134: ‘Trainer to the Stars’ Shares 25 Years of Fitness Wisdom – with Steve Jordan

“Your health is your wealth.”

Like us all, the Trainer to the Stars got hit by the 2020 pandemic that is still with us in 2021. “It has been an interesting year,” Steve Jordan says understatedly to kick off the interview. 

However, throughout this conversation, Steve shares with Wade the importance of keeping a positive mindset through it all. “I took a step back  (during lockdowns.) It was really enlightening and uplifting to hear you read my resume and background because we don’t often get an opportunity to reflect on where we came from. I can write down what I’ve done axnd read it out loud, or you could write it out, and it sounds so much different when somebody else reads it.”

“Some might shy away from that, but I think it was awesome to hear because it acknowledges the fact that I’ve done the work and been able to take advantage of awesome opportunities. I’ve been able to be on multiple platforms to help people create health and wellness, abundance, and lifestyle approaches that I teach to my clients.

Steve’s incredible two-and-a-half decade career as a health and fitness coach began as a personal trainer at the White House! Along his journey, Steve became a media celebrity in the fitness niche, appearing on programs like Dr. Oz, The Today Show, Men’s Fitness, Self, E!, along with dozens of additional media outlets, podcasts, books, and appearances. His passion for helping people live a better life is infectious. Steve doesn’t follow the herd when it comes to the latest health data and practices. 

In his private health and fitness studio in Los Angeles called Westwood Private Fitness, along with his second location OC FIT in Corona Del Mar, he works with elite clients. 

Plus, Steve hosts his top-rated health and fitness podcast called The Steve Jordan Experience. On that show, Steve talks with other health care professionals about all things related to health and fitness. 

Steve is an articulate and inspiring speaker, which is why he frequently gets asked to speak at such places as the University of Maryland, William Morris Endeavor, and Robb Report Health & Wellness Summit. He leads regular retreats at Canyon Ranch Wellness Resort and Luxury Spa. 

In this podcast, we cover:

• How to get back into a fitness and health routine after lockdowns
• The first and most crucial question Steve asks his new fitness clients
• How Steve came back from a debilitating car wreck
• A peek behind the curtain at Steve’s upcoming new book 
• What does a typical day look like for the “trainer to the stars”?
• When time is short, what areas of health does Steve prioritize? 
• Some signs that older exercisers can use to gauge how hard they should train
• How Steve adapted his business and his personal life to the pandemic restrictions
• One of the essential spiritual outlooks to living your best life

Getting Back in Shape After Gaining “the Pandemic 30” Pound Average

Wade asks Steve: “Do you have any insight into how someone comes back to fitness after last year, or maybe it’s their first time? What strategy would make sense for them to employ to reach their best self?

Steve replies,” That’s an terrific question. I’ve addressed it many times with clients through my 25 years in this profession. People are going to stop working out at times. It’s inevitable. We don’t always have the momentum and motivation to work out. 

What I recommend for people is NOT to pick up where they left off. Many people want to dive into an hour-long workout or 90 minutes of exercise or jump back into Zumba class, whatever it was they were doing before – they want to pick up where they left off at the same intensity and length of time. They want to use the same weights. It’s what people commonly gravitate to because of familiarity. But I recommend taking two steps back, take your time, shorten the workouts, and ease into it. 

If you want to start running, walk first. If you’re going back to a gym, do the light stuff first for a few weeks. I don’t like my clients to get ultra sore after the first day. That’s not how I measure success. Success should be measured by consistency. That’s what’s most important. So start slow and simple. Then think about how you can progress smoothly and safely. Don’t injure yourself.” 

“Sleep is so important.”

Steve explains why his approach to fitness starts with sleep: “I remember studying in college and pulling late-night study sessions with friends for an exam. Everyone would be stressed and cramming until two a.m. At 11 p.m., I would always be like, “I’m out.” Because I knew nothing else is getting in my brain at that point. I would rather wake up on a good night’s sleep and take that test with maybe less knowledge and make good educated guesses rather than sit out here till two, three in the morning and try to cram stuff in and go to an exam feeling tired.

I had an innate understanding of how important sleep was before the knowledge we have gained in the past ten years. So again, sleep is essential. Seven, eight hours. The amount depends on the individual. It depends on what makes you feel good. I would say seven to nine is a good range. 

When I wake up now at age 46, the first thing I do in the morning is stretch in bed. Not because I’m hurting, but so I won’t hurt. I pull my knees to my chest because when you’re lying down, I learned this from my older clients and who have had physical problems. 

Frequently it is the sleep that’s causing a client pain because they’re in a position of laying on one side and their shoulder collapses and their head bends awkwardly, and they’re lying on their stomach while sleeping. Their back is arched. All those contorted positions in sleep put us in restricted states. So I stretch first thing in the morning for about two to three minutes.” 

Steve proceeds to describe further how his day plays out once he gets out of bed. 

