5 things I used to swear by (and now don't)
Read time: 4 minutes
I missed out on last week's newsletter because, in all honesty, I was playing with my dog for the entire day instead of working 😂
After not seeing her for 3 months, all I wanted to do was make up for lost time. But we're back again this week with a snappy email where I'm going through some of the biggest health realisations I've come to in previous years.
Let's not beat around the bush and get stuck straight into them...
I used to be certain about a lot of things. That's what your 20s do to you.
You read a few books, get a qualification or two, see some results, and you think you've cracked the code.
Then your 30s arrive, and life starts handing you nuance.
I've been coaching for over a decade now, and the longer I do this, the more I realise that what I knew at 25 wasn't wrong, it was just incomplete.
Here are five things I've genuinely changed my mind on. Not little tweaks. Real shifts.
1. Protein isn’t enough. You need fibre too
In my 20s, it was protein, protein, protein.
Hit the number. Spread it across the day. Lean source, every meal. That was the whole game.
I wasn't wrong about protein; it still matters enormously, but I was incomplete and short-sighted with my views.
The older I get, and the more I work with clients in their 40s, 50s, and beyond, the clearer it becomes that fibre is the other half of the equation.
Gut health, blood sugar regulation, hormone clearance, satiety, longevity markers, fibre touches all of those bad boys.
The scariest thing is that most people are getting nowhere near enough. Aim to hit 25-35g daily.
So it's protein and fibre. Both. Every day. Non-negotiable.
2. Cardio isn't punishment. It's how you live longer
I spent my entire 20s avoiding cardio.
Either because it would "kill my gains," or because I used it as punishment for eating something I considered bad.
Both stances were wrong, and looking back, slightly disordered.
Now cardio is one of the most important parts of my training week. Not because I want to be smaller. Because I want to perform better, recover faster, sleep deeper, and live longer.
The research on VO2 max as a predictor of all-cause mortality is one of the clearest signals in longevity science.
The fittest people aren't the strongest.
They're the ones who can hold an output over time.
I wish I'd figured this out a decade earlier, but then again, I was too busy drinking at the weekends and getting up to all sorts of trouble 😂
3. Breathwork isn’t woo. It actually works
I dismissed breathwork for years. It sounded soft. I associated it with influencers selling courses and people who said "namaste" too often.
Then I took a few classes properly with someone who knew what they were doing, and within minutes, I felt a significant shift in how I felt and thought.
I've made it a relatively consistent practice since. Not daily, not religious, just regular when I need it.
The impact on my stress, sleep, and ability to switch off has been bigger than almost any supplement or protocol I've tried.
If you've dismissed it the way I did, give it a real go before deciding. There's a reason every ancient tradition built it in.
4. Rep ranges matter less than you think
This one took me years to accept.
The fitness industry sells you rigid rules.
6–8 reps for strength. 8–12 for size. 12–15 for endurance.
I coached this for years, but the truth is more interesting.
Your body doesn’t know how many reps you’ve done. It only knows stress and stimulus.
You can build muscle with 5 reps. You can build muscle with 30. As long as you’re pushing close to failure, with enough volume, and progressing over time, the rep range is far less important than the intensity and the consistency.
This unlocked training for a lot of my clients. Especially the ones who hated lifting heavy. Turns out you don’t have to.
5. The emotional side of health is everything
This is the biggest one.
For most of my career, I focused on the physical.
Training, nutrition, sleep, recovery. The pillars. And they matter, they always will, but over the last year or two, and especially in the last few months, I’ve come to understand that the emotional side isn’t a bolt-on.
It’s the foundation everything else sits on!
You can train perfectly, eat perfectly, sleep perfectly, and still be miserable if the inner work isn’t done.
I’ve been doing a lot of that work recently, with the help of a therapist. Not because anything is broken, but because I want to be a better version of myself for the people around me, and for the future family I want to build.
It’s the hardest training I’ve ever done, and the most important.
If you’ve been avoiding this side, take this as your reminder.
The body responds to the mind. Always has. Always will.
Well, there you go, five things I've changed my tune on in recent years.
Remember, being wrong doesn't make you a 'bad' person, and we're all entitled to change our opinions without being judged by others.
What you believed a decade ago doesn't have to represent who you are today.
That goes for your health, businesses, relationships, you name it.
Because in my opinion, the man or woman who says they know it all and is unwilling to change truly knows nothing at all.
Right, I'm off to go do some celebrating around the streets of Bcn for Sant Joan 🎉 🎆
Catch you next week,
Mark ✌️
