August 1, 2025 • 17 mins
Brian Wallack shares his journey from professional basketball player in Spain to Gymshark athlete and social media fitness influencer with half a million followers. His transition reveals how he's now able to inspire more people through fitness content than he ever could have on the basketball court.
• Importance of planning training around performance needs, especially for in-season athletes
• Effectiveness of training right after games or before practice to maximize muscle fibre activation
• Brian's realization that playing pro basketball abroad wasn't fulfilling his true purpose
• How social media has allowed him to reach millions rather than thousands
• Behind-the-scenes look at the 12+ hour workdays that fuel his content creation
• Value of doing the most difficult task first thing each morning to train your brain
• Benefits of having an accountability partner or listening to motivational content
• Brian's guiding principle: "If nothing changes, nothing changes"
Shop Gymshark using code BWALL for 20% off, and catch new episodes with Brian co-hosting from our South Surrey, Vancouver studio soon!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I remember the I guess it was a couple months ago
or maybe almost a year ago whenwe, when you, came back from
Spain and we went for that coldplunge ripping over there at
like 5am cold, pitch black.
Turn on the Jeep doesn't evenmake a noise because it's
electric.
No big deal.
Thanks, cody and Pioneer AutoGroup.
Yep no-transcript on a dailybasis for you team and as well.
(00:51):
We're going to have contentcoming out over a weekly basis
showcasing what we've been doinghere all weekend.
We got these incredibleathletes.
We're going to be interviewingthem in person talking about
this incredible event and I wantto thank you folks for tuning
in this talking about thisincredible event, and I want to
thank you folks for tuning in.
This is August 1st, we'rehalfway through the year.
If you haven't achieved thegoals that you want to achieve
yet, listen to this episode.
Brian might be able to provideyou with the insight and
inspiration that you need tokick off the back half of 2025.
(01:14):
Here we go.
You're the most decoratedracquetball player in US history
.
World's strongest man From inUS history.
World's strongest man fromchildhood passion to
professional athlete.
Eight-time Ironman champion.
So what was it like making yourdebut in the NHL.
What is your biggest piece ofadvice for the next generation
(01:34):
of athletes, from underdogs tonational champions?
This is the Athletes Podcast,where high-performance
individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to
educate, entertain and inspirethe next generation of athletes
here we go.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You know who?
He was on a podcast talkingabout this, I think with like
the Diary of a CEO guy, but MrBeast was talking about how he
trains clones of himself.
Did you hear that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So now he has like two of themthat are like a year and a half,
two years, in that knoweverything that he does, make
decisions on his behalf and such.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, he's a mini Mr Beast Dude.
That was a freaking workout.
Hey, it's okay, we didn't gothrough it all.
Three sets less than what younormally do during a typical leg
day.
Three exercises less.
Three extra exercises lessSplit squats.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
We're going to do barbell RDLs on the Smith and
then we're also going to doanother calf.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
But it's deload week and David's with you, so you're
taking it easy on me?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, and honestly it helped me because I would have
done all that and I wouldn'thave felt good tomorrow and then
going into Monday.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
There's a fine line with working out, because you
also need to be able to performthe next day or the day after
for your sport.
Sometimes right like obviouslyright now, off season you're
training, you're trying to addsize, but during the season
athletes who are training allthe time you got to make sure
that you're also prepared toperform the next day and not
just giving it 100% 24 7 365.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's a big reason why , like in the professional
sports, they have them do theirweight training sessions right
after they finish, like on thebasketball court.
Yeah, and you've seen thoseviral videos like James Harden
dropping 45 points and thenthese students split squats
right after.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they pair thestimulus within the same like
two hour time span, so then youdon't get clocked the next day
when you're supposed to do it.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, my cousin Matthew, who plays for the Moose
Jaw Warriors in the WHL, justhad.
He was just part of the Canucksdevelopment camp here in
Vancouver and he was running thegrouse grind with the Sedins
getting after it Finished fourth, no big deal, and it was
watching their games.
This year afterwards they wouldalways train and then come out
(03:40):
sweaty and you're like man, dude, I just want to come give you a
hug post-game.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
And smelling like ass , that's the MISI training and
come out sweaty and you're likeman dude, I just want to come
give you a hug.