If you’re ready to get back to a more healthy and fit lifestyle as communities begin letting go of heavy pandemic restrictions, Steve Jordan is the perfect guy to tune into. The fitness wisdom he has accumulated over the years training famous “stars” (Steve is not a big name-dropper) is now available for everyone through this episode and the online courses Steve teaches as well as his excellent podcast. (Links below)

Check out this episode – easing fitness back into your life could be a game-changer!

Episode Resources:
www.stevejordan.com  
Email: [email protected] (Steve replies within 24 hours) 
www.westwoodprivatefitness.com
First 5 people who sign up for virtual or online series gets a free month: Ripped: Strength Training
The Steve Jordan Experience Podcast 
Steve Jordan on Instagram
Steve Jordan on Facebook
Steve Jordan on Twitter
Trainer to the Stars – Steve’s Blog

Read The Episode Transcript:

 Wade Lightheart: Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening. It's Wade T. Lightheart from BiOptimizers with another edition of the Awesome Health Podcast. And today we're going to talk about a lot of different things with a trainer to the stars. Steve Jordan, who has 25 years of experience as a health and fitness coach, beginning his career as a personal trainer at the white house, he's appeared on Dr. Oxidation, men's fitness, selfie, and dozen other media outlets, podcasts, books, and appearances sharing his passion to help those who want to raise their standards to live their best life. Steve currently works with clients at his private health and fitness studio in LA called Westwood private fitness and his other location, which he just moved to recently OHSU OSI fit in Corona Del Mar, where he works with an elite group of kinds of seekers coaching. He has a top rated health and fitness podcast called the Steve Jordan experience where he interviews other health care professionals about all things related to health and fitness.

 Wade Lightheart: Steve has lectured at the university of Maryland William Morris endeavor, Rob report, health and wellness summit, and leads retreats regularly at Canyon ranch, wellness resorts, and luxury spa. Steve's passion is to help people find ways to live their best life through health and fitness. And he has taken time out of his busy schedule to jump in here on the podcast. Steve, welcome to the show. Great to be here. Yeah, man. So we're you know, it's interesting times. How, how has things been? I know you moved down to the OCC recently. You've been, you got an incredible career. How has it impact you as a, as a professional in the industry?

 Steve Jordan: You know, it, it, it has definitely been an interesting year you know, and I just want to take a step back. It was really enlightening and uplifting to hear you read my resume and background, because we don't get an opportunity often think about where we came from, right? So you're talking about where are we going, where I'm at right now? It's a, it's, you know, you could write it down or you could read it yourself, but it sounds so much different when somebody else reads it. And you know, some people might like shy away from that. I think it was just really awesome because it acknowledges the fact that, you know, that I've do the work, you know, and I've done the work and I've, I've been able to take advantage of awesome opportunities and creates an opportunity to be on multiple platforms, to create the health and wellness, abundance, and life style approaches that I like to teach to my clients.

 Steve Jordan: And now on these podcasts, and you were a guest on my podcast just several months ago and where we built that this, this, this bond and a friendship, it's a, it's very cool to be able to create this unique experience with you today. And I, you know, would mention that, you know, today is it's really no different than yesterday or the year before. I mean, yes, we can look at all the external influences we've had with this, the, the political nightmares and Wars that have been going on and the, and the, the separation of, of people and feeling that we're being tied and pulled apart. I think that it's, you know, w we have to wake up every day and just be grateful that we're alive and the opportunity that we have to do our best and live our best.

 Steve Jordan: And how does that look for you is different than how it looks for me and how it looks for me is different than it looks for you. But you know, I, I'm just doing my best every day to just be in light and love and create this passion of, of health, because we learned, if anything, this past year, your health is your wealth, and that's where I'd love to, you know, just really hone in on that, that important concept of your health is your wealth. And there are so many things that we can do within our control that the choices that we can make to help influence that.

 Wade Lightheart: Well, you know, the latest statistics that came out after one year of lockdowns is the number one comorbidity is obesity. And the average weight gain during the lockdowns has been clocked in at a whopping 29 pounds. So if you look at talking about comorbidities, the importance of fitness and health, the reality is, is, you know, your risk is a big piece of the risk factor that people are dealing with is obesity. And the actual, what we've done is actually contributed to the problem more so than not. I know that you're passionately helping people both offline and online in regards to getting back into things. And I think people are starting to get back into things, but how many times do people go, Oh, I've gained all this weight. And I got to come back and turn on the turbochargers and then they, they hurt themselves, or they blow something out. Or they're not quite where they, you know, their, their mind writes a check that now their body can't cash. Do you have any insight into how does someone come back from this last year, or even if maybe it's for the first time ever when they're realizing is what, what's the strategy that would make sense for them to employ, to get their best self?

 Steve Jordan: Yeah, that's a, an awesome question. And I I've addressed it many times with clients through the 25 years has been in this profession, is people like when they stop. I mean, it's the it's inevitable. We, we, we don't necessarily always have the momentum motivation to work out. You know, there may be a day or two or weeks or months ago, by what I recommend people is don't pick up where you left off. Many people think about like wanting to go in and do that hour workout or that hour and a half workout, or do that Zumba class, whatever it is that you were doing before at the same intensity, the same length, the same duration with the same maybe weights and, and make it look exactly the same. And that's the common it's common place to go, because it's what you're most familiar with, but go take two steps back, really take your time you know, spend less time ease into it.

