The Discipline of Physical Fitness with Joel Prior

Episode 6 • 27th July 2024 • The Akkeri • Matt Howlett

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Joel Prior

I really felt like I was alone trying to figure out what I was doing. I felt almost like if I went to her, it was like almost a burden. I just kept that stuff into myself a lot. Having time to exercise and just maintain my fitness was one of the things that just kinda kept me going and kept me sort of sane.

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Joel Prior

I guess you could say.

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Joel Prior

When your anxiety sets in, you can kind of apply some of these same tools that you use to sort of bring your bring yourself back down after some intensive exercise.

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Matt Howlett

You are listening to the Akkeri Podcast, a show about men and masculinities, the challenges that modern men face and how to chart a better way forward. I'm your host, Matt Howlett, mental health coach and founder of The Akkeri. This episode is a conversation I had with Joel Prior, a former paramedic from Ontario who moved to Newfoundland and transitioned into personal training to focus on the preventative side of health.

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Matt Howlett

We talk about his transition from Ontario to Newfoundland, how his fitness, discipline and the pursuit of specific goals keeps him mentally strong, and how others can develop their discipline for themselves. Well, Mr. Joel Prior, why don't you just, start us off, give me an idea of, what it is that, brought you to Newfoundland because you're originally from Ontario.

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Matt Howlett

Right. So give us the coles notes version.

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Joel Prior

Well, let's say I moved here. I moved here to new tonight about four years ago for my wife, to pursue her medical residency from here. After this. I'm not really sure where we're going to go, but, we moved here from Sudbury, Ontario, where I was, practicing medicine for just over ten years or so. And through that time, I mean, I kind of got into my own fitness journey and stuff.

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Joel Prior

about ten years ago, and then we moved here. I just thought, after looking into, paramedics here and paramedics and and how things ran, it just wasn't going to be a good fit with, with our lifestyle and with her. What her work schedule was going to be, very demanding. Yeah. And then I needed some more flexibility in my own schedule, and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to make this transition into, personal training and, try to do this fitness coaching as, as a career.

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Joel Prior

So I've been at it for, just about three years now. Yeah. And, I'm coming into one year, my one year anniversary of running my own fitness business. Now, I'm working for myself.

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Matt Howlett

Wow. That's wild, because didn't I meet you basically when that was just about to start?

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Joel Prior

Yeah, it would probably been about six months before. Maybe. Okay. yeah.

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Matt Howlett

And in all honesty, in my experience, you know, I joke and give you a hard time, but those classes, I enjoyed them a lot. It's, something that was very different and new to me. A great workout, and, honestly, like, not to just sing your praises because you're on the podcast. I think you're a great coach. I will personally, it's what I would want.

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Matt Howlett

You know, it's someone who's like, down to earth, easy to joke around with. Not gonna, like, push you past your limit. Like, you always seem like you were aware that I wasn't bluffing when I actually was exhausted.

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Matt Howlett

Well, tell me more about that. Move them. Because you, you know, we we know each other a little bit. We chatted previously. it wasn't an easy transition. Like, what was that like for you personally?

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Joel Prior

well, it was tough. The, the move here was tough for the first few months, I didn't do anything because I wasn't really sure what to do. I was just here with my daughter. She was, just turning three at the time. and, just home with her every day. And we didn't know anybody. We had no family.

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Joel Prior

So just like I said, just by myself, starting to go a little bit stir crazy, not feeling like I was contributing much to the household and stuff, and, you know, so it's, I got pretty down for a while, and, I mean, just having time to exercise and just maintain my fitness was one of the things that just kind of kept me, kept me going and kept me sort of sane, I guess you could say.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah. Yeah.

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Joel Prior

yeah. And then it was, I guess we moved here in June, and it was in October when I finally decided that I needed to I need to do something else. I, I didn't know what I was doing, right.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah. So, I definitely want to jump into that, but I want to dig a little bit more into what that experience was, was really like like what was actually going through your mind, like what was the big struggle? Was it just that you guys didn't have the connections here that you had in Ontario?

