Brian (0s):
Coming up on the Get Lean e Klean podcast.
Eric (3s):
I think too, this might be valuable for your listeners, like just that are in their fitness journeys, is really find something what is realistic, enjoyable, and flexible. And I remember we got this from Eric Helms of 3d mj, he was one of our coaches too. And it's, it's an amazing acronym to remember. Yeah. You know, if you could really find like a exercise nutrition program that is realistic to, you know, where you're at in life, the season you're at in life, how much time you have priorities, something that's enjoyable, something that you're not gonna program hop or always like, you know, have shiny object or get discouraged with, and that's flexible to your lifestyle, like I said, like, is it flexible? Can you pivot? Can you make changes when needed if you're traveling a lot, or if something comes up?
Brian (43s):
Hello and welcome to the Get Lean ean podcast. I'm Brian Grn and I'm here to give you actionable tips to get your body back to what it once was, five, 10, even 15 years ago. Each week I'll give you an in-depth interview with a health expert from around the world to cut through the fluff and get you long-term sustainable results. This week I interviewed Eric and Chris Martinez of Dynamic Fit Pros, along with being best-selling authors, podcasters and speakers. Chris and Eric have worked with hundreds of fitness coaches to help them build their online business and scale them. We discussed the importance of morning routines, how to be productive during the week, flexible dieting, how to do effective cardio, and their one tip to get your body back to what it once was.
Brian (1m 28s):
Really enjoyed my interview with Eric and Chris. Tons of great tip tips around business, life and health. So definitely enjoyed it. Hope you do too. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. All right. Welcome to the Get Lean e Clean podcast. My name is Brian grn and I have Chris and Eric Martinez. Welcome to the show.
Eric (1m 49s):
Brian, what's going on? Thank you so much for having us. And I, I know you said earlier that this is your first time interviewing twins, so I mean, man, hopefully this goes well.
Brian (1m 58s):
Yeah, no, I mean, I'm sure it will. I I actually haven't had too many on where I've had two people at once, a few other guests, but yeah, glad you guys are on. And you guys are with the di, the Dynamic Fit Pros is the name of your business. Yes. Very cool. Maybe explain, maybe Eric wanna start off maybe your journey into health and wellness and, and sort of how you've sort of come along through the business.
Eric (2m 24s):
Yeah, sounds good. And yeah, I think this will be a good starting point for your listeners too, because they might be going through something just really tragic or just some form of adversity right now. So what got us into really our health and fitness journey was honestly losing our father. We lost our father at the age of 17 and we grew up in a really, really good household. Like our father was a correctional officer at San Quentin State Prison in California. So very tough on us all about work ethic and just education, which I see how that's like, like transformed and paid out, paid off now for us. But he was actually, you know, he fell asleep behind the wheel driving home three nights before Christmas when we were 17. And we got a knock on the door around two in the morning from a California Highway patrol officer and that's usually not a good sign, like at that hour.
Eric (3m 10s):
So I remember waking up and I remember just literally thinking I was in a nightmare and I remember just seeing my mom screaming on her knees, you know, and they had told her that, you know, her husband passed away, he fell asleep behind the wheel and that was it, you know, our whole life literally just like flipped upside down Brian. And then after that my mom lost her mom due to cancer three months later, so. Wow. It was tough. I felt like, like we lost like a, a, a huge portion of my mom. She turned to alcohol, she turned to antidepressant pills and Chris and I, like we were just grieving, you know, with our older brothers well too, and we just, we were very lost. So, you know, we went down that path, you know, really got into trouble, got arrested a few times, turned to alcohol just because we were angry.
Eric (3m 52s):
And then what really kind of changed our life at the age of 23 was literally, yeah, like, like starting to go to the gym, like, like getting really just like, you know, fascinated by body compositional changes, you know, the science behind nutrition. And really just our first mentor, Dr. Lane Norton, he was a huge, huge, just like angel from heaven that came into our life. And we hired him at a early age and worked with him for about like five to seven years and he mentored us and after that it was kind of like game over, you know, we got inspired to start our first business, which was dynamic duo training, just helping people with health and fitness coaching and then yeah. You know, just wrote a couple books and then just did really well at that business. And, and that was kind of like, like where we're at now is helping health and fitness coaches build and scale their business.
Brian (4m 36s):
Wow. That's quite the story. And now DA did the, interesting that you bring up Dr. Lane Norton cuz I, I've, I've become a fan. I I do enjoy his videos. He does a great job. So your introduction into the health and fitness arena was originally with just helping people and yourself sort of get your body back pretty much, or, or, yeah. Yeah.
Eric (5m 1s):
And I think it was more too just like the way we dealt with our pain and, and grieve was going to the gym, just staying focused, just taking our anger out on the weights and like again, we just got really fascinated by body compositional changes. We did a body building show too back in 2013, which I look back at now. Just, it was a crazy journey. But yeah, that's really kind of what got us into, you know, the gym and just everything.
Brian (5m 21s):
Yeah. And, and you, you know, you talk about addictions and being addicted to fitness is not such a bad thing, right? You can overdo it probably. But you went from, you said maybe turning to alcohol at first and then going in, getting into fitness, what sort of made you turn the corner and, and get into, you know, health and fitness?
Chris (5m 41s):
I think it was just kind of hitting like some rock bottom points, you know, to where Eric got a D U I and then I got arrested and put in jail for fighting back in San Jose and California and just waking up and just kind of looking around like, is this my life? You know, like Right. My father worked way too hard, you know, and I'm like literally dishonoring him and his sacrifice that he made for our family and just doing this kind of dumb stuff just out of anger and playing the victim role, you know? So I think it was just a couple of wake up points, you know, with me and Eric. And then obviously, you know, first, you know, coming across Lane Norton and just getting into like that consistency, that focus, that discipline and having that carry over just into your life and then into starting businesses and everything else.
Brian (6m 20s):
How long ago was that?
Chris (6m 23s):
This was 2000, 2008.
