Podcast Transcript
Josh Nichols
Yes, I was going back and looking at our videos that I’ve sent you across the year to see how I maybe have changed or lack thereof. yeah, guess that is, maybe I mentioned it in my video yesterday to you, like rear-facing how did things go, what worked, what didn’t work, and then forward-facing what…
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
maybe needs to change, but really, as the whole thing has been, it’s a, here’s how I think things should or could go, or here’s how bad I think things did go, and you are there to help me not feel that way. But, yeah.
Matt Myers
Yeah. Yeah, I mean…
I love that we’re doing this, I love doing it. I think doing it at the end of the year is a great time to do it. I know some people feel like, New Year’s resolutions, I’m not a New Year’s resolution person. I’m like, totally cool, do it anytime you want, but this is as good, I’ve actually come around where I’m like, this is as good a time as any to do it. You know what I mean? Like, why not? Yeah, it’s a clear, it’s a clear, it’s there for, it’s culturally significant, which I actually think people try to like.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, it’s clear. It’s a new year. Yeah.
Matt Myers
sometimes rebel against that kind of stuff and I don’t think there’s a need to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But when I think about coaching is that my job is to provide you a feedback loop that helps you engage in deliberate practice, right? Have you heard the concept of deliberate practice before?
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah. The pendulum swings, right? It’s cool and then it’s not cool and then it’s cool.
Josh Nichols
Mm. Okay.
Josh Nichols
yeah. Yeah. yeah.
Matt Myers
Right, probably in like golf and stuff like that, right? Really paying attention to mistakes and specifically trying to focus on those things. And so while I do sometimes tell you like, hey dude, you’re doing great, like it’s okay. That’s only because I genuinely think that. Not because I’m trying to kind of.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Mmm.
Matt Myers
wash away, you know, whatever like perceived sins you have or like just be like, yeah, everything’s great, man. Let’s just do it. Let’s just keep doing it. That’s not the goal. The goal is still to provide you critical feedback. I think part of the pattern that we’ve seen, can we just, should I just launch into this? Are we just going? Okay, it’s great. But part of the pattern that I’ve seen is twofold. There’s one.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
you
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Right.
Josh Nichols
Do it. We are going.
Matt Myers
I think that you are more consistent than you give yourself credit for is going to be point number one and I have stats, I brought stats today. I brought stats. And I think there is also room for you to ramp it up if and when your schedule and your focus allows you to do so. So and both of those things can be true.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Okay. I’m surprised, but yeah.
Josh Nichols
Mmm.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Myers
And I think we are our own worst critics sometimes, right? So for you, I think a lot of our work the last year has actually been on giving yourself a little grace because you air too hard on the side of self-criticism.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yes, yes. The big word, I don’t even know if it’s a real word, but the big theme of the year or of the year and a half or so that we’ve been working together is self-forgiveness. Or you use the word grace, that’s exactly what it is, because I have maybe always used the criticism as a way to kind of punish myself into working harder and
There’s times where maybe that was valuable and was helpful, but on the whole, especially with fitness and nutrition, it has never worked. It only serves to stop me. It doesn’t make me keep going. And what I’ve seen with how you respond to me, it feels so gracious and forgiving that it feels like you are just turning a blind eye to all the horrible
Matt Myers
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
inconsistencies that I have, but it’s not right. Right. Right.
Matt Myers
Well, and that’s what I’m saying. I want to avoid that. I want to avoid you feeling like that. I brought stats today. But yeah, I think that the key distinction here and I know we’re going really deep part of the issue here, you and I have been doing this for we’ve been doing it for 14 months. We’ve been coaching for 14 months. So we’re 14 months deep. And you are also someone who obviously based on your podcast and your line of work, you are willing to go into the mindset stuff.
Josh Nichols
Okay, okay.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Matt Myers
with me, which is actually, think the thing that I’ve enjoyed the most about working together is that you’re excited to engage in this work. Not everyone is, and that’s also okay, right? Other people are just like, hey, just help me figure out workouts and nutrition a little bit. And like, if you can help me do that and build some habits, great. What I find is that for most people, and even if you look at like the big transformations we’ve had in nerd fitness coaching over the last decade, like huge physical transformations, when you talk to those people, they don’t talk about,
Josh Nichols
Right, give me a plan.
