Isolation Hacks 101 | Modern Wisdom Podcast 153

Jonny & Yusef from PropaneFitness.com join me for a special remote-recorded episode. The world is in shutdown and lifestyles have changed dramatically. As 3 people who spend most of their time working from home, or in social isolation, we figured that we're in a pretty good position to give you some advice. Take a break from alcohol and upgrade your life - https://6monthssober.com/podcast Extra Stuff: Become An Online Coach - www.propanefitness.com/modernwisdom PropaneFitness At Home Workout Guide - https://bit.ly/PropaneAtHome Check out everything I recommend from books to products - https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/modernwisdom #lifehacks #isolation #socialdistancing - Listen to all episodes online. Search "Modern Wisdom" on any Podcast App or click here: iTunes: https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/modern-wisdom - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: [email protected]

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Chris Williamson?

  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I am joined by Jonny and Yusef from PropaneFitness.com remotely over the interwebs in our isolation station.

• 0:16Jonny?

  From a distance. Isolation stations.

• 0:20Chris Williamson?

  Isolation stations.

• 0:21Jonny?

  Otherwise, we'd have to be socially distancing within the same isolation station.

• 0:25Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, I know. We'd just be walls apart, wouldn't we? Look at us. Look at us, still doing a podcast. Covid can't stop this fucking train.

• 0:35Jonny?

  It can't. You're right, it can't. We've got no video man, Dean, either.

• 0:40Chris Williamson?

  No? He's actually in quarantine, isn't he?

• 0:44Jonny?

  He's in a separate bit.

• 0:45Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 0:46Jonny?

  Waiting for this file.

• 0:47Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. Well, we thought that, given the fact that the entire world has just changed, everyone's lifestyles are dramatically altered in one form or another. People are starting to work from home, the opportunity to go out and train, do social stuff, there are opportunities for business. Everything has been upended dramatically. We figured, let's do isolation hacks. So this is it, isolation hacks 101. So Jonny, hot potato, how are we starting catch it? How are we, how are we going to frame isolation hacks?

• 1:24Jonny?

  So I like to split mine between physical and.

• 1:29Chris Williamson?

  I knew that was coming.

• 1:33Jonny?

  If anyone gets that, I'm quite, well, I suppose, any Lifehacks listeners will.

• 1:37Chris Williamson?

  They will do, yeah.

• 1:39Jonny?

  The way I see it is there's damage control and then there's taking advantage of it. So there's how do I kind of continue my, everything that I would have been doing normally as normal? And then how do I like spot the opportunities and make the most of it? So I was speaking to our clients about this the other day. When all this is over. More than any other time, probably in your entire lives, there'll be, there'll be two outcomes that you experience from people you know. There'll be some people who you meet and you're like, fucking hell, like you're, you're way leaner, like you're like, you look way better, like, wow, look at, like, look at all the things you've achieved. And there'll be other people who've, like, gained a bit of weight, looking really pasty and pale and like, oh, I was isolated.

• 2:21Jonny?

  And so it's like, you can decide now, more than any other time, because everyone's in the same position. You can be the person that gets to impress all your friends off the back of what you did in isolation.

• 2:34Chris Williamson?

  I said, I said this on a podcast the other week, that it's very rare that everybody on the planet experiences the same thing.

• 2:43Jonny?

  You know, looks really confused. What do you look confused?

• 2:47Chris Williamson?

  That's just his resting face.

• 2:49Speaker 02

  It was just when, when Chris paused, I thought I'd been hot potatoed and I was like, oh.

• 2:54Jonny?

  Oh, right.

• 2:56Chris Williamson?

  Is this because none of us actually look at each other's faces? We're all just engrossed usually in what Dean's doing behind the camera and trying to think of our next life hack. But now I actually have to look you in the eye.

• 3:06Speaker 02

  It's really weird experience.

• 3:07Chris Williamson?

  And yeah, it's very rare, right? That everybody on the planet has, especially everyone even, even within a country, but everyone on the planet is experiencing the same thing at the same time. But it doesn't even rain everywhere at the same time, you know? Like, it can be sunny in Newcastle and raining in London. We don't even experience the weather together, but everyone, people in America, people in China, they're all experiencing some flavor of this same thing, which is social distancing, social isolation, potentially working from home, reduced facilities, worries about the economy, worries about work. So yeah, hopefully we can provide people with some, some tips, some tricks, some hacks today.

• 3:46Jonny?

  I remember when, I remember when T Nation, this is a, you're gonna have to bear with me here. I remember when T Nation released Indigo 3G. Does anyone else remember that?

• 3:56Chris Williamson?

  I remember when you bought it, yeah.

• 3:58Jonny?

  So I saved up and bought, I was doing an internship at the time and I bought it. They released basically blueberries in capsules. And from a marketing angle for it was like, it's a level playing field now. Everybody's on Indigo 3G. I remember thinking, fuck, that's so cool. Like, once everyone's on Indigo 3G, then it's, it's just how hard you work at that point. Like, no other time in training and diet is it a level playing field and everyone's got to say that once.

• 4:20Speaker 02

  When absolutely everybody is on the blueberry extract.

• 4:27Chris Williamson?

  And now are you saying that this is that situation?

• 4:31Jonny?

  I mean, Yusuf's the one eating blueberries out of a cup.

• 4:34Speaker 02

  This is a proper life hack. Frozen berries, pour some hot water on and you can eat them like a soup.

• 4:45Jonny?

  This is the real, this is the real life equivalent of everybody taking them to go 3G.

• 4:49Chris Williamson?

  Okay, cool. Everyone's on drugs, except me.

• 4:55Chris Williamson?

  Right, okay, uh, let's go. Johnny, what have you got first? Why don't we start, I tell you what, why don't we start with what I think is the most important part, which is people's routines throughout the day. So I think that's the biggest change that we're going to have. A lot of people potentially working from home. They can no longer do things they usually do, go to cafe, go to a restaurant, go to the gym. So how can I, how can I make my routine keep me sane?

• 5:23Jonny?

  Okay, so the, probably you and I, Chris, I think Yusuf left, so but you and I probably have this weird thing at the moment where everyone's like, oh my God, I have to self-isolate. And you're like, well, yeah, I suppose I leave the house slightly less than normal.

• 5:40Chris Williamson?

  It's just normal life for me. Everyone, everyone just gets to experience a little flavour of what Jonathan Watson and Chris Williamson do on a daily basis.

• 5:51Chris Williamson?

  Welcome to my world, motherfuckers. Feeling lonely? Here we go.

• 5:57Jonny?

  There's a file going around where it's like 9am, wank, 10am, wank, 11am.

• 6:04Jonny?

  It's like self-isolation routine.

• 6:07Jonny?

  But on that, on that sort of thread, I think there's a, you've got to be careful because you don't want to have exactly the same routine. Like you do have some potential to like go for a walk on a Monday afternoon where maybe you otherwise wouldn't have done or

• 6:22Jonny?

  sit in a slightly different room on a Tuesday than you did on Monday. Like you don't want to be too rigid, but I think having a plan for the day is probably the most important thing because otherwise you end up just sort of like the hours just bleed into one, the days bleed into one, you don't like, what did I do yesterday? What day is it? Have I got work to do or not? So at the end of the day, just planning the next day with like the people that you're self-isolating with or like if it's just yourself. Just having a, having a plan of like, right, tomorrow I'm gonna, I'll do this in the morning and I'm gonna have three hours off and then I'm gonna, you know, create your own structure that can evolve day to day.

• 7:00Jonny?

  But I think having nothing and just winging it and trying to get things done is probably not, I don't think anybody ever really achieves anything major without having some kind of intentional plan first, so.

• 7:14Chris Williamson?

  You've got to have structure for sure, yeah. I think the main thing for me is to try and keep a semblance of what life is usually like for you as close as you can. So, you know, get up on time, pick a time to get up, get up and make your breakfast, go for a walk, take the dog out, do the things that you usually do if you can do them. For instance, if you're working from home, my advice would be to get dressed for work. And it might not have to be a full suit, but go through the rituals that are a part of your day usually. And the reason is that if you decide to work in your like pants, boxers and a vest or something all day, you're not actually going to feel like you've been to work and it's going to further create

• 7:58Chris Williamson?

  a alienation from what you usually do and from what you're doing now. The same thing about going to the gym. If you're going to do home workouts, there's loads of fantastic home workouts available. Link to the one from Propane Fitness will be in the show notes below, which you can do for free so you can work out at home. Also, some great ones from Warrior Programming will also be in the links below. If you're doing a workout at home and you decide to just do it in your pyjamas, barefoot, in your bedroom, like it doesn't feel like you've been to the gym, so do your things, you know, like get, get a water bottle ready, get your gym kit on, go for, do the thing, go for the run, because that feels like you've got some semblance of normality still in your life.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  I think that's a really good point. And this is what Johnny mentioned that he was struggling with a few months ago when he got a home gym, which is that the closer your gym is to your house, or if your gym is, is in your house, suddenly the idea of just going for a sit down on the sofa, because it's two metres away, becomes much more real. Whereas if you have to, we've all had an experience where, you know, I can't be asked to go to the gym, but then you think, okay, I'll just go. So you get in the car or you get on the bike, you go over to a new building. By the time you're there, you complete a full workout because you're like, well, I'm in the building for the training now, so it's gonna happen.

