body: improve your physical intelligence & join this virtual run club with fletch

When the world was put in to lockdown, many of us were faced with life changing decisions. The fitness, sports and events worlds were heavily impacted with no clear end or understanding of when things would be back to ‘normal’. Adversity and change create innovation, challenge encourages growth. Meet Anthony Fletcher otherwise known as ‘Fletch’, a biomechanics coach, head coach at Equinox and creator of Onetrack Running Club. Over the last fourteen years he has worked with thousands of fitness professionals and Olympic hopefuls as both a trainer and lecturer.

Building a successful running club in Chelsea, London, Onetrack started out as a passion project to support part-time athletes with elite potential who lacked the funding and support of a wider coaching team. When the pandemic hit, the track sessions were forced to stop. With a committed community and inventive mind set, Fletch decided to take things online and create a virtual run club. The response was incredible and his sessions began to reach across the globe. Helping people during lockdown to not only stay focused on their training goals but to run alongside one another and keep the community alive.

For anyone who is learning about you for the first time, tell us a bit about what you do?

My name is Anthony but everyone calls me Fletch. I’m a Biomechanics Coach that specialises in running, from sprint distance to ultra distance. I work with a wide range of athletes and the general population alike. I founded run club, Onetrack, where we believe every runner should have access to the same knowledge to improve their physical intelligence regardless of level or financial status. We take information learned from research and help people to apply it to real life.

You have been smashing it with Onetrack Run Club since lockdown, how did you make the transition to taking it virtual?

Thank you. The thought of having to stop the run club due to lockdown broke my heart. (I have only canceled 2 sessions in the 5 years) so we explored our possibilities. We made the decision to go for it, built the website, did all the tech & testing etc. over a weekend. We had no idea if it was going to be well received or not but we wanted to offer our community an option. Turns out that they have been fundamental to helping some people through this tough time.

How can people get involved?

They can head to https://onetrack.club - there’s lots of information on the website but they can also email us on hello@onetrack.club if they have any questions

With so many of our favourite gyms and health clubs closed right now, how can we optimise our fitness goals at home?

It really depends on what those goals are, we may have to be ok with adapting our goals or change them slightly. However, keeping focused on the little things like: sleep, nutrition, daily movement etc. These have a massive impact on our ability to perform. If we can use this time to focus on what we want to achieve and then build strong foundations, any training that we do is more likely to be of benefit.

What advice can you offer for staying motivated and focused when training alone?

Have a purpose to train, have a “why”. This doesn’t have to be anything philosophical but just some guiding reason that’s going to mean enough for you to stay accountable to yourself. Even set something in the diary, even better put it in someone else's diary.

How do you believe that the mind and the body are connected, especially when it comes to sports performance?

We know that the mind and body cannot be separated, they are like a car and driver; one without the other and nothing happens. With regards to performance, the best athletes in the world will practice/visualise races, lifts, maneuvers etc. in their heads. This has been shown to actually make the muscles contract in the exact same pattern they would if they were actually doing the activity. We are seeing more and more athletes using a spectrum of tools to train the brain in association for their physical training.

Working within Biomechanics, what are three of your favourite go to exercises for keeping the body in balance?

This is a tough one as everyone is “out of balance” in different ways. Even if people have the same injury or niggle, it could be due to completely different reasons. We know that the body is an integrated system and the muscles, nerves and joints all need to move and move regularly. If I were to recommend some things that most can do: walk, squat (not to a defined depth, each person’s squat is different), do a pushing movement and a pulling movement. Health doesn’t always go hand in hand with performance. Just because something is more complicated or harder, doesn’t make it better.

connect with fletch and find out more…

visit his website: www.anthony-fletcher.com

follow him on instagram: https://instagram.com/aka_fletch

email him & find out more: hello@onetrack.club