Get ready for a conversation with a very high energy human, Peter Park!

Peter is a highly regarded personal trainer and a legend in the fitness industry who has worked with countless professional athletes and everyone from elite businessmen and Hollywood types to younger athletes. He has a great facility in the beautiful Santa Barbara area, Platinum Fitness, and you will hear all about his interesting background in this wide-ranging discussion. Peter, an extreme endurance athlete, talks about how he became such an enthusiastic and passionate trainer, and all about his lifelong dedication to getting people fit and healthy so they can perform at their peak. He takes us through his past as a powerlifter and volleyball player, his total immersion into the Iron Man scene, and how he has explored the limits of human endurance. You will hear him talk about his favorite elements of his current training schedule, and how he used his experience in all different levels and types of athletic training to form the unique and effective philosophy he dispenses at Platinum Fitness. We also talk about Energy Balance and, especially as we are the same age, the best strategies live a truly healthy, energetic and active lifestyle.

TIMESTAMPS:

Peter Park is a legend in the fitness industry and a 23 times Ironman competitor. [01:03]

Starting out as a volleyball player, Peter evolved in to weightlifting and then running. [04:54]

Are there any attributes that transfer over from putting in that hard work in power lifting and getting super strong and then trying to be an endurance athlete? [10:42]

Athletes at the elite level need to be aware that off-season training has to be the right kind. [15:16]

Sometimes performance depends on how many calories one can process in a day. [20:00]

A lot of people err when selecting their diet regimen.  Restricting times for eating and restricting carbs can be stressful. [26:22]

Active people can get an A plus in cardio pretty easily. [29:35]

Muscle mass, muscle strength correlate with brain function. [34:16]

We have this notion in fitness where you have to confuse your muscles instead of doing the same exercise all the time. Is this right? [37:24]

Meditation has become a big part of Peter’s routine. [41:23]

LINKS:

• Brad Kearns.com
• Brad’s Shopping page
• PrimalEndrance.fit
• Platinum Fitness

TRANSCRIPT:

Brad (00:01):
Welcome to the Return of the Primal Endurance Podcast. This is your host, Brad Kearns. And we are going on a journey to a kinder, gentler, smarter, more fun, more effective way to train for ambitious endurance goals. Visit Primal endurance.fit to join the community and enroll in our free video course.

New Speaker (00:24):
Get Ready for a very high energy human by the name of Peter Park. He is a highly regarded personal trainer. He’s a legend in the fitness industry, having worked with many professional athletes and Hollywood celebrities, and also known for hanging with Lance Armstrong and getting him doing some good work in the gym. During his Tour de France days, he has a great facility in the beautiful Santa Barbara area called Platinum Fitness. And his background is really interesting. So we’re gonna have a wide ranging discussion of how he came to be this very enthusiastic and passionate trainer.

Brad (01:03):
And you’re gonna love how this comes out in his voice and his discussions of his lifelong dedication to getting people fit and healthy and performing at their peak, including young athletes, including business leaders and including the Hollywood types. But Peter is both an extreme endurance athlete and also has an interesting background in power lifting. And he talks about how he went from 200 pound Rip City strong guy to total immersion into the Ironman scene. And we crossed paths a little bit in the Santa Barbara area when I was there in school, and a little bit after training as a pro triathlete. And he was coming up and man, this guy was just a legendary trainer. The stories that people told around town that no one could keep up with this guy’s work ethic. And you’re gonna hear about some of his reminiscing about the amazing workouts riding his bike, you know, down the California coast and just training for hours and hours.

Brad (02:02):
He completed 23 Ironman triathlons in his career. So he’s been to the very edge of peak performance and explored the limits of human endurance. When you think about it, 3223he’s probably exercised and trained at a level that few other humans have in the history of the world because he still maintains a very ambitious training schedule in the gym. And you’ll hear him describe over the course of the show all the fun stuff that he likes to do with sprinting and hill sprints. He was also a competitive volleyball player in college. And this extreme training stuff didn’t even take hold until, let’s say, the eighties, perhaps. Right? There wasn’t that much going on before that, the advent of triathlon and ultra running and so forth. So you are gonna hear from someone who has experience in all different levels of athletic training, all different types, and has brought it all together to form his philosophy, uh, that he dispenses at Platinum Fitness.

Brad (03:04):
I think you’re gonna have a lot of fun. We talk about the great performances of the Norwegian triathletes today, which we’re both fascinated with. And that brings up the topic of energy balance. Peter’s experiment with so many different diets. And so we talk about this ideal of being fully fueled to lead a healthy, active, energetic lifestyle. And this guy is doing it like nobody else. He’s in the gym all day long, caring for clients, getting his training in. We’re both the same age, 57. He’s a tremendous inspiration. Here we go with the show. Peter Park, Peter Park, connecting from maybe the nicest, most amazing city in the world. Santa Barbara. You’re the, um, you’re the local hero man. You’ve been there forever.

Peter (03:49):
Forever. Yeah. I’m not, I don’t see myself leading either

Brad (03:53):
<laugh>, um, and the, the Platinum Fitness facility, the beautiful website. You can see what’s going on there. And we’ll talk all about the innovative training strategies that you’ve developed and implement to your clients. But I think we should start with your amazing endurance career. That’s where we connected way back when, when I was training in Santa Barbara. We, we crossed paths a little bit. Um, you were, you were too tough for me, so I had to go, go away. Yeah. The tail between my legs. Uh, but this is, um, what, 23 Ironmans? That’s what, that’s what you, um,

Peter (04:24):
Something like that. Yeah,

Brad (04:26):
I mean, that’s like up there. I don’t think there’s too many people that have done that many. You know, Ken Glah did 30 in a row in Ironman Hawaii. But that’s a, that’s a lot of, in a row. That’s a lot of medals, man. Yeah, he did 30 in a a row. Yeah.

Peter (04:39):
Yeah. I’m not 30 iron. I mean, not Hawaii’s, but Yeah, totally.

Brad (04:44):
You know, most people do one or two or three or or 12 if they, if they’re really long term. But that was a grind. What was that all about? How’d you get into it?

Peter (04:54):
It’s funny cuz I started out as a volleyball player, which is funny. I, that’s, I got a scholarship outta high school to play volleyball. So that’s where I started in that world. I was, I mean, from the time I was 10, I was obsessed with ball beach volleyball, indoor and whatever. So I played there and, and at, I actually went to University of Hawaii my first two years and then I quit. They didn’t have a Labo, that’s the position where like, you can be short and played back, row and serve. They didn’t have that back then. So I was a setter, but I couldn’t, I was just in the, in the front row. I just couldn’t block. I was just like, you know, I was like, they called me tips cause I don’t only get my tips over the, you know, when I blocked and, and it was just so I played and I loved it.

Peter (05:33):
And, uh, but then, uh, after volleyball, it’s funny cuz then I, I, when I was like 13, I worked in a really powerful gym here. I mean, it was a grungy little hole in the wall on Garden Street, you know, downtown seedy. But the best powerlifters in the world worked out there. Hmm. So right after volleyball was funny. I got into this very big powerlifting, body building, you know, I got, got to like 200 pounds and, you know, I got to watch the, you know, the best of the best, you know, train. So I kind of had this perfect pedigree to become a trainer. Cause I did the volleyball thing, you know the team score. So then I did the whole body building, power lifting, I gotta watch, you know, I was always intrigued by the science and how they did it and what rep range they used and how much they rested and, you know, all that stuff.

