MARTIN: Hello, everyone. Martin Pytela here for Life Enthusiast podcast. And with me today, I have Brian Keane. The business is known as Brian Keane Fitness. And just look at him. He looks fit, Brian.

BRIAN: Martin, absolute pleasure to be on, and I’m really looking forward to chatting.

MARTIN: Yeah, Brian, I want to try and pick you as one of the representatives of healthy maleness, the boy who grows to be a healthy man and expresses himself joyfully and is able to know why that is, how that is, and how to share it with others. What do you think?

BRIAN: Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s dive into the story and try and serve in any way we can.

MARTIN: Well, how did we get here?

BRIAN: It’s interesting because we were speaking on my podcast when you were on, about your mercury fillings when you were 25 and how that kind of set you up on your journey. And mine is slightly different, but not completely away from what happened with you. I had a lot of health issues when I was a teenager, so I missed nearly a year of school because I would get these chronic headaches. And it was something that I went to every Western doctor. I was getting MRIs on the monthly, I was getting blood tests done regularly, and nobody could figure out what was going on. I just had these chronic headaches and migraines. And I ended up going to university the next year and started drinking a lot of alcohol, which, very weirdly, got rid of my headaches and became a coping mechanism. I know, a temporary solution, a band-aid on a bloody wound, but a temporary solution.

BRIAN: And over the next few years, I used alcohol as a coping mechanism. And I moved to the states and I was working with Berkeley University. I was teaching soccer with Berkeley University. I have a sports background, and I ended up being hospitalized out there. I started spitting up blood and had to be hospitalized. And at the time, they said it was a bleeding ulcer or an ulcer that was bleeding, and that I had gallbladder problems. And they gave me a mouthful and handful of medications and were like: “Alright on your way, away you go.” And of course as you know, based on everything you’ve done and helped with people over the years that didn’t support me. It stopped the bleeding, but all the health underlying issues were there.

BRIAN: So I decided I was going to take my nutrition and my health into my own control. And at the age of 22, I started to look into nutrition more. I started to eliminate a lot of the crappy foods that weren’t actually helping me, that I thought were, quote unquote, healthy. I was eating a lot of protein bars, a lot of packaged chicken, just no fruits, no vegetables, just bro food, you know, thinking that this is what you should eat. I’m a man and I’m an athlete, and this is what I should eat. And it was ruining my gut microbiome, it was ruining my health. And over the space of about 18 months, I got rid of all my headaches. I fixed most of the issues with my gut, and for the first time, I was feeling energized.

BRIAN: I was walking around quite lean, quite muscular. I had a six pack and abs, and I felt tremendous. And then two years later, I went down the road of becoming a qualified personal trainer, a certified nutritionist. And that led me into this path the last decade, eleven years now, helping people with their nutrition, with their fitness, with their training, so that they could feel more energy, more vitality, and just get to whatever body composition or athletic performance they want.

MARTIN: Right. And so how do you do that? Do you do that over the Internet, remotely all over the world?

BRIAN: Yeah. So, similar to you. I think it was 2009, I think you moved online, if I remember correctly, 2016, I was later, I started in a gym and was working one to one as a personal trainer and a nutritionist with people. And then in 2016, the year after my daughter was born, I moved everything online, and we’ve been online since. So doing online programs, online coaching with people, we’ve got small group coaching that are scaled, and then we’ve got one to one coaching, which is specific to people, where I do customizable, bespoke and personalized programs based on their history.

MARTIN: All right, and so do you have quite a varied range of clients, or who are the people who benefit the most?

BRIAN: It’s mostly body composition with secondary goals. So people looking to lose weight, lose body fat, tone up, build muscle, and then they have secondary issues. They want to improve their sex drive, they want to improve their sleep, they want more vitality, more energy. And it’s weird that that’s the second when you would think that should be the pyramid and that should be the top of the pyramid, or the thing that you should focus on most. But again, sex sells. People want to look their best, look good, feel good. There’s definitely an element of that. But I take a very holistic approach. I look at people’s nutrition, their training, their sleep, their hormonal balance, their supplementation, very similar to you, that functional side of look. What do you need to look at? And taking the holistic approach, and it’s something that I do I can’t believe that I get paid to do what I do like, it’s an incredible life I get to live, and I’m very grateful for it.

