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The Secret Formula to Getting Shredded Over 40 · Harder Than Life

• 0:00
  What's the major belief that you had to kill in order to rise? The things that we have to go through that allow us to get better. When I look at my life right now, I don't see a problem. I see the reward on the other side of the problem. But so many people see the problem rather than the reward. And every time we get past that problem, we get to meet a better version of ourselves over there. If you want an easy life, you're not going to have a good life. You're not going to grow.
• 0:31
  Once I create a solution, there's no plan B. Period. End of story. Because if I have a plan B, I can't commit to plan A. And if I have a plan B and I'm distracted, I won't succeed at plan A. I might fail a bunch of times to execute plan A, but I will get it done. We all know seeing is believing, but believing...
• 0:50
  is seeing when you believe it you will achieve it belief is a skill you have to practice believing you have to practice anything to get good at it if you don't practice believing yes if you don't practice believing you're never gonna believe
• 1:06
  I'm Kelly Siegel and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living. Welcome back to the Harder Than Life podcast. Today's guest, my friend, John Anderson is the definition of hard-earned transformation. A former fat kid with a learning disability, John bulldozed through the odds to become a world pro strongman champion.
• 1:36
  globe-trotting pro wrestler and elite IFBB pro bodybuilder. With 35-plus years of strength experience, he's now a mindset-driven coach and entrepreneur, helping high performers master discipline, build unstoppable physiques, and reprogram their inner story.
• 1:54
  John has never worked a traditional job. He built his empire on guts, grit, and belief. From competing in North America's strongest man to wrestling in North Korea, yes, really, to starting two seven-figure businesses, John's story proves that with the right mindset and discipline, nothing is out of reach. Welcome, my brother. That was quite an introduction. I appreciate that. I've got my whole story laid out in one big spiel.
• 2:20
  Man, it's been a minute since we connected. And I love how the universe aligns because I wanted to get you on. And then my producer, Steven's like, yo, John Anderson. I ran into John Anderson. I talked to you and he's like, he wants to come on. Get him on. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. But I was talking to Steven. He's like, you know, he goes, you know, I got this guy. He goes, he's also a big dude. And he mentioned, I'm like, shh.
• 2:42
  I said, I know, Kelly. Let's hook it up, man. Let's go. Let's go. Let's share our gift with, should I say gift or affliction? What was the exact moment you realized you weren't meant for the traditional path? You know, that's a great question. And it's not a really simple line of the sand. If you go back far enough, I was really challenged. I mean, I still have a pretty whopping learning disability. You're like, reading is tough for me. Dyslexia, I could be reading. You know, he was...
• 3:11
  And I'll say, I'll see he saw. Those letters will just flip back and forth from my eyes. So when I was young, I got basically kind of put in the classes where, you know, kids were really struggled. They didn't have all the names by the letters. They said the kid's slow. And in that class, there were kids that were not going to live a normal life, you know. So I was like, holy shit, I got to get out of here. Basically, this is where it all kind of started because to get out of that class, and I was in there for years,
• 3:39
  I had to develop a work ethic that was far greater than everybody else's, but I still had a hard time keeping up with the way they were teaching. So I had to develop this problem solving skill set. It was my way of getting to the finish line.
• 3:56
  Well, you take those two things away from me, brother. I'm working on 7-Eleven somewhere. And so as I started to realize I'm growing up as a teen and as an early adult in college, I realized I do things my way because of the way I see things and I simplify them and I create solutions. You know, I create I solve these problems different than everybody else. And that's when I realized I don't want to I don't want to live like everybody else.
• 4:21
  I don't want to get in that car and drive to work. I don't want to go collect a paycheck. I want to live it on my terms. To answer your question, as soon as I registered that my challenge had given me these two gifts, I realized that I didn't have to follow the rules of society.
• 4:39
  Look at that. Your biggest affliction is your greatest gifts. That's a good way to look at it. I'm sitting here. If you look at my face, I'm like, I'm sitting here trying to answer that question for myself. And I'm thinking in my head, like, when was that? You know what? I just think I always knew. I always knew I was being groomed.
• 4:59
  for something great because my path seemed to be harder than most. So I don't know what it was. It sounds like yours is harder, but man, I look back and I'm thinking, why was always ever, even right now I'm in the biggest challenge. I just, I've had anxiety for about 10 straight days and I cannot figure it out no matter what I do. And I just giggle because I'm just used to it. That's why it's called harder than life. It ain't called softer than life. It's called harder than life.
• 5:25
  Because we do hard things. So by the way, I want to connect you with another dear friend of mine who is, who is, has got a nonprofit called DS for dyslexia. Great kid. I'm doing a speaking engagement for him in November. Good kid. Um,
• 5:42
  Just absolutely works hard. 22 years old, stud, and had to overcome dyslexia. I mean, I don't... Yeah, I'd be happy to participate in that if he wants to know the speaker. Man, I love that stuff. You know, helping people understand that that thing that you think is what held you back is actually your biggest blessing. If people could get a hold of this early in life, they would have different lives. That's what I wanted to go down. So keep going on there. What's the major belief that you had to kill
• 6:11
  In order to rise. Well, I think when it came down to it was. I was told. Because remember, I'm in the slow classes. You can't do that. You can't do this. You're not supposed to say that anymore, right? Well, slow is actually. If you want me to be totally honest. It was called the resource room.
• 6:29
  But I'm just I'm not using the word myself. The rest of the student body called it the retard room. And that was part of the thing. Because I was in that room, I got picked on, which then I ran to food for comfort. So now I'm a fat little bastard on top of having no self-esteem. It was just this big. That was the blessing. I thank God for every bit of it. I thank God for every dude that's put me in a garbage can upside down because that's the stuff that made me me.
