Hi, Russ Jared, Welcome back to the You Project, Champ.
Thanks mate, It's been a little bit of time between coffees and drinks for podcasting, but I'm glad to be back.
Both literally and metaphorically. When so, we're recording this the twenty fourth of May, the year of no The fourteenth of May. I apologize my eyesight. Shit, I'm not wearing glasses. The fourteenth of May, the year of our Lord. As my mum says, twenty twenty five. How long since you and I have had a face to face coffee. It's a minute. It's been a while.
Yeah, it's been a while, but.
I reckon, we're well overd You put it that way, because we always you know, coffees. Coffees always taste better when you're having it with a good friend and you can talk about all sorts of serious or unseerious stuff or you know, tell a bad joke or do whatever. It's always better in person.
It certainly is. And your son and my godson turned twenty five recently, and I don't hear from him that much, let's be honest. And I always hear from him when it's coming up to his birthday. He goes. He sends me a message it's my birthday and Friday. I'm like, so what and you know, like and like you're twenty five bro. Anyway, God bless him. I'm going to catch up with him and give him a little something something
in the near future. So, Mitchell, a little fucker. Well done on completing a law degree and being an actual grown up now and you know, coming into the fucking family empire, which is expanding at an exponential rate. But before we talk about I don't know business and life. How have you been, mate? How you we talk about everything?
I don't think we ever talk about you. How are you holding up mentally, emotionally, physically, Because I'm busy, but I reckon you make me borderline lazy at the moment.
Yeah, I've always been a person that likes to be busy. I think that's the way I function the best. I don't like too much downtime or empty time or.
Non productive time.
I feel like I'm I'm wasting time if I'm not doing something or being productive. Maybe I can take that a little bit too far, but no, Look I'm doing personally, I'm doing well. My focus these days is very much, very simple, and I find that as the business develops, you know, that is certainly one large aspect of my world.
But I find myself increasingly thinking.
What I tend to think about these days is how am how am I? How am my people going that rely on me? And that's where I get satisfaction and calmness. When people that rely on me are in a good place and doing well, then I'm happy because I think that's probably one of my major responsibilities to make sure that tire as well, and the boys are well, and the people at work for us are all in good place. And then if they're in a good place, I'm in
a good place. Because you do have a you know, I feel a burden of responsibility, and that's I think that's normal for anyone that's got employees and staff and all the rest of it.
You like to make sure they're they're all doing well as well.
I wish it was normal. I wish it was normal that bosses cared as much as you. I that, firstly, there are some brilliant, caring, amazing bosses, but I would say you're in the minority, sadly, somebody that actually has the level of empathy and social and emotional awareness that you have, where like, your priority is not that you're make a lot of doe. Your priority is that your people are good and that you're being what they need to feel safe and seen and valued and confident and competent. Yeah,
that's well well done you. I reckon when I had lots of stuff, I wasn't to that. I was I was, I tried to be that. But I reckon, you've you've definitely surpassed me.
But well, it's it's look, it's honestly, neither was I like you. You remember, mate, when I had Harper's and you and I were partners, I was a very ordinary leader. But looking back, I think I could have done more with that business, and I could have done a lot more with other businesses if.
I'd been a better leader.
And so one of the things, one of the commitments I made to myself with this one was, you know, just a bit of a look in the room of mirrors and a conversation with myself around if this business is going to be everything I wanted to be, I need to be a better leader, full stop, bottom line, And so I work on myself a bit a lot more than I used to.
You know self development, reading books, listening to podcasts. Tara. Tara will deliver and that's the beauty of our relationship.
She will deliver home truths and you know, strong conversations when needed. And if she thinks that I'm not, you know, not living those values, You're quickly pulling the line and go, you needed to be a little softer there, you went too hard or you know, you should have addressed that early, or whatever the case may be.
So she keeps an eye on me as well.
Bull China Shop, Russell Garrett. Yeah, yeah, you do have that me too. It's like both you and I have this thing where some people at various stages of our journeys would have labeled both of us a little bit intense or intimidating. Who the fuck said that, you know? But it is I love that I just wrote down the Room of Mirrors. I think I'm going to call this episode the Room of Mirrors. And and for those people who don't understand that metaphor, that's just something many
many odzis use that term. But Russ and I, who have known each other for thirty plus years, it's an expression we use when and many people use when you talk about you know, going to have a good look at yourself, which is really just opening the self awareness stoor, which is like, what am I doing well? What am I doing? Shit? What part of the problem am I? What part of the solution am I? And more specific to all my research, what's it like being around me? Like?
