Strength Beyond the Gym ft. Gunnar Peterson

Speaker 1 Gee,

Speaker 1 how did it happen?

Speaker 1 I've listened to all of your episodes on here. You guys bleep it out.

Speaker 2 Oh, I didn't realize we bleeped like

Speaker 1 beep, beep, beep. Yeah, okay.
Well, I didn't realize that.

Speaker 1 You're not selling fitness. I tell trainers that all the time, you're not selling fitness.
You're selling energy.

Speaker 1 I'm 150 years old, and I worked out this morning, and I was giddy because I had a great workout.

Speaker 1 And I think as 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

Speaker 1 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 Chris Jenner impression yes good morning mother

Speaker 1 walked 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.

Speaker 2 So, Gunnar Peterson, right here.

Speaker 2 I have known Gunner,

Speaker 2 I want to say I was a teenager. I'm like 13, 14 14 years old.

Speaker 1 I think 14, yeah. 14.

Speaker 2 That's what I think too. So Gunner has been training basically every family member, from my sisters to my mom.
And we've known you forever.

Speaker 2 And you, I don't know if people know this about you, but you are a very

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 I keep that under wraps not anymore but um yeah you have the darkest sense of humor which is why i love you

Speaker 2 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

Speaker 1 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 just keep it under wraps.

Speaker 2 Well, and I think also.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 dark,

Speaker 1 nasty sidetrack? Your mom would walk into my gym at 5.30. On the dot.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 And as she walked through the gym without looking, without taking inventory of who was there, she would go, may I do my Chris General Impression? Yes. Good morning, motherfuckers.

Speaker 1 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 love it because that matches the energy I have.

Speaker 1 And I love having somebody in there with that.

Speaker 2 You have been, I mean, I remember my mom being at that gym, the one in Off Tower, right?

Speaker 1 Off tower.

Speaker 2 And I would have to sit with her while she would work out. Yep.
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.

Speaker 2 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 tone 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 is 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 It's your gym. It's your music.
There was a great video. You probably have it of you and Kendall

Speaker 1 dancing up the track.

Speaker 2 This Big Sean song.

Speaker 1 It is. I don't fuck with you.

Speaker 1 Right? Yeah. Got it.
Do you have that video?

Speaker 1 Yeah. You got to send me that.
It's just, and it's you guys from the back. I think

Speaker 1 you're still dancing. 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.

Speaker 1 Kendall used to come in there and pop, bop, pop on the, on the iPad and literally DJ her own workout. Yeah.

Speaker 2 No, and I, that's, oh, I miss that gym because it literally was like our.

Speaker 1 I'll get you 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 the same vibe. But

Speaker 1 bigger ceilings, just I've seen your videos, and I'm like, oh, I gotta go back there. It's fun.

Speaker 2 But so I feel like I know everything about you. And I'm sure people who are, well, everything

Speaker 1 don't know everything.

Speaker 2 We'll leave that for Jess, your wife. But

Speaker 2 yeah, I want you to tell people like how you got into this because I don't, like you went to Duke.

Speaker 2 You know everything about the human body, literally everything, which is always so fascinating to me because you're not just a trainer. Like you know workout things.
If I'm like, oh, my.

Speaker 2 Left leg is hurting. You will know exactly what muscle.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.
Oh, you should leave your husband. Are you crazy?

Speaker 1 You can't do that because 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.

Speaker 2 So I heard what you said about me. Yeah.
So,

Speaker 2 how did you

Speaker 2 fall in love with fitness, but also

Speaker 2 how did you get the clientele, like the roster that you have?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 he jokes that it's 80% nutrition.
I joke that it's 80% fitness.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 But I got into that because it was a control thing. As a fat kid, I was a victim.
I felt, I can't control this. Why am I so fat? Why do I look like this? Having that control was cool.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 You're selling energy and an 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 giddy.

Speaker 1 And I came back in the hotel room. And 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

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 You've always been like that. And you've been doing this for decades.

Speaker 1 35 years.

Speaker 2 35 years.

Speaker 2 And every morning. So I would have the 6 or 7 a.m.
slot typically.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 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 like, Oh my god, you're sick.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 The other guy who worked with me, Brad, was there and he starts laughing. I looked and I saw you walk past, and you go, oh, that's nice.

