Thirst and natural because I know that's about the most common question you're probably asked every fucking day. Yeah, I mean I've been getting that for at least a decade now. Do not neglect your social media. Like get on that as soon as possible and get on every single social media. Because I had no idea how important it would be.
What is your purpose? I felt like what I was doing over the past few years, it wasn't very fulfilling and I felt like, well this isn't really what I'm supposed to do here. Where growth comes is continually pushing yourself to like...
How can I make myself uncomfortable to keep improving? Yeah, you just, it doesn't matter how you feel, you just have to do it. Like even if there's days where you're like, oh, I don't want to film today, I don't want to do this. Just do it.
If you are a teen or in your early 20s, you know, all you have to do is just sit there and just binge watch everything and you can learn so much and you've got pretty much a head start. Mr. Mike Thurston, so today is a big pleasure to have you on the podcast. So thank you very much for your time firstly.
I think everyone will probably know who Mike is if you're into the fitness scene. So Mike is probably the OG of... fitness youtube from the uk and i think one of the things i always loved about you and what you've done is you have your own very unique style in terms of what you do and you don't really copy anyone else and your lifestyle is very different in that respect so you're very forward thinking that one of the big things i want to talk to you about today though is how i think you've matured something a lot very quickly and the plans of what you're doing going forward and how you're developing as a person so firstly what do you think is that's driving this change within you right now well i think first of all i'm not getting any younger So I'm now 32 and I think when I got into my 30s, I turned 31, 32, I realized, okay, I can't keep behaving and acting the way I was when I was in my mid-20s, later 20s, when I kind of started YouTube.
So I think as I just naturally matured with age, the type of content which I want to put out will again sort of just naturally mature. So I think beforehand I was going around doing a lot of vlogs, lifestyle stuff and just trying to... do things to entertain people whereas now that doesn't really fulfill me as much i'd rather be the type of person that is helping people and putting out meaningful content and that was actually what i did to begin with when i started youtube like all my content was literally just helping people build muscle lose body fat but then i kind of strayed away from that because i kind of got bored with it and then i got more into the lifestyle of vlogging so i felt like i had to entertain people more but now i'm getting a little bit more kind of bored with that i'm trying to retract back to sort of the self-help stuff and I think as well it's the past the past couple of years I really have had a lot of fun pretty much doing whatever I want when I want I've I feel like in my mid-20s I really grafted to kind of get myself out there build my channel and my revenue streams and then I got to a point I was like you know what I actually just want to enjoy my life for a little bit because all these things which I wanted to do when I was younger I could now do because I had a bit of money and I had free time to do it so um I kind of did all those things I lived sort of the Hedonistic lifestyle, partied quite a bit, travelled and then I think when you do that too much of that you start to realise oh actually it's not really that fulfilling and I think I came to that realisation because it was even like the start of this summer I think.
I think a lot of things which I used to love doing I just don't really enjoy doing it anymore. I remember it was on it was when the the nightclubs open again in Ibiza and I've spent the past two summers in Ibiza and I went in May, group of friends and Hi, the biggest or the best rated nightclub had opened up again. So I was like, oh my God, the year's gonna be great. Can't wait. It's been two years since it's been opened.
And I was there on the dance floor and I was just kind of like, well, this is actually pretty average. Don't really enjoy this anymore. So I think that kind of was an indicator that I should be doing something else now.
Rani was coming to my head. Do you feel that sometimes the girls were staying the same age and you just kept getting older and you're getting that older guy who's like hanging around you. So people are younger than you? Because even I see, I don't go out, but I see that sometimes in the fitness scene.
Yeah. Like people are 10 years younger than me. I'm like, interesting.
Well I definitely noticed that with the guy friends who I was hanging out with, particularly in Ibiza, they were all younger than me and they were, I guess they were just a different stage in life to where I am now. I think they're kind of where I was four years ago, so they're doing their thing, they're enjoying themselves, but I've kind of surpassed that stage. But I think especially now I still go to parties and events where I'm surrounded by people who are a kind of similar age group, which is quite good. I think if I ever go to a party and I'm the oldest one there then that is quite a worrying situation but luckily that hasn't been too frequent other than obviously what you said in terms of um that moment in ibiza has there been anything else that's really like penny dropped you're like i don't want to be involved with this anymore because i think something you said there was very interesting it's almost like how you come back to your real values of who you are in terms of like like you probably feel like you're on this like planet to help people like your original content was helping people get in great shape and then it became people loved you and your lifestyle so you just start showing your lifestyle and it's interesting how you got bored of that and now you want to go back to like how can I help like inspire and motivate people and actually teach at the same time? I think it's a number of things I think particularly this summer I had a lot of a lot more time to myself than usual so I was listening to a lot of podcasts and even if I wasn't necessarily physically surrounded by the right people if you listen to podcasts and watch the right videos it's almost kind of a similar thing because you're constantly filling your head with good information so you're naturally just improving your thoughts and getting motivated by those people who are quite inspiring and who have set a very good example and then I guess it comes down to purpose as well if you ask yourself well what is your purpose I felt like what I was doing over the past few years it wasn't very fulfilling and I felt like well this isn't really what I'm supposed to do here If my purpose is to help people, to motivate them, inspire them, then these videos, maybe they are like the travel vlogs, it inspires people to kind of, you know, live their dream life or whatever and travel.
