Jamie Alderton - Transform Your Body

Full transcript: Jamie Alderton on London Real

4:55 This is London Real. I am Brian Rose. My guest today is Jamie Alderton, who is a body transformation coach, ex British Army soldier, championship natural bodybuilder, and one of the top fitness models in the UK. Jamie, your passion is fitness and nutrition and teaching people how to create lifestyle habits both physically and mentally. Welcome to London Real.

5:18 Thank you for having me on. So, so honored to be on London Real after listening to so many of your podcasts. So, yeah. You have this morning routine where you go on a long walk and you said that you serve up these shows and try to listen to them in their entirety, right? Yeah.

5:32 I mean, that’s that sort of 5:00 a.m. slots my education sort of time that I have to myself to reflect on life, reflect on things. It’s my my meditation. My walks in the morning is my meditation. It’s my time to to learn.

5:47 Right. I want to get into your whole routine uh in just a bit. I think Peter Sage was one of your favorites. Definitely. Yeah, that’s one that keeps coming up.

5:54 Like I said, uh Danny Jones from Busted, that was one that really kind of transformed him and and uh I’ll talk more about Peter later, but I wanted to jump right in to fitness. You know, I lately have been putting up my like 2-minute vlogs and stuff like that since January since one of my guys was like, “Brian, you got to put up vlogs.” And I’m like, I’m not a vlogger. You know, I make long form content. But I’ve been doing it and I’ve been doing a few when I’m in the gym and when I’m training and I haven’t found a topic more divisive than fitness.

6:20 I mean, not even psychedelics is this divisive, but you know, and go figure, you know, but everyone has an opinion. Some of these giving these people giving me their opinions, I don’t know if they move behind the keyboard ever during their day or if they’re just locked in, but everyone has a opinion about Brian, you should be doing this, you should be doing that. And so, it’s fascinating to me that there’s so many um contrary opinions out there, which I guess is good for business, too, because people have these different ideas and they want to know what works and what doesn’t.

6:46 So, I want to get into it with you right away. But one of the videos that is really poignant to see is is your 6 months challenge where you started out as I mean I hate to say it but you know were you were you kind of fat Jamie or a big Jamie and then you toned yourself down to the end where you were going for a fitness competition which is you know no joke these fitness models are like you know lean and proportioned and everything and and that was the end of your video and I think you won that competition or or you placed very high. No I didn’t place you didn’t that was a different one.

7:14 That was 2010. That was uh yeah 2010 2012 I won uh the European Championships in 2012. Then I had a year off because my daughter um was born and then 2014 last year was ready to rock again. Right. And so that’s when you did this transformation.

7:30 Tell us about that transformation. What weight did you start at? What did you get to? Were you hesitant to market the whole thing? Because your business is your physique.

7:37 You just came from a photo shoot. You know, you’re you’re constantly in really good shape and then to show yourself on YouTube out of shape. How did that come to you and what was that all about? Well, I had a off the stage in 2013. I had a very successful year with clients.

7:51 Um, it was my time to come away from the stage, come away from being in front of the camera and concentrate on my clients. Because of 2012, cuz I’d competed and won, I already had that, you know, that seal of approval from people to say, “He knows what he’s talking about.” That’s why I was so busy in 2013. Not only was my daughter born, but I was busy with clients, getting them ready for stage, transforming bodies, and focusing on other people. Focus on my wife, focus, focusing on my daughter and focusing on other people.

8:23 Still was training, but in the back of my head, I was like, “Right, I’ve got an excuse now to not take it as seriously, i.e. stay in shape all the time. Let’s see how offseason I can go. Let’s see if I can jam five and a half thousand calories, 6,000 calories a day and get to and I had a rough ballpark number 230 pounds or heavy which is heavy. It was 17 stone or I think it was 106 kilos. 106 kilos.

8:51 And what are you weighing now? Just give me a rough. I’m 194 lb now. Now okay. So that was 36 lb more.

8:58 And when you compete at a fitness competition, do you cut down? Yeah, I’m about 187 188 lb. about 5 or 6 lb away from my from where I am now. Okay. And so why this goal in your brain to get up to 230? Was it Yeah.

9:13 Why? Why? Something to do. It was a target and a goal. Um the m the most important thing for me was that I was still lifting heavy.

9:22 I was still training but just getting the calories down. And I wanted to see that on the scale. I was like, “Oh, 230, 230. Come on, 230. Keep eating.”

9:30 It was very, very hard. You know, I was reducing my cardio down. Um, I was my appetite had completely gone. I was just going for it. Not the best way to do it either.

9:40 You know, not something I’d recommend for clients to do. I’d say to stay as lean as possible, but until you’ve done it, you can’t really advise people whether they should do it or not. A lot of people now will ask me, go, “What do you think’s better? Do you think bulking up eating what you can is better, or do you think gain, you know, gaining muscle leaner is better?” and I’ll say, “Well, I’ve done both and this is the best way forward.” And I think that’s so important when it comes to being a coach is letting your clients know, I’ve been there.

10:12 I’ve done that. I’ve got the t-shirt cuz they they, you know, they trusting your advice and opinions a lot more cuz they’ve seen that you’ve been through it. Okay. Did you put on a lot more strength? Did you find that your lifts were going up or not as much as you would have figured for a 230?

10:26 So, this is what was funny. I mean, my justification for doing it, cuz as with anything in life, you need a justification as to why you’re you’re doing things. And my justification was I was I was the strongest I’d ever been. And I was I was, you know, crazy strong. And obviously so cuz I had an extra 30 lb to put behind my, you know, behind my lifts.

10:43 But this year, I stayed lean over Christmas. I didn’t go over 28 lb. So I was about 22 lbs lighter. and I beat all my personal bests from when I was heavier, which just proved to me that I didn’t need to put that much weight on to improve on my strength goals. Okay.

11:02 You know, one thing I I read the New York Times a lot and it always makes me laugh because every week on the New York Times and this is like one of the most highly rated publications, you know, in the world and they throw out this fitness fact and they always have it. I think it’s maybe just clickbait on their website, but this is a, you know, a high integrity journalism site and it’s like, oh, cardio does this or this does this and it’s a survey of 20 people and we found this is this and constantly mixed message mixed message cuz it’s controversial. Okay, controversial sells and that’s where a lot of people go wrong.

11:34 People ask me what the secret is and if I told them it’s consistency, it’s working your ass off every day and it’s being consistent, they don’t want to hear that. What they want to hear is that in six weeks time they can look like me, right? They want eight minute abs. They want eight minute abs. And you know, proof is in the pudding.

11:51 Nearly 2 million hits on YouTube cuz people actually think if they do that, they’re going to get abs in 8 minutes. When it’s it’s just unrealistic. However, people live in this this Disneyland world where they think, “Oh, no. I’m just going to take this magic pill. I’m just going to do that and I’m going to I’m going to look like look like you are.”

12:10 People are wait, you know, people are looking for the secret, but the secret is work ethic at the end of the day, right? And you have a military background. I really want to get into that. To go, take me from 230 down to that fitness weight. What were some of the things that surprised you?

12:22 What were some of the harder or easier things to kind of get down to be ready to compete? I think the hardest thing for me, that was the heaviest I’d ever been in my life. So, usually if I’m trying to get ready for a, you know, for a photo shoot, let’s just say, it probably only takes me 4 to 6 weeks of dieting to get ready. And when you’re trying to drop sort of a pound, two pounds a week, and you’re looking at the scale and you’re still overweight and you still can’t see the abs, and it’s 2 weeks later, you’re on the scale.

12:52 Yes, you’re progressing. Yes, your weight’s going down, but no, you don’t look like you used to. And I didn’t always look like that. You know, I’d won my pro card in 2012, so I I know the kind of shape that I could get myself in. So, you’re always comparing yourself to that shape.

13:06 So, I was looking every time I was going on the scale, I was like, “Yeah, that’s great. The weight’s going down, but I’m not where I need to be.” So, it was head down, forget that weight, keep grinding, wait till next week, wait till next week. And it was just constant persistence, persistence. And that’s who, you know, that’s exactly who I am.

13:25 That’s what the military made me as a person. But not everyone’s like that. And I can see and I could understand. And that’s one thing that built for me is that level of understanding of people who, you know, they’ll do it for two or three weeks as promised. Six, you know, 8 minute abs, 6 weeks until you’re in the shape of your life.

13:43 And and it’s 6 weeks and you’re not. And it’s, you know, emotionally a bit of a kick in the teeth to a lot of people. They’re like, it hasn’t worked or I don’t look like him in six weeks or I haven’t got abs in 8 minutes. And then they just give up. Right.

13:57 Right. Right. Right. And how was your self-esteem the whole way? Because I know a lot of people, well, a lot of people, I guess, who look good, they look good because their self-esteem is wrapped up in their look.

14:07 And I remember an interview with Sylvester Stallone. And he did this movie, I think, called Copland where he had to gain like a bunch of weight and he was like a fat cop. And this is like 15 years ago when well Stallone’s always in good shape, right? And he was back then. And he was just saying how hard it was to be walking around overweight.

14:23 Did that come into your mind where you’re like, “Oh man, people know me as this guy and now I’m this guy.” Not not really because in my head I had an I had an excuse and reason for doing it. You know, I was like, “Right, I’m bulking.” And it’s a lot easier for guys to say, “I’m bulking. I’m bulking.

14:36 I’m bulking.” People like, “Oh, okay.” And you know, personally myself, you know, I’m I’m not that way inclined. I’m not really conscious about my body. I do this because I love it.

14:46 I do it because I enjoy it. I enjoy the challenge and I I love the lifestyle. Um, so for me, I I didn’t have any sort of body issues with it with being overweight. My wife certainly loved it. She likes me a little bit chunkier.

15:00 So, so she Yeah, she was happy. It’s It’s quite funny when I put up the um before and after pictures on social media because you’ll have the guys like, “Whoa, I want to look like that.” And you’ll have the a lot of the uh the girls go, “Oh, I prefer the the before pick. He’s he’s more cuddly. He’s more, you know, and it’s it’s great to see cuz you know, everyone’s different.

15:19 Everyone has different opinions on things and I, you know, a lot of people think, “Oh, well, you know, people are commenting and saying, well, you can’t, you know, he’s done all that hard work and you’re bashing it.” No, they just like me a little bit more cuddly. It’s funny. It’s so funny. And I I, you know, I used to lift with a lot of guys, you know, here in London and, you know, a lot of the guys that would lift really heavy.

15:38 It’s so counterintuitive cuz it’s not the girls that notice, it’s the other guys that notice. And so the guys are ultimately really performing for a peer group, not for a mating group. Cuz the girls, they have no idea that you’re bigger. They don’t know what a squat is, you know? And so that’s kind of strange, right?

15:53 Yeah. And it’s exactly the same. You could compare that to anything. The same as cars, you know, most women don’t know, you know, they they can know that a car looks nice, but they don’t know how much you paid for it or anything else like that. It’s exactly the same with your physique.

16:05 So, it’s the guys, right? Right. You know, we’ve got tons of questions for you and I’m going to get to them later. It’s like 15 different questions. I don’t even know where we’re going to start or how we’re going to finish cuz like this is on the minds of so many guys, you know?

16:17 It’s it’s it is something that we always come up to on this show. I was thinking about the fitness people we’ve had on the show. I mean, I guess Mike Dolce is kind of a fitness and nutrition guy. He trains the UFC athletes. Then we’ve had other people that are more movement guys like Ido Portal, Kelly Starrett from CrossFit.

