 Next question is from Noah Wilmot 97. What were the hardest obstacles for you to overcome during your fitness journey? Oh? hardest obstacle My mind is what we I just I mean not just it's been a while now the the back-to-back of the low testosterone so coming off of testosterone after being on Higher doses like when I was competing right so coming off of that to none And obviously I worked my way down, but once I got to a place where I was taking none That Coupled with tearing my Achilles right after that double wing. Oh man. It was it was already hard, right? And I knew it was gonna be hard. I knew it was gonna be difficult I knew I was gonna have low testosterone levels. I knew I was gonna lose my strength I was gonna lose lots of muscle. I was gonna lose the drive to even get to the gym And so I was already Thinking about that going okay, Adam You just need to stay active think of the things that you love to do like basketball Integrate that into your fitness so that it keeps you consistent with working out an exercise And then you'll get back to feeling stronger as your hormone levels come up and then sure as shit I'm like two weeks into playing basketball, and I tear my Achilles So now I'm dealing with hormone level as Testosterone levels being extremely low and then on top of that having a torn Achilles That had to been the worst storm that I ever had a weather I mean, that's the closest I've probably been to depression since probably back in my house days We'd like in 2012 or whatever that was. Yeah, there's no there's no doubt that if you're really into working out and fitness making the transition from I Love this because I'm getting strong. I love this because I'm you know able to lift more weight I look better. I'm chiseled, you know This is great like that too if you work out long enough at some point You're gonna encounter something like what Adam did or what I did were at one point I had severe digestive issues thought I had an auto-immune disease. It turns out I did it But I thought I did and you have to make the transition from Training for strength training for aesthetics to I exercise now is just to maintain my health. That is a hard That is a very hard transition that all of you listening are gonna have to go through if you stay consistent long enough You stay consistent with your fitness long enough if you're young right now You're probably you know motivated. You just love you're getting stronger. You're faster. I feel good. Everything works good This is great at some point whether it's a family issue job issue health issue injury Something is gonna you know There's gonna be a wrench that's gonna be thrown into that machinery and you're gonna have to develop a brand new relationship with exercise Or stop all together some people never go back some people get injured get off testosterone like Adam did and I know guys like this They were all juiced up in their 20s It had to go off and just stop lifting weights because they just their relationship with exercise was purely to build muscle And look amazing and once they had no testosterone Well, you ain't gonna train the same you ain't gonna get the same benefits and results. So they just like screw it I don't want to do it anymore That's a very hard obstacle. I had to do it myself. I had to completely shift from training for aesthetics and Performance to training for health. It was extremely difficult. I was almost forced to make that transition It took me a year to really start to develop that relationship. But at the other end I had a I have a much more complete Lifelong relationship with exercise, but it's a hard. That's a hard transition. Yeah for me. It was more that transition from being a Working out to then produce a better version of myself to perform on the field and see You know what all my work transpired to become and and also along with that you're working out with people All the time next to you and so I was like working in a team environment. I would work out I was like the typical guy that would work out with like a workout partner, you know like we would plan and organize our workouts like based off each other's schedules and You know and then once once the the last game I played like I went through this whole cycle of depression of just like I You know, well, what am I even gonna work out for you know, like what am I doing this for like? I just didn't have a clear vision of what that looked like anymore It was like it was always for something and so You know, it took me a good like year and a half maybe even two years of just like scrambling to find a motivating factor for me to You know push myself so and then and then later on as I as I got a little more Mature in the process realized like I don't need to you know Hammer myself to produce the results that I want and to be healthy and to do all these things Like I can actually feel really good, you know coming out of these workouts And so anyway, it's just that was a really really tough transition for me because it just wasn't clear I didn't have a vision of what that looked like many times. It's We need to just change the goal, right? So, you know, we're it's really common that when you get into working out You're heavily focused on the way you look or You know losing pounds on the scale You know or big getting bigger muscles and so there we tend to have these very superficial type of goals It's just it's just how we all operate. We're driven by insecurities were visual creatures And so a lot of times that's what gets us initially motivated to come in the gym and eventually that that does like Sal said you you will be faced with that one day and When you do if you're still hung up on that goal If I was still hung up on what how do I still build as much muscle as I was when I was doing steroids? Or can I get at least close to that or I still want to look awesome, you know If I was so hung up on that goal during that time I definitely would have fell in a depression and never came back to working out But I just had to I had to reframe what my new goal is and you know The give the the spiritual side of me, right? So I know anybody who's who's non spiritual This will this will bug them or whatever so reverse or take out God and put universe for whatever reason, you know Chris yeah, whatever whatever makes you feel better, but for me. I always felt like I always I always I always feel like when I Feel so strongly about something that I want God always has this funny way of slapping me in the face and being like this isn't this isn't your plan This is my plan and I and I'm always reminded of that when I have things like this like and for me I said that when that happened to me testosterone wise I shifted over like okay This is how I'm gonna handle it and then also and I tear my Achilles that to me is that wake-up call It's like okay, Adam you're you're looking in the wrong areas of your life This isn't where you're supposed to be focused and so whatever you want to believe in I think that we get revealed Things like this all the time in our life and if you're struggling right now and you constantly keep Trying to force towards a certain direction Maybe you're going the wrong direction and maybe there's something else that you should be focusing on and reframing and changing your goal You know, it's interesting about this right you have three Guys who have made fitness their life who's been all been working out for decades, right? relatively or extremely Consistently and all of our answers. There was a common theme Although different circumstances the theme was Developing a new relationship with exercise from the one I started with that was the hardest obstacle Yeah, it's not the injury. That was the hard obstacle for Adam It's not the that I got sick the hard ops or that that Justin stopped playing sports It's that what is exercise what does fitness mean to me now and it's funny It reminds me of there's a certain type of client that is the most likely to hire a personal trainer But also simultaneously the most likely to stop after a short period of time That's the client that comes in and wants to get in shape for a specific date or an event If somebody comes in to hire you and says I want to get in shape for Vegas. I want to get in shape for my wedding I want to get in shape for whatever as a trainer. I knew the odds are gonna hire me a very high This is like a no, they're gonna definitely buy some training for me the challenge was Keeping them going when they after they were done with that date because their relationship to exercise had a time frame I had a time limit on a specific one whether it be, you know, March 37, you know, 27th not 37 Doesn't exist March 27th. I'm getting married or whatever. Okay NAFTA March over days are really blending totally You know, oh, you know, I got married on that day. I'm done now my relationship to exercise either needs to change Or I'm done with it, right? So if you want long-term success your relationship to exercise is if you want long-term success You're better off tying it to You know, making myself be a better person Working with my health working with my life circumstances that exercise to me is a way to improve myself In all aspects not just something specific like strength because that can be taken from you or my body Hey circumstances may change or you know, I'm going to do these specific exercises That's all I do because you may get injured or it's to do great in a race because in the race ends Is really to tie it something that's that's bigger than that which is General growth general overall health if you do that you're much more likely to have long-term success