John Martirosyan aka J-Mart (@jmartfit) is a personal trainer, health coach, podcast host and explorer of human movement. John's podcast is The State of Health Podcast with J-Mart and is available on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else. You can also access John's Bodyweight Basics training program available for FREE here.In this podcast John and I discussed the all important topic of calories. What are they? Do they matter? When do they matter? Should you care about it? Do you need to weigh every bite of food? What's a calorie deficit? All of these are just scraping the surface of what we discussed regarding this ever important and ever confusing topic. As with almost anything in fitness and health, the overall answer is, it depends, and the correct answer is individual to you and your needs and goals. But there are many questions to be asked to determine how YOU should approach it, and that's what we've covered here. John also loves using calisthenics and bodyweight training with himself and his clients. We spoke about the benefits and beauty of exploring what your body is capable of doing. How one should go about starting and when to incorporate it into your training. John has developed an excellent introductory course to bodyweight training to teach you the basics of how to train your body. John's Body Basics course is freely available here.This was an thoroughly enjoyable discussion and I hope you enjoy it and learn as much as I did. For more, check out John's podcast, and connect with him on IG. I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

Celia Lopez (@celialopezfit) is a personal trainer and the founder of the Placemade Workspace (@placemade.co) (https://placemade.co/). Placemade is Canada's first fitness and health inspired co-working space.One big gap in the fitness industry is practitioners no understanding how to operate their business. As much as we'd love to be able to do what we do for free, that's not feesible. Enter Celia Lopez and Placemade. After operating her own personal training business for years and learning things on her own the hard way, she saw an opportunity to fill this void and be able to help other trainers figure it all out by creating a co-working space to educate, collaborate and grow together.Celia shared her story as to how she got into fitness and how Placemade came to be. We also spoke out some other ways the fitness industry might benefit as a whole in terms of qualifications for trainers. We spoke quite a bit about how to conduct yourself in a sustainable manner in your business. The same way you would with your fitness. You can't go all out forever, so the methods have to be sustainable.It was a wonderful conversation with many takeaways for fellow trainers and trainees alike. As always, the things we learn in the gym seamlessly transition to the rest of our life.You can get in touch with Celia on IG, or connect with Placemade on IG or at https://placemade.co/. If you live in Toronto, Placemade is located at &8 Richmond St. E.I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

Karla Leong (@karlameagan) is an athletic therapist treating out of Eikonic Health (@eikonichealth) (https://www.eikonichealth.ca/) in Woodbridge, Ontario. Karla treated me during my knee surgeries and is the best manual therapist I've ever met. She changed and shaped the way I think about health, fitness, and as an extension, life overall. Karla takes a very holistic approach to fitness and injury rehabilitation. It's not just about putting band-aids on injuries, but moreso about how to return to play, or life, BETTER than before. In the episode we spoke about Karla's general approach to treating injuries and how the overall approach is the same for athletes as well as the general population. We spoke about some strategies we might use in returning to the gym or to the playing field once the pandemic is over. We explored the concept of exercise as a great way to have "me" time and how it helps you be the best version of yourself, so that you can give the most of yourself to everyone around you. We even touched on the subject of body image and what are true motivators for improving your fitness and health. I hope you enjoy this conversation as there is so much to take from it. If you live in Woodbridge or the GTA, you can find Karla at Eikonic Health. You can email the clinic at info@eikonichealth.ca or call at 416-294-2073. I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

Anthony Barsby (@anthony.barsby) is a Certified Exercise Physiologist (CEP) and Registered Kinesiologist (R.Kin) and is the Director of Human Performance at Deer Fields Clinic (https://www.deerfields.ca/)(@deerfields_clinic) in Toronto, Canada. Anthony and I went to school together at York University and studied under Dr. Veronica Jamnik during our undergrad degrees in kinesiology. Anthony went on to take over the role of Director of Human Performance at Deer Fields clinic, which is a private interdisciplinary medical center where the aim is help patients "take control of their health in order to live happier, healthier, longer lives". With a wealth of experience in his own fitness and working in the clinic Anthony and I spent a long while discussing many aspects of health and fitness. The most difficult part of helping people improve their health is behaviour change, and we discussed how to approach this both as a practitioner/coach, as well as how you can approach this for yourself. Anthony gave an excellent description of the difference between motivation and inspiration, and how we can all work to become more inspired to improve our health, or do anything else in life. We also got into some of the nuts and bolts of health: the crucial importance of sleep, some thoughts on time-restricted eating, exercise programming, cardio and weightlifting, the need for some healthy competition in fitness and so much more. You might want to listen back to this episode to pick up some of the nuggets you missed the first time around! You can connect with Anthony on IG, or find him at Deer Fields clinic here. I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