Josh Nichols
Mm.
Matt Myers
the physical transformation, they’re like, my mindset changed. They’re like, this changed how I felt about myself, this changed how I thought about and approached things. And so when I can, I love to do both. Love to work that in, because I think it’s an important part of the overall process. So for me,
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yes.
Yes.
Matt Myers
I actually found something that you and I came up with while you were doing one of your beach trips, right? So like sometimes your family would go to the beach and you’re like, how do I juggle this? Right? What do I do? Yeah. Yeah. What do I do? How do I juggle nutrition? Am I going to stay on track? And the thing, the phrase that we talked about was sometimes the self-indulgent thing is to do the healthy thing.
Josh Nichols
Okay. Yeah. We’re leaving tomorrow, on the beach.
Yes. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yes, yes, that was a big one.
Matt Myers
Right. And this is the same thing. I think as far as what you’re feeling with grace in the compassion I’m trying to give you is that self compassion isn’t letting yourself off the hook. Self compassion can be I need to go to bed early. I need to do the workout because I know it’s been too long. Right. We were also talking about that. You you dropped a video the other day. You’re like I feel like I’m caught in a rut where I’m
Josh Nichols
Right.
Mmm.
Hmm.
Matt Myers
having like, I’m sick, or like this thing came up, or this thing, and then you keep pushing things off. And the way that I would think about that scenario in particular is any one of those things is actually a valid reason that you might have to change what you’re doing. What you wanna pay attention to though is the overall pattern. So, the fourth time something comes up, rather than just the one off, like kid was sick one night, like I’m just not worried about the one workout. In the big scheme of things,
Josh Nichols
Hmm.
Matt Myers
It’s not messing with your overall progress. Now if it’s been five or six or 10 workouts in a row because there keeps being something, then I wanna step back and be like, all right, well, what can we do in this scenario? Because there’s gonna have to be a trade-off somewhere here in order to keep moving forward. So that’s, I think, the balance. If we come into a theme for the year, my theme for you this year is you’re doing better than you think and
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Matt Myers
self-compassion might look like pushing yourself in a few of these areas a little bit more.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yes, one of the mindset shifts, early, I feel like it was early on in the year or who knows when, but you basically said, or I was saying, yeah, there’s like normal life and then there’s like good nutrition and there’s like the fun, there’s like fun life and then there’s like.
you gotta work out and you gotta have good nutrition. That’s like the boring. So when you go on vacation, you finally get to not do it. It’s like a breath of fresh air and you, you challenged that mindset and said, I don’t know if you even said this explicitly, but it’s like, don’t you, you feel, you feel better. Like when you are being consistent with and good with your habits, you, you feel better. So if you, it might be
more challenging in some ways, but overall it’s like, those are the nice days when you are on track and the, when you go to the, go to the beach and maybe you do less. And that’s a, that’s something that I’ve noticed too, is like, don’t, you don’t have to cut it off. And just because you’re on vacation, you don’t have to like abandon everything, but okay. You do a little bit less at the beach. That’s nice. You take, you give yourself a little bit of a break, but
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
You know, you might not feel as great on those days because now you had a drink and you didn’t sleep as great. So, okay, you indulged a little bit, just cause you got to let free, let loose does not mean that those were the fun days. So that was a mindset challenge.
Matt Myers
Yeah, it’s just reframing a little bit, right? And again, to each their own. I have conversations with people where sometimes cutting loose and letting loose and just knowing that, hey, I’m not gonna be moving forward. I’m probably gonna be sliding backwards on my fitness goals, but this time is important to me. That’s fine. Ultimately, I just want you to actually make a proactive decision and stick with it.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Not be not be like driven on autopilot by laziness or whatever. Yeah.
Matt Myers
You know, like ultimately.
Matt Myers
Yeah, whatever like okay, let’s just look at what you’re actually gonna do and then do it because it also builds Self-belief and self-efficacy in a way that’s really important for long-term habits If you keep repeating the cycle where you’re like I’m gonna go in and I’m be super hardcore here and you know That’s not sustainable and you know, you’re gonna break it and then you break it you’re breaking a promise to yourself over and over again and you’re just like Proving to yourself. You’re the type of person who? Can’t follow through
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Matt Myers
which I think is really nefarious, right? Like it’s really insidious and kind of like sinks in for people.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, and the whole thing about New Year’s resolutions is I’m going to motivate myself by having a huge thing to push me. Like I’m to be pushed by my goal that I’m trying to accomplish, which, okay, cool, but that’s like you said, that it’s so big and so ambitious that you’re not going to accomplish it. You’re going to fail. So not only do you not reach the goal that you wanted, but you also see yourself as someone who can’t and that’s, yeah.
