Transcript

0:15
Joshie, Good to have you. Yeah, it's been a it's been a long time coming. I'm really excited for this conversation. Obviously known each other for a few years now and been through so much together so it's really really cool to have this conversation. Yeah I thought I would start with maybe a lack of elevator pitch if somebody said, Hey, Tyron what do you do? How do you how do you answer that question just so people can have a bit of context about about the conversation that's about to transpire?

0:49
Yeah, well, I mean, I like to say I'm a gym owner. Maybe a little more and coach me talk. That's pretty much it. I like to get as many people fit as possible and show as many people as possible in the world of they can do with their body. That's sort of where I like to tell people but I had to write it down. owner and head coach of Motley Crue CrossFit in South Africa.

1:17
Nice. Nice to see you got a nice cup of coffee there to get us

1:24
absolutely spotless threes to

1:28
the beauties. of owning multiple cross facility facilities, I suppose. So maybe starting with how we actually met each other, obviously through CrossFit itself. How what was your journey into CrossFit? How did that actually happen? Where did you begin? I'm sure there's many different life tributaries that lead you to this point. But how exactly is the start? Where were you always interested in fitness? What was the journey from your perspective?

2:02
I think there were a couple of little roads that all pushed me into this big highway across this one was I was gonna say, I suppose semi decent sports sports men. When I was growing up. I played provincial cricket, rugby, national baseball and softball. I was also involved in sort of a higher level baseball with some scouts in the US. So I always played relatively decent level sports. And then I did the usual pokey gym. The Globo gyms, doing some biceps and chest and not really knowing what that weird squat rack thing in the corner was. And then one day I watched. I'm very old school. I've been in CrossFit for over 12 years now. So I'm very old school when it used to be on ESPN. Or watch these idiots wearing these brought clothes and weird headbands and funny necklaces and all that stuff that the guys used to wear and I said damn and he's so quick. I can definitely do that. I'm elite. And then I've tried to get involved with research. Wait to actually saw one of the local competitions happening and I saw these guys throwing balls around and running, which is stupid I can kick a ball and I can throw a ball I can give these guys a hottie sparkle. Let me go try that. First, I thought I could do it by myself, obviously, because I was a little bit stupid and arrogant. And then went on and went to across a class one of my first workouts was healing I remember seeing the we actually did Helen yesterday is quite funny. So one of the girls doing these weird funny pull ups and I was like what is going on? Yeah. And then she came at absolute highly gonna beat me by like five minutes or something like that. So from that point, I said, I'm going to the games and I'm going to be the next Rich Froning obviously, that never happened. But it took me on my journey to where I am now have hopefully touched a lot of people in a good way over the years. But I've been sort of coaching CrossFit now for eight nine years. I was a personal trainer before that so very short story made long.

4:20
No, that's, I suppose the point of a long form podcast a but is that just for context people say when you say funny pull ups are talking about lacks, obviously you should keep them

4:33
Yeah, I was really not that ashamed of it. But I was one of those people that do like these CrossFit externa what they're doing, and I was was the bigger Gods across pull ups was always something that was quite foreign to me. I could never do a pull up. Growing up even though I played all the sports and stuff as a heavier bigger set man. Pull Ups was always something that was a little bit foreign to so when I checked this chick doing these weird things, I was like Sure. Okay, is that cool can do it and surely I can. Yeah, we are still conducting

5:09
a beta for RFC now how what's your what's your weight enhanced is all context. So we work with

5:15
some six to six one comma eight, eight meters. I sort of sits around 100 kgs. don't weigh myself off and the last time I got on the scale was about 100 sets of a piece of meat,

5:28
meat and it's okay a piece of meat. Just for people that are listening. I've seen you pull ups and muscle ups and things and it honestly you would not think that you are 60 and you ate 100 kilograms the way you move so I'm not just saying that like really it's it's a lot. It's taught me a lot about the mechanics of of the sport and how you can anyone can you know reset level if you if you get if you work hard and you get to the right stage. So

6:02
I think sorry, just to link to something that that has always been important to me. And everyone likes to say that that techniques important and well, but I think with my frame of sort of had to learn how to do things as like you said, as prettily as possible. And then there's another word but and with my science teacher background, the idea of levers and pulleys and force and weight and distance and time and all that stuff. It always tickled my fancy to try and see how efficient I could efficiently I could do things and hopefully that's one of the reasons that are well I think that's one of the reasons I've stayed sort of close to injury free for pretty much my whole career. I've had little niggles here and there's sure Iran has, but I've never had any bad injuries. Because it'll pick up I've always tried to focus on good positions and and moving well. Yeah, maybe I should go faster sometimes but I'd rather keep moving.

7:03
Yeah. And just touching back on the science background. Hawaii present so you What were you doing before was that before you entered the wrong of crosswords word?