Speaker 1 And I was just swearing up a storm because that's how I get it out. Well, there's no judgment for me.
Yeah, okay. Go ahead.
Do your thing.

Speaker 1 Four-letter bomb all day.

Speaker 1 So that, I think that energy is what draws people to. I think your energy in anything either draws or repels people, whether you're, you know, selling widgets or workouts or,

Speaker 1 you know, running

Speaker 1 an escape room. It's the energy of the people.
And

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And people go, oh, that's not really why. That's a big part in L.A.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 who's going to come to you. Like that's appreciated by those who value that, right? And then they're going to keep coming.
And it's a safe space.

Speaker 2 Well, it's not.

Speaker 1 I get you're 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

Speaker 1 sylvester stallone yeah at his prime 23 years 23 years and the 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I have people I've trained that I'm still super close with. Probably don't have any photos of them.

Speaker 1 But that's fine. Oh, no, your wall.

Speaker 2 I love. So Gunner's Gym, which we have to throw out photos of your gym, the LA one, the Tennessee one, whatever.

Speaker 1 They're insane.

Speaker 1 And the ceiling quilted in jerseys.

Speaker 3 Everybody,

Speaker 2 I promise you, even if it's a one-off workout, any per I promise 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.

Speaker 2 You are.

Speaker 1 Deliver on that level. If they know you outside of the gym, maybe they go, he's an asshole.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 a perception of value.

Speaker 2 I mean, your gym is fun. I miss it.
It's It's such great energy. My gym is emulated off of your gym.
Love that. Like, I have the turf in the middle.
Yep.

Speaker 2 I don't have the yellow, but I have the turf in the middle.

Speaker 1 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 fun, which I had kind of in the old gym that downstairs was morphed into red white.

Speaker 1 We were starting that.

Speaker 2 Pirates and Patriots. I still have one workout bench that's yours.
It has your signature on it.

Speaker 1 Do you remember you gave me that?

Speaker 2 I love that. So it's one thing that's reminiscent of yours.
Talk about how you went from from being a production assistant

Speaker 1 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 by myself and as i'm leaving the gym this guy asked me to train and i said i was kind of like

Speaker 1 sure

Speaker 1 And I said, but I go early. And he goes, no problem.
And then he said, what do you charge? And I was like, let me get back to you on that. Wow.
Yeah, because I didn't have, like, I wasn't a trainer.

Speaker 1 And then I played cat and mouse training him in a gym as a non-employee, but training him. And then I trained a buddy of his.
And then I started training a woman in the evening.

Speaker 1 So I'd do 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.

Speaker 1 And then I started looking at it. And I go,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 And you just had that much faith?

Speaker 1 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 started,

Speaker 1 I met a casting director who I started training and then I trained like two or three casting directors. And they worried that I didn't have insurance because I didn't have insurance.
Right.

Speaker 1 Because I was young and strong and I don't get sick. And I was like, I I got Viking blood.
I'm not going to get sick. And they're like, you need insurance, Gunner.

Speaker 2 Oh, like health insurance?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 You're not married, no kids, no pets. So you can do what you want, work when you want.
And

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 2 it's just crazy to go from that. And then it's like Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Rock and

Speaker 2 The Kardashians.

Speaker 1 No, just kidding.

Speaker 1 You have to reverse that order. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 No, but it is crazy.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 Where Where was your first gym?

Speaker 1 My first gym was at the house on Tower Road. Okay, that was your first story.
Yeah. Okay.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 it's not fair, they can't, who it's uncomfortable for them in a public gym. And I get that.
And people go, oh, why can't they work out? Well, they can, but...

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And that gets annoying for somebody in your line of work that's tough but also you 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 yep yeah went to london that's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders it is but it's fun and you've already had the

Speaker 1 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 uh name drop um matthew mcconaugh for a lot of years and he was training for a role i want to say he 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.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 in the movie Sahara the Clive Kussler novel and he was playing the lead character Dirk Pitt yeah

Speaker 1 and yeah very different ironically I read all those books growing up Clive Kussler also the thing about you

Speaker 2 don't ask you to immerse like you are immersed in any piece of knowledge gotta go deep every 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.

