An interview with fitness expert Tom Merrick

By Jonathan Tustain

TOM Merrick, aka the Bodyweight Warrior, is a well-known fitness expert who shares his tips, follow-alongs and training with his 900,000 + YouTube subscribers.

Tom’s life direction changed nine years ago, as he went through his own weight loss, strength, and flexibility journey, driven by the desire to be stronger when surfing.

Tom started his YouTube channel seven years ago with a transformation video. Unfortunately, a bout of glandular fever put a dramatic stop to that, wiping out two years’ worth of gains, but after four weeks of recovery, and to avoid heading back into powerlifting too fast, Tom switched to bodyweight-only training. This ultimately led to where Tom is today, with a focus on the ‘basics’ – core strength, form and building the right foundation for safe workouts, with a long-term mindset of consistency and guidance, rather than short-term gains. In this interview, I started by asking Tom if he had an ‘epiphany’ moment that led him on the path he is on today.

TM: It was when I was surfing. I was too unfit to do the thing I enjoyed doing. I wasn’t fit enough to paddle out through the swell. I was like, well, I should probably do something about this. One thing led to another, and I got very carried away.

JT: In one of your videos, you said you had a bad experience drinking. Would you be happy to share that?

TM: I just drank too much when I was 18 during my dad’s birthday. I had a bad time, passed out and ended up having a three or four-day hangover. And I thought, “You know what? it’s just not worth it.”

I haven’t got anything against drinking. I still go to the pub with friends. But it’s not something I’m prepared to sacrifice the next day for.

For me I don’t think drinking is the best way to spend time, but I do value spending time with my friends. So, I must weigh that up. If you do it once a week it’s not going to be the end of the world.

JT: When fitness is your career, is there any room for vices, such as alcohol? Or is it that dreaded word – moderation?

TM: I think it really depends on the person. Some people are all-ornothing people. And if that is the case, moderation is not going to work for you. It’s just going to tempt you down a path that doesn’t fit with the values you have.

JT: Is there anything wrong with being motivated by simply wanting to look good?

TM: I think it would be wrong of me to say that I don’t care about how I look. I think everyone does to some extent. But certainly, I got into swimming and fitness because of surfing.

And then it was weightlifting. I was like 18 or so. You want to look good and impress girls. So that was definitely a thing.

I got into the whole aesthetics of it, and I still enjoy that. I think it’s a funny culture. And I do think it’s got some positives to it. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look and feel strong and athletic.

I think that does an incredible thing for a lot of people’s confidence. I think as with anything – similar to the vices – you need to understand what the motivation is for you doing that.

As long as you have that selfawareness though I don’t think it’s at all detrimental.

I think it’s when you have that lack of body positivity and you’re coming at it from a “I hate myself and I don’t want to be this way” sort of thing rather than, “Okay I’m actually going to try and be strong and fit and healthy” - that’s unhealthy.

JT: You’ve gone through a major transformation. For some it can lead to a slight obsession out of fear of losing the results. Was that ever something you battled with?

TM: There was definitely a period when I was much stricter on things and I wouldn’t go out with friends for dinner or I’d make different choices, probably for the benefit of the goal that I had.

But then I asked myself – “Am I going to do this forever?” so I decided to think more long-term.

I was in that hyper phase, but I found as much as it gave good benefits it may only be topping up the progress by five percent.

So now I am more relaxed. If I’m out, I’ll go eat something. If I’m with a friend at a coffee shop, I’ll have a croissant.

This is why I say you need to understand yourself. If you’re the sort of person who can have a little bit and then go back to doing the things that align with your values that’s fine.

But if you’re the sort of person where one cheap meal leads to a cheap weekend, then you need to sort that out.

JT: You’ve had 82 million views on your YouTube channel. Can you remember when and how the channel skyrocketed?

TM: Yes. I’m part of a Reddit community called Reddit Bodyweight Fitness and I would share some videos I was making back then.