7:14
Yeah, so that was one of the roads. Like I said at school, I played on a sports anatomy and I didn't quite know what I wanted to do with my life. I took a gap year in the UK, everyone and when I was growing up, a lot of people were doing that. Like I said it was a decent sportsman so I played some crickets and it's a regular disease and a bit of money work to one of the schools there. And while I was doing it, I really loved it. So when I came back, I thought, hey, I want to be a PE teacher. It's not the biggest ambition in the world. But again, I studied teaching and still what I'm doing to this day. So the concepts of teaching, although I think a lot of degrees are probably a little bit outdated these days. I think a lot of the concepts I could still use and I do still use especially when teaching my other coaches so obviously I coach the the members and stuff like that in my my teaching background I think helps me deal with other adults that I'm trying to mentor and grow as a business and then like I said, major was science natural science was my main thing. And then we also did sport science as a subject. So I used to teach guys your age, excuse someone coaches or your age and high school and then from the corrupt charities in Cape Town. We were not modeling this whole face it's sort of led me towards the personal training world from there and it just so happened that a teaching degree with a major in sport science and science was quite, quite nice compared to these deployments that a lot of guys were doing. Getting into the personal training world.

8:55
It's I loved hearing about the stories of how people get into whatever they're doing because I think sometimes people think that certain successful people whatever success means to you, they they grew up what they just woke up one day and said, Oh, I want to do this. And then they just had this sort of linear path to where they're where they are now, but it's actually a lot of its curiosity. And a lot of it's just finding your footing in various aspects and seeing how everything you do ties into what you're doing now, actually. So your teaching background applies to your purpose now in life and the fitness side applies. So everything's coming together. It's like all these different all these different categories are overlapping. And you found what you really good at now, which is being a coach of coaches, essentially. I mean, if I have a look at what you're doing now, you know, yeah, so I think I think that's where I

9:49
see myself going. Obviously I'm doing it already within my organization, but long to I'd like to get sort of been on the outskirts of the HQ staff. Teaching CrossFit age, like the level ones and the level twos have been in the mix. Through whatever issues I haven't quite stepped up in that regard. But while that's been happening, I've been growing businesses, so it's probably a blessing the scars, but I think long term. I see myself, coaching coaches on a on a broader scale. I think that's how I can spread my message even even quicker and further.

10:29
So you mentioned organization, woods, talk to me about the progression and probably adding on from the boat, but we'll be talking about the progression of actually building a successful number of the CrossFit facilities in South Africa. And what has that what's been this what's been the the UPS the downs, the lessons, takeaways? Sure. Yeah, I'm sure.

11:02
As you know, my previous This isn't my first CrossFit sort of affiliates. I was involved in another gym. And I think what happened they I mean, we I was with those partners for about four years as well. And so, like I said, been in nearly a decade now and as well. My previous partners, I think I could go into a lot of detail but I don't really want to on this format. But I think the the crux of it was our visions were just not aligned. I was also younger, obviously, I was a lot younger when we started and all I wanted to do was always be this hardcore athlete. as I matured, I realized that our visions were just sort of for example, I said, Hey, I want to have 10 CrossFit gyms and then the partner at that stage is like no giants. We can barely run one so that limiting sort of ideologue ideologies, was it's always a problem for me. I mean, I've often get myself into caulk because I take leaps and I'm not quite ready for that sort of learner to fly along the way. And I think one of the biggest difference moments is having people around you, a that trust you and believe you and what you're going to say and do and that are willing to go on these journeys with you and when you do jump, not get altitude sickness and struggle with the rarefied air it's just to continue that metaphor. I think I'm really lucky with the people around me. Not only my coaches, my business partners here. We sort of just get it we obviously had clash, but it's not like to the point where we clash and we hold on to stuff I'll say, Hey, I don't like this. Get back in your lane. Stop doing that. That's my stuff. And there's no hard feelings. There's no egos involved. I my ego gets bruised all the time. I'm still dealing with that and trying to grow with that, but I think it really helps having my main point is TV and obviously, you know, Jesus, who runs the other side of things, who challenge me when I need to be challenged, but not to the point where it's going to upset the applecart if that makes sense and then just having foot soldiers that are willing to graft and grind I mean, you know if you want to have your favorites, I just say do this and he just doesn't he doesn't ask questions, doesn't say No, I don't want to he just does it and then if he's not happy about something, he will come and have a conversation. Yeah. So the adage of just starting it runs I mean, it really helps self help book venturi. Now this is just start you want to make self conscious. Content just thought that Gary Vee always talks about that. I mean, I've been doing that for years now before it could be important Tik Tok and all that sort of stuff. I sort of just start something and figure it out. Like when I moved to Cape Town, I literally knew no. So I'm moving from from Durban to Cape Town. Not one drop of family, not one friend. Just moved and figured it out. And now here we are. 12 years later, sort of in this whole ecosystem. And it's just been drifting drifting all over the place. Jeff, bring it back. Bring it back onto the road whenever you want to drift

14:31
away drift away. But yeah, it's a difficult thing, especially moving your mind overseas, but to Cape Town itself, because it does have a reputation for being very you know, clicky and you want to know the right people? But that's just an illusion. I think I think if you Yeah, I think if you open to the possibilities and and you have like you say you have a vision that's aligned or not so aligned, but whatever gets you started, it seems like he you got to you got into the door and through CrossFit through through another means. But then you realize you wanted something more for it. And then that's when your vision started taking over and you are in the end. You saw it going somewhere else. Yeah.

