Chad dives deep into attacking life with a beginners mindset

Today Chad's in the hot seat, as Coach ADJ dives deep into Chad's journey to Living the Fit Life!

As we get older, we stop trying new things, we stop taking on new challenges and we get comfortable with the same old over and over again! Fitness is no different. In order to be consistent and stay motivated we need to keep it exciting. We need to push ourselves, we need to set new goals and we need to take a beginners mindset so we can continue to learn and grow. 

When Chad Mueller joined the LP Family in August 2014, let's just say he was in for a new Challenge. Or a whole bunch of new Challenges. 

Over the past 8 years lets just say he has tried A LOT of new things! Olympic Lifting, CrossFit, Unilateral Training, Hypertrophy and the list goes on. 

In this Episode, we talk about his journey, his challenges, his obstacles, his setbacks and most importantly everything he has accomplished and learned along the way:

• You’re not too old to have Goals
• Always have a Beginner Mindset
• Building your Tribe/Community
• Nutrition is about Knowledge
• Recovery takes time
• The Fit Life includes everyone in your Family

Tune in to gain awesome knowledge that Chad has learned about gaining weight, losing weight, building muscle, recovering from injuries and building fitness and a healthy lifestyle into his family's routine!

Follow us on Instagram at @livingthefitlifepod
Visit us on YouTube to watch our episodes!
Visit our website to watch or listen to our previous episodes.

Transcript

Chad [0:05 - 0:31]
Yeah community of members, coaches and professionals working as a team of like minded individuals in constant pursuit, connecting this exclusive group with the tools and resources they require to live a high performance lifestyle, conquering what life has thrown at them. We are living the life mm Welcome to the living the fit like podcast episode 48. I'm your host chad miller and I am joined by coach a DJ once again, how's it going buddy?

Adam [0:33 - 1:11]
Pretty good, pretty good. Uh Life's been a little different of late nine weeks into this parenting journey and little Madison, he's teaching mom and dad who the new boss is in town. So although dad doesn't do too much, he's realizing that life isn't all about him anymore and the focus has shifted slightly difficult change moms doing pretty good on our way back to optimal health and yeah things are good.

Chad [1:12 - 1:16]
Yes, a different, different perspective. That's funny how quick it changes though.

Adam [1:17 - 1:28]
Get a very quick appreciation for parents instant. You know, everyone said it would be hard, you know, be prepared and whatever and then it's like no

Chad [1:29 - 1:29]
mm

Adam [1:30 - 1:34]
I'm only nine weeks in and it's art. Yes,

Chad [1:34 - 2:07]
lessons are learned pretty quick, pretty quick, awesome. And yeah, today I'm I am we're doing a little role reversal. Today I've had a number of folks reach out and ask what my story is and so we thought be a good, good time to chat about my story and how I, you know, I sit here and I talk about living the fit life and questions. Do you walk the walk or you just talk the talk? So we're gonna dive deep into how I got to where I am here and coach D. J. Is gonna help us get there.

Adam [2:08 - 2:17]
Hell yeah excited you know it's thin eight years. We just, what do we say? 2014

Chad [2:17 - 2:18]
2014

Adam [2:18 - 2:23]
2014 Chad started Christine, looked it up august 2014.

Chad [2:23 - 2:26]
Yeah. Yeah just before a second was born. Yeah

Adam [2:26 - 2:48]
so it doesn't you know time flies when you're having fun. But I think a lot of members see you today and um see where your fitness is at and where your nutrition is at and see where living the fit life is at for you. But maybe they don't know your story and how you've kind of learned and grown over the years and excited to do that.

Chad [2:49 - 2:53]
Okay. Okay. Okay I'm I'm ready. I'm excited.

Adam [2:54 - 3:09]
Yeah tell me this. Okay. Where did it all start? What what was the first, how did you hear about L. P. How did you walk into the doors of LP? Where did it start?

Chad [3:11 - 3:31]
Yeah so as you know it really started when I started driving we got a place in breslaw and I drove past LP like every day. Um And before that I was very much a I was at L. A. Fitness down on victoria street so very much global gym and

Adam [3:31 - 3:31]
um

Chad [3:32 - 3:50]
I I don't recall necessarily what drew me to LP necessarily but I think like seeing seeing the place every day and then I looked online, I checked it out and you guys were doing much different things than what I would normally call fitness for me at least. And

Adam [3:50 - 3:51]
we were

Chad [3:52 - 4:06]
we didn't have a community of people really like we we were fairly new to the area um and it seemed, I think the community aspect drew me to help initially, like we have a group of people that we hung out with and maybe this would be an opportunity

Adam [4:07 - 4:07]
to kind of

Chad [4:07 - 4:15]
meet some new people. Um It was very much a new thing though, it was, I wouldn't say it was intimidating by any means, but um I was

Adam [4:15 - 4:16]
definitely

Chad [4:16 - 4:35]
in the mindset of trying something new. Um I was very much a typical global jam, you know bros play, it's like arms, you know buys and tries back and you know, all that sort of stuff. And so I had a partner that I used to go to the gym at like five AM six am and we were just like

Adam [4:36 - 4:36]
do

Chad [4:36 - 4:47]
That right? Typical bodybuilding. I'd find a body building program off of like bodybuilding.com and we switch out like every 16 weeks and we have our notebooks and you know, we do lots of fun stuff like that and that was like

Adam [4:47 - 4:48]
and that

Chad [4:48 - 4:52]
Was like not cardio, like that wasn't any sort of high intensity training I think at the time like 2014 that would have been

Adam [4:52 - 4:52]
like

Chad [4:53 - 5:06]
where a crossfit and these sort of group training programs were becoming a bit more popular and more boutique gyms were becoming popular like L. A. Fitness if you drive by it's a huge huge gym right? And so it was completely different.

Adam [5:07 - 5:07]
LP

Chad [5:07 - 5:12]
was completely different than any fitness and I think that's one of the reasons why I was like okay let's try this out, let's see how it goes.

Adam [5:13 - 5:25]
Yeah. Cool cool. And I, you know I know and I don't know if the other members know but you grew up playing like team sports and then hockey finishes and you go to

Chad [5:26 - 5:26]
L.

Adam [5:26 - 5:55]
A. Fitness which is not. Yeah I mean you have a buddy and it's not a group environment. Like you said it's a big gym, everyone's working out on their own and then you hop in with the six a.m. Crew at LP And like what a crew. Some days you'd have 30 people showing up Class at six a.m. and like it was it was an energized group and you just jumped in headfirst.

Chad [5:55 - 5:56]
Yeah I think

Adam [5:57 - 5:58]
I I imagine

Chad [5:58 - 6:08]
that was, I did feel like the transition was pretty smooth, like minus the physical exertion. We could probably talk about that later but like just like the culture aspect of it and jumping in um

Adam [6:08 - 6:09]
you know I'm not

Chad [6:09 - 6:11]
overly extroverted

Adam [6:11 - 6:11]
but like

Chad [6:12 - 6:37]
playing a lot of team sports when I was young. Um You know I always sort of I don't regret, but I always wish I could have played more sports. I wish I had more time to play more sports. We very much, I didn't start hockey until I was like 10 or 11. And then after that it was like all in like, like our whole family was like your typical Canadian hockey family, like my brother played, I played, my dad would

Adam [6:37 - 6:38]
coach two

Chad [6:38 - 7:39]
or three different teams and when I say like my dad would coach, like he's not your average like, oh I need a volunteer to coach. Like my dad has invested hours and hours of coaching, he's coached team Ontario under under 18, he's coached team Canada under 18, he's a very high level coach and so he took it serious, so he was at the rink four days a week. So like literally we would be at the rink every single day and I feel so sorry for my poor mother looking back now that we have a young hockey player, I'm just like, man, we just, it was like endless and like I had no time, I wanted to play football, I wanted to play volleyball and it was just like, we were just so much in the hockey summer and winter and I look back and I'm like, I don't regret playing so much hockey, but um I wish I would play more sports and I think jumping into like an LP group setting where it's like a team dynamic after so many years of going through college and, and the global gym era is very much sort of individual, right? And you kind of missed the camaraderie that comes with sort of what LP everyone knows L. P. Is is very much like that.

