Optimal Aging

Training, Marketing, and Aging Well: Lessons from Veteran Coach Andrew Coates

• Jay Croft

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In this episode of The Optimal Aging Podcast, host Jay Croft sits down with veteran strength coach and fitness industry educator Andrew Coates for a wide-ranging conversation about aging, strength training, and building a sustainable fitness business.

Andrew shares practical insights on training adults over 50, why community and human connection matter more than ever, and how gym owners can grow without burning out or chasing online fame. From bone health and fall prevention to marketing through relationships and word-of-mouth, this episode is packed with real-world wisdom for coaches, trainers, and anyone who wants to age well and stay strong.

Whether you’re a fitness professional serving older adults or someone navigating midlife yourself, this is an honest, thoughtful conversation you won’t want to miss.

⏱️ Episode Timestamps

00:00 – Social media connections vs real relationships
02:00 – Why reaching out still matters
03:00 – Outsourcing, energy management, and aging
05:00 – Productivity guilt and reclaiming downtime
07:00 – Training adults 50+ and market opportunity
09:00 – Word-of-mouth growth and client experience
11:00 – Community, culture, and human connection
13:00 – Strength training, bone health, and aging
15:00 – Speed, power, balance, and fall prevention
18:00 – Sponsor: Prime Fit Content
19:00 – Marketing without burnout
21:00 – Lessons from RP Strength and media
23:00 – Why local gyms shouldn’t chase online fame
25:00 – Becoming “Five-Mile Famous”
27:00 – Using a local podcast to grow a gym
29:00 – Why people crave real connection again
31:00 – Aging, mindset, and identity
34:00 – Longevity lessons from active older adults
36:00 – What won’t change in fitness and business
38:00 – Where to find Andrew Coates

👤 Guest Information

Andrew Coates

Andrew Coates is a veteran strength coach, writer, speaker, and host of the Lift Free and Diet Hard Podcast. With decades of experience training clients of all ages, Andrew is known for his practical, evidence-based approach to strength, longevity, and coaching older adults.

Connect with Andrew:

  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewcoatesfitness

  • Podcast: Lift Free and Diet Hard

🎧 Sponsor

Prime Fit Content
Prime Fit Content helps fitness professionals attract, educate, and retain clients over 50 through simple, effective content marketing.

🔗 Learn more: https://primefitcontent.com

🎤 Host

Jay Croft
Jay Croft is the host of The Optimal Aging Podcast and founder of Prime Fit Content. His mission is to help fitness professionals better serve adults over 50 while promoting strength, independence, and healthy aging.

📬 Contact: jay@primefitcontent.com

👍 Calls to Action

  • Subscribe to The Optimal Aging Podcast
  • Share this episode with a coach or gym owner who works with adults 50+
  • Visit https://primefitcontent.com
    to learn more
SPEAKER_00:

Facebook tells me that Andrew Coates and I have more than 200 mutual friends, and we've been connected for years on social media, but we never had a conversation until this week. We were introduced by a mutual friend, Chris Little, who seems to know everyone. Like Andrew, seems to know everyone. And so I want to share this uh conversation that I had with Andrew. It's just a really fun, interesting conversation with a veteran trainer who's been helping people for a long time, really knows this stuff, and is good company. We talked about a lot of things, and some of the things I judiciously removed from the edit because it was just two guys having a good time talking. But there's a lot of value here from Andrew that I am happy to share with anyone who's trying to grow their fitness business, particularly with people who are a little bit older, which is the focus of this show, Optimal Aging. And I'm your host, Jay Croft of Prime Fit Content. You know, it's the funny thing about this age of social media where we have the opportunity to be connected to so many people, but how often do we actually make those connections come to life? And that would not have happened without our mutual friend Chris. I'm really glad that that Chris connected me and Andrew. And I just want to put this out there. How many people do you have connections with on social media who you've never really reached out to, who you've never met, never had a real conversation with? You know, I I want to encourage you to give it a try. Not so much to get something, maybe to give something, maybe to give something of value, maybe to just get acquainted with people and to see if you can help them in some way undefined down the road. You know, that's the power of networking, and that can be the power of social media as well. So if you've ever wanted to talk to me, if you've ever wanted to talk to anyone on my friends list or anyone I've had on my show, if I can connect you with anybody that might um be a good match for you in any way, please let me know. I look forward to doing that. And until that time happens, I uh hope you enjoyed this conversation with Andrew, and I hope you all have a wonderful, happy holidays and uh great new year. So listen, Andrew Coates, nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_01:

Jay, thank you. I I appreciate you having me on.