Peter (06:21):
So I was always super intrigued with that. And then my sister was a world class runner. I mean, she ran like a 31, 32 10 K. She won NCAAs 10,000 meter one year. And then I just, one day I go, I, I know I could beat you in a, you know, of course she beat me by like five minutes. And then literally six months later, five months later, I did my first, you know, I did the Honolulu marathon and I ran like 02:35 or six. I’m like, okay, I have, I have definitely obviously have some talent in this. And so I just completely switched gears and I did an Ironman like four months later. So within a year I did an Ironman, I did New Zealand, and I was 10th place and I was like 09:0:4, 09:03. And that’s when I go, okay, I can, I can do this.

Peter (07:02):
But, you know, of course I, I, you know, did every wrong thing. And you know, I’d run like a hundred miles. I’d take the train, I’d ride to San Diego, take the train home, swim with the age group kids. You know, I was cra I mean like Mike’ Smith I was crazy. Like I would just do the cr I would just pick the strongest, like Eric Cech, he was a cyclist at the time. I would just ride with him, whatever he did. And then I’d pick the best runner and do whatever he did. And then I’d swim with Adrian cuz, you know, and of course I had some really good races and I’d crash and burn for a few months and then come back, was that constant thing. And, and so, but I had some really good results. But I, you know, watching, especially how these Norwegians and the guys were training, I’m like, oh God, I could have been so much better if I did it right.

Peter (07:41):
You know, I just, it was a, it was a wild west back then, you know, we didn’t know what we were doing. But I had a lot of fun, I’ll tell you that. I mean, with the journey, incredible, you know, just a test to see how far I could go. And we, you know, we just didn’t know what we were doing. It was fun, you know, it was a lot of fun. You know, sometimes I think the guys get too caught up in all that stuff and they’d lose the, you know, the fun we had in the, you know, just like it was so, you know, unique back then.

Brad (08:07):
Yeah. The best adventures, in my opinion, were these long distance bike rides. And I used to love to do the one way, like you describe, and, you know, you’re just writing down the California coast. I used to ride home, I lived in the San Fernando Valley when I was a student at U C S B when I switched from the running teams to triathlon. Right. And I’d just show up at my house and it was like the greatest feeling that I would, could, I could cover that distance on my bike, you know?

Peter (08:33):
Yeah. We used to take a go down, go and we’d go to San Diego, we’d go to like plantation and just like,

Brad (08:40):
Like, who are

Peter (08:40):
These guys? Take our backpacks and take like 500 muffins and put ’em in the backpack. Oh yeah. Get on the train and then go home. But that was, it was, it was fun though that those days were, I missed those days actually.

Brad (08:51):
So wait, you’re saying that you came out of the body building gym at 200 hundred pounds, and then what was the

Peter (08:56):
Timeline there? Yeah, and I lost, well, what happened? I mean, it was funny because, yeah, I was huge. I was, I mean, I was squatting ridiculous amounts of weight and, and you know, I just followed these, you know, you know, once I get into something I kind of go hundred percent for like three years. And, and, and then, uh, I don’t know, it was my sister. That whole, the, the endurance thing just intrigued me. And I just, just went full for, and I, what happened is I had from a, a kid, I had this jaw that kind of went to one side. And so I had to have like jaw surgery and my mouth wired shut for eight weeks and I lost like 60 pounds. And I mean, from being body blamed, I was just freaking shredded. I mean, I’d run, I’d run down the street, like down Cabrillo and people look at me like, you’re free. You know? Cause I had like roadmap veins in my stomach and this was just, it was like I, I cut for a contest or something and then I just got addicted, you know, just from there I just started watching like Ironmans on TV and I just say, okay. And then I just completely switched gears to that world, you know, after that.

Brad (10:00):
So you got <laugh>, you, you got the weight off through the jaw surgery, you’re saying?

Peter (10:03):
Well, I, that, I mean, it just kicked it in. It was like, you know, when Lance had cancer and lost weight. It was like, right. You know, I just, I mean I went from like 200 pounds to like 160, you know, and like eight or 10 weeks. That was training a lot too. I was running and, you know, it was all new to me. You know, when you first start training, your body’s not used to it. And I was, my metabolism just went crazy. And I was only 21, you know, 22. So that I had the age on my side. But I just, it was crazy. You know, how, and then I, how fast I got, how, you know, how quick I just got good at it ex other than, you know, the injuries I got from trying to train like a pro in the first, you know, four months

Brad (10:40):
<laugh> out of the gate.

Peter (10:41):
<laugh>. Yeah.

Brad (10:42):
Is there anything, any attributes that transfer over from putting in that hard work in power lifting and getting super strong and then trying to be an endurance athlete?

Peter (10:54):
Yeah, I mean, I, I was always one that lifted weights during, I always believed in it. I always thought it helped me for strength. Like when I did ultra running, anything like that, I could just out, I could outrun anyone in the strong stuff. Like going to Figueroa Mountain or something like that. You know, 110 miles the ride. I just always felt that strength helped me. You know, some people will argue against me. That for me, that I always lift. I just loved, I loved lifting. I just felt it kept me, you know, gave me a little bit of an edge. It kept me healthy. Cause it kept me balanced. I felt in my body, like, you know, in my, you know, I never got, you know, really a lot of imbalances day, always. I lifted always. I never stopped. You know, I tapered of course and, you know, before races. But I always believed in, in strength training, just from the get go, you know, even, you know, silk, you know?

Brad (11:44):
Yeah. I mean there’s plenty of great articles, books, experts talking about how beneficial it is. But I think the, the challenge is to balance everything because you only have so much energy. And I had a huge struggle with that cuz I, I knew it was important, but sometimes you just bump up against your maximum capability to put in work every day.

Peter (12:05):
Yeah. But I, I always, you know, from those power lifting guys, there was a few doctor teach guy, you know, really good physiologists that, you know, always taught me, you know, to never train a failure or keep the reps low. You know, you do all this endurance already. Don’t go out there and make it, you know, don’t go in and do, you know, 500 squats and then go on the leg press and do a hundred reps. He goes, you know, that I learned from a young age. That’s. You know, like I did. I would go out and do like, you know, five sets of three. You know, deadlifts or I’d do a few, you know, I would just keep the reps low and never train the failure. And I, I just, I always could recover pretty well. It’s the times when you go like that hypertrophy 10 to 12 reps and you grind it out.

Peter (12:44):
That’s where the next day you just have all that, you know, that latic acid and soreness and you just can’t recover. Yeah. So it’s, it’s kind of count people always, you know, like, what do you mean, like three reps makes you big? I’m like, no, you’re quite wrong. It’s the opposite. Like, you go 10 reps are gonna get big, you keep a three reps. It’s less, more nervous system than, you know, you’re, you’re not gonna get, you know, I always wanted to be as strong as I could be without putting on a lot of mass. And I think that, you know, five reps, six reps is kind of that crossover where you’re gonna get some hypertrophy if you go in those ranges. But if I kept ’em like three to four and you know, just worked on my technique and, you know, I always did a lot of swings and, you know, kettlebell swings stuff that, you know, I knew what would make me big. I didn’t go and do, you know, incline press for, you know, 10 reps super snow or anything like that. I knew what would I just, I, I mean, cause I have a body that can, you know, can get big if I’m not careful, <laugh>, I have to watch. You know, I mean, I can get, if I wanted to get big, I could, you know, I just, I just knew which, which techniques would get me, you know, too big in my upper body. Cause I can get, I can get super barrel chested if I’m not careful.

