Better Than Before: Dublin twins write fitness & development book

Adam and Lee Molloy are twin brothers from Dublin who are on a mission to change the way we think about the gym, having experienced two vastly different fitness journeys themselves.

Despite playing soccer together growing up, the duo split paths when it came to working out in their teenage years.

While Lee had no interest in the gym, and would end up in an unhealthy cycle of short-term weight loss stints while he buckled down in his studies, Adam was a fitness fanatic pursuing a career in physical health.

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"I went through a period of depression when I was 14 or 15, and the gym, at that time, was the only crutch for me," Adam explains. "Football was not helping me out, the issues with football were actually contributing to the depression, so what had been my escape was put to the side - that's when the gym really took hold."

With a background in athletic therapy, Adam turned his attention to become a physical trainer, before going on to set up his own business in the fitness space. Lee, on the other hand, had no interest in training.

"I just found the gym so boring," he laughs. "I genuinely did not enjoy lifting weights."

At 16, having accepted that he wouldn't be playing soccer for Ireland, Lee began taking his education "very seriously" and studied English and French in college to become a teacher before taking on a Masters in International Relations to become a "world-saving politician".

In the end, none of the career paths stuck, which is when his mental health began to take a turn.

With his physical health put on hold, and his mental health shaky after graduation, Lee says that an interest in fitness showed up in his life "at the right place and at the right time".

"The stars just seemed to align," he says, explaining that an opportunity in personal training appeared just as he was being made redundant from another job.

In his time of need, Lee turned to his 'younger' brother for guidance, and cracked the code of how he could maintain a healthy lifestyle that worked for him.

"I was very much half-in, half-out at the start," Lee admits, "but once I started seeing the results and I had Adam's support, that constant positive reinforcement really made it stick."

Before long the two had found a method of training that inspired them to launch Molloy Fitness PT sessions.

Now, at the age of 24, they have written a book, Better Than Before, in the hopes of sharing their secrets for long-term success.

Essentially, the book focuses on five golden rules:

Develop a clear and detailed understanding of what the best version of you looks like.
Acknowledge that the process is long and full of challenges, and commit yourself to it entirely.
Know what battles you need to fight and focus only on them. Anything else is a distraction.
You are a product of your environment. Choose it carefully.
Don't obsess over the outcome. When you focus on making the best of today, tomorrow tends to take care of itself.

While they believe that all the rules are important, they say it's the first that will really set someone up with the right mindset for success.

"When I was at my heaviest, I was looking at Instagram and wanted to be the guy with the big biceps and the chest and abs," says Lee. "But the things that I would have to do to get in that shape would require me to have such a low quality of life that I don't think it would make me happy."

"It's not even about your body though," he clarifies. "It's about the vision you have for your quality of life. We live in a world where there's a lot of noise and distraction, and everything needs to fit in this little square box on Instagram for people to care about it. You have to remember what's important, and that's the people around you and doing things that you enjoy and what you're passionate about."

Adam agrees, adding, "even if the vision is just to be 10 per cent improvement than where you are today, that's fine."

As well as looking at fitness and nutrition, the book delves into personal development and the importance of minding your mental health.

"We get so caught up in trying to get better things - better salaries, houses, cars - that we don't focus enough of being better versions of ourselves," Lee explains. "I think it's naive to assume that having better things will make you happy without doing the internal work as well."

The two admit that mental health wasn't always a popular topic of discussion growing up, but insist that speaking out is the best way forward, particularly for Irish men.

"I'm trying to be the change I want to see in the world," says Adam. "Opening up those conversations and being willing to be vulnerable enough to put your neck out and talk about having depression. Someone might listen to that and know that they're not alone."

To find out more about the Molloy Twins, you can find them on Instagram here.

Better Than Before: Dublin twins write fitness & development book

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