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Rob Lipsett is a fitness coach, YouTuber, and entrepreneur who started from scratch and built an empire.
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Welcome back to the Alchemist Library podcast. As you could guess based on the title of this episode, we have on Rob Lipset, which is going to be a very special episode. Rob is a renowned fitness coach, YouTuber, author, founder of Game Plan and Fuel Cakes. He is an absolute killer and it was such a pleasure and an honor to sit down with Rob and to pick his brain. I'm going to leave it at that because I want you guys to get into this one here. Catch you guys inside.
Speaker 2:Peace.
Speaker 1:I have a rule that you can have a good amount of money and a good amount of money.
Speaker 2:I have a rule that you can have as much caffeine as you want, as long as you cut it off early in the day, at like 10 am. So I'll like floor the caffeine and then I'll cut it off. Today is an exception because you know we're doing a podcast, we're podcasting, but I'll try and finish it up as early as possible usually.
Speaker 1:It really is like a performance act, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, man, I love it. You know I've gone cold turkey and I'm like my life kind of sucks.
Speaker 1:I feel you. I feel you, bro, but, dude, I just want to congratulate you Getting engaged.
Speaker 2:Let's go, oh man, thank you, you know, we're growing up.
Speaker 1:You know, we got the VitoLibs.
Speaker 2:and now we're engaged, we're settling down. It's a new era, so yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm delighted. It's definitely a new era. You got the house. Now you got the family on the way. So what are you thinking now, from the next five to 10 years? Do you still want to do the YouTube stuff? Do you want to try to transition away from that stuff?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I actually want to go harder on YouTube. I always like this year I had a great year on YouTube. I had like the competition prep series and just some banger videos. But if I actually look back on, like the last couple of years one of my I don't know if you can even call it a regret, because the last five years have been great, but I'm always like I wish I uploaded more to YouTube. Like I just get great joy out of uploading a video, but it's, of course, very time consuming and other things sometimes just come before it. So, if anything, the opposite, I want to go harder on YouTube as the years go on. Yeah, and like I'm 31 now I look at guys like Joe Rogan, jordan Peterson, casey Neistat, gary V pretty much all the guys I watch they're all like well, joe's in his fifties, they're all like, they're a lot older than me and I think that's the best time to get on YouTube because you actually have some knowledge and life experience to give. So I think, I'm only really getting warmed up on YouTube.
Speaker 1:How is it? Yeah, and I'm sure the content will just evolve naturally, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like this year, we had the podcast, which I think podcasting is a little bit more mature. It's like it's too adult sitting down and having a conversation, whereas sometimes the vlogs you're running around you're like, ah, you know it's a little bit hectic, but podcasts are nice and calm and they're kind of like strictly informative. You know are you are you still doing the podcast. Yeah, yeah, for sure. The last one. Yeah, the last one was Max tuning. Yeah, definitely difficult to get guests in person, you know, unless you're like traveling the world getting guests. So I might kind of pivot onto doing them online like this. You know, I find people people don't really mind, you know people don't care, like it's nice to have that at the high quality setup, but you know, people just want to hear the conversation, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's definitely like something different about being in person. Like the quality of conversation goes a little smoother. But yeah, people, people can't really tell sometimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, especially if you're just listening on audio.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, bro. So with the YouTube stuff, are you going to start to transition away from doing vlogs type of stuff? You had that bodybuilding competition series. What do you have on deck for the next year?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'd like to do so. If I want to pump out videos, we're listening. I'm not going to be running Ryan Marbella in every single one. So I'd love to like get a really nice. This is like my upstairs office here I'd love to kind of kid it out, get a really HD studio setup really and just like bang out like daily sit down videos and just like cover loads of topics, cause that's really easy to do. I can talk for days. So I think if I want to really increase my upload frequency, that's what I would have to do.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great idea and I think people are so interested in that, like information type of content now yeah, At the end of the day, like people, when they're watching someone's content, they want to get something from it.
Speaker 2:You know it's a trade off Totally, so you know what are you giving them. And usually people want information. You know they want to improve their life in some way, so you got to just deliver the most, really Absolutely dude, how did that bodybuilding competition that you did in MEGA? Yeah, it went awesome, so I did too. The first one was a warmup show here in Marbella and I did terrible that I didn't even play Percy. I think my condition was sick. But then when the judges were like yeah, the judges, whatever were calling out the like poses and everything in Spanish, I was like my Spanish sucks, I'm like what's going on so? I looked a little bit lost about stage, so my stage presence wasn't. Stage presence wasn't great and that's what I definitely think I lost on. And then I did the Ireland show and again, which was a much bigger show, and then I actually came third in that. So, you know, went from nowhere to placing within like two weeks, so I was really happy with that. What was your stage weight? Oh man, so the first one was like 165 and then I dropped three more pounds down to 162 for the one that I came third in. So it's crazy, I'm like 175. Yeah, so you know pretty pretty lean you're pretty good, but still definitely, like you know, a good, solid 10 pounds up you know there's no way you can sustain that stage weight. It's just crazy.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, because you're so lean, I walk around and I can't down that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you know people will look at me and they'll be like, oh man, you're ripped. I'm like no, you got 10 more pounds to go. I'm like 12 weeks of graft away. So people like um, they kind of underestimate how lean you really got to get to these shows. You know it's wild. It's an extreme sport.
Speaker 1:In my eyes and taking that like outside of just bodybuilding and just cutting in general and fat loss, like what were the things for you that allowed you to make it like a bit easier?