What is the Russell experience like? For Russell's team, what is Craig's audience? How do they see me? Like? What is the Craig experience like? For a listener? Do I come across like a try hard? And is there too much of this? Too little of that? Do I talk
too quick? Is my shit relevant? Is it irrelevant to my I'm always thinking of that because you know, to have that understanding of being on the other side of a listening experience, whether that's a face to face conversation or as a podcast listener, but to have an insight into the other person's experience of what's coming out of your gob and what and in your situation, more specifically, what it's like being around you energetically, you know, physically, sociologically.
That's like a leadership superpower.
Yeah, you're right, you do have to have a self awareness and you're probably It's a.
Skill that only comes with time.
I mean, you've known me a long time, and you know that initially when I was in those senior or leadership positions, I lacked that ability to realize how I came across and you used to regularly pull me aside and go Russ.
You just got to.
Wind it back, mate, like your intentions are good, but your delivery is not great, you know. And I still have I still have the tendency to do that, but I checked myself much earlier these days, and I and I as a person, I am much more laid back than I used to be, because what I've learned over time is everything tends to work itself out. And there's a saying I go by, and that is nothing's ever as good as it seems, and nothing's ever as bad.
And if you consistently view the world through that lens and think about you know you have it. You have a shit moment in your day, or you have a bad conversation, it's it's not that bad. And when when everything goes great and I get a phone call and I have three people, go I want to open a franchise with you guys. You know, I temper myself and go, well, that's great, but that's that's just that's just.
One phone call and there's lots of other phone calls and emails to complete today, so let's keep it, let's keep it nice and level.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's just so I'm sure most of In fact, I was just rudely looking in my phone.
There.
I was listening, but I was trying to find one of our very long standing listeners. Calin Webbin from New Zealand sent me a message the other door sent the group a message to the U Project. If you're not a member of the You Project Facebook, get the fuck in there? Will you our Facebook group? And when's Russell Jarrett coming back on? And then a few people went, yeah, ween'sday and I went, oh fuck, soon, ergo the phone call um? But she sent a few and I went,
what do you want us to talk about? And I'm trying to I'll maybe cause us in a minute and we'll find her specific questions. But before we do that, like I, what I love about your business is that the one you found a niche, right, you found a gap, you filled the gap. You're filling the gap, and because clearly you're doing it, well, it's proliferating and it's a you know, it's a success story. Time will tell, but right now it's a fucking success story and it's amazing.
It's amazing. So I'll be interested to see what the empire looks like in five years and whether or not you're still in it or you're out of it. But just the quick backstory, So Russell and I and his lovely wife Tara, we had a business was a harp as one of my gyms, one of our gyms, and russ owned and ran that in Corefield. That was kind
of but his starting point. We met at Saint Kilda Footy Club and we just worked together and then he wanted his own space and set that up and then he's just gone on to bigger and better things from there. So we've been in and around each other's lives for the last three decades and you know, for me, I love there's a lot of things I love about what's happened in the last five years for you. But Russell and Tara's business is called at pilarates So the symbol
at pilaratees. Could you just explain to the ten people who don't know what it is in one minute what at Pilarates is because I want to and this is not a promo promo for the business, because I'm in in a loving, caring way. Of course I care about the business, but for our listeners, I want to know, how do we build something? How do we? How do we? Because how old are you now?
Fifty seven?
Now? How old is at Pilarates?
Well really probably I don't.
I don't believe it was anything until twenty twenty one, so it's four and a half years old.
Right, So this is what I love. You've now got this business that's proliferating internationally, right, that's growing like a fucking I was going to say a weed a rose garden, and you really like started that at I mean it started early, but in terms of its current you were fifty three, Like this is really encouraging for people that you know, after your fiftieth birthday you might do your biggest and best work, Like when people are starting to think, oh fuck, I'm on the slide. What if? What if?
And not even in a bullshitty feel good you know pop psychology, Our life gets better after fifty No fuck that, what if? Life actually can get better after fifty What if you can produce better results after fifty What if your brain works better after fifty? What if you plug in all your experience and knowledge and wisdom and insight and understanding, and you at fifty seven are a much better fucking leader and communicator than you were when you
were running other businesses at thirty seven. You know, and not only is that possible, it's probable when you do the right things right.
Yes.
Absolutely.
In fact, there's no doubt to your statement that the biggest and best work that I am doing and will do is definitely after fifty because because this business is the culmination of a lot of experiences, positive and negative, that I went through with all my other businesses. So, as you know, I've always been involved in strength and conditioning, but then there was a part of me that always worked in personal training with you. Then there was a part of me that worked in education with my RTO.
