FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT.
Matthew Januszek 0:28 Welcome to this week's Escape Your Limits Podcast and today we speak to a fitness entrepreneur, whose global fitness ventures include a health club chain, a Sports and Nutrition business and an online training company. We talk about a number of different subjects including how the Coronavirus is impacting the fitness industry, how to create an online fitness business and also how to stay strong and resilient both mentally and physically. So I think you'll really enjoy this episode. He comes from it on a very different angle from a lot of people I've spoke to And please leave us your comments if you like it. Thanks for listening.
Matthew Januszek 1:05 So Kris Gethin, thank you so much for joining us from your home. Yeah. Are you in? Is it Idaho you're in or Is that right? Or Ohio?
Kris Gethin 1:13 Yeah, yeah, Boise, Idaho. Yeah, the weird accent comes from Wales, but I've been transplanted over here as the only place so I'm not I don't think I've done a podcast interview with anyone actually on a on a treadmill. Now, what about a Welshman Welshman with his you know not many of us get out so there could be a good hybrid of uniqueness.
Matthew Januszek 1:34 Yeah. So for those who don't know you, and I'm sure there's I know there's hundreds of thousands if not more, that do know you but but give us a little bit of a background on yourself. Chris, you know, how did you how did you sort of spring out of Wales and what you know, what was that story all about?
Kris Gethin 1:53 Yeah, well, waltzes in Wales. I was racing motocross for many years for about 14/15 years. I was racing motocross and I succumbed to a lot of injuries and it was a back injury that kind of put an end to my career. But it left me you know, almost bed bound, you know, I had a very bad curvature of the spine and I was dealing with a lot of pain went to a lot of specialists. And it wasn't until I went through rehab through physio with resistance training has alleviated the pain because now it's taking the stress away from my spine and onto my muscles of my back. So with that, I I started looking into weight training a little bit more and I actually enjoyed not only how I felt with the alleviation of the pain, I just got over the depression that I was dealing with because of the pain as well. And I noticed what you know, through this activity, I felt better. I started retaining content that I was learning because I flunked at school, I hated school. But this is something that I really enjoyed. So I had a passion for it. So I wanted to learn more. So I went and studied international health and sports therapy for several years and with those international records, Nice qualifications, I went and worked on cruise lines for a little while as a massage therapist and a personal trainer. And then I moved over to Australia, had my own personal training business there, which was mobile. And then I opened my first gym facility over there and I wanted to reach more people than just a one on one that I was teaching within my gym. So that's when I picked up Merriam Webster's book on journalistic writing and taught myself how to write and how to shoot physique photography. And I started working for publications and magazines, and then I decided to risk it all and sell up the gym, fly to Venice, California and try to get a job for Weider Publications. And after six months of annoying them at Woodland Hills, I got a job as the editor at large and the writer and photographer for the publication. And then after that, I got recognized because I published my own magazine called caged muscle for a while. for about two years. It got wrecked. ignited by the den founder of bodybuilding.com, Ryan DeLuca. And bodybuilding calm happens to be in Boise, Idaho. So that's what brought me up here because he needed an editor in chief. So as the editor in chief of bodybuilding.com, from 2007, up until like 2012. And that's when I moved to India, and started training some celebs over there because I'd authored a book by this time and one of the celebs that actually read my book, and Jag Chima, as you know, mutual friend, flew me over there and started training these Bollywood stars and then could recognize that there was definitely a missing link within health and fitness community with adequate gym facilities. So we decided to open a gym franchise which we call academies because we'd like to teach people there as well as the trainers, more than anything and, and then, during that time, I actually opened a supplement company here in the US which brought me back to To the US, and I love Boise, Idaho, my affiliate with in relationship with bodybuilding.com knows that I'm a vendor. So I have a supplement company that I sell to bodybuilding.com. I just love Boise, Idaho, but my headquarters are in Huntington Beach. They're in LA. So that's kind of where I am right now. So a long way from a long way from Wales and now yeah, exactly along, but I appreciate Wales. Yeah. Well, now, you know, when I was there, I just wanted to get out, you know, I want to get away I want to travel the world. But now every time I go back, and I see my family, which is usually a couple of times a year, I appreciate it a lot more. I think it's because I'm getting longer and
Matthew Januszek 5:39 I'm the same I was I was I lived in a very small village and anything I could do to get out I did and you know, now I'm like you when I go back every now and again, you sort of you realize that the bits you can suddenly appreciate a lot a lot of obvious. I suppose whether that's to do with that you're going to leave in a few days or not. I don't know but you certainly certainly appreciate it either, anyway.
Kris Gethin 6:02 Yeah, yeah, I think it's because it's kind of what do you go back? It's kind of new, it's fresh, and you have a different perspective. You know, but when you're there for a while, and it's raining all the time, maybe another different perspective.
Matthew Januszek 6:13 So your your progression was was very interesting, what what would you say, was one of the sort of common threads that connected all the dots and allowed you to go from platform to platform, you know, it, you know, where you're now into a number of different businesses, but was there a philosophy or something that you identified early on? That that's sort of taking you to where you are today?
