The Painting and Decorating Show on Fixed Radio. Welcome to the Painting and Decorating
Show. I'm Joel Barder with tov On. Joel. As always, on
today's show, we'll talk about physical exercise and staying fit because I'm you know,
perfect example that and I right, it's massively important for both our physical
and mental health to try and stay fit and do something physical. But it
is our day job physical enough as it is. And what's the benefits of
having a physical hobby away from the trade. How do we balance this with
our professional lives. Well, we're going to talk to some decorators on today's
show about what physical exercise they do and why, and what's it going to
be talking to you as well, Todd, You're going to be telling us
a bit as well. Fixed Radio time to crack on. So, Todd,
I was just saying, there, mate, you're you're obviously keeping fit
into your physical exercise, and I know you said quite a few times you're
really into your boxing as well. So can you tell us a bit about
your experiences with boxing in a bit more detail? I certainly can. Joel.
Good to be back, Mako, to see you again. This my
friend. Yeah, I've been back in the gym recently boxing again. I
did have a period of time out due to personal, physical and mental circumstances,
but I'm back in the mix now, prompted by my high cholesterol diagnosis.
You're looking good, mate, I've got to say as well, because
I know you've been You've been doing well with this, with the diet and
stuff. But it's noticeable now that you was. Not that you didn't look
any good shape beforehand, but you know, but you look. You look
even sweeter now, you look even more like the housewives choice. You know.
I'm definitely more of a Tyson Theory than Andy Joshua physique wise, but
I have not a bit of timber because when I saw the eating out a
bit and then, like I said, got back on the boxing, I
promptly lost the stone quite quickly, you know what I mean, because the
training is intense and yeah, yeah, I'm passionate to talk about. I
mean, I've got involved in boxing and it was a positive change in my
lifestyle. So let's say that I was living not to my full potential,
and actually I was even maybe on the wrong side of the line. And
my social activities were the same and when I got into boxing, it gave
me sitting to do which had the edge and excitement, but the sort of
buzz that I was getting before from activities I shouldn't have been doing, but
free of her constructive way, and it didn't involve drink, it didn't involve
drugs, and any of the sort of violence and chaos was controlled inside inside
a ring, rather disciplined, and you're getting your release in aggression, but
in the right way. And it really I just got the buzz because it
was enough that intensity and the jeopardy of getting knocked out and the and the
spar in itself, that buzz was enough to supplement the bus that I was
missing from storting myself out, if that makes sense. And obviously there's the
physical advantages of like just getting fit, losing a bit of weight, being
in a bit of better shape and stuff. But there's also a lot more
that goes on in establishments like a boxing gym, and I believe we'll touch
on that in a bit more detail with later on in the show. No,
that's great stuff, mate. I remember my I told about my like
my granddad before in the past, the one to cut his finger off when
he used to do is a roofer, but he McClay in the mill where
he was like featherweight. He would have been like featherweight sort of with boxing,
but he used to be. He fought like professional at one point.
But he used to fight as well. He used to do like these circus
things that go around where he could be to fight the crowds and stuff.
That's what he used to do as well back in the day. So yeah,
so I'm big in the fifties and sixties. I think that people might
know that from some one of the million cray films that are out there,
but they would go and do that. You could go and take on the
sort of champion when it stays on and if you beat him, you get
a load get out of money. But I think boxing was much more prevalent
then. Yeah, you do be like kick boxing world. I started off
kickboxing and then my legs I got hernies and my growing because I kept tearing
the tissue from the kicks. And then I moved over to boxing, and
I actually preferred the boxing, I must say, yeah, but I started
off kitboxing, much to the annoyance of all my boxing coaches, because you
pick up habits that aren't conducive with boxing, and there's a bit of rivalry
there. Yeah, I am. I've never really been into anything like that.
I remember at one point, going back a few years ago, my
mate started doing what were they doing, I carn't remember what it is now,
some sort of mixed martial arts being. They going, oh, come,
come, you come like that, and I'm like, I don't know.
