Why Fitness Trends Are

people, fitness, trends, person, gym, coaches, peloton, big, clients, stronger, trendy, good, tyler, popular, results, reason, coaching

Tyler 00:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the gym owners podcast. I'm your host Tyler Stone over there, John Fairbanks. How's it going, John?



John Fairbanks 00:05

I'm wonderful. Thank you for always asking.



Tyler 00:10

We talked last week about fitness trends, some of them like predicted upcoming trends, things to look out for really just things that are going to become popular in this upcoming year. Some of these are opportunities for gym owners to take advantage of some of them are things to look out for or maybe buffer yourself against. Some of them are just things for you to keep an eye on if you haven't listened to last week's episode, we highly recommend it. You don't need to jump back just yet because this episode is how most of those fitness trends are probably fucking bullshit anyways, so we're gonna get a bit conspiratorial into onto this one today but I think I think you're gonna like it before we get started. Follow the show at the gym owners podcast on Instagram. Follow me at Tyler Elphinstone and you can find John



John Fairbanks 00:52

at Jay banks FL on Instagram.



Tyler 00:55

Let's get to it. My notes for this John were after we recorded the episode and had some other conversations as its trends are mostly bullshit. And, and not because they're wrong and not because those things are probably going to exist and begin to take up more space in the fitness industry. But a lot of them are away I think for them, but just put this stuff out there into the world. Right. So yeah, you heard Do you remember monkeypox? John? Do you remember when COVID was the thing that CO people are getting tired of COVID and then there was this new thing and I had this fucking argument with some dork one time was trying to tell me this can be really, really, really serious. And we had a kid that we train with who's a wrestler who obviously just had staff when he went to the doctor and the doctors, like, you know, it's probably monkeypox, we're gonna test for monkey box, monkey box, monkey bug. And it's like, they had to force the doctor to test him for stuff, which is like a wrestler who spent all summer wrestling camp. And they're like, No, it's probably a monkey pox, and fucking anyways, some of these types of things, whether it's a trend or a possible new way for the news media to start to give things attention or whatever, they just kind of test the waters with some of these things. They just dropped them out there. And I do think when we start seeing these trends, a lot of them. And if I'm just kind of looking back at them, a lot of them are based on things that are very, what's the word well funded, right? That really, really, really, a lot of these things are going to be well funded from remote training to hybrid coaching to all the wet fitness wearables. I mean, like every list you're putting on is putting wearable fitness data near the top, which while I think that's, that's great, no, that that's a big data play. That's like a, that's a people reading, that's the government reading your emails level of shit, only even worse, that's the government reading your emails. And now Google knows your apple knows your fucking heart rate constantly, and knows how you respond when you see certain things on the internet knows what your pupils do when you look at advertising. And so building that all into this larger concept that we're getting into today is don't chase these things too intensely. Be aware of them, and only implement them where you really think they can provide value to you and your business don't just because a thing is going to be popular latch onto it, because then you're just another one of those dorks that's doing the next big thing. You're just chasing trends, which sucks.



John Fairbanks 03:24

And you're chasing a trend, not because it's trendy. That it gets into this idea where we're gonna end up having to make a shirt of a snake shitting into its own mouth. Because it seems to be like this cyclical thing, where it's like, Hey, everybody, this is about to be popular. And everyone says, Oh, shit, this is about to be popular. And because it's about to be popular, everyone starts talking about it, writing about it, communicating about it, and then doing it. And then Holy shit, it becomes popular. And is this the self fulfilling prophecy element? That is where we started to kind of look at and think about the trends, okay, yeah, this is what's going to be trendy, but then stepping back, and that was where for you and I, in our conversations, where it's like, Why? Why is that going to be trendy? Like it's trendy now, like we hear about these things, but some of the things start to have some, they start to be so similar. And if we again, if we're gonna allow ourselves to be a little conspiratorial, it's what are the similar elements to some of these trendy fitness concepts that are going to come up for 2020 for whatever. And the idea of them kind of just casting lines and seeing what sticks and seeing what people will run with it? That for me, is where it's like, that's what actually becomes more important, which is, what are they trying to sell us to be trendy? And is that total bullshit and what are they actually after?



Tyler 04:57

And even worse, by the way? I do. You think that a lot of this stuff is about just getting clicks now, right? So you can, I can just look at data and look at what is a popular subject, right. And then I can write articles that click a lot. It's like a SEO play. You see a lot of these AI created blog articles and stuff like that out there, that's just kind of checking boxes on whatever that new thing is, look up. By the way, one of the easiest ways to figure out what this stuff is like, look up a movie sequel that may or may not come up, right, just look up sequel to go look up, John, wick five, right, John, wick five release date. And when you Google it, what you're gonna get is 45 articles, or like everything we know about John Wick five. And there are these long convoluted things that don't really get anywhere, because it really don't fucking know anything about when it's coming out, or if it is, or whatever. And there might be three quotes in there, none of it was written by a human, it's just that John Wick five gets searched. So content will then follow. And this is kind of an assembly of, again, the snake shitting into its own mouth here of that type of content as well. So know that a lot of these articles that are getting written are just because some of these things are more popular via search. And it doesn't really mean that they're going to place themselves well in the industry, and definitely not well within your gym. So always take that stuff with a grain of salt, that when we're having this conversation about trends, these this, what do they mean by trend, it's not really sales or growth, it's fucking people are searching for him. Okay, and that's a starting point. But again, that's a thing that can be amplified and fed back into itself, to where it just grows its own shit and it sucks. So don't be too, don't take. Don't take any of that stuff too. Seriously. First and foremost. Second, but good.