SPEAKER_00:

I appreciate you coming on. You know, we're connected through a mutual friend, Chris Little, and I'm glad that he did connect us. I've been following you for a long time, so it's uh it's a pleasure to to get connected here face to face.

SPEAKER_01:

Chris is wonderful, serves as my podcast producer. He's a longtime friend, and I wouldn't be able to do what I am doing without having his support because he likes doing things that I find uh take up my mental energy. And as I get older, you know, and I know you speak your audience, uh excuse, you know, what technically 50 plus, I will turn four four, I just under that. I've I'll be 48 in March.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh we're recording here just before Christmas. And but as I get older, I'm finding that yeah, I don't have the physical or mental energy to do everything that I did before, or to do it at a level of quality to devote to all these things. And in order to carve out more time for my health, my work, the things I want to pursue, I found it's been valuable to, in this case, have a producer do the back-end things that I don't enjoy personally, or uh hire a meal prep service so that way, you know, I'm a little bit less caught up in cooking, but I'm getting nutritious food, really, really good stuff, uh, which frees up more time for either valuable work projects and things that can actually earn income, which more than pays for the meal prep service, or um it frees up some time, actual downtime, personal time, because we also can get really caught in this. We have to always be productive. Our time always has to be used for something to move us forward. And what I find sometimes at the end of the day is you'll sit there and you know you're supposed to be doing something productive. So you feel this guilt or unease with maybe turning on a television show that you like that you might immerse yourself in. Or um, you know, maybe it's reading uh a book for enjoyment versus for business development, but the and breaking the inertia of just sitting there tricky. So next you know, you catch yourself scrolling on your phone and you're doing mindless things, and then after a while, well, you didn't do the time-wasting thing that would have been probably more recuperative.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

But you did this time-wasting thing you feel guilty and awful about, and so you feel worse because you also didn't do anything productive, and then that time-wasting thing that wasn't good also saps more of your mental emotional energy because it's usually this dopaminergic outrage cycle of the worst bullshit that social media will feed you, yeah. And I think this sort of stuff contributes to you know everybody's utties, so I look for opportunities. Okay, how can I engineer more room in my life to to have things that I enjoy? And I mean, I'm I know I'm going on a little bit of tangent here, but somebody's just actually saying, hey, you know, I actually have to plan to say I'm gonna carve out an hour to watch this television show. I don't watch much TV as an example, or this movie I really enjoy um and not waste time on the devices.

SPEAKER_00:

But anyway, yeah, no, I th I no, I think that's really an important point to start out on because um my business is called Prime Fit Content, and I uh uh started this podcast in support of the prime fit content, and the um my service is designed to do exactly what you're talking about, to do for gym owners what Chris does for you and me, which is to uh apply his expertise and his talent and his enthusiasm for things that that just boggle my mind or would take me all day long to do uh half as well as he can do in 30 minutes. You know, that's a professional skill set that he brings me and you, and we're willing to pay him because it benefits our business, it benefits us in in other ways rather than trying to do everything for ourselves. And I find that a lot of gym owners I I deal with, um, particularly younger guys who are just sort of transitioning from being a trainer into being a gym owner, they hold on to everything, they want to do everything themselves. And you're smiling because I think you know what I'm talking about. I want to talk about your work with people in my demographic, which is people who are 50 and over. And I know you don't focus on them exclusively, but you do and train them. And so I'm just kind of curious where where do you see things right now um for this demographic? You know, it's changing, it's it's less, it's not just baby boomers anymore, it's a lot of Gen X. And um I think people are bringing a different perspective to it, maybe not. I don't know. I still feel like a lot of people over 50 or so don't understand why they need strength training, for instance. So how do you work with people in this demographic, men and women who maybe they're even over 70? I don't know. I mean, I I say 50 for various reasons, but it's not just 50, it's it's over. Um where do you see the market at right now? What are kind of concerns are people having and what's working? Like what what helps you sell to them?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um I think we have to remember that the number of people who have gym memberships or actively you know pursue fitness is still a pretty small percentage of the population, right? So there's incredible opportunity for growth. Um yeah, I have a fair number of clients who are that 50 at above range. I have a cluster of people who are that 70 above range, but I I also have young people. I have a you know, 18-year-old young wrestler that I train, right? It runs the gamut. I have a lot of working professionals in their you know, late 30s, 40s, etc. And I think it comes down to several things. One is is it I'm gonna come at this from a bunch of angles. For the operator, there's a lot of opportunity out there. It's the people who know the people who aren't in consuming fitness yet. Maybe in the edge of their mind they know they should, or maybe they really know they should. And that word-of-mouth stuff is still potent. So I can think of a a client of mine, he's in his early, early 70s. He's newer, he'd never lifted weights before. Um, a longtime client of mine, a very good friend of mine, who'd be in his 50s. They're very successful business owners. Um, you know, means is not a question for these guys. And my longtime guy really was encouraging the other guy to come in. And eventually he did. He came in, you know, just I focused on making sure I eased him in, that he really enjoyed the environment, that we we got along. He really liked it, felt great right away. He immediately sent me his girlfriend, who's just a little younger, and you know, the two of them now are like in their own times, diehards, they have the financial resources to train with me very consistently, twice a week each. So all of a sudden, that just like stroke of luck and boom, there's like four, you know, consistent, well-paying client, uh, client hours per week.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And again, it's listening to them, it's uh you know, getting connected to them, it's figuring out what they need. Uh I think a lot of coaches get a little bit too caught in the weeds of you know, making sure this is perfect and serving, you know, everything that this client technically needs. I mean, sure, I think we can bake that in, but I I still think that the human experience is key. You know, if you're a gym operator and you have larger groups versus you know just one-on-one, is it changing a little bit, but not really. I mean, if if anybody here is familiar with my friend Luca Hosevar, and if if you you must know Luca, if you don't, uh Luca is a fantastic gym operator, and he talks all the time about community and culture, right? This is a big thing for him. And um, you know, Luca's been busy these days, but uh, you know, I'll see if I could get him to you know come on your show. You would really enjoy chatting with Luca. He's he's brilliant in this space. So you guys would have a lot in common. Um so I I still think it's you know, finding a way to connect with them. And these are also busy people. So can you get them to see that you it goes back to our first conversation? Uh they're extra hiring an external service, a person to take care of something that's high priority for them, that would take more mental energy. It's not just the physical time, but the mental energy to do it on their own. It's the accountability of that time to show up for themselves. And then pretty quickly, if you can create an environment that they enjoy and then they just notice, wait a second, like I just feel better. I have more energy for life. I, you know, the aches and pains