Amazing Greats: Crazy great Jesus stories.
Amazing Greats shares inspiring Christian testimonies and faith stories from professional athletes, actors, authors, musicians, and other remarkable guests. Each episode explores how Jesus transformed their lives, strengthened their faith, and worked through both success and hardship.
Host Ric Hansen goes beyond careers and accomplishments to uncover the defining moments when faith became real. Every episode explores hope, redemption, purpose, and the remarkable ways God continues to work through ordinary and extraordinary people alike.
Amazing Greats is building one of the largest libraries of modern Christian testimonies from influential people.
Amazing Greats: Crazy great Jesus stories.
Pumping iron for Jesus with Gym owner PJ Glassey
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Our Amazing Greats episode today focuses on the science of fitness combined with the power of spirituality. Our guest, PJ Glassey, was our guest to make the youngest alter call at the age of 6, which launched a life long journey in Christ. From that, combined with his passion for fitness, was the starting place for the birth of the XGyms and the XGym app. His unique approach to fitness was built on 3 characteristics: It is designed for people with a busy life style, it's safe and focuses on strength and endurance, not on body building and bulk.
You'll hear the specifics on how his fitness methods work and the science behind it. PJ explains his thoughts on the power of the mind and the importance of faith in developing a healthy and fit lifestyle. He clearly outlines the need to understand your body type and your mental strengths and weaknesses before you launch your fitness journey, and how to be successful in making a healthy life change that can be sustained over time.
The Bible says that our bodies are our temple and a gift from God. It is with gratitude for that gift that we are called to take care of it.
You'll hear PJ's awesome God moments, and challenges and how fitness can be obtained by all of us no matter what shape we are currently in.
I hope you'll find his story inspiring and a call to take our health seriously celebrating God's gifts without consuming our lives.
Here is the link to the XGym App
https://xgym.com/membership-account/membership-checkout/
And the Home page for the Website:
https://xgym.com
"Amazing Greats" is a library of interviews with highly successful people who have amazing career and life stories and who share how God has impacted their journey. Hosted by broadcaster Ric Hansen & produced by Klem Daniels. Available on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google and our YouTube Channel.
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Hi there, it's Rick Hansen. Well, we've talked with authors, actors, musicians, business leaders, and athletes. And now, for the very first time, a fitness guru. That's right. PJ Glassy is our guest. He's the owner of the XGyms and the XGym app. He's an author and just an all-around functional fitness guy. And for a busy lifestyle, this is going to be the perfect workout for you. For the first time, it's faith and fitness on Amazing Grates. We have the opportunity today to talk to a fitness guru. And it's very exciting to know that we have you here today. PJ Glassy has like just give a little rundown on you. You've spent your life really researching and implementing a unique style of exercise built for busy lifestyles, primarily. PJ's a personal trainer initially and then launched successful fitness facilities called the X Gyms. He's written a book called Cracking Your Calorie Code and co-authored several other books. PJ's uh appeared on radio and television and now has a virtual X Gym app, which we want to get talking about too, because that's kind of the newer thing, right? Uh so now uh the first thing I want to say is for starters, it's a good thing that you snagged the name X Gym before Elon Musk decided to do that. It's true. In some ways, he's tried to capture X as his own. I I I'm not quite understanding that, but right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
RicBut you were pre you were pre-Eon Musk. Let's make that a point.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Uh and let's get back to let's circle back to that later because it has a lot to do with Christ. Um, just the letter X, you know, ancient symbol for Christ.
RicOkay.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, that's a that's a fun little story in itself.
RicWell, let's let's get started with because um our audience is yet to know you and your faith journey. And I always love to start with that to find out kind of um where it all began, where at any particular time in your uh in your journey Jesus became real. So take it from the top, PJ.
SPEAKER_00Right on. Yeah, love it. So everybody has a different age of uh accountability, and apparently mine was six. And I remember like it was yesterday. I was sitting in chapel. I I've been in raised in a Christian home. Um, I'm a recovering Baptist, and I say that as a joke, not anything against Baptists at all. I love Baptists, but uh that's how I was raised, and uh Christian schools all my life, very blessed. You know, very few people get that opportunity, and I thank God for it every day. So I was sitting in chapel in my school, and I was six, and the pastor was talking about the um decision to follow Christ and the plan of salvation and all that. And I remember thinking to myself, huh, I haven't done that yet. And so he had an altar call. He said, anybody that wants to take that step, you know, come step out in the aisle and come on forward. So I stepped out into the aisle and my mom was shocked. She was sitting right next to me, and so she's like, Oh god. And so she she stands up and she follows me. She didn't really know what to do. And um, so went forward, accepted Christ, and just been loving the journey since then. Uh, of course, it's always had its ups and downs. I've never been, I've never fallen away. I've been more distant and close. I think like pretty much every Christian out there, yeah. It's a journey for sure. And but you know, when I'm distant, I will either be gently guided back on the path that I'm very thankful for, or I'll be disciplined that I'm also thankful for. Because whatever God does, it's for our own good. It's to make us stronger. And if he allows us to go through tough stuff or even puts stuff tough stuff in our lives, which I've certainly had my share, then it just makes us stronger. And when we're stronger, we can help each other within the kingdom so the kingdom gets stronger, and we can also be more bold and use our gifts that he's given us to bring others outside the kingdom into the kingdom so he can save them. And so it's all good.
