More Capable in Midlife | Peter Clerkin

Peter Clerkin: [00:00:00] You observe and you experience the fact that suddenly you’re not the youngest decade in the room. And that happened in a blink of an eye.

Peter Bowes: [00:00:21] Hello, welcome to the Live Long Podcast. I’m Peter Bowes. Now, what does it mean to be physically capable as we grow older? It might mean having the strength to carry a suitcase, balancing skills to catch ourselves before a fall, or simply the confidence to try something new. Peter Clerkin began thinking about movement, and especially how to rebuild physical confidence after a serious football injury at the age of 15, which meant he had to learn again how to walk. He later studied Sport and Exercise science, coached soccer in Seattle, and then moved to London, where he spent more than a decade teaching Pilates, but Peter doesn’t believe that Pilates is the complete answer. He argues that strength, cardiovascular fitness, balance, coordination and mobility all have different roles to play. So how does that look when we reach middle age? Peter, welcome to the Live Long podcast.

Peter Clerkin: [00:01:20] Thank you Peter. Good to be here.

Peter Bowes: [00:01:22] So let’s talk about what happened to you at the age of 15. I guess that was when you were growing up in Northern Ireland.

Peter Clerkin: [00:01:29] Yeah, yeah it was. So I grew up in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. And like any young boy from the UK, I was completely football mad. So that’s what, that I was playing constantly. So I suffered and it was wasn’t in a big cup final or anything heroic. I was just after school playing with some friends and knew instantly that something was was pretty, pretty bad. So I got taken to the hospital and then over the course of the next, kind of evening or the going into the early hours of the morning, more senior doctors would come and see me. so after having kind of recognized that I probably broken my leg, it transpired that I fractured and dislocated my ankle and fractured my leg in three places and I wouldn’t be out of the hospital after that until a month later.

Peter Bowes: [00:02:37] What did that do to your mindset in terms of the psychology of the situation?

Peter Clerkin: [00:02:45] Well, I’d always been really active. I was in the swim team. I was in the football team, I was in the basketball team. And then suddenly I was in a hospital surrounded by, you know, people a lot older than me that had maybe been in severe car accidents or things like that. So it was it was a lot. But, I’d say it’s one of those things you, you realize that you can continue to revisit and learn from that experience. Now that it’s almost 30 years ago that it happened.

Peter Bowes: [00:03:23] I’m just curious then knowing what you’ve gone on to do, how did that experience influence your career decisions and your attitude towards your own personal fitness?

Peter Clerkin: [00:03:36] Oh, massively. Because I think what you always recognize and you realize when you’re young is that you identify the stars, you identify the top player and their impact. But suddenly then I become much more interested in the player stories when they were injured and, who helped them? The doubt. And I could really kind of resonate and connect with it all. So yeah. And so I think to answer your question, then it was more, I started to see the team around the athletes as being as important, if not more important, rather than just getting the people out to doing it. So that kind of and that’s where I am now. And that’s kind of I’ve, I’ve not lost that for sure.

Peter Bowes: [00:04:32] And I say you, you fully recovered. You went on to compete in half marathons, full marathons as well. Where did you do that?

Peter Clerkin: [00:04:40] So I did Belfast Marathon, which I would not recommend purely because, a good piece of advice for people is pick a, pick a beautiful city.

Peter Bowes: [00:04:56] Okay.

Peter Clerkin: [00:04:56] And Belfast is an interesting city. but it’s not beautiful because you have to run around it for 26.2 miles. but it was more, you know, that box ticked and I’ve, I’ve realized that half marathon is, is the one that I love because it doesn’t, the training isn’t all consuming. and the recovery therefore, and everything around it. And, quite recently I did, a half marathon in Pogradec which is on the border of Albania and North Macedonia. And that was a beautiful lake and that was a fantastic experience. And then in a month or so time, I’m going to run, the Brugge half marathon. So that’s my absolute jam. Definitely. And marathon maybe, but, but I feel like there’s something about going back to the, the hospital, the physiotherapist, when they kind of checked me out was like, don’t go running any marathons anytime soon. And that stayed with me. Yeah, definitely.

Peter Bowes: [00:06:13] Yeah. It’s funny, isn’t it? How sometimes what feels like negative advice to you at a certain point in your life actually turns out to be a positive? And I hear what you say about beautiful cities. I chose London for my first marathon, went on to run some marathons in Los Angeles as well, and also completely agree with you about half and full marathons. Half is isn’t such a daunting task, and you can much more easily fit it into your life, can’t you?