Adam [7:40 - 7:57]
Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah, I did did uh do you remember what the first, you know, a few weeks, few months was like, like what was the biggest shock to the system in terms of fitness compared to what you were doing?

Chad [7:58 - 8:10]
It was probably just like the general high intensity sort of work right? Like back then you guys were very much into sprints,

Adam [8:10 - 8:11]
Burpee

Chad [8:11 - 8:36]
burpees, like, I probably haven't done a like even in college I would do very much bodybuilding stuff like, so like in hockey it was it was a little off off ice training, so that was probably what I could relate it to, but like, remember some of the members I have from the early days of LP is like the LP mile doing a circuit inside and then running out to the end of the street and back, like, it was like running all the time, and I was just like,

Adam [8:37 - 8:37]
and I

Chad [8:37 - 8:40]
never really ran much, like, I was cross country at a young age, but like,

Adam [8:41 - 8:41]
I

Chad [8:41 - 9:15]
loved it because like, I had a few, like I would go toe to toe with michi and mickey, and we would just run and it was just like, it was fun just trying to compete with those guys and yeah, for some reason it's just like, and running right now, I still think running sucks but like that was one of the, and just like six links and I think just like all that sort of high intensity work was so, so different for me that it just like I embraced at the time and it was like everything was net new and we would do like, you know, squats and bench press and that stuff like was I've done that before, but then having someone like

Adam [9:15 - 9:16]
mitch

Chad [9:16 - 9:22]
and somehow, I don't know how I got partnered up with mitch, but it was me and mitch pretty much every day

Adam [9:22 - 9:23]
and

Chad [9:23 - 9:31]
everyone knows mitch, he's a pretty aggressive workout partner but he taught me a lot early on and how to like really bring intensity

Adam [9:31 - 9:32]
to like

Chad [9:32 - 9:35]
working out like I would never, would get that intense in like a global jim

Adam [9:36 - 9:44]
right? Yeah. All of a sudden you're like coming to the gym too compete instead of going to the hockey rink to compete like

Chad [9:44 - 9:46]
yeah,

Adam [9:46 - 10:00]
you're working hard, you're pushing, you got your partner, you got your the other members in the class you for you, it's fun though because you were pushing, you know against, you wanted to, you know, lift with the lifters and do cardio with the

Chad [10:00 - 10:01]
cardio

Adam [10:01 - 10:03]
guys and girl yeah, crazy.

Chad [10:04 - 10:16]
Yeah, yeah, watching like some of the big the big guys like Nate and foxy and and be like those guys like moving so much weight like of course I just automatically thought that I could do the same

Adam [10:16 - 10:16]
thing.

Chad [10:17 - 10:18]
Meanwhile also

Adam [10:18 - 10:19]
run a

Chad [10:19 - 10:23]
fast LP mile

Adam [10:23 - 10:51]
and look eight years later. You know living the fit life. And I think the coolest thing that like one of the coolest things that comes to mind for me is now it's not just you at the gym, it's Christine, it's Lucas and Sophie loving you know working out with you guys in the garage gym. It's Eddie and lisa your your needs to nephew at L. P. It's like it's that's living the fit life. And how do you

Chad [10:51 - 10:52]
think

Adam [10:52 - 11:00]
from what You know, started as a six a.m. trial at L. P. Turned into that evolution.

Chad [11:01 - 11:14]
That's a really good question I think um Yeah like I I often think that I'm like I often think I'm fitter now than it was a year ago and last year. I thought I was fitter

Adam [11:14 - 11:15]
then

Chad [11:15 - 11:28]
then here go before then and then even even hockey like I believed I was a better hockey player when I played beer league versus like varsity college sports. Like I just felt like as I had more time and as I got older I got better and I feel like

Adam [11:29 - 11:30]
it's kind of the same

Chad [11:30 - 11:59]
thing with like sort of living feel like we talked about this on the podcast a lot like the journey to get there, it's not just like a quick thing, you can't just walk into a gym and all of a sudden you have everything nailed down and eight years is a long time. And even before that like I wasn't I was focused on fitness and there's some nutritional stuff that I was investing my time into you know dabbling with supplements and all that sort of stuff and you kind of learn along the way but and I was fairly consistent for an individual but it wasn't going to it wasn't gonna last long right at one point I would burn myself out if I was doing it myself and I think

Adam [12:00 - 12:01]
you know

Chad [12:01 - 12:27]
Christine didn't grow up being an athlete and I think this was maybe a way for me to kind of bring more people into it was this community and going back to like joining L. P. And making friends right away then it's like okay can we get Christine involved and she got involved because she had Sophie and she did a baby boot camp and I feel like definitely for sure like the whole you know fit couples

Adam [12:27 - 12:28]
work

Chad [12:28 - 13:10]
out together stay together kind of thing. Like the thing the idea that we can share this early on especially as we were sort of having kids in young area like it's just like we shared this thing we go to the gym, she would go to the gym, we'd have different workouts or we'd have the same workouts. We could talk about it. We started making friends together. She made great friends. And so like it became a thing that we both did and that really helped. I think us include this sort of fit life mentality into our life. And I think naturally just kind of, you know, it obviously inspires your kids and your kids start seeing you work out and then eventually you start watching the crossfit games and your kids sort of watch it. And then, you know, as you have like niece and nephew or, or young cousins,

Adam [13:11 - 13:12]
you know,

Chad [13:12 - 13:24]
it's, it's hard not to talk about, you know, cross fitters talk about crossfit. So it's like, I think fitness people in general talk about fitness. And so I think it was hard for Eddie not to sort of be around that. And I think

Adam [13:25 - 13:25]
just

Chad [13:25 - 13:41]
doing it every day sort of naturally just, I think it just spreads and I think our kids now, it's pretty easy now like Lucas is doing the cup games and he just, he does it like they're not working every single day, but it's not hard for me to say, hey Lucas go work out or hey, Sophie go jump on the rower. Um,

Adam [13:41 - 13:42]
and sometimes

Chad [13:42 - 13:46]
they're just like, hey, can we watch the body rose or can we watch this cross video. So like

Adam [13:46 - 13:47]
it's nice

Chad [13:47 - 13:52]
having them sort of share an invested interest into some of this makes it easier for sure.

Adam [13:53 - 14:04]
Yeah let's that's what you know that's the evolution. I've seen it like you must have been going home every morning at seven AM telling Christine. She must have been so annoyed. Yeah she

Chad [14:04 - 14:09]
Would have 100%. She would have been, she would have, it was so foreign for her and give her a lot of Kudos

Adam [14:09 - 14:09]
because like

Chad [14:10 - 14:15]
she went to something completely new, like she never worked out in her life until she went to L. P. Which is crazy

Adam [14:16 - 14:17]
and

Chad [14:18 - 14:20]
it was it was and she just,

Adam [14:20 - 14:20]
she

Chad [14:20 - 14:31]
killed it. Like she she's a strong person. Yes, she will say she hates running and she sucks at running but like she can go to the gym and still sort of work out with anybody and she's done the open like

Adam [14:32 - 14:32]
it's

Chad [14:32 - 15:05]
funny how quickly you can try something new and you kind of just spend a little time being a beginner and it's like hope and you try a few different things like and that's the cool thing about L. P. There's a lot of variety, right? A lot of people tell us that LP brings a lot of variety. There's not just one thing, it's not like a crossfit gym, it's not an endurance jim. It's not like an olympic lifting gym. You have a taste of a lot of different things which I think really brings people back because if you're not good at one thing that's okay, you do it once in a while, it's good to kind of have a versatility, but then you can specialize something else and you can just enjoy that all the time.

Adam [15:06 - 16:13]
Yeah, I think that's been one of your keys to success and you use the word beginner and you take that beginner's mindset and when we talk about eight years, the hardest thing for people in fitness is to be consistent and make it a lifestyle, anyone can come in and quick fix and you know, we know somebody's, we know somebody's gonna be going to be a long time member when we see them come back with sore muscles day after day, the first week we really know someone is going to be a long time member when we see them consistently show up Day after day for six months, 9 months and then once they get to a year and it's part of the routine, like what do you think about that beginner's mindset has allowed you to do it for eight years, but with like no sign of slowing down in, in terms of that evolution.