MARTIN: So do I need to have a gym in my house or what? What do I need to be on your fitness program?

BRIAN: It depends. So I have. I always tell people there’s three options. So our scale program, where we take groups of people, has three options. It has either body weight at home, so all you need is your body weight. We have dumbbell workouts for home, so all you need is a set of dumbbells or a gym based program. And I think some people will work with me, and I have some who never go to the gym. They’ll never and have never stepped foot in the gym.

BRIAN: They have step counts, and they have some body weight workouts they do at home. And then there’s others who love the gym. It’s their hour away, or it sets up their morning, or it’s their disconnect from work in the evening. And we have a gym program for them. So fitness is all about finding what you enjoy, what you can stick to, based on a specific goal. And then I just make it adjust and work to whatever circumstance suits the individual.

MARTIN: Straightforward, right?

BRIAN: Yeah. Like, pull ups and push ups are very underrated, Martin. They’re very underrated. Squats, push ups, and pull ups of,  we overcomplicate fitness. But for a lot of men, particularly, if you’re able to perform those movement patterns with good form and execution, you’re going to get good results.

MARTIN: You know, it’s really interesting. I mean, I’m now 71, so a lot of things are harder to come by than when I was 40 or something like that. But anyway, I decided, well, I’m going to do push ups. And I started. And holy mother, I didn’t realize just how far I let myself go. I had to use stairs to do the support, to do an incline rather than straight. So first I got three stairs, two stairs, one stair, flat. Right? And then I can now do 20 push ups straight up without really losing it.

BRIAN: And that’s it. How amazing is that, Martin? For confidence even, like and knowing that this is what you can physically do with your body and giving that confidence back to yourself from the starting progression to where you are now, that’s incredible.

MARTIN: Right. I was, as you were talking, I was thinking, you know, libido, or sexual expression, really is the consequence of having life force. And life force is the consequence of having the mitochondria working, putting out ATP. It all follows. If you screw up your food, then you’re going to screw up your mitochondria. And if you don’t use it, you lose it. This is the amazing thing that it doesn’t take much for a person to actually just start losing the capacity.

BRIAN: 100%. And it’s so, it’s such an easy habit to become negative over time when you just let your exercise slip or you let your nutrition slip or you let your sleep slip, and then you start to have these other negative issues. Libido decreases, energy decreases, you feel that general life force decreasing. And again, I always tell people, think of consistency, not intensity, when it comes to your exercise program and your nutrition. Like, what can you stick to? Because it’s considerably harder to get up and go for a run than to just keep running when you’re running. And it’s the same with any nutritional protocol, exercise plan, just keep the momentum with it.

MARTINl Yeah. Classic example of inertia. Object in motion stays in motion.

BRIAN: Yeah, Yeah.

MARTIN: It’s great, actually. I think the value of coaching here is really right in front of us here. Having a coach that serves as a reminder is just great. People who do engage in a relationship, whether it’s a group or one on one, when you’re accountable to someone, it somehow improves the odds of your outcomes, right?

BRIAN: Oh, 100%. I couldn’t be a bigger believer in it because there’s self awareness that needs to be brought here too, because I used to do bodybuilding shows, I used to do ultra marathons, I used to do endurance events, and I never needed a coach or a trainer for those because I’m quite self driven with exercise, but I have to pay my yoga instructor every single week or I will not do yoga, I will not go and do it, I won’t go to a class, I won’t do an online course, I have to show up at our house and do it, because I need that accountability from someone. So depending on different areas of your life, you might need it with nutrition, you might need it with fitness, you might need it with business, but doing that self audit to go: “Right, I’m actually not able to stick with this by myself. I think I need a coach, I need the accountability. And asking that question can be really useful.”

MARTIN: Well, how do we get people into getting the results that they deserve? What do we do here?

BRIAN: It’s interesting because the results you deserve are normally down to the work you put in. But I also tell people that if you get in your car and start randomly driving, you’re going to end up somewhere just, it might not be where you want. So you need to know first and foremost, what’s the goal you’re trying to hit. Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to build muscle? Are you trying to get stronger? Are you trying to increase your libido? Are you trying to increase your energy? And then if you need education around that, that’s where a coach can help. But I don’t think everyone needs a coach. Some people just need the education. You put out tremendous content on the podcast and online where people can listen to the episode on arthritis. I’ve got one of my clients who struggles with that, and I sent her the episode and talking her through it. Look, this is what you need, education.

