👋 Hey. Welcome to issue #129 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (4 min read):
🦵Building bulletproof joints: less pain, less injury
If consistency is the number one indicator of the success of a program, injury and pain are among the best ways to sabotage it.
Particularly with age, much of this comes from our joints.
The percentage of people I work with who present with ankle, knee, hip, back, and/or shoulder pain is wild.
The reality is:
Having strong joints is just as important as having strong muscles.
So how do we build strong joints?
Strength training through full range of motion.
It means knee to ground lunges/split squats, dumbbell to nipple bench presses, full arm lockout pull ups/chins ups. And including movements like:
- Ankle: KOT calf raise
- Knee & hip: KOT split squat
- Back: Good mornings/RDLs
- Shoulder: Bench pullovers, dead hangs
(If you want more guidance... I do, program, and recommend many exercises from Ben Patrick's programs - like the above - for this stuff)
Joint mobility is 100% a use it or lose it job.
That’s the proactive piece.
But what if I already have joint pain, you ask?
Well, most completely stop using that body part to “let it heal”. This is often a mistake.
As Erik Meira, a physical therapist and rehab specialist who works with NBA and NFL players puts it:
“Let’s say the front of my knee gets sensitive when I run. I think I’m going to stop putting any load on it and let that heal. Then once it heals I’ll go back to what I’m doing. But when I’m resting it, the front of that knee isn’t getting any stimulus, so it’s not learning to take load. It’s being de-conditioned to load. Being overprotective is often what gives us issues.”
To heal, we've gotta move.
So instead of stopping all activity, regress it.
Keep moving, but make it easier. To the point there’s no pain.
- 🦵 Smaller range of motion
- 🏋️ Less weight
- ⏱️ Fewer reps
Movement is the medicine.
⚖️ Happily unoptimised
And the best social media hook of 2025 goes to:
While my feeds have been chockers with news of Bryan Johnson giving away his plasma as a longevity tool, I thought it’d be nice to get a dose of the real world...
Here’s a few rules of the health and fitness world I’m happily breaking:
1. ⏰ Eat dinner at least 2-3 hours before bed.
My current schedule has me eating dinner around 8pm and lights out at 9pm. And my sleep isn't impacted (though a short walk in between seems to help massively).
2. ☀️ Don’t wake up to an alarm, wake up naturally according to your circadian rhythm.
I’m up most mornings at 5am. I reckon about an hour before my natural wake-up.
And apart from a few “f*cks” and “sh*ts” when the alarm goes off, I’m getting by alright (though a 20-30 minute yoga Nidra after lunch seems to help massively).
3. 🦴 Always sit in good posture.
If someone tells you this is their posture at 4pm while sifting through their inbox of AI generated cold outreach emails, they’re lying.
Which leads me to…
🚶The best posture is your next one
Sitting isn't the new smoking - not moving for hours is.
This is a classic case of majoring in the minors. We worry about the perfect posture or the best ergonomic chair, but we're missing the bigger picture...
It's better to sit slouched but get up and move every 30 minutes than sit in the perfect posture for 8 hours straight.
Research on hunter-gatherer tribes shows that they spend similar time sitting as we do.
The difference is that they mix up their positions—squatting, kneeling, and sitting on the ground—and frequently break up these positions with movement.
So, sure — ergonomic chairs, standing desks, and good posture are helpful — but they're far less important than simply moving your rig regularly.
As long as it's not full slug mode to the point it's impacting your breathing, play on.
Keep it moving.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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The Everyday Athlete Newsletter is not a licensed health service nor a substitute for professional health advice, treatment or assessment. The information shared in this email is general and written for a specific audience. If you’re struggling, please see a healthcare professional.
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