RicWhat's the journey that you're on now in terms of your faith and church and that kind of thing? Where are you at?
SPEAKER_00I'm doing a lot of online stuff right now and shopping for a live church. So my wife and I are just kind of looking around the area more and trying out different places, and I'm kind of the scout for both of us. So I go out and check it out. And I like talking to the pastor now. So the interesting thing, because the whole COVID thing, the Lord has given me the gift of discernment, and it seems to be selective. So I seem to have horrible discernment for certain things, really good discernment for other things. So I'm not claiming to be all wise by any stretch. Yeah. But with this whole COVID thing, um, there's a lot of different opinions and a lot of different ways that people approached it. And so I'm looking around right now for a pastor who has at least as much discernment with that as I do. Because I think it's important to really be able to see the world for what it is and of course God for who he is, to be able to see clearly through all the stuff that's going on right now. So we'll get more into the discernment part later, but um, so that's what that's kind of I have a new kind of a uh litmus test now and filter. And so just shopping around based on that new filter.
RicYeah, the um the where you end up in the and the church community that you belong to is so important, it's so critical because oh yeah, that's why I take it so seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh and that's and and actually, um my quick little story is that I I be I was a late bloomer. You were you were six, and I was 46, or probably 56. I mean, it's just been a a few years ago. Uh, but that was critical for me was finding the church and the pastors that I loved and the and the worship group that I loved, and then the community, all the people that were there for the same reasons that I was was just magical. So right.
SPEAKER_00Good luck on that. Yeah, and I'm also in some small groups, like one example is C3, where it's a Christian business organization where you get into small groups, and technically, and I think spiritually, the Bible tells us that anytime you meet together with other Christians, that's church.
RicYeah.
SPEAKER_00So it's not just Sundays going to a building meeting with other people. Yes, that's church, but it's also church when we have these get togethers with other Christians and talk about God. So it's good to remember that as well.
RicAbsolutely. I can't agree more. I mean, that is and sometimes um you feel more um in God's grace when you're sitting with a couple of guys and just chatting about life, yeah uh in in in church. So let's let's switch gears. That's an incredible story. You're I think you're the now the youngest um accountability guy that at age six did an altar call. So you've set an amazing greats record here, yeah, which is great. So let's let's talk about the gym, the X Gym. First, you started out as a just a personal trainer and went to people's homes and and helped them with their fitness goals. Uh, but then you opened up the X Gym because you had specific ideas of what exercise and fitness could look like. So explain to us what what makes XGym uh what it is.
