Strength Beyond the Gym ft. Gunnar Peterson

I've listened to all of your episodes on here you guys bleep it out oh I didn't realize we bleeped like beep beep beep yeah okay well I didn't realize that you're not selling fitness I tell trainers that all time you're not selling fitness you're selling energy I'm 150 years old. And I worked out this morning and I was giddy because I had a great workout.
And I think as a trainer, you should do that for the people's exercise you program. What do the one percenters do? Especially in LA, especially in Hollywood.
The people that you're saying, well, if I had what they had, I would do what they did. You wouldn't.
Oh, what else is she doing? She's got all day to work out. No, she doesn't have all day to work out.
What's the hack?

The hack is hard work, dude.

That's the hack.

Yeah.

Your mom would walk into my gym

without looking,

without taking inventory of who was there.

She would go,

may I do my Kris Jenner impression?

Yes.

Good morning, mother.

She would just walk through the gym.

And that's how she lit it up every day.

And I love it because that matches

the energy I have.

And I love having somebody in there with that. So Gunnar Peterson right here I have known Gunner.
I want to say I was a teenager, like 13, 14 years old. I think 14, yeah.
14, that's what I think too. So Gunnar has been training basically every family member, from my sisters to my mom, and we've known you forever.
and you, I don't know if people know this about you but you are a very serious you get like your job you're committed to your job you are one of the biggest pranksters you have the craziest wildest mouth I keep that under wraps not anymore but um yeah you have the darkest sense of humor which is why i love you it is but

yeah people i don't think realize that side of you like you're so professional and you know exactly

what you're doing but you will fuck it up with the rest of them you have to yeah i think you have to

it's funny people go how do you motivate people i go you don't motivate them you insult them and

you shame them but that's also like on their time behind closed doors never on camera and you just

Thank you. go how do you motivate people i go you don't motivate them you insult them and you shame them but that's also like on their time behind closed doors never on camera and you just keep it under wraps well and i think also by the way p.s one of the reasons and the person i knew first in your clan was your mom yeah who has a super dark yes nasty side your mom would walk into my gym at 5 30 on the dot yeah and as she walked through the gym without looking without taking inventory of who was there she would go may i do my chris jenner impression yes good morning motherfuckers she just walked through the gym it didn't matter who was there and that's how she lit it up every day and i i love it because that matches the energy i have and i love having somebody in there with that you have been i mean i remember my mom being at that gym the one in off tower right and i would have to sit with her while she would work out and i would do homework and she would i would see her like kick ass and beast yeah what she would do in the gym and i really think that also like i like working out and having my kids in the gym with me not for like a weight loss like it's not that it's about just showing them to be active and i used to sit with my mom at taibo and all the other shit like it's good for that sets the.
And then when they're introduced to it at whatever time in their lives, they, they're not intimidated because they're like, yeah, I've been around this. I've seen it.
It doesn't get weird for them. Right.
Yeah. Whether they do it or not, it's another thing.
Right. But the intimidation part is interesting.
So when I, I've obviously known you since I was younger, but then during my marriage, I started really working out when I was going through my divorce and I remember that's when I started to need those workouts and but not even like going to your gym was such a safe haven for so many people and yes you taught no cameras that's what people don't get there's no people go what about theft don't you worry I go I don't worry about that there are no cameras in the gym but also you only let one person work out during that hour at a time so you can feel as uncomfortable and vulnerable as you want there's nobody else there it's your gym it's your music there was a great video you probably have it of you and kendall oh yeah dancing up the track uh this big sean song it is i don't fuck with you right yeah god do you have that video. you gotta send me that it's just and it's you guys from the back i think you guys said but you can't do that at another gym like good luck yeah you could but you can't get the music queued up you can't kendall used to come in there and pop up on the on the ipad and literally dj her own workout yeah no and's, oh, I miss that gym because it literally was like our home.
I'll get you to come to Nashville, even if you come for a weekend and they break ground today on the new building for our gym to expand it, but you'll see same vibe. Oh, of course it is.
Bigger ceilings, just cool. I've seen your videos and I'm like, oh, I gotta go back there.
It's fun. So I feel like I know everything about you and I'm sure people who are, well, everything don't know everything.
We'll leave that for Jess, your wife. But yeah, I want you to tell people how you got into this because I don't, like you went to Duke, you know everything about the human body, literally everything which is is always so fascinating to me.
Because you're not just a trainer, like, you know,

workout things. If I'm like, oh, my left leg is hurting, you will know exactly what muscle might be trained.
You got to stay on top of the field. That's where some trainers,

they don't get it. They think, oh, I know basic programming and, you know, three sets of 10 kind

