Since this is my first entry and my first ever blog about me and what I’m up to, I should really introduce myself and what this is all about, and also mention i’m pretty dyslexic, so please forgive any spelling mistakes.

As you’ve probably gathered my name is Danny and 27 years old and run my own business called Fstacademy, (the fst stands for functional strength training) where we train athletes and individuals to move and recover better to improve performance.  I’m living the dream at the moment, training people my way with my own philosophies and training principles, more of which I’ll talk about along the way or through the website.

The whole reason for doing this blog is a bit of self motivation and to share with anyone who wants to read it what it is I actually do when I’m not getting people to squat, run or Olympic lift.  Since many of my clients ask what sport I play or did play, I find myself in a tricky situation saying I used to sprint (many many years ago now), but at the moment I don’t compete at anything, but I do feel I should be since I’m still young enough to.  The problem is doing a degree and opening a business is all very time consuming and doesn’t leave a lot of time to do much else, but now the gym is open and the degree is done it’s time to do as I do not do as I say like it has been for the last few years.

I should give you a bit of background about myself first.  Back when I was a teenager around 16 or 17 I trained as a sprinter and had done since the age of 11, and in that time I’d been to the English school’s, won a medal at regional level, defended numerous county championships and been to several national championships.  However, from 17 to 21 thanks to college, women, injuries and partying something had changed, I found myself injured more than I was healthy which I found extremely frustrating the dreams of representing my country was slipping away month by month until enough was enough and I hung up my spikes at 21. From 11 till 21, training was training Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for 2 to 3 hours, without fail!!!! Pluss 2 mile runs and the occasional weight session, all stopped pretty much over night.  The next few years were great no training, no being sick in the tree’s, no lactic acid.  All this time let me focus on what I wanted to do as job, which I’ll go into in my next post.  But in doing this I became a mere shadow of my former self, the 6 pack faded and the body weight (fat) slowly crept on, and the aerobic fitness reduced so much I found myself recently on a 5k run round Heaton park looking for the nearest bin to throw my breakfast up in (I didn’t) and finished in what I would consider a very slow time of 26mins.  What on earth has happened to me? Like I said opening a business and doing a degree takes some effort and leaves no time for anything.

It’s not all doom and gloom though a few years ago I travelled down to Bath to try out for British bobsleigh team at there talent ID day, I turned up over weight and out of shape and still got through but didn’t do enough to go on tour which was to be expected, but did show I still had a little bit of talent left in the tank.  In Uni I did a lot of testing mainly on myself which showed I had good tendon structure for a sprinter, can squat twice my own body mass, and can clean my own body mass without little to no training oh my and my vertical jump is pretty good aswel, I cant remember what it is exactly; but down in Bath I performed a standing long jump of  3m 10cm.  All in all I strength and power wise I can keep up with most professional level teams, I know I tested some and obviously compared myself it’d be rude not to after all.

So I find myself training people to get strong, powerfull and fit to compete or just to live a better healthier life and not really taking the time to look after myself.  I think it’s about time I put some of what I say into practice on myself.  I am the type of person who needs something to aim for, and it can’t be just aesthetic and health reasons, i love to compete i always have and always will, the problem is what exactly am I going to do with myself? Do I go back to the track and chase all my pb’s or will I be left disappointed chasing a dream that once was, or do I go for something completely new? Like sprint distance triathlon, (800m swim, 20k bike and 5k run).  If I’m honest 80% says put the spikes back on while the rest probably the more sensible side is saying, you’ll never be as good and realistically breaking 11s for 100m is just a dream that’ll never come true, do something new.

But!!! and this is a big one, my aerobic capacity has always been my week point, with my strength and power being my strongest area.  So choosing to opt for a distance competition is always going to be an upward battle, but returning back to the track I run the risk of chasing what once was.

Since it’s pretty much mid way through the track and field season and same for the tri season doing anything of any use this year is pretty much out of the question.  So next up realistically is the track and field indoor season starting around Christmas time, so it seems logical to make that my first long goal and take it from there, see how I perform against others and try and forget what I once was and focus on what I can do now.

Over the next week I’ll put myself through some tests to see where I need to improve, I’ll be testing my body fat, strength, power and aerobic power and report back on what I need to do to improve and hit my goals.  So I leave you up to date with my physical condition and a statement of my intention over the next 6 month.  I’ll be posting my training, my nutrition and all things that are happening from week to week at Fstacademy.  If through any of this you have any question please get in touch I’ll be happy to answer them.