Ep#83 Fitness has really changed my life!

August 24, 2022
Headshot - TonyScullion2

About the Guest

Tony Scullion

700+ clients have lost 20-60 lbs in 3-6 months with <4 hours exercise per week and without having to stop eating foods they love.
Many clients have repaired their marriages and skyrocketed their businesses with their new found confidence and ability in themselves.
What’s the secret?
A personalized plan that fits your lifestyle with the accountability to keep you supported and on track.

Episode Summary

Fitness has always been a part of my life starting in my early teenage years. Missing a workout has always been challenging for me mentally because I would feel lazy or unproductive. The past year has been a struggle for me with fitness, I don't feel like I have the motivation to workout but continue to just "show up" and what ultimately happens is progress doesn't happen. Which I start to wonder why I'm working out.

Talking with Tony has helped me understand that taking time off is good not only good for me mentally but for my body.

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Episode Show Notes & Transcript

Host: Jon

Tony. Are you ready?

Guest: Tony

I am ready. Let's go.

Host: Jon

All right. 3, 2, 1, please join me in welcoming Tony Scullion fat loss and high performance coach Tony. Or shall I say, coach Tony? Thanks for joining me.

Guest: Tony

Thanks for having me, Jon. How's your day been, man.

Host: Jon

Uh, dude, my day is rocking right now, recording after recording and I get to talk to great people like yourself. In fact, let's give it a little back story on you and yourself and how we came upon this. Tony, I've seen a lot of your stuff on LinkedIn and you're a motivator. You've motivated me some of your messaging, your workouts. When I see some of your workouts, I'm like, I gotta go do another run. I gotta get my butt today. You know, and there are days that it's tough for me to do that, but having you post that it has motivated me to it. Let's talk about how you got to where you are today.

Guest: Tony

Well, I've been coaching for a long time and it all came from, let's say not fitting in, in the beginning and a, and a deep need to feel that sense of self worth. I get bullied as, uh, a teenager, which started me into martial arts and it started me respecting my body more. And, um, it was one of those things that by the time I became an adult, other people had seen how I changed my life with fitness and they actually wanted me to help them. So it wasn't my primary job. And then I've been coaching approximately 27 years and it's a case of I just everywhere I go, I'm passionate about fitness. I'm passionate about nutrition. I'm pass passionate about mindset and about be becoming a better version of myself. And I'm, I'm not, uh, afraid of admitting all the mistakes I've made and all the bits and pieces of a journey I've been through and all the negative things, because it's brought me to the positive point I am today. Um, just sharing this with people, um, you know, turned into a business after years of being an engineer and years of working in an nightclub, it became a full-time business. So it's, uh, it's just one of those things. I love helping people. Well, I love helping people get past their own dos, their own insecurities and learn that they can become better. It doesn't need to be, you don't need to do what I do. You just need to better yourself. And that's all that it's about, you know, it's becoming the best version of yourself.

Host: Jon

Some of the things you talked about really resonate with me because, uh, you're an engineer, so you're in technology. Okay? Yes. I'm in technology and working out in technology. Sometimes they always feel like the person has to be a nerd, but working out has been a part of my life since I was 16. You were a bouncer, right? So you were a doorman before all of this. How did you become? And in fact, didn't you say that it was like 14 years you were in it, or how long were you a doorman?

Guest: Tony

I was a doorman for 14 years, but it was only a part-time job at the weekends. And part of the reason I got into being a doorman was from 17 years old, I left behind a life. That was the party lifestyle. I still partied a bit, but, um, in my teenage years I grew up in an environment where there was a lot of drugs, a lot of negative sides to, uh, where it was. I lived, it was, uh, a working class environment. Um, starting into the nightclub and security helped me to actually become a better person to try and be a better leader, to try and understand, um, how to communicate with people better, how to get respect. You know, I knew a lot of Doman get a bad name cause they used their muscles and they used fighting to, you know, to bully people.

Guest: Tony

But cause I had been bullied in my teenage years. That's what originally got me into martial arts. I wanted to be able to learn, to communicate better. And uh, also had the added benefit of as a teenager, I was never very popular with a Gar. So it helped me communicate better and realize I did have more opportunities with ladies and I originally thought so it helped build my confidence, which actually showed in other areas of my life, which helped me when I was coaching people. Because when I built my own confidence, it made me push myself harder. And by pushing myself harder, I learned more and by learning more, I was to help. I was able to help people at a deeper level.

Host: Jon

So take us through the steps. You were a doorman part-time 14 years. How did you go from there? Uh, and were there any issues during that time that you regret and into it? How were you into an engineer?

