Your Mind Cannot Outperform a Body That’s Breaking Down #661

Most men try to outthink exhaustion. They read more, grind harder, and wonder why they still feel flat. Here’s the truth, your mind can’t outperform a body that’s breaking down.

In this episode, Lachlan breaks down the real mind-body connection and why recovery isn’t a reward, it’s part of the work. He shares lessons from 58 marathons, over 640 podcast episodes, and coaching more than a thousand men on how to rebuild energy, resilience and rhythm.

You’ll learn:

• The 3 steps to keep your body and mind in sync
• How to avoid burnout by training recovery like a skill
• Why movement is medicine (and how to track it properly)

If you’ve ever chased success at the cost of sleep, patience or peace, this one’s for you.

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Chapters

• 1:29 Opening And Episode Focus
• 2:24 Blue Mountains Leadership Retreat
• 4:21 Book, Documentary, And Upcoming Workshops
• 5:02 Personal Life And Training Update
• 6:22 Why Mind And Body Must Align
• 8:17 Recovery Lessons From 58 Marathons
• 10:42 The Grind Myth And Burnout
• 12:14 Integration Across Life Domains
• 14:23 Client Story: Movement Before Mindset
• 17:17 Standards Over Motivation
• 18:55 Three Pillars: Move, Recover, Track Energy
• 21:14 Wearables, Data, And Sleep Triggers

