The year is 3014 by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

I can’t STAND for this anymore by Tony Riddle



I have had a few comments on how extreme I can be, specially after sawing my sofa in two at home and throwing it away. I always have to explain that it is my choice and just because I am different, this doesn't make me extreme. 

You too might have a different opinion If you actually did your own research into the affects of seated posture and how detrimental it is to your movement system.



Imagine this scene:



The year is 3014 and you are at a seminar about mother natures amazing ability to heal and how Man potentially threatened their own existence.



You are in a completely clear glass room, yet can still take in the surrounding trees and beautifully natural scenery. You are able to absorb Vitamin D and smell nature, but yet protected from the harsher elements. There isn’t one chair in the room and all of the participants at the seminar are either kneeling, squatting, or striking thinking poses, it’s ground transition central.



The lecturer is presenting you with facts that Man became so obsessed by technological advances that they neglected their own complex design and threatened civilisation as we knew it..



He explains:


“There was once a time when humans were controlled and propaganda was rife. An uprising had occurred for returning us back to nature, but those involved were cast out for being too extreme. The organisation had threatened their world and the fear of loosing their comfort and their highly addictive food groups had created a huge emotional reaction. The organism had become weak and easily manipulated. They were addicted to a lifestyle that was creating sick victims and they were given false hope of magic cures.”


“Cancer was a very different disease back in 2014 and people didn’t understand that there was no cure as such. They piled money into charities, huge amounts of money, when all along those organisations knew that the only cure was prevention. They knew you had to return back to a natural lifestyle, start moving naturally, eating natural organic produce, sleeping correctly and have proper spiritual connection with our Mother.”

“Instead they carried on, compromising their organism, disrespecting themselves in a form of self hatred. Their most common form of surgery was the gastric band. The band was fitted so that they could keep eating their industrialised food groups. Some were so over weight that they had to use a form of transport to move 100m”.



The lecturer shoots a huge image of a chair into the sky with his 3d projector and the room gasps!


“ Yes this is a chair, along with the industrialised food groups these were the main culprits for of our demise”

“Today you can squat anywher and there are no chairs, but back then you didn’t even have an option, you had to sit. Even when studies showed how detrimental seated posture was to the health of the organism, you still didn’t get a choice. There wasn’t even an area to squat in! Before they took smoking out of restaurants you had an option to be on the smoking side or the non smoking side, but when sitting was compared to be the new smoking in terms of health issues. They still had no option, but to sit and frowned upon If you were to squat.”


“We had taken away all of what we are capable of today, the chair was creating a stagnant race. Our ankles, knees, lower backs and our posture were all affected by this beast. We had literally become sitting targets and it was of little wonder why we had become so threatened as a species. We had done to ourselves what no other species would have dreamed of doing. We had fed ourselves fake indigestible food groups that were unrecognisable by natures design and then taken away our amazing and unique ability to mimic movements of mother natures animals. Loosing site that no other animal can impersonate another the way we can.”

“We can become the Duck, the cheater, the lizard, the fish. A fish can only be a fish, a cat a cat, a lizard a lizard. Instead they would sit in a chair that had no overlapping advantages into any of our natural movement patterns.”

“Yes this is hard to believe my children, but it is true. We now take for granted our great movement equality, but believe me; most couldn’t even walk or run correctly and had to be coached in how to move and eat”

“When they finally invaded we didn’t stand much chance, with the inability to move or defend ourselves and the lack of basic survival skills we were sitting ducks.”


“Our only saviour was that small minority that hadn’t fallen for the Bull Shit and had chosen to move and eat how nature had intended. The very people that our anscestors had cast out for being extremist would come to our rescue. They were once looked at as if they were crazy for playing out in nature, whilst the other kids were locked in their cage like bedrooms, disconnected from one another. These uncompromised 'WARRIORS" were preparing themselves for an event such as this. You see they knew, if you take away mans ability to defend himself, or move then they are weak and vulnerable, this is how you bread a nation of worriers."

"It had taken us a long time for us to make the change, but once the big ego's finally put their hands up admitted they were wrong it was a inevitable that the change had to occur. We soon realised that we had become both the slave and the slave master. The New Nature Order hadn't wanted us to revert right back to hunter gatherer roots and forget all about the things we had been successful with, they just wanted to drop all the things that were draining our planet, both spiritually and weakening our our defences. They had given us the true meaning of a "SELF DEFENCE" and that is when it dawned on us, that the "Creating Warriors not Worrier" approach wasn't about creating an attacking army".


"If anything, we have learnt that it is O.K to make technological advances, but we must maintain our connection with nature. Nature really does have the answers. We are smart, but only when we are nature smart"!

Tony Riddle  A.K.A @theprepdoctor

Ten Preparations To Have A Good Day by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

By Gloves Club Founder Tony Riddle

What is it with this fear of time - why are you in such a rush?

I see it "time and time again" on my commute into London from my home in Windsor. People speed walking to the station with no time to spare. Queuing for the ticket machine and pacing up and down like they are just about to butcher a kindergarten! When arriving at Paddington station, the panic is heightened as the Chronophobes have lost all self control and their perception of another being has been demonised.

Pushing and shoving to get down the escalator in order to join the wave of zoo-mmuters for the next zoo-mmuters still fight tooth and nail to cram onto the first tube that arrives.

tube,  knowing full well it will arrive somewhere in the next 2 to 4 minutes. Look up at the information screen and the next tube will arrive in 2 mins, the one after that 4 mins and so on. But yet, the Zoommuters still fight tooth and nail to cram onto the first tube that arrives.

In theory they could be on the next tube, and would have a more pleasant environment to exist in. But no, they'd much prefer the armpit or breath of their new inmate all over them. Then again, if they didn't have that armpit or that breath on them, what else would they have to complain about to their fellow inmates when first arriving at the office?

The whole ordeal is enough to give anyone adrenal fatigue. What a ridiculous way to start your day. What do you think the effects of this are having on you? What is it you are trying to achieve? A huge over stimulation of that sympathetic nervous system, that's what. You can forget about your digestive system, your hormonal system and immune system for a while. They will be on lock down to support your plight! Prep yourself before you wreck yourself.

Here's ten preps you should consider to take the lion's roar out of your commute:

1) Prepare for the next day Have everything you need ready to go. Not enough time for breakfast in the morning? Then boil some eggs and pack some fruits and nuts the night before. The better the night prep, the better the sleep. You won't be preparing for your day whilst trying to clock up the zzz'ds. Giving you some good old fashioned dream time!

2) Switch the lights down low and turn off the artificial suns (TV's, laptops, iPads) in the house by 10pm. This will aid rest and digest, switch them off and you'll switch off too!

3) Get to sleep on the best side of 11pm Use a rest and digest breathing technique if you feel that this is too early for you. Rather than counting sheep, count breath: 4 seconds in, 2 seconds hold and 6 seconds out. Before you know it, you'll feel the wave of what has been artificiality stimulated pass and the wave of relaxation will be upon you.

