How to Stay Active, Strong, and Pain Free for Life | Sherry Mockler | Episode 29

At 63 years old, Sherry Mockler is not slowing down. She is training for the National Senior Games, lifting heavy, coaching others, and proving that strength has no age limit.

In this episode of the TLW Podcast, Sherry shares why adults must train for strength, power, balance, mobility, and longevity before they begin losing them. She explains the truth about women lifting heavy, how to prevent falls and injuries as you age, and why your training today determines how you will move 10, 20, or even 30 years from now.

Sherry also opens up about rebuilding her life after divorce, beginning a new career after 18 years as a stay at home mother, growing Sherry Mockler Strong, and relying on prayer, gratitude, courage, and connection through some of life’s hardest seasons.

This conversation is about more than fitness. It is about refusing to let fear, age, or adversity determine the rest of your story.

Learn more about Sherry and her online training programs at SherryMocklerStrong.com.

Subscribe to the TLW Podcast for conversations about leadership, faith, discipline, health, purpose, and building a life that lasts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the TLW podcast. I'm Jonathan Pixley here with my co-host, Dr. Sean Owens. Dr. Owens, as always, welcome. Sad to be here, man. Let's go. Also behind the scenes, our other partner, Mr. Jace Augustus, recently married Jace Augustus, which we missed on the last podcast. We should have announced that. Jace Augustus with JCB Media, who is basically making this show possible because otherwise it would be just two guys and a guest sitting up here talking to somebody without any type of uh technology involved with it, which means you're not watching us at this point if that's the case. So um we uh you know thank Jace for all everything he brings to our company as well. Uh we have, as always, all of our guests are amazing and uh incredible, but um a very special one to me personally here today. And uh Sherry Mockler. Uh Sherry, welcome.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Oh, thank you. Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah. Um Sherry, uh, when I first asked her to do this, was concerned that she didn't she hadn't done anything big enough to be on the TLW podcast, which first of all says something about the TLW podcast. But second of all, but second of all, um could not be uh more untrue than it is. And the reasons that I'm fixing to prove that because I'm gonna have to read your bio because it's you've accomplished too much for me just to memorize. Okay. Um you have had a huge impact on the community in a in a multitude of ways. But let's just go through your bio so that our viewers understand exactly who they're dealing with here. Um before I go through the bio, however, I do want to thank Kidder Dental for allowing us to use this amazing office space um to uh to film our podcast. Uh and as always, and look, not just because they're letting us use the space and not just because you're fixing to become a partner as well. Um, but you know, this is if you if you need high-level dental care and all of the different capacities that it's possible, um, you need to come to Kid or Dental. You need to see Dr. Liz, Dr. Dustin, and now Dr. Sean Owens. I know you've been working here for a while, but I know you're phasing into a little heavier.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

It's about to get a little bit more real.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

It's about to get a little bit more real for sure. So uh back to Sherry Mockler. Sherry is a strength and conditioning coach and founder of Sherry Mockler Strong, which we're going to get into that in a little while. Um, for over 15 years. Uh she holds a degree in microbiology from LSU, is a certified strength and conditioning specialist with distinction through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, along with USA Weightlifting Level One and Multiple Personal and Group Training certifications. You're one of those people that has all those initials next to you.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

I I do. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

You're kind of a nerd like that.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

I really am a nerd like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Yeah. Um, athletic background spans decades. I'm sitting next to an initial nerd, too, by the way. In the demo in the domain. Sucker for letters and titles is great. Keep it going.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Even if nobody knows what they are, they're like, well, that's good enough, man.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

I'm looking for the alphabet. Let's go. Y'all could speak in abbreviations, you know, and initials. Yeah. Um, her athletic background spans decades, beginning with competitive swimming and martial arts. Okay, that's not the same. Um, and extending into collegiate water skiing at both University of Texas at Austin and LSU. She later competed in triathlons through her 20s, 30s, and 40s, and has completed two marathons, both in the Swiss Alps, one at the age of 50 and the next at the age of 60. First of all, 60? Really? Don't believe it. Okay. Um, her unique approach focuses on building strength for longevity. We're going to talk about that in your work with the elderly, um, emphasizing functional movement and injury prevention. A mother of six, uh, she brings practical and real world perspective to balancing health, family, and performance. So that's the person that said, I'm not sure if I've done enough to be on the TLW podcast, but she is sitting next to us. So uh we are excited. Okay, so let's jump right into it.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