I might do one day, but then I'd see him and their faces
were absolutely battered and mashed, like black eyes, all the lips of bust
open and offul No, you're all right, you know, I mean they've
paid to go someone and get my face caved in, you know what I
mean? All right, Okay, We'll have some guests join us to talk
about keeping fit as a decorator. After Paul Simon You Can Kill Me All
Painting and Decorating show on Fixed Radio, I'm Joel Barder with Tob and Joel,
and we've asked decorators to join us a day to tell us how they
keep fit and why they do this away from the already physical nature of what
we do. Join us. First of all is friend of the show and
do you like select creator Sean Kelly so, Sean, you go out road
cycling quite a bit and you're part of a club. How did you get
into this and why is it a good way to keep fit? I got
involved in road cycling in twenty eighteen. A friend of mine, he I've
known for many, many years, he saw me quite overweight and just said
to me one day to go up for a bike ride. But I didn't
even have a bike, but I knew, but I knew he did,
and I don't know what. I vividly remember the first the first bike ride
I went out with him. It was just an eight mile bike ride,
and you know what, it nearly killed me, but but I felt the
benefits of it, just being away from your mobile phone, being out in
the fresh air, and yeah, it just something something happened on that day
that made me think, do you know what, I'm going to give this.
I'm going it's going to give it a crack. And I went out,
I think a few days later, and bought myself a decent a decent
bike, and yeah, I was hooked. They're quite expensive those bikes as
well, aren't they. Yeah again, I guess my first bike was about
nine hundred and fifty quid but but since then, I guess with the having
the bug again, I did buy a bike a couple of years ago.
That yeah, seven and a half grand? What wow? I know if
I spend that money, you want to go and pedal on its own money
on a bloody van, let alone a bike seven and a half grand.
It's more expensive than my motor, my missus motor, have my phone and
all the electrical items in my house. You need to have a words the
word wow. Yeah, that's a serious amount of money. So sure.
So cycling could be a fairly dangerous hobby. Have you had any injuries or
do you worry about having an accident that could take you off the tols?
Up until October last year, I've been very lucky. A few of us
went out and we did one hundred miles down to from Hertford year down into
Surrey and back. Sorry I stopped. You rode one hundred miles on a
bike that's been rallies with them, conflate things and when they called it in
remember do you remember the spinners? Yea and reflected light. That's as much
as drew long. Does a hundred miles on a bike take about six hours?
They were about there are about eight of us, and so you just
take it in turns and if you're if you're in the middle, you just
almost like you just get drafted along. And so yeah, we went out
and we did. We went down down to Surrey and came back and I
was I was buzzing. But unfortunately this following day you just need to sort
of just turn the turn the legs a little bit, give it a little
bit of just to unwind and relax. And so I did a fifteen mile
loop from home to Saint Alban's and I'm just coming down this road of his
car. I could see, I could see what he was doing in slow
motion, and I was thinking, please don't pull out, Please don't pull
out. Unfortunately he pulled out. I went cracking into him. I broke
four ribs, I punctured my lung and I got elasorrated. Sydney, where
was this reason me? This is in October last year, flipping it?
Man? Did he stop? So? I was, y did yeah,
yeah, yeah, he stopped. The exchanged details. I then got transported
off to to what the general. I then tried ringing him about a week
later just to say that against that exchange, details. The details were incorrect
that he gave me. So I am to the police are investigated at the
moment where it's still still investigate thing. But but yeah, I was work
from October till just before Christmas last year. So yeah, so the best
part two months work and it was it was a psychological effects more than the
more than the physical effects of just even now I'm cycling along and I'm thinking,
God, is that car going to pull out on me? Did the
bike? Did the seven and a half grand bike sustaining any damage? During
the question that luckily I was on the seven and a half ground bike,
but it was on the four and a half ground bikes. Hang about,
You've got a nine hundred pound bike, a four and a half ground bike,
and a seven and a half ground bike, and I've got two other
boys, and I've got a pandem. My gosh if one's been serviced.
So I'm like, I'll have I'll have a planic and say you've got these
somewhere like secure because this sounds like a face dream. You go in and
get the jackpot. You've got all these bikes? Oh yeah, yeah,
there there they're in my flat And I honestly I'm just like, they're behind
lock and key, and I just yeah, they're very rarely, yeah,
but yeah they again, that's just yeah. Luckily, I guess I've had
got a nice collection of them now that I guess two of them. Two
of them are winter bikes, two of them are summer bikes, and then
two are just the sort of fun really just sentimental value because like in twenty
nineteen, I did the jew Lux Ultra Revolution, so that was one hundred
and eighty five miles in one day, wow on man. And so I'll
never yeah, I'll never get rid of that bike, just because it's just
it's got its sentimental back. It's probably attached to you. It's now after
an absolutely the saddle still road. But let's not even go there, right,
I'm going, I'm glad you're okay now after that accident, because that
sounds horrendous. I mean, it must just just don't worry you've been off
work for an amount of time because I'm assuming, I mean, it's it's
not really I don't know, is there like an insurance being involved with it
or do you just literally just there's nothing you can do if you have an
accident like that. Well, should be a club cyclist in the UK.
