The gear, books, tech and supplements that earn their place in my coaching, my own training, and what I send clients when they ask "where do I start?". Nothing here for the sake of a list.
You don't need a garage full of kit. These five things will run 80% of any sensible programme — including the Mojo Collective.
If you only buy one thing, buy this. A single pair of adjustables replaces an entire dumbbell rack — squats, presses, rows, lunges, RDLs, the lot. Quick-change dial models save the most time. Look for something that goes up to at least 25 kg per hand if you ever want to keep progressing.
A pair this size covers swings, goblet squats, presses and Turkish get-ups for most people 40+. Cast iron over vinyl-coated — lasts forever, won't crack a tile if it slips. Skip "competition" colours; it's marketing.
Best £30 you'll spend. Travel-friendly, joint-friendly, brilliant for warm-ups, accessory work and rehab-style movement. The door anchor turns any hotel room into a cable machine.
Thin yoga mats are punishing on 40+ knees and elbows. A 12–15mm exercise mat changes the experience of every floor exercise — planks, glute work, mobility, the lot. Don't skimp here; a good one lasts a decade.
You don't need a fancy ice bath. These three pieces handle 95% of the daily-maintenance work that keeps a 50-year-old body training pain-free.
Skip the "deep tissue" rollers with knobs — they're more painful than helpful for most people. A standard 90cm medium-density roller does everything you need: thoracic mobility, quads, lats, glutes. Five minutes a day adds up.
For everything a foam roller can't reach — feet, hips, traps, the bit between your shoulder blades. Stand against a wall, lean in, breathe. Travels in a coat pocket. Everyone over 40 should own one.
Not essential — but if you sit at a desk and your traps live up by your ears, it's worth it. The mid-tier ones (£100–150) are now as good as the £400 originals were two years ago. Ten minutes on your back and shoulders before bed is a sleep upgrade in disguise.
The most underrated piece of cardio kit ever invented. Five minutes warms you up properly, ten minutes is a workout. Better for ageing knees than running because the contact is light and the cadence is yours. A weighted handle gives the rhythm.
I'm careful here. Most fitness tech becomes a notification machine within a month. These earn their place because they actually change behaviour.
No screen, no notifications — which is the point. It tracks sleep, HRV and recovery, and the data is genuinely actionable. Best for the client who's already disciplined and wants to dial in recovery. Subscription model means it stays cheap upfront.
If you want one device that does everything — workouts, ECG, sleep, notifications — this is it. The SE is plenty for most people; the Series adds a few health features the average client never uses. Pair with a Polar chest strap for accurate heart-rate during HIIT.
No watch — even an Apple Watch — beats a chest strap for HIIT or zone-2 work. The H10 is the lab-standard. Pairs with anything via Bluetooth. If you're serious about cardio zones, get this.
Genuinely useful for trend data — daily weigh-ins disappear into a chart so you stop reacting to noise. Body-fat readings are inaccurate (skip them); weight + trend is what you're after. Withings or Renpho are both fine.
If a client only ever reads one book about training and longevity, it's the first one on this list. The rest are the next-best-three.
The single best book on training for longevity that's been written. Attia reframes "fitness" as a healthspan problem and lays out exactly what you should be training for in your 40s, 50s and 60s. If you only read one fitness book this decade, read this one.
An older book, slightly evangelical, but it gets one thing right that nobody else does: ageing is a slope, and the only way to slow the descent is daily, intentional, vigorous exercise. The mental model alone is worth the price.
Ten daily-use mobility tests and the practices to fix what's stiff. No hour-long yoga sessions; just short, surgical inputs. The "sit-and-rise test" alone is worth the read.
Less a fitness book, more a why-train-at-all book. About what we lose when life gets too soft, and the case for putting some discomfort back in deliberately. Excellent reading for anyone whose motivation has gone flat.
The supplement industry is 90% noise. These four have decades of evidence behind them. Everything else, food first.
The single most-studied legal supplement on the planet. Better strength output, better recovery, growing evidence for cognitive function past 40. 5 g of plain monohydrate daily — no need for the fancy "HCL" or "buffered" versions. Bulk and MyProtein both make solid UK options.
Not magical — just a fast, cheap, convenient way to hit a daily protein target most people otherwise miss. 25 g per scoop, one or two scoops a day depending on bodyweight and meal pattern. Bulk's unflavoured is excellent.
If you live in the UK and don't supplement vitamin D from October to April, you are deficient. The NHS guidance is the floor, not the ceiling. 2000–4000 IU daily with a meal containing fat. K2 helps the calcium it mobilises go to your bones, not your arteries.
Most people are mildly deficient; most stress depletes it further. Glycinate (not the citrate or oxide forms — they're laxatives in disguise) before bed helps muscle relaxation and tends to deepen sleep. Subtle effect, but cumulative.
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