Kris Gethin 6:42 Well, it's not one thing, but I could tell you that the pivotal role definitely came from bodybuilding. Because in 99, a year and a half after I'd given up motocross and started weight training, I decided, Hey, I'm going to compete in a bodybuilding show, even though I knew nothing about it. It wasn't as if there's anybody On my farm that I could go and speak to and talk to, I just look at magazines alert everything that I could from there. And it was given my sense that that sense of urgency, that sense of urgency led to discipline, militant discipline, and living by numbers and schedule and punctuality. That's what kind of led to a lot of the other things you know, I am very punctual. My Word is my bond to myself, even if it isn't to anybody else. And having the discipline that you get from bodybuilding with waking up at a certain time doing your cardio, having your meals, counting your macros, living by those numbers, has really helped have a transcendent effect within my businesses because, you know, I wake up early in the morning I make sure that everything is dictated by a schedule. And you know, if, like I said, even if somebody else cannot live by those numbers are shows up late, I'm still going to be early. And that's definitely had a positive effect and bye bye. Being active within bodybuilding. And when I say bodybuilding, I don't mean just, you know, standing up on stage in your posing pants, I mean like building your confidence building in bone density building the blood flow. I feel like a better person to be around so I can surround myself with people that are better than me or have strengths in areas where I can recognize my weaknesses. So, you know, it's just like if you if you look at yourself in a mirror, you know, you know if you're right latter's weak over the left. And so you know, you've got to put more emphasis and more work into that area. And it's the same with within your business if you recognize a weakness, you know that you'll have to double down on it. You just cannot ignore it. You know, you cannot be naive to the fact that it's not there. You have to really show it in its worst light. I guess.
Matthew Januszek 8:49 I like what you said there and I've heard it by a few people, sort of successful people particularly is that where you say you're you're reliable and you're on time And you're honest with, you know, with yourself and I think, you know, you could you can talk about being reliable to other people but I suppose if, if you're if you're not honest and honest and truthful and reliable to yourself about, you know, saying you're going to do something and do it, the whole thing sort of falls down, I guess. And it's and it's a very simple thing, but when when I when I heard it the first time it kind of got me thinking, yeah, you know, the first person I just need to be reliable for is me.
Kris Gethin 9:29 Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it all begins I think, you know, from the moment that you wake up, if you hit that snooze button, you know, as cliche as it sounds, then the chances of you even subconsciously procrastinating more and more, and it just leading down a slippery road is going to be enhanced for sure. So yeah, if I go to the airport, yeah, I'm there earlier than I should be probably. But I always think of the what ifs you know, I always want to have that word with myself and that bond with myself of reliability, Authenticity, transparency. Because you know when you get to the end of the years, you know you want to look back and make sure that you didn't have any regrets and I think by living by those words, you're not going to have the regret that a lot of people know.
Matthew Januszek 10:12 So why don't you talk about getting up in the morning what's what's your typical morning routine? What time do you get up and it soon as it goes off you diving out of bed doing barbell squats or something? What What does it look like in his bedroom?
Kris Gethin 10:27 I'm too old for that. Now I have to warm up for several hours before I hit the barbell squats. Usually first thing in the morning Yes, like it could be like five o'clock, four or five o'clock something like that. I generally go to bed early. I'm usually in bed sleeping by by 830 in the evening. You know, I try to look at the circadian clock. You know when it's dusk okay with my ancestors be out past midnight, probably not. So I'm going to adhere to that and go to bed but up at sunrise, probably just above before sunrise. So I did have that knowing that my cortisol levels should be down in the evening. So I'm not going to fight against that. And same thing in the morning a spike so I get up early. And then in the morning I usually just I try to meditate. I meditate. I fight. There's a meditation practice called Ziva meditation. I don't know if you've heard of that Emily Fletcher is in charge of that she's got a great book called stress less and accomplish more. And I try to follow her sort of technique where you start off with a meditation and then it's mindfulness. So you're being completely present within this moment like we are in this conversation. And then finishing off with manifestation what is it that I want to achieve with myself That day is it to remove myself of a lot of stress anxiety, is that something business related relationship related, whatever it may be, so I finish off with that manifestation and you know, it only has to be like five minutes and then I usually start because I'm not getting out especially in the winter, and I'm working from home I will usually expose myself to some red light therapy because I cannot get the red lights for thing in the morning, outside, especially like I said in the winter, so I kind of biohack my environment in that respect. And then I'll get on with maybe if it's journaling on that particular day, I'll journal just for five minutes, and then I'll go straight into my cardio. So I usually go downstairs into my garage or garage, as we say, in the UK, and, or I'll hit the hill. So I'll go into the mountains that I've got here and do some cardio because I try not to stay too much inside if I don't have to, because I'm going to be working inside. So I try to get out and have some fresh air and use that as like my active meditation. And with that movement, I find that blood flow to my brain just allows me to get a little bit more creative, I think outside the box, you know, and I use that as my disconnection time so I try not to switch on my phone. before bed I you know, an hour half half an hour before bed, and maybe 30 minutes after waking. I don't want to be a reaction. I don't want to be putting out fires. So I try to use that time just to listen to the voices in my head and get on with the day. So once I've done my cardio then I'm ready for work. And that's pretty much how it pans out until the evening. But I try to be very, very efficient during the day so I can switch off by about six o'clock in the evening. If I'm not efficient if I have alerts on my phone, if I take a phone call that isn't scheduled, then it's going to throw me off so I'm very militant, to the extent it probably could cause some people some anxiety, when do you do you start eating then do you do that? Do you have anything before you work out? Or is it normally afterwards? It changes all the time I've been doing a lot of fasting so I don't usually eat until the afternoon because I recognize that what I do as an athlete whether it be an endurance athletes, whether it be a bodybuilder, what we do isn't necessarily healthy because we require a lot more feeding than the average person and with that it signals the Tor pathway which isn't good for aging purposes and I'm trying to reverse myself biological age as much as I possibly can. So I try to look at things with a perspective of Okay, how can I kick back while I'm on this earth? But how can I reverse my aging process whilst I'm at it, so I'll usually fast during the morning, and then I'll break my fast in the afternoon and at the moment, I'm experimenting with a carnivore diet. This is my last week of the of the four weeks. So last year, I was like on a cyclical keto diet into intermixed with intermittent fasting. So I did that for about eight months. And now I'm, like I said, I'm doing a carnivore. And I'm only doing that for four weeks because I work with a lot of clients. And I always say, if I don't go, you'll never know what knowledge without mileage is both. So I'd like to put in the mileage first and experience it myself before educating others, right.
