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Introduction and Industry Health Concerns
00:00:15
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:00
Speaker
Hey, yeah, I'm good. Thanks mate as a nice intro. Thanks for the nice welcome. But ah yeah, so I say like like you say, I'm a funny bricklayer from the UK and I'm also passionate about looking after myself as well and yeah like you said there's it's just the same in the UK as well people don't fucking look after themselves in our industry so we're sort of I'm on like a bit of a crusade to just sort of change people's perceptions of ah the fact that you can be in construction and sort of look after yourself and try and inspire a few people along the way.
Debunking Health Statistics in Construction
00:02:12
Speaker
obviously was plum No, not at all. I wouldn't say the perception would be that bad, but I think we would perceive it's a lot worse over there than it is here. What is it in terms of stats of like what what it would be like on site um in the UK?
00:02:36
Speaker
um um wouldn't I wouldn't say it would be that high. but yeah you probably are looking at the sort of 60 to 70% range of people who ah don't look after themselves or overweight, eat terribly, don't exercise outside of work. And yeah, like you say, there's a massive notion of the fact that people go to work and that's their training and that's their exercise for the day. And that's all you need to do. And like, yeah, I really, really, really, really disagree with that. It's not enough. And, um,
00:03:09
Speaker
Yeah, just trying to get people to realize that.
Changing Perceptions of Fitness in Construction
00:03:11
Speaker
And, you know, if you work in a physical job and you're not sort of training to sort of enhance it, to me, it's absolutely baffling. Like, you know, if you look at sports, a sports person, they always train themselves physically to be better at performing in that sport. And that's the way I'm looking at it. So the fitter and stronger I am.
00:03:27
Speaker
outside of work, the better I'll be performing work. and it's crazy like It's just crazy that people don't have that perception and they think that going to work and doing what is sort of the same thing repeatedly for years and your body just doesn't get that stimulus, it needs to to do anything. so Yeah, is you're not getting that training effect. And that's why, like you say, you walk on most sites. And people do look like bags of shit. They don't look in good shape. ah But I feel like in the UK, it slowly seems to be changing. like There seems to be, like as you walk around sites now, you still got the fat fuckers. But there's people who look in shape now as well. So they kind of it is changing slightly. I don't know what it's like in the US s for that. But I feel like it is slowly something that's changing and i'm in the UK.
00:04:17
Speaker
Yes.
Personal Transformation Through Fitness
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm 32 now, so I'm in my early 30s. Yeah, no, it definitely wasn't always that way. I've always played sport since I was quite young, so I've always been sporty, athletic. Getting into my late teens, they did get caught up in sort of the era.
00:05:00
Speaker
of like drinking a lot. um I had a few injuries which meant I couldn't play sports. I did put a lot of weight on at that time so yeah it's a bit of a thing. I think back to the shape I was in at that stage it's a bit scarring for me but kind of so I did go to university
00:05:27
Speaker
and not Not quite as such, so just to kind of give you an over overview of like how it what it was. I went to, I did go to Union College, as you guys call it. um And then at uni I put on quite a bit of weight because I got injured. couldn't read well I couldn't run. I had a sort of nerve injury. I put on a shit ton of weight actually. Because obviously the culture with like college in the UK is pretty similar to the US where you're just getting pissed up all the time drinking. So it's not good for the belly i' drinking that much. So yeah, I put on quite a bit of weight.
00:06:04
Speaker
um kind of got rid of the injury and then I started to get back into the sports then and then yeah that kept that sort of the weight came back off then and then I sort of got introduced to strength conditioning whilst I was studying and that was a game changer for me in terms of sort of my physical strength and physical appearance like that sort of that really turned the tide um and then that's also why I sort of pursued career wise after that at that point um so at the time I was playing rugby so I know I know you do play a bit of rugby in the US but yeah I was playing rugby I was doing pretty well at that um so that was the focus was playing rugby study and I got myself into good shape at that point and that was probably the point that the sort of the roots of
00:06:51
Speaker
what I stand for now physically, etc, were sort of formed. So that was about 2021 at that point. And yeah, I was in great shape at that age, really. And I'm straightforward. I've never been able to get back to the levels I was at that age. So I was very, very strong at that age.
00:07:10
Speaker
um And then, yeah, so I, you know, I played rugby. I played back in the UK. I played a bit Australia as well. Um, and sort of training and was just part and parcel of my day to day. And I got into the trades a bit later on at sort of 23, 24. Um, so what, yeah, that and that sort of.