SPEAKER_00It's a time hack workout. It's also safe, and it tones and conditions for strength and endurance without muscle bulk. And those were the three things that I set out to accomplish. I got my degree from SPU in exercise science in 1989, and then um trained people out of their homes for about 10 years while I developed developed my methodology. And the way that I did that was reading the research, thinking about ideas and experiments to try, and they were my guinea pigs, and they thought it was fun because you know, new stuff, and it just kept taking less and less time as it evolved, and it was more and more effective and safer, and so because back in the 80s, bodybuilding was really cool, and then but towards the end of the 80s and the 90s, the bodybuilder started to look more like cartoon figures than people, and so it wasn't so cool anymore, and people just wanted to look more like the cover of Fitness Magazine than the cover of Flex. So they weren't they weren't really trying to bulk up anymore, they were just trying to look fit. They wanted to feel fit too, and they wanted to be strong, have endurance, be able to do really fun stuff outside, you know, all those functional fitness things without getting bigger. And traditional training is also dangerous because you know, heavyweights, ballistic reps. So I wanted to solve that problem as well. And then it takes a lot of time. So I wanted to solve that problem. So 10 years and hundreds of experiments, and a lot of them failed, a lot of them succeeded. Then I boiled it down to my methodology that we use at XGM, and I've accomplished those goals, and so that's why people come to us. And the fun story about the name, XGM, is in 1996, one of my original clients was so excited about the fitness she had acquired with us working together that she wanted to open a gym, a little mini gym, to help other people. And she didn't want to use my methodology because it was really super complicated. So she just stuck with another method that was, you know, it was good, but it was, you know, just a method. And I so I kind of helped her on a consulting basis, open that gym. And while she was trying to think of a name, she was bouncing ideas off her husband, who was uh you know, marketing whiz, kind of like George Soles. And so he started throwing out ideas and she was kind of just shooting them all down. And so finally, out of frustration, he said, Well, how about something generic then, like XGen? And she said, Oh. So she that's how they landed on that. And then when I took over in '98, because I was talking to her on the phone one day in like '97, and because we were, of course, still really good friends. And I was talking to her about opening up, I was gonna open up a gym in Israqu that was gonna be a rock climbing slash personal training gym, because I had to scale myself because the the training out of people's homes was getting too busy. And she said, No, don't do that, buy the X Gym. And I said, Well, I didn't know it was for sale. She goes, Well, it's not, but you were right, your your methods would work better than this one that I selected. And besides, I want to start traveling and learn Italian. And so I said, Okay, well, let's get together and talk about it. And so we got together, and her and her husband just made me this crazy good offer that you only hear about in stories, and so I told them, I said, you know, you're ripping yourself off here, right? And they said, Yeah, but we really want you to have it because you know we love our members here, and you know you take good care of them, and your methods are going to be great. So that was a gift from God. And then I kept the name because I like the name. It's just the logo is great, the name is great. And then about 10 years later, I was at a movie premiere for a Christian movie that we were watching up in the theater in Everett, and this guy I met this guy and we're talking and told him at X-Gym, and he goes, Oh, is that Christian? And I go, Well, I am. And he said, Oh, because X is the ancient symbol for Christ. And I go, Really? And he says, Yeah, and I go, Wow, that's pretty cool. So apparently I was guided to keep the name, which I love even more now. And the funniest part about the story is that uh Melsa and her husband, the ones that named the gym, are Jewish? That's great. Yeah.
RicIt's Rick Canson with PJ Glassy, Page, as we call him. He's our guest on Amazing Greats. So, what happened to the um the members who are already ex-Gym members uh to transition from what her methods were to your methods? Was that a challenge to kind of bring them all along into what you were doing and what you were thinking?
SPEAKER_00No, because we're we're such good friends. It was a great handoff, and and everybody was excited, and the methods, you know, they enjoyed the methods. And so the the membership grew really fast, and we ended up moving and expanding and and online training and the exercise app. So we've got a lot of lot going on now.
RicYeah, and so just to get a little more specific about the method, because we've we've um we've identified that there is a specific one and that it is time-saving and it's safe, and those things, but um it to to boil it down, it's also um you talk about how many minutes per session and how many sessions per week, and it all seems crazy good in terms of a busy lifestyle. So uh what is what is it that makes um resistance training quicker and more safe?
SPEAKER_00So, what a lot of people don't realize is traditional training was invented in 1891. So it's pretty outdated, and it was invented for the main purpose of bulking up, getting bigger. So that's why some women are afraid of it, and other people are like, well, I don't really know if I want to do that. Eugene Sandau was the guy that came up with it, he was a famous European strongman, came to America to make his fortune, and he was incredibly strong and really buffed. And nobody back in the late 1800s were buffed, they're all skinny guys, and so Eugene was getting all the chicks, and so the guys back then said, Hey, we want that, so show up, show us how you train. And Eugene at first said, No, I don't want to divulge my secrets because you know I don't want any competition for my strongman shows, I'm making a lot of money. So, but they were him down over a couple years and they talked him into selling it to them. So he did, made a lot of money that way too. And then that's when the sets and reps for traditional training was born. And there's a lot of people, most people are still doing it, and you know, it takes a lot of time because when you're doing traditional training to start, you're looking at an hour three times a week, and then as you get in better shape, you plateau, and then you need to add more time. And so then pretty soon, like if you were to walk down at a local beach around here and find someone over 40 who's in amazing shape, if you can, um, then and ask them how much time they spend in the gym, it's a part-time job if they're doing traditional training. But with X Gym, it's 21 minutes twice a week, so 42 minutes a week, and that's equivalent to about seven hours of traditional training without the plateaus, because we change the method, meaning how you're doing the rep itself every seven weeks, and the exercises every seven weeks. So traditional training is pretty good at changing exercises from time to time, but they don't change the way they're doing the rep. It's always the same old rep. So the nervous system eventually adapts to it no matter what they're doing with new exercises, whereas it doesn't at XG. Keep getting stronger and fitter and more defined and leaner and endurance and all that kind of stuff.