Matthew Januszek 14:46 And so for workout then you're just just just water and that's it then is it.
Kris Gethin 14:51 Yeah, so sometimes I'll train fasted, but I try to train you know, if I'm exceptionally busy, and I know I'm going to be flat out all throughout the day. I'll train for thing in the morning. But I tried to avoid that, you know, because my, you know, my cortisol level is spiked a little bit high during the morning anyway, so I try to wait for it to succumb a little bit. So I'd like to train early afternoon if possible. That's what I like to train. And I could be fasted or non fasted, but what I do is a controlled fast. So it may sound cheating, like I'm cheating, but I'll have my essential amino acids. I'll have my fermented glutamine during that time, so I'm not completely catabolic. Yeah, the funny you say that said that about thinking out of the box when you're running. For me, I try and do a run get outside. I know three or four times a week. Not necessarily just for fitness, but for me, it's my brain just turns on like no other time of the day and I'm kind of making notes and it's you I really unlike you, I really do think out the box, I guess, you know, what's your thoughts is that because you're just getting some really good blood flow and oxygen And you're switching everything off or what? What do you think causes that? Yeah, it's a bit of both, of course, you know, you're not exposed to a lot of the artificial lights, you get an outside. So you're getting a lot of the restorative red lights, as opposed to a lot of the artificial blue, which again, can spike your cortisol levels higher, doesn't allow your melatonin to release especially later in the evening. And because you're outside yet, you're smelling, you're seeing you're hearing you're feeling your senses are heightened a lot more outside as opposed to when you're indoors, you know, just on the Stairmaster or on your treadmill. So I think your senses are heightened during that time when with the space. You know, I always say that, you know, much like, if you've got a fish or reptile, it's only going to grow as big as this cage or its tank. And I think, you know, we have a lot more spiritual mental growth when we're outside because we have more space. So it's interesting. So so just coming on to onto your sort of club business. What You know what, what's happening at the moment to you guys and you've got you've got a very successful chain and Academy in India. What how's the? How's the current situation impacting on that business for you guys? Yeah, it's a tough situation at the moment because India was one of the very first places that really closed down hard before the UK before the US for sure before the US. So we've been closed now for about four weeks. And it's been a very harsh closure, because, you know, people cannot go out on the street between 7am and 9pm. During the day, it's tough. People get arrested. So it's really affected us hard. We have encouraged as many of our trainers as possible to continue to work with their clients online, just to provide them with you know, more accountability strategies of exercising at home, and, you know, nutritional guidelines as well because people are just going off the charts at the moment. Eating bad Fruit because they feel like they need some type of nurturing. We are continuing to pay our staff at the moment you know we can do we are in a position to pay them because I do recognize a lot of gyms that have just laid off their staff like here local in Boise, there's a franchise and they just laid off all their staff, no pay, and it's tough, very tough on those trainers. And even though 50% that we're paying at the moment isn't the best. It's something that we can provide and hopefully provide it until this COVID-19 is washed away and we can open the facilities up again.
Matthew Januszek 18:37 And with the with the sort of bricks and mortar business are you do you actually have any kind of digital products I know over here you see a lot of gyms offering workouts and classes for Instagram and that type of stuff you got Do you guys have anything like that that you've got running?
Kris Gethin 18:55 Yes, we have. Yeah, so we're providing like online training through like group exposure or one on one exposure. And we have groups. So we got Facebook groups, we got private groups as well, that people can all join in and we just provide all the workouts and the scheduling and the nutrition and supplementation, the accountability via that platform.
Matthew Januszek 19:16 Yeah. How do you sort of merge your brand your personal brand with with the fitness side? And do you think that's given you an advantage with what you're doing in India so that you've almost because I guess I take a step back a lot of a lot of gyms have a kind of physical community so everything's reliant on what happens within those four walls and outside of that, there's there's generally very little, little relationship with you. You do a huge amount online, you've got your YouTube videos and your Instagram and your Facebook and everything. So you're very, very active and it seems as though you've got a very strong virtual community as well as your your physical. Is that a key advice? Teach to your business and is that benefiting you at the moment where you can still, you know, keep that conversation going whilst your members can't, you know, come into your clubs.
Kris Gethin 20:10 Yeah, there's no doubt about it. So in 2009 when I [email protected], I was still competing as a natural bodybuilder I competed in Wales OkCupid competed in Australia competed in in Canada at the natural world championships. I competed here in the US. And whilst I was in the office, it was only like 35 of [email protected] I was the only one that was competing. So Ryan DeLuca kind of forced me in front of the camera, because I kind of knew what I was doing. I knew that, you know, I looked like I knew what I was doing. So, I started doing these video trainers, okay, you want to get shredded in 12 weeks, follow me every single day and I'll show you how to do that. Same with muscle building. And whilst I was in India, I filmed a 12 week muscle building Video trainer has got millions of views on bodybuilding.com as well. So I was recognized in India before I went there. Because, of course, I've got recognition from training a lot of the bollywood celebs, but I had the majority of my recognition from bodybuilding.com. Would you believe it? India has surpassed the US when it comes to visits to the channel, to the websites and to their YouTube. You know, they may not convert as much, but the viewership is just absolutely huge. They're motivated, they're passionate, and they just want to consume content. So from that perspective, is really helped. And thankfully, I do have an online platform and you know, my work, my scale from that side of things has really, really increased, it's probably quadrupled. Whereas obviously on the gym side is a little bit more difficult from the brick and mortar perspective. But thankfully, they've kind of balanced each other out.
Matthew Januszek 21:55 What do you think about GMO corn is whether they're small, medium, or large. What do you think about them? In this day and age, needing to consider building personal brands or maybe having people within their businesses that are doing that? So they're not just relying on? You know, any when people come to them?
