Ep 180 – Finding The Fun In Fitness Again

Giacomo

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio.

Giacomo, Dani

My name is Giacomo and I’m and this is episode one 80.

Dani

Welcome back, everybody. I feel like it’s been forever since Giacomo and I actually recorded a podcast together, which is a very strange feeling it is.

Giacomo

And we have more podcasts like that on the horizon because we were going to be doing some interviews with Vegan strong Plant built athletes as they’re getting closer to competition time, both in September, in Tampa and in October in Atlantic City.

Dani

Yes. If there’s any plant built members that you would like to see us or hear us in this case interview, let us know. I know we’ve had a few people on before. But who do you guys want to hear from? Let us know. And also what have you been thinking about the other podcasts? I know I’ve been having fun chatting with other folks. I, I mean, I imagine you must be too well.

Giacomo

Part of me got a little, I don’t know if confuse is the right word, but I was kind of like, I’m so used to talking to you exclusively the majority of the time in our podcast that I almost didn’t know what to do with myself when I got into a conversation with Ben and with Alice, I caught myself almost second guessing what I was gonna say or like what I was thinking, which is weird.

Right. Because we do interviews with others all the time. It’s just on their stuff, but it’s something about your own brand and your own thing. And it’s like the whole conversation just gets switched up. But it’s been really nice sharing episodes with Ben and Al Alice, like at the same time and stuff like that.

Giacomo, Dani

What would happen if all four of us jumped on a I thought about that.

Dani

Actually, I was thinking about like, what, what topic could we do more of like a round table discussion on? I don’t think we could have everybody on it. That would just be chaos. But yeah, we could have, we could do it over Zoom where we had several of us talking about something at once. Do you remember there was a period where 3D MJ? Like when they started their podcasts, it was all of them on the podcast every time before they started breaking it down into being like Andrea

interviewing and then two of the team. And actually, I think, I actually think that’s a really good format. Oh, Christina might be a good interviewer. Just a, just a thought and a lot of you guys really loved the podcast that Christina was on too. And that was very unique. And she did a video on our youtube channel as well about stretching, mobility, avoiding injury. It was awesome. It was really good.

Giacomo

So, yeah, and my brain is swimming with all kinds of ideas on how we can utilize the fact that there are many more of us now than there was a year ago.

Dani

Yeah, I’m still getting used to it because, you know, I always had this idea that like, oh, as our team grows, like things will get easier for me personally, right? Like, you know, as we have more coaches, for example, I wouldn’t have to take on so many people, Giacomo wouldn’t have to take on so many people, which I guess very technically, that could be true, but that’s not actually how it works.

Like we still have the same number of clients that we had before and now we have all of these new responsibilities of, of having a team and what that entails. So it’s just, it’s just interesting how as, as we grow, which is so exciting to see our team grow and more than that our community grow, the engagement with different people growing. It’s awesome, but it just brings new, new fun and interesting things to learn, I guess.

So I always love it when we hear your feedback about particular episodes, you know, some of you shoot me a message on Facebook or on Instagram even email us and let us know what you think. Those, those always make my day because like I said, podcast metrics are really hard to decipher. Although they’re getting a little bit clearer, you think that wouldn’t have been that hard?

But I digress. what do we have going on? Ok. So when this comes out it’s going to be next week, I am gearing up to head down to Atlanta. Didn’t you just get back from Atlanta? Why? Yes, I sure did. But I’m heading back down to Atlanta because one of my clients has a show down there and I don’t often get to go to my clients shows unless they’re local and I’m able to like drive out and see them.

I don’t usually get to be there, but I decided I was going to go down for this one. Her name is Rachel.

Vegan Muscle Machine, I believe on Instagram is what her name is now and she has had one hell of a journey to the stage and her first show is actually in like three days.

Giacomo

Talk about what she looks like. Right. That’s what everyone really cares about. The past three weeks. My gosh, she changed so much. She was getting better and better and better and I was like, oh, cool. And it was been rooting wrong the whole time.

Dani

I’m, I’m actually considering and Rachel May very well hear about this for the first time on this podcast. But I’m actually considering having her on to do a podcast so that we can talk about what her journey to the stage looked like. And I’ll get more into it if we decide to do that. But it’s really interesting because I don’t think she started from like an athlete’s advantage.