• 6:54
  But anyway, what I'm getting at is that to answer your question is the things that we have to go through that allow us to get better. Everything in front of us, you know, like when I look at my life right now, I don't see a problem. I see the reward on the other side of the problem. But so many people see the problem rather than the reward. And every time we get past that problem, we get to meet a better version of ourselves over there.
• 7:22
  And so you just have to realize that if you want an easy life, you're not going to have a good life. You're not going to grow. And if we're not growing, if I'm not growing, I'm not happy, brother. If I don't have some sort of a challenge, if I don't have something to chew on, if I don't have a, I hate to call it a little turmoil, but you could almost call it. I need a little struggle. I need something to work through. This is what makes me tick. I get up at 2.59 every morning.
• 7:49
  Not because I have to, because I want to. I woke up today at, at, it was like two 26. I'm like, Jesus Christ, dude, you got 15 minutes. I'm awake. Let's go. You know? Yeah. I, you know, I was reading the show notes this morning, final prep for this. And I was giggling because I was thinking about when I met you versus now and how it's just extremely fitting that we're doing this now. I'm in a,
• 8:14
  better place. I just am ready to chit chat about this and share it with the world. And we are literally separated. But I thought I needed to hear this today as much as I'm sharing it with my audience. It's I thought I was the only crazy sick one. Brother, that hits me right in the heart because, you know, when when we we love to in a good way, because we love to inspire people and to have you tell me.
• 8:38
  that this conversation is helping you. I mean, fuck, man, that doesn't get any better. Excuse my language. You don't give me goose pibbles. The reason why I say that, John, is because I wake up at 3.59. I'm not even kidding you. My clock is set for 3.50. I say 4 o'clock, but it's 3.59 is my thing. I'm at the gym by 5 every morning. We want to be one minute earlier than the 4 o'clockers or the 3 o'clockers. We've got the same mindset, brother. And I focus on that goal like I'm a maniac.
• 9:06
  And that's what every thought leader tells you not to do is just focus on today. But I have to have my mind on the horizon, my vision on the horizon, so I know where I'm going, so I don't veer all around. Mind on that –
• 9:21
  But focus on what's right in front of me. I still am watching the horizon. Yeah. But I'm focused right here on what I got to do next every single day. And I'm doing this crazy thing. You want to talk about creating chaos. I'm doing this crazy thing where I'm doing 500 workouts this year. And it sounds simple and easy for you and I because it's, you know, we work out 350 to 360 times anyways. I figure what's 140 to 150 more workouts. It's a lot.
• 9:45
  Yeah. Dude, the mindset it takes to do that is insane. There's days that I just I don't want to work out. I want to take it. Are you talking about like going to the gym a second time? Are you talking about like because I do a I do two bits of exercise, but the first one in the morning, it might only be 10 minutes. I mean, it could be jumping on a rebounder or burpees. I just need to get that blood flowing, man. Wake me up. Get that juice flowing. That's what I consider workout. But if you're talking about going to the gym twice, that's a different ordeal.
• 10:14
  So basically, 80 for Sella, 75 hard. But I do about an hour for the gym. Like I went today, did legs this morning with my training partner from 5 to 6. Then I came on my work all day, do podcasts. And then I'll go probably today since it's nice out, I'll go for a 45-minute walk. A lot of times I just go back and do cardio. But yeah, it's two separate workouts. And it is a...
• 10:38
  I'm tired. I'm at today was 332 this morning and I'll be 333 this afternoon. So think about that. Most people don't work out 333 times in their life and I'm doing it in one year. So my guess is this has something to do with your deep water method. So can you explain the core of the deep water method in one sentence? My guess is it's exactly that, but go ahead. Yeah.
• 11:01
  Well, I guess there's a couple of different elements. Like the first element, I think, that kind of brought this. There's something about me and water. Funny enough, you too, you live on the water. I've always lived on the water. I've never had, as an adult, every house I've bought is on the water, period, end of story. There's a lake right behind me here. My house in Mexico is on the Sea of Cortez. The house that I came from in the Bay Area was just like yours, where it was like the channel that led out to the bay. I mean, to the T. So who has this thing with water?
• 11:30
  But then when it came to my philosophy of life, which was developed as a youngster, working twice as hard, problem-solving skill set, that's just, it's a very different way. I simplify. I look at things that are complex and I break them into the simplest format so I can understand, so I can execute. A confused mind, my mind, if it's confused, won't step forward. But if it's simple and I understand it, I am just like a machine, just chopping away going forward.
• 12:00
  The deep water method was really, it was named by actually one of my coaches, but the philosophy is you commit to, and this is the way I live my life. This is where I kind of found a way to succeed with the work ethic and the problem solving. Once I create a solution,
• 12:17
  There's no plan B, period. End of story. Because if I have a plan B, I can't commit to plan A. And if I have a plan B and I'm distracted, I won't succeed at plan A. I might fail a bunch of times to execute plan A, but I will get it done. I was told I couldn't so much as a youngster. I don't care about failing. I don't care about what people say. I don't care about all that shit. What I care about is let me look at the problem. Okay.
• 12:42
  create the solution nice and simple and I attack and I attack till the job's done. And I don't figure out what will happen if it doesn't work. That's not an option. That's the philosophy. So now how did it get named? I'm in my pro strongman career.
• 12:57
  And they had really brought some different disciplines in. Like we were doing a lot of cleaning and pressing overhead, which was fairly new. Every competition, I was like, holy shit, I got to get a coach for this. So one of my buddies, he was actually an Olympic lifter, lived at the Colorado Training Center, like that good. He was like Olympic hopeful. And I said, look, dude, I need you to train me every Thursday on some of this Olympic lifting discipline so I can be more competitive when I go out to Europe and do this shit.
