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In this episode we dig deep into the NCAA Recruitment Process and find out what every athlete should know in applying, registering and deciding on what school to play for. There’s plenty of pertinent information in this episode, enjoy! Transcript: Feel like a wall of like air change in the office. Yeah. It is horribly insulated.  Because the hot air is out there cold air sitting here. Hey, man. I’m glad you’re in ascension. I don’t This is Ian 24/7 if any of you don’t know who Ian is. Is constantly analyzing coming up with new ideas about things that don’t really matter that much. Welcome you and Smith to the podcast.  Jesus is freezing. Already complaining. Sorry. Ian is our resident intern if you can call him that he’s definitely more like a coach and we treat him more like a coach and if you ever wanted the job he would be a coach here, but that being said. He’s headed off to Juco in Miami South Beach.  Taking my tails to South Beach. So go ahead and kind of give your background sports wise. I know we did a interview before but for those maybe we haven’t listened in do a quick like to three minute summary of what got you here. Yeah, my sport is football and.  I in high school I played I started playing three sports and I dropped it down to just like football and track because I know that football was what I wanted to do and I wanted to go to college play football. So I went to hope for one year and then I transferred out of hope and took click a year off of school so I didn’t earn like another year about the ability.  Worked visited a bunch of schools went to Kansas until covet times and then, To work here for. Eight months a couple months. I don’t know how long. And then I’m leaving for Florida. Alright, so basically what we’re trying to do with this podcast is detail like what to do what not to do in terms of heading off to that next level for football specifically.  So you want to start with like what it what should be step one what should be the first thing that people have to do if they’re trying to get to that next level and when should they do it. So the first thing I would say like starts your friend.  Ship in your high school because for me personally like, I did I did really well in middle school and then high school like my freshman year. I was like going out of school doesn’t matter but the most important thing is school, which sounds dumb but like your grades are going to be what gets you.  The most opportunities like if you you could be a crazy athlete and have a 2.0 GPA and you might get into some schools but unless you’re like Alabama’s number one recruit, they’re not going to just most schools aren’t just going to lower their standards for you yeah what’s what’s like the broad stroke standard that you see out there.  Like three five or three point oh generally it’s like a two five two five sounds like, oh my gosh, all you have to get it to five now what if you set yourself up into 3.0 or above it gives you a lot more opportunities yeah if personally for me had I like I finished with just over a three five had I gotten closer to three seven five, it would have made my walk on like opportunities a lot less expensive right like you’d know you have no idea where you’re gonna end up because then you get the academic scholarship or yeah, so just get a four point, oh it’s basically yeah, yeah, yeah just, I mean, you know, I have to get a 4.0 like aim for a 4.0 obviously like work like you would.  In school like you would for your sport because hmm did directly affects how you’re gonna play and how your sports sports are gonna go like the higher your GPA the more college coach can trust that you’re gonna show up and do so right you know, so I have this one too five and you’re missing your attendant like they’ll look at your attendance records you showed up, you know ten days out of a hundred and fifty school days or whatever they’re gonna notice that as matter what your GPA is you know, so I’d say like start out like in the classroom first.  As a freshman and then from there like once you get you you know, you’re your school stuff’s kind of taking care of I think it the big recruiting stuff starts sophomore year now like it’s working its way down the chain which personally I think is kind of ridiculous it’s like you have no idea what I’m you know, we have athletes in here the team have no idea what they’re gonna look like in yeah, but sophomore years like a really big year to.  Kind of start. Narrowing stuff down a little bit like you know, I don’t think that you should only focus on one sport like I think it’s really beneficial to play multiple sports but kind of have the idea in the backyard mind like okay, I think I’m leaning towards basketball and leaning towards volleyball or football or whatever and start looking into the schools that you think that you know, Like this is this is an idea of a school that I might want to go look at you know, and then.  Sophomore year. I call it like the like now nowadays it’s like the big virtual like tours like you can look at pictures and look at degrees and all that kind of stuff because personally as a sophomore nicely no idea what I wanted to go to school for you know, but you can get a really good idea of campuses like do I like it do I not and I cross it off right away do I leave it on a list.  A. And then from there. A lot of a lot of schools will do junior days so I if you go from your sophomore year of here’s my list, here’s the things that I like, here’s the things that I don’t like.  Then you’ll have a better idea of what you want to look for junior day wise, yes. And they think any people I mean, most schools, I think it’s different personally they can’t even communicate with you especially NCAA until you’re at least like what so it was September first year junior year yeah, honestly, I don’t like that’s kind of one of those things that we’re talking about right before this is the rules on that change like quite frequently, yeah.  And by frequently, I mean, just like in the past like year or two there’s been a lot of. Like we should open it up or we should close it down or we should do this or we should do that and like with covet the rules have been changing. Yeah we’re quite obviously yeah because I know right now I don’t think any division one schools are any division two even can talk to anybody right now yeah.  I typically this is like I mean, we just had like signing day for like a couple baseball guys not too long ago we’ve I think there’s a football signing day in February yeah. I mean, they did their initial like signs in the past couple weeks, oh really the big guys that’ll join join their school, they’ll leave high school early, oh yeah national signing day or whatever and then they yeah, they do have like a real man.  National signing day. In the spring yeah cuz I was always like the big thing that uh, at least out this way they’re like celebration north yeah look out the whole thing yeah like every high school kid that like it’s called a scholarship yeah we had that too. I think I think Hudsonville actually went to that celebration cinema that’s what they would do yeah, so I think that’s pretty real probably there.  I probably saw, you know, yeah, yeah knock topic that he’s not a twerk anymore, so it sounds like, Like you said things are starting off a little earlier things are kind of like it’s like a very long-term process right like it sounds like even if you would you say like junior rolls around you decide hey, maybe I am good enough to go play is you think it’s too late at that point no no.  I mean, I like I literally waited until the very last month that I could like I didn’t announce where I was going to school created like I went to a D3 school so it’s a little bit different like you probably can’t do that for D1 schools, but Yeah, I like I waited until May with my senior year later yeah like that’s probably too late for most people but you know, like I wasn’t ready to make that decision yet, so like but junior year for sure not not too late.  I think there’s so many different factors into it like each kids each each recruiting like I heard somebody say, you know wants that each each kid’s recruiting experience is gonna be different yeah, you’re gonna have one kid that is like treated like royalty and like everything’s taken care of and everything’s taken care of coaches come to him or her in how invited visits all that kind of stuff big scholarships and then you have another kid that would be the exact same skill set and have to work for every every visit every phone call.  Every text whatever it all depends on like where you’re at in school, what kind of press you get mm-hmm. Everything all like all kinds of stuff okay, so then what about um looks like? If you just kind of say like like yeah we’ll kind of run with averages you’re obviously because we have that one of the spectrum where they’re taking care of the other end we used to cut the fighting claw looks like in terms of like getting getting noticed I know like this is I think it’s from what I understand it’s more of not so much like an exposure thing like I think press helps a ton and like obviously you have to be pretty dang good to get noticed but like I’ve noticed that if some people are just really good and just getting filmed to the right people at the right time and like but regardless of sport.  I know that’s pretty pretty big for football, especially as like your film. I don’t know how baseball or soccer or anything else does it but You want to touch on that a little bit the importance kind of like the timeline and the stuff like that stuff you’ve noticed in the past yeah, so I before I like forget as part of this one thing that I would like not suggest for any athlete is I would never suggest them paying for like a subscription for somebody that’s gonna get you recruited you actually right like I would never suggest someone to do what NCSA or whatever yeah I’ve heard of them before yeah, like I I why is that because you’re paying somebody money that like they don’t know you.  I can’t guarantee you those. For one like it so like that’s like, you know say so optimal is blown up yeah and now it’s we’re only letting certain athletes in but I’m gonna pay somebody to email you every day that coaches delete the first thing he does when he wakes up he’s opening that up move all those emails spam.  I’ll find it if I want it right because that’s all they’re doing is they’re they’re finding information on coaches spamming them with with thousands of yeah kids stuff, so how is yours gonna you’re gonna land in the bottom of the pharaoh, okay? Yeah and like and you pay for it but like and that’s come from college coaches that I’ve like talked to you know, like because I don’t like I don’t know how much you guys know about legacy in bright and but like legacy was huge for me when I was in high school and we would do recruiting seminars somewhere to like the stuff that we’re talking about where they were recruiters and they were the college coaches and they were all retired but they were like the, Away first thing we would do when we hook up is a.  You know, you could search those select all delete so hmm. Good to know yeah, oh I think it’s important that before I’ll let you touch on that. I do want to kind of recap like I think the reason we’re asking you and all this is uh, he said quite the unique path, um, cuz like over the past three years, he’s going to his now or three or four years, it’s almost a third school, um, he’s played just about every division on demand and so with this we’re trying to get you guys just a little bit more education on why.  Why there’s something like almost like pitfalls or like what you really need to know to get recruited. I think you mean you had to deal with every in and out every form every division all this other stuff that I think people like obviously just don’t know about and so to kind of to circle back.  Well not like what were we saying about kind of like film and stuff like that yeah so let’s go back for film like obviously football is what I know best sure unless it’s use that then as an example, okay so for football, I know so film is the most important the most important thing.  I I would say for football like personally like um, because like I know you have baseball like, you know, if you could throw baseball a certain mm-hmm mile per hour or velocity or whatever people can tell that but you don’t really have that stat from. Her for high school besides like speed yeah but I mean like I had coaches that said I ran up for like almost a four four in high school and there’s not a chance I was running almost a four month yeah, you know, so like take other grand small exactly and that’s what college coaches are gonna do too they’re gonna see okay this guy says he runs the four five well, I’ve got a four five sitting on my team right now.  I know what four five looks like the chest that one looks like yeah, you know so football specifically. I know that film is is very important. I the the, Album with today’s things now are camps like camps operate different for every sport right like so a football camp is generally like if you go to a Michigan football camp or Michigan State football camper even some of these Grand Valley camps there’s hundreds of kids there and you’re all paying forty dollars to get in there well so then it’s bringing them in the school money and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do it, but you should be on the school’s radar before you just sign up and go to the camp yeah because the odds of you signing up and then being the top one of the five hundred kids that are there, especially if it’s an eighth grade through twelfth grade.  Yeah. Not great you know like it doesn’t matter how good you are they kind of know who they want to show up and who they’re paying attention to and then the rest is just money that they bring in so only do a camp if you already have attention from the coach or that coaching style would be my yeah that would be my recommendation is get your film your junior year play your junior season, so football’s played in the fall play your junior season as like as you’re going through your season find these coaches find these recruiters hit.  Up the recruiters like don’t just do the main recruiter do the recruiter like for my position coach the wide receipt coach try to get into contact with the assistant coaches like whatever you can do and the higher up you go the harder it’s gonna get right because like the head coach for Arizona State he has his own office in his own section of the building you’re not getting back there unless somebody wants you to you know, And I only say that because like I did and I sat and waited for like their coaches you broke in the building.  I did broke in the building.  Yeah. Yeah, so that’s that sounds good what about forms and fees the boarding stuff yeah so the NCAA has like a clearing house which was you know, even for how many kids got recruited frauds and bill and you know less a coach specifically set you down and filled it out with you you probably didn’t order us so the NCAA clearing house is like a part of the NCAA that approves or denies athletes for like you’re essentially signing like, A background check yeah you do you do a bunch of different stuff right so like it’s like a job so physical you go to play play football it’s like a job so they have to ensure that you’re an amateur mm-hmm that you’ve never received money for paying playing that’s you know, NCAA yeah like you don’t sign up like optimal doesn’t pay me to say, hey I’m going to play football here or whatever, you know, like we don’t give you gear like right oh this is yeah all that shit yeah, oh it’s cars motorcycles or whatever tattoos.  Um, Yeah, so specifically I know my another one of my recommendations is that no matter what division you think you’re gonna play in fill it all out like philadelphia like right away because me for personally for Kansas like I know the form is. In between 50 and 80 dollars from what I remember but I had to pay like 60 bucks just to get it there because I needed it right away yeah and generally the form takes two weeks to go through so we say fill it all out as our sections based on a division or yeah, so you can fill out like d3 does their own so like you don’t really have to fill it out through the NCAA because you’ll have to fill out when you get to the school and then d2 has its own set of standards and then d1 takes care of like the entire Philadelphia D1 yeah and then That way I I believe so and honestly like they might change some of the stuff because of it because it’s kind of exposing them a little bit but yeah, so there there’s a form that you have to go on and you have to pay for it and you have to you know, write in every class that you took you have to take your GPA your SAT your ACTC is you scores depending on you know, for me I took both so I put in both you have to sign a bunch of stuff saying that I didn’t take money.  I’m not going to take money. I’m not a like, I don’t game one sports and I don’t want. Under a canine game blind sport, right? All that kind of stuff. Work history yeah yeah you have to you have to take military recruitment yeah it’s everything yeah everything you’ve ever done yeah.  I really hope my worst enemy no I think yeah, I think that’s like I remember doing that stuff because I even went in and when you did that and I like cleaning house I would like to do with like our flight trainer. Phil would always make us like filled all this stuff.  I don’t remember doing it really we I’m just like it was just like sure it’s for like injuries like co-pay insurance it was hmm like you get your athletic physical it was like a decade ago, yeah you’re pretty young doesn’t it but yeah it’s crazy. I think like the NCAA probably has to take away more seriously as well as like just way more just kind of just like minutiae kind of way through pick a penalties and yeah a lot more administration.  So clearing house is there any other forms and fees that you need to it’ll be school specific after that so like you’ll get an ID number that they’ll ask for like your school will ask for no number so huh you lost your name or you’re not a number yeah this means you fall out that form it could care less you have a, Quite a few digits, okay that are but yeah, so you’ll fill out like once you fill out these forms.  I’d say probably fill out those forms beginning your senior year, okay and then I think you have to update them because you have to update them as you graduate. I believe obviously like I felt mine out late so I didn’t fill mine out when I went to school. I hope didn’t fill them out during my break and then filled them out at Kansas when they needed them.  So. For me. I had to go back through all of like high school and put in everything but I believe that if you open it up and start it like I probably started like beginning of my junior year or my senior year and then I believe that it allows you to go back and and edit stuff and anytime like just starting the form well help you in the future like having the form open paid for.  Downloaded all that all that kind of stuff will just help you.  When it comes to like time for be prepared for it or yeah for college. Um, what big mistakes have you made along the way besides? I mean, I it sounds like a big part of it was just you relate to the party like may have your senior year scrambling to get everything done is there anything else that you would kind of advise to watch out for?  Yeah rolling the controls right yeah like. Yeah, I mean if we want to look back at like what my like experience was like a lot of like what has happened to me was out of my control mm-hmm, unfortunately and like a lot of that came with I seen your season going the way that it went the coaches like my head coach like he retired right after and he was kind of done so right after you know, right after football season so like and I like that’s not something I could control so like the recruiting then fell like completely on me, you know, So it’s it’s really really helpful if if you have coaches that pull in you know a coach every week for you to come meet with and sit with and like because you know, some high schools will do that like my high school did that every week you’d have a meeting with with a coach.  I think my one of the mistakes I made is there were certain schools that I was like there’s not a chance. I’m going there hmm and doing that just really really limited like your exposure yeah because like so for example, I, Knew I didn’t want to go to Davenport so I didn’t give Davenport the time of day ever, you know, like they’d talk to me at camps they came in and visited at my school.  I was like look I just like I don’t want to go here well had I got in that offer from Davenport I could have gotten an offer from in Bali yeah stayed for like, you know, I mean, like so did you know another coach see what offers yeah it’s a variable public, oh, okay, yeah like Twitter is yeah, yeah.  So I guess it’s the important of like not. Like closing off your options sounds like an even I know but yeah people will just kind of almost it’s almost like a game right you have to play the game like hey like you’re not gonna tell someone yes, but you’re not gonna tell them no because I think in the realm of like getting recruited like all exposure or all like all publicity is good publicity, you know, and it’s like whether it’s like, hey like you get, A division maybe a one division one offer that could open up ten more something else or like that just floods you with d2, it’s the like it kind of trickled down effect that’s interesting.  I think people I don’t think people realize that either because I think like you said like you’re like, oh I got me either just I’ve just want to go to like Michigan or Michigan State and it’s like well like you can they can hear about you through people they already know that in other colleges yeah it’s interesting.  Yeah, so that’s huge like you yeah, I mean you get one person in the GLIAC everybody else in the class like what yeah well did I miss out yeah like I want that kid it’s competitive yes exactly and then next thing you know, like you worked your way from the GLIAC to the Mac or something the Mac yeah and now you’re looking at you know schools like Bowling Green and, Ball State and you’re working like slowly, you know working because that’s generally what happens right it’s like you you see these kids that have offers from Grand Valley Wayne State.  Haven’t worked for our area specifically and then all of a sudden you see an offer from all ball state and then for Bowling Green and then ball state or whatever and then it like works its way up to chain interesting yeah. Are you likely to get offers from smaller schools earlier because how that works yeah, okay yeah like I had a lot of offer like verbal offers from small schools that people probably haven’t heard of you know, yeah and then as you get up those so like as you so that’ll happen probably your junior year a lot of like smaller schools, well if you’re doing your recruiting right you’ll know because a lot of those small schools will come after you your junior to try to get you before your big yeah and then as you like if you explode and have a crazy senior season.  Those schools like you back yeah because they’re like, we have no shot, you know, like that’s that’s the kind of thing is like say you have an offer from. You know us there’s there’s small there’s a ton of small schools outside Chicago that all offer a lot of kids in Michigan because they love Michigan kids so as soon as you get enough from GV or Wayne State or Davenport those guys disappear because they’re like, all right, we don’t have a you know, have a chance, you know, mm-hmm at least that’s like the perception that I gathered.  Well cool I mean. Hey else is strikes you as important for either you or yeah I’m just trying to think like in the context of like who we work with um like most of our seniors are already committed they’re off they know what they’re doing and I think they got lucky or they just put in the work kind of like you did so more so I guess like any closing or marks for that like that freshman or sophomore.  I know you’d already kind of touched on like a like grades grades would make like a definitely the main focus and then going into like sophomore year maybe getting some sort of exposure yeah in some capacity or I guess she’s like kind of the last like, Thing I would say is like coaches might not be able to reach out to you but they’ll see your stuff okay, if you do it right like, you know, you hear these stories about.  People like I wrote a letter and the coach saw the letter and like now you know now I’m on the team or whatever huh it’s like, okay, well that stuff really does happen, you know, like a I literally went to Arizona State and I sat outside, you know their football offices for two days waiting for their football coaches to show up and then when I got there, I ended up going in and up and elevator with the entire football staff, you know, and, And then you know, that’s kind of where the not having the film a bit me in the butt, so for the younger kids like they’re not allowed to talk to you we’ll say like they’re junior year like this the fall or the spring of your junior or whatever.  But that doesn’t mean that they don’t see your stuff okay right so like if you do if you if you’re a sophomore and you plan varsity. Take your phone take your stats whatever send it to the coaches send it to the recruiters because having the familiarity of like okay I’ve seen Tom like I’ve seen this guy named Tom in my email or I’ve seen this guy in my mailbox well it’s like seven touches right like you get familiar with the name yeah yeah, so you’re junior year, they’re like, oh I remember this one and then they checked out and they’re like, oh they’re half decent let me reach out and then the world an interesting okay, yeah, it’s a good point that you bring a very good like at least like the the like the age old added is like in market.  Ing is like you need like seven points of contact right so whether it’s like seven emails come phone calls texts like personal letters stuff like that like it takes about seven touches before before somebody’s gonna commit to buy something and so like I think that about probably apply that to recruiting as well as like if like you’re not getting seen in seven different ways or seven ways total by coach.  I would say you have a very hard job chance you can probably picked up somewhere yeah yeah, it’s like toggles from Target specifically about like your transition real quick from because I know we admit. You had come come in interested in training like you were in between you’re kind of like in like a gap year right where you’re working, but then you were training and then trying to get into like a division one school which you’re going to Kansas right so tell me about how like, You got how like how you got a hold of Kansas and how like that kind of that whole story or that whole contact like what got you off the campus?  Yeah that’s kind of tough because honestly like I don’t know how I ended up at Kansas like I were like a Kansas I’m I don’t know like I I so I went through and I listed out all the schools like I was about first of all, I listed out everything that I wanted in a school mm-hmm right and then I you can use websites to to figure out okay, what school has this, you know, what school has a good population right because I don’t want to live in.  The sticks yeah yeah I want to live on the middle of nowhere and then you know, like campus life you can you can look up all these different things like write them all out in the list and then so then from there I went down and I said, okay, I want to go visit ASU Arizona state because Arizona stays like exactly like what I was looking for they were taking on insane amount of walk-ons.  Went out and visited and then found out like they’re done taking walk-ons because they have too many team people on the team they were cutting people out there so cross them off my list. I crossed other schools off my list because watching in the news the head coach that I thought I wanted to play for are like to school I wanted to play for was great but the head coach I didn’t want to play for mmm and like slowly but surely they all got scratched off the list for one reason or another, you know, like the staff for one of the schools that I was interested in playing at got fired like mmm the head coach stayed but they fired everybody.  Else. So and you cross that one off and so like as we went out down the list it was like okay well now I have Kansas and that’s it so like do I want to play for the last miles yeah that’d be sweet like less miles is from Michigan as wives from Michigan, you know, I think they both went to school Michigan coach huh it’s a good coach yeah, he’s he was great coach you so then you know, that was the last last name left on the the paper that had him in crossed out so when I went and I visited it and I was like, this is sweet, like it reminds me of like my hometown.  Which was what I needed you know yeah so and I ended up at Kansas went through oh I thought he’s at like so you met with what part of the staff and then who was interested in you and was at your question yeah, how about how that entire view is how did you sneakily insert yourself into in the team like how’d you get how do you even just get an offer?  I think the same thing like I I did the same thing as I did at Arizona I sat out there offices with a packet of information like five or six packages help wanted sign her yeah, yeah, it’s like from. Freak. We’ll walk on for I’ll pay to catch right yeah so.  I had like those big Manila envelopes right that you put the little pins through whatever and it had my like my picture of my face all of my stats for football all of my stats for school everything like in like a nice organized cool thing and I dropped it off to different coaches like if I saw a coach walk out of the building.  I dropped it off to him. I was like, hey, You know, here’s my name who’s a very short story know you’re busy keep me in mind and then I. Man that takes some some cojones yeah that’s what I was thinking too is like you make it sound like oh I got this like somehow got there but like I mean that’s like a lot of uncomfortable conversations a lot don’t give me wrong.  I was freaking yeah like that’s I would like yeah you see that movies right right yeah it goes like come on coach give me a chance yeah that’s near like you I did that with like eight different people yeah different state yeah like so that like that was easy riding in a very small elevator with like I’m not kidding eight coaches and I’m in the center of them and they’re all shooting questions at me, that was.  Horrifying haha that sounds sweet I’m a coaching perspective that’d be awesome that was so scary though that was like so then once I got to Kansas was like did you get attacked when you’re turning around for each person where you just facing forward? I was like, oh my gosh what my gonna do yeah yeah, so you so you gave all you gave like five or six coaches on staff a packet yeah, obviously you probably took a lot of time with the packets made those look real nice and professional make yourself stand out put them on resume paper and everything yeah wow, okay and then spring.  A few minutes recruiting guys got in touch with me and then he was like yeah, like we’re gonna do walk on tryouts we’re gonna do this this is about the time that you’ll be able to do it gave me the information so like yeah like you should come here but that was it cuz I don’t have any film like I didn’t oh you didn’t have film I got locked out from hope right away so like as soon as I left hope I had no access to anything that I had.  I hope Joshua which was my bad in my mistake, yeah, like I should have gotten the film before I said, I’m leaving you know, so I had nothing. For them to go off of other than what I had in high school, do they do that to protect them from you going to their competitor hmm.  That’s probably like probably the main reason. Yeah that’s probably like a non-podcast like topic yeah that would be one of those after all just yeah, yeah personal personal grievances this is yeah that’s that’s probably what it was more of yeah and like there’s people on here that like I’m sure here so um, okay um, so then did you you got your walk-on dry out right like yeah you tried out and it did the whole shebang what you guys do you guys do like a combine type deal yeah yeah, it’s a very intense like combine that’s what it was like, okay show up they measure your hands, they measure your arms they measure.  Pretty much everything on your body yeah, it’s very uncomfortable oh and then they you know, put you on a scale have you do a bunch of tests drip down solder yeah serious yeah it’s very intense for a power five shave your head it’s crazy yes and then so you guys just did probably like what like you’re 40, you’re three party five or I’ll drive algebra and then they run you through drills yeah drills and like the idea of the drills.  I personally thought the idea of their drills were to break you down yeah yeah were four or five guys. That dropped out there was only 12 of us okay I showed up and because it’s a very it’s a real quick there’s a ton of paperwork that you have to just even walk on don’t go because they don’t want people to show up they don’t they yeah they don’t yeah so you have to walk all the way around campus get all these different stamps and signatures from all these different people get these different tests you have to get you know, you have to fill out physicals you have to do a test with that another doctor and then you have to go get cleared by their athletic director and then you have talked to this person in that person yeah, it’s making sure you’re making sure you want it.  Exactly and then you get there and then they do it to you again, so you have to show up and then once you show up then they’re gonna kind of like break you down a little bit and then you still had guys that would drop out and then it was kind of like here’s who we have left here’s who we want, you know, like so like say there’s still filters ten guys who made it but we only want three of them and that’s who they who they take and then they’ll give you a grade and then you’ll go on to.  Like wait for them to evaluate everybody and then because they take videos of it they’ll show the other courses because obviously most of the time you’re doing it with the strength coach and on your recruiting coaches got you like the head coach ended up being there my position coach was there but typically from what I know that that’s not usually the case usually it’s the obvious system there yeah and then I got phone call that said I made it and then you go through blood work another physical all this other stuff video.  And then you’re you’ve walked on to the the school so you were one of the three. Or you’re one of the six or seven. I believe there was. That got caught or that was that maybe yeah so out of all the kids that were there. I believe three made it perforated there might have been four from what I know.  And I knew I knew one of them two of them because I’d worked out with them right when I got there like that’s the first thing that I did when I got there is found kids work out with nice yeah, so sweet. Is that story you want to get into like the Kansas how that unfolded and then with covet and all that you want to yeah, that’s why I mean I went on so I got made it got everything filled out like I said, they power five though this is like summer I’m guessing this was this was March yes, it’s like January yeah so like I did the because it’s a very long process you get there in January they reach out to you and like February and then like you kind of have to keep tabs on it and so what actually happened is I I think I takes you about this is if the, Trial wasn’t supposed to be until like May or April and May and then I get a I get a tax that was like check Twitter, so I checked Twitter they moved it all the way back to like where the start of March they moved it to like the second or the third become March.  Mhm, so we went from I have it until May to prepare to I have a week and a half to prepare for it yeah and then so then went through all that kind of stuff that we just kind of like talked about and then I,  And then I got ready to go on spring break. Midway through March I think I don’t know sometime yeah a couple weeks after like a week or two after I tried out and like made it and had got everything ready to practice on that Monday so like I go on spring break like you know, and we’ll say like a Monday go on spring break for the entire week come back from Florida.  Florida hadn’t really hurt a whole lot about the corona virus at that point come back from Florida on that Saturday and then I’m chilling watching TV and I get, Like. Attacks that says, hey just go home like we’re gonna cancel like we’re set up in the spring spring season out on hold right now practice was supposed to be on that Monday, I believe I got the text late Saturday or first early Sunday, I think that said just like what you’re gonna do now to head home, they’re gonna kick everybody out of the doors pretty soon go to so I packed all my stuff up.  Tuesday, I think and that that like Tuesday a couple days later, whatever packed it all up, but some stuff that and I storage unit because figured I was coming back went back up to Michigan. And. Everything was fine like we went to football meetings zoom meetings all that kind of stuff.  Until the summer and then I think June maybe yeah like I started training here again and then I was working one day we had been they had been moving me around positions because I come to find out posts like being caught the recruiting guys and like their team really really liked me but the head coach and then they the main position coaches didn’t know that much about me right so what I was told is that I was getting moved to position.  S to try to find one because what they did is they overrecruited the wide receiver position, so I specifically picked a school that was low on that slow one wide receivers and then when I walked on they were waiting to see how good of a wide receiver I really was.  So that they could tell if I if they were to keep or not and since I never got that opportunity they were like, okay, well we need defense of that we need linebackers, we need tight ends what I couldn’t play tight end because I wasn’t six five two and that was the smallest for a linebacker right exactly so like I could have played like I could have played outside linebacker like that’s originally the position that I got recruited at just because of like I was pretty good tackler idea, but then they were gonna bump me into like the safety and the corners.  That’s a whole different animal yeah, but I mean, that’s what I played in high school like that’s the position I. Was offered at was the foreigner yeah so and so when I like didn’t think anything of it because they didn’t really pop me to think anything of it, you know, they were just like we’re just gonna try out at like multiple positions because we think we’re gonna flip you to defense we think like you could play multiple positions on defense and I was like, okay that’s not I want but it’s fine and then go through those meetings that week and then I’m at work and they call me which I thought was weird because usually they’ll text before they’ll call you and like send something up and then they just said, Stuff about like they had to you know, take cuts because of it they have too many guys on the roster they’re taking money cuts, yeah all that kind of stuff from their perspective they were they just said.  Like we tried to get you moved to different positions that we were short at but the coaches like only trust us so much before, you know, they just have to go with what they feel is right and so they decided to pick they took a couple guys that were on there their roster year before and moved to them yeah positions that they won yeah because they reduced down the team size to.  Less than 53 was it is typically it’s like is it 80 that suit up yeah. I I don’t know it’s different for like a weight it’s different for travel games versus home games, okay and all that kind of stuff because I know what it was for D3 but I don’t know why I don’t think if you walk on pretty sure like unless you’re playing like you don’t dress for a while like you dress for home games, you know stuff like you’ll be traveling for like a bowl game generally it’s like too deep like if you’re too deep then yeah, yeah.  But anything anything less than 2 deep you’re probably be here yeah skilled position yeah you go typically bring all of their quarterbacks yeah because that’s who does the signs and stuff. Well it’s been super interesting talk, yeah. I think this is a there’s been helpful especially for I mean, if not for anyone else for us, I mean, I know kids yeah my ask questions what we’ll do here now is if you guys are listening to this and you guys have questions and you want to reach out to us go ahead hit us up on Instagram, we can if you have specific questions related to recruiting process or think you need help with something we’ll go ahead we’ll forward that along to Ian and then we’ll kind of.  Kind of be the middleman and get all your answers to you hopefully be a recruiting very interesting stuff. I’m sure a lot of changes to come in the next year with this and how I’ll coach get in touch and like the touch points of the visits and whatnot, but um doing best to kind of keep you guys in the loop and thanks so much for sharing man.  I know that’s super beneficial even though, Probably wasn’t a great experience over the past two years for you to go through all I think a lot of people could probably learn from the situations you put yourself in and then coming out the other side trying to get it right a book about it so that’ll be a nice little pamphlet to hand out one day yeah and we have it here in the office yeah and of course best of luck as you’re going down to Miami was kind of side barley and it’s been busting this but here the past.  I don’t know what like seven months now from about like no, I’ll be six months from June some sweet numbers in the gym speed looks good everything else looks good. So holding good way so I’m excited to see what he can do kind of this spring and then hopefully get picked up back to where he belongs and that division one room yeah thanks for giving us a listen, make sure you like subscribe share with a friend who needs to get recruited yeah just for those you clowns out there waiting two days for a ps5, you got to apply that same dedication to getting recruited yeah.  Yeah, yes, excellent.

