00:00:00: Hello to the machine does Aveda by Ina knowing

00:00:03: podcast interview for get up by his side these are weird of English sign that equate to mind an Aston internet 29 unto men linguist form is it's in Harbor namely are Malaga,

00:00:16: CrossFit athlete fatal wound you bongs very odd soon School Marcus filly

00:00:22: and if I go Mark has shown that team is garment minor bodybuilding but comes Cuyahoga of Quahog Harbor and he have a designer who brings inspiration in me off because Obama and I had three hours,

00:00:35: minor yet cigar to to me and behind florist on Marcus had insufficient fast I know my own follower of Instagram owned first run you between 1,000 opponent by YouTube.

00:00:47: You can scan Stone hook for l t even content and let us see our had to assure niggling height markers I'm providers kashmiri to Funeral For media training and business.

00:00:59: And even as a mother toy Wednesday I was talkin cannot take place because in and fins book binder and realizar in English hemmed and I have altered voice Canada can't I have nothing and switcher and bizarre Stellar to English

00:01:13: insulin cast and Lisa Berger's in Hi Marcus how are you,

00:01:18: I'm good this morning it's early over here for me I know it's an afternoon for you so we're just getting our day started yes no actually it is 10 here I'm an Ohio so,

00:01:30: yeah I got yeah I haven't had breakfast yet I just had my coffee now I have a tea so it's not so late as in Germany but you're right there right away and

00:01:44: yeah so I started my podcast introduction in German I wanted to tell my listeners about how I came across your account because.

00:01:55: When I when I don't know if you really know but when I was finishing my bodybuilding career I.

00:02:03: Was searching for something new I was searching for new movements and I found you on Instagram so I was just

00:02:10: so inspired by all the variations that I can do because I did four years of

00:02:15: bodybuilding and competing in a national and then I thought well this is pretty awesome what you're doing I can.

00:02:23: Stay in my shape I mean it was still go to stay there and I can also investigate in you movements and one of my goals was at that time to reach my first

00:02:36: bring myself up and a handstand but also to just play around a little and not,

00:02:41: you know just doing bicep curls and bench press and things like that so that was really inspiring to me and,

00:02:49: yeah I'm so happy and thankful that you can now be here my podcast so I can show people this is

00:02:56: yeah this is terrific thanks for sharing that kind of store the origin stories of how you came across the work that I've been doing for the past few years

00:03:05: yes yeah it was really a journey when I think of yeah where I was starting and now I can't even imagine just training in that style and I'm so so glad that.

00:03:17: Yeah just can show some variations and you definitely were having an impact on that you know style of training but maybe you can,

00:03:28: tell us in the beginning a little bit about your career because I also said in my introduction that you were a CrossFit athlete and now you,

00:03:37: you still do like components of CrossFit but what was your athletic career have you had any other sports background and yeah how was this,

00:03:47: route going for you.

00:03:49: Sure yeah well I definitely had a sports background from really young that was her of where I poured my energy and time as a young kid was into sports,

00:04:02: I didn't have a lot of like artistic Hobbies or musical Hobbies or anything else other than Sports and academics those were two things that I really.

00:04:11: Work hard at and I liked both of them I really loved at certain sports soccer was like a prank of primary sport for me at growing up and so was.

00:04:23: Golf golf or something my dad did that I kind of fell in love with at an early age just getting a chance to play with him on the golf course it felt really.

00:04:32: You know special to get to you know do something that was sort of like it was a it was kind of like a grown ups or you know there weren't a lot of kids my age playing I got to spend you know long hours with him on the golf course,

00:04:43: and we were fortunate to kind of grow up in an area that we spent time at a home.

00:04:51: You know for a portion of the year every year that was like right on a golf course he's walk out the backyard and your.

00:04:58: You know on the on the Fairway so those were sort of my like Youth Sports and soccer was very you know.

00:05:06: Connected me to my physicality and I don't know when I started to like you know.

00:05:14: Be aware that there was like.

00:05:17: This possibility to train my body to be more fit you know not just better at soccer but be more muscular be more you know.

00:05:27: So stronger faster but that started at an early age to.

00:05:32: So Gulf was like a great sport to learn mental you know discipline focus and you know was not a very physical sport although physicality helped me over the years.

00:05:44: And then soccer was a place where I really got to channel you know passion for Fitness for conditioning for strength agility coordination.

00:05:55: And those two laid a great foundation for me to like have strong legs and strong upper body and then,

00:06:02: I got into weight training when I was 14 years old so I went to a gym because I wanted to have bigger muscles and I wanted to you know Channel some of my athletic energy after practice was over and

00:06:16: you know if you my friend started to get into a train my brother was a little bit and we training so we just,

00:06:21: started doing that so you know I didn't I didn't really pick up CrossFit until I was.

