The Energy Behind High Performance | Chris Ryan on Strength, Leadership & Longevity

What does real performance actually look like as you get older?

In this episode of The FitZen Project, Rachel sits down with nationally recognized performance coach, entrepreneur, and founder of the Chris Ryan Fitness app, Chris Ryan, for a conversation that goes far beyond workouts and aesthetics. Together, they unpack the intersection of fitness, leadership, longevity, parenting, entrepreneurship, and the energy it takes to truly show up in life.

Chris shares his journey from Division I track athlete to NBC’s STRONG trainer and connected fitness pioneer with MIRROR (lululemon Studio), while also diving into the mindset shifts that separate sustainable health from hustle culture extremes.

This conversation explores:

• Why health directly impacts leadership and executive presence
• The connection between fitness, confidence, and career growth
• Building strength and longevity without obsessive dieting
• Why mobility and recovery matter more than most people realize
• Parenting, presence, and creating healthy family culture
• How successful leaders prioritize themselves without guilt
• The role of discipline, consistency, and energy management
• Why “being in the business of yourself” changes everything

Chris also opens up about balancing ambition with family life as a husband, father of three, entrepreneur, and coach — proving that high performance doesn’t have to come at the expense of connection.

Whether you’re a corporate leader, entrepreneur, parent, athlete, or simply someone trying to feel better in your body and life, this episode is a reminder that your health isn’t separate from your success — it’s carrying it.

Connect with Chris:
Website: ChrisRyanFitness.com
Instagram: @ChrisRyanFitness

If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs the reminder that taking care of themselves is not selfish — it’s leadership.

And remember:
You are your most important project.

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Transcript

Building a Fitness Community

Speaker 0:04

Okay, hi. Hey. If you're new here, welcome to the FitZen Project. And if you're not, you already know we don't play small around here. I'm Rachel, corporate project executive by day, yoga teacher and retreat host by passion, and a woman wildly committed to helping you stop outsourcing your power. This show is where structure meets soul, where we regulate the nervous system and scale the business, and where we stop pretending the burnout is normal. Quick love to the humans and brands that brought this show. And I actually use all these in real life. Page Create for bold creative entrepreneurs, Lotus and Luna, Lifeform Yoga Matt, Ma Ma Ma, Ride or Die. And Breath Work with Tabitha De Bruin. She is a game changer. Links are in the show notes. Support the ones that support this work. And all right, let's get it. Let's talk about today. All right. So today's guest is someone who's been in the performance world long before optimization became trendy. Chris Ryan is a nationally recognized performance coach, entrepreneur, and founder of the Chris Ryan Fitness App, a science-driven strength and longevity platform helping ambitious professionals perform at a high level in business, at home, and in their bodies. He's a former Division I Trick and Field Athlete at the University of Florida and was named one of America's top 10 trainers and became widely known as a featured trainer on NBC Strong. He also helped pioneer the connected fitness movement as a founding trainer for Mirror before at-home fitness exploded into what it is today. So over the last 15 years, he's worked with executives, founders, athletes, and high-performing parents while contributing to publications like Men's Health, Women's Health, Men's Fitness and Shape, and partnering with brands like Nike, Lululemon, and Polo Ralph Lauren. So without further ado, I want you to know this conversation goes way beyond fitness. We get into identity, leadership, longevity, balancing drive with presence, and how to stop treating health like something separate from the life you're trying to build. So let's get into it. Welcome to the FitZen Project. All right. Well, welcome to the FitZen Project, Chris. It is awesome to have you here. It's gonna be great conversation.

Speaker 2 2:31

So happy to be here. Thank you for having me, Rachel, and thanks for all that you do in the fitness community and making the world a better place.

Speaker 2:41

So speaking of that, I'd love for you to dive in just straight away. Let's talk about this fitness community. I know you've got an app. I know this is a big thing that you promote and this is what you embody. So tell us about this.

Speaker 2 2:57

Sure. Uh so the Chris Ryan Fitness app, it's uh live and on-demand app, if you will. So there's literally hundreds of workouts on there, I think 700 plus at last count of on-demand content, which you would normally associate with some sort of fitness app where, oh, I just want to take a workout. I want to take a beginner strength arms workout, for instance, and you find that category and you just plug on in and play that workout, and it's me in there training with you the whole time. And there might be some shout-outs from the previous people that were in that live class, which brings me to the next point, which is really cool, is that we actually offer full-length live workouts as well, several times a week, usually about five to seven times a week. Full-length workouts. So the lot of times the workouts are going to be anywhere between 24 to 45 minutes in length. Um, and those workouts are a ton of fun. And you'll see dozens and dozens of people in that class and shout outs of random people from around the country,

The Chris Ryan Fitness App

Speaker 2 3:50

around the world that might be in that class with sometimes with a full-length like name like Rachel, or maybe it's like like like like uh Fitzarm Patrick or whatever. You want it like a play on words. So the shout-outs are are fun. Um, and so far they've all been family-friendly shout-outs as well. So um, but those are really cool because that involves the community and showing up and like kind of like developing, you know, quote unquote like friendships with people from around the country or around the world that are gonna be in the same class. So sometimes, you know, in the years past, it may be like, hey, I want to go to the gym with my friend or go to this boutique fitness class with my friend or yoga class with my friend. Everyone's got busy schedules. Some people have children, some people have different careers, different hours of day that they operate. But I always say the best workout is the one that you actually do. And if you can do it with friends or family and along the way, even all the power to it, or if you can do it with an amazing community, all the power to it on that one as well. And then um, with the community aspect, we have a great community platform as well where people cheer people on, they'll post goals. I'm looking to do uh lose 20 pounds, or I'm looking to tone up my arms for summer and fill my sleeves with all this glorious muscle of biceps or triceps or whatever, whatever your goal may be in life. You know, not everyone's gonna always have the same goals. So in the community section, you know, there's breakout little groups of those as well. Of course, as the head coach, I always go in there and cheer people on and try to be in there as much as possible. But I found too, from a coaching standpoint, it's almost fun to kind of let your like captains, if you will, rise to the top and kind of take those, you know, those unsung leads as well within the within the community platform and be the leaders within those platforms as well. And that's what really makes the community great is thought-provoking content, people that will be there to support one another and show you that, hey, you're not on this fitness journey by yourself. You're actually in it together with an amazing community of thousands of other people from around the world. And guess what? Sometimes what you're facing, that challenge, that tribulation, whatever it might be, they've already faced it. And this is how they got through it, and this is what they do to combat that situation or that challenge, if you will, just by showing up and being as consistent as possible.