Daniel Shanley, All-American Boy, goes way back in history with the OPTC crew. Dan met Thomas before Thomas was even coaching, so he’s been in the program from the very beginning before it was even “Freak Faktory”. Listen to his journey in lifting, sports, and life. Enjoy! Goons Saying Hello We’re going welcome to optimal performance training center podcast. I am your host today Thomas Bose with me as always the man the merit the office legend Eric Schroder coach Alex intern in and a special guest today, we’ll get to him in a minute today we are talking with the dear friend, um, this is not only a former athlete but a current adult member yes, we do have an adult program, um, But this guy said my heart good friend of mine and we’ll be in that story here in a second, but ladies and gentlemen today I wanted to introduce you.  Daniel Shanley, yeah, it’s gonna be all thanks for having me anytime. Dan any timely. On all American boy, where does the story start now and I have quite the history. I mean, we’re going on I want to say like five years of affiliation with one another I called affiliation because it’s only like friends, can you tell us how we met tell the listeners?  I should say I know how much but you know remind me, so I think it was we were both I least I was in high school, you might have been at cornerstone by night a better thing. Soccer yes, we’re both training for our our sport like you said we were really friends at first we were just kind of.  Associates per se that’s just you know in the same place same common goal just to get better our craft and we were doing that for a while and then. Summer along the way was when free factory opened yeah and then I was training there. I believe you might have been there first one the two happen where you were interning there and then I.  Followed mutual friend of ours there who I think we were both better friends with him and we were with each other no question a while yeah for a long time yeah, so yeah, so once you were at free factory you were essentially training me for. A while for yeah and that’s kind of when it kind of our factual friendship kind of kick started we had no each other for a while but it’s never really.  Like it is now no no chance yeah yeah missing anything yeah we’ve talked about kind of how I got started and all this with at like power strange with you guys and um, I like it kind of like me and Dan we’re in this this group of like, I mean I was elite because I was not if I wasn’t already in college already kind of done my business but I I had like the privilege of working out with I want to say like 12 to 15 guys who like all of them had like d2 and up like football rights.  Got. Shares like these kids were all studs like you think of like Pete Fisk like Kenny Willow kiss like all these dudes who were like I would be like we were able to be literally animals, um, yeah and like that like kind of like put training in a completely different light because like nothing ever compared to that.  I don’t think anything ever will compartment your 17 18 years old and like you were just in a dodging garage that just a bunch of do is just try to move as much weight as you can yeah definitely that was a different oh every experience it was so sweet it was awesome yeah you could a culture there was unreal, um, but yes standing from that I think.  For me like I think we both kind of transitioned away like you said with our mutual friend Jack but like I really don’t know like I kind of figured out my kay like this is great and like there’s nothing more fun the training like this but like I’m not really better at my school it was like I was like you felt great you gained like a ton of muscle like strength was through the roof like you fell like a beast but at the same time like I didn’t feel the whole time faster like yeah, I knew I was stronger but in some capacity like I was just stronger from just lifting heavy weights, there was no real killer ever sports among my kind of got plugged in a free fact.  For you was Dave but there was definitely more emphasis on what the sprint training and just like the movement variability and like being able to kind of do more than just like box squat and deadlift yeah yeah and I think like like you said like we kind of got introduced to together over that summer that was a really good summer two we got a lot of good like Grand Valley guys coming here from hereby still you involved from Hillsdale and like we got a couple guys from like Illinois and like kind of lower lower Michigan people as well that first group that was also I mean, I could also rival and say was very special in a different way.  Like what we mean what was that for what does that trade I mean not a transition but like it was different from when we come up with together as like both athletes and then as I transition to be more of a coach because I’m a little older here like you were still an athlete like what was that first summer like coming into like free factory at the old place yeah so for me I had a year off between not a year off necessarily but between power strength and my first year at freak factory.  I was just training that my high school where I graduated from is doing our own like our strength coaches from Hillsdale’s his workouts and stuff and that’s kind of what maybe want to come back into like a gym like, Environment like this where there’s other people that push you I don’t really know what to expect coming into free factory after experiencing power strength and hunter there yeah that soft but that first summer is definitely still intense for sure it was a different kind of intensity.  I think though than power strength was yeah because I think the focus was different as well like you touched on we weren’t just focused on just putting up as much weight as possible like the goal was to be a better athlete by the end of the summer being faster be quicker, obviously strength would come from that and so for me, that was really not.  Like oh this is this is awesome like in for that point forward. I was committed free factory and yeah you see from the get go so yeah you probably in like now would say instantly but like it was always. That I think like we like I said we kind of shared that comment like history of training but like right away like you were very hesitant I remember because you’re coming which coming officer surgery or two even I don’t even remember that was going into your like red shirt sophomore year.  I want to say yeah because yeah because after my freshman year was the year that I didn’t train at any gym was just my high school and then I heard my shoulder and I was like well I got to figure something out yeah something’s got to change because I was I was in rough shape it’s from the surgery yeah, my body was just not ready to perform to say the least yeah.  Absolutely um one thing I do want to kind of backtrack here a little bit because I didn’t do like a phenomenal job of introducing you I know like your local here right your fraud you want to tell us like high school what that kind of looked like from high school going into where you went to play the next level and then kind of like how you kind of end up here again yeah definitely so I went to Grandville High School I’ve been in West Michigan my whole life pretty much I was born on these high estate, but that was only there for like two years, okay groping granville go bulldogs a lot of you got to get a few years ago dog listeners.  I’m sure oh, Yeah, very good yeah yeah actually kind of put a big roll on a grand ball and my time at power strength because oh yeah mark and this is little brother. Mark Owens his little brother was my linebacker coach my senior year yeah he was there so between him and my D coordinator, of course having at the time they both kind of.  Influenced me to go to partially but anyways from Grandville got recruited to go and I had a couple options to go play D2 ball ended up at Hillsdale College and loved it absolutely loved it, yeah another recruiting process was pretty much I would say pretty cookie cutter as much as recruiting process goes.  I don’t know if there’s any cookie cutter way per se yeah, no definitely not don’t ask. Ian we that’s a whole separate podcast another stuff that kids have quite the journey yeah, okay even like kids like listening to it, yeah, he’s a set expectations of like all like after.  Game X like head coach is gonna walk up to me he’s gonna be like hey man I want a view to come play for me for all four years on a full ride like that’s this college scholarship that’s what I thought it was literally in terms of senior no it’s like you’re gonna get like the car all or like the visit I get the at the house or like at the field yeah and it’s a wrap yeah no it’s definitely different so my recruiting process kicked off really after my junior year was when I started getting ladders got a lot of letters started with some D3 schools and then eventually turned into some d2 schools so got a lot of letters went through a lot of camps.  And I started want to cancel as a sophomore just to see if there’s any interest that’s my little on athletic sophomore South could get but I found doing that I went to camp scout invited some camps but actually got my offer from Hillsdale before my senior year, okay, so they may offered me after my junior year went to kind of a general camp there and then they invited me to like a select camp person that’s what they called it, but I think there’s like 10 guys for the camp that I was at but they called me offered me before my senior year.  I think commit for a walk. Out. So the entire senior year I had that offer in my back pocket but I was still talking other schools going on a ton of visits and got some more offers along the way to play d2, but eventually you might say in like who else was like kind of generating interest to so we have some context yeah definitely so schools like that import Northwood Wayne State and Ferris were the biggest ones on the PEO cardinal around here, there was some other schools in Ohio, but so yeah, but it was always right for.  Me and I don’t know I think during the Korean processor heard this a lot but when you pick out your school for the most part. I think you’ll know when it’s the right the right fit when it’s all off for me. I kind of knew that that was really gonna end up okay but I still I didn’t commit right away.  I kind of just just want to see maybe there’s something better down the road actually was really close to committing did Davenport really want yeah kind of like being close to home. I’m glad I didn’t looking back at it now yeah but made the right choices good good fighters and also good college football, yeah, that’s a Was its own journey still is what yeah and we can kind of talk about that’s a perfect transition like I know.  We’ve talked like that we’ve had physical therapists on here we’ve talked it like about injury and just like how that kind of how that happens what occurs like good versus bad training all that stuff but um, you’ve had a rough yeah rock college experience, um, not to say that yeah.  I don’t think it was the preparation. I think like we can kind of go into this thing this is a good example of like how I was like some people just genetically or like, you know, like just pick the wrong parents like often say like it just didn’t work out and I’d kind of seems like it was your case, like nothing you did was wrong in your performance like outside of.  The season especially in season like we had like a lot of sweet film of you like just like crushing people or like taking like TVs to the house on my defense but like I think every season you had an injury correct, ah pretty much yeah there was something that went wrong every year, except for my true freshman year other than that there was.  Something okay yeah so I mean like let’s walk me through I know like yeah, I mean apart from like you had major operations like you did like it wasn’t just like hey like I sprained my ankle like what happened yeah so first behindry was my sophomore year first game dislocated my shoulder tour for basically all of my shoulder later on part of my rotator cuff and then I had two fractures in my humorous, oh yeah, it’s brutal so that happened in the second quarter of my first game that year if you’re just, Played as a freshman and I was only like two hundred ten pounds but I was playing so I was not fit to be playing football, so I found out much away yeah to get to that point and that just sucks just getting hurt the first game so that was that and obviously that was I played directly game but that was it for that year.  I was dumb for the year. I’d surgery like a month later. I’ve got that repaired. Next year in our camp our fall camp before the season tour. I’m still on my right knee meniscus on my left knee so that was no fun yeah that played the rest of the year.  I didn’t know my meniscus was torn until after the season so I guess it could have happened we think we know looking back at I think I know when it happened but I suppose it could have happened sometime throughout the year but nonetheless we had some knee issues my junior year so got my meniscus take after that season, but that surgery wasn’t quite as big.  And then somewhere between the fourth and fifth year of my time at Hillsdale I figured out that I have hip dysplasia on a torn hip labrum, actually yeah, that was no fun the last year was tough silliest and then bomb ankle too yeah stuff up in there, yeah. Nothing too crazy you got there yeah I don’t know like oftentimes I think it gets lost on some people like obviously when you play at that level and especially with such a short season like football is it’s not like you’re playing like high volume games right what you guys get like eight to 12 games and then playoffs yeah we had try to think we had eleven or twelve regular season games and then playoffs okay if we made playoffs yeah I did wants but so I mean, like every game counts right every week counts like you’re like that’s kind of the the mentality is that like when you say that’s the norm of like, You’re just trying to do whatever you can to get on the field it’s just like you like you just want to play and like regardless of the pain or regardless of like the injury yeah it was different different mindset than I think I would have now when we were I was hurt it was like I talk with my shoulder I put the rest of the game yeah and the second quarter I remember I ran out of the locker room they put a brace on my pads came back out before half time played the rest of that half went back in they taped my shoulder up like a ton yeah went back out and played the rest of the game.  I only missed like a snaps that game and then I was out the whole year yeah, so it’s just because I tell you. Different mentality for sure you just gotta because it’s football injuries happen, oh and it and like you said it’s a short season so it’s it kind of blows down to how bad do you want to be out there because there’s a lot of stuff my hip my knees my ankles.  I probably could have set out some time but at some point you got aside this is why we’re here to play football yeah play out every sport you’re playing so that’s what you want to do, then you’re gonna be out there like unless it’s so bad where they literally won’t let you like my shoulder then.  You know, that’s a different story but it or torn a shell sound like that yeah where you physically can’t move but do you recommend that’s like some of the mentality for like it where I should say did you have a similar mentality in high school was it like? I don’t know let’s talk I’m looking back I don’t really have any thing too bad in high school it’s my software had a pretty bad Achilles injury but I sat out for like a month with that send out some time there um in high school though, it’s different.  I mean, you guys actually know the developing body more than I do. I think if you try to play when you’re that age, I think it could lead to issues down the road. I think my shoulder I think I heard in high school yeah my senior year. I never got to look at but I know I had some issues with it then so that could have been something I could have caught ahead of.  Time. So you just got inside what’s worth I mean, but it could be different if you’re a kid that’s playing high school ball and that’s that’s it then maybe you fight through it. If you have a future plan a sport then it might not be worth risking. I know it’s a tough it’s a it’s a tight no.  I think that’s like I think it’s a really good perspective like it’s like context is so important right like you think. Like you said like I had this conversation with people before too it’s like it’s like one that’s like you really want to play that badly or like two like do you have the potential play the next level if so it’s like is that more important than like I’m not a conference game the beginning of the season whether it’s sprained ankle, so you’re just really like you it’s almost like you have to kind of like weigh your options yeah, it’s a tough spot to be yeah coach because any coach should see if his.  Player has potential to go to the next level yeah at some point he’s got a decide what’s best you’re into but at the same time if the kids gonna play in college he’s probably one of your studs in high school without for a game who but I never think about it the topic is yeah for everybody for the coaches the players it’s just a tough spot to be an injuries suck yeah, we’re on it just across the board would you ever want to coach football yeah?  I think so. I love it, yeah right maybe too intense for high school, what what I don’t know just. Going through five years of college football and the experiences I have like coaches there. I think that I just I just have it in me where I would just not be the most pleasant coach yeah, you’re not very sensitive to people’s feelings are you can’t be on the football fan area no feel feelings out there.  I don’t know this 2020 yeah there’s a lot of feelings rolling around here now that’s all good stuff. I know I mean, I got we got Eric Alex and my younger sitting here, like, I mean, I know you so well I what he what are some things like you guys.  Are kind of like I mean listening to this like you hear anything else that you’d want to get to know more about in terms of his story or yeah, what are you doing now yeah yeah college dance so what you graduate I graduated last December so I was at Hillsdale for five and a half year or four and a half years, excuse me graduating December worked for a company now called CH Robinson, it’s a third party with district company.  I enter in there before my fifth year at Hillsdale, I took me on full time so I’m doing sales for them and weeds it’s a Company essentially so we’re like a middleman between like a target and whatever shipper is bringing them goods in a very broad sense yeah that’s what we do and I have you could say inside sales kind of a kid unpack that would be nobody understands that I barely understand what it’s that’s what I’m doing now so don’t I don’t understand yeah, it’s a good job.  I love it, okay it but being an athlete and playing a college sport. I think helps me now because I was telling college before this it my job is very competitive yeah externally and internally. Still have. Driving I competitive edge from being an athlete my whole life is definitely helped me.  I think when I was growing up and people would say like you being an athlete it’s gonna help you along the way I was like yeah, whatever like yeah not like being actually in the real world and like sharing roles with people who weren’t athletes and don’t have the same mentality like you can definitely tell a difference, oh no question yeah, it’s crazy how like old people get so much smarter the older you get right, you know, yeah, yeah, this has a wag job you’re oh wait, he’s totally.  Dating everyone that’s so funny I mean yeah I mean Dan’s always been like even within the groups like I said like that group we had in like high school college time was all trick competitive then even coming in like giving you guys in your same conference like a free factory and it was still again it was like it wasn’t like rivalry or like bitterness but I mean it was competitive and there was like there’s always an edge and I think I was talking like we said we were talking before this like I was always wondering like oh yeah, you do people lose that kind of transitioning from like the well.  I’m of like a collegiate sports like into like the work for. Ce but it sounds like you really didn’t lose a staff but anything you probably have to turn it down just a little bit or turn it off. I should say like because it’s like you said it’s competitive it’s it’s high stakes like there’s a lot of like river air and like, you know on mess up yeah.  I don’t think that competitive federal government softball team is yeah selling ice cream, you strike out you’re saying the bands, you know. Yeah, maybe you athletics is not and maybe not okay. I mean I don’t like as far as like now you’re training like training here yeah the thing like I’m writing your workouts what something like more that we can do for you what’s gonna help.  Dan keep that competitive edge but still see the results that he wants yeah. I think me being here now. I kind of play a lot of mental games with myself out there when I’m working out because this whatever it’s gonna keep me engaged so we do the finishers that they kind of shocked like they’re they’re good they darn they’re not fun, but I kind of, I’ll count I’ll like try and keep track how many reps other people are doing and what’s that they’re on get ready to where I’m at like, oh like I’m only one set ahead or this guys getting closer like I like go faster stuff like that, so I like I said, I just don’t I don’t think I think I might be too competitive so I don’t think I’m ever gonna lose that and that’s part of it right let’s part of why I like having some finishers are at the end just kind of let people who are older out of that like, Organized like sports and yeah have that competitive edge like give them something to kind of like right shoot for look forward to and enjoy yeah.  I know like chip loves it yeah come here to compete against you, you know, that’s all it’s like it makes it fun it makes it but yeah from like a from a long term perspective of training like what you just. What are you looking out for what are you looking to get out of your training these days?  I mean looking at it now it’s obviously going from a college football training program to now the goals are different. I think that’s one thing I’m working on is changing my mindset because when I was at Hillsdale it was move as much way as you can obviously within reason you want your phone to be good but it was much ways you can and like, I’m trying to think of how to say this appropriately when we were the way we were not nice people to like each other’s accountability accountability, yeah, yeah, I can’t believe extreme yeah name for whatever talk to get guys motivated we had workouts at four in the morning fire in the morning was like this stinks but looking at you know, the program now what I want out of it is just to stay in shape and like I said keeping that competitive nature of it whatever that may be.  I think I think you do a great job. I love it, it’s a yeah, what is what is? Look like oh would you like to be able to do? I don’t know it’s just yeah for me on blast yes, it’s a I don’t know so like I said, I’m so figuring out life post football because I’m probably 2005 now but when I was playing football, I was 225 through 30 so personally I would like to be sub 200 yeah, it’s kind of a lofty goal for me.  I don’t know if I have the frame for it, but I don’t know it but, In shape for me now. I got to just be that’s a tough question man, like athletic feeds or just. Like I’m trying to look I yeah how you can jump on it can assure you it’s not gonna be a five yeah, it’s not gonna be that um, I think I probably benchmarks for myself but I’ll still always want to be able to do I’ll always be on able to bench to 25 for for more than one yeah.  I’ll always be on it to be able to deadlifts 400 plus stuff like that. I was will want to be able to. Do a 10 15 pull-ups and you know with out having a problem stuff like that so just I don’t know stuff like that like I said, it’s still kind of new water for me like football has been just such a big part of my identity for the last so that’s that I’ve been in third grade it’s like been what my thing was I play on this course the football was always what I was best at so transitioning away from that part of life and yeah a new part of life is there’s a lot of gray area learning and figuring out like, Where should I push my body with the injuries?  I have and where should I maybe put my pride aside right just do less way here and stuff like that and. Yeah yeah good answer yeah want me to the short term right you can marry here pretty soon aren’t you married getting married twenty football gonna be so 200 for the wedding oh there’s the goal yeah there you go out yeah go yeah good lord.  I’ll be terrible yeah. Exciting man no I appreciate you coming out I think that’s I mean we’ll probably start rapping it up here but it’s cool to see I mean it’s it’s so funny how like all this is like kind of so tied together and so intertwined like you we never need the most really want too far and like I think having you back here part of this place you’re kind of one of our first first like OG like full-timers and like kids even from like the high school group still like recognize you and they’ll come to your dog group and like that and like yeah, what’s up to you know dance chain leave the legend but um, no man, oh yeah, we know what to be on now you’re part of.  This place it’s cool it’s cool to see people stick around which we had you know, 15 more of you just got here but we’ll work on that it’s our job yeah thanks for coming on down we appreciate it thanks for listening go ahead guys and like subscribe send it to your friends send it to someone who should know.  Dan peace play for your mothers, yeah, thank you.

Thomas and Alex go deep with a wide range of questions for the office guy as a “get to know you” with the operations manager at Optimal Performance Training Center. Some of the athletes refer to Eric as the office guy, buried deep in paperwork and files on his desk, and the nickname stuck. Your questions will be answered! Artist rendition of Eric’s Desk Oh welcome back to another episode of optimal performance training podcast. I’m your host Thomas Bose and today I have with me Alex co-hosting Coach House is the building ladies and gentlemen, then we have are always special guests a friend of the podcast really air trotter. Thank you yes welcome yeah thank you thank you a lot better being the other side yeah weirdly enough we’re actually interviewing Eric the office guy Schroeder today, and this is gonna be a good one because today is week, one of our well we call it’s a day in the life series or anyone call this sure sure.  Dan the life, um over the next seven weeks you’re gonna kind of get to know our staff how we how we do things in our data lay lives what we do when we’re not at the gym and we do we are the gym, um, so this is kind of piggy backing off of.  A post that Eric did kind of about his life what with the morning afternoon evening looks like for him and a truly what what what is it what is. A day in the life of an operations manager hmm. Eric I saw your video earlier man. I’m gonna be honest.  I think people are gonna excited um, if we’re fully encapsulates who you are no question about it. I mean, if if I were to give Eric like an intro. He’s very serious but not um wise wise man, um, I think about it like I think if kids are gonna watch this they’re gonna be like what is his dude talking about but like if but if you’ve been around the block a few times like you’re big always do gets it.  Eric gets it and there’s no there’s no doubt about that, thank you gentlemen, no but, Enough of us who wants to hear about us we’re here to talk about you so Eric we’re gonna shoot rap and probably just fire off a few quick questions here or long questions, honestly.  Try to get to know you a little bit. I think I think you do a lot of behind the scenes work here so let’s go let’s go ahead and kind of just squash that that whole misconception that you just sit here and play solitaire all day, oh what do you do for optimum performance training center, my role varies based on the needs of the business so that, It can be anywhere from running our management our system software for our membership, it could be looking at expansion opportunities, it could be running our financial our books our taxes that sort of thing so really there’s no.  Cookie cutter day that I could describe to you that would kind of fit what I do here. I would say I’m definitely more of just kind of back off this behind the scenes like people some of our youth athletes they’re like, oh Eric the office guy and I don’t take that much offense to it just kind of I play along to be scared of the officer yeah offices are terrifying.  No that’s good I would definitely say half the time I’m sitting next to you watching what you’re doing or I notice what you’re doing. I should say yeah and you do a great job and like I think it’s not always the work that wants to be done but it’s the work that needs to be done and I don’t think anybody does it better than Eric so we’re definitely lucky to have him this place would probably be non-existent without him so quick thank you to you, but I mean, that’s that’s kind of boring I’m gonna be honest, so like we’re gonna kind of spice things up here a little bit like, Obviously you’ve talked about your background a little bit in collegiate sports we’ve talked about just like this little kind of misconceptions here and there now I’m misconceptions just kind of backstory of your life let’s go ahead let’s go back to the beginning where you from tell us a little about your family you’re upbringing in kind of what was important what wasn’t what made you who you are today or from I was born in Battle Creek Michigan and grew up most of my life and climax michigan for those of you know, climax Scotts high school middle school a bunch of school.  I did all three of those. Sure fortunately my opportunities were limited so I hated school and I think it’s a good thing because it led me to expanding my horizon looking for other opportunities and just being just being different like I just didn’t want to fit in and want to be like everyone else in my school, so it enabled me to kind of think outside the box research grow educate myself outside of what’s traditionally offered and like a K-12 system.  I ended up at Cornerstone University where I ran track and study exercise science. And from there I got my MBA I hopped around did so many different jobs that I don’t even remember them all but I mean, we could dive into that if that peaks your interest at all and kind of file into this position through.  I don’t know it’s just we went to Korea my wife and I we came back and I decided to start a podcast thinking that’s a great opportunity to meet business owners who I could potentially work for and here we are genius. You literally picked us on destiny that’s ensuring I I do think people would like to hear about Korea, um, that’s that’s I remember you had just gotten back from there when we connected or had been pretty recent and that seems like something I mean, nobody really does that I don’t even think people really know you have done that so once you go ahead and deep dive into that whole experience how that came about why you chose to do it and then just kind of a couple key takeaways that you had yeah for sure.  So kind of what came about is my fiance at the time. Carly expressed a desire to travel the world and kind of just. See things in a different culture in a different lens and at the time I was being let go of my position because we were getting married and she was my boss the company we worked for was like now it can’t do that so one of these got to go.  And I took the L on that one. And I’d be able to take a bigger W. Yes. It was kind of by my time just doing like our jobs in the meantime and Carly had mentioned like oh I want to travel. So I just looked where can you make money and travel?  Teaching English came up and I put up one application. And the next day I got a call from the recruiter and then they were like the superintendent of school wants to meet with you and it just it just kind of flowed it was really like it was all of a sudden we went from being in Michigan and not thinking about anything outside of Michigan and then all of a sudden it was like yeah, we’re definitely going to the South Korea like one month.  It was like that quick so it was like sell our sell all of our possessions like figure out how we’re gonna live where we’re gonna live what we need to know what we need to kind of prepare for and we just took the leap. It was definitely a. Like a faith over fear moment if you can call it that and once we get out there it was like everything kind of led to this.  Like how it came about and then once we were there was like, hey not only are you a teacher in the school and you’re gonna get paid really well. You’re also not gonna work very much so you get time to do what you want to do and you also get to travel eight weeks out of the year and get paid for it.  Like just like so many things that kind of just were like here you go, like, Good for you It was it was awesome opportunity so we stayed there for two years we we’ve melted. There was some hard work in there for sure like there’s definite moments where you had to like persist and show some career capital per se I’m there.  Some people I go to South Korea or any Asian country or any country to teach English, they don’t have work experience and it tends to kind of eat them in the I don’t know. I’m trying to say it by some of the butt per say because they go there and they expect everything to be well thought out and Taken care of and there to be systems in place already and oftentimes it’s not the case.  And with work experience, you you realize that you get you get a company and you’re like, okay not every company’s around the way it should be most or not mm-hmm and that in that kind of reinforced my belief like yeah, I definitely want to have my own company or be part of something where I have more of a directional control in the future.  So end up having a kid out there and then two months after Luca was born we came back to Michigan and kind of looked for the next thing. Gotcha. Wow. That’s awesome. I mean to just drop everything on a whim it’s seemingly and then just go Teach like did you have to like did was there a process of where you had to learn Korean first and then instruct an English or like it was there like because was that whole two years is like you get there.  It’s like week one. It’s like all right, let’s teach some English like I’m at work week two teacher. So we didn’t have to learn any Korean and they were like, you know to learn Korean. And then week two you get in the classroom and you’re like hello and you get blank stares.  And then one or two kids are like hi teacher and then you move on and you get through a lesson like you give them a worksheet right you get ten minutes into it and you’re like, oh crap what do I do now and it’s literally like flying by the CD pants, okay, you get a handle of what do the kids know what can I get by with like basic English like you have to find that level with the kids and then trying to learn Korean while also like I need to go get groceries, how am I gonna do that now that sort of thing so it’s a lot when your first day.  Are like the first two months just flew by and then after that like slows way down, once you’re there for six months feels like. Like time is twice as long when you’re out there because you don’t have friends and family to go visit you don’t have things going on you’re literally teaching and then you’re doing what you want okay, which is great and I’m sure a lot of kids that might be listening to this or like that sounds awesome yeah right well what you feel with your with all that down time?  I did a lot of book reading did a lot of. Wasted time play a lot of video games that sort of stuff and I’m not that ashamed but I like I wouldn’t do it now but at the time when you have 16 17 hours in your day, you fill it with random stuff you just find stuff to do I made a lot of spreadsheets yeah.  I was a spreadsheet guy for anything specific just kind of like future planning what would it be like to? Flip houses and like a lot of financial modeling that sort of thing personal financing budgeting a lot of stuff that actually prepared me for this job wonderful. Thanks Charlotte for all those book read books you read which ones do you think probably like the two or three that really pop out your mind is like filing like these books can change the game for me, oh shoot, um, let me think.  We’re at the time. I head, I know Tony Robbins was a big one Tim Ferriss. I’m saying author’s names because there’s riots yeah. Tony Robbins is like, hey have some belief in yourself that you know that sort of mentality I and I’ve been a shy kid. I know Thomas and I we kind of I don’t know about you Alex, but we kind of grew up like shy quiet and reserved and just we would listen and that’s great get you to a certain point but at a certain point you have to stand up you have to talk you have to assert yourself and ask for things and move forward and I learned that from Tony Robbins books Tim Ferriss.  Kind of like life hacks or just how to live a better life. Streamlining streamlining for sure like minimizing minimum effective dose just good principles to kind of build a foundation. Jordan Peterson 12 rules for life, that was really good to start that one out. I heard that one is like a mastery yeah, that’s really good.  And awesome. No man, that’s so cool. I like I remember when we first met I think it was back in February and we talked about that like you just got back from Korea. I’m like why it’s like literally living in Korea I got it on a trip yeah so how many hours a day so if you were had 17 hours a day like of yourself like how many times how many hours do we did you work, like what did that look like the worst schedule piece of that.  I was it was scheduled 30 hours but on an average week, we would work. Three hours Monday Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday, so that’s 12 and then two on Friday. So 14 hours and then you have like prep time in the office where you’re supposed to be like preparing materials for next week, but.  We created our own textbooks so like you creating our textbooks I already know what we have in there I don’t know what I’m teaching yeah and I’ve already talked like at a certain point I’ve already taught so many classes. I I could I could walk into any group in Korea was this like I would teach him English sorry to cut you I was just like an after school thing where people just need an extra help or was this like what was so so we worked at like a camp so there’s some schools where you come in as a teacher and you’re working in conjunction with the school and you have your own classroom that sort of thing we were at camp and so schools in the area would send the kids.  Afternoon for a three to four hours for a week, okay, so we had a new group of students every week and we would have a different level of English ability would have a different age group and so it was fun it was always different as always something new but there’s an element of teaching and I know from being here where you take someone from square one like we get new athletes in today that are 10 years old, you can just see them at 16 just being the best on the field the best in their class the best in the state.  And just being a part of that process it’s so rewarding and yeah you didn’t get that there right because they’re gone after five yeah yeah, that’s frustrating there’s no like long-term payout if you will, um, And like realistically for stuff like that like we can’t really get a lot of accomplishing a week, could you?  Not really and so you take that new account for sure you’re kind of you step in as a facilitator for where they’re at so to compare it to an athlete like someone’s a great athlete but they might be needing a little bit more speed like you’re gonna do a couple sprint days and no like hey by Friday you’re not you might not be faster but like we’re gonna work on foundation, we’re gonna work on technique we’re just gonna give you some tools to help you and try and just trying to encourage that process to one big thing is like getting in front of a foreigner as a Korean you have an American teacher like that’s inspiring for a lot.  Of kids okay and they would write stuff like you’ve inspired me to learn English so much more. I’m like, oh okay yeah, you’re walking for the worksheets yeah, that’s sweet. Now, that’s interesting. I mean like, It sounds like even like just from that that you just say that one thing.  I mean, that’s quite the impact. And like, Called it sorry. Alex officially owes me a hundred bucks, that’s enough that air or off airbed. Oh we over that later. But um 800 smackers. There you go. That is I’m rich. No. Yeah. Yeah coaching is working out the background here.  We’re after after hours on a Friday evening, this is not something we do regularly. I think the last time we did this was when we roasted Trevor. Yeah, which needs to happen sooner or rather than later? Oh remarkable time, but yeah December 4th, there we go. Market calendars Colton um but no I think going going into more of Eric’s story here let us it sounds like it was a pretty critical.  I mean that was resent and obviously like that had a pretty big impact on you guys but you’re also a husband and you’re also a father and that’s a whole piece that no one really sees especially this place like you want to I don’t know you want to go into nitty-gritty details, but like sure what about that has changed to you, especially more recently the stuff that’s happened in your life.  Yeah. Everything. How I put this without sounding. Cliche or trite man, you got it. It’s I mean everyone here is this like oh being a dad or being a mom is totally changed my life. It’s totally true like there’s no. There’s no life without Luca and I can’t imagine who I’d be now without that experience and.  And being a husband too like, you know, I’m getting kind of teary-eyed here just talking about it but it’s really important to me, it’s very very impactful very huge and it’s hard to it’s hard to put in a work yeah being asked a question like this. I’m like, I’m like, it’s so meaningful people like oh my gosh move on, please.  But what how can I kind of summarize? Or at least talk on a little topic, um in the video I made today for instance being a dad my favorite part about being a dad is like each day. I’m like, I’m not approaching like with what I can learn or how can I learn something from interacting with my son but it often comes up whether I want to or not and those days when in the past where I have a bad day and I want to like stay in bed and be lazy where I want to slack off do stuff.  I shouldn’t or I want to be selfish and not care about others, like there’s no time for that and when there’s no time for that level of. Like neglect. I’d call it neglect for what’s important it’s just it’s just like you always have that reminder it’s just it’s just wonderful, which is awesome.  Yeah, it sounds like a big accountability piece as well as well as like pair that with discipline. Yeah, it’s disciplined by default. Yeah, which I mean like, No one Eric as long as I have um and much I mean we spend a lot of quality time together I’d say like the dude’s very disciplined and I think his family definitely only adds value to that which is cool to see and it’s encouraging because I think a lot of times often people will use that as an excuse rather than like kind of go modality for like positive change and I think you’ve kind of steered in the direction of like all like like people still do neglect their kids or their family like we’re probably like some people still do have bad days and they don’t they don’t view that in the same light, which I think that speaks to the left.  Level maturity in the level of seriousness you kind of take what you do which is which is sweet and like I said with a couple of times you were very lucky to have you but um, that’s cool, um, I know I’m sure I’m sure all the kids are like only once listeners or another like dude, why are you guys talking about families like there’s nothing to do with anything?  So let’s but it has everything but yeah, but I mean, like come on. But let’s move on. I have a rapid fire. Oh that looks like you’re collecting questions from Twitter Alex, I have four millions of dollars. I’m shooting in. Questions here is gonna be this or that and you just need to answer right off the cuff second.  Oh, we’re not gonna make swing himself. No, not at all. Okay, we can go back through it after we started we should rapid fire ready. Taco Burrito taco soccer football soccer Apple or Samsung. Apple food. Okay. Cookie Squad or deadlift deadlift. Lugar Carly Luca.  All right, let’s go through why talk over burrito or burrito over taco, he said Santa, um. The crunch the crunch. I’m gonna check your Eric yeah. Soccer football, you said soccer? Yeah. I used to love football. I had grown to have an appreciation for soccer. I think it doesn’t get enough love in America, so might as well.  Yeah, yeah the change you want to see in the champion for soccer. There you go champion for soccer. So you definitely slipped and said Apple over Samsung. Yeah housing about delicious crispy apple and didn’t notice Samsung was that was a fish and then I realized it’s for talking about phones.  All right Samsung Samsung okay, that’s a bummer to cookie or you said three it’s cranberry so cook your cake you said cookie yeah, I don’t even know big cake guy. I didn’t like it yeah, oh yeah, I’ll take your chocolate chip cookie over a nice slicing day that yeah that’d be a battle for me this is cheesecake yeah yeah squad dello if you said deadlifts yeah, it’s your big deadlift guy your Eric the back it’s super easy, yes.  Default it’s like what I shouldn’t do in the gym and I love doing it yeah fair enough your bill for it look good or Carly and you gave us the truth yes and I’ve told her hundred thousand times yeah, so it’s wrong. I’ll be very much but he comes first.  Wow. I don’t I don’t know what that means on a day-to-day basis yeah, it’s just my perspective. Yeah. I mean, we can always we can’t really out for any insight to that good yeah yeah problems yeah. I don’t have to make that choice no this is good. I guess like kind of being closing here, so our rapping it up.  Is there anything you’d like to share kind of I know like you like in the past you’ve been a big facilitator right like you we call Eric our integrator so like we’ll come up with a great ideas but like these ideas don’t really happen unless Eric doesn’t because like we do a really good job of coming up with new plans new projects new implements, but when it comes down to the day-to-day, it’s like Eric finds a way to get it done and that’s what it’s so special about him, so I think we often take that for granted but I mean, like what what look what’s in closing something we want to kind of close on that like you don’t get to necessary.  Like project out there because like you’ll run the podcast and you ask a lot of great questions and you phenomenal listening and as you’re as you’re doing that, we never really get to hear your side so like in closing what’s like one or two things here that like you want to convey out to our audience or kind of what you’ve learned here just even being with with our team the past.  I mean, what is it you came in about right around March so any closing what one or two things that you think you’ve learned you’ve appreciated or anything you want to kind of share and closing about TC fam sure sure, um, One thing I’ve learned is that there’s always time to do the work and that so like my default mode is getting the office bury my head in the computer and look at what I need to do and do it and work work hard and that I often miss what’s happening out there on the turf on the gym floor which is 100% more important than what happens here like we do have to get this done but like the thing I’ve learned is it there’s always time for it will get done there’s something that’s going out there or just just saying hi just checking in just being out there.  And I think in the past maybe month or so it done a decent job of that some days are better than others, but yeah ever since you got that crisp white sweatshirt, you definitely been on the floor like well, I gotta. Somebody’s got appreciated this yeah, that’s crispy merch something else.  I would say. It’s very interesting. Being in our coaching sessions, so we do coaching sessions once a week and Thomas definitely leads these and I have a degree in exercise science and I used to be an athlete in college and. Definitely think of myself as knowledgeable in the space, but sitting down and being in this group like I know when I’m sitting there, it’s like, Just because you guys are out there in your coaching and you’re integrating everything you’re learning each day, like I’m like well, I’m definitely not the wisest in this field and it’s cool it’s great to be a part of like it’s really nice to sit down and learn something during those those sessions and during those teaching moments and to kind of see all of us like learn something new and then how can we implement it and the the changes we’ve gone through as a program as an organization have been huge and it’s like we.  Start to believe something we adopt some new knowledge and we try it out and we realize like hmm, maybe that’s not the best approach, let’s shift a little bit just that adaptability that ability to change on the fly. I think is huge and that’s been really great seeing that great being a part of it there’s a million things.  I could say about OPTC my I love it here, so I’ll just kind of use that no appreciate it man, that’s awesome, like I said countless times and not meeting my people myself here, but we are lucky to have air carrying and I’m glad he kind of kickstarted this whole series.  And next week you’re looking at interns then oh yeah, he’s smooth as bars this side of the Mississippi, you will not want to miss as I promise guys, thanks for checking us out tonight, go ahead have yourself a great week and we’ll get you next time peace.

