Episode Highlights

• How is the legendary Tony Horton doing while stuck at home during the COVID-19 quarantine?
• What it’s like now that he can’t get together in person with people and how that has affected not just his business & healthy routines, but most likely yours as well in similar ways.
• What the American Ninja Warrior training group has been doing in lieu of getting together at the practice course.
• How to maintain your workout consistency (or get back into it) without your workout buddies and circle of accountability.
• Why it’s more important than ever to exercise consistently.
• Taking refuge in food? Tony’s simple question may be the antidote to emotional eating.
• How the lockdown is revealing our true character and who we are as human beings.
• Tony’s observations about some of the positive things that he’s seen due to the lockdown.
• What does he anticipate the ‘new normal’ is going to be like?
• Why Tony is concerned about our very short collective memory. Will we, as a society learn from all this and be better prepared next time?
• Is this whole situation really “unprecedented”? Here’s a healthy dose of perspective (56:47)
• 2 things you can control which give you a greater capacity to deal with things that are out of your control.

Useful Links

• Tony Horton on FB Live
• Shawna’s post on the opportunities to be found in this “unprecedented” situation

About Guest

Tony Horton is the wildly popular creator of the best-selling fitness series: P90X®, P90X2®, P90X3®, and Ten Minute Trainer®, P90® and most recently his 22-Minute military inspired workout, 22 Minute Hard Corps®. Tony is a world-class motivational speaker and the author of top-selling books: “Bring It”, Crush It!” and his latest motivational book, “The Big Picture” 11 Laws That Will Change Your Life, which he has transformed to an in depth personal development course, Living Large with Tony Horton. He has appeared on countless television programs as a fitness and lifestyle expert to promote healthy living through exercise and proper nutrition. In keeping with Tony’s passion for a healthy lifestyle, he’s teamed up with the beauty experts at Ultimate Salon Professionals to create his new hair and skincare line, TH Care by Tony Horton, because he believes what goes on your body is just as important as what goes in it.

For the past 25 years, Tony has used his unique brand of humor to change the lives of tens of million people through his incredible fusion of motivation, physical exercise, nutrition, and discipline. From worldclass athletes, pro sports teams, celebrities and the U.S. Military, to corporate executives, couch potatoes, and busy moms and dads alike, Tony has what it takes to reach and teach them all. Tony believes that real and lasting change can happen when we commit to health as a lifestyle. Exercise, whole foods, and the right mindset is the formula that leads to a vibrant, productive and full life for anyone who focuses on being the best they can be.

Tony Horton on Life website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Transcript

Zack Arnold: I’m here today with the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Tony Horton, creator of the entire P90x series, and we are in the latest episode of the virtual reality series called The Twilight Zone. So, Mr. Tony Horton, it is a pleasure to have you with me here today.

Tony Horton: Zack, my pleasure to be here, my friend, I. I am looking forward to our discussion.

Zack Arnold: So, there have been a whole lot of things that have happened in the world the last few weeks, and a lot of things that were going on. Yeah, really. I know, right? It’s crazy, isn’t it? Hey, I don’t.. maybe you haven’t been following the news. I don’t know.

Tony Horton: Well, I don’t know. I’ve been quarantined since 1981

Zack Arnold: So I was gonna say I’ve been doing social distancing, like an Olympic sport, since 2005 So, other than, like, why are my.. why is my family home all day long? What is this all about? Right, it’s still pretty much business as usual for me. So, like, I’m right there with you. You’ve been amazing over the last several weeks in keeping people engaged, keeping them active, getting on Facebook Live, providing workouts, kicking our butts with Wednesday night plyo, all this good amazing stuff. So, I know you’re putting yourself out there, showing that you are concerned about others’ well-being and how they’re doing. But the most important question that I have for you is genuinely, sincerely, How are you doing right now?

Tony Horton: Oh, wow, that’s a very unusual question. I don’t get that very often. I would say, for the most part, I’m pretty good, and oddly enough, my workload is about the same. It hasn’t changed any, so a lot of people are, you know, people probably hate that answer, but, but you know, everything’s done virtually, right, over the computer and phone, and, and whatnot, and I’m doing, you know, voiceover work for my new supplement line in a closet, and that’s that, and I’m shooting, you know, like you said, I’m doing this tonight, will be actually this will be our fifth plyo workout online Facebook Live, which is amazing, we’ve done four yoga, we’ve done a cardio, we’ve done a couple of two or three dance parties, and keeps me out of trouble, keeps me busy, you know. So, there’s a usual influx of emails and texts that have to be dealt with, and to solve answers, and a lot of Zoom parties with friends, which is kind of a new phenomenon, which I’m actually enjoying quite a bit, had one last night, actually, and my health is good. I, you know, I’m always paranoid every time I get a little tickle in my throat or something, that I’m going to get this thing, and I have my ups and downs. I don’t think they’re as severe as maybe some people at this time. I figure if I get it, I’ll just fight it, and if it’s bad, somebody will save my life, you know, and if it’s just terrible, you know, and I’m, and I’m not on the brink of disaster, I’ll hunker down and come out and give my, my blood to somebody else, so they can be healthy, I guess. I don’t know, I just want to, I just want to try to connect with people right now, because people are struggling, and the dance parties are a perfect example of just trying to take people’s mind off the office on these uncertain times, you know.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I have a suspicion, a hypothesis that at some point maybe you may or may not have had a small amount of the virus that crawled into your lungs, and all of a sudden one of the other guys inside your lungs are like, dude, do you know whose lungs these are? Do you really know where you are right now? I’m out. No way, I’m out. I don’t want to deal with this guy, right? Yeah, yeah, you don’t want to be in Tony Hort lungs right now, because you are going to get incinerated with all the things that he’s doing, both on a regular basis, but also that you’re now doing more interactively with the Facebook.

Tony Horton: I am taking care of myself, that’s for sure.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, and that’s no big surprise there, you know,

Tony Horton: I mean, I always have, I mean, I always will, but I am doing things with more intensity now than than typical, you know, I’m trying to bring more calories and do more pull-ups and push-ups, and when I did a workout the other day that I couldn’t finish because I pushed, I started out too, too intense, which, that doesn’t happen very often, I had these very high expectations, and I was just going to attack the thing, and I literally quit in the middle, and when I was just out of gas, so I won’t do that next time,

Zack Arnold: And I just, the mere thought of Tony Horton saying, yeah, I was, you know, doing my workouts before, but I’m doing them with more intensity, I know what the less intensity versions look like, so I’m terrified of what the more intensity versions must look like with you at home by yourself trying to kill a virus, get rid of all the anxiety that’s much scarier than coronavirus.

Tony Horton: Well, you know, I mean, for those of you that are watching, you know, Zachary here is a fellow ninja pal Sunday workout, and we get after it pretty good, you know, pretty competitive group of guys. We really do enjoy each other’s company. We have a lot of fun, lot of laughs, work out really hard, but the workouts I do on my own, I don’t go down to the ninja course very much. It’s just, it’s depressing down there by myself, you know. It’s more of a camaraderie kind of a thing. So, when I say I’m being more intense, I’m doing, you know, different kinds of push-ups and pull-ups and pike presses and things of that nature, you know, I mean, I’m not transitioning, I’m not in a pegboard inside of an I beam with my feet dangling, going for maximum speed, you know, I mean, that’s not that kind of thing, I’m just knocking out as many, and so, you know, when you’re in your mind, you go, okay, I do 25 pull ups right now, and I normally do whatever, 50. To 18, you know, I mean, that means I’m, you know, I probably should stop at 15 or 18, so I can get through the whole damn workout.

