Author: Mark McCourt

The desire for progress is innate in humans. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have went from swinging out of trees in africa to dominating the world. Dopamine is the molecule of more, to quote Daniel Lieberman. The hunt for progress is part of who we are. But how does progress actually happen? Nobody really knows. I certainly didn’t. Not Understanding How Progress Works If you think I’m patient with progress now, it’s because I have trained myself to be. I was naturally very impatient. I wanted progress instantly like we all do. The earliest memory of not understanding how progress worked was in my early teens. I was at the desk in my room trying to build a little toy car, but it just wasn’t happening. Nothing I tried was working. I could feel tension rising in myself. I felt uneasy. I didn’t like it. Soccer came naturally to me, but this didn’t. I tried again – nope. I tried another way – nope. The frustration started to boil over inside me now. After a few more dead ends, I picked up the tool and hurled it towards the floor in a rage! I cut a big line into the floorboard. I still see that cut on the floorboard when I am working from my family home. It reminds me of who I used to be. How little control I had over myself. How little I knew about how progress worked. Skip forward to now where I have patiently chased down my life goals over months, years & decades. Enjoying the journey and my own evolution. The difference is night and day. And one of the most pivotal concepts that helped me get there was the power of small gains. It’s no exaggeration to say it completely changed my life. It can do the same for you. The Amazing Power of Small Gains I will bring you through the timeline & process of how I learned about the small gains, and implemented it in my life. 1) Evolution “You are living proof of the amazing power of small gains” When I started to become obsessed with the human body to overcome my chronic pain & injury, I stumbled upon evolutionary biology. This led me to realise the story of the human body: why chronic pain was inevitable in this modern environment, and how to finally overcome it. But it also led me to stumble across this concept which I coined ‘small gains’ for myself. Which was the understanding that there literally is no such thing as massive jumps in progress. With nature, with our bodies, with anything in life. It’s all small gains. I realised a fundamental truth that changed how I viewed progress forever: “Big gains are an illusion. Any big gain, is just an accumulation of small gains over time”. But we don’t understand this. We think there are big gains. So when the big progress doesn’t happen quickly from our misguided expectations, we naturally lose motivation and drop off. Now we subscribe to the idea that ‘it didn’t work for us’ or ‘there is something wrong with my body’ etc. Pick your poison. This is not the truth. It’s a narrative, a story you tell yourself. But it doesn’t matter. Because if you believe this, then it will become your truth. It will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even just think of the word ‘evolution’. It means ‘to evolve’. And what does ‘evolve’ mean? To ‘develop gradually’. Develop gradually. This is the only way change can happen. In humans. In nature. In the world. With mobility, strength, skills, sports, business, relationships, life. Progress happens gradually and slowly. Progress happens in small gains. Any big gain you see, is just an accumulation of small gains over time. The bigger the gain appears -> the more small gains that are stacked up. There is a tipping point when all the small gains start to appear like a big gain. But there is nothing special or miraculous about it at all. It’s just small gains. Think of it like an iceberg: You only see the tip of the iceberg (the achievements/accomplishments of others) You don’t see the 95% of the iceberg under the water. (All the small gains it took to achieve the ‘big gain’) Now your perception of progress is distorted The evolution of the human species is a perfect example of small gains in action. 6 million years ago, humans and chimps diverged from a common ancestor and went on different evolutionary paths. On the human path: 200,000 years ago, after many species of humans, homo-sapiens emerged (the species of human we are today). We are born into this modern world and think nothing of it. It’s all we know. But in reality, it’s been millions of years of small gains that has led to you being alive today. To be the species of human that you are. The truth is that you are living proof of the amazing power of small gains. When I understood this empowering truth of small gains, more research led me to find out that this concept already existed. It was called the power of tiny gains. And was already popularised by the book “Atomic Habits”. 2) Science As you know by now, small gains are incremental bits of progress. But most people don’t realise the amazing power it has over time: If you get 1% better each day, you are 37% better each year. The ironic thing is that you probably already use the power of small gains in other areas of your life without realising. Your pension is a great example. A few hundred euro each month is useless in terms of sustaining your lifestyle when you retire. But compound that over 40 years of work & compound interest, and now all the small gains have turned into a massive gain that will sustain you. It makes complete sense to use there, but unfortunately that logic & understanding usually doesn’t transfer over to other areas of our life. We expect the quick fix and fast progress due to our many human biases that distort our thinking. Another example that stuck with me: A penny doubled every day for just 30 days ends up being over 5 million. Don’t underestimate the compounding effect of small gains. 3) Perspective Change -> Behaviour Change “Perspective change leads to behaviour change” Perspective change is so important, because it leads to behaviour change. And you behave your way to success or failure over time. Once my perspective changed from distorted views of progress, to the actual truth of small gains, I was empowered. Instead of settling and giving up on my athletic career after I was told I had no choice, I knew it wasn’t over for me. I knew I could come back to some capacity if I got the right training and followed the process of just aiming for small gains each session, each day, each week, each month. It was time to not settle and start making deposits in the mobility bank. I now realised it would add up like a pension over time. I knew I was onto something, but I honestly couldn’t have comprehended what would happen: 1 year later: I returned to Jiu-Jitsu & the gym 2 years after that: I hit the front splits which I was told was impossible for my hips 1 year after that: I hit the pancake and had access to nearly all movements possible for the human body again It blew me away. I was the one that people were calling the ‘flexible’ guy, thinking these ‘big gains’ came naturally to me?! Now I could see why so many people settle and think they can’t get progress with mobility or anything else in life: Because they just don’t understand how progress works. 4) Progress Is Inevitable In Time When I had cultivated the don’t settle attitude, and paired this with the understanding of the amazing power of small gains: I was a force to be reckoned with. I used to think I couldn’t change, that I was the way I was. I didn’t make it in soccer and I thought that talent was set in stone. That you either have it or you don’t. I was weak, skinny, shy, unconfident, and many other things. I thought that’s the way I would be forever. But now for the first time in my life: I knew any progress that I wanted was inevitable in time. The small gain train will take me there. I started chasing down all my goals like our hunter-gatherer ancestors did their prey: endurance hunting. I picked out all my goals like a kid in a sweet shop, knowing they are all inevitable in time if I don’t settle and keep chasing the small gains. Nearly a decade later and I have: regained my physical freedom and taken it to elite levels became stronger physically & mentally than I ever thought possible turned my passion to my career came out from behind the mask, lived true to myself, and became who I knew I could be I behaved my way to success, one small gain at a time. All from a perspective change, which came from taking ownership & educating myself. Which shattered the idea of big gains and showed me the truth of how progress worked. Big Gains Are An Illusion “Big gains are an illusion, it’s just an accumulation of small gains over time” Humans are wired to want instant gratification, so we are naturally blind to the power of small gains. But when you train yourself to see the truth, you can’t unsee it. Big gains are an illusion. There is no such thing. With our body, with our mindset, with business/career, with relationships, with nature, with anything. Now you’ll go back out into the world and see others trapped in their limiting beliefs. “I could never”, “why bother”, “you won’t be able”, “it’s impossible”, “how does he do that?”. Settling protects your ego, but it’s the graveyard for dreams and the fertile land for regret. Stay there at your peril. When I look back to that moment where I felt like the tin man and was told by 5 experts in a row that it’s over for me, time to settle. Tha is where my initial drive came from. I know what it’s like to hit rock bottom with your body and many other areas of life, and I know it doesn’t have to be the end for you. Settling is a choice, not a pre-determined destiny. You can choose to not settle. You can choose to chase the small gains. So many people give up on themselves because they don’t understand the amazing power of small gains. But now you do. You have the secret of progress. You know more about how progress works than 99% of the world. Go wield this superpower to wage war on your goals. To make them inevitable in time. It’s time to get on the small gain train. All Aboard The Small Gain Train The small gains are all I’ve ever got. The small gains are all I ever need. They are all you need. So many clients and people on Instagram have thanked me for the concept of small gains. Telling me how it has changed their life. I teach all my clients about the amazing power of small gains, and this is what arms them on their journey of progress from the start! It’s tools like this that make you so much more likely to get progress than the average person. Michael’s journey is a great example. Read this snippet around small gains, then read the full review. You can see how the understanding of small gains has been one of the main catalysts for his amazing progress. Other clients that come to mind on the small gains are Peter O’Donoghue & Anna Cafolla. If you are ready to get on the small gain train towards overcoming your chronic pain & injury, check out the Physical Freedom Program. DM me on IG or send me an email to guywhodidntsettle@gmail.com. Don’t settle, Mark