00:07:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, um yeah yeah so I was still drinking, but I would still have a drink now. I wouldn't i wouldn't pretend I don't. It was just it's just about balance um back yeah when I was very overweight, the balance was all wrong. um But once I sort of got myself back into a good level of shape,
00:08:06
Speaker
I just found, and this is like, this is a big thing to try and get at people's heads is you don't need to necessarily not do some, you know, the fun stuff, like have a drink every now and again, but it's just about balance. And I just, I've just always been good at getting the balance right ever since that point, so that I can sort of do those things, you know, every now and again, but the main focus is just looking after myself and just sort of staying at that level. I've never, um there's never been a time in my life where I've cut out having a drink or you know, um'll I'll really eat foods that people would consider not good. I'll have a takeaway or take out, you guys call it, don't you? I'll have that every now and again, but it's just like balance is is it? that he's you know that It's not an everyday occurrence. It's not necessarily in every week, even every month. It's just something that we'll do every now and again. But yeah, it's all about balance. And I just got the balance right after that ever since really. um And like if, you know, sometimes
00:09:01
Speaker
from that point to now I would have got maybe a bit bigger in size and then for I need to lean down a bit and then I'll just sort of just take take it as it comes with that sort of you know approach and I'll sometimes I'll bulk up a bit or or cut down it kind of just depends on where life's going at that point and how I'm feeling I don't put too much pressure on it um
00:09:34
Speaker
Yeah yeah yeah.
00:09:38
Speaker
yeah
00:09:51
Speaker
So I guess for that answer with me it's a bit unique because I'd have to go back to my family of all but all bricklayers that that Done
From Academia to Construction: A Career Journey
00:10:00
Speaker
it my whole life. My dad's a bricklayer. Got uncles who are bricklayers. And I kind of grew up not wanting to do it. I was like, I'm not going to be a fucking bricklayer. And that's why I went sort of, I did initially go down the academic route.
00:10:13
Speaker
um And in the UK, when you're at school, you do heavily get pushed to going to uni. you like The trade route is never really an option that you get put in front of you. So it was always like, you know you do you're doing quite well in school, so let's go to uni, let's go and do that. And that's sort of the road that I ah followed up into that point. And then I kind of, ah that early in the early 20s, I was like, I did all the studying, got a degree, and come out, and I was like,
00:10:43
Speaker
You know what, it was kind of like what's next because the options weren't there that you thought were there. um And then I just kind of just made this decision. I was at the right, I don't know what, I can't remember what made me want to take that decision, but I was like, right, you know, I'm just going to go be in Brooklyn. I'm just going to join the trade on the different mentality now at this point in my life.
00:11:05
Speaker
um I've done a lot of other cool things especially with rugby and traveling and stuff like that so I was like i said I'm just ready to do this now and I kind of went in headfirst but you know I'd start at the bottom as an apprentice it wasn't like you know I went in and was just straight as a bricklayer and I was just in as an apprentice. I learned pretty quick
00:11:28
Speaker
No, no, no, not no really. this is When they're on a lot of my content, when the guys from the US comment on it, I always get comments about unions and stuff like that. And I have no clue what they're talking about, because we don't have things like that here. We don't have that sort of like protection. And for most people like that we work with, everyone's self-employed, so you don't get that sort of protection as like you would and if you were employed or that sort of thing by a company. Everyone's self-employed, so we all
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's just, yeah, so I worked with, for my dad, basically for my dad's company, my mum does the finances, my brother works for us as well. So yeah, that's what that's what I've been doing for the last what what we are not eight eight or nine years now.
00:12:19
Speaker
um So what i what I do is obviously I'm um ah um a bricklayer, I'm laying as well, but I run as a working foreman, I run the sites that I'm working on as well. So that's sort of where why I why am with that at the minute.
00:12:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:12:50
Speaker
um every day Every day, my job is is to build and it's to run. so It's pretty full on. I'm having to think about a lot. you know We've got quite a few people working on our job as well in terms of like the masonry side. so but yeah It's about running sort of the job on behalf of the company for the yeah the the main contractor of the job, making sure it's smooth, but then I'm also building as well within my own crew.
