Barbell Shrugged - 103- Here's A Quick Way To Lift More Weight and Improve Athletic Performance

Episode Date: February 12, 2014

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview Steve Liberati of Steve's Club and Rob Miller, who once judged Rich Froning at the CrossFit Games. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Should I try a New Jersey accent here? No. Probably not. Go for it.

You only stand to offend people. Welcome to Barbell Strugged. I'm Mike Bletzer here with Chris Moore and Doug Larson. CTP behind the camera here. And we're in New Jersey with Steve Liberati of Steve's Club and Rob Miller, longtime affiliate owner and level one staff dude. And he judges Rich Froning. Not good enough, Rich.

Again. That's a hobby. Your hobby is to judge Rich Froning. Very critical of Rich. Rob is. Yes. Today we're going to attempt to talk about performance tracking and how you should probably do it. And how it might benefit your training and all that kind of stuff.

Before we get any further, go to barbellshrug.com. Sign up for the newsletter. What are they going to get if they sign up for the newsletter? Chris, uh, all their wishes come true. All your virtual hug and a virtual hug. I'll send it to you promptly. You'll tingle all over. You'll know you'll got it. All right, Steve, you want to tell us a little about yourself and Steve's club and all that good stuff. Sure. Even though you hate it, man, even though you want to tell us a little about yourself and Steve's Club and all that good stuff? Sure. Even though you hate it, man. Even though you hate talking about it.

He said he hates talking about himself, but we're going to make him do it anyway. You said I have about an hour to talk about myself? An hour. Okay. Hour and ten. Three, two, one, go. So I started Steve's Club in Camden, New Jersey, get kids off the street. And from there, we started Steve's Paleo Goods.

So we started a line of beef jerky, nuts and berries. It's called the Paleo Kit. That helps support our nonprofit. We also have, from there, we started Steve's Club National Program. So we spread the concept to other cities. We now have 19 clubs in cities all over the country. So very, very excited to be part of that. We used to eat those Pale kits by the bucket we used

to buy like huge buckets of them yeah really oh thank you we tend to overdo things we ate nothing but payload kits for a while and then we're like oh we can't do this anymore yeah actually i haven't had one in a while little note don't just eat only payload kits you gotta like you gotta work them into your normal diet every once in while, I got thrown a stalk of broccoli. There you go. It bounced. The best bit is- When I went to Africa, I took 30 with me. Oh, wow.

The last week was like two weeks. The best part's the bottom, the jerky and the strawberry gel that forms. It's a salty, sweet perfection thing. So is this zone proportioned? It is, yes. Okay, so it's paleo zone. I didn't know people used the word, the term zone anymore. Yeah, could you mix those two things?

Are you allowed legally to say Paleo and Zone? Aren't they too diametrically opposed? I don't think they trademarked the word zone. That's why Steve's not saying it. He's letting Mike say it. Yeah, the two likely don't get along. I can say whatever I want. Rob, that's what I

think anyway. Uh, can you give us a little background on you and, uh, you know, CrossFit, what, six years now? Yeah. Level one staff. Yep. Uh, coming about six years. Yeah. So I've been doing that for a while traveling around. Most of the time it's local, but I got gone to some cool places with that. It's been a lot of fun. It's, um, it's really cool to be part of that experience with new people when they're coming through. So I really enjoy that. Um, I run CrossFit Delaware Valley. We've had that since the summer of 2007. And that was one of the, you know, typical kind of lo-fi CrossFit experiences started in a garage and early on too, right? Yeah. Real early. What would you say the number of your first, what was the number? the number? I think it was 186. I could be wrong.

Am I counting or them now? What month was that? It was, I came online. My site was listed July 4th, 2007. July, we were November. End of September, I think is when we, we moved into our space in November. I'm not exactly sure. Sometime between September and November,

we came on the website. So we're real close. And you too, Steve? 200-ish. You came online in 2007? This is all new to me. I never heard anybody saying 186. I thought it's the top 10 and that's cool. And it passed that. I think we're 101. Oh, you're keeping it cool, man. No, I'm just kidding. No, yeah, we started it. I started Steve's Club in about 2006. And then about two years later, I started CrossFit Tribe in a park. So about the same time as you guys.

It was also a time when it was very, I don't want to say overly risky, but no one understood what this would become. That's the wilderness days. That's the hard part. The wild, wild west. Explaining it to people. When you're running to them at the bar, and you're trying to get, you know,

that's where we did most of our recruiting, because we were in college. So I was in college, and like, oh, I got this gym where we do, you know, we do like weightlifting and like,

you know, some track type stuff and some rowing. Yeah. And people were like, what the fuck are you talking about? That was, that's how it was back then,

right? How'd you get people in the gym? Yeah, I usually say what we don't do. It's not bodybuilding. Okay, now. Then what is it?

Yeah, then what is it? All you new affiliates, you don't know how hard it was. Exactly. Everything's handed to you on a silver platter now. Yeah, back then if you told your friends and family, I'm going to open up a gym, they'd go, why?

You want to fail and be a financial ruin? You want to try to compete with a gold gym on that model? That's the only option you had, and it's changed everything. Yeah, you're a rebel without a cause, right? I love that title. So Rob, at the beginning of the show he said that you you judge rich froning but you're actually a judge for rich froning in competition is why we said that yeah you're not in your underwear at home judging story there at the games no at the games i i got a couple of marquee

athletes over the years i've done for the past four years at the games and I've done some similar time at regionals. And I got rich in one lane one time. I can't remember the workout. You can't remember the workout? No, I know the workout. I know what it's called because they all have names now, you know, like the Cinco's. There's too many fucking names, by the way.

Too many names. It was the one where at the end of the tennis court, they had to do the burpees into the muscle-ups. I just remember that piece. But, I mean, he just demolished the thing. Made it easy on you. Oh, he did. He makes it really easy.

I mean, some of, you know, as the levels go up, you start to see more and more sort of virtuosity of movement. And even Rich, and I can't say enough about the other athletes because they're fantastic athletes, but he is far and away. I mean, the way the guy moves, it's just... So you never had a no rep Rich

and him give you a dirty look or anything? No, never had a no rep. Fuck me, Rich. I'm sorry, bro. I've got that look. Here, have it back.