My Vo2 max recently hit 55 for the first time ever.

Or at least since I started tracking it 6 years ago.

Who knows if it was this high during my soccer prime as a youngster?

Either way, it’s been roughly 53 for the last 6 years. This year I have got it to 55.

It was a shock to be honest. With my badly torn right meniscus, I haven’t been consistent with Jiu-Jitsu & kickboxing. Which were my main sources of cardio.

But after reflecting on it, it does make sense.

You know my don’t settle attitude by now. If I can’t do what I want, I’ll do what I can.

I can’t do martial arts, but I can do cardio on low impact machines.

So I have been working on the crosstrainer & assault bike for my cardio.

In this newsletter I’ll lay out the basic science behind cardio, and how you can take yours to beast levels with a simple guide.

Fatigue Forged Me

I was a fit kid.

If I had anything going for me naturally (as it certainly wasn’t mobility or strength!), it was cardio.

I could run all day in matches.

I would never be limited by my lungs, but I started to become limited by my body. You know that story by now.

I never actually knew the science around cardio or how to train it properly. I just did the training I was told to do by my coaches in various sports.

Years later when I was doing martial arts, I had a moment that sparked my interest in learning about cardio:

I experienced absolute & utter physical exhaustion.

I had never experienced anything like this. Not in any match or moment of life before.

It floored me, literally.

I actually didn’t think a human could feel like this. I thought I knew what fatigue was, but I had no clue.

It was during my first Jiu-jitsu competition as a white belt. I didn’t do any ‘competition prep’. I just relied on my training and natural ‘pretty good’ cardio.

I got humiliated.

Let’s just say I understand the saying “fatigue makes cowards of us all”. You can read that story here.

Instead of shying away from it, I turned this pain into progress.

I decided it was time to take cardio seriously and start learning about it.

You know my strategy: I follow the results.

So I bought Joel Jamiesons book “Ultimate MMA Conditioning”, and then his course “BioForce Conditioning”. He has experience training elite UFC champions in cardio.

It’s an extremely detailed course (still haven’t finished the full thing).

But I’ll give you one major piece of information from it, and 2 methods you can use.

After this newsletter you will be able to plug & play this into your own training schedule.

Cardio Condensed

There is so much information out there.

So many flashy objects to follow, leaving us chasing our tail and none the wiser.

The starting point for taking ownership of your cardio is learning about the 3 energy systems.

Then understanding the best bang for your buck way to incorporate cardio into your training.

1) Energy Systems

The energy currency of the human body is called ATP. (adenosine triphosphate)

Every cell in your body relies on this. From your muscles to your heart, lungs and other organs.

ATP can be created in 2 different ways:

1) The aerobic system
2) The anaerobic system (alactic & lactic)

The aerobic system can produce ATP slowly, but in a nearly endless supply.
(extremely efficient energy production)

The anaerobic system can produce ATP very quickly, but in a very limited supply.
(extremely inefficient energy production)

Once you understand this, you can see that the task will decide how your body will produce the energy required. Through aerobic or anaerobic pathways.

For example:

• if you need a lot of ATP very quickly (sprints), then your body will utilise the anerobic system.
• if you don’t need ATP quickly (low intensity exercise or everyday living), then your body will utilise the aerobic system.

The aerobic system can sustain energy output nearly endlessly. (think of how long you could keep walking for if you had to).

While the anaerobic system can only sustain energy output for around 10-60 seconds.
(think of an all-out sprint)

The best example to see all systems in action is a sprint (running or on the assault bike):

• The first 5-10/15 seconds of blistering speed (anaerobic: CP system)
• From 10/15-60 seconds of fast pace (anaerobic: glycotic)
• 60 seconds onwards where they slow down and eventually stuck at a slow pace gasping for air (aerobic)

This is shown in the graph below. (ATP & lactic are the anaerobic systems)

Now you will realise why this happens & what the words mean:

– Aerobic (WITH oxygen)
– Anaerobic (WITHOUT oxygen)

When your body can no longer produce more energy without oxygen (anaerobically), it will force you to slow down and start heaving to try and get more oxygen into your system (as you can only produce energy with oxygen now: aerobically).

A practical example of this:

If I am sparring someone in Jiu-Jitsu and they start mouth breathing and huffing/puffing while I can still breathe through my nose, I know they are gassing out quicker than me.

