Optimising Human Performance

Most performance problems aren’t obvious. They’re not in your training plan; they’re not in your effort. They’re in the things you consistently ignore.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr Nick Barringer, performance dietitian, former Army Ranger, and expert in human performance, to break down what actually drives performance, recovery, and longevity.

From nutrition fundamentals to injury prevention to the science behind energy, brain function, and long-term health.

This is a deep dive into the unsexy work that keeps you performing at your best when it matters most.

What You’ll Learn

Why better nutrition impacts more than just performance
The “unsexy” work that prevents injuries and keeps you in the game
How small gaps in nutrition and recovery compound over time
The real role of creatine in energy, brain health, and longevity
Why hydration is still one of the most overlooked performance factors
How to think about fueling for high-demand environments

Key Takeaways

Performance isn’t just about how hard you train—it’s how well you support it
The basics, done consistently, outperform everything else
Injury prevention and stability are often ignored until it’s too late
Nutrition impacts energy, cognition, recovery, and long-term health
What you ignore is often what takes you out

About the Guest

Dr Nick Barringer is a performance dietitian, former Army Ranger, and expert in human performance. With over two decades of experience working in elite military and performance environments, he specialises in nutrition, recovery, and optimising human capability.

Resources
https://drnickbarringer.com/
https://www.instagram.com/nickbarringer.phd.rdn/

Chapters
01:13 Creatine Basics Benefits
02:18 Creatine Safety Hydration
04:14 Creatine For Sleep Loss
05:35 Nick Background Military Career
06:59 Ranger School Breakdown
11:13 Ranger School Nutrition Hacks
12:11 Fueling In The Field
14:25 Ranger Athlete Warrior Program
16:27 What Works In Uniform
17:41 Winning Ranger Buy In
19:16 Why Nutrition Matters
20:22 Evolving The Assessments
22:02 Nutrition Testing Tools
23:06 Prep For Ranger School
24:30 Big Rocks Nutrition Plan
26:24 Guinness Pasties Myth
28:23 Closing Advice And Wrap

About the Podcast

For more expert-led conversations delivering evidence-based strategies to help you perform, recover, and adapt in high-pressure environments, check out our website https://www.ophp.co.uk/

Hosted by Human Performance specialist, researcher and educator Dr Martin Jones & former Royal Army Physical Training Corps Instructor turned academic Dr Jon Paul Nevin.

If you found this podcast valuable, please take a moment to rate, share & review. If you have feedback, guest suggestions or topics that you'd love us to cover, then do email us at [email protected] or connect with us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ophp/

Production
Edited and produced by Bess Manley
Thanks for listening to Optimising Human Performance.
This podcast is for people who can’t afford to fail. Each episode gives you practical, evidence‑based tools you can apply in the real world.
For more about the podcast, speaking, coaching, and mentoring, visit:
www.ophp.co.uk
Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ophp/
Instagram: @ophumanperformance
If you found this episode useful, please share it with one colleague, subscribe, and leave a review – it helps us reach more people who operate in high‑stakes environments.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fear is easy to talk about in theory. It is harder when the stakes are high, and you still have to think clearly, lead others, and perform.

In this episode of Optimising Human Performance (OpHP), Martin I Jones speaks with Ash Alexander-Cooper OBE about building resilience, courage in the face of fear, and empowering leadership in high-stakes environments.

You will learn how to stay functional under pressure, why fitness reduces cognitive load, how leaders build trust fast in complex environments, and a simple STOP reset technique to interrupt stress spirals.

Ash shares personal stories that begin with childhood instability and the search for belonging through high-performance music and sport, before an “accidental” decision led to a 20+year military career. Ash explains that resilience is not a personality trait but a capability built through realistic training, repeated exposure, and physical readiness, thereby freeing the mind to think clearly under pressure.

Guest, Cast, & Crew

Ash Alexander-Cooper OBE is a former soldier, athlete, artist, and award-winning international musician. During a three-decade career, Ash served as a helicopter pilot, an airborne jungle-warfare and counter-terrorism specialist, and spent seven years deployed in some of the world's most challenging environments. Wounded multiple times, Ash proudly supports several veteran charities as a vocal mental health campaigner and advocate. Since retiring from the military, he's focused on leadership and resilience, and he's now a sought-after international keynote speaker and strategic advisor supporting those seeking to overcome adversity, adapt, and win in today's increasingly complex world.

