School Talk: UAE
Welcome to "School Talk: UAE," your go-to podcast for all things education in the United Arab Emirates.
Join us as we sit down with teachers, experts, and parents to explore schools across the UAE.
Each episode provides valuable insights and perspectives from those directly involved in shaping the educational experience.
Whether you're a parent, an educator, or simply curious about the state of education in the UAE, "School Talk: UAE" is your window into the dynamic world of learning in this region.
School Talk: UAE
Train with Shane: Improving Teacher Fitness
What drives a young boxer to shift gears and transform into a beacon of fitness inspiration? Join us as Shane Nicholas, the dynamic force behind Train with Shane, opens up about his remarkable journey from the boxing ring to the classroom, and finally to social media fame as a personal trainer. Shane's story is not just about a career change during the tumultuous COVID-19 pandemic but also a deeply personal health transformation inspired by his family's fitness journey. With his wife's unwavering support, Shane overcame imposter syndrome to launch his brand, using the power of social media to share his passion for health and exercise.
Explore the parallels between education and fitness in our deep dive into tailored weight management plans. Shane discusses how individualizing fitness routines can make a world of difference, much like differentiated instruction does for students with diverse needs. We tackle the remnants of 90s dieting culture and the relentless pursuit of perfectionism, encouraging listeners to embrace personalized guidance, especially during challenging periods like the holidays. Discover the importance of building non-negotiable habits, staying active, and understanding the temporary nature of holiday weight fluctuations.
The conversation doesn't stop at physical fitness. We highlight the critical role of sleep in maintaining teacher well-being and its impact on stress management and decision-making. Learn practical tips for optimizing sleep and how the 'Teach Strong' program supports teachers in balancing health with their demanding schedules. Shane also shares insights into how schools can enhance teachers' well-being by partnering with online coaches, promoting not just mental, but also physical health. By fostering a holistic approach to wellness, schools can create a nurturing environment for educators, ultimately enriching the entire educational community.
welcome to another episode of school talk. This week I'm joined by shane nicholas, also known as train with shane. So first of all, thank you for coming on the podcast. Thanks very much, chris, and this is going to be part of our dubai 30 30 series. So over the next four weeks we're going to have four different guests, all linked to fitness, which also link to teachers education. So kick us off. Who are you, a background about you and what you do now just me.
Speaker 2:Shane ecklund's a trainer. Shane, I go by both, yeah, but um, I boxed all my life from the ages of 10 to 20, probably a decent level. I won a few wall irelands, a box box from a country okay so like a box at a good level. Yeah, fitness was always part of my life training, five times a week, two hours a day. You know, throughout that time, yeah, and obviously when 20 came, I went to uni and chasing girls take off the wheels fed off yeah, but uh, I still box at uni.
Speaker 2:Actually, I got a scholarship and I went through that, but that led me into then taking up a uni course of health and leisure studies, okay, which was like heavily sports science based. So we've done kinesiology, we've done anatomy of the the body, we've done sports massage and I've done my level two personal training certificate throughout that course. At the end of it there was a pathway of all right, do you want to now become a pe teacher, which I did. So one of my mates was going to london to do a postgrad and primary school teaching. Yeah, and I was like, at least I know, if I do that, I've got a definitive job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like, I like teaching, I like coaching right, because I've coached kids, I've coached adults. So I went with that and that's my journey, how it started, of becoming a teacher and when I made the transition to obviously becoming train machine or starting up train machine, it was really during covid when, uh, like the whole, everything slowed down, life slowed down, we're all indoors and during that time I was thinking about making that transition or making a different career path, and I thought I'd like to be a personal trainer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um was there one like pivotal moment.
Speaker 2:You thought, okay, I'm going to give this a go. That point during COVID, probably the year prior, I'd really kind of taken my own health seriously Because it had deteriorated, obviously through the start of coming to Dubai. Yeah, lots of brunches, lots of that cycle, just the lifestyle, the lifestyle lifestyle and also the stress of stress of teaching as well. The workload had a kind of overwhelmed me and I didn't feel good in myself. So I signed up with a coach, got training myself and got in really good shape. Okay.