00:06:27: I don't think I even became aware of cross until I was 21 maybe 22 years old so I had about eight years of really good resistance training

00:06:36: under my belt and that varied range from all different types of approaches to training and resistance training I had even,

00:06:45: started to learn Olympic list when I was in college playing Collegiate soccer so I arrived at CrossFit with.

00:06:52: Better than what most people arrive at the sport or at the fitness methodology at that time with which was,

00:07:01: you know eight years of lifting background and lots of you know bodybuilding reps lots of,

00:07:08: learning how to isolate muscles how to contract muscles how to flex muscles how to go to failure how to deal with soreness you know,

00:07:17: basically like learning how to push myself before CrossFit was ever there,

00:07:22: and that helped me arrive at you know 21 years old step into a whole new world of fitness and then you know have success as an athlete but really.

00:07:31: Take all of the experience I had in CrossFit and sort of embrace it as as a coach and as somebody who is thinking about Fitness for you know close to a decade at that point so a decade of Fitness before CrossFit a decade of fitness with Crossfit,

00:07:46: you know Mary all those things together that sort of helps me be who I am today as a as a thinker within the fitness space,

00:07:56: yeah I love that thank you for sharing that and it's funny I never would have thought that you would be would have

00:08:04: played golf for example but it's so interesting and it's so helpful I guess to for other people to see this journey that it's not like you.

00:08:16: He's just started that and look like that because a lot of people are very impressed by that and you had a

00:08:22: like whole background and how you found your way and so many people are still searching for it and you know try themselves a little bit out in different areas and

00:08:32: it's the same a little bit for me I still think I'm investigating but yeah I just love that journey and I love your concept now and what was actually

00:08:43: leading you towards this functional bodybuilding concept so we're you saying all right this is now what I want to do is this Mike,

00:08:51: My Philosophy basically.

00:08:55: Yeah that's that's a good question and it's one that sort of I've told a number of different ways the way I'll tell it today is that.

00:09:04: I think when I was an early on training you know in my teenage years it was sort of just like,

00:09:12: you know I think as a 15 16 17 year old male who is in the gym,

00:09:20: there's almost you know you can obviously make training mistakes and you can do some of the wrong stuff but you're pretty resilient and you're pretty capable of just handling a lot of stuff and you know,

00:09:32: most most kids that age or not training properly but they're still seeing results because there's a lot of testosterone they're very resilient,

00:09:42: and there's kind of beginner beginner gains so to speak honeymoon phase I always say exactly right,

00:09:51: but then at some point it became really clear to me in this is probably in college or Meta Meta is like the first time I started really applying appropriate training.

00:10:01: Methods with nutrition for a specific outcomes is sort of like seeing like hey I'm I'm out of the honeymoon phase but now I can apply really good training principles and be thoughtful and I can see results

00:10:14: and it was sort of like my first experience with that and I was training with another individual who.

00:10:21: Was more much more knowledgeable than me at the time about nutrition and training and so is learning a lot from them,

00:10:29: and he had a business partner in this like startup Nutrition Company who,

00:10:34: I got to meet and I certainly got to see and he was like probably 10-15 years older than us I think he was,

00:10:41: I actually might have been 20 was like close to 40 years old and this guy that looked amazing you know he was like.

00:10:48: Well built like you know just good muscularity like really clear skin just like handsome guy and was like you know and I would always ask my friends like hey what's his no,

00:11:00: like we're trying to dissect like what's this guy's secret and he was like well.

00:11:06: And we both arrived at this like well he's not doing anything crazy he's just doing this a lot of the same consistent stuff he's been doing it for 20 years and he's been eating like this like this was he was you know at the time it was like eating.

00:11:19: Whole grains vegetables protein,

00:11:23: quality fats like just you know a really balanced diet and he had been eating like no processed stuff no sugar no nothing for for like two decades and he was like yeah I think it's just like great training principles,

00:11:36: you know consistently with like good diet and if you do it long enough you just like.

00:11:41: Look amazing and I'm like okay that makes a lot of sense like how do I okay that's my mission you know is how do I become this guy Chris who had been doing it for 20 years and I got I got all this time ahead of me.

00:11:55: Now with that you know it's like okay well

00:11:59: I can go for a walk everyday and you know eat this kind of diet and that might be the most that might be consistent but it's not going to get S to scratch that itch of like I want to push myself physically I have this desire to,

00:12:12: push myself as a physical person.

00:12:15: I want to see what I'm capable of you know how do I get five more pounds in the bar how do I you know I many of those those variables of like.

00:12:25: Improved performance do equate to better Aesthetics you know better performance outcomes like there's there's a correlation there it's like if you can lift more weight more repetitions like you're likely going to build more muscles so I wasn't.

00:12:40: You know I wasn't at a point in my life where I was like I'm not chasing heavier weights I was like I'm chasing all the stuff I want to I want to push myself physically and I want to be doing it for the next 20 years and of course I'm like 18 19 20 years old and I think I can do everything

00:12:54: and you know I can I can,

00:12:58: diet hard and I could do more volume in the gym I could cut calories I can get shredded and I can push weights and PR and and everything was going swimmingly you know and then 21,

00:13:12: I was 20 or 21 years old and I had my first kind of major injury where.

