 Hey, Steve Mayety here with the 21 convention podcast. I am your host for today's episode with Mark Atobre. He is 21 convention alumni from 2012 from Melbourne, Australia, but also owner and founder of Enterprise Fitness, which is also located in Melbourne, Australia When I was in Melbourne hosting the event and actually speaking at the event in 2012 I've met Mark and since then we become very good friends. I've done you know I've done an online virtual workout system with him, which Man, I don't have enough time to explain now, but it got me in some of the best shape of my life I have the guys truly an expert on a different level and that's what you're gonna see from today's podcast We start out talking about testosterone you know men's supplementation fitness and finding balance in that but what it turns into is one of my favorite things about Mark and what is one of My favorite things about interviewing a lot of the 21 convention speakers is because it turns into his daily disciplines it turns into his philosophy of life and the wheel of Seven components that he finds a balance in to truly be the greatest expression of himself It's not just limited to fitness. It goes into you know, even spirit or mentality Entrepreneurship his relationships and family life and how we can become this fluid wheel That can move in the right direction and on the right road in front of us Now if you want to get plugged into more of this stuff go to the 21 convention comm slash event because in Tampa, Florida 2014 October 24th through 26th myself and 21 other speakers at the top of their fields and everything you could imagine to be the ideal man are going to be Revolutionizing your life you want to get plugged into that and if you're listening to this on iTunes or Stitcher And of course watching it on YouTube be sure and subscribe to our channel and get involved in this Conversation that we're having here at the 21 convention podcast Thanks for watching and let's get into this awesome interview with Mark Etobre. What is going on here? We are here with the 21 podcast with 21 convention speaker Mark Etobre you spoke at the 2012 Melbourne Australia convention where I met you and actually introduced you in since then I mean now when We're recording this September 2014 preparing for the the Tampa convention Man so much has changed and hey, man. I wish you were coming to Tampa, you know, but I know that plane ticket is kind of crazy Yeah, and the plane flight is crazy too. Yeah long. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Look since then just to fill you guys in Mark fitness trainer I mean, I almost want to say like superlative personal trainer because you're not the guy at Gold's gym or 24-hour fitness or whatever those places you are somebody that trains professional athletes to hit an elite level of Performance and bring your body to its maximum potential Since then I've gotten to Do one of your plans which was amazing. I mean let's do the numbers here Seven pounds of muscle in one month in two months. It ultimately was ten pounds of muscle. I lost like You know, I think like 12 pounds of fat and this was all measured via dexa scan, which is an extremely accurate scanning Way of doing it and all that sort of stuff. So you're like really this amazing guy How would you define what you do and what you bring to the table with personal fitness? well first, thank you for compliment How would I define it? I simply work. I think one-on-one with people really find out where they're at what they're doing wrong. I Think probably my magic is that I do the basics very well And I really assess the client where they're at and I don't give a client any more than what I think They're able to cope with so, you know regardless of whether or something like yourself Steve or You know a professional athlete. I sit them down. I talk to them You know really find out and of a level of one to ten You know, where are you on the scale of things and where do you want to be but not this like kind of bullshit? You know, I'm a 10. I'm 11. I'll do what you say. You know, really tell me about your life You know, are you stressed? How committed can you do these things and then? Devising the plan and giving the advice based on that like for you You know, you were very committed when you came and we spoke So the plan was very easy. It's like right Steve. You got to do these things. Let's get all of this done Whereas for someone else it might be just as simple as You know, let's start you off with you know, just cut out all the soft drink in your diet You know because anything more than that is going to stress them out and it's going to be too much So yes, you know, there's there's a lot people can do but ultimately, you know, you need to set up I mean working with anything you need to set it up for a level of compliance where the client is gonna Essentially follow through, you know, I want I want clients to feel good about themselves in terms of if I give them something to do They do it Regardless of you know, knowing all the fancy jargon About the scientific principles behind it if you can't communicate with someone and get them to do the basics, right? Then you've got no hope of how they're helping that person get anywhere in life really and let me just ask you this This may seem like a kind of no-brainer answer for you But a lot of people wonder stuff like this. Why get in shape, you know, why? Why, you know, why do this? Why because it is a commitment, you know, if you are out of shape, you know, you're gonna have to work Oh, I Think ultimately being in shape helps you with so many different other areas of life Whether it be your business your finances is a certain confidence of being in shape gives you I also think for a lot of people, you know having a decent physique on you I'm not talking about you know being a bodybuilder a fitness model thing like this But but having confidence in your body. I think that's your birthright, you know, I don't think You know, I don't think you were made and put on this planet to look Unhealthy and fat and not feel 100% every day. I really don't you were designed perfect And if you give yourself the right fuels, your body will take the shape that inevitably it was here You know to take but when you fit at the wrong things, obviously that's when you're gonna create this easy in the body and Stress and all the rest of it. And you know, I really truly do believe that. Yeah I think that this is a reoccurring theme. I interviewed at Akin and Greg Swan Totally different, you know from anything that you bring to the table But everybody's saying the same thing, you know that there is something within you that that is perfect, you know And in kind of your natural path and this is how we get to it in this crazy, you know Society and all sort of stuff where we get back to that Well, just to just add on that. I was gonna say, you know, you essentially Your physical body is your vessel which contains your spirit So, you know, if you're not taking care of the vessel which takes you essentially through life Then you're not able to express yourself completely. It really is for me a simple exact Yeah, no man that In that's actually one of the things I love about the conversations with you and I want to take it there But first I want to ask you about testosterone. It's what everybody talks about I've man when Maria was pregnant. I felt, you know, I actually got mine tested It was still in like a normal range of what they they say in the US But that could also be lowered depending on who you talk to but It affects everybody everybody's asking about it and everybody's wanting to do the next crazy Thing with it whether that's like a hormone replacement thing or some sort of Steroid or yada yada yada or some sort of natural method I know you have a ton to say on testosterone and how that affects you and have worked with guys surely who dealt with this sort of stuff When it comes to just the whole idea and headline of testosterone, what is the first thing that you got to say about that? It's very important and You know, I suppose that it's kind of the mother hormone and the hormone that you really want to take care of Especially as a even as a female if you are looking to get in in great shape Absolutely, so you want to optimize your testosterone as much as you can and you want to do it You know I assume that most people want to do it naturally You know, obviously there are some guys who will be on the line and all that who you know I have no problem in you know using hormone replacement and I'm not gonna definitely not gonna judge that and say That's a bad thing if people need to do that then because they've got low tests and had a chronically low then you know Each each their own and you know that that can definitely be very helpful and sometimes people are past the point where You know natural means is gonna take too long kind of speak so For kind of say if I've got a few things to say I've got actually got a good story about it too personal stories happen to me recently So I'll start with the stories that I recently went into my doctor And I don't know I don't know what it's like there in America But in Australia, it's becoming harder and harder to get proper labs done I'm meaning you go to your doctor and you say look these are the tests that I want done and you're Medicare here will say Apparently they're cracking down on doctors and they're not allowing You know full tests to be done. So for example, I went into my doctor I said look I want my vitamin D done and I want my DHA sulfate done which DHA sulfate, you know Is a