 Steve Jordan: If you want to start running, start walking first, if you haven't been well on a walking regimen I think it would be who of you not to start walking to, you know, for a few weeks before you start into a jogging program, if you haven't been swimming or you haven't been in the gym, get in there and do light stuff, make sure the weights are, are, are going to be manageable, make sure you're not too sore. You know, I'm sure like, you'd imagine, like I don't like to get people ultra sore on their first day because that's not how I want to measure their success. The measuring the success is the consistency. And that's what I think that's most important to. You're not gonna, you're not gonna turn whatever you've done or undo whatever you've done over the past year or ever in your life in a day or in a week, you have to do it consistently. And that's the most important factor in this. So start slow, start easy start simple. These are simple progressions and then think about progression and, and any area in how you're doing it so that you can be doing it safely. So you don't injure yourself. Like you said, it's important to know that

 Wade Lightheart: What are some of the key habits I think that people slip under and then what they need to integrate as like the big factors, because I do believe that fitness or baseline or optimal health is, is a combination of two things. Number one, your values and number two, your habits. And then I'd say concordance to that would be the strategy. Maybe the third piece of that puzzle is are you implementing the proper strategy to get, you know, the right habits to hit? Whether it is a standard of values that have recently changed, you know, to a new standard, or whether it's to get back to a standard, you held yourself maybe at another point in your life. What's your strategy say about helping someone clarify those things when they come see you?

 Steve Jordan: Yeah. I think what you said there is, is spot on the first thing I ask somebody is what is your, why? Like, why are you here? What is your, what is your overarching reason for you reaching out for taking that first step, which is the most important step and asking them really diving into that question, what's your why? And they would say, well, I want to lose weight. Well, why do you want to lose weight? Oh, I want to feel good. I want to look good. I want to fit into a, a bathing suit this summer that I was able to fit into 10 years ago or whatever that may be the cause. Like find that why, but go deeper to that. Right? That's the surface part. Just keep asking that question. Why, and you're going to find there's a more intrinsic value. What you said, that's going to motivate you.

 Steve Jordan: That's going to help you wake up early in the morning or schedule it or find the reasons to get to where you got to go to do what you got to do to reach your goals. I call it the how, when you, why is big enough and you own that, why the, how becomes easier? And we all have a reason why I nearly died when I was 19 years old, falling off of a balcony at an exercise helped save my life. I literally say I fell into my career because prior to that exercise was for looking good. You know, as a teenager and young adolescent male, wanting to attract females and, you know, kind of just magnifying what I was already gifted with genetics, good genetics. And then was sports. I played lacrosse and football at, you know, very high levels and I want it to get better on the field and be able to perform at my best.

 Steve Jordan: And when I had my accident, it was about survival. The game that I was playing, I was the game of life. And what I realized in that moment was the exercise was that it helped save my life. It gave me the tools, the strength, the inner discipline, the focus, the commitment, the sacrifice that I needed to recover. So I was, I had created a mindset through exercise prior to this accident that I had to help me get through it. And, and, you know, that's my reason why, why do it now? Because I know life is going to continue to throw curve balls at me, it's going to throw me setbacks and break downs. It's because it's inevitable. It's never a you know, it's not sunshine, rainbows and butterflies, right. It's, you know, whether it's, you know, I can look at my past whether it's near bankruptcy from starting a business and the 2007, eight financial crash where it was heartbreak and heartache from failed relationships or it was breakdowns with family or other relationships with friends and do, or finding myself in situations that I, I didn't know how to get out of or navigate in a very positive way, but exercise helped me to resist that.

 Steve Jordan: So like, when you want to give up on that one, set that one, you know, where you're like, ah, I can, I can skip that rep if your goal is 10 and you're at eight and it burns, you're like, Oh, I'm going to give up. If you don't give up and you push through that 10 it's something's there, that's setting you up for success later on for you to follow through for you to stay consistent for you to focus and be committed and do all the other things that you need to do to live your best life.

 Speaker 4: So

 Steve Jordan: Find your why long story short,

 Speaker 4: Curious if there's another piece. I think that's many people when it comes to fitness, have a, what I call a trigger event, you know, to see themselves in a picture, they have a health scare. Maybe there was an external motivation from a child or something like that. They want to be there for their kids, or they want to be there for their spouse or some other outcome or whatever. But when you hit with one of these setbacks, you've got a major health crisis, you've had a serious injury car accidents, a fall, something like that. What were some of the things that you learned in your own experience to kind of, you know, develop kind of a, an an awareness about not just the psychological aspect, but the physiological aspects around coming back from I did, you know, a debilitating condition.