Fascial stretch therapy (FST) is a form of table-based assisted stretching that focuses on the fascia and joint capsule to achieve optimal strength, flexibility, pain relief, and performance. It is a pain-free method of stretching, typically performed on a massage table, that can provide almost instant results. Fascia is a specialized system of the body that has an appearance similar to a spider’s web or a sweater. Fascia is very densely woven, covering and interpenetrating every muscle, bone, nerve, artery and vein, as well as all of our internal organs including the heart, lungs, brain and spinal cord. Benefits of FST include: Pain ReductionImproved CirculationRehabilitationAnti-agingPreventative InjurySports PerformanceWeight Loss Transcript: All right welcome to the OTP episode number 15 Today we have Alyssa and Alyssa is involved in fascial stretch therapy, she’s also training for the Olympic trials she’s running crazy amounts of miles a week, she’s a very busy person we’re gonna dive into what she’s got for us today.  Lista, welcome. Thanks so happy to be here. Yeah. Good to meet you guys. Yeah, this is fun. I mean, we haven’t done a podcast in it’s probably been like close to a month so we and we use to rip them off try like at least like every week. But we were waiting.  I know like we tried to connect earlier and for what?Had a reason I think we got busy like I almost forgot about it and then I think you as well yeah right now Yeah yeah for sure but super glad to have you on this is interesting because this is something I mean, I have no experience with I know Eric probably has no experience with so anytime we get so many in here that has like a new perspective for anything like I’m always super eager to learn about that so I guess we can start we talked a little bit off the mic but like just a little bit of your background, whether it’s athletically, you know, like professionally, however you want to kind of introduce yourself to listeners want to go ahead and do that.  Great. I’ve been a runner for.The past probably 14 years that’s my background. I ran track and field cross country in both high school and college better on the Grand Rapids area for almost my entire life after I ran like competitively in college. I really kind of didn’t want to stop.  I didn’t want to let that go. So I’ve been training on my own since then haven’t really run with the team or with like a brand or anything but I’ve been kind of racing in the local community. I’ve done a couple larger races. I’m outside of the state currently. Trying to qualify like we said for the big trials marathon which is the next chance of qualify will be in four years to just kind of looking forward and training long term. Whoa. Yeah, John Zafffield, like that’s like that’s a long way away mentally it’s a long stretch. I actually attempted to qualify for this cycle and I was just a few minutes off.  Just really didn’t give myself enough time to like get through a good full training cycle for a marathon. So in four years, I’ll be smarter and stronger and ready to go again. So just about the long-term game just being patient. So still trying to do that. I’ve coached at a few. Different area high schools track and field and cross country currently coaching at forces eastern high school track and field and cross country. So trying to get through runs with masks right now. Oh really about that. Yeah, this order gets just got lifted yesterday, but oh it did for a few days for. Okay for someone.For cross-country is like it’s yeah, it does not make sense. Yeah, it’s about as spread out as you gotta be yeah. That’s kind of my background.Gotten into a little bit of personal training. I’ve coached boxing for the past couple years. Is that a title box?  Yeah, so it’s a little.I do a lot of things. I like to be busy.Person so yeah I’m recently gotten into a bachelor’s stretch therapy we’ll talk again more about that, but I found that to be a super important modality for my own training and for a lot of the athletes I work with so cool, yeah, it’s a great intro you mentioned college but I don’t think you mentioned what you’re racing in college, yeah sorry attended Calvin College, I competed mostly in the Steeplechase, okay, just if you don’t know it’s seven laps around the track one water barrier to jump over each lap and then seven other hurdles to get over so I was all american that event. For twice totally smokes there because in three yeah like almost because eight last week two miles right so yeah, okay yeah, okay, yeah.You always give people congregating by the waterpetling so yeah super fun now did you do I mean don’t have that high school do that no only in like New York in California, okay so did you do do you always like longer to middle distance track running high school to me it’s you know running on the track isn’t always very exciting yeah bring it on those hurdles are serious yeah that’s a hurdle yeah see they’re not like yeah, they’re not the kind of bounce back when you go over them, they’re like solid if you hit one you’re down so fun. But it’s super fun that’s cool definitely the most exciting track event in my opinion.So we talked a little bit off Mike about your Olympic trials training you’re doing like 80-ish miles a week yeah kind of coming up and down my peak weeks and better around 80 coming down to maybe you know 60 and some recovery weeks.  I just took two weeks down at like 30 I was out of the country so just kind of took two weeks off. I hadn’t taken time off since my last marathon which is like in February so it was time for just a couple weeks of break yeah so trying to start building back up again and don’t really know what race is on the calendar because nothing is really running right now, so just trying to stay motivated and focused without. Having that light goal race in a couple months so we’re working through it yeah yeah I’ve been part of like the what jumps out to me is like I know idea how to but even go about programming for like distance training or even if you’re interested because that’s like a that’s a whole energy system like you don’t never have to tap into here fortunately, oh, I don’t know.  I I’ve done like longer runs in the past on a few years ago. I was I mean, like the most mileage I’ve ever got to was like, maybe 35 a week which is substantial it was a lot. I mean, it was average small but I was paying that like swimming as well, so ifIt was like I was swimming probably 10 miles a week and then like 20 35 a week it’s just great yeah it was people’s body there was a dinosaur oh yeah adding the swimming yeah we have a lot of kids that you know, we hit 55 miles and also in their body start to not respond well, so yeah that extra swimming or extra biking is yeah super important that you can kind of chop up but I mean for you I mean and you don’t have to go you will you go as detailed as you want, but like,Training for that what does that look like?  I know because you mix in like resistance training as well, like, how do you like structure? I guess a week a month like it’s a great. Week when I’m working out well and hard I’m trying to hit around 80 miles a week. I’ll definitely do some two days okay so that will look like kind of a harder workout in the morning and then just kind of some really really really easy recovery miles at night so typical week would maybe be so yeah, we’ll do a long run once a week, which I like to take it kind of a more tempo paste.  I’ll try and like hit, you know low sixes for the whole the whole you know, 14 mile run.It’s kind of good I’m tempo long run a couple recovery days which end up being like I don’t know nine nine to ten miles and then an easy run at night still so even those recovery days are still pretty young distance heavy again, if you’re trying to hit 80, you know, I have any day that’s short right and then again depending on whether I’m training for something more track oriented or more like marathon oriented the workouts look totally different obviously I’m training for something more track oriented maybe we’ll do you know, some 200 400’s maybe up to like 1k. P each okay on the track from training for something marathon related, it’s a lot of like at pace work longer repetitions, maybe you know, two miles at marathon pace, you know.Half a mile off at marathon pace half mile off just trying to stimulate what that’ll be like yeah exactly with a little bit of break obviously to hit Olympic trials qualifying you have to be able to run 26.2 miles at 6:15 pace so that’s the ultimate goal what’s the time what’s the time on it, it’s a 245 marathon yeah that’s just like the bee standard the a standard I think is somewhere in the 230s or. And is A’s automatic and B is like yeah, so basically yeah, they’ll pay your way yeah they’ll cover all your stay your hotel be you have to pay your own but actually last year the Atlanta Trap Club that’s where the trials were held they paid the way for everyone so kind of cool is that being the A and B were just kind of so now how far are you said you’re a few minutes off how far what was the last time you tried to qualify yeah, so I tried twice.  I tried enrichment Virginia in November and then I tried in.Houston Texas in January oh both times I ran like almost the exact same time, I guess I know and like a 252 so a good seven minutes to go but again, my training is like I started training I decided I want to try and about August so I just I gave myself like three months hmm, so I just I need it need to give myself like a couple years yeah exactly what I’ll be able to do now yeah.  I just I know I can do it. I like those experiences we’re pretty solid. I just didn’t quite have the what I needed at the end of those miles, which is the most difficult part, obviously.Sure that was heartbreaking initially. I felt like it gave you confidence. Yeah, no, I guess I’m not I don’t think I’ve ever gonna be a lifelong marathoner.  Like it’s not my favorite distance to.People Yeah So I just I really want to try and get to trials just kind of have that on my like it’s on my bucket list. Yeah, I think that maybe never run a marathon ever again. Just keep stick with the shorter.  5k, you know half marathon is even like really great pretty sustainable easier recovery. Yeah, and actually I haven’t when I was doing my training for the marathons, I wasn’t doing facial stretch therapy at all so I’m kind of interested to integrate that into my training cycle. That’s pretty new, isn’t it?  You said within the past what I have here is.N’t Yeah it’s pretty new Okay Have you seen a difference in time specifically or just maybe how you feel. That’s such a great question. I say this spring is kind of what I started the whole like integration with stretch therapy.  I also at the same time I had a former athlete I used to coach James Jamie. Reed she runs at the University of Alabama. She was back in town because their whole outdoor track season was canceled their school was canceled all that. So, I actually was able to train with her this spring and kind of beginning of summer and it was probably the hardest. Period of training I’ve ever done It definitely I could PR in several events and so I don’t I had I I know I was working harder and training harder but also integrating fascial stretch therapy, so I’m sure it was kind of a marriage of the two. Sure, you know, I’d like to think it was a little bit of foe.  Yeah. So yeah, I definitely think I’ve seen some like performance benefits and it’s been fun. Have you not when you also been like apart from the marathon? It sounds like you’ve been I mean you compete in like that it would be a masters event. Are you masters track now or how does that? Work Or yeah it’s really that’s the thing there’s not a lot of post collegiate athletes that compete and track and field right unless they do it, you know to professional level after college. So most actually most collegiate track and field meets will accept just kind of unattached. That’s right, okay.  So that’s kind of what ends up happening. I’ve really haven’t done a lot of track racing post college. I’m really looking forward to getting into it again. Yeah, so basically it would be like, you know Grand Valley’s hosting a you know, me and you can try that for this deal Chase or yeah U of M is so steamy Most. Most events are most track meets will accept unattached runners So that’s kind of the thing that works. Yeah, yeah anything that’s not conference invitationals. So yeah, it works. Yeah, for sure. What about solar are you doing like you said more tempoed outpaces stuff like that, it’s got does that more like heart rate driven are you like a big heart rate person?  Are you more like a space time person? Yes. I mean, I I definitely run with a watch that has a heart rate monitor. I should definitely pay attention to it more than I do. Yeah, most of the time it’s me going throughout.And being like oh that was a rough one yeah.  I know I really I just kind of bass we have a couple different like Jack Daniels paste charts we use those kind of calculate what certain replication should be yeah sorry yeah so we again use those you see I definitely more paste driven and heart rate driven sure. I would definitely love to get more into that side of things but right now it’s more of an after the after the fact I look at it and it’s oh my gosh, yeah, probably yeah, can I use it to monitor? Oh well, I’m recovering yeah.That’s that that’s always more interesting to me just kind of average resting heart rate mm-hmm can tell if I’m gonna like a harder period of training or if I’m tapered well or yeah, what’s your typical measure right here this is I’m high forties yes what I sleep that’s what 80 miles a week will do yeah if I’m in the right in the right time if I’m recovered well yeah, so yeah, now what kind of you wear like a certain wearable for that like you had is it just like an Apple watch is a yeah just use a garment okay runner 35 or something, okay something like that right now, it’s getting fixed so I just feel naked. Yeah, so you don’t know what’s going on with my body really scary yeah, all right it’s probably up and I don’t know that’s hilarious let’s jump into yeah special stretch there already, of course yeah so I mean, I’ll just kind of start you guys and maybe ask me any questions yeah things I don’t cover so. Yeah starting with what is fashion. I feel like a lot of people don’t know what your fashion yeah yeah it’s like this and that kind of a basic way of describing it it’s this, you know network of tissues that connects all of your joints all of your joint calves so all of your muscles everything your entire body goes from your toes to your forehead. It’s supposed to be this like really like gliding soft malleable, you know substance in your body but oftentimes with injury with age with you know, really repetitive movements that you do when you train for any sport it becomes kind of like sticky or hard and so that fascial release what we do with fascial stretch therapy allows it to be really again gliding and smooth. And that’s what allows like your tissues and your muscle and your joint capsules to like work smoothly and work together if you have and if you have any like hiccups in that if you have something, you know tight like, you know constrained in your calf, it’s gonna affect everything else so the rest of your body, you know, your whole body needs to be in you know, saying to everything work well together. Yeah that’s I mean that’s kind of what that’s kind of what we work on it’s yes they’re just kind of glue that holds the body together and then that when it’s upset can cause inflammation it can cause irritation so fascia releases what breaks up all those adhesions in your body hmm so that’s kind of like what is based in what we do vascular stretch therapy, it’s table-based so we’ll have you know, lay on your back on kind of like a massage table there’s a few there’s like one strap that goes over we kind of stretch one side of the body at a time, okay, so there’s one strap that we put kind of over your calf one. We put.Over like your thigh muscle. And then we kind of worked from there. It’s.Again there’s lots of things that it can be for, you know, people who said at a desk all day and need to be, you know, moving better can be for people with bad posture can be for people who are trying to rehab from injuries from surgeries.  Again, my my line of work. I really like to use it for athletes. It’s developed by a woman who lives in Arizona and Frederick. She kind of pioneered the whole thing. She’s a Olympic. She worked a lot of Olympic athletes on their flexibility a lot of professional athletes on their flexibility. So yeah, it’s it’s around the country it’s around the world but yeah, there’s not really a spot in Michigan that does it in like a large like group setting. So yeah, I work at Helix performance, they’re not helix performance center, sorry. Helix stretch center, we’re in Cascade Michigan. It was started by Becky White Steinsma.  She’s been in the industry for 22 years as a personal trainer and then as a facial stretch therapist, we currently have eight.Fascial stretch therapists that work there We offer cupping massage and then fascial stress therapy. And yeah, it’s been kind of a fun thing to be a part of in the last half year.  Yeah, that sounds awesome. I mean not she’s actually only questions already. I thought if I just kind of like no dominant, I think I’d like to try to deep down just a little more on like fashion if we can go there. I would say I was listening to some other day on a podcast there to kind of talking more about.  No, I don’t know if you know about this but like fashion and it’s like response to like emotion.And they touch on that it’s like yeah they related to like how like horses are like kind of emotionally heightened you know they freak out if like a storm coming stuff like that.  It’s like they’re so switched on because they’re fascists so efficient. I’ve heard that I’m like that’s interesting because I mean if you have any like relation to that or you have any more information, you’re more about that. I don’t know say there’s there’s certain points in the fashion where I’m like during a stretch session.  Again, it gets almost something you have to experience. It surely understands. Yeah, like a lot of times like they say like your emotion is kind of held in your fashion.And the way it connects to your brain the way it connects to your muscles Again everything is just a web and it transmits emotion it transmits energy again, I don’t know the science behind there’s people that could probably talk circles around me in terms of the science but that’s definitely something that’s part of the fascia that it it’s yes, it’s connected to everything.  So yeah, I agree with you there. There’s yeah, I think that’s why they say acupuncture works so well so because like you’re literally you’re like almost like releasing like top poking holes in the tightness and like, I don’t know releasing energy or like emotion through dry needling.Or what whatever the case is, um. I know there’s a book about that called anatomy trains and that’s all about how like your facial slings work and like cross-section patterns and stuff like that I’ve been read the book myself but I’ve had a few friends recommend it but I mean and like that’s so interesting to me because like in a whole list of aspect like you don’t think of like you’re connective tissue like people just don’t motion it’s like your body but yeah people just don’t think of it in general you think you have your muscles and your bones and that’s it but this is something that encapsulates all those things yeah or people even think you know, obviously you you get sore muscles you get tense muscles, but sometimes more even than like a muscular problem, it’s like you’re. Fashioning tight around those muscles yeah causes that stress through that reaction, so it’s hard to tell right yeah, it’s something that people don’t really.At least I’m just being for myself before I kind of learn this modality. I had no idea that fascia was even a thing so yeah it’s mm-hmm yeah just interesting or even I mean, I’ve read different pieces about how you know, you’ll be if you’re going into you know medicine or something in the like. You know doing a dissection yeah a lot of times like the fascial just kind of be like scooped out and threw away a bucket and that studied and there’s just so much in there that’s like really interesting not just the muscle just the bones so yeah and like with the c-section delivery yeah a pregnant woman like they’re cutting into that layer and like you said it’s tied to emotion yeah a lot of times they’ll stitch you up and then a woman can be very emotional after and it’s like wonder why yeah yeah super interesting yeah that’s cool, so then maybe let’s let’s go into kind of how you started to use that for yourself and other. S and kind of I know it’s you’re still new to it but like any results or like even just like kind of like speculations you think that’s gonna think how this is gonna transfer to performance totally so I kind of got interested in fashion stretch therapy, so I coached an athlete for four years he’s graduated now but he started to go see Becky at helix and would get fashion stress therapy.  I think once or twice a week, this kid was a good athlete like great athlete hard worker.But was I mean it always was kind of like in our varsity group of the kids I coached and cross country but never never like really excelled at his potential and I think once he started seeing Becky to have fascial stretch therapy down a couple times a week, we really see solid a huge change in his performance by the end of the season he went from being kind of, you know, middle of the pack of our team to like being almost our front runner he finished all state so they’ve never done before never thought was possible so I just kind of peaked my interest a little bit, you know, it’s if something like that happens to a kid, you know. You wonder why hopefully it’s just good coaching too, there’s a little more than that. I think so. I’m down to fashion stretch therapy that way I’ve yet to really be on a consistent.Special stretch like regimen okay right now I’m doing a lot of stretching but I think it’s oftentimes hard to like staff and actually make oh can I have a stretch you know, yeah that’s difficult yeah yeah, so I think once I kind of get into like a really serious training cycle again and start racing again once races starting happening.  I think I’d like to kind of do a little bit more of that myself yeah. I mean, it’s in terms of like athletic performance it’s great for rehab it’s like if you have an injury or old surgery old scars scar tissue.That facial release is gonna help to break up that scar tissue and hopefully over time lead to you know, better movement of that body part or wherever the injury happened it’s also great for recovery it’s like, you know, I do a hard hard fart like run or something and you know go get stretch the next day.  I found that that helps my muscles or cover a lot better again just a really simple really simple way to put it, you know you.Bring in the good blood flush out the bad blood get things moving um I feel like that’s been really helpful as well, I just feel like I faster covery time whenever I get stretched and then even just with sports performance it’s gonna help athletes with their range of motion help them to hold their bodies better their posture better in terms of like my running.  I feel like it’s helped me with I used to be a big overstrider, you know land on my heel and that just stops all your energy. I feel like now I’m able to run a little bit taller land on my midfoot instead of on my heel. I just feel like wheneverI’ve been in a like a pattern of like good stretching good fascial stretching things work better things move better things glide better it’s again that just speaking as a distance runner but again, I know again the woman that you know, pioneered this whole fascial stretch movement again works with like numerous NFL athletes has worked in numerous Olympians, there’s a lot of people that swear by it so I get I found it to be super interesting yeah, yeah, like it sounds like for recovery.  I think it would be like one to one fashion stretch therapy for an up.A distance runner yeah but for a sprinter like you’re performance directly tied into how much no I mean there’s this arrangement it’s um consistent FST like, you know going once or twice a week is found to improve your force in power by two to five percent which improves your running speed by point zero six seconds over 50 yards, which sounds like nothing that’s huge, but that can be like for an Olympic runner for a high level athlete that can be the difference between like a gold medal and like not qualifying for finals, yeah that point oh six is everything so again, it sounds so minuscule but like it’s a big. Difference yeah huge difference yeah yeah yeah, they say like you’re neurological output is like just through massage. I mean, I know it’s not the same but like somebody though yeah like you’re like able to like increase your optic like almost like forty percent of like your neurological output, so that’s like yeah, that’s massive, um,And like I know for spreading like that is such a huge piece is like passive stretching whether they know they’re doing bachelor stretching or not they might beat the high hitting some parts of it on accident or maybe it’s just like like that massage piece like I think like that’s something right like we don’t perform at a high level but like so we never go do stuff like that but others time I was gonna massage that I get once a week and like I don’t think I’ve ever felt they’re performed better yeah if that’s like if that’s your that’s your work like life’s work if you’re you know an Olympic sprinter yeah literally anything you can do to have that, oh yeah you do it, yeah. A hundred is like worth like x amount of dollars so like somebody like that like they’ll pay to get it like yes heaven yeah and it’s definitely it’s different to them I can’t remember if I touched on this before we started recording or not but um, yeah very different than like a static stretch yeah that was my next question it’s like so like people are hearing stretching they’re probably taking like all right like across your legs touch your toes 30 seconds, yes, like again is that um, cross country and check and field coach we’ve you know, always kind of, you know harped on our kids that you especially before before running right that static stretching almost like,Decreases your power right your forces it’s not a great thing to do against stretch after your run but you know not before you’re on we do a lot of like dynamic active warm-ups like most other sports do so I guess I’ll there’s kind of like a demonstration we do just help people understand what fascial stretches a little better, so again, it’s the podcast you won’t be able to see it but I’ll try and demonstrate I’ll try and talk through what I’m doing yeah, so I just have a finger holding it straight up so self-stretch like a static stretch, you’re just gonna bend that finger back and that’s about like the whole range of motion you’re gonna get so my finger’s been. Back like very minimally yeah it doesn’t do much yeah yeah yeah mine doesn’t even better if you want to do it at home you can do so yeah, it’s all your finger back and your bending it back without using any aid that’s about that’s a self stretch that’s like a static stretch next up would be like a stretch so like an average, you know, athletic trainer could help you achieve and they’re just gonna kind of push back on your fingers you definitely get a better range of motion there right like huge difference.  I’m just taking another finger pushing back on that other finger and you definitely get some benefit there.The difference what we do at helix what we do with bashful stretch therapy is we’re gonna traction at the joint so that’s smells like this we’re gonna grab our finger and you’re gonna pull it up traction at the joint and then you’re gonna burn it back and you see what it huge difference if you’re gonna create some space and that joint capsule that’s really I think one of like the three tools we use is self-attraction would be one okay and we’re gonna just like create some space and that joint capsule before we get into that stretch allows for much deeper much more beneficial stretch and then two we use PNF like resist relaxed technique. Yeah like proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation is what PNF actually stands for but that’s gonna be you know, I’m sorry traction someone where let’s say we’re in a glute stretch.Contraction them you know get that get that and then you’ll have socket joint pulled out stretched out and then I’m just gonna kind of tap on their leg they’re gonna like put some force back in my hand and then we’re gonna get that stretch and do it like a different range of motion different yeah, so it’s those two things and then we also like when we’re talking about before we started recording breathing is a huge part of it, okay just to be able to relax until like breathe to kind of deregulate that central nervous system if they’re not relaxed if they’re not breathing you can you can feel it in their tissue yeah so then that’s a huge part of it just to kind of get them to like pause match your breath with mine. Yeah and then all those things are gonna work better so those are you do account with your breath or just no not so much think yeah I feel like we just I try and like just match their breathing a lot of times if I’m not breathing while I can tell they’re not breathing well as well interesting not like bodies end up being pretty close during like a fascial stretch session, it’s like I if I’m not breathing if I’m stressed if I can often feel it in my client as well, yeah so those kind of free things are what allow us to do something more than just your average static stretch yeah, so that’s so interesting because I was a sprinter in college at cornerstone actually and all right.  I don’t know where I picked this up.But at one point with like plantar fasciitis which is for people listening it’s the bottom of your foot you get that a lot when you’re wearing spikes and your sprinting yeah yeah so late told you like pull your big toe out and then stretch it back and then actually massage the bottom of it yeah time and I would do that religiously and it helps so much huge yeah it’s a little stuff yeah I’ve there right now yeah we’re kind of for yeah this uh, that’s that’s interesting because yeah, I think that’s like that’s all optimal people think of. Right like you hear fashion like I’ll play like your foot right or like playing a fire status, but like there’s so much more that was into that oh yeah.That’s crazy I think I’m being obviously I’ve seen even like I said I’ve heard of one person who did this and he would post like before and afters of just like a session and like squat depth and like something like that like you like put something in a position like and then you’d go for whatever the session is half hour hour throwing back out of the floor and it just washed like this before launching it was people will stand up and be like, oh my gosh, we said earlier it’s a couple inches taller yeah you can really notice a lot of times we like to like stretch one side of the body and then have them get up right and like walk around and people are just like, oh my god, like yeah, like my whole left side is like way down. Here hey it’s interesting you can tell there’s patterns like people who are you know right-handed you know they’re right shoulders and hiked it’s just there’s definitely patterns that you’re able to notice as you keep going through things be out the whole squat depth thing is very interesting okay, like people are people move much better after an hour section and again the more the more frequently they go through it the more these changes in these patterns are lasting what’s like recommended twice yeah.  I mean we go we see a lot of people once a week. I feel like that’s a pretty common thing if you’re looking to like it perform a high levels twice a week is great, okay, um,Again we we kind of offer like packages like you can buy a five pack or ten pack and then use them kind of however you want to use them sure or use them on again like the of cupping or massage so there’s I mean a few different ways you can use your you know, your ten pack or whatever but yeah just kind of depends on the person whether you’re looking to run a fast cross-country time or just you know feel better after you sit in the office at a chair all day long yeah, so I guess especially with you know, people being working at home and all that all that different stuff.  I think it’s been nice to like help people feel better yeah now have you.Guys been open this whole time no we were closed for probably a couple months yeah, I believe we opened kind of when the governor allowed like massage yeah yeah but I think going forward we’re gonna try and be labeled as a bit more of an essential service because we do really focus on people’s health and well-being more than just you know basic I feel okay like we yeah we try and like really help people out so okay, hopefully that’s the goal, hopefully it doesn’t happen again, but yeah, no joke that’s interesting.  I think.For something like that, do you?I’m trying to think how was this do you do you like almost like it’s almost like therapeutic in a sense like obviously physically but like emotionally or mentally do you guys have that kind of component is that more like yeah is that like throughout your whole organization or is that more just like specifically a list of like all you’re gonna kind of deep dive into the more yeah mental side of it, oh I definitely think that’s a huge part of what we do or what most of our stretch therapist tried to do and again everyone we again we have eight people and staff and everyone kind of focuses on something different like again.  I like to I like to work a lot more with like younger athletes if I can okay, um, we have people who have backgrounds.In more personal training people have backgrounds in like rehab people have backgrounds and dance bodybuilding personal training which is kind of a wider range of people’s different interests and specialties so it’s really it’s nice to be able to kind of match different clients with whoever we feel would fit their needs best yeah.  I do the mental side of it emotional side of it is massive, especially for those athletes yeah, so a hundred percent what is it what does it feel like to pick you back on that when you’re on the table and getting it done, okay, yeah ideally what we’d like people to experience there’s our biggest thing is. There’s no pain I think a lot of times when you self-stretch or have like someone else stretch you there’s like have that pinching feeling or like really strained feeling but again with the techniques we use traction and breathing we really hope it’s any ideally there shouldn’t be any pain like obviously you’re gonna feel a stretch yeah, but um,A lot of times I don’t rather have people leave my table saying like oh I feel like she could have gone further but okay you know so it’s definitely our main thing is no pain Ideally we’d like to deregulate people central nervous systems enough that they I need to almost fall asleep during this yeah so kind of similar like a massage if you’re just really relaxed yeah that’s kind of the goal like a lot of times people are pretty guarded with their bodies, especially when you’re like taking them into kind of new different ranges, so it’s hard to get some people to kind of like, you know, just let your body go yeah, it’s hard to give up control that’s really the main thing we ask you people when they come. For session.Is just like give up control your body you know I’m gonna move your leg don’t move your leg a lot of times we’ll do some like circumduction so I’ll kind of come under your knee and kind of move your knee around in a circle and we’ll kind of pause and see if people you know themselves sometimes like keep the circle going like, you know, just trying to get people to really relax and just like let us have control their bodies is kind of a kind of a battle sometimes mm-hmm people get better at it as they go but yeah shake I’m a little bit like yeah, yeah, we’re just so used to holding ourselves right actually. If you like to have control of what you do and how your body knows that you want somebody else touching it for you so get people used to that spin an interesting thing for sure and yeah every session is different like we kind of have obviously we like to kind of like, you know left leg right leg left, you know upper body right upper body head neck there’s kind of a flow that we like to go through but if someone comes in with specific issues or specific points of pain or pressure, we’re obviously able to spend more time on those areas, but each session can be kind of different too not at. Everyone kind of gets the same treatment which is great it’s very personalized. I know there’s a couple like larger stretch centers opening that’s so much in Michigan but more so in bigger cities west coast east coast that kind of go through like a very regimented like formulaic way of stretching and that’s definitely not what we go for we go for a very personalized experience sure so there’s definitely difference there. Is that does that keep you guys are you pretty busy over there on a database basis yeah yeah, we have so we right now we have four stretch rooms, we’re not it we’re not a you know, massive massive center we have about four stretch rooms eight therapists and we’re booked most of the time we’re looking to expand in the next probably half a year, we’re gonna kind of build a little bit of a gym space hopefully looking to add on some other services kind of getting more into like the nutritional planning side of things maybe even some like genetically DNA testing some food sensitivity thatThings so again we’re trying to look to be a kind of a more like a one-stop shop yeah, then we currently are see how we’re definitely definitely looking to grow in the next the next year or so pretty excited about it things have been great like response has been great since code, we really opened pretty close to win coval started okay, oh wow, yeah, yes not a fun time stressful yeah hasn’t been fun but yeah, it’s been a good it’s we’ve seen some great response since then do you still coach boxing as well?  I don’t anymore. I again, I’ve tried to learn to say no to certain things, no.Quality of life purposes. I still love it. I think it’s a great way to work out yeah just one one too many things in life yeah yeah imagine now what time do you are you like early riser and then also stay up late cuz yours miles is like how many hours you try to get out of sleep, that is one thing that’s massive. I and I don’t think I ever have realized how important sleep was until the last year, okay? I know we always kind of tell our kids that I coach that you know, so there’s this.I I think this is funny but there’s you know this there’s this you know performance enhancing drug out there it’s not illegal yet yeah no one’s banned it yet.  MHSA is still okay with it, you know, it’ll help you perform better in school help you have better focus when you take tests and exams it’ll help you, you know run better it’ll help your body digest food better, it’ll help, you know, it’ll improve your times and then they’ll be like, what is this what is this drug that is just sleep yeah like put your phone down, you know. Get eight hours it’s super important so I’ve really I’ve really tried to practice what I preach with that try and get eight hours so I try wake up at like I don’t know I’m six am okay and then a lot of mornings again it’s I’ll head into helix and stretch.  I will try and get in my own workout my own run and then go and coach run with either like our boys or girls they’re depending on whether I need a harder workout or any easier one just depends, it’s kind of a nice option to have and then yeah, I mean try and be in bed by 10 pm try and get that eight hours. Yeah it doesn’t always happen but I feel like my body just responds so much better when I’m completely well-rested and caught up and then try and do a good job of drinking a ton of water too but yeah because that’s a big piece with fashion too, right it’s like it’s like 95% long yeah just like I watercase yeah muscle yes she yeah so we say when you when we when we stretch your fascia one of the things we tell our clients when they leave is like make sure you go home and drink a lot of water yeah essentially when we stretch you like that, we’re just kind of ringing out your fashion, you need to be able to replenish that water that’s something we definitely hard bond with our clients. Like go home drink water today, definitely that’s interesting yeah, you have a gallon yeah really like a tremor water bottle if she’s huge.Like two to a day or something today yeah yeah two two and a half again, especially when it’s been hot out like it has this summer, um really trying to drink a lot of water do you run better in the heat?  I don’t actually really yeah that’s more of like it give me give me like past couple days that we’ve had it’s really nice yeah low 60s it’s been a dream so again Michigan winter running is not fun either, of course, yeah definitely give me that like 50-55 shorts and a long sleeve weather it’s just perfect, okay, yeah now what is I guess we like. For me like I love the hold the weight room side of things as well so like what does that look like for you yeah doesn’t have to be right now but I mean like when you’re like you said when you’re doing like heavier weeks and stuff like that like how like on top of 80 miles like what do you do like when you how do you get in the weight room yeah get there yeah, so I definitely am I will during off periods like after my last marathon in January.  I tried to get in the weight room.Every day for a couple hours I just kind of went really light on the running and I tried to take you know two months of just like really weight room focus, okay training. I feel like a lot of distance runners overlook the strength piece of things they just think you know miles files miles and that’s just not to me.  I found weight training to be like way more beneficial yeah just because your distance or it doesn’t mean you don’t need to be, you know, strong and fast and explosive right so yeah a lot of times in about higher mileage weeks there’s not a lot of not a lot of weight room stuff going on sure. But I I’m a big believer in just to me I I feel a lot more confident when I can do like, you know, some heavy heavy squats every week do a lot of stuff with bands do lots of tiara X okay do a lot of yeah kind of like coerced ability work and nothing super I get I’m just confident when I can like do a heavy squat but nothing nothing super heavy yeah just have this on a lot higher reps and yeah sure I’m just movement-based things because I’m trying to match it to kind of like the pace of like you’re just right so you’re gonna do like a long run you’re probably gonna do more like,Higher like volume yeah yeah cool definitely a huge part I think a lot of a lot of like endurance athletes can overlook sometimes so yeah well for me I was I’m always I was always trying to piece that together my head like if you’re doing X amount of miles like your legs are probably good obviously like yeah an injury prevention piece would be like you do something in the way room that would hopefully prevent a nagging issues but like at that point I was saying like you would you just only basically train upper body in the way forward yeah yeah and I feel like a lot of times with yeah lower bodies again.  I feel like a lot of people think of running is just completely lower butThere’s definitely upper body pieces to it you know you need to be able to like pull with your arms and that just you know have them flow yeah they have a bad out like when I get tired I’ll just be a bad like side to side runner so I definitely need to get better with just being able to like pull with my arms and have some more upper body strength there, but yeah core work.  I feel like a lot of times if you just do a lot of intense if you just go off for a jog, it’s not gonna not gonna do that much for a core work but like I just for me it’s whenever I do like hard, you know stuff on the track hard intervals for art likes.  I feel like that’s almost my core work, yeah. I know you’re right now.Like that’s a it’s a lot so yeah I again, I do definitely do lift lower body. I enjoy it more than lifting up everybody sure that’s kind of my like that’s my bread and butter more than upper body but yeah, it’s definitely been on that not a lot of not a lot of lifting this summer just because gyms have been nose that’s been a little hard.  I tried to find ways to get around it but I’m just really focused and we’re running this summer maybe looking back to get in that weight room again, so it was fall yeah, okay cool good to know yeah.Because you’re training most of the time is gonna be.Blanking on what plane this is from sagittal sagittal plane, which is like front and back oh yeah yeah that’s so much again with best training for something a little shorter maybe but yeah just a lot of a lot of forward movement mm-hmm do you ever incorporate any like Sprint work any like anything under like a hundred meters definitely really yeah.  I love to hear more about them yeah, so this is something we do with.Our athletes that I coach as well We used we generally more so in the summer Okay um during the off seasons, but we like to have one place called Lake Top Speed Tuesday. Okay. And again, it’s people think that just because your distance runner like, you know, you just need long miles and that’s it, but like we want to teach our kids in our bodies to move well.  So if you I mean, if you just really focus on moving well we do a lot of like even like 30 meter accelerations. We do a lot of like little tiny banana hurdle work. I’m just to work on like, you know, picking up those knees and that.Dry Because yeah if you don’t if you don’t know how to move well like that you don’t practice it often how are you going to translate that into like your longer distance running.  So the way to get better at you know, longer distance running is I mean, obviously lots of miles but also just teaching your body to move well and practicing that and that’s something we definitely do better over shorter distances. Yeah, something we like to incorporate at least once a week.  And then also after long runs or most other easy runs, we like to get in like three or four like hard good fast, like hundred meters strides. Okay, so yeah, I think we definitely believe in move.Being fast at some point every day Good Yeah not just not just long Loby.  Yeah distance, right? Well because there’s something we talk about all the time. This is concept called the speed reserve, right? So I liken it to like a NASCAR, for example, so like if your top speed is 300 miles an hour. Yeah, it’s a lot easier to go for 100 miles and 150, right?  It’s still fast. Yes, but those are the way we kind of go about conversing that as like so like I mean, we have our sessions like it’s not like we have a ton of time to work with anywhere from like 10 to 30 kids, so it’s like,Okay like for the biggest bang for our buck is like if we can get them as fast as possible then like that you know that endurance almost kind of takes care of itself because they’re their speed of play and everything else, right?  Like I mean most sports you rarely ever unless you are a sprinter you’ll never top out and speak. Yeah, there’s no there’s no room and like a basketball court there’s like soccer like you’re using a ball so you’re not actually running as fast as you can so it’s like for us like if we can just do some true like anywhere from like 20 to 40 50, like it meter accelerations for someone young like they can typically top out around that distance. We’ve had more success like even with like our soccer player girls who like they are midfielders, so they’re running like breaking out miles. Yeah like they’re going but like they say like I don’t really get tired and like like the because like everyone’s so used to like all like go out hit a three mile run.  It’s like that’s great but like doesn’t really help performance for like a skills yeah probably not you need that endurance but like yeah, that’s not your bread and butter. Of course yeah, yes and even yeah even with distance running I found that that’sHugely important yeah so just yeah just because we only run long doesn’t mean that we don’t have to move well and be fast and well I think they said like if you reverse engineer the fastest marathon runner who you just set the world record wherever like his a hundred meter translates into like a ten one. Or something like that so it’s like he’s fast he’s not just good at endurance like you’re also very fast like you’re naturally haha yeah I don’t think this is good enough. I remember like when I was in college even like I see like the course of dragons like they’re those weirdos yeah yeah, it’s like it was like this like cult it was attractive like get out like a girl like little tables and like everywhere yeah definitely it’s usually the biggest team yeah, oh yeah time relates people because we’reInsane yeah you guys love to like mentally a little different yeah. Yeah I always say like with like you know distance running or sprinting or whatever, you know, the people who are best at are the ones that not only make themselves hurt the most so yeah it’s a special fortunately yeah, unfortunately yeah yeah you’d always throw up over race and yeah every 400 meter race yeah 400 yeah 400 is your special yeah as a that’s about just an all-out sprint for a whole lap yeah like that’s yeah each race has their own special type of pain, but I feel like the 400 800 right in the middle yeah, those are very interesting on the body. Yeah lots of puking lotsa in the 600 for indoor yeah yeah special events yeah.But the best athletes will finish their like Davidisha yep, we’ll finish 800 and he’s just standing there like what’s up guys, it looks fine yeah let’s totally and just I’ll see you look how fast they’re running it just looks like they’re kind of floating out for a jog.  I mean not quite out for a job, like it doesn’t look like they’re straining doesn’t really pulling it’s just,It’s just looks so so yeah relax running faster yeah yeah so hard to teach people to especially because you want to bunch those kids to you yeah let things go I’m sure they’re fascist just yeah yeah just buttery genetically sound fashion yeah a little bit of advantage there yeah well any closing points that we know I think that’s that would mean that was awesome it’s good definitely some and I’m gonna deep dive into after this let’s say we’d love to you guys both in the first yeah, again, if anyone else is interested you can come see me we’reHelix Center Grand Rapids we’re on cascade just call or again send me a message on Instagram or Facebook whatever to set up an appointment we’d love to see you love to show you what fascial stretch therapies more about yeah, can you go ahead and give us your your where we can find you on Facebook or Instagram you can link down this channel yes, so yeah, we have our Instagram account is Helix Center GR on Facebook.  I think it’s probably just helix helix Center for an app, it’s something like that and then that’s helix spelled. h e a l i x and then to contact me personally about anything running related any question.S anything about fascial stretch therapy my Instagram or Facebook name is just Alyssa a l y s s a and then last name is Macalhine it’s m c e l, h e NY didn’t say anything yeah yeah that’s it never never gets pronounced the same way twice, so I’ll respond to anything yeah whatever you want to call me Alyssa’s great, so yeah, I’d love to answer your questions love to see you first stretch love to talk more about running get. In touch. Yeah. Awesome. Excellent. I think that’s a group of stop. Yeah, listen, thanks for coming out this is fun. Yeah, thanks guys. Thanks for having me. I’m no problem.