4) Wake 20 minutes earlier than your previous ridiculous commute. Choose an alarm clock that wakes you up gradually with increasing light. The light cues your body to set a healthy sleep cycle, get up and to feel alert, refreshed with more energy.

5) When showering consider hydrotherapy and gradually adjust hot to cold showers. For many, a drastic change in temperature would be too much of a stressor. I would recommend turning the water to cold for the last 30 seconds to a minute of your shower. If it's good enough for Vincenz Priessnitz it's good enough for me. Benefits included: strengthened immunity, improved blood circulation, regulated temperature, promotes weight loss/increases metabolism, alleviates depression, improves lymphatic movement, deepens breathing, keeps skin and hair healthy, increases energy, well being and increases hormone production.

6) Take a parasympathetic walk to the station (stroll) You now have 20 minutes more, relax and take in your surroundings. Say good morning to your fellow commuters and enjoy!

7) Avoid sitting down Sitting is so last year and is considered as unhealthy as smoking. The majority of us are obsessed by weight loss, but can't wait to sit down at the closest opportunity.  Instead, choose to stand mindfully with your bodyweight evenly planted on the planter surface of your foot. There really are so many other options than sitting. Don't be lazy, get off your butt and use the whole commute as a part of your gym routine.

8) Avoid the paper Fear, doom, gloom and decay! You have a choice; read something positive, motivational, educational, learn a new language...All of the above, minus the paper of fear, doom, gloom and decay, will have a positive affect on your journey, not just your commute but your whole journey through time!

9) Use your tube experience as a training programme If you're capable, choose the stairs not the escalator. When on the platform stand and calmly breath whilst waiting for the tube. If the tube is rammed like a can of sardines, avoid looking it and wait for the next one. 2 minutes wont kill you but the sardines might!

When on the tube, smile, smile, smile and smile more. Smiling is contagious and will have a positive ripple. Stand on the tube, focusing on your bodyweight weight on your base of support and try to avoid holding on; forget the nonsense power plate. You can't beat a bit of tube surfing.

If you have space, try a bit of hanging: grip the bar above you, like you want to break it in your hands, lift your feet off the ground and hang on it. If you succeed in this, try and hang on whilst the train is moving and once it halts place your feet back on the ground. You can then mix this up - stand and surf in motion and hang in rest. Please don't worry what people think. Go with the mentality that they are the crazy ones, not you. "I'm not crazy, I'm just not you "

10) Share, share and share alike Tell as many of your fellow inmates about the positive effect that this is having on you and they too will "have a good day"!


Please don't worry what people think. Go with the mentality, that they are the crazy ones, not you.

Bring back Public Hanging In 2014! by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

Get a grip!

By Gloves Club Founder Tony Riddle.

I look to my children as my educators in movement. They never seize to amaze me, they teach me every day and I get to pass this knowledge on to others. That's right, It isn't just us, that educates them, our kids are our educators too!
They crawl, squat, jump, lift, carry, throw, balance, walk, run, hang and climb all with ease and great skill, fearlessly I would like to add.

In return, I have to encourage, not discourage their movement practice.  I have to show great examples of this too.

If I don't, who will?

Some compromised, frustrated PE teacher who has been entrusted to look after the physical health of my child, that's who!

Well not on my watch!

The irony is;   I go off and study with the best and re-learn the very things that my kids have inherited from me and are already naturally skilled at.  This is what I class as my duty as a parent and a tribal elder, if it is something I have lost. I need to go out and gain the skill to coach them.

In a world obsessed with the intellectual mind.

We of course want them to do well academically, but to take these beautiful movement systems away with "Sit down, Don't move, Absorb this, Get down from there, Come away from the edge and Be careful of that, along with the usual chorus of of fear based crap" is a bloody outrage!

If like my daughters, you were carried around in a sling you would have learnt the pushing, pulling, grabbing and extension reflexes early. If you were kept in a baby carrier, a buggy and a car seat you have had these systems taken away. Bam! that's the attachment theory right there!
We could even be so bold as to call it "the movement connection theory" or "the movement disconnection theory". depending on where your base camp is.

Movement that should come naturally to us all

A baby/toddler will learn to grab and grip earlier than anything else. They will climb earlier than many of their other locomotive skills.  Brachiation is fundamental to us; hanging, pulling, climbing are all just as fundamental to us as running. We were in fact tree dwellers and climbers before we became runners.  (if you believe in evolution like I do ) Yet most can't hang on a bar and hold their own bodyweight in their hands due to their lack of grip strength  for more than 20 seconds, and this is where reductionism has its place. You need to know the code to break the fear and build the layers and strip the movement right back. Look at the end result and be able to trace all the way back to where the individual is compromised, have the unique set of Liam Nielsen skills to select the 20% input towards the 80% of output, and not get caught up in selecting BS movements like the Lat Pull down that have no over lapping theory to that end result.

If you put your fingers out to a baby they will grab and grab on surprisingly tight and won't let go.  If you lift them up, they still won't let go, their vice like grip will remain. You can literally walk around the room with them "ATTACHED/CONNECTED" to you.  I am talking about a baby here. I am not talking about an athletic type, who can lat pull, morning, noon and night, but can't hang for shit and marvels at James bond hanging from an elevator for all of 12 floors!

In fact for a large proportion of the zoo it's like an emotional bomb going off in their head to even think they could carry out what should be natural to them. Don't forget a lot of people have been containerised for so long it would be irresponsible to coach them without the correct prep work. They have lost the "HOW TO" but it doesn't mean they don't have the desire to, or the hardwiring (inherent knowledge). It is more the case that the only perception they have had of exercise is to sit in another container pushing levers like a chimp in an experimental lab. "Push this handle 15x and you will receive 1 muscle group and a protein bar."

Shoulder injuries are just as rife as knee and lower back problems. It's time we all got a grip and started hanging around a different kind of bar! We can blame the compromising chair and footwear for a multitude of sins, but the lack of hanging and climbing is just as detrimental to our innate movement system. That's "innate" not "inept"movement system!

Time to Take The Gloves Off and Toughen UP.

Climbing specifics:

Prep the hand with specific hand and wrist  prep drills as this is where you need to recognise bodyweight. Re-educate the grip and grip strength. Prep the shoulder and the scapula from its zoo cage so that the individual who can't lift his hand higher than his shoulder to change a light bulb can then hang, can then pull with a straight arm, then pull with a bent arm, can then muscle up, can then gymnastic ring pull up and finally can learn how to climb. Yeah, who would have guessed it,  hanging on a bar is actually a micro skill of the macro skill of climbing.

Yes squat, yes go barefoot, but please don't neglect a good hang out with your mates!