 Steve Jordan: Hmm. Well, the physiological aspects was that the body is miraculous literally and figuratively. It is miraculous. I had some of the best doctors. I was at the university of Maryland shock trauma center, which is adjacent to Johns Hopkins. And I had some, you know, the best neurosurgeons and ear nose and throat doctors. And I had severed nerves. And I had a paralysis on the side of my face, on the left side of my face, which was a Bell's palsy that they thought they were gonna have to do a nerve replacement. And because of the health that I was in, I was able to regenerate that organically and naturally, and the miracle was not even in the fact that it was that it regenerated, but in the time that it regenerated, I mean, literally within hours, like hours of them telling me I was going to have to have this brain surgery to replace this nerve, to help get some movement in my face.

 Steve Jordan: The body and mind are miraculous and physiologically. You can do anything that you put your mind to. You can look at the athletes today that are setting amazing records and breaking world records that were 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, thought on thinkable. And it's just because someone believed they could, they were able to do it and they did it. And then it showed proof that it was achievable and doable. And then others set that standard and allow themselves to get the coaching, the nutrition, the, the sleep, the whole lifestyle approaches and, and, and coaching to be able to do that and accomplish that. So you can do anything that you want. Your body is in a miraculous specimen that we only understand still a fraction of and you and your company, you know, by optimization is an amazing organization company that has done a lot of that research and done a lot of that leg work and continues to be at that cusp of the, of the forefront of that, of those trends and seeing trends that nav predicting trends and getting there first so that you can help people get what they deserve in a much more facilitated and fishing and faster way.

 Steve Jordan: So I, I, you know, I, I, that's why I connected with you. I believe that what you're doing is is, is God's work in a, in a way you're figuring it out.

 Speaker 4: Thank you for that. What I know that you've been working on a new book and I think that would be something, a topic I believe the title is called the art of living your best life. What's the book about. And why did you decide to write it?

 Steve Jordan: Well, I've been told for probably a decade or longer to write a book. I have an awesome story, a story of triumph of of high, low, and high and little highs and lows throughout. And, you know, again, like I said, it hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows. People can look at me and see this pinnacle of health and spirit and love and light and accomplishment and success. But behind all that, that has been so much, you know, so many breakdowns and setbacks. And I've learned through my life, certain ways of doing things that work and whether it was, I learned it through my own experiences and, or learned it from somebody else's experiences and their teachings and applied it to my life and saw that it helped to transform. I've taken all of this information from my personal experiences and from coaches and mentors that I've had.

 Steve Jordan: And even my clients, you know, I always learn from my clients as well, what their, what their successes and breakdowns were, and I've taken it all together and I've put it into this book called the art of living her best life. And I've had challenges with I've had challenges in the past writing a book, because there is no one clear shot, like no black and white answer to writing a health and fitness book. It's like, that's what I love about what I do is that I can have 10 people, not one 10 programs are going to look the same and it was almost impossible. Or I could, you know, to sit there and write a health and fitness book and say, okay, this is the workout you should do. This is the cardio program shoe. This is a nutrition program you could do. Cause I knew that I wasn't able, I wasn't hitting, I wasn't able to, it was being untruthful.

 Steve Jordan: It was, it was not being authentic. And it wasn't allowing myself to really hit the hit on a wider note. So your best life is your best life. What does that look like for you? I'm going to give you tools in this from lifestyle approaches, your mindset your exercise and movements sleep patterns, your your thought patterns, your limiting beliefs, and give you tools within these sections to be able to create the, the inner wellbeing, to have an outer wellbeing, to live your best life. So you can make choices and do the things that you need to do on a day-to-day basis and create goals and standards. Like you said earlier, standards at a higher level than what you're living today, and you deserve it. And that's something that I hone in on as well as the life that you deserve to live because many people believe they don't deserve to live a great life. They believe they don't deserve to live in an abundant life to have love and success and money and you know access to things and vacations and whatever it is that fulfills you. They believe sometimes that, that they're not worthy. And I know that because I felt that as well. So I am, I've helped myself to overcome that. And I want to help others to overcome that as well.

 Speaker 4: What are some of your kind of standards, or I guess go tos as far as your own health and fitness regimen, like what are, what is, what is a day in the life of Steve Jordan looked like out, like, what are, what are the, you know, cause it's going to vary. It's going to vary a lot. I think a lot of people kind of think that we all get up in this kind of perfect biohacking universe and everything is just right. And we spend this much time doing this, that and editing say, what was it? What would a day be like for you? And then what are, when you're getting pressed for time or energy or whatever it happens to be, what are the things that you keep and what are the things that you drop?

 Steve Jordan: So first, I mean, sleep right. We'll start at the night. Sleep is so important. I've been I could say like asleep or sleep longer for a long time. Since I was remembering college. I, I tell this story to clients and on my podcast as well, where I remember studying and pulling late night study sessions with friends for an exam, and everybody would be stressed and cram in and be like, Oh, we gotta be here till two o'clock. And I had like 11 o'clock. I'm like, I'm out. Like, this is like, nothing else is getting in here on done all I'm thinking about asleep. I would rather wake up on a good night's sleep and take that test with maybe less knowledge and make good educated guesses rather than sit out here till two, three in the morning and try and cram stuff in and go to an exam, feeling tired.

