Health Oddity Podcast

We are joined from Putney in London by Aidan O’ Flaherty AKA @theirishphysio ahead of his ‘Running Injuries & Performance Master Class’ in Essex on Saturday 5th October.

Aidan is a former pro football player, competitive rower & runner who now works with high level endurance athletes (up to Olympic level) & recreational runners of all shapes, sizes & abilities.

In this fascinating conversation we discuss all things running, Training mileage, building running specific strength, foot striking, common injuries, biomechanics & more.

An essential episode if you run yourself or are an Physio, Osteo, Therapist or Coach who works with runners.

We are joined LIVE from Aberdeen, Scotland by the Highland Wolf - John Gibb. John is a Scottish Stonelifter & Strongman & the day before recording this episode he was crowned Britain’s Strongest Stonelifter 2024! J

ohn was the 157th lifter (& walker) of the historic Dinnie Stones & was also featured in the recent documentary ‘STONES’ from Maximum Iron. We discuss training, eating, grip strength, sandbags, atlas stones & even get a tour round his awesome ‘shed of strength’.

This is a great conversation with a man who is forging world class strength using rugged & historic methods & has the bruises & trophies to prove it!

We are joined all the way from New South Wales, Australia by Allen Willis for a hard hitting, honest & challenging conversation with a man who has faced many demons & trials in his life & is certainly on an upwards trajectory of strength, resilience, empowerment & redemption.

We hear how Tim Anderson’s Original Strength & the work of Dan John formed a pathway for Allen to rebuild his life (physically & emotionally) & how he has managed to go from being in constant pain & barely able to walk to competing in Strongman & now coaching & helping others.

Parts of this conversation are uncomfortable, but Allen holds nothing back & what we are left with is a sense of hope, promise & hopefully a brighter future ahead.

We are joined by returning guest Claire Booth; Strongfirst Senior & Elite Instructor & head of Strongfirst GB.

We last spoke to Claire WAY back on episode 33 (about 3.5 years ago) so it was great to catch up.

In this episode we discuss mixing & balancing the three training modalities of Barbell, Kettlebell & Bodyweight, the impact of menopause & the importance of getting the right HRT balance & why ALL women should be engaging in regular structured strength training - especially in their 40s, 50s & beyond.

We are joined by our first ever Romanian guest, Daniel Vintila.

Daniel spent 10 years working as a croupier in Casinos onboard luxury cruise ships & in his time has pursued strength & fitness in many forms; Spartan racing, calisthenics, bodybuilding, kettlebells & most recently competing in both Powerlifting & Strongman.

Daniel is a Strongfirst Elite Instructor & trains exclusively at home in his well equipped garage gym. We discuss finding your way in fitness, training around long shifts & onboard big ships & the importance of competition to focus the mind & training programme.