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Matt Myers
Yeah, exactly. So what I would do is I would flip out and say, give me the big, huge goal, and then also give me all the realistic challenges that you’re gonna face at the same time. Like do both. Don’t just give me the huge goal because I think a lot of people, they’re like, okay, just gonna, like, today’s the day. I’ve changed everything about myself and my life. And it’s all gonna be different from here. Right, like, no. I think you’re still gonna have the same challenges. That doesn’t mean that goal isn’t worth.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Right. Right. No. No.
Matt Myers
working towards or isn’t meaningful. It just means we want to take it with a realistic approach, understand the challenges, and that way when you get knocked off course for a bit, you’re not like, I’m a failure, I suck at this, other people can do this, why can’t I do this, why is this easy for other people and it’s hard for me. You’re not going through all those internal thoughts. You’re being like, this was expected, I know what to do, I’m gonna get back on track.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Matt Myers
This is what actual progress looks like, right? Rather than, so again, I’m seeing the same reaction on your face that I feel like I got multiple times in videos from you throughout the year where you’re like, there’s so much self-compassion, but to me, this isn’t self-compassion, this is just realism. I’m like, this is real, this is how it actually works, right?
Josh Nichols
Mmm, yes. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Yes.
Right. Yes. Yes. I’m so, I’m so critical that compassion, that, that realism feels like, yes. Right. It feels like we’re over in La La Land. Right. Yeah. and, and, know, there’s probably, I don’t know. I’m curious from your, experience as a coach, is there more people that are on the self critical side or more people on the, cut myself too much slack side.
Matt Myers
brings you back to the middle. Yeah, I’m like trying to bring you to the middle.
Matt Myers
Hmm I would my my instinct is to say Self-critical just because like we hear it way more. I think I think the cutting too much slack does come up So it’s not like that’s that’s not an issue Often the cutting too much slack what I find is when people are more focused on
Josh Nichols
Okay.
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Mm.
Matt Myers
It’s like this, I know I’m gonna go back myself, it’s this delicate balance. They wanna celebrate doing that they did something, which is great. And you also need to be working near the edge of your ability at some point for growth, right? And there’s discomfort there. And so depending on where you’re at with other stuff in your life, often when people’s lives are on fire, it’s
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Right.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Matt Myers
it’s actually the right choice to kind of celebrate any effort at all, but you may be stuck in not making as much forward progress too. And that’s just a reality of the situation. So yeah, but I would say in general, and one of the lines we have, one of my old mentors, Jim, he used to say, if beating yourself up worked, it would have worked by now.
Josh Nichols
Mm. Mm.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yeah. Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Right. Yes. Cause we’ve done plenty of it. Right. So why are we still? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. okay. A massive thing that you told me this year, this might’ve been recent. think I, went through like a, like a dark stretch for myself in October ish. I, I randomly, as I was scrolling, I found the video of like,
Matt Myers
I was like, yeah, that’s probably a good point. We’ve done plenty of it and still, yeah, he’s still stuck, so.
Matt Myers
Mm-hmm.
Josh Nichols
Man, I was really having a hard time there.
Matt Myers
Not in surprise, not sleeping, you know, like all the things coming in. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, yeah, that’s what you said. Yes. Yes. So it was, you, your response was because you just said when your life is on fire, your response was you can’t, you can’t build a house if the foundation is on fire. What I think is what you said back then. So, so you, cause I was in this, I was in this vicious cycle of I’m, I’m
Matt Myers
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
down, dark, sad, depressed, whatever, lacking sleep, which makes me not be able to work out, which makes me critical of myself, which makes me more depressed, which makes me… So my foundation was on fire. you were like, okay, let’s, okay, stop. Like, let’s take things off of the calendar as like, okay, we have this three day a week thing that you need to be doing and it’s clearly too much. So that’s not doing us any good.