But I felt like it wasn't quite what I was supposed to be doing. And I think most importantly, I just felt like I was capable of a lot more, especially at this stage. I've done the hard work, I've built the platform, and I feel like there is so much more that I can achieve.
But I became quite comfortable and content with where I was at that I kind of took a bit of time off. I did the things which I wanted to do, which I guess is a good thing to do. But then I just, I was just thinking, come on, like there's more I could be doing.
There's more content I could be putting out. Like the work rate was nowhere near what it could be. So yeah, I was just thinking, well, this is just not my potential.
So let's try and actually fulfill that potential. Do you find like, and I see a lot of people on social media, like with YouTube particularly, you're almost having to like fulfill an alter ego of like fulfilling who Mike Thurston is, but like. Going to beach clubs, hearing my ads, looking at my sushi, like that sort of persona.
Yeah, particularly with the vlogs that I do, I put on a bit of a character. It's not like anything too different, but it's kind of like more animated and energetic, just because you have to... I'm naturally quite a chilled out guy who's, I guess, more on the introverted side, because sometimes I wake up and I'm like, I really don't want to make a video today. But I'm like, I have to make a video. So I have to sort of...
go out there, do something interesting, put on like the show. And even though that's, I don't feel as though it's necessarily the person that I am, I feel like that's, I need to continue to be that person for the viewers, if you know what I mean. So I don't know, it's like I still have that character within me, but I still think sometimes people don't really know the real me. And sometimes I feel a bit lost because I have, I felt like I've lost.
being confused with who i actually am as a person sometimes so it's it's i think this summer as i mentioned i had a bit of time out to rethink okay well who i am what what you know type of person i am what content do i want to put out there it's interesting you mentioned you being very introvert like naturally because i'm exactly the same and the people i'm an introvert but i've learned to be extra and i think you're exactly the same and ironically we both trained in the same gym in the uk for a long time for seat warehouse i never spoke to you because like I'm like, unless I know someone, and particularly back then, I would never talk to or engage with anyone because I was like a very shy guy. So me doing podcasts and YouTube and all this stuff wasn't what I wanted to do. For anyone out there who's listening to this or watching this, how did you overcome that hurdle and teach yourself to become extrovert and like turn on like the mic thirst and switch when you need to? I think the YouTube definitely had a big part to play with that. I think naturally I was uncomfortable being in front and speaking in front of the camera.
So I knew if I wanted to take my career to the next level, okay, I have to make myself known on this platform, YouTube. Because I knew I had the knowledge, but it was just a matter of getting it out there. So I used to practice in front of the camera. I'd ask myself questions. I'd speak to it.
I'd look back at it. I would edit the footage. Obviously, the first few drafts, I'd be like, oh my God, like, who's this awkward, weird guy? But then I got better over time. And then naturally, the more that you speak in front of the camera, the more you hear yourself talk and watch yourself back.
And even... that you know just your ability to answer you just write down those questions answer the questions you naturally get better at answering questions and speaking so that helped massively and then just forcing yourself to go out and to network because there's some times when especially back in the day i'd get invited to event and i'd be like this is like this is the last thing that i want to do i just want to stay at home and just chill out and then just go to bed but now i'm gonna force himself to go out and every time that i went to an event or where there was loads of people like to do loads of speaking at the end of it i was really happy and i got a buzz off it so i think you just have to know that before the initial uh whatever it might be the gathering or the event you're always gonna not want to do it but there'll always be that feeling of like excitement and satisfaction once you have done it and you feel like you know what that was that was really worth it but if it always happens the same time always before the event i'm like oh god i don't want i don't want to do this i just want to be alone and just like go to the beach or do something by myself It's funny because I feel exactly the same about most things most of the time like filming content And whatever that I'd rather just train my own or I would rather do my own thing But when you push yourself out of your comfort zone and you actually do the thing you're supposed to do It makes you feel so much rewarded and like afterwards you're like, why did I why was I stressing out about this for no reason? Like doing a podcast with Mike.
He's a nice guy. He's not giving me shit I hope like it's that sort of thing you you build up these false expectations in your head Of like people don't give you crap and you said public speaking was a big thing You wanted to try and learn and push on like That for you I imagine is very uncomfortable it was for me when I started doing that as well and I think that's where growth comes is continually pushing yourself to like how can I make myself uncomfortable to keep improving. Yeah and you just doesn't matter how you feel you just have to do it like even if there's days where you're like I don't want to film today I don't want to do this just do it.
And every time you do it, you always feel amazing afterwards. So like I said before, I'm always just thinking of the feeling that I'm going to have after I've done that thing that I don't really want to do. It's the same when I go to the gym, especially like leg days.
You know, leg days are never pleasant. And if you want to continue to grow your legs, you have to really push yourself. It's going to be a really uncomfortable one hour. But once you've done that and you really have given 100% effort, you feel amazing afterwards.