Chad [16:14 - 16:51]
Yeah, that's um, I think, I think what you're, yeah, I think what you're saying is like eight years can be a long time and you can burn out pretty easily in eight years in any sort of topic or passion. I think I've been able to kind of try to be open to trying new things right? Like the early days of LP was new for me is very much kind of like boot camp style, a lot of running a lot of hit based stuff and then you guys and like right from the start at that point you guys were competing at LP every week, like there was a some sort of partner competition on Fridays, you guys had sort of LP olympics slash LP test week right? And so like right away

Adam [16:51 - 16:51]
the

Chad [16:51 - 17:11]
competition fueled me to, to stay and and and be there right like I wanted is the first time I was able to kind of see something like my my standing long jump or how many pull ups I could do consecutively, like that was the first time I've ever had sort of making fitness somewhat of a sport. And so that really drew me back in early on in the days and then,

Adam [17:12 - 17:12]
and

Chad [17:12 - 17:15]
I know this is the journey of LP and then you guys started getting into olympic

Adam [17:15 - 17:16]
lifting,

Chad [17:16 - 17:23]
which again is like, I would never have looked at olympic like I don't know if I've ever watched olympic lifting at the olympics,

Adam [17:25 - 17:25]
but you guys joke

Chad [17:26 - 17:32]
you guys started testing it out and then obviously you see some people be successful in it. Um

Adam [17:33 - 17:33]
and

Chad [17:33 - 18:09]
it was cool and so like you start learning it and when we started learning olympic lifting, it was, it was very net new for me and remember you guys had those really old old plates like they weren't even bumper plates like iron plates and uh I remember using those and I would and I would video it and you see the slow mo and you see your terrible my terrible front rack and all these different like we would scrutinize like our olympic lifting and back then we were pretty deep into it, like I learned a lot at that time because we did a lot of drill, snatch balances and snatch pulls and like we broke it down because you guys were working a lot with what is the name from

Adam [18:09 - 18:11]
uh Yeah

Chad [18:11 - 18:22]
yeah yeah and so like that was that was so new and I I was fairly successful for what I my expectations of success was like with with that and I think that really started kind of cueing into

Adam [18:22 - 18:22]
like

Chad [18:23 - 18:31]
being a beginner because then obviously crossfit sort of following that because you guys were across it already and again competition led me there

Adam [18:31 - 18:32]
and I think

Chad [18:32 - 19:41]
a lot of it stems from that because at that point I was probably still playing beer league hockey and kind of just playing it late at night, you know play until 10 or 11 and then waking up at five a.m. And my sort of priority started shifting like you know hockey, you get a little banged up in this crossfit thing and this finish thing seems a bit more fun. So yeah so I started I mean remember we would spend Saturdays just doing olympic lifting and doing skill based stuff and I don't know, I think it's just like being open to learning something, you know, not being afraid of like failing, like I remember, I think it wasn't my first crossfit open, I think it was, it was the first one, there was a a double under total bar and then squat cleans and you have like four minutes to progress to the next one and before the workout I didn't know how to double under and I had like 32 to do in one round and I'm just like and you were just like okay just like try a few and I had like I hit like one or two and in that workout like ice ice string like 20 together in that workout and that's how I learned double unders, I just, I was just like well I got to try this workout like it's here, like I'm gonna try, I'm not gonna not do the open because I don't have the skill and

Adam [19:42 - 19:42]
so

Chad [19:42 - 19:46]
I learned a lot of skills that way, like it wasn't like I was like saving

Adam [19:46 - 19:47]
up, making

Chad [19:47 - 20:06]
sure I had all these skills before I joined the open, the open sort of forced me in that specific way to learn these things and just dive headfirst and you always hear stories about that across the really the first bar muscle up and the first person like those are really cool successes and I think just being new and not afraid to try something is really just allow me

Adam [20:06 - 20:07]
to kind of

Chad [20:07 - 20:37]
be a beginner in different areas, right? Like golf is now new. Like I didn't do golf when I was a kid, my dad always thought it was a, a slow sport and I was very much into team sports and hockey and now and then I just, you know, hockey became difficult for my body. So I'm like, I'll try to do golf and I could have just played golf leisurely, but I'm like, I don't want to get better at it, so I gotta put some time into it. That's

Adam [20:37 - 22:47]
right. And you know, I think the message to the listeners is like, you don't have to be an expert before you get into something and that I love the story about the double unders because it's such a reminder. Like We always think we have to, if I'm gonna run a 10, K I better be able to, you know, I better train for two years before I do this tank. You know, like sometimes it's just diving in headfirst and I think as adults, we hold ourselves back from that mentality and the second we stopped, you know, wanting to learn something new or wanting to try something new is the second that all of a sudden my six days a week of fitness become four days a week and then my four days become three days and it's like the motivation starts lacking because you don't, you're not striving towards anything in particular and I love that you're always striving towards something new. I mean, yeah, we, we did, you know, competitions and challenges and olympic lifting and crossfit, but you allowed yourself to go dive headfirst into these, these areas that you were by no means an expert in. Yeah. You know, fail and fail and fail and then, you know, get better as you went. And I think that's so important as a message for new members, but also for long time numbers that maybe aren't even in a funk but are like, what's next? You know, what's gonna get me excited? You know, sometimes it's just doing it, you know, and not thinking and just diving in headfirst and we're never too old to learn something new and especially with, it's, it's, it's, you know, you're killing two birds with one stone here, improving your health and your fitness and at the same time you're staying motivated and learning something new and having fun and that's awesome. Yeah. I love hearing that evolution.

Chad [22:47 - 22:55]
Yeah. I often think like, and I think you guys do a good job at LP kind of bringing new flavors of things. Um, but often think

Adam [22:55 - 22:55]
like,

Chad [22:56 - 22:57]
am I going to do

Adam [22:57 - 22:58]
the LP

Chad [22:58 - 23:03]
compete program for the next three years and if I do that, I'm not gonna get burnt

Adam [23:03 - 23:04]
out and

Chad [23:04 - 23:32]
if I'm feeling burnt out, maybe it's time for a change, maybe I try something new, right? Like I'm, I am for sure a generalist, like I'm not a specialist. I'm not and it's got good or bad, it's got good and bad things. Remember reading David Epstein's book about range, talking about Roger Federer versus Tiger Woods and obviously we know the story of Tiger Woods, he's a specialist and he's the best golfer of all time. Roger Federer is a pretty good tennis player as well and he didn't play only tennis, right? The conversation about

Adam [23:33 - 23:33]
building

Chad [23:34 - 23:39]
amazing athletes do, they just do one sport versus multiple sports or multiple things. And I'm on the believer,

Adam [23:40 - 23:40]
I love

Chad [23:40 - 23:58]
having this conversation, but I'm the believer of having more widespread things and I'm very fortunate and I'm very grateful for being somewhat athletic. Like I'm very coordinated if I try a new sport, I'm, it's not going to be super difficult for me to get started. Um, and so maybe there's some confidence there to, to kind of

Adam [23:58 - 24:01]
yeah, comes over time though, right?

Chad [24:01 - 24:02]
Yeah. The

Adam [24:02 - 24:27]
more things you event fail and fail and then succeed at you are to try something new and not be scared to fail, you know, engulf the first time, the progress you've seen over the last 2.5, 3 years when you first swung the club, you know, until now you weren't scared to, you know, not be able to be the best the first time.

Chad [24:28 - 24:39]
Yeah, I remember those, yeah, those early day open workouts. Remember the bar, like for most apps, like working with you and working with Carla at the time, like doing top down bar, muscle ups, hitting my head on the rafters

Adam [24:39 - 24:40]
during open

Chad [24:40 - 24:42]
work. Like it's just stupid things that just

Adam [24:42 - 24:43]
like,

Chad [24:43 - 24:45]
it's yeah, it's crazy.