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Joel Prior

yeah. Like we just had each other and where, my wife was very busy with, with her residency that she didn't really have a lot of time as well to almost be involved in things. So then, you know, I really felt like I was alone trying to figure out what I was doing. And, you know, I felt almost like if I went to her, it was like almost a burden sometimes for her to deal with this stuff when she's coming home after a 12 hour day at the hospital and yeah, having to do charting and stuff like that.

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Joel Prior

And then I'm like, yeah, so I don't feel great. I, you know, I, I miss home or whatever.

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Matt Howlett

So yeah. Who did you bring those types of conversations to anybody.

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Joel Prior

I mean, I would chat with my family from time to time. Sure. But, you know, even that was difficult sometimes, like with the time difference, you know, back to Ontario. By the time everything got settled here, it was like, well, I'm ready for bed. And yeah, they're, they're not. So and then in the morning when you get time in the morning, it's like, well, maybe I'll give them a call and you're like, oh, it's only 5:00 in the morning there.

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Joel Prior

Yeah.

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Matt Howlett

So I feel you on that one. The, the years I spent in B.C. and even that one year that I was away in Asia, the time difference BC specifically 4.5 hours. It always seemed that like when I'm just finishing dinner, you know, everybody's gone to bed and personally, like, if I'm going to get on the phone, I want it to be someone that, I know a fair bit.

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Matt Howlett

I don't usually like getting on the phone too much, but I would jump on the phone in the in the evening after dinner. But, you know, everybody in Newfoundland by but at that point is at least in bed if not already asleep. So how did you, besides chatting with, you know, a few family friends that you did reach out to?

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Matt Howlett

What else, did you do to kind of to manage that, to keep that sanity during that period of time?

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Joel Prior

Not, not a lot. Like I just kept that stuff into myself a lot. And then, like, say, once I decided to get out there and pursue this training career option, and I started to meet people and get out a little bit more, it was more easier to start accepting that this is where I'm living for the next couple of years.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah, that's such a common experience, I think, for men. For one, what you mentioned about not wanting to be a burden. So, you know, we decide to to hold it in and not not bring that up with like, you know, our partners or the people that are our closest to us, the people that are like really day to day doing life with us, but then also really needing that sense of belonging.

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Matt Howlett

That's that's kind of what I'm here and that's, that's the more, I guess, scientific term for it. That's actually what I did my master's thesis on. And I find that fairly interesting, especially when it comes to men. We often recognize when we don't have it, but we don't seem to want to put a whole lot of effort into going out to like, you know, to secure that, to to meet that need is that kind of what you felt like at first when that those several few months of, you know, just trying to keep it, keep it?

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Matt Howlett

Yeah.

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Joel Prior

Yes. I guess in a sense, yeah. And like I said, I just kind to keep myself busy with everything, trying to do as much as I could, like everything around the house, taking care of my daughter so that, you know, my wife didn't have to do nothing. That was because she could focus on what she needed to do.

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Joel Prior

And and I was just keeping my own self fit and sane and yeah, doing everything else as much as I could to just try to make things easy around here and really occupy my time to not sit around and feel like I'm doing nothing.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah, yeah, that that's definitely a challenge, man. When you don't have those support systems in place. So you turned mainly to the disciplines that you had already had in place for fitness. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? What what does that look like for you? How does the the benefits really come through? Because are you talking about sanity on one end and you're talking about trying to keep that with, with fitness?

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Matt Howlett

How does that how does that relate for you?

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Joel Prior

Well, it's just something to, you know, always sort of having some sort of a goal that I'm working towards in my own, like fitness and health and wellness, whatever, whatever that goal is like currently, right now, training for a marathon. So I have a goal in mind as to what kind of time I'm hoping to achieve. So now when I'm training, that's sort of all I'm thinking about is this training is for that reason, I'm out here running these freaking hills over and over and over because there's a lot of hills here that.

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Joel Prior

Yeah.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah. And just to remind everybody who's listening, we are in, Saint John's, Newfoundland. Saint John's is a city that, I don't know, feels like it was mapped out after the fact. Like, as it was being built, as people were moving here and houses were just being thrown up. Streets are going all over the place and hills.

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Matt Howlett

We've we've got them. So you're, Yeah. So you're getting ready for that? Yeah.