Peter Clerkin: [00:06:39] Totally. And there’s a huge sense of commitment or not, of achievement to it for sure. You’ve got the commitment, but there’s still a huge commitment to be like, okay, yeah, I know I’ve, I’ve put myself through this.

Peter Bowes: [00:06:51] So let’s bring this back to the original premise that I introduced as I was talking a few moments ago. And that is you’re a Pilates instructor now. We’ve got a beautiful view of your studio, but it is your view that Pilates isn’t everything. Now that that may well be quite obvious to a lot of people, that you need to diversify in terms of the activities that you do, but what is your your premise about, especially midlife health as you’re approaching middle age? I think some people do tend to focus on whether it is running marathons or doing Pilates or lifting weights. What do you tell your clients about achieving optimum fitness?

Peter Clerkin: [00:07:32] Oh, it’s a great question, and I think that there’s always going to be iterations on it. But where I would land right now is that if you look at fitness as a quadrant, if you can. If you’re able to put a good bit of emphasis into those four corners, then you’ll have excellent rounded fitness. So you have strength and resistance based type training. You have cardiovascular type fitness, you have flexibility and mobility, and then you have balance and coordination type movements. And then for me, obviously, I’m not going to throw that at a client or tell that to a group of people and ask them to figure it out themselves. It’s more looking at what are you currently doing? What is lacking? And then how can we introduce that? And how can we bring that toward your specific goals?

Peter Bowes: [00:08:38] Is that something that you feel as if you often need to explain to people that people don’t think as broadly about their everyday movement as perhaps they should.

Peter Clerkin: [00:08:50] I think definitely, I would love to say that I, I feel like I’m very process driven with regards to it. I love the training plan, I love the this is where I am. I love the measurements. I like to break down the skill. I like to break down all of that, but that is consistent with my relationship with sport and fitness and coaching and my fascination with with movement and everything like that. So then with a lot of other people, their head space is being taken up by their job, which is probably a completely different industry than mine and their family commitments and the things that they like to do to unwind. And that could not necessarily be, you know, going out for a 60 minute run or going into a 45 minute Pilates class. The context of it is really, really valuable. My father in law told me a really fantastic piece of advice, and he translated to being an English professor, to being in the tech industry and did really, really well. And he was listening to me thinking about what I was doing. Career next steps. And he said, people don’t care what you do until you can articulate it to them of why it’s of benefit to them. And you know, that was like, okay, I’m jumping on that. So I feel like the industry is doing better. Some areas are doing better than others, but exercise isn’t a punishment. Movement isn’t a punishment. It shouldn’t be a drill sergeant. It shouldn’t be something to be endured. So if I’m a healthy individual that gets all these quadrants in my exercise, I feel like as a coach, I should articulate to the people in front of me who, at the end of the day, are my customers.

Peter Bowes: [00:11:01] So with that in mind, how were you affected by the pandemic when much of what you talk about was simply or seemingly impossible for a lot of people.

Peter Clerkin: [00:11:12] In that period, there was a lot of kind of soul searching. It was like, am I going to have to? I’m going to have to retrain and do something else. Is what I do actually relevant? But after that initial almost nihilism, there was a no, this is whenever this all comes out, I’m going to really double down, but I’m going to double down with the context and what the the meaning of what I do as a job.

Peter Bowes: [00:11:44] Yeah, exactly. So I’m wondering the impact of that experience as you moved on and continued as a coach, what you learned about the routine of working out, about the social connection side of being with other people? And how were you able to basically build on what you’d already been doing? But, but to make it better.

Peter Clerkin: [00:12:06] So spot on. Exactly. I think it was obviously connecting back to what my father in law had said about articulation as well, is that the barriers were broken. Now, when things were open up, because it wasn’t it wasn’t now just thank you, Peter, for, delivering this class. It was now reciprocal, as in, thank you for coming to this class because I enjoyed teaching you as much as you enjoyed taking part in it. And the the kind of hierarchy changed. And that’s how I exist today and how I operate today. so it was, you know, the kind of the barriers and the walls came down.

Peter Bowes: [00:13:06] You’re in, we’ve talked about midlife. You’re in, I believe you’re in your 40s now. How do you assess your own physical capabilities in your 40s compared with maybe 20 years ago?

Peter Clerkin: [00:13:19] It’s so much different. It’s not that I can do the same volume. It’s I just know the practices that have to be in play to make sure that I can perform and do what it is that I want to do. And 20 years ago, you can definitely wing it. I can’t wing it anymore, you know? So and there’s something about that. So it’s, you know, youth is wasted on the young, as the expression goes. But I think that your relationships change. I’m currently in a period where I’ve decided to stop drinking alcohol, and I don’t know if I’m going to go back to it. And that just suits me. I’m not here to be a sobriety advocate or anything like that, and I don’t really make it, that well known. I certainly don’t really post about it.