John Fairbanks 06:43

No, I would say there's a larger principle that I think too if you're not hip to this, and hopefully you are but as I had 1575 foot plus, pine trees, get down to my backyard. It's a fuck ton of wood and wood that you cannot burn inside of a home or you will burn your house down because it's fine. Can't do that. So I want to burn it outside. So got a friend to get me one of those like a 33 ton capable wood splitter like log splitter, and it's the fucking tits. But now you gotta take he had to get back. So I'm like, alright, what is it? What are these splitter Scott's like? Maybe I want to have it so I can continue to split this wouldn't do it myself. And I have always had to borrow it. So I Google, right best wood splitters best log splitters, and the amount of articles or blog posts that come up of the 10 best log splitters of 2024 or 2023. And immediately you have to start to be suspicious, which is why what is this? What is this list? Why is this generic list? Who's number one? Why are they number one? Who's paid for this? Are they getting affiliate kickbacks? Fucking? Yes. So, all of these things, all of that is to be true. But in the fitness industry, when we are talking about trends for 2024 stuff, where if you really are trying to be on the ball, looking at what's going to be trendy, and start to build your business around these concepts, you're not asking, and no one is disclosing. Why? Why is this number one, two and three? What fuckery is a foot because when is fuckery not a foot? It is always a flip. And we're just kind of hook line and sinker being like No, It's fucking cold plunges are the most important thing for 2024. And now all of a sudden these little fucking motors that I want to buy that cost me $300 before are now all $1,200



Tyler 08:43

Yeah, I've never Googled by the way wanting to buy a cold plunge. I've just simply been in some conversations with people about them. I don't hate them. I think they're fine. If they're very useful. I think the person wants to do them. That's wonderful. Sure. There's lots of benefits. Usually what happens is though, I'm having a conversation with someone who's 100 pounds overweight. And as I show it to a cold plunge. I'm like, you know, yeah, that's a great way to discipline yourself and to do something difficult. We've thought about fucking eating better. Exercising, like maybe I don't know what to what to tell you should keep poison yourself while you're getting cold water every fucking morning. That's your fucking plant. And so there's some of the stuff where the stuff becomes trendy simply because just like you said, there's an article about it, it can be fed, someone's trying to sell something. So that is extremely frustrating. Because when you are starting to look at this stuff, in a way we like, Okay, what is really going on? And you start to realize, when we look back at what these trends are, a lot of them there's Home Fitness, there's wearables, there's, it's it's the individual, the individual, the individual, the individual, it's almost like a subversion of what the most popular fitness trend in the last. I'm gonna be honest. 2530 years have passed. fit, which is the opposite of that right across, it comes out in its community. It is intensity, it's not really you can't really lazy your way through this, you know, it is, say what you will about it. I think as a training methodology, it's valid, and it was popular for a reason. But it's also popular and effective because people want to go because they're in that format in group classes, you're around people, you do build community. It's the thing that keeps people there. It's an effective retention strategy. It's all those things. But what happened? Aside from the fitness industry, what happened in 2020 was when everybody got a little fucking sick or got a little scared about a thing, and some things were running through everyone's COVID was the whole thing. But every response to COVID That was wrong. And I'll say this wrong. Didn't ask enough was forcing masks was probably fucking wrong. Closing people's businesses was not probably wrong, it was definitely wrong. Okay, I believe that forcing people to stay home was definitely wrong. Not allowing people to go outside is definitely wrong. When I lived in Amsterdam, my neighbors got in trouble for playing basketball with the two people that live in their apartment and one person that didn't get 150 Euro tickets at the park. We got friends that five people got 150 Euro tickets just for sitting outside of the park together because they don't live yet. Get the cops called on us with our co workers spot for literally my family. The other two people's family so we're talking 689 Total people in a house with the doors open nobody else they're playing ping pong on a kid's 16th birthday



John Fairbanks 11:38

I'm in the United States in Virginia with my family on a hike. There's no one else there. There's no one, there's no people, people are nowhere to be seen, you're able to hike in a very large hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of acres area and a cop came up and said, " I'm so sorry guys, but I have to have you leave. I'm like really? Burn



12:01

this forest outside.



John Fairbanks 12:06

Dude like it's we're outside the sun is shining. We're and it for sure. So it was yeah,



Tyler 12:11

like if he's but all of these responses that were not only misguided that were invalid that were fucking just extreme overreaches that I think anybody who's a reasonable person who participated in the, the ID conceptualizing of some of these solutions, and the implementation and enforcement to some of these solutions, should look back on those and objectively go back that was fucking wrong and really stupid and should be embarrassed. And if you're not embarrassed, you should be hands down, you should be. And if you're not, I think you fucking suck. That's, um, I'm gonna go that far too. Okay, but all of those solutions that were fucking the wrong, were also wrong, because what did they do to the individual to the people? It was an isolation tactic directed all it really was. It was to make everybody feel alone and separate. You would not stay in your house, by the way that people next door who aren't wearing masks. sets aren't wearing the guy next to you who's got his nose sticking out of his mask at the grocery store? Because it just makes them uncomfortable. He's a fucking problem. What does he fucking do? Does he not know? Does that guy not know how a fucking masks work? We should post about that on fucking Facebook, I should pitch about that to my friends, I should say something to him. It's a divisive, isolating technique, whether intentional or not, that's not my place to say. I think I think as a whole, I think our larger systems are too stupid to craft and execute something like that as the fundamental principle and isolate the people. I just think that the incentives kind of ran that way and people are fucking stupid. And when people get scared, they crawl back into their cave, and they just peek out and they're worried about everybody else.