Yeah, you get that a lot at the regionals. The regionals, you'll get some passionate people. But it is funny when we say,

he judged Rich Froning. People think of him as some guy in his underwear at home on the internet like going, I could fucking do this shit. If I had to work all the time i could do this shit not true

i had this question and i forgot it i was like shit it was something about i was hoping one of you guys happened while i remembered something about tracking athletes we were going to talk about yeah yeah we want to talk about how important it is to track performance. You guys have coached athletes. You've run gyms. You've had a lot of people come through. A lot of people, I think they just show up and they don't worry about tracking their performance. Sometimes they don't feel like they're getting results, but they don't even know why or if they are or not.

You come in, you give a magical amount of force. You do work and you get something magical in return and you don't really know why or if they are or not. You come in, you give a magical amount of force, you do work and you get something magical in return and you don't really know where it came from sometimes if you're not measuring shit. Like I said, the thing you're not measuring is the thing you don't know how to improve. That's where it starts, right? So, Rob, what do you guys do

in regard to getting your clients to track performance and how much emphasis is put there? Yeah. Great question. You know, I mean, for me, it's just a big separator between the people that are, that are more serious than those that are not, and not to put down the people that aren't serious. If they're just coming for a workout and they want to be fit and just have that general fitness, you know, the workouts are really powerful. I mean, they're going to get a really great, a really great response, but the people who come in and they say, I have a specific goal, the goal has to be linked to what is your measurement system, what's your currency?

And so those are the people that have the logbooks. Those are the people that use tools that we have in the gym like Wattify in order to make that experience richer and better. And they're looking at it in terms of baby steps and trying to get to new milestones and push themselves in that way. So, you know, ideally I'd want everybody on that. You know, I acknowledge the fact that CrossFit has taken on, you know, kind of that regular role for some people. It's not necessarily all those fringe athletes anymore that would show up with log books. We're comfortable in that environment, but we always try and push them that way. You know, we're like, Hey, you know,

when they come in for the intro, we're like, that's where you keep your log book. And we point that, you know, that cubby hole out. And we're like, this is how they coming for the intro? We're like, that's where you keep your logbook. And we point that cubbyhole out. And we're like, this is how Wattify works. And we do try to do a good job of that. I mean, with Wattify, though, you get pretty good. I know we started using it in our facility recently. And you get pretty good results on people logging stuff that way because it's so community-driven as opposed to just a logbook.

That's one of those things where I think if you're using an app or something that's a little more intuitive, like for me, I have a hard time. More with the times. But if, but if it's something that's going to be easy to look up later. Yeah, for sure. Going back in a log book to see what I did on back squat. For all my years in powerlifting, man, I used to scribble that shit down and like piece of notebook paper in my gym

bag or like a lab book I had from our old laboratory. You try to keep an Excel spreadsheet. And the tool was never quite what you needed to actually, unless you were really geeking out and tracking every variable, which was never me, never too detail-oriented, I didn't have a user-friendly tool to help me keep track of it, like a digital coach in my pocket that everybody has now this access to. yeah the technology has been great i mean whatify we use at our gym we love it uh members love it it definitely helps it gives you a goal you know you go up there before

your workout you look at what you did before so kind of it gives that goal whereas before we were just talking and writing down a piece of paper i know i did that for years or memory which is always sure shot you know but i think there is a piece of paper I know I did that for years or memory which is always sure shot you know but I think there is a lot of value of just whether putting it on paper

having it on a tracking it on a screen you know kind of just puts it out there it says this is what I did in the past and this is what I'm trying to beat

so I'm a huge fan of it I mean I think like Rob said it depends on the goals some members just go by based on feel their intuition they feel good they got good sweat.

They feel like they're working out. That's all that's required sometimes, man. Getting to get a little pumped. But for a lot of athletes, they want to know that it's working, that they're measuring it and it's effective. And sometimes you can't go home in the mirror and look at your tricep and say, I think it looks, my abs are getting... Maybe not you, but boy, After a vicious close grip bench session,

I can see the differences. But there's a lot, it's deceiving, right? Yeah, it's all bullshit. Yeah, as a coach, I really like the whole logging of results because a lot of times people go, I'm not getting the results. I remember this a while back. We offered twice a week training as an option,

which I am very opposed to now, and you'll understand why in a second. But people would come to me who were paying to come into the gym twice a week training as an option, which I'm very opposed to now. And you'll understand why in a second, but people would come to me who were paying for to come into the gym twice a week. And I had other people that were unlimited. They would come in five days a week and these people would come in the gym and go, I'm just not getting the results. I know they're split and they're doing a bootcamp or something somewhere else. I'm just not getting the results that, you know, I feel like I should be getting. I'm like, I'm like, oh, okay, well, how often do you come to the gym? They go, oh, well, twice a week. I'm a twice a week member. I'm like, oh, you know, I feel like I should be getting. I'm like, I'm like, Oh, okay. Well, how often do you come to the gym? They go, Oh, well, twice a week. I'm a twice a week member.

I'm like, Oh, you're getting twice a week results. And, and they go, Oh, and Oh, you should upgrade to this more expensive plan. No, but I mean, that's really, that's really the truth, but that's where logging can be like really valuable. And like, uh,. And I think as a gym owner, logging attendance can be not just the performance in the gym, but logging how many times do you think you're showing up and how many times are you really showing up? How many times have people filled out diet logs and then realized they didn't eat a Snickers bar every day at 3 o'clock? Well, I think whether you're a business owner, a marketer, whether you're an athlete, you have to measure it. You have to measure it to see how it's working and see how you can improve. I mean, it's just simply looking at data.

You can't go by just feel. I think there's two perspectives, really. There's the athlete perspective where you don't know if things are moving the way they should unless you're measuring. Because if you leave it to your flawed perception, you're going to get shit wrong. Doug, how often times am I wrong with my flawed perception? I mean, self-deprecating. Every time. Every time. Every time. Every time. Doug's like, this guy's got the fattest mouth on the team. Mike made a good point about how also if you're the coach on the other end and you have somebody who's not happy with you and what you got,

this gives you objective numbers, transparency, something to fall back on. Say, no, look, look, man. I mean, here it is. You entered this, right? Yes, I did. You'd snicker bar every day at 2 o'clock and the leader died or a regular Pepsi? Yeah. And then there was a problem? It is. Or you didn't show up X weeks in a row? Maybe that could be why you don't get the results. It's not just you trying to.

