Alan Couzens

@alancouzens.bsky.social

Exercise physiologist, coach, coder, MAD Scientist, #INTP #ChaoticGood 🇦🇺 https://alancouzens.com/my_book.html

Sine Labore Nihil "Nothing without work" Literally. If you want success as an endurance athlete, you must put in the kcal of work. Every. Day. Set yourself a kcal target and stick to it. In the beginning, it doesn't matter how long the work takes. Just get it done.

Unpopular opinion o' the day: Most athletes should use hrTSS as their default Training Stress metric. Most don't test frequently enough (or long enough) for power or pace based TSS to be accurate.

"I really believe that walking, coupled with 12, 15 minutes of mobility every day and one to four sessions of strength each week will give you all you need in life." - Inaki De La Parra Full podcast NOW live in link below 👇

We underestimate the impact of 'little stressors' on our health. I took my citizenship test yesterday. I was confident. I don't fail tests😊 But still, my HRV was ⬇️ all week Now, one day post & my HRV is instantly ⬆️ 30ms! Your body is under more stress than you think.

Man there's a lot of psycho-babble on the interwebs. No wonder everyone is stressed out about whether they're in the 'optimal mental state' Relax. Chill. Clear your mind. Focus on where you are and what you're doing *right now* And execute that. That's all you need to do. That's all you can do

"The 'secret' is a progressive increase in training load over many years." "But what if I don't have time to increase my training load?" "The 'secret' is a progressive increase in training load over many years."

Want higher #HRV ? Learn to let go. That's all HRV is... turning down the constant "stress grip" that you have on your body and letting the breath do it's thing. Every exhalation creates (literal) space for relaxation. Go with that. Learn to let go.

It all begins with committing to show up. Over the years as a swimmer & coach I've seen kids with broken arms still show up... with a kickboard in tow! No matter what... Commit to show up!

Before worrying about all the fancy stuff - your training intensity distribution, whether you're doing the magic workouts etc... Start by simply making sure you're checking the box on at least 1,000 kcal of work *every day*. All the fancy stuff comes after that.

It is time... It hit me the other day that I have now lived a greater portion of my life in the U.S. than Australia. This country has been very good to me, and I do deeply love it - the land and the people. It is home. 🏠 Looking forward to hopefully making it official 🫰

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The mindshift that makes all the difference: Move from... Trying to get yourself as fatigued as possible in the shortest time possible. To... Trying to rack up as much work as possible *while* feeling as fresh as possible. Fatigue isn't the goal.

There are two things you must get right if you're serious about becoming very fit: 1/ Make more time for training. 2/ Truly understand what “easy training” means. Most people are doing their easy training way too hard.

As the gap between the influencer & those who actually know grows algorithmically wider by the day, you're going to need to actively seek out those with real world experience. Trust me, it's worth it.

Unpopular opinion of the day... The fundamental problem: The U.S. has gone soft. And it's not something that hiding will solve. We need to demand more from each other. Academically, athletically, the whole bit. We need to compete. An expectation for excellence is not abusive when it's voluntary.