Forging Mental Strength Through Physical Strength
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode, we talk about the mindset shift you need to make to make fitness a priority, how to set better fitness goals, and how to nip negative self-talk in the bud. We also discuss why perspective is important when going through a hard time in life.
Transcript
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Hey guys, it's Brett. We're taking a quick break. We'll be back Monday with a new episode. In the meantime, here's a rebroadcast from the podcast archives. It's episode number 415, Forging Mental Strength Through Physical Strength with world-renowned trainer Bobby Maximus.
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In this episode, we talk about the mindset of fitness, the mindset shift you got to make to make fitness a priority, how to set better fitness goals, how to nip negative self-talk in the bud, how to do things that you thought you couldn't do. A lot of great insights in this episode. Hope you enjoy it. We'll be back Monday. See you then.
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Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. When you start a fitness program, you tend to spend most of your time thinking about the physical part, what movements you're going to do, how much weight you're going to lift or how far you're going to run.
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But my guest today argues we ignore the mental aspect of our training and our peril. His name is Bobby Maximus. He's a world-renowned trainer, known for his brutal circuit workouts and the author of the new book, Maximus Body.
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Today on the show, Bobby and I dig into the psychology of fitness. We begin by discussing what holds people back from getting started or going further with their fitness goals and how sticking little green dots all over your house can help you surmount those barriers.
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He then shares why it's important to manage expectations when beginning a training program and why there are no shortcuts to any goal. We then shift gears and get into Bobby's training philosophy.
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He shares how to train to be ready for everything, why you need to do strength training before your endurance work, and why recovery is so important in reaching your fitness goals.
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We enter a conversation with some examples of the Sunday sermons Bobby shares on his website and discussion of why perspective is important when you're going through a hard time in life.
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After the show's over, check out the show notes at awim.is.maximus.
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Hey, thank you very much for having me on. I'm a big fan of what you guys do, and I'm excited to get this going.
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Well, thanks so much. I've been following you on Instagram and on the internet for a while. Love what you're doing.
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Before we get talking about getting big and strong, and I know a lot of our listeners are probably familiar with the work, let's talk about your background because it's pretty interesting.
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Right now, you're a trainer. You show people how to get big and strong, but that's not always what you were doing.
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So how did you get to where you're Bobby Maximus?
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No, and I've actually done a lot of things in my life. It's kind of funny. When I look at myself being in, I guess, the strength and conditioning industry, it's somewhere I never thought I'd be.
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When I was younger, and I'll say this with a grain of salt because the bullying topic today, I think, is a pretty big one.
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I was bullied fairly heavily until I was 15 years old. On bus rides to school, kids punched me in the face more often than not.
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I got my underwear ripped out. It was actually funny. My mom used to wonder why I went through so many underwear.
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Well, it's because they were the garbage from getting wedgied. Kids used to draw my face with marker.
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And when I was 15, a group of hockey bullies beat me up and broke my collarbone.
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I decided I never really wanted that to happen again. And so of all things, I joined the wrestling team.
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I absolutely sucked. My first year, I lost every match. My second year, I won one match out of about 40.
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And then a strange thing happened. I started to actually get good. I found the weight room.
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I kept working. I showed up every day. And I started to get better. And that kind of vaulted
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me into a university wrestling career. From there, I went on to be second in the world for amateur
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kickboxing, found myself in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And I was kind of on my way in terms
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of the physical things. But along the way, I always valued education. I always valued the things that
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my mother and father instilled in me. And so I ended up with three university degrees,
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one Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. And I also ended up with a Bachelor
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of Arts in English. I was a teacher for a short period of time. I also worked as a police officer
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for five years. And these were all things that I did before really being involved in the strength
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and conditioning industry. So I got here, I think, with a much different background than most.
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Yes, I have a sport background. I was a professional athlete. But I also kind of came in
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with a completely different educational pedigree than most people have.
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Right. You got brains and brawn here. I like this. It's a complete package.
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I mean, so how did you make that shift from doing all this stuff that you were doing to becoming a
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coach? Was there a moment where you're like, that's what I need to be doing is coaching other people?
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Yeah. The biggest thing is, I grew up with two parents that we didn't have a lot growing up,
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but they always made an effort to help other people. My dad was president of the Lions Club.
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He used to deliver presents to kids at Christmas. He used to do work with homeless people. I'd watch
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my mom always kind of bend over backwards, try to help people in the community. And so I grew up in
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an environment where helping others was always highly valued and important. And I always knew
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in some way I wanted to help other people. I mean, that's why I got into teaching. I wanted to work
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with kids and shape and mold them. And it's why I got into policing, because I really felt that I
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could make a difference. And along the way, I came to the realization that I wouldn't be who I am or
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where I am without fitness. Like if I look back to that scared 15-year-old kid that got bullied all
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the time, fitness is what changed that kid's life. And it didn't just change my life physically.