John Fairbanks 13:53

And human nature is we do what we do what we're told. We're taught from very, very little. Ultimately, there is a very old



Tyler 14:04

us What are you talking about? Okay.



John Fairbanks 14:08

But I'm saying in math right, let's talk about the fringe a bit in math people do what they're told. There's a sticky time period in the 1940s, where a bunch of people did what they were told, over here,



Tyler 14:20

see people just standing in a line and don't know what the line is.



John Fairbanks 14:23

Because that's that, right? So human nature is we fall in line, we do what we're told, and we're looking for someone to tell us what to do to rule us right? So the Okies whole concept. Right? It's just so this, this, this premise, we know that to be true, and there are those of us that naturally are like, you're telling me what to do, therefore, fuck you. You're not going to do it because you literally just told me to do it. So for me, what's more important about what you're talking about with the basket and everything else is someone told you Someone told us that these were the rules. And then we do what humans do. We then follow suit, we follow those rules, we do those things. And then you really don't have to, like you said, you don't have to micromanage all the evil that can happen next, because people will just naturally do it because they want to be able to fall. So in line with this, if we now jump back to this fitness trend piece, are they just we, as a collective, just need to be told enough things that cause isolation and cause us to be at home. We're told that the future of personal training Tyler, the the future of personal training, is that home? Virtual? Yeah, I can be in New York and I can have clients in Southern California. I can have clients in Australia,



Tyler 15:48

What was the most successful fitness trend of the COVID era? peloton?



John Fairbanks 15:56

Absolutely.



Tyler 15:58

Hands down, right? Why? Sat home? There's this feigned connection, if you will, but it's digital. You're at home. You're getting fed by an instructor through a class through a screen. Older video it's all it's a what's the word? facsimile the word it's a it's a it's an it's a poor imitation yet of actual human connection by the way, I still for a guy in my position, who's really be poised to shit on peloton I think what they did not only scrape business wise, aside from the fucking The Avant stuff and RFK stuff



John Fairbanks 16:36

and people getting killed and kids getting sucked under like a goddamn



Tyler 16:40

I don't know that my kid got stuck under a regular treadmill when he was like three and it was honestly more of my parents fault than it was the treadmills fault by being totally honest.



John Fairbanks 16:49

I just I just imagined like the big jet engines that like suck it in and like it was like their



Tyler 16:56

yells yeah listen I don't I honestly I don't believe that the peloton treadmills are any more dangerous than any other train your house is fucking nuts I have my kid was three years old standard night at my parents house and my kids were my both my kids were over there and they're like fucking around with the treadmill and they do it they run on it they turn it on they jump off it fuck with it right but the problem is is it's had it backed up against a wall so Lincoln's like three years old he falls face plants rolls all the way to the head his feet are in the air against the wall was faces just getting ground up in this thing and I get we get pulled up from a night out and I fucking god firstly like furious that your parents never once was like I gotta sue this fucking company. The Dread no company I can tell you what it is Scott scabbed up and scuffed up his mic me it was bad on his face I was like sure fucking this kid as me as a father already stepped back on the attractiveness scale now he's gonna have like facial scars and like like this kids get this had a rough one and so anyway all that aside peloton comes also thing was that what what they actually did was capitalize on the isolation and incentivize more isolation. Right now it was fitness within that isolation and that was the opportunity that they really were presenting. But it was a valid play based on that trend. Now where do they sit? They kind of ate a lot of shit right now because they double down on that when people really instinctive instinctually go man I want to be out I want not this whatever this is it can be a part of it it can't be the thing so if you guys out there I just think when we present these trends know that so these are these are Google Google's pointing these things this is Google search this is people just dicking around there's a new product it's interesting. Apple makes some stuff that drums up some attention therefore any new features going on with the Apple Watch are gonna make they're gonna land on every fucking because if someone wants new Apple Watch comes out the fitness people are going to post about it the tech people are going to post about it the fucking audio people are going to post about it the all of the people are going to have something that's going to create content so that they can simply get the clicks first. Okay, and that's a part of anyone's any of these large organizations, larger marketing strategies as well. So this is how they do it. You think when a movie does you think the Barbie Barbie Heimer shit. The Oppenheimer Barbie movie that Colette Do you think was organic? That just came from nothing? Hell no. Every time a movie comes out, and there's like this, like a viral thing that goes on where there's just a bunch of TiC TOCs and reels. It's kind of funny and clever and totally seems off. The thing is 100% manufactured 100%. And so keep all of that in mind. Correct. As you're seeing these things becoming more popular. It may not even be a lot of this isn't even because people want them. People didn't want mass, people didn't inherently want isolation. They just took the opportunity once they were told to Do it, right. And so when it comes to wearables, yes, more people are going to wear Apple Watches, more people are going to wear Fitbit. And more people are going to be using apps to track your stuff and more people are interested in this other stuff I will be covering on this. That's important, because if it can be drawn directly to success, like positive outcomes for people in fitness rules, so the Apple Watch is existence, on its own, who gives a fuck, it just doesn't it's whatever, it's not that big of a deal to fitness. But if tracking can hold you accountable, or if tracking some of the data that you can get from it can help sleep tracking and things like this. And on its own that information is only by the way, that information is only useful to big data. I have never met an end consumer who is making honest to god, my clients, I've never met a single person who is using any of their heart rate data and either HRV or any other sleep data to fucking help them at all. Okay, I had my Apple watch, so that I could turn the volume up and down on my air pods. So I was surprised by get home $350 fucking watch, there was really just because you can't turn the volume up. And I didn't want to reach in my pocket from my phone. That was the one feature I used it for. But as a person who's working, if an end user is training, working out, sleeping, whatever it is, and they're also working with someone to help them get in shape to help them lose weight. Now that's another piece of that you can have that person help you interested, still probably more valuable to Apple and big data, Google and all that stuff for sure than it is to you. But most people are getting almost no benefit from that data. The amount of times I've sat there while coaching somebody while they look at their watch, and are getting a message or something that they have to read. It's like it's trusting me it's harming your fitness more than it's helping, most likely, unless you're dealing with somebody to go here's what I want out of that. Here's what we're going to track you send that to me and I'll hold you accountable to your slip your bullshit your effort in the gym. But if you're just a person who goes oh, man, my heart rates are getting up, I should probably slow it down a little bit. Fuck off.