At that time I had about 20,000 subscribers and was happy with how I was doing. I made a video that was a five-minute morning mobility routine.

That was the first kind of flexibility routine I posted that wasn’t a long- format video, and it got about three thousand upvotes on Reddit.

That video went from my usual views, which were maybe four or 5,000 to 100,000.

And then a load of people were like “This is great but it should be done as a follow-along.”

So, I looked into it and made a followalong for that five-minute video and that did really well. And I was like “okay – people enjoy this.”

The follow-alongs were really the thing that made the channel popular and grow. So, it was all thanks to all the people on Reddit.

JT: When you have so many subscribers, why have you shied away from monetisation such as Membership, Patreon, Superchats etc?

TM: I make money through the app and my coaching. I always started this channel with the premise of giving stuff out for free.

If someone wants to support me, I appreciate that and then maybe they go buy a membership to the app or products or something. I want to have a fair exchange of value. I don’t want to just be handed money.

JT: I really noticed that you don’t post paid promotion videos or produce sponsored segments.

TM: I hate that. If I was watching a YouTube video and I was getting sold stuff all the time I would just not watch it.

I don’t do advertisements on my channel. I don’t do sponsorships. Because I don’t like how that feels. It doesn’t feel authentic.

I make a video about a topic because somebody’s asked for it and I know it will help them.

Or I enjoy it and I feel passionate about it.

There’s no other reason. I can’t say I do it for no money because I do it for a job now. But I always make sure that’s not the motivation for making a video.

JT: You said you spend five to 10 hours on a video – do you feel there’s a bit of pressure now to constantly give subscribers content?

TM: Yes. I recently gave myself three months of not doing too much. I think I posted two or three videos in the space of three or four months which is way less than I have done in the past.

I needed to give myself some space to think and decide what I want to do. I used to do three videos a week whereas now I’ll do two a month and make them really good quality and something I’m proud of. It took a little bit of time to understand this and have the confidence to say to myself – if I stop doing this it’s not going to completely fizzle out and die.

JT: Do you truly believe your app, YouTube and online coaching can be as effective as ‘real life’ gym, PT style training?

TM: Yeah but it depends on the person and it depends on the instruction. PT is good because you can give somebody advice there and then at the moment. That’s important for some people. Some people can reflect on or asses their own training if they have the information.

Hopefully, when you sell a program, you provide the information of “This is right. This is wrong.” They can judge that for themselves but overall, I think you get better progress with one-to-one training.

JT: With the pandemic being over is there a place for the permanent delivery of online fitness?

TM: To be honest the majority of coaching I do is online. It’s purely down to the fact that if I coached in person where I live, I would have two clients. There just aren’t enough people in my area into handstands. For me to do what I love I must do it online and I have clients that are literally all around the world. And that’s the benefit of it. I have been coaching most of my clients for four or five years now. My focus is on how I can help or provide my service to more people.

JT: You have said that you are heavily influenced by the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover (KWML) by Dr Robert Moore. In the book, when describing the warrior archetype Moore says: “A man has to have a clear and definite purpose in life.” What is your definite purpose?

TM: I think I have a pretty clear purpose. I care about helping people and providing the best information I can.

I’m at a little bit of a crossroads personally because I love renovating properties. I’m on the third one currently, so I’m torn between the two at the moment. I’m doing three days one, three days the other. Where do I see myself in the next 10 years? – I don’t know.

I understand that YouTube is not going to be forever. Online is not going to be forever. As much as I can be of value to people I will be there, and I will share my message. But the back-up plan is the house renovations.

YouTube channel – https://www. youtube.com/@BodyweightWarrior Instagram – https://www.instagram. com/thebodyweightwarrior/

Website for resources, online coaching, video consultations and workshop bookings – https://www. bodyweightwarrior.co.uk/

Bodyweight Warrior online – https:// bodyweightwarrior.trybe.do/

Or you can download the Trybe app on Google Play and Apple App Store.