Brad (13:51):
Yeah. It also occurs to me that, for the endurance athlete, you’re trying to develop complimentary skills that’ll support your performance. And if you go in the gym and do a bunch of reps, which it still seems today that a lot of endurance athletes just keep that endurance mentality.

Peter (14:06):
No, I, I don’t get whatever they’re doing. Don’t, I don’t, I mean, I just laugh when I see that. I’m like, what do you mean? Like, like CrossFit for endurance athlete I think is not smart. I mean, I don’t think, I don’t have nothing against cross, but like going in and doing those 20 minute metcons and your heart rates, like why you’re just, I mean, you’re just wrecking your, you know, it’s one more stress your body has to go through and not recover from your bike rides and whatever else. Your main thing is. You know, it’s the same for, I think it’s the same for any athlete. You know, the, the baseball players, I train anyone, you know, their sport is their sport. You can’t make the training in another sports we recovered from. So it’s like, you know, I mean, so I try to keep it, you know, there’s times of the year, like the baseball players will come in here in like a couple weeks and I can work ’em really hard for like a month or two.

Peter (14:47):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, because they’re not playing baseball. That’s one time a year. I can really, you know, know, hammer ’em out and, and get some really good strength for, you know, cause they, you know, they play so many, so long and so many games that give ’em a huge base of strength and, and they can carry it all the way through through the season if they just maintain during the season. I mean, with little, so if you get that big, just like an endurance athlete, if you get that big base of fitness or cardio or whether it’s cardio strength, you can, you know, you can do very little in the season and still maintain.

Brad (15:16):
Well, it’s especially important at the elite level when your main objective is to make it through the season. So like an NBA guy, imagining someone like that coming in and doing a CrossFit session no, during or near the season is just a recipe for breakdown, it seems like.

Peter (15:33):
Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, it’s kind of like a, I mean, I’ve done it so long now, it’s just, if you make mistakes, you kind of write it down. You kind of just figure out, and over the years you’re just kind of, I’ve just kind of formed like a formula that I just go, okay, this is work. This hasn’t worked, this, you know, and I know what kind of volume they can take just by, just by, you know, I mean, an athlete can walk in the gym and I know if they’re tired or not very easy to see mm-hmm. <affirmative> just by their attitude when they’re warming up. You know, you can just see if they’re tired, you can just look at ’em and go, okay, now you’re, you’re off this, you know, you can see it when they, you know, a lot of them try to fake it, but you can’t fake, you know, they yell at you when you tell ’em to do one little thing or something.

Peter (16:09):
I mean, you can just see it. So I, I’m pretty good at knowing, okay, I’m, I like to, I push people, you know, to their, you know, their potential. But I don’t, I don’t, if you go over it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s worthless training. So I’ve learned, you know, cause I, you know, I used to think, you know, I first started training people, you know, what do you mean you can’t do an Ironman? Everyone should be able to do that <laugh>. You know, I was just dumb. I was just young. I just, you know, I was just trained everyone way too hard. Oh. And I’ve learned over the years, like, okay, you know, more isn’t always better. And, you know, Pablo, the kettle guy has been a, become a really good friend of mine. And we talk all the time. And he’s really, you know, he is really got me into like a lot, a lot of the Russian, you know, you know, he’d always say, Hey, why do you think Russian powerlifters last 20 years and Americans last four years?

Peter (16:53):
You know, one Olympics. Because, you know, the Russians never trained, they’ve rarely trained a failure. They train low reps that, you know, they train that sweet spot and just do it over and over and over again with good form. They don’t get caught up in the, you know, what’s hot and what’s not. You know, the, the mass volume train or whatever the catch where the month is. And they just have that, you know, okay, you build, you, you know, you, you know, and it’s, you know, the simplicity of it is, is, uh, you know, is kind of where it’s at if you do it right.

Brad (17:23):
Oh my gosh, these topics are so much more important to me now at age 57 because there’s no, there’s no wiggle room anymore. And you, you have to learn to do that under the radar strategy or grease the groove as, as Pavel says, rather than just being the blaster, the, the king of the king of the town. But yeah. So back to your, your endurance career, um, you know, knowing what you know now or, or how that played out, you, you felt like you made some mistakes in the area of over-training?

Peter (17:55):
Over-training, you know, not, not, not, you know, on my easy rides, easy runs, not going easy enough. I’d say I would always go junky pace, you know, uh, too much of that. Getting caught up in, okay, I’m gonna do a 40 mile recovery and seen some guy in the freeway going to refu the, and just like freaking throwing care to the way and go, this guy’s not gonna beat me. You know, just little stupid stuff like that that I just, you know, oh, I think I’ll jump in this LA marathon two weeks before New Zealand. And then, you know, you go, yeah, I go there. I’m like, okay, I wonder. I ran 02:40, which wasn’t that fast for me back then, but, but I get there two weeks and I wonder why I can’t, I’m like destroyed at New Zealand, you know? So doing

Brad (18:35):
An Ironman two weeks after a marathon.

Peter (18:37):
Yeah. Well, I mean, just, oh, a client, you know, all, you know, the list goes on. I just was, you know, I didn’t have a co I was always kind of experi with myself. I think, like I said, if I had one of those coaches, like the Norwegian guys where they said, Hey, you’re doing this today and this is how much food you’re eating and you gotta have 10,000 calories cause we’re doing this today and having your energy balance day all the same. I think I didn’t eat enough a lot of times, and my nutrition wasn’t locked on. So I really, I mean, I’ve been, I’ve been really curious about watching what those guys do, and I’ve listened to all the podcasts and it’s just, you know, they’re so spot on with their diet and, you know, they don’t care about, they don’t wanna see veins in their stomach and rip they, you know, they look heavy to me.

Peter (19:15):
Like, not heavy, but not like a normal endurance person. Yeah. And I, I love the way they talk about how they wanna keep always their energy balance positive. They never let it get low. And, you know, that’s how, you know, how they, how they can train that long. I mean, of course, I think, you know, to me it seems like I’m not, I’m guessing it seems like the Norwegian took like, you know, like a hundred kids or something bombed them all, and like five rec five lasted, oh, these guys can all take the, the volume and then they, they train ’em, right? And they have a V2 of 90 and they can put in the volume, you know, that’s what’s gonna happen. You know, I mean, they’re, and they have good training now, and their, you know, their coaches knows exactly their body temperature and what they should eat. And, you know, it’s amazing now to see how far they’ve come with all this, you know, these things.

Brad (20:00):
Yeah. I’m fascinated with Blumenfelt performing the way he does coming in at around 5 9, 1 70, because he doesn’t have the physique of the extreme endurance athlete that we’ve always thought was this fat burning machine and Lean, lean. Yeah. And, you know, I’m wondering, like, we also know that the performance limiter at the very the most difficult sports, like body building or Tour de France is a lot of times how many calories one can process in a day. Yeah. Um, and so maybe this guy has transcended our model of fat adapted endurance training and he must be mainlining a bunch of carbohydrates.