fantastic measure to see if you're making enough DHA and DHA ultimately, you know converts to testosterone So I had to argue with my doctor about the vitamin D and the DHA sulfate So I ended up saying to him look I'll pay for the DHA sulfate out of my own pocket. He said fine The vitamin D the way I got that one is I said he said to me There's no vitamin D Deficiencies, you know, it's completely absurd because the clients that we see we see vitamin D and their clients who actually looked at themselves, right? So the way I ended up getting it is I said to him I supplement with a lot of vitamin D He goes oh how much I got 10,000 and he almost fell out of each chair like 10,000 10,000 Don't you know you're gonna get headaches and GI distress and blah blah blah blah blah All right, we'll test it. I was like great. Anyway, my test results came back and My vitamin D was was perfect for a functional range. It was 174 Which is good easy international units by the way. So for America, it's a little different My DHA GA on the other hand, this is me someone who you know does all the right things with supplements food obviously though for me the the downside is I've got I do have very stressful lifestyle and You know I've got a lot of my plate needless to say so my DHA came back low And low in the standard of what they relate low. So it's obviously very low So I said to him, you know, are you gonna recommend me DHA and he said he said no It's illegal in Australia and I go not if you're a doctor You can write me a script so I can go to the compounding pharmacy and get some DHA And he kind of looked at me like oh, you know shit. Is that how it works? I'm a doctor you serious I can give you DHA. I'm like, I've heard doctors, you know, dog This is quite common doctors cannot write on the script and you know You go to the compounding pharmacist and away you go but um Yeah, he goes no no no no. I'll if you will get your testosterone tested and if that comes back low I'll just give you testosterone. I'm like, okay, but the funny thing was like he wouldn't give me So he's gonna get my DHA my testosterone tested and then you know, whatever But he said to me as well. He goes all the only person I've seen with low testosterone is one out of 10,000 patients I've treated and he was 70 years old and in my head I'm like I wouldn't argue in too much because I argued with him a lot. I said to him How that how this is what I was thinking how the hell can you say that you've only had one client when you I had to argue with you to get my DHA sulfate tested and now that that came back low Now you want to get my D at my testosterone tested like it doesn't make any sense. So This is what I'm saying like you need to work with someone who is ultimately switched on to these things But yeah, testosterone. I thought I'd start with that story to show that you know quite Transparent in the fact that you know, even even myself someone who looks after their health and you know It gets their testing regularly takes the right supplements knows what to do The thing you got to understand if you kind of think of it as a seesaw, you know If cortisol goes up testosterone is going to go down You know when testosterone quarter go from cortisol goes up, you know, your immune system, you know It's that can ham cut function is happened as well So, you know, this is why testosterone so important because it affects so many other things so you can have someone with a lot of gut issues and Essentially those gut issues are created by lots of stress, which is your cortisol But then if you know if you get someone's testosterone all of a sudden they've got issues go away because now the gut's able to heal Because you've you've mitigated cortisol. So with testosterone, I suppose another thing I should touch on It's not always a case of you know, let's let's inject and let's go to you know The testosterone therapy straight away. It's really not the first place. I think you really want to begin is Looking at cortisol and doing things that lower cortisol So for me, you know a surefire way for me to get my testosterone levels back in check and do it relatively fast It's simply just go on a holiday. I remember when I was in Rome holidaying around Italy, you know My sex drive went up probably tenfold It was it was kind of like fuck. I feel like I'm 18 again, you know And that's simply because my cortisol went down, you know, I wasn't at my office I wasn't at my gym where you know, a hundred people want something from me every day, you know getting 60 emails a day You know, I live a very crazy life and then on top of that I train So for me, it's it's you know, I look at those results of testosterone, you know, I Expected it. It wasn't like oh shit, you know Oh, I've got low DHA really no I knew I knew that was in the works because I have been burning the candle at both ends and you know, I'm not I'm not Perfect by any means and you know the last thing I'll do is I hate to get on a podcast and not be myself You know and it showed in my blood results. So for me, you know, I take Supplements that manage my cortisol. At least recently I've been taking a lot more supplements that manage my cortisol So effectively that my testosterone can kick back up Yeah, no man, that's interesting because when Maria was pregnant my sex drive went way down So I've I've always had quite a high one or at least I mean from what I've you know Other people talk about and all that sort of stuff and for herself that that was there too But in the pregnancy a lot of that changed and what was so crazy for me was the motivation changed I wanted to work a lot which was cool, but then Physically man, I I almost wanted didn't care, you know and in heavy on martial arts I like weightlifting in fact you you personally got me into weightlifting big time because I just kind of lifted weights for Kind of like strength resistance before but you really got me motivated to actually, you know Focus on different things and really enjoy it and seeing the the muscle growth. I had almost no interest in those things. So I Probably lifted like once a week You know a lot of the exercise you had me doing was five Exercises to six exercises in one lifting session. I was doing that once a week You know, it's just like and I meant to go more. It's just it it changed Something within my within my you know chemistry and about ten days before the baby was born went right back up Man started to train martial arts again started to lift more get more active Naturally started losing weight Losing fat, you know like tightening up a little without much exercise correlation So our whole hormones are are pretty nuts. It's interesting how it goes now within all this I have all these online groups that I run and a lot of the guys tested out with different supplementation and even I did myself with different Types of ways to up our testosterone. So of course we always started with diet, you know eat real food That's one thing that that I think you emphasized a lot different than when I get really into the paleo stuff And perhaps we should come back down to that but then also a lot of us experimented with an experimental I don't know if you call it a steroid or whatever, but this is also one of the problems with it when you're messing around with these chemicals Your body is such a chemistry set. You almost don't know what's working and what's not and I think that's why You know to bring it into dialogue with somebody who might have a better opinion than me Who doesn't know shit about it, but we started messing around with stuff? the Osterine the psalms one and stuff like that would with experimental I Guess steroid that the FDA is trying to to approve of but it was interesting one of the biggest Differences in testosterone increase and they had it tested with like blood and everything that this one guy did Yeah, I didn't do this, but I'm curious to do it now was he actually did testicular massage So him stimulating that It's nothing sexual like I guess you can Google it or whatever Maybe I'll put a link on the podcast, but that he was 55 you may have done this at an earlier age But he said that was the biggest thing which changed his levels with his testosterone in his blood So I thought that was an interesting Yeah, yeah, it did not sound fun like if you guys are listening to this like oh, yeah No, no, I mean like Google it or whatever it It it does not it sounds like a good 15 20 minute daily meditation of Not the most comfortable feel it in the world But he's like he has numbers to prove it. So he says that was one of the greatest When it comes to things like hormonal replacement or steroid, you know You probably have known people who've dabbled in that in whatever ways. How would you say? Would be the best way to safely do it because as you just said sometimes Sometimes not all doctors are like this, but sometimes they just might not have the experience in that that field so obviously to Let everyone know I've never used Hormonal replacement, you know, obviously I've never had any like obviously here. I'm not licensed to you know Recommended or anything like that So in my opinion, you know if I was gonna do it and this is really the only way I can answer it You know, I get my bloods. I would make sure that in the blood markers that I have The things that I can change I've changed. So say for example vitamin D In my opinion, if you haven't got, you know sufficient vitamin D, that's going to affect a lot of things So that's an easy one to supplement with instead of going straight towards the testosterone therapy Now, let's do basic things like