RicAnd and uh, for those who are wanting to kind of get a little bit um detailed on all of that, which I I did at one point, is uh there's a there's a video online on your website that kind of has you as the uh uh as the guest to the gym and a gentleman working with you, and you go through the methodology, and it really gives you a good clear picture of uh how it works and why it works. Um, and I found that really helpful and kind of shocking, really, that that that you you you get, as you were saying in the video, you get cardio, you get resistance, and you get something else. What was the third thing?
SPEAKER_00There's well, you get strength, cardio, and endurance. So a lot of people kind of think cardio and endurance is the same, but it really isn't. I mean, cardio is heart and lungs, and relative muscular endurance is how long you can really push hard with heavy stuff, and then strength is just raw power, and you get all three in one workout. So you don't have to do separate workouts for each like you do with traditional training.
RicAnd so is it is does it uh translate well to the app? I mean, as uh say I live in um Iowa, uh, could I um get the same basic training on the app as I would um at one of your gyms here in Washington State?
SPEAKER_00The app has videos, it's a video based, and it takes you through the exercises. I'm demonstrating the exercise, so for perfect form, and I'm also doing verbal coaching through the exercise. There's a lot of videos that are just individual exercises, and there's a lot that are full-body workouts that people can do. And so they're guided through it. Now, it's not of course as good as live training, like when you're working out at the X Gym in Kirkland or when you're doing online training with us, you know, really anywhere in the world. Um but it's a way better price point, of course, so for a lot more people can afford it. And it's still much more effective than anything anybody could find with a traditional training app. So apples to apples, way better, way less time, just like the life stuff is. Yeah.
RicAnd so, and if I'm I don't know what the price point is now, but it uh what I saw was that roughly around $30 a month or something like that. Is it more than that now?
SPEAKER_00Or is that about yeah, we just changed it. Yeah, we were we were doing the you know, the big fancy app with the with the engine in the background and all that stuff, and you get it through the Apple store and all that. We switched it to web-based through our website, so very mobile friendly, so it works just as well or better on phones, and we cut the price in half. So now it's 14 a month.
RicOh my gosh. Okay. So that's that's crazy. That's more than uh we spend on a multiple vitamin, you know, in a month. Yeah. So, you know, uh, how can you how can you not not at least give it a try? I mean, at least check it out. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sure. Well, and the other thing that people find really handy with it is they can just pick one exercise that takes three minutes, or they can do a whole workout, they can string single exercises together and do their own routine, or they can pick one of the full body workouts that's 21 minutes. Just depends on how much time they have and how much. So I've I've heard stories from people um waiting in line at the Department of Licensing, and um they'll pick one exercise, they'll just do it right there. And sometimes they'll get some of the other people in line involved. I kind of did the same thing at a movie theater. I was waiting in line, and I had my kids with me, and they were they were young and small back then, and we sat up again, we did a wall sit, we had a contest to see if you know who could be the sit on the wall the longest. Of course, you know, they're small, so you know, I was painting at the time, so I won. And then I I took my daughter and put her on my lap to continue, and then other people were kind of watching and laughing, and a couple other people got up against the wall.
RicSo, you know, it's fun just to be able to do fun stuff and and carve out a little bit of time because every little bit PJ from XGMs is our functional fitness guest today, and he is sharing his life journey on amazing greats. That's very, very cool. And I and I love the the whole concept, is you know, it's perfect for the times we live in because everybody is a everybody's wired. To technology, so they have access on the app, and then uh it's not so time consuming that you say I can't possibly fit that into what I'm doing. So love, love the whole concept there. Let's let's now connect the two um faith, uh, which is where we started, and the fitness. Um, and what is it that God says about fitness? What is it that the Bible says about fitness? Um, can you bring us to that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, our our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So that's number one right there. And we are to be good stewards of that, just like everything else that we're given. Our health is a gift. And the body wants to be healthy, naturally wants to be healthy. And if we give it the right tools for optimal health, it will get there. But if we don't, and we're getting in its way, then it won't. And so everybody has a different level of health that they're given. We can all do the best that we can. And then what I tell people is, like at XGM, when I'm coaching them on fitness, you know, if they show up and they say, Oh yeah, I want to get that sick pack, or I'm getting ready for a reunion next month or something like that, then I say, Okay, well, that's all great, and maybe that'll happen. But let's let's just figure out how to get you as healthy as possible and see what happens then. Because when somebody reaches optimal health, like a woman, for instance, might be 27%, and another woman might be 19% body fat. And but that's fine for each one because everybody's an individual and it's health that matters the most. And for men, maybe they will get that six pack, but then some reach optimal health and they don't have a six pack, and that's okay because we've reached the goal of optimal health, and exercise and strength and functional, especially functional strength is a huge part of that. But we also work with people on nutrition, and um, you know, any other questions they have, stress reduction, better sleep, all those kinds of things, just to get them healthy because then and once they reach their their health, you know, what the as healthy as they can be, then the temple is taken care of, and they've done their job of you know really using that gift and treating that gift with the respect that it deserves from as a gift from God.