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
of having this repeated failure because you can’t live up to whatever. So let’s strip it down. And you’ve said, what’s the smallest possible thing to where it feels almost dumb that you would ask me to do it? Like you said, okay, can you do three sets of this? Okay, no. Can you do like a pushup or something? Okay, so somewhere between. right. Okay, can you do 10? Can you do 15? So yes.
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Matt Myers
Yeah, and you’re like, you’re like, come on. You’re like, come on. You’re like, come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
And I’ve done that. There’s been times where I did that and as silly and as dumb as it feels to do 15 pushups before I take a shower at night. And that’s all I did that day. The, this tiny little emotional victory that that is in a time of like, darkness is maybe too, dramatic of a word, but just a rough newborn downtime. Right.
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Matt Myers
At downtime. You’re in at downtime. There’s a lot on your plate. Yeah, man.
Josh Nichols
So those little things where otherwise I just wouldn’t and then I would just feel worse and worse and worse and worse.
Matt Myers
Yeah, and the cool thing about that is that example is, and then what happened like two or three weeks after we just focused on that, you were like, actually I’m ready to do a workout. Like I could do it. So that’s where you didn’t get caught in the site. Like you still, we had a specific tool that we used for the specific time. We used the tool and then we were able to bring it back and progress at a time when it felt good.
Josh Nichols
Yes, yes, exactly.
Josh Nichols
Mmm.
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Right.
Matt Myers
That only happened because you were checking in with yourself and asking, can I take on more? Am I ready to step up? So that’s all part of it. So, okay, quick quiz. We’ve been doing this for 14 months. How many workouts do think you’ve done? 14 months.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
I’ve, I’ve, I looked at the number every time I did one on their fitness. I think it was, it was in the mid one hundreds, the mid hundreds.
Matt Myers
Okay, so you actually know, so this is not, huh? Yeah. Yeah, 150. Yeah, you’re right at around 150. And you’re like, that’s what I’m saying is, that’s great, right? 150, that’s somewhere between two and three a week on average. So then I wanted to look, we have some other stats too, right? Some other achievements. You actually, I think, can find this somewhere in your app, but in like this badge section, but I feel like no one ever actually looks at it.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, okay, yeah. That’s crazy.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Okay.
Matt Myers
Okay, how many weeks do think you got at least one workout in? And I wanna caveat this that there are weeks when you checked out, when we did pushups and we didn’t like log it as an official workout in the app, it was just like a task, like a habit thing that you were doing. So that doesn’t even count those. This is just how many weeks did you get like a, I wrote you a workout and you got, yeah, you got a workout. And how many weeks do you think that was? 14 months. So it would be out of,
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Right. OK.
Josh Nichols
Official nerd fitness thing. Yeah
out of 14 months, Like 60, 65, okay.
Matt Myers
roughly 60, 61 weeks, something like that.
Josh Nichols
30?
Matt Myers
52 see this is what I’m telling you yes 52 weeks with at least one workout how many weeks with at least two workouts
Josh Nichols
Out of 60? No.
Josh Nichols
25 or 30 now, I’m staying there. Wow. That’s really surprising.
Matt Myers
I told you I have stats. I brought the stats today. Yeah, 42. Okay, how many weeks with three workouts? Now try your 30 guests now. 29, so you’re right at 30. So there you go. Yeah. So what that tells me is that we already have a solid baseline and we’ve developed this, right? This is actually something we can give your listeners like.
Josh Nichols
Okay, yeah right, 25 now. Okay. Wow, that’s still really surprising.
Matt Myers
We have periods where we did very focused workouts. We had periods where we did the push-ups, just like survival mode, and we had periods where we did the minimum viable workout that you were still able to build and progress on, but required the least amount of time. And you and I actually put that together as a resource and can share it. Literally the workout that I gave you, you share it with everybody.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Matt Myers
So we can circle back to that at the end. But it showed me that you were able to move between those three levels throughout the year. Well, again, we’re averaging two to three workouts a week normally. And there were nine weeks over the course of 14 months where we were doing like habit-based stuff, nutrition stuff, and not really focusing on workouts, whether that’s being sick, vacation, new kid. That’s totally reasonable.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah. When you say nine, I would have said that number was more like 30. Like I was thinking half and half, half of my time was just totally bombed out. Like lazy did nothing.