Post game and smelling like ass.
Is he training right?
What's that?
Are they doing that?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
yeah, same thing same thing post game train, um, and
a lot of people, even like zachzillner, who I had on the
podcast you're familiar coachfor miami uh strength and
conditioning.
He has their athletes trainedprior to practice to get that
stimulus before working out,before jumping.
You can actually fire up thosemuscle fibers a crazy amount
(04:10):
prior and increase performance.
So that's what I'm trying to do, like oh Marriott junior boys
basketball, do weights?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
before, yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
you know, I don't know.
I feel like you've talked aboutthat too.
You started lifting.
You gained like 50 poundswithin a few years.
You've just been doingshoulders every day.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Microdosing shoulders , as you call it, like it's a
big thing with genetics, but Ithink a big reason I put on so
much weight so quickly is that Ihad really high calcium diet
and vitamin D diet with likejust a lot of milk products
Really, and that paired with alot of plyometrics, like the
bone density just like gets somuch thicker really a perfect
(04:51):
example.
I have a buddy.
He's like same height as me.
We have about the same musclemass, but he was like when I was
super heavy, I was 265 and hewas only 210.
Yeah, but we looked the exactsame and, uh, the only thing
that that can contribute to isbone mass.
Right, so it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
If you had known that when you were younger, how
would you have done thingsdifferently then, or would you
have changed?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
anything.
I don't.
I don't think I would havechanged anything, like obviously
it made me heavier, but I thinkit was really smart to like.
As soon as you stop drinkingmilk or having dairy products,
you become uh intolerant to it,right, yeah, so if you just keep
that up when you're younger,then you're basically chilling,
unless you have some predisposedthing that makes you sit on the
toilet for 10 hours.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And then you end up signing with Gymshark, getting a
thousand plus people to buy offyour 20%.
Can I Wellness Supplementsprovides you four separate
sprays that allow you to be yourbest every single day.
That is the blue fresh.
That's the purple sleep.
That's the green mend and thatis the red the boost All four
(05:58):
you can get for using the codeAP20 at checkout.
You can save 20%, whetherthat's on their website and
again, send me that screenshotwhen you're purchasing them.
Our athlete, katie Simonsonloves.
Send me that screenshot whenyou're purchasing them.
Our athlete, katie Simonsonloves them and cannot say enough
good things about them.
I promise you will enjoy Can IWellness supplements as well.
Use the code AP20.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Let me know what you think A big thing that's cool
about the Gymshark thing is,like a year ago I was playing
professional in Spain, like evenless than a year ago, and I
thought that was like a year agoI was playing professional in
Spain, like even less than ayear ago, and I thought that was
like the be-all, end-all thing.
Like, oh, I go play probasketball.
This is it.
Like this is all my dreams.
That came true.
And I get there.
I'm like this isn't what I likehad in mind.
Like I'm playing in a city thatI don't speak the language.
(06:40):
Uh, the living conditionsaren't the greatest, the food's
not the greatest, I'm not withmy family.
I'm there on my own and there'sno one like that.
I'm there to like kind of makeproud.
Do you know what I mean?
So it was really like it hit mein the face and made me realize
like, is this really?
Like at the end of the day,like I wanted to play pro
basketball for myself, but alsoto inspire others and show that
(07:02):
it's possible to do it likecoming out of such a hurry.
But I like I came home and thenthis gym chart and this online
social media presence stuffbecame more of like a
possibility.
I was like this is the sameavenue in terms of inspiring
people and showing them thepotential of like being fit,
being strong, being athletic,all those pieces, but on such a
(07:23):
bigger scale and reaches so manymore people.
So I was like this is the paththat I truly wanted, wanted to
do all alone.
I just didn't realize that itwas a possibility, um, which was
really, really cool.
So now I've just gone all inwith that and it's obviously
doing well and inspiring a goodamount of people to buy gym
shark and change their fitnesslifestyle so I think that's why,
like, we've gotten along sowell over the past years,
(07:46):
because we share that kind ofgoal mindset.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I think, to your point, coming from small town
White Rocks out of Surrey, thereweren't maybe those individuals
for us to look up to, growingup and you're like, hey, why not
us?
Yeah, why couldn't it be?
