Kevin:  [00:00:00]Hello, and welcome to the over 50 health and wellness podcast. I'm your host, Kevin English. I'm a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach who is passionate about inspiring you to become the healthiest, strongest, most vital version of yourself. We have a great show for you today. Brock Edwards is going to talk to us about how you can master midlife.

But first, I want to let you know that this episode is brought to you by the silver edge. The silver edge is my online personal training and nutrition coaching business. Designed to help you get into the best shape of your life. No matter your age. If you'd like to learn more, email me at coach@silveredgefitness.com and we'll start a conversation. Okay enough of that let's get on with today's show!

 

[00:01:00]The dictionary defines mastery as comprehensive knowledge or skill in a subject and control or superiority over something. So, what would it look like to have mastery over our midlife? To have comprehensive knowledge and skill to take control of our lives as we age. My guest today is Brock Edwards a little over a year ago. Brock turned 50 and it got him thinking.

How could the second half of his life be better than the first half? What would that look like? What changes would he need to make? Or was it all downhill from here? So Brock created the midlife mastery podcast to explore these questions. But before we tackle just how we master our mid lives, let's start our [00:02:00] conversation with the definition what exactly is midlife?

Broc: All right. So a lot of different definitions out there. I define it as your fifties and sixties, and that is in no way scientific. I don't know that anyone else on the planet agrees with me. I really picked those because while I turned 50 last year, and so selfishly, I just set me as the bottom of it.

But you know, more than that, I feel a distinction between my forties and my fifties. And I feel like I have more in common and a better connection with those in fifties and sixties versus those thirties, forties, and those seventies and beyond. And so for me, it's just this nice little pocket of the area of life I'm thinking about.

I hold no beef, no argument with those who say no, it's in your forties or those who are like, I'm 35. I midlife awesome. You know, with a life expectancy of what? High seventies, 80, yeah. 40 is actually the middle, but [00:03:00] with us living longer and for the most part healthier retirement age, going up higher in my mind, this is kind of where I'm hitting the middle section of what's going on.

So, you know, I think of thirties and forties, you're really building career. You're building your family, you're building your life and I'm in no way ready to wind down. But I am thinking of the wind down it's in the future there. but it is kind of this, okay. I've built. What do I do now?

Like how do I, I've got, you know, a couple of decades of transition before I even think I'll be ready to wind down, but it is different. I, you know, it's, I'm no longer have such a steep, upward curve of when you're learning and your kids are little and career and all that. So  yeah, it does feel different to me.

Kevin: And I love that, that you say, what do I do now? Cause that that's a great point. And I personally have transitioned in the last year I'm transitioning from, you know, that corporate Kevin that I've been doing for all of my adult life, basically to really following my passion, following my dream, taking these [00:04:00] bigger risks.

So it's a time of life when we have this chance. And I know you talked to a lot of great guests on your podcast about these kinds of topics, but about these second beginnings or the second half of life and these transitions that we're going through.

So talk to us a little bit about your podcast. We mentioned that in the intro midlife mastery, what, what got you interested in that? Why don't you start a podcast on mastering midlife?

Broc: Yeah. So a lot of reasons came together all at once. I have a second podcast, actually, it's my first podcast called imperfect action, which is just based on the idea that imperfect action beats perfect inaction, which is a reminder to me to get out of my own way.

And I was just looking for ways to all of us to get out of our own way, whether it's, you know, you're an entrepreneur, your career life, or just your lifeline. And that is a pretty widespread, lots of theirs. A lot of focus to it, I guess, is the best way of describing it. You know, any ideas to help us get unstuck.

So lots of different guests from a lot of different areas, but yeah. [00:05:00] For midlife, a couple of things came together. One, I turned 50 and was starting to think about things differently. I mean, I didn't have this kind of midlife crisis. It wasn't a traumatic experience for me or anything like that, but it was kind of a landmark age.

And about the same time, I also saw a statistic and I will get, I will get the details wrong. I will get the general direction of it. Correct. And that is, you know, those of us who are over 50 spend about half the money and get about 7% of the marketing. And that just blew, blew my mind, just completely had me rethinking a lot of things and had me wondering like why, if that's where all the money is, why isn't, that's, what's being targeted.

And is there a need. Waiting to be fulfilled, you know? And when I look at marketing, I always think about it as either. That is what the marketers are saying. They think that's who they think. I think I am, [00:06:00] or that's who they think society thinks I should be.  If you can make your way through those sentences and if there's no marketing happening.

And the marketing that I see is horrific offensive, not who I think of me as being  I mean, it's overgeneralizing, but it's kind of  pharmaceuticals. So, you know, the world thinks I'm falling apart. Haven't gotten there yet.  You know, Trying to be 20 again, I have no interest in being 20. Again, 20 was great.

But I want to do 50, well, I don't want to do 20 again or kind of this retirement, Hey, Gramps, go off in the corner and just wait to die. Okay. I'm not really looking forward to that. Or, you know, as my mom joked, when I was kind of discussing this with her, you know, all the, all the other commercials are kind of, you know, the gray haired couple in the convertible, eating their probiotic, yogurt is they're driving down the California coast and I don't relate to that either.

So  it just felt like, wow, this is what [00:07:00] the world thinks of midlife as, and this is not what I think of midlife as. This is not who I want to be. This is not who I'm trying to be. And so I kind of had this for me, this realization that there isn't really any good instruction on how to do 50 plus. So, you know, my, my daughter is in college.

My son's in high school. There's a lot of information out there on like, you know, how to do your twenties great how to get your career going.  You know, I've been interested in personal development for decades, you know, in my twenties, my thirties, lots of great information. None of, none of it really focused on.

Okay. Now that you're kind of at this multi-decade transition phase  what do you do? How do you do it? Well, what things are different? You know, I, I'm not ready to give up activity, but my body responds different to activity.  I can eat like I'm a 20 year old, but I feel it when I do. And there's a lot of when you're 20.

You don't feel the effects of your decisions yet? You know, at 50 I feel the effects of decisions I made 10, 20 years ago. And I [00:08:00] have enough of a sense of mortality now to think about, okay, the decisions I make today are going to have an effect, you know, as I finish out my life and what decisions do I need to be making?

