 Very interesting gentleman. He has a British accent. He's actually from London, England. Makes him sound so smart. I'm very envious. And anyway, so he's going to talk about the power of primal play. Good morning, everyone. Just waiting for the first slide. So we're going to be talking about the relationship between activity, health, and the power of primal play. My name is Darryl Edwards. I'm the founder of Fitness Explore Training Nutrition from London, England. And I really focus on the play-based lifestyle. I'm also an author and a blogger. This is my book Paleo Fitness. When I actually started writing this book, I didn't realize that writing was actually the easy part. The difficulty is the promotion. So I managed to call in a few celebrity friends. I've got Spark and Captain Kirk, who are really enjoying the read. And apparently the book is something that is out of this world, apparently, allegedly. I also am a movement coach and a nutritionist. This is one of my clients. This is a three-month transformation. 12 weeks. But actually, he started at 40 years old. Transformation at 40 years old. But I prefer my client to start a little bit younger. As of yesterday or a couple of days ago, we had Lily here. Four to eight months old. I'm not sure exactly how much, but how old. But she's about four months old, and she took part in my session. And I recognize that my clients range from four months to 94, 104 wide range. And the reason why it's important to start really early is because you don't want to become one of the 63%. The 63% who globally suffer from some form of lifestyle disease. So 63% of us globally, that's one death a second, will die prematurely from some form of lifestyle-related disease. So what can we do about it? Well, in very simple terms, we can focus on nutrition, activity, our environment, internal and external, make sure we're getting the right sleep. In the late 40s, 1947, the World Health Organization defined health. And health was not just about the absence of infirmity or disease. It was also about complete social, mental and physical well-being. It was a holistic definition of health. And if we can kind of get that balance right, health would be our goal. So what's the key? What's the solution to this? For me, it all started with looking at the double decker bus, the London double decker bus. And there was a scientist called Jeremy Morris in 1953 who published some research in the Lancet. And what he found was that comparing bus drivers with conductors, bus drivers had about a 90% sedentary lifestyle in terms of what they were doing day-to-day in their jobs. The conductors were collecting tickets, running up and down the stairs, helping passengers on and off the bus. And what he found was that disease as bus drivers. He also found out that they had a 50% reduced chance of early death in comparison to bus drivers. And if you think about the demographics, pretty much, they're pretty much identical. They had the same sorts of diets, they came from the same sort of neighborhood, exactly the same demographics. The only difference really was the amount of activity that was involved. Taking it forward to 2009, Stephen Blair from South Carolina University, he looked at a study whereby he found out that physical activity or physical inactivity was the most important risk factor even looking at smoking, obesity and diabetes combined physical inactivity was far more important as a signifier of premature death. Here's some other studies. I know that's why we're here. We like research. I'll take a photo right about now because it isn't going to stay there for long. But you can see that there's overwhelming evidence that physical activity alone is extremely beneficial. Reduced all-cause mortality, reduced cardiovascular disease events and death, reduced likelihood of stroke, hypertension, obesity, metabolic syndrome. It's all over the place in terms of research. That's what we should be looking at. I'm now going to talk about my first client. So my first client was destined to be part of the 63%. He worked in banking. This is Canary Wharf in London. He worked in banking. He worked in finance. He was working about 16 to 18-hour days. He was on a conventional low-fat diet, whole-grain diet. He was going to the gym two to three times a week. But he wasn't healthy. And in terms of his health, the health comparison, the before and after, I don't have a picture here to demonstrate asphetically the improvement in his health. But in terms of the interventions, in three months he went from being hypertensive, high blood pressure, pre-diabetic, an awful cholesterol profile, high levels of body fat, especially around the middle. His metabolic age is 15 years older than he was. And he was in chronic pain. He was suffering a lot of pain. Blood pressure became optimal. He was no longer pre-diabetic, excellent cholesterol profile, body fat down to 10%. His metabolic age is 15 years younger than his chronological age. And in terms of physical pain, musculoskeletal problems disappeared. Three short months. The most interesting fact about my first client is that my first client was me. That