Hacking Your Health
Hacking Your Health Podcast with Ben Canning and Dave Kennedy - Two guys setting out to hack body, mind, business and beyond. We are here to provide a single source, bullshit free guide to understanding your body and how you can live better, for longer.
Hacking Your Health
The Real Reason You’re Not Seeing Results in the Gym // Ep. 168
Mindset is the foundation of any successful fitness journey, forming the essential groundwork before nutrition plans or training programs can be effective.
• Mental resilience requires keeping the promises you make to yourself
• Having the discipline to show up when motivation is lacking creates long-term consistency
• Fat loss often provides more immediate feedback and psychological rewards than muscle building
• Going through periods of lower motivation is normal, even for experienced fitness enthusiasts
• Community support creates accountability and motivation when personal drive is diminished
• Progress requires patience and understanding that everyone starts at different levels
• Focusing on how far you've come rather than fixating on perceived flaws changes perspective
• Small shifts in mindset can transform an average workout into your best session in months
• Surrounding yourself with positive people amplifies your results and mental state
• The six inches of real estate between your ears determines your fitness success
Join us next week for a deep dive on creatine, exploring its benefits beyond muscle building, proper dosing protocols, and why it's a staple supplement in our routines.
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Yo, hey, what's up everybody. Welcome to Hacking Health Podcast. I'm your host, Ben Connolly, with Dave Kennedy. Yo, welcome back to the show. What is up? How are you?
Speaker 2:good, I'm very excited today. Today's a monumental day for me. I uh I broke another treadmill at orange theory, so it's it's a good day when you're breaking equipment. Uh, the uh. The instructor came up to me and she's like yep, there goes another one. She's like I don't think it likes. It likes the 12 at 15 percent inclines, uh, very much. And I'm like, yeah, about that, I really wasn't trying to break it this time. So she's like wait this time. So it was. It was funny Aaron's sitting next to me just shaking her head.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine, I can't imagine there's many people use the treadmill at full incline and full speed.
Speaker 2:No, it's like maxed. They have these new machines, though, so I'm trying to break them so we can get the new machines. I'm not really trying to break them. Orange Theory has these new machines that go up to 15 miles an hour and 15% incline. Three miles an hour is a big difference when it comes to running, but I definitely want to do it. I want to see if I can get a four-minute mile. I don't know what 15 miles an hour at a pace is I'd have to calculate that but I know 12 miles an hour is a five-minute mile, which I've done many times. It sucks, but I've done it.
Speaker 2:I feel like death the rest of the day. But it was funny because you know, when I was doing it it was you have to basically complete a mile in a certain amount of time, and so I just literally did a full send on it. And it was funny because right when I hit the one mile like literally 1.00, and I hit it and I was about ready to stop the whole thing shit and died. It was like all right, I'm going to hold on for dear life until you get your goal and then I'm going to crap out. So it was a good day today to run series, so yeah, you know, then I'm gonna crap out.
Speaker 1:So uh it it's, uh, it was a good day today, or series. So yeah, yeah, uh, exactly four minutes if you run, one minute if you run at 15.
Speaker 2:I feel like I can do 15 miles an hour for four minutes. Four minutes is not a long time. That's fast. That is fast. That is fast. Can you imagine 42 years old doing a four minute mile?
Speaker 1:that'd be crazy we definitely have to recreate the fastest fuck boy gif fastest fuck boy. We've now broken 5 pieces of equipment in Orange Theory. I'm surprised they haven't banned you.
Speaker 2:I know I'm going to start to like offer up like, hey, I've broken like 2 rowers and 3 treads or is it 3 rowers and 2 treads? One of those and I'm literally I'll pay for the repair.
Speaker 1:Like I'm sorry, but I feel like the equipment should be able to handle somebody full, sending it right, like that should be a thing, yeah, so if you make it, yeah, don't make it so it can't be like maxed out capacity yeah, it'd be like having a, like a piece of equipment that it couldn't lift the full stack without right. What the fuck's the point of having it?
Speaker 2:what'd you pay for that? For then you know it's like, yeah, come on, if they can't handle it, then why put 12 miles an hour, 50% incline? I'm sure they assume no one's going to do that, but obviously someone is doing that. Psycho mode, yeah, psycho mode. It should be a button that's like I'm going to die mode. Here we go, let's go.
Speaker 1:You have to sign a waiver to get it.
Speaker 1:They're like to sign on the treadmill to get it. Yeah, yeah, how are you doing, ben? Uh, doing good dude. Um, things are good on this side. Actually, you know the way. Uh, I often like rebuild systems for growth in terms of coaching and the capacity of everything, and then just like push the limits until I break it and then rebuild the systems. I'm at the process of rebuilding the system again, so it's just um, there's a lot of like building out management stuff so that whenever we have the next intake of clients, that we have the capacity to navigate it, and it's like a lot of admin work, but sort of future me will be grateful for me now doing the stuff. So, yeah, just getting that done. Obviously, then you check and cheat and other bits and pieces and sort of automating a lot of of the management side of things, which sounds super boring but like it's exciting for the, the prospect of the future of the group within it. So, yeah, things are good awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, I know we're uh neck deep into getting stuff uh ready for the, the new launch. Uh, I just sent a thousand cards out to vegas for wrestlemania, for ddp, and, uh and uh, two tubs of the protein out him. So it's really exciting that he's out there promoting Hacking your Health at WrestleMania. I was like what the hell? This is crazy. This is awesome. This is awesome what the heck.
