Fitness and Thinking

Steve Bennett is a serial entrepreneur and wellness educator. I asked him: why are we getting heavier and sicker despite knowing more about nutrition than ever before? We explore insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes, GLP-1 medications and their risks, ultra-processed foods, muscle loss during weight loss, exercise, walking after meals and what actually moves the needle of long-term health. Some of...

For over a year, Fitness & Thinking has asked experts, practitioners and interesting people what it means to live well. This week, I wanted to ask the same question of two fictional characters. Tom King's Mister Miracle and The Human Target are, on the surface, superhero comics. Underneath, they're stories about freedom, avoidance, mortality, love, identity and the quiet courage of staying pre...

Jason Smith is the founder of Fit In Midlife and proof that reinvention doesn't come with an expiry date. After years of drifting through work, stress, poor habits and low energy, Jason made a decision that changed everything. Since then he's transformed his health, appeared on the cover of Men's Fitness magazine in his fifties, built a community around midlife fitness and helped thous...

In Episode 54 of Fitness & Thinking, I'm joined by business owner, mum and keen gymgoer, Lottie, for a conversation about motherhood, identity, pregnancy, fitness and the strange guilt that can come with actually liking the life you've built. We discuss training during pregnancy and postpartum, fertility treatment, the pressure to "bounce back", women-only spaces, body image,...

Most injuries don't happen in a moment. According to physiotherapist Johnny Wilson, they start long before the pain appears. In this episode of Fitness & Thinking, we explore why so many people get injured: clue "too much, too soon", why speed is just as important as strength, and how a hip break and a heart break can be so (similarly) lethal the older we get. Johnny has worked w...

Why do so many adults stop making things? This week on Fitness & Thinking, I'm joined by Helen Woodford, artist, teacher, and founder of creative workshops that help people reconnect with something many of us lose somewhere between school and adulthood: the ability to create without needing a reason. We explore why adults struggle with beginnerhood, how perfectionism kills creativity, and...

Your idols were clueless, some of them might still be. Welcome to Fitness & Thinking 51 from the secret garden, somewhere in the middle of England. This week, we delve into six-ish lessons I've learned since our last round-up. New episodes: 📺 YouTube: Wednesdays 🎧 Spotify & Apple: Thursdays 📩 Newsletter: Wednesday mornings Follow along: Instagram: @fitnessandthinking Coaching: coach...

50 episodes. I didn’t know a year ago how I was going to make it to three! Over the last year 50 weeks of Fitness & Thinking, I’ve sat down with researchers, athletes, therapists, doctors, coaches, founders, artists and genuinely brilliant people to ask a deceptively simple question: What does it mean to live well in 2026? Across six pillars — physical, mental, social, spiritual, emotional and...

Many moments in life don’t feel magical while they’re happening. Tuesday evenings. Fish and chips. Watching TV with a parent. Laughing at jokes you maybe didn’t fully understand yet. And somehow, years later, those become the things you remember, alternately things you can recreate and things you wish you still had. In this solo episode of F&T, I explore the idea of “Tuesday evenings” — the on...

Most people don’t take their health seriously until something goes wrong. In this conversation with Dr. Mohit Khera, we go far beyond testosterone. Dr Khera has spent 25+ years researching hormones, sexual health, and long-term outcomes, and what becomes clear very quickly is this: Erectile dysfunction isn’t just about sex. Low testosterone isn’t just about muscle. And “feeling off” is rarely rand...

Chris Jones and Rob Hemingway are the owners and avid users of Güs Wellness in Sheffield City Centre. From towel-wafting in a field in Brighton to guided meditation and workouts for your internal organs, this chat covers everything you’d want to know about sauna in 2026, as well as why Sheffield is a perfect place for it. Chris, Rob and I get into how many of minutes of sauna a week we should aim...

Luke Bownes is a competitive bodybuilder and personal trainer based in Nottingham. In this week's episode, we talk about compliments — giving them, receiving them, and why one is so much harder than the other — money, debt and the point at which having enough tips into having too much, and the first moment of being truly seen by someone. We get into Luke's influence on me as a bodybuilder...