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Joel Prior

Even to go back like, you know, the couple of years ago when I was doing, workouts just at home here in my in my gym. Yeah, I was, getting into, like, a little bit of the CrossFit stuff, doing some of that stuff. And there's a lot of, benchmark workouts, I guess you'd say, in that, in that type of, exercise.

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Joel Prior

So, you know, I would just take my, take my stab at a lot of these different benchmarks. And, I mean, obviously some of the weights, I can't even come close to some of the weights these people are moving around and what they are. But yeah, you know, I would sort of scale it and be like, okay, that's the time I want to do.

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Joel Prior

And I was trying to achieve this next level of fitness and to just feel better about myself and be like, yeah, I did that right there.

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Matt Howlett

So just setting goals. Yeah, crushing.

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Joel Prior

Goals and just keep. Yeah, exactly. Just keep trying to crush goals and right.

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Matt Howlett

And did that like does that get old. Do you find that like you know the benefits of like the, the mental health benefits of having the goal and hitting the goal, does that get old if the goal is not always changing or.

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Joel Prior

Yeah, absolutely. There's like, once you hit a goal, you got to find something else, right? And that's where, you know, between lifting weights and running and the I just kind of bounced back and forth between what I'm trying to do and achieve and when one or the other.

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Matt Howlett

But I'm, I'm curious what your take would be on the connection between physical fitness and mental fitness. The last episode, actually was just published this morning is with, a guy named Cortez Hancock. He's a counseling psychotherapist here in town, and I'm also known him for a little while, but kind of a theme of that conversation was building mental fitness and how, we often prioritize physical fitness for, you know, looking better and feeling better.

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Matt Howlett

But we often kind of forget about the benefits when it comes to to mental health and mental fitness. What do you see there as like the importance of, you know, of keeping a, a discipline with mental health?

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Joel Prior

Yeah. No, I, I actually just listen to that episode today, too. When I saw that it was, was released. So now they're another good.

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Matt Howlett

One, right? Thanks, man. and avid, avid listener. Right.

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Joel Prior

It's not like they exist anymore so far. you know, I absolutely think there's a there's a connection there. And, I don't know, you know, maybe how to describe the connection exactly, but, definitely no, like, keeping like, set, keeping discipline, keeping to some consistency and just being on top of things definitely helps people feel better. I've seen it with the number of clients who have anxiety.

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Joel Prior

And as we as we learn to deal with, you know, our heart rate getting elevated and our breathing getting elevated and all these things during a, you know, an intense workout, and then you can relate that calming effect after that workout and you're sitting there having an impact and your heart beats going, you know, 100 beats a minute to hear you learn how to calm down with some breathing and relax and and get yourself feeling pretty chill again.

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Joel Prior

You know, when you're when your anxiety sets in, you can kind of apply some of these same tools that you use to sort of bring your bring yourself back down after, some intensive exercise and I've had a client who was taking medications for anxiety and panic attacks and stuff and, you know, after six months a year was not taking them anymore.

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Joel Prior

And doesn't really doesn't even really have anxiety anymore, doesn't get anxious over anything. It's just learned how to deal with everything much better.

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Matt Howlett

Right. Is that a common experience that, clients would like relay that to you?

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Joel Prior

yeah, sometimes for, like, feels like therapy. Sometimes, you know, again, as you build your rapport with your clients and stuff, they can they get pretty open some some of them do, about things.

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Matt Howlett

So but then specifically when it comes to like, you know, I've been working out with you or I've been working out in general, I've been consistent with it. And, you know, my ex has reduced. My anxiety is gone. I've having less headaches or.

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Joel Prior

yeah. Well again, like, it's it's getting to know and and, you know, myself with my medical background, when I meet somebody and we consult, I ask about any sort of conditions or anything like that. Just so you know, what? We're what we're dealing with. you know, when we get into a workout, if somebody starts to panic and, you know, the heart rate starts to elevate and they get into a full blown panic attack because of it, then at least, you know, I know what you know, the potentials are there and especially how to calm them down.

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Joel Prior

And so yeah. So I always check I do check in and you know how you see on how's everything, how's your anxiety, how's this, how's that. And and that's where the conversation sparks. And over time, when they tell me that they're starting to feel better about it and everything like that, then you know that there's something there's some connection there.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah, well, maybe just speak to me for a bit about, your personal experience. Like, how do you. And I'm going to push you to go into a bit of detail as as much. Yeah. That's there. As for. All right. Yeah. I mean, you gave it to me. How many, how many classes we do was a 10 to 8 hours.