Kris Gethin 22:18 Yeah, for sure. They definitely need to get behind their trainers and the people that they have there, I think what's happened in the past is that there's a lot of insecurities and they don't want their trainers to become so successful that they're maybe going to go and open their own gym facility or something like that. But my perspective is, I if somebody is working with me, I want them to be better than what I am at my position, you know, you want to see them succeed, because they're only going to help your business at the end of the day. And if they don't, then Good luck, but you know, you have to remove yourself of those insecurities and get behind the trainers or whoever you're associated with. Specifically, in this day and age to get an online platform, a presence and a cadence. You have to have a cadence where people Hello, you know, much like they watch a TV show, you know, you wait for a Saturday night, for Saturday Night Live, you have to have that cadence online where people are going to expect something for you, you know, they don't really care about you, yourself. They care about what you can provide, how you can help them. And that's what you've just got to provide, you know, with that cadence. And there's so many platforms now, it's impossible not to do something, I think it's rude not to provide value, because I really wish that grown up in Wales that I had an online platform where I could ask questions, or somebody could give me information as opposed to looking at a before and after picture in a magazine ad. And looking at that supplements go, I must have been that, which is obviously completely false. And, you know, I do understand that there is a lot of false facades online, but we can decipher through that and whatever we can take from it and extract to create, I'd say a chapter in our own books, there's obviously going to be a huge advantage. And I think the more and more that we can get into the audience Long space with that presence, the better because that's the way that everything's going. It's like if you go to India, not everybody has a computer, but everybody has a mobile phone. And that's where they're consuming a lot of the content. So we have to put everything more digital and more mobile, because in 10 years time, you know, I think it'll be very, very hard for a lot of people to get a job in the future unless they have online presence. I guess also, if particularly if you've got a number of traditional businesses, then you naturally have a certain amount of credibility over maybe someone who's just got an Instagram page, and I guess, you know, for business is trying to make that pivot. They're probably in a good position if I use it, because it's like, well, who are the experts? And it's like, Well, okay, I've seen that massive building across the road, you know, they must be experts. But I guess like you say, it's probably trusting some of the trainers to take the lead in, in, you know, in having that conversation and an entering those people's lives when they're not in that facility. Yeah, it's tough, isn't it? Because, you know, we find now today in a digital age, it's the ultra partnership age where you've got a lot of these entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs online, and they're selling a product. However, they've never had anything tangible in their past to show what they can sell you. You know, it's crazy. The amount of people that are out there that are doing that, it's unbelievable. So you have to go, you have to navigate through a lot of the crap that's out there. You know, we get a lot of trainers or a lot of people out there selling programs, but maybe they're not qualified. Maybe they don't have any authenticity behind him, but people get duped into it. So you have to spend your time navigating through the crap in order to find those gems out there for sure.
Matthew Januszek 25:43 Interesting. And do you think that this, the situation with the corona situation will, I guess, you know, move this on forward and there'll be more people that will be having sort of extended memory memberships within the home, we talked earlier about, you know, band training, for example. But did Can you see that where you'll kind of have a virtual membership in a club membership? And they'll sort of, you know, they'll all work together at the same time you think?
Kris Gethin 26:15 Yeah, I think I think a lot of people are going to be training from home for sure. You know, if there's still going to be spaces for the commercial gym, there's no doubt about it. I just really hope that a lot of them survive. This depends on how long this goes, like I went online just a couple of weeks ago, and I just encourage people to support their local gym, regardless of where it is you like, I'm supporting my local gym here. Because I know that they're struggling, it's tough. And the one thing that we really want to rely upon once this is done is the gym facilities because we have to look after each other's health. You know, the fast food chains over here seem to be doing well. You know, that's an unfortunate thing. Like I actually put something online and asked, you know why I've been mugged. So how is this part of the essential living? And people's arguments online was? Well, there's a lot of people out there that don't have the economic structure to pay for healthy foods. So they go to McDonald's. Well, these people obviously haven't got creative inside the kitchen when they've gone to the supermarket. Because as you know, in the UK, all the McDonald's have closed down. They've all been closed a lot of the fast food restaurants. And there's a lot of poverty there. There's a lot of unemployment if the UK can survive without McDonald's and why can't us you know, so let's try to boycott to a certain degree but support a lot of our local gyms during this time because we will need them at the end. But there is going to be a lot of people that are, you know, maybe in some form of paranoid state that will probably continue to train at home but hopefully it balances itself out. But I think there's got to be a lot of more concern, and maybe a lot more of a subconscious decision makings when it comes to training from home. Maybe You know, virtually, or, you know, just having a home gym set up.
Matthew Januszek 28:03 Yeah, you touched on an interesting point there, you know, regarding how different countries are dealing with this situation. And I guess, you know, one of the things from my side, it seems to have kind of forced a lot of things that have been able to continue, whether it's whether it's business, whether it's in politics, however, it's is forced a lot of change that's probably needed to happen. But there's not been a motivation to make it happen. we've, we've been talking, for example, about digital in our own business for a long time, but there's always something else to do. And I think this, this seems to force those changes, but one of the things that seemed becomes apparent, and again, I'm not I don't know the numbers, and I know this is unfolding all the time, but a big percentage of people from what I've read, a people that are generally in the sort of more unhealthy category, whether they've got, you know, what they call pre existing conditions, or overweight, issues with you know, they probably smoke or drink or what have you and And it kind of said said to me that, you know, as you know, in different countries that governments seem to be very focused on cure, but the prevention, which is where the fitness industry really has a huge impact, you know, just on obesity, I think in the US 40% of people are obese. It's Heart disease is one of the biggest killers of anything. And yet the fitness industry with diet nutrition things that you're doing can massively impact that but yeah, it's it's in England, I think it's 44% of the budget is spent on prevention. Yeah. What what are your thoughts about after this, what the fitness community can do as it relates to some of the government agendas on on fit preventative, health and fitness?
