Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 6 - Jesse Burdick
Episode Date: February 12, 2018Mark welcomes his bestie Jesse "Mega-Mind" Burdick to the Power Project. In today's Episode, Jesse and Mark take a trip back to the golden era of Geared Powerlifting. ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTu...nes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/user-921692324 ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell
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just buy me flowers every day and keep that butthole open buddy
see flowers and buttholes
i assume we're already flowers we're already going buttholes we're actually on we're live
oh get into your suit what are you doing
i already am he He looks terrible.
I apologize.
I'm just going to go like this.
For my fat friend.
All right.
Ready to go.
I signed on the dotted line.
You got to wrestle Kane now.
I don't think I've ever actually signed on a dotted line.
I've signed on lines, but never actually dotted line.
Why is it sign on the dotted line?
I don't know.
I used to love in wrestling when they brought the contract for the guy to sign and it was like a big ordeal
but then it just always led to the guy was about to sign it and then he gets hit with a chair of
course or someone slides in and you know usually a chair but something's gonna happen how about
stone cold how awesome was that i i was so. I was like literally standing up and like cheering.
Did you know?
Like I was a little kid.
Have you talked to him?
Did you know what was going on?
Because you've been helping him out a little bit and staying in touch.
Yeah, no, I had no idea.
And so I was really excited.
My brother texted me and he's like, he just typed in Stone Cold, Stone Cold like twice.
And I just went right to money raw raw
and started uh wow you almost you drifted right back into like your new york at raw yeah yeah
yeah yeah we was watching we were watching raw on monday night it was uh it was awesome um that
wasn't that was i love that like i love how they built it up and they just kept milking it and
milking it and you knew that mcm was going to get a goddamn stunner.
McMahon's speech was great about how he's getting old and he can't see,
and he can't do this and can't do that.
He's like,
Steve,
I can't,
you know,
get involved in this kind of thing anymore.
Confrontations.
But my,
then he sells his son.
His son gets sold up the river again for,
I mean,
how many times has that happened?
Oh my God.
And his son got two stunners. It's amazing. how the since you were a wrestler and you know no see awesome
no john i mean how actually talented is the mcbann family as far as like knowing how to move and rest
i mean you you can't just take a stunner and you know there's a there's a whole process to the
whole thing you got to actually understand how to move and know what's going on and i mean he's been doing this for christ how
long at this point like 40 years yeah vince mcmahon is probably about 70 like one or two
um or at least close to that yeah he's he's getting up there in age um and he's he always
stays in good shape uh last i heard and now this is a several years ago is that he hit a 600 pound squat.
He was a big fan of, uh, doing box squats.
I remember.
So it was probably like a high cheated Dave Tate slash Mark Bell squat.
Uh, but nonetheless at 70 years old.
Yeah.
Nonetheless, strong, strong guy still moving around some weight.
Awesome.
Um, and, and always staying in shape.
And then with Shane, Shane has gotten into the ring and done some pretty crazy shit
where he jumps from one side of the ring to the other
and kicks the guy in the head with that dropkick move.
I mean, he was active.
That was kind of, was that when Raw really kind of blew up,
when he kind of jumped in and kind of took the company over from Vince
or they split it somehow and there was that big feud and everything?
Yeah, it was.
But he was in the ring fairly often.
Yeah, he was in the ring a lot.
He was in the ring a lot and he was wrestling.
I'd say wrestling was really at its peak maybe a little bit before that just because that's when you had The Rock, Stone Cold, The Undertaker,
Kurt Angle, Mick Foley.
It was just... And then you had WCW, too.
Yeah.
Which was going on kind of up against them.
You had the whole...
That had to feel good to just fucking buy out the competition
and be like, all right, this is done.
But he did that brilliantly because he sent his son over,
and then they had this big rival everything over,
and then they just brought everything kind of together. the fight the fighting back and forth was was really
good it was so good but vince you know vince is so talented that you know he he understands that
having like the boss in the ring versus stone cold is is like epic right but he would never do
anything that jeopardized the company so he got in such good shape that he actually did full on matches with people.
Yeah.
And it's not like he was some, you know, great gifted wrestling talent or anything,
but he, he wasn't a job or, you know, he figured out a way to make it work.
And then, um, you know, he, he ended up like winning the Royal rumble and like all kinds
of crazy shit.
Uh, I could be wrong.
It could be a couple of wrestling fans that are getting all pissed off but i do remember uh you know he had some epic battles with uh stone cold and coming out
in those black jeans like the black kind of acid wash jeans that were way too tight yep with the
black tank top but he was jacked not a great look like overall but yeah i mean especially considering
his age at that point i mean he this is what 10 this is close to 20 years ago i guess really when he was when he was doing it
still over 50 years old he's still vince mcmahon knows what the fuck he's doing he took he took
big jack people and had them fucking battle it out and he just didn't care he wanted them to be
bigger all the time you know andre the giant you know shit like that and you
look at uh you look at like strongman and strongman has that same feel yep how many weight classes are
there at the arnold classic there's zero and uh they do have uh some women's stuff here and there
but it's it's rare for anybody to talk or even care that much about it just not it's not nearly
as popular people want to see the biggest strongest baddest dudes lift
the heaviest shit yep and i think in pro wrestling it was the same it was like a freak shows one
person after another uh being either super athletic or jacked and you talk about wrestling talent
and uh the reason why stone cold is so such an important piece of the puzzle is um and the rock
in some ways but stone cold was just amazing as an actual
wrestler yeah and then obviously when he got the microphone and stuff he knew what to do with it
then and he knew he knew what the crowd wanted he knew how to really work the crowd and then the
rock was like on another level but in a different way the rock was just insanely entertaining um
and the rock had just crazy work ethic in the ring as well but was
maybe just more athletic than stone cold so those two guys were pivotal in miami as a football oh
my god i know that i mean that's just i mean that gives you an idea of uh that's when the u was the
u yeah that was becoming the u i guess i mean but that's when they were about as the baddest of the bad that there could be.
So last time you and I podcasted together, we got talking about some old times of powerlifting, the WPO days and stuff like that.
And it was so fun.
I love those memories.
And I mean, even when we were done, we were trying to what we were walking out the door and we just kept talking about it.
We got asked questions about all sorts of other stuff too. So yeah, it was
great fun. Good stuff. And we love that. Love that intensity. So fun. You know, with raw power,
the thing there's comes a lot of intensity too. I mean, you're going to bring it every single time
that you lift and you, and you're going to put the most into it that you possibly can. Uh, but
the fear factor is not, is kind of different. different it's not it's not on the same level
because the weights just aren't the same right you know you might have a i think uh with just
knee wraps on i think you've squatted over 700 pounds the huge difference between that and and
handling 900 pounds yeah even though they're both they're built both represent maxes in some way
uh but the feel is different and a lot of components of it are just
different and you got to get fucking fired up for it you do and i mean i always felt better honestly
in equipment i always felt that yeah i i at least knew where where everything kind of was
whether it was a kinesthetic feel of the suit or whatever it was i don't know if safe is the word
but felt a little bit better safe but scared yeah i mean when you stand up with something
whether it's you know sleeves and a belt or um wraps and a belt it uh if you're not
you know a little wrong in the head you know you're standing up with pretty much
pretty much nothing right it's a it's a whole different ball game but you know i mean if you're
uh if you train for it you know um both you know physically and mentally you know i mean if you're uh if you train for it you know um both
you know physically and mentally you know i mean you uh you train and work with a lot of people
and you got uh jeremy avila who has uh deadlifted uh what 840 or something or 856 yeah jesus christ
at 220 yeah jeremy's a beast i haven't, um, a lot of lifters be that explosive
and just kind of be wound that tight when he goes to lift. And it really, it's exceptional to watch,
but you have a lot of great lifters. You had many lifters, uh, break world records over the years
and stuff. What do you think about getting fired up? Is it like an individual thing or do you want
to see people get fired up? Well, personally for me, I want to see
people kind of go nuts and get going. And I mean, it, it, we always talk about, you know, your opener
should kind of build confidence and momentum. Second, you know, second attempt. Oh yeah. You
got really good rules about that. Yeah. Second attempt, you should be, you know, either at,
or, you know, right below or at a PR and third, it's just, you know, get cocky. You know what
I mean? It's just do whatever you want.
So as you kind of go into those attempts, I think, you know, getting more and more fired up should kind of be there.
It makes sense too.
You can't get cocky unless you've done something.
Yeah.
You got to get confident and then kind of roll into cocky as you kind of go.
Um, and it's cocky.
Oh man.
I had to slide that in.
It was a family show for a few seconds almost a big thumbs up
from smoky over there um so yeah i mean i like to see people attack you know i mean i want to
see them at their best and you know some people are a little bit more calm and collected some
people need to get a little bit nuts and then there are some people where I think like they're too calm, like tiny Tiff.
I'm just like, can you care about this lift?
It's three and a half times your body weight.
If you would get just this much, think about someone stole your Totino's pizza rolls and
just get pissed off and like go attack it.
But she's just so much more kind of Zen and calm about it.
And someone like uh someone like
jeremy when he pulled i think when he pulled 826 at the u.s open like two or three years ago
zaheer was there and zaheer's just mad man so i was just like hey come over help me get him ready
this is you know a big lift so zaheer actually called his third attempt he's like zaheer is
absolutely insane out of his mind he sends me dMS all the time of him with like a machine gun and then him
lifting.
And he's,
it'll say like,
let's,
and it will say FAKN every time.
Yeah.
F A A K I N G.
Yep.
Let's FAKN go.
And I,
I don't know what it means,
but I always,
I always just write back.
Thanks.
That's all.
Well,
I mean,
at least he's getting a response.
That's good.
That's kind of, I get the same ones. And I, but Well, I mean, at least he's getting a response. That's good. That's kind of,
I get the same ones.
And I,
but anyways,
I was like,
Hey,
let's get him.
Let's get him fired up.