Speaker 2:And the positive benefits I noticed on teaching my own teaching, yeah, how I went into class, my own mood, you know, my own confidence they skyrocketed. So everything was improving, how I was managing my stress, how I was managing the workload, all improved. So then during covid, when everything slowed down, that was the avenue I was like right, I want to become a personal trainer where when I wanted to start was my family were all quite unhealthy okay. So my dad was at a point where we were kind of like worried about where he was with his weight. Yeah, my sister, um, another point where we were worried about where she was with her weight and then my other sister was trying to get into the police in ireland but had to do a fitness test, yeah, and she was worried that she wouldn't pass it. So those were my goals.
Speaker 2:I said, look, I'll take you on as my first three clients, yeah, and I'll train you, and then that's my social proof that I can prove to everyone. Gone, look what I've done, yeah, yeah now, across the three of them, I helped them lose 70 kg kg. So my dad lost like five stone between the other two kids, mother to sorry sisters. They lost the rest. My other sister got into the guards. She's happy, has a career now, loves it, and my dad and my sister, like I can't say, saved their lives as such, but it has dramatically changed their life as in they're more positive, better mood, they're healthier. My wife, who's like my number one supporter like again train with Shane wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for her because, like you know, setting up a social media platform, instagram and posting that very first time all I thought about was the lads are going to take the mic out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, like imposter, syndrome.
Speaker 2:Complete imposter syndrome. The lads are going to take the mic. Wait till they see. See this post. I'm going to be getting it shared to me in the whatsapp groups, so I didn't want to post it. And my wife's like it's now or never. You have to do this. Yeah, if you want. Like we didn't have me at the time, obviously we have a beautiful three-year-old child now. We didn't have her at the time. She's like this is your time, covid, is the time to to make this jump and start to build that so that when obviously we come out of this, you have something there. Yeah, and so I just went with it and like obviously I look back at my start at the post and I was. I was like thinking I was joe wicks, basically, but I I thought he was on about you know, people want to see nutrition, like meals and and stuff, posting nutritional meals and taking nice pictures. I even bought these like a nice plate.
Speaker 2:I really sucked in like this was the start of train with shane yeah, look back at the start. And. And then I talked about my own transformation and how it positively impacted me, and also I talked about my family and I could show them this is what you know. My dad, yeah, who is a 55 year old well, he was a 55 year old man. He was really overweight like he was like pushing, I say 25, 20, you know, 25 stone, but didn't want to make any changes. Yeah, you know. So we made small little habits and I always keep referring to this because it's literally the underpinning of Tremont Shane the small little changes. So when I used to go home, everything used to be swimming in oil. Yeah Right, Fry up every day.
Speaker 2:Right, we made that fry light, so a small little change. We made small little swaps with regards to full fat milk to low fat milk. Yeah, sugar started taking it out for sweeteners. There's so many little changes like that. And then we added in walking and movement that he wasn't doing. Yeah, so he walked the dog twice a day and literally through that, lost five stone yeah, so go more into that bit there about those habits and those small little changes.
Speaker 1:Is that your main approach to it?
Speaker 2:I feel that the the large majority of of clients that come to me are struggling for to make basic habits and routines in their life, and I think if you don't start there and have a good foundation, you can't build anything from that. So if you're going and what people follow is this all or nothing approach. They think I'm going to do everything all at once and I'm going to smash it. But you haven't done that in the past. You might be able to stick to that for maybe two or three weeks. That will unravel then and then you're back at square one. So what we will do is we will build good foundation of habits, so pillars, so like, right, are you moving more? Okay, and not this magical 10 000 step number that's gradually taken over social media, because people have different lifestyles, people have different responsibilities, different work commitments. So we have to find a number that's right for you and then slowly increment that, yeah, and then find ways of doing that.