Richard Bucciarelli (@richardbucciarelli) is the owner of Speed Training (https://speedtraining.ca/) (@speedtraining.ca) He's a sports scientist, strength and conditioning coach, university professor, PhD candidate, and most importantly a husband and father. After graduating from York University Richard began coaching soccer to youth athletes (I was one of them!) and quickly realized that there was a gap in the soccer world where nobody was focusing on actually developing better athletes with any degree of expertise. Richard set out to fill this gap, and eventually Speed Training was born. Richard set out to be the best in the field, gathering as much knowledge and experience as possible. Innovating and utilizing new technologies like high speed treadmills to build better athletes in ways not many people are doing. Initially he was solely focused on soccer players, but eventually realized that athletes of all sports could benefit from his training methods. Richard utilizes specific HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) protocols with his athletes. And not just 30s of jumping jacks - but real, near and even supra maximal speed training. This of course is just one piece of the puzzle along with an athletes strength work and technical work related to their sport, but something necessary nonetheless. Another area of interest was the concept of overtraining athletes, or the myth of overtrained athletes. Not that overtraining doesn't exist, just that most of what we call overtraining, is in reality, undertraining. This may sound like a foreign concept, but the literature shows it to be true. Many of these concepts sound very specific to athletes, but as always we bring it all together and take the lessons from high performance to people like you and I. If you live in Toronto or the GTA, you can train with Richard at his facility which you can find more info about at https://speedtraining.ca/. Speed Training is also on IG @speedtraining.ca as well as on Youtube. Check out all they have to offer on all this performance, fitness and health! I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

Janessa Laureano (@janessalaureanoo) is a trainer and the owner of O2 Fuel Fitness in Vaughan, Ontario (@o2fuelvaughan). She also owns and operates a spray tan business @lolotantoronto, also located in Vaughan. With some added bandwidth due to the lockdown in Ontario Janessa successfully gained 20lbs and has never been stronger or felt better. Gaining weight in a healthy way is not as easy as many may think, and it does take a fair bit of time, dedication and hard work. But it's almost always worth it. Janessa speaks on how she accomplished this goal and why it's been such a positive experience as well as mentioning all of the other intangible benefits training has on her life. While celebrating this win and sharing her message on social media, Janessa faced some backlash from a stranger with nothing better to do and this caused some controversy. An all too common thing that women face in fitness. We spoke about what happened, why it's a problem, and some potential solutions. Janessa also offers some great insights on how other woman might consider dealing with these kinds of encounters both online and in person. We also spoke about how to implement training into one's life to really anchor down and improve all of the other aspects. How taking time to care for yourself physically will spill over in abundance to everything else you do. As well as some actionable strategies to implement today, and going forward post-covid. This was a fantastic episode and I really enjoyed it. Be sure to connect with Janessa on IG and if you live in Vaughan be sure to check out @o2fuelvaughan and @lolotantoronto.I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

Another solo episode all about what I'm calling the paradox of exercise selection. Choosing the correct exercises for your goals matters. It matters a lot. But at the same time, getting up and moving and doing ANYTHING matters even more. If you've over the "movement for the sake of movement" thing and looking to achieve some more specific goals with your training, then this is something you must pay attention to. In the episode I take you through my thought process as a coach and some things I consider when selecting certain exercises to use in a training program. First, it's important to know what the options are. Next, we need to know how to evaluate the options. And lastly, we need to correctly execute on the decisions. I hope this episode helps you to think clearly about how to choose exercises, or at a minimum points you in the right direction to begin asking better questions. If you’re looking for more guidance or coaching for yourself and you’re not sure where to begin, I’d love to work with you and be your coach to help you achieve whatever fitness goals you have set for yourself. Contact me on Instagram or Twitter to get started. I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