Guest: Tony

So let, let me, uh, give it, the timelines was a bit more understandable. The, the door worked, the nightclubs was like a Friday ly Sunday night. Yep. So this was, this was my way of, let's say being able to socialize, being able to earn money. So the entrepreneurial mindset socialize, earn money and stay away from the bulk of the, the partying and the nightclubs. Yep. During the day at 17, I started training to be an engineer, electrical mechanical. And then I realized after a few years that wasn't for me, I got into electronics cuz it was an easier step up the ladder and then eventually got into it. So in it, I studied my Cisco, my Microsoft and I became various different types of engineer infrastructure set up and then project management. So it was, it was an element of during that whole time, the, the engineering concept helped me relate with people.

Guest: Tony

I cause I'm a nerd, I'm a, I'm a nerd in learning. I love to learn. And so I had like this black and white scenario, what being a pure nerd during the day in it and engineering to the weekends, being in the mad clubs and dealing with, you know, whatever the clubs would bring. But also it helped me because I didn't make a lot of friends in my teenage years. It helped me find out who I truly was and not be afraid to be who I truly was and then attract more people. So that made me like focus, uh, internally on fixing problems I had from being bullied in my teenage years. Cause I had psychological problems. Let's say in the respect that you never feel like you're enough. Cuz people were always picking on me even in the beginning with the martial arts. Um, cause I was afraid to fight back, you know? And it was only that my brother got hurt in one incident that I fought back. And then I swore after that, I will never back down, no matter how many times I get beat, I will never back down again. Cause there no better than me. And you know, if I don't respect myself, then why should anybody else?

Host: Jon

So how'd you get into coaching though? How did you get it in this as your career? Because it is very, I can see the passion on LinkedIn and I can see the stuff that you're doing and how you're helping folks, but why that, why not just stay in it?

Guest: Tony

Well, when I tur, when I started doing the door work, I moved away from the environment that I was brought up in and people seemed to change. I needed like I really fitness actually did change my life. Literally it saved my life. I, I had friends that were ended up being heroin addicts and dying and various other things to do with drugs. And I moved away from my atmosphere. And um, so it was a key of people seemed that I changed my life for the better. And they wanted in the beginning they took the piss out of me, you know? But then they seen that I had really started progressing forward. Cause as I say, I went from the electrical engineering and the mechanical engineering into electronics and then it, so people had seen that I was climbing the ladder, bettering myself, you know, not that I was anything special, but I was always aiming to improve.

Guest: Tony

And they wanted that. They wanted that. I think it was the desire that I have to be better, more than anything. It's not about me being anything special. But if I can help teach somebody how to have that willpower, that desire to get past difficulty that, and it's that alone is golden. Cause that's all, most people really need is, you know, okay. Yes, they can have your nutrition plan, your exercise plan, whatever it is. But when I can flip the sweats in somebody's head to find out why they want to do what they do, then even if they're doing the wrong thing, need more likelihood of getting a better result.

Host: Jon

So you're talking about having the proper mindset, right? I mean, how key is that?

Guest: Tony

It's paramount. Everything begins with a thought. Uh, if you have, if you, you believe you can't do something, you won't do it. Ima imagine, um, where, where you focus on is where your energy goes. So if you focus on negativity, you're going to have negative. If you focus on positive, it doesn't mean you'll not have negative, but you're, you'll still past the negative barrier. You'll go past it quicker. It's like driving a car around the band and the back wind starts spinning. If you look towards, let's say there's a wall at the, at the band and there's a road eye. If you keep looking at the wall, you're gonna hit the wall. If you keep looking at the road, eye likelihood of you missing that wall, it's gonna be much higher. So focus where you want put your energy in focus where you want to go,

Host: Jon

Okay. Let's, let's jump into as an ideal person or a client. Uh, and uh, actually let me take a step back. Not the ideal I approach you, right? Tony, I want to have a better workout, right? Or I wanna start working out or I wanna have some weight loss. What's the first thing you talk about. And you know, do you ever like say, all right, get to the gym or do you dive a deep, you know,

Guest: Tony

It has to be deep. Uh, cause it's, it's all based on desire. If you haven't got a strong enough reason why it doesn't matter what I show you, what I tell you, you're gonna quit. You're gonna give up. So the most important thing is finding your reason why for me, I have an autoimmune condition and I know, and I have several injuries. I'm 44 years old, nearly 45. And I know that if I hadn't kept myself as fit as I have throughout these years, I would probably be an alcoholic by now. I would probably, it's so many negative things. Fitness keeps me held together. It keeps my autoimmune condition at a manageable level. And as I get older, as we all do, when we get older, we have certain health problems that are in our families that we're most likely gonna get as well. You know, so we can control us getting them. But if we can control our health and fitness know, we can actually maybe give ourselves a longer amount of time where we can enjoy life.