00:13:20: I didn't get injured on the soccer field I didn't get injured doing something I had an over training you know from the gym injury where my you know left side,

00:13:33: SI joint or you know lumbar sacral area my back.

00:13:39: Had significant pain I had radicular symptoms so like nerve pain down my leg and I basically had like a pretty severe back injury and.

00:13:49: There wasn't a single moment I remember a day of training I remember there was like you know in the last month before my injury you know I would do like a big leg day or a big lower-body day and my like low back would kind of get hot

00:14:02: you know I feel like it's a little tight you know but this was like I remember this day where it was just like it was a whole new feeling was like.

00:14:11: Something had given out was like week it was vulnerable like I was laid up on the couch and.

00:14:17: You know when that happened it led to a big Cascade of like downward.

00:14:25: Stuff for me like injury can't train.

00:14:30: You know I was in the middle of winter in college on a tough semester of school.

00:14:38: I started to see this thing that was like this anchor point in my life that was,

00:14:42: that was added so much positivity become the source of like negativity like depression,

00:14:50: pain you know physical pain emotional pain and it just was sort of evaporated taken away and that that was really like,

00:15:00: I mean it was at the time it was it sent me into a deep depression and that lasted for quite some time.

00:15:09: And so that was probably from the time I was 14 years old until today the longest period of time that I had fallen out of like.

00:15:18: Healthy lifestyle movement practices and when you know after about six months I had done minimal training.

00:15:28: I had graduated finally from college was kind of directionless in a way I knew I wasn't ready for graduate school but I also was like.

00:15:37: Kind of depressed because like my body had was.

00:15:41: You know didn't look anything like it did six months ago you know Jack shredded feeling amazing now is soft lost weight felt like add a shape like,

00:15:52: and I knew I wanted to reconnect with that,

00:15:55: feeling but I was like I can't do it the way I did before seriously like I'm not I'm not Invincible you know I didn't have the right approach,

00:16:04: I was trying to push it too much and I lost something in the process.

00:16:10: And so that's sort of set the stage for like the future where I was like okay I only I want to know there's back to like what I said before which is like what leads to lifelong sustainability and.

00:16:24: Consistency in this you know healthy eating movement.

00:16:29: Balance and then also like be mindful of like that desire to push myself where is that like what how do I scratch that itch without.

00:16:40: Overdoing it and that kind of became like the lifelong mission was to kind of solve that.

00:16:48: Puzzle and I don't know that that's I certainly haven't solved it it's still something that I juggle and I think every person that gets into a movement practice.

00:16:58: You know has to balance that it's like okay what sustainable this is sustainable but it's not creating the the adaptation that I want so I have to push it or have to challenge myself or have to give more effort you know I pushed it too hard and now I'm sidelined with an injury.

00:17:12: And there was you know course a couple of years went by where I didn't have you know I sort of like regain some of my my.

00:17:22: My drive my motivation my consistency and then I found CrossFit.

00:17:28: I found CrossFit a time where I was very healthy I was pretty healed like I was,

00:17:33: starting to feel so much better and I had kind of recovered from my back injury I was building my strength back and all of that with the help of some you know coaches that I had along the way that we're not CrossFit coaches.

00:17:46: It's about here I am I'm like okay I have my I have my life back my Foundation back and.

00:17:52: I want to dive into training hard again and cross it like hit at the right time.

00:17:58: And so as happens with so many people in crossfit's like you get swept up by it and then next thing you know it's like I'm overtraining again you know I'm having setbacks from Crossfit because it just demands so much intensity.

00:18:13: And it breeds that like competitive Fire Within somebody like myself and so.

00:18:21: Over the next over the course of the next six to eight who are really six to seven years.

00:18:25: I started to compete in the sport across fit and I learned a lot more lessons I like really I had the things that knock me down I had to build myself back up I learned so much about,

00:18:36: so much more about burnout about overtraining about under calorie over calorie nourishing proper recovery and so cross it was this great learning place for me to take this,

00:18:50: lesson for my early 20s which really changed the landscape of my life.

00:18:55: And then put it into practice again now with more knowledge and more time to devote to really thinking about it critically being a little bit more mature being a little bit older,

00:19:06: and so I did that and then you know I said then I made a conscious decision to just say okay well I'm going to compete in the sport of the world-class level and so I'm making a choice,

00:19:18: to do something that's unsustainable I know this is not sustainable,

00:19:22: but I'm still able to do it happily and enjoy the rest of my life and then in 2016,

00:19:30: the balance just shifted it was like okay I'm doing as good as I can in this sport I'm 12 in the world fittest but you know whatever.

00:19:38: But it's not sustainable and I'm not enjoying the rest of my life as much anymore things are getting too complicated and I can see that it's time to take a step back and.

