“5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, with Billy Ferguson of Trivelo Bikes
An Interview With Dr. William Seeds
Being fit and active opens up the opportunity to enjoy all aspects of your life. Seeing and enjoying your children ride their bike is something that you can ill afford to miss and delivers a monumental smile on the most cynical face. Playing on a beach with your friends able to enjoy the moment is a gift like so many made possible through an active lifestyle.
As a part of my series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Billy Ferguson. Billy Ferguson is the founder of Trivelo bikes Ltd, a triathlon and multi-sport specialist agency providing product testing and digital marketing services. Clients of Trivelo include HUUB, Zone3, Proviz, Finis and Sungod sunglasses. Before devoting his time to work on Trivelo, Billy served as an IT executive across numerous global organisations helping them transform their digital technology solutions. Find out more about Billy and Trivelo at https://blog.trivelo.co.uk
Thank you so much for doing this with us, Billy! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?
I discovered the sport of triathlon a decade ago. Over the past 10 years I have competed in various distances up to and including half Ironman distance triathlon. I am also an endurance swimming specialist including completing 10km swim events of the river Thames. Most recently I swam the Solent from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight crossing the busiest UK shipping channel.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
Failure is the most interesting and influential thing to have happened since beginning my career. When I set up the business we had a vision to take on eBay and built a platform to help people securely buy and sell bikes. We built an outstanding platform and launched in under 3 months. Only to see minimal traffic over the following 2 years. This hard lesson was one where I had to pivot our business and accept that breaking eBay was going to need more marketing spend than we could ever achieve. What emerged like a phoenix from this was a unique proposition focused on disrupting how products are introduced into the triathlon community. Without the failure and the network we had built up we would never have evolved to what we are now.
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
My first triathlon was a venture into the unknown and a sport I had only previously admired. Entering my first Sprint distance event I didn’t have a wetsuit and any form of bike. I picked up a cheap wetsuit and an even cheaper steel framed road bike. Approaching the race I was nervous and conscious of the difference in abilities between me and those around me. This was presented front and centre when I completely failed to follow the rules and attach my race number to my kit. I attempted to fly out of transition with no race number only to be blocked by the stewards reversing me back to an empty transition area. There I was assisted in fumbling a race number onto my shirt using safety pins. This followed that come my return to transition for the run I had to put my top on back to front so the race number could be on my front. Not ideal but a very useful lesson learned in front of an intrigued crowd more experienced in triathlon than me no doubt.
Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?
Over the past 5 years I have built up the Trivelo brand to support the growth and development of triathlon. It is a unique proposition with a panel of over 100 real triathletes from all backgrounds supporting the innovation and promotion of multi-sport. We offer access to real people providing honest and raw accounts of their experiences. This includes ironman podium finishers, para-triathletes, juniors, coaches and social competitors. It gives me a unique network to utilise in the support of over 200 sports brands and the world of fitness and wellness.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
As a child I was not a natural sportsman. I would find myself doing Shot Put in sports day and loathing PE in school. My life took a turn when a family friend gave me a hockey stick and introduced me to a sport that I had never even seen before. It changed my outlook on sport and ignited a love of exercise that has stayed with me through my entire adult life. A kind gesture from a family friend opened my world to a new group of lifelong friends and a connection with fitness and wellbeing.
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?
1) Discipline — Most people are aware that eating more sugar and drinking more alcohol is not good for us. We also recognise that balance in all things is key. What holds us back often from applying these guidelines is our own self-discipline.
2) Time — We all are bombarded with information from dusk to dawn. This pressure on our lives flows through everything resulting in us never being offline and forever chasing our tail. This manic existence makes it difficult to find time for our own wellness.
3) Fear — Tackling new things is a blocker for many of us and a lack of a routine fitness habit can hold us back. This fear of change makes it easier for people to resist this and continue a more lazy lifestyle.
Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional and physical health.)
1) Increase activity through your daily life tracking progress with a fitness watch tracker such as an iWatch or FitBit. Walk every opportunity you have and track you step count to monitor activity. Use the stairs rather than lift. Get off the bus a stop early and walk that final stage.
2) Swim. Whatever your fitness levels swimming offers a low resistance total body workout. Swimming is a highly technical sport but swimmers of all disciplines can achieve benefits from swimming without risk of injury. It can also be an excellent way to return to more high impact sports after injury.
3) Get on your bike. Most of us have a bicycle hiding in the shed or garage that we may have fallen out of love with. Cycling instead of taking the car gets you outside and exercising with low impact on the knees. It can be a great option for ex-runners who have a history of leg injuries. It can also be great for people with kids and a further way to connect with them whatever ages they are getting out on your bikes together.
4) Try a high intensity mobile app based exercise. There are numerous app based exercise plans where you can focus on a quick routines (often under 10 mins). These routines focus on very intensive periods increasing your heart rate to support anyone with a busy lifestyle struggling to fit in regular exercise.