Speaker 5:59

That's so cool. And I can tell you're so excited about this because like your whole entire body just changed, and like you get a little twinkle in your eye when you speak about this. This is obviously like something you really love to do, which is even better because why not do what you love to do, right? So you create this community and they all get to work out together. That's a whole like play on different apps that I don't know that I see at all very often. I mean, there's Beach Body that I feel like is a very close concept, and they have live stuff, but you have to pay extra to be part of the live and everything else. But yeah, this sounds like uh actual community, like a a gift, so to speak.

Speaker 2 6:49

Yeah, it is. And and it's everything's included. $29.99 a month. It's

Training Philosophy & Class Structure

Speaker 2 6:54

it's about the best I could do as far as all the technology that goes in the app to try to make it as user-friendly as possible along the way and be something I'm proud of, and to have an existing business, you know. Um, I'd love to make it free. I can't have three kids and a family and a wife, and got to support the family somehow. So uh, but most people feel like they can afford that. I always, you know, I run some specials here and there during like the Black Friday, Cyber Monday timeframe as well, where they can buy an annual membership for a discounted rate. Also, there's an annual membership that's discounted off the top of that as well. So, like you can pay for, you know, you're looking in the low $20 per month average time frame if you're buying on the annual. And sometimes there's even some bigger deals than that, um, you know, based on the annual deal itself. So I try to really price it out to make it as advantageous as possible. And the workouts themselves, they don't involve any sort of major equipment behind me. Of course, I have my fun tools that I like to you know partake in um with the squat rack and you know, uh the power rack and the uh Rogue Echo bike. I have a rower back there, I have a hex bar, I have a whole bunch of other fun, fun toys for myself because I'm a gym rat as as you know, I've been my gym rat my whole life. But um, in general, you can get a heck of a workout and cast a really wide net over your overall health, fitness, and longevity with just some dumbbells, your body weight, maybe a workout mat if you want, or if you have soft carpeting, you know, you could work out on that as or a pillow to put underneath your knees. If you're a beginner and you're doing any sort of like knee push-ups or knee planks, that sort of a thing, a whole host of things to do. And when I say the beginner workouts as well and the the intermediate level workouts, I always offer some sort of modifiers in there as well for people. Because sometimes not everyone can do a move or an exercise like a push-up or even a high plank where they're holding themselves in that high plank push-up position. So I always offer modifications along the way for many different exercises so that it really is as all-encompassing as possible without being um, you know, detrimental or taken away from the class for what that class is there. So, but if you jump in an advanced class, it's just kind of like when the pilot and you jump on an airline flight and they're like, hey, we're gonna go to Cleveland. So if you're not on the plane to Cleveland, make sure that you get off now or whatever, you know. Um, same way too. Like if you're in an advanced level class, it says advanced level like 17 times before you get into the class, right? So make sure you know what you're in for along the way because there are a lot of advanced people on the app as well. And I do teach to an advanced level in those classes. So gloves are off on those. There won't be any modifications, and those classes are uh absolutely super fun. And even the most advanced exercisers out there that I've run into over the course of time, they take the advanced level classes and they feel extremely challenged and they can't believe like what you can do with some dumbbells, of course. And I always have stipulations of the size of you know, the weights of the dumbbells that you should be using at those points as well. Um, because sometimes people like to lift heavy. Uh, you're not gonna squat with the same weight that you're gonna

Chris Ryan’s Journey Into Fitness

Speaker 2 9:45

be doing a shoulder raise with, you know, you're gonna rip your shoulder out of socket. So we we, you know, I teach in a way that is both fun, inviting to as many people as possible within those set genres, try to make it easy to understand. So it's a beginner level class, intermediate level class, an advanced level class, and we take it from there and then breakdowns according to like a cardio class or a um you know, uh some sort of strength-based class with dumbbells or bands or you know, resistance bands or mini-bands, that sort of a thing. Um, and a few kettlebell classes along the way. And other ones I'm really proud of too, uh, that you'd love as well, is the stretch and mobility classes. Those are absolutely fantastic. Some of the best ones that I personally love to teach because unfortunately, I'm, you know, I I don't practice when I preach as much as I would love to. So I'm a style of like B minus in the stretch and mobility platform on my own end, on my own personal end. So when I teach them in the class, I feel like, hey, you know what? I'm doing well on my body too. But they're actually amazing. It's just more along the lines of like where people like to make excuses, and I'm guilty of that too, along the time. It's like, oh, I'd rather just work out. When in fact, like doing a good stretch and mobility session for a 15-minute time frame, for instance, which most of those classes are, it's just feels so dang good on your body. And that couple minutes into it, you're like, oh, I should do this more often, you know. Um, I love doing that for the shoulders, the hips, and a whole bunch of different movement and mobility exercises and uh that just make your spine feel great, your hips open in a different way, your shoulders pulled back, practicing opening up your spine and your posture in a whole different multitude of ways, and you know, working on the long, the long, strong muscles like your hamstrings and your quads, and you know, opening up your shoulders in a different way, kind of like I'd say getting up underneath your armpit. I liken that to like getting into uh taking your car into the service station and they get up underneath the carriage of your car to like fix it, right? They don't start top down, they get up underneath it. Same way with your shoulders is getting up underneath it to open up the lats. If anyone's ever had rolfing done with a with a massage, the hurts good massage where they really get in there. That's uh, you know, um, without being a self-massage, but that's kind of like the aspect of like getting up and underneath the the area itself to help, you know, open it up with a bunch of different shoulder rotational style movements as well that are great for anyone, whether you're a you know college level athlete or an Olympian or a pro sport athlete to you know an 85-year-old that just wants to have a better golf swing, you know.