Colton Kloote is leaving OPTC to pursue his dreams of joining the National Guard and becoming a Firefighter. Colton is one of the best coaches in West Michigan! We approach today’s topic with an air of sadness and a touch of excitement for what’s to come for Colton. It can’t be overstated how much we will miss having him here at the gym. Please enjoy this send off and send him your love and prayers. Colton Transcript: Oh man like it was head hit the pillow and lights out woke up woke up at 5:30 ready to rock yeah. I was the same way like 6:30 it’s like that’s like the first time like the past like three weeks like you gave you like seed like my trend I’m a little stupid like whooping yeah it was been like and like today was like the first day I’m like, oh life, like I was like coughing myself to sleep nice you feel today today.  I like I woke up and I was like you like take a deep breath. I’m like, oh dude, like this isn’t the bad I coughed like a little bit but like,I don’t know. I feel like I like it sibling my mouth open so I just get like dry like it’s crap all night and then I got in the morning.  I just kind of purged it all out yeah the raspy like yeah yeah, we’ll do this. I sleep it’s 67 degrees or 66 degrees and then like fan is full till like I’m like frozen when I woke up, I love it what it’s like I sleep way better but like oh man, it’s a nightmare nightmare for my sinuses. All right so oh Colton’s last day he says this is that this is the day we’ve been dreading since June 8th when we open back up because now I think well, how do you I mean, there’s this I’m out always heard this line. I like everyone’s replaceable. I don’t believe that.  I truly don’t heard that one, oh yeah, like like everyone’s expendable everyone in your life is expendable. I’ve heard it’s like,Right like mom dies your dad gets reared you have a new mom technically okay and like that’s obviously a really cruise that’s a rough example but it’s like yeah, that’s the example of it’s not does not that’s like that’s an extreme and like that maybe doesn’t fit the mold but it’s like you gotta think about like every like life doesn’t stop just because someone leaves right and I think that’s what people try to like get to that point with is where it’s okay like Colton’s leaving it’s like we’re not gonna stop training yeah, we’re not gonna be so heartbroken that we can’t yeah, we’re gonna close the gym because he’s leaving by the same time, it’s like IYou can’t replace like a personality yeah, yeah. Or even.Just your presence here and what you what you bring out a day basis like we can have another great coach like we’re talking about bringing it Ian Smith and he’s he’s like the next Colton Colton the next cold v2, yeah he’s but it’s totally different like like you’re. You’re very peaceful guy number one and you’re also funny and had fun to be around and then there’s an element of like you people can just look at you and know like he’s a stud athlete yeah and it’s inspiring like, you know being around you and Tom the past three months like it makes you want to train harder because you guys are just freaks yeah.  I mean you looked apart and then like this like that was loved this phrase that some of this one of my like petty officers and military told me he’s like said like you’re like the definition of a quiet alpha like you walk into a room and like you you leave. By example and you like you know, like how to do what you need to do, but like you don’t have to be like loud and I’m not just to get it done where it’s like you’re confident enough in your abilities to be like hey like.Like I have a presence and like I’m gonna let my presence do the work and I’m just gonna kind of do what’s necessary to get such a test done so that’s a cool adding that’s a cool thing that because that’s like I think that’s almost like that quote words like a line doesn’t need to tell a sheep that he’s a line yeah it’s like that, you know by just how you present yourself and how you how you treat others and act and I think that’s gonna be a huge hole that we’re gonna desperately try to fill as rapidly as possible but at the same time I thinkThat’s good because like you’ve said like in all the ultimate standard for anyone coming in here now it’s like anyone we have to pick up it’s like they have some massive shoes to fill because um, like we talked about like this whole past month like with our coaching staff was like hey like how do we set the standard for how we coach how we interact with athletes how we how we execute like our programming like how do we hold the athletes to a certain standard of like perfection in terms of how we execute movements and that all kind of stemmed from Colton like leading the pack if you will like he was kind of running the show with the other coaches andI can sure that everything was done right everything was done to a certain standard and now like going off that and I just really set the standard for like any one week come on like everyone.  I’m gonna interview now is like that like I have this as like as my mold as like my templates like we tough stuff to be and I know this is super uncomfortable for you because now we’re just yeah, like I was just gonna say yeah, like I really appreciate it never been like the best at taking compliments do but anyone yeah, I know you guys are gonna keep like rowing the boat and like bringing this business whereIt’s gonna go and I like where we’re at knees where you guys want to be and it’s just it’s really exciting to have seen the business from where it was before this covered thing even which is a couple months ago and where we’re at now in like I can just see like you said the standard being set to just a higher level a more professional level and it’s like I said, it’s really exciting to see yeah, I mean, I like that you kind of brought that up let’s go back on that.  I mean even just backtracking when you showed up on the scene and like November of 20.18 yeah like outlining kind of just like how this place is like changed or how how maybe you and how yeah how do you like I mean you you got we have 20 year old coal coming here literally like you had just turned 20 in November 2018.  I remember and like you came in here as like a an intern you want to kind of go through like, you know, I think we’ve talked about that before but maybe we kind of have like double highlight like your path of like, hey like this is what you’ve you as a person have changed as a coach the person and then even also just watching kind of this this organization or this this facility changes. All.Yeah, yeah, so when I came in you said eight to 2018 November October time we were in I mean, obviously I weigh smaller facility and we were doing good. I thought with what with what we had um, but just like the professional level that I see now is just I mean doesn’t even compare to what we had like, I mean, just by what we wore kind of and then me myself at the time and in 2018 I was just I see a lot of mistakes. That like Trevor are internal coach makes now with you know being maybe being like two buddy buddy with the athletes and just that that immaturity of in coaching. I I feel like look back now and it’s like 20 years old colon or 19 even like was that same type of way and it it took you know, like having certain athletes like very like vividly like this like disrespecting me and like it’s like making like me look like leopard. Superior in like when I was the coach coaching a group and it took that towards like had our respond to that and where we gonna do moving forward from there and it’s just it took those experiences to really like understand that this is a gym and you’re the coach and you need to be the one in charge and in that professional and now we’re like we’re all talking our shirts look at we’re all matching, you know, like Monday Wednesday, Friday Tuesday, Thursday and,But for the the gym-wise it it just I mean it’s like blossomed into this very I might keep using more professional just because it’s very vague but I mean we got like your own office in here now people podcast going everything is just we’re finding people to fill these places where before it was okay, you get yeah you get three if three people and they’re all take like tackling all these different tasks and you couldn’t like you always say like don’t like you can’t chase two rabbits because they’re both gonna get away and that’s kind of how IThought it was going and then hmm now it’s we’re getting people in the right place to where they can focus on that one thing like the coaches can focus on coaching and that’s it, they don’t have to they don’t deal much with sales and then like Eric here he’s doing I don’t know all this business stuff over my business stuff but in that townhouse like the facility facilitator of it all and coaching as well, but I think yeah, like I said exciting times, no yeah, I mean and even just to touch on a few of those things that you brought up.  I mean, honestly,You like I think the reason it is so professional is a hundred percent because they Eric oh, I don’t think it’s anything definitely not me. I mean, you know, I’m the goofiest coach out there when I’m out there like it’s I’m nothing serious is necessarily getting done because like you guys are taking care of it, so I just get to laugh and joke with the kids. But I mean like it is it’s like Eric also like you like I said like sets the standard it’s like hey like this is how we do business like we’re not budging on this like I’m not budging that price like I’m not doing it you just can’t even if I love you like it’s just like like he can come in here and detach like any emotion and know that like this is how things need to be we’re gonna execute and it’s like and like I think that’s why this place is always so special is like it’s just a bunch of like-minded individuals trying to achieve like greatness and one goal, it’s like we all want to be the best so we can be. In our respective fields and so like you said like it with him being able to kind of dibby things up and be like all right like you need to execute this and that’s it and just go like you need to go crush this and like I’m gonna stay in my lane and do here and like that’s when you like you said things like we aren’t stepping on each other’s toes and like things are going way smoother but even like what another thing that popped in my head that I wanted to kind of follow up with you on was like when do you think like you said like but the whole body buddy thing is you’re like your youth coaching like coming in like when did you think like you almost like flip that switch from okay like you’re not. Recognized they’re like kids were maybe like yeah yeah you said disrespecting you or it’s like where the when did this like professionalism for you kind of change and what did that change look like in terms of like how did you respond to like maybe like disrespectful like comments or like, hey, maybe the kids are listening to you gotta hang at whole like hone them in a little bit and like be like the coach it’s like when did that change for you you think was that still back at the old place or yeah, so it was I that was in the winter of that first year, so the winners like this ever January December like 18. Where there was like I remember like pretty vividly there’s a period of like two or three weeks where there’s a couple like comments made during the session and it was really just like an eye-opening experience. I was like man, like I’m not respected here as much as as I thought I was and I I say respect what is more like the athletes were very comfortable with me and, It again like I like what we said it got to a point towards like I was more their friend than I was their coach and like a person that they like to spend time with like we had a relationship but it just wasn’t we were more like level relationship than like I was like their coach when they came in and so it was there was a couple eye-opening experiences for sure and that’s when I was like, all right, it’s like things need to change and anything was like shortly after that.  I was like, alright like I I it took a couple weeks to me just being like the kind of the coach we don’t really like want to be where it’s like, you know, you just get to business right away, butAfter that and I had to get after a couple kids after that it was like there was I think a good relationship that was like re-established yeah.  I think what it tends to happen, especially with boys is they just want to challenge you and see if you’re gonna back down or you’re gonna stand up to him yeah for sure yeah yeah sure that’s a very good way to put I’ve noticed as well. I think like,Damon props to you for like recognize that as such a young age because I think so many people are so afraid to like be like not like hated but like not be liked, whatever that that’s not like the extremes or it’s kind of more like you want to be right in the middle where it’s comfortable and it’s like it’s gone comfortable it kind of like call kids out and stuff like that because it’d be way easier just to let it slide. But no I think that’s like really important to kind of get that respect piece and what you said about like kids challenging you like I.Think that’s like almost like they come in here like predetermined or pre-planned to do that times at least feels like they’re like man like this kid like it’s like literally doing the exact opposite of everything that’s all I’m gonna do and it’s like you give them like a look or like a like a quick like stern voice like they shape up right away and it’s like they know better but like they want you to tell them almost and they want to see what they can get away with yeah yeah and it’s like, you know, they’re nudging their their buddy like they’ve watched this yeah, oh exactly yeah you get like those those two set of eyes looking at you and you’re like, you know things are being sad yeah. I also got performance and you got to prove yourself yeah like it’s like you know you better get better jump over that sewer like whatever it is like it’s like now you got like you said it I got to do it yeah man cuz you’re so weird, oh yeah I want to go back to what you’re saying and like it just kind of pops in my head about the whole professionalism and how we’re like shifting this organization into something, um, like more professional and it’s when like it really is when Eric came on yeah, it was like during the like the the quarantine thing it was like all rights like this is a business, this is not like,A bunch of kids with some with some coaches.  I mean knowledgeable coaches for sure but with coaches just getting after in like a garage yeah this is more of I guess it’s us a speed training facility now yeah we I mean that was definitely like that kind of point where you go where you level up right it goes like like you said we were doing a good thing, um for like a decent amount of time and it was like,But like how did it like I like did we didn’t really like we knew like we were getting better we were getting bigger but it’s like not because it was like tactful or like we had like a process or like a map of where we’re going it was like we were having success because we were doing it the right things in the gym, not because of what we’re doing outside of the gym, so that’s like when you add that act component in you get something like this and it’s more professional and like there’s like there’s a system that everything you do there’s excel sheet for this this and that which I don’t even know how to use Excel so it’s like that and of itself close my mind. Okay, but um, no, it’s like.Yeah, like being a master of one instead of like being kind of good at a lot of things is like that’s what having separates like the good from the great and because like I mean, yeah Michael Jordan when play baseball but like duty sucks yeah, okay yeah and then shortly they all right well I gotta go back to what I’m great at it’s like you’re always gonna kind of track down like,Especially when things get stressful like you always like we talk about this all time like revert back to what you know, or like default to your level of training like I remember like vividly like one time like on the fly.  I had to dislike I was working a set like a speed camp session with like 30 kids and the old place and it was I was with it was just me and Hunter and we were doing it and then all of a sudden like he literally like demoed something and blew out his Achilles, but he did apply all stepping blew out his Achilles. He’s like then he looked at me he’s like like didn’t move he’s like kind of like you’re like mouth to me like that he just did that and then he’s like, he’s what you have to do is I’m like literally like and he like literally like kind of hobbled over away he’s like trying not to like, you know, like probably screaming profanity or whatever you like, he’s important like 20 like little girls yeah yeah at the in this tiny little garage and I’m like, okay and so it’s like I did exactly what I knew at the time which was just like marches its camps and we did a couple like tennis ball drops and like it was like kids loved it and it’s like,Like that’s what I was comfortable with and it’s like in that’s okay, but it’s like you almost like need to be put in those environments to realize like okay, like I know what to do and it’s like that’s so cool to see when people do that, um, especially like if like I’m trying to think if we were to do this to like like a Trevor right now like well what would happen or like what would happen for you or for apps or even for myself it’s like where do you go when like you lose control?  I’m laughing because I’m imagining like,All three you coaches out there and you all just like all grab your hamstring at the same time like Trevor yeah, yeah yeah coach Aaron yeah that’s funny. I’ve never asked me about back when we were at the old place too and this was oh this was ahead of you like a month and a half maybe two after I like first started coaching and hunter wanted me to do a speed camp with like this.  Hudsonville basketball team yeah and he’s like, yeah, I’m not gonna be there. I was like what?Like I’m running this so I go I’m normally I’m like trying to finally got my GPS like how to get there and like I finally get there and of course there’s like 35 yeah like middle school and like I’ve never met their coaches before I’ve like first time dude most uncomfortable thing and so much anxiety yeah, oh dude.  I’m a heart was like going just going crazy just thinking about it yeah and I was like, I gotta lead these kids and I hardly know what I’m doing and so I got I got I got through it all but I think like the ends like the kind of like the moral of the story for me was that I didn’t. Really like because I’m when you’re in the gym you’re with like people are knowledgeable like oh yeah like I yeah this stuff I understand it and you get by yourself where you have to explain it to people or even like, you know, it’s like going in your head like if somebody asked me why we’re doing this yeah I do I couldn’t tell them at all yeah.  I have no idea what to say yeah and so like just thinking about that it’s just stressful in itself and so I realize like dude, I don’t know why we do anything we do like from that point on I was like, I need to ask why yeah or why we’d expose is you yeah and like what is it like you’re like paranoid yeah. It’s like.Like it’s like this comfortable like realization that you’re like holy cow like mm-hmm this like it makes you s star asking different questions because like like you said like you have a team to back you like if you slip up like someone can stepping back oh I guess let’s do this and then you’re okay, like seamlessly no harm no foul like things go on like business as usual, but then like as soon as like you’re on it and like you’re like you like I think the blue like the police called that like baptized by fire like when they’re first like night out on patrol like there’s gunfire so like that again, it’s like literally like, oh welcome like are you doing like,It’s like yeah dude like it’s that’s like I love it and I hate it because like holy cow I talk about stress right Atlanta and even if you like if you take it out it’s like it’s a coaching session, right?  I think I’m gonna be bad coaches out there that are doing things that they think are good and like you were doing all the right stuff but you just didn’t know what it was like how stressful was yeah it’s crazy to like think back. I like how you develop and like but how important that is and like I think that is so important like you need things to go horribly wrong at times to be like, okay, like what like, I,Remember a program I did like I wrote a program for like middle schoolers and like halfway through like I almost like rip my hair.  I’m like, this is a disaster like I have lost total control. I got people doing like middle schoolers like week three doing like singular bent over rows. I’m like, oh no, it’s like I got a bunch of cats just like, you know, like every spine looks about shoot out of their bag like girls like this and there’s like five them and like that was like enough to this like send me okay, yeah. But then I’m like okay like I need to simplify I don’t like because I thought of a sweet program like I’m paper dope program like I mean I hit all the checkpoints I use the template like sets and reps were good but it’s like I did that because I thought it would work yeah because like I’m like, I would do this and then it’s like it but then it’s like man like we need to be doing like like pull aparts and like band grows and like maybe I’ll pipe hinge here but it’s like oh my word that’s funny it’s it’s like it’s amazing how like basically the more you know, the simpler everything gets yeah yeah and like I think that’s like how I’ve seen you you. ‘ve been mature and process like because even like last summer and the programming like because you were doing well you were doing all programs last summer as well it’s like even this summer it’s like you just came back and you didn’t you know, we didn’t even change much but like we just refined like we just cut the fan out yeah and like we’re doing less in the weight room but like we’re getting more out of it and like the speed is like spot on and like, you know, I think like you’ve like grown in your ability to kind of like alter things a lot better mm-hmm and like that’s it and that’s like a testament to just kind of like you as a person because like,I outside of then you came back for Christmas break for like two weeks in coach a little bit like it’s you weren’t coaching and like when you’re in Arizona like you we were going to school and doing that stuff it’s like you were able to like I probably do your own training and just even kind of continuing to educate yourself like maintain like the standard like in like and that’s like like I said, that’s why it’s so hard to replace someone like you is because like,You’re gonna do all the things necessary on your own to make sure that you you fit up to your standard of known else is like you don’t compare yourself to others because like you you set your own standard and that’s a good lesson for life, honestly, it’s like that’s like comparison’s always gonna be the end of like the roots goes gonna rob you of joy yeah so it’s like I know I’m never gonna be you so okay.  I think I’m gonna ever be as Jack just cold and like this is not the car it’s like yeah, I don’t have like Kevin’s not my dad like it’s possible. I know what might that looks like and it’s like he’s doesn’t look like that like yeah you picked the right parents and like I like it like for me to like chase that down. I like I knows about how many extra hours I started the gym is never gonna do anything for me so it’s like I like even like like small stuff like that like learning to let that go for the ego it’s like I think that helps you pursue other things better yeah and most people like will spend their whole lives chasing down these these pipe dreams or like it like why like or they just kind of doing activity without accomplishment no and,I’ve never seen that you you’ve always been super confident in yourself and you’ve always been like you’ve always kind of known why you’re doing what you’re doing um, and that’s been super cool to see I think thank you it’ll be interesting to see even this next path and this coming kind of segue into this next piece here it’s like let’s talk about kind of like what are you excited about what’s nervous about?  I mean became maybe like quick overview you lead when you leave all that stuff what the next steps looks like in terms of like basic to a school or whatever you want to outline go ahead and yeah, so we mentioned in an earlier podcast, butSeptember 21, I guess Wednesday, so this will be August 13th, yeah, yeah August 12, I take off Arizona.  I’m just kind of like hanging out there getting ready to ship out September 21st to basic and then after that I’ll go right into AIT and if that’s all for sale Oklahoma and then timeline, I think I get like middle March or so, I’ll get out of AIT and then from there, that’s when I’m gonna try to. Apply for a firefighting position down in Arizona structural firefighting, okay and kind of depending on if I get that or if I don’t will kind of depend my next planes as to like if I go to school or and finish like that the year I have laughed like right away or if I kind of take the next couple years and finish like online or take some classes here and there because I do want to get a degree because I I don’t want to stop training people.  I don’t know when like how like what that looks like but I know like I love coaching. I really like coaching.I athletes and I think like over the last couple years like I have I’ve gotten like pretty good at it yeah and I just I just like having that impact on the younger generation actually.  I’m all about it, um, but I mean, I was thinking like on the way here kind of like why like why am I doing this yeah and,Like I mentioned in the earlier podcast is like I want to serve like I’ve had that passion for a little bit and I just kind of do my part but I think like the real reason for me is it’s it’s like I want like I want to live my life to where if I feel like God’s call me to do something that I’m gonna I’m gonna do it like I’m gonna listen I’m an obey right away so it’s like there’s been and I’ve talked with like all you guys of recently that it’s there’s times where it’s like I do not want to go to basic training or this military training at all, like I just don’t want to do it, butLike when I remind myself like why am I doing it and it’s like because I feel like as calming to do like I made about myself that if I feel like I was calling to do something like I’m gonna do it and I want that to be like for the rest of my life no matter what it is, and so I think that’s like the real reason it’s like why like why am I doing this hmm and it’s just I felt like I was calling me I felt like he put the places or like the pieces in place for me to sign up in a square in and and it’s something that I’m gonna go through and and see what he has planned and see whatWhat he has in store with why am I doing this and I guess I’ll find out yeah that’s just kind of where I’m at with things normally that’s awesome definitely mature beyond your years, even this is gonna have the trust and something like that like that’s huge and that’s really cool to see I think that’s what definitely mope the main reason you’ve had the most impact has been like through spirituality and your faith has been a huge component of that whether the kids even know that or not, so I’m not like we’re here like many kids over there with Bibles but it’s like I said, like you lead by example, um,And that’s always gonna be so much louder than any like preaching you could do that anyone else and I think that’s always gonna be your strong suit and like you do do that through coaching that’s like almost like your ministry, you know, so it’s like definitely definitely a waste if you stop doing that instead that doesn’t have to be at the same capacity at all hmm but like yeah, you’re coach, okay it’s down no question and you’re also great firefighter too but I mean coach you dudes yeah and I’ll sing and I was talking with actually Ian Smith yeah after our session yesterday, he was like yelling at us from in here yeah, yeah conversation for once. Oh it’s but we were talking in it in like he kind of threw the idea out and like I’ve been kind of thinking about it, but maybe like down in Phoenix or like wherever I end up doing the fire fighting of like training like your department like starting with like you you like you write the program you program it out like you even like right like the nutrition like program or like some sort of it just kind of like ideas about it and like start like with your department and see if you can be like kind of like contracted out from there, so it’s like you can write this like these programs and you can go. Here and coach yeah like half of your shifter. I don’t know how it would work but I’m just like thinking like, you know, if I make my own kind of position or title like I think that would be awesome because we talked about train like how how the police officers how like that tactical space just we don’t think as a whole trains yeah well, I don’t train like like athletes and they’re really the most important athletes that are out there, they’re light depends on yeah, yeah and others lives yeah, so,Um no no that’s just kind of idea that’s palmatter recently that I was like yeah it’s very doable I think that’s like I mean that’s what Jeff knows the Navy Seals right.  I mean like you like literally would probably like he was there trying to condition specialists yeah like that was like his like MLS setup as they’re done like creative his own MOS like that be sweet like I mean, especially in that space like you have the credentials so like the bag like the like on paper it’s there so like I hope that works out and that could be a whole new path to whatever else yeah I could open up so every cool and I was thinking too when you were talking about like,Setting the standard yeah, um, I think just being here to and coaching in this facility and like how we have continued to just set the standard higher and higher to where we eventually want to be that that’s gonna help me to to go on because now like you say like I helped this standard be set, but this standard at the gym has helped me but when I go on whether like I’m in like a low coaching position or whatever like that’s standard is going to be where it was here and I think that’s higher than I mean, like,Look at like a ton higher than all these other places, oh that’s cool yeah yeah, I mean definitely don’t don’t under value.  I think like they like the impact that you said like, I mean, you definitely had a huge part of that, so I think.Like you yeah, whatever you do you could you you can make it better you can keep it the same but I mean like like you said like it’s a like you said you set the standard high and like it’s more so because you do it for yourself right mm-hmm and it’s like that’s gonna kind of that’s gonna catch fire yeah if you will I do in the department because like the dudes are dang new kid is jacked and like never tired and like always feels great and I always feel fat and small cigarettes and feel like crap it’s like,Yeah that’s like they’re good like something’s gonna give somewhere and like you probably don’t even have to say too much about it where it’s just like and especially like it be like I mean optimal performance you’re training optimally like you do enough to where you’re not gonna be like trying to like climb up a flight of stairs and like your quads are exploding like that’s stupid workout we did yesterday yeah definitely not optimal but no last week getting go all the bang, but I mean, it’s like,Like yeah I think like and when you find a way to kind of get people to where it’s it improves quality of life rather than impedes for sure right because I think a lot of times like especially as a young coach it’s like you want to just demolish people, oh yeah prove that like you know what you’re doing I can make someone sore I can make someone like feel like they got smoked and like it looks like like numbers are improving speeds improving it looks good, but it’s like they’re they’re not here to be the best weightlifters they get either here, they’ll be the best athletes so it’s like where do we dose the right amount yeah at the right times and like,When it’s there, let’s go for like it we talked like about eight and tals but a lot the other day, it’s like. Like when I act like that kid came in like this week and like had like a fun mountain a week like sprints like he the dude flies um and like just even the trend like this summer he’s like taking like tents off like his tenure – like is it’s not it’s like he’s so fast and then even like strength he just like I like looking to be the reason I’ve never gone before in my life and like it was like look like an empty bar and I’m like so it’s like it’s cool to see like we haven’t done anything like special mmm, just like do we haven’t like killed them?  I’m like I’ve always told on my tail like like you work on manual labor job during the day, it’s like you let me know like you just may do this based on how you feel. Like if it’s there go for it if it’s not dialed back and it’s people like that it’s like I mean, he’s an advanced athlete, right? I mean like junior nationals like hockey player like he like internally probably knows himself more than most people but like I said, like those people have the most success, um, because they like the the ego isn’t like I’m here to smoke myself it’s like dude like I’m a hockey player like I don’t care about ten pounds like yeah, I think I think it’s even cooler to see. Um like his his confidence go up because after he he died left I think I was dead left I look 300 pounds or something like he was he felt confident enough and like he was like pushing he’s like doing like like dumbbell bench like seventies, you know, you know that like just hitting that big weight like I’m sure he feels faster but like he has nothing to see with that it’s like objective like that repos faster than yeah where it’s like you put some you put some weight on the bar and he sees it and he’s like do let’s go yeah, you could just always pop there’s and it was sweet it was sweet to see things like he. Didn’t seem like anal seventies and he did and he was I mean he was just killing himself but he was like his day his day actually was made yeah that way that’s cool no that’s yeah that’s so cool to see um, I think too I go back um, I’m like training optimally yeah you’re saying like sometimes you do you just want like smoke somebody just just like prove to yourself or I don’t know what it is, but it made me think of of Andy Williams you just wants to see Jesus everything yeah and it’s like you have you also have to deal with those people that like they want they want? Pain yeah they want pain they want to feel like death after their workouts every single day and you have like you got to know how to deal with them on like I do you need to like bring it back yeah there’s a low day like you need it’s like restorative yeah kind of recovery like let’s just get moving a little bit and and like explain to them why that is important yeah big picture yeah exactly no.  I mean, yeah, I mean, I’m so guilty that I think we all are like even like you’d be going like I’m gonna keep it light today next thing, you know, you’ve been here for 90 minutes and you’re yesterday yeah, it’s it’s just,It it’s a yeah, I think you said like an ego thing where you want to feel like you’re making leaps and bounds every single day rather than slow steady progress and it’s that lack of perspective in that lack of like a man like one like what is the goal and like to like I’m taking positive strides towards that every day like some days.  I’m gonna take ten steps some days. I’m gonna take one with some still going forward yeah, um,That’s cool to see And it was so cool because like even like yesterday that like the like the the atmosphere in here was very like relaxed we’re listening like pretty slow country music like people are still like ripping like PRs and like that’s what I think that’s where like I you see like the competitors and like the winners it’s like I could throw on like kids pop two thousands and they’re still gonna hit a PR but lately yeah like it doesn’t matter what’s on words you get the kids rigged ally I can do with this magic driver, oh dude, like you just you just aren’t a winner like I’m sorry like yeah, like I could put Christina Aguilera on there and rip like like you should be able to rip like a deadlift PR yeah. If you truly think of yourself as like an elite athlete it’s like man like you don’t even hear it it’s background noise yeah yeah inspiring well yes well there’s a I think who was I think Dave Tate did that where he would put the headphones on and he would literally squat until like he’d like pass out as like a supplemental like he could do his max ever they do like his like supplemental lifts to failure people like what are you listening yeah and you literally would like he’d rack it and he’d fall back on his back and like his headphones fell off and like they picked it up and they listened and he was listening like Christina actually yeah and they’re like why and like,You again and like yeah, I’m sweating his butt off like world record power lifter, that’s all yes and he would do that on purpose he’s like I would do that just to mess with other people yeah cuz like I didn’t care like that’s weird.  I mean, that’s a little extreme. I mean, that’s not optimal by any means but I would say like yeah, I think people get caught up in like them a new show of like,Oh like this facilities nice so I’m gonna get a good I’m gonna be better because I go to a nice facility or it’s a guy the music’s good like I enjoy it’s like man like you’re worrying about the wrong things mm-hmm but I don’t think we have that problem too much here you’re always gonna get a few kids who are like gonna be like that and like it’s fine that you can joke around with them and like kind of like rip on my truck is all the time like you’ll get song requests this is a problem like yeah, well like it’s perfect or something yeah and it’s like like you’re not here to listen to music yeah, so who cares um about helps, oh my god.  I’m like, I’m all about like how big people like you. I like I I do get like a noise sometimes words ifIt’s too quiet like oh my god this feels like a funeral home like let’s see yeah let’s get some energy in here it’s the morning, you know, like people needed I get it but those top performers like they’ll never need that you know, like you they even like us I couldn’t even tell you what we listen to yesterday during our hours too busy trying not to die like I know idea oh excuse like podcasts when he lives like I yet I’ve yet to pull that trigger or like just like it’s almost like noises not even like music but like it’s like it’s like inaudible yeah, what does that? Are with our like what do you call it arena speakers it’s kind of hard to to tune into that but for my headphones yeah I can do it yeah see I don’t I don’t like I think it would always be background always to me. I couldn’t get one thing out yeah.  I’ll just be like well like this sucks or I mean, like whatever yeah just to distract it yeah that’s like sprints then you have like yeah a minute break yeah seriously yeah.If you don’t mind I would like dive into like some deeper questions. Yeah for you. Like I send off.  I’ll have seat. Yeah. What inspired you to start coaching?I think.That’s funny actually because actually I want to do is look at the end of the podcast today, but really just like thank is this the song we were both power strength. Yeah, just because.It led me to where I am now, right?  We met at Power Strength I I knew of Hunter and he was at power strength so that was like and so and that’s why I started training and that’s where I got like introduced to like this is a culture and one that.Like I really just want to be a part of and then after and that and really just led me to to honor and then you like eventually the time and to where we are now and so it was is being involved in that culture that got me inspired because like these dudes do this for a living.  Yeah, like what that’s sweet. I guess I even work. I still don’t think it’s worth. Yeah, you get a paycheck for this is fun. But so yes, I just think being involved in that culture in in like,Being the athlete to the coach, just drew me to. So I want to coach in this level.  Yeah, that’s the same type of facility and be that impact that we can’t talk about earlier, mm-hmm excellent. If you could give your younger self-advice.Let’s say 15 year old cold. And any advice about anything any advice, maybe athletic, maybe school, maybe life?Oh, dude.Um,I would I would say like just be confident as a good 15 year old like like don’t let your ego like take control of you but just be confident what like why you can do and I mean that goes to on the field like that have a big football player.  So on the field in the way your room and it does not feel like you have to prove yourself all the time. What do you think builds that that confidence piece because like you can’t I mean, you could tell someone hey just be confident but you have to kind of go through some kind of transformation or just I’d say experience ofThis for sure Like with like going back to what we talk about earlier in this podcast of like the disrespect and like like the those look those comments in my coaching after I had to deal with that and how I dealt with it.  I thought was like a pretty healthy way to deal with it and I think that bread into more confidence in my coaching and also like the the uncomfortable so like like me that those bad comfortable like speaking camp. I talked about that leading to me asking like well why we do this and then those just because I had to go through that. I had assholes questions because I was like like personally inside I was like, I need to know I may never be asked why but like I if I am I wanted like no what to say Chris coffee yes so that created knowledge was created confidence hmm so I was like experiences as well kind of what interesting needs to confidence what kind of a what kind of achiever are you like in school or otherwise like are you the person who has to get A’s on every paper or? Are you more of like?You already care about the graves and you’re looking for like the approval teachers or when you know, I was.Fine for most of my life. I was I would say like though like overachievers so it was like I think almost like a 4.01 high school.  I think my last year at GCU. I had a 4.0 it’s just it’s just something that.Like if there’s a homework assignment like that you have to do like I would I would do it well ain’t no majority of the time lame for a little bit like when I first moved to Arizona, it was like oh there’s so much to see yeah screw school right like I’m gonna go to the Grand Canyon yeah, um, but I was like, I’m pretty focused and it was like even when me and my girlfriend drove back from Arizona, I was it was as a weird time so we were still in school but we were coming back because of this coveted thing so I’m like online like with my personal hot spot like finishing up, hey. Making sure I got everything in yeah and I think it’s just like we talked about just like satin standing for myself like I knew I could do the homework and it wouldn’t be hard. I would just it just me doing it and so I was like, well it can be that hard.  I’m sitting here anyway, you’re gonna do it mm-hmm so just yeah, yeah. I think it’s really interesting because,You’re you’re almost getting that grade for the confidence piece and then when you went to coach it was like very different because you’re not getting a grade from the athletes yeah you’re getting direct feedback and when you get that direct feedback it was like challenging you you’re like, oh shoot yeah like this isn’t something I can just turn in and I get a number back on or something exactly exactly and it yeah it had to like how the athletes responded kind of. For a while told me like what kind of coach I was and I wasn’t getting the most positive comments back and like and I mean I say that and I want to say I was a bad coach at that time. I just I knew there was a major things I had to work on and but yeah that feedback was I guess like in a sense my grade and when it wasn’t to the I wanted to yeah, that’s when the those experiences happened that led to me.  I think becoming a better coach. I growth peace exactly.Or not my dad why yeah he’s just I mean, he’s a dude that just works and so seeing that my whole life it was.Very like motivating I mean seeing him because I mean he is concrete right so he goes on concrete business so we come home I mean his his pants are covered in just mod and dirt and he’s got dirt on his hands obviously and like he’s just laying I remember like all the time just laying on the the ground yeah the car our carpet and he always laid the half on the wood floor because my mom would get mad if his pants were on the carpet because they’re just trashed so I had his his lower half would be on the wood floor his top half would be on the carpet and he just lay there and I’d be like a little like 12 year old colon and I’m like dead. Like let’s play catch in like there was not one time and he would and I I mean play cash flow football there’s not one time or you would say no and it would be 15 degrees outside and snowing and like I remember we’d like get like some winter gloves on thinking like I’m somehow gonna improve my feelings in the in two feet of snow yeah like we’re out there, it’s eight o’clock at night, so it’s dark here in Michigan and we’re throwing and it’s just that. He he worked hard all day and do like doing his job or like working for him even as like a young like 20 year old smokes you so I can’t imagine what was like at 40 and seeing him do that and seeing him just like put his family first to and like his faith as well, it was just like really inspirational to me something to stand up dude yeah he’s yeah, yeah.  Kevin man, yeah, he’s also this.Good dog.At the end of your life, what would you wish you could have done more of today?Holy smokes.Wow, um and of my life more of today yeah, well like what’s something that you’re not doing enough of read eighty-year-old Colton looking back reading reading.  I’m not reading enough but that’s kind of that’s not very deep answer because I have to redo yeah, that’s what you think yeah, that’s fine. I mean, yeah, like reading more.Um,I’m not in I think.Two going back to like why I’m doing the National Guard I think everybody like I mean, we’re all broken people so what we can do more of is listening to God and looking for signs from God and really like obeying it at the end of the day and so like I said, that’s that’s why I’m doing the national guard, but that doesn’t mean I’m always listening and always obeying what he says hmm, you know, we’re we’re broken we live in a broken world and,So so let’s listen to God looking for him just just day and night and becoming like the best disciple for him that I can be. Excellent, how do you personally define success? Like one more of these so you don’t got to wait too much so this isn’t the last one yeah we’re actually able more after this okay defined success.Who? I mean, I would say like.Going back to the the spiritual aspect it would be oh, I mean, it would have to like I think I think got ultimately just defined success for us, you know, it’s it’s not money or any like earthly material that’s not how good your business does but it’s like at the end of the day it’s like what you inherit in heaven with with Jesus Christ and kind of how you how you obeyed him how you lived your life for him and like,The fruit you bared for him, so I don’t think I guess to answer your question.  I don’t think I I can define really success other than to say like listening listening to God and I think God defines it hmm and I don’t I don’t I don’t know if.I would say people are unsuccessful like that. I know but I don’t know of anybody that’s really successful because I don’t really know what they’ve been through in what they have and haven’t done. For like when it comes to like listening and living their life for Christ, so I don’t think like the more of a sacrifice the more of a living sacrifice you are the more successful you are.Great.What’s your one tip for our listeners, let’s let’s go with an athlete yeah. One tip as into like how do we take these podcasts or just like a life tip yeah like to oh, um.Yeah parents the athletes and parents.Okay as I say have two things so for the athletes it would be.Be confident in in yourself and what you can do and know that that Jesus loves you and I would say for the parents and kind of athletes both don’t undermine the importance of like optimally training when it comes to exports and stuff so um,Like those are there’s plenty of places you can go in get your butt kicked and for like an hour but like knowing like no knowing what you got like I guess like what the coaches know and knowing that’s important that the more the coaches know on to like if we have a kid come in two days a week, they’re not gonna sprint two days a week because that’s not like they like, they can’t they’re buy like their bodies are ready to sprint again and that could just lead to like, okay increase risk of injury andSo knowing that the optimal training and like being here is very important not only for your your child’s like athletic career, but just for them to live like a healthy life and I think it goes it’s like the long term and for the parents themselves to exactly. Calcium repo yeah this uh just say quick we’re not quite I mean as long with a podcast but I want to say thank you to to Colton for I mean all he’s been for us as a staff and even just for the athletes and the parents and everyone’s impacted.  I know like in the past we’ve been able to have kind of like sent off parties and unfortunately we’re not really able to do that now so regretting that but I mean seriously man, thank you. I know you’ve obviously you’ve always been a brother to me and had a tremendous impact on this place and then it’s gonna be tough to replace you and you’re gonna be missed so. We wish you all the best going on here National Guard here I mean you’re gonna do really good things and we’re excited kind of watch you impact the world over the next three years yeah appreciate it and I respond to thank this place and you guys too for what you’ve done for me and I mean like this is one most this place in these people here.  I like some most special people in my life and like it’ll always have place my heart for sure now yeah I’ve been like Tom athletes like dude like I’m gonna stay in touch with you like I will force you yeah that’s out to tell me what is going on yeah, so,But yeah, I mean just just thank you to you guys for sure yeah, of course no thanks call and thank you guys for listening if you haven’t said goodbye to Colton reach out to him on Instagram or Facebook or anything yeah wherever search morning yeah, yeah.

Trevor has served as our summer coach intern during the ’20 season and done a phenomenal job learning the OPTC culture and being a leader to the athletes. As a part of his graduation from Intern to coach, we have to put him through the ceremony of Public Roast. So, without further ado, please enjoy this very entertaining podcast focused solely on making Trevor feel a part of the OPTC family! Trevor Transcript: Hey, why no backtrack? Did you actually save them? Yes, save them from the trees. What trees like the overhaven branches on the river? So you used your speed. This is lazy to it. Yes. I remember housing today boating like no yeah. And they just started yelling at me and I just started swimming in paddling and then when those shallow enough, I would just start basically running. What river is all these miles from running into a tree? It was Muskegon. River in New Lego. And how many mothers do you save?  Oh 10, those are groups together. Oh wow. So I was the one just out for talking about like total load here. Yeah, let’s look. What volume it was brutal? I saved. You saved the day. Okay.So there is yelling at me. There’s cheering you on. No yelling. What? I mean closed I can do. Sorry, but it’s interesting. It is dangerous. Alright, clearly, my friends went out to Lake Michigan.Toots. Yeah. Oh behind the boat just kept going to measure like keep going. All the way to Lake Michigan. River others. A lot of swimmer.Jeez that’s so interesting. Yeah, it is interesting plus everybody was just not wearing sunscreen, so everybody was complaining about getting fried. Literally picked yeah big yes. It was all right.You should buy your own tubes and save a lot of money that way. Yeah, I mean you pay for tubes like ten bucks at two yeah, we know like a family that’s honest evening river that owns their own tubing companies, so they like to like kind of help support them going on, so we all got a huge group together. And supported them sturdy of us they made a lot of money. That sounds like they need like a 15 program.In case you need to get saved. Apparently, that’s a 10 people almost died without drivers. That is ready saving lives save us all the cooler tubes, that’s a lot of weight starting after hours. Lazy River is training program. See the student is always thinking how can I make this business?Yeah, well if you can’t sell what’s important.Dude, it’s already thought about ways out of monetize. Lugo on YouTube. I’m sorry this dude’s super cute. What a word we go. It would be easy.  Yeah. Now, that’d be sweet. I’d be totally down for that just my son’s. So, here’s a question for you. What would a program look like if you were to like?Get these people it’s like hey like, what’s good? What am I gonna what exercise do I have these people to do? It’s gonna save themselves from themselves. First, I’d put a tube around them and have them run against the current.  Because that’s what it feels like when you’re pulling all these people from really yeah the resistance sprints. Yes in the water really tube around you what’s inside you can’t get your medium, but you have to hit the tube up. That’s how you know, you’re getting your knee touch. What?  Yeah. Then use,Them Border’s here’s the following questions. I’m like, what are you gonna do to make them?Waits. Drawing on the deep end with weights.I just have a place. Not with weights like what these people can’t hear tribe and you’re like, oh exercise you survive say that you guys are safe.  That’s good. What program would you do on if they were talking about programs and thinking river?Okay program four the way you’re not doing on-site training. Okay, clarify, um.Let’s see some free elevated hip thrusters. That’s a total body lift. Why that one? Because that’s gonna get their strength up and it will be that’s hips you need your hips and your legs and your glutes. I would have them sprint.You would backtrack you know, before we went live, what did you say like you said these people were pretty skinny, right? Yeah, really skinny. I think that’s alive. I think the words you use was ham planet. No, I didn’t say you said pics. They were there some so there’s a bigger people.  Yeah, so you want this has actually a perfect segue and it will mean everybody talking about before this actually legitimate content we can talk about which mass specific.For it. Yes, I’m loaded. So I think about like this, right? Like we talk about how when your foot hits the ground, you’re putting in like five to seven times your body weight, right?  So someone who’s 300 pounds that’s gonna be a lot of weight. Yeah, but like they’re not trades. So what’s gonna happen like we’re gonna explode. Yeah, like their hams are gonna pull off the ball and they’re gonna block the calf like so what would you do?Sled how sled work sled work but doesn’t really transfer cuz it’s a lot of time on the ground right because they’re just gonna be like to a long big slow pushes or even if it’s fast it’s not as fast as they’re sprint because they’re moving weight. Question top what would you have intern trials this is after hours of intern traffic we can do like we can do around some something we can talk about he can think about it, yeah. I agree that’s great. I’m on the spot yeah thrusters that was a good answer but you know your program, okay? Saving them from specific fork yeah so this is this is like super popular by this guy named Barry Ross, you were a book called underground secrets to running faster or faster running whatever the kit title is, it’s literally like an 89 page book.And his whole premise is you there are two ways to get faster it’s to increase your mass specific force which is like how strong you are without getting any without adding any weight to your body and then the second part would be the delivery system with which like you kind of display that for us right so how much time you spend on the ground and they’re kind of inversely related. But like if it doesn’t make.Your favorite oh if it doesn’t make somebody either strong with mass specific force or increase their what’s it called radio force development, he doesn’t do it.So like for example like they don’t do any like accessory work they don’t do like any bodybuilding exercise no no accumulation work, it’s all like three to five reps of three to five sets of like concept only. And usually only does sumo because that’s more hamstring like more direct hamstring.And then I like I was trying to look this up earlier. I didn’t bring the book in here with me so there’s a lot of missing here, but basically like increasing.Strength without increasing body weight, which is everyone wants to get bigger everyone wants to be stronger, but typically the only way to get faster. Is like for example I know we talked about this with cold my cold here like this like the smallest do band a while yeah but you’re definitely like at least as strong as you’ve been at any other point you’re like yeah, definitely yeah so like even like your speed and you said like even during your reps like we did like a more traditional workout for you the other day like you just felt so much fast like you almost said like you always had no control once you were getting into top speed because you were like your body is never felt that before. That’s kind of interesting who does who’s that guy trained he did trained else if he was she was a goal right so like track yeah like track happens like he’s like he trains like specifically track athletes and like a hot all at a high level or is he like yeah yeah he got her in like high school yeah out of high school coming like yeah, he was gonna let he was like a college track guy and then basically like he kind of like said like I think this is the right way to do it, like kind of got his own system he I mean, it’s like it’s like any other coach is pretty controversial. You don’t.What but?I think like they’re like they’re like, I mean, it makes sense right if you take someone because if people think like all like the bigger you are the stronger you are it’s like well then why are you why isn’t Trevor faster there’s bigger than you yeah we’re stronger than you. So while it’s you got to think about getting a ratio so it’s like for every the example he uses a few have like him like a like in a hundred pound rocket and a 50 pound rocket, but you give them both the same output, right which is gonna fly up way faster than the tickets, but so it’s like,If you’re able to even like increase like your your power development or you’re like your ability to display strength quick enough to like two times your body weight as opposed to someone who’s bigger who’s like strong for their weight, but they’re also huge so it’s like it’s not as impressive that’s how you get somebody faster we were talking about that to like how like I’ve always had like pretty tight hamstrings and I was probably sprinting before like 180 and I was like 173 yeah and I was just telling like, I mean the day after I was sore but like during I didn’t feel my hamstrings one time. Like I serious thing. I like seven pounds or like that weight loss like definitely played a role yeah, that’s interesting. I’m not sure. I mean, I don’t know they could definitely be something to that. I don’t know how to explain that per se yeah, but I mean, that’s.That’s I mean, I like like the anecdotal stuff right where it’s like you don’t really know like yeah I’m like I’m definitely someone smarter than me or someone else that could definitely be like yeah like you’re caring an extra seven pounds of like almost muscle right you like you’ve always been a jack like you’ve never been like chubby so that’s not those never the case, but I don’t know it was a but when I think about it’s like what program are you doing right before yeah, yeah, so you had large muscle. Fibers you’re going to sprint program so that’s why it feels tight would be my guess yeah for sure this is a different energy system it’s like you’re doing sex of 30 seconds or more like 30 seconds to a minute of work and a weight room that’s like a slow it’s like a muscular endurance type workout whereas like,Your sprints done.  I mean, if you’re running if you were to run like a safety UV in like that six to seven second range so like we don’t even do that so that you’re on like 30 or 20 minutes it’s like two or three seconds it’s over so and there’s something to be said very also so talks about this called thing called mile fibular hypertrophy and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, those are those are two different type of muscle fibers trap, all right, so yeah those are um, but basically, it’s like,And like eric had a good idea we’re saying like it’s almost like a circle plasma is like when you think like bodybuilder right so if you do a hypertrophy program where you’re doing lots of volume at like a very moderate to low weight but you’re like chasing that pump or you’re trying to get like just more size that size does its like it’s kind of like empty it’s like a good way to air put it where it’s like yeah you look sweet but it’s like you look at bodybuilders most of them.  I don’t need to be that strong they’re just able to withstand absurds about.Because the weight doesn’t matter that because everything.If it’s your achieving the certain goal at the certain set reps scheme it’s working whereas like somebody that’s my fibula is going to be like kind of I know Charlie Francis said like eight reps or less like you go any more cross-sectional games meaning like you don’t get like that like that bulk in size, but then like that lower and like Barry Ross says like the three to five reps and three to five sets like that’s gonna be like purely strength like a lactic work, so. And I think that and that’s kind of what you’ve been doing to isn’t it you’ve been doing heavy yeah, oh yeah. I haven’t touched really anything like my main list over six yeah so six reps in the last like what like month and a half at least yeah and you didn’t do any like true springing either for a couple because you’ve been doing like more distant stuff getting ready for like crap and stuff yeah so like you’ve been to like four hundreds and like two hundreds.  I like paces not even like max effort, so.When you’re gone, you’re not gonna have a phone for a while.

