Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 316: Training Celebrities, Building a Fitness Business + more with Gunnar Peterson

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

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Hey, everybody, welcome in to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matrenga, and today I'm sitting down with fitness industry veteran Gunnar Peterson. Gunnar Peterson is a celebrity trainer, a moniker he doesn't entirely love, but he is certainly known for training some Hollywood elites from the Kardashian family to Hugh Jackman to Jennifer Lopez to countless others. Gunner has been an industry veteran for over 30 years. I think you'll really enjoy this podcast. There's lots to learn about how to age with grace, how to fit fitness into your life, how to make sure you're not taking yourself too seriously

and learn from your kids and how it is they interface with the world amongst many other really cool things. I think you'll enjoy. Let's get into it with Gunnar Peterson. This episode is brought to you in part thanks to some of our amazing partners like LMNT. LMNT makes the best electrolyte product on the market. In fact, I've actually started drinking my LMNT each and every morning before I have coffee so as to optimize my circadian biology, make sure that I'm hydrated, and make sure that I'm getting ahead on my water intake throughout the day and not reliant on stimulants, but instead being somebody who's reliant on hydration, and magnesium to support brain and body hydration. This combination of electrolytes improves health, performance, body and brain performance, mind you, helps to reduce cramps and soreness and get you more hydrated.

There's no sugar. LMNT is sweetened with stevia. It's perfect for exercise and perfect for the sauna because the flavors are natural, tasty, delicious, and not overpowering. And if you're like me, you'll use them multiple times a day across your training sessions to get hydrated early, to replenish after sauna use. And again, it's not just me. LMNT is the official sports drink of Team USA Weightlifting, and it's used by athletes in the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, as well as athletes like you and I looking to take your fitness

to the next level. My favorite flavors are definitely the raspberry and citrus. When I put a box together, I try to load up on raspberry and citrus. And when you put your box together, you can get a free sample pack containing all of Element's amazing flavors like mango chili, citrus, raspberry, orange, and more. To get access to this free gift with purchase, scroll down to the show notes and check out using the special link for Dynamic Dialogue listeners. Gunnar, how's it going, man? So good. Thank you for making time for this. Absolutely, man. I'm glad we're getting a chance to talk. For anybody who's not familiar with Gunner's work,

Gunner is a celebrity trainer. I feel like if you Google him, that's what you will find. We're starting with that term. We're starting with that term. I think it's such a cringy term in a way, but you've really accomplished a lot. I know you've spent time working with the Lakers. You've spent time in the industry for a very long time.

I know you are at an educative role, programming role with F45. And you're right, that phrase gets thrown around quite a bit. But I remember specifically being in my exercise science class in 2017. And we were talking about what we wanted to do for careers. And I told my professor, I think I want to just stick with training clients. I enjoy that. Brings me a lot of peace of mind that I get to work with people one-on-one. And she's like, you can't do that for a long time.

You can't do that and be successful. That's a kid's job. And I remember going, is she right? Is this a kid's job? And I went online and I looked up who's personal training and doing a good job. And if you looked up, this is in 2017. So you know Gunnar's been around for a long time doing good work. This is in 2017. If you look up who's the number one trainer, I'm doing good work. This is in 2017. If you look up like who's the number one trainer, Gunnar Peterson. And I found that same article before our interview today from all the way back then. And that was a huge, that was a huge inspiration for me to just say, I think there's something here if I just stick with it and form these relationships and whether you do them with

celebrities, pro athletes, or, you know, regular John Doe, Jane Doe, you're making a huge difference. And I'm stoked we're getting to chat today, man, because if it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have stuck with this career as long as I have. And you give us something to aspire to. It's really cool. Cringe as that title may be. Just the title, but I'll tell you something funny that you said that. just the title but i'll tell you something funny that you said that uh before i was married somebody said to me once well how long you're like you're a trainer what are you going to train people when you're 40 and you know at the time i was probably 28 29 30 and i go i mean it was it was such a it just caught me off guard and i said i mean yeah and then the person said oh and so when you're 50 you're going to train people i go well you know of course i had to double down now because i'm

and i go yeah now i got defensive and then they go well like when you're sick i go i don't know i don't know i don't know where this comes like i don't know what you always say but my but over time i've evolved that conversation in my head and And my thought was, my thought is, you don't say that to other career professionals. No one says to an attorney, Hey, Bob, what are you going to play? Play that lawyer gig there for two or 40 or 50? Nobody, nobody asks those people that I want to be a fireman. Nobody says, What are you going to do that when you're 50? You just the person just does their career. It's such a, it has the reputation of being so transient, which it's earned, but it doesn't have to be. And so when I speak to trainers, I make the distinction, is this a career or a job for you? There's no right or wrong,

but you just have to know where you fit in, what your role is going to be. And then I would say, if it's a job for you, then maybe try not to muddy the waters for those who are making it a career, because you can kind of get in their way. And by that, I mean like... So true. Don't step in and try to poach, like poach some super influential celebrity or, or, or stand out person, because you're probably not, if this is just a job for you, not a career, you might not be well-equipped to deliver the right messaging across a bigger platform.