BRIAN: You don’t need the accountability. You actually need somebody to tell you what you need to do with this and to get the results you want. It’s a combination of executing on a plan, but more importantly, executing on a plan that’s directionally correct. Meaning that it’s actually working towards the marathon or it’s working towards building muscle, or it’s working towards the competition you want to do. Because you can go into the gym, and we’ve all seen the person in the gym at some stage in our life who’s doing the same workout program they were five years ago. They come in and do 40 minutes on the cross trainer. They lift a couple of dumbbell curls, they do a couple of sit ups, and then they leave and they look exactly the same and feel exactly the same as they did six years ago. Now, if they’re coming in for a social element and other reasons, that’s totally different. But if you physically want your body to respond in a positive way, then you need to do a correct program and you need to execute on it, because then that’s the way you get the results you want.

BRIAN: Charlie Munger has a great line. The late Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s business partner. To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. And I think physical fitness is a great representation of that.

MARTIN: Interesting. So are you saying that people should be changing up their programs, that they should not be just doing the same thing over and over

BRIAN: If they want to progress, yeah. Like with progression in fitness, normally every six to twelve weeks, you’d want to be switching up a fitness program. Every six weeks if you get bored, more so. Because what happens is similar to inertia, people get bored, they stop going, they fall out of the routine just because they didn’t enjoy it anymore. So every six weeks is normally when I would switch up a program. But every twelve weeks is when you physiologically need to switch up a program because your body would become accustomed. So switching up doesn’t mean you’re doing an entire new program. You might be just changing up the angle of a lift.

BRIAN: You might be progressively overloading, which just means you’re increasing the weight so that you’re failing in a rep range. So let’s say you’re squatting 20 pounds. After six weeks, you’re squatting 25 pounds. After twelve weeks, you’re squatting 30 pounds. That’s progressive overload. So you’re changing something so that it’s not the exact same workout, same weights all the time, because that’s how you progress with any physical exercise program.

MARTIN: I’m trying to think of some ways how I can get you to tell our audience how they can find you.

BRIAN: I try and be on everything, Martin. I literally try and communicate in every style that’s possible. I’ve written four books, three of them that have done very well. They were bestsellers. I have a podcast, which you were on, which I’m not sure which one comes out first, but I highly recommend people check that out. We had a great conversation. I’m on all the social media channels, Instagram. I put out loads of free workouts, loads of free exercise programs that people can follow, because I’m all about the business side of service.

BRIAN: So if people need a specific program designed, they’re going to come and work with me. But if you just need a generic program for losing weight, for building body fat, here’s a set of structures that you can apply, there on the website briankeanefitness.com. And again, it’s just putting out that content, trying to help in any way that we can.

MARTIN: All right, talk to me about your life as an extreme athlete. Like ultra marathon. That just makes my eyes roll to the back of my head.

BRIAN: It’s interesting because for those who can’t see me, I’m not built like an ultra marathon runner at all. I’m five foot eight, which is about 173 cm. I’m 83 kilos. So I think that’s about 183 pounds or so. I’m built like a little hobbit. I’m not built like an ultra marathon runner. I’m built like something out of the Lord of the Rings. I’m short, I’m stocky, I’m muscular, but I used to be a bodybuilder, so I competed in bodybuilding competitions, and I was a professional fitness model for years.

BRIAN: So I was on  those the magazines back in the day, on the covers, in the books, etcetera. So I did that for several years. And when I left that after my daughter was born in 2015, I was looking for a new challenge, and I signed up for my first ultramarathon, which was my first ever marathon at the time, which was called Marathon des Sables. So it’s Czechoslovakia you said you were growing up. Samarita Des Saab is in Morocco. It’s quite a well known one in Europe, it’s six back to back marathons through the Sahara desert in Morocco. And in 2018, I finished that. It was, at the time, the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life. And then,

MARTIN: Well, listen. Do you remember the original story of the marathon run?

BRIAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: The soldier ran from the, I don’t know, battlefield to wherever, to the town to give the warning and collapsed dead. Right?

BRIAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MARTIN: And you did six of them in what span of time?

BRIAN: Six marathons in six days. Like an interesting story because I had to keep this post away from my mother. I remember when I posted it because Irish families, I’m really close with my mum when I went to Google. Marathon to Saab distance. You put in marathon De saab D and death comes up before distance. And it shows one of the stories of the guy that died, but also one of the runners who did the race several years ago who got lost in a sandstorm and had to cut open and drink bat’s blood to survive. He crossed over the border into another country, got picked up by the army and was. And was able to get back home.

BRIAN: And those horror stories before I went, because I had never done an ultra marathon, Martin. I was an athlete, and then I did bodybuilding and the gym is really cozy in comparison to the Sahara, so I landed out there. It was a very difficult thing. Very glad I did it. I came back from it and thought, right, I’ve done the heat. I then in 2019, signed up to run through the Arctic. So in 2019, I ran 230 km through the Arctic Circle line in the north of Sweden. And that was like running on the moon.

BRIAN: That was insane. And then I ran 100 miler in Nevada in 2020. The 1st longest run I had done in one go, it was 26 and a half hours straight through, no sleep. And then Covid came and then off the back of COVID I’ve been doing more martial arts and Muay Thai and things like that now. So changing it up slightly as we move through this world in a little bit more peaceful way than having to do the six-hour training sessions on a Monday to train for an ultra marathon.

MARTIN: Yeah. My lord. Okay, well, that suggests that. I don’t know how to put it. Well, you’re certainly resilient.

BRIAN: Learned resilience, I would say. I would say that’s an acquired skill, for sure.

MARTIN: Yeah. Okay, well, I guess that really gives you the chops to explain to anyone who’s got endurance problems how to overcome that, right?

BRIAN: Yeah, for sure. Like, endurance is such a relative term, and there’s a spectrum because endurance for one person is an ability to withstand an hour gym session or a crossfit class or the circuit training or spin session in the gym. Whereas for somebody else, an ability to run 100 miles and then everything in between, I think your starting point is important. So identifying where you are and what you need, because if you are looking to build up your endurance and just feel physically better throughout the day so that your energy and you’re not, like, getting that midday slump. I know you talk about this like that’s not a natural state. People shouldn’t be getting a slump at 03:00 p.m  in the day. That’s a sign that they’re not eating for their body type and, you know, they need to go and take the quiz that you have on the website and see what foods they need and fueling themselves the correct way.

BRIAN: And physical fitness is very similar in terms of endurance, that your starting point matters, that there’s going to be these little targets on the way, but you need to identify, well, what am I looking to achieve? Do I just want to move through the day without feeling tired? Because that’s one goal. Do you want to be able to run a marathon and recover? That’s another goal. Do you want to be able to run 100 mile marathon and be able to do it again a week later, which is a very extreme goal. And we’re really towards the high end of physical recovery from a human perspective in terms of what we can biologically do. But people do it, and it’s possible. So identifying the goal in the front is important. I think that’s for any goal, but particularly for insurance.

MARTIN: Right? I don’t know. What else do you want to share that I don’t know about you?

BRIAN: Geez, I don’t know. Martin, I think we had such a good chat on my podcast, talking all things nutrition. So again, my story from fitness model to bodybuilding, to ultra marathons, to doing what I’m doing now. Like, as I said, I’m one of those very lucky people and very grateful people that I literally do something I would do for free and get paid very well for it. I’m in a very, very positive and grateful position first, and I like the physical challenge. Like, as I said, it was a different season in my life, different phase of my life. I wouldn’t be very mentally resilient by nature. That’s not part of my makeup.

BRIAN: I had to build that over time.

MARTIN: Really? 

BRIAN: Yeah, definitely not. I was a primary school teacher before I qualified as a trainer and a coach. And during that time in my life, I was very unhappy. I didn’t like what I was doing, I didn’t like my work. I didn’t feel very highly energized, which is so interesting because we think nutrition and sleep, which are so important, are everything. But my nutrition and sleep were pretty good during that time in my life, and I still felt low energy because I was misaligned with what I should be doing in my work and in my career. And it’s amazing how it’s all holistic and all like a spider web that’s interconnected, that you need everything lined up, your people that are around you having good, energizing people, not having emotional vampires, people sucking the energy from you doing a job or at least a career that you feel some sort of calling for, a passion for.