Hosted by Martin I. Jones https://www.ophp.co.uk
Produced & edited by Bess Manley

Key takeaways

Why resilience is often forged through hardship, not discovered through motivation
How realistic training and stress exposure build functional calm under pressure
Why physical fitness can reduce cognitive load and improve decision-making
A leadership model for complexity: trust, purpose, shared consciousness, empowered execution
How authentic leaders share context, invite challenge, and empower teams rather than control them
A practical reset tool: the STOP technique to interrupt stress spirals

Resources

Ash’s website: https://www.ashalexcooper.com/
Ash’s book: https://www.waterstones.com/book/mindful-soldier/ash-alexander-cooper/9781529450644
Follow Ash on X https://twitter.com/ashalexcooper
Follow Ash on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ashalexcooper/
Follow Ash on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ashalexcooper/

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and guest introduction
00:26 Resilience and courage teaser
01:43 Meet Ash Alexander-Cooper
02:01 From music to military
03:04 Why he wrote the book
04:27 Childhood instability and its impact
06:08 Refuge in teams and performance
08:50 An accidental start to a military career
11:36 Why he stayed in
13:36 First ambush, injury, and trauma
16:02 How training builds resilience
19:09 Stress exposure without combat
19:45 Physical fitness frees the mind
21:56 Human performance and adaptation
24:12 Brain sabotage in racing
25:50 Accidental marathon fueling
26:43 Leadership basics that matter
27:14 Team of Teams framework
31:41 Building trust fast
34:15 Complexity and sharing context
36:54 Psychological safety in action
38:35 Resilience toolkit from the book
40:15 STOP breath reset technique
43:47 Where to find the book
45:47 Courage through fear zone
47:07 Final thanks and call to action

If this episode helped you, follow Optimising Human Performance, share it with someone leading under pressure, and leave a quick review. It directly helps more people find the show.

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this podcast valuable, please take a moment to rate, share & review - It directly helps more people find the show. If you have feedback, guest suggestions, or topics you'd love us to cover, email us at [email protected]

Follow OpHP on LinkedIn for clips, frameworks, and episode takeaways
Thanks for listening to Optimising Human Performance.
This podcast is for people who can’t afford to fail. Each episode gives you practical, evidence‑based tools you can apply in the real world.
For more about the podcast, speaking, coaching, and mentoring, visit:
www.ophp.co.uk
Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ophp/
Instagram: @ophumanperformance
If you found this episode useful, please share it with one colleague, subscribe, and leave a review – it helps us reach more people who operate in high‑stakes environments.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In This Episode

Sleep is probably affecting your performance more than you think. In this episode, Martin I. Jones, performance psychologist and sleep specialist, explains how to spot sleep debt with a quick yes-or-no checklist and why most people underestimate the damage poor sleep does to focus, mood, and recovery. He breaks down the science of REM, non-REM, sleep pressure, and circadian rhythm in a way that is easy to apply, challenges the myth that everyone needs exactly 8 hours, and shares practical tools to improve sleep quality, from caffeine timing and bedroom setup to journaling, mindfulness, and cognitive techniques that actually work.

Guest, Cast and Crew

Martin I. Jones is a performance psychologist and sleep specialist with more than 20 years of experience supporting performers across sport, military, and corporate settings. Martin has postgraduate degrees in sport and exercise psychology (MSc and PhD) from Loughborough University and Sleep Medicine (MSc) from the University of Oxford, and has authored or co-authored more than 50 publications. Following a career in academia, Martin forged a new path in the UK Ministry of Defence as a research psychologist and Principal Advisor on Human Performance and Human Augmentation. Martin also represented the UK and served as the national lead to the NATO Science and Technology Organisation (STO) Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Research Panel and contributed to several research task groups. Martin actively supports several esteemed specialist defence and security groups and is the Performance Director for Duratus, an executive coaching and performance consultancy that helps senior leaders perform under pressure, improve resilience, and develop effective leadership behaviours.