What does that need to look like? You know, how do I do this? Well, we don't see a lot of great role models in their fifties and sixties. There are out there, but they often just don't get the limelight.  With them, maybe the rare exception of those actors who look fabulous in their fifties and sixties.

I don't have that bankroll, so, you know, what do I do? And, and really that was the Genesis of the podcast. Like it's called midlife mastery. It's not me showing up telling anyone how to do their midlife. It's me showing up, talking to people who seem to have a really good handle on it and trying to learn from them and bringing the listener along on the journey.

And there are things that will not resonate for me that resonate for the listener and vice versa. And really we're just all in it together trying to figure out, well, what do we do? How do we do it better? How do we make this great, because I do believe the second half should be [00:09:00] better than the first half.

Like I've got a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge.  I have more money than I did when I was in my twenties, you know, more resources. And so, yeah, I just feel like  I haven't peaked yet and, and you know what I want to do better every day. And but kind of the third piece of it there is, is simply.

I coasted a bit in my forties, you know, just kinda kind of life things I wasn't as active  more involved with career, more involved with kids and, I had my kids kind of late. So when I was in my forties, that's when they hit the age that I couldn't go off and go mountain biking every weekend, or at least I really want to make sure I spend time with them and, you know, just different life stage.

And so I'm feeling the effects of that. You know, I'm not in as good a shape as I used to be in I'm, feel more lethargic, feel like I have less energy than I did, and sure that could be aging, but a lot of it is lifestyle and really wanting to  [00:10:00] re-engage in my life. I never feel like, felt like I checked out, but I do feel like, yeah, I've been kind of coasting on everything I built for a while.

And  you know, when you coast you slow down. And so I want to stop coasting. And so really long answer Kevin, but they were, it is multifaceted. There's a lot of reasons I started doing that.

Kevin: I love that Brock says that he wants to do his fifties well. Not relive his twenties. He says he wants the second half to be better than the first half. And that he has an in fact, peaked yet. And I absolutely love that. I have a similar story. During my forties, my priorities were on my career and my family and I stopped taking care of myself and my health declined.

And it wasn't until I was in my fifties that I really started taking care of myself. Started prioritizing my health and wellness across all domains, exercise and [00:11:00] nutrition, of course. But I also started focusing on emotional, social and spiritual development. And as a result, I honestly feel that at age 57 I'm peaking now,

But who knows maybe the best is yet to come. So Brock isn't coming at midlife with all the answers. He's not telling us how we should or shouldn't go about midlife. Rather he's inviting us along with him on his journey. His exploration

Broc: Absolutely.  You know, I will tell people, never look at me as a role model.  I may have some great advice somewhere, but I'm not really there to give advice.  Any advice I have was more in just as I speak to my guests, helping bring the context out. So maybe, dig deeper into the ideas   for the listeners to really explore that.

But no, it is an, an exploration for me.  It is a exploration for the listener and in many ways it's an exploration for the guests because you know, a lot of them, even though from the outside, I'm looking at them going, man, you seem to have this figured [00:12:00] out. they're just human. They're going through life.

And, I like to believe that they get a lot from the conversation too. It helps crystallize kind of what they've been thinking about, what they're planning on doing. And so hopefully, you know, it's a triple win for all of us. There is we're talking.

Kevin: I certainly agree. And that's been my experience in listening.

It's, you know, you've had a bunch of guests on there that have spoken, you know, that I could completely relate to. And I want to go back. You had mentioned marketing and the way people market towards folks in our generation, let's just say fifties and sixties for now.  And you're right. I'd never really considered that, but it's Viagra commercials.

It's the probiotic yogurt commercials. It's the silver haired couple driving along the highway in their convertible.  None of which are things that I relate to. And the other half of that is it's. It's pharmaceuticals, right? Well, you need to take this pill. You need to, you know, this, this will help you stay active or in the game longer, et cetera.

But clearly [00:13:00] that's one of the things that cause me to start my podcast. Right? I want to tell people that you can be in the best shape of your life and you're 50, 60 seventies, even eighties.  And it's never too late to start.   And I think you're right, that there's something to be said about. I can live my best life in my fifties. I started personally, I certainly don't want to go back and relive my twenties.  But I do want to live my best life in my fifties. So talk to us a little bit about your podcast guests.

What are some of the lessons that you've kind of learned along the way for yourself and what are some tips that can help us quote, unquote rock or midlife?

Broc: Yeah, so  unfortunately dear listener, there are no secrets here. There is nothing that you're just some piece of information that we don't have, you know  paraphrasing Derek Sivers.

He once said something to the effect of, you know, if all we needed was more information or if more information would solve our problems and we'd all be billionaires with six pack, abs we have the information, we have it. So much [00:14:00] information in the world.  We, we know how to do this. And so what I'm taking for my guests is really  it's about being intentional about thinking through what you want in your life now and in the future and what you need to do in order to have that, to be that person.

And I think that is notable in midlife because when our, when we're in our teens and twenties, you know, the whole world has us focused on who do we want to be? What do we want to do? But in midlife, we often don't step back and rethink things like, am I where I want to be? If so, awesome. Continue going down that path.

If I'm not, how do I want to do this? And what do I need to do? You know, that might be full-scale reinvention. It might be some tweaks. Who knows  you know, every everyone's situation, everyone's life is different. And you know, one of my guests, Don MacPherson, he was talking about he's planning to live to one 20 and just, you know, with medical advancements, his own health, fitness genes, [00:15:00] all of that, he thinks that that's reasonable.

I can't argue with them on that, but to think about, okay, I'm 50 that's midlife, but no, he's thinking about life in thirds and to get to go to one 20 that's another 70 years, you know, right now I'm just trying to think through two decades, he's planning out 70 years. Wow. That is a rethinking.  It isn't

Kevin: rethinking yet.

Listen to that. I listened to that episode and had that same kind of realization. I thought, wow, I never considered that. But yeah, it kind

Broc: of changes your perspective. I mean, if most of us are thinking, yeah, we're winding down, you know, early seventies and. He's not thinking about winding down until what one 10, one 15  you know, that that's just, you're, you're approaching life different to go full on for another 70 years versus another 20 or 30.