Speaker 2:So being able to do it full time, you know, and being able to run my own schedule is, of course, very helpful, but at the same time, I the first time I ever competed in 2016,. I think I actually turned 15. I was working at corporate nine to five job and you know I was just having a meal prep every day and you know I was trying to start my fitness business alongside that as well. So I want to get home from work at like seven. Between seven and two in the morning, I'll be working on online coaching and making YouTube videos, and I was still prepping for a show. So I don't know Like yeah, obviously people say to me now. They're like, oh, I'm going to be doing it. I'm like, oh, of course you can stay rip because you do this full time. I'm like, no, I did it. I was just as lean and in great condition when I had an office job and also trying to get a side business up. So I don't accept those excuses when people try them out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, that grind while you're doing the nine to five and also trying to make all this shit work on the internet, while also cutting and doing that stuff, that is no easy feat. It's tough, it's hard. Man, I was like what allowed you to do that? Because I found that so many people, once it gets to a point, I think I like to call it like the valley of despair, where you're not getting. You're putting in the fucking work and you're working your ass off but the results haven't came yet, and I found that that's the point that most people give up with it. What allows you to, or what allowed you to, keep going during, during that grind, when you're working the office job?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and I kind of just had no other option. I was like, well, I fucking hate this job so much. I'm literally depressed and can't see me living this life forever. So I'm like what am I good at? What do I know? And the only thing I was actually like so passionate about into his fitness. So I'm like I'm gonna make this work, or that's it. So there's just really nothing else. And then, because I loved it so much, I'm like, well, even if it doesn't work, it's so fine. I'm enjoying making these videos and I'm enjoying working with the clients I do have. So it was just no other option. Simple as that. And I think once you remove all options, then that's when the magic happens. You'll give yourself no options. Hit that rock bottom, go all in, invest all your money. You know just say fuck it, go all in. And then that's when you know their option. That's, that's when you'll get. Get there.
Speaker 1:Dude, I think there's a lot of wisdom in that, and that pain, like Running away from something, I think is almost more powerful than running towards something.
Speaker 2:Alex Hormozzi. Well, he, well, he got that from a study do not write and you know they had the, the smell of the cheese or whatever. Yeah, that they're running towards, and then they're they're running away from the cat or something, and so that's where he got that from. But it's a perfect analogy and sometimes the the thing you're running away for from, is more powerful, and for me that actually is more powerful. So what I was running away from was just a life of the, not me, and a job that I hated, and running away from just being Miserable for my whole life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we we haven't talked too much about your backstory at all. So, for context, for the people that don't know, what do we need to know about you to make sense of this World of YouTube fitness that you found yourself into?
Speaker 2:so I was actually a total failure in everything I did. You know, I was led to believe I was so stupid from my school. I was just a bottom-up the air in terms of academics pretty, it was pretty good in the gym, though. So I was like, hey, you know, maybe some run something here. And then when I finished school, I got into like a college course that I hated and I failed, that. I couldn't pass a single test, I couldn't concentrate in any of the lectures. I was just like, fuck, this is just L after L. And then I managed to get like a job Okay, it was in like a startup job, it was in office, you know, just doing fucking emails and spreadsheets and just nothing. This really Just showing up every day, clocking in. And I again, I was terrible at it, you know and I just went into my boss and I was like, look, the only thing I can actually see myself doing is something in the fitness industry. He would always come over and like catch me doing like plans for my friends and everything. And I was like, look, I'm just gonna have to quit. He was like, that's cool, we were gonna fire you anyways.
Speaker 1:I was like all right, though, he's actually a good dude.
Speaker 2:He was a nice guy and so then I went out. So I'm like no college, no job, no connections to get a job, no, nothing like I'm just living in this shared accommodation that I absolutely hate. I've got 300 euro in my bank account so I go out and buy a Canon G7X Okay, bank heads on like 12 euros. Now let's make some fucking videos and let's build a WordPress website that can take payments. Let's sell an ebook on it for 20 euro. Let's try get some online coaching clients in that I'll coach them via email. Like how fucking Stone Age is that Like this 2015, 2014? It's literally just like email. There's no app. Yeah, there's no game plan app, like it's so prehistoric. And then that's that's how I started. So you know, back up against the wall, the only valuable item I had to my name was a Canon G7X Laptop, stolen out of shared accommodation because you know it's in the house that loads other people lived in. So, yeah, I was just like I'm gonna be absolutely fucked if I don't make this YouTube fitness thing work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know you mentioned that having that thing you're trying to run away from Kind of being one of the things that allowed you to make it work. But in terms of like the practical, day-to-day stuff, what do you think allowed you to? Because there's so many guys who like enter into this world of YouTube and fitness YouTube specifically, and it doesn't work. Like what do you think the difference there, from like a day-to-day practical perspective is between those guys that figure it out and the ones that don't?
Speaker 2:I Think the other guys. Just they get impatient and they give up and, like I've seen, it countless times. I know it sounds cliche and sense corny, I've seen it countless times. There's guys that they don't look the part they're not, they're not even like fucking jacked or anything, or they like they don't even, they're not even good Speaking a camera or they like they. They shouldn't make it, but they do because they literally don't give up. Like they literally just keep going. They keep uploading content, they keep pulling in more clients, they just don't give up. They drop their ego and, you know, maybe they're working a job on the side, but they keep going until it works. And so just the people that just don't give up, they're patient and they just keep going. If you broaden your time scale enough, you end up winning. It's like impossible to lose if you broaden your time scale long enough. So that's the difference, you know. Just other people get impatient and then they go back of knocking on their nine to five. So you could I have my job back in? Didn't work, bitch. You didn't try long enough or hard enough. Like there's literally people that are so less talented than you and they're Lapping you because they have more patience and they're trying harder.
Speaker 1:So it's as simple as that, especially in that world of YouTube or social media in general, where it's like a compound effect, where it's like you know, one person, then one person tells two people, then two people tell four of you, and it's like this slow grow, but it just fucking builds upon each other. Yeah, and if you just stay in the game long enough, like you said, like you're going to Get lucky and get that success that you're looking for exactly and it's even like, if you're doing coaching, okay, I'd coach my first clients for free I was like, hey, can I send you a plan?
Speaker 2:You follow it? Just give me a testimonial and a before and after. Okay, sweet, I got five of them, right, bang on half from our friends and family, right? So I got five of them. And then I'm like, okay, now I can start charging people. And I could be like, hey, look, I got these results for them. Yeah, I'm gonna do the same for you. And so at the start you go like, freaking, you're working for free. And then, fast, for a couple of years You're doing like high-ticket coaching, charging thousands for a program. So it's, it's like it's literally thinking of a graph, like that.