Adam [24:45 - 25:27]
Yeah, I think, you know, you said it, but at LP we've evolved over the years to where we used to think that everyone needs to do olympic lifting and then everyone needs to do crossfit and then everyone needs to do, you know, whatever is next right now, it's like, hey, we got an endurance crew, we got a crossfit crew. Um You, you do what you love and we're gonna help you, you know, we have our everyday workouts are gonna get you super fit and strong and good conditioning and then if you want to specialize in something then we'll help you get there right. Which is so, so cool. Yeah,

Chad [25:27 - 25:33]
one size doesn't fit. All right. Like I really got to find what works for you and it might just be contextually based on the time you are at

Adam [25:34 - 25:42]
in your finished absolutely family time or less time. You want to get

Chad [25:42 - 25:50]
your body is feeling too right? Like it's not easy going to consistency. Like I was a five a.m.

Adam [25:50 - 25:51]
like at

Chad [25:51 - 25:58]
least for my six consistently for like six years, I'd probably say just before Covid,

Adam [25:59 - 25:59]
right?

Chad [25:59 - 26:02]
Because since Covid, I haven't done the five a.m. But I was a five a.m.

Adam [26:02 - 26:03]
Er

Chad [26:03 - 26:31]
and when we went from six a.m. To five a.m. We were just like, mitch you're, you're nuts for bringing this up, this is stupid, but like you said there was like 30 people in the gym, so it was no other option. And it's like, it was just consistency. It was just like my body at that time was okay doing those things, but, but you kind of as you evolve, you sort of, you get better at listening to your body and it's like,

Adam [26:32 - 26:32]
you

Chad [26:32 - 26:35]
know, my front rack can't take doing olympic lifting

Adam [26:35 - 26:35]
every

Chad [26:35 - 26:51]
single day. And so you, you, you slowly listen to your body, but you can stay consistent if you sort of change things up. But often times if you just give up, You lose the consistency now, you don't show up at the gym for a week or two instead of just sort of changing direction

Adam [26:52 - 27:25]
and focused in the direction you do. Yeah, slightly you do that very well, but I think you, you know, worked on that over the past maybe your whole life or maybe the past eight years at LP. But um, so a lot of people know already, but what's your fitness focus right now, you've got golf going on and then you've got this hyper trophy Thunder bro program going on. What how do you make all that work right now?

Chad [27:27 - 27:28]
Yeah so like during Covid

Adam [27:29 - 27:29]
I

Chad [27:29 - 27:45]
think everyone would probably agree it was a cool wasn't cool, it was an interesting change right away. Right? We did very much bodyweight stuff which I always hated bodyweight stuff. But actually after the first year I was like oh this is kind of nice, my body feels pretty good. I'm not lifting super heavyweights. Obviously as Covid went on,

Adam [27:46 - 27:46]
you

Chad [27:46 - 28:16]
know, everyone was kind of desperately trying to find ways of keeping fitness into life and we were no different right? We we now had fitness in our life and it was it was our thing we we now need it versus just not just letting it go. And so we obviously invested in some some gym equipment um follow the L. P. Program. Um But as you know, I'm sure talking to members like it wasn't easy doing LP style workouts at home. It was definitely difficult and I definitely found myself sort of

Adam [28:17 - 28:17]
not

Chad [28:17 - 28:23]
as motivated like many people and so I try to find, you know, ways of

Adam [28:23 - 28:23]
staying

Chad [28:23 - 28:27]
motivated, making sure that I still did it. So I started looking into hypertrophy training

Adam [28:28 - 28:29]
and

Chad [28:29 - 28:53]
as we went through multiple lockdowns and you know it didn't feel like anything was gonna sort of give back into our what our normal life was. I was like well if there's any time and and I've always wanted to go back to that body building type stuff now that I have so much more education um and try it out and really dive into it cause I'm like, I could do it better than I did back then, because back then I was just like doing it and so if I try any

Adam [28:53 - 28:53]
time,

Chad [28:54 - 29:36]
this would be the time I know that I'm not gonna have fomo from the gym because I'm not in the gym so I can just give up the crossfit stuff and just jump into this sort of hypertrophy training. And so I went into a thunder bro, 100 days to get huge. I did a mass through nutrition and the whole plan was to amass a few weeks of a few months of maintenance and then do a cut and high perch if he would take me through this whole thing. So it's been really interesting, really interesting to try something new and I know you worked out with me one time um and it's not just, it's not typical body building. This this stuff is legit hard and it's fairly high intensity for bodybuilding in my opinion. So I'm getting a lot of dynamic movements. But

Adam [29:37 - 29:37]
um

Chad [29:38 - 29:42]
yeah, I work out um I did a program, I worked out three days a week,

Adam [29:43 - 29:43]
like

Chad [29:43 - 29:49]
2.5 hours a day, that was sort of when I was trying to gain muscle mass. Um

Adam [29:50 - 29:50]
and that

Chad [29:50 - 29:52]
was a difficult program.

Adam [29:53 - 29:53]
It's

Chad [29:53 - 29:59]
different than I'm doing now, but that was that was pretty that was my first introduction that was throwing me into the To the deep end on that one.

Adam [30:00 - 30:46]
Cool. Yeah, no, that's cool. That because you're right, you did at the L. A. Fitness, you were essentially doing like a body building, but now you're doing it again eight years later with a totally different mindset around like, okay, here's functional fitness. What can I take from what I've learned and put it in. So and you mentioned nutrition, so how big of a role do you think nutrition um played from like those global gym days to now? And like, you know, we have you can you mentioned this earlier, but you were like, kind of, you would deem yourself as a skinny guy walking into LP and like what is the hyper trophy nutrition training split, you know?

Chad [30:47 - 31:01]
Yeah, I've yeah, I was always I've always been skinny lanky when I was younger, I didn't really put on any weight. I remember trying to put on weight in hockey, like as I got older, like 16, 17, I would go buy like a box of donuts,

Adam [31:01 - 31:02]
just

Chad [31:02 - 31:09]
just like so stupid, so silly like, you know that like now that we know that that doesn't stop help at all. Um

Adam [31:10 - 31:10]
And

Chad [31:10 - 31:28]
My dad was a bodybuilder and he's a big guy, he's like six to he was like £260, like he was he's a pretty big guy and my brother gets his sort of build, but I'm just really tall. Um and I was probably, I don't know what my weight would have been back then, like, probably like 1 81 90. I don't think I started hitting 200 until probably after college.

Adam [31:28 - 31:29]
Mm

Chad [31:30 - 31:43]
And so I've always, and we've talked with us with Michelle too, like I'm the opposite of most people, like, I don't want to lose weight and I know that people are going to be like, I'm so jealous, but like, I can lose weight easily,

Adam [31:43 - 31:44]
right, I

Chad [31:44 - 31:46]
can go on vacation and not work out and I probably lose 55

Adam [31:46 - 31:47]
pounds,

Chad [31:47 - 32:26]
right? And so it's the opposite where people struggle to not gain weight. Um I'm the opposite, I'm always looking to add more pounds to the scale. And so, so yeah, I jumped my my my nutrition like I didn't eat a salad until I went to college and it was a caesar salad with croutons and bacon bits and cheese. Like it was, but that was my, like, that was the first time, like, I was on my own, I was trying to do things like, I was very much like a not, we're very much a meat and potatoes kind of family vegetables weren't necessarily a big thing. I wasn't, I'm not into sweets, like I don't eat a lot of sugar.

Adam [32:27 - 32:27]
The only

Chad [32:27 - 32:48]
thing that I would probably eat as a kid was be like kind of like pastries and stuff like croissants or like these muffins kind of that stuff like that back in the fruit explosion. Tim Hortons muffins. I would go out for lunch every day like KFC like it was a typical kind of high school nutrition plan. And I think through college I learned a lot and after college I started like

Adam [32:49 - 32:49]
bodybuilding

Chad [32:49 - 33:10]
dot com was my go to like web page, it was like everything right? They had the nutritional plan, it had jim Stepanian's like program and these guys were like shredded and steve cook and it's like and so I started learning about nutrition then but I didn't nutrition for me it was just just follow this program but I didn't really understand it. I just kind of followed it.