You know two guys chopping itup on a podcast, inspiring
literally millions of youngathletes to pursue their best
selves, whether that is in aprofessional sport or just
(08:09):
becoming the best athleticversion of yourself.
Right, like to your point, youcan go play pro basketball.
Maybe you'll get, you know,thousands of people watching
your games.
But now to your point, youcould have millions of people
looking at what you do everysingle day, yeah, impacting so
many more, not just basketballplayers, but every athlete right
, exactly, yeah, so it'sdefinitely like much bigger
(08:31):
scale, which I think is justsuch a cool opportunity it's got
to be cool having your brotherand your sister competing both
on a national internationalstage.
Like your sister down competingfor team canada brother back in
town, get to train with him.
Like it's got to be fun havingyour your family around too
during this whole process 100.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah they're, they're both killing it.
My sister just started playingwith the senior national team
and they're at the AmeriCupopeners, so they play at USA
Today.
But she's been doing prettygood.
She had her last year atUniversity of Washington State,
where Clay Thompson went, had areally good year.
Now she's going to go play inFranceance in september, but,
(09:09):
like her life is just allbasketball.
That's all she does.
She just eats, food, sleeps,basketball and, like this whole
summer is just right off for herwith team canada and then my
brother, on the other hand, likeplays d1 hockey.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So all of them have done, like, uh, some pretty good
work I feel like you, like,have been able to see how sport
can impact so many peoplebetween your brother, sister.
Your dad was even a bodybuildergrowing up.
I remember you saying for youyou probably thought basketball
was going to be this way, whereyou get to travel the world, and
(09:40):
now you're doing probably 10xthe amount of travel thanks to
social media.
Well, just in this past year.
I've traveled moreinternationally than I ever did
with basketball, which is kindof cool and is there a part that
you I feel like I asked youthis on one of the other times
we weren't able to actuallyrecord and produce?
But like, what do people notknow about Brian Wallach that
(10:00):
they don't see on socials, thatyou think is either important
for them to know or maybe beaware of?
You know, because everyone seessocial media half a million
followers but they don'tnecessarily see the fact that
you know it takes a lot of time,effort, energy behind the
scenes to produce the quality ofcontent that you put out yeah,
I think that's just the mainthing.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I don't think like I show most of my life online,
which is probably one of thedownsides to the whole social
media thing, which is a verysmall downside like sharing,
sharing parts of your life isn'tlike the end of the world.
But yeah, the one thing that Ithink people don't realize is
that, like they see the videos Iput up and they're like, oh,
like, you're just lucky geneticswise, which I am, like I got
(10:42):
bus with height and some prettygood like muscle genetics but
like the amount of work I put inper day to make everything kind
of go, uh, go around.
Like, yeah, I don't, uh, Idon't hang out with a lot of
people, I kind of just work inmy room.
I do minimum like 12 hour days,so, uh, that's stuff that
people don't see, other thanlike the 15 second
(11:03):
transformation clips I putonline to inspire people yeah,
or they'll see, like the day, inthe life video that highlights
the best 60 seconds of thatexperience.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
But you know, even myself right now I'm like yo.
It's not always fun crackingopen a can of tuna tuna throwing
on some balsamic vinegar andshoving it down.
It's a lot of work to put onmuscle, to gain a following, to
build a brand, and people arelike oh, overnight success.
Guy's got big shoulders andhe's 6'7", so it must be easy
for him.
And that's part of what I wantto do with the podcast is peel
(11:32):
back the layers of the onion sopeople realize this is what
Brian had to do over 10 years toget to this point, not just
have blessed genetics, right,yeah, like, obviously that helps
, but uh, yeah, definitely putin a good amount of time and the
diet thing's huge.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The one thing I always think about and this is
like the, the sentence or, Iguess, the paragraph that I kind
of stick to is that, like whenyour life's kind of all said and
done, I always say this tomyself and I'm looking at that
person.
That's like the best potentialof myself, it's like I want to
look the exact same, feel theexact same, do the exact same as
that person.
I don't want to be like staringacross the table and be like,
(12:10):
oh, I'm not the same like levelas what.
You are right, and that's what,like, I think about every day.