If I push the pace, they will crumble first.

When you see someone panting, they are on borrowed time.

They can’t produce any more energy without oxygen, so to continue they have to either:

• slow down and produce energy aerobically
• stop and rest to recover the ability to produce energy anaerobically

If you are confused, don’t worry. It takes time for all this to make sense. You are getting a crash course here.

The easiest way to think of it for now is the following:

• aerobic = the engine
• anaerobic = the nitrous injection boost

The nitrious boost only lasts 60 max, and takes a while to replenish (3-5 minutes). The engine is what sustains the vast majority of your energy in sport & life.

The engine is also what replenishes the nitrious. The bigger the engine, the faster you recover between the bouts of higher output.

Now you probably see the biggest flaw for most people: working on high intensity while neglecting the engine. (hello HIIT training)

Majoring in the minors.

The way to build beast level cardio is through a big engine.

The high intensity stuff is the cherry on top of your aerobic cake.

2) Low & Slow

Low & slow is the aerobic work. Building the engine.

The good thing about the aerobic work is that it can be anything as long as your heart rate stays in a certain range for a certain amount of time.

The guideline is:

130-150bpm for 30-90 minutes.

So you can:

• Run
• Swim
• Cycle
• Crosstrainer
• Sport specific movements

As long as you keep your heart rate in the right zone for the alloted time, you will get the positive adaptations.

Which are:

1) Eccentric Cardiac Hypertrophy (i.e bigger heart)
2) Capillary density (i.e more veins/capillaries to deliver oxygen)
3) Increased Mitochondria (i.e improve how tissues utilise oxygen)

Now that I have the menisuc issue, I choose low impact options for my aerobic work (swim & crosstrainer).

But before this & after, I will use Jiu-Jitsu & kickboxing too.

To me, doing 6×5 minute rounds on the bag working technique, is more fun than 30 mins on a crosstrainer.

But if you can’t do what you want, you do what you can.

I usually have an interesting podcast ready to listen to for the low & slow cardio so it takes my mind off the boring task.

I have worked up to 60 minutes on the crosstrainer.

Instead of smal gaining my way up to 90 minutes (for time reasons), I am upping the intensity instead.

Doing 60 mins on the crosstrainer at level 13, is much different than 60 mins on the crosstrainer at level 1.

So that’s important to note: you can improve your aerobic system by completing the same time at a higher intensity.

But remember, your heart rate has to stay in the aerobic zone. If my heart rate started spiking upwards, then it’s not going to work.

If you don’t have a heart rate watch or monitor to track, a good gauge is if you can:

• still breath through your nose
• hold a conversation

If you can’t do those things, chances are you need to lower the intensity for now.

Remember, it’s low & slow. It should be relatively easy.

We leave the hard stuff for the sprints.

3) Hard & Fast

Hard & fast is the anaerobic work. Upgrading your explosive power.

There are many different methods, but an easy one to follow is explosive repeats. This trains your explosive endurance.

The guideline is:

5-20 sets x 10s hard/60s rest.

I started with 5 sets, now I’m up to 12. I want to get 20 sets by the end of the year.

You can know what level you are at when you can’t complete the next set at the same high intensity.

Completing sets at a low pace (aerobically), defeats the whole purpose.

That’s aerobic training, not anaerobic training.

Now you are stuck in no mans land: not training the aerobic system properly (low & slow) and not training the anaerobic system properly (hard & fast).

Aim to stay out of the middle, which is unfortunately what a lot of people do.

The human body is incredibly adaptable. But you need to be specific in the adaptations you want to elicit from your body.

Think of a marathon runner and a 100m sprinter. What do they spend most of their time doing?

The marathon runner does mostly low & slow, the sprinter does mostly hard & fast. Go figure. They don’t float around the middle.

Also it’s important to note that this is brutal work. Very tough physically & mentally. I dread it.

But that’s the whole point: you can’t become a beast without going through this.

It will make you more resilient on all fronts.

There are many options for the explosive repeats, but the main two are:

• assault bike
• running sprints

I use the assault bike. I have noticed the rogue bike is tougher than other assault bikes too, so be aware of that.

A huge part of being ‘fit’ and having good cardio, is your ability to recover.

Once you can do many explosive repeats and recover quickly, you know you are becoming much fitter.

An easy way to know that someone isn’t very fit: when they can’t get their heart rate back down after an explosive sprint.

Bigger Engine, Beast Power

If you focus on building:

• a bigger engine with the low & slow aerobic work
• repeatable power with hard & fast explosive repeats.

You will have beast level cardio in time.

Not only will you perform better in your chosen sport & activities, but you will live a longer, healthier life.

A worthy endeavor for every human.

If you need help adding effective cardio into your training, send me a DM on Instagram, or an email to guywhodidntsettle@gmail.com

Don’t Settle,
Mark

Settling saves you the uncomfortable pain of failure & rejection in the short term.

That’s why most people settle.

But what they don’t realise, is that you are only setting yourself up to be hit with an avalanche of regret one day. Something much worse.

I’ll never forget the day it happened to me.

Sitting in the airport with an ex. Eating a meal waiting for our flight. I was maybe 24.

I stopped watching soccer when I settled & quit on my own dream of making it one day.

Never realising that part of it was because I couldn’t face what was reflected back at me through the screen: I gave up on myself.

But a soccer match was on in this airport restaurant. Cool, I’ll watch it.

And who do I see on the screen? Daryl Horgan. A lad I used to play with on the Emerging Talent Program in Castlebar for 2 years.

He made it. He’s living my dream.

I couldn’t explain what happened to me at the time. But in hindsight I see that I was forced to face the pain I had buried deep down for a long time.

The pain of settling.

I felt sick and couldn’t eat anymore. I felt overwhelmed. I wanted to go home.

I was ashamed of myself. At the first big roadblock I just gave up on myself and settled. I didn’t even try my best.

I never had regrets walking off the soccer pitch, as I gave my all until the final whistle.

But off the pitch, I couldn’t do the same.

I didn’t make the Ireland team after 2 years on the Emerging Talent Program. So close but yet so far. But I was still only 18 at the time.

Roy Keane didn’t make it early, Jamie Vardy didn’t. So many players missed the first boat to becoming a professional soccer player, but they didn’t settle and made it through other avenues.

Now, after cultivating the don’t settle attitude in my life, I back up my aspirations with my actions.

I don’t settle, I give it my all, and the cards fall as they may.

