Speaker 1: As someone who loves sport, loves Ozzie Rules footy, and
Speaker 1: as a kid especially, I was just fascinated with the
Speaker 1: behind the scenes life of your sporting heroes. You know,
Speaker 1: what do they do that you don't see on the TV?
Speaker 1: What do you do that they don't hear about?
Speaker 2: And it's interesting as.
Speaker 1: You get older and as you get better insights, particularly
Speaker 1: in the career that I've had in sports science and
Speaker 1: fitness and been lucky enough to meet a lot of
Speaker 1: elite athletes, it never ceases to amaze me. The sacrifices
Speaker 1: made the commitment, the mindset. So today on the wood
Speaker 1: Life we are in for a treat with one of
Speaker 1: Australia's best Ozsie Rules footballer, Brandlow Metallist joining us in
Speaker 1: the studio to give us just a little sneak.
Speaker 2: Peek into what being an elite athlete is all about.
Speaker 1: Then we're going to dive into some fitness fans and
Speaker 1: find out which ones are worth trying and which ones
Speaker 1: you need to avoid.
Speaker 3: I never knew that sauna suits existed until recently. Do
Speaker 3: they actually work?
Speaker 4: I've heard the phrase barefoot running. Is it a fad
Speaker 4: or is it actually better for the body?
Speaker 5: I'm thinking of investing in a stand up desk as
Speaker 5: a better alternative than sitting at my desk all day.
Speaker 5: Are they worth the investment?
Speaker 1: I'll be hating or rating those later in the show.
Speaker 1: This is the wood Life, let's get into it. Look,
Speaker 1: I feel like I say.
Speaker 2: We've got a very special guest every single work. That's
Speaker 2: because they are all special. But to me, this one's
Speaker 2: extra special. One because he's a good made of mine.
Speaker 1: Two because I'm a mad Hawthorn fan and he is
Speaker 1: a brilliant Hawthorn football, a brandlew metalist and founder of
Speaker 1: ball Magnets, a brilliant AFL training at for kids. Tom Mitchell,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the WOODLFE mate.
Speaker 6: Thanks Woody, good to be here.
Speaker 7: I know you're sugarcoating all of that, but I've got
Speaker 7: sugarcoating you here nonetheless.
Speaker 1: So we're all about or I'm all about progress, not
Speaker 1: perfection here on the wood Life. But becoming an elite
Speaker 1: athlete as you are to the.
Speaker 2: Level that you're at would take.
Speaker 1: I can't even imagine the amount of sacrifice in all
Speaker 1: different aspects of your life. So is there any space
Speaker 1: for someone like you and other elite athletes for progress
Speaker 1: not perfection in your training or do you just have
Speaker 1: to shoot for perfection.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, it's a good question. I think.
Speaker 7: I think what footy fans, I guess see is the
Speaker 7: finished product on game day, but they don't see the
Speaker 7: hard work and the sacrifice that does go on behind
Speaker 7: the scenes. And there's so many things that players do
Speaker 7: to go to the integral to get everything out of
Speaker 7: their bodies, which cop in absolute battering. Some of the
Speaker 7: things that guys play with you would have no idea about.
Speaker 7: But I think I probably was, to be honest, I
Speaker 7: think early in my career a perfectionist and that drive
Speaker 7: to just be the best you can be and be
Speaker 7: better and be better and be better. And I think
Speaker 7: as I've got older a little bit more mature, tried
Speaker 7: to be a little bit more lenient because I have
Speaker 7: more of a holistic approach to life in general and happiness,
Speaker 7: because that perfectionist approach can have a toll on your mentally. Answer,
Speaker 7: I've sort of adopted that progress is still a good thing.
Speaker 7: Like if you're finding little ways to get better at footy,
Speaker 7: training or something in life in general, if you're improving,
Speaker 7: I think that's a good thing. So obviously, as an
Speaker 7: elite athlete, you have to. But I've been a little
Speaker 7: bit more leaning, I would say, last few years.