Peter Bowes: [00:14:26] You’re making it well known now.

Peter Clerkin: [00:14:28] As I said that.

Peter Bowes: [00:14:29] And, and Peter, it piques my interest because I’m in exactly the same position. I’m about a year and a half out of not drinking alcohol. And it wasn’t that it was a huge issue before. It wasn’t an excessive drinker, but I simply decided that I could very easily live without it and could probably live better without it. And that is live better than just one drink with a with a dinner at night that my day, the next, especially the next morning, would be significantly better.

Peter Clerkin: **[00:14:58] Yeah. And, and that I think people will make their decisions on that and they will make a decision whether the trade off exists there or not. For me, there’s no trade off. I am a high in demand teacher and I teach early and I teach a lot. And every class is expected to be at that standard, and I am ambitious with regards to how I see my development in the industry. And I have my goals for my half marathon. I have my goals for my yoga practice, for what I’m trying to kind of work towards in Pilates, how I’m trying to continue to maintain my strength training and even just creating good, relationships around the, the appropriate diet, which is going to fuel me. All of those things. Alcohol just puts a blowtorch to them all. And, and that was just a discipline that I had to go to. But it’s very much a case of my running training is really consistent. My strength training is really consistent. Yoga, Pilates, my sleep could be more, but at least I know that when I wake up and I’ve got a block of three classes, I’ve got a quick breakfast, I’ve got to go somewhere else. I’ve got a block of four more. I’ve got a heavy strength session in that. That all gets done 98% of the time. If the night before was even just a couple of drinks, that percentage drops to 60 minimum.

Peter Bowes: **[00:16:54] Exactly. And that’s precisely my point about the morning after that, there is going to be certain percentage, whatever it is, in terms of a deterioration of what you’re able to do because you had that alcoholic drink before, the day before. Now, some people will say that, well, that’s an exaggeration that you’re making a lot of out of what some people see as fairly insignificant, the odd drink during the evening enjoying a meal with friends. But I think you’ve just articulated beautifully why it’s not insignificant. One thing you said that piqued my interest was that you said you weren’t sure whether you would ever go back to it, and I’m just wondering how that decision making is progressing, because for me, I think as every day passes, I’m less likely to go back to it. I haven’t ruled out completely that I won’t have a mouth full of champagne at someone’s celebration or even celebration of my own. I think at the moment it is unlikely, but I haven’t ruled it out completely. And I’m just curious where you are in terms of that decision making.

Peter Clerkin: **[00:17:57] Yeah, and in exactly that, I just want to I just want to leave it there because I think obviously the way that we are with alcohol is that it is something to have as a celebration. And I trained for a triathlon after my father passed, close to 20 years ago. And it was a really great therapeutic thing to focus on. And in the three month period, in the lead up to it, I didn’t drink any alcohol and I did the triathlon and it was really hard. And everything just accumulatively hurts when you go through the swim to the bike, to the running, which is my strongest event, and then suddenly you’re thinking, oh, I’m just going to blitz this because I’m a good runner. You’re done. So it was so hard. And my friends come, came and see me. I was kind of, in a bit of a bad way. They took me to the pub. I had a pint of Guinness. It was wonderful. But just one pint. So there’s a romantic quality that I will have some sort of achievement where I’ll be able to go. This is one thing and this is it. But also even then, I’m not sure. So, yeah.

Peter Bowes: **[00:19:26] So where are you now? I hear what you say about your determination to. I think you quite like talking about these things and getting a message across to people about health, especially in midlife.

Peter Clerkin: **[00:19:40] I feel like where I am is trying to scale what it is that I do. And then the dynamic nature of a, of a city like London is that I’m fascinated by people. So people come to me and they say, I do this as a job. I want to be able to do this. And the reasons are because of this. I’m all in on that. And they’re so varied. So I feel like the, the, the client centered approach is, is probably what, I’m, I’m looking to bring into it because it was always so much about the product. This is the gym, this is a reformer class. This is, is this a peloton bike? You go on it. But maybe it has been a lot of Covid as well, but it’s much more flipped on who are the people that are wanting to connect with this service and this product. And that’s where I am with regards to, I can’t continue to work at this volume for another 5 to 10 years. Definitely not. So I definitely enjoy the coaching. I definitely want enjoy class teaching, but I’m much more interested in mentoring the next generation of teachers and developing workshops and having my own studio space and hopefully multiple studios to do that out of. And Pilates would be the connector element. but it’s, you know, it’s for health and I’ve built enough relationships around London with fantastic physiotherapists, nutritionists, strength coaches, running coaches, yoga teachers, all of the above. So we all benefit. There’s never just one pie. You can continue to make more pies and make them bigger, you know, and we can all share.