16:31 But, you know, I haven’t had anyone recently and someone like you that really works, you know, with the nutrition and everything else. But, a little bit of background about you, which I think is important. You talked about your military, 7 years in the military. It creates a certain kind of mindset and I I’d like for you to talk about that. It also creates a mindset that I think you alluded to to me earlier that’s not so good sometimes outside the military.

16:51 So, what did it teach you? And uh what what did what did it teach you not to do? Well, obviously I’ve flipped 10 a lot since the army, but one thing the army did teach me just shut up and get on with it. You know, people, you see your ranks, they give you your orders, you head down, you get it done, and you live your life on rotation. So, you’ll do six months getting ready for operational deployment.

17:15 You’ll spend 6 months deploying on operations, and then you usually spend 6 months doing regimental duties. So, you’ve always got a goal. You’ve always in the back of your mind, on this day, I’m doing this, on this day I’m doing that. And life’s pretty easy, you know, it’s pretty easy in the military when you’re in normal working, you know, when you’re not an operational tour because it’s it’s a Monday to Friday job. You just play your game of soldiers, enjoy your weekend, go to the pub, come back and do it all again.

17:42 So, you just get used to a routine. And I think that’s one thing um you know that I’m used to is having a routine, doing the same things day in day out and consistently. and you know I’ve adopted that into civilian life now and realizing that you know success is continually doing the same thing again and again and again and just seeing it through being consistent being dedicated and being focused on on most importantly the things that you enjoy obviously being in the army you’re doing a lot of things that you don’t enjoy but you just get on with it and do it because you know that the job needs to get done right and I think I needed that when I was when I joined the army at I probably I I said, you know, if it wasn’t for my wife or it wasn’t for joining the military, I probably would have been in prison, you know, no doubt about it because I, you know, couldn’t really focus on what I wanted to do in life.

18:37 You know, didn’t really um wasn’t very educated. You know, I was, you know, I was quite street smart, so to speak, but I just wasn’t passionate about anything apart from just getting out the pub, having a few drinks, hanging out with my friends. And it wasn’t until I joined the army that I found more of my passion, which was more the fitness side, more of the training side. And you know, that’s why I’m here today. Right.

19:01 Right. No. And I think that’s really important. It’s funny cuz those videos I post in the gym, people are like, “Oh, you should be doing this, you should be doing that.” And one thing I always think of is, you know, I’m I’m doing this four times a week, like ultra consistently.

19:11 And when we go, we try to go hard. And I’m always thinking that’s a great place to start, you know, just having that consistency. Even this show, people ask me about London Real. It’s like, you know, we publish every week no matter what. And so when you do that over and over, you find that I hate that phrase, success is just showing up sometimes.

19:27 I hate that, but that that says something about consistency, right? Yeah. And it’s part of the puzzle at the end of the day. You’ve got lots of different pieces of the puzzle, but consistency is definitely up there with with everything, with the whole of success. It’s just people continually doing the same thing day in day out, week in week out, and you know, whether it succeeds or fails, they just get up, pick themselves off, try again, right?

19:51 I’m sure if someone followed you around when you’re getting ready for a competition or even 8 weeks out, they’d be like, “Geez, Jamie, this is repetitive. What you eat, what you do, all this stuff.” I mean, you probably find a great way to kind of make it interesting for yourself, but it’s a lot of repetitive hard work, right? Yeah, it it is indeed. You know my routine, you know, I like my routine.

20:11 I have my own set routine and I enjoy Terry probably taught you to love routine, right? Yeah, exactly. You get up at a certain time. You have to be certain place at a certain time. You have to look a certain way.

20:20 You have to iron your clothes. You, you know, you have to shave. You have to, you know, even with basic training, you have to have smiley faces in your socks. All these kind of things, which, you know, I don’t do now. I don’t have smiley face in my socks.

20:33 How do you do a smiley face on your socks? You have to draw it or you have to fold it or what? You have to fold it like so. Just putting your fingers on top and mold it into slime. Everything in order is what it is.

20:44 Yeah. And I remember my um troop corp was like, “Your socks aren’t smiley enough.” That’s funny. So, it brings me back. But it’s just those little details, you know, in things that obviously to the army made a big difference.

20:57 Yeah. And to a a peer group, a male peer group, and probably everyone, it says a lot about someone when they show up on time. they they you know they don’t smell, they’re shaved, all that stuff. I mean, it’s hard to emphasize this to my uh millennial generation friends, these little consistencies, first impressions. Yeah. You know, it’s it’s so important.

21:17 I’m reading an interesting book at the moment. Um, and it’s, you know, talks about how obviously how it’s personal training development. And they’re saying how, you know, you’ll be a lot more successful if you look the part, if you have muscles, if you, you know, you look like the product that people want to be. And it was interesting. They did a study where they were following people’s eyes on a painting and they were asking them questions and seeing how they react to certain things.

21:43 And they were they asked them, um, how old do you think these people are? and they followed their eyes and they were looking at their hair color and they said, “How wealthy do you think these people are?” Followed their eyes and they’re looking at their clothing. So, it’s interesting to see that that people are being asked questions and they’re looking at certain things in the painting to try and get an idea as to how rich someone is, how old someone is.

22:06 So, it just goes to show how important first impressions actually are to people, right? Let’s talk about your look, cuz there are people in the fitness industry that don’t look good. And so as a as a human, I guess we’re actually naturally a little suspicious. We don’t know, you know, how important is that well for you, but then when you look at the fitness industry, I mean, do you think that you should always look the part? Do you think that’s part of your brand and part of your message and part of you just being congruent?

22:34 I think as you get deeper into the fitness industry, you know, less, you know, more of a coach um role, you start looking at people’s knowledge rather than what they look like. Okay? And that’s that is so important, you know. Yeah, you’ve got to look the part and you got to prove, you know, that your theories do work because people want to know that. People want to see if you’re saying something, you know, controversial or not, but then you’ve got the evidence to prove it, then it’s very, very hard for people to go, well, what you’re saying is b******t.

23:06 Um, and there is a lot of b******t out there, you know, as you know. But the proof is in the pudding. You know, I’m quite confidently say that my way works because, you know, I look like this and hundreds of my clients look like the way they do. So, what about a someone who doesn’t look the part or who’s never won a fitness competition or that is that or I mean, is that already someone to be suspicious of? I don’t want to get you in trouble in the industry, but you know that that that is something, right?

23:32 I mean, yes and no. And I mean, it depends on their business because obviously there’s it’s very diverse in the fitness industry. Not everyone’s a coach, not everyone’s a personal trainer. You know, people have different specialties, you know, physiotherapy, etc., etc. So, it depends on your niche at the end of the day.

23:49 You know, my niche is body transformation. So, if I can’t transform myself and transform my clients, then why am I a body transformation coach? Right. Right. Right.

23:58 Let’s talk about that niche. You know, that’s what you call yourself, a body transformation coach. And I think it’s a great descriptive piece. So, what what is the meat and potatoes of your business? Not to use that term, but what what do you what what when you’re having the best week at work or the best month or quarter, what is the best work you’ve done?

24:16 I think it’s getting people ready for stage. It’s getting myself ready. I mean, a lot, you know, you were talking about Mike Dolce saying going through his training with his um his fighters, you know, losing weight with them, weight athletes, touch weights with the athletes. And I like to I’m not cutting weight with my athletes, but I’m getting in more or less stage shape. And this year is going to be as I’m looking now about five or six pounds away from stage shape for the entire year.

24:46 So I’m going to have energy drops. I’m going to have cravings. I’m going to have a lot of things that my clients are going to get. So when they’re saying to me, “I’m craving this, craving that,” I can empathize a lot more. Rather than saying, “Just get through it.”

24:58 I can go, “Yeah, so am I. I can understand what you’re going through. I can relate to it and they go, “Yeah, it’s going to be tough.” But I tell you now, I’m going through exactly the same. And sometimes it’s it’s a benefit.

25:09 You know, I have I was doing my six weeks to shredded the beginning of this week, um beginning of this year. And I had a client say to me, “I’m feeling a bit hungry.” And I was like, “Dude, you weigh 170 lbs. I’m 198 and you’re eating 400 calories a day more than me. Get on with it.”

25:26 And he was like, well, if he’s, you know, realizing that, okay, I just just need to man up a little bit. You, you know, you just glossed over some things that are part of your life, and that is low energy, um, feeling hungry, massive cravings. You know, something Dorian Yates talked about when he was here, he would have these dreams. He said at night about these crazy meals and these curries and things that after competition, he really had no interest in even eating.

25:51 But he said he would have these weird thoughts when he was cutting weight. and he cut weight so much that his feet would hurt cuz he had no fat left on the bottom of his feet. And could you just I mean I don’t think we have any concept what it’s like to go through that. And what kind of body fat percentage are you playing with? And you know, give us an idea what that’s like.

26:08 Well, the reason I like it so much is not necessarily the suffering and everything else like that, but you find out more about yourself as a person. You find out what floats your boats, what ticks, you know, what makes you tick. But also, you know, it really, really does sort the men from the boys sometimes. You know, how you respond to certain things, how you respond to cravings, how you respond to temptations, how consistent that you stay whilst in that state.

26:37 And some people make it, some people break it. I’ve known some of the most dedicated people um into their fitness suddenly go to getting ready for a show and they just melt and go and that’ll usually mean they’ll go eat dinner somewhere and ruin it. Yeah. I’ve had clients, you know, I had a client say to me that he he went on um a 3-day 10,000 calorie a day binge. And this is a guy who just lives and breathes fitness.

27:04 This is a guy who I thought, you know, he’s going to make it through. He’s very disciplined. He’s very fit. Yeah, totally, you know, surprised me. Right.

27:13 So, and that’s a championship mindset that when they see you guys on the stage, uh, it’s funny you said earlier, people are like, “Oh, yeah, you know, Jamie was born that way.” And that’s natural, but people don’t see all the hard work. They don’t see the stress levels. They don’t see your family not liking you because you can’t be social with them. Yes.

27:30 It’s the tip of the iceberg at the end of the day. They just see that little tip, but they don’t see everything underneath, right? They just see that person walk on stage smiling, looking great, and they’re like, “Wow, I wish I could look like that.” And it’s like, “Yeah, well, you know, you may think that we’re smiling, but most of us just can’t wait to just relax and have a bit of food.” What’s the hardest part?

27:51 Is it Is it the cravings? Is it the energy that drops when you’re trying to cut that weight? What are some of the harder parts for you? Uh, it’s it’s trying to keep up my crazy life cuz I have an 18-month old daughter. My wife’s a photographer, so on weekends she’s photographing weddings, so I have my daughter.

28:07 I obviously have to get my training in. I have low energy. I’ve got, you know, I’m running websites, my business, my clients, and it’s just trying to keep face, trying to keep the, you know, trying to keep positive, trying to get all my stuff done, but trying not to let other people down as well. So, it’s the balance aspect that which can be the most difficult and something that I’ve managed to do effectively last year successfully. Um, but each time that I go through it, each time I do it, I learn something new about myself.

28:36 I learn a better way to do it and constantly constantly evolving. And it’s because I’m so passionate about what I do that I find it interesting each time I do it. Yeah, it’s interesting you say that cuz it’s one thing to to prepare for a competition when it’s just you, you know, in your one-bedroom flat and you’re in your 20s, but now you got a business, you got family, you know, 18-month old daughter. I mean, she does, you know, she she doesn’t wait, right?

