JACKed Radio: Recent Episodes
Jack Curtis
A Podcast to share stories from Health, Fitness, Wellbeing and Life. My aim is to provide a platform to discuss all aspect of Health in a multi dimensional manner, from mental to physical to spiritual to emotional to financial and more.
This is big picture thinking. A deep dive into what makes us tick as humans, told through the stories of individuals...and maybe just a little bit selfishly me enjoying talking to some amazing human beings too.
Stay JACKed
This week, I caught up with my good friend Paul Warrior.
For those who know Paul already, you probably came across him through the world of crossfit, but Paul has so much more to offer than his input into that world alone.
I first met Paul when he came to the gym I used to work at to speak with us about the way he approaches training and programming and I could tell that his approach was unique. What I found really interesting was how Paul thinks about training and programming much like an architect thinks about a project, with the end in mind and any number of tools at your disposal...it's about choosing the appropriate tool at the appropriate time and not limiting yourself to what you can choose from.
We spoke about Pauls background and his journey into the fitness world from skateboarding as a young kid to discovering the renegade punk rock esque side of fitness through mark twight and to where Paul is right now with the projects and businesses he runs.
Paul offers a really insightful view on how lockdown has impacted him too and how he has taken a lot of positives from this time in taking a step back and evaluating what is really important to him and where he wants to move in life.
This is going to be the last episode of JACKed Radio for a while now, as much like Paul I'm stepping back to think about the next step for all of this. If you want to find more of Paul, you can head to Instagram and follow @paul_warrior__ @fendforyourself___ @campfire___ and @warriorprogramming to see the awesome work Paul and those around him are doing right now.
So I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has liked, shared, followed, downloaded and given feedback so far! This is far from the end of what I've got planned, but for now it's time to recharge so we can come back with another set of fantastic conversations in season 2!
This week, I am speaking with my good friend Dr. Emilie Bourke.
Emilie is a clinical psychologist and over the years I have known her we have had many conversations about mental health, psychological wellbeing, practicing self care and looking internally to develop habits that help us to pursue values that mean something to us in a positive and productive way.
Emilie provides a wonderful insight into breaking down how we can better take care of our mental health in this episode, despite me doing my best to put her on the spot with some pretty big questions (sorry Emilie!).
We discussed ways in which we can take a step back and review the big picture of our mental health in a time when some of the ways we pursue the values we hold dear have been taken out of our lives by something external (e.g. no access to gym facilities during the coronavirus pandemic), ways in which we can look to build more resilience when it comes to our own mental health and how we can tie this all together in being kinder to ourselves more often so that when times get tough we are prepared with multiple ways of managing it.
It was an absolute pleasure to have Emilie on the podcast and an episode I took a great deal from and have implemented since. I really hope you enjoy it too and as always please like, share, subscribe and review!
Enjoy.
Just over 3 years ago, Salman Abedi detonated a home made shrapnel bomb in the Manchester Arena in the deadliest attack since the 2005 London bombings. Martin Hibbert and his daughter were standing 10 metres away from the explosion when this happened.
I am truly honoured to welcome Martin to the podcast today. I thank my mum for putting us in touch and I am thankful for Martin being so welcoming in speaking to me and being so open and honest about his experiences.
Having only spoken a handful of times, I am already in awe of what Martin has achieved and done since the incident. Martin has not only defied all the odds and learned to stand unassisted, with the help of Ken Ware at Neurophysics, but also raised over a million pounds to help those also recovering from spinal injuries. You can read more about Martin on the Spinal Injury Association page here: https://www.spinal.co.uk/martins-story/
We discussed Martins journey from the hours leading up to the explosion, the immediate aftermath and the ups and downs of his journey since then in a journey that has been both psychological and physical in achieving what some people told him was impossible. We also touched on some of the unexpected friendships Martin has developed through all of this too.
His attitude towards life is infectious, as is his determination in overcoming obstacles. The thing that struck me most while we spoke was how Martin applies himself to each situation he is in, focusing on the task at hand, finding a way and trying to find the positive side of things.