Host: Jon

How much is it that you have to be self-aware to progress?

Guest: Tony

Uh, a massive, massive, massive amount of self-awareness. But the thing is, most people are not self aware and that's, that's not a bad thing. You just need to be taught high. So it's, it's, it's learning. What are the signals? You know, and as I've met, I've learned to meditate more and more over the years. Cause just like your biceps, feeling your mind, it takes repetition to make it stronger. It takes you learning how to be in tune with your body to understand when you're, you're getting symptoms of overtraining of over stress. Like when anxiety kicks in, when, when sleep, um, insomnia kicks in, things like that. I suffered insomnia actually for years and years and years. And I thought then when I found out I had the autoimmune condition that was related to that. And now only in the last three to four years, I've been sleeping much, much better.

Guest: Tony

And it's because I focused more on my mind and been more self aware of like certain triggers, certain foods that triggered me at certain times, it wasn't that I couldn't eat them. That's that I could only eat them if I had my digestive system working optimal. So I had to go through periods of, um, rebuilding my gut microbiome, microbiome, you know, so little tiny jigsaw pieces as you go along, start appearing and then I become more self aware. But what it helps me do now with clients is what I took 30 years off to learn. I can do in a matter of weeks with somebody cause I'd been through it. I smashed up my spine. I smashed up my shoulder. I've had so many injuries. I've recovered from it. When doctors, you know, want to do surgery me a back, for example, 50, 50 chance of, you know, uh, damaging the nerve further or you know, whatever it might be.

Guest: Tony

So I I've always find a way I'm very stubborn. I've always found a way to get past. When somebody tells me I can't do something. And part of that comes from, I suppose, in my childhood when I was getting rejected by everybody. So it's our, childhood's doing this for all of us. You know, we've been conditioned to certain things through our childhood, but you can use it in a negative way or you can use it in a positive way. And that's why I talk about mindset. Uh, even today I made a post about trauma, all my traumas in my life, cause I became aware of them. And then I did some deep work to try and focus off them. I turned them into a positive. So one of the biggest parts of that is taking responsibility for everything that happens. I either was a contributor to it or I handled whatever happened wrongly because obviously everything that happens is not directly our fault, but it's our fault, how we react to it. And once it's in the past, we can't change it. We can only change what happens now and the hope to make our futures better.

Host: Jon

So I tell my kids that all the time is that you can't control the other person, but you can control yourself and your actions and how you handle a situation. A lot of it is an immediate reaction in which if we train ourselves long enough that it will be a pause before a reaction and then you can, you know, kind of let it as take me through the process when you, somebody reaches out to you, right? And they want your help. What does it look like? What does the process look like? And I, I know everybody's goal is different, but how do you help them through it?

Guest: Tony

Well, the main thing is some goal setting some realistic goal setting because there's so much misinformation out there at the minute and everybody has their own, um, dieting, their own medical history as well. That could affect how the progress could be. For example, I had clients lose 40 pounds in the eight weeks, but they were trying to lose that 40 pounds in the eight weeks they were. Um, they were basically some, for example, the one person that this happened to had not done any weight training before, right. It'd only done cardio. Um, it was highly dedicated his perfect health otherwise. So he was able to do that. But if somebody came to me and they had been doing a lot of weight training before their body's more conditioned, so their body will not respond just as quick, even though you would think that somebody that's more experienced should get faster results in a lot of ways.

Guest: Tony

No, if you're, if you've been doing everything like 80 to 90% of the way, it should have been done the whole time. Yes. You can get quick results, but it's not gonna happen as quick as let's say a newbie doing a similar routine, as long as they're recovering enough to support it. You know? So it's, everybody's different. Um, the main thing is under get goal setting around first, understand your goals, your past history. And then I give a realistic approach and say, well, look, this is what we can do. If you can do this, you know? So obviously sleep stress and anxiety, um, play a factor in that as well.

Host: Jon

What about those who, you know, working out, everybody wants those immediate results, right? Yeah. But, and then they get discouraged. How do you coach somebody for knowing that immediate I've been working out for years? So I know it takes a while to get show results. It could take six months for me to show something. But if I'm dedicated to that, then I know that timeline, but for somebody getting into it and they're like, yeah, I wanna see immediate results. How do you help them get past that? Knowing that it's not gonna happen overnight now for a quick interruption, a huge shout out to our friends at Veeam for sponsoring this episode, Veeam backup for AWS can easily protect all of your Amazon EC two RDS and VPC data. Wait a second. They can protect my VPC data too. Yep. That's right. Simplify AWS backup in recovery while ensuring security and compliance. All right. Now, back to our episode, how do you help them get past that? Knowing that it's not gonna happen overnight?