of stuff. Great.
But there's a lot more that goes into it than that. And then you get the trainers

who talk about, well, you're a therapist. You're not a therapist, bro.
And you're definitely not a trained therapist, so you should leave that out of the equation and let people come to their own decisions. You just have to create a space where the person feels comfortable talking.
Most people are going to solve their own problems anyway, and you're definitely not in a position as a trainer to give advice on that or you should leave your husband are you crazy you can't do that because then if they don't then you feel like the asshole yeah or you're fired right so the husband comes in and goes hey bro right so what you said about me yeah so how did you fall in love with fitness but also how did you get the clientele like the roster that you have uh the fitness part I was a fat kid I was in Weight Watchers when I was 10 years old and then I learned about working out and then I learned to connect it to nutrition and it was obviously you know we have a mutual friend in nutrition Dr. Golia but they go hand in glove and you know that and and he jokes that it's 80% nutrition I that it's 80 fitness i think what we can agree upon is the closer you are to your goal the more nutrition plays a part and you can't out train a bad diet right so all that falls in line um but i got into that because i it was a control thing right as a fat kid i was a victim i felt i can't control this why am this.
Why am I so fat? Why do I look like this? Having that control was cool, and I just wanted to share it with people. And I would tell friends, come work out, but they won't, or they won't on a regular basis.
So then it becomes, you're telling people, but without pitching it, right? Like, you're not selling fitness. I tell trainers that all the time.
You're not selling fitness. You're selling energy and an experience experience and if your energy speaks to your workout like i worked out today i'm 150 years old and i worked out this morning and i was i was giddy and i came back in the hotel room my son goes dad what's the matter with you i go i'm just fired up today because i had a great workout i knew i was seeing you and and i think your exercise program should do that.
And I think as a trainer, you should do that for the people's exercise programs that you program. And they're coming for the energy.
They're coming for- You've always been like that. And you've been doing this for decades.
35 years. 35 years.
And every morning, so I would have the 6 or 7 a.m. slot typically typically and you would have already been in there 4 30 doing your own workout with your guys and you always had the energy always happy always positive do you remember when you walked in early once and i was finishing my workout i can tell you right where i was in the old gym i was over you're sick and i was on the cable and i was shouting because that's like my therapy my catharsis and I was yelling and swearing and I finished and the other guy worked with me Brad yeah was there and he starts laughing I looked and I saw you walk past and you go oh that's nice and I was just swearing up a storm because that's how I get it out well there's no judgment for me yeah go ahead do your Go ahead.
Do your thing. Do what you've got to do.
Four-letter bomb all day. Yeah.
So I think that energy is what draws people to it. I think your energy in anything either draws or repels people, whether you're selling widgets or workouts or running an escape room.
It's the energy of the people. And as far as the roster goes, to go back to your question, I was in the right place at the right time.
And that's not fake humility. the ice of the ice of the ice of the energy of the people and as far as the roster goes to go back to your question i was in the right place at the right time and that's not fake humility i used to joke i have great parking and people go that's not really why that's a big part in la the fact that someone like you or anyone in that rare air can pull in off street no paparazzi park get out of the car where you can't be seen no cameras that changes the game i think for who's going to come to you like that's appreciated by those who who value that right and then they're going to keep coming and it's a safe space let's not i get you're very humble no but i'm saying that's a big draw right and after that at his prime you were his trainer sylvester stallone yeah at his prime 23 years 23 years and and still the man he did a thing as did you and thank you in person but i've done it on text for my daughter yes he he the people like that wrote me back right away and there's a reason he writes you back because he recognizes what you bring to the table and that you're not after anything else it It's like not asking for a photo.
I'm not asking for a photo. Yeah.
Or it's going to happen or it doesn't, whatever. But that doesn't change the exchange.
That doesn't change the time spent. Right? I have people I've trained that I'm still super close with probably don't have any photos of them.
But that's fine. Oh, no.
Your wall. I love.
So Gunner's Gym, which we have have to throw photos of your gym the la one the tennessee one whatever they're insane and the ceiling quilted in jerseys oh everybody i promise you even if it's a one-off workout any per i promise you you've trained anybody and everybody whether it be from celebrity to ceo to athlete and everyone only has great things to say about you you are deliver on that level if they know you outside of the gym maybe they go he's an asshole but you try like you're coming for a workout it should be fun you're bringing time energy money whatever to that you want to leave with a perception of value. I mean, your gym is fun.
I miss it. It's such great energy.
My gym is emulated off of your gym. Love that.
Like I have the turf in the middle. Yep.
I don't have the yellow, but I have the turf in the middle. So the new gym has a block that's black and yellow and a block that's red, white, and blue.
And it just makes it had kind of in the old gym the downstairs was morphed into red starting that pirates and patriots i still have one workout bench that's yours it has your signature on it do you remember you gave me that i love that so it's one thing that's reminiscent of yours talk about how you went from being a production assistant to now doing what you're doing because i think it's fascinating so I was walking out of a gym uh I used to train early morning before the job and um a dude asked me if he could work out with me and I was like and the person the kid I was training with early morning training partners as you know are hard to come by and they're hard to be consistent and the kid had not shown up so I worked out worked out by myself. And as I'm leaving the gym, this guy asked me to train.
And I said, I was kind of like, sure. And I said, but I go early.
And he goes, no problem. Then he said, what do you charge? And I was like, let me get back to you on that.
Wow. Yeah.
Cause I didn't have like, I wasn't a trainer. And then I played cat and mouse training him in a gym as a non-employee, but training him and I trained a buddy of his.
And then I started training a woman in the evening. So I did two people in the morning and then go to the regular job, production assistant, and then go into the gym for my own workout at night.
Oh my God. And then a woman started training.
And then I started looking at it and I go, I'm making more money training three people three times a week than I'm making for a full week in a regular job. Right.
And I quit the job. And you just had that much faith.
No, I guess I was like probably didn't love the job, but I didn't love the control of the job. And then I met a casting director who I started training, and I trained like two or three casting directors.
And they worried that I didn't have insurance because I didn't have insurance. Right.
Because I was young and strong and I don't get sick and I was like I got Viking blood I'm not gonna get sick and they're like you need insurance Gunner. Oh like health insurance? Yeah.
Or gym insurance? Yes and yes. Yes.
But they were talking about health insurance so they would put me in small roles in some of the shows that they were casting. Oh, that's so funny.
And then I got SAG insurance. Okay.
And I kind of coasted like that for a little while. But you do what you can.
You're in your 20s. You don't have responsibilities, right? You're not married, no kids, no pets.
So you can do what you want, work when you want. And as long as I can control the workflow, as long as I can keep my foot on the gas, I'll go as hard as it takes.