• 13:23
  Is it not a problem? We're training. You know, those guys are doing like singles and doubles. They don't do lots of reps. And strong man, how many times could you do something for 90 seconds? And so when I told him, I said, look, I don't need you to coach me when I'm fresh. I need you to coach me when I'm sucking wind. When I, when I'm, when my technique is breaking down, that's what I need you.
• 13:45
  And so he basically put like 315 on a bar and I'd start doing clean and presses and somewhere about six or seven reps, seven reps. You see, I'm breathing hard. I'm starting to struggle. And I hear him yelling at me. You're in deep water now. This is where we work.
• 14:01
  This is where I'm going to start to coach you because that's where I needed him as when I was starting to struggle. So the name Deepwater was actually deemed by him because it was the idea that I was going to take that set all the way until I crashed, period. I wasn't going to finish one rep. But it was developed as a youngster. It's the idea that you create that plan, you create the solution, there's no plan B, and you go. There's nothing else.
• 14:29
  It's burn to boats, baby. Burn to boats. It's literally being harder than life. I say that all the time. It's don't negotiate with yourself. And when it gets hard is when we get started. This morning, we were doing leg presses on a Smith machine, upside down, drop sets. So it was like...
• 14:49
  My guy who coaches, who is my workout partner, he's trained Phil Heath, a lot of, you know, Mr. Olympias. He's been training me. And it's like, there's no joke, man. We go. People, oh, you take steroids. Oh, you don't. No, no, no, no, no. I train every day and I train with massive intention. I lift heavy weights incredibly hard. Most people would puke if they tried to go through mine. And that's only...
• 15:15
  Just to survive because I still think I'm that little kid growing up that my parents used to be. So this isn't something I've chosen. I just, it's the only way I know how to survive. And then it's a great opener. So having said that, I know that we're very similar in that way, but how do most men fail at transforming their lives? And how does your coaching fix that? Or how do you recommend they fix that?
• 15:39
  Well, I mean, I think one of the biggest issues that the average man has is he fears failure. But even worse, he's more afraid of what people are going to say because he failed than the failure itself. And so really when it comes down to it, if I was to take my coaching and like simplify it, I'm getting people out of their own way because they're the ones that are their biggest hurdles. It's like Jesus did.
• 16:04
  You know, if if you would just do what you need to do and stop worrying about all these distractions, we would be fine.
• 16:11
  You know, it's social media is that way, man. Just looking at it this weekend, I was so exhausted from my week that I stayed in. And I do a lot. But Friday night, Saturday night, Netflix and chill, literally, with my girlfriend. And it was, she's like, I want to go out on Saturday. I go, can we just stay in? I'm exhausted. And then Sunday, we even doubled down. I just laid in the pool on my thing. And I did nothing. Literally nothing because I was so drained. And I look at everybody. And I'm like, okay.
• 16:41
  having a time of their life on boats, out partying. And meanwhile, I go to my IT cybersecurity company on Monday, and it's one of the toughest days that I got to deal with employee turmoil. And it's like, I look back and I wonder how in the heck I used to freaking party on the weekends and then come back in. I'm just, I'm meant for so much more. And that was me getting in my own way. And then now I know to just get out of the way. And a lot of times it's just crazy.
• 17:08
  being still being silent and just letting go how do you find yourself letting go and letting god and surrendering and all those great things that are so hard for us type a personalities to do keep in mind what i teach in my to my clients this is the shit that i practice myself and i tell them that look i'm not teaching you something i don't do this is what i do i live my life this way it
• 17:34
  Yeah. So, but I mean, literally it's, there's a mental exercise that I do every day. It's non-negotiable. I have my clients do it. And this is like the foundation of getting out of our own way is the, you know, the way our brains were designed, you know, our brains were designed to keep us alive when surviving was a difficult task. So our brains are going to scan our surroundings and pick out all the problems.
• 17:57
  Well, Jesus Christ, these problems, most of them don't even exist. One of the first drills I have my clients do, take a piece of paper, split it down the middle left, write down all the things that have stressed you out in the last six months on the right, write down the things that turn to reality. And they're like, oh my God, only like 20% of them has come to reality. Exactly. You're suffering over things that you shouldn't suffer over, or even better, you're distracted over these things. So I basically am...
• 18:25
  Kind of the core is I'm reprogramming the mind. Rather than waking up and going into all of the stress and the anxiety of what the world has to offer us, it's getting up and going immediately into gratitude and being thankful for what we have. Because we can look at everything from two sides.
• 18:46
  Kind of a funny example. Somebody kicks me in the nuts. I'm on my hands and knees, breathing hard. I'm thinking, whoever did that, thank you. Because clearly I'm down here on my hands and knees. I'm supposed to see something. There's an opportunity here that I wouldn't have seen if I was standing up.
• 19:03
  Everything is good. And when you develop this mindset that everything is good and your brain stops basically torturing you with cortisol over shit that never even comes to reality, you become a very different person. Now, you don't see problems, you see opportunities.
• 19:20
  A lot of people get confused by these two terms, abundant and scarcity mindset. What does that mean? Most people, they'll agree, but they don't really understand what it means. I don't think they've ever really experienced an abundant mindset so that they really don't understand. But here's one that everybody can understand that's very similar, winning and losing.
• 19:36
  When you're in a scarcity mindset, it's like a losing mindset. Think when you're a kid, you got your ass beat, some sort of a sport, your confidence is shaken. You don't know if you can do it. You don't want to put the work in versus you win. You're like, God, I can't wait to do that again. The decisions you make in a winning or an abundant mindset.
• 19:55
  will change your life. And if you can exist in that mindset, your decisions will take your life at a place that would never go if you're making decisions in that scarcity or losing mindset. And that's the foundation to what I do. Now, of course, there's training, there's nutrition, there's all these things are gonna support that. But the nutrition is just the driver. That's gonna get you the energy. That's gonna get you the clarity. That's gonna get you the good sleep. That's like the motor behind...
