Bruce Young on Normalizing Success, Practicing Failure, and Mindset Mastery

We sit down with Bruce Young, a 62-year-old, four-time CrossFit Games athlete, to unpack the mindset, coaching, and habits that keep masters athletes sharp and improving. From GNAT to PAT, process over results, and training failure states, we map a clear way to compete stronger at any age.

• finding the sport you love and committing
• building a tribe that normalises success
• separating results goals from process goals
• replacing negative automatic thoughts with positive ones
• writing the target number before the lift
• pre-competition centering and gratitude rituals
• practicing failure states to handle chaos
• coaching that confronts habits and expands ceilings
• heat, humidity, and environmental prep as an edge
• applying athletic mindset to parenting, music, and work

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Reveal

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to the Masters Athletes Device, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalina, and along with Scott Fike, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes to defy age. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook first take. Fit, strong, and motivated. Let's get started. Hey, we're loudly back. Hi everybody. Hey, we're loudly back. Yeah, things are getting glitchy. I think I uh thank you, Captain Obvious. Yeah, I know. Whatever. Hey, who are you? I'm John. Guess who I am. Um Tania Twain. Man, I feel like a woman. That was a tiny.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

No, I'm I'm Scott. I'm at least last time I checked the back of my underwear, I'm still Scott.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

Scott, I heard a very polite Canadian voice in the distance. What was that? That was me singing tonight Twain. No, after that. Oh, after that? I don't know. Is there somebody else here in the studio today? Not in studio, but we have a guest online. Talk to me. Okay. It's me, Bruce Young. That's Bruce Young. Hey, Bruce Young. Bruce, nice to meet you, bud. Our favorite Canadian for the day.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I bet you say that all the time.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Well, I say it to my wife all the time, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Is she your favorite Canadian?

SPEAKER_03 1:22

She is my favorite Canadian for the last 30 plus years. I think Gord Downey was my favorite Canadian for a while, so we're moving on.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Oh, now you're talking. Yeah, see, I see.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

I speak Canadian. Bruce, uh, why don't you tell everybody that's listening uh a little bit about who you are?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Okay. Uh 62-year-old masters athlete. Um dabbled in adventure racing 15 years ago, thought I was in pretty good shape, and then I got introduced to a little sport called CrossFit back in the early days and was immediately hooked. Uh ended up competing at the CrossFit Games in 2015 where I was 16th. Wait a minute, then 19th.

Bruce’s CrossFit Games Journey

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Bruce, Bruce, time out on the field here. Sorry. We're throwing a flag here on this one. You competed in the CrossFit games, like the ones that you see on TV.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah, I did that four times.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Holy shit!

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Yeah, Scott, when I get a guest, I get a guest.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

I see that.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

All right, Bruce. This is gobsmacked moment for me.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

A little reefruit, boys. A little reflect.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Exactly. No, we live in spontaneity. Plus, if we had studied, we would have forgotten it by now.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

And you would have been all nervous and all that shit. I get it.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Oh my god, we're talking to Bruce Young.

unknown 2:36

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

Yeah. So sorry, continue now that Scott is. Time back in appropriately, gobsmacked.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Okay, 2015, 16th in the world. And at the end of the CrossFit games in 2015, I remember Lang finishing the workout, and I was on, and I've got a picture of this. I'm on my hands and my knees. The thing is over. I finished like not even close to what I wanted to. It was the first time I ever felt the feeling of truly competing at a high level. And I remember thinking to myself, I love this feeling. I want it again. And I want to do better. Came back, ended up uh waiting a couple years, so I was aging into the new category, did it in 2019. Always a good move where I was Pardon me?

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Always a good move to like if you're on the cusp of a new age group to maybe wait a sec.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah, exactly. Um so 2019 ended up uh the last day going into final day, I was in second place. And uh Scott, you're a Bills fan, so you could probably relate to this. I started planning the parade the night before.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Go Bills. I'm not a Bills fan, John's a Bills fan.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

And it ended up in fifth place, which uh really was very humbling.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

Uh that's the Canadian version of Wide Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

What's that?

SPEAKER_03 4:02

That's the Canadian version of wide right for us Bills fans.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Yeah. And uh so I ended up fifth and then came back in twenty twenty-one, ended up holding him in third place, and then in twenty twenty-four I ended up um qualifying, going down to the game, but a week before I blew up my shoulder and decided to go anyways and see how it went, but it didn't go well. So I only did one event with one shoulder, and then that was deadlifts and uh and a running event.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Yeah, I uh I know an athlete like that. His name is Scott, and he he's nearby. No, I I I get I get that mentality. You you know, at some point uh you gotta roll the dice and think maybe I can just gut it through.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

Well, John I have a really jacked-up shoulder, but you know, John has asked me before on some other podcasts. My phrase is DFS, don't fucking stop. Oh, you know, look at that. That's spicy. Or we had what was the one um DFL? Uh we talked to a marathoner and she says, I just I'm not gonna be DFL. We're like, what's that? She goes, Dead fucking last.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Yeah, exactly. Not last. All right, Bruce.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Uh for the whole shoulder surgery. I ended up um like I I tweaked it in uh a minor tear in the infraspinitis and was um managing it through cortisone and talking to the sports med doctor, and I said, like, I want to just get through 2024, it's my final year, it's the final time I'm going to the CrossFit Games because it takes absolutely everything you can to get there from nutrition, like everything. And I managed it up until three days before I left where I was doing double unders, and my infraspinitis and my supraspinitis popped off the and just tore four centimeters each. So that kind of put an end to my my 2024 rut.

unknown 6:03

Damn.

Injury, Grit, And DFS Philosophy

SPEAKER_03 6:04

Ladies and gentlemen at home, I just want to point out the fact that if your muscles are not connected to what they should be connected by no matter how many centimeters, um, yeah, that that's a wrap.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

So Yeah, that was done.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Yeah. Bruce, before we go into your and I knew you were a high-level CrossFitter, but I I it's kind of like you speak German and I speak English because I sort of understand the CrossFit mentality, but not really. But you mentioned adventure racing. Yeah. And I am interested in what that is, because I don't I think I might know, but I don't think I know.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So picture adventure racing is travel on for uh people with ADHD. Show up at a at a place with a team of three people, uh north of like north, three hours north of Toronto in a town called Thurst Town. You've got a topographical map, you've got a backpack, you're gonna start with 90k, 90 kilometer mountain bike ride transition into a 30-kilometer backpack track into a 30-kilometer uh canoe ride with Portageon. Each transition station you change and you get more food, but you're carrying your food and you're self-supported, and it's all topographical maps, no GPS.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Bruce, we're not we're not the same species. We're just not. Like when the zombie apocalypse comes, you're gonna make it, and I'm not. And I I applaud you because he's gonna be out running, biking, and portaging, and I'm gonna be eating Cheetos on the couch. Not a sponsor. Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yeah, I love you guys' comments on Cheetos. I'm not a Cheetos fan. Too dirty on the finger.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

You know, you know what, Bruce? I and I just like to say this because I just got back from vacation where I ran into a whole bunch of lovely Canadians, and we've decided that in the free world, the best snack food are coffee crisp candy bars.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Oh, young coffee.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

I heard you say that on a podcast earlier. It's a thing. Not a coffee crisp head, but I get it.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Yeah, it's a thing. You know, and part of it is, you know, you want the thing you can't have because across the river from here, coffee crisp are 79 cents Canadian, which is like 12 cents American. And here they're like here they're like 450 or something ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Well, I'll give you an idea how much John likes them. I like them. One year for your birthday. I bought you like 30 of them, remember?

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Yep, they're not here, they're not here with us anymore. They weren't there the day after his birthday. No, that that's probably true.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

So adventure so not even the charity, sure.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

Yeah, so are adventure races like so you're trying to get across some finish line by in a time, or you just go as far as you can go in 24 hours, or how does it be?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

No, you're trying to get to a uh uh a finish line.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

It's obviously a finite finish line back to the start in 24 hours.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Oh, okay.

unknown 9:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

All right. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're you're wrong. I'm always wrong. A lot of what John and I, you know, the people you've had before, they've done something in their, you know, their teens and twenties, and then they had that life happening thing, and they're trying to get back. It sounds like if I'm understanding your timeline right, there was no, you know, chunk in the middle. You've been doing stuff straight along. Am I right with that?

SPEAKER_01 9:33

I played hockey as a kid.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Obviously.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

That was that was my big four, not at any high level, but by any stretch of imagination, rec hockey had a had a really a lot of fun with it. Um got married uh my first wife, and I remember Okay, keep in mind what I've told you I do now. And I remember my father-in-law at the time saying, because I play pickup hockey at night, that I should stop playing hockey because it's dangerous now that I had kids.

