Fitness Vs. Health - Ali Watts

No matter what business you're in, you're in the business of relationships. One in four people can actually have someone where they can ring and speak to. So if you're a personal trainer or if you're a business owner, if you're a coach, which I know a lot of your listeners are, you play such a major role in people's lives because guaranteed they probably don't have anyone that they can even talk to about this.

What's up, fitness friends? Welcome back to the Future Fitness Podcast and Interview Series. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and this is episode number 142. I get to talk to my friend Allie Watts. So Allie has been in the fitness industry for quite some time. Um, she is originally from Australia, she spent time in Japan, she spent time in Hong Kong, I believe. She tells her whole story now. She's in New York City, and uh she's been doing this for a long time. She has her own podcast, uh, Ally Fitness, and lots of great guests on there. So I highly recommend checking that out. It was just a great conversation. Some of the big topics that we get into is what is the difference between fitness and health?

Right?

What is the difference? And I'm a firm believer, as a lot of people who have been guests on the show, that the future of the fitness profession is moving into health coaching. Uh now, whether you like that term or not, I know it's been come under some scrutiny. Uh, but that's ultimately the goal, right? If we want to hit the broader market, um, health coaching is the way to go. It's uh we get to work on all the things in people's lives that make them fit and healthy, not just a couple hours that you get in the gym every week, right? And what else did we talk about? Uh we talked about how she utilizes breath work in her practice as well for both her clients and herself, um, you know, improving health, uh digestion, anxiety, stress, all that stuff. And she gave us a couple cool uh ways to implement that. So yeah, if you haven't yet, please go to iTunes and leave a review. Uh I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. Subscribe and leave a review. Uh, it goes a long way. And uh yeah, I'll read it on air. You send you leave a review, I will read it on air as promised every time. I'll make you famous. And before I get into the episode as well, I want to talk to you about Elite Gym Insider. So um go to EliteGym Insiders.com. If you are a gym owner or just a general fitness entrepreneur or somebody who wants to be talking to people like that, uh, you want to go. It's a free Slack community, it doesn't cost you a penny. There is an application. We want to make sure that we uphold uh the quality of the community. It's about 350, 400 people in there right now. Um, really smart people, really open people, great, great networking. And on top of it, you're gonna get discounts, right? Discounts on things like digital marketing services, um, business coaching, educational products, all kinds of services and products that mean something to you, uh, stuff that we have tested that we like. Uh, we don't just recommend things that uh you know we haven't used or we're not familiar with. We want to make sure it works, right? If we're gonna partner with them, we're gonna make sure it works. So um, yeah, go check it out. EliteGymInsiders.com and fill out the application, and you'll get to talk to people like Allie Watts, right? Uh, she's in there as well. So without further ado, let's get into the interview. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. Uh, episode number 142, my good friend Allie Watts. All right, and we're live. Allie Watts, welcome.

Thank you. It's uh a pleasure to be talking to you.

Yeah, uh, I've had a lot of opportunities to talk to you uh over the last you know three, six months. And uh it's always been great. And you're I I'm excited to get you on here. You're you know, a coach, business person, athlete, uh podcaster. Uh you do many things. And I think uh you and I are both guilty of uh if I wouldn't say guilty, but if someone said, hey, you guys are multi-potentialites, we'd be like, Yeah, yeah, we do a lot of stuff, right?

Yeah, I think I think we we sort of have these big visions and we want to help um and connect as many people as we can, right?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh so let's let's kick it off. Give give everyone your story, Ale, for people who don't know you, give give your background and kind of uh how you ended up where you are now.

Yeah, well, where I am now, I'm uh sitting here in Manhattan. I've got a broken nose, but it's getting better. Um don't ask me about that. Um and I've been living here in Manhattan, New York for about almost two years. Uh, I actually was four years in Hong Kong before that, and you can probably tell from my accent I'm from Australia. So the reason why I'm here now, I guess, is my personal journey of fitness and health, um, helping others and realizing that I need to come to the States because my mission of helping as many people as I can with with health and fitness, what better place to do it than than than America where clearly it's needed?

Yeah. So you went Australia, Hong Kong, US. Is there any stops?

Yeah, no, so so I lived in Hong Kong for four years. I've actually lived in uh Japan for six years as well, so on and off from Australia. Um so yes, I've been around a bit, um, maybe eventually back in Australia.

Yeah. How was um tell me a little bit about your experience about living in in Hong Kong and Japan? What what were those?