Adam [33:11 - 33:11]
Um

Chad [33:11 - 33:33]
I think I spent some I think early on in LP typically like when we talk about people like you do the fitness and once you get the fitness baked in it's like okay a year later. What about nutrition? How's your nutrition? Looking right, remember experimenting and going through like the R. P. Program with Michelle and you. Um And I was trying to mass right? And she she was doing some cuts sometimes and I slowly going through

Adam [33:33 - 33:34]
that that

Chad [33:34 - 33:47]
journey of learning through R. P. And then I think there was there was another one at one point I learned a lot about performance, nutrition and what that means? I know like obviously I experienced I experimented a lot with supplements

Adam [33:47 - 33:49]
remember

Chad [33:49 - 33:58]
doing like what was that? I would buy like dextrose and protein and creatinine and mix it all like bulk items and just mix it together instead of buying the bio

Adam [33:58 - 34:03]
steel. Yeah.

Chad [34:03 - 34:13]
Yeah. Yeah but like I I thought supplements were the answer back then. Like I thought that there was like integral because obviously because my nutrition wasn't

Adam [34:14 - 34:14]
getting

Chad [34:14 - 34:21]
me where I needed to get right. So so yeah so this time around the hypertrophy and I guess we'll never really know

Adam [34:22 - 34:22]
right.

Chad [34:22 - 34:30]
I'm asked and my goal was to gain some weight into and through the 12 weeks I went from 2 16 to 2 30.

Adam [34:31 - 34:32]
Um And I

Chad [34:32 - 35:05]
was following like RP nutrition. I was eating a lot of food. I it was fairly easy. It was hard but like I had the education of what I had to do. I just needed to sort of track it and so Gaining almost something like £20 in 12 weeks it was and I don't know if hypertrophy helped it necessarily versus just an LP program necessarily. Like we'll never really know imagine I can gain that much weight doing L. P. Program but will it be that much muscle? Not sure hypertrophy training is very much just to build lean muscle in short periods of time. So

Adam [35:06 - 36:29]
yeah I love to hear that your nutrition really evolved when you started taking like the mindset that I actually have to understand what I'm doing and what's going into my body and that's when you really made that shift and I and I love and I think that's what Michelle and what she does with RP nutrition, it's so good, it's not like just me and chad a meal plan and he follows it, it's like okay here here's what you're doing, why you're doing it and you start to really dig into your picking what food you're eating, you're picking um the quantities and the types. Oh yeah the learning again back to that like learning mindset of our our members who have had the most success with nutrition whether it's cutting or bulking or performance. Um they know they know what works and they understand what protein carbs and fats they need and they understand the tiding around workouts and how have you taken, you know, kind of what you learned in the early days and now what you've learned from this gainer plan, what do you see as like, you know a typical day evolving into.

Chad [36:30 - 36:34]
Yeah, I think so like I remember like spending a lot of time with Michelle

Adam [36:35 - 36:35]
ali,

Chad [36:35 - 36:36]
you

Adam [36:36 - 36:37]
I remember like at

Chad [36:37 - 36:51]
night time we would have our casing puddings right? Or like slow release proteins and like even learning how to use supplements properly. So like a lot of that education has stuck with me and I think even sorry before probably before Covid I was eating a much more balanced sort of

Adam [36:52 - 36:53]
easy, let's

Chad [36:53 - 37:22]
call it like easy, like don't have to think about it balanced set of nutritional sort of plan, and we I did that because even even Christine, like when I was learning about nutrition, she was learning to and she loves to cook and she loves to cook her german food with lots of sauces and stuff like that, and she always used early on, she was always so frustrated, hated it because I like, I like my sauces, I like my german food, those things don't typically fit into performance nutrition necessarily,

Adam [37:22 - 37:22]
um

Chad [37:23 - 37:25]
but we meal prepped a lot early on

Adam [37:25 - 37:26]
and

Chad [37:26 - 37:33]
that taught us both like how we can balance things out, we can have like german, like spaetzle and schnitzel with some sort of gravy,

Adam [37:34 - 37:34]
but

Chad [37:34 - 37:49]
during the day we'll have, you know, chicken with rice and broccoli or something that right, we've and she's gone through the journey with me as well, which definitely helps balance is definitely easier. And so like this past sort

Adam [37:49 - 37:49]
of

Chad [37:50 - 37:53]
six months and I'm now cutting I'll be down in like a month or so,

Adam [37:54 - 37:55]
it's definitely

Chad [37:55 - 38:31]
difficult just in general right now, I'm eating something different than the kids and Christine and I haven't done it as sort of a specified sort of goal tracking nutrition thing in a while, at least for like four years, but I do think everyone has to sort of try to figure out like that, I think they have to go through the experience, like for 12 weeks, track your food, try to stay disciplined as much as possible because the learning in that small amount of time is gonna help you like for the rest of your life, like that, learning early on with Michelle and, and Christine, I learned so much then that I carry into everything now, so like this recent sort of mass slash cut so much easier.

Adam [38:32 - 38:32]
I

Chad [38:32 - 38:34]
don't have to think about it nearly as much,

Adam [38:34 - 38:34]
but I

Chad [38:34 - 38:41]
can see on the other side when Christine and the kids there isn't that balance right? Like I need at some point I need to go back to

Adam [38:41 - 38:41]
just

Chad [38:42 - 38:55]
eating with the family occasionally having some some german food that my wife makes us on Saturdays, right? Like that, that's living the fit life when you can go and have the knowledge and have the discipline,

Adam [38:56 - 38:56]
but

Chad [38:56 - 38:57]
just being

Adam [38:58 - 38:58]
balanced

Chad [38:58 - 39:05]
and have a good relationship with food and knowing that performance nutrition um is needed, but it's not

Adam [39:05 - 39:05]
like a,

Chad [39:06 - 39:27]
you can't just eat performance nutrition all the time, you can't just give yourself this mass or cutting phase, like you can't be that disciplined. I don't think it's possible. I think when you look at the elite athletes, they do it because they get paid millions of dollars and they probably have a chef and it's easier and they probably chef probably cooks chicken broccoli and rice, like nobody's business and it probably tastes amazing. But

Adam [39:27 - 39:52]
like, like you guys from your learning, like you're telling me when you use the word balance, like you're still um following the principles that you've learned, but you're eating like Lucas and Sophie are eating dinner with you guys when you're following that kind of, you Christine the family, the balance includes the whole family

Chad [39:52 - 39:53]
right?

Adam [39:53 - 39:54]
That's

Chad [39:54 - 40:29]
key to the balance, right? Yeah. We used to make four different meals or three different meals and that was such a painful time, but we learned a lot from it and I think we have to go through that sort of thing. I mean, yes, the kids are picky, so that didn't help at the time. I mean our kids are, but I think we have to go through that to really understand what works for us. And so like, yeah, every morning we make green juice. It's, it's automatic if I don't make it Christine makes it and guess what the kids drink it and the kids ask for and even their friends ask for it when they come over. It's just like that's a staple. Like getting

Adam [40:29 - 40:30]
greens,

Chad [40:30 - 40:35]
drinking greens. It doesn't sound great, but like a little spinach and a little bit of green bile still, it

Adam [40:35 - 40:35]
tastes like

Chad [40:36 - 41:16]
called green juice and monster juice, but like we know in the morning, like if Christine Christine struggles not to eat breakfast, but when she does, she feels better. So, you know, it's a friendly reminder, like for me, breakfast is a big meal. So I a bunch of breakfast, like I know that post workout, I'm almost always having oatmeal doesn't matter when I'm working on whether it's the morning or afternoon, because I know that there's a mixture of slow release carbs and oats and then I top it with some fruit and a little bit of maple syrup and I'm getting some high class to make cards. So carbs, I know there's these things and I just always returned to them, right? And then during the day it's like, yeah, if we spend time on sunday meal prepping then you don't even think about it and at night time

Adam [41:17 - 41:17]
Christine

Chad [41:17 - 41:36]
can make her german meal. You know, I haven't, I used to cook but I haven't done a long time. You know, she might make chicken parmesan for the kids or do chicken burgers and I don't have to worry about exactly what if I'm getting enough carbs or enough vegetables because like you've done good up to this point and now this meal is just kind of bonus.

Adam [41:37 - 42:31]
Yeah, that's that's so cool. I think all the other technical jargon that we were talking about before, that just simplified it. You know, like you guys have a routine and meal prep is part of that, but you start your day with the green juice and then before and after your workout, you have a routine, you've probably prepared your lunch if it, you know if you're working from home or if you're going to the office and then is that kind of, it sounds like that's similar for the kids. Like they probably prepare their lunch with you guys even though it looks like your kids do their own meal prep sometimes. Um Maybe that's just, you know, that's what everyone dreams of. But um and then you have a family dinner that's just balanced with, you know, some proteins and carbs and veggies like yeah, that's pretty cool.

