S3E43 · Jakob Barlow & Lachie Kennett: Ice Baths, Online Coaching, and Personal Development

Welcome back Virtus podcast. Good to be back in the hosting chair. This will be twice in a row for me. Well, actually, I'm not too sure when this podcast will come out. So it might not be twice in a row for the listener, but it's twice in a row for me. Today, joined by two guests that have come down the pen link. Lockie Kennett, Jacob Barlow. The boys. The boys. They're nice and toasty. They're nice and warm. We've just got out of the bath. Nice little training session. Jacob hit four PBs in one session. Go on heavy.

Straight into the bath. Showed Kennett a thing or two. Yeah, showed me up. And now we've roped up and come upstairs and we're gonna talk some shit for the next hour or so. How's that sound? Sounds good. How are you feeling though? I was a little concerned about Kennett. I'm actually a little bit cold. I thought I was gonna have a heart attack in that ice bath. I sat down. And chest got so tight. It was like literally the feeling that someone says when they feel like they're gonna have a heart attack. And my hands were like vibrating.

I've seen some fucked shit in the bath in my time. Like people that are almost like convulsing sort of shit. And like they really, they don't handle it too well. But I don't think I've ever been as concerned about anyone as I was for you. Yeah, right. That's probably not. He was playing footsies with me. He was tickling my feet and everything. Just wanted to use the time to get a little bit close to Jacob. We did get pretty close in that bath. We did, yeah. Well. No, don't. I swear. Just on that, what are your thoughts on the experience in the bath as a whole and on ice baths as a modality for stress modulation, recovery, etc.?

Um, I've listened to a bit of Andrew Huberman on this and he's spoken about how using shivering or trying to relax for different sort of a stimulus from the ice bath. So I used to kind of use them for recovery and the classic but kind of learned that that's potentially not so optimal for recovery. But I think also like most of recovery is just or, you know, a good chunk of it is just how you feel mentally. And I think such a benefit mentally for an ice bath that like, if it makes you feel good, then go for it.

Yeah, that's exactly right. Like, I feel like there's this belief, especially the general population and like local level athletes that like an ice bath is a tool for recovery and like, which it can be if it makes you feel good. And that lets you mentally tick off a box. But for mine, it's more of a tool of stress modulation and mental well-being. Like, I love nothing more than getting big groups into the, like I was saying this to Jacob before, like getting big groups into the ice bath. And that's just a big G up. Like everyone gets around each other.

Someone might be struggling to get through and they're like saying, oh, I'm gonna have to get out of here. And like everyone's, you know, just so kind. And so motivating to them. And then the G up and the endorphin release, once you get out, like it's phenomenal. As you said, like I think the research is a little bit cloudy on whether it actually enhances recovery or not. But yeah, like recovery is 75% subjective anyway. So if it makes you feel good and you think you're recovering, then fucking so be it. I reckon it's like the comfort zone, like exposure to that temperature is outside a lot of people's comfort zone.

To be exposed to that is just pushing all limits. Yeah, absolutely. That habit and that discipline. I think, yeah, pretty sick about it. I think a lot of people that look at a big tub full of ice and think there's no way I could sit in there for three minutes. But then once you do that, it sort of like breaks down limiting beliefs. It's rewarding. It's like, hang on shit, what else can I do now? It's mad. How far can I push this? And you get better at it. Like, if I was to do that every week, I would get a lot better.

But I was there literally, Jacob asked me as we're getting in, like, how long has it been since you've done one, since I've done one that cold, other than getting in the ocean? Like, one that's that cold would be, you know, a few years, like probably since 2019. So I think like, because I'm not used to it as well, like, and you know, you have it here, so you can kind of do it more often. Yeah, probably why you're better at it as well. And it's funny saying that because I was actually talking to one of the girls downstairs, Steph, and like, there was a phase where I was doing it every second day for quite a while.

And I swear, like, it just didn't get easier. And I know it would over time and you'd adapt. But fuck, like, I think that process is gonna take a while. Yeah, yeah. I think as well, like doing it consistently. It's not like you can probably just do it once a week. It's like, yeah, Jim, like, if you just go once a week, you're not really gonna get much better. But if you're doing it three times a week, like that's when you're gonna see a benefit. True. You said you'd much prefer to do that, Jacob, than go into a cold shower?

I've tried the shower. I can't do it. See, yeah, I can't do the shower. Probably lack of discipline, but with the shower, I can step away and it doesn't cover my whole body. Like, I'll get, it's kind of like... It's unforgiving the shower, like in the bath thing and sort of be still, but the shower, and same like if you're jumping in the bay or in the ocean, like the waves are just pounding you and there's no like real stillness there. But for me, like I was in a phase 2021, I did like over 100 days of cold shower, like so many days that I stopped tracking it because it was just a habit.

And then eventually fell off that wagon and I've decided like I'd much rather just jump in a little three minute ice bath here than, you know, in my shower. It's a nice little brain break for me, a nice warm shower. It's almost meditative. And it's like, just my me time. It's day spa treatment, my hot showers, I look forward to them every day. I still run every morning, a cold shower, but I think for me, like it just wakes me up and like when I'm getting up at five to go to work, like it's kind of what I need.

And because I don't have access to that ice bath every day. But if I was doing it for, you know, for something like that, that stress, being able to stress inoculation, being able to deal with stress better. I think I would probably definitely revert to something like an ice bath instead because I feel like you're getting more of a benefit from it. It's just hard. It just makes you feel good. It's a bit more intense. Yeah. If you lock yourself into three minutes every day or something like that's, you don't have to sit in a cold shower for three minutes.

Like I don't do that. I used to love starting my day with it because like generally that's the hardest thing to do all day. Ticked off, done. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good thing is doing. And that's probably another reason I do every morning is start the day with something I don't want to do. Yeah. And yeah. Like making a bed. I do that every day. Stuff like that. You make it a habit. Like I've started training first thing in the morning now. Well, I've been doing that for a few months now and it's, it's been a game changer.

I was saying this on the podcast last week. There's nothing better than doing something hard first thing in the morning. And for me, if I don't do it first thing as the day drags on, my energy for shit like that just deteriorates into windows and it's likely it's just not going to get done. I was listening to a podcast and they talked about something like that where the more you delay it, you're then wasting time thinking about it. Yes. I can't remember exactly what it was, but like for example, you get something done like a workout or an ice bath at the start of the day.

You can then forget about it and focus on things that you need to do compared to if you were to do it in the afternoon, you then not dreading it, but you constantly thinking about it. Yeah. You could be thinking about other things. Yeah. This mental energy that can be directed towards, you know, work and business, which I'm sure we'll chat about a little bit later is then wasted with this little thing that's in the back of your mind that you feel like you've got to get done. Whereas you could just get rid of it in three minutes, tick it off in the morning.

I struggle with that because like, like I said, getting up early enough for work anyway, like I know you get up at like three a.m. sometimes. It cooks me. But yeah, you were saying like you're sometimes able to, to just get up and train from, like you said today, seven to like, like that'd be, that'd be ideal time for me, I reckon. Yeah, it's the dream. It's been happening in the new world boys. We'll start with Kenneth. What are you doing? Who are you? How'd we meet? I am lucky. I hope so. For a split second now, I was thinking, holy shit, did I introduce these boys at the start?

We've just been talking for five minutes and no one knows who you are. I am a personal trainer at South Yarra Strength. Shout out. Great gym in Prahran, not even in South Yarra. That's also a bit of a prank. False advertising. But potentially, potentially opening up another studio in, back in South Yarra. They started in South Yarra, hence the name, but really good team down there. I love working there, like learn so much and really get along with everyone. Love all my clients there. Been there for about nine or ten months now. And yeah, it's really good.

What do you specialize in or like, what's an area of interest for you in the field? Yeah, so I grew up playing footy and like took it pretty seriously. Kind of got to sort of semi-pro level and so I suppose athletic development for me is like the focus there. And I'm sort of the only coach there that really does that. So that's probably a benefit for me because I can set myself apart. Whereas we're probably more of like a powerlifting based gym. Okay, I actually didn't know that. Yeah, so we're not really like, all of our clients are gen pop, but like we have like a lot of, like we push people to do sort of a powerlifting style.

