Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 679 - Phx Suns Strength & Conditioning Coach Cory Schlesinger: How Lifters Can Move Better
Episode Date: February 18, 2022Cory Schlesinger makes his return to the Power Project, this time as the Director of Performance and Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Phoenix Suns. Prior, Schlesinger served as the Directo...r of Basketball Performance at Stanford University, where he served for three seasons, while also training the 2019 National Champion Stanford Men's Golf program, as well as professional athletes in the NBA, NFL, and Team USA. Follow Cory on IG: https://www.instagram.com/schlesstrength/ Follow Cory’s Not Done Yet company for updates on The Gym In a Box: https://www.instagram.com/ndyperformance/ Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 15% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢Bubs Naturals: https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢Vertical Diet Meals: https://verticaldiet.com/ Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% off your first order! ➢Vuori Performance Apparel: Visit https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order! ➢8 Sleep: Visit https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Subscribe to the Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell
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Alright, if you would do the honors of well as the podcast show notes. All right.
If you would do the honors of flipping our shot clock over.
I like that.
Shot clock.
Yeah.
Yeah. We got,
we take our time to set up our plays around here.
This is like a college shot clock.
Yeah.
Right.
There we go.
They used to not have a shot clock.
Right.
And then like the score would be like,
like 14 to 8.
There's still some high schools that don't have shot clocks.
And they'll run, I think they called it four corners.
Yeah, they made it popular where if they're up, they're just going to hold it.
Just make the other team so bored that they just don't even care anymore.
Like, we just don't care.
Andrew and Mark, real quick, I'm curious, Corey,
because they
were talking about how andrew has this disdain for basketball nowadays you can explain it yourself
we don't like basketball no well we were we were talking um after yesterday's podcast just like um
you know i i you know i grew up in the 90s so i grew up to watching larry johnson charles oakley
uh olden Polonese.
Nobody recognizes that name because I'm a Kings fan.
But they played hard.
And then they didn't really complain to the refs as much as they do today.
Today, if you look at LeBron James, it's just like,
fuck, you're just about to get thrown out of the game if you do it again.
So that's where I'm kind of like,
I know it's geared more towards the offense, which is exciting.
It's fun.
I get it.
It makes a shit ton of money.
But at the same time, like.
Oh, it does.
It's not the same.
You know what I mean?
Like it's not what I grew up with.
So.
And then on top of that, I also like we were talking about this before we got on air.
I used to live and die by every Kings win or loss.
And so like I've gotten very detached from that.
So now I kind of just don't really care as much.
I feel you.
Yeah.
So do you think the game is soft?
Actually, they've changed it up this past year.
So it used to be, like, you can basically create a foul out of nowhere.
So there's guys getting to the line anywhere between 15 to 20 times a game.
So they had, you know, they can easily get 40, 50 points.
Like, notice those numbers aren't as often now
right
because they got rid of
that bullshit
like fake three
and jump into the guy
bingo
it was so dumb
they got rid of a lot of that
and Vladi Divac
was the king of it
he was great
no everybody else sucks
Vladi was dope
big ass flop right
yeah
yeah he was great
so they're trying to
I feel like they're trying
to bring back
that 90s style
oh yeah
now techs are giving out
almost every quarter
you get technical
for complaining I think
right
yeah techs are
I mean it's kind of like
the NFL right
like no fun league
like it's becoming
a little bit more
and more of that
but at the same time
at least they're letting
them play now
like we were fortunate
to experience
the playoffs
and the finals last year and you can just see such a difference in the physicality of play
what happened to like there was like david robinson there was like that was a team elijah
one like there was like a lot of seven footers patrick ewing um i'm missing a bunch of robert
parish i mean there was a list but he went way back yeah there's there's tons of like seven
footers and i know now that there's still kind of resurgence of some seven-footers,
but those guys were big, and they were fucking amazing.
They were so athletic.
Super athletic and super strong, but it was all about contact.
And it was about getting as close to the rim as humanly possible.
Now it's about skill.
And so that's where you're seeing some seven-footers that can actually jack threes,
that can bounce the ball.
Like, that's the crazy part when you've got a kevin durant who's phenomenal human being um or a specimen i should say but i mean you got guys like that with guard
capabilities it's changed the game because now you can just jack up scores that's crazy do they
have like goalies anymore you know because like i remember you could have like no skill but if you
can block shots like you're oh you find a spot on a team. I would say this, if you're, if you're
extremely tall and extremely athletic and can catch a lob and protect the rim, you can find a
roster. You can find a roster because those don't grow on trees. You know, you can find a roster.
How do you deal with these athletes just being so tall? You know, like when you, when you get
into training and you start coaching yourself,
it's like, all right, well, I organize my body this way
and I lift this way, not too bad.
Then you start talking with other people,
and you're like, okay, when you squat, you get your knees out,
keep your back flat.
When you deadlift, keep your back flat, these kinds of things.
And a person's 5'7", and it works out okay,
and every once in a while you've got to have them do corrective exercises to make sure the back is flat but
you're dealing with guys that are six eight six nine guys are seven feet someone that's six foot
nine and 230 pounds right like that's a body type that you probably before you started working with
basketball players probably never even worked with before or seen before.
Now the knee is caving in, the back is rounding,
and it's not a short and stumpy powerlifter back.
It's this long-ass torso of like a real athlete.
So how do you coach these guys up and train them?
That's a great question.
Really, it just comes down to physics in some form or fashion, right?
I mean, at the end of the day, they're still humans.
You're like, all right, guys, I got it.
We're not squatting, and we're not deadlifting no and here we go i definitely disagree with that we those are the most potent lifts we can experience for the body so to have the most powerful stress response
adaptation i need those heavy lifts i just need it in different forms i love a zurcher squat i think
it gets into your center of mass guys can move it better why because i into your center of mass. Guys can move it better. Why? Because I dropped their center of mass.
So, yeah, it's a little bit different than having a higher load higher up on the body.
And a normal barbell zurcher squat is what you're talking about?
Yes, sir.
You modify.
Okay.
Yeah, yes, sir.
So basically in the crook of the arms, holding it out.
Now, obviously, what is the limiting factor?
An upper back.
Well, I think these guys need upper backs, don't they?
So is that really what I'm going to lose out on?
Like I'm developing an upper back but not getting the legs, quote-unquote, as much.
It's an interesting take.
A Zurcher squat is interesting because you have the weight in the crooks of your elbows.
But I would say that you could have like a, quote-unquote, dirtier squat form with a movement like that, right?
Absolutely.
And not really pay a huge cost.
You're more than likely not going to really hurt your lower back,
more than likely not going to really mess up the knee too much.
The weight that you're using is going to be less than, you know,
you might see an athlete try to handle three plates on a squat,
some of these athletes that we're talking about,
and that might be, you know, too much, and their knee might cave in,
and they might end up with some repercussions.
But if they're doing a Zurcher squat, 185 pounds, 225, maybe some of the stronger guys,
275, 315, probably not a huge issue, right? Absolutely. But when I'm looking at it from
a global standpoint, I can get that heavy stress from a million different other ways, right? Like
if I'm looking for like a technical squat, well, at the end of the day, they don't get on a platform.
for like a technical squat well at the end of the day they don't get on a platform so i can get motor unit recruitment i can get bone density i can get ligament tendon by doing isometrics
overcoming isometrics so basically pin pulls right something like that so i can get underneath
trying to rip the bar through an immovable object the amount of motor unit recruitment i get from
that is i mean the best uh stress you
can give the human body or the heaviest stress you can give to human bodies a failed deadlift
that's what we're reproducing we're just doing in an area where they can actually create that force
and so and once again going back to like a tri-bar deadlift sure it's basically same as a
zurcher squat when you really break it down you just have a limited range of motion here this is
what we did last time i was here i love love a Hatfield squat. Absolutely. Why? Because they
can manipulate whatever they need to manipulate to get a decent range and to get a decent load.
Tell us what a Hatfield squat is for people that can't see the...
Yeah, absolutely. So basically, this is where we take a safety squat bar, put it on our back,
right? So now I'm hands-free. So what can I do with those hands? I can support myself so that I can have great posture,
and I can bail myself out whenever I need.
So I love using it for over-utilizing the eccentrics.
So in other words, no hands on the way down,
so I'm just sitting myself, get to the bottom of the squat,
and then use my hands as necessary to get out of the hole
and to get through the concentric.
And we had a band.
The thing that we're showing here is like the squat regression that we did with Ben
Patrick as well.
We got a band kind of hooked to the rack and you can utilize the band in whatever way that
you feel that you need to get you out of the bottom.
Now, when I use that at Stanford, like most people are using like something like stiff,
right?
Like a barbell.
Yeah.
I like the band because as a coach, I want to know how much they're using their hands.
So that band, the further I see it drop down, the more I'm like to know how much they're using their hands. So that band, the
further I see it drop down, the more I'm like, you know, they're saving themselves. Like, okay,
maybe we need to back off the load or yo, he, he actually did that. So that gives me almost like
another, um, another metric to look at other than tonnage. I'm looking at actual effort. And so now
I can see how they're using it. You know, with how different these NBA bodies are, I'm curious to know, you've been working with the Suns now for three years.
And when you see new incoming players, young guys, do you notice any type of difference in the way that they move structurally?
Just because we've had a lot of coaches come on to the podcast.
And one of them, Jim Wendler, works with a lot of teenagers, a lot of high school students. And he noticed that there's a much higher occurrence of younger students because of technology, because they're not doing as much.
Even though they play sport, outside of sport, it's sedentary, it's phone, it's iPad.
They just have much weirder type of inefficiencies as far as the way that they move.
Do you notice that with young guys coming in from college or not really?
I don't know.
I'll say this.
Most people that are getting more serious about sport get more serious about sports
performance at a younger age.
And if they're even somewhat capable, like I got a chance to get a scholarship or I got
a chance to make it to the league. Someone's grabbed them at some point.
Now, with whatever methodology they use, that's whatever.
And depending on their success and depending on a lot of other things,
some of them get bypassed.
They're just like, hey, man, just don't get hurt.
Hey, man, just get here and then we'll take care of you.
And then that trickles in too.
So then you got guys that have been in the league for three or four years,
and they still have a zero training history.
And you're just sitting there like, wow,
I kind of figured that would have happened at some point.
But due to a ton of environmental reasons, it didn't happen.
So there's a whole spectrum there.
Yeah, I noticed when I was coaching high school
that just having someone try to have their back be flat during a lift was very difficult.
And then I was like, well, maybe they can straighten their legs out more like when they go to bend down to pick up the bar.
And I noticed that their body would really tremble a lot and shake.
And these are athletes that they weren't destined to be, you know, real high level.
And so they haven't tapped into any of that.
And there was no one around to kind of say, hey, listen, you're 6'7 and you're 15.
We need to get you on a program and we need to get you.
So a lot of these kids, they were suffering from being in their chairs a lot and being on their phones a lot.
And when they did go to do something like a deadlift,
they thought their hamstrings were going to like explode off their body.
And I'm like, how is this so?
Like I'm pretty tight, but I wasn't that tight when I was that young.
Right.
Well, the one thing that I think is now an emergence in the field
and it's trickling down to general population is just better movement strategies.
Yeah.
And just being able to move your own body weight.
Like you had Ben on.
Ben Patrick, yep.
I mean, working through full ranges of motion.
Great.
You don't need a lot of resistance.
Great.
I think that's greater for the youth anyways in a lot of ways because I would rather take somebody who's fully capable through full ranges of motion through all their joints
than taking someone who's trying to learn how to do a 300-pound clean with terrible form.
And then once they get to me, I got to reteach all that.
So this emergence in calisthenics, this is PE class from the 50s.
Now this is becoming the thing?
Fantastic.
Makes my job a lot easier.
I think one thing that gets underestimated is capacity.
It's really wonderful when people have a capacity.
So if you have a 7-foot tall athlete and he's already really developed in terms of his basketball
and you take him into the weight room and it turns out that he could do a snatch perfectly,
you have a much easier job.
You have a much easier person to work with.
Now you can stay ahead of the game.
It kind of reminds me of anyone that's gotten body work done,
anyone that's gotten like soft tissue, some soft tissue management.
If you go when you're hurt, then you're always kind of playing behind.
But if you go just because you want to go because you're like,
I just want to keep everything prime.
I don't want any tweaks anywhere, anytime.
Then you can always stay ahead.
So for some of these athletes that have this capacity to go out and run two or three miles,
it's not like they need to necessarily run two or three miles,
but you're an NBA basketball player.
You're on the fucking starting roster.
How could you not be able to run?
There should be a capacity for it.
It's not like we're training for it though, right?
I would say that's a human capacity,
much less an athlete.
I like that.
I mean, every human should be able to do certain things.
There should be a criteria to being a human.
There should be a criteria that should allow you
to get certain healthcare.
Or you're off the team.
Or you're off the team.
Specifically to that, what are some things?
Because yeah, we should be able to run one, two, or three miles. Even Cause like, yeah, we should be able to run one, two or three miles.
Even if it's hard, we should be able to just do it around the track.
Sounds fair for most people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what are some other human capacities that you think people should just like be able to do this without issue, like baseline?
And this is, I'm mentioning this because like Mark mentioned the running aspect.