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It changed my life mentally, psychologically, spiritually. And I've realized that through
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the power of fitness, people can make tremendous changes in their lives. They can have better
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marriages. They can be better fathers. They can be better mothers. They can enjoy things more.
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They can be better at work. And I realized that that's where my talent was, that that's where I
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could really help people and make a difference in this world.
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Well, so let's kind of segue into the book. The book's Maximus Body. And instead of starting off
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with like, here are the programs or the circuits you need to do, the first half of the book's all
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about the psychology of training and what training can do to us and change us and shape us, make us
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stronger, our character stronger. But also what we need to do, the mindset shifts that need to take place
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in order for us to commit. So in your experience with coaching, I'm sure thousands of people and just
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interacting with people online. What do you think are the biggest mindset shifts that people need
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to make in order to stick with a training program and making fitness a big part of their life?
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You know, number one, hands down, it's dealing with self-imposed limitations. We all have them.
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And it's not just in the gym, it's in life. There's a lot of people out there who settle for jobs that
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they don't want to be in and they know they deserve better, but they settle. They settle for bad
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relationships. They settle for the status quo, if you will. And what we all do is we create limits at
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some point. Like, I'm going to go this far. I'm going to be this successful. And you never really
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outdo that, I call it a glass cage that you build around yourself. And the same thing happens in fitness.
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Someone says, I want to train for a marathon. I want to finish one. Well, why is your goal just to
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finish a marathon? Why not have a time goal? The next person sets a time goal of, we'll say four
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hours, but who said four hours was ever fast? There's people who do marathons in 203, 204,
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205. There's 30,000 people a year that qualify for the Boston Marathon every year. Why can't you be
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one of them? But we all set the bar really low according to those self-imposed limitations. And if I
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can get a person to believe in themselves, to unlock their potential, to see beyond their self-imposed
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limitations, it can facilitate a tremendous change in them, not only inside the gym, but also
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outside of the gym. Another area that really causes people problems, and it's become so prevalent
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today, and it makes me angry and sad, I guess, at the same time, is the amount of negative self-talk
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people engage in. I mean, the one thing that I truly believe is we were all born with a God-given
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right, if you will, to love ourselves, to be proud of ourselves, no matter who we are or what we do.
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And somewhere along the line, we learn to be really negative and harsh towards ourselves.
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And that's the last thing we need. And it's something that really, really can hold us back.
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And the negative self-talk combined with self-imposed limitations can really prevent us
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from making progress in any area of life. And especially in the gym is where I see it the most.
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But like I said, it does cross over to the rest of the world.
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So what do you do with your athletes who come to you and you tell them, okay, here's what we're
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going to do today. And they say, well, I can't do that. I mean, how do you break through those
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The first thing is just by what I'll call ruthless honesty. I tell them that's not accepted here.
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I don't let people I work with, people I train. I also do corporate training with CEOs in big
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companies all over the country. And one of the things I refuse to allow is negative self-talk.
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The minute I hear it, I deal with it head on. And if you think back to any conversation you've been
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in, that you've been in when somebody starts to bash themselves in a way, a lot of times people
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who are surrounding them just listen or they encourage it even worse. And so I don't allow
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that to happen. I cut it off right away and I help them become aware of that behavior.
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The second thing I'll do is I'll start to give them exercises. And there's a few key ones that I do
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to help them deal with self-imposed limitations, but also to deal with negative self-talk.
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Now, to get into this, there's two basic types of thoughts that go on in your brain.
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Green light thoughts, red light thoughts. Green light thoughts are positive thoughts. It's positive
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self-talk. It's thoughts that builds confidence. It's a group of thoughts that help us be successful.
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Red light thoughts, on the other hand, are the I can't thoughts. I can't do this. I'm not good
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enough for this. Those are those manifestations of self-imposed limitations. Whenever we experience
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something in life, we think both green and red light thoughts, but we've got to hope the green
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light thoughts overwhelm the red light thoughts. So what I have people do is take a small green
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sticker and stick them everywhere. Stick them on the back of your phone. I'm looking at my laptop
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right now as we record this. I've got one on the front of my laptop. And every time I see that green
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dot, I have to think a positive thought. And what I'm doing is I'm training my mind to think a
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different way. And when I experience a pressure-filled situation or a situation where I'm likely to think
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those red light or negative thoughts, I've almost given myself a vaccine or I've almost helped myself
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before by thinking these positive thoughts. And then I can win that negotiation between the green
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and red light thoughts, if you will. And it can be a really, really powerful tool. It sounds hokey.