Well, we can push them to do that. And we get a lot of people who come in who have never powerlifted in their life and then end up competing in comps and you know, lifting really heavy weights. And it's, yeah, it's cool. But I suppose all the other coaches there are, or like most of them are powerlifting based. So to have that difference as it like athletic development is good because we can kind of market that as well and say like, if you're an athlete, like we have this coach, you can do this. So yeah, I suppose that's my forte there.

But yeah, I also love just being able to do like be able to coach anyone through anything. So like developing that powerlifting side of it, which I probably wouldn't have done if I didn't go to South Harrah strength. You know, like being able to coach someone to like a bodybuilding show one day would be really cool. Yeah. And then just more like in-depth health needs that people have. So you just want to be a generalist? Yeah, have the ability to be at least potentially then specialise in something. But yeah, that's I suppose the idea. That's really cool that you sort of push, not push gem pop, but like you can put them down that path of powerlifting.

That just comes back to like breaking self-limiting beliefs because I'm sure you'd have a lot of gem pop walk through your door. They've never stepped foot in a gym before, seeing people clanging and banging really, really big weights. And they probably look at that and think, shit, I'd never be able to do that. Yeah, 100 percent. And like, you know, like you walk in the door and you say like a couple of our big guys will be lifting, you know, like 200 to one of our coaches who's not there anymore. But he was there like last year.

He competed at Worlds and he lifted like 235 or 240, I don't know, something like that. It's just like you're watching it and there's like four red plates either side and you're like, Jesus Christ, like I could never do that. But like that's the thing is like people walk in the door and think that and then they get to, you know, like six months down the track and they're competing in their first show and then they end up doing like another three after that. And it's kind of just like a phase probably of people's lives that they'll look back on and be like, that's pretty cool.

That's it. And I guess you never really like stop and smell the roses with stuff like that. I take myself back to when I first walked in the gym years and years and years ago. And you see people that are deadlifting with two plates and sometimes three plates and you're like, shit, like I'll never get there. And then the first time you lift 100 kilos, like two blue plates for the first time. So it's cool. But then you almost forget about it. And that's the next thing like, fuck, all right, we're going to go to three blue plates now.

Yeah, so true. And you're like, and for now, like you're always comparing yourself to people that are better than you. So I'm now deadlifting 200. But then I look at people that are like deadlifting 240 kilos, 300 kilos. Like one of my mates is in Hartford in the UK and he's a new strong man and he's almost lived in 300 kilos. And I compare myself to that. But sometimes you've got to stop and smell the roses and look back at your journey. Yeah. Like think of all the cool shit that you're actually doing. It's impressive. Yeah, definitely.

And like I think I was talking about this before how like I've never benched 100 kilos and I'm like really close to it now. So it's kind of like like the thing that I'm thinking about. But then once I do it, I'm probably going to be like, oh, that was cool. Now, what's the it's like everyone says it's that it's that that journey of something versus the destination is the journey so much more rewarding. JB, JB. Not much. About to go to Europe. Same. Super excited. Yeah. You're in, where are you? Predominantly London. Yeah. You're in Manchester.

You're cold. Man, still look, he's just walking. He's a big you got the snowboard jacket back on hold from the ice. I've actually if you can't hear it through my mic, I'm still shivering from that ice. I heard your voice like sort of trembling. I didn't know if you like those meals. I was like, oh, I'm not about to cry. I'm just cold. Sorry to cut you off, Jacob. But it's actually when you get out of the bath and then back to the real world, you actually get colder. There's been times where I've had the

sauna go and I've gone from bath to sauna and you actually get colder and you're in the 60 degree sauna and you're fucking like shaking. I can't physiologically explain why that happens, but it's bizarre. Your body's in shock. Yeah. Sorry, what's going on in the world? Yeah, going to Europe, which is awesome. Kind of like the first trip away since finishing school and pretty much ever going with four other boys for seven, eight weeks. I'm so really excited about that. I wish I could tell you what we're doing, but it's like playing it by ear and it's completely booked, like a winging it sort of holiday.

It's completely booked. I just don't know what we're doing. I did none of the booking. So for me, it's like a mystery Europe tour. I'm super excited. What are you most looking forward to? Like, I know you don't have a good idea of what you're doing, but what's something that you want to tick off or do? Honestly, I'm not too sure. I'm just excited to have no stress or no worries and just enjoy my time over there and just see the world, honestly. Are you doing any work remotely while you're there or have you saved up a shitload over the past however long and got yourself in a good position?

I have. Like I've saved a lot over the last 12 months. Obviously at uni it was quite hard living at a home in terms of that savings kind of side. But I've worked really hard in the last 9, 10, 11, 12 months. But I'm looking at doing a little bit of stuff over there whilst I'm there because I will be doing a lot of travelling in which I think I can find the time to lean into that. I come back and it's like, I go from nothing to then, whereas I'd rather just keep that momentum rolling.

But then finding that balance where that's not impacting my time over there because… Yeah, you want to have a fun time. Tell us about the last 9 months of work and your work in the industry and what you sort of specialise or perhaps have interest in. Yeah, so I officially graduated, when was it? February. So only a couple of months ago. But so last year was my third year doing my Sport and Exercise Science degree. I loved it. It was pretty cool. But since then you kind of realise that uni isn't the be all and end all.

I'm glad I did it though. I think I could have done my Cert 3.4 and still be in the same position. But the knowledge and experience that I've got has kind of led me to where I am. Which is, yeah, I'm pretty grateful for that. Since uni I've done soccer coaching. I've got a passion for soccer. So I've done soccer coaching under 13 girls at a pretty high level. I don't know how I got the gig but I learnt a lot from that. That was probably like the first time I ever… I don't know. Tell you what, it's a pretty forgiving team to have a high level role, like under 13s.

Yeah, they were awesome. Like I had the best. Like they're not really going to know if you're fucking up or… Yeah, that was the best thing. Super forgiving. Whereas my first team sport role was a Div 1 senior footy team in Great Hill. If you fuck up, they're probably going to know. And they know about. Yeah, I guess I had the luxury of making those mistakes and learning. In terms of my interaction with people, I'm talking to 13-year-old girls. Which, I mean, you do have to be careful in that sense but they weren't adults and they haven't had all these life experiences so they looked up to me as if I was this god.

Which, I don't know, gave me a little bit of confidence in my… That's a cool role. Yeah, it was awesome. Sacred, mate. Honestly, I reckon I've probably made relationships and connections not only with the girls themselves, like hopefully I see them develop and keep growing as soccer players, but also the parents. I've had opportunities that have led from there as well. That's cool. What's something that that coaching role with the 13-goers has taught you? What's been your biggest takeaway from that? I guess, like, group management. Further down the track, I've led small group classes, big group classes and just being able to cater for different people's needs and stuff like that.

I think that was probably one of the biggest things that I learned, doing that by myself with no real guidance in that coaching role. Because, I mean, yeah, 13, they're a different development and growth. Just young people in general. You're hurting cattle, mate. When you're trying to organise a large group of young people, it's chaos. It's good chaos. And that's right. If you can master that, then you can pretty well master any group situation. Literally. It's such a good experience to be exposed to young people and coaching them because of how different it is to coaching.

For 13-year-old girls, if you're doing things you're doing with 25-year-old people, you just have to make it so much more different because they're not going to enjoy that. You just have to make things fun. Make the warm-up fun. And another thing is not everything has to be optimal. You don't need to make them do these specific things. Just make them have fun. That's exactly right. Doing four sets of eight goblets got into whatever push-up variation. Yeah, it's probably what's best for them, but it's also boring as shit. We want to set the habit and get them enjoying their health and fitness journey so they want to keep showing up.

We have a couple of young boys. We have a lot of young kids coming in, but there's two in particular. They're brothers. If we just did that, they'd lose their mind. So I let them, instead of resting in between sets, "All right boys, shot a basketball. Go beat each other up. Whatever. Then we're back to work." Yeah, exactly. It keeps them then, when they come back to do their work, they're a lot more focused and the intensity is probably going to be a lot higher. And it's like the argument that good training should be boring, which I totally disagree with.