Like so many successful bodybuilders were already athletes for a long time. And she did all the right stuff. That’s the only way I can put it. She did a lot of stuff that other people are not willing to do to get to where she is. And I think it would be a really interesting episode if, if you’re open to it, Rachel. anyway, but what are we actually talking about today?

Giacomo

Fun. We’re talking about having fun.

Dani

I’m out. I don’t do fun. I’m just kidding. I’m a blast guys.

Giacomo

She really is a good time, so much so that she needs to have a good time for the both of us because I refuse to have a good time. I let off like I’m going to have a good time. But in reality, this one over here she makes the fun happen.

Dani

That’s facts. Like people meet us and they immediately think like you’re the guy, like you’re the fun, optimistic Wacky Zany guy and I’m just like, Morticia Wednesday, Adams in the corner under a storm cloud guys.

Giacomo, Dani

This is just what I look like, and this is just my voice and this is what I look like.

Giacomo

But in reality, I am high strung, super stressed out and constantly serious and not doing fun. But I look like I’m having fun.

Dani

See, see the difference way less go with the flow.

Giacomo

That’s not true. As long as going with the flow involves not having fun, I’ll go with the flow.

Dani

And, you know, I certainly can be all of those things high, strong neurotic serious, but I’ve worked really hard in my life to be less like that. So, but we’re not just talking about finding the fun in general. We’re talking about finding the fun in fitness, which we actually decided to do this podcast specifically with Giacomo because I think he’s been doing a really good job with this lately and it’s timely and I tried to do

something like this last year and I did do it for a while and then I decided to not do it anymore. So, go, go ahead, tell us, tell us a little bit about what you’ve been up to and why.

Giacomo

Well, aside from the fact that I have been unsuccessfully trying to accomplish something for a very long time now and it’s starting to get good. Oh, gosh, where do I go with this? I’m gonna mix up my words here. But basically I’m going to be true to who I said I am because that’s just me. I’m having fun. But I’m also not having fun. Many years ago, I put out a video where I’m like, when you’re done competing, do something, do something to enjoy.

Take a break from being an expert mode and being super competitive, right? You and it was the context was I was hopping on stage and I was already preaching the idea that like when you get off stage, find a way to take a break because you’re so stuck in the pound of competing.

Dani

That probably so, I mean, not, probably I’ve been there. You’re like, so burned out on it. Like you’re not going to the gym at the end of a prep because you just love it. You’re going there because you, you have to, and a lot of days you have to drag yourself there.

Giacomo

Well, you’re also getting in your own way because you’re an object in motion and you can’t just undo the patterns that you’ve created to compete. And my suggestion back then was to play tennis. What am I doing right now? Playing tennis?

Dani

What am I not doing right now? Playing tennis? Because once upon a time, Giacomo embarrassed me so badly at a gym. Let me back up. Giacomo played tennis in college, like college level tennis.

Giacomo

Wait, pause. We were the worst team out of all of the division one teams. We still are and I was not a starter and I didn’t start one single game. I was a bench warmer.

Giacomo, Dani

So I’m not that good and yet 1 billion% better than I had never even held a racket.

Dani

Ok, in my life. And he didn’t just play tennis. He also played handball, wall ball. What’s it called? Paddle paddle ball? Thank you. See, do you see this pickleball wasn’t even like, I mean, it existed, but nobody was doing it back then. Now it’s all the rage. Right. Anyway, this was probably 13 years ago. Now we went to a gym that had paddle ball courts and I was like, oh, that looks really fun.

I wanna try it. Like, can we try it? And of course he didn’t need to try it. He’d already done it. But I have this thing. I do not like to look stupid in front of people. I don’t like to look inept or incapable in front of people. I have like a really bad embarrassment reaction not to like saying the wrong thing or something, but specifically, like physically failing at something in front of people.

It’s mortifying to me this paddle ball court was in front of all of the cardio machines. So like cardio machines, all of them facing a wall of glass and, suffice it to say I was not very good. I didn’t expect to be very good, but I was in fact, so bad that Giacomo put his paddle down and started just hitting the ball with his hand and he was still absolutely crushing me and I was just like, that’s it.

