The Show Up Fitness Podcast

RP Diet App w/ CEO Nick Shaw | Renaissance Periodization (RP Strength)

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 3 • Episode 242

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Renaissance Periodization, CEO Nick Shaw.

What happens when you combine a PhD in exercise science with practical bodybuilding experience and build it into a multi-million dollar fitness empire? Nick Shaw, co-founder of RP Strength, reveals the fascinating journey from basement workouts with sand weights to creating apps that help millions of people transform their physiques. We explore the revolutionary RP Diet Coach app that shifts nutrition coaching from reactive food logging to proactive meal planning, making it easier for busy professionals to achieve their goals. Shaw shares insights on building a successful fitness business, the importance of evidence-based approaches over social media hype, and why most people get distracted by minor details instead of mastering the fundamentals. From entrepreneurship lessons learned through accidental partnerships to navigating the overwhelming world of fitness misinformation, this conversation provides practical wisdom for both fitness professionals and anyone serious about achieving lasting results. Whether you're a personal trainer looking to enhance your client services or someone frustrated with conflicting nutrition advice, Shaw's level-headed approach cuts through the noise to focus on what actually works. Don't miss his perspective on why consistency trumps perfection and how to identify credible sources in an industry flooded with questionable advice. Subscribe for more evidence-based fitness insights that bridge the gap between science and real-world application.

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Speaker 1:

I love that you can tell you're very level-headed on those giant fucking traps and shoulders. You have that critical thought process where, unfortunately today, when people type in such as how do I become a trainer, they click on the first ad and that's, as I said, the National Academy of Spectacular Marketing, and then they go down a rabbit hole. They spend $1,000 on some bullshit certification, then they have that sunk cost fallacy and then they don't even know how to train. So if you take that approach really with anything, it's like if you want to learn more about creatine, you want to learn more about fasting.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the show up fitness podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showoffitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy everybody. Welcome back to the Showoff Fitness Podcast. Today we are blessed with the gigantic Hulk, mr Nick Shaw. Thank you, my man, for taking the time to show up. How are you doing?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing very well. Thank you so much for having me on. It's called Show Up Fitness. I showed up right after my own workout and had my own little workout shake right here that I was just finishing as we got started. So I'm trying to do my best to honor the title of the podcast and just show up.

Speaker 1:

I think the AI is affecting those shoulders because you look absolutely massive right now.

Speaker 2:

Stop it, no, go on, come on, more, more, more, more, more.

Speaker 1:

If you're not familiar with co-founder Nick Shaw of RP Strength, you are living under a rock. You must be a NASM trainer doing some BOSU ball backflips, because these guys have changed the industry 3.8 million followers on YouTube, they got a great podcast, you got your RP hypertrophy app, you got your shot. And then you also have the RP diet app and that's what we're really going to dive into today. So I had Mr Pat Davidson on and I've been familiar with you guys forever Obviously interviewed Crystal and Gerald. We had him on here and it just kind of slapped me across the face when he was talking about his amazing transformation. He's like really, what started? It was the RP app and I was like you know what? I don't know why, I don't suggest this more. So I had a couple of our instructors go on it already in the last week I had someone reach out and they're like thank you so much for the app. It's really transformed my life and it's really given me the motivation to keep on and discipline to keep on getting my results.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk a little bit more about that. Nick, that's awesome stuff, man. I mean, that's exactly why we do what we do. You know, give people lots of education to our YouTube channel and pretty much learn as much as you could in like a college, you know, exercise science degree, because Mike's taught all those classes before and so one of the big, I guess, narratives and things that we leaned into, like when COVID started hitting we really leaned into YouTube because it was pretty apparent that, like, mike just has what I call the gift of the gab.

Speaker 2:

He's a very skilled orator, and so we were like, well, instead of him teaching 30 people at a time, or maybe even 300, if it's a really big college class why don't we get him on YouTube where he can use his skills to help people? Because he's really funny, but he's also really really smart and he can break stuff down in a way that a lot of people can't, and it's so easy to understand that people are like, oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. Like, oh, I had heard all this BS before, but he's kind of laying out the pros and the cons. He's not just saying, hey, just do this or just do that. It's like, well, hey, you can do this. Here are the trade-offs that come with it. Like, here's the pros and cons of it.