Chad [42:31 - 42:39]
Yeah, the kids make their lunches at night because I don't know of other parents that's such a chore, but it's almost always fruit and I look at this and like

Adam [42:40 - 42:40]
and

Chad [42:40 - 42:57]
like that's a lot of fruit. I'm like, you know what they're doing it there, it's fruits healthy. It's not bad for you. There's some vegetables in there. So like you know what, they'll eventually ask for other things that they want horrible legs. They'll ask for that. If they want some sort of deli ham or some piece of chicken and rice, they'll ask for that. So it's like we're giving

Adam [42:57 - 42:57]
them

Chad [42:58 - 43:09]
options and then they make their choices themselves and yes we have, we try not to have too many of like the sort of hand held easy snacks. We do have some of those sort of for emergencies

Adam [43:10 - 43:10]
and it's

Chad [43:10 - 43:15]
convenient like you can't be perfect, it goes back to balance right, like our kids aren't just going to eat

Adam [43:16 - 43:16]
fruit

Chad [43:16 - 43:19]
and vegetables all the time. Like they're not

Adam [43:20 - 43:20]
we're

Chad [43:20 - 43:38]
not gonna call them clean. That's pretty clean, right? But we often talk about our lessons about if it's made, if it's made in a factory versus if it comes from the earth, right? And that's that's really what we talk about and trying to teach our kids that the stuff from the earth is the best for you. And the stuff that made in a factory is sometimes altered and isn't your best choice?

Adam [43:40 - 43:42]
I love that they're involved in the process. And

Chad [43:42 - 43:43]
yeah,

Adam [43:43 - 44:19]
lunch is at night, then they get to to pick some of the stuff that they like and some stuff they want, you know, the stuff they need or is better for them. Okay, so for the listeners tell me the biggest difference. If someone was interested in a cut versus someone who is interested in a cult in terms of protein, carbs and fat, I just saw your cut plan. And it reminded me of the biggest difference. So what's the first thing to go in a cut plan

Chad [44:20 - 44:21]
fat?

Adam [44:23 - 44:28]
That reminded me it was such a reminder to me because everyone cuts carbs.

Chad [44:28 - 44:30]
Yeah. And I think,

Adam [44:30 - 44:43]
yeah, I'm gonna cut out carbs But Chad you're down to 60 g of fat, which is like, you still need to get your base amount for your overall health. But I that's so cool.

Chad [44:43 - 44:54]
Yeah. So like what I actually got reminded of and it's probably something I probably don't do and probably a lot of members probably struggle with is getting enough protein right during mass in this.

Adam [44:55 - 44:55]
I

Chad [44:55 - 44:59]
Mean, g of protein. And that doesn't change between mass or

Adam [44:59 - 45:02]
cut a

Chad [45:02 - 45:17]
lot of protein. And I would say if you're not thinking about it, it's very easy to eat a low protein diet, right? Like that's a lot of protein. Like that's a lot of chicken. That's a lot of like, That's two eggs 350g of egg whites. That's a bowl of egg whites. Like,

Adam [45:18 - 45:24]
I'm not a person. Like if they don't think about it, probably it's like 100 g of protein.

Chad [45:24 - 45:25]
Yeah,

Adam [45:25 - 45:44]
most and then you're telling me that your diet, you're my size for your size, your your goal is £215. So you're eating 215 grand. So like, whatever your goal weight is, you should be eating that much protein essentially.

Chad [45:44 - 45:59]
Yeah. And so like on the mass, I was having four eggs in the morning with like, 250 g of egg whites. And now in the cut, because I have low fat, I can only have one egg, but I have like 350 g of egg whites. So

Adam [45:59 - 46:00]
like,

Chad [46:00 - 46:14]
Because unfortunately the amount of fat in one egg is as much as I can have in a breakfast. So like, it is interesting because I think it's also because I think what people struggle with is because like during your cut, you're most likely going to do more

Adam [46:14 - 46:14]
cardio

Chad [46:15 - 46:20]
or do more workouts or right? And so your carbs have to stay high because you have to fuel

Adam [46:20 - 46:21]
your

Chad [46:21 - 46:38]
effort. And that's I think where I think that's the idea between RP and I'm sure Michelle be like, yeah, no duh, but like if you're working out more and you're doing more cardio and if you're not getting enough carbs, your muscles just going to go away and the fat with

Adam [46:38 - 46:40]
fat, right? So

Chad [46:40 - 46:47]
the idea is that if you keep your carbs relatively normal slash high and just remove fat, then

Adam [46:48 - 46:48]
you know, eventually.

Chad [46:48 - 46:52]
I mean, I think next week I have to drop my carbs a bit more as well. But

Adam [46:53 - 46:53]
yeah,

Chad [46:53 - 47:00]
it was interesting to see that like I went from eating a ton of peanut butter to not be able to have any peanut butter.

Adam [47:00 - 47:05]
I know that's one of the biggest things you said you missed is that nice peanut butter.

Chad [47:05 - 47:07]
Yeah,

Adam [47:07 - 47:34]
so that's, I think that's so important to hear and why people really need to learn and understand before they try to, you know, lose weight or gain weight or eat a healthy diet is like, you have to know you can't just go off of, you know, the typical fad fads that are out there, it's really important that you understand what your body needs. Oh,

Chad [47:35 - 48:02]
I think, I think Michelle talked about a lot in her last nutrition challenge? Like it's very basic. If you think about calories in and calories out and you just just break down your macros, like how much protein, how much fat and you slowly, you can't just all of a sudden go from 30 600 calories down to like 24. Like you have to take the steps down. And I think Now I'm getting close to like 2300 calories from almost 4000 in my mass. And it's like it's taking me,

Adam [48:03 - 48:03]
I stopped

Chad [48:03 - 48:05]
my mouse in december. And now

Adam [48:05 - 48:06]
it's this

Chad [48:06 - 48:16]
march. So it's taken me that long to step down to that and that's helped me curb, you know, hunger and all those sort of things where you kind of just jump back up the whole yo yo diet thing. So

Adam [48:17 - 48:24]
right, a lot of people just drop right away. So you said from about 4000 to 2500. 2600,

Chad [48:24 - 48:35]
Yeah, currently. And I have five weeks left, so I'll probably probably reach close to 21 2200 at some point. If I if I can't lose weight.

Adam [48:36 - 48:37]
Yeah.

Chad [48:37 - 48:38]
And then cups

Adam [48:38 - 48:51]
cut some carbs and then protein stays the same, you know, as much as we want people to learn all the details. Like if you just kind of take some of those babies. Yeah.

Chad [48:51 - 48:57]
And it's hard and it's hard because like fat and carbs are the best part, like who wants to just eat a bunch of chicken breast without anything else?

Adam [48:57 - 48:58]
But

Chad [48:58 - 49:27]
like I it I know people say I'm fairly disciplined and I think I am, but I know that it's a short period of time, I know I have five weeks left um and you know, I, I gain, I purposely gained weight, so I mean I think purposely gaining weight is difficult to, like at some point I saw my body changed and it's like, man, this is not what I wanted, but I'm like, okay, if I just keep with it, I'll eventually lose it because I'm confident I can lose it versus someone, some of the most people just want to cut, which is totally fine too.

Adam [49:28 - 49:28]
Um

Chad [49:29 - 49:30]
but yeah, I'm

Adam [49:30 - 49:31]
it's a

Chad [49:31 - 49:35]
tough journey for anyone that wants to sort of gay muscle or lose.

Adam [49:37 - 50:24]
I think that's what some awesome tips there in with, you know, whether you have a family or whether you just focused on your own goals, nutrition tips? So eight years of kind of pushing the limits plus a whole bunch of years of aches and pains from hockey and other sports. How do you possibly keep your body healthy and strong and deal with injuries versus eights and pains versus, you know, all the other ups and downs along the way. What what do you think your keys to success have been because I know you had some, you know, some pretty big setbacks with your elbow and what do you think you've learned and what do you think that can share?

