An introduction
My story is not one of relieving pain as such. It’s about overcoming the limitations that we and society inflict on ourselves so that we can achieve.
The Conflict/ Challenge/ Problem
As a 400m athlete since 2003, I have strived to get the best out of my body. It’s partly for this reason why I explored health and fitness in 2007 and qualified as a gym instructor and personal trainer. Not only was I passionate about this area and I wanted to help others, but I also wanted the best information at my fingertips so I could push my body to new heights in my chosen event.
So I learnt and went to courses from high profile strength coaches and nutrition experts. And I passionately applied what they taught me. Above all, I pushed my body and trained with athletes far more talented and quicker than me. That didn’t bother me as I thought training with them would be the best way to make me better. Always surround yourself with people better than you – isn’t that a popular business quote?
Anyway. Hard training – Well that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? You need to work hard to get your results. There’s another popular sporting quote amongst the elite. I travelled to track events all around Ireland (where I was living) and also in the UK. I wasn’t earning out of these trips. However, the desire for improvement overcame this and the camaraderie I enjoyed on these trips with my training colleagues was also a major factor in making the whole commitment of spending my free time training and competing while working shifts all the more worthwhile.
The thing is improvement was not coming that quickly. While all the athletes were enjoying PB’s all over the place, one disappointing slow race followed another for me which annoyed me and depressed me. I was training hard but not getting the rewards of faster times I craved. Throughout the years, PB’s did come on the odd occasion but it was amongst many races of disappointment. What was also frequent were the injuries, mostly to the hamstrings. These were never that serious and each one was more of a strain than a tear. I would go to physios who would direct me in rehab exercises etc. I did them but they never brought about satisfactory results and the injuries continued.
Crossing the Epiphany Bridge
It was back in 2008 when I came across a DVD of the Meeting of the Minds conference. Doug presented the Be-Activated treatment and I was flummoxed how quickly he could change the flexibility in someone. It was only until when I went along to my first Level 1 in 2015 did I fully understand the philosophy and link it to my experiences as an athlete. Why I ran slow times so often started to become clearer and clearer. And also why I ran fast times on those odd occasions. Why I got injured so often became clearer as Doug Demo’d the Lat/piriformis and I felt a new level of alignment and energy in my body. I’d always run with one elbow pointed out to the side. After the lat activation, I felt equal and loose on both sides.
The Resolution
Be-Activated made me think about the stress of my teenage years more and more. My self-esteem issues were a massive influence and how they influence me as a man and athlete now.  Most of all, the greatest thing that resonates from Be-activated is how easy performance should be. And how important the parasympathetic state. How the body switches on under its influence The one thing that resonates with me that was only made clearer by Be-Activated was how easy my Personal best races were when I look back. My fastest races were always my easiest. Why? Because I made it easy – obviously accidentally because, at the time, I had no idea I was bringing “myself back to myself”
This taught me that releasing myself from the heaviness of stress and anxiety caused by my history as well as releasing the “wanting” helped me perform better at not just sport but everything. Today, the type of person I was in my 20’s and even my early 30’s is alien to me. I am much stronger. I am undergoing my qualification in sports massage at the moment to open up new possibilities for myself but my enduring goal is to unleash the parasympathetic state in athletes and open them up to new levels of performance they never thought possible.
Today, I train 400m athletes from 16-23 years of age and I activate them regularly. they feel the benefits and ask for activations regularly. They are slowly realising what makes them tick and how the influences of the world change their bodies.
The Conclusion
The Be-Activated philosophy is all about releasing the load we put on ourselves. It’s not all about training hard. In fact, if you train hard without being in a 123 state, then you are heading for a lot of frustration and may well hamper your career. This is still not understood in the world of sport on any level of performance.