So before the session, I always think about how I'm going to feel after the session. That's great perspective you have and I think saying always like really like is that um doing things you hate like you love it and like just like pushing yourself through those things and the fulfillment that comes of like when you really don't want to do cardio or you don't want to train or you don't want to make that awkward phone call for work or whatever it might be like it's always the like the fear of doing it is worse than actually doing whatever it is. Yeah and you got to think if you're not going to do it and someone else is going to do it there's going to be loads of other people that are going to do the things that you don't want to do and if they do it then they're going to overtake you so you just.
you have to suck it up and crack on what are you doing to stop being overtaken is that something do you worry about sometimes with like young kids coming up on the block on youtube or whatever it might be yeah recently i guess that's one of the things that's made me change a little bit over the past summer i think now because it is so easy to make money online grow your own business and if you really want to work at it you can grow your social media and i think it's i'm not necessarily that I don't bother about people getting like a big following or bigger following than me but it's when I find out there's people that are like 10 years younger than me that are making so much more money than me I'm like what the hell like how how is this happen how have I allowed this to happen in the first place there's a guy I met him I've met a few times recently Iman this guy's like 22 years old and he's worth like tens of millions already and he's just like killing it in every way and i'm like what the hell like how has this guy got to such a high level and accomplished so much in life at the age of 22 and i'm 32 and i feel like damn like i've i'm falling behind a bit here like i'm doing something wrong i need to be focusing on something else it was really ironic at this i've been binging his content last week or two and like i watch a lot of his stuff and feel exactly the same and i don't know if you get this like respectfully i say we're both successful in what we do it almost makes me feel a bit insecure like i failed a little bit i don't know if you get that and some of us it's like you're 10 years younger than me what am i doing yeah but i think the younger kids have definitely had a head start because when we were 22 there wasn't nowhere near the same amount of content out there i think there was instagram at the when i was 22 i don't think there was videos there was no stories on instagram youtube videos they were there but they weren't like at the same level in terms of like the the quality of the production and edits and so on And so for sure if we wanted to learn something there was a lot less content on YouTube to learn from. So we would have to maybe go and read books or go to seminars and that was pretty much it. Now there is so much information out there that is put together so well and so easy to digest that if you are a teen or in your early 20s, all you have to do is just sit there and binge watch everything and you can learn so much and you've got pretty much a head start. So yeah. I guess that's one thing, but I wouldn't necessarily feel as though I'm a failure, but I think it's a good thing to just surround yourself with those types of people.
Because if I didn't know they existed, then again, I would feel too comfortable again. I'd feel like, oh, well, I'm the most successful person in this room or this area. But now recently, particularly in Dubai, Dubai is a great place to be inspired and motivated.
I'm making a conscious effort to actually spend more time with these people who are very successful and they've made lots of money. because even just going to i went to dinner with a couple of guys last night who they've got their their own courses agencies things like that it's i mean i'm baffled by how much money they've been able to make but some of the principles which they've used to make money i can also replicate and you know implement it with some of my own future products which i bring out i think that's where it's an eye-opening and it's something that's where in a lot of respects i've moved to by start this year you moved out a couple of years ago And I think moving from the UK to somewhere like Dubai is very eye-opening in respect in terms of you can be big fish, small pond in the UK, but you come to Dubai, you're not flexing on people about like having a Rolex watch or whatever car you've got, because there's always somebody who's got like a million times wealthier than you or more successful. And I think that gives you a lot of perspective. And I think some people, depending on their character, either makes them feel bad or probably feel like you and me, it makes you feel super motivated thinking like, fuck me, that's the level of like what can be done.
Like, look what he's done. I can do that if he could do that. Yeah. And I've always had that view on it.
anybody who is more successful than me if someone's got you know a better physique than me and i never hate i'm never bitter i'm always just like like respect like i i know what it's taken to get to that point and i admire that and it's motivating me it's like you know someone like andrew tate like when i watched some of his content not one point did i feel insecure or jealous or hatred towards him i was just like you know what fair play like he's you You know, he's telling the cold hard truth and even I would get inspired or a bit of a kick up the arse just from listening to some of his rants about just becoming, you know, a higher value man and just stop wasting your time and start working more. Do you think people like that had a very positive influence on you, respectfully stop wasting your time with like maybe like the beach club bullshit and all that sort of stuff and like for you to really try and like level up with what you want in life? I think so, but it's weird because...
Somebody can tell you that that has no real meaning and that eventually it gets boring. But I feel like you just you have to experience it for yourself. You know, there's so many things in my life where I've thought, I'd love to know what that's like.
I don't know whether it would be, you know, going on holiday with a girl or experiencing this particular adventure or holiday or whatever it might be or doing something And a lot of times when you actually end up doing them It's nowhere near as good as you thought it would be and you're just like, oh, okay That was a bit of a letdown. Oh, well on to the next thing and I think with a lot of stuff which Is along the sort of hedonistic sort of lifestyle It's fun, but it gets boring quick but no matter how many people you know if they tried to tell me that i would probably ignore them and just be like yeah okay cool i'm gonna go and do it anyway and then by doing it i've experienced it and now i'm like okay i don't want to do this anymore and that's that's what comes when I was saying at the beginning of this in terms of you maturing, which you go through these experiences in life and like people tell you things aren't what they're cracked up to be. An amazing book. I don't know if you've read it is a happy, sexy millionaire by Stephen Bartlett.
And he talks about like when you have money, you've got abs, you live in Sunday, Dubai, you'll be like the happiest man in the world. But you've got those things. Like it doesn't necessarily lead to complete happiness and fulfillment. Like with you, for example, what brings you happiness and fulfillment in that respect? I think now it's, it's Knowing that I'm helping people, a sense that I'm creating something, I like to create so even if it's just creating some form of content usually if what I put together like a really good YouTube video which I'm proud of that makes me really happy.