And then...

I mean, it's just crazy to go from that

and then it's like Arnold Schwarzenegger

and The Rock and the Kardashians.

No, just kidding.

No, but...

You have to reverse that order.

It's crazy.

No, but it is crazy.

But you're also in the right...

Think about it.

You're in the right zip code.

Like you're in the place where the people are.

We'll be right back. but it is crazy.
But you're also in the right, think about it, you're in the right zip code. You're in the place where the people are.
Where was your first gym? My first gym was at the house on Tower Road. Okay, that was your first one.
It was the house next door. Yeah.
Okay, I remember that one. Yep, gutted it and it became a gym and it became, again, it was a safe place for people who can't be, it's not fair, they can't, who it's uncomfortable for them in a public gym.
And I get that. People go, oh, why can't they work out? Well, they can, but can you promise me you're not going to go bother them or you're not going to take pictures like this? Because that's what people do.
And that gets annoying for somebody in your line of work. That's tough.
But like movies movie roles people would rely on you to get them together for that role didn't you do angelina yeah tomb raider tomb raider too yeah i went to london that's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders it is but it's fun and you've already had the especially when you've when you get called by a studio to train somebody for a role, that's a different responsibility than you've worked with a person for X period of time. They get a role, and they say, okay, here's the role.
Here's how I want to tweak that. You know, I worked with Name Drop, Matthew McConaughey, for a lot of years, and he was training for a role.
I want to say he was going to be a was going to be a diver like a springboard diver and working working work and then he came in one day and he goes changing the role uh that movie fell through I'm doing a different role and I need to look like a cross between whatever it was something like a quarterback and a linebacker and it was the role of um in the movie Sahara the Clive Cussler novel and he was playing the lead character dirk pitt yeah and yeah very ironically i read all those books growing up clive cussler also the thing about you don't ask you to immerse like you are immersed in any piece of knowledge gotta go deep but how the hell do you have the time well that's why i don't gamble i don't do drugs i'm afraid of coffee like i don't i know how i would go i know it's also psycho it's wild that like me i need my coffee the pre-energy you're like you're sober sober sober sober like i'll do an energy drink i like it okay i'll do as though 160 milligrams of caffeine let's go but the energy my pre-gym workout but that's crazy that that's like all it takes to get you going yeah so he said to me i'm doing this this is funny he goes i'm doing this role sahara and i said oh sahara there's a book clive cussler he goes what do you know about that book and i said uh lead characters dirk pitt he's got a girlfriend named eva rojas he works for a guy named abril Sandecker who works for NUMA he's this and he goes what do you know about Dirk Pitt I go what do you mean and he goes I'm Dirk Pitt I go Dirk Pitt is 6'4 and he goes Dirk Pitt's 5'11 and 3 quarters and I go solid say less you're right you're right yeah yes you are yeah so you but working with him for a role like that or working with somebody that you've worked with for a while i don't feel the pressure i think it's then it's fun because you're just you're taking the relationship in a new direction and they trust you you know how they work you know what's going to work with them what you can and can't do there's no like feeling it out phase picture this you and your bestie finally making that girl's getaway to grease a reality. You've been talking about it since high school, and now it's happening.
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You were also the head trainer of the Lakers. Head strength training.
Strength and conditioning, yeah. Strength and conditioning trainer for the Lakers.
Three years. Three years.
That's a long time. That's a long, well.
It's a long time in LA. It's a long, that's a long well it's a long time in la it's a long that's a long time in la and it's a lot of road time because you know better than i do that travel schedule is no no joke it's no joke yeah and when you have family and kids and kudos to my wife i was yeah i was married but yes but when told, I sat everybody around the table.
