The Next Evolution of the Fitness Industry with Mike Lenox and Nick Elliott
Michael Hughes
Welcome back to the Gymnazo podcast. I’m your host, Michael Hughes, with two amazing co hosts, Michael Lennox and Nick Elliot, both functional movement specialist and recent recent graduates of the multi dimensional movement, coaching mentorship, you’re gonna be joining into a conversation that we had, that spans quite a few passion topics. One is like, what does it really mean to be a personal trainer in this day and age with the education that we have? And the means that we that we have to give to athletes? Where’s the industry right now? And do do we really see the full transition towards more of a movement based training and conditioning, versus a physique based training and conditioning methodology and how excited we are to see that transition as it bubbles up from the underground. It also was sharing some gold nuggets since the major takeaways that they got from the mentorship and how we all are realizing that the community of trainers that are critical thinkers is blowing up and it’s huge. So if you’re those topics, kind of picture your interest, you’re gonna love this, this podcast if you love forward thinking and kind of projecting and planning out what the future is going to be like for the industry, you’re gonna love this podcast. If you just love just jumping into three guys heads on, on where we are in for and where we’ve come from as trainers and how we affect and can affect change in our clients lives. You’re gonna love this podcast. So thanks for joining in with us. Enjoy this an about an hour or so conversation. And we’ll see you on the other side.
Welcome to the Gymnazo podcast where you get to peek behind the curtains of what it takes to create and run a seven figure fitness facility that ranks in the top 5% of boutique fitness studios for revenue. But to be honest, that’s the least important thing about us. Founded by me, Michael Hughes, Gymnazo has created an ecosystem of services that blend performance with restoration techniques, and attracts top coaches to its facility hosted by Paden and myself and our top coaches this podcast shares our best practices on everything from how to build a sustainable fitness business, to how to program for maximum results to how to build a hybrid training module that’s online and in person. We have marketing secrets, movement, innovation, and breaking down trends in the industry. If you’re a fitness professional, or fitness business owner, this is where you learn how to sharpen your skills and to see maximum results. I’ve stopped using the name personal trainer. I don’t I don’t like it. I don’t it actually makes me feel that I am the egotistical arrogant guy who has to wear a tank top or cut off sleeve shirt in the gym. And if I don’t train the trainer, if I don’t train my clients the way that I exactly look, then I’m not doing them a service. There is a story to that. Yeah. Oh, man. Good. So it’s kind of interesting, because, you know, when people say, Hey, you own a gym, it actually makes me cringe. I know Gymnazo. The first three letters is gym. But like, it actually makes me cringe. Because I don’t want people to think that that’s who I am. I’m the typical gym owner, personal trainer. And so I found myself saying like, No, I actually own a training facility. And they kind of looked at me like what? Like, like, it’s a little different than a gym, you know, there’s no, there’s no cardio alley and, you know, racks of weights with, you know, mirrors in front of them. You know, we actually train athleticism. Like, that’s our focus. So I’m curious, is that something you guys connect with? Or is that you know, which guys’s vibe on that one?
Speaker 2
Well, I would, I would agree, I like the whole personal trainer tag is something I’m trying to get away from and to try and explain like, Well, how do I do that gracefully? Because people know and they just Oh, but but the response I get, oh, you’re a personal trainer, again, that has a certain stereotype. So when I have like, played around, I’m like, oh, a movement specialist. Oh, what’s that, you know, and it definitely sparks a little more conversation. But the whole gym vibe is interesting because where I’m at it’s it’s definitely more of an old school type of gym, where we have a number of independent trainers, lots of different styles. Everyone’s very busy, very successful. So it’s been a nice transition for me just to kind of bring what I’m doing and share that and with with some of the other people who are willing and open to it and more Want to know, some of these odd things that I’m doing the movement? And why? Why are you doing a squat like that? Like, your feet are crooked? Like, what do you do? Right? You know, but then they’re doing their, you know, my shoulder hurts, you know, why are you doing that? So it’s really interesting. Like, there’s there’s the trainer, and then there’s the movement specialist. whole idea. So it’s been a it’s been a fun transition, and I’m still working on like, how to exactly explain that to, to, to our, to my clients, my people and what not.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Yeah, very similar bow there. I think more so. With me, it’s, I think this is where my ego still creeps up. Because I think my transition in terms of how I refer to myself when someone does as I sometimes believe that maybe they are, will not be able to comprehend what I’m saying. So when I say movement specialist, someone doesn’t, you know, really grab that they’re not able to identify with that yet, I think just because of how this is growing as a movement. So a lot of times, I found that I’ll start with that. And someone will say, Oh, what is that? And then I say, a personal trainer? You know, it’s kind of like that. Yeah, it’s kind of like here, let me give it to you in layman’s terms, because I’m not sure if I want to spend the time speaking to you about what it is that I do right now. So that I have taken kind of, like, checked in with myself there on that because I think that is largely the ego, largely some of the emotional patterns that I have still at play that kind of conflicting in how I’m growing as an individual as well, you know, not just my title, but where am I at in my journey as a human being? Because I think we largely identify with what we label ourselves. But that is not what we are, you know, we are humans first and foremost, we are beings and it’s very easy to get caught on to I’m a personal trainer. That’s what I do. It’s who I am. It’s how I breathe exactly like you said, it comes with the tank top the coat off sleeves, the heart attitude, the food while you’re training a client even food like you know, that’s it’s it is what it is. So there are shifts that are I think there’s a lot changing within this industry, there’s a lot changing and that is definitely one of those works in progress is going from personal trainer to movement practitioner or movement specialist and I’ve even had the Am I really a specialist? No, I’m more of a practitioner. You know what, I’m working up to a specialist so I get conflicted even within Am I actually especially you know, what, what am I specializing it? So, um, yeah, I agree with a lot of what both you said, and I just think that I my end, there’s definitely more, I just feel it, it’s very deep. You know, it’s, I have to check in with myself quite often when even if I’m in my own head about, you know, I’m not actually speaking out loud. I’m in my own head about it just typing up your bio, right? Oh, this is who I am what I do. And I’m like, do I really want to type that? Is that what I am? Am I good enough to put that so there’s the self worth that you have to evaluate. So yeah, those are that’s my two cents.