Gatekeepers, Code Breakers and Deconstruction. by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Tony Riddle A.K.A, The Prep Doctor

Coach Ben Medder and I were out doing our usual walk to hunt for food today and were discussing what it is that we do. I'd said that I had hit a bit of a cross roads of late as my coaching method is forever evolving and new techniques are developing, but I always revert back to my filter. Pick up a new training method, learn it, have an affair with it, some sordid, some not so sordid and then return back to my wife for a strong maintenance level,  incorporating my prep and mobility system to make it more refined.

That's enough about me, but how about the client? My conclusion is that I am having to break the code to each individual I see. To be able to coach them out of the containerised zoo and unlock the gates to give them freedom of movement and freedom of mind before they become a specialist or generalist.

The average Joe has spent most of their lives being told, "Don't do that, be careful of this, oh that's too dangerous," and for their first years of their lives carried around in a car seat like they are the latest fashion accessory. Locked in a cage when underneath it all,  they have a very sophisticated movement system crying to get out. We are designed in our earliest years to shuffle, roll, crawl, grab, kick, reach and extend. This is then carried into later years with sitting for prolonged periods of time, locked in another posture in yet another container preventing them from carrying out what they are designed to do: squat, crawl, balance, stand, walk, jump, climb, swing, run, carry, throw, fight. It is of little wonder why people have such difficulty moving. To do something you have been prevented from doing for so long is bound to stimulate the internal lion. Weight loss is no different on the emotional spectrum. "Oh you fell over, poor you, boo hooh, have a chocolate bar, "and bam, your cuddle that you needed at an early age became a chocolate bar and for the rest of your life the moment you need a hug you reach for the Snickers!

So what is it that I actually do?

It's great to be able to perform handstands, ring muscle ups, Olympic lift, fight,  barefoot run, crawl around mimicking various animals and turn paleo, this has been the easiest part and without blowing my own trumpet, it comes 'naturally' to me. The hardest thing in the world can be taking the most compromised and containerised clients and converting them into the great movers and eaters that Mother Nature had first designed them to be.

Yep, you have to walk your talk, whether you are a generalist or a specialist, but what's the point if you are a coach and can't find the right code to release the human from the cage to convert 'them' into the generalist or specialist? Aren't you simply adding to the problem, don't we want to actually heal people and get them out of the zoo? It comes with a huge responsibility to get it right, to use the right filter and select the right cues, this shouldn't just be guess work, you're playing with someone's life you selfish fuck!

Most that come to see me fit into one or more of these categories: Injured, have niggles, are over weight or are generally fearful of movement. Well, no shit Sherlock, what a surprise. A life of being told "not to" and then we come along and say "do". Without the right information it would be virtually impossible to get them to bust moves like a couple of my own movement influences Erwan Le corre and Ido Portal without emotional turmoil.

 Broken

This applies to all, not just those that are already broken:

Cross fitters

Barefoot runners

Boxers

Fighters

Climbers

Dancers

The list is endless, but with each of the above you have to consider how long you will get away with what you are doing before someone comes a knocking at the injury door. I have coached lifters, barefoot runners, cross fitters, and all with terrible mechanics but sadly they only come to me when they are broken. Wouldn't it be better to serve your apprenticeship and get the tools to prep correctly and teach yourself and then others before you and the discipline you teach gets a bad rep? Or are you too impatient to get it right?
Unless of course you were lucky enough to grow up in a barefoot climbing colony and have the fundamentals already!

It's all in the "HOW TO"

In fact for a large proportion of the zoo it's like an emotional bomb going off in their head to even think they could carry out what should be natural to them. Don't forget a lot of people have been containerised for so long it would be irresponsible to coach them without the correct prep work. They have lost the "HOW TO" but it doesn't mean they don't have the desire to, or the hardwiring (inherent knowledge). It is more the case that the only perception they have had of exercise is to sit in another container pushing levers like a chimp in an experimental lab. "Push this handle 15x and you will receive 1 muscle group and a protein bar."

Movement that should come naturally to us all

Climbing has been equally important in evolutionary terms as running and yet most can't hang off a bar for more than 20 seconds, and this is where reductionism has its place. You need to know the code to break the fear and build the layers and strip the movement right back. Look at the end result and be able to trace all the way back to where the individual is compromised, have the unique set of Liam Nielsen skills to select the 20% input towards the 80% of output, and not get caught up in selecting BS movements like the Lat Pull down that have no over lapping theory to that end result.

Climbing specifics:

Release the hand with specific prep drills as this is where you need to recognise bodyweight, educate the grip. Prep the shoulder and the scapula from its zoo cage so that the individual who can't lift his hand higher than his shoulder to change a light bulb can then hang, can then pull with a straight arm, then pull with a bent arm, can then muscle up, can then gymnastic ring pull up and finally can learn how to climb. Yeah, who would have guessed it,  hanging on a bar is actually a micro skill of the macro skill of climbing.

Flogging dead horses in search of the unicorn when all along the most prized Pegasus had been hiding underneath the invisibility cloak!

I agree as coaches we should all learn the macro skill to be able to demonstrate, but please ensure that you prioritise gaining the knowledge in learning the skill of how to break the code and deconstruct using the appropriate micro skill network; the gateway to real results and one that will keep clients moving for the long game, not the short quick response.

I will end with the words of  Liam Nielsen: "What I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you."

It's Not Bragging If You Can Back It Up by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Gloves founder Tony Riddle

Kenny Weldon is an old school boxing coach who has better results than anyone. Kenny doesn't wrap anyone up in cotton wool and wouldn't hesitate to put them straight. His knowledge was passed down from his grandfather to his father, and finally to him. He speaks with conviction, confidence and is committed 100% to the truth. He doesn't pull any punches (excuse the pun), but this is what makes a good coach. It's the truth that has been passed on from generation to generation. I had the benefit of 7 days with Kenny and yet it would take 10,000 hours to master his knowledge.

You don't make friends this way

There is a problem with this approach though, and I'm sure Kenny wont mind me saying this: you simply don't make any friends, it's lonely out here, people either think your mad or a genius. When you surround yourself with the anti-BS crew then it's so much harder to communicate any other way than to be frank with people, with the usual response that "he doesn't pull any punches" or "he could be more personable" or even "arrogant twat" when the truth of the matter is I can't tell you another way than this. This I believe is what we call integrity!

I started out as a Pilates practitioner, before it became the global marketing model that it is today. Now we have piloxing, Yogalates and other diluted products that will have Joseph Pilates turning in his grave but hey, what does that matter when all you can see is dollar $igns fla$hing before your eye$!

We are starting to create a picture here; a coach is someone that should be honest, speak the truth with conviction, is consistent and committed to the cause. How many people do you know with these attributes in a financially incentivised world? Financial gain has become more important than anything else. So the purist becomes even more protective of their own model in fear of someone else reducing it down and repackaging it to make a quick buck!

As a result there aren't many coaches with these values alive today as they are mainly recognised once dead, taking their knowledge and philosophy to the grave in fear of someone taking it from them.  In the process of wanting to educate, they get lost in protecting their intellectual property and there we have it, it's lost and from what little documented information is left, the truth gets reduced down until unrecognisable.

