Tribes, Treadmills, and the Year I Refused to Sit Still

(A PhysioRun story inspired by Seth Godin’s “Tribes” — from lockdown to now)

I remember 2020 as the year the world got told to pause.

Not gently. Not poetically. Not in that “slow down and smell the roses” way.

More like: Stop. Stay home. Sit still. Go out, but not really. Move for one hour. Then return to the sofa.

And for a lot of people, that became normal. Convenient, even. The “easy route”.

But it didn’t sit well with me.

Not because I’m allergic to sofas (although… maybe). But because I could see what was quietly happening behind the scenes: strength dropping, aches creeping in, sleep getting messier, routines becoming less “routine” and more “random”. People weren’t just losing fitness — they were losing relationship with their bodies.

And for runners, that relationship matters. Running is simple, but it’s not easy. It asks your tissues to be ready, your feet to behave, your hips to steer, your nervous system to trust the plan. When you remove day-to-day movement, you don’t just lose conditioning. You lose confidence.

So in the middle of a world that felt like it was shrinking, I decided to build something that expanded.

A movement.

Not a protest with placards. Not a big announcement. Just a decision: If people are being pulled towards sedentary living, I’m going to pull the other way.

Towards moving. Moving efficiently. Moving better. Moving with intent.

That’s the seed of the tribe.

And if you’ve read Seth Godin’s work, you’ll know the idea: a tribe doesn’t need everyone. It needs connection. A shared belief. A leader willing to go first. A story people can see themselves in. A mission that feels like it matters.

In 2020, mine was simple.

Don’t sit your way into decline.

2020: When the World Stopped, I Started

Lockdown had this strange psychological effect: time blurred, days repeated, and your body quietly adapted to doing less.

Less walking. Less climbing stairs. Less commuting. Less incidental strength.

And the tricky part is this: sitting feels easy now. It doesn’t feel like harm in the moment. It feels like relief. Like comfort. Like you’ve “earned” it.

But the bill arrives later.

It arrives as stiffness you can’t explain. A calf that’s suddenly fragile. A foot that doesn’t tolerate mileage. A back that “goes” picking up a sock. A knee that gets loud when you finally try to run again.

So I created an online class.

The first one had one attendee.

And honestly, that moment tells you everything you need to know about leadership.

Because leadership isn’t “how many people showed up”. Leadership is: did you show up anyway?

I did.

One runner. One screen. One session.

And I could have taken that personally. I could have thought, Nobody wants this. Maybe I’m overthinking. Maybe people are fine.

But I wasn’t building it for applause. I was building it because it needed to exist.

So I kept going.

And I lived by a rule that still serves me now:

When in doubt, move (on).

Not in a “ignore everything” way. In a “keep the mission bigger than your mood” way.

So one became two.

Two became four.

Four became… a wee wobble (because growth is never a straight line).

And then it became three classes of 10–12 runners.

All in the same boat.

Not wanting to sit. Not wanting to drift. Wanting a plan. Wanting consistency. Wanting to feel like they were building something rather than just “coping”.

That’s when I realised: this wasn’t just a class.

It was a signal.

A signal to people who felt the same discomfort with the status quo. The same quiet frustration with “doing nothing”. The same itch to improve, even in chaos.

That’s a tribe forming.

Not because I forced it. Because it resonated.

The Tribe’s Enemy Was Never the Sofa — It Was the Story Behind It

Here’s the part I think people miss about “sedentary life”.

The enemy isn’t sitting.

The enemy is the belief that sitting is harmless. The belief that comfort is neutral. The belief that health is something you “get back to” later.

Sitting is easy… until it isn’t.

Until your health declines.

Until you try to run again and your body says, We haven’t paid deposits for this.

Until you realise motivation isn’t the problem. Capacity is.

So the tribe formed around a different belief:

We move to protect our future.

We move because we value our bodies.

We move because we want performance, yes — but also because we want freedom.

Freedom to run, travel, play, work, and live without feeling like our body is a fragile thing we have to tiptoe around.

That belief attracted a certain type of person. The “rut-rejecter”. The person who doesn’t want to settle for mediocre. The person who doesn’t need perfect conditions to start.

They just need a reason.

Unlace the Brace: When the Tribe Became Something You Could Hold

Then I made something tangible: Unlace the Brace — a 30-day programme to build foot strength and reconnect the body.

Because the foot is where so many stories start.

Not just pain stories. Capability stories.

The foot is your interface with the ground. It’s your first conversation with force. It’s where stability and propulsion shake hands. If your foot is weak, stiff, or disconnected, your whole system compensates — and runners are brilliant compensators… right up until it stops working.

So I put together a plan. Simple. Clear. Doable. Built for real people with jobs and families and tired legs.

The early days?

Three downloads.

And again, leadership moment: do you decide it’s “not working”, or do you decide it’s “just early”?

I chose “early”.

