The Uneducated PT Podcast - Ep.81 From Self-Doubt to HYROX Pro: Lhea Terzaki’s Journey

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

In this episode of The Uneducated PT Podcast, we sit down with Lhea Terzaki—HYROX UK ambassador, elite athlete, and founder of HYLIFE Coaching .Apple Podcasts+3TikTok+3Instagram+3Lhea shares her inspiring journey from battling self-doubt to becoming a top HYROX competitor. She discusses the mindset shifts that propelled her forward, the importance of tailored training strategies, and how she empowers others to achieve their fitness goals.We delve into her training philosophies, including the significance of understanding hormonal cycles in women's training and the balance between strength and endurance for HYROX success .Whether you're a seasoned athlete or new to HYROX, this episode offers valuable insights into overcoming mental barriers and optimizing performance.Lhea Instagram

It wasn't my ability holding me back and neither is yours. It was the story I'd been telling myself for years. I told myself that I wasn't sporty because I didn't win the medals. I said I wasn't an athlete because no one in my family was. I thought being the best was the only way to belong. But being the fastest or the strongest growing up, or not being the fastest or the strongest growing up, doesn't make you any less worthy of becoming the athlete you dreamed of becoming.

So, Leah, you are one of the leaders. coaches in the hybrid space. But obviously you had to do a lot of work and overcome a lot of self-doubt to get here, to get into this position. So can you tell the listeners a little bit about that story about your journey from, you know, your journey from, you know, feeling like you're not an athlete

or you don't belong to now essentially being one of the leading coaches for high rocks. Yeah. So basically it was so strange. Like that is, that's the post. that day when I wrote that post is the day that I actually realized that actually maybe I was actually quite sporty growing up because for me,

just because my definition of being an athlete or being sporty was kind of what ran through my head from the stories that you've been told growing up and stuff like that. Like obviously when you're not picked for certain teams in sport when you're growing up, it does leave a dint in your armour and like, oh, maybe I'm not sporty. Like people don't want to choose me

because I'm not like, I'm not sports. And like growing up, I wasn't, I was never picked first. I was always picked last on school sports teams, unless it was rounders because I could hit a bat. We weren't very demanding. He was just hitting a bat. It's a great sport, by the way. I absolutely love rounders. But when it comes to the running side of things, swimming.

I also got tools and four quite a lot because I was quite good at swimming, but was never the best. I always got chose for backstroke. I always thought that was kind of like a cop-out thing that just because they felt sorry for me they chose me to do backstroke, however backstruck is one of the hardest strokes to do. So looking back at, people believed in me and even I didn't believe in myself

and it's only taken 23 years, nearly 24, for me to actually truly believe in myself and my abilities. And basically, cut a long story short, the reason why I've had to force belief in myself is because at the time, no one truly, they did believe me, my parents, my family and stuff like that, but because it's something so different to what they've been taught with

and what they kind of grew up with that they didn't believe it to be true or that could happen to just any person, which is something I had to do with. Still dealing with it now with parents, well, my nan and my brother's currently going through a very similar kind of thing in terms of finding what works for him

but not having opinions put onto him to stop him doing what he actually wants to do and that's kind of why I struggled so much to believe in myself because I trust a lot of people quite easily but people's opinions did matter to me a lot so the opinions brought self-doubt massively and that's the only reason why I've got into sport properly

and consider myself sporty now because I've started blocking out obviously people's opinions opinions like at the end of the day it doesn't mean it's gospel but that belief has come more now in an adult

it as an adult because I've kind of filtered out the noise and I only trust myself now with what I truly believe in how do people get strong enough to do that because that's obviously a very difficult thing I completely resonate with that

where you know if you live and die by other people's opinions of you then, you know, you're not going to get very far, very quick. And it's like, how do you get to the stage, how did you get to the stage where you were almost strong enough to kind of not listen to other people's opinions and just, you know, do what you wanted to do and kind of build that self-belief? Like, how, where did, what changed that you went from someone who, you know,

didn't believe that they were the sporty person to now confidently, will say it regardless of what anyone else says? Yeah. Do you know what I think it is? I think it's because I've been very codependent. Even though it was very independent, I was also very codependent under the same breath. Like I will very much,

I have got the mind of like a 60-odd-year-old woman. I always say this to everyone. But like I was very codependent in terms of having reassurance constantly. So when I didn't have that reassurance, that belief obviously wasn't there, which then obviously creates that codependency. and as awful as it sounds,

like there's always a silver line to things happening and I was very codependent on my mum and obviously she passed away that forced me to come out of being codependent with people and being very reliant on my own and my own self-trust rather than asking for opinions on stuff and then finding the opinion

that would stop me doing something. So in your answer to that in terms of how do you find that strength it's such a hard thing to realize because I wouldn't wish anyone losing a parent or anything like that on anyone because it's not a nice process that you have to go through but for me having a life experience like that

really it shook me and maybe like this isn't the direction of life that I want to be in but even before that I realized that I did a degree in fashion I'm actually very good at fashion I'm very good at fashion design, communication, all of that. I got a first class, the honours degree in that. Did I enjoy it? No.