Resources

Duratus - www.duratusuk.com

Chapters

00:00 Sleep Debt Quiz
01:37 Talk Roadmap
02:26 What Sleep Is
04:21 Sleep Stages Explained
07:36 Two Process Model
09:24 Melatonin And Light
10:54 Why Sleep Matters
13:21 Sleep Worry Trap
14:57 Caffeine And Jet Lag
16:48 Eight Hours Myth
18:48 Protect Your Sleep
21:10 Personalise Your Routine
23:10 Sleep Hygiene Basics
23:24 Caffeine Timing Test
24:26 Nicotine Sleep Disruption
25:35 Alcohol and REM Loss
26:46 Diet Sleep Feedback Loop
28:25 Exercise Timing and Temperature
29:37 Bedroom Setup Basics
30:36 Stimulus Control Habits
31:34 CBT for Insomnia Overview
33:47 Identify Your Sleep Thoughts
34:58 Cognitive Control Journaling
36:28 Paradoxical Intention
38:20 Articulatory Suppression Trick
40:03 Imagery and Mindfulness
42:15 Wearables and Catastrophizing
44:34 Problem Solving for Worry
45:58 Wrap Up and Next Steps
Thanks for listening to Optimising Human Performance.
This podcast is for people who can’t afford to fail. Each episode gives you practical, evidence‑based tools you can apply in the real world.
For more about the podcast, speaking, coaching, and mentoring, visit:
www.ophp.co.uk
Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ophp/
Instagram: @ophumanperformance
If you found this episode useful, please share it with one colleague, subscribe, and leave a review – it helps us reach more people who operate in high‑stakes environments.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the biggest obstacle to performing under pressure isn't the situation itself, but the way we think about it? In this episode, Martin talks to fellow psychologist and world-leading expert on pressure and adversity, Dr. Andrew Wood, about the strategies and philosophies that can help you take control of the irrational beliefs that often hold us back.

We discuss rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) and how irrational core beliefs fuel pressure, anxiety, and maladaptive behaviour. Andrew explains REBT’s focus on flexible, rational beliefs, distinguishing helpful vs unhelpful responses rather than positive vs negative thinking, and introduces concepts like awfulizing & low frustration tolerance. He describes tools such as the “badness scale,” 10-10-10 perspective taking, humour, and testing beliefs through controlled exposure to feared situations. Andrew also discusses leadership climates that normalise all-or-nothing thinking, and shares his own long COVID experience, bedbound for a year, identity loss, and using rationality, values and symptom-tracking to cope, ending with reflections on reconciling fear of death to reduce everyday fears.

Guest, Cast & Crew
Dr. Andrew Wood is a Performance Psychologist, keynote speaker, and published researcher specialising in rational thinking under pressure. Drawing on over a decade working with elite athletes, emergency services, corporate leaders, and his own lived experience navigating life-changing disability, Andrew's work sits at the intersection of science, story, and practicality. He doesn't just teach people how to think more clearly and perform at their best when faced with setbacks, he's also had to do it himself, when it mattered the most.

Hosted by Martin Jones https://www.ophp.co.uk
Produced & edited by Bess Manley

Resources
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drandrewwood/?originalSubdomain=uk
[email protected]

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this podcast valuable, please take a moment to rate, share & review. If you have feedback, guest suggestions or topics that you'd love us to cover, then do email us at [email protected] or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Chapters
02:20 REBT Explained
05:09 Irrational Beliefs In Action
05:53 Awfulizing
07:44 Badness Scale Perspective
11:14 When Identity Collapses
14:39 Culture And Leadership Climate
18:06 Resilience Myths And Language
22:00 Building Robustness And Tolerance
25:48 Reframing Pain And Discomfort
27:33 Bedbound After COVID
28:09 Finding Your Why
29:06 Meaning Without Extremes
31:07 Testing Beliefs Safely
34:26 Tools Without The App
36:49 Imagery And Perspective
38:37 Reframing Setbacks
41:24 No One Is Perfectly Rational
43:39 Long COVID Lived Experience
47:16 Acceptance And New Normal
49:45 Keynote Plans And Contact
50:44 Making Peace With Death
51:50 Final Wrap Up
Thanks for listening to Optimising Human Performance.
This podcast is for people who can’t afford to fail. Each episode gives you practical, evidence‑based tools you can apply in the real world.
For more about the podcast, speaking, coaching, and mentoring, visit:
www.ophp.co.uk
Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ophp/
Instagram: @ophumanperformance
If you found this episode useful, please share it with one colleague, subscribe, and leave a review – it helps us reach more people who operate in high‑stakes environments.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Former GB cyclist-turned-adventurer and solo ocean rower Annasley Park has built her life on the value of fortitude. In this episode of the Optimising Human Performance Podcast, she shares her journey, including her experiences with injury and burnout. She introduces the ‘fortitude mindset’, built on feral intelligence, visualisation, and emotion, and shares practical routines that anchored her through fear, fatigue and uncertainty.