It feels like otherwise you're trying to sell something to somebody. But you have the numbers. And then the entirety of the other component of putting it on the board. So as CrossFit, I think Greg Glassman originally used the same, men die for points. We put it on the whiteboard, and there's something to be had about ranking. So people like to see how they stack up, how they compare to other athletes. Oh, yeah.

We got the morning crew. Don't even mess with the evening crew or something. I think they put up some fake results just to motivate the PM crew. It's great. I love it. I love seeing it. I watched the other day. That's a whole other good it. I love seeing it. We had a guy do that the other day. That's a whole other good topic

because there's the thing that there's the workout program and then there's these elements that are just as important that are hard to pin down. Yeah. And you could be a dental hygienist or office guy.

You come in and go, God beat me. Fuck that guy. You're hearing it in your head. I'm going to bring it, man. I have to. I have to stand up. Everybody has a different motivation.

Some people just want to get better. Some people hate their life and this is how they take it out. Some people are born mercenary killers, crazy sons of bitches. They're going to kill everybody in the gym. Hey, all right. Exactly. But I say if you come in, you come in, and you look at your name on the bottom of that board, you're like 10th out of 10th.

If you don't feel anything, get the fuck out of here. We don't need your client. Yeah. You're listening. Or there's that one athlete that's constantly putting up the best numbers, and you say, I just want to beat that motherfucker. I'm going to do everything it takes.

Yeah, but that feeling that like, oh, I got to do better. That's what drives the progress. That plus a well-reasoned, simple, progressive plan, now you got shit coming together and they can manage it

with a cool tool. Or if you can scribble it on the fucking gym wall, do that. But as long as you're doing it every time, measuring and measuring. Absolutely. I bet Amit's laughing at us. Amit, the owner of But as long as you're doing it every time, measuring and measuring. Absolutely.

I bet Amit's laughing at us. Amit, the owner of Waterfly, saying, yeah, I thought of all this stuff, guys. But this is why we came up with it. I was genius. Well, I know as a coach, I used to get really frustrated. I mean, I still do time to time. As I tell the athletes, I'm not in the gym every day. And I can't be there for every session.

And I tell athletes, especially people'm not in the gym every day and I can't be there for every session. And I tell athletes, you know, especially people who are trying to be competitive. So you've got to log your results, put it on the blog. You know, that's, that's where I need the results to be on the blog. Or, you know, if you put it in your notebook, it's kind of no good to me as a coach. It's great for you as an athlete to see what's working, what's not working. And most athletes, I don't think have the analytical skills or the experience necessary to like make good decisions based off the data. Uh, and a lot of times that's why you have a coach. And a lot of times when, you know, athletes I'll be programming and I'll be getting results from one or two athletes. I'm supposed to be getting results

from 10 athletes. Yeah. And they go, man, the workout was like, you know, I'm just getting really beat up. I'm like, are you lagging results? you logging results and they're like well no like i'm not programming for you then like if you're not logging results and i as a coach can't see what's happening and and in the numbers then what i program is for whoever's logging results and so i think that's i think a lot of athletes do not see that i mean i know they don't because if they did they'd probably do a better job of logging it. And so, you know, whatever, if you're an athlete out there that has a coach, get them your results and it's probably

make it easy on them too because if you've got 10 athletes all handing you notebooks or here's my personal blog, here's my notebook. Oh, can you download this Excel spreadsheet? You're not going to do all that shit. Oh, fuck no. Put it on the blog. Use something like Wattify.

Use like one central system is kind of like what I suggest. Yeah, I'm a big fan of technology. It makes your life easier, simpler, and more effective. You can go back as long as you want and see what happened two years ago. You're not going to fucking remember that Post-it note you wrote down

your PR fran on fucking two years ago. Where are you going to stick that at? Well, no, we never forget PR fran. No, no, no. You know, there's like five things stick that at? Well, no, we never forget PR fran. That's... No, no, no. You know, there's like five things you'll never forget. You know, you never forget the main list. Oh, I don't know. I only just find nuanced details across the community.

I know what my PR on snatch is, my back squat, my clean and jerk, my front squat, and my fran time. But you start asking me like, you know, what's your Elizabeth? I go, ah. Oh, yeah. I don't really remember that, but it is important data. We just don't visit it frequently enough and we don't talk about it that often.

So it's, it's good data to have and it all kind of depends on what you're trying to improve it. To me, when I hear Fran, I think that's the thing that was used as a tool to make me look like an asshole at the level one. As I desperately tried to do the pull-ups,

everybody like, ha ha ha Z CrossFit's intense. Like, yes, plenty fucking intense, bro. As I crossed the finish line in, what, like 18 minutes, 14 minutes in the fucking thing the first time I did it? Or it's the workout when you have no creativity to come up with a workout, and you're short

on time. Like, oh, shit, what can I do? I can do some burpees. I can jump on a rower. I'll just hit out Fran real fast and get on my way. There you go. I'll call this one Chris. I'll warm up in two minutes.

I'll squat to a max and go the fuck home. Drink a beer. It's warm up in two minutes. I'll squat to a max and go the fuck home. Drink a beer. It's the drive-thru. Play some Rush, man. Drive-thru style. Drive-thru style. That's another good way to log. If you don't know what to do that day, you can just go, okay, I'm going to do whatever

I did on December 10th and see if I got better at that. I'll pull that open. It's an easy way to test. You have a clear benchmark. I think a lot of times if I do that. I'll pull that open. It's an easy way to test. You have a clear benchmark. I think a lot of times if I do that, I'll make a commitment. I'm going to go back and do that workout that I know I did.

I don't remember it. I don't remember the workout. I'm just going to do whatever I did December 10th. Open it up and I'm like, oh, not that one. It's like triple Murph. I think that's the genius of the name workouts. That sounds intense.

I think that's the name workouts. That's what makes them so successful is that everybody knows their time and it puts that workout up on the board. So everybody knows like their friend time. And that way you can benchmark it, compare your time. It was built in benchmarking. And it goes back to chasing that data, chasing that results.

