Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 670: JJ Flizanes- Host of 6 Podcasts & Best Selling Fitness Author

Episode Date: December 25, 2017

JJ Flizanes is not only a long-term fitness professional, she is a prolific content creator with 6 podcasts and multiple books, including an Amazon #1 bestseller, Fit 2 Love. In a recent trip to LA, Sal, Adam & Justin sit down with JJ where she shares her experience in the fitness industry and her philosophy. To learn more about JJ and what she offers you can find her at www.jjflizanes.com So much information and didn’t know what to do with it (2:38) Gaining confidence in what she was doing through personal training (6:30) You don’t learn science over a weekend (14:30) Psychological piece is everything Move the needle so far with food and exercise Disconnected and poor relationship with food Fit2Love (29:45) Don’t “should” yourself – WANT! Law of attraction Meet people where they are What have been some of her biggest personal challenges when it comes to her clients? (40:25) About preservation and well as consistency With her audience, does she find she has to hammer on certain subjects more than others? (54:00) What are her thoughts on fitness trackers? (58:03) Identify your addiction (1:00:53) Bell curve of consciousness Related Links/Products Mentioned: The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child Documentary: Inside obstacle course racing phenomenon Millennials, Here's How Social Media Impacts Your Relationships Can Food be Addictive? Public Health and Policy Implications Fit 2 Love: How to Get Physically, Emotionally and Spiritually Fit to Attract the Love of Your Life – JJ Flizanes (book) Antidepressants: Another weapon against chronic pain As health care costs rise, more companies invest in fitness programs On-Site Corporate Fitness Facilities Give Companies Competitive Edge ACSM vs NASM - May the Best Certification Win! Ep 654-Rich Roll - Mind Pump Media Artificial Food Colors and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Symptoms: Conclusions to Dye for Featured Guest/People Mentioned: JJ Flizanes Fit2Love Podcast The Invisible Fitness Formula: 5 Secrets to Release Weight & End Body Shame – JJ Flizanes (book) JJ Flizanes - Home | Facebook Robb Wolf (@dasrobbwolf)  Instagram Tom Purvis (@tompurvisptrts)  Instagram Neal Spruce (@nealspruce)  Twitter Josh Trent (@wellnessforce)  Instagram Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey)  Twitter Lenny Parracino Chris Kresser (@chriskresser)  Twitter Rich Roll (@richroll)  Twitter Would you like to be coached by Sal, Adam & Justin? You can get 30 days of virtual coaching from them for FREE at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get our newest program, MAPS Prime Pro, which shows you how to self assess and correct muscle recruitment patterns that cause pain and impede performance and gains. Get it at www.mindpumpmedia.com! Get MAPS Prime, MAPS Anywhere, MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint, the Sexy Athlete Mod AND KB4A (The MAPS Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Make EVERY workout better with MAPS Prime, the only pre-workout you need… it is now available at mindpumpmedia.com Also check out Thrive Market! Thrive Market makes purchasing organic, non-GMO affordable. With prices up to 50% off retail, Thrive Market blows away most conventional, non-organic foods. PLUS, they offer a NO RISK way to get started which includes: 1. One FREE month’s membership 2. $20 Off your first three purchases of $49 or more (That’s $60 off total!) 3. Free shipping on orders of $49 or more Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you via video instruction on our YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get your Kimera Koffee at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Get Organifi, certified organic greens, protein, probiotics, etc at www.organifi.com Use the code “mindpump” for 20% off. Go to foursigmatic.com/mindpump and use the discount code “mindpump” for 15% off of your first order of health & energy boosting mushroom products. Add to the incredible brain enhancing effect of Kimera Koffee with www.brain.fm/mindpump 10 Free sessions! Music for the brain for incredible focus, sleep and naps! Also includes 20% if you purchase! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts! Have questions for Mind Pump? Each Monday on Instagram (@mindpumpmedia) look for the QUAH post and input your question there. (Sal, Adam & Justin will answer as many questions as they can)

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No questions asked. Again, you can find this at mimepumpmedia.com. If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind up, mind up with your hosts. Salta Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Our good friend Josh Trent from Wellness Force podcast, highly recommended, we interview JJ. JJ is the host of a podcast, Fit to Love podcast. She's also written some books, one of which is the In of a podcast, Fit to Love podcast. She's also written some books,

one of which is the Invisible Fitness Formula. She's, her take on fitness is right along lines with ours. She's got a lot of experience in this industry. We had some great conversation with her in this episode. You can find her website. It's JJ Flizzanes.com. I'll spell that for you. It's JJFLIZANES.com. So, without any further ado, here we are talking to JJ Flizzains.

Tell us about your show first and why you started it. I started my show because as a trainer for 20 years, I was feeling stuck and stifled. I wanted to talk about many different aspects. I'm all about integration. And when I started as a train, of course, I started on the path of the science. For 20 years, what did you train at? New York Sports Club.

Oh, cool. New York. Oh, excellent. We were all trainers at the same time then for sure. Yeah, no, I heard you guys all 24 are fitness. And I, but I was New York Sports Club. Which is that like a 24 over there? Yeah. Town Sports International at the time, I heard you guys all 24 are fitness. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I, but I was near exports club, which is that like a 24 over there? Yeah, town sports international at the time.

I don't know what they're doing now. Had near exports club, Washington sports club. Oh, there were two more. Maybe Chicago, similar EFT model, something. I think they're a higher, I think they're a little bit higher. Higher end. Class or higher end, yeah? Yeah, more like a club one.

And they had, they had a higher end called the vertical clubs. And they were sort of the sports club LA. They were like the next level. Okay. And I actually worked for the vertical club first before, because I worked for ballies first. Oh, wow, there we go. That's okay, 1996.

I started working for ballies. It's very cool. Yeah. And I went from ballies to the city, to the vertical club in New York City and then from the vertical club to New York sports club. I actually even became director of education and I was teaching trainers because they had they were moving It's such a rapid speed of opening gyms and hiring trainers They just want to people with good personalities not necessarily education or even certification

So they're like can you create a certification program? Me and other people and and we'll make them go through this in order for them to get to the next pay level. But we do want them to still get a national record and certification. So yeah, it was a lot before I was like 22. I was doing a lot of stuff. And so why did I start my show? Because obviously over those years, I asked questions, because that's just who I am, in terms like why why this why that why do you want this why do you like this why not this I also go by intuitive feelings and something never felt right about making it about the way that you looked only you were like this in your 20s Yeah, that's right. I was very so far

Yeah, and but I'm the ad annoying kid though that asked all those questions and people didn't have answers. You're a good company Okay, good. Well, you are podcasters, you know probably is like the best world because I challenge you That's what we do right concepts and understanding and so you know fast forward. It's now I've written two books and I still I'm trying to like coach my clients and Besides the food part. there's the mindset part and mind you, it's all the stuff I've learned for myself. It's not stuff that I tried to teach them

that I didn't experience or didn't use on myself first. And so here I am wanting to talk about all these things and they're like, no, no, no, no, I hired you to help me lose weight and to teach me how to exercise. Like, I don't wanna know about this stuff. And it was so frustrating. And I felt like what I, things like a backed up hose, like you turn the water on a hose,

and then you, you clench it, you can't get right, and it's all that pulsating energy wants to come out, but you've close it off. Here I am with all this information, and I didn't know what to do with it, and I didn't know where to go with it, I didn't know how to make it happen. And I had went to a writer's workshop

for a new book, for my third book. And the second book, by the way, had been put down because the publisher stopped publishing and I needed to find a new publisher and I didn't. So I thought, just put it down. Walk away, it'll come when it's ready. So I go to this writer's workshop and I learn about podcasting. And also, I was like, that's where I can put it on a podcast. I can do video, I can do audio, I can do five days a week,

I can do six days a week, and I was off and running. And so that's how that happened. I thought, I'm all about putting out the content, and at least let me get it out. Let me get out what I teach, what I try to, I don't want to write. Blogging is not my thing. I can write, but I'd much rather talk.

Yeah, well, you've been in fitness as long as I have in terms of, you know, personal training, whatever. And so the path that I went along through fitness was like a lot of trainers, what motivated me initially was my own insecurities with my own body. That's why I started working out. I thought I was too skinny, wanted to build muscle, but I also loved people. So I was training people and doing all that. And through that process over the years, I started to identify the real truths behind fitness,

the real motivations. What really gets people healthy, what really gets people fit, also what really does it for myself. And it evolved through this process to where it is today. Did you start in a similar way and evolve? Or were you always in it the way you are now? No. I was an actor. I heard you guys talking about Rob and I did video, I did Google that that thing that he was in that commercial as you guys were talking about it. I was in

the acting world and what I realized early on was that I needed a job that wasn't waiting tables. I realized later on that I have like 50% right and left brain. And so there's a part of me that needs to be physical and be doing things and be performing. I've been performing since I was three, but the other part of me is be problem solving. Like there was the left side that was like, no, you need a problem solving.