Uh, you're also kind of stealing, uh, potential thunder from someone who's going to parlay it into something bigger and career wise. So and then they get well, what if I start as a job and it becomes a career? That's valid. That happens. But I'm saying if you know, this is your side hustle, and you know, you're always going to, you know, own your restaurant or teach high school math, and you want to do this on the side, that's all well and good. But don't then try to step in where the people are playing for keeps. I totally do, man. I really like that. I think the trainers,

the coaches, the strength and conditioning coaches that I know who have been doing this the longest, they keep doing it because of how rewarding it is to see people succeed. And the people that are more transient, they typically get into it because they love it, but they don't love other people's success, maybe as much as they love being able to work at the gym or drop in for a couple hours, which kind of leads me to my opening question. Did you start with this as a job and turn it into a career? Did you know from the jump, I'm extremely passionate about fitness and I'm just going to follow this as long as I can? Two separate thoughts there. I was definitely passionate about fitness and following it for myself as long as I could, can, will. But the job part found me. Someone asked me

to train. Someone asked me if they could work out with me was how it was worded. And I thought it was, you know, a workout partner, and they wanted me to train them. So I backed into it, I had another job at a day job at the time, and a nine to five type thing. And I did this before work. And then I did it after work. And after a very short period, I realized it was purely financial. At that point, I realized I was making more money with a few hours before and after work than I was during the whole work period. And so I, so I quit the work. The work was also just a transient. It was just a job. It wasn't a career. It wasn't like something I was pursuing.

So then you get into this and then you start saying, then it starts to become, you know, you're young. Hey, can I, how can I add money? How can I, how can I make more money? How can I turn this into more money? You're just like getting money so you can have, you know, stuff, a car, a house, dinners, whatever. And what I would say to fat way forward, and this is what we should have talked about in that career part is then what this can lead to in the industry. And I just talked about in that career part is then what this can lead to in the industry and i just talked about this uh at our seminar where this can where this can take

you the affiliations the relationships you create whether it's you become so obsessed with the equipment you're using you you find yourself at a sales job or design job with an equipment company, or you find yourself in an innovation capacity role with one of those companies. You start to go down the nutrition rabbit hole, and you realize there are a lot of strange things in nutrition that don't quite add up to you. So you start to pursue it. Next thing you know, you're going to try to get your PhD, or you're just going to become a registered nutritionist or registered dietitian. Or you're going to work on alternative medicine through nutrition. Or you get into supplements and you start thinking, God, there's a lot of... You walk into a supplement store, it can be overwhelming. And then over the course of your career as a trainer, you start sampling and trying and

recommending and you realize maybe there's a career for you in the supplement. And there's so many offshoots from this. So you may start well-intentioned as a career trainer, but you find yourself going down online work, like I just said, equipment, nutrition, supplementation. There are so many other avenues that you can go down that I wouldn't say just because you start out thinking you're going to be a nuts and bolts trainer, that that means that that's your purgatory. You could parlay that into some really cool careers. really cool careers. And along the way, if yours is anything like mine, the path can have you connecting with people you never thought you would connect to. I mean, literally icons, people that were just at one point,

you know, names or, or like shadows. And you could never see yourself on earth. And I'm not just talking about celebrities and pro athletes. I'm talking about like leaders in the industry, people, you know, the Jack the lanes, the Joe leaders, the, the Gilad's, the people who like really were, were putting this together nuts and bolts of, of the building blocks of what the fitness industry has become.