aren't quite as serious that you have expertise in dealing with. Listen, everybody 50 and above. There's gonna be some sort of like um orthopaedic stuff, you know, old injury nagging stuff. Um the rates of some sort of metabolic health issues or certainly fear that they will develop over time, that that's gonna be speaking to almost everybody in that age demographic. And I I'm not one for big fear-based language about the doom and gloom of this stuff, but guess what? We we know that's a reality. But I still think that creating an environment that the people want to show up to and a relationship, especially if you have more of a personal relationship with these people, connecting with them with the things they're interested in, that'll obviously keep them coming back early until the they're hooked by the actual exercise stuff. Yeah, yeah. Um and then it when it gets down to the way that we train them. I mean, on one hand, I'm not sure it's necessarily that different from what everybody else needs, it's just some of the things are more urgent. So obviously, we we hear nonstop about the importance of building bone mineral density. Yes, it's even more important than women than men. Um, even if it's more technically speaking, slowing the rate of loss, but you know, people could argue over that. I think there's some argument that we can build back a little bit of bone. It's most bone strength is actually developed much younger age. So overblown claims of just how much bone strength we can build back. We're getting into the weeds here. You know, the hardcore evidence-based crowd get a little technical and like to fight on social media about the exact language we use. Don't worry about that stuff. It's just we we know people care about their bone health. Uh, but uh muscle. Absolutely. We we definitely know that people can build muscle very effectively as they get older. Uh, yes, it's much easier, and you can create a higher peak of amount of muscle if you start with a 20-year-old.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And they build more early. But yes, people older can build muscle, they'll notice it. Strength, just feeling better, better energy, all these things, right? Improving blood pressure, blood sugar, metabolic health, all these things are very potent drivers. And I think if we speak that language to people without too much fear, you know, they can plug into it, it can motivate them. We we talk about these things, but the other thing that I think is really critical, I think most people get this, is the fear of losing independence as we get older. And losing independence, yes, uh, a fracture falls, uh, bone health is critical to that, muscle, strength, balance, all that. But also developing things like speed and power. Now, that doesn't mean having 90-year-olds sprinting necessarily, right? But it does mean, well, think about as we get older. When was the last time you did much jumping? When was the last time you did much sprinting? And we know that we don't we hit a certain point and we start thinking of ourselves as fragile and we stop doing those sort of things. So, can we introduce aspects of that so that way people develop those qualities, maintain those qualities? Because they actually decline quicker and faster than muscle and bone loss. And those are the things that well, we think about fall risk. So think about the last time anybody here took a bit of a slip in the shower or slip on some ice, but you caught yourself. Well, what happened? Your arm shot out. That was speed, that was power, that was reflex, it was balance, all those things combined to catch you. Or maybe you were able to do it in such a way that you were able to like absorb the fall and you weren't hurt. Listen, I've I've slept in the shower before. I've scared the shit out of myself. I've I fell on the stairs a couple of years ago. It actually hurt my knee a little bit, right? Because I like to go downstairs a little too quickly. Carpet stairs, socks, kind of a dangerous combo. I've anecdotally heard that people have been found dead at the base of their stairs, wearing socks, carpet, whatever, and you kind of figure what happened there. Right. Um that's that shook me up. So now I hold the handrail. Like, like, oh shit. But at the same time, um you we I think we've all had that experience where we actually like saved ourselves, and it was because of that speed. Yeah. So you think about that, and you're like, okay, well, can we train those qualities? Can we have people, you know, it doesn't mean necessarily Olympic lifting from older adults. You know, I I people argue about risk to reward stuff like that, but the learning curve is crazy on it. And I myself am not an experienced Olympic lifting coach, so I don't coach that. But can we get people to swing kettlebells? Absolutely. Can we get people to like throw and slam medicine balls? Like that's some of the simplest shit ever. People like that stuff. Swinging a sledgehammer with as much raw power as possible. We have that in our gym, so great. I love stuff like that. And can we get people to move sleds powerfully? You know, can they sprint with a sled? That's going to be a lot of resistance, so they're not actually going to get truly full speed. And then it's dosing them with the load, intensity, and volume of it. That's very gradual. Uh, you know, box jumping, I think, depends on the person, but it could be a depth jump. One of my older adults uh have been trying to get him to a little bit more stuff like this. So I had him on a very, very small box and I had