Building Strength in Mind, Body, and Soul Part 2 with Adam Berry

Today's guest is Adam Berry, also known as The Gym Starter. Adam is a personal trainer who teaches people how to build strength in their mind, body and soul. His process rewards attitude and behavior rather than focusing on results.

Adam pushes himself to always be learning and uses that knowledge to help his clients because he recognizes that every body is different and true strength looks different for each person.

Connect with Adam online: https://www.thegymstarter.com/

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Online: https://wholisticnaturalhealth.com.au

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Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:59

Welcome back to a magical life. I'm your host magic Barclay. And I'm again, joined today by Adam Berry. Adam Berry is known as the gym starter. Here's some little information about him. He attended. Um, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry when he was 15. Wow. Well, let's ask more about that in a minute. He's performed, he's performed at the national theater in London's west end. It's been on national TV and radio as an expert in fitness. He used to be a semi-professional soccer referee. He's a certified female fitness coach. He did three years of ballet at drama school. He's worked with the Knights of the room and Oscar winners I could go on, but Adam, come on. Tell us about all this fun stuff.

Adam Berry: 1:51

Oh, I'm not sure. We got time to be honest, but yeah, that's me in a nutshell, I suppose

Magic Barclay: 1:55

you have to explain the Hogwarts school. Come on. Can't leave it. Uh,

Adam Berry: 2:00

well, yeah, it's not a lie. I was in Griffin though. I was an extra in Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets.

Magic Barclay: 2:06

Nice. Now soccer referee. Yes. That's a, that's very different to three years of ballet. Don't you think

Adam Berry: 2:16

it is? It is so, uh, to be fast, but he's being a soccer referee was kind of what got me in being a personal trainer. I have an interesting relationship with fitness and basically if someone wants to pay me almond out of a cactus or someone has to pay me to do something a little more than likely to do it just to make across. so I figured I could get paid and get fit at the same time. It just seemed to make sense. So I know I've always loved sports. So I became, and I was never good enough as a player to play. So in the U K I managed to build up to this sort of semi-professional status. I've managed to retain that. I then retired for a few years and now been back here in Australia for just about a year now. And I've just started again. So I had my third game last night and, um, yeah, it's all going very well. It, a lot of fun, hard work, a lot of fun.

Magic Barclay: 3:02

That's fantastic. Now, in our last episode, we asked our standard questions in this episode, let's do something different. Let's explain from your point of view to the listeners, just how building strength helps in body, mind and soul.

Adam Berry: 3:21

Good question. Well, there's a, there's a famous phrase that relates to, acting and building a play, building a work of art, basically. And it's from a guy called sir Peter Hall. And he says, the first act of creativity is sweeping the floor. And that basically means that you need to always work from blank canvas. You need to view yourself as a blank canvas. You need to, engage with yourself as infinite possibility rather than. Rather than a make-up of, I dunno, past experience. And every time you walk into a gym, every time you, you go to train every time you try and develop skill, every time you try and build some strength, you, you kind of nearly always slide from a blank canvas. You are the sum of your. But mentally it can refresh you. It can recharge you. The bot doesn't know what you did last time. It only knows what you're going to do to it in the moment. And it's a great way of taking yourself out of. All of your life and just putting yourself into the present and, and it can, you know, cleanse the mind just by being very much with yourself in the moment there then. And it can very much, you know, cleanse the soul. It can be a nice space for you to work on. I just, I just think it's great. And I think when you start developing your physical body, I think your mind and your soul also start to develop. There's a, there's a very key and very scientific link between. The way we view ourselves and the way we physically treat ourselves. And I think that's really the crux of it. Um, you know, with the rise in mental health issues and the, um, the rising and, you know, all these pressures on us in terms of body image and stuff. I think there's a very key. Connection, but a lot of people miss out on in terms of how to approach fitness and how to understand that, that can really develop your mind and your body. And if you can get those two working well together, then your soul will naturally develop classification.

Magic Barclay: 5:22

Very true. Now, in looking through your profile, we talk a lot about confidence. You said at one point you were standing on stage in front of thousands of people, but you had no confidence. How did you overcome that problem and how can you now apply those lessons to everyday life?