Emma Dearling is an Epilepsy Action advocate and Miss GB Surrey finalist who can be found on social media as The Epileptic Illustrator. In this week's episode, we discuss Emma's experience of being diagnosed with epilepsy as an adult, and how it changed her life and approach to it both in the short and long term. We chat which relationships broke down, which were found and which became stronger, a...

Former commodities trader turned coach to CEOs and bestselling author Charley Law joins F&T ahead of a homecoming press and talks tour. What followed a high-octane life between Miami and South America, resplendent with glamour, money, and an alter ego, was a decade of obsessive investigation into what actually creates lasting change. The result is It's Not Just Mumbo Jumbo – Charley's...

Beth Kirkbride is a journalist and founder of The Indiependent, as well as my best mate, ex, and current coaching client. Make of that what you will! Episode 43 goes somewhere many adult conversations don't – nevermind fitness and wellness chats – in part, because people never make it past the negative affect of breaking up. We recorded this in number 43, a house with history, talked about wha...

Tom Mellors is a personal trainer and HYROX athlete based in Nottingham. Episode 42 might not be the answer to the universe but it goes much further than the gym. We get into the courage to be disliked, what it actually takes to build rapport when your peers are still figuring out how to talk to people, and the real differences between UK gym chains. Tom talks about his ideal client, knowing when...

Episode 41 of F&T looks to tie together some of the lessons learned over the last 10 weeks of podcasts and newsletters. In my first Nottingham chapter, the following stands out for me: 1. People will piss you off, the world will get you down, but what can you do regardless? Twenty years ago my dad told me about his chin-up campaign, itself something he consciously enacted twenty years before t...

Amy Stephens is a registered dietitian who works with elite athletes and the general population, helping people understand that being constantly drained isn't normal – it's often a sign of chronic underfueling. In episode 40 of F&T, we talk about RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) – what it is, who it affects, and how many people are walking around with it without knowing. We...

James Sidebottom is a hybrid athlete, rockstar coach and owner of Compound, a premium personal training facility in Sheffield. This week, we talk about his origin story, whether CrossFit feels like doing a PhD relative to Hyrox's A-level, and how he's learned to separate athletics from his personality. We discuss lifestyle creation to facilitate performance obsession, the pain kink (do you not wan...

This week's a solo episode. No guest. Just me talking about the courage to be disliked – or more accurately, the courage to be known . I've been reading "The Courage to Be Disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga – an Adlerian psychology book about why living for other people's approval makes you miserable. The core idea: you can't control whether people like you, so...

Ina Fischer is a DJ, radio host and co-founder of Lawaai Collective, empowering FLINTA artists in music. Using DJ-ing as a springboard, we dive into Ina's journey onto ever bigger billings with some of her heroes while working a day job and contending with some of the older folk in her life thinking it's all just a hobby... From engendering escape and collective euphoria, to ensuring equit...

Niell Jordan-Jinivon is a senior musculoskeletal specialist physiotherapist and calisthenics evangelist based in London who very recently sprained his ankle attempting a calisthenics trick – and diagnosed it, started rehab, and kept the camera rolling. This is our second conversation. Last time we talked about pain, identity, and becoming your diagnosis. This time, we're talking about what hap...

Nicole Askwith Williams is a holistic life coach for women, women's health educator and trainer who left corporate finance after watching professional women struggle with symptoms nobody was addressing at the root. This week, we ask: are women actually weaker men from a medical, physical, or mental standpoint? Spoiler: no. But the healthcare system, fitness industry, and most workplaces still...

Jon Xue Zhang is an actor, stunt performer, martial artist, sports psychologist, and musician known for playing Blood Boots in Netflix series The Brothers Sun and Ram Man in the upcoming Masters of the Universe film. This week, we talk about the work that goes into landing acting jobs, why "not now doesn't mean not ever," and how visualising your future like remembering your past can...

Evan Francis is a digital PR agency owner, content creator, writer and advocate for living with Fowler’s syndrome. This week, we talk about what shifts when you can no longer move without negotiation, what doctors get wrong about life with a catheter, and why representation matters at every level – whether through self-advocacy, sharing your stories or finding communities online and in-person. Ahe...