Chad [50:25 - 50:29]
I think I've been fairly fortunate for most front knock on wood.

Adam [50:29 - 50:29]
Um

Chad [50:30 - 50:31]
my only significant injury was

Adam [50:32 - 50:32]
the

Chad [50:32 - 51:45]
elbow thing, I think, I mean I think when you grow up playing sports and you do it and you do any sort of athletic thing over time, like you have a good understanding what hurts versus like what is just an ache and just muscle soreness. Um and like we talked about a lot on this podcast, like recovery doesn't become a thing until a little bit later on, you know, when we talked a little bit later on years later for you to kind of involved in practice. So for the people getting into fitness now and for them to start recovery as part of their protocols is I'm always always impressed. But yeah, my elbow injury, that was a tough setback. That was a mixture of forcing mobility, enforcing a movement like my front rack without having the knowledge of what I was doing and probably also baseball all the time. And so that was, remember you and I like just trying to diagnose and figure this out and I wanted to see different people and remember like we're flossing my album, remember you like stretching it and we're just like trying to figure this out. Um and what I learned during that process, just like you really have to own up your,

Adam [51:46 - 51:46]
your

Chad [51:46 - 52:19]
sort of, your own health. Like, you know, you rely on doctors and practitioners, but like, unfortunately the system works is like, you know, they can only do so much and you're in and out like, you really have to own it to get better. So like I investigated how to fix this because I knew something was wrong. I talked to some friends and people that get me access to someone that would do surgery like this because obviously it's not a priority in my life isn't changing. I'm just losing, I can't do a clean and jerk or I can't do a thruster. So like no one, no one thinks it's like the worst thing ever. So like getting a surgery was difficult. Um

Adam [52:20 - 52:20]
but

Chad [52:20 - 52:27]
yeah, once we had the surgery and that, like, it was a long, like even before surgery, I think I had this thing, I couldn't use my arm for like eight months before and after.

Adam [52:28 - 52:29]
But I think

Chad [52:29 - 53:02]
going back to like trying stuff new and sort of that mentality being a beginner, I think helped me because I got some advice from my friend matt nickel, He just said like, just use this time to, to try different training. And so I went to basically unilateral training, I didn't use my arm and I just did everything with one arm that was way different. That was very much like what Marcus filly was kind of starting at that time functional fitness with dumbbells and, and just doing like hang cleans with one arm and just doing like prisoner burpees or whatever those things are called. Um,

Adam [53:02 - 53:05]
yeah,

Chad [53:06 - 53:38]
and you know, snatches and I, and even though we watched them, so like, I think I, my mentality was like, okay, like I'll just try a different type of training just like I've done in the past, I've done all these different things and now is the time to do something new. And am I worried that my one biceps can be small or the other? Sure. But whatever, you know, it was, it was my choice to get a surgery. Um, and it's like one of those things we just come to terms with. Like I can still do crossfit. I can still do training.

Adam [53:38 - 53:38]
I just

Chad [53:38 - 53:47]
shouldn't do thrusters on a daily basis and maybe once a year during the open, I'll do thrusters or I don't have to find a max clean even though

Adam [53:47 - 53:48]
it's

Chad [53:48 - 53:52]
fun to do those things. And I still wish I could do that. Um,

Adam [53:53 - 53:53]
you

Chad [53:53 - 54:22]
just have to come to terms with like what your capabilities are right, understanding your body and and going back to every time before. Like whatever works for you. Like find that path right. Like in maybe cross, it isn't for everyone because maybe your front records just terrible from a priest as an injury. So can you do wall balls well yeah, sure. Can you do double undershirt like crossfit in any functional fitness program has so much to offer. There's always things that you can choose to kind of get there. So

Adam [54:23 - 54:31]
yeah, for you, I think it, you know, it could have been a big enough setback that could occur your passion for fitness in

Chad [54:31 - 54:32]
gender.

Adam [54:32 - 55:04]
But you took it as you know, you talked to the right people for sure, because you developed quickly the mindset like, okay, can't do these things, but I'm gonna, you know, go all in on some new stuff and not only new fitness, but it probably was the leapfrog into your recovery at that point, right? It was probably the first time that you really started getting passionate about some of the self care.

Chad [55:04 - 55:20]
Yeah. Like before that, it was like, I would do some stretching and foam rolling at LP, some voodoo flossing, some basic stuff. But yeah, it wasn't outside of the gym recovery wasn't a conversation, like it was not part of our life at all until until that.

Adam [55:21 - 56:15]
Yeah. Yeah. And I, you know, I think you're right. I think you have to have one of those experiences like that to really see the benefits of um self care. Everyone, you know, can go for a massage or Cairo or see their physio, but when they really start to develop some of that self care, you know, now you're super passionate about the contrast therapy with the hot tub or the sauna and then the cold tub and you feel the benefits of that. You were a woof to track your sleep and try to manage that just as well as possible. Um, how does all of it, how do you fit it all into the routine of, you know, fitness, nutrition, recovery, family work. Where does it all fit in?

Chad [56:16 - 56:19]
Yeah, I think it's one of those things where for us

Adam [56:19 - 56:20]
both, me

Chad [56:20 - 57:06]
and Christine injury gave us this realization that we have to take better care of our body. I do think during LP, the early days, I didn't, I never stretched more before a workout than ever until I got the LP. So that was a new thing for me and I was doing my body enough. But unfortunately for us, yes, like Do I wish I was more proactive. 100% yes, you're right. A lot of people have to have an injury to then realize this. Hopefully you're lucky enough to kind of listen to a podcast or, you know, be proactive and, and look at people like sid and dot Kyle and, and, and try to be proactive. I think recovery education is so much more out there now. Um, because yeah, we, we started from an injury and so I think we started realizing that we've done this for a long time and

Adam [57:07 - 57:07]
if

Chad [57:07 - 57:10]
we love it and we have a passion for fitness and

Adam [57:10 - 57:11]
just, it

Chad [57:11 - 57:25]
felt naturally that we have to add this to continue, you know, performing at this level. So it's like, you know, foam rolling. Then there's like a massage gun and then there's, um, and I think we got maybe lucky when we moved into a house with a hot tub at first, I didn't want the hot

Adam [57:25 - 57:25]
tub

Chad [57:26 - 57:36]
and I think at the same time too, we did a vacation and I think you guys, we did like a hot tub, sauna and like a cold plunge thing. And I was just like, this is crazy. Like this is, I'm not doing, this is stupid. Like we're on

Adam [57:36 - 57:38]
vacation, we'll do

Chad [57:38 - 57:44]
it once, whatever. Um, but yeah, like we started using the hot tub, like this is amazing. Then

Adam [57:45 - 57:45]
I

Chad [57:45 - 57:49]
think it's Christine. Like she's like, let's go to the whole time, like you're nuts. And so we got a cold tub

Adam [57:49 - 57:51]
and I'm

Chad [57:51 - 58:31]
like, okay. And, but like thankfully, like she's in the same mindset as me, like she wants to live this fit life as well. And so it's not always me, it's not always my own sort of ideas, right? So it's nice having that sort of partnership. And so now the hot tub and cold tub are hand in hand, like you can't do hot without the cold. And then again Christine's like, well let's get a sauna. So it's like, she really leads the recovery protocol in the household. Um, I lied sort of the fitness and she leads the recovery, I think. You know, she's constantly, we're gonna sign it today today. Um, and yeah, so those things are now just like finding the time is difficult for sure.

Adam [58:34 - 58:40]
But doing it with friends too, I think for sure. Yeah,

Chad [58:40 - 58:40]
we talked to

Adam [58:40 - 58:42]
Dave

Chad [58:42 - 58:51]
right, Like talking about social, like the song, like for sure we, on Sundays, we often have friends over and we do the hot, hot tub, cold tub, like doing hot tub, cold tub is really only half hours. So like

Adam [58:52 - 58:53]
I,

Chad [58:53 - 59:03]
it's, it's difficult, but once you can be disciplined on time, I think it becomes easier. The sun is a bit different and we haven't really found our rhythm quite yet with the sauna.

