The Natural Edge – HEALTH | PERFORMANCE

From UK Special Forces to forging a new approach to health, increasing human performance and inspiring adventures

WHAT WE DO

The Natural Edge Academy

Online courses providing a simple blueprint for exceptional health & fitness

HEALTH & PERFORMANCE COACHING

Personalised help for teams & individuals to fast track results

EVENTS & ADVENTURES

Bespoke experiences to learn skills, reset the mind & reboot the body

Get actionable health & performance tips via email. One article per week. No spam ever.

THE NATURAL EDGE ACADEMY

In-depth courses & training

Access our course library with modules on mindset, sleep, nutrition and training plus access to the weekly Q&A session

Exclusive content & member-only perks

Weekly focus blog, downloads, checklists and more - plus receive special perks & discounts on upcoming adventures

Active, Supportive Community

Feedback, support and motivation from fellow members on the same journey as you to keep you on track and accountable

FIND OUT MORE

EVENTS & ADVENTURES

Health Retreats

Trips at home and abroad allowing people to escape the grind of modern life, meet like-minded people, reset and reboot

Corporate & Group Experience Days

Bespoke high quality training & experience packages to develop teamwork, adaptability, and resilience

Microadventures

Short, simple, local adventures in great locations that are fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing and rewarding

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PERSONAL COACHING

Personalised 1-on-1 Help

Bespoke coaching for your unique goals and circumstances to help you make the most of your time and get the changes you want

No 'Magic' Supplements

Insightful advice to unlock real consistency and give you the tools and habits to maximise every area of your life

Holistic Approach

Tracking and analysis of sleep, nutrition and movement to identify the root cause of problems and provide actionable strategies to fix them

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We are Simon Jeffries &
John Sykes-Popham

Our journey started in 2009 whilst serving with UK Special Forces. Working in a job that placed huge demands on the body and mind, and where second place could result in serious injury or death, sparked a deep interest in human performance. Along the way we became sick and tired of the misinformation and half truths that confuse people and confuse an already complex topic.

Now our passion is sharing the lessons we have learned with as many people as possible, to help everyone achieve the best health they can.

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FOLLOW OUR STORY

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You want the truth? It’s hopeless.
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‘That’s what Patagonia founder and chairman Yvon Chouinard told the L.A. Times about the plight of the earth amid climate change. Regardless, his company have spent decades—and millions of dollars—fighting for environmental causes around the world.’
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The opening lines of an article that is worth taking 5 minutes to read. One of the reasons we started TNE was not only to help people hit their health and fitness goals, but to promote actions that help the planet.
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“Everything man does creates more harm than good. We have to accept that fact and not delude ourselves into thinking something is sustainable. Then you can try to achieve a situation where you’re causing the least amount of harm possible. It’s a never-ending summit. You’ll never get to the top, but it’s the journey.”
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Yvon is honest on this point, but along with the pessimism around the fate of the planet he remains committed to trying to fix it. As he says: “What’s the alternative, just sitting on my ass?”
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The point about this being a journey is key to building a solution. Human psychology means we love routine and balance in our lives. Any change that tips the scales too far throws our ‘chi’ out of whack and we ping back to our old default ways. It is the reason we always prescribe small steps in our programmes to make sure people hit their goals. There is no overnight fix!
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The same is true of making positive changes in our daily lives that will benefit us all. It is easy to think ‘what’s the point, my actions won’t make a difference’. But I don’t believe that, and if you can encourage one other person the power of those single actions can grow.
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Take drinking tea for example: The @rareteacompany a small, independent company who source and supply the world's best tea direct from farmers working with the environment around them to preserve it.
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Small actions around what we eat and drink, how we travel and crucially, how we spend our money, can have an impact. There is no easy answer to the situation we are in with the planet but we can have an impact on an individual level.
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(Link to the Yvon Chouinard in my stories).

