{"id":661535,"date":"2026-10-30T09:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661535\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T09:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T09:30:07","slug":"tony-pulis-column-why-managers-must-put-their-own-fitness-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661535\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Pulis column: Why managers must put their own fitness first"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many a young manager will have experienced these factors, which could and would affect their health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n

The turning point for me came when I spoke to an Australian triathlete just before I left Bournemouth<\/a> in 1994.<\/p>\n

His advice was pretty blunt and straightforward. He told me doing my job was physically hampering my own fitness levels – but more worrying were the stress levels that came with it, because they could have a major effect on my life itself.<\/p>\n

It was only after having that conversation that I realised the compromises I was making for my career at the cost of my own health.<\/p>\n

I came to the conclusion that in my next job, if I got one, I would dedicate myself to a more manageable lifestyle and put my own fitness first.<\/p>\n

I decided I would work out early every morning before breakfast at the club I managed, so I could then dedicate the rest of my day to my work.<\/p>\n

Yes, there were days I would be empty and would only walk and stretch, but generally I stuck to that rule and worked hard to keep on top of myself physically.<\/p>\n

At Gillingham in 1999, I decided to run a marathon – my first London Marathon – which got me focused during the season in respect of my physical health.<\/p>\n

That was my first challenge of many I have taken on for charity down the years. I have also cycled from John O’ Groats to Land’s End, walked up Mount Kilimanjaro, and rowed from Tower Bridge to the Eiffel Tower.<\/p>\n

All of this exercise also helped my stress levels, especially in respect of sleeping. Being tired going to bed really helped my sleeping hours and meant I was never kept awake worrying about what was going wrong at work.<\/p>\n

There were other ways I looked after my mental health too. Even as the internet exploded, I have never read any press, good or bad, about me or my team.<\/p>\n

I always worked as hard I could at every club I was with, and picked good staff who I was able to confide in, but I was able to switch off too, thanks to my family.<\/p>\n

I’ve written in previous columns about my routine after games and how I would often drive home to the south coast<\/a> on a Saturday night, reflecting on our result and starting my preparation for our next game.<\/p>\n

But Sundays were always about spending all day with the family.<\/p>\n

Whether it was watching my son Anthony playing football as a young boy, or just being around the children full stop, that was how I relaxed and that day with them became a release valve which was an important part of my routine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many a young manager will have experienced these factors, which could and would affect their health and wellbeing.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[589,163,85,46],"class_list":["post-661535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}