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It sounds silly. Like I'm going to stick a green dot on something and I'm going to think a positive
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thought. But you'd be surprised the power of mental repetition. Your brain's a muscle like anything
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else. If you train it every day, it'll behave the way you want it to. The second thing I do is I have
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people wake up every morning and write down five reasons why they're going to be successful.
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Again, it seems too good to be true. It seems hokey. It seems easy. But all you do is you wake
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up and write down five reasons why you're going to be successful. And you'd be shocked at how
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powerful the effect of these exercises can be over time because eventually you start to believe this
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stuff. Yeah. No, the green dot thing is not hokey at all. I mean, I know pilots, like fighter pilots,
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there's this idea they want to stay in condition yellow, which is sort of a relaxed alert. So they're
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always head on a swivel when they're up there. And one thing they do to remind themselves,
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they put a yellow dot somewhere in the cockpit to remind them condition yellow. So it's the same
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thing. Yeah. And the funny thing is, and the reason I say it's hokey is because we live in a
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society today, and this is something that drives me crazy, frankly, where we'll go to a doctor and
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we'll get a prescription. We'll take a pill. We'll look for some magic shortcut. We'll spend
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thousands of dollars on something we don't need. And really the answer is as simple as a small green
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dot and just to start thinking positive thoughts throughout the day. Truthfully, we shouldn't need
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a green dot. You should think positive thoughts all day anyway. But it's funny, the people that
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will go for medication, they'll spend thousands of dollars. They'll read these books. They'll try
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all kinds of other things, but something that is free, easy to do, and doesn't cost you anything,
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they refuse to do because they think it's silly.
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So let's talk about this idea that you wrote about, the Maximus 130-hour rule. I think it hits
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on a problem that a lot of people have when they start training programs or a fitness program.
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Again, they have that magical thinking that I start this and right away, I'm going to be awesome.
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But that's not how it works. Well, let's talk about your podcast. You guys have a tremendous
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amount of downloads. You've had a tremendous array of guests. Was it like that day one?
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You had to work at it. And it's funny with the podcast thing because everyone tells me,
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hey, Bobby, you should start a podcast. And they think it's 30 minutes a week and that's all you
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do. But for a lot of these podcasts, I don't think people realize the amount of work or the time that
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goes into them. Sometimes 20 hours, sometimes 25 hours per podcast. And we know this to be true in
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every area of life. You don't wake up a doctor. You don't wake up a lawyer. You don't wake up the
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best player in the NBA or the NFL. If people understood the work people go through to achieve
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something in life, it's remarkable. So why should fitness be any different? We're bombarded these
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days with these infomercials that promise four-minute abs, four-minute shoulders, the five-minute
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solution, the 21-day fix. There's all these things that promise a quick fix, but they never,
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ever, ever work. The gym fitness is the same as any other area of life. If you want it, you have
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to work for it. And the harder you work, the more successful you're going to be. The 130-hour rule is a
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way of, I guess, visualizing that. I've trained people since I was 21 in various capacities. And if you
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give me anybody five days a week for six months, I can help them make a radical transformation.
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They want to lose 100 pounds? Good. They want to play a professional sport? Good. They want to be
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better at their job? Good. I can help them do that. But it takes six months, five days a week.
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That's the equivalent of 130 hours. If you put 130 hours in, you'll improve at something for sure.
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The inevitable question is, I want it faster. Six months is too long. Can I do it in three months?
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Yes. You can, but now you still have to pay that 130-hour toll, if you will. The price doesn't go
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down. So now instead of training once a day for six months, you're training twice a day for three
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months. Does that make sense? No, that makes sense. You've still got to put in the work. So it's like
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a mortgage. You just get higher payments. So take a 15-year mortgage or a 30-year mortgage.
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It doesn't matter. You're going to pay somehow though. And there's no way around it.
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Yeah. I'm curious, going back to this psychological, helping people psychologically
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get through their limits. I imagine one thing you do in your gym to show people that their
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limitations they've imposed on themselves are self-imposed is that you actually get them to do
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the thing that they think they can't do, right? Exactly.
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I mean, any examples of that that you've seen over and over again?
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Yeah. A big one actually is the 2,000-meter row for time. And I don't know how many listeners out
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there have rowed a 2,000-meter row for time, but it's difficult. And it's short enough that you
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can go super hard, but it's long enough that you spend some time inside your own brain.
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What generally happens for a 2,000-meter row for time, the first 500 is easy and the last 500 is
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easy. Because whenever you start a journey or you're at the end of a journey, it tends to be
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fairly easy. When you're starting or at the finish line, good. It's the middle where everybody
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gives up. And again, not just true inside the gym. That's true outside of the gym.
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Starting's easy. Finishing's easy. It's that middle part where everyone falls apart.
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And so I give people a 2,000-meter row for time. The standard in the gym for men is seven minutes.