Peter (20:42):
Oh, he is. I’ve, I, I, like I said, I’ve stu I’m like a, I love, I’m a student of like, when someone does this well, I’m like, okay, what can I learn? What are they doing that, you know? Yeah. I just, not for me, but for people that I train and just, I, I just intrigued by, okay, there’s 10 guys, one under seven 40 or 45 or under eight. I’m like, that’s crazy. What are they doing? Like, and the bikes aren’t that much better, or, you know, you know, it’s not that. So just the way he talk, I, I’ve listened to, you know, every podcast they’ve done probably, and, you know, the eating, and they stay in that positive energy balance. They, they don’t do any massage or any of that stuff, you know, no cold plunges, none of that. They just go, okay, sleep and eat and you’re, that’s all we need.

Peter (21:23):
And I mean, that’s pretty much what they do. And it’s, it’s simple. And they just, they have the formula down, okay, ride, you know, 10 by 10 minutes at your, you know, this, this, you know, millimoles of lactate and they got it down to a site and they don’t, and everyone’s different. They have it down and how many calories you need that day. And, you know, cause you imagine if you had that, I mean, it would be, I mean, it would take a lot of the guesswork out of, you know, and then they have a, you know, like a thermometer up their butt to see what their body temperature is and, you know, so it’s, it’s, you know, I can see like if you had someone like Lance back in when he was 24 doing that training, he probably would’ve done the same thing.

Brad (21:58):
Hmm.

Peter (21:58):
You know, if he, he had, you know, Lance who could swim, he could run, you know, if he had that kind of, you know, training and, and you know, with his talent. I mean, I think he probably could have gone probably what these

Brad (22:09):
Guys are doing. Yeah. Undoubtedly. I thought he was gonna go busted open when he was 37 or whenever he turned to triathlon. Yeah.

Peter (22:16):
I think he could have. Yeah.

Brad (22:17):
Yeah. Um, but yeah, these guys, so, um, you talked about, uh, perhaps being underfed when you were trying to do all this for sure. Performance.

Peter (22:27):
I was always a little anorexic when I was racing. You know, I always wanted to be, oh, I wanna be super lean and I wanna be, you know, and I, and I would, I, you know, I just, I would definitely not, I would, there’s no way I ate enough. There’s no way. Yeah.

Brad (22:41):
Probably especially protein. Yeah. And so therefore you’re, you’re catabolic most of the time because you’re on the bike seat for five hours and pounding the roads for another couple hours. Um, yeah. Yeah. And so maybe that’s, um, yeah. The lack of veins in the stomach Blumenfelts, uh,

Peter (23:01):
Signature blue. No, I’m just, I’m so intrigued by, you know, you know, and they’re pretty open about telling what they do. And it’s really interesting to me to hear how they do, you know? Cause that kind of throws the whole, you know, get fat adapted ketogenic, you know, because I’ve, I’ve, I did that for so long. Like,

Brad (23:16):
oh, you did?

Peter (23:17):
You know, I, well, I did that. I, I’ve tried, I know I’m a I’m my own experiment. I try everything. I, I’ve, if it be, you know, I wanna see, the only thing I haven’t tried is the carnivore thing. I haven’t done that, but I’ve done vegan, I’ve done, you know, I didn’t, and I try everything for like a year, you know, I’m like, okay, what, you know what? I have to give it a chance. And I look at my blood work and I kind of go, okay, how do I feel?

Peter (23:37):
You know, the, the keto, I just, I trained too much. It just ne I never, I never felt that great doing it. I mean, I could go on eight hour rides or whatever I wanted to do, do as long as I kept it aerobic. But if I, you know, tried to race my motocross guys on the versus climber, you know, I was like a nightmare, you know, was just, I couldn’t, I just didn’t have the power. Uh, and I didn’t mind eating that way. I, I have no problem. Same with, even when I was deacon for a year, I was like, I don’t mind eating this way. You know, it’s, it’s, I can kind of switch over to whatever. My body’s pretty, I’ve never had any stomach problems or my, my weight. I never got that much leaner on one or the other. I just, it’s always kinda, I mean, everything, you know, now I’m kind of in that middle where I eat, probably I’m protein centric.

Peter (24:19):
I probably eat 150, 160 grams a day, and then I kind of adjust my carbs. Kind of like the Norwegian, like Toban, if I work out a lot, I eat a lot of sweet potatoes. And, you know, I’m a pretty good eater. I don’t eat a lot of junk. I don’t eat bars or goos or anything like that. But I do eat, you know, quinoa and like sweet potatoes and a lot of, some fruit. And, you know, I, I get, you know, if I’m doing, when I have the Moto guys here, like they’re coming next week, I have to work out a ton. Like, I mean, those guys are fit. I mean, talking about those guys are Incredibly fit.

Brad (24:48):
And people don’t even realize, like,

Peter (24:50):
no,

Brad (24:50):
I mean, person operating the motorcycles, some of the fittest guys around

Peter (24:54):
35 minute motors. Yeah. And their heart rate’s 93 4% the entire race. And they don’t realize those guys are, are fit as as hell. And so when they come, you know, I have to take them, it’s a one time a year. I actually have to, it’s like a race for me. I have to train for them to come. So I have to like, oh, they’re coming. Actually, I gotta like, do all this versa climber, and I gotta climb the altar and I gotta be able to, you know, to, to, to hang with them. And so it’s like a whole, it’s like my, for six weeks I’ve been doing like a, it’s almost like I’m training for a race just to have those guys come. So, because they’re, they’re 22 years old, 23 at the top, the top of their game. So I’m like, you know, at the beginning, they’re, they’re in their beginning season, but, you know, it’s great because by six weeks I can’t, you know, they’re just dusting me.

Peter (25:36):
But, you know, but at the beginning, I can make them suffer at the beginning. And, but you know, they lift weight, you know, they do everything that, that’s a sport that’s, I think under, I mean, the fitness of those guys, they have to be strong. They’ve gotta be stable, they gotta be super fit aerobically. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a intense, and you know, you can die at any minute if you strong. So you got the adrenaline factor there too. So that’s my kind, that’s one of my favorite sports to train, just because there’s so many variables involved in their training that they have to, you know, mental, physical, mm. You know, everything.

Brad (26:07):
Yeah, definitely all around athlete. But especially with that endurance that I don’t think the audience appreciates when you’re absorbing the impact every second on the bike. Yeah. Yeah. I know there’s a motor people, but this is probably as hard as a t. Tour de France, you know? No,

Peter (26:21):
For sure. Yeah.

Brad (26:22):
Yeah. So the, the diet stuff is people who’ve listened to my show. No, I’ve, I’ve been doing a lot of recent reflections. And one of ’em is the, the idea that, um, doing things like keto, restricting carbs, restricting the time periods that you eat. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> has to be counted as a stress factor to the, as does training. And so when you’re stacking those together, I feel like a lot of people are possibly erring in, you know, overloading the stress mechanisms of the body accordingly.

Peter (26:55):
I agree. Especially if you’re doing cold plunge and all that stuff. Like you said, every, all of that just adds up. And, you know, I’ve never, I’ve ne I mean, I like this stuff, but I’ve never done it that much. But I did do time restricted eating for a long time, and I did. And I don’t know, I just, now, I, I feel better when I just eat, like when I feed myself more, I, I, cause I’m busy all day. I mean, I’m handing people weights, I’m running around, I’m, you know, I’m never, I never sit like I, I’m always handing people weights and, you know, putting weights on bars. I’m taking them off. And then I work out myself and I work out with the clients. And so just like I said, I’m come, come a full circle. I’m like, okay, I just keep my protein high and I just eat, you know, my calories depending on, you know, what I’m doing that day, uh, or that week whatever it is.

