S2Ep3: “Are the goals you're setting, really the goals you want?” with Ella Martyn

Ella is not only a WBFF Pro, but an icon in the fitness world. She has been paving her way through the health industry being a coach, athlete and mentor to those in need of a higher standard of training and dieting information. 

Join us as we delve into Ella journey into the fitness industry, where it has taken her, and where she is going.

@ellamartyn

Transcript

Jac Simmonds  0:05  
Welcome back to the balanced experience podcast. Thank you Jaco. How are you Nick?

Nick Papastamatis  0:08  
Mate very well, how are you?

Jac Simmonds  0:09  
I'm not too bad.

Nick Papastamatis  0:10  
I just did a workout and I'm trembling. Oh, yeah. Yes. 

Jac Simmonds  0:13  
What was the workout?

Nick Papastamatis  0:14  
I'm not gonna repeat... mate I'm not gonna tell the view the listeners how weak I am and how unfit I am.

Jac Simmonds  0:21  
I walked into the clinic this morning. I said, Hey Nicko, and you just looked at me. So I was gonna bash you.

Nick Papastamatis  0:27  
Don't interrupt me, man, you're in the zone. So I was training once. And I was getting a front squat out of the rack. At 100 so it wasn't like, you know, it's not. It's heavy for me, okay. And as I unracked it, I had a, I was treating at that gym. And I had a member slash patient, literally walk in front of the rack. Right? And look at me. I was like,

Jac Simmonds  0:57  
as you unracked it,

Nick Papastamatis  0:58  
I was like, this bloke wants to ask me a question. I've just unracked. 100 interesting. Yeah. And, and as I went down to squat, I was like, actually, you know what I'm fully distracted here. Hmm. So I thought, you know what, I'm gonna rack the bar. So I racked the bar..

Jac Simmonds  1:14  
Was just standing there waiting for you. Yeah, pretty much. And you're only gonna get one rep.

Nick Papastamatis  1:18  
He's like, yeah, it's probably just watching the fail. Yeah. And and literally low and behold, two seconds after I've racked the bar comes over. He's like, Nick, I just had a question. Dude, you cannot be doing this to me. That's your life. Yeah, I get questions pretty much all day every day. Hey, Yeah, totally. I love it. We have a special guest here today.

Jac Simmonds  1:39  
We do. Welcome to Ella Martyn. So Ella, we have Ella today. So Ella is a physique athlete. She's a in the bodybuilding world. She's also a coach. And also someone who's quite heavily involved in women's health and fitness and empowerment. So welcome, Ella. 

Ella Martyn  1:58  
Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me on

Nick Papastamatis  1:58  
To me, Ella, you are a you are someone that is a very, very highly qualified coach. But in working with your clients and getting to know you, I've gotten to know the changes that you help your clients achieve are more than just training. Yes. Not just strength and conditioning. Yeah. This is like the people that you're helping you're helping them with all aspects of their life. Yeah, totally. And one of the reasons why I'm really excited about having you on here is because you just, you're not your average strength and conditioning coach, you are well and beyond that. Keep talking, keep talking. Yeah, right. Really shooting it up. I always ask my patients for advice when I'm about to crack the neck. So what do you reckon I should do with this matter?

Jac Simmonds  2:57  
Confidence.

Nick Papastamatis  3:01  
And so I'm really excited to hear a lot about the holistic approach that you take to people's health because that's what I feel like we do here balance and that's why we love working with you. So really excited to have you on

Ella Martyn  3:13  
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jac Simmonds  3:14  
So I guess to kick off, maybe we start with your journey as an athlete to begin with. So when did your sort of fitness? I don't wanna say journey again. But when when did you start getting into fitness and training and nutrition? And when did all that begin?

Ella Martyn  3:30  
Probably, I would say, I got into it. I guess probably probably eight years ago, when I first came out to Australia. Prior to that back home in a small island called jersey, I I was into netball, I'd go to the gym, you know, twice a day, I would fluff around, I would do the Les Mills classes, but I wouldn't really say I did anything of great technique or you know, great structure. So I was only when I came out to Australia, I feel like the standard and fitness out here was just far beyond anything else. Anything else that was happening in the UK or jersey at the time. When was that? jersey Channel Islands. No, sorry when. So when I come out here 2013.

Jac Simmonds  4:09  
I've heard that from quite a few people from the UK. Like it's just a different culture here.

Ella Martyn  4:12  
Yeah, totally. Yeah, like, totally. So yeah, probably only when I got out to Australia and I came across a small boutique gym called Soul Train. And that was sort of my first Oxford Street. Wooloomooloo. Wooloomooloo. Yeah. And that's how I kind of got into I guess, structured strength and conditioning, got introduced to flexible dieting through them. And I spent more time in the gym than anywhere else. And I eventually got qualified cert three and four and personal training and then became a coach at soltrain. Wow. Yeah. So that was Yeah, probably 2014 maybe. Okay,

Nick Papastamatis  4:48  
so you've been training your whole life. Basically, 

Ella Martyn  4:49  
I've been on and off doing something like in primary school, I was really into, you know, long jump, sprints. Very low. Once upon a time ago, I did do some cross country running couldn't do that again now No, I always played netball but I don't think I'm genetically built for sports. You know my Yeah. My bones. Osgood knees. Yeah. I'm not meant to do these things anymore, especially now I'm a bit older. Yeah, I guess I've always been into some sort of fitness.

Nick Papastamatis  5:20  
there are there are people there are people that horses for courses Hey, this is like some people can transition from ball sports to CrossFit to bodybuilding. But everyone's not made for everything but not not everyone's made for everything, that's for sure. No, I definitely Yeah,

Ella Martyn  5:35  
yeah, I loved netball. But I would come off court and I'd probably be sore for about five days and not in a good way like really, feet would be so I Bunyan's on both feet, my knees would be sore my elbows would be sore and as much as I love the sport it just got to the point where what how much pain is enough pain and you just you've had quite a few injuries many many injuries

Nick Papastamatis  5:54  
because we originally met Yeah, yeah. This would be going back

Ella Martyn  5:59  
I think maybe for something like yeah four years or something

Nick Papastamatis  6:03  
it was your do you mind if we share, I think was your elbow wasn't it?

Ella Martyn  6:06  
Yeah, it was couldn't straighten the thing randomly just one day out of the blue. My right arm I just I could not fully extend it. I was like the day before I was doing mine either. I think I did a preacher curl in the gym, didn't train biceps all that often. So I just thought far out. I've just destroyed a bicep tendon or something. You know, I've just overtrained this, but after a few months of seeing an osteopath at the time, it wasn't getting any better. My coach said go and see Dr. Nick. And I was like, oh, chiropractor? Oh, that was that was Dean. Yeah, I don't know. You know, I had this you know, like everyone probably does the stigma with regards to what a chiropractor does. So maybe that's something you guys can touch on today on how you can help us spread the good message for chiropractors.

Yeah, we've spoken aboput this in another podcast.

Nick Papastamatis  6:56  
We can you can but I am interested in what your perception was.

Ella Martyn  7:00  
Well, I had been to chiropractic before and it was the same you know process crack come see me twice a week for the rest of your life. And Josh was exactly the same and when he moved out of Wollongong and moved up to Sydney he would still depart yeah my partner he would drive to Wollongong every fortnight to go see his chiropractor and like right why you see why

Jac Simmonds  7:20  
you lose that idea of why.

Nick Papastamatis  7:20  
was this fear based?

Ella Martyn  7:22  
I think for him it was probably a bit of fear base like I've been going to him for so long now don't really want to just like stop going to see him. I eventually brought him on to you guys and balance too his chiropractor actually rang him up like, oh, notice you've cancelled your appointment like everything right? Should I book you in for the next week? And he kept ringing him.

Jac Simmonds  7:38  
I mean, I'd love to know, this is how addictive chiropractic adjustments are?

Nick Papastamatis  7:44  
Well, they're addicted to the neuro physiological serotonin. It's a dopamine hit. And in particular, depends on your personality type. So like heroin, well, pretty much it is it's an opioid. And so because if you've got different personality types in the most robustly tested and researched personality profiling is the ocean profile of openness, conscientiousness, extravertedness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. And different if your heart if you're, if you score quite highly in, for example, extrovertednesss you actually quite sensitive to dopamine hits. And therefore, extroverts that are more engaging and they want to approach things more. Generally, if they are, if they are met with some sort of reaction. extroverts are always looking for a reaction. I always look for reactions like and that's what gets my dopamine going. And that's what that's why I got fully addicted to being a chiropractor, and then probably became sick from it because I'm so highly extroverted 99th percentile that the dopamine hits like every adjustment was a dopamine hit. Yeah, I'm doing I don't know how many of these I'm doing a day and you get withdrawals when you stop Yeah, and then as soon as I'd stop I'd get on my phone. 

Ella Martyn  8:57  
Or you get someone that you can't adjust? 

Nick Papastamatis  9:00  
Yeah, yeah. And I'd be like oh fuck yeah, dude, get on it. So it's so um, yeah, so anyway, what was the point I'm trying to make there?

Jac Simmonds  9:12  
chiropractic I guess the stigma and and patients getting addicted Yeah, yeah Yeah, for sure. 

Nick Papastamatis  9:18  
So you more or less get addicted to the to the neuro physiological change where that serotonin oxytocin or dopamine and largely its dopamine, depending on your personality trait and your biological profile as it stands

Jac Simmonds  9:32  
for me like as a physio Ella as well like and having being in this world Yeah, you're just as likely to get a shit physio as you are shit chiro.

Ella Martyn  9:39  
And a shit PT and a shit online coach as well. 

Jac Simmonds  9:42  
Yeah, it's just the minority is a bit more extreme in chiropractic.

Nick Papastamatis  9:45  
100%. And this is this is where like, all want to really ask like what your experience Josh has experienced was clearly fear based and he was getting hounded that's, that's not good. What was your experience like with a chiropractor?