Kris Gethin 29:46 Well, it's kind of what we've always been preaching. We just need a bigger platform and a louder voice. In order to do that we need to come together as a community to put that voice out there. I can't do it by myself. You come but as a crowdsource We can you know, it's funny, I was listening to the david ickes interview on the London real. And he mentioned Well, you know, people say, well, there's only a few of us we can't be loud enough to get things done. He says, Well, a few people are loud enough that are maybe you know, particularly promoting what's happening right now. So we can we can be loud enough and we just need to band together because Isn't it ironic that you may see somebody who is obese in McDonald's wearing a mask because they don't want to catch the Coronavirus? Well, it may be not the Coronavirus is going to catch them first. It's going to be their lifestyle. And it's funny how we just turn a blind eye to that because it's death of 1000 cuts at the end of the day. It's not something that's going to kill us straightaway. Maybe not this decade, maybe not the next but, you know, 25 years from now, what the decision the decisions that you make or what you put in your mouth may not be healing your future is probably going to harm it if not stop your future and we need to just protect I'm a little more enlightened, and be able to put that voice out there to people that are actually going to listen and apply it. Because like you said, the diabetes, the heart disease, and you know, we really don't know the statistics at the moment because if somebody has passed away or heart disease or diabetes, or had an existing heart condition or or flu or pneumonia, the chances of them being part of this statistic of the corona virus is high, because lo and behold, they found that the flu is down. Pneumonia is down because part of their statistics have gone towards the Coronavirus. It's just a little bit crazy at the moment. But going back to your question, you know, we really need to come together as I mentioned and use the social platforms that we have today, especially with the podcast to put that message out there that you need to not only just do it for yourself, but the kids that are observing you and you know this day and age is very different to our grandparents. You know we have dealing with different issues. We have history. sugars and pretty much everything. We have omega six oils, probably inflammatory oils, pretty much in everything, you know, vegetable oils, and we just have to realize that this isn't part of our ancestral strategy for the future. You know, it's definitely not and you know why, but when people say to you, God, why are you eating over a Tupperware container? And I always just think God, it's so weird that people think it's normal to harm themselves with the food that they eat as opposed to heal themselves. It's beyond me.
Matthew Januszek 32:30 It's certainly a massive education gap, you know, he were with you and I, for example, a lot of people listening around the health and fitness industry and I suppose we take a lot of this for granted but the average person in the street you know, the 99% of the population, they it's the basics that they don't get and then you know, you see the government's almost a supporting sugar industries and the drinks industries and then the cigarettes you know, the amount of money that they generate, you can understand why they are They swayed, but it just basic stuff you think, Well, you know, you don't have to really do a lot to have such a big impact. And I say I just think the health and fitness industry can really pay a good part of that if you know you can you can get some of those things over the line with with the government's already and maybe this is a
Kris Gethin 33:19 Yeah, yeah, we
Matthew Januszek 33:20 that will do that.
Kris Gethin 33:22 Yeah, we need to be more water wolf like, because at the moment, we're just sheep. And I just don't imagine, like I said, these people that behind the high fructose corn syrup or the sugar cane industry, the pharmaceutical industry, they're wolves, and the rest of artists are just being sheep at the moment. And we cannot be that because it's only going to lead us over a cliff. And we have to have more wolf like sensibility. Because, you know, what, are we going to be easier to kill or harder to kill at the moment, we're being easy to kill.
Matthew Januszek 33:52 And we you know, with that, I suppose it's, you know, knowing that everybody that's in the industry, you know, However you look at it, they're making a positive impact even if even just something I wouldn't say as simple but even something like you know, improving people's mental health and being able to deal with things like stress just by working out. So however you look at it, there's, there's no argument that it's not good for you. But as you say, we all shape and, and sometimes when you come out with this stuff, it's, you know, if you're not careful, you can be pushed to the side or even, you know, made to look as though you're a little bit of a kind of a freak if you're not careful. So how do you think people like, you know, they're listening to this in the fitness community? You know, how do you think that you can get we can get enough of a voice to kind of make a difference for something that's undeniably positive for everybody in the world?
Kris Gethin 34:47 Well, one thing and I know that we haven't done as good of a job as as we could, and we will be changing that pivotal role is that not everyone's going to relate to me not everyone's going to relate to you. But the people that have transformed their lives not just physically but mentally, spiritually with their relationships or career, we need more of them to talk, we need to encourage more testimonials, not just editorial because people actually want to see somebody and look them in the eyes. So I think the more that we can extract these testimonials out of people and just put them on these platforms that we have available to us now, and just use our platforms for likes, but use our platforms to share other people's successes to say, you know what, I've got four kids, I work 14 hours a day, I've dealt with depression and anxiety and I've had an injury and a person who transformed I can do it to have this person here has no I know, got a leg blown off in the military or whatever it may be. Where we are the ones that justify our our excuses when we've got nothing really holding us back. That's what's going to be that pivotal point for us to go. Okay, that is the tipping point that I need to proceed forward. And use this person because now they're online. And I've connected with them to be a form of accountability. Now, not everyone's gonna be on one platform, but someone's going to be reading a book, reading a magazine listening to a radio or a podcast, or, you know, scrolling online, and they're going to find it. So we just got to hit all these pain points on all these platforms to really try to get that message across. And I think relatability is part of the key, you know, I don't have a huge female following for sure, you know, they're probably scared of me. But there's people out there that I've transformed that are females and they'll be able to speak to so many others. So we just bring that crowdsource of inspiration that you know, a lot of people learn by observation, just like kids. So once we observe we will kind of you know, the wheels will start turning will start to apply because unfortunately, we are students of learning, but not many of us are students of application.