Speaker 12:07

Right. Right. So you've been doing this for a bit, obviously. I mean, you were uh trying to start in college, and what did you do? How did you even get into all of this? Was this like a groomed from parents, or what did you do? What how'd this happen?

Speaker 2 12:22

Well, maybe a little bit. I think fitness and health was always um groomed into my brother and I um in our childhood, which is great. Um, I love that. I'm trying to do the same for my family as well within reason um without being so overbearing. I don't want to be overbearing about it, but kind of like, hey, this is what mom and dad do, and this is kind of like what you should do too. But not drilling it into them like a drill sergeant, more of like kind of learn by doing and being seeing mom and dad be strong and hopefully they, you know, adhere to that and

Why Self-Care Matters for Leadership

Speaker 2 12:53

and understand like, oh, that's pretty cool. You know, my parents can do things that other parents necessarily can't do, right? Um, or you know, my dad, my dad can throw the ball with me without having shoulder pain, like so many mid-40s dads. Like, I have friends that are like, oh, I can't throw the football with my son. And I'm like, that sucks. You know, like you should be able to, you know, or I can't lift that suitcase or whatever. I can't like put my toddler on my shoulders and walk around at a county fair. I'm like, well, that's too bad for you. You know, like you should be able to do those things. And if you can't, like, you know, maybe there's something to work on for yourself. Because sometimes parents that feel like, you know, they they uh they say that they love their family, but then they don't love themselves to take care of themselves to provide for their family in the best way possible. And I mean that is like, you know, if you're overweight and you're you work, you know, 60 hours plus a week or whatever, and you drink sodas and you eat bad food and you drink alcohol to, you know, to to unwind at the end of the day and that sort of a thing, like those aren't helpful for you. That's not helpful for your family. Like you gotta really like take a deep look in the mirror and say, okay, what's gonna be best for my family? Because I work so hard to provide for them financially.

unknown 14:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:06

What can I do like internally to be better, which will probably be better for you financially, too, because you're gonna have more energy to do better in your career and also be a better spouse, parent, partner in life, whatever it might be. Um, learning by doing with my parents definitely was there. And then also um, you know, just having it like knowing what fitness does for you and and and learning that you could be an athlete like I was at a pretty high level, but then that's not forever. Um, you know, at some point you're gonna be retired from that sport. I was retired by injuries. I didn't, you know, retire under my own terms. I was retired by, you know, uh you know, you know, a smorgasbord of annoying injuries that kind of was like, all right, well, at some point you gotta get on with your life. And I did. Um, but I learned a lot along the way about what a body can and cannot handle. I learned how to train smarter, not necessarily harder. And I pulled pulled all that into, you know, into a health and fitness uh program that I thought was fantastic. I started training clients in my late 20s after I'd sold a previous business that had non-fitness related, but I'd always been an entrepreneur and a business person first and foremost. And uh I love health and fitness. So if I figured out a way to push all those pieces together in a beautiful puzzle, that's what I was gonna be happiest doing. And so I did that. Um, and I moved to New York City, which uh, you know, was pretty crazy to me at the time. But I thought like the old Frank Sinatra song says, if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. And I felt like I loved challenges in life, so I did that on a whim. And uh the rest is history. I I I really like bootstrapped myself and uh, you know, uh invested in myself, invested uh into my business there and built a great training business

The Connection Between Fitness & Career Success

Speaker 2 15:53

um where I trained a bunch of executives in New York pre pre-COVID. And then during um COVID, uh, you know, everything switched to some sort of online format. And that's what I did thereafter, and I never looked back, where I take clients from all over the world into an executive training program, a one-to-one accountability training program, as well as the app. So sometimes people want a little bit more than the app has to offer, right? Yeah. Where they're like, hey, you know, uh I'm at a I have different goals for myself. I've you know, I I set aside a certain amount of money for myself to invest in myself. I really need some more coaching and accountability coaching beyond just the app of like the live workouts or the programmable workouts. For whatever reasons, I just can't press play, you know? Like it's as easy as that. So they're paying me, they're paying me for my phone number and my email, um, and they're paying me for you know uh meetings a few times a month in person or you know, over uh FaceTime or Zoom, so that I can talk to them more and see, like really delve into what have the last few weeks been like, what do the next few weeks look like for business travel, for instance. That's a big one for folks out there, is you know, like their their life gets pushed around a little bit due to scheduling on their end. And lot these are people that have extremely great careers, um, and that they make a lot of money, but they also know that they are smart enough that they need to invest in themselves. They probab most of them have let themselves go, unfortunately, in a certain direction, and that wasn't exactly the healthiest direction. Um, and so now they they're trying to pull it back into a healthier direction moving forward for the decades ahead for their lives. So those are always fun, fun people to work with as well on that front. Um, and that's also on Chris RyanFitness.com. You can fill out an application there because I can't I can't take on so many people on that program as well. I usually keep it limited to about 20 people or or less per month on that front.