This is a big lift for him.
He's like,
okay,
okay.
So I kind of,
you know,
talk Jeremy through everything,
whatever.
And then he's at the chalk bowl,
give him his ammonia.
I give the ammonia to Zaheer and I walk away because I want to see the show.
Pops the ammonia open,
throws it.
I thought you were
gonna say is it here just snapped it for himself so puts it in front of jeremy jeremy's you know
doing this then he starts just hitting him on the back and eventually after during one of them as he
was going going to the next one jeremy kind of like scooted out of the way he ran to the platform
it was the first time i've ever seen someone run to the platform that's great um and he just kind of ran to the platform and then he had to kind of uh adjust himself and you
know probably get back consciousness and then he kind of walked up to the bar and he pulled it
so i mean not everyone can kind of handle that though yeah there's a lot of people who
especially on in you know in my opinion the squat you're gonna it's a very very technical lift
there's so much that could go wrong yeah that's true if you're gonna it's a very very technical lift there's so much that could go wrong yeah
that's true if you're gonna get nuts the deadlift is the time to get nuts right and i mean that's
when you can kind of uh even if maybe you're not the most technical of people you can kind of grind
things out or you know however you want to end up doing it you think it matters a ton you know
getting fired up like uh like it's it's being prepared right yeah i mean but you can't be half asleep
either right right but i mean you know me beating the shit out of you isn't gonna add 30 pounds to
your bench you know right if it did i think more people would do it you know i mean but there are
times when people just aren't there yeah you're like can you focus can you just like kind of dial
i think we've all had that feeling absolutely like you go to lift and uh for whatever reason maybe it's the feedback you got from the previous set
or maybe it's feedback you got from training or maybe there's some pain going on but you grab the
bar and uh you have like an emptiness inside you it's like hollow it's like you're like holy
fuck there's there ain't shit there i got no reserve i got i got nothing left when i did the um fit expo years
ago before it became a popular thing um i remember i was getting ready for my lift and i just started
kind of you know storming back and forth and you were like gonna like probably pep talk me or
something and you just kind of looked at me and you're like go find whatever the fuck you need
to find and go do it yeah and that was great because like you kind of knew i was like soul searching kind of thing i was just running
through sometimes you got to give a lift or some space right yeah i mean you understood you know
me yelling at you were doing something else you're already you're already working through whatever
the hell is going on in your head right and i was like it's out there go find it man just get nuts
get out there you know you know where it is and i mean it is one of those things where you know if you would have come up to me and
you know then we would have you know then i would have started yelling at you or something but you
were just you're in your own you're in your own thing and all you know you just got to make sure
that the person gets to the platform yeah because i mean there are people who will just get nuts and
they could time out or they just miss it or they overhype you know i've seen that we've seen that a bunch where people just get the shit
kicked out of them before they even get there and then they almost look like they're knocked out
before they can even grab yeah i remember chuck vogapool uh literally knocked he knocked someone
down and they had to like re-wrap the guy dave tate was like he's got his head up his ass he's
like go up there and fucking hit him and he
like ran chuck was like all right he just tapped him and the guy was just boom absolutely the guy
was out so they had to like sit him down and like fucking re-wrap him and everything and they stopped
the meat and then the next guy it was it got all complicated real quick it's uh yeah there's a fine
line and then you know you wouldn't want to hear someone, you know, someone who hadn't been training with you or, you know, wasn't a teammate or anything to kind of get you hyped up as well.
Someone needs to know how to kind of push your buttons.
Yeah.
Know how to get you onto that platform in the, in the best, in the best form possible.
So, I mean, if there's someone just foreign or someone you don't understand, you know, kind of get you becomes a lot harder with with zaheer and jeremy that was an easy thing because jeremy would look at what they what he
would do all the time and he just loved it so like oh i know he's gonna just love just love zaheer
kind of just make him go nuts we've seen sometimes like i've seen from lifters sometimes the bigger
the production the more energy that goes into it kind of the more I think that maybe you recognize like this is intimidating and I probably don't have what it takes.
So I got to kind of do a special routine just to get the weight.
And sometimes even if that special routine does bring you what you want and you do make the lift, sometimes it can be a bad habit to get into that because the meat might not provide that for you.
Right.
Yeah.
I mean,
yeah,
you,
it's not only you kind of creating or having a certain way about doing
things,
you know,
a lot has to do with the surroundings and who you're lifting with and,
you know,
what's going on at the meat.
I mean,
it's really hard to get pumped up for a,
for a third deadlift when you've made your opener squat and your opener
bench.
It's like,
this has not gone well today. Like, no, no, no, you'll just let squat and your opener bench. It's like, this has not gone well today.
Like, no, no, no.
You just, let's focus on your pull.
I'm like, let's focus on some, you know, some chicken wings.
You know, that's what I'm really interested in.
So it's hard to really kind of keep people. Yeah.
Where are we eating after the meet?
Keep people reeled in for something that during a meet that maybe hasn't really kind of gone
their way.
that during a meet that maybe hasn't really kind of gone their way and um it's always impressive to see someone who hasn't had a great day and pull something out you know literally it's unbelievable
or they miss or they miss a second attempt deadlift they come back and make it yeah how
the fuck they do and then they come back and they add more weight and come back and get it or just
something out of you know out of the blue where they do that so it's going to be so you know
personal dependent and i think one of the things that everyone out you know in podcast land needs
to kind of understand is that because you wear a flame beanie and like go fucking crazy doesn't
mean you know you're gonna chuck vogapole your last deadline yeah you know that's a personal
thing that chuck has been doing forever that's not an act that's who he is you can yeah you know that's a personal thing that chuck has been doing forever that's not
an act that's who he is you can't you know can't steal someone's act right and expect the same kind
of results you know if you need to do don't be playing fucking patty cake with that goddamn
chalkboard that's my move there you go i stole that once brian stole that too at the meet he did
um but it's uh five taps it's one of those things where you have to, you have to kind of find your own thing.
And it's, you know, people want to grab something that's either cool or they've seen somebody else do.
But, you know, it's, if that works for you, that's great.
But usually it has to be something original and your own for it to really be something and mean something.
A routine that can make you more uncomfortable doing something
that's uncomfortable um equivalent to a basketball player shooting a free throw right he can dribble
the ball a couple times he can spin it but he doesn't have the luxury of putting on like his
favorite song and doing you know whatever he wants with the ball he's got a certain amount of time to
shoot it and get it over with yeah but so like within within reason i myself
has always liked to get like i i've always liked training more than i like meat so i was always
like you know what i'd fuck it i'm just gonna do whatever i'm doing anything and everything i can
to make the lift in the meat because that's what makes me feel good right and gives me confidence
going into the contest and i know there's research of like you know you can kind of blow out your
central nervous system by uh stimulating it too much and there's you of like, you know, you can kind of blow out your central nervous system by stimulating it too much.
And there's, you got the people that will say, oh, you know, just do a six sets of six and like no music.
And like, just, and that's, that's hard for me.
I, from, it doesn't fit my personality.
Well, um, I also just, for whatever reason, I, maybe I'm lazy or I'm not sure what it is but i really don't like multiple sets unless
we're doing kind of more dynamic work so if you tell me like six sets of six and i gotta use the
same weight i'm just so i'm like i can't i just so i feel so bored i feel trapped yeah and i you
know not that that's not effective i just personally feel trapped and i think that's why
you know i i gravitated more towards a conjugate style
training as well is you know whether it's a add thing or just you know some sort of um
concentration thing it um you know it's just not there if i have to do and especially if it's not
only do i have to do that that day right but you're gonna tell me i have to do it tuesday
thursday and friday in somewhat of the same, you know, a bracket.
It's like, don't get hype.
Just fucking hit your lifts.
Just hit your lifts and do this stuff or whatever.
But I've always preferred kind of a conjugate to where you're, you know, when you're doing
your dynamic stuff, it's all about, you know, trying to get yourself in a little bit better
shape, moving perfectly, producing great force.
On max effort days, it's go fucking nuts.
And then the drop down sets, you know, that's when you, and the accessory stuff, that's
where you really get the work in.
But it's something that I've always gravitated more to because it matched my personality.
Yeah.
My attention.
Well, we love all that.
That's, you know, that's why we were attracted to a lot of the West Side stuff.
We loved those old videos of those guys getting hyped up and cranking some fucking ACDC.
The people who
like like mike to sheer is always my example like he's gonna he totals over 2 000 pounds in his
garage in his garage with no music no spotters no anything sometimes not even spotter bars so i mean
he could just drop you could just fall straight down and that's just it he's unbelievably strong
and um people who can do that you know more power to
them um it's uh it's awesome and i mean someone like blaine sumner who will lift by himself put
a shirt on first of all put a shirt on by himself he goes crazy when he's he goes nuts yeah but
that's the that's so good yeah it's so good but remember i still have that really fits his
personality really well totally he's he's funny and he's outgoing first time i met him he just walked up behind me and i i've never i've
never met him before this and he's just like you are so much fatter in person i turn around like
and i didn't recognize him because i i've never met him before so i was like who the i was like
okay the blaine summoner i was like that was that was awesome that was awesome i appreciate it i
thought it was fucking fun no he's he's actually he's he's a great guy he's he's so incredibly nice and you
know very uh genuine i was like fish and hunt and shit yeah he's a he's a real uh real dude's dude
and um but he but he's awesome he's so he's great to talk to very generous with his time
right always very generous with his advice and everything and uh he's just a he's a
psychopath what about like you know you talked about zaheer hitting jeremy and stuff do you hit
some of your lifters i'll hit people like kind of on the um upper back um no not so much uh you
know kind of right around here ish right kind of yeah wake you up a little bit yeah just kind of
not enough to it makes a really good sound so it's more of a show thing than anywhere else makes a good sound
a good big slap the old steel chair to the back exactly the same thing um makes a good sound you
know kind of just enough to make you feel a little bit of sting yeah and then you can kind of run out
there and then you know you know the the whole goal there is, you know, hopefully you don't
feel the sting of the bar anymore.