Return to Life

Joseph Hubertus Pilates was a movement coach, and his philosophy was 'Return to Life through Contrology'. He would look at the decline of health in a modern world and change one's health with a whole education in movement, breathing and diet. I taught this method for 10 years, until I met Dr Nicholas Romanov, an outstanding movement coach who educated me in the natural laws that Joseph Pilates had written about in his only two publications. It had all come together, it was that moment for me, that Eureka moment. I now have my coach's anti-BS filter and nothing gets past it.

To have the knowledge you must also have the skill to communicate your method. Dr Nicholas Romanov is a genius, but one that sadly gets lost in translation. He is incredibly protective of his work and lives in fear of it being taken. I once set a meeting up for him at Speedo. There we are, in the board room with the director of the Speedo aqua lab and Nicholas wouldn't allow them to take his model to their scientists in fear of them stealing it. This could have been worth millions to him and could have given him the recognition he deserves, but no, he walked away, not willing to drop his label of POSE. You see he wasn't interested in the millions this could have landed him. It isn't about the money.

Old school coaches were purists, and people back then were generally less sensitive and could cope with the truth. Today people have high expectations and lower self esteem and can't cope with the truth without breaking down. Generation LAB BRAT is upon us and it now takes a special pedigree of coach to coach the mind and movements of the modern human.

A trainer firstly needs to recognise that sitting someone on a piece of equipment and rep counting and naming Greek DJ's isn't coaching. In fact it is feeding and fuelling the fire of the weak and de-conditioned. You might as well give them a Snickers and a can of Coke on their way out and be done with it.

Personal trainer or coach?

Is there something different between a personal trainer and a coach? Here at Gloves we believe so. A personal trainer generally gives a client what they want and are governed by the zoo. Sit down and train those Greek DJ muscle groups, brachioradialis this and pectorals that. Well in the coaching world it is different. We give you what you need, yes the Greek DJ's are important and should be an integral part of your own knowledge and if questioned you should know your origins and insertions backwards. But your client doesn't need to know them, unless of course that's all you have! You are more like the dodgy mechanic making "dodgy wheel bearing"comments. 

Personal trainers are not osteopaths, they are not physios, (don't get me started on physios - don't think they know what they are. Is it acupuncturist this week or Pilates practitioner next week?). What they really need is the result. The intellectual mind has no idea how to move the muscle that you are referring too, as it lives in the future. By the time you have made the conscious decision, the window has changed. It's the escalator theory. Step on the escalator and it's not working, you have an immediate reaction - why didn't it move? Your mind predicted the movement based on previous examples of going up the escalator. This is called predictability. If you really want to discover more it's called Bayesian theory.

Aristotle: Thoughts, desire, action

Create the right thought, you're the coach -  that's your job. You are there to change their perception and create thought, don't just leave them hanging onto what the fucking DJ's name is. In the morning who cares, it's his set (repertoire) that played out. There is nothing more satisfying than having the ability to analyse movement and have the correct filter and prep work to correct and alter the compromised habitual modern day movement system, without trying to apply the zoo model of impressing someone with your repertoire Greek DJ's.

Well this is your chance. Our ultimate game is to change the industry and actually help people. Eventually we are looking at grass routes and educating the young and keeping their own amazing movement systems developing so that we don't have to be part of the same zoo system. Keep rehabbing them, that's a "business" we don't want. In the meantime it is the job of the elder -  something that we refer to as the tribal elder - to make that difference. We need more elders to make a difference. A shift in paradigm has to start with as many adult voices until it becomes loud enough for the hard of hearing and compromised to hear.

Sharing the knowledge

We have developed our Fundamentals Coaching System and have launched courses for Personal Trainers to have the access to our coaching knowledge. There's no point in us holding onto information as we want to see a change in the industry. Technique is king, the wider the foundation in technique, the higher the physiological pyramid you can build and the masses will start to listen. Help us make them listen, don't just think, let's start to act. So if you want to learn the repertoire to teach your clients how to, crawl, run, jump, balance, climb, carry, lift and hit to become healthy, strong and injury proof then this is for you.

Level 1 includes:

• How to apply Natural laws as your filter to minimise the risk of injury
• Bodyweight prep drills for good hand and foot mechanics
• How to use video analysis in your practice
• Posture and alignment drills for running
• Locomation fundamentals
• Boxing fundamentals and hand pads
• Plyometrics for rehab
• Lifting mechanics
• Gymnastic strength drills

When: 16th &  17th November 2013

Time: 10 am - 6pm
Location: The Gloves Club

Price: £300 for two mind-altering days

Those that we feel competent in teaching our model will be certified and their details placed on our website as a Gloves coach with access to future education.

Book now

Have you created a victim? by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Gloves founder Tony Riddle

Are you being victimised by your soft surroundings?

You wake up at 6.30, in your Super King size bed, put on your Ugg slippers to walk across the shag pile carpet, down the stairs and sit and eat breakfast - yes, you are a victim.

In a desperate attempt to have what you think everyone should have, you have created a softer, weaker self, enslaved in comfort and poor choices.

Yeah the bed, the slippers and the shag pile are great, but then there's the sofa, the washing machine, tumble drier, dishwasher, car that goes to the car wash... And yet we are obsessed by physical exercise and weight loss. Take all of this away and what have you learnt?

When was the last time you gave the car a good wash and a Mr Miyagi "wax on wax off"? I'm guessing a while ago, and I bet you worked up a sweat and earned your lunch.

Soft seating and cushioned footwear are no different to the softening of our environment, and with that we have become victims. The more compliant the surface, the stiffer you become. Make your floor cushioned and rubberised and you will lose the ability to move around on hard surfaces with stealth like accuracy. Sit or slouch on a compliant sofa/couch and you will stiffen and create stagnation in all the areas that you are designed to move from.  Unfortunately with this, you will start to load areas of the body that are not designed for load and become fearful and start chasing pain, going from one practitioner to another. Trying to find a cure for the list of aches and pains you have developed, when really, you are the one at blame and prevention is better than cure.

PracticingYoga, guess what! Take the marketed mat away and they are f$%ked. Let's not forget the spiritual aspect of the yogi. Really spiritual: coffee morning at Starbucks, driving your 4x4 to your poorly lit, air conditioned practice in your Lululemon clothing - now that's spiritual!

You marvel at the way toddlers move around on the floor with ease and not a grimace in sight, but you too could once move this way. Yes, it is a skill, one that you had, and lost, but one that can be programmed back in. It can be done. It will involve you moving around on the ground and using ground transitions and avoiding the soft sofa.

The problem is, it will involve you getting out of your comfort zone. A tough pill for the subconscious to swallow. The thought of taking away your comfort will induce an emotional response called anxiety, and to take away this feeling of anxiety the subconscious will sabotage you and fill what little conscious thought you have with complete an utter nonsense.

"What no Sofa, what will the neighbours think"!

