👋 Hey.
Welcome to issue #45 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (3 min read):
🦵 Looking after dicky knees
My knees have been getting sore after running.
If I do nothing, I can’t imagine what they’d be like when I’m 50.
So I’m adding these 3 exercises to my weekly routine:
- Backwards walking – up a hill or pulling a sled (5 mins)
- Knees over toes split squat (5x5 each side)
- Reverse step-ups (25 each side)
They’re from Ben Patrick’s Knee Ability Zero program (how-to’s all over his IG and YT).
If you’ve got dicky knees, pick one of these. Do it 3x a week. See if there’s a difference after 4 weeks.
🪑 Ergonomic desk set-up
Cracker how-to video on ergonomic desk set-up from a body mechanics expert.
The summary:
- 🪑 Adjust chair height so elbows are at 90˚
- 📚 If that takes your feet off the ground put something like a stool/books/reams of paper to rest your feet on
- 🖥 Adjust monitor so top of screen is at eye level (use a stand if you have a laptop)
- 🖱 Move mouse from elbow not shoulder
- 🤸 Move around often in your chair
- 🚶 Get out of it every hour
I’d add: look into getting a stand-up desk.
Worth the 3 minute watch to set up the next 2400 minutes at your desk next week.
🫘 Fibre sources
Fibre is elite for our gut health.
Which massively influences our 🔋 energy levels – how we extract and use energy from food.
Plus it strengthens our immunity, supports our brain + heart, and even linked with deep sleep (see newsletter #32).
Government health guidelines recommend having 25-30g of fibre a day.
Nutrition wizard Layne Norton reckons we wanna double that.
50g for women.
60g for men.
And there’s no harm in having more than that. So load up.
Here's 11 of my favourite sources of fibre:
- 🧆 Cup of canned lentils = 16g
- 🫘 Cup of canned black beans = 15g
- 🌰 Cup of canned chickpeas = 12g
- 🍵 Cup of green peas = 9g
- 🥣 Cup of oats = 8g
- 🥦 Cup of broccoli = 5g
- 🍎 Big apple = 5g
- 🥄 Tablespoon psyllium husk = 5g
- 🥑 Half an avo = 5g
- 🍇 Handful of raspberries = 4g
- 🥜 Handful of almonds = 4g
Note the crossover of good protein sources with stuff like lentils, beans, peas, almonds.
Because if there’s only 2 things you focus on around fueling well (for the average healthy everyday athlete):
- 🥛 1.5-2g/kg of body weight of protein per day
- 🍎 And 50-60g of fibre per day
... are a pretty good start.
So for some big deep sleep, gut and organ health wins, get those items in your trolley.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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