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Primal Foundations Podcast
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Strength , Nutrition , Movement , and Recovery.
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Primal Foundations Podcast
Episode 45: Carnivore & Kettlebells with Mark Valenti
Join us on Episode 45 of the Primal Foundations podcast as we explore the inspiring journey of Mark Valenti, a StrongFirst Elite Instructor and former Highland Games competitor. Mark shares incredible stories from his two-decade career in the Highland Games, including the unforgettable experience of lifting Iceland’s legendary Husafell stone. He delves into how adopting a carnivore diet transformed his athletic performance and overall health, emphasizing fasting, fat adaptation, and the power of a simple, meat-based approach. We also discuss the creation of "Blind Dog Gym," where Mark fosters a strength culture rooted in the philosophy that "Strength has a greater purpose," benefiting clients of all ages. Packed with tales of perseverance, community, and practical wisdom, this episode offers valuable insights for athletes and fitness enthusiasts alike.
Connect with Mark:
@mvalenti100
@blinddogstrong
blinddogstrong.com
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Hey everybody, welcome back to an episode of the Primal Foundations podcast. Today's guest is Mike Valenti, strong first elite instructor and team leader, former Highland Games competitor, Carnivore since 2017, and owner and operator of Blind Dog Gym located in Vermilion, Ohio. Mark, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Hey how you doing.
Speaker 1:Great to be here to the show. Hey, how you doing. Great to be here. Yeah, man, I was telling you a little off air. I was like swing kettlebells, lift weights, eat steaks, carnivore. I'm like you're my target audience.
Speaker 2:It's nice to meet people like that all around and get those same brain wavelengths going.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I want to start the podcast off to have some of the listeners get some of your background of how did you get into fitness athletics and then make your way to becoming a competitor in Highland Games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did everything like I'm sure most of the people listening did as a kid all the sports, growing up and started lifting weights because I wanted to look like the wrestlers you know in the 80s and picked up the shot in discus in high school.
Speaker 2:Really fell in love with that. And then when I got out of high school, well, in my junior year of high school I started competing in the amateur circuit of the Highland Games. And then when I got out of high school, I got recruited by the University of Toledo for track and field Scholarship. That they kind of dangled in front of me didn't turn out. They wanted me to work for a couple of years to kind of earn my spot on the team and I was already better than the guy they had throwing for them. So I said, well know, I could, I could do this, or I could just turn professional in the highland games and and actually make some money throwing. So, uh, I turned pro, um, uh switched colleges, turned pro and and uh ended up doing that for almost 20 years and uh, and it was the best summer job I ever had.
Speaker 1:What were some of the events that you were doing?
Speaker 2:So Highland Games traditionally is you know whether it's you know there's two stone throws, very much like the shot put, two weight throws that are similar to the discus. Two hammer throws very similar to, you know, a track and field hammer throw. A weight for height, which is a 56-pound weight. You throw over a bar like a high jump bar, the sheath toss, which is a 20-pound bag of straw with a pitchfork. You throw over a high bar, and then the caber toss, which is what everyone kind of knows, which is the one that looks kind of like a telephone pole. And, uh, you know they'll either take anywhere from five events in one day to seven, and then some days they do two-day events. Well, they'll do all all nine events that you know in over two days.
Speaker 2:And, um, it was great because we got to. Um, it was like getting paid to go on a road trip with your buddies every weekend. So from mid-April to Halloween we were in a different city every weekend or every other weekend. And it was great because those festivals that people look forward to every year, and for us it was just another day at work, but every weekend you got to go to a new town and people were really psyched to see you and you competed all day. And then you got to go to a new town and people were really psyched to see you and you competed all day. And then you got to go to the beer tent at night and never had to buy a drink or pay for a meal. It worked out really well.
Speaker 1:That's the one where you throw like whatever over your head. It's got to go over the bar. I've seen like some of the strong guys do that strong man where they're thrown kegs yeah, yeah. And then I saw one I guys do that strongman where they're throwing kegs yeah, yeah. And then I saw one I forgot what the guy's name was but like the keg didn't make it, it fell and it hit him. Yeah, he just shrugged it off.
Speaker 2:he's like whatever we used to be able to go. Uh, you know, when I was competing you get the strongman and every once in a while we used to be able to, to you know, smoke them pretty easily in those events.
Speaker 1:Now they're getting a lot better at them, so oh yeah, and you also uh, lifted the husafell stone. If I get that correctly, that was in iceland iceland in 2017.
Speaker 2:I'd already retired from the pro circuit and uh went over there. I got invited to do the master's world championships and uh went over and uh, um, a buddy of mine from the circuit, matt Vincent, he's he's some people don't even know he was a Highland Games athlete, so he's he's like I don't know what the hell he is now Some kind of spiritual guru. I always see him online, but he was doing an Internet show and he was injured and asked if he could do it and asked if I wanted to come do it. So I said, yes, show. And. And he was injured and asked if he couldn't do it and asked if I wanted to come do it. So I said yeah. So we flew into iceland and drove four hours up to husafell and and lifted this stone that every great strong man and and viking and everything else for the last 500 years has lifted and tried to carry. So it was pretty amazing that's cool, cool.
Speaker 1:I visited Iceland before. It's so beautiful, but if I would have known I would have made an attempt at the stone. How heavy is this thing?
Speaker 2:It's 419 pounds.
Speaker 1:Okay, maybe not, then that's a pretty big stone, yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's such a rich stone culture in that country and we ended up lifting three of the stones the beach stones and the Husafell stone. But there were more stones that I didn't even know about until I left the country that I would have liked to, at that time, taken a shot at. I'm about probably 70 pounds and 15 years too old now, but back then I wish I would have known more about them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so this is kind of around 2017. Yeah, this is this transition to carnivore. So how did? How did you find out a carnivore? What was even like the inspiration to even start doing this type of diet?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started. So when I retired from the pro circuit I weighed 312 pounds, so I was at 5'11". I was, you know, heavy to say the least. So I went keto at first, started just dropping weight fast. So in about a year, year and a half, I dropped about 100 pounds and then started to, you know, gain weight back up, good solid weight. But Dr Sean Baker, who's the guy who pretty much brought carnivore to the public, was also a Masters Highland Games athlete and I just kind of reached out to him and we kind of knew each other from the circuit. We weren't like pals or anything, but we knew of each other and he's I said are you really doing this?