Speaker 1: It's a really interesting answer, and I do think it one.
Speaker 1: You know, you've reached a status in the game too,
Speaker 1: you have. You know, you've aged and you've matured, you're.
Speaker 2: Sort of renowned.
Speaker 1: I know you're not going to want to pump your
Speaker 1: times out, but you know there's always footage of you
Speaker 1: doing the extra skill work. And I know you know
Speaker 1: some of the knows you that you're always doing every
Speaker 1: little thing that you can to get the best out
Speaker 1: of your body and the best out of your mind.
Speaker 1: But are you suggesting you still do all of that,
Speaker 1: but you now have the capability to switch off and
Speaker 1: switch on a little bit more.
Speaker 6: I think so. Yeah.
Speaker 7: So I haven't told this story too often, but I
Speaker 7: didn't have a day off at Hawthorn. My first five
Speaker 7: years at Hawthorne, I didn't take a day off, which
Speaker 7: is don't encourage I don't encourage anyone to do that.
Speaker 6: I was on a path to.
Speaker 2: Burn out any two thousand days straight. Yeah.
Speaker 7: The thing was that I was being rewarded with it
Speaker 7: through performance and things, and I was like Okay, I
Speaker 7: got to keep doing this. So our day off was
Speaker 7: Wednesday at the footy club. I'd be in there every Wednesday,
Speaker 7: no players would be. There would be physio massage, a
Speaker 7: bit of extra prehab or weights, footies ice bas. I
Speaker 7: did this consistently for four or five years, and that
Speaker 7: would be from eight till twelve on my day off
Speaker 7: and then obviously because we don't get weekends of because
Speaker 7: we play weekends, so I would have you know, you know,
Speaker 7: it was.
Speaker 6: It was full on.
Speaker 7: And so I think having the business having ball magnets
Speaker 7: has given me a release because I've found a passion,
Speaker 7: found something else. I found a lot of pride and
Speaker 7: enjoyment in mentoring and helping younger players. You get fulfillment
Speaker 7: out of, you know, seeing them taking their games to
Speaker 7: another level, and I think that's just a natural.
Speaker 6: Sign of maturity.
Speaker 7: But yeah, it was an interesting time, Like you know,
Speaker 7: I was, you know, as you said, receiving all these
Speaker 7: accolades and pats on the back, and that reinforced everything
Speaker 7: I was doing. But you know, in the end, I
Speaker 7: was just going to crash. So I've sort of changed
Speaker 7: my approach a bit.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: It's interesting. I did a similar thing.
Speaker 1: It was when I was growing twenty eight. Initially, I
Speaker 1: was literally just fifteen sixteen hour days up doing videos
Speaker 1: and content at six am, still at the gym, training people,
Speaker 1: And it was because it was working. It kind of
Speaker 1: unhealthily reinforced it. And it wasn't until the circuit breaker
Speaker 1: of Sneeze and Evy coming over and having children and
Speaker 1: then experiencing I think the joys of life outside the
Speaker 1: business bubble kind of smacked me in the face so
Speaker 1: nicely that I went, hang on a second. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure if I work smarter, not harder, and get
Speaker 1: a better balance here.
Speaker 2: Then you know, the business is not going to die.
Speaker 1: You're not going to become a crap footballer if you
Speaker 1: don't do the extra Wednesday.
Speaker 2: It's still a.
Speaker 7: Constant battle on your head, though, isn't it. I feel
Speaker 7: like I'm constantly battling with Okay, am I doing enough?
Speaker 6: Am I doing enough?
Speaker 7: Because it's probably not as much as what I was doing,
Speaker 7: but that was more detrimental. So you've got to have
Speaker 7: those ongoing conversations in your own head.
Speaker 6: But yeah, it's weird. It's a funny.