It used to be like a circus sideshow. It was hard to find gyms, you know, information was hard to find gems. Information was hard to come by. Valid information was even harder to come by. And now there's just a deluge of information every single day on your phone. And now your hardest job is sifting through the good from the bad. So I would say just because you are looking at this as a career doesn't mean you have to relegate it to just that. Totally. I think that's a great way to look at it. And I've been doing it long enough, nuts and bolts. I still train clients one-on-one. I love that. I know people who are like, I can't wait to get away from that and get big online. All the time. And I make that joke and have for forever. I say,

it's so funny. I'm one of the few, even today, I'm one of the few trainers I know who's not trying to get out of the gym. Maybe. Exactly. But maybe that's shame on me. Maybe I should be, But maybe that's shame on me. Maybe I should be or maybe I should try to find more work balance in terms of in the gym work and ancillary revenue streams or different branches of it. But still, there's nothing wrong with... There's no right or wrong. That's what it goes. It's like exercises and equipment. To me, it's not better or worse. It's just different. And you got to pick something and stick with it. And I would say, you hit on something that was huge for me. And I didn't pick up on this until I'd been doing it for five or six years. I started young. I'll ask you more about when you got started. I'm sure it was pretty young, but I didn't know anything about the world. I had adults who were out of shape, who were fortunate enough to find me tolerable that they would let me guide them through instruction. Well, they gave me tons of wisdom, tons of free information, kept me out of trouble, kept me out of... There was no partying in college. I was up at five training people who had to train before work. I didn't share that, just so we're clear. I'm not going

to try to whitewash my history there. That's okay. And so that gift that the transaction of, yeah, this is what I get for a session, but what you get from those relationships is so invaluable that not having that to me, I don't care if you can make more doing it other ways, I would never want to forfeit that piece. Keeps my finger on the pulse and keeps me happy. And think about all the different walks of life that you interacted with. You interacted with, I don't know who you interact with, but I know I interacted with high-end business overachievers, people who had startups who literally went from sleeping in their car to, you know, having a one bedroom apartment to now they're shopping for houses up on Mulholland,

you know, and then you those people, plus entertainers, plus writers, directors, the creative minds that I've been around, just it blows me away, just the way they see the world, what they think of, then you go to the other of then you go to the other side you go to the professionals you go to the doctors the lawyers and and just it's amazing what comes at you every single day yeah i think it's the ultimate gift that i never expected getting into this so when you got started did you have kind of a similar origin story like young jock turned i want to take this love of sports and turn it into fitness or how did you kind of stumble into that fateful day where your buddy's like hey i want you to train me um my i was a fat kid so i was that was always a you know fat buck tooth redheaded freckly not

you know and with a name gunner which i wouldn't recommend and growing up with in Texas. And then, and then, uh, my mom said, look, I used to complain about it. My mom goes, do you want to do something about it? And she took me to Weight Watchers again, not sure I would recommend that, but her heart was in the right place. And that was in-person meetings. This was long, long, long before the internet. Yeah. I was a 10 year old kid, by the way. Oh, wow. Yeah. And it's stand up in front of the room stuff and announce your name and your weight and that kind of stuff. But it definitely set me on the path. My mom always super active, super, super active.

I mean, swimming, riding, exercising. She summited Kilimanjaro when she was 70. Like my mom really raised the bar. So that always, that was definitely a beacon. And in college I dabbled with it, but unlike you, I had the party side. So my, my improvements, my gains were going to always be in check because it was, you know, as we know now you can't out train a bad diet, you know, don't try to tell me that at 20 and you know,

it's nachos and beer, and then training and then running in plastic suits with ski hats on in the summer in Durham, North Carolina, up and down stadium stairs. And then let's go have beers at lunch. So that was going to only go as far as it went. And then after that, it was you're on your own, went and then after that it was uh you're on your own you're working so the part the partying goes way down but the training can go up and the free time where that used to be used reading your academic stuff is now for me anyway was all skewed towards uh all things health and fitness so my knowledge went like bump bump won't and that's bump, won't. And that's when I started to apply it. That's when I started to see results. That's when I thought, wow, I'm really able to

control the body that I'm in versus these are the cards I'm dealt. Oh, well. Yeah, totally. And I look at you now, you're in great shape. You've been in great shape for three, four decades. How has the training changed? I've seen my training change just from 18 to 28. And I'm like, wow, a lot has changed in 10 years. And the clients that I'm training that are in their 80s, I'm like, wow, you have to change this as you go. And if you look at the list of people you train, many of whom are celebrities, they're in their 40s, they're in their 50s. Some of them are even in their 60s. How have you adapted and changed over the years to be able to deliver fitness for yourself and for your clients across the lifespan? I saw something once that,

and I'll condense it for you, but it said, you know, when you're born, you're this little thing that doesn't move. You're on your back most of the time. Your movement patterns are very limited. And then they start to open up. And then they really branch out. Like I said, look at kids on a playground. And I have older kids and little kids. and I have older kids and little kids and to watch them on a playground,