If you really want to get your physical, social and spiritual needs met then start looking and mimic a child's movement and play, instead of letting them mimic our compromised lifestyle. Monkey see, monkey do. Get out the house and climb, jump, crawl, run and wrestle in nature. Move the way they do and don't fall for the crazy notion that a pervert is going to pick them up the moment your back is turned whilst in the woods.  Remember there are more perverts on the Internet than there are in your local woodland and you don't seem to have a problem with letting them sit in their cage of a room scrolling the internet,  when they should be out there at one with tumbling and rolling.

Domesticated Hunters, Zoo Humans and the Lab Brat! by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

By Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

200,000 years ago, Hunter Gatherers and our Natural Habitat.
10,000 years ago, Farming and the Domesticated Hunter.
250 Years ago, the Industrial Revolution and the Zoo Human.
113 years ago, the Pharmaceutical Century and development of the Lab Brat.
1900-2000 The Pharmaceutical Century.

The advances that were made in the 1900's when Karl Landsteiner discovered the first human blood groups O, A and B, and when nutrition and metabolism were experimented with, have turned us into Lab Brats.

Hunter Gatherer to what??!!

At present there's lots of talk out there about the Zoo Human. I too have used this phrase in my own practice, but on reflection we are far, far removed even from the Desmond Morris'  Human Zoo of 1969. At least zoo keepers (to varying degrees) try their best to replicate the habitat and food groups of the Zoo Animal. Animals that are kept in captivity, but used for scientific experiments such as food testing, skin testing and psychological experiment do not have the same luxury as a Zoo Animal.

The experiment starts for us from the moment we enter the birth canal. Childbirth that is meant to have a short transit time has turned into a pharmaceutical and surgical experiment. Women can be drugged up to the eyeballs, lying on their backs pushing up hill (thanks to Louis XIV) with green gowns surrounding them and for most of you this would have been your entry into the "lab" too. This isn't natural. Natural is a woman falling back from the tribe, squatting and returning back to the tribe all within a couple of hours, both mother and baby bonding with the tribe. Needs met on a spiritual, mental, social, physical and psycho-emotional level.

What has come from Lab experiments is that we can use this research and make comparisons between what is natural and what is not, but do we learn from it?

Let's take William F. Windle's primates that were  put through the same surgical and pharmaceutical experience as the St. John's wood house wife. He noted that the mother never connected with her young, she had missed the window to attach, the infant showed little recognition, had to be resuscitated and showed little movement for 2-3 weeks. The complete opposite can be said for the infant monkeys that were studied in nature. They showed huge capabilities and within a few hours could cling onto the mother.

What would be the best foundation for life? Surely these experiments are in place for a reason, but why aren't they common knowledge? Why instead are you programmed to think it is perfectly acceptable to induce both the mother and the unborn baby, and be at the hands of the fear based regime? Well it's all in the memes. If you are told from the moment you open your eyes that childbirth is a two hour spiritual experience, then it will be. If you are told and programmed to think that you are going to be screaming for an epidural the moment you get in the car park and it will be like giving birth to a watermelon, then the chances are it will be.

Attachment and needs

The emotional brain is already evolving in the last three months in the womb. To think of it all starting in the womb, that environment has to be then free from chronic stress, toxic food choices and negativity too.  The mothers heart rhythms have to be calm, food groups selected natural, and sleep wake cycles adhered too. It's tough to achieve this in the Lab, but not impossible. You just need to remember the Lab Brat experiments and that you have a voice, common sense and the ability to sift through the BS and not get uploaded with the wrong programme like so many have before you.

Create a 'Warrior' not a 'Worrier' by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

After having children I have become really selective in the information or software that I choose to upload into their system. Yes that's right: I look at my children as a system and hopefully after you read this, you might do too!

Memes, or programmes that are uploaded into the mind can have positive or negative affects. Lets take books before bedtime as an example.

Zoo baby?

My wife loved a series of books, called The Large Family. The books looked great on the surface and feature a family of loving elephants, but scratch away at that surface and it's a feast of cake and inactive lifestyles that are corrupting the minds of my beautifully crafted natural eaters and movers. Had these books fed a positive message of the elephants returning back to what they do naturally then it wouldn't be such a catastrophe that has resulted in them entering "Room 101".

The message is one that tells my girls that it's too hard to work out or eat well, and work is stressful, and the parent elephants shouldn't be parents at all, that they are simply too selfish and uneducated for the needs of their children. Children don't need to know what a diet is - the term itself is a bad programme. Just because mummy elephant is troubled with her weight doesn't mean she needs to feed her child up to look the same. Surely she could look at how she got in that state and would see that this is exactly what not to do to her own.

One of the books shows how the mum is trying to loose weight and bans bad food. No cake or biscuits for anyone, but finds herself at midnight drawn to the fridge and caving into eating cake. When weakness calls she finds herself in the kitchen and the whole family are there devouring the cake too. The food groups that were bad are now proven to be desirable and you can't help but eat them. Great memes. Talk about a virus for the mind.

Exercise and diet haven't worked, it's too difficult, and it's OK to fail. Yes, great messages just before bed. It's of little wonder why I have such difficulty getting accurate food diaries out of my clients. How long have you been programmed into eating inflammatory foods and sugars?

Food choices - are you in control?

You have to understand that we have blank slates as children and you were once one too. These blank slates have hardwiring that has taken millions of years to sculpt, millions of years that have monumentally been destroyed and continue to be destroyed in a blink of an eye. The blank slate just keeps uploading our information. We are their tribal elders, they learn from us. Our movements, our foods, our conversations and we are products of our parents and schooling. We need to take responsibility not only for our actions, but for our parents actions too and look at the disastrous state of humanity.

"We did what we were born to do, what we were trained to do."

Spartans. "We did what we were born to do, what we were trained to do."

As a result of programming, these great warriors were able to overcome great and traumatic situations. The news that the current zoo human is incapable of carrying out a fundamental movement such as walking or running for a bus is an insult to what these great organisms produced but again, training the mind should take presidence. If we all had to undergo an education in the fundamental needs of the organism, maybe we would not see the pathologies that we do today.

Q: What are you trained to do?
A: Simply what you are programmed to do.

I'm not saying reenact the scenes from 300, but simply be mindful of what you're trying to achieve. If you put as much effort into the food groups and fundamental movement patterns and play as you do with your child's academic results then they will become a far more successful self.

Create a "warrior" not a "worrier".

Move Like Joe by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

 by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

To understand one religion you must go away and study them all.

Understanding the system of body weight is one of the biggest pearls I have been given (thank you Dr Nicholas Romanov). It is an amazing coaching cue and depending on how deeply you want to look into it, will change the way you move and approach any exercise. If you understand and are mindful of your own weight and where it is in connection to the earth, be it through your hands, feet, backside etc., you can carry out the correct balance between muscles on or off and understand how our system is stacked much more efficiently. It's a system of support and action. This is my support and now my mind can now carry out the right action. Without the understanding of the support the action will be flawed. Education into body weight has been and still is being taught by modern great minds of movement: Dr Romanov, Lee Saxby, Kenny Weldon, Ido Portal, and Erwan le Corre to name but a few.