Speaker 17:52

What do you notice about them though? Like, okay, so let's take a senior leader, for example. Let's say you've got uh a senior leader that's not yet executive and they are reaching for that executive. Do you think it's a direct correlation of how you treat yourself in your body, in your workout, in your physical body to where you land in your career? Is that a direct correlation you've seen?

Speaker 2 18:19

Yeah, 100%. I it's uh look, I I don't have the the exact like I didn't I don't have the database studies from a think tank that has done those projects, but based on my sample size of dealing with people in New York City, which is probably the epitome of the business world across the whole globe. You know, I'm sure there's people in London or in Hong Kong that would say different. But like, you know, in general, New York is New York and it's it is what it is in the business world, right? It's the number one business market in the world for better or for worse. And when you're dealing with the top-level people from that standpoint, or the people that are striving

Creating a Healthier Work Environment

Speaker 2 18:54

to be at that top level, you notice certain characteristics, right? Yeah. Like they usually carry themselves differently, they have a certain awareness about themselves, but they also have a certain you know, aspect of knowing that they are important, that they need to invest in themselves to be better, whether that's through education, health, fitness, longevity, whatever it might be. They are people that went to back to school to get advanced degrees a lot of times, you know, a graduate degree, an MBA, a law degree, um, any of those types. They're they're the type of people that are going out and fundraising for a series A or Series B for their for their entrepreneurial aspects or whatever they might be. They're people that have, you know, millions of dollars at stake and they can go out and or tens of millions or hundreds of millions or billions of dollars at stake at any one project or business, and they're people that command a room. And to do that, you have to have a presence about you. If you have really poor posture, do you really think that's gonna help you out no matter how smart or how driven you are? Do you realize that like if you're given a presentation and you're sitting like this and you're looking down at notes because your cervical spine isn't strong and you can't like pull your shoulders back, versus having that awareness of how you know being able to project your voice across the room, you're gonna be much more confident in yourself. And not to say that you need to be, you know, uh Greek God, you know, producing, but you need to have a certain status about yourself because that leads to confidence and what people ultimately invest in is confidence in you. So if you look the part, you act the part, you know, it's gonna be much easier to get things done on your end and meet your goals, whatever that might be in the business world. If you don't, you know, is it impossible? Absolutely not. I've seen great stories of other folks that, you know, can overcome a lot of things. Is it gonna be much easier? Yeah. You know, they've done studies on height, for instance. Like if you're like 6'2 or 6'3, you generally have a great opportunity to earn more money, and that those studies have been over the course of time as well. And it's not that I can make people taller, but I can make people, you know, own their space much more confidently as well. And that's with strength training, cardio, you know, prop following proper nutrition, not being like dead, dead in the uh, you know, bags under the eyes because you're you know, you're drinking heavily or whatever, and curbing the alcohol, tightening up, you you know, making your skin look a little fresher by having blood flow to your skin because you're exercising, you ultimately look healthier. And you can't argue that because people know people that train, even people that train and then they go away for a few days on vacation, they eat a lot or they drink a lot or they eat unhealthy foods or they're staying out late and not sleeping correctly or whatever, and they come back and like they're generally a healthy person, like, oh my god, I look like crap, and like they kind of do, you know. I mean, I've done that. Like, you're like, I I mean, we have we we had three kids, and so just doing that of like being a parent and having sleepless nights, you're like, wake up and you're like, Oh my god, can I have some eye cream borrowing it from my wife or whatever? Because the bags under my eyes. And I'm like, you know, it happens to the best of us. Yeah, it's not that like it can't be done, but like sleep is so important, like hydration is so.

Sustainable Weight Loss & Longevity

Speaker 2 22:00

Important proper hydration is so important. You know, uh alcohol does not hydrate you, I'm sorry to say, you know, uh realizing like not having extra sugary drinks or like coffees that have whipped cream on top and all the other things that you know, the Frappuccinos and all this other stuff that have become popular over the last few decades with Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks and the other coffee shops. I'm like, no, just you know, you want to have caffeine, go for it. I love black coffee. You know, if you want to have a dollop of whole milk in there or two percent, but not a lot, then go for it. I'm fine with that. But you can't put in all these other things into your coffee drink that ends up being a thousand calorie punch when, you know, in general, give or take about 3,500 kilocalories is a pound of fat. And I always say the liquid diet is a low-hanging fruit for people to like just take down, tighten up their skin and take down their body fat percentage almost immediately. And I'm not a fan of like drastic weight loss, I'm a fan of like steady state weight loss, yeah, because it's easier for your metabolism to reset, and that and that's why like we could talk later on like GLP1s, for instance, if people are interested in that, but and your your listeners, but it's just like you gotta make sure that you have enough of an offset in your body to reset your metabolism with muscle gain as you have fat loss. Um if not you're gonna gain back that fat pretty quickly. Um and as we've seen in TV shows like the biggest loser, where it's like super drastic weight loss from you know 10-15 years ago. Um and the TV show that I was on was from the same producers, they came out with NBC Strong because they knew they were like, Oh, why is all these contestants gaining back all their weight? Because they didn't concentrate on building back the strength. It was like Hollywood shock and awe of like all this loose skin, right? And they didn't understand like a steady state weight loss is much healthier for that individual rather than losing, you know, a hundred pounds in a month or whatever. But in Hollywood, that looked a little bit better. Um, when in general you're like, oh no, let's steadily lose a few pounds or whatever, you know, percentage-wise, uh, depending on how heavy the person was that they needed to lose that weight in the first place. But in general, you know, you want to make sure that you replace the weight loss with muscle gain, and then that resets your metabolism to keep yourself stronger, but also curb the uh you know the appetite, you know, as well and metabolize the food that you do eat, hopefully the healthier food that you do eat there by going forward.