I am certain this won't be the only time I speak with Martin on the podcast, although I've already said next time we do this it will have to be over tea and cake instead of zoom once we are on the other end of the Coronavirus Pandemic!
I am truly grateful to be able to welcome Martin on to JACKed Radio. Please enjoy, follow and share this truly inspirational mans story around with those around you.
You can find Martin on Twitter at: @MartinHibbert and on Instagram at: mr_martin_hibbert
This week I spoke with one of my wonderful clients, Dr. Sarah Platt. I have had the pleasure of training Sarah for nearly 4 years now so it was fantastic to get her on the podcast to talk about what she does, especially considering the current circumstances.
You don't really get much closer to the coal face of Coronavirus than working in Intensive Care right now, so I wanted to get Sarah's insight into what work has been like before, during the peak and where we are right now. I've found talking to Sarah nothing but reassuring through this entire thing (much like speaking with my mum and Julian, both previous guests on the podcast - it would seem that a lot of those in the NHS working against this share a view of both realism and pragmatism).
We also spoke about what Sarah has been doing to take care of herself outside of work through this too. I think this would have been an interesting topic to speak about regardless of the current global environment, as Intensive Care by its very nature is...well....pretty intense from an outside perspective anyway. So given the fact that they've had an entirely new disease to deal with right now, this has come to the forefront of conversation even more. The contrast between working in full PPE gear compared to a quiet cup of tea was something I was really interested in speaking with Sarah about in this episode, so that's exactly what we did.
Oh, and I forgot to mention...Sarah can also deadlift double her bodyweight for reps, knock out sets of 15+ press ups and has recently nailed chin ups too. Does your Anaesthetist even lift, bro?
This was a fantastic listen for me, especially to hear how mindful Sarah has been about both her approach to work and self care and I think this is something a lot of us can get bags of value from.
Enjoy.
This week I had the joy of interviewing my mum, Dr. Ally Field.
For those who haven't followed me for very long, me and my mum both went through a pretty transformative weight loss journey nearly 11 years ago now which led us down a path that today we are still exploring (albeit in very different ways!).
My mum has also spent her career to date working as a General Practitioner (and a bloody good one at that!) in various NHS practices as well as other positions and continues to work in the field during the coronavirus pandemic.
We discussed what it is like to work as a GP at this time, how work has changed and perhaps may well change for good and how this has impacted on her personal life too. It is a time of reflection for many of us, so we couldn't help but talk about where we may well find ourselves coming out the other side of this whole experience and how life in general might change too.
After we got the Covid stuff out of the way, we decided to talk about what I mostly wanted to share with you all which is my mums amazing journey into improving her health and ultimately changing her life. After a tough few years for us all, mum made some big changes in her life and found herself pursuing a healthier way of living through mindfulness, taking care of her mental health and exercise. Me and my mum share a common trait when it comes to things like exercise though, in that once we get our teeth into it the cogs begin to turn and we begin to think about what the next level might be. For mum, that was her first marathon 2 days before her 50th birthday as well as more recently her first triathlon - both of which were to raise money for fantastic causes very close to her heart. (you can follow her friend Martin Hibbert who was a victim of the manchester bombings here: https://twitter.com/MartinHibbert?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor and I would highly recommend you do so as he is a fantastic, inspiring human being!)
It was also a chance for me to ask my mum the big question that I have wondered on occasion, seeing her with tears of pain in her eyes at mile 19 of the London Marathon and lap 3 of Leeds city centre at the triathlon....why and how do you keep doing it?
This was a real pleasure for me and I feel very privileged to be able to share my mums story with you, as she was a massive rock for me going through my own life changing journey into fitness.
Enjoy!
And please pass it on to anyone else who you think would also enjoy it too!
This is one I've been excited to do since I booked it.
I've had the pleasure of knowing Jack for nearly 5 years now and have looked up to him from the early days in my career. I'm also lucky to call him coach these days and I can tell you from personal experience this man knows a thing or two about Strength.
I wanted to share Jacks story with you, from his early days of sport as a youngster playing in national sides all the way to competing at Worlds Natural Strongest Man competitions all over the world as well as winning Britain's Natural Strongest man twice too. He told me about his inspirations and motivations through his Strength sport career and how these people and his experiences have influenced his life too.
