114: BUILDING THE HEALTHIEST ENTREPRENEURS ON THE PLANET! with Mark Gray

Can prioritizing health transform your entrepreneurial journey? Join us for a compelling conversation with Mark Gray, founder of the Paradigm Project, as he uncovers how health can be the ultimate game-changer for entrepreneurs. With years of experience coaching high-powered business leaders, Mark shares his fascinating transition from general coaching to focusing on the unique hurdles faced by entrepreneurs. Through his own battles with pain and sports injuries, he highlights the incredible potential of a pain-free life, proving it's never too late to start prioritizing wellness.

We dive deep into the transformative power of health and lifestyle coaching tailored for executives and entrepreneurs. Mark brings to light the critical role that fitness plays in boosting productivity, enhancing cognitive function, and improving decision-making. By debunking myths that hinder health-focused habits, he emphasizes that anyone, regardless of age, can start prioritizing their well-being today. Through real-life examples and practical strategies, Mark inspires listeners to integrate health into their busy routines, showing how investing in fitness leads to both personal satisfaction and professional success.

Finally, explore the intricacies of stress, sleep, and recovery, as Mark outlines effective strategies for managing chronic pain. Discover the balance between workouts and recovery, where relaxation techniques and strength training converge to enhance overall wellness. With personal

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Chapters

• 0:00 Optimizing Health for Entrepreneurs
• 7:25 Health and Lifestyle Coaching for Entrepreneurs
• 20:28 The Impact of Stress on Health
• 24:00 Balancing Workouts and Recovery for Entrepreneurs
• 36:08 Maintaining Health and Fitness Momentum

Transcript

Speaker 1: 2:16

What if your body wasn't just your vehicle, but your most powerful business tool? In today's episode, we are joined by Mark Gray, founder of the Paradigm Project, whose mission is to build the healthiest entrepreneurs on the planet. Mark has worked with some of the finest business minds to help them unlock leaner, stronger and pain-free bodies. We'll dive into how prioritizing your health isn't just self-care it's a strategic advantage in life and business. Stay tuned for actionable tips and a special free resource to get you started on your journey to peak performance. Hello, I'm Jeffrey Mort. If you're like most entrepreneurs, you're busy taking care of business, yet who's taking care of you? If you're ready to take your energy and performance to the next level in your life and your business, then this podcast is for you, because today you're going to start breaking boundaries of your mind, body and business with integrative health, and when you do that, your possibilities are limitless. I'm grateful you're here yes, always grateful for you joining me here.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Welcome back to Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs, the show where we push the limits of what's possible in business, health and life. I'm your host, jeffrey Mort, and today we're diving into a topic that's central to every entrepreneur's success your health is your greatest asset. It's simple when your body thrives, so does your business. Yet so many entrepreneurs sacrifice their personal health in pursuit of success, not realizing that burnout and physical pain can destroy their greatest resource themselves. That's why I'm thrilled to introduce today's guest, mark Gray.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Originally from Ireland and now based in Barcelona, mark has nearly a decade of experience coaching entrepreneurs to build leaner, stronger and pain-free bodies. His unique approach, through his Paradigm Project program, isn't just about looking good. It's about optimizing performance so you can show up at your very best every single day. In this conversation, mark shares his insights on how building a healthy body can amplify your energy, your clarity and results. Whether you're an established business owner or just starting out, this episode is packed with strategies you won't want to miss, so grab a notebook and let's get started. All right, mark, thank you for joining us on the Breaking Boundaries podcast for entrepreneurs.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to have a chat and share some wisdom or what I perceive to be wisdom anyway with your audience. So yeah, thanks again for having me.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Yeah, absolutely, and I know from our previous conversations that you're just a plethora of quality information in this special niche that you offer. So your coaching business, the Paradigm Project and I love the name, by the way that focuses on helping entrepreneurs live a healthier, pain-free life, and that's really in alignment with what I do over at Love, energy, wellness and the reason why I brought you on here today to share your passion and your wisdom. So what motivated you to specifically help entrepreneurs and what unique challenges do they face in maintaining their health? That might be a little bit different than the average person yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:48

So I obviously got into coaching with no interest or no inclination of training entrepreneurs, just got into coaching just to train anyone make some money. And as I got further into my career I just I started to meet more kind of high network or high powered individuals as my reputation grew. Obviously I people wanted a coach that maybe had a bit more experience and was just better their job, and through that I just started to notice that they all had they had some a lot of commonalities. One of them was they were very busy. Of course, they were extremely driven. Health and fitness was definitely not a priority, but it was something new they had to get better at.

