Episode 81 - Pain-Free Performance: The Entrepreneur’s Path to Peak Health - Mark Gray

Summary:

In this episode of the Maxed Out Man podcast, host Kevin Davis sits down with fitness coach Mark Gray to discuss the intersection of health and entrepreneurship. Mark, who specializes in pain-free performance and works with high-level professionals, shares his insights into how entrepreneurs can overcome the "all or nothing" mindset and prioritize health. The conversation covers the importance of balancing stress, sleep, nutrition, and exercise for long-term success. Mark emphasizes that health is the foundation of business and life success, encouraging listeners to take a holistic approach to their fitness journey.

Key Takeaways:

1. Health is a Long-Term Investment: Entrepreneurs often adopt an "all or nothing" mindset in fitness, but true health is built over years, just like a successful business.
2. Pain-Free Performance: By focusing on pain-free movement, individuals can avoid injuries and improve their quality of life, especially as they age.
3. Stress and Recovery: Both mental and physical stress affect the body similarly, so managing stress and prioritizing recovery are key to overall performance.
4. Consistency Over Perfection: Even when life gets busy, finding small ways to stay active and prioritize health, such as quick workouts, can have a big impact.
5. Mindset Shift: Entrepreneurs need to see their health as a critical asset to their business success, making it a priority to boost productivity and energy.

01:46 Background and Journey into Personal Training

04:08 Transition to Self-Employment and Focus on Pain-Free Performance

08:29 The Different Approach for Entrepreneurs

10:16 The Challenge of Prioritizing Health

14:05 The Simple Yet Neglected Principles of Health and Fitness

19:27 The Impact of Health on Other Areas of Life

23:13 Prevention vs. Fixing

28:19 The Role of Stress in Health and Fitness

36:26 Mindset and Adaptability in Fitness

45:18 Simplifying Nutrition and Repeated Meals

53:06 The Paradigm Project and Supporting Entrepreneurs

To learn more about Maxed Out Man and to maximize your potential, visit www.maxedoutman.com or connect with us on Social Media:

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Transcript

0:00
it's a lot harder to fix something when it's broke or or obviously not firing properly than it is to prevent something
0:06
from ever happening welcome to maxed out man
0:12
helping you become the man you were made to be hey guys this is Kevin Davis from the
0:18
max out man podcast I'm going to be here with Mark gray super excited to talk to
0:23
him before I get started I wanted to remind you go to maxdot man.com check out some of the stuff that we've got going on I do have a couple spots open
0:30
for doing some coaching mentoring and that kind of stuff so if you're interested in that go to max out man.com
0:36
use that little coaching button at the top you can fill on application and we can see whether or not it's a good fit
0:41
um but I'd love to have an opportunity to see what things would work so I'm gonna give Mark's background and then uh
0:47
I'll let him fill in the rest uh Mark has been a personal trainer since 2016
0:53
he's from Ireland but currently in Barcelona uh for almost a decade now he's been helping clients live a
0:59
healthier happier and higher quality of life since 2019 his Focus as a coach has
1:04
been on helping some of the finest entrepreneurs on the planet torch tons of fat body fat develop Next Level
1:10
muscle and strength and most importantly of all build a pain-free body which I want to get into that pretty deeply and
1:15
see what that's all about uh his coaching business is called the Paradigm project uh and he helps ambitious
1:21
entrepreneurs and professionals live a healthier stronger and allaround better
1:26
life hey man thanks so much for coming on board I really appreciate it it um it's it's funny because you're quite a
1:32
bit younger than me I'm sure um but we have a very similar background I see you've got a bachelor in business you
1:39
certifi personal trainer so my I have two degrees one in uh exercise Fizz and one in business I did AC I did the more
1:47
of the clinical route ACSM um and and all that but I was a personal trainer early in earlier in my
1:53
career so it's kind of funny that that we have uh you know looking at all this so much of that in common uh so this be
2:00
a fun conversation thanks for coming no pleasure have thanks for having me and
2:05
um yeah I didn't know you were a coach it's funny um it's funny to am the people I speak to that like maybe run
2:12
run their own businesses or find themselves in the entrepreneurial world and they tell me they used to be a coach
2:17
so maybe there's something in the water when it comes to coaching and and yeah entrepreneur well it's like we attract
2:23
you know you're kind of attracted to similar people I think you know as entrepreneurs I've I've run multiple
2:28
businesses for 20 years and you know as a kind of in that space and in the fitness space it's it's like you know
2:36
just like in you know people that are more computer oriented or whatever it seems like you kind of attract like like
2:42
people right it seems to be the way that way that it goes but hey would you do me a favor let's fill in I always like to
2:48
get the backstory of our guests so that we can lay the context and kind of see like okay well this is kind of where
2:54
I've been this is what um I've seen and and done and this is kind of how I got to where I am today so that just helps
3:00
lay the foundation and the context for us amazing cool well like I or like you
3:05
said sorry I originally from Ireland moved over to London like 10 years ago or 2015 something like that and had no
3:15
idea what I wanted to do I did like like you said did a I've got a bachelor business but it
3:21
was um partnered with sports so I did sports for a couple of years did my
3:29
typical six- week personal training course as part of my degree taught I was
3:35
the man after doing that as you as you do after that six weeks and yeah moved
3:40
over to London had no idea what I wanted to do kind of forgot to be honest that I had a personal training certificate and
3:47
um found myself doing some selling some like credit cards credit building credit
3:53
cards for like two hours I I went over I did the interview I got the job zero
4:00
experience in sales completely introverted so the thought of doing a script and all that sort of stuff with
4:06
people on the side of the road and the busy London Street was absolute hell and
4:11
yeah I think I lasted about about two hours in the job didn't speak to a single person and then just slowly
4:17
walked away without telling the team I was with and just backed up and then just walked off and got the tube never
4:23
spoke to anyone the business but I've told this story before on the way home I
4:28
was going to King's cross station I walk past a a fitness no was it um Anytime
4:35
Fitness think you have them in America as well and it said personal trainer wanted and I was like I got that
4:42
certificate so I went in and chat to the manager and I was like um what's that job I see in the front he goes yeah
4:48
personal trainer zero contract hours and I was like cool I'll do it and then that was it and then I haven't looked back
4:54
since so um yeah it's quite a funny story how I got started but
5:00
then from there I've just been self-employed PT for the last like eight nine years and I've worked in some
5:08
really awesome gyms as a self-employed coach and I went to work in Equinox
5:13
which I know you have in the states as well and we only have a few of them in in England in London I was very
5:18
fortunate to get a coaching role in there and that's when I kind of had my
5:24
eyes opened up to the kind of broader picture when it comes to entrepreneurs
5:29
and just high level professionals and that sort of stuff and what they need and the level of attention that this is
5:37
not to say that they need more or less than just like your regular kind of Joe's soap as such far from it but there
5:45
are little different Ines that you you need to work with and then that's when I
5:50
went down the route of pain free performance and helping people with their injuries typically because I had
6:00
more injuries than you could you C on hands and toes and and all that sort of stuff which most people which most
6:06
coaches do which is quite ironic um and yeah and that's just been my I'm not
6:13
going to say cheesy and say my calling all that sort of stuff but that's what my passion is my passion is
6:18
helping people escape pain because I've been in that position um if you you're
6:25
were coaching the past you obviously still work out I'm sure you dealt with your fair share of niggles and injuries
6:31
and all that sort of crap on a fairly consistent basis is just that we're good at getting around things MH
6:38
whereas the individual that isn't educated on that front it can have a really big debility and impact on their
6:46
life and especially if they're trying to run businesses and provide for teams and
6:51
just live a good quality of life I always say you can have as much money in the world have the best experience es
6:59
and cars and watches and diners whatever it is travel but if you don't have your
7:05
health and you don't have like a fully functioning body all that becomes a bit
7:10
obsolete um so yeah paying free performances is a passion of mine and
7:16
just helping people just get back some resemblance of normal life
7:23
because we we're not here for a very long time I'm not trying to sound Bleak but every kind of year was pass and
7:30
month and year and you're in backs in pieces and you can't lift your arm up to
7:36
raise your child up off the ground or you can't run with your kids and all that sort of stuff it it it wears tin on
7:44
you so um yeah so yeah that's that's where I'm at for sure I want to dig into more of the pain fee performance but
7:50
it's interesting that you say these aches and pains and all that you know I joke and I think I started working out
7:56
with weights maybe when I was 14 or something so my is I've literally been sore for like 35 years so like it's just
8:03
you know it's it's kind of part of it but um my wife in particular has she she
8:10
kind of just suffers with a lot of injuries and we're we're tracking it down to um more of a fascia issue uh and
8:17
we're concentrating more on Ecentric motion to for tendon strength and all that stuff um I typically like I said I
8:25
I I'm I repair kind of quickly but um but I know so many people do and to your
8:32
point like it I just can't imagine going through life with a you know pain