So there was a, that old video of you, of you getting hit by your coach.
Yeah.
And then like, it's amazing to watch because, you know, at you're like, you're, you're getting
ready for a big squat and coach is trying to get hyped.
And he kind of, I can't remember exactly what he
did but he kind of ended up hitting you in the face i think yeah i think maybe he was like trying
to do something a little different but it didn't work out that way and he kind of he slapped you
and then you took like a half a step and then you were like wait a second this motherfucker just
slapped me and you're like fuck that and you just chuck his ass out of the way yeah uh he he wanted
to slap me for the longest time and uh i just wasn't interested in it because it it was gonna
fuck me up right um it wasn't gonna help yeah and i told him i was like don't you know not necessarily
right then but i told him in the past i was like don't hit me i don't want to be hit and i even
told him i was like if you hit me i'm gonna hit you back first of all so i mean you gotta you know be ready for that so yeah there was kind of a delay and it was kind of just like
i think i put the chalk down and then i just hit him and then shoved him out of my way
and uh that that was kind of that his hat went flying that went flying and i mean he was just
he had a big just uh hand mark across his face so you know it was um it was it was it was a good show unfortunately
i ended up missing the lift oh i know so i mean you put on this good big show and then all for not
but um it was uh i think that's the only time i've really been slapped going up for a for a lift
so much um i don't know what the hell i would do i get pretty charged up so i don't know i i didn't
even think of it it was just a reaction and i knew that that would be my reaction because if i'm gonna get hit i'm
gonna hit you right back and um good bad or otherwise and i knew that it was if that would
happen but i didn't i didn't plan it like wait till ted hits me i'm gonna i'm gonna slap the
shit out of him it wasn't anything along those lines it was just it just kind of happened and
then uh that was that but i've never hit anybody in the face you know just mostly kind of some slaps on the back yeah just
you know trying to get somebody fired up what's always uh puzzled me is what is in the water
in reno nevada that makes those guys just literally slapping the shit out of each other on their way to the platform when we start
all the way going back to chad ike's oh yeah all the way to like this new version of everyone
coming from american iron again with jesse and all those other guys up there just pounding on
and it's like a it's a group thing too like there's one guy lifting and there's three guys
just absolutely just hitting him in the face in the back and it's just coming from all angles and ways what is going on in
nevada is making these that somehow makes this the thing that everyone has to do yeah i don't i
don't know what's happening but yeah people love it people love to like smack the shit out of each
other for some reason um i you know if i'm going up to the platform somebody smacks me in the back
a little bit yeah it feels good because it on the back a little bit. Yeah.
It feels good.
Cause it gets you alive a little bit.
I think, uh, the Russian lifters, they do some like strategic stuff, which I don't really
know exactly what they're doing, but I don't know if you've ever seen the Olympic lifters
like pull on the guy's ears and they sometimes will kind of slap the guy.
Um, I think mainly it has to do with just making your skin sting a little bit.
I think it just might get your making your skin sting a little bit. Right.
I think it just might get your central nervous system fired a little bit. So I can,
I can understand like a certain amount of it,
but to like get fucking just whack,
you know,
go up to somebody and just deck them doesn't make.
I thought,
I thought one of them like blew his nose out because of a squat and it ended
up,
it was because he got slapped going up to it.
And his nose was bleeding because of kind of the height move going all the way up.
Yeah.
So it's just more power to him.
Those guys are awesome.
I love having them at the meets because they bring so much energy and intensity to things.
But I just kind of watch it and I'm like, that poor guy is just literally.
People are watching and they're like, wait, what's happening?
Is this some sort of gang fight before or during the meet?
It's amazing.
What the shit's going on? those guys are great and i mean
they're they lift awesome and i mean they're just you know as intense as can be and it's always fun
but that was that's always been uh not necessarily the way that i've always you know approached
things so you've been in a lot of different gyms over the years and you've had to kind of
restructure things and redo things and reinvent yourself many different times with your powerlifting career and with your business, with your situation, with your children and everything.
And tell us a little bit about, first of all, what is it that you do?
So we get that out of the way.
And tell us about where you started or how you got started.
Tell us about where you started or how you got started.
So I run a powerlifting gym inside a CSA gym in Dublin, California.
And I have 2,000 square feet dedicated to strength and conditioning.
And I have a powerlifting team there.
I also have my athletes and personal training in the new facility, which we actually just moved to in august um you know i've been
with csa for probably like five ish years or so and this is our one two is like third location
kind of um and each time kind of getting bigger and better um and you know you know credit to
kirian and mj for believing in me and kind of letting me do what I wanted to do. You know, coming from, um, I was at a gym prior to it and then I moved to CSA gym.
And how'd you make some of this happen?
Because I know that you were in like a club environment.
So there's people listening to the show that want to get into personal training or maybe they already are a personal trainer and maybe they don't love where they're at.
Maybe they would like to figure out something a little different.
Right.
and maybe they don't love where they're at.
Maybe they would like to figure out something a little different.
Right.
So, I mean, when I moved here from the East Coast and moved to the San Francisco area,
I got a job at Club One,
which is a commercial fitness facility.
It's a big-ass corporate kind of club.
It's a big corporate gym.
Yeah, it was in downtown San Francisco.
And I was really lucky
to where i landed because the manager there was also a chiropractor and he went out and he hired
occupational therapists physical therapists and um you know people specializing in you know uh
elder populations in particular club one is a huge franchise so working there and being around
other people that were professionals was probably good for you, right?
It was amazing because I got to walk in very luckily.
I was like, oh, you're an ex-athlete kind of strength guy or interested in strength.
And at that time I had my CSCS and that's what I wanted to work on more kind of the sports, more of the athlete side of things.
So Daryl saw that when
he hired me. And I've told this story, I think, on Kyle's podcast. And I had the morning shift,
so I'd be there from 5.30 until 2 o'clock. Daryl would come in around noon. And he would just sit
there and he would give me stuff to read. It was homework. And then we he would just sit there and he would give me stuff to read it was homework
and then we would also just sit there and watch people walk and watch people move and then he
would say what do you think about this person and we would just start to kind of develop a running
kind of um block for each person that we would kind of see like okay this person seems to be
you know leaning this way or this way or they're you know kyphotic they're rolled over right very interiorly rotated and it taught me a lot about
how people move and what dysfunction looks like and also what function actually looks like that's
the worst when you start to learn some of that because then you just look around you're like
everyone it's it's every it's everywhere exactly standing in line at starbucks and you're like you
want to nudge the guy in front of you and be like, dude, fucking straighten your shit out. I mean, I talked to Kelly about this. I was like, can you ever not see it?
He's like, no.
Can't honestly.
He can't just go to Disneyland and walk around and not just be like, oh my.
Well, and we're all guilty of it, too.
Even when you are conscious of it and you're trying, you're like, oh my God, I'm standing like shit.
Yeah.
I'm sitting like shit.
But you know what?
That alone right there, just knowing it or even just reminding yourself like, yeah kelly jesse or mark told me just to try and stand up a
little bit but as long as if you can start to do that you'll build you know you'll end up building
it into a habit so it's a you know that was pretty much my homework and we would just sit there until
i would get more and more clients and then whenever i could i would be sitting with daryl
going over stuff he would
stretch me i would stretch him we would talk anatomy he's the one who pushed me to go to
massage therapy school to go get my art certification to do a whole bunch of stuff
so continued education yeah it sounds like i actually just yeah i got the question today
about someone like hey should i go back to school to get like a kinesiology biomechanics degree
or should i just go and do a bunch of seminars or get a bunch of different
certifications?
And obviously it's going to be a personal thing,
you know,
an ultimate end goal is going to be what you should,
uh,
which you should focus on.
But in general,
you know,
if you're going to want to work with people,
you're already working with people,
go into a seminar with Dr.
Stuart McGill or go and see Stan in an ed seminar.
Go and see Paul Quinn or someone along those lines.
That's going to give you so much more practical and immediately usable knowledge.
Because a lot of times, you know, those professors are teaching you anatomy, phys, or something along those lines.
Yeah, it's cool.
You get to dissect some stuff and really kind of take a look at what musculature actually does but they're never going to actually be able to tell
you what a 35 year old person with lower back injuries ankle injuries old athlete and you know
30 pounds overweight fix them like you know that person doesn't understand that yeah but people
who've done it before like oh yeah that that's a piece of cake no problem like oh okay cool that
that's the knowledge that you end up kind of wanting especially if you know working with individuals or teams or whatever if
that's your end goal you need to find the people who have done it before and you know learn from
them and then you can kind of continue your career that way and you know what that's the whole thing
where you if you are a trainer at 24 or something and you eventually want to go and do something
else you can keep that going on and just go to these seminars and just you know find some stuff
out and what's going to really what what separated me was me taking all the strength stuff that i
was going out there and learning from everybody and applying it to the clients that i had you
know these people are ceos you know that's when the dot-com boom was going on so i had a bunch
of these you know like uh computer wizards they'recom boom was going on. So I had a bunch of these, you know, like, uh, computer wizards.
They're all box squatting.
We had chains, kettlebells, you know, all this other stuff.
And able to empower them just with some of the knowledge.
Empower them, but also attract a lot of other people because they're like, that guy is doing
something I've never seen.
That guy just did it with 400 pounds and that's a client.
That's what I want to do.
Yeah.
How that fat 45 year old guy just squat 400 pounds. Yeah. And I mean, that was, uh, that's how, you know, I think kind of my
reputation grew and grew and got to a point where I was basically only doing clients. I was doing
eight to 10 clients a day, five days a week. And, um, eventually when, uh, uh, the girls were born,
I moved out to Pleasanton and started working at a CrossFit there.
And wasn't able to keep everybody.
Some people actually followed me out from San Francisco out to the East Bay.
And then kind of just built everything up again in the Pleasanton area.
