Barbell Shrugged - 121- The Art of Weightlifting w/ Diane Fu of Fu Barbell

Episode Date: June 4, 2014

Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Put up a... You know, we'll talk about it on the podcast. I don't give a shit. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Mike Bledsoe here with Doug Larson and Chris Moore. CTP behind the camera. We have traveled to San Francisco. We're here at San Francisco CrossFit, joined by Diane Fu. Thank you guys for having me again.

Everybody loves Diane. There's nothing not to like. She's fantastic. You guys are very sweet. Thank you. Make sure, hit up barbellshrugged.com. Where's Chris? I've got to look at the camera.

Barbellshrugged.com. Sign up newsletter and, uh, we'll shoot you messages when we post podcasts and we do other cool things. Uh, and if you haven't noticed yet, we travel quite a bit and we might be coming to close to you. So if you sign up for that, you will be notified. Check it out. The first to know. Well, you might be, well, you might know might know before me uh there's a lot of times

i don't even know what we're doing uh all too often where am i yeah what day is it i woke up so check this out i'll tell a quick story even though we're interviewing you and hanging out no i want to hear more about you guys we're gonna talk about me yes uh uh we were at uh mark divine's place at seal fit down in Encinitas, California on Tuesday and so we did like, we filmed a lot and we did a, he goes,

he texted me a few days beforehand, he goes, we're gonna do Op WOD, you know, Operator WOD at 7 a.m. I was like,

oh, all right, this is gonna be fun. That's terrible. Yeah. So we, it turns, it's a three hour ordeal.

It's like four workouts in one with Warrior Yoga to top it off at the end. What is warrior yoga? You need to go down to Encinitas and find out. Do I? Do I really? Ordeal WOD.

Yeah, you know, next time I'm in Encinitas, come down. All right. And we'll hang out and we'll do an op WOD followed by warrior yoga. Let's do this. I am a little scurred. Let's make this happen. Yeah, so I took a nap afterwards. We ate pancakes and bacon and eggs.

And then I went and took a nap. And I woke up and I didn't know where I was. I woke up and I was just like, I didn't even know what year it was. The pancakes and the bacon were post-wad. Yeah, it was just a combination of a three hour workout with that many carbohydrates put me in like a coma and I was in such a deep sleep and woke up

and I just I didn't even know my name I mean it was for like 15 minutes Doug saw me I was sitting in the kitchen just like staring at the wall man I want that kind of sleep

I don't know when the last time I had that kind of sleep that's not nice well we can make it happen when's the last time you ate like 15 pancakes? How much time do you guys

have after this? Let's do this. I'm not doing no of those op wads. I'll eat the pancakes, so I'm down for that. Man, that sounds awesome. That sounds awesome. We were just talking

about the music in here. How is it awesome? We were setting up and I was like, man, this music is sweet. We play some fun music. I want to start grooving. Can we follow your playlist here?

Yeah, absolutely. My current favorite, we do Pandora off Sonos here. Pandora off Sonos. My favorite station is the Chromio station. Chromio? Yeah, Chromio. You guys have to look them up. So Pandora and then Chromio station.

Chromio, right now. Love it. Damn. They are my favorite band right now. I, you know, unfortunately only discovered them, you know, maybe within the last few months. And since then, I follow them on Instagram. Like, they are just, you know maybe within the last few months and I since then I followed them on Instagram like they are just you know two guys super fun you know a lot of fun music kind of funky a little bit retro they've got good beats you know good mixes they are super fun to listen to especially in a gym because you could keep it casual because inside a gym you have to

almost you can't be so upbeat all day long by the time you're done coaching you're just like so it's almost like dj you gotta kind of have to go up and go down and chromio is one of those bands where you can kind of or the station you can play in the background it's kind of fun but it won't zap you in about two or three hours it's just it is the sweet spot like in old school powerlifting days it was just at some point you're like i don't want to hear any more hate breed ever no more screaming there's nothing to be mad about. We're going to have a good time. Let's turn on some, what's it, Chromio? Chromio.