You need British Cycling membership. Right to have British Cycling membership comes with or
a free legal cover, so free the free legal cover comes with the insurance
and stuff like that. So so I guess luckily the British Cycling of taking
up my claim to a finder driver and and obviously then see if there's prosecution.
But but then yeah again again that those those two months I was off
work. Yeah, I wasn't getting paid while I was there, So yeah,
I guess it is it is in your mind when when when you're cycling
to think and I want any injuries that you that you pick up, will
will could prevent me from what him? Yeah, but I suppose it's the
pros and consto, isn't it. I suppose it's the like I say,
it's the health benefits for mentally and physically by the sound of it. But
also it's all you've got that risk factor as well, so I can kind
of understand it. But so sure so obviously that we know how much of
a workout that has been on the on the bike, so how much of
a workout is decorating for you? And does one ever cancel the others out.
Yeah, I guess. I guess when when I'm working outside, I
yeah, get running up and down ladders all day. I guess I'm very
lucky by by doing that, it gives me a lot of a physical I
guess physically, I'm it allows me to when I get on the bike,
I know I've had a little bit of a warm up. So again,
like today, I've been running up and down ladders. This afternoon the season,
I'll go out for a fifteen mile bike ride and I feel fairly fit
already because because I've been running up and down that A lot of the lads
that I cycled with in the club that maybe office space and they don't they
don't get out on the bike that often. So so I gets luckily,
I've got a bit of a head start. And one. Yeah, I'd
like to think that by having a job that is physically demanding does help me.
It does help me to to to become a stronger cyclist. Well,
I'd actually bet that you've probably got the sexiest legs and all the decorating trade
from doing all that work, mate, and cycle the weekend. I'll show
you nice one, Shan. Well, thank you so much for your time
today. We always appreciate it, mate, absolute pleasure. Listen, go
to catch up cheer Sean Fixed Radio. This is the Painting and Decorating Show
and we're talking to decorators about what they do to keep fit away from the
tools. And join us now is Peter Whiter, who's been in the trading
construction for twenty plus years. Peter, thanks for joining us. So you
have a small home gym and you go to the gym fairly often. What
are you doing in the gym to keep fit and how does it help with
with the day job. The hardest thing is trying to find the time to
do it. And lucky enough, I got small gym in the bottom of
my garden. So what I tend to do. I've got a TV and
I put on a YouTube channel and I've got a few dumb bells. So
what I do is follow the YouTube channels. Were the workout videos? It's
the workout videos kind tensity. Okay, got emos we heard of emos before
emos And the kids are painting their fingernails black. Is that what you do?
So? Yeah? So yeah, I mean it's almost like high intense
you're training it could be demanding, especially after a hard day's graft. Yeah.
Yeah, so that's kind of like the hardest thing is finding the motivation
to do it. Yeah. You obviously you're a painting and decorate, but
you do plastering as well. So imagine you're stamining them. Has to be
on the top of its game to sort of keep up doing both of those
trades. Well. Yeah, when when you're plastering, once you start mixing
up your plaster, you're kind of like you're you're in it. You can't
really don't have a cup of tea and have a sandwich and come back to
it later. It's not like that. Yeah, so you have to be
it's it's it's demanding. But so it's decorating, you know. It's like
when you're rolling seedings, even when you're spraying or you're on your knees rubbing
down skirtains on the stairs do it. It's just a hard work. Whatever
graft it is, it's hard work. Yeah. So I mean, I'm
what I'll be fifty nine soon, So once you get to a certain age,
you want to be a to like climb up them doors, run up
them stairs. I can't wear long trowsers, because when you're bending down,
I just get so restricted. So I tend to wear shorts pretty much all
the way through the year. And you know what it's like bending down all
the time. It's trousers are so tight around the knees and they don't stretch
something unless you're going to spend under and twenty odd quid on a pair of
trousers. Yeah, when you're decorating and it's smothered in paint and yeah,
well unless you anyway, you like you could wear your like crow that you
work out in invest in your so you also run about twenty five kilometers a
week. How do you keep discipline with that and also keep that going throughout
the year as the weather changes. So you have to invest in the proper
training equipment. So trainers are really important. I buy for the winter,
normally wear Gorde text running trainers. But I do a lot of trail So
the trails are generally like really muddy in the winter when it's snowing. You
need to have protection. You have to keep one, especially in the winter.