him actually jump down from it. Right. You know, just like a little bit of a deficit. And at first he was very uncoordinated. He picked it up quite quickly, but he hadn't done anything like this in years. So these kind of things. If I I'm gonna give a big shout. If you really want to get into some really cool stuff when it comes to trading older adults, and I think you should get him on the podcast, is my friend Robert Lenkel. I think you've had Robert on before, haven't you? Yeah. Yeah. Robert's a great friend of mine. Robert's amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to grow your business with people over 50? If you are, then you need to know how to communicate with them, how to market to them, and how to get them to trust you with their fitness, well-being, and money. We're talking about millions of people who are a little older than the typical market that the fitness industry usually pursues. They have more money, more time, and better motivation to make the best long-term fitness consumers you'll find anywhere. If you're not focusing on them, you should be. Prime Fit Content is the only content marketing company designed specifically to help you engage people in this group and to help you distinguish yourself from competitors in your community. It's effective, affordable, and super easy to use. Check it out at primefitcontent.com. That's prime, like prime of your life.com. Back to the show. Want to change gears a little bit. Tell me a little bit. Uh, if you do you market your services much or do you just get by on your reputation and word of mouth? What do you do to get new uh people into your system?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I'm probably a little bit more of the latter. Um, I'm still boundaried by by one-on-one capacity for who I can train. I have a lot of longtime clientele, but you know, I'll just occasionally put on my social media. You know, I'll remind people, hey, I can actually take people on. But oftentimes it's, you know, if I have a couple clients finish up, then I'll say to all my clientele, you know, I'm, you know, I'm open to take it on some new business, you know, eyes and ears open. And a lot of, you know, I think a lot of times your clientele think you're you're waitlisted and you're so busy that you don't need people. And you gotta remind people, no, I I even if I'm busy, I'll be like, I will always sit down with and make it work for a serious referral if you have somebody in your world. So I always want people to be thinking about me if there's a great potential client and I'll I'll figure it out, right? Um, and I usually operate busy enough that I'm doing more than well, but a little bit of flexibility that I can do the various different projects I have. And if I have a little bit of an uptick in business, okay, then you know, my schedule is a little bit more geared towards catering to the clients. And then if there's a little bit more latitude there, well, maybe it's a little bit more extra work on, you know, maybe I can take out a public speaking thing and do a presentation, or maybe I'll take out a writing project and get out some articles there. So but yes, it's heavily word of mouth based locally here at Edmonton, but I also have the benefit of the scale of social media. And um, you know, I'll do a quarterly online women's group strength program. So I will market that. But again, the internal community retention is really good. You know, the email list, you know, is a big part of that. But a lot of the project stuff I've done. Over the years with writing articles or even the podcast for a very long time was really just kind of a hey, this is extra, my business is fine, I enjoy this. And I think there was it reached a point where there was an intentional brand development aspect of it. There was an intentional, all right, now that I see the power of social media several years ago, okay, now I'm gonna like work on growing this because I think this could be a powerful lever. I think some people get a little too caught up in the chasing status of social media and and their motives, I think, could be a little bit goofy. And now the landscape of social media has changed a lot where I it it's almost worse than ever in terms of some of the negativity and the awfulness that we see, but it doesn't mean that it's not a useful vehicle, you just have to do it on your own terms, and I refuse to do it anything other than my own terms. Um yeah, I'm not this aggressive marketing machine with my media. I I think a lot of uh it's tricky because I mean we see a lot of really smart and successful people who've got their marketing really dialed in, a lot of the bigger players in the industry, anybody who's got you know online stuff. But let's let's again let's use my uh my sponsor, my friends at RP Strength. So A, their marketing's really good. They do they advertise on podcasts like mine, but they they advertise on Chris Williamson's Modern Wisdom podcast, right? Which is a really it's one of the biggest ones in the entire world. They but they figured out and they're very clever with their YouTube channel. They just set Dr. Mike loose, and you know, he's he's funny, he's really smart, and that YouTube channel has grown, grown, grown to the point where A, it's generating its own monetary revenue, but also it drives the brand and it and drives and then they can promote their own things, they can promote their their hypertrophy app, their Diet Coach app, and well shit, their sponsors like Versagrips, right? They have their own sponsors through there. So