And because I didn't enjoy it, that's when my mental health and resilience went down because I weren't enjoying and I weren't passionate about it. However, fitness, it was like a bit of like a rebellious thing, like, because everyone's told me not to do it. It was like, well, no, I'm going to show you that I can do it in a way. It was kind of like the rebellion against... It was the rebellion kind of against what people believed in me. And I was like, I'm going to prove you.

And then it ended up being, I'm going to prove myself. That's so interesting. I had no idea that you had a background in fashion design or anything like that. I just, I presume. You wouldn't think, no, because I literally just had to twin leggings in a jumper all day every day. Yeah. That's, that's, and so what, so, like, when you were even doing your degree in fashion design and stuff like that, Was there still like, was fitness still part of your life?

Was it still like you were still training or was it like a complete 180? So fitness, I started my PT qualification when I was in my first year at uni. My first year at uni, we went into lockdown that first year. So March time, I was started at uni in the September, went into lockdown in the first year. went into lockdown in the March and then my remaining years of uni was from home so I had so much spur time on my hands I was like you know what

I'm getting paid the same student loan as what I would be being paid in living in at uni I may as well use that money and put it to good use so I bought my PT course and I learnt my PT qualification whilst doing my degree. Stressful, very stupid

because I was working endless I was under the sun. But as we come out of lockdown, and the gyms were starting to open up again, I actually got a job in a gym, just working behind the desk, then started going on to the, like, PT floor, PT and people.

I was fully booked within a few months of working on the PT floor because people knew me. And I think this is a massive piece of the puzzle that a lot of people miss out when they're doing like PT's online coaching, like if you can get a good reputation for yourself in person, you can do it online as well. And I think it really builds a good skill set.

So it was like kind of, my plan was never to do fashion anyway, but I'm someone who can't not finish something. So I finished my degree. Whilst being a PT, working full-time hours as a PT, then also working desks hours as well just to have that stability,

just in case clients dropped and stuff like that. And then I just went into full-time PT in after I finished my degree because I could. And everything was sorted. I think anyone who's started off their career as a PT knows that it's long, strenuous hours just kind of living in the gym as well. So doing that on top of still being in college as well is a lot. Another quote that I wanted to touch on, which is so you said the biggest shift from high rocks open to pro, it wasn't physical. it was mental. So can you please explain to the listeners

a little bit about what it means to take that step up to the pros? Yeah, so like for people who don't know what Hirox is, obviously everybody kind of knows what it is, but I'm going to tell you what it is, even if you do know. Basically, Hirox is eight kilometres of running, eight stations in between,

testing, speed, strength and endurance. And the goal is basically finish as quick as you possibly can. Not everybody else, you. as a person. And basically there's different categories. So you've got open, you've got women's doubles,

men's doubles, women's open solo, men's open solo, women's pro doubles, etc. Now pro is for females. We do the men's weights with the open,

the classes, the women's weights. Now, me being the person and the rebellious person that I am. If a man can do it, I can do it just as better and do it faster and stronger than what a man can. So for me, in all honesty, the step up from open to pro, for me personally, isn't that much of a step-up

because I've come from a strength training background. The step-up was the mentality that come with going into the pro. Now, because it is called the pro division, that is intimidating alone because you're thinking, oh my God, pro professional athlete, no, it's just a different category and weight and with that being said,

with the mindset that comes with moving into pro, it moves away from being like, can I complete this to how fast can I push this and how much can I enjoy? within this to push to that next level. And I think that's the difference between open and pro mentality because when you tend to do open, it's because you are just starting out.

Whereas with pro, you have become a little bit more confident in your abilities. And pro is obviously pushing the head. I hate saying it. It's not the men's weights. They are the women's way. Like it's honestly driving mad with the fact that we have to section out as men and women. Like, no, no.

Like men can do it. We can do it. But, in terms of that, yeah, it's just having that switch of like, how far can I push myself rather than can I actually complete it. Has your approach to like lifestyle, train and nutrition, all that, you know, switched on its head since deciding that, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to be going pro.

I, um, I treat myself like a professional athlete. Like, I really, really do. Like, and I know that's not for everyone, but I can see my, myself in a few years time. It doesn't have to be next year. It doesn't have to be the year after that. But I will be in the elite 15. And I want to do it for the people

who didn't believe that they was sport. They didn't think they could do sport and show them that they can be at the top of the game because you've worked your ass off to be there. So my approach to being in the pro division will be different to someone else's completely because I've kind of got the long-term and long-term goal basically of being at the top.

So how I approach my training now is how the elites are approaching it I train two hours a day when I'm on my training day I feel I've got a nutritionist who's managing all my nutrition for me I just need to eat the food that's being set stick to the calories just stick to the plan

I'm not emotional with my training like it's the planned planned we go with the plan we don't just kind of make an excuse kind of like we stick to the

plan, obviously certain things will come up, stop me doing that, but there's always a different way around it. I will never use something to my disadvantage because with me, I perform at my best when I have stuck at the plan with everything. By example, Berlin next week, I've never been as discipline with a plan in my entire life. I thought I was discipline before, but while I have proven to myself in this last six, seven weeks, how disciplined I can actually be and how much I can achieve mentally physically with my training when I actually do truly, truly stick to the plan and that's not just the training,

that is the recovery. How many hours are sleeping my training at sleeping in the evening? What supplements am I taking to weigh my recovery even faster? Am I sitting in my recovery boots for an hour a day? Yes, I absolutely am just to make sure that my legs are flush,

so I can go and do a harder session. And I have a different lifestyle to what other people do. This is my job. This is part of my job. Obviously, I've been a very, successful coaching business, but I work my coaching business around me for that reason so that I can be the best I can and show up for the girls on our team as best I can do as well. So, yeah, basically my way of coaching and, well, my way of training now is very different to what it was because if you want to be the best, you have to train like the best.

