PODCAST · health
Fitness and Thinking
by Jack Mann
There's more to fitness than lifting weights, and if you've achieved your sports or body goals – or you're on you way to them – you'll likely have found yourself wondering alternately: is this it or what's next?Some of you might even self-sabotage before you get to this point because not knowing is a scary place to be.F&T tackles the big and small, the fat and the skinny and the completely delulu, and is hosted by a PT and online coach with a masters in Psychology, who's sick of fitness being reduced to: do you have a six pack?
Episodes
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Sabina Storberg - Sword Yoga & The Audacity to Begin - F&T72
Sabina Storberg spent two years training in Chinese martial arts in the mountains of China, learning Shaolin Kung Fu, Wudang Tai Chi and Bagua. She went on to study yoga in India, build a career with UNICEF, and eventually leave it all behind to create WeaponUP: a fusion of sword movement…
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What If Looking For Answers Is The Problem? - Jack Mann - F&T71
What happens when we stop demanding that everything makes sense? In this solo episode of Fitness & Thinking, I spring from John Keats’s idea of negative capability and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot to consider why we’re so uncomfortable not knowing, how quickly we turn experiences into...
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Eloise Skinner - Are Your Options Holding You Back? - F&T70
Eloise Skinner worked as a corporate lawyer before spending time in a monastic community and becoming an author, model, yoga and fitness instructor, entrepreneur and existential psychotherapist. In this conversation, we talk about purpose, religion, monasticism, the body, fitness, spirituality…
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Alexa Ryan - You Don't Need Another Health Hack - F&T69
Alexa Ryan is a neurotherapist, functional medicine practitioner, nutritionist and founder of It Comes Naturally. Alexa's own journey into this work began with becoming her own patient. After years of unexplained health problems, she eventually found herself using what she had learned to…
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Dr. Justin Anderson - How You Can Perform When Everything Is Going Wrong - F&T68
What happens when the thing standing between you and a good performance isn't your ability, but where you've placed your attention? Dr Justin Anderson is a high-performance psychologist, former collegiate quarterback and author of Intentional Attention. Inspired by his time with athletes and...
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Harry Donoghue - Nothing Has Changed: What Ancient Literature Reveals About Human Nature - F&T67
Harry Donoghue is an Oxford and Cambridge educated Classicist, writer, public speaker and teacher. What can ancient poetry, Greek tragedy and classical literature teach us about being human today? In this episode of Fitness & Thinking, I catch up with Harry to explore the enduring relevance of…
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Mila Smith - Dating Apps Aren't The Enemy - F&T66
Mila Smith is a certified relationship and dating coach with more than 25 years' experience in relationship management, helping people understand themselves, choose better partners and build healthier, lasting relationships. What happens when AI starts filling the spaces that used to belong to...
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Trey Farmer | Even A Loving Home Can Make You Sick | F&T65
Trey Farmer is an architect and sustainability practitioner exploring how the places we inhabit shape our health, behaviour and relationship with the natural world.We tend to think of buildings as things we put up around ourselves: walls, windows, doors, roofs. But what if we thought of it…
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Take A Breath Before You Respond To This - F&T64
What if the thing you're experiencing isn't the thing you think it is? I've been reading Master of Change, thinking about the Greek concept of aporia, and noticing how often we turn a signal into a story before we've investigated it. An ankle niggle becomes I'm injured. A bad padel session…
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Coach Amanda Lim - Why You Don't Have To "Bounce Back" - F&T63
Can you build a stronger body without trying to become your younger or non-parent self?This week, Singapore-based, metabolic health coach Amanda Lim and I explore what really changes during midlife – from hormones and muscle to identity, motherhood, and the stories women are told about...
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Grahame Connolly - How To Build A Life That Outlives You - F&T62
Grahame Connolly spent 17 years as headteacher of Glade Hill Primary School in Bestwood, Nottingham, a school at the heart of a disadvantaged but remarkably strong community. We talk about what it means to build a culture rather than simply run an organisation, and how leadership is as much about...
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Your Relationships Will Struggle Without This | F&T61
You don't need to watch 60 episodes of Fitness & Thinking to realise that the questions we've been asking about fitness have rarely stayed inside the six neat pillars. Conversations about training became conversations about identity. Nutrition led into control. Creativity influences our...