Speaker 2:

Like, for, a lot of people appreciate that because it's just pretty honest and people do that, they listen to it. It's also entertaining He'll make lots of jokes and so it makes it easier to process and understand. And, all that being said, it's just a way to get the name out there more and you're providing good information. People really like that. They want to reciprocate. They're like, yeah, okay, maybe I'll use their apps, maybe I'll check out some stuff, whatever it is. So, yeah, we're just really fortunate that that's taken off and done really well the last couple of years and we've been able to impact literally millions of people every single day. It's really freaking cool.

Speaker 1:

That's what I love about you guys, cause you practice what you preach. There's nothing like learning from someone who is jacked but also really smart. I remember when I was at the issn hearing dr willoughby talking about whatever it was, and I was just like zoomed in because I'm like this guy is a monster. I think that kind of comes back to the evolution for a lot of dudes, like where do you get a lot of your advice in the gym? You go find the big dude and you start kind of mimicking what he's doing, but then when there's actually scientific application behind it, it just makes it a lot more 100%.

Speaker 2:

If we go back in time to when we really started RP, when it was called Renaissance Periodization. I mean, no one can spell that. I can't even spell it nowadays either. Now we just go by RP Strengths a little bit easier, a little bit easier for my brain to spell those words. But that was really the core of what and why we started RP. Because we're like you know what. It's one thing when you go ask the big guy at the gym and he sort of says three sentences and you're like I don't know what he just said, nor do I think he knows what he just said and like you can try to mimic that the best you can, and it may or may not get you some results.

Speaker 2:

Now I will say, those big guys, they get some things right, obviously because they're huge and massive and all that. They really train hard, they're really consistent, all that stuff. So they're getting a lot of it right. But what we were more interested in was like okay, well, training hard is a given right Because that's just who we are. So like, okay, that checkbox, that's covered.

Speaker 2:

What if you now apply that with a little bit more scientific rigor and evidence-based approach? Because then it's just like you said, if you get someone who can walk the walk and talk the talk, you really can't poke holes in their arguments, because if you have someone that just is a book nerd, so to speak, and weighs 140 pounds, you're really not taking them that seriously when it comes to training. Sorry if that offends anyone, but it's the truth. And then on the flip side, you got a 280-pound guy, but he can't really explain why he's doing what he's doing. You're like huh, okay, that's interesting, you get both.

Speaker 2:

Now you're talking, and what's been really cool to see is, like you know, the last year or so we've started to see some pretty big-name professional bodybuilders incorporate a bit more of the RP principles, most notably Nick Walker, who's taken top three in the Mr Olympia, just won the New York Pro a couple of years in a row. People see that and they go oh, you can do both, and then it kind of starts to trickle down a little bit. So that's really been the coolest part, because now again one of the biggest sort of critiques of rp would be well, you know, mike's not a pro, or you know something like that and he's not.

Speaker 2:

But he's got a phd. He's obviously really smart when it comes to all that stuff. Maybe just doesn't have the best genetics for bodybuilding. I think he would say the same as well. But then you look around and, like myself and jared, sort of the we're kind of the big, I guess three at rp well, like two of us have pro cards, so it probably means a little something at least.

Speaker 1:

But it goes back to we walk the walk, talk the talk for sure, and when you have both of those becomes really hard to argue with I chuckled because literally right before this I was doing some research and I typed in ren and I was like, oh fuck, is it ai, is it ia? And I think renaissance rp is so much. That's your. You know a lot of it is your audience's meatheads and I'm a prideful meathead, but that's pretty, I take as a compliment.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, yeah.

Speaker 1:

There's nothing like going to the gym and tossing some weight around. You're like. You know, I like being a meathead. It's fun. But then when you have that, you know that brain behind it as well. You got that competence. It's a whole different ballgame.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure there's something therapeutic about going into the gym and you can kind of turn off all distractions for a while and you just kind of just all about you. And as well, if you're lifting with some friends or some buddies, it can be fun and, you know, it's just like a little group setting. So, yeah, I go and train with some folks every now and again, but most of the time I just train here in my basement and it allows me to commute from my gym to where I'm sitting right now in approximately 30 seconds. And yeah, I can show up to a podcast when I just finished a workout, you know, five, 10 minutes ago. So it's, it's really great. Man Lifting is just so great for, for really anyone and everyone and.