let's get our vitamin D, right? Insulin sensitivity so measuring your morning glucose if that's high or sorry morning glucose measuring your fasted glucose fasted insulin if those markers are high then you're eating like a fatty and You know, you got to get those within range and that's obviously going to have an effect on not everything as well These are these are broad-based tests. The next one you can get is zinc Red blood cell zinc tests now if you go to your standard doctor and ask for a zinc or magnesium test They'll probably test serum You will most places you will have to pay for a red blood cell zinc or a red blood cell mag They're just simply two minerals The reason is magnesium will have an indicator of your alkaline reserve magnesium is also one of the most efficient minerals in most people It has so many synergistic functions to the body including, you know, producing energy helping low cortisol helping recovery There's too many basically over 300 processes of magnesium enzyme dependent. So Getting that tested then getting your zinc tested your zinc is very very important because it's anti aromatase And also if you have a low zinc you're going to find a lot harder to get your Your testosterone up. So let's look at those factors first Let's get those right and obviously at the same time get your DHL DHA sulfate tested and obviously get your testosterone tested. I I personally would start with a basics, you know, make sure I've ticked off all on all the basics At least give, you know, at least give the natural supplementation a crack depending on how far gone, you know If you're if you're really bad and you're in a really bad state You may need to go but one thing I wouldn't recommend is, you know, ordering testosterone over the Internet You really don't know what you're getting This is where you need to find, you know Hopefully you can find a doctor or at least a functional practitioner who understands that, you know You're not you're not a roid monger. You're not someone who's just trying to get buff and big You actually just want to feel better and live your life to the max so, you know That's that's where you need to find someone who can actually legally prescribe because I know here I've heard of guys and obviously been working at a lot of bodybuilding gyms over the years and now obviously my own studio But you know when I was at the the other bodybuilding gyms I'd eat your stories because every you know every second guy, you know one of the gyms I was that was taking something and they would tell me, you know some of their friends would order stuff from their mates and You know the product name that they would get say say for example They'll after Decker, but they would order it and then like they'll get the bottle and Decker was spelled differently And then the mates who had experienced in it would look at it and go this isn't Decker And they'd be like, no, what do you mean? This is this is the real stuff But no, no, no, it's not it's not mean that they're taking people selling them them false sure Yeah, big time. I Know a lot of people who had The similar experience when ordering different stuff online. It's just it's tough to do and I I think one of the you know most I Guess powerful things that I get especially from a lot of different 21 convention speakers where men are because man You want to feel good if your testosterone is low or let's just say your body chemistry is off You're off, you know, you're just not being yourself is to start out with what I what I mentioned That you had told me is eat real food and then supplement with the proper things and you know, you mentioned a lot of testing to do Like that sounds like a lot of stuff, but I feel that that's a much better route to start with than Doing something that you don't fully know about Exactly, right. The problem is with testosterone is once you stew like Unlike say vitamin D for example, you know vitamin D acts more like a woman than a vitamin Or even saying like magnesium is probably you can take them for the rest of your life, right? And you're not going to have any harm from those if you take testosterone You're gonna not regardless how much you take you're gonna shut up your testosterone and and then how do you get your levels back up? And that's a whole, you know Completely different debate and conversation and so many people have different thoughts and ideas about how to do that So, you know, and then you're gonna have to look after the aromatized factor So, you know, if you're putting too much in and there's not enough preceptor sites You know, you're converting to estrogen and then you're gonna, you know Yeah, essentially start to feminize and you know develop bitch tits and all the rest of it So it's it's not a game and that's really the thing that I'm trying to get across here Is if you're not gonna if you're not willing to go to your doctor and get blood tests and be sensible about this Then you really don't have any right if you're not willing to work with someone that is smarter than then you and admit that in this area then and Manage you because there certainly is a bell curve and a lot of people look at and I know what we're talking about here We're not talking about, you know doing a cycle for Aesthetic game is talking about people who have legitimately low testosterone and and you know That is a medical problem And if you don't have a doctor that's willing to diagnose that then find someone who is and but again It really is in my opinion The brake seal in case of emergency approach Another thing I'd like to say is is that, you know Really emphasize on the point the first place you want to start is lowering cortisol And supplements that you can use to do that is simply supplements that rebuild the adrenal adrenal glands so things like adrenal extract That's where they'll you know, they'll get an animal. Usually it's a pig They'll take out their adrenal glands and then grind it up into Essentially an extract and then you you'll take that and they've shown that it's been really beneficial So is it I tend to use this three brands of supplements that I use Polyquin obviously one is one of them thorn and designs for health in the polyquin range specifically They've got a product called surge or was it called Adrenal surge and that's the the extract Then they have another and in thorn they have a product called corset core seps core tips or something That's another very good one. That's the it's the Extract again and they've in the polyquin line. They have another product that I really like It's called alastatic max alastatic stamina and that one is for essentially adrenal support as well But yeah, the basics you got to do the basics, right? So the basics are make sure your own magnesium zinc multivitamins, you know food is so important food is a drug getting the sugar Out of your diet because you know sugar is going to suppress your immune system testosterone and all the rest of it Yeah, no man cool stuff. So when it comes to Supplements, I know you talked about a few things you had me personally taking magnesium zinc That polykin berry like antioxidant mix. I forget what it was called the wellness grains. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so And then I man I forget what else what I like actually I just take now vitamin D I take some magnesium some zinc and Just go about my day. I It first when I started taking the magnesium and zinc Definitely notice the difference now. It's just like I exist with them I could you know, I don't know and if I miss a day or two I don't really notice but what I actually liked about your speech in the Melbourne Convention where I told you man, man, this was like one of the most informed of speeches I've seen was your breakdown of what magnesium and zinc and why zinc is so important for males In whatever other Supplements that you know, I know you talked about vitamin D But you know magnesium zinc anything else like that's really important for a guy to be taking so that he could just be a natural Healthy functioning human being Yeah, look, I think zinc is extremely important and again testing is zinc is I think very important So so getting that tested with red blood cell magnesium red blood cells ink and red blood cell magnesium getting a both tested Again zinc if it's low you're gonna you're probably gonna have low testosterone as well Not to say that you can have high zinc and low testosterone, but if you have low zinc Chances are you are gonna have low testosterone. So it's wise to get your zinc up first And you'd be surprised. I know for me personally. I was I was taking about 150 milligrams I still do with zinc a day and a lot of people might say shit 150 milligrams. That's that's heaps Yeah, well I tested my zinc and I was still on the low end So it's not a case of yeah, you're gonna take this zinc and you know boom my levels and don't get me wrong I this is why we test clients some people they take 75 milligrams of zinc a day and You know, they're on the high end actually too high and you don't want to be too high Everything has like a bell curve of dosage So this is where testing really comes in because if you start taking too much zinc It's gonna deplete your copper if you deplete your copper you're gonna bruise easy and all the rest of it So simple I suppose kind of bulletproof subs for a lot of guys Everything is dependent, but obviously I would start with something simple like a multivitamin zinc magnesium for sure If your vitamin D is low, absolutely get yourself on vitamin D. If you live a very stressful lifestyle You know vitamin C is a simple supplement