00:19:49: Once I took a step back I always knew that like my focus was going to shift very very heavily to answering that question from my early 20s which is.

00:19:59: You know how do I become that guy Chris who looked amazing you know from doing 20 years of the right stuff and.

00:20:06: I knew that what I had done in 2016 to become the 12 fittest I was not going to be doing for 20 more years just like that I needed to reassess and redefine them.

00:20:16: And this is this return to that pursuit of understanding what is the balance between giving effort and being sustainable is what,

00:20:27: functional body building is really about you know a lot of our taglines aligned with that how do you become built not burnt,

00:20:36: how do you look good and move well and so what that tagline is about is like,

00:20:42: so many people in an effort to look good adopt very unsustainable practices when I'm going to calorie deficit like crazy I'm going to train super horror I'm going to get there,

00:20:52: in three months but the move well portion of it is sort of the part where it's like you know.

00:21:00: In order to look good we often give something up.

00:21:04: But I want to look good and I want to have that other thing of moving well or being vital you know like and look good could mean like I want to improve my numbers I want to improve my body composition I want to be healthier I want to do whatever I want this.

00:21:17: But don't sacrifice this you know it's like we don't sacrifice and so that's really what underlies the look good move well Concepts like.

00:21:26: You know and and so many people resonate with it because they're like oh yeah like I dyed it hard for three months looked great but I felt like shit or I,

00:21:35: you know it didn't it wasn't sustainable I didn't hold on to that and now I don't like the way I look and I gained all that weight back and so forth,

00:21:43: so I know it's super long-winded answer to your question but it really takes takes you from the beginning of like where was the first major obstacle.

00:21:56: In my life you know.

00:21:58: That I ran into in pursuit of a goal and the goal being how do I become Chris you know 20 years from now and look amazing and jacked and feeling vital and feeling great in my body oh.

00:22:13: You got to connect the dots for 20 years with consistency and and put in enough effort to see you know.

00:22:20: To see change yes thank you so much and no I love long and dessert answers

00:22:27: I love that what you were just saying and I'm so glad that you had to Chris as a like a role model or someone to look up to and hold onto and when you were and they struggling times that gave you a like,

00:22:42: a little like future perspective on what you really want and what is in the end also healthy additionally and let's say,

00:22:51: this I always think something happens for a reason or you know at least I want to see the,

00:22:56: positive side of it and your injury let's say it didn't happen and you were going into CrossFit and you were training hard didn't have the perspective of you know being careful and things like that and then you would have,

00:23:09: gotten injured with and Crossfit maybe even more maybe something that is not even to recover from now whatever it could be so

00:23:19: let's take it as a positive thing that happened to you to give you this perspective of course that was forming your philosophy now so I love that

00:23:26: totally and it's something that I can also identify with so much doing bodybuilding which is different but also in the sense that I did it not sustainable because I can't run around as a women at least,

00:23:40: with.

00:23:42: Six percent body fat and you know things like that and and training at this amount that I used to do so yeah movement and just being healthy that's exactly what

00:23:54: I would say is my goal as well and what I want to inspire people for so thank you for sharing that and,

00:24:02: when you stop competing and we're on your quest to find functional bodybuilding and your philosophy.

00:24:08: Where are you having like feelings like I missed something out and I wish I could compete or did you feel like pressure or did you just miss competing in general.

00:24:28: I never loved as I was never somebody who loved the competition days I didn't love the competition weekends.

00:24:36: I loved the training and the dedication to you know becoming better at the sport.

00:24:45: So my o is my happiest times of year were like.

00:24:48: You know really in the far and the offseason when we were not you know there's no competition on the horizon or you know when.

00:24:58: Right after the CrossFit open was over and there was two months to Regionals and I had qualified for regionals and I was like great.

00:25:05: The next five weeks are going to be super fun you know I love and I'm going to love training for it but then as regionals got closer it was like I don't love this anymore.

00:25:15: And then maybe the happiest time of year was I just qualified for the CrossFit Games,

00:25:19: I've got two months this summer to train in preparation and there's no pressure right now we just it is did something successful and so that was always such a fun time

00:25:30: and then the games would be a week or two away and anxiety and the you know.

00:25:35: Just fear and all the stuff from come up and so I didn't miss competing.

00:25:41: I wasn't like dying to like get back into that stressful anxious space of you know.

00:25:48: Am I good enough I need to be doing more you know how am I going to like keep up my competitors what happens if I fail what happens if you know.

00:25:59: Am I going to finally be like just you know discovered as a phony whatever it might be but.

00:26:07: You know when I was training for CrossFit as a sport like I was.

00:26:13: I was you know working I was a professional coach and I owned a gym.

00:26:18: So it wasn't as if I had no responsibilities I mean I had to like show up in work but it felt so aligned with my practice of being an athlete and training.