• 20:23
  the true supercomputer. So John, you, you started that whole talk about a mental exercise that you do in the morning. Is it just gratitude or can you describe, give it, give the listeners? Yeah. One hundred percent, one hundred percent. Yeah. So I mean, I'll kind of just describe the starting point because it evolves. It's, it starts here just like a diet. You, you start somebody here, you can start two people in the same spot and it'll drift according to that person.
• 20:48
  Well, this exercise the same way. The starting point is going to be the same for everybody. And as I see it move, then I know what I need to be paying attention to. But ultimately, I call it P3. The reason I call it P3, just easy to remember, right? And basically, the first P is purge. Purge, remove, or...
• 21:09
  What the hell did I do yesterday? I don't want to do again today. So what you're doing is you're looking at your day, a little inventory of what I do yesterday that I don't want to do again today. Just by removing a single mistake every day, that actually helps people a ton because humans will make the same mistake every day and it becomes normal. They don't even know they're doing it.
• 21:28
  You know, and so so that's the first then the second P. This one actually has two parts. That's A and B. Basically, this is purpose, behavior, intention. How do you intend to behave today so that you can have a good day? Because we want to win our daily battle. If we win our daily battle, we'll win the war of life. You just got to find a way to win your daily battle. So the P2A is going to be supporting P1.
• 21:57
  It's going to be something that's going to help you remove that whatever you don't want to do yesterday. Then P2 is going to be more of a behavior. You know, I intend to be this way. I'm going to behave this way and attach it to something exact like a great starting place for people. And I'm sure you have this every once in a while. You go in the gym, but you're really not ready.
• 22:16
  Today. And your workout gets screwed up. So, okay. So today, and you do this first thing in the morning. Today, I sit in my car until I'm mentally ready that I go in. So we pre-planned. We predetermined this stuff. And when you do this, your supercomputer already knows it's coming. It will do it. Then the third one, that's the gratitude portion. That's the third P. You're basically writing three things you're grateful for. And when that's a really important part, because we go deep into that to the point where, you
• 22:43
  Because that becomes a tool. Like I can close my eyes right now and I can go into some different states of gratitude and I can feel the positive chemistry that my brain is releasing into my bloodstream. So this is a tool. The brain can't feel anxiety and gratitude at the same time.
• 22:59
  So I can turn off that cortisol spigot at any moment by going into a state of gratitude. And I do it all the time. Something gets my goat. I'm like, oh, I'm stressing out. I literally, all I'll usually do is turn around. I just want to change what I'm looking at. Close my eyes. I can think about my daughter's.
• 23:15
  Oh, there you go. I just, I feel it right there. All I got to do is say my daughters and I can feel my brain releasing some good shit into me. Changes my state. I don't want to live in that state that is predicted by cortisol. Cortisol, for example, this is the stress hormone that makes us sick.
• 23:34
  gives us heart attacks. And remember the stress, he said it again. This is why I needed to hear this again, because I'm in a state of, so I live in a state of, I live off of, I run on caffeine, protein, and really anger. And I don't understand the anger, but it was a survival mechanism as a child. And my body's trying to purge it, to use your purge, it's trying to purge it, but I've been holding onto it for 49 years.
• 24:04
  So for 10 days, my body's trying to let it go. And it's I'm holding on. You ran off of anger. I ran off of fear. So we ran off of two really, really negative emotions. But understand this.
• 24:19
  Fear, how I dealt with my fear was anger. I would get tough and say, I'm not afraid, even though I was scared to death. I was afraid my mother would come home and beat me. I was afraid my stepfather was going to come home and beat me. And then my mother had a stalker and he would stalk us. I was just in a constant state of fear and how I combated that was anger.
• 24:43
  just by anger being tough and saying, I'm not afraid. And that took me, that grit, that resilience took me to superstardom and the IT side and really entrepreneurship. Everything I touched, I jumped right in because of fear of failure. And I used the negative as a positive. And I do that with everything I do. Podcasts, when I first started this podcast, I didn't know what I was doing. I was scared to death.
• 25:08
  Steven makes me do one of the solo shows. I don't know what I was doing. Now I love him. And it's, I just do it. So I love the purging thing. It's an unrated habit because it's easier to subtract than it is to add. It's easier to say- That's so true. So true. It's easier to say, I'm going to rest, prioritize rest
• 25:31
  and sleep over doing 500 workouts. I can assure you that. It's funny how we all have the same thing though. You live your life the same way I do, but we get there in different ways and that's why I had you on the show. So let's dig into the mental toughness because that's what I see. I see people...
• 25:49
  Everybody, all of my people from all walks of life, lying to themselves in the mirror. How can the average Joe get mentally tough? I'm having a brain fart, but there's a part of the brain that actually develops when we do hard things. And I know this is your. Yeah, there we go.
• 26:08
  And so, I mean, this is your world. This is what you talk about, brother. All day. And so why do I get up at 259? Because I'm going to start doing something hard every day. And when you exercise doing hard things, they're not hard anymore. No. And when you think about people saying, oh, you know, they want to develop mental toughness. They want to do this. They want to do that.
• 26:31
  It's so simple. Start doing difficult stuff. And the more you do it, the easier it becomes. And like now, I was at a seminar. I was asked the question amongst days of, you know, what is your superpower? I didn't have to think. It just came out of me like I was vomiting. I will do the shit that other people won't do. Period.
• 26:53
  And when you're willing to do the things that no one else will do, you separate yourself. Now, granted, that puts us in a school similar together because we operate the same. Now, standing across from you, that would turn into a little bit of an argument because we both feel the same way. But us against the average man, they won't do what we do. No, no, no, no, no. I will tell you this much, and it's still going to be popular with my listeners, but I believe we're the average man. And everybody else is not...