RicIt also can become an idol. Fitness can become your God. Um, and that's where you get into the bulk up and the the bigness and all of that, correct? Is that is that true?
SPEAKER_00Correct, it can certainly be. There are plenty of people who are you know buffed and jacked where it's still not an idol, but it it can certainly become one, and you can be obsessed with yourself, and that's just that's just another tool of the devil to distract us away from the kingdom, and you know, he's got lots of tools, and he'll take whatever he can to accomplish that, but it can certainly be an idol, and if it's you know taking all your time, especially, and it's away from God, then you know, because if it's cutting into the time in the word, praying with others, meeting with other Christians, church, all that kind of stuff, or even where your mind is, you know, if your mind is occupied all day on yourself, then that's a problem because it our mind should be occupied on God. We all fall back and absorbed with ourselves from time to time. You know, nobody's nobody's perfect, but it's constantly striving towards having the mind of God and as Christians, God is actually living in us, and so just being fuller and fuller of the Holy Spirit, and what I my prayer often is Lord, just fill me more with your Holy Spirit and displace me. So the more you come in, the less of me there is, which is exactly what I want. And yeah, that's being that's a prayer within his will. And every prayer that we pray within his will, he guarantees that he fulfills that.
RicSo one of the things that you are a fanatic about, I don't know if I call I'm not gonna say it's fanatic, but you're it's important uh in the in all of the uh functional fitness is mental. And you just mentioned mental, and uh that's what brought it back to mind. Is in fact the first chapter of the book, um cracking your caloric, uh, that's the name of the book, uh, is uh all about mental. And you say you can you can dance around this book all you want to, but don't miss this chapter, is kind of the way you started. You say this is the this is the this is the foundation, the baseline for which all other stuff works. So tell tell us a little bit about the mental game as it applies to fitness.
SPEAKER_00Uh that's most of it. It's mental. And this is why people struggle. This is why people start and stop. This is why people yo-yo diet and yo-yo weight loss and weight gain. And it's it's all about the brain. And that's actually why I invented the brain type test, because anytime that somebody at XGM has a big struggle, then I just put them through my brain type test to find out which brain type they are, and then tricks and tips and hacks based on their brain wiring to help them through those struggles. Because what works for me might not work for you.
RicHi, Rick Hanson here with PJ Glassy, who shows his faith and his fitness journey right here on Amazing Grates.
SPEAKER_00This is the problem with traditional trainers is when they're coaching their clients on nutrition and health stuff, they're telling their clients what works for them. And they're giving their clients ideas based on works what has worked for them. But their client might not have that same brain type. And so the client might find that very difficult, where the trainer finds it very easy. So then the client is struggling with it and they come back to the trainer and say, Ah, yes, I don't know why I can't do this. And the trainer says, Come on, just suck it up and have some willpower. But not realizing it's just their advice they gave them wasn't right for that person. The only way to really figure out is to get inside the brain and figure out how they're wired, and then you can give them the advice based on that. And I've always been big on, you know, helping people with brain hacks and brain training techniques and stuff, but I never went into it big time until my mom was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's back in the year 2000. So then I dove into the brain research. And back then we didn't know enough to help, so she passed in 2005, but I never stopped studying it because the everything was changing so fast and I was learning so many new things every day. And it ended up becoming the brain type test where I've really been able to help a lot of people through struggles based on targeted and unique specific advice for their specific brain type.
RicSo people have different brain types and different body types, and that's the other distinction that you make. So that enters into how the training should progress as well. Um, you know, are they um bigger people just genetically? Um, and and so is there and there's a test for that too. I mean, there on online, I think there's a sequence of questions that you answer and you can kind of determine what the body type is, correct?