8:40
carrying an extra 50 pounds or anything like that you know like I I've said on the podcast before when I you know if I
8:46
have a week or two weeks for whatever reason I can't work out and or if I'm traveling and eating you know less than
8:53
great food and like you just feel like crap right like for those of us that are in this space we we feel pretty good
9:00
most of the time but when you eat crap you and I'm like do people feel like this all the time like is that and how
9:07
do they not know this is this is not normal but talk to me about the difference with and I agree with you I
9:14
think entrepreneurs um typically are so driven um with business and products and
9:22
those kind of things but they're they don't have the same drive when it comes to their health what have you found like
9:28
is that what you have found in particular what what kind of makes that differentiation between entrepreneurs and kind of the uh joeo um you know
9:39
yeah yeah and I did a some content this last week but one of the big things with
9:46
entrepreneurs is that all or nothing mindset I'm sure you've heard it before sure you're well aware of it in that
9:52
that's what makes them so successful in their business entrepreneur entrepreneurial world is that they'll move Heaven and Earth to do whatever
9:59
need to do for their business as in they're all or nothing but then they have that same mindset typically with
10:05
their health so it's that case of if I can't go to the gym for what I perceive
10:11
to be what's needed or as in like perfect then there's just no point me going if I can't
10:18
eat this like if I can't eat that perfect meal whenever I need it then
10:25
what's the real point if I can't sleep enough what's the point and that's what I've found has been quite
10:32
like not Troublesome as such but that's been one of the issues I found with a lot of people I speak with on when I was
10:38
in the gym on the gym floor and now online and then with my coaches with my with my clients is that kind of mindset
10:45
so it's about trying to work around
10:50
their unique lifestyle as much as you possibly can because whatever you can
10:55
say about it that you can have like a nurse for instance who can bust their their butt for 12 hours a day and do a
11:03
hell of a gruesome shift and then you can have an entrepreneur that does similar kind of hours but it's there's
11:10
different factors as in I'm I'm going to say stress because a nurse has obviously a lot of stress but like decision-
11:16
making Stress Management sleep their nutrition there's all these different
11:22
things that you just need to try and get them on board with and it's not a quick fix it's not a never tell anyone when
11:30
they start with me you have to do 10,000 steps because you get a lot of these people that are doing like two or 3,000
11:36
steps a day because they're at the at the desk 8 nine 10 hours a day so it's
11:41
trying to get them just slowly build them up and I I
11:47
tell all my clients this or the people I speak with we're not looking for massive
11:53
progress straight away this is a fiveyear 10 10 year
11:59
15-year project in the same way that it was with your business is that you looked at your business and you were
12:05
like do you know what the first few years are probably going to be a bit crap but after that I'll start making
12:11
money or I'll start growing etc etc and you have to look at your health and fitness the same way through that same
12:17
lens now you can achieve amazing things in six weeks eight weeks 10 weeks 12
12:22
weeks whatever it is but you need to have that mindset of solidifying
12:27
those things and it's as cliche as it is it's all about lifestyle changes and just getting it's
12:34
it's getting them to buy into the buy into the um the story or the the product as
12:43
such which is their health which right like you said a lot of them just don't see as a priority and they often
12:51
sacrifice their health for their business and yeah so it's just about
12:57
trying to get them down a different Road yeah because it for a lot of us that are entrepreneurs it's it's um and I like
13:04
how you put that which is we're you know we're very uh regimented with what we do and and we don't realize that um you
13:13
know it is a process and I like how you uh communicate it's similar as a
13:18
business right when you're growing a business it takes a while you do different things and you keep you keep doing those things and that Fitness is
13:24
the same way you know and like you said you can do if you have a short short-term goal um you know like I've
13:31
done 12we cuts and we've all done that you know we kind of cutting body fat or whatever but you have to have a plan
13:38
after that you know whenever you whether you hit that goal or not you have to have a plan that moves you forward and
13:43
and goes uh long term for sure and I you know it it's kind of funny because if
13:49
you really look at entrepreneurs um and small business owners and really anybody
13:54
it's like uh things have not changed that much in our field over the last you know
14:02
60 years right like it's still calories in calories out move healthy food like
14:09
it's it's not complicated nope but it's we still can't get people to be fitter
14:17
like we just keep getting fatter as a society in in general why do you think
14:22
that is like what what is it that's driving people is it busyness is it like
14:28
they don't care is that they don't know any better I'm I'm just curious your perspective on that yeah I think it's all those things and it's it's it's
14:35
quite funny you said this because I put out a post on LinkedIn like three or four hours ago and it was literally um
14:41
like if you want to transform your health do these things and it was walk 10,000 steps go to the gym three days a
14:48
week um sleep seven hours um eat 80%
14:53
good foods and at the end it was like Health doesn't have to be complicated like it's the most simp it is the most
15:00
simple thing in the world like a calorie now was a calorie 100 years ago mhm um
15:05
lifting weights has been shown to obviously have more benefits than you could count on your hands and hands and
15:12
feet I think a lot of it comes down to priorities and just not prioritizing it
15:18
and like I said the priority is business and and family life and all that sort of stuff but my job as a coach and I I say
15:25
this is that you can go online and especially now at a and chat GPT and you
15:31
can have all the information you could possibly want at your fingertips you can find these like you can find a decent
15:37
program online might not be customized to you but here with with the advanage
15:42
on AI you probably can get them customized to you with the now you can find out everything you need about nutrition sleep all that sort of stuff
15:49
like the information we have at the moment is just outrageous but my main job as a coach's implementation is
15:57
teaching the PE is teaching my clients strategies that they can then use to implement because what what works for
16:05
one person might not work for another if it's whether that's their their workouts
16:10
maybe they can only get to the gym for half an hour twice a week it's like cool let's adapt the plan for that but and
16:18
obviously then yeah you said about being busy people's schedules are busier than
16:23
never at the moment like people talk about work life balance and all that sort of stuff where something that
16:29
exists for a lot of people maybe not a lot of people I know anyway and yeah so business has a big big part of it but I
16:37
do think the main one is just priorities I've had a very very good client of mine
16:42
who runs multiple very very very successful businesses he's the busiest man I know
16:50
he's also the hardest working man I know but this guy trains on average probably five days a week and when he came to me
16:57
he wasn't training at all still very successful but he had a shift in mindset
17:04
and he realized that he just needed to do something about his health like this is he was in the position he like right I need to do something about it so
17:11
instead of being below like family business
17:18
Bloody Dog car house other house it was
17:24
right let's jump it jumped all the way up here and that's that's the Outlook I try to get people
17:31
to look at because if you have your health as
17:36
number one and I say in all my content is like it's the most unselfish selfish
17:43