00:13:19
Speaker
um At any one point, you we've had up to 30 people on the job just for us, for our company. There's a lot of lot of bodies to sort of manage. You're basically working with the contractor to sort of navigate the routes and make sure all the yeah all the sort of standard stuff like materials, etc., and create plans and just put people
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah
00:14:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
Understanding UK Apprenticeship and Earnings
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah. you I don't think, I don't have any, yeah, yeah umve I've been running and say this the job I'm on now, for example, I've been running it for years and I know the job inside out and no one could run it better than me. I mean, I do believe that you know a physical stature is important when you are trying to you lead and it does help whether it's a conscious or subconscious thing with people you're working with. I just think, I think, you know, if my dad always told me to, you know, shoulders back, chest out and whatever you're doing, you know, and and if you physically got the stats behind you, I do think it makes a difference. You know, there's certainly times where it it will make no difference and you're sitting opposite someone on a table with a suit on who, you know, it's irrelevant to how big your biceps are, you know, they're
00:15:14
Speaker
they're talking finances and you know that that that's not going to save you in that situation. But out there, you know on we on the tours with the rest of the lads, if you're physically out there as well as any sort of aspect of society or normal life, you know it does help to be in shape, no doubt.
00:15:33
Speaker
um
00:15:35
Speaker
picture
00:15:47
Speaker
yeah
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:16:34
Speaker
but scar
00:16:37
Speaker
You're going to be on minimum wage, um which is lies. It depends on your age bracket, basically, over here now. but if as a being bit ah Being a bit older, you would earn more than, say, a 16-year-old. But if you come in as a 16-year-old, which is what most apprentices would do over here, well, maybe 18, not a lot of people. Basically, in the UK, most people will finish like the first part of school at 16, and then you would go on to the further education till 18. So most people
00:17:08
Speaker
though' They're going to come in at 16. They're not really going to come in at 18 because if you're going to stay in school for the extra two years that are not compulsory, you're going to go and do something academic or something different like that. so most and Then you look you're only looking at maybe 50 to 60 pound a day. um and I'm not going to try and convert that to dollars for you quickly, but it's it's not it's not a lot. It's minimum wage um and you're going to have to be on
00:17:39
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah so it you know it's not a lot. But what I try and say to my apprentices that come in is that, because you know they all love to moan about how little they earn. And I have to hear it every week. And I'm just saying, look, you're 16 years old. You still live at home with your parents. And you you get your earning money. You're already earning money.
00:18:01
Speaker
And you're also learning a ah skill that's going to pay you very well at some point. Right now, it doesn't seem great. But just remember that your friends who are still in school, they're not earning, they are going to end up in debt because most of them will go to university and end up in massive amounts of debt. So you're not you're not acquiring any debt right now. You're just building, you're building, you are building a pot of money slowly.
00:18:25
Speaker
um And you're also learning in a very valuable skill that will inevitably just keep helping you in the future. And that's what I try and like get into the heads. And that's kind of the mentality I had at the start was like, yeah, it's just a bit of shit now. um Yeah, I'm doing work that I don't really want to do. But ultimately, you can see the end going in terms of what you say about like, ah what and a bricklayer ends in the UK. I mean, ah you know, a good bricklayer should be earning It ranges based on where you are in the country, but yeah a good but let's say let's just say an average to good bricklayer should be out in between.
00:19:00
Speaker
50 to 60K. And then yeah the good you know the the good ones, you're earning 70 to, it could be at 90. And that's just as working as just a self-employed bricklayer. It's not even your company as such. like You can work, you can subby out to someone out who owns a company, work for them on sites.
Addressing the Bricklaying Skill Shortage
00:19:21
Speaker
And that's the kind of money you can be earning. So you it's it is it's good.
00:19:35
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah, you just you just.
00:19:50
Speaker
yeah
00:19:58
Speaker
Yeah. so we wait I always say to the apprentices, like you know obviously when you're trying to give them that little bit of motivation is that you're working towards a job that in the UK puts you, your earnings puts you in the top 10% of earners. Because that's that's what it does. so If you're earning, if you're path decent, you are and you're in a top 10% earner. And you know that that's the kind of so also there's a message that I try and pump out on my socials a bit. and Because cause When I put out the funny videos, the reactions I get from people who aren't in our industry are always like, he's on minimum wage. What does he know? I always just sit there and laugh and read and I'm thinking, you just don't have a clue. You just don't have a clue. I'm not on minimum wage, I'm far from it.
00:20:55
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah.