it's run, jump, skip, turn, pivot, fall, get up, run the other direction. Their movement patterns are all over the place. Then you usually specialize, end up specializing in one or two activities. So now your movement patterns are reduced to those. And then, oh, this is generalizing. Then you start to phase out of those because you enter the work world and then you get into some kind of fitness thing, which is many of them are very limited in terms of the movement patterns. And then you become deconditioned and then you become, uh,

you're not ambulatory and then you're bedridden and then you die. So you start here, go here, do that. So my goal is to keep that window as wide open as possible for as long as possible for everybody. I train. I had a lady yesterday. I have a lady yesterday. It was in her late forties and I had her doing, um, one of the things in the workout was she had a Bulgarian bag. If you know those bags over the shoulders so think about the eccentric component of this going down the driveway at an angled walk i told her just keep stepping on the 10 and the two on a clock face so she was 10

to 10 2. so she's angling at the bottom of the driveway dump the bag off your back turn and sprint back up so it's an uphill sprint after the angled walk. And she left and she goes, I couldn't tell you the last time I sprinted. And I said, so the first time you sprinted up, I could have told you because the mechanics were very rusty. But by the third time she did it, she had nice, smooth running mechanics. And I thought, that's just a dormant movement pattern for her. She just hasn't used it in a while. And she loved it. Of course, she texted me this morning about how sore she was, but you know, I'll take that.

That just tells me we need to introduce more of that. I've had her do other kinds of movements, but that, so, so my goal is keep people doing as many different things as they can. So that when something different is thrown at them in real life, they respond accordingly and they're not out of their depth. I love that. I think that has tons of application for anybody listening. can sprinkle 10 to 15% of your fitness time into a different plane of motion, some different ranges of motion, doing a little bit of aerobic work, core stability work. Oh my goodness. A little bit can go a long way. And they can do the same with their nutrition. I'm not saying don't be a diet hopper where you jump on every trend that pops up every other month.

But I'm saying, try different things. Absolutely. You want to know what keto is. You want to know what carnivore is. You want to know what vegan is. You want to know what raw is. Try them all. Give them each two weeks, three weeks.

See how your body feels. If it helps, make some notes. Notice your energy levels. Notice your strength levels. Notice your patience levels. Notice your strength levels, notice your patience levels, notice your quality of sleep, all those things. And you start to say, oh, you'll see what works for you. I mean, you can do it under the guide with the guide of a nutritionist for sure. But if not, it's fun to me to experiment on myself all the time. Same with supplementation. If I went back and looked at what I was taking in college, Oh my gosh. I mean,

I was just anything I could get because I was reading the muscle magazines and I was like, got to have that. I think I'd probably only read like the first paragraph that's for me. That's for me. And I just go down and buy it and overload. I take like, I must take like three things now. I mean, nothing. I take a supplement called, I take it. I take a multi because it's needed. I take an Omega that I take from,

from gym supplements because I like the quality. I know Jim's the potty. We've worked together at muscle fitness. I take Mito Q, which is a, a it's a it's a mitochondrial enforcer right so it helps you at the foundation of your cellular structure and to me that's just such a good catch-all uh i take those three and occasionally on the weekends if i've been pretty beat up on the week i'll take some b complex yeah complex. And I drink a ton of water, nonstop with water. And my food stays very clean. And when my kids want to have dessert, we have that. If there's a little chocolate, if my wife wants a glass of wine, I'll do both of those. But I don't do all those things. I put this in my book. Also, I don't let all the bad things happen at

once. Right. I don't do alcohol plus dessert plus skipping workout plus shorting my sleep. That's when the whole, that's just, you're just completely derailing then. And it's way harder to, to, to bring that back, I think. And when you do that, and I watch people do that on vacations and then they can't come back from it. And sometimes I'll have people who go away on trips and I know they didn't train. And I think they might be done training with me and that happens. And that's sad. Yeah, no, it isn't. But I love the idea of like, Hey, don't detonate, like limit the damage. You can do one of these things, two of these things fine, but don't skip the workout get the bad sleep have the alcohol have the taco bell at two o'clock in the morning you know don't stack these it's the four i think in the book i called

it the four wheels and i go you lose one wheel you know you can roll on that flat tire down to the gas station you get a fix you lose two and if you're a stunt driver you can get that thing up here maybe it's a bicycle now. We find our balance. You lose three, very few people ride a unicycle. Like it's just good. Exactly. Good luck. So let me ask you this question.