When Rob Palenka offered me that job, I brought the family around the table and I said, do we do this? And they all said yes. And I go, but hang on.
You gotta think. It means like Christmas morning, I might not be here.
We could be on the road. It means- Because they're the Lakers.
They play every major holiday. Every holiday.
Yeah. And I said, Ann may not be here for games with this.
I may miss this, and they all go, that's fine, take the job. So I had their blessing, so it's easier to do.
And then when we won in 2020, my wife goes, why do you want to go back? And I was like, it's fun, it's awesome, I work with great people. She's like, babe, come on, you want a ring, like, don't kid yourself.
But it also, it came to a natural end and things changed. It's a great organization, great people, as you know, but things change and you move on.
But nothing but love for those guys and they crushed it. I mean, there's a work ethic down there that's sick, which is why they are who they are.
Speaking of your family, so you have three, three sets, so you have three kids from your first marriage. Yep.
And then two more. Yeah, I have Henry, my oldest, then Jack, then Sloan.
And then I have Zane and then I have Monroe. And.
So I have a starting five. You have a starting five.
Yeah. Which is what everyone needs.
Everybody, right? You better. No, I'm good.
I have my two and then I just acquire other kids. You also have a lot of nieces and nephews.

I do.

So you feel the best. I take care of a lot.

I'm good.

I feel complete starting 20.

But ever since I've known you, you found a way to balance.

You have this extreme work life that you do literally from 4.30 in the morning on.

And then you're always at your kids' games.

When your kids were touring college, you were on the college tours. Even though they were only going to go to duke i imagine my middle son went to smu and i left i said to him dude you're gonna have more fun than everybody who went to duke just because you're gonna be in texas and you're gonna any tour it up he'll still wear a duke shirt but he's an smu kid jack and it's it's awesome to see him in his own like he's got his own gig there but yeah they were only going to duke i wouldn't let the i wouldn't have any baby blue in the nursery i want duke blue in the nursery for the boys it's always been duke blue correct always but how have you always found a way to balance i don't even know if it's balance i think your kids were your number one priority and then the rest yeah balances that's that word right i have a guy now um country music guy in nashville he goes he goes i hate the word balance i said cool i hate the word journey so let's not the band but like people always say i'm on my journey i'm like shut up i'm on a journey what do you think it's your workout like you're not on a journey but um i don't think you have balance i think i think you go hard and get obsessed with everything like i'd imagine it right now you are because this is your newest baby i would imagine you are all day the fact that you have notes and things and like you can't have balance if you're doing a new project, right? Whether it's a work project or a kid, you got to go all in with that.
And you know what you're about to find out, but I think you do know with the kids, they're gone in a minute. I know, right? That first it's the school thing.
And then they're, then they're gone for X amount of hours a day. And you go, Oh, that's weird.
I got a big big hole in my time and then it's the friend thing and then it's trips with friends and then it's college and then it's like good luck you know you've always handled it so well and i feel like when if you had a crazy day your kids would come by the gym and hang out for a little bit and do homework in the back or you always found a way to make it so family inclusive but never feeling like god gunner's kids are here do you know like like it was never intrusive it was always such a great environment they're always super respectful and they would stay back there and and that's also how you get to tell who the people are that you're working with the ones who acknowledge them and speak to them versus the one who just wave and walk um and i want them to see i brought my little guy here zane this i'm in la for two days and he's with me and i said you're gonna do work day with daddy and he's like can i bring my ipad yeah i go you can but he needs to see i think it's helpful that they see what you do yes it is yeah speak a little bit about monroe and what you guys have been going through on her health journey