You need to figure something out. And prior to personal training, I didn't think I was that smart in a science way. And then when I started to learn personal training, and I went to my first National Academy of Sports Medicine at the time in 1997. Which was the business back then. I mean that was like the gold standard. It was the gold standard for sure. You guys remember Tom Purvis? Oh no. No. Neil. Neil Spruce. Neil Spruce, Tom Purvis.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Was with all those guys. I remember Neil Spruce from Apex. That's how I got my Apex certification. Way back when he was a big peck nutrition. Yeah. Yep. So I was a big, you know, I got under the wing of Tom Purvis and then I stayed there for a long time. Because he made science, and when he taught science, it was a way that I understood it because it was in the body. And so I said, no, now I'm really interested in helping others, but it didn't come necessarily from me feeling so insecure. I'm not saying I don't have body shame, but that I didn't have wanted to look better,

especially as an actor. I dated a gymnast in college and I've been a dancer in my whole life, so I had strong muscular legs, but I have a picture of me and him together, and I had these like really skinny arms, and it was like, look, a pair, because I had no muscle on the top, but I had all this muscle on the bottom. And he said something in a very nice way, like, you may want to build some muscle, and I thought, okay, like I didn't, I wasn't offended by it. And then I went to work in retail. God help me. And it was a retail person

that with me said, let's go get a job at the gym, because then we can get a free membership. And I was like, okay, and so we get a job at the gym. And I'm at the front desk and I'm multitasking like a pro. And I see the trainers. I went, well, how do I get to do that? And so they gave me a number here. Take the ace test. Right. So here's the ACE test. And I remember not passing it the first time. And then I thought, okay, when it was mostly about business, like, don't get sued. Do you want to be as a sole proprietor? Do you have an LSE? A liability stuff. Yeah. And it wasn't really that specific about health. And then I fast forward.

And I'm taking it again, didn't study anymore past it. I'm like, hmm, interesting. Walk into the gym at the vertical club in New York City. My manager at the time was a physical therapist. She looks at all the equipment and I'm looking at thinking I'm a certified personal trainer. And I don't know what to do with any of that. That's a problem. So then she proceeded to teach me some things and of course I don't know what I didn't know what she knew. And one of my other personal trainers there I was working with a woman and doing all the stupid things that you do when you don't know anything. And I knew I didn't know anything. It's that I'm keeping trying to keep a little profile and Martin comes up

and says, JJ, come here. So why did you choose that exercise? And I answered it and he said, and was that woman prepared for that? You know, did she have the right kind of hip stability to do that exercise? And I was like, oh my god, I'm found out. So then he puts on a machine and he goes, okay, explain what's going on here. And it was a row. And I remember, I guess and I guess right. But the fact that I guessed, and I was really like, oh my god, I said, okay, Martin,

where do I get this information? And that's when he sent me off to NASM. So part of for me, the personal training industry gave me confidence in my ability to learn and my ability to know science. And then, and then I was really good at it. and it was easy and it was much easier than any science I had ever taken in school or math. And again, I was good at it.

So that's what it gave me confidence. Yeah. So for me, when I started in training, it was started with my bodybuilding information that I got from magazines. Then I went to science route like you, took these certifications and courses, and then I became inundated and dogmatic about the science of fitness, macros, calories, proteins, fats, carbs, that's really all that matters.

And as I continued along my path with training, I was driven by aesthetics. That was all aesthetics, but it was also very, I remember I'd take the classes and the courses and nutrition and they'd be like, no, it calories inverses calories out. That's pretty much it. Here's your macros. That's pretty much it like it was nothing about food quality There was nothing about the Psychology behind you know fitness. It was all about move more eat less and I became very dogmatic about it Because that's what I was being taught and then but as I'm training people in realizing, this isn't working very well.

At first, I thought to myself, it's because people are just lazy. They're just not motivated enough. People just don't want to do the work. But as I continue to start to realize, it's more important to understand the psychology behind what we're doing. Food quality is extremely important.

It's not all just about calories and macros, but it took me a while to learn all that. It really took me like 10 years before I started, things really started to come. So he came from that background more with the bodybuilder aesthetic kind of focus. I think for me, it's always been about performance driven, like athletic pursuits. And so that was sort of my background in being always being in a sport. My identity was, I'm an athlete, I'm in some kind of a sport. Like this is where my home is. And for me, the battle for me to overcome was, I was overdoing it.

I was going super intense on every single workout. I was trying to kill everything. And that was something that stood out right away. Like once I started getting into your end of the day, since when I started getting into integrative style training and learning about how to address my joints in a proper way and build integrity around the joints and getting to more functional type movement patterns

and all that kind of stuff. It really transformed my whole approach to training and training, other clients and all that. So, I mean, I mean, I mean, Sam, you had the transformed my whole approach to training and training other clients and all that. So, I mean, I, I, I, but you said you had the same dogmatic approach. Of course. Where your, your thing was high intensity, you had to hammer your body.

So I was applying it to my clients. Athlete mentality. Yes, and that's, you know, again, like I admit that because I, I was young and I, you know, this, this is the way that I understood things from an athletic perspective. Like, you know, you have to, have to, it's overcoming, you know, like forces against you, you have to overcome them

and everything is like this mental discipline driven, you know, pursuit. So yeah, like Sal's mentioned, the psychology of, you know, that's completely changed for me. I remember the first year of being a personal trainer and I was solely focused on being the top trainer. That was where I was heading. I wanted to be the best trainer

and what took to be the best was who sold the most training. And I remember finally reaching that milestone and becoming the best trainer. And then I remember like looking at my clientele and going like, oh shit, only like 80% of my people, or 80% of my people are not seeing results, maybe 20% are seeing results. Out of that 20%, nobody's keeping it long term.

What am I really fucking doing? Am I really the top trader? Am I really the best? But everyone's telling me on the best, I got trophies that say it. And that was a wake up moment for me, like wait a second, I'm celebrating on this. I was so focused on becoming that selfishly

that I wasn't really paying attention to the advice and the information I was going to have really wasn't that good of a trainer I just I didn't know that much I knew a little bit more than they all knew and I could convince them of that and I sold a lot of personal training and I remember that weighing heavy on me once I reached like the milestone of being good and making money from it it was like oh shit like now I want wanna find the purpose, and now I wanna actually help these people, this doesn't make sense. JG, when did you realize in fitness that most of the information that we're being told has been had?

At one point where you're like, no shit, this is all bad information. It's just the opposite. Right, you know, what a growth, personal growth. I mean, do you remember those moments? Yes, oh, I, I, I, I, I'm, science. And they were teaching physiology by drawing versus when Adam came out and it was interactive and then he colored coded it and you can see

electro and chemical processes happening which made it easier to remember because it became functional and mechanical instead of chemical and it was sort of like this idea and the sky. It took me like so many times to try to learn physiology. But when I came out of the first NSM certification and I understood by a mechanics on a new level,

oh was I a bitch I walked into the gym and wanted to challenge every Every every Me and with a wake belt. Oh my god. Yeah, let me show you this in balance This core exercises is just gonna break you right? Stand on the fizzial ball. You know, it's funny. I remember trainers doing that Do you guys remember that cuz I manage gyms for a time. And I remember trainers going off and taking these courses and coming back and they're like, I know everything now

and I'm like calm down. Not yet. It takes a long time before you. And the thing about certifications is, some of them do very good job of teaching you the science. Any of the exam is excellent with that, especially when you go to advanced certifications. But none of them really tell you

how to become a great trainer. Because it's only one piece, which is why I started my show back to there and it's a question. I started my show because you cannot focus on one piece and think you're gonna be set for a long time. Not only say one piece, it's the smaller piece of the two when you talk about the psychological piece.

And now that took me years to figure out. Because here I am trying to become a better trainer. So now I'm getting more certifications, I'm getting smarter, and I'm like, I'm applying all this stuff that I'm learning, and I'm realizing that it's still not working. I'm still not increasing my percentage of people I'm helping because I'm still not addressing

the root issues, which is psychological. And that's what's driving all the behavior. And that was like, oh shit, like all that other stuff. We're not even ready for that yet. I wish we just would have measured like retention. And I'm like, yeah, and am I still with this person? Am I still helping them? Are they still progressing?