Never doing this again. And I was so upset and, yeah, but now I actually, I don’t play because I have

bad elbows and tennis is not good for people with bad elbows, but pickleball sounds really fun. Let’s play. And I got a badminton net for the backyard. I’m, I’m ready. It doesn’t hurt your elbows at all.

Giacomo

Well, tonight, we’ll barbecue for my, what I eat in a day video and we’ll add a little badminton if it’s, if it doesn’t rain because it was crazy snows.

Dani

Probably not gonna play badminton on our youtube channel after what I just said. So, I mean, I think I just made that quite clear. Damn it. But I’m really impressed that you have been playing tennis. So tell, tell me more about that because I haven’t been, I haven’t seen it.

Giacomo

Well, it’s lovely that impressions are what people assume is actually going on because I just finished my check with my coach and I’ll try to remember my exact words as best as possible. Here. I told him I am terrified, absolutely terrified at the fact that I’m playing tennis and what that’s going to do to take away from me becoming more competitive in bodybuilding.

Like I, I said, I also told him because I’d already processed how I felt about this. And I, I also told him that I’m not gonna stop because it makes me happy and I need to be happy. Although I am also miserable and worried about the potential fact that this is going to sabotage my bodybuilding goals. Because as it’s been like, I’ve been training 12 years in a row.

I have been, I’ve spent 25 years of my life focused on competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilding and many of those years competitive bodybuilding and I have been unsuccessful at winning the way that I want to win. And it’s like, how do you become an expert at something? You focus? You have a singular focus on that thing. It doesn’t matter if the odds are stacked against you or they’re for you.

If you want to get good at something, regardless, you have to focus on that one thing. What am I doing? 60 minutes worth of tennis a day? Match play in a day? Sorry, like twice a week, right? No, once a week with the 60 minutes of match play, but also once a week, I’m gonna add in 60 minutes of drills, meaning there’s a ball machine, spitting out balls at me and I’m gonna hit them.

Dani

I don’t think that’s that big of a deal if you were doing tennis for like, 2 to 3 hours a day. Yeah, that would be disastrous for your body.

Giacomo

I’m worried about these things as a teenager. I’m like one of my arms is, is not measuring as big as the other. I know it’s my swinging arm, my back muscles. Are sore when I’m trying to play. I’m doing my cardio and I’m too fatigued to work out. I’m not recovering as well. That’s like the stuff I start to think about now.

Like, II I could, I could go on and on. I have way too many thoughts about this and way too many feelings about this. Like, again to the point, like I can’t have fun. It’s a problem. But, but, you know, in reality, I’m still gonna do it. I’m happy about it. I appreciate the vote of confidence here freeze.

Dani

So why are you doing it? You just explained all the reasons why you hate doing it and you’re afraid of doing it and you’re miserable, I think was the exact quote you use doing it. We are doing a podcast about finding fun and fitness.

Giacomo, Dani

So please put that all together and make it, make sense for me because it’s all the more reason to face my fears, to challenge myself, to figure it out and to trust that I can pull back when it comes time to this.

Giacomo

Basically, what I am being so transparent about is what focusing on one thing can do for you when you’re all in and you’re going all out and you’re suffering and you think you’re having fun because you’re goal driven and you’re looking to achieve something and you know that it requires sacrifice and suffering. But at what point are you shooting yourself in the foot So, so here I am.

Right. And I’ll go out and I’ll play tennis and I’ll come back home and I’m like, oh my God, it’s like literally casting a spotlight on. I don’t wanna use the word depressed cause it’s not like I’m depressed, but it’s like how much I’m getting in my own way, basically. Just like not enjoying life, not having fun in a very narrow routine, like a very stringent routine that basically, you know, life is like, essentially passing me by because I’m just so stuck focused on one thing.

They don’t give my chance to self to enjoy the other things. And I hope that playing tennis will open up the door for me to enjoy other things to be a little more flexible. I’m finding myself getting into better conversations. I’m finding myself thinking differently. I’m finding myself hap a happier person.

I mean, I could keep going. I can’t overstate the benefits that I’ve already experienced in under a month just by allowing myself giving myself permission to do things a little differently, even though the fear is very much so real.

Dani

So, ok, first of all, I would agree with everything you just said, significantly more fun and more pleasant.