• 9:17Chris Williamson?

  The ritual is a big part of it. Okay, so we are planning our day. We are making sure that we have a stable sleep and wake time. We're not just lolling around in our pants and a vest or in our pajamas doing a workout. What we do next, Jonathan?

• 9:33Jonny?

  Okay, so the, well, perhaps quite a lot of people I know wrestle with this thing where they really want to try and build a morning routine for the first time. They want to try like all of the stuff that we talk about a lot in life hacks and just on in modern wisdom in general, I suppose. But they wrestle with this thing of like, well, I wake up at seven and then I'm like running down a hill trying to catch a cheese. You know, there's that that footage everyone's seen of people trying to catch the cheese, like trying to just get to work and then I get to work. I'm like, oh, and then I sit down at my laptop and quietly type away for eight hours and then do the same to get home. Like now you don't have that. You have this ability to create a bit more space in the morning. So there's a real

• 10:16Jonny?

  opportunity to create this thing that you're constantly kind of ingraining and reinforcing over the next however long we're all in isolation for. So picking things that make you feel really, really good for the rest of the day, that make you feel more productive, make you feel more organized, you're a lot more likely to get more out of the time on each day and in the self isolation in general. If the first like hour to 90 minutes of your day is just spent doing things that make you feel fantastic, rather than like slamming loads of coffee down, scrolling through Instagram, watching like, oh my God, the news says the world's going to end today. Oh, I better check my emails. Like compare the two things or like Yusuf's FitPro morning routine.

• 10:59Chris Williamson?

  The anxiety inducing morning routine. Yeah, exactly. I couldn't agree more. So for me, this is the main takeaway. It's the main opportunity that most people have at the moment, which is you can do two things. As far as I see, you can exist and survive. Well, there's a third one, you could die, but no one's going to do that because with social isolation, we're being safe.

• 11:23Chris Williamson?

  You can survive this particular period, this next, whatever it's going to be, four weeks, eight weeks, 12 weeks perhaps, or you can flourish during it. You can come out of this experience better than when you went in. And the fact of the matter is, you have less distractions. There has never been a better time to go sober. There has never been a better time to develop a meditation routine, or a good reading habit, or to start journaling, or to learn an instrument. Even if you walk to work from your house, you've saved the commute every day. And for most people, I'm going to imagine the commute's 30 minutes, 45 minutes, that's an hour and a half a day, 45 minutes each way. It's an hour and a half that's just been re-gifted back into your

• 12:08Chris Williamson?

  life. So how are you going to spend that time? So I couldn't agree more. This is the opportunity you have to get rid of bad habits and develop new good habits. And a morning routine for me, I think is, it's number one on the list. All of us have one for that very reason, because it is so important. So Scope, any thoughts on that habit building?

• 12:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, so so far, really like, good points about the structure being, being so important, that when people don't have a structure, it's very much associated with depression and depressive type behaviour, when there's no reason to get up in the morning, or no reason to do anything at a particular time. It correlates very well with the behaviours that produce and are the effect of depression. The thing that Johnny said about using this time to turn what would have been a weakness into a strength, means that especially, and even in a very real sense with the virus,

• 13:06Speaker 02

  is that not only do you put yourself from normal into the low risk category, but then it means that to be really unwell from that, then whatever the outside stressor is, it has to then dethrone you from the, the position of strength into normal and then into weakness. So you're really creating this, this buffered position there. Now, the problem with protecting yourself from a virus is that

• 13:36Speaker 02

  The the things that improve our health are not something that we can just flip on like a switch now that we're isolated for seven days. Like, yeah, obviously it's helpful to be like, oh, well, I I smoked up until last week and I've quit now. But to be able to really turn your body into something that is resilient to a shock like this does take years. And now is the best time to do it. I think you said that this is the the best opportunity where we've got more time and more focus to be able to do this. And it also makes it harder in that now the volume on our mental noise has turned up because there is only those internal battles

• 14:20Speaker 02

  to deal with. And so we're now having to, like, without having a structure in place to begin with, it's gonna be running downhill, chasing the cheese, because the there's ju- there's only the mental noise.

• 14:34Chris Williamson?

  It's the paradox of choice, right? It's it's the world that me and Johnny live every single day. I had a message off a friend who usually works in an office and is now working from home. And his message essentially said, mate, I have no idea how the fuck you do this every day. It's it's destroying me. He's unproductive. He's constantly distracted. He's always on his phone. He is finishing work at nine PM at night, 10 PM at night every day. I was like, oh, it's us. It's us. Hi, mate. Hi. Hello. I remember that. Like, and it's because everyone now is feeling what it feels like to be a self-employed person who works mostly online.

• 15:16Speaker 02

  It's great, though, because on- once you've got a handle on it, it's it's so liberating because then you really do have command over your time. But it's hilarious how like, we've had this repeatedly with clients who, so with business clients who we coach, personal trainers to help become online coaches, they have this dream. They're like, oh, I can't wait to be like fully in command of my time and working online. I won't have to go to the gym. I want to be, I wouldn't let those people tell me what to do and all this. And then a week in, they're just like, oh, my God, like, I haven't trained. I'm eating shit. I'm I'm like, my mental health is terrible. And you're like, well, this is it. Like, you've suddenly, you've grown up in such an institutionalized, acculturated way to just follow instructions and follow schedules. And

• 16:01Speaker 02

  suddenly, that's all been thrown out the window. And you're left with something that you haven't replaced it with anything. And so if you're somebody that thrives on rules and structure and you throw it away, of course, you're going to be miserable. Of course, you're gonna, you're gonna feel chaotic.

• 16:18Chris Williamson?

  I think the, the solution to that is, as Johnny said, make a plan. So looking at the list here, plan your day, have a stable sleep and wake cycle, get dressed for work, get dressed for the gym, build habits, create a morning routine. What's next, Jonathan?

• 16:32Jonny?

  Just related to that. So again, um, it's just another, what seems like a really weird story. But does anyone remember reading about the guy who went into a cave and deprived himself completely of, of any artificial light? Has anyone read that?

• 16:47Chris Williamson?

  No, I know Aubrey Marcus did it.

• 16:49Jonny?

  Okay. Well, he, he ended up like falling into sort of like a biphasic sleeping pattern. And I remember thinking like, man, how awesome would it be to be able to just have, because that's, that's a world where he's just like removed, right? Any sort of artificial structure that exists. And he's like, I'm just going to sleep exactly how my body wants and I'm going to feel the best as a result. Right? So this is exactly the same thing where probably for the first time in most people's lives, they have the pressure that, just hit the microphone, they have the pressure that has always decided when they do what they do is no longer there. So like, you probably are all still trying to keep a nine to five life, if that's what you've done. But you can completely design your day to be exactly how you want.

• 17:32Jonny?

  And as Yusuf says, like, that's either an opportunity to let it absolutely fist you and you end up like at midnight, still doing the same thing you were doing at nine AM.

• 17:41Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 17:41Jonny?

  Or you can just create the, and you'll realize how much you can get done if you sit down and absolutely focus for 90 minutes or have a genuinely like free evening where you don't have to think about work because you've got so much done during the day. So it's, it is such an opportunity. But it just, I think you have to take it seriously. I think people who, as you say, like, if you're taking working from home, like you sort of sat on the sofa with like,

• 18:04Chris Williamson?

  Oh, this is a fucking dos. Yeah, I've got time off. I'll do what I want.

• 18:08Jonny?

  Yeah, like, treat it like, right, this is, I'm going to build a routine here that's going to last after this. So that even when I go back to work, I'm more productive. I wake up at the same time every day. I'm getting more done. Slingshot yourself into like this time next year. I'm an absolute motherfucker rather than, I'm like, I've gained five kilos.

• 18:28Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, couldn't agree more. So let's start doing round tables of just little things that we can put in and we'll, we'll add them in as we need. So my first hack is, create a space, if you're working from home, create a space that you're going to work out of. So, whether it be stack some books on top of the kitchen counter and work at a standing desk in the kitchen, whether it be the spare bedroom, whether it be some area, I would advise not doing it in your bedroom. I would, if you can, I would have a separate area for sleep and work, just because it creates quite a nice, physical barrier that tells you work has finished, sleep has begun type thing.

• 19:12Chris Williamson?

  But I think that definitely that makes a big difference for me. I have my work area, I have my sleep area, you know, I think that's a great place to start. Yusef, what have you got?

• 19:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, very much agree. Like segregate out where you're going to work and where you're going to sleep so that you, you, and this is the same as having a structure of time in your day, but it's just, physical structure, like boundaries within the space in your house. The other thing that I would say is, this is a time where the news and social media and people's minds are going crazy with anxiety.

• 19:50Speaker 02

  Because you not only now do we have the existing systemic features of anxiety, which are like well, things that have promoted that over the last 10 years. We've seen that Google trend of people searching for the the term like it goes up like fivefold or something over the last 10 years because of probably influence of social media, expectations, body image, all that stuff. And that stuff's still going on on Instagram now compounded with we're all gonna die. And you don't have job security and COVID is is increasing in your area. And this is the death rate today. And here's the number of people.

• 20:24Chris Williamson?