And, you know, for me that was very eyeopening. So that's an approach I hadn't thought about.  You know, for some guests, it's just the reminder that, Hey, you know, Amy Schmidt talked about, you know, get up, get dressed, get going. Let's, let's stop talking about it. Let's take some action [00:16:00] and get moving with it and, and, you know, totally agree with that.

And so I actually have two types of guests really in that. And there's some overlap. One are the people who are experts in how do you do midlife well? And are thinking about like Dawn is thinking about how do you what's, what's the future gonna look like? How does that impact? How do we need to be thinking about it now?

You know, Amy Schmidt is really thinking about, yeah, how do you do a great mid life and has brought some expertise to it? You know, others, they're just living a great mid-life and I'm looking to them as a role model and example. And now hopefully the experts are also living in great midlife and I believe they all are, but there is this category who are just having fun with their life.

You know, Alexander Karuk, he's just a guy who's having fun. He has a great life and, but that's all intentional.  Jay Koons has a great life, but they've been working on building it for the past 20 years. And, you know, they've kind of thought through where they want to go and who they want to be and how they want to be.

And I'm talking about retirement planning or things like that. That's a part of it, but just, you know, what do they want their life to look like? They've been living great [00:17:00] lives for 20 years and what that looks like has changed, but they'll continue living great lives. And what can we learn from that? So for me, it is really kind of getting intentional.

It is  taking action and I've really come around to this thought of deciding commit and way, way easier said than done. But so often we don't even decide, like we just go through thinking I want something different and we never decide what that is. And then once we decide there's this commit piece and, and I mean, commit like burn the boats, commit a friend of mine.

I'm sure everyone's familiar with it with the whole thing about the Spanish explorers when they arrived.  I'm messing up all the details here. I haven't been really, you know, to their leader to keep them from turning back as they're about to press into dangerous territory, you know, ordered all the ships to be torched.

So they either had to succeed or fail. It was no kind of plan B. And in fact, a friend of mine has, you know, burning ships tattooed on his arm, you know, just as a reminder to go all in and.  [00:18:00]You know, there, there is that piece, that's that commitment piece. I'm not suggesting you go towards your car or your house or anything like that.

We're not talking arson, but you know, the idea of you've got to fully commit to what it is you're going to do. So, so often we, and when we say we I'm really generally talking about me  and dragging the world in with me, projecting onto the world. But, you know, it's, it's easy to kind of get these ideas, but not really follow through with them or to follow through half-heartedly.

And in so many things that we do, it takes more than a week of focused effort to really even see changes. And, you know, that's one of the hard things of before we see the changes, it's a lot of effort and is it worth it? And it's easy to give up, right on the cusp of starting to see difference happen and.

I say it's not this earth shattering. Oh, I've never thought about that before with the exception of living to one 20  most of it is just taking the time to step back, rethink, pause is life going well, what would I want things in my life [00:19:00] to be going better?

Do I need to do things different? It might be an overhaul, you know, like you were talking about changing careers and focus. It might just be a, Hey, maybe I just want to show up better in my life.  Commit a little more. I mean, it's not hard to walk through the grocery store and just see people going through the motions.

They just look like zombies in their lives. And  you know, I've probably had my days when I look like that too, but I don't want to live like that. You know, there, there is that engagement piece, but there's a lot of distractions. There is our careers and our kids and our spouses or. Or hobbies, you know, there's a lot we can distract ourselves with  for good and bad.

That really stops us from just stepping back and thinking about it and planning and then committing and then going forward with it.  Yeah, so, so no earth shattering insights, but  definitely an awareness, a reminder of what I knew, but I had pretty much forgotten.

Kevin: Yeah, that's, that's very well said, and I love you or decide and commit statement and that kind of all in, as we take stock of our life and usually, 50, [00:20:00] 60, these, a big birthdays typically, and it causes us to reflect, who am I?

What have I accomplished? But I think even more importantly, is that forward looking well, okay. what do I want to be? how do I want to show up in life? And I think so much of society to your point kind of takes that generation just 50 and above in general. And if they notice them at all, it's in a, in a negative sense that, Oh, these are second declining people, but mostly it's just ignoring these people that have all this wisdom and have all this life experience.

And I think that we need more reminders, because like you said, it's not rocket science. Most people don't have a secret. Oh, here's the secret to midlife mastery. And. No only I have it. And it's very arcane knowledge. That's not the case. Right. We all know what it is, but it's a matter of deciding if that's what you want, deciding what you want and then actually committing and making it happen.

And I love that you mentioned that you got to stay with those, those kinds of things, right? Because so many people, especially on the [00:21:00] fitness side, I see so many people say new year's Eve.  They make that commitment to get in the gym or go in their diet or do whatever, right. They make that new year's resolution.

And within a month, we, you know, science tells us that the vast majority of those people are done. And that sat on a number of levels, but not the least of which is it takes about 90 days in general, for  a habit and become ingrained in a person's life.

And certainly with, with fitness and exercise and with diet, there's something magic about that 90 days, right? That's when  they start to turn that corner and they start to experience the positive effects.  And I'm sure it's that way in other parts of our lives as well, that if we just hang on long enough and have that motivation, that discipline, whatever it takes, that commitment, I suppose, to go all in   we'll reap those benefits if we have the patience and I'm just afraid our, our culture is such a, quick fix kind of a society that it's just we just don't see people really  prioritizing

patience I think when it

Broc: comes to the snow, it doesn't play well on [00:22:00] Instagram.  The long-term effort is hard to see. And the sh the short-term glitz is easy to see. And, there's the old line from the movie, the princess bride, you know, life is paying anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something.

And  I don't know that I agree with the idea that life is pain, but there are a lot of people who are trying to tell me different from what it is just to sell me something. And there is the, eight minute abs seven minute abs six minute abs, you know, there's the pressure to always do it quicker and quicker and quicker and deliver faster and faster.

And, you know, there's so much on, you know, I, I, you know, Instagram, social media where, you know, you start your website and you're an internet millionaire the next day, standing in front of your Ferrari in front of your mansion. And, you know, Maybe for some, but for most of the world,  that's the culmination of a lot of work and luck.

And, but that's not what sells, you know, in, in fact, you know, talking about just fitness, I feel for the fitness trainers of the world because everyone wants instant results and [00:23:00] it's really hard to sell services with like, Hey, you know what, 90 days, six months out. Yeah. You're, you'll, you'll start seeing some differences.