Speaker 1:You know, dude, it's like and so. But so many of those guys in the fitness they never like think big enough to even go into that high-ticket stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, and I was the same and I had to have like mentors or coaches, whatever. Just tell me, be like Build it and they will come. You know, you say, hey, I'm charging this much. The moment you say that, well, people will actually value it more. They will hear that price. They're like fuck. What must be good must be a great service. They do if you do supply a great service, they get the result thereafter, and then it's a win-win for everybody. But it all starts with having that belief in yourself and you got a few businesses right now.
Speaker 1:Which one are you most excited about?
Speaker 2:So most side by the one I don't take any money from, just because I relaunched it last month. But so we got game plan, which is the app, and also that my high-ticket coaching business fall under that. You have the personal brand, rob Lipsitz, of sponsorships, youtube, all that good stuff there. We got few cakes, the protein pancake company, which is probably the most fun because hell yeah, I get the pancakes. All day People messaged me being like yo, your pancakes are dope. I've been sending pictures of pancakes. I'm like the Willy Wonka of pancakes, so that one's really fun. But I I just reinvest everything into that as it's. It's a. It's a costly business to run because it's a physical product, so you got to buy stock, pay for shipping and storage, but it might. Probably my biggest source of income is, like the app subscription service, coaching as its service-based, so you don't have to store it anywhere. You know you don't have to ship it to anyone. It's, it's all instant. I have the only thing the biggest kind of Expense for that is just paying coaches, because you know I've got a coaching team. You have to meet the demand of clients and provide a good service. But yeah, so good for you. Things going on.
Speaker 1:Absolutely dude. So you see that the the pancakes as the highest upside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, in terms like fun and I think like that's something that I could really build, like huge, like something like, for example, what? When the inspiration of starting it was max shooting Sarah strips, which is just gone Mega barn, it's gone crazy, like it's in Walmart, it's like beside Harrybo. So I'm like I want to. You know, when people walk into Whole Foods or whatever they see at Jemima, you know they see a fuel case right next to it. So I just no reason why can't really happen.
Speaker 1:How is it so? What With that like how, how long of a process you think that is until you get it into like the major stores? I don't know too much about that realm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm done learning about it now myself. You know I'm figuring out as I go along, and so max started in Sarah strips I think three or four years ago, but it isn't actually being exceptionally fast like that's faster than most. You know I watched, I've watched a lot of like podcasts with other founders and and kind of the consumable industry and it's taking them like 10 years and again. You know you just got to zoom out, be patient and enjoy the process 100%.
Speaker 1:It's like those same principles that applied to the YouTube stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh so YouTube is a business like. It's a product. Your videos are the product and that's actually costly enough to make as well. You're gonna pay for videographers got by like five brand Sony, a7 and everything. You know that one, that one is not as easy as you think, but it's just a product like anything else. You know, yeah, and you got to put time and resources into it and treat it as a business if you really want to grow. And so that's why, like you know, I've got that multiple actual businesses outside of YouTube. So that's why sometimes you know it's hard to balance everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love like how you're going to start doing more just like the talking YouTube stuff. Yeah, the vlog content. It's like I think I've heard Thurston talk about this. You start like living your life for the vlog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just not too sustainable. Yeah, and like, I'm like a Guy that I like to chill at home all day. You know I like to wake up in the morning. I'll go to my office a clock in four hours, I'll go to the gym. I'll come back home, you know I'll make a big, huge meal. I'll do some more work on my laptop. Get just do a podcast like this. You know we're at two o'clock now. I'll go for a big walk and then I'll make a nice big dinner and try clock off for the evening, Like that's what most days are like for me. So I'm like I can't vlog that every day. I'm sitting on my office, in my office for most of a. So, yeah, you end up being like oh, what am I gonna do for today's vlog? And I'm like, bro, I just want to chill you know, so, whereas I can go up to my office, put in an hour and get really passionate about a certain topic and you know It'll do great on YouTube as well. So yeah, mike is completely right there. Sometimes it does take over your life a little bit. You feel you have to do things that you don't want to do.
Speaker 1:How are you been in the YouTube game for now? Did you say 2014 when you get started? Yes, so.
Speaker 2:September 1st, 2014 is when I uploaded my first ever YouTube video, but, like when I was doing on like an iPhone, I was still working in the office job then. So, until like 2016, I wasn't really, you know, seeing much traction on it. And then, like about 2016 onwards, is when I started doing it full-time. So only like you start re-picking off in 2017 and 18 and then, you know, pandemic happened 2019. So they're, like, you know, three years where you couldn't really fly around, do Expos, do clubs and everyone, and so I still think that's why I feel like I've, you know, got a lot more left in me on YouTube and a lot more to do.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, you're still rookie in the game.
Speaker 2:in the game, yeah, exactly, you know I'm like you know, it's shit's only been popping in the last few years, so I still got a long way to go totally and I think about with the podcast there's been so many unintended benefits of doing it like things.
Speaker 1:Initially I didn't think going in, but when you do it you're like, oh shit, this is awesome, like get to me all these people. Well, what do you think some of the unforeseen benefits have been for of doing the YouTube stuff?
Speaker 2:So I think people definitely Bond with you a lot better and you build that hardcore community, which is the most valuable thing. If you ever want to launch an online business or even like a product, anything is Build your audience first and then build your product around that audience, not the other way around. People like they come out with a product. So, yeah, I'm personal trainer, now we're hey, you know, I've got pancakes and they've got no one to sell it to like, so instead, yeah, they've got no customers. They're like why aren't? Why are people buying my plans? Why aren't people signing up? And it's like because you haven't built a community at first. So everyone's doing it backwards. They're like I'll start a business. It's like no, you should try to build a community before doing that first. So, yeah, a lot of people have it backwards. So that's the biggest benefit I find we're doing like long-form spoken Content, like podcast or YouTube, is people can actually see what you're like and they'll see like oh, you know, do I fuck with this guy? Do I like his information? Do I like his vibe? Okay, cool, you know, I'm gonna, you know, watch his stuff. I'm gonna build a relationship with this dude. That's what it's all about business by relationships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was at dinner last night with a few creators and someone said at the end of day, we're really in in the business of creating colts. Yeah, but they're so it's so true, kind of yeah, it's completely true.