Support-Action-Equilibrium

I was first introduced into the concept of body weight by Dr Romanov and from then my perception of coaching has changed forever. Working side by side for many years with the world's best barefoot coach Lee Saxby has meant I have had access to some great knowledge. He has been another great inspiration to me and many pearls of wisdom gained - for me this one was huge: Dudley Morton



New York City 1936, the same time Joseph Pilates was kicking around the Big Apple, Dudley Morton broke the code to the human foot. He broke the foot down into units of body weight. For those who are not familiar with the importance of body weight, body weight recognition is at the top of the hierarchy. If you don't understand where your weight is, sadly your movement will be grossly compromised.


This is where practitioners go wrong and end up obsessing over making tiny adjustments. "Contract this, pull in that, tense this and tuck in this" and not a hint of this in the classical content of Return to Life Through Contrology. If you really want to "ape the animals" you should have an understanding of your body weight in both hands and feet. I can't imagine cats and dogs running around pulling their belly button in and tensing their glutes. These should really occur naturally and not to be forced.



There's text in Return to Life Through Contrology that refers to correct standing posture and where your body weight should be poised (the ball of the foot). This is exactly where Dudley suggests body weight to be in standing posture, yet broken down through looking at the evolution of the human foot. The big toe and ball of the foot should be the loaded point in stance and has huge leverage capability.



Every practitioner who teaches movement that involves the conversion into becoming an upright being should have an understanding of where the body weight should be in the human foot. It is no coincidence that Joseph Pilates had invented toe-correction equipment and exercises, he had a great mind and like Morton understood the importance of good foot mechanics. I wouldn't be surprised if the two great minds had met.



It is through Dudley Morton that we know the human foot to be one of the most complex and neglected parts of the human body. It has points of leverage, points of balance, three rocking actions each with specific changes in speed. 70% of the information from our proprioceptive system comes from the base of our support when upright, enabling us to make the correct subconscious judgement between muscle action and tendon action. And yet most have no understanding of the sensation of where their weight is when standing let alone carrying out basic fundamental movements, walking and running.

If you don’t understand the mechanics of the foot and have no understanding of where your weight is, then the ankle joint can’t function correctly, from the ankle joint, to the knee joint, to the hip, to the pelvis, to the lumbar to the thoracic spine. With a combination of seated posture and all these mechanical movements out of kilter you will be recruiting from all kinds of systems that are not designed for the actions you desire, resulting in the same annoying procedure of "tense this, pull in that, tighten this and tuck in that". Muscle tension is then created and this is where practitioners generally get it wrong. Instead of looking at the mechanical movement, they look at strengthening and stretching for the areas they perceive as weak or tight. If you don't sort out the structures from the base of support you will keep having to offer the same strength and stretch model and this is what I would call symptom relief, nothing more. This still doesn't equip you with the tools to move like Joe - you only become strong at the exercise you are being offered. As soon as you stand up and walk across to the car park from your class of "Classic Pilates" the system reverts back to the same position you walked in the door to your session with.

Neck endurance

It is my personal mission to go in search of what inspired the Joseph Pilates movement system, the one that can be read about in his bible Return to Life Through Contrology. Surely we owe him that much. Remember, to understand one religion you must go away and study them all. Well to move-like-Joe, you have to go away and study them all. The move-like-Joe-movement system: head wrestling, boxing, hand balancing, gymnastics, running, quadrupedal, circus performance. From a purely selfish standpoint as a man, these are far more attractive disciplines from Joseph Pilates past.

Re-Mastery: It wasn't just meant for dance. by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

 by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

Recently I ran a campaign through Facebook for pilatesrunning.tv All in all this was a great success, apart from the odd strange comment every now and then, but hey that’s social media right? As Gloves coach Ben informed me, "Tony its rather like promoting your business in a bar."



What really captured my attention was what seemed to be an invitation to a Pilates conference. The particular conference is being held near my home town Windsor, so as you can imagine I was delighted! Now this might have been a touch of arrogance on my behalf, but all the same it led me to post back asking if it was an invitation to present. To which they replied "This is a classic Pilates event that. We aim to keep that way."

From boxer to gymnast Joe was so much more than portrayed today 

Well! I didn't realise that you had decided what is classical. Really, this is only your interpretation of what is classical. They are advertising Pilates for men - yeah that's classical. Hopefully you're referring to Joseph’s head wrestling, acrobatic hand balancing and boxing systems then if you really want to get men interested? You have to look at what the great man trained in himself, right? 

It still amazes me how pretentious practitioners can be with the labeling of "classical Pilates". Do they know what classical means? It would be impossible to find a classic Pilates method taught in the way the great man had in his own thoughts, as it was his whole philosophy.

The same could be said for Georges Hébert’s méthode naturelle. We now have descendants of his model: Parkour, Free Running and the closest to it by far, Erwan Le Corre’s MovNat. The difference is that these systems are not called the Hébert’s method and therefore aren't claiming to be classical ambassadors.

If you take Joseph Pilates original model of Contrology, before his practice had switched to the rehabilitation of ballet dancers from the New York City ballet it looked, and I'm 100% sure would have, felt very different. The classical work as far as I am concerned can be seen from rare footage of Joseph outside in the natural environment showing great awareness of body weight with not a leotard in sight.



From head wrestling to boxing,  Joseph Pilates was the great movement master coach who had many systems of movement which today have either been forgotten or misinterpreted. You only have to read Return to Life or Return to Health through Contrology to know the system meant so much more than is being taught in Pilates studios around the world.

Unfortunately bodybuilding isolation exercise has entered the world of Pilates, the same as it has with the strength and conditioning minds of modern movement coaches today. This is a general practice of developing muscle for muscle's sake which looks great in the mirror, but sadly doesn't equip you with the ability to move like Joe!



Not a movement you would see in your average Pilates studio!

Thankfully there are many other systems from his era and from the same school of thought that are now seeing a huge revival: body weight exercises, old school lifting techniques, old school running techniques, animal movements, gymnastics, Strong Man exercises and hand balancing are all becoming mainstream, and I think the granddaddies of these great disciplines would be pleased. There are some really fantastic systems coming through, systems that are being taught by coaches and teachers with a great understanding of the fundamentals.

Systems like these are inherent. We really do have them in there, somewhere, just waiting to be unleashed. In fact, we all have a far better natural understanding of movement until that sad day comes, when we're introduced to a chair or take our first class at school and sit down for long periods of time and become non movers!



Classical?