And, um, I think when we started the seminars was pretty much when my exit to, from CrossFit Pleasanton started, um, because of a whole bunch of different stuff. Yeah.
But, um, you know, I needed more space and I needed to be able to do more things.
And luckily when I moved over to CSA.
Yeah, you need more freedom.
be able to do more things.
And luckily when I moved over to CSA, when I moved over to CSA,
I was like,
Hey man,
I may not have everything that I need right now,
but you give me some room to grow and you just leave me alone.
I'm like,
yeah,
I'm going to,
I'm going to make this thing happen and it'll be a really,
really good thing.
And again,
credit to,
you know,
uh,
Kieran and MJ for believing in me and kind of letting me do that and kind of
giving me rope,
you know,
whether I hang myself with it or whether I, you you know climb with it yeah climb with it you know
that's uh that was uh that was all up to me so it was uh it's been a process for sure but anyone
out there who is trying to find what they're trying to do i think you know if you can kind of keep
doing what you're doing and learning from the clients that you have and figuring out what works and figure out a system for yourself and just adding knowledge on top of that.
You have to be active.
I mean, even if you have to sometimes do stuff for free or, I mean, with your active release therapy and stuff, it's probably, you know, especially at the time you were doing it, probably kind of unconventional.
You're like, oh, I know how to help fix that.
Right.
But it's not like you gave them your chiropractic card.
So it's different.
So it's not like they're going to, you're just like, oh yeah, it's 150 bucks.
It's probably just, hey, I can fix that.
Let me help you.
Then they recognize what you can do for them.
And you say, well, we can take this further and we can do ABC.
And then now you, because you have the education
and because they had the result from it, now you could probably say, okay, yeah, it's going to be,
you know, for me to do that, it takes me more time. Right. And you've always been good with
that. Like when I, you know, I've, I've trained people for many years, but not professionally
and not for as long as you have in, in the same capacity. And my whole thing, anytime we went to
do seminars or even just when I,
you know,
somebody online would ask me a bunch of questions,
I'd always shoot them over to you.
Right.
We were at one seminar in Colorado,
which was a funny timing by us because that's when they made,
they had made,
they had marijuana legal at the time and everybody was all hyped up and they
thought that's why we were there.
They're like,
are you guys going to get high?
You're going to do this?
You're going to do that?
And then the gym just happened to be right next to a dispensary.
Right next to a dispensary too.
It smelled like we were rolling.
People were celebrating like literally in the streets, right?
It was amazing.
But, you know, I remember.
It was so snowy too.
And I remember seeing somebody walk to their car and just totally wiping out on their way out there.
It was awesome.
I remember working.
Sorry, but it was.
I remember working with somebody at that seminar and they just, it wasn't clicking.
I was not able to, so I was like, just go see Jesse.
And then there was that epic time where I was with you and Katie and we were doing a seminar in LA and kind of the same thing happened.
And I was trying to teach a guy how to do glute ham raises.
And I'm,
I'm trying to say it like in as many different ways as I can.
But for some reason he wasn't understanding that he needed to like bend
his leg.
Right.
No,
he needed to straighten his leg.
Oh,
he needed to straighten.
Oh yeah.
He was,
he had his,
oh yeah.
He was here.
He was kept moving almost like a good morning.
And you're like,
no,
no,
no,
no,
sir.
Cause I heard this. I'm talking to someone. I hear you. And it was kept moving almost like a good morning you're like no no no sir because i heard this i'm talking to someone i hear you and it was i'm like just
like you're standing up straight like you got to move your leg you got to like you know unflex your
leg is bent you got to unflex it you got to straighten out your legs and then he would just
move his back yeah and i was like that's not the exercise and i keep going back and forth
and then katie came over and she starts yelling at this guy too.
And we're going back and forth and we're all trying to get this guy to do the exercise.
He's not understanding it.
She gets up there and she shows him.
I get up there and I show him, he's still not getting it.
And then finally, Katie and I just look at each other like, go see Jesse.
Yeah, that was great.
We can't handle this anymore.
We don't, we're so stressed out.
I can still remember. I can still hear it. This is like, no, no, sir. We can't handle this anymore. We're so stressed out. I can still remember.
I can still hear it.
It's like, no, no, sir.
You need to straighten your legs out.
Okay, your legs are still bent.
Let's see if you can straighten them.
Not your back, your legs.
Okay, so you're bending at your waist.
I need you to straighten your legs as if you were going to try and stand up and just be this way.
You're bent like this.
Okay, Katie, can you show him real show him real quick i think it might have been the same seminar where that guy tore a
peck too remember that god that was some guys like well my peck was bothering me before i got here i
wanted to try a pr we're like what yeah i think that was that was really the only like no wasn't
it yeah that we had at our seminars.
It was amazing that he actually got that far.
I mean, that was...
It's just the second that you turn your back...
They're going to do it anyway.
So yeah, at least one of us was there to spot him.
We would preach the whole time.
Remember, we'd get up in front of everybody
and we'd tell them exactly how we wanted things to look
and the whole entire point. get up in front of everybody and we tell them exactly how we wanted things to look and the whole entire point we would teach people like there's an intent of every day
you work out every time just for anybody who doesn't know that yes every workout that you ever
do in your entire life should always have an intent of the day and then you can make up whatever the
fuck else you want around that but have an intent your intent is to go as heavy as possible your
intent is to do this your intent is to do that your intent is to be fast whatever it is you pick an intent you fucking
stick to it right and then you can play and kind of mess around with whatever else you want but at
the seminar we would say the intent for our day we would talk about the intent and what it was for
and what it provided and we say our intent for today is to just work on our technique and just
to work on our form.
We're not going to try to move fast.
We're not going to try to lift that heavy, but we do need some weight on there.
Right.
And we would say, you know, a good reference point is like 50%.
Get to like 50% of where your max is and then maybe add 20 pounds per set and get a couple extra sets in there of triples.
Right.
Well, as soon as they hear triples, the triples turn into heavy triples heavy triples and those heavy triples for some reason every single time always turned into singles
absolutely next thing you know music's blasting somebody's trying a 600 pound deadlift yes
in the i think you teach that he took like a he took a huge jump like a 70 pound he put like 35
on or something really it was really bizarre jim has 35s well i think every
gym has do you have 35s here no you don't have any 35s that's so awesome i try and hide my 35s
and they make their way back out and i'm like god damn it and especially if they're on like on the
rack or anything along those lines they're just taking up space for 45s or for 20 you know 25
kilo plates and 35s are worthless but they keep
finding them they're way back out it's it's uh as frustrating or maybe even more frustrating than
the 17.5s dumbbells you know and you're just like we do we really is that really is that really a
problem i i really like it was brilliant it was a brilliant thing oh yeah the magnets yeah like
that were just like that That solves the problem enough.
Well, but I just love it where it's like, oh, well, you know, this week I got to put
the platenates, you know, the 0.25 pound.
Oh, and I was always the guy with the clipboard.
And the physio ball.
Yeah.
It's always the dude with the clipboard and the physio ball.
And he's like.
And a shirt.
I'm supposed to bench.
Very much like that.
I'm supposed to bench 174 this week. Right. And he's like,'s like yeah buddy i don't even know how to put that on the bar that looks
like it's working out great for you no clue that would be that would be a great thing try and get
borrow a bunch of 35s and just make someone figure out how to put 400 pounds on the bar
i don't know if anyone could do it like if robot was here that that's not fair
he would be able to do it but um but anybody else just like nope we've outlawed 45s today we got to
use 35s i think people would just leave it gets really confusing when you start using the kilo
plates and the pound plates oh my god it gets really fun then you're not sure so i bought i
just got a new uh kilo, kilo set over Christmas.
So now I have two kilos sets, but I also have like a hundred, you know, 45 pound plates all
over the place. So the, um, the Ivanko set has like black, um, fives, two and a half,
one and a quarter kilo plates, but they look identical to two and a half pound five pound
and even 10 pound plates so people are just like intermixing these things and you know benching
like wow that that side was really heavy for some reason like well you did have you know 10 pounds
more on one side because you're an idiot and you have a kilo plate over here so i literally had to
go get paint pens and paint the the uh outside
edges of all of my kilos to match like the the color you know some of the some of the other
colors to to make sure that people don't put those on that's the shit because we've seen people you
know misload stuff and still make them oh yeah um but we've seen people misload stuff and miss
really really bad as well but there's nothing worse than taking a bar out on your back
or into your hands and you're like,
well, I mean, this feels really wrong,
but I'm ready to go, just wing it.
I mean, I think the best story,
who was that Westside who had six plates on one side,
five on the other, and like blue bands
and kind of stood up with it like this
and kind of put it back and just walked over this way and they stood up with it and squatted it was aj roberts
was it aj that makes sense um but uh i mean to to be able to do that you're just like oh i think i'm
i just i'm just not in the middle here i'll just move over here and he squatted it too it was
ridiculous remember how crooked greg panora would squat even when the weight was on there the right way?
Just like he had one arm this way and then one arm this way.
And the bar would just go here.
He put up a...
He's so...
And he was...
Well, he still is strong.
Yeah, he's amazing.
He was...
At that time, he kind of...
There was...
And I think, you know, we weren't at Westside, so we really couldn't tell.
But at that time, that was like kind of one of those pro-ams.
That's where he kind of took over as like the baddest man at Westside.
He kind of took it from Chuck for a little while,
and then they started working out together.
And you're like, oh, my God.
Oh, yeah, they were going.
Just complete insanity.
I remember a story Greg told me.
They were pulling either sumo or conventional and they worked up to like
800 pounds or something along those lines and he pulled it i think he was pulling sumo he pulled it
he pulled 800 sumo chuck pulled 800 conventional and then chuck just started shit talking him
and just like you could be a blah blah blah so without even warming up or doing
anything else he just walked over to the bar and pulled it conventional there's still video of it
he's just like and then he you know kind of does it he kind of looks at chuck and like drops the
bar you want to talk about intensity yeah to have the balls to just walk back up to 800 pounds if
you just pulled it switch your stance and just kind of go after it i mean greg was just a complete
savage complete savage at that point and just what are go after it. I mean, Greg was just a complete savage,
complete savage at that point.
