As we wrapped up our conversation, I asked Marshall a question that he wasn’t sure he could answer.
At the end of each conversation, I go off mic and I ask my guest to provide a question that they want to ask the next guest (credit: Steven Bartlett, Diary of a CEO). When I brought this to Marshall he went quiet for a moment, turned it over in his head seemingly not to make it too obvious, or to make the question too heady.
When it comes to him, I could literally see the light bulb go off, with a sharpness in his eyes and he said “Success leaves clues.”
When I tell you my brain burst open with excitement to continue this part of the conversation I mean it, for real!
I asked him, “So what are they? What are the biggest clues that someone, not an expert, just a person, can look for?”
He didn’t hesitate with his answer, “They treat it like a non-negotiable. Just as important as going to work or making dinner for their kids. Something that has to get done,” and in the same breath, “something that sometimes gets done imperfectly. And they’re willing to give up minor comforts for it. Skip Netflix. Get up earlier than they want to. Eat the ice cream a little less often, not never, just less.”
This moment rang through me like a bell of clarity. He’s so right. The first clue for success is when it’s something that “just happens” in your day and it happens faster than you think.
Listen to this conversation with Marshall Roy, a Philadelphia-based strength coach and personal trainer with over 20 years in the game and one of my friends in this industry, to learn how he helps people make movement (strength training, specifically) a non-negotiable in their life.
On this episode of Muscle Moments, we get into:
Why five minutes a day beats two 45-minute workouts a week
Adaptability is the skill coaches teach, discipline is learned alone
Coaching completely different demographics from the same core principle
Aesthetic goals need zero apology and what happens when coaches pretend otherwise
How you feel before a session tells you almost nothing about how it’s going to go
On the personal side, we get into his ongoing chase of a 500-pound deadlift (he’s sitting comfortably at 405 for reps right now), the constantly shifting answer to “what’s your favorite lift”, and a cameo from Fiorella, his cat, who has an uncanny sense for exactly when her presence is least convenient.
The Five-Minute Rule
Marshall’s take on consistency runs a little against the grain. Conventional wisdom says beginners don’t need much to see results, and physiologically, that’s true. Two 45-minute sessions a week from a standing start is a massive change; shit, one session a week will be effective if that’s all you have time for in the beginning.
According to Marshall, the problem is almost nobody can hold onto that, because two sessions a week is just easy enough to talk yourself out of and just disruptive enough to make you not want to shift your norm. “I don’t feel great today, I’ll do it tomorrow.” Would you say that about picking your kid up from school?
His fix is absurdly small: something, every single day, for five minutes.
Not to get fit.
To build a library of evidence that you’re someone who shows up.
He ran a version of this himself. Seven days straight of five-minute micro-workouts on Instagram Live. Some days he pushed hard, some days it was “barely there.” The point was that the five minute IG lives were non-negotiable, not that the workout was going to be hard. Small steps to build big frameworks consistently.
Marshall’s five minutes is the identity rehearsal for the thirty minute sessions that happen later.
Adaptability Is the Real Skill
Marshall doesn’t think he can coach someone to be disciplined. (I have different thoughts on this, to an extent.) What he can coach is adaptability and discipline builds on top of that.
He shared a story where a client landed in a hotel gym with nothing but dumbbells, when her week called for barbell work and bands. His fix took a thirty second text to swap the movements, stop the worry about which weight to use, and get it done. “If you end up a little lighter, do more reps. If you end up heavier, do fewer. It’s not that deep,” he said. The stakes were about if she showed up at all while traveling, not the workout itself.
I have to agree, something is better than nothing. But, I’ve always thought of adaptability as second to consistency, not a replacement for it.
While Marshall’s approach focuses on helping clients adapt, he admits he spends time coaching people to be consistent, too. Because if you haven’t built the foundation that lets you survive a bad week, there’s nothing to adapt for.
Coaching Every Body, One Identity at a Time
Trainers today are honing in on a specific niche. Not Marshall. He works across a wide range of clients: women 40 and up, teenage athletes, people carrying old injuries. The throughline is identity. “Figure out what already matters to someone, and connect the work in the gym to that,” he said.
Marshall’s example was about Moms. And he said that with moms it often means gently pushing back on a culture that assigns guilt to any priority outside their kids, while also reminding them: “you’ll be a better parent if you’re not running on empty,” and “modeling that self-care is allowed is its own kind of gift to your children.”
With teenage boys, it means leaning into what excites them. “Telling a self-conscious 16-year-old that for the next several years, he’s carrying around roughly the same testosterone levels as an athlete on drugs, legally, for free, right now,” does pique their interest, according to Marshall.
And then there’s the honesty around aesthetic goals, which Marshall believes is not a goal to be embarrassed about. In his case, w client once pointed to her abs and said “I want Jessica Biel,” then her arms and said “and Madonna.” His response wasn’t to redirect her toward something more virtuous. It was, “I love that. I love the honesty. We all care what we look like. Pretending otherwise doesn’t make anyone more evolved, it makes the goal harder to talk about honestly.”
It Doesn’t Have to Be Sexy to Be Valuable
Marshall said it best. Strength being sexy: as a physical trait, as a personality trait, as a shift in what our culture upholds as attractive, is something we agree on. But he also holds a second belief alongside it: it doesn’t actually matter if it’s sexy, because it’s valuable regardless.
Fiber, the nutrient, is the analogy we used because fiber is a hot topic right now. It’s an unglamorous nutrient with super sexy benefits. The evolution of health and nutrition is pointing directly at fiber, everyone on Instagram is chasing a fiber high; yet, it’s chronically under-consumed with real, proven, unsexy health consequences.
Strength works the same way. The confidence, the capability, the identity shift people feel from training all come from doing the unglamorous thing consistently.
FWIW & IMO, strength training itself is not sexy. It’s sweaty and snotty, and it hurts (in the best way possible). It’s the results of strength training that is sexy. So when you find someone who gets it, there’s a natural “yeah, we’re sexy” between you, even if it’s not spoken.
Your Turn
Marshall’s muscle moment keeps repeating itself. He’ll drag himself into the gym completely convinced he’s about to have a garbage session and then crush it. The feelings he has are real, they weren’t true.
So here’s the version of his closing question for you:
think about the last time you almost skipped something because you didn’t feel like it would go well. Did the feeling turn out to be a fact, or just a mood you were passing through on the way to showing up anyway?
Strength is a life strategy.
ABOUT MARSHALL
Marshall Roy is a Philadelphia-based strength coach and personal trainer with over 20 years of experience helping people get fit, strong, and more capable at every stage of life. He has been named an Equinox Top Trainer and Philadelphia Personal Trainer of the Year. Marshall and I first connected at CrossFit Del Val in Broomall, PA, and have stayed friends since.
GET IN TOUCH WITH MARSHALL
Instagram: @marshallroy
Website: marshallroy.com
Email: coaching@marshallroy.com