Guest: Tony

So you measure the right things. So it might be somebody say if it's weight loss and it's, it's somebody saying, I want to lose 10 points this month. If we even lose seven points a month, we know that they're making progress. If they lose zero, we, that month, then there's something wrong. But at least then we know that there's several data points I collect. You know, you'd be able to go, right. Is sleep intact. Is metabolic function intact. If it's meal is, are your testosterone levels as they should be. Um, do you have any digestive problems? So being an engineer actually massively, massively, massively helped me with my coaching because it's of elimination. There's okay. There's all your variables that fit in as jigsaw pieces, but each person needs those realigned depending on, um, you know, recurrent situation. So keeping somebody motivated for weight loss in our respect is as long as they focus on measuring the right things is much easier than somebody going for muscle building cause muscle building, especially for natural muscle builders is much slower.

Guest: Tony

So you have to then look at increases in strength, increases in performance, increase in, uh, maybe time under attention could be another thing. If it, for example, weight training, instead of trying to increase a certain amount of weight every week, um, you could be focusing on doing the same weights, but increasing your time under tension, which could mean going from like an example of bicep curve lowering, uh, 40 pounds and occur. And it takes you two seconds down. One second up to try and get yourself stronger. What you do is you try to lower down to three seconds and have one second up. So you've made a, an improvement, but it's only like a small improvement within the workout. So those micro wins can help you understand. Yes, I'm improving. If my nutrition's in line and if my recovery's in line, then there's no reason why I shouldn't be on the right path.

Guest: Tony

You know? So it's, it's just measured. The micro wins to help you move forward. Same if it's cardio, it could be, you know, one more second off your time for a distance on a run, a cycle or a swim, or, you know, maybe you do, you get an extra a hundred meters on your run in a certain time or, you know, whatever it might be. If, if understanding those little micro winds that are leaning you towards a me long term goal and understanding what's really achievable as well, because there's a, there's a lot of coaches out there for, especially for muscle building will tell you can build X amount of muscle per month, but that's using assisted, um, steroids, performance, enhancing drugs for people, for a natural person. Those sort of things are unachievable. So it's, it's understanding apples for apples and pairs for pairs

Host: Jon

Celebrating the wins regardless of how they are. You should always celebrate it. Yes. Uh, you know, losing seven versus the 10 you wanted to, but you're progressing. Yeah. What does an engagement model look like with you for somebody say you wanted to coach me, right? Or actually, I, I wanted you to coach me on a couple of things. Are you there? Like every day, can I text you? Can I drop a message? What is, how, how do we engage? Because for me in the beginning, when I have somebody, when I've had fitness coach and trainers in the beginning, I need a lot of handholding because I wanna ask a lot of questions, but then over time, I'm just barely trailing off. And I might ask you a couple questions during the week. Uh, what does it look like?

Guest: Tony

So everybody's the same. We all are the same. Um, if, if somebody started with me and was not asking a lot of questions in those first two to four weeks, I'm actually worried. They're not dedicated enough. They're not giving it enough because I'm expecting that. So you have my personal WhatsApp, you connect with me there. I have my own app where I program your workout. I actually personalize your workout depending on your needs, your abilities and your, uh, variations of where you can actually exercise and what you can actually do. So we will find where your baseline is. And then we will program it accordingly so that you get the maximum from it within your available timeframes, and I'll be able to save you. Okay? So this week let's say we're doing three sets of exercises next week. It'll be four sets of it. Next week will be maybe three sets of 10.

Guest: Tony

The next week will be four sets of 10. So you have little goals within that to work towards. And if you're recording the WIS, and if you're working on your end to record the data, we coerce through the app and through, um, uh, WhatsApp and the app. And then we have weekly reviews as well to understand what were your biggest wins this week? What did, what could you do better? What could I do better? You know, was there anything that like information that you feel you need? You know, because especially in those first two to four weeks, that's when you need the most hand holding. You know, if, if you're not asking questions, you don't have the desire to learn. That's it

Host: Jon

Coach Tony, how is it working for those who are remote? Cause I'm assuming that you have a lot of remote. Yeah. So it is all remote. Not right there with,

Guest: Tony

Yeah.

Host: Jon

How's it working? This is

Guest: Tony

Amusing amusing. So it's when I personalized a program. If it's, for example, I had a recent client lives on a ranch. Um, they had anxiety, um, with doing a workout in, in the house, right? So of course I have to, as a coach, find a way to make, right? How can I get this person to work out? You know, they did agree to do work night. In the first few days they weren't doing it. They were making excuses. And I had to say, look, you're procrastinating. Let's be honest. No, no one says, yes you are. How can we make this work? We need to make this something that you can do. That's gonna fit into, you know, your daily activity. So I says, I'll tell you what, we'll do your ranch chores. So it's just like old school caveman training. I'm a massive fan of a, I've got a park pulls to me.