Michael Hughes
But it’s really interesting because we’re in an industry that you know, no one no one gives you a title. You know, a truly you know, I’m talking you know, this certifications out there and there’s things like that but you know, like, there’s no there’s no schooling system there’s no licensing system there’s no governing body that cause okay, you’re now a lawyer great job like by by the legal structure of the state of Florida, California you are this legally you know, and in this industry I mean to me like the fitness industry is such an it is such an underground industry like there’s there’s no news that reports on it you know, there’s no there’s no like, you know, public eye that that digs into it. There’s no even companies that are like even publicly traded on the market either orders Planet Fitness, but you know, it’s it’s such a it’s such a like an underground like we all do fitness. Like the vast majority of of least the United States population takes care themselves in some degree, nutritionally or physically made to be a very low degree, and in fact, it is a very low degree. But the professional that works inside of it The US personal trainers quote unquote like it’s not a very glory seeking job unless because it’s always like made fun of in like movies. It’s always made fun of him like TV shows. You know, like, we’re usually I know that that type a
stereotype. Yeah, thumbnail.
Michael Hughes
I remember there was a movie where Brad Pitt was the personal trainer, I forget what the movie was. I think like I remember. Yeah. And he was just like, he was an idiot. It was absolute idiot. Yeah. And I realized, the more that like I, you, Nick, I seem like I’m, I’m connecting more with the engineer. Like, that’s, that’s how I look at every single client. And every single session is like, wait a minute, wait a minute. My job is to reverse engineer biomechanics, but also to reverse engineering, their personality type. It’s also the reverse engineer, you know, what they’re even walking in with, like, just who they are as a soul for that day, almost trying to reverse engineer the equipment that I need to use the tools. And then the whole, like, they’re human. Like, they’re never the same. Right? Like, they’re always it’s always consistently different. And I have to build a program and also for them for like a computer engineering. So I have no idea how to code like, I have, like, zero knowledge on that topic. But we all do programming, we’re trying to set a set parameter of things to apply to a, to a subject to get an outcome. That’s programming. And so therefore, like, we have to do those things, too. And like, there’s so there’s so much intelligence and complexity built within that, that I don’t even think our industry understands. I think we’re unpacking that. We are on unpacking that. But it’s yeah, it’s it’s so underground. It just really fascinates me like where I believe the industry is going and I wish there was a bigger I wish there was a bigger soap boxes to stand on. Great. Announce it, you know, truly, but I don’t think I don’t think mainstream media cares, I truly don’t.
Speaker 2
Well, it’s very interesting, what you what you’re saying is, is every you know, 90% of people out there are doing, you know, are watching what they eat, they’re moving, they’re exercising to some degree. And it’s such a big part of, you know, you know, everywhere around the world, like people are doing it, people are aware of it, but yet, it doesn’t really go recognized. And before, before the podcast here, I was just kind of like going back through the program and what you guys have laid out here, and what you guys teach. And some of like, how to handle clients, getting, you know, out of the transactional experience, just personality types, and a lot of those soft skills that in my years as a trainer, never I’ve never seen that it’s never been taught, it’s always about the exercises, you know, like the, the bones of it. And not about the people themselves and just what it actually does and how much of an impact it has on people’s lives. And again, which is why I’m like stoked to see someone you know, you taking the reins and really wanting to elevate the industry with all that you’re doing. And now with this movement collective, like it’s just expanding, and now we have, you know, the MDM tears, you know, all of us, like looking to, to do the same. It’s a lot more than just, hey, I’m just a personal trainer. I’m just wearing a tank top. I’m a meathead. You know, like Nick said, I’m gonna eat my, you know, chicken and broccoli while I’m training and get my 18 cups of coffee a day. You know? Yeah. Yeah, most definitely. I mean, I mean, health care, like we should, you know, should not be like a staple. Like, that’s everybody should have access to it.
Michael Hughes
I was really hoping like the silver lining for me, you know, as we as our as our industry, you know, one of the biggest industries that got decimated from COVID You know, certainly others. But we’re, we’re really in that bottom of the barrel type of application here. I was really hoping and had this kind of, like, inner like, calm about me going through this two years of kind of extreme lockdown, at least in the state of California. Like I was like, You know what, the nation is gonna wake up I’m so happy this is happening. Because we’re gonna realize how important personal healthcare is. Because you can get COVID Like we can all get it you know, vaccine or not, you know, but what the cool thing about what everyone’s like you realize that you can get it but it’s not gonna affect you too much. And I’m like, That’s awesome because solid fitness and solid health does the same thing. You know, we’re not gonna argue the degree of what it does or what doesn’t do, but it does the same thing it helps. And I was like, Yes, we’re finally gonna get the wake up call that preventative care is the way is the way forward. And I’m a little sad, because I don’t see that happening.
Unknown Speaker
I was just gonna ask if you still feel that way.