Speaker 2:

I wish you know more people understood that. Like, obviously, obviously our demographics, we get it. The people that we train in person, you know we ought to give them credit for showing up, but then all the people that they know that are not showing up, that aren't doing anything. It's like, well, you know, you could feel a lot better just by going to the gym a couple times a week, and I think a lot of people don't even realize that. And it's not like you have to do psychotic things either. Two times a week for like 30 to 45 minutes. You can get some really great results from just doing that, and I wish more people would.

Speaker 2:

Maybe with the advent of YouTube and sort of the proliferation of all that, because I will say, you know, 10 years ago this is like evidence-based fitness crowd really didn't exist. It was very, very small. Nowadays, I think, it's growing pretty well and you've got some real big YouTube channels out there promoting it. We're probably one of them. There's a couple of those that are bigger than ours too that are promoting it too. So it's really cool to see.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. That's huge, and you said something that I'd like to tackle a little bit more and talking about just the importance of showing up. But there is that like environmental, maybe even slash genetic influence, because you know, I had my first trainer when I was in fourth grade. And how is that possible? Because my dad was military and he literally be like you can stay home and do homework or you could go to the gym with me, and so it's just ingrained at a young age. It's just, it's common sense. For me, if I missed a week working out, I'd feel like a loser. But then there's so many people that didn't have that influence. And so how about yourself? Did you have that influence from a young age or what got you into it?

Speaker 2:

It's a great question. So my parents weren't really into fitness but I had a brother who was four years older than me and he was playing high school sports so he was lifting weights and we had one of those old like rickety, rackety little benches that had the the sort of standards like your head could basically only fit between it. We had sand plates, so one of those little mini bars, not even like a normal barbell, just like. Oh yeah, if I weighed like five pounds, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. And that's just what we had in our basement. I think we got it from maybe like my uncle or something like that, who like just gave it to us. And you know, there was just something about it where I would see my brother lifting. We had actually one of those like old like weeder machines that had like kind of one of those presses where you kind of pressed out and maybe you could press up and leg extensions, I think. So yeah, but like none of it was optimized at all so you could do like quarter, half range of motion and that was it. But like you don't know any better back then. So I at least had that, and you know an older brother who got me into lifting. So that was all good, but yeah, it's just.

Speaker 2:

I would say that I think what happened was I got my dad's personality and my dad's like obsessed with hunting and fishing, but rather than channel it into that because that's like actually what I hate more than anything in life, those things it just somehow I got that channeled into fitness and because I started lifting, I was like, oh, this is pretty cool and there's sort of two memories that really stand out to me. Cool and there's sort of two memories that really stand out to me. One was, I think, my junior year in high school. So I had been lifting. We have an advanced PE class in high school and I took that my sophomore, junior and senior year. So I was like all we did was go into the weight room and lift. It was awesome, it's the best class in the world.

Speaker 2:

But I remember someone gave me a magazine. It was ESPN the magazine and there was a guy in the magazine. His name is David Boston. Do you know who that is? I've heard of him. Yep, former NFL wide receiver. Now the funny, ironic part is that he went to Ohio State and I hate Ohio State because I'm a Michigan guy but I remember reading this article. He was like 6'3", 6'4", 230 pounds, like 5% body fat, and six four, 230 pounds like 5% body fat. And I just looked at him I'm like what the fuck is that? Like how is that possible? And I just remember I like cut out the pictures and I put it and like I don't think they're up anymore. But I put it like in my basement and I was like I'll probably never look like that someday, but goddamn, I'm going to try. Right, like I want to look something like that. That was one, and then the other one was I mean, this would have been actually earlier than that, so I probably should have said this one first, but I was a runner in high school.

Speaker 2:

I got into lifting though a lot, but it's like fitness in general and the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of high school I was one of the only kids that ran the required 100 miles over the summer to get ready for cross-country practice in the fall and I went from being eight out of nine people my freshman year. So I was not good. Only seven make the varsity. There's nine people. I was either eighth or ninth To the very first practice. I was running with the top two or three people from the year before.

Speaker 2:

I was like what is going on? I'm like this is kind of cool. And then come to find out basically no one else had done the required running over the summer. So this light bulb goes on in my head that said, oh, I can just outwork people. Most people aren't going to do what's asked of them or what's required of them. Wow, that is how I can stand out. That is how I can create an advantage for myself, because I'm not genetically blessed. I probably have decent genetics for bodybuilding, I suppose, but certainly not for endurance running. But I was like that's going to be my superpower, that's going to be what gives me a leg up on people. And I leaned into that and I embraced it, so like you know, junior senior year, people are out partying.