00:26:28: I had a girlfriend at the time who then became my fiance but we had you know really started like a full life together we were both still exploring who we were and and I had like kind of.

00:26:40: Low responsibilities outside bath so I could dedicate so much to being an athlete and I made it that way that was always my like.

00:26:47: You know so I appreciated that lifestyle so much and when I retired you know from Crossfit like it was the start of a lot more responsibility in my life which.

00:27:00: Was something that,

00:27:02: I welcomed and was like a new challenge you know being a husband being a father being a business owner a different type of business owner than I had been previously so when I was no longer competing,

00:27:16: there were times where I long for the days where I can dedicate to my fitness the way I did when I competed,

00:27:23: you know training 3 hours a day four hours a day you know it was hard it was challenging but I had all the time in the space in my life to do it.

00:27:32: And that felt good you know II missed that you know to transition to like hey can I get a good 90-minute session in today like that's a blessing,

00:27:42: you know that started to feel like man I kind of miss I miss being able to like.

00:27:48: And I've heard I've heard like athletes I'm specifically I've heard Lance Armstrong say this it's like do you miss you know cycling it's like.

00:27:57: I miss he's like I miss being in that kind of shape I miss being that fit right like.

00:28:05: Peds steroids drugs aside like you know when he was winning the Tour de France he was.

00:28:10: In the most exceptional you know level of aerobic fitness on the planet for somebody in his sport and

00:28:18: you know when you feel that way you feel at eyes you feel kind of invincible it's like you could do everything anything and you know when I knew I could wake up and go to the gym and clean up 350 pounds

00:28:29: you know snatch 265 like without even blinking an eye it's like Diet that's just a you know the Tuesday and do 20 muscle ups unbroken and,

00:28:37: relative K and under 7 minutes like all that was like yeah I miss that but to achieve that men.

00:28:45: A lot of time dedication consistency hard work effort and you know.

00:28:51: At stages of our life we stop having the ability to do those things and this is also a big message that I teach a lot and preach a lot in functional bodybuilding is that.

00:29:01: You know your life is not going to look the same every year every decade like things are going to change right now it's a busy time of life.

00:29:11: You know there's fewer opportunities and windows to really.

00:29:16: You know maybe express myself physically or take time down time for this or reading or you know there's a lot of time.

00:29:24: With my kids and with the family and working on the business and so we have to find what we are capable of doing inside the confines of our life now,

00:29:34: if Ike if I consistently long for the days when I was competing because I could wake up at 8:00 and.

00:29:42: You know as opposed to 4th 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning when my kids wake up like you know I'm just going to be stuck in this like living in the past kind of mentality which

00:29:52: doesn't it doesn't serve us it doesn't help us achieve the goals that we may have today of how we want to feel physically and mentally and emotionally.

00:30:00: So yeah it's like it Scott.

00:30:05: You'll know this about me I don't give a lot of very simple answers when you ask questions hey do you miss competing did you ever have like well let me tell you a 10-minute story that's kind of how I go so I'll stop there,

00:30:18: no I,

00:30:19: it's very good and I like I like this insides and this little thoughts that you have because this is showing what you really felt and what how it really is so I love

00:30:30: that you're so real and offering that and you always.

00:30:35: Highlight the importance of being consistent and I think this is yeah if somebody wishes for something this is the only way to go.

00:30:46: When you want to hold this for a long time which.

00:30:49: Actually everybody wants everybody wants to have a healthy and a nice looking body and more or less so that's just what it takes and so I love that you teach that at you say what can you repeat,

00:31:03: every day and know what can you do maybe.

00:31:07: Once per week or every two weeks for one day this is so important because our body if it's performance-based or if it's aesthetic based

00:31:17: it needs accumulation of something to but muscle to lose fat

00:31:23: to to gain strength so if you do not accumulate something wraps in your training.

00:31:30: The nutrients that you put in your body nothing would change because our body won't change in one day it just,

00:31:36: get this is just how it works so a lot of people are very impressed by how,

00:31:43: yelling you are how it was it looks like and they think okay how is he eating how can he stay so lean and eat so many calories to and this is actually what it is.

00:31:56: The result of your lifestyle and yeah maybe you can cure it yeah well maybe it will two different.

00:32:04: Prove that two different ways with the first way I'll just take take the little bit of a you know.

00:32:10: Spin off of something you just said which is you know the concept of accumulation accumulating reps and I love.

00:32:21: I love that people like said daily goals from selves it's like hey my goal is to walk 10,000 steps today.

00:32:27: But what maybe is a better way of looking at it is like how many steps did you walk in 2000 the year 2021.

00:32:35: You know not today because like I can walk 10,000 steps today if I really set my mind to it,

00:32:41: but if that is like too hard for me and that's too much of a stretch for today then tomorrow I might just say like shit I can't make 10,000 so I'm going to hit the fuck it button and I'm not going to walk anything I'm like going to get.

00:32:55: You know and then the next day okay I'll try again and I go for 10,000 but I only get seven.