Brian (6m 27s):
2008, okay.
Chris (6m 28s):
Yeah, so working through 'em about 2008 to about 2014, so about five, six years. Yeah.
Brian (6m 34s):
Wow. And yeah, I mean, you know, like you said, you somewhat almost hit rock bottom to make sort of make those changes and, and for some people you hate for them to wait until they have some type of emergency or some type of health scare in order to make changes. Yeah. What type of things have you been implementing? I mean, that's obviously a, a while ago now, but like currently in your like daily routine that helps you stay on track, morning, evening, things like that.
Chris (7m 0s):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just like, you know, always a morning routine. But if I look back on it, Brian, and to be a hundred percent honest, we were missing our faith at that time to be a hundred percent honest. And ever since we moved over from Los Angeles now to Dallas the past two years, we've gotten really plugged into our church and renewed our faith because I think that we were honestly very angry at God for him taking away like our father. And again, we played the victim role and just became very angry, didn't have any type of faith anymore. And I think that was a big kind of like me missing component. If I look back on, if I could have ever done it again, I would've had my faith at that forefront and I would've knew that this happened, this didn't happen to us, it happened for us, you know? And if I would've just knew that I wouldn't have went down all of those kind of like rabbit holes and, you know, gotten in trouble with the law and addictions and stuff like that.
Brian (7m 46s):
Hmm. Yeah. What about you Eric?
Eric (7m 47s):
Yeah, I would, I mean, I would agree with Chris, but the biggest thing, the game changer would just be the morning routine. You know, just setting intentions and just really, you know, priming my mind to play offense, not defense. And, you know, that's, I really try to, you know, emphasize that to like my coaches that I coach and just even when I, when I used to do a lot of fitness coaching, I would really try to have them like focus on at least 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, really gamify up to buying into the morning routine because I mean, there's so many benefits to it and just, there's so much noise going on, there's so many distractions towards like, man, if you could really just like focus on just like you and really just like your thoughts, your attitudes and your actions for each day and just execute.
Eric (8m 28s):
It's a game changer. It really, really is.
Brian (8m 31s):
Yeah, I love that. I'm a big morning routine guy. I always find like it's, there's something about the morning, at least for me, where I'm just most productive. I know some people are productive at night, it's, that's not me. So I think part of it is like finding out what, when, when is the best time for you to be most productive, right?
Eric (8m 48s):
Yeah. What is, what is like, what's like, like, like what does your mor morning routine look like?
Brian (8m 52s):
So yeah, I mean, I have two dogs, so up and out, take 'em out for walks no matter the, the, the, you know, we got snow going, so no matter the temperature we go. And so that's the first thing. And then after that, getting back and probably just focusing on like the biggest levers that move my business, I'm sure you guys talk about that with your, with with your health coaches that you coach, trying to prioritize and doing the most important things first because I know as the day goes on that I just, I'm less productive and I'll probably do those things that, that need like less mental capacity, I would say.
Eric (9m 28s):
Sure, absolutely.
Brian (9m 29s):
Yeah. And yeah, you know, I try to just get some movement in early on. You know, I always tell people, like you said, 10 minute movement routine, something like that just to get, get, get going and, you know, I'll do some journaling. I'll be, I've been doing, you know, I go on and off with that. But journaling, I love, you know, some, you know, sometimes even some forms of yoga or things like that. Yeah. Early on. What about you guys? What are your mornings like?
Eric (9m 54s):
Go for it, Chris.
Chris (9m 55s):
Yeah, so like, what I do is I'm up at five 30 every morning. So the first thing I do is I'm reading the Bible for 15 minutes and that kind of like, and then I'll do a journal for about five minutes. That kind of completes my spiritual side of like the morning routine. And then the next 40 minutes I'm just dedicating to like a skill that I'm trying to enhance. So maybe it's like a marketing book, a business book, a sales book, whatever it is. After that though, like i, I stretch and I foam roll and then I go take the dogs out for a walk. And then after that, man, I'm just like ready to play offense. I'm ready to tackle like anything, you know, just from, just dedicating that whole entire, just like spiritual side and then the, the business side of it and just getting ready for the day.
Brian (10m 29s):
That's great. Eric,
Eric (10m 31s):
Similar to Chris, but I, I, I, I've always told him, I'm like, I'm like, man, I'm not is, I'm not an early riser just like that. So I usually get up between six and six 30 depending on how the day looks if I need to do that. But same thing, like I, I'm a huge, again, I'm putting God first no matter what I'm reading in the Bible for 15 to 20 minutes. And then again after that I just go into reading a book. So one book that I just finished reading again was The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David Schwartz, amazing book. So that's usually what I do. And then after that, man, I just, I, I go into like a stretching mode, like at least 15 to 20 minutes of just like solid stretching. And then I'll either go for a walk or not and then, you know, just have some coffee and then after that it's kind of off to the races.
Brian (11m 11s):
Yeah. And now you guys are, have, are in business together, I'm assuming you live in separate areas?
Eric (11m 19s):
Yeah, we had to cut that umbilical cord.
Brian (11m 23s):
Okay. Yeah. And what type of, like, I, I know you guys work with other coaches, what about mindset? You know, this is something that comes up a lot with, with like my clients is, you know, especially I work with a lot of middle-aged males. Like what, what type of mindset do you guys work with when you, when it comes to coaching and getting people, you know, honed in on their goals and things like that?
Eric (11m 43s):
Yeah, great question, man. And, and, and obviously like, like mindset is such a huge component. Like really what we say is like to our coaches is like, if your mind ain't right, your business ain't right. Same thing with, with health and fitness, right? Like, like you could have the greatest blueprint to, you know, achieve health and fitness goals, but it's like, if your mind isn't in it and you're not controlling what you can, not stressing what you can't, then it's like you're not gonna execute. But one pillar in our programs that we do really just emphasize, it's called mind growth. So instead of like mindset, because it's mindsets used everywhere and it's like, it's like almost like a negative connotation to where it's like your, your mind is set in stone and it cannot expand. So for us, we're like, okay, mind growth, we wanna constantly grow our minds. We want to elevate our thinking to elevate our life.