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The standard for women is eight minutes. And I'm shocked at the people who will just accept a nine
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minute or a 10 minute or a 12 minute 2K. And I force them to do it. And it hurts. And it's not easy.
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And they're forced to face their demons somewhere throughout this effort. But by overcoming their
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self-imposed limitation, by hitting the standard, it builds confidence in every area in the gym,
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but also outside the gym as well. And I keep coming back to that because I really believe
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what the gym can do for you in your real life is far more important than just being fit.
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Yeah. It carries over to outside the gym. I've seen that in my own life with my own training.
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It does carry over. You don't think you can do something, but you're able to do it in the gym.
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And you're like, well, I can do that outside as well.
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Well, for sure. And it's funny. I'm actually working with the people at Blender Bottle right
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now, which they make the best shaker cup in the world. I mean, everyone,
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every shaker cup you'll ever see probably is a Blender Bottle shaker cup. And I've been working
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with their corporate team. And I'm actually working with their CEO. And it's funny because when we
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started, and this just happened, he could only deadlift 95 pounds.
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And that was a complete psychological mental roadblock. He was certainly capable of lifting
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more than 95 pounds, but he just couldn't bring himself to. Well, just this morning,
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we deadlifted 285 pounds. And this is within three months. So it's pretty incredible that someone can
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triple their old one rep max, that someone can gain that much strength. And honestly, I would like to
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tell you it was from some secret deadlift program that will triple your deadlift and you'd be the
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strongest person in the universe. But it's not. That's just overcoming those self-imposed
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limitations and gaining that confidence. And now it's transferred over to every other area
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of the gym and arguably business. But things that before were an, I can't, are now an, I can.
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I love that. We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.
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And now back to the show. All right, well, let's get into training. And we talked about the
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psychology of training, what you're trying to do mentally, emotionally with your athletes.
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What's your philosophy towards training? Is it emphasis on strength, endurance,
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metabolic conditioning, all of the above? Tell us about it for those who aren't familiar.
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You know, I can simplify that by just saying goal-directed training. When you ask if somebody's
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fit, I guess the question I want to ask is fit for what or fit compared to who? Fitness is a
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relative term. So is the winner of the CrossFit Games the fittest person on the planet? Or is it
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the person that won an Ironman? It's really task dependent. So everything for me is dependent on a
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goal. If an NBA player comes in the gym, we've got one goal. And that is to make them better at
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basketball. I don't care about their endurance at that point or metabolic conditioning.
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The job is to put a ball through a hoop. If I have an NFL player come in the gym,
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their goal is to be better at football. And if they're a quarterback, that means throwing the
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ball further, throwing it harder, throwing it more accurately. If it's a linebacker, it means being
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faster, bigger, stronger, making more tackles. On the far end of the spectrum, you could have a person
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come into the gym and want to lose 150 pounds. I'm not worried about what they can deadlift.
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They're not worried about what they can back squat. The goal is to lose 150 pounds. So everything
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is goal directed. That said, I do put a high emphasis on what I call general physical preparedness,
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which means being good at everything. You've got a good level of strength. You've got a good level
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of endurance. You've got a good level of metabolic conditioning. I tend to include all those things.
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But like I said, everything relates to the goal. And I mean, it's probably the best example I can give
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you is do you think the world's strongest man, Thor Bjornsson won it this year. Do you think he
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cares what he can run a mile in or what his marathon time is? No, no, no, not absolutely not. He's there
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to do one thing and that's his goal. So everything we do, you come in the gym, we sit you down. I
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believe fitness is an individual prospect. We come up with your goals and then we write a custom program
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and deliver custom training to you to accomplish that goal.
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It's awesome. So let's say there's an individual listening who they don't have a specific
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fitness modality they're going for. They don't want to power lift. They don't want to be in
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endurance. They just want to be like, as you said, prepared for anything. What does programming look
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like that? Because whenever you're training for multiple modalities, it can get tricky, right?
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Because when you train for endurance, you might do so at the expense of strength. If you train for
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strength, you might do so at the expense of endurance. So how do you balance all that?
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By honestly working everything. A lot of people are fearful and I'm glad you brought that up,
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the strength endurance conundrum, if you will. A lot of people think strength will hurt their
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endurance or vice versa, but that's not necessarily true. That's only true for that Thor Bjornsson
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fellow who won the world's strongest man who I mentioned. Endurance will hurt his strength to a
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degree. But for normal people, and it's shocking actually how high they can get in each area without
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a detriment, if you will. If you look at some of the winners of the CrossFit Games, we've got people
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who are deadlifting 550 pounds and running a sub five-minute mile, which is incredible. But the
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key is to pay attention to all areas and ignore none. And what often happens, and it's a key mistake,
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we gravitate towards what we like or what we're good at in the gym, and we ignore things. And those
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things become areas of weakness. So in a week, I would have you do an endurance workout.