Speaker 2:You know, I got the LF army the lips of fitness and that's it. And so me and me and Linda have this, this funny thing like we can like if we're in Dublin particularly, but even here in Marbella we can spot someone a mile away if they're gonna come up and say hello to me. So if there's a guy in his, in his 20s and he's gonna fade and he's like kind of jacked and he's wearing our fleet, he's gonna come up and be like yo, rob, what's up?
Speaker 1:It's so me and.
Speaker 2:Linda have gotten so good at spotting it and like it works every time, so it's so funny that like that, that's my cup, you know. It's great and it always makes my day if anyone ever, ever comes up and says hello to me. You know it's, it's the best feeling, the world.
Speaker 1:There was. I think there was two occasions I was driving in Porta Banus, that's like. I think that's Rob.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it probably was like.
Speaker 1:I walk.
Speaker 2:So I live very near port. I'm better walk down there now. So I live like a walk away from Porta Banus and I'm pretty easy to spot. Like Linda's got the big blonde hair, she's pretty easy to spot. We're always we're always in gym gear. So like yeah, we're always like perma flexed. So yeah, people always say and I walk so much, like I walk like 12 to 15 thousand steps today, it's just like it's always beautiful, I, I just love walking around.
Speaker 1:Dude, that's a game changer to man. That's how you get lean.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you like it's a lot easier to do than like strict cardio every day and it's good for your mental health and everything. You all go take a call when I'm walking around. It's amazing, yeah, so people always say that to me. They're like I always see pacing around for.
Speaker 1:Then on a mission you doing a fair bit of traveling right as well, like throughout Europe and in the States.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have I would consider myself very well traveled this year, last year a lot of travel because I was waiting on the house to be built. Yes, I was in like Tulum for a month Miami, texas, I beat that, you know, all over Europe New York, london, australia, just everywhere. And and then before that, like even more so, like I think there was one year and 2019 and I was traveling for more than six months of the year, like unintentionally, you know. I was like where do I pay tax? Yeah, exactly, I was traveling like so much. But this year, because we finally built the house, I was like, okay, I just want to enjoy it a little bit. So just, I went to in January I went to the Maldives, then I competed, so I prepped for my show. February, march, april, may, so just stay put and do any travel, and just went monk mode, like pure fucking monk mode. And then May went back to Ireland Don't really count that as travel and and June, july stayed here, august back to Ireland, then also went to Italy and then just did an America trip there. So only did like three big trips this year.
Speaker 1:I Found people like really struggle to like stay consistent with all the travel stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it shows you off a lot like you're in airport food. You don't have a kitchen, so you're eating out pretty much every day. So your calories, whether you realize or not, just spike up massively. The protein intake will go down. You'll miss sessions in the gym or you'll have to pay like 20 bucks for a day pass every single time. Time zone changes. You know it can just throw you off a lot. So nothing beats. If you want to like really get on top of your fitness is to live a boring life. You know, live a routine life, like if you are serious about getting results you need, you need to dial in and just kind of do the same thing every day Until you achieve your desired results.
Speaker 1:dude, that monk mode I've heard you say it on a few occasions, but it's needed at times like understanding when you need to sprint and like do this one thing for months on end and kind of say no to the rest of world.
Speaker 2:Oh man, so it was the first time I've done it in a while and it was probably like the happiest period of my year. So I literally just February, march, april, may no eating out, no drinking, of course, no partying, no late nights, just work and Training is great, and Linda did it with me as well. I'm like we got along so well. This is this is one rather happiest you know, I'm like, when everyone's like being productive and training and working, I'm like, whether you actually realize or not, you're probably gonna be happiest. Then people think they want to be partying, they want to be like you know, living their best Instagram life. No, I'm telling you, you'll be happier if you just put your head down. You're working away. So it was the first time in a while that I did that and that it really set me up for a great year. I'm like. I think I did like a year's, a year's worth of work in those, in those four months.
Speaker 1:That's the truth, though. I mean those like when you go out and you're drinking and doing real tapped into that scene. It's like the highs are pretty high but the lows are. The lows are really low bro.
Speaker 2:I swear to God, my hangovers are like so bad now, you know, ever since the last two years or ever since I took the four months off. So I then, you know, I went back to drinking like over somewhere I go at maybe every weekend or every second weekend, but let's say I go out on Saturday. I'm like I'm hungover till Tuesday, at least you know, because I'm like Sunday, right off Monday, nah, you're feeling alright, and then you're only back in the gym, you're only back in it on Tuesday, you know. And then like, okay, wednesday you're 100% again. So what, you got your Wednesday, thursday, friday, like you got three, you got 300% days in the whole week. So, like, I think if you're going hard on a Saturday, like it personally takes, it takes half the week for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, like for most people, that's every weekend, so that's just like you think about your whole year as a whole. You're just like losing the majority of it.
Speaker 2:Like there's 52 weeks in a year. You're like like what? Like 25, 26 of them? You're like you're gone over. Yeah exactly just doing fuck all just scrolling. You know it's just scrolling over on your couch. So a lot of people, especially in Ireland. There's obviously a massive drinking culture. You start drinking at like 14, if not younger 13, and you know there's a lot of people that could just do it, just couldn't have the drink for like three months.
Speaker 1:Ireland's one of those places that it seems like they don't really support people standing out as much.
Speaker 2:Big time. You, you just nailed it like completely. It's like a nation of big luxury. You know, that's it like. I love it. You know, obviously my main audience is Irish, but if someone does something out of line, you will be very quick say hey, get back in line, don't do that. What do you think you're doing? So like when I first started, you know, going to gym and recording myself and like doing like physique updates and shit on YouTube, they'd be like who's this guy? I think he is like this is guy. I think he's God's gift. This guy think you like Bertie big bollocks down recording himself in the gym and I'm like, well, first of all, yes, but then like people would just rip into, whereas like American viewers would watch me and they're like, yeah, go, let's get jacked and everything. So In Ireland like there's definitely a sense of begrudgery, like even you know, guys like McGregor would get it a lot of money. They would get it a lot as well. You know he'd get a lot of hate from Irish people, but then you also get a lot of love from Irish people. So you know, it's just kind of the culture like we make fun of each other a lot, but yeah, it just is what it is and I think it's. It's pretty. It's pretty standard in any small country or small town, like the population of Ireland is very small, you know, so you got to keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:So I have to imagine that was pretty difficult when your first gang started and you don't have the success yet For to be like fuck off yeah yeah, yeah, that was.