When I'm like doing, doingsomething I shouldn't be doing,
or I'm doom scrolling orsomething like that, right, it
snaps me right back to thepresent and like what I'm trying
to do.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I feel like you don't have that a lot, like I don't
know.
I see what you're doing onsocials and I see like the
behind the scenes too, whenwe're training, like you don't?
You don't seem like you got alot of uh downsides right now.
You seem like you goteverything pretty optimized.
So I feel like you're you'repretty consistent, individual.
Um, if there was pieces thatyou would be able to suggest to
(12:51):
young athletes you talked aboutit when we were in the gym there
earlier you've got a youngerfollowing like what are some
things, steps, maybe processesthat you would put in place as a
young athlete to see successboth physically, mentally,
emotionally if you were to kindof layer a couple out.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I think the the biggest one.
We kind of mentioned it earliertoday, but doing the most
difficult thing first thing inthe morning is probably, like I
think, up there with one of thebest things you can do like ever
, like when it comes to diet,when it comes to working out,
when it comes to anything.
If you do something incrediblydifficult and it could be as
simple as like doing a reallycold shower in the morning what
(13:29):
you're doing is training that,uh, that part in your brain.
The court, one of the cortexesprefrontal cortex amygdala it's
like a.
It's a funny long name thathuberman always talks about and
I keep messing it up, but everytime you do something tough,
that space grows like davidgoggins, one's like massive and
his brain.
The rest of his brain is tinyand if you can grow that,
(13:50):
especially when you're younger,by doing something extremely
difficult first thing in themorning, it could even be as
simple as waking up at 5 amcompared to 8 am.
Uh, that part grows and overtime everything else in after
that part gets super easy.
I like love to think of theanalogy imagining you like you
have a girlfriend that you wantto break up with, but you don't
(14:12):
want to break her, her feelings.
But once you make thatconversation happen, you feel
like you could have anyconversation in the world.
Yeah, like it's just like youjust need to make sure that you
do something really difficultand then after it everything
else becomes so much easier.
Yeah, so you do that firstthing in the morning.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Everything after that is just like stepping stones I
remember the I guess it was acouple months ago or maybe
almost a year ago when we, whenyou came back from spain and we
went for that cold plungeRipping over there at like 5 am,
cold, pitch black, turn on theJeep doesn't even make a noise
because it's electric.
No big deal.
Thanks, cody and Pioneer AutoGroup.
And you know like most peoplearen't willing to do that kind
(14:53):
of stuff right and get after itat 5 am, go to the gym at 6.
Of stuff right and get after itat 5 am, go to the gym at6.
But it's those little thingsthat if you can create those
habits early, what is it?
28 days to create a habit?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
yeah, I swear it keeps changing.
I heard the new one.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
It's like 66 oh damn, that's a bit longer and you got
to try something 21 timesbefore you get used to it or
like the flavor of it.
So like, hey, give it a month,try those things, it's not that
hard.
Realistically, you set youralarm.
You get in there.
It's kind of uncomfortable.
You gotta get comfortable beinguncomfortable in life, you know
.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, I think the biggest one too is like just
having someone helping you keepyou accountable, so like if you
have a friend and then you lockin together, now you have like
that accountability partner ifyou don't have that.
One thing that I found reallyhelpful, too is and say, like
you don't have people like inyour area that are like really
motivated, you just get apodcast and you're non-stop of
someone that's at a level youwant to be, so you constantly
(15:46):
have their voice, their tone,their, uh, their vision of like
where they're at in your mindand that's kind of like that
accountability partner by yourside, right yeah, I was
experiencing that today in thegym, lifting double the amount
that I'm used to, because I gotthis absolute mammoth beside me.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
You folks are getting Brian Wallach here on the
Athletes Podcast.
Big shout out goes to you forcoming on for like the 42nd time
.
Hey, we're going to be doinglots more.
This is the best part.
We're here in South Surrey,vancouver.
We're going to be getting a tonof athletes here locally coming
on the pod in our new studio.
Brian's going to be co-hosting.
It's going to be a blast.
Perfect Sports is going to besending more supplements.
(16:22):
We're going to be absolutelybuzzing thanks to the altered
state.
Brian, what should we leavepeople with here today, on this
fine Saturday, with Gymsharkbeing 20% off thanks to BWOL?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I got another quote If nothing changes, nothing
changes.