00:33:00: The next day I'm like fuck it and two days go by and I don't even try and then I try again and at the end of the week I averaged three thousand steps a day.

00:33:09: What if you had it approached it with like I'm going to do 5000 steps each day,

00:33:14: first day success great second day success third day I'm feeling good you know and you just motivated because you just winning every day you're hitting your goal you're hitting something that's reasonable and of the week,

00:33:26: you had seven days 5,000 a day 35 thousand steps versus the person who only got twenty one thousand steps.

00:33:34: And it's like what if you spread that out over a year right.

00:33:39: So the path to long-term success and consistency is really finding The Sweet Spot of hey what can I do today.

00:33:48: Every single day really be consistent.

00:33:51: And then once you connect the dots of enough wins in a row then you can level up a little bit level up and this is my process is what I talked about before is like finding what's consistent but also that challenges me,

00:34:04: so if I do the same thing for a month and I'm consistent then in month to I'm going to likely want to push it a little bit more see what I can do what I'm capable of,

00:34:12: and then month to goes by great I did 5 push it a little bit more month three great push it a little bit more month for whoo.

00:34:20: But halfway through the month I stopped being consistent I had a little setback something wasn't working.

00:34:26: Got to have awareness and recognize that hey that month three was kind of my sweet spot I got a maybe regress to that because month for I pushed it too much and that derail my progress.

00:34:38: And so that helps us to you know see because at the end of the year I want to accumulate the most quality reps I want to accumulate the most.

00:34:49: Reps with effort and you know High rpe rate of perceived exertion I want to accumulate the most high quality high density nutrients possible.

00:35:02: Night and.

00:35:07: Getting into that mindset of like what get you know if I can do the most over the course of a year or over the coaster decade or if the course of two decades like Chris I mentioned earlier that's how you develop,

00:35:18: this phenomenal you know or this this this physique is this body or this performance ability that most people are like whoa that's incredible but to Chris,

00:35:29: it just looked like doing a lot of the same stuff for 20 years and for me that's kind of what it felt like now granted there were pockets of time in there where I did some very extraordinary

00:35:40: effort you know to become one of the fittest on the planet and I think that that helped build some of my physique no question about it.

00:35:48: But it didn't sustain my physique and it won't sustain my physique you know you had a great year in 2021.

00:35:56: Well in 2030 that one year is not going to be the difference-maker and how you feel and look when you're 20 you know and you know nine years later you have to have strung together consistency.

00:36:08: So I think that's one way that I explain you know the,

00:36:13: how am I where am I you know I think I get I get it I get the question quite often on you know social media hey how long have you been training.

00:36:22: Her actually somebody today asked me like hey what did you what were you what did you look like before you started all this.

00:36:30: And I was like I look like I was 14 because that's when I started all of it you know like I mean that was that was 23 years ago.

00:36:40: Yeah 37 now so it's like okay it's a way you can't even compare it's like there's no starting point because it's just been this slow steady change over time,

00:36:50: and I didn't have selfies every single month for the last 27 years I wish I did because it would help people or 23 years would help people really see but.

00:36:59: Then the next part you mentioned which is like you know I on the one hand I expose as much of what I really do in a given day.

00:37:09: Two people so that they can have you know a very honest you know window into my life and they can start to see okay this is what it takes.

00:37:20: But I do that thoughtfully and cautiously because you know this like it hey this is what I this is what I'm doing this week or today you know.

00:37:31: 100 people can go out and copy that exactly they're going to go eat the same exact thing they're going to go and try and do the exact same workout and it might not be appropriate for them you know people see like oh man you you hate.

00:37:44: 3700 4000 calories today like how do you have such high caliber and be so rip like if I ate that much food I would.

00:37:52: Like the overfed I feel you know I'd get I've gained weight in a bad way and I'm like you're right you're probably right you know like,

00:38:00: my current level of like nutrient intake and how much I burn in a day is the product of a lot of,

00:38:09: you know time effort energy consistency and sort of,

00:38:13: what we call building up my metabolism right you know we're designed to be in homeostasis so it's like if you start at,

00:38:22: you know 2,000 calories you know and then you're an active person and you're training and,

00:38:30: you know the next week you add 100 calories for that week and the week after and then you know next week after that you add another hundred calories you like adding three to five percent.

00:38:41: Of energy per week you know that's not going to just suddenly turn into fat or muscle it's like in most cases you're going to just become a little bit more active you're going to have a bit more energy.

00:38:51: Your maybe if you're choosing the right foods and now you're digesting foods and assimilating nutrients better your excreting,

00:38:59: you know your excretion and your elimination becomes a lot more efficient you are now like you have more

00:39:06: activity throughout your day so that non-exercise activity thermogenesis need what people talk about you push it harder and training so you expend more energy in training you know so it's like with more food comes the opportunity to do more,

00:39:20: and some people don't have that ability to do more in their day because they're stuck at a desk they're very sedentary,

00:39:27: but in the case that you do have that then guess what like more energy equates to more effort and more activity and potentially more energy burn,

00:39:38: and so being thoughtful about how you do that and like building it up over time and sort of being aware of how much you're having that's a very you know it's a very easy recipe to figure out.