thing you can ever do is like prioritize your health like if it's a thing of I'm not saying leave your child at the
17:49
school gate goes to the gym that's a bit different there are there are limits but
17:54
like you have to do something for your health whether that's training two strengths a week going a few runs
18:01
stretches Med whatever it is you have to make it number one because then it trickles down trickles down it then you
18:08
impact your business positively your family life your relationships all that sort of stuff your mood your confidence
18:14
your energy everything is positively impacted so yeah I just it has to be
18:20
number one in my eyes and um it just I've seen it with my own eyes I've seen it with myself every day and the impact
18:27
it has on me but then I've seen it with clients seen clients make more money open new businesses all because they've just made
18:35
their health their number one priority which is pretty cool to see yeah I mean
18:40
that's the foundation for everything right like you're you're and a lot of people I've heard it said it's like
18:46
you'll either make it a priority now or you're gonna make it a priority later but it's different kinds right like
18:52
you're you're in you're in preventative now and then it becomes a priority later when they're trying to keep you alive
18:58
and manage your pain and all these different things or maybe just drop dead right that's yeah that changes your
19:04
whole priority list um but but you know that becomes the foundation for
19:10
performance and everything you know like business and your personal mindset H
19:17
your relationships your ability to show up for your kids you know we used to do this thing uh when my girls were younger
19:24
uh one of them was on the cross country team and we played this like um it's it's basically called Fox and Hound and
19:31
so you have one person that runs and then that's the fox and then the rest of the team are the hounds and they try to
19:37
catch catch the [ __ ] and I was probably in my I don't know mid-30s late 30s at this time and it was so cool for me
19:44
because I could play The Fox and the kids the these 12 to 14y old girls would
19:51
have a hard time catching me right and and so like those little moments uh are important for her her as
19:59
my daughter but also for me to say look that's that's a that's a win for me from a fitness standpoint and if I was not
20:06
taking care of my health I'd be sitting on the sidelines or you know not able to
20:12
participate and I think so many people miss that but making it that priority is so critical um for sure and it and like
20:19
you said it all starts with mindset right and priorities your client that
20:24
obviously has a packed schedule just does these blocks of time which I do as
20:30
well I block out up to from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. is when my wife and I work
20:35
out together aome that that's we just block that out we do our walk we have some breakfast we do our weights and and
20:42
you know hit and then we sit in the steam room together and all these different things but I know you know I
20:48
can't schedule like you know if you look at my calendar when we tried to schedule this podcast it started at 10:15 right
20:55
and I know we had some different scheduling things that we dealt with but it's starts at 10:15 because I I block
21:01
that out and I know that that makes me better at everything else that I do in my
21:06
life no it's I couldn't agree more yeah like I've you it's quite funny you're saying about running around your kids
21:13
what was said my number one goal the main reason I train is when I was younger obviously I trained like
21:19
everyone did bigger arms that sort of stuff you want to look good and obviously as you get older you your
21:24
priorities change but I've always said is that my goal is to be that like really jacked Granddad that brings his
21:32
grandkids to the gym and he's not only able to show them what to do but then he's able to outlift them yeah and I've
21:38
yeah and that's the that's the vision I have of my head of just where I want to be at yeah because like 70 70 year 70
21:44
year olds now or definitely in 10 20 30 years time is not what 70 the majority
21:50
of like 70 80 year olds 90 year olds were like 40 50 years ago mhm um so yeah
21:57
it's just quite funny you said yeah it's a big thing is is prevention it's obviously I try to fix people's injuries
22:04
and pain and get them strong as ever been and it's a lot harder to fix
22:10
something when it's broke or or obviously not firing propy than it is to prevent something from ever happening so
22:17
it's like if you get a car if you get like a really nice car and you treat it like crap and you run around the streets
22:23
and you don't wash it and you don't pump the tires and you don't fit the right uh gas in and that sort of
22:30
stuff it's going to perform crap whereas you get your car and you treat it nice and you you clean it and you put the
22:36
nice premium stuff in it and and that sort of stuff it's going to last a hell of a lot longer and you won't have to
22:42
bring it into the mechanics and spend all this money fixing it and that's how I like to look at the body and and your
22:48
health yeah and it performs better all along the way right that's I think a lot
22:54
of times in fitness and health we concentrate on the like either or mentality which is like either either
23:01
you die early or you don't you know and it really is like that's not what we
23:06
want we want a healthy body like I want a I want a drop dead fit right like
23:14
that's my goal and it it could you know both my grandparents live to be well o you know over a 100 and so like if
23:21
that's 105 it's at 110 for me whatever that is depending on science and everything like I want to have I want to
23:27
be that grand like you're talking about to be fit and honestly I'm 51 and because I out and eat right and
23:36
all these things I begin to see that huge separation when you get to your 50s
23:42
right like like there's there are not a lot of fit guys at my age unfortunately
23:47
and it's it's terrible there was um there's a guy on Tik Tok that actually has this like how
23:53
to show your neighborhood you're the alpha dad and he's like got his shirt off he's got these little like 3in
23:59
inseam shorts and he's he's he's like doing walking barbell lunges up and down
24:06
his street so that's the you know it's like that that's how you set the set the to
24:13
for your for your neighborhood right um you actually said in your in the bio
24:18
that you sent me that you don't like the term holistic right but I think that that's and I want to hear why you don't
24:24
like it I've used that I use that term quite a bit because it it means to me
24:29
and I'd love to hear your take on it but it means to me um that you know Health
24:34
Fitness Nutrition rest sleep mindset all of those things kind of combined um so I
24:41
want to kind of hear your your take on that and I also want to say one of the things that
24:46
we don't do is prioritize rest I'm super guilty of this like I've really been
24:53
working at this for the last probably six months or so and and really focusing
24:59
on rest and Recovery because I'm just like my my family calls me a robot
25:04
because I can just Barrel my way through life and for whatever reason I can continue to do it so kind of feel I you
25:12
know that I just dropped a whole bunch of stuff but I'm curious about your approach for holistic and and you know full body and all of that yeah
25:20
well with like with the word the term holistic it's not like I have I don't have anything against it it's more just
25:26
it's one of those buzzwords as such that's all it is it's I'm completely on board it's like that's why I said I
25:31
don't like the term realistic but it's it's how you describe my coaching on my Approach so it's more just the kind of
25:37
word itself because it's like bespoke that sort of thing that's like thrown around by everyone bespoke training
25:43
program bespoke like con supp to sound fancy like just use the word custom
25:48
right just like for you so that's all that's all it is yeah it's nothing against the actual what
25:54
holistic stands for it's just more the term but yeah that's exactly how I approach everything it's I when I was a
26:02
younger coach obviously naive and you just want to bang weights and that sort of stuff which is cool and that's how I
26:08
used to train myself and to be honest that's what probably most like young fellas do is you go in you bang your weights and you don't really care about