00:21:11
Speaker
yeah
00:21:20
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of,
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah firstly, that yeah it it also depends on where where you are in the country. Some parts of the country love block work and have rendered buildings everywhere, some like Brit work more.
00:21:36
Speaker
um where I sort of live in the southwest, there's brick everywhere. We travel around a lot to different cities as well for work because it's not necessarily always local. So different cities and different regions have different styles and you can drive places and see the sort of difference and how we're building stuff. Sorry, what was the second question you asked? I can't remember what it was now.
00:22:09
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah, so so it depends where you are.
00:22:17
Speaker
search like correct
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, yeah. There there is so there is at it's kind of at we've gone through a couple of different stages where. A couple of years ago, you couldn't find a brick letter. You just couldn't find them. that you You were looking for them, the work was there, and you couldn't find them. There's definitely um a skill shortage in the industry. and i know I know that I've seen one of your videos where you talked about this, about like the shortage and how many people are going out to what are coming in. I've i've seen that video.
00:22:51
Speaker
ah it's it's um yeah It's a massive fake problem for us is that they're just not bringing the volume of people through that needs I think there's something like the average age in the UK It's like between 50 to 55. It's pretty old um So, you know and there's not enough people coming out of school wanting to be a bricklayer So there is I mean, it's not quite we're not quite yet, but in this sort of next 10 to 15 years I think we're gonna see big problems in terms of there's just going to be not enough people. Because yeah the UK just wants to build this. There's millions of houses that have got to be built. yeah Obviously, all the commercial projects, there's so much work that needs to be done. There's just not enough people that are going to come through. and But on the on the other hand, at the minute, because in the UK, we're sort of bored, we've boarded on like a recession over the last year.
00:23:46
Speaker
um people have been sort of, the phone lines have been going just crazy. because People were just ringing up, trying to find work. And there is a shortage, of there's now a shortage of work for people. So we've kind of gone through two different stages. We're in quite a short period of time. um But yeah, I know people who are working for us and they've had to go and be like an Amazon driver. um So, you know, we were at a point earlier this year where we were just happy that we were just still working, you know, that we still had the trials on our hand.
00:24:17
Speaker
it was very like It wasn't as smooth and as much demand as we'd liked on the site. It got quite slow and stuttery, but you know we were just happy that we were still there going. We knew that it would you if we just needed to grind that sort of period out. and Now it is starting to pick up a little bit, which is good. so of The economy sort of stabilized a little bit. um so
00:24:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think like... Yeah, yeah, definitely. but You know, you the good people are the ones that will ride through it and they'll come out and they'll they'll sort of be okay at the end. So it's just sort of like, you know,
00:25:15
Speaker
ah It's just the way I always like look at anything is whether you're a bricklayer or you're doing whatever, if you're going to do something, just be is literally the best you could possibly be at it. Well, whenever it comes to gym or whatever whatever it is you you're doing, just try and be the best at it that you could possibly be. um And you won't go far wrong, I don't think.
00:25:40
Speaker
yeah
00:25:52
Speaker
yeah
00:26:08
Speaker
so yeah yeah So I always train after work and I know a lot of people struggle with that.
Balancing Work and Fitness Routines
00:26:14
Speaker
um It just suits me and I'm used to it. i know It doesn't bother me. But one like rule I have is that I always go straight from work. I'll never take myself home because know wherever no matter how much I love the gym and I'm addicted to it,
00:26:29
Speaker
if even like someone like me if I go home and give myself that little opportunity after a long day just to sit down for five minutes that that's quickly when things you know you don't go you just take you guys it's comfortable so I just kind of create that routine where it's a non-negotiable I go straight from work I have my food on the way home just to make sure that I've got some energy make sure I'm hydrated and I'm going straight there so that and that's it I get the work done straight straight after after work yeah I have had periods where I've trained before and it just didn't personally work for me very well. I didn't feel like um my body had woken up enough by the time I'd gone in, so I didn't actually used to lift as much weight as I did after work. I felt like I know the system was asleep still and so I just didn't like like it, but I know a lot of guys who do and it works for them and that's great, but I think it's just about finding what works for you and what you can sort of, it fits in with your lifestyle.