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:59

Welcome back to the Man the Cam project. I just want to give you a quick update before we get into today's episode. Now, today's episode is really important for you to listen to. The reason why I think it's so important is because we're talking about the mind and body connection. It's something that it's almost like the chicken and the egg, which one deserves the priority and which one comes first. It's also something that many people ask me, was it more mental or was it more physical in the 58 marathons? My response, it's 100% of both, because it really is. It's very important for us as individuals and as men to recognize that in order for us to mentally be as sharp as we possibly can be, we need to be as fit as we can be. And how that works is by the training that you do, the recovery that you invest in. And that means not just being passive recovery, we got to be active on that recovery. So we'll dive into that and make sure you stick around for that one. I just got back from the Blue Mountains and it was an incredible couple of days down there. I went down there to do a leadership retreat, and that was run by James Castressen. Now, if you haven't heard of James, he was someone that my videographer told me about on the 58 marathons. He's like, mate, have you heard of James Castressen? He's someone that my videographer band looked up to. And then I heard about him when I got back. Client mentioned him. And then another mate who I did a keynote with mentioned him. I was like, if everyone keeps mentioning this guy, I'm going to look him up. Anyway, I did that. Then I was fortunate that the same guy from Twomba who asked if I'd meant him was like, mate, we're running, he's doing a retreat down there with a couple of Twomba's Twumba business owners. You should come down. And I was like, sure, I've heard his name, I'm keen to hear his story and see what he does, and I'm definitely going to learn something. This guy is incredible, and he's one of the nicest blokes and most knowledgeable blokes that I've had the pleasure of meeting in a long while. He special or he was the first person with his mate and a Swedish backpacker to unassistedly do the South Pole to North Pole return trip. He also bloody kayaked or rode from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. And the story of that just was mind-numbing. But I took away so much just around leadership qualities, how you can run events like we were doing this uh workshop on one day, then the next day we're ab sailing down 30 meter cliffs. Not something I'd ever thought I would do, and it scared the crap out of me. Wow, but it was awesome. It was also great seeing other men who were there with us and women push themselves, right? Challenge themselves in a way that they hadn't challenged themselves before. So that was really eye-opening, and I was grateful to be a part of that. And it's given me a lot of ideas for 2026 with the Man That Cam project. So hang on to your seats, guys, because we will have workshops back, that is for sure. Other updates, the book's coming along very well. I've got a meeting with my publisher tomorrow, and I'm actually at a point where I'm really enjoying the process of writing the book. So the framework that I'm going with is states of mind. That's the name of the book, and that's going to be the name of the documentary. And what that looks like is each chapter is a state of mind. It's a state of conviction, state of belief, etc. And we have stories around the run that go into that. So if you do want to obviously jump on the list to pre-order it and be part of that whole process and help us push it towards a number one, which is a goal, make sure you just look at the links in the bio and you can do that, or head over to my Instagram, and it's in the stand store link there. Other things, Amy, we have a scan on Thursday, which is 26 weeks now, I think 25, 26, one of those. And wow, it's it's starting to get real. It was a lot of the conversations that we had around the campfires over the weekend. I was picking dad's brains. I was asking, you know, what is it like? Like, do you lose your driving career because you just want to spend all your time with children? What else should I be prepared for? All of those sorts of things. And I'm sure you guys have been through before. And that's really a bit of an update. Oh, one final bit. Training program started again today, so I'm very pumped about that. Kicked off with a 10-kilometer run this morning. So the goal now with this block for the next four weeks is building speed and getting that strength back and mobility. So that's going to be leading me towards another goals, which I'll be announcing you know next year, early next year. But speed is going to be very important. Remaining injury free is going to be very important and just enjoying it, right? Really, really enjoying it. And that's what we're going to dive into now with the mind and body episode. Thank you guys for being here once again. Make sure you subscribe if you want to don't want to miss an episode. And if you are considering doing some work with me in 2026, head to the link in the bio and you'll be able to do all of that sort of stuff. Take the seven domain scorecard to see where you're drifting and where you're thriving. Let's get into it. We live in a world obsessed with grit, mindset, and resilience. And don't get me wrong, those things matter. But here's what I've learned through both coaching and endurance. Your mind can't outperform a body that's breaking down. My name's Laughlin Stewart, and I am a life coach who specializes in helping men grow from the inside out so they can be strong in their body, calm in their mind, clear in their purpose, and confident in their life. And by building these principles and these foundations, we can go on to have greater impact not only in our immediate community, but in the world around us. And it's one thing that I'm extremely passionate about, which has led me to recording over 640 episodes, working with over a thousand men running retreats in Australia. And what I'm excited to talk to you today is around the connection between the mind and body and why it is so important and how many men isolate them, which ends up leading them to burnout. See, most men treat the mind and body like they're completely separate. They'll train the body in the gym and the mind with books and podcasts, which is brilliant, but they don't understand that they're one system, one feedback loop. So if you push one too far, the other one is eventually gonna fail. And real strength, sustainable strength, is built through rhythm. So we look for stress, recovery, and adaptation. I've never really understood how some blokes chase success while completely neglecting their physical health. When I look at it from a logical perspective, I can, but they'll pour energy into work, into their family, into side projects, but skip the sleep, skip meals, skip movement, and they call it the grind. It's like trying to win a race with an empty tank. Your body is the vehicle and your mind is the driver, is what I like to keep telling myself. They always reach the destination together. So you can't think clearly when you're exhausted, when you're anxious, and when you're inflamed. You can't perform when your nervous system's stuck in overdrive. The foundation of mental performance is physical consistency. There was a period in the 58 marathons where I had, I was about 27 marathons in, which is mind-blowing in itself. But off the back of that, I was building momentum, I was building confidence. But what I failed to recognize was