Speaker 2:You know, cause, at the time, no one was was doing this and he was about the only one. And um, he said, yeah, I'm doing it, I feel fantastic and and, uh, you know, I, I, I think you know it's a great way to go, and so I just gave it a try and I never looked back. It's just my, my body has never felt better, Even at 51,. I feel great and, uh, I don't see me ever changing the way I eat.
Speaker 1:Uh, and then you're in the. You know you're above 300. Uh, where did you kind of? You said you're dropping a bunch of weight? Where did you kind of land on the carnivore diet?
Speaker 2:So I hover right around between 200, 210, you know, without having to try or restrict myself in any way, I've gotten as low as 180. That was last year. But yeah, 210 is where I level out at.
Speaker 1:Okay, and as you're going through this, I mean that's a, that's a big weight loss. You know what Some people when they get to carnivore and it's everybody's a little bit different Did you have like cause you were keto before? Was the you know adaption period tough for you, or is it an easy transition?
Speaker 2:No, when, when I, when I transferred from eating like a well you know, like an asshole just eating horribly to to keto, you know I'd always had, which I you know I'm married to a nurse, so like she figured all this stuff out. But I had always had blood sugar issues. I would get real weak and almost delusional sometimes and sweat. It was bad and didn't really know what was going on. But we decided to try this and cut out all the sugar and carbs and see what would happen. So I never went through keto flu or anything like that. I think my body just really wanted me to eat that way. I never had any of those issues. Then, when I went from keto to carnivore, it was even better. I found adding fat to um, I found like, uh, adding fat to everything was pretty tiresome and you know you were. You were constantly trying to get more fat in your diet and this just seemed um more logical to me.
Speaker 2:This is the way we would have eaten, you know, 300,000 years ago. We would have been following, you know, game animals across the tundra. We would have eaten primarily meat and then, in season, when we didn't have meat, we probably would have looked for some kind of plant life to eat. But it just felt right and it made sense to me and I just think that's kind of the way we were meant to eat.
Speaker 1:I went to a crazy transition. I was vegan for two years and then I went. I was like all right, my body started not really working for me anymore, so I then went to keto. But one of the reasons I went to carnivore is just because it was simpler. Like keto is just like what's my macros? Is this fiber minus the plus the net carb? Yeah, I'm just like what's my macros? Is this fiber plus the net carb? I'm just like what am I doing?
Speaker 2:Exactly. It was such a pain in the butt. And then I went carnivore and Dr Baker is just so good about it. He's like, hey, I just eat steak, this is not hard. You're trying to make carnivore cookies and bread. It's like just eat a steak, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1:Now one and this is like I'm so excited to talk to you about this because this is one piece I get, uh, people predominantly that are athletic or athletes are like I'm not going to do carnivore or even keto because I really don't want my athletic performance to hinder Did you feel like it kind of did hinder a?
Speaker 2:little bit at first, or did it? Was it beneficial? So, like I said, I think for me personally, I think this is the way I was meant to eat. I think it's the way my body reacts. The best I did um the world high or the world uh, masters Highland Championship completely fasted. So I was on a 24-hour fast, carnivore. Actually, I was probably keto back then at that time, so I was probably somewhere in the transition. I can't remember, but either way, Ketovore yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I didn't eat until evening of that day. So we were competing all day. Same thing when I qualified for Strongman Nationals completely fasted, and I was carnivore for sure for that, and I never had any issues. And I really think it's just because my body was so used to burning fat so it wasn't like I needed that that food to digest, it was just pulling the fat off my body as I, as I competed, and, uh, I never got tired, I was never low energy. Um, I've never had any of those issues. Now, you know, obviously everybody's different, but uh, yeah, I never had have any, had any problems with low energy or or poor athletic performance because of it. And I really think for me, even with the fasting, you know, I didn't have to worry about digesting food while I'm trying to compete, or, you know, my body was just more efficient that way, I think.
Speaker 1:For building muscle as your trainings. You feel like I was. Oh, you were able to build muscle, or at least maintain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm still able to do now, even um, whatever I want to do. I did my uh, uh. I dead lifted uh three times body weight last year and you know I was able to build up to that for the first time ever. My weights now seem to be really, really good. Uh, I don't have any problems with strength levels or building muscle and, yeah, I think a lot of it is people just overthinking this. You know I, you know I'm not a doctor, I'm not a dietician, but it just seems that people just overthink this whole thing. You need protein to build muscle, you need fat for energy. I mean, you know, if you like carbs, great, go for it. But I, you know these battles over whether or not it can work or not. I'm always like it works for me, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're definitely gonna. We're gonna get back to this because you just mowed over. Oh yeah, I just deadlifted three times my body weight, so we're gonna get back to that. You're like it's super simple, it's? You know, I'm going to eat till you know I'm satiated. I'm going to be able to perform. Well, I think the big piece is like you know, I don't want to put my tinfoil hat on, but it's like well, what about all the energy bar companies? You know, all of the power gels or whatever it may be, and the protein shakes, and you got to have all this stuff to be an elite athlete. You're just eating red meat and steaks and feeling good.
Speaker 2:And if you look at all that stuff most of it you know you have to really search hard to find a protein shake or a protein bar or something like that. It isn't just filled with garbage. I get that question from my clients all the time is you know, what kind of protein should we take? Take a state at the risk of offending your audience.
Speaker 2:I competed in two of the sports that had some of the strongest guys on the planet. You know they didn't sit around talking about what protein drink they were having. You know, I mean, if anything, you know they were on testosterone. They weren't taking protein and energy drinks. You know it just. If anything, you know they were on testosterone. They weren't taking protein and energy drinks. You know it just. So, if these are the strongest guys on the planet, they're not taking this stuff. You know why. Why would I prescribe that to a housewife who just needs more protein in her diet? You know, make up some hard boiled eggs and put them in your refrigerator and eat those. You know you don't need all this crap.
Speaker 1:When you were starting out, you know you don't need all this crap. When you were starting out, you know what was your kind of typical meals. I don't know if you were old, mad or kind of played around with that one meal a day. And is it different now later, later on, as you've been doing? Carnivore.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I found out real early. I had I had a buddy, um, uh, dr Don possessing, who, uh, you know, when we were talking about when I was starting to lose weight and I was kind of I was switching between from keto over to carnivore and he had made a comment to me that you know, no adult human needs to eat three times a day and he was kind of one of these hardcore Chicago weightlifter guys, you know. And so I went down and started eating just lunch and dinner.