There are a lot of power lifters that are probably listening. I'm like, Oh, you know,
like running, even me, I'm just like kind of fuck running. So what do you kind of think about that?
Uh, I think just hanging from a bar, like, you know, like back in the day we were playing around
on monkey bars and all that, or a pull-up bar, like just being able to hang. What is that going
to tell you if you can't hold longer than five seconds? Well, it's one or two things.
You're weak as piss or you're pretty overweight.
Excuse me, what is weak as piss?
Ew, I like it.
Is that a new one?
I haven't heard that before.
Oh, bad.
I'm from the south, so maybe that's the couple of things.
Virginia or West Virginia?
Virginia.
Virginia.
Why do you have to clarify so hard?
What's wrong with West Virginia? Oh, please. It's a beautiful place have to clarify so hard? What's wrong with West Virginia?
Oh, please.
It's a beautiful place.
I'll say that.
It's a very beautiful place.
West Virginia is maybe a little too country, right?
Yeah, you know what?
I'm good.
I'm good on that one.
But yeah, I think just the ability to hold your own body weight for an extended period of time.
I think 30 seconds is pretty reasonable for most human beings to be able to do.
As part of some of the criteria I use is one arm hanging.
So the ability to hold on with one arm, that's pretty elite.
You can do that anywhere between 10 to 15 seconds.
I don't even know if I've ever tried that.
How do you train for that?
Because I legit tried that the other day.
I did a few seconds.
I was like, fuck, I'm weak at this.
I really am.
It's doing it.
That's the greatest part about it,
right?
Like,
like,
yeah,
sure we can do as much grip strength,
like holding a heavy kettlebell,
dumbbell,
whatever,
but there's something about that overhead aspect.
Yeah.
Scapula moving over the rib.
There's some things.
And the reason why I use it,
it's like just reverse engineering.
What I see,
basketball,
basketball players play the game over their head.
There's a lot of stuff that goes on they get fouled up here
they dunk, they get extended
behind themselves, like shoulder health is probably
pretty damn important
Kareem, he made his living off of that one
that sky hook
this dude that Andrew's about to pull up
his name's Derek, but we call him Mr. Infinity
he's here at the EZO
but he's able to hang off one hand off the bar
his legs are up and I think he had a weight yeah bruh oh he's 43 years old by the way oh that's
different right and he like wow he's amazing in terms of the way he moves his ability and range
also a basketball player too he's insane I, that's all I got to see.
I can already assume he has a lot of prerequisites
to be very fast, right?
When you're that lean, I'm sorry,
there's not many dudes with that kind of frame
being that lean.
Like, if you see Jackton lean,
then, you know, I'm going to assume, aren't you,
like, you're not the fastest 100-meter sprinter.
Right?
But, like, the way he's shaped, that's not.
That's a whole different discussion.
You can tell that guy can leap, bound, and it probably looks pretty effortless.
It probably looks like a deer running.
It probably looks like a deer jumping.
It's interesting.
The athletes, I think, over the years have changed quite a bit.
If you look at Michael Strahan in the beginning of his career versus towards the end of his career,
beginning of his career, he was thicker. He was heavier. Towards the end of his
career, he was a lot leaner, a lot thinner
looking. Even Aaron Donald, who might be, now people are starting to talk
about him being one of the greatest football players ever, regardless of
offense or defense, which is pretty remarkable. I mean, that guy's not fat. He's in great shape.
We're seeing more and more guys have like an Anderson Silva style of physique,
a Bones Jones style of physique.
Even Ansanya and some of these other athletes are kind of these longer-limbed
athletes that are super athletic.
But it's different than what we saw years ago
where I think a lot of people wanted to figure out a way
to look like a Herschel Walker or Bo Jackson
or even some of the linebackers in the NFL
like Erlacher and some of those guys that were real.
I mean, Erlacher was an insane athlete.
I don't know if you ever saw that play
where he tracked down Michael Vick,
but that was pretty sick.
But anyway. Or a great fullback like Corey Schlesinger. I don't know if you ever saw that play where he tracked down Michael Vick, but that was pretty sick. But anyway.
Or a great fullback like Corey Schlesinger.
Yeah, yeah.
But, yeah.
Were the real Corey Schlesinger, please stand up.
Man, I'm telling you.
I let down so many strength coaches.
Oh.
Because they're like, oh, my God, I'm going to see Corey Schlesinger.
And they think the line or the fullback from the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Detroit Lions.
And then they see me and they're like, you lost some weight, bro.
That ain't it.
That ain't it.
How'd you get younger?
How'd you get a lot younger?
So I let down a lot of people.
But as far as.
People just clicked on out of here, didn't they?
Yeah, exactly.
They're like, oh, no, not this guy.
But to speak to your point, I mean, speed wins.
Like truly speed wins.
And if you can be stout, like if it's, a bull, like, a bull is pretty hard to, you know what I'm saying?
So, like, when you've got these guys that are now becoming bullets opposed to bowling balls, you've got something pretty special.
And so the game's getting faster in every sport.
I can't imagine another, I don't know another sport that's actually getting slower.
Really trying to think about it.
Maybe bowling.
I don't know another sport that's actually getting slower. Really trying to think about it. Maybe bowling. I don't know.
But like, you know, like there's not another sport that's saying, if we slow down, it's going to be more exciting or it's going to be better.
You know, basketball, football.
I mean, all these major sports.
I mean, baseball.
Obviously, you can't really do that.
But some of these sports, they're just getting faster.
And so, you know, I think it's always this pendulum, especially in the fitness world, where it's like get as big as humanly possible.
Get as mobile as humanly possible.
Be lean and shredded.
Just be big as hell so you can lift heavy weight.
It's always going, and it's cultural.
I think Bruce Lee, when he came on the scene being so shredded, changed bodybuilding culture.
And you're just like, wow, that's pretty fascinating that someone his size changed meatheads perspective
on what physique should look like.
So now you bring that onto performance,
you're seeing lean dudes like 100-meter sprinters,
there's a reason why they look that way
because they move very, very fast.
And you can't move very, very fast
if you've got a lot of jiggly to you.
Or if you do and you can,
imagine if that jiggly wasn't there i mean
that's it's pretty profound how long should it bounce for you know what i'll get my i'll get
my depends on the body part yes it definitely depends on the body part that's where compressions
come in but some spanks i'll get my assistant kohei who's our sports scientist i'll get him on
the the jiggly How much jiggly?
Jiggle factor.
What is some – because I'm actually curious.
Devin Booker is – he's an amazing player, right? And Mark was mentioning the other day.
And I'm curious, somebody like that, how much does – how much do some of these athletes actually strength train with you?
Like do they do quite a bit off, or do they need pretty minimal strength work
and they just do stuff on the court mostly?
Right.
That's a great question.
I'll say for the context of my contract obligations,
I will say athlete X,
and I'll use averages on how a typical athlete
in an NBA environment would train.
If you knew anything about that. If you knew that.
Under my tutelage.
Okay.
So we actually do something pretty interesting.
Last time I was here, we talked about microdosing.
So basically lifting almost every single day.
Microdosing.
When I was at Stanford.
I was thinking psilocybin.
Yeah, and that's what everybody thinks too.
And done wrong, good for y'all.
Not throwing stones in this scenario.
But what we do because of the chaotic environment
of professional sports world like the nba we play i think last year the average was like 3.6 games a
week and that includes travel and that includes all this so like where are you going to train
oh we're going to train on the day off that doesn't make sense because now i'm going to bring
you back down just to get a certain adaptation so then you can go and exploit that later.
For me, it's like, well, okay, we got to keep our high days high, which is basketball, and then keep our low days low.
And so what we do is we actually train on game day.
And we train upward to three times a day.
Microdosing.
Microdosing.
So in college, it would be one session per day here it's
three two to three sessions per day depending on the athlete depending on some other factors
especially like playing time etc but we generally have a shoot around in the morning that's when we
get our first lift then we'll go they'll have their shooting times in the evening before the
game generally two two and a half hours before the game that's when we'll go, they'll have their shooting times in the evening before the game, generally two, two and a half hours before the game.
That's when we'll get our second lift.
And that lift is more movement based and it's on the court.
So that's where we have some pieces of equipment that allow us to,
to have access to multiple means of getting that stimulus in.
And then post game, that's when we get our heaviest one.
That's when it's isomet, heavy ISOs or heavy eccentrics.
So then they're in micro sessions, 10 to 15 minutes long at most.
It's not going to disturb the system that much.
If anything, I'm trying to potentiate them for higher performance.
And then whenever you have left in the tank, I'm going to get it all out of you at the end of the day.
So now tomorrow, it's off.
I ain't got nothing for you.
Like you need to, that is our peak.
Now I need to get you, or excuse me, you just went into the valley.
I need you to recover so you can get back to your peak.
And so that's how we look at it is high-low.
So you want to get high on high days and then low on low days.
And when they do some of these isometrics kind of at the end of the day,
I'd imagine that you're probably more forgiving with the types of weights that they're lifting.
You just want to see that it's a good stimulus for them for that particular day.
Is that how it works?
Yeah.
I mean, we can get some weight.
I mean, we can get some weight.
It depends on the cat.
It depends on the training history.
It depends on what we've built to.
We've got an 82-game season, so that is a large portion of the year.
So if we just kind of be like, it can be a little easy.
Well, that's six months of being easy.
So at some point, you've got to train.
And so based off game schedule, we reverse engineer the best opportunities
to be able to get that kind of stress so that they can recover and still perform.
And so we mainly do yield actually i
shouldn't say mainly we only do yielding isometrics during those types of lifts which is so basically
you know the isometric where you push against something as hard as you possibly can it doesn't
move that would be considered an overcoming isometric so i'm exerting all this force because
i want that as a potentiation i do that pre-game because I'm trying to get all this motor unit recruitment.
I'm trying to get this excitement and nervous system, all these other things.
It works amazing, by the way, for a heavy lift.
Yes.
If you do some of that potentiation beforehand and then you actually, you know, you do it on like a pin press and then you go and actually bench press.
Bingo.
It feels incredible.
We do that but with athletic movements.
So some are done in the sagittal plane, some are done in the frontal plane,
and then we continuously cycle that throughout the season.
But the post-game would be a yielding.
So that's the one where you start, let's just say, a split squat.
So I got dumbbells in my hand, and then I'm going to start from the top,
and then I'm going to go down to the bottom of that, and then I'm going to hold.
So that's really, really – now, they're both good for tendon tendon health just hold as low as you can kind of get your body and that's how we can train through
a full range of motion super heavy but once again it's super safe you know and that's where you can
do that same thing with a hatfield squat same idea right only way you can bail out of it you
got two assistants me and my my man kohei lifting up as heavy as we can, racking it. So definitely ways we can get that safe environment.
And, man, to be honest with you, I love machines.
I know that's like –
Yeah, yeah.
But I love machines.
It gets the stimulus.
It doesn't take a lot of coaching and training to worry about the positioning, right?
It's safe.
It has much.
If I'm searching for a stress, does it matter how I get it?
Like especially in competitive season.
Now, if I'm developing someone, yeah, sure, there's some how I get it? Like, especially in competitive season. Now, if I'm
developing someone, yeah, sure. There's some better qualities, right? Like I need some stabilizers,
muscle spindles, GTO. So that's great with closed chain, you know, barbell movements. Sure. Right.
But if I'm in the middle of a competitive season and they're already sprinting and jumping on the
court, which is the highest stress regardless, well, I probably need to find the best means to
get them that kind of load.
You know, a leg press is pretty solid.
A Smith machine is awesome.
I use a Smith machine like nobody's business, especially when it's available.
But that's where, at the end of the day, find the right vessel, okay,
so the exercise selection is the vessel, to deliver that stress or that stimulus
because all I care about is the adaptation at that point.
What are your thoughts of full range of motion movement
done without a lot of load?
You're mentioning the game being like that.
The game is where you're going to have your knee
kind of inside your ankle
and you're going to be in weird positions
like that you just uh mimic thing
mimicking them in the gym with 225 pounds in your back probably not a great idea unless you're some
sort of like really gifted athlete and you're trying to show off for instagram or something
like that but for practical purposes probably not a good idea are you trying to have athletes
uh go through ranges of motion but maybe doing so without a lot of weight.
Like I see Joel Seidman, he gets a lot of attention because he's like, you know, hitting
the weights like while his guys are doing his thing.
We had him on our show and then we had Mike Israetel kind of pop in and they were going
back and forth a bit.
It's awesome.
But I felt that Joel Seidman really had a lot of good points.
And I feel like Ben Patrick has a lot of That's awesome. But I felt that Joel Seidman really had a lot of good points, and I feel like Ben Patrick
has a lot of really good points.
And I think most people would think that those guys are on opposite ends, but if you actually
listen to both of them very carefully and you're paying attention, Ben Patrick does
a lot of full range and almost what I would call over range or over pressure movements.
The ATG split squat, the squats on the slant board. He might do it
occasionally with some weight to kind of show the type of strength that he's developed over
a period of time. But most of the time, these things are done for repetitions. And then when
it comes to a lot of other types of movements where he's really trying to get an aggressive
overload, he's doing so at a much higher stance in a much more favorable position
where your body's um uh you know if you do like a full range of motion squat the least advantageous
position of the squat is the bottom of the squat so he doesn't really choose to do that exercise
with four plates on his back where he's going to have four or five plates might be on like a
backward sled drag where the knee is not going in as much flexion. So what are some of your thoughts on some of that style?