Zack Arnold: Well, I think that for people that follow you and have known you for a long time, this may not come as that much of a surprise. For people that know more the persona of Tony Horton, they may find it surprising that you can’t just wake up in the morning and do your exercises six days a week, all by yourself. Pop in a DVD. You’re like me, and that you really need an accountability circle. And I’ve been on the email threads. Hey guys, anybody showing up tonight? No, really. Is anybody coming tonight? Come on, guys, I need somebody here at 6pm so I can do my plyo. And I’m the same way, so I’m really curious. How are you doing with the fact that we can’t get together as a group and be, you know, workout buddies. I guess, is it harder for you to stay committed and stay consistent?

Tony Horton: Much, much, much, much, much. Shauna has filled in the gap. My wife, Shauna, for those of you who don’t know who that is, and we’ve been working out together, especially on cardio days, you know, on resistance days. Well, I won’t lie to you, I’ve missed a few, you know, I’ve gotten up at the whatever hour we typically do a Tuesday or Thursday morning workout, and I’m like, I’m fine, I’m gonna blow that one off. So, my, my five and six days a week has become kind of a four day a week and five day a week. If a good week, I do end up taking an extra day off, partly because I am over training a little bit, which is stupid, you know. I mean, I’m just being stupid that way. Yeah, you know. And then, you know, a lot, a lot of my work hours in the morning, and then I’ll drag myself into the gym at 7pm It’s like, okay, okay, 730 So I’m doing it tomorrow. No, we’re at 9am I’m gonna do that, not no, 12, nope, three, nope, six, nope, seven, seven. I gotta go in there. It’s getting dark, you know. I’ve done that a lot of my almost all my workouts are pm late pm workouts, because the guilt just kind of builds and builds and builds, and it’s not like, you know, and then during the day, obviously, like I was saying earlier in our conversation, that there are things that I’ve obviously been busy doing working, and so you know, I mean, today, what is today? Today is Wednesday. Today is Playo, and I’ve announced it on Facebook, so that obviously I can’t miss that one. That’ll be at 530 but tomorrow morning’s chest and back, that’ll probably happen between 4pm and 8pm tomorrow by myself, yeah.

Zack Arnold: Well, my friend, that’s what Zoom is for. So, I don’t, I don’t know if, uh, if our fellow workout buddy Scotty told you

Tony Horton: Zoom workout guy, conversation guy, like this, but I mean, you know, I’m gonna get my phone and look at you, do your thing, and then I’m gonna put my phone down so you can see me do my thing, maybe I’m not gonna say no completely, but I’ve had two opportunities, and I’ve turned them both down.

Zack Arnold: Got it. Well, we did try it on Sunday, a few of us, the Sunday Ninja Group, we got together, and it was not as awful as I thought it would be. I can tell you, I wouldn’t have done two hours of push-ups and pull-ups, and not Tony’s on the wall outside my house, otherwise

Tony Horton: Good.

Zack Arnold: So I’m way where I’ve what I have found, and maybe this is something that you’ve experienced as well over time, but years ago I could just pop in a DVD, and the DVD was more than enough for me to say, “Oh, cool, I get to work out with Tony Horton and do a P 90x routine, but then I got to be honest, once you’ve had the real thing going back to the DVD, it just.. it doesn’t give you the same adrenaline rush. So, I find that it’s much harder for me to just..

Tony Horton: Is that.. is that what it is? Live, is it an adrenaline rush, or is it just sort of a general irritation, an

Zack Arnold: irritation, you know, whatever it is that’s just at the end? Like, like one of the things that I said to the group on Sunday, as I’m like, all right, well, let’s make this feel as real as possible, so we each need to say at least one thing about the other person’s wardrobe before we start.

Tony Horton: What would Tony Horton say about my form right now? Yeah, exactly about my socks. So, what would he say about my T-shirt? Yeah, there you go. Well, maybe, maybe next Sunday. I’m seriously considering jumping back in on next Sunday, because Scott Morgan, who’s another one of our Sunday guys, I guess, sort of spearheaded the whole event, and he was describing at night, man, that sounds intriguing. I might jump in just to see how many more reps that I can do that you guys are.

Zack Arnold: Well, for people that are out there that are also struggling, I know that there are a lot of them, where they’re saying, I used to go to the gym. I had this camaraderie. I had my CrossFit buddies or my running buddies, or whatever it is, and that infrastructure has kind of crumbled. Yes, there are just.. I’m sure you’re seeing this way more than I am. Everybody is coming out of the woodwork with a fitness app or fitness videos on Instagram, like everybody’s now trying to build their online home fitness businesses, so there’s so much noise.

Tony Horton: Yeah, it was all this discussion about it before, and now, oh, maybe now I really got to do this thing.

Zack Arnold: So everyone and their brother has a fitness YouTube page, right? Right. So it’s, it’s all these things are happening, but if you, if people want to just say, “Listen, I know that I want the motivation, I know I want to start working out a. In and I’ve lost whatever that circle of accountability is, and you know, maybe they, they go to your Facebook page and they do a workout or two, but they feel like it’s not what they were doing before. What suggestions do you have? Because I know that the conversation you and I have over and over and over again, the fundamental core concept is how to maintain consistency, and now more than ever, logically, we know that consistency is important, because it’s literally our lives on the line, it’s strengthening our immunity, it’s strengthening our lungs, but emotionally it’s harder than ever to stay consistent. So, how do we balance those two things?