Speaker 2:And when I relate back to teaching is you know, teachers, a lot of teachers are standing at the front of the classroom or sitting at the front of the classroom. Okay, move around the classroom while you're talking to your kids, okay, so they can turn the net, they can, they can look at you, but you're getting an extra hundred steps in per class. That, across the day, builds up to maybe another thousand. Yeah, and again, like I mentioned before, if you get an extra thousand a day across a week, that's an extra day's worth of walking. That compounds over time. It's really, really powerful. It's the same with nutrition. So if you're struggling with nutrition right, you're eating five cookies. Can you reduce it to two? You're not cutting it out and people seem to think that it's good or bad or I have to follow this clean eating. No, you don't. Yeah, no, because people are. People are looking for advice from certain people. That doesn't align with their goals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you would like. You said the Instagram thing there. You do look at people on Instagram and think they're only eating this, this and this. I should do that. But one, it's their job. Two, it's not everything you see or they post. And three, like you said there, you need to make sure it is aligned with your life, because good chances they're not standing in front of a class all day and teaching kids not standing in front of a class all day, not dealing with the stresses of kids but, you have your own kids not dealing with sleep deprivation from being up all night?
Speaker 2:yeah, this week I've been ill and I've had to. Mia was waking up because she thought worms were in her bed three times in the middle of the night standard. Yeah, and obviously you have to go in make sure that there's no worms in her bed and put her back to bed. Yeah, but that's broken up my sleep three or four times. Yeah, so I can relate to some of the parents going. I know what you're going through, I know how you feel after that and then what you should be doing that next day. Because if I'm the other side of that um phone saying to you, why have you missed your workout? Why have you had um chocolate bar or why have you increased your calories on that day? Yeah, well, because I was starving, because I've been sleep deprived. I have no motivation at the moment and you're not making it any more helpful from guilt tripping me, and that's when the habits come in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's about going right and also, what can we control in that time? It's really important because sometimes we're our own worst enemy, because we feel like we have to do everything perfect. And again, I relate this back to teachers. Would you, would you say the exact same to kids in the class?
Speaker 2:no, no you're going to break it down into simple success criteria? Yeah, there's going to be differentiation for different people who are learning at different speeds yeah, okay or need different resources to help them get to the end goal. The end goal is the same, the learning objective is the same, but the success criteria and the differentiation helps everyone get there. Yeah, that's what I do. I look at everyone your different responsibilities, your different lifestyles, your different work commitments, your different struggles, your different triggers and also past understanding of dieting. Again, I talk about this bouncing ideas of my wife all the time, and she's like Shane. We grew up in the 90s. Women especially, because that's why who I focus, uh, who I work with, is. We grew up in the 90s where you know special k diet was around. You know where there was people telling you.
Speaker 1:So funny. We're out for dinner the other night and we're talking about that and I I didn't go on the special k diet. I just loved special k. So I used to eat like two, three bowls a day. My wife was like that. It's disgusting. You're a fully grown man, you shouldn't be on a special k diet but it was, it was conditioned into a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, if you're 80s, born in that 90s era, like period 90s to the 2000s where weight was a massive, massive, um like topic, we need to break those barriers. It's not just about a training program, yeah, or a meal plan. You can get that on chat, gtp, yeah, okay, but you're not going to stick to that because this obsession with the weighing scale is going to throw you off track. Yeah, this obsession with having to be perfect, it's going to throw you off track. This obsession with having to be eaten clean is going to throw you off track. Yeah, weight fluctuations are going to throw you off track. So having someone like in your corner, like a coach, that understands and that's helping you break down those barriers and limiting beliefs is really, really important yeah, I did a marathon last year and I had a coach for that, and it's so true.
Speaker 1:You can get a training plan anywhere on the internet. But if you do miss a run, you sometimes think I need to go back and catch up. Your coach will know that's fine. Like you've had a stressful week, or like you say they tailor it around your needs, what's going on in your life. So, to someone, I think you say it there really well, being in your corner, you're there to support them. You're there to look out for them, not to 100 attack them when they're doing something wrong yeah, my, my ethos it may be different.
Speaker 2:It kind of rubs some cultures up the wrong way. As well as being, my ethos is not to make you feel bad, it's to guide you, yeah, and help you and put things in place that can get you past certain barriers. And then, when you learn how to get past certain barriers, you're kind of smashing some limiting beliefs that you did have about yourself. One of them okay.