Speaker 2:

I'm at home working out. Now again, this may be a little weird, but like that's how I approached it, cause I was like, no, I'm going to do this shit that other people aren't going to do. Cause, like there's some stuff that I really want to accomplish, and one of the goals was I wanted to get my name on our school record board for track and field. Now I came up short two different occasions by less than a second, but, that being said, that was always like my driving motivation, like I always wanted to stand out and do more and I never wanted to be average. So I just that has to be genetic. Like there just has to be genetic right, like I don't know why I was blessed with that mindset, but it's here I am, and that started at, you know, 13, 14. Here I am I'm. You know, 37, going to be 38, like 25 years later almost, and I still love this shit more. You know, almost more than anything.

Speaker 1:

It's a discipline to show up. That's really what it is. You just have to be consistent. But that's a nice thing about your guys' app and that's what I want to kind of take you through. Let's know we're both fathers and let's pretend like I've packed on a few because I'm just not willing to show up and I have excuses alcohol, whatever it may be. But if I wanted to get this app, could you kind of take me through what that would look like from the nutrition side of it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So the RP Diet Coach app. It's in the app stores, you can just go and download it. It'll ask you a bunch of questions when you get started and it'll kind of lay out your schedule and what it'll do is based on how you answer all the questions. It'll lay out a few meals a day for you and they'll tell you the macros for them all, and then you get to go in and you get to pick your favorite foods and so it'll pre sort of calculate how much of that food you need. So let's say you need like 30 grams of protein.

Speaker 1:

You're like yeah.

Speaker 2:

I want to eat, you know, chicken breast Okay, you need 4.5 ounces or something like that, and you can toggle raw and cook, so you can these meals, and you can be like, okay, well, here's chicken, okay, and then I'm going to choose, you know, rice, and I'm going to choose some veggies. And you know you can save that and it can kind of just pre-populate that in, for you know, the same meal, theoretically, if you wanted to, each day, something like that, but it really just lays out the blueprint of what you need to do. And so the beauty of that is and I'm a big fan of simplicity, so I'm probably going to choose, you know, simpler foods. I don't need to get super, super fancy or anything like that, but that's how the diet app works.

Speaker 2:

And then you weigh in a couple of times a week. It helps track your progress and it'll sort of chart it based on the goals that you set, and it won't let you choose ridiculous goals, of course. It helps you put some parameters around it and then each week it'll sort of prompt you and be like hey, you know, based on what you said, here's where you're at, here's what we think you should do, and it'll be like you should just stay on track, You're right where you should be, like, hey, you're a little bit behind, so we probably need to update some things. We probably need to reduce some calories, we need to pull out some macros, so you can do all that. It's great. You really just execute the plan. If you execute the plan, you're going to get really good results. No other way around it.

Speaker 1:

So we have our own certification. As we were talking prior, we've partnered with Lifetime and Equinox. A lot of trainers will go through our program. They get certified. Would this be something that they could give to their clients and help track their nutrition goals as?

Speaker 2:

well. So, yes and no, the clients could absolutely use it. They totally could. It will help give them some guidance. And then I would say, like when you're working with that person, you'd be like, hey, show me your app. You can't, as a trainer, go in and see what they're doing, but if you're working with them, you could just show them and, let's say, each week you wanted to do the weekly review with them. You could have them pulled up and make hey, here's what it's suggesting. Does that sound okay? And then your coach can make yeah, no, that sounds great.

Speaker 2:

Because, again, the idea of the app is it's more of like a planner, so it helps you plan things a little bit ahead of time. Because you know, most apps are like food loggers and so you kind of like you log stuff reactively after the fact right, you go and eat and then you sort of put it in and that's fine. That's a totally cool approach. This is sort of designed to help you kind of plan a little bit ahead of time. You're like, okay, cool, here are my macros. All right, here are the foods that I want to eat. Cool, I kind of need to plan for this. And then it serves as a coach because you enter in your progress and results and then it helps you modify as you go.

Speaker 1:

And so I have a lot of clients who are CEOs or kind of that type A, and I'm thinking of a couple right now. If I were to suggest for them to use it, they're really big into fasting, so how would they be able to use this app if that's something that they like to do?