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I would have you do a strength workout. I would have you do a circuit workout or an interval
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workout that works on metabolic conditioning. I would have you do a workout that works on
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what I'll call structural integration mobility. And so by engaging in all these things, we can build
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a well-rounded fitness profile. Gotcha. I mean, one thing I've known you for and read about stuff
00:22:26.360
that you put out there is your famous sort of circuits for metabolic conditioning because they're
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brutal. I'm curious, are there one or two that are some of your favorites to introduce people
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to give a taste of what kind of things you're going to have them do?
00:22:40.460
Yes. One of my absolute favorites, and it's one of my favorites because it's two exercises that
00:22:47.920
people are extremely used to, are the bench press and burpee circuit. And what you do is you do a
00:22:56.240
bench press ladder at body weight combined with a burpee ladder. You do 10 bench presses at body
00:23:01.580
weight, one burpee, nine bench presses at body weight, two burpees, eight and three, seven and
00:23:10.120
four, six and five. And you work yourself all the way till you do one bench press and 10 burpees.
00:23:18.380
It's one of my favorites because again, people are used to the exercises. Most people bench press,
00:23:24.220
they consider themselves good at it. And when you throw something cardiovascular like burpees in the
00:23:29.060
mix, it is funny how fast the wheels fall off, if you will. And it gives them something that
00:23:35.580
I've come to call it the moment, you know, in the gym, but it's that moment during a workout
00:23:41.560
where you realize you bit off more than you can chew, that this is a lot harder than you expected it to
00:23:48.760
be. And you've either got to, you got to make a conscious decision of whether or not you're going to
00:23:53.080
persevere and push through that, or you're just going to quit. And that's a teachable moment.
00:23:58.320
That's the, that's the thing that really allows fitness to transfer to somebody's life outside the
00:24:03.820
gym. And is this like a finisher? Is this something you do at an end of a workout or would this be like
00:24:07.620
a workout? You know, it depends on your level of fitness. For some people, it's the workout.
00:24:12.480
For some people, it can be a finisher because again, you know, when you, when I ask if you're fit,
00:24:18.820
it's compared to who. So for somebody like me, who's trained his whole life, who works hard,
00:24:24.460
who's built, you know, his whole life around fitness, for me, that would be more of a finisher.
00:24:28.540
For some people, that might be the hardest workout they've ever done.
00:24:32.640
Gotcha. Whenever you're, you're training, you know, strength and endurance, I imagine you have
00:24:37.060
guys do the strength stuff first and then endurance stuff like as the end, right? Like,
00:24:42.140
so you like do all your strength in lifting first and then like run, you know, two miles or three miles,
00:24:46.900
whatever afterwards. Yes. And that's, and that's correct. And that is because when we're training
00:24:51.640
for strength, it's important to lift maximal weight. So I want people to be as strong and
00:24:57.000
I guess as, as a put together as possible for that portion of the workout. The other,
00:25:03.080
the other thing is, is safety. I don't think this comes across all the time in what I do,
00:25:07.580
but I am extremely risk averse. I cannot afford to get somebody hurt. For my professional
00:25:14.280
athletes, that can really affect their paycheck or affect their life. And for my normal people
00:25:18.740
who are just training, listen, if you come in and train with me and you get hurt, you're on a shelf
00:25:23.200
for two or three weeks. We're not going to accomplish your goals and you're not going to get anywhere and
00:25:27.500
you're going to be frustrated and have a difficult time. So I want to keep you injury free. So I don't
00:25:31.900
want you lifting weights necessarily in a, in a state of pure exhaustion. Like imagine running a mile
00:25:38.460
for time and then trying to max deadlift. I mean, that's a recipe for injury.
00:25:41.980
Yeah, that would suck. And I don't, I don't, I don't want that.
00:25:44.160
So besides, you know, you've got these monster circuits in here. You just, they just can thrash
00:25:48.600
you, but you, you're big on recovery as well. Cause I think it's often overlooked when people train.
00:25:54.620
So what's your recommendations for, how do you recover your athletes or recover yourself
00:25:59.260
from all this really hard training you're doing?
00:26:02.180
Yeah. So everyone who's listening out there, listen very carefully. There's no such thing as
00:26:07.020
overtraining. There's only under recovery. There's a cost to everything and you've got to pay. So if
00:26:14.040
you want to train every day, you've got to pay for it somehow. And in terms of recovery, the number
00:26:19.060
one way you can recover is sleep. I would ask you all out there listening, how many hours of sleep
00:26:24.080
you get a night? And if the answer is anything less than eight, you are wrong. You need eight to
00:26:28.940
nine hours of quality sleep a night. I use a cell phone analogy for people. Now let me ask you a
00:26:34.900
question. If you leave the house in the morning and your, your cell phone, your, your iPhone or
00:26:39.880
your, your Samsung galaxy or whatever you use is at 10%, how useful is that phone for the entire day?