So it's not just, you know, that's what drives it. Even in powerlifting, man, even powerlifting, like in the course of a year, you're only thinking about what you want to aspire to. And it's usually a little too far to reach like i'm gonna fucking add 100 pounds on my bench especially if you're in a gym like some random ass gym like i'm just gonna get better at benching you do what you always did and then a year later you bench the same thing because it's you have this big pine of sky dream yeah something you're shooting for but there's nothing in between to say right i'm gonna build i'm gonna build what was it doing last month add x percent this month like no one it's such an obviously beneficial thing. And almost no one

outside of this realm is doing it. Rob, what do you, what do you think about like goal setting? Like I like what Chris just said. He's like, either I want to get better at benching, which there's no quantitative value there. And then he says a hundred pounds and you know, I want to put a hundred pounds in three months. It's just ridiculous. Like, you know, what, how do you approach goal setting? Well, I mean, you know, when you're running a bigger gym, I think, I think if I have to be critical and I have to think about what I can do better in my facility, I need to let my members know what, what, how do we even define performance? How do we define what we're doing? Um, and having them think more about performance. You know, you talked about some

of the subjective stuff that kind of comes as a result of the program. That's all cool. But if they're not linked into that idea that I need to get heavier weights, I need to get, you know, lower times. And again, you know, a lot of people that are coming to the program now, they, they need to be told that they need to sit them down and be like, listen, we're going to try to do better this time. And, and all those other things just kind of come with, you know, they're just add-ons. They're just, you know, condiments that come with it. So, I mean, you know, training condiments, training condiments, the hot sauce of, I don't know why I got reminded, but I just thought of Doug and how I think the most powerful way to utilize this is not even really in the gym,

but it's like when you're diet, like when we help people gain weight, they go on a diet or to gain muscle mass. People go, okay diet or to gain muscle mass. I got to gain muscle mass. Eat a lot. Okay. I've tried that. It doesn't work. No.

If you're looking daily, what you're eating and you're plotting out that daily weight and you can see it, the correlations, you can see the daily change or lack thereof. It changes everything. Like what's that? What's that scale that you were talking about earlier? Like you have a scale that links to an app on your phone that will

automatically graph your weight. Oh, really? What's it called? Say it in the mic. It's like with things or why things, like W-I things.

This is like a very great marketing business. Oh, it's kind of like Wi-Fi, but why things? Things? You can just hook whatever you want into Wi-Fi.

Somebody that's in marketing, get a hold of that company. I've got it. Why things? I really am a huge fan of that company. I've got it. Why things? I really am a huge fan of graphing your weight, though. I just wanted to interrupt. Anybody that is trying to gain weight, I'm sure you guys know all too well about this.

It always comes down to- Don't look at me when you say that. You're talking about it. I'm sure you know a lot about gaining weight, right? Am I right? We're trying to get an athlete who wants to gain weight and put on muscle. What do they always say? By the way, I know a lot about gaining weight trying to get an athlete who wants to gain weight and put on muscle. What do they always say?

By the way, I know a lot about gaining weight. Get ready for the throat. Yeah, yeah. I'm eating. I'm eating all day long. They write it down and you find out

they're not eating nearly as much as they should. Subjectivity. Totally. They're eating corn chips. You know what? You can part your way and be like,

I know what kind of things I need to be eating. I need to amp it up and no matter how much I feel like I'm going to fucking die until that thing, that trajectory comes up and that the trend line is going in the right direction. Usually people don't, they think I'm eating a lot until you see the scale move, keep eating. Exactly. Then you got it right. How many, how many goals do you guys like to set

out of time? Like, do you guys like pick one goal and attack that one thing? You set three goals. Cause I've heard some people say we do one goal at a time. Some people say we do three goals at a time. Is this strictly fitness related? Health related? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean. So usually, I mean, just everything in like business,

I'll set a goal. You know, fitness wise, of course, I'll set a goal. You know, right now, I guess where I'm at personally, not, I know you guys don't care too much where I'm at personally,

but. I care, man. We have an intimate connection already, homie. Listen, Mike, it's about this. You know, depending, maybe a year ago, I was into the competition side. I was tracking everything. Now, my goal is to get a good workout and to stay in shape. So, I focused everything in my business into the gym.

So, now the performance tracking is not as important right now to me at this point in my life. For you. For me. So, my goals are a little more broad. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, just where I'm at right now. You know, point in my life for you for me so my goals are a little more broad yeah just just where i'm at right now you know i want to stay in shape i want to continue to be a role model and an example to the kids that i work with what if your what if your fran time increased by 50 would that be a red flag would your ego and flare up say fuck this i think so exactly that's a whole i think i'll give zero on, that's a whole, I think I'll give zero on that.

That's a whole other goal setting lesson, I think, is that people think I'm going to crush business, right? Fucking high five, man. I'm going to crush that thing, my family life. I'm going to crush the games. Basically, I'm going to crush everything that's important in my life simultaneously. Well, good for you if you're like 21 and shot out of a fucking cannon and you're ready to go and you feel no pain.

Yeah. You get to be 30, 40 and you got a really complicated life, kids and job. If you're like 21 and shot out of a fucking cannon and you're ready to go and you feel no pain. Yeah. You get to be 30, 40 and you got a really complicated life, kids and job. And you can't give yourself all the way to everything at one time. It's a basic lesson of periodization. You have to sequence something. You have to give something to take something else. I couldn't agree more. Yeah, absolutely.

You got to start focusing. I'm sorry. I feel like information and data overload is like one of the biggest problems in society right now. Like in the book, The Power of Less by Leo Babauta, I think that is. They quote a study where they had people either set one, two or three goals at the same time. And all the people that were able to focus and only set one goal were like 85 percent successful at the end of the month of actually keeping or being on track with completing that one specific goal. I think people that did two goals at one time, like 45% of the people were still on track.

And then the people that did three goals at the same time were like 5% of them were still on track or something like that. So I think being able to focus on one single thing is really is the track to actually getting something done. Because if you set three goals and you accomplish none of them, well, then you set zero goals really. Wait, I'm sorry.

What did you say? I wasn't focusing. You see what I did there? He's got jokes. I can also say it like this. It's down home, like country way. If you got one ass, don't ride two horses. Okay.