Eric (12m 26s):
So that's really what we focus on in our programs, like at the forefront because it's like, man, like so many people have limiting beliefs, you know, just in in false belief patterns that they just have to address, you know, to, to move forward and break past like those barriers. So yeah, we're huge on mindset. Biggest ones is really knowing your worth and value as a health and fitness coach. And then the second one is just creating a winning belief system.
Brian (12m 48s):
Love that. What about you, Chris? What about any, any tips on mindset? What, let's say if someone's looking to maybe, you know, get back into shape, obviously it's 2023, beginning of the year, what type of mindset changes do you think should be, or I should say mind growth, should they they get into,
Chris (13m 6s):
Yeah, I, I like these three kind of like pillars when it comes to mindset. It is just really consistency, focus and discipline. You know, I think they all kind of intertwine and they play a huge role, like whether it's in fitness, business, any type of life. So I would start there, you know, it's just like where in your fitness journey have you really kind of like lost that battle of being consistent? You know, is the diet portion, is it the cardio or is the exercise side of things? And then maybe the focus side of things, right? Like what, what is it that you have so much trouble focusing on, right? If you have a goal to lose, let's say for example, 20 pounds in 12 weeks, you know, like where is it that you're kind of losing the focus? Is it the why behind it? Is it the motivation? Is it the, the training program, the nutrition program?
Chris (13m 46s):
And then also just the discipline, man, that's the biggest thing is this. Like where are you lacking the discipline? You know, is it in the gym? Is it in the, the kitchen, is it going to the groceries? Is it, is it meal prepping? You know, is it actually, you know, just staying true to, you know, getting eight hours of sleep and you know, having that sleep cycle of going to bed at the same time, waking up at the same time. Is it your morning routine? Is it your spouse? Is it your support system around you? There's just so many factors, but I think if you just do a deep dive in those three pillars of like, where are your missing consistency, focus and then discipline, I think you start there, you know, and everything else kind of snowballs after that.
Brian (14m 18s):
Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And you know, you talk about consistency. I I will say, you know, I've been in health and wellness like 20 years now, and I will say that is probably the one thing I'd say that just like has kept me like going through all this is just staying consistent. Yeah. That, you know, one thing that I've noticed for myself and my workouts and even for my clients is I've actually found that my workouts have gotten shorter. Like I I, we talk about like micro workouts. I don't know what you guys think about this, but like, you know, 20, 30 minutes, I mean, you can go go, you don't even have to go in the gym obviously with Covid. I, I, you know, a lot of people stop going to gyms, but what are your guys' thoughts on these micro workouts?
Brian (14m 59s):
Because I'm a big fan. I think you can get a lot done in 30 minutes and, and, and then you can be a lot more consistent throughout the week.
Chris (15m 5s):
Yeah, I agree too, Brian. Like I, I guess the older I get or whatever it is, like the, the gym experience, but my workouts are cut shorter too. I used to be in the gym an hour and a half and I think back like, what the hell did I do like in there? You know? So now it's no more than like literally 45 minutes and then I'm like a five minute drive there and back. So as long as it's not more than an hour, I'm good. But I even like switching to more of like a full body routine now. Mm. To where what I'm doing is what's called a lot of antagonist, parrot setss. So if I'm doing upper body, you know, I'll hit like, you know, a lap pull down and then I'll go in and do like a bench press and I'll do like four sets of that of like whatever it is hypertrophy or strength that I'm training for. And that saves so much time and it also just gives me like this great pump, you know, and with the rest periods too. So I'm, I'm in and out and 45 minutes and I, I feel like it's been working good and I've just been going in there more frequent too, about five days a week doing that.
Eric (15m 51s):
Yeah. And I think I, I, I a hundred percent agree with you guys on that. And I think too, this might be valuable for your listeners, like just that are in their fitness journeys is really find something what is realistic, enjoyable, and flexible. And I remember we got this from Eric Helms, a 3d mj, he was one of our coaches too. And it's, it's an amazing acronym to remember. Yeah. You know, if you could really find like a exercise nutrition program that is realistic to, you know, where you're at in life, the season you're at in life, how much time you have priorities, something that's enjoyable, something that you're not gonna program hop or always like, you know, have shiny object or get discouraged with and that's flexible to your lifestyle, like I said, like is it flexible? Can you pivot? Can you make changes when needed if you're traveling a lot or if something comes up.
Brian (16m 33s):
Yeah, that is great. And like having that, finding something that you enjoy is, is key. I always say like I, I've never been like a big runner, like a cardio guy. I mean, I've enjoyed like moi Thai and kickboxing and so that's what I've enjoyed and I, that's just been sort of my, like my cardio essentially. Yeah. What type of things do you guys like to do if you're not doing resistance training?
Eric (16m 57s):
Yeah, I, I'm with you on that. Like the, the combat sports stuff we, we did boxing for like over a year back when we lived in LA and yeah, it was great man. Like such a, it's awesome. Great. Like cardiovascular exercise and just, just even mentality wise too, just the level of focus boxing takes and gives you a better appreciation for it. But I mean, I'm gonna say boxing man cause I'm not into running, I'm not into all that stuff. Like, I've had some injuries, but definitely basketball too. Like I love playing basketball, but I had a bad injury with that, so I'm like, I'm good off of that.
Brian (17m 27s):
You retired, you I retired from basketball too.
Eric (17m 30s):
Yeah. I hung it up. I hung up the jersey.
Chris (17m 31s):
And what's funny, Brian, is when he got that injury, I saw everything he went through and I was like, Nope, I'm throwing up my journey jersey and hanging it up to you. I'm not sitting there and gonna go through that same thing.