BRIAN: And I know everyone’s circumstance is different. Not everyone can do that. They’ve got a mortgage and kids. But doing something that makes you jump out of bed every day, that might be in your personal life, but ideally something in your career, and then your health, your nutrition, your fitness, your sleep, your hormonal system, your balance, all of that. Like, I think it’s really important to connect all of those things. And what I’ve been trying to do over the last decade with content online and books and podcasts is showing people that there’s so many different ways to excel in your life and feel energized and feel vitality and feel passion. That it’s just a case of surrounding yourself with the right people, consuming the right information. Cause like, you’re literally being programmed with what you listen to.

BRIAN: So make sure that it’s good things. Don’t plant apple seeds and expect orange trees to grow is what I say in podcasts and books. You need to be consuming good information that helps you. And I’ve spent the last decade trying to build up some of that mental resilience myself because it’s not my natural state, and then just sharing how I did it, why I did it, and trying to use my story to connect with people so they can do the same if they choose to.

MARTIN: Right. Well put. You know, I can’t quite see here how having you for a coach would be very beneficial because you have so much experience in overcoming being in an unhappy place and finding your path to doing what you should be doing, what you love doing, and so on. And so anyone who’s in that place wondering, what should I be? How should I get there? What should I do? Speaking to you on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, or whatever that would be, is probably a very valuable tool.

BRIAN: Yeah, it definitely can be. You know this more than anyone, Martin, because you’re a perpetual self-learner and always educating yourself. And even before we were talking on our podcast, you were like, all right, let’s learn. I want to learn something. Tell me about things. And it’s the same here in the interview. And I think when you’re consuming the right people, whether that’s their content online or working with them directly, that can really shorten your learning curve, because smart people learn from their mistakes. The really sharp one learns from the mistakes of others, and you’re just using the tools and potential, avoiding potential pitfalls on a health journey, on a fitness journey, on a business journey, and just seeing who is around you online, offline that can potentially help get you there.

BRIAN: And I think you do this beautifully. It’s my mission as well, on my side. And again, it’s just constantly giving back. Now, when you’re in that place of gratitude because you’re so happy, you get to do what you do, which wasn’t always the case. I have the contrast point for that. It’s so much easier to give back.

MARTIN: Yeah, I acknowledge that. I have zero problem with motivation because I get out of bed, I roll out of bed wanting to do what I do. There’s no barrier. You illustrated it with your being in a job that just wasn’t aligned with what was in your heart. And, yeah, helping people find that place. I know so many people who just don’t know what they should be doing.

BRIAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: They tell me “I just don’t know”.

BRIAN: Yeah. What’s your answer for that? What do you tell them, out of curiosity? I’m curious if it’s the same as mine or if it’s similar for somebody that says, okay, Martin, I don’t know what I should be doing. What’s the advice you generally offer them, or you get them to look at?

MARTIN: Well, the literature and the experiences that you need to come up with serving others. Just try and find a place where you do something for others, because in giving to others, you will find that you’ll receive it yourself.

BRIAN: Yeah. Yeah. Beautifully said. Agreed. Yeah. I love that.

MARTIN: Love yourself. Don’t try to get the universe to give to you. And this reminded me of Jack Kennedy back in 1960. Something saying, do not ask what the country can do for you, ask what you can do for the country. Which, that was another metaphor, but essentially it is the same thing where you say, okay, I’m going to go and help somebody with something, whatever that is, and you’ll find whether that is something that you enjoy doing. And if not, pick up another one, try something else. Right.

BRIAN: Follow your curiosity. I think one of the most underutilized pieces of advice is follow your curiosity. Because when I’m working with businesses, and I’ve got two businesses, we have a Fitness LLC, which is a company, and then I have a business consulting, which is separate for health and wellness and fitness businesses. And one of the things I do with people I’m working with in that business is ask the question, what do you find easy that other people find difficult? And what are you curious about that other people aren’t curious about? You answer those two questions. They’re a very good starting point to finding your potential.