Michael Hughes
I still feel that way. But I don’t think it’s very slow. Yeah, maybe the Wake Up Calls there, but I’m not seeing it in our facility. Right. You know, we’re, we’re certainly coming back online. But I was, I would hope it’d be like, Oh, my gosh, my health care is so important. Right. And now I need to start doing something about it. Like, we still have our current clients who they all I mean, they were they were drinking, they’ve drank in that juice a long time ago. You know, but, you know, I’m not seeing that wave of people of like, Wow, I can’t believe that, that this thing was so impactful towards people’s lives. And one of the easiest ways to help is self care. And that’s just not just physical or mental. It’s also soulful, like stress, like decreasing stress in one’s life. And the news isn’t, didn’t talk about it. I’m not reading in magazines on it. I’m not reading like, oh, we had the biggest wakeup of our lives. And, you know, the biggest helper in the industry, are these people called trainers, who can guide you and help you nutritionists. And like, Nope, I haven’t seen anything. I hope I’m just looking at the wrong sources. Yeah, nope, I’m just missing it. But that was a that was something that kind of what I was, I was really am amped on that, that really kept me going. through the, through the dark, dark hours, basically, the quiet streets, the virtual training sessions. Yeah. All right. But, but yeah, but coming into it, though. And like, I appreciate that it’s like, you know, like, this is what I believe is so exciting. And it’s like, the newest kind of push back is that like, as the industry shut down. And as we started to build the MDMC program, and as we started building things, like literally two months before the pandemic hit, you know, we just put it on the back burner, like who’s going to be who’s going to be investing in themselves when they have zero clients coming in, you know, or they’re totally pivoting on their, on their on their business. But over the past, you know, I’d say over the past half decade, you know, there’s this has been new revival of like, physique training should not be called fitness anymore. We’ll just call it physique training. Like you’re certainly building musculature, you’re certainly building up, you know, connective tissue health, you know, but let’s not call that health and fitness. Let’s just call that you. You look good, but your function is pretty, honestly worthless, but doesn’t have application.
Unknown Speaker
There’s definitely a cost.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, exactly. It’s like, yeah, that is a way to work out. But that is not the way that the vast, vast, vast majority of people should work workout. That is the people that is how it is, is actually been portrayed. Like, I really want the page to turn like Arnold Schwarzenegger, thank you very much. You really have done a good job. But the page is turning now. We’re going to a new way we’re gyms should be remodeled in us in a way, because they’re still designed, even brand new fitness facilities are being designed the same way they have been since the 1970s. Right. And last time I checked, that’s not 30 years ago, that’s 50 years ago. Like think about everything that’s evolved in the last 50 years. Right. I mean, everything has, but fitness has been this hasn’t.
Speaker 3
I think to just kind of speaking to the time there the the time aspect, one piece that I have continued to kind of process as the pandemic has gone on. And we’re really still there’s some aspects of it that are still hear around, and if carried over. I often hear people say, I can’t wait until this is done. Meaning the pandemic, when we are inside of it, I can’t wait till we have to take our masks off. I can’t wait till we go get to go back into person. I can’t there was always this I can’t wait as if they weren’t able to live where they were at that time in that present day, minute, hour, whatever. I think fitness for the most part is that same thing. It’s this constant. I can’t wait until I look this way. I can’t wait until I feel this good. I can’t wait until I get here. And I think that’s why I think that’s one aspect of what has really created the outcome of What fitness has become, because we’re never in the present moment, we’re never able to realize that what we’re doing now is benefiting us five years down the road, three months down the road. So it’s this constant jump from, I just can’t wait until I just can’t wait until, as opposed to living through every single moment and being present in that. And I think that’s really a big piece of at least my experience with some of my athletes, my clientele my community, is, it’s really, really, really hard for them to see what a multi dimensional coach can offer them over the course of a year. Vers, let’s say the the guy who literally just puts them through the isolated traditional moves over and over again for three days a week until their quads are exploding through their shorts after one month of doing that, or whatever that may look like. So I just oftentimes I wonder the scope of how far someone is looking out and are they actually present in that moment. And I think a big thing in terms of the fitness industry where it could be going the shifts that are being made, the the movements that are happening, is the ability to see a certain extent, but also live in the moment while you’re there. And it patient like it, it really for me, it just comes back to patients and being able to touch in with this is what has been created, like let’s say like over the last 50 years, this is what has been created. But now, like you said, underground, you’re starting to see these for Mike and I have talked about this several times for a long time there. We were looking for other movement practitioners, we were looking for you. We were looking for metla Bosco with the movement, we were looking for Lenny with soft tissue, we were looking and we couldn’t find it, we did it, we were tight. We’re typing in Google, like a try play load on the hit counter rotates, like you couldn’t find these things you couldn’t you couldn’t find movement flow. It wasn’t there. But now it’s like all of the underground. All these people that have been working on their craft are starting to come out through the cracks. And it’s like, yes, 50 years, this is what has been created. But now all these people I think are starting to make that shift. So I understand your feelings. I think that they do play a role there. But I do believe that some pieces are changing, for the better. And for permanent in a way the fitness industry will never be the same. If this trend continues. Because these people are coming up in through the communities are expanding. And people are starting to ask questions like, you know, I saw this, I saw this video of this guy doing a maze and or saw CJ doing the lunge matrix and I’m just trying to, you know, it’s coming. I think it’s coming. It really is,