Yeah, so I um I always was fascinated with Japanese language and wanted to learn another language. And being Australian, you don't actually most people only speak I was gonna say English, but it's really Australian. So I um I wanted to learn Japanese and um I decided that after failing Japanese at school just for not attending classes, uh, I uh I realized that I had to go there to learn it. So I went around, I went over like fairly soon after school, and I just hitchhiked around for a year. Back then it wasn't wasn't uh even people didn't even know what hitchhiking was. So I did that for a year and um then realized I actually wanted to learn the language formally, um, and so I went to university and studied linguistics and Japanese. Um and then went back several times. Uh my um I actually won a scholarship from the Japanese government, so they paid me to do a master's degree in linguistics over there. So that was fun, and then went back again to work as a business development manager for Oxford University Press and did some editing for them as well. And then um my husband was like, hey, Japan's sort of fun, let's go live in a different spot. So we lived in like Osaka, Colbert, lots of different places, and that time um he's like, Oh, I'll get a job and and uh doing what I like doing, and and we'll go over and do that. So we did that, and then uh back to Australia, and then uh and then Hong Kong was was mainly I guess for my husband, wanted to sort of he's in the finance, IT sort of industry, so wanted to experience that, and that was great living in Hong Kong. I worked with a lot of athletes, semi-professional, professional athletes, and um and that's sort of where I realized that this health and fitness thing um is is not quite right, and uh there's lots of work to be done, and uh I think you know my next step was really sort of stepping out of my comfort zone. I felt like I helped as many people as I could there in Hong Kong, but that was really the next step to uh be surrounded with knowledgeable people like yourself and then help so many people that really do need help with when it comes to health and fitness.

Yeah. And you're a pretty competitive athlete too, right? So give us a little bit of your athletic background.

Uh not really, funnily enough. I mean, I I like um all sorts of different sort of um anything to do with fitness I like. So I like doing lots of different things. I was pretty much um I guess cycling at one stage was probably the biggest um sort of thing for me. And I I was I was pretty high level, I guess. Um I I didn't actually compete, um, but I probably, you know, was an ACAT maybe cyclist. Uh I had a fairly bad cycling injury and that um that made me never want to ride again. Um or or definitely Was it an accident or what happened? Yeah, yeah. So I was riding along at about um 50 kilometers an hour, say 30 miles an hour, um, and it was actually just before a race, which I didn't typically do many races, but this one I was sort of quite excited about. It was a a three-day uh cycling race, stage race, I think three or four days in Thailand, and it was the week or two before. It was our last training ride actually, and uh a couple of new members uh joined, and that's always a bit scary. We're in a Peloton, so you know you're really on the back of the wheel, and someone just um stopped. I don't know what happened in front of them, but I hit their wheel and came off. Um, had had my helmet split open, so luckily I had my helmet on. Um, and that was like four months of concussion. I tore uh seven ligaments in my left shoulder. You've only got eight ligaments holding your shoulder. Yeah, so the surgeon was pretty impressed. He was happy, he was sort of excited. Um, and yeah, and that and you know, they were like, you're never gonna be able to, like, maybe you know, in in in a couple of years you'll be able to do a few pull-ups. I'm like, how long will it be before I can do like a hundred pull-ups? And he's like, uh I don't think you'll be able to do that. So six months later, I I could do that. So I was I was happy. But I did a lot of um serious rehab and gymnastics, uh, strength and conditioning, which is how I got into that over here in Manhattan.

Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. 30 miles per hour crashing like that.

That's yeah, I was really lucky. Yeah, but I mean, a lot of the professionals do that and survive. So um, yeah, I've had enough uh head injuries though for a while.

Yeah, yeah. I I remember I got my first concussion in high school, and then after that they just come so easy, right? Um I'm not saying that like bragging is just I would rather never have gotten one. Um but yeah, they're they just seem to happen. You have a podcast too. Talk tell us about your podcasts.

Yeah, I do. Actually, back on the concussion thing. So I when I was nine, when I was nine, I got hit in the head with a golf club and and was in a coma for several months. So I uh I've definitely had my fair share of hits. But yeah, so uh I I run a podcast, it's it's called Alley Fitness, and it's about bringing health into fitness. And uh I I sort of wanted to do it for for for a bit, and then after my accident, I was like, I almost died. What would I regret? Oh, I didn't I've got to start that podcast. So I started it like the next day from hospital. Um and wait, right? It's about bringing health into fitness because Yeah, you started it from the hospital.

Sorry? You started it from the hospital?

Yeah, yeah. I'm like, bring in all my gear, I've got to do so. I worked it all out and just did it. And um, yeah, and so I realized, and I was guilty of this as well, is that people general you know, general public think that if you're fit, you're healthy.

Yeah.

And a lot of the fit people that I trained with and trained were definitely fit. Uh were they healthy? I would say almost all of them weren't. And that was quite worrisome, and and then I started addressing my behaviors and thinking that, you know, sleep wasn't really that important, and you know, the the old saying, you'll sleep with sleep when you're dead, and and all of these sort of um, you know, philosophies that I was following were just actually anti-health. And so I really wanted to help educate people that were perhaps fit but not so healthy, how to actually get healthy. Because at one stage in their life, health was gonna become the most important thing.

