As someone who loves sport, loves Ozzie Rules footy, and as a kid especially, I was just fascinated with the behind the scenes life of your sporting heroes. You know, what do they do that you don't see on the TV? What do you do that they don't hear about?
And it's interesting as.
You get older and as you get better insights, particularly in the career that I've had in sports science and fitness and been lucky enough to meet a lot of elite athletes, it never ceases to amaze me. The sacrifices made the commitment, the mindset. So today on the wood Life we are in for a treat with one of Australia's best Ozsie Rules footballer, Brandlow Metallist joining us in the studio to give us just a little sneak.
Peek into what being an elite athlete is all about.
Then we're going to dive into some fitness fans and find out which ones are worth trying and which ones you need to avoid.
I never knew that sauna suits existed until recently. Do they actually work?
I've heard the phrase barefoot running. Is it a fad or is it actually better for the body?
I'm thinking of investing in a stand up desk as a better alternative than sitting at my desk all day. Are they worth the investment?
I'll be hating or rating those later in the show. This is the wood Life, let's get into it. Look, I feel like I say.
We've got a very special guest every single work. That's because they are all special. But to me, this one's extra special. One because he's a good made of mine.
Two because I'm a mad Hawthorn fan and he is a brilliant Hawthorn football, a brandlew metalist and founder of ball Magnets, a brilliant AFL training at for kids. Tom Mitchell, Welcome to the WOODLFE mate.
Thanks Woody, good to be here.
I know you're sugarcoating all of that, but I've got sugarcoating you here nonetheless.
So we're all about or I'm all about progress, not perfection here on the wood Life. But becoming an elite athlete as you are to the.
Level that you're at would take.
I can't even imagine the amount of sacrifice in all different aspects of your life. So is there any space for someone like you and other elite athletes for progress not perfection in your training or do you just have to shoot for perfection.
Well, yeah, it's a good question. I think.
I think what footy fans, I guess see is the finished product on game day, but they don't see the hard work and the sacrifice that does go on behind the scenes. And there's so many things that players do to go to the integral to get everything out of their bodies, which cop in absolute battering. Some of the things that guys play with you would have no idea about.
But I think I probably was, to be honest, I think early in my career a perfectionist and that drive to just be the best you can be and be better and be better and be better. And I think as I've got older a little bit more mature, tried to be a little bit more lenient because I have more of a holistic approach to life in general and happiness, because that perfectionist approach can have a toll on your mentally. Answer, I've sort of adopted that progress is still a good thing.
Like if you're finding little ways to get better at footy, training or something in life in general, if you're improving, I think that's a good thing. So obviously, as an elite athlete, you have to. But I've been a little bit more leaning, I would say, last few years.
It's a really interesting answer, and I do think it one. You know, you've reached a status in the game too, you have. You know, you've aged and you've matured, you're.
Sort of renowned.
I know you're not going to want to pump your times out, but you know there's always footage of you doing the extra skill work. And I know you know some of the knows you that you're always doing every little thing that you can to get the best out of your body and the best out of your mind. But are you suggesting you still do all of that, but you now have the capability to switch off and switch on a little bit more.
I think so. Yeah.
So I haven't told this story too often, but I didn't have a day off at Hawthorn. My first five years at Hawthorne, I didn't take a day off, which is don't encourage I don't encourage anyone to do that.
I was on a path to.
Burn out any two thousand days straight. Yeah.
The thing was that I was being rewarded with it through performance and things, and I was like Okay, I got to keep doing this. So our day off was Wednesday at the footy club. I'd be in there every Wednesday, no players would be. There would be physio massage, a
bit of extra prehab or weights, footies ice bas. I did this consistently for four or five years, and that would be from eight till twelve on my day off and then obviously because we don't get weekends of because we play weekends, so I would have you know, you know, it was.
It was full on.
And so I think having the business having ball magnets has given me a release because I've found a passion, found something else. I found a lot of pride and enjoyment in mentoring and helping younger players. You get fulfillment out of, you know, seeing them taking their games to another level, and I think that's just a natural.
Sign of maturity.
But yeah, it was an interesting time, Like you know, I was, you know, as you said, receiving all these accolades and pats on the back, and that reinforced everything I was doing. But you know, in the end, I was just going to crash. So I've sort of changed my approach a bit.
You know.
