I’m about to be put to the test by two of the toughest men on the planet: SAS: Who dares wins presenters past and present, Ollie Ollerton and Jason Fox. I’m at London’s Jubilee Hall Gym to learn how a military mindset can help middle-aged people like me.
Earlier this year, aged 51, I rowed the Atlantic with an all-female team, but with no big goal to focus on now, I’m struggling to stay motivated. Me booze belly is growing and I regularly lose hours to scrolling on my phone. I need a reset. Can Jason and Ollie offer the solution?
First things first: what exactly is a military mindset? “It’s about being brave, determined and self-disciplined,” says Jason, 46. As Special Forces operatives, the duo went through the toughest training regimen in the world, learning to control fear and push the limits even to the point of exhaustion. Their minds and bodies were prepared for the unexpected and capable of operating under massive stress. Not unlike parenting teenagers, I venture. They laugh, but that’s your point: adopting this mindset can give you the tools to cope.
But how do we begin to think like a soldier? The pair are launching their Battle Ready 360 app through the TruConnect platform and hope their new Mission Series workouts will show us the way. Its motto is “Train hard to fight easy” – but we can’t figure out the physical without the mental. “The mind will give in to the body, because it wants to protect you,” says Ollie, 49.
Step one: no excuses. “In Special Forces, we didn’t have the luxury of saying ‘we can’t be bothered.’ You don’t know when you’re going to have to spring into action,” says Jason. “Alone and waiting to be deployed, with no one to motivate you, you have to motivate yourself. Even if you feel bad without sleep, you fit in training.”
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