Matthew Januszek 36:56 Do you think some of it comes down to the historical I suppose perception of fitness, which is all about kind of six packs and biceps and yeah, when you historically when you talk about going to a gym or a workout, it's like, oh, I'm not one of those people, you know, instead of there, as you as you and I've followed you a lot and listened to read a lot of what you talk about, but he's, there's a real health driver, which is not about aesthetics. It's, as you said, it's about living longer. Do you think as an industry, we sort of, maybe not necessarily marketing ourselves in the right way to tap into that area?
Kris Gethin 37:31 Yeah, definitely. For sure. For sure. There's no doubt about it. That's why a lot of people are scared to go to the gym for the first time because they think everyone's going to be looking at them. They're going to be comparing themselves to some Adonis or whatever. But chances are people are looking at themselves in the mirror, as opposed to anybody else. So that is a stigma in itself as well. And but you're entirely right. I think we are doing better than what we were doing in the 80s and 90s. For sure, you know, with a peck bounce and everything and walking around with meathead jugs proudly. But you know, we still do that we have to get a fluid in. But I think we're doing a much better job with it for sure, especially as we're starting to emerge. And this is what I'm trying to do is merge like the biohacking sector with the bodybuilding sector or the fitness sector. So we have a merge of health, overall health, you know, and the more that, you know, more of us can jump onto that bandwagon. unfortunate. I think we realize it a little bit later in life, you know, when we get into our 40s, as opposed to we really need to talk to the people and the kids, when they're in their teenage years or in their 20s that's when we really need to get into them and let them understand, okay, this is going to really help your future maybe not even just from a physical standpoint, but from a mental standpoint, from a career perspective. Because I go and speak to universities and you know what, I see what they're eating, I'm thinking, Wow, you are just focusing on the education but don't you know that the brain that you are learning from is fair From the food that you've eaten, so if you want to be more cognitive onpoint and you want to be sharper, you want to retain this content, you better feed your brain in order to do so. And this just needs to be more of us singing the same song or similar songs to some different people,
Matthew Januszek 39:16 I certainly hear that and see that happening more so you're starting to happen where people are connecting the brain a lot more to the body. And so you know, what you put in your body how that affects your brain, your performance and as opposed to it just being you know, when I was younger, it's all about you know, big tubs protein and just filling yourself up with that and building some muscles. Now, I think people are starting to talk about you know, what that does to your system, how that affects your mood. And even with people like yourself talking more about meditation now as as something that is part of that which was certainly wasn't around years ago where people are thinking about being more mindful of what they're doing. Is that something that in terms of your business, Is that that sort of mindful part of it is, is that an important part?
Kris Gethin 40:06 It's very important like I did two live feeds last weekend. One on a Saturday, the one on the Sunday, the Saturday was an at home workout, the Sunday was meditation at home. Because obviously, people are dealing with a lot of mental problems at the moment, whether it be fear based anxiety, or whatever. But it should be something that's practiced every single day. Because whatever you want to manifest out of yourself, whether it be packs doubts, or happiness, it's going to come from that manifestation or that meditation that you should have on it on a daily basis. So I think the holistic approach is definitely the way forward. There's no doubt about it. And you know, like, I recognized it myself back in 2014. I suffered mold toxicity from, you know, living in an apartment in Mumbai, and I was only sleeping three hours a night and that didn't leave me a nice personal appearance. You know, I had anger I had anxiety, I had stress. You know, I didn't Didn't feel good. But as soon as I started then detoxing I went to Dr. sprogs clinic in Oldsmar, Florida for six weeks, I blood reports, stool samples, urine, absolutely everything. And it was the brain scan that showed this showed this mold toxicity. And that's what I started educating myself on not only the amount of calories, as you mentioned, that you're trying to get into your system, it was the calories and the information from those calories that it was providing my body. So that's when I really started looking into, you know, that my probiotics, my prebiotics, my fermented food, my humane raised, organic or grass fed. And then I started looking deeply into supplementation as well obviously, because the supplement industry is is rife with bad supplements, you know, just like anything else. So that's when I started really focusing on the sources of the food. And then I realized Okay, after a while and I started healing, I didn't need to eat as much food as I was for In damn myself previously, because let's say for example, an orange now has about five times less vitamin C in it than what my grandfather was eating because the over harvest station of the food, the soil that overpopulation, genetically modified, then on top of that you have the antibiotics in the meats, you have the glyphosate or roundup on the vegetables. So your body is constantly inflamed and you have to eat so much more food because it's not nutrient dense. It may be calorie dense, but not nutrient dense. So you're never really fulfilled. So now I eat so much less but I'm able to retain more muscle I perform better, I feel better. I'm able to do you know a lot of various things when I'm running or weight training hard, and I'm feeling good about it and a lot of the inflammation that I was dealing with in my body stuff not just in my guts, but in my joints. It's all you know, miraculously gone. So I always consider now my guts is not my second brain but Was my primary brain because if you have inflammation in the gut, it can lead to a chemical response in your brain where now you're not feeling good you know? So as we know a lot of the serotonin or the, you know, we're more bacteria than we are DNA. It all comes from the guts.
Matthew Januszek 43:16 I know you. You did was it correct you sort of and I know you're you're big, big guy, but you did six months you went in straight into an Iron Man six months preparation with you. similar sort of frame that you've got now. Is that is that correct?