Okay. Uh you've accomplished quite a bit. Okay. Um I want you to talk about what made you think you hadn't accomplished anything uh or enough to be on this.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

You know, I guess we we don't see what we do. You know, we don't really look back and go, huh, yeah, I I did that. We don't carry that with us, you know. To me, the focus is ahead. And what what am I doing now? How am I helping people now? You know. Um certainly we carry it with us to the degree that we've learned, you know, but I still I and I told Jonathan, I said, Jonathan, I only have like two months to go do something epic, you know? And um, but thank you for saying all those kind words.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Cause uh Well, I just read what you've done. I didn't just make it up, right? And so when you say, when you say we don't we don't carry or focus on that, a lot of people do. A lot of people do look back and go, look at what I did, look at this, that, the other, right? Living the glory days, whatever. Um, you know, not the case with you. So like I I want you to talk about why, like, is that a natural thing for you? Do you do you are you intentional about that?

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Pretty much, yeah. Because I'm I'm planning ahead and I'm going, okay, what's next? Um, for example, um I'm well I'm 63 and they have what's called the National Senior Olympics or that National Senior Games. And uh they they have swimming, they have powerlifting, they have triathlons, and I'm going, okay, well, what am I gonna enter? So you have to qualify one year, and then the games or the national Olympics are the next year. So there's even qualifying years, you know, when you go into it. And uh it it keeps me focused, it keeps me going. I have a goal. I need a goal, I need a focus, and I need a pinpoint. And I'm not one to just, you know, go this way. Now, in my life, have I gone from A to B in a straight line? No, I think that makes you a little more interesting sometimes, you know, a little zigzaggy path. But I need I need that focus for me.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

By the way, fellow triathlete here. Um yeah, really, and y'all, y'all, I call you the crazy athletes because you do the crazy stuff. You want to exit the room real quick and get the tools.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

We can finish this.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

It's just crazy. I like to stay in shape and not and feel good about myself, but y'all do some crazy.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

A little bit different, a little bit different. Um, all right. So let's go back to the beginning. Sure. Um, interest in athletics. Can you recall anything that specifically brought that about for you? And then on the heels of that, can you discuss what all uh sports you were involved in growing up?

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Um, what was the first question?

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Yeah, you'll have to forgive me. I'm on about 400 milligrams of caffeine over the past hour and a half.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

And look, I'm old, I can remember one thing at a time.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

You're 36. You're 36. I got you. All right. So uh interest in athletics. Can you recall where, like, like a very formative image you have in your brain of where that interest came from?

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Not really. It's just what I did. Um, yeah. I climbed uh door jams and closets, and you know, literally, I was told anyway when I was younger they put a cowbell on me because they couldn't find me because I was all over the place. Yeah, true story. Um, so no, I just was always moving. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

What uh what all sports did you play growing up?

SPEAKER_03 7:35

Mainly swimming.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Mainly swimming.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

Yeah, that's that's all I did. And really, honestly, uh back in the day, girls didn't have uh many sports. Um, my brothers were hockey players, and um we didn't have girl hockey teams back then. Um and and of course, me being me more of the tomboy, um, I didn't have figure skates. I had hockey skates, but I didn't puck handle, you know, I didn't know how to do that. We didn't have that. So probably had then there been more availability of sports, um, I would have done more, but swimming just seemed to be there and easy. And my mom was a swimmer, so you know, did that with what strokes or strokes?

SPEAKER_01 8:12

All of them. All of them. Of course.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Did you invent did you invent a fifth one to do?

SPEAKER_03 8:19

That's funny. Actually, I could side stroke. I don't know if that's a competition though. So we can make that happen.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I like that, yeah. All right, so let's let's book aim that. So that's early earlier years. You have made a decision to stay competitive with competition, you know, present time. Uh, is there any specific reason behind that? I know you said it's just what you enjoyed when you were younger. Is it something you just still enjoy now? Are there specific reasons health-wise that you're doing it, or is it for like for me, it's for sanity reasons?