15:13
Yeah. I think at the beginning, I didn't really have a vision. I think it was open across a gym. No, that's what I wanted to do. So I can train all day, which I think back in back in the day that used to be the vision of I mean, crosswords grown into this other beast. Macro gyms generally have grown into these other gyms when you look at Orangetheory and SoulCycle, and all these yoga studios, all these different things up. They all grew from a similar place. I think. With my previous facility, I don't think I had a bigger vision and that was part of the issue. I don't think any of us did. And if if that was the vision, it wasn't enough for me. So I think what happened is over the years, I sort of grew into Alan Moore. And when I met Stevie, at a coffee shop, he sort of said what we're going to he wants to do and I said, Well, that sounds cool. And then as I started working through what Motley Crue is and what it can be, I think it grew and then to your point on sort of clicky Capetonian story if you come to this term, you'll see the weirdest mix of people. Which is exactly what Motley Crue means. Sometimes it's somehow just makes sense and it works. And that I think, I just grew my own community because it was just easier than trying to fit in, if that makes sense, I think but by not fitting in, I attracted other people that didn't want to fit into sort of other I don't say stereotypes, but other sort of molds. You've got all sorts of weirdos Yeah. Which is so so much fun. There's a lot of people that I would never really be friends with. It wasn't for this place. I'd probably be a bit chatty on them, but that because they come into the space and they just let the guard down. And they trust me then you learn to understand people a bit deeper on a no less protective level from both points of views. So I think a lot of people have these layers that stop you from getting to know exactly like who they are when they're doing burpees and crying and sweating and throwing chocolate other places. Notice there's no space for layers. I think you strip that all away and you get to know who a person is quite quickly.

17:35
Yeah, and what is so you mentioned the weird and wonderful people that come to the gym and I couldn't agree more like that's exactly what he is for me. It's it's more than just what else would you say differentiates your brand from the usual crosswords? I mean, I could name names am I going to the usual CrossFit facilities you see in South Africa? I feel like South Africa is this. It's still stuck. You know, it's always stuck a bit behind like in terms you go overseas now are they trying to but but like, what would you say is the differentiating factor besides?

18:13
I think well, my vision I started with the whole cringy do a burpee and your shirts filthy. Doesn't matter because CrossFit rah rah rah there's some blood on the floor and chalk everywhere. Maybe get mocked once a week kind of thing. And that to me just wasn't good enough because you you're also asking for nearly three, four times the price of what you're going to get in and out of the gym. So now you're charging three times the price you're giving when you're telling people to clean up their own sweat and their own mess. Obviously, you're coaching and different equipment and different styles and stuff and in my opinion people three and they should they should feel instantly. Okay, cool. This is a nice space. It's not scary. It's not dirty. It's we get a lot of foreigners Yeah. So I think I think that to me, also helped me push me forward. Is like you said South Africa. And I don't want to badmouth celebrity because I mean, I'm from Yeah, and there's nothing I wouldn't have anything but it wasn't for but I do think sometimes we we get to about 70% in the CrossFit space sort of world and then it's fine. And then fine is enough. And you can ask the coaches, yeah. How we've been drilling and painting and blah, blah, blah, you name it. We've done it over the last few weeks, and I'm still probably only 80% of this new facility where I want to be. So I think what happens in South Africa is we get to about 70 75% And then it's fun. And to me funds, funds not good enough. I never want to be just okay. So I reckon that that's been a differentiator in whatever facet of the business, whether it's for coaching, whether it's the classes the way I've coached, classes five years ago is not the way our coach classes now. The way we ran the gym foggers that's not the way we run the gym now. So I think always saying okay, this is fine, but what's plus one of what we're doing now, with every facet, of the business and obviously sometimes we get bogged down with the usual sort of just being busy. That effect just trying to just chip away at what you can when you can, is sort of how I've tried to do with gyms I've also running a PT businesses to pay the bills of it. So coaching 15 classes a week on top of that, so it's, it is tough, but I mean, what's the point of doing it? It's not a little bit typical. I don't want to be chilling at home. I'd rather be in the trenches a little bit.

20:59
Absolutely. And there's a genuine there's a genuine like you get it feel that you actually enjoy the coaching so much. It's it's kind of like the oxygen that fuels the rest of the creative process of actually building facilities because there's one thing that I don't enjoy is people that don't have skin in the game or people that like you said are not in the trenches or not like where they are physically. I mean, how many people do you know hand out these flyers to these like you said micro gyms but they've got a little bit of a beer belly and you say there's no ways you are fit person like this. Well,

21:41
for example is I mean there's there's a couple of salespeople that walk around. Maybe you know exactly what I'm talking about. Smoking one hand pilot Coke, another hand, handing out flyers to people to come join their facility. Now to me that's that's no good. I mean, these kinds of the coaches will have a birthday and I want to bring a cake or something I can and shit on them before bringing cake into the gym because some people that's the that's the thing they're trying to get away from. I mean, why would you have cake sitting in a place where you're trying to get rid of cake? It's like going to the AAA and having a cake sitting there. And I think sometimes people don't get it. And it's got to be more it's got to be a little bit more than what else is out there. And yes, no one's gonna come forth into effect trust me. No one's anywhere close. But I think if we just try and strive for being really bitter and then what else is out the we become a little bit more of a sort of a lighthouse for these people. I mean, good too often use the analogy of a lighthouse and a tsunami of dreaded disease coming and we've got to be the lighthouses and laugh raft and all that sort of stuff. And it's a great analogy too. And amongst the facilities that aren't constantly striving for more, we've got to be that person. When we opened there weren't many facilities that were sort of pushing us in my opinion. And obviously I'm biased and I don't want to sound arrogant because that's not the it's confidence. I think it's just confidence in what we do. But in the last few years, it's been a couple of cities that pops up that are pushing us off. And that's great. It makes me want to push even harder and find something that the next place is not doing.