29:00 So, and you got to really juggle all these things at the same time. And that’s when that’s what separates men from the boys, really. Yeah. And I’ve always looked to myself is imagine I’m looking in from another perspective. Would I be happy with what I’m doing at this moment in time, how I’m acting?

29:14 And when I think like that, I think, yeah, you know, I need to be that person. You know, there’s a lot of people looking at a prime example, this is quite a funny one. Um, I was uh downtown looking for I think it was a pair of socks and I was two weeks out from my show and I was you know I couldn’t the the shop was so busy I couldn’t walk through and I just wanted to Do you get grumpy when you’re low calorie energy levels are really really low and I I I was about to go and have a go at the one of the guys to say you need to clear people out and he was like oh Jamie Alderton I follow you on Facebook you really inspire me and I just thought oh my god you know imagine And if I’d gone to him and said, “Oh, you know,” and it’s like, “That’s not me as a person.

29:58 That’s, you know, that’s my energy level.” So that made me realize then that, you know, what with my social media following and everything, you know, I have um, you know, I I have a responsibility as well. And a lot of people say, “Oh, you know, you’re so low energy, but you’re so energetic and happy.” And it’s like, yes, because that’s what I need to be. You know, I need to be happy.

30:17 I need to be focused. I need to be driven. And I constantly need to remind myself of that as well. And so you get low energy, you get short-tempered. You know, apparently at the UFC, like that few days before the fighters weigh in, it’s just like Dana is like, I I don’t even talk to him.

30:31 I don’t even want to leave him alone because they’re just really short-tempered, low energy. Why does that happen? And what is that feeling like? And what do you do? What can you do to counter to counteract it?

30:41 Um ease off on a lot of workloads, try and de-stress because obviously a lot of people don’t understand is um you know increasing cortisol levels, stress hormone. So you you’re just trying to relax a lot more, you know, do less work, worry less about stuff. I come away from emails, um come off a little bit of so from social media cuz I get a little bit little bit bitey sometimes on, you know, luckily they have a delete button. So, it’s just it’s just trying to ease off the pedal a little bit for those last two weeks.

31:13 And what about how do you forget about food? It can be very it can be very difficult. Um, sometimes it’s just a case of getting through it. Sometimes I have things like diet sodas. I find diet sodas help really well.

31:25 Things like very low uh calorie jellies. And also taking time on your meals, you know, slowing down, waiting for them to digest properly. And and you know there just the ways you got to do. So just ways to trick your brain. Exactly.

31:41 Yeah. Okay. And uh what kind of body fat percentages are you playing with when you’re getting down for competition, when you’re on a a photo shoot, or is it not the percentage that matters? It’s not the percentage that matters. I mean, the thing about the percentages, I mean, it’s you’re not jumping on stage and it’s a body fat percentage competition.

31:56 Some people obviously carry more muscle mass. So, you know, the body fat percentage is going to look different. You could be 5% body fat and well, you’re not going to be 5% body fat um but and carry a lot of muscle mass or you could be a lot higher body fat but carry less muscle mass and you don’t look as good on stage. It was um actually funny cuz a couple of weeks ago I did a scan called a DEXA scan which is one of the most accurate body fat measurements and it came back at 12.3%.

32:24 Now a lot of people thought that’s high but that’s that’s the reality of of body fat percentages. So many people do incorrect readings and because they’ve done so many incorrect readings, their perception of body fat is very very mixed up. Okay? You know, a lot of people think, “Wow, that dude’s must be like 6% body fat.” And he’s like, “Well, no, he’s actually about 13.”

32:44 So, it was in it was interesting for me to do a YouTube video on it and it’s actually on YouTube to show that I went through the whole scan and pe people got the evidence there that I think the DEXA is sort of 99% accurate and people are still saying, “I don’t believe it. Right. Don’t believe it cuz I have my little things that pinch the skin and it tells me something different and they want to say 4% 6% to their friends cuz that’s it’s exact it’s exactly the same as how much do you bench you know the the percentages do not matter that how much you bench does not matter doesn’t mean that you have a great developed chest just the same as you know I’ve had clients before say I want to be 5% body fat and I go then what?

33:19 And they’re like, “Then I’ll” and it’s like, “That’s not a goal.” You know, have you ever been very low body fat? It’s although you look great, you you feel like crap. So that’s trying that’s what I say to a lot of clients is that many clients will send me a photo. I want to look like that guy.

33:37 I’m like, you may want to look like that guy, but you don’t want to feel like that guy. And that’s that’s what it’s all about. It’s that that balance aspect as well. Yes, you want to look great, but you want to feel great as well. There’s no good feeling.

33:48 There’s no good looking great when you when you feel like crap. Okay. You talked about developed chest. I just got to ask you like what are some of the basics that you are kind of like you like to work with. If you can I don’t know generalize a little bit.

33:59 I mean what is your training routine like or teaching your clients? Is it a certain cardio focus? Uh that kind of thing. I mean what would a typical day with Jamie be you know from a theoretical perspective? What I try and find from a client is how I can fit it into their lifestyle because it has to be a lifestyle.

34:18 If I tell someone who’s never trained before that they need to train six times a week, they need to get up at 5:00 in the morning, they’re not going to keep it up. And even if they do keep it up and get the result, are they going to be doing it in a year’s time? Probably not. And that’s what I try and explain to a lot of my clients is that I’m getting them to try and do things that they can see themselves doing for the rest of their life. Because if they enjoy what they’re doing, if they enjoy the process, if they enjoy what they’re eating, then they’re going to do it for the rest of their life.

34:47 So, not only will they get the result, they will keep the result. For me, it’s very easy to say to someone, right, I can get you I can get you ripped in 12 weeks. We follow some extreme dieting principles. you know, drop, let’s just say, for example, drop carbs out, get them to do endless amounts of cardio. Yes, they’ll look great, but for how long, right? And once they finished it, they’ll go back to their normal eating habits.

35:07 They’ll go back to their normal training routine. If anything, if they don’t resent going to the gym because they’ve been in there six times a week, and they’ll go backwards, right? So, how do you form a habit? And I’ve heard that it takes 66 days to form a habit. My dad was telling me about some book where it said that you have to make those tiny changes like you said.

35:24 Yeah. Just make a 10% change and see if they can stick with it and make another small change because any of these drastic ones not sustainable maybe even for a few days let alone a long period of time. So that cuz that’s what you do. You ultimately if you look at what you do I mean you try to really change someone’s brain first right. Yeah.

35:39 I mean it’s like a lot of things. I want to find out why. Why are they doing that? Why have you come to me today and said I want to change and where the head is? You know, I had um an amazing client who was he was I think he’s about 300 lb and he was uh he was on a plane going to Pakistan and he was so big that he couldn’t fit in the seat.

36:05 So he had to stand up the whole plane journey and everyone was staring at him. Everyone was looking down their nose at him and it was that emotional connection that he had that he said to me. I don’t want to I don’t want to feel that ever again and that’s it. You’ve got that person, right? You want you want to see that.

36:24 You want to get results and you don’t you know you will continually get results because you don’t want to feel like that again. And he lost I think 160 lbs and changed his life because he had that emotional connection to it. And I reminded him, said, “Remember that. Remember how you felt?” And it made a change.

36:43 So if someone comes to me and goes, “I’ve I’m going to I’m going on holiday in 3 weeks. I want to look rip for the beach to impress.” You must love that one. I get it a lot. And I’m just like, “Go away.

36:55 I am not interested in that because yeah, I can, but it’s not longlasting. You haven’t learned anything from me. I haven’t educated you. And the chances are as soon as you get on your holiday, 3 days in, you’ve lost all your hard work. So for me, that doesn’t float my boat.

37:11 Okay. It’s finding out someone’s why cuz if they wake up every day wanting to do it, wanting to make a change, they will achieve their result. Okay. And do you put them through a certain program of education? Do you try to talk about, you know, diet or different ideas about frequency of training?

37:26 I mean, is it a long process when you first meet someone? It depends on the person. I mean, what I tend to do is get a person on a meal plan that I’ve created because it gets it gets things firing straight away. You know, they get to see how I would structure their diet. They follow it, it works, and then I start to teach them how it works, why it works.

37:44 Um cuz they can see that it’s working. Cuz a lot of these clients have come from things where they it has worked, but they don’t know how it works. And I think that is where people go wrong is that, you know, it’s that same analogy. You know, you can always teach a person to fish, but as soon sorry, you can always um give a man a fish, but if you teach them to fish, they’ll fish for a lifetime. And that’s exactly the same when it comes to nutrition and training.

38:09 Okay? You know, you I can give someone a piece of paper and say, “Follow that, lift that, push that, and you’ll get the result, but are they are they going to learn anything from it? What does that diet look like?” Um because we’ve had a lot of people on here talking about diets. We talked about Mike Dolce and he’s his term is EarthGrown nutrients.

38:26 Mike likes to go to that thing. Uh you sent me over a thing on the email with the the uh the label of what was in an egg that had all these different, you know, elements. And it was a great descriptive analysis of saying even natural foods have things we don’t we don’t the whole nutrition is as bad as religion when it comes to extremism. But people always have their buzzwords as to why you should be doing something like you shouldn’t have anything with chemicals in.

38:51 And it’s like, well, everything’s got chemicals in. So it’s it’s you know for me with a client with nutrition I’m trying exactly the same with with training. I’m trying to find something that they can stick to and that they can enjoy. And I think that’s one thing that people forget about when it comes to nutrition. It’s not you know it’s psychological as well and um you’re trying to find a way that a person can create lifestyle habits and can do that diet for a year from now, two years from now, 3 years from now.

39:23 Not just 12 weeks while they’re getting ripped. So if that means being a little bit little bit more flexible, putting a little few things that they enjoy, little bit of processed food in there, provided they’re getting sort of 80 to 90% of their, you know, whole foods, let’s just say, then that’s great because they’re not going to be inclined to cheat on their diet because they’ve already got little bits of what they enjoy in there. And it’s something that I’ve said before, red button syndrome.

39:49 And I’ve come up with this and I say it all the time. If I put big red button in front of you and said do not push that button, the first thing you want to do is push that button. It’s exactly the same as if I said to you, you cannot you cannot eat this. It’s processed. You not you cannot eat that.

40:04 You cannot eat that. You cannot eat that. And you’re like, man, I just want a chocolate bar cuz I can’t have it. I want it more. But if I said to you, okay, Saturday, you can have your chocolate bar.

40:14 You’re like, great, it’s good. And I actually don’t want it now because I know I can have it. And it’s it’s funny how your brain works like that. So it’s trying to take away this restriction, you know, restricting things, saying you can’t have that, you can’t have that, everything in mo everything in moderation. And are there certain foods you stay away from or try to encourage?

40:34 Like if you were showing someone a basic diet plan, what would it look like or what would it look like? I I would try and I take a common sense approach to nutrition. So I will put foods in there that I know will improve satiety levels, i.e. We’ll give them um we’ll make them less hungry. We’ll keep them full, not likely to obviously crave things.

40:55 Make sure complex carbs or the right kinds. Yeah. Yeah, I mean with within reason, I’d make sure that they get plenty of starches, plenty of potatoes, plenty of rices, um lean sources of meat, good um you know, good sources of fish, making sure that they hit all their sort of micronutrient targets, making sure that they’re hitting their macros at the end of the day. That’s the most important thing because I know a lot of people don’t count calories, you know, as Mike did say, you know, don’t don’t count calories, make calories count.

