Jay is a 3 x CrossFit Games athlete and all round top bloke. In our chat we focus less on what we all see in the typical CrossFit Games space, and more on what goes on behind the scenes, particularly in Jay's head.We chat about struggles and roadblocks, self doubt, the pressure to stay on top, the common issue of identity crisis in elite sportspeop…

In today's episode Katie shares with me her experiences with Bipolar 1 disorder. Bipolar is an incredibly challenging mental health disorder, that like many mental health disorders, carries that heavy baggage of stigma.Bipolar is complex and it is heavily misunderstood by many people, which can lead to an array further added social and psychologica…

Gemma and Bronte are 2 of the 3 sisters who started the Evolve Allstars Cheerleading Club. Cheer is a unique sport, combining a range of gymnastic and acrobatic skills with dance and a tonne of sass. It is a rapidly growing sport in Australia that is built around a culture of discipline, hard work as well as celebrating the success of others, lifti…

Will is a wonderful human. A bloke who shows care and interest in absolutely everyone. But nothing makes any of us immune to tough times. After experiencing beat downs on top of beat downs, Will found himself in the darkest place he had ever been, and was struggling to find a way out. On the other side of those days now Will shared his story with m…

Matt is a guy, a really great guy.Like many guys (and not guys), life gets busy, responsibilities increase, things become a little more hectic, and we find ourselves not doing many of the active things we used to do. All of a sudden, we are a bit bigger, a bit unhealthier, and so very tired, So much so that the thought of getting ourselves back in …

Ryan is one of the incredible coaches we have here at Valor. He is a lovely kind soul, a great weightlifter, and an amazing father and husband to a beautiful family.What is now such a great and successful life wasn't the expected outcome for Ryan. Brought up by his grandparents from a very young age, experiencing childhood abuse, and navigating obs…

A good yarn = the antidote to chaosAfter a week of vaccine mandates, extended lockdowns, rioting and a big bloody earthquake, I needed to unpack my brain. I enlisted the help of Josh Reid Jones, founder of the Just Be Nice Project (@jbnproject @joshreidjones) and Lachy Wallace, founder of Virtus Performance (@virtusperformance @theexcellencecoach),…

How did Valor come to be what it is today? It is hard to portray how special ValorFNM is. We don't consider ourselves to be just another gym, a place to sweat and get fit. It goes so far beyond that. The impact Valor has on all those that are connected to it is something special. The community that exists is a beautiful, safe, warm and encouraging …

Nicole is a Cranny OG member. She is a sweet soul who is always looking to make others happy. So kind and so very generous with her time, you would find it so hard to believe that behind her selfless exterior, she was struggling on the inside. Nic takes us on her journey through alcoholism, from a typical binge drinking 20 year old Aussie, to a hig…

Darren Michelle did what many of us want to do, but are still that bit too fearful to bite the bullet, shut the eyes, and go for it.Darren turned away from his high paying, cushy, cosey, secure bank job to pursue a career he actually enjoys. One that sees him spending less time in traffic, less time stuck in an office, and more time with his family…

Kate Kelleher Beitans is a sweet, kind, tolerant and incredibly accepting person. She's the kind of person that allows you to feel like you can be completely yourself when you are around her. A large part of her life story has helped shape her to be this beautiful person that she is. Just before Kate's birth, her mother came to realise her true sex…

Jesse is a Valor member, local footballer, amazing musician, new dad and a year level coordinator and teacher of maths and science at a local secondary college. He also has ADHD. Jesse shares his story of growing up through the Australian school system with ADHD in the 1990's and 00's. A story close to home with many, either as parents of children …

Andray Voronov is an Osteopath and Kristian Vidakovic is a Myotherapist (and studying Osteo). Put these guys together and you've got a tonne hilarious banter, quality dads jokes... and I guess a bit of knowledge and experience on how to manage and overcome injuries and chronic pain.In all seriousness, this episode is fantastic. The boys share their…

Luke Spencer epitomises what it looks like to set a big challenging long term goal, put your head down and do the work, see it through until you see success...and then keep going. Luke shares his story of unwavering dedication to his dream of competing at the top level in competitive CrossFit. He shares what it takes to perform at an elite level, a…