Doing something which I've found to be difficult or it's an obstacle and I felt like okay let me just how am I gonna you know overcome this obstacle or how am I going to accomplish this difficult task. When you do it, it feels really satisfying, like you've accomplished a goal. So that's why it's so important to have these little goals and just tick them off, you know, progressively set new goals and so on, so you feel like you're actually achieving something.
And just knowing that I myself am developing and I'm growing as a person, so I'm becoming more intelligent, more experienced, wiser. I feel like when I go through, you know, I've had phases, say for example... you know just like a typical summer 2020 or 2021 i basically didn't read any books didn't listen to any podcasts just had fun and did what i want i felt like from the beginning of the summer compared to the end of summer had i really grown as a person in terms of the knowledge which i'd acquired not really you could argue i've experienced a lot like it was good life experience but i felt like i didn't really create anything i maybe put out about three or four youtube videos and that was pretty much it had my business grown had i you know I've literally done anything which I felt like was a decent achievement to make.
And I look back and I thought, oh, well, no, not really. And that was kind of a bit, I wouldn't say depressing, because I don't think I've ever got to the point where I've felt like actually physically depressed. But you do just kind of feel a bit flat, like there was no sense of achievement.
There's substance to it. Yeah. It's really time consuming. It's really hard to get into a good routine. Because you're in a new place for a limited amount of time you like well I have to see this place I have to do all these things whilst I'm here for the next few days So you actually don't really end up doing a huge amount of work at all Maybe take some nice pictures and some good content for the vlog, but that's it.
I always feel guilty as well cuz I'm not working I'm trying to enjoy your am then I feel guilty I'm not doing what's supposed to be doing and it almost becomes a bit of an anxious situation where I'm trying to like balance the Two yeah exactly same as you in terms of a lot of like structure routine Do you find Dubai here is the best place for you for that? Yeah, and I guess When I first moved here, it was probably a different scenario because when I first came to Dubai, I mean, you've got to understand this city is built to entertain and impress people. So when you come here for the first time, you're just like, oh, my God, like there's so many things to do.
Every the sun's out every single day. There's all these beach clubs, all these tourist destinations. And for the first I think the first year, even though I was I was getting work done, I was definitely distracted by all the entertainment which Dubai has to offer.
But now I'm approaching being here for three years and the novelty of being here is definitely worn off. I've literally done everything as if a couple of things maybe which I haven't done. But I look outside now and I'm like, yeah, this doesn't interest me. I've already done it before. So now I have a much greater ability to actually just stay at home and do what needs to be done.
And I still get invited out almost on a daily basis to go to places or to meet up for coffee or to go for dinner. But now my ability to say no is a lot better than it used to be. because I just know there's so many things which just take up so much of your time so I ask myself is this really going to be useful is this really going to be helpful and if it's not I'm just like well no it's funny because the greatest skill I think is to become more successful is learning to say no to more things because you must get it all the time everyone's got a fucking idea of what you should do like Mike Thurston supplements I bet you've heard that about a million times it's like do you understand how complicated that would be and saying no to those things is more important than saying yes to like anything yeah for sure and I mean yeah it's a situation now where I have all these different ideas and things which I want to do but I know if I try to do more things I spread myself thin over all the things which I'm already doing at the moment which are working for me so I have to be very particular with what I am spending my time on for sure do you set yourself specific goals do you have like next three months i'm gonna do this in years i want to be doing this by 35 i want to do this not necessarily because i've noticed that every year what it is that i want to do changes quite a bit as you know like i remember the even the year when i moved to dubai at the start of that year i had no intention of moving to dubai it was only i guess at the summer the summertime a couple months before i actually moved to dubai where i thought you know what i think i'm gonna move to dubai so i know each year i change quite a bit and my goals change quite a bit i usually have uh I did this this year I had my goals for 2022 so I had a list of these sort of big achievements which I wanted to achieve and I've ticked off quite a few of them there's a few more to go and I think it is a lot of them are achievable by the end of the year but some of them I've just realistically been like okay that's that's not gonna happen do you mind sharing some ones you've ticked off absolutely not okay no no so one of them was to uh I was hitting a yeah hit a million on Instagram so I did that I wanted to launch a podcast done that Well I've filmed a few but I haven't launched it yet, it'll be launched in a couple weeks. I wanted to launch a bikini line for my clothing brand, did that. I wanted to get a certain number of people signed up to my app by the summer, didn't achieve that.
That's actually quite interesting how hard it is to get people to just part with £9 a month. But I think there's just an abundance of fitness apps at the moment where it's actually quite difficult. And I've got a course which I want to launch at the end of this year.
which has not been done yet but it definitely can be done do you want to divulge what that is is a sneak peek or um no because you might steal it no you can keep it keep that one to yourself then but there's um one which i was quite interested in doing is a uh like a hyper trophy masterclass because i think like one of the things which i'm known for is my form and technique and because unfortunately at this point i'm so busy i can't do the one-to-one personal training sessions anymore so i'm trying to think like well what is the next best thing to have me as a coach i have the app which is basically One of the best apps you can have in terms of the programming so you know what programs you should follow in order to get the results you want but a lot of people struggle to actually dial down their technique. So I thought about doing this course which I go into extreme depth into every single exercise and how to execute it properly which will definitely help people for sure. And then there was another lifestyle course which I think I probably just need to do a little bit more research on which is almost kind of like a how to escape the 9 to 5 and live your sort of dream life and create your own business.