Yeah, we need to give people what they need, which sometimes may be boring, but we need to give them what they want to and give them a fun environment, which is something that Angus Bradley touches on. Let people build a good relationship with movement and with the gym rather than just giving them what you think is optimal. It's scary. I've never actually thought of this until now, but it's very like food. If you build just an optimal relationship with food, you're probably going to end up with having a poor relationship and, I don't know, whatever that leads to.

But if you're just well educated, but then you have a good relationship and you're building almost that enjoyable relationship with food, it's going to be a lot healthier. And yeah, I think that sort of goes both ways. That's it. Anything to add on that one, Jacob? No, I guess from the coaching, I've kind of gone down the more personal training, like Kenneth, working with one-on-one clients. Yeah, like I said, group as well. And then now looking at going into the online sector as well, which is really exciting. I'm super excited. There's a lot of stigma around the online coaching, but I guess after months of working hard and setting it up, I'm very confident in what I've set up.

So yeah, I'm excited. What's something about online coaching that you've changed your mind about in that little period and it goes for you too, Lockie? I used to be so against it. I guess COVID and lockdown was where you saw it the most because obviously people couldn't leave their homes. Yeah, there's no choice. I think I saw, and the people that I was seeing online doing the online coaching, I just, I don't know if they were like the best coaches or like qualifications or whatever, or in terms of the results, it just didn't seem like they were doing it for the right reasons.

And I guess, yeah, after setting up what I'm setting up, it's like, like, I'm so keen to, yeah, it's one of those things if done well, it can be a phenomenal tool. And I was like the same, once COVID ended, I was like, yeah, fuck online. Like this is a relationship building business. We need to be face to face with people making connections. And upon hiring Alex Sandalis as my coach in late 2021, and then having that experience as a client, I can just see how well it can be done. Like I didn't meet him face to face until only a few months back, but like, it still felt like we were a fucking family.

Yeah. Daddy's side. Shout out. Who we'll chat about later. We love daddy. Yeah. Another thing that he talks about is just the value you can get for money. Like, you know, being in, if you're paying for, you know, a one on one PT session with someone, you're probably paying like 90, 100, 120 bucks per session to train with someone face to face. But if you're paying, like you could be paying that, you know, 90, 100, 120 bucks a week to someone to be there for someone to be your online coach. And you'll get like a

training program, you'll get coaching from, you know, not live, but you can video things and send it to them and they'll be able to pick up on almost everything they can in person. You get nutrition, you get like, well, this is, I know all of us anyway, you'll get nutrition, you'll get like habit accountability. Like it's just so much more holistic and like it'll change your life versus just going to a gym where you're just going to, you know, pretty much probably just get a training program and a session that you do. Like, you know, you just get so much more from it and the value.

Yeah. And it's, it's a whole life thing. It's exactly right. And like, even if coaches aren't doing online training, I think, or would unanimously agree that a client's ability to reach their goal, whatever that is, is not just dictated by what they do in the gym. Like that's only a very small sliver of it. The important stuff, like the big piece of the pie is what happens on the outside. And that's what online coaching covers that face to face generally doesn't. Yeah. And usually, and what I've noticed is a lot of my clients aren't coming in, like they say they're coming in for that weight loss or they want to build muscle, but it's something else that's underlying.

And I guess in person, it's hard to cover that in a 30, 45 or 60 minute session once or twice a week. Whereas the online aspect, you can look at their habits, you can look at their stress levels, all that kind of stuff and start targeting those underlying factors, which will then lead to the benefit of strength training or just being in the gym in general. That's something I've picked up. That's a little good segue into sort of how we met, but before actually before we get into how we met, I still don't know how you two met because before we met, you two seemed really close.

I don't know if you've been friends for a while or I went to school. Do you want me to explain it? Well, we met. That was another reason that I've said, like, if I had my time again, I wouldn't go to uni and I would just do my cert three, four, I think. But like things that uni have given me is like one of them is meeting Jacob and we met at, what subjects was it? I don't even know. One of the physiology. I don't even know. Anyway, some units ticked off now. Yeah, that's the degree.

Just got in, got out, ticked the box, got that P. Do you remember the actual first time though? Because I remember it vividly. Yeah, no, I remember sitting in a classroom in the first or second week. I think we both missed the first week. We both missed the first week of class and it was the second week and we were sitting in the classroom and I remember you sitting across the other side of the room and I was like, I don't know, you just had this like aura about you. I genuinely remember thinking this. I've never told you.

I get told that a lot about you and like you just seemed like you were just like confident and like seem like a nice guy. And I was like looking at you across the room, like who's this bloke? And our lecturer was a triathlete. And so I was like loving the lecture because I was doing triathlons at the time. And then I was and that I was thinking about that. And then and then I just like glanced over and I was just like looking at Jacob, just like studying him. Yeah, I don't know. I was just like, this this bloke seems seems cool.

And then because we both missed the first week, we went to our first prac and we were put in the same group because there was like four or five of us that have missed the first week. Yeah, we were put in the same group. And if I had, it's funny how like things happen. And because if that didn't happen, like, I don't know, we might not be mates. And then I remember the first practical, we were like on Facebook, and there was like, just looking at mutuals that it's like, how do you know that person? Because I'm Jacob and I grew up in like, probably an hour and a half away from each other in in country, New South Wales.

So like, that's how we sort of have a heap of mutuals. But yeah, it was pretty, it's pretty funny how things work. And like, like, we have, you know, just in one of our last units of uni, we both just like we could have we were doing the same degree the whole time, never met. And then this last one of our last units, we just Yeah, become really good mates. That's it. It's the absolute best icebreaker, like mutual friends. And it's seriously not what you know, but who you know, and that fucking having a good network is massive.

It's such a small world. It was so funny, like seeing you come in here and let you your new jazz from where was it? From placement in like, 2021. Yeah, rise, rise performance. No matter where you go, like within at least Victoria, you band to meet someone and they're going to more than likely know someone that you know, yeah, especially in this industry, I reckon. Yeah, and especially coaches, coaches who, like, you know, like, good coaches who who lost in the industry. There's like, there's so many people who just come in and out. And I've only been in it for a year.

So I don't want to sound like I know everything. But like, it's it's like, so many. So many, the coaches that last like, they tend to know each other. And they're a smaller group versus the people who just come in and do PT for 12 months and then piss off. It's pivotal having a good network. Yeah, it's awesome. Back on the uni stuff just quickly, because you've both sort of brought up, if you had your time again, you wouldn't do it or you didn't think it was as good as what it could have been. And I've had conversations like that, where, you know, uni probably isn't the gold standard of education that you should be.

What's something about uni that you're really, really glad you did? Because for me, back on the connection side of thing, it was all the connections and networks that I made at uni. So like the education, I've, I've learned that at my time here in Virtus and at my time in different internships and mentorships. That's where I've really learned. And I've learned more in those situations than I did in any classroom at uni. But it's the connections and the best friends that I made and the the networks. That was the most important part about it. And I would absolutely do it all again.

And the fun uni nights. But what's something about uni that you're really, really grateful for? And would you truly, if you had your time again, not do it? I would say the opportunities. So and it's how you take those opportunities, because I know and I know of a lot of people that have either done my course or other courses and haven't made friends or haven't made connections at all. Myself, I'm a pretty social person. I gave myself a lot of opportunities in which I have then it's led me to where I am today. So I'd say, yeah, like the opportunities, although uni doesn't necessarily guide you, you kind of have to step into it yourself.

You got to seek it out yourself. And it's yeah, without that, I think it's pretty hard because like if you do your Cert 34, okay, like maybe people in your class, I'm not really sure about the whole setup and stuff. But then you go to a business pretty much straightaway. You don't really get much opportunities in this field, this field, this field, classes, whatever it is. I'd probably say, yeah, the opportunities. I think that's probably the biggest takeaway. Yeah, I tend to agree that and like connections. And yes, I suppose you meet, like Jacob said, you meet so many more people through classes than you would like in a Cert 34.