Speaker 2:That was definitely a difficult part and I the only thing that kind of got me through that was like, oh well, I've nothing else to do, like I've literally no other option. Back is up against the wall, something's like yo comment and like horrible shit and I'm like, oh well, that's not nice to read, but I've still got to upload tomorrow. You know, I'm still gonna go and record this chess workout and then, like it's funny, 90, 90, 99 percent of the comments will be like lovely, but then that one percent, one can just just stick out a little bit. But again, if you're someone like me who just has no other choice, then you know you'll just get on with it. Really.
Speaker 1:Does it? Did it bother you, like when you would read this shit?
Speaker 2:It's never nice to read, but sometimes I find it funny and you know, sometimes you just got to kind of laugh it off and you got to view it in a place of empathy. I'm like I I can hand on my heart, say I have never in my entire life logged on to the interwebs and left a hateful comment. I've never in my single life, never mind off a fake profile. Imagine how much of a fucking loser you got to be to do that. So I'm like you really get angry at these losers. You know the actual bombs, like they're actually a fucking Imagine. Imagine. I find it so crazy. So, you know, if someone's on an honest little page leaving me hate, I'm like no, you can't, you can't take too seriously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you really can't, because I mean, when you don't even know what they look like, yeah, but you have to imagine that they are not One, the healthiest people and, two, the happiest people, right?
Speaker 2:It's because you're. I'm just picturing comic book guy out of the simpsons.
Speaker 1:I just picture a fat guy with glasses, with a long hair and his mom's basement. Your standards the world. Yeah, it's probably the case 90% of time. So crazy, bro. It's so crazy. What's your diet looking like now?
Speaker 2:Pretty good, so I was just enjoying all the american food. American portions are wild bro. They're they're delicious.
Speaker 1:But they're on the cart right now. It's it's different man. I'm in texas too, so it's like.
Speaker 2:I so one thing, like when I was trying to have, like you know, a good lean day in america. I would like just have black coffee in the morning and then I go to whole foods and I just rack up on. That salad bar cost me like 40 fucking dollars, and then I would start like a shake and a bar, you know, later on, or something, and just something meat based. But it's tough. There's so much like delicious tacos and pizza and shit and burgers, like american food is absolutely delicious, it's too delicious. But in spain here I find it find it very easy to stick to a healthy diet. Just a ton of vegetables, you know. A lot of eggs, a lot of steak, a lot of meat, chicken breast, not. There's a good few meal prep companies here in marbella that that helped me up as well. So, yeah, you know, just hitting my macros Um, a lot of protein, a lot of meat. Very big fan of meat, meat based diet, a lot of vegetables, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're doing like what?
Speaker 2:like a gram of protein per pound of body weight, yeah, yeah so you know I'm weighing in 175, but I eat like 200 grams of protein a day. Just, you don't even need that much. You don't even need a gram per pound. It's actually like the actual amount is like 0.8 grams per pound of body weight, but I've coached Thousands of fellas over the last few years. Okay, and the majority pretty much all of them will do better cutting On high protein. The main thing is it is going to help with satiety. Okay, it's going to help with hunger and cravings. Imagine someone's. Imagine someone's like okay, here's like a, just a plate of pure chicken breast. You couldn't even eat it, you know you couldn't even. You couldn't even finish it. Then imagine like some's like here's a big bowl of pasta Like, or a cocoa pops like you floor it you floor it easily. So like protein is simply just harder to eat, like it's just very filling. So if you want to just not be hungry on a cut, just you know, up your protein intake to just a little bit. For me I can go a little bit above a gram per pound of body weight and that's of course going to help with recovery, muscle maintenance and everything. But I think the real key of going high protein is the satiety.
Speaker 1:It's so simple but it is so profound for for weight loss, like You're so much more full throughout the day for enough protein.
Speaker 2:Man and it's funny, I think the fitness industry has kind of gone and Like a full circle. So they went to your phase up, like so it started off at like in the 90s, like the bodybuilder bros are like the ground, prep and body weight. And then the science bros were like no, actually it's about point five to point eight grams for pain to body weight. And then we're like what? And now we're going back to one gram because we're like hey, it feels. So maybe the bros are right, all long Dude.
Speaker 1:There's a good point in that about like how bodybuilders just test the limits in a way that science like won't. And they like push the limits of science and push on like some discoveries because they're so willing to just like.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, like sometimes there's, there's a little bit of truth to the bros.
Speaker 1:Science 100%. There's a lot of truth to the bros. I can definitely get, definitely get behind it. And what's your? What's your um like carbohydrate and fat intake? Are you trying to be pretty moderate with both?
Speaker 2:Yes. So, oh man, I'll tell you so at the my final few weeks of prep they were like so for the majority of my prep my macros are like 200 protein, about 250 carb and 50 fat. I'll get pretty lean off that okay. Pretty lean intake, pretty sustainable. You can eat over 200 grams carbs a day, fats a little below, but we can do it. Then, when I'm getting into fucking crazy condition, carbs go down to like 150, fat goes like 30 to 40 grams and I'm just like I'm like I'm dying. I'm like I'm like christian bailing the machinist, you know. I'm dead and so that I cannot sustain. But yeah, so they're like my. That's my typical calorie range. If I'm on a cut, my maintenance calories are around like 3000, which again is pretty solid. It's fine. And then I haven't done like a proper bulk in many years, as I've no interest in getting much bigger and you know, I'm kind of like I've got, I've made most of my gains at this stage, but back in the day I'd bulk on like 3,500 calories.