SPEAKER_03 8:47

It's just sanity keeping me out of the you know, psych ward, you know. Yeah, I get it. No, seriously. It's it's going in and and now I'm mainly well, I'm swimming because I'm, you know, trying out for some of the Olympic sports, but are the national senior games. But um I go in because of the things that I come out with from the gym, you know, lifting something heavy or or going into the gym and going, I don't know if I can do this. I'm I'm tired, I'm whatever. And you walk out successful of some sort, you know. Um, some challenge that maybe, you know, you had within your head and or even with a weight, and you come out, you know, successful, I think anyway.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Can you dispel the myth of lifting heavy? Like you know, yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

Oh, absolutely. Women, uh, I I train mainly women. Um, and you know, we we lift, we resistance train um with dumbbells and that. And women have a hard time understanding what heavy is. You know, they'll look at me sometimes, they'll pick something up, and they'll go, Oh, this is heavy. And I'll go, uh-huh. Yeah, lift it again, put it down, lift it back up again. It's okay. As long as you have good form, as long as we've built up to it, progressive overload and all that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah, I mean, I I I find, you know, the more females I talk to about it, that if we have clients, for example, which we do have female clients as well, that and they will ask about nutrition and they will ask about working out. And the the immediate thing is, you know, um, I don't want to get too bulky. Yeah, well, you know what? I don't want you to either. You know, so first of all, it looks weird. I don't want you to do that. Yeah, um, you deal with that. I would imagine I do.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

And and and then I have to tell them too, literally, to get there, we're talking years, we're talking genetics, we're talking lots of time in the gym, and you know, it's it's a lot more than they think to get there.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

But how did how do you dispel, like, how do you, I guess, get them out of that mindset of I don't want to lift too heavy because I don't want to get too bulky, this, that, the other. Um, like, do you promote, you know, because so so that the uh I'm attracted to an athletic female, a married one, right? Okay, so um do you promote that? Do you promote just lean muscle over fat? Do you like how do you go about that?

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Um well, when there is hesitation, kind of what you first started to say there was um the funny thing about a being a trainer is your client really deep down wants to um do things for you. Yeah, they want to make you happy. Sure. And and so and as a trainer, sometimes you gotta be happy. You know, I mean you gotta be careful of that, you know? Um, and maybe pull them back if they're going too far, their form's not right or whatever. Um but it's they they do want to perform for you, and so you have to be on top of that to guide them in the right way and say, No, you can do this, you know, and just to reassure them that they can, yeah, and that heavy is not bad. Heavy is good because if you want to make the gains that you want to make, you have to lift heavy.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah, and and my my response is okay, but you claim you want to lose fat. Do you know that the fastest way to lose fat is to gain muscle? Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Right. That's like your bigger engine in the car, yeah, consumes more gas, right? More muscle, you burn more calories. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Um, okay. So what caused you to get into personal training? Uh and then and then kind of piggyback that with what are some of the obstacles you've over had to overcome since getting in. I know you have like you've got a COVID story too. Uh right.

SPEAKER_03 12:22

So how things changed and pivoted. Yeah. I had to do an audible during COVID.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Um, well, uh, it was really, I was a stay-at-home mom for about 18 years. And um, it was the dissolving of my marriage where I was like, oh, okay, I'm gonna get back into the workforce, and how do I do that? I really had no idea what to do, even though I had a microbiology degree. It was like, well, I'm I haven't been in the workforce. How am I gonna write a resume over 18 years of saying, well, this is what I did, and and that transfer over to someone wanting to hire me for a job, you know, very different. And in 18 years, things had really changed, yeah, you know, and so that was very intimidating. But so to getting into personal training, I had a good friend that said, Sherry, you'd be a good trainer. And I thought, I train myself, but I don't know about training anybody else, you know, that was a pretty daunting thought. So um, but in going back to work, and the scientist and me said, okay, maybe personal training. Um, I do like to write. Um, I knew a freelance writer, and I thought, okay, you know, kind of look into that. And then what I had done before is uh uh occupational safety and health environmental work. And um so I had three people and more I was gonna talk to in those disciplines and pros and cons and all that, and uh went, okay, I don't know what I want to do, and God helped me because I'm just gonna do a finger drop right here. And oh, look at that, it landed on personal training. And I went, okay, this is what we're gonna do. So I looked up a very basic uh personal training certification and decided, okay, we'll just try this. And then when I did it, I absolutely fell in love with it. It was everything that I wanted to do in college, but we really didn't have 63, some 40 some odd years ago, you know. Um, they really didn't. They didn't have kinesiology, at least that I was aware of in the colleges that I went to. Um that they had PE major, which I didn't want to be a PE major. I think that's great. PE majors are awesome, you know, but that's not what I wanted to do. It wasn't in my heart, anyway. Um, so um I thought, okay, here we go. And um once I realized, okay, this is awesome, I started looking at who's doing what, what are the acronyms after their name, because I want the best of the best. And so um the National Strength and Conditioning Association has the gold standard in um certifications for uh uh strength and conditioning specialists. In fact, now if you're at a D1 school and you want to be in the strength program, you have to have this certification. And uh it's a big deal, you know, a lot of study, um definitely more in depth than my other one that I had. But it's the best thing in the whole wide world, watching movement, learning why, why are we doing this? You know, what are we doing? Not just I'm doing these exercises, like what is the science behind it? Why are we doing this? And then, of course, that branched off into um stretching and fascial stretching and the whole fascial system and learning that, you know. And yeah, so I went down that rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah, it's crazy. So, so you know, Sherry trains one of one of the gems she trains clients in is the gem that I work out at Epic Fitness. And so um, you know, I'll train, right? We have clients who who go in there and and we train them through plyometrics and explosion training and strength training, and and I I have a pretty good grasp on that area, right? And then I hear her talk. And I go, okay, I need you to just walk away, right? That's right. Just walk away and let me feel smart for a little while. Um, but the the resource that you have been, not just to me, but to so many people from a standpoint of giving the why, right? I mean, I know you kind of geek out on that.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