and like tell us about how i know journey let's find balance uh she how old is she she's five and last year i think it's i think it's a year ago tomorrow or thursday wow was diagnosed with aml leukemia um which yeah that's a fun day i was so surprised with how subtle like the symptoms were for leukemia that i would love for you if you're comfortable to explain that because i when i heard like when i was like mom how did i I was like, how did he know Monroe had that? And it was a few bruises from what? Yeah, my wife Jess found that and I'll give even more kudos to Jess for not just how she found it, but how she's championing the whole thing. As far as I'm concerned, she's got an MD.
Like she's become an absolute beast the way i would expect a lot of moms especially you and

and like when you're it's not helicopter parenting by the way it's it's being a good mom um so monroe was getting fevers and they would subside they'd break it the night in the night and then she'd be fine and then she'd get another one and and i don't know to me her her skin like her pallor wasn't there was a pallor to her skin that you didn't see normally.

And... And I don't know, to me, her skin, like her pallor wasn't, there was a pallor to her skin that you didn't see normally.
And I said to Jess, maybe it's like anemia or something. I think this is more than just like day cool, night cool time.
I think this is like go to the doc. And she went and checked and they, she checked while I was at work.
And then they put her in an ambulance. They said her counts are extremely low.
She needs to go up to Vanderbilt right now. So they sent her to Vanderbilt and, um, then they checked.
And then a couple of days later they come and they do, they checked her in. And of course my wife stayed with her the whole time, like literally lived there, ended up the two of them living there for six months.
Wow. Thank God it's only 20 minutes from our house.
So we could do like a tag in tag out thing and and zane could see and my other kids flew in and they all the other kids when she when it came down to needing bone marrow transplant all my other kids stepped up right drew the blood to see who was a match and and it gets uh that gets super hairy but um they get that diagnosis and it it's no joke. They check you in, and then they tell you what it is.
And it's not leukemia. It's AML leukemia.
And what's the difference? It's more rare. More rare.
It's more rare. It's more difficult.
It's everything. And then it's probably going to be a bone marrow transplant, and then there's going to be – then that didn't take.
The first one and then i mean it took for a minute and then it didn't and then they go through a radiation and the chemo it's just uh you wouldn't wish it on anybody right but my wife um and i would tell i would tell any parent or any guardian you have to advocate for your kid and you have to keep meticulous notes my wife wrote down on this notebook that's more notes than I took in four plus years of college. And she wrote down everything they did.
Every time the nurse comes in at night, how much? What are you giving her? What time? Why? And you keep it because you want to go back to it and say, this didn't work. This did work.
And Vanderbilt, top notch, can't give it more praise for how they handled the whole thing. But you have to advocate for it.
And you have to ask questions of not just the doctors, not just the heads of the departments, which we had, you know, we were lucky to have good relationships, but the day-to-day caregivers. Those people are the ones who see symptoms, who see trends, who, you know, the nurses, the orderlies, the people who are in and out and in and out.
And if you don't keep those relationships open and take those notes, something can get missed. And I worry for the people who don't know to do all that.
It can go sideways real fast. My cousin, Cece, who I know you've've met in the past she's had cancer for like over 30 something years on and off and she says the same thing you have to advocate for yourself you have to that regardless of who the medical practitioner is they're not you and you have to even saying no like no if you don't feel like this is the right drug for you like it's okay to push against that.
Yep. Just that.
We also had a guy through another,