Speaker 2: 6:31

And every single one of them suffered with pain. Like that was just a non-negotiable. Every single one of them had some level of pain and I was like, right, there are some amazing coaches out there. There's definitely space for me to to give my five cents to the, to the industry, and help as many people as I can in in this niche. Um, and yeah, I got into it because I had loads of pains myself bad shoulder, just everything and anything you can ever think of in just years of sports. So that was another reason why I wanted to, um, kind of go down that road, because a lot of people live with pain and don't think they can escape it. And I was like right, I can show you that you don't have to be in pain all the time. Just give me a bit of time, a bit of a hard working, and you actually can live pain-free. So I think I've answered your question now.

Speaker 1: 7:24

Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting how sometimes the niche finds the teacher. So you got into personal training. You just happen to be training some executive CEOs, entrepreneurs, and they hang around in the you know a tight knit social circle, and so the word spreads fast and soon, soon enough, you're, you're getting the same type of clients coming in, and I've I found that myself where you know you. You see these, these people who live a certain lifestyle and entrepreneurship or the executive lifestyle, and they're super busy're super driven, sometimes type a personality. So you develop a program for that type of person and it's not that it's a one-size-fits-all program by any means, but it's something that is tailored to that specific lifestyle. Am I finding that correct?

Speaker 2: 8:15

100, yeah, like, well, I'm sure we're going to get into it, because you kind of we spoke about it before we uh jumped on is my trip. My coaching program is a lot more than just simply give you a workout program and there you go, like just go do your exercises and I'll speak to you in a few days or a week. I do a lot of education behind the scenes and some of that is to do with, like mindset or just lifestyle stuff, and that is related directly to those entrepreneurs, business owners, c-suite executives, and they have a different need than your nine to five office worker or your nurse or your, your fireman, whatever, and you could build a program for them as well, and they would have very different needs to the people I train. So, yeah, there's a lot of stuff like that behind the scenes where they do need a certain. They just need different things in terms of lifestyle and that sort of stuff. So yeah, there's a lot of that in the program as well. But yeah, it goes to what you said.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Yeah, excellent, and it sounds like it goes beyond the average workout program that most people are offering especially. Let's dive a little bit into the mindset aspect of things. What do you find that's maybe a common misconception when it comes to a person's way of thinking, whether or not they can accomplish this or fit that into their schedule, or whether they're too old. I mean, I run into that with some clients as well.

Speaker 2: 9:41

Yeah, I'll get to the two old one. First Cause you you've mentioned it, most of my clients are. I was actually having a discussion with a client today and she just noticed a few things. She's like most of your clients are like of a certain age and I was like, yeah, most of my clients are like 45 and above 45 to like 60 plus. Some of my best clients are early 60s and they're amazing. So I would say to anyone that thinks they are too old, you definitely aren't. You're. The best time to do something is now, because the longer you wait, the worse a situation can get. So jump on it now and prevent stuff from happening in the future if you don't get stuff done. So, um, yeah, it's never too late to get started. And then, in terms of what was your, what was your question you asked or thing you popped me.

Speaker 1: 10:27

I just completely well, how it's um, how it's a little bit different yeah, yeah yeah prioritize?

Speaker 2: 10:34

like, um, yeah, one of the main things I try to get across to people and the work I do early on but in like the first two, three, four weeks of something in the program is just trying to get across to them how important your health and fitness is. Everyone knows you need to be healthy. That's as obvious as the day is long. But doing it is another thing. But doing it is another thing. So I do my best through the trainings I have and then just one-to-one support and and talking to them is just trying to get across to them the value of prioritizing your health, your fitness, your body, your mind. Because a lot of them, their health and fitness will be down here and it's because they've just been so over focused on their business, their relationships, their family and their health is all the way down here. And it's because they've just been so uber focused on their business, their relationships, their family and their health is all the way down here. So it's my job to try and shift that mindset and get them to put health and fitness right at the very top, which is a struggle for some because there's they've just been in this mindset of business, business, business and making money and being successful and building freedom and that sort of stuff which is cool.