 Steve Jordan: So I had that kind of innate, like understanding how important sleep was before we've known, like in the past five, 10 years, the study of sleep, how it's now become a science and we understand the value of it. So sleep is so important. Seven, eight hours. I know that depends on, you know, the person you can definitely have less when you're, you're getting older, but it really depends on what makes you feel good. So it's hard again to say you should get seven hours or you should get eight hours. I would say seven and nine would be a good range. I wake up first thing in the morning and now at 46 years old, I stretch in bed. You know, not because I'm hurting, but it's actually to re it's to not hurt. So I pull my knees to my chest cause when you're laying down and I learned this from my clients who are older and who have had physical problems.

 Steve Jordan: And when I diagnosed it and broke it down to the core of what, where the problem is, oftentimes it's sleep, that's causing them the pain because they're sitting in a position or laying on one side and their shoulder is collapsed and their head is cranked and they're lying on their stomach, on their, in their sleep. And their back is arched. And so all these contorted positions we sleep in and we don't move much for seven to eight hours. It puts us in really restricted States. So I stretch and the first thing in the morning for about two minutes, three minutes, and then I wake up and I use the restroom. And then the first thing I do is drink water. That is the first thing I do. That's a non-negotiable it's like, even if I'm traveling, I always make sure if I go to sleep, like there's a bottle of water sitting next to my bed.

 Steve Jordan: So I drink boarder first thing in the morning and they continue to do that for about two hours until I usually I have to pee again. And then I start with my day a light like shake an organic very good sourced vegetables protein, like like right now I'm using one called naked P that I've been using for about a year. And it's got very little, very little ingredients in it. So it's got a good standard. And I use with like almond milk or water or combination of both, and maybe I'll throw some almond butter in there depending upon what or where I potentially could see my, my breakfast being or how busy my morning is. And I drink that and I drink it like kind of slowly, almost like some of the drink coffee.

 Steve Jordan: And sometimes I may put a little coffee into it too, if I need a little extra like boost, but not too often, maybe once a week that, and I drank that and that kind of eases in my digestion. It makes me feel good. It gives me that immediate energy that I need and my body doesn't feel heavy after eating like a meal. And then maybe I'll around 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock I'll have a normal, what you might consider a breakfast where it's consistent of eggs and toast or some. And, and gluten-free is something that I'm very that I'm very consistent with almost 20 years. Gluten-Free there are times when I do have gluten, I'm not a hundred percent, but I would say 90% of the time, if not more. And then I have lunch and I kinda just graze through my day, if I'm hungry, I'll pick something up.

 Steve Jordan: And then I have a nice meal with my family and that meal will be something of something wood comes from the earth. I'm a big believer that we should eat from the earth that it wasn't here a thousand years ago. We shouldn't eat if it's produced in factories and, and it's manufactured and it has long shelf lives. I don't believe that it's necessarily good for you. There could be some things that are, but having food, you know, from the sea or the, or the land is super important to me. And I usually do that. Those are non-negotiable. So nutrition is the second non-negotiable with sleep and then movement. That's like, kind of even third, like if you had talked to me 10 years ago and we were doing this interview, I would have been like, yeah, movement, movement, movement, exercise, exercise. But now it's like kind of third on my tier because I, I need that sleep, that rest recovery, I need the nutrition for that energy.

 Steve Jordan: And then movement becomes part of that cycle and routine as well, where my movements can be simple. It really is. The people were like, what do you do for this? You know, at, at, at 46 I'm I'm fortunate. I still have a six pack. And I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm very, you know, balanced and I don't have any kind of pain or discomfort. And I, I, last summer I was setting out to run a under six mile, which I almost beat, which I hadn't done since high school, I got to six Oh two and I just kind of lost the momentum to try and do six on that, on that particular run. And I just, you know, and that was actually something to where I was like, you know what, I don't need to do it. Right. Like, it's good to do it. It would be awesome to do it, but I felt like I was pushing myself too hard where then I could start getting a little spun out in my head where I start chasing this like dragon, where I don't need to.

 Steve Jordan: And it was okay to kind of take my foot off the gas on that. But I'll run, I swim. I'd surf now, now living in Costa Mesa, I've been surfing more than I have in the past five years. Just taking walks like in the evening. Now my, I take my dog and my wife would go for a walk in the, at the beach and watch the sunset. And that could be an exercise for the day, as well as a moving with my clients and I'm stretching and showing them how to do things, but it's all these things that balanced me and make me feel good, which is most important. You know, again, I said that I have, you know, still good genetics and I do things, but I don't think it's the exercise all really. That makes me that way. It's nutrition and sleep.