41:27 Yes. Very good. um no pills, no powders, no potions, which you know which is interesting and if people adopt c that principle you know at the end of the day it’s a principle and a protocol. If you cancel out certain things you will get results. It’s why you’ll get results though you know generally it’s because you’re changing from eating crap to not eating crap which will yield results but you might think oh it’s because I’m not eating this I’m not eating that.

41:52 It’s all no you’re just cleaning up your diet a lot more. And it’s interesting that um you know a lot of people say oh if you want to lose weight cut carbs and it’s like well yeah that will work because you’re cutting a macronutrient and what I mean by macronutrients is proteins fats and carbohydrates. When you take one of them away you create a calorie deficit which will in turn help you lose weight but because you’ve cut that carbohydrate and it’s giving you results you will blame that carbohydrate and say it’s evil.

42:18 And it’s like no you just don’t understand what’s going in. And what I try and educate and say to clients is you need to learn about these things. You know, you you should learn to count calories. You should know what’s going in your, you know, in your body at the end of the day. Cuz I have a lot of guys that say, “Oh, I struggle to put weight on.”

42:36 And I say, “How many calories you consuming?” They’re like, “I don’t know.” Right? So, you haven’t got that data. Then how do you know where you’re going wrong?

42:42 And a lot of people say, “Oh, I struggle to lose weight.” Okay. How many calories are you consuming? I don’t know. It’s like, so you don’t know where you’re going wrong.

42:51 And it’s so important to know your ratios at the end of the day because you need an adequate protein intake. You need carbohydrates and you need fats. You need all three, but it’s just the amounts that you need. And that’s obviously going to be dependent on the person. Depends on your goals.

43:08 It depends on what you enjoy more, which is obviously the most important factor. You might enjoy, you know, more carb uh filled meals. You might enjoy more fat filled meals. You know, you might enjoy your salmon and your eggs in the morning. You might enjoy your big bowl of oats with blueberries.

43:23 It depends on the person and every single person is different. How do you feel about protein powders? How do you feel about other just supplements that we might find? You know, that huge I’m a huge fan because a lot of people don’t get enough protein in and their excuses are, well, you know, I haven’t got time to cook and everything like that. There you go.

43:43 Protein powder 2 minutes increasing your protein sorted. You know, I I’m a huge advocate of um things that make your life easier. And a lot of people will say, “Oh, well, you know, it affects your health.” It doesn’t. You know, it’s just knowledge and knowing what’s going in your body and having the right amount.

44:02 And most important is that moderation thing. Okay. How do you feel about sugar? Sugar, I I I tend not to be overly concerned with sugar amounts. A lot of people, exactly the same, are pinpointing, saying sugar is the is the enemy.

44:16 Calories are the enemy and that’s it at the end of the day. You know, highly processed food um is not the enemy. It’s just not, you know, from a common sense point of view, it’s not going to fill you up. Okay? You know, processed food very high in calories because you’re mixing carbohydrates and fats all together, which equate to a lot of calories.

44:34 Let’s just say for example, a donut, an average donut, 500, 600 calories. You go down to a local coffee shop, you look at a granola bar, and there some of them 600 calories. It’s not a sensible choice because it’s a lot of calories and it’s not going to fill you up. If I said to you, well, you could have 150 g bowl of oats, a little bit of maple syrup, some cinnamon, and some blueberries in there, and you put them next to each other. Which one’s the more common sense one to have?

45:02 The bowl of oats, right? How do you feel about high fructose corn syrup? I mean, they say if you go to a corner shop and look at the food selection in there, it’s like 90 or 95% of that stuff has some type of, you know, additive sucrose or fructose syrup. I was I took the Eurostar the other day to the continent and they served us a continental breakfast and I was like, “Oh, yogurt, you know, yogurt’s great or granola. Look at this.”

45:22 And it’s like it’s just chock-full of so much, you know, simple sugars. Yeah. Um, is that something you look out for? Is that No, I mean, it depend exactly same. We can say this a lot.

45:33 It depends on the person. It really really does. A lot of people are pinpointing something as evil when it’s, you know, it’s the dosage. You know, the danger is in the dosage. You know, too much of a good thing is bad for you and too much of a bad thing’s bad for you as well.

45:47 So, it’s just having that moderation. Yeah, it’s okay to have something with a little, you know, you know, the little fructose corn syrup in. But if you’re eating it every day, it’s probably not a good way to go about doing things. And if you’re limiting things with that in, you’re you’re reducing your calorie intake down as well. So, it’s more of a common sense approach and you’re only going to get that from learning about what’s going on going in your body.

46:11 The only problem that a lot of people have is that they don’t want to learn. They want to find an easy way. And we live in this society, you know, this magic pill society where people say, um, I want to look like you, but I don’t want to do the work. Is there a way that I can get the body but still go out drinking on a Saturday, still eat what I like? And the reality is there isn’t.

46:32 However, marketers will have you believe that there is. There’s this magic pill. There’s this magic potion. There’s this magic powder that can get you there because they’re trying to make sales. Do you have clients that lie to you and they’re like, “No, I didn’t go out this weekend.”

46:45 And all the time, all the time. But I just say to them, you’re just lying to yourself, you know, and it depends on the It does depend on person. If I’ve got a guy or a girl who’s going on stage in five or six weeks, I’m not going to be the best pleased. But if I’ve got a guy who’s making the right lifestyle choices, he’s been quite consistent with his plan, he’s getting results, and he has a couple of beers on the weekend. Great.

47:06 That’s life. You know, you’ve got a nice balance there. You’ve gone out with your friends, you enjoyed it, you’re back on track. You know, the problem that a lot of people have is that they’ll make a mistake on their diet. They’ll go to extreme levels to lose weight.

47:20 They’ll say, “I can’t eat that. I can’t eat that.” And then they’ll eat it and they’ll feel guilty about it and they’ll make themselves feel terrible about it and then they go, “Oh, I’ve ruined it all now.” So they’ll And that cheat meal might turn to a cheat day, right? And I think that’s the most important thing is like if you if you do mess up, get back on, right?

47:37 Don’t be too hard on yourself. Yeah. Don’t be too Just you’re human being at the end of the day. You’re not a robot. And you know that’s what I try and um say to a lot of people as well is they’ll look at me they’ll go oh he’s military guys routine you know he just gets it done and it’s like no I’m a human being you know I have cravings I have temptations and that I manage it better because I’m more experienced than you and I’ve been doing this a long time but you know that’s just the way it is.

48:02 It comes with experience and you have to make all these mistakes in everything that you do in life cuz that’s where you learn. You learn from doing the wrong things. You learn how not to do it before you learn how to do it. And you have uh what’s your favorite cheap meal? Pizza.

48:16 Actually, it has been pizza. It used to be, you know, just steak and some some chips and peas, but I do like a do like a good pizza. Okay. And you have a an ode to Grey Goose on your Twitter feed, so every now and then. I do like um I do like my vodkas.

48:31 I do like my I like my Guinness. I I love Guinness, but I saved that for the Christmas. That first pint of Guinness in December time is pretty something pretty special and worth the wait. But and you probably and the second one isn’t the same. So it’s not the same.

48:45 It’s not the same. That first one usually I have it the first week of December and yeah sort of goes downhill from there. It’s that first one is nice. But you know I hadn’t I hadn’t drunk this year for about 8 weeks, nine weeks. Had my first glass of wine.

49:00 It’s nothing worth raving about at the end of the day. It’s funny, isn’t it? And this is what what I think Jamie’s talking about when he says you learn a lot about yourself. And one of my old martial art martial arts instructors said, you know, you learn a lot about yourself in a fight, you know, cuz you you have all these things that you expect to happen and then they don’t happen. And then you don’t you think you’re not going to perform and then you do perform and then you think you’re going to do this right and you totally screw that up.

49:21 And so with your diet, like you think, oh, I can’t stop drinking and then you do it for a while and then you have that glass of wine and you’re like, “This isn’t what I remember it to be. This isn’t actually relaxing me. Yeah. Makes me say stupid stuff or I don’t know. Exactly.

49:35 Exactly. And coming obviously from a military background, I like a drink. Right. Right. Right.

49:39 Right. Right. But with my lifestyle and the way that my life is now, it just doesn’t fit in as much. And you don’t miss it as much as you thought I would do. I don’t miss it at all.

49:47 You know, I really don’t. A lot of people waking up on the weekend of a hangover. There’s me 5:00 a.m. going out for my walk and enjoying what I do. So, just doesn’t have time. I wouldn’t get up with a hangover.

49:59 So, yeah. Yeah. Once you’ve done it without a hangover for a while, then you really don’t miss that feeling. You don’t miss the wasted day of a hangover. Exactly.

50:06 Right. And you can’t afford to waste a day. I want to hit you with a bunch of like questions that we got asked earlier. Um, I want to ask you about something that’s relevant, I guess, in your industry for men talking about health. It’s coming up in the UFC a lot.

50:18 That’s PEDs, you know, per performance-enhancing drugs in all of their forms, you know, and and I’m not sure quite sure where I stand on this idea. In America, especially in California now, a lot of men are getting, you know, testosterone therapy in their older age. You know, in California now, I think it’s really standard and they’re really selling it to men like, “Oh, you’re in your 40s. Are you um uh low in motivation?” And like they’re really prescribing it as almost like a fountain of youth type thing, you know, and now in the UFC, they’re really testing heavy for it.

50:47 You know, you get people like Joe Rogan saying, “Well, you know, maybe if we really want to see the best, maybe we want to see people enhanced at the best.” And there’s all these interesting arguments. I don’t think it’s cut and dry, you know, as in this is bad and this is good and I’m not quite sure. But where does it come? Especially with someone like your clients that aren’t say in a competition where there’s testing or whether it’s supposed to be a level playing field and they say, “Look, Jamie, I’m 45.

51:09 I want this result. I’m going to get it quicker here.” What’s your whole thought process? I know it’s complicated. Well, from a coach point of view, if someone came to me, I’d say find someone else as a coach.

51:20 Okay. Cuz I’ve personally seen what’s achievable naturally. So I will not take any you know any clients on that that take any kind of PEDs and I myself will will never take them and that’s yeah that’s how I’ve always stood on it. Um you know I I will and always will be a natural athlete because I’ve seen what’s what’s possible. But it comes down as well to that that magic pill society.

51:45 People think if they take that they’re going to look like that. But it’s like, well, you you might do, but you’re not going to get anywhere without the hard work. And you know, whether you do take it or whether you don’t, it’s not up for me to decide. What you do with your own body is up to you. And I find it quite, you know, funny.

52:04 I probably get, I reckon, about five or six comments a day to say that I’m on steroids. Right. You did a funny video on YouTube. I did. Yeah.

52:11 Yeah. Well, you’re in great shape and so I guess it’s a natural thing for people to make that assumption. Yeah. I mean, we got to realize with social medias, not everyone follows you as closely as you as you think. You know, someone will make a comment and you’re like, why do you follow me on on social media?

52:26 Like, well, they don’t. You’ve come up in their newsfeed cuz probably someone else on their friends list has liked you and they just form an opinion at the end of the day. That’s why I don’t hate on these people. And unfortunately for a lot of people is that, you know, they’re sitting in the pub drinking their beer, seeing my picture going, “That’s not possible.” And it’s like, well, it’s not possible for you at the moment because you’re not of that mindset and you haven’t seen what I do.

52:48 And I’d like to say to a lot of people, follow me around for a week. I’m not sitting there with a telly switched on and it’s just happening. I I’m living and breathing what I’m doing. I love what I do. And that’s why I get such good results, not only with myself, with my clients as well, because it’s not just about that that end result.