Thomas and Eric sit down with Mike Vanderlaan to discuss misconceptions around what really is pain, CrossFit, training athletes, and how to maximize longevity. Both Thomas and Eric came away from this podcast with new insights into pain management and training. Enjoy this jam-packed episode! Teddy bear bandaged up Transcript: Yeah yeah I said every time like we I don’t realize we’re talking to about three minutes. I’ve gone by yeah, well we’re going out okay. I’ll see you there you go walking to LPP episode number 12, actually we’re OTP we’re doing a slight name change, oh yeah, it’s right iTunes flag does everyone out there.  I don’t even know oh yeah that’s why okay yeah so I am your co-host Eric Schroder, this is Tom’s Bows and we are with Mike Vanderlawn got it first try yeah from the lane and and Dutch yeah nice little history.Lots and before we went live here so Mike is been I mean we I got to introduce a mic up probably about three years ago through my former boss we had I’d really just I showed up to work one day and then there were two physical therapists in our gym and I’m like, I had no idea what to expect.  I’m like why these guys here below? I know they’re actually kind of doing like a functional movement screen like in-house like a seminar but almost like a like a how-to and so they were kind of giving us better assessment tools and then in like trade. I know I think at some point we went back there we demoed like some like basic lifts. Some and how it’s application to kind of like return to play so that’s our first introduction together um is that kind of how you remember as well or yeah yeah it was really interesting I had heard from a couple of my patients in Hudsonville yeah we trained at the feet Creek factory, oh yeah what kind of lips are you doing what are you doing and now we’re doing deadlifts and this and this and yeah, well it sounds like really quality training.  I got to know who your coach is yeah and so I looked up the free factory found your former boss and then that’s how we kind of got yeah set up yeah yeah that was that was a probably yeah, right? I think I was still in school the time.  I was born 27 17.I would say um and then actually as of recently Mike and I’ve been working together he’s got to kind of deal with some of my nagging injuries aches and pains that I let go for far too long we’ll get into that later but if you want to go ahead and maybe give us this a little little backstory into you.  I know you’re I mean traditional like DPT on physical therapists of you were originally working out a Hudsonville kind of maybe how you got your star we’re like how with your education came along and then the kind of how you got to where you are today yeah thanks so injured in high school and at that time my dad was saying, hey, I don’t want you to. Go into my appliance store like you’re not gonna run this you’re not gonna be a business guy the economies do up and down like going to the going the medical field so I get injured playing soccer in high school and PT is pretty cool you get to interact with people you get to stay active you get to exercise maybe this is the medical career that I want so from that stand from from that point on I kind of started down that road to get my DPT and that was really my goal in undergrad.  I played soccer all through undergrad and just kind of worked on my exercise science and psychology minors and with the hopes of getting into a grad school.For therapy and I did do therapy and my doctor in Denver Colorado at Regis University and that school was really really cool because number one you’re in Colorado, yeah, you know, I love West Michigan but yeah the chances to see the mountains and stuff that would be awesome yeah but what they really encourage was lifelong learning and that sounds kind of cliche but more more so like don’t just get stuck in your ways and think you’re gonna do that for the next 40 years career be done, you know, you constant evolution learn how to read scientific journals learn how to kind of learn from other coaches and people. And so that’s the main thing I took away from that DPT was I just got to keep learning and growing. I can’t practice the same way I did when I first graduated. And so that was that was a really cool experience out in Denver worked out there for two years and then we had the birth of our daughter we said look we want to be by our parents won’t be by family.  So we came back here, and I got a job at Hudsonville Physical Therapy, and that’s when I kind of ran into yeah Hunter and you okay? Yeah.Awesome. So yeah, I mean, that was.I guess I said roughly around three years ago that we bumped paths um very very unique experience I mean for me personally.  I’ve always liked the PT realm is always fascinating to me because the most people I’ve worked at have been that kind of that strength coach piece as well as I like the return to play the fiscal therapy like the inpatient the the clinicals work. Maybe you want to touch on I know because you’re you’re you work a little different.  I’ve been to multiple PT clinics before and um, not to say that they’re necessarily watered down but I I think maybe kind of bridging that gap from.Therapy to playing sometimes something is lost in translation between the two yeah, have you noticed that or what do you what’s your kind of philosophy on how that return to play looks like?  Yeah, so the association for physical therapy the APTA came out a couple years ago and said well what’s the top five issues with physical therapy? And one of the biggest issues they found is under loading and essentially what they meant by that was we are doing watered down therapy and we’re not preparing patients for that next step. And for me that was kind of a big eye opener because you know there bands can be useful mm-hmm like all these different tools all these different modalities can be useful, however are we actually preparing people for real life? You know, they can’t do a fair band and then go expect to go to their job where they have to lift 50 pounds.  If we don’t train maybe a deadlift or a squad or something a little bit more. So my big thing was trying to find that transition between okay where where is the nice handoff to the next person the strength coach and I don’t want to do it all because that’s not. My role my role is not to do speed like you do speed but my role might be early in therapy to set them up for you to kind of knock out the rest of the way. Sure and I think that continue on is different for every person but like like we said it’s more of like a continuum as just like here’s the line don’t cross it right or here’s a line don’t cross it time like you’re gonna have a lot of insight into how your athletes need to train and I need to learn from that.  Yeah, I mean that’s like you said, it’s not like nothing’s ever so blood black and white that it’s like alright like you passed like you graduated.Today and that’s honestly I was for me. I remember when I broke in my back and had a bunch of disc herniations of one night.  I was like, hey like you passed this this supine knee hug test like you’re paying free you’re good to go and I’m like right like 19 of my okay, this is interesting. So luckily I was trying to episode the time that did help me kind of bridge that gap so I didn’t really jump right back into things but I mean as especially as a kid right and like you talk about the psychology of it even it’s like all like,You might be told you’re ready but like you still don’t feel like yourself right and so I think where that kind of that gray area is is like that return to play where okay you like you pass all the the so-called tests like you check the box, but it’s like okay now how do we kind of build up that confidence build up that resiliency piece so that when it is time to come back it’s like how do we how do we make sure this doesn’t happen again or how do we make sure we’re not compensating somewhere else right, um, that’s tough.  I mean that’s because like we run to a lot of this nagging little injuries, you know the whole overuse and youths like used sports has been just a disaster and you.’ve been like kind of coming out of covet here like we’re seeing I’m seeing this a lot of this like high volume like injuries where it’s like hey my hamstrings are always so tight or whether it’s like just like growing tweaks or just whatever it may be like I know baseball players like elbow pain shoulder pains been a problem and that’s like you go from nothing to trying to make up an entire season’s worth in about a month, yeah.  I mean, what are you really expect to see and so I know you’re you’re kind of back in the clinic and stuff like that but like is that something you like the PT’s are talking about as well it’s like hey like this youth sports almost like epidemic like of hey like these over. Use injuries are getting younger and younger is that only on our end or is this something that you guys see as well yeah it absolutely something that we’re seeing in the clinic and and I I go back to even when I first started practicing I had these youth athletes that had specialized in baseball softball volleyball, they were terrible athletes yeah, you know, how did you get so far you’re on this club team you’re traveling every weekend, but you move like junk yeah you’re weak and you’re only good at your sport now you’re injured yeah because if they’re seeing me, they’re injured. I think we have a lot of nice scientific studies to say now that for most sports, not every single sport but most sports you’re gonna benefit from multiple sports yeah in solid training in the offseason and what we’re seeing is soccer volleyball baseball softball are very guilty of this where you are specializing year round.  I think football is less so because football is a high school sport and there’s really not a league outside that’s popular here so so a football player says, oh I can go play basketball on the winter and I can run track and in the spring.And so football player actually has a really nice or they have a choice between track and baseball yeah but they have this ability to kind of do multiple sports and develop their athleticism yeah and that’s not what we’re seeing with some of these really early specialized people is that they’re not athletic and they’re not going to get a couch scholarship because they’re going to be broken down and they’re not that great of an athlete to be honest, yeah no we talked about this.  I think last week even with are you familiar with? Dr. I think Greg grows is his name, he’s a lot of the the TPI golf world on yes. I mean, his big thing is always say early to ripe early to rob it’s.Like you don’t really care if the kids good at 11 years old and like we try to have that conversation as much as we came with parents here it’s like hey like I don’t care if it’s best freshman and West Michigan it’s like it doesn’t matter for at least some other four years so it’s like we should probably take our time and like develop that holistic athleticism over hey like I need this kid to go to the Little League World Series this year, it’s like yeah, it’s kind of we it’s it’s kind of like aligning those priorities and kind of figuring out like what is the goal and like you said it’s like did like do we want to burn these kids out and make them really really good baseball players or it’s like once baseball’s over then what yeah the numbers for dropout and use sports are as an all-time. High.And so we know now okay so adults not even 20% of adults are getting the recommended daily activity now when the youth it’s dropping off too, yeah and part of it is you sports burning out it’s not the only reason but they’re burning out and like that’s that’s their physical activity and now they’re not even carrying on past 11 12 because they’re so burnt out with a so having that long view is so so important, oh yeah, let’s just develop over time we’re in a culture of now parents want it now, but look. Kid isn’t gonna get a scholarship at 11 you know they’re not LeBron James yeah that’s a easy scenario you know Tiger Woods LeBron James those were unique scenarios where they you could just tell they were gonna be that good that early yeah those outliers and people use this like they are outliners yeah that’s yeah that’s something we try to talk about all the time is just like, hey listen like don’t like like just because you see LeBron James doing like squats on basketballs, it’s like he could literally do whatever he wanted he’d still be the best basketball player in the world you give him a kettlebell he can do whatever you want to get it’s not gonna make him. Worse yeah well a couple years ago there’s some controversy over Usain Bolt’s training regimen he posted some videos online people like oh my goodness that’s terrible training yeah you’re arguing with yes right in the world yeah at that point it doesn’t really matter if he thinks he’s getting what he needs to sprint really fast don’t mess with that yeah and if he’s asking to change and he’s ready to change okay, that’s that’s different but you know at that point when you’re at that top, you’re point zero zero zero one percent yeah people you can get away with anything it’s yeah sorry, no that’s whatWe don’t glorify athletes training regimens yeah they might be really good or they might be really crappy yeah just tough because they’re the they’re the status symbol for youth it’s like yeah that’s who they look up to in 2010.  New Orleans Saints coach. Sean Payton, yeah obsessed with crossfit wanted all his players to come you guys remember this design yes. I do. I remember yeah, I guess I remember what John well born he was a former NFL player and then he got in the cross with scene and then shortly after realized like this is fun, but this is not how any athlete should ever train it’s just like,That when boring vanilla middle zone that you want to stay away from and it may have worked for a few of the athletes because you know whatever they did was gonna work for them right yeah yeah, we’re going back is it optimal is it ideal no let’s not let’s not teach our youth that like this is the way it has to be yeah no it’s it’s sorry that’s our true and it’s that kind of like that one size fits all where it’s like that’s never been training that’s never been therapy that’s not I mean like really like how the more like we talk about being good generalist before you could be good specialist, but it’s like you died like when it comes to individuals like that’s what you’reTraining humans first like so it’s like we need to kind of meet them where they’re at rather than meet the program fit what they need what we want them to accomplish right but no that’s that’s interesting the whole like we done we talk about crossfit all the time just being like,Like what’s the way what’s the difference between optimal and fun right and like in you you actually do crossfit don’t you and like you yeah which a little bit as long oh shit.  I went through the level one certification and all that I think and crossfit comes in a couple different flavors sure if it comes with a die-hard flavor which is you know, the folks who are really following everything that HQ or headquarters is putting out they know all the athletes and they they take that training that they’re putting out in involved to a team.  I think that’s one category or one flavor across it.My flavors a little bit different. I kind of look at it as it’s a community of getting people more active with barbells and maybe some other fun stuff in there and so for me if we go back aways barbells were considered pretty much a power lifter tool mm-hmm how many women when I was when I was training how many females how many older individuals did I see with a barbell at the YMCA growing up very very.  I feel one. I want to tone. I want to do this. I had the date of the small weights and the high reps.I think one thing that Crossfit and they’re not the sole proprietors of this but they’ve empowered people that want normally pick up a barbell and and lifting some heavy things yeah and now we see all the bad, you know, we see the bad technique on YouTube yeah but I think that’s the price you pay you’re gonna have that execution error with anything mm-hmm, but what I think it has empowered is a whole class of women and and older and younger people saying, oh I’m comfortable with the barbell, my mom does it my dad does it my grandpa does it so I think it’s a little bit more accessible. Now than it used to be and I guess I’d say that’s probably one of the best things to come from it yeah and another benefit is it popularize Olympic weightlifting to whereas yeah and we talked about that with Alex like who cared how much someone could snatch ten years ago, yeah it’s like now it is on TV, it’s not ESPN yeah, yeah.  I mean it’s definitely done and I we’ve said this before it’s done more good than harm to degree right but it’s like when people kind of like I said kind of fit that square peg in around whole where it’s like all like this is the answer and it’s like,Well no and like even if you look at like how they define like high intensity movements or what or whatever like rotating exercise it’s like well like sets of ten snatches like aren’t high intensity because like you look at like the heat like the velocity of the bar it’s like you have to move it a certain speed otherwise it’s not getting off the floor so it’s like by nature it’s not even at high intensity lift so it’s it’s just I mean, it’s like it’s educating people.  I mean, we like you said you’re always gonna run those technique issues but I mean realistically like I weigh rather have someone do that and some other couch right and it’s like you find like you said there’s kind of like the spectrum of coaching where it’s like, I know I got. Confident Alex like hey like if you want to dink around with some of that in our group like I trust you the point where you’re not gonna get anybody hurt right and that’s always been like rule number one in any professions just do no harm so we’re keeping people safe and improving the quality rather than decreasing the quality of life or even increasing the chance of injury then we’re doing okay, yeah and I think you’re absolutely right on about definitions.  I think the definitions really get morphed a little bit yeah, especially with big personalities yeah in the upper that you know, they talk about velocity or they’re talking about power and they’re really not defining it like it traditional.Should.In a physics that correct because one thing I’m learning from you like, you know with max power is gonna come a ton of rest yeah ridiculous amounts like boring amounts of rest yeah yeah yeah and and that is absolutely not something that the crossfit understands so I would say, you know for they’re working a lot more middle when they’re saying it’s high yeah middle intensity yeah no that’s exactly right and and and that but if you call high intensity people are gonna call high intensity right, so yeah the definitions matter and and their bastardized. Definitely so how do you bridge because you I think you have a good understanding of that that dynamic of training how do you bridge that gap of like here’s the cross out work out of the day and then how do I coach these athletes yeah we so our gym doesn’t follow the headquarters, okay follows a program called comp train and it’s decent but it has some some major flaws.  I bridge it with mainly going way back to what we’re talking about earlier is having a long view, you know, people want to come in and they’re say they come in and February say I want to be ready for March because I got a I got a cruise, mm-hm. Classic yeah right yeah like well you know I’m I’m approaching it from what where do I want to be at 40 with my strength and with how I feel where do I want to be at 50 what kind of lifting can I do into my 70s and my approach is kind of that long view of yeah.  I want to have a great physique who doesn’t right yeah but at the same time I want to feel good throughout and I want to be able to lift a barbell when I’m 70 yeah and so how do I do that so I take that into my coaching kind of that long view and and try and explain the long via look here’s what it says, you’ve. Should lift you’re not at that level yeah don’t even try yeah or let’s say hey we got a snatch today you can’t get the bar over your head safely, let’s not do that mm-hmm let’s focus on your front squat technique or let’s focus, you know just pairing down the movement so I’m a happy to modify kind of guy as opposed to the prescription is what they call it, you know, here’s this workout you need to do this and I say but you’re here yeah and that’s okay, yeah, it seems like the headquarters prescription is like struggle struggle to adapt. Like you’re gonna struggle through the workout and then eventually you’re just gonna figure out how to snatch it’s like at least in my experience being there and yeah a lot of gems but I think that’s huge to pair it down break it up and also like if you have a coach who’s helping you be like it’s okay, if you don’t do the workout that’s huge because if you go to the gym, everyone else is doing the the wad you’re gonna want to take part in it’s just that yeah just how it community pieces daunting yeah right well and it also goes to the individual’s goals, you know, if they’re goals are just aesthetics or just physique do I need to worry about normalizing their overhead. Squat to get it to a certain weight no I don’t care about their overheads yeah I don’t care at all so we’re not gonna focus on that whereas someone who’s training for a competition, we have people that a couple people I like to do competitions, hey we might actually load up that overhead squat really coach it yeah otherwise we’re not even gonna go there and I think that is a that’s it all comes on a coaching yeah, you know, do we understand an engine individual’s goals my goal is not to compete in the games or a competition my goal is to look good feel good and enjoy myself and get stronger yeah.  I have a couple, you know, strength goals that are.Out.The future That’s my goal So do I care about my overhead squat Absolutely not Yeah Well I do it Yeah I’ll do it but it’s usually pretty light and usually I just focus on technique, right? So that’s awesome.  No, I think that’s a really good view because I mean yeah we’ve done our fair share of talking about crosses in the past but I mean like you said, I mean the definitions matter the the coaching approach definitely matters and knowing just for anyone like meeting them where they’re at like, that’s always gonna be probably priority number one mm-hmm, but that’s cool.  I know like in that space like, how do you like?About a session what does it look like what if you’re coaching like paying pops up right and this happens a lot right They come in like hey Mike like I don’t know what I did but like my hamstrings just tired like I feel like anytime I try to go run like it feels like it’s pulling like that’s something we run into all the time just as kids and it’s usually not until about halfway through and I’m like, hey, like how long has been feeling this like all like three days ago and like they didn’t say anything at the beginning of the session so you’re gonna get you’re having to kind of watch and find out but in terms of like what is pain for you and what does that kind of mean to you and how do you use that in what your work kind of like definition that’s like that’s a great question it’s also. Volcano worms yeah yeah, let’s open the can of worms yeah pain is very very complex yeah and I want to go back and kind of history in the health care from a health care point of view we have completely gotten pain wrong since sense of since you know, hundreds of years and I’ll explain why but traditional health care we rely on a biomedical model biology medicine, right? And so when we talk about pain from from a biomedical perspective, it’s your tissue is damaged therefore you feel pain mm-hmm that’s kind of where the buck stops okay, so how do we how do we fix that we we help your tissues heal and we try and stop the pain with medicine mm-hmm or we try and do a surgery to fix the tissues intervention yeah yep so biomedical approach to pain is is almost always going to be an interventional approach to pain when I deep dive into it after school kind of that continual learning we find out that. Breaks down really quick and and how it breaks down as pain is super complex so chronic pain sufferers horrible conditions you know people don’t go out of their house with chronic pain thirty percent of those people have never had a physical injury that started it that’s interesting well, let’s look at third you’re looking like almost a third a third of people have never had a physical injury that started that chronic pain and so what we’re learning is yes, the biology is poor important and don’t you know patients miss here this all the time and it’s my fault.  I have to clarify this the biology is definitely important in pain.But it’s not the only thing and so what we started to include in pain what else contributes to pain well the psychology and then the social emotional so we called a BPS mile BPS model and this is where healthcare is really going or should be going but taking the biology and saying yes this is important but it’s not the only thing now if you go out and get hit by a car and you break your leg the biology is very very important in that context, but six months down the road the biology, you mostly healed your bone heels and eight eight weeks or so. The tenons of ligaments all that stuff is healed up and about 16 weeks so you get outside of that then why do you still have pain yeah and so the biology becomes a little less important and then it becomes the psychology and are you supported socially so let’s say for example, you didn’t have insurance and you felt really bitter to the person who hit you and so there’s all sorts of psychology behind that of I’m the victim here yeah, they should pay for this.  I’m the victim. I can’t believe this happened to me and this is what we see with pain this this can kind of perpetuate the pain now.You’re not like that yeah you’re very independent you’re very resilient and you got support so you go get hit by car, you’re gonna get better and you’re gonna be on your way, okay, you might have residual effects, you know down the road a little bit of pain, but it’s not gonna become this chronic.  I’m gonna be in a wheelchair but what I saw in my chronic pain program that I was a part of for a couple years is those people would be in wheelchairs well for for injuries that have healed because of the psychology component right or they’re in a wheelchair and they never had an injury. Because just the psychology okay that’s interesting that’s very interesting so going back to your question you know how do you how do you treat pain my number one goal is to encourage resiliency with pain pain is a part of life it’s normal we have to have it we don’t grow we don’t you know without stress we don’t grow without pain we don’t have a human we don’t have a human body yeah.  I mean, we’re gonna feel things it’s information if I stub my toe or I step on a nail that information is oh my goodness, there’s a nail in my foot. I better go get a tetanus shot yeah, but guess what I go get my tetanus shot it’s gonna calm down. A couple days I’m gonna be on my way if I didn’t go take care of it if I never received that information I get as might lose a limb, you know or bad things can happen so I think I try and teach people that pain is information but we don’t need to go down the rabbit hole to the very end of it mm-hmm take it forward it is maybe I’ll back off in this training session or maybe I’ll kind of work through it and it’s going to get a little bit better let’s just see how it goes and then if it’s a dangerous type of pain, we’ll take care of that medically put the goal is not absence of pain or the goal is not as a pain. And that’s where our culture gets it wrong we see it on the billboard headed downtown back pain go to a chiropractor back pain you need surgery and that’s the wrong message matter of fact in Australia, they did a study in the 90s and just in one region so it would be like a state here they put a billboards the same back pain as normal wow they saved their health care system over a hundred million dollars the next chord your job because people read that they said oh it’s normal work through it yeah or subconsciously they’re like, it’s a weirdo or whatever we do what have we done with pain. All back pain needs to be treated yeah and there is back pain that needs to be treated but it’s it’s it’s overtreated and America and that’s that’s our problem and as health care clinicians we need to be coming there and saying this pain is abnormal let’s work it up let’s go take that extra oh yeah we we’ve got something that needs to heal we need to you know treat that appropriately okay, that’s one type of pain, but that’s only about 10%. Ah 90% of it specific to the low back is just going to get better mm-hmm but we over treat it yeah and then that psychology comes in. I’m a victim yeah all that doctor screwed up my back yeah now I still have this yeah all that surgery screwed me up now.  I still have this pain yeah and I see this in the older generations who really relied on doctors and trusted everything they said it’s a little bit different for our generation. I have a lot more skeptics in our generation, which I think is great yeah like if you come in and question me, that’s you that’s great like it’s yourBody you don’t have to say everything you don’t have to take everything I say and and go go, you know challenge me on it yeah right right so yeah that was that was a long windy road oh that was incredibly helpful.  I think like wow, like I’m just thinking cuz I mean, I got a mom a little back man. I can’t tell you girls come in here like all like my back hurts and it’s like to even tell somebody that’s normal. I’m like right now currently have a girl who’s like soft shuffle from pretty bad like shin splints and I mean, it’s been like over a year and like just tell her like hey like,Like this is tough but like this isn’t permanent at all and it’s and I got like I taught my hey like listen like like you can think like this is terrible like if you keep thinking this like this isn’t gonna go away yeah you you hit the nail on the head right there because the and this is psychology this is for a lot of our depression anxiety not all of it, but this is with pain is it’s not permanent but what happens to us pain sucks, yeah it’s unpleasant.  I mean, it’s a very unpleasant sensory experience nobody wants it but when we’re in it, we tend to get short-sight and say, oh my gosh, this is never.Mind yeah and that’s the that’s the narrative we tell our son but it’s a lie because it will go away yeah yeah that’s like the suffering state is you’re holding on to that yeah.  I’m never gonna get out of this this is awful yeah that was you know, I’ve had peaks and valleys with emotions the last four months with covet, yeah being you know losing a job and and you go through a little anxiety and depression go through that and you you sit there and you go this is it’s not gonna get better yeah guess what that’s a lie yeah and and and I think if we can show people not even patients but individuals like in a training. Session it’s a lie it’s gonna be okay like don’t don’t react yeah just work through it it’s not it’s not forever they can say okay and relax and guess what they’re gonna get out of it quicker yeah yeah that’s yeah so true. I mean that wow that was really well said I enjoyed that I mean for me it’s like it’s time to come let’s get that message across the younger kids right because like that’s everything is so now and even like we had talked about a couple weeks ago like Facebook and be like, oh man, like just the negativity and just like how that it can like how that can trigger like the anxiety the depression and just like,Like where your mind goes your body’s almost gonna follow right and like I’m sure there’s studies to back that up as well I mean you’re in the literature much more than I am but like it’s just so like what you feed yourself and like it’s gonna go a long way to how you feel um both mentally and physically, right?  I mean, we talk about food like diet nutrition like hey like that’s gonna play a role on how your brain works and like if you’re not feeding yourself good stuff like that’s gonna trigger emotional like unstable responses at times and like we I’ve seen it before but almost like I mean in your experience, like I don’t know how many youth athletes you would necessarily work with but I mean, like kind of,I. Necessarily framing like that long term for them like how like what’s the like what’s been successful she for you in the past or it’s like hey like you’ve had this acute to get like borderline getting the chronic pain it’s like okay like how do we kind of flip that that’s psychological state and like kind of show them how where this can go and like how it’s not permanent? And and that’s the difficult part and that’s that’s really where it all comes in as.Finding what that individual needs as a goal like what are they working to and if you can kind of frame everything around that well this is why we’re doing this because you said you really want to you know excel at tennis or whatever that support may be or this is you really want to be out of pain, okay, what do you need to do to get there what things are in your control and I think it’s giving people some control.  I’m gonna handle this stuff. I’m gonna do some tissue work with you, what are you gonna do are you gonna go sit on the TV for the rest of the day, are you gonna go for a ten minute walk like I asked you to do yeah, so I think it’s,Fine in the goal and then. Bringing them back to that goal well this is why we’re doing it and if they can kind of see that they’re able to flip a little and say okay well I’m working towards my goal here I have a ownership. I have some chain in the game now this yeah at the same time he’s got my back he’s gonna do the things that can help me get there, mm-hmm.  I don’t know did that answer yeah. I mean you kind of like you said like giving them ownership of it right because you try to do something for someone like, you know oftentimes like it goes a long way, but at the same time it’s like it’s never gonna have the same effect as giving them a piece of pie and like and then like you said that social aspect just,Creating some semblance of security um I think that’s a good something a good way to look at how and the never thought of it like that but because I mean I think we’ve talked about this afforded wanting it being in this profession like you want to help people right that’s why you got into this um so the temptation is to do everything for them and I mean, I know I’m so guilty that I go out there someone’s a goal my hamstring.  I’m like, oh I can fix this like right now like they don’t even need to think but then it’s like they come back two days later like they felt finally they left and then they come back they said still hurts, oh my god man, like I gotta do this again like figure it out, it’s like well, what did I tell them to do when they went home it’s like what did they do when they went all? So it’s like creating that kind of that it’s that maturity almost or like that like that buy and because it is tough right you think like some kids like depending on their age you don’t really know how much they can handle and you want to give them the benefit of the doubt but sometimes like just they’re gonna do what they want to do at the end of the day, um, it’s like letting letting them see it before you solve it you try to solve it yeah you want what’s like you want to position it to where they’re figuring it out yeah rather than you’re telling them exactly what to do, yeah that’s the mark of a great teacher, okay, you know, if you think about some of those kids in school that really,Excel sometimes their teacher is a little bit more hands-off letting them figure it out as opposed to the kid who’s getting tutors and being you know, just really being force-fadding. It’s it’s stuff though because you have a lot of knowledge and a lot of training you want to help people yeah and so how do you balance that with what they need and I’ve gotten it wrong so many times I’ve gotten that balance wrong where have you either given too much or not given enough where I thought yeah, I want to encourage this independence.  I want to encourage this resilience and this person walks away and be like well, he just left me.Yeah and I had to balance on sale my goodness I have you know I didn’t give you as much as you needed I needed to follow you a little bit longer.  We needed to go a little bit further or the other person where I did all the tissue work and you know everything and God I’m feeling great but then they didn’t learn anything. Right. Yeah, and they think okay, I gotta go to PT to get fixed. Yeah, that is not the narrative we want.  Yeah, that is the medical narrative right now and we we have to flip that mm-hmm if we’re gonna have a healthier population. Well, even though sorry the complications that come with the term doctor,It’s like you go see the doctor what does that mean? That means you’re gonna be healed.  Yeah, so it’s like correcting that whole stigma. We caught stigma but.That psychology behind that piece of like going the doctor or when you pull the athlete aside they’re like oh I get special attention Yeah Yeah no that feels nice like hey I don’t have to do the actual sprint like I do the drills instead like that’s not nearly as hard and like you want it like I said you want to give them a benefit of the dow and they be like they want to be here and like I’ve had people say like I like doing the sprints here like I just really hurts and I’m like, okay.  But no, that’s I mean, it’s tough like they like doctors have a great business model. I’ll give them that right because like they they have this like almost God like complex where it’s like all like you’re the dog.After like they’re gonna they know everything and it’s like you once you start to dig in I know like you’re very familiar with like almost like Joe Rogan and Dr Ronda Patrick how she talks about like the lack of nutritional training in the med school or even just like sleep studies or like unless you specialize in something like that like you never gonna see it.  Yeah, like they know they know prescriptions and medicines and like that’s kind of the test retest monitors like hey try this for a month, we’ll come back we’ll see how you feel and it’s like that doesn’t work all the time. Yeah, and I think I think that’s one of the biggest criticisms of a lot of different professions is you have people that think they’re at a higher level than they really up. I are We call that like a done and cougar effect Okay where you think you’re more of an expert than you are but when you’re truly an expert you realize how much you don’t know right and when you realize how much you don’t know you can be very effective.  And I think in our culture we look at doctors and we kind of put them on up at a stool but there are good ones out there saying look, we don’t know a lot of things. Yeah, and if the narrative change a little bit and said, well, we don’t really know and people could accept that more and we’d have a lot healthier relationship with our medical community.  Yeah, you know that even goes back and we’re not going to cover, you know,The last four months because it’s just absolutely insanity Yeah if if people understood that hey, this is what we know and this is what we don’t know. I think there’d be a better response because we don’t know a lot of things, right?  We don’t know a lot of things about return to play protocols still yeah. I mean we’re at the very tip of it, but at the same time we don’t know how effective they are quite yet. Yeah because there’s a lot of individual it’s hard to do randomized controls, it’s hard to do meta-analysis of the randomized controls.  It’s hard to do science and good.S.Going to be out there saying look we don’t know a lot of things This is what we don’t know We think we know this Yeah And if people could say oh yeah the you know we don’t have this pedestal instead of this doctor’s very humble and saying well, I think this is a good option here’s what we don’t know about it.  And that’s even true about the medicine. We see this all the time people go into the doctor and they get you know script for you know, the next month of this pill. Is that ever been talked about you know, all the things we don’t know about it. It’s just that this will help this.  Right, right and you just what do you do? You said there you go. Like he’s a doctor.And I mean even with statins one of the most well-researched drugs there’s still a ton we don’t know about it. Yeah, and that’s a whole class of medication that like almost everyone over fifties on right, you know, so there’s a there’s a lot known about it and here’s why maybe it’d be beneficial for you and and here’s what we don’t know about it and I just think if we could be better about that then the people that are coming to us we could have more a little bit more better relationship.  Absolutely. But right now, I think it’s still I need to prove myself this is I do know a lot.And I think it’s still flipped a little bit I was tough if you have ten years of medical school Yeah, I use yeah, yeah, I can’t imagine the feeling getting out the other side of that feeling okay, like finally here we go right now it’s time to prove myself and yeah, honestly the the schooling system sets us up a little bit for failure with that.  I was practicing and as in my third year practice, so as it would have been in 2016, and I wanted to quit I got to there. I don’t know anything. Yeah, there’s literally and and that was a good spot for me to actually be because I went as a new grass and I know. Everything and I was yelling at this person about this person about this and I was on my high horse because it’s what I learned in school. And then I realized oh there’s more nuance there’s more nuances. Yeah, there’s more gray and then I and then it took me two more years to say comfortably to a patient.  I don’t know. We’re gonna keep looking into that for you. But what I do know is you can get better. You know still framing it positive, right? No this but I know you can still improve. Yeah, and I think that’s comes back to what you said being a great teacher like every great teacher’s afraid to say. Not afraid to say, I don’t know and like at any coach. I’ve worked around that. I’ve had even look up to or I’ve been like hey like.You used to hold them up like if the light like they’re great coach like they’ve said I don’t know like I’ve been to seminars where they people ask them around the spot where God I can’t help you Yeah and it’s just like I think we think like especially after all that training all that school and like we feel like we need to know and it’s like to say that as like we’re more worried about us like that we don’t like that like they don’t really care as much right?  Like you because you think they’ll go home though Google it or they’ll go ask somebody else or like but even to say okay, I don’t know that let me get back to you like let me check my notes like something like that could go such like such a long way and even just building more trust right because like now you’re not lying to them and giving them false hope. But that’s tough yeah and I think we get a lot of people frustrated and it is either false hope or they feel like they’re being lied to yeah and to earn trust. I mean that is such important thing for business my dad always says, you know, my business is really unique because people have been to the big box stores and got burned so they don’t trust them yeah, they come to me and they’re already more trusting of what I have to offer because I’m small and I’m agile, and I’m you know, I just shoot straight yeah and so he said my my sales are easy becauseI have already earned that trust why not being something else right I don’t know that’s it’s just an interesting to think about that’s very interesting no there’s there’s something to that right I mean there’s not it’s not this scripted sale where it’s like hey I have this 18 year old kid saw me a TV it’s like no like that’s the owner right there like he had like you not like there’s like creating that security and that trust.  I mean that like formula what is it like people only buy for people they know like and trust so it’s like you check off you start to check off one of those boxes like those other two are gonna follow along pretty quickly and I think I mean even especially for us like we only get sometimes like two hours ofWeek and I don’t like saying with you guys you’re working in these these small finite time windows per week and it’s like hey like not only do I have to treat but I also have to develop this relationship develop this trust and find a way to get this person to like me and know that like I’m on their side mm-hmm that can be tough because I mean, you don’t know what psychological baggage they’re carrying you don’t know if they even care if they want to get better like you like they could just be there because mom and dad said, okay, we need to get this fix and it’s like,Getting somebody to do the work sometimes that’s gonna be the biggest battle of the pizza like it could be some stupid small injury that could be so easily curable but it’s like they’re not gonna put in the work this is never getting better what’s I think it’s so interesting that you brought up like pain the pain component is more than just the biology is psychological so we have an opportunity now someone has pain it’s like let’s not focus on the biology first hand, let’s talk about like where are you mentally yeah, are you an exam week, are you stressed about covet, are you nervous about this that or the other thing and like I have a person? Al story when I was in track that corn stone university like six months and I felt like it was my job to report to my coach my pain like hey, I got this pain so I’m treating it and I’m not gonna do the workout today, but I’ll be blind and just carry it on and on and on I can tell you it’s getting frustrated it’s not changing and eventually I just had this moment of like,Hey coach I have pain I’m just gonna do the workout and it was like at that moment the pain started to go away it’s like so interesting that is interesting yeah yeah, it becomes it becomes an identity, it becomes kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy as we kind of hang on to it and it’s because we tell those lies to ourselves it’s never gonna get better mm-hmm now, you know, this is all within respect to their serious pathologies that you got to take care of right away right but in my experience in the literature, they’re more rare and you can usually diagnose them just by. How.Person will tell you it is But generalized pain or pain like in a low back typically is going to be one of those things that we don’t want people to hold on to So you here are setting the stage for health care practitioner to knock it on the park with someone.  They would say they go further a yearly check up and they haven’t been in here training. They say yeah, I got back pain and doctor because all my goodness we had to treat that. Yeah, you know and then they’re down that funnel or they’re in here training like yeah coach I got some back pain and you’re like, you know, I think you can work through it.  This is these exercises are actually really good for your spine. Yeah.And you set that Now when they go to their doctor and say yeah Doc I got some back pain, but I’m okay, I can still do my stuff. Yeah, then the dog’s not gonna send them, you know overreact yeah and go back to what I was saying earlier about there’s a lot of over treatment.  So you you guys earn a really unique position to to really help the youth change shift the culture a little bit. Not only with pain but just general activity having a longer view. These are really important things that we’ve gotten wrong for a long time. Yeah, definitely trying to rewrite that script. A little bit um and it’s top right I mean it’s nice It’s never nothing ever moves quickly especially when you are thinking with the end in mind but um yeah it definitely helps seven people of similar mindsets around this area for sure. I mean you want to talk about maybe a little I know we’ll start wrapping up here in a minute, but um kind of what’s what’s next for you we kind of spoken off camera a little bit of what was popped up for you you want to share whatever you’re comfortable with on that.  So the main thing for me right now is to get back into work. Yeah, treating patients getting comfortable and then kind of learn from some management. I I like you I want to set up.A positive culture Yeah I’ve been in good cultures I’ve been in bad cultures in my workplace and and again, I I would enjoy setting that workplace culture.  Yeah as a place that can be a real positive thing. So in my future, I’m looking towards that obviously the last four months have put a kind of a dink and everybody’s plans sure but they’re where there are problems there’s also opportunity. Yeah, and and so eventually I’d like to have kind of my own thing whether it be with a big rehab company or something different mm-hmm that can offer, you know,This messaging and in this messaging will evolve a little bit over time but some of something similar that’s a positive messaging for for people.  Yeah, and and help them get the health care that can can really benefit them. Yeah, awesome not super helpful. I mean definitely going down the right path and like you said, I think this is gonna be interesting to see how people come out on the other side of these like I mean this past four months like you said, I mean, it’s kind of be that resiliency component where it’s like hey who’s gonna come on on top?  I mean, this was that test for what do you wanna say personality like?Businesses even like anything. It’s like if you can come out on the other side of this like you’re gonna be probably doing okay for the rest of your life, um.But now thanks we appreciate you had coming out here Mike this is an absolute blast and having someone who’s a wastewater that I’m supposed man you give me way too much credit no you guys know your craft and you don’t really well and and that speaks volumes because you you have people walk through the door and they know the product they’re getting yeah and that’s not everywhere and that’s a really special thing to having West Michigan so we’re now I’m excited to keep learning from you guys yeah did.  I mean say it goes both ways for sure happy the last time yeah that’s for sure well thanks for sharing your knowledge and your story you have a yeah a place where people.Yeah yeah, so I have my own website where I do some seminars weekend seminars, it’s Vander Vanderlonphysio.com, and then I’ll be starting with IV rehab and the Coopersville clinic and I’ll probably be doing some some stuff for them as well, so that’s where you can find me and then Twitter Vandy.  _ Mike yeah love it we’re getting on Twitter and then we’ll yeah eat a lot but I do follow a lot of people that are interesting yeah Twitter, you know from a business perspective not worth it but as an individual. Financing some coaches and in other if all a lot of doctors yeah, I can kind of get this incredibly helpful for some of us stuff that’s coming cool, well we’ll like that in the notes below but yeah, be sure to check out his stuff great stuff we’ll look to have some seminars with him actually at our facility here in the future as well as things kind of calm down a little bit yeah, thanks for watching guys, thanks guys, thank you.