Speaker 1 I know. It's also

Speaker 2 wild that, like me, I need my coffee, the pre-energy. You're like, you're sober, sober, sober, sober.

Speaker 1 I'll do an energy drink. I like it.

Speaker 1 I'll do a Zoe, 160 milligrams of caffeine. Let's go.
But the energy. I'll do my pre-gym workout.

Speaker 2 But that's crazy, that that's like all it takes to get you going. Yeah.

Speaker 1 So he said to me, I'm doing, listen to this. This is funny.
He goes, I'm doing this role, Sahara. And I said, oh, Sahara, there's a book, Clive Cusser.
He goes, what do you know about that book?

Speaker 1 And I said,

Speaker 1 lead character is Dirk Pitt. He's got a girlfriend named Eva Rojas.
He works for a guy named Admiral Sandecker who works for Enuma. He's this.
And he goes, what do you know about Dirk Pitt?

Speaker 1 I go, what do you mean? And he goes, I'm Dirk Pitt. I go, Dirk Pitt is 6'4.

Speaker 1 And he goes, Dirk Pitt's 5'11 and 3 quarters. And I go, solid.

Speaker 1 Say less. You're right.
You're right.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 What you can and can't do. There's no like feeling it out phase.

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Speaker 1 It's planned.

Speaker 2 You are 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.

Speaker 1 That's a long, well,

Speaker 2 it's a long time in LA.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 joke. It's no joke.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And when you have family and kids and kudos to my wife.

Speaker 1 I was newly married. But yes, but when I told, I sat everybody around the table.
When Rob Polinka offered me that job, I brought the family around the table and I said, do we do this?

Speaker 1 And they all said yes. And I go, but hang on.
You got to think. It means like Christmas morning, I might not be here.
We could be on the road.

Speaker 2 Because they're the Lakers. They play every major holiday.

Speaker 1 Every holiday. And I said, and may not be here for games this.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 And I was like, I mean, it's fun. It's awesome.
I work with great people. She's like, babe, come on.
You want to ring. Like, don't kid yourself.

Speaker 1 But it also, it came to a natural end and things changed. It's a great organization, great people, as you know.

Speaker 1 But,

Speaker 1 you know, things change and you move on. Yeah.
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.

Speaker 2 Speaking of your family, so you have

Speaker 2 three sets. So you have three kids from your first marriage and then two more.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I have Henry, my oldest, then Jack, then Sloan. And then I have Zane, and then I have Monroe.
So I have a starting five.

Speaker 2 You have a starting five, which is what everyone needs.

Speaker 1 Everybody, right? You better. No, I'm good.

Speaker 2 I have my two and then I just acquire other.

Speaker 1 You also have a lot of nieces and nephews. So like you feel the best.

Speaker 2 I'm good.

Speaker 1 I feel complete.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Starting 20.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 When your kids were touring college, you were on the college tours,

Speaker 2 even though they were only going to go to Duke, I imagine.

Speaker 1 My middle son went to SMU and I left.

Speaker 1 I said to him, dude, you're going to have more fun than everybody who went to Duke just because you're going to be in Texas and you're going to, and he tour it up.

Speaker 1 He'll still wear a Duke shirt, but he's an SMU kid, Jack, and it's awesome to see him in his own,

Speaker 1 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 nurseries for the boys.

Speaker 2 It's always been Duke blue. Correct.
Always.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 Yeah, balance is that's that word, right? I have a guy now,

Speaker 1 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, oh, I'm on my journey.

Speaker 1 I'm like, shut up. You're not on a journey.
What do you think? It's your workout. Like, you're not on a journey.
But

Speaker 1 I don't think you have balance. I think you go hard and get obsessed with everything.

Speaker 1 Like I'd imagine that right now you are, because this is your newest baby, I would imagine you are all day.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 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 hole in my time.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 I know, but you've always... handled it so well.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Do you know, like,

Speaker 2 it was never intrusive. It was always such a great environment.

Speaker 1 They're always super respectful, and they would stay back there.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And I want them to see. I brought my little guy here, Zane.