Giacomo

I can do something about that.

Dani

But you know what my, what I’m hearing from that is that constantly doing things the most efficient and effective way possible does in fact have its costs. And even though we all like the idea of efficiency and being as effective as possible at all of these different things. If you are, listen, man, if you are not having a good time, what’s the point?

And I would say that about bodybuilding 100%. And at the end of a lot of really intense goals or after a certain number of years, sometimes what you’ve been doing the whole time is not bringing you the same happiness that it once was and you don’t have to just keep sticking it out. Because for some reason in your mind, this is the thing that you have to do. Like you can pivot, you can change or subtract or add to things because at the end of the day, first of all, all movement is good

movement, all movement is health promoting. So it doesn’t have to be one thing or the other thing. But at the end of the day, like this is it, this is it. If you’re not having fun, what’s if you’re not even trying to have fun, what’s the point?

Giacomo

I follow you? I appreciate your perspective. And I think that there’s a lot of truth to it. For me, it started with realizing that my cardiovascular health could be better. And I’ve spent so many years again, compromising and at what point is the cost you pay to try to be good at something no longer benefiting you. Like you’ve actually created something that is a net negative So, by me saying to myself, ok, well, I shouldn’t do as much cardio.

Yeah, that’s all well and good. But to, there’s a limit there at some point you end up shooting yourself in the foot, your cardiovascular endurance suffers. You’re not as agile of a person. You don’t have the same level of endurance.

Giacomo, Dani

You’ve convinced yourself that this is ok because gains, well, the question is, and I think you have to ask yourself this over and over and over again.

Dani

What is the goal? What’s the goal? So I’m asking you, what’s the goal?

Giacomo

Well, for me, it’s OK. So place as good as I possibly can be a pro and place as good as I possibly can.

Dani

OK. So that is the primary goal is bodybuilding. So would another goal be, you know, generally not be a miserable person,

Giacomo

truthfully?

Giacomo, Dani

Yes, not necessarily elaborate.

Giacomo

Well, the goal is more important. The goal requires some sacrifice. You can’t expect to enjoy your goal the entire way through.

Dani

So where’s the line of sacrifice? Like where is it where it’s like, ok, this is as much suffering as I’m willing to tolerate to reach this goal, which I agree goals. Certain goals certainly do require some sacrifice. I should say more than suffering. Where’s the line where you say, OK, this is just silly.

Giacomo

It’s a very good question. I think for me, I started to see my energy being in a very bad place experiencing some personal hardship. My grief has been absolutely wrecking me this year. It, it came in like a wrecking ball. My dad passed away in November and you can’t outthink how you, how grief makes you feel.

And I just see myself finding all kinds of ways to enjoy and appreciate life and I don’t feel like myself and I know this is a weird thing to say, but I don’t feel like myself anymore. I kind of feel like lost a little bit.

Dani

Grief is a bitch. Grief is a mother effing bitch. It doesn’t make any sense. It hits you at the worst possible times it does change you. And I think we had this conversation like over a decade ago, me trying to explain my own vantage point of how certain terrible things can happen to you in your life and you are not the same person anymore. And that’s not bad necessarily, but it is it’s like earth, earth shaking like it rattles you quite a bit.

And I guess on the one hand again, we’ve talked about this privately. This is actually kind of a very deeply personal conversation we’re having here on the podcast. On the one hand, I feel very blessed that I came to that realization, like terrible things will happen and you will be a different person afterwards, very young.

So when that happened to me several times throughout my life, it didn’t like shock me to death. But I feel like this is, this might be the first, like, big one for you and you’re in your forties. So I think it’s like it’s rattling you even more than somebody who maybe experienced some things like that earlier.

Giacomo

Well, more than anything, it’s caused me to rethink how I live my life. And in one way I doubled and tripled down when my dad passed and I found much success.

Dani

You became more rigid initially. Yeah. Yeah.

Giacomo

Oh Yeah. Oh Yeah. And that was highly rewarding. And then I realized that I was gonna hit a wall and I couldn’t keep going like that. And my energy was so I think it forced me to take a good, hard look at what I was trying to do because I was actually becoming successful at what I was trying to do this entire time and I was applying into everything and I’m like this, this is ok.

