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How To Be Zack George, The UK's Fittest Man | On The Wall | Myprotein
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Jan 30, 2025
Zack George is the UK’s Fittest Man. Before lockdown was announced, he was on course to compete in the 2020 functional fitness games — something he’d been working towards for nearly 7 years of his life. He didn’t let the disappointment distract him from his long-term goals though, and in this exclusive insight into his life and training his unwavering dedication to the sport shines through. It’s clear that he’s already turned this setback into a positive — fuelling his determination for bigger things to come in 2021. On The Wall is a documentary series where we follow some of our top Myprotein athletes in the run-up to big events, showing what it really takes to be the best of the best. These inspiring individuals truly embody what it means to be #ForeverFit. ** See more from Zack here: https://bit.ly/2HHQsJF ** At Myprotein it’s our mission to #FuelYourAmbition and push you forwards on your #ForeverFit journey. We’re here for active men and women who want to invest in themselves mentally and physically — for the long run.
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0:07
i don't really get nervous about
0:08
performing in front of people or
0:10
performing
0:11
the workout i get nervous about the pain
0:13
i've got to pop myself in
0:17
you've really got to be willing to put
0:19
yourself in a hole
0:20
every single day
0:23
you've got to be so good at so many
0:25
different elements of fitness
0:27
you can't just be strong you can't just
0:28
be fit
0:30
you can't just go to gymnastics you've
0:33
got to be good at swimming you've got to
0:34
be good at running
0:35
you've got to be able to lift ridiculous
0:38
amounts of weight
0:39
a single reps but then you've got to
0:40
have to lift lighter weight for multiple
0:42
reps literally got to be good at
0:44
every aspect of fitness it's just never
0:47
ending discipline and
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it keeps you so motivated it's so
0:50
humbling
0:51
that's why i love competing in it and
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that's why i love training in it because
0:55
it's so varied
1:04
there's no other sport like it
1:14
i was quite disappointed when i found
1:16
out i wasn't going to go to the games
1:17
the whole country was going to go into
1:18
lockdown so i knew something was going
1:19
to change so i already mentally prepared
1:21
myself for
1:22
something that's going to happen you
1:25
know you want to be given that
1:26
opportunity for something you've been
1:27
working towards for
1:28
six seven years you want to be able to
1:30
go and perform on the world's biggest
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stage
1:32
initially they said there's going to be
1:34
no crowd um there's only going to be
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athletes which is a big thing for me
1:38
because the massive thing about
1:39
competitive games for me
1:41
is living it with my family and my close
1:43
friends and experiencing with them
1:45
you said it's okay if if i can do it
1:47
once i can do it again
1:48
so i think mentally he was ready for it
1:51
it is what it is
1:52
and that was you know two three days
1:55
after there was there was that
1:57
acceptance of okay
1:58
next year we go again so it's not like
2:01
he's gonna rest now
2:02
he's probably gonna go harder than
2:04
before and get stronger than before and
2:06
faster
2:07
and that's what keeps him going because
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every year there's a chance to improve
2:11
and get better it's about saying okay
2:13
well look how good i am now
2:15
imagine how much better i can be in 14
2:20
months
2:22
[Music]
2:34
but
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yeah 7 30 last time
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yeah i don't see it as a setback really
2:45
i've achieved what i wanted to achieve
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which was to win the open in the uk and
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be the fittest man in the uk and qualify
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for the games
2:51
so for me i've already ticked off a
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massive goal i've had for seven years
2:58
living with him is obviously great like
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we get along really well um
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i think i have to take into
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consideration a lot that
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you know being a full-time athlete you
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have to be i don't want to say
3:10
selfish because he's not at all but you
3:12
know his life is literally getting up
3:14
having breakfast going training coming
3:16
home having lunch doing some online
3:18
programming having a nap
3:20
going back to the gym coming home eating
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like it is the same thing every day but
3:24
i sort of know that from my background
3:26
anyway and
3:27
i knew what i was getting into when i
3:28
met him so you know and i love it and i
3:30
wouldn't
3:31
change it actually running quite low
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this week because um
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we had some p i had my family around had
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some friends around
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and they just love these meals they just
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they always just steal my meals
3:45
so i'm actually quite low so these are
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all sams so i've already got any left
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hence why i'm having salmon and rice to
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start but if i eat a lot of food i just
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balloon in weight
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so it will be good weight so it'll be
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like good muscle but i'm already
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100 kilos i don't need to be any heavier
4:02
so my fitness now is very different to
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what it was when i was younger so the
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journey has been
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a massive journey so when i was the age
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of maybe
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10 11 i was very overweight kid a lot of
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rubbish
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all the time i'd have maybe four or five
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mcdonald's a week kfc
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my usual kfc meal would be i'd go to kfc
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and just order a family bucket of kfc
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and i'd eat all the skin off the chicken
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and leave the chicken so i'd literally
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eating like just fat
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i never like to have my top off around
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anyone else apart from my family
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and we'll sit in the living room and my
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parents had some friends coming around
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and i saw them pull up through the drive
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so i went to get up to run upstairs
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to get a top and i remember my dad
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saying just sit down like you shouldn't
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be so
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you shouldn't be embarrassed of your
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body when
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school had swimming on i'll just kind of
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pretend i was ill
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just so i didn't have to go swimming and
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take my top off
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my dad would offer me a ps2 to try and
5:00
lose some weight that was a big
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shift in my sort of life to gear towards
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like trying to get fitter and healthier
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playstation that was a big thing at the
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time so uh i think prior to andy robbins
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was
5:25
on this thing of trying to get him to
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lose weight because his
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his head and his neck was the same it
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was it was just a fun little just a fun
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funnel and then the shoulder on the
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promise of of this
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playstation it um it was a spark for him
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to sort of yeah
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make the effort from the age of maybe 15
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16 onwards
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i was very aware of what i was eating i
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was very aware of how much exercise i
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should be doing
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and that's when i really excelled in
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sport started playing a lot of rugby
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representing leicestershire in rugby
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table tennis squash