Ella Martyn  9:58  
I get just not getting any result from it. It was you know, I'm coming back to see you twice a week for whatever the said issue was, but not really getting any. Yeah, progress from it. So after a couple of months of still not being able to extend my elbow, and I got on stage like that I was in comp prep at the time, not you. I've got some videos on YouTube of me training. Oh, mate. I've got videos of me training on YouTube and then like holding dumbbells, and it's like this. It's bent. Yeah. Like,

Nick Papastamatis  10:23  
what is that? 15 degrees? It's 15 degree elbow. Not even. Yeah, not at zero degrees extension. Yeah,

Ella Martyn  10:30  
I was. So I managed I got through it 

Nick Papastamatis  10:31  
IQ plus 50. That's a physio term. I need the objective measure? You know, you know what, that's a Greek word.

Jac Simmonds  10:43  
Is it? Sure?

Nick Papastamatis  10:44  
Yeah. Gony is the Greek word for angle? Oh, corner. Yeah. Yeah.

Ella Martyn  10:54  
So I bit the bullet and came out and saying, I saw you. And just the way you handled that initial consult. Set set, you know, the expectations and I think just made me appreciate that. It wasn't a common see me twice a week. Until I fixed this. It was okay. Well, this is this is how we're going to try. W tried heaps of shit for that. Yeah, you're like, we're going to go through like three phases, I think. And if we can't get it after, like, the third session, or whatever it was, I'm gonna refer you on. 

Nick Papastamatis  11:16  
That was back when I was using my three visit rule. Yeah, yeah. 

Ella Martyn  11:20  
Then we went and got an MRI or a CT. I can't remember what it was. Now. You have to go get surgery.

Nick Papastamatis  11:24  
Yeah. There was a mass in there. Loose body.

Ella Martyn  11:27  
Yeah, I think I did I bring it in and show you I showed you a photo was like, Yeah, he bought ossified bone fragments. There was a lot really in this.

Nick Papastamatis  11:36  
Just developed. Yeah, it happens. It happens in in athletes for some reason. I don't know.

Jac Simmonds  11:41  
I just have one right now. So

Nick Papastamatis  11:43  
you know what it feels like? That was not fun. Yeah. Okay. So then you had surgery.

Ella Martyn  11:47  
Yeah, took that out, can extend it took a while to rehab and physio back to normal. I still kind of feel like I've lost maybe I probably can't hyperextend now, whereas I probably could a little bit but like, yeah, still, huh.

Nick Papastamatis  11:58  
You did your rehab really well too.

Ella Martyn  11:59  
Oh mate. I'm doing that rehab. Yeah, I want you want to move and be functional and not have things still hanging over me? Yes.

Jac Simmonds  12:06  
So you've probably had quite a few injuries, then that have altered your training as well, like you've had some work or any training? How, how does that affect you when you do have to muck around with your training? Because I know this is pretty common for people who are quite into their training where they just throw the towel in when they've got an injury? Have you found that you're someone like that? Or do you try and keep training.

Ella Martyn  12:25  
No totally work around it. And and anytime I get clients come to me who are seeing different practitioners, different chiros or physios with an injury, and they say that they told me to stop training. I'm like, you need to leave them immediately. Yeah, because there's always a workaround, right? You've got and if you just stop training, what's that gonna benefit you mentally as well, you're gonna be like, wow, this is my outlet. And I can't do that now, because of this fucking injury. What am I going to do?

Nick Papastamatis  12:46  
This is like, all that tells me is that that practitioner is not up to date.

Jac Simmonds  12:50  
Yeah, it's an easy answer. So things are always gonna feel good when you're not doing anything. Because you know, it's just when you go back to doing that thing you want to do, and the pain comes back. 

Nick Papastamatis  12:57  
I like to say that even though it's, in some cases, when you when that patient comes to me, and they're like, I have pain, doing x, y, and z, sometimes I will, can ask them to continue doing that. And that will be our objective measure. Pain without the patient reported. No harm. Yeah, as long as not doing it. That's right. It's case by case. But often, it's like Actually, no, keep doing the aggravator. Because that might actually be an indicator of improvement. Versus stop doing that. And then slowly reintroduce it. So yeah, but what's this person's relationship with that pain anyway?

Ella Martyn  13:38  
So there's always a workaround, always a workaround, I got hit by a car during COVID car, what a year 2020 was. So my...

Jac Simmonds  13:45  
What month was that? July, right. So right in the middle of COVID.

Ella Martyn  13:51  
I was also in prep for a show that actually eventually didn't happen as well. So you know, whatever. But uh, yeah, I got hit by a car. So I my training was really impacted. I couldn't hold a barbell couldn't hold a dumbbell. obviously couldn't train upper body. So all I had to train was legs, but machine based training, like and I was have to limit the load that I would lift as well, because I really couldn't grasp the handle of a leg press, or a leg curl or the hamstring machine to apply really any force to that. So I had to really think about how do I best manage this. There's always a way around it. There's the frustration of that now affect you as much as it used to not really know because I look at it from the point of, I still get to train. You know, a lot of people don't have that luxury. You know, you can have an accident far out that accident could have been way worse than just having almost a shoulder issue. But yeah, a lot of people don't have the ability to do the things that they want to do. So I never looked at it as a negative. You know, it's a pleasure that I actually get still to train.

Nick Papastamatis  14:48  
And you've come back from worse off. Yeah, like, you heard you mentioned you Bunyan's before, like you've had them operated on

Ella Martyn  14:55  
I had them operated on when I was like early 20s but no one gave me any rehab or physio. Like I said, after coming to you guys, and I'm like, hold on, no one actually gave me any physio work for my feet. So I think a lot of my issues, for sure, stemmed from the fact that my feet don't move like they should.

Nick Papastamatis  15:13  
Yeah. And and you know what, like, you're right. We've we've discussed this, most, you know, most probably, but it's also a case of, well, is it something that we continually work on in the background? Is it something that has some has, like, what's the feasibility of it getting inverted commas better? And what if it is going to require and is it worth it? And this is, this is where it's kind of like, well, you function pretty well without it. Yeah. Yeah. Like a lot of your problems may stem from that unless you get hit by a car that is, or randomly develop an article in your elbow, or whatever it might be. But, yeah, what's the what's the risk versus the benefit of of rehabbing your feet? Because Because your bunion surgery didn't really work

Ella Martyn  16:13  
Well, they've started to default back to their original position, nowhere near as extensive as what it was, and I don't get the pain that I did. back then. Yeah, nowhere near? No. Does that cause me any issues? I'm not getting paid from it. So yeah, so it was causing you pain? Or especially playing netball? Like as well? Yeah. A lot of pain. Yeah, well, do. You know, I had my mom had them. Her mother had them. So fortunately, for me, it was hereditary. And I had them pretty much my whole entire life and had them operated on, I think when I was about 20, maybe 21.

Nick Papastamatis  16:44  
So yeah, at least had had mostly finished growing. Yeah. Which is good. I'd hate to see that surgery happening in your teens.

Jac Simmonds  16:52  
Was that biggest injury or biggest recovery?

Ella Martyn  16:55  
It actually wasn't as bad as I anticipated. Like I heard horror stories from Bunyan surgery, and I had because I had them both operated on at the same time. I didn't want to go through one and then come back and do the other. actually wasn't too bad. Yeah, from what I remember. Okay. Unless the the memory bank has just blanked it out. Because it was horrific. And I didn't want to remember it.

Nick Papastamatis  17:14  
But I'd imagine there'd be some trouble walking.

Jac Simmonds  17:16  
Oh, man, could you imagine

Nick Papastamatis  17:17  
so obviously, there's no doubt about your your capability to endure obstacles and get go through them. Right. So obviously very resilient, you have had injuries, small and large. And you've always done the work to get to the other side. Yeah. What do you think drives that? Like, why are you like that? 

Ella Martyn  17:44  
Because what other option is there you just hang out in this miserable state of mind and the poor me mentality like where does that get you?

Nick Papastamatis  17:53  
That's a good question for people that have that mentality. 

Ella Martyn  17:55  
And I used to be that person as well when I was very young you know, poor me Why me? Why is my life like this? Why am I can't my life be like yours? Well, it comes down to the change that you want to make and you ultimately have to just start living the life of that person that you want to be. 

Nick Papastamatis  18:08  
if that was you, then when did you make that decision?

Ella Martyn  18:11  
Probably when I decided to leave jersey and go traveling. Traveling changed me as a person actually. Yeah, well, my first stop was India as a female by myself. Holy shit. That was fucking terrifying.

Nick Papastamatis  18:24  
Wow. Can we hear a little bit about this? India

Ella Martyn  18:28  
the first memory I have is when they went down the plane and started spraying air freshner. No, that was the first time I'd ever seen that done on a flight before while we're doing that, because when they open the door, it stinks.

Jac Simmonds  18:39  
It's like Bali. Yeah. Oh, when you get to Bali? It's just I don't know if it's not probably different. Well,

Nick Papastamatis  18:45  
I'd say this is shit.

Jac Simmonds  18:47  
Yeah. Yeah. Actually. Yes.

Ella Martyn  18:51  
Yeah, fun times. Yes.

Jac Simmonds  18:53  
Okay, gotcha. 

Nick Papastamatis  18:54  
Not just the not just a Bo smell, right. Yeah. beyond that... maybe credits on that one.

Jac Simmonds  19:03  
How long did you travel for before you came to Australia?

Ella Martyn  19:05  
Um, so I was a 12 month round the world ticket originally that was there. So yeah, by myself, the girl that I had originally planned to come with. So I think I left in the October of 2012. She got a boyfriend in the summer. I can't leave him. I can't leave him. You fool. What are you doing? anyway? Turns out she ended up staying with him and having a baby. So you know, it all worked out for y'all. I got India was her choice. It was never on my I was like, that's exactly what I was like, Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I here? The destinations had already been set. So you can't change them. You can only change the how long you spend in that destination. Yeah, I got into Mumbai. I spent a couple of days in in the heart of Mumbai waiting for a friend to come out. And she was taking her like two week holiday and we were heading out to the west coast and staying in Goa. But those two days in Mumbai It was a beach town. Go is a beach town. Yeah, so it's on that on the coast. It's kind of you don't want to be in the main cities. They're not really like Pleasant. Yeah, terrifying like it was. I just spent like probably most of my time in my hotel room because I went out to get a SIM card walking the streets was freakin terrifying all the Indian men were just kind of looking. I wasn't prepared for it. I wasn't prepared holey moley. Yeah. And obviously was my first time traveling by myself as well. And there's no room for poor me there. Now you just have to just get on with it. Get on with it, figure it out, going out for trying to go out and source some food. I literally went to the nearest place that was to my hotel. got in there. There's a menu that's like, definitely not in English. And I'm looking at these things. Like, I don't even know how to order this food. What am I doing? Yeah, I'll have that. And that. Let's see what happens. Yeah. Oh, terrifying.