53:08 You know, I get a lot of people come to me and go, I want to look like that guy. and I say, “Do you know what he’s been through to get there?” And that’s where people get a bit jaded is that they they envision themselves at the end point. Yeah. But they don’t look at what it takes to get there.

53:23 Yeah. It’s what is being a professional? A professional makes it look easy, you know? So, you see the guy at the basketball game, you see the guy at the fitness competition or the actor on stage and and they make it look so easy. Yeah.

53:33 But you don’t you don’t see what they’re doing, you know? They don’t see the the dedication and commitment and and everything like that. You don’t see them with the diet. You don’t see them not spending time with their family. You don’t see all that.

53:46 You just see the end result. So, there’s a few issues with steroids. I guess first of all, people think that all you need is them and then you get the physique, which isn’t true. I mean, Dorian said that when he was here, he said, you know, well, he said a few interesting things. He said steroids are used in all sports.

54:00 You know, this is right around the time that that Lance Armstrong was coming and all that. And so, that was a fascinating statement. Then he also said, “Well, anyone has access to them and yet I was the one on stage.” So his point was steroids don’t equal success. Success.

54:14 Yeah. And obviously he had that ridiculous mindset in the way of competing with himself. Yeah. Exactly. And that’s it’s work ethic, you know.

54:23 It really really is. If you decided, oh, I want to take them and you had that work ethic. Yeah. It might help you. Yeah.

54:29 It might hinder you. Depends on the person at the end of the day. It depends on, you know, what you’re made of. And for you, some UFC fighters also say that if you’re taking it, that’s going to ultimately affect your confidence because, you know, it’s not you and you’re taking something as an assist. Do you look at it that way as well as if if you’re going for that, you’re almost magic pilling a little bit and you’re saying, “Get me there quicker.”

54:50 And you’re not going to do the hard work. So for you, it’s just the wrong mentality. It’s the wrong mentality. Yeah. because I believe everything in life that I do comes from hard work, you know, and I don’t want assistance with it, you know. I don’t want assistance from Yeah, I want assistance from in business, from people I respect, but when it comes to my physique, I know what I can achieve cuz I’ve achieved it time and time again.

55:12 So, you know, why why if it’s not broke, don’t fix it at the end of the day. But when you’re on a stage competing in fitness or natural bodybuilding, you don’t know if everyone else is. I I compete in non-tested federation. So, when I’m on stage, the people left and right of me could be on something, but if I’m winning, then it’s my point proven that you don’t need to. So, why, you know, why I’m not doing these competitions um you know, I’m doing them for me.

55:39 I’m doing them, you know, I’m not looking for the trophies. I’m doing it because I enjoy doing it. You know, they’re a byproduct of it, but I’m going up there as a challenge for myself, not look at that guy who looks bigger than me. Oh, I it’s not it’s not about that. It’s about challenging myself, pushing myself, and get and the end result is obviously jumping on stage.

56:00 And if I beat some people on the gear, then that’s a secret win for me. Just the same as if anyone accuses me of taking things. I’m not great. I must look that good that you actually think I’m taking stuff. I must be doing something right.

56:13 Right. It’s interesting. A lot of the UFC fighters will be like the the top guys and the champions are like, you know, I’ll bring it. I’ll beat you on it. you know, I’ll beat you off it, I’ll beat you on it. And it’s interesting and if you see a lot of the champions and if you just look at them, most of the guys at the top of their class, you know, they’re they really usually have a physical or mental gift.

56:32 It’s not you, I mean, they like a physical movement gift, but they don’t look like, you know, the guy that is completely ripped and jacked and stuff and you look like Jon Jones or you look at, you know, Ronda Rousey or all these people. Fedor Emelianenko. Yeah. Yeah. Fedor was the classic.

56:45 Even Yeah. Kane. He just stepped out the pub, but probably the fittest guy. You know, I was watching his training routine. Yeah, it’s insane.

56:52 That’s some Russian hard work. And so, it’s funny if you look at the actual guys at the top of their game in the UFC, they they don’t seem to have that anywhere near them. And they’re on a they’re on like a different mental level and movement level, you know, compared to everyone else. It’s who they are. It’s part of them.

57:07 That’s what they live and breathe. You talked about in competition, you’re really doing it for yourself. And that’s really interesting because, you know, you’re on a stage and you guys are comparing how you look to each other. And so, uh, so many times Ice-T, you know, the famous hip-hop artist says when you’re in the gym, don’t look at the guy to the left, you or look to the guy to the right of you. They say this in entrepreneurship, you can always look at Branson.

57:27 You can always look at Gates. Focus on yourself. That’s what all the people say, focus on yourself. How do you do that for yourself when you’re on stage being compared to everyone else? And in your industry, is it typical of people like you to focus on yourself or is it typical for people really to get wrapped up in how they look compared to I think a lot of a lot of competitors do.

57:45 They’re they’re looking at what their competitors are doing, you know, and it’s very very different um competing on stage as opposed to a UFC fight because there’s only one winner, you know, you’re going in, you’re getting knocked out, you know, there’s only one person stepping out as the winner. There’s so much more to a physique competition than just how good your physique looks. There’s stage presence, there’s marketability. So, there’s influences which are out of your control and that’s the that can be the unfortunate factor.

58:13 Um there’s a lot of politics involved sometimes um in in certain competitions. So why get caught up in things that you can’t control? What’s the point? What’s the point in stressing over it? If a if a competition is only judged 40% on your physique, then what can you do about it?

58:32 You know what? You can’t control that other 60%. The only thing you can do is concentrate on being the best you can be. And go on there and, you know, with the mindset of this is this is all I’ve got. If it’s not enough, then so be it.

58:45 At least I did everything that I could. Right. That’s amazing. You know, I I keep having flashbacks to Dorian and I guess that’s a compliment or, you know, just an interesting mind. And I remember we asked Dorian um you know, what he did after he won.

58:57 You know, how did you celebrate? And he he said um he said, “I didn’t celebrate.” He said, “I was supposed to win.” He’s like, and I and I he was competing with himself at the end of the day. So, he went back home and got back to training.

59:08 So, and that was the mind of a champion. He was always competing with himself. Yeah. And he expected to win. He was supposed to win.

59:14 And that’s just the way he did it. So, uh can I hit you with some questions from uh from from the the fans or or critics or whoever it is? Um yeah, I don’t know. It was it was some good questions though. Um some basic stuff here.

59:26 Uh one guy said, “I’m torn between the idea of whether to use strength or hypertrophy training to help me progress. You must get questions like this all the time. I know it’s probably hard to answer, but what do you say when people ask you things like that? Goes back down to doing what you enjoy doing. At the end of the day, you need to find something that you can be consistent with because if you’re consistent with it, you’ll progress and you’ll get those results.

59:46 But I generally my my focus is always on building muscle. You know, I’ll always try and get stronger, but I’ll always focus on the muscle. You know, full range of movement, mechanical tension, keeping that tension on the muscle and actually focusing on it. And it goes back to the days of Arnold, you know, he’s saying he’s envisioning his biceps, his mountains, you know, having a good my muscle connection and actually going in there with a purpose in the gym, not talking to people, focusing on what you’re doing, focusing on trying to progress, having that data down as well, knowing where you want to be.

1:00:16 Let’s just say, for example, you have a goal. I want to bench press 30 kilos more. Look at ways that you do that. Go, okay, how do I bench press more? Do I increase, you know, accessory movements?

1:00:28 Do I try different things? Do I try bands? Do I try chains? And it’s just continually trying to progress with that. And that’s the most important factor.

1:00:37 It’s exactly the same with everything that you do in the gym. You always want to be having a goal and you always want to be mapping it out. So I it depends on the person, you know. It really really does. Depends what you look like, depends what you’re trying to achieve, but also what you try what you enjoy.

1:00:52 You know, a powerlifter enjoys lifting heavy weights. Bodybuilder likes the look. So find what you enjoy the most. Mind muscle connection really important. Actually uh Arnold just did an interview with Tim Ferriss and he was talking about how he used to meditate and then how the meditation um transformed into when he lifts he kind of meditates and really concentrate on on the muscle in your mind which can change a lift completely.

1:01:14 It can do. Yeah. You can have a much lower weight and just get a completely different experience out of it by thinking about that. Yeah. And and unfortunately you just walk into an everyday gym nowadays and it’s ego lifting.

1:01:25 You know, guys are just concerned how much weight they’ve got on there, not exactly what what muscle group it’s doing. Especially, you know, a bench press. Most guys don’t use their chest for a bench press. They’ll use more of their triceps and shoulders. So, it’s telling them, look, focus on what you’re doing.

1:01:40 Control the weight down. Take some of that weight off and and actually focus on building some muscle instead of your ego. Well said. Amen to that. Um, one one person said, uh, you change your body type by changing what you put in your mouth.

1:01:52 It’s 90% about food and only 10% about exercise. Agree or disagree? Disagree. 100% diet, 100% exercise. You got to focus on all factors.

1:02:00 Smoking with the military, man. I love it. Um, what are Jamie’s pet peeves regarding the fitness industry as a whole? Oh, pet peeves. Um, fitness professionals arguing with each other.

1:02:11 You know, at the end of the day, you’re both doing the same job, and that’s trying to help people. So, it’s very unprofessional to We’re always going to disagree with things. We’re always going to do have different ways of doing things, but what’s important is that, you know, we realize that we’re here to help people, not to argue with each other. And it doesn’t help anyone cuz it’s just negativity. Okay, good.

1:02:35 I’m with you on that. Um, how do you effectively regulate your testosterone levels? Usually natural methods. And how can you use testosterone to your advantage? Well, you’ve got to look at your lifts.

1:02:45 You got to look at some of the big compound lifts that, you know, release growth hormone. you know, you get, you know, higher growth hormone output with certain lifts. Uh, your sleep very, very important. Your recovery, very, very important. You’ve got to look at all these factors.

1:03:01 And, you know, it depends on the person as well. Depends on how long you’ve been training. Um, you might be just pinpointing the wrong thing. You know, you might be trying to say, “Right, I need to build up my testosterone for this, that, that.” When in reality, you just need to be more consistent with your training to yield those results.

1:03:17 It goes back to people just trying to pinpoint a reason for something when they should just really keep it simple. How much do you sleep? What’s a good amount for you? How do you get that sleep? Now, sleep is something that I don’t get enough of.

1:03:29 Um I know I don’t get enough of, but I’d say usually 5-6 hours. That’s it. Jesus. I’ll get But I, you know, to personally, I think it’s it’s something that I’m used to. You know, I’m very very used to getting obviously being in the military, being away on operational tour, getting three, four hours sleep a night, seven days a week.

1:03:49 Just get used to it. And I tend to catch up on the weekend sometimes. Maybe I’ll go to bed at 10:00 and get up at 7 one day a week and that seems that seems to help. But, you know, it’s one of those things personally I know I need to get more of. Okay.

1:04:02 You mentioned lifts, you mentioned some big compound movements. If I if I shadowed you for a week, would I see bread and butter? Would I see bench presses? what I see bodyweight movements, pull-ups and dips and a lot of those classic pieces that you do. Yeah. Keep the compounds, keep it heavy, and then focus on more isolation movements, apart from when it comes to legs, you know, if you want to sort them in from the boys.

1:04:23 If you want to find out what you’re really made of, come and train legs with me. Okay. What does your leg I I just did some legs today. What does your leg workout look like? What feel like?

1:04:32 Horrible. Horrible. It’s high reps, high volume, very little rest. I’ve got lots of videos on YouTube. I finished this.