Adam Berry: 5:46

Well, it was, I had no choice. So your own onstage. The thing is bigger than you are. That's one of the most important lessons to learn. A lot of people live in their own soap opera, like w with the lead character. And I own soap opera all the time. And I think actually realizing that things were a lot bigger than you are. It takes a lot of pressure off your shoulders, and it allows you to find that objective view of your. So actually means, you know, like you missed the workout, it's running a lot because everything is so much bigger than you think it is. And when you can get that perspective on things, when you can kind of, I call it a wide angle lens, when you can take a wide angle lens on everything you're doing, you gain this perspective of the self that. It diminishes the ego, which is something I've had to work very hard on in my life. And by diminishing that you go, you. You realize that what you view as a failure, isn't a failure as part of natural life, where you view as a success is a success. And, and you can continue to build on that success, but that's not the epitome of what you've achieved. And like when I was on stage, like, you know, there's a thousand people that are watching me. You have no choice, but to crack on with it. And so just get over yourself in many ways, which is, it sounds a bit to us to say, but when you, when you're up against such a big force, you have to, you have to understand that you have to trust yourself and you have to understand that all of the work you've put in all of the preparation you've put in all of the skill you have developed in the rehearsal. And my own talent as an AXA in everything I've done and did my life towards, you have to understand that that is within you, that power still exists with you, and you can rely on it. Even when your brain is telling you that in that moment, you might not necessarily feel like it. And being able to revert back to your. Your ability in that sense, your humanity and the power that we can have within ourselves, I think is, uh, is a really good way in which you can go over that. The other thing as well is just, you know, live up to what you say you live up to. I made a commitment to be on stage and I wasn't going to deny that commitment. I've made that commitment my entire life I wasn't going to allow myself to get in the way of myself. All of the work I'd done. It was a promise to myself and I wasn't going to let myself down most crucial moment. And it sounds grandiose like talking about it on stage and things like that, but it's true in life as well. Like if you're making a promise to yourself to eat 500 pounds of vegetables a day, or 3 liters of water a day, or get to bed and try and get seven hours of sleep a night, you'll be amazed if you just thought execute and stuff like that on a regular basis. On a normal pattern of behavior, then your confidence will grow more and more because basically you're not, you're not letting yourself down. And our confidence gets diminished mostly when we let ourselves down.

Magic Barclay: 8:45

In your bio about having no energy, but having to try your best. I think a lot of people at their kind of fall into these pits have no energy and they, they almost reached despair thinking, but how can I go on? So how did you get through that and do the best that you could?

Adam Berry: 9:07

Good question. I think I realized that my best is good enough and low one's expecting more than my best. And, and I think also understanding that my best can be moveable with who I am at any one time. So before this podcast coach started, COVID one of my clients in London. Um, you know, he's gone through some major changes in the law. Two months of his life that he's bought a house is getting ready for wedding. You sort of become a husband and a father pretty much overnight. Cause he's kind of got a steps on now and he's now living with his fiance soon to be wife. And he's trying to live up to the ideals of what he was able to do when he was more like a bachelor and it's just not realistic. And so what his best is now, It's significantly different because of how much his circumstances and his life has changed and, and understanding that face only comparison is the thief of joy. And depending on how I feel each day, as long as I can put my head on the pillow, there's a great phrase. There is when you put your head on the pillow on courage, doesn't always roar. Sometimes it's that little voice at the end of the day that says, I'll try again tomorrow. And as long as you know, I'm always living in that manner. And as long as I'm living to my values and my ethics, and, um, I'm trying to make sure each day I stand up for what I believe in and I'm producing work that I can put my name to. And I can say that was okay. I've done my best for today. In all of the circumstances that I was existing in to date, then that is your best. That is only under the definition of your best, the best isn't reaching the Olympics. Your best is making sure that what you're doing is driving you forward each and every day. And it's going, it's a moveable base. There's not one singular thing that will define your best. It's a constant moving judgment of yeah. Each and every 24 hour period, I suppose.

Magic Barclay: 11:03

So my final question, Adam, I really appreciate all your. Fantastic answers here. Very honest, this, this guy is just what you see is what you get folks. So you mentioned about not feeling good enough. Many people deal with what we call imposter syndrome. I'll never be good enough. I'll never know enough. I'll never have enough. How could anyone look at me or listen to me? So, how do you suggest that people listening to this podcast get over that imposter syndrome and just know that where they're at today is a great place.