I will say this.
At the end of the day, everything should exist.
It's just the dose on how it exists, right?
I love full range of motion.
Heavy as that athlete can possibly handle off-season, right?
As heavy as they can handle with maybe perhaps like a technical limit of some
sort like you're really trying to eyeball the form like let's make sure this is absolutely you
know blow something out for sure for sure you know and so like for instance like i like i love a deep
front squat for an athlete during that time uh i think you always have to train full range of
motion year round you always have to train a heavy stimulus year round.
How you dictate the exercise selection depends on the time of the year and all the other stressors that are going on in their system.
For example, if I'm in game three of the finals, I probably don't need anything other than to keep me playing.
So am I going to risk a heavy quarterback squat
during that time? Probably not. I got to do the things that are going to get them the freshest
so they can continue to play because why? The finish line is right there. That big back squat
is not going to cross them over that finish line. It's just not. Even though strength coaches
believe that, it's not, but what I'll say
is everything exists all year round. It's just the dosage of where you apply it. So yes, full range
of motion year round, full range of motion for lighter loads, more reps, middle of season. Sure.
Why not? But at some point you got to get some load. There's a hormonal response that we're missing.
And if I want recovery and I want to maintain muscle mass,
I can't do body weight, you know, super high range of motion squats.
Like it just doesn't work that way or else you're just going to deteriorate.
And so there's many ways of doing it.
Once again, that overcoming ISO,
a great safe way to get that heavy response through a limited range of motion exciting nervous system tendon health all that stuff but once again like
it's what what i feel is happening especially in the social media land is like it turns into
them versus us or one way versus another when in reality it's like no no it all coexists
it all coexists it It all coexists.
It's the practitioner that determines or the practitioner should be determining how that is presented and in what dosages is presented.
That's appropriate.
But the fact that it's like camps, like you can only do knees over toe squats.
I'm like, I love knees over toe squats.
Makes a lot of sense for tendon health.
Do I always need to do it?
Probably not. Is there certain guys that have meniscus issues? Yeah. Does it help them in the off season,
maybe in rehabilitation standards? Yes. But if I want to try to get that maximal output to create
that hormonal response, am I going to go knees over toes? Probably not. Have them do a box squat.
There you go. Box squat or just a heavy ass sled drag. Like what's wrong with that? Like sled pushes, sled drags.
I think something that's missing is more of like the frontal plane aspect.
Like I love a heavy sled drag where you got it in one arm and you're walking sideways.
Dragging it sideways.
Say that again.
That hurts.
Yeah.
So for instance, you know, most of the sled dragging that most people see is backward
sled dragging or forward sled dragging.
But what if we just take it in one hand, turn to the side, and now we're crossover stepping?
Hey, let's go.
That's a day.
It's so difficult.
It's embarrassing.
It gasses you out pretty quick.
Absolutely.
But that's what, and then you think about,
hmm, change of direction drills compared to linear sprinting.
One is more taxing than the other.
Now, one creates a bigger response,
but change of direction is way more taxing on the body so then you think about the sport like basketball which
is all change of direction then you understand how damaging that game is to the body the only
thing everybody heard you just say is that pulling the sled sideways is better than all the other ways of going to sleep. Honestly, right? That's everything else just went up.
I will say this.
Once again, everything should exist.
It's just when it's applied and how often it's applied for your situation.
Absolutely.
Now, since we talked about Ben a little bit, we talked about Joel Seidman,
we recently had the GoToCoaches on, and they're all about training the bow.
Andrew and Mark have been applying it.
It's been super useful for Andrew's back.
And chime in, whatever, but I'm curious what you think,
because with some of the stuff they're doing,
I have not seen other people just literally training that specific bow, right?
What do you think of the application of that?
What do you think about kind of what they're putting forward
in terms of
looking at players like michael jordan looking at some of these elite athletes and then looking at
the way they step and focusing specifically on that aspect of athleticism right um what do you
think there's good things bad things i'm just curious about your your i will say this um anybody anybody can make an argument based off still photos at any given snapshot. So for instance,
the quote unquote Boeing, sure. But within that same frame or within that same movement,
I could take another still frame and see a lot of pronation. So to me, it's never,
a lot of pronation. So to me, it's never, I need to overemphasize one direct movement strategy.
If I'm a good athlete, I can apply multiple movement strategies for the same result. And that's the difference between good and great. So for example, like Mark, big career in powerlifting,
you're very sagittal, right? You do not probably like to move left and right. Well, you've developed that movement strategy because of years of heavy
lifting. So you have a awesomely rigid spine and you probably live in external rotation of your
hips because that allowed you to squat super heavy weight. But change of direction requires
a lot of internal hip rotation and a lot, believe it or not, there's pronation.
So yeah, like I tried to train to be awesome and I've trained myself out of athleticism
because of that. So now what did I do? I limited my body's ability to have both.
And that's where I think you can't get stuck on one side of the fence just by taking still photos and saying, yeah, do you see it in that moment in time in that action?
I can take the same athlete and I can find them in a different or in that exact opposite situation because they have access to both.
So I can't say that I'm just going to live in a bow in supination and say I'm going to have a better athlete.
I think the best athletes in the world have movement strategies that are almost endless to be able to create similar responses.
I mean, there's a decathlon athlete, best in the world, runs like a 10.5, I think, 100-meter sprint.
He's the exact opposite.
He's Woda like you wouldn't believe.
I mean, like, whoa, Woda. But he's the best opposite he's woda like you wouldn't believe i mean like whoa woda wow
and but he's the best athlete in the world what's his name i forgot his name uh you know a guy named
joel smith he posts about him um i love joel smith just lost sports performance podcast uh but he
he's just in search of truth and that's where i'm like cool like just find truth it doesn't matter
where it's coming from doesn't matter. The goal is not to be dogmatic
because as soon as you create that,
then most people stop listening in my opinion.
But for me, if anyone speaks in absolutes...
Oh my God.
Yeah, I know, right?
I know, his first video, Andrew, pull this up.
Yeah, absolutes are...
As soon as I hear absolutes, I automatically go,
oh, curiosity.
I mean, look at this cat.
I'm sorry, but he's the best athlete in the world.
And he has, to my understanding, he has a very, very limited injury history.
How old is he?
That's what I have no idea.
You know, there's a lot of different shit happens when you start to go full speed.
Yes.
And the fact that one simple strategy is going to correct all that,
I just go, nah, bullshit.
Oh, actually, go ahead, Mark.
I was going to say, yeah, you can see his feet are ducked out.
Some of the stuff that you're saying, I totally understand.
Where I would say something that might be important to address is,
for me, I've lived in this space, right?
And I think that you might agree with this.
I kind of lived in this space.
So let me explore some other spaces so I can kind of see if I can walk more with my feet straighter.
I have practiced these things in the past and I've actually hurt myself doing them before because my body's like, hey, what are you doing?
And I've kind of like waterboarded myself too by just doing so much of it to where it really kind of hurts and messes you up.
And it kind of gets you thinking like, well, maybe I am just the way that I am.
And it gets you kind of in a little bit of a funk because you're like, shit, man, this is really hard to pull myself out of.
But I do not have hardly any internal rotation of my left hip. gets you kind of in a little bit of a funk because you're like, shit, man, this is really hard to pull myself out of.
But I do not have hardly any internal rotation of my left hip, and I do need to continue to explore that.
So I've been messing around with a lot of these different strategies.
Some of the things that we've learned over the years from Kelly Starrett, some of the
things we learned from Ben Patrick, some of the things we learned recently from the
Go-To Guys, probably going to take a bunch of things from you today.
And I'm just going to keep kind of mixing them and blending them.
And ultimately what ends up happening with me a lot of times is so many things end up reverting back to a lot of the things that I enjoy, a lot of the things that I was originally inspired by from fitness, and even things that were like taught to me by my mentors.
from fitness and even things that were like taught to me by my mentors because those are the things that like I genuinely want to gravitate towards anyway those are the things that I kind of
originally fell in love with so it won't be long before I'm back to like box squatting and things
like that but I'm hoping that I can not only do not only lift well with some of those things but
to be able to do them for a very long time and to be able to be
just more efficient at them more with better proficiency i think some of the best athletes
that have the longest histories are the ones that do multiple things all year round so for example
like there i believe a long long time ago strongman competition or rather powerlifting and bodybuilding
was competed on the same day. Oh, yeah.
I mean, there's a time where that was a thing, right?
So, like, I look at that as the same as modern-day decathlon athlete where they got to do a lot of things pretty well.
And, yeah, their body might favor being a better sprinter than a better jumper
or a better thrower than a hurdler.
But to have capacity to do those things with somewhat of competency i mean that's
that's longevity you know like when you when you live in one place for a long enough period of time
all of a sudden those other avenues or there's other streets that you used to go down you can't
go down them no more and so for me like that's where
i was like as soon as i got to the nba i used to be like like 226 was pretty good for me and then
every year i feel like i'm losing like eight pounds and now i'm like roughly at like 207 and
but i move better yeah i move better and i feel better and i'm on the court more with guys
and now i'm like oh that's what they value they value that they don't value some guys
trying to be jacked like because they're not jacked really i mean there's a few guys holy shit but
you know but like really like from a movement standpoint i'm like man like my actually i feel
better and so if i feel better i can train harder and that's where i think a lot of people like it's
the toughness it's like no fuck it like my back But, you know, I'm still going to go through it.
I'm not saying don't be tough.
But I'm saying, like, have some roundness to you and, like, have a little bit more pain on your canvas so you can be just a better human.
And if you can do that, you're going to look aesthetically pleasing.
You're going to be able to perform in multiple ways.
You're going to have capacity to do things with your kids later.
Like, these are the things that I think about now, opposed to know i want to get buried in a double wire casket and you know
shit like that like that don't be wrong that stuff's cool like i mean i was inspired by it
to like try to get as big as possible but yeah i mean to live there like i don't know man i remember
when i was a kid uh some of our some of my coaches even the older guys i always admired the way that
they could move when they went to show you something.
Like, I don't know about you guys if you experienced some of that, but like, I remember some of
the like kind of fat football coaches that weren't in good shape and they'd be like,
no, no, no, that's not the way.
And then they would get down in a stance and they could pop down into a stance really well
and they would come out of the stance and it just, just drill you.
And you're like, what the, you can't even believe that they're able to move that fast.
You're like, oh my God, it's unbelievable. So you're like what the you can't even believe that they're able to move that fast you're like oh my god it's unbelievable so you're right i mean the guys are probably more uh they
probably admire your movement rather than you like benching 315 for reps or whatever probably like
that has no use for us we don't even care well luckily i played college basketball literally
the lowest level of college basketball but i was a point guard so i could handle the ball so i
incorporate a basketball in our warm-ups because I can handle it.
And I was like, see, I'm one of you.
Just a really bad version, but I'm one of you.
I can bounce the ball.
I can do certain movements that you do.
This is kind of cool.
We're all together now.
Great.
Also, do you want to go lift weights?
Watch me spin the ball on my nose.
But it's a way of like, you know, this ain't just some meathead thinking that strength is my answer.
Man, look where I got.
I make millions of dollars.
This is my answer.
Shit, you're right.
The way I view myself now as a coach, like in college, I was like, I'm coach, strength coach.
Now I'm like, I'm an assistant with a specialty in strength.
Like I'm your personal assistant and with iron.
That is it, you know. And so how can I help you? assistant and with iron. That is it.
You know?
And so,
how can I help you?
Because it's truly a customer service business.
Yeah.
And it's just with,
you know,
13 different guys individually.
And you will do
all kinds of stuff,
I'm sure.
Like,
you might get the guys
some food,
you might like do
all kinds of things,
right?
You'll do anything
and everything
to make sure that they're
going to perform the best,
right?
Yeah,
like,
I mean,
it's not to the point
where it's like,
only green M&Ms in my, you know, trailer. mean, it's not to the point where it's like, only green M&Ms in my trailer.
No, don't get me wrong.
There is some pregame stuff that gets to that point.
But there's some things that's like,
yeah, I'll do anything to increase someone's confidence
because, I mean, that's performance, right?
At the end of the day,
if I'm the quote-unquote director of performance,
I mean, if it increases performance, I'm in.
That's legal, of course.
A little bit more on that. So on the go-to end of things, like obviously here on the podcast,
we love bringing people in and applying things that a lot of people talk about because
there's a lot of truth and a lot of things that coaches are doing. So it's great when
we talk to people who you're very open to adding things from other people into your repertoire,
which is amazing.
So when it comes to like the training of the bow aspect, do you see utility in that for athletes?
Like is there, from your eyes, do you see like a benefit in doing that
and a benefit in the addition of that to different types of programs?
doing that and a benefit in the addition of that to different types of programs there hasn't been a single like how should i say this a staple exercise that i've seen uh and to be honest with
you i haven't really deep dived in it too much this is fair um but there hasn't been like a
staple movement that i would say they're known for that i'm like yo if i can take that like that
makes sense uh but some of the aspects of just like, you know, internal hip rotation.
I love it.
I'm in.
That makes a ton of sense.
I see the best athletes in the world do it a lot.
You know, they move really, really fast too.
I like it.