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Joel Prior

It was more than that, I think.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah. And I knew every single time. I knew every time that I was going to feel like I wanted to die. Because for one, I didn't, I felt, I don't know, not that I didn't want to let you down, but that I had to, like, you know, I had to do whatever it was that you were challenging me to do.

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Matt Howlett

So, I get a chance to throw it back at you, I suppose, but for for your experience when you moved here and, you know, you're trying to find your new way of living and what it is that you guys are going to do here. You know, make some new connections and stuff. What did the fitness specifically do for you?

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Matt Howlett

Like, what did you find were the specific challenges that having that discipline of fitness helped you to, you know, take care of?

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Joel Prior

Honestly, not not really sure. It was really, I think, just about staying consistent and doing something for me. I stayed where I was taking care of my daughter and doing as much stuff as I could around the house to make things easy for my wife. That was something just for me, that that I was like, taking care of myself and my health at least.

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Joel Prior

Well, trying to make everybody else happy. Yeah, or keep things easy for everybody else.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah, I know for me, it takes a few days, of not working out to actually notice a difference. so, like, I think I mentioned to you that we were shopping for a house for a while ago, and in that period of time, packing up things, getting ready to move once we had actually found one, I think I went, I think it was about ten days, actually, without, doing anything.

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Matt Howlett

but in general, when I skipped the gym or don't get in something a little bit strenuous physically for, say, 4 or 5 days, I start to notice it. My sleep is not as good. I feel that the impact of this ongoing daily stress is greater. You know what I mean? Like I, I probably notice it more. Does that resonate at all with you?

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Joel Prior

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. and I mean, I can tell you in the last probably five years, I haven't gone more than a day without doing something. The one day, one day I miss was the day we moved here. And unloaded the truck, right? I didn't I didn't work out that this I didn't do it. Oh. Workout specific.

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Joel Prior

We unloaded the whole truck and everything.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah, yeah. So in my mind that counts, right? Because it's physical activity. It's not just,

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Joel Prior

That's I, I look at it as it's like, that's just something that has to be done.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah.

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Joel Prior

I guess I might need to be, like, just specific, purposeful movements.

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Matt Howlett

Okay.

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Joel Prior

Not not just like daily chores, cutting the grass, moving furniture. You know, that's just like, that's something that has to be done. Okay.

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Matt Howlett

But okay. So let me push you a little bit on that one because you obviously see the benefit of, say, the physical activity involved in a move. So like, you know, it's, you know, just take my, situation. We had a, what, ten, 12ft U-Haul. It took the majority of the day. That was I don't know how many calories I burned, but that's a lot of like, you know, squatting overhead lifts.

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Matt Howlett

It's a full body movement, at least for, you know, several hours with lots of big breaks or whatever in between. But you are you're moving, you're getting, you know, physical exercise. You're getting your heart rate up. What do you see as, as the difference, like, cause obviously for you that's not good enough. You would want to workout on that same day.

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Matt Howlett

I do not I'm done. After all that. But what what do you see is the difference?

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Joel Prior

Oh, there's not really any difference. That's just my.

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Matt Howlett

Okay. Just personal preference.

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Joel Prior

That's just my preference on it. Like I would be like, oh okay. No, I guess I'll go for a run. Right. And where I got well, I had two dogs at the time, but now I got one dog. So I feel like obligated to. Okay. Yeah. Take, take them out for a run. So like a lot of my time, my default is just go for a run.

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Joel Prior

You know, that might be quick. 30 minutes just to get them some exercise. And and then I get the bonus of getting my own into.

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Matt Howlett

So, so that qualifies. That takes the work up the day.

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Joel Prior

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. That's something that's outside of my daily activities that I have to do or like the things of my daily routines.

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Matt Howlett

Right. Okay. Tell me a little bit about your your prep for the marathon then what does that look like. Exactly.

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Joel Prior

So, having just, like, completed the skeleton, whatever. That was two weeks ago. Right. I kind of found myself, like, dying out about ten kilometers in. I was really felt like I was just hitting the wall. Right. So switch things up for this time, and, just need to push. I think it's going to push my tempo a little bit more.