Speaker 2:Heard Pavel on Rogan's podcast talking about doing the warrior diet, which is one meal a day, and I said, oh, I'll just try that and it's been the best thing I've ever done. I mean, it's just it for me. Now I can put away food and, and you know, when I was on the on the circuit and I was big, you know, there wasn't a buffet. That I didn't love. If you let me eat as much as I wanted, I would do that three times a day For my mental makeup. If you can give me one meal a day where I can eat as much as I want and not have to worry about anything, it just works perfectly for me. So I will eat a huge meal, but just once a day and I don't get hungry, I don't uh have cravings, it just, it just works really well for me. And uh, you know again, pavel, coming through with, uh, some some good knowledge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he even mentioned he's like I'm not, I don't, I don't eat vegetables.
Speaker 2:No yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's. It's a good point too, and that's what people some people don't realize. This is, you know, eating for satiety, right, a lot of people are very different in this. It's like, well, eat till you're full, well, if you let me eat twice a day, I'm going to overeat and over consume and like my triggers. For me, you know, it could be a hormonal, it could be a mental thing or emotional thing. They don't.
Speaker 1:My satiety doesn't ping as much, right, I'm more of a volume eater, like that's I've. I've realized that, cause I eat carnivore. I've been carnivore for five years or so now and even though I'm carnivore, my weight will go up and down a little bit depending on the volume that I eat. So, yeah, omad is definitely, it's a, it's a tool. Some people like just really don't like it. Um, but if you can go to OMAD or at least identify like, oh, like I really need to kind of take a look at what's on my plate and how much of it, cause I'm the same way as you I will put down. I can put two pounds of beef down, three, right, it doesn't really matter to me, like I might be full, but I can still keep going, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I would do that every meal, if you let me you know.
Speaker 2:So it uh and then you know, from that I got into, um, you know fasting. So I do a couple 48 hours a year, just kind of whenever I feel like doing it, and then I do a big 72 to 96, depending on how I feel, every year after Thanksgiving. So I think the fasting is is great too for your body and I always feel great and I've done some really cool things athletically during long fasts and you know, I wish I was smart enough to understand all the stuff that goes on in your body when you're doing this stuff. But you know they've been doing this for hundreds and thousands of years. You know these fasts and there's something to them. You know I'm a firm believer.
Speaker 1:You know your family too. Like you have wife kid right as well. Yep, you know. So are they joining you with this? Or is this like dad's just the weird guy eating beef every day?
Speaker 2:So, um, my wife, um, is a former, uh, she was a CrossFit regional competitor. Um, when we met, um, smoking hot, you know, jack, the whole nine young people, um, she is, um, uh, she's really increased her protein levels, but she still eats her fair share of vegetables and, um, you know, more like a normal human would eat. You know, um, uh, my son is a hammer thrower at uh, ashland university and he's kind of where I was, you know, 20, 25 years ago, where he never met a calorie, didn't like. So, um, but, uh, you know, when I cook, I cook beef. You know that's, that's what I cook and uh, so when he was home, uh, in high school and stuff, you know it was, you know you were having steaks tonight and it was usually that's how he would eat too, you know so.
Speaker 1:I would be, I'd be, I'd be, I'd be pretty happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know we used to go through uh, two, two cows a year when he was home, and now, wow, two yeah, two cows a year.
Speaker 1:Oh man, you guys have a big uh ice chest thing, a couple of them, yeah, yeah, oh my god, do you get, do you? I mean where you're at. My assumption is you're gonna to have a little bit more access to different farmers, ranches, things like that Do you kind of buy locally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I get. I'm on schedule. Matter of fact, at the end of next month I get my next half. So twice a year I get a half a steer, or twice a year I get a half a steer. And then the other huge staple in my diet is eggs. So I've got a client who has 60 chickens and she doesn't eat eggs. So every week she brings me in like three dozen eggs and then, if she's out, my neighbors next door have probably 13 to 15 chickens. So you know I can just give them a call. So I, you know, we go to the grocery store. Most of it is food for animals and food for my wife and there's nothing in the cart for me. So I just eat everything local and I know what those animals are eating and I know the people who are raising them and it's.
Speaker 1:It's really just an ideal situation, situation, man, that's not. It sounds really good. Yeah, well, over here in chicago there's not just you know, there's just cities. You know, here, there and um, just getting like real good quality beef is is kind of tough. I I'm not in the camp of like it has to be. Um, you know, uh, grain finished like grass fed, the whole shebang. Um, I don't think the profile of the steak is that big of a difference, but I think if you're able to and it's and especially local, and you know the people or you have a relationship, that's like you know where your food comes from, that's amazing yeah, I, I'm, I'm in your camp, I, you know I, I don't think you make uh, you know, perfect the enemy of good.
Speaker 2:You know where you're talking about. They have to has to be grass fed, grass finished, and all this stuff. It's like, you know I, I know the farmer where I get my cow from, I know how he treats his animals, I know how he feeds them. You know like, and I do I, but I, I talk to him about this stuff more because I'm interested, uh, than anything. Um, but yeah, I'm definitely in your camp. Um, one of the coolest things, uh, my neighbor is a deer hunter and I wish that I had grown up deer hunting. I just I didn't have a father. My father was an old italian guy. He was not into hunting, you know. So I wish that that someone would have showed me how to do that when I was younger.
Speaker 2:But I was walking around our property a couple of weeks ago. I do like a 30, 40 minute walk every day with the weight vest. So I'm walking around the property and he comes pulling up on his four-wheeler with a giant eight point buck on the back of his four-wheeler and he takes it into his shed and hauls it up and gets ready to start dressing it out, and I come walking over and I'm like, wow, charles, that that's awesome, congrats. He's like, hey, you like venison, right? I was like yeah, and this dude just cut me out of loin right out there and put it in a plastic bag and handed it to me. It was still warm. I was like man took that thing home and cooked it up. It was great. But I mean, if you can get food like that and you've got some kind of connection to it, I think it's just. It just it's so much better for you.