Yeah. Start

Kevin: that's right. It won't be, you won't have a ride you'll have started and that's a tough sell. No one

Broc: wants to hear that. Even if that's the truth, they'll go with the comfortable delusion over the, over the truth.  And yeah, that it it's hard. And I also find, at least in my own life, I've been working on my habits for 20, 30 plus years.

My life is perfectly set up to support me how I am right now today. And I know that because if it wasn't, my life would be different. And so for me to have anything different, well, I've got to do stuff differently and you know what I'm really used to doing the stuff I do right now and doing stuff differently is uncomfortable.

I have to think about it more.  I can go through my habits without thinking about it, to try and build different habits. I got to think hard about that.  I got to plan ahead in the days that I don't, I [00:24:00] suffer and it's harder to follow through if I follow through on whatever it was I was trying to do.

Yeah. There's a lot conspiring against us.

Kevin: Well, you had mentioned. Exercise and diet and instant gratification. And I want to get there in just a minute.  Obviously, you know, this is a talk about that without talking about some  exercise and some nutrition, but before we go there, let's  talk to us a little bit about your personal future in this space, in this midlife mastery space.

What is the future of this look like? I mean, I'm assuming you're gonna continue to do episodes, but do you have plans

Broc: beyond that? Yeah, so  the, the, the master plan is summed up in three words. I don't know  you know, it's going where it's going and I, I like where it's going and it will evolve with me as I evolve, right now with, at the time we're, we're recording this, you know, we've got listeners in 27 countries, [00:25:00] and I love that.

I love that global connection. I love being able to talk to the people I get to talk to and learn from them and how I can apply that back to my own life.  I do see it.  I see it evolving into more of a community piece. I'm trying to answer this briefly. And Kevin, I'm just going to have to go for the longer answer here.

And that is, I don't see resources out there for those of us over 50 and it could be that I just don't see them. Like I'm just not looking in the right place, but if I'm not looking in the right place, there's a lot of people who are going to be looking in the right place. And I see resources on individual things.

if I want to do retirement planning, I can go find that, you know, I, I can compartmentalize my life, but I don't see much really bringing it together. And. kind of an interesting observation.  It really strikes me that in general women have this wired better than men [00:26:00] or they're approaching it different than men.

There does seem to be women seem to have more of a banding together, you know, the, just the, this affinity towards community and yeah.

And moving forward, arms locked together and maybe guys just tend to approach it more individualistically  could be, so it could be that guys at this point are just kind of setting their career and not really pausing to rethink. And whereas women are more in midlife pausing to rethink on what they want this to look like, don't know possibility.

 

I don't know what to do with that information. Okay. I mean, it's just observations, but what it strikes me is that we can do better thinking about mid-life.  And yeah, and that's not men, women, that's all of us. I just, from my observation, it seems like women are grabbing on and thinking harder about it.

Now, in fact, one of the things I love by  I'm inspired by  some of the great  podcasters and people out there blogging about kind of women in midlife, [00:27:00] they use language and have a spirit and an attitude that reminds me of my punk rock days in the eighties. Like, you know, society's not going to tell me what to do.

You can take your expectations of me and stick them.   I'm me and I'm authentic me and I'm going to go live my best life. You do what you want.  I love that attitude and just that spirit, that ethos really  seems to have traction and again, maybe it's they just happened to be women.

I, you know, I don't, I don't know. I just see it more  in women more than men on the social media, on the podcast, I'm listening to  it's interesting to me, like I say, it's broad generalizations based off limited data. I'm just curious about the patterns. I tend to look for patterns and I'm curious about that, but again, ultimately what it comes down to is  There is an interest in Reno, revitalizing and mid-life, and there's not a lot of resources and revitalizing and midlife.

[00:28:00] And so I would love it if, when people are thinking about they're like me, they're like you, they're looking around going, what can I do? How can I do better? Where can I look that, midlife mastery is, you know, one of the things that they think about it's one of the resources they find it, it's something that through the guests and what's shared, they're able to use and take and run with.

There is nothing we're discussing a midlife mastery that is exclusive. You know, there's a lot of great information out there. There's a lot of great sources for information. You have to look for them.  When I first started looking around, I found nothing. And part of that is terminology. Some people use over 50, some people use mid-life, some people use middle-aged, some people don't use any of those words, but that's exactly what they're focusing on.

And in fact, I found enough resources now that if I were trying to start the podcast now, I might not, I might go. Yeah, we're covered.   but I don't think we are, you know, just because I'm finding more resources. I think there's a lot of room for growth and development. I believe rising tide raises all ships.

[00:29:00] So I'm excited to see kind of this over 50 community and focus grow.  And I know we kind of took a sidebar on the, the men women thing.  But you know, I, Hey, we're all in this together and we're all trying to think for our lives and we're all trying to do better. And  I would love to see kind of the, the resources community, you know, those doing podcasts, those doing blogs, newsletters, whatever.

I would love to see that community grow so that the world at large can, can benefit and grow from that.

Kevin: Yeah, I'm with you a hundred percent there can't be too many resources out there.  Setting good, healthy examples for what healthy aging can look like. And that can be emotional health, spiritual health, physical health, mental health, all of that.

Right.  So that's fantastic. And I, again, I'm with you a hundred percent that there just aren't enough voices and resources out there. I know when I personally in my personal fitness journey and you know, somewhere in my mid fifties, I'm like, Holy moly. I am in the best shape of my life. I mean, [00:30:00] objectively stronger than I've ever been in my life fitter than I've ever been in my life.

And as I went to, you know, with all that enthusiasm went to look for more resources where where's, where's my community, where's my tribe because they're not really local. I live in a small place. And, you know, in my particular gym, there's only a couple of people over 50.  And I found that there's, you know, there's, there's good resources out there, but not like I expected, I expected there to be just this whole community.

People just glowing and gushing about this, over 50 health and doing over 50 well and this being the best part of your life. And I didn't find it. So  of course now that I'm a little more in it, there are more re answering there's resources, but like you, I just want to, I want to share this passion.

So  thanks. Thanks for sharing that. And certainly thanks for what you're bringing there with the midlife mastery podcast. But like I said before, this is a health and wellness podcast. So we're not going to get out of here without talking a little bit about some exercise and nutrition, et cetera. So why don't we back up a little bit and tell us, just give us a [00:31:00] high level overview of just your life from a exercise and nutrition perspective.