I think, like, maybe if I had my time again, I probably would still go to uni, but I probably like one thing I would definitely do is just start working in the industry, like straightaway. Like, if I had my time 100%, that is like the number one thing I would do is, and everybody literally says it. And when I was hearing people say, I was like, yeah, yeah, whatever, like, but I'm pretty sure it's still, you're still allowed to work in the industry if you're studying. I don't think it has to be quality. Yeah. So

like, like, literally, I would just get a job in a gym straight, even if I wasn't even coaching, just get a job, like, just being in the environment or something. Yeah, Ben, like doing the admin, being in the environment, like, because you know how it works, and it rolls, and that's gonna be a confidence. And then it's not a big shock to the system once you've finished your degree or something. Yeah. And then it's like, okay, I've got all these knowledge then. Okay, well, I'm so big on with your placements, like do placement and a

fucking good joint and like, learn, you're not gonna do that, like, just get a job somewhere while you're in uni, and you're gonna learn on the job. Yeah. And I think, like you said, like, I've learned so much more in this last year of coaching than I've learned at all at uni. And like, I look back on, I say this all the time, but like, I look back on myself 12 months ago, when I started coaching, and getting paid for it, and like, how shit I wasn't coaching. Straight up, straight up. Oh, I was so

bad, but like, I thought I was good at the time, but then like, it's like, then the, like, I look back on myself two months ago from now as well, and I was like, obviously I was better than I was 12 months ago, but I was still what I am now, and I'll do the same in two months from now. Like, it's, it's just like a constant, especially in that, when you start coaching, it's just like a constant cycle of like, I'm, you know, I'm better now than I was two months ago, and then I'll look back on myself in two months time from now and be like, I was pretty sure.

Yeah, that's exactly like, I'll look back on everything I used to do when I cringe, and I just think, you know, there's gonna be stuff in six months time that I'm gonna look back on, and then cringe. And this was a topic that was in the podcast recently, that I clipped up on Instagram, what's something that you two boys look back on in your early days as a coach, and you cringe, it's vomit worthy? I think for me, like, pretty niche things like in terms of what I've learned at South Yarra, but like, things like,

because I started coaching at Cooyong Tennis Club, and before I got the job at South Yarra, and like, just like some of the sessions I was doing like, they were okay, but like, they weren't that good and like didn't really know much about like, like breathing and bracing and like how to teach someone that and like, even just like I had pretty shit cues and like, I was getting caught up on a lot of like little things. But then in terms of like, something, I was watching that reel that you posted and like something that

came to mind instantly for me was like, the videos that I used to post, like the first few videos I posted, I'm never gonna go back and watch them because they are so cringe. I just remember the Prime Train one. Oh yeah, actually that was the one you pulled him out. That could have been 35k views. Mate, only the best is rip on Prime Train. Yeah, like, that one got about 35k views, so that did well. Yeah, that was my most viewed video on TikTok. Really? There you go. Go watch the video and then go, yeah well I meant Prime Train's a wanker.

Poor bloke. Not gonna be watching. And then everyone tag Prime Train below. Yeah, but like some of the videos from back in like, I don't know, like, yeah, from a year ago or whenever I made my coaching page like Jesus, like, that was so bad. And like, it'll probably, again, it'll be another 12 months from now and I'll be looking back on that. Looking at the stuff you posted today. Although, we got some good content today, so you won't be looking at the stuff from today to that. True, true. For me, I'd say the same, like the videos, some of my videos, even like a couple months ago, I'm like, why did I post that?

Or like, some of the stories I've done, I'm like, why? And like, I guess it's rewarding once you start seeing that. I use it as like motivation that I am getting better. And I think it's inevitable that it's just gonna be shit in the meantime, you just got to cop it. Until you get a... Just keep posting shit and you'll get better. $10,000 camera and anything. Well, like, you look at like Alex and he's got like a full videographer now that like, that he pays and like, obviously he has all his own gear and then he does all the editing for Alex and like, that's obviously the gold standard, but it takes quite a while.

It took him 10 years to get there, so... You don't even need that. You can just start with, you know, what the Virtus podcast used to be was apparently just voice memos on the iPhone, sit around that, no video, voice memos, upload that Spotify, done. And I guess the thing is as well, there's no right or wrong. There's no, nothing telling you, like, even for us, like, we don't have to be on social media. Yep. I guess now that we're going down the online route, we kind of have to, but we don't have to post videos every day and we don't have to post posts or whatever.

I guess we choose to do that. And even like Ben Kent, who's a pretty prominent online coach, he doesn't post much on social media. He's just a word of mouth. But he's awesome. And when he posts, it's quality. And I like that. Yeah. He still has like 10K followers though, like obviously. And that shows like how intelligent he is and how many people respect him. But yeah, like you say, fairly post. I think something that came to mind then as well was like so many people wait for the perfect conditions to start, but there's never going to be the perfect conditions.

So just, just start. Which draws some parallels to the health and fitness journey. Like, I'm just waiting until I have more money. I'm just waiting until a better time until work's a little bit less hectic, but there's more reason to lean into those things. Definitely. Yep. Got to start now. I literally need to post about that. The best time to plant a tree, 20 years ago. Yeah. Next best time, right now. That's a good one. Did you say that? Hey. Did you say that? I mean, I didn't make that up, but. Did you say that? I heard you made that up.

Did you say that in a clip? Maybe. I've heard that in the last seven days. I probably said that on Instagram. Yeah, maybe. I think so. Yeah. I always think that with like my, my thing, it's like, fuck, I wish I started coaching as soon as I finish uni and I wish I made my coaching page as soon as I finish uni, but like at least I didn't do it now. Or at least I didn't do it tomorrow or a year from now. Like, like at least I did it when I did. So you can't like, just think that like, obviously the best time to start is now, but you know.

Yeah. It's a, it's a good way to fucking hate yourself just to think about what ifs, but. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And there's a lot of other what ifs that could be reversed and it's like, well, fuck, what if I didn't start that early? Yeah, exactly right. Back on how we met, we're going to do a little bit of a pumping up Alex Sandals' ties. So chatted about how you two met. How did we met? Like us or me and you two? I think the first time we met face to face was at, was that at Melbourne String Culture?

Yeah, Catabasis. Yeah, Catabasis Workshop. Man was quoting like 200. Not one day, one day. Yeah. But I definitely heard a lot about you. I knew one of your good friends, Charlotte, through my cert 3-4. Shout outs, everyone knows Charlotte here. Charlotte is an absolute legend of the game. You should know Charlotte. And yeah, like I'd heard her talk about you and I knew that you were getting coached by Alex and then I think that was the first time we met face to face. And like, I think you followed me on Insta before then and just, I knew your face and I knew your name and I think that was, were you at Woodies for a bit?

Yeah, yeah, I trained at Woodford's for like four years. Yeah, so I think I'd just probably seen you in the background of his videos perhaps or like in his content. But yeah, I'd known Obby for a while. It was the first time I met Jacob and I got to agree on this aura thing. Just the way he carried himself, very confident man, well spoken and it was something I still do really respect about you. Yeah, thank you. That was the first time we met, correct? Yeah. First time and then you were just everywhere after that. You can't escape him.

Totem, totem, totem, totem, everywhere. That's actually a good point. Literally. I literally, everyone talks about all these people in the industry and I think I've only just honestly come into the industry in the last six months and really starting to know all these names. Like, who's that guy that Alex just did the podcast with? Oh, Eugene. Eugene. I've never, I've never heard of Eugene. So there's so many people that I like have never heard of. But yeah, after I met you, it just blew up. I just felt like you were everywhere. It's a good little community, the strength and conditioning and health and fitness.

It's awesome. It's honestly awesome. I love it. It's like the car analogy. Like you get a car, you buy a new car and then all of a sudden you start seeing that car everywhere. Like when I got my territory down there, all of a sudden I'm seeing black territories pop up everywhere. Or it's like, as soon as like you want to want something, just as soon as you start thinking about it, but it just makes you realise that it's always there. But unless you start and acknowledge that that thing, it's okay. You don't see it. Yeah.

And then did we, were you always then doing, I don't know how long after that we started doing Alex's business mentorship? Yeah, it would have only been a couple of months and we did the mentorship. Yeah, I think that was actually the day that he pitched Trinity to me. Yeah. But yeah, I think the business mentorship we started obviously before that. Before what? Before Trinity. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What is Trinity? Fuck, I don't even know. Trinity. Don't tell them too much. If someone asked me to give an elevator pitch to Trinity, I'd actually go blank.

Yeah, I'd just be like, just go on strengthofsad.com. That's probably your best bet. strengthofsad.com/trinity. Yeah. It's literally everything. Yeah, it's just how to become, how to become Alex. Yeah, so it's a mentorship. It's essentially, yeah, a mentorship that involves, I don't know, the Trinity is like three parts. I can't even think of the most. I think it's like congruence, competence, and confidence. You've been doing your homework. I think. I could be very wrong, but you have that. I think it was three C's. Tattered on me. And it's essentially a 12 month mentorship and just teaching us basically everything he knows and giving us every resource he has.

It's bloody amazing. Like, I mean, we've only just started, but like just the value that I can see in it is, and it's the one word that comes to mind for it is going to be life changing. Yeah. And I think that's a similar thing to what everyone's sort of the 10 of us that are doing it have sort of seen it. We've only had one face to face intensive. And I said to Alex straight after, I'm like, mate, like the deposits just pay for itself in that weekend. And there's still another 12 months to go.

Exactly. Exactly. And it's essentially like an all encompassing business development, coach development. Yeah. There's like some biochemistry stuff. There's strength and conditioning, athlete development, everything. Yeah. And how to deal with complex psychological problems. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy nutrition stuff, which I think is the psychology and the nutrition side of it are two things that I'm really excited for. Cause I feel like, I don't know, I'm, I'm competent enough now. Like obviously I'm going to get better, but I think I'm competent enough now to coach and program and do all that side of it. And you know, that I've got, like I've done some online coaching.

So like I've got like the sort of how to conduct a check in roughly down part and that side of it. But the side that I think Alex is really ahead of everyone else on and, and you know, just like a general, just like your average online coach is that, that psychology side of it. And he said, he said recently, like he's pretty much just become a psychologist now to a lot of his clients. And he's doing, he's doing some like psychology work with a psychologist so he can get better at providing that side of, of coaching to his clients, which obviously just like goes to show like how dedicated he is to that thing.

But I think the other thing he's really good at is that like gut health and like the, it's really like kind of, yeah, like things like, you know, blood work and stuff like that, which is like the more in depth things is what I'm really excited for. Again, that's one thing I really respect about him is how much he invests in his own education and upskilling. Like he practices what he preaches. You need to. What was the thing that sort of before you started Trinity, like just drew you to Alex? Because like, did you both start coaching with Incra or you, you coached by him?

Yeah, I've had a bit of coaching from him. What, what sort of drew you to him as a client? I think just how, yeah, just, I think, so I, he was teaching my cert three, four. I've actually done two intakes of that under him just because I joined one and then I couldn't start that intake, but then footy season finished. And so I was, that was the reason I couldn't do it. And so then he was like, Oh, we'll just come down for the last half of it. And then your actual intake can be the next one.

So I pretty much done like, you know, like over one and a half intakes of a cert three, four with him. And through that whole time, like he was sort of just like the wisdom he has and the knowledge he has is just so great that you almost like almost felt like I couldn't not get coached by him. And yeah, just like he just knew the answers to everything and like he really, really helped me in terms of like my, not so much the training side of it, but all the other side of it, like

the nutrition and the hydration and the habits and all that kind of, and all the really technical things for my triathlon and like really helped me out there. So I think that was sort of the big benefit I got out of it and I'm, I'm reciting coaching with him this week. So pretty excited to get kind of that side of it. Back down, Pat. Hmm. What's Jacob? Cause you haven't known Alex as long. No, first time I met him was at the Katabasis. What were like your first impressions of Alex then and what sort of drew you to Trinity?

I don't know. I guess it's his, his confidence in the room. Like when he's there and his presence, everyone kind of just like stops and listens or stops and looks or that kind of thing. I'll tell you what, and like speaking of having an aura about it, and I feel like that's like part of like the psychology thing that like he's probably going to teach us is, you know, and that confidence is like, that's probably why he gets so many clients because he just portrays that confidence and has the confidence and people think I can trust this guy.

The way he carries himself and the way he talks, I got, I am, I did a few workshops at Woody's back in the day, like 2017, like long time ago. And Alex was maybe interning or maybe he was working there at the time, I'm not too sure, but then followed his socials and just the way he carried himself on socials and the way he talked, I actually thought it was a bit of a strange cat, but I loved that. I loved that he had the confidence to just be himself and I couldn't look away and sort of followed his journey from 2017 up until, well up until now.

And yeah, I just really, really respect the way he carries himself and yeah, that aura. Incredible. A hundred percent. Something I hope to emulate. Yeah. Yep. Definitely. Fingers crossed. You got your phone handy, can it? I do. Oh, you're in trouble. I don't even know where it is out there. While we're getting up these viewer questions, favorite thing about like, we're just fucking pumping up Alex Sandel's head, but one, one last thing before we move on, favorite thing about Alex Sandel's and best thing, best takeaway from your time with him. I guess I'm spending so much time on Saad just because he's the reason where he right now.

Yeah. Represent. Um, I think for me it's, he, he's literally just become like a, almost like a, not a father to me. Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy Saad. Like such a mentor to me and like the number one mentor. It's like almost like an older brother kind of situation where like not taking away from my older brother, but like, um, literally like, like he's just, he's, he's just going to be that guy that's going to change my life. I think. Yeah. Yeah. I see the same, like in terms of a mentor, he's kind of like ticks all the boxes, um, and something and possesses the traits that I aspire to.

Um, one day I pulled, um, yeah, for me, I think that's it. He's out, he's really shifted a lot of beliefs that I've once held and especially like really improved my relationship with food of all things, which I might get into a little later cause I'm looking at one of the questions here. What's one thing you've changed your mind over the past year? So that's something I'll chat about in that. Um, yeah, he's shifted a lot of beliefs in me that have ultimately put me on a really, really good path. I think shifting beliefs and

that's something he's touched on, but if you are looking for a mentor, whether it's within the industry that we're in or, or anything at all, I think you need to have a mentor that does shift those beliefs. Um, I think that's the purpose of a mentor. If they know shifting. Love it. Well, we've spent, we've spent a good 15 minutes at least kissing daddy's ass. He deserves his ass to be kissed. That should be a bit of a discount there off of something. Yeah, daddy's ass. I want the green one, please. Strength of Saad on Instagram for those that don't know Alex or strengthofsaad.com to look at his coaching services.

Or just follow us cause no doubt he'll, he'll be, he'll be around. That's it. Um, viewer question time. Got a lot from J Hall Miledi. He followed me the other day. I see him everywhere now. He's one of the great men of the industry. Just a genuine human. He was, he was interning when I was doing my 2019 workshop at Woodies. It's been good to sort of follow him and see his growth from quite intern to really, really good coach. I was training at Woodford's when he started coaching there and like I was literally talking to, um, one of the girls I work with today who knows him.

And like I was saying, like when he first started, he was so shy. So like, just like, like he was barely giving me any cues. Like, I don't want to say shit coach, but compared to like what he is now, like, and he's just so like much more confident and like really good coach, like coaches, athletic development, powerlifting, like obviously like gen pop, like, and he's just like really, and he's just such a nice guy as well. Like if you hate brick, like, I don't know what's wrong with you. Yeah. He's one. Not that I've killed your family.

Not that I've too much to do a thing. It's a PG rated podcast. But yeah, he's one of those people that it's almost impossible to dislike. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. First question from J Hall. What are your training goals over the next year and what are you trying to achieve? I've never tracked calories. Um, or done like a bulk or lifted like heavy and, and followed like a very, very structured program. Um, I've, I've trained, I've only recently got into like the gym stuff probably just before uni. So three, just over three years. Um, for me, I'm, I'm probably looking over the next 12 months, especially after I get back from Europe.

I don't know how the body's going to be in terms of shape wise. Um, but going through like a, a properly structured, I don't know, a program and whether I do like a little bit of a, a good bulk and put some good weight on. Um, but I'm looking to do that with a coach, um, just for that accountability as well. And like the things that eating more food do for your performance goals as well. It's almost like unspoken and it should be spoken about more because we always correlate being in a surplus and eating more to putting on weight and muscle and then it makes sense.

But what that does for your performance in the gym, it's fucking mind blowing and a lot of the big, a lot of the big PRs that I've ticked off in recent times have been, I'd almost say directly due to the fact that I'm just eating more food. Okay. Um, uh, so playing back playing footy this year after a, about a 12 month hiatus. Um, and so at the moment just loving playing footy and obviously training for that. Um, and enjoying just having more fun with that. I think at the end of this year, I'm going

to do a powerlifting comp, um, which I won't have long to train for, but it'll be more so just to, uh, get that exposure to it. So I have more confidence coaching at the moment. We've got a, we've got an in-house powerlifting comp at South Yarra strength on the 20th of May. Um, and all the coaches have got clients doing it. So, um, coaching, coaching through that and that'll be, obviously he's pretty nervous for me cause I've never, all I've done is gone and watched one, um, and been exposed to a bit in the gym. But yeah, it's a bit of a nerve wracking experience.

Um, but it'll be really good, good for my development. But I think doing one, like we were talking about on the gym floor, like if I've done one, it'll, it'll make it so much easier to coach someone through practicing what you preach. Yeah, absolutely. And that's a big belief I have. And, and it's not, it's part of the reason why I'm in such a heavy surplus at the moment and trying to put on such a, uh, big amount of weight is that cause I will no doubt one day, hopefully one day I'm coaching someone that wants to do the same and put on a heap of weight or lose weight and whatever.

So I want to, I want to feel what they feel when they're eating excess of 3500 calories and know the struggles that come along with that. Same when you're in a heavy deficit, I haven't had a deficit phase yet, but when I no doubt get to that, I want to know what that feels like to be in restricted calories just so I can provide as much wisdom and help to my client as possible. I'd love to do a powerlifting comp one day so I can know those struggles. Like we were saying on the gym floor, I'm not overly confident with, um, coaching Olympic lifts cause it's not something I've really done myself.

So I want to, I want to go and get an Olympic lifting coach and really, really lean into that so I can provide value to my clients. Um, the Dunning Kruger effect, I saw a really, actually I think the man Alex shared this the other day. Like I don't think the Dunning Kruger effect is real. Like maybe you're not doubting yourself. Maybe you actually just do have really, really shit knowledge at the thing you're trying to teach. And that's why you're not confident. The reason I'm not confident at coaching Olympic lifts isn't because I'm doubting myself.

It's cause I actually know fuck all about coaching Olympic lifts. True. Um, I think exposing yourself to, as a coach, exposing to yourself to as many different, uh, modalities of training as you can is huge for your development. And yeah, like you say, being able to coach someone like now I've done a triathlon, I've done endurance events and I want to do it in the future. But now that I've done one life, I can competent, I reckon I can competently coach someone through a prep for a half Ironman or a full Ironman or a marathon

or whatever they want to do because I've had that exposure myself and I've been through the process and you just, you can, most of the most things you can just rinse and repeat. Copy and paste. Yeah. Yeah. I think clients want to see their coach practicing what they preach. If they see like they're hiring you and they, I can see that you've done a triathlon, they're going to want to be coached by you, like soccer players going to want to be coached by you. That's what you've had a lot of experience at. I had a

client, they, um, they used to tell me every time I posted like stories or videos of myself training or like struggling when I'm lifting or something like that, they used to love it because I think our clients or people that watch us think we're gods and we can lift all this weight and we're professionals in terms of the performance, but we're human. Humanizers yeah. Yeah. Any more on that? Huh? Any more to add on that? No, I think that was, well then what is something that you've changed your mind on over the past year? Training

or nutrition from J hole again, providing, uh, I said before that I spar, this is definitely actually something I've changed my mind on and I did a, I did a post on this. Um, and I literally said, just because someone's changed, just because a coach has changed their mind on, on a topic over the last few years doesn't mean that they, it takes any credibility away from that. Essentially the essence of the post and like for me, that that's something like that is ice bars and icing and that around recovery verse allowing, um, a bit

of inflammation and you know, like using hate or something instead and using blood flow, um, using movement as medicine verse, um, restricting movement and, and restricting that blood flow. Um, so yeah, I think for recovery and things, ice bars is probably that, that thing, that main thing that comes to mind for me. Yeah. I guess the last 12 months I always wanted to go just because my sporting background always wanted to go down that athlete route. Um, little did I realize everyone's an athlete similar to the setup you guys have here in terms of you have an athlete development program, but it's for everyone, not just athletes.

So I guess from that I've taken a different route in terms of not wanting to necessarily work with, my, my main passion honestly is with the gen pop people. Um, I find that's where I'm my best coach, like my best self. Um, that's what I enjoy most, like dealing with the everyday people who have the everyday problems and challenges that they face and seriously, unless you are coaching at a proper elite level of sport where it is their full-time job, then even the athletes that you're coaching, their general population, they're all gen park 100% and

obviously they might need a bit more athletic development based stuff, but yeah, you still have to manage their life stresses where in a football club where, where, you know, it's their full time job, they've got everything managed for them and they're basically babied to have no life stresses outside of their sport because the club wants them performing at their best. I think actually one that I just thought of, that's a really important one is just, and I know you definitely agree with this, is like, like optimal and like what is optimal, like what, like something

that I like, I was always like so obsessive with my footy cause I was never, I was never like naturally talented and always had to work really hard. So I made sure everything was like down pat and perfect and I think that carried over a little bit when I started coaching and I thought, right, this is doing this. So it's got to, and I've got to do this as well and then I can't do this here. And like I was thinking everything had to be really like specifically optimal and you know, whether it was training

or nutrition or you know, what days you train or your habits or what time you go on a bed and recovery and things like that. But like you say, like the gen pop, like it's not training is just like a, something that they do to keep themselves mentally and physically happy at Abel. And so I think I suppose optimal training is never for most, 99% of people is never going to happen. Like I think we've all had an optimal phase and I think why we now beat up on optimal so much is because we've been

through that phase and then you have your, your belief shift and you realise how unnecessary it is and then you almost like get angry at yourself and the whole optimal movement and we just start beating up on it. That's correct. It's just, it's completely unnecessary. Do you have one for that? Yeah. And mine's probably an optimal in regards to nutrition. I was in a big phase, late 2020, pretty much all the 2021 before I started working with Alex where I thought I had to be eating like all organic, all organic grass, veg and fruit. And like it was almost like orthorexia and it was cause I had some like bad skin and gut stuff going on at the time.

So I thought, all right, to reduce that sort of inflammatory load and the burden on my gut, like I've just got to eat organic, organic fruit and veg, grass fed beef, no like fucking gut irritants, no gluten. Like then I went on a three month like cleanse where it was, you know, only organic fruit and veg. Actually no, no fruit. It was no sugar, no carbs. It was only organic veg, grass fed meat and fish. Not grass fed beef. Not grass fed fish. Only wild caught fish, grass fed beef. Did that for three months and my skin and everything was just in a worse state.

And that's when I started working with Alex and then we found that stress was a big key to the puzzle for me and then made some good gains and then lockdown ended because that was a big catalyst in me doing this cleanse. So it's like, well, I'm locked down. I've just moved to Mornington. I don't really know anyone here other than my work colleagues. I've got nothing else to do. Might as well just do this cleanse. I'm not going to be missing out on anything. And then yeah, as soon as lockdown finished and like that first night it opened up, I went out, drank, eating pizza, shit food.

And then within a week, skin had calmed down, gut stuff, like everything was sort of like on the improvements like fuck. I've just spent three months like doing what I thought was optimal nutrition for my symptoms at the time. And now I'm like flipping that on its head and I'm improving. Complete opposite. Stress was a huge, like, and yeah, that could be, it could have been the stress from being in lockdown and being isolated from my friends and family. And also what I think was a huge piece of the puzzle, stress from having to fucking dial in on this shitty nutritional protocol.

Yeah. When you had no joy in your life anyway, cause you were locked inside your house. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. I wouldn't say I was depressed, I fucking absolutely wouldn't say I was depressed at that time, but certainly wasn't having fun and laughing and smiling every day. That's for sure. Was there anything in particular that you did to reduce the stress that like, do you think back and you go like A, B and C, that was the things that I did? It was just enjoying all foods and just like, cause I would back before the

cleanse, I would eat something like a pizza or something with some gluten or whatever and think, Oh fuck, this is going to make my skin fucking flare up and I'd stress about eating it and then I'd be like fucking constantly like looking in the mirror and seeing how, like if I'm fucking, if I'm flaring up or not. So like just stopping the obsession with my symptoms and with what I'm eating was just the big thing. Psychologically. Yeah. Yeah. So I had to do a lot of work mentally. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. And now it's the same thing.

Like skin's random and there are so many like factors, but. Do you reckon that was the number one thing that Alex fixed up was the stress? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stress and just the relationship with food. Like I'm eating fucking gluten pretty much every day now. Did that take a while? Like that process? Yeah, it did. Yeah. Cause yeah, I was, I was just not a short term fix where people do have all these problems, whether it is skin or something else. And it's like, I want it done straight away. Whereas I kind of have to grind.

If I looked back on old check-in notes and notes in my track from late 2021, there'd be a lot of like sort of struggles in there and regression ebbs and flows. But yeah, ultimately the graph sort of trending up. That's the journey though. You gotta, yeah, you gotta go down and you gotta come up. You gotta be ups and downs. And it's going to take time. Funny, funny, Jeremy Buzzillo comment here. Huge potty, lots of strength by Saad operators, which we love. Yeah. Well, he hasn't enough pumping up. Jack Reed, Rudy. What are each of your definitions of success in your life?

I think for me, what will make me feel success in life is helping people and seeing, and that's something I love about coaching so much at the moment is like seeing people, how happy people get when they improve. And I think that's where, when I can impact someone's life so much more than just with training with when I have online coaching, it's just going to go to a whole nother level of like, and at the end of the day, like most coaches, I feel like deep down, that's all they really want is like, and that's why they love the industries because they love seeing people, you know, like improve and how happy that makes them.

I mean the good ones anyway, like, but there's people out there who would just, just want, they don't care about their clients. And so, yeah, I don't know, just for me, like seeing, seeing how happy people can get when you genuinely transform their life and solve a problem for them or solve 10 problems. And yeah, it, it's really motivating and really empowering to sort of keep, keep going and getting better and being able to solve more and more issues. How do you go with accepting gratitude and compliments? I'm bad at it. Yeah, no, it's funny. My housemate is so bad at like getting like presents and things you like can't open them in front of people.

But my, yeah, like I'm fine. Like I, you know, if someone says like, Oh my God, like you fixed me. So I like genuinely just like smile and like, I love it. It's like, yeah, it's so good. Yeah. Yeah. I've had a lot of experiences and encounters with, especially parents of young people that I've coached and like they're, they're so grateful for the work I've done with them and I don't do well with getting compliments and like there's a lot of older clients on the gym floor that, you know, give me a lot of love and look after me a lot.

And I was like, fuck, I'm not deserving of your love. Yeah. JV. In terms of success as a career, definitely, definitely that aspect, but I think success individually as well. I think just being content for me, life's crazy. And to, for me to be actually successful in who I am as a person is that contentment and it is broad and it's not very specific, but I think you kind of know when you are content. For me, definitely the last 12 months, I'm starting to become more content that I have ever been before. So I'm starting to be a little bit more successful in that individual aspect of myself.

Yeah. Mine's very similar to you too. Like I just want to, if I'm living a life by my, well, it's aligned with my values, then I'm successful. And that is, and that is health, time and people. So I want to make health based decisions for myself and set a good example for the people that I coach and the people that are close to me, freedom of time so that I can spend it with the people who are my third value that I love and the people that I'm coaching and I can give my all to them as well.

If I'm, if I'm ticking those three things off, then that's, that's a really successful life for me. Like, I don't know. It's just all about experiences for me. I want to experience as much as I absolutely possibly can. Definitely. I think, um, yeah, with the people that you want to do it with, I think that another word that comes to mind for me is freedom. Like, and having whether that's, you know, like time or money or, um, yeah, whatever it is like, and those two definitely play into each other is, you know, if you can, if you can make more money, then you can have more time.

And usually when you're working or whatever, you're trading one of them. And yeah, like for me, it's, it's being kind of probably taking a bit of both your points there, but like, you know, living in a place that makes me feel content and happy and free and, um, being able to wake up and, and do the things that I want to do. And obviously, you know, until you retire, you're never going to be able to stop working, but it's just like, yeah, like you say, just being able to do the things you want to do at the times you want to do them.

And, um, I don't know, wake up and go for a swim in the beach and, and then come back and have a coffee and then, you know, start working or whatever. And like, that would just be like such a, if you could do that, if I could do that every morning, I'd just be content. I'm a hundred metres from the beach and I need to be doing that shit. That's the first thing you think of. As if you're not, oh, the weather's not ideal to be honest. Well, you get in the ice bath, the beach wouldn't be as cold as that.

Oh, my heart. I thought you were going to die. I was scared for you. I was like, if my chest keeps tightening, something's going to happen. Did you feel like you were panicking? I don't know. Like, nah, like I was, I felt like I was in control, but like it just, my hands just kept vibrating more and more and more and my chest just kept getting tired and it's uncomfortable. 10 seconds. Yeah, I need to do it more. It's almost like a tipping point. If you can get past like the three minute mark, then you're right.

And everything just sort of goes numb and it's like, I'm gonna push this for another couple of, I think if I had have kept going to that fourth minute with Jacob, it would have been fine. But like I was just like, yeah, I was freaking out. I think it's good opportunity to just be, as you said, like being present. Oh man, it's, it's my, it's my stillness. Like you're not thinking about anything else other than trying not to die and freeze. But I think that's, that was the problem because you were talking a bit and like freaking out, like my chest, like you're thinking about it.

Yeah. I, I like, I literally got in there and my first 30 seconds, like I was, I thought I was going to get out. Like it was, it was uncomfortable. And then I just like controlled my breathing, not even thinking about it, but just like sitting there and being present. I think I was breathing too hard. I was going, yeah, you were going nuts. We'll clip this up and post a bit later. I was, I thought that was going to help. And then yeah, I should just relax. When you were telling me to relax and not, yeah, we can get Jacob to that at the end.

That can be the closing scene. He gets in a horse pose. Come on Charles, come on Charles. I'll do it at the end. We'll get all at the same time. Yes. Oh, thank you for that shit. Um, it's going to say something and I've lost my train of thought. Too busy talking about daddy win. Um, I love it. Right. It's going to come back to me. We do have one more question. BTV reflections. This is from a Coxie. Coxie. Shout out Jason. I was actually at BTV as well and he just wants to know who performed better.

Were you there? Yeah, I didn't see you two there though, but I would have known you both and known your faces enough that if I did see you I would have gone. Yeah, I would've lost it. Yeah. Um, well you can be included. Well I suppose me versus Jacob. Come on. Did you just go together? No. Nah. So Jacob and I were like peak, like early friendship then and or like, no, we've been mates for a while, but like I wouldn't say we're as close then as we are now. Um, but like we were kind of like talking about it so much.

We're like, Oh, I can't wait for BTV. It's going to be so fun. Um, and then we literally like you came over to my, our camps was so far from each other, but you came to my camp once and then we were drinking for a bit there and then we went and then we went back to your camp and then I didn't even know what happened there. But then, but then I know what, I know what happened. And then, uh, and then on the last night I just saw a Jacob, like we were just walking from like the main stage to whatever the second one was.

And Jacob, I just like, I just heard, I think you like yelled my name out and like I just looked over and it was him just like, and he was just in all sorts. Like he's like, what was it? Your knee was or your ankle. No, my, I felt as though my, this, that bursts are just throwing up again. No, my car, it felt as though my car had detached from where it was meant to be attached. I couldn't walk. I was going ski laps. I did have that tough festival ground. How many steps were you cooking up?

Like, like too many. Like I had this what my garment on as well. And like I was doing like, yeah, it would have been a good like 30,000 steps. I think 35 was my biggest step. But like, uh, and then I think like the problem with BTV is like, there's no, even if there's good service, like it's so slow because there's so many people there. And so I was like texting you and just like 10 minutes later it would come through and we'd be talking about which doof stick we're near. And then like, I'd be like, Oh, I'm near this one.

And then 10 minutes later you'd get the text and be like, Oh, I'm near this one. And 10 minutes later I get the text and look for it and go find it and you wouldn't be there. Yeah. It was just like, I don't know. It's chaos. But you have to answer the question. Yeah. Actually I was about to say, so back to the question. Oh, who performed better? Well, I don't know if we have a good enough indicator, but okay, wait, I've, I've got an argument. Okay. You were there for three days. Yeah. And you were there for four.

I was there for four days. Was the first day worth it though? It was awesome. I loved it. I don't know, but maybe I went harder in those three days. May you, you all sorts. You're just running around. You're just, Oh, I wish I could get into into the specifics. Specky fix specifics. We'll leave that for another day. What was your like favorite moment or favorite couple of moments, favorite act, whatever your highest, your highest serotonin moments of, uh, beyond the Valley. The Stump Stump set was sick and I was with like a couple of my best mates.

It was in the middle of the day and like we were just like a little bit drunk and like, I don't even know. No, I don't even think we drank anything, but it was just like awesome. It was like nice weather. Um, we're just standing in like in the mosh pit and just like, it was a late, um, what was another really good one? Um, Laura King was sick. I don't think I saw Laura King. Oh no, actually no. Number one by far was like, uh, what was it? Nelly Furtado. Oh mate, my housemate and I are obsessed with like that kind of music.

Like the early, the two thousands music. And like when that went on, like we would just, there was like, again, like all just like my best mates, like it was just like the most unreal situation ever. And then into Dom dollar and I love Dom dollars music, but like that set was insane. He took the piss. Yeah, it was so good. And like that probably, it was probably over the two hours that those two were playing. Like it was just like serotonin peaking. Yeah. He took the piss and he went half an hour over time. So that was like two hours.

That's fucking work to be standing there dancing for that long. Yeah. It was, it was so loud as well after that. Like I was just like, I couldn't hear a thing, but how bad is the week after going back to reality? I'll tell you what, I actually wasn't too bad then. Like I've had big festivals in the past. I felt that, but I, um, I'm meal prepped and made sure I had like my sardines and she had my boiled eggs and my salmon and I've got a heap of nutrients into me while I was there. And I didn't, I don't think I drank water.

I drank hydrolyte the whole time. So I was pretty well fine afterwards. I got back on obviously on the first and then I left for America for seven weeks on the fifth. And so I had like four days and I didn't even want to go to America. I wasn't even looking forward to America for like until I was at the airport the whole time between BTV and, and when I left, like I just wanted to go back to BTV and like, I know you were saying the same, all my mates were saying the same. We were just like, just take me back.

Like it was actually a great like festival. We were considering not even going. It's just because like no one, when you're there, like when you're at a festival, no one cares. And that's, and there's back on that freedom and Liberty chat. Like it's a, they're a different world. Yeah. It's um, you can be yourself. You can do whatever you want. Truly. There's just no rules. And no one's going to remember it. Like if you do something stupid, you can, but not defined stupid, but you can do stupid stuff. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. What about you? What was your, uh, I'm quite the same.

Like, yeah, well actually Patrick topping on night two phenomenal. I, um, I quite enjoyed yet Nellie Furtado and then into Patrick topping because we had quite a big group, but they were pretty split up for the whole festival. And then there were some of them that only got there on like the very last day. So we're pretty well split up and never all together at one time, but like on that night and that set, all those two sets, like all 20 of us, just a big group and there's a lot of love. So good. And my new year's just like, just like clicks over and like, you know, you just like, yeah, it's genuinely just like so much like happiness.

It's pure happiness when it rushes to your body. It's like, yeah, you can't describe it. So good. Um, yeah. What a time. Good times. Coaches that practice what they preach here. Let's have a fun time. Balance, balance, balance, all that balance. What'd you say? There's no point living. We're going to end on that. There's no point living from Locky Jenner. Don't leave. Just, just, there's no point. Um, is there a hint of the no she's want to add before we sign off? We're at an hour and 15 minutes now. We've been talking about it for a while.

I love this GME. Just so cool. Like look at this podcast room. They've literally got every Jake and I were joking about it. They literally have everything. Like I was like, Oh Tyler, if you got this, he was like, yeah, they have ice bath. They have a sick gym set up. There's a track a hundred meters that way. There's a footy field and a soccer field just out the back of the place. And they have a door onto that. Like, and they have dogs running around the basketball hoop. Like they have a fridge stocked full of rockaby farm to drink.

Um, like recovery staff, like a sauna compression boots, obviously the ice bath, physio exercise, nutrition, like it's genuinely a great, and like everyone here is like, the team's awesome as well. Um, yeah, I love it. It's very well, like a welcoming space and it's not, it's what we strive for. Credit to you about creating an environment where people want to show up, which is half the battle, like showing up and having a good relationship with health and fitness. If I was coming here every day, I'd be bursting out of my skin to get here to try and like, it's just awesome.

And that's like something that, yeah, I suppose you strike like every gym strives to create is somewhere where people can't wait to turn up to. That's it. Yeah. It's a, it's a nice place for me to come and do work and I could imagine that's a nice place to come and train as well. Definitely. Uh, anything I just want to chat about? Any, any closing topics? Tell the world about yourself, where they can find you. Closing spiel. Barlow coaching. You can look me up. You got to type in the URL though. Barlowcoaching.com. If you search up in Google, it doesn't come up yet.

I don't know why. You gotta do that SEO optimization, man. Maybe I gotta get on top of it. Um, Instagram, TikTok. All Barlow coaching. Barlow coaching. Yeah. Um, long story to get to that name, but I'll save that for another day. That's pretty, pretty tough mate. I had four different top like names and then I accidentally like bought the domain from the wrong domains. Then I had to change and buy another domain. Shit show. Shit show. So I'm with Barlow coaching and it's stuck and, and I like it. You still call me JBSC or something. That's your name.

I got used to. JBSC. Yeah. Shout out. Where can the people find you? Uh, coach_kennett. K E double N E double T. It's not one N and it's not one T. Um, two N's, two T's. Uh, that's Instagram, TikTok. Yeah. I feel like they're the only two important ones now anyway. Um, Hey, don't sleep on LinkedIn. True. I need, I was looking at that. I need to get on top of it for my corporate stuff. Like, yeah, true. It'd be good for you. Um, and then yeah, coach_kennett.com. Type it into the URL and book in for some coaching.

Yeah, baby. And watch this space. Yeah. Watch this space. Watch this space. There could be this, but with you soon. Don't go away too much. I'm keen to be in the, uh, the receiving, the non host chair. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. That could be coming soon. What does the next few months look like before we close off? Like goals, ambitions. What do we hope to take off? Survive Europe. Yep. Get back from Europe in one piece. I'll be best on. I hope the other boys aren't watching this cause they're going to roast me if I just call it like claim to best on.

I think for me, just keep, keep developing and building out all of my systems and try and keep developing that online coaching side of it. Um, and then once Jacob gets back, yeah, we're moving into that. Um, yeah, maybe. Maybe not. Haven't finalized shotgun, top bunk, shotgun, left hand side of the bed. Um, and yeah, I dunno, just keep, keep doing what I'm doing. Just enjoying the industry. Yeah, cause we're young, very young. Good. What about you? Uh, same, much the same as Jacob survive Europe. If I can get back from Europe still above 80 kilos, I'd be pretty happy.

Although I'm starting to doubt it. Yeah. Can you drop low? Yeah, well I was up to 83 a little bit there and then had a little bit of stuff with their head and I stopped training for a few weeks and stopped tracking nutrition on that as well. And now I'm back down to like below 81 as of today. So I'll um, yeah, I'll keep feeding that as much as I can over the next 37 days and then try and sustain while I'm away. I love that. That's awesome. Sick boys. I'm so glad we, uh, got around to this.

It's uh, it's lived up to expectations and it was as good as I thought it to be. Hopefully the viewers think the same. Um, might have to be a part two. Yeah, maybe. I'll bring the potty equipment up to South the arrow strength. So we'll sit in that facility. But um, I'll bring it up to your house and we'll just, when you move in together. Yeah, that'd be good. Actually. Hopefully I'd be around set up by then. Go to the uh, buddy Albion for some beers after. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And then a hot chocolate on a Sunday morning for Kennet and we'll drink the coffee.

Man, I'm in. I'm in. Beautiful. Not so good to have you down here boys and welcome down anytime you want. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening. Have a good day.