Mark Anderson, owner of MWA Health and Fitness, redefines wellness beyond the gym, blending physical training with nutrition, sleep optimization, and mental health. His journey from Marine to holistic wellness advocate fuels his mission to debunk fitness myths, such as the misconception that calorie counting alone guarantees results or that weight training makes women "bulky." His studio embraces a personalized, whole-body approach, emphasizing that exercise alone isn't enough without proper recovery, nutrition, and mindfulness.
Beyond fitness, Mark’s insights into mental resilience and mindfulness offer practical strategies for improving overall well-being. His focus extends beyond traditional training methods, treating each client as a whole individual rather than just a body to be conditioned. Whether you're frustrated by fitness misinformation or seeking a more balanced approach to health, his expertise provides valuable clarity. Learn more at MWAfitness.com or follow Mark on Instagram at mark_anderson_mwa.
Mark as Played
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Yuwan Godfrey.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Joining us in our studio isMark Anderson.
He is the owner of MWA Healthand Fitness.
Hello, mark, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm good, Yuwan.
Thanks for having me on.
I appreciate you having me onhere.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Wonderful.
We're so excited, and we can'teven wait to hear what it is
that you have to share with thecommunity about your business
and about your service.
So let's just jump right in.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Awesome, I love it.
Yeah, we're in the health space, health and wellness space.
It's in the name, right?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So tell us about your company,please.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, so you know I started this.
I've been the owner now for fouryears, but the location I'm at
in the south end of Boston,which is one of the most amazing
locations, I think, in Bostonit's been here since 2007.
So over the years, you know itstarted off as a one on one
personal training studio andthrough the years it started to
(01:12):
evolve into more than justtraining but more health and
wellness based practices.
You know so integrative health,ayurvedic health, using
functional medicine practicesbecause you know it's great to
do one on one training and workthe body and move the body and
exercise, but you know it hasits limits.
You know if you're not doingthe right things nutritionally
to then recover from the workout, or you're not doing the things
you need to be doing atnighttime going to bed earlier,
(01:33):
getting good quality sleep oryou're not looking at these
underlying health concerns thatyou might have, they all impact
your training, they all impactyour life, and so we've kind of
combined that all together hereand you know I don't know of any
other place really in Bostonthat combines everything we do
into one service, which is why Ilove our community and that's
(01:56):
what we're doing here at thestudio every day.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I love it.
It sounds like you are not justfocused in one area, but you're
focused in many areas for thegood of the individuals.
Thank you for sharing thatinformation with our listeners.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, of course my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So how did you get into this business, Mark?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You know I was a defense contractor.
I was in the military for fouryears and then I got out of the
military.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, it was my pleasure, Iloved it, it was great.
And then I I went into thedefense contracting world and I
love that to you know, still away to serve, just at a
different capacity and wearing adifferent uniform.
(02:37):
And so then, but when I wasdoing it I said you know, my
real passion is working withpeople one on one.
I love that and I've loved, youknow, the coaching and I've
always loved looking at reallykind of life fulfillment for
people, and health is such ahuge component of that and you
know mindset, all that stuff.
So when I work with people oneon one, I mean they're doing the
(03:00):
whole package, you know.
I mean some people call it lifecoaching.
Whatever they joke about it,they're a life coach.
I'm like, yeah, well, you cancall it whatever you want.
I think of it more like lifefulfillment for yourself.
I think everyone has a lifefulfillment fanatic inside of
them.
They just sometimes don't bringit out till the end, till it's
kind of too late, it's like theend of their life.
(03:20):
They're like, oh, I wish Iwould have done a bucket list or
whatever.
I wish I would have spent lesstime at the office and more time
with my family and friends.
So when I was doing thisdefense contracting job, I
thought, man, I really want tobe working more with people.
And you know, personal trainingI thought that's pretty
personal.
I mean, that's one on one.
You know I'll do that.
So I started to get mycertification as I was
(03:42):
transitioning out of the companyI worked for and then I started
as a trainer.
There was a joke with my wifewe were expecting our first
child at the time and she goes.
So let me get this straight.
You're going from a really goodincome to no income.
And I said, yeah, pretty much.
Yep, that's it.
This is a personal trainer.
You know, if anyone's listening, it's like you start off,
(04:03):
you're working the floor, you'renot making a lot of money, you
know, and you're like, hey, youwant, you want to go do some
training.
And you're like, who are you?
Oh, my God, just a trainer here, you know.
And so that's how it startedand I transitioned that way, you
know.
So there was that learningcurve and but that's, you know,
that's where it started for me.
And as I became more intotraining and doing one-on-one
(04:26):
stuff, I kept seeing I hadlimits.
You know like I would dotraining and people would get
some good results.
But I wasn't combiningnutrition, um, because I didn't
know a lot about it at the time.
This was like 14 years ago.
And I said, you know, I thinkone of my like, uh, superpowers
or something is like looking atmy faults and being really good
at understanding that I and Ithink a lot of us can relate to
(04:50):
this it's I see my faults andyou know I, I know what they are
.
The question is do I want to dosomething about it?
Right?