00:26:45.560
It's not useful at all. Not at all. In fact, you're probably shutting it off, putting the battery
00:26:49.720
saver on. You can't make phone calls. You can't do text messages. Like you're, you're done. It's a
00:26:54.180
useless tool. On the other hand, you leave the house in the morning and that phone's at a hundred
00:26:59.500
percent. It's a useful tool all day. And so what people are doing, what they need to understand,
00:27:05.480
I guess, is that you're the cell phone and the bed's the charger. So if you're leaving the house
00:27:09.760
on a 10 or 20 or 30% charge every morning, there's no way you can be effective in any area of your life.
00:27:16.240
If you leave the house on a hundred percent charge, now you're effective. Now you're really capable of
00:27:22.720
doing something. You've got some real genuine horsepower behind you and you can get work done. And so sleep
00:27:28.780
is where it starts. Then I tell people stress relief and stress management is the next area you want
00:27:36.220
to attack. And I'm sure you've been through periods of extreme stress. How does everything work? It
00:27:43.740
doesn't work well. You gain unwanted weight, you lose muscle, you're miserable, you can't think
00:27:50.200
straight. So I tell people to do things to address stress. Now there's, I'll call proactive stress
00:27:55.540
management and reactive stress management. Proactive is really starting to deal with the things that cause
00:28:02.500
you stress. If you're in a bad relationship, get out of it. If you're in a job you hate, leave and do
00:28:07.700
something that you love. If there's people who stress you out, stay away from them. Those are proactive
00:28:14.900
ways to cut off stress. Reactive ways to deal with stress are what I call recovery modalities.
00:28:21.500
Get a massage, have a nap, have a sauna, go for a walk every day for a half hour with your favorite
00:28:28.220
playlist and leave your phone in the office. Those are things you can do to help deal with the
00:28:33.100
after effects of stress. But if people can focus on those areas, they'll make a tremendous improvement.
00:28:38.560
All right. So sleep and then manage stress. And for that managing stress thing, I imagine
00:28:43.500
the green dot exercise plays a role in that as well. Because when you're talking negative to yourself
00:28:49.120
and you're down on yourself, that can stress you out. I've noticed that whenever I'm sort of
00:28:53.960
negative on myself, I just feel stressed out more. But when I'm more positive, things just sort of
00:29:00.000
roll off me and I can handle challenges better. Well, absolutely. And just anecdotally, some of
00:29:05.600
the people who complain the most are the most stressed. And it creates this almost negative feedback loop or
00:29:10.700
downward spiral where the more stressed you are, the more negative you become. And the more negative
00:29:15.100
become, the more stressed you become. And you never get out of it.
00:29:18.720
Yeah. So on sleep, I'm sure you get eight hours of sleep. What time do you go to bed? What time do
00:29:24.320
Right now, I'm going to bed at nine o'clock at night and I'm waking up at 5.30 in the morning.
00:29:29.560
5.30 is far earlier than I want to wake up. But as I said, I'm training the corporate team here and
00:29:37.020
the employees at Blender Bottle. And that's the time they can train before work. So I've had to adjust
00:29:40.940
my schedule. But it wasn't hard. I used to go to bed at 10 or 11 and wake up at 7 or 8. I just
00:29:46.240
adjusted my schedule forward. And a lot of people say they can't do that. They can. And I did it
00:29:52.780
because I know how important sleep is to me. And what's the worst thing that can happen? I miss a
00:29:58.660
basketball game. I miss a hockey game. I miss my show. Well, fortunately, in this day and age,
00:30:04.200
we have something called DVR and you can just tape it and watch it the next day.
00:30:07.240
Right. Well, speaking of stress and those really high stress situations, there will be,
00:30:12.280
I'm sure, like you said, all of us have experienced times in our life where it's
00:30:14.840
really, really, really stressful. And I'm talking, you get a major sickness,
00:30:19.860
family member gets sickness, you get laid off, et cetera. You've experienced that firsthand.
00:30:25.420
What do you do to keep training and keep doing the things that you know makes your body feel good,
00:30:31.280
makes your mind feel good? How do you manage those big, really stressful events in your life?
00:30:37.240
You know, the first thing is, and I'm going to relate this to fitness because fitness is so
00:30:43.540
important to me, is it comes down to how bad you want something. It's funny that when people really
00:30:49.340
want something, they'll figure out a way to make it work. And so the first thing I do is when I'm in a
00:30:55.360
period of extreme stress, I always put fitness first. Fitness is my anchor. I am in the gym an hour to
00:31:02.220
two hours a day, every day. I mean, my slogan, my tagline is every damn day. That's my anchor.