I am proud of myself regardless of the outcome. The most empowering, meaningful way to live in my experience.

Zero regrets. Zero guilt or shame. With self-respect, passion & purpose in abundance.

But back then I didn’t have this attitude. I was all fluff. Wishful thinking. I said things but didn’t back them up.

I talked about how I would defer my first year of college and move to England. Play in the lower leagues and try to get scouted.

What’s a year out of college anyway? It’ll be there when I get back. At least if I go and give it one full year, I’ll have no regrets then.

This is what I told some people close to me, but I did f**k all about it.

In that moment in the airport where all this past pain was brought up from my subconscious, my ex saw something was wrong and asked was I ok.

“………I’m fine”. I couldn’t say another word or I’d have burst into tears.

Like most men, I hid and buried it as much as I could. And just got on with life.

I wasn’t self-aware, I couldn’t handle my emotions, and I lived in this mental prison.

I guess some people just have what it takes, and I’m not one of them.

The Mental Freedom work changed my life here, and I see it all clearly now.

But when I gave up on my soccer dream back then, the don’t settle attitude I only had on the pitch now vanished completely.

I fell into the victim mentality life.

Victim Mentality

The victim mentality permeates our society.

It’s the default.

Go for your dreams?! Nah. Be realistic.

Have high standards and strive for the life you want? Discard the soul sucking 9-5 life to try and carve your own path of passion & purpose?

Pfff. Go to college. Get a real job.

Take up martial arts after your body is already in bits from trying to be a professional athlete?

Nah man, you crazy?! Your body can’t do that anymore. It’s over. Time to settle.

You know you’ll just be disappointed right?! Better to lower your expectations and fall in line. Who are you to think you can do that anyway?

It’s crabs in a bucket. And the crabs aren’t even aware.

They live the settling life, so they want you to as well. It makes them feel better.

Why should you be afraid of adhering to this settling society?

Because settling destroys your soul.

Settling is the graveyard for dreams and the fertile land for regret.

You become a shadow of who you know you could be.

The only way out is to start cultivating the don’t settle attitude.

The Don’t Settle Attitude 

“You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you settle for”

When I was in my own pain cave, in the height of my victim mentality, I learned life’s biggest lesson.

I thought I was a good person. I try to do the right thing. So why has my life turned out this way?!

Why couldn’t my dreams come true?

Why do I have to retire from sport at 25?! It’s been my whole life. That’s all I cared about.

Wtf am I meant to do now? Take up water polo with the elderly?! And pretend to be happy?

The hope for life I had, the exciting possibilities of the future, they are all gone.

I don’t want the normal life, I don’t fit in. It’s not for me. It never will be.

Why don’t bad things happen to rapists, murderers and terrorists instead?!

I’ve been stuck in these loops like we all have. Where we position ourselves as the victim of our own story that we have made up in our head.

My own physical freedom journey made me face the harsh truth. The one that sparked the don’t settle attitude within me, which has defined the last 8 years of my life.

“You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you settle for.”

That’s it. That’s life explained in one sentence.

It doesn’t matter if you deserve to be forced to retire from chronic pain & injury. What matters is are you going to settle for that?

F**k that, I’m coming back. That was my answer.

I knew that pain of giving up on my soccer career, I learned that one the hard way. I swore I would never make the same mistake again.

At at the second defining moment of my life, I made the right choice. The one I knew I wanted in my heart.

F**k the experts, I don’t want to settle. I’m gona come back or die trying.

This is the attitude you need to have if you want to regain your physical freedom. Or for anything else in life.

There are 3 steps to go from the victimhood mentality to the don’t settle attitude:

1) The Pain Cave
2) Extreme Ownership
3) Becoming the Hero

Let’s dive in.

1) The Pain Cave

For any change to occur, there needs to be a certain level of pain to motivate us to change.

That’s how we are evolutionarily wired:

• When will you go hunt for food? When you have the pain of starvation
• When will you change your unsocial behaviour? When the pain of violence/shame/humiliation from your village is too much for you

It’s the same in modern life today:

• When will you look for a new job? When the pain of dealing with your boss becomes unbearable
• When will you look for a new partner? When the pain of your current partner (or lonliness from the lack of one) is too much

We think pain is bad, but it’s good. It’s necessary.

Pain is the most potent catalyst to make changes in your life.

The pain cave is where the alchemy happens. Where the transformation starts to take place.

You may have been a different person before your own personal pain cave, but you will not be the same when you emerge.

Look at the before & after for clients in the Physical Freedom Program. Look at the pain they needed to make a change.

Jack always springs to my mind when I talk about this topic.

He went to many physios & consultants after a car accident. Diagnosed with bulging discs, osteoporosis & degenerative disc disease. And it scared the life out of him as everyone told him he was too young to have these issues.

When he couldn’t tie his shoes the day after games or get up to the printer at work, he was forced to settle and retire from Gaelic in his early 20s.

But this pain is what eventually enabled him to take ownership. It was the catalyst.

It ignited the path for Jack to take ownership of his body, and work on regaining physical freedom to get back playing championship football in Kerry.

2) Extreme Ownership

When you make it out of the pain cave, you will have a new realisation:

Everything in your life is down to you.

Instead of:

• Blaming healthcare practitioners for not ‘fixing’ you
• Blaming society for you being unhappy
• Blaming your ex for all your problems

You start to look at the world differently now.

You take ownership of your life.

You take responsibility for your part in every experience.

And you start to realise that this is the route forward to changing your life.

How? Because:

• Taking ownership -> taking control
• Taking control -> can make changes
• Making changes -> changes the outcome

When you extrapolate this out over time, it’s inevitable that your life will change for the better.

It also shows how not taking ownership ensures that your life will never change:

• If you don’t take ownership -> you blame others & give them control
• You have no have control -> you are a victim and can’t change
• Can’t make changes now -> so the outcome won’t change

Reading “Extreme Ownership” from Jocko Willink instilled this perspective in me.

I saw how the victim mentality nearly ruined his military career.

A mission went sideways and Jocko was leading it. His subordinates didn’t follow orders, made mistakes, and now his head was on the chopping block.

He had to brief his boss on what happened. He was going to blame all who let him down. Pick out the culprits who cost him the mission. But this is where he had his epiphany.

I’m the leader, so I’m the one in charge. The buck stops with me.

Any fault of theirs is a fault of mine.
It’s a lack of leadership skills on my part.
I need to take ownership of this.