26:15
much of the other stuff and it's not until you start working with people on a deeper level and you realize what they need and especially now with the type of
26:21
clients I work with you need to have a broader approach and that's where the holistic thing comes in
26:28
their sleep is obviously enormous and how their body's working and their mindset so sleep
26:34
mindset and the other one just rolled off the top of my head and yeah Stress
26:39
Management so they they they all intertwined into one but there are some of the big things
26:46
that I work with clients and you would know yourself as an entrepreneur I'm sure you've got some some buddies as
26:52
well is that stress is something that a lot of people manage and know everyone has stress in their life you need it but
26:58
it's how you manage it that dictates obviously a lot of the results and progress you're going to make not just
27:05
with your health and your physique but obviously business and relationships and
27:10
the social side of things and all um and that's something that I think a lot of
27:17
entrepreneurs just kind of ignore is the impact that stress has on them and it's not just the stress in here and now it's
27:23
not like oh I'm I've had a busy day at work and the wife is annoying me and it's I'm stressed it's weeks and months
27:31
of like high pressured projects maybe they're trying to get a new product out in six months and it's just bang bang
27:36
bang bang bang and it's constant stress and stress and stress and they don't realize it because they're in it and
27:42
they're able to handle it but then three months down the line they go into the gym and they slip a disc or their
27:51
shoulder uh they they bang up their shoulder or whatever it is or they hurt their knee running and they think it's
27:57
just coincidence but it's because of the impact like it's not just the stress but
28:02
the stress has a big big role to play and that's where you need to look at the
28:08
body with yeah that holistic approach and just get that 360 view of what
28:13
different elements can we work on not all at once let's take things one chunk at a time so then we can just get the
28:20
body working back to that kind of more homeostasis state so everything's
28:27
working as one but yeah it's it's massively important and then what was
28:32
the second thing you asked me it's kind of left my mind that's a good question
28:38
I I I kind of I was listening to what you were saying I think I you know I think making a priority and um you know
28:45
I I'm curious about the methodology um that you're talking about but I did want to point out what you
28:50
were saying I had a a friend of mine Justin rosling Hofer um uh who was on
28:56
the podcast uh is a good friend of mine but he talks about that our bodies really can't tell the difference between
29:02
physical emotional spiritual and mental stress right like all of those things to
29:08
the body pretty much has the same effect so to your point about if you you know
29:13
got a long project or or you know any of that kind of stuff that that emotional stress pretty much has the same fight
29:20
ORF flight response in our in our system so cortisol and you know all of that all
29:26
of that stuff um my wife actually went through a series where she had severe
29:31
back pain like just like crazy back pain and we chased it forever stem cells and
29:38
you know PT and every time she went to PT it got worse and and all this stuff and so we read this book called healing
29:44
your B healing your back pain by Dr Sno um which I highly recommend it sounds
29:50
super woo woo right like it sounds you know super woooo sciency stuff but he
29:56
what he showed is that basic basically people people's back pain is often completely related to stress you know
30:03
I've been super blessed to be able to feed into the lives of tons of men from all around the world in all walks of
30:09
life and I'm very excited to announce that I do have a couple spots available right now if you're interested in
30:15
working with me and we can talk about pretty much anything marriage business fitness parenting being a dad uh dogs
30:23
cars whatever you want to talk about I'm available to do that we want to focus on the things that may be most beneficial
30:30
to you and some things that you may not even know would be beneficial to you you've listened to the podcast you kind
30:35
of know my style if you are interested in working with me I want to try to make it as simple as possible but I also want
30:41
to make sure we're a good fit send an email to coaching at MaxOut man.com and just give me two pieces of information
30:48
why you would like to work with me and what that might mean for you what things you would hope to accomplish by meeting
30:54
with me that'll kick off the process I'll reach back out to you we can jump a call and see whether or not it would be
30:59
a good fit so go to maxed out man.com coaching maxed out man.com send me an
31:05
email uh with those two pieces of information and we'll see if it's a good fit and I hope it is and I hope that we
31:10
can actually connect yep so and they actually kind of they have some sort of injury then they're every time they get
31:18
stressed it kind of gets deposited in that pain as your body's response to that but it's it's 100% mental so she
31:24
read this book did some of what it was talking about and she was was effectively pain back pain free after
31:31
six years of chasing it so you can find that book on Amazon he's since passed away but he still has a team um but that
31:38
it was pretty amazing to see that but all that to say I don't think we realize
31:43
especially as entrepreneurs and small business people the effect of all of that on our physicality no it's huge and
31:50
I've seen it with a few clients recently in the last like probably six to n like six to 12 months they've been either
31:56
opening new business or just on top of big projects and that constant stress
32:03
just day in after week after month and then when they finally finish it they
32:09
just get this enormous onset of fatigue like fatigue like you wouldn't imagine
32:15
and it's just because their body's just been getting pounded it's fight or flight it's always just that stress
32:22
levels just high high high high high and then it's not until they finish and they realize that what they've went through is like it
32:28
it's like an ordeal as such and it's the same way as if you are going through physical stress or like you said
32:33
emotional spiritual like it it all pretty much has like the same impact and
32:40
yeah that's why just it's quite funny again actually because I I put two LinkedIn post
32:46
today and the one before that and I wasn't I wasn't stalking your LinkedIn like this wasn't play right no no no no
32:53
and like and the first one I did was just I was like if you're stressed just do something simple like breathe in
32:58
breathe in through nose for 5 and 1 half seconds out for 5 and 1 half seconds do that for 10 minutes and you'll instantly feel better and it's little tactics like
33:05
that that I think can just really help out those high-pressured entrepreneurs
33:11
like like you said small business owners all any and anyone to be honest anyone that's just dealing with stress just so
33:17
they can bring themselves back to like just kind of a more normal State and then they can go again because I'm very
33:23
well aware that you're not going to stop the stress you're not going to
33:28
reduce it in like their day-to-day kind of workday and all that sort of stuff so
33:33
it's how can we manage it and that's the same with their workouts like I'm really
33:40
big on the type of workouts they get and or the exercise I give them always make
33:46
sure that it doesn't fry them too much from like a central nervous system Viewpoint it's like I'm not going to
33:51
give the vast majority of my clients like crazy hit workouts because I don't
33:57
want to Fright them with these super intense things that just exhaust them we do that through weights but you can
34:04
control it a bit more with weights whereas like certain exercises obviously you can absolutely fry the brain and
34:10
you're stress in an already stressed body and mind and that sort of stuff and that just in increases the chances then
34:17
of something going wrong lifting bit incorrectly or like I said a few minutes ago some sort of
34:24
injury or pain occurring and yeah like you said with your wife like your mind
