FREE STUFF
FRENCH PROVERB
PLEASE HELP YOURSELF
The following tools and resources are offered to help and come with no charge or requirement to sign up or hand over your email. Some of these resources are aimed at Fitness Professionals, others can be enjoyed by Fitness Enthusiasts, Parents, Schools, Teams and Organisations.Â
fitnessing
#1 Simple Calorie Calculator
Daily Calorie Baseline
#2 Macro Allocator
Macro Target Allocator
#3 Rep Max Calculator
One-Rep Max Estimator
#4 HR Training Zone Calculator
Heart Rate Zone Targeter
#5 Science & Disclaimer
This calculator suite operates entirely on validated, peer-reviewed sports science methodologies. It is engineered to provide fitness professionals and everyday athletes with objective training thresholds [1.1]:
- Energy Targets: Your metabolic floor uses a targeted body mass coefficient based on the Katch-McArdle MET guidelines to prevent caloric overestimation on larger frames [1.1]. The subsequent activity scalars are derived from the standardized Physical Activity Level (PAL) coefficients established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
- Macro Allocations: Macronutrient distributions are computed using thermodynamic constants (1g Protein = 4 kcal, 1g Carbohydrate = 4 kcal, 1g Fat = 9 kcal) mapped against established athletic percentage ratio thresholds for safe behavioral compliance.
- One-Rep Max Estimator: Your lifting metrics are calculated using the Epley Formula (1RM = W × (1 + R / 30)), validated by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) as the gold standard for sub-maximal strength predictions.
- Heart Rate Targeter: Cardiovascular zones utilize the Karvonen Formula to establish true Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) based on your unique Resting Heart Rate (RHR). Maximum Heart Rate is estimated using the clinically superior Tanaka Equation (208 – (0.7 × Age)) rather than the outdated, flat 220-age estimation.
The mathematical outputs generated by these tools are intended strictly for educational, directional, and informational programming purposes. They do not constitute clinical diagnostics, medical advice, physical therapy rehabilitation parameters, or registered dietetic prescriptions.
FNC
THE FNC
Here are some ‘fun’ small group workouts from our famous FRIDAY NIGHT CLUB sessions at THE FIT BOX, dating right back to its inception in 2010. These sessions are not for everybody, so please use professional judgement, but you are welcome to use them to create your own team training experiences. The sessions are free to use but do not come with much by way of instruction.Â
#1
5 reps in sequences and without rest:
Front Squat
Dips
Bent Row
Squat Press
Dirty Push Up (Renegade)Â
Following Each of 3 Rounds:
(perform for length of space available)
- Bear Crawl
- Rotating (carry) Lunge Walk
- Tyre Flip/Push up
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Rest 2mins.
Then:
3×10
Pike
Roll Out
Knee Raise
Reach T
#2
Front Squat 10×10
But..
In-between each set pick up a new exercise and additional rep. Â
Bent Row
Floor Press
Bicep Curl
Upright Row
Dips
Pike
Shoulder Press
Tricep Press
TRX Row
So the workout will look like this..
10x Front Squat
1x Bent Row
10x Front SquatÂ
2x Bent Row
1x Floor Press
10x Front Squat
3x Bent Row
2x Floor Press
1x Bicep Curl…
And so on.
#3
2×10
Tyre Flip
Box Jump
Saw Press
100x Star Jumps
2×10
Man Maker
Kettlebell Sit Up
Down Down Up Up Squats
100x Star Jumps
2×10
150m Ski (not x10)
Kettlebell Floor to Row to Press
8 Point Push Up
100x Star Jumps
#4
5×5 no rest:
Deadlift
Atomic Push Up
Box Jump Burpee Step Up
Overhead Punch PressÂ
Seated Rope PullÂ
Then..
3 rounds:
100m Ski
10 Push Up
10 Reverse Push Up
#5
You won’t enjoy this one.
10k Ski relayÂ
Can ski or any time or distance but must be 4/5 effort minimum, and at no point can there not be hands on the handles.Â
Following ski interval, perform 10 push ups then rack a pair of heavy kettlebells and wait for your next turn.Â
BAMBAM
#1 BONES
Bone health is important as without them we are just a big bag of moosh. For our bones to remain strong they require regular exposure to resistance and impact. This can definitely be achieved in the gym, by lifting weights, hitting punch bags, and running on treadmills, but bone health can also be attained outside of the gym with regular participation in activities such as walking, gardening, re-arranging furniture, not taking the car to the shops, and anything that requires some effort to pull, push, lift, or carry. Â
#2 MOVEMENT
Motion is lotion, is a popular phrase amongst coaches and manual therapists, and refers to the exponential goodness available from just moving about. The ability to move freely is essential in retaining physical independence as we age, and is something we can easily lose the more time we spend sitting. Movement can be thought about in two useful ways: local and general. Local movement means the movement available at a specific joint, like the ankle, and general movement means how does the body move when all the local joints are working together, like walking, squatting, or climbing.