Thomas, Eric, and coach Colton discuss mobility & flexibility as it relates to athletic performance. As OPTC introduces a yoga option on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings… the coaches and Eric underwent a sample yoga class to demo and generate feedback for the program to perfect it for the OPTC members. Is it OPTIMAL? Listen in and hear our take on Yoga, mobility & flexibility as it relates to training. A guy doing yoga Transcript: Welcome to OPP episode number 11. I’m your cost Eric with they always lovely time. I don’t know I don’t like the always lovely. Tom we don’t have I like that adjective yeah you kind of like I want each other it’s gonna look at the side of our face yeah we’re here that’s called 11 episode 11 totally smokes yeah I think do it when you said we just released the first one yesterday yeah, okay so took well like four months to get it out, but hey,Here we are never yeah better late than never hey we’re here with our guests second time guest right is the second or third this will all third time came favorite really for all the fans highly requested yes clue yeah.  I actually told the some of the athletes that we had a podcast in one of the girls like I want to be on it right now yeah you want to talk about Avery Richmond, um, oh really if so if she’s watching this. Avery’s kind of like the the gym gossip she loves to talk about any and everything. That’s not related to what we’re doing people relationships go yeah if you have a significant other she’s gonna find out she’s gonna know them better than you do that’s but I might be helpful no and then right seriously she figure out Carly yeah, can you yeah guys can question you’re like oh never thought to ask that yeah who knows that’s hilarious, um,But now I think that would be fun to eventually get an athlete guest.  I don’t know yeah I’ve considered that I think you know, yeah like I was even like maybe to get Dan Chanley on here because he’s been here for like four years and kind of get his like backstory JT yeah like all those kind of OG people that be sweet.  I think they enjoy that a lot yeah definitely so.If you don’t know by now we are optimal performance training center, we produce stronger athletes fast results powerful impact, you know, so what we did yesterday was we did a little bit of yoga so we had oh yes a couple of the yogis.  I don’t know yeah yogis, but they structures yeah and they put us through a yoga offer game today program and it was it was interesting to say the least. I think they came into it trying to like prove.That yoga is difficult and it was proven well yeah I mean well they called it fit yoga right so and it wasn’t like very traditional in the sense where we weren’t trying to like tone it down, perhaps like it wasn’t like hey we’re gonna stretch and we’re gonna like get all funky and zen but like we had weights we had bands and like they I mean, yeah definitely trying to kick our butts a little bit, um probably more so just really wanted to prove something which is understandable but I don’t know I got some sweet pictures actually took some cool pictures of us but yeah now Eric’s wife. And then.And Eric’s wife’s cause cousin cousin yeah. I mean, I’m not gonna knock them man cuz like the fact that they could demo that and talk while like having us do it. I was like no that’s pretty damn impressive that’s okay. I was like cuz like we would be like holding these like I saw like ab like hollow whole boats whatever you want to call them and then like twist with like weights and then like they’re like, they’re like counting and talking and I’m just like trying to breathe yeah and that’s about all I could do. And they’re and they’re talking like okay, yes pick up yes, yeah yeah. Eric’s a half an apartment isn’t mad it’s literally looks like a bucket of water on it.How do you feel about it yeah I mean it was tough for sure like I was telling you guys like right after I took 10 to 15 minutes and I’m just like shaking but with my legs I’m just going crazy but it’s different it is it’s like a difference sensation what was like the hardest part about it for anything, um trying until like some of those positions like not not very funny wise for sure it’s just interesting because I from an athletic standpoint you seem like a flexible guy, mm-hmm, yeah.  I mean, I would say like that’s like a huge weakness of mine like I’m okay, like,And like flexibility wise but I don’t know I mean some of those positions like they’re tough and they like require like the strength like you guys got a hole there right but so it’s it’s like like we like we talked about like it’s not like so much getting in that position but then it’s like being able to like own yourself and control yeah.  I mean there’s one time where we’re doing almost kind of like they call it dragons almost we call like a spider-man crawl or like a strider stretch, um, and then the regard go ahead and do a push-up and we’ll be called each other same thing. I like I don’t even like yeah, like I like it like I saw called like doing a little shy. Honestly like I don’t think this is gonna accomplish anything for me, so I’m just gonna stay right here, oh it was like that’s impressive, right? I mean, it’s yoga is a weird thing. I mean, I think.In my mind I was kind of gave it a bad rap because it’s like all right like the transfer isn’t really there in terms of like you have to do it every day but then in the back of my mind like I think about it because they do call to practice right and I think it is like it only really has a lot of value if you do practice it because that’s kind of how stretching works is you’re not really changing anything like a cellular level or like making any permanent changes just by doing a stretch right like you can stretch your hamstrings go run wake up the next morning, they’re gonna be just as tight if not tighter cuz you’re sore whereas like,If you continually have like this program where you can where you can kind of practice and stretch like yeah you’re gonna maintain it but like you don’t maintain mobility um just because you’re kind of always returning back to where you were without some sort of like resistance, right so I think like even that fit yoga we did yesterday would be cool um because maybe you could like holding like a 10 pound weight in that like horse stance at like sumo like style like deadlift like letting that kind of bring you down deeper.  I think that that has benefit for sure yeah counterbalance yeah absolutely on like allowing yeah, like just better positions a better postures andThose are really uncomfortable places like I think the weight goes a long way but no it is cool I mean it’s like I can see how that could be super beneficial for someone to like train like that yeah just because of the intensity and just kind of they can they can regress in progress it pretty easily, right.  I was extra cool right what about so I going off that what about for like athletes what do you think like do you think you said like if you stick to a program right like you could you find that you could find benefit in it like with athletes like we train words like we’re like transfer speed for strength, do you think having a program would be? Beneficial for them, um, I think it would depend right? I mean, it’s like anything else we do here it always. I mean, it always depends on the person but you’ve got to think about it like this. I mean, they only need to be as flexible as their sport requires because I mean if you think about it like,Performance in general is not healthy right I mean you are you’re trying to you take one any time you go to the extreme edge of anything like it’s probably not healthy I mean we were I mean we’ve been talking about well whoa that guy camera hands like the bow hunter like marathon a day guy like that’s not healthy there’s nothing healthy about that but like usually he looks like he’s in great shape and he’s in great shape but it’s like like health wise, like that’s not a sustainable way to do anything and his whole thing is like I never take a day off and it’s like well that’s terrible so like I think people I think as long as like you’re kind of knowing like what’s the difference between health and performance? Um, yeah going back to like they only need to be about as flexible as their sport requires them to so I get their sprinter like you want to be tight right that you want that kind of elastic return when they hit the track and you want them to be powerful and explosive and like kind of toned up whereas like,I don’t know someone like a gymnast like yeah you need that but yeah that they kind of take care of that on their own so I think there are some kids here that I think could definitely benefit from it but I mean it’s like I said like at what point like what’s the residual return on that like do you stretch like how long do you able to hold that mobility of like I know Eric and I were talking yesterday we both sprinted about probably like three hours after and excuse me.  I felt like a room amazing like I like my like I felt like my arm like swing was like fine like my last really kind of loosened up like even like my heel recovery and like but how I could like step felt a lot different.How a lot more open and like way less restrictive, but now I woke up this morning and I feel even tighter like I mean, that’s it’s because I probably pushed in I’m just sore but I don’t know that’s something where. You I would like to see a study on that. I’m not sure like.How stretching would necessarily help over the long term unless it was done like frequently and then that’s a thing like the reason we don’t do it is like hey we see kids for maybe two hours a week sometimes three yeah yeah so it’s like I’m not gonna yeah like I’m not yeah you can’t really fit it in without like making it a priority yeah let’s like prescriptive like hey you are locked up let’s do some strips yeah and we actually and we did that in the corn actually did that the other day there’s a kid here who’s I mean his low back is probably ideology talk about that although you talk about Andrew but yeah any time like the the deadlift like deficit yeah or even less like the heel lift with the wall yeah assisted yeah yeah. A kid was he so eighth grade going to seventh grade yeah well and he’s been trained with us for what three years probably and and like his lower back like we were talking his lower back is just like super strong super tight and I mean even like a squatter dad like he just cannot sit down at all into it and so like when he’s dead left in his every time it looks like an RDL pretty much and then even sometimes the squats like he’s just dropping his chest. And so with me and Tommy been like talking and messing around with that and so we tried to do like a deadlift like deficit try to get him like sit down a little bit more and I mean trying to explain it to like a middle schoolers this is kind of tough yeah, you know, like why are we doing this like why can’t I trap our deadlift like I used to yeah and I mean it got like even with the deficit like I just could not get him to sit down into it and so that took them off the deficit put him on the floor and they’re like cleaned up a little bit just because he didn’t have to go so low yeah just trying like like be safe while he’s here to and then. Just yesterday he came in and instead of like having him do like the normal like goblet squat like we used to I kind of like put him up so like it’s his toes we’re about like four inches from like the wall and then I just had him squat there and then we also put some five pound weights.  I’ll just under his heels just so he can like drop or get down a little bit lower right so it’s not so much like ankle or like movement or like a range of motion it kind of like cancels out a little bit and so just lifted his heels up and that I mean that I think that cleaned up quite a bit like yeah chest up because he was right you like, oh I just,Go right into the wall yeah so no there’s definitely like I think stuff like that is kind of where we would kind of fit in mobility if you will because right the whole thing about like the flexibility mobility is like flexibility is like your end range but then like how far can you get like I can take my hand quad like pull to my chest or something like that like a dancer or something like that whereas like mobility is like your usable strength, mm-hmm, right so like it’s great if you can do the splits but like how can you use that in a sport like you you really can’t so it’s like can I like others great to have you know, like like you’ve like even you yesterday doing like kind of like your lateral lunge. Program because like found out real quick yesterday after yoga that we like got no like frontal plane side to side like control like the hips, um, hit us growing yeah glutes and so like stomach like stuff like that to me that’s like that has like a ton of value right because you can progress that over time you can load it you can intensify it you can accumulate volume on the like you can that you could do that one exercise for probably the next six months and like never plateau right um, and but then that that’s gonna make the yoga easier for you as well, you’re right right, where’s like I thinkDepend just a person depended right like if you already have a decent amount of flexibility.  I think yoga is extremely beneficial because you can kind of take that and build upon it mm-hmm yeah yeah exactly and it’s more of like yeah, they kind of get that like muscular endurance where like you can hold those positions and you can get there like you get more stability and you get more control we’re so I think it’s just,Just like anything else in fitness or like performance like it’s kind of prescribed as needed basis per person yeah and like I mean going off that for like middle schoolers right if I mean if we can get like Andrew to even sit in like a proper squat like yeah, I mean what is yoga gonna do like he can’t even like let’s get him to squat first exactly be able to get in that position yeah and have strength from that position before, you know, like trying to like have him hold opposition that he can’t get into yeah, it’s I mean, it’s tough, um,Because like as like I like as people mature right um let’s talk about this in like youth development um not everything grows the same rate so it’s like all like he’s going through a growth sport it’s like well yeah maybe his bones are getting longer but like now his time than it’s and his muscles all need to catch up and so that’s why you get like these sometimes like kids like, you know, they don’t almost like bow and arrows like where they’re both like their bones grow and then everything’s so stretched and tight and then they actually have certain like windows of adaptations where it’s like hey like this is a great time to capitalize on speed because they are their bones are really long like they’re tenants or like guitars strings, so they have a lot of point kind of like elasticity. Already built and naturally mm-hmm so that you can be intensify that through sprint training and then they even like when you looking at kind of like that 11 to 14 year old girl or that 13 to 15 year old guy like what’s happening but their body like they’re going through puberty so like estrogen testosterone like all these hormones are like, they’re they’re basically on like performance enhancing drugs and in a sense like naturally so that’s when you can take advantage of strength and then like then you kind of can circle back around once that strikes there that you can start to implement power as they get older and that kind of transfers based on the plane, they’re in or kind of sport they’re in. So it’s like I think it’s really like be like people don’t know that at all and like people like like Mike Boyle or like this guy dr Greg grows on his name is he does a lot of like golf and like baseball work that’s like a chiropractor and he said like that’s kind of like his thing is like we have these like adaptive windows for ages and so if you miss it you can mess it up.  I mean, it’s not the end. I’ll be all because I think training and it by nature like you can get anyone better especially if they’re on train but I think that’s interesting and I try to make that a point to parents to it’s like hey,Like your kids like that’s why we only accept people we’re like 11 to 15 just gonna say that yeah it’s like I don’t like at that point like the ships already sailed like yeah like we can get them better but it’s like is it optimal no chance yeah squeezing water out of the sponge it’s already been squeezed yeah yeah it’s it’s it’s tall and then people get mad right they’re like all like this didn’t work it’s like no like it’s not your fault but you just didn’t know what you didn’t know and like and years of bad habits or right exactly like mm-hmm absolutely and you go like egos there you go, yeah yeah, they think like, hey, I can back I can back spot through 15 to school.  I won’t you let me do more.185 years later yeah yes good morning yeah no. I mean that’s that’s funny it’s it’s the way it’s definitely tough to tell people that because they like they want to come in here like or like you you get people who have been here since they were 12 and like now they’re like, they’re really kind of coming at their own athletically.  I mean everything’s hidden at the same time and then like they’re like all like,Look at look at this kid like I need to be like him like he trains here but then they come here it’s like I’ll do like no like you’re seeing like the results you are not seeing like the process like that took to get there yeah yeah, I really think like within the next I don’t know like four or five years you’re gonna see some of the best athletes come out of this Hudsonville Granville Jessie yeah, they’re like you’ve ever seen because like if I’m not only if I’m saying like the kids out of town with us since they were like 10 12, and like now they’re going up they’re like almost that high school yeah, it’s like it’s yeah, it’s gonnaActually just to see for sure I mean even just like looking at our our hug we’re talking about like our high school group now it’s like huge and like we used to be like the middle school gym like if you were like at seven or eight grade like this was the spot we’d have like sessions of like 20 to 30 kids at a time and our tiny old place back in back in the garage but now it’s like now our high school groups that because I we didn’t even realize like how many eighth graders we’d had like going into freshman year so now like everyone’s getting ready for like football soccer and hopefully they get to play this ball but I mean, it’s like these kids are like gonna be something special and it’s cool to see that and it’s not because it’s not. Gonna we did anything right they just show up consistently twice a week like that’s really like two hours a week out of 168 like that’s all it really took for them to commit mm-hmm and but like people have a very hard time like seeing that in the long term right because it’s dawning like people like all like have through two times a week for a year or like three months or like something like that it’s like like worry about one day at a time yeah well especially when you’re kidding you can’t even imagine what senior years gonna look like when you’re fresh right let alone being in junior high and thinking about her middle school.  I’m thinking about, you know being at that level at that point, so it’s like,Implementing that take the stairs approach like hey we’re starting you here it’s the only way you’re gonna get to that point yeah is if you go incrementally yeah just don’t stop can’t jump yeah because you get like these breaks right they’re keeping people take time off or like for sports or whatever it may be and it’s like that’s it’s the killer.  I’ve never seen I’ve never had anyone at this place be like incredibly like like I was because I mean, I would say most people we have like they’re very good, ats I’ve seen a majority of everyone play and like they’re definitely like a top player, um, not that’s not the case for everyone.  I mean, that’s not.A realistic but like the the game changers like they’re like oh man like that like the difference makers on the team like they’ve never stopped training yeah and that was always my problem. I mean, I’m I was so guilty of that. I was like, okay like soccer’s done for a little bit.  I’m gonna go train for three months and then completely take time off and towards the end of season like starting tearing hip flexors like groins or getting all pissed and cranky lower backs like never happy and then I get back in and then I take the first two months just to get those kind of like wounds or like those kind of bruises and bumps like healed up then I get like a about a good month train. Ing mm-hmm and then I leave again, it’s just like what it what did I really accomplish yeah and and like even if.I say you like got out of a like a season like unscathed like you’re healthy whatever bit but if you haven’t trained the last three months while your season’s going on you’re just gonna be right back to like where you started that that previous three months when you just build a right back up to like where you were yeah, like you’re literally just a straight line the whole time yeah, it’s brutal yeah.  I want to touch on like I think the yoga thing we we touched on it in terms of an athlete perspective.I think we covered that pretty well but from an adult perspective. I think it has a lot of value, oh your site right my two takeaways from it, we’re like it’s it’s meditative meaning like it’s as much mental training as it is physical and the number two is like it it’s very. It’s like going to see a doctor, you know, because you get done and you’re like wow, my hips are tight wow. I can’t yeah rotate great assessment tool right assessments what you’re so right um and even like the whole the mindset training. I think like that is so like people can talk about mental toughness or like all those other stuff but I really just think like people are really bad at like this analyzing self like internalizing things like especially like adults.  I mean, it’s harder to.It’s harder to like kind of get that free time right like it’s hard to give yourself permission to like hey like I’m gonna wake up 20 minutes earlier just to sit in the quiet and just like whether it’s like what whether you pray or whether you meditate or whether you just kind of like you walk or like you do stuff like like it’s so easy just to wake up and like the person you do is you look at your phone you have 13 emails got a text message that you missed when you went to bed and missed phone call and it’s like now like you’re in this like we talk about last week with car, they like this reactive state where it’s like, oh my gosh, like I got like getting all this taken care of and then by that time it’s like dang I already breakfast and go to work it’s like did you need to like,Kind of set the day on your terms and so like I think like you said that meditative say like even so even if somebody doesn’t isn’t able to do that because this is not like it’s not their cards or whatever like they could come in so someplace like this and like get it done and take that hour and just like totally reset the day yeah sure because like that’s like that’s a 60 minutes away from all distractions like it’s you it’s your body and you’re literally just being told what to do and then as you get better at it you got to be even gets better right because like you’re so familiar with it like you don’t have to think about the pose as well as you’re not to think about how uncomfortable it is because it gets less uncomfortable and stuff like that. At um and like you’re breathing too yeah. I mean I was all over the place yesterday and I just don’t normally do it yeah so it’s like the whole inhale like you I could see like if you really get into that it’s just I mean it is it’s like a flow you’re just like yeah do you want to talk?  I know you’re pretty into this like breath work and stuff like that. I have my kind of thoughts on it, but I’d like to hear what you have to like, I think like well yeah go ahead above yeah, well the breadth work piece for me is like,It’s just it’s just that reset so like in in something like meditation what you’re doing is you’re returning to your breath and with yoga it’s like it’s like you can panic and you can make a comment like my instinct when I do yoga is to like joke around the entire time that’s all I wanted to do yeah it’s hard to shut that off yes you suck at it you want to like mask it yeah yeah, it’s like you’re drunk. I attended you’re like dramatic like oh this is so hard I’m so sweaty like it’s like you’re you’re making a joke out of something that could be helpful instead it’s like turn that off let’s go back to the breath. I’m okay yeah and when you immediately when you do that you’re like let’s pose isn’t so bad it’s not so bad my instinct is this is terrible.  I want to quit work, you know, let’s go get bagels and coffee yeah, chill we’re left heavy. More left heavy, yeah, yeah do something hard like quote unquote hard oh that you’re good at yeah, but that breadth piece is so interesting and I’m I’m just diving into it myself, okay? Just just getting familiar with what that means for my mind like like you said when you wake up and you get on your phone you start looking at emails you’re adrenaline starts going and you can really feel when you do something like yoga or just breathing or praying like you’re adrenaline and just kind of flushes out yeah you have an empty space where you can think clearly you start to get thoughts about things that are plaguing you and you haven’t dealt with or you know, that’s really yeah, no I like I like that because I mean even like you when you do like your ice baths, I know you’re like your cold shower. As I said you’re really into and stuff like that I’m kind of adopted that as well it’s like that controls everything and like there’s a saying like like I forget who said this and like this is kind of just like this scientific research is like your breath is like you’re the gateway to the autonomic nervous system, right so you have like your fight or flight or like your video like your parasitic and the sympathetic nervous system where it’s like you’re toned off your freaking out you’re like you’re ready to go which is like that there’s a place for that that’s why it’s there but then it’s like you want to be in that kind of rest digest like control like you’re in control, um, and that’s at what I think it does right like taking like convenient control your breath. Um even like nasal breathing and stuff like that like there’s like oh there’s a correct way to do it which seems so weird right because if it’s so it’s the automatic right and like you don’t think about it, but when you do think about it, it’s amazing how you can kind of be like, oh like that feels so much different most of us are breathing to hear yeah, yeah very short chest breaths yeah yeah and we even do that with our athletes and I don’t even think they realize that like right because it’s like hey at the end of the session we’ve we like we’re getting at least three minutes like get your feet over your head and get you back to that kind of resting state to be. Because that’s gonna kickstart recovery because if you stay kind of in that fight or flight you leave here like you’re not able to kind of tone it down you’re not able to start recovering so you’re prolonging that who knows how long I’m sure there’s a set window but that’s yeah.  I think that there’s there’s a tremendous amount of value in that that people kind of overlook and I think it’s a whole like breathing it’s like that’s weird it’s uncomfortable and especially for kids like when we used to do like almost like breath resets like we’re getting under the hay like I need you like sigh out loud because that’s actually gonna use like so I want you to do that to get like into a certain position and you certain muscles to pull down your. Ribs and like keep your pelvis alive and like to them it’s just like I don’t want the kid next to me to hear me breathe out of my mouth yes like my breath might stay yeah, whatever it is, like I want to be loud like this is weird.Yeah, it’s weird right they don’t they don’t know it’s not familiar to them, so they freak out and. I think yeah the education piece is in there yeah but I think I don’t know I think in the next couple years I mean meditations become huge right I mean it’s no secret like stuff like that like kind of like restored or even just like mental like mental training like that’s gonna be the next five years even like that’s gonna explode and I think they were gonna see that you could become a lot more popular and all these kind of early adopters if you will are gonna like really kind of have a lot of success with that hopefully but it’s interesting to see where that’s gonna go yeah.  I think to like going back to like the cold showers the morning routines and stuff it’s like so like when you get up,All right you want to check your phone because I think you it’s called like your body you get comfort from like knowing what’s going on yeah and you trying to know and like same with like a cold shower like a warm shower nothing comfortable, but it’s like getting yourself comfortable being uncomfortable, right so it’s like instead of maybe checking your phone in the morning like you go and you do like your devotions you go and do your meditation and it’s like at first that’s kind of uncomfortable because you you don’t have that connection with the world yet, but then insane with yoga like but then once you do it once you practice it like that is where the comfort is and then it’s almost like uncomfortable doing. Like the opposite yeah that’s a really good that’s really good point yeah I don’t think I can go back to only doing hot showers just because there’s like there’s a restoration within my mind of like when I get in that cold all I can think about is just be calm just breathe and it’s like the same thing with yoga it’s just like chill out you got this you got control and then when you come away from that like I can tell the days when I do it and don’t yeah the days when I don’t it’s like something come up it could be small and I’m just like panicked and I’m just like I can feel like anxious but you know if you that’s what it. Is like you you get into a cold tub with ice in it your instinct is go yeah just like it’s like okay calm down control it and then find your piece and when you find your piece you can carry that into everything else in life yeah yeah, I mean and I took I think I was telling you like the other week I took a cold shower and it was really the first time and that’s just literally what I was telling myself.  I was like like into the nose out to the nose and then just like like be like be comfortable being uncomfortable like you’re fine, you’re in a close hour you literally have the age for the temperature right there, like just relax yeah and it was and it was just kind of like,Refreshing it’s like oh wow okay like this is nice yeah definitely I want to go back to to like the yoga you guys are saying like adults can get a lot out of like assessing themselves during it right out of just out of the one saturated yesterday like what is the one thing that you notice like, oh wow, like I’m tied here or like I need to work on this or I’ll hit real quick for me it’s very simple it’s like my glute mead as weak which leads to tightness in my groin in my hamstring and that’s causing a lot of my knee problems yeah, I’d like meniscus tears and that sort of thing and then the other thing would. Be like.Rotational and then also just like shoulders stability scapula yeah well mine is the exact yeah good meat and like my shoulder I’m not sure just from home but it’s stupid Warrior yeah yeah since we’re in video yeah we did like a warrior two what you’re in like this deep lunch and you’re holding five pound weights and just we’re probably in it from 90 seconds we’re rotating through it too like we didn’t just do it once yes like you that was like you’d come back to that like at least because you do both sides yeah and then you do so you’re holding it and then you just literally just change the position and then we would go through that like two to three times it was aDefinitely a challenge hmm I know you’re a shoulder guy I mean did you feel that my left one I mean I was obviously got that like I still have like my my left shoulder’s still pretty garbage but I mean, I felt I was I was an uncomfortable like I could manage it it was more so like I get like from my armpit down to my hip man like my whole like old bleak like everything’s so tight.  I’ve done way too many like load it carries and like upper back volume that to where the point where like I have like just very limited rotation hmm, but even so even something like getting into like a position like kind of like opening up and stuff like that, like I thought that was extremely beneficial. And then I mean, I I my quads like hey, I got okay hip flexor all that stuff’s always been pretty jacked up to but I mean like that loosened up real good, um.But now that was a that’s yeah it is it’s a great tool especially like if you do it first thing as well right it’s like you’re like you’re fresh in a sense where it’s like okay like I haven’t done anything yet today so this is like a really accurate kind of like bare bones like vanilla assessment of like hey like I haven’t really done anything with let’s see what really is my weakness or where where my what am I supposed to suck at so yeah it’s I think physically too like waking up and doing an assessment tool right away is huge because most of us myself included I get a chair and that’s it for half the day before I do anything and some people they said,The whole day before they do anything and it’s like you’re gonna come to our adult group at six pm and you’ve been sitting from nine to five yeah like is there it’s probably a highly likely chance you’re gonna be injured like over the long run no seriously and like that that was always a problem we had right.  I mean, like either get people first thing in the morning who they do work out and then they go to work in this sit which is probably just as bad right because you trying to recover and yeah because you put then you just litter you take out you take all this like this great work and then you put it in the short and like terrible posture and like now you’re recovering in this posture right so like you’re like any like any muscle like,Rebuilding that you’re doing at that time like it’s not gonna be optimal just like you’re not good position like we were made to sit for long periods of time, we were made to walk like travel 9 to 12 miles a day.  I think I read in this book come.Brain always wins, that’s what it’s from and so.Like it’s just like,You need to kind of.It’s hard right cuz like that’s your job right um, but almost like taking advantage of that, whether it’s like hey, I got I’m gonna get it.  I’m gonna ask for a standing desk or I’m gonna send on a boat to ball or like.I’m gonna just get up yeah every 10 minutes I’m gonna get up and move around on I know like you know you know Kelly Starrett the like the ability walk adding what they’ve got something else now but like I remember hit listen to him on a podcast and he was the saying like hey for every 30 minutes you say you should do like a hip flexor stretch for like a minute and I’m like if thinking about that like I’m thinking about like literally everyone of America, well first of all my thinking who can even get hit looks or stretch anymore, but even this like a half kneeling or like a couch stretch like no chance like I’ve seen hey you’re especially I’ve seen our adults and stuff like that like God bless them the whole smokes. Good luck, um, and then it’s just like who you like no one knows that like I think it’s it’s hard for us and I was Tom Colin this you had the other day we when we were getting coffee was like,People just died when you’re not in this world like right like we’re here.  I we are I have an office in a gym like I’m never not at a gym basically unless I’m sleeping we’re shooting my ball and so it’s like,Like I like it so hard to remove yourself from that like you think like all everyone should ever notice this stuff it’s like dude no one knows any of it and like to ride constantly remind yourself of that like it’s tough to do well it’s one thing to know it but then to do it yeah like that’s a totally different animal in and of itself like I know I’m not doing hip flux or strategies.  I’ll help me either yeah, I try to walk more my god. I’m standing like I’m good like I’ll just jack on my desk and stand for a little bit but it’s like no like I don’t do it because it’s a pain in my butt right like you don’t want it do it because it takes time I got to be doing something else better and it’s like comfortable thing yeah it is uncomfortable right like you’re bad at it and nobody wants to do something to. Be bad at it first so I mean it’s the same thing with like training just in general yeah really adults it’s like you were like immersed in this culture we see the benefit in that and it’s like if they’re at a desk and like they don’t feel like they’re very overweight or very skinny or like whatever they don’t go out well.  I’m doing just fine yeah where it’s like they don’t really see that like there’s a lot of benefit in and even if it’s like paying that like the monthly fee to go to a gym, they don’t see the benefit in it until they’re immersed in it or like just finally decide to join and it’s like, oh wow. She’s done this years ago yeah it’s very eye opening experience until like because like people I mean look like you like you you don’t bad an eye if you buy it you pay a monthly phone bill like 180 bucks more bad not get a good oil change for a hundred dollars like don’t even think twice about it but it’s like oh a hundred fifty dollars for me to to work out like I could go to the like the wine do it’s like no you’re not gonna do it like yeah, you’re gonna buy it you’re gonna let them take your money, you’re gonna go slightly what do you do there yeah like, you know, like like I like this like people go to school to learn how to coach and like people go like learn about the body like,And even then like the the but like the the barrier for entry is so low for personal trainers or somebody hacks out there and stuff like that and online test yeah like you could like yeah, it’s it’s a joke and so. I don’t know like to have like quality training is it one that’s tough to find in and of itself but then to like,To show people it’s like hey like this is a you payment right like like do you want to be on medications or else your life do you want to have to go to the doctor every six months for a physical or three months or however bad it is it’s like or do you just want to kind of like it’s that’s what they say right like and then an ounce of prevention of where the poly caponic cure mm-hmm like do a little bit so you don’t have to do a lot later.  I mean and then that’s like even for us like we have all kinder we all know like man, like if I would have just knocked down that last for like man, if I would have just done like this exercise like that might like I should have done like for like warm up and like,It’s like that’s that’s a it would have been such a little bit of work but it’s such an inconvenience at first it looks like it but then you look back do it.  I totally screwed that up, you know, it’s so frustrating but yeah yeah all the years training at planting.All the years just doing upper body wow Thomas I know what you’re gonna do yeah that’s funny all right well that’s kind of like a 40 minute advertising for a gym but I love it yes speaking of shameless plug adult program to every trial to give it a try come in anytime there’s no there’s no starter end date yeah trying to leave that open TBD so. Don’t but it’s been kicking too I mean like we had like almost 15 adults the other night and like that I’ve never seen how many adults in this building or let alone the other day it’s fine they’re hilarious they’re hilarious and like you think like it’s like all like we’re gonna come in here we’re gonna puke we’re gonna like be like, they’re gonna kill us it’s like not like it’s it’s not laid back but I mean it’s like it’s a it’s a good environment it’s a good culture like I’m excited to see kind of next week even how that looks um coming up like most people’s gonna be weak too for them and like we got a lot of people start this past week, so yeah, it’ll be funny yeah and like you said with like like you don’t see the benefit until like you come out like you’re. Staying chase the other day yeah I got I mean like a former athlete like pretty good athlete and then he comes in here and he’s like throwing like some med balls around he’s like man, dude. I missed yeah like you like people want to feel athletic. I don’t care who you are, even if you weren’t an athlete it’s like all like do something explosive like power work is so important because like that’s what stops you from falling when you’re old and stuff like that like having the ability to like produce force quickly and like stop yourself like,The yeah, there’s a ton of value like in like even like I’m having a mom do a box job.  I’ve never seen mom like a mom smile more like this like an old like a mid 40’s I’m doing yeah.Like that’s incredible they love it oh kind of value we’ll talk more about that next time though. I’m curious to get we’re gonna go down a rabbit hole so is that kind of takes off a little bit yeah I think we will we have especially we have that our PTS yeah yeah, hopefully that’s gonna be soon rather than later yeah anyway, thanks for listening and watching yeah if this takes off or how that goes we had to get going on for the first one obviously yeah distract yeah from over here yeah just blur out the face.  I got thanks for watching thank.S for listening, we’ll catch you on the flip.For John Fletcher.

Today, Carley Schroeder joins us to talk movement and mobility and how she has implemented training into remodeling her home. Carley is a Hatha Yoga instructor, personal trainer, house flipper, wife, and mom. Make sure you check her out on IG: Consciousfitcarley and YouTube: Carley Schroeder Carley putting together the floor. Transcript: Welcome to episode number 10 of the optimal performance podcasts. I’m your co-host Eric Schroeder with Thomas Bowes and Alex today. Alex is gonna be another cohost and we have a special guest today. Special. Very special. Wow. Deep place in my heart. Someone that we are very interested in having on today because you’re gonna have a lot of different perspectives.  Yeah, this is gonna be interesting for sure. I’m excited to see where this goes. Carly my wife, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me and your guests. Let’s just jump on. Right into what we’re talking about this morning, which was like you. So we’ve been flipping this house. You’ve been working on it nonstop, like literally not even a day off for three months, right?  Yeah. And tell us how you feel. Oh, so it’s just jumping really broad segway. What do you mean how you feel like how much it requires of your your physically? Yes. I mean, you’re working you’re basically doing like a blue collar type labor, but you probably working more. You’re doing more than 40 hours a week, right?  Yeah, I would say. And at what point did you like you’re like my body doesn’t feel right. I’ll probably last week. Last week and how long you’ve been doing this like well since gosh you got the keys in your arm. April yeah my girl made June July three months round the clock seven days a week yeah, we’re on top of yeah continuing your training yeah training yeah yeah those you don’t know Carly is a psychopath in the wait room yeah certified nuts, we love it yeah, so um, the thing has been balancing it with being well.  I guess I I guess I could. Trigger you to the fact that I could go for so long so many hours a day without body aches and knowing body mechanics and being a personal trainer and knowing how you should move and not exactly like necessarily I don’t know this stupid way of just getting there done.  I guess you know because there is a way and that’s what we’re kind of talking about there is a way to just get her done in which your body like literally is like I can’t move the next day, well these example like doing your flooring yeah, so we’re treasing over yeah exactly so you’re just bending over at the waist maybe standing up.  And you’re not crouched and Eric and I live in Korea and so while we would wait for the bus stops we’re in a squat like you’re I don’t know how to machines yeah so really yeah we spent most of I don’t know if you set like this I always tell like I would stand the bus stop but like we never knew if the bus was gonna be there in four seconds or 20 minutes because we had a schedule but not necessarily to always come there so it was like you’re resting pose was I stayed in a squat.  I also was pregnant there and but so I was always in a deep low squat would you say that’s Just squatting position yeah a lot of the farmers um would also farm like that or there are all hunched over so I guess I started doing that and that’s actually how I put my floors in so the whole time I was and I had said to Alex I was like my ankles were really sources from that being in that position yeah and I’m not used to being in that position for that many hours but at least my back was up right and at least I was like still around dropped down through my shoulders and I wasn’t rounding and hunching in my back so I didn’t have like, Lower back pain or something like that mm-hmm you talked about the difference between you and that position versus your dad yeah like that contributed that hunched over that like bending at the waist and then like having to stand up every leg, you know probably five seconds to a minute to just be like, oh yeah, yeah, it’s kind of like figuring it all out exactly and so that was kind of what he was going through by the end of the day.  I was like, okay dad three more rows, you know, and he’s going oh yeah like it cuz three rows felt like a long time for him, but for me I was still you know, upright and it was just a matter of being like, Mentally how much more do I want to go not physical okay at that point and and then there was a part where I also felt bad for being up my dad you know like I’m like, I’m not paying them right now.  I kind of feel bad because he doesn’t want to keep going so um, but yeah, physically does take a toll yeah well that’s so interesting because I know people like when you talk about like mobility flexibility and stuff like that and like these kind of these fundamental moving patterns of like whether it’s like hinging at the hips squatting in a deep squat, it’s like even when you train something like that, it’s it’s tough right because you’ll do hey we’re Gonna do four sets eight squats so you’re getting 32 reps in a squat my total set with some low which is yeah eventually that over time that’s gonna put you in a good position but like I think even more so like just getting people out of a desk chair getting them from standing it’s like hey like practice doing that and like even like with you guys being in Korea that’s something that you said it’s kind of more than norm like and you see even just from like whether it’s like medical studies and whatnot just kind of like their pathologies with their low back pain being so much less and obviously in America because so much of what they do is either they’re standing they’re walking or they’re at deep squad and like stuff like that.  I think has a great transfer just to. Life oh and even though you kind of using an example I bet there are people listeners are what like she held a squat for how long it might did that for what like 12 hours a day, it’s like it’s very manageable once you kind of work up to that position and I think it’s pretty mobility yeah right yeah and to yeah to that point even it’s like how long in those like yeah like four sets of eight squats like are you at about that by the position maybe total thirty seconds but probably even less yeah, so it’s like you’re about a second wire exactly so then well, how do we expect our like our clients or any people just?  And dental in less they’re using those practices of like hanging out at the bottom of the squat for longer to feel comfortable in that position yeah and there is a there’s a thing too. I like to do fun mobility trainings with clients and stuff such where you’re you’re moving in a way that you don’t think is normal right you would have them sit in this deep squat doing internal rotation with the knee switch sides then rotate like keeping your your chest and back up right and rotating to the side because like in a day when you go to quickly respond to something you quickly turn and rotate in this direction, you don’t.  Think twice about it, but when we train we only like so many people only ever train so where or playing yeah and so there is something to say yeah exactly about seeing okay, we’re gonna then turn this way then we’re gonna rotate our body this way and then we’re gonna lift this leg and then we’re gonna try to step because that’s how you live life and I mean, I guess I especially blue collar jobs.  I always say this like I was putting in my ceiling and I, Stepped out as worked building his own house and doing HVAC and so he’s been doing physical jobs all his little life and I said to him I don’t know how people do this when you’re not in shape because there’s me and I have three ladders spread across my house and I was like a monkey up there, you know, I got like a deep in my hand and then I’m crawling like balancing out one and crawling on the next install like even like what is my course turn on you know, and I’m like, so I’m demonstrating to Derek because he’s at home with the baby and I’m like just stapling it in and you’re balancing and you’re squeezing in your pole again then and then.  I could tell in this story to my stepdad later he’s like, you know, you could have just set up the ladder on each side with the 2×4 and just walk.  Ing you must be it like pretty much an acrobatics person to be able to do this, you know every day and I’m like all pat myself on the bat and I’m like, well, some people could just use their brains and make this better using their bodies and I tend to really get my body yeah that’s a good point it’s like we’ve developed tools as a society that like prevent us from reaching the range of motions, we should be in yeah right like the tools help us right because yeah leverage like a like a crowbar or something, but if you have a very, Basic set of tools you have to use your body in ways that you’re not used to yeah yeah it’s it’s tough because I know like this says it’s the way human beings are there was going to take the path of least resistance and any situation you give them so it’s kind of like is an evolutionary response if you will how people are going to always going to look to kind of make it smarter make it easier so they don’t have to do that because I mean as human beings like you’re always going to try to conserve as much energy as possible are you like watching them run a marathon like minimal arms swing like shuffle steps like and serve as much energy as you can whereas you versus a sprint right it’s maximal output.  For a short duration of time that’s what you see the mechanics are so much more exaggerated and so much more kind of vertical forces up and down um it’s interesting I mean, it’s it’s cool to see at least that you’re kind of taking the initiative to do that. I think people would be better off in the long run, right?  I mean, they could get so much more out of manual labor job like that to where we they could turn that into their training right because I mean, I think for the adult population training should do just that just enhance what they do during the day, right? I mean shouldn’t necessarily take away from but more so optimized what they can do mm-hmm elsewhere.  I think transitioning we can we can lead into kind of how you’ve gotten overtrained at this point but also can you touch on what you fell in love with because you’re you’re very physically minded person and you you couldn’t do what I do, which is that’s called it yeah drive you crazy yeah, so can you talk about that and also kind of lead into your overtrained now right you think?  Yeah and so and and that’s questionable because it could just be the heat you know yeah knows and I don’t know so many factors there’s so many factors that we we’re working in a house that’s not air conditioned and so I trained in a gym we’re not air conditioned.  I’m outside it’s not air conditioned and then it’s been human and hot and so and I’m not sitting it’s not like I’m just sitting down I didn’t sit down for lunch. I don’t sit down for the honey point of the day so from anyone I also until it’s time to lay down and I pass out so that’s how it goes, but um, so there may be that aspect of just honestly not.  Getting enough fluid you know and that’s been something that I talked to with my clients too they’re like you know I was working outside all day long. I’m like all day you mean like from nine to two or do you mean like from nine to seven and you’re sweating all day long because again on water is barely gonna do it for you, you know with this heat so um, I think that that’s definitely a big component and it could be overtrained too because you don’t go wake up my arms are all cramped up and stuff so maybe electrolyte imbalance, um, and so there’s there could be that I don’t know where to extend on that what What part of like flipping this house did you fall in love, oh yeah, so it’s just the fact that it is physical and so like I’ve always I’ve always been a mover I like to move it’s therapeutic to me it’s meditative and like I said was selling Alex, I’d love to count and that’s why I’m a trainer like I love counting.  I count all the time. I count all day as being a trainer and regardless of whether anybody thinks you’re counting or not, we’re always counting, you know, um, and so when I’m when I’m moving and doing different projects, I feel like Physically I’m always exerting myself which like this kind of weird.  I think it helps me not have like like an anger towards anything or something it’s like you’re physically exerting yourself all day long and some people like don’t have a clear understanding of their emotions, so they have waves of anger or waves of irritation and I honestly I just don’t have energy for anger or irritation, like I don’t really have a place for it.  I’ve used all my energy from between my workouts and between hanging stuff like, Physically it is used up my body so I feel at peace emotionally at the end of the day I just feel like at peace emotionally when I’m moving all day long, well it’s also what yoga can do for you right yeah and there’s and that’s the whole part of yoga and and being a yoga teacher too you typically will always warm up with some kind of flow whether that’s a power class.  I have a class that doesn’t really matter it’s usually some type of vinyasa to get started and you’re physically exerting yourself, so when you go into a pose you can mentally release right and so it’s like you’re trying. To get that monkey mind out in the many different kinds of leaders of like that I stocka that we listen to it says like you are intended to move our bodies are meant to move and when you don’t have that.  I actually find that people who sell all day have a lot of pent up anger, but after they work out they almost don’t have a place for it or they don’t have a place for stress and so it’s like the movement releases any kind of stress that you have and I’m not an anxious person and I think that is because I’m always moving instead of sitting and feeling stale.  I don’t know well you try to do yoga when really right when you wake up or An ideal world like today yeah that would have happened is is to do some yoga first because it’s starts the day out well and it feels good to stretch like it just feels good on my body, mm-hmm but you know, if fluko if the baby doesn’t wake up, um, but yeah that was one thing that we had started morning routine guy.  I guess three years ago and he and this is he was like five am club and we were still dating and so of course. I’m gonna do things for him and I don’t want to do and I, Hated him you know I was like you were ridiculous for making me wake up and this was that like 6:30 he had me getting up not at 5:00 and then I would just go through the motions.  I’m like yeah anything for you but then we kept doing it through Korea and it actually worked out because it was the one time that our her schedule so in her own or lapped with our family back at home so after we did our morning routine we could call people to and connect so but the morning routine was stretching period it was a time to read and breathe reflect do meditation and then we would do the gym and we would walk or run to the gym and so Eric walked seven miles a day.  And then did an hour and a half workout I ran three what was it four miles for five miles for me to get to the gym and to get back home but we also had ample of time, you know, and yeah, but also when you’re getting up at yeah and when you get up before everybody’s up and we didn’t have like the social social component you could have in America when you’re awake that early you can do anything you want, you know, I mean, like nobody else is on the road to get places faster and you can get your workout and get home and have breakfast with.  The before somebody is alarm is even gone off, you know, yeah, well we were that we’re there we were wake up at five and the other teachers that were there they’re waking up at like noon because you don’t have to go to work till 12:30 yeah and just the map to say like we yeah, we were doing it right you’re doing it wrong but for them it was like late nights were best for us as early mornings, but you could see kind of the energy through the day that is putting us or something to consider like.  If you’re waking up and you’re going to work and you’re putting out fires right away it’s very hard to because you’re basically you’re delaying what you need to work on until after and then you’re kind of just putting out fires whereas if you take care of it at the first thing you have the the space and the energy to do the yeah, it’s kind of I mean that’s always been my biggest thing for my personal morning routine is it gives me a chance to start the day on my terms right and so and that goes for anyone really if you give yourself that kind of what it would whatever you need for me.  I’m like a two to three hours like window where it’s like, okay. You do make sure I get what I want to get done so that I can get what I need to get done later and that gets your full attention right and so they like you said you’re not starting your day in this reactionary state it’s more like you’re being proactive you’re taking care of yourself so that you can then go ahead and take care of others if that’s what you do or whatever you’re kind of your profession is.  I like the way you said that because I think that’s what a lot of people don’t get as like all like you’re just waking up early just to like be hard or like think you’re tough and it’s like oh maybe but like also like hey, like I start the day I get to read my book I get to do my meditation.  I get to kind of hang out and maybe get something done that. I wouldn’t get done if I woke up 30 minutes before I get to work and then that at that time I’m working for other people. I’m reacting to emails phone calls, you know, whatever blips or fires like you said come up, but I think and then that’s kind of rolls into that whole anxiety kind of anger piece too because you don’t get to do what you want to do.  Then by the time you do get to do it you’re so tired of your so no one irritable you want to go sit down and watch Netflix and eat a pizza it’s like yeah or you understandable right like I feel like that but it’s like yeah give yourself that time.  I think that that that’s such a difference for people and you can so tell who does that who doesn’t and it’s very obvious with them like just like a first initial meeting with someone yeah yeah like if there’s someone telling you having to try this out you can see it you transformation yeah quickly within a week or two mm-hmm yeah well in that and that was a difference huge for when you said on and stay home with the baby you could.  N’t work out at at five and I was like I’m in yeah Alex like I don’t know how you do this every day and I was like I have to try and I have it doesn’t matter you could have told me at any time of the day but I have a one time to do me and I don’t have to worry about the baby clinging to my arm or needing something.  I don’t have to suck down the weight in the middle of the set to go and like see what he’s eating, you know, like I had a time where it was like clear and I feel different in myself, like I don’t I’m not mad at you half as often am I I yeah not half as often, yes, you better agree.  I set you up for that but I I just feel like I’m I’m like I did what I wanted to do and for me doing what I want to do is like the workout and I felt like sure it was like yeah Carly you are working now, but I was still babysitting I was watching my kid while I was trying to work out and then I just wasn’t getting just like a chance to be me and as a mom that’s different, you know, because you don’t get a chance just to be yourself for a second where you don’t have the responsibility of responding for a second and then even in the mornings when I’ve been doing a little later work out that seven it’s like I have a chance then in the morning to like stretch and then read and something.  And even if that doesn’t tell like kind of playing an entertainment tanning that’s why the same time it’s like okay I know I’m gonna have my time and then I can come back and I’m a better mother too and you know, I’ve been talking that with the other trainers, um here at the dentist they said, you know, I’m a better mother when I can have that separation and come back and then give them my full attention and not feel anxious to be like I really wanted to do this.  I really wanted to do this and now I’m at all you because you stopped me from doing this yeah, you know and it’s easy for people to make an excuse and pawn off. On other people well then Eric came home and he needed something and then the baby needed something and then you know I got caught up with this it’s like it by having one time that he’s dedicated every day to do something you just always make sure you do it, you know, yeah like ridicule that kind of obligation resentment piece where it’s like we feel like you need to do this but if you gotta got your stuff out of the way, it’s like you don’t feel that obligation near as much yeah and I mean they like I love this airplane analogy people always use where it’s like, hey like yeah put the mask on your face and help the person say next to you, it’s like, You’re gonna kill yourself trying to help someone else when you could save yourself first and how popular people it’s a site fill your bucket up first so then you can kind of pour with that into others yeah and also to I mean direct analogy like with meditation cold showers like things that tend to calm you down exercise working out if you put the mask on yourself first and doing those activities like there’s there’s two states right there’s the state where you don’t have your mask on and you’re trying to get your mask on your child or your loved one and you’re panicked and you’re trying to rush you know, and you keep slipping but if you put yours on first, you’re like, alright, I’m good now.  I can. Calmly assess the situation and do things yeah smooth smooth and practical put on your covet mask don’t touch your friends, yeah. Value on different podcasts after dark.  Alex I want to ask you to chime in a little bit about because we I mean we kind of start with a blue collar addressing that population. I’m not sure who listening to this would be in that camp, but I think it’s an interesting topic, so there are people that are blue collar and they you know, what’s the lifespan on that for in terms of working it’s like 45 and you have to retire I mean, I don’t but I’ll seems to kind of depend just on the mental state of that person right because there’s so many people that no matter like the physical ailments that kind of come their way like, Bump shoulders like knees and that like back issues like arthritis of the hands like they’ll still find a way to make the money do in the same job mm-hmm like whether that ends up coming as like hiring more people or whatever but like I think most of them like I know like an uncle who has like arthritis both knees both hands like tons of like back problems, but he’s been doing like construction always and no matter what has been going on with him, he’s always just trying to persevere whether it’s just because he needs to make ends meet but like, Yeah it always like makes me wonder like what if like when he had started he had had the same kind of like physical like body awareness to be in a deep squat while he was doing flooring like a better strength and is like overhead positions so like he didn’t have half of these things wrong with him so that his quality of life in his work like outside of like, you know, this is the gym but like his quality of life would be so much better if he had learned something like lessons from the weight room, yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s that and then like, okay, I kind of give it I was looking at a Colton’s dad so our coach here Colton clue his.  Father actually owned an operator’s own concrete company um and he’s got to be probably either late forties early fifties but I mean the dude looks awesome and like it’s not he’s not one of those guys we’re like he looks like he’s always in pain. I mean, he looks like using great shape doesn’t necessarily work out of time but I think he has that kind of spiritual like physical awareness to know his limits and like you said kind of delegate work accordingly and if a TV if it’s a day where it’s like, hey, I’m not feeling it like he’s gonna do office stuff and he knows that or if it’s like, hey, I’m feeling good like I want to go push.  I want to go right concrete with my guys today like get. It done. And it is kind of like been maybe maybe like a gene thing where you have like you’re more like disposed like more resiliency type things some people just aren’t made to hammer, you know, eight to 12 hours a day as a physical labor job over the long haul.  I think it’s sometimes like to pick it back on that it’s almost that self-awareness and self-respect like sometimes you have to hear like what your body’s telling you and be like like this is what I I need more than I need this I’ll show you more than yeah the short term so if you want.  The long term like life and the money the job’s like continue sometimes you have to take a day off it’s similar to away room like if you want those long-term gains some days you’re gonna need to take more than one day off in three months yeah yeah. I’m like you’re you guys are saying take a day off some people what I wanted to say is some people don’t have a choice true.  I’m not gonna trade but I do think that there are some people that don’t have a choice so like, Colton’s father he may have like he’s owns it or whatever so he has the ability to say I’m not going out but his guys they don’t own it they’re not going to the back of the desk to do the paperwork, they’re not taking that time off because their job is strictly laying and raking you know, um, and I was gonna say the same thing like as a caveat like even like my uncle the example, I gave like yeah, I’m certain that the majority of time if not always he has felt like I have to do this to like make end be for the family and yes, that’s a really tough spot it is a tough spot and in that like what you said is I wonder I wonder if these.  People who work the jobs had more knowledge about body mechanics would they feel different would and I I’m I’m positive to their boss like hey, I’m not feeling it yeah or is it like or would they just be more smart with their vacation time or they’re like, you know summer is packed so what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna plan it out where I take a I take a one day off in the middle of the week for instead of having a week vacation or two weeks at the end.  I’m gonna take one day off every day and so that way I can just have a reset and in that it’s cold showers it’s it’s hot cold therapy in the days, you know, like you act. Actually doing all these things to take care of yourself on a physical level because I find a lot of people who work these jobs are just like they’re physically so exhausted and a lot of times they’re working and he and stuff and so the last thing they think about doing is I need to come home and stretch.  I mean, come home and do yoga I need to do some body mechanics stuff they’re like on a compliment lay down. I want to lay down yeah yeah and drink a beer and that’s the thing is like, I don’t know if it’s not their culturally. I know there’s not there’s not a part of the job that’s like, hey, have you considered doing yoga?  Yeah exactly because it is like a toughness there is a toughness that comes behind like you know laying lane concretely and spending this putting up walls and and there’s not really a talk about a restorative practice like because you’re doing a lot with your body which our bodies do run better when we use them, you know, as opposed to just sitting all day long.  I think if I were to compare somebody who sits in a desk and I were to compare somebody who does blue collar work every time I’ll say their body mechanics are better and maybe a little thanked up but they’re better than just sitting you know, but I, Almost think.  That sitting is more of a disease you know sitting is more of a disease than the blue collar but I also think that there could be some improvement and it would be cool to see companies like saying like all it’s teach you guys how to recover after week like this hand with that like almost like a little subculture of that is the nutrition aspect of like what so many people tend to eat like we even have an athlete we’ll come here and he’ll work the majority of the day like like landscaping like either like laying gravel or like cutting laws like whatever it be and you know, the only thing he had a chance.  Was take a break to go to the quick stop and get like a. Like a quick stop burrito and like a Mountain Dew and like that’s like you know like that whole like aspect of like one of these guys like yeah eating drinking and smoking yeah like when they’re like either on the job off the job yeah the whole thing that goes with that just completely adds to yeah how they feel like physically yeah exactly the nation in their body and that’s a good point because I mean, if you’re going doing gas stops, what are you gonna have probably high trans fats high sugar, yeah and a lot of times it’s there’s smoking on the job that’s gonna cause inflammation in the body and after work in.  We’ve done this to Eric we were not drinkers and Eric was doing hard work and you’re I think it’s a dehydration thing where you want, you know, um, you’re you want the the carbs from the beer, you know, and that’s what they’ll do after marathons, you know, and it’s literally like you feel like you need you need like you need a beer it feels good when you’re when sausage physically to just have a beer yeah it is.  I know and we didn’t we hadn’t drank in the whole the two years we were in Korea, we didn’t really drink together before that and Eric was doing work you. He’s like I’m having a beer and like what are you having a beer you know but yeah, I did it though like you’re so hot then after that and that’s another thing like if you you have one beer and then you have another it’s different it’s snow ball that fiscal and neural release and there’s like cool refreshing but it’s also like you kind of just soak into the sun yeah yeah yeah, turn your mind off yeah, like my body hates me my soul drink yeah yeah quiet down alright, so we’re gonna wrap this up on that note, should we touch on what we’re gonna be all opening up this.  For the weekends yeah so I mean we were like Carly like we had talked about earlier we’re trying to get her to utilize her services more so in the the restorative piece, right so I mean, I know so much of what we do is right optimizing performance, right and I think a piece of that is a recovery and by nature right like we do primarily like our clientele is youth athletes, so you don’t have to really worry about hair they’re getting enough rest and recovery the older the older kids yeah, maybe a little bit more so but like even as we kind of are adult programs really kind of starting to kind of take take a turn towards more people that’s going to become.  More of a market we’re looking to get so I think offering something on the weekends we’re going to do like hey like yeah you just worked a hard 60 hour week, let’s come in this weekend, let’s show you how to how you can kind of one take care yourself with just some coaching on the front end and then on the backside of that you can take this home it’s like hey like do this for five to ten minutes before like wake up that five to ten minutes waking up earlier just to do this to get that on your terms.  I think it’s gonna go a long way just kind of educating people how to move well on how to move better for the long haul mm-hmm coaching that physical. In that mindset piece of hand is gonna like just really optimize everyone yeah adults and athletes alike absolutely be on the lookout for that yeah yoga yeah yeah getting that bread you’re ready breath awareness with your movement yeah we’re doing uh, maybe something you’re not comfortable with but we know what they say do things you’re that stretch you and you’re that that’ll help you grow yo that’s gonna stretch your friend yeah yeah yoga little stretchy for sure make sure you check out our website OPTC Mi.com, if you’re not following us on Instagram Facebook, probably.  Twitter by the time this is live, so make sure you check us out on those platforms and stay tuned this is episode 10 the last of our audio and we’re gonna transition into a video format so look for that on YouTube your beautiful faces all more oh that’s gonna seem.  Carly acting out that whole time yeah, but the perfect one to start a video.  All right guys, you guys have a good weekend, thanks for tuning in see ya.