Tony Horton: Well, the formula is still the same as it would be if you had all kinds of people around, and that’s purpose, plan, and accountability, right? So you know your reason why should be more profound now than ever. You know, I mean, there’s a, there’s a myriad of panoply, a virtual cornucopia of reasons why anybody would want to work out, and there’s there’s the one end of the spectrum, which is purely ego-based, aesthetic-based, and people who care about health and wellness, right. And then there’s everything in between a combination thereof? Okay, so I’m in both. I wouldn’t lie to you, you know what I mean. But right now, like, who’s even going to see your six pack or your sexy butt? No, no one, right? I mean, except for the people in your house, right? So the idea here is to be exercising purely for the reason that is all really more well, not all, but mostly about health and wellness, right? What can I do to improve my immune system? What can I do to take care of the insides, because the insides, the part to get ill, right? I mean, the virus, the COVID 19 virus, germs, illnesses in general, live at the bottom of your lungs, right? So, the reason why really overweight people, people out of shape, people with active diabetes, people who, you know, obese folks, they only use the top half of the lungs, that’s all you need to be able to breathe and walk around and sit on a couch and go to work, right. But when you need, when you start to exercise, it’s the bottom half of your lungs that expand, right, your diaphragm experience to be able to, you know, whatever, you’re on a versiclclimb or you’re doing one of my programs, you’re doing plyometrics, you start waking up the bottom part of your lung tissue, and that’s the part that gets sick, so why not? You know, that’s a reason why you should be doing, and I tell people, you know, you need a for your head, you need more mindfulness practice now, because you know, and that with whatever that is, retreating a book, or walking around the yard, or meditating, or praying, or or doing like a yin yoga practice, I don’t know, whatever it is, right, taking naps, I mean, we have free time, so there’s no excuses right now, and so you need that, but you also need to be doing exercises that expand your lungs, because that protects, that can help you, it’s not gonna, it’s not, who’s to say, I mean, you can be the healthiest person in the world, you could be an Olympic swimmer or a marathoner, and you could get slammed by this thing, but why not do the things that you need to do to kind of protect yourself, so that’s that’s a purpose, right? And your plan is your plan, and this, unfortunately, your plan is my plan changes throughout the day based on my lack of friends around, like, you know, I get up, I get up on a Tuesday and Thursday morning, and I have friends come over and work out 90% of the time, I don’t want to do it, but they rang the doorbell and they’re in my gym, so here we go, you know, but now you know. Oh, I got all my podcasts, all my interviews, everything’s scheduled after 10am Now it’s this, like, no, I might sleep until 9o’clock today, screw it, you know. And so that’s kind of, you know, and I go to bed at one in the morning, you know, when this thing all comes to a screeching halt. We hope, and things come back to normal. I’m gonna have to change my hours back to normal again, but so you know there, and then the accountability factor isn’t here, and so you know I’m accountable to my wife, right? I’m accountable to all the people in my Facebook Live workouts. That’s why I’m doing it. I’m doing it as much for myself as I am for them, you know. I mean, we’re doing this thing together, honestly. If I didn’t have these live Facebook things, I would skip yoga, and I would skip playo at least 50% of the time. Now, because of them, I’m more consistent than ever with both, you know what I mean. So, it’s just a matter of all right, establishing the problem. What’s your strategy to find the solution? All right, it gets easy. It’s easy to bitch and moan and complain about whatever it is, right? That is you expressing your concerns about the established issue, problem, whatever the thing is. Now you have to begin to use your noggin to figure out what you need to do to solve that, or you could stay here, right, in this little, in this malaise, which sucks, or you can begin to sort of do something about it, right, to propel you into a better place, to have an experience, to have a story to get out of your head, to sleep better, to improve your immune system. You know what I mean. I mean, it’s pretty clear what happens when you just let it all kind of wash over you and make your life miserable, or when you decide to do something about it, you know it really, what it does is it really draws out your character. It really tells you who you really are as a person. You know what I mean. And some people might not like that answer, but doesn’t mean you can’t change it immediately. You know, I mean, let’s say there’s all this negative talk and all this negative vibe about it, and you’re really paranoid, and there’s people that you know that are really. Sick, and so you think you’re next, and so you start binge eating and drinking more, and all that kind of stuff. You know, I mean, it’s not like you don’t have a brain that says cancel, clear, start from scratch. What am I going to do going forward? You know, it’s harder, right? It’s harder. That’s why trainers and therapists, and in school is popular, because you get to go to somewhere else for the information, so that hopefully you can go through the transition of not knowing to knowing, and then you can become a better person. Now you’re, you know, but be like my sister is doing an amazing course out of U Penn Online, that’s a free course out of U Penn about emotional intelligence and some other pretty cool stuff. And so she’s got the time, and she’s still doing work at home, but she’s made the time to do that to become, you know, she’s going to come out the other end better because of stuff like that.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, I’m a big believer that whenever you’re faced with some form of adversity or some major obstacle, there’s always an opportunity in it somewhere, and that’s one of the lessons that, you know, either working with you for years or working and doing all these Spartan races, you basically put yourself in these awful situations where you think, what am I doing here? Like, it’s 45 degrees, I’m on the ground, it’s wet, it’s muddy, I’ve been asked to crawl under barbed wire, and oh, they’re spraying me in the face with a fire hose, and I’m paying for this, right? But then you realize I’ve got to find the opportunity in here somewhere, and well, this is teaching me patience, this is teaching me acceptance, whatever it might be, right. And as soon as all this started to happen, same question, Where’s the opportunity here? What opportunity do I have to grow? What opportunity do I have to serve others? So, for me, as soon as this all started, I’ve just been, I’ve gone into like massive workaholic mode, writing and doing podcasts, and providing whatever value I can for people that feel like they don’t have any kind of real coping mechanism for something like this, and I know that you kind of have done the same thing, or you weren’t doing Plyo Facebook Live every single week, you did it every once in a while, but now I think, yes, there’s part of it where for you it’s well, guys, I need to show up, and I need you to help me show up, but I also know that you’re the kind of person that’s going to step up to the plate when things get to where they are now, and you, like you said, this is going to show your true character, and we’re certainly seeing the side of you that wants to step up and be there as a support beacon for other people.

Tony Horton: Well, thank you. Yeah, but it does also a percentage of selfishness there as well.

Zack Arnold: Oh, of course, I’m the same way, where I’ve been doing multiple Zoom calls on Fridays, where I just have everybody in my community jump on, and we just chat, because I just want to know that there are other people out in the world, and they’re stuck in their little tiny Zoom boxes as well, like that’s just for my own sanity, right? And I think when it comes to the exercise and the movement, that’s like you said, the purpose now changes. The funny thing is, you and I haven’t even talked about this, because we haven’t seen each other in person since all this happened. But all of the shutdown started to happen the day that I was on the set for American Ninja Warrior, so you know the West was going to run the course, and our friend Davion was going to run the course, and I was on the course the day before when they were testing it, I didn’t get on the show itself this year, but I was part of the testing team, had been working with you the last two years for this moment, and I’m like five people away in line to run the first obstacle, get on the course, it starts drizzling, the guy, five people in front of me, slips and falls, sorry guys, we’re gonna have to shut down for a little bit, dry it off, want to make sure it’s safe. A downpour started, and the next eight hours just standing here under like a little overhang, getting wet, staring at the obstacle, thinking I’m never going to get to get on this thing, am I? And then the end of the day, they said, Sorry, guys, the show’s been shut down, we’re not shooting in Los Angeles, like, come on, right? So it was just like the to put all of this into it, all the fitness, all the exercise, all the Sundays. That purpose was for that one obstacle. Obviously, there were a lot of other reasons as well, but now for me it’s just all about maintaining mental health and sanity, because I noticed as soon as all this began and I wasn’t doing the workouts, the depression started to come in, the anxiety started to ratchet up. Soon as I did Wednesday night play, oh God, I kind of feel like myself again. I feel like the world’s falling apart, right? So, for me, it’s about the mental side of things. Don’t really care about the six pack, like you said, right now. Where it gets more difficult for me, and I know it’s getting a lot more difficult for a lot of people, and you alluded to this a little bit, is the eating. Eating is where everybody is going right now to just try and swallow all of the anxiety and the uncertainty, and I can tell you for a fact that if I were still texting you pictures of my food, you would block my number. Like, dude, what’s going on over there? Right, this is the hardest part for me, and it’s the hardest part for a lot of people, and I know you have a really good sense of this specific area. So, what thoughts do you have for those that are finding refuge in food, given the levels of anxiety that we’re all dealing with?