John Fairbanks 22:08

Fuck. Now, I don't want I don't want you listeners, right? I don't want you guys like I want you to fuck off. Well, I don't want you to. Well, I don't want you to be black piled on this either? No, this is where it can right we go too far you go in these things. You look at it. It could all be bullshit. Like, we can't end up like fucking John Malkovich living in the woods and living in a bunker. Right? Like, it's, it is what I mean, you can but it just defeats our purpose of life, why we're here, why we do what we do, we want to be able to help people. So to draw a line in the sand to kind of be like, what is the lens then to be able to look at all of these things, look at trends, look at whatever people are trying to feed us. And like you said, taking something that could be inherently, you know, Google, right, no longer does no evil. So if Google's going to do some evil shit with that, well, can we still manipulate that, to do some good and be able to serve the people we want to serve better. But like, for me, the line in the sand is no matter what trend or whatever fucking thing or blog or whatever tick tock is are doing as long as it is allowing people to still come together, have community, like, touch someone else's face. Like I think it's the idea of being together and doing something that we inherently as humans need to be able to do. Like, for me, that is, that's my North Star with any of these things. And



Tyler 23:37

I think if we look at some of the reasons for a lot of this, these incentives are not these incentives, these new predicted trends are out there, right? They're there because they're enticing to what I would describe as big fitness, right? Whatever that industry would be, right? But there's something we'll flesh out this concept more in the future, so you'll kind of get a better grasp of it. But there is a reason that one personal trainer working for themselves is difficult to scale. Right? Because you're just selling your time, it's your expertise that all of it is going into you and the relationship with the person in front of you at that time. Right? That is the way it is. And if we go on the far end of that spectrum, as far as like where you're still deal still dealing with a building in which people are doing fitness or something, you have a 24 hour global gym model where there is zero expertise, there is zero labor there is it is totally scalable completely you can do you can put 500 locations in if you just put equipment security system, sales person, a cleaning person, and that's it and the rest is just turnkey stuff. That's your franchise model. Okay? The reason the big franchise stuff is okay with all of those things, right? For the most part, sort of the online stuff, is it's very, very easy to scale. It's very easy to sell. It's Sheep, it's not labor intensive, it doesn't depend on a person being good. It doesn't depend on me being the person managing bunches of other people who need to be good at their job, we then need to deliver results. And matter of fact, those other those franchise systems very often, they ignore the outcomes and they don't give a fuck. There's nobody accountable to clients' outcomes. There's nobody accountable to the clients having a positive experience result wise. Right. There's just there's not. Yeah, so I think a lot of these trends now because again, the incentive is just it's just money, right? So online remote, it's all no labor, it's no skills, it's just a bundle of systems, right? So that you can just go in and it's infinitely so infinitely scalable now is the fucking trend. That's what it really is, what can we do the most with the least actual inputs? What can I build once and sell 10 million times, that gives fucking such a low chance of success to the people that are consuming it. That's the problem. Right. But that is one of the reasons that some of these trends are becoming popular. It's just because the big money in the industry needs them to be it's hearsay, you don't need to go to a gym, go through our app, you can pop into one of our Nike studios, it'll show up everyone but but like, even Nike doesn't want to be coaching you when they pop up the new studios, they don't, that's a feeder program to get you in some of their remote coaching stuff. That's a way for them to build, essentially, like peloton type, little mini fitness celebrities within that network. They'll make centralized content, centralized programming. These coaches are going to be kept in a very tight box. Do you think they're teaching like a deadlift? They really like the details of it. And really, like kind of like, going to be prioritizing movement quality or just really working with the individual luck. No, not at all. It's just another class. This is where your, your orange theories, your soul cycles, all of these things, there's, it's such a narrow box that they want the fitness to be in, because it's very easy to train employees. It's very easy to onboard people to get them in and say, Yeah, we're not gonna make you do all this stuff, you sit on the fucking bike. It's like a mouse and a fucking wheel man go, just get in there go. And that's, that's the reason I think a lot of these things are becoming popular, is because they're popular because these big entities need them to be. But if thieves are the problem, right, a lot of the reasons that people feel as they get further out of shape, and one of the reasons they seek fitness in general, I think is because I felt better. We also feel better. For the most part, when you have some sort of positive socialization, you really do community connection, you still feel a part of anything, you're just alone. And so you eat and treat yourself like shit. And so. But I think that a lot of these isolating trends in fitness are going to continue to happen and they're going to continue to become more popular. What I don't believe they will be is more successful for the client. At any rate, it's improving upon their current success rate, a truly their like client success rate, it's all gonna be the same across the board, they will simply make money on the fact that people who are trying to try things, right, when you want to try, this is the easiest thing to try. So they want to be the easiest thing to try. It's the fast food of fitness, it ain't good. But you can get it on the way home, you can get it at home, you get it brought to your home, of course very little of you.