they found different ways to monetize this stuff. And again, I think they're very smart and clever with how they market their stuff, their web page is designed to get people to use their products. But I think that they did a really good job of growing brand and media. And if you grow brand and media and scale that, now again, they exist in the online YouTube grander sphere. It's it's different than the local gym owner. And I think it would be almost a mistake for the local, most local gym owners to try to scale out into a space where their customers aren't, right? Because then all of a sudden their social media is getting a lot of engagement from people who can't physically be their. If we're talking about the local gym owner or the local in-person trainer, and I mentioned people chasing status, which again I see all the time, they want to get on the industry stages at you know, conferences, right? I've hosted these conferences, I've spoken at them, and it's not this doesn't put clients in your business unless you're a business mentor. Okay, fine. But I've told a lot of these coaches who are craving this stuff, because when I host a conference, people be in my DMs, hey, you know, do you need a speaker? And I'm just like, Jesus Christ, um, come buy a ticket, it'll be more valuable for you, right? Uh, but I know what's going on. They think, well, if if I just get on the stage and if I get on the podcast, it's gonna make me, and I'm gonna get the followers, and I'm gonna get the business. And it's like, it's all backwards. The person, brilliant local operators that I've seen who don't even necessarily have big social media presences, they might go local and they get involved in the local chamber of commerce or local business networks. Um, they will get in front of local business owners and leaders, and they will come in and do lunch and learns, or they'll talk. Corporate wellness speaking, right? And sometimes that's volunteering at local schools. But sometimes it's you know, getting having the chops of practicing presentation skills and relationship within the community. This um a good, really smart business mentor, gym owner, friend of mine named Andy McCloy, he's out of Huntsville, Alabama. He he's brilliant at this stuff. You know, Andy will often talk about five-mile famous, which is really what matters for that type of operator. And if you get into these businesses and develop this word-of-mouth reputation as being this public speaker, well, A, you're gonna get paid and often very well to do this in a way that you won't at the fitness industry conferences, but you're getting in front of the people who actually might come and hire you and can get involved in your business. So that's probably one of the more high-leverage things to serve, especially if you have this desire to have a bigger impact in community and you like the idea of being on a stage and you like the idea of having a podcast. Another angle to take this, my friend Jonathan Goodman, who's a big fitness industry presence, big online, he's written a lot of books, you know, he's been an online mentor for a long time, but he he's routinely said in different media. If he was a you know local gym owner and he started a podcast, he wouldn't be bringing on fitness professionals from all over the world. He would go into the local business community, it would actually, and I think I'm sure it's in his book, uh, I feel like it's in The Obvious Choice, which is a great marketing book. I highly recommend it. I think everybody would benefit from reading this book. Um, and I think he tells it in there, but he would go to local business owners and he would interview them, and then he would do the work for them and make sure that when the episode was out, he had like cards that they could hand out to their customers at their business. And people like talking about themselves. And so it helps build relationships, but it helps shine a light on these people, but then it also brings attention to you, and you are the local fitness facility that these people are discovering because you are highlighting the owners of the businesses these people are frequenting. And then you could look at all right, what are the aligned businesses? What's the physio, the chiropractic clinic, the massage therapy, the other wellness stuff we're seeing? So much growth and interest in this space because this speaks to the 50 plus age demographic. We're seeing a lot more longevity-based stuff, right? So all of a sudden you start developing relationships with these people and supporting these businesses and cross-referring. I mean, this this stuff is business one-on-one for gym owners.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I had a guest on the show two or three months ago, uh trainer and gym owner. His name is Seth. I think he's in Ohio in a small town, and he did just what Jonathan uh suggested there. And yeah, he's he's the man now in his town. He's had the mayor on his podcast, he's had the head of the chamber of commerce, he gets invited to things. Everybody says, Oh, I heard you on Seth's podcast. His podcast, I don't I don't mean this in a bad way. No one outside of that county wants to hear it, but everybody in that county wants to hear it. And everybody in that county is who he's trying to be get uh to be a member at his gym. It's really effective. He's a very, you know, charming, outgoing guy, and he calls up anybody and says, Hey, you you're the you're the CEO of the town's third biggest employer. I want to talk to you on my podcast. And there you go.