Speaker 2:

We are depending on when this episode airs. We are working on a really big update that's going to provide some more flexibility. So you can, right now the app, you could set busy periods so you could say, hey, I wake up at six, but I'm busy from six to 12. Okay, we will not put meals during that time. So you can do all that. You have the flexibility to do that. The app won't necessarily pre-program that for you. It would almost certainly suggest your first meal is going to be around 7 or something like that, but you just put a busy period. There are ways to do that. The next updates will probably make that a little bit easier, but you can do all that right now. It just requires a bit more work. But the type A folks, the folks that just get a plan and then they execute it because that's how I am those are the folks that are going to get incredible results.

Speaker 1:

The tracking is huge just because there's so much crap out there. It's like do I do keto, Do I do fasting? Do I do this new water diet, whatever the hell people are coming out with? And so when you have something to track and follow, that consistency is really important.

Speaker 2:

Yep, yeah, the whole idea right. So we provide all the information and education. You can go watch all that stuff for free on YouTube. But then a lot of times people just they're like, okay, I get it. Okay, yeah, yeah, cool, just tell me what to do. And that's why we have the apps. So the example that I always use is I could go watch probably how to fix cars and all that stuff on YouTube.

Speaker 1:

I'm sure I could learn it, if I really wanted to.

Speaker 2:

I don't have any interest in it.

Speaker 2:

I want to go pay the person down the street to just do it for me. Just do it. It's the same idea in fitness. We all have trade-offs, we all have limitations. No one can be amazing at every single thing, and so for the CEO that's busy working and doing all this other stuff being around for his family, all that, you don't want to spend that time learning everything about fitness because you can just outsource it to someone that already specializes in it. That's kind of the beauty of you know the economy and the way that capitalism works. It's like, well, just, you're trading off, trading off resources. This person's an expert in this thing, so, okay, you pay them accordingly. Oh, cool, well, this person is an expert in this thing, cool, I don't have to go learn everything about it. So, yeah, it's great. That's why we have apps, because, at the end of the day, people just want to follow a plan, and if you follow the plan, you're going to do well.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to switch a little bit into your hat that you're wearing now, because you love working out, but where did that entrepreneurship come in? Where now you're running a business, and it's not a small business, and so how did that come to fruition?

Speaker 2:

Accidentally, really, I guess, is the best way to describe it. Where did my entrepreneurial spirit come from? I actually had a job in college painting houses, and it was like one of those internships where you're basically running the business and I had no idea what I was doing. But I was decent at it and I guess what I liked about that was I didn't necessarily have to work for other people. I mean, there were people that I had to report to, but I still could kind of set my own schedule and do all that stuff and I kind of liked that. And then I worked as a personal trainer after graduating from college with Dr Mike in New York City, and just the way that people ran their businesses, I was like this doesn't make sense, this is dumb, and I was like I'm just going to go work for myself. And that's kind of how RP started.

Speaker 2:

Because Mike was in school, he was referring people to me and then I would refer people to him because he was doing online coaching. We're like, dude, let's just make like one business, let's just combine forces, and that way we can refer back to one another and it's within the same thing, so like we both benefit. And that's really how we started with a couple of laptops and you know, basically free, right, just internet and laptops and started writing programs for people online. And that was like 2011, 2012 and really just grew from there. So Mike and I just thought we would be coaches yeah, that's really all we thought we would do. And then we sort of figured out we had a pretty good methodology behind stuff. Mike was always the one creating the products. I was run more the person, more running the business, the day-to-day the apps, the customer service, customer service all that in the early days. So he made a really good team, because the stuff he was good at, the stuff I was good at it complimented one another. So it just was a beautiful partnership.

Speaker 1:

Serendipitous and I always love hearing those stories because I know Tony Genocore and Eric Cressy. They got connected on, I believe, t Nation back in the day. Dr Kaleva he's on our board and he got connected with Lane Norton through bodybuildingcom. So where did your guys' relationship start? University of Michigan.

Speaker 2:

We met in the weight room.

Speaker 1:

Yep Showing up and beating the hell out of the weights and look at that and that's awesome to see where you guys are at now. You guys can reflect back on all the years and be like, wow, we've done some big things uh, we have.