Jac Simmonds  20:42  
I can't remember I can't but I very quickly and went back up to my room hope for the best what was so you said like you learned a lot about yourself traveling? What What was your biggest lesson during 12 months by yourself?

Ella Martyn  20:54  
No, I met some probably the some of the most amazing people traveling, it makes you really just open up and, you know, go and have conversations with strangers, you know, get to know people and then also get to know yourself as well. You realize what your what you are capable of and how resilient you are. When you're forced into really uncomfortable situations like going on at frickin overnight train in India. And you're not really you don't really want to sleep because you're not entirely sure where your stop is. Yeah, definitely. And you've got your your worldly possessions in one bag, and you don't really know what's going to happen to you on this train.

Nick Papastamatis  21:27  
the only the only way to you every plant is becoming cynical Nic metaphor can. Every plant has the potential to blossom. Hmm. The only thing you need to do is change its environment. And so you've just changed your view, same person. Yeah. You change your environment. You put yourself in some crazy situations, obviously. And then I'm sure there's more. Yeah. And you found you, you've probably found parts of yourself. I'm sure we're all on that journey still. which then led you back to Australia?

Ella Martyn  22:02  
Well, so Australia was on my flight path. I had no intention of staying. So I finished off my travels. India, Southeast Asia, was due to come to Australia for a little while New Zealand, Fiji and then go home. Got into Australia had no money left spent it all in Asia. That's what every backpacker does. Really? Yeah, way over time. And then you get to Australia, you're like, holy shit. I can't afford Yeah, to do anything here. Because a hostels like 30 or $40 a night. You must be scared. That's very scary when you've just come from Asia where you can get $1 dorm? And so like $40... a $1 Oh, wow. Yeah, that's another experience. Yes. 

Jac Simmonds  22:41  
You've got to fly back home well in a while, and it's in another country. Yeah.

Ella Martyn  22:47  
But I came to Australia and I loved it. I didn't really I was just, I don't really want to go home. Came here. It's just a different way of life. Everyone was just walking around and active where fitness was a big part of it. Yeah, it was just a really big wake up call. And then I met my partner, Josh, and the rest is history. I had a little trip to New Zealand had a little northern South Island trip because that was still on my flight path. He came and met me in Fiji. We had our first holiday and then I just sacked off the flight home and came back to Australia. Wow. Yeah.

Nick Papastamatis  23:17  
That's really cool.

Jac Simmonds  23:18  
Yeah, that's awesome. And then select when you move to Australia, how, how long into that did you start personal training?

Ella Martyn  23:24  
It's probably about probably maybe a year and a half. I have to go off and do farm work to get my second year visa. Right.

Jac Simmonds  23:35  
Yeah, farm work.

Nick Papastamatis  23:37  
Yeah, it's not nice, it's what a lot of backpackers do. you have to get the second water visa? Yeah. Doesn't sound fun to do some agricultural work. Yeah. Yeah. That may contribute to that a part of Australia.

Ella Martyn  23:48  
And when you're not used to the wildlife in Australia. Yeah, yeah. When you're not used to the wildlife, and you come from a very small island and the biggest spider is about that big. Yeah. When you see a Huntsman

Nick Papastamatis  23:58  
Yeah, yeah. You're like, what is this monster? Yeah, exactly. This is from Lord of the Rings.

Jac Simmonds  24:03  
Yeah, and then so with your with your personal training and your coaching did it start as just training women or

Ella Martyn  24:11  
just training women face to face in a small boutique gym? As I mentioned Soul Train? Oh, yeah. And then from from that, I started coaching in the gym, face to face, women that wanted to get on stage and compete through the sports model project, which is Hatty Boydles baby. Gotcha. And she's also an inspiration. She's a huge inspiration and a big inspiration to me. She was probably one of the first women I saw that actually had muscle and was looking really feminine with that. Doing a bit of extra.

Nick Papastamatis  24:40  
she she she has this ability to be muscular and feminine at the same. Yeah,

Ella Martyn  24:44  
absolutely. And she's also the nicest human on the planet.

Nick Papastamatis  24:48  
She's lovely now. Yeah, lovely.

Jac Simmonds  24:50  
Yeah, for sure. And then, so when when this happened, had you started competing yes or no, no, no, you were pretty new to this whole world, I guess very new to the whole world. And what got too interested in it initially?

Ella Martyn  25:03  
coaching girls in the gym that were going through the experience in the process of getting on stage. And I was like their main point of contact being the head trainer. And they would obviously come into their sessions. They're excited about, you know, the process and be asking me all the questions and I wouldn't have a clue about any of it. I'm a personal trainer, I'm taking you through the sessions. They're designed by somebody else that the your whole prep process is designed by somebody else, but I'm the person that you see every day. So yeah, it's sort of stemmed from me wanting to know what they're going through and be able to coach them better by experiencing myself.

Jac Simmonds  25:37  
Yep. So to legitimize yourself as a as a coach initially, yeah. Cool.

Nick Papastamatis  25:41  
So do you? Are you um, do you like to be in pursuit of this might sound weird? Sorry. So do you always look for what makes you uncomfortable? and work towards that? Or does it find you?

Ella Martyn  25:56  
Oh, that's a good question. I think it probably finds me. I don't think I ever go out searching for it. I think it finds me 

Nick Papastamatis  26:03  
you don't run away.. You go straight.

Jac Simmonds  26:05  
Yeah. For sure. Like, I guess the traveling aspects like who like going travel? Obviously, it wasn't initially meant to be by yourself. But 12 months. That's Yeah, that sounds bloody scary to me. Yeah. And then jumping into this world of physique competition where, you know, you're..

Nick Papastamatis  26:21  
representing Hatty Boydle.

Jac Simmonds  26:23  
Obviously, like, she's a world champ. Everyone knows, right? Like, yeah, she's the face of WBFF. And all these things. So like, um, yeah, it seems like Nick is right. Like you do these things. either find you Or don't you search for them? And yes, and that's your that's what drives you a little bit.

Ella Martyn  26:38  
I hadn't actually ever thought of it. But like that, but yeah, sure. 

Nick Papastamatis  26:40  
What sort of problems did we face with? Were you asked about, like, some of these athletes, 

Ella Martyn  26:46  
the whole process? Like, what's peak week? Like, what's it like on stage? And then there's all the little intricacies of where do I get my bikini? From? What size? Where do I get my shoes from? What about the the makeup the hair so much? What's a refeed? How do I go about this?

Jac Simmonds  27:01  
So you just dive in the deep end? You're like art, let's do this. How was it? What was your first time competing?

Ella Martyn  27:05  
First time competing was with a ....

what made that decision? What made me compete? Yeah, like, why did you do that? Well, because I wanted to, I wanted to experience it. I wanted to see what it was like. So I competed with a federation called ICN. I think

Nick Papastamatis  27:19  
these Federation names so many Federation,

Jac Simmonds  27:21  
I don't think this even exists anymore. I think it's you can just say 3 letters back to back.

Ella Martyn  27:28  
It was a really good experience. Actually, I had a lot of fun doing it. I didn't, I didn't win or come second, I think I might have place maybe fourth or fifth in the categories that I did. But it was the best I've ever looked in my entire life. And it was the most amount of work and commitment I'd ever given to, you know, making some serious change to my physique. And it actually paying off whereas before, you know, prior to coming to Australia, when I'd be doing the Les Mills classes or training at the gym twice a week, not really seeing these changes. It was kind of like a is this really possible? Because I've never seen it before.

Jac Simmonds  27:59  
Yeah. 

Ella Martyn  28:00  
Like, oh my God, I've just seen my abs for the first time. Well, it lasted about a week.

Nick Papastamatis  28:05  
Yeah, that's a super empowering feeling to have. Right. Like that's, that's definitely something that I think a lot of people are craving or waiting for, and they sometimes never achieve it. Mm hmm. They're like, looking at with the right lighting. Where's my ad? Yeah. And then you've lost my first time after that call. You know, best you've ever looked? Yeah. was the best you've ever felt?

Ella Martyn  28:33  
At the time? Yes. Yeah.

Jac Simmonds  28:36  
Did you have a pretty smooth process though? I prepped. Do you feel like in hindsight now looking back? Obviously, some people do preps like completely the wrong way. Do you feel like they did it, Well, the first time?

Ella Martyn  28:47  
Yeah, it was a whole new process for. For me, it was all through flexible dieting. It wasn't like a restrictive old school bodybuilding style of dieting. We got to eat six meals a day. And they got to be fish. Yeah, asparagus, broccoli, chicken, whatever. Yeah, the old school methods. It was flipped through flexible dieting. So it was actually really nice process. I can't remember thinking far out. This is the worst. I never want to do this again.

Nick Papastamatis  29:11  
Yeah. Do you feel like it should be called flexible dieting? Or do you think it should just be called good nutrition or just calculate nutrition? Or? I feel like flexible dieting makes it sound like you're cheating. But really, you're just totally the opposite. Human in 2020? Yeah. 2021.