1:04:38 I did this one exercise called a three Spartan 300 finisher. So, it was after my leg workout. It’s 300 kilos on a leg press for 100 reps. Keep going and keep going and keep going until you finished all your reps. So, it’s like one of those CrossFit things where you just go for time, however long it takes you.

1:04:55 Just just keep going. I rep uh it was 300 kilos for 100 reps. 100 reps. Okay. And then I have also got a really good one on YouTube called leg press therapy.

1:05:04 It’s just on the leg press machine and I challenge anyone to go through that as a workout. It is disgusting. What is the point of that? Because not many people will want to do it. Not many people can do it because not many people can do it or want to do it makes me want to do it more.

1:05:19 Okay. But does that help? Does that help with the growth hormone levels? And I mean what I found with my I mean when I first started competing I very lucky that I’m genetically gifted. You know I’ve got big legs, big calves.

1:05:29 But one thing I didn’t have was the the cuts and the separation in the legs. And it wasn’t until I was going to these natural bodybuilding competitions that I was looking at guys on stage and I was saying, “Wow, they’ve got amazing legs, big, you know, shredded legs.” And I went up to some of the guys and I was saying, “How did you get your legs like that?” And they said, “Well, you know, I I was envisioning that they were putting plates and plates on the squat rack.

1:05:51 They were doing, you know, really really heavy, like four to five rep range, getting them nice and big and shredded.” But they said, “Well, you know, my squats, I start at about 100 kilos and then, you know, usually coming on to my prep, I’m about 60 70 kilos.” Then it made me realize that it wasn’t about the heavy weight. It was about stress. It’s high rep, high volume, you know, that kind of training.

1:06:12 And then I changed my training principles. You know, usually on legs when I’m getting ready for a show, I don’t lift anything below sort of 15 reps. And I try and make it go as heavy as possible. So I do 12, sometimes 12 reps, 15, 18, super sets, drop sets, multi- sets, mega sets, anything I can come up with in my twisted head and it showed in my legs. So pain, it’s just a pain.

1:06:36 Yeah, pain. I mean, it’s it’s just creating maximal tension in the legs, going beyond failure. And for me, it’s more of a mindset thing as well. It really really is. I mean, you really can test yourself when it comes to your lower body.

1:06:49 You know, that’s why a lot of people don’t train legs hard enough. Um, you know, it’s one of those muscle groups where you’re on your, you know, you’re walking about all day, you’re using your legs all day. So, in order for them to to change, you need to go above and beyond what you normally would with other muscle groups. Right. And it’s a muscle group that you can really get some mind over matter, whereas your bicep just might give out.

1:07:08 You can really get inside your head and get those legs to get output. Right. Exactly. And you know when I see guys on stage and girls on stage um when I see that I have great legs I know they’ve got a great work ethic as well. So you know I will if I judge at a show I will judge more of a competition based on someone’s legs cuz I know what they’ve been through to get it.

1:07:28 That’s fascinating. How long’s your leg workout? How often? It depends on which one I’m doing but usually it’s short and short. 45 minutes to an hour.

1:07:36 Okay. Generally. Okay. And week once a week for legs? Twice.

1:07:39 So, what I tend to do is I break up um I usually do um quad dominant day and more of a hamstring and glutes dominant day and maybe chuck in some calves, but I’m very fortunate to have pretty big calves genetically, so I don’t really train them too much. That’s a tricky one, right? Yeah. Well, I wouldn’t say you either got them or you haven’t. I mean, I’m very fortunate.

1:08:00 People always come up to me and they say, “How how did you get those calves?” I’m like, “It’s genetics.” Plus, you know, I did a lot of cycling when I was younger, which contributed it. Okay, next one. Mindset and motivation question.

1:08:11 What are your tips on overcoming injuries in terms of staying motivated? Okay, so most important thing is a lot of people when they get an injury, they’ll stop training instead of working around that injury. You know, if you’ve got a leg injury, work more of your upper body. If you got an upper body injury, work more your lower body. It’s it’s get it’s keeping in that mindset and keeping in that routine that’s most important.

1:08:34 Where people fail and where people struggle is when they come out of their routine. So if you got an injury and you stop going to the gym, that’s where the motivation is going to go down because you’re not doing your day-to-day activities. So work around it. And you know, if you struggle, I’m sure there’s someone out there with who’s got worse injury than you. I’ve currently got a guy that I’m prepping for stage.

1:08:55 He’s only got one leg and he’s, you know, I’ve got video of him squatting, doing lunges. cuz he’s perfectly capable and and you’re telling me you’re not going to the gym cuz you’ve got a bad ankle. Sorry, no excuse. I’m totally with that. If you if when you have something like happen to you, if you could just turn that liability into an asset and just think to yourself, hm, maybe I can try something completely different, work this whole different muscle group, a different way.

1:09:16 You know, I remember in martial arts, some of the great advances have come when someone couldn’t do something and now they worked on something else and they had these breakthroughs, you know, and some of the greatest competitors in bodybuilding and physique sports have all come from a sporting background and they got into the competitive side because they were injured. You you look at I think it’s Franco Columbu who used to be a boxer and he got injured and then started bodybuilding. You look at a lot of other athletes that I’ve seen that have progressed really well.

1:09:42 Phil Heath, the current Mr. Olympia ex basketball player now Mr. Olympia. So, people have that sporting background, but the reason that they’ve progressed so well is that that discipline side that sports obviously given them, right? Good advice. Very good. Can anybody change their body or are there genetic factors that make it harder or easier for some?

1:09:59 Yes, everyone can change their body. You you need to change your mindset first. Uh you need to be consistent with what you’re doing, but yes, you can change your body. You need to find what works for you. And the only way that you’re going to find that is by experimenting a little bit.

1:10:12 But one of the most important things, patience. Amen to that. Um, if you feel like crap, do you let your body rest or do you push yourself to get to the gym and do something? I have a guess what uh Jamie’s going to say, but what do you what do you say? You got to listen to your body.

1:10:25 You know, how how ill are you? If you’ve got a cold, you might be okay doing certain things. But if it if you’re really if it’s a stomach bug or something like that, rest and recover because you’re going to be h, you know, hindering rather than help. And that’s one thing, you know, I’ve come I’ I’ve changed a lot over the years. You know, if it if it was my military days, I’d say man up and get on with it, but it’s it’s not going to help a lot of people.

1:10:49 You know, you’ve got to listen to your body. You’ve got to know when to take your foot off the gas, but then you’ve also got to know when you’ve got to put it down as well. Um tips and advice on productivity. I know you live live a busy life. You were talking about with your daughter and your wife working on the weekends, you know, how do you keep up?

1:11:05 How do you get the family time? Balance it with training and diet. It’s funny. I’ I’ve I’ve got a family the last couple years and a family is great because it’s as Brad Burton says, it’s your base, you know, it keeps you grounded emotionally and and allowing you to do other things. But to get that base, you owe them commitments of your time.

1:11:20 Exactly. So, it’s this it is a give and take, isn’t it? It it is. Yeah. I mean, I I I wouldn’t say I’m the most balanced person, but my time management is is a lot better.

1:11:30 You know, I can get very caught up in my work, you know, sometimes not even looking at what time it is and it’s midnight and I’ve got my wife saying, “Are you going to you going to go to bed?” And I’m okay. So, it’s creating yourself little to-do lists, making sure you know what you’re doing the next day, and making use of the time. You know, procrastination. So many people, especially with social media, I’m I am terrible for um wasting time sometimes, you know, just 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there.

1:11:57 When one of those funny video clips comes up and I’m laughing, I’m like, is am I being productive? It is funny. I give it, but it’s it’s not helping me achieve what I need to do for the day. So, it’s it’s being focused on what you need to do, managing your time, and and being more effective with your time as well. You know, a lot of people, they think they’re being productive, but they they actually aren’t.

1:12:17 You know, they’re wasting time doing things. And it changed a lot for me, actually. I was um you know, I was working into the ground. I was working really really hard. And I read Tim Ferriss’s 4-hour work week.

1:12:27 And what I took away from that was the fact that I can be just as busy, but not as busy. And it was being realistic. I had my studio open 5 days a week and I and I I thought, do I need to open it 5 days a week? I looked to my clients. I looked at most of them trained in Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

1:12:44 So I said, right, Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’m going to close the studio. I’m going to tell all my clients that I only open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Did I lose any money? No. And it was like I just from reading that book, I’ve given myself two days back.

1:12:56 So sometimes it’s just a case of sitting down with a pencil and paper and seeing where you can make things a little bit more intelligent with your time. Yeah, optimize that a bit. And uh it’s funny, Jamie Oliver just gave an interview with Kevin Rose on uh his interview series Foundation. And Jamie was like, I want, you know, he’s like, I want to be busy, but I don’t want to be a busy fool. You know, and there’s that get to that point where you’re always busy.

1:13:19 We’re always always busy, but you’re just sometimes doing stupid things. You’re not being productive. You’re being busy, you know, like you said, editing a video when maybe in the long run, you shouldn’t be editing that video. Exactly. And and Dan Peña calls it working in your business and not on your business.

1:13:33 And any entrepreneur who started from scratch like you and me, it’s natural to do everything. Yeah, but you can’t scale that way. So, you have to you gota I think um I think what Tim was saying as well, you got to know what you’re worth per hour. You know, you got to do your maths and go, “Okay, I’m worth this per hour. This is going to cost me this is going to take me 2 hours.

1:13:53 Is it less than what I’m going to earn?” And if it is, then get someone else to do it. Yeah. Outsource it. Outsource everything if you can.

1:14:00 Um, could you guys please mention the topic of vegan calisthenics workout? I don’t know where we got this. And the impact which vegan lifestyle has on others. I’m vegan myself, 16 months, recently started going to the gym. Look, vegan is like religion is there’s people for it, against it.

1:14:14 We’ve had Timothy Sheiffen here who’s a a big proponent of veganism. I respect him for it, but other people are just like it doesn’t work for them. There’s very few UFC fighters that can pull it off, you know. Uh, what are your thoughts on veganism? Here we go into the box, the Pandora’s box.

1:14:28 Okay. So, as I’ve said with a lot of things, I don’t judge anyone by their nutritional regimes. If it positively affects your life, if it’s consistent, if you’re getting results with it and it makes you feel good, continue doing it because it’s working. But don’t come to me and tell me what I should be doing. You know, a vegan way of life, great.

1:14:52 You know, I’m not going to argue against it. I’m not going to argue for it. But um I had I actually did a video last week cuz I was surprised cuz I saw a vegan and on the side of his car it says animal proteins give you cancer and it was like okay you know I appreciate what I appreciate your lifestyle but don’t preach b******t to other people trying to get them over to your way of thinking. You know it’s all very well um you know living a certain lifestyle but you know spreading b******t is just just wrong.

1:15:25 Right. Amen to that. Let me ask you about passion because you were working overseas in in kind of like a security type work that was kind of based probably more on your previous military training and you were on the plane to Kenya or something and you got sacked from your job and you didn’t know what you were going to do which is hard to imagine that Jamie didn’t know that this was his end goal because you’re so passionate about it and he’s so congruent with your character but you didn’t know at the time what you were going to do and how did you figure it out and how did you see what probably was right in front of you?

1:15:55 I I think the craziest thing I ever ever said to myself or thought to myself is don’t don’t do something you enjoy doing in life because you’ll end up resenting it and hating it. What a stupid I what a stupid thought process heard that right. Yeah. And um you know I remember flying out to Kenya doing a job you know I was well very well paid you know. You didn’t assassinate anybody.