John Fairbanks 28:28

And for me, it's always the issue, like you said, those that want to try to try things. And this is going to be an element where unless you have the bandwidth, right, the mental bandwidth and the literal your time as a gym owner, if you're running a business, it's tough to burn a bunch of time trying shit out that is shiny or is new. And what it ultimately ends up being is a distraction. And we've touched on these topics before but this is where really, really good coaches can get distracted, trying to continue to feel smarter and more coaching experts. And, and it's just a distraction that takes our eyes off the prize, which is like, we want people to be better at it. Yeah, that's why I need to become good . It's like, no, there's a moment of diminishing returns on this.



Tyler 29:21

And when there's good fun you get to fucking work and if there's not enough people in front of you get them in front of you talk about how are you gonna do it



John Fairbanks 29:31

entirely. We've touched on this before. It's how easy it is to get into this industry.



Tyler 29:39

It's to become Jesus, I mean, far easier than being like a shady repairman.



John Fairbanks 29:47

So the bar is so low right to be able to come with a certified CPT, a certified personal trainer. You can even put the letters in italics after your name, right? You can become a certified person. Don't train very, very quickly, with a hilariously low bar to be able to get in. And the problem is, as you have that expertise to become a personal trainer, you have to be able to know what you're going to fulfill for those clients. That's where there is no expectation of what that's supposed to look like. And the problem, of course, is that you have these personal trainers that are, where they came from, or what their goals are, or how much more work they're doing with clients to actually get them results. It's unknown as people bounce from one place to the next. Yeah.



Tyler 30:38

Yeah, so that's a really good point, too, is that like, the ones that are going to be the people that are going to be the most successful in this process for the long term, right? I think you and I ain't gonna start a fucking tech company that is going to run these wearables. I also have a hard time believing that coaches gyms right now that you're going to start up, and then in the short term, you're going to be able to grow an audience without doing some kind of shady shit, to the point where you're going to be able to compete with all of these big players that are already there. In that space, that space is so crowded, all of the most scalable types of fitness that are out there right now. On like, it's already occupied by people who have pivoted from their, from their other stuff, and they built the following when the followings were easy to grow now, yeah, if I if I had to design a strategy, I'd say go the TICK tock route, go very heavily into tick tock, grow your thing there. And then from there, you can do this stuff. But if that's where you want to be, then then that's fine. But you're neither coach nor gym owner at that point, you're an influencer. But these, all of these things. Now we're, you're behind the eight ball. If at this moment, we're going, this is the trend, this is the thing I want to latch on to. So once you get to the point where you're trying to move on, know that the only actions that I think that you should take is how can I make this make my plant clients more successful? How can I use this to attract more clients and serve my clients better? How can I craft a better client experience with these things? Anything beyond that? I think it is probably not worth your effort, honestly.



John Fairbanks 32:25

And can we talk about the fact that some of these fitness trends, Tyler, are becoming less and less about actual results? While personal training in this fitness industry is so easy to break into that then the trends which I'm trying like it's please take it with a grain of salt, it's like, your emotions and taking care of yourself mentally and, and making sure your recovery and I like Okay, right. So all of that stuff, which Okay, does it like? Could it work? And does it work? And is it important? Sure. Okay, like to a certain degree, but so much of it can be bullshit. And so much of it can be done by a charlatan, that you're just selling fucking snake oil. So what you're telling me is that it becomes easier and easier for someone to become a personal trainer and to get in the fitness industry. And then we're lowering and lowering the bar, from fitness trends to where now? No, no, you, it's body positivity. Yeah, we don't want you to feel bad about losing weight. It's, it's all that shit that's positive. But now we don't have to focus on it because you lose weight. Did you lose fat or to get stronger, actual measurable shit. So you're going to put an inferior amount of fucking people into the system? Well trending li trendy li dropping our expectations by those people. It's almost like you're trying to subvert the whole fucking industry by making it all horseshit and smoke and mirrors.