Speaker 1:I had the call today. So a local guy shout out to Anti-Supplements. I've got my supplements there for fucking about 10 years. But I had a call with a guy, pete, today and I was just sort of like giving him the debrief. I'd spoken to him before and then I sort of updated him. He was like what do you mean? And I was like, well, I don't. Like I mean, I mean what I say, but I don't really know how I find myself in this situation. But like this is where we're at and this is what's happening. Tell me about it every time, regardless, like regardless of the ddp introduction, like it's a fucking random story anyway, but introducing us to a whole new level of like what the fuck is going on. Like I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know, we're just going with it, let's go.
Speaker 1:Yes, we are, we are. But no, it's cool and I mean like, obviously, wrestling I mean growing up as a kid and wrestling when I was a kid it's cool to just hear those names mentioned and sort of be a be about it. So I'm excited to to see how that goes. I'm looking forward to the launch of everything too.
Speaker 2:Yep absolutely well, we'll kick right into our stuff today, which I think is is an important one, and um, I'll tell you a little story. That happened, uh yesterday, so I was uh going down to do legs day ie push um, but uh, it's chest day, chest upper body, legs um, and you upper body legs, and I wasn't really feeling it.
Speaker 2:It was in the afternoon. I had a long day. I had teaching some kids from Compley High School on cybersecurity in the morning and I had some international folks come in for TrustedSec for the afternoon. And it was just one of those days where I was like go, go, go, go, go, and then I had to go to Airsoft, obviously in the evening. I was like go, go, go, go go, and then I had to go to Airsoft, obviously in the evening. So I had to fit my lift in and I'm like man, it's just so busy. But I got to get my lift in. It's legs day, it's the most important day, and so I do like chest day. I will say chest may become my favorite as of yesterday. It may have became my favorite day.
Speaker 2:But I went downstairs and I wasn't really feeling it and right before I lifted I kind of had like this epiphany and I was just like why am I dragging ass? Like this is awesome, like I love working out, like I really do, and when I get done with it it's like the greatest feeling ever. But it's like when you first start off you're like do I really even want to do this? Right, you're going to do it. Do I really even want to do this? Right, you're gonna do it? But, like, do you even really want to do this? And I just had that one thought of like no, this is, this is, this is fucking awesome, like this is gonna be an awesome lift and, honestly, it was the best lift I've had in six months. Just just by that one thought, like it literally changed my entire perspective of that entire lift and I murdered that lift.
Speaker 2:And uh, dom came over one of my buddies, uh, who's a lifter, and I was already kind of like halfway through my, my lift and man, I had like the biggest pump ever. I looked like like, completely, he walks in. I didn't have to say anything, he walks in. He's like dude, what the hell? That looks awesome. I'm like thanks, man, like I noticed it too, like you're like, I noticed it, but I don't know if you're gonna notice it. Like this is great, like this is why I live, like this is exactly why I live right here. So I get compliments from the dudes. So you know, like, uh, and so it turned out to be an awesome.
Speaker 2:I pr'd, uh, you know, I hit uh six, six uh plates on uh incline, uh smith machine press, uh, and what I really like honestly like I know people get smith machine shit it's one of my favorite um exercises. To be honest with you, I've had zero shoulder problems or pain or even like soreness with it. So you know I'm sticking with that, but it was a phenomenal lift. I murdered it and then I just kept going. I was just like you know, I'm just going to keep going, like I don't need to leave right now. And then I eventually had to leave for Airsoft and I will say I did drag acid Airsoft yesterday because I put all my energy out on the lift itself. So I wasn't competing very well yesterday, but all in all, it's amazing what just a little thought in your head can do to change motivation.
Speaker 2:So today's topic is really on mindset and things that you can do to challenge yourself, to make yourself better, and we've always talked about the pillars before here on the podcast. But I think it's important to revisit this one specific topic and the other pillars Because you learn things new every time. You learn things that work with you and don't work, and one thing that might work for me might not work for you. But these are things that I think are super important Because, at the end of the day, consistency is number one, in my opinion, on the results that you want to get. But to get that consistency, you have to have the discipline to be able to push yourself through things when you don't want to do them and your body will fight you on that. Your mind will fight you on that day in and day out, and life gets at you things like that. But you have to be able to spend time for yourself to get the results you want, for yourself, to feel good about yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think I mean this is you and I being in line again. I mentioned last week that I did a presentation for a Google thing Wellness Wednesday and I sort of just delivered on WeHackHealth and what it is and the pillars and I thought thought potentially would be a good time for us to revisit it, because I mean, usually we do it at the start of a year but we definitely didn't do it this year. So I think it's a good timely reminder all of the importance and I sort of expanded on it whenever we were going through the thing with google. But I think the foundational piece of all of this is mindset. Like it doesn't matter. Mindset Like it doesn't matter about the training program, it doesn't matter about the nutrition piece, it doesn't matter what Jimmy train on, it doesn't matter anything else.
Speaker 1:If you're not in the right head space to enter into this lifestyle transformation or whatever it is that you want to call it like, you will not succeed. And I'm not saying it's just the case of one day. You're like right, I have the mindset. It's something that evolves over time and something that even to this day continues to need work. Like I'm 10, 11 years into lifting and I still have to work on the mindset of actually getting down to do the work in the gym. It's easy to get distracted with life, with work, with other bits and pieces, with family stuff and whatever else going on. It's easy to neglect the thing. And I think for me, if I, if I look at it specifically around the gym number one, there's never been a time I've went into a workout and regretted doing the workout like a hundred times out of a hundred. I always feel better after it. Secondly, if you, if you think about it in terms of I get to do this versus I have to do this, like not everybody on the planet gets to work out, not everybody can. So it's a privilege for us to be able to do it, especially being able to have a nice gym, being in your own space, like equipment that you want, like having the time to actually go and do it. So thinking about it and framing it that way uh, definitely helps in terms of the days that I'm I'm not looking forward to it or I'm sort of like procrastinating on on getting the lift in. But I think whenever it comes to mindset, we sort of break it down into three further sections and we'll delve a little bit into this and this is, uh, I haven't actually told you this, so we'll see how we go with this. Um, for me, mindset, we break it down into number one, mental resilience, resilience. Number two, having a growth mindset. And number three, focus and mindfulness.