I mean, some of those positions done isometrically, I think make a lot of sense.
Because these are some of the actions that end up happening in some form or fashion in sport.
So, sure.
Am I going to be
in supination? Cause that's where I create a ton of stability, add a kettlebell to it. Yeah. Do it
in single leg stance. Sure. You know, so there's certain things that I would take from it, but to
me, that's just like sound principle that I would take from any methodology. And it's not necessarily
that it's the entire global movement that I'm stealing from. It would be some of the intricacies within that movement
that just make a ton of sense to me from a joint-to-joint perspective,
if that makes sense.
Gotcha.
What are some things that you have incorporated?
Like you just mentioned that kind of sideways sled drag.
Is there anything more recently that you've gotten fired up about?
I know sometimes we tend to get too excited about something
and overdo it for too many weeks or something.
But is there a couple things over the last couple years that you've been really fired up about? Sometimes we tend to get too excited about something and overdo it for too many weeks or something.
But is there a couple things over the last couple years that you've been really fired up about?
Yeah, I use a ton of water bags.
Are you guys familiar with those?
Those are sick.
Yeah, they're really unstable.
Yeah.
I use that a ton, and I do it at high velocities.
So there's a gentleman named Franz Bosch. He's incorporated a ton of quote-unquote instability means,
but through normal movement patterns.
So, for example, like I'm sprinting with a water ball,
and I just press it away from me and sprinting at high velocities.
Well, okay, think about a wide receiver going across the middle, right?
Think about someone receiving a pass, you or dribbling they disassociate
their ribs and hips while in locomotion because that sport no one's really broke that down and
trained that you know they just go that's in sport and so a lot of my running progressions
involve holding like a really lightweight like two and a half kilos, like five pounds plate. And we'll have some disassociation of the ribs while they're running forward.
So in other words, their upper body looks like they're running sideways, but their lower
body is running straight.
I love that because it seems like some dudes just have that figured out, but now you can
kind of actually train it a bit.
You can train it.
And what's interesting is when you take it away and then have them sprint without anything,
they're faster. Honestly.
Because their body, it's like a hyper
stimulus of self-organization.
So it's almost like you go beyond what
they're capable of at super high speeds
because of a joint.
That's a lot. I've got to really
torque to be able to... Now that you're saying this, I'm kind of thinking
you could even do it with, like if you're
just starting for the first time ever, you can just do it without weight at first absolutely
just turning your arms to the side and running straight would be really hard it'd be really
haven't done it in a long time so i call it prisoner style so basically you put your hands
behind your head right and then rotate your torso and just do marches just high knee marches right
and then do skips and then if you're comfortable with that, do sprints.
Man, we're going to look really weird going down the street.
Absolutely.
But, all right, let's go back to individuals that still frame and make claims.
If you still frame someone throwing a pass, what are they doing?
They're disassociating their ribs and hips in real time.
And so I think that's a quality you probably need to train.
And so now you add something
even more advanced.
Let's say a water ball.
So instead of a water bag,
it's a water ball.
All right, now run with that.
Well, the perturbations,
so that's basically the vibrations
that are happening.
Oh, yeah.
What are some of these
apparatus things called?
What are these pieces of equipment called?
So that's right there.
What you see is a water bag. so basically it's got multiple handles so you
could hold it like for instance if you're doing a barbell movements so i could do cleans with it i
could do snatches with it but you can tell you see i got the wide angles here and then i'm going into
outside of my body which that looks like a between the legs dribble if you stop
right but at the same time i'm'm over-exaggerating my torso,
but my upper body is still going in,
or my lower body is still going in locomotion.
So if I take that water bag away and then I start sprinting,
I have a lot of access because I just gave myself a lot of capacity.
And so that's where you can do it at high speeds.
Yeah, that was being bored.
Water bag in water, that was a little OD.
Yeah, there's all sorts of things.
That was when we were in the bubble.
That was a lot of fun, actually.
Weirdly, it was like adult summer camp.
It was pretty cool.
It was pretty cool.
Except for the first week of meals.
Yeah, can you explain some of this to us?
You were in a bubble during pandemic time, right?
So the NBA stepped up in a huge way the ufc did something similar they went to like a
fighter island country or something right and they made like a fighter island type thing how dope is
that yeah that's great yeah good job but the nba like they're they they buckled down they're like
no we're gonna make this season happen you know i thought that was pretty dope like they're just
gonna figure this thing out and so they, I don't remember how many teams,
but we were literally the last place team to get into it.
And so basically it's bringing, let's just throw out a number like 18.
So they brought in 18 teams, and we stayed all in a Disney resort.
So we were all in different hotels, and then they had pop-up gyms.
And so essentially it was really cool
because it was basically college environment for me
because we had limited access to what we could get our hands on.
And so we also had limited access to gym availability.
So it's like kids going to class all day
and then having to come and train and do practice with me.
And so that's like, what, three hours out of the day
that we had that kind of access.
So it was really tough
to navigate
for professional athletes
and coaches
that have only worked
in professional sports.
And so I'm like,
oh,
this is easy.
This is college.
Like,
this is easy to organize.
And so what we would do
is just try to get creative
because,
dude,
we're just there all day.
So we just try to find
different ways to train
and have fun
and just,
I mean,
it's kind of tough.
You know,
you're away from
your significant others. You know, a lot. You're away from your significant others.
A lot of people are away from their kids.
For how long?
This was like two months.
Damn.
It was wild.
That's us kettlebell partner passing with a sprint medley in between.
I was just being idiots really.
That looks brutal though.
But it was fun.
Oh, absolutely.
It was tough.
I became a lot more quote unquote fit during this time. What else did you learn
during this time period?
Helpless creativity and stuff?
Just in general.
You just don't need much. This is when we're stuck in the hotel.
We were locked down for
I'm a maniac.
We had to quarantine
for three days in the hotel.
We couldn't even leave our room for three days.
Couldn't leave the room.
So I'd actually use my luggage to do split squats with.
And then there, I'm like, okay, how am I going to get a fitness component
without being able to actually run anywhere?
So I'm like, all right, the mattress is pretty soft.
So if I ran in place, I'm going to get wicked tired from it.
So that's what I'll do.
And Seema's mom would beat his ass if he ran in the bed.
Absolutely.
Once again, that was the cool part.
You don't need much to get a training stimulus.
You just need the ability to think what is the training stimulus you're trying to get.
And once again, disassociating ribs and hips.
And then I loaded that thing up. I think I had bathroom towels in there, hair dryer. training stimulus you're trying to to get and once again disassociating ribs and hips and then i
loaded that thing up i think i had like bathroom towels in there hair dryer i literally got
everything that i could like stuff in there to be able to create load uh because t-shirts just
weren't doing it this must have been kind of cool um no that sucked that well i'm just saying like
being with this is great like just being around the other coaches like you guys would probably
come up with all kinds of stuff all day now that was the fun part was just saying like being with us. This is great. Like just being around the other coaches. Like you guys were probably coming up with all kinds of stuff all day long.
Now that was the fun part was just us like really bringing our heads together and going, okay, what do we got today?
Because we got eight hours to do something.
What were people leaning into at this time?
Like, you know, for a lot of people, they unfortunately, you know, went in a bad direction.
Like their mental health went, a lot of drinking, a lot of overeating.
Did you guys find yourself get trapped in that a bit,
or were you able to just kind of focus in on what you always focus in on,
which just looks like fitness?
I thought it was the glow up.
For me, it was everything.
So I'm like, wait, I don't have to go to work?
I get paid to lift weights.
This is actually, I'm a professional athlete at this point because that's all, that's what I was getting paid
to do. Now, at the same time, that was also the most challenging aspect, training guys remotely
while like Zooms and phone calls and FaceTimes. And you know, that, that part was pretty difficult.
But for me, I'm like, dude, like how much can I train during this time like is the most
how should I say this
the most selfish
I could have possibly
be
because it was just me
oh this is a version
of Danny Ball
Danny Ball
our boy Ian Danny
they took
they took away
our nets
so I'm like
alright
so now we had to create
lines in the middle
so that there's no way
you could throw it low
so that you had to
throw it within bounds who's like the champion of throw it low so that you had to throw it
within bounds who's like the champion of this it's like tebow right is there or is it uh james
harrison no it's me it's a thousand percent me now i do take that game almost way too serious
like to the point where i lose friends how much is the uh med ball 10 pound 10 pound dynamax ball
um but yeah to me that's i've been playing that game ever since it was introduced to me
by my mentor Jonas Serration at UNC Chapel Hill.
So see, that's what that red line is.
That's where you can't throw it in.
That's a no-throw.
I like how official that is.
That's like some NFL type shit right there.
Yeah, that was me on scribble on my iPad.
That's what that was.
But yeah, I mean, we had an absolute blast, man. I mean, it was a lot of fun,
but I think the biggest takeaways from it was you don't need much. You just need to have a basic
understanding of some physics and maybe some biology. And then from there, it's like, okay,
implements, like what is around me? What is my surrounding and how can I create that
stress response to hopefully elicit an adaptation.
You know, we've had quite a few coaches come on and talk about like how important mindset of athletes are.
And I think it was Chad Mendes.
He literally, or no, it wasn't Chad Mendes.
It was, who's the guy who had the mindset coach that we went deep on with?
Oh man, a little bit more specific.
The bald UFC fighter.
Oh, Josh Emmett.
Josh Emmett, yeah.
He has a specific mindset coach that takes him through visualizations and all this type of stuff, right?
So I'm curious, what do you see as far as the athletes that you're working with?
What kind of things do they do?
I know every athlete's different, but what are some general things that they do that's pretty beneficial for pregame rituals, mindset, et cetera?
Routines. Routines. Having a very specific routine and not voiding it. They will go to any means to make sure
that that routine is always present. And that was my purpose with our training, was that even though
we travel on the road, we're going to have consistency. Even to the point that the implements
that I set up on the baseline to train with,
if they're not oriented the same way,
they come out there and it's like,
no, no, no, no, the squat rack's on this side usually.
You got to flip it.
It's to that point because at the same time,
if they find comfort and confidence in that,
that's great because they can always fall back
no matter what the situation is.
Oh, my girlfriend broke up with me or I just lost a million dollars on crypto or whatever, right?
They can immediately go, okay, this is my routine though.
Like this is my safe zone.
This is how I know I can prepare and this is what allows me to prepare to hopefully perform.
Now, guys, oh, man, from the weirdest scenarios like okay crazy music sure um specific drinks like bca's at 60
minutes on the clock then beats at 45 minutes on the clock then i take my salt tablet at this time
like i mean it it gets to that point where it's pretty crazy crazy but i think the biggest one
because i don't really dive into the mindset stuff too much um and i'm not saying there's not a lot
of value i think there's not a lot of value.
I think there's endless amounts of value in that,
especially if you have someone that's broken upstairs but amazing downstairs.
Like there's too much value in that.
But from what I've seen from high performers is their comfort and their routine is everything.
Yeah, and having a routine, it takes some of the motivation
out. You just know that you're doing
this around this time every day.
And then it's also really helpful to have
a team. It's helpful to have people around you
and you're like, I don't really want to go.
But then you're like, well, so-and-so's going to be there
and so-and-so's going to be there.
It really is.
And shaming and stuff, right?
Where were you yesterday? You, you were late yesterday.
Or what's going on?
You know, you're not lifting the same as you did last week.
What's going on with you, right?
Well, I just hired my new assistant, Larry,
and I've known him ever since I was at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
But that's probably one of the major reasons why I brought him
was to keep me training hard and heavy because the dude can train.
And I'm like, you know what?
Even though we're on the road and all we have access to is 50-pound dumbbells, I can rely on my guy, Larry, to make sure I'm getting my work in.
Nice. I'm also really curious about this. Since these athletes are able to afford the highest
form of recovery tools, what have you seen that maybe would be just like things that people in
the general public should think about, but then things that maybe the price point's too high, but it's actually very useful.
Proper planning. That's probably the biggest one. I get asked recovery a lot and I go, well,
you don't have to recover if you have proper planning. And that's the one thing, like everybody
wants like that pill or that hijack. Like I want to hijack the system to be able to recover so I
can go again. Well, you had terrible training to begin with. Like you over-volumed and over, I mean, that's my, me, my entire lifting. Um,
I wouldn't call it a career, but, um, I would, I love volume. Like give me, give me volume or
give me death. Like I'm, I'm great with volume. Um, but that's where it's like, if you have proper
planning, then recovery is probably not the biggest indicator or the biggest thing you're
worried about. But with that being said, by far the most important is food or
excuse me, sleep and food. Right. So why would I pay X amount for a cryo chamber when I can go get
like lamb chops or fillets? Like that's how I think of it now. I'm like, well, like cool. I get
some hyper ice and gun myself or I get some Norma tech boots, but I'm like, well, cool, I'll get some Hyper Ice and gun myself,
or I'll get some Normatec boots, but I'm going to go eat a hamburger.
I'm like, what? That doesn't even make any sense.