 Steve Jordan: That's really the forefront of that. And the exercise sorta just polishes it off and makes me feel good. It keeps my body strong, my bones strong and, you know, limber, I could still touch my toes. I can, you know, I can pretty much go and do anything at any given point. And it's because I don't crush myself. And I think that that is a paradigm shift that Curry was created in, you know, kind of about seven years ago, eight years ago, where I used to lift really hard and I have to get five, six days in and just started to, like, I feel like, you know, sometimes too much is not good either. So sometimes less is more. And especially in a world today where we're stressed out in other areas of our life, like work, the demands of work today are higher and greater than they've ever been because everything is the access for our fingertips.

 Steve Jordan: And we gotta be on call and responsive to things. And that stress cycle gets really high there. Well, when you exercise and you exercise really hard, you're adding more stress there too. And that compound of stress can actually be counterproductive rather than productive. And, you know, you see those people all the time. We, I'm sure you too, where you see them working out really hard, doing all those, you know, the cardio and maybe their nutrition is okay, not great, and they're not getting the results that they need or want, but they're doing all the work it's because their stress levels are so high and their cortisol levels are so high. So they're, they're kind of, they're, they're just hitting this, this wall and they're not making any progress when, if they had toned down the workouts and maybe did some yoga and they maybe did some Pilates or even just meditating and stretching and relaxing, they would have better results. W would you agree with that?

 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, 100%. I think one of the things I think you touched on, I think is really interesting because this is something that shifts I know, particularly as you get older and you have all these other demands on your life, and oftentimes you have to start dialing back how much, or how hard that you train. So I know my own career when you're competing national and international bodybuilding titles, like it's a, it's a 24 hour day, seven day a week job. And then when you get into a business career, you know, that becomes illustrated. That becomes a 24 seven job. And all of these contribute to the overall load of the system. What, what at that station is, do you see like, kind of like clear markers for people as they age where they've got to be a little bit mindful about how often, how hard but they train, I know Shannon sharp talks about it and skip it, you know, in his thing where he says, Hey, yeah, he got to a certain age in his football career.

 Speaker 4: And he's like, he just couldn't hit the recovery the same level. And he, he could have 110 hundred 20 yard game, but then, you know, he couldn't be back for the next game to do that. So he had to start picking his spots later in his career that, okay, we're going to come in and do this piece for this many reps and this, I don't have to be an every down guy and was able to win more championships. And I think that's kind of like the highest level, but it's the same in our own lives with clients, particularly as they get into their forties, fifties and beyond. What are some of the things that you notice around

 Steve Jordan: Training and recovery being tired, but you know, like just mentally drains you know, if you're, if you're in this space where you have to like, constantly just like where you feel like you got replay and catch up where you're like, you know, one of those kind of like in those spaces where you're just like, man, I just wish I had a break. If you start listening to yourself, talk like, are you saying to yourself, like, I wish I had a break. I wish I had more time. Like I wish I, you know, was, I wish I could take a vacation if you were, if you're doing it, there's a lot of wishing of time space and, and using less energy, then there's a, there's a sign there where you're mentally and subconsciously, you're telling yourself that, and not a conscious level, you're just reacting to it and expressing it.

 Steve Jordan: But you may not be hearing it where your body and your mind are telling you something. Injuries of course are always the one of the first and foremost ways physiologically to start saying, you know, telling yourself, seeing yourself that you might be overworking, whether it's over-training or you're over tired. And you're, you're overstimulated at work where things start to ache arthritis you know, things in nature. I see, you know, stresses the number one reason for disease and that this ease could be, you know, in arthritis and arthritis in your fingers or your elbow or things that you might consider, Oh, that's normal. Like my knee's bothering me, that's normal. Well, it's not normal. Maybe it's happening because you're stressed. And again, those cortisol levels are higher and your body's producing you know, to, to you too much of of things that aren't good for you to be able to recover and to balance it and to be in homeostasis. So I think that the pain is one, I think we, our mind is the other, what are you telling yourself?

 Speaker 4: And then

 Steve Jordan: The third one would be, are you having fun? Are you having fun in your life? Like, are you able to like, look at your day, your week and find, and look back and say, did I have fun today? Did I do something that I wanted to do, that I do something that made me feel good about something, something that fulfilled my passions and, and, and, and hobbies. And if you dance, then you need to take a look at that and you need to, to add more fun into your life and schedule it. You know, we're not kids anymore where you could just, you know, wake up and be like, Oh, this will be a fun day. What are we going to do? You know, you got to kind of plan it out, you know, whether it's with your family or for yourself, but take time to yourself and find things that you are enjoying and having fun, because we only get one, one trip on this rollercoaster ride, you know, that we call life.

 Steve Jordan: And that's the book, you know, the art of living your best life, because I know it can be taken in an instant and I'm sure we can all relate. There's probably someone in our lives that are, you know, very, very close to us or within a few degrees apart that the life came to a sudden stop. And if they were able to sit there with you and tell you what, you know, they had another day on this earth, what they would, you know, what advice would they give you? They would say, live your best life, do everything and everything, anything that you want to do, because it goes quick and you never know when your day's up, it happens, could happen in a blink of an eye.