Brad (27:43):
Yeah. And it’s also, of course, you’re gonna, uh, it, it’s sensible to time, extra carbs with extra workout, but then we gotta think about, well, the day after you had a big day with the Moto guys is another great opportunity to overload and make sure that you recover.

Peter (27:59):
Yeah. So, yeah, the eating is, I, you know, I have a pretty, you know, my energy’s been pretty good. So I, I, I definitely, eating more has been, and I didn’t gain any weight really either, which I thought, I’m like, oh, I feel like I’m eating like a thousand more calories a day, just cuz I’m not restricting. And I, I mean, I don’t, I I mean, I eat super healthy, you know, I don’t eat anything. I’m not a, you know, chip and, you know, I don’t, I don’t not, I’m not, don’t eat junk food. Uh, but, you know, I just eat more volume of food, you know? And I, and I’m feeling better, you know, at my, you know, at my age, you know, I’m the same exact age. I’m 57. Right. And, and you know, of course, you know, we’ll talk probably about this, but your training has, I, I’ve had to change my, my, I, you know, my, my training a lot because I’m, you know, I, I see, you know, where I’m headed.

Peter (28:48):
I wanna, I wanna be 80 years old and like, be, you know, I always tell my wife, I’m like, when I, you know, cause we used to go to like Sun Valley or Mammoth, and I’d see these, all these old grizzly guys in the gym, like 80 buff and tan and like wrinkled. And I’m like, I wanna be, that’s, I want, I wanna be, when I’m retired, I’m 80. I wanna be like a ski resort, just hiking and working out all day. And I wanna be able to, you know, I was, I would’ve kept training. Like, I was like, I still can’t believe there’s people that we both know that are still racing Ironmans. Like, then when we raced. Yeah. And I’m like, how do they do? I, I could, I mean, I wouldn’t, I would, I mean, I love the Ironman, the whole thing, but you couldn’t pay me to do one of those again. Right now, there’s no way. Like I just, there’s no, I don’t have any, any urge to do that at all.

Brad (29:35):
Yeah. I don’t think it correlates at all with total comprehensive, functional full body fitness nor longevity. And, um, there’s probably a way to do it with minimizing the damage that, that you described from your younger years than I described. But, uh, at the same token, it feels to me, and maybe this is a transition where we can converse about, uh, all the different, you know, ways you can train. But, it seems like, active people can go get that A plus in cardio really easily when you add up the hiking, the biking to the Farmer’s Market, the proper, uh, steady state cardio workout that you do if you’re interested in that stuff. And the stuff you do in the gym and the sprinting you do on the beach. Yeah. That stuff counts toward the A plus. But then we have to talk about, you know, resistance load and functioning of the joints and the connective tissue and just preserving muscle mass. Mm-hmm.

Peter (30:32):
<affirmative>. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I always tell people like, okay, if you wanna do an Ironman doing one great bucket list, I I’m happy to train. Yeah, yeah. You know, go do it.

Brad (30:42):
We should rename it Ironman bucket list organization. Yeah. They wouldn’t like that.

Peter (30:47):
Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, my training now, I mean, I, I love, I mean I love, I mean, I still like, I don’t think maybe other than you, no one likes working out more than I do. I just, I, every day I wake up, I can’t wait to train. Wow. You know, I just, I love, I mean everybody, every bit of it still. And I think clients see that in me and I think they kind of feed off it a lot because they see I just can’t, w you know, as soon as they see, they leave them in, they see me strip my clothes up and I’m like, I’m taking my dog from run or sprints or whatever. But I’ve had definitely had to slow down. I mean, I don’t, I do a lot of low end uh, stuff, but I do, I do a lot of, uh, those alac, a lot of alactic type training, like sprints on the bike, like 10 seconds on 50 seconds off.

Peter (31:29):
Or I’ll do it for 40 minutes sometimes, you know, like 10 on 40 off. You know, I can hold about 700, 800 watts and I, and I 50 seconds. My heart rate never goes, you know, above 130 ish or so. And I wake up the next day and I feel incredible, you know? Wow. I mean, I wouldn’t start at 40 minutes, of course, but I do a lot of those. I’ll do one day of those on the bike one day, you know, on the beach hill sprints, or I just, I keep everything couple days a week. I do really short sprint. I just like sprint. I mean, for me, I mean that’s, I have like two fast switch muscle fibers in my body, maybe <laugh>. So I like doing it because it’s my week. It’s my, and I just, I feel good doing it and I feel good the next day. And I do, I still do a lot. I mean, I still, my zone, you know, they call it zone two now, you know? But

Brad (32:13):
Yeah. Who named that? Peter? Was that you? I have no. Did you make that up? What? Hell man

Peter (32:17):
Irritates me because everyone goes, I think my zone two today, this in like 1980, you know, withone, you know, we did, you know, I don’t even know, whatever, you know, moth, whatever you call it. But I do, I mean, I can still hold 250 watts at that heart rate, which is pretty good. I try to keep that up. And then, then, and then I do one day a week with my, you know, I have this group of second journey this class is called Second Journey. They’re all a bunch of guys our age and there’s former athletes super fit. We do stuff in the gym, and then we always, one day a week, we have like a, just a acid bath race, you know, and we just, we just, and we get like four guys on a team. We just race on the burst of climbers or the bikes or whatever.

Peter (33:01):
And it’s just 20, 30 minutes of just mayhem. And we all just, and that’s the one time, one time a week. I, I get after it. But that’s it. I mean, that’s pretty much it. I mean, and I, I’ve stayed really fit. I mean, I can climb. I mean, I, you can do all that stuff. I, I just keep it, you know, I just don’t do that much long, long endurance anymore. Maybe once every couple weeks I’ll go like, I’ll across the ridge up to Ter and over and four, three or four hours, but not every week. And I’ve gotten into that rucking, you know, one of the Michael Easter, my friends sent me one of those backpacks and I went, I’ve been going, you know, three or four, you know, three hour hikes in the hills with that thing on it. It’s like, it’s incredible.

Peter (33:38):
It’s horrible. You know, it’s like doing walking lunges, you know, for 40 minutes up a hill. Uh, you know, you know the trails in Santa Barbara, they’re steep. You know, the tr the, you know, there’s, so you go back there for three hours and you know, it’s funny cuz my heart rate never goes up, really. It gets, you know, it’ll get to 120 or so. But, but it, but the muscular part of it is, is hard. It’s, it’s, it’s one of the, it’s, it’s so different. Like, when I first started doing it, I got sore in places. I never thought way high in the glutes. And, but I, I’ve had no problem with my back or, or knees or anything. So I, it’s one of those things I kind of just discovered and I’m like, oh, I kinda like this. You know, it’s fun.

Brad (34:16):
I’m sure you’re spending a lot of time doing resistance exercises in the gym too.