Yeah. It's it's an interesting thing, and I think um it's it's a huge point. We're gonna dive into it. I have a feeling quite quite deep on in the next uh little bit, but you know, and I would sit people down for an introduction to my CrossFit gym, um, I would make a distinct point of saying, like, okay, what you see on TV is CrossFit as sport, right? What you see here is CrossFit for health and general fitness. There's a huge difference because if you look at a lot of those athletes, yeah, they may look and they are extremely fit, but they're actually moving away from health in so many areas. They're probably not sleeping well, their digestive issues are stacked up. Um, you know, they're they're chronically inflamed and and all kinds of things are going on. They're mentally uh not doing so hot. Um, you know, that's just the part of being an athlete, right? And and sacrificing those things. But a lot of athletes are sacrificing those things without being conscious of what the the actual long-term issues are, right? I know you've worked with a lot of professionals. Tell me about like your evolution. Like, when did you start to realize that? And then how have you started to incorporate that into your practice?

Yeah, so I guess um what what I noticed was that you know, people talk about their values, but the best way to see someone's values is how they actually live their actual actions as opposed to what they say their their values are. I'm sure you you'd agree. So I noticed that people would would say, you know, athletes would say, you know, my health and fitness are the most important thing. But then if you looked at what they were doing, that it it just wasn't, it didn't didn't make sense. And like you said, the further in and in a way to be a top-level athlete, you have to compromise your health. I mean, it's not natural for the body to do that. And look, I I'm all for, you know, if you've got a goal and and you want to achieve that through fitness, then then great, but just be aware of how important that is in the overall long, long term things. And and and I guess the thing is like as I got older and saw people who you know were quite healthy and fit when they were 20, 30, and then when they got into their 40s and 50s, you could see see how quickly that they were actually deteriorating. And then I started addressing some issues that um I was obviously dealing with but but not realizing, and and and so that's sort of really where it became apparent. And so an example would be, you know, that there were women who were um just ha having all these symptoms, and they were just too early to get these these type of symptoms, and um, and I myself struggled a lot um with body body weight. Um I um I I couldn't I didn't have enough body fat, um, so I spent seven years uh doing IBF. And uh I don't I don't wish that on on my worst enemy. And so I really just wanted to make people aware of like is your goal really going to match up with your overall purpose? And my my point here is most people want longevity, um, long-term health. And is that going to compromise that in any way? And if so, that might be okay for a short period of time, but just to be really upfront and honest and and realize, well, what can I do to actually prevent any long-term damage?

Yeah. I've read something somewhere, maybe it was like Tony Genselcore. It's like, uh, you know, in your 20s, you want your abs, right? In your 30s, you want to people want to be strong. In their 40s, people want to be healthy, and then on beyond. How do you how do you define health? What is that what is that definition for you? How do you envision it?

Yeah, good question. I mean, and it's obviously changed a lot for me over the time. And and I think now it it's not just and and so much of when we talk about health is about the physical appearance of health. And sometimes I wish instead of seeing people like the outside of someone, I sometimes wish we could just see their in internals and their blood work. It like you know, on Instagram, instead of posting what you look like and your ads, actually just posting your blood work um or or your organs and what they look like, or or something like that, because it's so much more about that, and you know, it it affects your your whole well-being, but uh also a huge part of that, and and I I do um I run a health coaching company and and I have health coaches, and a lot of them are actually trained in psychology because health is so much more than the physical, and it's so much more than what you eat, and it doesn't matter if you're eating great, if you're stressed, or if you're dealing with emotional issues, then this is going to affect your health. And so, so in answer to your question, health is I feel a balance of fitness, uh, spiritual, your mind, and you know, your physical and it all just coming together.

Yeah, yeah, it's uh that's really funny about Instagram, by the way. I think that's hysterical. Because yeah, what if someone stopped showing booty shots and they showed like, hey, this is what my poop looks like, right? Yeah, yeah. You you mentioned a really interesting before we start recording, you mentioned a really interesting interesting statistic about one in four people.

Yeah, I mean, I was I was really astounded to hear, and I'm sure it's the same in other countries as well, but you often you hear stats about it about the US. One in four people um at at maximum could actually ring someone, a friend, and talk to them about something, or could go and sort of even go and see them, which is probably even more unlikely. Um so that statistic alone, I mean imagine if you're having health issues or anything, and you don't have a friend or someone that you can console in. And so I guess back to that that that that whole thing about what is health, I think a huge part of health is your relationships. And um I hear you talk about relationships and connections all the time, and it's such a big part of any type of business, no matter what business you're in, you're in the business of relationships. Yeah, and and that goes with your personal life as well. If you don't have friends and family, and then your health will be affected. If you're not part of a community, your health will be affected. I mean, how often do you see where the husband or wife they've been married for a long time, the husband dies, the wife soon dies afterwards, because that connection, human connections is lost. And so one in four people can actually have someone where they can ring and speak to. So if you're a if you're a personal trainer or if you're a business owner, if you're a coach, which I know a lot of your listeners are, you play such a major role in people's lives because guaranteed they probably don't have anyone that they can even talk to about this.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's so true. I mean, you know, uh my office at the gym, once a week I'd have somebody crying, right? Uh, not because anything I did, uh, but because they just, you know, felt comfortable enough to just let things go. And they didn't have anybody else. And that that's really important. And and, you know, talking to entrepreneurs too, and the value of relationships is people just like to kind of cruise over their personal relationships because they don't think they they want to categorize it or or compartmentalize it differently than their business. But you know, if I'm if uh if my wife and I had a disagreement the night prior, right? My business, I will not approach my meetings the same way in the full capacity that I could the next day. It's just the way it is, right? That's a very stressful situation. Anything that's happening at home is going to affect the rest of everything you feed. You can't can't you can't compartmentalize these things, right? You know, stress is stress, whether it's relationships at home, business, um, what you're doing at work, or um, you know, how much sleep you're getting, uh, environmental. This is all stress. And uh it's something that people need to consider from all aspects.