Am I going to just put it onand hide it in a closet
somewhere?
And so I thought, man, as atrainer, what am I not doing?
Well?
And I said I'm not coachingpeople with nutrition that well
because I don't know it and Iwant to get better at that.
So I started to get more intothe nutritional side of it.
(05:11):
Once I got really good at thenutritional side, I thought,
okay, how can I coach that with?
Because then it's one thing toknow something, but it's another
thing to coach it.
And then I started doingnutrition coaching.
But then that had its limits,you know, and I thought, okay,
so is there another thing Icould learn?
And that started to go intowellness based practices.
You know how well sleep doesn'treally matter, it's not really a
(05:34):
big thing, yeah, whatever, justyou can sleep when you're dead,
right, isn't that?
I was like no, that's one ofthe most important things is
sleep.
You sleep.
Our body recovers when we'resleeping, and so if we get three
hours of sleep every night,it's not going to recover the
way you want it to, I'm sorry.
And so I thought, yeah, I needto learn more about this
(05:54):
wellness, everything else Ithink in life you get really
into, whether it's a hobby or ajob or a passion, or you just
keep wanting to know more andmore.
And I keep wanting to know moreand more.
And you know, just going back toit, it's like really looking at
(06:17):
the most fulfilled life we havein the time we're here, and if
you're not living a healthy life, it's hard sometimes to do that
.
There are people that can do itand I admire those people.
They push past all theirphysical limitations, all the
pain they're in, but I alwaysthink, if you're not in pain and
you can you could just beelevated at such a higher level.
Um, and so I also love andthat's part of what we love
(06:40):
about our community here myselfand all the trainers we're just
focused on how it elevates ourclients and they become like
high performing athletes.
You know it's not always lookedat that way because, oh, I'm a
corporate lawyer, I'm a dentist,I'm a doctor, I'm a whatever.
You know it's yeah.
But if we could get you toperform at a high level, you'd
be a really high function, ahighest level functioning lawyer
(07:03):
, doctor, dentist and or mom ordad, you know, you'd have all
this abundant energy.
Maybe you would do somethingelse.
So I think it's really fun tohave that approach to it and
that's really how I transitionedand what's kept me going so, so
for the past 14 years, I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So what are some myths and misconception in your
industry, Mark?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know, one of the big ones, I think, thinking
about this calorie counting,right, that's, that's a fun one.
Calories, calories in, caloriesout, they all mean the same
thing.
Or, you know, and and I thinkthat again it goes back to you
know, out, training.
Bad diets is another one.
There are.
There are so many differentones.
(07:47):
I think we could pick from here.
But you know the myth of, look,I'm going to offset bad things
I'm doing by working out andexercising and, and you know,
doing random saunas and whateverthat's, it's still better than
not doing it, don't get me wrong.
But you know, I think we haveto shift the focus of this whole
(08:09):
thing of like, well, if I eat acertain way and I count my
calories and you know, intosomething more like I count my
calories and you know, intosomething more like what is the
food that I'm putting in?
Is this actually real food?
And if we're eating real foods,a myth a good one here is you
know, if you eat more fat,you're going to become fat.
(08:31):
If you eat more carbs, you'regoing to become overweight.
And if you eat animal proteinor you do certain things, you
know you're going to get too bigand bulky.
If sometimes women are afraidof that, you know.
Or if you lift weights andyou're a woman, you're going to
put on weight and you're goingto look like the She-Hulk or
whatever, and it's not.
These are all myths, you know.
So part of what we love to dois myth busting and
(08:53):
understanding.
Like, if you're doing higherrep ranges with weights as a
woman, you're not going to getbig and bulky.
And if you're counting caloriesand they're crappy calories and
you're just eating Snickers andpopcorn and everything else
under the sun that's processed,how do you feel?
I feel horrible.
So we don't want to countcalories.
We want to look at the goodfoods that we can actually be
(09:15):
using, the vitamins, thenutrients that are in those
foods and absorbing them throughthe body and understanding the
digestion better, all that stuff.
So there's a lot of things outthere right now where you know,
without going too far down arabbit hole, it's just saying
the best things you can do, Ithink, right now in the health
(09:37):
and wellness space is educateyourself and find.
If you don't know anythingabout it, then you know.
There are so many goodresources.
But finding a good resource tothat's that can be challenging
as well, because a lot of thetime people well, I heard
someone say this you knowthere's and with social media
it's hard, I'm not knockinganyone here but you see someone
with a six pack and their shirtoff and they've got these huge
(09:59):
muscles and, oh, I want to looklike that.
Well, if you just eat a saladevery day and you wake up and
you have a glass of water andyou're going to look like me and
it's kind of misleading, it'sconfusing, it's misleading.
Not everyone that looks likethey do on a social media feed
(10:19):
is doing that well inside.
So, again, these are myths, Ithink, where people need to
really focus it to what theyneed personally, not what the
external world is necessarilyshowing them, and you base your
health and wellness off the bestthing, how you feel.
If you're feeling happy andhealthy every day, then you
don't need to have a six pack oryou don't need to be.
You know, zero percent body fat.