Now you're navigating, you have the business, you have the studio, you have kids, you're married, you're writing a book. No, I wrote a book. I wrote a book that came out in 05. I have other ones that I dabble in my mind. They're sort of like templates. I actually have to go on a trip coming up here. And I said to my wife, on the trip, I'm going to focus on finishing the book. And she's like, babe, that's way more for you than anybody else.

And it is. That's for me to finish something. I have completion syndrome. Same, same. But you've got a lot of things going on and you're in great shape. And I think that when people see stuff, they go like, oh, it must be easy. You're a trainer. Must be easy. It's like, it's probably harder now than it was before. What does fitness look like for you day to day? How many days a week do you work out? How long do you work out?

Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method. More specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic to bring app-based training to you using the best technology and best user interface possible. You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells or elite physique, which is a female bodybuilding focused program where you can train at the gym with equipments designed specifically to help you develop strength as well as the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and back. I have more teams coming planned for a variety of different fitness levels. But what's cool about this is when you join these programs, you get programming that's

updated every single week, the sets to do, the reps to do, exercise tutorials filmed by me with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are somewhat specific. So you'll find other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions. It's a really cool training community, and you can try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. I can't wait to see you in the Core Coaching Collective, my app-based training community.

Back to the show. You know, I had somebody say that to me once. They said, it's easy for you to be in great shape. You're in the gym all day. And it was super insulting, by the way. I hate it. I hate it. Oh, yeah. Because the muscles just fly off the machines and land on my body. just fly off the machines and land on my body. I said, that's like, and this guy worked in investments and, and he was okay, but he wasn't like, he wasn't on the Forbes list.

Let's just call it. And I said that, I said, that's like my saying to you because you sit in front of that computer all day, moving money and trading and buying and selling that the money just flies out of the computer right into your account. Do you hear how insulting that is? Just because you're in the environment doesn't mean you're successful at it. You're in the environment, you're applying what you know, you're getting rid of what you... Through trial and error, which is arduous and time consuming, doesn't work. You get rid of that. And then you, you distill it down to a program that works for you. And I also have to remember, I mean, I had two NFL guys this off season. I don't train like those guys and they were different, very different positions. So

they're training differently too. I don't just jump in and say, Hey, I want to get a piece of this workout. I have to do what works for me. And I also have to do what works for me so that when I go home, I can, I can be there for my wife and kids. I also have to make sure that the next day when I go to work, I'm not completely incapacitated because I, you know, imagined myself a 29 year old lineman. So that, that's the stuff that, that time, you assimilate that knowledge and you put it to use on yourself. So when you ask me what I do, I do... And there are ways to

do it better. There are ways to do it shorter. There are ways to do it more efficiently. But I do this because it works and I enjoy it. That's so huge. this because it works and I enjoy it. That's so huge. I do steady state cardio and it can be 20 minutes to 60 minutes. I do a full body stretch, which can be six minutes to 15 minutes. And then I do weights and that can be 20 minutes to 60 minutes. So on the short, short, short days, it's 45 minutes. On the long days, it could be 90 minutes. But I feel like it hits everything that I want to hit. Yesterday, I did sled work. Today, I did carries, uneven carries. Tomorrow, I have this thing.

It's called the flipper. And I'll be flipping that up and down the driveway. I did squats on Monday. Today, I did, uh, squats on Monday. Today I did step ups, uh, lateral. So I changed the plane of motion, but, but I'm playing with it all the time. And if I feel my body goes, this doesn't work. I'm old enough to things. I'm old enough to know, don't push it, push it, go, go around it. And I'm old enough to know don't push it push go around it and i'm old enough to know that it's not going to matter if i don't do it i don't just skip it i find something else to do so i have to make sure that it serves me right i can't risk a hamstring tear i can't risk blowing my pecs out like trying

to max bench with somebody my bench press is you know's, it's nothing that we're going to video anytime soon, but it's something, it's something that for me works. And I like how I feel. I like how I sit posturally and I'll run it by the ultimate litmus test is, Hey hon, do I look a certain way? And she'll say, you look great. Or I don't know, maybe that's not the right shirt for you, which is a nice way of saying you're not in your best shape. And I'll take that feedback and I'll work on that. Yeah. I love that. I think it has to change. And one thing I'm really big on is, you know, people hear, oh, you're a trainer.