00:39:49: What I like to with people is what is the most amount of food that you can eat in a day.

00:39:56: And expand and explore the most amount of movement that you can at a day that doesn't impact your life negatively or make you hurt.

00:40:04: And then how do we overtime just keep that you know as high as possible.

00:40:09: Because the race to the bottom is a losing battle how do I cut the most amount of calories possible.

00:40:16: How do I because eventually once you cut calories.

00:40:20: All your non-exercise activity thermogenesis goes down your ex your energy goes down you start to become more sedentary you start to become,

00:40:28: you know you're even your cognitive function serves to decrease like you just start to become like a person who doesn't want to do anything,

00:40:35: because you're constantly underfed and your body's like whoa we're like wasting away so I want to just stop moving.

00:40:42: And that's not a life I never I decided I wanted a lead right I tried calorie restricting and dieting way down.

00:40:50: And I always tried to push my fitness even harder throughout those periods and.

00:40:55: That was a recipe for disaster it's like I wanted to keep moving if I move more I'm going to feel better,

00:41:01: and if I can't do that on a calorie restriction for very long so I have to maintain great amount of fuel and the other concept that I had that really has stuck with me over the years is like.

00:41:13: When we eat food that becomes who we are right so like you know the actual.

00:41:21: Amino acids you know cellular components the macronutrients the cofactors all the things that you found in the food that you eat you know fatty acids this becomes the building blocks of your cells and your structure.

00:41:35: Right like the cellular membranes of our body like are made of,

00:41:40: cholesterol and fatty acid so the fatty acids in the cholesterol that we eat is what ultimately becomes the building blocks of our cellular structure and so like as we're if we want to build a very you know.

00:41:55: Strong athletic looking muscular you know well-built structure then we have to eat.

00:42:02: Good quality food and give us the stimulus and if I can eat more food and give more stimulus then that creates this remodeling process in the body that happens more.

00:42:16: You know more frequently more often and therefore.

00:42:21: Back to the Chris examples like well he trained hard and he you know eight right for a long time and now he's got this clear skin he's got this great build he's got great muscle attachments he's got good you know hair he's got

00:42:35: you know whatever he's got all this stuff that looks really attractive it's like well it's a product of just.

00:42:40: Feeding you know you're feeding the body the rights the right ingredients you're giving it the right amount of stimulus and together that's going to form this person that we are.

00:42:50: And so I always saw like the most rapid body composition changes body recomposition was not like when you.

00:43:00: Diet and way down and then you you know you know started train was actually like when you trained and move more and fed the body more.

00:43:10: It's like watch me increase your calories and you're going to get more lean.

00:43:15: And people feel it and experience it all the time because they add a little bit of calories they increase their protein they increase their movement and the combination,

00:43:26: leads to dramatic physique change.

00:43:29: So that those you know that's kind of a several different principles of like okay don't look at it one day or one week at a time look at it in one year.

00:43:38: How many tenths how many days is you know how many steps did you get in a year don't shoot for 10,000 today if it means you're going to get 1,000 tomorrow aim for 5,000 right and then over time you can kind of build that up.

00:43:50: The second principle is like you know eat more move more if you eat more.

00:43:56: You'll be able to move more if you move more you know then you can then the combination of assimilating those nutrients into your body will lead to you know more pronounced.

00:44:07: Body composition or physique changes that people are looking for and.

00:44:12: That your amount of energy that you need to be like to be lean.

00:44:18: It is not as simple as like well you have to eat under 2000 calories to get bleeding.

00:44:23: You can do it another way and this you know will be different for each person but if you're stuck in this concept of I just need to calorie restrict calorie restrict you likely won't lead a very,

00:44:37: you know long.

00:44:40: You won't have a long sustained period of consistently looking and feeling the way you want to feel you'll burn out on that.

00:44:49: Mmm thank you for explaining it so well and thank you for.

00:44:54: Shake that it's not bad to add calories that your metabolism actually will adapt to a faster or more efficient State and this is also especially.

00:45:06: For women which I work a lot with very scary to add calories and you know they feel fat immediately but it's

00:45:14: not when you do kind of a reverse side style where you just adding slowly you know it's not like we add like 1,000 or 2,000 calories the second day

00:45:23: it is a slow process where your body is able then also to adapt to it and

00:45:28: you need goes up automatically and you don't even feel that because you need and my listeners know a little bit about that because I talk a lot in German about it but it's the calories you burn through everything that's not exercise based,

00:45:41: mimic gesture walking so when you are eating more when you're out of a deficit let's say that then your body is

00:45:51: more likely to make,

00:45:54: you know a lot of gesture and you are more energetic in your and everything you're doing basically so you burn more calories without even noticing it so yeah thank you for sharing the inside and I like that you explain it with this scientific background and not

00:46:08: I mean you could just say yeah I have I don't know

00:46:12: six percent body fat and this is only through this program so you just explained it very well and you take your time and you do this YouTube videos about it and,

00:46:23: I appreciate that a lot because I see a lot of other influencers of Fitness people at that inspired other people and that are not.

