Hope you’ve all had an excellent week, gang - are you winnning?
Today is all about getting you razor sharp.
We can’t feel amazing and be at our best all the time. Part of getting fitter, stronger and sharper is about pushing the body to it’s limits - but if deliberate (and accidental) stress is part of the game - how and when do we swing it other way to feeling incredible?
Well first of all, why not ensure you are nailing the basics? I’ve got you:
If you’ve been struggling with pain, recurring injury, and difficulty starting and/or maintaining consistency in your quest for fitness - you need to make sure you’ve checked out my Free 15-Minute Training right here.
Let me know in the comments how you got on with it.
Recover On Supercharge
We are all different, and will have varied responses to the big stressors in life - excessive mental and emotional fatigue (sleep deprivation, working long hours, commutes & commitments), physical fatigue (intense acute training, chronic overtraining, substance abuse eg. alcohol).
But we are all affected by them to some extent, though many people live in denial of this (‘alcohol/late night coffee/no sleep doesn’t seem to affect me, honest’), and sometimes, simply knowing that these stressors affect you profoundly is enough to spark a couple of small tweaks which massively speed up recovery.
These are the next-day effects alcohol had on my recovery a couple of weeks ago when I decided to celebrate my birthday weekend and a mid-week meal out with a few drinks.
Here’s the effect my Tuesday night football match had on my recovery this week. A 90-minute intense game which disrupted my sleep that night.
You can get your recovery scores back to normal quickly when you accept your body is struggling and respond, rather than punish the body further. Many people thrive on late night exercise - I am not one of them (but I love an evening football match under the lights, so I do it anyway).
For me there’s something about the sharp spike in adrenaline and cortisol, as well as the enforced late night dinner, racing brain, and subsequent disturbed sleep (I’m usually laying in bed acutely aware I may get muscle cramps at any moment!) - that’s fatigue for you.
Anyway - how we respond to low recovery in these situations can determine how the rest of the week goes. We could ‘power through’ and do everything at full throttle, or massively speed up return to normal by:
Sneaking an extra 30-60 mins in bed
Hydrating straight away (+ electrolytes) after waking
Take in 10 mins of morning sunlight for a better mood
Taking a recovery cold shower (1-3 mins)
Have a bigger breakfast than usual (re-fuel)
Planning a day of low mental load with some calculated adjustments
Low intensity ‘easy’ restorative exercise instead of going hard
And funnily enough, 4 of my clients were feeling run-down this week, sniffly, fighting off colds (or the Covid that seems to be flying around) - all of them were keen to power through, and admirably show me how committed they are.
But for all of them this was an opportunity (and my responsibility) to pump the breaks, and stress the importance of a calculated and intentional lower intensity session while they get back to feeling normal again..
Vigilance On Social Media
There was a pretty strange announcement from a very big influencer this week, something about launching (and actually selling) a ‘harmful’ protein bar to prove a point to the government (apparently).
I have already seen numerous influencers coming out to respond to how ridiculous the claims being made, actually were. It goes to show that even if their heart is in the right place, there are some people with extremely big platforms who don’t deserve their following.
I’m not sure what it is about chemicals with x’s and y’s and z’s in the name that scares the shit out of people. But either way, predatory influencers like this bloke are using our very human ‘fear of the unknown’ to push their personal agendas and marketing strategies.
It will never not be the case that anything in vast quantities will kill you (even water). Consuming something occasionally/rarely will be almost always powerless to harm you - for example, most of the ‘dangerous’ ingredients in the protein bar in question would need to be consumed in excess of 1000x (not real data) the amount in the bar.
If you wanted to include this ‘evil’ protein bar, a few times a week as part of a balanced diet full of fruit and veg, legumes, grains, and other great protein sources. Absolutely nothing would happen but good things - and if in addition you were also to sleep 8hrs, exercise daily, hydrate and have purpose in your life, you’d probably live a very very long, healthy life, with a protein bar ironically serving as an excellent tool to get 60-100g more weekly protein (about 5200g protein per year) and:
Better short-term muscle growth and recovery
Better fullness/satiety signalling and aversion to binge eating
Better daily energy expenditure via digestion
Better long-term muscle retention (eg. You live longer)
What we require of the biggest platforms, and the biggest, most influential and loudest voices - is a level head, and measured, considered claims and emphasis of nuance.
The only problem is - these people have already identified the key to success, and being measured, balanced and honest with us ain’t part of it. The formula = Be controversial. Be polarising (without nuance). Be seen as an authority who doesn’t waver on their stance.
None of the above - our requirements - are in the best interests of the influencer. Which means our best interests (society’s) are not the same as theirs. The only way we get an educated, healthy and happy society who understand what is best for them - is vigilance. Constant vigilance.
Final Openings 2025
Become a Client
I’m looking for a couple of new clients to welcome on board and get ahead of 2026. When the end of the year comes around, I can always sense the profound disappointment in conversations with people who wish they had done more with their year. Lack of action is painful, and you don’t have to live with it. Take the leap, and begin a new journey.
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Book a strategy session with me - You can book in for a free deep dive into your current situation to work out what you need to do. You’ll learn exactly how to start operating at an excellent new level in your life, and I’ll provide you with a game plan PDF to take away, whether you choose to work with me or not.
Join The GJP ELITE Community
Use a support network to up your game - Join my WhatsApp health and fitness community if you’d like free guidance, tools and support to get you on the path to your dream performance levels from me and my team of world class coaches. Click the link to hop in and I’ll welcome you to the group.
PS. If you spotted my hilarious protein miscalculation - apologies - this has now been corrected (100g protein per week = around 5200g per year)