Simple to the point, and thengot some layers to it.
You like that one.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I love that one because, man, we are in a
society now where people arecomfortable being stagnant.
I know you and I don't havethat, so let's keep getting
after it, let's keep inspiringothers.
Thank you, folks, for tuning in.
There's been another episodewe'll see next week and we'll
see more of Brian coming on.
Peace.
I remember the I guess it was a couple months ago
or maybe almost a year ago whenwe, when you, came back from
Spain and we went for that coldplunge ripping over there at
like 5am cold, pitch black.
Turn on the Jeep doesn't evenmake a noise because it's
electric.
No big deal.
Thanks, cody and Pioneer AutoGroup.
Yep no-transcript on a dailybasis for you team and as well.
(00:51):
We're going to have contentcoming out over a weekly basis
showcasing what we've been doinghere all weekend.
We got these incredibleathletes.
We're going to be interviewingthem in person talking about
this incredible event and I wantto thank you folks for tuning
in this talking about thisincredible event, and I want to
thank you folks for tuning in.
This is August 1st, we'rehalfway through the year.
If you haven't achieved thegoals that you want to achieve
yet, listen to this episode.
Brian might be able to provideyou with the insight and
inspiration that you need tokick off the back half of 2025.
(01:14):
Here we go.
You're the most decoratedracquetball player in US history
.
World's strongest man From inUS history.
World's strongest man fromchildhood passion to
professional athlete.
Eight-time Ironman champion.
So what was it like making yourdebut in the NHL.
What is your biggest piece ofadvice for the next generation
(01:34):
of athletes, from underdogs tonational champions?
This is the Athletes Podcast,where high-performance
individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to
educate, entertain and inspirethe next generation of athletes
here we go.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
You know who?
He was on a podcast talkingabout this, I think with like
the Diary of a CEO guy, but MrBeast was talking about how he
trains clones of himself.
Did you hear that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So now he has like two of themthat are like a year and a half,
two years, in that knoweverything that he does, make
decisions on his behalf and such.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Yeah, he's a mini Mr Beast Dude.
That was a freaking workout.
Hey, it's okay, we didn't gothrough it all.
Three sets less than what younormally do during a typical leg
day.
Three exercises less.
Three extra exercises lessSplit squats.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
We're going to do barbell RDLs on the Smith and
then we're also going to doanother calf.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
But it's deload week and David's with you, so you're
taking it easy on me?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, and honestly it helped me because I would have
done all that and I wouldn'thave felt good tomorrow and then
going into Monday.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
There's a fine line with working out, because you
also need to be able to performthe next day or the day after
for your sport.
Sometimes right like obviouslyright now, off season you're
training, you're trying to addsize, but during the season
athletes who are training allthe time you got to make sure
that you're also prepared toperform the next day and not
just giving it 100% 24 7 365.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
It's a big reason why , like in the professional
sports, they have them do theirweight training sessions right
after they finish, like on thebasketball court.
Yeah, and you've seen thoseviral videos like James Harden
dropping 45 points and thenthese students split squats
right after.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, they pair thestimulus within the same like
two hour time span, so then youdon't get clocked the next day
when you're supposed to do it.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, my cousin Matthew, who plays for the Moose
Jaw Warriors in the WHL, justhad.
He was just part of the Canucksdevelopment camp here in
Vancouver and he was running thegrouse grind with the Sedins
getting after it Finished fourth, no big deal, and it was
watching their games.
This year afterwards they wouldalways train and then come out
(03:40):
sweaty and you're like man, dude, I just want to come give you a
hug post-game.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
And smelling like ass , that's the MISI training and
come out sweaty and you're likeman dude, I just want to come
give you a hug.
Post game and smelling like ass.
Is he training right?
What's that?
Are they doing that?
Speaker 1 (03:49):
yeah, same thing same thing post game train, um, and
a lot of people, even like zachzillner, who I had on the
podcast you're familiar coachfor miami uh strength and
conditioning.
He has their athletes trainedprior to practice to get that
stimulus before working out,before jumping.
You can actually fire up thosemuscle fibers a crazy amount
(04:10):
prior and increase performance.