I'd rather go down the rabbit hole of,
if I really want to make biochemical changes, go for that,
more so than buying some novelty items like a Normatec boot or something like that so you know
for me it's it's it's definitely sleep proper planning but it's more of the awareness so i'd
rather spend money on a technology like an aura ring i i don't know if you guys are familiar with
that but it's very similar to the woo band i love the aura ring i've been using this thing for over
four years now and not this specific one but um i applied it with some olympian athletes i used to
work with because i would dictate their training based off of it so when i see body temperatures
oh yeah oh yeah no they're female athletes and so once their body temperature started rising in the
middle of the month i started realizing oh some things internally are going on that i need to be
aware of because during that time of the month,
they're a little bit more elastic. And so maybe high-end plyometrics might actually,
because that's where you generally see ACL tears in females is during certain periods. Like they're
escalated, I should say. They're not necessarily preventable or anything, but I'm just saying
they're escalated during that time because their body's more prone to it. So just even knowing
little things like that, and especially during COVID,
when you see body temps go up,
you can automatically, it's one or two things.
There's overtraining going on
or there's a sickness that they're fighting off.
And so just knowing that alone, body temp, easy.
And so that's a great recovery tool.
Looking at HRV and resting heart rate.
I joke with Shereen all the time,
like, what's your resting heart rate today?
Because that's the only thing I'm good at compared to her.
Like, her sleep is always, like, 91.
My sleep is, like, always in, like, the low 80s.
But my resting heart rate is, like, 49, 48.
Dang.
I know, right?
And I don't even do that stuff.
Like, I hate cardio.
I don't even do that.
But I'm like, all right.
That's probably, I guess, why I like volume.
But, yeah yeah so i say
instead of buying recovery tools to quote unquote make you feel better buy things that are going to
allow you to train better and then that's going to allow you to program better based off yourself
and like your awareness well i'm having a high frequency is going to help too because now you're
able to handle more yes you know you're able to handle more so Yes. You know, you're able to handle more. So the workouts are less intrusive
and less of a negative stress on your body.
Correct.
Right.
You've probably heard about it, but I'm curious.
Have you heard of Eight Sleep?
Eight?
Yes.
Yes, I have.
Yep.
Yep.
Because, you know, we work with Eight Sleep
and the mattress topper, it's pretty cool
because you don't need the mattress.
You can take that topper and put it on a hotel bed or anything.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, the technology is in the topper.
You can set the temperature to be however you like, 55 up to whatever, cooler, right?
But it tracks your HRV.
It tracks your heart rate.
I had no idea it did all that.
It's applicable to any mattress.
I thought it was just like the cooling aspect.
Yeah, yeah.
But they do all the metrics too.
That's pretty cool.
I didn't know that.
And it's made a big difference for me because I'm a super hot sleeper. And since I can set the temperature to be
whatever I want, I don't wake up sweating.
I don't move around as much in bed.
And I think the great thing again
for athletes, especially athletes who travel
Yes, the hotel. Is they could just
literally just put it on their hotel bed. They could
have it shipped over, put on a hotel bed,
put on another hotel bed so they're sleeping in the same type of temperature.
Because the app also, like, kind of, like, if you sleep hotter,
it will set the temperature for you that it thinks you should be at
through the night where you get better sleep.
Oh, yeah.
I need a rep.
That's what I was saying.
Send me a rep.
Yeah, yeah, I will.
I want to see that.
It's fucking dope.
Andrew.
Yeah, absolutely.
And right now is actually a really, really good time to actually check out 8sleep.com
because from now through February 22nd, you're going to receive a little extra discount than
normal.
So head over to 8sleep.com slash power project.
That's E-I-G-H-T sleep.com slash power project.
And you'll automatically receive $150 off of just the topper that Encima was talking
about.
But if you want the topper and the mattress, you're going to receive $250 off of that. Nopper that Encima was talking about. But if you want the
topper and the mattress, you're going to receive $250 off of that. No code needed. Just head to
that link and you'll automatically receive that at checkout. Links to them down in the description,
as well as the podcast show notes. I swear to God, I didn't know that was a plug. I swear.
You set that thing up nice. I mean, yeah, it was a plug, but like, it's also serious because we
know, we know a lot of like, what's his name?
The top level CrossFitter.
He uses Eight Sleep.
There are a few teams that actually travel around with that because you don't need the bed.
You can just like have the topper so you can take it to whatever you want.
And the athletes are sleeping in the same settings everywhere they go.
And then also like you'll get like a notification on your phone if you have that on.
And it'll tell you like, are you feeling well-rested today?
Well, it's no surprise because your HRV was this in comparison to where it was yesterday.
Your heart rate, exactly.
You want to talk about mindset?
Here's the one that's going to throw all that in the trash can.
Athlete wakes up on game day, sees that.
That's right.
I'll say this.
Get the algorithm or whatever, the app settings to send it to me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like not to them.
And I'll just be like, Hey, you feeling all right today?
Yeah.
Why are you asking?
No reason at all.
We're just going to do this instead of this today though.
No big deal.
Yeah.
Like a lot of people talk about that because like sometimes it's great if you can, if you
can detach yourself from what it says, cool.
But as an athlete, if it says your sleep was shit and you can detach yourself from what it says cool but as an athlete if it
says your sleep was shit yeah you have to go perform you're like yeah you know i used to
get away or i got away from game day testing i can't say that we test on game day but i got away
from letting them see it so like luckily in our new practice facility we had these uh burtec uh triplanar force plates
or 3d force plates and so anyways i let them jump and there's 3d motion analysis and all this crazy
stuff i don't let them see it though i'm like just give me your best jump and then i gaslighted
i'm like yeah that was really good it was really really really good really good really good cory
how is it 82 games in and it's still really good?
Because it just is.
It just is.
But then I'll give them success in other ways.
I love an isokinetic machine.
You guys familiar with those?
No.
So basically, Sports Science Lab, they used to make them.
I don't know if they still do, but it's a fan.
It's crazy. You remember the Super Cat or the Bear or the bear squat machine okay so it's like that basically it's a pendulum
based machine but it's a squat machine so you get up underneath it there's pads here and then you
put the plate loads on the other side and then you get up and you just it makes you go through a
squat it's like in a pendulum fashion well this is a fan based resistance so the more i push i'm in
the bottom and i'm concentrically pushing,
so that's a super cat
or the bear squat.
So it's built very similarly.
He's going really fast.
Exactly.
Fast with heavy weights.
What a concept.
But with the fan-based one,
it only resists me
during the concentric phase.
So now I'm working on
output, output, output,
but eccentrically,
I'm getting nothing.
So as far as
metabolically damaging
not at all
right
because I took the
eccentric component out
great for
our game day lifts
so we do that
in our shoot around
lifts
some form or fashion
we do single leg throws
we actually bench press it too
I love
we call it our turbo days
I love upper body
turbo days
because at the end of the day,
there is no difference between our upper body
and our lower body.
We are just a body.
And so if I neurally tax my upper body,
I'm going to get a stimulus in my lower body.
And a lot of people, I don't think,
I think that's a really important point
because I don't think people actually know that
for some reason.
But a lot of 100 meter sprinters,
they do heavy bench press
within 24 to 48 hours of their meet.
Why?
Because it's a heavy,
it's still a high neurological stimulus,
but it doesn't affect their legs.
But the total body gets a nice stressor,
and you want to talk about wiring,
there you go.
Cranking up the nervous system.
Facts.
Do you utilize any voodoo flossing type stuff?
Do you know?
Yes.
So we have an awesome sports medicine department.
And so our sports medicine, I see those voodoo flossing bands everywhere.
We use it a lot for ankles, a ton for ankles.
It has immediate results.
Immediate.
It's pretty amazing.
I just think how great it is because if you think from a tissue perspective,
there's multiple layers, right?
You've got your skin, then you have your fascia, then you have your muscles, tendons, connective tissue, whatever.
And you just tack all that down.
Now, we used to do that with massage, right?
Or we would do like a tempering device, like something really, really heavy on you.
But this actually, because of the voodoo flossing, tax it down, and then you add movement, then it creates that friction
and it helps separate those layers,
which creates all this nice fluid.
And you can deliver a lot of nutrients
because of that,
especially in areas
that don't have a ton of vascularity.
So I think there's so much benefit
to something like that.
Now, is it painful,
especially in areas with hair?
It rips it right off,
but no pain, no gain i guess right
yeah super effective you were talking a lot about earlier about um strengthening tendons so
specifically what is it that helps an individual focus on tendon strength because there are a lot
of people that probably want to add aspects of that to their training but they're not sure exactly
how to do it absolutely tendons are involved in any movement no matter what you do you do it at
no speed which would be an isometric at low speed speed, but heavy, that's obviously a squat or
a deadlift, or at high speed, which is sprinting and jumping. You need all forms of it, but it
depends on like, for instance, if you have like patellar tendonitis, well, more than likely it's
because of jumping actions, right? Or jumping or running. So you're doing a lot of plyometrics,
but you're not supporting it with, you know, some low speed or no speed stuff to build the collagen, to build
the tissue. So it depends on what you're looking at it from. But if you're experiencing, you know,
some pain, then isometrics done anywhere between 30 to 45 seconds, in my opinion, is a pretty good
benchmark. And then load it up as heavy as you possibly can.
And you can do it through any means.
I love using a leg extension.
If I got a patella femoral issue, leg extension is a great use of it.
Like, here's a machine.
It's not that hard.
But more importantly, I love it for, like, split squatting actions.
Love a lot, any split squatting.
Copenhagen's, which is, you know, strengthening your adductors.
That's probably one of the most missed items when we come to training, especially holistically.
I think Ben does a great job of bringing attention to anterior tibialis.
But once again, for tendons specifically, anywhere above 30 seconds, you're going to get a pretty decent response.
And it's debatable on which one's the best.
You could do isometrics or you can do little pulsing tempos at the end range,
but do it at the range where you're experiencing the pain.
So if you have like tendonitis in your knee,
something like doing a leg extension and just holding it for like 30 seconds,
what kind of weight are we trying to get like a real, real heavy weight on there?
I think the goal is to your comfort level, right?
And is somebody else guiding it up if you have, especially if you have a lot of pain?
If you have a lot of pain, I like to assist it and then set it.
And it's like, is that good?
And you're like, yeah, that's good.
If not, then it's okay.
Let's back it up.
Mild pain?
Pain on a scale of 1 to 10 is a 3 or something like that?
So pain is hard, and you can ask Shereen about this,
but everyone's pain scale is completely different.
So I would say this.
If it's tolerable for you,
go for it.
Okay.
Because I mean,
there's a lot of people that are like too sensitive to pain too,
and they need that stress.
So it's like,
you know,
bite down on the bamboo stick or whatever you need to do,
like get it done.
But yeah,
for anywhere between 30 and 45 seconds,
I've,
I've seen some crazy isometrics where they're like literally holding a split
squat for five minutes.
Oh shit.
Not even kidding you.
But there's actually
some anecdotal things
that are coming from it
that's like,
yeah,
it's actually beneficial.
Like what?
Basically,
fascial.
From a fascial standpoint,
they're thinking
that they're actually changing
basically like alignment.
They're saying that
you're going to be able
to create more force
because you are,
how should I say this? It's how you apply it to because if it's like a yielding and you're going to be able to create more force because you are, how should I say this?
It's how you apply it to, because if it's like a yielding and you're just hanging out there,
then, okay, you're getting a decent response. But if you're actively like pulling yourself into it,
then there's, I forgot the guy's name, Schroeder, Jay Schroeder. I think he's famous for those.
But once again, Joel's the one that put me on to that type of stuff.
But, I mean, there's evidently a lot of anecdotal evidence in those settings that are producing some pretty good results.
And they actually use that as like an entry level to my understanding.
They're like, okay, before we start training, this is kind of your deal.
Work up to five minutes each side before we start training.
And I'm like, wow.
Five minutes in a split squat?
In a split squat.
For me, I'm like, a minute and a half is probably the most I'm going to five minutes in a split squat split squat for me I'm like a minute and a
half is probably the most I'm going to take that before I go well if I can do it give me some
fucking weight yeah give me load so I can feel like I'm doing something um so that's for me but
I had some athletes loaded or not loaded to my understanding not loaded okay but I'm assuming
they got overachievers and if you know once again it's kind of like any type of cult thing in fitness,
you want to find dudes that get to it.
And then once they get to it, it's like more, more.
I've had tendonitis in my right knee for forever, it seems like,
since I was like, I don't know, 18 or something like that.
So I'm going to mess around with some of this stuff
and see what I can do with it.
I think one of the best things is those backward sled drags.
Yeah.
I mean, that's probably one of the best things.
That has been helpful.
I believe it.
I thoroughly believe it. And then from a joint perspective like tibial internal
and external rotation a lot of people uh don't think your shin should do this but your forearm
does it yeah i noticed that when i put so if i because i've been wrapping uh my lower leg a bunch
from running like just i don't know shit's like not getting too crazy like doesn't hurt too bad
but it seems to help when i wrap and then especially if i wrap my lower leg and i stretch
i seem to get kind of an added benefit to that but i noticed that when i wrap my leg i can then
manipulate my calf and shin and i can get the whole thing like rotate around it actually feels
really good well that's the thing like i'm like shit look at that when i got guys no debt seriously when i got guys that are hurting like my knee a little bit and i'm like
okay well if isometrics aren't helping it or once again that's just a stressor to help it
well maybe it's just stuck and i don't mean stuck in a little sense like it's stuck in the mud like
it's just there's a reason why you don't want to access internal and external rotation rather it's
coming from the foot or it's coming from the knee, coming from the neck.
I mean, there's a ton of things I can attribute to that.
It's like not tracking correctly for whatever reason.
For me, it's like, well, give it access and give it some variability within that joint range,
and then it's going to find homeostasis. I mean, the body is the best compensatory organism on the entire planet.
It's going to find a way to still get the task done,
pain-free or not pain-free.
But the goal is to do it with efficiency and effectiveness.
And so that's when it's just identifying,
like, I got knee pain.
All right, it's going to be, it's not my knee that hurts.
I mean, my knee is the reason why it hurts,
but it's something upstream or it's something downstream
or a combination of the two.
It's not that my knee is the problem.
It's the forces that I'm accepting from the ground,
and it's not being effectively transferred through the body,
or the force is not being transferred through the body.
It's being blocked upstream, and now my knee has to work double time.
When you said tibial internal and external rotation, for example,
have you seen the single leg tibialis mar?
Yes, love that.
Now, if you go in circles with that, would that achieve that?
Because the shin isn't moving there, but the ankles, yeah.
I would say ish because now we're looking at, okay, for one, let's go joint to joint.
So the hip, ball and socket, knees around.
The knee, flexion, extension.
And then the ankle or the wrist and the demonstration i'm doing all three are 360
yeah so the tibia i look at it like this it's like it's my forearm so if my forearm can't
internally and externally rotate without my wrist moving because a lot of people like for instance
in that tibialis example you gave when you're loaded i'm here once again my tibia my tibia
is not moving much but my wrist is moving a lot.
Moving your arm around like that reminds me of Terminator.
Remember when he goes in and he fixes the little tendons in there?
It's so disgusting.
Well, if I was as vascular as you, I would demonstrate that.
But that's where I would isolate it more or both.
At the end of the day, you're strengthening your ankle.
That's great.
You're getting some stimulus up here.
But if I can independently, so what I'll do is I actually sit on something higher.
You know, like when you feel like a kid
and you're sitting on those bar stools
and your feet are dangling.
So I do something like that,
but with jerk blocks for our guys.
And I sit them on the very edge
so that their thighs are at 90 degree angle
and their feet are dangling,
which are really high jerk blocks
to get their feet to dangle.
And then I actually have them,
without moving their foot and ankle,
just move at the tibia.
And we call them our tibial internal
and external rotations.
And it's literally a,
have you guys heard of FRC
or functional range and conditioning?
It's their principle.
It's just moving through range.
Nothing too ground.
What does it look like on your foot?
Yeah.
I'm tripping.
How do you do that?
I'm trying to,
let me see this.
So is that derived from the hip a little bit too?
Or?
If I don't move my hip
I should be straight
I see
so your knee's up
and you're
but the thing you want to look at
and Mark you're actually
doing a good job of it
you can see the shin
skin move
like right underneath the knee
a lot of guys
when you assess them
you'll see that the skin
is just staying the same
they're just moving the foot
but once you see the skin
below the knee
move that's
how you know you're getting internal and external rotation and then you're going to find out man i'm
really limited internal rotation so then i'm going to be woda and that's where you're going to like
oh maybe i need to you know focus more on internal rotation because it's not one or the other it's
just both i saw when you were doing some of your drills you were in go to positions is that like just like uh is that something you picked up over the years or
because like your one foot was not only straight but your other foot was kind of like turned in it
looked like you were kind of almost massaging that movement to go inward a little bit during
some of the movements you were doing yeah i think uh you're talking about on the yeah like the cat
thing you were doing on the couch
where you were like in a split squat type position.
Oh, yeah.
So I'm focusing mainly on IR, the hip.
That's what I'm really trying to achieve
because it's like, okay, my spine is everything.
Oh, see, I love this guy right here, these chops.
I think they're called gravediggers.
Someone like beat me up online because I misnamed it.
And I'm just like, dude, I...
Dude, you move really well.
I do okay. I do okay. That stuff's hard. I meannamed it. And I'm just like, dude, I... Dude, you move really well. I do okay.
I do okay.
That stuff's hard.
I mean, I don't think people, maybe like,
if someone's watching this right now,
they're probably like, yeah, it doesn't look that bad.
I've worked up to a wheel on one side,
and that was very challenging.
You got to be mobile through your stomach
and through your hip flexor.
But that's where I look at it, like, as integration.
It's not local.
Right, right.
So when I'm looking as, as yeah i got rib and hip
disassociation that i've been always been looking for and you know the previous uh talks about this
but really it's like yeah okay i get some supination of the foot and then when i roll out
of it i go into pronation it's gait you know this is this is what the natural body does it's not that
i stay in one and then i get increased athletic performance um but yeah
yeah yeah because that last step that you did right there was like definitely your your foot
is totally straight and then you are kind of bowed out with your uh your knee but i'm also and here's
the funny thing i'm actually super bow-legged which is great for change of direction like i
was a i was a i was a decent athlete because of physical qualities
and a little bit of skill.
Couldn't shoot for anything, though.
Cheat code for Olympic lifting.
Yes, exactly.
Cheat code for Olympic lifting, though.
Which I'm, once again, not that strong,
so I was mediocre at that as well.
But yeah, I mean, the idea is
we're just trying to give our body access
through different means.
And weightlifting is done in such a sagittal manner where it's just being straight up and straight down that when you try to apply that to sports directly, it's like, well, I think we're missing most of the boat here.
You know, okay.
So there's, like you mentioned, there's an infinite amount of things one can do, and it depends on the dosage.
For lifters, bodybuilders power lifters what are some things that you know you some basic movements in different planes that they think that they should add in that don't take any crazy implements
just things that they can do that's pretty simple just stick this in your program and reap the
benefits of different ranges of movement. I love that.
Anything where your hips are moving and your ribs are staying still or your hips are staying still and your ribs are moving.
And that's literally you can use.
I mean, there's so many creative things you can do that.
For instance, like a cable chop.
That's a super easy thing where I can get disassociated.
I'm locking in my hips.
They're not going nowhere.
They can't go nowhere because I'm on my knees or I'm in a split stance. And then I'm taking it from a high to low chop across my body. So I'm crossing the midline. Something that's super easy, adding any
type of transverse plane or frontal plane movements into like, especially if you're super locked in
and sagittal, it has nothing to do with moving better in that in that regard in my opinion it has everything to do
with increasing your sagittal plane movements because it's bringing health to that region
so the way i look at if i'm a power lifter i'm looking at sagittal is my event frontal and
transverse is my health and so the more i can think of it that way i think it might hopefully
have some more
adherence. That's kind of how I try to explain to my athletes just in different ways. What's up with
not done yet? The hoodie that you're wearing and the hat that you're wearing today. Yeah. So
funny. I started a company, me and my fiance, Shereen, it's two years now. And really what
we're trying to do is bring performance training to where performance is played.
We're trying to break down the weight room walls and truly bring the aspects that we want to get from physical qualities increasing to actually where they do it.
So imagine if we didn't have these cathedral weight rooms that you see in college and professional sports.
Trust me, I'm in it.
I designed it. I designed it.
I was there.
But the more and more I live there, the more and more I realize this is a very small portion of the success and of what's actually happening in sport.
Where it's really happening is on the turf.
It's really happening on the court or the track and field.
So how can I bring performance training,
the things that I still want to do in a weight room,
and then find a way to put it
where they actually play the game?
And so we developed some equipment,
one being a box, literally,
that a gym pops out of.
It's pretty crazy.
But we have access to like landmines,
split squat attachments.
I use ramps a lot.
So we have different ramp settings
so you can use for plyometrics,
different planes. And then, of course, you top it off
with a squat rack, which is super dope.
So we can still do squatting, and we can still
do pull-ups, bench, you can still do
everything you want. So the idea
is that we're bringing the weight room
to the pitch. We're bringing the weight room
to competition. Because
for me, if we can bring contrast
training, like for example, you're doing
back squats and then you can go and do a dunk. I mean, it doesn't get much more performance
enhancing than that. Right. And there is a direct, I mean, an absolute direct correlation for that.
And so that's where I'm like, look, I got athlete adherence. I now handle, or I now fix a ton of logistics. I mean, imagine high schools
and colleges that the weight room is on across the campus, but the gym is over there. So the
idea is that I'm creating convenience and especially for military because it's super
easy to ship a unit with a troop or with a squad. So that's where, you know, we're going to see
where this goes. And I'm just a meathead like I'm trying to figure out
this whole business side
me and my fiance
and we're getting closer
but we're really excited about it
this is something we travel with
in the NBA
so it fits in the plane
fits in the back of a truck
yeah it's crazy
would it come with a barbell
or without a barbell
great question
so we're working with
manufacturers now
to make a split barbell
so there's a few companies that already make them can like connect together somehow exactly Great question. So we're working with manufacturers now to make a split barbell. Right, right.
There's a few companies that already make them.
Can connect together somehow.
Exactly.
Or connect the sleeves at the end together or something like that.
Bingo.
Yeah, so that's our way of fitting it into our box.
We also make different versions.
We have a big box, which can fit in the back of a pickup, and we also have a mini box.
They both can do all the capabilities of squatting, cleaning, all the things that you would do from traditional barbell exercises
just in the convenience of being in a smaller box.
Wow.
But it's pretty crazy.
I mean, the reason where it came from was I couldn't have guys miss me.
And what I mean by that is if I'm on the road
and the weight room that they have access to
is on the other side of the arena,
they're going to go, yeah, Corey, I'm good.
And so, and then the problem with that is now i don't have consistency in their routine or i don't
have consistency in their training so i literally have to figure out a way to do this now a gentleman
named todd right with the he's now with the la clippers but at the time he was with the philadelphia
76ers and this gentleman like revolutionized our field in multiple ways. But one is he brought the weight room like implements to the court.
Like you've ever seen Vipers?
Like those big plastic weighted tubes and you can do some frontal plane stuff.
No.
It's a weighted implement that allows you to do some things.
Okay.
But he brought the treatment tables out on the baseline.
And so when guys would go see him first and then go into their shooting routine
and then, you know, wait until the clock ends and then game into their shooting routine and then you know wait till the
clock ends and then game start so i followed that model i was like that's pretty brilliant todd like
thank you for revolutionizing that i don't know why no one's ever thought of that before
but i think about it on football sidelines you know you can have three or four of these things
lined up you could do potentiation things with it on return kicks like there's some things that i
think if you really want to try to go like super high performance and just give it a shot, this gives you the access to be able to do that.
Yeah.
Damn.
That is awesome.
It rolls on wheels.
It's wild.
Fits through any universal door.
Fits on an elevator, believe it or not.
How much does it weigh?
So the mini weighs around 186 or 168.
And then the big one weighs around like 220.
But then here's the tricky part.
Whatever you put in it is going to add to the weight.
So if you want a full Olympic set, I mean, it's going to weigh that and then some.
Right, right.
So the good thing is most strength coaches are really cool in the NBA where they'll supply whatever you need.
So, for instance, like if I need some more bumpers, they'll supply it. So that makes it a lot easier for me. But,
you know, for me, I just think it's a, it's a pretty cool idea. And, uh, you know, I just think
about what's necessary. And I think the pandemic had a lot to do with it when I was thinking,
like, do we need weight rooms to get stronger? Maybe not. Yeah. Maybe you just need a few things
in your environment. And I think your
environment is what's going to shape your ability to quote unquote, increase your performance.
So if I can get them to their environment, why not? I go run sometimes over at UC Davis. And
when I'm running, they do have like an indoor, they got like a regular weight room, but then
they have like a tarp type thing. And they got some weights that are right next to the track.
but then they have like a tarp type thing and they got some weights that are right next to the track and the athletes that um like the football players they don't mind being in in like gym you know but
i noticed that kind of the leaner athletes the smaller athletes probably track athletes maybe
soccer athletes they like being out by the track they'd rather be outside uh where there's like
there's like less weight there's less like. There's just literally like a squat rack, some barbells, and some plates,
a couple dumbbells out there.
And I see them out there training all the time.
So I think it makes a lot of sense.
And I see them sometimes even taking the dumbbells
and they walk to like the middle of the field
and then they do like walking lunges and things like that.
So it's more, like you're saying, like incorporated rather than it being like,
and I like your philosophy of training every day.
And I think that this is a really important thing
for people to grasp is,
let's kind of maybe just forget about working out.
You know, hopefully we have time to do enough
that we can call it a workout, right?
But I think a big deterrent for a lot of people is they think about,
you know, not this week because I don't have the time to go
and, you know, I got to work out for an hour, you know,
for it to mean anything, I got to do an hour.
And it's, you know, Monday and I got to make sure I get there
three times a week and I'm not ready for that kind of commitment.
But it's like, fuck all that for a minute.
What if you just did one exercise? You know, what if you did a farmer's carry?
That's going to be super productive. What if you kind of looked at it as exercises, exercising,
and it's incorporated rather than this whole separate thing of you going to a gym
that you're intimidated by that you really don't want to go to because you're not that interested
in like lifting weights, but you were told by your doctor that you should exercise so you're trying to do
it you can't figure it out and you're on the treadmill and you just you want to lift the
weights in the gym but you can't you know figure any about i think it's it's time that we kind of
stop looking at it that way just pick some exercise pick some things that you think that
you can gravitate to, towards, and utilize.
And that's the thing I think is the coolest aspect about it is it's not like a tonal.
Like, it's not like, oh, you got to have this tech. Or, oh, man, like, it's going to tell me
what to do. It gives you power. Like, I think power is removed from people, or they submit to
power to be able to take ownership of their development
whatever that development may be and so this is stuck like the idea of this gym in a box
it's nothing new as far as the implements that you use it's traditional weightlifting since
the 1800s it's nothing it's progressive overload it's a barbell it's a dumbbell it's a kettlebell
if you want to add it it's whatever you want to add and take away. But the real thing is, to Mark's point, if I can remove convenience in your excuses and you have an implement, just knock out whatever you need to knock out.
I mean, it's an 18-inch plyo box.
You tell me you can't just do constant step-ups for five minutes?
There's your StairMaster.
I mean, you get eccentric loading.
You get single-leg work.
And you get a cardiovascular aspect to it.
I mean, this is just simple things. It's leg work, and you get a cardiovascular aspect to it. I mean, this is just simple things.
It's like, man, you don't even need that box.
You just get a big tire.
Like, there's so much you can do with nothing.
And you don't even need the excuse of, I don't have access to this gym.
I don't have a trainer.
I don't have this.
I mean, don't get me wrong.
I get paid to be a quote-unquote trainer.
But it's also because that's a different league you know but it's if i'm a lay
person i mean you're telling me you can't jump rope or you suck at jump roping fake jump rope
i can't tell you how many professional athletes i i do fake jump roping with because they suck
at jump roping there's just something about maybe it's the limb length and the the rope length
whatever i have access to yeah but you can't hop in place.
You don't need this stuff.
Now, does some of it make it nice?
Absolutely.
But to your point, remove the convenience.
There you go.
Yeah.
I think one thing that I really like is if anyone sees your content,
they'll see all the kettlebell stuff that you do.
I think a kettlebell, at least in my opinion,
if I were to tell somebody to just get one piece of equipment, that's not crazy expensive that would allow them to get just do a bunch of different movements
a kettlebell would be it absolutely i couldn't agree more with that i love kettlebells i mean
i've incorporated them for a long time but i thought they just made more sense for long
leave of athletes just the the mass of it it's different right And if I'm in a front rack position, that's an easier squat pattern.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
That's when we were swinging in more ways than one.
Right.
Oh, look at that beard.
We were throwing them at each other, weren't we?
Man, I was a caveman.
Weren't we throwing some of the kettlebells back and forth, right, catching them?
Yeah, I love that.
I'm so into that.
Being able to throw a bell and catch it,
because that's the cool thing about it.
It takes a lot of concentration.
It's a lot of concentration,
but man, it's Olympic lifting
without the complexity of Olympic lifting.
And it's cyclical.
Like an Olympic lift, it's a one, right?
Unless you're like crossfitting,
and sure, like that's going to be low,
that doesn't matter.
So then if I have like a heavy kettlebell
and I'm tossing it back and forth,
the amount of stuff I get just from throwing and receiving an object,
being able to contract and relax, well, that's jumping, sprinting,
change of direction.
But the eccentric load I get from that,
once you acquire the skill, which is very limited,
just a couple of exposures or sessions,
Once you acquire the skill, which is very limited, like just a couple of exposures or sessions, the amount of load and how sore you get just from a session like that lets you know how potent the stress that you're putting on the body.
So just think, man, if I can create that kind of stress with minimal learning and it's interactive, it's me and another partner.
Like, I'm going to want to continue to do this yeah so me and my
friend he's actually with the memphis grizzlies now but at the time he's at ucsb we threw that
thing back and forth to each other i want to say 126 times with a 203 pound kettlebell
we we got it it's on instagram somewhere i forgot i think you imagine like what it's doing for like
someone's brain health yeah i mean someone who who's getting older, I mean, they might find it challenging because of,
you know,
the type of movement that it is,
but you can go as light as you need to.
Right.
Well,
the guys that introduced it to me,
they do it with a flip.
So they literally throw it back and forth with a flip.
And catch it.
No,
no,
no,
no.
Jesus.
Well,
actually we attempted a 176.
We did it a few times.
Yeah.
He was,
he was way stronger and more experienced
than I was at the time.
I would love to get back
to the point
where I could attempt
that 176 for like reps
with flipping it.
But they have a test.
So it's called
Kettlebell Partner
Passing Certification.
This ain't the 203.
That's a skinny guy right there.
That ain't it.
But yeah, I'm trying to think.
It's way before that.
Yeah.
I just wanted people to be able to see what we're talking about.
Dude, it's gnarly though.
It's like back when I was at Stanford.
It was gnarly.
Anyways.
Wow.
Oh, I lost my train of thought.
Help me.
Toss around the 203.
You're talking about like a-
Oh, flipping.
Oh, the flip.
Like certification or something.
Yeah. Yeah. you're talking about flipping oh the flip so their certification or something yeah
their certification
to be a kettlebell
partner passing cert
is to flip that thing
for an hour straight
an hour
straight
sorry you only
made it 59 minutes
that happened
to a cat
it was 52 minutes
happened to a friend
52 minutes
and I was like
and your hands
are just absolutely
destroyed
like they're
bleeding by the end what kind of that was the 203 that's that's a good dude right there he's now
working with a professional or one of the i mean this is totally kill your ass yeah yes your glutes
no your glutes and that's the best dude i did it because i tore my achilles so i wanted to get a
quote-unquote plyometric or a fast eccentric,
but I couldn't leave the ground obviously without damaging my foot. So I was like, all right, I got to figure this thing out. And then I remembered that guy showing me the partner
passing and I'm like, oh, that's how I can get that fast eccentric load. So yeah, that's just
an example. But man, I've taken, I have a good friend named Megan Young. She threw the 203 with
me. Keyword she threw the 203 and, and I ain the 203 and and i ain't gonna lie like she handled
it really well it was pretty it was really impressive but damn that's crazy i've seen you
also um you know swing kettlebells to your sides what kind of benefit does that bring to people
uh zach same thing we were talking about earlier with adding any type of frontal plane and transverse
to your sagittal training right so oh this is one. So this is a prequel to the split drop
that you're going to do at some point.
But this is gait, right?
Like life is gait.
It's locomotion.
It's walking, running, sprinting.
That's just doing the same thing,
but with a lamb on.
But doing it laterally just adds a lot of rotation.
You know, it allows you to be more athletic.
There's not many events in sport
that don't somehow have a rotational aspect.
And to be honest, in sprinting, believe it or not,
is a ton of rotation.
I mean, the video that we saw earlier,
did you see how much rotation was happening
in his hip and ankle,
even though he's running in a straight line?
So for people that think running straight is linear
or jumping straight up is linear in you know, for people that think running straight is linear or jumping straight up
is, you know,
linear in some fashion,
it's not.
At every joint,
there's some form of rotation.
And if there's not
a lot of rotation,
like your knee,
you're going to feel it.
You're going to feel it.
So, I don't remember
how many times,
yeah, he's a good dude.
100 reps.
That was our first century,
I think. Dang. You know, I like a lot of the stuff reps. That was our first century, I think.
Dang.
You know, I like a lot of the stuff that you're sharing today
and, you know, that everything should exist.
Do you guys do some bro-out sessions?
Because you mentioned you like machines.
Do you let the guys just like, yeah, man, have at it today.
Just train your pipes or whatever.
Really?
Train your favorite thing or whatever.
It's really not me letting them do anything.
It's me going, hey, can you kind of do this?
This would be great.
Right, right.
But, oh, yeah, I got a couple of guys that that's my way getting them in the room.
Right.
And that's the cool thing.
Like, we don't even, year one, it was about attendance.
I was like, all right, NBA tradition is this.
The only thing I care about is guys actually being in the room.
So how am I going to get them in the room?
And yes, feeding off that superficial.
But the more and more I train the superficial,
the more I realize how great it was for shoulder health.
If you have great breaker radialis and great grip strength,
your shoulder health is pretty good.
How do I accomplish that?
Heavy hammer curls.
I like Zottoman curls.
I mean, I put curls in with squats.
I put curls in anywhere.
Why?
Because guys are into it.
And it's tank, or excuse me, it's sleeveless season year round.
Like guns are out year round.
And if I don't make these guys look like they got some stuff to them,
I got people knocking on my door.
So what's the best way to do that?
Pipes.
Throw in some pipes with them Zurchers.
Why not?
I love it.
What about, so one of my favorite things I always bring up,
because like we spoke earlier, I was like a diehard fan, right?
So when I heard about some of these players' diets, I was like, no way.
But it seems like, I don't know,
athletes around the world are kind of waking up a little bit more
compared to my favorite story of Chris Webber eating like a 40-piece
chicken nugget meal before games.
But then like outside of game time it didn't change really but it was just like his thing
was like that was his tradition so our players nutrition and stuff getting more dialed in these
days it's it's on another level now like it's actually really impressive how much these guys
are taking ownership because I think it's just more of looking at your body's equity you know and? And it's like, if I'm going to invest in something, a portfolio or a company or whatever,
it's like, well, my body is that. So what am I going to give it? Now don't get me wrong. I mean,
sure. They probably, I mean, they're young. I mean, these guys make millions of dollars and
they're 23, 24 years old. Like it's pretty awesome for them. Not for me. It makes me rethink
everything I've done in life, but you know, they have the most access and that's the greatest thing that I think we do
in our organizations. We have, you know, our chefs that are cooking meals for them, breakfast, like
any practice day or game day, they're walking into the building and they got chefs making them
breakfast, whatever they want. Now, whatever they want within reason, obviously, but then lunch is
the same. So like you're already providing two of those meals.
And then when we're on the road, I mean, there's no way you can go hungry in the NBA.
I kid you not.
All right, pregame, there's a meal.
Then when you postgame, there's another meal.
Within 30 minutes of going from that meal to the plane, there's an option to get another meal.
And then, of course, you have grab-and-go's in the morning.
You have grab-and-go's even going to the game if you want it.
And then there's food in the locker room the entire time.
Everyone's like, Corey, you're going to gain 10 to 15 pounds your first year in the NBA because there's so much food.
Well, you've got to actually train hard.
Unfortunately, year one was a lot of navigating
that travel schedule so i was just like okay but most people if you're sedentary there's you got
no shot like it's high quality it's salmon filet you know grass-fed this grass finish that i mean
it's amazing and so that's where you know i love being in season because I don't have to pay for food. Ever.
It's a safe money.
It's awesome.
And then off season,
I'm like a child.
I'm like,
oh my God,
like,
Shereen,
help me.
I don't know what to do with myself
because I just,
I just don't have that experience,
you know?
I need to microdose.
I need to get some,
I need to get some reps up.
I know she can agree to that.
How long have you been with your fiance for?
So this is now two years.
I don't care.
A whole.
Yeah, double check.
Yeah, double.
Is it three?
And a half?
Bro, we just talked about this in that room.
Hold up.
Just keep going until she.
You know what?
Actually, it's funny you bring that up.
When we first started talking and the first time I FaceTimed her was before this podcast.
The night before,
I was staying at a steel container Airbnb downtown Sac. And that was the first FaceTime interaction I had with her. Wait, really? Yeah. So how'd you guys meet? So I was on another podcast
with Jordan Shallow, the muscle doc. And so Shereen, she's a sports medicine or she's a sports
chiropractor. Yeah. And so he's obviously a chiropractor. So she was listening to his podcast and he had me on as a guest.
And so she was completely overwhelmed with how sexy and intelligent I was.
So she obviously reached out.
Who can't with that beautiful beard?
I mean, right?
Jesus Christ.
I mean, the shine on this head is amazing.
That is totally false.
But we're going to go with that story for this.
It's on record.
Yes, it's on record.
Yeah, I slid in her DMs.
But long story short, it won.
I won.
Guys, you can do it.
Shoot your shot.
It works.
It definitely works.
But yeah, and so she's completely brilliant.
I mean, she's just finished her schooling,
and she's more ahead of the curve on sports medicine practices than most people I know.
And so, yeah, that's the other point of the not done yet, the Indy,
is that hopefully one day we can build something very similar to what you got here
to where you can have whatever you want under the roof.
For us, it's going to be sports medicine, sports performance in a boutique fashion.
And, yeah, that's going to be the goal.
So, you know, hopefully we can have something as successful as a slingshot
to take us there.
Once again, congratulations on all that success.
I appreciate it.
How do you keep it working, you know, with all the travel and stuff?
Because, I mean, once you're in season, you've got 82 games.
I'd imagine that's a big portion of the year that you're traveling.
How do you guys make that work?
We've got two awesome dogs that keep her completely occupied.
They're the ones that save me on the road for sure,
but they're also hellions, so they keep her busy.
They're not good dogs by any stretch of the imagination.
They're complete assholes, but because of that, she's very busy with them.
But yeah, for us, it's just obviously the best we can to communicate.
You've got to end every night with a FaceTime.
I think that's important, especially when you're traveling.
I mean, as long as you get a FaceTime in every night, everything's good.
But now she can probably speak more onto her reality of it.
For me, I'm like, I think things are great.
I'm getting fed fillets tonight.
What are you having, babe?
Oh, you got to cook that too?
Damn.
When are you planning to launch this company?
Because you don't sell to the public just yet, right?
Yeah, right now we're doing like private pre-sales.
And it's mainly with people that I'm close with, mainly because I want their feedback.
It's people that I really trust to have something like this in their hands before I try to roll
out something in mass production and then it fall on its face.
So I want to work out all the tweaks.
I've been utilizing this thing for three years now with beta testing.
And so there's been a lot of renditions of it.
But the current model that we got now it's a lot it's pretty locked in
for what the aesthetics
and the functionality
is going to be
right now
it's just working
through manufacturers
and trying to get
this thing right
because you know
like it's one thing
sets and reps
that's easy
but like manufacturing
distribution
and then marketing
and then
these are things
that are very
very new to me
but you know
I'm going to figure it out me and Shereen we're going me. But I'm going to figure it out.
Me and Shereen, we're going to – well, actually, she's going to figure it out.
Luckily, she's locked into making this thing happen.
But yeah, the goal is I'm hoping that we can actually start launching the website and have them fully available early spring.
Cool. I want to ask you about this because you come from a really academic background and so does she. And if there's anything that we've noticed by having so many professionals on the podcast, it's that maybe with a lot of things within academia as far as sports science, there might be the field, they're like, what the fuck? I wasn't taught any of this, right? So what I want to know is you pay attention to a lot of different people.
Who are some other individuals or other certifications or other outside educational
sources that you think coaches or anyone in your position that was trying to learn more
and be on top of what's going on currently,
who are some people and certifications or resources that you think people need to
try to get their hands on? I think the number one thing, if you're trying to like deep dive
into a profession, right, or deep dive into fitness, I think mentorship in some form or
fashion. I don't think you can get this thing in a book. Like the amount, I got so lucky.
Because I was a college athlete, I was allowed to have access to internships that were fully funded.
Most internships are volunteer, volunteer internship for this.
Luckily, my school actually paid for me to go do those.
And so by the time I was 21, I had a pretty decent understanding of whatever NSCA and all these other boards.
Don't get me wrong.
Go pass, get the certification, get the test.
You need the credentials to have access to get through the gateway.
But as far as like I can't even – there's no way I could pass that NSCA test today.
There's no shot.
No shot because I'm so far removed from what training might is supposed to look like or what high performance is supposed to look like and then what it actually looks like.
And that's the hard part.
So I think to give some praise to GoTo, what they've done is they sought out the most elite athletes and they're trying to understand what they are doing.
And then however they quantify quantify, they quantify it. But at least they're looking at the top from an observational
and anecdotal standpoint. And I think that's really, really, really important. But at the end
of the day, you have to be immersed in it in some form or fashion. And that's where I think seeking
through mentorship is going to get you there not only faster,
but it's going to have
more of a genuine
and it's going to be long-lasting.
I can't tell you
how many books I've read
and I can't quote anything
from them to this day.
I watch movies all the time.
You know the guys
that can quote any movie
at any given time
and I'm like,
dude, I love being around you
because I understand the references,
but I can't keep up with you.
So it's tough for me to go. Yeah, I don't remember any So like, so like, it's tough for me to get, you know, yeah, it's tough for me to go on
the educational side and be like, trust me, I'm a terrible student.
She, she was a phenomenal student.
Yeah.
But for me, it's like, I have to have my hands in it and I have to fully experience it myself.
And if I'm not doing that, but some people that I absolutely love, I love Joel Smith
for Just Fly Sports.
I mean, he's absolutely brilliant.
He's done, oh, shit, he's got to be in the hundreds of podcasts.
But he seeks out weird, just like I seek out weird.
So he seeks out like, okay, this is not normal,
but it's not normal for a reason.
So let's go figure it out.
I really like his stuff a lot.
Buddy Morris is probably one of my
favorite people on this earth as far as i mean this is a guy who said you shouldn't do olympic
lifting and he had millions of reason why and luckily he's with the arizona cardinals so he's
in my he's in my backyard and um he told me he was a fan of me when we first met and i was just like
almost cried because i'm like dude if you only knew
he's been an NFL coach
for over a decade
yeah
I mean he's
he's an absolute legend
so I love
I love Buddy Morris
and just some like
straight goats
like Alver Mill
anybody can
I mean he
he doesn't really do much
anymore
he does some speaking
Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
yeah yeah
but like it's a crazy thing I mean they were snatching and cleaning really do much anymore like he does some speaking Chicago Bulls Chicago Bulls guy yeah yeah yeah but
like it's a crazy thing I mean they were snatching and cleaning and in the NBA which I got a few guys
that snatch and clean I'm like yeah my roots like yeah this feels amazing uh but that that's
something I would look into I'm maybe it's like like more of a teaching point early in my career
I thought if I had as many acronyms behind my name as possible,
that that's going to
make me important
and it's going to
make me relevant.
And to be honest,
I bought the certifications.
I take the course.
I don't even take the test.
Now,
because I'm like,
if that's what I'm doing,
if I'm doing it
to actually seek the knowledge,
like,
what can I steal from this?
Just because I can put
that badge
on the end of my
whatever. I mean, does somebody actually look at can put that badge on the end of my whatever.
I mean, does somebody actually look at that and go, holy shit, he's impressive.
I need to give him half a million dollars a year in a three-year contract.
Probably not.
And so for me, it's getting away.
Certs are cool.
What certifications do you think actually have good education behind it?
Because like, okay, fuck, you don't have success. But if you're like,
ooh, this is something I can learn here. Like you
mentioned FRC. FRC is a good one.
It's just isometrics.
That's the crazy part about FRC.
It's based off of a ton of isometric research.
I spent my continuing education
money on master class.
I'm not even kidding you. Really?
I thought that was incredible because what I found, like, I was listening to a graphic
designer and that made me rethink how I program design.
Truly.
Like, I was just looking at, like, the way she basically, like, layered her stuff.
I was like, oh my God, I kind of do the same thing.
I didn't even realize that.
And so when you start seeing the highest performers,
even in different sectors or in different professions,
we all kind of do similar things.
But it's being able to pull and see like all the commonalities.
That's when you're like, oh, that's greatness.
Like I need to follow that habit.
And so masterclass, believe it or not.
I don't know, man.
I'm probably the worst person to ask about certs because I'm like, fuck them.
Like, I'm just like, like, there's like, I go back and I look at like even my undergrad and my master's and I'm like, dude, I could have got that.
Like, I could have got that from YouTube.
You know, and I'm not saying don't do that.
Like, Jesus Christ, I'm not saying that.
But it's like, at the same time, if there's something you really want to be great at go be great at it yeah that's going to require some learning but
it's going to require more skinning your knees it's going to require more fucking up like a lot
i got super lucky i was a director at a division one school at the age of 23
no idea what i was doing i mean i was an administrator at that point i was hiring
and firing guys that been in the industry for 10 years more than I have.
And I'm sitting there like, how do you navigate that?
And for me, I just got lucky to get into scenarios to be thrown into it.
And so, I mean, that's where I'm like, I got that learning from that.
It was nothing that, okay, some certs.
I feel bad I can't answer that
question for you for real no that's a good answer you said because all of the education and all the
resources are there and a lot of people are under the mindset that if i want to get into this game
i need to get this cert this cert this cert this cert i need to have all this levels of education
and education isn't bad it's just there are a lot of different ways we're educating ourselves every fucking
podcast. Cause then we have people like you that come in, give us resources that we can look into
and we're like, okay, let's, let's boom. Let's start learning that. So, and you, you being at
the place you are with the way that you look at the way you educate yourself, that's a big fucking
deal. Well, I look at it like this. If, if I was to go get a certification or if I was to go get a degree,
how many other people got that same education,
that same degree?
So if I was creating that information,
who am I creating it for?
I'm creating it for masses.
So where's the real juice on application side?
That's going to really,
because that's what it comes down to.
It comes down to the practitioner being able to somehow apply that.
So for me, I'm like, that's like everybody taking the driving school test and everybody's great drivers.
Shit.
Like, no.
You know what I mean?
Like, that's not even close.
But, like, you go do some, like, you know, some IndyCar experiences.
Or you learn, like, oh, this is how this operates.
Then I think you're going to get a lot more from it.
So, you know, I know we're in a day and age
where everybody's online education
and that's the access that we have now.
And that's fantastic.
But I implore you to wreck yourself physically in some ways
because my injuries have led to my success, in my opinion,
and my performances, you know,
and then being able just to work with athletes.
And when I was 19 years old, I was a player slash coach
because I was the only one with strength and conditioning experience in my school.
I was at the lowest level of college sports.
We didn't have strength coaches.
I go do one internship at the age of 18.
I come back that fall, Corey, you're the new strength coach.
Okay.
So I'm training my guys.
So since I was 19 years old, I've been able to actually – it was all wrong.
It all sucked.
Oh, my God.
I look back at some of the stuff now, and it's actually hilarious.
But then because I had that experience, I got to also do the women's basketball team.
Boom.
By the time I'm 20 years old, I got 30 athletes that I'm training.
No idea what the fuck I'm doing.
And a lot of us – I mean, I still don't know what I'm doing. I'm 20 years old, I got 30 athletes that I'm training. No idea what the fuck I'm doing, right?
And a lot of it,
I mean,
I still don't know
what I'm doing.
I'm just less wrong.
I'm not right.
I'm just less wrong.
The sons hear that,
they're like,
what?
I'm under contract.
We're good.
We're good.
In two years,
that's going to be a problem.
Yeah,
sometimes the hardest thing
to do is to unwind.
Yeah.
You know what you once learned,
you know,
especially from schooling.
It's so funny.
You bring that up because luckily I had some great mentors like Jonas and,
and Ethan Reeve.
And so by the time I even got the NSCA cert,
the one cert you have to have,
I had to learn what they think strength is
and had to,
like,
I was going,
I was like,
I'm going to fail
because this is not training
in my,
like,
from the most experienced people
I know,
a guy who's done it
for 40 years
and a guy who's done it
for 20 years
at a high level.
I'm going to listen to them
more so than I'm going
to listen to this.
So I had to unlearn
what they taught me
just so I could
fill my head with that
so I could pass the test
and then
dump it like absolutely dump it and so yeah Andrew take us on out of here buddy sure thing thank you
everybody for checking out today's episode uh please drop us a comment on today's episode
whatever you found most uh interesting to you maybe your son's fan and you want to you know
say what's up to their strength and conditioning coach or sorry what is your actual title I am the
director of performance and head strength and conditioning there you go so say what's up to their strength and conditioning coach. Sorry, what is your actual title? I am the director of performance and head strength and conditioning coach.
There you go.
So say what's up, all you Suns fans out there.
And please subscribe to this YouTube channel and turn on all those damn notifications
because we always bring on some amazing guests like Corey today.
And please follow us on Instagram at mbpowerproject on Instagram and TikTok.
And my Instagram is at IamAndrewZ and I'm on Twitter at IamAndrewZ as well.
And Seema, where are you at?
I can't wait to check out Masterclass now.
But I'm Seema Eni on Instagram and YouTube.
I'm Seema Yin Yang on TikTok and Twitter.
Corey?
I am at SlushStrength on Instagram,
S-C-H-L-E-S, strength.
And then the company's name is Indie Performance.
N-D-Y, performance, stands for not done yet, Instagram.
Does Charles Barkley come around ever?
Okay, so Charles is actually, I think, in Atlanta full-time
or half of the year because of TNT,
but he's at the Ritz, so we see him there.
But he's a man.
Talk about a guy who did it at a high level, undersized.
Dude's a freak.
Unbelievable player.
And then Kevin Johnson, he was what, our mayor?
Yeah, for a while. Wait, what? KJ? Yeah, he's the mayor. Is he still And then Kevin Johnson was like, he was what, our mayor? Yeah, for a while.
Wait, what?
KJ?
Yeah, he's the mayor.
That is the coolest thing I've ever heard.
No.
Kevin Johnson?
Yeah.
The basketball player.
Yeah.
Mayor of Sacramento.
Yeah.
Wild, right?
That's the coolest shit ever.
That is awesome.
So I got a chance.
Okay.
He did a lot for the community.
I believe.
He made one of the worst ghettos in Oak Park. He just made it totally turn it around. Okay. Yeah. He did a lot for the community. I believe he made one of like the, the worst ghettos,
like,
um,
in Oak park.
He just made it like totally turn it around.
Oh yeah.
Oak park.
Now that's place is getting expensive.
It's really nice.
I grew up there and it was not nice back then.
When I said grew up there,
I say like I moved out when I was like three,
but it's still,
it counts.
Is there a Phil's coffee there?
So there's no,
not right there.
There.
No.
I was about to say,
when,
when there's a Phil's there, then it was about to say when there's a Phil's
there then it's
fancy.
It's very close.
There's a Temple Coffee.
What's a Temple Coffee?
Exactly.
It's a fancy coffee shop.
Oh, turn me on.
Phil's is way better.
Phil's is better.
I mean it is better.
Huge Phil's.
That's actually
our first love together.
That's the reason why
the connection.
Makes sense.
The connection.
She was always posting
about Phil's down in LA
and I'm like yep, it's a match. You. She was always posting about Phil's down in LA, and I'm like, yep, it's a match.
You're like, I'm going to Phil's.
I'm at Mark Smiley Bell.
Strength is never a weakness.
Weakness is never a strength.
Catch you guys later.
Bye.