Chromio, hit the sweet spot right in the middle. Ride a nice little wave. Not too high, not too low. Yes. Well, you were asking me like, what are your members like? Yes, what are your members like? We put like a list up one day. We said, hey, you know, we're going to create a playlist.

Put down the music you wanted. What people wrote down was jokes. It was like, we are the champions. I was like, you know what? Guess what? I guess we're not creating a playlist. You get what you deserve. The Rocky 3 playlist.

Do you let your members have access to the radio? Can they go over there and change it? Or is that hands-off, staff-only? No, the coaches basically have access to the Sonos but people take requests. We try to cater to our members but again, our music's pretty good so they kind of go with it. Grooving.

So when was the last time we were here? November? So it's been about six months since we talked last. Six months? Yeah and if you didn't watch or listen to that podcast we did with Diane before. Shame on you, first of all. Shame on you. Just go listen to that.

Come back and listen to this because then we're just going to be catching up today. So what have you been doing the last six months? What's new? I know you've been crushing seminars, teaching people weightlifting, learning more about weightlifting because you're one of those people

that are always learning, unlike some weightlifting coaches who have their way. You know who you are. And if you don't do it this way, you're wrong. Right. But that's why I'm a big fan of Diane Fuchs. Thank you.

Last six months, so lots has been going on. I've been seminaring like a crazy woman going around, but it's been great. You know, you get to, obviously, you guys know, you get to go around, meet different communities, have many interesting conversations. Since then, I've also been in collaborations with some weightlifting coaches and athletes. Kendrick Ferris and I have a camp coming up just next weekend where we'll be kind of bringing our philosophies together and we'll be doing a three-day kind of training workshop for athletes coming down into Kalipas NorCal. I've since then also opened a Kickstarter campaign, which we can talk about since everyone can learn from.

That's unfortunately not going to fund, but we are still going to be doing something along the lines of that project. Oh, thank God. I really, no, I mean, I was, I mean, I am still super excited about that. Yes, so are we. It's going to work. Yes. And we, I am also having many, many interesting conversations.

Was it last November that I talked to you guys? I think so. Last November. So within that timeframe, I've got to, had a chance to hang out with, you know, the Russian coaches and athletes that have been coming into town and doing seminars all over the world. Mr. Klokoff, right? Mr. Klokoff.

So I got a chance to hang out with him down in Oahu in Hawaii. You drink vodka with those guys? That's all I want to do. Your life is almost a song. I want to drink vodka with those dudes. It was actually a really kind of special time that I went down with them

because it was in November. My friends down at CrossFit Oahu invited me out to be able to attend the seminar and hang out with them for the weekend. And the weekend they were seminaring happened to fall over Thanksgiving. So I'm like, well, why don't I come out early? And they're like, yeah, please come have Thanksgiving dinner with us. We're having it catered, you know, Klokov, Polovnikov, they're all going to be there. And so I'm like, yes yes I'm coming out right away twist my arm yeah twist my arm

a little bit harder please so you know booked my flight went out there showed up on Thanksgiving night went up and I'm walking up the stairs and all of a sudden

I'm like oh my god I'm going to meet Dimitri Klokoff and as soon as I walk up the stairs Dimitri pops up and he's like oh my god

Diane Fu and it was just like this weird my name is Klokoff god Diane Fu and it was just like this weird my name's Koukos how are you? it was like this he was like excited to see you yeah we were like

just really excited to see each other because we had been following each other on social media he'd been you know kind of liking my photos and

he's fantastic he's a genuinely nice guy he is like great he's funny he's a little quirky obviously strong as shit strongest man in the world did you let him snatch you? genuinely nice guy. He is like great. He's funny. He's a little quirky obviously.

Strongest man in the world. Did you let him snatch you? No, I should have. I think I was just like a little too nervous around him but it was great. So, you know, we saw each other and it was like, ah, and then immediately we had to Instagram it, right? So, we took some photos and, you know, I got to have Thanksgiving dinner with

Dmitry Klokov and Vasily Panovnikov. And what was cool is I managed to capture Klokov's entire Thanksgiving kind of toast on camera and I posted it on my Facebook page. So that's just a cool experience. Was it in English? It was translated. He had his translator. So Yashikhan was there with him. I looked that up.