Tony Horton: Well, you know, hey, look, you’re going to need a therapist or a shrink to answer that question. Then, I mean, you know, I’m going to give you a tough love answer that most people won’t like. Like, you know what I mean, I mean, all you have to do is just ask yourself a simple question, you know, how do you feel after you get, you’re done eating what you just ate? You know, I mean, if you feel really proud about what you ate and feel like you had some discipline after you just ate, you feel, you feel, you feel energized and good after you just ate, then you probably ate something that was planted in the ground and grew up, and you know, some kind of a whole food, right, but you know, if you’re eating a bunch of prostate scrap and extra alcohol, you know how you feel, and it just makes you worse. Like, I don’t know why people, the situation is bad, and they naturally go to doing things that make the situation worse, which is mind-bending to me. You know, that’s just me, because I’m, you know, I’ve been doing this forever. I don’t have room for slippage. I don’t have room for slippage. I can’t, I can’t. I mean, I want to feel good all the time, and I’ve been doing it for so many decades that I don’t care if you know if there was an earthquake, a hurricane, a tsunami, a fire, an OJ Simpson chase outside, you know, rattlesnakes everywhere. I don’t care. I would just keep doing what I do, because that’s who I am, and that’s what I do. You know what I mean? I eat the same food, I breathe the same air. You know, I mean, I don’t, I don’t vary from that, because I don’t feel as good, you know what I mean. And it makes my workouts harder, and this, and I mix, makes my sleep crappy, and it’s like, but you know, some people just want to throw caution to the wind, because they want to have, whatever, 510, 15 minutes of feeling good, based on what’s in their mouth, you know. I don’t.. I don’t.. I wouldn’t.. you know, I mean, there’s a lot of people in AA right now that they’re falling off the wagon, and that Jesus.. I mean, there’s certain categories of people that can’t afford that kind of a slip, you know what I mean? Their life will go completely into the toilet very rapidly, and there’s no one around, they go to, I mean, they can call their sponsor or something, whoever their therapist or something, or maybe attempt to alleviate some of the physical, mental, and emotional pain by getting a workout in, but, but yeah, man, I mean, I wish I was the person to be able to give you the magic answer there, but, but do what works and stop doing what doesn’t work, yeah, those be like point 000 1% of the population will go all right, Tony.

Zack Arnold: Done. Of course, that makes sense.

Tony Horton: You’re right. Then again, they knew that answer before I even gave it to him, right? So,

Zack Arnold: Yeah, well, and then that’s the crazy thing about the health and fitness industry, is nobody’s telling you anything you didn’t already know. I mean, maybe some of the specifics, like here’s the proper squat form or deadlift, or whatever, but in general, nobody ever says wait, exercising more and walking and getting cardio and eating broccoli, that’s good for me, like nobody does that. We know the answers, the question

Tony Horton: People, people who you know, who need trainers and and fitness classes and gym memberships, they’re there really as much more, more than anything, than for the motivation and the inspiration, and and have somebody else tell them what to do, you know, I mean, because most people aren’t self-motivated that way, athletes maybe are, you know, but people who don’t do this for a living, who just have a regular job, who got a bunch of kids who are now at home, right, pulling on their emotions all day long. Yeah, that’s a whole different ball game. And now you want me to work out? Yeah, screw you, Tony Horton. You know, I’m gonna have some cookies, which I’ll find the hell with you. So, you know, my answer is still the same: do what works and don’t do it, doesn’t, and the it’s obvious when you’ve, you’ve veered in the wrong direction, how you feel, how much guilt you have, how your energy is in the toilet, how poorly you sleep, how short you are with people, how it creates a lack of patience, right? The humor is out of your life, you know what I mean, so you know all the things that fitness and eating right does for you still exist regardless of whatever the situation is, so you have to make that decision.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, and I can definitely agree with the scenario of it’s a whole different level when you’ve got a family at home and you’ve got kids at home, like we joked about at the beginning. I basically have lived inside this little room doing what I’m doing for, you know, decade and a half, social distancing, like, yeah, bring it on, been doing that professionally for a long time, but all of a sudden, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, it’s like, oh my god, right, like, you never get any time to yourself, and that’s one of the things that ratchets up the anxieties, never really having your own creative space, and then on the flip side of it, I don’t know what it’s, what the dynamic is in your household, but I know that in my household I’m the extreme introvert and my wife is an extreme extrovert. So, as soon as the stay-at-home order came along, I’m like, all right, I got this, and my wife, just her eyes were like, oh my god, I can’t go anywhere and see people and go to events and be out with friends, like just this complete shift in the paradigm of what the world looked like, and for me it was like, oh, well, looks like you guys are going to be home more, so that’s kind of nice.

Tony Horton: I’ll tell you a funny story. You know, I live, I live in LA, I live up in the hills, and at the end of my street is a very highly trafficked trail head, and it’s privately owned. It’s owned by the gas companies, SoCal Gas, all the other ones, Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon and Top of West Ridge, here, you know, in Brentwood. Those are all public, so they can, you know, block those off, close them down. And now, for four weeks, I mean, we’ve been at this for four or five weeks. When all the other ones are closed, where do they come? My place, right, we’ve been fighting and fighting and fighting to get, you know, because people, you know, like no masks, all, and there’s, there’s SoCal workers down there, people are on top of each other, that the path is this wide, you know, I mean, and everybody thinks they’re immune, they think they’re special or something, you know, like these folks that want to, you know, gather, a bunch of people want to gather in one place, it’s like, what are you doing, man? I mean, you’re trying to.. it’s like it’s like societal suicide, you know what I mean? You know, without knowing that that’s that’s what’s going on. And so today, finally, you know, with a bunch of phone calls and emails, and talking to the, to the local, you know, local politicians, and the.. and the head of public relations for the Soquel Gas, you know, me, my neighbors are on the phone with these guys. All of a sudden, they put up barricades and signs and stuff late last night and early this morning, and you know, no bikers, no hikers, no dog walkers, no nothing. And so I just sat on my balcony, and I watched like ants, man, coming out of the woodwork. It’s 6:30am and they all get down there, and the look on their faces, right, and there’s a guy standing there with a little yellow vest on, and a hat, and he’s super polite, you know, and I can hear him from my balcony. It’s like, I’m sorry, folks, we’re closed. Whoa, I thought it was private. Where do you go? What do you.. what are we supposed to do? It’s like, I want to yell, you’re supposed to do the same thing everybody else is. It’s so. it’s called stay home social. social distancing, put on a damn mask, you know. I mean, it’s like some people just don’t want to get out of the routine, they don’t want, they want everything to be just as it was. It’s like one gal said, “Well, I’ve got two kids, what’s the mother supposed to do? I don’t know, be a good mother at home with your kids. What do you want me to come on, I mean, it blows my mind. It blows my mind. So, yeah, it’s called, you know, it’s a worldwide pandemic, and different people, different societies, different countries, different states are reacting to it in different ways based on any number of things, and you know, if you look at, you could say whatever you want about San Francisco, lowest death rate of any city in the.. it’s a big city, you know? I mean, lowest death rate, I mean, like right away, shut it down, stay home. They were ahead of the game on everybody, you know what I mean. And you know, I don’t know.. I mean, New York, I thought they were pretty on top of it as well. It’s just that New York is.. is an ant farm, you know? I mean, I mean, people are like wham, and it’s. I don’t know. island, you know? I mean, but boy, they’re doing the best that they can. So, the idea here is, what can you eat? Do you have a mindfulness practice? How often do you plan on working out? What kind of parent are you? You know, I mean, this, this really does reveal who you are as a human being, and if you’re not eating right and not exercising, it’s going to be harder for you to be a better person than it is for somebody who does, and if you’re not a good person to begin with, I don’t want to be in your house, man. Damn, you know, because I’ve heard stories that some people are not getting along really well right now, and I’m very fortunate, you know, I mean, we have three dogs, we have no kids, so you know, we can’t even.. I can’t even compare my situation to other people’s situations, they have much more difficult time, but I have a lot of friends that have kids, and they have figured it out, they figured it out, you know what I mean, it’s more work than it would be normally, obviously, because the kids go off to school, but I’ve got a lot of friends who have kids that aren’t even, you know, aren’t even in kindergarten yet, little little tights, you know, little two year olds, three year olds, and stuff. So, you know, you just gotta, you gotta look for information that can help you, and there’s plenty of it out there, and there’s a lot of people that are doing it right, and all you have to do is sort of emulate those folks, find them, and emulate them, and your situation will improve, and you know I’m one of those guys that’s providing several free workouts, you know, a week to not give you a six pack or not build your biceps and not make your glutes sexy, but really to set up your brain to be able to function better, you know, in the midst of this thing.

