In the '70s KISS famously sang 'I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day'. But for Mike Schwartz, that's a shortcut to career disaster.
Mike holds a revered position in the international music community as a high-performance lifestyle coach who takes a holistic approach to the mental and physical well-being of artists by combining his credentials and experiences as a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach and professional musician.
Mike says that although wellness and the rock star lifestyle seem unlikely bedfellows, it's essential that working musicians strike a healthy balance between the two. “The two worlds are often seen as total polar opposites,” Mike says.
“By trade I'm a personal trainer, a nutrition coach and a holistic lifestyle coach, and I've been doing that for upwards of nearly 11 years now. I've been a professional musician as a drummer up here in Canada since I was 16, so basically my entire adult career I've juggled both those industries and the effects on myself.”
As a musician, Mike experienced first-hand the negative physical and mental impacts touring has on the human body. “I was really full-on with health and wellness, with keeping fit and eating well but I knew a lot of my friends in the music industry that weren't so I couldn't imagine the toll it was taking on their bodies,” he says.
“Just the lifestyle of being up at 3am, loading in for a gig, playing the gig, bumping out then doing it all over again; it's just an insane schedule and it takes a toll physically, then it also plays an emotional role.”
Mike is the guy managers and promoters call in when their band, or even a single member, is on the verge of burning out mid-tour. It's something he's seen too many times. “Imagine someone working a nine-to-five job then putting in the extra eight hours on top of that,” he says.
“They don't have enough time to recover and what I started seeing was that the artist would sleep in longer, their sleep schedule would get all messed up and they would actually get physically sick. Do that over two or three shows and you've got a really compounded problem.”
Mike has even written a book about it called 'The Musician's Guide To Surviving The Rock Star Lifestyle' and he will be sharing his knowledge and experience at Australian Music Week in November.
“I wanted to get my message across to as many musicians in the world as I possibly could, so I broke it down and put it all down together between two covers,” Mike explains.
“You're dealing with three topics, mainly movement, nutrition and mindset, which play a well-being role that is all encompassing.
"We address both physical and mental well-being, and key strategies, tips and tricks for musicians to have the best performance each and every show they get. Without the well-being it's hard to be at your best.”