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Bodyweight v Weights Training!
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(The full article where this excerpt is from can be read by joining our weekly email list - link in bio).
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After last weeks email on the benefits of lifting weights I had some questions on the difference between lifting weights and using your bodyweight.
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The muscle fiber is the basic component that allows you to produce force. At the level of a single muscle cell, there is no difference between the resistance of gravity or inertia acting on a barbell or gravity's resistance on your own body. To the solitary muscle fiber, resistance is resistance. This holds true for the entire muscle; your pectoral muscles contract against a barbell in a bench press the same way they contract against the floor in a push-up.
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The manner in which you make exercises more difficult is the chief difference between training with weights and with your own body weight.
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The real difference between training with body weight versus weight lifting is when you want to take your training to the next level. Yes, a smart bodyweight program can rival the best barbell training, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
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These guys aren’t just mindlessly doing progressively greater numbers of pushups, pullups, and air squats. If you want to get as strong as possible, just doing more reps won’t cut it. You need intelligent progression.
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Progression isn’t just adding reps. Eventually, you have to make the exercises harder to keep getting stronger, either by adding weight, increasing the degree of stabilisation required, or decreasing the amount of leverage you have.
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And that’s part of the reason why most people opt for barbells over bodyweight training: it’s easier and far less humbling to add weights to a bar than remove leverage from a bodyweight movement.
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But that doesn’t mean it’s not effective. And, do you even have to choose one over the other? No.
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The two can coexist quite happily. In fact, I tend to use a fusion of bodyweight training (gymnastics, ring work, pullups, dips) for the upper body and weight training (lunges, squats, deadlifts) for the lower body.

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WIN a new Grim shell jacket + 6-month subscription to The Natural Edge Academy. Prize value = £1,200.
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If you haven’t heard of @Jottnar it was created by two former Royal Marine commandos after an idea they had many years ago while working in Arctic Norway. Essentially they make technical clothing for climbing, skiing and adventure.
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Their team are all lifelong mountaineers, climbers and skiers, and that DNA runs deep in the company. They run Jöttnar, they design the gear themselves and they personally test it. In their own words:
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“We don’t follow fabric trends and we have no need to follow retail trends. We design the gear we want to wear. Our professional athletes then help us test it to destruction.”
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TNE only supports people and brands that we personally believe in and I can 100% testify to how good their kit is. The hardshell jacket I’m wearing in the photo has already had 3 years of hard use and is still going strong. This picture was taken in Scotland and as you can see the conditions were ‘typically Scottish’!! (At the other end of the rope is Dave who is precariously chipping away at a cornice (overhanging snow), to see if we can drop in and ski down.)
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The prize includes:
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A Grim fully featured hard shell technical mountain jacket made of Jöttnar SKJOLDR™: windproof, waterproof, breathable fabric provides superb harsh weather protection and durability. Grim protects you in the most severe conditions, without sacrificing those features which lend it versatility for all-year use.
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6 months access to The Natural Edge Academy + three 1-1 consultations to help you reach your goals. The Academy is designed to help individuals forge a strong body and mind through easy to understand videos, step-by-step guides and daily coaching. •
To enter:
1. Follow @jottnar and @the.natural.edge.
2. Tag a friend who might also like to enter.
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Winner will be announced on 25th October.
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By entering, you agree to be bound by the terms and conditions at the link below:
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https://www.jottnar.com/pages/competition-rules-win-a-jottnar-and-the-natural-edge-gear-and-subscription-package