So the culmination of all of that experience and wisdom and knowledge and the ability to operate in those different spaces has given me the skill set to then do something of this style with this business. So I've developed some understanding around business, understanding around people management, understanding around marketing, some understanding around it and technology.
I'm not an expert.
Or specialize in any of those fields, but I have a really good knowledge across all of them. So that ability to be a little bit of a jack of all trades has allowed me.
To operate this business with Tara.
And I think that's if I'm looking from the outside in, I think that's why I'm having success because I've worked in different fields. I've had to develop different skills, and even it's interesting at the moment when I work around our team. At the moment, we've got a very young staff, and I find myself sometimes thinking, my god, these people move so quickly.
They produce things so fast, and their brains.
Us process so quickly, and I'm thinking, how long can I keep up with these young ones? Because really they do. They move quick.
You throw an idea at them and they.
Shoot off in all sorts of tangents and they come back in and they present you with ideas and thoughts and concepts that I hadn't even considered.
But then Tara's job and my job, our job.
Is to then sift and filter through all of those wonderful ideas and go So that's a good one that's not so good that won't work, and this is the one we're going with. So our job is to direct traffic, if that makes sense.
Yeah. And also, you don't need their You don't need their twenty four year old it tech, brilliant, creative, amazing brain. You just need to be able to know how to best lead them and use them as not the right word, but integrate them into your vision so that they you can operationalize their gifts while still making them feel appreciated and valued and seen and all of that and respected. I think that's now. It's like Melissa, who obviously everyone
knows who works with me. She's got so much knowledge and skill and all of that. And she's not twenty five, she's thirty five or six, but still for me a teenager. But the shit that she can do in five minutes,
I can't do in five hours. And because I just don't know, I just don't understand the things that she understands in terms of and we're not talking about human behavior or business the greater, but we're just talking about how to like a lot of tech and a lot of even the back end of business and stuff and building websites and coding and all of that stuff, which if you said to me, explain coding, I'll be like, yeah, hang on, and I'd talk for three minutes. It'd be
clunky and ninety percent of it would be bullshit. Right, So, but just I kind of got detoured.
You wanted to every business, Yeah, just tell everyone what the business is and how many centers studios you have and all of that. Now, So we are a pilates reformer business, but we're slightly different in the respect that we have come up with a system and a model that allows people to have a unlimited twenty four to seven access. So we're the only franchise in Australia that does this. And so our franchisees have their own businesses.
They operate their own businesses under our guidance and under our process and procedure. But the member, the member experience is literally they have a membership to their studio. They pay a weekly direct debit. That weekly direct debit gives
them unlimited access. They have our app on their phone where they make their booking and they turn up and they complete their class by visual or viewing an instructor through one of our large screens that revolves around the machine, so they select their class from a library of over three hundred That class has been recorded specifically for someone to do on their own with the same reformers. So they're being instructed by that instructor, but through a screen, not live.
And so that's that's the general concept.
You know, what's amazing is and I'm not just saying this because it's you and it's what you've done. Right. Firstly, no one else is doing this, not twenty four hours, you know. Secondly, I understand like I've got a bunch of friends who do pilarates right and shout out to
Fie who does pilarates all the time. But one of the one of the limitations with traditional is that, well you've got to go at nine thirty and by the way, it's booked out at nine point thirty, so you go on a waiting list and then you might be you might get in, you might not. And by the way, depending on how you're paying for this, it could be thirty or thirty five dollars for a class, depending on where you're going and what payment system or methods you're using,
and how often you go. And that's a fair bit right, And then and then there's you're doing that class. You've got one choice, which is if you're doing that time or that's the class. So you don't but when you go, well, you know what, I want to train at eleven pm. Sure, And by the way, at eleven pm we have over three hundred classes that you can you know, I love and I know some people will go, oh, but I get it. I get it, but you're not. You're offering
something different. But it's the I've been in. I've been in a few of your studios and I'm not just saying this, but it's fucking world class. It's beautiful. This is I've got this weird thing, right. I love smells. I love going somewhere that smells great, and they all smell great, you know, and they look great and all of that. But anyway, so congrats. So how many studios are in existence now?
I got back from opening our most recent one, which was in Mackay, and I'll tell you something about that in the moment.
But I got back from Mackay yesterday.
That was opening number twenty six around Australia and New Zealand.
We're now into national by the end of July.
We've got four more to open, so basically by the halfway point of this year will have thirty's.