Guest, Cast & Crew
Annasley Parks speaks from lived experience about leadership under pressure, performing in uncertainty, managing fear, and sustaining high performance without burnout.

At just twenty-nine years of age, she is the ninth solo, unsupported and independent woman in history to row three thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean. A former professional cyclist, white-water raft instructor, Alpine chalet manager and superyacht deckhand. Annasley has spent over a decade working in demanding and unpredictable environments where resilience, adaptability, decision-making under pressure and self-leadership were essential skills.

Growing up on the military estates of Herefordshire, Annasley found her freedom in the mountains through sports, ultimately building a professional cycling career with the Great Britain Cycling Team, competing on the road and track, and signing for a UCI World Tour-level road team. However, injuries cut this chapter short, teaching her early lessons in rebuilding and resilience when identity and purpose is lost.

She went on to explore unconventional career paths that took her from source to sea. From Alpine chalet management to white-water rafting on the American rivers, and four years serving as a deckhand on superyachts, travelling all over the world with high-profile clients. Annasley gained unique insights into navigating diverse environments and thriving outside the conventional structures.

Despite her physical, mental and emotional fortitude, Annasley experienced severe burnout in 2023. That period led her to question what truly sustains people when pressure rises, plans fail, fear sets in, and motivation runs out. Her Ocean Survivoar Challenge became the ultimate test of all the knowledge, skills, resources and networks she had developed. In less than a year, she brought the project to the starting line, assembling a world-class team of experts in ocean rowing, communications, medical and equipment support, and more, ensuring the expedition's success.

Her Atlantic row was more than a test of endurance. It was a journey into the critical 20% zone. An unpredictable space she calls the messy middle, a threshold of transition where you are no longer who you once were, but not yet who you are becoming. This is a space where human capacity outlasts the plan. The lessons she learned in that zone form the foundation of The Fortitude System, built on the disciplines of solitude, magnitude and attitude of any given challenge or faced adversity, helping audiences convert chaos into clarity, overwhelm into sustainable performance and fear into action.

Hosted by Martin Jones & Jonpaul Nevin https://www.ophp.co.uk
Produced & edited by Bess Manley

Resources
https://annasleypark.com/
https://www.instagram.com/annasleypark/

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this podcast valuable, please take a moment to rate, share & review. If you have feedback, guest suggestions or topics that you'd love us to cover, then do email us at [email protected] or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Chapters
01:23 Podcast Setup and Welcome
02:26 From Running to GB Cycling
04:06 Inside British Cycling Culture
08:03 Injuries Identity and Retirement
09:48 Where the Drive Comes From
10:49 Post Cycling Adventures and Burnout
18:25 Ocean Rowing Begins
21:17 Chaos at Sea
22:22 Fortitude Mindset Tools
24:46 Lows and Liminal Space
27:06 Scraping Barnacles
29:17 Bird Companion and Team
30:39 Flow State Ocean Signs
33:04 Purpose and Charity Mission
35:25 Advice for Young People
39:24 Enjoy the Middle Space
40:49 Where to Follow Next
41:27 Final Podcast Wrap
Thanks for listening to Optimising Human Performance.
This podcast is for people who can’t afford to fail. Each episode gives you practical, evidence‑based tools you can apply in the real world.
For more about the podcast, speaking, coaching, and mentoring, visit:
www.ophp.co.uk
Connect with us:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ophp/
Instagram: @ophumanperformance
If you found this episode useful, please share it with one colleague, subscribe, and leave a review – it helps us reach more people who operate in high‑stakes environments.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.