Yeah, I noticed um a lot of uh the athletes that I was working with, obviously they do a h high level stress uh workout very often.

Sure.

But what they don't realize is that your body can't tell you the difference between stress, workout stress, and relationship stress and work stress. So it's compiling stress on top of stress on top of stress, and something's got to give. And I think that's a really important point that that you that you make there is like so how do you how are you dealing with stress and should you be adding workout stress on top of relationship stress and you know um and and that's where um I started really evaluating things like how you know how important is stress when it comes to health and if I could sort of pinpoint anything if I if you said to me look I'm really stressed I don't exercise I eat poorly all these things where would be the best thing to start I would say stress and not necessarily eliminating stress which of course can can be done and is is is effective but let's face it most people are going to have stress in their lives no matter what lives they live and obviously it's how you deal with the stress and what sort of things that you implement in your life that help you deal with with stress and I know I've heard you speak about it a lot and even yourself who who does does get anxiety you know in the mornings I've heard you talk about that and and how you deal with that and and having that that protocol of you know that breath work the Wim Hof breath work that you do I'm sure without that you just would not be dealing with stress very well and therefore your health would be majorly affected not to mention you know your business your relationships it all comes together right yeah yeah absolutely it's funny because I woke up this morning um got up a little earlier than I normally did I woke up at like 445 and I checked my phone and which you know and then I got a text that wasn't that wasn't great news right and you know immediately that was like okay anxiety you know cortisol rose and um I could just feel it I'm like oh God.

So and but then I got into my morning routine right the cold exposure the Wim Hof all that stuff and you know right as rain felt felt ready to tackle the the issues and that that's been a huge thing for me is is to to be aware of it. And I think that's number one is like are you aware of the patterns that you're in and I'd be curious to hear you know when you work with your clients and you start to make them aware of stress what how do you how do you tackle that conversation right how do you make them aware how do you isolate things how do you get them to start systematically approaching um and mitigating stress in their life yeah and so to your point I think that actually mitigating stress can be quite difficult because depending on the type of person you are it doesn't matter like I I could I could find something very stressful that you would just go how how do you find that stressful so it no matter what you mitigate in my life I still might find somewhere I'll find something to be stressed about.

So I I do think mitigation has its has its place but I think just implementing some really important um habits and I guess um one of the one of those things is obviously fitness and and and doing workouts so that's one area where I've found people who aren't used to working out and obviously there's a lot of science backing this up as well but really implementing workouts into your daily routine and movement but also I mean if I was to choose you know one thing then I would say breath work um or you know meditation but whatever meditation is is for you I don't like to say this is the type of meditation that you should do. Yeah however I do think that breath work is a great way to get into meditation because it's actually making the person concentrate on the breath and it's giving them something to do as well as having huge benefits. And so that's something that's something that like as part of my programs I have breathwork um as as a big part because a small amount of breath work can change your day as as I know as I know you're aware. But also on this stress thing and what's really what's become really apparent to me and I guess where I've started to move into a lot too just organically I've started helping a lot of business owners in the fitness industry who are in that one in four they don't have anyone to talk to about their business and obviously their personal life is is is it is being affected and they're meant to be the example of health and yet what they're telling their clients they're not doing themselves and they're suffering hugely from stress and lack of sleep and all these things that that we're that we're telling our clients not to do.

And so I feel that a lot of your listeners can probably resonate with with that yeah absolutely I'd be curious to hear too well a couple things I want to know what type of breath work you actually encourage people and coach people to do. And the other thing um you know I coming from Australia spending time in Hong Kong and Japan how different is the American culture when it comes to stress from your perspective like how how do we deal with things over here we tend to sweep things under the rug a little bit right for lack of a better term um but how how do you from a cultural perspective how do you see the difference between um the states but let's talk about first let's talk about the breath work I'm curious about that what do you what do you assign to people yeah so with the breath work I mean the it's it's actually not rocket science it's it's breath and there are a lot of different exercises that you can do and some are more sort of work on on different things so but there's a lot of um different schools of breath work but at the end of the day it's just about breathing and there's no really right or wrong way to do it it's it's a matter of all what are you trying to accomplish and so what I tend to use like I'm I'm fairly familiar with a lot of different types of breath work out there like Somma and uh Wim Hof and um I've recently done some training with XPT Hamilton. So Larry Hamilton's yeah Joe Rogan Parkaston that was amazing.