Speaker 2:one of the limiting beliefs many of my clients have is I will put on weight at Christmas. They always have that. There's no point starting now. I'll start after Christmas, or Christmas is just a write-off. I'm going to put on 5 or 6 kg and start back. Well, actually I teach clients and educate them to still manage their habits. So are we still kind of getting our steps in? Are we setting a target? Because we can do that, Like Christmas doesn't stop us from going out or getting a walk in or moving around or going shopping. You're still getting steps in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it'll arguably be Christmas if you can promise people, let's go for that Christmas walk, let's get out 100%, and I think keeping active is one of the main things that help people over these periods.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can still drink water, and and actively. It might not drink as much, okay, because you're not maybe at work or sitting down with a water in front of you, but you can still actually do that if you build habits. You can still prioritize sleep the only thing that and training, obviously as well. You still train, whether it's in the gym or whether, when gyms are closed down, you can do some form of body weight training at home. All right, the only thing that usually changes is an increase in calories. That's what usually changes, and it's usually linked to eating more or drinking more.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that is the perfect time to probably have a coach, or even to have a coach in the past. That's helped you learn how to navigate around, maybe nights out, and how to navigate around meals out without Can I swear on this? Yeah, all right. Without hitting the fucker button. Yeah, okay, that's the thing you don't want to hit and that's the thing people always look at. It's like don't touch the red button. Yeah, you press it. Okay, it's learning not to press that and keeping consistent with these non-negotiable boundary habits that you have and then understanding that you're probably only going to maintain during christmas, yeah, but also teaching them that it's probably going to be largely water weight from alcohol which is going to make your body inflamed. Yeah, okay, you've got. When we generally overeat, we don't overeat on fruit, we're not like smashing 16 bananas back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, pigs and blankets for the win we're usually going for more carb, heavy foods, more foods that are like easily consumed biscuits. I don't know like again in in in england with regards to like biscuit tins going around the usa box of biscuits yeah, the pink wafer biscuits flying around and you're going to the second teachers as well.
Speaker 1:You get the celebration boxes and all of that celebration, but again that's the thing is with teachers.
Speaker 2:It's the celebration boxes coming in, it's kids giving you sweet because they want to show you love, and it's like it's then oh, we've left something in the staff room for you and everything is food related. It's then about how do we navigate around that without hitting that fucking button yeah and that's what gets you through.
Speaker 2:I've had so many clients whether it's summer, easter, summer, um, or holidays that they've been on, come through it and go. That's the first time in my entire life that I've gone through Christmas, summer or holiday and not put on any weight, because they've kept those habits. They've still done the habits because it's now lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Do you think having a coach as well helps with accountability, so that they're checking in with you as well? So if you haven't got that check in, you're like, oh, I can hit the red button 100%.
Speaker 2:I have a coach myself. Okay, because I feel like everyone needs a coach, because, no matter how well you think you're put together, there will always be times, like this morning, where it's going to be stressful. Right, yeah, your wife is sick. You need to drop your kid off at school. Uh, you have a flat tire. Um, you're sick yourself. Maybe you've gone a bit heavy at the weekend and you're trying to get back on track. Maybe work's really stressful. We all act in the same way when stresses or high cortisol levels are there. We all are. The first thing to go sometimes is our own habits and neglect towards our health. Skip a workout, skip a meal? Yeah, okay, having someone that's going to go, that's all right. Don't worry about that. Look forward, because we always look at the negatives and we always focus on those negatives. And again relate back to teachers. If your kid, your kids or your students were focusing on the negatives, you would give them two stars and a wish you wouldn't just give them a wish all the time, like three wishes right.
