What if the problem isn't getting to the bottom of it by someone pointing out exactly what's wrong? What if you've known this all along? I got a message this week from someone who's had chronic back pain for 30 years. Got into triathlon, seriously strong, sits at a desk writing software for long hours and the pain always comes back. He said: "I always ask the PT or trainer and we can never get to the bottom of it. I knew there was something I was doing causing it. We just could never figure out what." Here's what nobody told him (and what nobody told me either before I figured it out myself): Your body is already giving you the answer. BUT you haven't been taught to hear it. This is what I mean practically: Most of you only notice something is wrong when the pain arrives. But the breakdown happened much earlier, i.e. the exact moment your lower back took over from your hip, core etc. The moment your breath changed. The moment your body braced instead of moved. By the time you feel pain, the pattern has already repeated hundreds of times that day. Speed hides everything. When you move fast - in training, walking, carrying something - your compensations are completely invisible. To you and to everyone watching. The moment you slow a movement down on purpose, suddenly you can feel exactly where your body stops doing what it should and starts covering for something that isn't working. You have your own specific triggers: What three hours at a desk does to your SI joint specifically. What a hard training week followed by a flight does. What a stressful month does to how you move. That's your data and it's been building for 30 years. The flare-up never comes out of nowhere. There are always early signals - a slight stiffness, a change in how a movement feels, something that's just a bit off. Learning to catch that signal and correct it yourself before it escalates is what actually breaks the cycle. It's a skill - the ability to read what your body is doing and why in real time, without needing anyone else to translate it for you.

Over the weekend I went to the world’s leading trade show for health, fitness and wellness - Fibo 2026, and it just confirmed something I’ve been thinking about for a while. When I walked into the main hall, there were different halls for different things. One was strength, another was more hybrid / functional, and then there was longevity and recovery. And honestly, what disappointed me is that those halls should have basically been swapped. Because longevity should actually be the functional training, the hybrid training, the strength training, all of that. It should not be weird inflated balloons to sit on to “align your spine”, red light therapy, hydration massage beds and all these passive recovery tools. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these tools are bad. They’re great if you are at the point where you actually need them and where you’re actually going to benefit from them. But unfortunately, 99% of people who are currently struggling with chronic pain, fatigue, stiffness, and not getting the most out of their training are not. That 1% of people who are going to benefit from these kinds of tools being used as longevity and recovery tools are usually very well-trained people, very educated athletes, or at least people who already have a really high level of body awareness and training behind them. (And sorry to break it to you - but if you’re reading this - you are not in that 1%). For most people, recovery and longevity should be marketed in a completely different way. Because actual longevity is being able to move well, train well, recover well and have a body that works properly for a long time. It’s not lying on a hydration massage bed and hoping for the best. And I think that’s the part that really disappointed me, because unfortunately the majority of people still want a quick fix. It feels nice, sounds good and looks impressive. And that’s exactly why it sells. But unfortunately, the results just don’t last. Because if your body doesn’t actually know how to move well, coordinate properly, deal with that load and recover from training in the first place, then no passive tool is going to give you the thing you actually need.

Hi I'm Steve, I'm going to start the 30 day movement mastery protocol and hopefully after many years and after trying many different methods and programs I'm hopefully going to get to understand my back/hips issues I have.