23:33
Yeah, I agree. And I suppose this is kind of a segue kind of knots, but we're speaking about, you know, upholding standards that you sort of aspire to. And one of those a big part of it for me certainly on my content is nutrition. And I would love to know from your perspective how your watch what did you change your mind on how is it evolved? I specifically how has it evolved over the years I'm talking from way back when to Asia, because a lot of people don't appreciate the journey that people go on. And it's not just the case of you know, what, so nutrition wise, however you want to tackle that because

24:19
I mean sure if you're gonna have to just jump in on it. So I remember like playing high school so matric which for you and it's watching our left side you about 1718 my rugby coach would say to you know, you must cover load before the big game on Saturday. So in my mind, I was eat lots of pasta so I would eat a crap ton of pasta. I say to my mom make a lots of pasta and my mom. She's old school, like obviously now she's getting maybe you can just write a note to come back to my parents but back in the day pasta meant sort of macaroni cheese, crap ton of cheese sauce and white sauce and all that other stuff. Great. So at one stage, it's quite a large flower but look like a lollipop. But in my mind, that's what my coach was telling me to do. So I didn't quite know I think there might have been with some of my sort of soft skin issues with my body started was looking around me and release cars around me with his knee mean machines and on the fifth floor, running around still doing well. But maybe not having the physique. of some of the guys around me. Then I went overseas, my gap year I didn't ever know just because I couldn't afford food. Or it was just because maybe maybe I was a bit of a late bloomer when it came to sort of like hormonal stuff physically maybe physically because I lean back quite a lot in when they when I came back. I think the first rugby season backup my shoulder Okay, rugby as you do, and then I got super big then. And this whole time I didn't know what nutrition was in my mind. It was okay, what's the best supplement to take? Because that's all I need to do. I don't need to have eggs and whatever in the morning and make sure I'm getting my protein goals every day it was have five slices of peanut butter and jam on toast in the morning because that's what I eat white bread, like a thick layer beautiful. Show scarier. And then as long as you take a fancy pre workout and you have a fancy post workout, then you're gonna get DAC and you're gonna get ripped and you're gonna get lean and because that's what the protein powder told you. So I did that. Pretty much throughout my whole sporting career I'd say. Like I said, I played decent level rugby. So again, for anyone overseas the sharks is the main team. I sort of play the team below that vertical cut in those days it was short. It was cool, but I played decent level rugby I made so the age group represents races it represents to level rugby. Again with no guidance in terms of how to train properly to be honest outside of my three times a week training sessions on the rugby field. I would just go into baskets and guns because no one told me anything else. No one I didn't know what a clean was. That stuff wasn't accessible when I was growing up. Now it's easy. We just go on YouTube and watch crossword crossword tutorials and they'll teach you but in those days, it wasn't YouTube. So it's it was an interesting thing for me to look back on because the thing I get the most interaction still online. So social media is the moment I'll post a picture of a steak or whatever everyone's got to say because everyone thinks they're an expert, but not many people are. So it gets back to your question I used to eat the typical bad diet of lots of breads lots of refined carbohydrates, not enough protein. Probably I mean, my parents tried to eat healthy, they did the weightless options, all that sort of stuff because obviously they were also going through their demons and the issues with with food and all that sort of stuff. So I'd say Mom, my teens and my 20s First off my 20s wasn't wasn't great in particularly No, it wasn't great. But it definitely wasn't. It didn't change too. I was weighing 85 kgs at one stage so for me you can imagine me minus 15 cages very, very, very skinny. So I did that for a while when this whole modeling thing started happening. I tried to stay as small as possible, because in my mind I was going to be walking with the catwalks of Milan. Meanwhile, little did I know that they just wanted me to look like a dad because that's what I do now Dad and cause and