I liked how you even just touched on I thought I was disciplined before but obviously I've reached a new level of what discipline actually means and I think you know that I think a lot of people think that they're disciplined when they're training and stuff like that but you know I'll miss training session here

or I'll stay up a little bit later here and I'll do this and like you've touched on there even like not missing recovery like everything's surrounded around that goal if it's going to be that level of, of, of, of, of, of, at Lee performance. Yeah, absolutely. Like it has to be.

Yeah. Um, one thing that I wanted to ask you was, you know, of all the things that you could have pursued and competed in and being successful in and, you know, make a, a successful business around, why has high rocks captured your attention more than anything else? Because it's for everyone. there's no discrimination against who you are, where you from, what gender you are, what you look like, how you perform, like it truly is a sport for every single body. And like, and when I say everybody, it's not like as a collective like body.

It is individual bodies. Every single different type of body that you can have, it is a sport for that. And for me, the barrier to entry to high rocks is so, minimal, which is amazing because you've got people doing it to get healthier, not just for a time, but they're doing it for the health. People, and I find that so inspiring because the fact that they've never probably been in sport or the lives, and then they're doing this, which is crazy, like 40 or 50-year-old women doing this because they want to improve the health going through menopause. Like, it's crazy. And you've got other people on the other end of the spectrum who are like me,

if you do want to push high levels in this, that they're given an opportunity to be top-level performing athletes without having, obviously, you're having to sacrifice. And I don't say that anything like to change, there has to be some sacrifice. You can't keep doing what you are doing now if you want to be better. But yeah, that's why it was high-offs, because I've never seen anything like it that is inclusive,

because things like CrossFit, I do like it. I use CrossFit modalities within my. training but could I perform a high level of CrossFit? No, my body is not designed to be a crossfit athlete. I've got such long limbs. I've got very long legs. Me doing an overhead snatch, I end up falling backwards. Like, on a serious note, I can't, like, my body's not designed for that. It's laughable. But get me on a running track, I like run everyone. Do you know what I mean? and the actual movement standards in high rocks aren't hard to do so everyone can learn to adapt to do it

because you might not be able to do it at the start but you can learn and evolve and do it as you progress further. Yeah, that's what I actually really like about hierarchs as well is that, you know, like you said, the barrier to entry is, you know, you can get in and start training straight away for it, which is great. Whereas with CrossFit, there's a lot of skill-based things that's very, very difficult for, you know,

the general public who might be, you know, sitting at a, sitting at a desk for the last 20, 30 years, they might not have the kind of mobility to do some of them kind of Olympic movements, but you can get going straight away. And again, like you said, that you also then have the competitive edge to that if people want that. But going from, obviously, you know, doing pros and the competitive edge and what it takes to be at that level of the sport, and more so even just talking about, like, say people wanting to do their first ever high rocks and just, you know, you know, competing to give it a go and see what it's like.

And maybe they haven't really been training their whole lives. Maybe they are kind of just getting into it for the first time. Like, how should someone mentally prepare for their first high rocks event if they're starting from the start? Honestly, don't put pressure on yourself. Do not put pressure on yourself. And even I have this conversation with people who have done multiple hands. hypox events. And I have this conversation with myself every single time because you do not how,

you do not know how you're going to show up on that day. Like you really don't. You can plan, you can prep, you can have the best plan in the world. You don't know what can happen on that day. On the, on the way to the venue, you could, for example, be delayed on the train, which means that you're an hour late getting to the venue and you're literally cutting it close to get to that start line. How stressed are you going to be? You're not going to perform at your best. when you're so stressed. You can also be the other way around where you get there in plenty of time

but because you've been there too early, you're stressing yourself out even more. And it's like so many different variables that can go into it. And when you've not been in a competitive environment and a competition environment before, like ever in your life, it's learning this whole new skill set

that some people have been doing all of the lives. And it's so easy to get caught up in that comparison to when you are at that. start line. You look around people, you will size people up. You'll be like, oh, can I be, like, are they going to be faster than me? Am I going to be slower than them? Even I do it now. Like, in Berlin, I'm probably going to be at the start line with Meg Jacoby. Like, if people don't know who she is, she's the one of like the top athletes in high rocks at the sport, I can't be comparing myself to her. Like, I just cannot be comparing herself to me. However, I do have a bit of a