Three became thirty.

Thirty became three hundred.

Three hundred became over 1500 downloads.

That number still hits me, because it isn’t just a number.

It’s 1500 people who said: I’m in.

Not in a loud way. Not with fireworks. But with action. With consistency. With that small daily decision to build something better.

That’s what tribes do. They turn private intention into shared behaviour.

And here’s the thing: once people start moving better, they don’t just become healthier.

They become harder to convince to go back.

Fast Forward to 2026: The Tribe Has a Pulse Now

Now we’re here.

And I can feel the difference.

Because the tribe isn’t just following content anymore — they’re talking to each other.

Hill runners connecting with hill runners. Ultra runners swapping notes with endurance runners. Hyrox athletes taking principles from running rehab and applying it to sleds, lunges, and compromised breathing. People comparing stories, cues, strategies, and wins.

I hear it second-hand, which is the best kind:

“Ah, I’ve seen that pronation pattern before… do you go to James?”

That sentence matters more than any algorithm.

Because it means the ideas have left my page and entered real life.

It means the tribe is self-propagating — not because of marketing, but because the belief is transferable.

And it’s also true that, along the way, I’ve upset some people.

The people who are comfy sitting.

Comfortable settling.

Comfortable staying in their “comfort zone”.

And look — no judgement. Everyone’s living their own life. But here’s what I’ve learned:

When you build a movement, you don’t just attract your people.
You also disturb the people who benefit from you staying small.

Your growth is inconvenient to anyone who wants you to stay quiet, stay modest, stay “reasonable”.

But I’m not here to be reasonable. I’m here to help people move.

What We’re Actually Building (And Why It Works)

This tribe isn’t about being the fastest.

It’s not about being elite.

It’s not about suffering for the sake of suffering.

It’s about something more practical and more powerful:

Move well. Move often. Move with intent.

That’s the core.

Everything else is just the method.

And if you’ve ever needed a way to describe it, here’s my simple framework:

• Awaken: notice what your body is doing (and what it’s avoiding).
• Educate: learn what matters and why (so you stop guessing).
• Integrate: make it part of life (so it sticks when motivation dips).

That’s how you build runners who don’t just do rehab — they become resilient.

And it’s why the clinic diary fills the way it does: not because I’ve cracked a secret technique, but because I’ve connected with what people actually want.

They don’t want “a few exercises”.

They want a body they trust.

They want a plan.

They want progress they can measure.

They want to feel proud of themselves again.

That’s the heartbeat of the tribe.

The Passport Line Is Funny Because It’s True

I said this once and it stuck:

Some of you push your boundaries so far past the border of your comfort zone you’d need a passport to get back in.

That’s not about pain. It’s about identity.

Because when you become the person who trains on hard days, who does the boring drills, who strengthens what’s weak, who takes responsibility for capacity — you don’t just “do running”.

You become someone who can handle hard things.

That spills into everything: work, parenting, stress, confidence, self-respect.

That’s why movement matters.

Not because it burns calories.

Because it builds character.

There’s Always Room in the Tribe

This is the part I want to be honest about.

I’m proud of what’s been built. But I’m also aware that it only works because people keep joining it.

Not as consumers. As contributors.

Your experience matters.

Your naivety matters.

Your freshness matters.

Your questions matter.

Your setbacks matter.

Your comeback matters.

A tribe is never finished. It’s a living thing.

And it grows the best when people stop thinking they need to be “ready” before they belong.

You don’t have to be pain-free to join.

You don’t have to be fast.

You don’t have to be consistent yet.

You just have to do one thing:

Choose movement over mediocrity.

That’s the entry requirement.

Together Everyone Achieves More (T.E.A.M) — and It’s Not Just a Cute Phrase

I know “T.E.A.M” can sound like one of those things you see on a poster in a school hall.

But I’ve seen it play out in real life.

When runners share cues that helped their Achilles.

When someone admits they’ve lost motivation and another runner replies, “Same. Here’s what I did this week.”

When an ultra runner normalises fear before a race.

When a beginner posts their first consistent month.

When someone finally says, “I’m not broken — I’m just underprepared.”

That’s the tribe doing what tribes do.

The group becomes the proof.

The movement becomes bigger than one person.

And that’s the whole point.

If You Want In, Here’s Your Doorway

If you’ve made it this far and something in you is nodding, good. That’s usually your body recognising a better story.

If you want to join the movement:

• Start with Unlace the Brace (30-day foot strength programme): https://payhip.com/b/ZQqW
• Explore other PhysioRun resources: www.payhip.com/physiorun
• Or simply start by choosing one small daily action that proves to you: I’m the type of person who moves.

Because tribes don’t begin with big declarations.

They begin with one decision repeated.

And repeated.

And repeated.

Until it becomes who you are.

There is always space here. Always room.

Join the tribe. Join the movement.

Thanks for reading

James –