Speaker 2: 11:42

But the sooner you realize that if you put your health first, everything else just gets positively impacted so much more. So that's the kind of stuff I do in the first few weeks of just trying to shift that mindset. So then they prioritize it, and you only prioritize something when you see the value. So I have to try and just show them as much value as they possibly can, whether it's having a stronger, fitter body, not potentially getting sick in the future, having no pain, being more energetic, more productive. Your cognitive function will be better, so you'll make better decisions. All that will impact your business, your entrepreneurship and you'll make more money. So, um, yeah, that's a very, very important part of my life.

Speaker 1: 12:25

The value of prioritizing health and mind I couldn't have said it better myself, and it reminds me of a quote or a saying that I've heard before is that a healthy person has many things that they want. An unhealthy person usually just has one thing that they want, and that's to become more healthy. And I can completely understand. You know my demographic. My market that you know I serve is high achieving entrepreneurs, heart centered entrepreneurs, and when their health is getting in the way of them performing their duties as an entrepreneur and helping their audience, that's where I step in, just like you step in for your, you know, for your clients as well. So you know we do. We certainly do have a lot in common. Talk to me a little bit about the lifestyle aspect, because it's more than just being a personal trainer and walking them through an eight-circuit repetition at the gym or something like that. What are some of the other lifestyle adjustments that you help your clients make?

Speaker 2: 13:25

Yeah, so lifestyle-wise, one of the main things we work on is managing our stress. So stress management is obviously very, very important. You can't get away from stress, so you have to learn how to manage it. So that's one of the main things I do with all my clients. And then, obviously, the biggest thing with lifestyle is is sleep. So that does fall into lifestyle because, regardless of the gym, your nutrition, your, your business and all that sort of stuff, if your life is not scheduled around your sleep to a certain extent, then there's only only so successful or healthy you're going to be. So that's another kind of major hurdle that a lot of entrepreneurs have to get over and I spoke about this very recently in some posts is that again it comes down to priorities and you have to be able to prioritize your sleep, and again you have to see the value in it. Some of the a lot of it comes down to habit building and just habit stacking and trying to fit things into into their schedule and their life as seamless as possible. I never. The one goal I have for all my clients is never to overwhelm them. So you never want to overwhelm them with information, because if you overwhelm someone, they get anxious, they don't want to do things anymore, and that's probably what a lot of like these high performing individuals have run into in the past is an influx of information, thinking they have to do too much too soon and then they end up giving up and then they don't come back for six months, which I'm probably sure you've seen yourself with with certain individuals. But yeah, it's, it's.

Speaker 2: 15:07

I've always been coaching for almost 10 years and even since day one, I've always tried to get across the point to my clients and just anyone I've ever spoke to in the gym or or online is that this is a lifestyle change that you are, that you are embarking on. This is not a six-week thing. Like, my program is 12 weeks initial, but it's far longer than 12 weeks. You may do your 12 weeks with me, but then my goal for you is to do this until the day you're in the floor, you're in the ground or you're you're no longer with us, like that's the outlook you need to have. This isn't a 12 weeks before you go on holiday or 10 weeks before Christmas and they get little black dress season Like. This is a lifestyle change and I've seen that with a lot of clients and I can't tell you how many people I've had come into the gym.

Speaker 2: 16:01

Or now online downright tell me first time, mark, I hate the gym. I'm like cool, cool, that's all right, you don't have to like it at the start, but I guarantee you give me some time. Eventually you say you love the gym and you love that feeling of working out, etc. Etc. I'd say nine nine times out of ten, maybe nine to nine times of a hundred. That's the response I get, um. So yeah, it's just about that whole lifestyle change. It's. It's um adopting those habits that you know you might not see from, you might not get much from at the moment, but 10, 20, 30, 40 years down the line, it's going to help you live a stronger, healthier, happier life yeah, I couldn't agree more and, as my role as a consulting hypnotist, and something that one of my coaches taught me was that you don't get what you want in life, you get your habits.