29:13
yeah, I think I got into quite an unhealthy relationship. I did the whole bodybuilding style of chicken broccoli, chicken, broccoli, chicken, broccoli, fish, broccoli, peas, all that sort of stuff. All this frozen veggies and Hsipaw in the steamer and then on a Friday eating five slabs of chocolates and whatever the hauler wants you for for a whole day and then back on the spot to cardio on an incline with a hoodie on. Maybe a plastic bag and all that sort of crap. You got lucky looking, I mean just chatting to now looking back, it wasn't great. It has created probably a lot of hormonal issues obviously now I know what I was doing. But it definitely would have created a lot of long term damage systems that I think I'm still fighting to stay in sort of high caloric deficit into these cheat day insulin repair days. You know the bro science, it does work. I mean, I was lean and mean and call it to mintoff and all this sort of stuff. But it's not a great way to live. It's not a fun way to live your life in the sort of then I actually eventually during lockdown. I said you know what? I'm tired of training the way I do and performing the way I do because I'd like to think I can perform pretty decently. I'm still one of the top sort of master guys around and locally. Good semi finals this year. I've always been in a sort of mix. And I just was a little bit tired of looking average so I reached out to one of the guys that I was chatting to the gospel pH nutrition. We're really nice dude. One of the nicest guys I've met sort of through as a professional I mean, he works with some of the Top Games athletes around. He gave me a great framework and a way to measure and all that sort of stuff. And again, as with most diets, you fall off after a couple of weeks. I just the more I tried to do these things we record and measure and blow by them why realize it's just not for me, but my lifestyle. I mean, we wake up at three in the morning, get to work to open the gym. It's it's not a nice way to y'all Sunday cooking and prepping meals and freezing meals and I just it's not nice. If I lived at home or work from home. I probably wouldn't do a little bit more measuring and loads of stuff, but it's just not. It's not something I can do sustainably. So eventually of the EU actually quite a big influence on that. And as you know I trained Prof. Noakes we we spoke about it quite a lot. Why not try this carnival thing and there's a lot of a lot of the people on the streets obviously, you got to be against versus the carnivores versus the macros versus the blah blah blah. And there's so much information so when I grew up there's no information now there's too much because it's it's so confusing. It's so confusing. The crux of it is do what works for you and keep it as simple as possible. So you can do it consistently. The measuring thing works. It does work in science science works like I'm not saying it doesn't work, but for me, the way my life works. I cannot sit and walk around with a scale and go to a restaurant and weigh things and it just doesn't work for me and I also know myself. If I have a little bit of something I'm going to finish I can't have a piece of a piece of chocolate. I'll eat the whole slab and so it's finished and then son in my house. I know myself by now. So again back to a patient eventually got on a sort of conical train. I did it strict strict strictly for six weeks. No, not one period in sight. No peanut butter nothing like that. Just sort of literally to the to the tee and I could not believe the difference in my I'm sure you've spoken about in your podcast many times just even like going to the toilet like stuff like that. You don't realize how bad it is until you don't have to do that stuff anymore. Nothing like an otaku to remind you of what Faber does to your insults, and again in moderation and if you weigh exactly how much you need, however raw there is a lot of benefit that you can get all that stuff, I think, but for me, it just did not work.

34:00
So that's where we all that first six weeks was very strict. At the moment I'm sort of in a maintenance phase. I'm in a very harsh, stressful sort of periods in my life. Just because I'm managing a lot of things at the moment. So I'm not being too harsh on myself when it comes to cutting out everything. So I will have a little bit of chopping down in it. Bob had a workout and I don't know when I'm going to eat again. I sprang to make me a protein shake with a couple of berries and a bit of practice and good just to get a little bit of satiety until I can have a proper meal again, but cutting out the idea of you must eat more vegetables to feel good. To me that was a game changer. I don't hate vegetables. I just don't particularly like I've always enjoyed fattier foods and dairy more than sort of lean, lean meats and vegetables. So the corn like last night I had a robust steak. I had a little bit of I had a little bit of leftover cottage cheese. We had a naughty nachos on the weekend so I had a bit of leftover cottage cheese and some ever and I was not part of the carnivore thing but I do throw it in now and then and then a crap ton of cheese now that's sounds like an awful meal. You go and add up all those calories before massive man who's burning nearly 5000 calories a day. Those types of meals are needed and that's why I'm maintaining. I'm not like my training is good. I'm feeling strong. I'm feeling relatively fit. Maybe not the fittest I've ever been but pretty footstone still beating a lot easier. kids running around so that's where I am Joshi I've been on a roller coaster journey I've done not having absolutely no idea supplement world. Then I've gone the bodybuilding next to nothing probably on about 1500 to 2000 calories a day. They have some the If It Fits Your Macros thing. Then I've done the counting every single calorie making sure I've got the exact ratios of everything I need and carbohydrate timing and getting the carbs around your training time. Again, that stuff does work. It's just how sustainable is it and how good is it for you long term? I don't know. It hasn't been it wasn't great for me. And now I'm at a point where I have I like to call it water cooler. Adapted carnival where it's like 98% of the time on Carnival and then then there'll be little bits and bobs well throw stuff in. We're not even for sanity because I don't crave stuff anymore. It's just a pool. That could be kind of nice. We got a tradition where we do alcohol swims tried to bring you along for one and I tried we will go on a Sunday we'll have a dip and then we'll we'll get a lack of coffee and a croissant because it's it's just something that we we've sort of we bond over and that's just our time that we enjoyed together. I wouldn't feel bad about it. And I think that's been that's been a game changer for me not feeling bad about foods that I'm putting into my body. That is I think if you can get to that point in your diet, so we all sort of laugh. I think you're doing a lot. So I don't beat myself up with with the hours. I live in a sort of pretty high stress environment than I live if I allow myself a little nibble here and there. I really feel bad about it anymore because I'm happy with the way I look in the mirror. I'm happy with my performance. Would I like to run a bit more years but I'd like to do a few extra lifting sessions now and then yes, but I'm still PBE I'm still doing things I've never done before the ramp old age of 37. So something was this is ticking a lot of the boxes

38:11
Yeah, I thank you for that. I really appreciate hearing a lot of me talking should No, no, no, no. i That's all I can say that's the point of this podcast and to hear it from your perspective. I think we've very similar in the sense of how the way I see the diet itself and what it can give people it's like anything about CrossFit and what you know I would like to do monitoring trying to achieve is help. The average dad at home he has two kids who's pre diabetic, you know what I'm saying? Like, he's not going to count macros. He's not going to weigh things. He's any diets. He goes on when I say diets. I mean one that's prescriptive, is going to be unsustainable for him. Where's like you said going on the carnivore diet for a period of time has this immense, like benefit of cleansing you to a point and then you start to add foods back in and you figure out what works for you what doesn't work for you. So it has this real adaptability to it that almost anyone I think, especially people in CrossFit, anybody who comes to CrossFit is going to become a better person in some way shape or form you know whether they seeking community or whatever so that's why I enjoy it is that CrossFit is like the Trojan horse and the diet is is for me is one of the most important aspects because you because without it's you, you just you know, you're just stressing yourself out. Oh,