Huge props to Chris for braving a tonne of vulnerability when sharing this story. It's not easy talking about your own personal mental health crisis to anybody, let alone on a podcast. But this is what this story is about. Braving the fear and uncertainty and putting your hand up when all is not well. I'll leave you there, just get listening. We bo…

Welcome to episode 1 of season 2!Many many babies were born as a result of the COVID pandemic. Fair enough when there isn't too much else to do during a long lockdown!Our gym has seen at least 8 babies born in the past 7 months, with many of the mums continuing their gym training throughout their pregnancy. We chat with Haley and Mardi about their …

We are back (finally)!Hit a few snags which slowed down the commencement of season 2, but hey, 'rona.Here we are, we are back. Season 2 see's us focusing on you. And by you, I mean our members. You don't need celebs, sports stars and successful businesspeople for good storytelling and valuable lesson learning. We have it right here amongst the amaz…

Struggles, challenges and suffering are an inevitable fact of life. 2020 can vouch for that. Yet despite this fact, many of us live with the aim to avoid all struggle and suffering. And of course, we eventually fail to dodge it.When it does eventually come, we often lack the tools to cope with these struggles. The legendary Lachy Wallace of Virtus …

Stretching sucks! We all hate it, unless you're a yogi. We all hate stretching so much that you're probably umming and arring as to whether you will even bother listening to this episode!It's boring, it hurts, we don't have time for it. But man do we need it! And man do you need to listen to this episode!Kristie and Stu chat about why having good m…

In this ultra fast paced, must get ahead/must keep up rat racing world, so many of us experience or are experiencing burnout. Complete and utter exhaustion, brain fog and a loss of connection to our work, friends and family. The COVID lockdown has helped a lot of people to stop for a moment and realise that they were way too busy in their former pr…

It's pretty safe to say that 2020 has been rough. For most of us, rougher than we've ever had it before by a long shot. But from pressure and suffering comes change, and mostly positive change at that... if you have been paying attention and not hiding under a blanket all year. Today I discuss some of the major lessons and reinforced messages I was…

The human ego is a fascinating thing. Our ego guides so much of what we do, especially the decisions and behaviours we make that are detrimental to our health, fitness, relationships, work, lifestyle and mental state. It is so powerful that marketing and social media are intentionally designed to play to our ego's. To stroke it, to give us all the …

Tyson's story is unique. Living with FOP (Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva), where the soft tissue in his body regenerates as hard tissue, his condition is so rare that there is zero government funding available to fund research for a cure. Tyson shares his journey with FOP, detailing the challenges he has to endure. But Tyson has this incredi…

Don’t eat carbsNo! Eat carbs, but don’t eat fatGo veganDrink this skinny teaEat protein, but only from white coloured meatDon’t eat insert just about anything here because it’s ‘fattening’Have this shake and this shake only, every meal, every dayYou can only eat 1000 calories a dayYou must intermittently fast You must train fasted tooYou must eat w…

The COVID life has certainly rocked us and how we were doing life. But were we doing life to our best before all of this happened? Has the COVID struggle taught us some hard lessons and given us all a little wake up call on what is most important in our lives?By Valor: Fitness. Nutrition. Mind.

How have you managed working and schooling from home this year? Great success? Or epic fail?The gym has been closed all year, forcing me to spend almost every moment of my day at home since March '20, I have failed A LOT, nailed A LOT and learnt A LOT. 6am Valor legend from across the Tasman, Jared Riesterer, has been in a similar boat. Jared jumps…

Why do we often not achieve our goals? Is it a loss of motivation? I call bulls**t.There is a little more to why we fail certain things and never seem to ever learn from them or overcome them. It has a little to do with purpose...I hope you enjoy episode 1! If you enjoyed the episode, please share it around! Send it to a mate, post it on the social…

Welcome to Season 1 of The Valor Podcast!Gym's are great for improving physical and mental health, but it isn't as cut and dry as Do Fitness --> Eat Good --> Get Results = Happy. We need to dig a little deeper if we want true joy and contentment in our lives, which is often somewhere we are resistant to go. If we truly desire to be better and live …