Speaker 1: 16:52

So creating those habits, stacking those habits, is extremely important, whether it's in fitness, whether it's in overall wellness, whether it's in mindset extremely important and especially having that mindset of you know, this is I don't want to say a complete lifestyle revamp, because that can seem overwhelming to some people, but it's lifestyle versus a crash course. This isn't just some thing that you're going to do temporarily. You know that's going to get you some quick results. This is something that you're going to do incrementally over the rest of your life to be able to get those results and maintain those results as well.

Speaker 1: 17:28

And you know, as far as overwhelming, yeah, we, you know, as coaches we learn so much information and I know we just want to brain dump on other people and give it to them all at once, but that can cause overwhelm, and entrepreneurs are notorious for providing themselves with enough overwhelm. They don't need us as coaches to do that as well. And so you know I mentioned a quick win. You know, in my practice I have a couple of quick wins that I like to give people to be able to help them to realize that this is achievable in a short amount of time, to get some real results and feel better about their efforts, and you know the money that they're spending with us and things like that. So what are some of the quick wins that you give you to your clients?

Speaker 2: 18:07

yes, so quick wins for me. I mentioned it a second ago. But the main thing we work on is sleep just straight off the bat. Forget like I'm gonna. I give you, I'm gonna give you your workouts. We're gonna have a brief discussion about nutrition in the first week, if not two weeks, but straight away we're gonna get to work on your sleep.

Speaker 2: 18:26

So you need to do your best to get to sleep at a certain time and wake up at a certain time and be consistent as you possibly can, at least monday to friday. So that's because then, as soon as you do that, and if someone and the thing is, most people I've ever worked with, they've always had some sort of like, not a poor relationship with sleep, but it's always been disrupted I've I don't think I've had many clients. I've had, I've had a few, don't get me wrong, but the majority of my clients maybe like 70 80 percent will come to me and one of their problems will be I don't sleep very well, I wake up during the night or struggle to get to sleep, or I wake up several times during during the night. So that's the first thing we work on, because once we get that done, you always start to improve that in that first one, two, three, four weeks within the first 30 days at least you're gonna be more productive, you're gonna feel more energetic, your mood's gonna be better and that's then gonna have a positive impact on everything else.

Speaker 2: 19:23

You'll work out harder. You'll move more during the day. So if everything else you'll work out harder, you'll move more during the day. So if your goal is fat loss, you're going to expend more energy and then you're going to get that weight loss that you want. And then, because you've got more energy and you're not as grouchy, you're less likely to choose poorer foods. So it all boils down to sleep, like I spoke about those times before, like sleep is the foundation upon which everything else is built on, and then you get that. Everything else just becomes that that little bit easier. So, um, so yeah, definitely trying to get, get that sleep somewhat improved, which you can do a lot in 30 days with someone's sleep, and it will have the biggest impact ever yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1: 20:03

sleep is definitely foundational and you know, I'm sure some people might question when they come to you for physical performance and body transformation when you tell them that, hey, we're going to start working on rest and sleep and relaxation first. They must maybe sometimes question that. But I couldn't agree more because sleep is so foundational for all aspects of health, whether it's mind or mood or body transformation. So foundational for all aspects of health, whether it's mind or mood or body transformation. And most people don't realize that poor sleep causes inflammatory responses in the body. So that ties into the pain management as well. That ties into how you help people with you know their their chronic pain and having that be a limitation to their exercise program as well limitation to their exercise program as well.

Speaker 2: 20:52

Yeah, 100 with and that and I've. And the thing is then that ties into to stress. Like I said, a lot of these people are dealing with with very high pressure jobs and continuous decision making. So their stress is I'm not going to say more because you have a nurse and they'll have ungodly amounts of stress. But it's different kind of stress because you have a nurse and they'll have ungodly amount of stress. But it's different kind of stress. That's not.

Speaker 2: 21:09

And when they are neglecting their sleep, that then in turn in turn then can increase their stress and then because they're stressed, they can't get to sleep and it's like that. It's that vicious cycle. But then if somebody wants to, if somebody wants to eliminate our lower back pain, for instance, is that if they're in a chronically stressed state all the time, the chances of them doing that they can do all the strength work and and stretching and all that, but if their body is just always stressed, it's going to be much more difficult for them than to eliminate that pain. And that's something I definitely try to get across is that it's not just the stuff you do in the gym, it's the stuff you do at home. It's the stuff you do when you wake up in the morning to try and keep your body as somewhat like stable or level as you possibly can, because I've said it before and we've all heard it like stress kills and people try to just push it, push it away.