  And now a lack of distraction. There's nothing going on. People aren't outside with real other people. And this vacuum just sucks in speculation. I've seen the most vitriol Facebook debates I've ever seen, more than the general election, more than Brexit, more than, you know, like the final of Love Island. Like it is, you know, it's really serious because people have got fuck all else to do. And there's something for them to be worried about. It's a real melting pot.

• 20:51Speaker 02

  So it's, yeah, so it's a breeding ground for all of the negativity and all of the, all of that style of thinking. Plus, yeah, like to be a keyboard, like all you can do is be a keyboard warrior. Like if you're gonna sit on Facebook and and then you're also stuck with your family. Apparently divorce rates have gone up massively in China. Um, because people are just, I mean, it's a bit stupid to divorce. I think like if you're still stuck in the house.

• 21:17Jonny?

  But that's baby out with the bathwater, isn't it? Like, get rid of this virus. You know what? That's it.

• 21:25Speaker 02

  I'm not sure if even baby out with bathwater. It's it's pooing in your own bed. Like, it's like, it's like, right, well, if you don't leave me alone, I'm gonna poo myself. And you're like, okay.

• 21:38Jonny?

  In my fridge and in my dishwasher and on my own face.

• 21:43Chris Williamson?

  So, well, I know for a fact, I don't know about the divorce rates thing, but I know for a fact that sales of sex toys have gone up by around about 30 to 40%.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  It's so interesting, like the effect on the markets that this is having is so unpredictable. Like, who would have thought, you would never have been able to predict like a year ago that in March 2020. Home gym sales and sex toys will go up massively.

• 22:07Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 22:07Speaker 02

  While the stock market is crashing.

• 22:10Chris Williamson?

  Talking.

• 22:12Chris Williamson?

  Sure, S and P. A couple of things I've seen recently, which are amazing. Have you seen that it must be a television medium guy, American guy from maybe the eighties? And he's walking around and the video says what it's like being under a home quarantine with your four year old. And it's just this guy walking around and he goes, how tall is that tree over there? When was the last time that you washed your hands? Have you seen how fast I can run? What's that? It's like just loads of random stupid questions. And I just thought that must be, that is precisely what it's like to be with a four year old. And the other thing is, I saw a tweet yesterday from someone who said, um,

• 22:54Chris Williamson?

  absolutely unbelievable seeing your partner in full workflow. I'm married to a, let's circle back to this guy, who knew?

• 23:10Jonny?

  Yeah, it is weird actually, if you've never worked with your partner before. Like your partner lives an entire life that you're not aware of and you're just being introduced to it now. So maybe that's why divorce rates have gone up.

• 23:23Speaker 02

  That's maybe it. I think that, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of stuff would be cool to discuss today of like, so the job security is another kind of source of this anxiety. Which has just been whipped away from most people. And, you know, most people do work in an offline environment. We don't have the infrastructure to, to really handle everybody working from home at once. And there are still certain professions that just need to continue running.

• 23:51Speaker 02

  But to, to, to circle back to the, uh, the anxiety thing. One, one of the key things would just be to tune out of a lot of that negativity. Like I've seen apps being developed now of like the number of COVID cases on your menu bar. So you can keep up, what, so you can keep up to date with the, the constant threat that's.

• 24:13Chris Williamson?

  Lurking outside of the door, oh, it's nearly here. It's going to be like an Uber app. You will develop coronavirus in.

• 24:20Speaker 02

  It's, I mean, what, what does that help anyone?

• 24:23Jonny?

  I, I don't know what any of the news helps with, cause like, everybody knows there is a virus. So like, no one can argue with that. So there is a virus and you might get it. So the only thing you can do is wash your hands and stay inside. So like, once you've ticked that box, like, do something else. There's no need to like constantly be reminded like, oh, fuck the news, oh shit. Oh yeah, just wash your hands and stay inside. Alright, I thought so. Just checking, just checking that's still the case. Like, it's all just future-based, out of your control, outside for those two things. So go, go watch like Free Solo or something, or like, go, go do something interesting.

• 24:56Speaker 02

  Absolutely. It's, it's why I'm so glad that the guidelines is just, here are five points. Like, stay away from grandma, wash your hands. You know, it like, don't, don't buy all the toilet roll, like just simple stuff that, and there's no, you know, we don't need to go deeper into that, like you're at home doing.

• 25:13Jonny?

  Have you ever seen Dad's, Dad's Army before?

• 25:16Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 25:17Jonny?

  You know, you know, don't panic Captain Manring?

• 25:19Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 25:19Jonny?

  That's it. That's all anybody needs to do. You know, the guy who, no matter what happens, something happens and he just comes out with, don't panic, don't panic. Captain Manring.

• 25:30Jonny?

  Just matter how, how serious it is, his, his instantly is in there with, don't panic. Cause everything's better if you just don't panic.

• 25:38Chris Williamson?

  It is.

• 25:39Jonny?

  It would be better if people didn't panic.

• 25:40Chris Williamson?

  Well, the, the problem that we've got is

• 25:44Chris Williamson?

  the lack of things for people to do is forcing them to spend more time online. And the, the amplitude that we're playing with of how just worried people are and anxious people are is drilling it into them seeking fixes for their anxiety in the place where the anxiety lives. So they're going online to, they're jumping into an anxiety pool in a desperate attempt to try and cure their anxiety burns, which, which isn't working. So, I mean, straight off the bat, couple of hacks, basic stuff that we've been talking about for ages. Sleep with your phone outside of your room. Don't use your phone before you have breakfast on a morning is a hard stop.

• 26:24Chris Williamson?

  And don't use your phone after, if you can, sort of 8pm, 9pm on a night, at the absolute least one hour before you go to bed. That's going to improve your sleep quality because you're not going to be exposed to blue light. It's also going to improve your life quality because it means that you're not going to be looking at social media immediately upon waking and the last thing before you try and get to sleep on a night.

• 26:44Jonny?

  To add to that, if you're working from home, work in a room and have your phone in a different room. If you need WhatsApp for work, if you need Messenger for work, if you need anything else, all of those are available as web-based apps or web-based programs for your laptop, or just download the partner program onto your computer. There you go. Like, you've saved yourself from all of the shit that people are swimming in on the internet. It's the basics of trying to reduce your phone. Set a hard stop on a morning and a hard stop on a night time, and then reduce the use during the day by having a physical battery between you and your phone. There you go.

• 27:19Speaker 02

  It's not as if we need any more external sources of negativity or bad news when most people are thinking, am I going to have a job when this is over? Or when is this going to be over? Or am I going to die? Or is my family going to die? And all of these things don't help with, yeah, as you said, when all you have is those questions and nothing else to occupy your time with, no social events, just sat in the house, listening to what's between your ears.

• 27:50Jonny?

  So the guy who has been coaching me for a while, I've mentioned him a few times, Paul Moore, had really bad, still has really bad anxiety when he's flying. And so I've heard him talk about this, this idea that anxiety is always a future-based thing. So you're always anxious about a future that may or may not happen, or like an event that may or may not happen, which most people, like, some people will be experiencing, like, on turbo, if they're normally anxious, this is worse. And some people may be experiencing it for the first time, if you're quite a relaxed person. But his way, I love, it's so simple and ridiculous when you listen to it, but his way of dealing with anxiety on a plane is he makes sure his iPad is fully charged and he just plays Football Manager the entire time. And he's like, he gets so engrossed in Football Manager that he forgets

• 28:34Jonny?

  that he, like, because his attention is somewhere else, the fact that he's on a plane, kind of, he, for large chunks of time, completely loses sight of that fact. So back to having a plan and having an idea of what you're going to do in your day. If it's like, well, I'm going to work till five o'clock, and then I'm just going to watch, like, Boris's announcement on TV, and then I'm probably just going to look at the wall and sort of think about it.

• 28:55Speaker 02

  I mean, watching Boris is enough, is enough to make you want to go.

• 28:57Jonny?

  It's anxiety-inducing, anyway.

• 28:59Chris Williamson?

  I think he's quite softly spoken. I enjoy a bit of Boris.

• 29:02Jonny?

  I I find him quite comforting.

• 29:04Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 29:05Speaker 02

  So the thing that thing that pissed everyone off is when he said like, oh, well, you've not got much to be doing, so you could learn the harmonica. And everyone was like, oh, cheers Boris. I don't know if I can pay my rent this month and I've lost my job and I might die. But yeah, I'll go learn the harmonica. Cheers.

• 29:22Jonny?

  Well, I mean, I know that people get upset by this, but if there's nothing you can do about the fact that you're going to lose your job, like either doing nothing and worrying about that or playing the harmonica, like playing the harmonica is better.

• 29:33Chris Williamson?

  Couldn't agree more.

• 29:35Jonny?

  But I mean, I don't mean to come across insensitive. Like, I really like his, his, it was very broad, his, his. That and like, I think this opening sentence was like, everyone needs to prepare to lose loved ones.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  Didn't he, he called it like Operation Last Gasp or something as well?

• 29:52Jonny?

  That last gasp to make to get ventilators or something. It's almost, excuse me, do you think that's appropriate language to be using?

• 29:59Chris Williamson?

  Fuck off. The guy's, the guy a break? The guy's doing a live webinar every day at 5:15 for free, for free.

• 30:15Speaker 02

  He's not even pitching at the end of it.