MARTIN: Yeah. That I love about you, that you actually are helping others get better at business, which, that’s awesome, because having those two perspectives is so helpful. I mean, in business, we always ask, what is the cause of this? In the medical world, people are blocked from that. They just are told, well, you have a symptom, I have a pill. Let’s take it away. That never solves anything. It’s like painting over the rust spots. Your car will rust out before you know it.

BRIAN: You start solving symptoms in business, you go out of business pretty quickly. You need to get to the root cause. And I think your physical health and your functional side as you mentioned are exactly the same.

MARTIN: Indeed. I’m out of questions.

BRIAN: That’s a good sign. Martin. I have hopefully provided a lot of value to people. Again, I think you’re doing tremendous work on your side. We had a great chat on my podcast, and I think covering the nutrition side from yours, covering the fitness side from mine, get people to look at the things that are important in their life, that it’s not a single thing. Fixing your nutrition will fix your nutritional issues. It won’t fix all your life problems, but it’ll go a long way towards helping it. You might have a problem in a relationship. You might have a problem with your work life. You might have a problem somewhere else. So don’t just look at things in isolation, because it’s all interconnected. And I think that is an important takeaway for people so that they don’t, to the man with the hammer, the whole world looks like a nail. It’s important that you know that there’s different things that fix different problems, and that’s what you’re looking to do here.

MARTIN: Yeah. Awesome. You know, just as you’re speaking, I’m reminded of the fact that we teach this, right. We have. I have these four points which I tell people it’s toxicity, malnutrition, stagnation, and trauma. Well, the big one is stagnation. I’m reminded of the fact, I read this. If exercise were a drug, it would be the most prescribed item ever.

BRIAN: Yeah, yeah. It’s so true. If you could wrap up the benefits in a pill, we’d be multi billionaires.

MARTIN: Right. But it’s not like that, right? All of these points that we’re discussing, they all are attained only by when we apply ourselves to it. It’s the dynamic interchange with the universe. You cannot be the recipient. You cannot play the victim. You have to take agency of your life. You have to become an active participant. Otherwise, it’s a fail.

BRIAN: 100%. Well, what I love about exercise, too, to build on that point, Martin, is it’s a representation for how you approach things in life. Because you can’t go into a gym and just start squatting 200 pounds. You have to start with the bar, and you have to gradually build up your strength over time. How you approach everything in your life is the same. Very few things that are worth having come to you easily, very few things that are worth having come to you in a very quick way. It’s normally built over periods of weeks, months, years, decades, and fitness is exactly the same. And I think when you can take the skill set of how you approach workouts, who do I need to help me? What’s the plan I need to follow? Where’s my starting point? What’s my end goal? What’s the milestone and mini target I’m hitting between now and that end goal so that I can stay motivated and on track. All those tools help you in other aspects of your life, with relationships, with your business, with your career.

BRIAN: And you’re just taking this domain dependent knowledge from fitness and applying it elsewhere. I think it’s a beautiful representation for how to approach life. It’s one of the reasons I love physical fitness so much. Obviously, it’s nice to look good with the shirt off and feel good and all of that, but really, it’s the skill set and the tools that you acquire that benefit your life in a positive way. That is where the real one is.

MARTIN: Yeah. And I’m being reminded of, we need to be humble enough to admit that we’re not perfect and that we could get some help.

BRIAN: Yeah. 100%. Again, we’re all, I think when you approach things from a place of service, you know that you can serve people in some areas and you need help from service from people and others. And I think that’s what makes it such a beautiful thing. Identify where you need help, who can serve you, identify who needs help and who you can serve, and just merge those two things together.

MARTIN: Yeah. I’m so glad to have met you. Really. It’s encouraging.

BRIAN: Me, too. I’m so glad we got to do this so quickly as well because we got to do two back to back podcasts, Martin. And I’m glad we will stay connected. As I said, I love what you’re doing, the work you’re doing, and I’m so glad we got to bounce on both podcasts.

MARTIN: All right, so this is Brian Keane K-e-a-n-e. And it’s Briankeanefitness.com. Go take a look. It’s very encouraging. Your life will be better for having met Brian Keane.

BRIAN: Martin, thank you so much again.

MARTIN: Yeah, this is Martin Pytela, life-enthusiast.com, by phone at 866 543 3388. Thank you.