Speaker 2: 22:02

But it's true, and if your goal is to live pain-free, is you have to have some sort of ability to rein in your stress. And, um, yeah, so it all, it all links together and it's both good and positive, but it's I mean, it's a both, uh, positive and negative. It's negative because it all links and it all impacts each other, but then it's always. It's also very positive because it can positively impact everything as well. Yes, like momentum flows, both ways to make sure flows and the way you want the flow yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1: 22:38

It reminds me, when you know, my lead domino into the wellness industry was back in 2014 and that was joining a Tai Chi and Qigong group and the relaxation aspect of that really helped to transform that.

Speaker 1: 22:54

I was in a high stress job at the time and that helped me to be able to relax through some of the breath work, some of the moving meditation forms that we would, we were taught, and the stress aspect of that reducing that stress really helped a lot of the uh the. The reason why I joined was chronic pain and to help help overcome that and just that relaxation technique, um, plus adding in the uh strength training as well. After the fact, you know, first we need to relax, get into that sympathetic uh, parasympathetic, dominant state, rather than sympathetic, uh, fight or flight, um, and just get the body to relax and just be comfortable in itself, with within in itself, to be able to relax the body, relax the mind and then prepare to get ready for the next, you know, the next, the exercise, and that tied into recovery as well. So talk to me a little bit about that the recovery process. Once you start working with a client, you know they can go through a fatigue process. So how do you implement recovery in between those exercise regimens?

Speaker 2: 24:00

Yeah, yeah. Well, like I, what I said about what I mentioned around about not overwhelming people with information, the same goes with workouts. So the last thing you want to do is is overwhelm the body with too much too soon, because, for one, you're just gonna fry fry them physically and then mentally as well, so you're gonna just shoot out their central nervous system, which is not what I want and not what you should be doing to someone that is already in a very stressed state, is then just throwing all this other physical stress on them as well, and they're just going to explode and then, more often than not, they'll get hurt. So that's something to be very, very wary of as well. As I would say that the um the dose is, or the um the magic is in the dose you give someone. So you don't want to give someone too much, but you don't want to give them too little, because then they won't progress physically. But that's the main thing is not doing too much too soon and just letting your body acclimatize to things. And it ties into what I said earlier on about this isn't for 12 weeks, this isn't for 12 months, this is for 30, 40 years. So you have time, so just pull it back a little bit, give your body some time to catch up, because you'll get to where you want to get to a lot quicker if you actually take your time. It doesn't sounds a bit counterintuitive, but it's true, and the big thing I do with clients is just getting across the point that when you're not working out or you have some free time is just do your best to try and not do anything.

Speaker 2: 25:34

So for me, for instance, like that's Sunday. So I work out Monday to Saturday, not always with weights, like I do some runs in there as well. Then I have some other stuff in as well and I usually work a bit on saturday as well. But then sunday is just switch everything off, switch my brain off, switch my body off and just do like go for a walk and do some wholesome stuff. And stuff like that and I make that very clear to my clients as well is that if you have been flat out all week, you've been working non-stop, you've been in meetings, this, that and that, then you've got some workouts in as well, it's please take the time to just let your body do nothing, because it's so important it's just having that time where you don't have to think you don't have to do too much physical as too much physical exertion and just let your body recover. Because no matter how many gym sessions you do and how much running you do, is that you don't actually improve in those gym sessions or improving those runs. You improve when you're at home resting. So the majority of your, your growth hormone which is extremely important for for building muscle and regenerative purposes as well that gets released in your sleep. So, as much as you think you're, you're improving the gym, which obviously you have to do, work out hard to make progress. Those gains, as such, they're solidified when you're home doing nothing, when you're eating, when you're recovering.

Speaker 2: 27:01

So, um, as as cliche as it might sound or repetitive as it sounds, it goes back to what I said sleep.