I read that somewhere. It's like, I think it's a Hungarian saying. I don't know why I said that, but it's true. But honestly, I think it's a very critical point. Part of this discussion is it's easy to get distracted, whether it's fitness, your own personal goals, and especially now with technology. You know, it is easy to get distracted when you're in a gym, you're checking your Facebook in the middle of a workout, you're tweeting, you're checking your emails. I mean, everybody's

guilty of it. You know, everybody's busy and everybody's important. So I got a text here, text there. I forget who I'm even talking to right now. My head's not looking up. Yeah. Mindfulness is a real issue. I mean, it's a whole nother, I'm probably going off on a tangent here, but I was just having this conversation. No, no, no, man. It's very relevant because people think... I'm passionate about it.

You got to think carefully about... You got to think... Most people will buy apps and shit to their phone. How many times do most of those apps get used after the first, oh, this is cool. Look at all this shit I can do, and you never touch it again? That's the promise of technology. In the 30s and 40s, they said, by the year 2000, what will we do with all of our spare time? We have computers to run our lives. The answer, you work fucking 10 times harder to have half the pleasure in your life. That's what happens if you don't respect the tools. It's a tool. It doesn't replace anything you have to do to organize your own life.

This helps you if you use it, if you use a tool for the tools for. Amen. Yeah. Speaking of tools, I think the clock really is one of the best tools in the gym because once the clock starts doing something like checking your email on your phone or your Facebook or having a casual conversation with somebody, all that shit goes away because the clock's running. So me and Mike, a while back, we were trying to explain to the business owners, we were doing a time management and productivity type talk. And we're trying to explain to business owners that you should use that same concept in your own daily life. Like if you want to actually do something productive in your email or you're working on a project or whatever, you should am wrap that time, start the clock, am wrap 30 minutes working on your presentation or whatever the hell you're doing.

And you're not checking social media. You're not, you're not going to the bathroom. You're not getting a drink of water. You're not doing anything. You're just working on that one sole thing for 30 minutes. You can crush like three hours of work in 30 minutes because you're actually focused for once. There's a great, article in the journal called Tabata My Job. Oh, really? Yeah. The guy talks just about that same thing and he broke his day up. I don't remember the article specifically, but yeah, he broke it up like that and he would hit it hard and then he would fool around for 10 minutes or whatever, but he got a ton of stuff done. Masturbation for 10 minutes, right? That's it. I don't have time for that. Undistracted. Fool around. For me, one of the

biggest breakthroughs was when I stopped, I turned my email off when it just constantly comes in, but I set it to where I hit send and receive. So it comes in only when I'm looking at it. So I set a time X amount of time, a block. That's brilliant. For that day. It sounds simple, but it really changes everything. Cause then you have all this extra time to do things that really matter more creative stuff you know working on the business so just being there being reactive to the you know present too because you're actually doing it for a straight hour you've got all the distractions out of the way and you get in that flow state where you're not thinking about because multitasking is i mean

i'm not saying it's bullshit but like it's just not a very sustainable thing yeah it's not i mean you can do things at the same time with like easy things, but anything that's going to make a real change in your life, anything that really matters, deserves your fucking attention. I learned that lesson really hard this year. We opened a second, a second facility and I'm, you know, I have two kids and I'm trying to have a social life and stuff. And boy, it's, I mean, it's a struggle, man. It's really, it's really tough. So yeah. It's such an easy thing to say, right? Like you go, I have, I know what's important. I got to keep this here. And when I get home, I'm going to pay attention to my kids and be present with them. And then you feel, it's just

like anything else. You feel the reality of it hits you. Like you're playing with your kid and you feel your, your fucking, your phone buzz in your pocket, go, ah, that Pavlovian response. That could be somebody at work asking me things that I must jump on now or else I don't know why. And then just like that, like a vapor, you're fucking back on the bad track. I struggle with that more than anything. I keep in the fucking boundaries drawn. It takes constant daily effort for sure. Can you switch my phone to do what you just said?

Can I give it to you? We can talk about it. It only takes an email when you hit a button, huh? That was a test. He's like, not right now. I'm podcasting. Almost everything I have on my phone is disabled most of the time. Yeah, all push notifications. Turn it off.

Do not disturb is enabled most of the time. People get mad at me sometimes. They're like, are you screening my calls? I'm like, no, I'm screening everybody's calls. I just read the four-hour work week. I don't check email no more. Fuck you. One of my buddies. That's right.

I just got into you. You ever had a VA? Hmm? You ever had a VA? No, no. I read the book, and it's an interesting concept, but I think that's too detached for me right now. I'm sorry. I like the other 5% of that book, though, which basically just says, you know, you got to try and trim down.

And I like his approach. I always like 5% of his books. Yeah. Well, you know, that's funny you say that. Cause that's exactly right. Like if you view it as a book purely on efficiency before our work week specifically, then it's a really good book. If you take it all too literally, it might be a little bit too far out there for some people. Not that it's not possible, but maybe too much for some people, but, but you're exactly right. I feel like, especially the four hour body. When I read that, I was like, I thought that was really good, but I think, I think, I think

that I thought that was really good because I have a filter already. Yeah. I mean, I feel like if you don't know anything about fitness, then you might take some of these things that are really little tiny pieces of, of information that aren't even close to the big picture and take it too far and then not get results because you're not focusing on the big rock, so to speak. You confuse the sugar rush with something that's a full meal kind of like it's supposed to give you a spark and get you thinking, but it's not like it's not the only way to get what you want. It gets you moving,

get you thinking. Yeah, that's all. All that being said, Tim Ferriss is like one of my favorite authors of all time, so I'm not saying, oh yeah, no, we're not talking shit at all. This is this is my opinion then. I'll hold back. No, I think at all. This is clear. I won't. That's my opinion then. I'll hold back. No, I think he's a marketing genius. Yeah, yeah. That's probably what he would tell you he is. I'd say he's also a marketing genius.

I think he's a genius at a lot of things. I don't know. Oh, he's holding back again. I think he conducts a case study on himself and then he tells everyone else that maybe they should try it on themselves. Yeah. I think people need to recognize it as case studies on himself and then he tells everyone else that maybe they should try it on themselves. But, you know, I think people need to recognize it as case studies on himself the same way people shouldn't take any research and apply it to everything.