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Joel Prior

So I got four runs planned a week with, with a long run progressing up to, I'll probably hit about 35km will be my longest run. before for the date. lots of intervals, lots of hill sprints, a lot more hill sprints. Just different things to push myself a little bit more so that I hopefully don't gas out after 20km and have to make myself around for the next loop.

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Matt Howlett

right. So. And what were you planning that like? Because I think a lot of us, I mean, the reason why people come to, personal training is because they don't really know how to map it out or they have no experience whatsoever, and they're learning the movements, you know what I mean? Like, what's what's the basics for for how you map all that out for yourself.

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Matt Howlett

Like, do you include any strength training for, you know, or mobility work in there.

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Joel Prior

Yeah. So I got a 20 I had 20 minutes mobility every day, usually in the evening after everyone goes to bed or get gas. Once the kids go to bed, I will, I'll it down to the basement and I go for strength training sessions a week as well. Okay.

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Matt Howlett

So mobility every day for strength a week. And how long are they. What do they look like?

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Joel Prior

They're about an hour tops okay. Yeah. So and they're and I've even switched the focus in those from lifting the really heavy weights like I enjoy to do to just a little bit lighter. And they're even more, a little bit more movement focused, really working on like hip stability and lots of single jointed, single sided movements, really like focusing on the stability and movement of each side just to, you know, make sure my hips are strong.

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Joel Prior

Right? The knees feel good. Everything like this. Really trying to prepare for this like 42km of running of three, three hour, three plus hours of it.

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Matt Howlett

So yeah, my body just says no. I mean, that's all I'm feeling right now. This is a big, hard no like I mean, we're built different for one. You know what I mean? Like I'm not built to run.

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Joel Prior

Yeah.

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Matt Howlett

One specific question for you then. I think this would be really helpful to hear from you. You've you've got the expertise, with it, a lot of guys, that I talk to, I think they recognize the importance of physical fitness, like, when it comes to their mental health. Right. But they probably aren't really sure how to be consistent with it.

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Matt Howlett

What kind of direction would would you give, to a man who has. They recognize the importance of that. They feel like they they you need to to bring that, discipline into their lives, you know, specifically to get the mental health benefits because, you know, they're they're going through something in life and realize that this would be super helpful.

00;21;36;04 - 00;21;52;09

Matt Howlett

What kind of direction, encouragement would you give to that guy, how to get started, and then how to build on that and keep it consistent, because they'll look at one workout and they'll do it randomly, or they'll do a few push ups or whatever. Right. But keeping that consistent, that's where the benefits start to come in. Right?

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Matt Howlett

So what would you what would you say for them?

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Joel Prior

I'd say, give me a call.

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Matt Howlett

And then there's a great answer. You know, if you're in the Saint John's area. Hi, my name is Joe.

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Joel Prior

You also do online coaching? no, but, I would say just start small. Yeah. Like, don't don't don't say I need to go for an hour. Like, if you only got 20 minutes, go for 20 minutes. If you got five minutes, go and do one exercise right. Like I said, don't worry about if it's an hour or if it's ten minutes.

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Joel Prior

Like, just go. Even if you just go to the gym, sure. Just show up and be like, yeah, I don't really have time, but I went there. Start building that routine of going there, right? And just go from there. Don't be in a rush. These things don't happen overnight. right. One workout is not going to do it right.

00;22;37;19 - 00;22;55;13

Joel Prior

You know, going into the gym for and working out for nine hours is not going to make you fit. Yeah. So just start slow, you know, keep your expectations, set your goals or goals are always evolving. And also when you start, you know, instead of having a goal of getting out and getting fit, your goal is just trying to go to the gym for three days a week, right?

00;22;55;15 - 00;22;56;15

Joel Prior

Yeah, just show up.

00;22;56;21 - 00;23;04;10

Matt Howlett

And what, specific activities do you think are probably the best options for starting with, like, just whatever you know how to do or what wherever.

00;23;04;10 - 00;23;19;14

Joel Prior

Your comfort level is like, say, well, you if you're just trying to build a routine and start something wherever you feel comfortable, you just want to go and walk on the treadmill, then go and walk on the treadmill. If you think you can manage some of the machines, then do do some of the machines. Like there's no right answer, right?