What Adventure Racing Really Is

SPEAKER_03 10:05

Yep. Yep. That that as you can see, I that's probably one of the founding pillars of why we do this podcast, because we are a little bit trying to combat those people that say, you know, you're 35 now. You should probably just sit on the couch and eat a snack food of choice. Not Cheetos, not Cheetos. Cheetos, of course, of course, still not a sponsor. Um, so yeah, so that's first that's awesome. And I can't believe we went so far down this this you as an athlete, because what I really wanted to talk to you about was you as this mindset motivation human. Because uh you came to us through Candace where she just said, because I am I I admittedly, like I don't even have to make up a scenario about what you would do for the laziest human being on earth that still wants to be an athlete, because I am the embodiment of that person. I I will I will gladly bitch and moan and do I will do a workout, but I will bitch and moan about it the entire workout. Yeah, it it's fair. So uh you've done some incredible things. You know, we've we've seen your work product in Candace and the you know the 24-hour races, the the going from a heavy discipline of like powerlifting moves to CrossFit moves. Uh at the core of all of us as human beings, do we all have the capacity to be super motivated and super like push ourselves as hard as you seem to be able to?

SPEAKER_01 11:40

I truly believe at the core, everybody does, and that's truly what motivates me is when I'm training people or when I'm working with them on a life coach basis or a life ed coach basis, is having them exceed what they think is possible. And I do it every day, and I absolutely love it. And if if people follow me on Instagram and they see it, I do to inspire people to say, you know what? You don't stop at 30, you don't stop at 35. You just keep going, or even just keep getting better. Yeah, that's age is I don't appreciate it. Age is just a number.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

Wow, yeah, I I you are so impressive. Um what you what is your Instagram, by the way, since we we did that?

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Uh B.E. Young.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

There you go. B Young. That's that sounds any hyphens? Pound signs?

SPEAKER_01 12:40

No, my my son's just shocking right now. Yeah. My assistant.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Your uh your assistant. Oh, this is a good time to transition to that since you Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

All right, it's B E Young coach.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Oh yeah, there you go. Everybody follow them because you're gonna because you have the capacity to be amazing people, and I have seen what this gentleman can do to unlock some significant potential in human beings.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

Well, I think about some of the stories Candace told us when we talked with her. I mean, both you know, off-air and when we we had the pleasure of talking to her on air. Yeah, you know, the I just ran a 24-hour ultra, and then the following weekend I went out into the 5k PR. Yeah, you know, and then I've got uh a comp, you know, a month later for strongman. Well, strongman, yeah, there's got to be a gas tank to it, but it doesn't lend itself to ultra marathoning. Yeah, and the fact that she has the mentality just speaks volumes to what you do.

SPEAKER_03 13:42

Yeah. So Bruce, as my whiny actual self, I come to you and I say, Bruce, you know, I'm I'm a pretty decent athlete, but there's so much potential to be better. Thanks for that endorsement, Scott. You're welcome. Um what what do I do? What is step one into sort of unlocking my potential?

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Step one is find out what you like to do. And I heard I heard one of your earlier guests listening to today. Um, if if you like to run, go run. If you like to maybe not pick a ball, but like if you like to think or do I say that out loud? Hey, no.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Oh my god, you are now my wow favorite person in the world.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

You're related to Scott. I feel like you're related to Scott. This has been some sort of cool sentence. Bruce, that was brilliant. Thank you. All right. So if I love to run, I should go run.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

You're saying that you love well, for a good example is uh strongmen.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

Okay.

Fighting The “Slow Down” Narrative

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Right? If you like to do strongmen, go get good at strongman, but don't kind of put a square peg in a round hole and go, um, you know what, I absolutely hate going to the gym. Okay, so buy yourself a Peloton and do that at home. Just find what you'd love to do and get good at that.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Okay. I mean, that makes sense, and I think we've always kind of skirted around that concept of a do something that you're gonna do more than once. I you know, the January 1 effect of I have to go in the gym and I feel self-conscious, and I really don't know what I'm doing, and this is not cool, and I spend too much money on this. And I I I could see where that's a lot of blockade between you and some sort of success. Um, all right, so I I found what I love. I I I found what I love. What do I do with it?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Surround yourself with people who are better than you and hire yourself a coach. First of all, hire a coach who's gonna make you better, and then surround yourself with athletes who are better than you.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

That's easy for John.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

So when I was competing at CrossFit, I would drive an hour and a half down into Mississauga to compete and be around 22 to 28-year-olds who were regional level athletes, but way better than me. And they'd call me the old man and they'd make fun of me lovingly, right? But like surround yourself with people who are better. And they watched me fail hand-stand walk for literally two years. But they helped me, and I was always surrounded by people who could do it, and eventually I could do it where where it was like absolutely easy, but only because I surrounded myself with people who normalize what it is to be successful.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Okay, how did you how did you find your quote unquote tribe?

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Let me jump in there real quick, Joe. Well, I want to make a point with what Bruce just said that surround yourself who normalize with people who normalize being successful. That's that tribe that we've talked about, and I know that's where your question was going, but that concept of normalizing being successful, I think too often it gets overlooked. And I love that you brought that up there.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Yeah. So how did you find your normalized tribe? Was it it was in Tim Hortons, wasn't it? It was like two guys were doing wall balls in the corner, and you're like, I'm gonna need a double-double and a wall ball to go, please. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Yeah, that's it. Ironically enough, ironically enough, my wife started in CrossFit first while I was doing adventure raking, and I I'm like, that's that's crazy. That's not like that's not for me. I can I can run and move for 24 hours. And she was going into this little garage gym, and I remember I had to pick her up once, and I'm wearing dress pants, I'm coming from work, and they're like, hey, Mr. Adventure Racer, come pick up this slosh pipe.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Oh, slosh pipe.

Motivation And Coaching Philosophy

SPEAKER_01 17:47

For people doing slosh pipe, what is it about an eight-foot pipe, half filled with water, and I watched them do it, and I'm like, all I thought was when I pick this up, I better engage every core muscle I've got so I don't drop this and look like an idiot. And I put it over my head, and they're like, oh my god, I can't believe you did that. That's crazy, right? You need to come back here. So I went back and I did a couple of workouts, and somebody pulled me aside and said, Do you know what? You can be really good at this, because I have that switch of this is uncomfortable, I get it, but I can just keep going. And that's what a lot of good crosswit athletes can do. I'm comfortable, not painful. Notice the difference.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

For everybody listening at home, because uh this needs to not get glossed over, a slosh pipe is probably the cheapest, easiest, most difficult thing you can do in your little home gym. Oh, yeah. Get a six, eight feet piece of PVC, fill it with some quantity of water. It might take a little calibration because too much water is just impossible. Throw it on your back, push it overhead, do something and walk with it. And you will learn every muscle in your trunk. Every every. It's an excellent exercise. And you're right. I I guess the fact that if if I saw you just like basically clean and press a slosh pipe, I'd be like, oh yeah, he's got some some talent. And your wife doesn't happen to be like Sarah Sigsman's daughter or anything like that, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:22

No, not not quite. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

Because I was gonna ask you if you we could have her on the podcast or just she could stop by the house for coffee crisp or something, that would be fine.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

But I mean, Sarah was at my house yesterday, so oh I'll ask her if she's gonna be like, Oh, we made out damn it.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Uh whatever. I think that you hit on another point here. And this is one that Eric Jensen brought up uh a couple months ago. Push till you're uncomfortable. Not painful, but you're uncomfortable. So normalizing success and step outside that comfort zone.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

And I suspect Bruce's like threshold for uncomfortable is probably naturally a little higher than yours, yes. Than mine. But it it sounds hopeful, but it sounds like that can be ameliorated to some point with some decent coaching.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Exactly. And and safe coaching, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Early in my my career, I didn't have a good coach. Um, I got a lot of sloppy habits on cleaning jerks, like bending my arms too soon, I still do it because I I got successful doing it, but it capped out how heavy I could go. I could move medium weights really fast, which is great across fit, but when it came one rep max time, like I'm not there. No, I'm not the biggest guy either. So uh and then I hired a coach, uh Jamie Nugent, who uh absolutely changed everything.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

Yeah, I I I can see that. Especially I know plenty of coaches. I know some really, really high-level Olympic level coaches, and I know some dudes that coach because their kids are doing sports. And uh, you know, an average coach will get you so far, but they will create as much of a barrier to your success as anything else. A higher level coach can refine those edges and really pull out the pot the full potential of you.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Well, they take your talent and take it to another level versus that average coach, like you're saying, where it's talent that gets you to a certain level.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Yeah. Not to mention, I mean, an average coach will be nice to you, or I think a high-level coach will call you on your bullshit. We'll be honest with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Find What You Love And Commit

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Oh, this this coach was was ruthless, it's floodingly ruthless. I'll never forget I was doing a workout, and one of my nemesis in the gym and I were going, there was a whole bunch of people doing this workout at that when I'd go down on the Saturday. And he could see that I was beating and I backed off. And he threw a marker at me.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

You can dodge a marker, you can dodge a ball. Nice, good quote.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Stop, stop me mid mid competition. Like it's just a workout, right?

SPEAKER_04 22:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

He goes, it's no longer your competition. You have beaten him, he's not it. Your competition is in San Diego. Your competition is in Dallas. You don't know him, but it's not here, and you need to just go and compete against the 25-year-old. Like that's who you're chasing. Not beating the guy who's your age.

SPEAKER_03 22:33

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

So that was a good switch for me.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

That sounds like one of those, one of those to take you to the next step kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

I think everybody's familiar with a skills coach, right? Like, you know, you hire a pitching coach for your kid, you know, you get a bowling coach to help you with your average. The concept of mindset coach is is actually fairly I mean, I I think I understand it, but it's fairly new to me. Um what do you do with your clients? I mean, we we sort of talked uh maybe a little too preemptively with the uh sort of the initial steps, but if I were if I retain you, how what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Um I'll get I'll get them to fill out a 20 question questionnaire at the first start. First of all, I would have a half hour conversation with you to find out what what you're looking for, even just the way we just want a phone call or FaceTime for half hour, and then I'd send you 20 questions, and in that four questions handed out a lot of like who's your best coach, who's your worst coach, what's your worst teaching, what you talk about family life? And 90% of the time, the reason why somebody's not achieving what they want is because of the people who are surrounding them.

SPEAKER_03 24:02

Oh, wow. So it's Scott's fault. I love this. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

It ain't Scott's fault because Scott's doing Scott's doing alright in his sport, dude. He's fine, whatever.

Build Your Tribe And Normalize Success

SPEAKER_01 24:15

If you're surrounding your people around yourself with people who say, what, you want to go to the cross again? That's crazy. What you want to make it to Kona and Iron Man? That's crazy. That maybe not be the person you want to be working out with very often.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

Yeah. Oh, I love that concept.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Don't surround yourself with those people.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

All right. And I like that. And it's honestly that's what's helped propel me in in my chosen sport to you know to see a little bit of success is the people that I surround myself with. You know, as much as I am reticent to say it, reticent, including John, you know, who is sitting across the studio from me, you get the right people around you. Okay, so we've taken that step. What's next?

SPEAKER_01 25:09

I would start discussing what their goals are and breaking down their goals into is it a results goal or a process goal? And quite often people will say, I want to I want to finish an Iron Man or I want to be top ten image group in an Iron Man. Okay, that's a results goal. What process goal do you need to achieve to get there? Because the results goal you can't really control. You can't control if there's nine people better than you in the field or ten people better than you. But what you can control is how much training you do, what level of training, how much recovery, how much nutrition you're dialing in, how much rest and sleep you're dialing in as well. Those are goals that you can achieve. It'll help you towards your results goal.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Does that make any sense?

SPEAKER_03 26:00

No, I love it. I think we're on board with that. That sounds amazing. I absolutely love that because John and I've got it.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

John and I have talked about goals in a few of our early shows, and then we've revisited a few times. And quite often, I think when we look at the results goal, you know, and in the process, we see it sort of as the stepping stone to get there. I don't know that we necessarily used the concept of results and process as goals.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Yeah, I think I mean uh where my brain has been lately, and I think we did this in a recent podcast, is if if you're just goal-oriented, that that second attempt is gonna feel like you failed at the first attempt. If your process Oh, I'm sorry, I gotta speak Canadian.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

If your process related to it, sorry, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

I didn't I wanted you to be able to understand me. Um there's really no downside because it's always something to build upon, right? Like if you if you went to Kona to do the Iron Man and you finished 78th, well DFL. I I don't know. I I didn't win. I wanted to win. Why didn't I win? But you know, if you're if you're looking at your process and you're talking about like the things you said, sleep, diet, new, you know, uh training, uh, all the other factors, family factors, work factors, um you sort of have the roadmap to the next attempt, and you can build on it as opposed to starting from scratch. I love it. I I I think I'm all about mindset, Scott.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

I I just I and I put pun both intended and not intended, that's a whole new mindset for us.

Mindset 101: Process Vs Results

SPEAKER_03 27:40

Yeah, oh my god, it absolutely is. Uh you know, thank you for reframing it. And I think again, be young coach, go on Instagram. I uh you know oh 100%. Just I mean, I have been uh a reasonably decent athlete for uh many years, and a bad athlete for a few years, too. And uh I never have like framed it like this. This is I this is genuine like gob snackness. I'm gonna have an epiphany. I have. That's what I've had. I've had an epiphany.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Can I can I throw it? I don't know what our time is, but yeah, you're good. Can I work with on mindset?

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Oh, I think you broke up. You broke up there for a quick second.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Yeah, whatever you can throw out another little mindset I work with.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Yes, yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Hey. Little voices in our head. Loud as can be. And I've seen this with athletes in their eyes, and I think we call it a negative automatic thought. I'll say, I don't know, let's say I think Bruce just drove under a moose.

SPEAKER_02 28:59

Bruce, I'm not sure if you can hear us, but we lost your bud. Are you there? We lost your ish. It's a moose. I think he's driving under a moose. Probably.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Yeah, I hit a moose.