00:46:30: Yeah you know so thank you for saying I'm yeah I mean it's that that was that's been a.

00:46:40: I think another important mission of mine has been.

00:46:45: I was a I was a young training or I would say as a younger person younger adult I really.

00:46:55: I wanted to know like I quickly fell out of love with this like.

00:47:04: Sensationalised approach to getting the body I wanted that was going to be fast and quick I like.

00:47:13: I adopted this like I'm ready to work for a long time like I want to put in work I want to show up every day and just like to just.

00:47:21: Don't give me the don't give me the Quick Fix don't give me the bullshit just teach me what I need to do for a long time and.

00:47:29: I suppose I thought that was going to be a simple answer but it's I've come to learn that that's a complicated because in order to.

00:47:36: Know what to do for a long time you have to know what you should be doing at various stages of your life.

00:47:44: If you want to be consistent for 30 years you're going to have to be consistent across three different decades and in those three decades of life.

00:47:53: Your lifestyle is going to change dramatically your body is going to change the people in your life the place that you live from most people like what you do for work like.

00:48:03: All of that's going to likely change and therefore.

00:48:06: What you should be doing for consistency and training and nutrition and Health and Longevity will also change you have to just be.

00:48:16: Like constantly in Pursuit and able to adapt and pivot and change and be how self-awareness.

00:48:23: So I was that person that wanted those answers early on.

00:48:27: And I think if I had stumbled across my YouTube page when I was you know 18 19 years old or my Instagram page.

00:48:37: I would have just been like yes somebody's finally just like helping break it down and I would have just like.

00:48:44: Picked apart every little part of you know every YouTube video and gone to just write to the gym proud like that and so that's what.

00:48:52: And I don't I'm not trying to like my ideal.

00:48:56: Person that watches my videos is not like 18 year-old Marcus it's it's anybody that's like I want to learn and I want to.

00:49:05: Kind of create this Bank of knowledge that is going to help me navigate.

00:49:14: Life all the different circumstances that life might throw at me and navigate it with the goal of.

00:49:23: Let's keep doing this for a long time and make movement and consuming food a.

00:49:31: Recipe for creating the best life.

00:49:35: That I possibly could have I love that and if you have time maybe one final question how does your current

00:49:43: routine daily routine look like with Mia prep and eating and training so how long do you know Maine how often yeah my current routine is.

00:49:54: You know I don't I don't.

00:49:58: I work from home three out of the five days of the week and when I'm at home I don't meal prep I just take breaks to go and.

00:50:07: Have meals and I prepare my food

00:50:10: at those moments when I go to the gym I'll pack you know two maybe three of my meals of the day and that means you know cooking a little bit of food in the morning and getting things packed up in my cooler,

00:50:26: you know for at least four days a week I trained you know like a full functional bodybuilding training session in the gym.

00:50:36: And then sometimes a fifth day of the week I also do that full functional bodybuilding session is falling one of my persist training tracks so persist as more online program,

00:50:47: and I pick one of the one of the workouts that sort of Suits what I you know how I'm feeling for particular period of time.

00:50:56: And then every day in addition to that I will do you know.

00:51:01: 30 to 40 minutes of what I call cardio but it's just like you know it's simple not super challenging movement.

00:51:11: From time to time make that a little bit more intense but you know it could be going for a walk this morning before we got on this call I just got on the rowing machine for 30 minutes and just.

00:51:21: Nice and easy nothing strenuous I listen to a podcast so I just like you know I like to just have a little bit of regular movement like that in my day and.

00:51:32: And and it's not like a set schedule some days I work out at 9 a.m. so big that work out at 1 p.m. I try and tie it like before a meal of the day I don't like to work out right after meals and,

00:51:46: yeah and then lastly like I just you know I have kids so they wake up,

00:51:52: and I'm with them in the mornings and you know they need to get picked up from school and I'm with them in the evenings and so my days are kind of book ended with kid activity and kid childcare and that's sort of how,

00:52:05: I Define Windows of time for myself for you no movement practice and when we can cook and have meals and things like that,

00:52:14: that shows that your program is also very suitable with you know work and having kids and all of that so I definitely put your,

00:52:24: our programs and the description box of this podcast so that my German community can check it out so,

00:52:33: I have so many more questions that I would have liked to ask you but I know you have a busy schedule and I appreciate that you had this hour for me so thank you Marcus so much

00:52:45: my pleasure thank you for your questions and I'm glad we had an opportunity to do this yes me too.

00:52:53: Music.