Brian (17m 40s):
Yeah. I mean, I think, and you know, you make the point as we get older, right? Like it's all about a lot of, it's not about not getting injured, right? Yeah. Because who wants to be on the shelf like me? Like I loved, I used to play basketball all the time and I'm also like a golfer, so okay, I play basketball in the winter. If I hurt myself then I'm, I can't, I'm not playing golf in the, when the, when the weather gets nice here in Chicago and there goes my season. So yeah, staying, staying healthy and, and not getting injured is key. What about, we talk about training, what about like nutrition? Like what are some of the things, you know, what, what kind of viewpoints have you guys gotten or have you, has it changed over the years as far as nutrition is concerned?
Chris (18m 22s):
Yeah, I've always been like a fan that I, I remember when I was doing coaching as well too, we would teach this concept colleges nutritional integration, right? And that's just basically all these diets out there, quote unquote, they're just concepts, right? So you hear a lot of stuff about like a keto diet, intermittent fasting, carnivore diet, flexible dieting fits your macros. They're all concepts, you know, and to me it's like how do we take these concepts, which, you know, they obviously all have pros and cons to them. And how do we again, find that ref diet, the realistic, enjoyable, and flexible and put 'em all together? Because we all know at the end of the day what, what the science says that it's calories in cal versus calories out, right? So as long as we know that and then we figure out what those concepts are to stick in with the REF acronym, then I think that's gonna make the best diet out there that's gonna have you be consistent sustainable follow for days, weeks, months, on end.
Chris (19m 10s):
And that's where you're gonna get your results.
Brian (19m 12s):
Yeah. What, what about you Eric? What?
Eric (19m 14s):
Same thing with Chris, honestly. And like I, I just,
Chris (19m 16s):
He's a low carb guy.
Eric (19m 18s):
He's a low carb, no, not at all. Heck no. I need my carbs. Okay. I, I, I just, I like flexible dieting, county macros and it just depends, you know, like what season I'm in. Like right now I'm just like, kind of like more in like a, a maintenance type of mode or just trying to, trying to put out a little bit of muscle, which is hard these days. So I'm not really like tracking, you know, so like tracking loosely eyeballing and you know, when I want to like, you know, have a little challenge, I'll go into like a eight week cut and then that's when I'll set my macros up and just really dial in and just, you know, challenge myself to be more adherent and stuff. But yeah, for me it's just definitely flexible dieting that works for my lifestyle and just kind of like what I've seen with like the, the literature, the data, what's worked for my, my clients in the past and what I tend to just adhere to best.
Brian (19m 59s):
Yeah. See, I can tell the way you talk, you've come from Lane Norton.
Eric (20m 2s):
Yeah,
Chris (20m 3s):
Yeah.
Brian (20m 5s):
A lot of what he talks about is what you said and Yeah, and I do like, he's very like evidence-based and I think that's great. I mean, you know, you talk about concepts. I mean I have people on my podcast anywhere from like you said, carnivores, low carb fasting. I mean I've done a little bit of everything. I'd say I've, for a while I was low carbon fasting, I've actually sort of changed it and dialed it up a little bit and actually adding a lot of like whole food carbs back in and just seeing how I perform. My big thing is I'm all about like self experimentation, you know, cuz I've had so many people on my podcast and they're like, oh they're in love with carnivore and this is the best. But then, you know, next week someone's like, I don't know, let's just say vegetarian and this has worked so well for them. So it, like you said, these are all concepts.
Brian (20m 46s):
I think it's just about sort of of self experimentation and finding out like what works best.
Chris (20m 50s):
Yeah, a hundred percent. I think just people get in trouble where they get very married to that concept, right? Just because it worked for them or they had a big transformation and they just completely swear by it to where they're so biased by it to where they can't look on the other side of it. You know what I mean? And like accept any type of other type of concepts that come in that couldn't like work just as well, you know?
Brian (21m 8s):
Yeah. And then so for you guys, you guys obviously coached health and fitness for a while, coached clients and then you got on the other end of it and, and now you're coaching, you know, you know these doing business masterminds and helping coaches grow their business. What sort of made you make that shift?
Eric (21m 25s):
Yeah, I think honestly Brian, like the honest answer is we just got burnt out from doing all the health and fitness coaching. I mean we were doing that for literally eight years and you know, first started off as personal trainers, then when we completely got our business to where we wanted, like we scaled it online and just worked with so many clients. We had like, like over 50 clients each at one point. It just, I don't know, it just, it didn't really interest me that much anymore. And I, it's just my honest answer. I've told that to like so many other people and you know, what lit my fire was like just again going into joining other like elite masterminds that were like business owners, entrepreneurs and just like the science and stuff behind marketing, advertising, just content marketing, just really creating offers, really knowing you're worth in value, really, you know, delivering a good system and stuff that we used to do.
Eric (22m 12s):
So I just saw that need for health and fitness coaches cuz we were at, we were at those pain points too, where we felt stuck on an island. We had all of our certifications and it's like they don't teach you all those, all those business, you know, concepts and skills towards like, yeah, you're competent in exercise, nutrition, kinesiology and all that, that's great. But then it's like, they're like, okay, well you know, thank you for your money, but we're not gonna show you how to make money and how to put that into practice. So I think all those things really lit my fire to wanna do business coaching.
Chris (22m 39s):
Yep.
Brian (22m 41s):
Chris, what about you? Same thing.
Chris (22m 42s):
Yeah, pretty much the same thing. And then also too, just like that's what happens, you know, with health and fitness coaches, they get pissed off, you know, when other people there are, you know, maybe if you have like an, you know, let's just say a nutritionist, right? They have like their MS or they have a, you know, their rd, but then somebody else doesn't have that, but they still are competent within like nutrition, right? They've done their like research and stuff like that, but they have that skillset of like marketing, sales, connecting with people, getting them results, you know, people get pissed off at that. But that's just how the game is. You know, like when you own your own business, it's kinda like the wild wild west. So that's why we tell our, our coaches like, you know, you have to be a fitness marketer first, which is basically you have to have that cap on in that lens where you're a marketer, right?