just how important it was to be intentional with my recovery. The harder I pushed, the more depleted my mind and my body became. But I was neglecting the recovery in the beginning because I was able to get away with it for a short period. Then I noticed that I wasn't able to sleep at certain points. I'd pull the duner up because we were sleeping in freezing temperature. And I just remember every time I moved and just having the pressure of the sheet and the duner on my feet would wake me up and it would shoot pain up my body. I would wake up the next morning and I'd feel extremely tight and instantly cramped because I wasn't being intentional with my recovery, right? I wasn't fueling well straight after the race. I wasn't getting my sodiums, sorry, my sodium and potassium up to help with recovery. And I was feeling it. And it was when one of my physios called me and he said, Lockie, you don't have the stores banked up now to get away with skipping recovery. You have to be intentional and you have to treat it like part of the work. And that was a really big learning experience for me from a physical element, and I know that that happens in many different domains in our life. In the beginning, we can get away with small lapses in intention, but eventually it's going to come back and bite us on the ass if we consistently neglect the things we know we need to do to get an outcome. So some of the mistakes I see high-performing men make all the time is chasing big goals while skipping the basics. They'll grind through 12-hour days, sleep five hours, it's like a badge of honor, and they'll live off caffeine and convince themselves that that is what success takes. Like it's mind-blowing. I used to be that guy, but here's the truth: effort without recovery leads to exhaustion, it leads to burnout. Discipline without rest leads to burnout. Ambition without balance leads to collapse. It's not a question of if it catches up with you, it's when. High performance isn't about working harder, it's about working in the rhythm. We got to push, we got to recover, we got to adapt. Most importantly, we've got to repeat. That's what rhythm is. It separates sustainable success from self-destruction. I remember when I first even started out in business, this is a completely different field and a line of thought, and maybe you'll resonate with this. When I first started out in business, I didn't have really the best skill set, I didn't have a brand, and I didn't know how I was gonna keep this thing off the ground. So I believed in the grind, I believed in hustle, and there was a time and a place for that. But what I found out over the course of the following or upcoming 12 months was that I isolated that area of my life. I believed everything had to be revolving around business from cold calling to networking to trying to deliver sales to learning to upskill. And as a result, I sacrificed other areas of my life from my relationship to my health, even stopped watching footy. Now, for some of you, that might not be a big deal, but I didn't watch rugby league or rugby union for about two years, and I love sport. And so, sacrificing that to build business, yes, you could say it was necessary, but it started making me unrelatable to people. And I found this out when I was at a barbecue one day, and all the boys were talking about footy and what was going on, and I just felt like such an outsider because all I had to talk about was work. So, in that social setting, I didn't know what had been going on in the sport. I wanted to, but I just was like, fire out. I wasn't able to connect with my mates and chat with my mates because I'd been so focused, and it was a great reminder that you can still chase success, you can still grow in an area, but you must make sure you're integrating the rest of your life because when I'm at a barbecue, right, being a mate, I'm still a business owner and I'm still a husband and I'm still an entrepreneur and I still have my fitness goals and ambitions. Just like when I'm at work, I'm still a mate, I'm still a husband, I'm still all of these other roles, and you need to work out how they can integrate so that when you're doing one, it's charging and lifting up those other areas, and that was a huge learning point for me. I'd love to hear from yourself if you've ever isolated an area to the point where you've lost or other areas of your life have broken down. It's one of the reasons why the seven domain scorecard is so great because it will, in under three minutes, help you see where you're leading and help you see where you're drifting, and then it will give you some prompts around what you could do to get back on track and improve that so you don't get to that breaking point that many people get to before they change anything. So I have that in the show notes if you want to check that one out. It's completely free. It takes under three minutes and it'll really give you something to work off. Another great story was one of my clients about two years ago, he complain uh sorry, came to me completely flat, right? He'd changed careers, stopped training, and over 18 months he'd gained 23 kilos, right? His energy was gone, his confidence was shot, and even he said, looking in the mirror makes me feel heavy, and I was thinking, man, that must be weighing you down. So we didn't necessarily start with the mindset work, we started with movement. It's such an important part to get right. So when I'm talking about strong embody and with my clients that I work with, a lot of men will come to me because, and this is this is real data, actually, I'm going to share with you, because their marriage is falling apart, their wife has finally said, I've had enough. And if I'm being completely honest, when that's happened, generally it's a decision that was made 18 months ago. It was just that the confidence has come now to really, you know, and exit that, and it's really hard to get back. So that's why it's so important to be intentional on that. But the second one is because men have sacrificed so much to become successful on paper, they're feeling unfulfilled, and they know that when they're out challenging themselves physically, they're looking good in the mirror and they're comfortable in their skin. It's a platform to take risks in other areas of your life. So when I say to you, if you're listening to this right now, do you feel strong in your body? You may be thinking, Well, I don't really know what that means. Well, strong in your body means you're strong, capable, and competent to do the physical things that you want to do. You feel comfortable when you walk past the mirror naked, right? That's some of those things. Because if you don't, we got to start there because when you get the body moving, the mind will follow. And so with this client, we started with four simple training sessions a week. Eight hours of sleep a night was what we were tracking. Real food instead of the convenient servo food. And within two weeks, his energy had shifted. By day 45, he was moving differently, and around day 60, he dropped eight kilos. Eight kilos, but more importantly, he'd regained that belief and that flowed into everything else. He showed up sharper at work, he was more patient at home, he carried himself differently. Like you could see there was a spring in his step. He didn't need a new mindset, he needed his body back online, and once that happened, that was when his mind started to follow because they are connected. So I'd love for you to think about that in your own life. What structure do you need to put in place that if you get your body moving, because motion creates emotion, what would