Like, what am I doing in that direction? Like am I really making an impact? Or am I not? Like Adam said, it was like a competitive thing. Like, I want to, I want to sell you, I want to get the most sessions out of you or like it was very like just that environment. I mean, it was like a competitive thing. I want to sell you, I want to get the most sessions out of you or like it was very like just that environment. I mean, it was great for learning business

because like, and I don't take anything away from that process in the beginning because that's what, I mean, being a personal trainer. You're selling yourself always and people are watching you and there's a huge business to what we do. And this is what people need. So we should be even more passionate about selling it to people because they need it, right?

So yeah, but you just realize that if that's your only focus, there's a lot that's being missed. What's the question of why are they doing it? We could all write a perfectly balanced program, exercise nutrition. Why don't they do it? It's a psychological and emotional piece. It's a habitual understanding. It's the belief system. And it's how they integrate it, whether they think it's separate and it's a diet mentality of it's something I do for a short period of time, or how do I integrate this into my life? How do I make it fit? How do I make my life around this instead of

do it separately, which I could get rid of at any time? And so the integrations, what I'm always interested in, and so I don't know when it started happening, that I started asking those questions of why, but I learned I got certified as a nutrition specialist back when that was legal. And so now I have the exercise and I've got the food thing, but I'm still questioning people's motivation. I had a couple, well I didn't have a couple, one of the male trainers in the gym had the husband and I had the wife. And I remember asking her, like. One of the male trainers in the gym had the husband and I had the wife.

And I remember asking her, she was on a treadmill warming up and then we went to go do something and she wasn't really that interested and I could feel that. And I said, so she's like, yeah, I don't really care. I said, so why are you doing this? She goes, cause my husband wants me to. And I was like, I wanted to say, well then stop doing it.

Cause I interpreted that. But can't be your motivation. Well, in retrospect, because of where I was and where I wanted to say, well, then stop doing it. Because I interpreted that. But can't be your motivation. Well, in retrospect, because of where I was and where I am now, was your own trigger, right? Right, it was my own trigger. It could have been that he actually just wanted to be healthy. Sure.

And in that case, I wouldn't have been, but at the time, I took it as he wanted to look good. Right. And I was like, not having that. I'm like, I would just quit if I were, you know, like, I would demand that, you know, if you don't want to be here, then you shouldn't have to be here.

Well, when you start looking at the psychological part, you start to realize that a lot of this stuff is deep. It's not like, oh, last year I heard this is the right diet. It's like, I got shit that I'm dealing with, good goes way back, that's navigating the things that I, because most people, they don't, they don't have no idea why they're even, they think they know because they wanna look a certain way,

but it's all short lived. If you're tracing an aesthetic goal or somebody else or a birthday or a wedding, like it's not gonna last, you'll be right back the other way, man. I had a couple, lesbian couple, who I was training via Skype and a 90-day program. And they, from the beginning,

in fact, there were like six other people, six other women on this program. And by the end of it, because I did it very different than they had done anything else and they had been, they called themselves lifers. They were lifers. They'd been on every diet and exercise program and they'd lost weight and they'd gain weight. They'd lose weight and they'd gain weights.

And now they're here. They're expecting me to weigh them in. They're expecting me to give them calorie counting, tell them the bad foods they can't eat. They're expecting me to actuarize their exercise. And by the end of it, they said, this has been like nothing else we've ever experienced. And now I realize that I didn't know I had emotional issues with food. And I didn't have emotional issues connected to why I either overeat or whatever.

Like before that, they thought, oh, I'm just not being good. I'm not. It's not shaming and judgment of, oh, I'm just not being good. This is good food. This is bad food, right? And so I just, I'm just. It's right. It's that shaming and judgment of oh, I'm just not being good. This is good food. This is bad food Right, and so I just I'm just not disciplined enough That's what some people think even people have been doing this for a long time They've been struggling and so what I like to bring to the table is the conscious awareness of okay Well, why and and where is the deeper part and the fitness industry doesn't address that?

Yeah, because most trainers aren't qualified to do that of course, right? I'm not suggesting that trainers should be able to be a psychologist. You need to work on yourself for some learn something, but the fact that we're not integrating and asking those questions and referring people out as trainers and gyms. You know, what about this piece? And do you know understand why you do this? Because you can move the needle with the food and the exercise only so far. But if they get triggered, they're going backwards potentially because if food is how they, and lack of self-care is how they cope or deny or repress their feelings, then

you haven't solved that because you gave them a good workout. Really, really too. It's, you know, you have to appreciate if you're a trainer, you have to appreciate just how difficult this is for people. I don't mean difficult in the discipline sense. I mean, difficult in the, even just knowing, just being aware of, you know, the connection to these things. Because, you know, I'll give you a story. I had a client who I was training and I trained her like three days a week and she wanted to lose weight and she wasn't losing weight. And I knew why she wasn't losing weight and because she was eating a particular way. And she comes in or she sends me a message and she says,

you know, my schedule's getting really busy, so I think I can only start to work out twice a week. So I'm at this point, I'm a young trainer, I'm thinking like, oh, I'm gonna have a come to Jesus talk with you, like you're gonna go and you're gonna work out hard or I'm not gonna train you anymore, like this is the only way.

And she comes in and I sit down with her and I basically hammer her and make her feel terrible. And she never comes back. She never comes back and I sit down with her and I basically hammer her and make her feel terrible and she never comes back She never comes back and I felt proud of myself until I realized that I had done Nobody any favors. I had to nobody any favors in fact if that woman had just come to the gym one day a week That was one day more than she would have ever done on her own and I need I didn't appreciate just how difficult The process of awareness is and how every step is a step. And I like to teach people that because when I talk to people about

that and when I train people in that way, then, you know, I have, you know, I'll have clients will train me for two years, not lose a single pound and then all of a sudden things start to click. And then they lose 30 pounds, but it's the right way. And it's not a discipline thing. It's, whoa, this is just the way that I live now and it becomes permanent. It becomes, it's just how they are now. It's getting harder before it's getting easier. It's with the where we're at, with being plugged in

and being so disconnected from ourselves. That's why this message is important. This message is important because it needs to be heard because eventually it will come back. Sooner or later, the pendulum's gonna swing so far and we're starting to see this. Kids that are like seven, eight years old having back problems, you have,

you go to now, I go in a restaurant, close my mind when I see this and I see a sitnet, some restaurant, and all four, you know, mom, dad, two kids, and everyone is just detached. Nobody is even present right now. And so this topic that we're talking about, it's gonna get harder before it gets easier.

So I'm doing a live event in January. And it's been interesting to hear some of the reasons why, some of the tribe is like, oh, I'm getting shamed by my husband or by my parents about spending the money, yet they crave the personal connection and they crave the experience, but with the limiting beliefs that stop them.

And that's exactly why I'm doing it. That's exactly why I want to continue doing it because we need it now. We are so disconnected like I love podcasting and I love podcasters and I think it's a way to bring people together, but it needs to come out from behind the mics and meet people in person. The relationships that I have with Josh and with Rob and these podcasters that I've been hanging out with this year is amazing. Why? Because we've all talked, know I know each other we believe in concepts

But we're taking it to the next level of actually connecting in person and having this kind of energy Which is why this setup is great, but people we people crave that they know but no they crave it because they want to be validated By knowing that other people are out there with the same struggles that they're having and here is this person as an example Who's making it happen in this way, oh, I could learn from them. I know I could support them. And they can support me. I think that that the disconnection is an issue, but because of this connection, we're going to be craving more community. Oh, absolutely. It's on you. You see like the rise in Spartan race. That's the reason why you see that stuff is because it makes you feel again. Muddy and dirty and pushing hard like that freezing cold water. I'm alive again. That's why it's on the rise. No one wanted to do that shit 20 years ago.

20 years ago, if you were someone who got dropped in, you saw people doing you be like, what the hell? You know, working out and exercise wasn't even cool yet. So that's why it is. It's because it's the extreme. It's the thing that we're more connected now because of the social media and everything else that, you know, you're... And we already have access to somebody's virtual sense. Yeah I can have access to somebody's easy right I can get a hold of you like through any means you know text email whatever it is and it it's just we're finding out that that's not real that's not a real connection and so there's just there's this gap there this emptiness there that well it's a real. It's a real connection.

It's a real connection with a tool. You're connected to that. You're not connected to yourself or anybody else that's around you. Well, that's, yeah. And so how are you going to pick up on what your body's trying to tell you if you're so disconnected from it? Yeah, we can use the same tricks and stuff

and tools that the food industries use on us, the condition us in particular ways. You can use the same things for yourself. If we think from an exercise standpoint, so we'll start with exercise and then we'll move to nutrition. If I'm trying to correct someone's posture, a bad way to do it would be to have someone stand up and for me to tell them, stand like this, put them in position, this is good posture, see you later, because posture is not something that's conscious.