Speaker 24:21

Right. What I think that is very interesting too is like you are a big proponent of like steady wins the race, but here's the thing is what you're actually offering is an energy reset and a a total conscious way of living in a management and leadership and executive function. And you are by providing that at the top level, you're making it shown and known for everyone else that

Balancing Family, Business & Performance

Speaker 24:50

wants to be part of that, how to do it. And it's like you're paving the way for success and through treating your body great, through resetting your hundred percent inside, you know. So 100%.

Speaker 2 25:05

You know, they all they always yeah, they say, you know, the fish, the fish, what's the old saying? The the the fish rots from the head down down or something like that, you know? Yeah. And it's the same way too. If you're a leader, a business person or an entrepreneur and you own your own business, what happens is if I've worked with people over the course of time and I I started doing more in the corporate wellness side because the the CEOs or the CFOs or the people that are running those businesses realize how good they feel. They're like, well, how good can my company be if I just, you know, help people out along this way? So I was able to uh develop a program along that way where I could do batch accountability coaching for a whole host of different businesses out there. And the the sweet spot I found for me on that level is like companies mid-size between 50 to 500 employees, um, where you can really make a big difference. Um, not to say bigger or smaller is worse, it's just like that size seems to be like really honed in um where leadership isn't as fragmented all over the world, for instance, and like people are generally in the same company. Um, and even if they are, you can do things around the, you know, I'd worked with companies like with people around the world, um, where but they still are used to having that same Zoom space, if you will. Um that's that's been a lot of fun as well, to just to see people um kind of pay it forward, you know, in life. And I I love that. And I feel like I'm paying it forward in life. And you are too, like, you know, having this podcast and everything that you do in your world, the same way I followed my passions and and the way that in 2026 we're able to do things now that 10 or 20 years ago you would never thought to do in the format that we are. Because I was, you know, up until COVID, I was like, hey, I just gotta be an in-person trainer. I'll take on only New York City people and I'll trade dollars for hours the best I can. And if I want to make more money, I just have to charge more money or sleep less and train more people, right? Rather than being like, oh, if I want to, you know, monetize my business more, I can start developing an app, I can build things out in a different way, uh, and take on clients from all over the world and make the world a healthier place as well.

Speaker 27:10

How do you take care of you when you're taking care of everybody else? Three kids, wife, you know, and big business.

Speaker 2 27:17

Yeah, it's funny. Um, I I do I try to really disconnect. If I'm with my family, I try to, we don't have cell phones at the table. Um, for instance, like at the dinner table, we try to eat dinner as much as we can as a family. Uh, I think those kind of like old school things are super important to my wife and I, and and she makes it important. Uh, my wife Denise uh lucked out um times a million when I uh married her, and she's the best mother to our kids. Mother's Day is coming up this weekend. So I was just thinking about you know some of the Mother's Day plans that we have. You know, I I think like those kind of like old school values are are really important of spending time with your kids, spending time with your family um as much as possible, communicating, you know, in person, if you will, even though we're communicating you know, across across the the media spectrum here and the podcast. But in general, especially with your loved ones, like trying to be there present with them when you are present instead of one foot in, one foot out. That's just on a pure parenting level. Um, and so that really takes care of my soul. Like if I know my household is good, if I know my wife is good, um I know my kids are good, I'm good. And if they're not, then I'm not good. Uh on an intrinsic level, I think like definitely exercise personally helps me out. Um, you know, I get a lot on me through a lot of people and a lot of energy, you know, no matter what. Um from

Parenting, Presence & Family Culture

Speaker 2 28:42

my the the the the everything that I do in this world of people emailing me uh on the app or text I have to go over from you know the one-to-one clients or dealing with you know the corporate wellness side. I love it, but yeah, of course, it's like any business. You still have to have some downtime for yourself as well. So, you know, I always try to read about 15 to 20 minutes before bed. And I try not to read anything. I love historical books, I love uh biographies, autobiographies, learning about the world, I love history. So I try to read you, you know, something that's doesn't have anything to do with health and fitness per se. It does it's not like uh a business book of like 101 marketing strategies or whatever. Those are fine, but like not when you go to bed for for at least for me. But I do think like reading about like historical context of you know, anything in history, I always love all sorts of different parts of history. Very cool. Um, and so that really kind of like, you know, helps me to like pull it down a little bit more. But I think generally speaking, like meals with your family, laughing with your kids and your spouse, and you know, um small things, going for a walk around the block, holding my wife's hand, you know, seeing the kids play and wrestle with one another, wrestling with the kids, whatever it might be, is just you know, little things that could just go so far into my soul in the most positive direction possible.

Speaker 30:02

Yeah, that's honestly what we do and we cultivate in our house too, like home cooked meals all the time and no phones at the table. Like we always sit at the table together, and it's like a big connection thing.

Speaker 2 30:15

And I don't know if you've ever noticed, like somebody looking at their phone, you know the face they make, like oh yeah, so it kind of like you're yeah, yeah, it's not exactly the most pleasant smiling face.

Speaker 30:24

Like club Tom, yeah, and that's the energy when your kids they don't have a phone, that's the energy they're picking up, and they're like, Oh wow, you're just totally always produce eye contact, ask them about their day, yeah, all that.