We spoke about how his experiences in Strength sports have shaped his life and career, as well as his ethos as a coach and how this all feeds in to his gym Spartan Performance. The environment at Spartan is like no other and we spoke about how that has come to be through the passion and dedication Jack has put into developing it over the years.
Last year, Jack also published his book 'Spartan Strength' which I cannot recommend highly enough. I can speak from personal experience, not only from being coached by Jack but also from the time I've spent learning from him during various trips to Spartan over the years, that this book is absolutely packed with value. If Strength is your goal, Jack is your man.
You can get your copy here: https://spartanperformance.co.uk/spartan-strength/
Jack goes in to how he has taken the Coronavirus Pandemic head on when it comes to his Spartans, leading from the front and still making sure it is business as usual for his members when it comes to their goals.
I wrapped this up by asking Jack what advice he would give to those pursuing their own journey of strength....and to find out his words of wisdom you'll have to take a listen ;)
Enjoy.
This week I asked my good friend and colleague Ryan Duncan to be a guest and speak about how we can understand pain and give a brief insight into pain science.
If any of you have ever looked in to pain science, you'll know it is a massive area of emerging science and as time goes on we begin to understand more and more about how pain works.
Ryan does a great job of explaining how we can better understand our experience of pain and takes the approach of seeing the individual, rather than seeing simply the symptoms when he is working with people in pain.
We get into how we can understand pain as a signal, how feedback loops work and function in our body, why pain isn't something to be afraid of but equally something that should be respected and why the job of a physiotherapist in understanding pain and red flags is so important.
For a long time I thought of physiotherapy as simply, 'I have pain, therefore I need corrective exercises and that's it', but my opinion has changed on this over time. It was a pleasure to speak with Ryan about how we can understand pain as an experience that is so much more than just the mechanics of the body but also other factors in our lives as human beings and not merely movement machines.
I've had the luxury of speaking with Ryan a lot over the years having worked together, so it's an absolute pleasure to be able to share this with you all now too.
Enjoy!
After some very positive feedback from the first episode Morgan was on, I thought it would be the perfect time to get her back on the podcast to see if we could navigate our way through the current situation we find ourselves in.
We are both very aware of the fact that finding answers right now for some of the questions we have is very difficult, so this isn't an attempt to do so...but rather a conversation about how we are both navigating the ups and downs of life in lockdown and potentially how we plan to deal with easing of the restrictions in how we think and behave.
We discussed:
-how we have both come to terms with the reality of the situation
-what is actually within our control right now
-why it is important to not pressure yourself to always thrive and allow yourself to be still instead of always pushing forwards
-setting boundaries on information consumption
-how we can use spare time right now to simply think about what we truly enjoy and what matters to us rather than trying to cram in as much as possible
-doing more vs. doing less
-coming to terms with how life might change in the long run
It was awesome to catch up with Morgs again and I am sure you will enjoy this one. But the main thing that we both hope you get from this is a bit of reassurance that it is okay to not know how to deal with the situation right now. We might not all be in the same boat, but we are in the same storm.
This week I spoke with my good friend and nutrition coach Alexander Clarke.
I've known Alex for nearly a year now and his experience and knowledge in both bodybuilding and powerlifting is vast. But more than that I wanted to share his stories of his journey in lifting up to the point he is at now and where he has set his sights in the future.
We spoke about his beginnings in lifting, what made him switch from powerlifting to bodybuilding, the highs and lows of powerlifting so far, the risks of the sport including a very honest discussion about PED's (Performance Enhancing Drugs- for those who do not know, powerlifting federations are separated into 'tested' where PED use is banned and 'untested' where competitors are not tested for PEDs) and what motivates him to keep doing what he does to become the best lifter he can.
I am confident anyone who is interested in Strength will gain a lot from listening to Alex, particularly in how he speaks about the lessons he has learned, his experiences in powerlifting and what these have taught him as well as how others can approach getting stronger to become the best version of themselves too.