34:29
has such a big part to play when it comes to pain and injuries is that you can if you
34:36
think you're hurt you'll be hurt and you'll be in the gym and you're like God my shoulder sord it's going to hurt on
34:41
this rep like but if you go into these situations feeling like a bit more
34:47
confident in how you move and that sort of stuff and not being a stressed helps
34:52
that then you're more likely to to move better and just
34:58
use use your body in a way that probably won't get you hurt or you your pain just
35:03
won't be as high so how we perceive things is also very very important yeah I I I have this like Mantra that when
35:09
I'm going through stuff I I repeat to myself I am the boss of my body my body
35:14
is not the boss of me like that it's like you and that mindset is like okay
35:19
yes I have pain you know I had a motorcycle injury a long time ago my shoulder just gets a little kinky
35:24
whenever I do overhead press but I can still do it and I can still throw up a lot of weight and I don't injure myself
35:31
but you know obviously I know the form but like that mindset of I'm you know oh
35:37
I'm tired this workout is gonna suck right like that's yeah well guess what your workout is gonna suck right like if
35:44
you say that but if you're like yeah I didn't sleep that great last night but I'm gonna use this workout to energize
35:50
me I'm gonna use this workout to forward my progress and and and those things then then it that typically uh has a big
35:56
one you know to your point about stress and modifications and that as an entrepreneur I'm like go go go right
36:03
like so I started I was doing cold plunges and we're doing them all the time and at our house the water comes
36:08
out of the tap at 50 degrees so we're not talking about like weird Joe Rogan 34 degrees stuff but that's cold like 50
36:15
degrees is still cold yeah but what I learned is instead of having having this
36:22
oh I have to do this every day it's going to be good for me is I started to realize and and had some help with this
36:28
but I started to realize that there are days like when you just don't sleep right or your body's already under a lot
36:33
of stress that you you need to skip that because yep just like with hit right
36:39
like you you don't want to put additional stress it's not g to it's not going to help you no and it's it's the same as like
36:48
to-do lists and Y all that sort of stuff and morning routines they're awesome like I do I have like I don't call it a
36:55
morning routine but like I go to the beach every morning I swim I say swim i' lay in the water for like three minutes
37:00
on my dog and I I have like a certain few I get back I make a coffee and I write out
37:07
like my tasks for there all that sort of stuff but is once you put pressure to do that sort of stuff then you kind of lose
37:13
the benefits of it so it's the same way as you if you're saying you're doing cold plunge every morning and you're
37:18
like I have to do c plunge I have to do cold plunge but then on the day we like you know I not just feeling it but then you're like oh I have to do it then you
37:24
kind of you can lose some of the benefits whereas if you just listen to your body and your mind you're like you
37:30
know what I don't actually like it might be more beneficial for me to give it a miss and the same as your workouts or
37:37
modify and this kind of all goes back to what I said at the start with that All or Nothing mindset is that you like I
37:46
just know speaking to a lot of entrepreneurs and and that that type is
37:52
when they inevitably get Spanish from the work obviously it's like oh you have
37:57
to works at 9:00 8 8:00 whatever it is or X Y and Z has happened that stopped them getting to the gym okay you can't
38:04
get your 60 Minute session in so they're like just sack it off and then something else happens tomorrow sack it off and
38:10
it's Wednesday and you're like I you know what I'll just come back Monday and I had that with clients in the gym when
38:15
I was working back in London I'd get the message can't make it again today running late got me meetings to do and
38:22
then like I'll just catch you on Monday and instead of being like just
38:27
come in and don't train with me and just do 20 minutes if you only make for 20 minutes do your 20 minutes
38:34
and it's about being able to Pivot and that's the ISS that's what a lot of
38:40
unless you're kind of you're educated on all this stuff and you've been or you've been working out for quite a long time
38:45
you got that experience is that that's the big skill that a lot of people lack is the ability to Pivot their plan and
38:52
go right this is what I'm supposed to do but I can't do it anymore or maybe it's not as beneficial what can I do instead
38:59
so instead of my hour let me just go home and do like three sets of squats push-ups and lunges and like some planks
39:06
and you know what it's not as good as I maybe want was going to do but it keeps my momentum going and it still moves me
39:12
closer to where I want to be and that's where that long-term project mindset
39:17
comes into play be different if you had something to be ready for in 12 weeks you be like I gotta boss my ass to get
39:23
to the gym so um yeah been able to adapted move but yeah it all comes out
39:30
to your mind yeah I learned that pretty hard um I did a 12we so about a year and
39:37
a half ago I did a 12we cut just to kind of prove that I could do it at 50 um and
39:42
got down pretty low um and then I did another one about I don't know four months
39:49
ago but it was really old school it was kind of this old school mentality which is like you know cut cut calories pretty
39:56
drastic six days a weeks of Weights 5 days a week of cardio all this stuff and about
40:03
seven weeks in my body was just like nope I'm just gonna stop losing body fat
40:10
right like it's just it's just I'm just done and I was freaking exhausted every workout kind of sucked and I'm just kind
40:16
of powering through it and but it's this like very old school mentality and so I was like I got to take a break from this
40:22
and then I started prioritizing rest I cut my weight training back you know I I
40:27
focused more on mindset and breath work and recovery and all that and then all of a sudden not you know this won't be a
40:34
surprise to you but body fat started dropping off right like it's just like and I feel a th% better I wear the aura
40:41
ring and and my numbers yeah there you go my nor you know my numbers were
40:47
better my HRV is better my you know Readiness score and sleep score everything
40:52
improved um and so that is like can you just walk through some of that
40:58
methodology that you use and what what we do what I'm trying to do is I want to talk to like the younger guys this like
41:04
18 to 30 and then some of the guys that are more my age right like how would you program or recommend and you don't have
41:10
to give away any Trade Secrets or anything but um how do you recommend that these guys work their nutrition
41:18
exercise rest all of these things and does it vary between those two age
41:24
groups yeah it it does it does it does definitely vary because you'd be sitting to think otherwise because when you are
41:31
18 like I'm 33 now and it's only recently in the last few years I've realized that I can't recover as well as
41:37
I did when I was in my mid-20s um my body just can't take the pounding still recover very well but
41:44
it's not like you can go into the gym and just lift weight seven days at a week which you could do six days and a little bit of a rest on a Sunday and I
41:51
was playing sports three or four days a week as well but yes you do have to approach it a bit differ when you're
41:57
younger you don't need as much rest or you can afford to not get as much when
42:02
you get as you age your recovery and your rest days become just as important as your
42:08
training sessions so like if you could train three days a week and rest
42:15
for four if you're over the age of like 35 40 that' be perfect for most people
42:21
now there's a lot of people that will train four days a week five days a week and that's cool because they experience
42:27
and they they have the KN how around it but yeah I think for anyone kind of my
42:34
age and over I think if you can train with weights three days a week you'd be doing amazing throw in some cardio there
42:41
as well just to keep the heart the heart healthy and yeah nutrition like nut