It's interesting. I did a similar thing.
It was when I was growing twenty eight. Initially, I was literally just fifteen sixteen hour days up doing videos and content at six am, still at the gym, training people, And it was because it was working. It kind of unhealthily reinforced it. And it wasn't until the circuit breaker of Sneeze and Evy coming over and having children and then experiencing I think the joys of life outside the business bubble kind of smacked me in the face so
nicely that I went, hang on a second. You know, I'm sure if I work smarter, not harder, and get a better balance here.
Then you know, the business is not going to die.
You're not going to become a crap footballer if you don't do the extra Wednesday.
It's still a.
Constant battle on your head, though, isn't it. I feel like I'm constantly battling with Okay, am I doing enough?
Am I doing enough?
Because it's probably not as much as what I was doing, but that was more detrimental. So you've got to have those ongoing conversations in your own head.
But yeah, it's weird. It's a funny.
People tell you less can be more.
Yeah, they do, and I think if you're wired kind of against that, you don't necessarily accept it. So it's really interesting that your drive for perfectionism has softened a little bit as you've matured and as your career has gone on. When you were younger, where do you think it actually came from.
Yeah, it's a I don't know, maybe a little bit of Like my dad was a football player and I used to watch him even when he was finished footing, he would train hard, and my mum would train hard and things like that. I think maybe that, And I think making rep squads and it being so competitive, it sort of forces it out of you, like you have to go that little bit extra to get the advantage.
And I think, you know, I took that really seriously and it was with you know, every rep of every session, like I didn't miss a beat and I still don't, sort of something I prided myself on.
So you were thinking, I want to be in AFL football. There's no qualms about it. Yeah, I'm one hundred percent sure this is what I want to do with my life. And then the next step to that was and I know if I perhaps don't do everything not ninety nine percent yeah, one hundred percent I might not make it, and I'm not going to take that chance.
Yeah, I think so, And I think, you know, which.
Is very much an eighteen year old way of thinking.
Like I look at myself as a player now and I'm a bit of older, but you know, I wouldn't say I'm I'm definitely not fastest, fittest, strongest, you know, pretty I think intuitive, smart player, like I read the game quite well and know how to find the ball and you know, set up teammates into space and things like that. But I think if any I think the one thing I can hang my hat on is any if you ask any of my teammates, you know, who puts in the most work, I think that would I've been.
I've assume the.
Top three, and so I think, you know, that's what I've sort of prided myself on my career and sort of got me to a point. And in terms of the perfectionism, like it definitely has lightened. And rather than doing you know, silly eight to five pm days of you know, I know people work those hours, but you know, physical training, I've broken it out into more process. So I've got five k things I need to tick off every week.
So with these younger players coming through, the eighteen nineteen year olds have just been drafted, do you put your arm around them and tell them perhaps to take their foot off the accelerate a little bit, or do you think that's something that you have to discover yourself on your own journey and it's not up to you to tell them that.
It's a fine balance because a lot of I guess senior players and coaches of the opinion of that balance, But I also think, how badly do you want to make it?
How could you want to be?
Like I think you'd rather overshoot than undershoot. But sometimes even young players or young people in business or new employees, they may not know what their limit or threshold is because they never take themselves to that level. So I think they need to learn to over Everyone needs to learn to overshoot, because then you know where your tipping point is.
You never know where your tipping point is.
If you don't cross it, you think you one hundred and twenty, you don't think you can get to you one hundred and twenty percent, and then you realize that you're eighty percent.
Given insight to our.
Listeners, about just how much you train, what happens with you food, you sleep.
Well, I think what you touched on before. Another thing I've learned to do is reward myself. So at the end of a big training block or every big game, like you know, I'm pretty disciplined with diet in terms of Monday to game day, So I just sort of use the rule of common sense, Like I know what junk food is, so Lolly's chocolate ice cream, soft drink and near that crap chips, I just won't touch that until the day after a game.
The day after a game, I'll allow myself to do that.
I feel like if I've given myself every chance to prepare and play well, then you know I'm putting all the odds in my favor. Really, I definitely realize the impact of eating clean and well has on energy levels and things compared to when you don't. So I can feel the difference in my training and.
Carrying a few extra kilos if that's.
Fat, one or two kilos is doesn't sound like much. You're running fifteen game, it's a lot.
Yeah, you know, you've got to recover properly.