was my first client. That was a transformation. So I now feel youthful, exuberant. I quit my job in the city, making lots of money to now teach people how to live a healthier lifestyle. And being playful and being exuberant is a part of that. So we've heard a lot about play over the last few days. Lots of people have been discussing it. It's the ladies buzzword. Do it and participate in play, rather than just talking about it. Activities are important, but I know some of you are thinking that, you know what, Darryl, I kind of hate exercise. And I'm not surprised. I mean, look at her. Look at the person standing above her, imposing, demanding, commanding, telling her to just get one more push-up out. She's grimacing. She's in pain. It's uncomfortable. It's punishing. No wonder we find it difficult to exercise. Okay? Looking at that. But to be honest, I totally understand. I totally get what you mean because I hate exercise too. I hate it. I try to enjoy it. I try to have a love affair with exercise. I mean, we all kind of have a love affair of exercise. And my love affair varied from a kind of brief dalliance with activity to a longer-term commitment to kind of falling in and out of love with exercise. And I recognize that the punishing, drooling approach to activity didn't really sit well with me. So I hate exercise as well. So what's the solution? What can we do about it? Well, this is what we can do. I've got a paradigm for fitness called fit, F-I-T. We need to get fit. So our movement patterns should be functional, should be practical. It should be something that actually will give us benefit outside of our sphere of fitness. It should be integrative. So we should be able to, you know, we have hobbies and sometimes fitness or getting fit can be a hobby. So we have to fit it in when we've done all the other important stuff. Get the important stuff out of the way. Sorry, I'm pointing at somebody in the audience there. Get the important stuff out of the way and then we'll focus on some activity. So exercise shouldn't be a hobby. It should be completely integrated in our day-to-day life. It should be transformative. You know, the great thing about exercise, people talk about indoor things and talk about the feel-good factor after you've completed the exercise, right at the end. What's the point? I want to feel instant gratification when it comes to movement. It should be mindful. I should take part, participate and feel fantastic immediately. That's what I want to get from fitness. Also, it should be about team play rather than teamwork. Most exercise programs tend to focus on the individual, developing skills, spending significant amount of time developing your movement craft. I'd rather work in cooperation to deliver the objective for the entire team. So these are the key principles of primal play, which some of you have taken part in over the last few days. It should be powerful. It should be a powerful experience. It should lead to exuberance. It should be practical. Some of the skills that you learn that you develop during a play session, you should be able to take on board elsewhere and ultimately it should be playful. Right. So we all know sitting is killing us. Sitting is the new smoking, apparently. I thought about this. I thought about sitting being the new smoking. I'm not totally convinced by that argument. The reason being is people spend a lot of time sitting in the developing world, but they tend not to use a chair. So I think the chair is what is the issue here, not so much the fact you're sitting down. Also, if you're sitting down in a squat position, I tell you what, I don't want to stay here and lay down. There's always some sort of movement. Always. So I hope you could hear me. So that's what's important. It's not the sitting that's the issue. It's the sitting on a chair, which is the issue. But most importantly, I thought about big food, big tobacco, the lawsuits, big pharma, the lawsuits that are taking place because somebody started smoking their fifties because of, you know, tobacco campaigns. And they're now suing multi-million dollar lawsuits suing tobacco companies because they were introduced to smoking. And I thought, can you imagine in 20, 30 years, people suing like furniture manufacturers and saying, IKEA, I bought a chair from you 20, 30 years ago and because you forced me to sit down for eight to 10 hours a day, you need to be sued. I don't think that's happened. I think that we can do something else about it. We can take matters into our own hands. But there is a problem. Even if we know the benefits of exercise, even if you want to take part in it, we have environmental cues telling us all the time, do not move. Do not walk. This sign here, I mean, if you've ever been to London, you'll recognize it's a very pedestrianized city. We use a lot of public transport. We walk a lot in London. But even in London, this is a London Underground Covent Garden tube station. 