Peter Bowes: **[00:21:54] It talk quite a bit on this podcast about wellness and the concept of wellness, and what it means as it relates to exactly what you’ve been talking about and the kind of work that you do. Do you think as a, as a concept, I mean, maybe a decade ago, wellness didn’t really mean much in this context, but does it resonate with people and is it is it the right word?

Peter Clerkin: **[00:22:16] It’s the word that we have. So it’s the one that we have until there’s something that’s more agreed upon, but also the fact that more people are thinking about it and interrogating it means that it’s actually doing what it should do, which is more like, what’s this wellness all about? What is it that people are talking about? So in that respect, it’s, it’s doing, like I say, it’s doing what it should, but what it means again, it’s going to be specific. And I, my wife has got into a very good, expensive, fun habit of going on yoga retreats in beautiful locations. And this year we went to Bacalar, which is in the Yucatan area of Mexico. And you think, well, this location, which I would never come to if I hadn’t purchased a yoga retreat where I get to share breakfast with these strangers, practice yoga, then go out into a cenote or go to, you know, get, tacos somewhere or do a cacao ceremony or do some journaling and just get away from my work. If this is wellness, this is, this is great, you know? So I think that, talking about five, ten years ago, would I have thought of myself to ever do that ten years ago? No. But I, I loved it and I think that. You know, I’m definitely not going to try and give a definition to wellness. But I’d say one thing that I do like is the concept of habit stacking. So if you can do exercise and you can get something other, intangible from that, if that’s wellness, brilliant, everyone should do it. Yeah.

Peter Bowes: **[00:24:37] And I think we all know what it means to say I’m well, thanks. When you’re asked, how are you? And I think we know when we’re being honest with ourselves that we are. Well. And it doesn’t just cover your physical capabilities, it covers your entire life. And that just points to the fact that everything is connected. So I think in that sense, it’s certainly a word that resonates with people in the way that they wanted to, because we all have our different concepts of what being well on a particular day is.

Peter Clerkin: **[00:25:07] Yeah. And, for sure the, the wellness as the term kind of sits along longevity, but then what sits above them is healthspan. so in that way, I like where it fits. but I don’t feel like everything should go into wellness. So it’s again, kind of zoom out and look at it a little bit more. Yeah.

Peter Bowes: **[00:25:37] And talking of longevity, which is really the core of this podcast and certainly looking ahead the next few decades at your own longevity and your potential healthspan. Is that something that you as an individual, you focus on about yourself every day and you make decisions based on looking ahead?

Peter Clerkin: **[00:25:57] I think definitely because you observe and you experience the fact that suddenly you’re not the youngest decade in the room, and that happened in a blink of an eye. So it’s about feeling like you’re still relevant. And then it’s also about knowing that your, your thought process has, has changed on what it is to be in your 40s, what it is to be in your 20s, what it is to be in your 30s. And then. I’m having all of those thoughts about those different decades in my life. Then why do I want my 50s to be a drop off in quality or experiences that I can have? And then the same goes for my 60s, and the same goes for my 70s. So, a slight tangent to, to kind of answer your question is that that yoga retreat I went to with my wife. We went to, Chichen Itza and it was staggering. And I just thought, how can I get to here, go to this and then absorb myself in, you know, I was always a huge history fan at high school and, and, you know, just continue to be. And then my next adventure all being well should be running either a half or a full marathon on the Great Wall of China. next year, which again, I tick off another, wonder of the world. I get fit enough to do it. I’ll be in community and have experiences with people, that I’ve never met before. And there’s no real negatives attached to that as in holiday, seeing fantastic stuff, being fit, having disciplined, it kind of feels like it’s not soon enough, but too far away. And if I fast forward to ten years down the line, I don’t want that to be muted or dampened or anything.

Peter Bowes: **[00:28:20] That’s quite an ambition. I wish you well, Peter, with the Great Wall of China. It’s really good to talk to you. Thank you very much indeed.

Peter Clerkin: **[00:28:26] Thank you so much.

Peter Bowes: **[00:28:28] The Live Long podcast is a Healthspan Media production. I’m Peter Bowes. You can contact me through our website, livelongpodcast.com, where you’ll also find show notes for this episode.