Speaker 2: People tell you less can be more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they do, and I think if you're wired kind
Speaker 1: of against that, you don't necessarily accept it. So it's
Speaker 1: really interesting that your drive for perfectionism has softened a
Speaker 1: little bit as you've matured and as your career has
Speaker 1: gone on. When you were younger, where do you think
Speaker 1: it actually came from.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's a I don't know, maybe a little bit
Speaker 7: of Like my dad was a football player and I
Speaker 7: used to watch him even when he was finished footing,
Speaker 7: he would train hard, and my mum would train hard
Speaker 7: and things like that. I think maybe that, And I
Speaker 7: think making rep squads and it being so competitive, it
Speaker 7: sort of forces it out of you, like you have
Speaker 7: to go that little bit extra to get the advantage.
Speaker 7: And I think, you know, I took that really seriously
Speaker 7: and it was with you know, every rep of every session,
Speaker 7: like I didn't miss a beat and I still don't,
Speaker 7: sort of something I prided myself on.
Speaker 1: So you were thinking, I want to be in AFL football.
Speaker 1: There's no qualms about it. Yeah, I'm one hundred percent
Speaker 1: sure this is what I want to do with my life.
Speaker 1: And then the next step to that was and I
Speaker 1: know if I perhaps don't do everything not ninety nine
Speaker 1: percent yeah, one hundred percent I might not make it,
Speaker 1: and I'm not going to take that chance.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think so, And I think, you know, which.
Speaker 2: Is very much an eighteen year old way of thinking.
Speaker 7: Like I look at myself as a player now and
Speaker 7: I'm a bit of older, but you know, I wouldn't
Speaker 7: say I'm I'm definitely not fastest, fittest, strongest, you know,
Speaker 7: pretty I think intuitive, smart player, like I read the
Speaker 7: game quite well and know how to find the ball
Speaker 7: and you know, set up teammates into space and things
Speaker 7: like that. But I think if any I think the
Speaker 7: one thing I can hang my hat on is any
Speaker 7: if you ask any of my teammates, you know, who
Speaker 7: puts in the most work, I think that would I've been.
Speaker 6: I've assume the.
Speaker 7: Top three, and so I think, you know, that's what
Speaker 7: I've sort of prided myself on my career and sort
Speaker 7: of got me to a point. And in terms of
Speaker 7: the perfectionism, like it definitely has lightened. And rather than
Speaker 7: doing you know, silly eight to five pm days of
Speaker 7: you know, I know people work those hours, but you know,
Speaker 7: physical training, I've broken it out into more process. So
Speaker 7: I've got five k things I need to tick off
Speaker 7: every week.
Speaker 1: So with these younger players coming through, the eighteen nineteen
Speaker 1: year olds have just been drafted, do you put your
Speaker 1: arm around them and tell them perhaps to take their
Speaker 1: foot off the accelerate a little bit, or do you
Speaker 1: think that's something that you have to discover yourself on
Speaker 1: your own journey and it's not up to you to
Speaker 1: tell them that.
Speaker 7: It's a fine balance because a lot of I guess
Speaker 7: senior players and coaches of the opinion of that balance,
Speaker 7: But I also think, how badly do you want to
Speaker 7: make it?
Speaker 6: How could you want to be?
Speaker 7: Like I think you'd rather overshoot than undershoot. But sometimes
Speaker 7: even young players or young people in business or new employees,
Speaker 7: they may not know what their limit or threshold is
Speaker 7: because they never take themselves to that level. So I
Speaker 7: think they need to learn to over Everyone needs to
Speaker 7: learn to overshoot, because then you know where your tipping
Speaker 7: point is.
Speaker 6: You never know where your tipping point is.
Speaker 1: If you don't cross it, you think you one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty, you don't think you can get to you
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty percent, and then you realize that
Speaker 1: you're eighty percent.
Speaker 2: Given insight to our.
Speaker 1: Listeners, about just how much you train, what happens with
Speaker 1: you food, you sleep.