And they say every running step is three times your body. Wait, going through your three bodies.
So yeah, every.
Injuries, join injuries, everything through extrakelos.
Yeah.
But yeah, in terms of food, like I yeah, I go to an organic fruit shop every Monday pretty much, and I stuck up on just the basics fruit and vegetables. Eat a lot of fish, a lot of chicken. There's someone of protein to help recover. I'm not big on supplements or anything. I sort of trying and use the natural diet. Some players use proteins and supplements, but I'm pretty natural and I just use a common sensrule of knowing, just knowing what's good, trying.
Real food, unprocessed, whole ingredients.
And I think, you know it's important, like tonight, for example, I'm going out with a few of the guys. Like that's important from a social point of view. But I don't want to be going out for dinner every night like I do. Try and cook two three nights a week minimum if I can. And obviously the social part is important. So allow yourself to still live and live life, you know when you can as well.
Now you said before that you reward yourself, and I know you're referring to you know, on a Sunday. If you've played on a Saturday, you'll have some lollies or some chocolate or something.
Let your hair down.
What about Because this is something that I'm always telling our listeners and I'm always telling my twenty eight is to reward yourself on the journey. For example, if they're trying to lose twenty k and they've lost five killers in the first month, I will say them, not with lollies and chocolate. I don't want them to put that weight back on. But I might say, you know, get yourself a message or running shoes. You know, don't wait till the whole twenty kilos has lost to sort of
pat yourself on the back. What do you like bigger picture at rewarding yourself.
It's a good one.
Yeah, I'm not really into too many like superficial things like I guess rewarding myself with buying things for clothes or cars or anything like that. Like I probably do fit under the umbrella of more, you know, not being satisfied and whether again it's the same conversation of that may not be healthy, but that's just I think a little bit how I'm wired. Like I think it's kind
of just how you become wired as an athlete. I think like you just keep going and going, and you want more and more and more.
Spoken about the highs. What about injuries?
Now, you had a fairly horrific injury not that long ago, broken leg, missed the whole season.
Our listeners have.
Setbacks, fall off the wag and have a bad weekend, drop the ball for a month or two, get an injury, whatever it might be. What's your mindset around coming back? I mean, you've had a very serious injury and your body is your career. So you won the Brown Law Metal and got a broken leg. How did you mentally and physically come back from that?
Yeah? That was a huge challenge.
So I went from being at the top of my game the first session back in the new year. I was I was fit, I was strong, I was going to be better than I was the year before, and I was so excited and then in a heartbeat, yeah, you know, season's over.
I remember looking my leg and it was all over the shot like not good, like facing the wrong way.
I'm like, god, I'm even going to play foot again. So it was pretty shocked and the doctor was out.
I'm like, what's going to happen.
I'm in trouble, aren't And he said, he said, it's not good, but you should be all right.
It took a little while.
Obviously the first month was a challenge, but I learned so much for that for that period, and my approach to anything now is two words, and they get thrown around a lot, but gratitude and perspective and their two things that I lean on a lot, even in week to week footy, Like if I have a bad game, I drive to the game. Every time I'm driving the McGr, I say, this is my childhood dream.
How good is this?
I'm driving to play the MCG in front of fifty thousand people. So many people would killed to be in my position. I'm so lucky.
I've worked so hard for this, enjoy it, like have that.
Approach, And when I couldn't play footy, it was how good is this? I've got this family of support, I've got this network of people who are helping me. Here's some more opportunities that have come from. You know, who knows where the ball magnet would have bossomed if I didn't have the time to start thinking about what I'll do post footy And now I'm doing it in my footy career when you know, I'm probably running a business that's more relevant while I'm playing. So there's wins here
and losses in the physical component. But yeah, I think that's just one thing I learned throughout that whole year of missing a year of footy.
Now you mentioned before that you've got a company called ball Magnets. Do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about what it's all about, because I bet there's heaps of out listeners that have young kids that could really benefit from this, this great, great free program that you're unning.
I think so.
Yeah.
So basically, ball Magnets is a free app. It's a training app for AFL, so to any AFL skills training app.