Speaker 2:You have to look at the positives as well, and that's what having a coach is like. It's like giving you those two stars and a wish to kind of go. This is what you might not have done, okay too well, we're going to focus on that. But these things, right here, you've done it, excellent, yeah. That makes you feel better, makes you feel okay, I'm keeping on top of this and going forward, and that's what a coach does. It helps you keep accountable. Again, I can't say that for all cultures. No, some cultures give three, three wishes, yeah, and make you feel bad. And I've had that horror stories of people coming to me going this is what happened. Or they didn't understand me, might my career or my teaching career, or didn't understand me as a mother with six kids mmm, okay, trying to manage the family, I can't get out for 10,000 steps, I can't go to the gym, I can't eat something different to my family, yeah. So you have to be as a coach that you take the whole person and it's a differentiated approach for every single person?
Speaker 1:yeah, for sure. So the by 3030 coming up. And we're in the middle of it now. And what is the program you're running?
Speaker 2:talk to us about teach strong okay, some teach drunk is something that I've set up for teachers, obviously in in mind. My wife's a teacher and I've set up for teachers, obviously in mind my wife's a teacher and I've got lots of friends that are teachers. I've noticed, probably over the last let me say, three, four years, that the pressures the workload the standards have gradually just been increasing and that's not going to change.
Speaker 2:But if we look back to UK, we've got a teacher crisis. I think I looked at a stat last night it was 40,000 teachers left to professional last year. Really, in the UK it was 8% of teachers 20,000 came here.
Speaker 2:Not through retirement, so through other reasons, for other than that. So we will turn into the UK with regards to the teachers in the UAE. If we don't focus on kind of the standards aren't going to decrease or change. We've got to help teachers manage the workload, manage their stress levels, manage their own health, their confidence, and feel happier. Because when we've got a happier and healthier teacher, we've got a better teacher, we've got a more engaged teacher. We've got a more engaged teacher, we've got a more interactive teacher with the kids. We've got better interactions with the kids in class Okay, with the staff more positive.
Speaker 2:So my program Teach Strong 30 days to a healthier teacher life All right, to a healthier teacher life all right. It's based around trying to fit in exercise that are shorter, more concise, so that you can fit them in, whether it's in the gym, whether it's at home or whether it's body weight, okay. So whether it's like with dumbbells at home, or you've got equipment, or whether you haven't got equipment at home, trying to build really good foundation of habits, like I've been saying, that's the cornerstone of train machine around sleep, around movement, water, nutrition and training. If we can build those habits around those, we have a really good foundation over the next 30 days of them, taking that into christmas.
Speaker 1:If you were going to prioritize one of those five things, what would it be? Sleep?
Speaker 2:yeah, sleep is everything I feel like falls away from sleep, like if you can have everything else on track. We've all been there where we've just had a baby. Yeah, we've been up three or four times a night. We're walking like zombies into work the next day and sometimes, obviously, that can't be avoided yeah, because you're a parent. But if you're actively, then staying up to maybe 11 12 o'clock at night and having to get up at five o'clock in the morning, you need to kind of change that yeah, yeah, I've become really obsessive.
Speaker 1:I've been, I've always tracked my sleep and but I've been obsessive of trying to get my heart rate under a certain thing. And I know that if I drink coffee normally, like three o'clock's my cut off. If I have a coffee after three o'clock, my heart rate under a certain thing. And I know that if I drink coffee normally, like three o'clock is my cut off. If I have a coffee after three o'clock my heart rate's higher. If you go out for dinner and booze during dinner, your heart rate normally my heart is about 45. When I sleep, go out for drinks, it's like 60, yeah, and then you don't sleep and then you shatter the next day and so you get low level sleep and, yeah, you're not getting the no deep sleep.
Speaker 2:So you might have slept seven hours, but you won't be fully recovered. I want to say that sleep is again. Think of this this way. It's like you're building up waste in your body throughout the day. When you sleep, that waste is draining away. You're like clearing that body. You're not getting enough sleep. Your waste is only draining halfway and it fills up to full, and that's when you can't manage stressful situations. That's when you're in school, you've got 30 kids asking you questions and you're ready to snap yeah, ready to snap.