Guest: Tony

That's full of tires. It's got stacks, you know, like the Spartan bikes, you know, and rocks and things that got there. So I went and filmed a little of workouts, give it to them. And actually what happened was he started doing the program. I give them and he says, I wanna do the tire flips. I have a 300 pound tire. And he fell out of me cuz I says, no, you're not ready. Don't do it yet. Cause unless you can lift that bag, it was a, a 50 point bike. Unless you can collect two to 50 point bags together and do this workout. You're not strong enough yet to go and do, um, the 300 point tire lift and you're gonna wreck your back. Plus we mobility issues we need to work through. And the actually were very sort of negative of me for a few days. And then after we got through the next week, they realized actually, I'm glad you did that. Cause I would've fucked my box script. Sorry, I would've messed up my spy.

Host: Jon

Don't worry. We'll leave it in there. And I'll check off the little box it's full. This was happens with the conversations, which it's just natural going around, uh, anxiety and stress don't we all have that. I mean really? How do, how do you manage that for folks?

Guest: Tony

So it's, it's not about not having anxiety and stress. It's about how we let it affect us. You know? And we have anxiety and stress from different things that make you feel a certain way. But again, back to the self-awareness action beats anxiety. So if I, right, let's say I did 10 seals calls. I had 10 people interested in my product and I did 10 seals call and nobody moved forward to work with me. I feel deflated. I feel, you know, so many negative aspects and what it could do for me for let's say that, let's just say there were half hour slots and that happened over five hours. And I had time left in my day to do other things. I'm gonna feel negative towards doing other things in the day. And my productivity's totally up. How do I fix it? Get out of my mind, get away from my emotions and get into my body.

Guest: Tony

So I need to go and do some activity to center myself again. Then when I do the activity, it doesn't need to be a workout. It could be a walk. It could be some pushups on the spot to get your blood flowing, to override the emotional aspect and back into, you know, your, your generic thinking, right? So emotion, overalls reason. So as soon as you're back into reason, again, you can put things into your list, create a list for yourself to do and go into it. The more you dwell on the emotional aspect of something, the more it's gonna have a negative hold over you.

Host: Jon

Can I ask you for some, without giving away your tips and how you're doing some things for a personal aspect of mine, here's an issue that I'm running into and it's only happened within the last couple of months. It's really it it's affecting my workout. So, but it's only affecting when I'm riding a bike. So I have a Peloton right outside my office and I'm on it and I'm very motivated to start. But once I'm in that motivation, all the things that it's going on that day are happening are going through my head. And I find myself not putting in the full effort into the workout. I have a heart rate monitor. It ever reaches up to the yellow or red anymore. It's usually into kind of the green or blue. How can I get outta my head for my workouts to make sure more meaningful? Like what is what it's like? One thing that I can do to just take me back to where I was our next level.

Guest: Tony

So, right. So your, your issue here is that you can't stay focused within the workout cause you're overwriting too much of whatever questions you have in your mind from the day. So maybe what you need to do is take your phone, ask yourself questions, record them, you know, in the voice notes, answer the questions and then write it down. Take it from your mind onto a bit of paper. Even if you don't answer anything, probably just sort of scribble it, try and get yourself into a frame of questions and answers. And then when you go on the bike focus, no distractions, like you're still gonna get thoughts that drift, we all do. You're not gonna remove them completely, but you, you need to change your targeting within your Peloton then because it's not heading you deep enough with a desire level. It's actually boring. You, I would say, because if you were getting excited about the Peloton, you would be able to separate it.

Guest: Tony

So you need to find something. It might not be Peloton. It might be, you know, something else, but offset the, the thinking, write it down in paper, journal it. If you need to ask yourself some questions, the voice notes, and then when you go onto the Peloton, create a workout. I would, I would, I would look at doing sprints in the beginning, short and sweet. Give yourself then some winds. Remember we talk about stacking the winds before. Yeah. So start doing sprints because if it's something longer, you have a chance to drift your heart. Rate's not high enough. You're not in your body properly. So it's more longer endurance. So you want to make it. So it's something that requires your full attention to be your best. Does that make sense?