00:31:08.320
That's where it all starts. And it's stress relieving for me. When I train, I feel better.
00:31:14.140
Even on days I don't want to train, I will show up at the gym and just sit there. Because again,
00:31:20.020
it's my anchor. It's my safe place. It is, I am so thankful for working out and training because I
00:31:26.500
think it's built a platform on which I live my life. And so I always pay homage to that and pay
00:31:31.980
respect to it. And I show up. But beyond that, in periods of high stress, I always make sure to make
00:31:38.880
time for myself. And that may be just an hour walk in the afternoon without my phone with a good
00:31:45.680
playlist. It may be meditating. It may be going for a massage. It may be having a sauna. But I really,
00:31:53.420
really strive to take care of myself during those stressful periods. And that's one of the things
00:31:58.640
I think we forget. When we are in periods of high stress, we cut back on sleep and our self-care
00:32:04.480
goes down the toilet. And we always have to make sure we have to care for our bodies. Kind of like
00:32:10.540
a car. What happens if you drive your car hard every day and you never get the oil changed, never
00:32:15.500
get the tires aligned? What's going to happen to it? It's going to fall apart and your body will fall
00:32:20.440
apart. So always make time for that self-care. Well, I mean, I don't know if you want to talk
00:32:23.800
about it. You mentioned earlier before we got on the interview that you contracted some sort of
00:32:27.740
bacterial disease where it almost killed you. Yep. And you're still dealing. I mean, thankfully,
00:32:32.860
you survived. But you're still dealing with the after effects. How do you not let that get to you?
00:32:37.880
Because I imagine that can be really frustrating. It's like, okay, well, I beat the worst of it. But now
00:32:42.640
I'm still dealing with this thing months later. I should be done with it.
00:32:46.500
Yeah. And you know what it comes down to for me? It comes down to perspective. So
00:32:51.060
the disease I had was colostrum difficile. It's a pretty bad stomach bacteria. Symptoms can range
00:32:56.720
from mild diarrhea to death. One in five actually die from it. It's really, really bad. There's
00:33:03.180
actually a comedian named Tig. There's a documentary on Netflix about her that she talks about it in and
00:33:09.520
out of the hospital that'll shed a lot of insight. But for me, I lost 40 pounds in a month.
00:33:14.220
I was bedridden for a month, almost had to get my colon removed. I ended up with an umbilical hernia
00:33:20.140
from stomach spasms. It was a really, really bad deal. But as bad as things got, I always had a
00:33:26.880
faith that things would get better. And honestly, life's not easy. The world is always going to throw
00:33:33.820
some kind of bullshit at you. There's always something that the world's going to do to try
00:33:39.460
to knock you down. And I've been through a lot. I've been through a divorce. I've been through the
00:33:43.420
death of my dad when I was 20 years old. I've been through illnesses myself. I had what was
00:33:48.640
supposed to be a career-ending injury at one point. And what I've learned through all this is to stay
00:33:54.320
positive because things will get better. And as bad as you think things are, somebody's always got
00:34:00.080
it worse. And it's important to remember that, to be grateful for what you have, and to keep
00:34:05.360
persevering because that's what it really comes down to.
00:34:10.300
That's exactly what it is. And it's just, honestly, it's the power of positive thinking.
00:34:14.360
And like I said, as bad as you think it is, it can always get worse. So be grateful what you
00:34:19.800
have and keep pushing. And you can't let anything get in the way of your goals. There's actually this
00:34:24.540
whole theory. And I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but whenever you find your true
00:34:28.560
calling, what you're really meant to do, it's almost like the world starts throwing obstacles in
00:34:33.440
your way. And it's a common theme you'll hear amongst the most successful business people,
00:34:38.220
the most successful athletes, that when they found their thing, the world kind of rises up
00:34:42.540
and tries to stop them. And it's almost like a test to make you earn it.
00:34:45.440
Right. Stephen Pressfield, the writer, calls it the resistance. So one thing you're famous for,
00:34:50.620
I've seen on your Instagram account are these things called your Sunday sermons. What sort of
00:34:56.020
topics do you hit in these things? And have there been any in particular that have resonated with a
00:35:00.800
You know, the Sunday sermons, they tend to be inspirational things that extend way beyond
00:35:07.760
the gym. Yes, I am a fitness personality. Yes, I do care about the gym. Yes, I take selfies
00:35:15.300
of myself and lift weights and do all those things. But what I'm far more interested in
00:35:20.560
is helping people develop a life outside the gym. Like I said before, and I'll say it again,
00:35:26.180
I want people to be better fathers, better mothers, be better at their lives and enjoy themselves more.