It would help people to improve their social media, their marketing, their ability to make money and so on. But I feel like there's a few areas which I actually need to improve my own skill set in before I can start teaching it. Because I hate to teach things which I don't fully understand. So I'm going through a phase at the moment where I'm just trying to develop some of my skills outside of fitness. Particularly when it comes to sales and marketing and just generally understanding money and how to make money.
But I think there's certainly a lot of room for making money with those kinds of things. It's smart move. That's why recently I woke up once go supper seven-figure scaling systems is like a fitness mastermind because there's a huge amount of Trainers out there in terms of who want to like learn to be able to build their own businesses and live on life on their Own terms and also help people over the world But there's real lack of guidance from people like you me who have actually done that and I think a lot of people who are selling This stuff are just selling shit. Yeah, like people are selling online like coaching, but then they've had an online coaching business themselves.
Yeah And for me, that's a complete like fallacy because you're not true to your values and you haven't actually walked the walk It's like you selling fitness plans all over the world yet. You're like you've never been a shape in your life Do you mean yeah, and it's like you being a certified online coach yet. You've never trained someone in person before so How do you know how to coach people? I feel like training people in person is almost like an essential which you need to master before you start teaching it I don't know.
I think for me. I even see that I see people in the gym I forget sometimes even a lot experience or certain people Some might not be able to do a back squat, some might be able to do a walking lunge and you forget when you're very advanced that people can't necessarily do these basic motor patterns yet. People are always fascinated about you in terms of how you stay in shape all year round and whilst traveling and enjoying yourself obviously now be it any other stuff you've been doing. What is the secret to what you do with that? Is there a certain like nutrition approach you use?
Is it fasting? I think you've mentioned that before sometimes. Like how do you keep yourself in such good shape? I think it's because I've particularly in my 20s I used to be so anal with everything i used to track all my macros counting calories and from doing that day after day week after week year after year it becomes ingrained in my brain to almost know okay well this is what i need to eat or if i eat this this is the results which i'm going to get so i know roughly how much protein i should be getting in i can gauge it just by looking at it and i know just not to overeat i think overeating for sure is one of those things which i didn't obviously I don't get out of shape, but I definitely notice less definition.
So it requires a lot of discipline, particularly when all your friends, if they're out drinking beer or people are ordering desserts or people are just getting like unnecessary sides. I know just. I'd say, no, not today. Like, I'm not going to have that. And I will almost always, regardless of how I feel, I will go to the gym.
Like, even if I feel like crap, if I feel like tired, I will still go to the gym. Even, I remember this ridiculous scenario in Saint-Tropez. There was a gym there, but it was like, must have been about a 40-minute drive away from the place I was staying.
The taxi situation was horrendous. I didn't have a car. So there was a couple of occasions where I had to ring up a chauffeur company to pick me up in this big van just to take me to the gym. And the whole trip... To go to the gym and back would cost me like 160 euros.
But I was like, I don't care. Like I want to go to the gym that badly that I'm prepared to pay this extortionate price just to get to the gym. So it's a combination of just being disciplined with how much I'm eating, knowing the right things to eat and just being extremely consistent with going to the gym. That story just reminded me when I went to Ivalo in Finland, it's in like the Arctic Circle. And...
They had like basically no food at this place. You know, it's like the ice igloos where you can look up and see the Northern Lights and that stuff. They had like no food. They had protein. And for three days, I was like, what the fuck am I going to do?
So I ended up having to get a taxi to the supermarket. And it cost me £100 to get a taxi there. £100 to get back just to be able to buy like protein bars and other stuff just so I had something to eat.
But that's where like I wasn't willing to go three, four days eating like minimal rations of food. So I was going to waste away. And I think that's probably very much like a...
a bit of OCD but a bit of a mindset thing in terms of like you take things seriously and like fitness is an important part of your life even for you as you're like building other areas in terms of your business and your mindset like this is always a core value for you. Yeah and even I notice if I don't go to the gym for a couple of days I feel really uncomfortable and stressed out and I think the gym is something which I need it's that release that I need it's like a almost like a meditation for me and I guess it's just it's such an ingrained habit that I've been following. I've been training for 14 years. So for me to not do it just feels so foreign and strange.
Like I just don't like it. What's the longest time you've ever had off training? It was, I think it was 10 days. It was when I had a hair transplant. So the doctor was like, well, you probably shouldn't go to the gym for like two weeks.