Speaker 2:That's when you feel like you just need to reach for a chocolate bar and you can't make better decisions because everything's on impulse. So what I looked at is like how can I set myself up for the next day so that 30 minutes before bed was putting my my gym gear on? Having my gym gear back? Yeah, ironing my clothes and having them hung up right, but my wife trains in the mornings at the moment. She will fill the kettle and boil it. Oh, really, yeah, she will literally put out her. There are two cups with tea bags in it. Yeah, yeah, she will have her lunch left in the fridge ready to go. Yeah, and she trains. She gets up at half five, goes to the gym for five to six, comes back, gets ready and takes Mia to school. Then, because it's the only time she thinks she can fit it in, because everything is, she's working later and later into the evening and then trying to get an hour in the evening or half an hour in the evening to train is quite difficult.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the teach strong. Um, how, how's that going to look? The clients that have signed up what support are they getting from you?
Speaker 2:okay. So the teach strong run like my, my elevate program, which is a group coaching program.
Speaker 2:So they will sign up, they will be given a training program, they'll be given um a guide with some set meal plans that are based around, like family favorites, around lunches that are quick and easy because, as we know, as teachers, you don't get, sometimes don't get time to go to a microwave or there's a queue for a microwave because there's only one microwave in the staff room. So really quick and easy eat on the go or grab on the go. You can eat when you're doing your marking or sitting around the staff room, but you don't have to be wasting time. So, again, everything is free-flowing. Breakfasts, again, will all be things that can be prepped across the week, things that can be prepped across the week, and then we will teach them. Teach them in the program how to set boundaries, how to manage stress, how to plan out your week, and I think some people really don't sit down for 5 or 10 minutes, or maybe a Friday.
Speaker 2:So I like to do mine on a Friday because we don't plan over the weekend and that's where kind of all our hard work unravels. We're great Monday through Friday. So I like to get my clients to start planning on a Friday, over the weekend and into next week. So every Friday to Friday we're planning. So you're always planning over the weekend. And then you're always kind of thinking right, actually I'm meeting Sarah here on Friday evening, we're going for a few drinks. Right, I'm gonna try and navigate my way around. That I've got a walk in the morning, that I'm meeting another friend, I'm going out for lunch here, and then sunday, we've got this, this and this on with the kids. So you're already thinking about that. And then how can you best combat that? Because as teachers, we are so regimented from Monday through Friday Everything's planned out.
Speaker 2:You know, when you're eating. We know when we're eating. We know when we can train. We know when we're having our water. We know when we're getting our steps in, because we're always on our feet, whereas at the weekends everything can drop off a cliff. So if you plan from Friday through Friday, you're planning over that weekend and into the following week. So if you plan from Friday to Friday, you're planning over that weekend and into the following week, so that would be part of it. Then we'll have a weekly Q&A on a Wednesday evening that everyone can hop on. We'll talk about a topic that's related towards teaching.
Speaker 2:Whether it be stress, whether it be planning, whether it be setting boundaries or whether it be just increasing movement daily, Not going out for dedicated half an hour hour walks. But how can we increase our steps throughout the school day? Like, can we take our kids to music and just get those extra steps in? Can we walk them down to PE when we don't have to? So can we then move around the classroom and actively move around the classroom, Because you can build up those steps across the day.
Speaker 2:If it's even 1,000 or 1,500, it's a massive difference across the month. And then it gives them that structure. So Teach Strong will give them the structure over the month and then, hopefully, will take those habits then into the Christmas period. And I'm phrasing it as in because I've experienced it myself those last two weeks in December you're kind of crawling towards the christmas holidays. I don't want you doing that anymore. I want you to go towards the christmas holidays feeling happy, healthy and going into christmas with a bit of a spring in your step yeah so that's what the teach strong will help.
Speaker 1:yeah, okay, perfect, and we spoke before about schools trying to support this. Schools have a difficult job with well-being, like, yes, it's a big focus at the moment, but there's, like you said before, there's so many different things that are expected in terms of standards being raised across Dubai. How do schools change well-being from a box-ticking exercise to actually supporting it, would you say?