Movement is a skill, whether that's running, walking, climbing, balancing, throwing, jumping, lifting, carrying, swimming, defending or crawling (quadrupedal movement). In fact we shouldn't really stop there. Sex, child birth, breathing, digestion, even bowel movements require skill, skills that seem to be slowly taken away until we are no longer capable of our own survival. But not only are they skills, they are also fundamental needs, needs that are nearly all neglected. No wonder there are so many pissed off people out there. Perhaps if we started to put as much focus on the fundamental needs of movement as we do on all of our other needs, we would be much healthier and happier.



As much as they try we can re-learn. We can eat naturally, move naturally and as a result digest and poop naturally. We can squat correctly which in turn can help us stand, walk and run naturally, but again as these are skills they have to be coached back in to our system, and this requires a coach. We should look at coaches as tribal leaders, ones that can educate us in our fundamental needs to become more skillful at being Human again.

Teaching old dogs new tricks by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

I once took a course with the ABA ASDAN award, when the course was set up to offer local kids the opportunity to acquire credits towards their GCSE in boxing. It was a great incentive for young kids who were having trouble with their education to gain an extra qualification. 

The ABA course tutor was called Quiton Shillingford (Managing Director Boxing Awards), Q for short. Q is a well respected individual with a great teaching method and with all courses you hope to come away with a real pearl of wisdom on how to improve. On this occasion I was not disappointed - the pearl was something very valuable indeed as importantly, I learnt what not to do.

You see, Q had a great story of his first experience with boxing. Q began to explain that he was a real Jack the lad, always in out and of trouble, and so on this particular occasion Q and his three friends decided they should take up boxing and pay a visit to their local boxing club. They got as far as the door and bailed out, ran away and hid behind a wall. Q, bold as brass, decides it's his moment and poking his head in the door, he approached the owner.  “Excuse me Mister”, Q begins to say, and it was at this point that stupidity and big testicles won the day. Q found himself thrown in the ring, with absolutely no understanding of boxing, and it was obvious what the outcome would be. Q wasn’t to win and it was only stupidity that allowed him to go back again and again.

Gloves members sparring under the watchful eye of Coach Tony

This lesson that stuck with me and it is one of the reasons at Gloves we have a system in place that will ensure you will never have to go through that initial humiliation/annihilation that so many have had to endure when being educated in the sweet science. 

The method of chucking someone in the ring with your best middleweight is great for assessing raw talent and humiliating the poor not-so-talented contender, but think of how much talent is being missed and where we would be if we were all coached in the fundamentals of movement at grass roots. For me 80% of boxing is footwork, then you have to learn to throw the ten punches, move in four directions and then finally the defence of those ten punches before you enter the ring. For some this journey will seem like an eternity, but for me it is essential. When in fight or flight mode you will be amazed what knee jerk reactions can and will be applied.

My memory of learning the ten punches meant a jolly to Pasedena Texas with my cousin, Lee Saxby, to train with the great Kenny Weldon. Kenny, the world's best balance and technique coach, had a great system in his gym - a huge warehouse where you would carry out drills for days on end until he felt you were ready to even hit hand pads. The hierarchy for Kenny was footwork and being a purist he knew his stuff. Some of the terminology was a little strange, but as it turned out, we all spoke the same language. 

I remember a conversation I had with Lee whilst walking back from Kenny's about predictability and it is something that stuck with me. If you had an apple on a table and you pick that apple up, your mind will have made a picture, a mental map. If you were to keep placing the apple in what you perceive as the same area and keep repeating the process, your mind will have already predicated its next move, based on the preservation of energy and minimising the risk of injury. There would be tiny little adjustments that you would have no idea had even occurred. If you then add a lion into the equation (Roar!), the movement pattern would be grossly affected, unless of course someone had coached in the fundamental movement patterns on how to slay the ferocious beast. It’s a very simple process - if you haven’t been given the tools to deal with the job in hand, you are being dealt a handicap and I don’t know about you, but I would much prefer to learn how to slay than be slayed.

Kenny teaching boxing fundamentals

This is what we shall refer to as our default and a default is something you will keep drawing upon unless it has been thoroughly coached out. If Q for instance became the guy cowering in the corner, then that would have been his first memory of the sweet - or in this case - not so sweet science. His survival brain would have made a mental picture of that event and the moment that he stepped into the ring again, he would expect to have a rise in blood pressure, heart rate, tension and unfortunately the same knee jerk cowering. If we had nurtured Q from an early age, made every experience a positive and gave him the footwork, the arsenal of weapons and more importantly, the defence to deal with his slayer he would have a completely different default to fall back on.

You don’t want your initial reaction when under pressure to be to wave your arms around like a human windmill or to cower in the corner. It is the survival brain that will be making all the decisions at this stage and it is my belief that neither are good skills to draw upon in the ring. You need to remain calm under pressure; trembling in your boots or turning into a bag of rage are not the best attributes a boxer can obtain. You might have heard of the term you can’t teach an old dog new tricks...For me it is simply a default model that has become a mental map of the past and will have an astounding influence on the predictability of any future movements. It is the same with the selection of the strength and conditioning exercises you prescribe which should overlap into the discipline, the same care and time conditioning should be coached for the emotional experience.


Slay or be slayed!

Paleo-lympics by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

The most successful Olympian?

by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

Those that have been reading the Gloves blog will know that we apply the natural laws as our filter; thereby cutting out the BS that has plagued our movement brains for far too long.

It is for this reason we apply this same filter to the Olympics.

The debate is strong; is Phelps the most successful Olympic athlete of all time or simply the most successful Olympic swimmer of all time? In our opinion - and as this is our blog that we write - we're going to decide. You, dear reader, can of course can decide for yourself.

Michael Phelps, an undeniably
awesome athlete

Imagine if I were to bring up a large "Minority Report" screen in front of me, where I can grab images, move them around and add overlaying screens. If I were to then create screens for the ten fundamental natural movements of man, swimming, just like running, would only be one tenth of what humans can and should achieve. To be a really, truthfully skilled all round athlete with the accolade of the most successful Olympian, surely you would have to apply a higher number of these fundamental movements? Of course this isn't to say that Phelps hasn't used other forms of exercise in his training, but his actual discipline (swimming) is only performed in the pool.

Daley Thompson, all round
athletic prowress

I coach fell runners and they should be recognised as being far more skilful than track or road running athletes. But why? Well to run the London Marathon, you have to just run. But to run Snowdon you need to walk, run, jump and offer quadrupedal movement. To win a race you have to be skilful at all these elements, and without that skill your success would be limited. When I look at the Olympics with this filter; for me it is the decathlon, pentathlon, steeplechase and gymnastics events that deserve the best accolades of all.

Gymnastics offers running, jumping, quadrupedal movement and throwing. As a coach I would have to develop each one of these systems individually before putting them together. The previous most successful athlete of all time was actually a gymnast and rightly so. Huge amounts of conditioning different systems has gone in to the successful gymnast and they are deserving of this title.

For me personally though our very own Daley Thompson was the greatest of all and I have nothing but admiration for his achievements; the closest I could get to even feeling that level is the Tough Mudder competition I intend on conquering in November. This to me is going to be my Paleo games; something that I can really apply all the training too.