Tyler 33:55

I mean, obviously the body positive movement is harmful to the overall general health outcomes of this country, right? Obviously, now it doesn't mean you should hate yourself, but you should want to fucking be healthy, healthy should be the goal and healthier should be the goal for everybody. That's always the thing that health is the goal. If you're not unhealthy now great, get healthier, because someday you might fall on the fucking stairs. Someday you might get sick, somebody might spend two months in the hospital from a car accident. Again, we've talked about this before. Fitness is a buffer against disease and just illness right? I think that that's very important. But these trends that are actually outside of them don't incentivize results, they do the same thing as the body positive movement. They don't know it's okay that you've come to the gym and not lost weight, D amount. We talked about this with a DJ the other week. It's like the amount of fucking coaches out there who moved the goalposts and do a movement screening and I needed a assessment and then here's the deal and we got to dress this shoulder thing and all you got to do your knee does this but that's because of this and this all this stupid guru shit. How is that not just tons of it's okay to just stay fat. That's kind of what is okay, and I think it's really important that the industry needs to be pivoting towards actual good outcomes. And that's why this is the problem. That's why these pharmaceuticals that get the fucking job done blow up immediately. Of course, crush all your all this other stupid shit. Because deep down if people could just push a button and get it, they get it, maybe about it. I don't think there's a lot. But a lot of that Guru stuff, a lot of this, these, these other things that are aside from success of the clients from losing weight, getting in shape, getting stronger, looking better, like anything that's aside from that is doing the same thing as the body positive movements just saying, that's okay. That's okay. No, don't worry about this. Look, your sleep markers are improving. You've you've looked and as a guy that I heard on Rogen, they're talking about all the wonderful benefits of red light therapy. Great. If I have an injury that needs that, that's That's fucking wonderful. You're having that conversation with someone who's got 85 Fucking pounds to lose. And you're gonna introduce that stuff? No, you're pointing out that they have limited attention and resources. And you're going to point them at something that's fucking stupid. And absolutely, that may work well in one case, but it is not the fuck. This is triage, man. And it's like, what is the point of distracting yourself with that bullshit. When you have a task at hand? They have that task at hand for a lot of people get the fucking way off dude.



John Fairbanks 36:37

And Tyler Do you know who historically just fucking dominates, doesn't get distracted, and just gets after results at at all costs, like No caution to the wind, the pharmaceutical industry, of course, because the pharmaceutical industry is gonna say there's two things that matter the results that we say this thing can do and the amount of money we can make.



Tyler 37:05

There's nothing that I have ever seen or heard of from anyone else that I know that is a more effective way to quit smoking. When I quit smoking cigarettes, I did it twice with Chantix people said twice while Jesus seems like it didn't work, it doesn't know if I can work it five years later, just fucking dip my toes in this right. But Chantix worked problem was fucking huge. Like fucking, you will have absolute vivid, horrifying nightmares, you will contemplate fucking suicide on a daily basis, by the way far more frequently than you will if you just try to quit smoking which is frequent. But like this is one of them but nobody like Chantix was wildly successful. Because once people go man, you just take this and it's gonna remove, you'll quit smoking. Done. It might give you cancer, fine, man, whatever ozempic the weight will come off. You're not even going to want to eat. Oh, good, because the reason that I tend to overeat because I want to overeat perfect take this you're just not gonna fucking eat and the way it's gonna go, Oh, great. We have no idea what is going to happen over the long term with this medication really? Or? Or what is there a plan to get off of this? I don't think so. I'll get distracted lifetime subscript, but don't fucking what the weight off it don't eat. People don't even think down the road, knowing that there's risks. And by the way, fuck it. That's fine. Because at least somebody's putting fucking results first, because you dipshit personal trainers out there, and coaches and gym owners are running some stupid game that nobody gives a shit about. You're moving the goalposts moving the fucking globe. How about this will give you the same results. ozempic will, okay, it may take a little bit longer, it's going to be healthy, it's gonna be right and you're not going to be paying all this money on prescriptions, and you're going to actually have more improved health instead of just being lighter. Make that play, make that call, call that shot, but instead you go it's not all about weight loss. It's about your feelings. That's this dogshit coaching man and it's fucking it's an absolute distraction. And it's the same thing as the but it's a bunch of fucking fitness professionals trying to help people get fit, who are somehow preaching the opposite of that. No, let's just regress worry about worry about your fucking daddy issues or whatever bullshit they're teaching. It's crazy. And



John Fairbanks 39:16

by not addressing it, that's you fucking it up. Yep, you're omitting right not having the conversation with the elephant in the room because the person looks like a fucking elephant in the room. You don't address that and we focus on all this other shit. And that's where it's like you that is where that problem lies. I want to see. Go ahead.