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What Boxfit Teaches Us About Life | F&T60
The perfect routine. The perfect plan. The perfect moment to begin.Life doesn't work like that.In this solo episode of Fitness & Thinking, I reflect on a failed attempt to record this week's podcast, what boxing taught me about responding rather than reacting, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's ideas on...
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Zlattie Dimitrova | The Reality of Bikini Bodybuilding | F&T59
What happens when changing your body becomes the project? Zlattie Dimitrova is a competitive bikini bodybuilder and head coach at Everlast. From the outside, bodybuilding can look like an extreme pursuit of discipline and aesthetics. But underneath the training, food, prep and posing are much...
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Elle Mace | Food Freedom Isn't Just About Food | F&T58
This week I'm joined by Elle Mace – eating disorder practitioner, speaker, author of Food Freedom, and mother of three – for one of F&T's most thoughtful conversations yet on the psychology behind eating, body image and wellbeing. We explore why food is so often a symptom rather than the problem...
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Steve Bennett - I Was Fat & Furious Until... - F&T57
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…
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Comics That Changed How I Think About Life | Jack Mann | F&T56
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...
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Jason Smith | It's Never Too Late To Be Someone Else | F&T55
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...
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Lottie Renzi | What If You Already Have Enough? | F&T54
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,...
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Johnny Wilson | You Didn't Go Bankrupt Overnight | F&T53
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…
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Helen Woodford - When Did You Stop Making Things? - F&T52
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...
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Your Idols Were Clueless (And Some Still Are) | Fitness & Thinking #51
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 📩...
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How Do You Know You’re On The Right Path? | 50 Episodes of Fitness & Thinking
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...
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Jack Mann | The Tuesday Evening Theory | Ritual Disruptions, Nostalgia & Living Well | F&T49
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...
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Dr. Mohit Khera - Don't Miss This Early Health Warning Sign - There's No Pill In The World More Effective Than These 4 Things Together | F&T48
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...
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Güs, Sheffield | Sauna, Cold Exposure & The Truth About Wellness in the UK | F&T47
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…
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Luke Bownes | When The Thought of Winning Is Enough to Put You Off Trying | Body & Soul-building | F&T46
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...
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Emma Dearling - When Your Life Changes Overnight: Epilepsy, Identity & Moving On From “The Old You” - F&T#45
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…
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Charley Law - It's All Just Mumbo Jumbo...until you try it! - This isn't a riches to rags to reiki story - F&T44
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...
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Beth Kirkbride - Moving in, moving on and moving out - Relationships, space and honest conversations - F&T43
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...
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Tom Mellors - The switch, ice hockey, bodybuilding, HYROX, mental health, and why normal was never the goal - F&T42
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...
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7 lessons re/learned ahead of Spring | How I'm trying to throw away self-inflicted austerity | F&T#41
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…
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Amy Stephens | “You’re eating maybe 30 times a week – not every meal has to be perfect!” | F&T#40
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...
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James Sidebottom | If Hyrox is an A-level in fitness is CrossFit a PhD? | F&T#39
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...
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Do you have the courage to be disliked? My take with receipts and parental anxieties | I often get things wrong but I never stop asking for feedback | F&T#38
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...
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Ina La Berlina | Music changes how you think, feel and move – creativity, DJ-ing and FLINTA artists in Amsterdam | F&T#37
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...
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Niell JJ, The Cali Physio: it took me eight years to get one calisthenic trick...and it defines me | Identity, injury and the importance of other people | F&T#36
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…
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Nicole Askwith Williams | Feminism is a big issue, for a lot of men | Equity, equality and the problem with not taking the time to learn | F&T#35
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…
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Jon Xue Zhang | 130 auditions for 1 job: visualising your future like remembering the past | F&T#34
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…
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Evan Francis | My GP hadn't even seen a catheter before! | Fowler's syndrome, fitness and not being a stale pale male | #33
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…
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Jack Mann | You're closer than you think : in less than 14 minutes you'll re-learn the secret to success | F&T#32
Jack Mann is a personal trainer and podcaster obsessed with helping people see things through. And in this episode [ends third person], I want to re/give you a meaningful secret to success. The thing is while you might know what it is, I don't believe you're consistent with it... If you enjoyed...