Speaker 1:For me, if we take each at a time, mental resilience is the discipline piece. I don't think you and I need to get into the different the different, the discipline versus consistency. Which is better conversation. I think we can just both agree that they go hand in hand. Yes, and it's like you and I on the podcast, we can't have just one of us. Like you can be disciplined, I can be consistency, you can be consistency, I can be discipline, whatever you want us. Like you can be disciplined, I can be consistency, you can be consistency, I can be disciplined whatever you want. And but with that, the mental resilience, it a foundational level.
Speaker 1:For me, it's just is keeping the promises that you make to yourself, and I think it's quite easy to let ourselves down.
Speaker 1:It's quite easy to just say I'll do it tomorrow, I'll put it off, I'll put it off, I'll put it off.
Speaker 1:But if you keep the promises you make to yourself in terms of going to the gym, for an example. You then have the narrative about yourself as someone who keeps his promises to yourself. So then the next thing that comes along you know that you're going to do it because you said you have to and that sort of carries on and filters through every aspect of your life and I think that to me, the gym, that's the main driver. The main thing that it has given me is the understanding that, regardless of my emotion, regardless of how I'm feeling, I will do the thing that I said I was going to do, because I am that sort of person and it takes away from that. I'm going to the gym to lift some weights, to gain muscle, for whatever it might be. It's a promise that you kept to yourself because you know it will make you better. And if you continue to keep those promises, specifically, it will filter into every other aspect of your life and that will be the person that you become.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that forward vision I think of looking at hey, if I do something consistent for a while, I will have results with that right. And I think what I? I even struggle with this when I did this last surplus cycle again, we're not going to use the word bulk when I did this last surplus cycle I let myself get to 50. And it was interesting because I was looking at pictures when I was really lean myself to 50. And it was interesting because I was looking at pictures when I was really lean. I'm like man, I feel like I'm smaller now than I am in that picture when I was really lean. And am I actually progressing or am I actually getting the results? But while that was going in, one, I know my weight has gone up. Two, I know my muscle mass has gone up because I have a scanner that does that. So I know that is not the case. But I know that if I stay consistent with what I'm doing, I'm moving up in volume. I'm doing the things that I've learned to do in my training cycles of lifting weights that I am going to get the progress that I'm looking at. And yesterday when I was lifting, I was like, okay, this is the biggest I've ever been. This is the strongest I've ever been and this is the results that I've always wanted, and I even told Dom yesterday.
Speaker 2:I'm like I'm at a point now where I'm very, very happy with where I'm at, and that's a hard thing for me because I always, even when I'm lean, I still feel like I have a little bit of excess skin. It's not a perfect six pack or whatever. You know like. I'm always like judging myself and the some of the flaws that I have, knowing that there's a stat that I saw that was really crazy. For people that have six packs in the age of 35 and over is one in 25,000. To put that in perspective, that's only 340 people in New York city that have a six pack. Okay, isn't that crazy?
Speaker 2:that's a crazy stat yeah so you know, you look at, you look at at, you know a fitness influencer or a model or a bodybuilder, you know they're in the point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero one percent of the population. And so you know, unless you're going to absolutely do a bunch of stuff and just be so disciplined on everything that you eat, everything you do, your workout regimen, you have to set the expectations of what you're really trying to accomplish, and I think everybody's goals are different. You have folks that are like I just want to lean out a bit. I have a conversation with someone that's I'm not going to mention their name because I haven't asked them if I can talk about them publicly, but a really well-known cybersecurity person messages me all the time just asking about hey, I've been able to shed the weight, but I'm really having trouble putting on muscle mass. And this was about 6 months ago and I explained to him to shed the weight, but I'm really having trouble putting on muscle mass. And this was about six months ago and I explained to him. I'm like, hey, you're going to need to start eating a lot of food and you're going to have to start lifting some more heavier weights and some more volume. And he's like okay, well, explain to me why. And I explained to him listen, the most ideal situation for you to build muscle is in a slight surplus. You have all the nutrients that your body needs to grow the muscle. Your body isn't taking away from one thing or the other at this point. And I said listen, you're going to gain a little bit of body fat, so just be expected. And I asked him are you comfortable with losing weight? He's like no, actually, I feel like I can lose weight anytime. The weight loss stuff for me now is really easy. Now that I understand all this, I'm like okay, so you're comfortable with losing weight. You know that you can lose weight if you need to, so why don't you try eating a bit and send me your workout regimen? Let's take a look at that and what we can do to tweak this a little bit. And workout regimens take a look at that and what we can do to tweak this a little bit. And six months this was six months ago.