(10:41):
If anyone was, they'd be deadanyways, but that's a different
story.
You want some body fat on you.
You know, it's like I mean,10,000 years ago we needed body
fat for the winters because wecouldn't survive.
It was scarcity.
So I think, looking at a lot ofthe nutrition things out there,
the supplement industry.
Unfortunately it's not reallyregulated the way it needs to be
(11:04):
, so there's a lot of myths outthere with supplementation.
If you take this pill, you'regoing to look like this If you
take this pill, this is going todo this for you.
It's promising a lot andsometimes it's not talking about
the the adverse health effectsfrom it you know.
So there, you know there's alot to go over there.
But what I would say is, when,if there's a myth you you have a
(11:29):
question about, you know, finda good resource, like I mean, if
you want to message us, youcould message us.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I mean if you want to message us, you could message
us.
Okay, thank you, mark.
So, outside of work, what doyou do for fun?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
This is it.
You're looking at it.
No, just kidding.
I love what I do, so it's hard.
You know, health and wellnessis everything in my life and not
I try.
I've learned over the years youcould ask my wife no-transcript
(12:20):
.
This again sounds like acomplete nerd dork thing to say.
But I love practicing being inthe moment.
You know, like talking to you,it's fun.
It's like we're not geared todo that.
We're geared to look at ourphones and we're geared to.
You know what time is it I gotto get going, you know, or what
times.
What's going on tonight?
I got to get home and Netflixand stream my you know binge
(12:41):
watch my show there.
So I love trying to practicethe moment that's here in front
of us and it's one of thosethings that took 13.8 billion
years, you know again, to gethere and we're talking about.
You know we're upset because oftraffic or we don't like that.
It's cloudy out today and I'mlike, all right, well, how can I
have fun with this?
I could have fun being in themoment.
(13:02):
I could have fun talking to mykids about it and they tell me
I'm crazy.
Or my wife, you know, and soand and doing when you get into
something.
I think everyone should do whatthey're passionate about, and
sometimes it's uncomfortable andit's challenging, but you know,
when you love it, you persevereand you push through and it
just becomes fun.
You know so when you're not atwork per se.
(13:24):
I always like use air quotes.
Work is is not work, it's justyour passion, it's fun, and when
you leave you know if you'renot having fun.
I think that's that is thething we need to focus more on
as a, as a world, not just acountry or it's.
How do we have more fun,especially when life is
challenging?
You know it's, it's a very Idon't say that like jokingly or
(13:47):
anything, it's, it's reallygoing.
Yeah, there's a challenge here,but you know there's been
plenty of examples throughoutthe billions of years that this
planet, you know, has been hereand the 13.8 billion that we
know about this.
You know existence, but youknow there are people that have
gone through a lot of challenges, that have found humor, that
have found fun, that havepersevered and used these great
(14:10):
things, this great body and thisgreat mind that we've been
given to, to enjoy life and andhave fun with it.
So my fun is meditating,learning more about personal
development, I mean lifefulfillment, anything like that.
It's that's, and when I'm notdoing that, which is also, I
(14:30):
think, an important thing tonote.
There are times where we all gothrough these moments where
we're just not having a goodtime in life and you know, it's,
I, it's self-awareness beinghey, you know what, I am having
a rough time right now and, um,I, I mean I've just worked with
so many different types ofclients before, but, uh, you
know, everyone needs somethingdifferent, you know, and I
always like thinking about theend.
(14:52):
You know the end, and a lot ofpeople don't like talking about
death and all that, but you know, I remember it's just sometimes
in life you go but you could bedead.
I mean, you're alive, that'sfirst thing.
You're alive, it's amazing, youknow.
So let's take, let's appreciatethat simple fact and we're
having this present moment hereand I love it.
So, yeah, that's my fun rightthere.
(15:13):
Long, long winded.
All right, mark, let's changegear.
Can you describe one hardship orone of life's challenge that
(15:34):
you rose above and can now saybecause of it?
You know, when someone hascancer, they're like, they're
like they have cancer, like it'sokay, you know.
But when someone has a mentalhealth issue.
It's like, well, you know, theykind of have a mental health
issue.
Is it a real thing, you know?
And I don't think there'senough.
You know there's, it'sdefinitely made.
You know, it's definitely going, hopefully, in the right
direction.
But I think, challenges withmental health and you know I was
(15:58):
in the, I was in the Marinesfor four years and I remember I
did three months of boot campand I thought, oh God, I can't
wait.
Once is three months.
Three months of someone yellingat you, swearing at you,
telling you you're a piece ofgarbage and you're just like.
I'm a piece of garbage Really,huh, and then that not nice,
that that's a nice way of sayingit like.
And then they're pushing youphysically, you know, and
physically, you know, okay, Ican do this.
(16:19):
Mentally, I don't know, Like.
So even back then I was likeI'm gonna have a game, I'm gonna
play life as a game.
I read this book.
I forget the author, florence Ican't remember her name off the
top of my head, but I think herbook's name is.
You know, life is a game orsomething like that.
And I thought in boot camp thisis, this is a challenge, it's,
(16:41):
it's a real mental thing.