Jac Simmonds  29:26  
maybe for people that don't understand it that well. Yeah. What is that could be

Ella Martyn  29:29  
Yeah, it's it's a it's a tough one. I guess dieting the whole word dieting has this huge negative association with it like you're dieting and therefore you've got to be like, can't go out country and can't eat certain foods doesn't not like that. Yeah, it's a tough one. I think flexible dieting gives it I think it's the type the right title. Okay. Because your nutrition is flexible. There's no strict regime to it. You don't have to eat at certain times of the day. You don't have to eat certain foods. You've got it's flexible. You've got you know, for a fat loss goal, you've got to be in a calorie deficit, which just means you need to eat a little bit less than then your body needs. Yeah, you burn. Well, how can you achieve that? Well, you can do it on many different diets strategies. ketogenic, low carb, whatever it might be, because they're all just creating the same calorie deficit, but they're not. They're not going to be something that you can sustain long term because it doesn't fit into your lifestyle. Like Yeah, you can go let's see paleo or whatever it might be, but you're not then able to go out and have a dinner out. Because God Good luck trying to find like, no carbs, just protein fats.

Jac Simmonds  30:35  
For most people like that's just gonna go resentment as well. Exactly. Yeah. If it's the fish in a rice cake. Have you seen that video? Fish and a rice cake video? Have you seen it? I don't think I have anyway, go go search it up after fish and rice cake. Like imagine. Yeah, but imagine eating that every single meal. Oh, no, I would be the most No, you'd be the most boring person alive.

Nick Papastamatis  30:54  
I remember. I remember eating my breakfast. My my tradition, my standard eggs. on toast. I love toast toast. bread for me is like chocolate

Ella Martyn  31:03  
bread and butter and salt. Ridiculous bread, butter and fresh bread, butter and salt on top. Oh, yeah. Really? Yeah. I'm gonna try that do it. That sounds beautiful. Yeah, thank Dean McKillop for that one.

Jac Simmonds  31:14  
It's like the bread. We had a Christmas party. It was just like, the bread, oil and salt. And it's like, How good can it be? You can't beat it? Yeah. And so I'm gonna try restrict me that shit for 12 weeks. Yeah.

Nick Papastamatis  31:26  
What do you mean? I remember. I remember when I was doing the Paleo diet. I did that for months. That was enough. How did that work out for you? Well, it reverted back very quickly. Much worse. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Much worse. I would. I got down to about 10% body fat. pretty lean for I was probably 73 kilos, a little nugget. But I was probably unhealthy. Because I didn't know what I didn't know. How does. You know I was eating eggs out of a lettuce leaf. Yeah. Oh, I knew I knew at that. I like I was doing this. I was like, I'm committed. I remember going to karaoke with my mates and even my mates tried to put vodka in my in my soda water. Yeah. And, and I was quite, quite upset.

Ella Martyn  32:10  
And that goes on to that disordered eating right. 

Nick Papastamatis  32:12  
Oh, yeah. It was always revolving my life around it. Yeah. I was looking lean. I was pretty fit. But the but as soon as that 30 day thing challenge, yeah, finished. I went backwards so hard, that I think I stopped training, and I stopped eating well, for about two years. Yeah, wow.

Ella Martyn  32:36  
That's the problem most people face actually, they can do the thing, whatever the thing is, yeah, for the period of time, get the results, and then just slingshot back to what they were before or worse, because it wasn't sustainable. 

Nick Papastamatis  32:47  
And that's and that I'll really want to touch on the dark side of bodybuilding. But I suppose I suppose before we do that, out of your prep, how did it change you as a coach? Like what what did that do to you? Maybe personally, and as a coach.

Ella Martyn  33:02  
Prep teaches you what you can achieve through commitment and discipline. And that change can happen very quickly with the with the right tools and with the right level of discipline. But, but prep and lifestyle goals are totally different, right? What you would get what you'd go through through a prep is the case of having to mostly eat out of containers for a large part of your diet, because you are getting on stage ultimately in a certain timeframe. And you're being judged on the way you look. Yeah, so there's a bit more of a..

Nick Papastamatis  33:28  
that's super like scary.

Ella Martyn  33:31  
Yeah. So so your level of commitment to your diet is going to be much higher than you on your level of commitment to your diet because at the end of it No one's going to be looking at you going will fuck he cheat on his diet clearly because look at he still got body fat on him.

Jac Simmonds  33:44  
Yeah, that's true gotcha. In the bodybuilding, like if we are going to this like dark side of bodybuilding, oooohhhh, what what problems do you see with women, especially in the bodybuilding world?

Ella Martyn  33:57  
There's many there's so many, there are so many. There's a lot of uneducated coaches out there that puts clients women on really stupid diets, stupid diets from like bodybuilding days using bodybuilding.com or their forums. Seven meals a day it has to be chicken, fish, broccoli, whatever cold meals really bland, boring, cold meals. Yeah, well, just, that's just where you're at about you got to eat your cold Barramundi and asparagus didn't know where to heat it up. Who wants to eat cold fish? I've heard and you've got to eat it at 10 o'clock in the morning. So what are you going to do around and about.

Jac Simmonds  34:29  
I've heard on these bodybuilding forums that they say that fish that fish thins the skin as well, you heard that one Ella?

Ella Martyn  34:34  
I have, I'd like to know how much merit

Nick Papastamatis  34:37  
thins the skin. What is this garbage?

Jac Simmonds  34:39  
Yeah, like if you get on it, if you get on the internet, and you read this shit you like,

Ella Martyn  34:43  
this is what's out there. Yeah, this is the information that's out there. And if you're paying to go to bodybuilding.com, but you're paying also paying a coach that you see as somebody that should have the expertise in this field, you're going to you're going to just follow what they say right? 

Nick Papastamatis  34:56  
That's their that's interesting. Yeah, I was gonna raise this earlier, but now that I mentioned that again, I do feel that cars vizia, this allied health field, and the boat and the coaching world, probably two of the very few industries that you can get away with giving someone not what they paid for 100%. Do you mean? Well, someone can come in with pain? They can walk out with pain, and they can still pay and not complain? Yeah, yeah, maybe five. If I took my car to a mechanic to a mechanic. And I paid for a service that I did not. And I got the service. But I didn't get the result. I'm not paying i'm not i'm going back for a refund. Or for for them to fix it

Jac Simmonds  35:40  
or you went to a doctor with an infection and you don't get antibiotics or whatever. Even doctors could get away with it. Yeah.

Nick Papastamatis  35:46  
Yeah. You know, or surgeons even worse.

Jac Simmonds  35:48  
Yeah. Yeah. It's like coaches and physios and chiros out there that physios get away with? Yeah.

Nick Papastamatis  35:54  
Not murder. They don't get away with murder. But they definitely get away with not providing you with the results. Yeah, as coaches.

Jac Simmonds  36:00  
You reckon the first I guess the first part of that is misinformation.

Ella Martyn  36:04  
Totally misinformation. And then just poor, poor coaches that don't have the drive to want to upskill you know, that living off 10/15 year old information, that's Yeah, ultimately getting their clients ultimately gets maybe sometimes getting them results, but also causing a lot of pain long term. Because of all the other stuff that comes with this stuff. 

Nick Papastamatis  36:24  
So getting on stage. And going through that whole process. Do you because you mentioned a while you mentioned offline, that that actually created a bit of a spark in you. So what sparked that create?

Ella Martyn  36:37  
I just really enjoyed the process. The stage itself, it's kind of not like my favorite part of it. Like I'm not really a performer. And that's effectively what you're doing out on stage is you're performing. You've got to put on a persona and start out in your really dark tan and glitzy bikini and showcase everything that you've just worked on for the last 20-24 weeks. I kind of look at the stage itself as like the party at the end to celebrate what you've just achieved throughout that process. That's pretty good. And ultimately, you're getting judged on the way you look. And there's it's not like a sport where you've crossed the finish line first or you've you know, kicked the ball to goal like there's no definitive Yes, you've just won that like you because you're up against everybody else's work just as hard as you have the last 20-24 weeks. So you can't really get caught up on the end results, because you have literally no control over that.

Jac Simmonds  37:26  
So like over the last I guess couple years as well. Competing and especially in women has become it has gotten more popular. you'd agree with that? Yeah. What do you think it is about competing that that women are attracted to?

Ella Martyn  37:39  
I think it's what they see on social media to be honest. They'll see big social media accounts that have they look a certain way they're generally into fitness. They then make a living off that they go on and compete with some Federation's and that's now then what people are seeing on their Instagram feeds, right? It's like, well, Wow, well, she looks like that she competes. Maybe that's all I need to compete? Or I've got a really shitty relationship with my body and my food. I know what's going to fix it, compete and get on it.

Nick Papastamatis  38:07  
Let's get on with it. Make the stage the goal, not the party. Yeah. And then put all that pressure on themselves. Yeah.

Jac Simmonds  38:14  
That's interesting. Do you think as well in saying that? Do you think there's a lot of people who make the choice to compete? Who maybe that's not the right decision for them? And is that something you face with your clients?

Ella Martyn  38:24  
Yeah, and I think I've got a pretty good initial consultation with my clients to figure out, you know, what, their wires. And if they, if they present with anything, that's a red flag in that they show some form of disordered eating, or, you know, they want to lose weight. But when the reality is they're actually a very small human already, they could probably do with eating some food and building some muscle. It'll just depend on how that initial console sort of happens, and then be able to guide them accordingly. If it's a case of well, you know, yeah, I do want to get on stage. Cool. Well, you actually need to build some muscle, and you need to spend some time eating and not dieting. And that's going to look like this. How do you feel about that? Yeah, I'm not ready to do that call when I actually I'm not the person that can help you.

Nick Papastamatis  39:08  
Oh, well, that's very refreshing.

Ella Martyn  39:11  
Yeah. Because I don't want to I don't want to diet you for a show and just take your money at the expense of your health.

Nick Papastamatis  39:15  
Hmm. Of course,

Ella Martyn  39:17  
because that's ridiculous. And don't get me wrong. There are people out there that will do it.

Nick Papastamatis  39:19  
so by by getting on stage...Because I feel like, I don't know, you tell me if I'm wrong. But I feel like you getting on stage might have been pivotal in your career.

Ella Martyn  39:29  
Definitely. Definitely. 

Nick Papastamatis  39:31  
Because then if, if, if once you've experienced it, not only would that that probably put a spark in you to sort of be like, wow, that I really enjoyed that process. And that party at the end, but then it's obviously helped you sort of unveil some of the reasons that are driving your clients. Yep. So, uh, yeah, I think I think it might have, I suppose uncovered didn't uncover some of these dark side of bodybuilding. Sort of.