I was like, Jesus Christ. Like that's a long time. But obviously I didn't want to mess up the procedure in case all my hair freaking fell out. So there was a 10 day period in London where I didn't go to the gym. I maybe went out and about and walked for a bit, but that was, it was...
it was surprising it was really difficult to to experience that and i felt like first of all i had a lot more free time because usually the gym would probably take up like getting there back training and take out like two hours of my day so i was like oh i've got like an extra two hours in the day but i had all this like excess energy which i couldn't get rid of and i noticed that by not going to the gym my eating habits just went to shit like i was just not even really caring about what i was putting into my body so it's weird because when i go to the gym and i'm in this healthy routine of training and exercising it naturally just makes me also want to eat healthy as well and i feel like it's weird like life is just so easy when you're not pushing yourself or you're not being uncomfortable when you don't put yourself through that pleasant sensation of feeling the muscles burn or whatever it might be life just feels like a breeze you need that you need that discomfort you need to be able to push yourself and i think i even missed the endorphin rush you would get after a workout for me that's what i love about life and it's i'm probably super sadistic and got screw loose like Competing at the weekend last three days had zero grams of carbohydrates like 1400 calories. They I'm super happy I've got some food but like for me. It's like sometimes.
I just like pushing myself like how fucking comfortable can I make myself? Yeah, and it's like the mental test of like okay when you go back to normal life It's a piece of piss like when you're used to running on fumes and you can still operate and then we suddenly like you're not Doing endless amounts of cardio eating nothing like the world becomes easy, and I think that's where people sometimes don't realize how far they can push themselves and they like really bottleneck their progress in life overall because they set limiting beliefs of what they can do even like a lot of people i haven't got time to work out i haven't got time to x y i haven't got time to go to the gym but it's ultimately it's them not being organized or prioritizing things yeah i think there's definitely a relationship with how how uncomfortable you can make yourself is going to directly make you happier or feel better after you've done it i i don't often do this but when i when i do some really horrible like HIIT training or circuit training we're like a crazy training partner when i do it i literally hate it so much i'm like this is so disgusting and unpleasant i'm just not enjoying this but when it's done i'm on a high all day for the rest of the day it's crazy so i'm actually actively trying to do at least one of those sessions a week not only for that feeling of feeling amazing but i know that doing circuit training cardio is actually going to be good for my overall health and conditioning do you think your training is going to change over the next few years as you age respectively you Well, I've actually made a video about this recently. I have noticed now, at the age of 32, I have less energy than I used to.
in like my mid-20s and I noticed whether I if I kill myself in the gym or I've done like two or three consecutive days of training my body is telling me you need to rest like you otherwise you're just going to run yourself into the ground so I've put a lot more priority and emphasis on rest days uh whereas back in the day I used to just go for it like like almost every single day and now I don't really do ever do one rep maxes or three rep maxes because it just it doesn't really make sense the ratio of risk to the reward is just not worth it and anytime I have done one rep maxes or have attempted to do it I end up just injuring myself so for me I'm all about longevity I want to be able to do this for as long as I possibly can do and I want to look as good as I possibly can do long into the future um but in terms of exercise selection and things like that hasn't really changed a huge amount I would I guess I would just say that I've become a hell of a lot smarter I know now what I need to do in order to look a certain way and I actually realize that I don't have to kill myself in order to do it like I used to push myself to failure on every single set every single exercise and I realized I actually don't need to do that maybe you know on the last set of particular exercise if I push if I have that one all-out crazy set that's actually enough and training with Dorian actually taught me a lot because when I did the sessions with him the the actual volume in terms of the number of sets we did in the session it wasn't a huge amount it wasn't a huge amount of exercises but it was just like a an all-out crazy set which it would I mean you need a training partner to do it but if you do it properly the damage is done like that's that's all you need to do like now that session's out the way all you have to do is focus on recovery and that's why he trained like four times a week and he didn't he well he physically couldn't train more that because he pushed himself so hard but he needed to spend those other days recovering and actually building new muscle tissue i think it's one of those things where people are all like gas pedal and no brake like people just hammer themselves into the ground and they don't understand that you don't build muscle burn body fat in the gym it's outside of the gym that actually really counts and i've got a few people who messaged me that they're on my app and uh they've chosen like a five day split and they're saying oh i want to add another routine so i can do like six days or i want to train every day and i'm like if you are training every day like you are either not training hard enough or you're very soon going to realize that you're going to burn out and you're not going to see any progress even to give an example the competition got the weekend and another one in a couple weeks remain my training scale back only trained four days a week now was you train five because the more fatigue accumulation you get and the leaner you get the less your body can start to take as much like stress and tolerance on it whereas people have the other mindset in terms of like oh i want to get leaner you train more need to train more need to do more volume where in reality it's actually the other way around and that like extra cortisol in your body is actually like stunting fat loss more yeah for sure and i noticed the session i always have after a rest day is usually like the best session like my ability to have a pump and just focus and lift heavier weight so it's definitely quality over quantity Do you ever get fed up of people asking is Mike Thurston natural because I know that's about the most common question you're probably asked every fucking day. Yeah I mean I've been getting that for at least a decade now and it's not so much I'm bothered about the accusations because in a sense it's a compliment but I think the thing that annoys me is when people accuse me of lying because I've mentioned it a few times on podcasts when people ask me I tell them the truth I'm like no I've never taken anything and then people are just like oh no he's lying 100% he's lying and even now when I do a video on YouTube which is on the topic of training All the comments are just like, oh yeah, steroids, fake blood to you, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Jesus Christ. And I don't know if there's, I would love if there was just a test you could do, just one single test, which could just prove everything. But there's not, unfortunately.
And even now, if you're to do a test, it doesn't necessarily prove that you've never taken anything before. So I'm quite interested with what Matt has been doing. He's been doing random blood tests and checkups, which has been supervised by Derek from More Plates, More Dates.