Instead of going in with his original victim mentality plan of blaming his team, he went in with:

• Humility
• An analysis of his shortcomings as a leader
• A plan to rectify this and become better

To his surprise, he wasn’t fired.

Taking ownership didn’t just keep Jocko his job, but this new attitude enabled him to climb the ranks and become a decorated Navy Seal Veteran. Comanding Task Unit Bruiser, the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq war.

Why should you care about war?

As Jocko says: war is just life amplified & intensified.

The life lessons we can skip over in life, can’t be avoided in war. You have to face them.

Jocko taught me that you are the leader of your own life, whether you like it or not. You are responsible for where you are in life. Always. 

Nobody is coming to save you, it’s down to you. Same in war, same for us civilians.

Taking extreme ownership of your life is the first point of changing it.

You are where you are now because of you and nobody else. Because of the decisions you have made up to now.

This can be one of the most painful things to hear and accept, but on the other side is the most liberating feeling you will experience.

If you take ownership of your past, you take ownership of your future.

Now you can start making new decisions.

Now you can start to become the hero of your own life.

3) Become the Hero

“When you find yourself in a room surrounded by your enemies, you should tell yourself, ‘I am not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me!’. This is the kind of mindset you should have if you want to succeed in life. Get rid of that victim mentality” – Bruce Lee

There are 3 archetypes we play out in life.

The victim, the villain, & the hero.

We start as the helpless victim.
Graduating to the villain.
Then if we mature enough, we become the hero.

I’ve been through all stages.

I lived the victim mentality life. Giving up on my hopes and dreams. On myself. On who I knew I could be.

I’ve took ownership and became the villain. A fuck the world mentality and putting myself above everything for the first time in my life.

A chip on my shoulder, fueled by suppressed anger & pain.

And I’ve come full circle to becoming the hero I always wanted to be.

Not settling & living true to myself. Being the change I want to see in the world.

Small gaining my way towards my potential, and inspiring & educating others to do the same.

You are in one of these 3 stages now.

Are you going to retreat or rise?

Retreat or Rise

“It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me” – Batman

Realise all the possibilities in front of you with the right attitude.

Whether you are the victim, villain or hero is a choice, not a predetermined destiny.

You are choosing to be where you are.
(consciously or subconsciously)

Even if you think and talk like the hero, but are still playing the victim or villain.

I lived that batman quote through telling people I would chase my soccer dream but did nothing about it. And you are probably doing the same in your own way.

Becoming aware of this dynamic gives you the opportunity to make a change for the better.

You CHOOSE to be the hero. 

I used to always look at movie characters for inspiration. Ancient legends, modern warriors.

Who do I look at now too? Me.

I inspire myself. And that’s where you want to get too. That’s when you know you have becme the hero of your own life.

Some will hate, some will be inspired. But you know the real reward and when you are being the hero:

When you are proud of yourself.
When you have gained your own self-respect.
When you inspire the f**k out of younger you.

Seeing the impact not settling & living true to myself has to inspire others lights me up like nothing else.

I’ve been in many tides that have lifted me and still am.

My aim is to be the tide that lifts you.

If you cultivate the don’t settle attitude, you can become the hero of your own life in time.

I’ll believe in you until you can believe in yourself.

Don’t Settle,
Mark

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1) Physical Freedom Program:

• My 1:1 coaching program on how to overcome chronic pain & injury, and reach your athletic potential
• I have worked with 100s of clients, across 37 different sports/activities, over 3 separate continents. Covering injuries to all joints in the human body
• Join those not settling for their movement limitations here

2) Mental Freedom Course

• My self-awareness course that teaches you how to stop looping & suffering, and skillfully navigate your own mind
• Most people are a slave to their subconscious, constantly playing out the same undesirable patterns in their life
• Here you will understand why you are the way you are, and how to break free to become who you always wanted to be

3) Lifestyle Design University

• From must €49, you can have the blueprint to design the life true to yourself
• You will learn how to create a vision, how to use my self-development system, and how to move the levers to freedom which close the gap towards the life you want
• Now you will avoid the biggest regret of humanity in the process: “not living a life true to myself, living the life others expected of me”