Speaker 2:

So for me, I I always grew up a huge michigan fan. I'm born and raised in the state of michigan, was always a huge michigan football fan. Uh, yeah, man, I mean, I was certainly lucky to go to school at university of michigan. It's a really good school. I worked my ass off to, you know, get in and all that. It was a huge goal for me. But uh, you know, even then, mike and I set up back in I think, 2016.

Speaker 2:

Damn, almost a decade ago, we set up a Renaissance Science Scholarship at U of M. So we now, I think probably at least four or five kids a year get like $1,000 from that. So we've definitely been able to give back. I think I have another scholarship, a personal one, that gives back on the of like the athletic department side for, like, student managers, because I also got to work for the football team when I was in college. So it's one of those things where I'm very appreciative of where I came from and sort of how we got started and how I was fortunate enough to meet Mike at Michigan, which led to some pretty cool events in my life.

Speaker 2:

I think, yeah, and we do everything that we can to try to give back. We also have some RP research grants that we give out. So we give out literally over $100K a year to various labs around the world and we just give them money and we don't pick or choose anything. We just say, hey guys, here's $10K, go fund, whatever you want in terms of research, because we know they're good labs and we trust that they're going to do good work. And then another thing that we're working on actually I don't know if we'll get it out this year or not, it might be an early 2026 thing, but yeah, we're going to give out some actual scholarships through the RP YouTube channel for people to go to school to study kinesiology. That's awesome.

Speaker 1:

You guys are backing some good podcasts. I know Andrew supports you guys. He was just posting this story today and Andrew's a great mentor of mine, so it's like you guys are Andrew Coates, coates, yep, okay. And you guys are just getting your tentacles in the right places and I could have a whole entire podcast with you talking about college sports and Michigan. You guys, what? Four years in a row, you've taken care of Ohio State, right?

Speaker 2:

Yes, sir, four in a row, including 2023, national champions. I was there at the national championship game, one of the highlights of my entire life.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I don't know how you feel about me. I like those longhorns, but we'll take care of Ohio State for you. The first game of the year.

Speaker 2:

I will be rooting for Texas like none other.

Speaker 1:

There you go. I like it, hook them. And so last little thing, speaking of hooking them, that shot in the background. Could you tell us a little bit more about that, because I've yet to try it, but I definitely want to get that into the reserve and start shooting those down.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's called genius shot. It's awesome. There's another way to describe it. We did not know anything like this could ever exist. Someone reached out to us and was like hey, we have this idea. We were all skeptical.

Speaker 2:

We're like why does this not exist already? It's made with a BLG protein which is like a derivative of whey protein, which allows you to filter through it and put this amount of protein in a 3-ounce 3.3-ounce I think it's 100 milliliters, it's whatever. The tsa cutoff is 23 grams of pure protein, 23 grams of just whey protein. No fats, no carbs, a little bit artificial. You know, sweeteners in there make it taste really good. They taste phenomenal.

Speaker 2:

You can pour it in something else if you want, like I, I'll put them in. You know, a gatorade. I think it takesade. I think it tastes even better. If you're on the road traveling and you need a little intro workout shake, perfect. I'll mix it in with some Element in the morning, the blue raspberry one with some of the lemonade Element. Holy shit, it tastes amazing. All that being said, depends on when this episode goes out. It's currently sold out because getting the protein is just there's just really hard to come by right now. In the future I'm sure it'll open up and it'll be a lot easier to get it and it'll be much more just abundance. Right now it's currently sold out. Probably be back end of August or so.

Speaker 1:

Good issues to have. My question for you is how have you not died from having Gatorade because of the Red 40 and all that stuff? You know what goes on with that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Gee whiz, how has everyone not died? Yeah, people really love to latch on to little things and, you know, when you look at nutrition as like this overall big picture, you're like, okay, what about something like Red 40?

Speaker 1:

Like where does?

Speaker 2:

that really fit in? You're like, okay, what about something like RED40? Where does that really fit in? You're like, okay, well, how many calories are you consuming? What's the macronutrient breakdown that you're having? What's the quality of your foods, what's the timing of them? Are you using some supplements or whatever? And it's like that doesn't even register. I don't know.