Speaker 2: 27:09

Number one recovery tool you have is sleep. So, yeah, get into the habit of resting, allowing your body to rest, which is something I've struggled with quite a bit recently, to be honest, because I've just been really busy and I'm enjoying the kind of mindset and the flow I'm in and I'm making lots of progress behind the scenes with my business, but I struggle to switch off. I'm quite bad sometimes to follow my own advice and my, my message says it to me all the same but you need to have that ability to just to just say no to things and just relax, because it's the the differential, or it's a differentiating factor sometimes between not getting injured, for instance, and then getting injured in the future. It, um, it all ties into distress not not being burnt out as such, because burnout is a thing, but I think you have to do a lot to get to get burnt out, not just physically but mentally as well. Um, but yeah, number one recovery tool is is sleep, sleep and good nutrition, but sleep first again.

Speaker 1: 28:17

Um, yeah, shock, horror there excellent, the progress is in the resting.

Speaker 1: 28:22

I love that and um, you know you're gonna, you're gonna progress in um you know you're going to, you're going to progress in your towards your goals when you're recovering and settling the body down and I know that's that's difficult for me as well. When you know I'm in the zone of of getting something done, I find it difficult to break for my uh, for my meals on time. I find it difficult to break at the end of the day on time. I know, after I have dinner at night and I was on that role I was in that zone during the day making progress and being productive. After dinner I want to get back on the computer or back online and finish the project that I was working on or make some more headway, because all these ideas are flowing to me and through me. I have this non-negotiable for myself that no screen time after dinner time. You know not being on the computer and absorbing those EMFs and sitting in front of screens and that blue light, because that's going to disrupt my sleep. And I know, when I break that boundary for myself, that I just don't feel as recovered in the morning. I don't feel as recovered in the morning. I don't feel, as you know, mentally sharp and everything else.

Speaker 1: 29:29

And you know you talked a little bit about overdoing exercise as well. That's got to be a difficult barrier too for some of the entrepreneurs coming to you. I know in my wellness practice I get some people that want to go from like a zero, get some people that want to go from like a zero activity, sedentary lifestyle. They want, they want to go from zero to CrossFit right away, and that's just going to get them hurt. Um, so you know we have something that's called the graduated exercise program, so I'm sure that's how you walk your, your clients through the program too, is is easing into it. And you know it reminds me when I started strength training. I happen to have a good friend who's a muscle and bone specialist and he invited me to the gym to train with him and get started with strength training. And when he walked me through the first set on the first day and then said, all right, that's it, we're done, I was like, what do?

Speaker 2: 30:20

you mean we're done.

Speaker 1: 30:21

I don't feel like I did anything. He said exactly that's how we're going to start you off, and and he said exactly that's how we're going to start you off. And he says you're going to go over here and do this and I'm going to go over here and do that, and like we're not at the same level, so I'll walk you through that phase. So I completely understand and you know, at that point I was dealing with some pain and mobility issues as well. But it's amazing, you know, I learned that lesson twice.

Speaker 2: 30:55

I learned that through the tai chi and qigong. I learned that through the uh, the strength training at the gym, how uh, imbalances in the muscle structure can really be the root cause of some of that pain. Yep, massively. I have like a bit of a saying when it comes to to eliminating pain and becoming pain free, and that's strengthen, strengthen your way out of pain. So, more often than not, when it comes to in my experience, when it than not, when it comes to, in my experience, when it comes to injuries, when it comes to pain, there's there's two reasons for that. One of them is blunt force trauma, so that is like an hit by a car. Or, if you're lucky enough to be me when I was 18, is to dislocate your shoulder and break your collarbone in two or three places playing Gaelic football. So I knew why that was injured and that was because I got flipped upside down and smashed into the ground.

Speaker 2: 31:33

That doesn't happen for most people. What happens for most people is there's weakness somewhere and that weakness is developed over months and over years through poor movement. Poor movement is usually the root cause, or over dominance, over dominance. So obviously you got like a right side dominance and the left side becomes a bit weaker, or because you use the right side so often, it gets repetitive use, then it gets, it builds up um, it builds up issues. So my goal, then, for all my, for my clients and how I approach it is to strengthen your way out of pain, and you do that by bringing up your weak points. And it goes to what you said there about muscular imbalances is that that's usually the case is that the body is supposed to work somewhat evenly. It's very hard to get the right side and the left side to work as evenly as you possibly can, but you need to get them to somewhat of a decent level, so they're like average ish. And the same goes for the front and the back of the body is that they work in opposite. So simple one is like your bicep and your tricep, but if your bicep is extremely, if your bicep is over dominant, it could be your tricep is is weak, and then something will happen, maybe in your shoulder or your elbow.