That's amazing. What happened in Mackay, Well.
Mackay a lady wanted to buy Mackay for some time and there were other people sort of already having a reservation on that territory, so she kind of missed out. Then that other group they pulled out because they couldn't they couldn't achieve it amongst all of them. They had other commitments and other responsibilities, so they decided it wasn't for them. So I rang this lady and I said, so her name Zoe. I said, Zoe, this Mackay territory is it's available.
Do you want it?
She goes, absolutely, I'm taking it. Sign me up now. So we did that and she opened her studio on Saturday with three hundred and seventy members. Now, the previous best opening ever in the history of ever for US was two hundred and twenty, so she eclipsed the record by one hundred and fifty members.
I've never seen anything like it.
I've never seen so much, so much excitement and activity, and it was literally like I don't know, it was hard to explain. But it was a bit of a moment for us to see that. I mean, I was getting people from Makay texting me going when are you
guys coming to Makay, Like when are you opening? And apt pilates in Makay They somehow found my number and or that the DM me through Instagram and I'm like, this is insane, like people from another part of Australia contacting us directly going, please put one here in our city.
How many it's probably a question without notice, that's not fair. How many people live in Makay?
Do you know about one hundred and fifty thousand.
Oh that's a big, big town, isn't it.
Yeah, it's a big Yeah, it's a big regional city.
And I mean, I you it was big, but I didn't. I would not have picked one hundred and fifty thousand.
Yeah, yeah, me either.
I didn't realize until I did a bit of Google research. I knew it was a big regional city. And I know that McKay has a big mining element to it, both around Mackay but also in those other regional areas near it.
And the next one we're going to open near there is Townsville. In July.
So we go into Townsville as well, So any of your listeners up in Townsville, watch out here we come.
Yeah, get out, but a cup before we go and talk about a few things. By the way, of course, if you don't know, Russ has got a master's in exercise physiology. He's one of Australia's most experienced elite conditioning coaches, having worked in the AFL system and the Institute of Sport and lots and lots of Olympic athletes and teams and all of that stuff. So and having owned gyms and having been an educator in the space, owning his own registered training organization, and so we're going to we'll
talk a little bit about some exercise specific stuff. But my last kind of general question around what we're talking about before we dive in to the other stuff, is what have you changed? You kind of touched on it, but is there anything else that you have changed, either you've changed personally and or the way that you navigate business, communicate,
solve problems, all the people's stuff. You alluded to some of it before, But is it just that you've got more awareness and empathy or is there more.
Two things I reckon that make up that and that is one.
Yes, definitely, I do feel like I've got a better level of self awareness, and that's something that I'm consciously trying to develop, because I don't think you can.
I think that's a skill that comes with time. I also think that now more than ever, it's a more important skill.
And the reason I say that is because, and I think you would you would know this yourself and probably agree with me, that we have more avenues to communication than we have ever had before, but we're worse at it than we've ever been before.
And I think the.
Level of I say to my franchisees, I often don't like a conversation that needs that's a that's a serious conversation. I don't like doing serious conversations over a phone call or via zoom.
I will do them if I have to, but I.
Much prefer to have a serious conversation with a person.
In person, you.
Know, because because I think there's there's value to reading body language and looking someone directly in the eye and reading reading their body language and how they're reacting to what you're saying. Because you've said it yourself, what is it Craig ninety percent of communication is nonverbal.
Something like that, or ninety three is the number that gets wheeled out. But yeah, definitely, what when people are not talking, they're still telling your stuff.
Yes, yes, and so I like, I think I'm much better at being self aware.
And the second thing is.
Now more than ever, I think you have to be very mindful about how you deliver a message or communicate with people before you open your mouth, because people are a little bit I guess these days people are more sensitive there it's easier for them.
To be upset.
And I don't know all the reasons for that, but I just think back in the day, you know, when you and I were working at football clubs, and I know that's a male dominated environment where there's big egos and lots of confidence. But these days you have to be very careful and also very thoughtful about how you deliver messages and how you communicate because it's it's hard for the message to be received in the right way all the time.