Matt Myers
Yeah, well this is this is why you have this is why we keep data because if it was like that I would also want to have a realistic conversation about it. All right, you know what I mean? So if you’re like, yeah, hey you did 30 weeks of workouts. That’s great. There were 39 weeks where you didn’t do them. Let’s are 31. I guess is that 61? Yeah, 31 or about 50 percent. I think I want to challenge you. I think we can improve on that number here. I’m saying actually you’re in the range where you’re like 80 percent.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yes.
Josh Nichols
You were right. Right.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Matt Myers
completion and 80 % is getting you most of the benefit that you’re gonna get, but we can still, you know, dial up your workouts a little bit in the new year and bring some structure back as your schedule is opening up a little bit more, right, as you’re out of this like super intense newborn phase. And both of those things can be true, right.
Josh Nichols
Hmm.
Josh Nichols
Right.
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
Yes. Yes.
Right. So I as, and maybe you had something else, but the, as, as I hear that and turn, turn my eyes to 2026, it’s, it’s then easy for me to, to be like, wow, I went, I feel like I was, I don’t know. There’s, there’s like two ways for me to look at this. wow. I feel like it did nothing and I actually did really well.
Josh Nichols
Which is both a positive thing and a, I could, I could let myself off the hook of, I can just kind of coast and get 50 workouts or 150 workouts in and, or I can look at it like, wow, it was a really challenging year and I still got that much in. So if this year is also challenging, I can get that much in, but also let’s level up a little bit from 2025.
Matt Myers
yeah.
Yeah.
Matt Myers
Yeah, sure. Yeah. And I think the other thing about big goals is that I like to set big goals and be, I think a big goal is like aiming an arrow at a target. But your goal is not to hit the bullseye, it’s literally to just like shoot the arrow in the direction of the target. Right? So goals provide directionality. They give us something to work towards and we know that you’re gonna.
Josh Nichols
2026.
Josh Nichols
Mmm.
Matt Myers
end up having to take, maybe a better way of thinking of it is like, we’re using Google Maps to get from point A to point B and sometimes you might have to reroute in the year and that’s okay, right? Or maybe you get halfway there and you realize that’s not even the destination you wanted to go to and then you switch and that’s also okay. The important part was setting an initial direction and working towards something I just think has incredible value for people.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Right.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yes. Right. You don’t need to get the destination perfect before you start because I, yeah, right. Yes. And something that you kind of updated me as, as we went along was, okay, is our goal kind of strength or like, you know, golf, golf specific performance strength, or is it body composition, like how you look in the mirror, or is it how you just, how you feel?
Matt Myers
Yeah, let’s go to California. We’ll figure it out as on the way. You know, like…
Josh Nichols
even if it’s just mentally, emotionally, self-image wise. And that goal, I would, before working with you, would say, oh, there’s only, I would have just like, I need to look better in the mirror. And that’s my destination. And anytime something gets in the way of that and I look in the mirror and I don’t feel good about myself, then I’m a failure in everything I’ve done. I have to question everything I’ve done.
Matt Myers
Mm-hmm.
Josh Nichols
So now I’m trying, I’m not rerouting to a different goal. Now I’m like trying to change what I’m doing to get to the same goal, but maybe that goal is not where I need to be going right now. So being able to adapt and change course is something, yeah.
Matt Myers
Yeah, and the truth is, those three goals that you said, there’s a base level of nutrition and workouts that work for all three of those things. And then it’s only when you are getting into the finer details and further down the path do you even need to worry about the hyper specification.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Right.
Matt Myers
Eating more protein, getting your calories in check, and like eating lots of fruits and veggies are gonna literally help with all three of those things. Like doing some strength training will help with all three of those things, and then we can get more specific as you get further down
Josh Nichols
Yes, that’s the basics. Yeah.
Yes. Right. I, I got nowhere. And I, this is encouraging, I think to people because I, I got nowhere close to needing to get to that crazy specificity optimization thing. And that’s a good thing because it can stay simple really, really far on that path. You can get really, really far. Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Matt Myers
Really, you get a ton of the benefit, 80 to 90 % of the benefit from the basics and then if you have the time, the energy and the desire, then squeeze out that last 10 to 20%, but that, it’s diminishing returns on all the more and more specific you get, right? Like.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Right. And I think a mistake a lot of people make is jumping into that too early and it’s unsustainable and they fail and they bail. Totally.