39:40
I think I think one of the issues with the CrossFit Games is that those athletes need carbohydrates, the amount they train and the energy pathways they're operating on. They have the carbohydrates to fuel the performance. Again, scientifically, you cannot you can't argue that no matter who you are, you got to look at the science of a GM actually have to have your meals have to be organized, but those guys are professionals at train. So all they do is prep their food, sleep and train and recover. Lucky so for the normal person that sits at a desk all day and then comes to CrossFit. They don't need or as common so when they get all post workout done. It's not what they need someone like perfectly trained three, four hours a day. He needs those things to to fuel the sessions because I mean, I don't know you probably know this and your members you're listening listeners probably notice but obviously your body operates on different energy systems depending on how long you're working on. Cross. It's all about high intensity output, which means it runs on the first two energy pathways which are mainly carbohydrate driven. The longer stuff like your long runs is duplicated or driven a little bit more fat. So if we were running club I would be planting a lot more than but most normal humans drink too much. They don't sleep enough and they don't eat enough protein. probably eat a lot too much refined carbohydrate. So what I try and get to when people come and say to me, Hey, can you help you to eat and I say keep through journal for a week for me just so I can see what you eat. Most of them don't do it. So I never see them again because they feel bad. That they haven't stuck to the one little thing that I wanted to do the ones that do come back to me. Look at the thing. And then like I say 99% of them. Don't eat enough protein. So I say it's up your protein. eat enough protein to to fuel your exercise. And to make sure that you're not always in a deficit, because most people are always in a deficit. When I say increase their calories or increase it with carbs, so don't cut out oil cause because then they start craving chips. Stop drinking so much. Try to drink once a week only if you're going to drink kind of a wine every night. Yes, cannot drink one every night. And it's so simple Joshy it's sad that we live in a world that overcomplicating over six bars. This latest fare on the diet and it's just what can you do consistently for a long period of time. That's the only thing that matters and if you it shouldn't be something that is making you better obviously because then you're going to get very sick. So what type of eating plan or system can you use, it's going to cut out a lot of the crap preferably all the sugar, get enough protein to recover from your training sessions and then fill in the gaps from it. So put a fair bit of carbs if you need it, if you feel like you need it, but most people are addicted to pictures. That's why they'd say, Oh, I need my carbs. Again, that's the response I get.

43:23
Yeah, definitely. But I will say that on the nodes of the energy pathways I mean, I've seen you trading at the level you do. And it's it's pretty incredible to see what you can do on the diet. Now you know, so it is about finding the minimum amount of carbs that will maximize your performance, not finding how much can I shove into my system so it's just finding that amount that that as a person like you who's so stressful, just that minimum amount just to give you that you know that that bit of a glycogen I mean your your your liver can only store 200 grams of carbohydrates but can store like 3000 grams of fat yeah so it is really just about giving your body that minimum amount of carbohydrates and a maximize performance. Because like I said, I see what you do in the gym, and myself especially as well whatever I'm doing at the moment on my diet and unless you are both of their trains four hours a week I agree with you, but a day sorry. I just don't think people need as much as they think they need. Like you said what's more important is the one who has the protein and the fat and when you get those rights, that that people can

44:37
focus on a protein and yes, some of the fat sorts itself out 100% A lot of people like like you said, don't eat nearly enough protein and then by eating a few more chops or eating a few mistakes, they're gonna get that fat and they're not going to be hungry. So I try and give the the minimum minimum required advice to people to get some sort of result and people think it's a lazy thing, but it's really not. I can sit and go and make you a cookie cutter thing or you must eat this and this and this and this, but most unless

45:15
you stick to it and then it's not kind of work you have you actually set to it yeah and that's

45:20
that's the that's the secret is literally just sticking to something long enough to see oh, she can just actually does work. I'm just gonna do it. And in terms of my training, I am me as a human is what my members off to a class that I do not go and do extroverts love to train more. I do lunchtime class most of the time, because our fast most of the morning, and then I'll eater just before my 10 I've got client most of the time, and then I'll train at lunchtime, eat some more and then have a nice big fat. Like that's my day. I used to do a 24 hour fast you told me not to do it but it says Mondays tend to be a bit crazy for me. So I used to do is sort of a full force and upon a Monday and then have a victim but in terms of what I'm doing is I am I just happen to be a little bit further along in my my, my sort of journey then our members on they can't do the pull up to the bar muscle whatever it is back and it's the same exertion that they do. Because they've got jobs and kids and blah blah, blah with coming do my workout and I'm trying to cut out as much crap as I can. Especially during the week. Yeah, I think people people are scared of it. People are scared to go but what about your father you're gonna have you're gonna live on the toilet and we're like, no, the reason you guys live on Twitch, where you have a big piece of red meat is because of the other crappy eating you're eating garlic bread meeting. Sweet corn fritters, you eating button that you're eating all this other stuff that clogs with it. So it's like when you see in a shower, there's a big ball of here in the boardroom and now the woods is not running down. Same idea. I just made it up, all the other stuff. All the other stuff you eating and you can see up clean showers and all that other stuff eating with the meats or clogging up your systems. It's not allowing sort of that water to run through my childhood so no worries. So yeah, I mean, that's been something that was a big mind shift for me and then like, again, I spoke to you a little bit when I started that process spoke to profit a little bit about that process like what should I be feeling? What's going to feel different while I'm writing to the loo all day on my first 24 hours. This is a bit scary. It's not gonna be like this the whole time. The shaky on the first day or two then trying to cut out some coffees, do I need more coffee, blah, blah, blah. It's all it's all scary things. But if you just say Hey guys, it's normal. Just give it a couple of days your body's getting rid of all the nonsense. So

