Method Acting

FIRST THINGS FIRST

---

A friend asked me recently if I had a personal trainer or coach. Then suggested that if I don’t value coaching, why should anybody else?

It might seem strange to some that after this long doing this thing, I might want or need a coach in my corner, but take it from somebody who has clocked up thousands of hours looking at— not looking out— and thousands more learning to train that objective detachment on oneself, there remains no substitute for an outside perspective.

To be clear— I hold teaching and teachers in very high regard, and I do receive coaching (in jujitsu) most days. I further consider myself eminently coachable with just enough self-awareness and candour to reveal that I am stubbornly resistant thus far to all business coaching advice, and if somebody can recommend a coach that doesn’t demand I hook myself to the soul-suction of social media, I’m all ears.

Just not where all-things-considered-fitness is concerned.

My program — of constants and addressing gaps — much like the rest of my practice, writes itself. And while I don't turn a positive into a negative by fretting about ticking every box, the 100% day would be rare, but the sub-90% day rarer still. It gets done because everything included has earned, and continues to earn, its place — so far from having to muster the motivation, it's harder not to do it.

I've learned — and value the practice of having to — eke out the last hard reps under my own steam and otherwise seek my own counsel. So when it comes to walking the talk of all this practice preaching, I am Exhibit A.

I don’t pretend that, given a bottomless budget and more hours in the day, a good coach wouldn’t make a measurable improvement in any number of areas —mobility, strength, a kettlebell drill— but the fact is, I’m happy with where I’m at and what I’m doing, so the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

Except in one department. I've been thinking recently about venturing back down the rabbit hole and consulting some trainer/osteo/rehab-specialist hybrid regarding the ongoing issue I wrote about last year. I won't rehash it here other than to say, given the scars of old, I am more than a little wary I could be exposing myself to a good deal of downside for little up. And certain only a very long time dulling the mind has me even considering it.

But I also know that medicine and rehabilitation have come a long way in the past 20 years.

As have I— being unable to step into the same river twice, and all that.

But however that might pan out—and I’ll keep you informed—that’s not our story for today. It’s that, were you not quite so content with your fitness, dietary habits, energy or sleep, a similarly negative experience might have you just as gun-shy about dipping your toes back into these waters.

And fair enough.

Further, that even in light of my efforts here, this is where an outside perspective won’t help because, scarred or not, you’re unavoidably influenced by conventional fitness marketing and myth, so it’s virtually guaranteed you’ll have a skewed idea of what Leftfield is.

So let’s start with what it isn’t.

---

CrossFit evangelists.
Marathon runners.
Yoga devotees.
Keto disciples.
Cold-plunge absolutists.
Strength-and-conditioning purists.

Every corner of the ‘wellness’ —vomit— world has its true believers. Some are even telling the truth.

At least about themselves.

But there’s an assumption that because something worked for one person, under one set of circumstances, it represents a universal solution. That the view from where you’re standing is the only view worth having.

There is a spectrum here, obviously, from the highly credentialed and well-meaning to their opposites, but mercenary motivations aside, it’s perfectly understandable— when something genuinely transforms your world, it’s only natural that you want to share it.

And that’s about as generous as one could be for influencers promising their way, their truth and their light, but then you might well be levelling the same charge at me, what with all this practice palaver.

So our first difference is a what.

By contrast to any method, modality or style, Leftfield is a system. You might think of this as the difference between clothes and fashion. You wear clothes, I’m guessing. And I wear clothes.

But our clothes may be very different. Reflecting fashion… perhaps (cough), and any number of further considerations from budget, function, job and taste.

A method best solves one aspect of the problem for one type of person under one set of conditions. A single perspective that may be valid, effective, sometimes genuinely life-changing — but fixed.

Take a look at the list above again and imagine you had to pick one, and you’ll see what I mean. You’ll feel what I mean.

You’re trying them on, right? Some are immediately discounted. Others you're weighing up — how closely do they reflect you, your life, your circumstances?

Like mannequins in a shop window, but you have to buy the whole outfit— a method is a conclusion.

Photo by Tícia Vesztergombi on Unsplash

---

A system is a beginning. A system hasn’t determined anything yet— so there is nothing to try on.

And everything to try on.

It starts with whoever is standing in front of it. The librarian. The scaffolder. The young mother who can’t remember the last time she ate a meal without simultaneously managing three other things. Moving from first (physiological) principles, a system is built around the person, not the method, the modality, or the tool.

It is organism-centric. Species-specific. Human.

Try that on. A better description of you already, no? But a system that can then move seamlessly from that broadest base all the way to the individual, generating the right answer from wherever they are. Offering every perspective.

Their right answer.

And sure, that includes a best next step in strictly exercise terms — the right exercise, volume, intensity, and where appropriate, a method or modality. But a system elastic enough to be equally useful outside this narrow conventional fitness framing, and indeed must be, because sometimes the answer is not exercise. And rarely is it exercise only.

Sometimes it is:

• more sleep

• less stress

• more sunlight

• less intensity

• better meal structure

• more social connection

• less cognitive load

• recovery

• removing friction

• doing nothing for a week

• walking instead of training

• eating more, not less

• stopping ‘weight loss’ (for the love of..)

• reducing training frequency

• breathing room

To name a fraction. And if you’re wondering how I might determine that, I’m so glad you asked, because I don’t. You do.

And so our second difference is a who.

Because this is not a prescription imposed upon you, but a practice that develops from you. Because— and somebody else has summed it up far better than I can—

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

— Nietzsche

You might be thinking that — absent any business coaching— I’ve fallen prey to marketing mistake number one: that of being all things to all people.

But I don’t pretend it is all things. It is the first thing.

The fundamental physiological fact is that any isolated approach, trend ecosystem, disconnected tactic or single perspective solution—whatever their value— is best applied after alignment. Then, you can— and should— explore any approach you like. Kettlebells, running, yoga, cold water, whatever calls to you. Go for it. But you are choosing from alignment now, not hoping any single method will produce it.

It then becomes an expression of a practice rather than acting as a sorry substitute for it. A pretender.

The Leftield order of operations— the system— simply acknowledges that fitness is not the top of the hierarchy; it is an adaptation. And adaptation is physiologically expensive. A luxury item.

Health > Fitness > Performance.

When we’re stressed, sedentary, overstimulated, sleep-deprived and cognitively overloaded, it’s not surprising that our experience of ‘fitness’ is difficult, unsustainable and perpetually effortful. Your body will not, cannot, adapt when it has bigger physiological fish to fry. And perpetual discord with what you are is one very big fish.

And so Leftfield — is not an exercise system. It is a calibration system.

The idea is not to do more or even any exercise, necessarily. Exercise is one tool, sometimes a central one, sometimes not. But the objective is not fitness— capacity— in isolation, but an organism better aligned with the demands placed upon it.

Fit for purpose.

And this is precisely why Youniversity is not ‘one more thing to do.’ Done properly, it reduces friction across the rest of your life:

You’re thinking more clearly.

Sleeping better.

With more energy.

Less overwhelm.

Faster recovery.

And more self-belief.

Everything improves because your system is no longer fighting itself.

Leftfield Youniversity is the practical, pragmatic implementation of this system. Any program or diet can work during a six-week burst of motivation and low stress — but sooner or later the real world intrudes, and it’s square peg, round hole. The question is whether it survives contact with your actual life.

That’s where Leftield begins. And stays. With you in your life. Fitness not as some aesthetic garnish, but a fundamental physiological given.

The sequence is always the same. The answer never is.

Leftfield Youniversity begins June 19th, applications close Friday, June 5th,

---

Enjoy your weekend

- OLI

---