Matt Myers
Yeah.
Matt Myers
there’s a huge issue with the word optimization in the fitness industry and in any kind of performance. Like, yes, and we want to optimize and it’s a double-edged sword, right? Like we’ve kind of been talking about. So yeah, for 2026, it sounds like you’re at a point you want, we’ve kind of reviewed the previous year, did better than you thought and you want to,
Josh Nichols
Hmm
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yes,
Josh Nichols
yeah.
Matt Myers
level up a little bit coming into the new year. So let’s talk about that.
Josh Nichols
Yes. And I don’t know, do you have in front of you the weight change from the beginning of the year to now?
Matt Myers
I can pull it up.
Josh Nichols
I think it was significant and despite how bad I feel like I did, that I think changed pretty significantly. I can’t remember.
Matt Myers
You started around one, well can I say it? You know you’re cool if I say it on air, yeah, yeah. The earliest entry I have, well no, does this go all the way back?
Josh Nichols
I don’t care. Yeah. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Sorry to throw this at you.
Matt Myers
Let me make sure I have, you’re good. yeah, yeah. So you were at like 156 when we started. And pre-baby we’re all the way down at like 144, 145 range, which again, for a guy of your build and stature, that’s a huge percentage change. And now sitting around between like one.
Josh Nichols
Okay. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, right. Like, that’s crazy.
Josh Nichols
Yes, right.
Matt Myers
46 ish so like a you know a little bit, but I think pretty good maintenance through through the newborn phase. So yeah, I think that’s great
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Yes. Right. it’s not all been like, yeah, just kind of nothing happened. We just kind of had a good time this year. I mean, there was, there were significant changes. Yeah.
Matt Myers
No, got stronger, got way stronger in your push-ups, pull-ups, other lifts too. We saw that significantly. Lost weight. And this all happened on the backdrop of just having a pretty, you know, any year where you welcome a new one into the family. It’s just gonna be an intense year, right?
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So 2026, then looking forward, my inclination, my tendency is, all right, well then let’s like level up and let’s do this. And I don’t, how do you, how do you see to go from, okay, I’ve, you know, if we’re talking hyper recently, it’s been, I haven’t been able to do anything kind of again, the last week or two, feels like, maybe I’m wrong about that too.
But the okay so to to go from where I currently literally currently am to all right let’s get back to three full-blown workouts that might be too ambitious I don’t know how do you see it
Matt Myers
You are, but it’s fine. We’ll move past it.
Matt Myers
I don’t know, think that’s a good habit-based goal to shoot for, behavior-based goal, right? Is saying, hey, we were averaging two, two and a half workouts a week. I think three is totally reasonable based on the current circumstances. And then we can talk about what do we wanna do within those workouts? that?
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Matt Myers
I personally, my recommendation for you, because we’re coming out of this intense period, resetting for the new year, is I would start you back on three times a week of something like our MVP workout that we came up with, right? Like, establish the rhythm. One of the things that James Clear, who wrote Atomic Habits, what he says is like, first build consistency, then optimize, right? And so I just really like that, hey, you know how to do this workout.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, right.
Matt Myers
It’s familiar, but it’s challenging. We know how to like push ourselves within it. Let’s get a few weeks of this under the belt and then let’s have a more realistic look at what your schedule is looking like, how much time you can block out for workouts. You have that rhythm where it’s like you have this part of your day now that you’ve practiced blocking time out for. Cool. Is that 20 minutes? Is that 40 minutes? And then I build even more specific workouts. Probably,
Josh Nichols
Mm.
Josh Nichols
Mmm. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Right.
Matt Myers
off of that and we can talk about any aesthetic goals, performance goals, stuff within that too.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, the big one that is, I think is underrated is building the skill of doing a workout, building the habit of even just doing a workout or even blocking the time on your calendar. Like that’s the, gotta be the first one. If we’re talking atomic habits, like the tiniest start is can you block out a time three times a week and do something during that 20 minute time three times a week?
Even if it’s 10 pushups. Right, walking. Exactly. Right.
Matt Myers
walking 10 pushups, whatever, like you, are practicing. Yeah. Holding that space, which is really important.