00:27:26
Speaker
and And whilst I do have a set program and I follow, I'm actually one thing that does help me, which people might surprise, is being quite flexible with it in that things pop up in life and you can't, you know,
00:27:38
Speaker
ideally in an ideal world, like a Monday, Tuesday, a rest Wednesday, and I'll go in Thursday, Friday, because I like to give myself a weekend off. I like to just have a weekend clear, so that I can enjoy family time, me time, because we're working very hard in the week, physically, you know, by going to the gym, I go to work. So that sort of, but if, if someone pops up and I have to move sessions around or whatever, I just give myself the flexibility, as long as in the seven days of that week, I get those sessions in,
00:28:08
Speaker
And just having that flexibility works for me. I think some people can be too rigid as such because when something goes wrong or something pops up, they don't they can't adapt very well and then everything just falls apart. And then that's when people like fall off the wagon with their diet and stuff like that. You know, they might have one bad meal and then their week will fall apart and they've ruined all the progress or they missed that gym session and then they just, you know, it affects their mentality so much it can just ruin their whole week.
00:28:37
Speaker
in terms of keeping the gym and that people fall off the gym and it's just about when you've been doing it for as long as the hard view learns just to be flexible with it. I don't train around.
00:28:51
Speaker
so I've got one on the way. She's due in December. My partner's got i a couple of kids as well but from a previous marriage. I've had ah i've got a minor introduction to like managing that sort of life lifestyle with it, which yeah it it brings a a lot of challenges. but um I still think that, you know, I know people with kids who will be like, there's no chance I could ever train. The kids keep you too busy. And on the flip side, there's people who will train and they'll make it a non-negotiable. And that, you know, it's it's kind of to me and it's how I want to look at myself is when I'm going to become a parent is, you know, what kind of role model am I going to be? um You know, that that's that's what i bre I'd say to people who are parents who
00:29:42
Speaker
struggle to find the time to go to the gym is like just think about yeah what your kids are seeing and the type of role model you'd like to be. so but you know it's about if if If you go from someone you can't, you train not at all, an hour a week is better than zero. Two hours a week is better than zero. It's just about finding something and doing something, even if it's just half an hour when you can at home doing homework hours, even if it's going outside for a 20-minute run, it's just about sort of finding something. There's always something you can do. um There's always enough time. There is there is just enough time to do all those things. So people who have got a chance to just
00:30:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks.
00:30:59
Speaker
thanks
00:31:08
Speaker
It's.
00:31:38
Speaker
yeah
00:31:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:21
Speaker
like
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah, i all I generally have is I'll have a protein bar and I'll just have an energy drink, like a zero sugar energy drink just to get some caffeine in and that that's it. And that's that's just, it just works. I don't want to eat too much before I start exercising. don't i like lot I don't actually like to eat too much during the day in general, because as soon as you start eating anything heavy, especially when you you know all the your bloods go into the places you don't want it to be, it's going away from all your muscles and your tissues to you know your gut so it it can start digesting. So if I'm doing anything physical, I want all my blood and all my energy to be
00:33:08
Speaker
at the muscles where I need them so I don't actually eat too much during the day and then I kind of I'll make up for it in the evening with sort of getting the calories in but just before gym yeah I just I just have an energy drink with some caffeine it's quite high in caffeine um and and a protein bar something that's just easy to eat um not too many calories and that's sort of enough to get me by I don't really take much in terms of supplementation and I never really have or I'll have creatine um and some way and that that is literally it. I've never really sort of complicated it too much. I like to get most of the stuff in.
Nutritional Habits for Training
00:33:47
Speaker
people
00:34:02
Speaker
yeah
00:34:16
Speaker
yeah
00:34:21
Speaker
Yes, so like during during the week, like it's a lot more set than it would be set a weekend. But I don't eat breakfast for starters, which some people might find crazy. i don't So I can't eat that early in the morning.
00:34:35
Speaker
But, i you know, I get up, I go and walk with dogs, and I've got to leave the house by half six in the morning. and So it's just too much to do. I'm not particularly hungry at that point. And my body feels quite good after sort of fasting for that period. And I'll have my first meal at 11 when we'll stop. And then i I'll eat the same same thing. Yeah, so it's quite, I sort of but always tend to have like a 14, 15 hour fast from the evening before.
00:35:02
Speaker
And I just, I feel better. I don't feel sluggish doing that. And to get to that point was just something that I played around with. We've been quite open to sort of experimenting with different ways of like eating and basically I've done the whole week every two hours, but in our job, that's difficult and I can't really, you know, I can't be doing that. And you know, so that didn't work, but yeah, so.