Host: Jon

Yeah. No, it does. I'm gonna have to give that a try because here's an issue very first time in a long time. Now I typically work out like seven days a week of something, whether it's weightlift or just a ride in the bike. Uh, and it's just me. It's been part of my life for that. Yesterday was the first day that I did not ride the bike in the morning. I had felt like I had so much work to do

Guest: Tony

So. Here's what I would say on that exercise every day can be good, but you have to put it into, um, res of perceived exhaustion. So we all need recovery are hormones, need recovery. So what, this is actually, uh, a sign off that you've just told me you three and seven days a week, you're depleting your hormones. Your stress levels are high. Your, um, adrenals are probably burning out. You know, if you're exercising every day. So there might be a nutritional fix that could help you. Along with this, there might be a recovery fix that could be something to do with your sleep and your mindset, maybe some meditation practice. But ultimately what I would do is then you can't give a hundred percent every day, you know? And I've, I've had points in time where I've trained six hours a day, right? Five, six days a week.

Guest: Tony

And some of those sessions were based on active recovery. So the heart rate had to be much lower, but it was just movement to help the body get rid of lactic acid and to help it recover. Cuz if you do the movement with a low enough stress level, it will help you recover better. So like a light walk or something like that. Um, so again, you need to look at it at the 360 approach to probably give you an answer, but I would definitely say, give yourself some peace for taking the day off. There's nothing wrong with taking the day off. I actually created a video recently and it's not to be negative about this by any means, but to give a perspective why 75 hard might be the wrong approach for you if you're still doing it after 75 days, because I spoke to several people that saying man, 238 days of exercised every day, hard as hell.

Guest: Tony

And I go, well, maybe that's going to crash on you break sometimes soon when you start getting injured, can't sleep properly. And then your adrenals go through the roof. You know, then you become grumpy all the time, blah, blah, blah. That's a sure sign that you're burning yourself high. And if you do it like it can take a long, long time to recover if you do it for too long, if you train for too long of that way and really push against your body. For example, we've had a ton of people in the world of mix martial arts. When we were treat six hours a day that had full on severe adrenal burn oil had to give themselves six months rest. Cause it affects you psychologically, massively as well. Your body stops producing dopamine and serotonin the way it should. You know? So it's, it's something to be careful of.

Host: Jon

How do you battle the, uh, mentality of not working out though? Because I I'm sure you feel it where the day you don't work out, it affects you mentally. Like it it's a like, oh man, I'm just blah, the next day. How do you tell your body that it's okay not to.

Guest: Tony

So again, that's where you would look maybe at the nutritional side and know I'm taking a break here cause I'm shortening the ax. I can't chop down anymore trees with a blunt ax. Yep. So do I want myself to be peak performance or do I want to stay below me mere performance for all effort I'm making, you know, so it's like, would you prefer to work 40 hours a week for a certain amount of money or prefer to work a hundred hours a week for the same amount of money?

Host: Jon

That's a good way to

Guest: Tony

More

Host: Jon

Yeah. Is a good way to look at it.

Guest: Tony

So, so if you could be more productive in those 40 hours for that money, rather than half to work a hundred hours for that money, you're going to be smarter about it and go, right. Do you know what I'm gonna do? Whatever I have to do to keep that within those 40 hours,

Host: Jon

What about rehab? I have an injury, right? And I can't go leg arm your lower back. How are some of the approaches to help you? Not only physically, but through, you know, mental anguish that you're like, I'm stressed, that you're not able to work out. How do you get yourself to a conditioned position? What do you look at and how do you help folks achieve that?

Guest: Tony

So first of all, it's understanding what part of your trainings debilitated from the engineering. I, I pull out four desks in my spine. 90 days later, I couldn't even walk properly. Did a photo shoot ripped the shreds. It's actually the, the actual logo for my program, which is called operation rule model. I could not bend over. I could not trim my AB abs properly only through static contraction because bending, aggravated the static nerve and aggravated the discs. But I was able to do machines for other parts of my body and I was able to diet and I was able to sleep. So what we look at is the affected area. How much will it affect other, you know, other aspects? So that was a heavy one in the spine. Recently. I've just went through recovering from an ongoing knee injury that I've had for a lot of years.

Guest: Tony

Uh, I've had two steroid injections in it over the last 20 years. Um, it plays up every now and again, when it plays up, I can't do any, uh, long distance run because impact is just grind, grind, grind. But funnily enough, I can still do my tie boxing as long as I don't focus on kicking without leg and twisting too much with it. I can do uphill sprints because the distance is, um, or the, the impacts much less when you're doing an incline. So it's, it's learning. Sometimes you can still do movements depending on what the injury is that will help strengthen it. And as long as your nutrition supports recovery and your actual sleep supports recovery, you can find a way around it. And this is what I do with clients. I've helped many, many clients with, uh, bad knee injuries after surgery as well.