SPEAKER_01:

Great great way to develop relationships. Yeah, yeah. So he's doing it right, and I bet you his jib is doing fine.

SPEAKER_00:

He is, he's doing great. It was fun to have him on. I had I had uh met him three or four or five years ago before he did this, and then I heard about all of this through a mutual friend, and he came on the podcast and talked about it. And it was really exciting because yeah, Jonathan Goodman is a is a is a great uh guy. I know we've communicated a little bit. I want to get to know him better. Um, he's written a lot of books, he's very smart, very high level. But this works for just one guy in the Midwest in his small town, too. You know, that's what was so interesting. It's not just you know, uh media experts or fitness business leaders, it's just this guy in his business. So it was very exciting.

SPEAKER_01:

I really think a lot of these people, I think they're looking for real human connection in a world that often feels angrier, more online, more viral. And I I think if if we continue to double down on it and create those communities, those spaces. Um, but yeah, it then the trick becomes can we make sure that people know about us? Can we make sure that I think I think word of mouth, I think just being a great operator, I think incredible service, incredible experience, uh all these intangible but yet like classic business, yeah, good operational stuff on the ground floor that doesn't scale super easily or well, uh, I still think this stuff's timeless. And I think everybody listening knows that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, you know, you mentioned AI and the versus the human connection. I think AI has a lot of uh a lot of great uh things it can do for us, can do for me. Um, and who knows where it's gonna be as we proceed with it. So I'm not one of these people who are afraid of AI or think it's cheating or anything like that. It's a tool, you should use it to grow your business and to be more efficient with your time and and uh whatnot. But I'm also not one of these writers who's afraid that AI is gonna put me out of business because I am a person. Uh I I I'm a 62-year-old man with gray hair and wrinkles, and I, you know, I have a sense of humor, and I uh might cry at a sad movie, and um my body hurts if I work it too hard, but I still do it because I want to stay strong. You know, all these things that a robot can't do yet, maybe it can someday, but it's that human connection that a gym provides, you know, and um online training has a has a lot to say for it as well. But I think you're right, people are going back to the gym because they want they want to see people and they want to be seen and they want to have a relationship, and especially in this demographic, you know, get out of the house, go see people, talk to people, um where you're expected, where you're gonna be looked after a little bit. So yeah, I so you mentioned a couple things about yourself. You you like this band tool, and you like to read books, and um you're about to turn 50. So tell me, tell me not about to, but pretty soon you can see it coming, put it that way. I'm a little older than you, so I want to know Mr. Trainer, how you feel about getting up on up there a little bit, being turned being 50. How does it feel?

SPEAKER_01:

There's there's as existential stuff there. Um I don't know. I think there's you understand that you're not as invincible and you don't have as much runway. It's like it's oh, there's not infinite life anymore, right? Um Oliver Berkman's book, uh 4,000 weeks is a really good one on this one. I think you get clear of the fact that you can't do it all all the time. So for you get a little bit more thoughtful about triaging your time and what you spend your time on. I think you I both have an incredible social network on a broad scale, but I think you also like tighten, you know, how you triage your time with the you know the people around you the most, right? Yeah, I think the last few years did a number on us. I've been trying to get my my energy for being out in the world has diminished. So I actually have to counter that by thoughtfully planning. And of course, work creeps in on, I'm always working on things. So I have to intentionally plan time with close friends just to make sure I'm getting the sort of social contact. For me, carving out time for the gym as a non-negotiable has never been an issue. Physically, you know, I still train hard, I still train a lot, you know, but I also understand, okay, you know, there's a slightly diminished ability to do just as much, you know, volume intensity, even load in some cases, as I was doing maybe a decade, decade and a half ago. As we get older, and I think we know this from research social studies, that the more that you identify with your age, and then you you start to do and behave ways that become predeterministic in terms of how you move. Like I was I think about this all the time when I think about like going down the stairs more slowly and holding the handrail. And it's like, okay, well, first of all, that's common sense stuff. But at the same time, if I move and do everything more slowly and more carefully, or too much so, then I start to act like an old person. And then that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as well. So it's really important to me to not define myself in any way, shape, or form. It's more of just can I maintain the athletic qualities? Can I maintain muscle mass? Can I, you know, pursue the things that I enjoy? And, you know, my love for music and I still play video games. I've been playing Skyrim, Elder Scroll Skyrim again. I love The Witcher, that stuff. And that stuff is, I think as we get older now, it's like okay to play video games, but my parents' generation, they didn't play video games as well. Well, they didn't grow up with them either, so it was different. And maybe that's the difference. Maybe they didn't grow up with them, right? But these are I I mean, I grew up on comic books, I don't really have comic books now, but like I think that stuff's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So I I just I don't think I'm conscientious of it as the real health stuff is relevant and trying to like just maintain my health and independence, but I'm also not defined by it in any sort of predeterministic way. Yeah. I feel like if people actually think about it that way, then I mean all the all the very athletic, active, um, you know, people in their 70s, 80s, 90s, like you Dick Van Dyke just hit a hundred a couple days ago. And their attitude is one of like defiance, and but I don't think they're really caught up in it. I think they're often very proactive, they're very social. There's survivorship bias in this too. These are the people that sure didn't get sick, but at the same time, I think there's a lot of lifestyle elements to why they reduce their risk of actually having thoughts. Yeah. But they're vibrant and and active. And so I just don't think that they decided one day, I'm old, I need to stop doing things.