all the botanicals when I say, you know any botanical or formulations Like the adrenal extracts or the allostatic stamina anything like the Consult with first. I'm quite happy to recommend general vitamins and minerals to people Could you repeat that when you talked about the botanicals? You said right before you said consult with somebody first that chopped out for a second Anytime I recommend anytime I recommend any botanicals so anything like the allostatic max or the adrenal The adrenal extracts or you know whether it be Any specific formulation Whether it be an energy rebuilding tea like the Chinese Chinese herbs anything like that I really like to start with a consultation first. I really don't like to generally recommend these things Because there are so many that are out there and all of them are very specific To what the person's going through say for example, you know if you don't sleep well at night That's a very different protocol than if you're stressed and wired So if you don't sleep if you're if you're highly strong and you have high quarters all and you don't sleep at night I am going to give you different and recommend different supplements than if you're stressed right throughout the day and sleep fine I'm not going to sleep because yeah, they both knit. They're both different cases and you know There are different formulations botanicals and supplements that you can recommend So very general to start off and I suppose for the purpose of the podcast It's it you know to help kind of most the majority of people, you know generally I'm really recommending base nutrients multivitamins ink magnesium if you're overweight Fish oil and if your blood glucose is out of whack with you know, you definitely get a fish oil And vitamin D if it's off, you know, that's already what with four supplements Another thing I really like is obviously your B vitamins, but then the thing you need to be careful with your B vitamins And some people over methylate some people under methylate most people I mean the majority now no one's gonna do harm taking a B vitamin But you know, it is something that You know, some people need to take more B vitamins than others no doubt and they're the under methylates And if you do if you if someone takes too much B vitamins That's when they can find it pushes the peruvate pathway too much and they start to get very erratic and even you know Anxious and that not to say B vitamins are bad by any stretch the imagination It's just you need to treat people as individuals and it's really not and the more I learn about this the more I see the need for testing Because you know things that I used to think are true like I used to give every client's ink and then You know what was happening because we test is client's zinc tests were coming back and they were talked like they were not toxic in zinc, but they were on the high level and If they're the ratios between zinc and copper were not right So I really had to back off on the on the zinc with a lot of clients and now it's something that I say You know, well, let's lower the dose Let's start at one tablet a day and let's test again So I am hesitant to to recommend things without people get sure it's done man, that's crazy just because I think if I wish you were in Austin, Texas because if getting your blood test you see all these numbers and on my blood test, there's like Hey, this is the low ranges the high range, but that's like, you know, that may not be you and you've even gone into that saying that You know that could come from a range of all men and you know in all sorts different circumstances plus with you know from a different You know theory of you know science or whatever different different voicing of medicine Coming from that so you never know with that high end, you know, everybody needs a good resource for what are the right levels? You know, is there anything like that online that guys could yeah? Well, you want to get James Lavelle your blood never lies He's probably the guy you want to look up when it comes to blood testing. Yeah, definitely James Lavelle your blood never lies You know, that's the way that would be the way to go because he really breaks it down. Cool. No good stuff So yeah, what I really like to get to and talking with you is You know something that I saw a little bit from your 2012 speech But as I got to know you and really actually when I talked to you about, you know Myself getting in shape and when we came up with a plan and learned all that stuff Which is really cool because we did it overseas and I had to work with a local guy here that you know Could show me the lifts in a very particular way, which was almost an invaluable. That was that was awesome, man but was your overall Philosophical range and the different disciplines of life and I think in other conversations. We've had we've talked about that and I think that's An under undercurrent of the 21 convention with all the speakers the more expert you get in a certain level whether that has to do with Relationships or dating to fitness to finance or even martial arts. We were talking to a martial artist on the last podcast This overall view of life and you actually had it Put into these awesome little categories of seven different categories that I focused on So what are those and let's let's talk about those for a little bit. Yeah, so spiritual development Mental development career Money finances when I say career career and business money finances and by the way mental development. That's your genius development career slash business and Finances, I would say you're masculine values, right? Then you have the more feminine values, which are your health and beauty Social social influence and family and then obviously your spirituality is kind of like at the top and Combined it's neither masculine or feminine and then you know So I do a wheel and I'm not going to take credit for creating this because because I didn't I learned this from John D. Martini It's seven areas of life. I think I think I put it into a wheel I don't know if he defines it as a wheel, but it's something that I combined You know he would talk about the seven areas of life And I'm like this is cool because I learned something else in NLP and they used a wheel But they defined it differently and I was like well I'm gonna take his seven areas of life and put it into a wheel and now I use like a self-assessment tool So it was a little bit of him So it is I suppose it is my kind of original idea the way I do it because I do it very uniquely Yeah, what I do is I do a wheel with people Then I divide the wheel up. I put the seven areas of life. I Get people to rate themselves out of one to ten So let's say you go, you know seven ten one two three, etc I draw a line connecting all like the pieces and usually what happens It's a very odd looking wheel and I say to people now if we took off this wheel and we put it on a bike And now you try to ride through life, you know You try to ride through life with this wheel You're gonna have a very bumpy ride because you know You're you're a ten in finances and you're a ten in health and fitness But you're a two in your relationships in your family life and you know, you're you're a three in here It's gonna be very bumpy. So, you know, if you to make the most progress, you know, you know I know that let's say for a lot of guys business and career is of high value to you But if you to make more progress in that, you know what? You need to actually stop focusing on business and career and start focusing on your family life start focusing on you You know your social influence and by doing those things you're gonna actually create a bigger wheel and more of a pie So something that I routinely do is I use that as an assessment wheel for myself see where I am in those seven areas I I rate myself where I am where I want to be and Establish what the gap is so let's say for example You know if I say I like to use money as an example because it's very clear if I say in finances I'm just gonna say, you know, I'm a I'm a Six, okay, so I'm a six in finances. I assume everyone on the planet wants to be a ten in every area You want to be a ten? What is it gonna take from you to go from a six to a ten and I say to people, you know You're not comparing yourself to anyone else, but the best version of you I don't want you to say well, you know, I'm gonna compare my finances to Bill Gates Because really doesn't matter who you are. You're gonna suck if you compare your finances to Bill Gates You know and that's not to beat yourself up about it's just the fact that you know Well, Bill Gates has more money than what most people know what to do with right? So you want to compete off the best version of yourself? What would it take for you today to become a ten and I get them to start writing so they might say things like wow You know, I really got to stop spending money on clothes. I really got to start saving on okay Well, that's great. You're gonna start saving your money. How much are you gonna save a week great? You're gonna save $200 a week What are you gonna do right now to implement that and they start to you know, whatever So right you're gonna open up a savers account and you're gonna make it automatic So this is done if you did this action, what number would you be now and they might say well that actually would make me Nate all right great What else do we need to do to get you a ten and I just simply use that formula for every area that we go through And another thing that I encourage people to do is as they go through the areas They have mentors in