devil on my shoulder let me tell you he's like should i try and keep up with her just to try just to try and see if i can keep up with her i'm not going to do that i'll be fucked after this ski so if i can't swear but like i'll be i'll be absolutely fucked after the ski if i did that but on the note if people are doing this for the first time you can't put you can't put the pressure on yourself you can't have an expectation of a time because yes you may have an idea an ideal in mind but the celebration is the fact that you got bloody well through it like it's tough and i don't think people realize how hard it can actually be so mentally preparing yourself is making sure that your sessions are a hell of a lot harder than what the actual race will be itself in essence

that that's a really good point isn't it about make the training sessions is hard so that the race is easy. Yeah. Yeah. So what about what about athletes who you have? I think your program's called the is it the hybrid program. What's it called again? High life. High life, yeah. So what, so let's say the athletes that you have in the high life program as well. What about, you know, when they have an unexpected, you know, result in the race, they did have a time in mind, but they didn't quite get there. Like, how do you deal with athletes to get them kind of setbacks? Because I'm sure,

or there is disappointment there? Absolutely. And I say this to everyone. There is no journey or prep that will ever go perfect. And if it does, people are going to be lying to you. Because, yeah,

even though I've been as disciplined and I have been for the last six, seven weeks, have I come up against shit? Yeah, I have. Have I had to deal with shit? Yeah, I have. And the thing is, people see this perceived perfection

on social media. this standard on social media and that's when the comparison comes in, which is why. If we, like, realistically, if high rocks, you weren't flowed bones, you weren't allowed to post your time that you got, would people be upset with the time that they achieved? No. So everything that I say to everybody is the fact that that exact sentence, but then also as well, that with our girls, we do, we're very, very heavy on the mindset side of things because you could say that you are the toughest person in the world and something doesn't bother

you, but it really does because our mindsets are very, very delicate. We don't like our ego being bruised or hurt. So a lot of the things that we do with our girls to help overcome that and actually help them use it as a productive thing is actually analysing the race. Like, what worked well, what didn't work well, what lessons can we learn for going into the next one and how can we use that to our advantage rather than being like, oh my God, the world is ending like I'm not doing this again I didn't get the result I wanted to and pull off for life like that's just not how it should be like yeah all right if you don't want to do it again that's fine I'm not going to drag you and kicking and scream to that start line it's your choice at the end of the day

but also as well you're acting on emotion here like if you're wanting to you get better you can't act on emotion yes emotions can be present but you can't let them rule your decision making so a lot of the things that we do with our girls is a very it's very like emotionally regulated and how can we process the emotions better rather than just letting them overrule and let us actually be very emotional. Because as women as well, we do have hormones. And when that's interplayed, that just adds another spanner in the words with us too, massively.

But I'm very proud of us as a team and coaches by putting that as a forefront of our mind when it comes to coaching females because those do have a massive impact in how you emotionally respond to a race result because you could perform at your performance. best you can actually achieve the time and still not be happy but I've done that myself I've had clients who have finished a race and said I felt like death throughout that whole race

because I was so in my head but then still achieved an 11 minute PB yeah that makes sense so I don't think it's ever about the time I don't think it's ever about the outcome it's how you feel during that race and what we do with our athletes is make sure that they are feeling good. Like they're feeling incredible throughout the whole race

by preparing them mentally for how hard it can get. But then also as well, building things in like breathwork before you're racing, I've got a track list of me being motivational to send into the girls that they can access in our bowl on our app where they can just listen to that before they go into the start tunnel. They're like, right, let's fucking go. Let's go and get it. And one of the girls, she had one of her best races.

She always gets nervous before races. She's listened to one of them, and she's going to absolutely smashed it. She didn't get the time that she wanted, but she was very proud at how she felt through her at all because she didn't feel nervous once. Going off on that, you touched on how, you know, regardless of how they feel after, whether they're happy with their time or they're not happy with their time,

you know, you will go back and usual kind of look at what went well, what didn't go well, what we can improve on and stuff like that. So I suppose for those listening that have maybe done a couple of races but want to improve in certain areas, I suppose I wanted to just kind of touch on the training and performance side of things

and things to do and things not to do and things that can help and stuff like that. So do you have any tips for people listening who want to actually improve their running time? Yeah, use data, use numbers with everything. Even like coming to the race times and stuff, like always use data because it takes the emotion out of doing something because when you, a lot of the people we coach are very much like,

we need to do more. We need to do more. We need to do faster every single session. Like that's the mentality a lot of our girls are in when they first start working with us. Now, shockingly, you don't need to be running a 5K every day and trying to get a PB every single 5K that you do. What you need is a little bit of structure and a little bit of guidance, which is formed by data and numbers,

because again, it takes the emotion out of that. Once you've got the data and the numbers of where you are now and where you want to get to, you can really structure and periodise your training to progressively increase to where you want to be because you don't need to be, say, running a 21 minute 5K next week when you're only running a 20,000. seven minute 5K this week. Like that's just not how it works.

You're going to get injured. You're going to burn yourself out. You're going to get bloody frustrated and feel like you're failing because you set yourself an unrealistic expectation because there's no data informed decision there. So for anyone who wants to do improve the running, look up the numbers that you're hitting now. Look at the numbers that you need to be hitting to hit a certain time that you want to be hitting. And then work backwards and reverse. engineer it.

