I'm no wizard. I have no special exercises.

This is the reality of it.

So when you see coaches/healthcare practitioners selling their 'fixes'.

Telling you that you have X problem and ONLY MY PROGRAM is the answer!!!!

You know its bullshit marketing gimmicks.

In this war on misinformation holding people back from their Physical Freedom.

You have to arm yourself with education & critical thinking.

And that's my aim through these newsletters and all my content.

My Week

Education:

Current Reading: The Denial of Death

Podcasts:

(Jocko Underground: Attention-Seeking Behaviour/Is This All There Is To Life)

(Modern Wisdom Podcast #580 - Dr Tania Reynolds: What Use Are Female Friendships?)

(On Purpose with Jay Shetty: 6 Ways to Be a Great Friend & Build Meaningful Relationships in 2023)

Business:

This week's client testimonial was Ethan Madden.

Going from recurring ankle injuries to the best his ankles have felt in years!

For the full review, click here

3 Different Ways I Can Help You:

1) The Physical Freedom 1:1 Coaching Program

2) The Mental Freedom Course

3) Lifestyle Design University

Personal:

Fun: Nothing!

Been pretty busy this week with work and the travels fast approaching trying to sort things out.

Had some people in viewing the room some evenings this week. Renting it out for 6 months when I go on my travels.

Writing this is making me aware I'm letting the 'fun' slip a little.

Have a friends 30th next Saturday and other things so there will be some 'fun' next week!

Training:

• 1 One Arm Chin Up session

• 1 Upper Push sesson

• 1 Leg session

Training down a little as well. I usually aim for 4-6 session, got 3.

Sometimes you are in full frontal assault mode.

Sometimes you are in more of a maintenance mode.

No matter how slow you go, progress is still progress.

And any 'big gain' is just an accumulation of small gains over time. They all add up.

I enjoy the journey & learn from the process.

That's the main thing.

That's it!

Pain is paramount to your experience of life day to day.

Take ownership, educate yourself, and turn pain into life's greatest teacher!

It's the best of the 2 options.

Trust me.

Enjoy the weekend!!

Until next time :)

Don't Settle,

Mark