Were you active as a kid? Did you play sports?

Broc: Well. I played little league for a couple of years and the first year I played, I was phenomenal in that. I was really short and left-handed. And so my strike zone was about eight inches high and I walked 95% of the time to first base.

They would put the catcher up behind me. He could hit it out of the park. You know, I probably scored a third of our team's runs.  But that's not really a skill set. I actually, I was terrible at baseball.  No, you know, I really didn't do any traditional sports starting from when I was about 12, I raced motocross.

And now that was in the days when it was just guys in pickup trucks, kind of out in the desert and it wasn't an extreme sport that got any coverage, you know, it wasn't a cool thing. It was actually kind of a weird thing.  No one had ever heard of it. A few people did it.  I had a great time. It taught me so much about personal responsibility.

[00:32:00] Self-reliance, you know, I, I love the individual aspect of it where if you did well, good job, you had everything in order you'd prepared well, and if you didn't do well, there was probably something that you could have done better in there, whether it was, you know, in, in the mic set up and you and your health and your fitness  motorcross in those days was extremely rough.

They weren't really well-prepared tracks. And you know, there was. Some studies somewhere or legend of some study somewhere. Now this predates the internet by so far. So, this is more rumor   that it was on par with European soccer in terms of the need for physical conditioning.  You know, a lot of people look at motorcycles and think, Oh, you're riding them around.

It does all the work. No, you were throwing around a 200 pound piece of equipment.  It's very, very physical. And that propelled me through my teen years.  In my late twenties, I got into mountain biking, a lot of the skills transferred over, and that was a lot of fun. You know, Ray raced amateur  And then got back into motocross very briefly.

And then [00:33:00] just started doing kind of one-off things. So, you know, one year do a sprint triathlon one year, you know, go do a century, you know, a hundred mile bike ride, you know, just kind of one big challenge kind of each year. And my last big one was probably early mid forties.

I was going to do a tough Mudder.  It terrified me. I don't like Heights, you know, just all the things involved with it, never having done it didn't know how to prepare for it. So I just figured the best thing I could do was, power to weight ratio. If you gotta climb, be as light as you can for as strong as you can.

And so I worked hard on getting into shape. Then it turned out my son had a karate tournament the same day. So I ended up not doing it that day. And that was probably the last big thing I prepared for. I can continue, you know, trying to mountain bike, run, lift weights.  But not in a focused fashion. One nice thing about competition is it really sharpens your focus in your mind.

And  you're terrified that things are going to go bad. Yeah. You get up at four 30 and you get to the gym, you don't lay there thinking I can do it this afternoon. I can do it tomorrow.  [00:34:00]When you don't have that focus, it's much easier to put those things off.  So, on one level I have.

I probably read more about fitness than the average person.  I've probably read more about nutrition than the average person, both from the strength side, as well as the aerobic fitness side, you know, endurance sports side, done both  full disclaimer. I'm built like a power lifter, not a runner.

So my running gait looks more like kind of an extra from the walking dead. It, it's not pretty, it gets the job done.  I'm more the guy that you want to call when you have a couch to move,  but you know, try, try and do all that. But I say it's been spotty the past few years.

I'm not in the shape that I wasn't in the past. Yeah. So I've been, you know, tracking my weight.  Just, I don't know. I like spreadsheets maybe since my early thirties and, you know, I can, well, one, although that has some down periods, it has gone up since then consistently, progressively over time.  I can also look at periods on that graph and go, Oh, that's when I changed a job and, you know, immediately [00:35:00] put on 10 pounds from just the stress of move, new job, new thing, whatever.

And yeah, I mean, it's not at a place where I want it to be now, you know, flip side, I hit my personal best bench pressing last fall. Because I chose to focus on it. You know, I have basically a pretty decently equipped garage gym. I got tired, was doing something where I didn't like tying up weights and down at the gym I was going to.

And so I just bought a squat rack and, you know, Olympic weights and found a great deal on a used and it paid for itself in about 10 months. And that was six years ago. And so, you know, that's one of those I have the option. Then you have the availability. I'm not in terrible shape.  If you were to look at me, most people on the outside wouldn't wouldn't think any of it.

I looked like a middle-aged dude in America and unfortunately that's not where I want to be. And so, you know, I know, so I can be fitter. I, you know, kind of, as you've mentioned, I look at the [00:36:00] older folks and older I'm in older folks category.  To me being at shape at 50 and beyond is way more impressive than the 26 year old.

I know what I had to do to be in shape at 26. And yes, you do have to watch things, but it's different.  And you're just, you're lifelong injuries are less just that there's so much that's different. In fact, I remember, you know, when I did go to the gym. Yes. There's, you know, the college kids in there and yes, some of them can move some pretty impressive weights.

But I remember this guy I'm guessing he was mid fifties at the time. This is probably a decade ago, you know, kind of white hair, Santa Claus, like beard kind of round stocky guy. You know, he just put some knee wraps on squatted, four 50 plus re racked. It went about his day. No sound, no grunting, no yelling, no drama, no high fives.

That impressed the hell out of me. Like  you know, just where it was no big deal to do something that's a really big deal. You know, I remember when I [00:37:00] was training to do a sprint triathlon and I found out that there is, at the time, there was a woman who was in her eighties, she was a nun and she held  I think both the 80 and 85 plus categories for records.

And they had to invent categories. She just kept getting older. So they would come up with another category, like to even finish at that age, bulls my mind, you know, I, I can't do that today. I couldn't do it then. And so these are people who are doing something different to, and there's really no reason I can't be in the best shape of my life.

And in fact, no reason I shouldn't be in the best shape of my life. Like I mentioned earlier, I've got knowledge.  I have better resources now, like I can afford. Garage gym. I can afford to go to a gym. I have 20 plus years of experience lifting, running, cycling, all that. So it's not necessarily a lack of information.

I've been curious over the years. And like I say, I've done a lot of reading, lot of research, trying to figure out how to do this best for me.  But I've also had a lot of life in the way. [00:38:00] And you know, I think a lot of people are probably right there where, you know, they, they were fitter when they were younger, whatever that looked like, whether they were an athlete or just, Hey, they were younger and they were fitter.