5 Reasons To Train Speed Year-Round  Speed training is the single most beneficial thing that any developing athlete can take part in. Forget the laundry list of reasons why it’s the one thing all kids need more of, I thought I would simplify things down to why it should be trained year-round in order to get the most out of your athletic development. Speed always seems to be this exclusive quality that everyone wants, but no one knows how to get more of it. The way I see it, to get stronger you lift weights, to get better at your sport you practice, so it only makes sense that to get faster, you run fast. Too simple? Absolutely. But don’t confuse simplicity for lack of effect. Speed training is nothing more than common sense applied to human movement. Just like there is a proper way to kick a soccer ball, dribble a basketball, or swing a golf club, there is a proper way to sprint that will maximize performance. You wouldn’t attempt to lift a 1 rep max without the proper foundation in technical training (I hope). Using that same logical approach, you also wouldn’t try to get faster without the proper instruction in the technique and application of principles. With that being said, here are five points that address the importance of speed training year round. 5 Reasons Why 1.Learning the skill of sprinting is a process 2. Balancing skill-specific work with general preparation and preparedness 3. Training residuals 4. Stress inoculation 5. Resiliency/injury prevention young-athletes-preparing-for-running-in-training-hall Transcript: Welcome Episode 9 of the OPT. Well OPTC. We’re called OPP, right performance podcast. Download PP. Episode nine getting closer ten. Number ten is gonna be our launch.. Pretty stoked about that.  Yeah, we’re making some changes here in the in the business and and the gym. Yeah, well it’s going on. Like you said for those of you have been listening up to this point these have all been shot over the span of like. Two months two or three months like almost march yeah and none of them been released yet, so you’re probably like listening it’s like why are they talking about this is like old news but.  It is old news but that’s what we’re talking about. It was current at the time yeah, but no big things changing here looks like it is. June 30th, so we got one more day you got new quarter got new month and that’s tentatively when we’re trying to launch our new name yeah so free tractor will be no more we’ll change the position to optimal performance training center and from there it means guys, we’ll see what happens we’ve got t-shirts in we got a buddy Frankie coming to shoot a promo video to launch that and once that’s done.  I mean, we’re live websites done. Trying to go that’s an equipment coming on the way yeah we were some new some new rigs from rogue so wow. I was gonna be crazy. I mean, this is something that we’re like when we first took it on I did not think like, I never really saw it it’s completion but oh right we’re getting dangerously close yeah one.  Yeah, I think about two like looking back like we’re at the halfway point of the year right could you imagine like when you were thinking January first where am I gonna be in six months? Yeah wow, um, that’s I mean, that’s a crazy question because. At that point. I think have we done?  I think we hadn’t even done the podcast before you’d even come on or maybe not the guys no. I don’t think I’d met you it was January or February like end of January yeah. February well. So I mean at that point I was completely on my own I was doing all the coaching by myself.  I had little help kind of with the administrative work and dude. I I mean, I was honestly just trying to get through the day-to-day. I mean, I knew at that point I’d kind of had my feet wet for a few months. I knew that I would looking to kind of grow the business scale off.  I knew space was getting tired of previous location. I knew that I definitely needed more coaches. But I never really for saw what would happen in terms of bringing on some of the business side of things and yourself and then even I didn’t know Alex was coming on and I knew we’d have: back for the summer but to get him back so early because the coven even to get on intern trav.  It’s just been it’s been sweet and better than you can expect especially barring the circumstances that were shut down for almost three months. I mean, right? Right. I mean, that’s. For all the businesses that have made it through this time like it’s been tough and there’s been challenges that come off when you’re shut down like just even just like twiddling your thumbs like finding something to do right?  I was tough. That was that was the hardest part for me. It was just like feeling like like, Especially when I was doing so much busy work anyway and thinking like that was like productivity just because there was so much to do but I wasn’t distributing the work of effectively.  So to go from literally like probably like a hundred and twenty to zero yeah, you just like hold a cow. I mean like it you kind of lose that that sense of purpose in a way where. You think as you’re not getting stuff done you’re lazy. Yeah, yeah like down yourself or being lazy, but you can’t do anything to fix it because that I mean, I’m sure there’s there were things we probably could have done.  I mean, I always look back you could always could have done stuff better, but I mean for what we were given. I think we kind of set the right stuff in place and made sure we were once we were ready to open we were ready to go. You have to move into our new facility, like right before we reopen so the timing that I was perfect.  But no, I think all good things so far and even looking towards the next mod the next quarter. I think it’s gonna be good so we’re excited over here. Yeah, definitely. So you wrote a blog recently and we’re kind of in the transition period as well on our our website.  We’re gonna have a new totally new website with a different domain name and all that stuff. So be on the lookout for that but you put a blog up and it’s topic is training speed year-round and this was geared toward athletes, right? Yeah, so,  Obviously a majority of what we do is. True. I mean linear speed training or whether it’s speed agility or quickness. That’s always kind of been a bread and butter. And so what we preach is kind of the importance of that year-round dosage of speed, whether it’s once a week twice a week three times, I mean realistically being the training residual.  I’m pure a lactic speed is about five days plus or minus two so you’re looking at like a really really well trained person. Yeah, maybe for a week you can keep your speed without training it but if you have somebody who’s kind of like the lower end like you’re looking at like three to five days and they start to lose.  Gains and speed so it’s like that’s kind of one of the sign points. I like to bring up that’s hard to kind of communicate that to parents because one they don’t really care about the science of what they want to know, hey is Jimmy or Jane going to get better.  But I mean, that’s that’s that’s incredibly important to remember because even as people go to play their sport one and sport you never really reach top speed. Unless you are in track. Or football you’re running back a kickoff or something yeah, yeah, even then like you’re disarraying the avoid attack or you have like 20 yards to get up to speed before you have to crush somebody but so people aren’t always really getting that in and they’re definitely getting in practice because the conditioning runs they do are their natures yeah you maybe your first rep is at a hundred percent but then each subsequent rep after that is so low in terms of your max output because your fatigue that you never really getting that dough, so.  I like it because well I mean it’s important to keep that speed up so you’re faster around especially in season when you need it the most but then it’s also just a resiliency piece where you’re looking to I mean kind of stress inoculate them. I mean, we know we both know we’ve talked about before how high intensity like a true sprint training session can be whether it’s a neurological adaptation or even just the stress it puts on your your tendons ligaments and tissues like it’s something that needs to be dose because if you don’t use it you will lose it and that kind of puts you in a position.  To be more prone to strains like the hamstring like, you know, kind of like those accessory muscles like your adductor you’re growing stuff like that that’s when as people start to petite to have the season they start to read this really starts to kind of nag people so that was basically the premise of the post just making sure that people know that hey like this is something that needs to be done and done a lot, um, I mean, there’s really no better quality to have.  Because all the strength the world’s great, but if you can tear your hamstring trying to get there to use it like you can go into the chance to show yourself so right right just kind of read a little bit from here. It’s printing is a skill and like all skills require weekly if not daily attention or practice just like it takes time for an athlete to learn proper fundamental movement patterns, it also takes time to develop the qualities that make somebody a fast runner the proper foundation must be built on posture mechanics and most importantly strength to set aside one to three months to intensely focus on speed development would pale and comparison to a more moderate consistent approach over the long haul.  Take the steroid baby take the stairs yeah, that’s how cold is here close in the morning here. Yeah, I mean, that’s so much that then I could kind of go back to what we do, right? I mean people. People are coming in here it’s like hey like it’s it’s July like football’s in a month or two like what can you do for John so well, I mean, I can’t do anything for John too much like if I’m gonna be completely honest like yeah, maybe we can clean up this mechanics a little bit.  But I mean it is like anything else is like you don’t expect to be like hey. I’m gonna go see this skill coach and become gonna throw I’m gonna go from an 80 mile an hour but you’re doing 90 miles on our picture two months. I can say no like people people don’t expect that but they do expect when they come to a place like this they’re like hey, like, I’m gonna take two tents off their 40 and I’m on their half it’s just like, Just like anything else.  I mean, there’s a progression to everything there’s a regression to everything and when it comes to developing speed. I think more kind of like, you know. You have like t-ball for a reason and then you have like coach pitch and then like machine pitch and then kid pitch and then as you kind of build up through the ranks right you you rise with the level competition and then it’s the kind of the same thing for sprinting.  I mean, it needs to be taught we teach kids how to live we teach kids how to play sports we teach them like how to move but for whatever reason people are just like all he’s just born faster all she’s born fast and like that’s a psych it’s like this genetic gift that people haven’t yeah, like there’s that’s a hundred percent true and like there are people who step in here that I have to say, maybe one or two cues the whole time they’ve been here they’re.  Bitten for two years and they’re just fast and like that’s just their fiber type. They’re just picked right parents and like so but then there are people I mean that you can improve on it and it like I said, I mean, it is a with a moderate approach in terms of like, hey, we’re not gonna look to run 600 meters every time they’re here of just pure speed but it’s like, hey, we’re gonna we’re gonna progress this out on the volume intensity is gonna kind of make remain moderate until they’re proficient enough and then yeah from there, we’ll look to kind of accomplish more over the years, um, rather than kind of the intensify short-term one to three months game doctor.  I think it’s Greg. Rose he’s um he’s the TPI it’s like some sort of golf certification um we use a chiropractor but he’s big in like the whole like rotational sports world so he works a lot with baseball and golf and he’s also big on the youth. I like development field, he always is saying was always early to early to ripe early to rock so you get these parents who come in here, they’re okay, like my kids all that in a bag of chips right now, but they’re nine and it’s like, okay that’s great look like what’s gonna happen like oh my god and I tell parents this and sometimes they look at me funny and sometimes they get it but it’s like hey, Like I don’t care what what Jimmy can do at 11 and he’s 11 like there’s no there’s no Olympics for 11 year olds and then if there is like cool nobody cares when you watch him, so it’s like I’m telling like hey like we have seven years before this kid graduates high school, let’s try to get every last bit with the little training as possible until we need to get more specific utility to intensify how he does things and then increase the amount of times he sees me per week stuff like that on.  That’ll go exponentially longer ways than if we were to say hey, let’s have Jimmy trained six days a week for the next three months and then seeing a year yeah yeah. I got way off track there you know, that’s fine with it have a hard time showing my mouth you’re good, you know I’m saying, I mean, you you better than that you long enough cold to know it’s like everyone wants that short-term fix and even like when you were an athlete and we were athletes training together it’s like we like that’s what we wanted right it’s like you came you got a football or you got a soccer in the fall and you’re like, all right.  I got three months ago hammered before, you know spring sports and it’s like, Dude I was always getting hurt like always had some head groin something cuz like yeah those three months were great and I felt great they’re gonna stop every time it’s like okay like you only lift when you’re not sees it or you only train like sprinting and stuff when you’re not seasoned but yeah for sure.  I think I most like hand-in-hand to with like you were saying I kind of like take the stairs build it up progress it where like you see like these professional athletes like this is off-topic as well, but like, you know, I’m like bosu balls trying to squat it’s like again, that’s what they want their nine-year-old to come and.  All right do like that that is going to give them like let’s just get them to squash first yeah yeah. I mean they’re looking at like the end of the race in turn and like terms of like hey like they’ve made it like they can do both of all sports.  I don’t care if that makes them feel good and play better like hey as long as you’re not getting them hurt they’re making millions of dollars for you, so it’s like, But then they see them they’re like, oh it gets LeBron does that then like obviously this kid needs to my kid needs to do it, so give me like LeBron it’s like that is yeah so back yeah yeah for them from the one hand you’re looking at a group that’s not why you’re like professional athlete, of course yeah and then one percent of the one yeah and then you’re looking at the athlete in that group who’s doing some weird shit on Instagram yeah, so it’s so backwards and it’s just like, Like that don’t get bored with the basics and even I like Kobe Bryant said that and like look at he is the one percent of one percent I mean, but that dude he was playing the NBA as an 18 year old and yeah his number one phrase is he always tell people just don’t get bored of the basics and like yeah that’s so true for even us because then we had this conversation the other day the office where it’s like man I get so sick of coaching some of these drills that we do because like yeah, maybe we only see a kid twice a week, but we’re coaching the same class essentially.  Four to six times a day so it’s a so yeah oh man we got to do marches again it’s a site yeah but they work and like they’ve never not worked and like even when we train we do them, every time we train that’s six days a week we’re doing these stupid drills but I mean, they make us better and if we don’t do them we end up getting hurt we end up doing something stupid and it’s just kind of yeah, even if we don’t have like make corrections like what like you said like well sometimes in sashes will go off if everybody does the first two reps perfect, you know that will skip that third yeah, it’s like yeah, absolutely but Like when you have these delete sprinters doing the same thing, it’s like well this middle school can get benefit out if you think bulk can get that yeah, you know, uh-huh no you’re so right.  I think it’s just like, Then like I’ll another kind of analogy here’s just like this tube of toothpaste where it’s like you have this brand new tube and each time you go to do something with these kids you’re gonna get something out of them because it’s like you touch this tube it’s just gonna squirt out whereas like yeah, maybe you do get up to that like that that one percent of one percent you do got to kind of you got to get your vice grip and just kind of pinch out the battery last drop you can get.  But we never have to really worry about that. So I think just doing the basics right doing the little things right Yeah over the long haul is like ultimately the only way to kind of have like true success. Yeah, remember a book by a Duke head coach basketball Mike good.  Yeah Coach K and he was talking about like I’m pretty sure his coach gay but he’s talking about like how he takes his guys and just inoculates them, like listen how you tiger shoes gonna determine how your game goes ’cause if you tie your shoes loose or quick and you don’t do it right, you’re gonna get a blister and when you get a blister you’re not gonna step, right?  When you don’t step right you’re gonna slip you get injured or you’re not gonna play well. It’s like those little things like taking each little thing that you do in preparation and in practice to have a very consistent approach to your game and that’s true it’s sprinting and strength.  I mean, even with us when we’re training it’s like, Cold and how long have you been spraining now like for three three or four months. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah probably a little longer club right two a year and a half or so a year and a half West I guess when I started like the Derek Hansen, yeah, yeah programs and stuff so and right now you’re you’re like just tapping into forties, right?  Yeah, yeah. I mean, I took a little bit of time off of like sprinting yeah like longer distances but then I like just got into like feeling really good coming back and asking that yeah explosives. You know for that I mean that goes to show like this programming that we follow is in line with this principle right is like do a little over time each yeah each day consistently and then you’re gonna get better or the long haul so like you’re not running 200 meters sprints right now, yeah.  You know, and and you wouldn’t right but still what I mean, it’s like I was telling this one of our interns yesterday it’s like nothing we do in trainings ever linear like people just assume like all I got to 405 last week like this week I got to do four tenets.  I well no sometimes four or five feels like eight hundred sometimes four or five feels like 200 it’s like, That there’s this level of like preparedness that you come to the table with and like you can’t know until you go and so whether that is sprinting like I know like for me like it’s like I know when I’ve reached my limit and should I choose to push past that like yeah there’s definitely inherit risk involved and like and but like even yesterday guys like I had one more I’m like is this 30 meter sprint really gonna make me that much better or is gonna hurt is deserve better chance, it’s gonna hurt me and I get so clear that it’s like dude like you haven’t I like that was probably the most amount of sprinting I’ve done in.  My six months, so I knew for me it was like it was a no question like I’m not gonna do this like I’m gonna live the fight another day like yeah, why why do an extra sprint and set out for six weeks? Then cut it loose and come back into like you know, and then another thing is that you can’t make that up like people are like, oh you’ll get a bag next time like I’m not gonna go do that sprint today like it’s like it’s gone like just leave it like yeah, it’s not a big deal like you’ll like is making it up it’s gonna.  Yeah yeah put you back to square one anyway it’s like the reason you skipped it was to not do it in general so just leave it in the past and live to fight another day yeah and one thing too is like takes a lot of maturity to step back and be like do I really need to do that last rep because it’s like that if you go on YouTube and type in like motivation for me training you see David goggles wrong with ATS on said and there there’s an element of that you want to implement in your life, but there’s also an element of intelligence right maturity, like you said you’re 100%.  One thing you can do if you don’t if you don’t think you’re mature you have it you have an issue of going too hard is if you have a training partner with you that can like pay like hey that last rep didn’t look too good, are you sure you want to do the next one that’s something that I think we kind of utilize or filming it so you can see it yourself yeah.  I think the way you said to about like David Goggins or whatever they’re like, they’re big things like discipline and I think when it comes to training it takes a lot of discipline to really to like go off the script or took like you said like cut wraps cut sets because You’re not feeling that right it’s hard like yeah like it you said to me like it’s quite a couple weeks ago.  I don’t let this piece of paper like run your life or like run your training session because they don’t know like how much sleep you got right if you recovered right it’s they’re going off like optimal recovery every time that’s just not the case that’s case scenario for sure it’s a, I mean the ego is really really tough thing and like yeah it is, I mean, it’s takes a tremendous amount of discipline to tell yourself you can’t do something that you set out to do that day, um and whether and like that’s why like even like for our kids I’m trying to get to the point where like they don’t even know what the workout is and some kids are super kind of like oh how do these we have to do how many of these and this is like yeah, like we’ll just see like yeah because some kids could do 10 some kids could do six because some kids can do 12, it’s like, You don’t want them to know um that you cut it short cuz then they do like they like they think like oh I’m not good enough for like I’m like, I’m it’s bad that I’m not ready today when it’s just it’s life yeah and I got tell people it’s okay like you can be tough on the field like I don’t need you to be tough here like this is you’re like there’s zero reason for you to push through to either get hurt or cross like these little micro traumas that are good eventually lead up to a bigger injury.  But it’s just like hey like this is like the whole goal of what we do is to make people so they’re not hurt right it’s like do no harm optimize performance mitigate injury like those are the three things we’re supposed to do as training is like preparation specialists, so it’s.  It’s something that like it’s hard to solve like there’s so many things to balance but it’s easier it’s what I should say it’s much easier to not let your athletes know what they’re doing just because then they don’t feel you take that ego piece out of it, it’s okay it’s like oh well like you did two sprints that look terrible let’s just go lift and stuff like because like yeah, like maybe they’re not ready to handle that but like you drop your intensity or something and go to something like compared to a lift like, Handle that no problem Yeah And I think that’s huge too with like we talk about a lot in middle school boys.  It’s like if they if they they like 1:35 week before if they’re not done with 1:40 that next week. Like that doesn’t take sober. Yeah, it’s so bad. Like with Cove and like returning from that like I’m like try like drew like we try to do a really good job on the front me like hey, like you will not be as strong as you were and that’s totally fine, nobody else is um, unless they had like a sweet weight room at their house like the, Res no chance like that you’re not at like probably 80% of what you were beforehand but it doesn’t matter because they know like hey like I know when I left I had to 45 pounds lights on each side as far like, I’m gonna lift that today.  I don’t care what you tell me. It’s like no. Don’t do that. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, and we spent some time like not lifting right when they when they came right off of right. Yeah, we made sure to kind of. To fully dummy proof it like we did a whole kind of anatomical adaptation block where it was all just kind of like tissue resiliency and just like hired by high volume weight room stuff just to make sure they are prepared.  Once we kind of transition to the longer distances in the sprints and even just the the more intensity and the weight room as well. It’s gonna really a little bit more from your blog here. In addition to the inoculation of stress. Spring training also builds up resiliency and injury prevention for the same reason.  The soft tissues and joint structures of legs trunk and upper body are trained at such high speeds with such high force that the impact of sport is so much more tolerable even in high volumes. You’re essentially killing multiple birds with one stone. You’re improving the speed at which the limbs move ie getting faster while simultaneously making them stronger and less prone to injury.  Do I remember writing after this movie honestly sounds good though Yeah I know closely I just I just said I do these and I literally do. I like I like set down. I tied them and I’m like Senator Eric I’m like fix it post it. Yeah, you’re the best.  But now I mean, it’s like and that’s so hard for people to wrap their heads around because there’s no weights but it’s like I remember reading and I want to Charlie’s books is like Ben Johnson can move his knee from or like from standing like from from one stride from like standing to like hit flexion, so his knees parallel to his hip it would do he’d move in 88 kilometers.  A second. So that’s like, Was that like 20 meters per second or something like that. Pretty close. Um, when you do like a max effort squat, you move it at like point three yeah meters per second so it’s like you can’t even like compare those numbers it’s like a blink of an eye like versus like watching a train go by it’s just like, So like like I said, like when you crash into someone and the field or you’re running around at such a low velocity for like soccer or like lacrosse or whatever most the time you’re either jogging or you’re just accelerating you never even reach that top speed so your body can handle that all day.  And even just like the upper body like like the fact that you can pump your arms because they only reason you really swing your arms are just physics are your counteracting the force that you put in the ground with your legs, um, so there’s like a there’s a good core stability piece and everyone call a core.  I mean like you’re like you’re abdominals like your whole kind of like trunk works to kind of brace and keep you in place um, which you can even come back to talk is like cold noise like hey you ever feel like you’re like losing control when you get to higher speeds and it’s like yeah yes and no, I mean like the more you kind of train that like your bot like you have it’s almost like, Your legs are strong and like your arms can kind of keep you balanced but like you might be just be like a little all over the place just because like you or move your tray you’ve never trained your abs yeah at that high of a speed to brace and like stabilize or same with like your arms like you just like what in the weight room do you do that you move your arms so fast and like this is no there’s no comparison there’s no equivalent I should say yeah and it’s like for sprinting for me at least it was like I was always told by like you hunter like it gets you stronger and you’re like yeah, yeah until you actually do it and do a program it.  Like you won’t believe it no one believes it and then all in all of a sudden like you’re 20 pounds lighter and you’re benching more and spotty more than you ever have before it is it’s ridiculous, which I’m in the process of discovering that well. I mean because my my initial introduction is just sprinting was powerlifting season and then sprint right after so for me.  I’m like, I just have to take your word for it, but like now I had seven years off of sprinting and it’s like getting back into it, my joints are like three kind of. Restructuring my body and calibrate seven million dog man over here yes but we’ll see. I mean, I can tell if there’s things that are way different like my deltoids just from this that’s pretty action with your arm coming up at 90 degrees like that’s so strenuous.  I’m not doing anything else like it, you know, so like that development will I mean, we’ll kind of see and I’ll report as much as I can but the other day we squatted and I was doing. You know I’ve had my ministry and I was doing close to 300 like yeah that felt pretty good yeah I mean you’re moving yeah yeah before that’s if I’m getting near 300 it’s like all right get psyched yeah yeah no.  I mean there’s even like you said like even this like in the from a like aesthetic standpoint like if you think if you’re doing like a 30 like how many times you’re moving your arm up now yeah that’s a lot of raps like you do that over time like there’s like there’s an element of like I purge upper body have purchased and even just like like looking at like leg like leg strength or like definition like there’s Like you’re putting in a ton of work um and if feels like you’re not doing much but it’s almost like you that’s like cold and said like until you do it and do it well for a long enough period of time like I would knock it.  I mean, it’s it is it is insane anyway, we like watching Alex like CrossFit guru yeah, he is a hooked yeah. I love you he’s drinking the juice man like he’s all about it he cannot get enough of the sprint workouts now and like could not be further from the truth probably even like a month ago on it’s so funny because he used to.  To be like yeah, I’m just yeah. But then with sprinting he’s like, I’m feel great yeah always yes always ready, um. There’s something about going fast it’s just addicting it’s it’s yeah there’s nothing really quite like it I mean like that for me like I love doing that in the pool just because I feel like competitively I’m better at that because like I mean, I really thought you guys you guys are all so much faster than me.  I feel like kind of looking loser but um, no, I mean, there’s something about like seeing how fast you’re really as fast as you can move with within your capability right it’s not like being on a motorcycle liquor. I mean, there are people, you know those adrenaline like addicted to speed like there is there’s got to be some sort of chemical response.  I’ve never looked into that personally, but Some sort of release some sort it’s like that fight or flight, but yeah. It’s not dopamine anyway you’re releasing a chemical that’s yeah, you’re adrenaline oh my yeah, it’s Tuesday. I do have a degree it’s something not words no black member like iris air for saying like when I started this program back running at the summer, yeah last like two or three months it was like I wanted tens and tens and tens and twenties there’s like I just could not wait to get in and twelve.  I mean yesterday yes get into like some thirties and forties and just to like feel that. A little bit and then you get to 30 and it’s like that’s like flirting with like some top speed for me like 30 to 40, maybe I might reach a little bit and it’s just like a teaser it’s like all there’s one more yeah it’s yeah and that’s tough like cuz you all like once you hit that you’re like, oh I want to do that all the time it’s like that will destroy you rip your body apart, yeah.  Alright well should wrap it up 9:53 yeah that’s fine yeah let’s close this out we got to work on these conclusions man, holy cow. I feel like the like the first it’s like hey guys like great talk peace no like that’s terrible hopefully what we’re hopefully by now we’ll have some sort of outro just to kind of cover up our terrible conclusions but um, make sure you check out our blog posts, um, yeah, so should you like plugs yeah shameless plug for the blog post new website going up yeah, you know what when we have the podcast up the website will be up so go to OPTC and I do calm OPT CMI.com all your blog posts and podcast needs will be satisfied and there’s some dope videos on there too, honestly took our YouTube page as well optimal performance training center, Instagram prefecture factory right now, that’ll be changed yeah soon, there’ll probably be OPTC, they’ve maybe will be on Twitter any people are marketing people please stop in yeah, yeah, let’s do a Twitter these days.  I haven’t had a Twitter in like three years four years, yeah had one in college would watch like, Sports highlights and I was about it yeah and then I was like, you know on this really isn’t doing it for me yeah, nothing’s really changed except there’s no sports right now yeah true alright alright guys, peace out sit.