It's an unconscious thing. I have to change muscle recruitment patterns. I have to change how their body literally sits in an unconscious state so that good posture becomes very natural. The same thing is true with nutrition. It's no different. The same thing is true with exercise. It's no different.

So, how do we do that? Well, there's a couple ways you do that with exercise. One is you start to view exercise, not as a punishment, but as something you're doing because you love yourself and you want to take care yourself. So what does that mean? Well, that means it looks different sometimes. It looks good for everybody. That means sometimes I'm going to the gym and I'm lifting weights because my body needs that and I'm taking care of it. And that means sometimes I go for a walk or sometimes I meditate. That will drive you to

make better decisions than almost any coach or fitness professional will ever do. It's just that whole, I'm doing this because I love myself and I'm taking care of myself. And sometimes again, sometimes it means you don't exercise and you go to the spa or you get a massage or you relax. When it comes to nutrition, the same thing. Use those same tricks. The food industry did a great job of connecting the dots for you when it came to particular foods.

For example, in the morning I wake up, I eat breakfast foods, eggs, bacon, milk. They're just food, but we associate them with breakfast, so they've made that connection to us. So that's what I crave in the morning to eat for breakfast. Same thing with lunch, same thing with dinner, same thing with popcorn at the movie theater or whatever. Make those connections for yourself. Pay attention to how foods actually make you feel. Not just the taste, because that's one signal. Palatability is one signal that you can

and you should pay attention to. And it's been high jacked most foods. And it's being hijacked by highly processed, highly palatable foods. But also pay attention to how foods are really making you feel. For example, I may not necessarily like the taste of vegetables, but I notice when I eat them, my digestion's amazing, my skin looks really good. I'm not below it. I have

inflammation down. I've got better. My attitude feels great. I've got better energy. I seem to be more patient with my kids or whatever. Pay attention to those things, make them conscious and eventually become unconscious signals. And you will actually start to find yourself craving those types of foods because you'll want those feelings. And the food industry's already been doing this to us for a very long time, so it is not a crazy abstract thought or process, it's literally, this is how the body works. And what you'll find over time when you do this is,

because really the solution is this, the solution all boils down to this. If you enjoy exercising and you enjoy eating healthy, it's never gonna be a problem. It'll always be something that you'll do. You'll never gain the way back because I just love doing it. I mean, I have clients I've been working with for years.

They'll go on vacations and we'll be texting each other and they'll say, oh my God, I've been eating out for the last five days. I cannot wait to get home and cook myself some vegetables. Like, this is what they're craving. Now, initially, it wasn't because they didn't like the taste of vegetables, because of course, if you compare it to a donut, that palatability is totally different. Well, initially it was feeling.

Initially it was, I need to lose this five pounds I put on on vacation. That's what it was driven by. And that is so short-lived. It's absolutely short. That's driven by hating yourself by. And that is so short-lived. It's absolutely short. That's driven by hating yourself. And you can't hate yourself for very long. At some point, you're going to want to stop hating yourself. You're going to go off the wagon.

It's exhausting. And you're like, screw that. I'm going to eat whatever I want. I'm sick and tired of hating myself and punishing myself. So that's really that mental shift. It takes time. Be patient with yourself. It's a little-by-little process. Don't give yourself these time goals, right? I need at least 30 pounds

by this waiting or whatever, I mean I get that and you can do that as well, but don't give it, just make those connections and watch what happens over time, it becomes something that's just this is just the way I am and it's the only way to do a long term unless you become orthorexic in which case that's not healthy either. So the second book is called Fit to Love, how to get physically emotionally and spiritually fit to attract love of your life. And that book is all about changing the relationship with exercise and changing it from a self-loathing to a self-love.

What a great book to write. Because I would walk into, you know, I live here in LA, I could go into any gym any moment and you can feel it's palatable. Who is there because they're doing this exercise because they actually love and respect themselves and who is there on every step saying I hate myself I hate myself. I wish I was then I need you to do this. You can feel it and that was where the book kind of it's my story But it also encompassed what I really believed and that was my brand and that's the show was based on that the show was fit to love what I really believed and that was my brand. And that's the show was based on that. The show was fit to love.

Physical, emotional, and spiritual fitness for the happy life you deserve. And that was the original show. With that exact goal of having people stop and examine, am I doing this because I don't like myself, or am I doing this because I love myself? Because the more you come from the place, and like you said, it's gonna look different every day.

I'm dealing with a little bit of coming out of adrenal fatigue. So what my workouts have been this week? Walking on the sand, do a little earthing to reduce, do some inflammation. Yeah, I'm still on my zone because I have adrenal fatigue. But you know, it's not, but there's the, oh, you should be lifting. Well, you need to, you need to first get some rest and then you come back from the location.

Because lifting is still another stress. And if you've got all these other stress markers that are off the radar right now, lifting actually may not be the best thing. Absolutely. Right. And I never not do it for too long. But take a week or two off is one thing because I'm so run down or I have so much to do and I'm going away.

But I love myself and that means I'm not going to should myself into something that I think I should do. Because should means that I don't have a choice. And most of us rebel against that kind of idea of shooting yourself. And so I tell people, instead of saying should, replace with want. And if you don't want to exercise yet, say, what would it be like to want? I want to want to exercise.

I want to want to exercise. And then eventually that'll become, I want exercise versus I should exercise. And you'll find, I mean, the irony of all that by the way, what's funny about because you'll, we'll say that message and we'll, we'll preach that message. And you'll still get people that'll go in one ear and out the other because they're so focused on wanting to change how they look. Like it's so like, listen, I just want to, I know if I look better, I'll feel better. I know if I lose weight, I'll feel better, which is false, but you can't convince some of that.

I think with Jim K. Well, a lot of people don't know that they don't feel good. But a lot of people think, I feel good. I feel great. But you've just never felt what your body feels like when it's running optimally. So it's running at its best. It's become adapted to what you've been doing to it for years.

So yeah, it's running pretty good for what you do to it. But watch what happens when you actually start to optimize it and pay attention. And so that's the problem. I think Jim Carrey recently said, like, I wish everybody could be rich and famous so they can realize that that's not the answer. It's very similar with looking a particular way. But the irony of all this is if you do truly train and eat because you actually, you carry, you're carrying for yourself. The physical representation of the effects of that are actually the way you want to look. So the irony is if you do what we're saying, you're actually going to get the aesthetic and the cosmetic goals.

If you don't do what we're saying and you just chase, I want to look a particular way, you will actually get neither. You will get neither. Maybe in the short term, you'll get some of the cosmetic, but in a very short period of time, and I'm talking like literally, I've seen people go from hammering their bodies, looking like they belong on Instagram, within a year, their body rebells, shuts off. All of a sudden, these people are coming, they're hiring me because, Sal, you know, the same routine I've always done, I'm meeting this diet, I've always done, my body won't respond anymore.

Why am I holding on to 15 extra pounds? Why am I so tired? Like why is my hair falling out? Why don't my libido gone? Like what is going on? It's like, you know, if you chase that health aspect, if you chase taking care of yourself, you'll get the physical representation that you want,

but it doesn't happen the other way around. And so I like to say that because I'm trying to sell the idea, but it's also true. So if you're listening and you're like, I don't care, I just want to look good, still do what I'm telling you. It's basic love attraction. This is why I put that day of the week on my sixth,

my fifth day was Freedom Friday's AKA Love Attraction. And it's my most popular rebrand of spirit, purpose and energy. And it's because here's the law of attraction. When you energetically do exercise with hate and self-loathing, you activate, do you think your body's gonna respond to that? You're gonna get more of what you focus on, which is that I'm trying to look a certain way,

and again, you may manipulate part of that. But it's never gonna be long term because you're activating that connection, that vibration, which is not love. It's self-loathing. And so you're just gonna keep getting more of that. Your body's gonna say, F you, I'm not gonna change for you

because you don't respect me. So it's literally a law that you are not at a frequency where you're gonna get what you want because you're not activating that. You're down here. And you take it to the, I mean, you take it even to the scientific level. We know this.