00;23;19;15 - 00;23;23;29

Joel Prior

It's just it's just about getting started and and that's start wherever you're comfortable.

00;23;24;01 - 00;23;26;04

Matt Howlett

Right. Consistency put in the work.

00;23;26;04 - 00;23;35;25

Joel Prior

Yeah that that comes that comes yeah. Consistent trying to go consistent. And the rest will just start to come. See once you build that consistency and build that routine okay.

00;23;35;27 - 00;23;48;16

Matt Howlett

What about the the man that doesn't have a gym membership doesn't have access, whether it's, you know, financial reasons or just distance. There isn't one in the in the immediate area, whatever that is. What what can you do at home to to like tick off that.

00;23;48;16 - 00;24;08;08

Joel Prior

Box, You set aside time to just move that home. You can go for a walk. Whether that's that's after dinner. You know, you can if you got family, get them involved. That's it. Lots of ways you can sneak exercise into your into your day parks, either away at the grocery store. So you got to walk all the way and take the stairs everywhere, right?

00;24;08;10 - 00;24;24;07

Joel Prior

You know, there's there's there's lots of things. There's lots of exercises you can do just at home that don't need anything. Right? Just bodyweight squats and push ups and sit ups like you don't. It doesn't have to be fancy. Push ups, push ups and bodyweight squats will get you a lot. Do you just consist in Adam?

00;24;24;10 - 00;24;32;00

Matt Howlett

Yeah. What's your most basic type of, movement or workout at home that wouldn't involve weights? Maybe like a resistance band or.

00;24;32;06 - 00;24;47;24

Joel Prior

Yeah, resistance bands are great. They're super cheap, easy to just kind of store in a little bin out of the way. and you can use those for pretty much everything to and you can, you know, if you can do ten pushups or then you can throw a resistance band around your back and make it a little bit harder and.

00;24;47;29 - 00;24;48;12

Joel Prior

Yeah, right.

00;24;48;12 - 00;24;57;03

Matt Howlett

So keeping it, keeping it simple and using things like resistance bands if you have them, just increase the difficulty. Yeah. Keep things a little bit more interesting maybe.

00;24;57;06 - 00;25;07;28

Joel Prior

Yeah. And you know once you you can always bring up the intensity decrease your rest period. Right. Like so if you're resting for two minutes between doing ten pushups. Well rest for 30s.

00;25;08;01 - 00;25;09;02

Matt Howlett

Right.

00;25;09;05 - 00;25;21;06

Joel Prior

And everything's sort of geared towards what your goal is. Yeah. Once you start to get consistent in your goals, start to evolve and then you sort of have to gear your workouts or whatever you're doing towards whatever your goals are.

00;25;21;10 - 00;25;40;08

Matt Howlett

Yeah. And what what do you think should be the goals? You know, first, obviously for someone that doesn't have a routine, doesn't have that discipline built just yet. What's the basic, you know, is it three workouts a week? Is it, you know, 20 minutes of mobility like you're doing. You have like a general idea of what that breakdown is?

00;25;40;11 - 00;25;45;24

Joel Prior

I think that's specific to every person. Everybody's different. in terms of what they need.

00;25;45;26 - 00;25;56;02

Matt Howlett

Tell me about your practicing. So if I came to you today and, you know, I had a little bit of a. Well, I mean, what would you do with me? Let's just let's not make up something fake.

00;25;56;04 - 00;26;12;19

Joel Prior

I tell you, there's the door. No, we know we would. We would sit down, go through a consult, discuss. You know, what your goals are, what you're looking to achieve. initial assessment. Look at, the movement. Look for any limitations, anything that needs to be addressed. And then,

00;26;12;21 - 00;26;16;13

Matt Howlett

You've seen me move. Am I limited or do I have limitations?

00;26;16;13 - 00;26;20;22

Joel Prior

You have some limitations. You have some limitations. That's that Achilles, by the way.

00;26;20;25 - 00;26;48;09

Matt Howlett

that Achilles is, men. What's what's the months now of 15, I think. Yeah, dude, it is wild. Do not tell your Achilles. Everybody out there, please stretch. For goodness sakes. Like so, for anybody that doesn't know, I tore it in March of, 23. It was playing squash, and I warmed up like I had always warmed up for sports by kind of like, doing the sport, you know what I mean?