You know, my daughter is in great shape. Not like she plans it. She's just an active person. Who's in her early twenties and, and eats pretty well, you know?  So, you know, a lot of people can probably relate to this journey of, things aren't terrible.  They're not headed in the direction that I would like them to head in as I project forward over the next 10, 20 years.

And, you know, I've

Kevin: maybe if you're going to one 20, you might have to expand that out a little bit. Right.

Broc: Totally. Yeah. You know, I I've heard it. Yeah. You know that there are obese people and there are old people, but there are very, very few old obese people. And, as you look around, yep. That's pretty true.

Those who are still kind of up to big things in their seventies and eighties tend to be pretty spry. And    [00:39:00]if you go down and do a 5k half marathon marathon on the starting line, there's a lot of older people, but they tend to be in pretty decent shape.  And so  I guess that that's kind of a summary of the journey.

I've done different things over my life. I've focused different periods of my life on different things. And   just as we were talking about in mastering any section of mid-life  I'm kind of at the point where I need to decide and commit, and if I want to get to where,

Kevin: and that brings us nicely to this next section, I want to talk about.

You've recently decided you want a coach, a coach to help you with your nutrition, with your exercise. And you had also alluded several times in this, in this podcast that it's not. You don't need the information, right? You don't need a coach that has a secret program or a secret diet.

That's nobody else knows. And that's what you're paying for. So  for folks that don't know, you have brought me on as a coach, and [00:40:00] before we dive into that a little bit, talk to us about why now and what your kind of your motivation and what you're hoping

Broc: to achieve. Yeah. So in in fact  I'll back up just a little bit.

You may have been going to ask me this later, but I'll, I'll put it here now. I mean, we came across paths talking about social media on Instagram and just as podcasters, if I recall, I reached out because you were, you know, you had transcripts of your podcast and I was like, Hey, how do you do that? Like, hadn't met each other, just reach out, send a message.

You responded. I started using the software you were using. I thought that was cool. You know, we both liked what we were doing on podcasts. Kind of had a few little message chats and all of that. And  so. Although it sounded earlier, like maybe I was disparaging social media, like the glitz and the glam.

I think there's awesome things about social media. Like if you can get beyond the fear of missing out and the comparison to your neighbor and all of that, you can meet really, really cool people and connect with people in ways that you can't without it. So  you know, so that's how we got connected. And as [00:41:00] that was kind of happening is in the background that there's this I need to get in better shape.

I need to focus. I had signed up to do a half marathon and started training on that. And along that journey realized that no, this is good. You know, I, I didn't train as much as I wanted to. We're in quite some of the ways that I thought I would, but it was way more than I had been doing. And it built enough momentum of like, no, I gotta continue this.

And there's also. I do a podcast called midlife mastery, right? Like it seems kind of natural that not only am I talking to people, I'm visibly putting this advice into action. And so I want the listener to be able to come along with me on this journey of like, Hey, what am I doing?

As, you know, brought people along when I was trying to get in shape for the half marathon and people can relate people, people are there. It was amazing. The amount of people that kind of joined and cheered along and  you know, sent encouragement and [00:42:00] attaboys. And I think that there's goodness there of being able to see a real person do it.

And because often we see the finished product of like, well, yeah, you know, of course they look that way. Of course they do it that way.  We miss the journey and I want to be able to share the journey and, Hey, if you need accountability, Nothing like doing a podcast, being out on the internet with everyone, along for your journey, you know, like they say, Hey, make a public statement of your goals.

So your friends will hold you accountable. Yeah. I have like every listener holding me accountable now.  It's kinda hard to go, Hey, Brock, what happened to that fitness journey?  I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. We're yeah. So, you know, all those pieces kind of came together over a period of a couple months but you asked why hire a coach?

And so kind of that's the backstory that gets me to, I, I, in fact, I was telling my wife about this, like, Yeah, I don't really need someone to tell me how to eat better. I [00:43:00] already have a pretty good lock on what needs to be done. I mean  I don't know if anyone's familiar with the strength coach, Dan, John.

I love his books and his work. And he talks about in 1980 when he was at the Olympic center, you know, they said, eat lean protein, vegetables, and drink water. Great. Don't have to do much calculation. Don't really need an app to do all that.  Now, as I also told my wife, you know, I know that what I needed someone to slap the ho-ho out of my hand, you know?

Right, right. The knowing and the doing, aren't always the same thing. And so for me, there is that accountability piece and that's a big part of it. I'm not, I'm not really in any sport right now that would hold me accountable.  The idea of, Oh yeah, I'll get in better shape because I know what to do. Yeah.

That's been going on for like six years and hasn't really happened at the level that I want it to. So the idea of having someone who one can get me focused. Is comfortable and knowledgeable about working with someone at my stage of life.  And, I mentioned, I'm not thoroughly [00:44:00] impressed, good job for those who are in their twenties in great shape.

That's awesome. I also want someone along the way, who's come back from injuries, come back from, you know, kind of, kind of the lifelong who can relate to  not trying to get instant results or kill me to get those results. You know, in the first couple of weeks, someone who can look at it as a long-term process and hold me accountable in a longterm process, because all of us at this age grew up with those eighties movies, where the hero went through this three minute montage of rebooting their entire life set to, you know, kind of some upbeat rock and roll music.

And then suddenly they're a master in their life is different.  Yeah, doesn't work that way in the real world. I need someone to get me past that three minute montage, because even as I'm thinking about getting a coach and as you and I started talking, I was like, yeah, that's going to be awesome. I got this, you know, do this.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm on vacation this week going. Yeah, well, I could go for a run this morning or not.  You know, so, so what happens in our mind when we're planning this and what happens in the real world, on that three months, six month multi-decade journey are very, [00:45:00] very different. And so having a partner in that who can work with me in that hold me accountable, because I also know my personality.

I'm very much all or nothing. Like I can go all in, but as soon as something knocks me off track, I tend to go back to the nothing. And it's that steady progress that I know benefits me, but I'm not really wired around. So having someone helped me work through that and well, I do have good knowledge.  I don't have all the knowledge, and so none of this is, you know, when we say that the information is out there, there is some parsing through it.