Yeah and I I I quite like that because it's very simple and there's different there's different um different I guess exercises that you can do to accomplish different things. So for example there's a great um and part of my course I've put in like a bedtime protocol so before you go to bed this is a really great way to breathe and and get into that parasympathetic state much quicker than if you were just to jump into bed. And then and so so the base basic premise of that would be your exhale would be longer than your inhale and you would yeah sort of really concentrate on on that but at the same time you wouldn't let your breath you wouldn't get breathless or what I what I call like breath hunger um air hunger because you don't want to create any stress. So you use a count that's suitable for you and it depends on on you. So for example I might be comfortable with the an inhale and exhale of say four and six whereas you're like oh no I can't I can't I can't do that. I need to do like two and four or whatever you know and so I don't like to set direct numbers necessarily but you know most people are within a certain and then I like um it's funny with warm-ups people are so adamant that they have to warm up them their muscles so they'll go oh I've got to go on the treadmill and warm up before I do my weights and I mean that in itself like isn't actually activating the muscles that they're gonna use so how valuable is it for to do that is another question. But then why aren't you doing a breath work warm-up before you work out because you want to be able to if you're not breathing correctly during your everyday then how are you going to possibly be breathing correctly when you work out and so warming up your breath and and getting into that breath is actually really important. So I've got a great sort of pre-workout breath work that I that I recommend. And then a lot of the other breath work I I do is like especially to help athletes with their performance. It's amazing if you get someone who is a is is a great athlete I can almost guarantee you if unless they've done some concentrated breath work their breath it isn't isn't very good and yet they're an amazing athlete work on breath for about three weeks and they become um their performance levels just go through the roof. There's there's a lot of studies around that as well but and so one of the um the I guess the goals of the breath work that I like to do is sort of increasing that CO2 tolerance which in in in effect really helps with with with athletes performance or any anyone's performance. Well there's two from yoga that I really love using. So I've sort of got a combination of all different um breath work but the two that I really like from yoga is the Nadi Shodana which is the alternate nostril breathing and that's basically where you inhale through your left out exhale through your right inhale through your right exhale through your left and you close it off with your thumb and and and ring finger um and that is a very calming great for um releasing anxiety and I I love that one and I guess the other one which is not so much breath but you can sort of concentrate on your breath is the um yoga nidra um which is like a sleep meditation but it's it's something that if people struggle with meditation they won't struggle with this they just follow follow along with the instructions and uh once again I include that in my all my courses because I just think it's such a great way to get into total parasynthetic state most people fall asleep and so I do recommend it to do before before sleep. Yeah yeah it's amazing if you know even if you just incorporate a little bit of breath work but at bedtime um how how quickly you can just pass out you know uh and is all this stuff available to you on your webs your website's Alley Fitness right uh yeah so my website is Ali.fitness um yeah or um Ali Ali What's fitness dot com as well um all goes to the same place and so they those they're actually not available there but they can do any any of my like 10-day jump start or my 28-day program and all of those programs have all of that in it. But um in answer to your your other question about different um nationalities and how they deal with um exercise and health and you do see a profound difference um not so much between say Australia and the US although there are some quite significant but more so between the Asian culture versus the Western culture. So I'll I'll start with like the Australian American sort of difference. I I sort of I mean m Australians are fairly well known to to be travelers yeah whereas I feel like Americans and perhaps it's because the US is so big although Australia's pretty big as well tend to only travel within the US and even then not so much and they don't tend to take long periods of time off work.

They're very very much work work is the number one and you know you shouldn't really take long vacations and that's the general um sense that I get am I am I right or oh totally I mean I uh you know every time I I I go travel somewhere outside of the states or even in the states there there's two um countries that I I tend to see a lot of people uh Australians and Germans they're just everywhere like everywhere you go Australians and Germans they're always there and it's part of the culture and you know I I've heard on some other podcasts and I tend to agree that you know if if if the United States made it like mandatory that after college you had to go travel or after school you had to go travel for X amount of time, what a different culture it would be right um how drastically that would change our American culture because you get so much perspective. I just got back from you know 10 days um on an island off the coast of Honduras called Rotan and you know I immediately came back and my perspective was different. You know I immediately well first thing I do is when I go to those places I'm like well what if I just cash it all in now? How long can we live on this island? 20 years probably right it's like 500 bucks a month for expenses. But you start to see that like um how hard we work as an American culture. We just work, work, work. And uh like I don't have any rules around me, right? Like I don't need to be anywhere at a certain time. I don't need to work X amount of hours per month or per week. But I find myself doing it anyway and being busy at times just for the sake of being just being busy. Like I feel like oh well I should work eight hours.