Speaker 2:

In the grand scheme of things, if you were looking at a hundred percent total, you know outcomes red 40 would be like a 0.001% factor. In that we were like how do you want, do you want to be healthier? Okay, cool, control your calories, be at a good, healthy body weight. That's like 50, 60%. Okay, what's the actual macro breakdown of that? Like, are you getting in enough protein to support? You know the ability to train, whether that's running, fitness, biking, whatever, lifting weights, of course, okay, cool. Well, that's like another 20%. So like, okay, now you're like 70%. Now you start to get into some of this other stuff, like how many meals are you eating a day and the timing, and maybe you throw in a little supplements and all that, and it's like now you're up over. You know 90, 95% of the way there.

Speaker 2:

And then these really little things come in. You know, like you mentioned earlier the fasting, or like keto, it's like you're missing what is it? You're missing the forest for the trees. Like you have to tackle the big things first and then you can start to worry about all this stuff. But people like that stuff's not sexy, it doesn't sell very well on social media, and so people really love to go after the really little things.

Speaker 2:

One of the ones is seed oils and it's like people love to get up in arms over it and you're like if you really look at the research, it's pretty clear that they're not bad for you. Now that's not me saying and endorsing like go take a thing of canola oil and just start fucking chugging it. It's like no, it goes back to this is all in context and it's all in moderation. If you eat mostly lean proteins and healthy whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and then you mix in some healthy fats whether you want that to be nuts, you want it to be avocados or olive oil, or maybe even a tiny bit of some seed oils here and there it's like people get so worked up over the smallest details. It's like you're focusing on this when you're missing this. So it's like stop it, stop.

Speaker 1:

Just stop, shut your mouth when you're talking to me. Exactly, it's like. That's why I love using sports analogies, because it'd be like imagine Michigan football and all they practice are trick plays. It's like, no, it could have maybe a couple times during the year and it can make a big difference, but you focus on the basics, you run, you pass. What are you good at? Focus on those strengths and our you know, social media just fucks everyone.

Speaker 1:

Which leads me to the last question of the day, and it can be confusing for newer trainers and coaches when they come in the industry. Who to follow? And obviously, obviously, you know professors and those are your, your great people, but sometimes they're not in the limelight. It's you know, this person over here has 1.4 million followers and he's telling you that you got to be an ectomorph in order to get jacked. And what the fuck's an ectomorph? And it's like who do you follow? Who are some suggestions for the listeners that you would point into the right direction? Obviously, your team is amazing and your coaches are great and you guys have that opportunity. If you want to work with a coach, definitely do that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a really good question because, again, let's go back to the car analogy that I used earlier. You're like I want to learn how to fix my car. Where do you start? I wouldn't know. I could go. I could just go Google it and, new to the first three people that come up, maybe I watch here. Okay, here's what I would say. So if I was using myself an example of how to figure out how to work on my car, I'd go and I'd Google it or go to YouTube, type it in top car mechanics, don't just choose one.

Speaker 2:

Choose like three to five people and watch some of their content. What are the overriding themes that they all say? Because that's how I like to. If I'm going to learn something new, that's how I have to do it. It's like, okay, because a while back I wanted to learn like better, proper marketing. I was like, okay, who are some of the best marketers out there? I picked like three to five people and I read a book or two from everyone. I'm like, okay, they all say the following things. They all say this these are the three things they all have in common.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to start there. That's probably where most of this starts. For fitness. That's probably what I would recommend for people. Start with the RPA Strength YouTube channel, renaissance Periodization. Watch a lot of that.

Speaker 2:

Youtube will then suggest people that are probably similar. Choose a couple others. Watch some of their content. What are the things that are lining up? Oh, they're all saying you know you need to focus on protein and calories. Okay, that's a good starting point.

Speaker 2:

But you know, one says that creatine's good, one says creatine's bad. You're like, what do you do? Start with the big things that they kind of all agree on, and that's a really good start Because, again, it goes back to now. You're going to get most of the picture right, because, consistently, if you get most of the picture, most of the time you're good. You don't have to worry about some of the minor details.

Speaker 2:

And then you just kind of choose whoever you like most right, whoever's the most entertaining, whoever you sort of jive with best, and you just keep watching a lot of their content Because even if they say creatine's bad, it's not. By the way, this is one of the best supplements out there. Well, it's like half of a percent maybe, in the grand scheme of things, out of 100, so like you can still get a 99.5 on your test and you're good. So that's how I like to do it. That's how I would approach it Choose a few different people and see what they have in common, and then you kind of know where to start, like those are probably the building blocks, and then you can. You know, as you get a little bit more advanced, you can get a little bit more in the weeds, as you want, but that's what I would recommend people do.