And just the baddest man on the earth. What are some things that you have learned
and kind of taken from,
you're around some mutants like that.
And you're also around people that are really smart.
You've had seminars at your gym.
You've been to a ton of seminars.
You read a lot of books.
You get real nerdy.
But what's something
that you've uh kind of taken from the mindset of powerlifting maybe into some of the business that
you do it's you know what we can get as esoteric as we want but the the common theme across
all people who are successful whether it's lifting life, whatever, it's just hard work and just sticking to it.
Right.
You know, I mean, Greg will talk about just doing this stuff over and over and over again.
And when you're there, that's your focus.
You get it.
You work as hard as you can.
Right.
And then you're done.
And then you go ahead and you do whatever you, whatever else you do.
You want to be a good trainer.
You got to have a lot of reps at it.
It's the same thing. Yeah. If you want to be a great coach, got to have a lot of reps at it it's the same thing yeah if you want to be a great coach you
got to see you know 10 000 reps 100 000 reps before you're and you're really competent you
can kind of see something happening at speed you know i mean if you want to you know deadlift or
you know whatever you got something that helped us so much was just seeing people absolutely you
know just seeing people over and over again and i can confidently say like i can whoop up on most Absolutely. More than anything. of things happen things not happen people get hurt uh and this is this also i haven't seen it
all but this is all this also spans beginners to about as high level of lifter as you can right
there was a stretch where i think over a three month period i think we had seen we're seeing
30 to 50 people per seminar and i think we had some ridiculous amount of seminars like seven
right so i mean we had seen.
And then plus in our own gym.
Yeah.
We had seen an obscene amount of people lift an obscene amount of times.
You're just gathering kind of all those reps
and then you just, you're able to just see things,
you know, almost before they happen.
It's insane.
You know, like when I was younger
and I was coaching some people and trying to help people,
somebody would say, okay, what do you think?
You know, they would do a lift and they'd say, what do you think?
And I used to immediately, boom, I'd spit something back out.
And a lot of times it was like regurgitated from somewhere else
or it was just something that just clicked with me
because I didn't have a ton of knowledge.
Right.
So I was just like looking in my memory bank and I'm like, okay,
I'm going to throw this back at him, you know?
Sure.
Um, but as you advance, I don't, I don't know if you do this, but when I see somebody lift,
they're like, what do you think?
And I'm like, uh, and it almost like hurts my head.
I'm like, uh, I need to see you lift a couple more times.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, I need to watch him lift a couple more times.
I might need to see them with more weight.
Uh, I might need to see, you know, some sort of, I might need to see them throw a belt on because you know, if the lifter is going to actually use a belt that, that brings
another, I mean, there's various components that happen. And, uh, I just think it's, it's kind of
funny because as you learn more, you start to learn what's the right combination of words to
communicate to this
person right now. Because what I tell Jesse might be different than what I tell this guy. And when
I tell that guy, so it, it, it gets to be, it gets to be complicated. It gets to be really
complicated. Cause I mean, we're, we're coming back to just communication, right? I mean,
you know, how are you talking to a person? How does somebody learn? You know, you have a bunch
of different factors that you have to start to think about when you're dealing with someone. And I'm the same way.
Not only do I say like, uh, you know, do that three or four more times and then I can kind of
see something. But when they asked me that question, what do you think? I was like, well,
how did it feel? And they're going to go ahead and answer the question for me. It's a very Socratic
method, you know, cause I mean, a lot of times they know it, they're like, that felt awful.
Like, okay, cool. Let's try something different. And it, it's not always, I'm not
always going to hit it right on the head. Like we're just going to try a couple of things and
we're going to pick which one feels best. And we're just going to kind of roll with that as
the weight gets up, it may change again. And we're just going to kind of have to play with it. Those
are, you know, very beginner lifters. And, you know, as the advanced lifters kind of come in kind of come in it's you know it's much easier we don't have to go through a whole process
of trying to figure some stuff out like okay cool and i mean the advent of you know the video on the
phone has been huge oh yeah you guys are just like okay cool do you see when this happens
we have you have to keep your back tight you have to do this or you're flaring your elbows whatever it ends up being they're like oh i see this now so so now they're getting the the kinesthetic
awareness of it by doing it you're telling them they're hearing it and visually they're seeing it
so now you're almost hitting all of them you know all the learning processes for someone at a time
right you're hitting it all at once so if they're one or a combination of all the others, they're going to start to kind of really kind of collect the whole thing.
And I always found it.
We would always talk about this at the seminars.
It's like, you know, learning through violence where you're just like,
you know, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.
And then you're just like, oh, oh, here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's why I've been literally punching.
Remember, this is another Vogapole story. We were in upstate New York. Oh, he crushed us. Oh, he, here. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I've been literally punching. Remember, this is another Vogapole story.
We were in upstate New York.
Oh, he crushed us.
Oh, he killed us.
First of all, you ironed his T-shirt before we went to work out.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I remember that.
Yeah, he ironed it.
Which was strange, but apparently he irons everything.
Yeah, we were like, oh.
And then we were doing just boards, and he was spotting us and literally just punching
our, you're not punching your elbows through.
He would just punch our elbows for us to kind of get them through.
Yeah, he's fucking punching us in the triceps.
But then it made sense.
Yeah.
And we're like, oh, just snap.
Oh, that made, I wonder if that, it just snapped your elbows through.
He was like so mad because my strength was going up on the bench and stuff too.
So like his, his bench wasn't great.
And you and I are like hanging with him so
stuff so i think he just started to like make up stuff to try to kill us and he did oh he killed
us he overwhelmed remember big tim was there and tim's like just shaking his head he's like i don't
know why you guys are working out with i know i'm like because it's chocobo exactly we had to and
we i don't know if i straighten my arms for the next week it was amazing oh he just fucking but
i mean there is you know ways to do it and, you know, to try and cue people, you
know, not only visually, but auditorily, but also kinesthetic so they can kind of feel
it.
And as you get comfortable with the lifter, you know what I mean?
I can say one word to Jeremy or one thing to Tiff or something or Lori.
Yeah.
Who, you know, have been with me for, you know, two, three years.
And I mean, sometimes it's just like, you know, you make a motion of, you know, chest
up and they're like, oh, okay, cool. So sometimes you don't even have to say a word but yeah it's uh i do need a
couple and it's like i think because of you know a lot of times we've been in the game so long
and we've been doing this and this is you know coaching and everything is what we do
but someone does one thing and they're like okay what what do i need to do to deadlift 700
like you know what just keep doing what you normally do and i'll just kind of correct you
as we go it's not going to be you know i'm not going to throw a book at you that's the way louie
coached yeah i think it's a great way to coach because you'll at least see what they're doing
right right you don't want to pummel them with what they're doing wrong like look let's just
try and change this one thing.
Let's bring your feet together,
work on getting your chest up.
Deadlift will be a lot better.
One thing that's for sure is you can get a lot of feedback from a heavy
weight.
You know,
you can get a lot of feedback from a heavy weight.
And if you have a coach there and if you record it,
there's a lot of information that you can get from that lift and you can
say,
Oh,
I missed it.
And these things happen.
But I also don't think that you
can really truly gain further knowledge of how you should execute the lift because when the lift is
too heavy, your form is not matching up with the lift itself. And so I think you have to be really
careful to find line and that gets to be really hard to find that line. But you know, if you were
going to, if you could, um, if you think about football, think about other sports that you play,
going to, if you could, um, if you think about football, think about other sports that you play,
um, football in particular coach would say, Hey guys, it's, uh, you know, it's Thursday.
We have a game on Saturday. Uh, we're going to go 70%, right? And then the next day you go like 60%. But why does the coach want you to have those percentages? Why does he want you to slow the
fuck down? It's so that you can learn the proper steps sure uh certain drills that you might do in basketball or volleyball or any of these things are always
broken down they're always practiced but for some reason when it comes to lifting we're not really
practicing and i think that that would be a huge component to somebody being successful with
lifting is just slow the fuck down we already know that you can't lift light all the time that's not
going to work can't just work on your form and technique.
So there you have to do,
uh,
you have to go heavy and you have to challenge yourself.
We know that you need that for growth.
That's the way it works.
Yeah.
Um,
but maybe at the end of a workout or on separate days,
maybe you slow everything down and maybe you just go with a three or four
second count on the way down three or four second count on the way up and
just feel every single thing that you're supposed to feel because you know what you're
going to feel when you try a hundred percent nothing nothing nothing and i mean you know the
all reality of the situation is anything over 90 is going to most likely look like shit and uh what
you can gain from that we can learn from that is what to work on so it doesn't look like shit right but people are like yeah my knee i felt
my knee kind of wiggle in like yeah it's you know it's 700 pounds it was too heavy it's yeah it's
just for your knee to not wiggle right exactly sometimes this is going to happen like i always
think back of kelly when i missed you know 854 or whatever it was and he was just like yeah
you know you really kind of got rounded over like this and you know i think if you were able to you know thoracically extend and really work on you
know pulling back here and i was like you know fuck yourself sir i got an idea i said it much
nicer it's like it was 854 pounds yeah it's just too fucking it was just too heavy it's just that
can be an answer that's okay right you know what i mean it's just like it's just too heavy like oh my form broke down and i didn't do it like
right it because it was too heavy it's not because of you didn't keep your knee out or
anything it was sometimes too heavy as an answer it's the dumbest doctor we've ever met oh i love
kelly so much shout out to our boy kelly stirret and his lovely wife juliet they started a podcast
did they congratulations finally um i know we've been talking about it forever so i'm excited for To our boy Kelly Sturette and his lovely wife Juliette. They started a podcast. Did they?