Peter (34:21):
Oh yeah. I’m, yeah. Lifting. That’s probably my number one thing I do. I I will never, I pick lifting over or cardio any day for me now. I just lo I like lifting. I, I mean, I like, you know, I always tell you like, if you’re losing body and I should basically die <laugh>, I mean, I mean it’s like, you know, the less, and I’ve seen all these studies now where like, you know, you know, body mass and cognitive is kind of, can be correlated. Mm-hmm. Like the more body mass you test and been reading on pub meds and stuff on that and other stuff. Yeah. Muscle,

Brad (34:52):
Muscle mass, muscle strength, muscle mass, correlated with brain function. That’s a pretty, it’s a pretty scary one. If you don’t care about this stuff, you’re not a, you’re not a gym rat. Okay, fine. How do you like using your brain? Yeah. Yeah.

Peter (35:05):
So that, that’s been, you know, I just love lifting. I, I, I’ve ever since I’ve, you know, been a kid, I, I’ve loved lifting and I just love the science of it and trying to keep myself strong. And I, I’m not fancy. I do, you know, I do probably five or six exercises, you know, I do pullups some, you know, I do pushups, bench press swings, dead lifts, you know, some, sometimes I’ll do in warmups, I’ll do a lot of different moves like side lunging and, and you know, more functional stuff in my warmup just to do different moves. But my main lifts pretty much stay the, the same all the time. I just keep ’em strong. I wanna be, I’ve always wanna be able to deadlift, you know, you know, one and a half my body weight, 350 pounds. I mean, I’m a hun. I’m like hundred 60. So if I can deadlift three 50 or so, I’m happy on a, you know, on a regular bar, not a hex bar.

Brad (35:52):
That’s double, right?

Peter (35:54):
Yeah. So I can, you know, and, and I just like to be, you know, do 10 pullups. And, and I’ve learned a lot with pullups though. A lot of guys can’t handle a lot of my older guys. I’ve up so many times and done pullups and

Brad (36:06):
They can’t Oh

Peter (36:07):
Yeah.

Brad (36:08):
Yeah.

Peter (36:09):
Tendonitis. And so I’m, I’m careful with people on pullups, you know, just because it’s such a, because once they get that, it’s really hard to get rid of.

Brad (36:15):
Oh my gosh. Yeah. It’s a, it’s a terrible, I had it from, from golfing and uh, yeah. Tennis elbow. I couldn’t do pulls for a long time. No. Yeah. It’s amazing. Um, but, you know, it seems like a very functional and important skill to develop, but that ramping up is, um, something that’s super delicate.

Peter (36:32):
So now I always start my older guys with like a band, you know, using a band to help ’em. Yeah. Just, and then, you know, say I think it is like anything you gotta get your tendons have to get strong enough to be able to handle. So I have ’em just do like two or three reps and then even if they could do seven, I’m like, just stop at three cause you’re gonna start using. You shouldn’t go over that. And then over time they can, you know, I’ve learned just, you know, from being dumb and say, oh, let’s try and do, you know, a hundred pullups and you just sit there until you do hundred. You know, that’s just dumb. You know, that’s the recipe for disaster. But lifting, unless your, I love, I love lifting. I just, you know, like I said, you know, our friend Tom Hods, you know, you know, I mean <laugh>, he just rails me. Cause I, you know, he just thinks I’m like this, like this gym rat, you know?

Brad (37:15):
He loves being out there all day doing these crazy extreme, even opioid fifties doing some amazing stuff.

Peter (37:21):
I know. I’m, I call em the walking free radical

Brad (37:24):
<laugh> <laugh>. Well that’s interesting. You described that you have your go-to favorite exercises and you’re not obsessed with variation. Cuz we’ve had this notion and fitness where you gotta confuse your muscles, otherwise you’re going to level off and stagnate. And I’m, I’m thinking back to Jack LaLanne when he did, you know, a thousand, what did he do? A thousand sit-ups and a thousand pushups before every day. 8:00 AM every day. And it’s like, he didn’t, he wasn’t confusing anything. He was just knocking out a thousand of each. I don’t think he had any problem.

Peter (37:55):
Like, you know, I’ll go from four weeks of like front squats on a board four weeks of zercher squats and know holding here. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, then I’ll go dead lifts, you know, traditional dead lifts, hex bar, I’ll switch it up, you know, you know, same but different. I call it, you know, it’s, you know, same but a little, just, just a little different, you know? And, you know, the course, the load range and the how you load, it’s big, you know, a big factor of how, how you see the strain. I mean, if you do three sets, a 10 dead lifts much different than if you do five sets. Two. I mean, it’s a big, it’s a big difference. So I, sometimes I’ll go a little higher. I mean, I’ll switch it out. I try, I tend to keep the same thing, you know, for four or five weeks.

Peter (38:35):
I don’t really vary it that much. And then I’ll switch it up every, you know, cycle. I just don’t think, like, I don’t, I don’t agree with people that come in and just, they think, oh, do you know, do you want results or do you want cute? Like, what do you want? Like, I mean, if you want cute, I can make every workout different and it’s fun and you know, it looks good on Instagram, but if you wanna get strong and, and actually get somewhere, you gotta do the same thing. And you gotta, you know, learn how to tension your body and lock in. I mean, it’s a skill. And as you know, you can see people doing a dead lift and you know, okay, that guy looks really locked in and then it’s like a tennis stroke. You know, you can see really bad ones.

Peter (39:13):
And, and guys in the gym, I mean, I’m still learning things about Dennis. Oh, I didn’t know. Just pushing your big toe in the ground a little more and like pushing through the ground a little harder. Like it’s, you know, you’re pushing away from just little tiny cues that make Yeah, I mean that’s what I love about, you know, strength train is, it’s, there’s always, you’re always figuring out stuff. But I don’t, I always feel like I know this much and I’m just, I mean, I’m just, I want, I mean, I have my basic principles, but it’s like, okay, there’s always so much more you can learn on, on everything, you know?

Brad (39:43):
Well that’s the sign of a truly elite, uh, practitioners realizing how little, you know, and I feel that way about diet cuz I’ve been obsessed with writing. And then, yeah, wake up one day and figure realize, you know, I’m rethinking everything and changing

Peter (39:59):
Forest. I know. Same thing. This whole, this whole listening to the Norwegian thing just threw me for a loop. I’m like, oh. And then I started eating more and, and getting, you know, and thinking about that. Keeping my energy balanced positive. And I’m like, oh my God. Like, why didn’t I think about this before? Yeah. I was just worried about how lean I looked, you know? Yeah. Instead of how do I feel, like, how do I feel in the gym? And, you know, how do I, you know, how am I performing? You know, I, you know, it. So it’s, it, it, so, like I said, you learn little tidbits and you know, I think that’s why people probably love you. Cuz you, you admit like, okay, I tried this and I thought that was it, but there might be a better way out there that I can do.

Peter (40:36):
And that’s, that’s, I love that people just take follow on your journey. And that’s what people like about me. It’s like, you know, they’ll like, you know, I’ll say, okay, here, we’re gonna try this workout pro, you know, here I’ve been playing with this, let’s try this. And especially, you know, but with the CEO, you know, back to like the train that, like the CEO guys, you gotta keep it simple. They’re, they’re lives, you know, I can’t say to them, okay, ice bath in the morning, you know, do this, do that. You know, if they can get, if I can get ’em to do some low end cardio on their own, some weights. And then I, you know, meditation has become a big thing in life. I, I got, it’s funny because it came, like right before Covid, I was in la I, I had a gym in LA before Covid, and within one week, Headspace, the guys that run Headspace came and, and asked me to train him.