#3 BREATHING
It probably makes sense already why breathing is fundamnetaly important, but breathing at different rates might have the biggest impact on how long we find ourselves breathing for. It is when we are engaged in activities that make us breathe a little harder and able to talk a little less that our hearts become stronger and more resilient. So we should definitely do some of that. Think about the breathing we do day to day as 1 out of 5 breathing, and the most intense activity imaginable 5 out of 5 breathing. The best numbers for a healthy heart are 2 and 3 out of 5, and we should aim to spend at least 30 minutes doing 2 out 5 breathing every 2 days, and 3 out of 5 breathing every 3 days (the rest of the time 1 out of 5 breathing is just lovely).
#4 MUSCLE
Muscle is like money in the bank as we get older, offering not only the capacity to pull on our bones to produce movement, but protection – armour even, against pain, injury, and the loss of independence. Muscle is often confused with muscles, actually they are the same thing, but when we think of muscle we often picture people covered in muscles, like superhero’s. And that’s lovely, but not necessary – or even likely. Muscle is a very dense tissue, so we can carry quite a lot of it without any of the lumps and bumps of the Incredible Hulk. As important as muscle is, if we don’t use it, we lose it, so we must use it often. Every week, daily even.Â
8 FLAVOURS
Our Guide to Holistic Health & Fitness
#1 PHYSICAL
Physical Health Challenges
Our Physical Health refers to our body, but its impact and influence on all eight flavours is profound. Age has some effect on our body, but its influence isn’t as significant as time. The two might go hand in hand, but they are not the same. What matters is how much time we spend using/or not using our body, and as we age we tend to use it less – think about how much of adult life involves sitting down. As a result of not using it, we might feel pain, stiffness, discomfort, heavy, sore, and this can in turn make us more prone to injury, but also illness, social reclusion, and a proclivity to making bad choices.
Physical Health Solutions
Motion is lotion!! Isn’t that a fun phrase?? Movement of some nature is often the solution to our physical health challenges, but the movement itself should also, at least mostly, be of the fun variety – otherwise we won’t do it. Movement that gets us out of breath is good for our hearts, movement that requires a little bit of grunting, pushing, pulling and lifting, is good for our muscles and bones, and movement that requires us to stretch is great for our joints and posture, and even movement that doesn’t seem to do much at all, like making everyone in the office a cup of tea, can help undo the harm from not moving.
#2 MENTAL
Mental Health Challenges
The meat computer is a marvellous thing, it can be programmed, updated; but close some windows. Over time our minds can become occupied, distracted, or even just clogged up with things that, left unresolved, can cause us harm. Some of the mental health challenges we face will be caused by illnesses that require medical support, but many more are the result of stresses and traumas, and require therapeutic remedies. Exposure to trauma can happen to any of us, at any age, and the cause itself should not be a measure of how much we think we are allowed to suffer. Pain is pain, suffering is personal, not a competition.
Mental Health Solutions
Mental health is a bit like a credit card – in fact this analogy applies to almost all things, so much as it is something that will get smashed sometimes, but will be ok as long as you make good on the repayments. And when it comes to making those repayments, well you might just notice a theme here, but physical activity, talking about our feelings, spending time with people, making good nutritional choices, keeping medical appointments, maintaining our faith, and keeping our environment full of good and positive things and people, are all acceptable forms of payment. As is our commitment to self knowledge.
#3 EMOTIONAL
Emotional Health Challenges
Emotions occur somewhere so deep inside, sharing them makes us feel very exposed. Embrace naked. The problem with our emotions is their relationship with our feelings, in that we can only feel what we know to a certain extent, and this won’t always reflect the true nature of our emotions. If we only know, for example, happy, sad, angry, then we will live our lives either happy, sad, or angry, where our emotions are experiencing joy, excitement, fear, confusion, love, grief, remorse, awe, interest, anticipation, apprehension, rage, optimism, serenity… the list goes on, but it could be said we have to learn what/to feel.
Emotional Health Solutions
Talk to me, Goose!! Some of us are gonna get lucky and the person we love the most is going to quote one of the greatest films of all time (TOP GUN) and encourage us to, well, talk. For many of us, that won’t happen, but stop and think about that for a moment – if you knew someone was having a hard time, would you not want them to talk to you? A healthy mind is one full of purpose and possibility, but also one with the resilience to recover and go again, and a healthy mind is one that explores and embraces and shares its thoughts, with a friend, in a letter, on the phone, through artistic expression, anything but avoidance.
#4 SOCIAL
Social Health Challenges
The digital world is an amazing world, but it’s not the actual world. We need actual world actual social. More and more we sit at home, alone, but connected to the world via devices. And they are brilliant, by the way, these devices, but they are brilliant when they enhance our experiences, not when they replace them. There is a place for all of us, full of people that are into the same things as us, people who can enrich our lives, people whose lives we can enrich. But once we’ve left school, and there are no more newsletters and emails and visits and special assemblies, these places are very much harder to find.