Michael Hughes
oh, I fully agree with you. It is coming, because of the hard work that we’re putting into it. And there’s there’s no question that, that the seeds have already been been planted and the germination is, is going through it. You know, my big my big focus, like I want it to be known that like even our grandparents, which unfortunately won’t ever actually fully realize what what we’re doing will be like, oh, yeah, that’s just what you do. That’s when I go to the gym. That’s what I do. Right? You know? And if that’s the same way, it’s the same with any technology that’s that that’s coming up, right, we have to actually, you know, who’s going to be the adopters, you know, it’s not going to be relatively the old, it’s going to be the it’s going to be the young it’s gonna be those who with the with the mindsets, mentally young, to say, Hey, this is something that I’m that I’m seeing and I’m paying attention and I’m looking for better. I’m looking for more efficient. And that’s really cool, because it’s actually how much I actually dislike traditional social media. Because it portrays such a such a small scope of what’s factual. It is right now like to me like I look at Instagram for the fitness industry or tick tock or where the case is. It’s like that’s the research and development forum. Yeah. Yeah, when when you guys post the video, like up till it’s only like 30 seconds. It’s only a minute of you talking. Right? What it is, it’s really just a snapshot on this is what I’m working on. You know, I’m in my lab and check this out. You know, and I think that’s that’s really kind of cool, because you know, every technology has their labs, you know, batteries, right right now for the energy and done it. It’s like, you know, like, okay, cool that’s in the lab, but can you put it to the masses? Can you scale it? You know, and what makes me like, super amped is like, we’re scaling it. Like, we have something that that is scalable. And if it can happen here, in this small little town of San Luis Obispo, it can happen in relatively small town, Jupiter, Florida, you know, like, okay, cool. Like, we’re getting these case studies where it’s being scaled. So like, how do we share it as fast as possible? Knowing that VC funding and Spax and you know, buying stock is probably not going to happen? Like, that’s just not how this is going to happen? Like we’re you know, it I think, I think it actually has to go grassroots, I think it has to go on underground. Because the moment we get someone who wants to profit on it and be that their sole purpose is shareholder value, then you start to strip out the, the true essence of what it is, doesn’t mean that we can’t be made made money from right, but not, you know, like, I don’t I’m not a big fan of the Orangetheory. Fitness, I don’t think they’re doing a good job. I don’t think F 45 is doing a good job of saying, Hey, here’s functional movement at its best.
Unknown Speaker
Well, here’s an old they don’t do that at all right?
Michael Hughes
Well, it’s certainly certainly different. It’s certainly not treadmill alley, you know, I excuse me, Orangetheory is, you know, it’s certainly different than lifting weights just to look, there is more movement involved in it. It’s very much the CrossFit, right, CrossFit is doing a good job to break away from the traditional gym. But it’s like, it’s an iteration though. And I think I feel like we’re the next iteration of that iteration. Like the boutique ing of making fitness much more personal. I would like to, I would like like to say it’s like, you know, how often do you brush your own your own teeth? Versus how often do you get them cleaned yourself first, how often do you get them maintenance and actually, like, dug dug into? And I was like, Well, I brush my teeth every day. It’s like, Cool. Alright, so do you do intentional movement every day? Okay, cool. How often you get them cleaned yourself? Oh, every few months? Oh, cool. How often? Do you see a movement specialist to correct the dysfunction? How often you go to the dentist, so only want to have an actual problem. Your actual broken tooth or pain? Cool? How often do you see something about your body? Like it to me, like there’s so many parallels in, in our lives? Where, like, you know, we we put so much maintenance towards so many things. But we don’t do it towards our joints and towards our muscles. Right? Any of the mentality of those of those spots? It’s like, that’s to me, like, that’s the when, you know, it’s like, that’s just what I do. Like, of course, I stretch every day. Like, you don’t brush your teeth every day. Like, you’re sick. Like, that’s what I always like to say is like, what if you went on a date with with somebody and they and you found out they didn’t brush their teeth? Would you want a second date? No, for them? I don’t know. They’d have to be really, really special. No. So like, it’s like, if the same concept came through, it’s like, Oh, you don’t take care of your physicality. doesn’t really have to be like this specimen of like, physique, shredded shredded ABS by any means, but like, Oh, you don’t you don’t take care of your physicality. It’s like, oh, wow, interesting. All right. I’m not passing judgment on anybody. That’s not my intent. But my intent is that, like, you know, we take care of so many things, but we just let our human body just do its thing. Hopefully, that it doesn’t crash and burn.