Ella Martyn  40:00  
Yes, for sure. And I would have experienced some of those as well. You know, the whole body dysmorphia thing had photoshoots done around showtimes and I can distinctly remember like pulling out my lower abdominal going Why's this pocket of fat still there? Like I'm just I'm not lean enough. I was literally about 10% body fat. Well, none like picking it skin. Yeah, and choosing photos at the time. I'm like to hear their rubbish slider. I'm so fat like, on reflection, you can look back at the edits that you got, with so much appreciation for actually what you did. But then that time, your mind is taking you somewhere else. Yeah. Okay.

Nick Papastamatis  40:39  
How do you? Right? Okay, I think we need to like venture into this dark side of bodybuilding because this is where deep hole down. We've mentioned a couple things. Social media, body dysmorphia, we've talked about goals. With em, we've talked about your how you talk to your clients and figure out figure out like, what the right path is for them. But can we maybe start like with thankfully, we've got them written up. So we might just go one at a time. What is body dysmorphia?

Ella Martyn  41:14  
I guess it's when you perceive yourself to look a certain way, when the reality is you look totally different to that. Hmm.

Jac Simmonds  41:21  
Yeah. And it'd be I think that'd be pretty common in the, in the physique competition world, especially like, I mean, from outsiders looking in, like, we look at these people, and they're like, Wow, you look unbelievable. Yeah. And I know, like, you know, having worked with people who are in this world, like, sometimes they're not thinking that as well. And I guess it begs the question as well, like, these people, you know, should they be competing? And if you see this in your clients, how is how do you address it as well?

Ella Martyn  41:49  
Yeah, it's a tough one. And it's a lot of time spent on, I guess, digging deep into themselves and getting them to understand themselves a bit better. And trying to move away from the focus of being about the way you look. And to move towards, you know, maybe a performance gold in the gym, working on better habits around nutrition, maybe moving away from tracking weight on this scale way, you know, trying to just move away from always been about the way they look and spend some time focusing on some other areas. And most of the time, that does work. But the other times, it's a case of, you actually need to go and speak to somebody professional about this, and go and see a therapist about this, because there's some underlying issues there that are preventing you from making positive change. And it's not just down to diet and exercise, there's something else that you need to speak someone about it.

Jac Simmonds  42:35  
It might not be a reflection of the body itself, but more reflection of how happy they are in themselves. Oh, 100% in other areas of life, too. And then it'll send for external things.

Nick Papastamatis  42:44  
Yeah, to give them gratification. Yeah. how they compare their photo to someone that they admire. Yeah. versus how I feel.

Ella Martyn  42:55  
Yeah. And searching for happiness. I'll be happy when I've dropped five kilos, I'll be happy when I can see my abs, you actually won't. The reality is I've been there. And your happiness is not based on the way you look. 

Nick Papastamatis  43:05  
Happiness is based on three things, the absence of negative thoughts, the abundance of happy thoughts, and your satisfaction with what's happening in your life.

Jac Simmonds  43:13  
Yeah, amazing. The three things the thing I'd be interested in, as well as like with this body dysmorphia, and when people do get to the stage, or if they do get to their goal. There's the aftermath as well. As you know, you know that you can't maintain that physique. Long term. It's unsustainable, right? Yeah. What is that like, for you or for your clients? After they get to that goal, like What's life after comp like?

Ella Martyn  43:37  
life after comp is a really hard one. And it's so different for everybody. Depending on how restrictive your diet was in the lead up to your show, will really dictate how bad your reverse diet is, or if you reverse diet at all. And what you typically see with women that have gone through really restrictive processes where it's six meals a day, chicken, broccoli, asparagus, no fruit. I've got I've worked with there's a there's a....

Jac Simmonds  44:07  
They hate fruit in comp preps hey...

Ella Martyn  44:08  
There's a kitchen backstage in comps for the WBFF anyway, and there's some fruit platters that some sandwiches and then in the evening they bring out pizzas and all the rest of it. And I've been backstage before I know you're like what... been backstage before and girls...

Jac Simmonds  44:24  
Just for that part. Yeah.

Ella Martyn  44:26  
girls come backstage on off the roughing over the fruit platter. I haven't had fruit in 12 weeks. I'm like, What is wrong with you? Yeah, that's just poor strategies from the coaches that they've sought out who are meant to be the professionals. Yeah, so the the Postcomm rebound phase is so different for everyone. It really depends on the process that you had leading into the show. I'm very big, working with my clients to have a four week postcard reverse diet. So you can't just work with me for the 20 week period that I prep you for a show. And then once that shows down you go you go off because that phase coming off of the show was You've been in control of your diet, you've tracked it meticulously, you've just nailed all the basics. And you've gone way above and beyond any other lifestyle client, you can't just stop those habits and stop the tracking and revert to normal life again, because that's when the danger happens. And that's when you can very easily put on a whole lot of weight. And I'm talking like 10 kilos, in the space of like, two to three weeks

Jac Simmonds  45:23  
is that because when when you're in comp prep, you're making quick like, your maintenance calorie level will drop significantly. And it

Ella Martyn  45:30  
depends how hard you had to diet to get stage lean. And again, how long your prep process was.

Nick Papastamatis  45:36  
So if you're gonna get stage lean, what percentage for a female?

Ella Martyn  45:39  
it's very different, it's and you can't it's type body types. Yeah, like and different categories will have different for example, bikini category. You know, you might one girl might have a say you might have a bikini girl, one girl next to you might have her body fat percentage might just be that or genetics that she has ABS on stage in order for her to get her hamstrings and glutes to a level that's required for the leanness for the category. Whereas you on the other hand to bring in your hamstring and glutes, you're genetically you're you don't you don't have abs. So there's not really like a body fat percentage that you need to work to. It's really just about looking at the category you're you're competing in and what are their requirements and then however lean you need to get in order to bring show off. Yeah, strength. Yeah, bring down your body fat levels in those areas. 

Jac Simmonds  46:26  
say like, 10% is gonna look different for 10%. For someone else. Yeah, totally different. Yeah.

Nick Papastamatis  46:30  
So that's right. So stage lean. Right. So let's say for examples, how hot you you mentioned how hard Someone has to diet to get to a level with this stage lean?

Ella Martyn  46:39  
Yeah, so sometimes, sorry, you know, sometimes that they should really be prepping for their second comp, or just maybe prepping for a bit longer. You know, perhaps they've gone on a 12 week prep. And it means that they haven't given themselves enough time to drop the necessary body fat to wise, like, you're gonna create other issues. Yeah, so yeah, well, the harder you diet, the lower the calories are, the more in the danger zone, I guess that you are, you have to spend that time coming out of that danger zone, there's gonna be a lot of hormonal things that are going on with you to get into those low body fat levels. 

Nick Papastamatis  47:12  
So doing anything acutely, like that is going to create a side effect.

Ella Martyn  47:17  
Yeah, for sure. So you need to spend the time out of a comp, building your calories back up to a point where you can now you know, and not just immediately as well, some people can't tolerate that psychologically more than anything else. You go to a girl the spinning 1200 calories. We're going to show you a baseline now, which is 1800. Watch. No way, don't ever freak out. But the reality is you want to get them out of this danger zone and back at their maintenance calories as soon as possible. But the runt the risks you run post comp is that it's like oh shows done. Great. Let's go out. Yes, you become a Yes girl. Yes, yes. I'm gonna come for dinner. Yes, I'm gonna have that dessert. Yes, I'm having that extra wine. Yeah, whereas you've just been a no girl for the last 20 weeks. You kind of have to pull it back a bit. Yeah, you want to have some normality to your life again, but you need to still have or exercise some flexible restraint in your choices. You can't have it all all the time. Because that's when you run into the danger. 

Nick Papastamatis  48:08  
This  teaches people a lot about a lot

Jac Simmonds  48:11  
and that's when you can do long term metabolic damage as well. Hey,

Ella Martyn  48:14  
go from those super low calories super low body fat to gaining 10 kilos like overnight like

Jac Simmonds  48:19  
So I did the opposite, right? So like I was I when I was about 22 or something put on a paperweight tried to like I got up to 6000 calories, I think and I was up to about 104 kilos. Oh my god right now. Um, yeah, right now I sit at like 90 kilos most of the time. But now what I found is my maintenance calorie level is so high because of that long period of time I spent at really high calorie levels. Yeah, which means I can't put on weight now, which is a good thing for some people. But like, for me, 

Ella Martyn  48:45  
it's like actually trying to put on weight. Yeah, you try eating 6000 calories, 

Jac Simmonds  48:48  
just like where you do extremes with the metabolism and on. Like, this isn't my area, obviously a little bit like, it seems like when you do when you go to the extremes with your diet, it can cause like these long term metabolic effects which are really hard to hard to reverse,

Ella Martyn  49:02  
it just takes a long time to reverse that's the thing you know, it's it's not metabolic damage is what people would call it, it's just adaptation, you know, use the longer you spend in a in a very restrictive calorie deficit, your body's going to adapt to that because the number one goal is bloody survival. And if you're not feeding it, then it's going to figure out ways to do the minimum with the food that you're giving it so And on the flip side, I like the more that you can feed your body in like I guess a controlled manner as well. There's going to be some positive adaptations that in that you can actually tolerate more food and maintain you know, pretty solid levels of body fat and just build a heap of muscle. Hmm, interesting.

Nick Papastamatis  49:40  
Well, this excuse me, this was mainly for like body dysmorphia. Hmm. So I think let's we can keep talking about that. But I think there's a few more that we need to unpack.

Jac Simmonds  49:52  
Yeah. Like,

Nick Papastamatis  49:56  
like social media.