Speaker 1:That's, that's awesome. And eating carnivore, and you're describing all the things and this is a common thing of everybody's feeling really good, they're losing weight, they have a lot of energy, they don't have to eat as much. The hunger piece I I think is a is a is a big thing to talk, to tackle with people because when they hear diet they're like I have to be hungry or starving. That's the point of a diet. If I'm trying to quote unquote lose weight, you know how do you, how do you feel? Tackling hunger on carnivore and then also your relationship with food, tackling hunger, on carnivore and then also your relationship with food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my, my gym right now. We do challenges every once in a while and I've probably got I put out for world carnivore month, let's do carnivore. And we probably got like seven or eight people doing it at the gym right now, which isn't a lot, but but seven or eight people were willing to make this commitment for 30 days and I told them I said have food available like hard-boiled eggs and beef jerky and if you have to do like roast beef lunch meat, it's not ideal but have it there and I don't care. Eat as much as you want when you're hungry, eat, but have the right food sitting there so you don't go to the popcorn or the snacks or whatever you're going to go to and they're doing really well on it. I've just gotten through the years where I just don't do a lot of snacking, I don't get hungry. Just did a whole workshop in Akron this weekend and it was, you know, eight hours of training people and then an hour there and an hour back drive and I mean I never got hungry, I never had any issues and you know I went home and ate. But you know, if you told me I had to go until the next day, it would have been fine. So it just my.
Speaker 2:My relationship with food used to be. You know, it's always been weird. It was always. You know, when I was younger and competing, I was always trying to put weight on and pack weight on, because I was 5'11" and I figured, if I'm only 5'11, I got to be really heavy and you know it was dumb, but you know that's the way I looked at it. So I had this unnatural relationship with food where I was always trying to pack myself to the point where I was sick. And then now I think I've finally gotten to the point where you know I eat when I'm hungry and I eat until I'm not hungry and you know, lo and behold, I feel a lot better.
Speaker 2:You know when you're not making food into some kind of reward or punishment, or you know, whatever you're, you're putting your, your brain into it. You know you just use it for what it is it's energy. And and you know that's not to say you can't go out. And you know my wife and I will go out and have date night tomorrow night. We'll have a wonderful meal and I'll have a cocktail with my meal once a week and it can be used to have some enjoyment as a thing. But yeah, I think people just they either overthink it or, you know, they have some weird kind of relationship with it. Where it's, it's screwing with their head and the more simple you can make it, the better, you know it's. I have a lot of conversations with my clients around food and and you know it's it's funny, the ones who actually listen do really well and the ones who don't don't. It's not rocket science. And I tell them just that. I say, hey, if you want this to work, just do what I tell you for the next 30 days.
Speaker 1:Then you'll be on your own, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1:The simplicity piece I found was the time that I spend, quote unquote, like I don't really meal prep. I don't, I don't meal prep. I. Literally I worked from six 45 this morning till a five, 35, 45. Came home, brought up some ground beef like two pounds. Boom, you know, it was already had in the fridge and then boom, got ready for the podcast. All that stuff Like I'm good I if I don't have had in the fridge. And then boom, got ready for the podcast. All that stuff like I'm good I if I don't have it in the fridge, it's in the freezer. Yeah, and it's very simple, like you said, like just have food ready, available, nutrient dense, bioavailable, great the the packages. Like I when I had a friend stay over with me from ohio. He's from Ohio, he's an Ohio State. Are you an Ohio State fan? By chance? I'm not much of a sports fan, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:As my son and my brother is. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Actually I lost a bet. I'm a Michigan fan because growing up in Chicago, there's like no, everybody's a transplant around here and there's like no football team Northwestern is good sometimes. U of I was actually somewhat decent this year, but I bet him. I'm like oh, ohio State's going down, notre Dame's going to crush them. He's like all right, what do you want to bet? I was like all right, how about if you win? If Ohio State wins, I'll wear an Ohio State t-shirt to work all day, because I always talk crap to all the students the faculty at Ohio State and I'm like if Notre Dame wins, you have to win a Michigan shirt to work in Ohio. He's like deal and my, I'm waiting for my t-shirt to come from Amazon.
Speaker 1:But this is a side note, uh, but he came over and he uh to visit and he stayed with me and I come back doing something. He goes yo man, you ain't got no snacks in this house. And I was like no, I don't have any snacks in the house. He goes there. No, I don't have any snacks in the house. He goes. There's like he goes you got beef eggs and I open the freezer more beef. He goes you have salt and hot sauce and I was like that's it. That's all in the cupboard is salt, hot sauce and uh utensils yeah, and then everyone talks about how expensive carnivore is.
Speaker 2:Well, it's expensive because you don't buy any other crap, you know that's. You just buy the basics and it's not expensive at all.
Speaker 1:That's, and there's also this waste component I talk to a lot of people about. Like I don't waste anything. I there's not one thing. The only thing that really goes in my garbage is the shells from the eggs and the packaging that the meat comes in. I never throw, cause when I was vegan I would buy the big spring salads like this deep, not get to them all, and then it would be like sludge at the bottom and then throw it away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. You know there's something about again, I was never a hunter, but there's something about the fact that this animal gave his life for you to eat it. And it's very difficult for you to eat it. And you know it's very difficult for me to throw meat out. You know, at the worst case scenario my dogs will get, you know, get some of it. But you know it just, there's something about wasting that that is different than than throwing out a salad. You know you don't want to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you, you're a family takes down one steer a year yeah, right, yeah, like I mean that's, that's leaving, uh, you know, uh, uh, a low footprint, I guess you would say in this day and age exactly, and you talked about, like having a cocktail every once in a while.
Speaker 1:And again there's like this everything nowadays is very dogmatic. It's either you're, you're, you're all carnivore or you're not. You know, like you can you have that, because you're carnivore, that you shouldn't be having those things. Um, do you indulge in other things outside of carnivore and like? And if you do like, how does your body react to it?
Speaker 2:you know, know, I have, uh, we go, like I said, we go date night every week and I'll have two, maybe three cocktails. Um, I know that if I have more than that I will feel horrible the next day. I always keep it under that. Um, I am, I am, uh, I'm a rum guy, so I I like my rum. It doesn't seem to affect me.
Speaker 2:I come from a family of hard-drinking German people and I can remember my grandmother getting cases of beer delivered to her house well into her 80s and I think, everything in moderation, and I don't think we're fragile enough that if you have a drink here and there it's going to wreck your body, going to wreck your body, you know, I think we're, we're a little bit more stout than that as a as a race of humans, and and, uh, uh, you know now, that being said, if, if you're going to make a jump and make a switch, like I have my people doing this world war challenge, and that was part of the stipulation which you couldn't drink for 30 days, and I think that's a good thing, you know, I had a couple people come to me and say, oh, I couldn't do that. Well, if you can't do that, you have a problem? You haven't. You have an issue with alcohol that you need to address, and it's more important than your issue with food.