through other friends and probably not cool to say their names but anyway we had other friends who connected us with another doctor down in florida who jess and i could bounce but more jess bounce stuff off of but i was on all the emails all the texts so i'd read it and jess was just on it on it on it and without without his being like a sounding board and giving advice and he never he never contradicted or countered anything but he said ask about this or what about this and when you put it in a question form sometimes you do spark an idea like oh that's oh maybe and then the treatment takes a different turn or a different path or like the second transplant she did um they do a tbi right a total body irradiation where they essentially microwave your kid to nuke anything before the transplant so that the transplant has a better chance of taking and they get down to discussing what temperature that set at. And the doctor in Florida has a different idea than these people.
Right. Because how would you know? How would I know? How would my wife and I know, oh, for her body size, for her body weight, for the fact that she's been under chemo for this long, and now she's going to go through this.
Having those people, like I would tell anybody, reach out. And the pediatric oncology world, right, is very small.
And they talk in real time. And you can get really good answers if you step up and ask a question.
Nobody's holding back information. It's not like we have the cure and we're going to hold it so you come to us and we make money.
It's not that kind of business. They will talk.
And we've got some really good people on our side that community is huge huge your family friend harry who yes harry hudson who's phenomenal like he lives in tennessee too correct we've gone back and forth on this but he has a a little room at in the vanderbilt in the monroe carroll uh children's hospital for kids to go because I guess teenagers go and then they feel, thank God, like Monroe, our daughter, lost all her hair, right? And her eyebrows, which is a freaky look. But it's cool, like make it work.
But she doesn't have the association with hair and beauty and how she presents herself as a teenager would. So Harry recognized that and there's's a little center for teens within the hospital where they can go and be themselves.
And there's musical stuff. And it's really cool.
Harry's the best. And when Harry got cancer, he was a teenager.
And so it was- Kendall brought him into the gym one time. Yeah.
And I was like, just something like he looked thin. And I didn't know the backstory.
Right. And then they're like oh by the way I said got it yeah okay they were aware of how kids the teens are going through sure the cancer fight not to be denied but the other fight of how come I look like this and I don't fit in and now I look weird and whatever Monroe doesn't have that my daughter doesn't have that she's like laughing and then it's coming back Monroe has I took a picture of her hair the other night the best personality hang on hopefully you can I'll show you the pic and it's like she wetted it down and it's just growing back in and it's patchy and she combed it over like that and I took a picture from the top and I sent it to my brother and I go I'd like you to meet my new accountant no it looks like a terrible comb over but she's just happy to have it yeah and.
And how is she doing now? She's good. She's going through, and this is another thing.
She's going through a ton of gut GI problems. So you have to know as the parent, as the guardian advocating for the kid that the treatment, yes, sure, the cancer is in remission.
That's the best news ever. But there are things you can do leading up to it that might help you avoid future problems, like the gut disorders, which she's been fighting now for five months.
I would say now it's better than it's been. And her attitude through it, like, you realize you learn more from the kid through this than the kid learned from you.
I just going to say to you has it surprised you yeah monroe's attitude through all of this her attitude she's a 10 yeah she's a trooper she gets i mean i don't know how graphic you want to get but like her bathroom habits have been pretty um crazy over the last five months but she'll go in there and i'll go Are you all right? And she goes, yeah, I'm just riding my dirt bike. And I'm like, you're five years old.
Don't say that. But it's her attitude.
She's not fazed by it. And she'll go from a painful episode in there and then she'll just start talking.
Hey, Daddy, when the Barbie goes down the slide, she has to move because if not the other Barbie, when she comes i'm looking at her going how are we talking about barbies right you were just going through immense abdominal pain right but her attitude she just compartmentalizes it and but every video you posted of her in the hospital going through the chemo it's she was decorating her room and that's jess jess did theme rooms which of course you would do too yes she made Because the the rooms are pretty bleak and I feel, you feel, if you want to ever look at where you could help, not you, but one, with their time or their money or their energy, take a walk down a children's cancer ward. It's like humbling.
Right. And it's pretty bleak and a lot of those kids are in there by themselves, young.
And so Jess made, I mean, she made the bathroom fun.

She did a mermaid theme.

She did the frozen theme.

She did some cool stuff so that Monroe, her stay there was less awful than a normal hospital stay.

Nobody wants to be in a hospital.

Nobody.

Oof.

Do you?