123 steps, you are told do not take the steps unless in an emergency. There are every couple of minutes you'll hear some soundbites saying, anyone thinking of taking the stairs? There are 15 flights of stairs. It's very dangerous. You better have taken the lift. I've tied myself waiting for the lift and walking the stairs and it's always quicker to walk the stairs than to take the lift. So, we've always got these queues everywhere. We don't want to be part of the 63%. I spent some time recreating a London Underground poster, basically telling people that we should be walking. It's beneficial. It's helpful. We should be doing this. And I sent this to Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, sorry. I sent this to Boris Johnson. He didn't reply. But I do have a campaign to encourage people to just walk. I believe it's beneficial. So, what I'm really trying to say here is that we shouldn't be working out. We should be playing out. That's what we should be doing. And what's really ironic is everyone's sitting. I think we're going to do something about it right now. We're not going to wait until you get home and you say, oh, that was quite an interesting talk there and I'm really going to take on board some of those principles. What are you talking about? We're going to get to it right now. So, the first step, you're going to stand. Okay? So, you're going to stand. Okay? And I'm going to pick a play partner, Jason. Okay? So, you're going to pick a play partner? Pick someone next to you. Okay? And we're going to play a game. We're going to play. Okay? You ready? So, I'm going to make this really simple. Some of you aren't in workout gear or play out gear. It doesn't really matter. Okay? Some of you may be recovering from injuries. It doesn't really matter. You're all going to be able to participate in this. I want all of us to encounter the play experience right now. Okay? So, this is what we're going to do. All right? Light touch. So, fingertips to fingertips. Okay? And we're going to have some resistance. And we're going to be pushing back and forward. And we're going to change direction. Turn around. Keep contact. Keep contact. Keep contact. Okay? Down lunge. So, continue. You know what to do. Just play. Go. Play. Okay? Okay, everyone. So, now what we're going to do is something I found a lot of fun when I was young. I'm still young, actually. When I was younger. Was play fighting. I love play fighting. And I know people talk about rough and tumble. We don't get enough rough and tumble nowadays. And I don't believe we necessarily have to have rough and tumble when we're playing. But let's have, yeah. Actually, I've had enough of you, my goodness. Come on, Joe. Yeah. So, we're going to play fight. There's a few rules here. It's a few rules. One is it's non-contact. One. Secondly, it's ultra-slow motion. Okay? Ultra-slow. Third, we want sound effects. So, if it's ultra-slow motion, we want ultra-slow sound effects. He's played this before. Okay? So, it's non-contact. So, when we're playing, you can adopt a martial arts stance, whatever it is. You throw the punch. Non-contact. And you follow through. Oh, counter-attack. You want some recoil? Okay. All right. Let's go. Play fight. Okay, everyone. Okay. You're not quite getting this. You're not quite getting this, guys. This isn't slow motion. I mean, I'm sure all of you have a DVD recorder or something like that, or whatever. If I put my player onto slow motion, I don't see. You know, I don't see that. It's really slow in control. That's what you see. Okay, let's go. Play. Sound effects. Okay. So, we are a very selfish society, I recognize. Okay? We don't like to share. And one thing that's really galling when it comes to play, or comes to fitness in general, is we can actually be so engrossed in our activities that there'll be somebody standing right next to us who isn't participating. Okay? So, there's this young man here. Your name, sir? Yes. Mike. So, Mike's standing there watching everyone else play. He should be taking part as well. Okay? So, if you see someone next to you, invite them into the play session and make it all about everyone here. Okay. We're running out of time, so we've probably got time for one more game. Your wings will participate. Raise your hands if you are. Good. I like that. So, final game. Rebecca, come on stage. So, this is what we're going to be doing now. We're just going to take the intensity up just a little bit. Just a little bit. We're going to crouch down. Okay? Hand down. Okay? We're going to jump up and then high five. Okay? Have a hand down. High five. Cross body. Down. High five. And then if you really want to get inventive and imaginative, I'm going to pop the mic down now so you can see what I'm getting at. Be safe. Okay. So, unfortunately, we've run out of time. Thank you. We have run out of time. There were some here, the 63% who didn't undertake my primer play session this week. Okay. I am going to run an impromptu session later today at some point. I'll probably post it on the Facebook, AHS Facebook group because if you now want to partake in the play session, I will do one at some time this afternoon. So, come and see me afterwards and let me know what time is convenient. I love a play-based lifestyle. I leave a play-based lifestyle. And thank you very much for participating.