This conversation came up with a client this week. The dreaded diagnosis. When you are told what’s ‘wrong’ with your body. Delivered a cause for all your issues in a nice neat diagnosis shaped package. These diagnoses usually end up becoming a death sentence. That make us believe we can’t overcome chronic pain & injury and reach our athletic potential unless we ‘fix’ it. Then we get stuck on the roundabout of injuries & average progress chasing fixes to different diagnoses for years. And if the ‘fixes’ don’t work, then the journey is over. Your story stops here. I’ve worked with hundreds of clients, and a lot of them have received certain ‘diagnosis’. The one that always pops into my mind when I talk about this topic is Jack. A lad in his early 20’s who was in a car crash. Just feel how afraid he was, as he describes the healthcare route’s approach to helping him overcome chronic pain & injury to return to Gaelic: “I had been struggling with injuries the previous 2 years after a car accident. I spent a lot of time on physio tables and meeting consultants trying to solve my issues but with no sustainable success. I was diagnosed with bulging discs, osteoporosis and degenerative disc disease and this scared the life out of me as everyone I spoke with said I was too young to have these issues” You can read Jack’s inspiring journey of not settling, and regaining his Physical Freedom to play championship football in Kerry here.  Just like I would have explained to Jack at the start, these diagnoses don’t have to be a death sentence. You don’t have to settle for that ending. Diagnoses As A Death Sentence Here’s how it usually goes: We go to ‘experts’ and get ‘diagnosed’. We get told what’s ‘wrong’ with our bodies. And what we need to ‘fix’ it. Or that it can’t be fixed at all. This leads us to believe that we are like a computer with broken parts. We just need this ‘fix’, and then we will be brand new. Or else we are f***ed. Like humpty dumpty who fell off the wall. Glue him back together, or throw him away. This right here IS the problem. You are led to believe that your body is like a computer or a car that can be broken and fixed, but in reality this is not how your body works at all. Diagnosis are just a snapshot in time of what someone ‘thinks’ is an issue with your body. It’s like someone saying a photograph of your past will define your future. But that’s not the case, because we are constantly changing as you will see in this newsletter. These diagnosis lead to a distortion in your thinking which messes everything up going forward. And prevents you from getting on the road back to your Physical Freedom. This false view of the body bestowed upon us by (a lot of) the healthcare ‘experts’, lead to a myriad of issues: False beliefs about the human body (which keeps us in the dark about the truth, and hence we’ll always be fooled) Nocebo effect (opposite of placebo – which links to increased pain levels) Traps us in a prison where we are searching for the wrong answer (so we will never get the result we want) Takes the locus of control away from us, and puts them in control (hence you need to rely on them forever to ‘fix’ you) And where does this lead? For me, it led to looking for the fix for my multiple diagnosis for 10 years, which never happened. I would go to a different healthcare practitioner thinking they have the ‘fix’, to only be given a new diagnosis. Another thing ‘wrong’ with my body. The goalposts kept moving. And the cycle went on and on. Like chasing down a mirage in the desert. It took getting 5 different ‘diagnoses’ from 5 different ‘experts’, for the penny to drop for me. I had told all 5 the EXACT same issues, but yet they all gave me a different diagnosis. It didn’t make any sense. This is when I started thinking critically for the first time in my life with my body, instead of blindly following the ‘experts’. If they really did know what was going on, then they would have all diagnosed me with the same thing wouldn’t they?! But not even 2 of the 5 diagnoses were the same. It was like throwing darts at a dart board. The Russian roulette of quick fixes. This was when I had a huge realisation which is very important to understand. It changed my body and life forever. All anyone can tell you, is their opinion based on their education & experience. That’s it. Me included. It doesn’t matter if they have 10 doctorates or haven’t a single qualification, all anyone can give you is their opinion. Their hypothesis. Based on their education & experience. Diagnosis aren’t divine answers of truth for your destiny, they are just opinions. People have different education, and people have different experience. And through this combination they will have different opinions. This explains how an osteopath gave me a different diagnosis than a physio (different education). And it also explains how 2 physio’s can still give me a different diagnosis (different experience). The whole allure of the ‘experts’ was now shattered for me forever. I finally took them down off the pedestal society put them on. I could see behind the veil now. The mirage was gone like a puff of smoke. And hopefully it is now for you too. Then I went looking for better answers. One’s that actually made logical sense. Like last week’s newsletter on how to not be fooled, I started from first principles. Reasoning from first principles removes the impurities of assumptions and conventions. (i.e lets you see through the bullshit and find the truth) I took ownership of my body for the first time in my life, instead of outsourcing it to the experts. I followed the results, over doctorates & degrees. And this is when things finally started to change for me. Through this new approach free of dogma and falsity, I ended up going to a mobility coach who had no ‘formal’ education on the human body. No doctorate on the wall. He helped me more with my chronic back pain in 1 month, than 10 years down the healthcare route with the most ‘qualified’ people I could find. I knew I was finally on the right path after so much pain & heartbreak. I felt it in my soul. And I had the results to prove it now. From then on, I only follow the results. Who actually cares if someone has 10 pieces of paper hanging on their wall or none? As long as they help you get the results you want? So if we aren’t like a computer, like a car, like humpty dumpty. If we aren’t broken and then fixed, how does the human body work then? Let’s get to the truth. Your Body Is An Adaptable Organism Humans don’t have ‘fixed’ states, we constantly adapt to whatever environment we are in: If you start climbing hills, your body will adapt and become more cadiovascularly fit. If you start lifting rocks outside or iron in the gym, your body will adapt and become stronger. If you start sitting all day and push through injuries, your body will negatively adapt and become tight & stiff We adapt to our environment and change in ways that make us more likely to survive. This is how the human body works. Diving into evolutionary biology showed me this truth. Humans have been here for around 6 million years. The species of humans that you, I, and the whole world are: is homo-sapiens. There were others species of humans just like cats & dogs, but they all died off. For the last 200,000 years, there have only been us homo-sapiens. Over all these 200,000 years, the human body has adapted to its environment. That is what we are designed to do: to adapt to our environment to help us survive & reproduce and keep the species living on. If we weren’t adaptable and constantly changing, then we simply wouldn’t be here. Homo-sapiens would have become extinct like all the other species that have. EVERYTHING we have now in terms of our body, was chosen through natural selection because it had an advantage in keeping us alive: The shape of your nose your eyebrows the fact we walk on 2 feet our ability to think abstractly our cardiovascular endurance our ability to sweat to cool down so we can endurance hunt animals that overheat with their fur You could go through it all. The point here is the human body is always adapting. It’s always changing. It has been for the last 200,000 years, and it will be until our extinction. The irony is that we think we ‘can’t change’ (i.e my hip mobility is terrible, I can’t change. I’ve always been tight and stiff etc). But in reality, you are changing everyday. It’s literally the opposite of what you are led to believe with these diagnoses. Yes you may have a certain issues/injuries, but you will continue to change into the future. It’s not a dead end. I always like to bring the high level theory down to the practical. And it comes down to 2 paths here. 1) You are either adapting & changing POSITIVELY (i.e slowly becoming more mobile) OR 2) You are adapting & changing NEGATIVELY (i.e slowly becoming tighter and stiffer). This is all happening slowly. Each and every day in the background. But you just don’t realise it. It’s only after an accumulation of years/decades, that all these (negative) small gains have added up to the (negative) big gain. And now you feel like the tin man looking for the fix. But you are blind to the actual problem. The problem wasn’t ‘your’ body like you are told by the healthcare ‘experts’. The problem was your lack of education on how your own body actually works. You can’t stop the small gains. You can’t stop our body from adapting to our environment. The small gains are constantly working either FOR or AGAINST you. You decide. You can focus on what’s in your control. You can work on building a resilient body. People who are unaware of what I have explained: continue to sit most the day with no focus on mobility while hammering themselves with sport ….and end up adapting negatively, thinking they are broken. People who are aware of what I have explained: have movement snacks throughout the day focus on a mobility plan for their movement limitations check the ego and just do what they can until they prepare their body to handle the demands of their sport ….and end up adapting positively. Empowered by understanding the truth about the amazing adaptability of the human body. Your Body Is Always On A Journey Think of how your body adapts and changes every day like a car journey. You HAVE to go on the journey. You can’t stop the car. If you can’t stop the car, and you are forced to go on a journey, what can you do? You can decide what direction the car goes. This is in your control. Do you want to end up somewhere in 10 years that you hate? (not able to do sports you love/unable to play with your kids) Or do you want to arrive somewhere you love. (regain physical freedom and keep it as you age) I know you would pick option 2 there. But what are you probably doing? Sleeping in the backseat of the car. Not even aware that you are on a journey. The driver is on the route towards tin man city and you are in the backseat oblivious to the pain and suffering coming your way. You have no idea the destination you will arrive at. It’s only when you get there 10 years later, that you realise your mistake. “Driver can you fix this and bring me back instantly please?!” Doesn’t work that way. You can drive, but you can’t teleport to a different destination overnight. Your past decisions got you here, but your future decisions can get you out of it. Once you are educated on how your body works, you know better. You are empowered. You wake up from your slumber of ignorance in the back seat. You tell the driver to pull the car over. You kick that motherf***er out of the car like you’re playing GTA, and YOU take the wheel. You are in control of the car journey. You are the captain now. You decide where this car will end up in 1,2,5,10,20 years. You decide how your body will adapt and change going forward. It doesn’t matter how far you have drove in the wrong direction. I went 10 years in the wrong direction. Jack and most of my clients spent years/decades going in the wrong direction too. All that matters is now. That you make the decision to get on the right path. As a previous business mentor told me – “every breath is a chance to start again”. Your future self will thank you. Your future family will thank you. Why do I make all this content? Because I finally found the motorway to physical freedom, but I see so many people on the other side of the motorway towards tin man city. I feel for them. They have no idea where they are heading. I try to tell people but they are blaring the same old tune so loud they can’t even hear me. Nothing I say will help them. So I try to set up my own communication channels. I put out info on a radio station that each car can choose to listen to. And if they do, I can change their path and their life trajectory. If they choose to listen and implement what I’m telling them, they can turn off the motorway to tin man city, and take the ramp towards physical freedom. There are 6 lanes but not many cars. There’s room for us all but barely anyone knows about it. They don’t even know their body is on a journey. They think their diagnoses are a death sentence. They are still out there looking for the ‘fix’. Don’t Settle, Mark 3 Different Ways I Can Help You 1) Physical Freedom Program My 1:1 coaching program on how to overcome chronic pain & injury, and reach your athletic potential I have worked with 100s of clients, across 37 different sports/activities, over 3 separate continents. Covering injuries to all joints in the human body Join those not settling for their movement limitations here 2) Mental Freedom Course My self-awareness course that teaches you how to stop looping & suffering, and skillfully navigate your own mind Most people are a slave to their subconscious, constantly playing out the same undesirable patterns in their life Here you will understand why you are the way you are, and how to break free to become who you always wanted to be 3) Lifestyle Design University From must €49, you can have the blueprint to design the life true to yourself You will learn how to create a vision, how to use my self-development system, and how to move the levers to freedom which close the gap towards the life you want Now you will avoid the biggest regret of humanity in the process: “not living a life true to myself, living the life others expected of me”