Zack Arnold: Well, I can tell you that burning 900 plus calories on plyo probably isn’t, probably isn’t hurting my six pack,

Tony Horton: Not setting that right. You’re that’s there’s no way, 900 calories.

Zack Arnold: I’m wearing a heart rate,

Tony Horton: You plugged in 18 year old triathlete, that’s what you project in, put in your real age and your real weight, and you know what I mean, is 900 cal. I mean, look, my resting heart rates around 38 it can go as low as 33 My, I like, I see heart rates of like 196 or something. I go, my heart rate, my entire life has never been above 175 ever. And even when I’m crank, you see me in the workout, I’m working harder than anybody else, my heart rate never goes above 127 doesn’t even happen.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, well, you’re super human, because my heart rate’s in the 180s

Tony Horton: Oh no, that’s not necessarily healthy either. So,

Zack Arnold: I don’t know where it comes from, but I know that just yesterday one of the things that I become very intimate with is my rowing machine at home. I got a rowing machine right before all this started, so it’s the perfect time, and that’s kind of been my, my nemesis is getting on that thing for 2530 minutes and seeing how fast I can do a 5000 meter row and trying to get a faster time every single time, and I hit like 193 like we’re like it’s like just the vomit inducing line of like my heart is done, but just trying to

Tony Horton: Be careful, man, don’t over train, don’t over train. All right, you know, tortoise hare, tortoise wins. You know what I mean. So be smart there. I mean, like, I did a workout the other day. I think I know I had another podcast. I’m getting so confused. It’s a brand new one. I don’t think I told you about it. It’s called 10 Twice. Oh, I think I saw it. You had mentioned in an email, walk me through that. Yeah, so 10 exercises, right? The goal is on every exercise, and it’s a push pull, you know what I mean. It was like a Thursday and or Sunday workout, but the goal was to do an extraordinary amount of more reps than you normally would do. So my goal was 25 pull ups in the first set, right? Normally I stop at 15 or 18, and then the next one was four ball push-ups, and so the goal was 40. You know, I mean, I’ve done more in my bed. 40s enough to really right at 32 you kind of feel like you want to be done, but I pause at the top, right? And so I got to the eighth exercise, and the workout stopped. I was laying on the ground, I was passed out. I was over training. I got soup because I had that vestibular thing going on. My vestibular, my bilateral vestibular hypo function was a friggin eight. I haven’t had that in over a year, and that scared me a little bit, because I got on the Impossibles. I’m trying to Impossibles for anybody who’s watching. An impossible is your hand on med ball, hard med ball, and your feet is on a big stability ball, one of those big old rubber balls, and you’re in a plank, and obviously you’re in a decline, right? Your upper half is lower than your feet, and it took me six attempts to get on there, and I was really super frustrated, and I was on the sixth attempt, I said, I’m getting on right now, I told myself, and I’m going to do at least 10 of these things, and I’m not coming off, so you know, legs and feet, and I’m fighting and fighting and fighting, and I get up, and it feels like I’m still on the balls, like, whoa, you know, so that the goal was, and if I, you know, didn’t do, if I didn’t over train mister, I should have done my regular, you know, 34 ball, 15 or 18 pull ups, you know, maybe put two med balls instead of one on the impossible. It’s just, you know, modified, like, like I tell everybody else to do, and I would have got through the whole thing twice. So it’s just 10 exercises, three minute break, 10 more, finish in under an hour. That was that was the goal, and I did not accomplish it, because I stopped after the exercise.

Zack Arnold: So, the pots calling the kettle black. I see.

Tony Horton: Correct.

Zack Arnold: Yes, got it. So, a totally different topic that I want to go into, that I’m fascinated by right now. Maybe this is something you’ve looked into as well. I don’t know. I know that you’re, you’re very well read, and you like to look into various sources. You like to be knowledgeable about what’s going on in the world, which right now is both a good and a bad thing, but one of the things that I’m fascinated by is that there are a lot of really amazing positive things that have come out of this, and I think it’s helping us realize maybe we don’t completely want to go back to normal, maybe there’s some version of a new normal where we need to look at this, maybe happen, and I don’t want to get into the universe or religion or anything like that, but there were a lot of warning signs that I think society was just moving too damn fast. We were working too hard, we were too hyper connected to our screens and our phones and our devices and traffic and all this stuff, right? And now all of a sudden we’ve been forced as a global community to slow the f down, and there’s a lot of really interesting things happening on a planetary level because of that. One of which that you’re experiencing firsthand with me is LA now has the cleanest, nicest air in the

Tony Horton: In the world,

Zack Arnold: in the on the planet,

Tony Horton: In the world, dude. Well, that you know, it’s something in mind. No, California’s got its positives and negatives. We know we’re a bunch of hippies out here with all our new wave meditation, blah blah blah blah. But I’ll tell you, you know one thing, California’s are really good at their innovators. You know what I mean? I mean, this is where Elon Musk does his work, and so many other great, you know, Silicon Valley, and everything else. You know, the innovators are here, and people like people who are really trying to make life more convenient. In some ways, that’s bad. In some ways, it’s really good, but we’re also really good at, you know, very, we’re very environmental conscious, and we want, you know, as a community, we like to kind of stick together and work together and sort of make California as great as it is, because California has this sort. A mystique to it, right, and so you know, no, it’s no surprise, except for everybody on my street, of course, that’s the only place where people are not following the friggin rules, but in general, you know that the people are keeping their distance and on the road, so Cal, you know, LA has is has the best air in the world right now, which is amazing, and so, but to answer your question, yeah, it’s forced everybody to go, “Whoa, wait a minute, what, what, who are we, and what are we doing, and is this really so great? So, when we talk about going back to normal, it means like reconnecting, but now we’re learning how to connect in a different way, and quite often with people that we haven’t connected with in years. I mean, the phone calls I’m making in the text I’m having, and the Zoom calls I’m having are with people you know. I had one the other day with a bunch of friends of mine from high school, man. You know what I mean, and I saw some of them at my wedding, but I didn’t see all of them. And it was really cool to see this really nice collection and catch up and find out where everybody was. And it was nice to be able to sit in it without looking at your watch, like, oh, I got something to do, you know, and these Zoom calls are lasting two hours. It’s completely crazy. Also, you’re seeing a lot more, you’re seeing a lot, some really creative art, you know what I mean? Like, you’re seeing a lot of people. There’s this guy around town who’s doing these love signs and says, you know, just like, there’s everybody’s got a lot of their stores boarded up because of the coronavirus, so there’s these big, these big canvases, these cardboard plywood canvases. So, he’s, you know, he’ll call the owner and go, “Hey, I want to do this really beautiful mural, and I’ll do it for free. He’s the You Can’t Quarantine Love mural guy all around the West Side of LA. So, that’s kind of really cool. And then also online, like somebody did this amazing, super intense piece of artwork that I’ve been afraid to post, because I think it’s almost too intense. It’s just a picture of me, one that we’ve seen.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, I’ve seen this image,