I can't and you know it cancause I saw a lot of guys drop
out because of mental healthissues and I thought I'm going
to make this a game and I'mgoing to try to move through
this and understand that this isjust a mental thing.
But once I got through thatthree months, I the four years
was hard to do, you know, in themilitary, because for four
(17:02):
years you're being told what toeat, when to eat, you know when
to get up, when to go to bed.
Uh, you're told where you'regoing to be stationed, all that
stuff.
You don't have freedom, you,you're told what you're going to
be doing, and that caused a lotof mental health issues, I
think with service members too,and so when you're talking about
any person, I think someonewho's struggling with anything
(17:26):
when it comes to your mentalhealth, it's really important to
understand.
That is the number one thing Ithink to, to try to work on and
for me that's what I've alwaystried to work on for myself is
like okay if I'm not having somegreat thoughts, if I'm having
some really bad emotions andsome really bad feelings.
And you know, boot camp and themilitary was four years of that
(17:49):
, you know.
So really, that was a that wasa challenge, and I said, if I
can do this, if I can make itthrough this, I can make it
through anything, you know.
And so anytime anything'sgotten challenging in my life,
I've said look man, you were inthe military, you've been
through this before.
And then the thing I love to dois perseverance, persist right
(18:09):
until you succeed, and and thenhelping other people with that.
You know.
So if someone is struggling withmental health, or you know
someone's struggling with mentalhealth, it's like how can we be
the people, even if we'restruggling with it ourselves?
You know?
It's just understanding morethat we have thoughts that come
up every day, we have emotionsthat get tied to those and and
(18:30):
those emotions create feelings,and then then our body does
something with that.
We go eat some food, we go notexercise, we go do some
self-destructive thing, and it'snot the best thing for us.
And so if that was onechallenge, the biggest challenge
, I think, was understandingthat the mental health and
mental game that can be had inour lives, especially when we're
(18:52):
under a lot of stress, it'sreal.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
It is real.
You never know what people aregoing through, and even when
they look like they have it alltogether, they're still battling
something inside.
So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more.
It's such a true thing.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So, mark, please tell our listeners one thing they
should remember about MWA healthand fitness.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Well, you know you're talking about myth and myth
busting and all that stuff.
If you are looking for someadvice or you want to start a
training program or any of thatstuff, we would love to have you
, of course, but if you havequestions or anything like that,
you know this is a resource.
I think this is what's greatabout the podcast that you guys
are doing.
It's just beautiful.
(19:35):
It's you're giving a resourceto everyone and connecting them
with the things they need, youknow all around.
So if it's health and wellnessand fitness, or if it's, you
know, a dentist, a doctor, realestate, whatever you guys are,
you know expanding and doing onthe podcast I think is amazing
because it's giving peopleresources and people that they
(19:55):
can trust to go to for questionsthey might have.
And you know, typically what wealways do here is a
complimentary consultation andit's like no pressure ever.
So people come in, they theyusually do sign up, um, but you
know we always say it's likethere's no pressure.
So you come in, you tell usyour fitness goals and you know
(20:16):
that's what we want to be as aresource for people, especially
when they don't know what to bedoing, what's the right diet
plan.
What's the right exercise plan?
Should I be doing CrossFit?
Should I be doing Peloton?
Should I be doing Orange Theory?
I mean all these differentprograms out there.
We just love being a resource,however that can be, and you
know that's what we built ourcommunity around.
(20:36):
It's been here since 2007.
This is an amazing community.
I've taken it over for the pastfour years, so it's just been
amazing, and I love our messageand how we share with people,
and it's something that I'mgrateful for every day and I
just think it's a, it's abeautiful part of the journey
we're on.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
You know what, mark?
I couldn't tell that you'reenjoying all of this.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, no, it's not, you know, I love it.
It really does Like one of my.
Do you always love everything?
I said, yeah, I love everything, because it's all happening for
us.
Love everything.
I said, yeah, I love everythingbecause it's all happening for
us, you know it's like.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So, Mark, how can our listeners learn more about MWA
health and fitness?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I mean, I tried to keep it simple.
Uh, if you go to MWA fitnesscomand there's a big orange button
at the top or at least itshould be there, uh and it says
book your consultation now thetop, or at least it should be
there, uh, and it says book yourconsultation now.
But you can book a consultationor you can ask a question Uh, I
see the things that come in.
So if you want to fill out a uhconsultation form, that's great
.
But you can also just ask aquestion in there and, uh, you
know, just get a real answer.
(21:50):
And I've had some really funnystories about people finding me
online and, yeah, and they justfill out that questionnaire.
So, yeah, fill out aquestionnaire.
Or, um, if you want to go oninstagram, if you're on
instagram, mw or mark anderson,so just my name, mark anderson,
underscore mwa, and you canmessage me directly there too.
But we love questions, Iquestions, I ask a lot of
(22:13):
questions and you know you onit's the what I told you before
we started.
I love, I love chatting andtalking to people.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, it's all good.
I mean, how else are you goingto get the information out
unless you have the conversationright?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And we're grateful that you're on this platform
with us.