Speaker 2 30:36

And we have you know, we have an 11, a nine, and a three-year-old, so we're like all over the spectrum, right? You have the energy of a toddler, you have you know going into pre-puberty with the 11-year-old, and you, you know, the nine-year-olds falling shortly behind. And so, like, there's a lot, like just a lot of different energy, and everyone wants, you know, the kids want to talk, the older two want to talk over one another at times, and you gotta say no, we you know, like you know, it's parenting, right? And I I love it. And yeah, home cooked meals by Denise are the best. Um, she's Greek, she's Greek American, so cooks very healthy Mediterranean Greek food all on many days, and I just love to eat a lot

Healthy Eating & Daily Habits

Speaker 2 31:14

of it. And uh thank goodness it's healthy. Um, and think of this I work out. But um, you know, but that's another thing too. It's like, you know, if if you have healthy food in your house, you'll eat healthy. If you have crappy food in your house, you're gonna eat crappy, you know? Like just don't buy the crappy food at the grocery store and don't have it delivered. Like, you know, like try to have good, healthy home cooked meals. 80, 90% of the time, you're gonna be like 100% successful.

Speaker 31:38

Wow, that's like uh such a simple formula. You know, that's it is formula.

Speaker 2 31:44

You can like you don't need to be perfect. I tell a lot of the corporate clients too. I always say, we're aiming for about 17 to 18 out of your 21 meals a week, you know, assuming most people eat three meals, to be good. They don't need to be perfect, but they need to be good. The other three or four meals, I don't really care. Honestly, I don't care if you have a hot fudge Sunday or whatever, right? Like, but if you can do that like 18 meals a week, like go for it. And hopefully you're not eating a hot fudge Sunday because like hopefully you realize like all of a sudden you feel better the healthier you eat, you know, or the less alcohol you drink. And that goes a long way with people and the amount of people that like once they get past that initial hump of several days of doing whatever they're doing, and they they see that they've they look better, they feel better internally, you know, they're like inflammation's down because they're not you know, having as much alcohol or dairy products, for instance, and all all of it, right? And they just feel like I I just feel better, I look better when I look at myself in the mirror. Someone said, What'd you do? Like, why are you glowing or whatever? That's cool, that's fun to hear, right? You know, yeah. Um so I I love I love getting people going in the right direction in that front.

Speaker 32:55

For sure. I I think that's awesome. And I think that, you know, being in corporate America, I'm in corporate America, all you know, I'm a project executive by day anyway, and then I see, you know, my most successful executives in my company are also fit. So I'm like, obviously there's some um correlation going on with how things are run. And then they also really promote in my company like modern health, and they do they

Leading by Example Through Health

Speaker 33:25

really like you know, healthy mindsets, they really like healthy attitudes and you know, strong foot forward towards life. So I think this is like right on par with you know my life anyway.

Speaker 2 33:36

So 100%, 100%, and I'm sure most of your listeners too. That's why they listen to your podcast in the first place, you know. Um and yeah, it's just like it's just like one of those things like you you want to lead by example the best that you can, you know, even whether you're your CEO, CFO, or C-suite person in your company, or even like a project manager leader within a subset of a different department of that company, you're still leading folks along the way, uh, or a parent, you know? Yeah. Um, or your community, like if you're involved with your church or your your um a kid sports team, whatever it is. Like I was just uh training um my son's lacrosse team with a bunch of uh 11-year-old boys, like 20, 11-year-old boys trying to like herd herd sheep yesterday, last night doing some sprint conditioning work and stuff, and teaching them how to do lateral runs faster and backward forward runs faster, and then some 50-yard sprints, and you know, dealing with like a few kids that are like wallowing around, and then you know, you have like five to seven that really want to like take it seriously. You have another, you know, 10 that are kind of like somewhere in between, and you have another three or four that are just like, you know, like just like taking their sweet old time or not paying attention and distracting the group, and you know, you have to a good thing I have a nice powerful whistle and a big booming coaching voice when I need to.

Speaker 34:52

You're like, get it together. All right, let me ask you. I've got two questions really. Um, first, I love asking, what does it mean to you to be in the business of yourself?

Speaker 2 35:03

Well, that's a great question. The business owner yourself, I think, is to be the best that you can be so that you can be positively affecting the world around you, whether that's through your the your own business, your family, your friends, your community, whatever that might be, that if you concentrate on yourself, you'll be better for everyone else that you affect around you. And it's kind of like when you board an airplane and you know they have the safety video on, it's like put on your mask first and then assist the child or the senior citizen or whoever's next to you, that sort of a thing. It's the same way. Like if you generally take care of yourself, this is not being selfish. I repeat, not being selfish to take care of yourself first. Yes, you may need to like get up a little earlier and go to bed a little earlier so you can get up earlier to exercise, especially for the busy parents out there. Um, you will have to make some sacrifices, right? Within reason, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's a sacrifice, doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, right? Like maybe you can't Netflix and chill and binge watch TV until midnight because you do have to get up for your 6 a.m. workout before the or 5 a.m. workout before the little ones get up or you have a longer commute because you're trying to, you know, take on new accounts for your business or whatever, whatever those goals for your day may entail, right? But if you can just pay yourself first and realize that if I get my exercise in, or maybe it's at night, maybe it's middle of the day, maybe you're like, you know, some of the some of the job formats nowadays have a whole host of different flexibility options in your daily life. It's more about prioritizing and making that carve out. I have clients that I'll see in the middle of the day sometimes that are the one-to-one clients, and like they'll be noon or one o'clock wherever they're at, and they'll just be like, no, I need to do this now because if I don't do it now, I'm I I have a I had business morning lunch or flying or wherever, and I want to see my kids, my family afterwards. So I just take it out in the middle of my day. And you know what? You can do that. And a lot of times, if you actually look at your schedule on an overall 24-7 basis, you can actually make time for yourself in different pockets. It's more about prioritizing that time and using it efficiently and effectively, not lollygagging

Being in the Business of Yourself

Speaker 2 37:15

around and like scrolling and checking your Instagram during your workout. But actually, like, once again, back to what we were talking about phones not at the dinner table. Like, don't bring your phone into the gym if you don't need it. You know, obviously if it's the middle of the day and you need to be on a call or whatever, that's fine. But in general, unless it's an absolute emergency, that 30 minutes or 45 minutes or 10 minutes, whatever it is that you set aside for yourself, like be 100% focused on that time for yourself, and you'll be so much better for everyone else out there.