So this is obviously not the way to live. What do I, what do I do? So I started to think to myself, well, you enjoy being fit, you enjoy sports. So I started watching sports, which is something that I stopped doing many decades ago. I said, let me, let me do a little soul searching here. Let me start watching sports and see what happens. Then I randomly started watching a pickup ball game in person and they were like, hey, you wanna play and it would remind me of like going to the parks in

Brooklyn and just playing a pickup game. And I’m like, yeah, and I picked up a pickle ball racket and I met, and I met a person who was willing to hit with me and now we’ve been hitting every week. So that was a short path to what is, what could otherwise be a long story. But I guess what I’m trying to say is through searching for a way out as far as like the way that I’m normally doing things suffering,

being all in with like with the proteins, with competing marriage, all of it, all of it.

Dani

Please stay all in on that one.

Giacomo

I’m not going anywhere, family. I’m finding ways to like basically think about things differently and it’s, I think it’s benefited everything that I just mentioned. So you can in fact be the things getting in your own way, even when you are the most efficient person, you are doing all the right things for your goals and, and all that you can still get in the way you could still be in the way by being that kind of person who for lack of better words doesn’t do fun.

Dani

Yeah. Yeah, I think, I think all of that is good and I also think on a lighter take on that is if you’re not enjoying your fitness pivot, like, so you’re talking about bodybuilding and tennis, but for some people, it might be bodybuilding or tennis, they might pivot completely to tennis or running or powerlifting or jujitsu or dancing like really as long as you keep moving and, you know, I do think everybody should be strength training in some way, but it doesn’t have to be five days a

week. Body parts splits an hour at a time. Like you can do all your strength training in like 2 30 minute sessions if you wanted to. And that would be enough supplemented with other types of exercise. And you know who it reminds me of. And this is very timely is we lost an absolute icon in the fitness movement. This past week, we lost Richard Simmons who is one of my absolute fitness heroes 100%.

And do you know how he got people to get off their butts off the couch and move by making it fun? He was so ridiculous. He was completely over the top. Always in a bizarro costume. Just being super silly. Nothing that he was doing was hard. Nothing he was doing was advanced. The people in his workout videos were totally normal people, young, old, thin, fat, short, tall, all types in his videos just up and moving and having a good time.

And that man took so much shit from so many people for being so flamboyant and over the top and very, very out in a world that was not ready for somebody to be that out. But he didn’t look like a muscle bound shredded dude. And he was talking primarily to people that had horrible relationships to food and were generally very overweight and had tried and failed and tried and failed and tried and failed again. And he brought no judgment to them.

He listened to them. He cared about them. So many stories of him calling these women on the phone and talking to them for an hour at night just to see how they’re doing. Just like my God. What a hero. I love that man. And if you have not seen his 10 minute bit on whose line is it anyway, that’s definitely worth a watch hero who got millions of people moving solely by having fun.

Giacomo

And then you take that attitude and you apply it towards doing some really incredible things. No one’s saying to do 10 things in a half, half assed way. Thank you.

Dani

You can, that’s better than nothing.

Giacomo

Exactly. You can do that. You can also do a couple things really well or one thing really well and switch the things that you’re doing really well from or want to do really well. I should say from one thing to the next. You could do that too, but it’s an attitude. It’s what gets you there and it will keep you. It’s what keeps you going.

Dani

It’s also the goal, like, ask yourself what is the goal? What is your primary goal? If your primary goal is just to move your body and have fun, then you can do whatever you want if your primary goal is bodybuilding. But also you need to pepper in a few other things like you love hiking or something. You’re going to need a little bit of a strategy for that, but a lot of things can be done.

So, you know, look at triathletes, they run, they bike, they swim, they do all the things and they do it because it can be done. There are lots of, I mean, look at Greg Doucette coach Greg, he is a great bodybuilder. like he looks phenomenal. He’s also an incredible cyclist, like one of an incredibly fit human being with great cardiovascular health.

He does both of those things and probably other things too. But if you’re hating your workouts, you have to re examine the goal. Like if, if this is, if this workout is required to get you to this goal, change the goal or change your attitude. But if it is not required to get you to that goal, do something else that you like more right?