Adam [59:03 - 59:04]
Um,

Chad [59:04 - 59:35]
because obviously it takes an hour to get started. It's like, it's a little bit longer. Um, but then again, if your whole family, including your kids, understand the need and understand the reason why we do these things, It's not so bad. Like, you know, it's like, hey kids, we're gonna start the sun or hey, kids wanna go jump in the hot tub, then it becomes a family thing and you don't feel like you're missing out on something. You know, you don't feel like you're leaving the kids on their own for the next hour. Like they're just gonna come downstairs and we're gonna jump in the hot tub and we're gonna splish splash and annoy the ship out of us, but we're still getting it,

Adam [59:35 - 59:36]
You

Chad [59:36 - 59:55]
know, we're still getting the goods, like we might not make it a full meditation hot tub, but at least we're getting the benefits of the hot tub and so you can't always be wanting. I know Christine sometimes gets rattled when she's in the sun and all you can hear is Lucas yelling and screaming the background, but you know, for that one time it's as good as it's getting.

Adam [59:55 - 60:34]
That's right, That's right. That's cool. It sounds like this whole living, the fit life journey is, is a full time job or maybe even more than a full time job, but it sounds like, you know, over the, over the years you've kind of figured out how to manage it all and build it all into your lifestyle and now it's part of your family now, it's a part of your relationship with Christine and um your friends and your community. Um What about any tips for, you know, everyone else, you know, how do you, how do you manage it all? How do you do it all?

Chad [60:37 - 60:44]
I think, I think that's like the, that's the question everyone wants answered and I think that's a really tough question to answer.

Adam [60:45 - 60:45]
I know

Chad [60:45 - 60:56]
we've talked to a few guests in our podcasts about it. It's tricky. I think, I think one thing and I think everyone would agree, you know, community and the people around you really help

Adam [60:57 - 60:57]
right. Like

Chad [60:57 - 61:01]
if you want to be a better cross fitter

Adam [61:01 - 61:02]
then you

Chad [61:02 - 61:11]
should have good cross fitters around you. Um, if you want to be having a better fit, like a better living, the fit life kind of thing, then you have to have

Adam [61:11 - 61:12]
that

Chad [61:12 - 61:23]
value and those values and surround yourself with those people and so I think that really helps and making

Adam [61:23 - 61:23]
it

Chad [61:24 - 61:31]
sort of part of your everyday, I think it because now it's like a shared

Adam [61:32 - 61:32]
partnership

Chad [61:32 - 61:47]
and it's a shared awareness of like we want to have fitness in her life everyday and fitness is important to us. So if Christine wants to go to the gym and the kids wake up and have to go to school or something like that. It's like, no, she needs that our,

Adam [61:47 - 61:48]
because that's

Chad [61:48 - 62:03]
part of the day and the kids realize that she go to the gym for an hour in the morning, I'm making breakfast with the kids now that's okay and she comes home and they're excited this year, but that was okay. It's okay for her to go do that. Um, it's ok that in the afternoon when the kids get home from school, I'm

Adam [62:04 - 62:04]
at

Chad [62:04 - 62:50]
the gym and it's just part of the routine and so I think it's, you have to find what works for you and I think we've talked to a lot of partners and couples and families, you have to find a routine and you have to really stick to it. I was a five amor risen grinder for a long, long time and I stopped during covid I was and now I'm working in the afternoon and it still doesn't feel perfect. Like it's kind of still, I mean friendly that works in the afternoon. I think that's a tough thing to do for a long period of time. Do I wish I worked out in the morning? Yes, because you have that sort of sense of like getting it done. I do struggles now, getting done work, kids come home from school,

Adam [62:51 - 62:51]
I'm

Chad [62:51 - 63:01]
finishing about some meetings and then I jump into the garage for an hour and a half and I'm missing out on whatever might happen and then there's all these things that come up in the afternoon, so we're trying out this new sort

Adam [63:01 - 63:02]
of

Chad [63:03 - 63:33]
schedule and you've got to have to sort of just try things and just try them for a little bit to see if they fit and they don't fit, then be open to changing it. And I think in the summertime, like when, when we talk about like endurance racing or like someone like for me taking up golf, like golf is not like a short sport, But me and Christine sit down and we go through our goal planning, we sit down and we go through sort of our 90 days and we kind of plan out what we want to achieve and we have shared goals and we have family goals and then there's obviously our own personal goals and

Adam [63:34 - 63:34]
obviously

Chad [63:34 - 64:29]
golf is new for us because fitness has become a thing that's fairly natural for us and now all of a sudden I throw in this golf thing and um we just have to have a conversation and we set our goals, like if this is my goal that I want to become a better golfer, it doesn't necessarily, it's not going to lead to financial success or anything, but it just leads the fifth film it and whatever reasons I have and she has her goals and we just plan it out and say, okay in the summertime, I golf on this day and Christine will be with the kids in this day and if she has something she'll do this. So like it's, we're definitely a family that plans things and structures are time. And so me and Christine will kind of sync up, it's probably not as, can not as routine as we once did it before, it's whenever we can find the time, but it's good to kind of sync up and like lay that out and understand um each other's sort of expectations of where we get fulfillment in life.

Adam [64:29 - 64:55]
Mhm I love that, I think that's, you know, a great way to end it for anyone with a family or anyone with even a partner, like you need to, you need to be on the same page, you need to be sharing, you know, what makes you happy, what fulfills you because that's an important part of, of life and for you guys living the life, it's a big part of that and

Chad [64:56 - 65:33]
even Ex Enzo past our family too, right? Like we're, we've become good friends with you guys, we have a lot of friends from the, from the gym and just being within the community of the gym, you know, sharing those, we all share something in common, right? And even taking golf, like I have a specific, like many people like you golf with a specific group of people, but I sort of shows those specific people because they were better at golf. They didn't take it too seriously. I would learn a lot from them um, and eventually, maybe one day I would be better than them. Who knows? We still haven't got there yet.

Adam [65:33 - 65:47]
They share other values with you. Exactly. Most of them are living the life just like you are managing families and career and all of that stuff. So it's like they, they're, they're working through the same thing as you are.

Chad [65:47 - 66:01]
It takes a tribe to really, you know, be successful in life and I think that's something that me and Christine, if I look back when I first joined LP, we didn't have a tribe, you know, we have our high school friends and you have your friends that you grew up and you have your family, but

Adam [66:02 - 66:03]
we didn't

Chad [66:03 - 66:29]
really have a tribe of people that we shared like a lot of things in common and joining LP has obviously been a great decision, uh, for us and it's been amazing for us because now we're here and you know, that's really helped us in this, in our community. So, um, yeah, thanks to all the folks that are, that have helped us build a tribe.

Adam [66:29 - 66:35]
Yeah. Thank you all peace sam. And if you haven't met chat at the gym, which I'm sure almost all of you have,

Chad [66:35 - 66:37]
well, there's a lot of new new

Adam [66:37 - 66:39]
folks, Covid.

Chad [66:39 - 66:41]
So I'm coming back to the gym

Adam [66:41 - 66:48]
the afternoon for, you might meet the morning. Who knows? Right? You know, just mingling.

Chad [66:48 - 66:50]
Yeah, I gotta get that social aspect back in their

Adam [66:50 - 67:01]
life. 63 Somewhere between 2 30 and two depending on how his cuts going. Um, awesome

Chad [67:01 - 67:01]
front rack.

Adam [67:02 - 67:29]
He's got, yeah, great. He can bench the same as he can squad. He's pretty jacked. No, you'll know him when you see him. Yeah, I love it. That was amazing. Thanks for sharing that chat. It's great to hear your story from Day one, August 2014 and excited for the listeners to take a lot of learning from all those different aspects.

Chad [67:30 - 67:35]
Yeah. Cool. No, today has been fun. It's a little bit different on the other side of the seat.

Adam [67:36 - 67:39]
Yeah, that's right. You have to dig deep.

Chad [67:39 - 67:43]
Yeah, I felt like I talked a lot. I'm not used to talking this much on the

Adam [67:43 - 67:46]
podcast.

Chad [67:46 - 67:49]
Awesome. Thanks dude, it's been

Adam [67:49 - 67:52]
great. Thanks

Chad [67:52 - 67:53]
to everyone listening.