Welcome to episode #12 of the Off The Pole Podcast, in these interviews I talk to people from the pole community and beyond to help you Train Smart and Dance More. Today my guest is Michael Donohue, co-owner of Fierce Fitness Dance Studio in Dublin Ireland and international competitor.

He’s known for being a multi-disciplined performer – in things like flying pole, trapeze and even balloon making.I wanted to get him on to discuss his plant-based diet and how he incorporates that into his training.

Really hope you guys enjoy the 12th episode in the podcast series – you can subscribe to our pole podcast on iTunes to keep updated with all the latest episodes and it would mean the world to me if you could leave a review!

Hit play above or watch or read the transcript below.

 

Sarah:                      Welcome, Michael. Thank you for doing my podcast. Nice to have you on.

Michael:                 No problem. Thank you for having me.

Sarah:                      We’ve already discussed briefly, but you are in your car. Do you want to tell the people why- why are you in your car?

Michael:                 Yeah, I’m sitting in my car at the moment because I left the studio to run a few errands and to go to the bank, but also two of the girls are going through some rehearsals in there, so it’s quite loud. So even in our reception waiting room, it’s quite loud. So I said it’ll be a lot more quiet and easier to hear you if I was sitting in the car.

Sarah:                      I actually do some of my voiceovers in the car, ’cause it’s like good acoustics in the car, I think.

Michael:                 Yeah, I totally agree.

Sarah:                      It’s like a padded room.

Michael:                 Some of the old YouTube videos I would do on conditioning and stuff, I would always record the audio in the car because there’s no … It’s like a little sound room. There’s no echo-

Sarah:                      Yeah.

Michael:                 There’s no outside sounds, so it’s really cool. I think it’s a good place to do interviews.

Sarah:                     Right, so I wanted to get you on because I wanted to speak to you a little bit about plant-based nutrition and plant-based training because you’re a big advocate for that. And I think it’s a really important message to spread, and it’s becoming more and more popular. A lot of people in the pole industry now are vegetarian or pescatarian, or wanting to move, not necessarily into putting a label on it, but definitely moving more towards that lifestyle. What was  your first introduction to it, and what brought you to it in the first place?

Michael:                 Okay. Well briefly, I’ve been working in the fitness industry for about 15 years now. And I’ve always had an interest in … I’m one of those people that I’ve always never stopped researching or studying. I still haven’t.

What happened was, is, my other and father were vegetarian first. And through, just being at home with them and the meals they would give me, I just started becoming more open to some of the vegetarian type foods. But I wasn’t a vegetarian. I would still go out and eat meat, or whatever I wanted. But was my first kind of subjection to some of the plant-based alternatives to meat. And then, I was- decided that like I met Terri, Terri Walsh, or Terri First as she’s well-known at this stage. And she was vegetarian when I met her. And about a year before I met her, I started into my research into plant-based nutrition and its effects on our physiology, and biochemistry.