1:16:15 No no it’s just security advisor to the UN. Yeah but that’s what an assassin would say. Yeah. Okay. I think I’ve dodged that one.

1:16:23 Okay. But but yeah I mean it’s a good job. I had you know a nice uh sixbedroom house there a share a pool every you know my own driver. It was fantastic. But, you know, I mean, flying out, my services were no longer required.

1:16:38 We’re on short month contracts. I was flying back over and I was just like, what am I going to do? You know, what am I going to do? I well, you know, I’ll get a management job. I’m good at managing people.

1:16:47 And it just just didn’t hit me. And I was just I sat down. I remember sitting down with a pen and paper going just writing what am I good at? Writing lists of everything was pointing to fitness, you know, good at exercising, good at fitness, good at motivating people, good at getting in shape. I was like, I need to become a personal trainer.

1:17:05 But then there just just that thought process of a personal trainer I had in my head. I was like, I’m going to be working long hours, this, that, and that. I’m not going to be earning as much money as I was when I was working abroad. And I was like, just make it work. Doesn’t matter if you have to do 20 hours a day.

1:17:22 You know, you it was what was even worse and the pressure that was on is because I had this job. I just bought a nice three-story townhouse, had a big mortgage to pay on it, and I had about £1,000 left in the bank. And and it was like, if I don’t do this now and make it work, there’s going to be some serious problems in the next 6 weeks. So, you know, I did the course, got it all done, and then I started going to work. Started working, working, working, working.

1:17:48 I remember um I’d travel up to London twice a week to go and have consultations with people in the coffee shop because the coffee shop had free Wi-Fi. So I sit there all day, get clients to come down, chat to them, you know, they’d pay me cash in hand and I’d go home. I’d write their plans up and send it off to them. And I just worked and worked and worked and worked and worked and then basically within 3 years built what I had now, you know, now I run two subscription websites.

1:18:14 I’ve got private training studio which is fully booked. I’m very very soon hoping to um upgrade everything into a a big gym in quite an affluent area which I’m very excited about. So, and it’s all come down from work ethic. It’s all come down from just knowing where I wanted to be, knowing what I wanted to do, and just working hard. And it’s that mindset.

1:18:37 I was just like, yeah, you know, I know that I can function well on 3 hours sleep. I know sometimes when I was in Iraq, I didn’t sleep for 2 days. I know sometimes when I was on, you know, on exercise and that I could go three days without sleep and I use that, you know, that work ethic to say, “Look, you know, I just need to get it done. Just need to work, craft, and the money will come in.” And you were passionate about it.

1:18:59 That was the key. That was the most important thing is that though I I worked long hours and that, I loved what I was doing and that’s the most important thing. If it was something else that I didn’t enjoy doing, I wouldn’t have put as much work into it. But because I was living and breathing and enjoying what I was doing, it didn’t feel like work to me. So though it sounds like, oh, you’re putting 20 20 hours of work in, I didn’t even notice what time it was.

1:19:22 You know, I didn’t notice what day it was. It was just just another day of doing what I enjoy. It’s uh when passion meets um commitment is what I see so many times in that chair. You know, let’s think about it. It’s like, you know, all the people that have done great things, Dorian Yates, every musician that’s ever been here, they’ve had the passion or the talent, but it doesn’t happen without commitment.

1:19:42 You know, even Danny Jones from McFly, McBusted, he was telling me how hard they practice, and I was like, “What the hell?” And he’s like, “We have, you know, hard start military. You have to be here at this time. We put in the 6 hours of practice. No one’s late.

1:19:53 No one’s giving excuses.” He’s like, “We shoot the video. We do this. We do this. We do this.”

1:19:57 And they make it look easy, right? That’s what pros do. Yeah. And so it’s like all these people that are here, they they combine those two things, you know, and one without the other, as you know, doesn’t work. Yeah.

1:20:07 Exactly. And you know, it’s from just listening to the London Real Podcast that you can relate so much to other entrepreneurs. You can see their struggles, but one thing that every, you know, everyone does does things differently, but one thing that they do the same is work hard. And they and they’re passionate about what they do. And when you mix that passion with that hard work, that’s when the magic happens.

1:20:27 Do you suggest that people do with that exercise that you do where you just write down a bunch of things? Um I know I was here with Ty Lopez and he called it is or Larry and Destiny where you ask people what you what they think you’re good. What have you been complimented on in your life? That was like one. Then you take like what you wanted to do when you were 10 and then you take like something else and you can kind of put put together what you’re kind of good at.

1:20:47 Do you have any suggestions for that? I mean, you said you wrote these things down and yeah, pen and paper, you know, you start looking at I mean, one one very good thing is um you know what what face just go on to your Facebook and look at the things that you like on Facebook. Go down onto your profile, check out what you’ve been liking and it’ll give you a good picture of the things that you enjoy seeing and doing. You know, that’s a very easy thing for a lot of people to do.

1:21:11 Yeah, that’s interesting. I also think that test of what people have complimented you on, like who of all the strangers, what if strangers said, “Oh, you’re really good at that, you know, and just pick up on that and be like, “Oh, you’re really good.” Maybe you dress well, or maybe you know, you’re in good shape or maybe you know a lot about fitness or you’re this. Yeah, exactly. You know, you see someone who’s always really welldressed, always being complimented, they get their colors right, the shoes right, you know, if they know what they’re doing with themselves, chances are they know how to help other people.

1:21:38 So, there you go. Start following that. open your own fashion shop or clothing shop and and just just make it happen because you’re going to be passionate about it. Talk to me about um your business running an online business. You know, you dove in there and you you’ve probably learned by trial and error, but you can’t you know, you you and you have some some great businesses. You put a lot of content out there.

1:21:57 What What kind of wisdom can you pass on or what did you learn about that or what can people learn, you know, from us? cuz there there’s a Jamie out there who’s like you but 5 years ago, you know, who’s going to be building this and I was just wondering what you’d tell them. Um, manage your time better. You know, if you were speaking to me two two years ago, um, I would answer every single email, every single message. I would try and help everyone as many cuz I just couldn’t believe so many people wanted some my help and wanted my advice.

1:22:30 But then it got to a stage where if I answered and did everything that people wanted me to do, I couldn’t I wouldn’t have any time for sleep or I wouldn’t certainly have time for my daughter for myself. So I I learned very long ago that um you can’t help everyone. You really can’t. And know your worth. You know, know your work.

1:22:50 Really know your worth. You know, people like free stuff, but they don’t always appreciate it. So sometimes you’re wasting your time on a lot of people. And I’ve done it before. I’ve written plans for friends.

1:23:02 I’ve written things. They’re the worst. They won’t listen to you. Yeah. Your body, Jamie, your body trying.

1:23:07 Oh, just can I get in shape? And now I go, well, no, because you’re not serious enough. And I’ve done it. I’ve spent hours getting something. And then I say to them, how’s how’s that plan going?

1:23:18 And they’re like, yeah, stop doing that now. So, yeah, value your own opinion and expertise as well. That’s good advice. And know your worth. So, don’t be willing to accept someone willing to pay you less.

1:23:29 Know that. And I same thing with me. I mean, I got a lot of people that want to buy me coffee and do this and do this. And I just think, you know, do you like the shows? Yes, we do.

1:23:37 And like, well, in order to keep these coming, then I’m going to have to say no to a lot of people. I just can’t do all this stuff and continue to do this. So, I don’t feel bad about it. It’s just like a sacrifice I have to make and try to focus on a bit of a bigger picture, a bigger scale thing. So, and I think people understand.

1:23:52 I think and also like you said about the free content, you can put a lot of free content out there, but I had Guy Kawasaki in here who’s a social media guru. Yeah, I’ve just I I just had um just finished in January the Rich Dad Poor Dad on Audible. So, okay. Oh, yeah. So, that’s Robert Kiyosaki, which is good.

1:24:06 He’s the he’s the real estate guy. And then I had Guy Kawasaki, who’s the social media expert, and he said, Brian, he said, “If people think that um your Twitter feed is their personal news feed,” he’s like, “They got it wrong. You know, it’s your information you’re throwing at them. if they think you’re talking too much about this and that, you know, they can kind of get over that. So, because because it’s their job to choose messages from you.

1:24:28 So, don’t feel bad about you can’t please everybody all the time. Exactly. You know, with your social media feed. Um, fatherhood has been a helpful thing for your business and personal. Has it been trying is uh how does that complete in the equation?

1:24:42 It’s been very helpful. Um, definitely because it it adds another reason why I, you know, people have no excuse cuz I get a lot of people say, “Oh, I’m busy with family.” I’m like, “Hello.” You know, I’ve got a daughter as well. I’m still doing what I do.

1:24:55 And it all comes down to time management and having a very supportive wife as well. Yeah, that helps. Um, I want to find out about your morning walks. You do this early morning piece. You walk on your own.

1:25:05 You listen to London Real or some other podcast. What’s the whole idea behind that? Is that meditation for you? Yeah, I mean obviously it’s it’s crazy what with all the social media and the emails and everything else and there’s only a certain amount amount of time that I my phone doesn’t buzz or I have to answer or have that stress of something and that’s either obviously early in the morning or late at night. Now I’m not saying to everyone you should do what I do um because not everyone’s an early morning person.

1:25:31 Some people are night owls. I go to sleep about probably 10:00 p.m. 10:30. My wife who’s a photographer, her creativity comes alive at night. So she all works sort of till 1 2 o’clock in the morning because that’s the time she works.

1:25:43 But for myself, you know, I alarm goes off at 5. I’m out about quart 5. I’ll have a podcast downloaded, a new album, maybe um a new audible book, and I’ll work my way through it because when I’m walking, that’s that’s my creativity time. That’s the time where I think things. And it gets me pumped for the day because I come back, I’ve got all these new ideas.

1:26:03 I’ve got up before everyone else, before everyone’s awake. I’ve achieve I feels like I’ve achieved something before the day’s even started. And I remember before when I left the army, when I first had um when I was getting ready for my first show, um I had to do an hour drive to work and I had to start at I think it was uh 9:00 a.m. So, I’d be up at 5, do all my training, prep all my food. I’d get into work early.

1:26:29 I’d have an hour’s drive. I’d be getting 15 minutes early, wide awake, ready to roll. And I’d see people turning up 5 minutes late, who live a mile away, who look tired, who look frustrated, and they’d say to me, “Oh, don’t you feel tired for getting up so early?” And it’s like, “Hello.” Quite the opposite.

1:26:50 So, until you do it, you don’t understand. And I mean, I can tell people that they should do it to the blue in the face, but you know, download an episode of London Real, download any kind of audible or podcast or anything that’s going to educate you and open your mind up. Get up early before anyone else. Go for a walk. And if that doesn’t change your life, I don’t know what will.

1:27:11 Good advice. I I do love getting up early and being It’s something about that quiet time of the morning. I live 10 minutes from the beach as well, so I take turn off it. I turn it off, you know, few crashing waves, get to think about things, you know, sometimes sit on the beach for 10 minutes and it’s just quiet, just peace and quiet. And you don’t get that in in in day, you know, in your day-to-day life.

1:27:34 Unfortunately, a lot of people, they’ll wake up late, they they’ll rush about in the mornings, they’ll get to work, they’ve got a whole day of work, they’ll come back, they’ll see their wife, they’ll see their kids, they’ll stick the TV on, and they’ll go to sleep. How much of that time have you actually spent thinking about what you want in life, what you want to do, where you’re going, and you know where you want to be? And no one does that. And sometimes you can go weeks and weeks and weeks without actually being honest with yourself and seeing where you are.

