Personal Training

Personal Training On-Line with

William Sichel & Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe

“This is not virtual coaching, with just a computer at the other end of the line. This is personal, on-line coaching with high achieving, experienced and very knowledgeable people at your disposal.”

Who are we?

William Sichel is a world record holding ultra marathon runner who has worked his way up gradually in this demanding sport. Previously an international table tennis player, William switched to first marathon running and then moved on to ultras in 1994. Full biography here.

Shaun Brassfield-Thorpe has been William’s own personal training advisor since 2004, during which time William has achieved his greatest success in ultra endurance running. For some years Shaun has specialised in the use of therapeutic massage, posture analysis and correction, advanced breath training, flexibility enhancement, economy of motion theory, body dynamics and applied strength development. Shaun is a complimentary therapist and an expert martial arts teacher, having over 25 years of experience in a variety of martial systems. Shaun has also in the past coached at weight-training, gym and fitness facilities. For more than a decade Shaun has been one of the top five teachers worldwide of the Stav martial art and holds the highest instructor’s qualification recognised by the International Stav Association. In addition he had previously studied traditional Wing Chun Kung Fu, modified Shaolin Longfist Kung Fu, Muay Thai (Thai Boxing), Freestyle Light and Full Contact Kickboxing and other combat systems, as well as undertaking training in traditional “soft” and “hard” Qi Gong heath promotion methods. Shaun currently has martial and complimentary therapy students studying and teaching in the UK, the USA and Scandinavia.

How are we different?

We have a unique blend of skills, experience and personal achievement at your disposal.

Our training philosophy has produced amazing results – just look at William’s track record – you can benefit from this too.

We are not trying to become a multi-million dollar enterprise by selling standardised training programmes to thousands of customers – we prefer to work with a select number of individuals at a close level. This way we can give our clients the best possible service and devote real time, energy and commitment to helping them achieve their goals.

While there are many online training companies, most simply offer “ready made” programmes that are the same for everyone. With our service, the level of personalization is very rare – you will always be treated as an individual. We will never send you an automated reply to a question, we will never give you a computer generated training programme nor will we ever treat you as a statistical average and base all our advice on a chart.

There are many people offering personal training of one kind or another – but how often have you ever had a chance to train under the guidance of two experts who are recognised as having world-class knowledge and experience in their chosen fields?

Who will benefit from working with us?

We firmly believe that we can help anyone to improve their performance.

If you make a commitment to train, we will provide the knowledge and expertise you need to ascend to a higher level of personal achievement.

No matter whether you are taking up fitness training for the first time or whether you are already a seasoned, elite athlete – our advice can help you attain your goals.

Ø You might be an over-weight house wife wanting to lose weight and get fit again with our support.

Ø You might want to fulfil your dream of completing a 5km, 10km, half marathon, marathon or ultra marathon.

Ø You might be a competitive runner wanting to break a particular time barrier in any of the above events.

Ø You might be someone who wants to take on an extraordinary challenge like completing one of the world’s toughest ultra marathons and needing advice on training, nutrition, pacing, crewing, heat training and psychological preparation.

Ø You might be a triathlete who wants to improve the run section of the sport.

Ø You might be someone who has ‘let slip’ their fitness (and figure) and wants to get back into shape with professional guidance in training, nutrition, flexibility, and life style change support.

Whoever you are, we can design a programme to take you to the next level…
What do we offer?

We offer a choice of levels of involvement. We are always willing and able to adapt to the specific needs of any individual.

Regular Service: This offers a standard level of support and email contact with a regular monthly review of training and progress.

In addition you will receive

ü Access to our growing on-line knowledge base, training support network and services.

ü A 15% discount off our weight vest

ü 5% discount off your first order of MyProtein products

ü Regular “Training Tips” and “Motivational Tips” from William and Shaun

Inten   Intensive Service: Only a limited number of clients are accepted onto this level. This is essentially for those wanting full support and unlimited email contact from William and Shaun. Fortnightly reviews of training plans (14 day) are planned around your available time and allow for work/life balance and changes in personal circumstances.

In addition you will receive

ü Access to our growing online knowledge base, training support network and services.