Speaker 7: Well, I think what you touched on before. Another thing
Speaker 7: I've learned to do is reward myself. So at the
Speaker 7: end of a big training block or every big game,
Speaker 7: like you know, I'm pretty disciplined with diet in terms
Speaker 7: of Monday to game day, So I just sort of
Speaker 7: use the rule of common sense, Like I know what
Speaker 7: junk food is, so Lolly's chocolate ice cream, soft drink
Speaker 7: and near that crap chips, I just won't touch that
Speaker 7: until the day after a game.
Speaker 6: The day after a game, I'll allow myself to do that.
Speaker 7: I feel like if I've given myself every chance to
Speaker 7: prepare and play well, then you know I'm putting all
Speaker 7: the odds in my favor. Really, I definitely realize the
Speaker 7: impact of eating clean and well has on energy levels
Speaker 7: and things compared to when you don't. So I can
Speaker 7: feel the difference in my training and.
Speaker 2: Carrying a few extra kilos if that's.
Speaker 6: Fat, one or two kilos is doesn't sound like much.
Speaker 6: You're running fifteen game, it's a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you've got to recover properly.
Speaker 7: And they say every running step is three times your body. Wait,
Speaker 7: going through your three bodies.
Speaker 6: So yeah, every.
Speaker 2: Injuries, join injuries, everything through extrakelos.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 7: But yeah, in terms of food, like I yeah, I
Speaker 7: go to an organic fruit shop every Monday pretty much,
Speaker 7: and I stuck up on just the basics fruit and vegetables.
Speaker 7: Eat a lot of fish, a lot of chicken. There's
Speaker 7: someone of protein to help recover. I'm not big on
Speaker 7: supplements or anything. I sort of trying and use the
Speaker 7: natural diet. Some players use proteins and supplements, but I'm
Speaker 7: pretty natural and I just use a common sensrule of knowing,
Speaker 7: just knowing what's good, trying.
Speaker 2: Real food, unprocessed, whole ingredients.
Speaker 7: And I think, you know it's important, like tonight, for example,
Speaker 7: I'm going out with a few of the guys. Like
Speaker 7: that's important from a social point of view. But I
Speaker 7: don't want to be going out for dinner every night
Speaker 7: like I do. Try and cook two three nights a
Speaker 7: week minimum if I can. And obviously the social part
Speaker 7: is important. So allow yourself to still live and live life,
Speaker 7: you know when you can as well.
Speaker 1: Now you said before that you reward yourself, and I
Speaker 1: know you're referring to you know, on a Sunday. If
Speaker 1: you've played on a Saturday, you'll have some lollies or
Speaker 1: some chocolate or something.
Speaker 2: Let your hair down.
Speaker 1: What about Because this is something that I'm always telling
Speaker 1: our listeners and I'm always telling my twenty eight is
Speaker 1: to reward yourself on the journey. For example, if they're
Speaker 1: trying to lose twenty k and they've lost five killers
Speaker 1: in the first month, I will say them, not with
Speaker 1: lollies and chocolate. I don't want them to put that
Speaker 1: weight back on. But I might say, you know, get
Speaker 1: yourself a message or running shoes. You know, don't wait
Speaker 1: till the whole twenty kilos has lost to sort of
Speaker 1: pat yourself on the back. What do you like bigger
Speaker 1: picture at rewarding yourself.
Speaker 6: It's a good one.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm not really into too many like superficial things
Speaker 7: like I guess rewarding myself with buying things for clothes
Speaker 7: or cars or anything like that. Like I probably do
Speaker 7: fit under the umbrella of more, you know, not being
Speaker 7: satisfied and whether again it's the same conversation of that
Speaker 7: may not be healthy, but that's just I think a
Speaker 7: little bit how I'm wired. Like I think it's kind
Speaker 7: of just how you become wired as an athlete. I
Speaker 7: think like you just keep going and going, and you
Speaker 7: want more and more and more.
Speaker 2: Spoken about the highs. What about injuries?
Speaker 1: Now, you had a fairly horrific injury not that long ago,
Speaker 1: broken leg, missed the whole season.
Speaker 2: Our listeners have.
Speaker 1: Setbacks, fall off the wag and have a bad weekend,
Speaker 1: drop the ball for a month or two, get an injury,
Speaker 1: whatever it might be. What's your mindset around coming back?