Kris Gethin 43:30 Yeah, that was my first I did my first Iron Man. Within six months of preparation. I did a half Ironman in four months. Well, before that I did, I think is within two months, I did an Olympic and then four months in, I did a half Ironman, and then six months into my training. I did a full Ironman because I've always done cardio every day, if not twice a day. It's just part of my DNA. I enjoy cardio. And a lot of people in the bodybuilding perspective and community said you shouldn't do cardio you should be a man piece in an ornament on the mantel piece and retain all your calories and put on muscle. But I always found that I was able to train a lot more frequently. If I did some form of cardio every day I'd recover so much better. So I always thought, Okay, well if my recovery dictates my performance, I'm going to stay active because it assists with my recovery. And even though a lot of my peers and even clients would question it, so that's why I thought, Okay, I'm going to go to the extreme then, and participate in an Ironman triathlon. What can I do? That's extreme, but that seems pretty extreme. But I'll go to the lab beforehand, which I did to the university. I'd my FTP lactate threshold tests, had dexa scan, just to show that I wouldn't lose any muscle during that time and actually put on muscle. But I didn't train like a typical triathletes, where I was training extensive hours every day I'd only train for like an hour during the week and it was only on the weekend where I'd go long, but slow. So It may be, you know, it's an eight mile run on a Saturday, but maybe an 80 mile bike ride, you know, on a Sunday because I'd have to get used to being in the saddle for that duration of time. So that's what I did. But I ate and supplemented like a bodybuilder. You know, I, you know, I called it like, a moving buffet. When I was out there, you know, on the bike, I'd have my shakes, I'd have a backpack with some food in there. And that's how I, you know, make sure that I don't wither away, but I enjoy doing that type of training. Like I've done ultra marathons. I've done several Ironman events since and I just love the fact that I can be a bigger person, but I don't have any issues that are holding me back from being an endurance athlete as well. So now I've actually crossed and contaminated the endurance perspective as well where I'm getting more endurance athletes to participate in some into weight training as well as strength training, because it's really helping them along the way as well. Well, and you know, there's nothing more satisfying when I'm at an expo and someone comes up to me and says, You know what, because of your, you know, documenting your Iron Man, I did my first five K or half marathon or an Iron Man, because I know that can't be faked. You know, we all know that we can all get on a bodybuilding show. It's not as if somebody or a bodybuilding show stage it's not as if anybody's vetting us to say you're not good enough to get on that stage. You know, anybody can really get up there but to finish like a marathon or an Iron Man or something like that, you can't fake that you know, you have to really put in a sacrifice before you get that success
Matthew Januszek 46:39 to bring in that fitness level down to today like whether now arguably what how infectious and how widespread this this virus is, but what what are some things that you're doing or you can recommend people to, to build that resilience to best prepare themselves for any, anything that attacks the system from Mind Body nutrition supplements What? What what are some of the essential oils that you think we should all be be sort of taking note a note on at the moment?
Kris Gethin 47:10 Well, number one, I'd say disconnect from the media. That is the first thing because you know, whether you're watching CBS or whatever, you know, you need to disconnect, because what you are consuming there may not be correct, but it's consuming you So, and I see it with so many people there, they'd be overly consumed by the media. And I believe it's structured in a way to do so. So that's the first thing that I tell people is just, you know, disconnect, be informed, of course, be informed, but don't overly consume that whether it be online or elsewhere. Number two, like I said, it, the meditation is just part of the structure. You need to have the same structure. You know, if you're unfortunate and you don't, you're out of work at the moment. You still have to stay to the same structure as you did previously because guess what, you will be going back to work Rick, and you may find it a lot harder than somebody who did stick to this structure to get a job role. So that means getting up in the morning, that means not hitting the snooze button. I like to encourage forms of discipline that have a transcendence effect to other areas of your life. So I always tell people, hey, if you feel like a warm shower in the morning, have a cold shower, you know, you may not feel like it, but get used to doing things that you don't want to do get comfortable being uncomfortable, because it's going to be so much easier for you to deal with uncomfortable situations. Plus, cold therapy really helps with vagal nerve toning, so you're going to be much more emotionally stable during this time. So cold therapy is very good. If you've got an ice bath cryotherapy chamber or a cold shower, then participate in that cold therapy. activity. I don't care if you don't have a gym you have to participate in some form of activity, whether that means going up and down your stairs at home or doing Some burpees some sit ups and push ups, some jumping jacks do it because you have to remove yourself off a lot of the toxins, you have to get rid of a lot of the lactic acid, make sure that you participate in what would be like lymphatic drainage. So you're going to have a stronger immune system and then avoid anything that is going to have a compromised effects on your immune system. So no vegetable oils, no sugars, you know, no fast food, you know, think of eating the rainbow with your meals. You know, if you want to fast in the morning, great, that's going to promote something called a tapa G, which is going to clean up a lot of that that bad DNA in your body or folded proteins. So that's going to help with your immune system as well. supplementation. Like I said, If you cannot afford to go organic human raised grass fed, then make sure that you're supplementing high with like your vitamin C if you're not able to get outside because we're locked down supplement with vitamin D and K two as well. Well, so at least you're getting some of those immune building benefits from your supplementation. And, you know, as weird as it sounds force a smile upon his face. You know, it has shown in studies if you smile, even if you have to force it, you're going to feel better about yourself, you know, and but if you could do some form of resistance activity, then you know, that's going to be a huge benefits, you know, that is part of my lifeline and my pivotal role in life, because it just has, like I said, a transcendence effect to other areas and stay connected. You know, if we study the Blue Zones, where there's a disproportionate amount of people living to 100 years or older, one common thread whether they be in Aachen, our Sardinia, or Yorba Linda, these people have connection with their family with their community. So even though that you may be at home by yourself, try to stay connected with as many people online as you possibly can.
Matthew Januszek 50:55 And on on the just on the supplementation, like you mentioned, praying Pre and probiotics is uh, you know, is that a key thing to look at as well I've tried a bunch of different ones and greens and things you know what it? What's your recommendation for the gut gut health?