Speaker 2:He messaged me the other day and he's like dude, I put on so much muscle mass. This is ridiculous. He's like this is awesome. He's like I didn't know eating more food and lifting heavier weights was going to make me be able to gain muscle. I know that sounds simple, right, but people are used to being in a deficit for so long. They hit these massive plateaus where they can't. And that's exactly what he said. He's like my bench isn't going up. I'm stuck at this bench level. I'm stuck at this. I'm stuck at this. I'm not progressing. Why is that? I'm like well, you need to eat and you need to be able to put on some mass, and that's his goals, though, right? No, he wanted to lose the weight and he lost like 65 pounds, which is phenomenal, right, and you know, that was one of the things. That was his goal. I have my eating under control. I understand calories. I understand that I need to get adequate protein. I'm good with this regimen. Now I need to change a little bit, to do something a little bit differently to get the next desired result that I want to.
Speaker 2:And it's interesting because I think for me, for some reason, this past few months, I just haven't been loving lifting. I just haven't been loving it Like before. I loved it, I loved it. I just loved it, and I feel like just the past few months, I've just been a lot of stressors at work. We brought in a new company that merged in with TrustedSec, a lot of just things going on, not anything bad, just a lot of things that we've been having to work with Obviously the supplement stuff and everything else and just busy. So my mind has been focused on other things than lifting. Now it doesn't mean I haven't been getting my lifting in, been consistent, stayed disciplined with it, but I haven't loved it. And yesterday was one of those days where I was like, okay, I love this again. And today at Ornisteri, I loved it again.
Speaker 2:And so I think we go through these cycles, ebbs and flows in our lives and I know you've gone through similar things before where you're like, man, I just I'm not feeling this lifting routine or this program or focused on getting this next iteration of customers in or clients in. So we go through these different things, but one thing we know if we stay consistent, we'll hit those goals. And even while I wasn't loving it, I was able to drop 30 pounds, you know, and you know still maintain my muscle mass and still maintain my strength to where you know I'm down to 223 and I'm hitting a PR on a bench press and a bench press and it's that consistency that eventually gets you through those tough times that you're working through. But it's just a total mental barrier that you have to overcome with yourself and you have to fight it. And it's interesting because, I'll tell you, when I was going through this weird I'm not loving lifting phase, I was thinking to myself what changed to where I don't feel the same way as I did before and it's almost like a laziness thing, to be perfectly honest with you At least in my case it is.
Speaker 2:I was getting a little bit complacent and lazy with my mindset. I know that sounds weird, but I was getting complacent and lazy with the things that I was doing all the time at such a high intensity that I just took it for granted. And then I was just like, okay, well, I'm just going to go through the flow and just go do things as is. And then I started to slowly move to a different side where I'm like I don't really feel like lifting today. I'm going to go lift, but whatever, I'm not going to enjoy it that much.
Speaker 2:And that simple change in my mindset downstairs where I'm like I, can I get to fucking lift today Like this is going to be awesome. This is going to be an awesome lift today, and it was the best lift I've had in six months, and you know it. It and so I need to focus on myself and getting shirt today. So I'm not going to lift today, but tomorrow I'm really looking forward to back and biceps day. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm excited to get down to that gym and throw some weights around. Now, legs day I'm still not excited about, but it's fine, I'm getting there. I'm getting back to it. I used to love legs day. I used to love legs day. I got to get back to loving legs day again. So, okay, good luck.
Speaker 1:I think a lot. First of all, I'm going to say this from my own experience and working with clients, and I realized that there may be people listening to this being like fuck you, what do you know? Or they may not think the same, and that's okay, but I think when you get an understanding of how fat loss works and you have built the habits and behaviors to allow yourself to progress, you get an understanding of what your body needs and how to fuel it and get an understanding of like where your calories need to be sat to lose weight. I think fat loss is easier than building muscle for me personally and for the majority of the people that I work with, and not necessarily in terms of like the process, because essentially the process is the same. You're just managing calories on a different scale and you just eat more calories. You eat less calories. From a mindset perspective, I think it's easier to go through a fat loss phase, and the reason that I say that is because you can't. I think if we think about it from a feedback loop or like the dopamine hit, you see progress on a regular basis, like whether it's every day, every other day or every week, like you see the scale move and you see your body change and it's a lot easier to stay in line with everything and and stay in tune with everything because you can see that progress. You're like, oh well, the thing that the thing that I'm doing is definitely working. So like I'm in, so like it's much easier. And actually in my check-in yesterday I said to James I was like, look, I need to push this deficit a little bit more difficult, a little bit harder, because I'm not seeing the results that I want at the rate that I want. And I'm like I can feel myself mentally checking out. And I'm like I can feel myself mentally checking out and I've said this time before, like I'm a person that likes to suffer in a deficit because I know I can, number one, do it and, number two, get the results to see my body change Whenever it comes to moving into a surplus number one, for a lot of people it's an unknown territory.
Speaker 1:So if you spent 20 years of your life trying to lose weight and now, all of a sudden, some random guy on the internet is trying to tell you to put on weight, and you're like, well, I don't really fucking know about this. Like eat more food and then gain all the weight that I just lost? Um, because the rate that you can build muscle is much slower than the rate you can lose fat and the results aren't as frequent or noticeable on a more regular basis. It's a lot more difficult to stay in line with it and again I've said this again like you shift your, you shift your focus from looking at metrics in a fat loss phase to looking at lifts in a surplus, so that you can see the progress in the gym versus the progress physically. And I think it's safe to say going through a surplus.
Speaker 1:You go through a period of where you actively look worse than you did before and you're like why the fuck am I doing this? Like I 100, I look worse. And then, towards the end of it, you look and feel worse and you're like well, fucking, 30 pounds heavier. What the fuck have I just done this for? Um. So it definitely can be more challenging.