So he did translate the whole thing. So it was really cool. If you go back to basically Thanksgiving of 2013, it's sitting right on Fubar Bell Facebook page. Oh, on your fan page. On my fan page. What I love about- I tried to be your friend on Facebook.

Did I accept you? It wouldn't let me. It wouldn't even let me ask. You can ask now. I'll accept you. I was going to say- You got too many friends. No, no.

Facebook wouldn't let me. Oh, Facebook wouldn't let you? Yeah. Did you have too many friends? No, he doesn't. Or do I? Are you capped out? You have more friends than me.

Can he speak enough English to have like a regular conversation, even if he can't give like a well thought out speech? You know, um, his English, his spoken English, I believe, I have to believe it's getting better. Like he can say, he obviously sees, and then he can give like, you know, singular word, like corrections, like, oh, you like, you know, yes, you know, I like, and then he'll put you in the right place. So he can touch and move you to be in a mechanical position.

So the information definitely got across, which also tells a lot of us, you don't actually need a lot of words to be a pretty decent coach. Right. Um, and then Yasha was there obviously to translate. And so, you know he can definitely get by and he understands more than he can speak right he's been around the information I think enough

I really love how those guys and what you've done and some of the other names of Wayle and I've all jumped sort of feet first full speed into the Instagram culture coaching sharing tips just filming lifts and sharing what they're doing and engaging people. I love Klokov's little tagline, like we win together for his company. I think it's fantastic.

Winner. Yeah. Winner. Winner. Clothing company. Tearing down the walls and sort of just mixing ideas and getting together and like quit being in silos. And like you said, I think the coolest thing about what you're doing in these seminars and mixing it up with Kendrick and these other athletes is like this sport will move forward if we get rid of our bullshit and mix ideas and make something better out of it. And just continue to share. You know, you're not always going to nail it 100%. But the idea is just continuing to put your best foot forward. And then not believing that if you share something that has worked for you and you engage and

mix that something great won't come of it. You're not losing anything by sharing your ideas. It's only making the whole community better, including you. And here's the thing is people want to hear what you have to say. Sometimes I'll put something out and I'll be like, oh, maybe this is just too basic of an idea. And then the idea just blows up and I just sit there and I'm just like, whoa, okay.

Like I didn't expect it to have this kind of response, but it did. You assume that these people know it. It hurts your ability to coach them. And then other times I'll put an idea out and I'll be like, I'm about to change weightlifting history. And I'll put it out there. your ability to coach them. And then other times I'll put an idea out and I'll be like, I'm about to change weightlifting history and I'll put it out there. Nobody even notices. Nobody really notices.

You just don't know. You're learning the internet, Diane. You're learning the internet and how it works. Things that I think is epic, other people don't. And things that I think are really basic that everyone should know, they don't and they love it. So you just have to keep putting it out there. I think that's a really common thing for experts to do.

They put out a beginner idea and the market for beginners is so much bigger that they get a huge response and they put something out that like they just learned. Yeah. And there's only like four other people

in the world that like really get why that's so cool. They give you the courtesy applause. Yeah. You know, it's funny. If you just put a picture, Photoshop a picture of a kitten snatching, you get like fucking 10,000 likes

on Instagram though. That's the lowest level of the internet. That's what works every time. You guys want to know what my PR is currently on my Instagram? My PR. Like how many likes? How many likes? I don't know if I want to know. How many likes? No, it's actually not that impressive.

No, no, no. It's not that impressive. Like 2K, 3K? Yeah, yeah. It's like maybe 25. I mean, it could be higher now. 26, 2700. But you know, if I put a really good post out and it's informational, I'll get around like 1300. I mean, in, you know, in the Instagram world, the large scale, not that, you know, whatever. Nothing to scoff at. Nothing to scoff at, not that great, right? Whatever. But what PR for me on my Instagram was just this past Monday, Memorial Monday, I posted a photo of my bulldog sitting in the sun, enjoying the sunshine.