Congratulations.
Finally.
I know.
We've been talking about it forever, so I'm excited for them.
That's great.
That's going to be so fun.
I really love the introduction of Juliette back into, because she was very visible at
San Francisco CrossFit for a while, and then not so much where she was just trying to take care get the kids you know uh moving and everything so she kind of makes everything easier for him too
and i you know i usually text her i don't even bother absolutely i ain't bothered trying to go
to him but those two together are just they're just so great and i mean they're just a ball of
energy and a ball of fun and what people don't know about juliette is she's she's a lawyer and she's been running
not only the crossfit business but the mobility wad side of things for the past 10 years for
kelly yeah and for a long time kelly was at a seminar every weekend oh god yeah he almost two
and a half years so i mean they're gonna have a lot of fun they're gonna have a lot it's gonna
be so cool and i mean just the the practical knowledge and she was a great athlete too right
you know i mean she was you know she was a very, very high caliber athlete.
So just a wealth of knowledge.
That's going to be really cool.
And some next level education type stuff too,
because as he explained it to me, it sounds pretty cool.
He's going to have a particular focus for a few weeks at a time,
and then he'll move off subject and move on to the next thing.
So I think he started out by talking about jeans.
Like blue jeans? Like him wearing two tight jeans? subject and move on to the next thing. So I think he started out by talking about, uh, jeans, um,
like blue jeans,
like him wearing two tight jeans.
Well,
you're talking about like jeans,
like cutoff jeans,
jorts,
you know,
like stuff like that.
And puffy,
and then puffy,
acid wash jeans,
three legged jeans.
That,
that really seems like it's up his alley.
That makes a lot of sense.
You know,
back to the,
what we were talking about,
about learning,
being able to learn the exercise,
be able to learn the movement the proper way just think about how kids learn stuff they learn stuff
in like spurts they just do you know they also just repeat it over and over they repeat it um
they may try something different like you're like hey you know try these uh maybe they're playing
like hopscotch or something and when they do the jumps they might hop scotch i don't know how to do
it how do you which one do you jump into you have to throw something and then you jump to it but you have to do like one leg i don't know
is there something to throw i always just would jump on those there is yeah there's something
you just jump through it apparently i've been playing it wrong for a long time so you're not
hop scott champion of the world like you say on your bio shuttlecock shuttlecock that's another story for another podcast yes also uh
jarts or lawn darts jarts no no do you remember jarts i don't know if people on the west coast
understand how like violent and awful some of the games as kids in the east coast as we played
we just have lawn darts they're just giant darts where you just throw them up in the air
and they're just kids running everywhere i was like even as a kid i was like i don't think this is really this isn't super
safe is this what's the point i don't know you try to hit throw it into a ring or anything i'm
i don't know anyways you're talking about your hopscotch career sorry to just real sorry to
derail you on you know such a you know telling such a great you know, telling such a great story. I was just talking to people about how. Rise and fall of the hopscotch.
How agile I am.
Yes.
No, like if a kid's going to be playing something and they're jumping around, they're going
to try, you know, different ways of doing it, but also kids are going to kind of learn
things in spurts.
They're going to do something for 10 minutes.
They're going to do something for five minutes.
They lose concentration really quickly.
And I think a big mistake that we sometimes make
is we're trying to really uh just do it over and over again like somebody might squat for like two
hours trying to learn it and that's cool like putting in your time is important but you're
kind of frying yourself out too so just take it like several minutes at a time you don't need to
smash yourself with it i mean i think kids you know this is also something that we could talk
about you know ad nauseum for coaching kids you know it's like when their attention is gone when they
stop doing it there's no bringing them back you kind of just got to let them roam and just you
know hope that they can kind of not hurt themselves or anything along those lines but it's just like
they're they're in it and then once they're gone there's really no bringing them back and at that
point there's no there's no positive to try and force them to do something or bring them back or anything along those lines.
Because it's already gone.
If you got two or three minutes out of them and, you know, able to teach them to do something, and then they move on to the next thing.
I thought one of your best things that I still use to this day that I learned from you as a coach.
Steals everything from me.
Even the 10-minute walk minute walk that's what we're doing ladies and gentlemen hashtag bam i uh was when you're
coaching your uh the uh the team at um woodland the the football team and you're like three or
four people to one mat to one bar bar. We're going to deadlift.
And then we're going to do some rows.
And then we're, don't get off of that mat.
That's right.
Don't get it.
Cause these kids were, they were good kids.
They were football kids.
But, but didn't you like leave?
You like went to the bathroom and you came back and there's two 45s that got broken somehow.
Yeah.
And you're like, what?
And they broke a bar.
Yeah.
Like the, the ends, both ends are like, coach, this broke.
Like, no, no, no, no.
A bar doesn't break.
What the hell did you guys do?
They're like, look, stand on that four by six mat.
Don't fucking move.
You're just going to do everything right there.
Every exercise can be right there.
And that's it.
And that's all.
But that's so brilliant because it keeps them focused, keeps them all, and they understand what they're supposed to do.
They don't have to move over here, do all this stuff.
Right.
That's the way that, you know, I coach.
Oh, there's like 40 kids in there too.
Yeah.
For people who can do that sort of thing, it's a talent I only have for a very small amount of time per day.
And there are people who can do it, know so much better than i can um and you
know more power to them and then there's you know teachers and you know kind of the same thing the
same ilk so it uh you know but i always took that from you i thought that that was absolutely
brilliant keeps people focused in on one thing yeah they get to kind of move on to the next
both of us have like built ourselves and built our business simultaneously with our, with
our kids being around.
Yeah.
And it's, um, you know, it's, it just throws, it just throws another, uh, monkey wrench
into everything.
Um, a giant monkey wrench.
Um, you know, we, we know a lot of people that will say, ah, you know, I used to do
that, but then I got married or, uh, you know, I used to do that.
And then I had kids and,
you know,
things kind of fell off a little bit,
but you've not only kept fitness as a big part of your life.
I mean,
you continue to stay a coach and you've,
you've done a lot of different versions of coaching.
Now you have your own powerlifting team and stuff as well.
Um,
but you also,
um, we take time out. Oh yeah. P break. Yeah. Yeah. Go for it. He break. Now you have your own powerlifting team and stuff as well. But you also have...
Can we take a time out?
Oh, yeah, pee break?
Yeah, yeah, go for it.
Pee break!
You like a new man?
Sorry.
Oh, that's fine.
I couldn't hold it anymore.
You started talking about the kids, and I was like, oh, man.
You feel like a kid because all I got to do is pee.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
I am moving around.
I was doing the pee-pee dance.
Yeah, you're like, ah.
I was like, I'll stand on this leg and I'll be okay.
This one.
Nope, nope, none of this is working.
Okay.
Sorry to interrupt you.
Oh, no, no, it's all good.
So I was going to transition into talking about kids a little bit.
So I'll start with this.
You've had many different jobs over the years changed. A lot of things in your life have changed. Even went through
a divorce. Um, you switched gyms multiple times. Uh, a lot of things have changed, but fitness has
remained a huge part of what you do as your life, as your business, as your life. And then also with
your kids, your kids are involved
in sports and your kids are involved in fitness. I've seen them, uh, hit up some power if they
meets and where some of the slingshot products and stuff been really, uh, it's been really cool,
but a lot of people, you know, we'll, we'll kind of, you know, try to focus in and hone in on their
career, you know, while they're single and while everything's like, you know, going as, as good as it can go. But, uh, you know, for you and I, we never really
had control over that stuff. Things were just kind of going the way they were going. Life was
just happening. We were always trying to make things happen. You and I were always trying to
figure out, uh, ways of having better income to support our families, but it just, it took a while
to figure it out, to figure all that shit out. Right. And, uh, but it just, it took a while to figure it out,
to figure all that shit out. Right. And, uh, things were just kind of moving and changing,
uh, all the time. So, um, what's, uh, the, the role of having, you know, children,
how has that changed things for you? Completely. I mean, it's, you know, completely for,
you know, a lot of good and, you um sometimes uh maybe not bad but maybe not just
the greatest we'll say um i think for me it was actually a real wake-up call when um i ended up
getting custody of the girls and i had them almost all the time i kind of had a realization where i
was like crap like this is all on me now where it's, I have to make all this stuff happen.
And, um, I, I didn't have a choice, you know what I mean? And I think sometimes that's a great way
to learn. Like, you know, if you're going to learn a language, you go and, you know, just,
you know, you drop yourself in Mexico and voila, you learn kind of Spanish. And, um, in this
instance, it was like, okay, I don't have a choice because I got two kids that I got to take care of. And, um, I gotta,
I gotta make something happen or something else is going to happen that I don't necessarily want.
And, um, it was just a matter of not giving myself a choice, you know, not giving myself,
uh, an out or anything along those lines.
It was like, look, I have to do this stuff.
I'm going to throw as much against the wall as I can all the time, whatever sticks there
and is, you know, is, uh, works.
We're going to concentrate on that, but we're going to keep throwing stuff up there and,
you know, see how it all comes up.
So, I mean, it's there, you know, the, the girls are there you know the the girls are you know the coolest things
i've ever done i tell them that all the time and they're uh 10 they're 10 yeah two year uh 10 year
old uh twin girls and um i tell them that all the time and hopefully you know maybe later on in life
they'll understand what that really just makes fun of you they just do all the time all the time
like yeah whatever dad it's great but yeah um but it's, uh, you know, they're the, they're, you know, they're the reasons that
I'm here.
You know what I mean?
They're the only reason that, you know, kind of got me out of bed, you know, uh, doing
anything.
It was a really, a really crazy and rough time.
You were, I mean, basically you were like sick, you know, like you weren't sick, but
you were sick.
I wasn't well, I'll say that for sure.
It was a tough thing to watch and, and to be, uh, to be involved with, um.
And credit to you and Andy, because I mean, that was, uh, when I wouldn't have the girls,
the other weekends when I didn't have the girls.