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and then 18 onwards that's when i really
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started getting into the gym
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because i became a pt and then it also
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became my hobby and i was training
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every day every other day sometimes
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twice a day
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so now we're gonna see where all my pt
6:09
started
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where i used to train so as you can see
6:13
here this broken slab
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when i used to do any sort of lifting i
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had to do it outside here because there
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wasn't enough
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height room in the gym so i broke their
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patio
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and my parents are getting all their
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garden done but
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them bars there is where i used to do
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pull-ups and toaster bar
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yeah be sad to see it knocked down this
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is where it all started so
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yeah i don't think there's any kitten
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here that's still left obviously got the
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max
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but the kit there's not a single bit of
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actual gym kit in here
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there's actually a video on youtube i'll
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get it on my phone now
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that was just there that's where the
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cable machine was
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we're doing like some weighted pull-ups
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drop set or something
6:59
let's take the chains off and then do
7:00
more max reps all like into some rows
7:05
people always see me now and like they
7:07
see what time i wake up and obviously
7:09
i'm a full-time athlete so
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i'm lucky to be able to train all the
7:12
time and work with some amazing sponsors
7:15
but they don't really
7:16
there's not many people apart from my
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family who knew what my life was like
7:20
when i worked here which was eight nine
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hours of pt a day like i said getting up
7:24
early in the morning
7:25
getting better at 12 getting up at five
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just doing that pretty much every day
7:30
a lot of people don't see that sort of
7:32
that side of your life
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they just see that the success you've
7:35
got but they don't really see all the
7:37
hardware that goes into it
7:39
[Music]
7:42
your typical athlete is what five foot
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eight maybe like 85 kilos
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that's six foot 100 100 kilos on a good
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day
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so he doesn't fit that typical mold and
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he's never let that hold him back
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he's never turned around to anyone and
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said i can't do this because
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because of my size i can't do this
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because of anything he doesn't accept
8:01
that he can't do something even being
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contentioned to be the fittest man in
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the world
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you have to be selfish you've got to
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dedicate your whole
8:09
existence to training nutrition and
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achieving that goal there's not a day
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where i come in where i'm not in some
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sort of
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mental or physical pain through training
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mentally when you're pushing through a
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40-minute e-mom
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20 minutes in you want to give up but
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you know that mental strength's there
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and you've got to push through it
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there's always a point of workout where
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the same thought comes into my head and
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it's always when i'm
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absolutely bad i don't know if i'm going
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to be able to finish it but i
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know i've got a chance if i keep pushing
8:41
through and i have that feeling every
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single day
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he gets out of my competition floor and
8:46
his mindset switches instantly and it's
8:48
exactly the same here in the gym
8:50
so a minute before a workout we'll be
8:52
laughing joking around uh
8:54
completely relaxed and then he's just
8:55
got that switch that you can flick and
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just go straight into it
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i can just hear the nine eight seven and
9:01
just listen to that buzzer
9:02
three two one and then it should go
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i don't hear anything for how long the
9:07
workout is it's quite surreal how
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you can hear everyone cheering before
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you can hear all the music
9:13
you can hear everything as soon as it
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starts it's like
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you've got headphones and you can't hear
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anything and then it's just i'm so
9:19
focused
9:19
towards that workout
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he is definitely able to push himself
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into those dark places and
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to go to those places by himself you
9:34
know without without having a big crowd
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behind him
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but he's definitely a game day athlete
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as well
9:40
i know you've got to be mentally strong
9:42
every single day but
9:44
there is going to be some days where
9:46
just your own self-motivation is not
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going to be enough
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and those are days where i rely on the
9:50
people around me where
9:52
they can see i'm in the gym and i'm
9:53
warming up and i can't be bothered and
9:55
like people like dan or bender likes
9:57
that come on like the opens in three
9:58
months let's get going
10:00
and then i thought right come on let's
10:01
do this and then an hour and a half
10:03
later we've had a wicked session
10:11
all right legs like five rounds
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like if he wasn't here i don't think
10:19
we'd be training this hard as well we'd
10:21
be taking it easy
10:22
because of him um a lot of people here
10:24
got fitter
10:27
to be an athlete at tax level
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it takes sacrifice there has to be
10:34
no deviation
10:38
from the plan if you move away from that
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plan
10:41
then it's going to negatively impact you
10:43
and you can't let it negatively impact
10:45
you
10:45
so the number of times where he's you
10:47
know turned down
10:49
hanging out with friends turned down
10:50
different opportunities because he's
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got to fit his training in because he's
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got to recover because
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that's what comes first that's the
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priority he takes his weaknesses he
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turns into strength
11:00
uh and he's becoming a more and more
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well-rounded athlete
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it's always in his head because if you
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don't do it you're not going there
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you can't make it even if it's like one
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day you're getting lazy now
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it's over you're ready to give it
11:15
everything you've got and then when you
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finally get there
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then you're like right now it's my
11:20
entire existence to get
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even further than what i thought i could
11:24
achieve and then it becomes
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an obsession you should never be
11:30
scared by your goals you can achieve
11:33
anything you want to achieve you put
11:34
your mind to it
11:42
[Music]
11:48
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