You probably live in fear of pain.

You think it’s destructive.

You run from pain, instead of understanding what it’s trying to teach you.

I’ve lived in fear of pain for most of my life. And most of my clients have too.

It’s not a nice experience.

The pain consumes you and sucks your enjoyment out of life.

In this newsletter my aim is to bring you from a prisoner of pain, to a student of pain.

This is a crucial component on the road back to Physical Freedom.

Prisoners of Pain

Most people are prisoners of pain.

They live in fear of movement. They live in fear of their own bodies.

You hurt your back before so now you think you have a ‘bad back’:

• You stop bending down in certain ways
• You hyperfocus on simple movements you did easily before
• You slowly reduce movement more & more over time

Now over months, years & decades…..you have become the tin man.

You have joined the chronic pain crew. Your quality of life takes a nosedive, and you can’t do things you love anymore.

Sophie is the latest client to finish up the Physical Freedom Program.

She was one of these prisoners. Suffering with chronic pain in multiple joints: back, shoulders, and knees.

She had previously been very active doing weightlifting and sailing, but had to stop these due to chronic pains.

When you are a prisoner of pain, you have a much worse quality of life. You also can’t do things you love anymore.

What’s the common advice we get?

• Rest it and protect it (only makes it weaker and more stiffness/pain)
• Judged for not wanting to settle (projection of self-limiting beliefs)
• Settle and retire (leads to regret. You have to live with it, they don’t)

These approaches keep us in prison. And that’s where most people stay for life.

Chronic pain is one of the most prevalent issues in the world, affecting millions of people everyday.

The difference between you and actual prisoners, is that you have the choice to leave.

You don’t have to live that way, even though it feels like you are trapped.

The way out is through understanding.

The pain you thought was tormenting you, was actually trying to teach you.

The Misunderstood Teacher

Have you ever had a teacher that you thought was a nutjob?

Only to find out years/decades later that they were very wise in their own way?

That they were actually teaching you many important lessons? I have many. One springs to mind, but that’s a story for another day.

Pain is the same: it’s misunderstood.

Pain is protective, not destructive.

It’s an evolutionary adaptation that has kept the human species alive until now:

• If you burn your arm in a fire, pain teaches you to stay away
• If you break a limb, pain teaches you to take your weight off it
• If you get betrayed, pain teaches you to make a wiser choice next time

Pain is a teacher that helps us navigate through life more safely from every experience we have.

The goal of survival is built into us and all species. And pain is a crucial part of being able to learn how to survive.

I did a deep dive YouTube video on “What Pain Is & How to Manage It” already. But I will touch on one main point from that here: the bio-psycho-social model of pain.

This is one of the most up-to-date models on pain. It takes the very complex topic of pain, and puts it into a model we can work with.

The first thing to understand in terms of chronic pain is that there is no one cause for pain.

So straight away, you see how 99% of the stuff you are told in the mainstream/healthcare route is bullshit.

How the ‘expert’ has found out how ‘X diagnosis’ is the cause of your pain after their magical assessment. It’s not.

They either:

• don’t know enough about how the human body works to realise this is incorrect (incompetence)
• do know but are deceiving you for money (lack of integrity).

Either way, it’s a massive red flag.

It’s been proven that pain is multifactoral, but of course we aren’t told that.

We believe reductionist opinions like “tight hamstring = lower back pain“, which is part of the problem. You stretch your hamstrings, but the pain may not go away, then you chase the next ’cause’.

Over time when nothing works, you think you are f***ed & settle. Another prisoner of pain behind bars now.

The biopsychosocial model gets us closer to the truth of pain.

The model shows how pain comes from 3 areas:

• Biology (your body)
• Psychology (your beliefs/thoughts/emotions)
• Social (the people you are around/the environment you are in)

As you can see in the picture, pain is at the intersection.

Pain is a combination of all these factors.

So what can we do? We can tick as many boxes as we can in each area. Just like you would with a nutrition plan to manage your hunger signal.