And we happened to have this little American flag kind of placard, homemade placard kind of sitting on his side. So it kind of looked like he was just at peace and like almost being enjoying himself. Zen dog. Zen dog. And I posted it up and it was this perfect photo the lighting was great and all of a sudden it just started

blowing up like people could not get enough of it and I'm just like oh my god oh and look who's here hey the Kelly Star X

the Kelly Star X the Kelly Star X over there so I mean basically my dog Hugo PR'd for me

I mean it's amazing well PR'd for me I mean that it's amazing well it drills into this basic emotion and elements people just love to see something that just warms their heart

yes so combine more dog with your weightlifting coaching and you might wind up somewhere kid yes more Hugo

in every single photo what if you could get Hugo to snatch that would be amazing dog to weightlift I would have to retire from Fooarbel and basically take my dog

on the road. It was nice knowing you guys. I do hope we keep in touch. You fellas are great. Enjoyed the ride while it lasted.

Are you sure? So as a person who's gone around and learned weight lifting from many different coaches, what was the big takeaway from meeting Klokoff and the rest

of his guys? So the big thing with the Russian pole is they you know, they teach. So in America, let's start here. Our baseline is we teach something called the S curve or the S pole, right? The bar's supposed to sweep in, it comes in, probably loop out a little bit. It's supposed to create like a nice, beautiful S, you know, and the idea is, you know, get that S as tight as possible for increased efficiency, right?

Bottom line. The Russians come in and they're like, well, no, not the S-pull. S-pull is very 70s. It's old. It's a little bit dated. Now they want something what they call a very straight pull. So the bar basically from the floor comes up straight

and they want to continue that bar path as linear as possible. So all of their movement is basically created around how to create this very tight pull. The other thing that's really interesting about the Russians is they're like, look, you know what? We want you to hang out on top of your pull a little bit longer. Meaning, whereas a lot of, you know, in the States, a lot of our coaches, when we hit that top level of extension, there's this idea of the shrug, right? You know, to teach the shrug or not to teach a shrug. That's another debate. And so, and so, you know, our coaches will be like, okay, you know, once you hit extension, the shrug pulls you under, right? And what the Russians actually want you to

do is at the top of the shrug or at the top of the extension, they want you to actively punch your ankles through the floor and then shrug to continue elevating the bar higher, which, you know, in the States, if we saw somebody do that, we'd be like, oh man, you're over pulling. You're staying on top of your pull too long. You're going to end up a little bit short. But in their thinking is they're like, guys, we're big men. We're big women. We are tall. We are big. We got more length to cover. If we don't lift that bar a little bit higher, we are not getting underneath that weight. So that's kind of their whole thinking behind that punch and shrug. Uh, another thing that was really interesting is, um, again, in the States where we're kind of split, cause there are so many different coaching philosophies and styles, um, in the States here, some coaches are

really big on, Hey, to, to bang or to not to bang the bar, right. To bang or to rush the bar. That's another debate. And so the Russians are definitely, you know, of the banging camp. And a little story that's really interesting is Annie's daughter came through our box maybe a couple months ago. I believe she was, it was before she came out for 14.5. So she had come through again, you know, maybe a month or two with, before that with her boyfriend, Frederick. And I know, you know, through social media that she had hung out with Klokoff during his time or during his time in Europe. They did some fun wads together and had a good time. Yeah, yeah. It was great. And so I know how Annie moves. Like Annie works with Carl. I've

worked with her in the past. Um, you know, Yami works with her. So we've all seen how she moves. And so her bar path prior to kind of, you know, coming together with Klokoff is she's very graceful. She's very fluid. She's very smooth. Like everything's just like, you know, butter, right? And so I know how she moves. So I was really curious myself what her takeaway was from Klokoff's seminar. So I was like, hey, you hung out with Klokoff, you know, recently when he did his tour through Europe.