Chris (23m 24s):
Because if you don't sit there and markets people, nobody's gonna know about you and you're good work. Yeah, you might get some word of mouth and referrals, but this day and age man, it's just very noisy. So you gotta get out there and then, but that doesn't mean that you're, you're a crappy coach. It means you deliver on both sides of that coin, you know? And I just think that again, it's just too one-sided with sometimes with health and fitness coaches and it comes from universities, it comes from the certification programs, the textbook kind of like, like style thinking, all that stuff.
Brian (23m 47s):
Yeah. And I noticed in your background there, Chris, you got your book?
Chris (23m 52s):
Oh yeah, yeah. Got a couple of books there. Yeah.
Brian (23m 54s):
One of them's yours, right? Is that, is that a book you guys wrote?
Chris (23m 56s):
Yeah, they're both of ours. This one was right here, 2016 was the new era of fitness and then this one right here is the Rise of the Fit Pros. That's for health and fitness coaches teaching 'em like how to build their business.
Brian (24m 7s):
Oh, cool. And the new era of fitness. When, when did you write that? In 2000,
Chris (24m 11s):
2016.
Brian (24m 13s):
Okay. Tell, tell, tell me a little bit about that.
Chris (24m 15s):
Yeah, that's all based off of like five different kind of like areas that we've considered was the new era of fitness. I think we're a little bit too early on this Brian, but it sounded cool at the time. But the five areas was basically flexible nutrition, flexible exercise, it was incorporating personal development. I think it was habits and then it was mindset, but I think we were just too early on all that stuff. It just wasn't sexy at the time. Not a lot of people were talking about it, but we saw where the puck was going, you know? Right.
Eric (24m 40s):
Gosh, I think back at that, it's like that's already seven years ago, like crazy how time flies. Wow.
Brian (24m 45s):
Yeah. Yeah. And you talk, I know you've said this word a few times, flexible dieting, maybe explain to individuals what that exactly that is.
Chris (24m 54s):
Yeah, that to me is just kind of what Eric talked about with just kind of your macros, kind of having that skillset. Okay. And then being, and then again, tie in the flexible diet and the concept, what I said is like the conceptual integration with nutrition, just like understanding that, you know, how do you take bits and pieces on it? Like if you're somebody that still wants to count their macros, right? That's awesome. Right? But then it's like, if you like the lifestyle of, you know, intermittent fasting where you're having like, you know, two meals, like pretty much per day with those, you know, feeding windows, that's great. How do we tie in, you know, those feeding windows with the concepts of intermittent fasting and then still counting our macros. So to me that's kind of like flexible dieting.
Eric (25m 31s):
Yeah. And a really good like rule of thumb, just to follow with that is like an 80 20 rule, right? A lot of the misconception with flexible dieting is like, it fits your macros, like whatever it is, it fits your macros. Like, so you can eat whatever, you can eat a bunch of garbage and highly palatable food sources, but it's like no, no, no. Like you want to eat at least like 80% of whole and minimally refined food sources, right? Get your micronutrients in all that stuff. And then 20% could be Yeah, sure. Like non-traditional food sources that you do enjoy that are quote unquote looked at as bad.
Chris (25m 58s):
Yeah. And for your listeners like that, an example of that is if somebody has like a 2000 calorie diet, right? 80% of those calories are getting whole minimally refined foods. And then 20% could be like 200 calories from like, you know, a couple scoops of ice cream or something like that, you know? But at least you're sustainable and you're not so restricted to just be eating like clean like, you know, seven days a week for like, you know, eight weeks or something like that.
Brian (26m 18s):
Yeah, yeah. Love that. I love that. Yeah. I mean essentially if if, if you're in in a too restrictive diet mode for too long, it's probably not gonna work well for you, you know? I would guess, you know, some people maybe, but it's, it's, it's, I think you're in a minority.
Chris (26m 35s):
Yeah. And something we used to do too, Brian, that worked really well is just kind of like diet breaks too. You know, we'd have people on some pretty aggressive like calorie deficits for about eight weeks, then insert a one week or two week diet break bringing their calories back up to maintenance and they'd even lose weight, you know, because all these different like metabolic swings and stuff like that would kick in and it helped their adherence and then boom, we'd go back into like a deficit and they'd just lose more weight.
Brian (26m 58s):
And when you put 'em in a deficit, how much, how much of a deficit are you talking would you say?
Chris (27m 3s):
Yeah, I mean, when they started off all, depending on where their maintenance was, you know, we'd have 'em track for seven days and just kind of get a baseline of like what they're eating and then put 'em in probably like in a pretty aggressive one. I would say about 400, five to 600 again, just to get them momentum, get them confidence, get them some quick wins so that they can continue to stay focused on everything. And then maybe if we go back into it after like a diet break, it would be maybe moderate, you know, maybe 200, 300.
Brian (27m 28s):
Okay. And then is this, is this how you guys do your nutrition as far as for yourselves now, Chris and Eric? Do you, do you keep track of and your calories and, and sort of, you know, where your maintenance is at?
Eric (27m 39s):
Yeah, for the most part, like I said, like, just depends like what, what the goal is. Like, like if I am going to, if I'm gonna do it like a dieting phase, like I will absolutely do like a 300, 500 like calorie reduction. And my, my whole kind of philosophy is like try to utilize cardio as a tool and just really just like, you know, get a little bit more aggressive on cardio and, and even just with like, you know, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, right? Like aim for like 10 k, step 10, 10,000 steps per day because like that will compound over the days and weeks for, you know, fat loss. So for me it's like, you know, maybe try to, you know, just not cut so much calories but like increase the cardio a little bit. So then it's like you're not so food deprived.
Chris (28m 16s):
Yeah, that's good.
Brian (28m 18s):
Yeah. And, and Eric, what cardio are you doing? You said you're not a runner and you said you stopped, you retired from basketball.
