Final book cover and new title. What do you think? Releasing on 25th November 🤩

Planning doesn’t predict the future. It just gives the unknown somewhere to live.

People talk a lot about periodisation. But really, it’s just planning. Organising load and recovery over time. Putting rhythm to work.

A plan gives confidence. Not because it’s right, but because it gives direction. It reminds us what matters: the rhythm of doing.

Planning is a hypothesis. The athlete is the evidence. Plans must adapt. Reality always wins.

The plan is not the training. It’s just the structure that holds it. Like a jazz chart that lets the music happen without getting lost.

Fatigue is not the enemy of performance. But it’s not the goal either. It’s the shadow that follows meaningful work.

Good planning feels natural. Stress and recovery. Fatigue and freshness. Not all sessions should feel the same. Some need clarity. Others need work.

The truth is, the plan is scaffolding. It holds things together just long enough for change to happen. It’s not prophecy. It’s rhythm. And rhythm makes consistency sustainable.

It’s tempting to treat a plan like a prediction. All those shaded boxes in a spreadsheet feel certain. Until the first missed session. The first cold. The first unexpected dip in form.

Without a plan, consistency drifts. Training hardens into habit or dissolves into chaos. A plan gives rhythm. A pulse. It doesn’t make the work easy, just possible.

Planning is where training becomes real. It’s how principles meet practice. A way of turning good ideas into something you can actually do.

The final judge of movement is the movement itself.

There is so much wisdom is the thread. Happy for the few who will reflect on it.😎 Expectations most won’t get it😢

The goal isn’t to find the right method and stick to it forever. It’s to learn the grammar — and write your own style. Training, like language, rewards those who listen carefully… And keep rewriting the same sentence their whole career.

Once you see training this way, the hunt for the perfect system loses its urgency. Principles don’t give you permission to do anything — They give you a reason for doing something. That’s when coaching becomes craft.

That’s why principles matter. They let you adapt. They allow judgment. Systems demand obedience. Principles give you freedom — with structure.

Coaching is about balancing these two forces: Overload gives you horsepower. Refinement gives you control. Strength without skill is clumsy. Skill without capacity is fragile.

Skill works differently. Think of a pianist repeating a tricky passage. Not to failure — to fluency. They practise until it flows. Progress through attention, not exhaustion.

Progressive overload is simple: Challenge the system → recover → adapt. Repeat, progressively. Too little = no change. Too much = break. The coach’s job is to hold that rhythm. Stress and recovery in conversation.

At the heart of it are two ideas: 🧠 Discovery & refinement (how we build skill) 💪 Progressive overload (how we build capacity) Most of training can be traced back to one — or both.