And that's one of the challenges. I agree with you, and I think also for the deliverer of the message, you me whoever the boss or the leader, or the coach or even the coworker doesn't have to be a person in leadership, right, but is to realize that your intention is not the other person's experience, right. You go, ah, but I was clear and I didn't raise my voice, and da da da. Yeah, But that doesn't mean that
they're not intimidated. Right, That doesn't mean and I know this, like I intimidated and probably still do people without ever intending to create that outcome, right, And so you know, you you really have to. You know, there's an idea I've spoken about it here. I don't know if I've mentioned this to you. There's an idea or a concept
in psychology you called the false consensus effect. You'll love this, Rusty, And the false consensus effect just speaks to the fact that we humans think that other people think like us, right, And so what I'm thinking in my head and my intention and what I'm saying, that's going to be what you're getting, right, And that's just not true a lot of the time, which is where this trying to have it,
you know. And what we can do is sometimes we can look at somebody's response and to us, that response might be over the top, like disproportionately hysterical, to what actually happened, and you're like, come the fuck on, really, I mean, do we really need to be up? Like that's a nine out of ten response to a one out of ten stimulus? Do we need? Right? And as you and I, as people who probably don't are not triggered that much by that many things, and we're just
lucky for that. I guess what we're doing is we're not understanding that although maybe through our eyes that response is disproportionate to what happened, their experience is one hundred percent real. So even though you might go, look, this is really not a traumatic event, but to them, the
trauma is real. And so it's not about whether or not objectively this thing is this or that, but rather subjectively they are truly hurt or they are, you know, And so that's that whole theory of mind idea of trying to look at the thing through someone else's window.
But for me, like that is something and I know you don't know this, probably in the middle of a podcast especially, but yeah, that's where you've really evolved because you were quite and you're right, you know, you and I grew up in a and this doesn't rational eyes
or justify anything, but it explains it a bit. Where you know, when you and I were working in the AFL system in the nineties, well fuck your feelings, like you're getting paid to do this, and I'm getting paid to tell you what to do, and I've got people paying me to tell me what to do, and but bah bah, you know, and that's that's the But that was the model then, that was the model, that was the culture, and now thankfully it's evolved, you know, So yeah.
I agree.
I think I think, like most things, what the way you and I worked in the nineties and the environments that we worked in and how we communicated with each other were certainly not the best way of doing it, because we know that there are people that have been through those environments that have got you know, some some damage and some real, some real unpleasant memories from working in those in those times. Because yes, there were there
were people were communicated with inappropriately and treated inappropriately. I just think that we've probably in some situations, we've probably over compensated for that, and we just need to find our balance a little bit where because, as you know, mate, in life, especially in business, sometimes things don't work out the plan.
And when you add financial success or failure into that conversation, emotions and reactions get very quickly heightened.
Everything like a navy seal, a navy seal once. I listened to a navy seal once who said, if you want to make anything a fucking mess, just throw water on it.
Right, Everything's worse when you put water on it. It's true.
But in business, every conversation is more stressful and more heightened when there's a dollar sign attached to it. And that's what I've got to be very careful of because all I do just about all day now is talk to people about money, finance, business.
Memberships, retention.
You know, it's all about dollars and cents, and I'm okay with that, but a lot of people are not used to it. It's a very unfamiliar territory for them, and they get very stressed very quickly. And I've got to make sure I realize that someone who's been in business for six months they stress and panic a lot faster than I do when I've been doing it for, you know, twenty thirty years.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think you do raise a good point, right, and that is that, yes, we need to be aware, and we need to be empathetic, and we need to try to understand someone else's version of right now, you know, so that that kind of you know, capacity to be able to look through their window for one of a better metaphor. But also, boys and girls, life doesn't give a fuck about your feelings. Life doesn't care if you're having a good or bad day.
And so the challenge I reckon is for us to be simultaneously, people like you and me who are probably old buff eds, to be aware and thoughtful and empathetic, but also for all of us to be able to go yeah. True, but we also need to be resilient. We also need to work on being mentally tough and adaptable. And you know, you know, if I said to one hundred people in a room, do you want to be more resilient? Nobody's going to say no. You know, do you want to be able to perform under pressure? Because
life is pressure, Nobody's going to say no. Everyone. So, how you build resilience, How you build a capacity to work under pressure, How you build a capacity to thrive in the chaos. How you can keep getting up when
others would just stay down? Right? Well, that's built at the cold face of the cold face of the bullshit, like you know, and the obviously analogy for you and me is resistance training, where you go and literally work against physical resistance to create adaptation, which is strength, so too mental and emotional like, well, let's go to the mental and emotional jim, where we work against resistance and
we also build strength. So when that hard thing happens, when the shit hits the metaphoric fan on planet you, which it absolutely will, you don't capitulate because now you're a bit stronger, a bit more resilient, a bit more capable, a bit more used to pressure, and a bit okay with it all right, So I think it's that balance between understanding others and being empathetic and aware, but also, like I'm more interested in from how do I help people point of view, how do I help them build
resilience because resilience is fucking key, it is.