00:35:30.800
And so the sermons tend to be philosophical one-liners that can help inspire people.
00:35:36.960
One of my favorites is always bet on yourself. Be confident in yourself. Always believe in
00:35:43.140
yourself. Another one, you didn't wake up to be mediocre. It's a reminder that you didn't wake up
00:35:49.700
to just do the status quo. Extend yourself, push yourself to your limits, be the very best version
00:35:56.160
of you that you can be. Another one that I like because I do believe in being a better person is
00:36:03.160
be the person you want to be around. Lead by example, treat others the way you want to be
00:36:08.660
treated. And so those are the things that I write about. And then I try to teach people about in a
00:36:16.720
paragraph or two paragraph statement afterwards.
00:36:19.720
Right. And people can see those on your Instagram account. What's your Instagram handle?
00:36:22.820
It's at Bobby Maximus. They can go there. They can also go to my website,
00:36:26.780
Bobby Maximus.com. And I always put the sermons on there, but I think it's important to be reminded
00:36:32.720
of these things on a day-to-day basis, if you will. And sometimes as funny as it sounds,
00:36:39.660
there's a lot of negatives about social media. Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of trolls out
00:36:44.060
there. There's a lot of bullying. There's a lot of negatives, but there's also a lot of positives
00:36:48.740
because there are days myself where I'm unmotivated, where I have a difficult time
00:36:52.860
moving. And I read something on Instagram or I read something on Twitter that really inspires me
00:36:57.280
and helps motivate me. And I'm grateful for it. And I want to do that for other people.
00:37:01.960
Right. Yeah. I mean, that's one thing you talk about in the book, an important part of
00:37:04.800
ensuring your success with your training is surround yourself with people who are also
00:37:09.300
striving after the same goal so you can provide some mutual support.
00:37:12.740
Well, yeah. And I always say you become who you hang around. You're the average of the five
00:37:16.940
people you spend the most time with. And you can get that through Instagram. You can be inspired by
00:37:22.340
people. And like I said, I'm grateful to have been inspired by people on Instagram. And I'm also
00:37:28.580
grateful and honored to be able to inspire other people. And really, that's what I want to do at the
00:37:34.660
end of the day. I want to make a difference in somebody's life. And how do I get paid? Well,
00:37:40.180
what really pays me is, I guess, that spiritual or that emotional feeling of when someone writes me an
00:37:46.500
email and says, hey, thank you for posting that. That really made a difference to me. Or I've
00:37:51.160
decided to be a better dad or I've decided to give up alcohol. I mean, you start to get messages like
00:37:56.120
that and see the effect you have on people. And it's quite remarkable. And that's what gets me up
00:38:02.560
every morning. And that's what makes me sleep easy at night. Well, Bobby, this has been a great
00:38:05.920
conversation. So I think following Instagram, we mentioned the website. Where can they get more
00:38:10.660
information about the book, Maximus Body? Yeah. The book itself, if you just go to Google and Google
00:38:15.480
Maximus Body, there'll be a bunch of ways that it can pop up that you can buy it. It's on Google
00:38:20.300
Play. It's on iBooks. It's on Amazon. I think Amazon is the one most people use. And it's available
00:38:25.780
in your local bookstore. You can get it on electronic and paperback now. So it's something
00:38:30.460
that I'd certainly recommend to pick up. And like I said, it's a lot more than just a fitness book.
00:38:35.080
It's something that can help you change your life. And I believe in it.
00:38:38.760
All right. Bobby Maximus, thank you so much for your time. It's been a pleasure.
00:38:42.420
My guest today was Bobby Maximus. His new book is Maximus Body. It's available on
00:38:46.260
amazon.com and bookstores everywhere. You can find more information about his work at
00:38:49.500
bobbymaximus.com or follow him on Instagram at bobbymaximus. Also check out our show notes
00:38:54.520
at aom.is slash Maximus, where you can find links to resources where you can delve deeper into this topic.
00:39:11.220
Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. For more manly tips and advice,
00:39:16.280
make sure to check out the Art of Manliness website at artofmanliness.com. And if you're
00:39:20.100
looking to get started with a fitness program and have had trouble sticking with it, check out
00:39:24.480
The Strenuous Life. It's a program we developed to help you put into action the things we've been
00:39:28.240
talking about on the podcast or writing the website for the past 10 years.
00:39:31.580
Strenuouslife.co. You can get signed up to get notifications when our next enrollment goes up.
00:39:35.760
Had a lot of guys who've done the program who've, for the first time in their life,
00:39:39.220
stuck with a fitness goal for longer than three months. Guys losing weight, getting stronger.
00:39:42.900
It's fantastic. Check it out, strenuouslife.co. As always, thank you for your continued support.
00:39:47.640
And until next time, this is Brett McKay telling you to stay manly.