How Australia’s fittest man stays motivated and mentally tough

Australia’s fittest man Khan Porter doesn’t believe in workout secrets, diet fads and shortcuts to success.

For him, becoming Australasia’s Crossfit champion came from getting back to basics and living a balanced life, not from reinventing the wheel.

And when it comes to living a balanced life, enjoying a few beers on a Saturday night is crucial to Porter, not only to help him unwind and have fun, but also because it makes his Sunday morning workout so much harder, and that’s what he loves.

Hard work.

“Training is good for mental toughness,” Porter says.

“You've got to be able to suck it up when times are tough, and that happens in life, life's going to throw difficulties at you all the time outside of the gym.

“If as soon as times get tough you just crumble everything is going to be so much more difficult in the long run.

“Whereas if you can suck it up and accept things aren’t always going to be easy then you're going to have so much more success outside and inside the gym.”

Related: The awesome new exercise to skyrocket your bench press

But don’t mistake this man for someone who doesn’t have the same doubts and struggles as everyone else, especially when it comes to getting himself to the gym when he’s sore and can’t find motivation.

Porter describes his last two Crossfit seasons as “long and difficult,” compounded by a number of niggling injuries.

In that time he seriously struggled for motivation.

“There are definitely a lot of times where it's a battle to even get into the gym to train, let alone to push yourself to the level you have to push yourself to,” Porter says.

The difference with Porter is that he doesn’t allow his mind to get the better of him, to the point where he embraces the uncomfortable feelings that he says others are so afraid of.

“People are so afraid of being uncomfortable and not feeling good, we're so conditioned to seek comfort in every facet of life that we shy away from discomfort and difficulty,” he says.

Related: The hardest workout of the Crossfit games

And a large part of this seemingly indestructible mindset comes down to Porter’s balanced lifestyle, which includes plenty of socialising and fun.

“I live a very balanced lifestyle outside of the gym, I go out most weekends,” Porter says.

“My diet is very lax I eat what I want, I go out for dinner almost every night. I believe if I didn't live the balanced lifestyle that I do it would be much harder to stay motivated.”

Now Porter has taken the simple lessons he’s learned climbing to the top of the Crossfit ranks to create a new 'Primal' workout, to celebrate the release of Far Cry Primal.

“I think getting back to basics is super important,” he says.

Related: Tests you should pass before you start Crossfit

“Getting fit and strong doesn't have to be an incredibly difficult process.

“We should look at the basic human movements that we used to do back in the Stone Age, which is exactly how I came up with the Far Cry Primal workout.

“I picked things that involved running, jumping, lifting an odd object, climbing, crawling, things that the primitive person would have to do and using basic movements you can come up with a difficult workout that's going to challenge people in a variety of different ways.

I think people try to come up with crazy workouts but realistically there are no substitutes to basic human movement done at a high intensity for a long period of time.“

Porter’s Primal workout features four rounds of these four movements:

Dead Ball Ground to Shoulder

Squat down and pick up the ball up, bringing it into your lap then using your hips to move the ball onto your shoulders. Scale the weight as needed. If you don't have access to a dead ball you may substitute with a heavy power clean instead.

Do this three times using a 50­-75 kg weighted ball.

Bear Crawl

Khan demonstrates a Bear Crawl

The bear crawl is a great total body exercise for strength training and improving body control.

Keeping the body low and spread out, use your hands and feet to crawl 15 meters before turning around and crawling back.

Crawl 30 meters in total.

Legless Rope Climb

This movement is a great upper body strengthener ­you must climb a rope using only your arms.

Do this twice starting from the ground making your way up to the top. If you don't have a rope, substitute with 10 strict pull-ups instead.

Burpee Box Jump

This jumping movement works out the lower half of the body, focusing on the quads, gluts and calf muscles in one explosive action.

Move from a standing position to lying on the floor with your chest touching the ground. Use your arms to push up and jump to your feet before jumping on top of the box and coming to a full stand on top. Scale the height of the box as needed.

Repeat this 10 times using a 24-­30 inch box.

Watch Porter demonstrate the workout in the video player above.

Far Cry Primal is out now on PS4 and Xbox One