Tony Horton: And it has, it has the mask here, and it says P 90x on the mask, and then above me it says COVID 19. So I don’t know if that’s ready for prime time. And then there’s also humor, man. I mean, there’s been so many parodies of different kinds of songs about what’s going on, keeping people on the lighter side, you know what I mean, and so, and a lot of people who are in my industry are forcing themselves to be very innovative. Ted McDonald is a perfect example, you know, Ted’s a dear near friend, he’s in a couple of my workouts, and he’s actually helped me co-design the P 90 x2 and x3 yoga routines, and you know, he, you know, he has a bricks and mortar place called Five Point Yoga in Malibu, and he’s forced to do, he’s doing six days a week of classes, right, and initially it was like 510, 15 people, now it’s up to 35 and he just got a big article in the New York Times about him, so who knows how many people will be in his online stuff, so it’s nice that he’s doing that, and you know people are trying to find creative ways to make money, and you can sit and bitch and mow and sit around, wait for your check, and some people, that’s all they have, they don’t have the skill level, or whatever, or they’re not online people, or they’re not technically technologically savvy, or you know what I mean, they don’t have, they don’t have a topic to help people, and so you know those folks, you have to really feel for them, but other people who have certain skills, whether they’re artistic skills or singing skills or dancing skills, or you know, I mean, I might a week or two, I’m gonna teach a mime class online, why not?

Zack Arnold: Oh, dude, you get, you gotta, gotta let me know when you’re doing that. I’ve wanted to learn mine from you for years, I mean,

Tony Horton: So yeah, so people who have certain skills are, I just got off a podcast with a bunch of bricks and mortar trainers and other trainers that are already online, and you know, hey, man, our gym is shut down, what do I do? And I say, well, you got to prepare for the future, and you got to offer some free workouts, and you get, you know, whether it’s Twitter or Instagram Live or Facebook Live, or whatever, if you’re not doing all that stuff already, then you better start, you know what I mean, and so I don’t know. Hopefully, I help some of those folks, and yeah, so there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of slowing down and being quiet and being mindful and meditating and enjoying the downtime, and there’s a lot of people who are really worked up and being more creative and finding ways to to connect with more people, and maybe making a buck here or there as well, because you know this is what we have, that’s all we have, you, me, cuckoo choo, we are the walruses

Zack Arnold: And straight, so what I’m curious about then is looking at just your own view of the world from your home, your office, your zoom camera, whatever, just your own personal perspective. What are the things that have changed about your life since all this happened that you’re saying not really sure I want to give this up when things go back to normal? Like you said, I’ve been staying up later, waking up later, like maybe that’s you finding more what your natural ultradian rhythm is, and you’re more of a night owl, and you’ve had to conform to the way the business runs. So, what are some of the things in your life you’re like, I might want to renegotiate how I do things when, when we go back to doing things normally.

Tony Horton: Well, that’s a great question, Zack. Actually, you know, I wish I had a Tom Petty schedule, you know, I mean, when I was just training Tom, he’d roll out of bed at 11am because he was up till four, because he’s. Rocker, you know what I mean, and I put out the cigarette. Hey, Tony, how are you? Right, let’s.. what do we got? Shoulders and arms today? Here we go. But you have to accommodate other people, right? Just because I want to get.. I want to sleep till 9o’clock and work out at whatever hour of the day, just because I want to. I mean, when things do go back to normal, I’m gonna.. I want to.. you know, the accountability factor is something that I want to try to get a hold of, and you know, people, other people have regular jobs, so the workouts are going to have to go back to 730 in the morning, and, and that’s fine, not all of them, but you know, there’s the nighttime ones as well, you know, and the crazy thing is that my life hasn’t really changed all that much as a result, anyway, because a lot of what I do is already online, I mean, you know, with my brand new supplement stuff, yeah, I’m not driving, I’m not in traffic driving to Calabasas, so if you’re listening, you know, I live in LA, Calabasas is basically LA, but they might as well be like Kansas and Korea, you know, I mean, on a bad traffic day, one direction or the other, so you know, so I get my little booth and I read the voice over copy, or if there’s some on-camera stuff, but I’m doing that in my gym, and I’m doing that in a closet. I’m doing the voiceover stuff in a closet, and you know, with all the free workouts, there’s, you know, I’m in front of a camera or a camera phone more often now than I am during a regular, you know, gigs and working with other companies. The live events are gone right now. I mean, the Paragon stuff has been put on hold. I mean, I have these.. we had one in March that had to be canceled, and I’m.. I’m not so sure about June either. I don’t think.. you know, I don’t know if Joan will be around, and that’s too bad, because I mean, those are just so much damn fun. It’s so great meeting these people, and they’re so fired up and so enthusiastic. Jack and Zack, you’ve been able to help so much there as well. It’s always great having you. I mean, you shot those great promos, which helps bring people here to LA from all around the world, you know. And so, yeah, I mean, but the second half to my answer is the one part of what exists now is sort of the general for me low-grade anxiety, and sometimes it gets up to be I’m never super freaked out, you know, because of my consistent diet, my consistent exercise, and I’ve got a phenomenally supportive, amazing super sonic wife, and my little dog, Charlie. I just eat that boy’s face, I go outside and I run around and I throw balls, and you know what I mean, the fact that the sense that the things hit the bulk of this is passing, and that things are getting better, and that you know it’s too bad that too much of our, too many people in this country, our the fact that they’re like during World War One and World War Two, everybody’s on the same side, everybody’s got a plan. Here’s what we’re going to do. All right, you know, I mean, Vietnam was one of those things where not the case, right? You got some people for the war, some people against the war, and in the end we all realized that was probably not our best idea, you know? I mean, and unfortunately, that’s happening now too. All right, so here we are in the middle of this pandemic, and we got different groups of people on different sides of the aisle, in different states, different mentalities, different, you know, looks in the world who don’t feel the same way about it, you know what I mean, they, and that’s kind of too bad. This should be sort of a universal, you know, here we are, all for one, one for all. This is, this is exactly what we should all be doing and focusing on, and to be even having conversations that, that, that’s that we’re on different pages, disability, that gives me a jitter, you know what I mean, and it’s too bad, so I try to avoid those kinds of conversations, but that I’m look, that I won’t, I will not bring with me, like, just, you know, I sleep pretty well, I can, you know, I can get a good night’s sleep, even now, like I said, it could be a hurricane in a rattlesnake fight out my yard, and I can still sleep pretty well, but I, but I’ve had more sleepless nights in the last five weeks than I’ve had in the last five years, I don’t like those at all. So,