Yeah. I don't think Tim claims to be a fitness guy. So that's, I don't think that's part of his whole deal, but definitely a marketing and business genius man for sure. Yeah. In all fairness to him, he does surround himself with people like, I think, you know, Brian McKenzie has done some stuff with him and Mark Bell for Paddle. He reaches out to people he knows,

understands it better than him, and he packages it the way it's damn sexy. Well, back to what you said, I mean, you know, he's trying to make himself into his own laboratory. And what other tool, I mean, other than measurement, it needs to be measurable, observable, repeatable.

Back to performance tracking. And if you wanted to take one of his ideas and you implement it, well, you know, where are your numbers? How did it work? If it worked, great. Fuck. Yeah, I do think

the only drawback to some of his stuff, I mean, I think it's more for intermediate or advanced, somebody that has already kind of experimented and tried different things on themselves.

Sometimes for the beginner, I think it kind of sends a message that he's looking for hacks and looking for, lack of a better word, a shortcut. And you can kind of

hack the system and kind of figure out different things. It's alluring to people. That sells very well, though. Hacks and shortcuts and tips and little things like that. And that's why he's a marketing genius because he figures out what people want and that's what he puts in his box.

But you can hack it, Steve, if you'd only consider making a donkey meat paleo kit. That would sell like wildfire. Be the first on the market. Well, if you put a little cinnamon, a little lemon in your water then all of a sudden your abs start showing

and that's the true how much cinnamon do I need I'm thinking a lot of cinnamon I haven't read the book in a while it was something along those lines those are the little pieces

that I'm talking about that you can take them too far and miss the big picture if you're not if you don't have a filter already off of Tim Ferriss for a moment

do you have a team right now for Steve's Club are you doing all that all by yourself, do you have a team right now for Steve's Club? Like, are you doing all that all by yourself or do you guys, you have any support? I wish I was doing all by myself. No, I wish. So it is a club. I have a lot of people.

So you hate people? That's what I heard. Hate people? Yeah. That's pretty accurate. I got a nonprofit where I don't talk to anybody. Except for under 50's children. He loves them.

So tell us a little bit more about Steve's Club for all the people that don't know. I mean, I know you mentioned it at the very beginning, but I'd like to hear more about it. Oh, yeah. I'd love to talk about it. So we get kids from Camden, New Jersey, who are their recently ranked the most dangerous city in the country. So it's not a... Is it true? Is it?

You walk in the streets, you're like, I got to hold on to shit and get undercover soon. Is it really that dangerous? Well, we are about 10 minutes away, so after we get done this, we can take you a little tour. A little trip? Absolutely.

This looks so bad. Run, run, run! It's a different world. Wild, wild west. A lot of cops don't go down a lot of streets. Oh, shit.

Yeah. Wow. If cops are scared, that's a problem. Yeah, it's truly bad. But I got to meet a lot of kids

and they truly are really good kids. You know, I had a lot of got to meet A lot of kids And they truly are Really good kids You know I had a lot Of stereotypes And made a lot Of assumptions Before I went in there Thinking a lot

Of these kids Were punks And thugs And trying to make A quick buck Selling on the corner I got to meet A lot of kids

And they were Kind of reminding me Of myself growing up Athletes They're trying to get ahead Trying to make The right decisions But just the environment

they grew up in just didn't make it easy. Yeah, that's what breaks my heart because it's so easy if somebody said, oh yeah, look, this situation is so tragic.

If everybody just got their heads together, they'd come up with a solution. Yeah, okay, but to find your consciousness to bloom in that environment when you had no fucking choice, you're just a kid

trying desperately to survive, trying to plot a, you know, see a path forward for yourself when there's nobody around you saying a fucking thing positive to you ever. Like you could go to school. Shit, man, you're plenty smart. No one says that to you. What do you do if you're a kid who doesn't hear that? You try to look for sports like their kids doing their best. I think it's amazing that people can take their time to support a young kid getting a crack at things. I mean, if there's anything we're supporting,

it's supporting a fucking kid to take a shot that he knows down inside he's maybe capable of, but no one is telling him it's possible, even though it's completely possible. I told you you should come over to Steve's Club, give a little talk. I would love that, man. Fuck, I would love it.

I agree 100%. People need to know that people, like, yeah, you have everything within you to do amazing shit right now. Absolutely. Like people say in India, in India they say namaste for a reason. That means you recognize the divine spark in another human being.

You fucking got it. Absolutely. You have it. You all have it. That's the message that we constantly send. And I can't say it enough. And I sound like a broken record. And the kids know.

They're tired of hearing me. But it's working hard. It's that simple. You work hard. You can get things you want in life. You don't have to be a celebrity. You don't have to be a professional athlete to have what you want to, to provide for your family. You can work hard, get a good job, go to college and you can make things happen on your own. Do you ever tell

them, Hey man, look, I know, fuck, you got a short straw here. You're here, but this does not mean you have to stay here. Do you ever say, look, it's fucking tough, but you guys are tough. Like you're surviving. If you can make it out of here, you can make it fucking anywhere. And that's why it's probably my passion. That's why I love it so much because they don't complain and they don't look at it like that. They just look ahead. They look forward and they're trying to make the right things. They don't feel bad. It's not poor me.

I never hear that. If anything, I'd say they're probably more on the edge of being alive and fucking vivacious and awesome because anytime humans get put in a situation where they're on the edge and fear is real and the risk of injury and death is really fucking real, that's what something inside the human spirit gets ignited. The opposite, the most pathetic person is the guy who has nothing pushing them, nothing straining them, no real risk in life. They just sit somewhere and go down a path that's numbing and comfortable and it opens up on its own to them. That is the worst example

of a human I could think of. There's great people who could do that, but it's not what makes a special human that is resilient and fucking stands up and does shit that really changes the world. And honestly, yeah, part of it's being selfish. They inspire me because they're battle university.

They're making, they're not giving everything. They're making things happen. And it constantly reminds me of, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Kyle, Kyle Maynard. Kyle Maynard? Yeah.

So he's one of my, he's one of my heroes. I love that guy. I love his videos. I'm always showing him what he does to the kids at Steve's Club saying sometimes, you know,

this is what you're dealt. You know, maybe you might not have what you want, but you can, you don't let that kind of become who you are. You can make the rules. You can make things happen on your own. Yeah, I got to meet Kyle, man.