Speaker 1: I mean, you've had a very serious injury and your
Speaker 1: body is your career. So you won the Brown Law
Speaker 1: Metal and got a broken leg. How did you mentally
Speaker 1: and physically come back from that?
Speaker 6: Yeah? That was a huge challenge.
Speaker 7: So I went from being at the top of my
Speaker 7: game the first session back in the new year. I
Speaker 7: was I was fit, I was strong, I was going
Speaker 7: to be better than I was the year before, and
Speaker 7: I was so excited and then in a heartbeat, yeah,
Speaker 7: you know, season's over.
Speaker 6: I remember looking my leg and it was all over
Speaker 6: the shot like not good, like facing the wrong way.
Speaker 7: I'm like, god, I'm even going to play foot again.
Speaker 7: So it was pretty shocked and the doctor was out.
Speaker 6: I'm like, what's going to happen.
Speaker 7: I'm in trouble, aren't And he said, he said, it's
Speaker 7: not good, but you should be all right.
Speaker 6: It took a little while.
Speaker 7: Obviously the first month was a challenge, but I learned
Speaker 7: so much for that for that period, and my approach
Speaker 7: to anything now is two words, and they get thrown
Speaker 7: around a lot, but gratitude and perspective and their two
Speaker 7: things that I lean on a lot, even in week
Speaker 7: to week footy, Like if I have a bad game,
Speaker 7: I drive to the game. Every time I'm driving the McGr,
Speaker 7: I say, this is my childhood dream.
Speaker 6: How good is this?
Speaker 7: I'm driving to play the MCG in front of fifty
Speaker 7: thousand people. So many people would killed to be in
Speaker 7: my position. I'm so lucky.
Speaker 6: I've worked so hard for this, enjoy it, like have that.
Speaker 7: Approach, And when I couldn't play footy, it was how
Speaker 7: good is this? I've got this family of support, I've
Speaker 7: got this network of people who are helping me. Here's
Speaker 7: some more opportunities that have come from. You know, who
Speaker 7: knows where the ball magnet would have bossomed if I
Speaker 7: didn't have the time to start thinking about what I'll
Speaker 7: do post footy And now I'm doing it in my
Speaker 7: footy career when you know, I'm probably running a business
Speaker 7: that's more relevant while I'm playing. So there's wins here
Speaker 7: and losses in the physical component. But yeah, I think
Speaker 7: that's just one thing I learned throughout that whole year
Speaker 7: of missing a year of footy.
Speaker 1: Now you mentioned before that you've got a company called
Speaker 1: ball Magnets. Do you want to tell our listeners a
Speaker 1: little bit about what it's all about, because I bet
Speaker 1: there's heaps of out listeners that have young kids that
Speaker 1: could really benefit from this, this great, great free program
Speaker 1: that you're unning.
Speaker 6: I think so.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: So basically, ball Magnets is a free app. It's a
Speaker 7: training app for AFL, so to any AFL skills training app.
Speaker 7: We do fitness workout similar to yourself. We do skill sessions,
Speaker 7: we give tips and insights around you know, players who
Speaker 7: play a certain position, so the co founders and myself
Speaker 7: Patty Crips and Locke Neil, So it's all around I
Speaker 7: guess giving back to the kids because I guess, especially
Speaker 7: through COVID, so many missed training and games and my
Speaker 7: favorite memories of a kid was, you know, going to
Speaker 7: a clinic or being able to interact with players, and
Speaker 7: so we're trying to create those experiences virtually, you know,
Speaker 7: through an app, because you can get more reach and
Speaker 7: get to everyone. I'm not sure if the parents listening
Speaker 7: know what oz kyk is, but oz Kig's very basic.