SPEAKER_00:

But I'm so glad that you that we got to that last point there. And that's kind of why I asked the question, because a lot of people, I think around 40 start identifying as old, and then it does become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And one of my closest friends, I've known him my I don't know, 40 years or something. He's been complaining about being old since we were in our 30s. And and I just I've had to tell him, I don't want to hear it. You know, you're healthy, you're you have everything in the world going for you, and what you're you have wrinkles now, so you're slightly less attractive. Is that what's bothering you? I I don't care, you know. Um, a lot of people like older men, deal with it, you know? It's just when you start diminishing yourself because of whatever age you might be at, then it's uh it's really harder to maintain that kind of vibrant lifestyle that we're talking about, that we're trying to get people to buy into. So I'm glad you I'm glad you brought all that up. One last thing, and then I'm gonna let you go because I want to be respectful of your time. It's almost a new year. What's coming? Give me a prediction. What what's what's gonna happen in 2026?

SPEAKER_01:

People will stay people. The Morgan House's got a really good book. Uh trying to remember because he's the psychology of money, but then he has same as ever. And it's not necessarily fixating on all the things that will change. What are the fundamental things about people that will remain the same? People still care about human connection, uh, they will still care about status, they will still care about independence, you know, physical independence, financial independence, they will still care about taking care of their families. As a gym owner, I I actually think it'd be a great read, that Morgan Housel book. I think if we look at all right, there's AI and all this stuff that we're concerned about, you know, what's the stock market gonna do? What's gonna, you know, happen with like political stuff. I'm Canadian, but uh uh I try not to even like care about American politics. But we can't control the pace that AI grows at. But if we look at what fundamentally about the way people like to be treated, their needs, and especially as we gradually get just a little bit older, a little bit older, if you zero in on those things, um, I think it and you're clear for yourself personally and for the people you want to serve, it's probably the best way to look at things, does that make sense? I'm not uh I'm not an oracle. I don't know what's gonna come in the future. Um if you'd if someone appeared on a podcast in late 2019, starting 2020, you know where I'm going with this. And someone and asked the same question, someone gave you a bunch of grand predictions or whatever. Well, what happened in March of that year?

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

All those predictions are completely out the window.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

We don't know, right? But again, fundamentally look to what never changes about people, the way they want to be treated, the way they show up in the world. That matters a lot more. There's my answer.

SPEAKER_00:

That is a great answer and a great spot to wrap this up. Tell the folks where they can go to see more of you, learn more of you.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh Instagram is still probably the easiest hub at Andrew Coates Fitness. Um, yes, I have articles on my website. I haven't been able to write them as frequently as I would like, given the other commitments this year. Um, I do travel to fitness conferences, so I sometimes speak at them. I have a bunch of things this year that I will just be present at, which I'm looking forward to. Um I'll give a quick shout to Aram Gregorian's Real Coaches Summit. I did bring Chris there uh in the past. Uh wonderful event. I will be attending uh Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning's Spring Seminar in the Boston area. That's in mid-April. And I will be speaking at an NSCA Alberta Provincial Clinic in Calgary on May 2nd. And I'll be doing a presentation on training with injured limbs, injury considerations. And then it hasn't been confirmed yet, but I tend to appear at the KenFit Pro Global Conference each each of the last three years. So this will probably be for in Toronto in August. So, but I'll share all that stuff on my social media and then my podcast. I've been having a lot of fun with that. Uh, that has been more geared towards a general audience, but coaches are loving it. It's called the Lift Free and Diet Hard Podcast. I've had a lot of the industry's Who's Who uh on as guests. I have my friend Jonathan Goodman coming up at the end of January when his new book comes out, that I'll be releasing that one. But I've had the Robert Lenkles and Luke Ozvar's and Stan Efforting's and Eric Helms and Dr. Mike Isertell's of the world, uh, Brad Schoenfeld's. Yeah. So if you like good podcasts, but and if anybody has found this through my media, and especially if you're the gym owner, um if you are the older adult, um dig into check out what Jay. has had uh as other episodes and guests and uh you may find other gold there. So thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_00:

Well thank you. I appreciate that. And I'm a subscriber of your podcast as well and and recommend it to anybody who's uh trying to keep up with this. Yeah yeah a lot of good stuff there. Thank you for coming on today. I appreciate it and uh happy holidays.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for sharing me with your audience. I appreciate it. All right man bye

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Jay Croft

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