It's like, holy shit, what excuse am I fucking holding on to? You guys have 18 other, I guess, locations or clubs in different cities in the United States. Are they all in the U.S.? All in the United States. So we have a lot of gym owners, namely CrossFit gym owners. They don't have to be CrossFit, but they come forward. They want to help out in their local community and we make it as easy as we can for them to start a youth program. So it doesn't have

to be a big elaborate nonprofit program. You could start small. You could start working with two kids. If you have a nice gym like this, CrossFit OneForce, you can bring in two or three kids from the neighborhood, kids that can't afford CrossFit, but that can greatly benefit from it. Change their life, dude. It really is. I mean, I've seen it firsthand. It's life-changing. You said you took emphasis off of yourself

and your metrics and your performance. I guess you were taking performance pretty seriously. What was you doing? CrossFit and any other sports? Just CrossFit mainly. Yeah. So isn't it amazing once you get on the other side, you think you're giving up something to focus on something else, but once you can take that energy and put it towards another person and you watch them become better than you, once you do that and you feel that, I think you realize that's really much more of a special thing. Oftentimes I get addicted to that. I don't give a shit about shit about my performance anymore really i look at people achieve something because i gave them a

pearl and they they oh it really helped me a lot i go absolutely fuck me i'm humbled by that thank you i mean it does and i gain so much seeing other athletes you know benefit and the kids get benefit get better not only performance outside the gym then i have, not that I did on anything great competition-wise, but then the reward of completing a competition, doing well, I mean, that doesn't even compare. Seeing that somebody else do good, that's kind of what motivates me. Have you had that clear playing lesson where you saw a kid and you could clearly say there's a good chance

better than not this kid will be in jail or dead? And does it happen oftentimes where this kid bounces back, is good in sports and makes it into a school or makes it out and gets a good chance better than not this kid will be in jail or dead and does it happen oftentimes like this kid bounces back as good in sports and makes it into a school or makes it out and gets a good job how often does this happen i mean i imagine must be the most powerful thing you can experience to actually have that effect it really is i mean the biggest thing so we've been doing it since 2006 so we had a we had several years now to kind of see the results see kids go through the program. And it really has, it's been amazing between kids will come in and the biggest thing is the

attitude. You know, you come in, you see kids just with a bad attitude and that's, you know, in a nonprofit world, similar to the conversation we're having, they go by metrics.

So if you're looking to get funded, they want to see metrics. They want to see a kid. Okay. Tell me they had these and now they have A's. Graduation rates. Therefore, I'll write you a check for a grant. So the metric for me has always been their attitude, has been seeing their behavior,

the choices they make. That's the metric for me. And I've seen kids go from, I don't really have options. And they feel wounded and defensive. Defensive. And I'll do what I, I'll do whatever I want to do. This is me and this is the life I'm living. Screw you. Fuck it. The change in it to, yeah. How can I be a part of this? How can I, to volunteer and to kind of take advantage of all the services in the world? It really is a kid that you would think like,

there's no way getting through to this kid. He already kind of, he already is who he is. So seeing that happen has been, yeah. How do you find that kid? You're basically taking these kids off the streets, the same streets that cops won't go down. Like, how do you get that kid? And are you getting resistance from, from their, their parents or their, you know, whoever's taking care of them at the time? Like, how does that work? Well, the biggest thing I think it works and this is, this applies to anything is it's the person, or the other has to want to do it. So they raise their hand. They make a decision. Their friend tells, they hear it from their friend. They hear about Steve's Club. So they come in. So I'm not going out there and saying, you have to come here. There's no probation officer saying you have to come to Steve's Club.

They come here because they choose to. So, I mean, I think that quote up there on the wall, this place will change you if you let it. So I think that says it all. They have to make that decision that they're willing to be changed. So these kids coming here with an open mind. You guys have been doing this since 2006. And you guys are looking to grow? Grow as in? Maybe more clubs.

Yes. So we're always looking for more. If someone's interested in that, how do they do that? Good question. Yes. So if somebody's interested, they can go to our website, stevesclub. Yes. So we're always looking for more. If someone's interested in that, how do they do that? Good question. Yes. So if somebody's interested, they can go to our website, stevesclub.org. And we have resources on there. We have an application.

They can email us. I mean, we pretty much set up the national program to help people start a youth program. So they're not getting involved in the whole nonprofit, the business side of it. We want them to work with the kids. So we figured that part out, and we just want to see the concept grow because we've seen firsthand what it does. You said at the beginning that Steve's Paleo Goods kind of helps fund that. Yeah, so Steve's Paleo Goods, shortly after starting Steve's Club,

we put some beef jerky, nuts and berries in a bag to help the kids eat better. They kept coming back to me saying, how am I supposed to get fit and get better if I have all this junk food in the cafeteria, there's nothing to eat. So yeah, we gave them some beef jerky. They loved it. We put it up for sale and now it has grown since then. We are now in 35 whole foods. We sell our stuff to gyms all over the country. Yeah, it's going really well and that supports our national program. Our national program is solely supported by Steve's Paleo Goods. Very nice. Fantastic.

I'm out of breath. That's enough. This is the most I've ever talked about me. Thank you guys for allowing me to do that. That's fantastic, man. Rob, is there anything you want to promote before we shut this thing down? No, I got nothing. If you live maybe in your hometown, maybe you should visit one of your CrossFit boxes. Yeah, I got two CrossFit

gyms, CrossFit Delaware Valley and CrossFit Harmony. I share Harmony with Amy Lyons. She's my partner on that one. She runs one of the big gyms in the area. And yeah, we're just interested in evangelizing CrossFit and showing it to new people. I mean, it's a similar feeling. I was listening to him talk about kids

and it's kind of, for me, it's the same thing when somebody comes in and they don't, you know, they're look over at the pull-up bar, like, Oh, I don't think I'll ever get there, but you know, I'll try some other stuff. And then we come and check back in and I'm in three months and they got their first pull-up. I mean, there's nothing better than that. So, you know, with all the traveling and stuff and the work that we do with two gyms, just, it's great. I mean, that's, that's why we do it. And Rob's downplaying a little. He runs an awesome gym. He has a great reputation.