ü A 15% discount off our weight vest

ü 5% discount off your first order of MyProtein products

ü Plus regular “Training Tips” and “Motivational Tips” from William and Shaun.

A-la-Carte Service: If you desire or require training and advice not covered by one of our usual services, please contact us to discuss your needs. We can offer a uniquely personal level of help and support that can be truly tailor made to fit you as an individual.

What can our clients expect from us?

Whichever service you choose from us you can expect an unprecedented level of commitment and expertise from William and Shaun – with personalised training support and advice tailored to suit your own specific needs. Choose from any of the following :

Regular Service

ü We endeavour to respond to emails within 24 hours if at all possible.

ü We will offer the best possible advice tailored to your individual needs and requirements by email, following a training analysis on a regular monthly basis.

ü Advice will be offered by both William and Shaun. Each will always monitor the others responses. We each have areas of expertise which will be made available to clients as required. All client cases will be regularly assessed by Shaun and William.

ü William is a world-leading athlete and will at times be away training and competing, during which time Shaun will cover all training support.

Intensive Service

ü We endeavour to respond to emails within 24 hours if at all possible.

ü We will offer the best possible advice tailored to your individual needs and requirements by email following a training analysis on a regular basis – at least once every 14 days.

ü Advice will be offered by both William and Shaun. Each will always monitor the others responses. We each have areas of expertise which will be made available to clients as required.

ü William is a world-leading athlete and will at times be away training and competing, during which time Shaun will cover all training support.

ü During each 4 month training period, if you wish you may put your training on hold for a week with no charge (e.g. due to illness, family emergency or other circumstances) as long as this is agreed through consultation with William or Shaun.

ü Each client will have their training regularly assessed by both William and Shaun.

ü

What do we expect from our clients?

Ø We expect our clients to stay a minimum of 4 months (and hopefully much longer) as meaningful results take time to achieve. However, if having tried our service you decide that it isn’t for you, you have the option not to continue after one month.

Ø Before we start working with a person, we ask them to agree to implement our coaching philosophy in their training (see below) – quite simply our advice will only work if a person follows it in training. We would never expect a client to follow our advice blindly but, after detailed discussion and agreement, we do expect our clients to implement our advice in order to maximise improvements in their performance.

Regular Service

Ø We expect clients to contact us on (at minimum) a monthly basis to give feedback information on training done, race results, effort levels, illness, injuries and / or anything else that may impact on their training. We won’t keep prompting you to do this as it is part of your commitment to your development – but quite simply the more you tell us the more we can help you.

Intensive Service

Ø We expect clients to contact us on (at minimum) a fortnightly basis to provide feedback information on training done, race results, effort levels, illness, injuries and / or anything else that may impact on their training. We won’t keep prompting you to do this as it is part of your commitment to your own development – but quite simply the more you tell us the more we can help you.

A-la-Carte Service

Ø This will be assessed entirely on an individual basis after detailed consultation.

Our coaching philosophy

All our training programmes are designed on a one-off, individual basis.

We do not supply “ready made” training programmes and we do not expect our clients to follow a “standard” routine.

Instead we will first analyse your current goals, desires, abilities, strengths, limitations and achievements as well as your diet, lifestyle, available training time (etc) in order to produce an optimal personal training programme that will meet your specific individual needs.

We believe that no two people are ever exactly the same – everyone is unique. For that reason none of our training programmes are ever quite the same, each person’s training will by necessity be unique to suit their requirements.

However, while the specifics of every personal training programme will vary considerably, in general we advocate the use of the following methods and principles as some of the foundations of our approach

Extra-Load Theory

We advocate the use of Extra Load (XL) exercises as a key aspect of fitness and athletic training. To put this in a nutshell, if a person’s body becomes acclimatised to training with extra-load then it becomes far easier to perform an exercise or compete in a sport when the load is removed. Our XL programmes are diverse and generally use an XL-pack but may also involve the use of conventional free weights and/or body-weight resistance exercises. Apart from increasing the development of both the strength and endurance of the muscular, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, XL training also has the advantage of dramatically reducing the time one needs to spend in conventional training by increasing the intensity – not the duration – of the workout. Whether you are already a top athlete or just returning to sports training, whether you are trying to get fit while holding down a job or whether you are doing your best to juggle training needs while you look after your family, being able to spend less time training while getting a more intense workout is a real bonus. An extra plus to this method is that reducing the duration of training also allows for greater recovery time between exercise sessions – giving more time for your body to build in improvements and to grow in strength and stamina.