We've come to the end of it,but I really appreciate you
being on the show with us today.
We certainly here wish you andyour business all the best
moving forward, and we lookforward to part two some other
time.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Awesome, yeah, me too .
I look forward to that as well.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Thank you, Mark.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to GNPNorthshorecom.
That's GNPNorthshorecom, orcall 85, 5, 7, 7, 0, 3, 9, 4, 0,
6.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Yuwan Godfrey.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Joining us in our studio isMark Anderson.
He is the owner of MWA Healthand Fitness.
Hello, mark, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm good, Yuwan.
Thanks for having me on.
I appreciate you having me onhere.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Wonderful.
We're so excited, and we can'teven wait to hear what it is
that you have to share with thecommunity about your business
and about your service.
So let's just jump right in.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Awesome, I love it.
Yeah, we're in the health space, health and wellness space.
It's in the name, right?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So tell us about your company,please.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Yeah, so you know I started this.
I've been the owner now for fouryears, but the location I'm at
in the south end of Boston,which is one of the most amazing
locations, I think, in Bostonit's been here since 2007.
So over the years, you know itstarted off as a one on one
personal training studio andthrough the years it started to
(01:12):
evolve into more than justtraining but more health and
wellness based practices.
You know so integrative health,ayurvedic health, using
functional medicine practicesbecause you know it's great to
do one on one training and workthe body and move the body and
exercise, but you know it hasits limits.
You know if you're not doingthe right things nutritionally
to then recover from the workout, or you're not doing the things
you need to be doing atnighttime going to bed earlier,
(01:33):
getting good quality sleep oryou're not looking at these
underlying health concerns thatyou might have, they all impact
your training, they all impactyour life, and so we've kind of
combined that all together hereand you know I don't know of any
other place really in Bostonthat combines everything we do
into one service, which is why Ilove our community and that's
(01:56):
what we're doing here at thestudio every day.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I love it.
It sounds like you are not justfocused in one area, but you're
focused in many areas for thegood of the individuals.
Thank you for sharing thatinformation with our listeners.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, of course my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So how did you get into this business, Mark?
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You know I was a defense contractor.
I was in the military for fouryears and then I got out of the
military.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, it was my pleasure, Iloved it, it was great.
And then I I went into thedefense contracting world and I
love that to you know, still away to serve, just at a
different capacity and wearing adifferent uniform.
(02:37):
And so then, but when I wasdoing it I said you know, my
real passion is working withpeople one on one.
I love that and I've loved, youknow, the coaching and I've
always loved looking at reallykind of life fulfillment for
people, and health is such ahuge component of that and you
know mindset, all that stuff.
So when I work with people oneon one, I mean they're doing the
(03:00):
whole package, you know.
I mean some people call it lifecoaching.
Whatever they joke about it,they're a life coach.
I'm like, yeah, well, you cancall it whatever you want.
I think of it more like lifefulfillment for yourself.
I think everyone has a lifefulfillment fanatic inside of
them.
They just sometimes don't bringit out till the end, till it's
kind of too late, it's like theend of their life.
(03:20):
They're like, oh, I wish Iwould have done a bucket list or
whatever.
I wish I would have spent lesstime at the office and more time
with my family and friends.
So when I was doing thisdefense contracting job, I
thought, man, I really want tobe working more with people.
And you know, personal trainingI thought that's pretty
personal.
I mean, that's one on one.
You know I'll do that.
So I started to get mycertification as I was
(03:42):
transitioning out of the companyI worked for and then I started
as a trainer.
There was a joke with my wifewe were expecting our first
child at the time and she goes.
So let me get this straight.
You're going from a really goodincome to no income.
And I said, yeah, pretty much.
Yep, that's it.
This is a personal trainer.
You know, if anyone's listening, it's like you start off,
(04:03):
you're working the floor, you'renot making a lot of money, you
know, and you're like, hey, youwant, you want to go do some
training.
And you're like, who are you?
Oh, my God, just a trainer here, you know.
And so that's how it startedand I transitioned that way, you
know.
So there was that learningcurve and but that's, you know,
that's where it started for me.
And as I became more intotraining and doing one-on-one
(04:26):
stuff, I kept seeing I hadlimits.
You know like I would dotraining and people would get
some good results.
But I wasn't combiningnutrition, um, because I didn't
know a lot about it at the time.
This was like 14 years ago.
And I said, you know, I thinkone of my like, uh, superpowers
or something is like looking atmy faults and being really good
at understanding that I and Ithink a lot of us can relate to
(04:50):
this it's I see my faults andyou know I, I know what they are
.
The question is do I want to dosomething about it?
Right?
Am I going to just put it onand hide it in a closet
somewhere?
And so I thought, man, as atrainer, what am I not doing?
Well?
And I said I'm not coachingpeople with nutrition that well
because I don't know it and Iwant to get better at that.
So I started to get more intothe nutritional side of it.
(05:11):
Once I got really good at thenutritional side, I thought,
okay, how can I coach that with?
Because then it's one thing toknow something, but it's another
thing to coach it.
And then I started doingnutrition coaching.