Social Health Solutions
The internet! Oh the irony, that the best place to find real world experiences is with a digital world experience. The fact of the matter is, however, pretty much everything is listed on some corner of the internet. So start there, search for book clubs, model railway enthusiasts, knitting circles, sports teams, walking groups, amateur dramatics, short courses and workshops, dance lessons, then call them, or turn up, have conversations, join in, enjoy yourself. Social interaction for many of us is difficult, but for all of us important, if we can find the right place, with the right people, and they do exist.
#5 NUTRITIONAL
Nutritional Health Challenges
Food & water is essential, and joyful. Not a helpful combination as it goes. Thought is required. The que at the petrol station is alongside a long shiny brightly coloured line of seemingly endless treats for a reason, we are human beings, we can’t resist delicious. and the longer we eat and drink delicious things, the more excess energy and nutrients our body has to store, process and manage. This can result in the obvious accumulation of surplus non propulsive mass (fat), but also undesirable stress and stain on vital organs that can in turn lead to illness, disease and early death, as well as general day to day discomfort.
Nutritional Health Solutions
First of all, food isn’t good or bad, in the same way that hot and cold water aren’t bad. But just as we need the right mix of both to enjoy the perfect bath, our diets need to find the appropriate balance of a range of different and essential nutrients for us to enjoy the perfect health. So finding a petrol station with a pay at pump option, is a great strategy, as is buying smaller plates, and making take-a-way day, the same day you spend doing the gardening. You don’t need to be a nutritional expert to nail your own diet, you know that water is better than fizzy pop, carrots better than biscuits. Take charge, pay attention, enjoy.
#6 MEDICAL
Medical Health Challenges
It can be hard to seek medical help, harder still to accept it, but the best choice is informed choice. Medical professionals are just people, they can get things wrong just like we can get things wrong, but also just like mechanics can get things wrong, and plumbers can get things wrong, and baristas can get things wrong – and we still go see these people when we are having problems with our cars and pipes and coffee. Fear, trust, culture, bad experience, life, availability, wait times, access, so many things can get in the way of us seeking medical help, but it’s our responsibility to ourselves, and our people, to try.
Medical Health Solutions
The longer we are blessed with life, the greater our chance of needing medical support. Check ups, screenings, blood tests, scans, fingers up bums, go with it, listen, read, reflect, then make a decision. Join groups and have conversations with people like you, as many conditions and challenges are common amongst particular population groups. Seek out reputable sources of information online and add them to your social media feeds, take advantage of helplines to ask questions anonymously, and most importantly, don’t give up. Some help, regrettably, is hard to find, but never let that be a reason not to go after it.
#7 ENVIRONMENTAL
Environmental Health Challenges
The chip bathed in ketchup doesn’t taste the same as the chip dipped in mayonnaise. Science. Our environments are just as important as the environment, and we need to take care of both. Over time places and people can become toxic, and negatively impact our lives. A messy bedroom, a dirty car, a disorganised desk, but also a place of work, a group of friends, a social hang out, we will absorb and become a little bit of each of these people and places so from time to time we need to clean them up. We are responsible for our environments, perhaps not always exclusively, but blame is never helpful.
Environmental Health Solutions
Make you bed. Start small but start, and pick battles you can win. The car is a great thing to focus on, because it’s small and controllable to some extent. Understanding what we can and can’t control is really important, maybe we can’t change where we live for example, but we can paint a wall, or buy some flowers, or put some music on. Changing the people around us is tricky, and easy. Tricky when they are real people, and so the important steps to take are to establish boundaries and work towards improving or removing these relationships. Easy when they are digital, fire up the socials and get deleting!
#8 SPIRITUAL
Spiritual Health Challenges
Day will follow night, love doesn’t come with rules, dogs will lick stuff. Believe in people and things. Spirituality can mean tie-die and chanting and tiny symbols, or places and practices of religious worship, and lots of things besides. It’s a word, maybe even an idea, that can make people nervous, but it needn’t. If you’re uncertain about your capacity to have faith, perhaps this will provide some reassurance: do you think it will ever rain again? If you said no, it might be it’ll take more than a well meaning website to convince you, but if you said yes, you have faith. Because you believe in something you can know, or see, or prove.
Spiritual Health Solutions
The secret to faith is truth, trust, and experience, with a little understanding and acceptance of the fact that you might be wrong. It is possible that it’ll never rain again. But it’s been raining for billions of years and it’s widely accepted that it’ll rain for billions more, which is a truth we can trust, a truth in this instance, that we have likely even experienced. Some truths we can’t see, we can only feel, but being truthful is still the way to trust them. Love is often like this, with people showing and expressing their love in different ways, maybe even different to the way we would share and express ours, but it’s still love.