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10 painful lessons from 2025 | Hard-earned learnings from books, guests and building a podcast | F&T#31
This week, I want to reflect with you on what I've learned from writing, hosting, filming and editing 30 episodes of Fitness & Thinking, including: the power of just starting, the importance of community, how pressure to enjoy things can drain the meaning from them, and why time doesn't equal...
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Imran Naeem | Some people win gold just by stepping into the ring | Boxing, Identity & Community | F&T#30
Imran Naeem is a nationally recognised boxing coach and co-founder of Natural Progression Boxing Academy in Stockton. In episode 30 of Fitness & Thinking we discuss what it means to be a leader of a club and in the community – from the accountability and standards to set and uphold to the feeling...
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Dr Ciara Vizzard | Ageing well is a question of mindset over matter | When we tell people they're frail, they often become it | F&T#29
Ciara Vizzard is a doctor working in geriatric medicine in the UK who is a passionate advocate for ageing well. In this episode, we talk about what actually shapes how we age long before we’re old: muscle mass, mobility, mindset, food, sleep, habits, and the quiet accumulation of lifestyle…
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Leah Brooks & Karl Finch | The Truth About Lifting Together & Lifting Forever plus New Year, New Me is nonsense | F&T#28
Leah Brooks and Karl Finch are a PT power couple based in Sheffield. Ahead of the new year, I wanted to catch up with two of the busiest PTs in the Steel City to find out what people get wrong about their resolutions, the vibe difference Leah’s observed since working in a women’s only gym…
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Alanna Reid | Achieving my first chin-up was a spiritual experience | Being excluded over gender is the exact opposite of this
Alanna Reid is a senior policy advisor to the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. In this wide-ranging discussion, Alanna and I get into the experience of finding your sport and finding yourself as an adult via Tom Rasmussen’s 2023 album ‘Bodybuilding’, the Supreme Court’s recent...
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Soph Ingram | There's a silent crisis in the fitness industry right now | F&T#26
Soph Ingram is a qualified personal trainer who designs and leads women’s wellbeing retreats. Trigger warning: in this episode she speaks candidly about her journey from her childhood and into the fitness industry and the realities that often go unspoken therein, namely the “silent crisis” of...
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Monetise your debt or it'll monetise you | Financial fitness, trauma and true value | Naj Devgun
Najinder Devgun is a financial advisor and money matters podcast host whose understanding of worth changed following a major life event. In episode 25, Naj explains the concept of "financial trauma" – what it is and where it comes from – and gives us easily actionable tips and real-life moments…
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Why I'm denying "the science" | Science-based fitness is dead
Jack Mann is a level-4 certified coach with four years of experience, 18-months of those in PureGym in Sheffield. I’ve put trust, time and money into two of the people I mention in this video and treated the third with a healthy dose of scepticism. I now follow none of them based on their dogma,...
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yosoypeds | Are you building the life you want? What's stopping you? | F&T #23
From quitting his corporate job to living in Guatemala for a few weeks with "Big Mama" and becoming immersed in Latin America – the travel, the music, the people – this episode with Peds is full of the stuff you can’t script, including the sounds of the most formal lost cat search party you might...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
There's more to fitness than lifting weights, and if you've achieved your sports or body goals – or you're on you way to them – you'll likely have found yourself wondering alternately: is this it or what's next?Some of you might even self-sabotage before you get to this point because not knowing is a scary place to be.F&T tackles the big and small, the fat and the skinny and the completely delulu, and is hosted by a PT and online coach with a masters in Psychology, who's sick of fitness being reduced to: do you have a six pack?
HOSTED BY
Jack Mann
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Fitness and Thinking have?
Fitness and Thinking currently has 71 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Fitness and Thinking about?
There's more to fitness than lifting weights, and if you've achieved your sports or body goals – or you're on you way to them – you'll likely have found yourself wondering alternately: is this it or what's next?Some of you might even self-sabotage before you get to this point because not knowing is...
How often does Fitness and Thinking release new episodes?
Fitness and Thinking has 71 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Fitness and Thinking?
You can listen to Fitness and Thinking on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Fitness and Thinking?
Fitness and Thinking is created and hosted by Jack Mann.
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