And to your point, the best and worst time for me in the last thirty years of business was the COVID lockdown, and that's when I was at my most ever stressed. I tend to cope with stress reasonably well, but that was a moment where I definitely had some very very stressful times. But at the same time, had I not gone through that, things happen in my day now that ten years ago would have stressed me. Now I just literally laughed them off because it's all relative. Nothing is as stressful today.
Nothing.
If someone rings me up and says, you know, I know we've had ten conversations and I want to open a franchise, but we're not going to do it where we've changed our mind or we're moving away. So that's potentially a significant sum of money that has just walked out of my office.
That doesn't bother me because it's all relative.
I'm like, there'll be another lead tomorrow, There'll be another franchise e next week.
It's not the end of the world.
Look at what look at what you have got, Look at what the environment you now have compared to what it looked like five years ago, and let's keep.
Things in perspective.
And I think had I not been through that really horrendous, difficult, stressful time, I wouldn't function as well and as calmly as I do now. I needed to live through that because I'm a way better operator because of it.
And that the beautiful analogy. There is the ten kilos that used to be heavy. It's still ten kilos, but it's not heavy now, it's like and the weight hasn't changed, the lifter has changed. So all those you've probably got as an objective inbound stimuli. You've probably got more stress coming in, but you don't experience it as a person being stressed because you're not lifting the ten. You're lifting the thirty now. Yep, right, so you've just built this
strength and this capability. All right, as promised, we've taken fucking way too long. I apologize everyone. What I'm going to do is this. You won't hear it, but I'm going to pause the recording temporarily. I'm going to find a couple of questions from Carolyn and we'll be back momentarily. All Right, we're back. You didn't know we'd even gone. Bloody hell. Technology. Fuck, it's fascinating, isn't it? All Right, So this is in the New Project podcast facebook page.
Carolyn says. Caroline says, when we'll Russ Jarrett return? And I wrote soon? What do you want us to discuss? Okay, here we go one, What a high performance life looks like? Oh? What a high performance life looks like. All right, well, I'll start and then you build on that. So for me, for me, a high performance life is just you getting the most out of what you've got to work with.
So I call my mom a high performer because she's eighty five and she cooks and cleans and drives r On around and looks after ron And so for me, high performance is really about your capacity to get close to optimizing whatever it is you have to work with. It ain't about running one hundred meters in ten seconds, curing cancer, joining the space program, or you know, winning
a Grammy award. That in terms of because I try to make that idea of high performance relevant to the average punter, which is Russ, which is me, which is most of you. So the question, Russ, is what a high performance life looks like to you? How would you expand on that?
Yeah, there's two things that come to mind. There.
There's a Japanese philosophy which many people will have heard of called kaisan, which is the concept of continuous life life long improvement. And whilst that might sound a little bit you know kumbai yah, I think that's it definitely has it has relevance for me. So I personally as
someone who tries to be a high performer. You know, one of the things I want to do is make sure that even if I write a basic email, even if I have a conversation with someone about establishing a franchise, I want to make sure that that email and that conversation is done as well as I can do it. So I pride myself on trying to continuously improve the way I communicate, the way I operate, how efficient I
can be in my day. I look at that all the time and say, if I am, if I've got someone in my chair and someone's doing my job, what would I be looking at them to do on a daily basis to get better and be better? And I think that's one of the most important elements of high performances to constantly go can I improve, you know, in some way, shape or form. And the other thing that's I think really critical is setting high standards for yourself. You know, the concept around oh that's you know, close
enough is good enough. I don't like that, and I think in Australia we do suffer from that mediocrity attitude a little bit.
I think you should no matter what you do.
Whether you're a professional golfer footballer, or you're a tradee or you're an electrician or whatever it is, whatever your career in life is, I think we should all have an attitude of I want to be really really expert in this field.
I want to be really good at it.
Love it all, right, talking point. This is not a question, just a talking point, So riff on this for I'm going to give you two minutes strength training for people older than fifty, So strength training for the over fifties.
The things that around that I would say is consistency beats load. So you know, maybe don't worry too much about what you are lifting in comparison to what you did used to lift, because I certainly don't lift as much as I used to, but that doesn't bother me or stress me anymore. It's about making sure that I lift regularly. Consistency is key for people over fifty. Also for people over fifty, making sure that they're doing exercises that don't leave them with unnecessarily high levels of fatigue
or soreness, or stiffness or lack of mobility. So find what works for you, and if that means that your key exercises are probably you know, maybe six or seven.