Do you think so, so like you said, they're not going to go out and do like a fight, try and do a 5K PB every week because that's just going to lead to, to burn out an injury. So what would you suggest?

I know there'll be some people on the podcast or who listens to podcasts that will understand things like, like Zone 2 Cardio and zone 2 running, stuff like that. Could you explain a little bit about kind of the different kind of strategic ways in which people can improve the run on?

Of course. So any athlete at any given time should have two staple runs within the week. Whether that one is an interval session, so whether that is working on distance or working for time at your say 10 to 5, 10 to 20 seconds max fast than what your 5K PV time for say 1,000 meters for example, repeated six times. That's just floating numbers off the top of my head. the other one is a zone two run so if people don't know what zone two running is it is basically running in zone two of your heart rate which is working at a 50 up to kind of 65 70% maximum capacity of what your heart rate can be doing and by doing that it's going to build that aerobic base that's what zone two does now if you're anything like me even though i am so incredibly fit my heart rate can't run in zone two because it just rocket those. Rockets up. I don't know what it is with my heart rate. If anyone who's listening to the podcast that would be great.

But I've had testing. It's absolutely normal. My resting heart rate is actually 38 beats per minute. Like it's ridiculous, but I can't run in zone two. It doesn't make sense. The math doesn't math on that one. It's very confusing to be quite honest. You have to do Liam math for your run.

For that one. Oh my God. But zone two running is where you're running at basically that lower heart rate zone, which will help you build that aerobic base. However, if you can't run in that one and you are just starting running and you can't stay in that heart rate zone, swap it to a bike. Because you can get into that zone two bike super easy. It's very, very low impact.

And it's also going to protect your joints as well. Even with zone two running as well, because it is lower impact. Your body's going to be able to adapt to the changes made. By having a combination of them too, Whether you're in season, whether you're out of season, it's going to really help build your running up, whether that's because it's combining the endurance side of things, and it's also combining the speed that you need for high rocks too.

That's a really good point on the bike as well, because I think people have this misconception that, you know, to get faster at running, that they need to always be out running. But if it is impacting your joints or you're constantly getting shin spins because you're not used to running and you're not used to the volume, like being able to substitute something like that is obviously going to be beneficial to. to keep you consistent.

Yeah, exactly. And it's like, prime example, one of our clients, she had an injure when she started with us, and she was adamant that she wanted to still race. We was like, right, we're still going to let you race, but we're going to do it a different way. She did not run at all for eight weeks working with us,

and she did her high rock race. And it were eight weeks, I think it was six weeks, actually, between races. So she did Manchester, and then she did Glasgow. six or eight weeks in between them two and she got a four minute peeveing she did not run a single thing she was going ham on the urgs for her intervals

she was doing zone two bikes she was doing zone two roles and skis you don't need to run to get better at running so if you are say for example having an injury right now don't panic there is other ways to do it to get better and stronger at as well feel good doing it at the end of the day more training questions that I have for you

for the audience as well. So let's say someone struggles on the like explosive movements and stuff like that, maybe like the burpee broad jumps or the wall balls or anything like that. Do you have any advice for anyone who's kind of struggling with that? Who wants to improve that? Well, you could be me

and have to do 200 wall balls at the end of every single session and just get used to it. But I do have 100 wallball patch now. So I'll take it. It does work. We're talking about maybe their first or second high rocks where you're saying.

We're not going to go to the 200 4-boles just yet. Yeah. But what I'd say to everyone is train movements outside of their movements. So to be more explosive with the burpees, can you do ply metrics or can you do

box jumps? If you can't do a box jump, can you do a pole go hop on a single leg? If you can't even do a single leg Pogo Hopkers a stability issue or whatever, can you just do hops? Like, can you skip? Like, little things like that will really, really help build that explosivity with, say,

the broad jump, because essentially, if you can jump further, you're going to have to do less burpee broad jumps. Yeah. We don't want you to go high, we just want you to go long. That's a really good thing. Even breaking down the movement of being, how fast can I do a broad jump? Can you do broad jump? Can you do 20 metre burpee broad jump, but break it into, say, instead of, say, 10 jumps, can you break it into six? Can you break it into five? Like, just test yourself each week getting longer and further, basically. Then with the burpy side of things, can we do, like, anything explosive? Can you do press ups? Can you do bench press, incline bench press? little things like that

and then also call stability massively on the burpees because obviously you'll coach people yourself in person and stuff it's so easy to hurt you back on a burpee because people don't brace the call properly let's get some costability stuff in there so when you are jumping the impact's not

going to be the same because you can brace your call properly and your spine's not going to arch when you're going down into the burpee so yeah burpee train things outside of burphe and a broad jump wall balls it's endurance on your upper body.