Speaker 37:42

That does that focus is really truly what drives the business of yourself for me. Like it's like, you know, that's the whole purpose of yoga anyway, is to learn how to focus. That's the whole point. It's not necessarily how far can you reach or touch your toes or how limber can you get. It's how long can you focus, period. So that's what it is for me. All right, there's one more question.

Speaker 2 38:06

The one thing with yoga that I've always loved too is like within within reason is like the and within like the strength and condition community too is the breathing aspect. And that's so good for people as they become overwhelmed throughout their day or before like a big pitch or a phone call or a presentation or a speech or whatever it might be in the business world. Like the ability to hone in your own breathing patterns, take it down or take it up, depending on where you need to be. Yoga is absolutely fantastic for that. Strength training is absolutely fantastic for that. Any sort of like cardio training is absolutely fantastic for that. So you don't get beyond your breath.

Speaker 38:42

Bingo. All right. So every time I would like to ask you a question from a previous podcast that was left, and then I want you to ask a question for the next podcast guest I've got going. So the question left for you was what's something in your life, I love it, that you can or are willing to subtract where you immediately know you have more peace.

Speaker 2 39:10

Hmm. Potty training. Our three-year-old's going through potty training. So any parent that that's had to there are any any parent that's gone through the potty training phase, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Right? It's like, it's so daunting and so challenging, and that as a parent, like you could be the most like peaceful, like chilled person, but there's just like there's just like just things that happen in potty training. And I I I want to keep it, you know, above above the brow here and keep it positive and everything else, but you're laughing because you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's just hilarious. Like, like the amount of like you know, things that you go through in potty training is hilarious. And when you look back on it, you're like, wow, my patience is being tested, or like my willpower or whatever it is. And you're a little one, we've all done it as a human being, right? And it's like we don't remember it. Like, I don't remember potty training when I was two or three or whatever, you know. Um, but yeah, thank god, thank goodness we're like right at the end, you you know, like we've done we we've done the hard part, and um, but it's just it's it's uh the third one has been uh a little challenging, and um

Reflections on Life, Legacy & Leadership

Speaker 2 40:28

and but he's just a little love bug, and he's the he's the best. But I I don't know if it's because I'm older now and like less patient, but I always say, like, after you like take that 30 seconds to reset and clean up or whatever, you're like, okay, like that is an extreme challenge because it always happens like when you've got 10,000 other things to do. Yeah, and of course then you have to totally reset and clean and just everything. And you're just like, you know, that's tough. So if there's if there's anything I can subtract, it would be potty training right now. For more people, and I mean that in a positive, I I mean, I mean that in a positive way too, because it ultimately makes you a better person. I I love challenges in life, and I do think like I'm probably not the most patient person. I probably think that's one of my downfalls or drawbacks. And so for me, I feel like, you know, it's it's it's uh, you know, God's will, it's a challenge, it's nature. There's nothing wrong with it. It's totally normal. Um, but it's like kind of like the old like board games, like where you got to get past this next stage to go, you know, to advance, draw that card or roll the dice in a certain, you know, number or whatever. Like you can't get there, you can't advance to go till you do whatever you need to do there. And so like now it's at that point with our third, our third kid. Um, and it's been it's been uh challenging, but it's a practice in patience and fortitude for sure as a parent.

Speaker 41:48

Right. Oh, that's good. That's a good one. All right, well, what's your question? You want to leave for the next for the next guest.

Speaker 2 41:55

Oh, that that's that's great. Um oh my goodness, you're making me get all philosophical now. I love it, I love it. Um, okay, I don't I don't want to sound morbid, but if you were to die today, what would people say about you at your funeral? Right? Like, so your eulogy, like what would you want people to say about you or what would they say about you? Because I think that's how ultimately like how you're perceived or remembered in this world when you are living. And uh I don't want to come off morbid for anybody on that one, but I do think like when you actually say, Oh, we have a finite amount of time on this planet, what am I doing each day? Because sometimes we can be blinders on with our everyday aspects of potty training, you know, like we just spoke about, or or trying to stay fit or make the healthy choices, or trying to get the sales in your business to like generate revenue and you know, or cut costs, or or coach your kids' team, or you know, be involved with your church or your community or work on your kids' you know, science project in elementary school, or whatever it might be, you know, or try to be a better spouse or partner to your loved one in in your life. Um, you know, Mother's Day is coming up this weekend, and trying to sit there and say, How lucky am I that I married the woman of my dreams who's absolutely the most amazing mother to our children? And you know, how can I honor that each and every day, not just one day a year, you know? Yeah. Oh, and all those things, you know. So, like, how would you be remembered, you know? Uh and hopefully, like I said, it's not morbid, but it's more of a positive type of question for the folks or for the person that answers that.

Speaker 43:36

I can't wait for the next person to answer it, quite frankly. I don't know. I I think I know who it goes to at this moment, but to be determined. So it always is like, can you answer this question? Do I want another person got so that's great. Well, Chris, I so appreciate you and your time. I think having this conversation has been fun.