Speaker 1:They do. You find that like if you cut pretty heavy, that that the bounce back when you, when you go back to like a normal calories, you just get you feel out like a lot better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah for sure, and you know. But that's only gonna last a certain while, you know. Then your glycogen stores are full and people start pushing up a little bit too high and you know their hunger is still there and so you know they're fucking. They rebound badly after a dive. So I still recommend people take it slowly when they're finishing up the cut to still ramp up calories slowly enough. I'm kind of, you know, be a bit mindful at that stage as well, especially if you're just on a show man. People rebound so badly after that Cause that's like you're in like eating disorder territory there. You know you've been depriving yourself so harshly for weeks and so the moment you're done this show, you're like oh, finally I can live life again. So people, people overindulge and go way too hard. So it's almost like the hard work begins after the show, because that's when you need real willpower and discipline.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, that it's almost very easy to fall into right Like that binge. I'm just like close to an eating disorder.
Speaker 2:Oh man, completely, and that's why that's why I don't recommend most people compete is because it's the definition of unsustainable, you know. So like it's just for the few freaks like myself that really you know, kind of know what they're doing and really want to push themselves. But for 99% of people you know, who want to get in shape, I would just say, you know, pick a goal that you can sustain. That's difficult, that you're going to have to push yourself, but you know nothing, nothing insane.
Speaker 1:And so I got I got a selfish question for you, because I'm in the cut right now. So outside of the protein leveraging, you have any other cutting hacks to kind of help with just the ease of it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. So I do a good bit of intermittent fasting. I'd say I do that maybe four days a week and so when you think about it, right, let's say you're on a budget, right and at the start, and you have a monthly budget. If you fucking spend all your cash at the start, of the month. It's not going to be good. You're going to have a bad month. You're going to be like oh shit. So it's just the exact same with your calories. If you blow all your calories out early in the day, you're like, well, today is going to suck. I'm literally eating air for the rest of the day. So intermittent fasting I think a lot of people you know again. So when I'm talking about just anecdotal, when I'm talking about guys that I've worked with, majority of them do better with having a very small protein-based breakfast and saving the majority of their calories for the evening, or just doing full intermittent fasting, having their first meal at like 12. So, that's a big hack there, of course, going with high volume, high satiety foods, just like a ton of veggies, a ton of fruit is great a ton of meat Like I'll have like once a day I'll just get a load of lean mince troing like some broccoli, onions, chickpeas, hot sauce. Just put it all in a stir fry and you're just like have this huge bowl of meat and vegetables. So it's like protein and fiber, and like pretty much no carbs, hardy-onny fat, and you're just like you're still for the day, you know. So that's another little hack I do. And then you're just finding things that you enjoy as well, like so that aren't necessarily filling but you just really like to taste off. So you do your filling meal and then you also have a meal to satisfy the craving. So for me there's fuel cakes, there's pancakes, or I love like frozen yogurt. Again, that's pretty easy one to fit into your daily routine, and so that's like some guidelines that I follow myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I like that second part because the strictness, like going back to what we were saying before about the eating disorder stuff it's so easy to fall into those like binge cycles if you aren't allowing that in your like daily, your weekly intake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. And so I recommend people eat one thing they love every single day, like every single day. Just do your best to do it, because without realizing it, if you're like depriving yourself of that, you're just gonna, there's gonna. Maybe in a month, maybe in two months, you are just going to rebound so badly. So I really recommend and it may seem kind of productive, you're like, oh, I'm eating like something delicious every day. The long run you're gonna be better off.
Speaker 1:So much more sustainable, yeah, and for the fitness side of things and for training how things evolve for you over the years, like what are you doing now versus what you were doing when you first got into the game.
Speaker 2:So when I first got into the game I followed like Ronnie Coleman's program. I'd be reading like simply shreddedcom, or like Flex Magazine. I'd be like, hey, Jay Cutler's doing this. I'm gonna do this and I remember I had a day for everybody part. I'm Ryan, I'm not joking you, I had a cab day. I had a forearm day. I like I wouldn't, I would split up everything. I'd be like Delta day, chest day, trap day. It would be like 12 days before I hit chest again. That was it. That was like the biggest mistake. And then I kind of went the opposite. Like I found out about like three day full body, four day upper lower, upper lower, and you know, progressive overload, tracking my lifts, and so that was just the biggest game changer for me. It's like my results after that. And so nowadays I follow a legs push, pull, legs, push, pull split. So usually go six days per week. Or another split I often run as well, I'm very fond of it is legs push, pull, upper lower. So that's like a five day split. So again, you're hitting everything twice a week, which is like kind of the main thing for me. You have to keep that muscle protein, since it's elevated throughout the week, keep that training frequency high and so, as long as you're following a program that has you hit every muscle group two to three times a week, then you're good to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I found. I did the game time app. I did your program for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Oh, game plan. Yeah, game plan, game plan, game time's a good name, maybe I should get that username as well.
Speaker 1:The game plan program that you have. It's like, it's just simple dude, Just like that. Three day split and it's enjoyable, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:The three day one's killer you know, and I'm like no, you can get jacked on three days and a lot of people they get so much stronger because they have so much recovery and it suits them so much better. Their stress is lower. So that's one of the most popular programs on the app and that's killer one 100%.
Speaker 1:So if you could only do 10 exercises forever, what 10 are we doing?
Speaker 2:You know, I just watched Seabomb answer this question, Chris.
Speaker 1:you know all my sources bro. Yeah, man.
