Breaking Perceptions: Fitness & Fieldsports Working Together

Fitness for Fieldsports and Fieldsports for the Fitness World

As someone who has spent the last 10 years coaching athletes in a variety of sports, including coaching a 3x winner of The World's Strongest Man and multiple podium finishes at World's as well as a huge number of National and International podiums and wins in strongman and other sports, it feels inevitable that I would want to blend the worlds of fitness/strength and fieldsports. I am a huge believer that there is not much more you can do to improve the quality of life than being stronger and physically capable. Not only are there a huge amount of studies linking strength training and fitness with a longer life, the life you live will be of a better quality, with a lower risk of falls and preventable injuries. Alongside this, I am also a lover of the British Countryside and British Farming and I think there is a responsibility to link these different communities together.

As I coach in the strongman world we encourage a huge protein consumption for athletes and I firmly believe there is no better time than now to support British fieldsports, game meats and British Farming directly. 

The Benefits for the Fitness World

One of the most easily marketable and obvious benefits to the fitness world is the protein content of game meat and generally the lower fat content when compared to "normal" meats, venison for example has 30g of protein per 100g and 2g of fat, compared to the 26g of protein for 12g of fat for beef. Personally as a lot of my involvement is within the strongman world where there is a change coming to more athletic competitions whilst still being incredibly heavy, so there needs to be a balance between size and strength and these game meats are a natural solution to the need for huge amounts of protein to support training whilst also limiting the amount of unnecessary fat. I also used to weigh around 30 stone, and whilst losing weight found it very difficult to eat enough protein to recover from training without eating too much fat, again game presents an easy and obvious solution.

What is keeping game off the table?

From talking to a lot of people within sport and fitness on social media and in person, I think there is a public perception that needs to be changed, and that change can only come through the "new wave" of people within the countryside and on social media, there is a perception that when you think about game meats, people immediately imagine copious amounts of tweed and a hefty dose of gout, but in reality game meats are incredibly healthy and can be directly substituted for their "normal" counterparts. My clients are now ordering venison mince to use as a direct substitute for beef mince in their meal prep, I am working closely with Steve at Cheshire Wild Venison to raise awareness of game meats as easy and available alternatives, something that can be delicious and healthy but more importantly to break the perception that game meats are posh, or unattainable. It is also my view that by breaking the mysticism that is put onto game meats, we will be able to have more open and sensible discussions about the future and the traditions of game hunting.

I am working closely with Cheshire Wild Venison https://cheshirewildvenison.com/ but obviously if you are a game dealer or know someone more local then this is about a change in perception not a singlular advert

Fitness for Fieldsports

Aside from the "obvious" benefits that being fitter and stronger is never a bad thing, it makes you live longer and improves the quality of your life as you live longer, I think there is a change coming to the fieldsports world, as more and more people are utilising social media to promote their niche within the fieldsports world, people are becoming more conscious of how they're perceived, and a lot of "influencers" are becoming fitter and healthier. Whilst this may be a great catalyst for people to make changes, the practical benefits are massive, if you're fitter, stronger and healthier you are able to perform better, you can carry more, you can operate at a lower percentage for longer. Looking at stalking and deer management for an example, if you're out in the hills all day, then need to extract an animal, being stronger and fitter cannot be a negative, in the sport of clay shooting as more and more pressure is put on targets, having a higher threshold for fatigue and being strong enough to ensure a consistent a reliable gun mount cannot be a bad thing, even something as simple as shooting pigeons, carrying a big bag of hide poles, netting, decoys, chairs, brewing tackle etc, having an improved basic level of fitness cannot be a negative.

What can you do?

In terms of promoting the benefits of fieldsports and game meat, I think the biggest thing is accessibility, breaking the perception that game is for the elite, and taking it back to what it was, an accessible, affordable, sustainable and healthy option for people looking to eat meat. Where people may not want to eat game all the time, it also means promoting local farming, direct from the source as much as possible and building a country wide network that can take control of the food supply in the country. From a social media point of view, unfortunately at times we are fighting a losing battle, as someone who is fairly new in returning to this lifestyle, I can see both sides of the fence and after a lot of conversations with people, the issue is the narrative and the justification, but a clear explanation of the reasons things are done has ended a lot of discussions in a positive way for hunting in my experience.In terms of fitness for fieldsports, the biggest obstacle I hear in my professional life is a lack of time, which is why I am currently working on an easy 2 day a week training template to allow people to make a consistent, positive change to hopefully help people enjoy the countryside for longer and keep the game coming to the table!