You know, you must have a very rigid, specific routine and it needs to be adaptable. If you're going to stick with it for 20, 30, 40 years. You have to be able to make adjustments and pivot and listen to your body. And I look at the roster of people that you trained and I've learned a lot of interesting things from the people I've trained. cool lessons you've picked up from your clientele that might extend into fitness. Sure. But maybe about life, wisdom, funny stories, things like that. I'll go back to what you said about the trainer, because I would bet you two things that you you're 10 years in now, I would bet your training looks extremely different now from what it looked like 10 years ago. Hilariously different.

Right. Hilariously different. And number two, I would say, I bet it's way less structured and intense and yet still efficient. It's very free flowing. I try to make it social. All of my good friends are not all of them, but many of my good friends are in this industry. And if I can do a workout with a good friend, even if it means I have to deviate a little bit, I'll do that because the social component is so much healthier than the solo component. So it's just, it's expanded. It's simplified in a way, but it's a lot more fluid. You're totally right. Yeah. That more fluid you're totally right yeah that's how that's how that's how i've seen mine evolve i go early in the morning so from a social from a

social aspect there there are a lot less takers um but whoever is there that's always a fun time and then i try to add activities afterwards um you know i'm not a pickup basketball guy you definitely don't want to see my jump shot but uh but i'll do anything with the kids walking bike riding that kind of stuff um i'll hit a tennis ball for time recently someone introduced me to pickleball oh yeah that's that's a hot game right now and super fun great sweat and and from a social aspect because the court's so small, it brings out my inner trash talker. Because skill-wise, I might not have anything to offer, but trash talking, I'll be taking the trophy home. And it makes it super fun socially. Yeah.

Now, I think you brought something up about watching your kids move. I think about one of the reasons adults lose those physical properties of whether it's the ability to move side to side in the transverse plane, they lose the twitchiness, they lose the suddenness. They stop playing, that we abandon all of the games and the playing and everything is structured, structured, sagittal, sagittal. Sagittal. When adults get out. It's a sagittal world.

So yeah. Yeah. And if you get into a game like pickleball or you shoot around with a basketball or even doing something like golf, that's a little bit rotational. It just opens up your movement so much. I try to make time for games all the time. You think about when you get in the car, the first thing you do is transverse plane, right? You get in the car. It might be the only thing people do all day in the car the first thing you do is transverse plane right you get in the car only thing people do all day in the transverse plane you when you get in the car it's transverse plane then you go the other way and you get the seat belt you're just like there's a guy uh pat mcnamara who's a t-max inc on instagram and he has a great line he says life-saving and ass-kicking take place in the transverse plane and it that's where things happen. So you

have to train in rotation. You do. And same thing with the frontal plane, you have to be strong side to side. You have a ton of cool equipment and I've kind of been admiring your gym for quite some time. When you're shopping for equipment, and this is something I think of as a gym owner myself too, it's like, are you looking for what's going to give me the greatest variety? Are you looking for what's going to give me the greatest versatility? Or are you like me, where you're kind of a collector at this point and you'll get a little bit of anything and everything. If you think you can have fun with it. The answer is yes. Broad, broad. Yes. Uh, it's usually, uh, what can do what, where can I get two, three, four, five movements or five uses out of,

from a space standpoint. But then some things you go, I have to have that, even though it's limited, even though the footprint's big, it's going to take a lot of space. I need to have that. So I'll do that. Um, yeah. Collector by default, right. I backed into it. Um, and, and I love having it and I love playing on it. And when I find there's something I'm not using as a rule, that's because it's in the wrong place. Um, you know,

or I'll go take classes somewhere, right? Depending on what, if you take a group class somewhere, which I like doing with kids, with my older kids, super fun. And you'll use a piece of equipment in there that I know I have. I don't think, why haven't I used that? Oh, I know why. It's because it's tucked behind the other thing and I'll have to pull it out. I work, I talk about offshoots of jobs.

I started working with F45 in the programming side and they have such a wide range of equipment. I mean, I literally, the first class I took there, I said, you guys do in a group setting, what I do in one-on-one, you scaled me. This is great training. This is, and from a programming standpoint, as I learned more about the business, the cardio days, the strength days, the hybrid days, it's really laid out where if you want to turn your fitness over, if you want to just go in and execute and know that it's laid out for you, it's a terrific workout.