Because I'm sure. I like that you're going to sit back and set this up like it just popped into your head.
Yes. This just came to me.
Well, because I'm sure so many people hire you because of who they see your training and what they see you can do for other people. But yes, you're incredibly talented.
But also, it takes that person to be committed. Right? Yeah..
And so is there anybody, you don't have to say names, but do you have a lot of clients that you mainly, like you know they're not committed, so you would rather sort of break up with them so you could use that hour towards someone that's- Great question. And I'll tell you this, in the beginning of doing this, 35 years ago, when I had people, you could feel that, right? When you feel the reluctance or the pushback, my thought at the time, younger, gung-ho, passionate, excited to share it, was I'm going to make this person fall in love with their time with me and fall in love with fitness.
And i would make that would be that would become my cause celeb i wanted that i wanted them to just love it and when they get it that's like a huge victory now if i feel any pushback i just go hey wednesday i'm slammed but i have these two guys here colin and adam they're great um they're gonna be to be here. And I just try to push it downstream.
Not in a bad way. Just in a, it's not, this is not, we're not suited.
Right. I can't come at this with 110% energy and I prep the workouts the night before and you come in not wanting to do it or phoning it in.
Like, that's just a not that my other guys are not doing the same but they're younger they're earlier in the game they're going to want to pitch it i'm not selling it to anybody like no and i i also i love that you said that you do plan your workouts the night before you're old school so i'm old school like whenever someone sends me like something about let's just say i'm interviewing you they'll be like oh here we printed this out for you because i don't want to read it on my phone i want a tangible piece of paper and i know with your workouts you have it tangibly printed out you hang it on the wall or take it around with you so you know what workouts we're doing but talk us i had an nfl quarterback who took it once at the end of the workout and he wrote on it you don't phase me and he crumbled it up and he threw it like that and then i go he spelled phase wrong no well football player you know you know but i love your how methodical you are with your workouts and how you plan it the night before and you do that for each client and it's talk about that it's a system i joke with my nine-year-old son like last night we got to the hotel and i said on i want you to open your suitcase and line your clothes up for how you're going to put them on tomorrow i said because when i get back from the gym i want you to be bang bang bang ready to roll and he goes but i know they're in the suitcase and i said it to work like that. You have to have a system.
If you don't have a system, you're going to be slow on the draw. So I'm the same with the workouts, write them out, have them stacked in the order that the people are coming in and just know that you're going to execute that way.
But also when you plan them, like I write it on the work on the, on the, I'm not so old school that I do on paper, but I write it on the computer. But I pull up what we've done.
I know the date. I know what your short-term, long-term goal is.
How are we going to set that up? What you've done in between, if anything. And you've got to prepare it like that.
Just destroying somebody in a workout is such a, it's such a cliche rookie trainer move. Oh, and I've had that.
Oh, I'm sure you have. I've had trainers reach out to me, especially when doing Revenge Body.
I would want to try some of those trainers. I'm not pushing for this, but I would.
What? If there's a campaign. Why don't they bring Revenge Body back? I don't know.
It was so fun. It was fun.
And it holds up. And you made some great changes in people's lives.
And you exposed some people who, well, if I had a trainer, if I had a chef, you're like, no, bro, you wouldn't. You wouldn't.
And here it is. And it wasn't about taking people out of their comfort zone.
It was about this is still your daily life. We're going to implement just the training aspect.
But there's no chef. We're not putting you in a mansion and isolating you for three months.
That's easy for anyone to lose weight. Find a time to make it work.
Because the people that you're seeing, the people that you're saying, well, if I had what they had, I would do what they did. You wouldn't.
That's why those people are in that thin tier of people. And I think that is a thin tier of people, especially in L.A., especially in Hollywood.
Oh, what else is she doing? She's got all day to work out. No, she doesn't have all day to work out.
That's why like you said, yeah, you're there six, seven in the morning, you drive in, you park, you do the workout, and then you make good conscious choices the other 23 hours of the day, whether it's food, alcohol, drugs, sleep, recovery, stress management, whatever it is, you're doing all the right things that support the workout or the workout supports those good choices people won't do that and that to me is the thrust of the show here's the body you claim you want for whatever your personal issue you're going through the revenge you wanted to get right thematically and then you didn't even do it and we provided it and we found found a way to fit it in your life and you dropped the ball. Right.
I know everyone is always looking for the new fitness trend. And I want to know if there's one that you love right now and one that you wish would disappear.
You know, again, Pollyanna, I think you can pull something good from everything. I think everything starts because of something good or something beneficial.
I think sometimes you want something to be the end-all be-all. I don't think that's necessarily the case.
I think the one thing like hard work never goes out of style, and I know that's not a workout type. But in fact, it is a style of working out.
Whatever out whatever you're doing work hard um i think when people just use their step count as their as their like fitness north star i go that's cool but there's a lot more so i'm not saying i want the step count zealots to go away but i am saying that's great that you've got the step count, you know, on lock, but you should add to that. And I think more and more studies come out about resistance training and you and your family members get that resistance can be anything, right? It can be body weight, it can be water, it can be pneumatic, it can be weights, it can be cables.