• 30:17Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. And there's no upsell. He hasn't even asked for your email address.

• 30:21Jonny?

  To get people to like not cancel, isn't it?

• 30:24Chris Williamson?

  What? To cancel what? What are they cancelling?

• 30:26Jonny?

  Like believing in him and this in the infrastructure and listening to the advice like he's selling, don't leave the house. Please don't leave the house. And people are ignoring him anyway.

• 30:36Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 30:37Jonny?

  Like, it's like when, you know, everyone always has this opinion of like, oh, Lewis Hamilton should have gone around that corner faster. Or that football manager should have done a better goal. Like, everyone who's not, who's not in the position always has an opinion on how it should be managed. But like, you try leading the country through a pandemic. And then then give your opinion.

• 30:59Chris Williamson?

  Well, this is the thing. It's the Facebook politicians have come out of the woodwork and it's the same people that posted about the general election. It's like this man just found this man and his the Treasury just found like 350 billion pounds to support everyone. Ah, but what about the self-employed, mate? Because I really feel bad. I'm not very happy. It's like, yes, obviously, within every situation, there's going to be someone that gets fucked over. But for what it's worth, I reckon he's he's doing a good job. So we can get bogged down in Boris all day. Simply from outside of your room, talking on to fitness. How can

• 31:42Chris Williamson?

  people ensure that they don't let their fitness fall away? Scope, what can they?

• 31:48Speaker 02

  Just follow follow our hypertrophy focused body weight program available for free because we want to help you guys. It'll be in the link in the podcast description.

• 31:58Chris Williamson?

  Yep. What's the is the URL if people can't click on that because sometimes.

• 32:01Speaker 02

  So, speaking of which, that some of the stuff that I've seen on Instagram of people posting like body weight routines. And it's like, what they call the glue thruster things where you're on all fours and you're just raising your legs in the air. And then someone posted saying, guys, that's like saying you'll get big biceps by doing this loads of times. Like, you, the principles of progressive overload still apply. Like, you still have to actually load your muscles if you want to make any progress.

• 32:30Jonny?

  That's what should be in Boris's announcement at 5pm. Like, I know there's a virus on guy, but the calorie balance and progressive overload still apply.

• 32:41Speaker 02

  Like, just because of the pandemic, doesn't it? And it's something that really irks me every time I see it. Because you're like, just because you're training without a gym doesn't mean you suddenly have to unload everything and just like, just kind of dance around your room. Like, you may as well just go and read a book. Like, you're wasting your time just as much as when people like drive to the gym to go and use the treadmill for 40 minutes. You're like. It's a nice day outside, like you're still allowed to go out, like just do that. So the, the things that you would need for really making progress with your training are, one, a goal. So just pick whatever it is, if it's a skill, like handstand balancing, that kind of thing. Loads of people are interested in trying that. They've never got around to it because the, the other stuff in the gym gets in the way.

• 33:27Speaker 02

  This is the perfect time to do it. Pull ups, get good at pull ups, get good at press ups, those kind of things. And you can, you can scale the numbers with that and you can make the movements more difficult. So what you need in your house, minimum is a pull up bar. I've got a lot of clients buying parallets now as well. So they are like press up bars, but slightly higher. That allows you to do things like L sits, planch variations, elevated pushups, handstands, handstand pushups. So with those two things, you've suddenly covered your entire upper body. And I guarantee the next six months, even if that's how long we, we end up being quarantined for, there's way more than six months worth of gains to be made with a pull up bar and some parallets.

• 34:11Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. Resistance band?

• 34:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. So resistance band, very good for things like rear delts and stuff that you can't normally hit with a body weight movement. And actually, if you're sat down a lot in the house, having a resistance band to do pull up parts is one of the key things. It's really the main thing that I use a resistance band for, just to try and improve some of the length tension relationships in your front and back. So that you can improve your posture and just allow your shoulder to sit back where it should.

• 34:42Jonny?

  I think people get like, unless you're a, so if you're a competitive, a high level competitive powerlifter or bodybuilder, and you're like building up to a competition or like you're going to be in the Olympics this year, for example, I, I get it. Like that's legitimately very frustrating, probably puts a real hole in your prep. But like also those people are at that level for a reason. So like mentally, they'll probably be able to deal with the situation better than like the average gym goer.

• 35:09Speaker 02

  If they don't have a contingency plan.

• 35:10Jonny?

  Yeah, exactly. If, if you're not one of those people, like having, having six months out to do different, a different kind of training modality is really not a big deal.

• 35:20Chris Williamson?

  So don't, don't obsess over the fact that you're not able to do what you think that you should be doing.

• 35:26Jonny?

  Well, because people just do what they like doing because they're comfortable with it. And the fact that like the potential of doing something else for a while is stressful and difficult because they're not comfortable with it. But like go and do like go and improve your 5K time. Like I can attest to the fact that that is still over the last three or four years, the hardest fitness thing, fitness test I've done that. And like some of the CrossFit stuff, it's majority body weight. Like there's, I think there's a CrossFit, there was in the open, it was like seven minutes of burpees, as many burpees as you can. Like go, go do that. Like I bet you find that difficult.

• 35:59Chris Williamson?

  Every Tuesday, if you do, if you do.

• 36:02Jonny?

  Not necessarily every week, but like the point, the point is if you are training for fun or that you're like, so I see a lot of powerlifters, for example, in my YouTube getting really upset about it and like, well, and I don't mean to discredit that, what they're doing, because I get it's important to them. But if they're building to like a local meet and that's all that's the result of this, like get a bit of perspective for a second and remember that's not that bad. And then see it as well. Actually, I'm going to use this to like work on my cardiovascular output. I'm going to use this to work on mobility and flexibility. I'm going to work on like getting as many handstand pushups as I can and working on my overhead.

• 36:43Jonny?

  Like there are so many things as a like an athlete or like as someone interested in fitness that you could do isn't necessarily what you have been doing over the last years.

• 36:54Speaker 02

  That's absolutely huge. And it's, yeah, when you reframe it like that and put it as an opportunity, like I've been training in the gym for the last few years. And despite the fact that I do have kind of these niggling handstand goals and body calisthenics goals and being able to hold a plunge and do flares and improve my handstand ability. But I've always been like, oh, but it's hard and it's boring. So I'm putting it off. So I've been procrastinating on the training goal by doing a different form of training. Now it's enforced, like the gyms are shut. So fantastic. This is the opportunity to be like, right, well, if all that came out of these next few months was getting really good at that stuff, you've then ticked off a nice big feather off your belt or whatever the analogy is.

• 37:34Chris Williamson?

  If the, if your main concern as well during a global pandemic is the fact that you can't place fifth in a local powerlifting meet.

• 37:44Jonny?

  Well, that's it, isn't it? But just write that on a post-it note and put it on your wall.

• 37:50Jonny?

  Just to remind yourself.

• 37:51Chris Williamson?

  This pandemic stopped me from placing fifth.

• 37:55Jonny?

  Yeah. Well, so, so I suppose two things of comfort. One, go watch USAS video on what happened when I stopped training for six months. Cause he just like not basically the shortcut is nothing, right? And like my deadlift. So I did CrossFit for seven months. Where I barely did any basic strength training, any sort of barbell based progressive, like five by five, all that sort of stuff.

• 38:19Jonny?

  My deadlift went from like three 12 to about 300. And six, six to seven months of cardio based, circuit based training. That is supposedly like really bad for a overall strength goal. So like probably. And obviously it's different individually, but probably you aren't going to lose much. Like even if you spend six months doing like. Yoga flexibility cardio, like build up your chin up and your press up. Like you definitely.

• 38:47Jonny?

  It probably will be.

• 38:49Speaker 02

  Cause then you, you know, you've improved your flexibility. You've taken a bit of time off those niggling injuries that are always getting the scalp poked.

• 38:55Jonny?

  Yeah.

• 38:56Speaker 02

  You've improved your work capacity. You then come back. You've got a bit more training flexibility and you can then come back to. To hit training whenever it happens.

• 39:03Jonny?

  There's also an article on Pro Pen Fitness called, I think, Off Season for a Powerlifter. I think, I mean, this is very good post, but it applies to like anyone who's been going to the gym regularly for. A sustained period of time. When was the last time that you took a total, total break from resistance based training? Where you aren't like constantly trying to add weight to the bar, add weight to the machine or whatever you're doing. Most people don't do that. If you look at a pro athlete. Like, look at like an NFL player or a rugby player. They have structured breaks in their training. They're not just constantly stressing the tendons and ligaments.

• 39:37Speaker 02

  It can be quite long, these breaks.

• 39:40Jonny?

  Yeah.

• 39:40Chris Williamson?

  Well, I mean, now's a perfect time to do some rehab movements, like, uh, at Dr.Sam Spinelli. On Instagram, used to be the strength therapist, but changed his handle.

• 39:54Chris Williamson?

  And, um, he has, he's, that's, yeah, he changed it.

• 40:00Jonny?

  It's more like how to realise.

• 40:02Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 40:04Jonny?

  Write it down, look at it.

• 40:05Chris Williamson?