Jac Simmonds  49:58  
Yeah. Cool. Where Like with your clients and with yourself, do you see social media being an net positive or net negative effects, I guess on on women who train or women in the world that you're in

Ella Martyn  50:11  
both, but it really depends on what you are allowing yourself to consume in terms of the content that's out there. Yeah. You know, if you're looking at scrolling through pages, and it's making you feel really bad about yourself, then just don't follow them. What's the point? But there's also I don't know, when fitness became like, I don't know, like, beauty and fancy cars and expensive handbags and hair and tan and lashes and lips and boobs. That's that's like the picture of fitness on Instagram, unfortunately, which is mental. Which is why you don't see me doing any of that. Yeah. I can't be bothered with all of that either to be fair

Jac Simmonds  50:48  
Like, with social media that you're obviously on social media. Do you get a lot of girls come to you being like, I want to look like you.

Nick Papastamatis  50:55  
Um, they've secretly they probably,

Ella Martyn  50:59  
I guess they haven't really ever said that to me directly.

Jac Simmonds  51:02  
Yeah. Or like, they show you a picture of Haiti. And they're like, Look, this is what I want to look like. Is that something you have to face? Where it's like the expectation versus reality? Because obviously, Hattie, in yourself, and people who compete at high levels are genetically quite gifted as well. Is that something you have to face into with this social media?

Ella Martyn  51:19  
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's just, it's just aligning the clients expectations with with the reality is like, Okay, well, you're showing me a picture of Hattie. She's been training solidly for, like 10 years. And she was also an elite gymnast as a child. So what was your history? What's your training age? What's your background? Yeah, I just started training last year Cool. Well, the reality of you actually being able to look like catty is not going to happen. But that doesn't mean we can't make improvements to your life, your physique and build the things that you want to build. But will you look like Hattie in the next 12/12 weeks? Six months? 12 years? No.

Jac Simmonds  51:58  
Yeah.

Nick Papastamatis  51:58  
And because it's taken, it's taken her 20 Yeah. Yeah.

Ella Martyn  52:01  
And she's Hattie. She's not you.

Nick Papastamatis  52:03  
Just like no problem with social media, right? Like you're you're, you're looking at, you're looking at these photos and videos. And it's an immediate, it's an immediate comparison. Yeah, of like, where I'm at where they're at, where I'm at, where they're at, post my workout? my workout was this, this and this. And you're comparing that to the next person who worked at harder? Yeah, that looks better. Yes. I'm gonna try that now. Yeah. So do you see people? Do you see your clients and come to you with what they saw on social media in terms of what other people are doing? And then question you about that. 

Ella Martyn  52:42  
In what in what respect? Is that right? or wrong idea?

Nick Papastamatis  52:46  
I saw this, this and this, should I be doing that?

Ella Martyn  52:49  
And it would always be it depends? Yes, of course. It depends. What are your goals? Like? Why do you think you should be doing that or need to be doing that? I get that a lot around supplements, actually, do I need to take this insert brand fat burner? Why do you think you need that? Let's look at your diet. First. Let's look at your sleep first. Let's look at you know,

Jac Simmonds  53:09  
yeah, it all depends, like us getting on a night had, you know, patellar tendinopathy. And yet he did. He did this, this and this. And that's what helped him you know, it's just going to be different for everyone. And I guess that's where misinformation comes back into it on social media as well. Yeah. The other side effect. Yeah, the other side to social media, which is like not all info out there is great on top of obviously, the aspect, which involves body dysmorphia. And that feeding into to people's perceptions of their own body. Yeah, and the comparisons and things like that. 

Ella Martyn  53:39  
Yeah, a lot of the people that are the clients, I guess, and women are following on on social media, a lot of those big big fitness girls and accounts, they make money out of the way they look. So there's way more time and effort spent in their diet and exercise. And putting that I guess, face forward or look forward, because that's their bread and butter, they make a lot of money out of that, right. And if you're trying to be like that person or emulate that person, you need to realize that their nine to five, which isn't quite a nine to five is literally the way they look. And they have to keep working, that your nine to five is going to sit in an office, you know, and then you go home to a husband and three kids. So the reality of you actually even trying to have their life it's not going to work. 

Nick Papastamatis  54:23  
Yes, absolutely.

Jac Simmonds  54:25  
How do you think then, with this social media issue, I guess or the negative effects of social media? How do you think this should be like combated or what do you think influencers or people on social media should be doing different?

Ella Martyn  54:35  
I think it there's no regulation right? I think if you're a social media influencer and you're in the fitness industry, you need to really be aware of the content you're putting out and asking yourself, how is this is going to make a girl feel, huh? It's me posting this workout in my bikini going to leave the viewer with a positive or a negative experience. Even if you're in pensions were good. Really think about how is that going to be perceived?

Nick Papastamatis  55:05  
Yeah. And this is where what people post on social media is it's meant to be an extension of what of your imprint, right? It's meant to be your imprint. Yeah. And a lot of the time people post things because they've had like a bit of inspiration from, from somewhere else, or they read something that inspired them. So they post it because it inspired them. But what are they really trying to do? And this is where, if you've got 1000 followers 1000, you're putting it somewhere where 1000 people, it's now subject to their appraisal? Yeah. And actually, once you've posted it, the only thing that gets you validation, or has some sort of is either likes or comments, or replies or whatever. But beyond that, you've just had 1000 people or whatever, whoever, however many saw it, have an interpretation of you now, and then they've compared that to themselves? Yeah. So actually, that's the biggest issue that I see. And that is what x person posts might be a self obsessive thing that they're posting, because they felt like they needed to post it. But then actually, the impact of the ripple or the butterfly effect of that is, yeah, everyone else's interpretation. Yeah. And that's gonna have a meaning. Yeah. To them, which might influence their post and their post and their post. Yeah, which for me is mind blowing

Ella Martyn  56:28  
it is because you'll see that a lot specially on similar accounts, there'll be a trend, someone will start posting something, and then next minute, they're all posting similar types of content soon.

Nick Papastamatis  56:39  
100%. And I see that in the, in the car of the allied health field of, of this big push towards patient understanding patient beliefs. Now, I believe there is a huge role of understanding patient beliefs. in, in, in health care, it's part of understanding and having a good well rounded, evidence based approach. But fuck me, it is dead set binge. It's such a drawing a very, very long bow, on the fact that the beliefs has to be addressed and managed and and all the expectations need to be expensive. Everything at the expense of just that, man. They just need the back cracked shut up. Yeah, get on with it. There's going to be people who take things to the extreme. And it's like, but then having that view is like is also unhelpful. So so this is this is where, like, it's super interesting to see. And there's been a few people influencing that, who I've had to unfollow because, yeah, they make me question. Yeah, they make me question something that I'm already doing well,

Jac Simmonds  57:46  
yeah, right. Yeah. And it gets in your head, right. Because convincing like, same in the bodybuilding world, these people look unreal, you know, and they have these big followings. And it gets convincing, like their methods and how they do things and I think maybe a lot of it comes down to following the right people.

Ella Martyn  58:01  
Absolutely.

Jac Simmonds  58:02  
I'm just having So who do you think people should follow?

Ella Martyn  58:04  
Yeah. Gosh, that's a good one. 

Nick Papastamatis  58:07  
Maybe not specific, people will vote but like should that should it be should they be following people real legit that they identify with? Should they be looking for people that they need to far reach for? Like should they have a should they have different buckets of people they need to follow? Like, I might follow Hattie boydle for inspiration, I might follow x person for someone I want to strive to be like, because striving to be like Hattie's there's only one Hattie Boydle and and then Should I follow people that are similar to me on my journey, perhaps? 

Ella Martyn  58:40  
I think they're probably a good place to start. And also maybe just looking for accounts that provide good quality education I guess or and stuff that you're interested in. Yeah. And that don't leave you questioning yourself or walking away feeling really unhappy with it.

Jac Simmonds  58:54  
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so look for people who like identify with yourself put out good information and make you feel good about yourself I really like that

Ella Martyn  59:05  
unfollow everybody else just click that unfollow button

Jac Simmonds  59:09  
Yeah, it's it's interesting like and it's quite a nice feeling that unfollow button 

Ella Martyn  59:13  
I've been doing it as well actually. Yeah, me too.

Nick Papastamatis  59:16  
It's like turning off a shit song on the radio.

Ella Martyn  59:18  
but apparently so if this you can actually mute people I don't know how to do this yet but someone that I'm following without opening and so because you know if you like follow you know somebody though, and if you unfollow them Why do you unfollowed me but really, you just want to mute that content? Because you're like, that's fuckin shit.

Nick Papastamatis  59:33  
Yes,

Ella Martyn  59:33  
there's a mute button.

Nick Papastamatis  59:34  
Yes.

Jac Simmonds  59:36  
I've never looked into who unfollows me I'm sure there's people out there.

Nick Papastamatis  59:39  
Yeah. I got sick of my golf posts and my people... if people unfollow me now, it doesn't bother me like that. But I understand the friends point of view. And it's kind of like yeah, you know if you've got that friend that does 20 too 20 posts per day. Yeah. You just like or do I want to listen mute now.

Jac Simmonds  59:58  
Yeah. I think I think what you said that Ella, which struck a chord with me was like social media. We spend so much time on social media, right? Like, making sure we're following people that make us feel good about ourselves, right? like not having not getting on social media and being like, Oh shit, like, I don't look like this, or I can't do this. Yes,

Nick Papastamatis  1:00:16  
yeah. Dive straight into comparison.

Jac Simmonds  1:00:17  
Yeah. And if you're someone who's prone to those thoughts anyway, and then you jump on a medium like social media, which which exacerbates this then then we're just adding fuel to a fire.

Nick Papastamatis  1:00:26  
So imagine combining body dysmorphia with social media? Oh, you've already got yourself a concoction.

Jac Simmonds  1:00:31  
Yeah. And then you're snacking on a fish and a rice cake while you're on it.

Nick Papastamatis  1:00:35  
So then, so then we've got the concept of eating disorders, versus disordered eating as another dark side of bodybuilding? Can you explain the difference?

Ella Martyn  1:00:45  
Well, disordered eating is just, I guess, having certain ways in which you have to eat, you know, carrying around the container with you when you eat out. Or when you do go and eat out at a meal. You've got to have this and this without this and this and you're just a person that has to be really awkward with the way you eat. Without it really fitting into your lifestyle, you're making it you know, it's take over your life. Right. Whereas eating disorders are clinical issues that obviously you have to go and seek advice from the relevant people with the with the knowledge in that, but bodybuilding can bring on both of those things. Or at least,

Nick Papastamatis  1:01:22  
And we're talking about. We're talking about anorexia nervosa, bulimia. Yeah. pathology? Yeah, yeah. Actual things that need to be addressed.