00:35:28
Speaker
Like I said, I don't really like to eat too much during the day anyway. But I had my first meal at 11 and i've like I've eaten the same meal for about six years and I just have an apple banana and four or five chicken thighs, cooked chicken thighs, warm them up. And that that's what I eat for my first meal.
00:35:53
Speaker
Yeah. with
00:36:05
Speaker
yeah
00:36:28
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:33
Speaker
and
00:36:37
Speaker
Yes.
00:36:40
Speaker
um six yeah maybe a little bit more maybe more sort of 230 to 240 that would be sort of my target yeah yeah no that's so that that'll be it and then just get my get the fluids on um uh you know that'll be it and like i said then i'll go through to the end of the day work the working day um and I'll have that sort of protein bar with the just the energy drink. I'll go to the gym and and then I'll come home and by that point, I'll be absolutely ratherness then. That's when the sort of hunger will hit and my body is like nutrients, calories, protein, get it in. so And I'm not really, in the evenings, it's it's definitely not something that is really rigid and what I eat. I just eat meals that are A, home cooked,
00:37:31
Speaker
um try and eat as much home-cooked meals as possible and they're all sort of single ingredient foods so there's nothing processed in it there's nothing overly complicated the food that you put in there is the food that it says it is um and just sort of bad whole foods protein is the sort of the main nature and i'm focused on in every meal like it's got to be high and dense in every meal and then i'll sort of have a carb source with it and that can vary from just rice to pasta um you know
00:38:02
Speaker
and had some um too fair the one The one weakness I do have thought in my diet is the fact that I'm not very keen on vegetables, so I probably don't eat enough of that if there is one weakness, but I will try and use like a so ah vitamin or something to like make up for that. um So, yeah, and then I'll sort of after that later in the evening, I'll make like my favorite, one of my favorite snacks is like a Greek yogurt protein, whey protein, some dark chocolate, brute blueberries, and just mix that all in. And that is just like a solid sort of snack, snacky meal that I would call it. They would just keep that hunger away until until the next day and do it all again. I will be more flexible weekends. You know, I sort of might, i eat I'll eat differently, but like the principles are all there.
00:38:48
Speaker
um i don't necessarily count calories um i would only count calories if i was trying to really cut properly um and right now at this stage in my life that i'm not really interested in doing that um because it's not really you look great but you feel like shit so um i'm just kind of i'm happy yeah i'm just happy like of where i am physically able to perform i feel good in the gym um and you know I'm not so I don't really necessarily count calories I just I'm just checking every now and again to make sure that sort of the foods I'm eating repeatedly I'm making sure that I'm hitting that protein that I want because obviously if you're training sort of strength training or hypertrophy work in the gym if you're not eating your protein like you're just you are leaving so much on the table so that's sort of the main one that I would focus on uh with the train just making sure the protein's there I know
00:39:41
Speaker
I know that as long as I'm covering sort of the the different foods that I need, that I'm going to get them the micronutrient intake I need. um And that's so yeah like I said earlier, I try and get all of the nutrients I need in for food. So don't really not massively keen on taking too many tablets and stuff like that. and I would recommend that everyone focuses on diet first before trying to stack in a load of supplements. so Yeah,
00:40:06
Speaker
it's but yeah exactly.
00:40:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:16
Speaker
yeah Yeah.
00:41:23
Speaker
um place and
00:41:33
Speaker
yeah
00:42:00
Speaker
Yeah, um I have taken, you did used to take a a zinc and magnesium supplement before bed. I'm not at the minute, but it's definitely something that um does help with sleep.
The Role of Sleep in Fitness
00:42:10
Speaker
But yeah, sleep is is huge. And it's something you see on on site so much people would just who are just to literally functioning off such minimal sleep and it's um If you try and take your training seriously and you're not sleeping well, it's one of the first points you need to be looking at is why am I not sleeping well? Because that's when it's when all the magic's done, really, in terms of but when you know the growth that you want if you're putting time into the gym and training. it's all It all happens when you're asleep. So umve I've never really, i'm not I've been lucky in the sense that I've never really had an issue of sleep.
00:42:47
Speaker
um I get to sleep very well. I sleep well when I'm asleep and it's very rarely, very rare that I have a disturbed sleep. um I mean, I do so much physically that, you know, I just, find you know by late evening, i'm I'm just done. I just need to bed and I'm just, I'm just, in my head, like you know, i' I'm just gone.