James Gardiner (@firstar.therapy, https://firstartherapy.com/) is an athletic therapist by trade but really so much more than that. He's worked with athletes at the highest level across many sports and organizations and has also been able to connect the dots through yoga, breathwork, mindfulness, intentful movement and all the things that make us human.James went searching for more in the Bahamas and came back with a refreshed view of athletic therapy, training and life overall and has applied these new lessons to FIRSTAR Therapy which "is a philosophy and approach to sport performance, training and rehabilitation that places emphasis on education and empowerment of the athlete."I had the pleasure of taking James' Recalibration Workshops earlier this year and it was a game changer for me in beginning to understand breathwork on a deeper level, and by association understanding myself. Whenever you're listening to this, the beginner and advanced courses will be starting again soon, and you can find out more information here.James will also be speaking at the State of Mind Festival which is a mental health innovation festival, and you can learn more about that here.He also is the host of FIRSTAR Let's chAT: an athletic therapy roundtable podcast where James has excellent discussion with therapists, coaches, doctors and many exciting people on all things human performance. You can find it wherever your find podcasts or here, Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts. The third but certainly not last exciting project is the Performance Wellness Platform in partnership with MindframeFit which is a program where the goal is "to enable, empower, and enhance each athlete’s well-being on and off the field of play through a focus on intentful movement and mindful practices." This is one I'm really excited about, and you can learn more here.James is a really wonderful human, I hope you enjoy this and find as much value in this conversation as I did. Connect with James on Instagram @firstar.therapy and Youtube.I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss 

Matthew Arnone (@arnonematthew23) is a professional soccer player, the creator of @mindframefit (www.mindframefit.com) and the founder of Jason's Wish (@jayzwish) which supports Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto, in memory of his brother Jason. He's also one of my best friends. Matt and I started working out together in university and did all the stereotypical things you could think of. Barely trained legs, pills and powders all over the place, and no real intention and thought went into anything we did except lifting heavier weight. Certainly not the most optimal way to do things, but it got the job done at the time. We both evolved on somewhat separate paths as Matt worked to fulfill his dream of becoming a pro soccer player and I worked through injury to then step into my role as a coach. We took different paths with our fitness but arrived at the same place. That there is so much more to all of this than bench pressing more than the other guy. There is so much more to being human that we seem to neglect. And as we both learned these things, and continue to learn through our own individual experiences it has become more and more apparent that this messaging has to be shared. In the episode, we dive into what it means to be a better human, the importance of practicing and training resiliency, the importance of working on yourself first so that you can give more of yourself and many more related topics. Matt has also launched his mental fitness program called Mindframe which aims to help guide athletes and all humans through the use of mindfulness training in order to achieve optimal performance in all things. You can learn more at www.mindframefit.com, or connect on IG @mindframefit or Twitter @mindframefit. This episode was a pleasure and there will be many more of these conversations that we have publicly in due time. I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss

Juan Salgado (@the_chosenjuan1) is a competitive powerlifter, personal trainer and business owner in Costa Mesa, California. Juan and I share a lot of similar thoughts on how to navigate fitness in conjunction with enjoying one's life. We both also got into coaching after career ending sports injuries and have learned so much about life through the lessons learned in the gym. This was a really great conversation that I thoroughly enjoyed. We spoke about what to look for in a coach, how consistency and outlasting the competition is the most common element to success in and out of the gym, how to reframe your training to focus on building strength and approach things from a place of positivity, and how to tie all this together in the context of living a full life. We also spoke about Juan's new e-book called Eating Out While Dieting which you can find here. I think this is so crucial to be able to get good at this so that you can always enjoy your life without derailing your health and fitness goals. I really enjoyed this and think there were a lot of nuggets in this episode! Once again, to get in contact with Juan you can find him on Instagram @the_chosenjuan1 or on his website. I would greatly appreciate any comments, questions or feedback. If you could share this with a friend, that would mean the world to me. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you subscribed and left a short review on iTunes. It really helps to spread the message and ultimately help more people.  Connect with me on Instagram @danielyoresConnect with me on Twitter @danielyores Podcast Cover Art by @octopuslegss