each area so and for some people the first time they do this It might be really tough especially guys they might go through The wheel and they might say all right socially Steve is a very connected guy Yep, I'm gonna I'm gonna have him as my mentor in terms of socially and they might say all right Yep, health and fitness. Yep, I'll put Marcus health and fitness, but then they might come to something like spirituality and Not have anyone because then they're not really religious So they might say you know Jesus doesn't really work for me You know, I don't have any really religious beliefs But what I would say just look a little harder look at someone who appears spiritually Aware at least and that might even be you might even look at someone like yourself Steve and say you know Steve's you know, he's fairly spiritually. He's got some good ideas about these things So, you know, let's put Steve as as our role model in that area So at least you know, when you're getting to trouble on these things You know where to look and you have someone there. That's essentially what I did like with mental development I always aspire to a guy named John D martini. Obviously, you know, he's very very just So sharp mentally if you seem to speak, you know what I'm talking about But he's just right razor sharp doesn't matter the question the topic time of day You know, I remember being at one of his seminars and it was literally like 9 o'clock at night He had spoken for you know, three days straight I came up to him. He was reading a book because he sent us to an exercise and he was reading a book and he was speed reading the book And then I came up and asked a question. He was like boom in my face like bang He told me what the answer was I sat back down. He was straight back to reading the book I was like wow man, this guy is just so mentally sharp So for me, you know, when I think of my mental development I think of John and think of the amazing work that that he's doing that aspires me and inspires me to Want to be more I want to do more so I think finding those role models and mentors that Inspire you in each area is only going to make your pie bigger And all the sudden you're going to copy them It's just you want to stand on the shoulders of giants not in their shadows And that's essentially how I break it up for me And that's why a lot of people look at me and I think most people kind of see me as fairly balanced And I think by doing this exercise and by doing it for so long I'd say the side effect of doing it for me is that I'm a lot and it's like some people when I say this they might think it's a Not I'm a lot less emotional about things and the way I described and I think that's that's that's fantastic Because when I say it like this, you know, if if I gave half the listeners listening to this right now I gave half of them. So I gave all of them a hundred thousand dollars and Sorry, let's make it a million dollars. We gave everyone on the line a million dollars, right? But 50 percent had to invest that million dollars in one stock The other 50 percent got to invest that million dollars ten times in ten different stocks Now for the ones that have it in one stock if the stock market goes up They're highly elated if the stock market goes down. They're they're depressed They're the ones jumping off the building because now they've they've lost a million dollars We look at the other side and we've got ten people with a hundred thousand dollars each or sorry ten stocks with a hundred thousand dollars each Let's say You know if if the stock market goes up now, I made a little bit of money. That's great, you know, if it goes down You know, no big deal. I haven't lost my all my money. It just went down a little bit I can ride this out. Everything will be okay You know, they're in it for the long haul and I use that as an analogy Because the reality is when you've got more parts and pieces and pieces of the pie in life you You're better able to withstand The the winds of change in life Meaning that if you put all your eggs and all your focus and you know You rate and this is something that that was so apparent to me in bodybuilding when I was competing and you know trained a lot of competitors is that they put all their eggs in of life in one basket They put it in health and fitness. They put it in their beauty and sure they had you know A great body and all the rest of it to show for it But every other area of life from their career family it sucked I knew one guy that was 45 years old and still lives at home with his folks didn't have any Relationships and went from job to job and you know couldn't put two dollars You know couldn't put two two two notes together for money He was a broke and it was because you know his whole values and life was centered around being in shape And I thought man, you know if if one day he steps off the curve wrong, you know breaks his leg breaks his arm God forbid You know his life is pretty much over. He's gonna spiral into depression Whereas for me, you know not to say, you know that that would suck for anyone You know especially from you who loves to train, but the reality is I'm gonna I'm gonna be able to I'm more resilient than that You know, I've got my business to look after I've got my family I've got my you know mental development and career and my spiritual life And I've got so many other things that if one of those areas doesn't go the way I want I've still got the other six, you know that that are gonna sustain me through the hard time of let's say an injury So I think as a man particularly and as a man wanting to attract You know a high quality Partner a mate You know not not riff-raff as we say in Australia someone who's gonna you know be there for you quite solid not not a not a flusie To to really do that and become that person you need to be stable Men I think you know I heard an analogy that the masculine energy is the pole and the feminine energy is the stripper that dances around the Pole To become that masculine energy you need to be centered in that you need to be stable and the more stable you become The more the feminine is going to be able to to be feminine, you know but the way to get there in my opinion is to stabilize the things that are in your life and You know have have a plan for everything. Yeah. No, man You know, I want to I want to talk about this just because you brought something up and you know I don't know all the ins and outs of your business, but you had started a business Just about two years ago or no a year and a half ago, right? This is one pretty much always Yeah, I've been always working for myself You know whether I was renting out a facility or you know Oh well previously I was always renting out at a facility, but in 2013 I made the plan And I opened up my own space of my own studio So yeah, it was March 2013 when I moved into the studio that I'm in now and To do that sort of thing as an entrepreneur as to make that sort of decision because it's grown I mean, I don't know if you see it in this way But from what I've seen because every once in a while you know every couple months or so It's like hey, we have you know four trainers and now I don't know how many you have but you have much more, but I remember in I Guess 2013 maybe June when we were doing our challenge thing you You had four trainers now you have much more in your clientele base Team of 15 you have all this unique equipment and all this sort of stuff I think really what I'm getting at is How did you focus on that plan to grow in that sort of way because to be honest you're really living your passion? You know as you told me years ago. You're like five a million dollars You know, here's what I do. I'd open up a gym. Yeah, you know, right? I'd have this like great experience of all the things that I wanted to do and you're actually building to that Right now or technically do you have your own gym and you're building to this like massive expression of what you are? What changed what got you to do that? You know, you got married around the same time now. You're already a father There's all this stuff happening You know was there a turn that happened or was this just momentum that that moved in a certain direction? No It was just momentum To put it like this I've got a marketing girl now who works me one of my I've got two assistants Essentially, I got my my assistant Anna and she's their inception Every day and does all like the supplement orders and you know looks after clients processing And I got another assistant who basically does all like uploading a YouTube uploading a Facebook and all that kind of stuff, right? So essentially, you know one of my assistants said to me Jesus Christ Mark How much content do you actually have? She goes you must have been writing since 21 and I said to her yes, that's that's right I've been writing since 21 She's like, yeah, but this is ridiculous. You've got all these podcasts and so what I'm trying to get at is yes I achieved a lot last year and even this year, but it has been it has been momentum, but It's been a long time coming. It's been a long time planning You know, I heard a good friend of mine say once that you know, he didn't become a millionaire Like last year. He just recently Ernst was starting to earn a lot of money. He said I didn't have this success last year I had this success when I was 18 sitting at my computer earning two cents an hour When no one gave a shit about any of my ideas or what I was doing It was I was putting in the effort now I just reap the rewards now But if you can't all those hours back that's when it happened and I