1:28:02 Yeah. It’s I call it your life being lived for you. and you’re really just on the ride and you’re late for work and then at work you’re frustrated and then after work you go to the pub because you need to relax and then you get home and you put the TV on because you don’t want to think about your life and then you get up and do it again and yeah and weeks go by, years go by and then you’ll have the crisis moment and then you realize what’s going on and yeah, maybe make some changes.

1:28:25 Yeah, maybe not. Who’s your role model? Who do you look up to, you know, from the I guess a physical standpoint or a business or motivation? I mean people who are like me, you know, people who want who are willing to say goodbye to the 9 to5, want to do things on their own terms and they want to work hard. Anyone who decides to do that, I have the utmost respect for.

1:28:47 It’s not an easy thing to do. It’s not not everyone can be an entrepreneur. Not everyone can, you know, have that selfdiscipline and work ethic to make things happen. But, you know, it always amazes me when I see, you know, people do it. you know, people that you’ve had on this show, entrepreneurs, anyone who’s who’s putting the work in to make their lives different, their famil family’s lives different, and people’s lives different.

1:29:09 That’s that’s who inspires me. Yeah, Brad Burton was saying it when he was going off on the people in the in the I just I just seen Yeah. I mean, you put you put the blinds down, but I I saw the did make me chuckle cuz I could just imagine him pointing out there and saying, you know, you get off your ass. Yeah. I mean, you know, he’s really he’s just all about the entrepreneur because Brad’s just like these people, they’re they’re they’re working for someone else.

1:29:33 They’re waiting for to leave when it’s appropriate and you know, Brad just goes off on that whole mentality. But, you know, and the life of an entrepreneur is tough and is is there high highs and lows and you know, sometimes you’re doing it alone, you don’t know what’s going to happen, right? Yeah. And when I was in the army, you know, I’d go on two weeks leave. I’d leave my work.

1:29:53 I wouldn’t have emails to answer. I wouldn’t have people to call and I could do what whatever I please. Now, I couldn’t do that. It’s constant emails, constant even when I have two hours to myself and thinking I need to be doing something. And you know, that’s that’s down to me needing to learn to switch off a little bit more.

1:30:10 But when you’re when you love what you do and you’re passionate what you what you do, you want to do it all the time. Jamie, if you’ve listened to the show, you know what I’m about to ask her. So, I’ll hit you with this question. Phone call to the 20-year-old Jamie. Give that young man a bit of advice.

1:30:24 What would you tell him to do? Was he in the army yet or not? He was. Yes. Okay.

1:30:28 Uh, what would you tell him to do? What advice would you give him? Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re stubborn, you’re persistent, and you love training, and one day it’s going to change a lot of people’s lives. So just keep on that track, keep focused and yeah, just keep stubborn, right?

1:30:46 Because that was a necessary part of your evolution is having that time having that time in the military. Yeah. Not starting too early doing what you’re doing. Yeah. Exactly.

1:30:54 And um I I always said I’d leave the army when I stopped enjoying it. And I did sort of stop enjoying it. Stop, you know, started to when I was younger, I needed to be told what to do. I needed that imaginary person on my shoulder saying, “Be there, do this, do that.” And as I got older, I was like, I can do this for myself, you know, I can focus myself.

1:31:14 I can drive myself. And that’s what led me to leave the military because I wanted I could see I I joined knowing that there was something else out there for me. But I needed a little bit of guidance and there’s no way I would have gone to university because I would have been thousands of pounds in debt and probably need a liver transplant. Um, best advice you’ve ever received, business or personal. Best, that’s a good question.

1:31:43 Or someone in the military. Anything that they would have said to you that resonated maybe. When I left, my boss said, “You’re there’s no jobs out there. You’ll never make anything of yourself.” Which drove me even more to say, I’ll show you.

1:31:57 And it was even better when he followed me on Facebook and messaged me to say, “Well done.” So, it’s don’t always listen to what people tell you. If you truly believe in something, then, you know, you can make it happen. Last piece to the 20-year-old that’s out there that wants, you know, to be like you, you know, to be in the fitness industry, to be competing in shows, to be having clients and and uh websites like you do, what advice do you give them? Be passionate about what you do.

1:32:24 Work hard, stay humble. And a lot of people say work hard, stay humble. Be true to yourself and be honest. Be as honest as you can. You know, people are buying into you as a person, not what you’re trying to sell.

1:32:39 Fantastic, man. I love that message. I think you made a special video for London Realers that we’re going to link to. So, if you click on this link below, I think we’re going to put it at londonreal.tv/jamie, let’s say, and uh people can go to something you made custom for the people here, right? Exactly.

1:32:56 And it’s me 5:00 in the morning walking down the beach talking all about be your best, showing you what I do in the morning nice and early and giving you a little bit of a motivator to say that you can do it yourself and how you go about doing that. Awesome. I can’t wait to see that. That’s very cool. Very cool.

1:33:14 Um, how can people get a hold of you? I know you have two different websites. Um, if people want personal training and that kind of thing, um, how do they do all that stuff? I’m I’m fully booked up at the moment. However, I do have subscription site if you want to check out any of my nutrition, my training plans, my entire transformation there.

1:33:28 I I did my obviously six month transformation video, but I have every single workout documented on video there. All my nutrition plans and everything that’s on www.grenadej.com. Everything on social media, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook is Grenadej and come and find me and see what I’m all about. Where did Grenade J come from out there? Well, my sponsor I’m sponsored by a supplement company called Grenade who also, you know, Allan who owns Grenade.

1:33:56 Absolutely inspiring guy, came up with a brand, developed it within 5 years, you know, it’s one of the top sports nutrition companies in the UK. Um, but obviously I was the their first sponsored athlete. So, I was called Jay. I’m sponsored by Grenade. People kept calling me Grenade J.

1:34:14 So, I was it just stuck. It’s cool. It’s good. It’s a good handle. It’s got a good graphic too on your site and uh it’s important to get it’s important to be branded, right?

1:34:22 And it’s military, you know, it’s military based as well. I thought you made it up. So, no, I wish. Yeah. I was like I thought there was some crazy story about like you I need to work on that one.

1:34:31 Yeah, cuz I could see that. I could see you in a in some story. Um Jamie, thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it. Thank you.

1:34:38 Thank you. I was absolute privilege to be on this show. Really blown away. it uh it means a lot that you’re the guy that was out there listening to Peter and things like that because uh because you know you’re like you’re kind of like us you know and you get inspiration from all these people. So it’s funny when you’re answering my questions I’m thinking to the person out there that’s listening to you you know. Yeah.

1:34:57 And and it just shows you when you’re passionate about something you know a year a year ago I was listening to this show and now I’m on it. So it’s it’s phenomenal. Really really is. It’s funny. I mean, and uh people always ask me how to get on the show, and I and I’m always like, people meet me and they say, “One day I’m going to be on your show, Brian.”

1:35:14 And you know what I say? I said, “Okay, make it happen.” You know, give me a reason where I can’t say no to you. It was like the You were talking about Joe Rogan’s show, weren’t you, when you were emailing him asking for advice and then you’re on his show. Yeah.

1:35:28 And it’s funny because I was waiting for my he’s talking about my TED talk which dropped like a few days ago and uh it’s funny because um people always ask me that for like what cameras do I use all that stuff and so I emailed Joe in the early days and said what cameras do I use and Joe never responded and so I was like people were writing me and I was like just wait for my TED talk to come out and still people saw that TED talk and now they’re still sending me questions asking for cameras. So, if you’re looking to know what cameras, um, what you really should do is just do it and, uh, make it happen and then people notice. And when when I I learned about Jamie and saw everything that you do and all the videos you put out and all the energy, um, I wanted you on the show, you know.

1:36:05 So, it’s like, uh, I don’t know if that’s a good London real factor, but, you know, I think we have a good sense of trying to figure out, you know, who who should be listened to or who we want to listen to. And so, so, thanks for being here. I appreciate it. you know, and it’s it’s good to have someone who’s as serious about training in and fitness and nutrition in the UK that we know here on London Real because uh you know, we don’t really have a resident expert.

1:36:26 So, uh you know, it would be good. Um you know, maybe we can get you doing a little bit of writing for us from time to time. It’d be great. That’d be great. So, definitely.

1:36:33 Yeah. Awesome. Fantastic. Um as we say in London Real, it’s about the journey. Uh you’ve got quite a journey.

1:36:39 I think in a few years it’s going to be even more interesting. and um thanks so much for being a a supporter. Like these names you mentioned uh that we’ve had on the show, they’ve just uh yeah, just been these epic moments and I think we kind of all have to inspire each other, you know? I think like we need the Peter Sages and then the you and then someone else and then like I think we all need to keep bouncing that energy off each other. You got to surround yourself with, you know, surround yourself with these people cuz they’re phenomenal, you know?

1:37:03 Yeah. They say you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I think one of those people can be a podcast. So for me, it started off with being Rogan. And if you got these people in your ear all the time with these messages and pushing positivity, it’s like having a friend that’s kind of hanging out with you in your head.

1:37:18 So and and knowing that you’re not the only one that thinks like that. As soon as you see that there’s others out there that that want better things for themselves, that want to make a change to their life, you know, it’s not just about the body, you know, it’s about the mind as well. And it’s, you know, just not everyone has different goals. It’s not just about, oh, I want to get a six-pack. It may be, you know, I want to I want to achieve this, I want to achieve that in business, in life, you know, I want to, you know, get a scratch on on a golf tournament, you know, it can be absolutely anything.

1:37:49 And it’s it’s just all about that work ethic and obviously following that passion. Yeah. One of the things that surprised me on this episode is we didn’t get too much into the nitty-gritty of physical training. And I think that’s because, like you said, it’s all about the mindset and the mind. Exactly.

1:38:03 And I think a lot of people I hope will appreciate that that it that’s what you’ve got to change first before you got to change your body. And anyone can change their body with the right mindset. It doesn’t matter. Particularly I remember when I started out um doing this journey, you know, I was getting ready for a show and this is a great story. I was getting ready for a show and I didn’t have a clue what I was doing nutrition wise, training wise or anything.

1:38:29 I just knew that I needed to get on that stage in the best shape of my life. So, I killed myself. I I ate the same things every day. Went to the gym seven days a week, did cardio in the morning, seven days a week, and I still qualified for the British and won a British title doing that. And it was totally the wrong way to do it nutrition and training wise, but because I know knew what I wanted to do and just carried on doing it, I managed to achieve my goal.

1:38:51 Very very different now because obviously it’s all about you know knowing when to take your foot off the pedal making your journey a lot easy but that mindset’s never changed that focus never changed and that work ethics never changed so that’s what I want to say to people if you want to achieve something you’ve got to get it in your mind that you want to achieve it before actually looking through the bits and bobs that you need to achieve it yeah and one thing I’ve noticed lately is a lot of times when people are asking questions sometimes it’s just a reason not to do it you know and so a lot of people Oh, well, should I do it this way or should I do it this way? You know, sometimes and it’s just do it. Just just learn, you know, do it wrong.

1:39:27 Do it wrong time and time again because then you’ll realize how not to do it. And as soon as you realize not how not to do it, eventually you’ll find how to actually do it. Best take away from the show. All right. Awesome, Jamie.

1:39:37 Thanks so much. Thanks for being here. Um, I hope we see you again soon in the future. And, uh, all the best on your journey. Thanks for having me.

1:39:45 All right. Take care.