Jac Simmonds  1:01:30  
And there might be a fine line as well, between those two things. 

Ella Martyn  1:01:33  
Yeah, definitely. Absolutely.

Nick Papastamatis  1:01:34  
So if you're saying that disordered eating can blend and becoming, then turn into what sort of Have you ever had a client and where you've experienced? Well, firstly, you know, would you be open to answering the question of Have you ever experienced that before? No, I haven't. Have you ever experienced thoughts that sort of lead into that type of like you like, Oh, that's actually a dangerous thought?

Ella Martyn  1:01:55  
For myself? Yeah. Oh, yeah. For sure. With the disordered eating? Absolutely. Absolutely. What sort of thoughts are we talking about? Ah, it just comes down to like, I can't eat that. Can't eat that. I've got to take that with me social outings become really tricky. And

Nick Papastamatis  1:02:08  
you start saying, No, no, no,

Ella Martyn  1:02:10  
no, no, I'm not going out. And that's what that's not life.

Jac Simmonds  1:02:14  
Yeah. I saw you actually, uh, you did a post about it the other day like with your I think it was your trip, you went, yeah, recently, hey, and how you like, managed that and got around it, which I think so cool for, for girls to read that like, yeah, to realize, especially this time of year when we're going away, or like social events and things like that,

Ella Martyn  1:02:30  
because most people start on a on a fitness fat loss journey, right, because they're leading up to something a holiday and event or wedding, I've got to lose some weight for this thing. And then that thing happens. And then you come back, and you've just gained all the weight again. So we're constantly going through the cycle of dieting for events, and it doesn't need to be like that, like, you can totally manage your body composition goals, and be weight stable throughout periods of holidaying and the Christmas Christmas period. And whatever it is, you know, birthdays weekends away, you just need to be aware of your choices. Yeah, and not have nutritional food as a secondary thought, where you just go and eat whatever you want all the time, you know, it's that flexible restraint, just without tracking it. Because tracking is just a means for you to gain the knowledge and understanding of what food is. And what your individual requirements are,

Nick Papastamatis  1:03:17  
is there a point where you get to know a lot of what you're eating and you can start to self measure it without measuring?

Ella Martyn  1:03:25  
Absolutely. And once my clients have gone through the process of tracking for a period of time, they've reached their goals, where whether they've been on stage or just lifestyle goals. just happy to maintain now just actually want to maintain where I'm at, we go through phases of maintenance. So we start to pull away pull, which no one does, yeah, you go in your diet, and then you rebound and you have to diet. Again, no one sits at maintenance phases, because it's not sexy. There's nothing sexy about changing anything. Yeah, you're just staying exactly the same. But you're happy with that you should be happy with where you're at now.

Nick Papastamatis  1:03:54  
And this and this is where like, it starts to blend in with the other. There's we've got quite a few of these dark side, dark side points. There's a lot when, like, a lot of people set goals. They obviously they they'd like Ah, I really want to do this. Ah, I've been so lazy. My New Year's resolution. I'm gonna do this in 2021 or 2020, whatever. And it's like, when is a goal good and when is a goal bad? And what's the hell's wrong with maintenance? What's the hell's wrong, just getting your shit together,

Ella Martyn  1:04:26  
it's actually very hard to do go through a maintenance phase because we're driven by needing to do something right sitting at that happy medium is like I said, it's not sexy. No one wants to just do the work to stay how they are, but it's totally a phase and when you're not gonna, you know, you could just work so hard to lose this body fat. Why not spend some time at this new body that you've just got down and spend the time moving away from tracking likes, you don't have to go to My Fitness Pal Oh time and track your food. You can go out and eat a meal and not worry about does it fit my protein, fat and carbs. You're going to make informed choices around that meal. And that's sort of the process I go through my clients once they've reached out We go through a phase of tracking and maintaining. And then we start to pull, pull back, you know, take the foot off the pedal, you don't need to now weigh everything. You've got some skills that start eyeballing foods, yes, let's start, you know, still track that, but I will move away from the need to wait or, and then start to move away from tracking at all. And I actually have just sent a client off on her way I shall finish next week, and we've got this next two weeks is no tracking. And she's like, I've used My Fitness Pal for solidly three years and you're telling me not to use it? I'm like, yep, that's exactly what I'm telling you to do. Like, you know how to do this, you just don't have the confidence to take the foot off the pedal fully and say Actually, I don't need My Fitness Pal to tell me I've eaten enough more, I've not eaten enough. 

Jac Simmonds  1:05:43  
That's interesting. Because then the other side of that is energy expenditure. So different day to day as well. Absolutely. Like this specific hitting that specific macros number. And calorie number is is going to fluctuate anyway, day to day when you initially especially if you go on a holiday or something like that

Ella Martyn  1:05:58  
your appetite will change daily, you know, your your your satiety levels will change daily, depending on how active you've been. And you might just end up having a social dinner out. That ended up being dessert, and wine. So you consumed way more calories than you normally would in that day. That's not the end of the world because your body's like smart thing. It will just regulate your appetite the coming days. And you'll just find Actually, I'm not that hungry.

Jac Simmonds  1:06:19  
That's why Under Armour bought My Fitness Pal. It's just everyone's addicted to it, right. Like it's one of the most popular apps on the app store where people just get smart buying. Yeah, like obviously flexible dieting in itself is is not as it's not associated with disordered eating as much because you're giving people flexibility and you're giving people options. Yeah, I can definitely see how it would create the opposite where people become so attached to the number that they hit at the end of today.

Nick Papastamatis  1:06:44  
That's that's exactly like, the some people it's like, I've got I wear a Whoop band, I've been told Yes. I do like to tell people about whoop. And for me the whoop band changed my life. Yeah, a few things have over the past six months, I've had a bit of a life changing sort of journey, starting with the Miracle Morning. And, and and actually with quarantine and COVID. So that changed my life in terms of my physical health right before the for a sustainable future. Good. And so anyway, it's not about me. Point is, is that the whoop, the whoop can definitely provide you with data that can hurt you.

Jac Simmonds  1:07:23  
I can see especially in people who are pretty neurotic as well.

Nick Papastamatis  1:07:26  
I think it comes near Oh, yeah, yeah,

Jac Simmonds  1:07:28  
I did My Fitness Pal for ages. And I if I was like a dead off it It drives me nuts. Right. Which is that's disordered eating as well. Right? Like, and Nick, if you get too attached to that whoop,

Nick Papastamatis  1:07:39  
yeah, like when you when you start it like I've got a morning routine, I've got a non routine, I've got a training routine I've got, but then when you start to become a little bit too bound to these routines. Yeah. And you start to stop enjoying the things. Like I play one this game of FIFA, which for me is heartbreaking. And it's like, Wow, well. So I can put my orange glasses on and take my MA and start meditating and read. So I'm gonna play this 12 year old mofo on the other side of yourself on the other side of the world, and I'm gonna kick his ass. Yeah.

Jac Simmonds  1:08:18  
Yeah, I can. I can definitely say both sides. Yeah, that's interesting. So then, like with your clients, right? Like, I'm sure you come in. Or you have people who start with you who have the smorgasbord of these issues, right, like, bad goals, body dysmorphia, or poor relationship with social media, disordered eating, and unreal, unrealistic expectations? Is that something you get? Like someone who has a lot of these things? or all of these things at one time?

Ella Martyn  1:08:44  
Yeah, for sure. Or I'll get clients that have none of them and their dream clients? Yes. Yeah.

Jac Simmonds  1:08:50  
Yeah. So where do you start with these?

Ella Martyn  1:08:54  
Um, yeah, it's, it's a tricky one. And I guess you need to just break it down on the initial console as to what's the what's sort of the biggest red flag and what's the most important. And most of these things I've found, can be dealt with just by better nutrition habits. As soon as you just start eating better, eating more food, you're, you immediately feel better, you're sleeping better, you're less stressed, you're less ratty with people, you know, you can function better at work, things just start to slot into place when you start working on your nutrition better. So that's probably the first step. And then off the back of that you start to then see physical changes to that's motivating, you're inclined to put a little bit more effort in. And then it will be a case of identifying the next habit that we need to address and change that's going to help better that client with whatever the dark side issues they've presented with and just start working through the list like that. And eventually you'll get to a point where they're seeing some really positive change. They're actually genuinely a little bit happier with life. And that's probably the biggest thing is not just not they don't just come to me for a fat loss goal or they do they come to me because I want to lose some body fat over the goal. They call me next. To look better, feel better, but what happens is they end up just going through this full transformation and everything in their life is just better. I've had clients that have left really shit jobs, because it wasn't serving them and it was actually making them feel worse and they've gone got another job. That's just probably worse pay but way more gratifying. And they've actually got Yeah,

Nick Papastamatis  1:10:18  
Once you start clear things up a little bit. It's amazing. What what symptoms show up? Yeah, start to refine hone in on what's causing most of your anx.

Jac Simmonds  1:10:26  
improving their relationship with themselves.

Nick Papastamatis  1:10:28  
Yeah, I've had that I've had heaps of I've had heaps of clients are one of my something I'm actually working on is people that are in the corporate world that are burnt out. And they come in with this ongoing pain, ongoing pain, they can't recover. They're in pain all the time. They've got a gamut of other health issues they're not looking at, and then in some cases, probably not telling me about. And I've worked with people for years, and eventually they actually resign. Yeah, they resign. And then they take 12 months off. Yeah. 12 months. Hmm, can you imagine being in your 40s, late 30s and 40s? You have, you know, high paying job, and then you just stop working?

Jac Simmonds  1:11:13  
Yeah, for 12 months.

Nick Papastamatis  1:11:15  
That's how burned out they are? Why am I talking about this?