Speaker 2:We probably watched the same podcast and I'm always like, oh God, what 10 would I choose? Okay, cause it's hard when you're on the spot. So I'm gonna go true, I'm gonna go true. The body part 10 is a lot. By the way, 10 is a lot. I could do it in like fucking four. So let's go true. Okay, number one my favorite pushing movement is incline dumbbell press. Okay, that, in my opinion, that's the best chest exercise. Okay. So one, we got incline dumbbell press, so now let's do a vertical press. Okay. Number two is gonna be OHP. Okay, just barbell over a press. So I'm working around the body. So now, number three we're gonna go a pulling movement, horizontal row. So we're gonna do chest supported row. Okay. Number four we're gonna do a vertical row, so that's gonna be lap pull down. Okay. So, number five we are going to do a arm movement. So for me, that is gonna be easy bar curls, love this. Number six we are gonna do triceps. So it is gonna be overhead triceps. So with a cape, with like an overhead tricep movement, whatever you want, like, let's just say, cables, okay. So now, last four ones we're going down to the legs. I think that's overbody covered. So, number seven we are gonna do some good old squats. I just think it's just such a killer. Number eight we are gonna do stiff leg deadlifts. Number nine we are gonna do calf raises. And then number 10, we are gonna do just ab crunches. I think it's a poor thing. Yeah, personally, I see a lot of results from that. I know it's a little bit debatable but there's my 10.
Speaker 1:Oh, the ab stuff is interesting. Yeah, matt, do you always hear people say that it doesn't really make too big of a difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and there's actually I think it was, I think it was actually Jeff Nippard's girlfriend who did stiff, who did a video on like she I need to watch it again, it's years old. She like hit abs every day, like for like three months or something, and got some great results from it. But so there's, of course, those are studies to show that, oh, leg training and compound movements hit your core. And then there's actually studies to say they don't actually activate. They do hit your core but they don't activate it that much. So, from personal experience, what I find when I do train my abs, especially towards the end of a cut, it just makes them pop more. It just kind of makes them fill them out because obviously there's such a small muscle group they're not going to be like, they're not going to be like the size of your arms sticking out, so like there's only so much room for them to grow. But I think, if you do want them to look more pronounced, that I think you should be hitting your abs. And it's also healthy to do core work, like if you're an athlete or if you want to improve your posture or if you want it like, yeah, it's good to have a strong core. So yeah, I think some people they talk down on training your core and your abs a little bit.
Speaker 1:So you said you could do it in four. What would the four be?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So just think of the shape of the body. Okay, yeah, yeah, you can go this way, you can go that way, you can go this way and you can go that way.
Speaker 1:That's a good way to think about things.
Speaker 2:So I would go bench press overhead, press barbell row and squat. That's it, man.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, if you had a fucking beastly one of everyone in those movements, you have a good physique Dude.
Speaker 1:It's so true, and I think that helps people, like because it can get overwhelming, and like especially smart people who are like first getting into it. They want everything to be like so perfect and like organized, but when you just break it down like that, it's like that's going to give you most of the gains doing those four things Literally.
Speaker 2:And so there's actually like there's a term I think I invented it it's called flexible training right, I've heard no one else.
Speaker 1:You got to coin this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually do, and so basically, it's when you have like, let's say, you're doing a legs push pull routine. Okay, Like me you have free exercises on each day. So, legs, you have the squat, push your bench and pull. Let's say you know you have deadlifts or whatever. If you concentrate on those three, you do them every week, you you just nail them and increase them, then you can be flexible with the rest of your training. So, like you can just do whatever you want for your isolation exercises. If one week you're like I want to do a barbell curl and then next week I want to do like an, an easy bar curl or a hammer curl, it doesn't matter, but the main thing is those, like is the lifts at the start of your workout, and then you can be flexible with the other part of your workout.
Speaker 1:I love that. What type of rep range would you do then for those, for those like main, main ones?
Speaker 2:I typically like lifting in the eight to 10 rep range. You know, it's like the magic number. It's between, you know lower rep ranges for strength, and it's also a nice place where people don't get injured very much. And then it's also, you get a good pump because the reps are high enough as well. So you know, eight to 12, even is is a nice rep range, I find. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 1:Have you seen? Have you seen, that kid Sam solo?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I watch him. I think he's awesome, and so I've actually been thinking about this recently. Okay, First of all, I love what he's doing with uploading daily unedited blogs. They're just so raw and I think people are like going back to that 2016 YouTube blogging era. People miss that. You know, that's like when I started. He kind of actually reminds me of what I was doing. I'm a lot less jazz Like. So, just like, I think I think people are really liking with that and like bonding with him, like just watching him go about his day, and he just seems like a really chilled, calm dude and I, yeah, I love what. I love what he's doing, to be honest, and people are always like he's so unhealthy, he's so out of breath. I'm like, dude, I'm fucking out of breath when I'm in the middle of training. You know, I'm like you're just probably not training hard enough. I'm like, how are you not out of breath after you just doing a really heavy set, given your all for eight reps? I'm like, so, don't get that. He does cardio every day, I'm pretty sure. So you know. And then I have these kids like what you want to compare them to? Like some obese American kid eating McDonald's every day. No one bats an eyelid at that. But then people give this kid who's in the gym every day shit. I don't know. I bet you, if you don't know as much as blood is bloods, I bet you wouldn't even be that unhealthy. So yeah, I think Sam is great. I'd love to chat to him one day, maybe get him on the game plan podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he seems like a chill dude Totally. I mean this the movement of like Instagram and social media, they kind of have changed like the way we perceive things and I think like this physique that kids are chasing has kind of been changing and it seems like it's going in the direction of a lot of like younger kids getting super interested in getting on like trend and some of these things. What do you think about this like movement we've had like more towards a huge physique that like, if you look at the Mr Olympia, like the physiques that they have are not the physiques that you think would be ideal, versus like back in the day where those guys were like their physiques were the physiques that you wanted.
Speaker 2:I know Matt, so I things come and go and trends, and remember I'm from the Z, the Z zero. Okay, so that was like the physique we all wanted. And nowadays if you talk Z's and put him beside Sam, for example, or beside the trend twins, he would look small, yeah, he would look like stringy look, he would look like that. So it's crazy to see, like, how standards change and I don't think that is good. You know that's just going to make more kids hop on gear, you know, unfortunately, and hop on gear way before they need to. You know, like train for get all your new gains out before you even consider that train for at least eight to 10 years. The longer you train right here for jumping on, the better results you're going to get if you do jump on gear. So I think this whole movement and this whole, you know, the new trend, no pun intended, the trend trend, I don't think that's good, to be honest. I think it's going to make a lot of younger guys, you know, jump on these compounds long before they they ever should.