So that's what I'm trying to do, like oh Marriott junior boys
basketball, do weights?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
before, yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
you know, I don't know.
I feel like you've talked aboutthat too.
You started lifting.
You gained like 50 poundswithin a few years.
You've just been doingshoulders every day.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Microdosing shoulders , as you call it, like it's a
big thing with genetics, but Ithink a big reason I put on so
much weight so quickly is that Ihad really high calcium diet
and vitamin D diet with likejust a lot of milk products
Really, and that paired with alot of plyometrics, like the
bone density just like gets somuch thicker really a perfect
(04:51):
example.
I have a buddy.
He's like same height as me.
We have about the same musclemass, but he was like when I was
super heavy, I was 265 and hewas only 210.
Yeah, but we looked the exactsame and, uh, the only thing
that that can contribute to isbone mass.
Right, so it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
If you had known that when you were younger, how
would you have done thingsdifferently then, or would you
have changed?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
anything.
I don't.
I don't think I would havechanged anything, like obviously
it made me heavier, but I thinkit was really smart to like.
As soon as you stop drinkingmilk or having dairy products,
you become uh intolerant to it,right, yeah, so if you just keep
that up when you're younger,then you're basically chilling,
unless you have some predisposedthing that makes you sit on the
toilet for 10 hours.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
And then you end up signing with Gymshark, getting a
thousand plus people to buy offyour 20%.
Can I Wellness Supplementsprovides you four separate
sprays that allow you to be yourbest every single day.
That is the blue fresh.
That's the purple sleep.
That's the green mend and thatis the red the boost All four
(05:58):
you can get for using the codeAP20 at checkout.
You can save 20%, whetherthat's on their website and
again, send me that screenshotwhen you're purchasing them.
Our athlete, katie Simonsonloves.
Send me that screenshot whenyou're purchasing them.
Our athlete, katie Simonsonloves them and cannot say enough
good things about them.
I promise you will enjoy Can IWellness supplements as well.
Use the code AP20.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Let me know what you think A big thing that's cool
about the Gymshark thing is,like a year ago I was playing
professional in Spain, like evenless than a year ago, and I
thought that was like a year agoI was playing professional in
Spain, like even less than ayear ago, and I thought that was
like the be-all, end-all thing.
Like, oh, I go play probasketball.
This is it.
Like this is all my dreams.
That came true.
And I get there.
I'm like this isn't what I likehad in mind.
Like I'm playing in a city thatI don't speak the language.
(06:40):
Uh, the living conditionsaren't the greatest, the food's
not the greatest, I'm not withmy family.
I'm there on my own and there'sno one like that.
I'm there to like kind of makeproud.
Do you know what I mean?
So it was really like it hit mein the face and made me realize
like, is this really?
Like at the end of the day,like I wanted to play pro
basketball for myself, but alsoto inspire others and show that
(07:02):
it's possible to do it likecoming out of such a hurry.
But I like I came home and thenthis gym chart and this online
social media presence stuffbecame more of like a
possibility.
I was like this is the sameavenue in terms of inspiring
people and showing them thepotential of like being fit,
being strong, being athletic,all those pieces, but on such a
(07:23):
bigger scale and reaches so manymore people.
So I was like this is the paththat I truly wanted, wanted to
do all alone.
I just didn't realize that itwas a possibility, um, which was
really, really cool.
So now I've just gone all inwith that and it's obviously
doing well and inspiring a goodamount of people to buy gym
shark and change their fitnesslifestyle so I think that's why,
like, we've gotten along sowell over the past years,
(07:46):
because we share that kind ofgoal mindset.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I think, to your point, coming from small town
White Rocks out of Surrey, thereweren't maybe those individuals
for us to look up to, growingup and you're like, hey, why not
us?
Yeah, why couldn't it be?
You know two guys chopping itup on a podcast, inspiring
literally millions of youngathletes to pursue their best
selves, whether that is in aprofessional sport or just
(08:09):
becoming the best athleticversion of yourself.
Right, like to your point, youcan go play pro basketball.
Maybe you'll get, you know,thousands of people watching
your games.