Speaker 2:Um, if you can't go 30 days without having a drink, um, it's all these crutches you got to get rid of. You can't be, you can't be dependent on any of these things, whether it's food or booze or drugs or you know whatever it is. You know, address those things and learn how to overcome them. You know cause, if you depend on something that much, then it's probably an issue that you're not dealing with that much, then it's probably an issue that you're not dealing with.
Speaker 1:A little bit of alcohol. Again, I'm in that camp of like if having red wine every once in a while I'm Italian, right, I love my red wine Like having that every once in a while is going to like take five years off my life. I'm like fine, like that's totally like, I need it, I want to enjoy, I want to, I want to, I want to be able to be social. And, uh, last year I did, I did world carnivore month. Last year again, which every month is basically a world carnivore month for me, but I decided like not to have any alcohol. I'm like I'm gonna do the whole dry january thing and I started feeling so good that I actually pushed it. So I I did the second February and I just I went 60 days and not much of like a body comp difference. But I would say the one thing that I would say is the sleep. Like, with no alcohol I was sleeping like a log.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, um, and that's what I noticed. Um, when I have too many cocktails, I you know, I have the whoop strap on my arm and that is such a crazy indicator of where you're at Because, let's say, I had four drinks or something, my sleep will be way off, my recovery is way off, and you can just see the data right on your phone of what it did to you and the evidence is right there. I may not feel horrible, but I'm certainly not going to hit a workout today, cause you know I'm in the red and I know that my sleep was was subpar, and it's just amazing to watch what too much alcohol can do to you. Like, I'm with you. There's a you know, there's a reason why we're here on the planet and you know it doesn't hurt to be social once in a while and have a drink with your pals, you know.
Speaker 1:Nothing, nothing wrong with that, and you are the owner and operator and the lead trainer at blind dog gym. Can you tell us a little bit about the history of the gym and why the heck is it called blind dog gym?
Speaker 2:So uh, yeah, so I started out in 96, training, uh, athletes, um and uh. So I kind of had this side business. I was a corrections officer and I was training, uh, training athletes on the side and did that for for years and years, and years. And I had a, uh, a gym out of my garage at my house. I just detached 20 by 20 garage with, with a leaky roof and no heat, no, no air conditioning, nothing. And we, we, we put so many college athletes out of that shitty little you know shack of a of a gym. It was just super hardcore and the kids really got a kick out of it.
Speaker 2:I've always had Australian cattle, dogs, Blue Heelers, and at the time I had one named Cordelia and she was blind as a bat.
Speaker 2:She would follow me out there every day and sit in the garage and just stare at a wall or stare at a bench. She didn't know what she was staring at. But when my wife and I got together and she kind of talked me into hey, you know, let's have a real gym and see what we can do, and we were looking for names and I kind of made the joke, we should just name it Blind Dog for Cord do and we were looking for names and uh, I kind of made the joke, we should just name it blind dog for Cordy. And uh, she loved the name and it's stuck and uh, it's gone through many different, uh iterations over the years but it's always been blind dog and it's uh kind of made a name for itself around here and uh, it's, it's been great, that's so cool, just owning your own like brick and mortar type deal and getting to kind of tailor it up to to what you think.
Speaker 1:Right, there's those big, um, the big box gyms. It's just like super cluttered. I always joke around like I wish I put money in a planet fitness, um, like 10 years ago, because you know it's ten dollars a month and if the member shows up it doesn't even nobody cares, they're just gonna keep paying and um, but to have like your own place and structure how you want and also have like that relationship with the clients, it is really important. And then when people come to you, you know with the average we're just talking, just average. You know I want to lose 15, 20 pounds. Like you know somebody that can move well, because there's a spectrum there, the elite athlete versus you know, and somebody who's 300 pounds overweight but like in the average. You know I want to lose weight. How do you start them out? What are the kinds of conversations you have with them?
Speaker 2:Make it like like you're trying to call over a squirrel, you know, with a peanut. You, you know you don't want to make any big hand motions, so you know we try to feel slow with them, um, so we start them off on just basic 20 minute workouts, you know. And then, you know, after you know a few weeks of that, we're adding in a little bit of a flexibility piece and a mobility piece. And you know, uh, we try to keep it short, sweet, sweet to the point. We have a lot of clients nowadays. It used to be pre-COVID. All I got was I need to lose 12 pounds for a wedding and they would come in. And to me that's about as boring as you can possibly get to work with a client. It's like Jesus. But now, ever since COVID it's I want to be healthy, I want to be strong, which fits right in with strong first right. So we have these 40-year-old people and 50-year-old people and up who want to get good at Turkish get-ups and they want to deadlift, and it's just a great opportunity to actually encourage a strength culture with normal people. You know they're not going to deadlift 600 pounds, but you know, if I've got, you know I've got a 70 year old woman, sherry, who you know she's pulling 150 under. You know it's great, she loves it and she's strong and and healthy.
Speaker 2:And we were this small little tourist town called Vermilion and there's a business in town called Chez Francois and it's the only five-star restaurant in the state of Ohio. So it's this beautiful restaurant on the river and people come from all over to go to this restaurant and it's one of these places where we eat at it once a year because you're going to drop $500, places where you know we eat at it once a year because you know you're going to drop $500, $600 for a couple. But I look at them more than I look at any other gym as far as like a business model, because you know what do they do? They do everything perfect. They give their customers a great experience. Everything is, you know, detail oriented, oriented. They're making it as perfect as possible and I I look at that as as a model of how to run a business, more than than than gyms. And you know we just try to make it a good experience for everybody when they come in and it's fun.
Speaker 2:It's never going to be, um, you know, we have people who want to train a certain way and they don't want to train a different way. You know who cares. If you're kind of a CrossFit type person, I'm going to give you a functional fitness CrossFit style workout because you're going to get in shape from that, you know. So every what I've, what I've realized is training people since 96 is that for the normal client off the street, everything works and the thing that's going to work for best form is what's going to get them off the couch and in the gym as many days a week as possible. And that's just kind of how we look at things and it's really. I get up every morning at 3.30 in the morning ready to go to work and I'm psyched to go. You know, there's never a day where I'm like, oh shit, I got to do this again.