• 27:22
  putting in the intentional effort. That's why I have this podcast. This is, I'm out here to inspire. I'm not here knocking anybody down. I'm like, guys, yeah, this is, here's two average men that just put in the work for years, 35 years in your case, 30 years in my case.
• 27:39
  This did not happen by accident, and it was built off of something very negative. And a lot of people who listen to me had grew up a lot better lives than you and I did, so they can do it too, and I believe in you, and it just needs that one little spurt, and I've give the blueprints every Thursday.
• 27:54
  Every Thursday show, I'm teaching people the blueprint of what I do every single day. And I'll bet you it's exactly what my friend John here does. So it's just be impeccable with your word and just do what you say you're going to do. That's the easiest way to get mentally tough and do hard things over and over. Because we fall to our standards. We don't rise to our goals. My standards are so high that even if I have an off day, it's better than most people's best day.
• 28:20
  I did not have, I tried a new pre-workout this morning. I slept like garbage and I went to the gym. I didn't have, but I gave it everything I had and it was average, but I guarantee it was tougher than most people's workout. You showed up, baby. Hey, and I'm going back again later, right after, right after this. So let's talk, let's have a little fun because I can't, I didn't know this about you that you wrestled in Japan. So what is, what's harder?
• 28:46
  strongman training or pro wrestling in Japan? You know, strongman training. So think like this. Wrestling is entertainment. It's a dance. Now, granted, I got plenty hurt wrestling. It's there's, you know, what you see is real in the regards that this is this is like a really physical play. Is it predetermined? Yes, we know what's going to happen.
• 29:09
  But I mean, when, you know, when I pop my bicep loose, oh, two minutes into a 15 minute match and I had to wrestle with my bicep sitting up in my shoulder, that was very real, you know? And so what I'm getting at is they're, they're hard in a different way. You know, the straw man training.
• 29:28
  I mean, it just wears you out. I mean, your muscles, your central nervous system. There would be like, I would train on Sundays and I would do mock contests. Mainly I would have basically doing a contest, even though it was just with my training partners, because you had to be ready. You couldn't. It's not just doing an event or two. You're doing six events in a day. And if you're not conditioned to get back up mentally for that, you can't just show up to a competition and do it.
• 29:52
  It takes years to get into that mental shape. That's a different type of crazy. Like David Goggins crazy. So that's, and I admire that. I don't have that. I can honestly admit, I get close. I flirt with it. But if you- Well, you know, the harder part about it, brothers, to train and to get really in that space for an event or two. But when you've got to get back to that space six times in a day, oh man. Yeah.
• 30:21
  So literally to describe the difficulty physically, mentally, emotional, central nervous system wise training Sunday, Monday, I literally would not get out of bed. I would get up to eat when I spent literally I never put clothes on. It was a day where I my body needed to recover. That's the type of recovery that it required.
• 30:41
  So, I mean, it was like, it's just, you're, you're putting that much up, but then wrestling, you know, it's actually, if you, if you go, that's, that's more of a sleep deprivation thing. I mean, oh my God, it seems like, you know, you finish with a show late, you got to get to, you know, hotel, you got to get to an airport early, you're going to a different town. It's like, you were just trying to sleep on airplanes. And I remember there were times where I was like, I had a couple of shots where I was like.
• 31:08
  We're wrestling like four matches in three days, and I'm just flying all, and none of them in the same spot. You know, and I'm like...
• 31:14
  It was like, I remember the last match, I'm like, I'm here, but I'm not here. But it's crazy. You really performed well in that state. I don't really know how. You don't think. It's just instincts. It's muscle memory and instincts. You don't have time to mess it up, which is amazing. Wait, so I didn't know this about you. That's why when I was doing show prep, what's the strangest place you ever wrestled? Obviously, North Korea is the craziest place. Whoa.
• 31:43
  Yeah, North Korea. Most people check this out. When I told my mom, right, I told her I'm going to do a mini tour in North Korea. She's like, oh, son, you must be talking about South Korea. I said, no, mom, I'm going to North Korea. She kind of giggled it off, right? But she was sitting there with my sister-in-law. They thought, oh, the big dummies lost their mind, right? So I'm literally in the airport. I said, hey, mom, I'm just calling you to say goodbye. I'm getting on a plane to go to North Korea.
• 32:12
  She said, you're not going to North Korea. I said, mom, I'm looking at my ticket. It says North Korea. She said, what? That's not very safe. She starts freaking out. What year was this? Yeah, it was.
• 32:24
  14. You know, it's really interesting about this brother. So my wrestling career ended right. 42 years old. That was when I got, I got, that's when I lost my full-time contract with new Japan. I came home and got my bodybuilding pro card, right? Of course, as soon as I get my bodybuilding pro card, one of the wrestling companies I worked for called and said, Hey, do you want to go to North Korea? So there was a short bit where I was actually a two sport pro. So I was a pro bodybuilder when I went to North Korea.
• 32:53
  pretty crazy i would be remiss if we didn't talk about the late great hulk hogan this this week uh we lost a great one and you know i grew up watching him and idolizing him and you know he he set pro wrestling in you know he made it what it is and watching him just you know die it was tough indiscriminately like just
• 33:15
  You just think that he would, it just made me say, it really started making me think about my mortality. And, you know, he's 71, I'll be 50. And it's just, you know, he'd been sick for several months. They've been hiding it. He had 28 surgeries. And yet you, every time you saw him, he was smiling, he was happy and he was entertaining.
• 33:37
  And I just, that's kind of what I want, but I don't want it to end indiscriminately at 71. I just feel like I want it to go out with my family around me at 120 and I've accomplished everything that I set out to be. And, you know, it doesn't get cut. It feels like we got, it got cut a little short. Well, you know, the thing with him, he's 71, correct? Yes, he was. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. That's 71. Might as well, but 142.