Speaker 1:But again, to have that athletic physique, to have that like person who looks like they actually train, you need to go through that surplus phase to actually build muscle. Like you can lose weight and still look like you don't train, whereas if the goal is to look athletic and look like you go to the gym, whether it's just big shoulders and big arms, like you need to to go through the period of building the muscle to have those things. So that's my two cents on that. In terms of what you said specifically around, like nitpicking in yourself again, I don't think this is something that goes away like I think we will always be our own worst critic within that. But if you think back to you three, four, five, two years ago and you look at you now like there's no way number one you would have believed that that would have been you and number two you would have fucking given anything to be in the shape that you're in now. Yep, um. So it's quite easy to forget.
Speaker 1:Like the, you got another fucking phone call every time we're in a picture um so, yeah, it's quite easy to forget, like where we have come from, and a book that sean recommended to me called the gap and the gain, where we always focus on the gap of where we want to be versus the gain of where we have been. Um, I think, like, if we think back to you, you know, four or five, nearly five years ago, whenever we first had a conversation, like there's absolutely no way that you could believe that you'd be doing doing the things that you're doing now in terms of the gym, but also like, look how you look. So it's. It's often like we do it quite regularly. I still do it to this day where I'm like, okay, right, well, yeah, I like this bit and this bit, but also, what about all these 10 other bits that I don't like? Um, so we need to remind ourselves and that 100 is a mindset thing of like, okay, right, remind ourselves of of how far we've come in the progress that we have made. And again, if I think about myself, I actually was looking back at photos with harper throughout the week of of her whenever she was younger and I was like, oh, I thought I was big. Then I was like, if I look at me now, like I was a lot smaller then than I am now, like it's not even something that I've sort of been paying attention to. Um, so, yeah, we need to remind ourselves of that as we go through that process as well.
Speaker 1:But I think, looking at the, looking at the how far you have come versus how far you feel you have to go, because that is always going to be a goalpost that moves Do you mean we're going to go through the deficit phase? And you know, I think the goal is, uh, june, like you're going to get to that point and be like, yeah, I'm really lean and I'm very happy, but I feel small and day to day you'll feel smaller because your t-shirts feel different than whatever else and like then you're going to be like, all right, well, I want to get bigger again and we rerun the fun on all of that stuff. And actually, what you said there about being in a position that you're happy, I think that that's like that's the goal. I'm not saying that because we feel like we're happy with where we're at now, that we will just stay there, but like being in a position with you're happy with how big you are, how strong you are and how lean you are, is, is the the ultimate goal? Like that's, that's where we want to be, um, not to say that we'll just sack it off and just maintain that. And to your point of the times where you just don't want to do it, I think being able to be consistent with that through those times is the most challenging piece, like on the days you know, the days, weeks, months that works busy and it takes a priority, or family life or whatever it might be um, I said this quite openly a couple of times, not last year.
Speaker 1:The year before, like I had such a huge focus on growing the business and we had californ, everything that we were doing that I just neglected myself and the progress that I made, and I would imagine that I didn't make much progress across the year, but I still stay consistent of getting at least three lifts in across the week, doing maybe some cardio at some point. I still ate well, because that's how I eat now, because I've done it for so long. So I potentially didn't push forward in terms of the progress that I made that year, but I still maintained the habit. So that when it came to the start of last year and I recognized that and I was like, okay, I need to push things a little bit further. I wasn't like trying to reinstall the whole program like from scratch. It was like, right, okay, I just need to refine a couple of things and not eat this way and make sure that I prioritize my lifts and other bits and pieces.
Speaker 1:And it was quite easy to to get back into it and, I think, having an understanding of if you, if you zoom right out at the time that you're going to be doing it whether it's 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 years of you lift not everybody can see man, of you lifting like there are going to be times where you can push it in terms of maybe life's not as busy or your, your mind's just in a little bit more, and there's times you're gonna have to pull back on what you're doing.
Speaker 1:And this is what I deal with with clients on a regular basis.
Speaker 1:It's like they come in and, you know, for the first three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten months they're like, oh my god, like I'm making so much progress, like it's good, and then the shit hits the fan because there's some crazy thing at work and they need to fucking stay up all night doing the stuff and I'm like, right, well, these are the habits that I want you to maintain, because whenever the time comes back to push the things a little bit forward, I want to make sure that you're still in the habit of doing the things and it's just a refinement thing more than anything else.
Speaker 1:So being able to stay consistent, I would tell you this discipline is the thing that you need to do at the start to get yourself into the habits Like you're not going to want to do it, it's going to suck, you're going to not like the gym, you're going to not like the foods you eat, you're going to miss certain things, feel like you're missing out. But when you establish the habits and behaviors, that's whenever you need consistency. You need consistency to stay on those things. Whenever life becomes a bit of a shit show, you have the discipline to do this stuff and you've proved that you've been able to do it. But keeping it consistent and sort of weathering the storm of whatever's going on in your life is where it becomes a real challenge. And know that right now the stuff that you do may not pay off immediately and you may not see the progress that you want, but maintaining that habit and behavior future. You will thank you whenever it's time to push again and it's time to sort of see those results once again.
Speaker 2:I also think one thing that was instrumental for you, as it is for me, is not just ourselves in the discipline, but the community that we surround ourselves with, and what gets me excited and what keeps me motivated is like response back from, like validation from folks of, hey, I'm doing a great job, or I'm an inspiration, or you know, you were able to change, you know me for the better because of of the things that you do. And, and that, to me, the community aspect of of surrounding yourself with positive people and that's, you know, ddp's MO2, I was actually in the car with him talking about it and we got into this discussion about I was actually in the car with him talking about it and we got into this discussion about how he doesn't have time for negative people in his life and he just cuts it out. He doesn't have time for it, and it's the same thing for me. It's like my life philosophy, right there is if somebody is super negative and is draining me down, I don't spend the time on them, because it drains me, depletes my battery as well. But folks that are motivating, people that are happy to see my progress or I'm happy to see their progress, I give them kudos. I'm like dude, that was an epic lift.