Zack Arnold: Well, it’s like you said, when, when something like this happens, it’s kind of like throwing gasoline on either the bad things that get worse or the good things that get better, right? So, like in our household, one of the things that I’ve noticed is that even though there’s more friction and there’s more stress around, well, my kids are on Zoom and my wife is on Zoom and I’m a non-Zoom, and but I need to use the dishwasher, whatever it is, it’s the little stuff, but I don’t think that the quality of our relationship as a family has ever been better, like so many good things have come out of like strengthening the relationship with my wife, with my kids, so frictions up, you know, there’s like some irritability, like just stop fighting already, right? Like the little stuff, but the important stuff is it’s just like, wow, like there’s so much really, really good stuff coming out of this relationship that we didn’t have the time to pay attention to before, because there was going to soccer practice and going to gymnastics class, and me going to this and me teaching that to my wife doing this seminar, it’s like, oh wait, there is actually a lot of really good foundational love in this family that we just didn’t have the time to see, so to speak, right, but then on a global level, like you said, we’re also seeing the same thing, where even though we are in the, I talked about this in a previous podcast. Talk to a doctor that’s on the front lines, and he says, I don’t like the term social distancing, I like the term physical distancing, because it’s weird, we’re actually socially a lot more connected than before all this all began. That’s one of the things that I’m terrified of losing. I don’t want to lose that, and the more pessimistic side of me is like, well, yeah, as soon as we can all go back to work, all that’s going to go away again, and we’re all going to get too busy, and I want to do something about that, but I don’t, I don’t know what to do about it, right? But I want to see the social connection that’s come out of physical distancing stay there when the physical distancing goes away, but I don’t, I don’t know what that looks like, and I did this, would be maybe another topic to go into as well, and I’m not asking you, thinking you have the answer, because nobody does, but you’re a smart guy, and I like chatting with smart guys. What do you.. how long do you really.. yeah, the guy behind you, right? Not you, the guy behind you, exactly. Anybody listening to this, or like, what’s going on? Anybody watching this, they’ll know what’s going on, but I don’t. My personal feeling is that we’re not going to see normal what it was on march 12, or whatever day was D-Day, for whatever state you’re in. For us, it was march 12 and march 13, where it all kind of shut down. I don’t think we’re going to go back to what that was for a long time. I think it’s going to be like years before we’re actually back to things are exactly the way that they were before. Just, what’s your own personal opinion from what you’re reading, what you’re experiencing? Where you, what do you think this is going to look like for us over the next few months, or even the next year?

Tony Horton: Wow, well, you’re right, nobody really knows, but I think you’re pretty spot on. I don’t, you know, there’s no sort of like everybody says it, Fauci says that, even the president says it, you know, that everybody’s sort of on the same page, it’s not like it’s going to be, hey, you know, on may 19, I think, for myself, and this is probably true for most people, and I’ll get into the what I think will possibly happen, and when, but when, if, and when that thing happens, even if it’s at a very, even if it’s very slowly and gradually I would hope, including myself, that we all have a much greater appreciation for all the things in our life that we probably were taking, taking for granted before. You know what I mean? Like, I think to myself, I think of our Sunday workout. Dude, can you imagine that first time, oh God, in here, like, whole, you know, maybe with masks on, maybe with, you know, six feet apart. I don’t know what it’ll look like, you know, with hand sanitize every time, you know, especially Nathan, if he comes back some kind of crazy thing that he can fight, but, but I just, you know, like the fact getting me on a ski lift again, you know what I mean, or, or just, you know, I mean, I’m, I mean, I had that Ramsey Hunt thing, I’ve got, I’ve got auto, autoimmune issues, you know, I’ve seen bar and bilateral vestibular hypo function, and you know, do those things make me vulnerable to this thing more so than the average person, I don’t, I asked that question, I don’t have an answer for it, you know what I mean. So, I literally, you know, except for my street, I have not left my, my property in five days, in five weeks. I’m sorry. And my wife has ventured out, right? She comes by and she puts the food on this side of the counter with the tape in the center and over here, and she’s washing things off, taking off her gloves and her mask, and you know what I mean. And then I’m afraid to go near for three days, you know, I mean, it’s just a really weird time, and so when all that, all this extra ancillary, goofy stuff feels safer, oh my god, I would just.. and then then you always wonder, well, then we’ll, you know, maybe there’ll be this like two week, three week, four month period where we’re all just super appreciative of everything, and we’re all super conscious, then we’re all, you know, we’re all exercising better, and like, oh my god, can you believe we got through that, and you know, then when we all go back to normal again, like, like this thing never happened. That one thing I’m concerned about, as a, as human beings, we have very short memories, right? I mean, we don’t seem to be learning from history at all, I’ve been watching the Roosevelts, you know what I mean, that four-part series, that Ken Burns four-part series. I just got done with part three, and you just look at what was going on at the end of the 19th century, in the beginning of the 20th century, and in the Roosevelts’ families, and how they, how they were, how they led our country, and you know, I mean, Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt, amazing, amazing, amazing. Who they were and who they became, and what the impact they had on the earth. But we don’t seem to be learning from nothing, you know? I mean, like, we just haven’t learned a damn thing. It was as if the past never happened, which is really too bad. And we’ll see what portions of the population have a very strong memory for what this is, and how it impacted their lives, and how they want to move forward from this point on, and how other ones will be like, yeah, whatever, and then right back to the same old BS they were, you know, scrambling around, being impatient, not being altruistic, not being civil, going back. To the same old, you know, and the funny thing is on my street here, I don’t know if I finished that story, but they closed it down this morning, closed it down, put up signs, a guy there with a yellow vest saying no, no, no, and they’re just people are piling up the bottom of the street, and you’d think that they had cut off an arm, what, what do you mean, all the other ones are closed, what is it? What are we supposed to, what, dude? It’s called sacrifice. Go home, you know what I mean. Yeah, so we’ll see. I mean, at midnight there’s gonna be like 100 guys with bikes and headlights on, you know, like who knows, but but yeah. And that’s what this is about. This is about, yeah, it’s if you want this thing to go away, do the right thing. Don’t be a selfish, okay? That’s that’s it. All right, don’t be a selfish bonehead like you always are. This is a reminder: it ain’t about you, it ain’t about you, it’s about what you need to do, so that the people you come in contact with, whether you’re asymptomatic or otherwise, don’t die, all right? Or you don’t die. It’s simple, like you know, wash your damn hands, don’t touch your freaking face, and stay away from people, and find other things to do, so you don’t turn into a maniac. All right, yeah, because you can’t change that, like all everything, you, you can’t, because that is what that is, you know, I mean, it’s no different than what happened in a war, or the Great Depression, or the Black Plague, or the Spanish flu, I mean, really crappy things happen to people, some people came out of it like heroes, other people were broken forever, and you have to decide which one of those people you want to be.

Zack Arnold: Well, and I think the thing that drives me crazy about everything that you just said, all which is spot on, is I keep hearing this is unprecedented. We’ve never dealt with this before, and I’m like, really, and your wife put on your Facebook page, like the best post, so talk to me a little bit more about that, because what we all need is a little dose of perspective. So let’s just talk about that a little bit, because I think that this, it’s unprecedented. We’ve never been through anything like this. It’s like, yeah, it could be a hell of a lot worse as we sit at home with our mint chocolate chip and our Netflix, waiting for the, you know, the virus to go away, so I can go back to my job. Like, come on.