Giacomo

There’s no shame and there’s no reason to be guilty about assessing because Dani’s saying it in a matter of fact kind of way, I think because the words are coming out like that to me, it’s like, well, if you’re hating something, but getting to that realization, having that aha light bulb moment is a little bit harder when you’re so convinced that what you’re doing is what you need to be doing or should be doing or you’re just, like, used to it so it can be a little jarring to unearth

uproot. Start to, like, look at what you’re doing and be like, oh, crap. Like, is this how I should be doing it? Am I really enjoyed? And sometimes you may not even realize that you are hating your routine until

you stop, stop take a break or do something else or pepper in something else after the fact is when you might have that actualization, realize how things do in fact feel.

Dani

So I talked about this in the last couple of years, I was really struggling with my regular bodybuilding workouts at the gym. Like I was just struggling to get myself there. I just wasn’t excited to go for a while. I mean, I was going here and there, but I wasn’t like going like I had been years before. So I signed up at my friend’s gym who has classes.

I’ve talked about this a lot. I loved the community. She had there of strong badass women. I don’t have much of a social life here. Outside of my family, I have friends all over the country that I get to see when I travel, but I don’t have a lot of friends here. And I was like, well, these are totally different. This is a totally different type of training than what I normally do.

I mean, it was a lot of like jumping around and short rests and it’s like, ok, well, I suck at those things. So let’s, let’s give it a shot and I did it, I went there for probably like 15 months or something. other than when we were out of town traveling and I got better at a lot of those things and I found some value in it. But I knew that I was doing that at the expense of making forward progress on my own hypertrophy.

Muscle building goals. I didn’t backslide. I don’t think I would have been able to tolerate that. I did not backslide, but I’d also did not move forward. And I knew that I wouldn’t because I know what is required for that goal. And those classes fun though they may have been, were not it, we were lifting but not in a way that actually encouraged hypertrophy.

So I realized, yes, this is fun. But do you know what else is fun? Building muscle and getting stronger? And I just went back and I started doing my regular bodybuilding workout. So sometimes it’s not even like, oh, I just hate this. I never want to do this again. Sometimes you just need a break to try something else for a while. And then you realize, oh, actually, I really did like that and you come back what you don’t want to do is get to a place where you hate your workout so much.

You resent the fact that this is what you feel like you have to do so much that you never want to do it again. And I have seen a lot of bodybuilders do that, do one competition prep season where they went balls to the wall and, like, never touch a weight again, which seems crazy.

Giacomo, Dani

But that’s exactly what happened or trying to do it and failing and not understanding why they can’t do it again.

Dani

That’s bad.

Giacomo

Yeah, exactly. My question that I’ve been holding on to for you ever since. What, like what you just said. So here’s where my head’s at. What not, what is this taught you or what have you learned? But so you did the, you’re back to your goal, you’re enjoying it. Like I could tell you’re in the gym you’re talking to people, you’re not worried about whatever.

You know what I mean? Like your bubble because you are pretty introverted. So there are times where you’ll complain that your bubbles being popped, but you’ll also realize it’s part of the cost of training at the gym. But you, I don’t, you don’t seem to be like that, which is, and you’re, and you seem to be, to me, at least that’s my impression and you seem to be really enjoying focusing on your goal to lift as hard as you can for Hypert.

But that all said the whole thing. Did this open up any doors for you? Are there any other things that you would do outside of lifting? Because you took that chance and you went to go train at your French gym.

Dani

There’s so many things I would love to do. Like I would love to do yoga more often. Like Christina and I were talking about, I would love to go hiking more often. I love being outside. I found a great bike path that is fantastic to ride up and down. But for me, the big limitation is time, time is my biggest limiting factor. I work a lot and it, I have other family obligations outside of that. So in order for me to do my lifting and do, take some yoga classes at a time that, you know, they’re

actually doing them and, you know, load up my bike in the car, drive all the way to the bike path, ride, my bike, come back, drive out to a mountain to go hike up it. Like I don’t have time to do that sort of thing regularly. So I just kind of pepper that sort of thing in when I can, I guess J is giving me a face like I do have time.

Giacomo

I wanna, yeah, I wanna challenge on this one and see where it takes you. And I’m super curious because I feel like that’s the opposite of what we’ve been saying is that you, you know, this efficiency and this way that you’re doing things makes you put you in a position where it’s like you think it needs to be this way.