That's okay.
You don't have to be doing you know, weird and wonderful new exercises all the time.
If you know what works for you, stick with it.
So I know certain exercises hurt my lower back and I don't do them as regularly, or I don't just heavy, and I know other exercises I can go super heavy and I get no real joint pain or discomfort from it.
So I know what works for me. For me, I know how my body works, so.
When I get when you get to that old older age bracket, train consistently. Find that your best exercises, do the ones that don't give you unnecessary levels of joint pain and stiffness, and stick to that because when you're sore, you tend not to train as much.
And that's when everything starts to spiral downwards.
Love it. Also, by the way, everyone, there are no new movements, just to be clear, Just to be clear, so forget YouTube. There are no new movements like anatomically there aren't. So there might be new names for old things, and people think they invented a movement that's never been done by a human they haven't. They might be doing something in a slightly different way, but you know, internal external, otflextion, extension, you know, in the different planes of movement. It's been
around forever. So stick with the basics and make it as functional as you can. I'm with Rusty, all right, another minute or two. Russell's thoughts on training for longevity. I think that question might intersect with the last question somewhat. But training for I'm going to say training for longevity, and I reckon more importantly health span. So how long we are? You know, if you live for ninety but the last twenty years a dogshit, that's not a great outcome.
But if you live to ninety and most of those ninety years you're pretty functional and operational and good, well, that's a great outcome. So let's talk about longevity, but perhaps more importantly, health span, living long and strong.
So if you look at a lot of the research that floats around now, and there's a guy that I know you look at and listen to, and that's that doctor out of the US.
Peter A Tea Tea.
Yeah, I mean they he talks all the time about leg strength being a key indicator and maintaining leg strength and lack of leg strength being an early indicator for all cause morbidity and grip strength, so carrying stuff, holding stuff, and keeping your leg strong.
I do.
I do chin ups, as you know, as part of my Apple body work. I do a lot of I still do a lot of leg work, but I often just hang on the bar for you know, for as long as I can.
Yeah, I do.
I do kettlebell fie farmers, walks and carries and things like that. I still I also believe crego that we should be doing low impact as an older trainer, low impact but high intensity cardio, so rower, bike, ski, urg and things. So I don't run very much, but I still get my heart rate up. And I still do high intensity efforts, but they tend to be more low impact. You know, I don't do as much. Back in the day, I used to love doing stair climbs and running upstairs and running up hills and things.
I probably don't do that as.
Much now for obvious reasons, but I still like to get my heart rate up nice and high one hundred psent.
Love it, agree with it. I'm going to chuck in a left field addition to that, my left field edition is this which Russ and I never thought about. I tell you twenty or thirty years ago, we never thought about this. But now we know that socialization has an impact on longevity health span. We know that if somebody's
ticking all the boxes. They eat well, they train well, they sleep well, but they're socially isolated, they're lonely, they're disconnected, they don't feel loved, valued, scene nurtured, they don't feel
like they belong, that person will die sooner. So on average, if everything else is as I do, so all of those things that Russ said, plus so being part of something like Russ's being part of whether or not it's a part of a couple or a part of a family, or a part of a business or a part of a social group where people feel like they matter, actually has a physiological impact on everything from endocrime system, immune system,
cognitive function, emotional system, psychology, everything. And so we know that the body and the brain and the mind and the emotions are all intertwined, and so emotional and psychological health or mental health and emotional health have an impact on physical health. Ergo, they have an impact on longevity and health span. So go and give some old fucker a cuddle. There you go, You're welcome.
That's the take home message.
And if you see me, just come and give me a fucking hug because a little bit lonely. All right. Russ's thoughts on how how should okay so with high hypertrophy training? Now, Carolyn's a trainer in New Zealand who's also a powerlifter, so she's gone from zero, never having really trained that way to now. I think she's got one or two national records in her weight in her age group in the land of the long White Cloud. Is that what they call it? Anyway? Shout out to
our friends over there. So human weight training versus men weight training? Any any advice thoughts mister exercise physiologists with the masters.
On female versus male or hyperchafe?
Yeah, hyperchvy dudes girls Prince's question mark.
Yeah, So obviously hypertrophy becomes a little bit more of a challenge as we age, and I would say that over time the hyperchase if he outcomes start to diminish, but the strength outcomes can still well and truly be maintained and even improved. So as as I age, I'm not so concerned about adding lean muscle tissue. I'm more concerned about maintaining what I do have and making sure that my nervous system and my neuro muscular system is
still efficient and firing. So I think my general answer to that is, over time, you should think about adjusting your goals, but not but not diminishing your goals, just changing the outcome a little bit. So Mitch my son, who's twenty five, he's like I was at twenty five. He's all about more muscle mass, bigger frame, add leaning muscle tissue.