Join the Gloves Team!

We want to build our Gloves team for this and if you too want to feel you have stimulated your movement brain in 2012, this is your chance! We are recruiting now for Tough Mudder and we need to know who is willing to join us by the 7th September to secure the Gloves team so let us know now by emailing or calling 020 7624 5850!

One Paleo Toe in the Canadian Olympic Lifting Grave by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

Wow, what an interesting week for me at Gloves Boxing Club, and it all started with Batman!

After sitting through 2hrs 40mins of special affects and my senses becoming over stimulated beyond belief, who should be waiting to greet me at the office? Nope not the Joker, but it may as well have been...It was the female Canadian Olympic lifting coach.

I had been looking forward to this moment for quite some time, thinking that I might be inspired and have the chance to trade some knowledge with an actual Olympic coach. To make me even more excited, there had also been some talk of a possible foot in the door with NIKE!

The meeting didn’t take long...and by not long, I mean the time it took for me to agree for the coach to look at my Olympic lift and for me to repay her with the kind offer of a barefoot session. As soon as I mentioned “barefoot” the room went dead and the only lifting I got to see was from her Canadian brow! Had I known this was going to be smugly shrugged off with “I don’t think so” I would have spent more time digesting the Dark Knight Rises.

Arguments in bare feet

The most amazing thing about the coach's visit was the unwillingness to accept anything beyond her own knowledge/experiences. We basically got to a point in a discussion where the temperature rose uncomfortably and unfortunately, acceptance did not rise with the challenge. Instead a huge wall built, one that seemed too high to hurdle.

The zoo foot: image of a "shod"
foot from a 1905 study

To start with the mention of barefoot provoked a bizarre reaction that it was only about feet and how if you have a misshapen zoo foot with a short Achilles heel then you can’t barefoot run. Not a mention of why the Achilles might be short or how it became misshapen. Yes - one could say because of the title Barefoot running, an uneducated coach might be forgiven for making that statement. But for someone that had been apparently working with the guys at Nike on the Nike free shoe, it's inexcusable to have no understanding that the shape of the foot and the load of the foot are bi-products of a compromised organism.

When I first mention that posture is at the top of the hierarchy in movement and say "surely you must understand that from an Olympic lifting perspective", I get hit with a big fat "No it's all about your feet."

To which I reply, "Your base of support is important, but if all your segments are out then this is going to alter the areas of your feet you choose to load thus affecting the resulting technique."

This gets rubbished by another "Nope it's all to do with the feet," and "We are never going to agree on this."

Morton's Toe

I begin to explain that feet - of course - play a role in this, in that it is a relationship between posture and the foot. Seated posture affects our upright posture and our natural bipedal state. Dudley Morton in 1936 introduced us to Morton's toe: a great discovery that essentially helps us understand that the human foot has a loading element and a balance element. The big toe and ball of foot are there to deal with the load whilst the lateral part of the foot is there to take care of balance. 

Image of habitually bare feet taken
from a study performed almost 100years ago,
published 1905 in the American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery

It is important as a skilled biped to not mix the two - unskilled bipeds are primates, they are quadrupeds and gain support from the outside  of their feet. They don't recognise their big toe as we recognise ours. The big toe of the primate is medial (towards the midline of the body). As an unskilled biped we too will spend time supporting from the outside of our feet. This is called supra-nation: when in locomotion, this creates supranation then pronation. The more this occurs the less support I can find from my big toe and over time my foot mechanics will change. Combine this with modern zoo footwear and hey presto - the zoo foot!

Most clients I see have the first signs of bunion growth, but why?

The bunion is essentially the unskilled biped looking for the gorilla toe and the role of devolution having its way.

If I lock my foot in a shoe, that shoe will mould my foot. It will change the shape of my foot, until it no longer looks or operates in a way a natural foot should. If I then sit down all day and get locked in the hip or the thoracic spine, my segments will no longer be aligned. The more my head drops forward of my hip, the more my foot will land ahead of me, changing my loading time. This will result in my base of support changing to one that would better suit the quadrupedal posture of a primate.

This is why footwear is not the answer, it is simply a piece of the puzzle. This is also why I founded PilatesRunning, because we can coach in movements that return you back to being and operating as nature intended - an upright biped.

Despite what the conventional model tells us, foot mechanics and posture can be corrected

We can change and with that change we can Barefoot walk, Barefoot run, Barefoot lift, Barefoot swim, Barefoot carry, Barefoot throw, Barefoot jump, Barefoot climb, Barefoot defend and Barefoot quarapedal move to our heart's content. All of the above are skills, but skills that have to be coached.

So to all those budding new Olympians and for the Canadian Olympic lifting team: with the correct posture and the realignment of the all important Paleo Toe, you too can be a barefoot athlete!

Zoe Smith and female Olympic lifting by Tony Riddle A.K.A @theprepdoctor

Abbye Stockton (1917-2006),
professional strongwoman
who trained Marilyn Monroe.
Could lift more weight than most men.

 by Tony Riddle, Gloves Club founder

To those not in the know, Olympic lifting requires a huge amount of skill - skill that is often overlooked as “just lifting a weight above your head”.

The power needed in the two main lifts – the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk – require explosive action in the legs, bum and arms from a deep squat position. This is no sport for posers, nor does it require the focus on crazy reps and little technique like a Cross Fit round. It demands flexibility, technique, coordination, strength and fluidity - a great all round athletic discipline, one that is not to be confused with bodybuilding. In my opinion body building creates false tempos, faulty movement patterns and excessive levers to develop inefficient and injury prone athletes.

Zoe Smith, recently selected to represent Great Britain in Olympic lifting, has certainly put the hours in and has already been involved in many a photo shoot for sponsors. She's also been subjected to a barrage of abuse from cyber bullies, calling her a "butch dyke" that looks like man, and that she'll never get a boyfriend. Nothing could be further from the truth, and she’s trying to raise the profile of the sport by changing the perception of the sport that it is something only men should be doing, or that women who do it are somehow not feminine. She added: "We're getting weightlifting out there and drawing attention to the fact that we're not all actually big. We're making it a normal sport rather the manly thing as people often perceive it.”

Chemical cost = metabolic cost = burn fat, burn and hey presto, strong is the new skinny!

It didn't exactly do
Marilyn Monroe any harm!

For those that have any misconceptions, Olympic lifting is a great athletic conditioning sport; it's great for the all important athletic figure, hitting all the areas that women spend hours trying to tone in the latest glorified Bums and Tums class, or on the latest fad diet. It won’t “bulk” you up, or make you look like a man.

As there is a huge chemical cost in lifting that weight at such great speed and accuracy, it’s the best way to target your legs and bum in a way an aerobics class could only ever dream to do!

So come on ladies. Support Zoe Smith and all the other women getting into lifting, and while you’re at it, why not give it a try yourselves. If it’s good enough for Marilyn Monroe, it's good enough for you….