Giacomo, Dani

But I would wager, you probably could find ways I could, I mean, I certainly, there’s absolutely things I could do.

Dani

I could stop spending time with my family on the weekends I could take on fewer clients. I could sell this house and live in a place that’s cheaper where I don’t have to make as much money. You know, those are the types of sacrifice I could sleepless. I can’t sleep less. But, you know, on paper I could sleep less. There’s lots of things that I could do to have more time.

But again, you come back to the question, what is the goal? And I’m not just talking about a fitness goal, I’m talking about in your life of priorities. What are they? What are they? And I know for a fact because we’ve done this experiment before. A lot of my priorities are different than what a lot of your priorities are. for Giacomo, his physical health and fitness is number one out of all of the types of priorities one could have.

His is physical health and fitness. Number one, mine was mental wellness. I guess that’s my number one, physical health and fitness is up there. But my mental well being is number one. And then my, my family is number two of which you are, of course, a part of that, like my physical health and fitness is at least at this point in my life going to be below those two things, my mental wellness and my family, it’s probably right below that actually, which is still very high compared to

other things for other people. It might be like their spiritual life, their church or whatever is really high and like that doesn’t even, that’s not even a blip on my radar, for example. So these are questions you have to ask yourself because everything can’t always be the most important thing all the time when I was 20 I bet my health and fitness was really, really close to the top because I thought

mentally I was great. I wasn’t, but I thought I was so I didn’t care and I was a punk ass young and who didn’t really care about spending time with family. So that didn’t rank.

Giacomo, Dani

But my priorities are different now, I guess I kind of want to see you doing things that you either haven’t done in a while or wouldn’t ordinarily do.

Giacomo

I’m super curious to see if things like that start to creep their way into your life. Like playing your bass again or what do you call it the No, I’m using the word baton but it’s not a baton flag twirling.

Giacomo, Dani

He wants to see me do flag rifle and saber twirling like I did in high school hooping just things that I know that you enjoy that.

Giacomo

If you had all the time in the world you would do. It doesn’t even necessarily be sports. I’m just kind of super curious to see if, if you break the normal patterns that things that don’t necessarily cost you more time.

Dani

Well, Giacomo knows me that I, my interests are constantly shifting. I’ll do a deep dive on something and become like, really obsessed with it, learn everything I can about it, spend a stupid amount of money on it for a while and then one day be like me, let me do something else. That’s what, that’s what I thought fitness was going to be and nutrition was going to be for me.

It was just another one of those things but it stuck. It’s cool. So yeah, I go through, I mean, you know, I don’t have to explain to you. I go through a million. I could, I could literally list our relationship out in my weird ass phases. I’m currently in my mid century modern furniture phase.

Giacomo

I’m hoping that on Instagram, Facebook, I’m hoping that in our muscles by Brussels community, I’m hoping that the conversations that we have with our clients that whoever watches this aside from how it affects you, I hope that you talk about it because I would love to see that be the wavelength and the conversation that we have and the conversation that you and I can be privy to see in finding out and discovering what kinds of things y’all enjoy.

And when you, I don’t wanna say break your routine when you invite things into your routine and when you consider how you might be feeling in your routine by giving it a shot.

Giacomo, Dani

At least after the fact I have given some of our clients homework of, I want you to go do the least productive thing you can possibly do.

Dani

Like give me 20 minutes a day where you do something completely unproductive because that’s how important. I think it is. Every single, we don’t need to squeeze the efficiency out of every single second of every single day. It’s not good for us. You know, I think back to when we were kids. How often were you bored? Like a lot? Like we were bored a lot just lying around in your room.

Maybe you had a book, maybe you didn’t have a book. You’re just kind of bugging your parents. Like, what are we going to do? What we like? We were bored. No one is ever bored anymore. Ever, ever. Like, let yourself be bored. Let yourself do something unproductive. That’s fine. but to take it back to fitness in some, one of the ways I’ve been finding fun in fitness right now without adding a whole bunch of other stuff.