I do.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

You know, she'll send me a text when she goes to one of these exercise physiology conventions and she's like, Look, my people are here, you know? Yes. And um, you know, you you say you fell in love with it, okay? And and I know you have a science background, but did they just merge like love at first sight, or was it did it actually take some time for you to fall in love with it?

SPEAKER_03 16:36

No, it happened love at first sight. Yeah, yeah, it really did. And you had asked me before about you know, changes, and um so going back to that part, um, I was at a performance gym and I was there, and I really thought that that's what I wanted to do was uh performance. And I and I actually really did like it. Um, however, there was a little pivot after COVID and my clientele changed and um you know different reasons, and I ended up more it's kind of the older clientele. And I have to say, they are very appreciative um wanting to learn more. Sometimes, well, you know, when you're dealing with high school, sometimes you're dealing with a lot more than just that child. Yes, and there's a lot that goes around, and they might nip the all in. And and that just I realized wasn't for me. And now I've transferred to more of the older clientele, you know, the 40, 50, 60 year old, and in fact, even plus um uh year old woman. Yeah, yeah. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

So at this point now, is that Rose pretty much strictly who you're sticking with is a little bit older clientele? Okay, interesting. Can you describe? I mean, you don't have to go into the science on it specifically, but can you describe uh the difference in terms of what things look like with the clients that you're working with now versus what you were working with previously with a younger?

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Okay, I love your question, and thank you for asking because it's no different.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

It's no different. You can't tell me that an 85-year-old or 70-year-old doesn't need power, doesn't need strength, doesn't need mobility, doesn't need uh uh flexibility and balance. We all need those five things. I don't care how old you are, it doesn't matter. I train my people now just like I did my athletes. And in fact, science has even shown, I read a study a while back, that they're thinking that power might be even more important than strength for our older um population. And I tell my people all the time, you know why we're doing this? Because if that curb comes up really fast and you can't move your foot down and you can't go like that with that, then guess what? You're on the ground. We want that trip, we don't want that trip to become a fall, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

How intense are you with your athletes? Do you do you get like do you like get after it with them?

SPEAKER_01 18:54

With my my older clientele, yeah, because you say you train them the exact same.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

I do.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

The pace of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

Well, yeah. Okay. So yeah, okay. Yeah, never mind. You want to be clear. You won't get invited back to the party. I got you.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

I want to be clear to our 70-year-old viewers that that if you want to work out with Sherry, you better get ready.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Like, you know, you're gonna train before you train with get a trainer, then come see me.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