Does this type of training really work?

William considers the use of XL training to be one of the main reasons for his success in ultra-endurance events…

“Secret” Training

We also advocate the use of XL as an aspect of our “secret” training method – a key way of exercising for several hours during your normal daily life without adding any conventional training time. When properly applied, this form of training can have a similar effect to living at altitude or being under increased gravity.

Economy of Action Theory

Many people believe that the key to producing a better athletic performance is simply becoming “fitter” e.g. stronger or faster or more flexible.

This is a mistake.

While naturally increased fitness is a key part in improving athletic performance, so too is increasing exercise efficiency and economy. Exercise efficiency is a multi-faceted concept which covers, for example, reducing wasted motion, maximising and integrating breath capacity & rhythm, optimising stride length, improving foot-fall patterns, decreasing muscular tension in non-target specific muscle groups (etc). While people may typically increase their exercise efficiency by repetitively training in a given activity this alone will not automatically produce optimal results. To put this simply, if a person is exercising in an uneconomic way then just repeating this will only make them more efficient at an uneconomic method e.g. they may become very good at running badly – in short it will habitually ingrain technical mistakes, even if general fitness improves. Placing emphasis on optimally economic exercise performance naturally will still allow a person to become “fitter” but most importantly in the long-term it also allows them to become “better” at their sport or activity. This not only reduces the risks of injury or repetitive strain, it also allows a person to produce a better sporting performance for less physical effort. This is a key aspect to energy conservation in endurance competition – but it also applies to physical efficiency in everyday life.

Posture & Breath Theory

We believe that is impossible to achieve ones best is any sport or fitness regime if a person’s body posture is incorrect – for example, if the spine is not held in good alignment or if joints are over-stressed. Poor body posture negatively effects not only the skeletal and muscular systems but also adversely effects respiratory capacity and rhythm. Poor posture or inefficient use of breath not only retards athletic development – it is bad for your health as a whole. We advocate methods to improve posture and breath both generally and sport-specifically. This can lead to overall better health, greater exercise efficiency and improved athletic performance – while at the same time reducing risks of injury and repetitive strain.

Flexibility & Strength

We encourage the development of both muscular strength and flexibility alongside each other. Developing flexibility without strength can lead to instability while developing strength without flexibility can lead to a loss of agility. We believe in creating an optimal balance in all aspects of training and one aspect of this is increasing strength and flexibility in equal measure, often by developing them at the same time. Many people find it hard to believe that strength improvement, flexibility development and endurance athletics can go hand in hand, but in the past few years William, who is now in his 50s, has not only become one of the world’s top 6-day racers but since training with Shaun he has also increased both his overall physical strength and his flexibility considerably.

Recovery Theory

We advocate the use of the “3Rs” – Rest, Relaxation and Recovery.

We believe that planned recovery is an essential element in any healthy training programme.

Recovery after exercise is every bit as important as developing cardiovascular and respiratory fitness, muscular strength and endurance, speed or flexibility. Most people will realise that the body needs good nutrition in order to recover from exercise – but it also needs to relax and to have enough time to rest.

To put this simply, no one can get the best out of a training session if their body has not yet recovered from previous training.

Often people do not realise the importance of allowing optimum recovery time between exercises nor how training can be cycled to allow recovery in one muscle group while training another. For example William is one of the world’s top 6-Day runners – but he does not train by running 6-days in a row. We employ the use of advanced nutritional principles, “muscle sleep”, cyclic cross-training, as well as both “active” and “passive” recovery as part our method of total physical development.

We do not view “rest and recovery” simply as something that happens when you stop exercising, rather we see the 3Rs as a vital part of the training process.

Intensity Theory

Our coaching philosophy is based on intensity not just duration or frequency.

When it comes to training, we do not believe “more is more” – nor do we believe “less is more”.

We believe that optimum performance comes from optimal training – not too much nor too little.