Tyler 39:37

I got a quick anecdote about that. Before I get sidetracked, right. I had someone contact me this week about personal training, right? Hey, ready to get started? I just you know, what do you have for me? Whatever. I'm not really specific about the goals, right? someone I've known for a while. So I said okay, well, here's what it costs. I require X amount of commitment upfront. I said for any We're looking at doing weight loss, I require you to either commit to a food plan that you come up with, or I'll sell you one. But I will not work with anybody in a personal training capacity or otherwise who's not doing a food plan. If it's a weight loss program, this person has, I would say, 180 pounds to lose 100 For sure. Before things are even close to normal, like not even normal, but like not insane. And this person's response to me was, oh, I don't want to worry about the food stuff. I just want to worry about getting stronger, feeling better. I don't want to change too many things at once. Because, you know, I get that and I said, Okay, well I'm gonna tell you this. I said if you're coming to me, I'm 200 pounds overweight in your 40s and you're talking to me about getting stronger as you go. I said I will not as Flatus I will not participate in this level of delusion game if you're interested in getting stronger and having not you've never trained literally never trained. Okay? What's going to make you feel better, was going to make you relatively stronger, getting 100 pounds of fat off yourself. Okay, I thought I said like, I will not participate in this if you're going to do this. I said if you want it, I will not let you waste your money. And I will not put my reputation in a thing that has such a low chance of success because you are literally barking, calling it you're calling in failure. With the first fucking thing you say do not don't want to dress the food thing. You've gained 20 pounds a fucking year for five, six years. What do you mean I address the food thing. That's the thing. I will not participate in that type of delusion and won't allow it. And I flat out said I said listen if you want to if you're worried about the amount of variables being changed at once, I don't want to fucking coach somebody for two years either. I don't want to coach you through so I'm not that kind of guy. There are other people I will get you going, we will get you on the right track and then out of the nest baby birds I don't like anybody long enough to coach them that long. I just don't. Okay, so I will give you knowledge I will guide you through this process and then you're gonna stand on your own two fucking legs. But she ain't going to do that if the only thing giving you even marginal results is that I gotta kill you in the gym three days a week while you go eat like shit. Fuck off. Absolutely not. So I said if you're worried about removing those about not moving too many variables to avoid doing so I got something great for you. Move one fucking variable don't put any effort into the gym and you will lose weight and feel better because your fucking food. I will not work with you unless you do. And I got it. I guess I'll think about it. That's the reality of this is it's like somebody else. By the way, a coach who looks like me who's a big and strong strongman competitor also does their stuff. Right? That's the type they simply can't come to me and go. Yeah, I want to get stronger as I pitch. That ain't on your fucking list, man. I'm sorry. Like, I by the way, what do you want to be stronger? at what expense? We're gonna build muscle? We're gonna add fucking weight to your frame. Get the fuck out of here. Like, what do you think I'm just gonna sit here and take your excuses all day, like no fucking way. And I thought I would refuse the business. If he comes back, I kind of don't even know I'm going to need something in writing from him, like a real commitment to him and the people in his household that he's going to do it. Because I just won't allow that type of shit. I won't fucking do it. I won't play that game. And this is important for you guys, you coaches out there to know people do the opposite of that when someone comes in and wants weight loss and they go oh, well what about strength? Do you think I think you need to get stronger the amount of how many coaches you know that have done that. You know, you want to lose weight. I know. But let's work on your squat. Yeah, well, fuck man. That's a part of it. Like this guy was going to do strength training with me. That's of course what we're going to do. Of course, I'm not going to make it be a waste of everybody's time and fucking money.



John Fairbanks 43:44

And you're also not going to sugarcoat it, Ryan to where it's like, you just tell him what he wants to hear because you want to close it and then maybe you'll sneak in the foodstuff kind of sneakily or whatever, it's like, no, no, the exactly we call that which is I cannot participate in this level of delusion. Because that is something you have to call out.



Tyler 44:01

That's called a will do I will not



John Fairbanks 44:05

do like it's no understanding is yeah, you will get stronger. We will do strength training. But our only focus is going to be the clue. Clearly the biggest problem that we have here. Yeah. And somebody



Tyler 44:19

else or young kids, get the fuck out of here. If you think I'm just going to help you bulk up.



John Fairbanks 44:26

There's another piece to that you say this quickly, right? Just thinking about it. But I think it is really, really solid. Just if we stay just in this literal example. The idea of getting somebody that is at that level, that level of delusion first right where they come they're clearly wrong. You're like he comes back. I think I need to have him sign something with his family. The fact is, you don't get to be 600 pounds by yourself. You don't get to be 400 pounds by yourself either. By the way, you are enabling and you have people that are with you that are going to not address it and continue. You need to allow that to happen. I think the only way you have somebody that is successful is like none at all. We're all on the same page of what this person's goal is because we want to end their life.



Tyler 45:08

And this is how you become somebody who has a reputation for getting the fucking things done. Guys, I could go to a two grand in my bank probably fucking done. Not I would have been paid before I would have considered putting anyone on the fucking schedule. Maybe more than that even but like I fucking I'm not playing the shit. Because if I do that now I'm the guy that doesn't get stuff done. So the question is do you want the real shit, you want actual results you want really for this to be successful? And I know that maybe this is John here, man. Is this a bit hypocritical, by me moving the goalposts for him?