You know, he's not so much. He doesn't doesn't care so much about how he well.
He does care how he functions, but he cares probably a tad more about how he looks.
It's an aesthetic.
No, no, I don't believe that. Fucking hell. Let me sit down, all right, That is true. I always when I just talk to people about you know, i'd say the three things that we kind of care about the most, I look, feel, function, how we look, how we feel how we function, and the order changes as you get older. Like I was when I was twenty five, I couldn't give a fuck about what worked and didn't work. Prop I'm like all about look at me, look at me. And then as you get older and shit starts to
break and you go, oh, blood pressure, what's that? Oh? My back? Fucking hell, lumbar? What you know? And then you when you've been in lots of like with my back. I've been a few times in my life, more than a few times in really acute pain. You couldn't give a fuck if you looked like humpty dumpty, as long as you had fucking a pain free back, you know what I mean. It's like I didn't care. I just oh my god. So all right, let's just ask a couple more. What are the top three things you would
tell a beginner starting resistance training? What are the top three things you'd tell a beginner starting resistance training or strength training.
Number one, technique trumps everything, So don't worry about how much you're lifting.
Worry about how you're lifting it. That's that's most important.
Number two is be be open to all forms of resistance as a modality. So don't get hung up on I have to use a bar bell, or I have to use a dumb belt, or unless I'm using a leg press machine, I'm not training. Don't get hung up on what type of equipment or what style.
You know, German.
Volume method is better than don't worry about don't worry about that. Don't get hung up, learn, explore, try stuff, open open your mind. So that's number two, and number three is be patient unless you're going to unless you're going to supplement with other substances that you know people do, but we don't advise. If you're going to do things the natural way, which most people do and should, be patient hyperjury training. Strength training takes a very long time
in most cases, unless you're you know, genetically predispositioned. But for most people, strength training and adding lean muscle tissue takes time.
Be patient.
Most people are nowhere near patient enough, and they give up just as they're about to tip over the.
Cliff a case. I'll give you the example here Mitch, because he carries my genetics.
You know, when he was fifteen sixteen, was almost painfully thin, and you know, I said, look, mate, the best thing you can do is start doing some strength training and I'll teach you. So we started doing that seventeen and eighteen he's like, Dad, this is just ridiculous, Like I trained three four times a week, five times a week. Nothing's happening, And I said, there's reasons for that. I go keep training. Your technique's great, you're learning, you know
a lot already. I said, it'll come, you know, nineteen twenty twenty one, And as soon as he got to that age level and his testosterone level started to increase, all of those years of grinding and waiting and training and being patient, they all came out.
And now the kid's got a fair for zecon him. So patients, they're the three. They're the three. He's got to be patient.
All right. There's more, but I think we'll leave it there. It's always good to catch up with you, mate. We appreciate you. Congrats to you and Tara and Mitch. Mitch is in the family business of course, and all the people who are doing that. I find it really encouraging. I personally find that encouraging, you know, but I hope our audience find that encouraging. That you can keep learning, growing, evolving, doing good shit start a business in your fifties, you know,
as objective as I can be. I was thinking when you were talking before, I was just looking at you and you're fifty seven, and I reckon, this is the best that you've been like as having. I don't know whatever it is, whatever they you know, got your shit together. You like your knowledge, your confidence, your ability to connect, articulate things well, think clearly, solve problems, create, build lead. I'm not trying to piss in your pocket, but i'd
hand on heart mean that. And even when we paused before and I was trying to find Carol, I said to you off air, I said, mate, you're fucking crushing it. And it's true. I'm super proud of you. So well done. Tell people where they can connect and learn more about whatever you know, whether or not that's you on LinkedIn or the business or whatever.
Yes, thanks mate, I appreciate those words. So yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. The website is at Polarti dot Studio at Polartes dot Studio because you can't search with the APT symbol, so it's at Pilartess dot Studio. We've got a Polarates dot two four seven Instagram page. I've got my own Instagram page. So there's many ways you can reach out to us. Probably the best thing to do always is go to our website and all avenues of connection and contact from.
There perfect I say goodbye Pharaoh as always, but thanks Champ. Enjoy your what is it Wednesday? Enjoy your Wednesday, big boy.
Thanks mate,