Speaker 1:So it's working well. I think I mean, how many people are jazzed up at three, 30? Like, let's, let's get after it today, no-transcript. I feel I'm actually super blessed and I tell the kids all the time like I'm like what I'm teaching you guys now, because we have this conversation all the time and I'm sure you get this too.
Speaker 1:So, one of the hardest conversations to have of aesthetics versus like building skills, one of the hardest conversations to have of aesthetics versus like building skills. And for those kids, because of instagram, because whatever they see, uh see, bum, you know, just like, you know just doing shoulder presses until the shoulders can't, they're gonna pop out right, like I was like, hey, that's not, that's an advanced thing, that's something that's you know, that's a bodybuild, that's a sport. I'm like you need to be worried about like getting strong, being resilient and like really focusing on the skill. Who cares about the weight? The weight number doesn't matter. It's like, how do you move with the weight?
Speaker 1:And like some kids are like, okay, this guy's talking like you know out in, like to getting to woo on me, but I'm like, no like, and we have kids that really are dialing in and getting them at the young age to like, understand like your performance, like is, is the most important thing of like how, how technical you can be, how, how well you execute the lift, regardless of the weight Right and the. The aesthetics could be a by-product of that, but everybody chases like. I want to be Brad Pitt fight club all the time right, yeah, that's, that's changed.
Speaker 2:Uh, since I was younger too. You know, when I was a kid, I wanted to look like the road warriors. You know, I didn't want to look like who's this guy with little, tiny abs and pec muscles. You know, no one. Now that's all the kids want to look like. You know I'm old, I don't understand the kids anymore, so that's why I don't train very often. But yeah, for what you're doing, yeah, if you can. You know, if you can get them young like that and teach them the benefit of a get up and a kettlebell swing, I mean, I mean, that's that's you're going to. You're going to have kids that will take on the world, you know.
Speaker 1:Uh, I, yeah, and that's the. It's the fun thing too, because we don't have a ton of machines in our fitness center. It's like I brought all my kettlebells to our gym, so my kettlebells are there. The kids use them, you know, they're getting really good at barbell lifts. It's all functional stuff. It's not machines, and there's nothing wrong with machines, right, if that's something that you want to do. But because it's hard and it takes time, they're invested in it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. It's such a achievement when they do something cool like that, you know a big deadlift that they thought they were never going to be able to do, or, and you know it's, it's um, it's like the belt system in karate. You know, you're just especially at that age. You're just constantly giving them a goal to hit and they immediately hit that goal and then you give them another goal and it's like the only time in their lives where that's going to happen. You know just constantly getting better, no matter what you do with them.
Speaker 1:It's great and I know you've mentioned this like a few times Like what is Strong First, and then also, can you explain what does it take to be an elite instructor?
Speaker 2:Yeah, also, can you explain what does it take to be an elite instructor? Yeah, so, strong first, uh, the school of strength. When I, when I finished competing, I was uh kind of just all over the place, didn't know what I wanted to do, I got into jujitsu, I got into all this. I mean, that's, that's the old man thing, right? You get into jujitsu and you start, you know, talking about I couldn't find what I wanted to do Ended up meeting, I did a podcast with Pavel Mosik and he impressed me so much and he just kind of made the you know off-the-cuff comment you should, you know, look at taking your SFG.
Speaker 2:And so I looked up what SFG was and I took it. I went down, I took my SFG in Orlando, florida, strong First Gira, level one. I took it with Dr Mike Hartle. It was brutal and it was really hard. And at the end of the weekend I told him got in the car, I passed and I got in the car with my wife and I said I'll never do that shit again. And I immediately went home and signed up for SFG2 and Barbell and that just got me going. So I ended up taking my Barbell Strong First Lifter cert with Dr Hartle, and then I took my SFG2 with Annalisa and Jeremy Layport and I took my SFB right after my 50th birthday with John Ingham to get my Elite right after my 50th birthday with John Ingham.
Speaker 2:To get my elite and you know, to be elite you have to take all four certifications and pass them. Strong First is the only certification process that I know of where you actually have to be in shape in order to pass the certifications. You can tell that that's the case because you don't find overweight strong first instructors. You don't find unhealthy strong first instructors. One of the coolest things was the week after I made elite.
Speaker 2:I got to fly out to Phoenix, arizona, and I went and saw Pavel Totsulin and Fabio Zona do programming demystified in Arizona, and I think I was one of the only people in the seminar who wasn't a team leader or a master instructor or a senior instructor at the time, and I got to meet some of the most amazing humans on the planet and I was just so in love with Strong First and everything they had to say and I just it was like getting a new lease on life.
Speaker 2:You know, here I was surrounded by these like-minded individuals who were much smarter than I was and had, you know, at least as much experience as I did, and I was learning and getting to just kind of rub shoulders with like-minded individuals. And I decided then and there this is the way I'm going to give back to the next generation, where I'm going to go and do these certifications and help out and give whatever knowledge I can to the next generation, and it's a rewarding thing that I get to do and it's it's just been a fantastic journey so far and it's only been you know less than two years it's.
Speaker 1:It's hard to describe. I don't think I can describe it to people because when you see quote like personal trainers or whatever coaches, there's a lot of the time it could be an ace and nasm and there's nothing wrong with those things. But strong, first you got to go in, perform the movements to the standard and if it's not like hey, like you got work to do, yeah, like you just don't pass. When just by showing up or a lot of you get like the certification for going to the seminar or going to whatever, but you know, sfg one, it's like that grad workout is no joke.
Speaker 2:Joke, yeah and hey. You great, You're elite. Guess what? In three years you got to do it all over again. You got to get that all over again. They don't care that you're now 72 years old. If you want to keep that lead, you better be able to do your one-arm push-up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you have all the technical skills you have to execute them. The barbell. You know, one of the things that I didn't know when I took my SFL, I took it with Fabio fantastic person. I thought it was going to be like SFG1, where you train a little bit, get some feedback. I thought it was going to be like SFG one where you train, you know, you train a little bit, get some feedback and you know. Then you do your testing. At the end it's like all right, weigh in, okay, warm up, get your stuff, we're doing deadlifts right away.