Speaker 2:I got a text yesterday from somebody saying dude, congratulations on the six plates. I'm at four. I'm looking to move up. I'm like dude, you got this. It's just the validation back and forth. That I think is really important, and I'll share with you a message I got yesterday from somebody on Facebook. I've never talked to this person publicly before, but he said Hi, dave, how are you? I wasn't kidding when I said you are my inspiration. So Cyber made me overweight, laughing, and now have type 2 diabetes. So it was a wake-up call. I started doing intermittent fasting and keto and after a month I lost 15 pounds and I feel lighter. I hope in the future I see my abs again. Keep at it, dave. You continue to inspire me, and I know others as well.
Speaker 2:If you're ever in Atlanta, protein shake on me, and that was just a random shout out from somebody, but it made my day too. It's like, hey, because we're doing this thing with Hacking your Health, because I'm sharing my progress, my struggles, my things that I learned throughout this whole thing, which I feel like I'm learning something new every day. It's motivating other people which then thus motivates me. And if you look at over probably the past three months, I probably haven't posted many videos of me lifting or me doing everything Because again, I was going through the cycles.
Speaker 2:But now I'm motivated to post pictures and have fun with it and do stupid things and get goofy with it again, and it's that continual motivation from others, that energy from others that is very motivating to that discipline, to that consistency and everything else that we're doing there. So I think you might go through these cycles but if you have a great support system, they may help you through those troubling times that you're having. Or if you've stopped and need to start back up again, you're able to go and do it again with that support system. I think that's super, super important as that community aspect.
Speaker 1:For sure and I think that, for for people who are listening and maybe sitting on the sort of in the shadows and like, just like absorbing the information and seeing all the stuff on on Twitter, like I would push you to share your successes. It doesn't need to be specific in terms of like before and after photos or lifts or whatever, but just like share that you're on the journey, because if you think about even if you think about when you started posting about it and the impact that that had on potentially hundreds of or thousands of people along the way, and the impact that those people had on the people around them, like it's not a number that we will ever be able to work out or quantify. Um, even if I, if I think about thomas and jen specifically, like they came to me maybe just over two years ago, um and I were in a position that both of them are coaching and jen's texting me about the clients that she's working with and the progress that they're making and it's it's fun for me to see her see what actually happens whenever you're a coach and you have that impact on someone's life and it just came from the fact of her doing the stuff for her and her posting about her doing the stuff, not like a oh you need to do this, you need to do that, it's just like. This is where I have come from, this is what I have done and this is where I am at now and just showing that on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 1:And I remember actually specifically, um, you remember louise that was one of the plants um, I remember having a conversation with her specifically and I can't remember how it came about, but she basically said that the reason that she picked me, uh, to coach her was that I was the opposite of her in terms of the consistency that I was doing in the nutrition and whatever else, and that was just a case of me like showing on instagram my training or showing on instagram my, my nutrition.
Speaker 1:So, yes, okay, well, I have that sort of coaching hat on, like people are watching in terms of the progress you're making, and I'll shout out Jeff one more time.
Speaker 1:Um, from the program and him sort of he is probably the most consistent posting with the we have health hashtag. Uh, a couple of people, whenever I was chatting them about moving from the program in the end game, they were like I need to be more like jeff and that's just like showing him showing up every single day and posting his workouts and posting the hashtag and sort of pushing his, his progress, and so you, you never know who's watching, you never know, like, when someone needs to see that message or when someone needs to have that just moment of like, fuck it right. I've seen this person post fucking 700 times. It's time for me to take action and the impact that that will have on them and then, potentially, impact that will have on the people around them, their family and the quality of life of everybody around them, like it's it's absolutely endless in terms of of the impact that it could have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and you know, I think when I look at at my, I reflect back on some of the key changes. For me. That was, I would say, catalysts for where I'm at today. Obviously, finding Ben Canning was the number one catalyst. You reached out to me. No, I reached out to you. We reached out to each other. We reached out to each other. The cosmos sent a signal and all the stars aligned and I finally but I always go back and reflect on that, because I was looking at what's the?
Speaker 2:There's a piece of technology that you breathe into and it tells you whether or not you're fasting or not. I can't remember the name of it. It was like Zoom or something like that. I can't remember the name of it. Anyways, that had popped in my feeds and it like, hey, you want to lose weight? You know we have this whole training program online where you just breathe into this thing and it tells you whether or not you're in a ketosis state, or you know you need to eat food or whatever. And and I was like, well, maybe that's what I need to do, um, to lose weight. And then I'm like, well, you know, I've tried all these things before. You know, I've tried all these things before. I've tried all these technologies. I've tried all of these fads, whether it's keto or whatever. I'm not saying they're fads. Again, if those things fit with your lifestyle, they're fantastic as a tool.
Speaker 2:But I was like I really want to find something different. I want to find a community. I want to find somebody that can understand me personally and I almost needed a concierge doctor for working out and mentality, mindset and everything else. And for me, I look back at the mindset aspect and I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Or hypertrophy, or rep ranges or anything like that, or progressive overload, or creatine or protein. I thought, hey, if I take creatine and protein, I'm gonna be good, I'm gonna gain some weight here and we're gonna be amazing. Right, I get the physique I wanted to. And uh, if I just eat salads every day um, which I was miserable with, let me tell you this I'd get to the desired results. And finding a community and finding somebody that understood me and my challenges. But I think the knowledge aspect for me We've talked about this before, but when I go all in on something, I go all in on something.