Tony Horton: Well, you know, we, we’ve touched upon it quite a bit already. But what she basically wrote was, because everybody was, you know, in freak out mode, especially early on. Not that we’ve settled into this thing, and we think it’s this is the new normal. I mean, we’re still not happy with what it is. But Shawna said, yeah, it’s unprecedented, because it gives us an opportunity to be really amazing and really artistic, and, and really find our sense of humor, and reconnect with other people, and, and learn to really love one another, and, and you know, Shaun is reading this amazing book, she goes, I haven’t sat down and read a book cover to cover in forever, like, what a cool opportunity that is, you know, I mean, and then we posted that, and, of course, 13% yeah, well, you’re a millionaire, you know, you get to just sit on your mountaintop, and yeah, like, I don’t have mortgages or bills or pay, and I have, like, yeah, I have money for nothing to do chicks for free. Who are you kidding? You know what I mean. I’m just as wigged out about those situations as you are, you know what I mean? Like, if I was, whether I was living in my one-bedroom apartment with a view of a convalescent home and a broken down Mustang in the driveway with $40,000 in debt, or now it’s the same level of anxiety, because there’s.. I don’t have income either, but I’m doing voiceovers in a closet, right? I’m doing free workouts for people that I don’t have to do, you know what I mean? I’m still training my ass off, probably more than I should be, because it’s the right thing to do, you know, I mean, like, you know, you can line up a bunch of people from all around the world who have, speak different languages, different religions, different perspectives of life, and you could show them right and wrong, solution, problem, and some people would just end up, you know, making their lives worse, and other people will make their lives better than they were before this thing ever happened, you know, me, and that’s what she was basically saying. You can come out of this thing like super cattle fragilistic if you’re, you know, you put your thinking cap on. That’s really what it was about.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, that’s a position that I put myself in. Going back, like we were talking about earlier,

Tony Horton: Not that aren’t going to be moments, you know, you can do everything right, but still you’re going to get punched in the face here and there, like let’s say I got sick, or she got sick, or one of our friends that we know, who we’re really close with, dies from this thing, you know? I mean, it’s like that’s that’s a different.. that’s going to create another, another scenario, and you got to be able to figure out, you know, how do you want to.. how do you want to deal with those really? And there are people who are dealing with that every day, aren’t the men and women in emergency rooms and ICUs, this, these, you know, these healthcare workers that are coming down with this thing, a lot of them are dying, and the people around them that have to see that every day, I mean, they are superheroes, super, these, everybody should get a freaking ass and a giant check, you know what I mean, when the thing is done, honestly, because. Without them, you know, without them, I don’t know. Seem to be really nuts.

Zack Arnold: Yeah. Well, we’ve certainly learned a lot about what positions are truly essential to keep our society running versus those that are non-essential, right?

Tony Horton: Yeah, yeah, like less people I know, like dog walkers,

Zack Arnold: No offense to the dog walkers that might be listening, but

Tony Horton: That’s that, that’s it, or whatever, or like World Wrestling Federation.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, what’s that about? I saw that, that’s considered essential in Florida. Like, what planet are you guys living on? Seriously, yeah, it’s it’s nutty out there.

Tony Horton: Yeah, no comment, bro.

Zack Arnold: Yeah, right. Well, we’ve covered a lot of ground. I very much appreciate all of your time, your advice, your support to you being in there in the Facebook Live community, and getting me off my ass to do my plyo and do my yoga, and all these other things that you know I probably wouldn’t be doing otherwise. So I appreciate all of it. I’m sure everybody that’s listening appreciate all of it. Is there any final thought, word of wisdom that we may have missed that you can impart on the viewers and the listeners.

Tony Horton: No, you know there are two things you can control in life, right? There’s so many things outside of our control, traffic and weather, and worldwide pandemics. You know what I mean, and you do what you can to sort of manage your way through it all, right, by just being a halfway decent human being, being a civil human being, being a loving human being, caring human being, getting your act together enough so that you can begin to focus on other people too. You know, so too many people about I mean, me, I remember that Beatles song, I mean me, I, you know, being selfish doesn’t take you anywhere, it just usually those people who are selfish all the time usually come up short as far as their level of joy and happiness, you can control whether you move physically, and you can control what you put in your mouth, your hands, and your mouth, and the rest of your body are something that are completely under your control. And even though your mind wants to send you in every other direction, you know, if you do exercise five, six days a week, and you eat more vegetables than you do chocolate chip cookies, then you’re going to have the wherewithal to find answers for the things that are outside of your control, and that’s that really is that’s the essence of who you are, right? That’s the essence of who you are as a human being, and your connection with other human beings, right? And so, why not? You know, and you know, short-term pleasures will lead to long term problems and short term bouts of discomfort, and strategizing and thinking and challenging yourself and searching for those solutions and making connections with other people and having hard decisions to make always lead to some sort of amazing result. You know what I mean, and so you have to decide, you know, which of those two people you want to be, and I hope for those of you that are watching, Zack and I, that that you hunker down and you and you start dealing with the things that you can control, moving your body and eating right, and then everything else, because that’s the foundation of who we are as human beings, right? I mean, look at me, see my student with a speech impediment who should have been living in a van down by the river, you know, I mean, and I work out and I eat right, and so all of a sudden I get off my ass and be something, you know what I mean. So there you go, there you go. I love it. My parting words,

Zack Arnold: I appreciate it. Why my parting words is I wanted to thank you personally, because I think a big reason that I’m able to weather the storm at the level and capacity I have been able to are the many lessons that you have imparted on me over first the 10 years that we didn’t know each other but I knew of you, but when I think about the whether it’s the peg board or the rope or the ninja course or whatever it is, yeah, I’ve got, you know, slimmer, you know, nice looking biceps and forearms, and there’s some tone there, but the thing that’s really changed is my approach to when I feel fear and my ability to overcome it, and just me looking at a pegboard and being terrified and saying I can’t looking at

Tony Horton: It comes across, just think of these three words, peg beam rope

Zack Arnold: Exactly, and when I look at everything going on, I’m like, if I can do peg beam rope every Sunday and survive, I can handle a little tiny itsy bitsy global.

Tony Horton: I’m telling you, man, whatever that particular exercise, and I won’t lie to you, because I haven’t done it on my own in six weeks, that it seems it’s going to be, feel a little intimidating. It’s going to feel like that that damn beam going up that thing 17 feet off the ground, and then you got a grip and reach, or that damn bell couldn’t be far enough away. And then did it, and then

Zack Arnold: Now you know how I feel every Sunday. I see that thing in my nightmares every Saturday night, but the point is

Tony Horton: Exercise that’s because you can break a leg.

Zack Arnold: Oh, literally, very easily

Tony Horton: Unconscious, you can, you could literally die doing that exercise. There are in a few guys close like. That’s why we got the Chad Pad down there.

Zack Arnold: Yes, exactly. But the point being that whatever’s happening from a physiological perspective in my brain, when I have to confront that survival instinct, you’ve taught me how to better manage that, which works in so many other facets of life beyond peg beam rope. So, I, my parting words is, I wanted to make sure to thank you for that. Personally, I very much appreciate it, and I very much appreciate you taking the time today, and I’m sure everybody listening appreciates this as well. So, thank you so much,

Tony Horton: Zachary. Thank you, dude. Be well. We’ll continue to communicate, I’m sure. And you know, one of these days we’ll be here. Thank you, being real.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Episode Credits

This episode was edited by Curtis Fritsch, and the show notes were prepared and published by Glen McNiel.

The original music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Joe Trapanese (who is quite possibly one of the most talented composers on the face of the planet).