Kris Gethin 51:15 Yeah, yeah for sure. So pre and probiotics not just from the form of supplementation but like kimchi, sauerkraut, goat's kefir for sure. Your a lot of your prebiotics are going to come from your vegetables your fiber within there but if we're looking at supplementation is a company called bio optimizers. And they have a great probiotic called p three OM p3 om I call it the Navy SEALs of probiotics. So that's a very good probiotic that I do suggest as well. They've got some really good digestive enzymes because like I'm on a carnivore diet at the moment. I find it hard to break down all this meat. So they have an enzyme called mass zine. And you can go online and see it's actually with a stake in solution. And then they have another steak in solution where they put the mass sign in it and it actually digests it on just it just it you know. So it's really really good especially as you're getting a little bit older like me. So the p3 om, I find is a very good probiotic supplement with the probiotics Do you have to give yourself a rest so that your body's develops its own? Or can you continue to take them? Does it? Does it shut down if you're constantly supplements supplementing with them? No, no, no, no, like I said, it's going to come from your food at the end of the day, because you have to look at your background. Like we want antibiotics at some stage. We want some, you know, some sort of Psalm or whatever, where it could have an effect on your gut microbiome, or was it bad food, you know, you have to look into all these things. So then you're gonna have to heal your gut, may not take a couple of months may take eight months may take a year, and it's going to be the consistency of eating healthy, wholesome foods, like I said, trying to stay away from You know, mass produced foods, you know, if you're going to have like a factory farm fish is going to have a lot more omega six in there, where wild caught fish is going to have a lot more omega three oils, you know, very, very different. So you have to heal your gut from I'd say from a whole fruit perspective, I always add kimchi and sauerkraut every single day into one or two proportion portions of my meals, not while I'm on a carnivore diet at the moment, and I'll always have goats kefir as well. So I try to stay away from dairy as much as I possibly can because a lot of it has been adulterated with this day and age and I'll stay away from gluten as much as possible again, because if we look at a lot of the wheat used in years ago because I grew up on a farm, you know, the the which would be at the top portion of the stem, but now it goes all the way to the bottom, you know, it's been adulterated again so you know, there's a reason why people have more allergies today. It's not because there's a lot more millennials out there were a lot more sensitive to the issue is just because the food is Been adulterated. It's changed its structure.
Matthew Januszek 54:02 Yeah. So just just before I finish up then what we've got one more question but before that, where, where can people find out about you, you like your your gyms, your your, you've got supplement line just just tell us a little bit about the stuff you've got going on and how people can find out more about that, Chris?
Kris Gethin 54:20 Yeah, for sure. Well, I've kind of doubled down on my own online platform at the moment, which is just helping people with at home workouts. And so I've put out a few books out there online books, so that is on my own personal website and it's called healthcare kh LTHK ik a.com people can find me on my Instagram that's very easy as kr is getting GE t h i n and then obviously my gyms, which is a franchise over in India. We will be expanding now in 2021 and you can go to getting Gt HIN gym dot com for that. And my supplement company is caged muscle K-A-G-E- D M-U-S-C-L-E
Matthew Januszek 55:06 on just on the supplements because I've watched a bunch of the videos where you kind of talk about what's in them. And there's some pretty interesting stuff there. Certainly, I'm going to check them out but where where are you selling the cage muscle products and what what's different about those than any other ones or some of the other ones out there?
Kris Gethin 55:26 What we've what we've tried to Well, we've not tried we actually merged the health sector with a sports performance sector. There's just been a huge disconnect there up until now. So with our amino acids are all fermented vegan friendly, we only have natural flavors and natural colors are ingredients of patented organic, like I said fermented as well, we third party test all of our products. So not only does their contract manufacturer test, we test that test and we are adherence to in California, the prop 65 act as well as all heavy metal contaminants. So we have Obviously, your standard protein post workout, but it's with a very different spin. So for instance, we don't hydrolyzed proteins as the standard way, which would be with heat or chemicals, we actually use a pro hydrolyzed enzyme that breaks that protein fraction down without without the heat or chemicals because, you know, that'd be contradictory to holding that protein fraction in place. And then we have like hydration drinks, with electrolytes and antioxidants in there as well. And without the sugar and without, like I said, all the unnatural colors and dyes and stuff. And these aren't just available in the US or not, it's worldwide. It is worldwide, but we're sold here in GNC and vitamin [email protected]. And of course on our own website caged muscle.com muscle and strength I heard you know, you'll, you'll find it in plenty of places. Body Shop care in the UK is who's bringing it over there and so on.
Matthew Januszek 57:00 Final question, then Chris, escape your limits is about escaping what you have believed as was impossible and gone on to make it possible. What would be an example of where you've escaped your own personal limits?
Kris Gethin 57:14 My own personal limits? I'd say my personal limits is because, Hmm, that's a very good question. I wanted a sound so confident in answering that then, and I've been stopped in my tracks. Well, number one, obviously, like I talked about the hybrid athleticism, but I think my my limits were is that I wasn't, I wasn't smart in school. And it really frustrated me. You know, I really I felt like I was being bullied from an educational platform, not from a physical platform, but by the system, because I just could not retain the content. And then I found out it was because I had no real interest. You know, I had more interest in reading my dad's book of Rich Dad Poor Dad, but Robert Robert Like skin see and how that could help me. And I think just from learning from a physical perspective, because I never been like team sports, I didn't like, you know, playing rugby or playing soccer or anything like that. That's why I always did like motocross or triathlon or ultra marathon or bodybuilding is individualized. So I think, from a physical perspective of self exploration, I was able to explore the power of my mind. And that's what I was able to escape, you know, from what I was taught in Wales very, very early on. And you know, luckily, I didn't get pressure from my parents from an educational perspective as well. They just wanted to see me succeed in life.
Matthew Januszek 58:41 Fantastic. Well, Chris, thank you so much. some wonderful information in there. I've been scribbling down we'll put we'll put a bunch of those. We'll put the website links in the in the show notes for people to get them. And yeah, I hope you know, hope everything works out with your clubs in India on the other side, and I look forward to sort of catching you face to face when you next over in Huntington Beach.
Kris Gethin 59:06 Thank you very much I appreciate and I appreciate everything that escape has done for us in our gyms and in my garage as well keeping me active.
Matthew Januszek 59:14 Fantastic. Thanks, Kris. Thank you very much