An Interview with Fitness Enthusiast & YouTuber Luke Sherran

To be successful in today's fast-paced life, you need to stay updated with the latest technology and be on your toes all the time. Things move fast, business dynamics change often and nothing is constant except for time. To keep all that in check, you need a tremendous amount of energy and a positive outlook on life.

Therefore, to learn all of those things, we interviewed Luke Sherran who is a businessman, fitness enthusiast, and tech geek, with a beautiful family.

SQUATWOLF: Hey Luke, tell us about yourself, where were you born? Where did you get your education? Have you ever been asked about your name in relation to Ed Sheeran?

Luke: My name is Luke Sherran, and I’m a father, husband, business owner, and fitness enthusiast. I was born in Yorkshire in the UK but spent most of my early years living in the Midlands.

I went to Lancaster University for 4 years, completing a Masters in Data Communications and IT, but my dissertation was in AI and gaming theory. I don’t often get asked if I’m related to Ed Sheeran, however, everybody now pronounces my surname as “Sheeran” which I find amusing.

SQUATWOLF: Your website headline says, “Fitness enthusiast – Tech Geek – Dad”. How did you get into fitness and tech? How do you feel being a father and what it means to you?

Luke: As you can tell by my education, I’ve always had a technical background, and I enjoy learning about new technologies and hardware, whether it is camera equipment, drones, cars, or the latest mobile phones.

I was surrounded by influencers in the early 80s that had a profound effect on how I thought men should look and behave; from my Dad who trained regularly in his home gym, to watching He-Man cartoons every Saturday morning, and later being exposed to action stars of the 80s and 90s like Arnold, Stallone, and Van-Damme.

All these things made me want to grow up into someone that was strong, and muscular, and that opened the door to the fitness world. Being a father is the greatest thing I have ever done.

Although sometimes it’s tiring and challenging, I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. I have 2 great kids, and the moment they were born I was completely devoted to them. Having kids changes you as a person in the best possible way, and my only regret is that I can’t spend more time with them.

Every day watching them grow is an absolute pleasure, and they have become my main motivation to succeed in everything I do.

SQUATWOLF: What fitness & health means to you? Do you think fitness of mind and body makes a healthy human being?

Luke: I believe a healthy mind and a healthy body are the foundation for everything. Most of my confidence stems from being physically strong, and the application of training in the gym or for any sport affects your whole life.

Once you get into the mindset of trying to get a little bit stronger or a little bit better every time you go to the gym, you can’t help but apply that same methodology to the rest of your life.

I try to get a bit better at everything I do, whether it’s self-development, relationships, business, or anything else.

SQUATWOLF: Who are some people in fitness world are you inspired with? Name 5 (if possible).

Luke: In the early days it was mainly action stars that I saw on TV like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean Claude Van-Damme to name just a few.

Now I don’t tend to get my inspiration from individuals specifically, but more from platforms like YouTube or Instagram, attending events like Bodypower, or watching superhero movies or professional athletes.

I take what I find useful from each platform or person to further motivate and inspire me.

SQUATWOLF: What are 5 best twitter or Instagram accounts to follow on health, fitness, workout?

Luke: These are some of my favorite people to follow on social media, either because they provide inspiration or because they provide great content about nutrition or training programs (sometimes both).

In no particular order, they include Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock, Jeff Cavalier from Athlean-X, Omar Isuf, Martin Berkhan, and Ben Pakulski.

SQUATWOLF: What sort of workout plans do you go through? How many times do you work in a day or a week?

Luke: My workouts are now very simple; I think I used to over-complicate things or focus too much on the exercises I enjoyed doing rather than those that would provide the most benefit.

At the moment I’m training 3-4 times a week using a program that has a foundation in reverse pyramid training. I also add in some additional conditioning work with cardio-based bodyweight routines that I can do from home or with my kids.

These are simple circuits that take about 20 minutes and include push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, burpees, the plank, squats, and so on. I’ll create a circuit and then do 3-5 rounds.

SQUATWOLF: Put these in ascending order: Cardio, Strength, Weights, Nutrition.

Luke: For me personally, it would be something like this: Nutrition, Strength, Weights, Cardio.

SQUATWOLF: What do you think about workout regimes like P90X, Crossfit and HIIT?

Luke: I think anything that gets people motivated and training is a good thing. I actually did P90X myself in 2009 – I had just got back from my honeymoon, and I had recently set up a new business working from home, and I had long hours sat at a computer to get it going.

I think I saw one of the infomercials while working late one night, and decided it would be super convenient to do from home. I have to say it got my wife and I in great shape, and my best friend got it too when he saw the results.

For him, as someone that didn’t feel they could go to the gym, it was a good gateway program for bigger things.

SQUATWOLF: You really like to watch MMA and Boxing? Who are your all-time favorite MMA and Boxing players?

Luke: I spent many years doing martial arts, starting with Tae Kwon Do and moving onto Kickboxing and boxing, so I’ve always been a huge fan of combat sports.

My favorite boxers were always those that had skill but also KO power; so I used to love watching fighters like Mike Tyson, Roy Jones Jr, Naseem Hamed, Chris Eubank, and Nigel Benn. I also really liked David Haye in his prime.

Favorite MMA fighters would be those like George St Pierre, Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, and although I’m not a fan of his exploits outside the cage, I really like Conor McGregor’s fighting style.

SQUATWOLF: You are a frequent traveler. What are some of your favorite places that you have visited? How do you maintain your workouts during travel?

Luke: I really like visiting European cities such as Barcelona, Berlin, and Prague. I recently visited Reykjavik in Iceland and that was a photographer and YouTuber's dream as everything is so beautiful there.