Speaker 2:But for me, this was my last ditch effort. I'm going all in on something when it came to my health and my fitness, because I tried so many things before, so this had failed me. I would. If you had failed me, let me just put this in this way. You know I would be probably very unhealthy, probably drinking quite often, not not from like an alcoholic state perspective, but just like you know, drinking more often than I probably should and, you know, eating more food than I should and being obese again and, uh, you know, having health issues and thing that that's how it is like, just accepting the way it is, because that's the way it's always something the way it is and there's no way I'd be, you know, getting a 25 wind streak at cemetery winds and airsoft uh or running on a treadmill, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I got a treadmill breaking tread breaking treadmills.
Speaker 2:And you know and it's just funny because you know like when I go to Orange Theory, I'm definitely like by far the strongest person there and I'm probably one of the oldest people there, right? And today, you know, the workout routine was you had to take the TRX bands and you had to do chest presses with them, right? No, so the band of things in your chest press, which is a great exercise, but it's not enough weight for me. I would have to do like 50 reps to get to the point to where I hit failure on that. So I go and I grabbed the eighties you know, which is the max weight that they have there and I was repping out eighties and then the instructor comes to me. She's like, ah, just some measly eighties, huh, you know? And I'm like yep, yep, it's lightweight baby, you know. And and uh, I didn't say lightweight baby, cause Aaron would have gotten mad at me, but I was like, you know, I just said, hey, that's lightweight.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, and I'm just repping out eighties, cranking them out and, uh, you know, doing deadlifts with the eighties legs, and so I'm doing this circuit routine and I never would have thought that I would have been one of the strongest people there or at the gym or what I'm doing. There's always stronger people, there's always, and everybody's in different positions. I'm not saying I need to be the strongest person, but I'm proud of that because of how much effort and work and consistency and discipline and mindset that had to go into getting to the specific spot. And and I know this isn't the end of me I was actually talking to dom yesterday and uh, dom's much stronger than I am. Uh, I hate to admit that, but he is much stronger than I am. You know, he's probably at like a 685 deadlift he does like two reps and then sits.
Speaker 1:He's all about the powerlifting.
Speaker 2:But he gave me a compliment. So Dom's probably 28, something like that, 27-28 years old. I don't know his exact age, but he's in his 20s. So he's in a great condition as far as age wise. And he said to me I'm like Dom, I feel like if I were to really focus and do it, I feel like I could beat you. And he's like Dave, he, dave, if you just focused on powerlifting for six months, I absolutely think you could beat me. And I was like that's cool. Thanks, man, I appreciate that. It probably wouldn't happen, but I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2:But he's at the 1,600-pound club. I'm'm at the 1400 pound club, um and so. But 200 pounds really isn't that much to pick up a difference. You know like I think I could get there if I really trained that way, if that's what I wanted to do, right. But again, I digress in that. But I I'm going back to the whole, the whole circle of life here, piece, the kick-starting it and doing it and going all in. And and I want to emphasize when I say going all in, it wasn't I had to work out seven days a week and completely murder myself. It was inching my way in, but going all in on learning how to do it the most effective way that I could sustain for the rest of my life and I think the big thing that we have to focus on in mindset is that you're not going to learn my son, mason. He's really interested in picking up Python programming and I sat down after his great conversation in the car and this is one thing I will say too.
Speaker 2:This is a teary-eyed moment for me. That happened yesterday. So I was driving back from Airsoft and I was listening to some 90s music. Was fairly quiet in the car. I was tired as hell. I'm driving back and you're sitting or cruising getting home it's about a 20 minute drive from airsoft and mason comes down and says dad, I don't know if I tell you this enough, but I'm so proud of you and I'm so proud that you're my dad and I was like whoa dude, like where, the first of all, where?
Speaker 1:did that come from and and?
Speaker 2:and and yeah, I was like and I started getting a little teary eyed, I'm like I didn't know how to respond to it. But then I also wanted to take a moment to like to take a step back and like, like, look at that moment and say this is a great moment. Like you know, I put everything into myself, I put everything in my businesses and they have my kid come up to me and be like I'm so proud of you. And then he says when someone comes to me and says, what does my dad do, or what does your dad do? Well, he deadlifts 600 pounds. He's 42. He owns multiple large cybersecurity companies. He's on the news all the time. He's best friends with DDP. He's like there's no other dad. That's like you. You realize that he's like the Lord dad is like you. And I was like appreciate that, buddy, you know. But anyways, so he now, now, now Mason. Then we start, you know, like having a good conversation and he's like dad, I really want to pick up Python programming. So we spent the next 15 minutes just basically talking about Python programming and giving him an understanding of like hey, it's like a book, this is how modules work, this is how variables work and things like that. And he sent me a text message today and he's like hey, I got my first application working. He's at school uh, probably spoke to me doing work, but he's now all obsessed with with programming. He's just like me, dna structure, wise, um, and. And he's like I just wrote my first application. He's like how do I change a cursor and do this? I'm like, all right, let's talk about modules. Here's what you have to do. You can install this module, do this. It's like, yeah, I got it working, so you know. But but you know he? He's like, hey, I think I'm starting to get what programming is and I just have to understand the syntax and I have to understand the language and after that I'm good. And then I, if I, if I need help, I could just go figure it out on this. I'm like that's exactly right.