00:43:07
Speaker
um I'm up and um ah um um'm up early as well, so by the time I've woken up and through to that evening, yeah I've been awake quite a long time. Obviously, everyone always wants you know the buzz eight to nine hours. Do I always get that? No, but the quality is pretty good on the whole. Sometimes, you know like you say, you've you've got kids and life just doesn't enable you just to be out of sleep for eight, nine hours, you know things to do. But ah just as long as I know that
00:43:38
Speaker
I know that my sleep quality is good. I know that i know the effects of saying for example if you've had a weekend of drinking or anything like that and that's the only time I will not sleep very well and I can always feel the aftermath of that in the gym the following week. i just like it's just The weights just don't move as well and that's when you really notice what are the effects of like the dehydration and the lack of sleep and that's when you realize how ah much sleep light is powerful to your performance is when you had a weekend and not a lot of it and then you go and try to do the same thing that you did last week on a weekend, a good sleep or whatever and that's when you realize how important it is for your performance. so
00:44:19
Speaker
but yeah it's so
00:44:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:45
Speaker
yeah
00:44:55
Speaker
Well, i guess ah so um ah if I ever drink before work, I mean, I wouldn't do it because I know how ineffective I'll be the next day. um And in a job where um that's earning me my income is my performance that day, I don't really tend to mess around with it too much with, you know, I would ah ah could probably count on one hand as I've been doing it how many times I would actually drank a night before getting gone to work. I just, it's,
00:45:23
Speaker
I know that it's just going to impair everything that following day. I'm just going to be, you know, sort of ghosting through the day trying to get survive. And to be honest, I don't know how some people do it. I don't really, you know, it's one of those things I do wonder sometimes it's how people, you know, function the next day and they do manage to do it somehow. But I think people get so used to they get so used to just drinking the night before and they'll you know they'll have a few drinks and think it's not and they get so used to how their body feels that they don't realize how like poorly that everything's sort of running until maybe they take a bit of time off and then they feel better and then they start to work starts to become a lot easier and but yeah there's no way you know you will get people on sites who will argue like yeah it's fine I get like i can get through it I can get away with it and
00:46:12
Speaker
It's just no way that the human body will not function as well, especially doing anything physical like we do. Well, you know, if you're drinking the night before and and drinking a lot or, yeah, like you say, you know, every now and again, you will have a weekend with, you know, with friends and that. And, you know, I'm at a point now where I'm not feeling great for a half a week after I'm still feeling a bit of rope on a Wednesday. And die i swear that's where I'm at now. So, yeah.
00:46:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:30
Speaker
That's the best.
00:47:35
Speaker
Right.
Lifestyle Changes for Long-term Health
00:48:02
Speaker
Well, I think one of the best things I ever got taught when dealing with anything like this is, you know, deal with the elephant in the room first and leave the mice till after. um So look at look at the obvious things. that and And most of the time, the things that are holding people back are obvious. You know, like you say, it's the drinking daily after work. um You know, it's like cutting it's just start it's it's small steps. um A lot of people try to change everything in one go.
00:48:29
Speaker
and when someone's built those habits over a long time, like and then you just try and rip them all out and you just try and start fresh. its But it's ah that's a big step to make. And when someone's, and it's over, people ingrain these habits and over a long period of time, don't they? So yeah if you get to that point where you spend years doing something, you know it can take Maybe not as long, but it's not gonna the rebuild isn't going to happen quick. So you start off with small things and it's just cutting alcohol out. Looking at what you're eating in terms of, I wouldn't say change your diet 100% through the week and just go from what you're eating before to something completely different. It'll just be about slowly removing things.
00:49:09
Speaker
slowly and then introducing better habits in terms of food and what you're eating and just to take your time with it. And like I said earlier, if you if you don't go to the gym or you don't exercise or you're not doing any sort of anything outdoors and start to start small, whether it's, you know, it starts to go from one or two walks a week outside of work, you start maybe one gym session a week and just slowly start building it so that you start you're able to like sustainably do it. It's all about being sustainable with it. um if you can't do If it's something you're not going to do in a year's time, you need to look at why. um For most people, they just go how to lever, they go from nothing to training, trying to go to the gym three or four times a week, training like a hero, and they'll change the whole diet and inevitably
00:49:56
Speaker
People would end up just crashing and then they they fall off. You see it. You see it all the time and people you start and stop these things and the yo-yo diet in all the time and they're going to the gym for a period and they're not it's just about slowly sort of building habits that you're going to be able to do in a year's time and you could be able to build on for the next year and you i I've been training since I was 16, so you know I'm looking at half my lifetime of training in sport. It's not something that has happened overnight. and I've made mistakes doing it and things that I wouldn't do, and you know but a lot of things that have taken a long time to build. so and Most people aren't prepared to strap in for this sort of thing.