Speaker 1 I'm in L.A. for two days.
And he's with me. And I said, you're going to do workday with daddy.
And he's like, can I bring my iPad? Yeah. I go, you can, but he needs to see.

Speaker 1 I think it's helpful that they see what you do. Yes, it is.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 Speak a little bit about Monroe and what you guys have been going through on her health journey.

Speaker 1 And like, tell us about Monroe's journey. Let's find balance.

Speaker 1 She.

Speaker 1 How old is she? She's five. And last year,

Speaker 1 I think it's a year ago, tomorrow or Thursday,

Speaker 1 was diagnosed with AML leukemia,

Speaker 1 which,

Speaker 1 yeah, that's a fun day.

Speaker 1 I was

Speaker 2 so surprised with how

Speaker 2 subtle like the symptoms were for leukemia that I would love for you, if you're comfortable

Speaker 2 to explain that because I,

Speaker 2 when I heard, like when I was like, mom, how did I remember? I was like, how did he know Monroe had that? And it was a few bruises from what?

Speaker 1 Yeah, my wife, Jess, found that. And I'll.
I'll give even more kudos to Jess for not just how she found it, but how she's championed the whole thing. As far as I'm concerned,

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 so monroe was getting fevers and they would subside or they'd break at the night in the night and then

Speaker 1 she'd be fine and then she'd get another one and and

Speaker 1 I don't know to me her her skin like her pallor wasn't her her the there was a pallor to her skin that you didn't see normally

Speaker 1 and I said to Jess, maybe it's like anemia or something.

Speaker 1 I think this is more than just like dayquo, nyquil time. I think this is like go to the dock.
And she went and checked, and they

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 they get that diagnosis and it's no joke. They check you in and then they tell you what it is.
And

Speaker 1 it's not leukemia, it's AML leukemia. And what it's like, it's more rare, more rare, it's more rare, it's more difficult to, it's everything.

Speaker 1 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 didn't take, and then, I mean, it took for a minute, and then it didn't, and then they go through a radiation and the chemo.

Speaker 1 It's just

Speaker 1 you wouldn't wish it on anybody. Right.
But my wife, and I would tell, I would tell any parent or any guardian,

Speaker 1 you have to advocate for your kid and you have to keep meticulous notes my wife wrote down on this notebook that it's more notes than I took in four plus years of college

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 and and you keep it because you want to go back to it and say this didn't work this did work and

Speaker 1 Vanderbilt, top-notch, can't give it more praise for how they handled the whole thing, but you you have to advocate for it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, and you have to ask questions of not just the doctors, not just the heads of the departments, which we had, you know,

Speaker 1 we were lucky to have good relationships, but the day-to-day caregivers.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 My cousin, Cece, who I know you'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.

Speaker 2 That regardless of who the medical practitioner is,

Speaker 2 they're not you. And you have to even saying no, like, no, you don't feel like this is the right drug for you.
Like, it's okay to push against that. Yep.

Speaker 1 Just that. We also had a guy

Speaker 1 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 bounced stuff off of.

Speaker 1 But I was on all the emails, all the texts, and so I'd read it and Jess was just on it, on it, on it. And

Speaker 1 without his being like a sounding board and giving advice, and he never, he never

Speaker 1 contradicted or countered anything, but he said, ask about this or what about this.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 what temperature that's set at. And the doctor in Florida has a different idea than these people.

Speaker 2 Because how would you know?

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 Having those people, like I would tell anybody, reach out. And the pediatric oncology world, right, is a very small, and they talk in real time.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 It's not that kind of business. They will talk and we've got some really good people on our team.

Speaker 2 So that community is huge.

Speaker 1 Huge. Your family friend Harry, who's phenomenal.
He lives in Tennessee too. Correct.
We've gone back and forth on text, but he has a little room

Speaker 1 in the Vanderbilt, in the Monroe Carroll 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?

Speaker 1 And her eyebrows, which is a freaky look. But, but it's cool, like, make it work.
But

Speaker 1 she doesn't have the association with hair and beauty and how she presents herself as a teenager would. So Harry recognized that.