Peter (41:23):
And Joe Dispenza one of the biggest, you know, he lives here and within one week. And I’m like, okay, the universe is telling me something here. You know? And, and so I, I started working with both of them. And then I got, I really close close friends with Joe. He lives here. Uh, and he, he talked me into going in one of his week long meditation centers. And it literally changed my life. Like, literally like, I mean now, I all pick meditation almost over a second workout. I mean it’s just, wow. It’s, it’s, I’ve slept better. I mean, I’m more centered in my brain. Everything. It’s changed me. Like, I don’t wanna sound like a Huda group, like a woowoo, but it did. I I’m just saying that, I mean, I’m a guy that can’t shut his brain off. That’s always, you know, full a d d like always, you know, can’t sit still, you know, always, you know, trying to move like, oh, I got a cancellation.

Peter (42:11):
Oh, I can go on the bike for 20 minutes. You know, you know, that’s, that was just me. But he, that’s, he just kept saying, Hey, come you gotta come. And then I finally went and was like, oh my God. Wow. Okay. You know, cause and you know, one day we meditated five hours straight and it felt like 30 minutes. And I’m like, okay. So now I just use his stuff and I, I go every, you know, I, I work and when I close the gym, I just go in this room and 30 minutes, I just do this, you know, one of his things. And it, it’s, and, and for the CEO guys, you know, the, the number one thing I see is they can’t, they don’t sleep well. You know, they fall asleep and then they all wait. A lot of ’em wake up at like three in the morning.

Brad (42:47):
Really? CEO attribute, huh?

Peter (42:50):
Oh hundred per, I see that across the board with a lot of ’em. And, and so, you know, with them, you’ve gotta look at their lifestyle and go, okay, I can usually figure ’em out pretty quick. You know, like, how much, how much time are they gonna put into this and what’s gonna throw ’em overboard? What? And I gotta just kind of form a program on, on what I think they can, you know, reading them is very important. If some guys, if I gave ’em like something one of my other guys did, they would run for the hills. They’d go, this, I’m not, you know, this is ridiculous. So I can’t do the ice bath and the, you know, the, the peptide shots or you know, any of that stuff. You know, it’s like, okay, let’s eat. Well exercise, you know, get, you know, get your, you know, and they just need a, a roadmap.

Peter (43:34):
And you know, if you give it to ’em, they’ll, they’ll do really well with it, you know, and they’ll lose weight and they’ll, you know, I, the CEO thing, that’s kind of become my net, you know, I love that part of it cuz it’s, it’s, you know, you can change their whole life. You know, athlete, you get like this much, you know, you’re trying to change this much. But these guys, you can completely change their whole outlook on how they look at, you know, their and their executive function, their energy, everything. And they’re, and you know, once you give ’em that roadmap and you show ’em how much better they feel, they kind of run, they kind of run with it,

Brad (44:05):
Oh my gosh, they’ve already conquered so many other challenges. And then they have a starting point with you to, you know, find, discover things that are truly important about, you know, improving their overall health status and, uh, you know, perspective.

Peter (44:19):
Yeah. I mean, you’ve seen it, you can’t, you know, you’ve done a lot for this diocese. I mean, you look at him and you go, okay, let’s, let’s just drink eight glasses of water a day. First <laugh>, you know, just that anything, okay, let’s cut this. You know, just slow, you know, change. You know, like if I went and said, okay, no, this, no that. You can’t ever have that. They can do it for like two weeks, but then I, you know, they’ll, they’ll, they won’t do it. Yeah. So it’s, it’s just finding, it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a puzzle to find what you know now. Not everyone, you know, not everyone’s the same. You gotta figure out, you know, gotta figure out what makes him tick. And like, okay, how am I gonna slide into this guy’s psyche and make him do what, you know, what he needs to do to get healthy,

Brad (45:01):
Get some, get some market share in the, in the busy daily schedule. Yeah. Of the, the business leader. Uh, so tell us how you dreamed up Platinum Fitness, the unique operation that you have there. And you talked about some of your clientele being, uh, the, you know, the high performing business type, but then you’re also working with a lot of lead athletes and how that all blends together.

Peter (45:22):
Yeah. I seem to have three. Well, Platinum, we, I opened that in like 1997 about, and we started in Montecito. And it just kinda, you know, I was gonna go to physical therapy school and one of my clients that I was training talks me out of it and goes, Hey, this is your passion. I can see it. Just so I, I just, we rented a building, we opened it, and I started training a lot of people. You know, it was great because I would’ve been a little bit of fish outta water if I just did endurance. I didn’t have that strength background. I really think, I think having that and the volleyball really put me ahead of a lot of people. Cause I knew, I mean, I studied those power lifter guys. Like, I mean, I would just, I was a sponge. I’d stay in there all, I was like 13, 14, 15, and I would just stay in there and just watch every little thing they did.

Peter (46:10):
And so I learned a lot about, I, so I kind of was ahead of the curve on, on, I already gotten through a lot of the BS and the training. I kind of knew what, what was legit and what wasn’t. And then, Lance came into town like doing the tour, and he, I met him through a mutual friend and he lo we were like kindred souls and we started training and I trained him when he was in the off season. And, and then he came, uh, you know, when he was right before he, he did a second coming, you know, when he was, when he did the Tour or the second time through in 2009, maybe. Mm-hmm. And he lived here for a while. And, and then he started bringing me to, you know, he introduced me to, you know, at the time he was like, Jesus, you know, we’d go anywhere.

Peter (46:55):
And it was like, you know, partying at the <inaudible>. And so he introduced me a lot of very big wigs in, in LA and I started driving to LA I was always pretty, I was, I was probably abi I was very ambitious, you know, I, you know, I always wanted to go higher than just the trainer in Santa Barbara. So I took him up on all these people in LA, very bigwig CEOs and athletes. And, and so I movie stars and singers, and I, and I lived that world for like 10 years. Mm. And so, and then I had the gym up here still, and it became, you know, I just got a lot of, you know, trainers. I’d always handpicked my kind of guys and do, we had kind like a brand. And it just kind of evolved and, and, and, uh, and became, uh, you know, what it’s today where it’s just kinda, you know, stuff we’ve been doing, you know, started and a long time ago and just kind of, you know, it’s still evolving. Like I said, it’s not, so, it’s always kind of going a little different ways, you know, and people like that

Brad (47:56):
You talk about how you were so ambitious and driven and, and grinding it down to LA now, do you feel like you’re in a more reflective phase?

Peter (48:05):
No, not yet. I’m still,

Brad (48:08):
No,

Peter (48:08):
Because, you know, the thing is, every, every single, you know, wealthy person has moved to Santa Barbara. Like literally, I mean, so many. It’s like the hotspot to live right now. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, everyone has moved up here. So a lot of my clients, you know, and I put all that time into LA and so anytime anyone moves from LA or anywhere, they just, they hear my name first and I’m like, I can’t, I can’t like, give up this guy. You know, this guy is like, look at who this guy is, you know? And so I’m, I’m one that has a hard time saying no. So I’m still working, you know, 10 hour days, you know, um, a lot of the times. But I, I mean, I love what I do. I mean, my wife just goes, Peter, you basically just hang out with your friends all day, you know?