But then that had its limits,you know, and I thought, okay,
so is there another thing Icould learn?
And that started to go intowellness based practices.
You know how well sleep doesn'treally matter, it's not really a
(05:34):
big thing, yeah, whatever, justyou can sleep when you're dead,
right, isn't that?
I was like no, that's one ofthe most important things is
sleep.
You sleep.
Our body recovers when we'resleeping, and so if we get three
hours of sleep every night,it's not going to recover the
way you want it to, I'm sorry.
And so I thought, yeah, I needto learn more about this
(05:54):
wellness, everything else Ithink in life you get really
into, whether it's a hobby or ajob or a passion, or you just
keep wanting to know more andmore.
And I keep wanting to know moreand more.
And you know, just going back toit, it's like really looking at
(06:17):
the most fulfilled life we havein the time we're here, and if
you're not living a healthy life, it's hard sometimes to do that
.
There are people that can do itand I admire those people.
They push past all theirphysical limitations, all the
pain they're in, but I alwaysthink, if you're not in pain and
you can you could just beelevated at such a higher level.
Um, and so I also love andthat's part of what we love
(06:40):
about our community here myselfand all the trainers we're just
focused on how it elevates ourclients and they become like
high performing athletes.
You know it's not always lookedat that way because, oh, I'm a
corporate lawyer, I'm a dentist,I'm a doctor, I'm a whatever.
You know it's yeah.
But if we could get you toperform at a high level, you'd
be a really high function, ahighest level functioning lawyer
(07:03):
, doctor, dentist and or mom ordad, you know, you'd have all
this abundant energy.
Maybe you would do somethingelse.
So I think it's really fun tohave that approach to it and
that's really how I transitionedand what's kept me going so, so
for the past 14 years, I guess.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
So what are some myths and misconception in your
industry, Mark?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know, one of the big ones, I think, thinking
about this calorie counting,right, that's, that's a fun one.
Calories, calories in, caloriesout, they all mean the same
thing.
Or, you know, and and I thinkthat again it goes back to you
know, out, training.
Bad diets is another one.
There are.
There are so many differentones.
(07:47):
I think we could pick from here.
But you know the myth of, look,I'm going to offset bad things
I'm doing by working out andexercising and, and you know,
doing random saunas and whateverthat's, it's still better than
not doing it, don't get me wrong.
But you know, I think we haveto shift the focus of this whole
(08:09):
thing of like, well, if I eat acertain way and I count my
calories and you know, intosomething more like I count my
calories and you know, intosomething more like what is the
food that I'm putting in?
Is this actually real food?
And if we're eating real foods,a myth a good one here is you
know, if you eat more fat,you're going to become fat.
(08:31):
If you eat more carbs, you'regoing to become overweight.
And if you eat animal proteinor you do certain things, you
know you're going to get too bigand bulky.
If sometimes women are afraidof that, you know.
Or if you lift weights andyou're a woman, you're going to
put on weight and you're goingto look like the She-Hulk or
whatever, and it's not.
These are all myths, you know.
So part of what we love to dois myth busting and
(08:53):
understanding.
Like, if you're doing higherrep ranges with weights as a
woman, you're not going to getbig and bulky.
And if you're counting caloriesand they're crappy calories and
you're just eating Snickers andpopcorn and everything else
under the sun that's processed,how do you feel?
I feel horrible.
So we don't want to countcalories.
We want to look at the goodfoods that we can actually be
(09:15):
using, the vitamins, thenutrients that are in those
foods and absorbing them throughthe body and understanding the
digestion better, all that stuff.
So there's a lot of things outthere right now where you know,
without going too far down arabbit hole, it's just saying
the best things you can do, Ithink, right now in the health
(09:37):
and wellness space is educateyourself and find.
If you don't know anythingabout it, then you know.
There are so many goodresources.
But finding a good resource tothat's that can be challenging
as well, because a lot of thetime people well, I heard
someone say this you knowthere's and with social media
it's hard, I'm not knockinganyone here but you see someone
with a six pack and their shirtoff and they've got these huge
(09:59):
muscles and, oh, I want to looklike that.
Well, if you just eat a saladevery day and you wake up and
you have a glass of water andyou're going to look like me and
it's kind of misleading, it'sconfusing, it's misleading.
Not everyone that looks likethey do on a social media feed
(10:19):
is doing that well inside.
So, again, these are myths, Ithink, where people need to
really focus it to what theyneed personally, not what the
external world is necessarilyshowing them, and you base your
health and wellness off the bestthing, how you feel.
If you're feeling happy andhealthy every day, then you
don't need to have a six pack oryou don't need to be.
You know, zero percent body fat.
(10:41):
If anyone was, they'd be deadanyways, but that's a different
story.
You want some body fat on you.
You know, it's like I mean,10,000 years ago we needed body
fat for the winters because wecouldn't survive.
It was scarcity.
So I think, looking at a lot ofthe nutrition things out there,
the supplement industry.
Unfortunately it's not reallyregulated the way it needs to be
(11:04):
, so there's a lot of myths outthere with supplementation.