She's like, oh, yeah. And I was just like, Hey, what did you think of it? And she's like, Oh, I really liked it. And I asked her and Frederick, I'm like, is there something from that seminar you would take away and adopt into your own technique? Right. And she's like, Oh yeah, absolutely. And I'm like, what is it? And it's super curious. Right. And she's like, Oh, he told me really to bang the bar get after the bar oh really because that is not how she moved before right and i'm like oh really that's you know i'm like why is that why did you like it right and she's like oh because it gave me a 10 pound pr i'm like sure i'd like that good enough reason isn't it yeah you know gave me a 10 pound pr on my snatch

i'm like when you're new to when you're new to weightlifting or crossFit, getting a 10-pound PR, it could be a million different things. Sure. But if you've been competing for a long time, 10 pounds is a big deal. When you're an athlete. Yeah. It was something real. It is real.

It is a real technical improvement that allowed her to be able to express that weight. Absolutely. So how are they telling people to accomplish the banging of the bar? Because, I mean, all coaches are teaching, of the bar? Because, I mean, people, all coaches are teaching, keep the bar close, extend the hips,

keep the bar actively pulled into you. So everyone's teaching to touch the bar, at the hips at least. And so, are there any cues that they're giving that are different? Well, yes. So, here's the deal. Most CrossFitters aren't even touching the bar to

their hips. Yeah. You know, some are wearing underwear with pads on the front too. You know, what's funny is I go around in my seminars and we'll, you know, we'll talk about, we'll touch very lightly upon like, Hey, should you bang? Should you brush? And you know, for me, it's not really a debate on whether you bang or brush. It's, you know, I say, Hey, really, let's, let's just face it. It's what happens after the bar say, hey, really, let's just face it. It's what happens after the bar leaves your hips, right? If the bar keeps going upward versus just looping big around and, you know, around your body where you have to do something crazy to pull it back in,

then bang or brush, whatever technique works for you, let's, hey, let's have fun with it. Right. So I just digress. What was the question? How do they teach the bar to use? How do they teach that? Okay, so in the States, you know, a lot of times we talk

about when we sweep back, we really want athletes to sweep really hard back into the heels. Right? So that's what accomplishes that shifting of the weight, sweeping the bar back kind of into the deep, deep base of the foot. And with the Russians, they're like, no, no, no, no, don't sweep it into your heels. Right? Just

here's your foot and just keep it right in the middle. Keep it right in the middle of your arch. Keep the weight right in the middle of your foot and just stand up and just stand up. Keep your chest up, keep it, stand up. I like it. If you stand up, it's actually really, it's actually quite amazing. It is actually really simple. If you, if you think about it, it took me a minute to kind of, kind of really be able to digest that. And I'm like, I can't be that easy. But really, if you sit there and you line up and we can do it with you guys and try it out.

If you line the bar right in the middle of your foot, you get yourself set up. You go to the bar and you just stand up. As soon as you're at extension, that bar is at your hips. It's just that easy. And then from there, you finish, pop your hips and then ankles and shoulders send the energy continually separate. Is there a general would you say like effort to not overanalyze and overthink on their part? Like look, be strong, move

well and just train hard. Yes, and I'm paraphrasing Klokoff when I say this. The percentages could be a little bit off but when he said it, it was like he's like, hey, weightlifting is 90% strength, 10% technique. Now coming from his level, it probably means something a little different because his technique is different. When you're lifting at eight years old, too, your idea of technique work is different.

Have you seen his old school videos of him as a kid? I have seen some, yes. They are fantastic. He's a skinny little 11 or 12. You forget those guys have been training at a high level often, frequently. His dad was a national level athlete as well. It was second

nature to him from the time he was a young child to do the lifts and do them a certain way. So yeah, his strength ability really complements that really well. At his level too, everyone it's just assumed that everyone knows how to do the technique. Maybe they argue over these little details and they have a little bit of a different style, a little bit of a different spin on how it's done,

but there's world champions in every different style. So the details on the technique aren't as important. You just need to be super, super strong and pick a technique that works for you and stick with it. Well, you know, Klokov and Polovnikov will openly say too, like when they were coming, they had to come together and create the seminar together. And then I will also add then, you know, when they came from the States back to the mainland, then Ilya also joined them as well. So Ilya and Kenna came through and started touring around the United States with them. And so when you get these three kind of mega rock stars of weightlifting together, they're going to come in with varying philosophies.