Ella Martyn  1:11:19  
I've never... that baffles me, hey, that people do that, that they kill themselves for a job 

Jac Simmonds  1:11:23  
in fitness as people who are when you just clean things up a little bit? Yeah, people who've been killing themselves for too long. And then and then you clean things up and suddenly lease on life, right? I'm sure there's people who've like done the old school sort of bodybuilding thing where they're doing, like the clean eating and all that stuff. And then you can only maintain it for so long before you get absolutely nuts, right? And then develop a shit relationship with food and training and then just blow out right? Yeah, well, you

Ella Martyn  1:11:46  
or you don't train at all you like, Guys don't want to do it anymore. There's no pleasure in it. 100%.

Nick Papastamatis  1:11:50  
So how I'm like, let's say for example, you've got a client that have come that's coming with a bad goal. Right, that we that you appreciate is a bad goal, that they that maybe you can't tell them because they are fixated on it. And how long would you lead someone down a path of that bad goal? And then because there's for sure, like, I've heard a couple things so far with in our discussion of there's times where you need to coach them, and make them come to the realization that they're on the wrong path. Or they need to change their expectations or something like that. And that would be a coach's role. Yeah. But and in some of the cases, that you've got the mentor role, where you've been through what they've what they're trying to go through, and you can advise them along the way. Yeah. But then there are component there are times where you need to tell them to do something like you are now on, you are now not tracking, I am prescribing, it's a prescription, I am telling you to do this do it. So that process of it's a bad goal. Do you tell them that's a bad goal? Or do you go through a process of a timely process of like, them starting to realize that that was actually not a good idea in the first place?

Ella Martyn  1:12:59  
You know what's a bad goal like somebody that wants to drop 20 kilos in like 1012 weeks, that type of stuff, or like wants to start powerlifting in the next 3 months?

Nick Papastamatis  1:13:11  
goal goals that have that have more risk than reward?

Ella Martyn  1:13:14  
Yeah, I guess just being honest and upfront with them actually, about that initial consult will this if this is what you want to achieve? This is the process in which you need to follow to get there and in this time saving the bird. Yeah. And this is this is what the effort or you know, this is the recipe the reward, like I used is this still what you want to do, because a lot of the time those clients have this, you know, thought of Yeah, I want to do that. But they don't have the understanding of all the background knowledge to they just see the end thing, they don't see the process. So is that process, something that you can actually go through? Same with competing, I've had clients come to me that want to compete, but they work like six days a week till like eight, nine o'clock at night. The reality is, mate, there's no way you can dedicate the time and effort to get on stage. It's a very selfish sport, and you actually need to start saying no to things. 

Nick Papastamatis  1:14:02  
I've definitely gone through that process of realization where if you're working if you're working anything longer than 10 hours, not fuck that anything longer than eight hours, you are going to get away with 30 minutes monitor structural work, get on the rower for 30 minutes, do some basic non skill based work and get your heart rate up. That's it, mate.

Ella Martyn  1:14:21  
Yeah, yeah.

Jac Simmonds  1:14:22  
I mean, like, imagine if you and I it's not happening, but like if you and I made the decision to compete, like, what are we gonna do like

Nick Papastamatis  1:14:30  
trying to two to three hours a day, two hours a day?

Jac Simmonds  1:14:32  
Where are we gonna find that time and then like, also, like, obviously flexible dieting allows for this a lot. But like, just being able to fit that into our lifestyle and food. Yeah, days fluctuate a lot by

Nick Papastamatis  1:14:43  
buying your bikini and stuff, Jac.

Jac Simmonds  1:14:45  
Yeah, that's right. Yeah,

Ella Martyn  1:14:46  
exactly. That fits it's trunks. guys will get get you some little trunks.

Jac Simmonds  1:14:51  
That's right. Exactly. Yeah. All right. Cool. That's, uh, that gives some insight at least into how you deal with I guess you'll call to maybe come with a few of these issues and and then it's what like triage, you've basically just got to figure out what the biggest issue is that they've got to clean up.

Ella Martyn  1:15:08  
Yeah. What's the what could you get the biggest payoff with you know, what's going to be the immediate, what they're going to see some progress with immediately and maybe stuck with you, if you get their diet changed.

Nick Papastamatis  1:15:18  
There are like we talked like, you know, how that gets absorbed, and the different parts of the gut that is your second brain. And you clean that up a little bit. And we said, like, people don't people don't change unless their environment change or their situation change. Yeah. Like, well, like a flower, in some way, shape, depending. And so if you change, I suppose, to use the floral sense, change the floor of the God, or you just change the way the gut works, or you just change how, how many nutrients they actually have. That will have to have a direct correlation to how you think, hmm, because just hormones and chemistry, yeah, your appetite and your satiety, managed by the hormones, ghrelin and leptin. It's like, that's hormonal II driven from the hypothalamus. Well, it's what drives the hypothalamus. It's like, well, you can keep you can keep drawing, like going layer and layer layer deeper, deeper, deeper until you get to the point we say, depends on what you eat, mate.

Jac Simmonds  1:16:21  
Yeah. That sounds like the overarching thing. And then it sounds like the maybe the last causes are the ones that need referral.

Ella Martyn  1:16:27  
Yeah, sure. Sure.

Jac Simmonds  1:16:29  
I like that.

Nick Papastamatis  1:16:31  
Well, Holy moly. We have been through a lot of

Jac Simmonds  1:16:34  
covered a bit. did well,

Nick Papastamatis  1:16:36  
I think we did well,

Ella Martyn  1:16:37  
very well.

Nick Papastamatis  1:16:37  
Is there anything you'd what is sort of a couple, a couple of little nuggets you want to impart to you taking clients? Not for the rest of this year?

Ella Martyn  1:16:47  
I will be opening up consult calls for 2021. Okay. I don't take on clients. I'm just me, myself, and I and my partner, Josh is also a coach. He works with the guys that we onboard. But yeah, I kept my numbers because I want to deliver a service to my clients that's not then watered down because I'm just at capacity.

Nick Papastamatis  1:17:08  
And that service is like, the it's encompassing everything we've talked about today. Yeah.

Jac Simmonds  1:17:12  
Yeah. Awesome. So I guess, for everyone who's listening, where can people reach you? And where can they follow you? And

Ella Martyn  1:17:20  
yeah, main places to reach me. We'll probably start with Instagram, you can find me @ellamartyn. That's where the Y ma RT y en from there. There's a URL that will feed you to my website.

Nick Papastamatis  1:17:33  
Your posts are always educational to

Ella Martyn  1:17:35  
thank you. I try inspiration I try sometimes.

Nick Papastamatis  1:17:38  
Yeah, yeah. But you definitely like some of the posts that a lot of the posts said you're trying to deliver a message. And it's not just inspo. Yeah. Which is Jim shark model.

Jac Simmonds  1:17:49  
Yeah. Which you're not going to be the one to say this a little bit, like, as we were talking about before, like, if you're looking for people to follow a good one, they're positive. Yeah, definitely. 

Ella Martyn  1:17:59  
Appreciate that. Yeah, I try.

Nick Papastamatis  1:18:00  
So what a couple of little nuggets that you want to impart to people listening, that are thinking about that have a goal. And they're stuck.

Ella Martyn  1:18:13  
seek the advice from a professional coach. But do your due diligence on that coach, don't just assume because they've got a body and they look good on Instagram, that they actually have the credentials to back it up. So definitely seek a coach to help you achieve your goals, because you'll only get a benefit from that. As long as you go to the right one.

Nick Papastamatis  1:18:36  
What does during doing your due diligence look like?

Ella Martyn  1:18:38  
I mean, just check their websites check to see if they actually have any qualifications. Are they providing nutrition advice? Did he have a qualification in that? Where did they study? Or are they just a personal trainer that's done a comp and now is providing you with a meal plan?

Nick Papastamatis  1:18:50  
You know, you can't be satisfied with just how the website looks? And no, look? No, no.

Ella Martyn  1:18:55  
And actually, if you have a consult with a coach, you can ask them these questions. And I love coming off a consult with somebody that actually sits down and asked me Hey, what are your What are your qualifications? What have you What have you done? You see, some people look at that as being questioned? Yeah, I don't know. Well, it is being questioned and rightly so you should question because you're going to embark on

Nick Papastamatis  1:19:13  
Yeah. Because they don't the credentials? Yeah, yeah.

Ella Martyn  1:19:18  
You know, you're gonna get you're gonna spend a lot of money on coaching and for a service, so you're gonna want to make sure that you're going to the right person for that. Absolutely. So yeah,

Nick Papastamatis  1:19:25  
second, I'm someone that has a goal but stuck.

Ella Martyn  1:19:30  
to, to, to to to the start, start with your why, what is your why behind your goal? Is it you know, from a place of self love, or is it from a place of, you know, negativity and loading and not being happy with where you are because that change needs to come from a place of love and respect because otherwise you'll achieve that goal and you still won't be happy. So if you're driving forces, because I I don't like the way I look, when I stand in front of the mirror. You have to go a bit deeper than that. Well, why, what's the driving force behind that?

Nick Papastamatis  1:20:06  
But I can attest to that personally, and partly that quarantine, that I mentioned earlier without actually being in quarantine changed my life where I was reading a book that my coach Andrew monition, passed on to me called the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, I read that book plus I was confined to my, my, my deli chiller unit. And, and literally, there was a, there was a chapter in there of why and understanding why. And so I took myself through an exercise of unpacking that. And as soon as because I don't really give a shit about aesthetic, like, I don't have self low self loathing. Probably also to my detriment. And it's, like, a lot of these performance slash aesthetic goals. I could not give a shit. Yeah. However, as soon as I realized what my driving force was, and that is either I'm trying to educate people, or I'm trying to inspire people. Yeah. I was like, Okay. And by not training, and not improving your physical health. Are you achieving that? Hmm. And I look that is when I looked at myself in the mirror, and I was like, you piece of shit. Get off your ass. Yeah. And, and that's and I haven't stopped training since. Excellent. So So finding your wife is a huge one. They're both beautiful. Yeah, beautiful points. Love it. Yeah, thanks a lot. Thanks so much,

Ella Martyn  1:21:35  
Thanks guys. Thanks for having me.

Jac Simmonds  1:21:36  
No problem.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai