Double Edge Fitness
This podcast is dedicated to showcasing to our members and any of our listeners who are interested in how this northern Nevada gym operates. Our mission is to inspire others to bring health and wellness home to truly make a difference in the household with the ultimate goal of making Reno the healthiest city in the country.In this podcast, we will be talking about things that are on our mind and answering questions from our members and our listeners to provide a unique listening experience.
Double Edge Fitness
A Story of Family Resilience and Personal Growth with Shawn and Melanie
When Shawn and Melanie welcomed their daughter Piper into the world, they never expected to face a parent's worst nightmare. What should have been a routine delivery turned into a fight for their newborn's life when severe meconium aspiration left Piper unable to breathe on her own. In this raw and emotional conversation, they take us through those terrifying moments in the delivery room, the months spent at UC Davis Medical Center as Piper fought for survival, and the unexpected ways their CrossFit community became an essential lifeline during their darkest hours.
Beyond their medical journey, Shawn and Melanie share how their approach to fitness transformed from aesthetic goals to a focus on longevity and functionality—especially after becoming parents. They discuss the intimidation they initially felt about CrossFit, the surprising friendships formed at the gym, and how regular training prepared them mentally and physically to endure their family health crisis.
This conversation explores not just physical training, but the profound impact of community when life falls apart. We dive deep into smart training as we age, the importance of recovery, nutrition strategies that support health goals, and how to advocate for yourself in medical settings. Shawn and Melanie's story powerfully illustrates how fitness communities provide far more than just workouts—they offer connection, support, and resilience when we need it most.
Whether you're a fitness enthusiast or someone navigating your own health journey, their perspective on balancing intensity with consistency, embracing vulnerability, and finding purpose through movement will inspire you to approach your own training with renewed intention.
Follow us on Instagram here! https://www.instagram.com/doubleedgefitness/
You guys want the awesome intro music. Have you heard it yet?
Speaker 2:I have and I do.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, I should remake it. I say this every single time, but I think I'm going to keep it now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's got the personality of the podcast. Now Let me look at it. My switchboard, oh yeah you do have a switchboard. That's so cool. You hadn't seen that before.
Speaker 1:No, it's not like it's on the podcast. It has been the first one with Jake. Yeah, it's got all kinds of little things on here.
Speaker 5:Wasn't it up for key in them too?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Can you add? Add new sound effects. I can do all kinds of custom stuff I just haven't. So I mean, we leveled up, we got 4K video, good sound and a dedicated room that doubles as the in-body room.
Speaker 2:No I think your podcast sounds great. That's one of my pet peeves because I'm a huge podcast listener. Okay. And if it doesn't sound good, it just bugs me so badly.
Speaker 1:Well, it's hard to listen to and when I was trying to, you know, get into this for marketing purposes but just share the community beyond just individual classes, that was one of the most annoying thing I was finding is the sound quality of trying to do like from my phone. And then even the lavalier mics, like it's okay for a little clip on Instagram, but me and Cassie recorded one of her like medical oriented podcasts with a lavalier mic and it was just like yeah, it's not good enough so I said to hell with it.
Speaker 1:If we're going to do this, we're going to do it right. And I just bought all road, everything, as you can see.
Speaker 2:Cool.
Speaker 5:Well, and she speaks from experience because she has run a podcast for the university.
Speaker 2:Yeah, technically it's still out there. I haven't updated it at all, but it's called Public Health Perspectives.
Speaker 1:You know my degrees in public health.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:Did you creep on my UNR profile to make sure I actually did my grades?
Speaker 2:No, you told me. You told me it was Community Health Sciences at the time. Yeah, back then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so today on the Double Edge Podcast we got Melanie Flores. Did I say that right? Yep.
Speaker 5:Actually not Flores anymore.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, what it's still Flores On paper, on paper right now On paper.
Speaker 1:You haven't gone through the trenches.
Speaker 2:Well, we just got married. What last week?
Speaker 1:Oh wow, Announcing for the first time on the Double Edge podcast. Does your family?
Speaker 5:know. Oh yeah yeah, those that needed to know were there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, first family knows, now the second family.
Speaker 1:All right, and her husband Sean Hilbert. So when I was kind of putting together my AI notes I was like what do you guys, boyfriend, girlfriend.
Speaker 2:I know, I think people are confused. You know whether well people call you my husband all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well. I also know, because you guys obviously met later in life. You know what five years ago.
Speaker 2:six years ago, yeah, going on six. I know it's not totally uncommon to like all right.
Speaker 1:I mean, we know we're together, we're not going to go through all this legal stuff. But, you guys did it, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not our first rodeo, but this might be our last. Hopefully it is. Hold up, hold up, hold up Rewind. Let's elaborate on that I should have said that, but this will be our last rodeo.
Speaker 5:Yeah, in it to win it.
Speaker 1:In it to win it. Yeah Well, you got a little girl now. Yeah yeah, that was planned. Yes, mostly, mostly.
Speaker 4:It wasn't not planned is the answer I call it baby roulette.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if it happens, it happens. You had like a time frame on whether it was going to happen or not.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, that was another thing with age, that you don't even know if that's plausible anymore. So it was a blessing bonus that we were able to, and we enjoy it, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean that was awesome. Yeah, I was definitely on my my last few eggs maybe, uh, because I was 42 when she was born. So you know, you kind of wonder, am I going to be like Janet Jackson, or or she had her kid at 50, or am I just not going to have kids at all?
Speaker 1:no, that that's an interesting dilemma. I mean, Cassie, we just opened the gym and I was like all in on this and basically came down to hey, I'm getting pregnant. If you want to be a part of this, let me know. No, and she was 29, and she was like I'm not going to keep waiting.
Speaker 1:So because, unlike men who who, I guess create sperm forever women you get a set number of eggs and it depletes over time and then it's menopause and then done. Listening to this podcast, peter Tia won right now on male fertility. It's quite interesting actually. And yeah, so you guys decided having a little well.
Speaker 1:well, you didn't decide you're having a little girl, did no, you didn't no well I say by decide, because I know when you do in vitro now you can like pick the gender yeah, it's like oh wow, no, this was all natural okay and then you had hell of a have any issues really with your pregnancy went good. Your guys' nightmare came.
Speaker 2:Yeah, our nightmare came during the birth, really yeah.
Speaker 5:I mean, if you were to quantify conception to birth, the last 1% was the crash Like that, last three hours of like her labor and everything that was going on. That's when everything went and turned to 180 like that.
Speaker 2:Because I actually worked out up until the day I was due or my delivery was scheduled. So you know I felt great. You know Even Viola she's my gym buddy here and we were pregnant about the same time and we talk about. Some of our PR scores were better when we were pregnant than they are now, which is terrible. Healthy and living a healthier lifestyle, that things would just go perfect. We had no idea, no preparation whatsoever as to what was going to happen, um, during the delivery. So, um, do you want us to talk about?
Speaker 1:that. Well, obviously I don't want to use you as personal life and I know you went through hell, um, so discuss as much as you want. I find it a very interesting story of family resilience. You guys like it was inspiring to follow the journey and then, when I came to my own family health crisis, you know me and Sean communicated during that time and I mean, you're the one that got me set up on that website to be able to share information, so you're not texting every effing person every 30 seconds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't even realize how much of a burden that is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those of you guys listening and you have people going through a health crisis. It's nice to know that people are out there thinking about you, but it's really difficult when you're getting this and you, like, want to communicate. So, um, I guess, be patient with people that are going through stuff and their communication because, like it's, it sucks. But yeah, so at birth I remember you said we're having a baby, all this stuff, and then I vaguely remember like I text you everything went well and you're like nope yeah, we were in the thick of it.
Speaker 5:I mean, it was from her complications at birth so she had ended up through some things going on during the last part of labor. Um, they ended up in because she was on an induction okay, because we trying to be all prepared and on what we want. Our doctor wasn't going to be in on her actual like due date and so we picked an induction date that she was working Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, there was a couple things that went into that induction decision too. The first one was I had COVID during pregnancy. Oh decision too, um, the first one was I had covid during pregnancy, oh, and at the time I guess there were more women having stillbirth, um, because of having covid. Um, I'm not sure if the research supports that now, but that's what they were thinking, that if I got induced that might prevent that. And then, on top of that, advanced maternal age was another issue Is that the politically correct term to use for that?
Speaker 1:I've never heard that one.
Speaker 2:That's what they say now. It used to be geriatric pregnancy.
Speaker 1:I guess advanced maternal age is better than geriatric pregnancy. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And I mean you become geriatric at 36.
Speaker 5:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 5:Yeah, there was a lot of. I mean, she was immediately a candidate for the high-risk pregnancy center, even though she was going to a regular OB because of her age. Okay. And even with the insurance, like a lot of it, was covered automatically and a lot of boxes were checked because of that being a candidacy by her age, mm-hmm. And a lot of boxes were checked because of that being a candidacy by her age. But even through all of that, everything was 100 percent. Quote unquote normal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I remember you working out regularly, everything going good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I was going at 6 am during a class at that time. So when we went it was like one of those weird fatalistic things because we did schedule it so that my OB could be there. Apparently, I got a phone call on the way to go get induced to tell me that my OB couldn't be there If we could switch the date to Saturday so that she could be there. And I didn't get that message. Oh. So we ended up at the hospital and I ended up with a totally different ob same practice.
Speaker 2:Same practice, just swap days, whatever you know um, so that was like I feel like that was like sign number one that things were going to go sideways, um, but you know, I I feel like like going back to doing everything right, because I know there is a lot of women in the gym that have been pregnant, currently pregnant or wanting to get pregnant, and you know you just can't plan for those things. You know they have you do like a birth plan and we got a doula and you know we did all the things that society tells you to do so you can have a good pregnancy. And then at the last minute, the doula just was pretty much rendered useless at that point because I had to have an emergency C-section. But we were there what before that happened? At least 24 hours.
Speaker 5:Yeah, because we checked in early morning 6, 7, 8-ish, maybe earlier. I don't think they started the process for a couple hours as far as you being induced because they were assessing. Has she even dilated yet? I forget the numbers at the time. Where to start you from. They were kind of you know, retrospectively right. They were kind of surprised she was there for an induction, but it's such a normal process that they still proceeded, and not against anybody. I don't think that's a factor per se, but so the induction?
Speaker 1:she wasn't. What do you want to say? Past term, past, no, her due date, because isn't that normally?
Speaker 2:technically, we did it on friday and my due date was monday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, so it's close so it was purely prevented, based on what was going on in society then, with all the covid stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so she's technically considered term okay term because there's a lot of things.
Speaker 2:People think she's a preemie because of all the things that happened. So we ended up going in. It took forever because I just wasn't dilating at all. So then they do all the fancy hormones you know the pitocin and all these things to get things going. So you know the Pitocin and all these things to get things going. And I had this grandiose plan that that I was going to get to six or seven centimeters before I would do the epidural because I really wanted to push it as much as possible. I wasn't as crazy to say that I wasn't going to do it, but I think what I did like two centimeters, yeah, and I had our safe word, so our doula had us do like a safe word. So, um, that meant business, like, yes, I wanted that epidural, and so I think it was like donkey or something.
Speaker 5:I don't remember, it was some rant. Yeah, basically she could be sitting there screaming like it's like being in a workout, right? Now. You want to cry mercy, but you know you can do another rep and so you want to ensure you're at that point that you need that element before the next rep. And she hit two and she's dying, she's puking.
Speaker 2:Donkey, donkey, donkey and.
Speaker 5:I'm like all right.
Speaker 2:He was trying to be supportive and be like, remember your birth plan? And I was like nope, donkey, give it to me. Be like, remember your birth plan, and I was like, nope, donkey, give it to me. Um, and what somebody? What they didn't really tell me is when you get induced, um, well, when you're not induced, you have all this time to kind of like, um, absorb the pain, get used to it, and then you go to the next level, next level, and before you know it, you're, you know there, yeah, um, when you're induced, you go from zero to a hundred in like two seconds, and so you have no time to prepare or get used to any pain at all. It's like immediately throwing up and and just terrible, um, epidural. That was awesome. Yeah, I did not want to feel anything. It's a rotisserie chicken for the rest of the night. But what happened was Piper's heartbeat started to go down. Yeah, it started to kind of waver a little bit and I felt fine. We were sitting there, we were joking and having fun and having fun.
Speaker 5:There's steps to the induction that, if they don't happen naturally they try to facilitate, one being the Pitocin to help you dilate and produce that action of like the contractions and the dilation and all that. And then you know the water breakage, like if they feel like sometimes they can help things along if they break that for you. They feel like sometimes they can help things along if they break that for you. And not too long after they decided to make that move, that things went from on track or quote-unquote normal to some abnormalities started happening, like Piper's heart rate started fluctuating, it would dip way down and then it would come back and it would dip way down. And it would dip way down and it would come back and then, like I mean it was crazy because during most of the process you'd have one or two nurses or aids filter in and out, check some things, check on her, you know whatever, the second time that heart rate went down you would have thought it was a trauma room like a doctor came in.
Speaker 5:A nurse came in there immediately, moving her and rolling her around like because it's trying to get piper to move, in case she's falling on the umbilical cord or something like that they're trying to do externally whatever they can to help internally Happened twice and then there was a conversation after the second one with the doctor that if this happens one more time, we're going to have to talk about the C-section.
Speaker 2:And this goes back to them trying to honor the birth plan, and this was something also put in my mind.
Speaker 2:So this is where I'm like you know, you really have to educate yourself a little bit more, beyond what, even what a doula says, because I was told that you know you have all these rights in the delivery room, um, one of those is that they'll encourage you to do the C-section if, if there's any just a little glitch and you can tell them no, that you want to, you want to continue with your birth plan.
Speaker 2:And so the first time, I think I was like, I think I told him that I wanted to continue the way we were going. And then by the second time, I was just like do? I think I said do whatever you need to do to make sure she lives. And so that's when we got the trauma response and um, I was immediately, uh, transferred into um getting an emergency c-section. I kind of wish I would have just done that from the beginning, but that's all hindsight. You know everything would have been different if I would have just done that, but of course you don't know that and it's a surreal experience Anybody who's had a C-section because you're awake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I almost passed out.
Speaker 2:Were you, I didn't even have the C-section. Oh, so your wife had a c-section with Claire.
Speaker 1:I had full, I was gonna cut the umbilical cord and do that, so it's like it's time. And then the anesthesiologist he's like, dude, you don't look so good. He sat me down and I'm like I don't know. Claire, if you're listening to this later, sorry I missed out on that part it's gnarly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, yeah, because they have like a curtain right here.
Speaker 1:I'm talking to Cassie. Yeah, it's like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything's fine and you're being, your guts are out on the table on the other side and I was just sitting there. I remember looking at all those bright lights and just thinking I hope I don't feel any of this, because I already had the epidural and and I don't know what they did for any additional um, pain relief and things like that. Um so, and then you have this, this nurse talking to you and stuff like that, and they brought her out and I remember looking at her and then you heard nothing and I think Sean he was. I remember looking at Sean and Sean was looking at the baby or at Piper, and they took her over for you to cut the umbilical cord right.
Speaker 5:I mean, I don't know if you'll remember this, but you know, when she's delivered that way, they still have a prep table that they take them to and they do all the little suctions and the cleans you know and it's the scariest silence because you're so trained from everything you've seen and everything you've heard that there's a cry within like a minute right. And there was none, zero. And they're doing stuff, and they're doing stuff, and they still have me cut the cord while they're doing stuff like they give me that and then within minutes and I don't have a timeline anymore.
Speaker 2:But they took her somewhere else to keep doing stuff right like it's at that point so then sean's in a quandary at that point because he doesn't know if he should stay with me or if he should go with Piper, you know, and so he was just so conflicted, I felt so terrible for him. I wanted my mom. My mom wasn't there, yeah, yeah, um, sorry, we haven't talked about this in a while. We haven't talked about this in a while.
Speaker 5:Geez the doula had left because no, so oh, okay, I thought she left. She was waiting in the waiting room and I remember having to make a decision to follow Piper to the NICU at Renown at that time and or wait until she came out to post-op. Yeah, and I spoke directly with one of the nurses that and I said I have given permission to the doula to come be with her in post-op while I go down and check on Piper until I can come back up, because I was basically juggling.
Speaker 5:I mean this was still, because by the time that happened, that's like it was three in the morning when Piper was delivered.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, so you had already been up all night. Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, Long haul right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I remember going down to see what was going on with Piper and there was all this initial info, right, which was a lot Like you know they were hooking her up, they had to put her on a cooling bed, she was on a ventilator, like they were doing everything they could to support her until they figured out what was going on. Because essentially, through all of those little complications that happened, she had severe meconium aspiration, which basically that meconium which is, you know, diluted baby poop in the liquid, had tarred her lungs Like they were absolutely not working at all, not even 0%.
Speaker 2:Which isn't abnormal. A lot of kids get that.
Speaker 5:Well, the little bit, like they'll get like a 15% or something like that, and so basically, they have to observe them. So, like, my initial thoughts were like okay, we're here for a couple days, they'll get her cleaned out and we're fine, right. And every time we'd get info it was like no, it's much worse than that and much worse than that.
Speaker 2:They kept on coming up and it was bad news every time. They kept on coming back to the room.
Speaker 5:But then I was going back and forth between the NICU and then I had to go up and see her post-op and then I'd go back down to Piper and then I'd go up to see her get into her room until like 8 in the morning or something like that like eight in the morning or something like that um because at some point your mom or nancy, your sister, was able to finally get to the hospital and come up and be with her, while I wasn't you know, because she didn't even get to see piper until 10 am, or something like that pretty much like right before they, uh, uc davis showed up with their care flight team to transfer over and yeah, she was.
Speaker 2:just it was terrible. She was so little and and they weren't sure if she was strong enough to go over over the hill Luckily they were or she was over the hill. Luckily they were or she was. But I couldn't leave the hospital because of the rule, especially with, I don't know, c-sections or birth in general. But I had to be there. What 72 hours.
Speaker 1:They made you stick to that she actually broke it by a few hours.
Speaker 2:So Sean had to go over the hill while I was stuck at the hospital big picture.
Speaker 5:I have learned way more than I ever want to know about hospital procedure and checking boxes and fighting that system to the nth degree by the time this was all done you know. But um, yeah, so she we finally had. I don't know, it was about 18 hours later. Literally, we were in Renown for like 18 hours and the NICU doc had been communicating with Davis communicating the case, communicating her condition, trying to get the ability to get her there, because they have this stuff called ECMO, which is an acronym of words I cannot pronounce.
Speaker 2:You used to know it. Yeah, he was pretty much a medical professional by the end of this.
Speaker 1:For some reason I can imagine that yeah.
Speaker 5:But essentially it was like dialysis for the lungs, where they were going to hook her up to a machine at her juggler and pump her entire body's blood through a oxygenation machine and pump it back so that her lungs did not have to function at the time, basically, you know, like the old iron lung or whatever you know so.
Speaker 5:But when we finally we had to give permission for her to leave to be flown, and she had to do it by herself and the craziest thing I remember was watching that chopper because of her window of her room looked over the chopper pad. So I remember was watching that chopper because her window of her room looked over the chopper pad. So I remember them loading her, watching them walk her out, but watching that thing fly away.
Speaker 1:It's surreal, can't? Imagine?
Speaker 5:Anyways. So up to that point like you know, you talk about all these scenes I really felt like you know, I think you've been there where you almost part of you separates and watches the show while you're living it right and you're making decisions and you're ingesting all of this stuff, but you're also part of you, is is, is surviving, or whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you go into a flight or fight survival mode right think at this point sean hadn't had any sleep at all and he was expected to go drive over the hill and I remember just pleading with him because I was like I don't need him to die you, so you know, don't drive two hours or two and a half hours over the hill on no sleep. So I got him to stay to at least take a nap. Yeah, I laid down for like two hours my niece who lives in Auburn.
Speaker 2:she was able to go and meet Piper there, which was that was a relief Because she sent pictures Piper's here.
Speaker 5:You know like we had all this proof. Yeah, because she sent pictures typers here that you know like we had all this proof of life.
Speaker 5:this proof of positive right. But then I finally got up, I drove down there and I stayed the overnight with her until she got cleared, and then you know, I mean there's, we could spend hours on this right. Eventually we both get down there and among all of the so called tragic things that are going on, there were so many positive things that happened. The Ronald McDonald house is a godsend heard that from quite a few people. It is forever a charity in my heart, much like you, with forever 14 and stuff they will get money out of me every day, all day, the rest of my life.
Speaker 5:We were able to stay there. At first it was going to be short term, and then they turned us over to long term because it became months.
Speaker 2:And it was really nice.
Speaker 5:Like a hotel yeah.
Speaker 2:And they provided. They were women that came in and made cookies three times a week. Oh man, they were so good. Sean was grabbing one every time we went into the kitchen. You get your own little. You share a kitchenette with like a couple other families and it was just kind of interesting because everybody there had something going on with their kid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you're not there. If it's not serious, right, it's communal, much like here, right?
Speaker 5:But it's a different circumstance, but it's communal.
Speaker 2:But, like you know, the firefighters and the cops and like all these agencies would come and provide lunch and breakfast and dinners and it was just like so amazing how beautiful people can be.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and the other bonus of that place is it also gave you the resources to try to live a normal day-to-day life outside of what you're doing too, cause you could cook your own stuff, you could do your laundry there, like you had all the necessary resources of being at home while you're there, you know even a little work, workout, probably the size of this room, but um so, yeah.
Speaker 2:So once they finally let me go from renown um, you know, because I had a C-section which I didn't realize is so painful Every bump, like just driving there. Initially every bump was just like so painful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, getting her in the car and so I had to do like the wheelchair thing for a little for a few days. But then we got in there and Piper just had. She looked like you know those movies, like sci-fi movies, with all the different lines going to the person. That's what she looked like and her head. The nurse said, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry you have to see her this way, because the liquid in her head caused her head to really swell up and almost turn into like a conehead looking baby. She looked like an alien. She looked not like her at all. And but the nurses at UC Davis is another one. Oh my gosh, I wish you guys could have been at UC Davis. The competence at UC Davis is outstanding. The competence at UC Davis is outstanding and the way that they do their patient care should be done everywhere. They have basically care teams and you get to have meetings with those care teams to know what's going on, what are they going to do, what are they worried about things like that?
Speaker 2:But your care team isn't just the nurse and the doctor, it's the respiratory therapist, it's um, anybody, in her case, worker, like you know it was. It was a bunch of people. We had a whole room of like six people in there that were there purely just for piper's care and and then in the morning they had what do they call rounds.
Speaker 5:So, yeah, the first few days a week, again, you're still absorbing what's really going on. And these they would have their rounds, which Renown has started to copy a lot of this in their procedures but they would have their rounds and and I wouldn't participate because I didn't know I could first off and honestly, I just wanted to be there with piper. So then they would individually come in and give me snippets of info, snippets of updates, and you take it in and you're processing it, but it's not. You're not regurgitating back to them, you're not asking questions you know all that.
Speaker 5:they knew I was going to be like down the road Like they almost waited on rounds if I didn't get there yet. Like it was crazy.
Speaker 2:Well, that's one thing. Okay, this is when you know like you need to marry this person, right? I was like totally, just brain dead. The only thing I could do is sit there and stare at Piper and I couldn't think of anything else. And Sean was there and he was, you know, with the care team and, like I said, he knew all the medical terminology. By the end of it he was speaking their language. All the nurses and even the doctors were like do you have a medical background? He's like no, I work construction. Do you have a medical background? He's like no, I work construction. But yeah, it was just yeah. If I didn't know before, I definitely knew after that this man was going to be my forever. You know, at the beginning they said she was very, very sick. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it seemed very like the prognosis didn't seem very optimistic at the beginning of it Because they couldn't get her off of a certain respirator. Oh yeah. And she couldn't. Because of that, they couldn't get her in to do some of the things that they need to do. Sean can explain. Like MRI, they wanted to make sure that, you know her brain was firing because she lacked oxygen at the beginning. They wanted the respirator had caused her heart to get bigger.
Speaker 5:Okay. So what really happened with all of that with her heart is when you're born, so when you're in utero, there's a bypass valve biologically built into your heart because the umbilical cord is feeding everything, including oxygenated blood. So your lungs aren't doing anything in utero. When you're born and you take that first breath, that valve instinctively closes and then everything starts flowing into the lungs and they take the blood they're going to take. When her lungs did not take that blood, her system went into hypertension and so she was on drugs just for that to help mitigate that for a very long time until her lungs took full capacity. Among a multitude of other cocktails and sedative like this girl at four months old went through like the heaviest drug withdrawals I've ever seen somebody go through.
Speaker 5:yeah yeah, you want to see a baby go through withdrawals but, it is it is sad, but the biggest thing, that the biggest things they were tackling at any given time, was pulmonary hypertension and trying to get her lungs to function to a point to help relieve that and to get that valve to close. But for the first like three months, because you're in a hospital environment and because you're susceptible, everything she had pneumonia. She got bed sores which had ended up getting a fungal infection. Like there are all these prohibitors for going through with the process. You needed to go through that. You had to keep kicking back to get to the next step and the first three months was just mitigation.
Speaker 5:Like it was just keeping her from not getting worse. And then eventually, finally, finally, she got to a clear spot and they were able to take her in and do this procedure to close that PDA, and within weeks and a month she transitioned. She's off the respirator, she's almost unassisted with oxygen and anything else. The only big tackle at that point then became eating, because she never took a bottle, she never breastfed and she was at the point where she had lost the instinctual ability to attach and suck or anything like that right.
Speaker 5:So feeding tubes became an issue and feeding tubes became the discussion before she could leave the hospital, and that was that was a really big discussion yeah, really big choice about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was the, I mean discussion and a really big choice. Yeah we twirled about that.
Speaker 1:So that was the. I mean I guess you'll explain it, but she had the port Correct, so that was pure. That had nothing really to do with what took place up to that. That was just a tool to be able to.
Speaker 5:It was a peripheral result of what she had gone through and where it had put her, yeah, and so to be able to go home, we won. Either had to be trained to remove and install a nasal yeah feeding tube, which, if you've ever seen that done, I have.
Speaker 5:It is no fun, yep or you get a button they call it which is essentially like a blow-up button for a floaty in the pool yeah, that unclicks and clicks and has a tube that you can feed them with until they can feed themselves. It took us like a week to make that decision because our biggest fear was that she had just come off of every bit of assistance and you want to put her in a surgery that's going to put her on assistance maybe for an hour, and what if she doesn't come back off? Like there was a huge fear with that and they accommodated every conversation we wanted. We had multiple meetings about it, like they put on whatever show we wanted like at the boardroom.
Speaker 5:Yeah, like it was insane the amount of accommodation that they went through to make us comfortable to get to that point, to get her oh, and they also let you um.
Speaker 2:Pick main nurse.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So that that person is kind of your touchstone, so that you don't have this revolving door.
Speaker 1:And they know the whole case. Yes, that's one of the nice, that's nice.
Speaker 2:And it is a teaching hospital too, so you have students and stuff coming through. So you do have that change quite often with with providers I had to check myself with the teaching hospital concept.
Speaker 1:I got it.
Speaker 2:I got in trouble I think I got in trouble a couple times. Yeah, if, if one did something wrong, he would be like immediately in the doctor's ear.
Speaker 1:We can't have that person here anymore yeah, I mean my thing with the teaching stuff was claire started getting terrified every time somebody come in it's like another poke, another scan, another whatever, and they bring in this herd of people and then this person who I get. They gotta learn, you gotta learn, right, but they're poking, prodding her blood pressure and her heart rate is starting to go through the roof. I was like you're the third person today that's done this. Fuck out. Yeah, like I'm sorry, you're not doing teaching stuff on my daughter anymore yeah, yeah, yeah, you're, and I have.
Speaker 2:Uh, claire was very cognizant of what was happening too, and could voice her opinions, which is even I think even harder, because at least Piper didn't know what was going on. You know she was sedated almost for three months at least.
Speaker 5:Yeah, well, like Piper had had at this point an MRI, she had been tested for so many other things to see if she had any infections in her body, right so many other things to see if she had any infections in her body, right. And even UC Davis has policy and procedure for babies within a certain time frame, like at three months or whatever, and one of them was testing for doing a spinal tap to test for meningitis and they came in saying, okay, we're here for that. I'm like you're here for what? And I go no no, no time out.
Speaker 5:We've had an MRI it would have shown up. We've had an MRI it would have shown up. We've done every other test. She has no active infections in her body. She's had the biggest multitude of broad-spectrum antibiotics you've probably ever seen in your life. I think we can wait, yeah.
Speaker 1:Spinal tap. Yeah, I'm like no.
Speaker 5:Because there's a lot of inherent risk with a spinal tap. I'm like that is not a simple poke. No, let's not. And they agreed.
Speaker 2:They finally backed off I mean, they were very thorough. They even did our, our genetic backgrounds, just to see if there was any genetic reason for her condition. It was.
Speaker 1:It was crazy so it was purely because she like sucked everything in.
Speaker 5:Basically, she had a panic moment at some point when those heart rates were going up and down and and the working theory is that when they tried to break her water, it didn't break like big, it basically leaked out over time and so she was panicking because she's losing her environment, yeah, and then coming back, and then losing more environment and coming back, and basically I think what had happened is it had gotten so concentrated at the point before we delivered her that that's all she was breathing yeah was that stuff?
Speaker 5:because she was trying to breathe, because it's a half-half environment, like that's the only theory we have at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, when he went to go break my water, he was like oh, it's already leaking, yeah, you know. So it was already. Yeah, it was already broken, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So a few things, because we kind of really went into it. I mean it's a powerful story. I mean obviously I was more familiar with it, but you guys are awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, if anybody who stumbles on your podcast and they're wondering what kind of gym you are and this is why we stay here Well, even before, when I was pregnant and I was at 6 am, you just had Sarah and Jenny and all those guys on. They threw me and Viola a baby shower.
Speaker 5:They had known me a year, you know maybe if that so she did not want to come into this gym when we met and there's a little history with that, but in general like she wasn't going to do CrossFit.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 5:I had to go and do Orange Theory with her a couple days a week so we could work out together. You know things like that, right, and it took almost a year or so About a year, yeah Before she walked into this gym, and I'll give props out right now to. Sarah. Happy birthday, sarah. I sold 6am or 7am 6am on her with you will meet the sunshine of the gym if you go to this class. I remember that.
Speaker 2:She is the welcoming crew of this gym man.
Speaker 5:And she admitted I was not wrong. Like Sarah, if you walk into this gym, you will gravitate to her. If that's what you're looking for, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Yeah 100% agree and 100% remember this.
Speaker 2:I was sold on day one. I was like, okay, I'm ready, I think. The next day I came in with a backpack. You're like, oh, you got your gym backpack already. I'm like, oh, I'm sold on this. Which is funny because before that I always did a gym a year. I would change a gym a year to see if I could get better results or whatever. So I had done before I came here I was doing Orange Theory. Before Orange Theory I did kickboxing, before kickboxing I did Pilates, and then I don't remember what happened before Pilates. So I had. The history was I was with a previous person who had found CrossFit. And I say found CrossFit because people do when they don't know anything about it.
Speaker 2:they're like it's like you guys are in a cult, it's a you know, people evangelize it, and so you know he was all excited about it and all this stuff and I was just like this you know he'd come home hurt and things like that, and I just didn't, I didn't get it at all. Um, you know, forward I meet Sean and he had just, I guess, recently joined right.
Speaker 1:Well, kind of it was July 2019, and then you're January 2020, I believe. Oh yeah, so what's funny?
Speaker 5:is. I started South July 25th. I looked it up today just so I'd have the stat. I looked it up today just so I'd have the stat and I was encouraged to come in because I had been dabbling in some new fitness ventures due to wanting to improve my health at my age because I was 48, 47 at the time and I was, hey, just come check this gym out.
Speaker 5:Didn't even say CrossFit to me, right Like, and it was when, the first round of when you guys were running leans on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So I came in like I think it was a Tuesday or Thursday and did the lean and I remember seeing the WOD being done at the same time and in my head there is no way I am doing that shit. I am not putting a barbell over my head.
Speaker 2:I am not putting a barbell over my head. I am not flinging around on a pull-up bar like that.
Speaker 5:I can't even imagine now that you would ever think that right like there was no way there was and it's all out of Ignorance, right which can create even in like, fear of like. I know I can't do that, so I would even try. Yeah, right, and I think that's a common perception when people.
Speaker 1:Oh, very common, you know very common and it's one of.
Speaker 1:I mean from and it's one of I mean, from my perspective it's one of the hardest things for me to overcome is, I mean, obviously the gym owner people take it with a grain of salt, but it's like no, like we regular people come here and work out and they end up doing really cool stuff, Like and it's a growth process and but the perception of CrossFit although I love CrossFit, still love CrossFit it's a hard thing to overcome in society outside. I still hear it all the time. I can't do that, I get hurt doing that. I hear it all the time.
Speaker 2:Well, I wasn't necessarily afraid of the dumbbells, because actually in high school quite common for me to be one of the only females in the room. But, um, you know, I used to work out with like the football team in their gym and then I would walk up because I went to Minogue when Minogue was right over here, by UNR and they had a uh gym up the street there.
Speaker 2:Now it's a bunch of housing but, um, so I'd walk up there and I would work out after after school, um, and so you know, I've been in, in and out of the gym my entire life. I've. Now I really value health, but you know, I've kind of like minimally valued health my entire life. Um, so I don't know why I was so scared. It did seem kind of cultish, like I would go with.
Speaker 1:Let's just be honest, there is an element of cultish to this you do.
Speaker 2:I mean it's so funny because, um, even as Sean you know, he can get into a conversation about CrossFit and I mean he won't shut up, he'll, he'll talk about it for days and days and days, and I was like, huh, can we talk about anything besides?
Speaker 5:CrossFit. But let's be fair, it's not about CrossFit. It's about doing power cleans or it's about doing a snack Like. It's about aspects of lifting or something like that, which is, to me, not going down the cult road of CrossFit. It's about the actions, right.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know how you got me in here. I have no idea. I had a weakness, I guess.
Speaker 5:Well, I think the one phrase I have told her and it's like my new favorite phrase if I tell anybody that is going to try functional fitness. Crossfit whatever you want to call it is. You need to give it a month, just like you've been preaching, right? But it's true. This is why I give away a month now.
Speaker 1:It's like give it an honest month.
Speaker 5:And I think that is the only way to understand this place, because if you give somebody a free walk-in a one-day, you are gambling whether you're going to have the best WOD on the board or the worst one on the board and whether or not you're going to sell them right. Yep, but I told her you will feel stronger after that first month before you feel like you look better, like you will feel internally better much sooner than you will feel externally better about yourself, and I remind anybody that tries any of this that that it is all about like it.
Speaker 5:You won't see it in the mirror before you feel it in your movement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, by any means yeah, 100 the truth and I came in, of course, sarah yeah, everybody loves sarah. She was definitely one of those, um, great points of the gym. But I will give you kudos der Derek as well, because when I came in, you know you're like, ok, you're going to use this bar. It was like the 15 pound bar at the time and I was like, oh, ok, I could do this. This is good because I'm watching everybody else and they're lifting crazy weights and you know, and I was talking to Chris McBroom, who's the chiropractor here at the gym, and he said, you know, a lot of people, people's ego is what gets them hurt, it's not the exercise himself. And I can see that because I can see if you go in, you're like, see everybody else lifting heavy, that you're like I'm going to lift heavy too. Um, so I liked the fact that you kind of took that choice away from me at the beginning and said, nope, you're using this bar and I want you to do this movement instead of this movement. And um, and I I've learned real quick what build means, what scaled means and you know working out for where you're at and what your goals are. Um, and the coaches are so good at really helping you do that and I feel fortunate I got to my first coach was you the owner of the gym? And so I, you know, I don't know, I feel like I could have came in on any coach and I would have got a similar experience.
Speaker 2:But I think, you know, before I got pregnant I did 6 am pretty regularly, like Sarah and Jenny said on here. Like all those people are regulars, Like they're ride or dies, they're here every single day. And I remember I was like okay, I'm starting for three days a week, that seems like enough. And I even remember when I signed up you asked me how many days are you going to go? And I was like three, three sounds good. And you're like okay, you know, like the kind of a smirk, like okay, three. And then I think by the end of the month I was here like five, five days a week and then started getting into six. Before before I got pregnant, pregnancy really kind of derailed a lot of of my workout, but yeah, so it was just. And then and jenny was talking about or not- jenny um uh, emma, emma.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she was talking about looking at jenny and and kind of idolizing her. My and I used to do that too. We'd look over there and be like man. Jenny is so like strong man and she would like finish that bike so fast. The salt bike is like her bitch for sure. She is so good at it.
Speaker 1:She is a power athlete.
Speaker 2:And it makes sense now that I know that they were all athletes, because I was never an athlete. I mean, I did cheerleading for like a year and that was not athletic. But you know, you got to see all these different people and where they are at um, and you kind of can aspire. I I didn't really measure myself, um, I've always been in competition with myself, even before CrossFit, but, um, I think it was more like wow, look at, if she could do that, maybe I can do that someday. I never thought right now, but, you know, someday.
Speaker 2:And the other part was I've never had so many female friends in my entire life. You know, I used to work in commercial radio for that was my first career for 12 years and it was a dude fest, um, and you know so I've always been around a lot of males and then I didn't have a ton of female friends. And now I feel like I just have more female friends than I've ever had in my life and they're supportive and not competitive, you know which, which is like so different than what I was used to previously.
Speaker 1:It's funny that you bring that up because it's still a misconception, if you will. But I mean think over almost 60% of our population is female and like it's CrossFit, yeah. It's lifting weights, it's doing all the things that people think it's just bros and I mean I don't know about other gyms, but I say our gym. Last time I looked I want to say it's just under 60 percent.
Speaker 2:Our membership is just female people get close fast here too yeah um, you learn um, and I've tried to do it myself too, because there's been a lot more new people in the gym lately.
Speaker 2:Um, especially, I usually go around um 3, 30, 4, 30 or 5 30 and so I've been seeing a lot more new um faces and one of them was a mother, a new mother and she brought her baby, and so I tried to make it a point to go over and and be as friendly as the people were to me when I first started. Because you kind of realize, like you come and you hope that you're going to lose weight and get shredded and all that stuff, but then you just really stay for the community and you kind of change your values as as time goes on, because I went from well, I just want to be this certain weight right um to.
Speaker 2:I just want to be strong. I want to be able to wipe my own ass. When I'm 90, you know like I want to be there for Piper for the duration or for the most of her life that I can, you know. So my priorities changed in a big way and I keep on bringing up Viola because she's my best friend now and you know we went through a lot together with pregnancy and stuff like that, but we constantly talk about that.
Speaker 2:And so now my new idols are like Daniel Spiegel, like I had no idea who she was before, and before it would have been like, wow, she has really big thighs. And now I'm like, wow, look how strong she is. Man, that is so cool. And you see all these like I wouldn't even try. And you know, sean, it's an event but Sean and Viola are very much so into the CrossFit games and stuff like that, and so you know I sat down and that's when I was introduced to Daniel Spiegel you know she's worked out here before, right no, I didn't, she's done a couple at the South Gym because they go to Tahoe.
Speaker 1:I think it's like an annual family trip or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. Yeah, I know the guy with the mullet has been here before.
Speaker 5:I had no idea who he was. Justin Medeiros was here because his girlfriend at the time was at UNR.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I didn't know who he was, but everybody here was like wanting to take their picture with him and stuff like that and I was like and that's kind of that's, that's cool.
Speaker 1:I think like women in particular are really hard on themselves so, there's no question, this is something that I wish I could just wave a magic wand and help fix, especially raising a daughter now, oh, yes but um you mentioned on the last podcast, body dysmorphorphia, and everybody has a little bit of that.
Speaker 2:And it's true, I often wonder when you look in the mirror, if you're, if you're like am I ever going to be happy with what I look like? Like I feel like I'm always making excuses, Like now it's like I had a baby, so now I'm trying to get rid of baby weight, you know, but before what was my excuse, you know? So you have to change your mental mindset and I think CrossFit does that for you. The community of CrossFit does that for you. Makes you recognize what's valuable Family, friends or what is your. It's like faith, family and something Fitness oh yeah, your moniker.
Speaker 1:Putting me on the spot here. You're the owner of the gym. Community integrity, perseverance. There's one more. I should know these off the top of my head. I haven't had to recite them in a hot minute.
Speaker 2:And you have the sayings on the wall. You know which, every time I'm over it, we call it the pasture, which is like this green turfy area that people can work out on their own or do side work or whatever, and so you can see that you have pictures on the walls, like you probably. I know when I watch the podcast you could kind of see this picture here, but not really and you could see, or actually actually I see, sean, yeah you can see Sean Right there in the men's bathroom Every time I work out I was like I see Sean right there doing box step-ups.
Speaker 2:What workout was that? Chad, chad, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a great picture.
Speaker 2:It is a great picture, and now you have Ryan on there.
Speaker 1:Now I need to get two more for the other side.
Speaker 2:And you talked about Momi, who's turning 70. She's up there. Very inspiring people. I like that you choose not the best-looking people or the fittest people. It's like the most inspiring people on the walls. It's great.
Speaker 1:I think that in this space, like trying to balance fitness, physique and I'm not going to pretend training for physique is a bad thing. Like I want to look good. Right. But I think there's a lost deal, especially with the power of social media today. Lost deal, especially with the power of social media today, of what's reality versus what is actually real life. I can do some things with a little bit of lighting and my camera angle to change my abdominal muscles dramatically or.
Speaker 2:Photoshop.
Speaker 1:No, 100% or Photoshop, but there's things that you can do when it comes to these pictures that we're inundated with constantly of what optimal physique and health and fitness and this and that is like, and it can get exhausting and it can cause you to like beat down on yourself. I mean, I get caught up doing it Like I should be this way, I should look this way. I should not want to be like Paul and like this and that and it's genetics is a huge component.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:And accepting that, I think, was one of the big turning point for me personally. It's like my genetics are different, like I would never make it in bodybuilding. My genetics just don't support that. Understanding that certain physiques, certain ways, are only going to go so far when it comes to appearance, if you will, doesn't mean we can't get leaner and this and that. But I have folks in the gym who measure at sub-10% body fat Men, sub-10% body fat. They don't have a visible abdominal muscle. I have men in the gym with 20% body fat who have a visible six pack.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, in this like the goal is to chase health and I think when I shifted my own perspective in the last few years of like giving myself permission to train like an athlete again, but for a longevity mindset, my whole self perspective shifted in a big way. Um, and it was very relieving because being the gym owner and this and that I don't know, I mean internally hold myself to a higher standard, or tried to anyways, and get very exhausting, especially in this social media place, it's like you need to look a certain way, you need to do this, you need to be capable of doing that and this and that, and it's like. Honestly, one of my big things that I'm going to start trying to be more vocal about is you can continue to progress and be awesome, but so much online, so much in publication isn't reality and it doesn't display health.
Speaker 1:Yeah because I just you can get burned out when you keep doing the comparison game.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, for sure I mean.
Speaker 5:My screensaver says comparison is the thief of joy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's 100% true.
Speaker 5:That's my daily reminder to not do that.
Speaker 1:And I think so many folks you know I mean. I know it for a fact the number one reason people come through here on a trial most of the time 98% of the time is weight loss.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Then, beyond that, you have folks in their middle age, you know getting, you know getting 40, 50 years old. They're like either their doctor said it's time to change some shit, like, and you have that health pivot moment, like I need to just start doing something for health, uh, versus before. That. It's weight loss and appearance. It's purely, I'm gonna say, vanity, if you will not health driven. And one of the big things for me personally in the growth of the gym and us as a community is just being extremely health oriented, optimal health. But that doesn't negate that we still can't chase awesome stuff like being really fit and yeah looking good comes with that and all these things come with that.
Speaker 1:But we're chasing health yeah internally. I mean that was one of the big drivers with my wife and I. Teaming up is really chasing health and when you chase health and you, it relieves so much tension mentally in my mind sure, um, that frees you up because you know extra adipose tissue.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to get along with the body positivity movement. It's not healthy when it's in excess. But what's excess like? If a guy's walking around under 20, you can still be very healthy. Like you don't have to be six percent body fat and women if you're under 28. I mean you can still be very healthy. Like you don't have to be 6% body fat and women if you're under 28%. I mean you're still on a healthy track. And this idea of social media, where you just have to be shredded out of your mind to be healthy, I'll argue some of these people aren't healthy and they're not healthy mentally.
Speaker 5:No, no, I mean. Well, you've seen, I've shown you results because I've been here. It'll be what? Five years, Six years in. July right. And I've done the in-bodies and I've even gone so far.
Speaker 1:I keep my own data and everything, oh, we know about your data bro, I want to get into that.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about spreadsheets.
Speaker 5:Hey, but in this window of time, from who I walked in as and to today, I've existed at almost every body comp you can be at on that spectrum, yeah, and so I know the results of that body comp, I know the capabilities of that body comp of like how well you can lift versus how well you can do body weight movements and etc. Etc. And now I'm trying to find that happy medium yeah of that body comp as I try to also beat those curves of age yeah, no, we were talking about that.
Speaker 1:What. A couple weeks ago you showed me your own body and it's like you've. You've had a pretty solid change recently. Obviously, when pipe was in the hospital, you were still working out in the bay area.
Speaker 5:Well, here's a great story of the crossfit community outside of here, because this is an awesome community. You have built a very solid community here and if I hadn't been where I was with this place when all that happened, I don't know if any of this would have happened afterwards physically right, like being where I'm at, fitness wise. But we were down there for the first couple weeks and, like she said, there's a little fitness center in there and I'd go in and I'd mull around for a minute, basically just trying to clear my head, do something distracting, right, whatever. But once we knew it was going to be months like that, it was a solid concept.
Speaker 5:I found a gym down there and I found a crossfit gym down there right and I'd email them and I said, hey, I might drop in a few times, what's your policy, etc. Just come in, we'll talk about it, that's fine. And it was this little traditional box, you know box, like in a manufacturing area no ac, no heat. You know, I bet you I see more. No more than six people a class, because it's a—the guy, the owner of it, basically loved CrossFit but he owned the reptile shop next door. Gotcha.
Speaker 5:So he opened a gym so he could work out with his friends, and he just wanted enough membership to pay for the rent. Yeah, that's all it was. There's quite a few of those out there, right. Yeah, but who was there when you walked in. But so here's the irony Day one I walk in at like their 5 or 6 am. No arrangement. No, nothing to this Pete. Miller comes walking in behind me, yeah.
Speaker 5:And backstory to that, his wife had gained a residency at UC Davis and that was like his first couple days there, Davis, and that was like his first couple days there, yep. So all the member from here walks into the same gym the same day. I walk in there to find a place to get away from everything going on yeah so like there's no more serendipity than that in this community and they welcome me.
Speaker 5:No, nobody asked questions. There was no prying like. Over time they all kind of got the story of why I was there and everything. And that's the great dichotomy of our community and any of these other gyms communities is it is such a melting pot of professionals or career in there. One of them ended up being, you know, a pharmacist that knew every drug that Piper was on at the time so I could get the background, like you know. But then the really cool part is a couple of the guys in there were my age group or a couple years younger, but that master's age, and one of them made it all the way to the master's games last year. So it was cool to support him, know him and be communicating with him while he was there, to get an idea of what that would feel like if I ever made it. That's probably off the table, maybe not 100% off the table, but it's just cool to know that somebody I had been side-by-side with was there doing the thing you know.
Speaker 1:No, that's. I remember you telling me that Pete is going to the same place.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think I texted you that day like of all the places and of all the people, imagine that yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I mean it's a small world. Yeah, small world. No, I will say the CrossFit community as a whole is still pretty awesome. You know, the people is what makes the community. I'm not going to pretend CrossFit as a corporation is not going through some turmoil. Yeah, and I hope I was able. This last summer, when I did the suffer weekend deal with Nicole Carroll's husband, I was able to talk to her about everything and her perspective on everything actually gave me like a warm feeling about the future of CrossFit and I have nothing but respect for her. I mean, she's one of the brainchild that developed the entire CrossFit coaching curriculum and everything and she's still very much invested in the CrossFit brand and she doesn't need to be at this point, but she very much is. And just her insights into what's going on is like okay, because you're constantly wondering. We pay a nice premium every year to be affiliates, to use the name to use the name.
Speaker 1:So both gyms each year is $9,000. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And um, questionable on whether the values there at times, especially when you're combating, you know, some of the negative press or local people or physicians and saying like, oh, you just get hurt at CrossFit. I mean, I still hear it often and I also can't pretend it doesn't happen. Not every gym's the same, not every coach is the same. I mean, what do you call the doctor that got seized in med school Doctor? So it's like you have to do your due diligence when it comes to joining a gym, a community. I mean, one of the biggest things I tell people to look for when they're moving or traveling, does the place have any full-time coaches? Like, if they don't have a full-time coach, at least one, it's hard to believe that. That's. If you're an experienced CrossFit, you're probably fine, but just starting out, that could be a rough journey. There's a lot of times, unfortunately. I mean, coaching is done as a trade or a little side, hobby or this or that. Experience matters when it comes to coaching, this style of training. It does carry high risk, but it carries high reward and once you get through the learning curve in the right environment, the right coaching, um, the reward so much outweighs the risk, um, and I've seen it for 11 years straight here. So I back backing up the beauty of CrossFit is the community and a gym like we strive to do.
Speaker 1:I'm not naive to think that the community is the community is the backbone of this place and when you have a community like this, you get people working out consistently. And when you get people working out consistently, results happen. And that is the what do you want to say? The recipe. We want the programming obviously to be effective, to be fun, to be diverse. That's why we shift around with coaches, different ideas and try different things, but at the end of the day, like I tell folks especially, I get programming opinions a lot.
Speaker 1:I get them a lot and try not to sound egotistical when I say this, but I'm like I do the programming and I do it consistently and I've done it for 10 years and I think I'm doing all right. So you just have consistency is the key and if you love the environment, you love the people. You work out and maybe you don't like that workout that day it's fine. There's plenty of workouts that I don't like that, but you do it well. And every workout on the board you work out and maybe you don't like that workout that day. It's fine. There's plenty of workouts that I don't like that day.
Speaker 5:But you do it Well and every workout on the board has the board version and your version and people need to keep that. I think too many people get stuck in the board version and can't understand that. I did it today. There's always your version and you're still there doing it with everybody else. You still get something out of it.
Speaker 1:Well, you've grown enough. I mean, you're one of our coaches now and you've learned, you know, you're really getting in tune with your body and that's the biggest thing in the growth of this, even if you're not aspiring to coach or that, but just growing as a uh somebody. What do you want to say? A professional exercise not professional, but a recreational exerciser who does it for their health is learning your body, your goals, how you respond to certain things in the gym. What's your recovery is like. How did the warmup go? You know, am I feeling good today? Am I not feeling good today? Do I need to undulate the intensity? When I picked up this barbell, did it feel like shit? Oh, and then you're like, oh, I'm so much weaker, like no, you're under recovered, like that's a different animal.
Speaker 1:The more you learn by doing more and more training, the more in tune you get. This style of group training really needs to become your own personal journey and I tell folks like, don't try to do what I do unless you've done what I've done to get to doing what I'm doing, because chances are it's going to be too much and you're going to hurt yourself. You need to get the workout to meet you where you're at, take you a little further. Meet you where you're at, take you a little further. Like you said when you walked in 15-pound bar. That's a big thing for me with new folks, especially if you've never done CrossFit before. We're going to start off way easier Like I would rather you leave here, like I didn't really get much of a workout.
Speaker 1:I can fuck you up Like that's not a problem, right? I mean, we still do it to ourselves after all these years. I want you to leave here, and then it's just.
Speaker 1:Your building blocks might be a little bigger at the beginning Like we didn't have the 15 pound bar for very long. But I really like people starting off slower, easier. Get the lingo, get the class flow, get the vibes meet people, get your own circadian rhythm with the class, and then we just start creeping up, creeping up, up, creeping up. And I also tell people when they start out stick with the same coach for a while I think that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:Um, well, like I was with you for the the beginning of me being here, and now I'm at with chase. Um, and it's funny, is chase actually, because he I don't know if he still does, but he used to teach CrossFit up there at UNR as well. So that's what I did before. I was at the UNR gym for a while and I met him there and he taught me how to row there.
Speaker 2:He doesn't remember which is funny because when I started going to him regularly here he's like wow, your row looks really good. And I was like look, you taught me that row.
Speaker 1:At UNR.
Speaker 2:At UNR. He didn't know that. That's funny, but yeah, I think it's nice if you do stay consistent, because they can see you from day to day, and now Chase knows what I'm capable of. He's now comfortable with pushing me, which, when I was with you and you were like, are you running, or do you not want to run because you don't like it, or are you not running because you have an injury? And I was like, well, I have a torn meniscus, and so I never ran. And then, with Chase, he's like I think you can run today, let's do that. And I'm like, ok.
Speaker 2:And then I ran for murph this year. I mean, granted, it wasn't like the whole way through, but you know, I hadn't done that before. I always did like, I think, the bike or something like that. I subbed it in, yeah, so you know I didn't like it, um, and it slowed down my pace, you know, or my, my number on sugar water, whatever, but it felt better, because I was like I actually am pushing myself, and I said something, complaining about having to run to and stuff like that, and I said the thing is, though, is that we're running. That's a huge feat within itself, because I was not doing that four years ago, you know. So the fact that I'm like, okay, I know where 400 meters is, I know what 800 meters is, stuff like that, you know, is just a learning thing. So it's small things and I remember one time it seems small, but it's actually a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, small, but it's actually a big deal. Yeah, yeah, at. Well, at the coffee maker, I remember um, uh, one of the members, mj um, you said it took her four years to get to where she was at at the time and she was in really good shape and I think this was the first morph. She was using the weighted vest and I was like four years. You know, you kind of want it overnight. You expect like, okay, in a year I'm going to be shredded, you know.
Speaker 5:You want the Instagram results.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think and you've mentioned this several times on the podcast that consistency is key. And you might not see it in the mirror because you're so you scrutinize yourself so much you have that body dysmorphia or whatever. You scrutinize yourself so much you have that body dysmorphia or whatever, and so you're always gonna see whatever this fat kid in the mirror or whatever. You don't like, your thighs or whatever. Um, but slowly but surely, you know, you are making changes, like my mom the other day she was like oh, I think you've lost weight. And I I'm like and I hadn't, I haven't lost any weight. And I was like, okay, well, maybe it just like shifted a little bit, you know, but I, you know, I didn't feel that way at all, you know, but I did do my measurements. So I always do the in-body and then I also do measurements, and so I had lost inches, which told me there was some distribution, redistribution.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the number one driver why I bought body composition? Because I got so tired of hearing body weight when I know there's a recomposition taking place yeah.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing, um, educating people on muscle mass, you know, and your weight, because the other day I didn't want you to see my body. You took it from me and and I was you're like, well, your weight stayed the same and I was like, yeah, but my muscle had gone down and I don't know why that is down and I don't know why that is Um. So you know, that's something that I can work on, cause I I know that having more muscle is going to help me with my longevity goal, more so than just staying the same way. If I have more body fat and stay the same weight, that's not going to help me as much as as having muscle. Um, and those are things you learn, you know, along the way. I think you help educate us a lot. I know you turn Sean and I on to Huberman Ataya and then from there I've kind of snowballed into like Gabrielle Lyon. Gabrielle.
Speaker 1:Lyon is awesome.
Speaker 2:And Stacey Sims and stuff like that. So I try to listen to what you say, as that are reputable sources, so that I kind of can feel more confident in what they say if I'm going to try something that they're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean from my perspective, gym owner coach. I'm not out here doing research. I mean, I guess, in a micro chasm. I am because I'm coaching people all the time. I've seen anecdotally what's happened to people over 20 years of training experience, like I've witnessed every diet. I've witnessed every drug and been around steroid use and abuse. I've been 20 years in this industry. You've seen it all and you've seen training methodologies come and go. You've seen training methodologies come and go. You've seen so much. And when you have social media now, it's so convoluted with people spewing out shit.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh yes.
Speaker 1:And I just like people. And then I get at least once a day, at least one forward to me of some random influencer what do you think about this? And they're just spitting out shit like zero research backed, some random crap, and I'm like, no, you need to not follow that human being. I have a very small list and you basically mentioned them of people that I respect, who do valid research and very much have reputable and credible information, and the thing is like this is so not complex that you don't need a massive group of you know people to learn from.
Speaker 1:Like fitness and health in its essence, if you will, is simple Eat unprocessed food. Eat protein, fats and carbohydrates. Get your vegetables, fruits, micronutrients. Lift heavy things. Get your heart rate up and do it consistently for a long period of time. Eat at a calorie need, not a surplus. You do that day over day, week over week, month over month, year over year or a lifetime. You do pretty good A couple things navigating that world is the anti-inflammatory stuff and balancing. Lots of things are processed that are still healthy. They've been through one level of processing, uh, and just navigating some of that. But in general, if you eat what the food is the chicken, the strawberries, the, the lettuce, the. The food is. You pick up heavy things and you get your heart rate up and you do this in a consistent manner at a calorie need to support that you're going to thrive.
Speaker 2:I think the only the only thing regarding that is I think the recipe is simple on paper. It's the mental, the mental block that it's hard to get through sometimes. Um well, especially with food, uh, with some of us trying to maintain under or at least at a certain calorie. Um, budget is hard sometimes when you want what you want, you're gonna get it um.
Speaker 2:Other times, especially and I find myself with exercise this time is like I'm going to do this amount of weight because I know I can do that and um Chase has helped me with this a lot, is that just try, just try to see if you can push yourself a little bit further this time, or this time, or this time, um, and this is probably this last year is probably the first time I've ever worked out or did some, or this time and this is probably this last year is probably the first time I've ever worked out or did some workouts to failure, like I always did it to, where I was like uncomfortable, you know, but not failure. And it's interesting when you know, I was like when I did Coach Chris, who does the South, she did kind of like a woman's retreat thingy and during that we did our.
Speaker 1:Deadlift. You did the CrossFit total, I believe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I had never done that before and it turned out I could lift a lot more than I thought I could. I don't know if it was a good day or what.
Speaker 5:I've been telling her she can lift a lot more than she's lifting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, it's just. I mean, that's my new this year.
Speaker 1:I guess that's my new like One of my favorite tricks is to put on random weights at a like where the person can't figure out what's on there. I did that today with dead lifting and she's like how much did I lift? There you go about 120 pounds and her eyes just went wide open.
Speaker 5:Never expected that I could pick that up any ever in my life yeah, I do the random stack instead of the standard stack and they can't do the math and they're just lifting it yeah, by.
Speaker 2:She doesn't do the math until the very end, number one. Both her and I are terrible at math, but she just keeps putting it on until she fails and then she'll do the math afterwards so that she's not. You know, she's kind of trying to get past that mental threshold or whatever.
Speaker 1:I still haven't done that, but I am trying to like push myself Doing some workouts until failure is a big growth, a big growth process, because in training you have to, you have to slightly overdo and I call it optimal, um recoverable volume and intensity, like you need to push a little fast but you can't do it to where you can't recover from it, and that recovery frame can be 24 hours, it could be a week, like however long your training cycle kind of is. But, um, you don't know what you don't know and once in a while you have to push till failure, like 20 rep back squat max, one of the worst things you can do in the world.
Speaker 2:But you don't know until you know or wait, that salt bike, the five minute salt bike that you talked about.
Speaker 1:That's so terrible I really, really don't want to do that I know that I told chase like bro. This is barely a once a year test for me, twice in three months oh, he broke me that whole week I mean, I did it, I did um, all but one and I think it.
Speaker 2:I forgot what happened. It was like the deadlift day, I couldn't do. But normally I just go and I don't really think about that stuff. Wes, coach Wes, he made fun of me because I often walk in and don't even know what the workout is.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's a lot of people that function that way.
Speaker 2:And you know one thing it does prevent me cherry-picking workouts, but I'm also not prepared for what I'm getting into, Whereas, like, Sean will, basically, you know, put it in a PowerPoint and make a spreadsheet about it, About how he's going to tackle the workout for the next week.
Speaker 5:I do look at the week so that if I know how I'm going to. So I just recently read is it Grubb? Was it one of the master athletes, jason Grubb?
Speaker 5:Dude you probably know more about CrossFit than me now, but you know he's closer to my age group and there was an article about where he had to transition his training from when he was in his 20s to now in his 40s Yep. And he goes at this point in my life I'm training to improve, not to prove, yep. And he's doing a lot of what you talk about where, like, he looks at his strain and he looks at his heart rate zones and he almost gives himself an account through the week of so much time here and so much time here and so much intensity, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and that's all I'm doing. When I look at the week ahead, I look, ok, that's my workout. That's not so much my workout. Like, I need to work on this act like I it's. It's more of a fitness plan for the week, not cherry picking or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Well, you don't cherry pick, because you go every day.
Speaker 1:Yeah but with the, you're the perfect example of what I wish I could get every person to do, especially when you're trying to really start. You know performance matters and you want to continuously improve, especially as we're getting older. And I mean, I do the same thing and I'm only I tell, I've been saying this for a while now, but I'm only gonna go really hard on a workout, full send once a week. And I was telling cody this I don't know if it was in here or whatever, but I was like, and you know which workout that was, like the five-minute bike. I was wrecked from that for two days. Oh, I get it. But I decided I'm going to do this and I'm going to full send everything. I absolutely have into this.
Speaker 1:Now people would be like oh, you're only going to do that on things you're good at Well at this point in my life. Yes, that's true, cause I'm trying to hit these max intensities and it's I can hit max intensities at things I'm good at better than things I'm not good at. I can't cycle snatches very well, so I'm never going to get max intensities, plus the risk of injury, because I can't do it very well. I don't have great shoulder mobility and I'm just going to be honest At my age now I'm just not going to put a ton of work in it because it's not a high priority list for me anymore. So I'm going to cherry pick the workouts that I can really push to get that intensity of the week, because I'm not trying to get intensity every single day anymore. I'm trying to train consistently five to seven days per week of good movement that I'm able to continuously recover from, to keep building, building, building. And when I gave up trying to send every day and just do my thing, it was transformative. It was very relieving.
Speaker 1:And I try and I don't I log in the leader, I log in Sugarwad because I'm the owner of the gym and I want people to know that I'm doing our product, because a lot of times in gyms coaches are doing their own programming, they're following this coach or this programming their own thing. Like it has this aura of group class. I'm too good for group class. I'm not going to pretend I don't do a little extra here and there I do, but group class is my foundation. This whole week all I've done is group class. My other client's gone who I do some extra stuff with? Group class is my backbone and that's why I make a point of doing it, logging it, tracking it.
Speaker 1:I want to be a representative of our product and, with that, getting away from the CrossFit mindset we all had when we were in our well, I was in my early 30s but Leo and the younger crowd of coaches back in the day, every day we'd go out into the gym at 1 o'clock after the noon class and it was go till you broke. Every day. Every day was competition against each other. Every day was shit-talking against each other. Every day was shit talking against each other. Like it was a very you know, I'm going to say competitive team kind of crowd and it broke you down and you just, at a certain point in your early 20s, you can get away with it. But it just became so breaking for me and I was five, six years older than them. So getting to 40 in this last like three years, re-identifying my purpose of training and fitness in the gym, figuring out intensity and figuring out consistency over intensity, was the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:If I can't feel good to get quality work in the next day, what the hell am I doing this for?
Speaker 1:And if I can't be happy and functioning on the weekends and do things with my family and, you know, go out on the boat or hike or whatever we're doing.
Speaker 1:There was many times there where my body was so broken down I didn't want to get off the couch. And CrossFit draws a type, a personality. It draws a competitive person, and some of us I'm very guilty of this get caught up in that. And my advice to those of you that suffer from that syndrome if you will, you really got to start looking at your own personal journey, cause at the end of the day, if you beat the person in group class and you just broke yourself doing it, that person's going to go home and have probably a good evening and you're going to be laying on the couch and they're not going to give a shit about what you did or didn't do in the gym. They're going to be worrying about their life outside the gym. So, getting away from the competitive side and just taking your own journey and I love what Sean does looks at the week when can I focus on?
Speaker 2:Don't tell him, he's right.
Speaker 1:No, but I do, I'm just kidding, I do. I do the same thing and I know a few other members that started doing this, looking at the week of programming started thinking about you know, I got to pick up the kid here, I got to go to this event there. Like you start looking at your life and then work in workouts and intensities and weights and things that you're particularly working on and you start backfilling purpose and being intentional with your training.
Speaker 1:It's a much better journey and it's a progressive. You can start progressing yourself in group class and I know Sean comes up to me, he has a plan and sometimes he pulls out too many statistics and spreadsheets that I know he analyzed too long, and sometimes I'm just like bro. Sometimes you just got to send it and say, fuck it, it is the smarter way to go, though, because here we go.
Speaker 2:It's the smarter way to go because you do get older, you do have to recognize like you need more time to warm up, which, when I did come at 6 am, I came with Sean, and so Sean made me be here almost an hour early, and so we would warm up, and I felt so much better. And now I'm coming in. I basically am here, if I'm lucky, a couple minutes before, if not after, the time, and so I don't have time to warm up, and I I will mess myself up because I just I mean, we have warm-ups during class but that extra, the extra warm-up, just because I'm older, you know a little bit more creaky.
Speaker 5:She calls it a warm-up, I call it a diagnostic. Yep. No, and you see me like my band work with my shoulders. No-transcript. Oh, you know that lat's hurting. Whatever you know.
Speaker 1:That's funny, plugging in the car reader device to get your diagnostic codes for the day A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:You know I have my own process of getting warm. So our group classes are an hour. They do include a warm-up Co. So our group classes are an hour. They do include a warmup. Coaches are at Liberty to make up the warmup, to warm up their class. I spend more times on warmups Like you'll. You'll hardly ever see me do something If we have time left in class. Well, you hardly ever see me have time left in class in the mornings. I'm going to make the warmup longer Anytime I have the opportunity to make the warmup longer so that we can get warm because you just came out of bed.
Speaker 1:Afternoons you've been moving potentially all day, unless you're shift work and you just woke up out of bed, so your body is going to be more awake generally, so afternoons can get a little more flexibility in the warmup. But I've said this before, I know I've yelled at it on Instagram and this and that, but people devalue being intentional in our warmups that we do in class. And.
Speaker 1:I get it, it's social hour, like you're seeing your friends, you're catching up on the day, it's you just got off work, or I get it and that's a big deal to me, like it is a very communal thing. But if you want to get value out of the workout, but if you want to get value out of the workout, being very intentional in the warm-up is going to help get so much more value out of the workout and prevent injury. So combining the social, communal, this and that, but being very intentional in the warm-up is I call it, quality volume. These are quality reps that are going to make the workout so much better of a stimulus to drive results than if we lackadaisically go through it. Then we get to the workout and we're not able to put forth our best effort for what we're trying that day to get the stimulus to move our body in a positive direction.
Speaker 1:The number of times I see people literally do like three things in the warm-up and then, just like they're ready, I'm like, no, you're not. Yeah, and then I have folks and you know who they are in my 6AM class that do get here early, they do things, they warm up. I know they're warm, I've watched them run bike, do some extra strength work. I know they're warm. I've watched them run bike, do some extra strength work, but then all their friends get here, yeah, and now they're chatting them up Social hour.
Speaker 1:And those people aren't getting warmed up.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I know you're warm, but I need them to warm up. Yep, that's so true and it's just balance. I mean, from a coaching perspective, it's just balancing that social environment, which I want I do and I'll tell some people today, like we got 20 minutes to get warmed. We can make this social, but we're getting this work done and I'm just watching members who do very intentional and great warm ups.
Speaker 1:Their performance in class is dramatically different than the people who don't. So that's yes. My lesson and my spiel here is just be very intentional with the warm-ups, and they're valuable. I think people just discredit them, like you want to get to the lifting and the this and the that.
Speaker 5:So Well, I think that translates the mental effort you put into the warmup, connecting to how your body's moving. Translates to the workout you will be if you're at 50% connected during the warmup. You may only be 50% connected during the workout, 100%, and the results will show right and maybe you can get away with it and maybe you can't. That's an individual based thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, but that's how I look at I look, you don't want to surprise yourself and go in surprising yourself during the workout.
Speaker 5:Very seldom works out well. If you haven't done well in the warm-up, I did way better than I thought there are some things.
Speaker 1:If it's like higher skilled gymnastics, something to be very dynamic on my shoulder or my hips, I'm going to be very cautious but intentional going into the warmup and the workout. It's not anymore. I did do this stupid shit the other day, 6 am, because they called me out. But I'm not going to try a bar muscle up demo in class unless I had warmed up. And there have been times I've come in early and like warmed up my shoulders and stuff Cause I know I'm going to do a demo that day. But, um, things like that, I'm definitely going to warm up protection, like my shoulders, my hips.
Speaker 1:These are things that are very dynamic, a lot of demand, and then things that are like monostructural. So if it's a long bike I didn't warm up for lean yesterday push up some biking like that was the warm-up, yeah, um, and it's just very workout, dependent on what the demands on the body and the particularly the joints are going to be yeah and um. But if you're asking me to deadlift 85 of my max, we're gonna spend a little time warming up before class. And for me personally, I like I like to get 10 minutes of blood flow going. So, whether biker rowing 10 minutes of blood flow then, like what sean does, um, to a degree of just like going through the motions with bands or dumbbells or something with joints and then also taking the reading. When you walk out, when you roll out of bed, like there are days I sit up like oh shit it's not looking good for today, and there are days you roll out of bed and that is going to go into training.
Speaker 1:And there have been times where you wake up feeling like shit and you get warmed up and it's like, okay, it's actually, we had a decent training session. And there have been times you wake up you think it's going to be a great day and you get warmed up and it's not going to be a great day, and that's another point to looking at the week ahead.
Speaker 5:I always have a catalog in my mind what day I'm willing to give up if I really need a day of nothing like there's some reason. You know with Piper we haven't slept with work whatever and I just know that that because you know with the whoop you have a statistical representation of recovery but you also have your mental and everything and I have learned over watching that over time that that represents like a cell phone battery where you may feel, say, you got 25% recovery for a number.
Speaker 5:You may feel great warming up and working out, but then you all of a sudden only have 5% left for the rest of the day. That's a great example. You know cause it feels good at first, but it dies faster. You know, just like pull-ups or pushups or anything else in a workout you know you'll have 10, you'll have five, and then you get down to the ones and you're done. Yep, but that battery does not come back.
Speaker 5:Yep, and so I've learned that's part of my process of assessing the week is if there's a day I need to give up that is not going to be a high roi for me, a return of investment on the workout or if I wake up that morning and know that I'm not going to go in and be able to do it to my satisfaction, even at a minimal, then that's a day off.
Speaker 1:Yep, and I mean avoiding junk training can be great for the mind. On one aspect, you come in and the training session ended up becoming junk training. I mean, I don't know about you, but I can be like I beat myself up about it. Do I need to do another workout or do I need to do a rest day? I mean, I've come to the point in life like I can tell like you need a rest day, dude, it's time for a day off. But using you know devices like this, it can help draw a picture. I also know some people get super data like it's red, I can't do anything, not. And people get super data like it's red I can't do anything. Not really the truth. You have to take it in. It's a tool. It shouldn't be the buy all be all decision maker. But to your point, I used looking at my weekly average was last week, if I was yellow every single day last week and I can't pull off a green over the weekend. I'm thinking through that like, am I pushing too much? Am I under calorie? So uh, from what do you do weigh-ins? Well, my birthday.
Speaker 1:I was pissed off at my body composition. Um, I still at 14 and I'm going through this like I've been eating, eating perfect since Claire's ordeal. I've never eaten this clean, this perfect, for that long, ever in my life. I'd always do. I've put myself in the 80, 20 bucket. We ate pretty darn healthy most of the time, but there was still the yogurt beaches and the going out having a couple of beers and you know you get the burger fries and all that bedpitting looks good. You know that was. That still happened. You know, a couple of times a month and um, but then Claire's stuff happened. Diet lockdown, whole family is what we're doing. We're living perfect. Uh, so October was about a year and my body fat came down from like 17 to 14. I'm like what the fuck? Getting frustrated and it came down to a calorie equation. I'm eating very clean, but nuts is a big part of. Like Cassie makes breads with nuts. We avoid certain carbohydrates because it can be inflammatory with Crohn's disease and well, they're making me fat. It's good, fats right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good but it's just so many calories and I'm not just like a little bit of cashews, I'm like, oh, here's a handful, here's a handful, and I get in this. I do train a lot but you still can't out-train over calories and getting really frustrated with that ended up finding myself okay, we got to pull the lever back on the fats, had to weigh and measure again, get calibrated to like this and started deep diving into carbohydrates. I've always, for a long time I've been on the lower carbohydrate mindset. Paleo diet is very coexistent with CrossFit and it's a low-carb kind of mindset. Done the keto with Crohn's disease.
Speaker 1:Looking at keto carnivore, you have two very polarizing deals when it comes. Vegetarianism is best for Crohn's, carnivore is best for Crohn's and it's like, oh God, you start going down this and the opinions and the influencers and this and that. It's exhausting. But we definitely lean more towards a paleo kind of crones deal. It's called the scd diet specific carbohydrate diet. There's just very specific carbohydrates that we keep in our diet, but I'm talking to cassie and this and that and like I need more, like I'm not functioning well for what I'm doing and body fat's not going down.
Speaker 1:So that's when I started like playing with carbohydrates, increased carbohydrates pulled fat way down, got back to a caloric deficit and things just started melting away and training improved, sleep improved, my recovery improved, everything improved. And, as you know, I was wearing you've done it too but a glucose monitor. Now on this low carb deal, and my glucose is like creeping up month over month. What the oh? I was getting pissed. You can ask my wife, he is so mad because I want this perfect number. Yeah, I want to wake up at 80. I want my average to be 85 for a whole month and it's like that would be hard.
Speaker 2:We've both done that. That would be a hard number to maintain, right.
Speaker 1:So these are little areas of my own health journey that I'm getting competitive with and it's driving me nuts because I'm restricting carbs. I'm still going up and you dig into the weeds a little bit and you find out like, oh, when you train the way I train, I'm making myself insulin-resistant right now, Like I'm putting such demands on my body but my body doesn't have carbohydrates to fuel from. It's still trying to fuel from ketones and my livers, my muscles, are calling for carbohydrates. It's not available. My liver is now trying to make more glucose to catch up for the demands, but then my muscle is not using that because it's not trained to use it. So I'm essentially making myself insulin resistant. So I have a question about that.
Speaker 2:So I come from the mindset of, like, not very educated about a lot of this stuff. I've gotten more educated because I've been here and I've listened to the podcasts and I've read the books and all that stuff. But as an average person that you're just going to the gym to get fit, um, or enjoy your social time or whatever, how would you ever know that that's what's happening? Because I feel like I struggle Well, we both struggle a lot with a diet that is going to work for me and is going to work for him, which is going to be totally different because he needs it's going to be different, but not totally different.
Speaker 2:You don't think so.
Speaker 5:I think different ratios, not different content, maybe, maybe yeah, how do you know that?
Speaker 1:like how um, trial and error, like it really is. No, I do have to eat. I eat still clean, unprocessed food, but I do eat more carbs. I have to keep it at the gym because if the kids see it and they want to eat it and then claire does upset her stomach and you know I have to be very mindful of that. But, um, like oatmeal for instance, I keep here at the gym because I don't keep it at home because it's not good for Claire.
Speaker 1:So it is a lot of trial and error and getting in tune with your body. There are fundamental rules of protein, fats and carbohydrates and total calories that we start at. So we figure out what those macros are. I like doing an in-body scan. Then I take your basic energy expenditure guesstimate and we come up with a target calorie to start and then we're doing in-body every two weeks. Where's our averages? Where's our trend lines? Looking If our our over the course of eight weeks, 12 weeks, we see trends in the right directions.
Speaker 1:We're going to stick with that calorie equation. And then the subjective are we recovering? We feel stronger? Are we getting stronger? How's our sleep?
Speaker 1:If you get a calorie deficit, a big one, for too long, everything starts getting fucked. Um, I think that's where I was going with my story there, as I was in a calorie deficit for too long and I was starting to feel that and my resting heart rate started climbing. Um, I was just, I was not feeling good and I was being in a calorie deficit for too long. You can use it to cut, but you got to find an equilibrium, come back. But so you have your starting point. We go 12 weeks I like 12 weeks and we're going to track every two weeks and what kind of trends are we getting? Because if you drink a glass of water at a different time, you're going to get a half a percent deviation.
Speaker 1:If you didn't hydrate properly, your muscle might look a little deflated. If we restricted carbohydrates, it might look like muscle going down, but it's just less stored muscle glycogen in your muscles, so they're not as dense. So you're not really losing muscle, it's just the density within the muscle because of dehydration. So anytime somebody has a muscle drop on here and they're like well, you cut carbs like in a dramatic way, because that's going to, you'll see your weight go down. You might see fat change a little bit, but traditionally when somebody first cut carbohydrates, that initial weight loss is all water and on something like this bioimpedance you're going to see it loss as muscle.
Speaker 1:A DEXA scan it's not, it's taking pictures, this you're going to see that loss of water as being muscle loss, not fat. So then your body fat percentage is going to go up because your weight went down but your body fat stayed the same. So percentage-wise it goes up. So on the in-body test it has muscle mass in pounds and up top it has total body fat pounds. But on the charts that everybody looks at, the line graphs, it's muscle mass pounds, body fat percentage. So you've got to remember when the body weight changes the percentage might change yeah, the total weight against.
Speaker 1:You know, it's just math yeah, but we want to see, over the course of every two weeks, on a consistent, regular weighing schedule at the same time with the same habits before, what's the trend line looking like? And we're looking at a splatter. A splatter trend, not a direct, because the body doesn't function that way. It's not like it's going to go down, down, down down this perfect linear straight line. It's gonna. And then we draw okay, these are trends and um, based on the trends, how we're feeling, how we're sleeping, performing, recovering, general wellbeing. If the trends are going in the direction we like, we stay the same. If they're not moving, we look at where can we pivot If they're not moving?
Speaker 1:And you have some subjective markers like I'm hungry all the time, I'm not sleeping good, and we have to start evaluating okay, how much carbohydrate are we getting? When are we eating? Then you can start talking about nutrient timing and getting a little nerdy there. That does matter with digestion, getting close to bedtime, playing around with that. Some people can eat a massive meal right before bed and sleep just fine. I can't. My recovery on my whoop. My resting heart rate will be five, eight beats higher If I have a big meal after four or 5. And I don't give myself at least two hours before bed, it'll be dramatically higher.
Speaker 1:Um, it's playing around with feeding timing and these are just little nuances that we could start chipping away. So, in its simplicity, yes, we can start chipping away. So, in its simplicity, yes, we can make it as complex sounding as we want, but it's really a journey, and just chipping away and being willing to make one or two changes play with it, you know, and you can usually start feeling better in a couple of weeks seeing changes. That's why I like every two weeks, and then looking at a trend of every two weeks for a period of eight to twelve weeks and um, so where?
Speaker 2:what would you recommend in terms of start? So for for me, just to figure out what my calorie budget was and, uh, the percentages of my macros, I started and I think I sent you the worksheet that Gabrielle Lyon put together. But if I'm just like coming off the street, I start the gym and I don't know anything about that stuff. Where do I start with even identifying my calorie budget, identifying my macros?
Speaker 1:This is a great question that I am the worst person at communicating this information. Um, this is part of my I'm building like this marketing newsletter that when you sign up for a membership, you get like information about the gym. 50 of people actually open it, but it would have this um, one of the big things for people to know is I am your main resource when you hire the gym to be your coach. I'm the nutrition guy you get as part of your membership. If you will, I will sit down with any member. We don't even have to record it, but I will sit down with any member. We get an in-body scan and we'll have an hour conversation At the end of that. You're going to leave with a starting place.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's not something you pay extra for. It's not something if you are a paying member of the gym. You can sit down with me and we can make an appointment. I do have to do it by appointment and I'm going to get you that information. You're going to leave there with a plan. I will be totally transparent. I use AI now.
Speaker 2:I do not hand type all these out anymore and it's been a game changer for me and it allows me to help more people. Yeah, sean and I have messed with AI and developing like diets and stuff like that. It's amazing. I don't know why we didn't think about it before.
Speaker 1:No, it's a very powerful tool. As long as you know the macros and the inputs, it can give you a great plan, a great starting point. And what I'm going to do in our conversation, you know, talk about the lifestyle, so we know a full picture of what's going on, what's your sleep, what's your work, what's your training budget like how much time do you have to train? Like all these variables matter, especially figuring out that starting point calorie equation. Because if you have a sedentary job and your basic movement of the day is house to the car, from the car to the gym, so we have a little walk in there, gym, walk back to the car, drive to work. We sit at work for eight to 10 hours. Walk back to the car to work. We sit at work for eight to ten hours, walk back to the car home, walk into the house. Like adding up those steps I mean we're not a lot of steps. So I do like tools like this where I can see general movement, like if you have a very active job and you're logging 12, 15, 20 000 steps a day is a lot different than most people who are having to write a desk all day and they're getting 5,000 steps. So looking at that whole picture and then we can put inputs into AI and give us a macros, is the easiest thing to figure out. Like these coaches out there charging $1,000 to give you your macros in this little template it's a complete fucking scam and they're going to disappear. Because one AI and two, it's a complete scam because it takes me five minutes and it's something I'm willing to do.
Speaker 1:I like having a conversation about all the stuff I just said and we put the inputs, we get a plan and then we work from that baseline and start building, start building and also with that, you know, looking at things like maybe a little family history, what's going on where you're at in life. Hormones matter when women start getting age 35, 36, I mean. This is an equation that is a real reality. That does play into things in a massive way. So these variables also matter.
Speaker 1:And then another thing talking to the coach versus ai is, I'll say, like somebody like myself who's been doing this for 20 years now, experience matters and to help set expectations, because we do want it overnight and I'm not going to sit here and pretend there isn't a drug out there that actually does do that now. But even with that, I think there needs to be a holistic approach with it. And, um, I'm not the anti-ozempic guy that I think people would think I am. I think it's a tool in the toolbox. It can be used under the right circumstances and under all variables being looked at. But, um, that's where we start.
Speaker 2:Okay, I think that I'm so glad that you said that, because I'm sure, and that it comes with the membership, because I think people are afraid to ask because they're like, oh it's going to cost more money, you know, cause usually it does to ask because they're like, oh, it's gonna cost more money, you know, because usually it does everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'll say the deviation from me to nutrition coaching. I'm not gonna hold your fucking hand. If you come to my class, if you're a regular part of my interaction each day, I'm gonna bring it up like how you doing you eating right? And you can ask people that I put plans together, for they get really irritated with me because it comes down to this one thing You're either going to do the work or you're not. And I found out when I used to like do full nutrition coaching. I just got over it because I give you the plan, I tell you what you need to do, I set the expectations of what to expect on this plan and then, oh, I was out with my friends and you know we got a little crazy, had some beers and this and that, and the weekend I'm like, well, what the fuck am I doing this for? Then it's a waste of my time and energy. You don't really want it that bad. The amount of money I would charge to babysit that personality, you don't want to pay it. So my approach is I'm going to give you the tools it doesn't take much out of me to give you the tools. We'll check in.
Speaker 1:You can reach out to me. Any member can reach out to me anytime. Shoot me an email. It might take me a day or two and if I don't respond in a day or two, send it again. Okay, send it again, but I will help you.
Speaker 1:I will lay out a plan, but you need to execute that plan the other 23 hours of the day. It's going to cost you close to 200 grand a year probably to get me to babysit the other 23 hours of the day with you, and even that, I just probably don't want to. To be honest, I have my own family. I got my own life. Like you have to be willing to wrap your head around the other 23 hours of the day and being willing to like, okay, trust the process, be able to take the time and let's chip away at this and I will say there are members in the gym that have followed what I've said, the little tips and tricks and this and that, and the little conversations in class that we have, and I implemented this and I did that and they've transformed, but they did the work. They did the work.
Speaker 2:What about the capabilities of other coaches? Because I'm also thinking if somebody was at 530, they might not run into you because you might be gone by that time.
Speaker 1:This is a downside.
Speaker 2:So I mean I would say Chase is excellent first step here, but he'll be gone next year, or if you go to South Gym, so could I know Chris probably can, but Chris and Jake and Faye and Jason, that's pretty good Know them all. I do know them all. Yeah, and Sean.
Speaker 1:So my coaching staff is paid to coach classes. Keep the gym clean, keep things running when they start nutrition coaching. That is paid to coach classes. Keep the gym clean, keep things running when they start nutrition coaching. That is extra income for them. And their nutrition coaching does involve a lot more depth than what I do. So I know I don't see the people at night, but I've come back here and met with evening class people before and then I've also. I'm not a huge fan of zoom, but if we just can't get a time, I'll use FaceTime, like we can have this conversation. As long as you get the in-body scan and I know your body composition, I can, I can figure out your starting point without even really talking to you, but I want to talk to you because I want to know the whole picture. Uh, and I've done handfuls of FaceTime appointments because we just couldn't get connected at a time with life, this and that and um.
Speaker 1:So I'm numero uno when it comes to what's included in your membership and getting that fundamental package going. Chris can crank out a fundamental package. She'll meet with people and then decide there if you want to hire her to be your you know nutrition coach, and all the coaches set their own prices for nutrition coaching um, just like personal training so. But she'll crank out a plan for you and get you started. Uh, jess will crank out a plan for you, get you started and uh, then people decide if they want to hire them as, like, a micromanager of their life outside the gym or not is what I call it, and that could be very valuable. Like Jess and Chris both and probably because I'm a man, but they have just so much empathy and they're able, they're really good at that, whereas, like I'm, like, figure it the fuck out. Some of us need that though.
Speaker 1:That's what Jess says, like good cop, bad cop, because me and her and Tammy we share classes and it's like, oh, dad's coming, good cop, bad cop. And Jess would soften the blow a little bit sometimes and I'm trying to get better. And I'll say one big thing you know, with claire, stuff is just, and in life, growing up, getting older, being around more people, your stress is, what stresses me out is might be different than what stresses you out, you know, and what I find challenging might be different than what stresses you out, you know, and what I find challenging might be different than what you find challenging. And I've come to realize that everybody's at their journey in time. I used to be kind of a dickhead about it, but if you, what do you mean? You can't hit your protein. And now, if you've been working with me for a year, we've had the conversations building up like, okay, let's try this, let's do this.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't want to call hand-holding, but really kind of nurturing that path, and then it's going to get to a point where I'm going to tell you you either want it or you don't and we're going to get there, but being more empathetic in the beginning of somebody who's just learning this, and it is amazing to me how um it's sad there are lots of people that really don't know the fundamentals of just unprocessed, processed food.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that meaning is and I, the more new people I meet, the more how broken our nutrition health is in our society is, and it's opened my eyes a lot to be a lot nicer and more patient with folks in the beginning. But I will tell you that there's going to come a point in our journey that I'm not scared anymore to also deliver the tough love. In my early years as a coach coach I would get like very reserved and like not say the things that that person needed to hear. And I have come to a point. We're going to build this relationship, we're going to build this trust and if we're not moving the needle and you're telling me you want to move the needle, I'm going to tell you what you need to hear to move the needle.
Speaker 5:I think there's a lost art nowadays and I think we're at a point in time where less people can handle that because they haven't had exposure to it enough as they've grown up, evolved, whatever. It's not a societal standard anymore.
Speaker 1:What would you say to social media text messaging? People don't have to communicate like this anymore. Two social media text messaging. People don't have to communicate like this anymore. It's so easy to passive-aggressive a text or a DM on social media, but to have a conversation and tell somebody like hey, I'm actually really fucking up here and you actually are. It's very hard for people to communicate in person these days and, to your point, I think it is a lost art. I think you know these devices and everything people, dating apps.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad I don't have to be in the dating world oh god like going out and trying to have a conversation with a person in real life. You know, I can't imagine. I can't imagine, I can't imagine. But to your point it is a lost art.
Speaker 1:And in coaching, I think your evolution as a coach comes when you can really curate that relationship and trust to be able to facilitate that conversation and have it move forward in a positive direction, versus like I ain't dealing with that prick ever again. Right, you have to build a trust Like I genuinely want to help you live the healthiest, best version of yourself. You're not going to pick up on that in our first interaction as coach client. Um, so it's going to take time. That's why, like during the first month, first six months, like just building a relationship me or any other coach it's building trust and then we can start picking apart the things that need to be picked apart to evolve. Yeah, and that's one of the reasons I want to do this more is because I know I have walking dick face.
Speaker 2:Me and Vi were talking about that.
Speaker 1:Walking around the gym I'm usually thinking about this, that and other. And being homeschooled, it took me a long time to have my pseudo-extroverted personality, but I'm only that way in my environment. You see me at people's kids' birthday parties and I don't know everybody I'm like over in the corner.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, me too. Not Sean. He's a social butterfly, no.
Speaker 1:I'm not In my environment. I can be, but also outside. I do struggle with that. I think if people understand that about me, I try not to have that persona, but I get it.
Speaker 2:I also get it exists well, I just wanted especially if new members are listening to this, or even members that have been here a while, didn't know these things existed to take advantage of it. I, you know, I feel like I'm lucky because I have Sean, who's constantly talking to you and always know what's going on. So, and then Vi, too, she's always like she's.
Speaker 2:she's being working with Chase like right now and stuff like that for the year, and so she'll tell me what that involves and entails, that sometimes it just takes that first step to ask the question and informing that that deeper relationship with your, your health and your and the gym which I think is totally A selling point of this gym and the price. I've had friends that have complained about the price of the gym and even when I first started I was like, oh, it's much more expensive than Orange Theory. But then you get in, you're like, ok, well, like, okay, well and I think you said this as well is like do you want to pay for prevention up front or do you want to pay for the results of a bad lifestyle later, which is going to be way more expensive, and just kind of making it a priority within your budget and it just it's a no-brainer at that point.
Speaker 5:Well, anybody that has solicited or paid for a fitness venture right, whether it's a gym membership or private coaching or nutrition help or whatever. If you were to go out and package those three individually, I would be hard pressed for you to find something with the same value as having it a one-stop shop here that you have at your price point, and you know, and um and the coaches all know your name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like even coaches that aren't here know my name, if you've been here long enough.
Speaker 5:They're all gonna know you yeah, yeah and I've brought through my life.
Speaker 5:I mean I've tried to bring my brother in and he has his own restrictions within himself and work and time and everything else that don't let it work. And you know I tell him the door's always open, you can always come back, whatever. But I've probably I hate the word converted, but I have brought a multitude of people into crossfit, not maybe here as much, but I know the benefits of what this system can do for somebody's life and means. I work in Carson, I have friends in cars and so they may end up at Carson whatever, and they're a quality product. I love those guys, right.
Speaker 5:But I usually sell it on the fact that, like when they start talking about price, I'm like okay, well, how much do you pay for this? How much do you pay for this? How much do you pay for this? How much do you pay for this? How much do you pay for this? You know for all that right. And then I say give it a try, just go in with an honest, open interest. If you go in with a door closed, they're not gonna open it for you. You have to open that door.
Speaker 5:And and be honest with yourself, get rid of the ego. You know all of those things and and you'd be surprised at how much you get out of it like what I explained, because if I primarily started evenings at South and Working all day and working out every evening has its benefits and you get a lot of the same result out of it, but it is inherently very different to me than working out in the morning and then going to work, not just for getting the workout and all those inherent results from the workout itself, but you start every day with a win because you got up, you made it here and you did something positive, so and you've probably done one of the hardest things you're going to do all day, before the day even started.
Speaker 5:A hundred percent probably one of the hardest things you're going to do all day, before the day even started, a hundred percent. And you know, I know, if you were to walk down the road right now and you did, grab a hundred people and maybe five of us are in that group, that automatically puts us in like a one to five percent of society walking around, right, and it just helps mentally and everything else. But I try to tell them like you don't get that if you do it on your own. You don't get that If you go to the gym two or three days a week sporadically and go and jump on a couple of machines or get on a treadmill for five minutes, like there's just a completely different um base to how that works, and they, they, they're so frightened, like you said, of like injury and the and the Negatives that they've seen in the public media with CrossFit and everything else, that it's once you get them past that the light bulb goes off. And that's kind of what happened with her. You know, like after that first week, like you couldn't get her out of here.
Speaker 5:You know, the biggest thing about morning class I don't know if high school is like this now, but I equated it to. When I went to high school, you had your five, six classes a day, periods, whatever you want to call them, and every morning, though, there was that one class in between, like first and second period, called homeroom, and you got to see that same group of people every day. You got to ground with them, communicate, get all your stuff for the day and then go on with the day, and coming to a morning class is very much like your homeroom for every day.
Speaker 2:It's your check-in with yourself, with your friends, with everything yep, unless you have way more energy, that's going to going from mornings to nights. It's a it struggle because, well, number one, my workout is probably the first one to go of the day, if something comes up, because it's at night, right? Yeah. And the other thing is so Sean and I used to work out together that was one of our unifying relationship things that we work out together.
Speaker 1:And I miss that so much Sometimes. Yeah, partner workouts.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, identifying relationship things that we work out together and I miss that so much sometimes. Yeah, partner workouts, yeah, yeah, well, he could do things that I can't do, um, so I was always the one bringing down the partner workouts, but, uh, he, we would work out together and I didn't realize, like, how valuable that time was. That was a very like special time, um, for us, a couple, and now we have a kid, which a lot of people who have kids recognize. You have to divide and conquer, and so now it just makes more sense for Sean to do the morning workout and for me to do the evening workout. It took me a minute to get used to that, even though you have a little bit more energy because you've been eating all day, but at the same, time you don't have more energy, you have brain drain from work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's just a big thing with workout. Mornings versus evenings is people have natural genetic circadian rhythms. Me and my brother come from the same gene pool but we have opposite circadian rhythms. He's a night owl, I'm an early morning person. Me working out at night it's not going to happen, not with any value. I've never enjoyed it. It's never been something I thrive in. That couple hours after being awake, a little food in me, thrive. Work out at 5 am I can do it, but I'm not really happy.
Speaker 5:I don't have a choice now, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I would bet my feeding strategy would be a little different if I had to train at 5 am. But getting in tune with your circadian rhythm and building your workout life the best that you can around that at a certain point is optimal. But as we all know, when we have kids things change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the fact we can just get through these doors Last night Cassie had to do a workout.
Speaker 1:She did it in the afternoon and then just half days at school and juggling this and this and this.
Speaker 5:It's like half days at school and juggling this and this and this, it's like, well, I think I mean I don't know if you have the statistic of how many of the members are parents or, you know, have a the time budget constraints of being both parents in this gym, or so on um, I'm not sure on how many are parents, but our average age in the gym is 43.
Speaker 2:The last time I did the math, sure well, I just saw megan out there um before we started this podcast.
Speaker 5:Sometimes she comes at five, sometimes she comes later, right her?
Speaker 2:and brett have the same struggles that we do yeah yeah, I mean the people.
Speaker 1:So like the last 11 years of us being open, we've all together, a lot of us have brought new life into this world together, all during this same time, so a lot of us are on this same kind of pivot points and juggling together. I mean Meg and Brett our kids are relatively the same age and it's been fun but also really cool to see families evolve and then prioritize their health and spouses working together, and that's another thing I think is very important. When it comes to me and nutrition coaching particularly, I like, even if the other spouse isn't a member of the gym, if you're married, you have a family. I like talking to both because I've seen it so many times. And not to judge husbands I went a little sideways on one of the previous podcasts about this topic but husbands sabotage their wives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can see that Men typically get away with it a little easier. They can eat more and have the beers. And women start getting to middle age and hormones are changing more dramatically. Lots of things are going on. I'm not going to fucking eat that way and I've seen it so many times where it's like you piece of shit, like support your spouse, get on a family eating plan. Now it doesn't need to be identical, but there should be an identical mindset that we're going to eat for health and we're going to, you know, fill our buckets properly for that. And seeing people who were here have kids while they're here and evolve together in that process of figuring out those priorities has been so rewarding for me to witness um and be a part of it. It inspires me and my family.
Speaker 2:Right, I love that atmosphere you have, like when you come and work out. You have a bunch of babysitters, like you know. I'll come in for the 430 and Sean will pick up Piper later. Or sometimes I have to just put her in the little kid room, you know, and they do have a kid room with toys and TV and stuff like that, which is awesome. But you know some of the 3.30 people will be over there. You know they'll tell me, hey, piper got out of the room or they'll go regular. Yeah, so you have all these babysitters that are also watching your kids grow up, which is really cool.
Speaker 2:Or when you have, like family events, it's a true family event. It's everybody, you know, and the kids, and it's very kid friendly and things like that. And I I think that is so fantastic. Even the the the new girl that I was telling you about that had recently had a baby. I was like you know there's a pack and play in the in the room there and you know you could bring it out and you can work out and your kid doesn't have to stay in the stroller if you don't want to. And she's like, oh, really. And I was like, yeah, yeah, women do it all the time, you know it's. It's just really nice that I mean there are rules. When they get a little bit more active they need to stay away from the weights and things like that I don't want a barbell landing on a kid yeah, but it is super kid friendly, you know, and and supportive of unification of family while you're trying to get healthy it's very important.
Speaker 1:I mean, I know that I own a gym and it's challenging for a whole family to figure out, you know, workout schedule and logistics. And I have looked at having child care here. That's a variable that is so much more expensive and so much more tedious Backgrounds and all the things. It's very difficult to do. But, like you said, we do have a kid. I call it a kid's containment center.
Speaker 2:At Bull Jim's. Yeah, bull Jim's, it's the fishbowl, it's the fishbowl.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is cleaned every Wednesday and eitherurday night or sunday, whenever the cleaner comes um heavily cleaned. I did have to take some marbles out of there the other day. I'm like, oh, she can't be left behind oh yeah, we've had to take out little legos, yeah, I mean members are nice and I think it also becomes a drop-off point for past toys that they didn't want and books and stuff. But unfortunately with digital devices these days, most kids just zone out on their device.
Speaker 1:But I mean Megan's brought her kids in the stroller, worked out with them.
Speaker 5:I'm running wads.
Speaker 1:They're out there running together and that is the environment I want. I mean, jess has no problem holding your baby.
Speaker 2:Oh no, she held Piper for a full week, and Piper was a big baby.
Speaker 1:I mean, that is the people, that's the community, that is the environment that I very much want, and I'm glad that it takes place. Granted summer vacation's coming here, there's got to be a little bit of control. That starts with my own damn kids. But that is the environment I want. I do have people asking me when are you going to start a kids program?
Speaker 5:We've had that conversation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is something that's heavy on my heart and oftentimes in the gym I've taken on something with energy and excitement and being a terrible idea and expense and you offer service and then you end up having to take it away because you didn't fully think through it and that causes its own problems and you have to take away the service you added and when it comes to a kid's program, you have to be very specific about the coach. Coach has to have certain qualifications, background checks and these various things. The service you added and when it comes to a kid's program, you have to be very specific about the coach. Coach has to have certain qualifications, background checks and these various things. I'm actually the only certified kids CrossFit coach at Double Edge currently.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did that quite a few years ago.
Speaker 2:Maybe we should talk about all your certifications after we're done with this.
Speaker 1:There's a couple. I'm allowed to make up my own names. I'm so certified I can make up my own names for warm-up shit yeah and he does, yeah, random, random, but um, but you have to have you know, for us, for insurance purposes, various things when it comes to having a kid's program and I'm all for this, right, I don't want, I'm gonna do the background check.
Speaker 1:I don't need some pervert yeah, and then you have to have the right person with the right personality to coach kids. Um, there's a lot to it. I don't take it lightly and watching various kids programs around town, some people have it nailed and they have their little deal going on and like it's it's, it's pretty good for me to start mixing it in with our adult class could turn into chaos because it has to be at 3, 30 or 4, 30 or 5, 30. Then it may be on the turf or in the back of the gym south gym there's really not the space. And I have to think back to my core target audience, honestly, is folks like yourself, grownups, giving them the best hour of their day, because everything else in your day now goes to your kid and work. So giving you that freedom to have the best hour of your day is still the core of my business model. But then you obviously know Jackson's becoming a workoutaholic and I'm just like I'm very conflicted right now.
Speaker 1:Me and Tammy have talked about it, throwing some ideas around of things that we could do in a very small scale. I don't, I wouldn't do it with the mindset of making it a revenue center of the business. It'd be very small scale. Uh, it'd be only for you'd have to be a member here of the gym to even be considered to be a part of a kid's program. Uh, and don't want that to sound exclusive, but it I would only do it at such a small scale. That would be one of the limitations, if you will, yeah, so well, you have a lot of irons in the fire right now.
Speaker 2:Anyways, you just um. Well, you have. So one of the things about this gym is that it's very especially, it's starting to grow, but holistic in in the health journey. It's not just exercise, it's not just nutrition, but you also have chris mcbroom here.
Speaker 1:Um I love that guy oh my god, he's eight years helped me so many times. I think it's been eight years.
Speaker 2:And he's a chiropractor, but he's more than a chiropractor. He spends like 45 minutes with you, yeah, and he understands working out and what you do from day to day and he's not going to be one of the chiropractors that tell you you shouldn't do that anymore which I've been a chiropractors that have told me that and you know he warmed you up. I mean, he's almost like a PT chiropractor mix in my opinion, he works in the whole body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not just a pop pop out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and he gives you stretches and stuff to help with some of your reoccurring things that you might have going on, stuff like that. So you have him. And then you have your wife, which both Sean and I go to, which has been like an added element to our health journey in this longevity goal, right. So now we're doing labs and watching certain health markers and she's been you know I love it because she's a woman and she's had babies and she and you guys also have gone through the not the same trauma, but a similar trauma. You know that we have been through and so we just have like a lot in common.
Speaker 2:And going to her is basically it's not a regular doctor experience. You sit down with her for like an hour and talk about everything and she catches things that you, like, no other doctor will catch sometimes and you know you could text with her about things and you know. So that's another unique quality of this gym that I think is awesome. And then, of course, you have the recovery room here, which. Do you have plans having recovery room at South?
Speaker 1:I, since now I coach between both gyms. I'm like if I was down here full time, what would I do?
Speaker 2:Which would explain what the recovery room is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the recovery room at Midtown is failed yoga project. Yeah, I had this space Now I just couldn't figure out logistically what to do in the beginning. So, at when you have a space, it ends up just being filled with crap. So that's what it was Crap room. So I went to I'm not trying to make a story out of this, but I went to New York City. I went to a CrossFit gym. They had a great yoga room. I was like, oh, this is where we can do the space. Come back here all excited, maddened, this new variable to the gym yoga. I don't know shit about yoga. And then they gotta hire yoga instructors. Then, when yoga instructors, no show, or call in.
Speaker 1:I don't know how to coach yoga. I can't jump into this yoga class and coach it, nope. So we tried to add yoga and then I decided you know what the yoga studio cross gym does? A great job, they have a great reputation. I'm not even gonna try and we're just gonna get rid of this. So I didn't turn back into a shit room, shit collection room. And then it was Brandon Carlson. He's like bro, you need to do a sauna, you need to do this. He kept telling me, telling me. And then I don't know, just a light bulb one day. It's like this space is actually perfect.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we have a sauna Now we have two cold plunges, one at the ladies temperature and that's research driven.
Speaker 2:temperature 55 degrees I was wondering about that. Somebody told me, or probably sean told me you added one yep, yep, and we have one for the lunatics.
Speaker 1:I want to the lunatics. The goal of the cold plunge is to drop your core body temperature, to create a shiver and activate your brown fat mitochondria and this and that, or drive down inflammation, which has its own various things around. Training that can get into a different time. But women and men? Women shouldn't do as cold. It's a much bigger shock to your endocrine system than it is for men. So, having two different temperatures, temperatures, cold plunges, now um doesn't it bring up your cortisol or something like that?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's going to, no matter what, because it's a stressor. It's a stress on your body, but the recovery from that um induces better cortisol, potentially throughout the day at the front load. That was potentially right. Um, it's like dipshits on social media say cold plunging is the absolute best thing you can do for fat loss. Get the fuck out of here. And a very popular person said that on social media and went and still going hard on it like no, it's not, it's not. It is good for other things but it's not that um.
Speaker 1:I personally don't like doing cold before bed because when you spike cortisol you can be more awake, more alert. It very much wakes me up. So I love it in the morning if I can do it before a workout. I do not do it after training anymore because I want that inflammatory stimulus, the hypertrophy, and yeah, I'm always trying to get muscles, but I've been trying to for like 20 years Slow process, but unless it's a really jacked up workout like Murph or something like that, I'll jump in cold and that'll kind of blunt some of the inflammatory response and you won't be as sore and so forth. So rest days if I had to choose one in the recovery room. It would be sauna for long-term health. There's just so much research there. Sports recovery post-workout. Post-workout it continues the workout on, so you're getting a little more heart rate work. The stuff around long-term cognitive function. It's pretty strong there. It's very—.
Speaker 2:What is the hat thing? I see Wes with his Viking hat, sometimes Like what is that?
Speaker 1:It's like CrossFit just got to have the style, got to have the vibe. No, but all reality is keep your brain cooler and protect your hair. So if your brain's not getting as hot, you can tolerate a higher temperature which will stimulate a higher heart rate. So, for instance, if instance my son at home I can get up to 230, which is dumb. You're literally slow cooking yourself at that point. I've done it once, I'll never do it again. Like you look, you turn yourself into a smoker. At that point I'm like like I'm smoking a tri-tip. I'm doing that to my body, yeah, uh, but tolerating 200 degrees. You can do it much easier with a hat on, because if your brain's not getting as hot, it's not registering the panic freakout. Oh, so you can tolerate higher temperatures.
Speaker 5:Well, because this is the sensor, yeah, and you can protect your brain, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:It's like the same idea of wearing a hat in the wintertime If you can keep your head warmer, the rest of your body is going to follow inverse of that. So if we can keep it cooler, so you protect your brain and your hair Like your hair can get pretty beat up if you're in really hot.
Speaker 2:That's what happened to Sean. Yeah, no, I don't have that problem.
Speaker 1:I mean me. I don't really use a hat anymore because I stick to like here we usually have it set at 190. That's fine for me. I'm not trying to do the whole. How extreme hot can I get it and tolerate it? I'm not trying to build my resilience, if you will, using sauna and cold anymore. I do it in training and rto kind of stuff. That's where I do my resilience training, if you will.
Speaker 1:Now I know there is a culture out there that, like wim hof and stuff like building tolerance to the cold and building that mental resilience and doing hard things, that is a tool Can't be used. That it's just not for me. I like to use them as recovery tools and health tools. So as long as your sauna is above 180 degrees and you do 15 to 20 minutes three to four times a week, it seems that that is where all the positive health effects come from. So if I had to do one, it'd be the sauna. We do have it in Midtown. I am trying to figure out at South what, when, how to do it. The plan that I want to do is just very expensive because this place turned out to be cool, so it's quiet, it's a little hangout area. It's private and we've kept it, in a way, the where it's.
Speaker 1:Like you don't need to book an appointment to go use it. It's pretty come and go as you please. Um, it is an added membership benefit you pay for because one cost money. Two, I'm cleaning that damn thing, yeah, and you're paying me to clean that thing because I keep it pretty damn clean.
Speaker 2:Don't you have something for the legs in there too?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've got Norvitec boots, compression legs, hips and arms. Use the arms. Make sure somebody else is in the room with you so you don't kill yourself. I can't get out If you hook the chest strap and you do that wrong. When that thing starts straightening, it starts pushing against your neck oh my goodness, and you can't get back Like you got to call them Hulk mode and rip it off.
Speaker 2:So what does that do?
Speaker 1:Compression it's going to. So the way they're things designed is it starts furthest away from your heart and it starts working towards your heart, compressing, and it's like a massage, essentially. So it's compress, relax, compress, relax and works its way up and down your legs, circulating blood, built up inflammation, whatever, up and down. I will say it works really good, but it's time consuming. So like when it comes to your training recovery budget. But it's time consuming, so like when it comes to your training recovery budget. Like for me, to train recovery room and eat. I have a two hour window each day, even owning a gym Mine's a sauna Cause you get in the recovery boots. It's 30, 40 minutes of letting that thing work up and down. Now, if I'm really jacked up, cause it was irresponsible in my training, we'll make time for, basically, if I'm in the recovery boots, it's because I decided that day I'm giving up the workout, I'm not going to work out. This is a full recovery day and this is.
Speaker 5:I'm going to use this time for that that's next on my list, because what I think I was kind of driving to before is I feel like I can be the example of somebody that has very minimal allotment for this place right now.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and like my only real logical choice in our schedules is to do 5 am. If 5 am wasn't available, I would either have to work later or whatever, because I work in Carson, so like it is a bang bang bang day on a work day, and so like the recovery room has taken a big hit, something that I enjoyed and I want to get back into and trying to drill down to which one has the most benefit for me. I would agree with the sauna overall because of the research and the understanding of like what the negative or the downfall of you go out there and you're, you're, you're doing stuff to your muscles to make them build, and then you blunt that the minute you go into the cold plunge, you know and there's, there's members that do it and they do fine, and that that's an individual choice and journey, you know, and then other people aren't trying to bulk up, they're just doing the workout, enjoying the workout, and they the recovery and it's all part of their routine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, I mean, when I was doing cold plunging consistently, I did it right when I got here before I coached, and let me tell you it wakes me up ready to go alert and I still enjoy that. But lately one of my big things is just getting my sleep dialed, so I'm not trying to get here as early in the morning to do that.
Speaker 5:So my cold plunging is on off days or low training days though usually twice a week now, yeah, and that plays into that whole looking at the week, because right now I think I would consider it.
Speaker 5:I am gathering data in a sense of okay, going forward if I make this choice. How am I going to do that? You know what days of the week are workouts, what days of the week are recovery, what day of the week is recovery, you know? Um, because again, I have literally an hour to maybe an hour and a half a day that I could be in these doors, yeah, and that may even be split where it's an hour and 30 minutes separately somewhere else, like on the way home with piper or whatever, and that wouldn't probably always happen. So it's maximizing the minimal amount available. And what's ironic is I've missed the recovery room now probably for months, other than a few randoms. And, like I was making a comment to her, we were just at the cabin this last week, which we go to every year, and I have kayaks and I get out on the lake and I kayak fish and every year up till this year, I would get like lower back cramps sitting in that kayak being in one position for 30, 40 an hour or whatever.
Speaker 5:This year was the first year I didn't and I think just through the combination of whatever I'm doing, just working out and just being intentional and just whatever I'm in a good place like, my recovery is good.
Speaker 5:I could probably be allotted three ibuprofen a month and survive like I don't need them those used to be a pre-workout there was a time I mean there was a time like candy, you know I mean, there was a time the only time I've ever quote unquote been hurt in this gym and it was my own fault was right after we came back from covid and everything opened up and I was starting to dabble here because I had been a southie.
Speaker 5:Yeah and so I wanted to do double days so I could work out with my old friends and could work out with my old friends and then work out with my new friends. I do remember you doing double days and I burned out my SIs and this is when Leo was coaching 6AM and Leo helped me scale and progress through the daily workouts and rebuild every one of my lifts to a better mechanical process than I had had before, or an understanding or an intention. The whole, the whole ball of wax. Yeah, and I'm a better lifter now, for especially in the squats and the less dynamic lifts, I still got to work on the dynamics more, but that's that's. I feel like I am battling that age curve and you know, being able to move at a certain speed in like a lift versus my strength says I should be able to. Now it's getting the firing mechanisms to let me do it at the speed to match the strength, like you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and getting older power is the first thing that goes so speed. Explosive power is the first thing that goes so speed. Explosive power is the first thing that goes so a part of what I still truly love when I think of the whole longevity, long-term health, bringing my wife in here uh, that was been a three-year vision of mine.
Speaker 2:It finally happened a little day, she know I mean we talked about it.
Speaker 1:Right, it's a big risk. I mean we literally dumping all of our eggs into one basket. One concept during covid it was nice that she had a very stable medical job. Yeah right, uh, why I'm going through absolute chaos? Um, but it just came to a point our home conversations and our belief systems and how we work together on her able to bring the medical and I'm able to bring the fitness journey together. And then we both read Peter Atiyah's book Outlive, and it's like well, both of us combined make you know kind this guy is cool and um, we can.
Speaker 1:We can do this and bringing all that together, um, and working together and focusing on people's long-term health. But also a big part for me is understanding what is happening as we age. Where can we set the expectations? I've always wanted to clean and jerk 315 pounds like right, three wheels, six wheels on the bar, hit that big, clean and jerk. And I've had to have conversations with myself of no, my explosive power. Conversations with myself of no, my explosive power isn't there. That it was when I, you know, cleaned 315 before. It's not there.
Speaker 1:And I'm not necessarily an explosive athlete to begin with, like my brother is. I'm more of an endurance. Like just growing up wrestling. You develop different energy systems, different muscle fibers. Like you're born with this, you're born with x amount of muscle fibers. That's genetic. What develops is pretty based on sports in adolescent years. So mine was. Wrestling is very much I mean the crossfit time domain kind of training. That's why I kind of thrive in the metcon kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:But what I'm coming back to is understanding that your explosive muscle type, two muscle fibers, first thing to go as we get older to be able to put a realistic expectation on my training and purpose to my training. One I'm not going to quit doing explosive movements, knowing that goes first, but I need to put the intention behind how I'm training these explosive movements in their bucket. Now, if I wanted to get to that 315 clean and jerk, I would have to give up some other capacity of my training and heavily focus on this goal. And I think for us aging athletes, understanding how the body functions, how we're aging together, where we're at in our health journey, can help keep expectations in play but also reiterate the importance of doing olympic lifts. Still, we should, we should do olympic lifts till we're 90 years old, as long as we freaking can, but the expectation of what we're going to be able to do with those lifts. In reference to what you're saying, because I can lift this much weight, I should be able to clean this much weight. Those ratios change each decade and I've had to learn that in somewhat the hard way. But now, understanding the human body more in expectations as we age, you shouldn't shy away from training all the energy systems, but you should have expectations on what is achievable without specificity.
Speaker 1:Like you, you have to get very more specific as you get older, with certain goals based on your genetics and you know current adaptations and, like for me, I'm not willing to give up my work capacity. Yeah, I find that extremely valuable to life, life outside the gym. I can always show up and do whatever, um. So I'm at a point in my own journey that I might not be trying to get pushing the limits on strength, at a point in my own journey that I might not be trying to get pushing the limits on strength at a detriment to sacrificing something else, especially getting injured. Yeah, so I'm like kind of right there, right in that line. Um, so with you making sure that I mean you're doing it, but training appropriately, but also with you having realistic expectations of what's achievable with your timeframe, with your time of training, because you're really I mean, I don't get to see her train as much anymore, but I see you train all the time, especially lately. You've been killing it.
Speaker 1:I've felt the curves and you've been really isolating your recovery and training smart in class and class, meeting you where you're at for the day and it's, it's awesome, it's awesome, yeah, no, and like talking about the age thing and understanding the load, and like it's not just the muscle load, it's the CNS, it's the you know.
Speaker 5:You just beat the computer up for an entire day trying to drive the car After I just did the max with the coaches whatever, it was this last one right, was this last one right?
Speaker 5:and the volume of that class of just the reps? Yeah, I was still tanked by like tuesday, like speed wise, like explosiveness wise. I could still move, I could still lift, I could still do things. But I learned and I kind of learned going into that class, like I knew going into that class, like half that class was warm-up for me. I was at 50, 60, 70 percent of like whatever you would consider a max through most of that and my intent with that class that day was so I played a lot of baseball growing up and that's. I even coached as I got older and wasn't playing as much and that's kind of where that mentality came from.
Speaker 5:Wanting to coach here is like I love learning, knowing and then being able to help others break down a mechanical movement and learn it and be able to maximize it. Yeah, and that's what I'm trying to do with myself, because I know there's like two or three little things like in my clean, that it's it's a sequence or a timing or you know a break in the mechanics that I'm got five or ten more pounds that I can move. You know it's a sequence or a timing or you know a break in the mechanics that I've got five or ten more pounds that I can move. You know it's not the explosiveness as much as putting it in the right order.
Speaker 5:No, and that day was all about practicing that. That was going back to the T. That was going back to the T that day. It wasn't going in there to come out with a PR. I knew that wasn't going to happen. And I knew that going in there to come out with a PR, I knew that wasn't going to happen and I knew that going in. So I wasn't disappointed coming out.
Speaker 1:And that's the way I treat a lot of the workouts now, yep, and it's going to allow you to recover and progress, so love it.
Speaker 2:I have a question for you, because we talked about warm-up a little bit. But what about afterwards and stretching afterwards?
Speaker 1:Because you have all the Do as they say, not as they do.
Speaker 2:All the equipment here to do so, but there isn't really time allotted in the workout for like a cool down or anything like that. What do you suggest people do after the workout? And then, second to that, what is your value on mobility training?
Speaker 1:Good, these are good questions. So we, we used to, we've done it. We've we've thrown a lot of shit at the walls over the years trying various things coach, guided cooldowns, uh, mobility wad, rom wad. We've had our own structured mobility guidance up on the front tv. At the end of the day, people don't do it. Very few people do an actual structured cool-down.
Speaker 1:So over the years, just in my own training and so forth, I put honestly, on a scale of 1 to 10, doing a very intentional cool down, I put it at about a 3 and, very workout dependent, it might even be a 0 most days. So let me try to break this down. So I get a great warm up, I do a great workout within my threshold of training to move the needle but not tip the boat, you know, not full sending full failure, break the body down kind of deal, like it's just a good workout as long as I'm not going straight to a desk or straight to a bed. I personally have a lot of general movement left in the day and that is going to facilitate cooling down. When it comes to flexibility, mobility, this isn't for everybody starting this journey but if you put in the work, perhaps, like Sean does a lot of mobility work and has grown in mobility over the years. But if you're training functional movements, moving the body through the full range of motion that the joint's meant to move in a healthy manner, you're getting your mobility work in your training. Like I squatted full range of motion of that I need to squat to for health and that for my back. I can get into a good overhead position, I can hang from a pull-up bar with no pain, I can bend over with straight legs and tie my shoes. I can get up and off the ground without using my hands and CrossFit in itself you work through full range of motions and if you get your body to where you can, you need to be able to do that with healthy mechanics. Right. You need to be able to squat without pelvic tilt. You need to be able to put your arm over your head without going into big lumbar flexion. You shouldn't be loading these positions until you can do that unloaded. And there's a fine tight rope. We can walk as coaches, loading that position to improve it and avoiding injury, but walking on that tightrope of this might cause an injury and that's. You build a relationship with your coach and they're taking you down that tightrope. We're walking a risk-reward deal here. That experience really does matter. So when it comes to mobility, if we have dysfunction, we have pain because our back hurt, and I'm a perfect example of this. I have three um, I have two bad disc herniations and degenerative disc things going on in my low back from life essentially. But the thing that tipped it over was I caught a snatch. Super low is a PR, lifetime PR 225 pounds. For those out there that know it's a big deal. I'll probably never do it again in my life at least.
Speaker 1:Squat snatching Maybe power, but not squat snatching. I had a massive pelvic tilt when I caught that and I heard a big pop and I finished the competition and the next morning Cassie had to help me to the car because I couldn't walk, so massive disc injury happened there. And I'm a gym owner, I coach CrossFit. I'm supposed to tell you how CrossFit is good for you and this and that Well, my ego.
Speaker 1:For years I kept trying to train without trying to fix the problem. There's some things I had to come to terms with if I'm not going to fix my thoracic spine and put a ton of work into my shoulder mobility. Squat snatching hurts 75 pounds, 200 pounds if I catch that weight because the way and I blame it on wrestling I I was always in that wrestling like my upper back's pretty strong but it's not mobile and catching an overhead bar, I internally rotate my shoulders when I catch. And I have to make a choice Am I going to put in the work to really try to fix this or does squat snatching going to be a thing that I just don't do anymore? I decided for my shoulder and my back squat snatching is not really going to be a thing I'm going to push at all anymore. So, when it comes to mobility, what do we want? Why, if we have pain and dysfunction and it's causing quality of life issues that was causing ego issues in the gym I want to be able to squat snatch, to say I can do all these things, but it wasn't hurting me in life.
Speaker 1:Be able to squat snatch, say I can do all these things, but it wasn't hurting me in life. What was hurting me in life is me trying to do that and then going home and popping advil, not able to play with the kids. There's a time I couldn't even pick jackson up off the ground, like when he's a baby like I'm like going down like a nine-year-old man trying to get him, like I do all this shit. I can't pick up my own kid. I had a little coming to jesus moment and I started diving into the hips.
Speaker 1:Now people think core strength is your stomach, like, do more sit-ups. You know lots. There's a lot of professionals out there in the chiropractic PT space. They're still like strengthen your core, do planks and help your back. Okay, yes, to a degree, but I was like my core is stronger than all these fools. I have a really strong stomach and is my stomach strong enough in proportion to the lifts I'm trying to do? Okay, I think it is. It's pretty good. Is my back strong enough? I love the reverse hyper. Still try to do it weekly. My back's pretty strong.
Speaker 1:Where I found out I tried a Cossack squat like this ain't right, holy hell and I my adductors were so tight and okay. I found a whole mobility that is causing me dysfunction in life. So I started doing a lot of strength training in my hips in these different domains caustic squats, 90-90 hip thrusts really worked. Adductors People want to stretch your adductors. I went the opposite direction. I started doing strength training specific stuff for my adductors and strength training the caustack squat, not just holding a stretch. I started forcing the limitations of that range under load and within like three months my back pain was gone.
Speaker 5:And I think that's kind of where some of what we've been doing has translated to what I was talking about with my lower back and like having to sit in certain positions and then you get locked or cramped or feel it, yeah, and I don't feel that hardly anymore and I'm trying to incorporate that.
Speaker 1:I mean, you come to my class so you see me incorporating this stuff that I'm screwing around with. Like the little hip thing today it's like um. So I think if you have chronic some sort of pain back pain, shoulder pain, something that's causing you to have some sort of dysfunction in life, we need to figure that out. And if it's getting worse in working out, we definitely need to figure that out. What's going on there and then apply mobility strategies to make that better. Do I think folks need to spend 30, 40 minutes an hour after a workout doing mobility? I don't.
Speaker 1:But if you're really stiff, you're going to benefit in all your lifting and all your positions and when you can move better in your workouts and you can move more efficiently, you're going to get more out of the workout. It's going to be a better stimulus which is going to progress you faster and better at training. So if mobility is causing us not to express a full squat, a full lunge, full overhead position, if mobility is limiting our ability to perform the movements properly, we're leaving stimulus on the table to change well our bodies, our health. So I look at it through the lens of is there a dysfunction. There Is this dysfunction limiting us in such fashion, and then is it something that is valuable to you, that you want to work on.
Speaker 1:I got women that could give two fucks if they ever snatch a barbell again in their life. I got women that could give two fucks if they ever snatch a barbell again in their life. They got stiff upper backs, had kids like this. Catching and snatching is nothing. I know that as their coach. That's not a goal for them. We're not snatching ever again in this gym. For them they like some power cleans. We'll do some deadlifts. Hell, I'll have them lunge on a day. We're doing something else. Um, so, deciding if that mobility limitation is something that's causing, what do you want to say? Some like you feel like you're missing out. And then, if it's causing, if you have pain, like some sort of chronic back pain, shoulder, shoulder pain, something popping up in a workout consistently, like every time I do this, this hip hurts or this side of my back hurts. We need to figure out and typically that is a movement mobility issue, sometimes also a lack of muscle activation.
Speaker 2:So resources then oh, that's tough.
Speaker 1:I'm still trying to figure that one out myself. I make most of this shit up myself. Um, I do follow a couple people on the social medias that, um are physical therapists that put out a lot of good content and moving in these different ways. I think kelly started still one of the gold standards when it comes to doing this. All of us coaches are pretty damn good at movement diagnosis. If you will, I would say I mean all of us, just like me. My brother, I mean Chase, has been doing this a long time. Jess, I mean all of us have been doing it a long time.
Speaker 1:For instance, you set up a time with me. You tell me what's hurting. I'm going to have you, we're going to do some movements, talk about what's hurting, and I'm going to have you go through the movements and just watching you move I can usually tell what's wrong, what muscle's weak, what muscle's too short, where we're compensating. And usually we're going to squat, we're going to lunge, we're going to do some sort of hip flexion, we're going to do putting arm overhead with no weight, arm overhead with weight. We're going to squat with and without weight, because sometimes that changes. It's interesting Somebody does an air squat and their chest falls forward.
Speaker 1:The second you put a light barbell on their back, perfectly upright, knees out. Boom, right in position because the bar cause the right muscles to activate, keep their chest from falling forward because you're resisting against it. So it's like somebody can have really shitty squat mechanics doing air squats. We just had murph, so I saw it all throughout the gym. But you put that same person under a 300 pound barbell and they squat near perfect. So we don't want that. Your air squat and your barbell back squat should look damn near the same.
Speaker 1:But um, as far as resources in the gym, I'm always happy to help. Obviously, if you come to my class, you're gonna get this and that and I try to walk a fine line between nitpicking your movement safety, health and you getting a great workout. It can get too easy Happens with newer coaches a lot. But really, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. I'm trying to move you an inch each day. I'm not trying to change your whole motor mechanics in one session. It can become overwhelming. Fuck, I can't do anything right, this guy never lets me do anything right.
Speaker 1:So session, it can become overwhelming like, fuck, I can't do anything right. This guy never lets me do anything right, yeah, um. So I try to balance that fine line and, uh, move people in a movement direction for both quality and efficiency. If it's a safety issue, I'm stopping you cold in your tracks, but then it it's not safety. It starts coming down to efficiency and stimulus. And then, if we have something and when it comes down to safety, I'm also thinking is this movement pattern going to cause long, some sort of long term wear and tear, injury and dysfunction? Um, so, if you're not moving, pretty damn well, we're going to be working on it in class and all the coaches are pretty good. But when it comes to the diagnosis, I guess, of some kind of dysfunction, um, I'm more than happy with any member. You just have to set up a time. I'm just not hanging around here all day and mcbroom's great, so it's chiropractor. He's really good at helping people and looking at you know, joint dysfunctions, if you will.
Speaker 2:And he's also certified to work on pregnant women, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:Is he? Mm-hmm, I didn't know that. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 5:No, you found that out when you were pregnant, right, mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 1:Chris is our certified. What's the proper word? Pregnant women coach.
Speaker 5:Oh, chris itself. Oh, um, it's the proper word pregnant women coach.
Speaker 1:Oh, chris yeah, yeah, not mcbroom, yeah. So coach chris chris delane, chris delane, lloyd um, at the south gym she did the post, not postpartum, but she has that training. She's done all the stuff to be able to do fitness things with pregnant women. I've trained a lot of pregnant women but I wish I had her for Cassie when Cassie was pregnant it is a wealth a wealth of knowledge, um, especially now that she's had two kids too. Yeah, she has a relatable perspective.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's great. I I connected with her um when we were still at UC Davis and kind of just working with her on kind of some nutrition stuff and movements I could do at that time and I had never worked with her before and she was fabulous.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's resources there. A big thing consistency in the gym. The more you're in the gym, the more you're with your coach in class, the more you're going to learn about yourself and being open with your coach. If something doesn't feel right, tell your coach. If this doesn't feel good or it hurts. If it hurts, definitely tell your coach. But just communicate with your coach because I'm not going to pretend.
Speaker 1:Also, there are some people that are uncoachable. There are people that don't want to be coached. They're just here to work out, get their sweat, get on with their day and as coaches, you start learning that as you work in the room. Those who genuinely want to be coached and they make it very known to me they're going to get more of my time in the class because I know they're interested in it. And some people I'm a perfect example.
Speaker 1:I don't like being coached a lot in class, Like when I take one of our classes, Chris she'll, she'll come up and coach me. I think she does it on purpose. I hey, lock out better, do this better, and I get it and she's right. But it's my kind of checkout time. I'm not trying to make it to the crossfit games anymore and be the most efficient person in the world. But, um, I get both sides of that equation. Some people really want coach. Some people just want to work out like, oh, you've told me so many times that I need to extend my hips on you know this clean and I ain't gonna fucking get it and I don't care, I'm getting a great workout. Am I safe? Yes, you're safe, but we're leaving five pounds on the table here. So it's balancing that out. But if you just the better the relationship you can build with your coach by just communicating with your coach, the better your experience here is going to be across the board.
Speaker 2:That's so true.
Speaker 1:Like, if you don't talk to your coach and you just come in and hide and out like you aren't getting the best value of what you pay for here and I need to be more transparent about all the things I can help do and I'm available to do, you know, afternoon stuff by appointment, whatnot, but um, yeah, there's a lot, I do believe, between my wife, chris McBroom, all of mine and all of my coaches' experience, like what you get inside these doors now is unmatched.
Speaker 2:And the air conditioning, which I learned was unique to your gym.
Speaker 1:Did you learn that the hard way, by going somewhere else? I?
Speaker 2:did, but I didn't. We went to like a competition or something and it was super hot. Carson and I was like why is it so hot in here? And I learned that Double Edge is one of the only gyms in town that has air conditioning In the area.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that was unique.
Speaker 1:There's another one that has it, but they don't turn it on. It's not cheap no, oh, why?
Speaker 1:yeah, I believe that there's some months it's like, oh my god, but that's who we are. I want a place. So you're gonna be comfortable, you're gonna work out, have a good time, we have ac and we turn it on. Now it is set at 72. Don't be asking me to go into the 60s on this thing. Yeah, okay, but, um, I find that to be important, especially during the summer months. I mean, we have heat too. I worked at a gym that they there's very little heat, like the heat didn't warm up the space and you come in, the barbells are cold, like cold to touch and your hands are stiff in the morning.
Speaker 1:That sucks too. So we have what's known as climate control. It is a 21st century deal, but I appreciate that you notice that we have it because it is one of the other reasons we are more expensive. We are a facility that is not just a box.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, when I went to that one in Sacramento, it was still a great place and a great deal right but it was a little warehouse space. It had that little you know hanging HVAC unit on the top. That didn't even work sometimes.
Speaker 2:In Sacramento too.
Speaker 5:But sometimes in the morning and the winter they have much more moisture there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So not only was it cold, but it was a damp cold, yeah, and the bars had rust on them like surface rust. Right, they still worked, but like it was like going back to the Stone Ages, in a sense of like okay, I feel like I'm doing real, not like real crossfit, but like I'm back to the roots here, like rocky went back to the old sweat gym here.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, yeah, and I will say, when my brother and I, and arthur and vicky, uh, we sat down with this concept, it was we wanted to do something different, something that we could work out every day as a coach wanted to be here, but also something that is like it's nice to come to. That's why we try to keep it as clean as we do, as maintenance as we do, showers, towel service oh yeah, the showers are nice too so and the mirrors, and and all that I get ready here every day.
Speaker 5:So yeah, that's true, I shower more here than I do at home, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:and then obviously you have to complement those things with great coaches and program that actually drives results. And we try. I mean I'm not going to say we're perfect by any means and don't have lots of areas that we can continuously improve. I think if you shut that mindset off, you're going to lose no matter what. But I'm constantly evaluating the programming, the class structure, the flow. As we're getting older do we need to pivot somewhere in programming? The more I'm identifying myself as long-term health guy versus elite athlete guy. What does that programming look like? What kind of metrics should we be looking for in our training?
Speaker 2:I appreciate that because I think you were talking to Jake and you're talking about watching classes and a certain movement. Like everybody, squats looks like shit or a good portion or something like that, and so you guys wanted to work in certain things in the programming to help us work on that. I think that's wonderful. Like that somebody is looking at all of us here at the gym and kind of being very intentional with the programming and not just this is, you know, a box programming.
Speaker 5:um, modality One size fits all yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean in a group class workout. I'm never going to appease everybody 100%. Right, this is general physical preparedness, but I do. That's been one of the biggest blessings of coaching both gyms. It's like seeing all the different people and different people moving and what we were talking about then of the big things, like we were very barbell dominant gym. We prioritize barbell strength and we have a lot of people that squat really well and good weight like they can squat good weight. Can't do a 95 pound barbell lunge oh yeah, that's what it was.
Speaker 1:Right. So it's like I got men in here squatting over 300 pounds but absolutely fall apart with 95 pound barbell lunges. So I look at that and then I look at it back health and we're all getting together. And then what I'm doing with my back. I started incorporating a ton of unilateral stuff Bulgarian split squats, lunges, a bunch of single leg things for my back and I noticed how much better it improved. I only squat maybe twice a month now, if that, and one of them is a belt squat, because I don't load my back anymore. I don't like hitting that bottom position under load anymore. So I'm very, very picky about that and starting to do I might've taken some of my lunging too far recently, but, um, doing a lot more single leg stuff. I noticed how much it helped my back. All my other lifts got stronger. So many things improved. I'm like and I'm watching the gym, I'm like Brandon Carlson doesn't even show up. I'm calling you out, bro Dude's got one of the strongest back squats.
Speaker 1:He's a freak athlete. Yeah, he's a beast, phenomenal beast, but then lunges hit him. Then, on the inverse of that, alex, I'm calling you out too. I mean these are positive call outs, but Alex struggles on some of his squatting. He lunged 300, or his goal is to lunge 350 pounds. He's a pitcher in college yeah, got that ass.
Speaker 1:But like these are also imbalances, like there should be certain ratios in my mind of like, if you can back squat 315, you should at least be able to maybe hit a set of six at 200 relative body weight, ish in there. And I've been trying to like figure out and look at what some of these single leg for back health, how long should, how much should our ratio of lunge to back, squat to deadlift be relationship to body weight and you know, and where does those lines fall? And healthy backs and stability and so forth. Getting a little nerdy there, um, and there's a. The problem is there's a ton of different opinions on it. So I'm just like, okay, watching the gym, who has back pain, who has unilateral weakness? Oh, those seem to go hand in hand. Yeah, I was an example of that brandon carlson, his back pain. Like he, certain things cause him to have some significant back discomfort or even foundational things like grip strength.
Speaker 2:You know, um vi and I were working with chase on just being able to hang for extended periods of time.
Speaker 1:It's going to become a standard really, yeah, two minutes it helped.
Speaker 2:It helped a lot, um. I mean I'm not saying like I'm actually doing a um chin-up or anything yet, but you know it really helped with my knee-ups and stuff like that, just being able to hang longer.
Speaker 1:Grip strength is the first break in the chain for a lot of things. So if you have a strong grip, the second that starts to break. In any list, whether it be gymnastics, barbell, whatever the chain's going to break. So everything downstream of that which is everything. So the stronger your grip, the stronger everything will be. It's counterintuitive on a back squat grabbing the barbell, wrenching onto it, getting a strong grip, driving the shoulders, Like that whole tension and chain runs all downstream.
Speaker 5:oh yeah, that was the biggest game change I got in back squats was when I first started.
Speaker 5:I had to use a bar pad because I didn't have the structure on my back, like my traps and stuff to hold the bar without it being on bone, yeah, and then getting proper positioning and eventually building that shelf a little bit, but then learning the idea of locking that bar, like basically when you're getting ready to squat that bar in your back, because, like when I took this level one class, like everybody says, core is your abs. No, core is like from your knees to your shoulders, your trunk, yeah, and then the extremities are the stuff you move with. But if you lock that entire core in you control that bar. That doesn't control you and your lift will.
Speaker 1:You will gain 10 with that movement alone in your squat because you're controlling that weight better, yep and the more rigid you get that system under the bar and the tighter you get everything wrenched down. So grip shrink is a big deal, not to mention it's a metric in long-term health. But people with stronger grips typically work out more, so by default they have better metabolic health. But it's a good test. So being able to hold on to a pull-up bar just dead hang two minutes is going to become a standard.
Speaker 1:I'm using some of Peter Atiyah's standards, plus looking at some of my own stuff inside the gym that I've seen over the years, to come up with long-term health fitness metrics by decade. Like at 30, what should we be able to do? 40, what should we be able to do? 50. By decade, as goals to try to achieve that are I'm not going to sit here and say they're doable, they're going to require work, but they are achievable for the everyday person doing group class and that are shown by the smarter people out there, like if you have a VO2 max at 40 over 50, you're at the top, top end. If you have a VO2 max over 35 at 50, you're at the top end. If you have a VO2 max over 35 at 50, you're at the top end. So there's these various things.
Speaker 2:Hopefully you'll have a podcast on that.
Speaker 5:On VO2 max.
Speaker 1:On.
Speaker 2:VO2 max. I don't understand that at all.
Speaker 1:It's the amount of oxygen you can consume within any given minute. I can't remember the exact acronym for it all, but it's a measurement of total oxygen consumption and then combine that with your lactate threshold, so the VO2 max test is awful. It's one of the most painful things you do. You're literally on a treadmill or a bicycle preferably a treadmill because they can ramp up the speed. And they keep ramping up speed and incline until you fail.
Speaker 5:Oh gosh, and they're talking about the VO2, the oxygen fail right. Yeah, where everything dives off a cliff, where you fail Because they're live graphing it and there's a break over curve and they're telling you your body is in failure right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, yeah, graphing it and, and there's a break over a curve and they're telling you your body is in failure right now. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you're just done. It's pushing your body till failure. Um, and you're hooked up to a machine like a mask and you're breathing through this mask, going max effort on treadmill. I've done it once in my life.
Speaker 1:And now most of these devices have algorithms that estimate your VO2 max. They're accurate-ish, I think. Maybe Not so sure I believe them, but, like whoop, if you go and do a VO2 max test, you put that test in here. It makes the algorithm much better for you. So it's very beneficial to do at least one and then, if your device like whoop, you can enter in your actual test and it will make the algorithm smarter to you and your training.
Speaker 1:It's like for me on this thing. It's yelling at me that I don't do enough um zone four, zone five intervals to improve my vo2 max via algorithm, but I do think my vo2 max is higher than what this is telling me it is. So I am working on there's a place now that tests, but I haven't successfully been able to get an appointment the metabolic card's around $25,000 to do this testing. There's this new company that came out that has one. I don't like buying version two or version one of anything, so I'm just waiting for version two and see if it's still hot amongst the peter tia's and andrew huberman's of the world. But it's. It's like eight thousand dollars, but it can be used for any kind of training so I could wear it and test how much vo2 I'm doing in a metcon or on a treadmill or on an outdoor run. It links to your phone and it can be used in an environment like this, clean and sanitary. It has different fittings.
Speaker 5:So it's all wireless, so your movement isn't restricted.
Speaker 1:Yep. So it's very cool looking, but I just don't like buying version 1 of anything, and undoubtedly I buy version 1. Version 2 comes out next week, right? So I'm waiting to see what that is, because I would like to be able to test members VO2 max, versus saying you need to row at 815 2K on the rower. There are people that can have a high VO2 max not be able to pull off some of these proxy tests. For estimation. I can't run a six-minute mile, but I know my VO2 max is probably equivalent to somebody that can run a six minute mile because I don't train running would uh like asthma or any lung disorders affect it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah okay absolutely doesn't mean you can't improve it though, okay. So it'd be a very good thing potentially and it's more more of my wife question but testing your VO2 max if you have asthma seeing where you're at, and then that's something to be intentional about building work capacity in that, but it is going to be a limitation for sure. Vo2 max one dead hangs one. I think there's relative percentage lifts to your body weight that you should be able to move. One of my philosophies is you should be able to carry your own weight, so even if you're a bigger person, you should be able to still do certain lifts, um, power lifts, that is, as part of your long-term health so I, thatbell, is going to move until I can't put it in my hands.
Speaker 5:That's the plan. You know. I mean everything that we've done or do translated in life before Piper, but having her in our life and just keeping up with her, or just the mechanics of existing as a parent physically.
Speaker 2:Just squatting down and picking her up, yeah everything has translated exponentially more.
Speaker 5:I mean I would probably guess like when I go to daycare and pick her up, I'm the only parent that can grab all her stuff in one hand. Squat down, she can put her butt on my arm and I can just stand up, pick her up and walk out the room.
Speaker 1:And what's sad but awesome is that is actually a big freaking deal. It is Like because a lot of people can't do that.
Speaker 2:No, Raven, just lifting her up, putting her on your shoulders. He basically rocked like 85 pounds up to upper sardine the other day and I was like you could only do that because you do CrossFit.
Speaker 5:And I was fighting a sinus infection, yeah, but yeah, I had the backpack. And then, you know, we let Piper walk as long as she wanted which wasn't very far, and then she's up on my shoulders and I'm, you know.
Speaker 1:But no, and I think that's the things that people need to remember. That's beyond the body composition in the mirror, like your physical capacity is way beyond what this idealistic look is achieved, cause I know people that look a certain way that can't perform. So, um, looking at the whole perspective of your health, can you move? Are you strong? Can you do the things you love to do? Can you care for your family and are you doing the proper things for setting yourself up for long-term health? The running joke around the gym is I'm gonna slip and fall in the shower and crack my head and that's gonna what's gonna take me out. Do all this health stuff and then I hope you're taking out that way.
Speaker 5:Let's see if you do your unilateral mobility you won't slip and fall in a shower. You'll catch yourself in a lunch so.
Speaker 1:But um, in all fairness, all fun and games, when I think of this long-term stuff in long-term health and the best way to train for your long-term health, regardless of your age, where you're at on your fitness journey, what injuries, what limitations you have, I still truly believe that this style of training is the best. And if it wasn't, I would genuinely change it. Like if I felt that you know butts and guts bootcamp was the best, I would start doing that if that was the best driver for my long-term health. Now I'll tell anybody any fitness program you do if it's getting your heart rate up and you're doing something's better than nothing. But a program that we do here where we're progressively overloading genuine strength training, anaerobic and aerobic conditioning, it just adds up to elite results for the everyday average human being that gets an hour a day to work out and it's like I said, I didn't think it was the best to facilitate that for anybody, any age, any walk of life.
Speaker 5:We would change it yeah, no, if I and if I wasn't in the same mindset, if I didn't agree, I probably still wouldn't be here first off, and I wouldn't be pursuing coaching. Yeah, because, because I enjoy it enough and see the results and the advantages of it enough that, like I'm five years from professional retirement at work per se that this could be the next. I want to create that opportunity, I want to be able to walk into it and not have to start at that time, but I also want it for like piper's sake if she pursues it or I. Just the biggest thing with this place is like being able to bring the kids in and have them be close enough to see it that they're never intimidated by it.
Speaker 2:Because that's half the issue with most people is, you know, they don't understand something or they don't understand it and they're intimidated by it so they never pursue it yeah, or even just yeah, so she sees what we value and health is a value of ours we always say we want to another ryan perry in the gym.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, even more so as a daughter, dad, you know, I don't want her to see some idiot that can just bench, press 250 pounds and be impressed. Yeah, no, can you clean and jerk? That can you snap? You know, whatever can you run, yes, you're oh, can you.
Speaker 1:Are you taking care of your health? And to your point when you said that. But, um, not being intimidated and because mom and dad do these things for their health, like I'm seeing it in my kids, I mean Jackson's I've never made him do anything, I've just worked out in front of him enough, and now he wants to do that he wants to do that thing with dad, and I think that's important for parents to do super important that's the example for the kids, well, and especially again with daughter, dad having a female.
Speaker 5:There is so many positive female body type, body personality examples in this gym yep that they should never have an issue if they emulate any of that or see it or even get to know them as they get older. Yep.
Speaker 1:Like it is the best cross-sectional representation of being fit and being female that I know of Yep and being healthy and what the reality of all that is, and that's mentally, not just physically, understanding that you know, the Instagram version of fit is not maybe the reality of being fit, no, so. Yep, exactly, exactly, all right. Well. I've kept you guys on here for three hours and 17 minutes.
Speaker 5:Yeah Jeez, that's pretty good, I think, if we had a whiskey or two.
Speaker 1:I could do another three hours. It is fun, yeah, Like it's pretty good. I think if we had a whiskey or two.
Speaker 5:I could do another three hours it is fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like I enjoy these podcasts. I love getting to know members better, even people I see all the time.
Speaker 2:That's why I love listening to them. Like I work out next to these people and you don't really know their life story.
Speaker 1:You know their gym, what they do in the gym, but like we've run into people out in the wild in their real clothes, I haven't recognized them. There's people that I know for the last 10 years and you run into them at costco in normal clothes, like all dressed up or something yeah and I'll. I'll have a momentary trip. Bring up what. What's their name? I've seen them every day and it's like I need that gym clothes perspective in that environment especially our law enforcement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, friends here, because they're in their uniform. And he's like, yeah, she goes to the gym and I'm like she is. And then I'm like, oh, she works right next to me Well, like at the rodeo right.
Speaker 5:The sheriffs are a large contingency at the rodeo and I pointed out five or six gym members last year when we were at the rodeo and I'm like that's so-and-so and so-and-so and yeah, yeah love it but, yeah, no, getting to know members also.
Speaker 1:A big part of this for me is building the community stronger through that and then breaking down some of the barriers. I obviously have ryan and keone on here. I mean, they're like the quintessential crossfit dudes, if you will, former college athletes and this and that which I love. I love that. I love them and we do have some really awesome athletes in here.
Speaker 1:But the bulk of our gym is regular folks, people who have a job all day, have kids. They come here and work out and in doing that they're way above average and they're doing all the right things for their health. That is, you know, for me, when you look at the bell curve of our membership, that is the bulk of who we are. And getting that out there into society to break down fears, even if it doesn't drive people to our gym. If it drives people to a gym a gym with this style of training, if you will I think it's. Our society needs it. Our society is sick, both physically and mentally, and I do believe this environment helps in so many of those aspects oh my gosh, yes it's such a meaningful way.
Speaker 2:I didn't even um mention. I mentioned that Sarah and those guys you know threw us a baby shower, but um, the whole like 5, 6 and 7 am class also sent us like gift cards just for food while we were over at UC Davis. That was hugely helpful, you know, and they supported us all throughout us being out there and they all feel invested in Piper and she comes here and everybody knows who she is and, you know, are very invested in her growing up and her mile markers and stuff like that, and it's just kind of um, it's a gym I've never experienced before and I've been to a lot of gyms, a lot of gyms in this town in particular, and so, um, and I've been and.
Speaker 2:I've been here for years and I told you I usually do one year at a gym and then I try something else. I guess I get kind of bored that way and here it's so much more than just working out. It's a family and you'd be crazy not to try it. I know I've become. I've drank the Kool-Aid. Like Sarah said, I'm an evangelist for CrossFit. I'm an evangelist for CrossFit. I'm an evangelist for this gym in particular. I don't know anything about the drama of CrossFit except for what Sean tells me.
Speaker 1:It's more of the competitive side of things. Crossfit has a methodology, I think still going strong and they're still. They're trying to really get into CrossFit for health, not CrossFit for elite CrossFit games. We're here to make us healthy. Us sitting right here, we're just trying to get healthy, be healthy, live a healthy life, be people outside the gyms that can do cool stuff and healthy.
Speaker 4:You need to carry your daughter, it kind of keeps you accountable too.
Speaker 2:Chase knows if I'm not there a couple days, it's either he's like, okay, piper got her sick, or you know she's on vacation or whatever. And like he knows, you know, and same with like Vi and all the others. He kind of just knows our lives, or where we're at, or if we're sick, if we're not there and keeps tabs, or where we're at, or if we're sick, if we're not there and keeps tabs. And so it kind of makes me feel like, well, I'm not only showing up for myself, but I'm showing up for Chase, and even if that's not true, if it doesn't matter, it keeps me coming.
Speaker 1:No, it does matter, and it does matter that each class becomes its own community in many ways, and you have that network of people and those people are as excited to see you as you are to see them 99% of the time. I'm not going to pretend we've never had that member. It's like man. Maybe this person needs to quit. But in general, those who stick around, who have been here in their tenures like yours, these are the folks that I want to be around. These are the folks that other members want to be around, and it's infectious and it truly provides the best hour of your day, and then you get a workout in on top of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, they're your cheerleaders, I mean when I switched to 430, Jason and Clint who are the infamous people in the?
Speaker 2:430 class. You know, they came up to me and they're like, you've been really consistent lately and I was like I was feeling like I wasn't, because you know, I kept on getting sick every other week and you know things like that. And the fact that even noticed that I was like, thank you, thank you, thank you for noticing that I'm actually trying. You know, I'm trying to get here, um, so, you know, even people that you think don't know you exist, they, they definitely do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I would say, once you've been around here six months, if you've been going to the same class, hey, you become part of it. Mm-hmm, you know, if you're really extroverted person and talk amongst people, well, you pull it off in a month and get to know everybody pretty quickly. And I've seen it happen with members, new people coming in. But you know, I'd say to new people, I know it's scary, it's intimidating, might feel overwhelmed or this or that, but I mean, you guys are two perfect examples of the kind of people you're going to meet here.
Speaker 5:And, um, yeah, it's been awesome, no, and like you coaching both gyms, that I've probably worked out at every time slot and at both locations this is for sure um, there's not a bad one yeah and you just to find your own, and I think overall consistency is key, but you also know that you have the option to be able to bounce around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did Jason's class last night, and then you're back here at five in the morning While I was coaching, yeah. Oh no, I've done both. I know you've worked, I know you've coached down there at night, but I remember recently you did like an evening class at South, and then you're back here at 5 in the morning.
Speaker 5:Yep, yep because I had like an early morning or something. That's a quick turnaround, bro. Yep, we need 24 hours and the workout was approached accordingly. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but no, midtown was here two years earlier but I have. I know Sarah and some of the people in the morning classes get upset but I really do enjoy coaching both gyms for that reason of the community, getting to know everybody down there. It's been awesome.
Speaker 2:When is Jake going?
Speaker 1:to come up here. He's going through that time of his life of adjusting to a kid. I told him that she's a year now. She's thriving, she's doing pretty good. They had a couple, you know, hospital stays. Yeah, this is one of our goals.
Speaker 1:He does a lot of personal training, which does make juggling, and then there are daycares in South Reno but they live over here, so it's just navigating the drop-off to pick up the personal training schedule and this and that, but one of our long-term goals is for us to both be splitting both gyms.
Speaker 5:Yeah no, and it's the kid logistic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a real thing. It's insane.
Speaker 5:And you know, some are more forgiving in that time than others. Some are more forgiving in that time than others. I was bringing this up before. If I were to change my job schedule, our entire world would change. Or? If she changed her job schedule, our entire world would change.
Speaker 1:It's funny you bring that up, cassie now in the gym. It has created more flexibility for us, but it does change the schedule like it's like any sort of minute thing, like once you have the routine down, once it changes, it's like shit. And that's something I'm much more empathetic of, since having kids right, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:I think that you bring value to this gym because you have that experience and perspective on things. And now Jake does too, and we appreciate you guys and what you do for us and the oversight you have of us and all the amenities that you provide us and, yeah, and we appreciate being invited on the podcast and taking all your time no, I enjoy this.
Speaker 1:I wish I could get people to do it. It's hard.
Speaker 2:People get so nervous yeah people get so nervous, but it's just a conversation if you yeah, yeah, and you guys have an awesome story.
Speaker 1:You've been here for a long time and it's a. It's an inspiring story. I mean, I'm sorry that you got. I mean, is that the first time you ever divulged the whole thing with piper?
Speaker 2:well, we told the story many times when we first yeah, got home.
Speaker 5:It's one thing, pieces or different people.
Speaker 1:I mean, I was one of the bits and pieces person outside of following the website so some of that.
Speaker 2:I mean I was one of the bits and pieces person outside of following the website, so some of that was new to me. Yeah, one of the and you, you might experience the same thing, but there's a little bit of like post-traumatic stress that comes from it and you don't even know it's there, yeah, and like things will like that will happen. You're just like crying. You're like, why am I crying? I crying. You're like, why am I crying? I've talked about this a hundred times.
Speaker 5:Um, yeah, there's, there's definitely some trauma like that comes with experiences like that, but there's images that will never unburn from your mind right, like they just did there, won't no.
Speaker 1:I mean image of when you talk about all the hoses and everything hooked up to your little girl and, like Claire in the hospital, dropped so much body weight, laying in the ICU with all the hoses and the buzzers and the beepers and this and that, thinking she might have to have another surgery. And I think ignorance was a little bit bliss for me during all that because I didn't know the full scope of some of the medical things. But Cassie did, so it was like more of a burden for her because she knew the depths of where this could potentially go. Um, yeah, there's definitely ptsd and that's real well, it changes your life.
Speaker 2:Yep, I mean, you completely changed your, the way you eat, the way you prep your food, like everything. And um, we, we get to benefit from that because you're kind of telling your journey and you know we glean from it.
Speaker 1:I always tell folks do you want the Claire lens when you talk nutrition with me, or do you want like pretty damn good lens? I have pulled that back a little bit to be a little little more realistic folks, but also so they understand the lens that I do look through. Hey, is this protein at power? Okay, at first I'd be like it's fucking dog shit. It has one bad ingredient right like. I try to be a little more better about that well, we do that now.
Speaker 2:We look at all the ingredients now and and when we cook and stuff we're all like. Can you imagine that Derek's family has to make this from scratch?
Speaker 1:It's like we always are thinking about you guys when it comes to some of these normal hardships that you're experiencing that, we take advantage of it was very overwhelming at first, but now it's just kind of like it's routine Structure Kids are happy, thriving. We found a couple things like kids-oriented treats and cereals and stuff that are super clean. It's a heavy price point but it's one of the only major downsides. It's not cheap to eat this way.
Speaker 5:It's sad that it's not too.
Speaker 5:And going back to you said, cassie handled like the technical medical side of all of that right which she landed into. Whatever, I think the takeaway from this at the higher level is for anybody else out there. If they end up in a situation where them or a family member is in an above average medical situation, somebody needs to be that person that asks questions until they get answered. Yeah, do not just nod and go Like there are times you have to do it. It's not an absolute, but you keep asking questions until you get the answer you want, and if they can't give you the answer you want, they're not the person to talk to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or at least give you the answer that you feel comfortable with.
Speaker 5:Yeah answer you want, they're not the person to talk to. Yeah, or at least give you the answer that you feel comfortable with saying yeah. But I think a lot of there's a lot of like this voodoo it's over my head approach to medical stuff and a lot of people nod and just go with it not knowing yeah, and I think there are things that can and will happen if you just give that approval without knowing.
Speaker 1:I have a perfect example. So in the hospital, claire's in the ICU just had her colon cut out, has an ostomy bag. We don't know what the heck like. What does this look like for an 8-year-old long-term yeah, especially an 8-year-old little girl? There's a lot Like is this a permanent thing? So our surgeon was very confident that she left enough colon to be able to reconnect to give her normal bowel function um long term. So you're thinking eight-year-old female little girl like any child, but this it rips your heart out. She went to school for six months with an ostomy bag I was driving there every day to empty it for and she was a champ.
Speaker 2:She was a champ.
Speaker 1:She had a smile on her face from the stuff that you posted, I was like good for her yep, you know, and I mean she felt better, which I think was a big thing, yeah, now that we figured it all out. But that's a big deal for a little, for anybody but a little girl, yeah. So she's in the ICU, all that stuff going on, and she's spiked a fever. They couldn't figure out why. Traditionally with colon surgery it's an infection. One surgeon wanted to open her back up. Opening her back up one, you risk more infection and potentially of disrupting what colon's left, and there's not enough colon left to do the reconnection. So many variables. Well, our surgeon, who, uh, did the surgery and made the decision that she had to remove the colon, was very adamant on what she did and how well she did it. How well she did it. She ended up standing by the door for over almost two hours until the interventional radiologist came in and drew fluid from Claire's abdomen to test an infection. That way, because the other surgeon was like this is an infection, we need to open her back up. That's why she has a fever, dead set. This is what it is, and this was an old school doctor, very reputable, but this was the way this surgeon. Our surgeon said no, I know what I did. If we do this, there's so much other risks that can come with it. We need to make sure.
Speaker 1:Interventional radiologist came, drew fluid from her. They had to sedate her for that that what's I can't remember the drug they used for that. It's like laughing, yes, but claire was hilarious. It was one of those heartwarming moments in a shitty situation. But she was funny when they did this light sedation on her. But they drew the fluid. Uh, no infection, thank the lord. Claire still has this fever and her heart rate's going up and she's not stable enough to leave the ICU. This is going on four or five days. Well, they're giving her Lovenok shots every day because she's for no blood clots and she has to get them every day and she hates them. She freaks out every time they come into the hospital. It's right into the gut. Piper had them in the legs.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 1:So it's every day. Claire Hayden caused all kinds of stress, all this shit, and Cassie found research on a small group of people. But they have reaction. Lovinox shots. That spikes the fever. Oh, and she called me. She's like I need you to pray about this. I'm going to take a stand. I'm not going to let them keep giving her lovinox. You're gonna stop it?
Speaker 1:yeah, I was like all right like, yeah, I mean obviously what's happening isn't doing it, and if you found this research, by all means and doctors argued with her and Cassie stood her ground she's like you're not giving her this. The one doctor finally agreed, they pulled it and within six hours her fever reconciled and all of her other benchmarks started improving and within a day she was back in regular part of the hospital and within three days we were home for Christmas. Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 5:Well, it's crazy just that Lovenox is an example of a protocol, a box of check, an approach that they will not let loose, they won't budge on.
Speaker 5:Nope, and you have to push very, very hard against. And because Piper was supposed to be on one round because of everything she'd been through, yeah, and then they wanted to do another round to be safe and we acquiesced to the second round. But then we had a very strong conversation about a follow-up round. Like no, we're done. Yeah, you know, she's proven, that there's no issues. I mean, she had a lot of areas of concern for klotz because she had a lot of catheters and a lot of surgeries and stuff and I get it, but like you said, at some point we're at diminishing returns.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean they were because of the fever. They're going to open her back up and do a rinse of all the surgical stuff in her stomach.
Speaker 5:Right, like to try to clean it.
Speaker 1:It's not like we're going to try this different drug. No, no, we're going to need to open her up and find the infection. Let's think outside the box here. My wife that was a huge blessing pulled the trigger conviction. And yeah, we're, we weren't going to be home for christmas. And then we were home for christmas because of that.
Speaker 2:We've had several moments like that. One of them was the colonization of her breathing tube and she kept on. She was like in a pneumonia and they didn't want to pull it and Piper pulled it herself. Yeah, so when?
Speaker 5:you're intubated, you have a tube installed right and we come in one day. And we come in on the tail end of a mass response to her room.
Speaker 5:So there's, that first moment of panic and then everybody started to level you down and and then one of the uh students and these were really good students she comes out, she goes. That was awesome. I just installed the best breathing tube I have ever. I just intubated your daughter faster than I've ever done to any other kid in my life and it went like that and we were able to clean it up in my life. And it went like that and we were able to clean it up, like she got a new one instead of that, and because we were trying to get a bigger one in because she'd outgrown, like there was all these things going on. But they don't like to mess with them once they're in place too. So basically, piper facilitated it for them.
Speaker 2:She did it a few times, like where she was just like if you're not going to do it, I'm going to do it, and one of the times was they ended up switching her to the CPAP and then she eventually got off of it. So, it's like she. I mean, that's her personality. Now she's just like going to do it herself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she learned at a young age.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's like going to do it herself.
Speaker 1:She learned at a young age.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, she's like you're an idiot.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I've seen her running around the gym and stuff, but she's clear. Bill of health now, right? I mean Essentially yeah, there's things you got to check up and follow up on. Claire's got an annual, she's got to get a colonoscopy every year.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, medically speaking, she's on follow-up basis for everything. Now, like there is no from coming home with literally having like a pharmacy on the counter for three, four, five, six months to now. We're just trying to catch up her development curve, okay, and that's even been exponential. Yeah, you know, I think you know. Coming out of the hospital she was four to six months behind on certain things if you were measuring them. She's down to like the two and three months range, if not better in areas.
Speaker 5:Okay you know it's just a matter of time we're gonna do.
Speaker 2:Well, she's still seeing a cardiologist just because that mitral valve regurgitation, but they think that she'll grow out of that, yeah, and then, um, she's gonna get a mri, maybe this july. She's gonna see a pediatric neurologist because she hasn't had her brain scan since that last time she was in the hospital that's just for development checkup or whatever yeah, she does have like a little.
Speaker 2:we don't know if it's a tick or if it's like she just doesn't have the words and she gets so excited and autism has been thrown around, so it's like could be a myriad of things, but it's just another thing that we have to look into.
Speaker 1:How old is she now?
Speaker 2:Two and a half Okay.
Speaker 5:Yeah, well, it's just like in here, where we talked about putting ourselves under the microscope. In here, where we talked about putting ourselves under the microscope. She's been under such a microscope developmentally that we have to pull ourselves back once in a while and get out of the assessing where she's at and being thankful for where she's at, because the list of things that could have resulted from that, compared to who she is walking around right now, is insane.
Speaker 2:Let her be a kid, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and honestly too, in some ways, if you keep looking for things, you're going to find things, even if they're not.
Speaker 5:That's true and I've expressed that many times because she is under such a microscope right now. We've had many well, I've had many stern discussions with, like, our dieticians and stuff, where they keep wanting to pump this or pump food or pump that, like when she was on her feeding tube and we were trying to get her on real food and we were trying to convert, and so there was like a ratio you want to talk about macro and calorie counting oh it was insane, right, and so I basically had sheets where we could prove what she was taking in, and even by the calorie and everything else, right, and I had to do that in the hospital because they wanted to give claire the hospital food and I'm like, oh, get the fuck
Speaker 5:out of here. Yeah, but I remember one day I missed one because we neis intervention service, nevada, early intervention, that great. They supply all these services free of charge or whatever you know. But they had come to do a visit and I wasn't able to be there and like they walked by me on the way out knowing they didn't want to talk to me.
Speaker 5:Every provider had that look that we ran across Because they were telling her that you know, we were going to have six more weeks of the tube and we had to do X and X, and X. And by the end of that night it was like, no, we're, we're doing this. And then, six weeks later, when they came back and she was doing well, they're like we're glad you didn't listen. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I mean, I get it. A lot of medical people deal with people that one don't want to put in the work necessarily, you know Absolutely. And if they give them the advice, they don't do the advice anyway, right. So it's kind of you kind of get drained. So it's it's a privilege when you get to work with people that want to do the work, but then you get those folks that are like, not just going to do the work, I'm going to learn your job too, yeah yeah and um, yeah, yeah, and I think it catches them off guard.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure I get caught our gastroenterologist a little bit off guard because we're probably the only person in our panel that does the diet stuff the way we do and Claire's thriving and we keep asking questions about the Remicade and they want to keep her in a box of like this is the amount, this is the duration. Well, it box of like this is the amount, this is the duration. Well, it's like this is a heavy drug and if we can balance, maybe. I mean, claire doesn't have room for air. She's already had two-thirds of her colon cut out, so we don't want to obviously risk. But if we can balance, maybe trying to pull back a little bit of the Remicade quantity, expand the duration, do blood tests, look for inflammation.
Speaker 1:If anything's changing, catch it early, um, because we do this stuff in our lifestyle, and if we can mitigate some of that that medic medication needs, um, for long-term health. We want to try and they finally agreed, finally agreed. So now we're at a lower dose at eight weeks than the higher dose every six weeks and so far she got her. Her next one's next friday and they do blood work each time, yeah, um, she's been rock bottom yeah inflammatory markers, like everything's been looking great.
Speaker 1:But I don't think, doc. Well, I know for a fact our gastroenterologist isn't used to working with somebody like us. Yeah, it's a comfort zone thing, right, because?
Speaker 5:they're used to having to give the information in a certain way, at a certain level, and it works right. And when somebody comes in and starts questioning or having other ideas and they're not at the same understanding level, at least to them they're very questioning on the other side of it. But when you can do the math, when you can understand the give and take of it, you just got to keep kind of explaining your point to them and sometimes they will get it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like we told them, we're not trying to say that Claire doesn't need the medication. We're just trying to find a balance between lifestyle and maybe limiting the exposure to some of these drugs. And then Stanford, Claire's a member, if you will of that hospital.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you guys with UC Davis. They're like well, we made Remicade so she can eat the cake. So basically you can eat whatever you want as long as you're on Remicade. Oh yeah, I'm like that doesn't work for me if you don't have Crohn's Right yeah. I'm like that doesn't work for me if you don't have Crohn's Right. Yeah.
Speaker 5:That's not how we live our life. I mean, that's like the Ozempic yeah, you can eat whatever you want.
Speaker 1:As long as you take your Ozempic, you're just not going to eat as much of whatever you want, right? But that was what the doctor said. There we made Remicade so you can eat the cake this way, and we're going to limit these things, because even if she didn't have Crohn's, we don't really eat that way. Um, but then there was a dietician there that actually had a good conversation with us and felt meaningful. All all she did was reaffirm that she's like. I wish all of our Crohn's pediatric patients would do this if you guys. This is awesome if you patients would do this.
Speaker 1:This is awesome. If you guys can do this as a family, by all means. It's just not normal, whereas the dieticians that are here locally, they just pissed me off and I think they got to the point they didn't even want to see me in the hallway. Dad, I'm in the room with Claire hanging out, you know, and all I can do is what I can do is research about things that I can actually control. Yeah, I can control our food situation. I can make sure we're getting the best food, the right stuff for her with this.
Speaker 1:So I'm in the weeds researching this and that and this and that it was all very much food and health stuff. So I got this notebook and all these things and every time the dietician came in and said, you know how is she eating this? And that I had the macros of all the food I made for exact calories, how much she consumed, all the lists of yes and no foods that you know we can have, and kept telling them do not bring the cafeteria food, because one Claire would want to eat it. It's a little different than what dad's bringing and it just like yeah, local dieticians I was, they definitely didn't. They got to where they wanted to turn the other way, but you know Claire's thriving because of that is and it's not just her.
Speaker 1:My whole house, like my whole health journey, has evolved dramatically. Like I said, I had to pivot a couple things carbohydrate wise and uh, controlling fats because cholesterol and this and that. But the way I feel now and what I know now about nutrition that I didn't know before has been a massive, massive thing. Honestly, I wish I would have known what this probably goes for everything in life. I wish I would have known back then what I know now. There's a country song about that, I think.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, what's funny about that is would the back then you take it as serious as the you now does, right?
Speaker 1:Probably not, because, like a traumatic experience in my family drove this needle to move forward in this direction. Now, if I had somebody in my life like me telling me this and I wanted to be like that person and be at their fitness level and their health level and you know, somebody asked me how you get abs like that, you do all these things I'd probably listen to that person if I really wanted that, because I've learned these lessons going through these struggles and trials. But I really wonder if, when I was like 30, 33, 34, training smarter, eating healthier, understanding carbohydrates and the importance with hormones and hard training, how important carbohydrates are in there and that whole equation fat's important for hormones. But I wonder if I could have caught and done something different with my testosterone production back then. Mm-hmm, um, and maybe, maybe not, with my testosterone production back then and maybe maybe not. I've gone down the path of replacement therapy. That ship has sailed now. When you've done it now for a year, that's just where you're at for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1:But I'm always curious, like if I would have done what I know now back then, would that have changed that outcome? So my message in saying that is, if you're younger and you're still trying to learn, when you have people like us who have life experience and you know we've all been through some stuff you learn and listen to, maybe those folks yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I can tell you 25 or even 35-year-old me, if I had walked through these doors would not have stayed, probably, or would not have gotten the results I'm getting, or because just I was in a different place. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:To your point On paper yes, it's easy, or you?
Speaker 5:you want to theorize that if I could have done this at 25, who would I be now? And that's, that's always nice. But I've also learned to not, I guess, spend too much mental energy on that. Yeah, and come back to just work forward yep, you can't live in the past you do say that at home.
Speaker 2:He does say God, I wish I would have done this, you know, 10, 20 years ago, Like he wish he would have started this health journey earlier.
Speaker 5:And I always caveat it with the, but I also know that that version of me probably wouldn't have done as well. No there's a lot of truth to that, you know. I would have broke myself. I would have done the dumb stuff, the ego stuff, I would have competed when there was more competing around, or whatever.
Speaker 1:I often think about raising kids, like how can you be the leader in the house that the kids would aspire to want to be like and not rebel against?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know growing up wrestling and strict diet and year-round cutting weight. When I got to college I kind of got to eat whatever I wanted year-round. I paid the price for it. But I wish I would have taken some different habits, maybe skipped some of that. But to your point, you can't live in the past. I do say if there's people out there that you admire and what they're doing works, Maybe try to learn from them.
Speaker 2:Well, if you're going to be in the best shape of your life. Now is probably better than back then. Well, it's better late than never, I would tell anybody.
Speaker 5:You can start at any age. I was a CrossFit rookie at 48, you know 47, 48.
Speaker 1:I got this marketing ad campaign going on right now for men over 40. And it says the best time to start was probably 20 years ago, but the second best time is now.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, we just sold it for you, yep, you know and you talk about, like you said, parenting and being the best example, right? I just either listened to or read a guy talking about. You know, we're in this point in society right now where you have these designer parents where they think if they play Mozart or they do this or that while they're pregnant, that will develop into the baby when they come into the world, right? Designer parents. That's a term right.
Speaker 5:And then you have the engineer parents that say if I structure their life in path A, they will follow path A as they get older. Right, and there might be some micro truth to that, but I think overall and I don't remember the number they said, essentially your child is born with an X amount of genetic markers that will predetermine who they are and they will come out on their own in their own time as they grow up. He goes. The best version or the best representation of a parent you can be is to be a shepherd over a flock. You provide the pasture, you provide the safety, you provide the environment and you let them feed and develop off that environment.
Speaker 1:I couldn't agree with that more, and you know.
Speaker 5:To expand on that, I think you, as the owner and coach here, have created that environment for fitness with this gym, and I think other ones have in town too, with their own way. But I think that's where you're at with here as probably as well as home. So I think that's the way to look at it is, people need to come in and create their own results. You've given them the opportunity, you've given them the resources, you've given them the inspiration, if that's appropriate, but it's ultimately up to them what they get out of it, because their input is the final drive in the machine.
Speaker 1:What they get out of it and what they want to get out of it yes. My goals doesn't have to be your goals. No, I enjoy suffering. Not many people do. I love the 24-hour events. My wife go have fun. It's not something that makes her tick, it's something that makes me tick. You find what makes you tick and then you can use those things as tools to live your healthiest and best life. No, you don't need to sign up for a 24-hour rucking event to be healthy and fit.
Speaker 2:Thank God.
Speaker 1:You don't even need to do CrossFit to be healthy and fit. I just find it to be one of the most effective ways to get healthy and fit and prevent boredom. Yes.
Speaker 5:The constantly varied functional movements executed at high intensities seems to work really really well when done correctly so well, I mean the goal is to be they like the term hard to kill right like we were built to survive.
Speaker 5:We are essentially an apex predator and that's like where we came from right and then, in this world now the idea of what that is is so much different than when we were. You know, cavemen or whatever? Yeah, you know, but I think the shift into health span is more about you know hard to die instead of hard to kill. Yeah, survive longer, live longer, live longer better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, live longer, better, Right, I don't care. I don't want drugs and machines keeping me alive. I want to get you know, get to. I'm done getting and just be done See what the next chapter holds. But the scary thing is you look at some folks in their 50s now 60s can't do anything. I'm looking at people my age at some of the kids' events, like dads that can't. They're gassed after a little bit of soccer, a little bit of that. It's just like I'm going to be a grandpa out here fucking you guys up. That's my goal.
Speaker 5:And my age differential. I'm going to be that dad that everybody thinks is the grandpa out there, right, and I'll take that all day long, but the reality is, you look better and are fitter than a lot of people in my age group.
Speaker 2:Hell of a lot.
Speaker 5:Yeah, some genes in that, but yeah.
Speaker 1:No, but there's work in that and consistency. I look at my demographic and I think about how can I inspire these people to give a fuck about their health. That goes across my mind. And what is my purpose on social media? And to extend my arm outside of my class as a coach into society, and I have zero desire to be an influencer. Like to turn that into a job, like some people do. Oh, God.
Speaker 1:That sounds like hell. Some people do. Oh god, that sounds like hell. My, my heaven is like a small cabin in the mountains on a lake, may or may not have internet isolation. So like for me to want to be like this social person. It's people that have followed the gym know that our um efforts on social media has been very poor when it comes to business, sure, up until recently. Because we need to get through this growth hump, um, to dig ourselves out of a little bit of covet hole, maybe a lot of covet hole. Lucky, I'm still young enough and I plan on working the rest of my life. It's not the end of the world.
Speaker 2:I like it though. I mean, you know, like the coaches, even the funny stuff you do with the vignettes, with the coaches and stuff like that, it just endears you more to the coaches. They have more of a personality. I think they make them more approachable when you see them, um, you know. So I know you hate it, but we love it.
Speaker 1:I had to reframe it. So my purpose is the people of this gym and community and future people of this gym and community build a relationship, build trust, build rapport, both of people who already know us and people who are going to know us. That was the reframing. Um, not trying to build this like you think, fitness influencers. You building this massive following of this and that and you're going to sell the programs online and be able to work from the boat and the you know Florida keys or whatever, like.
Speaker 1:No, my goal is to coach in this gym and to be in this gym, and when one of my friends reframed it, he's like you're just extending your coaching from your class into your whole gym, into your whole community. And that allowed me to get more comfortable on camera, not get like all shaky and sweaty armpits and hella, nervous, just be me. Just be me record the stuff and connect with your community. That is your goal. So in doing that, you know, I often think like am I trying to inspire people? I don't know, it's so hard to do. If it was easy to inspire people, like you know, every fitness person out there would be like the wealthiest people in the world and this and that. So am I trying to inspire, am I trying to educate, trying to entertain? Where does all this work together to build a relationship? To where that person is going to put in the work to take care of their own health and do that with us.
Speaker 5:Well, I mean, how many of those people do you necessarily need to know happen before you feel like you've succeeded? Does it take one, or does it take a hundred, or you know what I mean, because everybody's got a different reward in that pursuit, right?
Speaker 1:I don't know the answer to that. I know I want to create a business that supports that. We can keep doing what we're doing, not as coaches, but as a community for a very long time. I want you guys to have a great place to work out, maybe you to have a second job when you retire. And I don't want to build, I don't have any desire to have these massive conglomerates. The entrepreneurial space of people, my age, it's like build, build, build, sell. I love coaching, I love helping people, I love interacting with people. It's lifeblood for me. I mean, there's a good chance. I'll be coaching 5 am until the day I die.
Speaker 2:Because nobody else can handle those guys. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to get them on. I I mean we got one on here to defend the class today. I'm trying to get some more on here.
Speaker 1:I mean they are a wonderful group of people but it is a lifeblood start of my day like I genuinely enjoy it, and I enjoyed it both gyms they're, they're awesome that is definitely a dog that has a much worse bark than its bite yeah, it's created a reputation and I'm probably guilty of facilitating some of that reputation, because when you take the class off the schedule, you don't let new people come to it.
Speaker 1:It's like you start making this exclusive kind of deal and it's just morphed into its own thing in the sense of these are dedicated people. They train every day. They've been here, most of them going on 11 years. Yeah, they're very know what they want out of their workout. They know what they want out of their time in the gym. Like alan eric, want to talk some shit and hang out. They don't want to listen to me blabber on about triple extension all the time. No, they're here for very much the whole community fitness, but they still get after it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they do.
Speaker 1:In a very meaningful way. They all train. They're here to be healthy, fit, strong. Push the limits, all the stuff. My job in the class is to play music that pisses Eric off. Start the clocks and make sure I can start the next class on time. I feel, though, they talk shit to me. They do, like some of my warm-ups.
Speaker 5:Yeah, sometimes, yeah, juan. I'd have gone into that class cold turkey if I hadn't been doing six and had some interactions, especially with Mark and Eric. We did the summer smash that one year and stuff like that, but otherwise I wouldn't have had any interaction with a soul in that group prior to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like with the group and the experience in there, I mean a lot of them know more than some of the coaches I've hired about CrossFit at this point For sure. So it's like you have to take that all in accountability. They want to get the class going so they can hang out, talk afterwards, drink coffee, this, and that it's a very social hour, but it's a very get after it hour and um, bringing a brand new person that's never done crossfit before, never been around this kind of community before, into that 30 person environment it's very overwhelming.
Speaker 5:I mean, that would be the class that would be the one that made somebody not come back, if you did the one free class before signing up, like the typical model and everything else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it can be very intimidating and very go go and it just yeah, they're all badasses in that class.
Speaker 2:They are.
Speaker 1:They're legit athlete and what's funny is, like, the average age of that class probably 45, 6, 45, 60, 45, 46 years old, yeah, um, and they've just been doing it a long time and it's yeah, it's just not the best group. I mean, six am's getting big enough. It gets hard to like. I got five new people in there today, yeah, and I had to take the whole class back to fundamental deadlift. Yep.
Speaker 5:You know, I know three of them I've seen. But yeah, but.
Speaker 1:I just want to make sure new people. So when I'm messaging new people it's like, what time of day can you work out? And if they say 6 am, I was like, can you go to South? This is a very small class. It's much better experience for me to get you up to speed on everything and then we find you a home long term. But I do. If you've never done crossfit before, I do try to get you into a smaller class, unless you're coming with somebody. You know. Yeah, you're coming with somebody already in the class. It's a much easier deal.
Speaker 2:But I do think of, um, all those variables when a brand new person's walking into the gym yeah, yeah, each class does you guys have talked about that in past podcasts too is that each class has its own kind of personality in a way.
Speaker 1:Every class has its own personality, even if the same coach coaches those classes. So every class in both gyms have their own personality. It's awesome, it's cool, but it's funny because you'll hear somebody that really likes coaching a lot and a lot of attention and say they go to Chase's class and then they come to 5 am with me one time because schedule or life or whatever. I've had a couple people tell me like I'm never coming back to 5 am with me one time because schedule or life or whatever I mean. I've had a couple people tell me like I'm never coming back to that again, like it was just so overwhelming and so much going on and you know this and this and this, and then you're like go, go, go, go go and it's like it's a different experience.
Speaker 5:Well, when any of these classes have worked out together enough. They move like a team, though, like everybody knows their spot, they work around each other they absolutely understand each other's limits or what to say, what not to say, etc.
Speaker 1:Etc even goals, like what you're trying to do emotional intelligence of when you're walking in a piss poor mood yeah, yeah, they know my emotional intelligence like oh shit, what's up with derrick today?
Speaker 5:but you know that's a vibe in itself, yep to overcome, let alone any other interaction you need from the coach themselves, and I'll say the people starting at a crossfit gym, if you remember days, if you ever had to switch schools they go to a different high school.
Speaker 1:it's like, yep, when I went from smith, it sucked. Yeah, it's hard to get to know people and we really do, thanks to people like you and Sarah kind of have those folks in the class that are like the new member integrator. Like you need to take this person under your wing, jason, in the afternoon is one of those.
Speaker 2:Just like friendly, friendly people.
Speaker 1:And then our coaches. I mean we really try to do a good job of making you feel as welcome as possible yeah and then break through some of that. Yep so yeah, what's the next big goal? In here or in life, I don't know how weird do you want to get?
Speaker 2:next big goal? Um, well, my first goal here was just to be able to do a pull-up, um, and I am not there yet. Um, but that's always a goal, I guess. Yeah, I mean the fact that I am running. Can we appreciate that?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's a big deal it is a big deal.
Speaker 2:I hate running me too.
Speaker 1:I despise running.
Speaker 2:That's why I'm now embracing that I'm going to do some running events and try to work on this yeah, and you know, I tell my I work up at the university and I tell my students lean into the uncomfortable, because you know a lot of the stuff's uncomfortable but you grow in that area of being uncomfortable. So I just have to remind myself you, you know, lean into the uncomfortable. You know, try things that you're scared of. You come out better.
Speaker 1:That is where the most growth happens. Funny with running in my whoop. So the new one it gives you a little more insights and it gives you your biological age, which I think some of that stuff is bullshit but it's still fun, I enjoy. It says I'm seven years younger than I am. Nice, but you click on it. It shows you your insights.
Speaker 1:And then one of my deals that is not driving me younger is I don't get enough zone four, zone five, in, according to them and their algorithm. Um, but running is one of the few things that is low enough impact on my body that I recover from. But I can still get in that zone four, zone five pretty darn easy. Some of these metcons. I don't get out of zone three. I'm hitting muscle failure and various things first. Yeah, getting to zone four, zone five is different for my body makeup, for whatever reason. Alyssa, she can spend an hour in zone 5, same with her brother, me. I do a workout, I'm freaking gas 13 seconds in zone 5, but running, if I go running, 2 mile run, 14 minutes, whole thing in zone 5. So me approaching hard things and overcoming things, two-mile run, 14 minutes, whole thing in zone five, so me approaching hard things and overcoming things.
Speaker 1:Thinks that if I embrace running just a little bit more it'll improve my VO2 max, it'll improve my overall, all my fitness and it'll reduce my biological age yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, I mean, we did the function health test online. Okay, right, um, and same thing. They come up with a biological age and my mind was like minus eight I'm yeah, I'm 37 yeah yep killing it yeah, um and I agree with the running.
Speaker 5:Like that, when we ramped up the running, we did the running test and like the may running club, and you know I didn't make the whole month but like when I was more consistent calculation wise, my vo2 max was ticking up one or two points and it was that zone four and five.
Speaker 1:Like you said, you have to hit zone four and five to improve your vo2 max. It's no question about it. So yeah, I try to get my 16. When I look at my monthly report, I would like to have 16 minutes in Zone 5 for the whole month. Some of these folks, that's half the workout, so it looks like I need to try harder. I guess I used to live there more, and I think that was the.
Speaker 5:I just don't like doing it at Metcons. Yeah, the breakdown for me was when I was living there more and I think that was the. I just don't like doing it at Metcons. The breakdown for me was when I was living there more, because it wasn't that I was in zone 5 for a lot of the workout. I would start out and I would come out sending it and so zone 5 would kill the workout.
Speaker 2:You spike fast.
Speaker 5:Well, I used to more. I've learned to. I have to walk into the workout. I have to build the pace. I can't hit the gas and drop the pedal.
Speaker 1:No, if I'm going to hit the gas and drop the pedal, I need a 40-minute warm-up before that of building the pace. Yep. So just coming out the gate anymore, full sending, that's not. It's got to be a life or death situation.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, the risk reward or the return of investment anymore, isn't there? Nope, like I thought it was, you know. I know. And then, like so, goals. I have one skill left to learn.
Speaker 1:All right, what is?
Speaker 5:it, the ring muscle up. Really, I've done bar right and I've even been able to string them lately and it's just, and it's a mechanics thing, just like my clean that's another million dollars I would have lost.
Speaker 1:I would have bet you could do a ring muscle-up.
Speaker 5:Nope, no, I've gotten really close. I have everything but the turnover and I just got to break it down and do the work. It's a matter of me mentally getting so mad at some point that I do like I did with double-unders.
Speaker 1:Because I avoided double-unders like Eric Brown, yeah, calling him out.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I still can't do double-unders I avoided them for like the first two years, right. And then I knew that they would be in the open, coming up, and I set my mind to like, okay, every minute I can sub double-unders into a workout, or every time we have jump rope I'm doing double unders until I'm bleeding.
Speaker 2:You're over here practicing before every workout.
Speaker 5:And then I finally got to the point, because you know arm creep and everything else and Chase is like we banded my arms and my sides and like that was actually what made it click to keep my hands in place.
Speaker 5:And then once you get two, then you get four, then you get ten, you know, et cetera, et cetera, and once you get 10,000, it's all done. Then you regress because your capacity goes to crap. I think if anybody came in the gym and wanted one skill to learn, I would probably push for dumbbell unders first. It sounds painful and they would probably hate it, but it's the one skill. You don't necessarily need the strength or the mechanical skills of the lifts or all those other compound things. It's just a mental grind of putting in the effort and the timing.
Speaker 1:Oh, and the neurological adaptations that take place, especially if you've never done it before. Yep. And then it increases your ability for work capacity. Yep. Like it's a different workout, dramatically different workout from single under to double under, 100%, even if you double the reps. Our standard scale is if there's 50 double unders, it's 100 single unders. Not the same, not even remotely close to the same stimulus?
Speaker 5:No, no, and I think if somebody was able to pursue that process for the doubles, it would set the groundwork to pursue the process for the next skill and the next skill, and the next skill while they're building that strength to get the next skill.
Speaker 5:Maybe because there's a lot of things we do that are a combination of the mechanics and the strength that you need to build or the mobility right in time. I think the jump rope and the double unders is probably the easiest first attack for a skill to learn the mental and the physical process of learning it. For most I wouldn't say everybody walking through the door his first attack for his skill to learn the mental and the physical process of learning it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, for most. I wouldn't say everybody walking through the door, but I've most people. I would try to recommend that one first.
Speaker 1:No, and it's a, it's a big confidence builder, like, once you get it, it's like it's such a notch on the belt. Yeah.
Speaker 5:It's just one more workout you can do instead of scaling Right, Like and that's I think most people I've ever noticed and and this is what kind of led me to coaching too is they started coming to me when I got double unders down or when I was doing a muscle up or whatever it's like. How'd you do that? Like they, they wanted to come.
Speaker 1:you made it real right so they see a member do some of these things that they never could before. You made it real yeah I know with coaches it seems like, oh, we're expected to be able to do it. Right. And we were born with it Right, like it was gifted. You know they never saw the progression. But when the person X has been working out next to you for the last year and a half, then you got double unders, then you got a bar muscle-up, then you handstand walked, it's like oh shit.
Speaker 2:What am I doing over here? Yeah?
Speaker 5:which is so funny. If you want your million dollar question, what do you think? The first skill I ever performed in the gym was gymnastics or barbell.
Speaker 5:I've had a guest handstand walking yep because the only reason well, the first wad I did because I had to come on a wednesday had handstand pushups. I'm like I can do those and that was the snowball down the hill after that. But yeah, anything overhead like that you know, handstand, handstand pushups I do strict because we're on the same boat. I will not slam my head into the floor. Handstand walks, wall walks are my jam.
Speaker 1:That's one of my favorites now I need to embrace the suck and work on those, yeah but it's probably as as an older person.
Speaker 5:If you can perform them now, never stop, because your shoulder mobility and the ability to use your shoulders is going to be amazing if you can do.
Speaker 1:I think it's one of the best Work capacity, full body and getting inverted. I think that's great for equilibrium as your age, being able to maintain doing that. I don't know if you've jumped on a trampoline or anything lately or gone on a swing set, but you start losing some of that equilibrium as you get older. I get motion sick now.
Speaker 5:I can't do a box walk without getting dizzy, doing the swings at the park, jumping on the trampoline with the kids.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty upset about it. I get so sick, really Like motion sickness. I never used to do that and I've tried to like build a training tolerance. But 10 minutes in I'm sitting on the chair like oh God.
Speaker 5:For wall walks.
Speaker 1:No, no, no minutes in. I'm sitting on the chair like, oh god, for wall walks or no. No, I'm just saying, yeah, like trampoline stuff. Yeah, because we lose this equilibrium. So like, if you can do wall walks and get inverted and do handstand holds and do that as you get older, I think there is a lot of value in being able to maintain that capability.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, for sure for life. I like that you weren't scared too, I think for somebody like me. I look at it and I'm like, oh, I can't do that immediately and you're like I'm gonna try it. You know, I think that's a good mentality to have testosterone yeah yeah, I mean, I think, what did we talk?
Speaker 1:I also think, too, like having men typically have strong upper bodies. Yeah. You're not as nervous about going straight to your dome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Even though I've seen some people go, some men kick up straight to their head.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh.
Speaker 1:Oh goodness, we need to. Let's talk about that progression in this process again. Yes, yes, let's talk about where we start.
Speaker 5:Well, I read something. She talks about the fear. I was like I think I've read a multitude of ways, but like humility is the biggest blockade to your success. Yeah, like you know, you need to be humbled, you need to get rid of the ego and not be afraid to fail you know, because for every successful you know hands down walk.
Speaker 5:Somebody sees me doing the gym. Now I've probably failed 40 of them, right? You know? It's very much like baseball or other sports Statistically you will fail more times than you succeed before those successes are visible.
Speaker 1:I remember the second CrossFit Open here at the gym. It had bar muscle-ups in it. I was a little thicker around the edges. Power-to-weight ratio wasn't great. I just remember slamming my chest into the bar, maybe getting one some nasty chicken wing thing and then I probably went two years without even trying a bar muscle-up. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like one fear Knew I was heavier, Didn't go well the last time I dislocated my shoulder once doing one of those funky chicken wing things. And um, yeah, a person today see me do bar muscle ups now would never have guessed that as gym owner and coach I had like a four-year window there being terrified of doing them. Yeah, couldn't demonstrate it in group class, Like when we program muscle-ups and you know coach does demonstration. I'd be like, oh, I'm too sore.
Speaker 5:Like you find somebody, brandon Lloyd yeah.
Speaker 1:We need to see you sling this out real quick. You know and that did eat at me that I couldn't demonstrate these things and do these things and because I wasn't doing the proper work, but tons of failures, tons of tripping over my own feet, getting still building and building and overcoming this stuff, and I guess in my role people assume that you just always had it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely, definitely not the case. No, the only thing I've had for a long time is the ability to hurt. I can tolerate the pain cave of conditioning at a pretty high level.
Speaker 2:I think that's pretty good. That'll take you far I think it's wrestling.
Speaker 1:Wrestlers. Typically, a lot of us who I know have taken that pretty far. It is a sport that builds a pretty heavy pain tolerance. Yeah yeah, I don't know, I just like it. I do. I don't like doing it often the 2K road test, the five-minute bike test, 24-hour suffer fest but it exposes your brain and your mindset to like something. It's like euphoric in a way, like when we got done with Odyssey this year and Wes and I are 40 hours straight staying awake and like I wasn't pissed off grumpy, I was tired, but if I had to do something right now I could do it.
Speaker 2:It looked like you guys had fun it was a blast, great time.
Speaker 1:But the Suffer Fest that I did in Colorado built a different muscle that now I know I can stay awake for 24 hours if I need to. Yeah, I know that I can do it, doing exercise the entire time with zero rest, until you literally shit yourself on the trail.
Speaker 2:So everybody at Derek's house when the apocalypse happens.
Speaker 1:For multiple reasons, or just come to the gym. I'm well prepared for the apocalypse.
Speaker 2:I feel like there's a lot of people in this gym that's probably well prepared for the apocalypse.
Speaker 1:I used to laugh at folks that would be like kind of doomsday prepper mindset. I may or may not have a few of them in my family, but, um, honestly, what caused me to have some sort of preparation when it comes to like some food and some, you know, candles, flashlights, these good bases? I can now hook my house to my generator and reverse the deal to power. My house was when COVID happened and it wasn't necessarily, I mean, covid was a piece of it. But when the pass shut down because of the snowstorm and there was like no food coming into here, and then, with all the COVID restrictions, everything it was like huh, this is interesting. Maybe we should have a little bit of emergency, like food and various things.
Speaker 2:So you made a sourdough starter.
Speaker 1:We can't have sourdough bread, and it's very, very sad.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I'm sorry to bring it up.
Speaker 1:My mom died hard into sourdough bread and making it, and my dad and he loves it and he's like, hey, you gotta try this, you gotta try this. If Claire can't have it, I don't really eat it. Unless I and making it and my dad and he loves it, he's like, hey, you got to try this, you got to try this. If Claire can't have it, I don't really eat it, unless I need it for training. And I don't need sourdough bread for training, right.
Speaker 2:I think that's pretty honorable of you that the whole family really supports Claire. That's really awesome.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know how you could not Right. This is my daughter. If she has to live this way, I have to live this way it's only making everybody healthier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, and I just I can't imagine me or my wife. I mean, I can imagine a seven-year-old, my son, being frustrated with this or that. Why can't I have chips? Why do I have to eat this way? He's been pretty darn good though, but I think that also comes down to the whole house. But I can't imagine me sitting down mouthing down Domino's pizza and my kid has to eat sauerkraut and you know, chicken breast.
Speaker 1:Like that doesn't pencil to me in any environment. Like the do as I say, not as I do. Mentality that's maybe mobility with me, not as I do. Mentality that's maybe mobility with me, but not when it comes to the nutrition, health and stuff with my kids. And I really in my brain think that the better that Cassie and I can do in incorporating this stuff with the mindset of this is just how we're supposed to live a healthy, unprocessed food life that when Claire gets older and could start making her own decisions, she's not going to have. No, this is, if I didn't have Crohn's, this is how I should live. Kind of mindset versus you know, you get 16, into college or whatever and you kind of go, or whatever and you kind of go. I mean we hope that the way we're living and trying to just really educate and include them in that process, that they don't end.
Speaker 5:You know, she can avoid some and maybe that's temptation yeah because I wouldn't hey why eat fast food every fucking day when I was in college, dude I mean, I don't know if I've ever sent you the picture of fat sean, but I mean it was. It was years before I came here, cause I had already kind of started turning the needle, but there was a point where, like if you had a picture of me at like 44.
Speaker 2:And he didn't look that fat.
Speaker 1:I mean my wife says I didn't look fat. I mean it's just very kind, you guys. You guys are very kind, you guys are very kind.
Speaker 5:She still married me back then, but your boy was thick. Yeah, no, I yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, what's funny about that is when he did lose all this weight and recomped and all this stuff, there was people at work that thought he was doing drugs, because it happened so fast.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, the rumor mill at work was that I was on drugs when I got down to that 155 and everything that one time you know.
Speaker 2:God forbid somebody gets healthy, you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:But that comes from a place, I think, people not understanding. You know, maybe jealousy, envy, whatever that's. Their first instinct is you're not living a life like us, looking like us, so you must be doing something bad, Yep.
Speaker 2:Right, which is funny because he's never done a drug. Yeah, I am a drug virgin, really.
Speaker 5:Yeah, alcohol is the only thing that's ever been in this body and caffeine I can't say that, yeah, yeah, me either. Yeah, I mean. Well, I mean, she knows I was moderately worried about my colonoscopy okay. Okay, because I hadn't been under sedation since I got my tonsils out as a kid Like I was worried about having an adverse reaction to whatever they put you under with, because I'd never had it in a long time.
Speaker 1:I mean knock on wood. I've never had a surgery Broken my arm, but I've never had a surgery at this point in my life.
Speaker 5:I'm not innocent in the drug world, but that was a past chapter and I'm not preachy about it. It's just not normal it came from when I was younger, especially sports. I was always told that if I got in trouble for something like that and I couldn't play sports, I would be in trouble there would be in trouble.
Speaker 5:Yeah Right, there would be more than just not playing sports, because if that was the reason I didn't get to play, you know, your grades are one thing, and I had to keep good grades that was a whole other discussion, you know. But if I got in trouble for that, and it was the reason I couldn't play ball, I was in trouble. So I was like, okay, I got it. And it made sense, though, because I didn't ever want that to take it away from me either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well stuck, it's pretty good. My only drug is CrossFit. So you want to get ring muscle up, you want to get a pull-up? I see some unique accessory work that can take place in family bonding here, there you go.
Speaker 5:I mean because I even at the level one class, they try to make you do a strict. Yeah. Right and I got to like the chest Like I have all the strength. You know I probably have every ounce of strength I need for anything in the gym. It's just getting those mechanics and the process down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and with the ring muscle too, really being able to hold, that's what I irresponsibly did yesterday morning. Yeah, Thursday, A couple members at 6 am, they're like you have to do it, you have to do it. I was like I don't know if I can Like genuinely I don't know. Then I did it. That was cool, but it's a mobility thing too. Being Then I did it. That was cool, but it's a mobility thing too being able to come in and be able to get that turnover deep into the dip yeah yeah, because like a bar.
Speaker 1:I've never tried a strict bar muscle-up but you have to like pull to your belly button. You don't need the internal rotation to be able to get into that.
Speaker 5:Well, the bar doesn't move, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:What muscles are you trying to develop to to do that? Which part, like I imagine? It's not just you know arm strength at all, it's more like your, your pectoral turnover, yeah, or the ring muscle.
Speaker 1:I mean the ring muscle is going to hit every muscle in your upper body. Yeah, so once you complete it, you're going from forearm. Lat, lat scap.
Speaker 1:I mean anterior, posterior medial deltoids into the coming down your lat and right. Here it's going to be tricep as you're going into the press ripping the shirt off, Once you turn over you're going to get the pecs triceps pressing out. It's a beautiful exercise for developing upper body strength, your core, your abs, doing it properly, your butt's engaged, quads are engaged, everything's really tight. But literally from sternum up, front and back, every muscle's going to be working and doing some sort of push pull through that entire exercise. So tremendous value. So when there's like ring muscle ups or bar muscle ups in a workout, the stimulus is dramatically different than a pull-up workout. Yeah, and that's usually why it's less reps, obviously, and various other things. The only chest to bar pull-up workout yeah, and that's usually why it's less reps, obviously, and various other things the only chest-to-bar pull-ups can get your heart rate up a lot higher than our muscle ups at times.
Speaker 1:Depending on which one yeah, you'll hit muscle fatigue quicker on a bar muscle up than you will chest-to-bar typically.
Speaker 5:So muscle fatigue will be the limiting factor, not your heart rate, and usually the limiter for me, I find, is that little bit of explosion I need when I'm fatigued, like that hip pop or that turnover or that little flip of the switch, 100%, you know, because then you lose that momentum, that transfer, and then it doesn't finish. Because, like the other day, I had muscle-ups and warm-up and then, you know, with Chase's little birthday wad, the arms were fried and I couldn't even hardly front rack a clean and then I tried to do a muscle up and it didn't happen. And okay, I get it. I'm at that point now, instead of where I was in warm up and I went to chest to bar.
Speaker 1:But yep so these two goals work on together. Build some strength here. Still got to meet up with you on nutrition.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Happy to do that. Anytime I will say the program you got from Gabrielle Lyons, this is good, that was good, okay, but we can dial into that a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And then it comes down to execution.
Speaker 2:I'm much better at being told what to do. Just do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. And then I mean I know you're a patient of my wife's and you're going through all the blood work and all the labs and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's good, good stuff. Well, I learned a lot about you guys today, same. I learned a lot about you guys today same.
Speaker 2:I learned that you're married and so did everybody else after they listened to this podcast.
Speaker 1:Congratulations you haven't really told if you told me it had to be early in the morning and I was in that zone of just not paying attention we eloped.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like a big old wedding eloped-ish, you're like a big old wedding.
Speaker 5:Well, no, but Eloped-ish yeah, you're married.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I genuinely was like I know they have a kid together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of people think we're already married.
Speaker 5:So Well, I mean like Jason always says husband when he talks about me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, congratulations on that, thank you. Got through some trials with little Piper and she's thriving now. It's awesome, oh man. Yeah, genuinely appreciate both of you coming on being a part of the gym community and I do value the relationship we've built over the years. Obviously, I see him more now, but I got you started on your journey. Haven't forgot that. I don't know if I'll ever be a nighttime coach, unless I absolutely have to. I thrive in the mornings. I die in the evenings.
Speaker 5:Well, I've offered to rotate workout schedules.
Speaker 2:He wants to put this on the record.
Speaker 5:Yes, I said we could do a month. You can have mornings for a month and I'll do that, like we'll just flip the schedule for a month. Somebody likes their sleep yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm not complaining, no, and I think once you get a routine right it's like flipping back and forth every month can get difficult too Sure.
Speaker 2:Well, we might be doing it next week. I have to teach for five weeks, so I told Faye I might be in her class at 7 am for the next five weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, I might be working out with you.
Speaker 2:No, there you go.
Speaker 1:That's the class I do when I get to do it.
Speaker 2:I'll miss Jess. I loved working out with Jess, but Faye's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Faye is awesome. She's teaching a class right now. Faye scares me.
Speaker 2:She's a beast is she, oh yeah I haven't seen she's so humble, just quiet, just.
Speaker 1:She's a recreational exerciser, she's not trying to like make it to any big event, she just loves fitness, loves helping people. And then her accent everything is kind, no matter what that's true everything's kind because she has a great accent and, um, like when I do do some am classes and she's in it, I'm like oh man.
Speaker 1:She's one of the first people in the gym We'd be working out together and I'm not great at handstand push-ups I'm not very fast at them, especially strict and she's just cheering me on running laps around me. You got this, you can do it. Cheering me on running laps around me, you got this, you can do it. When it comes to machines like typically there's not a female in the gym that can push me on those I gotta think like in this workout I need, I can't make up time on the machine with her. She's, she's and she moves well, yeah, and she's probably a bigger lunatic than I am when it comes, her and her husband are doing uh, um, every hour on the hour, run four miles until you, you, everybody quits, until you're the last person standing oh my goodness, challenge it can be 24 or 48 hours.
Speaker 1:Her goal 60 miles. I think his goal is 100. They're doing this for couples fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That would not be our couples fun, no, I mean they're super rad people and that's just funny how the world works. I was shitting bricks about a coach, with Jess getting this job and everything, and Faye just comes in on a 30-day trial and it's super awesome that that worked out, because she's been an awesome addition nice yeah, I had her for the first time last night and she was telling me about her journey a little bit and uh, she's like, yeah, crossfit changed my life.
Speaker 2:I mean, I met my husband, you know, doing CrossFit and now I'm teaching and she's like it's just been my whole life. But yeah, she's great. I think she's a good score and Jess will still be around.
Speaker 1:She wants to settle into her professor deal and then she still wants to coach a little bit. Stay connected, coach and stuff. Oh yeah, my my kids move on Chase thought he was a keeper too.
Speaker 2:Man, I am so bummed about that.
Speaker 1:Getting his degree in exercise physiology, his master's.
Speaker 2:Thought I was going to really be able to work him into something longer. Yeah, and then he just totally like 180s onion Cop.
Speaker 1:Another million dollar bet I would have lost.
Speaker 2:He just likes to tell people what to do. Let's just say that.
Speaker 1:I'm happy for him. He'll be a great cop. He will be. He has the right personality, temperament for it. Yeah, to be a good one and serve the community.
Speaker 2:Although he's going to see the underbelly of this community I'm not excited about that.
Speaker 1:No, that is rough, that is rough yeah. Hopefully that, but um yeah, hopefully that doesn't jade him. I don't think it will.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I'm getting jaded on hiring 20 year olds as coaches.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's part of the, because you had a lot of life changes and a lot of life evolution going on. Yep, you know, jason, being a little older, and experience chris faye, I mean you, you just I know I want to put energy into folks that want to grow this as a career or you know second career or whatever in Jason's case. But yeah, when you get them young, hot and heavy, then just like all these life things happen. Yeah, I just invested all this time.
Speaker 5:I mean you had Joaquin and Joel at South and….
Speaker 1:Leo, leo, leo Trent, sabrina, been through a lot of them and I'm happy to see them move on and do well with their life. Don't get me wrong Zero disgruntled anything. It's just me trying to continue to keep a larger facility with a lot of these classes going. It requires great coaches and you know, finding those people that want to do this. It's not the easiest career. In some ways you don't do this to get rich. No. You do this because you love helping people and I compare it to like school teachers in a way.
Speaker 1:You don't become a school teacher. You become rich. You do it because you love helping people and then you get a great quality of life. Them rich. You do it because you love helping people and then you get a great quality of life. Get the summers off here. You know I count full-time as your coach, four hours a day. Yeah, you know you're a full-time employee, but if you want to make a lot more money, you need to fill that time in with personal training, nutrition, coaching, individual design programming, other things that provide value. So, yeah, I mean I mean, like you said, glass of whiskey we can go on for hours, but I just realize it's 530.
Speaker 2:I know Piper's probably sitting at daycare like are my parents going to come get me Maybe? To be continued.
Speaker 1:Part B Once you guys get your pull up and muscle up, bring muscle up. Yeah so again, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yeah, yeah, so again, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you, derek, love you guys and I really appreciate you being part of the community and everything.
Speaker 5:Yeah anytime we're appreciative of the community.
Speaker 1:So thank you alright, well, so funny outro music yep there, it is gotta use the fader.
Speaker 2:Bring it in, alright you're supposed to say, and this has been the Double Edge Podcast, you're right, I need like an outro thing.
Speaker 1:This has been Double Edge Podcast with Melanie.
Speaker 2:Flor or Melanie Hilbert, you can just call me.
Speaker 1:Mel, yeah, we're gonna go. Alright, are you changing your name? We didn't clear that up. Do I need to change it in the computer? We good you're good right now, all right we got Sean and Mel, if you guys made it this far with us and it took you two weeks while you're driving around.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for tuning in, yeah this is like a Rogan style podcast right now all right bye.