Speaker 1 And there's a little center for teens within the hospital where they can go and be themselves. And there's musical stuff.

Speaker 2 And it's Harry's the best. And when Harry got cancer, he was a teenager.
And so it was.

Speaker 1 And Kendall brought him into the gym one time. Yeah.
And I was like, just something like he looked thin, and I didn't, I didn't know the backstory. Right.

Speaker 1 And then they're like, oh, by the way, I said, got it? Yeah. Okay.
They were aware of how kids, the teens,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 Best personality.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 It looks like a terrible comb over. But she's just happy to have it.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And how is she doing now?

Speaker 1 She's good.

Speaker 1 She's going through, and this is another thing.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 I would say now it's better than it's been. And her attitude through it, like

Speaker 1 you realize you learn more from the kid through this. than the kid learns from you.

Speaker 2 I was just going to say to you, has it surprised you?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Monroe's attitude through all of this.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 crazy over the last five months. But she'll go in there and I'll go, 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.

Speaker 1 But it's her attitude.

Speaker 1 She's not phased by it. And she'll go from a painful episode in there and then she'll just start talking.

Speaker 1 Hey, Daddy, when the Barbie goes down the slide, she has to move because if not the other Barbie, when she comes, and I'm looking at her going, how are we talking about Barbie's? Right.

Speaker 1 You were just going through immense abdominal pain. Right.
But her attitude, she just compartmentalizes it.

Speaker 2 But every video you posted of her in the hospital going through the chemo, she was decorating her room.

Speaker 1 That's Jess. Jess did theme rooms, which, of course, you would do too.
Yes. She made that.
Because the rooms are pretty bleak. And I feel, you feel,

Speaker 1 if you want to ever look at where 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?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 She did some cool stuff so that Monroe, her stay there was

Speaker 1 less awful than a normal hospital stay.

Speaker 2 Nobody wants to to be in a hospital. Nobody.

Speaker 1 Oof.

Speaker 2 Do you? Because I'm sure.

Speaker 1 I like that you're going to sit back and set this up like it just popped into your head. Yes.

Speaker 2 This just came to me. Well, because I'm sure

Speaker 2 so many people

Speaker 2 hire you because of who they see you're 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.

Speaker 2 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, 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

Speaker 1 great question. And I'll tell you this.
In the beginning of doing this, 35 years ago,

Speaker 1 my, when I had people, you could feel that, right?

Speaker 1 When you feel the reluctance or the pushback, my thought at the time,

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 They're going to be here.

Speaker 1 And I just try to push it downstream. Not in a bad way.
Right. Just in a, it's not, this is not, we're not suited.
Right.

Speaker 1 I can't come at this with 110% energy and, and I prepped the workouts the night before and you come in not wanting to do it or phoning it in. Like, that's just a bad match.
Not that my other guys

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 No, and 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,

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And then I go, you spelled phase wrong. No.

Speaker 1 Well, football player.

Speaker 1 You know.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 It's a system. I joke with my nine-year-old son, like last night we got to the hotel and I said,

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And he goes, but I know they're in the suitcase. And I said, dude, it's not going 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 got to prepare it like that.

Speaker 1 Just destroying somebody in a workout is such a

Speaker 1 cliche rookie trainer move.

Speaker 2 Oh, and I've had that.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm sure you have.

Speaker 2 I've had trainers reach out to me, especially when doing Revenge Body. Like, I would want to try some of those trainers.

Speaker 1 I'm not pushing for this, but I would. What? If there's a campaign, why don't they bring Revenge Body back? It was so fun.
It was so fun. And it holds up.
And

Speaker 1 you made some great changes in people's lives. And you also 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.

Speaker 2 Well, 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. With there's no chef.

Speaker 2 We're not putting you in a mansion and isolating you for three months. That's easy for anyone to lose weight.

Speaker 1 Find a time to make it work. Right.
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.

Speaker 1 That's why those people are in that thin tier of people. And I think that is a thin tier of people, especially in LA, especially in Hollywood.
Oh, what else is she doing?

Speaker 1 She's got all day to work out. No, she doesn't have all day to work out.
That's why, like you said,

Speaker 1 you're there six, seven in the morning.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 Thematically.

