I live in Newquay, the surf capital of the UK. Every year thousands of people come down to Newquay on holiday, wanting to learn to surf. Surfing looks really cool, the clothes are funky, surfers are hot and everyone wants a piece of the lifestyle for a few days. A typical surf lesson lasts 2 [...]

Many of us here are pure-hearted strength fanatics who would carry on training even if all the mirrors in the world were broken (how many years bad luck would that make?). That said, we might also harbour a notion of a corporeal geometry, a desired shape or look that bespeaks the things we want to [...]

Specific vs general is a popular argument in fitness circles and can often get quite technical. But I think that for anyone who isn’t a professional athlete, it doesn’t matter terribly whether you train for something specific or for general fitness. Which mode you choose depends on your personality. Some people respond to the challenge [...]

It is a fact of life that some people are born with unusual physical beauty, in the same way that some people are born with a talent for writing or playing the violin. Someone else’s abilities on the violin have absolutely no bearing on yours, so why should someone else’s physical appearance have any bearing [...]

Some of you may be really gung-ho about your training. Fit and proud, you revel in being the ‘weird one in the corner’ doing crazy stuff. You couldn’t give a toss what people think about kipping pull ups and you certainly don’t give a monkeys what you look like, puffing, heaving and sweating your way [...]

I have been to many circuit classes in my time and in every class the women are allowed to do ‘girly push ups’ – push ups on your knees. This is fine for beginners and it is a fact of life that the vast majority of women, myself included, start off with a real disadvantage [...]

Photo credit: Jon Tunnell Most of us have felt a lack of motivation at some point, no matter how dedicated we are or how much we love training. Occasionally things just don’t go well, or life starts to interfere with training. It’s easy to berate yourself but this only reinforces the negative feelings that made [...]

I don’t know about you but I have been feeling the credit crunch bite recently. It got me thinking about how you can cut down on your fitness expenses. Gym membership, expensive clothing, shiny new kit, supplements – they all cost money. But there are many ways to get fit, look great and stay strong [...]

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic”. – John F Kennedy How true this is of fitness! One of the missions of this site is to bust those persistent training myths and break open the issues so [...]

I suspect many of you have had the experience of trying to explain to people at the office why you do what you do: why you watch what you eat, why you get up at 6am to train, why you’d rather go to the gym on a Friday night than go to the pub. And the [...]