SPEAKER_00There's lots of different things you can look up online to determine which of the body types. And there's three main there's the ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph. The ectomorph is somebody more like me where they're naturally lean and it's hard to put on muscle. The mesomorph is, you know, all the bodybuilders out there, they just look at a dumbbell and put on five pounds of muscle. And then the endomorph is the one who who tends to gain fat real easy. They can also get relatively strong, but they gain fat easier than other people. And so, yes, things need to be tailored based on your body type as well as your brain type. That'll that 99% of the other trainers out there are completely missing and not being able to help their people as effectively. We this country has the the largest per capita personal trainer count of any country on the planet, and we're also the most overweight. So if you're if you're one of those people that get sucked into the bad junk science of causation equal correlation is causation, then you would say, oh, personal trainers are making this country fat. But it's just because it's because the trainers out there just don't really know. I mean, this is this stuff isn't even on their radar. And so I'm actually working on an online course right now for other trainers to be certified because I want other trainers to be able to do this stuff and to really be able to figure it out and to help more people because we're doing we're doing great, but the only way to help more people is to scale it, and so I'd love to do that.
RicSo um, in there's Christians, uh, right along with the rest of the society that we live in, the culture that we live in, who are uh unhealthy and overweight. And um do you have advice for them? I mean, uh, I guess how to bring them into the fold or bring them into uh recognizing and appreciating God's gift and then taking care of it.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. So it's best just to start small with gratitude. And what I tell people is start a gratitude journal. And it's it's harder to journal for some brain types than others, but it works for all of them. And so I just tell them start with what you're thankful for and what you're grateful for, and then make that also about your health and your body. Because even if you're morbidly obese, there's something that you can be thankful for, even if it's just that you're still alive, that you woke up this morning, that's something to be thankful for. Or maybe you know you're stronger than average. Well, there's something there too. Maybe there's something about your body you do appreciate. Great, write it down. And so focusing on the positives, the good things, that's the good starting point. And then taking things in small steps that are doable. Because what most people do on their New Year's resolution is January 2nd, they go to the gym and they work out for two hours, and then they're just way too much too fast. But what we're trying to do here is to establish a new lifestyle and create new habits, and that is best done in small steps. So for somebody, that same person I mentioned, morbidly obese, well, your first step is to go out and walk around your house and write that in your journal. That's that's a that's a success, and be thankful that you can do that. That's amazing. There's millions of people on this planet that can't do that. And so then when you can then walk around it twice and then work up to walking around your block, you know, just do these small steps and and write it down. It's a win, be thankful for it. You can even do the victory post. Yes, I'm awesome. And you know, because we're we're also programming our subconscious, and the subconscious brain is the boss of us, and the subconscious really is what drives our 90% of our actions every day. And the subconscious brain also operates at about the level of a three-year-old. I call it our inner toddler, and it never grows up. And so, our prefrontal cortex, I call the parent brain, is the part of the brain that helps us train the toddler, which controls us. And so praying for our toddler, training our toddler, and doing all these little mental things that changes our brain wiring and changes these habits, because the more you do something and the more you can develop a habit, then pretty soon it becomes unconscious, the toddler takes over, and now the toddler's doing it for us without us thinking about it. When you first learned how to drive a car, it was really hard. And there was lots of stuff to think about, lots of steps and actions and things that you have to do, and looking around, and situational awareness, and all those things that you have to be really good at. But then now you drive home and you get home and you're like, wow, I don't even remember the trip here. Because your subconscious drove you home, because it has now taken over a lot of those as subroutines that are automatic. So that's kind of the goal of how to build habits, but it takes it in small steps is the best way.
RicHow do we apply um our love for Jesus with the actual um exercise routine itself? Is there is there is there a way to integrate our faith in the actual sweating and doing what we need to do to be strong?
SPEAKER_00Yes. So gratitude to God for everything, because everything comes from him, all good things come from above. And so when we're feeling grateful, we're giving him the credit, and then asking him for guidance and for help, and he will help. One of my good friends told me a story that he he got out of shape and he was in a big funk, you know, down, down and out, depression, all that kind of stuff. And he just was at the bottom and he said, God, I need some help here. And he heard this voice, and it said, Okay, start running and take vitamin C and NAC. And so he's like, Oh, well, okay, don't really know what that's about. And then he looked it up and it was a prescription for uh it's his brain neurons, and he started running and he he got on, he he found that difficult, so he got on chat GPT and he he used the prompts and he said, Tell be my running coach from a neuroscientist perspective and tell me how to establish that habit. And it came came back with what I kind of was telling was telling you is smaller steps, start in small steps and progress up. And then he lost 30 pounds, he felt great, now he's working out with us, and he's doing amazing and completely changed his brain, and so stuff like that. So God will honor prayer and God will honor commitment. So when you say, God, okay, I want to take care of this temple, but I'm gonna need some help. And then when you struggle, because you will, everybody does, then you say, I'm struggling, you know. Tell me, help me out here. What do what do I do? And give me strength to press forward, or you know, I God, you know my brain better than anybody.
