 So welcome back to the School of Calisthenics, we are very excited to be here with Mike from Mike's Gym, we've just had an amazing camp out here, we've been here for three days in Marbella, under Mike's amazing hospitality and tutelage, is that the right word? Tutelage, well we're talking about that. We had a great time, we had a group of 16 people out with us doing some calisthenics and getting into grips with what Mike does out here, so we thought he's too much of a good guy to let us go away without getting him on the podcast. We've got the full experience of what it is like to have Mike encourage you around Mike's assault course that he's built with his own hands and when he says to you, it took me a week to put those pillars there, you better go over there and not walk around him because that's how long it took me to put there, it holds real value and to sit, I think the thing that comes across is your passion for the whole thing, not just training, but literally you've built this place with your hands, you've been showing us some pictures of when you got it, but just give us a bit of the background, how on earth did you end up here and how did this whole thing start? Oh God, that's a long story, but yeah, it just started off by putting a small gym in that used to be a warehouse here, we had a jet ski business and we used to store the jet skis in what is now the gym and in the back of this there used to be a small gym because I used to go to the other gyms around and couldn't use this and couldn't do that and I've always been sort of circuit oriented with what I've done, I've never been a lifter, I've never been much of a runner, I just like to combine the whole lot and put it together and do whatever I fancy doing, so I had a small gym in the back and it all started off with a few friends coming to train with me, oh that sounds good, we'll come along and then through one reason or another and they came back after you were... And they come back again, again and again, funnily enough and then we just extended the gym a small bit, a few more friends started coming and then we had some, they changed the law in Spain where you had to be a certain distance apart from your next jet ski rental business and we happened to be right in the middle of two hotels so we lost our licence, which then that business went down and... How, what date was it, when was that, what year was it? This is in sort of, this was in 2008, something like that. What brought you to Spain? I'm detecting that it's not Spanish accent. The whole thing we've come into Spain was that we come on a stag do initially and never went home. Basically, never went home. But we come with, we was a group of jet ski races and we went everywhere together and we always took our jet skis wherever we went so we've come on this stag do, we've booked to stay for eight days, I wound up staying for another week then I went home for a week, come back for the month of August to give the guys where we particularly was on this beach that was running a jet ski rental business, I come back and give them a hand because I had a small jet ski rental business in the UK just part time, just in the afternoons, in the summer and stuff, it wasn't nothing major, it was just a bit of fun. What were you doing as a job in the UK? I was a market trader in the UK selling food, so that's what I've done for the last 15 years back in the UK and we've always had retail outlets, bakeries, supermarkets, fruit and veg, all that kind of stuff, so you should deal with the public on a day-to-day basis. Is that where you got your customer service skills from? Customer service skills from, it's been born and bred into me since I was three years old. I'm terrified about coming to get a punt of strawberries from you. I'm sure we know I never stole from your shop. Let me tell you, so yeah we come out, that's what we've done, I stayed for an extra week and then cut a long story short, the guys that were running it wasn't going to do it the following year and the guy that owned the whole thing said to me do you fancy having a go and there was my ticket. So that was that, I was back the next year, I had a conversation with a guy in December and then the next year I was here, eight jet skis, quads, bikes, boats and all sorts ready to work on the beach and that's how it all started. So you've got, what you've got set up now is an incredible facility, you can literally, when we first saw it. Quote men's health is the best, one of the best gyms in the world. One of the best gyms in the world, yeah. But we looked at it, we liked that. Especially with the one bit, you didn't just take that bit out. Do you know what, I couldn't do it. I wasn't positive but I couldn't do it, it's not in my nature. We looked at this place and we were like we need to get out there because it's a proper playground especially for the sort of training that we like. You've just got stuff hanging everywhere, you've got an unbelievable amount of kit here and the obstacle course is so impressive and you would tell us when we got here on Thursday night a bit about how you've constructed that and just talk us through about how it's involved because everyone now knows obstacle course racing but you've been in this and building this thing way before that was a popular trend as it is today. Yeah, I mean I was again in a fortunate enough position that I was into doing different