I would highly recommend you go and subscribe to Alex's magazine British Strength Magazine too, which you can find here as well as checking out Alex's podcast British Strength Radio too here
You should also give him a follow on Instagram @bigalexanderclarke and @britishstrengthmagazine
It's always a pleasure to speak with Alex so I am really pleased to share this with you!
Enjoy!
This week I welcome on my good friend Dr. Julian Donovan to speak about the current situation we find ourselves in during the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown measures.
Julian is an Emergency Medicine Doctor in the North East and has been a voice of reason for me throughout this whole thing so far for me. He has a very eloquent and logical way of putting across points and information that, although very frank and sometimes 'scary', is done so in a very reassuring and calm manner.
One of the reasons I got Julian on this week was exactly that, as I've personally struggled to listen to any official news channels due to all the 'noise' they also produce. He also has a fantastic view on how the Health and Fitness Industry and NHS as two separate entities should perhaps be looking to mesh together more in the long run - something which I completely agree with. He's also pretty damn jacked too #doesyourdoctorevenliftbro?
I also asked Julians insight into what he is doing to keep himself mentally and physically fit and well right now, what he thinks we can all be doing to stay on top of that too and how we can best help the NHS deal with the current situation as well as some conversation and speculation as to the long term future of the health industry, both in fitness and medicine.
It was a fascinating insight into the life of an A&E Doctor right now, and I am thrilled to be able to share it with you.
You can find Julian at julian.movement on Instagram, StrongerMedecine.com and on his own podcast: Stronger Medicine Podcast for some absolutely fantastic content. I would highly recommend checking him out!
Enjoy.
In this episode I catch up with my good friend Lome Fa'atau, aka the Samoan Speedster!
I worked with Lome for 3 years at the current gym he works out of in Newcastle upon Tyne, Storm Fitness and remember realising that the guy I was now working with was also the same guy who me and my brother used to watch on TV playing Super Rugby when we were younger! We shared stories and I learned a hell of a lot from both watching and speaking with him while I was there, so I thought it was time to ask him to share some of that on here too!
Lome has an absolute wealth of experience as a coach, not only from the hours he has put in with his young athletes and clients but also the time he spent as a professional rugby player for the Hurricanes and Samoa in not 1, but 2 Rugby World Cups!
We spoke about Lome's childhood growing up in New Zealand, from messing around at the back of Church to how the close community spirit and involvement in all sorts of sport from a young age fostered a competitiveness in him.
Lome went in to some of his biggest lessons from being a professional rugby player: how he turned being released from the national side from a big negative into a career changing positive, what it was like to not only play for his country but to also do so with his brother, how rugby has taught him some really important life lessons and how these have carried over into his Coaching, Personal Training and being a father.
I've got so much time for this guy and it was a pleasure catching up with him, as it always is.
There is a gold mine of experience in this one, enjoy!
In this episode I had the absolute privilege of speaking with one of my amazing clients, Mark a.k.a 'Run Geordie Run'.
He knows a thing or two about endurance this man and if you haven't come across him before, I would highly recommend checking out his blog at http://www.rungeordierun.com/
We spoke about his amazing story and how he went from running around his block, to now being half way through a journey of running around the world. Importantly we also spoke about WHY he decided to do this in the first place and what keeps him motivated when he is out doing these long runs, isolated from the rest of his world and physically drained from putting one foot in front of the other for sometimes 50+ miles a day for days on end.
From stories about getting chased by a Pitbull across an interstate in the US, to swatting flies through the Nullarbor he has run across more terrain than most of us may see in our entire lives.
Mark shares his insights in to how he pushed himself so far through these incredible feats of endurance, physically and mentally, as well as sharing some of the biggest lessons he has learned along the way.
It's an episode I feel is particularly relevant given the circumstances we find ourselves in right now and I have certainly been massively inspired by Mark since I've known him, so I hope we can share that with you all too.
Enjoy.
Welcome to JACKed Radio!
I am super excited to finally bring this to life and what better way than with my good friend Morgan from Hunt The Good Project.
We speak about Morgans own personal journey through fitness and health, practicing mindfulness and seeing health as a multi dimensional part of our lives.
Enjoy!