• 34:07
  Because the life that he jammed in 71 years, I don't think we will have a clue.
• 34:14
  what that man saw, what he did. I mean, you know, I just was not even close to the level he was when I was wrestling, but I was in that arena, so to speak, you know, meaning I was in that circuit. And just the things that you get to see and the things that people do for you, you're in, and he was like the creme de la creme of this whole world. I mean, he had, I guess I remember him and yes, he's a huge inspiration, but I just think I just, he's gone and I just smile and think, man,
• 34:44
  Must have been so amazing. I try to just think about what an amazing life he had. Think of all of his close friends in wrestling, and almost all of them died early from drinking and drugs. So, you know, birds of a feather flock together. So they must have had a freaking blast. And, you know, you see Ric Flair, he's still having a blast at 78 or 77, whatever he is. He just don't plan on stopping. So...
• 35:13
  The moral of the story is it's not as glamorous as it seems. These guys have beat their bodies. Hogan's body was in bad shape. He had neck surgery is what ultimately caused his death, the complications from that.
• 35:30
  You know, at 71, you're having neck surgery from all because he wrestled back in the day when they wrestled every single night, sometimes twice a night. And now they realize the body can't do that. Can't deal with that. So let's talk about some nutritional stuff, because everybody here, you know, two muscle guys that keep in great mind and body physical shape. I would say be mentally tough and physical mastery.
• 35:55
  So what is your nutrition philosophy for men who want to drop weight, but keep energy. So drop fat and not GLP. 100%. So check this out. I start off by saying there was a time on this planet where we all knew for a fact, the world was flat. It was a fact, right? Well, there was also a time on this planet when we knew for a fact that,
• 36:23
  that you had to starve yourself to lose weight. That's not true anymore either. It's just so many people are having a hard time letting go and the world is flat. Basically, there's two sides of the fence. You can go into a calorie deficit, right? You can starve yourself. You can be malnourished, look like hell, feel like hell, drop the weight you want to drop, look in the mirror and go, damn it, I just look just like a smaller, pathetic version of what I started with.
• 36:51
  Right. Or you go to the other side, which is what I teach. We feed the metabolism. I teach my clients how to eat in a way that speeds up their metabolism, that literally burns the fat right off them. Now,
• 37:04
  How do we know? It's called a recomp. They're actually going to get stronger in the process because most of them, I've got to eating more than I've ever eaten before. And so if they want to do weightlifting in their process, they're going to end up getting stronger. So they're going to gain some muscle, drop some body fat. But really what we're talking about here is letting go of the idea that being hungry is the way to do this. Never be hungry is the way to do this. I mean, there's two rules that I'm going to come out with right out of the gate if someone wants to lose weight.
• 37:34
  Rule number one, you can never be hungry. Rule number two, you can never be full. And that's the thing with Americans. It's kind of interesting. I don't have this issue with my European clients, but Americans eat until they're full. They have a stretch in their stomach, right? As soon as that feeling of stretch goes away, they think they're hungry. They're not hungry.
• 37:55
  They're just not full. They operate in basically full or not full rather than going down the line a little bit to being, okay, the stomach is, has enough or almost hungry. So it's like, we got to pull that scale back. They'll like, I have a client say, you know, I just ate the meal that you prescribed for me and I'm hungry. And I'm like, I'm hungry.
• 38:17
  a much larger creature than you. And I could eat that meal and I wouldn't be hungry. I wouldn't be full, but I wouldn't be hungry. And they're like, Oh, because they're still used to. Yes. And then I have to tell him, look, listen, listen,
• 38:31
  You got to, when your brain tells you I'm hungry, you got to say to it, no, I'm not hungry. I'm just not full. But it's all mental reprogramming. So you have two Neanderthals. Again, I'm looking into a mirror. So I do all this stuff too, but I just don't do the never hungry, never full. What I do is I just make sure I get five to six small meals a day. And I'm going to tell you one more thing that I've gotten rid of that.
• 38:57
  was ingrained in my mind for years with is that carbs are bad. I literally make, because I run so hot,
• 39:05
  that I have to burn something and I want it to burn carbs, not muscle. Cause that's what happens when he, when you're saying, let me break it down for the neophytes here is, but you don't want to be hungry cause you're going to start burning your muscle. And that's, what's wrong with these Zempics and GLPs is you start burning muscle to lose weight. And that is a problem people. So,
• 39:30
  To flip around what John is telling you is eat more, work out harder and intense, and you will metabolize that into muscle and you will also burn fat. Well, check this out, brother. 100%, but I just want to take it a little step further. For that person that doesn't like to work out, like I have people that will come to me and I'm the last ditch effort before they go get a gastric bypass. Oh. Right? Right.
• 39:53
  Which, by the way, doesn't work either. It works short term. The studies have shown you gain your weight back within five years. All you do is inherit a much bigger problem is what you inherit. You know, a much smaller stomach. Yes. So the guy might be four pounds, has no interest in working out.
• 40:12
  And I don't want to ask him to do anything he doesn't want to do because it's not sustainable. So I just basically have him focus on eating. He doesn't walk. He doesn't do anything. I can peel 100 pounds off someone without doing any sort of training, just eating in a certain fashion. Yeah, because here's the thing. If you take the diet...
• 40:32
  The diet is the biggest way we know to stimulate the metabolism. People say, okay, I want to work out. I want to do cardio. Lifting weights, let's say on a scale of one to 10, we can award total 10, 10 total points in terms of stimulating the metabolism. Cardio, maybe a one. Weight training, a solid two, maybe a little more, depending on how hard you train. The diet consumes the rest. Mm-hmm.