Yeah I do yeah I do get a sense that sort of um in the American culture it's sort of good to be busy and if you say people are happy whereas I I'm more of the like I I don't want to be busy um and and maybe it's more of a laid back sort of style in Australia not to say that you know Australians don't work hard but but there's definitely more of a less emphasis on that and more emphasis on oh you should travel. I mean to give you an idea I was talking to one of my coaches the other day and I'm like oh you've got to come and you've got to go to Australia and she's like oh I have to get my passport what do you mean you don't have a passport? You haven't been overseas? Yeah um and and to me that's just unheard I mean to give you an idea my daughter before she turned oh on her fifth birthday I was looking through her passport and she'd been to 20 countries.

Awesome.

There's five and I don't know how many she's six now so I don't know how many but um I've lost count you know but to um I'm not saying that everyone should do that but but yeah definitely um that's one big difference and I think to your point just you know going overseas and you noticed the difference um and you came back with a different perspective and and I can I can really relate to that oh could we just move here and live here for 20 years because I've I've I've been to Bali and Thailand several times and uh I've I've thought that several times but um the only problem is is if you ever want to go back and visit your family you can't afford it. So but but I I do think that um there's definitely a different and because of because of that mentality of of traveling Australians probably don't put that same emphasis on work and therefore could potentially put their health before but but that's not to say that Australians I think I think actually Australia overtook the obesity award um as from from from the Americans uh in in in one of the years so I definitely don't think um you know Australia are a good a good example but I do think the Asian cultures are a great example um and and obviously things are changing because you know Asia's becoming more westernized but to give you an idea I lived with a a Japanese family for six months and the grandmother was 89 and she she rode her bike everywhere she met up with her friends daily she went skiing every year with her same friends and eight she was 89 and she continued to do this forever um and you would very it would be very un unusual if you you know if she didn't go out on her bike and and her other friends every day to get to the shops to do this. That's just how they how they commute uh and then if you went out at like five or six in the morning and hiked a hill you wouldn't see anyone under the age of 40. They'd all be like 50 and 60 and 70 and out with their friends hiking and it's just a different a different mentality and a different culture that they're they're just so much I I would say the older generation we're we're we're definitely you know fit and healthy and so unfortunately I I don't feel that the the Western cultures have really got that same that that same mentality and I think it's it's just getting worse I'm I'm quite concerned you know like with the younger generation spending so much time not moving.

Yeah. Yeah it's interesting I mean even just you know when we left uh California which is you know California New York um probably you know the two hubs of of hustle right uh where everyone's just you know everyone's hustling everyone's working everyone's in traffic everyone's crazy and then coming up here to northwest Montana and spending some time up here and seeing how active the older generations are I mean you see there's uh at the ski mountain that I that we go to every year uh Whitefish Mountain there's a uh there's a vertical contest so you can get if you have a season pass you can track how much vertical you're doing in the winners every like top five are all people in their 70s. Granted they're retired but these people are out every day. And then you get on the hiking trails it's people in their 60s, 70s, 80s. It's so inspirational just to see that type of culture um where it's it's so much more valued lifestyle so is is valued so much more higher than some of the other parts of the country. So I think it's also regional. And you know it's an interesting conversation about you know the concerns that you have for um you know Western culture in the younger generations too and I I'd be curious because I I I tend to believe that the future of the fitness profession um you know is going from a fitness professional to a health professional to a health coach right because that's where we can make the biggest impact and I think people need to maybe start paying attention a little bit. And I'd be curious to hear you know if from your experience because you've done it if I'm a if I'm listening and I'm a fitness professional you know I'm a coach or strength conditioning coach or you know I do group classes or I do personal training how do you start progressing towards a health coach like how do you start changing your education how do you start changing um you know your approach to your clients and and maybe how do you how do you make a living? Like is is health quote unquote and I'm doing air quotes right now is a health coach a big enough thing yet?