One of the benefits of owning your own business is that you can attend conferences and events all over the world, so I recently traveled to LA for 5 days for a video marketing conference, and I’ll be back there again soon.

Normally I’ll try and make sure I stay at a hotel that has a gym, but once you start to travel a lot you realize the facilities normally leave a lot to be desired.

I also pack a set of really strong resistance bands and a TRX trainer, so at the very least I can get a simple workout in my hotel room that keeps me ticking over.

SQUATWOLF: How do you think nutrition plays an important role in fitness? What kind of diet do you maintain or recommend? What is all the hype about KETO diet?

Luke: I always believed that training intensity and consistency were always more important than diet, and that you could out-train a bad diet. I now laugh at that as I was a young man with a fast metabolism, and now in my mid-thirties, I know that diet completely dictates your results.

I personally favor a “complete” diet that focuses on good healthy nutrition, and considers not just your macro nutrients, but also making sure you're getting all your fiber and micro nutrients etc.

In terms of dieting, my best advice is to find a healthy diet that you can adhere to long term as a lifestyle rather than just for short bursts. If I’m not trying to lose weight for a specific reason i.e. a photo shoot, then I follow the advice of Magnus Lygdbäck, who uses the 17/20 rule. This is where 17 out of 20 meals should be healthy and on point; the other 3, he says live your life and enjoy your food (just don’t go crazy).

I tried the KETO diet a few years ago, and I tried all the bulletproof coffee hype, and to be fair I did get quite good results with it. However, it’s not a diet that I could adhere to long term, as cutting out carbs is not something I want to do and I’m not convinced it’s completely healthy.

I think a lot of people love the KETO diet because they see quick results in weight loss, and that motivates them which helps them adhere to their diet better. That’s not a criticism just an observation, and I think if people find a diet that works for them, whether it’s KETO, paleo, vegan, whatever, then stick with it.

SQUATWOLF: Now let's talk about your business. How did you get into Digital Marketing? What kind of customers have you helped yet?

Luke: I got first got into digital marketing in 2007. At the time I was a Flash programmer for a digital agency in Manchester, and as you can imagine, Flash-based websites performed terribly in the search engines, so I started researching and testing SEO techniques to improve the rankings for our websites.

At the time, SEO was technically quite easy and changes to your website's code, structure, and content could have a profound effect on its visibility. Fast forward to 2018, and SEO is now just one small piece of a much larger puzzle that makes up digital marketing.

We’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great clients; some you will have heard of as household brands including sports and nutrition brands, and others you will never have heard of but are still great companies.

At the moment we’re really excited about video marketing as we’re getting fabulous results for our clients through this, and that’s what has turned my attention more to platforms like YouTube.

SQUATWOLF: You have an amazing YouTube channel. How did you get started with it? Who are some of your favorite YouTubers in the fitness world? Do you like Casey Neistat?

Luke: I started my YouTube channel because about 18 months ago we wanted to start making videos for our business, only when we started filming we realized we were terrible on video.

As such I tasked everyone with starting a vlog and their own channel, and we just started filming simple videos to get better at talking to the camera. My first vlog was about a trip to give blood; it wasn’t great, but I learned a lot and it was a benchmark to improve on.

My presentation is now much better and I’m a lot more comfortable talking to the camera. My channel has continued to grow as I realized how much fun making videos can be, and it’s become one of my main hobbies. It’s also a great testing ground for marketing techniques that I can use for our clients.

If an idea or test on my channel tanks, it doesn’t matter. If it works, then we deconstruct the process and replicate the success for our clients. I do like Casey Neistat a lot, he is a very clever filmmaker and I’ve learned a lot from watching his videos.

My favorite fitness YouTubers probably correlate a lot with those from Instagram, as I regularly follow people like Omar Isuf and Athlean-X for good scientific information, but then people like the Rock and CT Fletcher for inspiration and motivation.

SQUATWOLF: What are your 5 best tips to get success on Youtube as a fitness vlogger or YouTuber?

Luke: My best tips for success on YouTube would be:

1. Try and choose a single niche and stick to it as you’ll find your channel will grow much faster this way. Don’t be like my channel, where I constantly change between topics like fitness, cars, tech, vlogs, back to fitness etc as it confuses your subscriber base.
2. Be yourself; don’t try to be someone else or replicate exactly what someone else has done. People can sniff out ingenuity and it will come across badly!
3. Constantly try to always improve; don’t be satisfied with the quality of a video, look for how you can improve in your next video.
4. Do your research; it’s your channel so you can make videos on anything you want, however if you want to grow you need to research which topics have the most interest.
5. Put in the hard work; consistency of effort will help your grow much faster, so for example aim for 3 videos per week if you’re trying to grow
6. A final bonus tip would be to seek out other YouTubers and look for collaboration opportunities

SQUATWOLF: What are your 5 best tips for men or women to be healthy and fit both mentally and physically?

Luke: My top 5 tips would be:

1. Make the time for health and fitness. There’s an old saying that “if you don’t find time for your health you will need to find time to be sick”, and I personally think that this is so true.
2. Make health and fitness part of your lifestyle. It should be something you do every day and forever, rather than a quick burst because you want to lose weight for a holiday.
3. Find a workout or a plan that you enjoy and look forward to. This could be a particular workout routine, yoga class, or going out on a bike ride.
4. Exercise your mind. Try to find ways to further your own personal development. This could be learning a new skill or reading a book. I don’t feel I have time to read, so I listen to audiobooks and podcasts when I’m driving.
5. Speak to the experts. There can be a lot of misinformation out there, and if you don’t know about nutrition or training, speak with someone who is recommended and that you trust to get you going.