But it's about the layers. I tend to go over to the forests
or the parks and stuff like that. And for me going now and send
the season changes is beautiful. So well when the spring comes, all the
trees changing. When now the season is changing, now it's getting wet and
damply, you can smell the compost, so as you're running through the whole
smell of the forest is completely changes. But you're generally, Yeah, it's
really important to make sure that you've got the right clothes. But motivation is
key, really is. So what are some basic things we should all do
as decorated to keep limber while we're working. Basic things. What I do
is before you go to bed is to tem press ups tents it ups and
in thirty seconds plank. That helps me sleep. But ultimately what I tend
to do is again stretching, just doing the basic stretching. Like you can
get YouTube videos and you can follow a stretch program. There's thousands of them
on YouTube. Like just just stretching your calves, your your hamstrings, your
backs really important, even like stretching your your your calves and your wrists.
I mean, ultimately, you know what we'd like with our wrists. We
have to keep stretching our wrists and our forearms. To stretch yourself, Yeah,
your neck. Yeah, your shoulders, everything, that's the key point
in there. Plenty of stretching. Yeah, it's great advice. Well,
Peter, thank you so much for joining us. Make really appreciate it,
no problem. Thanks nice on Peter and Painting and Decorating shows on fixed Radio.
You're listening to the Painting and Decorating Show. I'm Joel Barter with Tob
and Joel and join us now to talk about keeping fit and healthy is Jennifer
Garner. Hello, Jen faks for joining us now. Jen. We've talked
to other decorated today about what they do to stay fit, but you've actually
had quite a few sort of injuries that you're dealing with currently. Can you
tell us about some of those? Hello, guys. So in April,
I was working on a big full house job and I was renovating that staircase
and spraying it blues. I literally just sent down and leant forward to turn
off my extractor, and my back just completely when I couldn't even move at
all. About a week after that, so I still tried to go into
work with it. A week after that, I dropped my spray gun on
my foot and boat my toe and then they are quite heavy. It was
my little toe and it was the back end of the spay gun, which
is just like solid metal. Apparently we break our little toes various times throughout
our life, and there's nothing they can do about it. In hospital,
you've just got a soak up and cut off and let it just go back.
Yeah. No, there's nothing you can do for both and toes.
Sadly, yes, the next one, the next one. Yeah, about
a week a week after that, I was saving my cat from a fox
about half a cent night in like sliders outside my house, and I didn't
see that there was a big hole and I failed down it and I heard
and I heard my other and I was surprised, like open drain or just
like a no, just like a big in the glass, not like a
think. I didn't just like disappear into the guy. But I still managed
to hold onto the cat with one arm. Oh no, what a nightmare.
That's a total nightmare. So there's two feet. Then two feet have
taken the brunt of all the damage. The first one in your back when
you in your back. Yeah, yeah, it's actually an ongoing injury.
So I hurt my back when I was seventeen in a car accident and it's
just I've got a herniated disk and it seems to be say, if I
really like push myself and I'm working too much, after like every three to
six months, my back tends to go, Oh, it sounds painful.
So what do you do to sort of remedies injuries that you've got. I
wish I could say I take time out and I rest and this, that
and the other, but I don't. I think when you're when you're extremely
busy, and you know, people don't want to be living in chaos and
mess and they want their decorating finished. I don't really have a choice over
then to sort of rest when I can, but still go to work,
but just take it as easy as I can and just fill myself out with
pain killers. Have you ever had to take any time for work though,
due to any of the injuries or like just been in too much pain to
actually go in. Yeah? I think when not this time around, Although
my back was bad this time around. I had a few days here and
there, but before I couldn't walk about three weeks and that was my That
was my back again. That just keeps going in the same spot. And
I've had about three weeks out and then this time I really struggled with work.
My jobs were running over because I just physically couldn't go at the pace
that I was going. So then you sort of lose money because you're not
completing the job as fast as what you would. So I did even look
into am I covered with lots of earnings with my life insurance and things.
So I started looking into things to see where I'm covered, But unfortunately I
wasn't. Oh what a nightmare. And have you seen anyone about your back?