Or do you think it's it's got a little ways to go yeah well I guess sort of before I even answer that or as part of that I want to talk about like measuring things. Yeah because we were just talking about the older generation and I feel like they measure importance of things differently as you get older. So therefore they're not out they're not working as much because they realize the importance their life's almost over and they want to enjoy it. And for me a big realization with the fitness industry and and is is what are you measuring and is that is that in line with your values so for example you might say to yourself I've done 20 20 kilometer run today at at X pace I'm gonna I feel like I've had a successful day because I'm basing it on that whereas and and definitely I I see that that's very common. Whereas now it's like well hang on you told me that longevity and being fit and healthy and for you when you're 60 to be able to play with your grandkid is really important to you. But if you're measuring your heart rate and how much you can push your heart in a in a 20 kilometre run every day is that really in line with with what your long-term goals are and measuring and so therefore just being a fitness coach or a personal trainer you're potentially not necessarily measuring the right things. In saying that of course fitness coaches and personal trainers are becoming way more aware of this and so now instead of measuring things like that they're measuring hey why don't you wear the aura ring and let's track your sleep and you know what you didn't have enough sleep last night so you really shouldn't be we're not going to do a HIIT workout we're actually going to just work on some mobility today based on what you told me how you feel and the fact that you know you didn't get much sleep you your quality of sleep wasn't very good. And so now we're using things like the whoop or the aura ring and to measure and so now What the client's doing is going, or I'm not going to try and smash myself today. In fact, tonight I'm going to go to bed earlier and I'm going to start implementing some supplements that are going to help me do that. Or, you know what, I'm going to buy like my my recent uh purchase was a chili pad. Um, because there's a lot of science based on you know having a cooler environment environment helps you sleep. And so now that I'm tracking my sleep, it's like it's a competition within myself, how much sleep can I get, and how how good a quality can that be? I want to do everything I can to optimize that. So I'm like, okay, well, this is what I've got to do before I go to bed, and and this is what I've got to do to, you know, and the Wi-Fi's got to be off, and all these things that you implement, because now my goal is to get the best results, because I I love measuring things, but now I'm measuring the things that actually uh in line with my values. And so I guess in answer to your question, as a a personal trainer or a a fitness instructor, you're sort of limited to one piece of the puzzle. And as we spoke about before, it's not a big enough piece to make a difference. If you're totally stressed out in your life, then that's not gonna help. But let's face it, how many really great personal trainers don't address all these issues anyway? They do, they have to they, you know, like you can tell the difference between a good fitness instructor, a good personal trainer, and and one that doesn't take any of those things into consideration. But being a health coach, I guess it just gives you the license to be able to do that. When I say the license, yeah, it's a bit of a a gray area, as I believe personal training is as well. Um, so you know, like what I'm not sure of the rules in America, but do you actually even need to have a qualification to be considered a personal trainer? I think you probably do in terms of getting insurance. Um but like I know in Australia you could actually call yourself a personal trainer and not actually have a certification. So it's a it's a very great area, and health coaching is similar. There is now, I believe, a body that that you can be certified with, but to be honest, it doesn't really really mean that that much. Um there are some great health coaching courses that you can do to add to your repertoire, um, and that's definitely something that you know I would I would suggest doing if you want to be a holistic coach, but at the same time, you can educate yourself and be more knowledgeable than doing a course as well. So, you know, I I guess what what do you I mean Eric, I'm sure you you know a lot more about you know being certified and and insurances and and then and how that all works in the US.

Yeah, it's a huge gray area. I think that's the best way to put it. You know, there's um it's it's just a young industry. So, you know, the regulations um thereof, and and you know, and every state's gonna have different laws about you know what is your scope of practice, what can you talk about? And you know, I think about if you're if you're just addressing general lifestyle guidelines like you know, sleep, hydration, basic nutrition, you're not um you know, prescribing anything to people, um, you're you're generally in the clear. Um and it's uh it's it's one of those things too. It's like people come in because they want they they they believe what they want is what they need, right? And that's the big differentiator. I think that's the struggle for a lot of people. And it's also like the marketing conundrum within the fitness industry is like, okay, how do we give people what they want? Six-week challenge, right? Um, so they they can come in and then I can kind of slowly turn it into what they need, which is lifestyle guidelines, stress management, right? All these things. So how how do you do that? And um, so many people come in, they think, well, if I just join a gym and I show up three days a week, my life will be different. No, not really, you know.

But I but but I think also you've got to meet the client where they're at. And so if they think that, then that's fine. At least they've now committed to some time with you, and now it's up to you to educate them. And and I think you know, that's that's a that's the good coach. So it's about letting them get their goal or letting them reassess whether that's really their goal, and also selling them on what they actually need and making that become what they want. Um, and I don't think you need to be a health coach to be able to do that. I think any good coach can can do that, and and there are some great coaches out there now, and and um but but I I do like what you said, it's about the need and want are of normally very two different things. Uh unless the the client is a bit older and then they sort of start to realize the importance of health. But yeah, really, really true, really true. And and so and and and and what sells, you know, like for example, uh, I run programs and as a a byproduct, most people lose weight because you start eating eating and living healthily, and so obviously that's a byproduct, but unless you sell it to people as you're gonna lose weight, they don't want to know about it because most people all they care about is losing weight. And once again, I just want to come back to that Instagram photo, you know, it's like this is a person that's lost a lot of weight, now has no bone density, is suffering from gut leaking gut, blah blah blah. This is the person that did it for long-term health, is is is a great weight, has as a as a byproduct, has lost weight, but has also gained lean body mass, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah. It reminds me, I gotta give credit to my old business partner too, Traver Bohm. Um, you know, he we did a a lifestyle fitness challenge at our gym years ago, and uh he started off, he kicked off the whole thing with just a great talk. He's like, and you look at Traver, he's like an Adonis, right? Um, you know, six-pack abs, you know, really, really thick guy. And he would say, you know, he would start as like, you know, who thinks I'm I'm healthy? Right. And everyone would be like, right? And there's like a picture of him with a shirt off on the on the projector. And uh he's like, slide was his blood work. He's like, now I'm not. Like, here's what's going on, right? Just looks are very um deceiving when it comes to health because you know, eventually as as time goes on, what's going on on the inside starts to show up on the outside, but you can get away with it for a while, right? For a very long time, you know, maybe into your 40s, even 50s. Uh and I think that's that's a huge thing. And um, but you're right, you know, I in order to get people from that that path from you know, medium where they're at with what they want, right, to getting them to understand what they actually need and wanting that is takes a couple of things. It takes trust building and and communication. And that's those are the soft skills that make people successful in their industry is you know, can you communicate and can you build trust, right? And if you have those two things, you can do a lot of great work. I mean, just taking someone from someone who wants to lose weight, if you can get them from understanding that going from four hours of sleep to seven hours of sleep is probably the biggest factor in them losing weight. That takes some time, right? Because they want it, they want it in four weeks, which can, you know, you can actually see a lot of results there. And that's that's a big thing. I think communication skills and then you know, the ability to to build trust.