Unknown Speaker
It’s the last on the list. Yeah, yeah, it is.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, it is. So I have a question, what have been some of your guys’s kind of biggest takeaways from the multi dimensional movement, mentorship, the process? You know, what are those kinds of nuggets? That you’re like, Wow, this is I’m gonna I’m gonna think about something completely differently for for the rest of my life. Or you know, not to say that maybe yourself personally but also towards towards your own clients, your own athletes. Mike, you kind of touched on it a little bit, but
Speaker 2
well for me, like they’re pretty basic. And I say come and set but one of the things was just seeing the body as a whole. We, I think it was Matt gave us the analogy of the Apache helicopter, right? You go in you know, to see apart but then you got to come out and see the whole thing, see what’s going on. And you know, the body works as a whole All integrated system and not as an isolated, you know, part. And again, through my education, what I’ve done all my CEUs everything, everything is isolated, everything we do is isolated. And you look around gyms and that’s, you know, and I tried to stay out of that, like Nick says that ego or that place of being judgmental, but like this is just what we’re taught. And this is I was going to say before, like one of the challenges of elevating the issue is just getting the information out, like the industry is what it is because of what information we’ve all been given as personal trainers, like if this is a profession you want to go pursue, what are you going to learn, you’re going to learn cadaver anatomy, you’re going to, you know, your bicep curls, your traditional exercises. And there’s, you know, I think you were even saying, you know, going through kinesiology and you know that you open a book and there’s your sagittal plane, frontal plane, transverse plane. But beyond that, it’s not mentioned, it’s not talked about how do we use that? How does that relate to real life movement? It’s just mentioned. So that was a big one. Another one was just being intentional. And that’s something I’m, you know, I tried to work on every day is, why am I doing something, you know, whether it’s a move a program, or just what am I doing today, like, wake up in the morning and trying to, you know, be intentional for the day not just go through the movements and go through the motions, being intentional. Another one is, is a big one is, I think you guys taught me and really, like emphasize how to how to think, not just how to do and I started thinking about, like, what does that mean, and I looked at, again, a lot of my education that I’ve come through, and, you know, the, you know, I’m taught, you know, show me how to do this, you know, you know, how do you how do you how do you, you know, fix your car? How do you, you know, do this exercise? How do you lose weight? How do you, you know, whatever it is, as opposed to like, what do you want? And like, let’s, let’s kind of break that down and think about it, process it, because there’s a number of ways to do it, right. So those are definitely a number of big ones, the whole concept of chain reaction, biomechanics and the transformational zones. Again, that was what those are like foreign languages. Like when I first heard him, I said, you know, I was like, What am I? What am I where, where has this been, like, I’ve been searching, and I’ve been fortunate, I’ve had some good mentors, went through fitness Institute with, you know, kind of Anthony Abbott, who has got to resume train Nassau. He’s one of eight people, I think, who’s who writes the NSCA test, and very old school and like, brilliant guy, I went through some courses with Juan Carlos Santana, who is, you know, a lot of people say, the father of functional training. And the guys, you know, super successful. But even, you know, having that there’s always like, I felt something missing. So, again, like the chain reaction, biomechanics, or transformational zone, all that stuff was was kind of new to me. And it’s like, I’m in the process of learning this language and going out and speaking it, you know, and getting people to understand it. And some of them are, like, say that again, what is it, and now trying to communicate with them. And then again, there’s so many nuggets in the course, talking about writing program, balancing a workout, and like, the soft skills, all of that stuff was like, you know, like I said, just did, it’s brilliant. Nothing I’ve ever been through, there’s no classes that I’ve seen about how to talk to your clients how to speak and move as an athlete, as you know, as a movement specialist, you know, we don’t, you’re not told, like, you’re teaching group classes, you just yell and scream, rah, rah, rah, right? But like, how are you? How are you? You know, approaching the person, you know, are you at their level? Are you know, are you able to speak to him? Or do you know, their personality type? Do they like to be called out? Do they want to be you want to hear their name across the room? You know, everyone, every, like you said, everybody’s different and everybody’s different. So everyone’s got a different style of how they like to be taught. And I thought that was brilliant that you guys touched on a lot of that within the course. Because again, you know, prior to it, it was something that I I’ve many years has been had been in the restaurant industry. So I was very in tune with serving and getting to you know, being aware of what people need and want. Some people need to be you know, they want to be, have the attention and write on them and service and be coddled and other people want to like Just give me my food you might drink. And let me be, I don’t wanna be talking to you. And you kind of got to get used to everybody and know who’s around you and what they want. And it’s the same thing with group classes, I think. But that’s something that is not necessarily it’s not taught. And it’s not necessarily that we we are born with it. It’s something that we do pick up when we learn. But I thought that was again, brilliant. So there’s, there’s a lot of them, there’s a lot of about a few of them. Right?
Speaker 3
Yeah, there, there are so many nuggets. Do you want me to dive in? Like, or do you want to personal
Michael Hughes
takeaways? Yeah, like what what you found found value in that you feel the industry, you know, can benefit from basically.
Speaker 3
So first and foremost, wit, this has been probably the most eye opening experience that I think I’ve ever had, which is well, you know, through my whole life, I would say up there up there, definitely, definitely at the top. What indeed happened until about a month ago, you and I had been Michael and I had been chatting, just kind of back and forth through the video message or the voice messages. And I just with the I’ve been really fortunate, at the same time anxious to have when the pandemic hit the gym that Michael and Mike and I were working at closed down. So he and I started doing a lot of community, in person as well as virtual workouts just for the general public. From that the gym started to open back up, I really wasn’t ready to go into a gym. Neither were my clients. So I was meeting them in a parking garage. And then some were coming to my house and I was going to some people’s house and then I was still doing virtual eyes really spread out. And that trend is kind of continued. So I recently had just popped back into a gym started training out there. I’m still virtual, I’m still doing in person, I’m still having people come to my house. And then that gym shut down. Because they’re going to now all go to lifetime. That’s fantastic free for them. But now I’m once again okay, that gym shut down. So where am I going to go? Now? What am I going to do now. And so I went on this about a couple of