 Speaker 4: It's, it's a very, that's very pertinent. And I think a lot of people nowadays, if that's, if there's one advantage of what's transpired in the last year is people are like, rethinking about, well, all of a sudden, even if you were healthier doing your career, whatever, a lot of that was been taken away from people. And then now they're kind of rethinking about, well, what am I going to do with my life, with what I have left? And it is the way that I've been living in the past, the way that I want to live in the, you know, moving into the future. And I think that's maybe the best takeaway that's happened in the COVID era. I want to touch base. I know we're mindful of your time. You have a lot of courses, a lot of things available, both, you know, in-person but you also do some online classes. When did that begin for you? And what do you think is the power of online classes for your clients and for people who decide that they want to get involved with? Like, what do they need to look for? What, what should they be selecting in an online course?

 Steve Jordan: Well, you know, you said you touched on this. We, we, many people have had to adapt. And that's what makes us human is we're adaptable creatures. We are forced to adapt and maybe people don't want to adapt. We want to stay stuck in the, the model that's been working for us and that's been congruent and that's also a human is to stay in, you know, this sort of flux of just balance and, and the comfort zone, if you will. And COVID created this opportunity for me, where I first kind of looked at it as an opportunity to relax and take some time off and like, kinda just, you know, go with the flow. But after three months I was like, Hmm. And I was fortunate to be able to do that, but after three months, I'm like, Hmm, this isn't going to change anytime soon.

 Steve Jordan: So I need to adapt and, and start to figure things out. So I, I started to explore the virtual training space and, and what I did was I took some classes of my own to kind of see how it works. I was, I enrolled in several of them. I, I participated in them. I kinda looked at what I liked, what I didn't like. And then I took the best of all of it. And then what I know as to be true to myself and created something on zoom. And it was actually something that zoom was coming out with. It's called on zoom or on.zoom.us. It's a platform that zoom created for entrepreneurs, professional service individuals, to be able to create a platform one-stop shop, where they take payment, there's the marketing tool behind it, it, it does everything for you and it's embedded into the zoom platform.

 Steve Jordan: And I created a program and the first one I did, I reached out to my network of clients, past clients, people that I've met through the years that are in my mailing list. And I put it out there and I got about 10, 12 people that enlisted and enrolled then kind of like how I started my career. I started with a very low introductory price just to kind of get people in there. Cause I didn't feel comfortable or a hundred percent confident that it was going to work. And so I wanted to just kind of feel it out. It was kind of a teaser and a warmup for me. And that first month people were loving it and all those 12 people came back and I increased the rate, which now is a at 89 95 for months series. And it is however many date, any has many Tuesday Thursdays are in a month.

 Steve Jordan: So there's usually eight or nine in a month. So you get eight or nine sessions. I mean, it comes out to $10 a session, which is if that, which is a steal for 45 minutes and it's a very, it's, it's functional fitness and functional fitness is an opportunity for you to work in a fitness way to move your body in all planes of motion. And I call them primal movements, squat, push, pull, press rotate, lunge, and hinge. And you can do all of those. You can do all the other cool looking fancy stuff. And we work on those and elements of that. And we focus on core and balance and flexibility and all these 12 people have been coming back all except one who was doing it until her, her ballet class kind of picked back up and she's back in ballet, but it's been really cool to see, and I've had this now, it's also community, which I also enjoy.

 Steve Jordan: There's they're like my team and I'm their coach. And for the first time my career, I feel like I've created something out of nothing because I was forced to that now is a supplemental income for me that I enjoy doing on a, every Tuesday and Thursday. And I was doing Saturdays, but I felt like because summer's coming up it was actually a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday class for half hour. But because now summer people want to spend more time on the weekends with their families and doing things. I felt like it was a good time to just, you know, come, come back. And instead of doing three 30 minute classes, we're doing two 45 minute classes. And this month's program for the month of may is called rips. You know, I thought it was just the apropos because I'm from Jersey and may was the time of the year when you were thinking about the beach, because you were door's all winter wearing heavy clothes, it was cold.

 Steve Jordan: And now you were still working out if you were in the fitness and, but you, weren't putting your, you, weren't getting your beach ice for the winter and shredded for the summer. There you go, man. Exactly. You know, it, you know what I'm talking about. And so, you know, I call it yeah. Ripped and it's a fun and actually got lot of great feedback from it because it's authentic to me, it's something that brings me back. I smile when I'm in there, I'm feeling good. And you know, I'm focusing on different nuances of, of, of fitness within that functional fitness platform where it's about focus, you know, ripped is about getting like that, you know, as a bodybuilder, it's that mind, muscle connection, deeper, you know, more intimate, really honing in on something to be able to create a feeling and a movement that is going to, you know, make your muscles a little bit stronger and, and, and feel do it.