Adam Berry: 11:47

Yeah, great question. And, and it, by what you see is what you get, you mean a big kid, big noise Englishman, and then, yeah, you're right. Um, but in terms of imposter syndrome, I've written a big blog on this as well that I think it ranks for hiring a search imposter syndrome on Google. Lovely. I can't remember what I've written in it now. I wrote it a long time ago, but I've had imposter syndrome my entire life, you know, whether it's my physical body in terms of being in the fitness industry, whether it's my talent in terms of being at drums, but I've gotten stronger sworn as 18, which is quite rare. And I didn't have much life skill or I didn't have much life knowledge and in front of, you know, perform Shakespearean tragedies with that lab, much experience behind you as hard. Um, and. I felt like an imposter for probably two, two and a half years there. Things that get you out of feeling like an imposter. I is, it's probably different for everyone, but hard work is a good one. Um, making sure, you know, I think a lot of people hide behind the term imposter syndrome. When they know they're not really doing what they're setting out to do. They're not doing enough to, almost on the right to have imposter syndrome. They're just thinking I've got imposter syndrome. It's this thing I've heard about. I can hide away. Like if the irony of the, like the dichotomy of that is is the more, the harder you work, the less kind of imposter syndrome you get, but there's, there's this weird thing. I think things could have done in Kruger effect, but the more you look. The more you understand how little, you know, okay. So there's kind of like this, this drop-off. And so the more we keep discovering, the more we keep driving ourselves to be better. There's always another level. You're always going to be never the best. And it comes back to my answer on the previous question, like the more I've learned about what, like, when I first started, I used to think weight loss. As simple as a calorie deficit and I'm not denying science, a calorie deficit is what is required in order to lose weight without a doubt, but what goes into it? And I know I used to preach that we needed a calorie deficit, do this, do this, do scans cancer, cut our deaths up. And then like, as I've worked with more people as I've kept working, as I've kept learning, as I've kept experiencing, as I've kept investigating why this messaging of a calorie deficit. Strong enough to help people actually change. I've learned how much more little I knew about what a calorie deficit is and therefore I've gone away and I've learned all about everything else I've learned about how somebody is economics plays into it. I've learned how somebody's genetics plays into it. I've learned how somebody's living space plays into it. I've learned how somebody past trauma placements, right? I've learned how somebody. Ability to be in the gym or not be in a gym, plays into it. I've learned how people like everything about a human goes into a calorie deficit. And, that in many ways makes me feel more insignificant in terms of my imposter syndrome, because now I've got to become a psychologist. Now I've got, become a politician. Now I've got to become a everything else because all of these things are so out of my control as a personal trainer. And I think. But equally. What happens when you investigate these things and equally what happens when you, you willing to submit yourself to learning these things. You make yourself feel better. You build in a confidence and when somebody comes at you with a problem and you go, okay, thank you. I can say this problem and I can have. Javier, I can help take the pressure off key because of all of these reasons and what you're saying makes perfect sense to me because of this, that, and the other. And suddenly you see somebody's face go from like real tense, worry to absolute elation and kind of satisfaction. And they fill out the pressure has been taken off them. Then you realize that, you know, all that imposter syndrome is worth suffering through because you've, you've helped change somebodies life. And. Oh, you've just even helped change your life. Actually, that's, that's a fallacy. You've just put out your hand and let them hold it. Um, which is more important actually than changing their lives. And, and so I think you have to be willing to submit yourself to knowing that you're never going to know enough, but that doesn't mean that what you have learned and what you have developed and what you do. It doesn't make you good enough. It makes you exactly good enough. It makes you exactly the right person at the right time, at the right moment for the situation you're in. And then stepping into that situation. You have all of this past experience and knowledge. That will help you navigate that situation. And then on the other side of that situation, you can review it. You can look at it and you can learn from it. And for as long as you always exist in between those two things, all of your past experience and being willing to learn from the moment that you're existing in waiter, imposter syndrome is almost paralyzing you. Then you'll be able to enter the next moment. Feeling a little bit more confident that you know how to navigate it. And I think that's really the best, the best message messaging. Don't forget who you are and trust yourself as much as you can and just work well, bloody hard. Um, you know, you have imposter syndrome about stepping into a gym. That's fine. The only thing that's going to get you over that is. Exposing yourself to that field. Um, you know, fear is false expectations appearing real and, and 90. So there's a study out there. Something like 80%, one of the things we worry about never actually exist. Like they never actually come true and understanding that the chances of you hitting that 20% and it being as significant as you think it is, is social in your imposter syndrome is only, is almost a self-fulfilling prophecy rather than the truth of what's going to happen to you.

Magic Barclay: 17:26

Great answer. Loved it. Now, folks, this was your episode 1 0 7 with Adam Berry. You can, uh, go and follow his blog, have a chat to him. Get some freebies@wwwdotthegymstarter.com. Thank you so much, Adam, for your time. It was an absolute pleasure having a chat.

Adam Berry: 17:51

Can I have a meal and it's been an absolute joy to be here. It really has. Um, and good luck with everything. I hope it all goes well. I hope lots of people respond and enjoy what we've had to say to each other.

Magic Barclay: 18:00

Thank you listeners ever said this was your episode 1 0 7 coming up in 1 0 8. We actually have a listener question. Now, if you want to put a listener question, then you've got something burning. Nate answered a burning question. There's something you want to find more information about, just pop over to Facebook and type in hat, a magical life podcast and message us there. And we will answer your question on the podcast for you. So thank you again, listeners go forth and create your magical life.