John Fairbanks 45:48

What do you mean? Okay,



Tyler 45:49

He came in saying he wants to get stronger once they get back in the gym and do some strength training. And I say, No, you need to lose fucking weight. As a professional. Here's an example I will give you a whistle, which is why I don't believe that's the case. As a professional, it is your job to be the professional, you are supposed to be the expert. And I am going to tell you by the way I'm not I'm not coaching powerlifters for powerlifting either, I don't care, I just don't care. I want to help people. So it's not the type of work I want to do. Definitely not going to help just fat people stay fat. While they work, get their bench up, I don't give a shit. You need a coach to just go to the bench. I just don't care. It's not worth my time. But there was a thing that I noticed that happened when we were in the heating and air conditioning industry where clients come in and put in big geothermal systems and we think you need to drill extra wells outside, we should recommend an extra like two loops. I know it's about an extra, whatever. Few $1,000 on this project, but we can't tear up your lawn or your neighbor's lawn. You can't get well pump drilling trucks into your backyard. Once the fucking house is built. You know, I'm saying there's, there's a lot of things that we need these extra loops just to be safe. You know, we'll use a smaller unit in the house and it'll be okay. Okay, you said it though. We recommended this and you said it, we're gonna have you sign a thing saying You said it. Okay. And they did it. And we put in less than what happens with the John 60 $70,000 system, not very well, well, loops aren't delivered. So there's an issue, it's freezing up in the winter air, it's flushing up in the winter. And next thing, it's running a backup heat South Dakota, if you're running straight electric coil heat. Now all of a sudden stuff that was costing you 1520 bucks a month to eat a big house with geothermal was 700 $800. This is now a big money issue after a couple years. So we're in court. We had our bases covered, bro. Yeah. You know, the judge says, This person is a fucking idiot in this industry compared to you. Your job when this person says this is to say no. I'm a professional, it would be unprofessional for me to do this. Because it's not just that we're liable for doing what he wants, we're liable to do the right thing because we're the ones who combined the people in that room. We're the ones with a combined 100 years of experience in this fucking industry. So when someone comes in, and is wrong, you can tell them they're fucking wrong and stop blowing smoke up their ass. So that's, that's at least my piece on the line. Hey, I'm moving the goalposts for this guy. Well, I don't want to work with you, if that's your goal, and I don't believe that's your real goal. I think you know, somebody's wife told them they need to get back in shape and that they're having weight problems and they go Oh, perfect. I still want to eat like shit treat myself like shit and drink too much. And but I'm just going to spend money on this guy and hope that'll buy me some time. Well, I will not participate in delusion or failure. As a professional, that's not the fucking world I'm interested in living in, which is why I can call my shots, I can charge what I want to charge. And then when somebody wants to get shit done yet, you become the guy that they call. If you want to distract somebody for two years, while they don't fucking get any goddamn results. You'd be that guy, but I ain't that guy.



John Fairbanks 48:55

Yeah. And at the end of the day, that's predatory. Absolutely. And that's why the fitness industry has the reputation that it has.



Tyler 49:04

Yeah, go buy from anybody. Show up. Only take your money for you to just waste your time. just waste your money, waste less of it. I don't care. I don't care at all. spend it on food, not me. Because that's all you're going to do is fail. So yeah, it's unfortunate. Those are the conversations you gotta have like this is it was I've laid that out before to many people. But it's never really gotten to the words like that decisive where I'm like, Fuck no, dude. Usually they're okay. You're right. You're usually maybe trying to save money but they really want to lose weight. Someone comes in way overweight saying they don't want to lose weight. Yeah, I'm not really worried about weight loss right now. Good. Well, I am for you.



John Fairbanks 49:47

So for me, so if we transition? Yeah. I would love to see a gym just says Where were the ozempic where the ozempic of the gym and history here like we're the ozempic of the community will have asked as possible let's get out without horrible side effects you just like you're able to like you would be able to play around like for someone to send you a cease and desist order to like force you like to where you won't be like listen, this is what we do we do these things without all of your tendons and ligaments sloughing off into the garbage like it's like whatever all the horrible no bleeding eyes like whatever all those side effects are that just come as being like like you said it's like well you're gonna get it but it's like holy shit without the 20 year surprise where now everyone has colon cancer or now everyone has to have their uterus removed well



Tyler 50:38

That's where I'm at with this stuff. That's my biggest concern because of the digestive pacing so yikes you know but whatever. Anyway so I hope that covers some stuff guys I don't know with this another like summary of kind of all of our shit but making shit about your clients results hold to it like be fucking real about it don't don't don't snow them Don't fucking don't beat around the bush like, god dammit, man, the gyms that can if you're a gym out there, and I've said this before, where's your call to like, I want fucking, we want to lose 1000 pounds on appeal 1000 pounds of fat off of my tongue. Like do that, make that call, call that shot, recruit those people who want to participate at that level. You want to do that with a scalable product and you want to do that with your weight loss challenge that's local that you're bringing in instead of being some bait and switch shit. My weight loss challenge is 1000 pounds off of Aberdeen Weight Loss Challenge. Let's get in. I need 100 Dudes to lose fucking 20 pounds. That'd be 10 pounds. Oh, that's easy. I need 50 Dudes to lose 20 pounds. Let's peel 1000 pounds off some dads around here and like let's fucking let's make it a fucking hot boys summer. Like, let's go.



John Fairbanks 51:46

Do you know another reason Tyler why nobody wants to have people do shit in person and why you want to have it be fucking hybrid or whatever. And now you're training, you're in fucking New York and you're working with somebody in Iowa. Because you're not actually making a difference.



Tyler 52:02

And I look them in the eye. It's



John Fairbanks 52:05

and it is a measurable difference. Imagine all those fucks that are personal training needs to be online. All this online should imagine if they actually put their focus on the literal community that they lived in. Imagine everyone's focus now goes to that hyper localized focus, where you now have all these personal trainers that exist. Apparently, they're all working to be able to make that area healthier. Just imagine the amount of independence and imagine that all those things have the lessening of garbage bullshit that gets bought. And now people don't have to buy as much medicine and now all these things happen, where you have these localized pockets that are being improved, because you get everybody on the same page helping people in person brick and mortar where you are, that is so much more threatening. It's so much scarier for the powers of being all the shit that's out there for PepsiCo and Nabisco and all that shit that they're going to peddle to you and your kids and your communities. Imagine if you were able to combat that they don't want that. They want you focused on given Facebook ads, and making sure you can get digital products out. Sounds



Tyler 53:16

like a revolution y'all get into gym owners revolution Facebook group, get in the move. We're on Team fuck Pepsi over here. Get on the show, gym owners podcast. All the details are gonna be in the description. You're following me in the Tyler episode. John is Dave SFL. Thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you next week.