  Well, you know, he's on the podcast, I podcasted with him a couple of weeks ago and that'll be coming out very soon. Anyway, he's putting out some free rehab movements. Do some rehab, get, spends time doing the things that you said that you couldn't do previously. You know, I have a bunch that I dropped with the, on the podcast with Morgan Howells, a lot of other things, other ways to be anti fragile during lockdown. And why don't we just keep on doing a round table of that now for a little bit and then we can jump back in. So decorate a room in your house.

• 40:33Jonny?

  Okay.

• 40:34Chris Williamson?

  I think that's, you know, I don't have time for that. I haven't, buy some paint, decorate room in your house.

• 40:39Jonny?

  Yep.

• 40:41Chris Williamson?

  Johnny?

• 40:42Speaker 02

  I've not got anything to contribute because I have less time, if anything. I think something I should, something I should clarify, and I think this is the elephant in the room that maybe not for anyone that doesn't, doesn't know us. I am working on acute medical admissions in the hospital currently, so I'm not self isolating. I'm just running around.

• 41:02Chris Williamson?

  Quite the opposite. Yeah, I mean, you are, you are jumping headfirst into the Rona.

• 41:08Speaker 02

  So all of my self isolation tips are very much theoretical, like I'd love, I'd love to self isolate right now. So keen for it because it would minimize the risk and we've, we've built the structures in our day to be able to, to handle that pretty well. And it can definitely be done, but, but yeah, so I haven't got the, I haven't got the time to be decorating a new room in my house.

• 41:33Chris Williamson?

  What would you do? What would you do?

• 41:34Speaker 02

  What would I do? I mean, thing is like my, my other job propane is just self isolation based as well. So I just do more of that.

• 41:46Jonny?

  The other full time job that he does around his full time as a chief doctor, dealing with a pandemic, that one.

• 41:52Speaker 02

  But. But but actually, the the main the main thing that's on the top of my mind right now, and should be on everyone's, is to look after my parents. So to look after my mum, make sure that that she's getting groceries and that. And obviously, like, I'm probably carrying quite a lot of potential viral load all the time. So so I I need to, if I'm gonna do that, you know, dropping stuff off outside the house. I dropped off some flowers outside the house yesterday for Mother's Day, like, these these kind of things, like, that we we need to remember that even though we've got our own struggles at at home and, you know, the internal struggles and the schedule and stuff, we're all doing this because people over sixty are at seriously high risk of dying.

• 42:37Speaker 02

  And hospital capacities are gonna become very thin on the ground. So making sure that we can do what we can to look after those people. I'm so glad that, like, Tesco and Sainsbury's have introduced an elderly hour or like a vulnerable people's hour. Because it is, it's disgusting, like, how individualist and self-serving we've we we are as a society when, like, people are just clearing out all the the shelves compared to, like, World War Two, when people still just got their their own share and had much more of the the community in mind with this. So.

• 43:09Chris Williamson?

  Haven't they done a NHS staff hour as well?

• 43:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, they had like seven AM on a Sunday morning or something, which I was still working at seven AM. On a Sunday morning, finishing a night shift. So, but but yeah, like, it's a good initiative. Like, we also get twenty percent off Pizza Express, now that it's closed.

• 43:28Chris Williamson?

  I bet you're buzzing about that.

• 43:29Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 43:31Chris Williamson?

  Restaurants, don't you? You're always.

• 43:35Speaker 02

  Five percent off Subway as well.

• 43:38Chris Williamson?

  Pizza Express and Subway.

• 43:40Speaker 02

  No worries, guys. Just just going headfirst into into the hospital, helping you guys out. But that's fine. Just buy up all the toilet roll. Give us five percent off Subway, we'll be we'll be happy.

• 43:51Chris Williamson?

  Be fucking sweet.

• 43:52Jonny?

  I'll have a corn marinara, and that'll make it all better.

• 43:55Chris Williamson?

  I am, I saw today something that was kind of nice. One of my friends, Ollie Marchon, going to his parents for Mother's Day. And his parents were in the conservatory with all of the windows closed, and they had, like, a little do either side of the conservatory as he was outside and they were inside. And I was like.

• 44:16Speaker 02

  At least open the windows.

• 44:18Chris Williamson?

  Well, I mean.

• 44:19Jonny?

  Uh, the, the Rona man.

• 44:20Chris Williamson?

  Fucking viral loads.

• 44:22Speaker 02

  I'm gonna go.

• 44:23Chris Williamson?

  You fucking never know, man. Um, but anyway.

• 44:27Jonny?

  I agree, though. I, I think like the, um.

• 44:31Jonny?

  Yeah, I, cause you, you see loads of people, like the thing I cannot get my head around, right? And maybe this is, I'm just missing the point, but when, when I look out the window and there's loads of people driving around. Like, what the fuck are you doing?

• 44:43Chris Williamson?

  Where are you going?

• 44:44Speaker 02

  Where are you going?

• 44:44Jonny?

  What, what are you doing? Like, I just, like, the, the government has said, we recommend that you don't leave the house.

• 44:52Speaker 02

  No, but that doesn't apply to me because I've got to go to the pub and, yeah.

• 44:57Jonny?

  And then, and then those same people complain that we're self-isolating, but like, if you don't self-isolate when you could, all you're doing is postponing what we're gonna have to do, like.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:11Jonny?

  Flatten the curve, man.

• 45:12Chris Williamson?

  There's a lot of, there's a lot of.

• 45:14Jonny?

  Flatten the curve.

• 45:15Chris Williamson?

  Well, the, again, the, the problem is that the key thing that we keep coming back to, everybody's experiencing the same situation. And as in a general election, unfortunately, the vote of a stupid person is worth the same as the vote of someone who's well-informed. And whereas now, the good actions of a person that decides to be virtuous and responsible are no way, in no way can mitigate the actions of a complete idiot that decides.

• 45:44Speaker 02

  Covid idiot is what the, uh, the new hashtag is.

• 45:47Chris Williamson?

  It's what?

• 45:47Jonny?

  Covid idiot.

• 45:48Chris Williamson?

  Covid idiot.

• 45:48Speaker 02

  Covid idiot.

• 45:49Chris Williamson?

  Nice. I like that.

• 45:50Speaker 02

  Don't be a Covid idiot, stay in the house.

• 45:53Chris Williamson?

  I like it. Okay, so, um, what else, what else do we think? We've spoken about physical fitness, we've spoken about routines, a little bit of stuff for work. How can people make themselves feel less lonely and, and isolated? I actually don't quite like the, the term social isolation. Social distancing would be a better term. The social isolation does imply that you're actually going to be isolated socially, which is not a very nice thing for people to deal with. Um, but yeah, how can we avoid the, the loneliness?

• 46:22Jonny?

  Get Zoom. Like, seriously. So I, I, I saw a post the day of a guy who went for beers with his mates over a Zoom meeting.

• 46:30Chris Williamson?

  My, my mate last night, my mate last night had a virtual stag do.

• 46:35Jonny?

  Oh, that's brilliant. That is brilliant.

• 46:38Chris Williamson?

  He was supposed to be in Istanbul and David Coverdale writes for The Sun, uh, had a virtual stag do. 20 people.

• 46:46Jonny?

  What software did he use?

• 46:47Chris Williamson?

  Zoom.

• 46:48Jonny?

  Yeah.

• 46:49Chris Williamson?

  So, download Zoom. Why download Zoom? Why Zoom better than FaceTime?

• 46:54Jonny?

  It's, I mean, where do we, we'll be here for the rest of this episode just talking about that.

• 47:00Chris Williamson?

  So, because that was what the intro to the episode before we started recording was about, wasn't it?

• 47:06Jonny?

  It is better, as long as you, if you're going to use it for serious things, get the

• 47:11Chris Williamson?

  Zoom's just like Skype, right?

• 47:13Jonny?

  Yeah, so it allows you to have virtual meetings. A lot of like, pretty big businesses use Zoom for virtual meetings and it allows you to basically see all your friends. I think, I think, I'm not sure there's a limit, there must be a limit, but you have most, unless you have lots and lots of friends, you could have meetings and people have been, I've seen people having dinner parties, like drinks, all sorts of things through, like, because there's no reason why, yes, you use like, you lose the in person aspect, but you're still being social technically, still speaking to people.

• 47:43Chris Williamson?

  So you're saying that trying to have video call or phone call as much as possible with friends to reduce that feeling of isolation?

• 47:52Jonny?

  Get it, get it in the calendar, get regular stuff in the calendar. All comes back to having

• 47:58Speaker 02

  Someone I know who's pregnant just got a present from her sister, which was a Facebook portal. Now, despite, despite the fact that I like, I wouldn't, I would never want one in my home, like to have, just to have a little Mark Zuckerberg just watching and listening all the time in your

• 48:12Chris Williamson?

  Well, you do have a webcam and a Yeti microphone that's attached to your computer, mate.

• 48:16Speaker 02

  That's true, but I turn it on when I, when I want people to, it's not, it's not just like

• 48:21Chris Williamson?

  You turn it on when you want.

• 48:23Speaker 02

  It's also not like a Facebook branded device that you stick in your living room designed to, but, but yeah, but either way, like it's, it's a sweet gift, despite the surveillance.

• 48:34Chris Williamson?

  What does it, what does it do?

• 48:36Speaker 02

  It's just like a video chat box that you put on top of your TV. It's got a widescreen lens and it's just quite smooth video chatting.

• 48:43Chris Williamson?

  Got you.