Speaker 2 44:02

Um what is yeah it's been great it's been great is it chrisryon.com right uh chrisryon fitness dot com so c h R I S R Y A N fitness f I t N E S S dot com that's my website um also my Instagram handle is at Chris Ryan Fitness uh YouTube same way LinkedIn same way people can find me there um and all those different platforms and uh so just Chris Ryan Fitness across all those different platforms they can email me Chris at Chris RyanFitness dot com. But yeah check it out then that what's cool by the way with the app if they want it is there's a free seven day trial absolutely 100% access free for the app. The only thing is is it does take a credit card so they do know that you're human so you get access to the app because there's a lot of bots out there and things that you know hackers and all this stuff that happens in the in the online world. So you just put in a normal credit card you can always cancel it at any point free of nothing's even you don't it's not like a cotel either nothing gets charged day one. It doesn't get charged till day at the end of day seven if you wanted to keep keep the app going that sort of a thing. But I I'm very proud of that aspect that we can offer a free seven day trial with it's not just like gated like three workouts or three nutrition plans or that sort of a thing. It's like literally this is the app like do you like it? If you do awesome join it you know and then take it from there. Because I'm not trying to you know smoke and mirrors people it's an app that's absolutely amazing people the people that join it love it. It's not an app that shows like three reps of an exercise and you have to scroll through the next thing it's me like literally teaching hundreds and hundreds hundreds of workouts on the app, full length workouts, doing 99% of the exercises with you along the way, um telling some you know fun dad jokes along the way and huffing and puffing and sweating it out with you in the hardest workouts and making it you know a good teaching moment, understanding why you do certain exercises a certain way, maybe some things that you've learned about in the social media world or online space or from another coach that you you know you want to hone in on the form and you want to understand a form correction and really like how the body moves and so I take all my experience all my capability and put into each and every workout for that individual.

Speaker 46:14

I can tell that that's exactly how you probably show up I've not gotten into the app I plan on it. Actually Josh and I we are getting married June 2nd and I'm like congratulations thank you and I'm just like we're gonna do something because we're also turning 40 and I'm like you know I already do yoga already like regularly and we walk and all the things but there's one another turn up. Just one more thing.

Speaker 2 46:43

So we're gonna try I think I think you know yeah I think yoga is fantastic but I do think a certain amount of strength training only helps out yoga and vote by actually I promote I I am not a yoga teacher myself but I tell people all the time in general to take yoga classes or Pilates classes. And especially the guys out there I don't think like men in general train enough of like they they like to lift heavy of course but only certain moves. Like um so if we do like bandit exercise for the average guy out there, they're always like oh my goodness I forgot how hard that is on like my chest and shoulders because like they just want to like a lot of times they just want to lift like heavy weights and there's nothing wrong I love lifting heavy but to switch it up to do some higher ups to do some calisthetic extra bodyweight movements only or to do yoga flows for your your hips and shoulders and honestly a lot of the stretch mobility stuff comes from yoga and pilates anyway. And a lot of like yoga and Pilates comes from like different like the whole strength and condition community is like really like you know takes a little bit from all all the others. It's like religion. The track and feel community you know yeah the track and feel community if you see a sprinter warm up they're doing a bunch of like weird little exercises that you could see a gymnast doing as well or like you know like sports are the human body moves in a certain direction right and you have some ball and socket joints in your shoulders your hips some hinge joints in your elbows and knees you move in a certain way or you should move in a certain way and so some people say oh I only do yoga or I only lift heavy um well you know maybe if you did both like it wouldn't be too bad for you. You know I don't think anyone's ever strength trained and said oh that sucks or I feel weak or I've done yoga and I don't feel mobile and loose anymore. You know I I think sometimes there's like some good bounces and healthier bounces for overall people in general to do a dabble in a little bit of everything. You know have a good basis of like strength training and then and you know Evan spoke that out to yoga Pilates cardio running rowing swimming whatever it might be you know to really have a healthy balance across the spectrum and and then play sports too play tennis play pickleball golf play some pickup basketball throw a ball with your kids or your friends or whatever throw a frisbee at the beach chase people around play tag whatever it might be you know all those things are and then some are are just absolutely fantastic for you. So you know have fun when you train don't just like train to like you know like you said looking down at your phone earlier with a scroll on your face to just like type it away on your email or whatever you know you should smile when you work out you should be you know flexing the smile as much as you are your biceps.

Speaker 49:20

Yeah that's cool I like that and also you know if you aren't great at teaching yoga I am you can just send your people to me I'll send my people to them we'll make this communication I love it I love it I love it well I appreciate you Chris I'll gladly do that gladly do that I feel like I learned a lot so that was really cool and yeah I can't wait for people to listen to this because it's so needed at any aspect it doesn't matter if you're high executive or you're a mom just literally trying to survive I feel like this floats in everybody's so that's right that's right we'll take it have a great day so thank you for having me on all right all right all right if this conversation hit home for you make sure you go check out Chris Ryan and everything he's building over at Chris RyanFitness.com and honestly what I appreciate most about this conversation is it wasn't about extremes or punishment perfection or chasing some unrealistic version of health it was about sustainability energy longevity even presence and I think that matters especially in a world where so many of us are high achieving externally while internally running themselves into the ground. So Chris talked a lot about leadership through embodiment and I deeply believe that too the way you care for yourself impacts the way you lead, parent, love, communicate, create and show up in every room you walk into your body isn't separate from your success y'all it's carrying it. So maybe this episode isn't just about fitness maybe it's about asking yourself what would shift in my life if I treated my health like an investment instead of an afterthought so as always thank you for being here with me inside the Fits and project and if this episode resonated share it with someone who needs the reminder that taking care of themselves is not selfish. It's leadership and don't forget to subscribe leave a review and stay connected because we've got some incredible conversations coming up in your way so until next time breathe deeper my friends move intentionally and remember you are your most important project