Speaker 7: You know, this is Ak Campbell. Yeah, like we know
Speaker 7: that this is the next level stuff like this is
Speaker 7: you know, how you think about reaction time, This is
Speaker 7: how you think about technique. This is game awareness. This
Speaker 7: is the next level where I guess for any player
Speaker 7: that wants to be the best they can be, doesn't
Speaker 7: matter about making a f It's not about that. It's
Speaker 7: around This is enhancing your knowledge around the game, and
Speaker 7: who else better to learn from them?
Speaker 2: So the players doing us from ten years old on
Speaker 2: are going to.
Speaker 7: Get a massive and parents and coaches as well. Like, yeah,
Speaker 7: I got so many parents and coaches. We're close to
Speaker 7: twenty thousand subscribers now, wow. And as you mentioned, the
Speaker 7: best part about it is it's free. So it's all
Speaker 7: for the love of giving back. And you know, we've
Speaker 7: got some great people helping us drive something that we're
Speaker 7: really passionate about.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love that you've got this passion and
Speaker 1: interest outside of your own footy. Tommy, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for coming in mate. It's a bit of a
Speaker 1: different guest because it really does give an insight into
Speaker 1: a world that so few of us will ever know
Speaker 1: and do ever know.
Speaker 2: And I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And good luck for the rest of the season and
Speaker 1: the rest of a great career.
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming on the Woodlife. You're a legend.
Speaker 6: Thanks well, do you appreciate it.
Speaker 1: It's so good to have an insight from an elite
Speaker 1: sports person because on this show we're about progress, not perfection,
Speaker 1: and just do what you can. Sometimes it's nice to
Speaker 1: look at the other side of the coin and look
Speaker 1: at these people that are trying to squeeze every last
Speaker 1: drop out of their potential and their performance. They know
Speaker 1: that to get the most out of them, or even
Speaker 1: to discover what they're truly capable of, that they need
Speaker 1: to make those sacrifices. Train it that intensity, train it
Speaker 1: that consistency. Otherwise they never truly find out where that
Speaker 1: potential line is. And the reason I say that is
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us can learn from that.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of us tell ourselves we're working
Speaker 1: at capacity or that we're working really hard. It's good
Speaker 1: to get some perspective and just challenge our way of thinking.
Speaker 1: Am I genuinely pushing myself? Am I genuinely showing enough willpower?
Speaker 1: Do I genuinely follow the plan? Or do sometimes I
Speaker 1: just tell myself a few too many FIBs and give
Speaker 1: myself a bit of an app Next up, it is
Speaker 1: time I hate.
Speaker 2: It all right?
Speaker 5: It it.
Speaker 2: Hater I rated.
Speaker 1: It's a little segment where I can just cut through
Speaker 1: the bs and give you my two Bobsworth on some
Speaker 1: of those crazy fitness fads or ideas that are floating
Speaker 1: around out there. We get so many questions coming through
Speaker 1: here to us at the wood Life and had rated
Speaker 1: is a great way to see which side of the
Speaker 1: fence that I'm sitting on. And our first question is
Speaker 1: from Kate.
Speaker 3: Hey, Sam, I never knew that sauna suits existed until recently.
Speaker 3: I'm really interested to know if they are a good
Speaker 3: alternative for weight loss. So do they actually work?
Speaker 1: No, no, no, no, no no no. I'm not a
Speaker 1: fan of the sauna suit. Look sweating is and this
Speaker 1: is the crux of it, because you know, they're one
Speaker 1: of those things they tend to they tend to recirculate
Speaker 1: every ten years through a movie or through some crazy
Speaker 1: online fad or whatever it might be. Wetting is losing fluid.
Speaker 1: It is not fat crying. It is just sweat leaving
Speaker 1: the body in which we then need to rehydrate ourselves,
Speaker 1: only to be weighing the exact same weight later on.
Speaker 1: Sweating is good for us, and hopping in the sauna
Speaker 1: is good for us, but not as a means of
Speaker 1: losing weight. The only exception to that rule might be
Speaker 1: for an athlete who needs to make weight, So for
Speaker 1: a jockey before the Melbourne Cup and they've got to
Speaker 1: lose five hundred grams or they're not going to be
Speaker 1: eligible to ride in the race, or a boxer who's
Speaker 1: got to make weight the day before and they typically
Speaker 1: put that weight back on so they're performing at their optimum.