kinds of events and a lot of the inspiration to be fair come from the tough guy, the original tough guy when it was a real tough guys event and obviously through one reason and another they've had to soften it up and health and safety stepped in and you know you can't do this and can't do that and can't do the other. So that's where a lot of the inspiration come from but it was a case that I get bored very easily. I don't like the gym, I'll be honest, I really do not like the gym. It's a necessity there and it helped me while I was off-season for my jet ski racing, going to the gym, do a few circuits, keeping shape but my thing was getting out and doing it outside. So the course come, I mean the natural terrain of the place as you can see is quite a challenge in any case. I mean and it's been even more of a challenge constructing out there. Everything takes five times as long as it does, maybe even longer than it does to construct on the flat, getting the materials there, working on the hill, sliding down the hill. It was an absolute nightmare but we persevered and just using the natural terrain and natural materials as in lots of timber, lots of logs and just anything that was sort of lying around or that I could get my hands on by the lorry load and take it out there and make something from it to use as exercise. As you can see running up and down the stairs, oh my god it's ridiculous in itself and even just up and down the bank size putting the hump in the way. That was literally all the mess that come off that area that we'd cleared up. We just piled it all in a hump, flattened it all off and there's another hump. So yeah just like to use what's in and around us around an area. Obviously the metal work side of things is another story. I've always been handy with wood and metal and that's the one of the biggest reasons I used to go to school for was metal work and wood work. I think one of the things that's like really special about it and comes across is that you were almost built at the assault course to scratch that itch of the fact that you love doing stuff but you don't want to be in the gym and I love when you're telling us you're like if you don't like the obstacle that's fine I didn't build it for you. I built it for me and so I've been good at it and what's really beautiful is you've built this thing for yourself and you've put so much effort into it and made this incredible thing that then people now from all over the world are coming to just then enjoy it but it's almost like the beauty of it is that you haven't tried to make you say you have no plans on anything I just built something that I wanted to do and each year I just try and build add something to it add something to it add something to it as I said to you the other day I don't yeah I don't try to impress anybody it's all because I wanted to do it nobody said to me you should do well I have loads of people say to me you should do this you should do that you need one of these you need one of that absolutely not interested I just do it because I think it's a good idea and it normally works to my strengths I'd be totally honest with you if I said to you I built that course out there so I could beat you please believe me and that's how it started off obviously yeah I've been kicked in the teeth a few times lately but even so it's still yeah everybody does seem to uh to love it yeah particularly the shrimp side of it which I'm a bit disappointed that you guys didn't get to a smash out there but I'm sure we've got now we've got now we'll be back we're coming out there and of course I'm going back Monday I suppose the jacket before we came out I said so when thinking about trying to do so we had this conversation of the weekend about like I think I might want to try and get into a bit of obstacle course racing because I miss the metabolic side of what the trainings I do now get strong and I move where I really enjoy that side of stuff but I miss that kind of like bit of sick yeah a bit of a bit of eye and you're like Tim is Tim is gonna he said he's gonna sign up but what we talked about with the calisthenics that we like about it is it plays the natural strength of the body you can kind of start to look at human movement as it is being strong in a world not just in the gym and I think when I go out there then I'm like that's yeah that feels like being strong in the world can I run up a hill absolutely I love it I'm with you there um it's no point training yeah and that's the sort of you're gonna be a hero get out there you're not going to be a hero lifting 200 kilos above your head when you need to do that in real life this is my whole point you need to be able to move you need to be able to jump you need to be able to grab someone out of whatever it might be it's natural movements and natural natural strength and that the combat zone it's not just it's not listen everything's got a technique don't get me wrong but it's still raw it's still raw strength I call it farmer strength yeah it's like an old farmer that works there's no such thing as an eight hour day in the farmer's life it's like 12 18 hours a day that that man's working and humping and pulling and doing whatever he's doing and for me that is the kind of person that is going to win out there and that's what I've been brought up with is always unloading lorries loading lorries pulling this pulling that lifting this lifting that lifting the other well we've talked before about when you're playing rugby and you go play summer like market raisin you go out somewhere in that where the other farmers are and you get freaking feed another breed of really is it's like you know that man strength when it's just like where's that come from when you look into some of the events out there and they do a particular one that I've read about I can't remember the name of it but it's in the Basque country the Spanish farmers and the stones and stuff that they chuck around and have to carry over that the hills and the and the natural terrain that they have to do it's ridiculous they pick up these massive big stones and frown over it whether they be round whether they be square whatever they may be at them guys are just absolutely so strong I love the the other thing I loved about this so that that feeling of being strong out in the world on this salt course haven't I haven't tried to jump over like a big high wall last time it's probably on the salt course 10 years ago doing an army training camp for a rugby preseason after yeah but I remember looking at it and people jumping around I was thinking I was a bit like I don't really I don't know how this is gonna go I don't know and then it sort of jumped grab the top and it was like oh my body just went to like muscle up and I was like actually I love to have it was like what we're what we do in the with the calisthenics in the gym and actually apply does transfer and one thing I do want to do with my training is be more I've been talking to Tim recently about like there's nothing there for me there'll be an ultimate like grip width on my on my on my pull-up on my muscle up to be most effective actually having options on so that was like doing it on a ledge yeah doing it with different and that just having those movement options we've been talking a lot more with and that just strength and play and then the other thing that I just loved when I was there like I remember thinking halfway through when you're beasting us on the sort of um cardio bit where you're running up and down those the steps but the I've got a slit on my arse on what I was trying to copy Tim to use the board didn't use the um the ropes but you're focused so hard on what you're doing and not falling over and everything that's going on that you're like you're so mindful about what's going on you're in the moment you're not thinking about the bills I've got at home or this that the ordinary that you're completely submerged in it you do absolutely lose yourself right there's no doubt about that you lose yourself and not only that there's so much going on there the thing with this course and it is a training facility it's not a course built for commercial reasons we're not here to make thousands and thousands of pounds like these tough mothers and whoever else is out there do with thousands and thousands of veterans it's a place for people to come and train for those events to make those events a lot easier I mean we don't make them bigger or harder for bragging rights we do it I personally do it for a reason that when they go to one of these events anything that compares to this place should be easy every I mean on one of those events there's an obstacle maybe every maximum of every 500 meters absolute maximum normally it's a kilometer before there's another obstacle if you're lucky we're here it's like literally 20 30 meters there's something else 20 30 minutes there's something you haven't got time to get time you just need to think like what's coming out what's coming out am I going to jump am I going to crawl am I going to swing am I going to lift am I going to whatever you just don't know what is coming I mean the lap is only four kilometers around and still I mean the lap time there's more or less a hundred elements we call them we don't call them obstacles because we've got the lifting we've got the frying we've got this we've got that we've got so many different variants of an obstacle course but the fastest lap time is still just short of 50 minutes under 50 minutes so 4k to be running 50 minutes is ridiculous I mean they're running sort of bloody or 4k on a short course in sort of 20 30 minutes normally so it's sort of double the time because of the intensity of the obstacles or the lifting or whatever it might be do you know the name of the person who is it Frank Frank Frank from Holland yeah Frank do you know what there's anyone funny Frank doesn't know what's his name van shot or something like that van to something yeah it's all the same out there as you know but um but I also like the idea that like if that's a bit easy you've got a 20 kilo bag out there which you can carry around which you so we've done that top section I'm not kidding you we go we've been for a few training sessions when we was working up to the 24 hour race where you do a lap at a top section then you do a lap at a top section with 20 kilos and then we built that up over a four or five week period where we're doing five laps continuously with a 20 kilo bag so when you put that 20 kilo bag down oh my god it becomes very very easy to get around there yeah so the variance out there is just absolutely endless did you do like one big or a couple of big races a year we do we do three races a year now we do one in April which we call the Assault at Mike's Gym which is just on the Assault course and obviously over the rig and everything we got here we do what's coming up on the 23rd of September is the Summer Slaughter with the Summer Slaughter we do a lap at the Assault course then we send you off for a run it's a five and a half K run and on the run you do a kilometer and a half with a 20 kilo bag down a really nasty hill and up the other side of the hill and then you have to come back in and you have to go over the pool rig twice to finish the race did you see me go over the pool rig yeah I'll see you doing the fly monkey over the pool rig yeah calisthenics he's crushing it's easy yeah but I'm actually rubbish he's got a massive scale you saw me on the top of that car going no he's not scared at all let's pick up on that because we the original plan we came over was right we we arrived Thursday the rest had seemed to arrive this Friday afternoon we had to sit down right on Friday we'd get the guys here four o'clock we were on time for that which was which was good yeah right I was very lenient now let me tell you something the plan was to go for a walkthrough and I don't think a lot of the guys that we brought with them they knew there was an assault course here but we kind of thought we have a play on the assault course none of us were quite expecting what a walkthrough was actually going to be about let me I was going to say a walkthrough with me yeah exactly yeah and that was before what we did the proper assault course that I lay on in the weekend but what there's some great feedback from a lot of the guys that got into it and that they absolutely loved it but they would never have done it without if you'd not put us through it and everybody which came out that absolutely buzzed in and the way that you you run the assault course and you're the way that you motivate and push people is just like it's absolute dream because you come in and we're all sat there going flipping it this is going to be serious but you've got an amazing coaching contrast of being able to push people get those two things that they don't think they can do but then there's that hand on the shoulder like that well done afterwards and that's the only thing that people do is push themselves whether they're good bad or indifferent doesn't matter ability for me has never been what it's been about it's about and that comes from myself being not a natural athlete I've not been given anything I've had to work at everything so everything that I've done or achieved or whatever it's been done through the hard work yeah so for me the hard work is the most important thing it's not ability at all yeah yeah absolutely yeah yeah mate we appreciate that because you've had it um it's because you've come through some situations with health and stuff recently and we can see that like you said to us I want to come out there because I'm like Mike's gym is you that makes it such an enjoyable place to be and we can't thank you enough for what you've done for this weekend because the guys have had a great time and 100% we're coming back good good good it's been great for you first lot kind of stanix boys anyway hopefully not the last weren't too soft for you let me tell you something there's been a lot firmer I'll guarantee you one for you did give me 100% the other day and again that's all I asked for so what can I say the guys did well didn't they done brilliant do you know what everybody done listen like I say 100% is 100% and you all give it that so for me you get a pat on the back for me that's for sure it's amazing so if anyone has not heard of Mike's gym look him up he's on his um what's your website where's where people best get into getting touch info at mike's gym my bar yeah they've got a combination on side they can sort all that out there's loads of different training packages you can do you've got access to all of the facilities you need whether you want to do crossfit we're going to get an assault course probably the best thing to do is a combination of everything yeah I do feel that the place is unique obviously for the assault course and the combat zone the strength side of things you can go I mean our gym is like a normal gym it's got weights it's got the cardio machines it's got everything that you need in there but you can do that you know in a lot of places yeah but for me to get that experience out of there is what we're unique for I think if if you're into your training you like to do something different whether you're into like obstacle course racing or not if you're just like getting out and doing some some decent graphs and challenging yourself like we talk about redefining impossible yeah you certainly do that to people he certainly did that to us out there and I think that if you don't go out there at least once before you die you're going to you're going to just just to put a thing across we have lots of different um again abilities of a fitness that come all different shapes and sizes and every single person comes away with something they didn't think they could do yeah there's a hundred percent that's what it's all about so yeah for sure it was great to see that so yeah Mike we must be appreciative to look after this for this weekend yeah thank you so you know the drill this has been Tim, Jacko, Mike, Skorokai's thanks until next week all I gotta say don't fuck about people and see you next week class dismissed you can't give me a you can't give me a script