Yeah, and and and I totally agree, and and I guess on on top of that is the ability to to realize where your expertise lie and not going over those boundaries.

Yes.

So um, and and I guess that comes back to an insurance thing as well, but I work with a lot of other people to make the best results for my clients. And so, like for example, I work with um a strength, strength and conditioning coach slash physiotherapist. So they've actually the two of them have both got credentials in that area as well. So if anyone has injuries, I'm not gonna pretend that I'm an injury expert. Of course, I've seen a lot of injuries and whatever else, but there's no way that my knowledge is as good as theirs. And if I want to do the absolute best thing for my client, I've got to refer them to that person or those people. And in the same way, I can give them general, you know, general you shouldn't eat processed foods, and this is what you should eat, and I'm gonna help you through that and help with you know the any issues that you come up with, and I I can be a board uh talking board for you and whatever else. But at the end of the day, if that still doesn't work for you, then clearly you need blood work done and you need to see an integrated health physician. And based on your symptoms, this is the doctor that I would recommend for you, which is a different one for you. So having those connections of people that you think very highly of and you've worked with for a long time, or you, you know, you've got you've got really good results, is is is absolute paramount. And if if your client trusts you, which I'm sure they do because you're getting great results, then they're gonna go and see whoever you recommend. And as a result, you're gonna even look better because you're getting better results. So it's just a win-win for everyone, you know?

Yeah, it's it's a really powerful thing to to build that, you know. I call it an adjunct network of people that you have that refer, you refer to, they refer back. Um, you you trust them, you know them. Uh that's a really powerful thing. And it adds a lot of value. And you know, if you're listening or if it's professional, it doesn't cost you anything. You know, go go refer somebody, right? Uh go find someone that you can refer to and get to know them a little bit. Um, it's an amazing way to build a long-standing business too. Uh, that's a really, really great point. So Ali, I I know we're kind of running short on time, but give us give us some insights. Where where do people find you? There's a lot of ways to find you online, your website, your podcast, all of that.

Yeah, or uh Instagram, I think is uh can't remember, uh Ali Watts Fitness. Allie Watts Fitness. Um yeah, and uh that's probably enough for now. There's obviously I've got um a great community on Facebook, uh Ali Fitness uh community. So you can join there and uh it's it's a private group and we talk all things fitness and health. But um reach out to me at Ali at Ali.fitness if you've got any questions or if I can help you, I can definitely probably refer you to the right person if I can't.

Yeah, awesome. Awesome. Well, Ali, it's always a pleasure. Uh I'm so glad that uh you came in my world, and I'm so glad we got to share you today with with her audience and uh keep up the great work. We'll uh we'll talk to you soon. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. Hey fitness fans, don't leave yet. It's your host, Eric Malzone, and I have a quick favor to ask. Actually, three favors. So, number one, if you're a fan of our show, I asked you to do something that takes under three minutes. Go to iTunes, please, and subscribe to our show. Please, please, please. It means so much to us. It's so important. And then give us a favorable review. We would really, really appreciate it. And uh, I can't tell you how much it means and helps us out. So it only takes two minutes of your day, and uh, it means a lot to us. So please do that. Number two, go to our YouTube channel or Fitness Marketing Alliance, and uh please subscribe to our YouTube channel there. Number three, if you like this episode or any of the episodes that we've released, share it on social. That's huge, that's a big deal for us, and where we put a lot of work into these episodes uh trying to give you great actionable content uh for the fitness industry. So that would mean a lot. And that's it. So we have some big plans coming up for this show. I'll be talking about that in the next couple episodes. But thank you so much for listening. It means so much. And uh, if you have any questions, please reach out to me. I'd love to hear from everybody. Eric, E R I C at fitnessmarketingalliance.com