But now to your point, youcould have millions of people
looking at what you do everysingle day, yeah, impacting so
many more, not just basketballplayers, but every athlete right
, exactly, yeah, so it'sdefinitely like much bigger
(08:31):
scale, which I think is justsuch a cool opportunity it's got
to be cool having your brotherand your sister competing both
on a national internationalstage.
Like your sister down competingfor team canada brother back in
town, get to train with him.
Like it's got to be fun havingyour your family around too
during this whole process 100.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah they're, they're both killing it.
My sister just started playingwith the senior national team
and they're at the AmeriCupopeners, so they play at USA
Today.
But she's been doing prettygood.
She had her last year atUniversity of Washington State,
where Clay Thompson went, had areally good year.
Now she's going to go play inFranceance in september, but,
(09:09):
like her life is just allbasketball.
That's all she does.
She just eats, food, sleeps,basketball and, like this whole
summer is just right off for herwith team canada and then my
brother, on the other hand, likeplays d1 hockey.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So all of them have done, like, uh, some pretty good
work I feel like you, like,have been able to see how sport
can impact so many peoplebetween your brother, sister.
Your dad was even a bodybuildergrowing up.
I remember you saying for youyou probably thought basketball
was going to be this way, whereyou get to travel the world, and
(09:40):
now you're doing probably 10xthe amount of travel thanks to
social media.
Well, just in this past year.
I've traveled moreinternationally than I ever did
with basketball, which is kindof cool and is there a part that
you I feel like I asked youthis on one of the other times
we weren't able to actuallyrecord and produce?
But like, what do people notknow about Brian Wallach that
(10:00):
they don't see on socials, thatyou think is either important
for them to know or maybe beaware of?
You know, because everyone seessocial media half a million
followers but they don'tnecessarily see the fact that
you know it takes a lot of time,effort, energy behind the
scenes to produce the quality ofcontent that you put out yeah,
I think that's just the mainthing.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I don't think like I show most of my life online,
which is probably one of thedownsides to the whole social
media thing, which is a verysmall downside like sharing,
sharing parts of your life isn'tlike the end of the world.
But yeah, the one thing that Ithink people don't realize is
that, like they see the videos Iput up and they're like, oh,
like, you're just lucky geneticswise, which I am, like I got
(10:42):
bus with height and some prettygood like muscle genetics but
like the amount of work I put inper day to make everything kind
of go, uh, go around.
Like, yeah, I don't, uh, Idon't hang out with a lot of
people, I kind of just work inmy room.
I do minimum like 12 hour days,so, uh, that's stuff that
people don't see, other thanlike the 15 second
(11:03):
transformation clips I putonline to inspire people yeah,
or they'll see, like the day, inthe life video that highlights
the best 60 seconds of thatexperience.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
But you know, even myself right now I'm like yo.
It's not always fun crackingopen a can of tuna tuna throwing
on some balsamic vinegar andshoving it down.
It's a lot of work to put onmuscle, to gain a following, to
build a brand, and people arelike oh, overnight success.
Guy's got big shoulders andhe's 6'7", so it must be easy
for him.
And that's part of what I wantto do with the podcast is peel
(11:32):
back the layers of the onion sopeople realize this is what
Brian had to do over 10 years toget to this point, not just
have blessed genetics, right,yeah, like, obviously that helps
, but uh, yeah, definitely putin a good amount of time and the
diet thing's huge.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The one thing I always think about and this is
like the, the sentence or, Iguess, the paragraph that I kind
of stick to is that, like whenyour life's kind of all said and
done, I always say this tomyself and I'm looking at that
person.
That's like the best potentialof myself, it's like I want to
look the exact same, feel theexact same, do the exact same as
that person.
I don't want to be like staringacross the table and be like,
(12:10):
oh, I'm not the same like levelas what.
You are right, and that's what,like, I think about every day.
When I'm like doing, doingsomething I shouldn't be doing,
or I'm doom scrolling orsomething like that, right, it
snaps me right back to thepresent and like what I'm trying
to do.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
I feel like you don't have that a lot, like I don't
know.
I see what you're doing onsocials and I see like the
behind the scenes too, whenwe're training, like you don't?
You don't seem like you got alot of uh downsides right now.
You seem like you goteverything pretty optimized.
So I feel like you're you'repretty consistent, individual.