42:48
nutrition like I said earlier on it's simple as in like your health and fitness things are simple it's implemented that's hard MH and it's just
42:56
keep keep things as simple and basic as you possibly can people say I don't want
43:02
Bor nutrition and that's cool but in my opinion if you want to be like
43:08
successful with your nutrition and you see this with like all the top like
43:13
bodybuilders and athletes and um celebs all that sort of stuff
43:19
they have like kind of repeated meals because they have like people cooking them meals or they just prep them
43:25
themselves and that's one of the biggest tips I can give anyone that's trying to
43:31
make their Nutrition a bit healthier I mean or a bit easier is just try and have as many repeated meals as you can I
43:38
am super boring with my nutrition but and I'm sure you probably have similar things about maybe you don't but I just
43:44
I know it's quite common with a lot of people I know that just kind of takes the gym and that sort of stuff serious
43:50
is like I eat the same thing for breakfast most days at a week my lunch is very similar as well but I just know
43:56
that that gets me where I need to be and then I have a bit more flexibility I don't need the same dinner every day of the week we're quite we change it up
44:04
most days so that's one of the biggest tips I'd give anyone is just try and have
44:10
repeated meals and then when it comes to entrepreneurs and people just busy
44:16
you're in the office and or you just at home but more so if you're in the office
44:22
is make sure you have access the quick easy meals that
44:28
are nutritious so where and thing with anything is that there's always a kind
44:34
of feeling out stage and the start of any project whether that's your health or your business is always a bit harder
44:41
it's slow it's tedious it's a bit boring it's a bit like G why do I have to do this but then as you get through things
44:47
with time it becomes easier same or your nutrition is like you might have to list
44:52
out all the local restaurants that do like nutritious meals or you might have to find the local
45:00
shops that do somewhat macro friendly snacks and quick takeaway foods and that
45:06
sort of stuff so little things like that make a big difference but that all
45:12
circles back to priorities if you prioritize it you do it if you don't
45:18
you'll you'll half ass it and you won't put the effort into it yeah fit fit people are boring right like so so
45:26
boring like we we go to bed at the same time I will literally I have probably I
45:31
just switched about once a year I switch to a different breakfast but I will literally eat the same breakfast every
45:38
day for a year and my w it drives my wife crazy because she's like I can't believe you can have the same thing and
45:45
I will typically like if I you know this couple days ago I made these like ground
45:51
turkey nuggets right which are like chicken nuggets but they're just ground turkey they're not or anything and so
45:58
I'll eat that and rice you know throwing some fruits or vegetables for like the
46:03
whole week like because I'm making up for the whole week and we do meal prepping and it's funny because you know
46:09
to your point when my wife she likes a lot more variety for me food is food is
46:14
an annoyance like I it's just it's just fuel to me like I don't I don't really
46:19
get a ton of you know I just don't worry about it that much but she likes to get fancy when she does her meal prep and
46:25
she's like I'm going to make this cool recipe and all that and I'm like you know 15 minutes later I've meal prep for
46:31
two weeks and she's still she's still cutting the vegetables for you know for her meal prep but yeah I you know and as
46:39
far as like one of our rules is always so we when we go in a town it's about a
46:44
30 minute drive we kind of live out in the country um and so if she's going to run errands one of the things that she
46:50
learned is I have to take water with me and I have to take food right because it because if something gets delayed or
46:57
anything like that she has her food in a cooler she may not eat it till she gets back because it the timing goes but
47:04
she's not left with I'm so hungry I have to go buy something to eat and typically
47:10
when we're like that we don't choose well we chose we chose easy and fatty
47:15
and salty and and you know which is fine occasionally but you know some of some
47:20
of those rules are are really important um as well you C could you just describe
47:27
what what so what is a painfree performance specialist like you you actually have a certification in that
47:34
and it's something I'm not actually familiar with but I I can you just walk through some of that and how somebody
47:39
might be able to find if they're you know they obviously online they can get with you but if there's someone locally they look for what what is that all
47:46
about yeah well I did so like I said if you do your usual six we thing and then
47:52
you PT for a few years and then just start to see a bit of a TR
47:57
amongst the people I was meeting in the gym now I when I first gym I was in with London was just kind of a normal local
48:03
gym but you met still like a lot of interesting people doing really cool like very successful jobs in London and
48:11
I had quite a few clients like that I just started seeing a bit of a trend amongst them and a lot of that Trend was
48:17
was was injuries no nothing major because they were all able to come to the gym there was some more like I'm not
48:23
talking like slip discs and all that sort of stuff I'm talking and thing is most of the people and injuries
48:30
I work with they're all like what you might say are minor but cause enormous
48:36
annoyance and frustration to people and that's what I started to see amongst
48:43
a lot of the people I was working with like just a sore knee so they couldn't squat properly or it stopped them running or their shoulder was sore so
48:50
they couldn't put their jacket on without pain or they couldn't lift their kids up or throw the ball and they
48:55
couldn't bend over cuz their back was sore all the time things like that and I was like right I I'm not I don't really
49:02
know what to do with these people so then I went off and I did my corrective exercise specialist
49:08
with National Academy Sports Medicine over in the states I didn't go over I did it online and then when I went to
49:15
Equinox I said in 2019 I think it was yeah
49:20
2019 I was lucky enough to do a course with John rusen who is awesome you might
49:26
know one but he's um he runs the ppsc with painfree performance
49:34
specialist uh certification he come over from the states he taught like 15 or 16 of us were the first people in the UK to
49:40
get the qualification and it's quite funny actually is when we were in the room
49:45
there was like like 15 20 coaches all like super fit some of the best coaches
49:51
you'll find in the UK and in London and he asked us like how many people in this
49:56
room are pain at the moment everyone every single coach lifted and I've told this story before
50:02
and I've told clients and all that it's like because coaches are oftentimes just the worst people to take their own advice um but it's just a thing that
50:09
like most people deal with so yeah so long story short painfree performance
50:14
specialist like it is how you approach things like just
50:22
approach your actual workout itself how you how you prep the body and your your warm-ups all that sort of stuff and it's
50:28
it's a lot of it is about building people up that have been like like
50:34
broken as such I mean like they got a bad back or or building up people that have no injuries and getting them to a
50:41
position where they can successfully like navigate certain movements like as
50:48
I was a PT in the gym floor for like five or six years so I did my I did my hours but I would I can't tell you how
50:56
many times like I've seen coaches do things with their clients for I'm just like biting my back Fe or like making me
51:03
cringe like they're getting someone that can't can clearly not move and getting them straight in like first exercise 40
51:10
kilos on a back squat when they could probably not do a single body with I'm seeing all these different things going
51:15
wrong and I'm like oh good and part of the education and knowledge I have is obviously which honest most decent
51:22
coaches will have is just how to move people through the pyramid movement so then they could move successfully and