We don’t think that doing twice as much exercise is twice as good for you.

Nor do we think doing half as much exercise is twice as good for you.

We believe in working to the maximum capacity in the minimum amount of time.

This means increasing the intensity of training to an optimum level.

We believe in short sharp training sessions which then give time for recovery and ‘growing’ before the next session.

We believe in using a variety of sessions i.e. not just running on its own.

Our philosophy is well suited to busy people who don’t feel that they have much time to train effectively.

A corner stone of our philosophy is the use of “added load” – a potent training device – in the form of a weight vest which all clients will be asked to try.

What does it cost?

Registration fee: Introductory offer £75.00 (non refundable)

(Returning clients who have discontinued training with us must re-register due to possible changes in life style, personal, medical and training history)

Both William and Shaun will rigorously analyse your questionnaire and all aspects of your activity and training and current state of fitness. A personal training plan will be drawn up for the time period agreed based on your declared goals.

Regular Service – £? Email us for details (william@williamsichel.co.uk), billed quarterly in advance (after first month). You have the option not to continue after the first month.

Intensive Service – £? Email us for details (william@williamsichel.co.uk), billed quarterly in advance (after first month). You have the option not to continue after the first month.

v Phone consultations may be possible at an extra charge but are not offered as standard. Email us with any inquiries.

On Starting Up you will:

- Be asked to complete a comprehensive questionnaire

- Receive access to an on-line training diary

- Access to our growing online knowledge base, training support network and services
- A 15% discount off our weight vest
- 5% discount off your first order of MyProtein products

- Receive our Top 10 Tips that will have an immediate impact on your training and fitness NOW!

Initial Payment (Bank Transfer preferred otherwise cheque drawn on a UK bank) will consist of your registration fee and the first month’s fee – these are non-refundable. Thereafter you will be billed quarterly in advance.

Waiver and Terms and Conditions.

DISCLAIMER:
All advice given by our on-line service relates to training for improvements in fitness, sports performance and personal health generally but we do not and cannot give medical advice. Our service is designed to help you practice an optimum exercise, fitness and athletic training regime and thereby to help achieve your goals. While we will do our best to advise our clients on how to achieve optimal training results regardless of their current physical condition and to advise on how an individual may best train even if they have un-typical training requirements our service and advice is not designed to treat, prevent or cure any medical condition. Our advice, information and training programmes should never be assumed to replace any advice from your doctor. If you have a known medical condition or if you are pregnant, you should advise of us this in order that we can best assess your personal training needs and you should always consult your doctor before starting any exercise programme or taking nutritional supplements.

Although both graduates, neither William or Shaun have formal coaching qualifications but both have a life time of knowledge and experience in exercise, nutrition, competitive sport and life style support.

We advise seeing your medical practitioner before commencing any programme of physical activity.

Completion and return of the Questionnaire is treated as acceptance by both parties of the following terms and conditions:

*Please note that all information provided to williamsichel.co.uk will be treated in the strictest confidence and that no-one other than William and Shaun will see your questionnaire or be given access to any information disclosed to us during your training.

Client’s Responsibilities:-

• To ensure my physical condition is not at risk by participating in the training activities suggested by williamsichel.co.uk
• To understand risks involved in running and other physical activities and assume reasonable personal responsibility for my health and safety while participating in the programme
• To release williamsichel.co.uk from any and all claims or damages arising from my participation in an individualized training programme
• To advise williamsichel.co.uk of my progress including training and racing results and perception of the level of comfort and challenge that the programme provides
• To notify williamsichel.co.uk if you may be in the early stages of illness or injury so that the appropriate adjustments may be made to your programme
• To notify williamsichel.co.uk after each agreed period of progress and any change to future running goals
• To notify williamsichel.co.uk of any medical condition that may effect training

Williamsichel.co.uk Responsibilities

ü To design an individualized training programme taking into consideration the client’s current fitness level(s) and future goal(s)

ü To be available by email to offer advice on matters related to the training programme

ü To reply to emails within 24 hours (or otherwise notify a client in advance of any times when a reply may be delayed)

ü To send, at the conclusion of each agreed cycle, a revised training cycle for the next period based on the runner’s feedback.