RicIt's Rick Hansen with PJ Glassy, Page, as we call him. He's our guest on Amazing Greats. So now let's just jump into again back to your personal story a little bit. The um there, you already mentioned one, and I'm just wondering if there's maybe another or two or whatever, uh uh places along the path that Jesus has really shown up. I mean, he's really showing off here and has like um been clearly a part of it. One, of course, was the the ex gym, the name. Uh are there other times where that was really obvious for you?
SPEAKER_00Oh, for sure. And it was through the whole COVID thing. So, you know, we've been around since 1998, so we've made it through two big recessions, um, a bunch of other catastrophes and all that. And we just made it through it all by God's grace. And he just really looks out for us, and you know, he can see the future. So he knows the advice to give me based on the future. And back in 2017, we started doing online training, and then in 2018, the our lease was up in our Seattle gym, and this the Seattle City Council basically they're communists, and so it was and they hate business, and so they were making it really hard for businesses.
RicCan we quote you on that? Uh what can we quote you on that?
SPEAKER_00Sure. And so there's this mass exodus of businesses out of Seattle because it's so hard. And so I said, I'm gonna jump on that bag wing and I'm not gonna renew my lease. And I'm gonna tell all the members that we're gonna be online. And online back then was kind of a new thing, and so a lot of them went with us, and because they'd already seen our success with online, but some of them like, no, I want the personal in-person thing. And everybody told me I was crazy because the Seattle gym was doing great, but I felt like God had told me to do this. And you know, I'm an entrepreneur, and so I'm I'm no stranger to taking risk, but my wife is not, and she does not like risk. And she concurred that that was a good idea, and I was shocked to hear that. And so then I knew it was God. And some people say, you know, how do you know it's God talking and not just you in your own head? And I said, Well, it's kind of like my imagination, but it's better than I could do. So when I heard him say, take this bold step, it's like I never would have thought of that. So gotta be God. And then Bev you know confirmed it with her reaction. So um, like I said, everybody told me I was crazy, but shut it down, built the online, so the online thing came became really big, bigger in 2018, and then 2019 rolls around, and what's this COVID thing? And then 2020 rolls around, the West Seattle Bridge pulls us down, the governor makes businesses shut down, and so we were so ready because we were the OG of online training, and so our members they're like, Oh, we're doing that now. Okay, well, whatever. Yeah, that's great because we know you're really awesome at it. And a lot of them we had been training online, like when they're traveling and stuff, anyways, they're all familiar with it. So we had the easiest of any gym that I can even think of that through the whole COVID shutdown. So then also with this discernment, and I I question everything. Um, guess just the brain I have. It's gotten me in trouble a lot, but it's also served me well too. And so I started looking into and diving into, because I'm a research nerd and I dive into everything. So I dived into what a mandate is and what an order is and all that kind of stuff. And I'm like, wait a minute, this isn't law. And so we don't actually have to do this. And the reason that I was looking into it so deeply is because the worst thing you could do for people's health is to kick them out of gyms. Because exercise is the number one thing you can do for your immune system, even more than eating right. Exercise is number one. So I'm like, I gotta help my peeps. So I opened up early before the governor said I could, but I was ready, you know, in case the government came and knocking on my door, because then I knew what to say that hey, it's not law. And anyways, then so everybody loved it that we opened up early and helped them get healthy and everything. And then the second shutdown came around, and I just said, Nope, I'm just not gonna do it. And we didn't, and we didn't have any God protected us, we didn't have any problems and kept my people healthy, and it was great. And then when people would, you know, the mask mandate and everything was in, and the governor was telling me to that I had to take write down a list of everybody who was vaccinated and everything. So when they would come into my gym. I would explain, okay, this is how we are. Inside the four walls of the ex-gym, we're still a free country, and grown ups work out here. So you get to make adult decisions about your health. If you want to wear a mask, great. If you do or don't want to get vaccinated, that's your business. It's your private medical decisions. I don't even want to know. It's not my business. And so we just went total freedom America, and people appreciated that too. And if some people were uncomfortable being at the gym, then they work out from home because we have this great online training option. And so we were able to help everybody, no matter what. And judging no one and loving everyone. And you know, we even have a sign out, one of our big windows, it's in judgment-free zone, and we mean it. Because people can come to our gym, and no matter what their stance on anything, doesn't matter politics, doesn't matter religion, doesn't matter anything. They're gonna come and they're gonna get a workout, they're not gonna be judged at all. We don't have mirrors in our gym either, because it's not about skin deep stuff, it's about health and deeper stuff. And everybody feels loved and accepted, and we train them and we get them healthy, and that's that's what X-Gym is about.