Speaker 1:What do you think the most dangerous ones are?
Speaker 2:Definitely trend from what I've heard. But from what I've heard, you know the. I only learned recently that when you injected you get a cough Like you get a trend cough and you nearly cough your brains out. I'm like what the hell is in it? It sounds like devil juice. So I think I think trend is probably the harshest compound. I'm pretty sure Chris Bumstead even said he doesn't do trend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, crazy.
Speaker 2:And then another weird one as well. I don't really heard of many people unless you're like a Olympia level like Phil Heath bodybuilder is taking insulin. I'm not too educated on that, but it's something that you can like die from, like you know you can. You can kill yourself if you do it at the wrong time or something. Your blood sugar levels get all messed up.
Speaker 1:So yeah, some crazy shit out there. I heard you talk in the past about punishing yourself and like the importance of that for yourself right now, post punishment, this, this, this past spring, with the bodybuilding show and stuff how does that come in? Does that come in cycles for you or are you always trying to find those things in the day to day? That that's a punishment?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I remember it was last year or it was 2021. Even I was sitting on a beach in Tulum and I was like sipping a margarita or whiskey, sarah, and I was like it doesn't taste as good as it usually does. I haven't earned this, I shouldn't be here. And I went home. And you know, then, 2021, I was building a house, so I never really got to a place where I could zone in and I was like you know, that was a good year, but it could have been a lot better and I felt not deserving. And then, 2022 or 2023, this year, I just fucking switched it on and then this summer, everything tasted better, everything felt better, everything just flowed better. So a lot of times when you're feeling that something's missing, you're feeling that little bit of guilt and shame. It's normal and oftentimes it means that you are not deserving of indulging in what you're currently indulging in and that you need to go monk mode for a little bit. You need to punish yourself a little bit. You need to fulfill your potential, because the worst feeling in the world, the worst fucking feeling, here's what hell is. If you go up to there, you go to hell. Right, you die. And you go to hell. You're at the gates of hell and then Satan shows you an image of the person you could have been in your life. That's the worst feeling in the world.
Speaker 1:We have this like view of retirement or of like what you're striving to get, as Chun on a beach and drinking margaritas or whiskey sours and that's like a week. That's not like a retirement or like a goal that's after. After a month, that would get like depressing.
Speaker 2:Oh man, completely you know, and so that, like, the meaning of life is finding fulfilling work, because the majority of your day is gonna be filled with what you work Us, you know. So if you can find something that makes you money, brings happiness or joy to other people's lives and proves other people's lives Brings happiness to your life, I think it's like the Japanese call it icky guy Mm-hmm. You ever heard about that? Yeah, so once you find that, then you know you're gonna live a very happy life.
Speaker 1:So for you, in finding that that just came from realizing that the thing that you were best at was the gym, and was that that was the thing you loved?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just from doing bicep curls and then getting other girls, but no, pretty much, and that can be anything. You know, I got my my haircut in the villa today and I speak of this young lad and he's a barber and he's really into what he's doing. He's like blown up on TikTok and everything, and so I could tell His his barber business, that was the gym for him, like that was like his version of being a PT, beat coaching people, you know, and so like he was, so he really loved it. So I that was dope to see.
Speaker 1:So it doesn't have to be fitness industry, it can be any industry if you just you find that the place you're gonna be totally and like, when it comes to you know, you, you got to find the thing, but you also got to find that person to do it with, it's like Just equally as important. Because picking that partner and deciding like I Forget what the term is, but there's this concept that, like over time, you kind of morph into the ideal version of what your partner wants out of life. So if your partner's ideal version of a boyfriend is someone who, like, goes out with them every weekend and eats pizza with them At two in the morning, slowly to please them, you start to become that person. Yeah, I think what it was.
Speaker 2:One of the biggest, aren't interrupted. One of the biggest, one of the biggest decisions you make in your life was who you choose partner.
Speaker 1:So for that decision for you now, since you're in the midst mixed of it, having Decided the person you want to spend your life with, what advice would you have for guys in their 20s in finding that person For sure? So you know, I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's bad for guys in their 20s to date around. I think I think it's fine, you know. I think it's like worse for girls to do that. Really, then guys, like I think guys can play the field and get away with a little bit more, because you know women are the gatekeepers. You know they can, they can choose who to be with, you know, but guys, guys can't. So you know, see, see who compliments your life and see who aligns with your goals and have some non-negotiables that you know you want to have locked in a partner. So, for example for me is they got to be into fitness and health and living a healthy life. So okay, so that's like the main thing with me. They got to be a compliment to my life. They got to support my goals, you know they. They got to not understand that, like you know, my goals come first, my life comes first and that you know they, they support my journey and then, in turn, you support there as well and I think those guys, like a lot of guys, don't, don't realize that and realize, like they think, what a girl wants is for you to be like their world, and it's the opposite.
Speaker 1:It's the opposite. They don't want you.
Speaker 2:No, they don't want you to change like. They want you to be like stern and a man on a mission. They want you to be like I'm on the rob train. The train is going here, you can jump on the train if you like. The train is not slowing down or stopping or changing direction and they're like nice one, I'm in well said Like that's my best advice right there you know, I was tip-toeing around saying that.
Speaker 1:Rob, is there anything we we haven't talked about today that has been front of mind for you, or anything else you just want to talk about?
Speaker 2:bro. We talked about pancakes, we talked about lifting. We talked about relationship. We talked about chicks, we talked about travel. Thank you, I think we covered it all.
Speaker 1:It was a hell of a conversation, brother. I appreciate you taking time for this one.
Speaker 2:No worries, I'm glad we yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm glad we finally got it done Absolutely, and I'm gonna be hounding you next summer in Marbella for in person, one of these.
Speaker 2:Bro, I'm getting a spare room at the lips already, oh let's go, let's go.
Speaker 1:Awesome bro. Well, dude, I'm looking forward to seeing how the YouTube channel grows and evolves, and Exciting to excited to start diving into the podcast a little more as well.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much, and I gotta get you on the game plan.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, all right brother, let's go dude. That was all.