Eric (28m 24s):
Yeah, man, it's like embarrassing. Like, I, I feel like I've gotten so lazy on my cardio. Like where all I do is like, I just go and walk in the gym like, like on the treadmill for like 10 to 15 minutes, like literally like just to get warmed up and I start my workout and that's
Brian (28m 38s):
It. Yeah, I hear ya. I hear ya. Yeah, I mean, I, I walk, you know, probably I do a couple walks a day outside and then I'll do boxing, you know, like once a week, maybe twice a week. And, and that's pretty much good. What about you Chris?
Chris (28m 54s):
Yeah, I, I got a question. When you do boxing, like how long do you kind of go for in that session?
Brian (28m 58s):
Yeah, well I mean I've gone through, I've, you know, I've done mo tie on and off for a while now and I've gone through instructors for, and recently now I've just picked up someone where we just do boxing and it's like, we do like eight rounds and it is, yeah, it is a bit taxing, which is, it is probably why I'm only doing it once a week cuz I think you can overdo it with that stuff, you know, it's not like I'm trying to do it for a living. But yeah, so I'm with him for an hour. It's not all an hour of boxing, that's a long time. It's probably 30, 35 minutes of actual, you know, rounds and then the rest is, you know, just some other, you know, some maybe core and things like that.
Eric (29m 38s):
Yeah. Don't you, don't you feel really sore though, like after just doing it once a week?
Brian (29m 42s):
My body's okay. I actually feel all right. I feel all right. I think, you know, I took a little break and then got back into it and I was feeling a little bit, but, but you know what? I don't know. I guess I've just been doing it on and off for 20 years now. So, you know, your body's at tuned I guess if you've never done boxing and then you start doing it for an hour, you Oh,
Chris (29m 60s):
It's brutal. Yeah,
Brian (30m 0s):
Yeah, yeah,
Chris (30m 2s):
Yeah. Cause I find myself only like being able to do like 30 minutes. I have a bag here at home and I'll do some, some like drills and I'll hit the bag, but man, I can't do more than 30 minutes. Like my shoulders are just tax, like my calves are on fire, just, you know, so
Brian (30m 16s):
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I had, God, his name is Escape Me, but he's big in cross, not CrossFit, but kettlebells and, and he has a formula called the hurt formula, high intensity repeat training. You know, I know everyone talks about hit high intensity interval training, right? And a lot of times what you'll find is, and he talked about it a little bit in his, his name is escaping me, but he's been in fitness forever and he talked about, you know, if you know, like Eric for example, you could get a lot out of doing just like quick sprints getting back, like even if it's like 10, like 10 to 15, 20, 10 to 15 second sprints and then resting until you're almost back to your norm and then do it again.
Brian (30m 59s):
And he was just saying that a lot of times in this, in these high-intensity workouts, people are burning themselves out because they're not, the recovery time is not, they're not giving ourselves time enough to recover between each high-intensity b bout. Yeah. So I actually have a rogue fitness bike in my basement I put in there. I don't know if you've been on those days. Nice. Oh,
Eric (31m 21s):
Those are, yeah, those are brutal.
Brian (31m 22s):
Yeah. So, so like Eric, if you don't like cardio and if, if your gym has a rogue fitness bite or something like that, those things are heavy duty. Like literally I'll go in my basement and do, I'll be done with the cardio session in eight minutes. It's like, yeah.
Eric (31m 35s):
You know? No, that's, it's a good recommendation man. And like, I like, like I like doing the battle ropes too with like, like intervals. Yeah. But like anything sprint wise, I, I gotta just stay away from like, cuz I almost like literally tore my Achilles and I tore like cartilage in my foot to where it's like, I don't wanna do anything that accelerates like that, so. Right. I'll definitely, I'll look for one of those rogue bikes.
Chris (31m 55s):
Yeah. But that's what I do though, Brian, is that there's an assault bike at the gym I go to. And like my warmup is is that for 10 minutes and it's like literally like a minute and 45 to steady pace and then it's like literally just sprint 15 seconds with my legs, my arms and after 10 minutes like, man, that pump and I'm just like focused. I'm just ready to get into that workout.
Brian (32m 12s):
Yeah. Yeah. Those bikes are just crazy. Yeah. Well we talked about morning routines. Do you guys have evening routines?
Chris (32m 20s):
That's one that I feel like that I could always like do better, you know, like we were good about shutting it off at a certain time, which I recommend even to our students. So I shut it off at like 6 37. I'm really, really disciplined about that. You know, basically after that it's just time with my wife, you know, and my dogs too. You know, we're cooking dinner, we'll watch a show, I'll take 'em for a, a walk if my body's hurt and I'll do like a quick stretch or a foam roll. But that's really it, you know, I wish I just had something better, you know, for your audience on like a, you know, a wind down routine or evening routine, you know?
Eric (32m 49s):
Well,
Brian (32m 49s):
I mean, shutting it down at 6 37, I mean, right there, that's, that can go a long way. Yeah. When you say shutting it down, so you mean you're not looking at like doing work per se?
Chris (32m 59s):
Yeah, no more calls, no more work. I try to put my phone somewhere where it's like I'm not seeing the messages come in from like, some of our assistants and all that stuff. So yeah.
Brian (33m 9s):
Eric?
Eric (33m 10s):
Yeah, I'm, I'm guilty too. I, I really don't have like a, a wine now. I, I really try to cut it off around that same time, 6 37 and like as of late been having to go to the gym like later just cuz my, my girlfriend gets off of work, you know, later. So that's been, you know, just tricky just transitioning to that. Cause I'm used to going like midday. But yeah, I mean, other than that, yeah, like I'm pretty disciplined on like staying off my phone and, you know, sometimes I'll get on it and stuff, but other than that man, we go, we go pretty hard throughout the day towards like, I'm, I'm satisfied like with what I've accomplished and, and the, the, the amount of work I put in throughout the day.