51:27
pay and like and yeah and painfree through all these different um movements
51:33
so then they can become as strong and fit and mobile and all that sort of stuff um or to the best of their ability
51:41
so it's not just about helping people eliminate their pain it's also making sure that people never or drastically
51:49
reduce their chances of actually getting pain as such um and it's just it's just
51:56
really small approach just being smart with your approach to being a coach and just not being a dick and such but um
52:03
it's taught me a lot it's Tau me a lot and part of the reason was obviously to help myself is I've had like most people
52:10
to go to the gym bum shoulder for ages and like even to this day like I get the
52:15
odd little thing on my shoulder when I do like bench like I don't use the barbell for instance barbell bench press
52:20
anymore have for years just because it doesn't fit me never has I don't feel comfortable but I do dumbbell
52:27
um so I did all that sort of stuff in the first place to kind of help myself but then obviously with the Viewpoint of
52:33
helping my clients and it's the thing that a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with is pain because they're their
52:40
stress their sleep isn't great they don't move well nutrition is not great
52:46
so they have all these injuries so if you can fix those injuries Jesus what the hell is that going to do to their productivity and
52:52
their confidence and their mood and all that sort of stuff so um yeah that's kind of a bit in a nutshell
52:58
I could go into more of the boring kind of programming and that sort of stuff but it's it's just it's just being smart
53:05
with how you and kind of thoughtful with how you program stuff for for people
53:10
yeah I'm I'm pretty encouraged because I'm seeing more more coaches and trainers like yourself who are
53:17
approaching this in a way for longevity right like I was saying that that old
53:22
school just get in there and rip it out cut your calories cut carbs way too much
53:28
protein you know all that stuff is not necessarily something that is sustainable you know if you're going if
53:34
you're going to do a show you know like if you're going to do a bodybuilding show I've said on the on the podcast
53:39
before if you have a have a bodybuilder that you don't like just wait till they're about two weeks out from their
53:45
bodybuilding show and then you can completely kick their ass because because they can barely move they have
53:51
no energy they've been eating chicken breast for the last three weeks straight um but that's not a sustainable
53:57
lifestyle so I'm I'm pretty encouraged by what you've got going on um and and
54:02
being able to educate people especially entrepreneurs you know as one um I have
54:07
a heart for them and I want to help them you know with their marriage and with their family and with their business and Longevity and all those things and so
54:14
this fitness component is so important and so critical so I'm super excited that you've come here yeah no no it's go
54:23
yeah but yeah just to read out your point yeah it's it's so important and like I'm was writing down some notes
54:30
yesterday and I was like why do I actually work or no if someone asks me like why do I work with entrepreneurs
54:35
because I've had it before in the past where people assume you work with entrepreneurs and like business owners
54:42
and high level professionals because you're after money I like that's not that's it's far from the point is that
54:48
because everyone deserves a coach whether you're buy a nurse or you take
54:54
out the bins or you run a 100 million pound business whatever it is like
55:00
everyone deserves a coach but the fitness industry is a lot of Industries
55:06
but the fitness industry ESP special especially is riddled with like a lot of garbage you like I said earlier on six
55:13
week course and you can be a PT and the age of Tik Tok and Instagram is you actually don't need a course anymore to
55:19
be a PT to be an online coach like you could just lift weights for a year six
55:24
months if you're a woman you got like a bigger ass or if you're a guy and you got like you look pretty good then he
55:30
like set buy my program and that's how easy it is now so you don't actually have to go into the gym and do your
55:35
qualification so my thing is is like I entrepreneurs and these
55:42
other High people they deserve a coach that actually has their interests in mind because it's so easy and I've seen
55:50
it before I've seen it I've seen it with people in the gym and I've seen it online a lot is they're like an easy
55:56
like they're an easy target because not all entrepreneurs because obviously you have to build it you have
56:02
to to work and a lot of entrepreneurs might not have as much income or wealth
56:08
than someone that's working a 95 job but obviously the goal is to build it up but a lot of them a lot of entrepreneurs are
56:13
obvious very successful so they're easy targets and that's why I'm trying to do like
56:20
trying to reach out my message and try to help
56:25
these people because their people after all and they do some amazing things and
56:30
help out the world and and that sort of stuff I don't want to get to very fair but that's that's it in the nutshell is
56:37
that they still deserve a coach that has their best interests in heart which it's
56:42
not often the case with a lot of coaches that that work with this type of person yeah yeah I I love it so how do people
56:50
find out more information speaking of that let's get you some more clients that you know if we can um you know help
56:57
some more people not get used to some more clients but help some more people success stories I call them right we want success stories how do they get
57:04
more information about the Paradigm project um from you you know follow you on LinkedIn and all that give me give me
57:09
that that kind of uh Spiel there yeah well they can check me on Instagram
57:15
which is coach Mark gray which is the same for no just Instagram yeah I don't
57:20
really bother with the other ones um and Linkedin yeah I'm s i trying to get more
57:26
into LinkedIn I was on LinkedIn years ago but I am trying to focus more on
57:32
LinkedIn at the moment and try to provide more kind of deeper content um which you can do more in LinkedIn
57:38
because you can just talk more it's not all about catchy videos that try to hook the person in as you do on Instagram
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right and that's just my name just Mark gray um I think yeah and my website
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which is actually just been finished this week because I re redoing it hardine project. and there's some bits and
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pieces on there I've also got like some helpful tools like free resources on there as well for people it's in my
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Instagram as well like got a free free guide for entrepreneurs took me like three months to make it's packed with
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stuff anyone can use it helps you on your training your sleep nutrition
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there's mindset stuff in there there's some workout stuff to action-packed loads of apps Tech nutrition Subs so
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that's there for anyone to check out if they want it and um yeah that's
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Instagram or LinkedIn as well is that it says on my my in my LinkedIn like my DMs are always open for questions and advice
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and same goes for Instagram as well as my doors are always open just for um for
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a chat if anyone's got any questions I need answered or help with anything at all pent Fitness related awesome well
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Mark thank you so much man I appreciate you coming on board and uh look forward to uh connecting again that was awesome
58:56
thanks for having me that was that was fun yes if you're looking to really maximize your life and become the man
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you were made to be head over to maxed out man.com and get your journey started
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today [Music]