There is some, Hey, I work with people who are over 50. This is, these are the patterns I tend to see.  That's really helpful.   And also just time of life thing, whereas before maybe I didn't have the bucks to hire a coach, you know, and not the coaches are really expensive, but all those pieces came together.

like I'm [00:46:00] things that I would have spent money on before. No, I'm ready to spend them on me on a coach, on my physical health, on my nutritional health.  And to me, those two pieces are very important together, both the fitness side and the nutrition side.

Kevin: A hundred percent. Yeah. I look at it kind of like a three legged stool and I think you and I have probably talked about this before, but basically, for that stool to be functioning,   all three of those legs have to be there.

And that's your, some of your nutrition, your exercise and your recovery and recovery, we'll do things like stress mitigation and proper sleep hygiene as well as actually recovering from workouts. But yeah, you've got to have that nutrition. To fuel that activity. And those definitely go, go hand in hand.

And  you know, I just wanted to highlight again, when you were talking about what you're looking for in a coach, it wasn't so much any secret knowledge that me or any other coach really has. It's more that accountability and that partner and somebody to be with you on the way. Some use got some experience in these things with your [00:47:00] specific age group and experiences.

So I think a lot of people kind of miss that because there's so much marketing specifically in nutrition and exercise with coaches that are promising these. Get get slim quick or get fit quick. And you know, you can make somebody lose 10 pounds in 10 days, but you probably shouldn't. You almost certainly shouldn't.

And it's, you know, when you, when you do extreme things, you, you just, they're not sustainable for a lifetime. So I'm much more interested in working with people on long-term changing behaviors. So that long after we're done in a, a coach client relationship, you've got these habits woven into the fabric of your life, right?

They're just something you do. They are, they're a part of your everyday life. So those are the types of things that we want to work on in this journey, right. Is trying to get you to, you know, we'll hold you accountable. We'll certainly do the programming and all the things that come with that, but really it's going to [00:48:00] be to try and get you to make these small incremental changes in your life that become a part of your life.

And cause you had mentioned, I think everybody listening can relate to that. Well, I got fit or, well, I got to my goal weight and then I wasn't and then, well, I got back there again and then I didn't, then I got halfway there and then I didn't, there's just, there's a lot of that, right. It's because it's difficult, right.

To do the difficult things day in and day out that more feed and nourish your body moves from a nutritional standpoint, as well as from a movement standpoint. So with that, as our backdrop, we're just beginning this journey, what is it you're hoping to achieve?

Broc: Well, you know, everything. So, you know, and, and that's that's, and by the way, that's also a great reason for a coach as well, because you can't do everything at once.

It's very, very difficult to do everything, you know, buy [00:49:00] everything, you know, get thin, get strong gain mobility. Have more vibrancy in your, in your life.   all of those pieces are great. All those pieces will come along. But I know from my own experience, if I try and do them all at once, doesn't work real well.

And yet I, we also have a hard time focusing on only one versus another. And in my own life where I see myself quitting giving up on things, you know, one of two things happen. I think a lot of people can relate to this either. It feels like all the work with none of the success. So, Hey, that's easy to give up on or you get this big burst of success and think, man, I got this wired and then I kind of back off a little bit and then yeah, I'm right back where I started.

And so having that extra set of eyes, to be able to say, yeah, it's hard. Stay with it. This is expected. You probably shouldn't be making progress right now. You know, we're through this phase or being able to say, yeah, that's awesome. And what's going to happen tomorrow. You know, [00:50:00] both those things are, traps for me.

So yeah. You know, longterm  definitely need to need to lose weight, particularly you need to lose fat. I like to retain all my muscle.

I tend to carry a lot of muscles. So if you were to just look at me and my street clothes, I look heavy, but not as heavy as I know I am. You know, if that makes sense, just because, you know, you got a muscular frame, you, you kind of where the rest of it really well.  And. So definitely trimmed down, increase a rubbing capacity, like to be able run for there, but just trimming down is going to help that, you know, if I'm carrying an extra 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds, well imagine running with a 50 pound weight, you know?

Yeah. That kind of sucks. And so just eliminating that weight  improves so many other capacities life and, you know, also mentioned, Hey, you know, at this stage of life, blood pressure is creeping up again, you know, better nutrition, better [00:51:00] overall conditioning will help bring that down in ways that don't involve  pharmaceuticals as a lifestyle.

You know, not against medical intervention when needed, but if I can do it without, with, and avoid side effects of medication. Awesome. I would much rather just change lifestyle if it's a lifestyle disease  But changing lifestyle is not easy as we've just spent a long time talking about in this episode here, you know?

So  I do have some strength targets I would love to hit, which  when I set them, you know, well, Hey  to just to document the journey. Well, you know  my bench press best was two 45 for two, not impressive if you're a powerlifter, not impressive. If you're a college athlete for, you know, your average office, cubicle, drone, not too shabby  and you know, love to be able to deadlift and back squat three 15.

And if anyone wonders about those numbers, that's when you just have all the big round weights on  you know, that's when it's all 40 fives [00:52:00] and that roughly works out to just, you know, some percentages of body weight that are, seem to be targets to hit. And those aren't insane numbers. Those aren't, I'm committing my life to doing that.

I'm not interested in bodybuilders physique. I do like the strength. Strength is very useful for moving couches and all those things and just getting through life.  They seem to be very challenging and yet very doable targets with a long-term focus and  Yeah. So I kind of think that, you know, I'm trying to mostly hit it all.

I think, listeners along the way can probably relate to some facets of that journey and you know, would love to do it by the end of summer, but I also know that that's never going to happen and it impact, you know,

Kevin: I gotta get that six pack in time for a beach season. Right.

Broc: And you know, part of it, when we talk about getting a coach is  I.

As I listened to your podcast, as I look at the things you've [00:53:00] put out there, philosophically we're fairly well aligned. I mean, I know from a lifetime of experience, kind of what works for me  and what I prefer to do, you know, I prefer barbells and compound movements. I'm not a big fan of machines. They have their place.

But for a lot of reasons that I will let the experts go into, I, I prefer exercise is involving those.  You seem to do that as well. Our nutritional backgrounds are kind of aligned there. You know?  You, you you've been fully plant-based before I flirt with the edges of it. I didn't want to spend time explaining to an nutrition coach while steak may be awesome.