really feel that that's what's happened for me In recent time is that you know? I was killing the soil another way to say it is you never know when the season for reaping is But you certainly know when the season for sowing is and that's every single minute of every single day So, you know, you don't know when you know, if you put a podcast up online or you know If you write an article if you do good with a client You don't know what the repercussions are going to be in that in six months a year 12 months two years five years from now No, I didn't know but I was planning The whole time and making sure that all of these things working on my wheel Getting it clear in my head of how I wanted things to work and once it was clear in my head, you know what? It's kind of easy It's actually really easy. It was like, okay, so yeah, we're doing this now and I had already made the decision I'd already become the person who was running a business I already became a person who was managing a team of 15 So, you know when that team manifested itself. It wasn't like oh shit now. I've got to manage a team of 15 No, I in my head. I was already managing a team of 15 So you you got to step into that person and become that person who ultimately, you know has that life So yeah, I would say just make sure momentum and really truly believing and experiencing and becoming one with what your goal actually is And so for you, I mean like the 21 convention and really the main message of is everything is to be The ideal man as much as possible. Where do you see masculinity today? You know, what what is that ideal man today? What is the ideal man and where is masculinity? Yeah, I think that they're two different things start start with Start with the first one. What where is masculinity today? Or what I think it's I think it's in where is it today? I think collectively as a society, it's I'd say it's probably in a worse place than it was a couple of years ago Just from you know, I suppose things on Facebook People kind of disappoint me a little bit, you know things that that men do and and say and you know, I just think there's this culture of Trying to dumb down men or make men less men manly I suppose and you know It's it's guilt for sexuality and I'm talking obviously mainstream media here You know things like imposed guilt of sexuality and you know, let's be feminists and this and I don't know It's in an interesting way and and you know, I think you're probably more qualified to speak on the topic than I am But I don't know if I'm more qualified, but I'll have more to say But I suppose what are your thoughts on it? Hey, yeah, I mean, you know I think that there's no rules for sexuality and even imposing an identity of masculinity or imposing identity on Femininity on anybody is is not right, but you can actually say well look we see men do this We see women do that and if there is a definition in fact you I forget what you were talking about But somehow we talk about this a lot like in all the podcasts and everything that I do and everything that I'm involved in You look for your ideal you have that there and then you go and live life You know life you kind of wind around or whatever, you know, you do all this crazy stuff But every once in a while you got to look up to that ideal and say am I moving in that direction? But moving in a straight line through experience never happens, you know, it just never happens So you got it you got to allow yourself to experience but in the road to masculinity Yeah, I think there's a lot of BS out there and you know, I think it's it's a lot of the internet chatter So I would say that may not be how everybody thinks but it's part of the internet culture But if you see those people face-to-face, they may not be living that way but the sad thing is is For things that people don't talk a lot about like things like sex and violence. I just did this thing with that aching podcast with that aching who is 21 convention speaker, but he did stateside in 2012 and he's gonna be the 2014 one We were talking a lot about violence. Nobody talks about violence. Guess what nobody talks about sex So then there's men, you know coming into these feelings of anger which happens and women too, you know Coming into these feelings of anger coming into these feelings of rage coming into these realities of life that happened And then we're supposed to act a certain way or if we feel them there's guilt attached to them you hid Once so we had gotten in a conversation and I definitely don't mean to Implicate anything with this but you had said something about the Madonna whore complex and I was like man totally You know if somebody gets sexually aroused for something I mean you that happens That's cuz what a human being does and sometimes that when you're in that mindset of in that state of sexuality and You do something that you wouldn't do socially. I mean you wouldn't do when we're sitting here talking I have a completely different brain completely different hormones I'm thinking in a different way and in the same thing actually happens in violence And we were talking about this with PTSD with Ed is it's on the rise and it's on the rise Because guys don't know how to deflate, you know guys don't know how to talk about it There's no outlet to talk about it. You go to war and you you Keep those thoughts private, you know, you don't have this decompression You know Forum to talk about it the day that it happened, you know And so we've moved into this culture where we're uncomfortable talking about things which were very normal and natural for us to do Sex as well and we turned it into a trauma and then we have a relationship to it through porn I mean basically with violence and sex. It's porn. It's this Exaggeration that gives us a point of reality to it. That's our ideal That's what we're looking up to and not our experience and I'd even go so far to say is you can't blame that shit You can't blame violent movies. You can't blame pornography. What's that going to do? In fact, I'd say personally for myself I learned nothing that helped me from guys in the seduction community about Sexual health and learned it from former porn people or people that came out of the porn industry that you know ended up doing something with their life because I could relate with them but Enough about enough about me, but those are my opinions on it. But anyway, that's what I was actually trying to say there That's okay. Good. Good Good good listen to former porn people or or the dinosaurs of the porn industry and then you'll be That's the way to do it. Hey, yeah, it's but it's interesting though, you know our identity of man It's an icon and it's not an experience and it's such a bummer In what I get, you know, whether it is I'm talking to a guy like James Marshall or You know Keith Norris another 20 or Skyler Tanner another fitness speaker And we're talking about masculinity. Everybody seems to notice there's something off, you know, there's something not right and You know, it's like how do we get back to it in every single one of those people? In fact, kind of like what I hear from you including yourself is there's no specific definition You know, there's no set way, but there's this Conversation that we can get into and I think that's what the the whole podcast is trying to serve Yeah, that's exactly what I think you hit an L in the head there I just didn't have the words and haven't I supposed been asked that question before but that's exactly right I'd say that in what I can see and I can't really put into words, but yeah, there's Definitely something off Maybe for a lack of a better way to put it, I think it's lack of real leadership Um real examples and I think yeah the the icon of you know, the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, you know Let's kill some people and get some babes and then life is is hunky-dory That that's an image Portrayed by an actor and you know, that's not even him himself. If you look at the gut man himself You know, you realize he's a man with flaws like any man You know, and and that's really it's not the Hollywood BS of masculinity masculinity is a lot more than just You know killing people being violent and getting babes, you know, it's it's it encompasses everything really So man Let me let me ask you this You're somebody that's achieved a lot of success family life You know your relationship Your business You know when we see a lot of people in the dating industry, which I'm heavy in there's not a lot of people with that kind of success Um How did how did you get there? Was it just something that you went along the way and found or was it something that you really had to work at? In terms of your overall success Yeah, it's definitely something I had to overall overall work at. Um, look This isn't easy for me to say but you know, I've been committed to What I've wanted to develop in life And sometimes that has meant I've had to shed a lot of you know, like a tree shreds branches I've had to shed a lot of layers in my life. So whether it be relationships people You know ideas events attitudes beliefs Um, I've had to let them go and that there hasn't always been you know, the easy thing to do Especially when it comes to to your own beliefs, you know, what you actually believe about yourself That's probably you know, people think, oh, you know, it's hard getting rid of people in your life But no no, you know saying goodbye to someone I think is actually quite easy in comparison to letting go of your own beliefs and identities about who you are Um, and and letting go of those things to enable something bigger and better And that's probably been one of the biggest things if I really reflect that I've had to do on the on the way to Get where I am today is that you know, you want to wake up in the morning And especially in the bodybuilding and fitness industry you want to define yourself as something and you want to be someone and You know athlete or as a competitor or as someone who lifts weights or you know, someone who is strong But at the end of the day, like what's the what if we took all of that away from you? What are you then? You know, who who the hell are you? What are you going to do with all of that now? Um, you know once if you couldn't lift again, um So it really kind of puts the mirror up and it will make you very uncomfortable I know it's definitely made me but working through those things and being okay And I think it makes you more of a resilient person in in doing that but look It's taken me a lot of time a lot of hard work a lot of discipline and focus at working at one thing and and Really being committed to that and I think you know, you never want to set a goal. That's not according to your values So you can either set your goals according to your values or your values according to your goals But if you don't do one of those, uh, you pretty much you're not going to have the success So, you know And this is the thing that I think a lot of men get caught up in is they look at someone like yourself Steve and they're like wow, Steve is really successful with relationships You know, he's he's he's you know, basically he's fucked a lot of girls. Let's say, right? You know, I want to be I want to be like that, right? And you know The reality is if if I said some to you know, if I said hey, Steve, you know, I want to be like you want to Fuck a lot of girls, right? Um, you know 21. Well, I can say that but that's not actually what I wanted. Totally What I wanted was business success so That's what I worked at and then I can look at you and say, you know, I'm a failure Steve is so much more successful than me. You know, he's been with all these women. I haven't been with that many women I'm such a failure in life. I'm not successful. You know, I need to be more like Steve And then what I've done is I've actually given a piece of me up to you Um, but not not saying I put you above me and now I'm injecting your values into me and it's to know I suppose disrespect to you, but it's just the fact that you and I are like flavors of ice cream I'm vanilla. Let's say and your chocolate and some people are gonna like vanilla Some people are gonna like chocolate. You're not you're not wrong for liking vanilla man I heard this this actually came from a marketing guy that I really really liked because there's you know In just like in the health and fitness industry and the dating industry and whatever self-help industry There's a lot of bs, but this is one marketing guy. It's excellent He was saying something that resonated So much and something that you say some of that I say and something that a lot of these Great thinkers are saying is he says There's only one of you, you know, don't worry about being anybody else And if you learn to express that then the brand is you if you try and do it with anybody else it's You know, it then becomes this other thing in your you you immediately limit yourself Where I notice that with you and weightlifting and this really came is like kind of a snap in my head is I was Working the diet and the exercise plan is I was as I started to get in shape and feel my body change I was like, uh You know what? I I have a different shape and my Limbs are a different length and whatever then so-and-so are these images I'm just becoming myself and I like it But it took me that pursuit of of the want, you know of like well Hey, I want to get in shape and look ripped and all this sort of stuff to go like, oh, okay Yeah, you know, I'm never going to be taller. I'm never going to be whatever You know, I gain weight in different areas than other people and all that sort of stuff Um that relationship with my body was so personal and that's actually what gave me the confidence of image and masculinity Now the want whether that's laying a bunch of chicks when in getting a million bucks or getting a bunch of muscles That put me on the path of you know, what I really needed to see but I really got that actually from you know Doing uh doing your plan. It was like, oh man. Yeah, I can chill out. You know, it's like it's like I'm just going to be myself. You know, I'm no longer searching for an image But check this out if I'm in dysfunction, right? If I'm fat if my body's that if I'm not feeling my best What else can I search for an image and it's because I'm not myself And so through that momentum what you were talking about, you know, man that the freaking momentum of lifestyle from 21 You're writing articles and doing stuff and living your passion and may not getting paid for or whatever But you're building a foundation and I think that's so important for men to know I mean, you're a living emblem of it to see the success of your business. I haven't had success like that That's cool. Man. You have a brick and mortar business that in a you know year and a half time really Really moved into something but that's because that momentum that foundation was there because you were yourself and you believed in something that you believed in that didn't Uh didn't necessarily come to fruition right away But when the opportunity arose it was there when people are only going for that result in that image and uh, you know I'll even say this this is this is kind of like non 21 convention s But when we get into that bio hacking mentality, you know, and I'll tell you This is one thing I want to bring up and I know we're really short on time man, but You know, I work like crazy. I'm like you I work like crazy. I love what I do But is that really my value or is that my value in the cultural image? And I really started to do this when I was like, man, I don't have time to work out Okay, for two minutes. I'm gonna blast it. I'm at two to five minutes. I'm gonna go crazy I'm gonna work out really hard. I'm gonna push my body and then I'm gonna go back to work And then two hours three hours later when I have a break, I'm gonna go five minutes hard and that may be effective You know, that may there may be science. I don't know but you know, like some of the biohacken guys are like, this is the thing That's not what I do when I respect my body You know, when I respect my body and make it a priority I do things a little bit different. That's what I do when my values You know when my wheel is lopsided as you say So I think You know That's kind of why I asked you about the the dating and the the kind of like image of masculinity because I do see you as a guy I mean, we don't shake hands or anything because I'm I'm you know, whatever 8,000 miles away or whatever But um, you know, I see you as a really well-rounded guy and you've progressed in some really awesome areas And so that identity of a man it's I think something that people could take a piece from and and take a bite into it and You know put that into their psyche. I think it would be a good thing. Um, that being said Man, you working so much and putting yourself into your work in being this dynamic dude and living up to your standards How is it that you? Make time for yourself with that You know, how does it spend time with the family or whatever it is? So I have an extremely tight schedule. Um People can often misinterpret me because of it. My wife, you know, I'm blessed. I have someone who really does understand me Completely understands my passion Um for what I do and doesn't try and change me. She she understands it and encourages me She knows that I'm on a mission and you know, for a lack of a better word I I do want to change the face of health and fitness. I do want to leave my mark on the world I I want to be remembered in health and fitness and everything I'm doing now I want to be remembered as one of the pioneers who who, you know inevitably helped raise the standard of health and fitness worldwide. So That's a mission of mine. It comes from within. Um, I'm going to continue working crazy hours. There's no doubt about it I'm going to continue to take more on. There's no doubt about it. That's just innate in myself How do I manage it? Um You know, I I pay myself first With finances and I pound myself first with energy So, you know first thing in the morning before anyone can can get at me or hack at me That's when I train. So, you know, I I train before I see clients. I don't see any clients before, you know, 10 a.m Um And and I train at 8 o'clock basically every morning On my training days or or I make a time with one of my trainers And I say to them a look, you know, we're training together today at this time If anyone asks me for anything you need to tell them that Get away because I'm training and you're going to keep me On track. So, you know, I sometimes do it that way. But um, that's one way with family, you know Sundays is kind of the family day and every minute I'm at home, you know, it's a balance between, you know, making sure, you know My baby feels my love. You know, hold my baby all the time and and make sure he feels my love and all that Make sure my wife feels my love and all that. Um But yeah, like there's sometimes I come home and like this week has been crazy, you know I'm running another two courses at the end of the year and you know, things have Have been quite crazy this week getting a video up and done There's things that have to be done and my wife understands that it's not always like that but Some weeks are tougher than others some weeks that, you know, what? I'm going a bit at 12 o'clock. Why not because I want to but because this shit, you know Especially around tax time and things like that. This shit needs to be done and it needs to be done now especially when there's comps on so Again, you don't need to ride through that. I think you need to have someone there who understands that and you know Isn't trying to compete for love so to speak like wants to encourage you to do the best you can But yeah, there isn't there isn't a one thing. It's just don't take the piss I remember I had one guy he said to me, you know, I go how do you go with all your family and stuff? And he said, you know, simple. I just don't take the piss, you know, when when I'm working I'm working when I'm at home. That's it, you know, and I mean even things like We go to lunch or breakfast. I don't take my phone with me. No, it's it's not there So I'm I'm this hour. I'm with my wife. I'm with my baby. I'm not You know, try and call me. I'm not I'm not here, but when I'm working I'm working and uh One last thing there's actually a lot of stuff. I still want to ask, you know, I'm going man I should ask you more about specifics of health and fitness performance, but you can do another Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, definitely. Definitely. Definitely. You're you're always you're always going to be on here, but You just won a gold medal or we're part of a gold medal team Tell us about yeah, yeah Well, basically ever since I opened up, uh, it's basically a certification that I'm pretty pretty proud to to be a part of it's the polyclin international certification program They've got levels one to five The reason why I like the program so much is because to be certified at the highest level You know, the kind of final exam kind of thing is you need to have trains at olympic Olympic Commonwealth games or world title holder need to have trained someone who has achieved significant success in their sport Um, so recently I um, I've been actually not recently for for a while. I've been working with a boxer andrew maloney As his strength coach, obviously, I don't you know, he's he's actual trainer is is brian butler from east end boxing but um, I've been the andrew's strength coach For a while and um, you know, I've been training him up getting him strong You know, the thing with boxes is that they're all scared to put on size Especially not I suppose not the boxers themselves, but trainers, right now. He's a guy who's 52 kilos Probably the most extreme example that you know can't put on any weight. I need to get him stronger He went into strength testing for the at the astral institute of sport He tested what the 81 kilo levels the 81 kilo boxes for strength. That's the level that he tested at So, um, you know, he was punching basically what I'm saying is he's punching crowds at 81 level 81 kilo boxes level So at 52 kilos. So he obviously went and went on he won commonwealth games gold. Um, just recently in glasco So that got me over the line basically to get my pacp level five, which is you know, the highest Certification the program you can get. So I'm pretty happy with that I've been working. I said ever since I opened up my level one. I was like, yeah, I I need this level five That's what I'm that's what I want. That's some high stuff. I mean like the polykin stuff I mean you you actually opened the door to it for me, but that's I mean the guy Who else has 17 gold medals if that or 17 medals, you know, if that's how many he has but I mean the guy is like He's he's a wild man he's definitely a wild man, but he uh He's one of the few guys that can back it up with those results. And so that kind of yeah huge achievement huge achievement Give him a little bit. I suppose a compliment. He's I've never really seen a training system that is Just the principles are very sound and you know, you do it. It works people get stronger It's it's just a great system for training athletes and general population. I suppose It really is a good system. So for a guy a guy like a boxer How much how much does he lift a week? Now he's lifting four times a week with me. Um Yeah, but but coming up to the coming up to because he's going to have his professional debut on actually a very big fight card We're going to back it off probably three days a week as it gets a bit closer, but I said to him look Um, I'm not trying to get you Basically, he already is at a very good level because he didn't work with me for a while But actually remember when you started the boxing gym put up a video introducing you. Yeah, I saw it Yeah, um I suppose I I Want to keep him at four days for a little while I want to see his bench press get up to because I use what's called indicator lifts indicator lifts are essentially what is You know, if you're going to box What is if you're going to box? What is the a lift that you can do with me that is going to indicate your punching power So for that I use an incline barbell bench press and I use an external rotation um So with the dumbbell obviously So I want to get his bench press up to 85 kilos at the moment. It's at 65 which again On a flat bench of the is he benched 70 kilos for three reps The closest in his weight class was 55 kilos The guy the 81 kilo boxes were benching 70 for three reps. So, you know, he was well ahead I'd like to see his bench press up at about 85 As I said to him if he's at 85 bench pressing 85, there's You know, that that's a serious serious punching power that we that a 52 kilo boxer is going to have so Yeah, I'm going to keep him training Quite a lot until we we get close or hit that and then I says when then we can back off and do other things But I really want to get that strength up Yeah, that would that would be perhaps for next time talk about the differences between lifting and for physique for Uh, you know power and then for fighting or something like that because that is they're very different exercises all around I think they're oh, yeah There's one of those things that people don't know so then they just go I'm gonna do whatever, you know, and then they they get hurt or whatever I got I got a quick question to how many medals Uh, does Derek woodski have or luke? Do if they metal No idea no idea. I I love both of those guys actually, but um, yeah, I couldn't tell you to stop my head They're both fantastic. Um, both luke and derrick. Yeah, they're great guys. What's the guy's totally awesome Now I love luke leman. I don't know woodski just communicated with him online But I love his videos and who can't who can't live without luke leman I'm so sad when he came back to austin. He uh, he didn't visit with me, but awesome, dude Well, cool, man. Thank you so much I think this was great and I think it'll help a lot of people Anyway, uh, how do they how do they find you really quick? Maximus mark Probably the easiest way to do it is um enterprise fitness.com.au or or maximus mark either all Maximus mark is my blog. I've got all my podcasts Hosted on maximus mark all my new stuff all my new articles Actually, there's the web domain because it's a redirected web domain if I give you the right one It's actually melbourne personal trainers.com. Okay. So if they yeah, they type in melbourne personal trainers.com if they go to There's a little tab that says blog Uh, you know, it's it's categorized in nutrition transformations q and a's rants training mindset We literally do a q and a every week. Um, so if they go on our facebook question At facebook page, they can ask me a question Do a question of the week monday's they just post their question We pick the best question and we do a video on it basically or i write an article Let's sum it's a video So, um, yeah, you can ask the question about testosterone whatever it is If it's the question of the week that we we pick uh, or basically it gets the most likes We'll answer it on a video and it'll be up there for you guys to to see so and there's heaps This actually heaps on the website now that you guys can look through and we're just about to put up You know like 20 20 videos, um exercise tutorials Uh, that'll be awesome old podcasts that we're done So yeah, definitely like our facebook page as well because we're putting up heaps of content. Um, Yeah, heaps heaps now now that i've got that my other assistant we're going crazy with content putting up workouts Awesome, awesome. Yeah those exercise videos. I haven't watched any of yours But just knowing what you teach if you get a chance to watch any of those and because it's it makes all the difference in the world That definitely helped for me Cool, man. Thank you so much. Cool Always a pleasure Steve. Thank you. All right, cool Thank you so much for watching. I am steve mayeda once again Signing off with you guys if you're watching this on youtube man drop a comment down below Give us a thumbs up if you liked it and uh subscribe to our channel if you're listening to it on itunes You know make sure you subscribe to us or stitcher. Give us a thumbs up Give us some stars write a written review and really get involved in this dialogue You can find me on good old-fashioned social media at at steve mayeda and of course don't forget about the 21 convention Tampa, florida 2014 october 24th through 26 man get plugged in and let's meet face to face Because if you're a fan of the show and you're a fan of the things that we talk about I'd probably love to have a conversation with you too. Thanks for watching and we'll stay in touch