If you take this pill, you'regoing to look like this If you
take this pill, this is going todo this for you.
It's promising a lot andsometimes it's not talking about
the the adverse health effectsfrom it you know.
So there, you know there's alot to go over there.
But what I would say is, when,if there's a myth you you have a
(11:29):
question about, you know, finda good resource, like I mean, if
you want to message us, youcould message us.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
I mean if you want to message us, you could message
us.
Okay, thank you, mark.
So, outside of work, what doyou do for fun?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
This is it.
You're looking at it.
No, just kidding.
I love what I do, so it's hard.
You know, health and wellnessis everything in my life and not
I try.
I've learned over the years youcould ask my wife no-transcript
(12:20):
.
This again sounds like acomplete nerd dork thing to say.
But I love practicing being inthe moment.
You know, like talking to you,it's fun.
It's like we're not geared todo that.
We're geared to look at ourphones and we're geared to.
You know what time is it I gotto get going, you know, or what
times.
What's going on tonight?
I got to get home and Netflixand stream my you know binge
(12:41):
watch my show there.
So I love trying to practicethe moment that's here in front
of us and it's one of thosethings that took 13.8 billion
years, you know again, to gethere and we're talking about.
You know we're upset because oftraffic or we don't like that.
It's cloudy out today and I'mlike, all right, well, how can I
have fun with this?
I could have fun being in themoment.
(13:02):
I could have fun talking to mykids about it and they tell me
I'm crazy.
Or my wife, you know, and soand and doing when you get into
something.
I think everyone should do whatthey're passionate about, and
sometimes it's uncomfortable andit's challenging, but you know,
when you love it, you persevereand you push through and it
just becomes fun.
You know so when you're not atwork per se.
(13:24):
I always like use air quotes.
Work is is not work, it's justyour passion, it's fun, and when
you leave you know if you'renot having fun.
I think that's that is thething we need to focus more on
as a, as a world, not just acountry or it's.
How do we have more fun,especially when life is
challenging?
You know it's, it's a very Idon't say that like jokingly or
(13:47):
anything, it's, it's reallygoing.
Yeah, there's a challenge here,but you know there's been
plenty of examples throughoutthe billions of years that this
planet, you know, has been hereand the 13.8 billion that we
know about this.
You know existence, but youknow there are people that have
gone through a lot of challenges, that have found humor, that
have found fun, that havepersevered and used these great
(14:10):
things, this great body and thisgreat mind that we've been
given to, to enjoy life and andhave fun with it.
So my fun is meditating,learning more about personal
development, I mean lifefulfillment, anything like that.
It's that's, and when I'm notdoing that, which is also, I
(14:30):
think, an important thing tonote.
There are times where we all gothrough these moments where
we're just not having a goodtime in life and you know, it's,
I, it's self-awareness beinghey, you know what, I am having
a rough time right now and, um,I, I mean I've just worked with
so many different types ofclients before, but, uh, you
know, everyone needs somethingdifferent, you know, and I
always like thinking about theend.
(14:52):
You know the end, and a lot ofpeople don't like talking about
death and all that, but you know, I remember it's just sometimes
in life you go but you could bedead.
I mean, you're alive, that'sfirst thing.
You're alive, it's amazing, youknow.
So let's take, let's appreciatethat simple fact and we're
having this present moment hereand I love it.
So, yeah, that's my fun rightthere.
(15:13):
Long, long winded.
All right, mark, let's changegear.
Can you describe one hardship orone of life's challenge that
(15:34):
you rose above and can now saybecause of it?
You know, when someone hascancer, they're like, they're
like they have cancer, like it'sokay, you know.
But when someone has a mentalhealth issue.
It's like, well, you know, theykind of have a mental health
issue.
Is it a real thing, you know?
And I don't think there'senough.
You know there's, it'sdefinitely made.
You know, it's definitely going, hopefully, in the right
direction.
But I think, challenges withmental health and you know I was
(15:58):
in the, I was in the Marinesfor four years and I remember I
did three months of boot campand I thought, oh God, I can't
wait.
Once is three months.
Three months of someone yellingat you, swearing at you,
telling you you're a piece ofgarbage and you're just like.
I'm a piece of garbage Really,huh, and then that not nice,
that that's a nice way of sayingit like.
And then they're pushing youphysically, you know, and
physically, you know, okay, Ican do this.
(16:19):
Mentally, I don't know, Like.
So even back then I was likeI'm gonna have a game, I'm gonna
play life as a game.
I read this book.
I forget the author, florence Ican't remember her name off the
top of my head, but I think herbook's name is.
You know, life is a game orsomething like that.
And I thought in boot camp thisis, this is a challenge, it's,
(16:41):
it's a real mental thing.
I can't and you know it cancause I saw a lot of guys drop
out because of mental healthissues and I thought I'm going
to make this a game and I'mgoing to try to move through
this and understand that this isjust a mental thing.
But once I got through thatthree months, I the four years
was hard to do, you know, in themilitary, because for four
(17:02):
years you're being told what toeat, when to eat, you know when
to get up, when to go to bed.
Uh, you're told where you'regoing to be stationed, all that
stuff.