Speaker 2: 32:45

So, yeah, weakness is usually the cause when it comes to pain, and that's that's, in my opinion, it's quite a good thing because it makes it a little bit easier to address as such, because you just have to find those weak points. Usually it's not because, like something out of the ordinary has happened. It's just because that individual has probably been moving very poorly for a few years, or maybe they've been sat at a desk for 20 years, so the muscles at the back have got a bit weak and the muscles at the front have got chronically tight. So there we know cool. We probably know how to how to fix that individual. So, um yeah, strengthen your way out of weakness. It's my number one piece of advice when it comes to pain.

Speaker 1: 33:29

Excellent, excellent. Yeah, and I see imbalances a lot with some athletes especially. You know, take golf, for instance. A golf pro who's constantly swinging right-handed is going to be imbalanced in those muscles on the left side for that.

Speaker 2: 33:43

So you know, practicing being ambidextrous is a big advantage, uh, in any of those sports as well yeah, yeah, and, like I've, I've worked with athletes in the past, but most of the people I work with are, like I said, entrepreneurs and they haven't been doing anything.

Speaker 2: 34:01

They haven't been doing anything to give them these, these. They haven't been out playing American football or doing these rough and tumble things. It's just because it's just how they've lived their life. And then just through repeated poor movement, which might not look poor on the outside, or just repetitive movement done a certain way for five, 10, 20 years or just a few months five, ten, twenty years or just a few months that's usually how they how to develop pain. And so, as much as I said, it's about strengthening. A lot of the work I do is just helping people move correctly and teaching people that the movements you do in the gym will also have a big positive impact on how you move in your everyday life, and that goes into eliminating that pain and stopping it from ever happening again in the future hopefully, anyway.

Speaker 1: 34:52

Absolutely. And eliminating the pain ties back into the stress reduction and managing that stress. Because if the body is consistently in that chronic pain, that's going to trigger the central nervous system to be more in that sympathetic fight or flight mode which is going to cause all kinds of other health issues. So for entrepreneurs listening today, who might be struggling to prioritize their health, what is some practical advice that you would give them here on the program to be able to start making positive changes in their lifestyle?

Speaker 2: 35:32

Yes, the main piece of advice I would give anyone listening is to start really small. Okay, so a lot of entrepreneurs have an all or nothing mindset and that all or nothing mindset has been awesome up until this point and it's probably the reason why they've been very successful with their businesses and that sort of stuff, because it's been just laser focused. It's like business, business, business, and then they've achieved amazing things. That same mindset with your health is just a recipe for disaster. That you can't have that mindset because, unless you're a college student or somebody would who's retired and just has an ungodly mental free time, is that things will be. There will be spanner strong.

Speaker 2: 36:08

The works is that the gym session you thought you were going to get in a wednesday afternoon might not happen because you've had an extra meeting put in or something has just happened maybe there's been a family problem instead of you saying, right, I can't do it so, or I can't do that that gym, so I'm going to do nothing, but that might happen twice during a week and then, before you know it, you've had just one gym session instead of three. You do that maybe two weeks of the month. You're down 40, 50% of the work that you needed to do. And then that negatively impacts things like your nutrition, because you're like I didn't get to the gym, so I've lost today today, so let me eat some crap. And then what does that do? It negatively impacts your sleep, because maybe you stay up a bit later or the food you've eaten hasn't been that great, so you can't sleep, as you can't sleep as well. So you need to remove that mindset and just be like right, you know what, if I can't get to the gym, maybe I'll go home and just do 10 minutes. I'll do like some push-ups and some sit-ups and some some squats cool, it's not what I wanted to do, but it's going to help me move one step closer to where I need to be and, more importantly, it's going to keep momentum going.

Speaker 2: 37:20

So that's the biggest thing is just keeping that wheel going. Doesn't matter how big like of a push you give it. You just need to keep it going, because if you're not careful, that wheel will roll backwards and they'd be like indiana jones and that ball would be coming, coming for you at speed and you're going to try and get out of the way. Um, so you have to do your best just to keep it going. And that ties back to what I said to start is just start small.

