16.  It is worth it.

Years ago somebody used my training services because every time they went up a flight of stairs they got to the top and were breathless or in their words 'bent over an panting before the sexy time had started'.

It didn't take long before they had a good level of fitness and strength and sexy time was enjoyable again.

There are too many reasons to list about why being fitter and healthier are worth it, just trust me when I say that EVERYTHING is easier when you are stronger and you don't feel like your heart will explode running to the ice cream van.

Everybody has their own version of what fit is and it's not really important to quantify.

I think it's simply, when your body is working well without illness or injury and you can comfortably take part in your life without any physical struggles.

You should be able to pick up your children with without worrying about your back.  

You should be able to get up off the floor without a whine and your hands on your knees 'just incase'.

It doesn't matter if you can't do a 100m sprint, if that isn't something you want to do.

17.  You can do anything you want to do.

At Team Achieve we have helped people achieve way more than they ever thought possible.  

The only limits you have are set by yourself and the beliefs you have at the moment about your abilities.

You might not get to the stage where you can beat Mo Farah in a race but you could certainly complete a marathon if you wanted to.

We all have the physical capability to do so much, it's just our minds that limit us.

One of our members recently had to lose a lot of weight to prove she was committed to a hospital.  Lots of people had told her it wasn't possible, we worked out a way that it was and she rocked it.

It took some hard work on her behalf but she achieved what she set out to.

18.  You have to want to.

As I've said previously, you have to be dedicated and committed to achieving your goal.

If you're not, you won't achieve it, it's that simple.

If your WANT isn't good enough, if it's not tied in to your WHY; you will find every excuse under the sun as to why you missed a session or let your nutrition slip.

It was cloudy and might have rained.

It was sunny and I didn't have any suncream, I might have got burnt on the way to the gym.

Somebody at work had a cake and they would have felt bad if I didn't have one with them.

The dogs ate my homework.

19.  It's ok to change your mind.

You watch the London Marathon on the TV and get caught up in the excitement of it all.

You're inspired by the stories the runners tell of who they're running for and you think that's it I'm doing it.

You get a place and start running.  

You do a charity 5k, then a 10k. You feel good, you can do it, nothing will stop you.

You do a half marathon and you're flying.  

Then the marathon training starts, it takes a lot longer than training for any of the other events.

3-5 hours have gone missing from your weekends.  A couple of week nights are taken up.

Running isn't fun anymore.  

It's ok to change your mind and not continue on any path that isn't serving you well.  I picked a marathon as my example here because I have seen this happen a lot over the past 20 years.

A marathon or any distance event isn't really something you can fanny about at.

It takes time.

That means you have to commit to it.

Every goal you work towards will make time, that is why it's important to work with a coach so you know exactly what you're letting yourself in for and to make sure that you aren't wasting anytime on activities that don't take you closer.

As a tip on the running side of things, from a general health point of view there really isn't any need to run more than 10k.  

Working with a coach you get to understand why you are taking part in the activities you are.

20.  Tree hugging is the way forwards.

I'm from a science background, I majored in sports biomechanics on my degree.  

I like facts and figures, evidence for everything that I read.

However, the longer I've worked in the field of health and fitness the more I've realised that facts and figures are a small part of it when working with people in real life.

I loved my time in the labs but the knowledge gained was only really relevant to the elite sports people we were experimenting on / studying.

They didn't have the stresses that 'normal' people have.

In the early days I often got frustrated when a programme didn't produce the results I was expecting with a client.

20 years on I have realised that it's an art as much as science.

Factoring how life works around the goals of the person working towards them and tweaking when necessary.

The order of importance I place on the elements of fitness has also changed dramatically.

Breathing correctly is now top of my list when dealing with new 1-1 coaching clients; that's across the board from injury management to sports performance and weight loss.

If we don't learn how to breathe optimally we are performing poorly in our daily lives let alone anything else we are aiming for.

It is also a way of reducing stress, something which holds many of us back.

If you are about to embark on a fitness plan, get your coach to go through the basics of breathing correctly. If they're not sure, let us know and we'll point you in the right direction.

I hope you've enjoyed my 20 lessons from 20 years.

I'll be back to writing about the usual stuff next week.

Darren 'tree hugger' Checkley