you need to do that is going to sharpen you up, have you feeling confident and ready to be a better husband, a better business owner, chase your physical goals, and really just get out there and build the life that you want to live. Need to think about that. And it's not about, and I would say suggest what are the standards that you have. And I do have other podcast episodes talking about standards that you have. So you can go search for that one in the catalog. With that, you think about do you want to have poor standards? Poor standards would be the man who says, Oh, you know, I'll exercise next week. I'll exercise when I feel like it, I'll exercise when it's convenient, as opposed to the person with exceptional standards, high standards, who says, I exercise five days a week regardless of what's going on. It's a staple of what makes me me. So I want you to think about that for yourself. And there is science that backs this up. That's always the better part, right? It's there is so much behind it, but research by Kelman and Callis found that mental resilience directly correlates with physical recovery. So you think about your sleep, your nutrition, and your training balance, all important things. So in plain English, your ability to handle stress depends on how well you can recover from it. Think about that. Recovery isn't passive, it's an active driver of performance. You can't think your way out of burnout, it's just not possible. You have to rest your way through it. Recovery isn't the war reward, it's part of the work. So I want you to remember that. So three things that will help you with the mind and body loop. Firstly, is move daily. Movement is medicine. You don't need to destroy yourself. Don't think about it like that. But just be consistent. Find something that you enjoy. So mix strength training, mobility, and endurance. When your body moves, your mind is going to follow. Motion creates emotion. Secondly, respect recovery. So sleep, nutrition, and downtime are not signs of weakness. They're the foundation of resilience, right? Rest isn't something you earn, it's something that you schedule. And I want you to think about this for those of you who are asking, how do I track that? I use, well, if you look at me, I'm double watched, right? I was speaking to a client before and I said, Do you use any wearables? And he said, No, but I'm thinking about getting an Apple Watch. Now, there are so many wearables, so I'm not going to promote any, but I'll just share why I use it and what I use. But I use the Apple Watch, obviously a watch face, but it's great for my running. I love it for that. Uh, and battery life is pretty good. And it does give me some data, but mainly I just want to use it to track my runs. The one that I really use and I think the data is phenomenal is the Whoop. It gives you an incredible dashboard on your phone so you can check everything from resting heart rate to how your sleep is to your heart rate, very like all of the things around physical health and longevity. It's mind-blowing the data, and I do believe that the earlier you start doing it, it's only going to help you when you get older. Just like doing blood work. I think about if I had blood work when I was 20, I've been doing it for maybe the last since 2019. So I've got a couple of years, but even this whoop, I've had it for about five years. So I've got five years of worth of data from activity, sleep, recovery, all of those insights that will help me when I'm older, and there is more use for that data for doctors to go, hey, give us a bit of a history for yourself. So that's something to consider when you're thinking about that. So look into wearables and maybe understand why you would want one if it's valuable for you or not. But I I do genuinely believe it's something that is worthwhile having. And the third and final step is track energy, not just output. You can't pour from an empty cup. So notice what fuels you and what drains you. Do an energy order, right? This is one of the greatest things you can do. So whether you do it weekly or monthly, but people, habits, routines that give you energy versus the one that steals it, right? We all have those people that steal our energy whenever we're around them, we just walk away feeling extremely zapped. And then there's people when we're around them, we're just pumped up, we're energized. So start making note of that, right? These are patterns that you can use to build your environment, build your energy, and set yourself up for more success. So that awareness alone is gonna change how you show up massively. One thing that I've realized is that whenever I eat dessert too close to bed, I have the worst sleep. My mind's super active, and I wake up the next morning super groggy, and it always happens. And when I first realized it, I was like, maybe that's it. And I could start logging stuff on my whoop, like actual inputs, but then I started testing it. I would have dessert around 8 p.m. and go to bed around 9 p.m. And I would always have an active mind those nights. I could just be on thinking and I was like, man, am I stressed? Am I anxious? What's going on? And it's just because my bloody brain was lit up from all the sugar, and in the morning I just feel restless, like groggy, and I hadn't really slept well. So I started realizing if I wanted to wake up, look, I'm not saying I take dessert out because I love dessert and I do, but if I have a busy day the next day and I know that I need to be on, I know that I need to perform well, I'll just make sure that I don't have the sweets the night before. And these are the things that I look at as one percenters to make sure that you're allowing yourself to perform at the best level to create the life that you want. So we're almost about to wrap up, but when you ignore your physical health, it always catches up. Fatigue becomes your normal, you lose patience with people, especially the ones that you care about, and you start making reactive decisions instead of intentional ones. You end up showing up to life on half the battery, and the ultimate cost, you lose your edge mentally, physically, emotionally, until you barely recognize yourself. We all say, I'll rest when things slow down, but they never do. There's always the next thing coming on your plate, right? Burnout doesn't ask for permission, it forces you to stop. I want you to reflect on a moment in your life where you hit that wall, maybe when you almost quit. When you master the rhythm of stress and recovery, everything will change for you. I promise you. You perform more consistently, you make better decisions, you feel grounded, right? Feel at peace, calm, and especially under pressure. You stop chasing energy and start creating it. That's when your body and your mind operate as one. Calm, capable, consistent. The goal is never to work harder, it's to operate in harmony. So when your body and mind move together, you achieve more with less stress. If you feel like you've drifted from your best self, it starts with clarity. I want you to take the seven domain scorecard. It's literally free. It takes three minutes to audit to see exactly where you're thriving and where you've slipped out of the rhythm. Get your body and mind back on the same team. My name's Lachlan Stewart. If you've got value from this, make sure you subscribe, you share, you leave a comment even in below. Like, what did you take away from this? What questions do you have? If you put them in the comments, I will always respond. And even if you ask bigger questions, it could potentially turn into an episode like this. Thank you for being here. We will see you next week.