• 41:01
  So why would someone spend all that time investing themselves, say, in cardio, which at best is going to give you a 10% return when you could focus on, say, that 75% and make tons of progress? That's what I teach people. Listen, that's part of the way I do things. When I problem solve, what's that one thing I can attack?
• 41:23
  that's going to get me massive progress because that massive progress is going to turn into massive momentum. And I'm just going to have to select shark. It's like blood in the water for a shark. So I guess what I want the viewers to understand is that when you learn how to feed the metabolism properly, you'll get healthier. You'll peel body fat off. You'll have more energy. You'll have more optimism. Another thing too, that people tend not realize is about 75% of our serotonin is released from the gut.
• 41:50
  And if you're not eating properly, you're not getting the lion's share of your serotonin. And serotonin is that thing that helps us cope with life. Feeling of wellness, rids anxiety, you know, helps us sleep. The list goes on. So diet is the biggest piece of the equation, period, end of story. I get the question I get asked all the time is I have this little love handle that
• 42:16
  that I want to get, or I want my abs to pop like gorse. They have that little layer
• 42:23
  Oh, skin or fat. So they're not out of shape, but they just want to define it. Would you say it's more exercise or would you go back down the diet? What are you eating? So, I mean, I tell you, I get a message a day on this, on my Instagram. Guaranteed diet. Diet. I don't care. I don't care about what you're dealing with training. I want to know. What do they eat? What do they need? What do they need more greens? And what do they need?
• 42:46
  Well, it really depends. And that's the thing that I, the next thing that I wanted to cover was that people need to realize that we're creatures. Every creature is different. Every creature is going to respond different. And so if you just, if you, your neighbor does something that works, you're probably not going to get the same result as him. So when it comes to someone asked me that question, I'm going to ask, okay, tell me what you're eating. And I'm going to look for the big mistakes, right? Right.
• 43:14
  But in terms of really telling them what to do until I understand how their body responds to things, I'm guessing. Yeah, I tell you that. So, again, we use the same thing. I say everybody, everybody and everybody is different. Just because I have a six pack doesn't mean that if I literally I've got a message yesterday.
• 43:35
  What's the best ab exercise? I said, I don't know what you're doing yet. Right. I can tell you what, what the best abs are. The one that you hate doing that hurts the most, but it doesn't, you could do it a thousand times and still not get it at six pack because I need to know the rest of what's going on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One ever sit. Yeah. And everybody has abs. They're just hidden under a layer of fat. Yeah.
• 44:01
  Again, what I told you, what I've been doing is just eating more and having that – eating more carbs to fuel so I can work out harder and go longer. Like I just – I order from a meal prep company because I –
• 44:17
  I'm so busy during my day. There's times I miss meals. I cannot miss meals. Like you said, I cannot be hungry. If I'm hungry, I am not firing at all cylinders. That is like a cheat code. Yeah, 100%. I was just going to say to demonstrate what you're talking about, brother, you're saying how your formulas, you got to have these carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not bad. Not disagreeing with you.
• 44:39
  There are some people, they just respond better off of essential fats for fuel. That's how different it can be. You know your formula. You have your proteins. You're going to have your carbs. You've got to have something to burn. I have clients that literally when we put the carbohydrate in,
• 44:56
  They get lethargic. They don't feel well and take carbide out, replace it with essential fats like avocado, almonds. They feel sharp and their body starts dropping fat like a mother. That's how different every body can be. Keep in mind, John, when I say that it's with all due respect, meaning I probably am quadrupling the aminos and the protein. Like I know for a fact, I do between 220 and 240 grams of protein a day.
• 45:24
  And carbs is probably only about maybe a small amount, maybe, maybe, totally. And so when we're talking like you do it, yeah, well, we're talking more carbs. It was from none.
• 45:39
  to, you know, or maybe 50 to a hundred. Just, I just noticed that if I just added a little bit more, I had a little more energy to go a little longer. And that's, that's what I do in life. Guys, here's the best thing in the world. This is in business and health and relationships. Try something, measure it and tinker.
• 45:57
  And that's it. I started taking vitamins just today. I switched my vitamins from the morning to noon now to give myself an extra little spoon. I'm always tinkering. Like you said, I've always got a puzzle to solve or else I feel like I'm dying. So we're separated at birth. But let's talk about something that we both know. And it's besides working out and winning. What's the biggest misconception about getting strong?
• 46:22
  over the age of 40. Well, I think first off, people think that they can't because they're listening to people who are not putting into work and doing it right.
• 46:31
  So if you want to get strong over 40, you know, there's a pretty simple, when I say simple, the formula, it's going to be specific to the person, but you're going to have to consume food. You have to consume food in a certain way. You're going to have to consume the right types of foods. You're going to have to consume foods at certain times. You're going to have to hydrate with, but there's a formula for.
• 46:56
  For a man over 40 to get stronger, I help my clients do it all the time. The thing about it, as we get older, our formulas change. Is it as easy to get as strong at, say, 45 to 25? No, you could get away with doing so many things wrong at 25 and still get stronger. 45, that wiggle room reduces. And so that's part of what I teach is that because people come to, they want to make a lifelong change. And if I figure out their formula right now, we get them in shape.
• 47:26
  What are they going to do in five, 10 years? So part of my system is I teach them to understand and how to adjust with their body as it ages. And then at this point, you don't have the getting in shape, getting out of shit. You just have this constantly getting better. And when you do that over 40, look at myself, I'm 53. I mean, I don't, I don't have this. I just have this.
• 47:53
  My answer to that question would be the common, the biggest misconception about getting strong is that A, it can't be done and B, it needs to be done. It's harder because we, you know, I talk to friends. They're all, most of my friends are in shape and they're like, oh, getting old as a bitch.