No, but it but it really is. But the thing is, they understand it. And I go, this is why we're doing this. And they go, ah.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Well, it's I think this is my outsider looking in perspective. Uh my my degree of kinesiology, so I'm just sitting here super excited, and I can't wait till we get done with this so I can go ahead and pick your brain for another hour. Um, but with the mental maturity of the individuals that you're working with, there is probably, I'm guessing, much more of a desire to understand the physiology or like basically from an anatomical level or a structural level, why you're doing what you're what you're what y'all are doing.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Sure. And and that um maybe not the physiology at the cellular level, but I still in some ways do that. Okay, well, if we do it this way, we're more in an aerobic, you know, approach or or more um, you know, aerobic approach, or you know, kind of those little things that are going on, but I don't go into too much. It's more, I literally drive it home that hey, when you do this and you do this, this is why we're doing this move. When you're at home and you do this, and I want you to keep that move. I don't want you to lose that move because I've got people coming to me now and going, you know, I lost it. Start now before you lose it. Ask yourself, what do you want to do in 10 years from now? What does it look like? What does your movement look like in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years? I know what I want my movement to look like. And um, it's got to start now. It's uh use it or lose it. It was uh Bo Shakesneider, um, LSU track and field said, you train slow, you'll be slow. Well, if I'm not training my clientele to be somewhat fast, at least in some sense in our training, um you know, and then the situation comes in life out there, you know, on the playing field of life, that uh I gotta be fast right now and I can't because I hasn't haven't done it, you know. We gotta keep it.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Love it. To talk about, because I think this is part of why your business has grown over the last few years, but uh and I want you to talk about that as well, what what you attribute to the growth, but um talk about the different things that you offer. Like, you know, for example, oh yeah, people wouldn't realize, okay, you're you're talking about training, but what you do with you know, deep tissue and stretching and things like that. Um, like, you know, I my my shoulder, I had surgery on it a few years ago. Um, it was worse, probably. And and the doctor who did the surgery told me it might end up being bad again because of the arthritis in it. And um, you know, it was probably worse after the surgery than it was before. And um, I really couldn't find any relief or any mobility. And and she has fun when she stretches me because it doesn't do the same things that my other arm does, and she kind of laughs and and smirts.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

And I usually go, ooh. Yeah, yeah. That usually comes. out like oops.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

But but you know you've had it you've had a positive impact on it for me. And so it's it's created some relief for me. Talk about different things that you offer.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Yeah. So there's there's a lot of rabbit holes in this business, right? There's nutrition and you know a lot of a lot of different ways to go. I got into fascial stretching. And there are a lot of different ways to stretch people. There's like, I don't know, five, six, seven types of approaches to stretching. I came across one called Stretch to Win, and it is different. It's it's um on a table and it requires a stretch person because we get traction, traction through the joint and circumduction. And it's not anything you can do yourself really. And it's different. So we take the fascial lines, if you will, um and instead of doing, you know, like when we're not doing anything and stretching, they become tangled like this. And so the stretching does this to it. And then um it glides better and it moves better. And um well I could go down on a rabbit a rabbit hole on that one. But um so yeah so I have fascial stretching um and I do um I have an online training program.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

We're gonna talk about that. So save that one. Oh save that one. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:21

Save that one.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

And really that's about all that I've added to um my training is that so well it's enough but at the same time I I when we say per personal trainer I want people to be aware of the fact that there's more to it than you just go into the gym and work out with you. Oh absolutely yeah oh definitely yeah um so let's talk about the growth um besides adding things what do you attribute the growth of your business to I mean uh sure things happened after COVID I got it but um why do you think it's grown clientele has grown and you've gotten to the point where you're if you're not full you're close to it right now right yeah um one thing that happened is I started um in group training and over at Exerfit at Dr.