00;26;48;11 - 00;27;01;27

Matt Howlett

Hitting the ball around, throwing the ball for, like, you know, baseball, softball. Just moving a bit. But I should have stretched. I realized that now. So thank you for asking. I know you genuinely care, but you give me a bit of a hard time.

00;27;01;27 - 00;27;03;07

Joel Prior

As for and do.

00;27;03;10 - 00;27;10;13

Matt Howlett

But how would you walk through that? And that's that's what I'm curious about. Like what is that experience? Sell yourself. Tell me. Personal training. Joe.

00;27;10;16 - 00;27;33;28

Joel Prior

Well, we, like I say, we discuss what your goals are. Yeah. And, actually, we go through that assessment, make a recommendation to you for how many? You know, what you should be doing, and then you decide how many you want to do. Maybe by yourself and how many you want to do. Same with myself. Right. And then, then I sort of set up this program for you, and, we get going at it.

00;27;34;01 - 00;27;47;18

Matt Howlett

So the program is something that the person could follow on their own if they wanted to. but they stick with you until they feel some level of confidence, or they just enjoy hanging out with it so much and find the benefit of of working with you.

00;27;47;21 - 00;28;04;21

Joel Prior

Yeah. And there's, there's a lot of other reasons why people come in, right like that. A lot of them just need that accountability and need that. They need that appointment because it's an appointment. You don't show up. You get billed just the same as if you don't come to your, you know, you don't show up at your dentist, your dentist is going to bill.

00;28;04;21 - 00;28;19;19

Joel Prior

And yeah, so it's the same thing. It's an obligation that they've committed to and they're there. Whereas if you're working out on your own, sometimes it's like, oh, I'll do it later. Yeah, I'll do it later. And you know, like before, you know, it later doesn't come. And next thing you know, it's bedtime and you didn't do it that day.

00;28;19;22 - 00;28;19;28

Joel Prior

Yeah.

00;28;19;28 - 00;28;42;02

Matt Howlett

I feel that the only time I've ever, sorry, the only time I've ever done that is is with you. I've never had a trainer. I mean, I've, I've went to the gym with guys that were more experienced than me, you know, back when I was younger. But, that experience with you and the few people that were in that, that smaller class, that class that, that that was definitely different.

00;28;42;04 - 00;28;58;10

Matt Howlett

I definitely had the felt that amount of like a little bit of pressure, you know, a a little bit of expectancy that that comes from that level of accountability. Like, you know, where's Matt because it was like, there's no more than four of us. I think there's usually the three of us that were there plus yourself, I enjoyed it.

00;28;58;13 - 00;29;04;29

Matt Howlett

I think it was it was a nice break from the, the regular things that, that I was doing.

00;29;05;02 - 00;29;08;14

Joel Prior

Yeah. Yeah, it was for sure. I missed that group.

00;29;08;17 - 00;29;12;27

Matt Howlett

I was part of that group. So I'm at least one third. The reason why you in this group? Yes. That's very.

00;29;12;27 - 00;29;13;28

Joel Prior

Touchy.

00;29;14;00 - 00;29;34;09

Matt Howlett

So how can how can people find you online right now if they are looking for that type of thing? I mean, I joked earlier when you jumped in with sales pitch, but I mean, that's exactly what we're talking about here. I mean, if, if people need this type of, of support, I mean, obviously there are a long, long list of benefits to consistent physical fitness.

00;29;34;12 - 00;29;37;12

Matt Howlett

How can people find you and learn more?

00;29;37;14 - 00;29;52;19

Joel Prior

So that's why they would be, either Facebook or Instagram at your prior fitness and then message through either one of those channels and we can definitely, set up something to to get anybody started or answer any questions people might have or anything like that.

00;29;52;23 - 00;30;19;27

Matt Howlett

Awesome. What you've, you've got my recommendation. My referral. Thank you for listening. I hope you found some value in this episode. If you have, be sure to share the podcast with a friend and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find the akkeri on socials at the akkeri and on the web at the akkeri dot com, and you can find Joel Prior online, on Instagram and Facebook at Joel Prior Fitness.

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