• 48:45Speaker 02

  You know, it's just, it's probably something that the sales of which are going to go up at the moment because just to offset some of these social distancing.

• 48:52Jonny?

  What's the, what's the brand of, I think you've got one, Chris.

• 48:58Speaker 02

  Oculus.

• 48:59Chris Williamson?

  Oculus.

• 49:00Jonny?

  Facebook's Oculus as well.

• 49:02Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 49:02Jonny?

  And I know that you're working on like virtual meetings. So you turn your right and there's like an emoji and an emoji Chris.

• 49:09Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. I mean, definitely one of the most anti fragile things to COVID-19 so far has been group chats. Everyone that is listening will know just how up regulated group chat activity has been. And I have to say as well, the quality hasn't gone down. If anything, the quality's gone up, like the quality of some of the banter that's gone on in group chats has been great. So whilst we're saying you do need to distance yourself from social media, I think that you need to account for the fact that your lack of social connection is going to lead to you feeling lonely and isolated.

• 49:45Speaker 02

  But group chat is not, I wouldn't class that as social media. I think that's direct messaging, as long as it's not like a hundred people and people you don't know. But the negative effects of social media are looking at people who you don't really know on the newsfeed. And it's by definition, because you don't know them, you assign this like idyllic life that they're living and you, whereas actually like all the kind of influencers on Instagram, like they will have carefully crafted that shot and they would have been really writhing in a sense of like agonizing, wanting approval and trying to promote products. And, and actually when you're interested in the group chat with your mates, like, yeah, that's, it's the closest proxy we have to having a stag do or having a barbecue.

• 50:26Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. So I did a podcast with Lydia Demworth, who's written a book called Friendship. And in that she talks about just how central it is to people's sense of wellbeing. But she also said that the fact that you can speak to people online, it is not as good. It's not the same as having in-person connection, but it's a hell of a lot better than having nothing at all. So I love the idea of scheduling in like video calls or dinner parties and stuff. That virtual stag do, I think's like phenomenal. A virtual night out would be, you know, like just a remote night out. Imagine what we would do. What would we do?

• 51:01Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, it would just be this, wouldn't it? You would get a broomstick out and you'd start doing handstands scone. Johnny, you'd complain about the fact that your hips are tight.

• 51:10Jonny?

  I just drink loads of fizzy water.

• 51:12Chris Williamson?

  And drink loads of fizzy water, yeah.

• 51:14Speaker 02

  So Johnny, can you tell us about this before we before we go on?

• 51:18Jonny?

  About what? My tight hips?

• 51:19Speaker 02

  Oh, in fact, I think you mentioned it on the last.

• 51:21Chris Williamson?

  The last life hacks.

• 51:22Speaker 02

  The fizzy water.

• 51:23Chris Williamson?

  Yusuf, yeah. Oh, yeah. Don't worry. It's already been it's already been dropped and I scorned it. And now some people have gone out and bought a SodaStream. I get tagged in stories, man, you need to be you need to be careful about what you say in these life hacks, because unfortunately, some people listen to what you say. Like, go out and start carbonating your own water, like a psychopath.

• 51:45Jonny?

  So that's the thing, Chris, you don't have to go out anywhere.

• 51:49Speaker 02

  Well, Chris, you get the last laugh with all of this because it's on your Amazon affiliate link. So if people buy your SodaStream, even against your even against your advice, at least.

• 52:00Jonny?

  Someone did tell me they bought a dog because I suggested getting a dog.

• 52:04Speaker 02

  There's no affiliate link for that, though.

• 52:06Jonny?

  There's not.

• 52:06Chris Williamson?

  Imagine if there was. Referral a dog. Okay, so I reckon we've got, because we're using a brand new piece of recording software that Johnny and Yusuf forced me to use, I have no idea how long we've got left. So let's do another 15 minutes or so if we can. We've talked about the fact that you need to plan your day. How do I just to loop back to that, Johnny, circle back. How do I plan my day? Do I do I need a piece of paper? Do I need a spreadsheet? What do I do?

• 52:35Jonny?

  So I just use iCal. And then what I would suggest is, the night before, pick one to three or pick one main thing and then three slightly less important things, write them down a bit of paper or schedule them in. And then get. Try the free version of Brain FM, which is brilliant, something I've been doing recently. So that's a, that's a pre-life hack, life hack that'll be appearing in a life hack soon.

• 53:06Chris Williamson?

  Oh, I love this.

• 53:07Jonny?

  But it's a, it's basically plays you like, um, Bino beats, that sort of thing. But you can set, you can set a period of time. So don't worry about like setting a time or anything like that. Or you don't have to go into pomodores if that's not convenient for your workflow. Um, you can do like 60 minutes, 30 minutes and 90 minutes of deep work or creative work. It plays nice stuff, work for that long and then get up, move around, do something else and try and just do a few blocks of those in your day. So rather than like scheduling things down to the minute, think, right, I'm going to wake up and at nine o'clock, I'm going to do my first 90 minute block. And I'm going to have a break and do something else.

• 53:42Chris Williamson?

  Mm hmm.

• 53:43Jonny?

  I personally, that's how I always, I find trying to work for, if it's pomodores or an intense period of work, then change your, change the room you're in or like go lean out the window or something like that. And then.

• 53:54Chris Williamson?

  I think, I think that having, having a, yeah, remain inside, do not go and see your mother. Um, I think that, um, trying to have a lunch break, trying to have an end of work deadline as well is important. Like, remember the things that we said, remember, keep that semblance of normalcy. Have, if you usually work until 11, then have a little 15 minute break and have a coffee, then work till half one and go down to the canteen. You can do the same thing, except from going to the canteen and it's going to make you feel like life is a lot less different and alien. And away from what you usually do.

• 54:30Jonny?

  I think the average knowledge worker, so like someone who's like working in a standard sort of office based job with a laptop will probably be amazed at how much you can do when people aren't interrupting you and that sort of thing. So that's why I'm saying like, right, it is immensely difficult, like elite level difficult to just do one thing for a period of time. Like if that is just productivity, that's it. It's just complete one thing at a time, uninterrupted, undistracted until it's complete. So like, write four things down on a bit of paper. And if by the end of the day you've done them. You are like, you are being extremely productive, especially if they're important things. So just try that and just see how much you can get done. Make it into a bit of a game, especially if this is new for you. You'll probably see a bit of a hike in your productivity.

• 55:16Chris Williamson?

  I like it. Um, Seth, anything that you think that we haven't touched on so far? What's you just waving?

• 55:26Chris Williamson?

  For the people that are, for the people that are listening, we are all holding up the exact same brass and glass hourglass timer.

• 55:34Jonny?

  Bit of brass.

• 55:35Chris Williamson?

  Bit of brass, bit of glass. Pawn star's shitting on a table.

• 55:40Speaker 02

  This is a physical manifestation of doing one thing until it's done. And the fact that it's analog means that you can't lose it on a screen on a different tab.

• 55:52Chris Williamson?

  Physical and digital.

• 55:56Speaker 02

  It's always there.

• 55:58Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. What else have we missed off?

• 56:00Speaker 02

  So the other thing we've missed off is that despite, yes, this, as you said, this is social distancing, but that's not equivalent to stay in the house at all times. Like the outdoors is fair game and National Trust have waived their fees for all of their places. You know, being outside is so helpful, not just for our mental health, but also always like clearing out the house a bit, just getting outdoors. There's so much exercise you can do outdoors as well. Really the only tangible difference to people's lives at this point is going to be interaction with people face to face and being in the

• 56:43Speaker 02

  standard place of work, except for me, unfortunately. But, um, so.

• 56:49Chris Williamson?

  In the trenches.

• 56:50Speaker 02

  In, yeah. And it's, it's nice to see more people out jogging, more people doing like pull ups in the park, like that kind of thing. And I think just taking advantage of the fact that we actually have quite nice weather right now. And being outside on your own is no longer weird.

• 57:08Jonny?

  Can't shut nature, can they? They try, but they won't manage.

• 57:12Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 57:13Jonny?

  They will not manage. Can't put police in all of nature.

• 57:16Chris Williamson?

  Did you see, um, there was all of those rumors floating around about how the army were going to come and, and sort of stand outside a Tesco and make sure that you weren't leaving your house and doing all this sort of stuff. I saw an unbelievable post from someone who presumably must be in the armed forces that said, isn't it weird how me and my battalion have heard nothing about this mobilizing of armed forces to keep people in their houses? But Becky, 17 from Wigan, is absolutely certain that it's happening.

• 57:47Jonny?

  Yeah. I saw something the other day about like, um,

• 57:52Jonny?

  I'm not going to be able to find it.

• 57:53Speaker 02

  So was it the thing on Facebook of like Lauren on Facebook said, Lauren on Twitter like posted, I think like to the president or something saying, we Americans need to know a date for when this coronavirus is going to end. This is not fair or something. And someone replied being like, oh, so Lauren, what you're saying is you want to speak to the manager of coronavirus.

• 58:17Speaker 02

  She had the, I want to speak to the manager haircut as well.

• 58:20Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, she did. I remember, I remember seeing that. Um, okay. So go outside, get some nature, keep a semblance of normality in your day, create a space to work, create a morning routine, the opportunity to build habits, get dressed for the gym, sleep with your phone outside of your room, propanefitness.com slash something for your workout plan. It'll be in the link in the show notes below.