00:50:37
Speaker
um they want it that Everyone wants a short-term fix, right? And I get it. like They want it just they wantt results quick. They want to go from fat to shredded in like six weeks. And it's just never going to happen. like You just got to be able to... You need to be able to lock in into the fact that this is a lifestyle you have to sort of change to do it. But just it's just it's they said it does form your identity as well. um and you've just got So if you want to become something, you've got to act like it. And that is just slowly...
00:51:07
Speaker
you know, changing the things. And it's just just looking at what you're eating, like say prioritizing sleep, looking at, it's not hard to find information on how to sleep better nowadays. It's not hard to find information like the internet and social media. so Although there's a lot of information and sometimes it can be hard to pick through what's good and what's bad. Like if you go from a point where everything's not good, you're eating shit, you're sleeping like shit, you're not training, like something is better than nothing. And you if you just, there is a lot of information out there but there is it's information that you can be used. and it's just People just like to over complicate everything. Just start doing something. Just get out and do something. If you like sport, go and play a sport once or twice a week outside of work. but Just increase things and then you you just learn things as you go along. You build it. The things that I know in the gym now, it took me a long time to know them.
00:51:59
Speaker
don't expect to just know everything instantly and just enjoy the journey and just also worry about your own journey as well because one of the worst things of social media in terms of like fitness and health is everyone's always comparing themselves to everyone is like how how do I get how do I get like you well are you are you ready to do 16 years of work from this point like what why compare yourself to me don't don't don't compare yourself to me like you're you're at zero in your life you know, worry about your own self.
Commitment and Consistency in Fitness Goals
00:52:30
Speaker
um And people are always, unfortunately, getting sort of images fed through our social media of how they should look. And, you know, there's a lot of drug abusers and stuff, for you know, and yeah.
00:52:47
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely.
00:53:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:42
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that's the best fit about being sort of new to it is that, like you said, like when you've been training for as long as we have this, you don't, you know, I'm fighting too for now to get like a kilo extra on my bench press, like over a month. And, um you know, I mean, it's just like putting a lot lot of effort in just to lift an extra kilo, but you wouldn't, but like, yeah, as and as someone who's new to it, like you're just going to get all those sort of beginner gains. And it's like, it is actually like the most enjoyable period. And especially like, if you can lock in for like,
00:54:12
Speaker
six months, a year, a year and a half. Although it seems a long time, it's not. you We all know how fast time goes when you like yeah know it disappears in a flash. If you can just stick to something consistently, like it's amazing where you could be in a year from the point you are at now. if you just sort of you just You just commit and you stick to it and like just small small changes each day, small improvements. But there's a lot of days in a year and there's a lot of chance to get better and you will.
00:54:42
Speaker
There's not nothing inherently special about someone like me, to be honest. It's just the fact that I've just committed um and I've applied myself to it for a long, consistently for a long time. And that's the only difference. it's nothing There's nothing You know, there's nothing genetically different than me and some people or whatever. It's it's just about the fact that I've made a choice and I've locked into it and they haven't. Simple. And that's the difference between people who are successful with anything, isn't it? It's just the little small decisions that people have made to stick to and that they're the ones that sort of build over time.
00:55:34
Speaker
I appreciate.
00:55:45
Speaker
Yeah.
Connecting Through Social Media
00:55:50
Speaker
Yeah, yes. this is set um On the same on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at the minute. So my name is the same on all of them pretty much. You type that in, you're going to find me. um But yeah, I'm most active sort of on Instagram. It's sort of my preferred platform in terms of like stories, like just stories and stuff that, um you know, posting.
00:56:10
Speaker
on that. So yeah, you can find me there. ah Like I say, I'm really, you know, but if people message me especially about this sort of topic that we've talked about today. I always make the effort to try and get back to them and try and help people in some way. So yeah, any questions you can always find the way I'm on the message and I will do my best to get back to you.
00:56:39
Speaker
fucking
00:56:45
Speaker
but That t-shirt is a double XL by the way.