Learn what it means to train optimally in the weight room and how that translates into sports. Thomas and Eric discuss the methods and movements that are taught incorrectly in most high school programs. Listen in as they dive deep into what makes a great program and what makes a good coach. Boxer’s Punch Transcript: I don’t want to make absolutes here but as much tougher to compensate in the front squat with a less than stable spine. If an athlete folds forward in the hole, he drops the bar and that’s it. If his hips rise above before his shoulders, he can’t keep hold of the bar in the lift is over.  It’s incredibly tough for an athlete’s hips to rise faster than his shoulders in the front squat. The front squat by nature is a more protective lift and the back squat because when an error and the torso occurs an athlete is unable to hold the bar. No more breaking down at the spine yet muscling up a back squat like a contorted question mark.  That is a free brief little section from moving over maxes a book by Zach Chant. What are your thoughts from here in that? Yeah. For me, I couldn’t agree more. I think. The front squat is probably the safest alternative you can get right and it’s also kind of a high CNS component with like just you can really load it up.  But I mean, he’s absolutely right because you can you can cheat a back squat pretty easily, right? Like he said if you’re hips can move. I had your shoulders and then you can almost just like good morning the bar up where you just kind of do this like hip hinge back extension like type deal and I’ve seen that and because we used to teach the back spot quite a bit.  I mean, like squat and like just parallel squat was like where I go to is for a while, but then as we kind of started looking at it. I mean, You can you can you in terms of like foot positioning and stance like there’s a whole host of reasons why I probably wouldn’t have somebody do it back squat, unless it looked really really good.  Because the front squat is just that kind of universal athletic position right there’s more transfer to sport your feet around your hips everything’s out in front of you just looking forward is kind of loading up on your back there as well. Yeah, what’s the real world equivalent to a next class speaking you’re able to traditionally.  Typically because you’re compensating somewhere right like you mean like you said you can’t really cheat the front squat because you’ll either drop the bar or it’s gonna fall under you’re just gonna fall down. Yeah. Have you? Heavy. Have you seen an athlete like actually drop the bar during front squat?  I feel like just starting out. Once.  Sufficient rest period of however correctly and they want to go hit that same way right position then you’re just gonna dump it and that’s exactly what you did she came out and just in front of here nuts and yeah kind of never going to failure and making sure some place and stuff like that, so that was kind of like a flu.  What’s going?  With how to dump a backsplash goes back to saying yeah what we’re trying to do here is not. It’s not ego based it’s not how much weight you can do it’s the development of the athlete and that often does not include the most weight you can do or the fastest brain you can do right?  I mean the title that book was movement over max is it’s you never have to maximally load up a power and squat on any sort of sport unless you’re in a competitive way lifter so. Make it look beautiful and maybe have five or ten pounds that take and live without another day rather than because it was too heavy because then you run the risk at that point and you’re teaching their nervous system how to fail and then you’re almost creating this kind of this dividend where they can’t really come out of because when you feel like that that’s so taxing that they’re you’re more likely to kind of fry their nervous system even more so mm-hmm absolutely your history is interesting because you.  Well, I guess I’m gonna learn about it but you did come from a power lifting type of background correct and now you’re in speed development and more athletic training so let’s start with that power lifting history talk talk a little bit about that yeah, absolutely so. In college my junior year.  I decided to stop playing college soccer and pursue a want to call a career but I hate a high. I don’t know I started yeah and so with that I think I’ve always been drawn to strength it’s always come pretty easy to me, like I’ve always been able to touch higher weights lower reps was always been kind of my bread and butter.  I’m a much more explosive person than I am kind of like an enduring person so it just made sense, um, I’ve been lifting. For about four years at that point so I was familiar and I was kind of looking just to kind of get as strong as humanly possible right because with soccer I mean, there’s never a true transfer to being maximally strong like a power lifter.  I mean that it yeah strength is always kind of the foundation of any athlete but I mean mine was probably almost a diminishing return at that point so I bet my losses and just start power lifting. Because at that point, I’d never really seen how strong I could get yeah and so that was a fun challenge and it was I mean, it was brutal and it was tough but um.  It was a lot a lot of fun competing and stuff like that and having something to kind of prep for and it definitely taught me a lot about how to develop strength along the way though, we definitely made some very very big mistakes with our athletes just because at the time we were taking a lot of what we were doing in power lifting and trying to apply it to these younger kids and that just wasn’t smart we’re kind of wrapped up in that world right exactly right when everything, um, What everything looks like strength to you.  I mean, you want to kind of solve everything with strength so. When you hit when you have a hammer as a tool everything starts to look like that’s exactly so with that we would try we I mean, we would back squat we would box squat we would have them do barbell good mornings and stuff like that which like I’m sure like there’s a place for all of that mm-hmm, but I think you have to.  Take into consideration who you’re who you’re working with what they’re trying to accomplish what they need rather than what you’re trying to force them to do because of your own ego or what is a program for you is there for them and that’s kind of what at the time.  I would say was definitely more for me than once for them because that’s what I was comfortable with and that’s what I knew like I said, I did we do any long-term damage absolutely not and I think, There was some benefit to some of that stuff depending on who we were working with but I mean as we kind of started off with more football players and started segwaying to more soccer players and more kind of not so much strength dominant, there’s a strength factor to it for sure but I mean speed became more of an important tool and that’s something we really kind of started to deep dive into so that became kind of the the priority if you will absolutely in in that exploration of powerlifting and getting yourself involved in that world you’ve had the opportunity to meet some pretty big names.  Extremely fortunate. I mean, even the piloting world of the coaching world I’ve gotten to meet quite a few big names, um, which has been awesome. I’m trying to think I think it was 2018 was the first time I were the only time I should say I met Louis Simmons down and Columbus Ohio, we were down there for a seminar and we actually got to go to Westside um, and we decided in the back room and lose actually there we got to talk to a provider just about time anything it was just kind of Q&A.  On this map think what we got there, there are two or three other guys back there kind of asking him questions and they just kind of let us hop in with that group and it was um, Definitely moving stuff. I mean, he’s basically extremely of everything he has like to say so he’s gonna catch you um, if you’ve heard his podcast or anybody’s books, I mean, he has almost a script for everything yeah and that’s just because he’s been doing it for so long and that’s what works for him, that’s what works for his guys, so um that was kind of in between right because at the time, We are back I Mean.  To build.  That you can handle those heavier loads. So I think that’s super important to know just as any coach you should kind of have a well-rounded general idea of how to develop strength. So I would say that’s my biggest takeaway was just knowing how to program for strength coming out of him and he talks a lot about explosive jumps and sled work and like you like I said just kind of maximal effort.  I mean, they do true singles which I think with children you really don’t need to get anywhere near that’s why we kind of stick to like a three or five RM, but I think you sees a simple calculation rate and then yeah, right. I mean, it’s just there’s no point in having them go Max that heavy because they’re always doing something right through the practicing playing games.  So to tax them that much when they already are sprinting. I mean, there’s a time and a place but we haven’t really found the time or the place quite yet.  Yeah, that’s that’s pretty cool. What was your favorite lift as a power vector? Yeah. I mean, I guess one takeaway. I did get from Louis was um, They always change exercises, right? So it’s called I love accommodation, right? You mean if you completely if you do something too often you accommodate and you’ll get any better at it.  So what they would do is everything they do they set up in three week waves. So they would maybe pick. For example, maybe a box squat was their max effort movement for the lower body squat and then they would either rotate a the bar that they use or maybe they use a straight bar one week, okay a bat bar a duffle bar and then maybe like a yoke bar and that was their three week wave and like you try to set a PR and each one of those bars right and then once they get to the bars, maybe they’ll do the same rotation, but they’ll add chains to every bar or bands or what have you.  So that was kind of that’s a problem. I would say a really big takeaway that they had so I like that and we do use that right where we’ll have like three to five tier one like movements we’re heading over okay, we’re gonna rotate a front squad a search or squad a if you’re playing baseball maybe a heavy reverse lunge with like a you know bar something like that, um, and then that that way so like we’ll touch it every month, but they’re always kind of rotating through exercises just so they don’t stay out in one lift, mm-hmm.  Yeah, very interesting stuff the back squat, how do you know when an athlete’s ready? Maybe that’s a loaded question. I mean, yeah like most questions in this industry are kind of like, I mean people say all the time it depends and yeah, it’s so true because. I think someone who is movement efficient and it’s all kind of relative to their body weight and their strength and how long they’ve been training.  I like to see a good front aquatic good heavy front squat before I like to see like to even touch a backs wild like for females. I would say I don’t even need to put a bond they’re back unless they can front squat 135, um, which I’m lucky to see quite a bit which I think is kind of a pretty amazing fee because you know, if you think most young high school female athletes are about anywhere from a hundred.  Fifteen pounds from what I work with and so for them to be able to calculate and some for three to five reps. I mean, it’s huge time for pound that’s very strong yeah, so I like to see that um, Because like like you run into right. I mean, it’s really.  It’s not so much that they’re not strong enough it’s something they’re just don’t have the coordination to do a movement like that where their legs might be strong enough to squat up the weight they’re low back might not be strong enough to handle the load on their upper back so when they do stand up it’s like we talked about they kind of their hips will come up first and then a low back kind of follows up with that so I think I have to be worth it, right?  I mean Charlie Francis talk about the half squat, which is you can love it, it’s more like a CMS kind of driver where you can heavy weight you’re only doing. Like a like a half or a quarter squat and that doesn’t get leave you as sore but you’re still kind of maximally challenging to CNS I think that has value for like an in-season athlete but like I said if that’s strength basis and there there’s really no point doing it because you can just keep utilizing the front squat and everything is so general nature about what we do, so I try to keep it that way as long as we can before we have to kind of segway to specific mm-hmm makes me think about um at one point I saw on Instagram LeBron James yeah squatting yeah, it’s like a quarter squat yeah, so when you think about, I like when in basketball do you see someone go into a full squat to jump exactly and like something like that.  I mean everything for him is probably taking so out of context and yeah. I mean, he’s like doing it first and needless to wait, right? I mean, he’s LeBron James like yeah, I’m sure maybe it’ll help but at the same time like he’s he’s an outlier and when people start to kind of use outliers for.  Like baseline level programs like that’s when starts to start to get little fishy, um, but now I like you’re right. I mean, there’s he’s at the top of his game like at that point anything he does in the weight room should be more restorative or just injury prevention to make sure he can last through a season.  I mean, he’s worth so much money that they’re just making sure they cover their butt and keep him healthy, so they want to do his little to her harm him as possible another outliers the same bolt, do you? So I I get what you’re saying like don’t model your training off the absolute world best as it’s gonna look a lot different right because there they already are the best right and so someone like you saying voter LeBron James or whoever else I mean unit dropping big yeah, it’s like you don’t want to look at what they’re doing you want to look at what they did to get there, it’s very popular right now like on YouTube, you’ll see like I tried Michael Phelps diet for a week yeah stuff like that or I did.  Mark Wahlberg’s training yeah great reviews, right but I mean other than that, that’s really bad as far as it goes, um. Because they just that’s just not how you usual try to I mean, like I said, like we said whether that’s using outliers to establish a program. Anything I mean they’re so genetically gifted that they don’t even really like I said they don’t really don’t even need like training outside of what who they already are because they just picked the right parents like it’s it’s really that simple, um because we even get kids like that in here.  I mean, we’ll some of our best athletes are terrible in the way room and that’s usually how it is. I mean the the less as as you prep for like say like attract me like on down talked about this with all it’s throwers, he would they would build up a certain level of strength other than as they get closer to season their strength, like would actually go down but Performance improves yeah and that’s it that’s a common kind of correlation there where as strength you kind of develop your offseason plan you build you build you build and then as you kind of come in you taper down your volume sometimes your strength work gets even lower but you feel so refreshed from not beating your body down with such heavy load or high volumes of workouts that your performance starts to kind of improve, mm-hmm.  Is there a transition there in Dan Johnson programming from? Does he go into power or does he just kind of just taper out of strength completely 100% sure how he does it, um, I know your standard your standard. I mean, there’s. Periodization, right it’s out you’re kind of your annual plan or your your monthly planner you weekly plan right there three types of cycles and so.  Which a typical like periodization block or a phase would be you would do kind of like your hypertrophy muscle endurance work for a block and then you would transition from that to strength and then your transition from strength to power and speed the way we do it is instead of doing a triple block like that, we almost do kind of like what you’d call vertical integration which means if you’re just kind of stack everything on top of each other you’re training all three elements of hypertrophy strength and power the emphasis just changes, so if you think about it kind of like you’re cooking right you have your stove you have four burners.  All your burners are on maybe your front burner is really really high on your back one’s really low but then as you go throughout the program you’re adjusting kind of the heat in the volume so that your focusing on one thing but then you have little elements of other things.  I’m going at the same time so whether it’s strength and speed and then a little bit of like endurance work or you have you’re always your base endurance work which is higher most of your volume and then you kind of supplement that with speed and power depending on just the the phase of trading that you’re in mm-hmm, that’s a great metaphor yeah.  Still cooking your meal you just yeah. Just doing it with different different heat volumes or different intensities, yes, yeah. Very good it’s kind of wraps. I mean, that was short right yeah kind of wraps up the strength talk. Last time we chatted it was regarding spring programming and in my history yes kind of can we well I know I I I’m almost 100% confident that we can get me faster than I was oh yeah no question they sent my experience with you and training with you.  Should we say that for a complete separate podcast or we just dive in right now I mean I think we can definitely touch on that and then maybe follow up with that but I mean, even in the past two weeks we’ve started kind of doing like a GPP style like acceleration block where we’re just working on technique and just general fitness and conditioning.  I mean, we’re coming off of kind of I would say somewhat of a like a volume like high perch for you or an accumulation block so now what we’re going to continue to do is build on that as we just kind of get more specific to sprinting right? I mean, we want it we want to see if you can run a faster 60.  Than you did in college so this kind of starting slow and then getting faster and starting short and getting longer and just kind of build that out over the time. I mean, I’m confident because I mean you you do have you have a very solid background and like it’s very obvious that you were running at a high level at one point and that’s that’s awesome that but I even think within that like just some minor technical changes we made with you over the past couple weeks and then allowing you to, Lift in conjunction with weights and do it the way that it probably should be done.  I think that in of itself could have kind of speak volumes once we get to where we need to go. Absolutely. You have excited. It’s been fun, but I’m like incredibly sore. It’s it’s a different ballgame. I mean neural fatigue versus like peripheral fatigue is no joke. Yeah. I mean you they’re sometimes what you’ll do like I’ll like a higher volumes from workout and you wake up and you feel like you got hit by a bus.  Yeah, and it was the same with piloting. I mean, you coming off of a, Very like I remember I we did west side for a while and you do your your max effort day on Monday and you coming on Tuesday and you felt like trash and there was it was tough.  It was tough to try to recover from then and it and even comparatively to sprinting it’s it’s different because it’s sprinting you don’t feel like you’re doing as much right? I mean, you you squat 400 pounds for like a double or a triple like you feel that like almost instantly and it’s whereas for sprinting like you’ll finish the workout you feel pretty good, but then like kind of it’s always for me.  I always feel about four or five hours. After the fact of my oh yeah I definitely sprinted today because does everything just seems to kind of operate slower at first right until you kind of adapt and then you’re able to kind of kick it into high gear and you’re able tolerate more volume but it’s definitely a different feeling that’s for sure.  Yeah, and I mean, I don’t want to scare you thinking like oh if I search for a program I would be so incredibly sore because part of it too is like as a kid growing up playing different sports, like I was running. Yeah all the time, right? So for me going into a high school program, I had Time to develop that and then a college program like it was it was very transitional I’m coming in 7 years off of you know I maybe jogged Yeah, maybe the 5K one time.  So this is like my joints are just like, what are you doing? I mean, there’s so many considerations at play here, right? I mean, you’re 29 years old, right? I’m old. Yeah, so I mean you compared to a 14 year old athlete like they’re all they’re recovering is gonna be night and day different because they just go home they got nothing to worry about them and you have a wife you have a kid you’re rebuilding a house, you’re helping us move into this new facility, which is actually our.  First podcast in our new office Speaking of which is nice and outfit it were sent on both suit balls and the floral chairs. So but now, I mean, there’s I mean, I think there’s all there’s a whole there’s something to be said about kind of your total volume of life stress and how how much is kind of being taken out of your stress bucket if you will and I think just anyone any young adult who embarks in something like this, it’s gonna it’s gonna be a lot tougher, especially if you are seven years removed from something like this.  I mean, you just, Very important to take your time and do it, right? Yeah, so you don’t kind of take one step forward in three steps back rather we’d rather take three steps forward and then maybe back down a little bit. Yeah as needed. And I know initially and the last podcast I was like yeah, let’s do it this summer and then as I’m getting into the the programming.  I’m like, Probably not going to be ready for max effort three and two months you know yeah so that’s okay. I mean, there’s no there’s really no rush with this yeah think it’s a it’s a process very good yeah step of it yeah and and even more sizing about this the other day it’s like how much do you want to take away from your actual life right because at the end of the day like when you when you do something somebody else has to give that’s always the case can’t do multiple things well, so it’s like yeah, we could do a sprint program very very well, but then that means you’re recovery outside.  I mean whether energy ice massage like you’re just trying to recover I mean there’s there’s there’s definitely an optimal way to do it and that’s like, I mean, you look read back of any Charlie’s work like you talks about all the importance of recovering regeneration, so it’s been I mean declining he was working with elite level Olympics printers and whereas for you trying to get that 60 PR though be it’ll be different it won’t be nearly as hard but I mean for you at coming out from where you’re coming from, I mean, it’s gonna be pretty equivalent to you’re trying to ask your body do something it’s never done before so.  That and that requires a lot of well thought out well-planned programming in order to make sure you do it safely and yeah and it’s datably yeah it’s good point and I think a good component of training optimally is communication so if you’re an athlete out there communicate with your coaches how you’re feeling yeah and like you say what kind of stress you got going on outside so if you have exams or you know your parents or fight, like whatever it is, yeah, okay.  I mean, it really could be anything. I mean, Like we like we talked about what we do so much with the younger girls and you know at the drop of a hat their day could be ruined by something so small and insignificant but like yeah, it plays a factor and like you you can tell like when like I don’t know the girl the girls we have like I mean, they will let you know if they’re having a bad day if they won’t say it vocally, they will definitely their body language will tell you almost instantaneously so it’s just part of the process where you’re just as a coach you’re constantly evaluating what you’re given or what you’re seeing and kind of using that as a base to judge how you’re gonna do the rest of your day.  I mean, Ideally you’d never want to really tell your athletes what the plan for the day is because in case yeah, they aren’t able to perform it yeah don’t feel bad because I mean really ever needing to tell an athlete to do another route. I’d love to do one for you anyway, it’s more so it’s like knowing when to stop don’t want to keep going that’s huge yep.  Because that too much that too much. That your body can’t handle or your mind can’t handle that’s you know, potentially two to four weeks to try to recover from oh yeah it’s an injury but if you cut yourself off to short because you’re you’re not just feeling it. I mean, it’s not gonna harm your your development at all yeah right exactly.  I mean, I’d ride. I’m wet much more proponent of doing less to do more later down the road than trying to force something now, mm-hmm. I mean for me personally all force it because I’m stupid and I have really nothing to do. Train for so I like to kind of experiment and see what I can tolerate to an extent but at the same time they’re definitely that kind of foundation yeah you need you need to have like this with a set what is a set like baseline or so like hey, like you need to know when to kind of what what are your signs that you need to stop mm-hmm?  Excellent. Are you last thoughts comments? I got nothing. I mean, do you want any like quick like rapid round about power lifting questions? I mean, I can answer anything you want yeah yeah, let’s make sure I think of. So you kind of dodge favorite lift earlier, so I’ll avoid that one favorite lifter favorite left yes sumo deadlift.  Sumo deadlift yeah did you ever do conventional non-competition? I always train sumo yeah. I mean, I’m a shorter guy, so like mechanically speaking how’s that a bigger disadvantage pulling it with a wider stance, um, For me I’ve had a history of back injuries so anytime it seems for whatever reason anytime I get into a conventional setup it’s probably poor technique I would I wouldn’t hurt it but I would definitely it would get a lot more aggravated or it would be harder to recover from a conventional style deadlift for more max effort.  I could do more like higher repetitions didn’t seem to bother me as much but anytime I didn’t max effort conventional mm-hmm. I would feel that for a few days after we’re assuming I think keeping kind of your torso vertically and more moving it more with your legs rather than kind of an extension pattern like you see with.  That lift up I seem to do better with that yeah actually when I I powered for a year in high school as a senior. I did sumo and enjoyed it. When I went back to deadlift I just did conventional because I didn’t have the flexibility yeah. I mean, it’s kind of like like having a yes yeah no one thing that I think.  There’s your bits people are built to do certain things right and I think there’s some people who are built to do conventional and build to do sumo and that’s okay, yeah like most six, four, six five. Strong man athletes, they’re gonna be fine doing the convention right mm-hmm and the sumo typically your legs are gonna be outside of the the weight you can’t even do it on an elephant bar, yeah.  This is personal but I’m sure it has some carryover. I’m gonna try to make it more applicable to the average athlete my I’ve heard that you’re and I’ve seen and in the the best power lifters out there that typically the back squat in the deadlift are very close. I’d say within 15200 pounds, okay, yeah mine was not so my deadlift was significantly stronger than my back squat and it was a it was always a challenge to kind of solve that equation and yeah.  In doing so I think I would approach the back squat too aggressively and then have to back off because of whether it’s an injury or just not feeling good at that point yeah, what do you think how how could you maybe diagnose that? My head. I mean inside your you would hammer it so hard and the squad that you’re dead left would begin to suffer but I mean really you get stronger in one thing your or the whole organism the whole human organism, right so like your body your everything how it syncs up your systems that work together, it’s gonna get stronger in general, right so you get your left arm stronger your entire body is gonna get stronger and that’s kind of a concept has been around for a long time, so I think that, You don’t want to not necessarily ignore the deadlift but I mean you want to focus on one thing at a time always in training so it’s like hey if I need no my squad isn’t that good we’re gonna focus on kind of special exercises that are gonna kind of bring that up and in terms of a power lifting standpoint, right so it’s not necessarily gonna be the main squatting movement that’s gonna be like right the builders of the squat whether that’s you know, like building the depth yeah, yeah, I like it what like accessory work so like your split squat variations or maybe like you’re you change up bar positioning you’ve changed up.  Tempo or speed and just putting yourself in the position where you suck at so I mean for most people like you either they get stuck in the hole or they can’t lock out once they get halfway up so it’s kind of finding you’re sticking point and then training that sticking point whether it’s through isometrics or like I said different bars or different kind of like accommodating resistances with bands and chains like that’s gonna kind of be the place to start is like where are you weakest at yeah, I start to build that spot first and then everything else should kind of raise yeah as a whole.  Listing is a surprisingly equipment heavy sport to train for like you need. Like variety yeah yeah yeah sure all that helps I should say, um, yeah to be to be at an elite level. I think you need it’s really like strength isn’t it very complicated. I mean, it’s kind of like that find the problem or find it will find your weakness and start training that first like whatever you’re bad at it.  I guess really for anything. I mean, if you’re slow trying to speed if you’re strong. Like maybe you have to change flexibility I mean it’s it’s just like there’s always gonna be a given take right so you got to find whatever you’re bad at and start there, mm-hm because that it will raise everything else up and then once you kind of get that stuff caught up and you can kind of circle back around and see all right now what’s next right you chase one rabbit or if you chase two rabbits at the same time both are gonna escape so it’s for focusing on like okay, what can I what do I need to chase right now and then we’re not worried about anything else, mm-hmm.  What was the most difficult lift to train for me, it was my bench. I was always pretty bad at benching mm-hmm. And what held the time. Matt winning he’s a phenomenal power lifter and I we I filed him like probably the most he was a he was a Westside lifter for a while then kind of went off and did his own thing like most.  Westside guys do. But he kind of he was a raw lifter so he didn’t lift in any equipment and that’s what I did so I mean to me, I kind of looked up to him at a sense where he was kind of I mean, he was a world record holder and multiple and mostly the squat in the bench what’s his weight he was super heavy weight okay, so it means a big guy but, Squatting like close to a thousand pounds raw benching like 600 raw I mean like dude could move some weight right he was big boy um so for me he he always talked about like triceps with the bench being the most important thing because I mean everyone thinks like that’s just like chest day or whatever and so what I did is like he he always says you like more like a moderate bench grip when you train you save your shoulder and develop more triceps that way when you go to competition if you bring your your grip out a little bit you’re shortening the range of motion, but you’re also making a little easier on yourself by doing so it’s interesting and Like with that I mean all my accessory work done became kind of tricep dominant because I could always get the ball off my chest, right?  I was like halfway up kind of where your triceps are fully protectively the three-quarter way of yeah that you can’t really lock the bar out so like I would do a lot of pin pressing or a lot of heavy like barbell presses for I like the throat or just changing up the angle and stuff like that to develop that kind of block out strength so that way when I circled back around to go to the meat I could kind of finish each left, which seemed to work really well.  I mean, I went, From probably like an 80 pound jump in my bench over the course of like 20 weeks, mm-hmm, yeah, I probably won’t like did you hit all your lips or did you miss me? I missed my last deadlift. I remember that I and I’m in because I’m only done one full meat, um did you like you do like bench slap meat or yep sorry we like the for me would be the full power would be bench squat deadlift there you can do like a push pole or you just bench another for where you can have some some people do just a squat sometimes mm-hmm bench me yeah yeah, oh yeah our bench only.  The full power. I mean, that is a there’s a big day. I mean, you were character that I slept like two days but home. Now I mean cuz you get three attempts in each lift um I remember I hit all my squats my first bench they I got I got a red lighted because my butt came off the bench so then I played a little conservative um end up hitting my last two times and then I hit my first two attempts and deadlifts on by the time want to go hit my last one my technique it was so was so poor and I was so fatigued that I just couldn’t really finish the lift and that was I say was more the conditioning problem at that point.  I reconditioning for policy was not good so I just didn’t have the ability to endure that long that’s eight maximal what? Well. Unless your first lift is a setup right but it’s yeah you really close yeah usually your first lift should be a gimme yeah for each one that’s what they tell you doesn’t look close to the PR and then you third one should be appear typically correct yeah well it’s kind of like you you’re second-lit like you each lift will determine the next thing like yeah playing in your head or what you kind of want to hit mmm the way you’re kind of peed toward.  But going in yeah like it once you do that first lift you kind of okay like gather yourself or reconnect then you have to go to the table to tell me what you want on the bar next and then if you hit that one then you kind of go from there and then it’s all in kilos, so the jumping is a little strange but it it was fun it was a ton of fun, um, I would never do it again, but, It was definitely good experience to have would you coach someone I have I’ve coached on our general manager Kelly she’s competed twice now.  I think um coaster both times that she did super well like I said, it’s for me it’s very easy to coach in terms of programming and just kind of planning how to peek it how to deload coming into the meat like oh makes sense to me, so. Be interesting at some point.  I mean, we’re we’re definitely gonna go out more attention. Between the updates mm-hmm the facility the name change everything yes, so I’m sure gonna get people who are looking for you guys train optimally yeah power lift yeah that would be no it’s definitely not our niche by any means but right at the same time I like I mean, you do early morning videos looking to compete at something or something to kind of keep them like I’m a big supporter of competition and having goals and having someone to train for so a hundred percent bring them in.  Hate to play enough to know rack a hard place what what sports would you not coach? Or maybe was maybe what sports are you comfortable coaching whichever question you want to answer huh? A little lifting I wanted to touch I’ve never done it before. I’ve never been taught how to do it.  I’ve done it. I guess I have done it, um to a degree but that’s the summit so out of my wheelhouse that I really don’t care to know. I don’t really do with my athletes just because it’s super special yeah it’s I mean, it’s it is a sport and of itself so I’m not gonna train soccer with baseball, so I’m gonna train yeah soccer with Olympic lifting.  It just it would just we would we only have so much time and in a day or a week that I don’t want to spend half a session trying to teach them how to catch a power clean when I could just have them throw medicine ball kit virtually the same effect and then just have them go do maybe a front squat and a dead lift, which is essentially power clean just with no dynamic move in there, so.  Let me ripping not comfortable with I mean in terms of sports like I mean, I don’t sport coach anyone but like. And the athlete right? I mean, it’s everything we do is so general that I’m comfortable training any athlete yeah to where I know I can build up any weakness or find that deficit and then train that first but there’s no there’s no sport where someone walked in and you’re like typically I’d give you.  Our program or something similar yeah I’ve adjusted trying to think of like a sport where you need like some crazy amount like like cycling or you’re not doing upper body would you yeah I mean excitement I mean that makes sense right because I mean, they’re getting so much conditioning and aerobic work through the bike and they would need more my kind of maximal strength and just upper body strength to make them stronger overalls, so that wouldn’t be very hard either.  I mean, okay. Maybe two to three days a week of crushing body lifting, right? I mean, it’ll just be total body lifting and yeah trading up weaknesses first. I mean, obviously the upper body’s gonna probably be significantly weaker which is standard for pretty much everyone so start there and then more so train strength for the lower body just so they have a bigger engine to do their lower intensity work fifth gear mm-hmm, absolutely fly into yeah.  Excellent we’re gonna wrap this up. First podcast in the new facility we’re freaking stoked about oh, it’s great yeah there’s gonna be sweetie we can’t wait to get our own little like legit recording studio almost we’ll put in here we’ll do it a bigger look good yeah we’re gonna do video or yeah, absolutely I gotta start uh actually brushing my time all right so you can’t wait for this covet to be over so I get a haircut finally I’ll cut your hair oh well you’re gonna try maybe we’ll do the middle of your first podcast video, it’s air gives me a haircut.  I’d be interesting probably one time but Important things yeah, so I’m focused on how we’re not sure in your head yeah, that’s true. Alright guys, thanks for listening and yeah check us out. Search the gym name, but that might be changing soon, so yeah, stay stay tuned stay tuned that’s that’s good.

Thomas interviews Eric about his experience racing and competing in the sprints during his 4 years at Cornerstone University. Eric competed in the short sprints from the 60m up to the 400m and was part of an Indoor All-American 4x400m team. Learn not only what it takes to train and compete at that level, but also what mistakes were made in programming. Also, learn how the OPTC approach to sprint development differs from your typical college program. Athletes coming out of blocks. Transcript: What’s up podcast? Welcome to another episode of the OPP? Optimal performance podcast, yes, this is Eric Schroder and Thomas Bose how’s it going guys and today’s gonna be a little bit different we’re gonna break down my collegiate track and field training look at what was done correctly if anything and then what was done incorrectly kind of break it down yeah this should be fun.  I’m excited we. I’ve been looking to do something more like this kind of more X’s and O’s especially when I’m like, It’s just track and field um I like using that they’re kind of style for speed training obviously it’s not kind of like go one size fits all but I think this is gonna be good to kind of really narrow the focus and just kind of deep dive on this one thing of speed and weights and how they all kind of work together and we talked about jumps a little bit too before we opt down here, but I think yeah, it’s gonna be good so how should we start so I was thinking initially let’s just let’s start with the whole whole thing in mind so I’m thinking like maybe whatever year you want to pick.  I mean, What it what was it was the breakdown of your year. I mean, you obviously have the the indoor and the outdoor season always mm-hmm, yes. College is a little bit different yeah. So I’ll just start with freshman year because it’s you know, they’re they’re bringing me on as a new athlete and I don’t have the past year’s experience to know what to go in on so they sent me like programming to do in the summer beforehand classic yeah it’s pretty standard yeah which included like three workouts on the track a week and then two.  Or we’re called jump circuit workouts, so you end up doing five days of work and if you could lift they sent you a program to do lifting as well, which is very lower body based as a track athlete, okay, so we did that that was from. June until August and then our season started when school started so when we went to college yeah, which what is it?  September. I mean, yeah you typically like most schools are open on end of August. I think cornerstone was always kind of like that first week of September like Labor Day yeah, yeah, so. I remember we came on the first very first day, they took us to the bleachers and it was kind of like.  It was a workout to design to show like who did the work over the summer who did oh yeah separating like for sure experience athletes who were like yeah, I’m gonna be ready yeah it’s not easy and I I hung tough on that but you know, it was it’s kind of like you didn’t know yet what was gonna happen for day and day out and then from that point on the workouts themselves were we’d go to the field we would do.  X by 100 meters, which would they would measure out 100 meters and we would I think we started with eight the first day. And then working up throughout the season to like 12 14 16, we did more than 16 that’s an example of one workout and how they kind of scaled it up as a season went on but our indoor track season didn’t start until January.  So we went from so we had three months of like general preparation yeah, okay well I can see that I could be pretty beneficial honestly. I mean in turn like when they when you’re doing those like you said you call them X by 100s are you doing like where you you said you started with say like eight would you go maybe like eight nine ten and then like back down to nine and like wave it like that or was it a constant progression and you guys never really went backwards or you never constant progression yeah, okay, yeah and each each time was recorded and You were kind of graded based on did you improve did you get also faster okay yeah not only which is good because otherwise you can just yeah I did more I did more reps this week but you might be slower right exactly there’s a lot.  I mean, there’s a lot of attention paid to the details which was good but as we’ll get into like the capacity the volume that we didn’t so that was one example of a workout and then lifting. Typically there’s a power lift like a clean or a jerk there was a compound movement like a squat bench shoulder press and then accessory work which is usually very leg development hamstring quad, mm-hmm sometimes calves I can like body armor almost yeah yeah resiliency piece okay and you were doing that what like three to four days a week, you said three days a week, okay, if you were a multi athlete look at the Catholic you’re doing four, oh wow, okay.  Now what like a decathlay like now go deep down on that just first quick second like I’m not super familiar with it yeah, so I have to athlete is indoor that’s seven events in one meet and then a decathlete is 10 events, okay since and the decathlons over two days but it’s from the 60 meter hurdles up to the 1500 meter run whoa and six five or six field events, so it’s very to be very diverse and a very gifted athlete yeah, it’s got to be someone special.  I’m trying to think I don’t know anything but anyways about the Catholic the Cornerstone. At one Spencer Perry, of course, yeah that makes sense he’s pretty good but it’s you you can see it firsthand like how. I mean we’re going to work two hours a day every day two and a half hours a day sometimes but they’re there they’re doing morning practices they’re lifting before they run it’s just a whole nother level now would you guys run and then go lived or would you lived and then you go wrong you would always yeah run first and then lift okay just I think good from injury perspective yeah.  I mean, I think it’s like what what is what is the the running faster is the goal and yeah, you probably want to run first and especially I mean, you look at even what it’s done, right, you look in terms of energy system use and how that gets replenished now it gets unlocked.  As like if you’re doing. Doing high intensity spring training like that’s going to fall when that category was weight lifting is going to be a little more kind of anaerobic not so much CP based but not should be good yeah, so how the week would break down with Monday was high intensity.  Tuesday, low intensity Wednesday. High intensity. Thursday would be low or medium intensity on Friday would be medium to high intensity yeah so it was kind of waved through the week, but it was you typically doing three really difficult workouts. Gotcha. Huh yeah I mean that’s not that’s a two bed you guys just did the five days you didn’t understand you know like a Saturday like recovery run you guys what was your recovery looking like oh, you know, what now I think about we would Saturday we would typically lift oh would you yeah, okay yeah, it’s just like kind of whatever you were feeling or was it a prescribed it was prescribed so that we’d have three lifting days.  I think Tuesday Thursday gotcha, now that I yep as a long time ago, so yeah, no worries, no yeah, that’s all that’s not a terrible explain. I mean, you wrote down here. I got like we got some. Nose in front of us today for once, um, Looking at like how it’s broken up, um.  Honestly the first thing that jumps out of me is just the volume for developing speed now. I know like you you’re 400 meters. Hey, I mean, you could say that was my best event but really it was the the relay okay so we had a good team for it and I was kind of like the second or third guy depending okay, yeah so.  I think between the training based on the volume that we had and what the team needed I ended up being 400 meter guy but my bread and my bread and butter the thing I enjoyed the most and I thought I was meant for her was short distant yeah 60 meter 100 meter 200 meter okay and you’d be never gonna chance to do that or did you I did yeah and I ended up doing well my senior year.  But as we’ll talk about I kind of took my own approach to training yeah, okay, so that was the but I mean, so you guys would run like you said general. General kind of prep work up until January once you’re in season, what’s your in season program look like?  So January would start considered. It’s considered like a new phase so okay, we’re not quite tapering down and getting speed and our workouts we’re actually increasing the volume so early January we have a J term yes and we would do two days okay six am and four four PM and.  Similar stuff, maybe a little more technique because there’s more time to work on it, but it was tough. I mean, you’re doing I think we did core every. Morning some kind of core workout and a lift in the morning and then the sprint workout and the evenings. And then from there once we were going to meet on Saturdays.  So typically a meat day was considered like a hard workout day, so they would. Pull off the Friday workout. Once we were doing meats. So whereas before we’d have like a long-ish workout like a 300 meter 400 meter sprint. Yeah, we would pull that off so that we were fresh for Saturday.&nbs

Thomas and Eric discuss the chaos that is living, breathing and training during COVID-19. The metaphors of small situations can be extracted and applied to the larger picture of life, business, and success. How much control do you have in your day-to-day situations? More than you think! Top view of modern workspace with laptop computer, notebook and coffee cup on white table Transcript: It’s like what’s this? It’s not so much what happens. Like it’s people to dilute the facts by telling themselves a story, that’s not even true. So, it’s like, Like you it’s like it’s almost like how I it was like even like it was example like with the room it would be like all my roommate like ate my food.  They hate me or they didn’t despite me. They did that because I know it was pissing me off or it’s like well it’s like do you know that like you don’t know that like you’re not situations? Yeah something we’re talking about but like I still don’t even know. I mean, I really don’t know where we’re going this podcast even so.  Take it all. Trying to come out develop. I mean, basically we we started kind of on the. Optimal performance as the foundation, but all for that it could be talking about getting your mind, right? Mm-hmm, you know diet taking care of your body. Yeah. Treat people well, mm-hmm. I mean, that’s a.  It’s a common theme but I mean yeah, that’s I mean really like the what I’ve been really diving into right now on my personal side is like. Youth development like youth athletic development as well as like nutrition like those are the two things like over the coronavirus that I’ve been like really kind of diving into hmm.  Tell me more who goes I mean like, There’s a whole I mean, there’s all systems. I mean, it’s like how um, Like athletic development you really only get one shot and it’s like people will gauge either they’re training off of outliers like LeBron James like they’ll see what he does on Instagram or they’re basing it off of like what they see Elite level teams doing now rather than like what it did to get them there so it’s like it’s like you’re starting your like you have the end goal in mind that’s what you’re starting with rather than seeking to kind of slow cook and develop over long-form problems like take the stairs like your core value or it’s like, It’s long-term consistency over short-term gain, it’s consistency over intensity even so.  Something like that could be a good place to start. Yeah, I love it speaking let me hit on that yeah reacting to emotions okay, we’re live by the way, oh really okay yours do this to me, there’s a very sneaky person hole so much more natural. I just start talking and then all of a sudden I’m talking for five minutes.  I wouldn’t put anything personal on you don’t got to worry about I sure hope not reacting to emotions or having emotional reactions yeah funny because I’m working on this house and growing up I would any project I’m doing where it’s like a little bit frustrating like you’re trying to get a nail out of a board yeah and it’s just not going the way you want it to and then you you know, you start getting heated and start calling the nail names yeah.  Having this big of a project and at the same time doing the training that we’ve been doing the kettlebells week. It’s like anything I’m doing and cold showers it’s like you’re developing that resilience like anything I’m doing in the moment. I’m like, why am I getting so frustrated over right a nail and a board like this is not worth the energy not worth the time and then you know, if I’m able to call myself down out of that guess what happens the nail pops right out yeah, you know always does I mean, it’s like yeah, we talk I think we talk about this last episode where it was.  Treated either controlling the control world or even like right now with the the covet nineteen pandemic it’s like why like you can’t get mad at it what’s like gonna do mm-hmm like that’s not gonna positively or even like negatively effective you will negatively affect you but it’s like you have zero control of what the state of Michigan is gonna say you have zero control with the president’s gonna say you see people gone on like social media.  I have a lot of like older people on Facebook or just like griping and complaining and it’s like that makes you feel better great but at the same time like you are like inadvertently like, Triggering other people to respond then you’re getting all these kind of like this domino effect of like negative conversation when it’s then you have all day just to sit around and stew about it because you have another note to think about so it’s I think it’s tough.  For people to whether it’s you want to call it like detachment or just like kind of framing the way it looks like people get so caught up in the moment and they have such a hard time taking a step back and being like all right, like what actually happened and one of my telling myself right because I think so many times like, We’ll tell ourselves these stories where it’s like it’s so much worse than actually is when realistically if you were just to kind of look at it like it’s always like when you look at somebody else’s problems doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but when it’s you you can’t like you’re too close to the problem you can’t even really decipher what’s going on it’s about that detachment.  Forget who said this but there’s a there’s a story of like. People that were escaping an island. I don’t know if it’s Japan or something and World War two but they’re on a boat and then if there was a storm they they would say all the boats where people lost control everyone died, mm-hmm, but if one person on the boat could remain calm and people could look at them as a leader and say hey, maybe we’re gonna make it through this then everyone would live yeah because the chaos on the boat causes it to capsize and go over yeah, so it’s like, Maybe you feel better contributing to the conversation going out and striking at this the right yeah but it’s like are we moving forward like?  From a character perspective or from helping each other or from doing something positive or we just contributing to the chaos and the noise and it’s gonna cause us all to yeah suffer in the long run yeah. I think that’s exactly what is it’s it’s a reaction instead of a response it’s like what’s that knee jerk thing you do when you hear bad news or?  Any news really in general. It’s like what the outcome is so much dependent on what you want it to be. Whether you think so or not? I mean, it’s like, You are in so much more control than you realize because I mean, you can control how you react. You can control what you say.  And as soon as you start like shifting the blame or shifting the perspective to somebody else like you’re putting them in the in the driver’s seat when I mean, it’s your life your thought your emotion your process of how you handle things. It’s like you need to get a grip on that.  If you ever want to be successful, I mean this end this comes back to like training and sport like, You can’t like blame the other team like it’s in a team sports setting like you can only do your absolute best and hope hope that your teammates are able to kind of keep that standard high as well, but the end of the day like in a soccer game like there’s 11 people on that field like you’re not gonna You’re not gonna know one person is gonna win the game, right?  Absolutely.  Transitioning over to the youth training. I thought it was interesting you mentioned people pull a celebrity or a. Very successful athlete and say what are they doing now. Yes. Instead of realizing hey they might be at level three. Yeah, not sure what can I do level 10 training? Yeah, what might be level four.  Yeah, it’s tough, right? I mean you see Instagram so good and so bad like you see I mean all these professional athletes will post what they did or what they’re doing now or what what they’ve been doing and it’s like yeah like but you’re not Mike Trout like you’re not the best in the MLB like you are a JV baseball player, so it’s like what did this guy do?  When he wasn’t playing JV baseball and then they’re like I think even parents see that too to where it’s like I want my kid to be the absolute best. I need him to be doing what the best is doing. I was like let’s do it the best did not what the best are doing, um, and that seems to be more the pattern especially also get parents coming all the time wanting like a specific like hey my kid plays soccer.  I need a soccer program looks like no they just we need to see like how they move we need to evaluate their patterns, like do they have strength that they have like capacity conditioning endurance to even. Make it through a session and then we can even start to have a conversation about like specific training it’s like if you can’t you can’t gobble squat with correct form, it’s like I’m not gonna let you even let you look at a barbell.  I guess it’s like yeah, there’s always gonna there always needs to be a progression and regression for ev