weeks are when I’m this, I’m going to go talk to gym owners in the area. training facility owners in the area, and see where they are what they can use, can I offer anything? Most of them did not align with our values not alive, which is fine. That’s okay. One, however, I thought was more aligned. And in speaking to them. At one point, they asked me very bluntly, why are you here? And I said I need to be led. And they were like What do you mean by that. And I was like, I’m in a position to mentor other trainers, clients and athletes. I am also in a position that I need someone above me to lead me I need someone to continue to help me grow. And the thing that really clicked from there was seeing you do what you do, Michael, in regard to you have created this incredible facility with at by far the most incredible astounding community staff clientele that I’ve ever come across. And you are now transitioning to an aspect of this company of this business where you’re starting to move away from working with the clients in that training aspect. And you’ve kind of handed some you’ve delegated responsibility across the board to all the people in their various spaces. And I was like, Oh man, that’s what I want that I want to be part of something where someone knows when it is time to take their next step because they’ve grown so much and delegate power to another person because now it’s that person’s time to grow. And that really was I when I thought about m DMC when I thought about what I learned and I thought about all the people that I’ve now connected with and the movement collective in the discord NDMC with all of your staff are with Mike and some of the trainers that might work with at Real Fitness. I realize how much I wanted to mentor other movement specialist health professionals, movement practitioners, but also I want there to be that person above me to kind of hey, you’re doing a good job but look, let’s talk about this concept. Now let’s bring this piece and I want you to take on this responsibility. And we you coming into the session and talking about you are talking to your mentor Emilio it was like oh man, there it is. Again, like, that’s what I’m grabbing a hold of. That’s what MCMC really weighed out for me. That wasn’t apparent at first. It wasn’t until I wrapped up the session really tried to figure out what am I, what do I want to do now? Where do I want to take my next step? Is it going to be an anterior step, a posterior lateral, anterior lateral? Is it gonna be a rotational? Like, where am I taking my next step? Because I have all these planes of motion now to play with. And, um, oh, man. So that was probably the biggest piece that was and that right there is like, drivet not that’s not just a nugget of MDM. See, that is like a life changing experience for me. So I’m super grateful for that. Um, the other piece is the other piece man. And this has been so cool is just being able to see people and this has been something that I’ve tried to work on for a long time, Mike and I, we went through some like, if you want to call it like self improvement, like self empowerment classes here and there just to like, touching with ourselves and things like that, and going through MDM see, some of the modules really challenged the ability for you to put yourself on hold and see what’s happening in front of you without micromanaging it. And the more that I engage now, where whether it’s one on one or virtual or group, the ability to to say, hey, I want you to get into a stride stance, opposite hand bent row, which doesn’t matter what the equipment pieces right now. Okay, stride, saints, opposite hand, bet row, and seeing people so we’ll get into that position there, that back toe is splayed out. So that back foot has an external rotation, where I am now that I want to say, oh, let’s swing that back to inside, let’s kind of keep that energy flowing inside the body as opposed to kind of escaping through that, then, okay, you know, you look for the flat back, but that person’s got a rounded thoracic kind of leading to a lumbar and you you almost want to dive immediately in and correct that as well. But I’ve realized how powerful it has become, to, to go ahead and articulate or nomenclature, give that direction that guidance and see what someone has access to. How did they just line up was it the way that I said it was it the cues that I gave was it their ability or access to certain things or their inability and, and no access to certain things. And I realized that in processing all of that, you know, sometimes it’s 10 seconds that you’re processing all that sometimes it’s a minute, if you’re working with someone through a round, whatever. You truly I feel like truly layers are shut off of how we see people. And that’s where the ego kind of gets put to this side, all the belief systems, the patterns get put to the side, because then you just aren’t you sit there and you just admire the fact that someone is taking the time to learn from you invest time in you invest time in themselves. And man, I love being able to see people now I think I see people more clearly than I ever haven’t that once again as from MCMC. So those are my two nuggets, I’ll leave it at that, because I could go on and on. But I’ll leave it at that.
Michael Hughes
Well, thank you for for sharing those and for, for, you know, I think for any person who’s created something you immediately want to say, you know, a thank you. But to me, I really start to realize, like all the pieces that you just shared that you’ve taken away, you know, I’ve taken those things away from other people above me. And it’s really this true distillation of of, and I will like to use the term open sourcing of knowledge. And because Mikey, you I thought you said brilliant, like, you know, when you work in the service industry, you have to learn how to how to read people who just won’t be good at your job, you just won’t stay at that job. And the service industry, you know, especially with, you know, hospitality, restaurants, etc. Hotels, you know, yeah, that’s a huge piece, because that’s all you do. That’s all you’re really doing is trying to give something what they give them what they want. And what I really love about this field is now our job is to give them what they want, but also give them what they need. And that’s a very unique opportunity. From a personal perspective, you know, like I just came back from a vacation like what if they gave me what I actually needed, not what I wanted, you know, at this at this root sore, you know, I actually want to tequila on the rocks awesome Mexico. Like now buddy, you’re gonna need to Literally, you need a mimosa like, like what? Like I want it to, you know, just I’m trying to think about like from that basic sample, it’s like, but we have that opportunity and, and Nick to go what you said like, we have to view we have to stop and let just say I gave something I have now view that. Right? And it’s not viewing from wrong and right. Yes, there is better and worse, there’s no question about that. But what it is, is something that they intentionally are doing or something that that is theirs they’re subconsciously doing. It’s because they can’t do it, or because they just haven’t been taught how to do it. And like to have that perspective, is really something I think, is it’s so interesting to be doing this for as long as I have been doing this, which is not that long. I want to be very frank without that, you know, I you know, I’ve only been doing this for about about a decade, more than that. But like, I feel like I’ve been doing it for my entire life. Like I used to be that I’m a personal trainer, I got cut off. I mean, you know, I was that guy, you know, we’re all gonna do benchpress why? Because I do bench. We’re gonna do it first, because that’s what you should do first,
Unknown Speaker
because it’s just the warm up.
Michael Hughes
It’s Monday, because it’s Monday, it’s Monday. Exactly, yeah. And if you can’t see the muscle in the mirror, then it really doesn’t matter training it because you can’t see it. So it doesn’t, let’s just be honest about why we’re here. So, but now it’s like, and now it’s like, like, I don’t ever want someone to even consider that threat, their 100% threshold. Like, there’s just not a place to, that’s not a place to be, you know, like, I want something out there. 6070 Maybe 80% threshold, or, you know, that’s, that’s where training and conditioning should really be for the population that we serve, you know, if you’re professional sports, then that’s a different story. But But at times, so like, but so it’s really interesting and to realize that, like, you know, there’s people, you know, I look, I really look at, you know, one of my greatest mentors, and you guys know his name as well, but Gary Gray, and how I really appreciate, you know, the process of what he taught me and what I, what I got away from that fellowship was certainly the biomechanics chain reaction, you know, certainly how muscles and tendons and ligaments and fascia literally are one, they have independent pieces, but they’re, they’re one piece, you can’t just train the bicep, it’s just not the way it works can just train, he’ll inversion doesn’t work that way. You know, but what I really got from that was like, it’s, that doesn’t matter. Being a phenomenal coach, a listener, a presenter, a talker, and understand you’re a critical thinker. Like all those soft skills that we just use the word soft skills just like blanket that statement. But that’s really what it to me, that’s the most important. It’s the behavioral sciences. that truly makes a great coach. And I feel like we have this industry trend right now. That’s like, okay, cool techniques, great. Mace work ropes are empty, you know, even like, even you know, through the functional patterns, like great understand, I really appreciate how they’re breaking down movement, and postures and gait. But I always think to myself, like, who cares? Unless the coach can actually deliver that in a way that a client wants to read it not just a client, but a mass, a mass of people? You know, to me, personal training should be abolished, unless the person absolutely needs one on one training. You know, that to me, like, yeah, it’s like, it’s, it should be masked out in it. So it’s like, the, the delivery mechanism is always the most important. Yeah, it’s always the most important. So anyway, so thank you, thank you for sharing that, that, that process. But as it comes down to it more and more, and as I as I realize, you know, like, you know, there’s a lot of great ideas out there. And I think that I pretty much think we probably have solved all of world’s problems already. They’re just still stuck in people’s heads. They really haven’t had a means of sharing it with somebody or a process or team to unpack it. No need to build Yeah, exactly. You know, like I, I’m pretty sure we’ve already figured out how to how to solve world hunger just it’s still sitting in someone’s head, you know, I don’t know. But but it’s, it’s really making things into a system into a process of sharing. And, you know, my biggest takeaway, and and no, this podcast is not about me, but has been understanding that good things are only truly good if they can be massively shared. This from Montreal from the fitness side of things, and, and you have to put organizational structure around it. And, and Nikki just said, like, I just got back from a 10 day vacation, I literally, the only thing I did with my inbox is I just cleaned it up. And I responded to one text messages, because they said is very important, you know, so I did that, but had no function towards the business at zero function. And one thing I really and this is I’m not, I’m not tooting a horn towards me, I’m turning good horns towards the process and the staff and the teams like, if we if if the both owners can leave and literally have no need for the for them. And the business still grew, it actually group actually came back with more members than I left with. And the process is still functioning, it’s like wait a minute. Fitness is usually an industry of people fail, like businesses fail and fitness far more than any other industry. And we have a team of like 12, or 14 at this particular point. Like that’s how typically like big companies run, everyone’s working together, you know, day to day, it’s like, I really like there’s something special going on here. That is far beyond me. And it’s really, it’s really being played out into a bigger scale. And like, it gives me this amazing, amazing like hope to wake up every single day with like, we got to go through proof, we gotta go further. Like, it can’t stay here, it can’t see even between the three of us. Like, I don’t care what it is, I don’t care if we have this new app, that’s going to make something better in someone’s life on their cell phone like it’s so to me, it’s something that’s so big. It and I believe we have the structure around it, at least the beginning steps that now it just has to be mass marketed, it has to be put on the manufacturing line and just pumped. And with the mass marketing or the mass production, the quality has to still remain the exact same and get better. Which those two things don’t really happen. That’s why I’m always like, I’m not a big fan of like, you know, franchise fitness. You know, because we it’s been shown that it only gets it only gets worse as you push it out there. So long way of saying thanks. I’m glad that that’s I’m not glad that’s the that’s an Underwood. I’m absolutely ecstatic that those are the your takeaways. So, I think Ron isn’t the guest, for sure. For sure. Yeah, I think we’re starting. Yeah. And he was on a movement. I think it’s and it’s called the movement collective. And there’s a guy named Nick, who’s, who’s on it. Yeah. So for those for those, listen to this podcast, whether you’re an athlete, whether you whether you’re whether you’re a coach, whether just an enthusiast. My my hope, and what I hope you got value out of this conversation is that that there is a movement going on, it’s so underground. But it’s, it’s much bigger than us. And we need more, we need more participants, we need more people that are willing to take a step into something that is probably maybe against what they’ve previously learned, and maybe counter to what they’ve been taught or what they’ve experienced and what they’ve done. Just for the sake of what if, like, what if it’s better? What if it’s more efficient? What if it’s, what if it’s more fun? What if it makes you more money? What if it makes you happier? And just be comfortable with the what if knowing that if it isn’t cool? Just go back to where you are? Yeah. You know, he’s not this is not for everybody. It’s not for everybody, not every wants to be critical thinker, that everyone wants to challenge the status quo that everyone should but, you know, so yeah, it’s kind of an open ended open invitation. So with that being said, Any final thoughts, you guys anything you guys want to kind of share? Truly, you know,
Speaker 2
for me, I’m excited because I have like this feeling of, you know, I’m done with the course now now, you know, but I’m excited because I feel like I’m just beginning like, like I said, I was been taught a new language and now I’m going out into the country and like using it, you know, getting getting to spread and share it. And again, just like Nick was saying, and I gotta give you props man, since you took over and became the discord Community Manager. It’s really great to see all the interaction. And it’s really such a great platform. Because I know you’ve gotten a number of trainers, you know, I’ve sent you a couple names and getting more people on there just experiencing just chime into the conversations and seeing what it’s all about. I think the community is just, it’s incredible. Like, I mean, Nick, you definitely touched on that. But the people that are involved in the movement, they’re starting on their own. And Nick and I had a conversation earlier, before we got on just about some of the people in there and how, like, during this whole pandemic, people were quietly doing their thing, creating their rope flows into Mason, and the different movement stuff, and just finally making it happen. And it’s just, it’s exciting, because, you know, it’s, there’s, there’s good people out there and doing great things. And we’re a part of it, and we’re part of the team kind of building it and taking it to the next level. And Michael, you know, from where we’re sitting, you know, you’re like the Pioneer, you know, I know, you came, there was somebody before you, obviously, you know that, but we’re grateful to have, you know, cross paths. And like, you know, I tell the story, I’m still trying to get my video, my testimonial video to Sharon, but I can’t, I can’t nail it down into five minutes. But when just how I came across with that, that quiz on Facebook, how well do you know the body and I’m like, this is like, I’ve never seen this, right. And it led me down this path to the website to the YouTube page. And I was blown away with the information you guys were putting out. And then it led me to booking a call with you, which I think I figured it would, you know, 15 minutes, I, you know, talk to someone, you know, trying to enroll me into a product, you know, getting the stock pitch. And I mean, we sat on the phone for an hour and a half just, you know, just like this, just talking about the industry, about life, about movement about all this stuff. And it was just it was it was it was refreshing. And this is what, you know, I think this industry can offer like you said, we’re here to offer something and to help people out and give them something that they don’t even know they need. You know, they know what they want, or they think they know what they want. But there’s just there’s so much here. And again, part of my problem with the video I’m trying to make for you guys is I tend to ramble. Like, I get going on this, but um, yeah, I’m grateful. I’m excited. I’m ready to go. So, Nick, take it away, brother.
Speaker 3
I mean, yeah, I mean, you touched upon everything that I was thinking as well. So Nah, man. Yeah, we are. We are very grateful. We are excited. And it’s, yeah, just the ideas and concepts. And the way that even community comes across. It’s, it’s all changed. It’s all evolved. And I’m so excited to even within now the short time that I’ve been working with the discord, the people that I’ve reached out to via Instagram that I some of these people I’ve never met before, but they popped up, whether it’s through the Instagram algorithm out whatever you want to call it. They’re popping up now like this, what I’m seeing from underground, they’re popping up, they’ve always been there. And it’s been so nice to communicate with these people. Just Hey, like I looked at your page, your pages, really it spoke. It’s unique. I love the craft that you’re trying to build. Can we connect and all every time like, it’s just been so nice to have them reach back out and then that most of them have joined the movement collective and it’s just a man Oh, man, like, every time someone joins, I’m like, Wow, this just we just got one one person bigger, we just expand it a little bit more. So I’m super excited by that. So yeah, it’s uh, that’s, that’s it for me. I appreciate you, Michael. I appreciate you Mike lock, because Mike’s really been a huge mentor to me as we’ve, since I’ve met him I was like, Oh, my goodness, there’s so much I have to learn. So you know, backwards hats, tank tops, lots of customers curse words. And
Michael Hughes
yeah, it’s just
Unknown Speaker
a reality.
Michael Hughes
And they didn’t block me a while you train? Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you guys very much for you guys. Time. Thanks for your passion. Thanks for you guys. Friendship. Thanks for being mentors, mentees, thanks for being willing to go on a uncomfortable process. Right. I think that I think that’s what is, you know, for our clients, for our coaches for ourselves. We’re all doing something that requires us to be uncomfortable. Physically, mentally, socially, like it’s that’s to me that’s like, like, the people were signing their pain to do this. Like, wow, all right. So People are paying to be uncomfortable on purpose for the for the sake of betterment and change, like, cool. That’s, that’s the kind of people you know, that’s, that’s what we’re looking for. So, well thank you very much. Once again, for all listening, appreciate your time, and we’ll call someone good. Cheers. Good. Hey all. Hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode. And if you did, please share it with your fitness obsessed friends and peers who are also navigating this world of fitness and trying to succeed the trends and misinformation. As you guys can see, this podcast is basically a masterclass for trainers wanting to level up in their coaching skills, and a fitness business model. We launched this in 2020. Because you and your fitness tribe deserve to see an unfiltered look at all the aspects of what it takes to stand out as a next generation coach, and build a successful fitness business. So share far and wide. And please, when you do do me a favor, take a screenshot of this screen and share it to your social media accounts and use the hashtag Gymnazo podcast that’s hashtag Gymnazo podcast that way we can see you and share your post with our audience. And finally, when you’re ready to go to the next level as a coach or in your business, and to reach more people, please go check out gymnazoedu.com, we have put together the best 90 Day coaching program on the market for trainers who want to become a masterful practitioner and build a business that gives them the freedom and impact. So let us help you do just that. We have online training and one on one coaching to guide you through a whole 90 Day certification. We even get you 20 Our clients live because it’s always better to work out your kinks on someone else’s clients than yours. But we promise you this, your clients will be blown away by the transformation our program will help you make you’ll be masterful at a whole new level and part of an incredible community of coaches worldwide, taking their skills to the next level. So if you thought today’s episode had some fire to it, and inspired you to take action, waiting to see what we deliver on this program. So just go to gymnazoedu.com. And we’ll see you on the other side. Remember that turning your passion for fitness into transformation and sustainable business is critical to reaching the people and lives you were put on earth to help it matters and truly can make an impact in other people’s lives. So I hope you do that. Keep sharing your passion and I will talk to you soon.
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