My fiance, I pay for her to go to F45 five days a week. She loves it. It's unbelievably good programming for general fitness, cardiovascular fitness. It's great. Yep. And then go back. You asked the question and I cut you off because I wanted to circle back. You asked, are there any lessons I learned from the people I work with? from the people I work with. Um,

and I would say that some of the, the, the dropdown lessons or the crumbs that they left intentionally or unintentionally were so many of them say yes to things and then let the thing flush out, whether it comes to fruition or not is a different, you know, it's beyond your control. It's a different, if it's a different animal, but if you avail yourself to, um, projects, um, work experiences, adventures, uh, you're, you're, you're just going to have a fuller life, right? Like, and by that, I'm saying somebody agrees to three movies, and then you let the studios figure out what goes first, what goes when. One of them may not happen, but you were in the running for all of them versus saying no, no. And then the one

you accept is the one that doesn't happen, you lose out. The other thing is, is stay ready. So you don't have to get ready. I see nowadays very different from when I first started, there were a lot of people getting in shape for something versus now they stay in shape year round and they dial it up for whatever that something is. And I think there's a take home message there for everybody, right? Don't let it go between Thanksgiving and January 1st. And then I think you're going to dial it up. And if you are doing that, I hope you're in your twenties and early thirties, because after that, it is harder to do. So you have to, you would be, you would be wise to stay, have like a baseline,

a fitness level, lean mass level that you, that you honor and maintain, you you know there's no such thing as maintaining your overall conditioning right but there is a way to to stay on a certain line versus letting it all drop off and then and then trying to get back up to that yeah i agree i think you know a lot of people spend every year from basically november to December, they gain all the weight that they lose. They spend nine months trying to lose the weight they gained from October to December, and they just stay on this cycle of gaining weight during the holidays and then kind of getting it off. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. And if they don't, they just accumulate it.

And I think there's so much to be said for just being relentlessly consistent with the basics. You know, don't let all four wheels fall off the car. Find a movement practice that you'll tolerate. It'll be, maybe it's F45, maybe it's hiring Gunnar Peterson. Depends on what you can afford, but you gotta find something. Then you get the people who get in shape for summer and they cast off on their summer trip and they stop training and i'll never understand that you

know they had whether it's a beach vacation or a boat vacation or a trip through europe and they just want to i just want to feel this way before i go because i know i'm going to be on the beach and they get there and day one on the beach they look unbelievable but then the party started you know we're in spain so we're eating late at night and then and they're there and day one on the beach, they look unbelievable. But then the party started, you know, we're in Spain. So we're eating late at night and then, and they're pushing, pushing, pushing and fitness just goes by the wayside. And then they come back and they're at the other end of that, that, that fall winter person who deconditions. And I just think there are so many ways now to stay on it.

Somebody said to me years ago, a trainer, we finished an event and I had brought him in and as you know, to help me and we helped that we did this big event and it was great. And afterwards, you know, lots of pictures and talking and sharing and just overall people felt great because they just worked out for an hour. And as we were loading up the car, he said to me, man, I really wish I had come up when you came up. I said, what do you mean? He goes, I mean,

it's so much, it was so much easier than to get your name out and just to make a mark in fitness. I stopped, I put the stuff on the tailgate. I said, hold on. I know you mean that in a nice way. Like you're complimenting me for having come, period. But what you're saying is so crazy. Because first of all, every era has its challenges. Every era has its loopholes. cell phones people were literally like having to go to a a printing store like a kinko's and printing out flyers and handing them out or putting them on car windshields at the mall or asking people at the at your kids soccer games like that's a much different i'm not going to say harder but it's definitely a different road than e-blast and online and social. There's so many ways. So, so I would say there, there's so many ways to stay in shape. Now, there were so many less gyms period back then,

less exercise modalities available, less franchises. You can't, there's a place here. I went, I'm in Nashville. There's a place here. I went and, and within this little complex, they had a yoga place they had a running place they had an f45 they had a bar place they had a crossfit and it was all when i tell you they were all within 200 yards of each other and then they were building housing units there. And I thought, if you're a fitness junkie, you just live there and you can do a whole macro cycle of your programming throughout the year there. Not only that, from a schedule standpoint, I'm sure some of those places have a 5am, a 5.30, a 6, a 6.30. There has to be...

530, a 630, like there has to be, it's almost like, you know, fail proof. I looked at that, I thought that never existed. When I was coming up, I looked at like, where's the gym? There has to be like a gym in this neighborhood. I think to both be in shape and to both be successful in fitness, I don't know if it's ever been easier. I think that a lot of people will make the claim that this person made like, I wish I did it when maybe there was less competition. All right. I wish I had more notoriety or a roster of clients who have the names that your clients have. And it's like, yeah, but you also wish that you, I also wish that I had a cell phone and social media when I like, those are superpowers and you, and people now have everything they could ever need to be successful, except for that probably key ingredient of just doing the damn

work long enough to see it materialize. I used to drive, I'm not going to take you down the old man's school here. Oh, please do. I used to drive around to newspaper stands, magazine stands, to see if any of them had back issues of muscle and fitness flex. This was before men's health was even on the scene. Now, men's health, all those, how can I find find i've read the current ones because i have subscriptions but are there any back ones that you didn't throw out like java you from last year it was that kind of thing and yeah it was a fringe thing fitness was like uh not mainstream at all and correct and now it's very mainstream and you know i think i think a lot of coaches listen to this podcast i have an audience of people that

are looking to climb up through the ranks and they go, okay. So they see somebody like you, you've trained the Rock. So Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Lopez. Wait, just so we're clear, I never trained the Rock. I know when he came to my gym and he has a great trainer, Dave Brienzia. And I always, you got to give that guy credit. He just trained in my spot a couple of times. Thank you. Thank you. So at least we know the list of the Hugh Jackman, the Kardashians, some big names and people see that and they go, I want to be there. I want to reach that. But they're like, just getting started. What does that person do? The brand new trainer who wants to do good, start slow, who's willing to take their time to get there?

Well, one thing you have to look at is, are you in the place where the demographic you're targeting exists? So geographically, are you in the right place? If that demographic is not there, right out of the gate, you box yourself out of that market, right? And that demographic can be celebrities, that can be elderly population, that can be deconditioned, that can be kids. Whatever it is, you just have to make sure you're in the area where they are. Look up like mean income, average job, average age when you move to certain cities, like they tell you, that's a young up and coming city. There's this demographic there, or that's more of a retirement community, you have to know what you're going into, and find out where they are. So put yourself in the right

place geographically. I don't I think a lot of people completely overlook that. And then look at what those people do. Are the are the people you want to train? Are they are they high end? Are That's so true. I'm a stalker, but you have to understand to know your market. Correct. You have to know your market, right? More concise. Uh, and then I would say, say yes to every single person because, because you need to train a wide variety of people and that's age, um, level of conditioning, weight, athletic ability, athletic participation. Like you may have people who were high school athletes, but you should also work with people who currently play competitive sports, whether it's pickup basketball or tennis or pickleball, whatever it is, because there's a different movement., there's a different movement that they have different movements available to them in the gym. So you're not always teaching kindergarten, right?

Like you're going to, you want to be able to have some people where you have to work your skill training queuing set as though they were brand new first time ever. And then you want the ones who already move well and do well. So as a coach, you develop. And the other thing I would say is you never know. The other reason to do that is you never know who those people know. And if you only train one group, you're not as likely to get the people that you want referred to you.

And the people in that rare air take recommendations from people who they trust. They don't follow trends. They don't bandwagon it. So maybe it's their doctor, maybe it's their lawyer, maybe it's their pediatrician, maybe it's their therapist. So all those people, their accountant, their business managers, all those people, So all those people, their accountant, their business managers, all those people, their assistants, they are in a way vetting you for ultimately that referral and that's how it comes. So basically, I love this. Get started. Say yes to as many people as you can.

Treat them well. Train them well. And then they will go out. And when the time is right, that dream client will work their way to you, but only if you do the right work with everybody that steps in front of you. And hopefully you're in the right area. Well, that that's what I think, but there are other traders, probably there are other people who would tell you, no, you got to market it. And I'm not a big marketer like that. I've never had a PR agent. I don't call, I don't call studios and say, Hey, look, my name is Gunnar Peterson. I have this gym here.

I'm available for training if you ever have clients or, but if you train a couple agents, if you train a couple of PR people, they are in the ears of the people that ultimately you want to get. So, so, you know, maybe that's the move, maybe play it that way. I always want to be as a trainer, very, um, well-connected so that I can refer those people to the people that come to me. So, you know, you're going to get asked for every type of doctor you could

imagine. You're going to get asked for schools, contractors, furniture stores, and any place that you have a relationship and you can say, call this guy, tell him I sent you, they'll take care of you. Whether take care of means a discount or just means better overall service, or just means bump to the head of the queue. All that stuff is worth its weight in gold to me as a trainer, well beyond what you're prescribing and programming in your routines. Gunnar, I love it. I think that's a great place to finish the episode. I learned a ton. I want to thank you so much for your time. Will you tell everybody where they can find you, follow you, keep up with your work and wisdom? I'm on Gunnar Fitness

on Instagram. That's pretty much it sweet dude well thank you so much for your time brother i appreciate it thank you i'll talk to you guys