Have you gone to see? Like? Was it? Was it?
Chief? You said, if it's nerve damage from a parkas, is that
saying that can just be managed rather than or fixed? Would that be right?
And it's so I've damaged my fastic joint, which is like a bone
and to the right of my spine at the bottom at the base of it,
and then I've got damaged my disk like lower vertebrae as well. I
put my pelvis out of place and everything. So it's just a lot of
it is managed by pain killers. I've been to the chiropractors, I've been
to physios, and they say there's not really much they can do. The
answer when I have had injections into my spine once a few years back now,
had about five injections into it, which was like a steroid and an
epidural sort of took pain away for about a year or so. But you
can only have like two of those, two or three of those in your
lifetime, I think. But and you're certainly a trooper, definitely, just
from hearing some of this stuff, it's an overwhelming amount of sort of dissabilities
you've got there, and we can see how hard you do work. So
so commendable there, commend commend thanks, it's the word congratulations, commendable certificate
from us. Yea, Andrew said, well, Jenny, we wish you
well and yeah you stay safe, look after yourself and thanks again for coming
on the show. Always appreciate it. Always a joy to come on the
shown or keep plodding on. Nice. Thank you. Okay, you're listening
to Fix Radio the Builders station Fix Radio, right, Okay, that's ire
for today's painting and Decorating show, where we talk to decorators about physical exercise
and how it benefits them. Todd at the start of the show telling us
about your experiences with boxing, can you tell us about the mental benefits when
it comes to boxing. Yeah, I'd love to, Joel. I mean,
what I'd like to wax lyrical about here is the work that the coaches
in boxing clubs do. I mean, for me, I can speak from
personal experience and from experiences I've seen other people benefit from the coaches of father
figures. They're counselors, the teachers, mentors, solicitors even and I found
in boxing gyms they have the ability to fix broken boys and men that society
couldn't And these troublesome individuals such as myself are welcomed in and embraced and they
aren't judged. And in my time, in some of the most challenging periods
of my life, I've been showing nothing but love and support, going through
from court cases, alcoholism, depression, heartbreak, a mental breakdown. The
door was always open for me, without question and without judgment at the boxing
clubs that I've trained at. And I would actually like to take this opportunity
to name check some of the influential coaches that have been there for me.
And if I haven't made it clear, I would like them to know how
grateful I am, and I will never forget what they're done for me.
So I'd like to thank Rob Davis from Kingston Koba's Kickboxing, Alec Waller and
Harry Morris from Serber and Amateur Boxing Club, George Turner from Carney's Community Boxing
Gym, and also two coaches who I'm currently working with at the moment on
my return to training, Warren Dunne and Mick Shillingford, who are operating out
of South Oxley Boxing Club. All of these people have been a massive influence
to me and have really done a job that in an ideal world I would
have had parents or family that might have helped me with. And I can't.
I can't thank these people and individuals like this for the work they've done
for me, people like me, and people in their respective communities. And
I think there's so much unsung great work being done by boxing coaches around the
country for you young people and twenties, thirties, even adults as well.
And I would recommend anyone that's even slightly interest in boxing just go and get
involved and you'll be surprised with the warm work and you get it's not scary
and aggressive and the picture painted in some films. You know what I mean,
it's the opposite of that. It's lovely stuff. Man's that's really nice
to hear. Actually, it goes back to sort of like the discipline thing
again as well, you've got someone like that kind of figure to sort of
help you out and just and it can be almost echoed in the trades world
where you get tradesmen who get an apprentice in and never underestimate if you get
a good apprentice how they look at you, you know, I mean,
which you might be fulfilling them. So there is there is a kind of
symmetry there influenced like influential and your sort of work just growing up basically when
that kind of thing, and there's a lot of transferable skills that you would
learn on a building site towards n a gym and vice versa. Do you
know what I mean, I'm passionate and genuine and full of gratitude from from
my experience from from from the aforementioned coaches. Yeah. No, it's wicked,
man. Yeah. And if anyone gets in your nose, you can
smack them in the mouth and knocking cleaners love it. Okay, Well,
that's it for today's painting and decorating show. You can download this as a
podcast from wherever you get your podcasts online. You can also subscribe to the
newsletter for this show at fixed radio dot co dot uk, where you'll find
news, competitions and more. Okay, our final song today is doa from
the Food Fighters