He really does. Rob, before you go, Big Sexy, Big Sexy had a question. Yes. For the 2014 Open, what advice do you have for Rich? If he has a shot,

a shot in the dark at repeating again, what's the one thing you think will really push him over the top? Rich Froning. Rich Froning. The Rich Froning. The Rich.

What should he do? Yeah, what should he do? He should eat a lot of paleo kids for sure. Listen to a lot of Canadian trio. Canadian prog rock is what you'd recommend? For sure. Fuck, I recommend that too. Tom Sawyer, Spirit of Radio, you get what you want.

2112 on repeat. No, Rich, I mean, he's so good. Geez. But you know, it's going to be interesting. I mean, just a quick detour. I mean, how these regionals will play out this year. It's going to be fantastic. I mean, just a quick detour. I mean, how these regionals will play out this year, it's going to be fantastic. I can't wait.

It's a grand experiment. Yeah. You think they're going to switch it up for the Open this year, make it interesting? Or do you think we're going to see the typical Open from the last three years? I think they'll keep it the same just because I think the Open's designed to be an inclusive thing.

But, you know, that's the great thing about the open workouts. We have retried those back to performance track and we've retried those open workouts recently to redone a bunch of them. And there's just something magical about those, you know, lighter weights, even like 75 pound barbell. You look at it and you're like, Oh, no big deal. But if you want to get all those rounds, you're going to have to go to that place. And I love that about the open. Um, I also love trying to get those new people, you know, and get them to do the open. It's just fantastic because they push themselves way harder than they ever would. Um, we had one of our coaches talking about it in the gym today, like why people should do, do the open. And until you've done it, you can't get your head wrapped around how cool it is. Uh, we run it on Friday nights

in our gym. We have a big party afterwards, big, you know, chicken wings for everybody. Yeah. Chicken wings. Okay. I have a big party afterwards. That's awesome. Chicken wings for everybody. Chicken wings. I might go to that place. Thunderbird pizza. Yeah, chicken wings. It's all about that. I love this thing. I think I saw one commercial. Prove it. Say whatever you want. Step up and prove it. This is for you too.

And you go, I could totally fucking go to that thing. I'm fit. I play college ball. Alright, get into the place and go, yeah, I'll leave this for these guys. This place is not fun. I think for Rich though, just one last thing, one last point I'll add. I mean, the videos I watched on him, I think the biggest thing is the workouts won before he even shows up. I mean, his, the amount of workouts, his schedule, his training routine, his eating habits now,

I mean, everything. It's all dialed in. So he's doing everything in the offseason. And then when it's time to show up, it's just a workout for him. I think when you go, I mean, not many people have this luxury. But when we went, I had those thoughts. So I'm like, Rich, yeah, maybe he's lucky. Maybe this is not the year, whatever.

And you go see him. You just see him train. You watch the guy do that first workout I saw him do live was doing endless rounds of thrusters or push presses and then some skier stuff. I go, oh, wow. He's been doing it for God knows how long. And I turn around and say hello to somebody. I turn back around. He looks like he just got out of bed.

He's instantly recovered. And the way he carries himself during the whole day in his hometown, small scene. No one's looking at him like he's anything, and he doesn't conduct himself like he's that guy. He's focused. He's calm. He's balanced. He's present. It's everything you need in addition to great programming to equal.

Now, if I had that attitude, I still don't win the CrossFit Games, but he goes a long way to making it possible. Is that me vibrating? Yeah, I'm wondering who that is. You blew out your microphone, Chris. Oh, just unplug it. You're driving me nuts. That happened once before in San Francisco, didn't it?

It did. It's worse. There we go. But it is funny. It's like the average person wants to know what's that one thing they're doing. You know, is it Michael Jordan? Is it because of the shoes? Is it because the milk he's drinking?

That's what propelled him to that level. Is it the compulsive gambling? All those things are the answer. Is it because of the shoes? Is it because the milk he's drinking? That's what propelled him to that level. Is it the compulsive gambling? All those things. I'm sure maybe Tim Ferriss is working on a book for that one thing that athlete does. You follow it and he's going to be a superstar. But there's so many factors at play and it's ultimately, it comes down to hard work. He's, I'm sure, working harder.

Not just as hard, but harder than anybody out there. I think, like, maybe kind of talking about Tim Ferriss and tweaking those little things, sometimes that's what an athlete needs to believe to get them to work hard. You know what I mean? I've definitely been on maybe supplement protocols where I took my training more seriously. I don't want to waste the money on these supplements I've been buying so I'm going to train harder. It might not have been that I was taking more creatine.

You know, it might have been that I knew I was taking more creatine so I should probably work harder. Sure. Pusito.

Yeah. Even a shitty program well followed is going to be better than, you know. That's right. You got to believe in what you're doing.

I think that's the most important. They're all like cogs in a wheel. If you have one thing maximized and well thought out, great, good for you. Your programming is as perfect as you can make it. What else? Oh, what else is there?

Belief, diet, sleep, rest, nutrition, presentness, mindfulness, all this shit. That is just as powerful. It's like those things that you feel once you do start measuring things and realize it's the dedication to measuring, like that repetition, that act, that commitment that makes it happen, not just the act of writing a number down and following numbers. Numbers are just fucking numbers, man. It's the behaviors that make it happen,

the habits, the conditions, they all change. Yeah. All right, I'm going to shut this thing down. I want to thank CrossFit One Force for letting us come into their facility and podcast. I want to thank Amit from Wattify for making this connection. We were coming to New Jersey, and we were like, hey, who can we talk to?

And he brought up y'all's names, and we decided to come hang out with some Jersey boys and have some fun. I do want to promote Wattify a little bit. When we talk about performance tracking, we use Wattify in our box. You guys use Wattify in y'all's box. And I think we could all agree it's probably the best way for a gym to track performance. Absolutely. I think I want to do some Steve's Club things. We should go hang out at an event and talk.

I think we might do that this afternoon. We're going to see if we can squeeze that in the schedule. If not today, very soon. Yes. All right. Make sure to go to barbellshrug.com. Sign up for the newsletter and we can send you virtual hugs. Maybe we'll send you a video where you'll learn about the snatch mistakes

you might be making that are keeping you from hitting your next PR. See you next time. Cheers. Thanks, guys. That was fun, eh? That was great. Sorry for the mic vibrations. Wow, it was a blast. That was really fun. Thanks for the invite and the inclusion.