Brian (33m 43s):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean I, my evening routine has changed but like I, my workouts have shifted. I used to work out in the morning. Yeah. And I used to work out in the afternoon. Now I'm like, midday workouts I enjoy. Yeah, me too. You know, cuz it just splits the day up. Yeah.
Chris (33m 60s):
Yep. Exactly. That's what I do being tree one and two, like, I, I split up the day like that going to the gym.
Brian (34m 5s):
Yeah. And how do you guys portion out your meals? Like are you eating? You know, for a while I was, you know, big into fasting and I, you know, I still think fasting has a role, but I've, I've cut back a little bit on that and I do have like a mid-morning meal and then I'll do my workout and then a meal after that. What about you guys?
Eric (34m 22s):
Yeah, for me, what I do normally is I don't have a huge appetite in the morning, so I just literally get up and like, I, I mean hydrate obviously, but then I just have a protein shake with like a bunch of different like greens, like beet root, just ginger turmeric stuff. And then I'll have like a handful of like, like almonds or nuts. Okay. And that's really it. Sometimes I'll have a banana with it and that'll just hold me off, you know, for like four or five hours. Then I'll have like two to three like bigger core meals and, and that's really it.
Chris (34m 48s):
Yeah. Same with me too.
Brian (34m 50s):
Yeah. You guys and I talked with, who was I? Colin Stucker, I don't know if you know guys, he's, he's in the health business. He has a, a supplement company called Wild Foods. Okay. But we were talking about, I just drew a blank. We were talking about, what were we talking about? We did a whole thing on gut health. Is this something that you guys look into for yourselves or do you do any like testing or anything re regarding gut health?
Eric (35m 15s):
No, I can't say I, I I have, but it's like, I know how important that is and it's a, it's a really fascinating like, topic and I know it can be very complex. But no, I honestly have not really done like a whole lot of research on that.
Brian (35m 28s):
Yeah. And we talked about also, we talked about building relationships and creating some sense of community because I think that's gotten lost a little bit. And I was gonna say with you guys being business partners working together, what's that dynamic like? And I'm sure there's times like I've, I've been sort of a solo entrepreneur for a long time and there's times I think to myself be, God, it'd be nice to probably have someone along with me on this journey. Yeah. Explain to me how that, how that dynamic works for you guys.
Chris (35m 60s):
Yeah, I mean it's, it's just tricky all the time. It really is. But I think what helps the most with us is, you know, Mondays we always do a meeting and that's usually through Zoom that sets the intention for the week and just makes us focus on what needs to get done. And then I always go to his place on Tuesday because his place, he has like a nice co-working place and I work from home, you know, and it's like I gotta get away from these dogs, like just for at least one day and get out of there. So that changes my environment. And then what I'll do is like Thursday, Friday I'll try to go to a coffee shop or something like that. So I'm breaking up the week psychologically cuz I love being around people and the energy and stuff like that. And you know, just, there's always the cons, just working constantly at home. So that helps me a lot. And then, you know, sometimes like every other weekend or something like that, we'll go grab a beer and go watch like some of the, like the playoff games or something like that and just hang out and try not to talk about just nothing but business, you know?
Brian (36m 48s):
Yeah. What about you Eric? What's your week like?
Eric (36m 51s):
Yeah, pretty much, like very, it is very similar to Chris, you know, but I think we're, we're really intentional like, on what we need to do every single week. And we just have our, our meeting, our mon our Monday meetings just like for an hour, like on Zoom and just literally go over the entire week, like just the calendar, like make sure everything's really just coordinated, aligned with the same time slots and you know, like serving our students, you know, marketing wise, following back up with leads, you know, really delegating all the tasks to like our assistants plus our podcasts. I mean, there's so many different layers, you know, to our business to where it's like we have to be crystal clear on like what this whole week is going to be focused on and how we're gonna execute.
Eric (37m 32s):
So that's the first thing on Mondays. And then, you know, after that it's just, like I said, like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, like we have coaching calls with our students so we have time blocks. So, you know, that could be like anywhere from like, you know, four to five hours per day just back to back just depending on when they book in. But yeah, other than that man, like I, like, we just really try to line up podcasts. We'll do like batches, like me and Chris, we'll do so rounds we'll have guests, you know, from time to time. But I mean, for the most part it's like putting in like a good solid like eight hours just kind of broken up throughout the day.
Chris (38m 1s):
Yeah. I think if you have any listeners too, Brian, I think like a good kind of hack, we talk about this with our coaches too because a lot of 'em, you know, are at that point where it's like, man, they get kind of like loan, you know, and they, they just don't know how to really handle the day-to-day. Being an entrepreneur is again, just like go like, invest in a co-working like, office type of like membership or something like that because you'd be around people, you can build your network and you can also get clients there. Cause I'm sure there's a lot of people there that want health and fitness coaching. So that'll pay for your membership right there. If not, go to a local coffee shop, get very familiar with the people there, the baristas, you know, just build your local community, local radius there, there, you know, and I promise like if you do that one or two times a week, it'll like literally just change your whole kind of psychology of like getting outta your normal element.
Chris (38m 42s):
Like just hating the day-to-day stuff and just getting that new creative energy to be different places and talk to people.
Eric (38m 47s):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Good point.
Brian (38m 49s):
Love that. What, what type of advice would you give to someone that, that's maybe looking to become an entrepreneur and, and start, you know, whether it's it's coaching individuals or any type of business, what are, what, what type of advice would you give that individual? Individual right off the bat?
Eric (39m 4s):
Yeah, the biggest thing I would say, man, is just like, it's just really reframing your mindset to just understand that this is, this is a long game that you're playing, you know, so you have to just go into this, this very just like focused and be like, man, I'm not gonna build this overnight that it's, you know, I'm playing the, the infinite game, not the finite game. And just really understand that it's gonna take time. And I think just the biggest thing people don't focus on is building their, their, their resiliency. Like their eq. They really, really don't, and a lot of schools don't teach this programs, you know, growing up in different households, you know, if your parents, you know, don't know, don't know, they only know so much and you know, they, they want the best for you, but they're always playing it safe. So a lot of it is just, is those components is really buying into, you know, again, playing the long game and just like, you know, building that emotional resiliency because it's gonna be hard.