Speaker 2:But the same thing happens in our fitness journey too. It's like you start off with not knowing how to do a hello world and you do your first hello world and you build on that knowledge and then now you're writing a small application that maybe automates something. Then you're building an application that does something different. Maybe you're building it to build your pen testing tools, your hacking tools. You know so.
Speaker 2:You know it's a gradual progression on how you're learning to control your appetite. You know your calories, changing your protein goals, getting to lifting regiments and feeling those muscle movements and getting that mind, muscle, body connection. You know those things take, you know, a substantial amount of time to learn. You're not going to learn them overnight, but you will learn them if you're doing it the right way. And so having that mindset of I'm starting off from scratch and I had a friend, last thing I'll do and I'll pass it back over to you I had a friend come to me and say hey, can I lift at your gym? He's like I don't want to go to a gym and be all embarrassed and not know what I'm doing. Want to go to a gym and be all embarrassed and not know what I'm doing sound familiar, by the way.
Speaker 1:Um, we're gonna do the outdoor machine, I'm gonna bring a film crew, we're gonna do a whole film crew for you buddy, I like son of a bitch, um, but uh, um, yeah, absolutely let's, let's get together.
Speaker 2:I'm like, first of all, just so you know, people at the gym all start different, different levels. No one's gonna be making fun of you or thinking that you're different, like that's just not the way it goes. And second, if they do F them, who cares? You're trying to improve yourself, who cares? But second, yeah, why don't we come over to my house and I'll teach you some regimens that we can work on and we can build from there until you're comfortable and all that good stuff. So everybody starts from a different spot.
Speaker 1:But having that mindset is one of is key. I agree. Couldn't agree more. I think that the thing about it is I specifically remember having this conversation with Martin again just to take the photos for me and we were talking about like the rim and the environment that you're in and he was like, well, why don't you just create your own? And then that's how WeHack Health was born and that's why we started the podcast. So I agree, and I think the people you surround yourself with and environment I did a big piece on this recently. Um, check us out on youtube, it's on there. Um, in terms of like, I'm fucking your productivity and environment falls into that massively. Uh, but I think the environment, the people you surround yourself with, is key and I feel grateful and privileged to have the people that I have around me. In terms of the people that I I get to work with, because on the days that I'm not the number one, but everybody else.
Speaker 2:But it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 1:I just want to make sure I throw that on the days that I'm maybe not feeling it, I can just jump into the discord and see everybody killing it and then have that sort of sense of responsibility like, well, fuck, if everybody else is, then I have to do it. Um, but just being able to be, you know, surrounded by people who are just out to better themselves and better than everybody that is around them, um, and understanding that some days you're going to go in and people are going to have a shit day and it's not going to be 100% in, and just being able to navigate that together, um, that's where the coaching side really comes in. But yeah, I agree, mindset is key. It's foundational in terms of progress and it's something that continues to need work.
Speaker 1:Like I talk about this all the time. It's not just a case of okay, right, I've unfucked my mindset, I'm good to go now, or I'm in the right mindset. Like it's something that will adapt and change over time, based on everything that's going on in your life and other bits and pieces, and something that continually needs work, and actually probably something that needs as much work as you do whenever you're on in the gym, um, because there's a lot of stuff to sort of rewire essentially whenever it comes to your thought processes on things. So a big, big piece of the puzzle, yep.
Speaker 2:Well, that was it for this week's podcast. We got pretty deep into mindset, breaking treadmills and everything else that comes along with it. But listen, if you have the right mindset, you yourself can break treadmills and rowers anytime you want to.
Speaker 1:So just remember that you can break five pieces of equipment in your local Orange Theory. You just need to stick with it long enough.
Speaker 2:Stick with it long enough when you're breaking equipment, you know you've hit a different level. So I appreciate everybody tuning in for this week's podcast. We'll be definitely hitting you up next week.
Speaker 1:I think next week we'll give a little bit of teaser, but I think we're looking at doing a uh a podcast specifically on the benefits of creatine right we're going to do a full podcast on creating, because we promised to do this a long time ago and some people remind me of this, and often so I'm glad that you've made it public now on the internet, so we have to do it next week a full podcast on creating and and I will give you some teasers on next week there's there's many more in muscle building, and we're going to get down into the nitty gritties of why creatine doesn't impact your kidney, why it's beneficial for your entire body, not just your biceps, and what you should be looking at from a loading protocol perspective, and why creatine is one of our staple supplements that we use consistently all the time.
Speaker 2:I take 500 grams of I'm just kidding I take 10 grams of protein, 10 grams of creatine a day, and we'll talk a bit about dosages and why it's important. So catch us the next week. Same time, same place, and I appreciate all y'all. And remember, keep that mindset going. If you're finding yourself in a slump, just remember.
Speaker 1:It's all in your mind, it's all in your mind, it's all in that, as DDP would say. I think he said it's the six-inch space between your ears. Between your ears is what he said Six inches of real estate.
Speaker 2:Six inches of real estate, that's right Between your ears, nice job. You remembered that I literally just saw him three days ago and you remembered it.
Speaker 1:That was last February in Phoenix. I remember him doing that. Luckily February and Phoenix. I remember him down that.
Speaker 2:And luckily I've been taking my creatine for the good cognitive benefits and I could pull up from my memory Right Whoa, whoa, don't give away everything for next week's podcast.
Speaker 1:Come on.
Speaker 2:I wasn't saying it. I wasn't saying the brain, but it's part of it.
Speaker 1:So right, thanks for listening. Check us out on. We have on all social media platforms, thank you.