There's so many different ways to implement an exterior load to the body, but you need that. And especially women need that.
You're not going to bulk up. You don't have enough testosterone to bulk up unless you're eating above and beyond calories you're burning.
And nobody wants to hear that, but you're not going to bulk up. Something that I've always taken away from you, and I reference it because I remember I think it was the bike I was on, and I was like, ugh.
Bike makes my legs big. No, I rolled my eyes, and you were like, what? And I was like, I fucking hate the bike.
And you were like, okay, so let's do another piece of cardio. Right.
And I was like, wait, I didn't have to argue with you? Like, I was thinking. I didn't say that, but I'm like, oh.
You're like, well, I don't want you to hate it here. And there's 20 other options of cardio.
So which one do you want to do? Yeah. You used to get people who say, I bought a treadmill.
I mean, I hate running, but I read the thing where that burns the most calories. I'm like, why would you buy that? You just said you hate it.
You're not going to grow to love it. Probably not.
You might, but I doubt it. You're swimming upstream.
You're already starting the you're already you're already starting it with like head butting right what do you like doing bike rower climber but i'll never forget that and it was that simple and i was like yes okay let's get to the treadmill or get to boxing or jump roping it was so easy and i tell people that i'm like well no i don't like to ride the bike i'm not going to ride it because what the fuck does that do as opposed to me doing the stairs or and it used to be on the arc trainer yeah with your i'm going to go back and say it was a blackberry maybe it was and cranking that arc trainer and people don't get that's not an elliptical right it's a high knee motion so it mimics sprinting versus the shape of an ellipse which an elliptical does and you would just be pumping that thing away and like that that that that i go that is the definition of multitasking at a very high level well i learned it from chris jenner no no but that i don't know you've always done things that for me other trainers never did for me it was always like you said they would just sort of want to kill you to like impress you and what's not to impress you it's first of all they talk about it across her she won't walk tomorrow i wouldn't call them back yeah and i would say if she doesn't walk tomorrow she's probably not walking back here no and she's going to tell people and that's not a badge not a badge of honor for her or for you. That's a hindrance to her fitness program, to her progress.
You've got to ease into it. I wish more people would understand that.
I have a guy now who I started working with. He lives in New Jersey.
He's overweight. He reached out.
He came in. And I go, you've got to find a way.
First thing ever is to fit it in your schedule how do you fit it in your schedule that's what most people say i don't have time well you have to have time because if you go down like you're going to have time to recover you're going to be in a hospital or you're going to be dead so you because there are people who who they get right up to the red line and they don't realize it and this guy guy, like he would go all day, but you have to hold them back. I go, start with one, then do a 30 minute walk.
Then another ease into it. If it's, if it's too much too soon, it'll fail.
I agree with that. Yeah.
But people don't want to hear that because, and I also say you didn't get to that condition like overnight. So we're certainly not going to reverse that overnight.
And we're trying to find something that is sustainable. If it's sustainable, it's successful.
If it's not sustainable, it's going to fail. Fine for peaking for a wedding, a beach vacation, or a photo shoot, whatever it is.
That's all fine. But you can't maintain that.
No. No.
And you can't get it back in a day. Correct.
So what's a regime that you can fit in? If your goal is just to hit this high for that day, you can do that. But then what happens? Then you let it go.
Then you crash. Try doing that in your 40s, 50s, 60s.
It's hard to get it back. What's in the future for Gunnar Peterson? So we have a TV show idea, actually made with Lindsey V and somebody else will that's not we don't know yet about flushing out new fitness things and things at work what what are the top people do what are the top what are what are the one percenters do what are those guys do to get better and those girls do to get better every year every season because they're always seeking the next thing, whether it's nutrition, whether it's a hack, whether it's a recovery thing or a training protocol.
So to flush those out on camera would be fun. And you're the guy? Yeah.
There's another one we wanted to do, another TV show, kind of like Bar Rescue for gyms. Oh, how funny.
Yeah. I trademarked the name Gymtervention.
Because I think that's... Trademark it before this airs.
Already did. But we wrote that up because I think there's so many gyms that...
And especially when you travel and you go to little places and you see them, you're like, how is this guy holding on? It's a mom and pop. That's what people...
Like, I call you for that when I was like, I'm doing my gym. what and you've done that for hotels i have somebody who wrote me this morning we've done hotel gym designs yeah um you would be so great at that you guys should do that let's show i forget the guy's name where he would go to restaurants yeah uh bar rescue or restaurant rescue something like that rob used to love that show great show and he would go in and he would call him out yes and he would say but i love that man like he's no nonsense but like but i could be that yes but i don't ever want to do any of that stuff alone he actually had a counterpart and then he had a woman i can remember them sitting in the car before they went in the gym to just drop the hammer i think it was just him i thought he had a i thought he had like a co-pilot but i would like to do it want a co-pilot i definitely want to go no i don't stuff alone.
He was by himself. My mom used to worry, you can't be alone.
I go, I can't, it's just not as fun. Yeah, you just don't want to.
Yeah, I like being with people and I would do that. And like Lindsay has a great sense of humor and she's super fun and she's a serious athlete so her opinion matters.
And it would be... I think you guys would be perfect doing that.

Perfect.

Yeah.

G, thank you so much for coming and doing this.

You're amazing. This is cool.
I love it.

I'm so happy for you.