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!

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".

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.