RicIs there a Christian um element to the gyms themselves, or or do you uh not go there uh to maybe make judgment on other people? Is is is there uh any discussion of God or Jesus uh in the gym?
SPEAKER_00Yes, sometimes we have we what we call X church, it's on Sundays, and where people come and do more extended cardio, it's kind of like open gym. Remember and when you were going to school, open gym nights, that kind of thing, we come and play. So we have open gym, and I'm playing gospel music, and if people want to talk about Christ, great, but it's you know, it's it's a very spiritual atmosphere, and then I am certainly not ashamed of my faith, and so everybody knows at XGM. I don't push it on anybody because that's not my style. I'm not the guy with the bullhorn saying, you know, you gotta be saved or you're going to hell. Um, and so it's more about just showing them the love of Christ and the light that's inside me. And also the main video on our website. Um just you scroll down a little bit and it's the first one there, and talk about God and that. And so there's certainly that element in there. Nobody gets preached at, but they also don't get judged, and they're just loved and accepted.
RicSo let's talk about the couple of the other things where we can support you and what you're doing. Um, you have a you have a blog. Um your kind of handle is Page, and your wife is Beege, so it's Beege and Page's blog, right? Yeah. And there's videos and there's you know, just uh written, uh, but there's that. Uh you've got the book, which is now a little, it's it was written in 2008. So I I think it's time for you to uh come up with another one, a revised edition after yes, just put a little pressure on you there.
SPEAKER_00I know I appreciate that, yeah.
RicAnd uh and and and then the the app. How do people find the app? And if they wanted to jump into that, tell us how to go about doing it.
SPEAKER_00Everything is on xgym.com, xgym.com. So we've got a lot of really good blog articles on there. We have the other website, beach and page.com, which has some more things, but if people just start at xgym.com, there's links to the other blogs on there too. And then there are also buttons to all the other options. So there's a button for the app, there's a button for online training, there's a button for live Kirkland Club training and uh all that stuff.
RicCool. All right. Well, thank you so much for your your wisdom and and your great uh knowledge of the whole area of functional fitness and functional medicine, even though the fruit thing is still bothering me a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Well, keep doing what you're doing because it's working for you.
RicYeah, well, I uh yeah, I I do try to keep active so that maybe that's part of uh burning off some of the fructose, I guess.
SPEAKER_00Sure, yeah.
RicSo cool deal. Thank you so much. Is there any parting words that you have for um our audience today?
SPEAKER_00A spiritual passage of something um yeah, I guess the the parting word we you just brought it up with the we're talking about our writing videos, because one of them is how we both really surrendered and how we how we came to really become one and get married is the state of surrender. And you know, we we think of surrender as a negative thing, and you know, we we bash France for all the surrender jokes and all that kind of stuff. But and surrender seems like you know, it's it's a sign of weakness. You you're giving up weakness, and I think in a lot of contexts, surrender could be thought of that way, but not when you're surrendering to the creator of the universe. Then it's an awesome thing because if I can surrender my life, my decisions, my business, my marriage, everything to God, just give it all, lay it at the cross, surrender everything to him so he's in control, that's way better than I could do. And so just to be in a state of surrender, and even when you're trying to get in shape, just say, God, you know, I surrender this to you. Tell me what to do. I'm completely at your beck and call. You you guide me, you direct my steps, create my path, everything, Lord. Just completely give this all to you. We can do that for a lot of different parts of our life. And going back to George Tolls, he has a great four-step prayer that I tell people about. Whether things have happened that's really good or things that have happened that's really bad. It's four steps. You say, Thank you, Lord. I trust you, Lord. What does this mean? What must I do? Amen. And that's a surrender prayer.
RicWhat a great way to uh wrap this this uh episode up. Thank you so much, PJ. Really, really appreciate your time and and and everything you've contributed today. Thank you. Thank you. Wow, what an awesome conversation with a guy who really connects science with the soul and puts Jesus in your workouts. Thank you for joining us. And if you hit like and subscribe, you'll help us to grow the pot. We'd appreciate that. Much love and God bless from Amazing Greats for Cats and Sands. See ya.