Speaker 2:I think schools at this moment, they are doing what they can and the best they can, because they're not in the the personal training profession. They don't. They're trying to get the best school possible to make sure that their staff are getting um, you, staff are teaching the best, they're focused on the kids, they're having the best experience. So that's just another thing on their radar. But I feel like they're trying to do the best with really nice gestures, but we're not getting to the deep root of how can we really help the staff? And the standards aren't going to change. We're still going to need them to really, you know, we're still going to need them to really perform at their best. So how can we make them perform at their best?
Speaker 2:And I feel like at the moment, you know, mental health is really promoted well and across all schools. You know we've got counsellors that the staff can use. We've got mental health awareness days. It's really prevalent across schools but there's nothing being done, I think, for our fitness, our habits, yeah, and our health, and we know that a happy and healthy teacher is a better teacher for schools especially. I would say less sick, sick days when a teacher's more healthy, yeah. Less insurance claims yeah. So a teacher a happy and healthier teacher brings down the insurance costs and just more positive and interactive, which makes them being able to perform better.
Speaker 2:If they're able to manage their stress better. It's better for everyone all around. So what I would say to schools is affiliate with either myself or another coach. Okay, that you kind of outsource, that it doesn't cost you anything. You are bringing someone to the staff and affiliating.
Speaker 2:So it's online, so it's not on, it's not in the school yeah it's not during the school day, when, when teachers have already enough to do, okay, like putting on a before school activity or putting on an after school activity for teachers, you, it's sometimes quite hard because they're like I need to be marking my books, I need to plan tomorrow's lesson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got to take the kids home it needs to fit into their lifestyle and, again, it's individualized to them, not mass, because every single teacher is different. You've got kids not doing activities, doing activities after school. You've got single parents. You've got people who are single. You've got other work commitments that they may be doing or drop-offs. So it doesn't help staff by just going. We're going to do this for you.
Speaker 2:I have a training session after school that two or three sign up to, whereas if you have someone come in, that's in an online perspective, like myself, to teach strong. They can do it in their own time. They can do it at when the kids are gone to bed. They can get their 20-minute walk-in in front of the TV with Rick yeah, it doesn't have to be out walking because they can't leave the kids. They can get their 20-minute HIIT session in downstairs, yeah. Or they have dumbbells and they can get their dumbbell session in without having to leave the house, but it can be done in their own time, not from three to four where they really need to focus on school stuff. So you're just actually creating more stress for that teacher. Because they want to become healthier, they want to make sure they're managing their stress.
Speaker 2:They know they should be doing that, but it's being provided, I think, in the wrong way yeah I think if you provide it in an online fashion, that's outside of the school, that helps manage them as a whole person, not just their training, their sleep, their nutrition, their stress levels, because everyone's different. I've got many teachers that are maybe doing some tutoring on the side, so they're working long hours. Or I've got other teachers that are literally bringing kids here, there and everywhere, are maybe doing some tutoring on the side, so they work. They're working long hours or they're you know. I've got other teachers that literally bringing kids here, there and everywhere, so they can't do. They have to go straight from school to do that. Or I've got other teachers who are single parents or have partners, but they're traveling the partners are traveling so technically, they're working by themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're trying to keep on top of things, so they you've got to cater to everyone when when this comes about, and that's why I feel like having an online approach and them having an app and having a coach in their pocket all the time, helping them navigate their own stresses, not just generalized stresses, will really benefit them. Because, again, I've seen it. I've seen how with myself and how I started training with shane, how it impacts you as a teacher, but also. I've seen it and all the teachers that I train and how it's physically, how it's impacted them, their mood, their happiness, their confidence, all right, and then that's just brought in, yeah, to to school. It's like I had to teach her the last day, like I've got myself back already. I'm like I'm smiling again. How do you think they're going to be performing in class?
Speaker 1:so what would you say? Some of the biggest misconceptions are, I think, like listen to what you're saying there. One of the misconceptions is assuming everyone can go to the gym an hour of the day, assuming everyone is able to um eat their own meal. I think one of the things you said earlier about if you've got a family like there's six of us here, me and my wife are eating the same as the kids are eating every night, you're not cooking four different meals. I mean, we still do at breakfast time, but at dinner time, yeah, you need to be logistic, like one of the things I do with my clients is when we sit down in that first initial call or with um people on teach strong, or my my group coaching program, elevate.