Eric (39m 49s):
It's, it's not supposed to be easy. That's why a lot of people just like jump into it and they don't stay in it for very long because it's very, very challenging. And I think if you could put those together and then even just develop that mindset too, they're like, look, this is not about me. This is about helping and serving other people. Like this mission needs to be greater than even myself. And I think if you do all that, man, and like, you know, again, just like be consistent, put in the sets and reps, show up every single day and how that will compound like over the days, weeks, and years, you'd be surprised. Like on what kind of like, you know, like stuff you could build and like, you know, a good reputation and just, you know, you, you'll get there at some point sometime.
Brian (40m 27s):
Love that. Yeah. That compounding effect. Have you heard the book Slight Edge? Jeff Olson? No. Haven't heard. No. Oh, guys, yeah, it's good. Yeah. Yeah. Write that one down. Okay. Jeff Olson. Slight edge.
Eric (40m 38s):
Slight edge.
Brian (40m 39s):
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look it up. So good. I mean, I, yeah, anyways, you made me think of it when you talk about compounding effect. Chris, what about you?
Chris (40m 48s):
Yeah, I mean that was great, what he said, kind of like on the, the mindset side of things. I think if like you're looking into the tactical side of things, again, it's like, it's that character trait of focus and there's these five ones that we teach our students to really focus on. We got this from a business mentor, so I wanna give credit where credit's due. But the five ones start with basically if you're getting into this entrepreneurship, a service-based business or a product, what we teach our, our students is basically that first one has to be very clear on who this site perfect future client is. So again, who's that one avatar, that one niche don't be looking to help out the whole entire world. The second one is have one offer. You know, you don't need to have five to 10 different, like all offers just have one really good core signature offer that's gonna solve the problem for that specific perfect future client.
Chris (41m 29s):
The third one is have one marketing channel. Everybody wants to, to be omnipresent and have like a podcast at YouTube channel, be on Facebook, be on Instagram, TikTok, it's gonna drive you crazy. Pick one channel that you really like with like the modality that you're good at writing, video or audio and double down on that. And the fourth one is basically your sales mechanism. You know, do you wanna hop on the phone to sell your product? Do you wanna do it through email? Do you wanna do it through a webinar? Do you wanna do it by chat? Do you wanna do it by Zoom? Right? And the fifth one is just focus on that for a year. If you could focus on those five ones, like literally for one year, like man, you're gonna be an amazing spot in your business.
Eric (42m 3s):
Yeah. And one more bonus, one man hire mentors and coaches sooner. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian (42m 8s):
Love that. I definitely, I I took some notes, sir. One avatar, one offer, one market channel, one sales mechanism. Exactly. And, and I like the one year. Yeah. At least one year, right? Like Exactly. It's a, it's a long patient. Yeah, exactly. It's a long term game. Yeah. Well this was great. I, I do wanna ask you on the other end, like what one tip would you give someone who I always ask my guests is, is looking maybe to get their body back, you know, maybe they've been struggling a bit with their weight or their health has sort of taken a turn. What, what tip would you give to them?
Chris (42m 43s):
I got a good one. What I would do is like, take a picture of yourself, you know, like one picture that you're, you were really satisfied that you're in shape and then maybe take a current picture of yourself if you're not in shape, right? And literally go print those out, like at an Office Depot or you know, staples and literally put those somewhere you're gonna see every damn day that's gonna motivate you to be like, I need to get back to there and this is what I look like and I'm not satisfied with that. That's, that's my lowest personal excellence and I need to get to that highest personal excellence of getting my body back, get my mind right.
Brian (43m 13s):
Love that.
Eric (43m 15s):
That's good. I dunno if I could top that.
Brian (43m 17s):
Can you follow
Chris (43m 18s):
Up on top
Eric (43m 18s):
That I'm just, I'm just gonna roll with what's on my heart and on my mind. Yeah. I just think it just goes back to me, I'm just having a hard, honest conversation with yourself. I mean, even if, if we take this in like a biblical aspect in the Bible that says, your body is your temple, so you get one body, you know, one mind, one everything. So it's like right. Just have that honest conversation. It's like, why? What am I doing? Like what the hell? Like, do I, is this really the best that I could do? Is this the best that I can do and show up with either to myself first and foremost, and is this the best I can show up to my, my family, my future kids, like my community? And it's just man. Like that's the biggest thing. Like if you, if you can't answer that question and just like be like, man, this is the best I can do, then I'm not sure what else advice to give someone.
Eric (44m 1s):
But yeah, there's really no excuse for that.
Brian (44m 4s):
Yeah. That's great Eric. Well guys, this was, this was awesome. I appreciate you guys coming on and you guys are just killing it. The Dynamic Fit Pros, where's the best place for people to find you?
Eric (44m 15s):
Yeah, thanks for having us, Brian. Like I really enjoyed this discussion, so yeah, thank you, Brian. Appreciate you. But the best place to find us is literally probably go to Instagram at Chris and Eric Martinez, and we have a lot of great resources in our link tree and then our website, dynamic fit pros.com. We have a really good free video there for health and and fitness coaches. And then check out our podcast. Our podcast is called The Dynamic Lifestyle Podcast. And I think those are really like the three main areas that you could find us. Yeah.
Brian (44m 39s):
Yeah. Love that. And I, and I'll be on there soon, which will be fun. Heck
Eric (44m 43s):
Yeah, that's gonna be good, man. Round two. Yeah,
Brian (44m 46s):
You could fire away at me. There you go. All right, guys, well, I appreciate you coming on.
Eric (44m 52s):
Thanks so much, Brian.
Brian (44m 53s):
Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Get Lean ean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there, and you've chosen to listen to mine, and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