Um, and when it started, you know, and I had them like every other week, I would, I was
literally losing my mind.
And I, you know, with people with kids can kind of understand like the noise.
There's noise and it almost kind of, it's like white noise and it kind of calms you down a little bit and it's just manageable.
You know, there's stuff happening.
When the girls weren't in the house and it was just me, I couldn't handle it.
And I, you know, then you start thinking stuff.
And your voices start talking to you.
And I was like, I got to get the hell out of here.
So I go over to your house.
It was just madness.
I mean, your wife was there.
Your two kids are running around.
That's when they were a lot younger.
And then April was there.
And it was all just madness all the time.
And I could sleep.
And I felt at home.
It felt so great to be there. So I mean, I could sleep and I, and I felt at home. It felt so great to be there.
So, I mean, you know, again, you know, just, just like anything, you know, it takes a village.
I mean, the really important, you know, why I'm here has a lot to do with, you know,
watching you and Andy be parents and understanding it and how to make myself a parent, you know,
close to that and, um, you know, do right by the kids. And, um, it, it was, uh, you know, that was,
yeah, I wasn't, I wasn't great for sure, but you know, a lot of people kind of helped me through
it and, um, you know, forever grateful for all that stuff. But also, you know, I wouldn't change
a thing, you know, I wouldn't change a thing because, you know, I wouldn't, you know, the
relationship that I have with the girls, you know, now is, is worth more than anything. Yeah.
And, um, you know, going through the whole process and, you know, I remember I would
tell you stories when we would go on these seminars, like I got home, put the girls to
bed and they woke up four hours later, half asleep on the bed.
All the lights in the house are on.
The door is open.
It's one o'clock in the morning.
the house are on the door is open it's one o'clock in the morning and i kind of wake up and i'm like oh man uh i still haven't done i still haven't taken a shower i still haven't done anything
right you know i was like oh man yeah i get like three hours of sleep but it taught me a ton about
who i am how i work what i need to be successful right and uh i think more than anything it taught me what
priorities really are yeah you know oh you gotta you gotta really you know set your priorities
right you know you gotta have things in in um you know in line and uh when you're forced to
only do something you know take care of these two kids you learn really really fast who your
friends are who you know who wasn't necessarily you know and the limit these two kids you learn really really fast who your friends are who you
know who wasn't necessarily you know and the limit of what friends are and you know because i mean
they're a friend you know they're level friends and you know who you can rely on who you can call
when you're crying and you know who's going to help you out no matter what who's going to come
and pick you up and then also the people who are you know just going to be glossary and just like
hey let's go and have some fun let's do some stuff so you learn a lot about you know, just going to be glossary and just like, Hey, let's go and have some fun. Let's do some stuff. So you learn a lot about, you know, there, there wasn't greater life, uh, uh, learning during
that period. And, uh, you know, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Yeah. I remember, you know,
talking to you through that time and, you know, something I always try to do whenever I help
somebody, I think I, you know, I'm worse. He's the worst because he, no, no, he's the worst,
but he's also the best. I, I remember so distinctly coming over to your house and talking about everything that was going on and just getting just crushed all the time.
And then you, you proceeded to tell me a story about going to the, I don't know if you know this or you remember this, but going to a play structure with Jake and Jake's just going nuts and doing all this stuff.
And then he goes
you know who i saw over at the over at the playground i saw a guy whose kid was in a
wheelchair and that guy picked the kid up and took him on every single swing on every single slide
he did everything with him he carried him through it and they just did all this stuff and along
those lines and all i can think of is like you motherfucker
it's like you're but but the take-home message was like your situation while it may not be great
may not be ideal at least you're not doing this you know yeah everyone's that that guy was fucking
strong yeah to do that stuff that's amazing that's absolutely astounding amazing you know i get to
you know coach a couple of you know um special needs kids and you know along and and stuff and
have done that throughout the years and those parents those are the people who are really
strong and the to to be able to take your kid and you know have him have those life experiences that
our kids are lucky to have and do something along those lines and have them feel a little sense of normalcy or whatever you end up wanting to call it that was strong but that was such a
lesson it's burnt into my head and um it's always like there's somebody out there who's worse off
than you are yeah and just to know that sometimes is like okay i'm not doing i'm not doing so bad
you know that situation was so sad, you know, like,
uh, any, any sort of health issue with your children's just, it's awful. But, uh, this guy,
his kid was totally normal and get out of fever. And then there you go. Like the fever, you know,
um, he messed with his, uh, brain and then that was it, you know? And, uh, so he lost control, you know, over his legs and stuff like that.
But I just remember asking him like, you know, kind of like how he, I just got in conversation
with him and I asked him how he dealt with it.
And he's like, you know, he's like, you don't really know how you're ever going to like
come out the other end of anything.
But he's like, one day you just do.
And then you're like talking to somebody else about helping them out, you know?
And then that's what I told you on the phone.
I was like, I don't really know.
Like, but if we can, if we had the ability to fucking fast forward like five years, I'm
sure of it that you're going to be fucking okay.
Yeah.
And you're going to be talking someone else through a divorce or someone else through
some sort of tragic.
And it's crazy because the next day, literally the next day I was at Starbucks and there
was a guy who had been trying to find he was he went to the gym he went to
crossfit pleasanton and his wife kind of took off and he he raised uh he raised his daughter by
himself and i finally saw him and i was like johnny dude we got to talk let me buy you coffee can we
hang out he's like i only got a couple minutes so we stood in line together and we ordered coffee
i was just like tell me something like give me a hint like tell me how you did this what's the recipe he's like you'll be okay i was like no no no no he goes look
i know who you are you're gonna be all right right it'll be okay he's like
crap okay so just like do it, I guess.
Like you're going to figure it out.
He's like, I had to figure it out.
The stuff that I had to figure out is probably not going to be the same thing with you.
But you'll get through it
because you got a good head on your shoulders
and you're going to work hard
and you're not going to let this beat you, right?
Like, fuck no.
Then you'll be fine.
All right.
Okay.
Those are like those two life lessons there.
And then, you know,
a couple of things said to me by my mom and my dad.
I was like, okay,
all right, I, I, I'm actually prepared for this.
I don't think I am, but I mean, you know, there's, there's enough in here and people believe in me.
So I'm going to go ahead and believe in myself and just kind of, you know, just roll that
ball out there and, you know, hope for the best.
I think, uh, a lot of times when people look at somebody else, they think that there is something specifically special about that person that makes them a mom, that makes them a dad, you know, and then your view of your mom and your dad, like you put them up on this pedestal, right?
grocery store and you're like oh my god mr sullivan's like a regular person he's got a wife ew that's weird what the fuck's going on why is he at the grocery store yeah you know and your
parents are just people too right and we get rolled in these situations that we're never ready for
them never you're not prepared to have a kid um you're not prepared for really a lot of these
things a lot of the changes and moves that you've made over the years it's all stuff that you just kind of learn on the fly and i think the
truth is is what ends up happening to a lot of us is you unfortunately may just go into certain
times of your life where you have to do a lot of things that you don't necessarily want to do
yeah um like i'm sure you would rather have been with your kids
every moment possible,
but you had to pay for a babysitter.
Like, you had to do these certain things.
Not that that's the worst thing,
but we don't know who's babysitting
our fucking kids anymore.
I thought it was the worst.
I thought I was a terrible parent.
That whole thing is so hard.
It is, because, I mean, my mom.
But it's like, how do you not,
wait a second, you have to work. Right. You can work right you can't yeah like uh wrap your head around this i was paying more in child
care than i was in rent at that time yeah so i mean i was like i was making just enough to
keep my kids where they needed to be i ended up talking to my landlord i was like
i can give you this and you know i can give you whatever it was at the time.
I know I can give you that per month.
Right.
And as things go.
Well, you have to tell the landlord that.
You have to tell the cell phone people this.
And you have to kind of bounce around and say, hey, I'm not a piece of shit like the other guy.
But I will have the money at some point.
Yeah.
And I mean, there's a lot of people who are just like, okay, cool.
It's like, look, I'm going to pay you as much as I can.
I don't know when I can make it more, but you know, I can, I can guarantee you this.
Like, all right, cool.
And those are the companies that, A, I'm still with.
Right.
You know what I mean?
And then the companies who are like, no, no, no.
We're going to send you collections.
It's like, good luck getting your thousand dollars back.
Lawn care, you know, go fuck yourself. But you but you know the people and that's something that kind of one
of the things that my mom told me was like there are people out there who are much more like me
my mom saying that so much more like my mom who do want to help you and there are people who don't
want to help you and i think that's it's that rings so true across the board and i mean you
just think like there's so many everyone's out to get you every day all day almost like you're paranoid exactly but i mean all these motherfuckers they want to
fight me every day hold me back and it's like not really there's a lot more people who want to help
and who are willing to lend a hand here and there and you know work with you as long as you're
willing to show them that you're working and you're working towards some end goal or whatever
it is so i mean it's a that was a really and god i don't know how was it how old was i like 28 at the time it took me 28 years to
figure out that the world isn't plotting against me that i can actually rely on people yeah when
you're young it really feels that way it does you really feel like isolated in a way even though
you're not no you know and you never were you know i mean you always had your mom and your dad
and you always had your brothers with you and i mean it's all you never were, you know what I mean? You always had your mom and your dad and you always had
your brothers with you
and I mean,
it's all,
you know,
you had a huge clan,
a huge,
you know,
gang,
whatever you want to call it
and then,
you know,
it still have that kind of,
that weird feeling
but that can drive you to,
you know,
certain successes as well
but I mean,
really knowing that
there's a lot of people
out there who,
who want the best for you.