Peter (48:48):
But I’m making my friends, I mean, I li I mean, I, I, I think, I mean, people just know I care. I do. Yeah. I mean, if I take someone on, I, I, I glom on and I’m like, I, I really care about what they’re doing and I wanna see ’em, you know, get better. That’s to a fault. Sometimes, you know, and I’ll, I’ll be at a party and someone will say, oh, I can’t get, and I’ll, you know, I’m like, don’t get away. Get away. You know, I don’t go tell, you know, cause I want to go, oh, I know exactly what you should do, you know, but yeah. But, you know, you can only, as, you know, you can only help so many people. You can’t wellm onto anything or else I’ll start spreading myself way too thin and then, then it does nobody good. So I need to always learn to take some time out for myself and do some stuff or else, you know, that balances. I’ve always had a, you know, trouble with finding that balance of work and family and, and the whole thing.

Brad (49:39):
Well, it’s great that you love what you’re doing, I think,

Peter (49:42):
Yeah,

Brad (49:42):
Young listeners with career ambitions can pick up some great tips, which is, you know, your passion comes through and your total immersion into this. That’s, you know, that’s the sign of a meaningful rich life. Even if you do feel like you’re too busy at times or whatever, we can always recalibrate. But, you know, to wake up every day, can’t wait to do your own workouts and to train other people, you’re in the right mix, man. That’s awesome.

Peter (50:06):
No, and I always tell the trainers, like, people feed off your, you are energy and your intensity. Like, if you go in there, go oh, two reps, and okay, go do that line. <laugh> know. I mean, they’re gonna be like that. And I found myself, even when I’m tired, at the end of the day, I, like, sometimes I have to go in the bathroom and slap myself and basically, these guys are paying you a lot of money. Get out there and give it to em. Like, because, you know, give ’em your energy. Because, you know, if you just go out there and you’re just kind of, uh, go do, you know, like, you know, it’s just they feed off me know, whoever they’re is training with. I mean, I, I can feel it. Like I really know that, like, if, if I’m not on, they’re not on in their workout either, you know? Yeah. So it’s, it’s a, I was still trainers. That’s a big, you know, they, they feed off what, you know how you are and you know how you’re, they, they know what I, what, you know, they always wanna, uh, what’d you do this weekend? You know, they always wanna know like, what I did and like, now why are you sprinting up that hill so many times? Or, you know, whatever. I’m like, oh, I’m just trying out this new, new Swedish Alactic protocol or whatever, you know? So

Brad (51:07):
Yeah. I mean that’s I think that’s true when you’re at the dental hygienist, but it’s especially true when there’s a lot of momentum against being healthy, active, fit lifestyle. And so, you know, some people have trouble getting motivated. They need the trainer to kind of perform and to model, um, you know, how awesome everything is, even if it’s your seventh client of the day and your, your, your own energy’s getting a little drained.

Peter (51:33):
Yeah. Yeah. Then I have, I know what keeps me, I, I like the mentorship part. I have a nonprofit for high school kids that wanna play in college. And a lot of like Latino kids or a lot of kids that can’t afford training, I just, I mean, I train them a lot, you know, back, you know, eight years ago I might have done probably, you know, fun. It’s funny, for the first time I have a kid of a kid, <laugh>. Wow. So, you know, it’s like, oh, he walked in. Like, oh, no, no. But anyway, so it’s, I, I, you know, it’s, it’s a nonprofit where the kids just, you know, I, I was sick of chasing money from the parents, you know, it was just like, you know, they couldn’t afford, I mean, $300 or whatever to, you know, some families was like a lot.

Peter (52:14):
So I just, you know, a lot of my wealthy clients will give, you know, scholarships to all these kids. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I, and I love the mentorship cause I see ’em all the way through high school. And I, I get to watch ’em in college and it’s, it’s, that’s probably one of my, I give about two hours, you know, an hour and a half to two hours a day, you know, for the high school kids in the afternoon. It’s probably one of the most rewarding things I did because it, you know, you can, you can change. Those kids are, you know, you give ’em some purpose and some structure and, you know, I always say no allowed. You know, like, you can’t, you can’t be, you know, you, you know, I always try to make ’em, you know, okay, you guys would be good human beings first because, so to be here, you know, I’m giving my time to you. You know, you’re not giving it, you’re not giving it your, you’re not goofing, you’re not coming here to goof around. Yeah. Because it’s fun. And so that’s, that’s become a big part of my, you know, my, I mean, as I get older, like you said, I, I, I like to, to do more of that. You know, I can give, you know, I’ve done enough now where I can give away some time and do stuff with these kids.

Brad (53:15):
Right on. Peter, you’re doing great stuff up there. I can’t wait to drop in and visit you when I’m, when I’m ready for one of your legendary workouts.

Peter (53:23):
No, I need to sprint with you. I gonna get, I get get dropped by you so I can see what the level of 57 year old really should,

Brad (53:28):
You know what’s so fun is like, you know, like, like you described, you have two fast twitch muscle fibers in your body. And of course, you know, we were built for endurance. That’s what we drifted to as young people. But now I’m competing in stuff that I might not be genetically adapted to. My son watched me at a high jump meet and he goes, dad, you don’t look like any of those Olympic high jumpers. I’m like, yeah, you’re right, <laugh>. But it’s just a challenge. And we, I think we need those throughout life. I love it. You know?

Peter (53:54):
Yeah, I agree. I mean that’s, uh, you know, the, do something that scares you. I like that. You know, because the, the sprinting and the, all that stuff is, is, you know, is fun for me cuz I’m so bad at it. But I like it, you know,

Brad (54:06):
<laugh>. Yeah. Right on. Okay, so how do we connect with you and learn about what you’re doing at Platinum Fitness?

Peter (54:12):
Uh, the website, you know, platinum fitness summerland.com or my, I’m platinum sp Platinum Fitness on, on Instagram. I’m not a big social media. I try to be, but it’s tough to to that. It’s tough to do that world. Uh, I think I posted once in, uh, you know, yesterday for in LA in two years or something. But, you know, it’s more, you know, I, it’s anyone that comes to Santa Barbara, I always say, Hey, just come by the gym and just, you know, come. I have a great gym. I have a little Airbnb upstairs. I’m like, Hey, just come and work out if you’re in town. Like, I mean, I’m pretty much down there by myself. Like, you know, anyone who wants to come in and do cardio or work out, just, just stop off.

Brad (54:52):
Right On. It’s a destination. You gotta do it. A tourism attraction. Yeah. Peter Park everybody. Thanks for listening. Dun dun da. I hope you enjoy this episode and encourage you to check out the Primal Endurance Mastery course at primalendurance.fit. This is the ultimate online educational experience where you can learn from the world’s great coaches and trainers, diet, peak performance and recovery experts, as well as lengthy one-on-one interviews from several of the greatest endurance athletes of all time, not published anywhere else. It’s a major educational experience with hundreds of videos, but you can get free access to a mini course with an ebook summary of the Primal Endurance Approach and nine step-by-step videos on how to become a primal endurance athlete. This mini course will help you develop a strong, basic understanding of this all-encompassing approach to endurance training that includes primal aligned eating to escape carbohydrate dependency and enhanced fat metabolism. Building an aerobic base with comfortably-paced workouts, strategically introducing high intensity strength and sprint workouts, emphasizing rest, recovery, and annual periodization. And finally, cultivating an intuitive approach to training. Instead of the usual robotic approach of fixed weekly workout schedules, just head over to Primal endurance.fit and learn all about the course and how we can help you go faster and preserve your health while you’re at it.