Guest: Tony

Uh, recondition tends and ligaments. There's certain exercises we would do for that. Um, of course like I've had clients had no kneecaps, you know, back in Northern Ireland or not going to why they had no kneecaps <laugh>, but we were able to get them being squats and stuff and lose a ton of weird build up the strength and the muscle surrounding it. Um, it's like even me with my spine 10 years on, I still don't have the discs the way it should be, but I have to keep my core and all the muscles around it strong. Um, if I make a wrong movement and I'm not warmed up enough, I'll aggregate that again because what, and I haven't fixed the national problem. I just strengthened everything up around it. And that's what you have to look at with some of your injuries. You might not be able to fix the initial problem, but you, instead of getting a hundred percent, again, you might get 97%, but 97%, if you then focus on a higher level of training could look like nothing's wrong with you in the future. You know? So it's just understanding how to, uh, again, the engineering mindset work around the problems. You know, sometimes you can't fix it a hundred percent, but you can buffer enough around it that it, it does more than enough. How has your

Host: Jon

Injuries in your past shaped who you are today?

Guest: Tony

It's taught me a lot about, uh, redirection about whenever you, so whenever, uh, the spine thing again, I thought my life was over as in you being able to keep fit and exercise and stuff. And I did, I took prescription drugs and stuff for two weeks and I drank a lot of alcohol, um, because I was depressed. And then a friend of mine had been in a wheelchair who, um, became a, a wheelchair athlete after losing the power in his legs from Mac car crash. I just, I actually felt ashamed of myself for being so weak in my mindset. And I thought of, uh, Dar his name was, I thought of Dar, I thought, you know what? Dar didn't give up. And I seen him fall off the wheelchair when he was trying to do like the roadside, wheelchair racing and stuff. And he kept picking himself up and he just kept going and going, going, and he still is to this day. And I just thought everything begins with your mindset and how much desire you have to improve. And sometimes I can be maybe a bit cheeky when people give me sort of silly little excuses and I go, I don't even talk about myself. I'll mention somebody like Dar and go look, if he can do it, you can do it. You just have to find that reason to want to do it. That's it?

Host: Jon

I think having, we all have that weakness every now and then, right? Uh,

Guest: Tony

We all do

Host: Jon

Where it creeps in. How do you get past it? Like what's the first, sometimes it stays with you though, right? Sometimes you're holding onto it and you just, you wanna get out of that, you know, that negativity, that weakness, but it's just locked into you. Like I, I mean, there are some times where I might be stuck in it for an hour or two, which is not a bad thing, but all of a sudden, I I'm, I'm stuck in this negative thing. I'm stuck in this like weakness. How do I get out?

Guest: Tony

Well, sometimes the point is, let yourself dwell in it. Let yourself feel as bad as you possibly can feel. Cause okay, then you've hit rock. Bottom only weighs up. You know? So

Host: Jon

It's the first time somebody's ever said, let yourself dwell in it. Let yourself, but you didn't say, let yourself dwell in it forever. You just said, do it now. Pick it up.

Guest: Tony

Yeah. So, so what if I threw you into a sand pit? And it was that whats you call it the sand that pulls people in there. Sand sound. If I threw you into quick sound, how long is it? Like, even if you're not motivated at some point you're, you've got two choices. You either dry or you swim essentially. Right. And the reason I'm saying quick sound is, is, cause that's what it's like when you get depressed, if things like you're being pulled down, I know this I've been through and I, I still go through it from time to time. Negative things happen in my life that I can't control. And I have to bring myself back into the moment and I go, right, I've got two decisions. I can make myself feel like absolute crap by dwelling on the negative. Or I can look for a solution. There's always a way to move around it, move forward, or just deal with it and get by because otherwise you're stopped doing nothing.

Host: Jon

I agree. So

Guest: Tony

It's like when the world, how many people turn them to entrepreneurs lost their jobs, everything else, you know, I lost a ton of clients. I was as depressed as everybody else. I, I went through my little depressive cycle. Like we all go through and then I just went dam. It there's going to be another way. How much do I have to invest to learn in this and not, and the other and blah, blah, blah, to move me forward and risking my lost money to learn this. But the choice is I saved the money. And then in like 90 days or six months, I'm still in the place I am because I've just thought the word was gonna change in favor of me without me. Megging an effort we are in control over future. Yeah. You know, and it doesn't mean that we're all gonna be rich or anything like that there. But if we put enough effort and we can't approve it

Host: Jon

Being in control of your own future and making changes for yourself, how much of it is around the positive self image? Everybody has a self image actually. We're we are our own worst critics. Yes. How do we change that? How do we get to that positive aspect?