Speaker 1: But outside of those very extreme circumstances, I'm going to
Speaker 1: say hate it when it comes to the sauna suit.
Speaker 4: Hey, Sam, I am a bit of a long distance
Speaker 4: runner and I've heard the phrase barefoot running pop up
Speaker 4: quite a lot recently, and I just want to know
Speaker 4: is it a fad or is it actually better for
Speaker 4: the body.
Speaker 2: This is a really tricky one. It's a great question.
Speaker 5: Back.
Speaker 1: I love it, but I don't want to say go
Speaker 1: for it, because I feel if you do too much,
Speaker 1: too early, and you're not conditioned both through your joints
Speaker 1: and through your feet to handle something like that, you
Speaker 1: really could injure yourself. So I think it would be
Speaker 1: quite irresponsible for me to say, everyone and throw your
Speaker 1: shoes off and.
Speaker 2: Get out there running.
Speaker 1: But there are biomechanical advantages by having direct foot ground
Speaker 1: reaction forces. And again these benefits may not apply to everybody,
Speaker 1: because we all have different ways that our feet either
Speaker 1: roll that it might have flat feet and we sort
Speaker 1: of hit all as one, or we might roll in
Speaker 1: or we might roll out, putting pressure on the outside
Speaker 1: of the foot or the inside of the foot, and
Speaker 1: consequently they're the inside of the outside the leg and
Speaker 1: it works us a way up the body in this
Speaker 1: sort of chain reaction. So I definitely think for certain people,
Speaker 1: particularly if you're doing it in a really sensible, progressive manner,
Speaker 1: it can be a great thing. And I've met some
Speaker 1: people who swear by it. Either wear those funny little
Speaker 1: frog feet shoes. I don't know the brand or the
Speaker 1: name of them. I probably should, but you know the
Speaker 1: ones I'm talking about, they're really just a rubber sole
Speaker 1: wrapped around your toes, no cushioning whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Probably just stops your.
Speaker 1: Feet getting blisters or sort of splitting apart, but there's
Speaker 1: no actual cushioning as part of the shoe, or they
Speaker 1: actually go barefoot. Now, it's quite extreme. It's definitely not
Speaker 1: for everybody. I definitely am not recommending head out there
Speaker 1: and do a twenty k run and test out whether
Speaker 1: it's for you. But if you'd like to start by
Speaker 1: doing some sprints on the grass in barefoot, or even
Speaker 1: training in the gym barefoot, or doing your homeworkouts or
Speaker 1: your yoga barefoot, where you're really getting that ground reaction
Speaker 1: force and it's good for the feet to be able
Speaker 1: to stretch out and you're not protecting them too much.
Speaker 1: They're building up strength, they're burning up mobility through the toes,
Speaker 1: through the achilles, through the actual arch of the foot.
Speaker 1: Then I absolutely endorse that, and that would be a
Speaker 1: great starting point.
Speaker 5: Hey mate, I'm working from home a lot and finding
Speaker 5: it hard to get outside an exercise. I'm thinking of
Speaker 5: investing in a stand up desk as a better alternative
Speaker 5: than sitting at my desk all day. I know it's
Speaker 5: not exercising, but I thought it might help. They are
Speaker 5: pretty expensive, though, Are they worth the investment?
Speaker 1: Thomas, It's a really good question, and I'm a big
Speaker 1: fan of the stand up desk. Definitely rate it. Totally
Speaker 1: understand that comes in as an investment. But they're getting
Speaker 1: cheaper and cheaper. There's a lot more out there these days.
Speaker 1: You don't need to get the necessarily the whiz bang
Speaker 1: stand alone stand up desk. You can get the ones
Speaker 1: that you put on your seated desk, and it leave
Speaker 1: us up and leave us down, and therefore you can
Speaker 1: do a bit of a hybrid. You can sit sometimes,
Speaker 1: you can stand sometimes depending on how much you've been sitting,
Speaker 1: how much you've been standing, what particular, whether you're on
Speaker 1: a zoom call, whether you're working away and you need
Speaker 1: to type.