Speaker 1 And then you didn't even do it. And we provided it and we found a way.
to fit it in your life and you dropped the ball. Right.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 You know, again, Pollyanna,

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And I I know that's not a workout type but it in fact it is a style of working out. Whatever you're doing work hard.

Speaker 1 I think when people

Speaker 1 just use their step count as their

Speaker 1 as their like fitness North Star, I go, well that's cool, but there's a lot more.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 you know, on

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 exterior load to the body, but you need that. And especially women need that.
You're not going to bulk up.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 2 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 oh bike makes my legs big and I know I rolled my eyes and you were like what and I was like I fucking hate the bike and you're like okay so let's do another piece of cardio right and I was like

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 fitness journey.

Speaker 1 You're already starting it with like headbutting. Right.
What do you like doing? Bike, rower, climber?

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 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 anything?

Speaker 1 And you used to be on the arc trainer

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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, that.

Speaker 1 And I go, that is the definition of multitasking at a very high level.

Speaker 2 Well, I learned it from Chris Jenner.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 2 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,

Speaker 2 they would just sort of want to kill you to like impress you.

Speaker 1 And it's not to impress you. It's, first of all, if they talk about it, I crushed her.
She won't call her.

Speaker 1 She won't walk tomorrow. I wouldn't call them back.
Yeah, and I would say

Speaker 1 if she doesn't walk tomorrow, she's probably not walking back here. Nope.
And she's going to tell people, and that's not a badge of honor for her or for you.

Speaker 1 That's a hindrance to her fitness program, to her progress. You got to ease into it.
I have a guy now. I'm going to have to see more people would understand that.

Speaker 1 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 he's, I go, you got to find a way.
First thing ever is to fit it in your schedule.

Speaker 1 How do you fit it in your schedule?

Speaker 1 That's what most people people say i don't have time well you have to have time because if you go down like you're gonna have time to recover you're gonna be in a hospital or you're gonna 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 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 2 no, and you can't get it back in a day.

Speaker 1 Correct. So, what's a regime that you can fit in? If your goal is just to hit this high for

Speaker 1 that day, you can do that but then what happens then you let it go crash try doing that in your 40s 50s 60s it's hard to get it back

Speaker 1 what's in the future for gunner peterson so we have a tv show idea um

Speaker 1 actually made with lindsey bond 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 the

Speaker 1 what do the one percenters do what do those guys do to get better and those girls do to get better every year, every season?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And you're the guy. Yeah, there's another one we wanted to do another TV show,

Speaker 1 kind of like bar rescue for gyms. Oh, how funny.
Yeah. I trademarked the name Gym Tervention because I think that's...
I've trademarked before this airs.

Speaker 1 I already did

Speaker 1 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 doing my gym that's what and you've done that for hotels I had somebody who wrote me this morning oh we've done hotel gym designs yeah

Speaker 2 you would be so great at that you guys should do that that show I forget the guy's name where he would go to restaurants yeah uh bar rescue or restaurant rescue.

Speaker 1 Something like that.

Speaker 2 Rob used to love that show.

Speaker 1 Great show. And he would go in and he would call him out.
Yes. And he would say.

Speaker 2 But I love that man. Like, he's no nonsense, but like, but I could be that.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But I don't ever want to do any of that stuff alone.
He actually had a counterpart in that. He had a woman.

Speaker 1 I can remember them sitting in the car before they went into the gym to just drop the hammer.

Speaker 2 I think it was just him.

Speaker 1 I thought he had like a co-pilot. But I like to.
I don't think you want a co-pilot. I definitely want a co-pilot.
Yeah, no. I don't like doing stuff alone.
He was by himself.

Speaker 1 My mom used to worry, you can't be alone. I go, I can't.
It's just not as fun.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you just don't want to.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I like being with people, and I would do that. And

Speaker 1 like, Lindsay has a great sense of humor, and she's super fun, and she's a serious athlete, so her opinion matters. Yeah, and it would be-I think you guys would be perfect doing that.

Speaker 2 Perfect.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 G, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 You're amazing. This is cool.
I love it. I'm so happy for you.