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Matt Myers
Because ultimately you do have to, like this is the thing, like ultimately you do have to trade off if you’re gonna include workouts. Now the long term benefit of workouts, here’s like the other issue with all the fitness stuff, Fitness is like retirement investing. Right? Where it’s like I know this is good for me and I should do it and it’s going to benefit me more and more the longer I do it and the later in the life I go.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Matt Myers
And it, but I also don’t then, but then I don’t feel anything in the moment necessarily. Some people are lucky. like, I feel really lucky. I think part of what helped me get really into fitness is I really enjoyed the process. So like I fell in love with the process of working out in the feeling of like being out of breath and like being challenged and like figuring out technique. Like I nerded out about all that stuff. That’s why I’m at nerd fitness, right? I nerded out about all that stuff and
Josh Nichols
Yes.
Josh Nichols
Mmm.
Josh Nichols
Mmm. Mmm.
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
Matt Myers
That made it easier for me. Other people never feel that, right? It just feels like a chore. We just hate the whole thing. And for you, it’s very hard to want to do a short-term thing that feels like it’s a net negative, even though long-term you know it’s good for you. So we really gotta focus on building the thing. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, we hate you. We hate you guys. Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Mmm.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Right. Yes. But that is the self compassionate thing. That’s why it’s, that’s why that mindset shift is so hard is this does not feel self compassionate in the moment. feel like I’m punishing myself, but I, the mindset shift to see, okay, challenging yourself is not punishment always. Like that’s not always true, right? It might not ever be true, right?
Matt Myers
Yeah. No. Can’t be.
Yeah, mean, you, yeah. Yeah, we can get into that too. I know we’ve heard if you go for like 35 minutes, like, are we doing an hour and a half right now, bro?
Josh Nichols
Yeah. Right. We could go all day, but yes, I think to your, to your point, getting back, redeveloping the habit of blocking off a time of my day and, holding that time and not covering it up and along the way being okay. If one of those does get covered up by something.
Matt Myers
That’s it. was just about you. You already preempted me, which is like, and there will be challenges and we can either pivot to a different day and try to block off a different time. You can do something. So we can do like the set of pushups or whatever. We have that dial that we can turn up and down. We’re like, hey, I’m gonna do this. Or if it’s occasional, right, we just let it go. If it’s occasional, you just let it go. If it becomes a pattern, then we need to analyze why it’s becoming a pattern and what.
Josh Nichols
Like that’s the whole thing. Yeah. Yes. You’ve taught me.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah, right.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yes.
Matt Myers
what things we haven’t accounted for so that you still are getting the benefit. But I think you’ve done, I think you have done so good at showing up for those conversations. You’ve done so good at communicating throughout the year, which is the number one thing that I see in most successful clients is they talk to me even when things suck. Because I can’t be that feedback loop. I can’t be accountability.
Josh Nichols
right.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Matt Myers
If you’re just kind of burying your head in the sand, which I know is an thing to do when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed. So you’ve done great at that and you’ve been willing to do the work both physically and mentally, which is amazing. So I think you’re going to have an awesome year. I’m really looking forward to 2026. I know we’ll dial these goals in even more as we go, but, um, I think we did a pretty good job, like covering everything. If you want a workout like Josh,
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yeah.
Josh Nichols
Yes, tell us.
Matt Myers
We built it, there’s a little intro video. Check out nerdfitness.com backslash MVP, like most valuable player MVP. You’ll see a little intro from me and Josh. You put in your name and email, tell us where to send it. We’ll send you the resource. And it’s gonna be, like what I can promise you is it’s gonna be way simpler than you’re even thinking right now. And that’s the point, and it’s gonna be really helpful. So please, please check it out.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yeah. Doing this really, really simple, like borderline, like, are you serious? A workout consistently is so much better than this big, huge thing that you do once or twice maybe, and you burn out. Yeah. So much better. Awesome.
Matt Myers
Yeah, I know.
Matt Myers
Yeah, and never maintain. Absolutely. It’s a great place to build from. It’s where we’re gonna start our year building from. We’d love for you to build from that as well.
Josh Nichols
Yes. Yes. Link will be in the show notes. So Matt, thank you, man. Thank you for the last 14 months. I’m excited for 2026 too. All right, Okay. Let me stop it here.
Matt Myers
Dude, thanks for everything, appreciate it. Let’s do it.