So can we do things that are going to help build that endurance, but also build your strength first? So it's having the combination of the two in there of basically, can you do like high rep volume of say a shoulder press, obviously good form, focusing on good form always, but can you do say like 15 reps of shoulder press at a lower weight? Can you do say only three or four at 70%? and effort

barbell thrusters. So you're working heavier than race weight but you're working on that explosivity and that actual movement pattern in a different way than just throwing a wall ball at a wall. And then when you get like me,

do 200 wall balls at the end of the day. When you've gone insane high rocks mode. You're gone insane and you're all in doing the whole balls. There'll be people listening to this now and they'll be like, okay, right. So I need to do pliometrics

but I also need to do my zone. cardio but I also need to do some intervals but I also need to do some strength training so for someone kind of starting out do you have any advice in terms of even like a structure of a split that you might assign a client to

starting out and also then also let me know what your your kind of training split looks like at the moment as well because I think people really want to know that one so basically someone who's I'm going to say this is complete complete beginner like someone who is

not new to the gym because I don't think a lot of people who are doing high ics are new to the gym. I think a lot of people are in the gym, doing classes or running and then need to get into the gym and do stuff like that. So everything within high rock, you need to be strong. So I'd have a full body strength day in there regardless. Now, just looking, say for example, like you've got someone who can trade three times a week. We'll start off at that. Getting into high. rocks they're working full time potentially got kids they've got a busy

life three times a week an hour session max okay that's fine so full body strength session focusing on your areas of weakness so do you feel like your upper body could need a little bit of work I'd have that more of a bias in there or say lower body would you have more of them

more of them movements in there but on the lower body I would focus on single leg movements because if you build the single leg strength, you're going to be a lot better with the balancing and also as well with the running side, it's going to be really good for injury prevention too. I'd also have in your run day in there, so a zone two long run. And then I'd also have your interval run in there.

Now, as you can probably see, I've not even got a high-outs conditioning session in there at all to start with because what you need to be doing is building that aerobic base and your strength base before moving and slowly transitioning into that. You'd say be on that for four weeks. Then the next four weeks, what you'd look at is then alternating your steady zone two run

into, say, a bit of a hierarchy conditioning session. Now, that doesn't mean that doesn't mean going hammer on high rocks sim every single weekend. That just means potentially trying the movement, going through all the movements, setting up a bit of a circuit with it

and just seeing how they all are. Then the following week alternate it with the zone two. We say weeks, where are we then? Nine to 12, going into 13. You'd then have a look at, okay, can we advance just doing your full body strength, then your intervals and then doing like a full high-rox session.

Because ideally, you've built your... your base in that first like nine weeks and then you go into transition it into like a high rocks phase and then you'll do another month of that so like 16 weeks really of building up to like a full high rocks with that kind of layout does that make sense that makes perfect sense yeah and so yeah so like i think i think for for people just starting out like it's probably a good thing for them to hear because they realize that oh i actually don't need to training every day to get prepared for this?

No, not at all. And a lot of our athletes who perform very well train three, four times a week. They're not people like, like, I am an anomaly, as they like to say, with how much I train a week. Not everybody

trains like me and that's fine. I don't coach people for that. Like, you're coaching... I will coach people. Yeah, your coaching, Deand, individual though to where they're at and what they want to to achieve with the time schedule they have so what's your split what's your trying to split look like go on oh my god right you want to know this week yeah grab it up on my phone you'll probably cry on the inside people need people need people need to know what the standard is if they want to you know jump up right bear in

mind this is peak week for me so like peak week is the week before you this is the week that you really push before you bring things down the following week Yeah, we're going to talk. I'm going to ask you about paper and after this as well. Okay. So Monday was a full body strength session. Then straight into three times eight minutes at threshold pace. So threshold pace for me, it'll be around a 415, 420 for eight minutes consecutively.

And then a two minute jog in between. That is just Monday. So that's probably about two, maybe nearly. It would be like three hours of training, including warm up. cool down things like that. Tuesday we've got High Rock specific work which is five rounds

of 500 metre run into a station into 500 metre run and then whatever time that was just recovery for 10 minutes and then I had three rounds for quality ball ball finisher and lunges because obviously wall balls were my weakest station and we don't want to cry at the

wall balls we just want to get done. Then yesterday was a track session which was to buy 1,600 meters at 10k pace. So that's probably like 430, 435 into four 600 metres at 5k pace, which is again probably about 415, 410 pace. And then you've got your 200 metres which was fast as fast as fast as you can. is a full rest day, hence why I am on the podcast now. And then tomorrow is sled pull focus, six rounds, a 400 metre into run, then 400 metre, not 400 metre, 400 metre run into a station, full station distance, 400 metre run,

like all of that six rounds for six minutes each round. and then five times 20 metre sled pull and yeah that's a heavy session there and then my final heavy session of the week which will be Saturday is basically a high rocks it's basically a full high rocks and my runs apace at four minutes

kilometre for that and is that what you're aiming for in Berlin yeah that's fast that's fast And tell me a little bit about your approach for tapering down then. And can you just explain to people who might be, you know, preparing for the first highrochs, what we mean by when you say you're tapering down for the race? So tapering is a bit of like a deal old week, basically in essence. When it comes to taper, I used to taper.

So, like, for example, I've been doing this for nearly. I'm coming up to my fourth season. This is my third season. This is the back end of my thing. season now. And when I first started Hirox, I had to delode and I had to taper because my body was just getting like fried basically. And what happens in a tape a week is that you start at like 70% effort. You don't reduce your sessions. You don't reduce the volume. You just reduce the intensity as you're coming up to race day. That's, I think, a massive misconception that people have with

tape a week that they reduce the sessions and it's not. It's just reducing the volume. So your body gets a little bit of extra recovery. However now, I don't taper, which is completely off the book, but my body responds better now because obviously when you stop, I get ill because my body's slowing down so it doesn't work actually better for me anymore to do that.