We do fitness workout similar to yourself. We do skill sessions, we give tips and insights around you know, players who play a certain position, so the co founders and myself Patty Crips and Locke Neil, So it's all around I guess giving back to the kids because I guess, especially through COVID, so many missed training and games and my favorite memories of a kid was, you know, going to a clinic or being able to interact with players, and
so we're trying to create those experiences virtually, you know, through an app, because you can get more reach and get to everyone. I'm not sure if the parents listening know what oz kyk is, but oz Kig's very basic. You know, this is Ak Campbell. Yeah, like we know that this is the next level stuff like this is you know, how you think about reaction time, This is
how you think about technique. This is game awareness. This is the next level where I guess for any player that wants to be the best they can be, doesn't matter about making a f It's not about that. It's around This is enhancing your knowledge around the game, and who else better to learn from them?
So the players doing us from ten years old on are going to.
Get a massive and parents and coaches as well. Like, yeah, I got so many parents and coaches. We're close to twenty thousand subscribers now, wow. And as you mentioned, the best part about it is it's free. So it's all for the love of giving back. And you know, we've got some great people helping us drive something that we're really passionate about.
I mean, I love that you've got this passion and interest outside of your own footy. Tommy, thank you so much for coming in mate. It's a bit of a different guest because it really does give an insight into a world that so few of us will ever know and do ever know.
And I really appreciate it.
And good luck for the rest of the season and the rest of a great career.
Thanks for coming on the Woodlife. You're a legend.
Thanks well, do you appreciate it.
It's so good to have an insight from an elite sports person because on this show we're about progress, not perfection, and just do what you can. Sometimes it's nice to look at the other side of the coin and look at these people that are trying to squeeze every last drop out of their potential and their performance. They know that to get the most out of them, or even to discover what they're truly capable of, that they need to make those sacrifices. Train it that intensity, train it
that consistency. Otherwise they never truly find out where that potential line is. And the reason I say that is I think a lot of us can learn from that. I think a lot of us tell ourselves we're working at capacity or that we're working really hard. It's good to get some perspective and just challenge our way of thinking. Am I genuinely pushing myself? Am I genuinely showing enough willpower?
Do I genuinely follow the plan? Or do sometimes I just tell myself a few too many FIBs and give myself a bit of an app Next up, it is time I hate.
It all right?
It it.
Hater I rated.
It's a little segment where I can just cut through the bs and give you my two Bobsworth on some of those crazy fitness fads or ideas that are floating around out there. We get so many questions coming through here to us at the wood Life and had rated is a great way to see which side of the fence that I'm sitting on. And our first question is from Kate.
Hey, Sam, I never knew that sauna suits existed until recently. I'm really interested to know if they are a good alternative for weight loss. So do they actually work?
No, no, no, no, no no no. I'm not a fan of the sauna suit. Look sweating is and this is the crux of it, because you know, they're one of those things they tend to they tend to recirculate every ten years through a movie or through some crazy online fad or whatever it might be. Wetting is losing fluid. It is not fat crying. It is just sweat leaving the body in which we then need to rehydrate ourselves, only to be weighing the exact same weight later on.
Sweating is good for us, and hopping in the sauna is good for us, but not as a means of losing weight. The only exception to that rule might be for an athlete who needs to make weight, So for a jockey before the Melbourne Cup and they've got to lose five hundred grams or they're not going to be eligible to ride in the race, or a boxer who's got to make weight the day before and they typically put that weight back on so they're performing at their optimum.
But outside of those very extreme circumstances, I'm going to say hate it when it comes to the sauna suit.
Hey, Sam, I am a bit of a long distance runner and I've heard the phrase barefoot running pop up quite a lot recently, and I just want to know is it a fad or is it actually better for the body.
This is a really tricky one. It's a great question.
Back.
I love it, but I don't want to say go for it, because I feel if you do too much, too early, and you're not conditioned both through your joints and through your feet to handle something like that, you really could injure yourself. So I think it would be quite irresponsible for me to say, everyone and throw your shoes off and.
Get out there running.
But there are biomechanical advantages by having direct foot ground reaction forces. And again these benefits may not apply to everybody, because we all have different ways that our feet either roll that it might have flat feet and we sort of hit all as one, or we might roll in or we might roll out, putting pressure on the outside of the foot or the inside of the foot, and consequently they're the inside of the outside the leg and it works us a way up the body in this
sort of chain reaction. So I definitely think for certain people, particularly if you're doing it in a really sensible, progressive manner, it can be a great thing. And I've met some people who swear by it. Either wear those funny little frog feet shoes. I don't know the brand or the name of them. I probably should, but you know the ones I'm talking about, they're really just a rubber sole wrapped around your toes, no cushioning whatsoever.