That’s what I did with Sophie. As a result:

• Her back pain hugely improved
• Her knee knee pain and shoulder pain significantly improved
• Her mobility and strength have noticeably improved
• She got back to sailing and can strength train in the gym with minimal pain.

Pain doesn’t mean you are f**ked. That there is something wrong with you or your body. That you have to settle.

Pain means that you have areas of the bio-psycho-social model that you have to address.

You need to work on your mobility and how your body moves.

You need to work on your education and learn how your body functions.

You need to work on your social stressors and manage them.

This is the way to escape the prison of pain that most people are kept in for a lifetime.

Life’s Greatest Tormentor or Teacher?

Like most things in life, there are two paths to walk down.

You can let pain become your greatest tormentor in life, or it can become your greatest teacher.

Pain has taught me more in my life than anything else. For my body, mindset & life.

Pain is the most potent catalyst.
The driver of transformation.
The excavator of unearthed potential.

Pain is a request for change. But not everyone answers.

Listen and learn, or ignore it and stay behind bars.

One path leads to a life of understanding and increased potential.

The other leads to settling and a life of regret.

Physical Freedom Program

Sophie came from chronic pain and forced to settle. (giving up sailing & the gym).

To not settling, regaining her physical freedom, and winning a world championship masters race in sailing!

What an inspiration Sophie is. Read her story below.

If you don’t want to settle for anything less than your Physical Freedom like Sophie, now is the time.

Physical Freedom Program
Application form 

Don’t Settle,
Mark

If you suffer from chronic pain, you know the fear & frustration of trying to deal with it in work. Worrying that you won’t last through a long meeting. Getting annoyed at your desk as you can’t concentrate on your job. Trying to appear normal but the tightness & pain is doing your head in. An ergonomic chair or a standing desk isn’t the answer, it’s only treating the symptoms, not the root cause. In this newsletter I will share the strategy & tactics I use with clients to manage chronic pain in work. Chasing the Wrong Culprit There is nothing wrong with using the standing desk, or the ergonomic chair. I’m not saying they aren’t useful, I had them myself back in the 9-5 days. But it’s not addressing the bigger picture. The issue isn’t our ‘posture’, the issue is our lack of movement throughout the day. So relying on different tools that try to put is in ‘better postures’ won’t work. The best posture is the next posture. The special chair or standing desks will probably help, it will probably give some relief, but it won’t solve the overall issue of chronic pain & tightness in work. We are not designed to be sedentary. We are designed to move. For the deep dive on this, you can read the story of the human body. What do the special forces of the army do when they have a mission? They utilise strategy & tactics to ensure they get the job done. We are going to do the same. Now that we know the main issue, we can approach it with a solid strategy & tactics. Strategy & Tactics A strategy is “a plan of action, a long term or overall aim”. And tactics are “an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end”. In simple terms Strategy: the overall long term plan (overcoming chronic pain) Tactics: the smaller plans within the big strategy, that help you move forward towards achieving the overall aim The higher level strategy is: 1) Understanding what pain is 2) Working on a mobility program The lower level tactics you can employ in work are: 1) Movement snacks 2) Micro movements 1) Understand What Pain Is (Strategy) To get long term progress with any issue, you need to start with why. If you don’t actually know what pain is, you will never know how to manage it. I have covered this already with an in-depth free resource: what pain is & how to manage it  This covers the bio-psycho-social model of pain (and many other things). It will radically change your understanding & experience of pain. If you are already aware of this, you can go to step 2. 2) Mobility Program (Strategy) Now that you understand how your pain is basically a combination of a multitude of factors across: your biology your psychology your social circle/environment We can start ticking the biology boxes with a program for your specific movement limitations. You can read more about the framework I use to design clients programs here: how to build a resilient body. Starting off I usually split client programs up into: daily movements (5-10 mins) harder exercises (30-60 mins) This addresses the reactive approach we have with our bodies. (you brush your joints everyday now like your teeth). And it also enables you to do your daily routine (or some of your harder exercises) as part of the movement snacks tactic. 1) Movement Snacks (Tactic) “There is no perfect posture. The only ‘bad’ posture is the one you spend too long in”. That line changed my life in terms of dealing with chronic pain during my 9-5 days. Sitting on a special chair all day, standing at your elevated desk all day, these aren’t the silver bullet. The answer isn’t being a robot in a certain ‘good’ position, the answer is variety. You can achieve this through movement variability. Through movement snacks spread throughout the day. Instead of reactively waiting for my back or neck to ache, I started proactively getting up from my desk at the first sign (or even before) any tightness came. I would either: go for a walk to get water/tea/coffee do a lap of the floor/building/walk outside do my daily routine/harder movements in the disabled bathroom or training room Then back to my desk 10 mins later feeling resfreshed, instead of uncomfortable & frustrated. Nobody notices. People who have worked with me in the past reading this won’t have known. 2) Micro Movements (Tactic) One of the simplest things you can do to ease chronic pain/tightness at work? Just change position. You can: Sit off at an angle instead of upright Stand instead of sitting Sit in the coffee area chairs instead of at your desk. Sometimes all it takes is a little adjustment in your chair, or sitting somewhere else. Have a few positions that you can alternate between during the day that feel good, and rotate between them. As I write this now at my apartment from my little office set up, I am leaning onto the left arm of the desk chair. I’ll stay here for 20 mins or so until it gets slightly uncomfortable, then I’ll switch to the other side or back to the middle. Or cross one leg over the other, and vice versa after that gets a little uncomfortable. I switch between this office set up and my couch throughout the day too. 2 hour block on the couch, break. 2 hour block at the desk. No rules, I just do what feels good and keeps me pain free & productive. Its so ingrained and part of my life now that I don’t even notice. I just got reminded of it here writing this! But I still remember the old days of looking for the best stretch that will stop my chronic neck tightness forever. For my hip. For my back. They are dead end illusions. No one stretch will solve it. The problem isn’t your body. Your body wasn’t designed for sedentary office work as we discussed. The problem is the lack of movement, so we need to follow a process of movement. Movement snacks & micro movements are a very easy and effective way to get this done. Be proactive with this and you will notice the massive difference in how you feel day to day. With your body and your work output. Proactively Combat the Issue The key is proactively looking after your body, and fitting this into your daily life. Start your movement snacks & micro movements this week and you will see the difference in how you move & feel. Along with your work output not being affected by constant tightness & pain. You have a lot more control over your chronic pain & injury than you think. Don’t Settle, Mark