SPEAKER_02 29:11

Alright, there we go. That was a little bit better.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

Do you guys uh I'm gonna try and pull over? Oh, yeah or do you want to continue this later?

SPEAKER_03 29:22

No, no, no. Keep going. But if you want to pull over, pull over. If you don't, we'll we'll get by or we'll do it.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

It's a negative automatic thought.

unknown 29:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

So people, when you ask them to do something like a rope climb or something that they don't think they can do, you can also you can even see it in their expression, and I call it a negative automatic thought or a gnat. And I think of a gnat as something that just eats away at your self-confidence.

SPEAKER_04 29:45

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

And what I work with on my athletes is to turn the gnat into pat positive automatic thought.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

I feel like I feel like I feel seen. I feel like Bruce has met me in a former life or something because I am natty by nature. Yeah. We all are.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

I did, John. John was trying to be cute, and yeah. John is not cute. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

But you know, I got the natty that's right.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

I appreciate you. No, it's not nice. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

If anybody's seen a picture of me, definitely natty. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

We're the good guys.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

Uh, you know, 5'10 at$1.75.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Oh, geez. Yeah, you're uh you're in a different weight class than um every well compared to you. Well, yeah, you're a much different weight class than me. I'm six foot and three ten, so yeah. Yeah. Oh my John just mooed at me.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

So I mean, are there specific positive thoughts that I should put in my head? Uh is it just is it person specific? Is do you have like a mantra? Should I just be like, shut up and do it in my head? Where where am I going with this?

SPEAKER_01 30:58

So so let's take um let's take a deadlift, for example. Okay, or actually, um, yeah, let's take a deadlift because it's considered easy. Um as you as I approach the bar, first of all, when I'm writing things down on my whiteboard, I write the n and I get my athletes to do this as well. Write the number down before you lift it.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

Write the number of it's a reps?

SPEAKER_01 31:23

So so let's say I'm I'm going for 80% of five by five, whatever the number is, and and it's really getting heavy, I'll write the number on the whiteboard that I'm gonna do, like let's say it's 385, before I do it. Sending a signal to my brain and my body that this thing's done, versus some people do it afterwards.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

I am I am wired. I am wired incorrectly. I love that. You see, and I I'm the afterwards person. Yeah, me too. I write it down. I I typically keep a journal and we have a giant whiteboard in the gym, but yeah, it's always after. Always.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

And whether it's a whiteboard or the journal, write it before.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Yeah. No, yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

I'm gonna And as I approach the lift, as I approach the lift, I literally say to myself, this is light, and I got this.

GNAT To PAT: Rewiring Self-Talk

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Scott, can I say lightweight baby right now? Not right now. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. No, I'll do it later. Sunday you can say it. Okay, I do it later. Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

That's just those are some things that I get my athletes to do. Also, before an event, send it yourself. Like if you watch any of my events before a cross fit at the games, I literally, as I go, athletes stand by, I touch my hand to my chest, and the last thing I say before to myself before it's go time is I'm grateful for my family, and I go.

SPEAKER_03 32:53

Jesus. I I I need a mindset coach. Everything you're saying is giving me shivers. Like that's awesome because I am way at the other end of the spectrum on so many of these things before because before I compete in anything, usually I'm like the Tasmanian devil bouncing off the walls on nine energy drinks.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

But what's funny is John will yell at me if I don't remember your steps, make sure, make sure you're in the right mind. Dude, he he is the antithesis of do as I say, not as oh my god, I am. Like in uh in all things. He will call me before an event and say, you know, where's your head? Yeah, do your steps, that type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Wow, Bruce is my new best friend.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Like before before Candace did her Iron Man, she had a process, she had a mental process she was doing the night before. She had a whole series of things that she had prepared leading up to the night before the the event. I can't give away everything.

SPEAKER_03 33:54

Yeah, don't give away everything.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

No, no, no, no. We don't want you to. We don't at all.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

I I see, so I was a collegiate shot putter and hammer thrower, and especially in the hammer throw, it it it happens, right? You get in the circle and it just happens. So that's a very process-oriented thing. Like everybody's got their bag, their shoes, the towel, the this, the that. I get in, I look left, I you know, they really have that mentality. I'll play devil's advocate. You center yourself, you put and then suddenly someone dumps the chalk bowl on you, and you become uncentered before you start. Um, how do you recover from those sort of and they're not disastrous, but you know those slates. It's it's raining, or you know, you you can't find your favorite, you know, peeper and jelly sandwich.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Okay, so this is a level that I would go to, and I hired uh Don Fletcher out of mentality, no, not mentality well, driven mind training, who helped me with a lot of this. But I would practice showing up to the gym without my lifting shoes. I would practice showing up to the gym without my tape for my hands.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

What? Scott and I are both here just like jaws dropped. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Because shit happens.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Yeah, oh yeah, it does. Yeah, it does. But I have never, I mean, I've been around all levels of athlete, and I've never ever heard anybody say, like, basically, practice the failure modes, right? Like, I only have one strap. Uh, I forgot my left shoe. Uh any number of things that you think are critically important. Oh my god. Oh my god.

Pre-Event Routines And Centering

SPEAKER_02 35:39

You know, I mean, I guess let me put a quick summary on what you know Bruce has shared with us thus far. Surround yourself and normalize being successful. Amen. Preach. Normalize being uncomfortable. You go by uncomfortable. Yeah. Stunning yourself. Make sure that you are you're within your mind, that it's not all haywire crazy. Make sure you've got some sort of a routine. And I think this this last one that you just shared with us, Bruce, goes back to that, you know, being uncomfortable. Practice, you know, something that's not gonna happen. You know, I forgot this, I I I missed that, whatever happened. And I think that goes back to that being uncomfortable thing.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

I love it. I'm a huge fan of that. No, no, now, Bruce, does that mean that like that helps me? And I don't really have them, but I mean like the the pre-event jitters, because I'm super prepared if I'm even prepared for failure states.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

If you've done everything leading up that I work with my athletes, especially the week before from a mindset perspective, and the night before, you know that those jitters are gonna be there.

SPEAKER_03 36:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

And you know how to train them and you know how to talk to them. Yeah, and you know how to deal with them.

SPEAKER_03 36:57

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

But they're going to be there and they're there for absolutely everybody.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

Yeah. Scott, we're competing this Friday at the Arnold Sports Festival. I feel like we should have had this podcast about, I don't know, six months ago. You think? Damn it.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

There's some things that we're we're definitely gonna practice. I definitely am.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Bruce, just so you know that I will be the most centered Tasmanian devil with too much uh energy drinks in him that you've ever met. But man, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

I'm grateful for the ability to do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:26

Oh, I love that. I love that. I mean, my two takeaways at this point are the the be centered and grateful and the practicing failure states, just that's that's a whole other level. That's you know, we're playing checkers, Bruce is playing chess.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

That's Bruce is playing 3D chess.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Yeah, you're you're from Buffalo, so you can you can relate to this. I was training in a in a like a little compound warehouse, and there was it was February, which is you know, what February is like in Toronto.

SPEAKER_04 37:54

Tropical.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

And the sun was coming down into Windows, and it was so bright, it was right in my eyes, and my coach goes, just move over to the left. And I'm like, nope. When I'm in California and the sun's beating down on me, I can't move to the left.

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Damn.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Yeah, it reminds me of the stories of Drunus Obiscus. He's uh four-time world strongest man, just a phenomenal guy. John and I have actually met him at uh the Arnold. He had the same mentality. I'm not gonna turn the heat on in my gym, I'm not gonna have music playing, I'm gonna train in you know the hardest situations because I can't control what you know the arena, for lack of a better term, is going to look like. Is it too hot? Is it too cold? Is it music playing? Is it my type of music? Is it classical music? You know, is it whatever? You can't control all those things. So if you train harder and to failure in many instances, or with failure, uh you're going to be ready, you know, and and like Johnson, I've got some takeaways from this. I've always been uh write my thing down after because I don't want to jinx myself, you know, that mentality. But no, it's gonna be this is my success. I will hit this number.

Train Failure States To Stay Ready

SPEAKER_03 39:09

Yeah, and I'm sitting there thinking how this is up. I mean, this is all applicable for us regardless. But yeah, if you're running your first 5k, I think like training those failure states and and managing those jitters are probably as important as to your cardiovascular health. I mean, it's it's it's definitely part of what's going to impede you from your best performance. It's like a positive placebo effect. Kinda, kinda. But I mean, I think there's some I I think if I can go to my to whatever my endeavor is with in in that centering, tell myself I'm prepared. Just I'm prepared. Maybe I'm not as prepared. Maybe I could be more prepared, but I am prepared.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

So leading into the 2021 game, uh, they were in uh Wisconsin, which is similar weather to Ontario from a humidity standpoint and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

I knew there was going to be a run event, and being my size, a run event is an opportunity for me.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Right? One rip max deadlift is just damage control, but a run event, that's an opportunity for a top three. I would practice at high noon running on the pavement in the humidity in a weight vest. 2021, our first event, a 6k run on pavement at 11 45 a.m. and it's 88 degrees out.

SPEAKER_04 40:39

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Everybody's freaking out having oh, it's so goddamn hot. And I'm like, this is easy. I'm not wearing 30 pounds. This would be a piece of cake. Yeah. Second place.

SPEAKER_03 40:49

That's nice. That's outstanding. And again, that applies to uh I I I'm sorry, I'm usually a little more eloquent than this, but I am completely blown away by this training of failure states thing.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

So let me propose this.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Propose.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

Bruce has given us some truly like nuggets here. Yeah, like world-bending nuggets. So Bruce, if you're amenable to this, because I know you said you're you're on a little bit of a trip with your son and you pulled over for this, so we don't want to you know monopolize your time. I'd like to do this if you're okay with it. John and I have the Arnold championships coming up next week. I've got the my national championships for um for strongman in June. So we've got a few things coming up where we'd like to sort of work on some of the tips that you've offered and then get back with you and talk about them. Are you okay with that?

SPEAKER_03 41:42

Yeah, that'd be great. Oh yeah, that that would be great. And you know, I have one last question because you said you're going skiing with your son in the car. Um, how hard is it to have you as a dad? Because in my head, in my head, I'm sitting there, I'm playing Call of Duty, I am on the couch, I am close to I am uh Cheeto adjacent. Cheeto adjacent. And they're adjacent to a and I want to say, Dad, I I don't want to do that. I can't do that. I got excuse X, Y, and Z. You you must be the like the worst, best dad on earth. Like, ew.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Do you want do you want my son to chime in here?

SPEAKER_03 42:24

I absolutely do. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Okay, Rob, this is my son Rob. Take it away.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

Hey Rob.

Heat, Humidity, And Running Advantage

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Hi, how are you doing? Um, honestly, uh he's one of the best uh role models that I could ever have. Throughout my life, I've had ups and downs, and him as the positive rock as he is, has helped me through a lot of it. And uh although his I don't have his like hardcore mindset to like get his mind over these things. Like he's of a like you said, he's a different species for sure. But it's made me a better man to have somebody like that in my life for sure.

SPEAKER_03 43:03

Well, Scott and I are both.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

In Rob's defense, yeah, he takes his um um mindset concepts but applies it to music because he's a fantastic musician and a music producer as well.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Well, that that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

That's his that's his specialty.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

That that's what I was trying to touch upon is that these principles apply in so many venues. It's not one direction. Yeah, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

You got that?

SPEAKER_03 43:28

I got oh one direction. Oh, sorry, I was a little slow on the update. Yeah, but you know, Bruce, uh I applaud you because Scott and I are both parents, and to have have one of your miserable sucking all your money children like all I don't know. Rob, I will smack him for you. Don't worry. Don't worry. Say such amazing things. I mean, that's the goal. That's the goal.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

So it's good that you just wants me to buy the listing.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

I know, I know. I wasn't gonna point out the fact that dad's paying for the weekend, but you know, whatever. At least he at least he understands that concept. Concept too. That's fine. Bruce, this was brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

Yeah. I mean, this was there. I've grown with the concept throughout my life that if I can take one thing from everybody, it's a success. I've taken way more than one thing from everyone. Absolutely. Absolutely. This was incredible. And we we we say it often, we reserve the right to uh ask you to come back. Well, I'm going to double reserve the right to bring you back. This is incredible.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

And just so you know, and you know, if your ears are burning, uh, we have about an eight-hour drive to this competition. I know I'm not going to shut up about the discussions we've had. So thank you ever for.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Okay, well, good. You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

Should we let him like go get a double double and get back on the road? Well, double double and wall ball.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

Fun fact, I've never had a coffee in my life. What? Amen.

SPEAKER_03 44:51

That's not a that is not a fun fact, you weirdos.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

That is that is an incredible fact. No, I drink caffeine by the gallons, but not coffee.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

I I will smash beyond Diet Coke, though.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

Do you have a do you have a vice, Bruce? Like, is there a food, a drink, uh something that uh you sort of allow yourself?

SPEAKER_01 45:11

I'm a 27 27-year um recovering alcoholic, so I haven't touched anything.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 45:17

Literally, my only vice is Diet Coke and uh and a bit of an adrenaline junkie.

Parenting, Transferable Mindset, Closing

SPEAKER_03 45:21

Oh, yeah, obviously. Yeah, obviously. Well, Bruce, I really appreciate your time. Thanks for bringing us along on your ride. Uh, thanks to your son for the guest appearance. We're gonna pay him, we're gonna pay him as much as we paid you. And uh and uh good luck skiing. Try to stay uh upright.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Okay, thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_03 45:41

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media, or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Thanks again. Now get off our lawn, you damn kids.