 Steve Jordan: And then at the end of the workouts, I give a tip. So it's a ripped, I call it a rip tip. And it's an opportunity for me to just kind of share about two, three minutes on how you could also like the past this past week I shared about water and the importance of water intake. And, you know, if you want to shed fat, like water is one of the most important things that you can do with hydration and how much hydration and so on and so forth. So giving guidelines in that. So it's also informative as well as a workout, which is as I'm an educator, as well as a, you know, coach and instructor. So it's a really great opportunity to, you know, work with someone with like me who normally wouldn't be able to weather it because of the location and or budget.

 Steve Jordan: You know, and it's, it's an opportunity that we can all do. And the great thing about this, as well as you don't have to do it live, it's better if you do it live. Cause you're you're with the team and with everybody, but it's also recorded. So zoom creates this recording that I send to you after, if you're not in the class that you can do on your own to stay in, you know, in the program so that you're not falling behind. And I create that intention so that you feel like you ha you, you should do it because if you don't, you're going to like fall behind. Cause there's this progression through the month. And each month I kind of just add this whole, a whole new series and it's kind of, they're all building on each other and I'm really enjoying it.

 Steve Jordan: It's a lot of fun. So I would encourage anybody listening, check it out. It's on.zoom.us, and you can search under Steve Jordan. And you'll find the program there. We could also put it in the show notes as well. I don't have a link on my website, but you can definitely go to the on.zoom.us and search Steve Jordan and you'll find it. I'm actually one of the hot top rated zoom classes. I was one of the first people that they allowed because it is like you had to be accepted into this platform that they allowed into this. And the one that's like, I think making the most, I have almost a hundred reviews, five star reviews and stuff like that. So they invited me actually about a month ago into this kind of brainstorm meeting with about 708 other zoom members around the country that were using the platform and they wanted our opinion on what they were doing right.

 Steve Jordan: And what they weren't doing. Right. So that they can map, they can make the platform and usability of it better. So that was really, I felt good about that, that, you know, I was in a first kind of user and adapter and that I was being acknowledged by being in that meeting and felt good to be a part of that. So I would encourage people to get a part of this. It's fun, it's engaging and you'll feel great. And that's really what it boils down to. I love coaching, you'll hear some invaluable info in these classes that I teach to my celebrity clients that they're paying lots of money for. So it's a win-win.

 Speaker 4: So where can people reach? You find out more about you get hooked up, all that sort of stuff. I'm going to put it in the show notes, but all your social media, your website, all that sort of stuff.

 Steve Jordan: I love personal emails. I'm very good at getting back to people. I have a standard of getting people back to people within 24 hours. If I can't answer the question within 24 hours, I will tell you that I'm busy. I hear your message or your question, and I'll get back to you, you know, shortly. But you can email me at [email protected]. My website is Stevejordan.com. You can Instagram me as well, Steve Jordan lifestyle. And I'm not I'm on Twitter, but I don't really follow that as much. It's not my, not really my platform, but Instagram is the best way and or the email. And I prefer you can go onto my website. If you go in there, you can go in and put your info in there leave your email address and you can become part of my mailing list.

 Steve Jordan: And you'll see weekly updates on my podcast or things that I'm up to retreats that I'm leading and future that you can be a part of as well. So it's a lot of fun. I, I, you know, this is a lifestyle for me and it's not, you know, you can call it a career profession, but it's part of who I am. I love what I do. And the people that I can help, you know, is, is most important to me, transformations that I've seen through my career have been nothing but less than extraordinary. And I still keep in touch with some of my original clients that I've had like 25 years ago and they still, you know, reach out. Or I even had a couple on my podcasts. I had three of my original clients on a podcast, which was super cool. It was a flashback. It was awesome. Talking about, yeah, four of my very best friends were part of my original clients that now

 Wade Lightheart: It's over 20 years ago. So I totally understand the connection and the relationship Steve, any last words for our audience before we go forward for people to live the art of living your best life, of course, is a book that's going to be coming out. What, from Steve, any final messages to yeah,

 Steve Jordan: Yes. You know, be, be realistic, you know, and living your best life. I think one of the most important things is, you know, not to compare yourself, we're in this world today where we are, we have so much access to other people's lives that we compare ourselves to on social media, on TV. And it's easy to fall into that trap. And you, you want to, you want to compare yourself to others and you want what others have. And it's one of the seven deadly sins, you know, it's like, and it's 10 commandments. You know, don't, don't covet what others have and, and you don't want to fall victim of that because it can then Rob you of your own life. So you know, run your own race and do the best that you can do with the resources and tools and the gifts that you know, your creator has given you. So that in my, in my opportunity to help you, if you want to reach out, I'd be happy to work with you one-on-one or within this group. And, and we're just giving you advice. So awesome. Live your best life because you deserve it.

 Wade Lightheart: Steve Jordan, the art of living your best life, you can check with all the sodas to reach out to Steve, of course. And more importantly, thank you so much for joining us today and for all our listeners at BiOptimizers. I hope that you take some of Steve's words to heart flying and live your best life, because that's the whole goal from all of us. Thanks for joining us. And we'll see you on the next episode.