48:15
just for context when you're listening normally people who already do start the carnivore diet or you start some sort of elimination diet where you remove lots of fiber. Essentially what happens is you can go through a stage where you you just you're just on the toilet for the whole day for two days. Three days you can just stay on the toilet because your body is your body's adapting. It's like anything your body adapts to. I wasn't quite there but yeah, some people it depends depends who you are. But

48:43
yeah, that first message Josh clinic without somebody doing a client's were worried about me I was in 20 minutes. But it's so like you says it's a something difference in your voice just, I mean 24 hours later in your garage, then you go into going to the loo Stan, you know to the stages. Like I mentioned earlier I think I had a bit of a I mean, I It's anyone who's been a gym, gym goer, this oats this sort of staple.

49:22
I mean I've been especially CrossFit.

49:24
Yeah, someone said to me that one of our more interesting members, Sue said to me the other day mussels are made of oats. So they definitely have oats. But anyway,

49:39
picture season.

49:43
So it's when you cut that stuff out and you say well, we're not going to keep on fuel from when I tell people what I eat for breakfast, they look at me, panic, you're going to die. So you're about to die to keep using formulas and I've literally never felt better. I did all my tests a couple of weeks ago and you're willing to 100% That's a very interesting things. When you talk about dying to people. It's not the same as when you talk about vaccines. I think it's it's splits people. You get people that are so anti cutting out XYZ and so anti taking a vaccine and blah blah blah that they're just people that you don't just go okay, well this works for me and I'm gonna do it this way. The moment you talk about food, I think people think they have an opinion even though they didn't really have any expertise to. To do this. It's the same as Yeah, when someone comes and tells me how to do a search or muscle up something I've seen quite a few of those in my time so I could potentially help you.

50:55
And I thank you I appreciate that. And obviously I want to be respectful your time without that. We know I've got some happened for me. So I wanted to shift gears a bit because we speak about a lot of things and pose on a personal front I'm very interested in like, challenges that people specifically physical challenges you've spoken about your self esteem and parents things like that but we've spoken together by choice sort of your I don't have to say battle with with cancer but but spirit experience. So for those that don't know, can you maybe touch a bit on that because I think it's I think it's really important. I don't think it's something that is taken lightly and

51:35
I don't talk about it often. Because I think a lot of people have suffered a lot worse. I mean, even within more density within my family with cancer and for you some context which probably you know, my dad's had skin, lung, lymph node cancer or all threes themselves is going to die within months of its when I was in grade nine which one is sauce 1415 I didn't know it at the time, but my parents are taking me to the boarding establishment to do viewings, because the doctors told my daddy was dying in a month. And obviously, they approached my mom spoke to the counselor and she said that it's probably a good idea to have him in the boarding establishment or some male role models. That's the kind of parents I had they didn't want to tell me at the time because I was writing exams. They didn't want to stress me out. That's, I'm so so blessed. My parents have got the best parents in the world. So almost anything that's wrong with me is bananas with them. They are they've been the best sort of role models and parents have been in the hospital. So at that time, my dad had been told he's got lung cancer. The X rays were black, black or white, whatever, the bad colors on his lungs. He did the chemo thing he went back in two weeks and the doctor said that never seen cancer disappear at the rate they saw disappear on his lungs. So he survived that one day like two cars lifted in his groin. So have you ever had to see my dad he just looks like a bit of a Frankenstein. He's got cuts and all things all over. His body. I mean, we look back now, in hindsight, so easy. Some of the stuff that I grew up on eating and the way they could have contributed to it. As a doctor form was said wrong.