I just need one full rest day a day before I race, and I'm good to go, That's interesting Afterwards I have like two rest days To recover Like full rest days

And then I slowly build my training back up Yeah I suppose I suppose the kind of logic of that is You know if you take a full week off trade And your body's got to be like what's going on Your body's going to start going into Straight into kind of slowing down mode Recovery mode and stuff like that

Yeah exactly And because I am pushing the faster numbers now Like I'm not going to lie that the high rock session the high rocks next week in Berlin on the Saturday it'll be easier than what my training's been so for me it doesn't make sense

for me now to taper yeah that makes that that makes perfect sense one more question on performance for those listening so we never touched on nutrition or anything like that is there any mistakes that you see people make when it comes to preparing for a higher

race with their nutrition, maybe trail training or maybe coming up to the actual race day. Yeah, just in general under fueling. Yeah. As you will understand yourself, obviously dealing with the clients that you deal with too, is that the fact that there's very, very little education within schools and people growing up on nutrition and actually how to actually fuel your body appropriately. Now, performance nutrition isn't confusing, but it is different to normal everyday nutrition. and when people have come from like a fat loss background,

when they're then having to eat maintenance food on a regular basis and then they're like, what the hell is going on? It's a bit confusing, but you do really need to fuel your body because I say it to everyone, like you can, say for example, if I was driving from Manchester to Scotland, I'm not going to put enough, I'm going to have to put enough fuel in the car to get to Scotland. I'm not going to put in half a tank of fuel

which will only get me to Newcastle. It's exactly the same with your performance because you'll end up burning out the engine and then you're not going to feel your best within all of that. So with all of this, it's just making sure that we can educate. This is one of the main things that I do educate people on and I'm very passionate about is making sure that you are fueling enough.

So one of the big things that I say to everyone is the fact that different sessions that you do will need different types of fueling. So if you're doing a strength session, you could have your slower releasing carbohydrates like a bowl of oats. Whereas if you're doing an interval session, your body's not going to have digested them.

You'll probably be feeling like you're going to vomit by the time you've first done that first interval. So having something like a banana in like a lucid sport will be perfect for that session. But then how soon are you refueling after that session? Because if you're not refueling within the first 30 minutes, post session, then your body's not going to make the adaptions that it's needed to improve for the next session. So can you take something with you like a protein shake? Now I'm really,

I don't like protein shakes personally because I would much rather have natural organic food because it responds better with my body. But I will have like the aisle of protein shakes are brilliant. I don't know, have you got any of it? I use them all the time. I never make my own protein shake. I absolutely tank them all the time. They're sick of me in the corner shop. Every single session I do, I just walk straight there straight away

because I can just drink it. And they're actually really good for you. Like if you look at the ingredients in it, there's not actually much in there. It's just milk, a slight bit of weighing it, but not masses. A lot of it's come from protein. And it doesn't, it just doesn't sit in your stomach

like some protein powders with milk or water will. No, exactly. So, like, they're the two main things, and then hydration too. Like, you've got to think how much you're all going to be sweating now further, so you have to replenish that by, which is a crazy statistic, really. You've got to rehydrate yourself by what, say, for example, you sweat, you step on the scales before your session, you weigh one kilo heavier, right? you set on the scales after your session

you weigh one kilo less that means you've lost a litre of water but that means you then have to drink back a litre and a half to make sure that you are rehydrated enough I'd say and I would imagine that's a big mistake people make when it's like you said

you're hugely increasing the amount of you probably might be going from not doing really any training or just like a regular go gym or but kind of just kind of going there and going through the motions to now you know you're doing intense sessions regularly you know and it's very easy to then under fuel and to and to be dehydrated going around and then going around like why do I have a banging headache yeah banging headache why am i aching all over why can't move yeah um so yeah no get it and then

and last one as well so is there any kind of mistakes you see athletes making even on kind of race day in terms of their nutrition yeah not eating enough because I'm not going to let it's the nerves that stop you eating most of the even I get it like I really struggle to eat on race day even though I've done countless races now I struggle to get actual food in me so I always say and suggest to everyone liquid calories are your best friend that morning off so like orange juices are brilliant um apple juices as well those two are really really good because they contain fructose fruit toast fruit toast is really good for your liver function

so it'll help reduce the lactate that your blood is producing when you are doing running. So it'll help stop cramps. It'll just help you feel better. And you'll be able to do more because your lactate isn't being produced as highly. Then you've got things that are really easy to eat like a banana, stuff like that. Percy Pigs, my best friend, honestly. I need shares in Percy. I absolutely tanked them on race day.

And then like Powerhead or Lucasaid Sport. Yeah. It was really, really good to get in. Obviously, it depends what time you race. But making sure you've got super easy stuff like that to get in will really help you stay hydrated, be fuelled and not deplete your glycogen, which is basically sugar within your blood too much to where you're going to go and collapse. Like, just make sure you eat something substantial before.