Speaker 1:I'm like what? Like I'm like what and and it's funny story because I I only took SFL because I was like I almost was like a pure kettlebell person at this point I'm like I'm doing kettlebells, that's, you know, that's what I love to do. I haven't touched a barbell in years and I wanted to SFL for my clients Cause, like I want to make sure, like I'm coaching them right, and I'm like I just let me go for SFL and I actually didn't even know if I was going to hit the deadlift. I thought we were going to be coached up and then I can like hit it right. For sfl it's twice your body weight and I stepped up. I was like who? I think? I was like, I think it was like 180, maybe not even, and I think I had to pull 360. I was stood it up.
Speaker 2:They're like good, I'm like thank god, yeah yeah, um, I am such a fan, I'm a fan of all the certs, but but I'm a fan of the SFLs and I've gotten the opportunity. I've mentioned Doc Hartle. I've worked a bunch of SFLs with Doc Hartle and I worked the Dome SFL with Fabio last year and I'm working with him again this year and I tell you what both those guys are fantastic. I mean they're so knowledgeable. Both those guys are fantastic. I mean they're so knowledgeable.
Speaker 2:You know I learn something every single time I take or help teach the SFL. I learn something myself, which is great, and I think it should be mandatory that any kid who is getting under a barbell you know these young kids going through high school weight rooms they should have to take. You know, I know this sounds crazy, but they should have to take a strong first workshop or take the SFL before they're allowed to get under a bar. Because if I would have learned that stuff when I was that age, I would probably be in a better healthy position as far as joints and things like that at this age and all these. You know the the. The hardest person I work with in the gym is the 45 year old guy who played high school football because he's all screwed up from all the lifting he did back then and they should not. It should be a mandatory requirement that you, you take the sL, or take a Strong First Lift or Barbell workshop. Yeah, it's just it's. And then, you know, doc Harlow created the CERT.
Speaker 2:Fabio is a genius. I tell you what. I've told people this before If you can't get along with Fabio Zonin, there's something wrong with you. You know, there's there, there, I, I just love him to death. You know, like, uh, uh, one of my, literally one of my favorite people in the world and uh, it's, it's just been such a great ride for me getting to do this and and I just like waking up at three 30 in the morning, I find out that I've got a certain in a few weeks. I just get giddy. This is going to be fun, I'm going to have a good time and, yeah, I'm just loving it.
Speaker 1:Great community, great coaches, like really they know their stuff and and it's also you mentioned like learning from them, which a hundred percent like I. The joke was I looked at the guy that was partnered up with for SFL. When Fabio was talking about like the first 15 minutes of like him talking about SFL and barbell, I turned to the guy next to me. I'm like I apparently know nothing about a barbell. I go, I don't know anything. I'm like this guy is just like rattling off these things, like holy shit, like it was. It was. It was eye opening for me. But also like we learn from each other because we're all professionals in the room too. It's like, wow, somebody does something or they have a tip for you or whatever, and we're coaching each other. I'm like holy shit, I really like how you did that and there's no ego. It's like we're all here to learn and get better.
Speaker 2:I mentioned it to Fabio last year because it struck me I'm from about two hours north of columbus, so I spent a lot of time going down to west side, barbell, louis, louis simmons us because we were throwers and he always wanted to prove his system would work with people other than power lifters. So we got invited down there a lot. We would go down and hang out, we you know. Uh, we had a crazy dinner in nashville with him one time, which is a whole different story. But he made the comment before I knew what Strong First was and Pavel's put it in a couple of his books that Strong First reverse engineers what elite athletes do, naturally.
Speaker 2:And I was at the SFL last year at the Dome and Fabio was talking about bracing and belly breathing, uh, in lifting and how to get tight that way, and I had to stop the, the, the whole cert, and say, look, I, you know. I asked Fabio for permission to talk and I said, hey, if you don't learn anything else this weekend, this is something that you know we always did as lifters and you know Louis at Westside preached this, but he never under was able to explain it the way Fabio just explained it. So he took something that, as heavy lifters, we all were doing, but we sure as hell didn't know really how we were doing or how we would tell other people how to do it. It was just something you did, and Fabio did such a great job of explaining it. I wanted to like stop the whole cert and say, hey guys, you know if? If he needs to repeat that, I'm sure he will, but that's goal you just got to walk away with nothing else.
Speaker 2:Walk away with that, because it's going to keep you safe and it's going to make your lifts go through the roof and you just see that. So much in Strong First with all these people. I've mentioned a bunch of them, but you know, like John Ingham, being able to do all the stuff he does with the flexibility and being as strong as he is. And then I just spent the weekend with Annalisa Naldi in Akron and she is like her brain works faster than anyone I've ever met in my life. She's just this ball of energy and knowledge that I'm just like Jesus Christ. I hope I can hang with these people.
Speaker 2:I went to that program in Demystified and I met Sven Rieger from Germany and he comes over across the room. We'd only talked online. He comes over and gives me a big hug. It's just everyone. Anzalika was there from Poland and it's just everyone. Everyone you see with that black shirt and that little strong first logo is a heavy hitter. There's like no slouches in the group. There's never been someone I've met at one of these things and went, oh it's this fucking guy. You know, I mean, they're all just super friendly and super knowledgeable and I just wish everybody I just wish everybody had the opportunity to be coached by a strong first instructor and go through these certifications, you know, because they are the gold standard. It's just it blows my mind.
Speaker 1:It's high level stuff. It's the programming is amazing. I've used a ton of like I open up my SFG, one manual, sfg, two manual, all the time, you know, and I and it's like there's so much in there, it's like I can't like those guys know all that stuff off the top of their head. I'm still trying to like remember half I go what was this, what was that?
Speaker 2:Like it's tough member, half I go what was this? What was that Like? It's tough. Yeah, I took the build strong uh uh online seminar a couple of weeks ago with Fabio and uh, it was uh, eight hours on Saturday and another like five on on Sunday. And uh, it was like drinking from a fire hose. I mean, there was just so much information there. It was unbelievable and I pulled little bits out of it. But I could probably take that seminar three or four times and learn something new every single time.