53:39
Fasting Doctor

53:40
Yeah, yeah. With Diabetes codes and the cancer codes and lots of stuff. It's he talks quite a lot about inflammation system and how diets play a role in disease and stuff like that. So I definitely think that there was a contributing factor and obviously genetic factors. So obviously I was expecting to get cancer at some point. Hoping not but getting it eventually. I've had cancer twice. I had a I had malignant melanomas cuts out of my back and actually a form of breast cancer to my lip got cut open and piece of stuff got taken out again. Luckily they caught it. When I caught it. I don't like I said I talk about it because I think a lot of people suffer a lot worse and have to go through a lot more than what I did. But it's scary. I mean, you lying on a lie on a table. I still need to post that because it was when I cut it out of my chest. It wasn't a word. It wasn't a general anesthetic was local to you literally lying back on a table and you can sort of feel stuff happening. But I think the picture in your mind is probably as bad as it might look from the other side. Because you can sort of just imagine. Yeah, so that was that. That was those tough recovery. I think looking back now, you don't realize the trauma that your body can handle and how you can get through these things. I think the first training definitely helps you bounce back but at the same time, cross with the stress on your body too. So trying to to treat a stress that your body's gone through within with another stress. It's not always a good idea. And when it happened, I was also I was fighting the the concept of I'm no longer like this fit monster. I'm like the old guy. So on a personal front, it was really tough because I was trying to make a comeback from the surgery whilst also party with the fact that I'm probably not going to come back to the surgery and personal prom or that sort of thing. And so that was a really rough time. It was beating your head against the wall and in a big way because you know what you've done previously, and now you're trying to do that and you just know in yet. While that was going on I was I was opening other facilities. We phoned them up using we've opened six gyms along the way unfortunately 65 gyms long the way so basically a Jimmy here. One of them fell away. Unfortunately, he was locked down. We sort of regrouped and, and changed shifted gears. So in terms of the cancer stuff, it's something that's always sort of in the back of my mind. I'm not naive enough to think it'll never come. But in crosses you have a sickness, sickness, wellness continuum, sickness, wellness, fitness continuum, certainly you're sick, you healthy and then you fit so my thing is I always want to get as fit as I can. Because in order to get sick, I've got to first pass through health. I consider myself pretty fit, top 10% or whatever of the CrossFit Season World in the world, which means you're probably in the top 5% of the world world. Just in terms of the way you operate. I'm well aware that I need to bring my stress level down and sleep but you sort of make a plan and you do what you can I think your hustle and your pity so you can do that stuff in your 40s so make peace with the fact I'm going to be grinding for a while still. But your last thing is I want to just I want to always be a bit of a weapon in whatever that is. I don't mind maybe looks like that when I'm running around the block of capital that I like to pick, pick up a ball. I can move the ball ball pretty well. I can still do some cool gymnastic stuff and like to say for big dude. It's kind of cool to be able to do this stuff that I want to be able to do that into my 50s Nevermind into my 40s when the next sort of round of health challenges comes I know bounce back recently had to sit some operation I'm going to do that so she symptom operation

58:22
and that's where your your nasal cavities are to open them up.

58:25
Yeah, so I mean I've always said it's quite funny. We meditate in the evenings. We try and meditate before dinner a bit so I can sort of calm my mind and move it

58:38
along as I've been going on for

58:40
a long time now. Two years Yeah. But always been pretty frustrated because they say okay, breathe in. through your nose and then I can't lose. My heart rate gets higher because I'm trying to catch my breath or so. I've set off the semi finals this year I was going to go get my operation and then recover for a couple of months but even that I mean, I was living on painkillers for only stopped last week, just nearly four full weeks of quite heavy metals. I mean, for pharma pros and deities to try and manage the pain. You don't think it's a big thing because it didn't really concern me. There was no bruising. I've got I can call when we come in and find I started training off a couple of days. Your your body, your body fights back as your body just says nope, not really calm. You should stop rest instead of training. Yeah that's the thing I think your body has a way of telling just calm down.

59:45
And and for those that don't know the nose itself is is so integral to the metabolic pathways in your body and if you only breathing through your mouth and not through your nose, it has extreme effects. On your sleep on your stress on your HIV.

1:00:02
Yeah. I've been tracking all that HIV and stuff with the rupee and people a lot of people are torn on whether it works or not and blah, blah, blah. But for me, it's really good. It's been interesting to watch my sleeping patterns. Obviously I'm well aware don't sleep enough, but it's definitely got me intubated. It's definitely sets me looking pretty red today and maybe it's a good idea to not go and kill yourself with a half an hour work.

1:00:35
Just having that baseline to work from perfect. Yeah. Yeah.

1:00:40
It also it's a little bit of a governor myself way. You don't have to push yourself every single day and I think that's probably in my training sort of maturity that we have matured the most. Is some days I don't feel that going on. Sometimes I just want to fool around the corner and get a little bit of sweat. And I'm happy to go home and have a listening. Whereas previously if I wasn't beating myself and getting 1% better every single day. Then it was the failure and that's I think that's been the biggest hardship. So consistency for me is much more important. But I can train five, six days a week. Sure, that's a win. Whereas previously, I wanted to train eight times a week and every single session must be at 90 to 95% effort which is not a nice way to you almost you fall out of love with training and it becomes a chore. And I say to myself, I never want to have that again. Like I said I'm still doing stuff I've never done before. A PV snatch on big stage a couple of months ago which was amazing.

1:01:49
What was repeated?

1:01:51
I hit the I don't know if you follow the same

1:01:53
path. But what was the actual I forget what

1:01:57
129 kg so that was I mean, I say to the guy that maybe will loaded that up to attempt that snatch before they women actually hit it which was and I don't max out I don't ever max out I do the cost programming like I said something on the program. That's what I do. I don't do anything more, which is kind of cool. Here's a program for working and means listening to your body actually works.

1:02:22
Yeah. Well, I think I want to end on that high because that's certainly given me a lot to chew on. But yeah, I really appreciate your time brother. Where Where can people follow you find you Motley Crue was living

1:02:40
in Motley. crue but anyone wants to follow me at Tyler Unhatched Tyr in hcch and then you want to check out my gym, smoking group cross. That's our handle. We do most of our stuff on Instagram, so

1:02:55
Yeah, awesome. This was super fun. I can't wait for Ansu and the good day laka Joshi. It's

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