• 58:41Speaker 02

  There is one more thing.

• 58:42Chris Williamson?

  Oh, I like it. The biggest.

• 58:44Speaker 02

  So it's the biggest thing. Yeah.

• 58:46Jonny?

  Special surprise.

• 58:47Speaker 02

  So a lot of personal trainers and coaches and class instructors and everyone, like their businesses just being absolutely goose, like especially when the, when the gyms are closing as well. So there's kind of a mad panic now of people trying to set up online programs. And without the infrastructure to do that, it's going to be a fail. So that's something that Johnny's been working on this week to, to help, help those people in that position to start.

• 59:20Jonny?

  It's, it's so, it's really interesting because like, um, It's every, again, it's one of those things where an entire industry is put in the same position. And so loads of people are just thinking, all right, I'm going to do this online coaching thing now. So everyone's posting on their Instagram like online coaching now available, as though all everybody's been bursting for is for that person to release online coaching. Because no one, like, no one's thought of it before. Like, it is a perfect opportunity, but if you get it wrong, you just, you just look stupid, frankly. So like, use it as an opportunity to, I think everyone's worrying, like, oh my God, I need to get PDFs and home workouts for people. But see it as a warning sign, like, something has happened that impacted my business that I absolutely wasn't ready for, and potentially

• 1:00:05Jonny?

  my revenues fall into zero. That is the market telling you that there is a problem. So use it as an opportunity to, this time next year, or if anything like this would ever happen again, like the gym you work out would have shut, whatever, have an online income stream. Because the people who are not worrying this morning, or today in general, are, people doing their concurs this morning, are those who have like 50% of their income from online. Because for them, moving their offline clients to online is easy, because they already have the systems and infrastructure in place. So, all you need to do is go to proppinfitness.com/ModernWisdom.

• 1:00:41Chris Williamson?

  I love it.

• 1:00:43Jonny?

  All the answers are there.

• 1:00:44Chris Williamson?

  I love the custom URL as well. Proppinfitness.com/ModernWisdom is for online coaches, not for the home workouts.

• 1:00:52Jonny?

  Correct. And also, just, I think, sorry, just one more thing. I think, like, it doesn't have to be if you're a personal trainer. Like, if you, unless you're someone who is salaried and working, working for a specific employer, I think having some kind of self-offering, like, online, I think more and more people are doing it now.

• 1:01:11Chris Williamson?

  Everyone is an expert in something.

• 1:01:13Jonny?

  Yeah. Well, you've done exactly that. Right, like six months sober is that is the same thing. It's you having an online presence and online offering to help people with your expertise and your experience. There's no reason why other people can't do that. So it's a great time to explore that as an option.

• 1:01:29Chris Williamson?

  I get it. Um, other people. So one of the main problems people are going to have bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Money, money at the moment. What can people do? Or where would you send people other than potentially starting an online business? One thing that I can think of is supermarkets are desperate for staff at the moment. So if you are in the throes of needing money, supermarket is a great place to apply. Any other ideas about either saving money or earning more? Deliveroo?

• 1:02:00Speaker 02

  Like that, there is going to be so much more Deliveroo, but it's already on the uptick, isn't it? Uber as well is a bit like it's that's maybe for the

• 1:02:11Chris Williamson?

  Where are people traveling?

• 1:02:13Speaker 02

  The real ballsy ones. Well, so this was mentioned on your last podcast with the COVID guy. Who was saying that people getting the train or the subway, that's, that's obviously an inferior option to getting a taxi. Taxi is still not ideal, but Uber is going to be better to be exposed to one person rather than a random bunch of them.

• 1:02:35Jonny?

  Unless the taxi driver definitely has it.

• 1:02:37Speaker 02

  Definitely. Yeah. In which case

• 1:02:38Chris Williamson?

  Super spreader.

• 1:02:39Speaker 02

  That's a real problem.

• 1:02:40Chris Williamson?

  Super spreader. Um, okay. So Uber, Deliveroo, supermarkets.

• 1:02:45Jonny?

  Takeaways are still open, right?

• 1:02:46Speaker 02

  Takeaways, yeah, but not

• 1:02:48Jonny?

  Like just see, I don't like go for Domino's. Bet they're fucking cleaning up Domino's.

• 1:02:52Chris Williamson?

  Domino's is wiping the floor with it at the moment.

• 1:02:55Speaker 02

  Literally.

• 1:02:56Chris Williamson?

  What about ways to save money at a time like this?

• 1:02:59Speaker 02

  Most people are going to be spending far less sat in the house unless they're just pounding the Amazon. Maybe stay away from Amazon.

• 1:03:07Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, you tumble down that rabbit hole when you've got no income coming in. It's dangerous, isn't it?

• 1:03:11Speaker 02

  Like cover the food first.

• 1:03:13Jonny?

  Don't go on the website, Amazon.

• 1:03:15Speaker 02

  Don't, don't go on amazon.com.

• 1:03:17Jonny?

  Don't, don't go on something that has one click purchase enabled.

• 1:03:24Jonny?

  The only website in the world where you can accidentally buy something and have it delivered the next day.

• 1:03:28Speaker 02

  What about for the next, for the next year, every month?

• 1:03:31Chris Williamson?

  Yeah. Yeah, subscribe and save.

• 1:03:34Speaker 02

  Get a subscription.

• 1:03:35Chris Williamson?

  Someone's done that with sex toys and they're just receiving a dildo a month for the next, next year.

• 1:03:41Speaker 02

  Why do you want a dildo a month?

• 1:03:42Chris Williamson?

  I don't know. You get bored of the last one? I don't really know how they work. Okay, so we've talked, we've got about that. What else can people do? I mean, certainly prepping your food at home. It doesn't matter how many takeaways are still open. They're not as cheap as making the food yourself. So bulk cooking on a morning is definitely going to be a great way to do things.

• 1:04:03Jonny?

  If, if this is not in line with the money thing, but if, if money's all right.

• 1:04:09Jonny?

  Macro meals are like, they, they just sorted me out. They just sent me a box that's just sorted me out.

• 1:04:15Chris Williamson?

  Big box. Talk us through it.

• 1:04:18Jonny?

  So Macro Meals is just meal prep, but they do, as far as I understand, nationwide delivery. You pretty much design the recipes. They're like 500 calories a box. They're not, they're not the cheapest thing, but they are delicious. And I got like a, I was doing it weekly, but I, I've switched, I switched to monthly, like coincidentally a while ago. So I just, I mean, there was a draw.

• 1:04:38Speaker 02

  And they come monthly or they?

• 1:04:40Jonny?

  They, they deliver the boxes to me now monthly. Yeah.

• 1:04:42Chris Williamson?

  You need a big freezer for that.

• 1:04:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:04:45Jonny?

  So they're all just in the freezer. Yeah. But they last for like eight weeks in the freezer?

• 1:04:49Speaker 02

  I'm a big fan of meal prep companies. I use the fitness kitchens, but it sounds very similar. And yeah, just.

• 1:04:55Jonny?

  Are they nationwide as well?

• 1:04:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:04:58Jonny?

  Yeah. It's brilliant that those sorts of things exist because I think initially when they were launched, all of it was like the, the local restaurants or like options. And it was always delivered by someone by hand. Whereas this is like, it's DPD, it gets left on the doorstep. I get a text when like Phil's going to drop it off. Like it's brilliant. It is absolutely brilliant.

• 1:05:18Speaker 02

  Thanks Phil.

• 1:05:19Chris Williamson?

  Thanks. Shout, shout to Phil. So final thing, final thing I want to finish on for you, Seth. What can people do to ensure that their immune system?

• 1:05:30Jonny?

  Did you say, did you say you Seth? Like, oh, you Seth?

• 1:05:35Chris Williamson?

  You.

• 1:05:35Speaker 02

  For you Seth. A guy has just cycled past, wearing like a, a retro cap, moustache, holding a coffee in one hand and checking his phone with the other hand. And just like going along.

• 1:05:47Chris Williamson?

  Very hipster.

• 1:05:48Jonny?

  Luigi out of Mario Kart.

• 1:05:49Chris Williamson?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:50Speaker 02

  Looked exactly like Luigi.

• 1:05:52Jonny?

  Maybe it was.

• 1:05:52Chris Williamson?

  It's a coronavirus.

• 1:05:54Jonny?

  If ever there was a time for Luigi from Mario Kart to appear.

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  It's like a hipster Luigi. Yeah. Amazing.

• 1:06:02Chris Williamson?

  So yeah, how can people, how can people ensure that their immune systems are functioning well? And have you got, as someone who is literally on the front line in the trenches, have you got any sort of messages for people with regards to health?

• 1:06:16Speaker 02

  Good question. So the, what we shouldn't be doing is looking, and unfortunately, because of the fear-based information online now, there is so much, so much of people exploiting, like trying to give out bio hacks and that, that hoax red pepper soup. And it said coronavirus is also known as red pepper deficiency syndrome. And the next day, people cleared out the red peppers from the supermarkets to make this soup. It's just like, people are so ready to believe like the one hack that's gonna improve their immune system or whatever it is, that unfortunately, there is no prophylactic or kind of licensed treatment yet for coronavirus.

• 1:06:59Chris Williamson?

  Is that not condoms?

• 1:07:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, it's the same thing. So it's a preventative.

• 1:07:04Chris Williamson?

  So I can't wear a condom?

• 1:07:06Speaker 02

  You can wear a condom if you want, just around the house, but.

• 1:07:09Jonny?

  You can still get coronavirus wearing a condom.

• 1:07:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, you said that. That's very important.

• 1:07:13Chris Williamson?

  Not if I put it, not if I put it over my head entirely.

• 1:07:16Jonny?

  I get into other, other problems pretty quickly, Chris.

• 1:07:21Speaker 02

  Airway.

• 1:07:22Jonny?

  Like it's not the condom that'll kill you. It's more the lack of breathing.

• 1:07:26Chris Williamson?

  Like a.

• 1:07:26Speaker 02

  That is true.

• 1:07:27Chris Williamson?

  Okay.

• 1:07:27Speaker 02

  But yeah, so the, the main thing is, is simply minimizing your exposure to it. And that's just following the government guidelines and also minimizing your transmission or transmissibility of it to vulnerable people. Personally, I can't do that part. Like I am being exposed to the maximum potential of it. And unfortunately, the combination of sleep deprivation, long shifts.

• 1:07:54Speaker 02

  Working, working beyond my capacity and being exposed to a lot of it does mean that I'm kind of at more risk personally, but luckily not everyone has to, has to have that level of exposure. I'm still maintaining as much sleep as I can, training normally, taking vitamin D, taking zinc, but those things are things that I would do anyway. They're not additional measures. And I think ultimately, like if someone is already, if someone's drinking or if someone's smoking, like, like, obviously there's such low hanging fish, obvious things to stop. But I'm seeing people walk past holding like boxes and boxes of beers, like stocking up. It's like, what? So you're going to be in the house alone and the thing that you've chosen to stock up on is, is beers, like something that's, that's really not

• 1:08:39Speaker 02

  going to help with.

• 1:08:41Jonny?

  Get red peppers, man.

• 1:08:43Speaker 02

  Get, get the red peppers.

• 1:08:44Chris Williamson?

  In case of red peppers.

• 1:08:45Jonny?

  As well. The, so something I was asked recently was, should I stop exercise? Like, is exercise a, is that reducing my immune function? Is, so like, if I'm going to pick a time to do seven minutes of burpees, is now the, is now a bad time?

• 1:09:04Chris Williamson?

  Does exercise make us weaker, Scope?

• 1:09:06Jonny?

  That's a great answer.

• 1:09:09Speaker 02

  Does exercise?

• 1:09:11Jonny?

  Does exercise, does doing lots of exercise reduce immune function or does it, does it boost it? So are we like adding something else in the, in the make recover from?

• 1:09:18Speaker 02

  I see. Well, obviously if you're overtrained, then yeah, you're going to be run down. But that's, that's the secondary effect, isn't it? That's being run down from the exercise. But with a whoop band, as Johnny is demonstrating now, you'll know whether you're overtrained. Now, I think that the, the answer to that is just don't be an idiot. Don't take the piss.

• 1:09:39Chris Williamson?

  Got you. Um, micros, micronutrients, probably a pretty good idea to try and ensure that you've got as much of a balanced diet in there as possible to continue immune functioning properly. Like if you are at home, you're usually eating a canteen perhaps, or you're used to eating a lot of food out and you start only eating foods that have one color in them. If you look at your plate and the food's the same color as the plate and there's only one color on the plate, probably a bad idea.

• 1:10:06Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, if you're, if you're making yourself deficient in, in things at this point, it's, it's probably not the best idea. Um, but the, the, the main message has to just be. Minimising exposure because it's much better to not get it and therefore not have to worry about it than to try and strengthen your immune system but still be going out and still be exposing yourself to it.

• 1:10:34Chris Williamson?

  Prevention is better than cure.

• 1:10:37Jonny?

  Yeah, do you think, I'm not going to take your answer as gospel, but do you think at this stage it's possible to not get it? Do you think there'll be people who don't catch it?

• 1:10:52Speaker 02

  As in like if people remain isolated, will there be people who just won't get it?

• 1:10:56Jonny?

  Over a long enough timeline. So like, obviously at some point we'll have to stop isolating. So is there a chance that you'll just stop isolating and then not?

• 1:11:02Speaker 02

  Oh, I see.

• 1:11:03Jonny?

  That was the point of that.

• 1:11:04Speaker 02

  So this is just my personal prediction. I think there will be areas of the world that would be untouched by it, like little tribal populations and islands and stuff where they're just absolutely sweet. There will be other places where there'll be an initial wave and then silence and then the occasional mini breakout. And then it really it's how we deal with that mini breakout that depends whether we're all going to have to go back into self-isolation or not again.

• 1:11:31Jonny?

  Right, yeah.

• 1:11:32Speaker 02

  So, but yeah, like based on the current predictions, they were saying with the correct measures, 60% of people are going to get it. I don't know if those numbers have changed now. And I think these

• 1:11:43Chris Williamson?

  Sixty to seventy is what I've seen.

• 1:11:45Speaker 02

  Okay. And they're so speculative, the way that things change that may well differ soon. But that's what I'm, oh God, that's bright, isn't it?

• 1:11:56Speaker 02

  That's better.

• 1:11:58Chris Williamson?

  Jesus Christ.

• 1:12:00Jonny?

  I love that you decided to do that mid-sentence to yourself.

• 1:12:05Chris Williamson?

  Once you've, once you've finished having this argument with yourself, Yusuf, let us know how you get on and then we'll.

• 1:12:10Speaker 02

  I could just see my face like that.

• 1:12:13Chris Williamson?

  Yeah, half and half. Okay, I think we've got some good stuff to go out there. Like, obviously, it is a very different and challenging time for people. The change in so much of our lives, not just work, socially, family, the way that we can connect to other people, concerns about the economy, concerns about our jobs, concerns about where we live. You know, there's a lot of reasons for people on the surface to be anxious, but the main message I think that's come from this today, which is what you keep going back to, Johnny, is that there are certain things which you can control and there are certain things which you can't control. And by focusing on what you can do, which is wash your hands, stay in the house, develop

• 1:12:54Chris Williamson?

  a good routine, get enough sleep, eat a balanced diet, try and train every day, get some sunlight, go outside. Like, it is the basics, it's the absolute basics that we're trying to preach. And we've been talking about this for two years. We were cool about coronavirus before coronavirus even existed. So, you know, stick to the stuff that you know is going to move the needle as far as this is concerned. And yeah, I think any hacks that people have got, any of the things that people have found are working really well for them, send them in, I'd love to share them. We probably are going to be doing, I mean, Life Hacks 112, which is what's up next. I don't want to have to record it like this. So if we have

• 1:13:36Chris Williamson?

  to do another isolation hacks, then so be it. And we can get some crowdsourced, crowdsubmitted suggestions for how people are spending their time. But the, the main message from a kind of personal sovereignty and opportunity standpoint is you have two choices. You can either exist through this or you can use it as an opportunity to flourish. And if you flourish during this period of lockdown, you're going to have a head start on not only the rest of the competition, but on you, had you have not been in lockdown. So that is, you know, the opportunity to transcend the suffering of any situation which has been given to you. You're like, oh shit, this is so bad. It's this, that and the other. And then to turn it around, stick your middle finger up at it and use that to become better.

• 1:14:20Chris Williamson?

  You can help some other people and you can bring them up. I mean, for God's sake, stop posting information that hasn't come from a reputable source, stay off social media, sleep with your phone outside of your room, go sober, train in the house, use the Propane Fitness Training Home Workout Protocol. And that's it. I mean, what else do you need?

• 1:14:40Jonny?

  It's like a, it's like a pit stop, isn't it? When everyone's got to go into the pits and it's like, some people are going to put mint tyres on and like make their engine better. And other people are just gonna have a coffee.

• 1:14:49Speaker 02

  Or about a hundred beers.

• 1:14:53Jonny?

  I'll have a coffee and a Kit Kat while you're making your engine better.

• 1:14:55Chris Williamson?

  And a red pepper.

• 1:14:59Jonny?

  Coffee, Kit Kat, red pepper.

• 1:15:02Chris Williamson?

  That's a super stack, isn't it?

• 1:15:03Jonny?

  That's it.

• 1:15:05Chris Williamson?

  Some condensed blueberries.

• 1:15:07Jonny?

  The real heroes are the ones doing that.

• 1:15:09Chris Williamson?

  Look, thank you gentlemen for joining me today. Bit of a weird one for us not to be sat in the room. First ever one that we've done over Skype, actually over Zoom, sorry. But yeah, uh, thank you as well to everyone who's tuning in. I know that it's challenging time at the moment. I am going to try my best to not just keep putting out coronavirus related content. I appreciate that part of my role is to remind you that there's a real world out there. So it's not just going to be us talking about this virus for the rest of time. But as soon as I can get a hold of the boys, I'll get them back on and we'll do this again. So gentlemen, thank you very much. Links to everything we've spoken about will be in the show notes below. propanefitness.com slash modern wisdom. If you are interested in starting up an online business or the online workout will be linked

• 1:15:54Chris Williamson?

  there as well. But for now, thank you, boys.

• 1:15:58Speaker 02

  Wonderful. Speak to you soon.