SPEAKER_03 24:10

Ripple's place if you remember that and he was on top of this he was on top of training before Baton Rouge was on top of that type of training was yeah yeah and uh he he brought it here um and so I did a lot of group training and made a lot of relationships there you know um oh and over many years and so when COVID happened and I pivoted and I got out of the group training space and teams and things like that and it went more personal uh you know the clients would come to me and then word of mouth you know certainly that grows um it it really comes down to what we do is so much more than just strength training it's connection you know um and it's it's encouragement it's it's being there and listening sometimes boy we just listen right well and you might not with with your uh uh athletes you know there might not be as much of that but certainly the old older clientele we bring them hope you know hope can I or can I make a team or can I get this back and all that connection right there is huge so I really attribute it to that really I had a guy one time when exofit had closed and um we were having a a party you know last last day party and all that and and somebody came up to me and put a tear in my eye darn it and he said Sherry he goes I want to thank you he said I was losing my daughter through this time that I was working here and you helped me through that and she had passed away I had no idea no idea but it was just that interaction whatever that was was connecting with people I mean I not to get real deep philosophically but our deepest pain is a disconnect from people or a group or whatever it is you know and um that's what we do we connect you know that's powerful um all right so you alluded a second ago to the online business Sherry Michael Strong can you kind of walk us through the uh the reason behind it the inception of it and what y'all are doing through the online business sure yeah well I have to thank Jonathan for that because I had talked about it for years and it was like oh you know I really need to do that or that's something I really need to do I learned a long time ago it don't mention it to him if you're not ready to do it on this podcast because he will remind you every single day. Maybe I don't know I don't need to talk a couple times a day true oh I'll tell you what though best person to work with yeah absolutely the best you talk about a natural coach um I knew we brought her on for a good reason right yeah well that $20 late will help but you know um no but I talked about it for years because I write down my workouts. I don't just wing them you know it's just like an athlete you don't just walk in and go, oh what are we doing today? You know you you've got a lesson you know you're very intentional. How do how am I going to know what to progressive overload if I don't know periodization doesn't happen. Yeah. And so um I had them all and I'm like well you know people might want this the people that I have trained that are not here anymore you know they know my training they know me they might want this so we were talking and anyway we finally you know started working together and uh so it's an online training program uh with an app and it's for really geared towards women 40, 50 and 60 and maybe even a plus or another plus depending you know um and it's uh strength training and it is a can be a subscription or you can buy you know single workouts. I have specialty collections which are let's say you're going on the road and you want to work out but you don't know about the gym. So uh I go through how you can use tubing or minivans and throw them in your luggage and then here's a 20 minute workout you know you can do in your room. And so it's a way to reach out to people and just make these available to them. I think women don't know how to train and lift. And um so what I paid real deep attention to because it's important to me, I'm I'm a big stickler on form. Have to have form. And so um on the app at the beginning of every workout um or program I have a five minute video going over every single exercise on that day and then how not to do it and how to do it. Also how to progress it and how to regress it if you need to. So and then every four weeks comes a new one just like the athletes you know Mother's Day is coming up I got some ideas right now.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

There you go there we go and you can you can find it at sherrymachlstrong.com correct correct correct yes it's uh on one of the drop down bars. Awesome awesome yeah yeah I you know going through that process with you um because I uh at the same time with the help of Jace Augustus again because otherwise we'd just be talking about it right uh we were doing a a a a different um online business with with basketball and uh so basically I was taking you to I was just a few steps ahead of you and I was just saying here here's what we did yeah a couple weeks ago you know and um but we you know the good thing wasn't I'm gonna give our guy a plug Evan Gutierrez who is phenomenal right he he's amazing with the websites and with the production and all the things um you know I I just happened to have met him doing mine and handed you off to him and next thing you know it's kind of worked out so um I I'm I know big things are gonna come from it and the and the best part is it's truly something that is needed right and the good thing is it doesn't have to be just for the elderly I mean it anybody can do it.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

No it doesn't it doesn't yeah um certainly men can do it as well or younger people it's just that you know uh I would do things a little bit different if it was a young male.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

You know sure but depends on his level as well.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Okay so mother of six um you you went you alluded to uh you know your divorce a little I guess a while back yeah and um a big thing for us here at TLW and dealing with clients is it's it's a holistic approach that we have right so while we may have a business executive or we may be dealing with an athlete um everybody goes through things right everybody has negative things everybody gets them to a valley at some point in time and so part of what we offer is the ability we we are certainly not psychiatrists psychologists any of those things although I feel like as a coach you are all of those things right at some point in time when you're dealing with players and whatnot. Um would you be willing to talk about some of the difficulties you went through during that time and then most importantly how'd you come out on the other side because there are people who would have gone through what you went through who don't come out on the other side um and look we we fully recognize the fact that there are remnants of all those things like anything that's happened to you in the past is still there in the past but it affects you but um to cause you to take the strides that you did to get up out of the bed to go say you know what I'm gonna do something I've never done before I'm gonna become a personal trainer. Oh you know what I'm gonna make an online business right all of these things and the amazing things that you continue to do. How'd you do it?

