I first met Tony Newman when I attended a training course he was instructing as a part of some self directed continuing education. He and his training partner at the time had come highly recommended to me by a colleague and I wasn’t disappointed.

My next contact with Tony was some years later when my girlfriend at the time was looking for a coach to lift her physical training to the next level.

I had heard Tony had opened his own crossfit facility and I recommended she check him out.

I trained with her and Tony intermittently so we managed to keep in some semi regular contact.

One night Tony and his beautiful wife Joy came over for dinner and he relayed a story to me about the time he was arrested for trying to assassinate the president of the Phillipines!

I thought this story had a lot more to offer than just dinner conversation so I was keen for him to share it, and the learnings he has had from that experience and the learnings from the course of his varied life.

In this podcast you will hear how Tony grew up an active child of ten siblings, became a successful entrepreneur and ended up opening a bodyguard training facility in the Phillipines. From here he was arrested by corrupt government officials and then lived in Manila for a year with a contract on his life. Upon his return Tony opened his fitness facility and developed a passion for nutrition

Given this broad span of knowledge and experience, and his dedication to helping others. I was keen to unpick what insights he had for a wider audience.

My key takeaways are that finding reasons to help others is a good countermeasure for depression; break down large goals into a series of smaller goals and keep achieving them is a good countermeasure to being overwhelmed; body composition is 80% nutrition and the countermeasure for obesity is managing carbohydrate intake.

Don’t be fooled by the chilled kiwi accident and understated approach, this guy has been through the wringer and lived to tell the tale.