5) Join a fitness class. Any fitness class. Pick something that inspires you and excites you to participate in. The sport is not important. It is the process of having a regular focus to join a group and do something that doesn’t necessarily feel like exercise. It avoids the chore of exercise that can weigh us down.
As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?
1) Mental wellbeing. The chemicals released in your body as a result of being active help combat stress and give a healthy release instead of toxic alternatives such as alcohol.
2) Prolonged life. Maintaining a healthy weight through an active lifestyle can be help sustain a healthier life for longer.
3) Happiness. Being fit and active opens up the opportunity to enjoy all aspects of your life. Seeing and enjoying your children ride their bike is something that you can ill afford to miss and delivers a monumental smile on the most cynical face. Playing on a beach with your friends able to enjoy the moment is a gift like so many made possible through an active lifestyle.
For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?
1) Walking. There is little to stop any of us from walking more and including extra steps in their daily lives.
2) Stretching. Consider your flexibility as you conduct your daily life. Stand on one leg while brushing your teeth and stretch out your calves. Waiting for a bus consider flexing your back to maintain a good level of agility.
3) Core strengthening. Using simple exercises at home can help to strengthen your core that you can do every day without any equipment and can benefit all forms of exercise you may wish to embark upon.
In my experience, many people begin an exercise regimen but stop because they get too sore afterwards. What ideas would you recommend to someone who plays sports or does heavy exercise to shorten the recovery time, and to prevent short term or long term injury?
Post workout body fatigue and pain is not necessarily a problem. The old adage “no pain, no gain” has some truth in it. In order to build muscles or develop strength requires a degree of exertion that can result in post exercise soreness. You could welcome this. Within reason. Pain that prevents you performing a normal day is not sensible for most people. A sensation of stiffness the day after exercise could be welcomed as a recognition of the positive impact it is having. In order to minimise this and more importantly consider injury prevention adding in an effective warm down is more relevant. Permitting the muscles to recover from exercise speeds recovery and reduces muscle soreness. Another important element is to include quality sleep in your daily life that allows the body to repair and recover.
There are so many different diets today. Can you share what kind of diet you follow? Which diet do you recommend to most of your clients?
My diet is a balance between considering fuel for my body and maintaining an enjoyment of food and eating with friends and family. I have young kids so it is important to introduce them to a varied diet and for them to see me eating well. This means a range of foods and things in moderation. Including ice cream or chocolate sometimes. Food must not be seen as some form of punishment and hardship. I minimise carb intake focused more on protein, fruit and vegetables and tend to follow a 5:2 system. Monday to Friday I work to maintain a lower calorie diet and minimise toxins and fatty foods. Allowing me to relax at the weekend more and “treat” myself. I also minimise my calorific intake through hydration. Fluids are water or an occasional cup of tea with no sugar. Again allowing for an alcoholic drink by exception rather than the norm. Most weeks I limit this to only a single day. If you make any diet too regimented and limit the enjoyment of food and drink people will see it as a diet. Not as a lifestyle they can maintain.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?
Iron War. The epic tail of Ironman Kona and Dave Scott battling with Mark Allen at the 13th Ironman race in Hawaii. A brilliant tale of two different athletes. Inspiring and maintaining an ambition to achieve an Ironman finisher medal. A fabulously written book with a perfect balance of technical content and personal life touches.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
When I set up Trivelo I had various inspirations but a number of these corporate influences had at their core been focused on social good. This purpose for a company was something I wrote into our very first business case and charter. As a company we are still in our infancy and yet to make a fortune but my hope is we will achieve this. Not just for me and those involved in the business but for a greater good. I connected with a fantastic charity in the UK a number of years ago and I hope that we can support it significantly as we grow. The movement I would like to commence is the support of this charity and others. The charity I support is Cyclists Fighting Cancer. They have set up a charity to provide children with bikes who are recovering from cancer treatment. This follows studies that shows that cancer recovery can be accelerated through exercise. Being able to assist in children recover from something as hideous as cancer feels a worthy purpose and something to be proud of. I would like to continue the support of them and to establish a trust that supports similar small but amazing charities.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
I am a Scotsman. Born in Glasgow although my accent would suggest otherwise having lived in England most of my life. Coming from Scottish parents and a strong Scottish name we are a clan. The Ferguson clan has its own tartan and I own a number of my own kilts as a result. We have our own clan motto that I use as a motto for me daily and a life lesson to help me through life. Our motto is “Dulcius Ex Asperis” that translates as “Sweeter after difficulties”. My belief is this means life is hard. You face difficulties. But you can and will overcome them. By overcoming the rocks and stones of life you become stronger and the person that comes out the other side is happier and inherently “sweeter”.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
Dave Scott has consistently been a prominent figure in triathlon and continues to shape the sport now. Would love to hear his stories of how he approached training then and now. His hopes and dreams for the sport and how he has maintained balance in all things able to keep a positive mental outlook.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
Follow Trivelo on twitter using @trivelo_bikes or find out more about what we are doing in our blog https://blog.trivelo.co.uk
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