Speaker 2: 37:45

So if your goal is like four gym sessions a week, if your ideal would be like I want to go to the gym four days a week, but at the moment you're doing nothing and you said this earlier on you've got people that go from like zero to I want to do crossfit and it's like that's not how it works, like you have to start small, you have to build the foundations, you have to get good at certain things. So start off in small chunks. So maybe it's two gym sessions, but maybe those gym sessions are 25 minutes. Eventually, maybe in six months, you're doing four workouts of an hour. But you have to start small first to get there. So that's the big piece of advice I would give anyone all or nothing is not the answer.

Speaker 1: 38:29

My friends start small and that comes from years and years of experience from mark. So, mark, you've put together an amazing resource for our community. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 38:40

oh yes, so that is my ultimate guide to health and pain-free performance. So it's an e-book I created about four or six weeks ago and, if I don't say so myself, I think it's awesome. Took me a few months to build and I put a lot of work into it. I did a lot of research and if you read that and you just, or if you just pick out a few things in it, I guarantee that it will have a positive impact on your health and fitness. And I'd go as far to say is that if you just read that back to front a few times and you took some of the action steps and you implemented them, is that by the end of the year we're like I think we're 100 days from christmas now, I think we are 100 days, I think it's 100 days of christmas.

Speaker 2: 39:23

If you did some of the stuff in that book, you would change your life. It is full of things from sleep, from training, from nutrition, mindset, stress, all that sort of stuff. There's a big list of of apps and and tech and supplements that I that I recommend. So, um, yeah, go give it a read, implement some of the stuff and, yeah, it will have a big impact on you.

Speaker 1: 39:48

It's an absolutely amazing resource. I had a chance to check it out and what a fantastic job Mark did putting that together for all of our listeners here, and the link will definitely be in the show notes. And where can people find you, mark? Where do you hang out on social or your website, or where are you?

Speaker 2: 40:06

Yeah, yeah. So if you want to check me at my website, it's the paradigm projectuk, and you can find me on instagram, at coach mark gray, or linkedin, which I'm actively using at the moment. I haven't used it before, so, um, yeah, I'm sharing some really cool stuff over there. So, yeah, catch me on them. And then, if you have any questions and or you need any advice, I have my social media pages for a reason. It's because I share some really helpful content, but it's also the work I do behind the scenes in my dm. So if you need a piece of advice or you got a question on anything related to health and fitness, just pop me a message and I'll happily help you out or steer you in the direction of someone else that can help you.

Speaker 1: 40:48

Absolutely, and what a great resource. I'm grateful for you being on the program today and offering your time and your value and being open to answering questions that any of our boundary breakers might have, and reaching out to you on Instagram or LinkedIn, two of the most popular platforms there for entrepreneurs, so I'm grateful for that. All the links to connect with Mark will be in the show notes with his social media links and also his download for his free ebook, which is an amazing resource. I highly recommend that you grab that, mark. Thank you for joining us today. I really appreciate you being here, my friend.

Speaker 2: 41:26

No, thank you. That was amazing and, yeah, I love these conversations, so I appreciate the opportunity to come on and hopefully share some wisdom with your audience.

Speaker 1: 41:39

What an incredible conversation with Mark Gray. His passion for helping entrepreneurs like you achieve their healthiest, strongest and most pain-free selves is truly inspiring. If you're ready to take the first step towards building a body that supports your business goals, mark has a special gift for you the ultimate guide to health and pain-free performance. This free guide is packed with actionable insights and strategies to help you uncover the keys to peak performance and optimal health. Don't miss out. You can grab your copy today over at ParadigmProject UK forward slash entrepreneurs dash guide. I know that's a mouthful, but you can also get the show, the link in today's show notes, so you just scroll down and click and it'll bring you right over there to theparadigmprojectuk, and you can get your Entrepreneur's Guide the ultimate guide to health and pain-free performance.

Speaker 1: 42:37

As always, thank you for tuning in to the Breaking Boundaries for Entrepreneurs podcast. If you enjoyed this episode which I'm sure that you did, because you're still listening please leave a review and share it with a friend or family member, co-worker, fellow entrepreneur, or reach out to let us know your favorite takeaway. Of course, there's also that send us a message. Feature in the show notes. I'd love to hear your biggest takeaway from today's episode. Until next time. Remember your health isn't just a side project. It's your foundation for success. Take care and we'll see you in the next episode.