I'm not eating it, you know that.  And so having someone with kind of that experiences that aren't the same as mine, but there's overlap with what I'm looking for and how I operate.  While still allowing me to expand and grow my knowledge. You know, that that's helpful too. So anyway, long answer,

Kevin: no great answer as well.

A lot of insight in there. And you had mentioned sharing this [00:54:00] journey along the way. So what you and I have discussed is that we will be documenting this each from our own perspective, we both have weekly or mostly weekly podcast. Right? And I think what the plan will be is I'll do a, I think I'm going to call it the coach's corner.

I'll do a, probably every other week episode where I'll take some of our coaching calls and some of the programming that we're doing. And from my perspective, talk about how you're doing and How this journey is progressing. And then I think you're going to do the exact same, right?

From the client's perspective and say, okay, well, here's how my journey is going. And we can each share that on our podcast. And I think that'll be fun. And to your point, what a great way to hold yourself accountable. If you know that committed to making these bi-weekly sort of statements about how your fitness is going, and you've made this public declaration, I'm going to work with coach.

I'm going to, you know, want to lose some weight. You want to get strong. Well, certainly these people are going to say, what are you losing weight? Are you getting strong? Is it working? And. [00:55:00] What's great about this is that  I don't have a get fit in six week program. This is, this'll be a more of a strategic longterm.

And I think that a lot of people don't realize that what that kind of coaching looks like. So we can work through that, talk through that and kind of have fun sharing this, this journey with our audiences as well.

Broc: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, that, that is the plan. It seemed like a cool thing to do, to be able to share both perspectives as well as, so I've never really worked with a coach before.

So most of my knowledge is self time. Most of my experience has been self-taught and certainly never done it over the internet. Like yeah, I've gotten, you know, advice in the gyms and all of that. And so that totally new experience for me.  I think that's a cool thing to share because we are in this virtual coaching world now that's fairly new.

And so what does that look like? How, how, how, how does it progress?  As the listener, what could I expect? You know, I expect I'll be going through many things that other people go through and I will go through stuff. That's all uniquely [00:56:00] me.  Cause we all have our own strengths and our own challenges.

And so yeah, I, you know, I'm, I'm pretty fired up for this journey and yes. So not only did I get all my listeners to hold me accountable now I've brought in all your listeners to hold me accountable. Well, as well

Kevin: as the audience, I love it.

Broc: And  yeah, so it's  I think that'll be a. I think that'll be a challenging journey and I think it will be an awesome one to share.

And I'm really hoping that, you know, a lot of what my podcast is about a lot of what yours is about is the, the ideas and the inspiration. You know, it's not just about the information, but how do you put it to use, how does it work? Can we, can we inspire someone from it? And, yeah, so I'm, I'm really hoping that, you know, Hey, everyone listening, you join in.

You're already listening to Kevin's podcast. You're already have a fitness focus. And so, you know, join us on the journey. Cause  I think he'll be able to relate because I am pretty much  average normal guy here.

Kevin: Yeah. And I, and I love the fact that this [00:57:00] is you're right. You alluded to that's the whole online coaching, online coaching, online, personal training, online nutrition coaching.

That's not new per se, but certainly since COVID, it's much, much more pervasive.  So it'll, it'll be interesting because as a coach, I'll most likely, I'll never actually be in the same place with you watching you, watching you move. Right. So we can talk about how that works, right? Cause this is a different world.

We're all in now  where there's a lot of online type coaching going on. So it'll be fun to kind of talk about both the challenges and successes that we, that we see there. So Brock has we're wrapping up. Tell us.   we know that you're on this, fitness journey. We know that you got your   podcast rolling, but what's next for you?

What do you, what do you see coming up for you personally in the next year or

Broc: two? Yeah.  Continuing down this path, really the midlife mastering midlife  you know  a friend of mine thinks about things in terms of fitness and not just health and fitness, but are you, you know, emotionally fit? Are you spiritually fit?

Are [00:58:00] you financially fit? it's pretty easy to break up our lives in about six categories. A lot of people have done it.  And are you fit in all of those areas and so fit, we know what physical fitness kind of looks like and feels like, but you know, financial fitness, what does that look like?

And we all probably have slightly different definitions, you know, emotional fitness. What does that look like? And so just progressing down that path of, you know, I've already been on this journey. Some places I'm further ahead than others and. How do I make the second half even better than the first half?

You know, I totally think it's possible. I love my life. I think I'm in a great place in my life and I know I can ramp it up even more.

Kevin: Yeah. Well, I'm excited to be a part of your journey, man. I mean that  so tell us real quick. What's the best way for people to connect with you?

Broc: Absolutely. Yeah.  Midlife mastery podcast.

So if you are on any podcast app, it should be out there and available  on Instagram, which is the social media that I focus [00:59:00] on. It is midlife mastery podcast. And  also the website, midlife mastery, podcast.com. So, you know, it's a very consistent name across everything, simple branding and a, yeah, you can track me down there.

I love to hear from people. I love the interaction, the comments, and all of that, that happens on Instagram.  I'd love to hear from the listener. I love feedback on, Hey, what worked for you? What didn't, you know, when people reach out and say, Hey, I love this episode. Love that guest here's what I took from that.

That's awesome.  Because you know, You. And I were sitting in rooms talking into the void into the internet, and it's so great to hear when it connects with people. And I love that. And   that's why this is happening. And so please do reach out, connect, engage  follow along, offer thoughts, offer input, and  you know, I've just really been enjoying the people I've been meeting on this journey.

Kevin: Fantastic. Yeah.  Well, and folks listening, I'll drop all that information into the show notes. You can check that out over there.  So Brock, I just want to thank you so much for [01:00:00] coming on the show today and sharing all your wisdom with us and shining a light on the path to mastering midlife. You've done a great job with that, and I certainly wish you all the best in all your future endeavors.

Broc: All right. Thank you much, Kevin. Appreciate it.

Kevin: Well, that's our show for today, folks. All of the show notes for this episode are available on my website at www.silverridgefitness.com/episode 58. You can also continue the conversation there. Please feel free to comment and ask questions. If you enjoyed this episode. Would you please consider giving in a five star rating on whatever platform you're listening on. And would you also please consider sharing this episode with a friend or colleague? Thank you so much for choosing to spend your time with [01:01:00] me today and until next time stay strong.