Now this, this was woo-woo what you're saying you know, 20 or 30 years ago, but we know now for a fact that a literal thought or feeling can change the physiology of your body. We can measure this in real time to where you think something, chemicals and hormones and responses and reactions change with the body. So when people say in the past, when wellness experts will say thoughts are things and they were laughed up by the medical community because it sounded like, you know, mystical, spiritual, baloney, this science completely supports it now. Your thoughts are literal things in your body. So it's not a, you know, a baloney application. Something else I find that's very interesting on this topic is people will hear the message of love yourself and they

will confuse it with body acceptance, which then means, well, now I don't care. I'm not going to eat whatever I want and not move. And it's because I love myself and I don't care if I'm obese because this is the way I look and this is I love it and I whatever. Very, very different. That's not necessarily loving yourself, of course, or caring for yourself. That's your, because there's body image and there's self image. And you are accepting that your self image is good about yourself, but you can also

have an objective body image and say, I'm not healthy right now, and I'm really not caring for myself. So although I accept and love myself, I'm not caring for myself. So I want to be clear with that because I'm seeing now how this body acceptance movement is getting perverted by some people, it looks like, hey man, I'm not going to extra-side, I don't need to do all that, I love myself, I love the way my body looks or what I like. Hands dad-bod and things like that.

Yeah, and really what they're doing is also pushing, it's the same thing, it's just different, they're pushing poor health to themselves by saying things like that or by doing those things, not saying that you need to hate yourself, but you could be objective and say, you know, I do love and accept myself, but I'm not caring for myself, from those places. And if I care for myself from those places, then I'm not gonna be 80 pounds or a way. I'm not gonna have diabetes, I'm not gonna have all these issues.

So, and I like to cover that because it's an interesting, you see those two ends of the spectrum. Well, in my old self, what have said to the person who said, oh yeah, I love myself, I'm not gonna work out, I'm gonna eat whatever one I'd say, bullshit. And I'd wanna uncover the real truth for that. Cause that's just a shield, that's not the truth. But the new me's like, whatever, that's fine,

go eat yourself into death, I don't care, it's your body, you can do what you want. And when you're ready, you'll know where I am. I'll meet you where you're in. I'll meet you. I'll meet you where you are. You know meet you. I'll meet you where you are. And as I've grown, I grow pretty quick. And I love learning.

And I try things out. And my clients aren't all on my same path necessarily. But I've tried to meet people where they are. And I have someone who I've worked with now for seven years. And only recently, did he tell me about having an argument with his wife and he got his car and he screamed. He's a thought of me and he screamed did he tell me about having an argument with his wife and he got his car and he screamed. He's a thought of me and he screamed because he was upset.

This is someone who represses all of his emotions and has had back pain for many years and had things, you know, corduzone shots to his back to numb it. And I've made jokes over the years when he'd have back issue, oh, what happened today? Who triggered you today, right? But it's that sort of a, yeah, yeah, yeah, I kind of know what you're talking about, but I'm not really gonna dive there. And then he came in and he's like, I need to hit something, we need a box.

I was like, okay, what happened? And he told me and he goes, I really, I get it now. And I was like, how long have we been doing this? Seven years. It took seven years. You know what's funny about that? When people laugh about, you know, pain in their back,

for example, in this day, and you know, we'll tell them like, oh, it's, it could be emotional. It doesn't have to be a physical cause of pain. The funny thing about that is when you have the people from the Western medicine community laugh at that. The irony is one of the most popular off label uses of prescription SSRI drugs is undiagnosable pain.

So you go to the doctor with back pain and they do MRIs and stuff like that and they say, oh, nothing's wrong with you. They will actually think about prescribing you in antidepressant drug and in many cases, it helps. So yes, you could definitely feel- Just to elevate your mood. You could definitely feel physical representations

of emotional pain and it's all the same. It's all the same stuff. It's funny, I used to train a lot of doctors and surgeons. And one of the surgeons I worked with, when he first started his career in medicine, he was a pediatric surgeon, so he'd work on children. And he would tell me how you do these major surgeries on these little kids, and within a couple days

they're up and running around with stitches and stuff like that. And he's just like, it's hilarious because I do the most minor thing on an adult, and they're in bed taking... They're bedridden. And they're taking 15 different pills for painkillers. And I told just like, it's hilarious because I do the most minor thing on an adult and they're in bed taking, and they're taking 15 different pills for painkillers. And I told him, I said, why is that? Is that because kids don't feel whatever he goes, no, it's because they don't know that they're supposed to be sitting in bed in super pain.

He goes, so much of it is mental and it's totally true. And it cracks me up. But when people debate it like, no, I'm sorry, but it's all connected. It's not just connected, it's actually all the same. Yeah, well it's funny that when you like an animal, we find a new species, right? Study it. It's environment where it's sleeping patterns. What it hunts like it's exercise. It's muscle. It's physiology It's metabolism. Like we study everything about it. What part of the earth it's from and the light exposure that they

Yeah, right, but you know You know the human body comes in for work to the doctor and it's like one person with one specialty in one area of the body Is the one giving you this advice and it's like it's all one system How can you not take into consideration just chasing the symptom all the other things? It's like and we've modeled so many things after this like the vehicle a car is a pervade example It's like if you came into the pool then, and you saw a specialist just for exhaust, but your timing belt is off, your tires are flat.

And he's like, I got you, fix your exhaust. It's like, okay, well, what about all the other shit? Like, my car's still gonna run like shit if you do that. Our bodies are the same way. We're treating like one part of the entire system. What have been some of your biggest personal challenges with fitness change? You've been doing this for a while,

and I noticed when I meet other personal trainers who've been doing it, as long as we have or the passion that we have for it, a lot of our growth and learning comes from our own personal growth and learning through this process. What have been some of the biggest challenges for you? Challenges in information, challenges with clients, challenges with.

For your own personal fitness, nutrition, like, or your own personal challenges with any of that that you've grown through and it's applied to your clients. Can you identify? Yeah, absolutely. I had to think about that for a second because it's this, yeah, like a lot of dad. As I say, it's probably stages, right?

I'm like, where was I then? Okay, so like I mentioned this sort of the ego driven, I'm right, remember I just learned science for the first time and I'm like, I'm good at science. And you guys are idiots for doing, okay, right? And so I come in and I'm, I'm, I wanted to play testosterone game. So it's been the identification of self-worth

through clients getting results or them listening to me. Okay, I think for any service provider, you come up with your information and you present to them and you tell them, this is what I think you should do or this is what you should do, whatever. And then they don't do it or they go backwards and it's whether you take that personally or not.

And I think a lot of people maybe have, maybe might feel embarrassed if their clients aren't getting results, right? And now mine, you from the place of what you're talking about before, if you didn't know anything, it didn't matter, right? But if you have all the best information and someone's still not doing it, do you take that personally?

And there have been times through this one client I just mentioned who for seven years, it's taken this long. There have been moments of very real frustration for me because I have a desire to help. I have a lot of tools in my toolbox. And I don't like to see people suffer more than they need to. And one, you know, back surgeries or being out for so long or, you know, being frustrated when I'm like, here, I have the tools for you. So it's really coming to peace with and understanding everyone's journey and being able to accept

that I'm a part of your journey. And for some people, I'm a bigger part of your journey and for some, I'm not. And to be okay with whatever that means. And to every time I'm triggered in whatever way to make that about me and not about them and to say, what is it about me? So how do you know what's interesting about that? It completely parallels parenting. Oh my God, yes.

Exactly what you're talking about. Absolutely, your kids here at Teach You, it's not the other way around. Yes, yes. And once you realize that, you can be way better off. Absolutely, yes. Yeah, that's been such a learning process for me. And yeah, because I totally have that same thing.

I know so much and don't do this lesson. You're trying to create all these barriers and, you know, safety nets and you're, like they have to learn it. They have to learn it and they have to also, like, you have to pull back and you have to let them come to you. Which one of you was it who's child when you got out of the car to go, ah, with the kid that threw it. Yeah, that was my son. That's what I was saying. See, I would have. Yeah, that was my son. That was my son. See, I would have been like, you are so smart. Like, as I heard that, I thought, good for your kid.

Oh, yeah. He called me out, and I mean, I- Totally called you out. He called me out, and I had to go with it. With a great ego check, I'll tell you. Totally. So in the past, how would you handle clients who challenge you that way, and then how did you handle them

after? What was the difference? Would you get mad at them and be like, no, you got to do it this way? So I had a... Break them off in a session or something. I had a celebrity client who he would go away on set to film something and he'd come back and he'd tell me, oh yeah, I worked out with this in this gym and whether it be with a trainer or not and I was punching with weights and I went, okay. And I thought about that. And then when he, after I left him, I called him on the phone and I left punching with weights and I went, okay,

and I thought about that. And then after I left him, I called him on the phone and I left a message and I was like, you know, I love you, I think you're great. I said, but yeah, when you tell me you were punching with weights, it tells me you're not listening to anything I'm saying. And that's cool.

You don't have to think I know anything. Maybe it's because I'm a girl. Maybe it's because I'm not an athlete. Maybe it's because I'm not a bodybuilder. That's fine. I accept that. I go, but maybe I'm not the right trainer maybe it's because I'm not a bodybuilder. That's fine. I accept that. I go, but maybe I'm not the right trainer for you, because really you're not getting hurt on my watch.

When you go somewhere else and you're doing stupid shit, you're just like, we all went through this, you're to launch people. Boom. Right, celebrity client. I'm like, nope, I don't care who you are. You're just so stinks. I'm, you're, no, I go, so I love you,

but maybe I'm not the right person for you. He calls back and says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no're shit, you're just still stinks. No, I go, so I love you, but maybe I'm not the right person for you. He calls back and says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, again. I'm like, yeah, are you listening to me? So there are times where, you know, I release people, or I say it's not a fit because of where we are and the gap is too wide. And I have said that to people before, I want, I mean, I'm at that place right now.

I'm moving into a membership model and some people don't want all of it. You know what? I've been frustrated for years because I'm using this much in my talent. You're getting this much. And I want to do more. Now, that's partly about me. I need an outlet to feel that. So I'm not going to blame. Like people don't have to work with me in all ways in order for me to feel good. That's on how that works. But if I see that, you know, you, what bugs me the most, I'm sure all of you can agree. When someone says they want change, but they're not willing to do anything towards that change,

or you could identify places where they get stuck, but they really, really want change, and they tell you, oh, I've tried it millions of times, but you haven't, you didn't do it, right? How much do you want change? So that bugs me when people come, and they want change, I can give you change.

Get on board, I can give you change. I got a step-by-step process, all laid out for you for five months, that you're going to get changed. If not, you're going to at least identify exactly where you get stuck. That used to really bother me so much. I started realizing that I need to meet,

if I'm going to benefit the client at all, I have to meet them where they're at. That's the only way to do it. Am I providing any value to them? If I'm providing some value to them, then I'll hang around. I'll be honest with them, and I'll tell them, like, hey, look, John, you keep eating the way you're eating. You're going to keep feeling the way you're feeling, but you're still meeting with me twice a week. We're still exercising twice a week. We're getting some benefit there, so let's just continue doing that. And at some point, if you have questions, then I'll help you with the other stuff.

If you don't, that's okay too, but at least, and I know that I'm giving them some value, but in the past, it was a problem. Like, no, you got to do it this way, or I'm not going to help you at all. And doing that, I would lose clients, not only would I lose clients, but the clients would not go anywhere. They wouldn't get any of the benefit of the exercise, and many of them would just stop. This is why I love the podcast, though, because to that point, like as far as people,

not even really wanting to change and really make the effort, if you're not, we have so many episodes now, we have 660 or something, 400 YouTube videos, there's, I don't know how many blogs or flier, we have talked about this. I have talked about what your issue is, and I'll send you in the direction to go read or listen And if you're not even willing to make that step like you're not ready

And it's not you you're not ready and a lot of people won't do that. They'll ask you for stuff And it's like okay, and you point in the direction they won't even take that first step. It's like you know we're near ready I definitely meet people where they are when they're coming to me and they know who I am and what I do But I'm too expensive for people to just, for me, just a babysit. I'm not interested in that. It doesn't serve me in this. You're in tag, you don't want to take their money if you're not really getting any help.

Right, and it's not my way or the highway. With that client, I was more concerned about like, do you understand your shoulder joint is the joint that gets injured the most? It's the least stable joint in your body, and it's the most injured because people do stupid stuff. And that was more of a, I didn't say,

you know, I don't give him workouts to do when he's off doing other things, it's not like controlling, it's just the idea of you're not listening, that I care about your joints, and I care about longevity for joints that you don't get injured, and that you're not wearing down cartilage unnecessarily, because I'm about preservation as well as efficiency,

not just do it in work hard. They go hand in hand. They do, because all the people doing some exercises are gonna feel their joints probably in a couple years and they don't need to because you can get the same benefit doing an exercise that doesn't wreck your joints. So I'm looking down the line, you know, do you guys remember Larry, Parisian, Lenny, Parisino? Oh, God, that's the old school, right? Right, so Lenny at my first or second NASM certification, and I can, I don't, can't say

that to many people, so that's why I asked you. I was sitting in the audience and he got up and to do his physiology talk, whatever he was talking about the time. And he said, I have 11 injuries. Don't do what I did. And I went, okay. Okay.

Okay, I won't do what you did. And that's all I needed to hear. I'm like, I get it. Exercise in a way that wrecks your joints and you'll have injuries and you'll have to compensate for that in the future. Sooner or later, the body will let you know. Don't do stupid shit.

Learn something. You science, and there you go. Yeah, and then, you know, the thing when it comes to movement, one of the things that the paradigm shadowing moment for me was really realizing that, your body is capable of what it's capable of doing, and that can change.

That can change where, for most people, you know, a shoulder press with a bar behind the head is probably not good for your shoulders, but for some people, they have this stability, they have the joint integrity, they have the recruitment patterns and mobility to where that's absolutely fine. And not all exercises are created equal. Some exercises you can be looser with another. Some exercises if you lose even a little bit and you're probably gonna hurt yourself.

But it was, for me, it was like, wow, like the really isn't, like, I mean, I'm sure there are, but for the most part, there aren't exercises that are just bad and ones that are just good. It's what is your body capable of doing? And as that changes, the exercises that are right for you can also change. It's funny because I used to tell clients, like, don't do this or don't do that.

Now I'm watching the movie and be like, well, you have the stability and the movement patterns be able to do that. If we train that, then you're able to do that particular movement. We do it in a smart way. You get real world mobility, real world functionality. I remember when I shared that journey. That was what, two years Well, I shared that. I remember when I shared that journey,

that was what, two years ago when the shoulders, remember I could 225 bodybuilder shoulder press over my head, but I couldn't take the 45 pound bar and bring it behind my head. And because I just did not have the shoulder man, I was so anterior dominant, and so here I am, this big meathead bodybuilder guy in there with just the bar.

Yeah, behind your neck. Yeah, just working on the movement. Like I'm not trying to build a bunch of huge muscle, but as a byproduct, my muscles are gonna build, and I'm gonna feel a lot better, and I'm gonna protect my joints, but we have a really hard time making that connection. And again, I keep going, circling back to the being so disconnected from ourselves

because it's getting worse. Oh my God, disconnection from the body is crazy. I do something that I can't even explain. Like, I have to show people, just why I had to do video. And I don't know if you guys do it. I know I worked with a video podcast with a trainer. He was like a military guy. He was getting into training.

And we were talking about this. And by the end of it, he's like, can you coach me? And I was like, yeah, it's about Russell recruitment. But it's about neurological muscle recruitment. It's about actually thinking about the muscle so that you're activating more motor pattern, more muscle fibers, motor units. And, but it's that really honing in on,

only pulling from where the muscle inserts and originates. So for instance, abs, right? Most people like lift their head, they use their neck on their shoulders. When I teach people how to actually recruit from the ribs and pull themselves up as if, in focus on the fact that they're being pulled into a crunch, they are not, they're being pulled into a crunch. They are not, right.

They're being pulled into a crunch by here. I make them exaggerate as if their ribcage is moving first and they're literally dragging their heads. They can go, this is what moved me. Not this, not this, I use this. Sorry, this is a podcast and none of you know what I pointed to. She's putting in a big toe. Right. This is why I had to do video.

My first book was about abs and I was like, I don't want to write this book. No, you're addressing a big toe. Right. This is why I had to do video. My first book was about abs, and I was like, I'm gonna write this book, then. No, you're addressing a big thing that I'm passionate about. And that's something that has led me in that direction of like, you know, to bring the awareness back to that neuromuscular recruitment. And like, what's favorable? What are the favorable patterns?

Like, where do we want to focus on? And what are we doing constantly? What's your day look like? You know, what are the movements that you're doing all the time, repetitively, and you're getting this position? You're creating like your posture. You're creating how you move every day.

All these things happen as a result of this constant repetition. And so, how do we address that in a way where now let's add a different routine. Let's add a different ritual that will complement you better and make you more balanced in and activate stabilizing muscles that we want to bring into these movements as well. Your body gets really good at what you do a lot of. So if I take a woman, you know, a modern, you know, western woman who walks around high heels all day long and I take a modern hunter gatherer and I have them put their feet next to each other. Their feet will look completely different.

They'll pull the both probably be disgusted with each other's feet because it doesn't look like their own. But the woman who walks around high heels all day long, her foot and her recruitment pattern, her body has completely morphed and adapted to walking in those heels. And if she took those heels off and walked around barefoot all the time, she would experience pain, she would experience discomfort, all the way up to kinetic chain to, knees, back, hips, and you name it.

And if I took that hunter gatherer, and I put them in a high heel shoe and had them walk around, they would experience pain going all the way up to kinetic chain. Your body gets very good at what you practice. Very efficient. And what you do,

and that's really the basis behind correct exercise. And just like if I were teaching a hunter gatherer to walk in heels without pain, we wouldn't go from flat feet a little time to heels all the time, we would slowly progress you to be able to do that. And that's that we'd want to, but insane by his first set. That's like the barefoot movement when that started happening with running and stuff like that. All of a sudden, you have all these runners like, oh my god, I read this book on barefoot running. We're's like the barefoot movement when that started happening with running and stuff like that all of a sudden you all these runners like oh my god I read this book on barefoot running we're supposed to

run barefoot I'm gonna just run barefoot from now on and I'm gonna feel awesome and then all of a sudden they had foot injuries and ankle injuries like hold that a second it went from moon shoe to like barefoot you don't know how to run barefoot first of all let's slowly progress you through and that approach with exercise has completely revolutionized my approach to how I train people and how I recommend exercise. Once you understand that you can see that exercises are not the end, there are means to the end. And once you utilize them in that way, man, the body responds. And so it's such incredible ways. That's pretty awesome. With your audience, what do you find the biggest

or the most common questions that are asked of you? Like, do you get a lot of questions that tend to be repeated to you where you need to kind of hammer home particular messages? It's, you know, it's that integration piece. It's the food piece, it's the exercise piece. It's, you know, if I only have so much time, what's the best thing for me to do? Or if I'm trying to, you know, people have their sort of limiting beliefs and excuses about being able to eat healthfully or I eat out a lot and so what can I do there? Or it's really challenging to have, to cook for myself. I'm not going to cook for myself, so how do I figure that out?

So I find that when it comes to the nutrition side and the exercise side, the releasing weight side, there has a lot to do with integration and how do I fit this into my life so that I'm not overwhelmed? That's a big piece. How am I not overwhelmed? How am I, how does it taste good? How do I not have resistance to it? And the exercise piece as well, depending on if they're working out with me or not, it's

getting it in at a time that makes sense. It's about putting it with some other thing in their life so that it's not, again, that separate mentality of put it in as a routine, the couples with something else you're already doing. So that way it becomes part of your habitual daily routine versus it's something extra that you're trying to find time to do. Yeah and you know one thing that I like to communicate to people also is when you devote time of course there's there's you know you can take this to the extreme as well which isn't good but if you devote time to taking care of yourself with exercise you'll

actually get more time back, not just in longevity, not just because you live longer, but literally you'll find that you're able to do more things during the day. It's not a one-to-one trade-off. It's in business they call it training dimes for quarters. Like if you have advertising that costs you a dime and you get a quarter for every dime that you spend,

you're gonna spend all your money on it and get tons of, you know, you're going to keep making money. With the body, with time that you have during the day, if you're busy with your kids and you find like, oh my god, how do I find time to exercise? If you devote a little bit of time to making yourself feel better through exercise, you'll find that you actually become much more efficient, you'll have more energy to do the things that you do, you'll be in better mood, you'll actually become much more effective whatever you are. It's one of the first things, it's funny, it was one of the most shocking things is when I first became a trainer when I trained these business

people and they would always tell me, it's so tough to find the time to exercise and then they finally say, okay, I'm going to devote X amount of days to working out. We would start working out, they'd be consistent and they'd tell me, it's really weird man, I'm actually better at work now. Like, I'm working less time, but I'm much more effective in efficient at work because I feel better and I have more energy. I discovered that with meditation.

It was like, I hated sitting down for 10 minutes to meditate because it was 10 minutes of nothing, in my mind, like, I'm sitting here doing nothing. I've got so much stuff to do, right? Even though I spend an hour and a half on Instagram sometimes. So, but I would do these, you know, But I would do these 10 minute meditation sessions every day. And I found that, whereas before, up until the time I went to bed, I was busy doing stuff because that thing's a do that actually had like two hours left

at the end of the night where I finished everything all of a sudden. I'm like, what's going on here? I'm becoming much more effective at what I'm doing. I love to sell that message to people because it isn't a sacrifice. You're not necessarily getting rid of, you know, devoting all this time. And now you've lost that time. You get a lot of that back in energy effectiveness efficiency. Companies know this now. Yep.

Companies know this. And when I used to manage gyms for 25 fitness, we, they would have started to get corporate accounts. Remember how hard corporate accounts were back in the days because they just weren't, that we weren't thinking that way 20 years ago. No, and they know now companies know now that when, now most of all your best companies have got a gym built in in. They have a training team that's there. They know if you exercise and eat right, it's better on their bottom line because you're more efficient, more effective employee, you're healthier, you cost less money and health care. You're absent less, like you've got a better attitude. So activity goes up.

Really, if you're the kind of person that's like, I'm super busy and you want to optimize your life, your health is the biggest player in that. And you optimize your health, you will optimize your life. JJ, what do you think about, where do you stand on on like counting, like tracking and all your tools that are out there for macros? Well, I love Josh to death. It drives me nuts. It drives me nuts because it's not,

I don't wanna be tied to a device. I don't need the data, although mind you, on my walk today, I did wear my heart monitor and I have, you know, this, and I had the chest strap on and I, and I just, this for information, I for information, I can plug into my computer and uploads, but honestly, I've never looked at it. If I ever wanna know, I can look,

but I think that, again, meeting people where they are, some people, that's very motivating, but I wanna tend to be careful because there are people have control issues, and it feeds into that control issue. And again, I have a chapter in the book called Divorcing the Scale. And it's that idea that we keep putting ourself worth

and giving our power away by a device or by a number on a scale or by our body fat percentage or by whatever that we then associate that that's ourself worth. And I'm trying to disconnect that and tell people only get on the scale when you feel good. You look in the mirror, you like what you see, that's when you get on the scale,

because you know what, you haven't given your power away yet. And you can then decide, it's just a number, and pass that if you wanna go track your progress, make sure what you're doing is working, then you make sure you do all the numbers. You do the body fat percentages, you do the circumference measuring. But you don't just step on the scale,

because you could have lost, or gained muscle fat or water, and we're not getting a real number here We so we find that those tools of tracking are abused very very heavily in the Cosmetic aesthetic-based competitive world where you have bikini competitors, physique competitors bodybuilder stage presentation athletes who track so religiously that they get so Orthorexic about it to where if they have days where they don't track, it becomes either binging panic.

It's binging, I go crazy off or they panic and freak out. I actually think I think everybody's doing all the wrong things. It's the people that are doing all the tracking. Then you just stop, they break free because they're attached to that. The ones that aren't need some of it in their life.

Yes. And the same thing goes with- For awareness and consciousness and understanding what they're doing and what they're not doing. Yes. And the same thing applies to the way you train even. Like, there is a place for intensity, there is a place for, you know, challenging your body, but typically the people that gravitate to that are also the people that have high stress, jobs, not sleeping very well, and then they're hammering their body in the gym.

No, you need to go fucking meditate a little bit. You need some yoga in your life. You need to go for a walk every now and then. And then you've got the other side, the crunchy hippie people that are just, all they're doing is meditating and walking. And you can probably use a little bit of peace mode in your life.

You need a little bit of intensity. So, all of everyone's doing all the wrong things. And if we could just, like, have a little bit of detachment and perspective and go like, okay, you know, we all kind of tend to gravitate or what have I been gravitating towards so much and what could I use more of in my mind? One of the things that you had mentioned about adrenal fatigue, right? Or some people call it HTPA access dysfunction.

Or one of the hallmarks of that, one of the symptoms of that or issues of that is or is cortisol resistance? Cortisol resistance in low levels, really, and by the way, this is not controversial, your body can actually become resistant to anything that it has high levels of. It'll downregulate receptors, it'll alter other hormones so that your body no longer gets this crazy effect from whatever it is that's too high.

And in this case, in many times, it's cortisol. Now, what happens when you get to this state of whatever you wanna to call it adrenal fatigue HP access dysfunction or you know cortisol resistance when you start to get this the symptoms of cortisol resistance Where you start to get excess fatigue? I need lots of stimulants to get myself to feel more energy one of the things This is us right now. Yeah, one of the things us right now. We're all gonna be home tomorrow We're gonna get on a plane after this and you better believe none of us will be in the gym tomorrow morning hammering our body

Yeah, there's no way because we're already frying we know we're pushing the limits right now So we're human too like we don't really with these boundaries all the time right and the step is just becoming aware And what it does when you start to have some of this cortisol type resistance is it actually drives your behavior So like Adam was saying with the type A high stress individual who gravitate storage of super intense workouts and they love the way they feel right after that workout. And this is what I need. I don't like that temporary relief. It brings them temporary relief because what does it do?