Guest: Tony

So everybody has hangups about their body. Everybody, like, even if you talk to the, the, the most ripped person in the gym, like they are so much hangups about their body. That's actually unhealthy for them to stay super 6% body fat or 8% body fat all the time. You know? So it's dealing with your own hangups. That there's always other, if you, if, if you know that other people have hangups too, then it's like, well, if I can be open about mine and not care, like I have rude of hangups about my body, you know, especially as I'm getting older, certain things are happening, you know? Yeah. And you know what we talk about being in control. I'm not, I can control a certain amount of it, but it's more about being in control of how I think. And so that that's when sometimes then you, you flip the perspective and you go, well, do you know what my body's not maybe where it once was.

Guest: Tony

And I can certain things I can fix, but I can be the best I can be with performance. Maybe not the same as when I was 20. But if I improve and try to see, we talk about like your Peloton stuff. If I treat, try to see improvements and everything all the time, um, it's important to have different, uh, variables within that. So if I want to improve long distance running, I don't just do long distance running four times a week. I have a sprint day, a middle distance day, a temp day, and then a long distance run. So training needs to be structured. It needs to be period. So you have a chance to improve just your spend time across a month, you have a chance just to improve your middle distance across a month. And then your long distance across a month, you know, you might not see, uh, the same variable of improvement in the mall.

Guest: Tony

But if you see it in one, then you can go and look at the others and say, well, what do I need to change there? It could be footwear. It could be, uh, hydration levels. It could be, you know, there's so many little tiny, tiny pieces that you can look into to improve, but what's happening. You're putting your focus on those variables and you're no longer focusing, even though you're focusing on improving, let's say a weakness or becoming better. You're not dwelling on it in a negative way. Let's say it's growth. It's learning, it's improving. So it's that perspective that I believe, you know, we have to look at life and sometimes we, of course, we do get depressed, but you have to bitch slap yourself and say snap out of it.

Host: Jon

<laugh> I love that. Oh, Tony, you gotta keep doing what you're doing. All the posts that you put on, the LinkedIn are inspiring. If nobody tells you they're inspiring to me because there are some days that I don't see it. I am following you. I saw your post this morning. All right. The past and everything. I saw it, you know, looked at it and it helps me realize and be like, whatever mindset I am currently in. If it is not a positive one or I'm not where I'm at, I look at it. And I'm like, that was great, Tony. There's good inspiration. Whether it's the exact message you're looking for, it's who you are and what you're doing and accomplishing for folks that is an inspiring me to change the current mindset I might be in. That's not empowering me for my future.

Guest: Tony

Absolutely. Well, look, we all need self realization of what's holding us back. Yep. And, and sometimes it's something very, very simple for you. I would say one to two rest days a week and being comfortable with your rest day. So find something, that's an activity. That's not a workout. That's not going to touch you like a workout. Gamify it, make it something that's fallen away from everything else you do.

Host: Jon

Uh, well, I was just thinking about that. I used to have one or two days, uh, of rest in a week, but it's been an, it's a hard mental strain to say, not work out today, not do that today. What are you doing? So I really appreciate that Tony, where can people go to find you to sign up, to get more information or to even just have a conversation with you?

Guest: Tony

Either Instagram, Tony Scullion official or on LinkedIn, just look for my name, Tony Scullion, uh, you'll find my website on the C uh, name TonyScullion.com. But if you want a person, anybody wants a personal conversation. I think it's important to understand where you're really at, because people will think that they're totally, you know, I'm not doing very well and blah, blah, blah. When actual fact nearby you are, and you just need a few little tiny changes and then that can progress you massively to the next level.

Host: Jon

Awesome. Tony, I'm gonna put those links into the description below folks. Don't forget. Reach out to him. If you're not following him on Instagram or LinkedIn, I suggest you do just follow and watch what he's doing and what he's talking about. He makes some really great videos, his workouts, very empowering. Some of his messaging will resonate with you, Tony. I really appreciate you joining the show. This has been inspiring to me. I hope it's been inspiring to everybody else.

Guest: Tony

Awesome, Jon, thank you very much for having me and for all the listeners. I hope you go out and make one small positive change today to focus on your mindset first, and then your fitness and health.

Host: Jon

I, I find it really key that it's your mindset that you have to change first and focus on before you can do anything further. And I think that's where all of us are living right now is that mindset. Whether we hit a negative or a positive, it doesn't matter. Your mind is telling you what you can and can't do. And if you train that properly, you'll be able to do more than what you think

Guest: Tony

A million percent. Yeah. It's all about the mind dictates everything the body does. So it's just a matter of retraining it.

Host: Jon

Oh, awesome. Everybody Tony Scullion or coach Tony fat loss high performance coach. Thank you so much for joining me.

Guest: Tony

Thanks a lot, Joan. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Host: Jon

Yep. This has been the Jon Myer podcast as always. I'm your host. Don't forget to hit that like subscribe and notify because guess what? We're outta here.