They want to see you succeed
and they want to help you succeed as well this could have huge life this could have
drove you the opposite way though like uh how come uh you didn't end up turning to like drugs or
alcohol or anything like that well i'd i'd um i mean a lot of people do they get in a tough
situation they have a drink or two and next thing you know they're fucking stuck there yeah well i
had kind of i'd gone through a lot of battles with uh some some chemical dependency and addiction early on
and uh really early on in my life and um i had a uh my grandmother died of cirrhosis of the liver
and there's a lot of addiction and problems in my family and um i kind of learned early on and
you know i was like you know what i
can either be like them or i can be kind of completely different and uh i chose to be
completely different and um a lot of it was because of a high school coach i was like what are you
gonna do you're just gonna sit on you know you're gonna sit against the uh you're gonna sit against
the fence and smoke pot are you gonna jump into the field and play i was like i want to play it's
like well then don't fucking sit against the sit against the fence and smoke pot with all these potheads and
i was like oh oh i see how this works and you know it just wasn't a good idea you know just i i knew
that it wasn't for me because i i loved it i loved smoking yeah i still to this day like man, that's the dumbest thing I've ever said in my life.
You know, I could go for a cigarette right now.
Like, that makes no sense.
You know, like, or I'd be, you know, it'd be awesome.
Let's go get fucking ripped or whatever it ends up being.
But I knew it was a terrible idea for me.
I'd seen it in my family and I'd seen it with close friends.
And more than that, I saw it destroy my brother you know like a like a slow
moving accident you know just just running into the every fucking wall possible and um i knew that
that certainly wasn't the answer and uh and it just really rips apart your family it's like
well why the fuck's anyone care about this one person drinking who's it
hurting but it's fucking killing everybody killing everybody it really affects the or
drinking or any drug yeah it really uh rips apart a family and is really um extremely stressful
it is and i mean i think i don't know if people quite understand that if they aren't
or haven't kind of gone through it and they kind of look at
the situation and they say well why can't you just stop it's like well you know just like your
brother just like my brother it was they can't it's a you know there's just something that they
just won't any can't won't i don't know it's the same thing at that point and they're like well
why does it bother you like you mean why does it bother me like have like this is terrible you know my
passes out on the couch and pisses on the couch and my parents are fighting all the time and my
sister is running away from the house because she doesn't want to be there or anything in it
there's a lot of tears shed there's so much and how much money you can spend on mad dog or seth
to try and get you know legal fees get them out of jail you bail
them out yeah you try and pay for these you know um camps or you know immersion things and
just racking up the bills you know and it's one of those things where you know if you don't have
a lot of money and then you have to deal with a lot of stuff and then you're dealing with
legal fees and lawyers and judges it's madness it's especially for people who don't with a lot of stuff and then you're dealing with legal fees and lawyers and judges
it's madness it's especially for people who don't have a lot of experience doing that before
it's just completely insane to try and go through it it makes no sense at all it's a
you know the whole rehabilitation aspect of things is it doesn't it doesn't work you know, the whole rehabilitation aspect of things is it doesn't, it doesn't work.
You know what I mean?
The classic way of doing it.
It's just,
it's not great for people.
It works for some people,
you know,
kind of like the AA side of things.
And it's great.
There's a program that's free.
Absolutely.
And it's amazing,
but it didn't,
it didn't do anything for my brother.
No,
it didn't do anything for Mad Dog.
And it takes,
you know,
extreme,
extreme conditions for them to really click on or learn. It tough you know when somebody has any you know any sort of like
mental health issue which is hard to even figure out because yeah yeah a lot of these people are
just and my brother included a lot of people are just high all the time or drunk or whatever
and you can't tell if you don't know which one you know who you're talking to yeah um and so
for that reason it's hard to get them treated properly
and it's hard to kind of figure out the whole thing with my brother chris it was pretty clear
that he was just depressed he was lonely uh he was still you know mourning my brother uh they they
had a close relationship because only like a year and a half apart and so it just it killed him i
mean when mad dog died part of him
died and it took it took him a long time to recover from it i don't even think that he
i don't think he ever really realized it he told me one time he was like watching a baseball game
and he started crying it's like the yankees won or something like that my brother mad dog was a
huge yankees fan yeah and he's like then i sat there and thought about like why i was crying
he's like i was crying because it was like the first day i sat there and thought about like why i was crying he's like
i was crying because it was like the first day i was sober in a long time but i was thinking of
mike and i was like oh my god dude like how come you know we never but it's a hard thing to talk
about yeah especially when somebody already fucking died from it yeah it's uh and there and
and that's again no one's gonna ever be ready for that and i mean i think you've done an incredible
job because you're there for for me and i've seen you be there for other people because unfortunately you know mike
went before some other people did yeah and um you know to to just tell people like it's gonna be
okay hey you know and i mean that's one of the reasons that i didn't turn to anything you're like
you're not drinking or doing anything stupid are you i'm like no why would i do that you're like
okay no i just wanted to check yeah you know i mean it's i mean how many times have yeah who are you hanging out with what are you doing right
like checking how many times have we gone out to drink zero you know zero it's never happened
before but now you're asking me this question i'm like oh crap yeah i guess some people do kind of
do this and they go that way but um you know with the help from you and also just you know kind of
some prior knowledge going through it,
you know, that was just never an option for me. And more than anything, it's like,
it can't be an option. Cause I got these two girls, right? I mean, it's there, there's no
other option, but that, you know, a lot of people will just think like, uh, when they have children
that they're, you know, their schedule gets so crazy. And then you'll hear people saying like,
they don't have any sleep well back to
you what you said about priorities it's it is difficult and having twins uh makes it even more
fucking crazy but trying to adhere to a certain schedule can really help a lot you know so um
when your kids are sleeping you had to be sleeping you know shit like that like you have
and it's it's hard it
makes it hard because you're you're used to like your normal schedule your normal routine well now
that's all fucking flipped upside down there are some parents who get really strict and say my kids
doing like this at this time just so they can get through their day right because it gets to be so
crazy and then putting him in child care putting him in school or having him in sports probably
having your kids in sports probably helped a lot because now they were both participating.
They were both in the same spot together. You knew exactly what they were doing.
Yeah. Not only did I know what they were doing, but I'd gone through it myself and, you know,
sports are played a huge part in my life and, you know, organizing, scheduling, you know,
everything along those lines. So, and I knew what they were being taught and, you know,
how things were going to be structured.
And it gave us a time to go somewhere, start something and something,
and then kind of come home.
They do everything, right?
Yeah.
I mean, they started off doing, um, sports.
Haven't they done?
Uh, there's probably a decent amount, but I mean,
they started off with gymnastics and then they kind of, you know,
and the.
They're good at basketball.
They're, I played basketball with them and they're they're like it was it was awesome it was a lot of fun they were
really i was like holy shit these chicks are fast the burdick chicks are quick it's amazing because
you know they pick something up and then they um and i think because they are twins they kind of
a built-in teammate you know know, someone to play against.
So they just play it all.
They just play all that.
Exactly.
Because I mean,
you know,
every 15 minutes they'd both come in crying and like,
oh my God,
go back out there.
You're fine.
Yeah.
Um,
but they would just get some,
I would say they're doing pretty good.
Yeah.
You know,
I mean,
I know it's taken a long time and I know there's been a lot of
parenting that's had to go on,
but they were respectful of each other and they, were all having fun you know it got it definitely
got heated and a little competitive but well it's always going to yeah i mean that's what
bear bryant would always he would always recruit twins because you can't teach competition to
people right i mean though they've been fighting for food right so you know in the womb for nine
months right i mean they're always going to be fighting.
They're always going to be competitive.
And if it's not with their sister, it's going to be with whoever else that you point them
at.
Right.
They're going to be competitive.
But, um, you know, it, I found out what was successful for the girls and that was in school
and kind of having some afterschool activity.
So I just basically wrapped my schedule around that because I knew that this was working
for them.
They're happy.
They're healthy.
They're growing.
They're, they're being, they're being great.
And I just trying to keep that same schedule.
I would even keep like their nap schedule, like on the weekends when they were with me, like, Oh, it's nap time.
We're going to go ahead and do this.
And you know, I would end up taking a nap because at that time, and we've talked about this before, like when we were kids and you'd see your dad and you're just just out like how did you fall asleep
like standing up like i never understood that then i had kids and i was like i can take a nap
anytime you want me to like you just give me a second i'm out because i don't know if this this
this is gonna happen again you're trying to tell your dad about a story about how you caught this you dove for a ball or something and he's out
right oh yeah yeah and you're like good job yeah pretends he was listening the whole time there's a
katie has a picture or a video of me laying in bed with sophia and she's kind of next to me and
she's reading me and you know and this is like when she was learning how to read.
So we were doing some reading out loud stuff.
And I am just absolutely just out.
And she doesn't know the difference.
She's still reading and just being great and doing the stuff.
I'm just like, oh man, like I should have never, I should never get comfortable.
There's a tip for you.
If you're a parent, don't ever get comfortable because you're going to pass out almost
immediately.
It was like,
Oh,
let's just lay down here.
It's 11 o'clock.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
And then you're just,
you're just done.
It's,
it's over.
It's absolutely over.
But that was always something that you were like,
remember when you'd see your dad just pass out and you could never
understand it.
Yeah.
It's like,
do you understand it now? 100% or even all the shit your parents told you and then you catch yourself
saying it you're like oh my god i can't believe i just said i know i know that's great i say stuff
about like safety stuff to the kids all the time they're way too old i know they're way they're
way too i'll be careful i'm like, what the fuck?
Where in the shit did that come from?
You should be in a nightgown with rollers in your hair and shaking a stick. Be careful out there.
Be careful out there.
Oh my God.
I don't know if that's what Rosie looked like.
Barb didn't look like that either, but I think you in a nightgown with rollers in your hair would be great.
Rosie does complain like that a lot.
Right.
She talks like that.
That is true.
That was a pretty accurate account.
Rosie's great.
All right, we talked about just about everything possible here today.
And so I think we're going to take this one in.
Awesome.
Reel her in.
Strength is never a weakness.
Weakness is never strength.
See you later.
Damn.