It spikes the shit at a cortisol. It's and so it's just like the guy who's insulin, you know, they're insensitive to insulin. They get insulin crash. They get temporary relief for meeting a high sugar diet. This individual gets a temporary relief from the high cortisol type workout, and so when you talk to these people on the state,

and I tell them, you know, you look your type A, your high stress, right now we need to do these, you know, yin yoga, or we need to do these workouts that are very low intensity, they're like, they don't feel good. The high intensity ones make me feel good. Feel so unproductive. It's because those are the ones that are

squirting out more cortisol kicking the can down the road. And the answer isn't to stop doing what you're doing and do the complete opposite and then get addicted to that and then identify with that. It's just learn how to weave in and out of the two. And when which is the right one to use at that particular time? And the why.

And the why. Why are you doing it? Which it's always, why should always be to be better, right, to feel better, to be a better human? I mean you doing it? Which it's always why should always be to be better, right? To feel better, to be a better human. I mean, when you think about it, everybody's why. Technically, we were trying, we're all trying to evolve, right? We're all as a species where I think that's everybody's why.

I think it just takes some people longer to get to that. Yeah. Well, you, you were gonna manifest whatever is gonna put, you know, stop you or your body's gonna say, you know what I'm done and I'm gonna to crash and you're not going to have any choice in this because you haven't listened to me. I've been giving you signals and now you haven't listened and so I'm going to take over and I'm going to put you down.

But the why is what I mean, sort of the type A, adrenaline junkies have control issues. One of the things that I address that's different, I think, in the book and in my program and what I talk about is identifying your addiction, because we all have them. So let's get real and call it what it is, because someone who's that type A who doesn't know how to slow down that it can only do high intense workouts is addicted to the adrenaline. Why? What are you trying to avoid? How come you can't sit in your body?

How come you can't listen to your thoughts and your feelings because they're too afraid of what they'll feel? So anything that we do that avoids, like smoking, drinking, working out too much is an addiction. Of course. Right? I mean, bodybuilding can be an addiction, right? Just like anorexia, right? It can be, it mostly. Yeah, I want to be respectful of it.

No, no, you're talking to one. You know, this is why I did it and why I wanted to share with people is when you get back there and you find out, these are the people that cover magazines, getting out all the information. They have some of the worst body image issues all the information they have some of the worst Body image issues. Yes, they have some of the most they have the worst relationships with food They have the worst relationship to exercise and they're the ones giving the advice. Yeah, it's worse there I've trained thousands of people in my career

So I've seen all kinds of poor relationships with exercise and food and it's worse in the bodybuilding community The ones that are the so-called experts on fitness. That I've seen anywhere else. It's depressing, is what it is. Well, like you were saying about self-care and taking care of yourself versus, we have to go back to understanding that, who doesn't know a beautiful, good-looking person who's miserable and depressed?

I mean, that's not logical. And that's how I started out with Fit-to-Love to say, you know, why do you want to lose weight? Why do you want to look this way? Is it because someone else is going to give you attention or because you're going to like yourself? Or is it because for me, why, after Lenny did his screen about his joints, I saw my future and went, I don't want to have pain. I see people walking down the street who are in pain, walking down the street because they didn't take care of their body. And they had the opportunity. Everything we do now is an investment in our future

when it comes to our body. And while you can make more money, you can get a new car, you're not gonna, you can replace your joints, but it's not optimal, right? Cutting into our skin is not optimal for the nerve damage and things that have to happen. So we're giving one set of joints.

And the conversation of what would bug me in the beginning of personal training was back in that day. I don't know if you guys remember there was like that NASM versus ACSM. The thing that was going on right? And ACSM was about the physiology. And and but yet there was about endurance training and they were so sort of anti resistance training right. And versus NASM to me or, was very much about biomechanics. And so which comes first at chicken or the egg to meet the biomechanics has to come first, because you get one set.

You can rebuild muscle, it may not be optimal, but you're only gonna get one set of joints. And if you wreck them, doing stupid exercises, you're gonna stop exercising because it hurts. So why not take care of the structure? And then you can have the physiology after you take care of the structure. Well, there's pre-requisites, right?

And I think we just skip right, there's pre-requisites, right? And I think we just skip right past all the pre-requisites to like, you know, do I even have the capacity to produce, you know, types of forces through this joint at that, you know, acceleration? Can I even do that in a safe way? And I think that we just don't even think about that because we just think about what we're not doing and what, you know and what kind of exercising I should be doing just based off of like what's out there

and what's marketed to us like your P90Xs and these type of high-intensity type workouts that you're neighbor or somebody else is doing somebody's recommending to you. But yeah, that's always it. It's like how can you get people to think long-term earlier? And it's just, it's such a, it's something that's always it. It's like, how can you get people to think long-term earlier? And it's just, it's such a, it's something that's always gonna be a struggle.

And that's something that's, it's really hard to really get somebody into that. I think we're all gonna have to fuck up. And the next, the next five to 10 years, we're getting, we're speeding up fast. I mean, when you start seeing kids with the autoimmune issues, the posture issues, work celebrating really quickly.

Oh, it's good, it's good. We're supposed to be evolving, getting smarter, more information, more technology out there, but yet we're getting worse as a human species. Like, just like the smoking, when everyone was smoking was cool 30 years ago. And now if someone lit up right next to you, you would freak out. I think this we will eventually get to that point.

Well, you'll see somebody eating a certain way, and it'll be like, and it'll be growing pains. There'll be people shaming at first, and then there'll be a pushback on that. And we're going through that right now. But eventually, it'll be like, you'll kind of see if you might have to eat their own, but. It's crazy.

Obviously, don't love themselves. It's crazy. Right now, the greatest threat to modern Western societies is insolvency due to poor health. That's actually a fact. The biggest investment we talk about debt, right, politics, is so much debt, whatever. The greatest expense that we have is actually towards healthcare, and it's only going to get worse and grow to the point where no amount of taxation, no amount of investment will

cover the cost, and we will see the decline in destruction of our people. He heard Chris Cresser talked about this before. He believes that we'll eventually medicine is what we'll be bankrupt. Oh no, we're on that path. We're 100% on that path and if things don't reverse and change and there's good, look, I tell you what, there's good news. And of course, was a lot of good news. I'm starting to see some changes. I'm seeing now parents actually are feeding their kids a little bit better than Kids were fed when I was a kid. Oh, yeah, there's schools that I mean we were just interviewing yesterday day before that has the kid in school

That's all that serves an all rich role and all or get they have a school that It's become that didn't exist 20 years ago, so we are we're heading that way and I think that I think that's not too late Well, we're all trying I mean I did a spot on San Diego TV back in September and it was on focus foods for kids and about how to get kids to focus and one of the first things I talked about it was that it's about what we're obviously in our foods and the first thing I mentioned is die dies actually are proven to reduce your child's IQ. Yet it's in every drink, it's in every snack food, it's in every...

You get a rate? Right, oh my God, get a rate. Don't get me started. It's one of the number one food, wait, I get a rate of organic this week. Oh, they just get it with organic, yeah. Oh, okay, they're this die free. I don't know, it looks like a red bottle,

but we'll see. Yeah, well, you know, but I think we're doing what we can, right? That's why you have a five day week show. That's why I have six know it. It's just a red bottle, but we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, well, you know, but I think we're doing what we can, right? That's why you have a five day week show. That's why I have six different shows. I were trying to get the word out and spread the word out because some people just don't know that. They're not asking those questions.

There's always going to be the bell curve of consciousness, right? And so all we can do is to do the best we can. Give people information. I think podcasting is a great way to do it because they don't like you. They don't listen. And you're not trying to be forceful and force people to like do something. They'll like you or they won't and then we get to be the examples because what will be very clear

in those times is who's living well and who's not. Our healthcare system is not healthcare. It's sick care, but functional medicine is is come as on the rise. It's on the rise. I just saw some another physician. I work in a medical clinic with a functional medicine physician and a nutritionist and who are both paleo and keto and and they went to a book launch for a doctor who are called your doctor's wrong. And I was like, yes. I'm going to get that book. Your doctor is wrong. I'm going to get that book. So I think that we are. It's but that's always how evolution and expansion happens. There has to be contrast in order for us to have a reason to go against it. Absolutely, absolutely. It's coming. Well, we could talk forever. Unfortunately, we have to go here in a little bit.

We have to be this again, for sure. Yes. If you're ever up in the San Jose area. Have you ever go up the Bay Area ever? I can come up. I've got friends up. I can come up just to talk with you guys. I don't have to have it.

It doesn't have to be a... Absolutely. We'll set something like that. But yeah, thanks for sitting down and talking with us. Yeah, thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy,

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