Speaker 2: Whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: But for someone like me who doesn't just type constantly,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of I'm on the whiteboard, I'm in and
Speaker 1: out of meetings. I love the stand up desk, you know,
Speaker 1: I find I'm sort of thinking better. I'm definitely in
Speaker 1: a better posture position if I sort of catch myself
Speaker 1: in the reflection, sometimes in the window or something. If
Speaker 1: I'm sitting, I've kind of been kidding myself to how
Speaker 1: well I've been sitting.
Speaker 2: My seated posture hasn't.
Speaker 1: Been very good, and I think that's absolutely the case
Speaker 1: for most people.
Speaker 2: My head is forward, my shoulders are rounded forward.
Speaker 1: I'm slouching a little bit, you know, not a lot
Speaker 1: of muscular engagement through my tummy. My butt's not really working,
Speaker 1: my legs are not really working. Now that's not to
Speaker 1: say that all of that is instantly fixed. If you
Speaker 1: stand up, there's standing up with good posture. They're standing
Speaker 1: up with crappy posture. But stand up, get everything at
Speaker 1: the right height from a keyboard perspective and a screen perspective,
Speaker 1: make sure those glutes are working a little bit. And
Speaker 1: most importantly, and you said this, Thomas, it's not exercise.
Speaker 1: So don't think that if you're doing stand up desk
Speaker 1: from a post sitting desk, that's going to fix all
Speaker 1: your exercise challenges or meet all your exercise needs, because
Speaker 1: it absolutely won't.
Speaker 2: But standing better than sitting.
Speaker 1: I would also recommend a sixty second to two minute
Speaker 1: stretch on the hour every hour, and I also use
Speaker 1: that time to rehydrate. So I have a little alarm
Speaker 1: when I'm working away at my desk goes off on
Speaker 1: the air every hour. I have a little stretch a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes rehydrate. If I'm really feeling a bit lethargic,
Speaker 1: I'll go outside and you never lose productivity. That five
Speaker 1: minutes where you go around the block, you get the
Speaker 1: fresh air, you rehydrate, you have a little stretch is
Speaker 1: made up within ten minutes of better performance and more efficiency.
Speaker 1: When you're back in your standing position, you're thinking better,
Speaker 1: you're working better. So from a practical and functional perspective,
Speaker 1: I like it. From a posture perspective, I like it,
Speaker 1: and I know it comes at a cost, but I
Speaker 1: definitely rate it and it's a good investment. A huge
Speaker 1: thank you as always to everyone who has called in
Speaker 1: with their questions, and just on that note, many of
Speaker 1: you have seen that we've been doing it pretty tough
Speaker 1: at home at the moment with little Harper, my little
Speaker 1: girl coming into the world a few months ago now
Speaker 1: and a bit of a challenging start in and out
Speaker 1: of hospital. Supermum Snare is doing a wonderful job, but
Speaker 1: it has been stressful and a bit tiring, and I've
Speaker 1: had hundreds of messages from all of you, so I
Speaker 1: just wanted to say a huge thank you, and it
Speaker 1: made me think you're all send in questions about different
Speaker 1: fitness and nutrition and lifestyle topics, which I absolutely love.
Speaker 1: But if you have any questions about anything that's going
Speaker 1: on personal perspective with me, or anything like that that
Speaker 1: you'd like to know the answer to as well, feel
Speaker 1: free to always send them in love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: The woodlife is about helping you, is about giving you
Speaker 1: a better insight into what's going on in my world
Speaker 1: as I live in this sort of family and fitness
Speaker 1: space day in, day out, and I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you no matter what your questions are.
Speaker 2: Send me a message. There's a link in the show notes,
Speaker 2: And of
Speaker 1: Course I'll be back on Monday with another motivational moment
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you soon.