SPEAKER_03 31:38

Yeah first thing is pray pray a lot and I prayed constantly not ceasing and I wrote down my prayers and I I think that helps you know um because when you're writing down a prayer and you go back and you look at it because it is a prayer I mean God's here in that you know and it brings you clarity it brings you um an understanding when you go back and you look at it and you go ah God God was there God had a hand in this um and it helped you know that focal point I was talking about it it gave me a focal point you know God certainly had a hand in leading me and putting the people in my life um so certainly prayer was one of them and then um bootstraps you know and uh no matter how small those bootstraps get you got bootstraps i'm I'm gonna share a quick story please um there is um I was uh working for Dr. Ripple um teaching swim lessons and um you know they have the little guys the three and four year olds and they used to give those to me I guess I don't know I seem like the grandma in the group you know and he'd give them to me. Well one of the first things we do in the pool is we work on birth breath control. Okay. And so they have to learn to hold their breath and they do even though they're crying and they say they can't and so we go okay we're going under and we go under and we come up and they cry cry cry cry cry and you go okay we're going again and they go down they come up they cry cry cry you know one more time they're crying and I go repeat after me I want you to say this I can do it. And they go I can do it and I go I just did it I just did it and I can do it again and I can do it again. Yeah that's exactly what we do. When you look at your life and you examine it close enough there's something in your life that you went and if you tell yourself I can do it okay I just did something like that maybe not exactly and I can do it again. And my next step's going to be a little bit deeper than the the first one. So you know that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 33:38

Yeah that's awesome and and you know what we what we push here at TLW is it's a decision because we all have a decision right you have a decision to take that approach or the exact opposite approach and very rarely is there middle ground right with with things that that happened of that magnitude right right um and so to just to to know you um is I mean it's a privilege first of all but like the the idea behind knowing your story yeah right is is really really cool. And um you know I I I know when I asked you yesterday and I said would you be willing to talk about this you know um and you of course there's hesitation at the beginning for sure with any request like that but then when you agreed to it you know it's just so important for people who are watching this to hear that from you. It's it's one thing you look I can sit here and talk about it. I've been married 26 years. I can say you know what if you get divorced you need to get up out of the bed that dude I I haven't been divorced right it it's like anything else that I haven't done that I'm trying to yeah but somebody who's gone through it and gotten through it.

SPEAKER_03 34:55

Yeah and the other thing I want to add to that is gratitude because if you don't have gratitude for something and if you don't find it uh and and it's it's not like oh I had it once yeah and I'm done you gotta you gotta reboot that gratitude every day every day every day every single day and um yeah that's that's huge.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Uh one of the things we'd like to ask our guests is what their or his or her specific definition of success is. And if that is something that has evolved or changed for the guests over the years. I would love to hear what you have to say about that Sherry.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

Yeah um well we were kind of talking about this before um we started filming and uh I have a book called I Read a Lot and I know you read a lot as well and I know you read a lot actually Don has given me several books too yeah and I love it I love it. I'm reading everything from yeah all that personal you know development to fascial training to um anatomy you know like love it all but um there was one book called Power of um of moments and in there was a a square and if you remember um the Punnett square of from biology of you know how genes come together in the recessive and dominant and all that well in there was it wasn't genes but it was um it had at the top well two columns and then two rows and it had um low purpose high purpose low passion and high passion meaning towards you know your career or life or whatever and anybody with a low purpose and a low passion you know you're you might not be thriving and moving forward and um and then of course just you know to move quickly through this um high passion and high purpose is where you're gonna thrive and where life's gonna move forward and I you know in many ways stumbled upon it.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

All of a sudden I was like wow this is awesome and then it's it's a purpose you know um when you get that combination right there it's it's life that's that's life you know and then like I said if you can uh make a a career somehow out of it then and it's not work then anymore you know it's awesome yeah it's awesome thank you so at at TLW we we base everything we do on five pillars okay um the first one is honor God above all else so we're gonna take that one out because we know that that's the most important one I'm gonna list the other four to you okay okay and after I list them I want you all you'll you'll obviously relate to all of them but which one stands out the most to you and how you live your daily life and how you including your professional life okay oh this is tricky.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

I don't know um the first one or actually the second one is discipline is diligence okay okay value people over profit lead through service not self and build legacy through integrity oh wow it's gotta be the people okay why sorry go again what are we without connection we don't have connection you know what is the rest of it sorry I get older I tear up so yeah I would I would say the people so you value people over profit absolutely above all else above all else for me what does that look like like so you go to work with a client okay you're seeing what are you seeing in them some people see dollar signs wow yeah that's a great question okay yeah what do you see yeah that the person who see dollar signs first doesn't see yeah it got the tears again let's go he's good at this um what's that he's good at this he's good at this on our first radio um no honest every single client I have I look at and I go how are you today anything me about me it's gone it's about you and how are you and honest years ago years and years ago I started trying to look at people for who Jay Jesus is within them not what they look like not what shoes you're wearing or if you have a you know fancy shirt or whatever it is or drive a fancy car you know who are you as a spirit and a soul and you know for Jesus's child and that person has come to me for a reason you know and so I'm gonna ask you how are you doing today? How's it going? And I'm gonna remember your knee and I'm gonna remember your shoulder and I'll try to remember try to remember if what you did this weekend or you know what you told me and you know um so yeah should I do connect and greet people.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