And- there's always going to be people that will just be like oh no still just don't believe him like it's all rigged or whatever it might be but at least he's made a conscious effort to go ahead with it and you know you can't fault him for that and it's something which I would actually like to do next year when I'm in Dubai I'm not going to be traveling I'll be here for like four or five months if somebody can just supervise the whole thing come around do all the tests and whatever and at the same time I go to the gym and almost treat that period of time like I'm competing so that I can get tested whilst I am in the peak condition which is comparable to how you know I was looking my best in my 20s maybe it's gonna satisfy a few people and i have some evidence then to back up my claims but there's i know there's still just gonna be people who just like no he's not like there's no way he can be natural and some when some people have that opinion it's very difficult for them for you to change their mind i've seen lots of other people like simin panda make a video where he did all the tests saying oh i'm natural and people just like give him a load of so it's weird because if i go down the route of trying to really state like i am natural i've never taken anything i think i would end up getting more hate than anything else so It's one of those things where I try and just bar off and be like, you know what? I don't want to make a thing of this. you know i'd rather the attention be somewhere else but it is it's getting annoying now and i don't want to have a reputation of being a liar so at some point in the next year i want to just get it all ironed out i train hard and i'm disciplined but i'm fucking lucky with my genetics and you know if i had bad genetics or my genetics were not as good i said i wouldn't be doing this for a living or the the fit i wouldn't have gone down the fitness route i would have gone and done something else for sure and it's one of those things you play the cards you're dealt right yeah but your strength is you look great like you're in awesome shape so you push that because that's how you're going to have the most success it's like yeah i'm never going to be a mathematician because math isn't necessarily my strongest point not to have a limiting belief but you you would push to what you're really good at and what you actually enjoy and what your zone of genius is actually interesting if i said to you like what's your zone of genius the one thing that you think like you're the best at what would that be i think definitely the way i look for sure is it stands out from the crowd And it certainly did back in the day when there was less people doing the whole fitness thing. But I think, I guess one, what I believe has been a factor that's helped me grow my YouTube channel and so on, it's just being pretty down to earth.
And I've not let fame or the following that I have changed me as a person. I feel like I'm, I don't know, it sounds weird, but maybe I'm more likable than other people. Maybe I'm just like down to earth and I don't take myself too seriously. I think that's an attribute which is... helped quite a bit so I think a lot of people they when they initially see me or they don't know who I am they've seen a few clips or maybe they look at my Instagram initially they'll they will just think the worst they were like this guy it looks like this he's probably going to be a massive dickhead but when somebody actually gets to know me a lot of the time they're pleasantly surprised and the same time when I meet girls and stuff when I go on a date for the first time the girl always has this worst case scenario of what I'm going to be like and they're prepared to meet some douchebag but then I actually sit down have a conversation conversation with them i listen to them i can articulate have a conversation crack some jokes i don't take myself too seriously i'm like oh he's actually a really nice guy so i think that's i'd much rather people be pleasantly surprised than people to meet me and just be disappointed do you find it difficult sometimes you almost have to always be on guard about how the way you carry yourself particularly in public because a lot of people know who you are i think so i guess it depends because i in my videos i'm that's who i am naturally so how i'll behave in the street is going to be, you know, people will expect that.
I think it's always been very important if I do get approached and people want to speak to me, I always make time to, whether it be get a photo or just have like a small conversation. Even when there's been times when I just, I don't really want to or it's literally so inappropriate. Literally the other day I was getting a haircut and I was lying down in the barber chair, like my head all the way back, looking at the ceiling and some guy had a razor blade to my beard. It was trimming my beard. And some guy must've seen me next to the window.
as he was walking past and he comes into the shop and he's like oh hey mike can i get a photo and i'm literally lying there like with all covered up this guy cut my head i'm like now is probably not a good time so i think a lot of people they don't have this sense of okay this is not a good time to bother him maybe i'll wait until you know he's done what he needs to do then i'll approach him um whereas other people most of the time they have something really nice to say and that's one of the things why it kind of continues to make me do the things which I'm doing at the moment. There's not only a lot of people who've said, you know, oh, thank you, you've inspired me to go to the gym or I've lost like 20 kilograms. But the ones which I think is more impressive and makes me happy is when people say, do you know what, I've actually, I've quit my job and I'm now living my dream, doing the thing which I want to do. And I moved to Dubai because of you.
And I'm like, wow, that's actually, that's pretty powerful. But yeah, I don't feel like there's a responsibility for me to act a certain way. But what I would say now is because I'm definitely a lot more known than I used to be.
I don't like being under the influence of alcohol or anything else because I don't want to be seen drunk and I don't want to be seen acting like a little bit too crazy. Not that I am too crazy but I know for sure when I'm drunk I'm certainly not myself. I'm definitely a lot more looser but I don't really want people to see me like that.
I think when we spoke a couple of weeks ago you mentioned you were going to go Teton total and cut alcohol completely. Is that still something continuing with? Yeah, I literally have no interest in drinking at the moment.
And I've noticed that even just by staying away from it a lot more than I used to, even when I do drink and have like two or three drinks, like I'm literally so pissed. I don't like it. I feel like I'm out of control. And even I would say things which I wouldn't normally say. And I'm just like, I just don't like it at all.