You don't have freedom, you,you're told what you're going to
be doing, and that caused a lotof mental health issues, I
think with service members too,and so when you're talking about
any person, I think someonewho's struggling with anything
(17:26):
when it comes to your mentalhealth, it's really important to
understand.
That is the number one thing Ithink to, to try to work on and
for me that's what I've alwaystried to work on for myself is
like okay if I'm not having somegreat thoughts, if I'm having
some really bad emotions andsome really bad feelings.
And you know, boot camp and themilitary was four years of that
(17:49):
, you know.
So really, that was a that wasa challenge, and I said, if I
can do this, if I can make itthrough this, I can make it
through anything, you know.
And so anytime anything'sgotten challenging in my life,
I've said look man, you were inthe military, you've been
through this before.
And then the thing I love to dois perseverance, persist right
(18:09):
until you succeed, and and thenhelping other people with that.
You know.
So if someone is struggling withmental health, or you know
someone's struggling with mentalhealth, it's like how can we be
the people, even if we'restruggling with it ourselves?
You know?
It's just understanding morethat we have thoughts that come
up every day, we have emotionsthat get tied to those and and
(18:30):
those emotions create feelings,and then then our body does
something with that.
We go eat some food, we go notexercise, we go do some
self-destructive thing, and it'snot the best thing for us.
And so if that was onechallenge, the biggest challenge
, I think, was understandingthat the mental health and
mental game that can be had inour lives, especially when we're
(18:52):
under a lot of stress, it'sreal.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
It is real.
You never know what people aregoing through, and even when
they look like they have it alltogether, they're still battling
something inside.
So thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, no, I couldn't agree more.
It's such a true thing.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
So, mark, please tell our listeners one thing they
should remember about MWA healthand fitness.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Well, you know you're talking about myth and myth
busting and all that stuff.
If you are looking for someadvice or you want to start a
training program or any of thatstuff, we would love to have you
, of course, but if you havequestions or anything like that,
you know this is a resource.
I think this is what's greatabout the podcast that you guys
are doing.
It's just beautiful.
(19:35):
It's you're giving a resourceto everyone and connecting them
with the things they need, youknow all around.
So if it's health and wellnessand fitness, or if it's, you
know, a dentist, a doctor, realestate, whatever you guys are,
you know expanding and doing onthe podcast I think is amazing
because it's giving peopleresources and people that they
(19:55):
can trust to go to for questionsthey might have.
And you know, typically what wealways do here is a
complimentary consultation andit's like no pressure ever.
So people come in, they theyusually do sign up, um, but you
know we always say it's likethere's no pressure.
So you come in, you tell usyour fitness goals and you know
(20:16):
that's what we want to be as aresource for people, especially
when they don't know what to bedoing, what's the right diet
plan.
What's the right exercise plan?
Should I be doing CrossFit?
Should I be doing Peloton?
Should I be doing Orange Theory?
I mean all these differentprograms out there.
We just love being a resource,however that can be, and you
know that's what we built ourcommunity around.
(20:36):
It's been here since 2007.
This is an amazing community.
I've taken it over for the pastfour years, so it's just been
amazing, and I love our messageand how we share with people,
and it's something that I'mgrateful for every day and I
just think it's a, it's abeautiful part of the journey
we're on.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
You know what, mark?
I couldn't tell that you'reenjoying all of this.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Yeah, no, it's not, you know, I love it.
It really does Like one of my.
Do you always love everything?
I said, yeah, I love everything, because it's all happening for
us.
Love everything.
I said, yeah, I love everythingbecause it's all happening for
us, you know it's like.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So, Mark, how can our listeners learn more about MWA
health and fitness?
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I mean, I tried to keep it simple.
Uh, if you go to MWA fitnesscomand there's a big orange button
at the top or at least itshould be there, uh and it says
book your consultation now thetop, or at least it should be
there, uh, and it says book yourconsultation now.
But you can book a consultationor you can ask a question Uh, I
see the things that come in.
So if you want to fill out a uhconsultation form, that's great
.
But you can also just ask aquestion in there and, uh, you
know, just get a real answer.
(21:50):
And I've had some really funnystories about people finding me
online and, yeah, and they justfill out that questionnaire.
So, yeah, fill out aquestionnaire.
Or, um, if you want to go oninstagram, if you're on
instagram, mw or mark anderson,so just my name, mark anderson,
underscore mwa, and you canmessage me directly there too.
But we love questions, Iquestions, I ask a lot of
(22:13):
questions and you know you onit's the what I told you before
we started.
I love, I love chatting andtalking to people.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, it's all good.
I mean, how else are you goingto get the information out
unless you have the conversationright?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And we're grateful that you're on this platform
with us.
We've come to the end of it,but I really appreciate you
being on the show with us today.
We certainly here wish you andyour business all the best
moving forward, and we lookforward to part two some other
time.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Awesome, yeah, me too .
I look forward to that as well.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Thank you, Mark.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to GNPNorthshorecom.
That's GNPNorthshorecom, orcall 85, 5, 7, 7, 0, 3, 9, 4, 0,
6.
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