Probably just stops your.
Feet getting blisters or sort of splitting apart, but there's no actual cushioning as part of the shoe, or they actually go barefoot. Now, it's quite extreme. It's definitely not for everybody. I definitely am not recommending head out there and do a twenty k run and test out whether
it's for you. But if you'd like to start by doing some sprints on the grass in barefoot, or even training in the gym barefoot, or doing your homeworkouts or your yoga barefoot, where you're really getting that ground reaction force and it's good for the feet to be able to stretch out and you're not protecting them too much. They're building up strength, they're burning up mobility through the toes, through the achilles, through the actual arch of the foot.
Then I absolutely endorse that, and that would be a great starting point.
Hey mate, I'm working from home a lot and finding it hard to get outside an exercise. I'm thinking of investing in a stand up desk as a better alternative than sitting at my desk all day. I know it's not exercising, but I thought it might help. They are pretty expensive, though, Are they worth the investment?
Thomas, It's a really good question, and I'm a big fan of the stand up desk. Definitely rate it. Totally understand that comes in as an investment. But they're getting cheaper and cheaper. There's a lot more out there these days. You don't need to get the necessarily the whiz bang stand alone stand up desk. You can get the ones that you put on your seated desk, and it leave us up and leave us down, and therefore you can
do a bit of a hybrid. You can sit sometimes, you can stand sometimes depending on how much you've been sitting, how much you've been standing, what particular, whether you're on a zoom call, whether you're working away and you need to type.
Whatever it might be.
But for someone like me who doesn't just type constantly, I'm kind of I'm on the whiteboard, I'm in and out of meetings. I love the stand up desk, you know, I find I'm sort of thinking better. I'm definitely in a better posture position if I sort of catch myself in the reflection, sometimes in the window or something. If I'm sitting, I've kind of been kidding myself to how well I've been sitting.
My seated posture hasn't.
Been very good, and I think that's absolutely the case for most people.
My head is forward, my shoulders are rounded forward.
I'm slouching a little bit, you know, not a lot of muscular engagement through my tummy. My butt's not really working, my legs are not really working. Now that's not to say that all of that is instantly fixed. If you stand up, there's standing up with good posture. They're standing up with crappy posture. But stand up, get everything at the right height from a keyboard perspective and a screen perspective,
make sure those glutes are working a little bit. And most importantly, and you said this, Thomas, it's not exercise. So don't think that if you're doing stand up desk from a post sitting desk, that's going to fix all your exercise challenges or meet all your exercise needs, because it absolutely won't.
But standing better than sitting.
I would also recommend a sixty second to two minute stretch on the hour every hour, and I also use that time to rehydrate. So I have a little alarm when I'm working away at my desk goes off on the air every hour. I have a little stretch a couple of minutes rehydrate. If I'm really feeling a bit lethargic,
I'll go outside and you never lose productivity. That five minutes where you go around the block, you get the fresh air, you rehydrate, you have a little stretch is made up within ten minutes of better performance and more efficiency. When you're back in your standing position, you're thinking better, you're working better. So from a practical and functional perspective, I like it. From a posture perspective, I like it, and I know it comes at a cost, but I
definitely rate it and it's a good investment. A huge thank you as always to everyone who has called in with their questions, and just on that note, many of you have seen that we've been doing it pretty tough at home at the moment with little Harper, my little girl coming into the world a few months ago now and a bit of a challenging start in and out
of hospital. Supermum Snare is doing a wonderful job, but it has been stressful and a bit tiring, and I've had hundreds of messages from all of you, so I just wanted to say a huge thank you, and it made me think you're all send in questions about different fitness and nutrition and lifestyle topics, which I absolutely love.
But if you have any questions about anything that's going on personal perspective with me, or anything like that that you'd like to know the answer to as well, feel free to always send them in love to hear from you. The woodlife is about helping you, is about giving you a better insight into what's going on in my world as I live in this sort of family and fitness space day in, day out, and I'd love to hear from you no matter what your questions are.
Send me a message. There's a link in the show notes, And of
Course I'll be back on Monday with another motivational moment and I'll talk to you soon.