I love that um you spend so much of your day every day working on changing other people's habits. I want to know about your habits. Oh man what are the specific things you didn't tell me he was going to ask these questions like this oh sorry I'll I don't I'd love to know like what are what are your daily habits that keep you more or less uh focused on what is important in your ability to impact others what makes you feel centered what is more or less your compass every single day that's really tough because there's a lot and I can throw a lot in there how many do I get no I'm just teasing no how long do we have um certainly my sense of purpose you know I get going back to that one this is not only my purpose it's my passion to get up and to help people yeah but I know you said to direct me but it gets me out of bed you know and uh I honestly couldn't imagine doing anything else and I mean I would throw in there and this is a little offside to what you were saying but my own workouts.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

Yeah man oh man I love those you know I love to move and feel what it feels like you know and change things and do you have things though for example in your daily schedule that that you that that are non-negotiables these are every days I gotta do this like so get up you know 4 30 five o'clock in the morning read scripture with prayer yeah you know like like what are those correct you know um I I really don't and um besides letting my German shepherd dog out to go to the bathroom and have a cup of coffee does that count you know that's gets me out of bed that's a yeah that's a habit yeah gets me up and going uh no that's one thing I do need to add though is is honest that part some sometimes unfortunately that's what I can put in the background you know and go I'll get to it on Sunday you know and that's wrong so sometimes I attribute that to the fact that you're so hell bent on taking care of others yeah right yeah and and we see that we see that with clients often and it's uh it's amazing to see that once they realize oh it is it's okay to take care of me like some people don't they don't even accept that yeah you know yeah um it's almost guilt ridden right sure sure all right last question oh man okay um I'm gonna change it up let's go man so we ask every client I'm sorry guest um this question but we typically ask them at a much younger age in other words you you'll understand so typically I would ask you what would Sherry Mockler today at 36 years old look like look across the table from let's say 16 year old Sherry Mockler okay that's not where we're gonna go we're gonna go Sherry Mockler today and what you know now you look across the table from Sherry Mockler who has just been through the most traumatic experience you went through okay that we discussed earlier that Sherry Mockler knows what she knew then but you know what you know now and you can offer that Sherry Mockler one piece of advice. Wow what is it? Have more courage explain uh you know I don't think many people not that I'm saying this like oh my gosh I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna be so open on scared people get scared and they a lot of times won't talk about it and it might be something else it's this the fear comes out yeah so um don't have fear you know you're gonna be okay God's there with you you know uh and again I can do this I just did it and I can do it again yeah well man drop the swimming on us a love yes think that's the microphone we can't we can't say anything else was that a microphone yeah you about to cause us a tear up over here um wow that's amazing stuff um thank you so much for joining us thank you for asking I'm very flattered thank you and and you have done enough big things to be on the TLW podcast um it's been incredible we really appreciate your time and your transparency and your willingness to talk about um anything and everything um so again sherry mocklerstrong at sherrymachlerstrong.com yes um to our viewers if you have never worked with sherry um I don't know if she has room for you in her personal training because again she's pretty full right now uh a waiting list as well um but if you want access to her go pay the subscription because it is well worth it um it's it's an incredible program and I know she's sitting next to me right now and I know we are friends on top of that and so this is going to come across as very biased and I am biased but I also know what I know and that is a world that I know some things about for sure um she is the very best at what she does and because she is the best at what she does um you're gonna only benefit from it but even through the videos you will see um that she actually cares about you even though she doesn't know you on the other side of the TV screen you'll feel that um and I think that that's that's probably the most impactful thing about what you do. And so um it's awesome and it's been awesome knowing you and and getting to know you and having you on the podcast. So thank you very much for Jonathan Pixley Dr. Sean Owens and as always we'll just we're just gonna start calling him Dr. Jace Augustus because I think like when you're an expert at that level there needs to be some type of Professor Augustus? Yeah something like that that sounds great. We will close it out here at the TLW podcast and as always go get it