I think alcohol, the moment you drink alcohol and have a lot of it is you're just welcoming so many bad habits into your life. And whenever I do drink, I end up having the worst sleep. I wake up the next day.
My mood is... depressed a little bit the the training session is not very good i have cravings for bad food and then i i just feel so unproductive i don't want to do anything so i just think for the small moment of potential happiness that it may provide in a couple of hours it's not worth the aftermath the following day where you you can almost waste a day and i've had many days which i've just wasted due to being hung over and um maybe it's a combination of me maturing and wanting different things, but also as I'm getting older, I feel like it definitely hits you harder, you know, being 32 compared to when you're... 22 i'd 100 agree with that and i think that's very much a lot that's like you switching your thinking in terms of short-term gratification in terms of long-term gratification it's probably and i think as we get older you realize like not i'm running out of time but like time goes quickly the years fly by that like i need to hit the ground hard now like make the most of every moment because i don't want to be spending half a day hung over in bed achieving nothing yeah and i think back in the day when i used to drink it was because it would make me feel more confident and more relaxed because when i would you know you being a little bit more introverted before going to an event i'd feel a bit anxious and i knew that i would have to speak to lots of people lots of people wanted to speak to me and i would feel like the alcohol just calmed the nerves and make me feel a little bit more loose but now i'm a completely different person and i actually prefer to be 100 sober because when i'm sober that's when my brain is like really firing fast i can articulate myself have a good conversation and more importantly i want to be able to remember any conversation which i have with somebody so i much prefer to be sober now than to be you know under the influence say a couple of things which i wouldn't usually say maybe potentially forget a conversation and you know like i said meant waste the following day now obviously you're living in dubai do you feel settled here and you think you're gonna be here for good or could you self live see yourself living anywhere else in the world i think dubai is always going to be a base for me you know particularly the next five years and i feel like it's just becoming an even more popular place for people to live or for people to visit so for people like us it's an amazing opportunity to network with other people whether it be tourists or just like celebrities or people just coming in and out and i like that because I feel like it's always fresh. You never see the same faces. It's always new people coming in and out.
So I feel like that's great. And then just the lifestyle, the quality of life, the gyms. Even when I've got my own, I don't own the apartment, but hopefully soon I will own an apartment.
But that's, you know, I've got a nice home, nice view. I've got my routine. And the longer you've been here, the more people I know.
So I feel like all my networks are here. So for sure. But I do realize that whenever I'm in Dubai for too long, It starts to drive me a little bit insane and I have to just leave for a bit. Maybe not too long, but just go somewhere which is almost like the complete opposite of Dubai.
You know, you go to Bali or just somewhere which is just, you're in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature and there's no materialistic things. There's no manic rush of people running around everywhere. Just to kind of unwind and I guess be at one with nature and then come back and I feel recharged.
And whenever I take that break during the summertime, which I will always continue to do when it gets too hot, being away for even two months. I start to really miss Dubai and I'm like, God, I literally can't wait to come back. When I came back this year after traveling around Europe, I was so happy to be back. And I don't know if that was because I was just happy to be back in Dubai or just happy to be back in my good routine. It's 100% I felt the same after being in Marbella for the summer in the UK for a little bit.
I couldn't wait to get back. I can't really think of anywhere that matches it. I've tried Spain. It's just not. Everyone in Spain is just like really chilled out, lazy.
And obviously a lot of people speak Spanish. I don't speak Spanish. So that's a little bit of an issue sometimes.
London is London is just a bit of a mess now. Maybe LA or Miami. I don't know. I thought Bali is potentially a place where I could live, but I feel again, it's just a little bit too chilled out.
And it is still like a, it's not a fully economically developed country. So it is, you know, it doesn't have the infrastructure there yet. So it's quite annoying. Even just getting around things like that. What does the future hold for Mike Thurston?
what what's next obviously the podcast coming up what are the big goals you could set for yourself next two three years i think i just want to i want to just continue to grow improve my my brand my image and just start making a little bit more money i think like i'm i'm doing good for money but i want to get to the level that these other guys are on so certainly will involve less traveling it'll involve more just keeping my head down and like i said before doing the things which i know are actually going to help and be useful um bring out a couple of courses uh do these like hopefully amazing collaborations whether it be on youtube or the podcast and just yeah overall my brand i just want it to grow and then potentially two years down three years down i can start releasing some more of my own products but you know at this stage i don't necessarily want to do that because it's going to be a little bit more of a distraction for me so i need to just dial down on some of the things which are really working for me and just really make sure that they excel one of my favorite sayings singularity of focus and then the last question i have for you which i like to ask everyone is you What piece of advice would give your 18 year old self if you could talk to them right now? Oh, I would probably just say, do not neglect your social media, like get on that as soon as possible and get on every single social media because I had no idea how important it would be. Let me see it now.
Like everybody's on it. And I think even just the sooner that I could get started, I would have been in an even better off position. It's a great answer. Thank you very much for your time today, Mike. I hope everyone actually loved the podcast.
Make sure you leave us a five-star review and subscribe. Check out Mike's podcast, which is coming out soon. What's the name of the podcast?
I haven't even got the name yet. We haven't even got that far yet. But he's got some episodes recorded, so check it out whenever Mike drops a live.
I hope you guys enjoy this, and check out the new podcast episode soon.