• 48:12
  That's a mindset. So get rid of that. The number one thing I'd say is get rid of that stinking thinking. And it's like the Roger Bannister four minute mile. Nobody thought you could run under four minutes until he did it. Then everybody broke it. It's the same thing as now. You and I are showing that you can, and so are everybody. Goggins, Frisella. There's so many people that are in the best shape of their lives.
• 48:34
  In 40s. And then now into the 50s, because we understand science, we tinker, we measure, we share with everybody. That's what we're doing. So the first thing I would say to you is that the misconception of having a dad, you're supposed to have a dad bod at 40 is what we need to get rid of.
• 48:51
  Set the bar, raise the bar, people. Let's go a little higher. Let's be harder than life. And let's expect to be in shape because I'm going to tell you what, if you do it into your forties and into your fifties and into your sixties, you're probably going to live into your hundreds. That's it. Totally agree with everything you're saying. Part of the misconception is that people that think it can't be done. They're listening to the people who believe that who aren't doing it.
• 49:17
  Exactly. You're right. You're right. Yeah. I don't like that negative thing. And if you tell me it can't be done, I'm going to do it. So impossible says I'm possible. Impossible only describes a degree of difficulty. And I would tell you right now, I'm in the best shape of my life I've ever been. And you know what? Here's one thing that we haven't talked about is I stretch. I stretch and I roll and I use the Theragun and I'm always, always, always,
• 49:44
  doing things to elongate my body because we're bound very, very tight and you will pull something. So the more I stretch, the more I do mindfulness exercises, meaning meditation. It releases tension. It releases tension, doesn't it? You feel that? It's like some of that tension leaves and it's almost puts you in a meditative state. I carry all my stress in my hips.
• 50:06
  So I make sure I do what are those things called the good girls, bad girls, where you open your legs, you close them. I find when I do those on leg days, I release a ton of stress. So we went all this way. We're coming up against it. I want to know what role faith and belief, because we just talked about it. Oh, brother. Play in your transformation system. Just rip up. I always say right out of the gate. Belief is a skill. You have to practice believing.
• 50:36
  You have to practice anything to get good at it. If you don't practice believing, yes, if you don't practice believing, you're never going to believe. And when it comes down to it, we're filled with this society of people who don't believe primarily in themselves. Because they don't believe themselves, they project that onto others. So we've got this massive movement of disbelief. People don't believe because they're not practicing.
• 51:07
  How do we work on practicing belief? Our brains are run off evidence. You know, do these little things, like set this little goal, achieve it, boom. Piece of evidence, I can do that. Pretty soon that little thing turns you a bigger thing. Pretty soon, just like you said, you can do whatever you want. You believe you can do it because you've created enough evidence in your mind that you don't question, I'm the same way.
• 51:35
  I see a problem. I know that when I create my simple solution, it will happen. Maybe not today, but it will happen. We have created enough evidence in our minds that we believe and we achieve. So I recently heard something and I want to share it with you because I want you to run with this as well. We all know that seeing is believing, but believing is seeing.
• 52:00
  When you believe it, you will achieve it. It's a little mind flip and it's like, oh my God. And I've never lacked belief in myself.
• 52:11
  I never have. And even when I was told I was nothing, I was told I was stupid. I was told I was an idiot. I would never amount to anything. And it was impaled with all these limiting beliefs. I never believed them, never believed them. So that's probably why I was born to be harder than life. So I want to end it with this one. What does harder than life mean to you, John? And I love your message, bro. And I think you've just basically kind of put your, we just have our own names when it comes down to it. I think when, when we first caught up, I was like, man,
• 52:39
  And this dude and I, we got a lot in common, you know, and we were just kind of a couple of dudes bullshit. Like we knew each other for, for our whole lives. And I like to distill things. I like simplicity. It makes sense to me. And when it comes down to it, doing hard things every day, when you take a day off from doing hard things, it's almost like doing hard things every day. You, you make this nice little steady clip of progress. You take one day off, you slide way back.
• 53:09
  So you can't not do something hard. I get up at 2.59 every day, Saturday, Sunday. I don't name the days. It's just another day that I get to wake up and kick ass. And that's one of the ways that I keep, you know,
• 53:27
  Me, me. That's the way I allow myself to stay focused on doing the things other people won't do. This is the way that, you know, my deep water method, you know, you're harder than life. It's just two different names for like you said, we end up in the same spot, just two different paths to get there. And they're very similar paths for that matter. I think the biggest probably difference is what we call our methodologies.
• 53:48
  Oh, it's so good. You know, I want people to understand that I do it every day, but if you take a day off, it's okay. But I just feel like I'm falling. I will tell you that I wake up, there's a hundred and what is there? 150,000 people that don't wake up every day. And
• 54:05
  I am grateful every morning that I woke up. I mean, Hulk Hogan did not wake up today. So every day that I get to come in here and go on this podcast and make friends with awesome humans like you and share my message and even take on the abuse of the undercover fans who say that all I do is take steroids. And you can't.
• 54:29
  quit drinking the way I do. And you can't. And I did all this naysayers. And when I officially convert. But I'm in the arena. I'm in the mud. And I'm doing the work every single day. And I'm not getting rich off of this stuff. I'm just helping. But I want to share something with the listeners at the very end. So literally a dear friend of mine.
• 54:46
  mentor of mine, someone that I lean on said, the next time you feel frustrated about the moment, remind yourself where I'm at now was once the goal. You aren't just appreciating your journey, you're reminding yourself that progress is easily forgotten.
• 55:02
  That's what gratitude looks like. Keep going. Powerful. John. Powerful. I love you. I'm so grateful you were on today. I needed to hear this just as much as everybody. For my listeners, guys, if this resonated with you, please share it with anyone. Follow John. Anyone that is looking to be mentally tough, physically fit, share it with them. And until next time, be harder than life.
• 55:27
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.