I talked about this on my Instagram stories recently is I have a routine that I’m running that I love that. I ran probably 10 years ago and got really great results from, but 10 years ago I had more time and fewer responsibilities. So I ran it five days a week. Lower, lower body one on Monday back in Delts on Tuesday. Rest Wednesday, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

it’s great. It’s very hard. It’s a, it’s a high volume ish routine, but I’m running it again. But I don’t have, I don’t have that kind of predictability in my schedule and I don’t have two hours, five days a week that I can dedicate to that. So I have been just running it in order even if it takes me instead of taking me seven days to get through all five days of training.

If it takes me eight or nine or 10 days to get through it, then that’s what it takes me. And it has made going to the gym much more pleasant. Something I look forward to more because I don’t constantly feel like I’m behind or failing or not doing enough. It’s encouraging me to listen to my own body’s recovery, which I’m getting much better at because again, when I was younger, if, even if I wasn’t recovered, if it was Wednesday, and that was bench day, guess what?

We bench in, even if, even if we’re not recovered. And now I’m kind of waiting till I feel more recovered based on certain metrics. And not only is it much more fun to me I’ll tell you why. It’s more fun to me. I’m making insane progress, insane progress. I’m hitting PR S on stuff. I haven’t hit APR on. What was the last one? 2016? I hit a bicep curl pr last week and I haven’t hit any bicep curl pr since 2016.

That was eight years ago. I could, I could, I could list like 8 to 10 exercises that I’ve hit big Pr s on in the last couple of months by doing it this way. And it’s hard, I mean, I wouldn’t program it for an athlete this way. That would be really hard to program other than to just say, hey, here’s a routine, run it in order and let me know how it goes and maybe I’ll try that at some point in the future, especially with my clients that are, you know, my age or older, if somebody can handle that

kind of loose structure because not everybody can, 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been able to handle that. I would have been like, what? No, tell me when to go and what I need to do. Tell me if I’m recovered, am I recovered? But now I know if I am or not and I’m able to make progress, I didn’t think I’d be making at this point. So it’s way more fun. So, effective programs are fun. That’s fun for me.

Giacomo

So, have we talked about this enough?

Giacomo, Dani

Is there anything else you want to add to this conversation before we wrap it up just that the finding fun and fitness can also translate to other areas of your life.

Dani

Like Giacomo said, he’s been a happier, more well adjusted human being since he started doing this.

because yeah, if, if you have a stick in your ass about one thing, you probably have a stick in your ass about a lot of things. So step one, remove, stick, step two celebrate like I don’t just balance is something we talk about all the time. It’s something everybody talks about all the time.

finding balance is not something that you wake up and just like find under a rock. It’s something you have to create and it’s something that it is not a set it and forget it. It needs to constantly be checked and monitored and sometimes you’ll lean a little harder in one direction or another and that’s ok.

Giacomo, Dani

But you know, try to catch yourself before you lean too hard into one direction and lose everything else that makes you, you don’t have to be the hard fitness industry.

Giacomo

People to be getting people kick ass results. That’s not the only way. That’s not the only attitude and only approach. And honestly it pro it, it’s the wrong one long term.

Giacomo, Dani

It, it just is, I’ll, I’ll just go out, I’ll just go out and say it and using the word balance and using the word flexibility and talking about all that doesn’t mean to like not chase a goal and be so it sounds so foo foo like, oh we just got to find balance and be flexible and then you have the other camp that’s like crush it.

Dani

You can sleep when you are dead. And it’s like, no, that is not the way that might be the way to get you to a goal in six months. But let’s see where you are in six years. And as people who have now been in this industry for him even longer than me, 20 years, let’s say, we have seen a lot of those do or die. People come and go in a blink of an eye and what will they do to the others that they’re putting that on and the ones, the ones who have stuck around either were always of a more flexible mindset or

they got there and they realized like that other approach didn’t work. And that’s the only reason that they are still here. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning into another episode of Vegan Proteins Muscles by Brussels Radio. If you are interested in any kind of one on one coaching, we have the links in the show notes or you can go to Vegan proteins.com and fill out a coaching application.

You will definitely hear back from one of us within a business day. Follow us on social media, youtube. Podcast, Instagram on Vegan Proteins. He’s muscles by Brussels. And yeah, if you have any questions, shoot us an email coach at Vegan proteins.com. Once again, my name is Dani and I’m Jar and we’ll talk to you next time. Thanks.