I think a mistake that I made over my, when I did my first one or my first two was like I was, I was really dialed in with my nutrition training at home. And then I think I had to go to, I think my first one was in Rotterdam and I think I did one in Madrid straight after that or something like that. And just the travel itself kind of knocked me out of routine with my nutrition. And then I was kind of reacting to like grabbing things. And I was like, oh, that didn't, that didn't really, that didn't really do the job in terms of what I wanted it to do. Yeah. No, I'm honestly the same. and I've picked up it on it the last few times. I've travelled.

So I always make sure I travel, if I am travelling for a race, I'm trying to get there a few days before. So I can plan out my food a little bit better. I can scope out the breakfast in the hotel, see what I can eat, and then I can plan it out the night before what I'll eat before. The other thing that I do for, like, our athletes who are travelling, is ask for the hotel and look at what's around, plan your food, before you get there.

So like you said, you're not being as reactive. And it just makes your life so much easier when it comes to it because I'm not going to lie, my life revolves around food. It really, really does. I love food.

I love eating. And when I've not eaten, I'm not the best person to be around. So I need to know what I'm having and fueling myself whether else I'm just not going to be my best self, regardless whether I'm performing or not. Last two questions I have for you.

So what's one lesson that this sport has taught you that you wish more people people understood. Oh, good question. He's got to come back to the self-belief, like actually seeing what you're capable of, like seeing what you're capable of and learning new limits to yourself because we are all limitless. You're the only person who puts the limit on yourself of what you can do in your capabilities. So it's, for me, it's proved to me what I can actually achieve. Like me turning around saying that I'm doing a high-ox session at four minute kilometers on Saturday,

I'm not going to lie, it scares me shitless. But this time last year, I'd never even dreamed of even saying that. So like, it's proved to me limits that I never thought I would be able to be.

And I think that's something that everyone needs to see. Like, it's not a bad thing if you're not the best at something straight away because you can learn to be. And that's the main thing. Yeah. And I also, like, it's great. seeing you break down your own

limiting beliefs through that sport, but I also see you getting as much satisfaction in the clients that you coach and when they complete a race day and stuff like that and you know, you see someone who never thought that they'd be able to complete a race like that

or, you know, challenge themselves like that and then they do it and then it's like, oh, like the confidence that builds up in them. Like it's a very satisfying feeling for a coach. Honestly, it's insane. I literally, when I've been, I didn't go down to London this weekend, but whenever I watched my client's race,

don't even call my, I don't like them calling my clients because the more my friends than my clients. When I watch him race, because I've seen the journey, I've seen the hard work, I've seen the determination, I've seen the showing up when you didn't want to show up. For me, it's just like, it's a relief in a way to see you cross that. I know obviously you're going to finish that lap, cross that finish line, but for me to see you the product of all the hard work do that,

I cry every single time, every single time. I get so, I know you shouldn't get. People say don't get emotionally attached to your clients, don't be friends with your clients. I don't care. That's how we get the best results with our clients at the end of the day. And I want to be invested in your life. Like I don't want you to just be treated like another person.

Like I actually care. So don't Kirsty cares about our girls. Chloe cares about our girls. every single one of them. And it's just amazing to see when people do finish and they're like, fucking hell, I actually achieve that time. Like, like, what the hell like

has happened? Do you know what I mean? Like, it's just great to see people prove themselves wrong. Yeah. It's like, like it's a relationship at the end of the day and you should be invested in it. And I always found that a strange thing when people said, oh, you shouldn't be friends with your clients. I always found that bizarre.

last question I have for you to finish off how would you define success in your own life so you know what this is probably one of the hardest questions you could ask me because I this even though I know I am I don't see myself as successful because my goal posts

very high and I keep moving my goalpost. I was about to say that it must be a case where it keeps on getting moved further and further back. Yeah, because with me, I achieve everything so fast.

Like, everything is done on purpose with me. But then I unexpectedly don't realize that I've achieved it. And then I'm like, oh, we've done that. I didn't even realize. But I think this is something I'm working on this year. This is like a very big like purple goal for me

to sit and embrace my successes because I definitely do not do that enough. Yeah, I was about that question. Yeah, in your answer to that question, I don't know what success is to me because I see success in my clients. I see success in my coaches who work for me but I don't see success for myself

What makes you content What makes you a happy day to day? I'm just happy I think because I'm actually living a life I dreamed of But I actually am This is the life I dreamed of So for me In an essence I am successful

Because I have achieved everything that I wanted to However For me success isn't a thing it's a feeling and I'm still yet to find that feeling with everything that I'm doing. I know you're a busy woman so I really appreciate your time today. If people wanted to reach out and ask about coaching, they wanted to even ask you questions about events they have coming up. If they wanted to just keep up with the work you're doing, where can they find you? So you can, I may on everything. And it's just Leah. Dot Tazaki.

I'm pretty sure you'll put my how you spell my name in there somewhere but yeah, it's just Leah Dr Zaki or if you want to look at coaching it's highlife dot coaching on Instagram Okay, we'll make sure it's all in the show notes Leah thank you very much for today It's been an honour and a pleasure to talk to you as always

Perfect, thank you, Kyle