Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hey, my name is Brock Ashby and I transform bodies and change peoples lives. I started on the gym floor as a personal trainer in New Zealand and now I am an online body transformation coach based in Sydney coaching my Team Brock Ashby members that are spread out everywhere in the world, from the USA to Puerto Rico.
I played numerous sports growing up from touch rugby, to softball and volleyball, all at representative level but fell more in love with the training, than playing the sport itself. I started lifting at 14 years old and spent most lunchtimes and study periods that I was meant to spend studying, hitting the high school gym.
I’ve always favoured physical activity and was the only one in my school to get compensation to do more sporting subjects and drop the ones I couldn’t focus in, like maths. I haven’t taken a backwards step from health and fitness since.
Working out is much more than sets, reps and muscle groups to me. It’s an opportunity to get better and apply values in the weights room that have a ripple effect into your entire life. Values such as hard work, consistency, patience and most importantly, the endless endeavour to find the best strategies and methods to get the best results and apply them.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ in health and fitness and preference is often overlooked when it comes to working out, dieting and living your best life but I believe it is the most powerful tool we can use for a sustainable way to get long term results. Doing what you love is second nature, so why not use that second nature to progress you to your desired outcome, or goal?
Describe a typical day of training
I train six days a week for around an hour per session with two push days, two pull days and two lower body days.
I train six days a week for around an hour per session with two push days, two pull days and two lower body days. Lifting heavier with less reps earlier in the week and decreasing load and increasing reps toward the back end of the week to allow myself to recover and smash the heavier days whilst still allowing for hypertrophy to occur.
I train to be strong and build muscle but to be honest with you, the main reason I train is so that I can eat more ice cream before bed without getting fat lol.
I only use creatine as a supplement and don’t really recommend supplements to my team members. The 1-2% difference is not where their focus should be. Mastering the basics is what brings results, not fat burners, BCAA’s or glutamine.
I use a fitbit to get my 10k steps in per day. Not because the 10k is a magical fat burning number but because it encourages me to be active in my day to day life. It forces me to walk during phone calls, walk between sets in the gym and take the stairs instead of bludging in an elevator.
Our NEAT levels contribute massively to our calorie output per day and increasing our steps to expend more energy throughout the day is a no-brainer to live a more active lifestyle, which most of us struggle to do.
How do you keep going and push harder?
When motivation is low I look at my habits. When I sleep less I can’t be bothered training or drag my sorry ass through the session. When I don’t allow for enough recovery my performance drops and I feel like I’m moving backwards.
When I work all day sitting in my office chair looking after my team members and my Fitbit says 4,0000 steps and it’s 6 p.m., I can’t be arsed training.
However, when I look after my sleep, recovery and work/life balance, I am always pumped to go. Our habits dictate our actions, which determines what we do, how we do it and the person we become.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
A big goal of mine is to continue what I do but on a bigger level. Grow my team members, grow my audience, grow my email list and most importantly develop as a coach, communicator, writer and student of evidence based research.
Just like I don’t believe in quick fixes for body transformations, I don’t believe in quick fixes for my career/business. I still study (currently furthering my knowledge in nutrition), I still write programs, run all my social media pages, record all my educational content for my members and still email my clients on a daily basis and check-in with them weekly.
Team Brock Ashby is growing, and will continue to grow, but never at the compromise of excellent quality of results and service.
How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
Sleep is always a constant battle for me and if I didn’t have to sleep, I wouldn’t. I’m still waiting for the day that a pill is invented to replace it. It affects my recovery with training, ability to focus and my mood a bit but it’s an area of my life that I know I really need to look after.
As a face to face PT, I would get four to six hours per day, which sucked. I’m currently at five to seven hours per day, which is a lot better but very far from seven to nine hours, which is where I want to sit. I’m hoping to sort this out before I have kids in the future. As a coach to many mums and dads, I know kids rob you of your sleep haha.
It’s the best method of recovery for all of us. Most people don’t need to foam roll, stretch or train less intensely. They just need to sleep more. Which is always a relief to hear because it’s a lot cheaper than a $100 foam roller or a $500 massage gun.
How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I’m on about 3500-4000 calories per day and always struggle to eat the amount of food I need to make the most of my training and potential to build muscle. I’ve been a hard gainer from childhood and was always accused of having ‘worms in my stomach’ from my mother because I ate so much and never got fat but always stayed relatively lean.
I’ve been on every diet under the sun and have had a really challenging relationship with food growing up. I’ve tried every intermittent fasting protocol, tried keto, tried low carb, tried hi fat, tried 1500 calories a day and I’ve found that eating regular meals and flexibly dieting works best for me.
I recently showed that you can eat the foods you love and still make progress in the 30 Day Ice Cream Challenge where my girlfriend, Kiki, and I lost over 20lbs whilst eating ice cream every day for 30 days. Here’s the link
You can eat the foods you love, drink the coffee you want and make progress. And if you feel the need to have a cheat meal on your diet, you’re on the wrong diet. Just like if you feel the need to cheat on your partner in a relationship, you’re in the wrong relationship. Get out of it, mate!
What has inspired and motivated you?
My dad is a warrior. He is the source of my inspiration, motivation and is where I find the ability to ‘dig deep’ when it comes to work.
My dad is a warrior. He is the source of my inspiration, motivation and is where I find the ability to ‘dig deep’ when it comes to work. He wakes up at 3/4 a.m. every day and works anywhere from 10-12 hours straight. If he’s tired, he’ll work without complaint. If he’s feeling a little off, he’s still there. If his ankle is sprained, he will hop. He’s forced to take sick days by his boss because he always shows up, rolls up his sleeves and gets the work done.
He is the most inspiring human to me personally, but I also believe motivation and inspiration can be found anywhere. In a photo when you’re scrolling down your Instagram feed, in the stars as they stand out in an environment of darkness, in the flowers by the way they flourish with their bright petals without care of what other flowers are doing, in an elderly person crossing the road seeing they woke up with a smile and are giving it their best shot as if they were a young adult again. Inspiration is never out of sight, we just need to be looking in the right place.
My favourite book would have to be ‘The Power Of Positivity’ by Norman Vincent Peale. It really helped me deal with the loss of mum at 12 years old to cancer.
My favourite quote is also one from a powerful book, The Bible. “Lazy hands make for poverty but diligent hands bring wealth.” – Proverbs 10:4. This is very much the mantra of my life.
However, this is what works for me. I really love books. Some love TEDx talks and others like attending live events and conferences.
Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
My best piece of advice to someone wanting to improve themselves is find people that are better than you at what you do, or want to do, and learn from them through the ways that you learn the best. You’re never too good to learn from others. The more you know, the more you grow.
Are you taking on clients right now?
The Team Brock Ashby 8 Week Body Transformation Program is the only coaching service I offer. It’s a personalised program backed by science and a history of incredible results. The strong focus on evidence based methods and strategies is what separates my coaching to other personal trainers.
I don’t sell a cookie cutter PDF to go off and finish in 8 weeks without any sort of accountability, I provide a workout program, nutrition coaching, lifestyle habits and a ton of educational videos to give you the tools to transform your body and change your life in the Team Brock Ashby community (other members doing the program).
Where can we learn more about you?
To join Team Brock Ashby, click here.
To join my email list, click here.
To follow me on Instagram, click here.
To subscribe to my YouTube channel, click here.