Speaker 1:One of the last things I want to talk about of Strong First is they have a quote. I want to know what you think this you know, if you can explain kind of what this means to you. Strength has a greater purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right to you, strength has a greater purpose. Yeah, right, in this day and age, you know there's so much behind that quote. So, strength in general, you're not just your bench press, but strength of character, strength of your body, you know, and you're looking at endurance and mental fortitude and it's just, there's an all encompassing attitude within strong first. You know, stronger is always better and I think that's mentally stronger, that's physically stronger, that's emotionally stronger. It's the George Hackenschmidt quote. You know you can't divorce strength from health. You know you can't divorce strength from health. You can do everything but, like they say, you have to be strong first and it's an important aspect that is not always appreciated in strength and conditioning programs.
Speaker 2:You know everybody wants to do the fancy stuff, like you said. They want to bodybuild or they want to take their athletes and run them through. You know speed ladders said they want to bodybuild or they want to take their athletes and run them through. You know speed ladders when you know, give me, give me a kid and a 25 pound kettlebell and I'll get more out of them in a, in a few months doing get ups and swings and and presses, that then just about any kind of gimmick you could get. So you know whether you you are someone who teaches people how to get strong, or you are a tactical athlete, you know a tier one performer, or you know strength is always important and it's it's it's going to serve you. You know to be stronger, so it's, it's an important aspect of of our community that not everyone sees and it's weird that they don't see it. You know, as personal trainers, as as athletic trainers, as as physical therapists, you know stronger is always better.
Speaker 1:Very well said, and I I know you mowed over earlier. I told you we're going to get back to this.
Speaker 2:What the heck made you want to do a deadlift three times your body weight yeah speaking of strong so when I was, you know, younger, when I was an athlete, I deadlifted 730 pounds, which was you know um, which was good for me, but I weighed 312 at the time, um, and, and I started, uh, um, and I and I wish I could remember the gentleman's name, fabio has a friend, um, who he talked about it, programming demystified, and he was a guy who I think was like three and a half times body weight deadlift, um, and I had never done that, I'd never, never, even at my strongest, never pulled three times body weight. So I kind of made the goal that um, uh, sometime in my 50th year I would, I wanted to, um, do a bed press with the 56 kilo kettlebell and I wanted to deadlift three times my body weight, um and I. I got the bed press pretty quickly and moved on to the deadlift and it kind of transformed a little bit as I was going, because I was doing a very conjugate program. So I was hitting a max effort lift once a week in the deadlift but I was switching the exercises every time. So one week I would do sumo, the next week I would do conventional, the next week I would do, you know, do a sumo deadlift off an elevation, then maybe next week I would do a conventional deadlift from a deficit. So I was just constantly rotating the exercises.
Speaker 2:Well, then the goal became I would do three times bodyweight with both stances on the same day. So the goal was now I was going to pull three times bodyweight sumo, three times bodyweight, conventional, at the same time. So I started working towards that goal. I didn't have like a date in mind, I just figured I would just keep training and then, when I was close, I would just make my run. And that's why I ended up getting down to 180 pounds too, because I was going to, like you know, take every advantage I can get.
Speaker 2:So, um, when I saw that I was getting within, you know, a range of that, of that pull, I I started, uh, you know, dieting down a little bit, cutting some calories, and I did it just very easily. You know, I would eat half a steak instead of a full steak at night. You know, just pulled out the calories a little at a time, got down to 180 pounds and and uh, I said this is the day I'm going to do it. So I felt great, um, and uh was able to do it with both stances.
Speaker 2:I pulled it sumo first and ripped a big giant callus off my hands doing it. So I just taped up my hand and said, you know, screw this, I gotta, I gotta do it now. So then I was able to pull it conventional as well and and uh, yeah, I was super proud of those lifts. It was uh, I wrote an article for for the strong first website for it and, um, it was uh, it was about a year of working on it and uh, yeah, it was great. I was, I was super excited with that and it's uh, just a feather in your cap, you know that that's bad-ass.
Speaker 1:Bad-ass man, that's. That's great Eating steaks, lifting weights, enjoying life Like I. Just you're my people, man, You're my people. I appreciate it as you wrap up here here. Where can people connect with you um or find information about blind dog jim?
Speaker 2:yeah, so I've got a couple of uh pages. So my personal page, um, where you know I I don't post a lot on there but I post like maybe a workout a week and then whatever book I happen to be reading that week. That is at mvalente100. You can find the gym information at Blind Dog Strong and then we also have at HeartStyle Great Lakes where it's all Strong First stuff anywhere around the Great Lakes. I try to put information on there for people.
Speaker 2:Stuff anywhere around the Great Lakes, I try to put information on there for people. So if anybody out there has workshops anywhere around the Great Lakes they want advertised or hell, I don't care anywhere you're having your workshop, just send me the information. I'll put it up there. I try to get out as much information about Strong First on that page as possible. Get out as much information about Strong First on that page as possible. If there's Strong First instructors out there in Northern Ohio that are looking for a place to train, blind Dog is perfectly set up for Strong First and I'm looking for Strong First certified instructors only. So if anybody's out there around Northern Ohio and they need a place to work with clients, give me a holler and we'll see what you can do.
Speaker 1:I'll put all that in the show notes and you're going to the dome, going to be there.
Speaker 2:I'm so psyched and it's so far away.
Speaker 1:Almost, three months now, almost.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've got a workshop February 23rd here in Ohio. So we're going to do Barbell 101 here in Ohio. I'm a team leader now so I get to actually run my own workshop. So I think it's going to be me and Serenity Myers from down in Akron, who is a fantastic coach, another awesome human being, but we're going to do Barbell 101. I'm going to fill it full of all sorts of goodies, so if anybody's out there interested in that, get ahold of me. Um and then, uh, we got the dome.
Speaker 1:I'm so psyched for the dome and I'm working with Fabio again and uh, I'm going to learn a lot. And and uh, yeah, it's going to be awesome, it's going to be great.
Speaker 2:I got. I got foundations t-shirt just waiting for you. Just give me the size. I got you, I'll trade you a blind dog, one for it.
Speaker 1:Perfect sounds good, or what are you coaching? I must. I'm assisting. I don't know what I'm assisting yet, so I registered with john ingram. I'm going to be either sfl or sfg1. I hope I have to research my sfl, so I'm hoping they put me in there yeah, absolutely, yeah, that'd be great, that'd be dope. But, mark, you're the man I yeah, I can't wait to see you in in april, but uh, thanks, uh thanks for coming on, man, I appreciate it thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:I'll do it anytime you want. I had a lot of fun you got it.
Speaker 1:Thanks everybody for listening another episode of the primal foundations podcast.