Um, if there was pieces thatyou would be able to suggest to
(12:51):
young athletes you talked aboutit when we were in the gym there
earlier you've got a youngerfollowing like what are some
things, steps, maybe processesthat you would put in place as a
young athlete to see successboth physically, mentally,
emotionally if you were to kindof layer a couple out.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I think the the biggest one.
We kind of mentioned it earliertoday, but doing the most
difficult thing first thing inthe morning is probably, like I
think, up there with one of thebest things you can do like ever
, like when it comes to diet,when it comes to working out,
when it comes to anything.
If you do something incrediblydifficult and it could be as
simple as like doing a reallycold shower in the morning what
(13:29):
you're doing is training that,uh, that part in your brain.
The court, one of the cortexesprefrontal cortex amygdala it's
like a.
It's a funny long name thathuberman always talks about and
I keep messing it up, but everytime you do something tough,
that space grows like davidgoggins, one's like massive and
his brain.
The rest of his brain is tinyand if you can grow that,
(13:50):
especially when you're younger,by doing something extremely
difficult first thing in themorning, it could even be as
simple as waking up at 5 amcompared to 8 am.
Uh, that part grows and overtime everything else in after
that part gets super easy.
I like love to think of theanalogy imagining you like you
have a girlfriend that you wantto break up with, but you don't
(14:12):
want to break her, her feelings.
But once you make thatconversation happen, you feel
like you could have anyconversation in the world.
Yeah, like it's just like youjust need to make sure that you
do something really difficultand then after it everything
else becomes so much easier.
Yeah, so you do that firstthing in the morning.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Everything after that is just like stepping stones I
remember the I guess it was acouple months ago or maybe
almost a year ago when we, whenyou came back from spain and we
went for that cold plungeRipping over there at like 5 am,
cold, pitch black, turn on theJeep doesn't even make a noise
because it's electric.
No big deal.
Thanks, cody and Pioneer AutoGroup.
And you know like most peoplearen't willing to do that kind
(14:53):
of stuff right and get after itat 5 am, go to the gym at 6.
Of stuff right and get after itat 5 am, go to the gym at6.
But it's those little thingsthat if you can create those
habits early, what is it?
28 days to create a habit?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
yeah, I swear it keeps changing.
I heard the new one.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
It's like 66 oh damn, that's a bit longer and you got
to try something 21 timesbefore you get used to it or
like the flavor of it.
So like, hey, give it a month,try those things, it's not that
hard.
Realistically, you set youralarm.
You get in there.
It's kind of uncomfortable.
You gotta get comfortable beinguncomfortable in life, you know
.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, I think the biggest one too is like just
having someone helping you keepyou accountable, so like if you
have a friend and then you lockin together, now you have like
that accountability partner ifyou don't have that.
One thing that I found reallyhelpful, too is and say, like
you don't have people like inyour area that are like really
motivated, you just get apodcast and you're non-stop of
someone that's at a level youwant to be, so you constantly
(15:46):
have their voice, their tone,their, uh, their vision of like
where they're at in your mindand that's kind of like that
accountability partner by yourside, right yeah, I was
experiencing that today in thegym, lifting double the amount
that I'm used to, because I gotthis absolute mammoth beside me.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
You folks are getting Brian Wallach here on the
Athletes Podcast.
Big shout out goes to you forcoming on for like the 42nd time
.
Hey, we're going to be doinglots more.
This is the best part.
We're here in South Surrey,vancouver.
We're going to be getting a tonof athletes here locally coming
on the pod in our new studio.
Brian's going to be co-hosting.
It's going to be a blast.
Perfect Sports is going to besending more supplements.
(16:22):
We're going to be absolutelybuzzing thanks to the altered
state.
Brian, what should we leavepeople with here today, on this
fine Saturday, with Gymsharkbeing 20% off thanks to BWOL?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I got another quote If nothing changes, nothing
changes.
Simple to the point, and thengot some layers to it.
You like that one.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I love that one because, man, we are in a
society now where people arecomfortable being stagnant.
I know you and I don't havethat, so let's keep getting
after it, let's keep inspiringothers.
Thank you, folks, for tuning in.
There's been another episodewe'll see next week and we'll
see more of Brian coming on.
Peace.
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