Speaker 1:

I love that you can tell you're very level-headed on those giant fucking traps and shoulders. But you have that critical thought process where, unfortunately today, when people type in such as how do I become a trainer, they click on the first ad and that's, as I said, the National Academy of Spectacular Marketing, and then they go down a rabbit hole. They spend $1,000 on some bullshit certification, then they have that sunk cost fallacy and then they don't even know how to train. So if you take that approach really with anything, it's like if you want to learn more about Crete and you want to learn more about fasting, don't just click on the girl or guy who's in amazing shape. You know, do your checks and balances and actually do research. When people tell me I did my research, I said, well, tell me about that company and what could you tell about NASM or ACE or ISA? And they'd go I don't know. So the research that people are doing today is very faulty.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I mean, that's a good point. Listen, it's hard when you're entering a new space. It really is. The other option could be find someone that you know or trust and maybe see what they're doing Again, not that that will guarantee success, because they might be following some complete bullshit. And then, like we talked about earlier, sometimes the people that happen to be in the best shape, they kind of got there because they just have really good genetics and just happen to work hard for a long time, or maybe that's the case. Actually, sometimes people just have really good genetics and then you try to mimic what they're doing. You're like this is not working for me and you're like, yes, because you don't have their genetics. So what do you do?

Speaker 1:

It's tough, I mean, I feel, for people today with social media. There's there's a girl not too long ago reached out to me and she had like 1.5 million followers and she said can you give me some advice on the stack that I'm on and she's taken Anovar and like literally 20 different things, says natural, and I'm just like you fucking kidding me, and it's just so. It must be so frustrating from that standard because it's like there's so much smoke and mirrors out there and people just get frustrated ultimately just say no, fuck it. I feel way much better just getting drunk and smoking weed and eat my ice cream.

Speaker 2:

This is better it is, it can be extremely discouraging and disheartening and that's a real battle to overcome. That you know all fitness professionals do have to tackle and address and you know, to me it's. But you know, I just if you're brand new to something, man, it is hard, because if I, yeah, let's do something else. If I want to learn proper painting, where the fuck would I start? I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I don't know a damn thing about painting, so I would just go to Google and what's going to pop up first. But, like you said, the people that have really big marketing budgets, well, they know that. They know what people are going to be Googling. You can put a lot of money behind that to show up first. And guess what? When you show up first, it sort of automatically lends a little bit of credibility towards that, which ends up making people want to click that, and so it kind of becomes a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's tricky, but again it goes back to choose a couple of different people. Watch some of their stuff, see what they have in common, see the things that are all lining up. That's a good spot to start and then, as you get more advanced, feel more comfortable with it. You can maybe get a little bit deeper with it.

Speaker 1:

This is crazy because I look back on career and it's like if I I had this internship that I applied for and it was. I wanted to go to Maryland. I want to go to all basketball schools Maryland, west Virginia and the last one was university of Connecticut. I'm like fuck, I don't want to go to Connecticut. Ended up going there got, you know, learned under Dr Kramer and that kinesiology program. So I'm just like that was just lucky and you know I credit everything where I'm at today because of that path. But who knows what my path would be like today if I'm starting out as a newer trainer and I'm passionate about this and you go online and next thing you're learning from a guy with orange glasses telling you about some weird shit and you're like this is the gospel. So it's tough. But I know all of our listeners in a very good place with your guys' sites and everything. So make sure to check out their app and where can people find you, nick?

Speaker 2:

So rpstrengthcom is a good spot to start. Go to the RP YouTube channel. So Renaissance Periodization, or just type in rpstrength, it should all show up. Anything and everything, especially if you're not offended by some choice words and some self-deprecating jokes, you're going to love it. Super enlightening, super educational. Myself on Instagram at nickshawrp. You can always follow me, shoot me a DM, ask me any questions, happy to help people out, direct them to some good spots, or just rpstrength on Instagram too. It's got always a good spot. So I'd say those are a few spots to really start.

Speaker 2:

All right, man Well appreciate your time and go blue, have a great year and if you're out there in Charlotte, check up Nick, hook them on what? August, whatever, 28th, 28th, okay, yeah, something like that. Yeah, I will be cheering very hard for Archie Archman.

Speaker 1:

There you go. Have a good one, my man. Thank you All right, thank you.