Speaker 2:They will tell me I said talk to your families, yeah, get them involved, be like right. So, kids, what do we like to eat? Bangers and mash Excellent. Putting that on Lasagna Excellent. We like spaghetti bolognese Excellent.
Speaker 2:You put in what you like and I'll create meals around that, so that the whole family can have, because the least resistance we need to create less resistance towards you sticking to this consistent plan um plan, not more you're being a good role model for the kids. You're showing them that you know we're all eating the same, yeah, and it's just about portion control. And then it's about making better choices. So have that lasagna, you know, have one slice of garlic bread and then have a bit of a side salad to keep you full, so you don't have to have that two or three more slices of garlic bread I'd say the biggest takeaway I've taken from today is make like knowing that everyone is on a different journey.
Speaker 1:They're on different, different places in their journey, so you just need to be so much more considerate to that it's the exact same what you say, like you're mentioning that, like everyone is on a different journey I compare myself to people all the time.
Speaker 1:I'm like, especially with running. I'm like I can run fast but that guy's faster than me and he can run a quicker marathon than me. I'm like I should be doing what they're doing, but then you go back to like you said before you have no idea their backstory, you have no idea how many kids they've got, or the stresses or all of that.
Speaker 2:But again, what I kind of want people to kind of get from this is there's three things right. Perfection is not what we're looking for. We're looking for consistency. If you can consistently do the small habits over and over and over again, you'll get unbelievable results. Next thing patience. We want things yesterday. We want things yesterday, and sometimes you need to build a good foundation to get to that end point. It's going to take time. There's a good foundation to get to that end point. Yeah, it's going to take time.
Speaker 1:There's a good quote from usain bolt who says I trained for 12 years and only ran for like 70 seconds in his olympics career.
Speaker 2:So 100 and people don't understand that it's like there there is. You've got to, first of all, you've got to sometimes like break all of these negative habits and shackles from you. I've been holding you back for years, right, whether it's the fixation on the scale, whether it's I need to get there fast, whether it's this reoccurring cycle of monday through friday, great weekend, absolutely off the track, and then back on Monday again if somebody wanted to train with you, if someone wanted to train with Shane, how would they get in contact?
Speaker 2:how they go about doing that well, well, the heat strong is closed. Yeah, but I will probably run that again in next year at some point. Yeah, it's just for Dubai 3030. I've got my one-to-one who's, which is always open. So if you want to work, got my one-to-one, which is always open.
Speaker 2:So if you want to work with me, one-to-one personalized coaching for you, you can just reach out, dm me on at trainwithshane on Instagram and just say hey and we'll start up a conversation. I'll get to know about you, your situation, your routines, your schedules. If you like the program that I'm kind of setting out for you, we can go ahead and sign up. If not, at least you have a plan to keep going forward. Yeah, or in elevate, I've got my group coaching program, which is a lower cost program, in that's starting on january 6th, which is the monday, january 6th, and that's an eight-week fat loss program that follows the same pillars, follows the same habits that we want to be committing. But it's a group coaching program, so it's not personalized to exactly you, but it's got everything that has helped all my clients, my one-to-one clients, get to the place where they're at. But it's an eight-week program. It starts on the 6th January.
Speaker 1:Perfect. I'll put all this information in the show notes as well and I'll tag shane in our social media stuff so you can contact him through there. Some really insightful stuff, like, I think, the the journey thing. For me was the big one. Like you know, I've taught for years. I kind of always try to keep fit. But, yes, obviously everyone is on their own journey. But just appreciate that, even with people you train with in the gym, I think, just knowing everyone's on their own little journey, yeah, some really good stuff in there, um train machine. Thank you so much for coming on school talk. Thanks very much, chris. This has been school talk. Thank you so much for listening. Again, if you find this episode interesting or you think someone might learn from it, share it with them and we'll continue to grow. Bye for now.