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Help for Heroes!
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Some of you may know that TNE collaborated with @helpforheroes in their partnership with @tough_mudder to help people get the most out of their prep and training. Through this relationship I learnt a lot more about the amazing things that H4H do in support of military service personnel. As part of their ongoing work they have just launched a new initiative: ‘40,000 strong’.
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Joining the military and subsequently passing passing UKSF selection propelled me into a fast paced world which was as demanding as it was exciting, and it allowed me to have some unique and incredible experiences. But there is a flip side to that coin. Operational tours and training that cuts as close to reality as possible inevitably and unfortunately lead to things not always going as planned.
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But even when you are back home, or hanging up your kit for a new career, problems can still arise. In fact 70% regard their transition to civilian life as a negative experience. I didn’t join until I was 24 and so had a strong social and support network from my life before joining, but even so I definitely went through a period of adjustment for the first year. I also left on my own terms, but for many the choice isn’t theirs to make: In the last 20 years, almost 40,000 men and women have had to leave the Armed Forces due to injury or illness.
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And the reality is that thousands of those discharged are falling through gaps in terms of getting the support they need. The aim of the ‘40,000 Strong’ campaign is to shine a light on the issue and fight to fix the gaps and improve the transition process for all wounded veterans and provide vital support to those already wounded. This involves calling on the government to commission an independent review into the MoD’s medical discharge process, and specifically the support available to service personnel as they transition.
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If you would like to support their mission you can find out more by visiting www.helpforheroes.org.uk/40thousandstrong/

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Resistance training!
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(The full article where this excerpt is from can be read by joining our weekly email list - link in bio).
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I’m an advocate of any form of exercise that gets people up, out and moving, but for myself, I've always been a big fan of weight lifting and resistance training and it seems the tide is finally changing when it comes to how weight training is perceived.
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For a long time there has been a prevalent allegiance to cardio machines for things like weight loss and overall health. But strength training not only builds muscle it can also prevent disease, improve mood and help with weight loss.
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From an anecdotal point of view, I firmly believe that consistently lifting weights - from bodybuilding in my late teens, to CrossFit in my 20’s - allowed me to have a military career free from the common injuries many guys pick up. Even when training for Special Forces selection, which is endurance focused, I continued to use strength training to keep my body as resilient to damage as possible.
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A big lesson I took from the military is that challenging your own body is the greatest method for discovering the strength of your mind. With weightlifting, there's no lying to yourself about what you can and can't do. The weight forces you to be honest and self–aware.
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Anyone who has ever done a strength training programme knows there will be days when you don't feel like coming into the gym, sets that you don't feel like finishing, and times when you fail.
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And if you keep showing up anyway, then you'll develop the mental fortitude to get past failure, work when you don't feel like it, and discover what you're really made of mentally and physically.
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Much of life seems to be lived in grey areas now but weightlifting is more black and white. It helps you get past that fuzziness and closer to understanding yourself, it brings tangible results and is hugely satisfying.

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT US

“Since following TNE my health and lifestyle has improved a great deal. In the beginning my diet wasn’t great, so I decided to start off small. I can honestly say I feel so much better for it, my performance in the gym has improved, as well as my body shape and how much energy I have.”

SOPHIE TYAS

“After struggling with my weight for years I really think I have found a place where I can not only improve my weight but also myself as a person. I feel part of a growing community of like minded people who want to not only improve themselves but help you improve yourself.”

STUART MARSH

“The changes around my nutrition have led to me being generally being happier, my training has come on amazingly and I have again learnt to listen and respect my body. The team are so supportive, informative and above all passionate. I am so grateful to have found this!”

PETRINA GLASS

From UK Special Forces to forging a new approach to health, increasing human performance and inspiring adventures

WHAT WE DO

The Natural Edge Academy

HEALTH & PERFORMANCE COACHING

EVENTS & ADVENTURES

Get actionable health & performance tips via email. One article per week. No spam ever.

THE NATURAL EDGE ACADEMY

In-depth courses & training

Exclusive content & member-only perks

Active, Supportive Community

EVENTS & ADVENTURES

Health Retreats

Corporate & Group Experience Days

Microadventures

PERSONAL COACHING

Personalised 1-on-1 Help

No 'Magic' Supplements

Holistic Approach

We are Simon Jeffries &John Sykes-Popham

FOLLOW OUR STORY

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT US

We are Simon Jeffries &
John Sykes-Popham