So they're all quite different. They train differently. They train differently. You know, they move a little differently, but the idea is that this difference evolved from them based on their, you know, kind of physical anatomy and their individualities. It's not something that they were taught. So the idea is that they came through, they basically talked and debated, discussed all these different components to then, how should we teach this progression inside our seminars? How should we teach this to the people? And they all came together and agreed like, hey, look, we may look and move a little differently at this high, high level, but that's because we are at a very high level.

When we're talking about creating that foundation, when we're talking about creating that base, it looks the same. Everybody looks the same. And then at some point, because you need to veer to continue improving your numbers, that's when they started to veer off and that's when they started to look different. Very well put. I haven't actually heard anyone say it in that way, but I feel like that's exactly how it happens. And no one's been able to articulate it just like you just did. Right. Well, you know, here's the problem of looking at lifters. When we, when we look at movement only at that international level, they all look really good, but we're also only looking at these people performing like their potentially lifetime best or near their high, high levels.

I'm actually really interested in movement that happens kind of at all levels because I feel like largely that's as a coach, I learn more from watching people that are super beginner all the way to beginner intermediate to intermediate, intermediate advance, and then advance into, into the elite, right? Watching lifters at the elite elite level is fun and it's very attractive, but as a coach, I'm interested in everything underneath that scale. That's what the magic.

I just think the most, the most fun thing to watch is the elite guys not doing one RMS though. It's watching them pull weights that you can pull and how fast they are with the weights that you can pull ridiculous and you go oh shit okay yeah i get it i remember being at the uh i think i'd been weightlifting for like a year and uh we went to the arnold classic it was like 2007 and the chinese showed up and they didn't lift at the meet they just lifted on the stage as a you know in the expo hall just to show what they could do. And they were like power, you know, 77 kilo guy.

It was like power snatching 110, 120. I was like, oh, I have a hard time cleaning and jerking that. So much work. You just got really sad. Yeah. Thinking back on it, I get sad. So, yeah, seeing guys just smoke weight, you know, high-level guys. That is – everyone needs to go to, like, a national-level weightlifting meet

or international if you can and watch just the speed. Because I had my coach always tell me, like, you got to go faster. I was like, I'm going as fast as I can. And then just seeing someone move at that speed was like, oh, like that. There's things in the gym that happen that aren't wrapped up on the whiteboard

and not said in words that make a huge amount of difference. So you got to be in the presence of somebody you want to aspire to be like

in order to get a lot of information that is lost in a training blog or coaching video. To be in the presence of a good lifter is what it takes

to be a really good lifter. If you want to be a good power thrower or a weightlifter, you go to where they are power thrower, way other side. You go to where they are. Yes, I completely agree. You know, when I go to a lot of the national meets or even at the local level, you know, because we have, especially in the Bay Area, a lot of really good lifters.

My favorite place to hang out is the training hall, is the platform, is the warm up stage. I like seeing how people warm up. I like seeing their routine. I like watching their focus. And granted, if it's going to be some like, hey, you know, new Pan Am record or whatever record that they're about to break, then sure, I'll kind of duck around the curtain to watch them lift on the platform.

But really my fun is had in the training hall behind, like just behind the scenes, just watching how people do their thing. Yeah. You're going to go to Salt Lake in July? The Nationals? I'm not going to make it to Nationals this year. I'm kind of hanging around town.

I've got some family business that I have to take care of. So that's going to keep me grounded this year. Bummer. Yeah. But we have our lifter, Kristen Newman. One of my athletes will be out there this, you know, this summer representing. Okay. Yes.

You're going to go to the Olympics in 2016? Down in Brazil? I would. We're thinking about going. Yes. I'm actually thinking party have a little yeah yes I am

highly considering that would be a good time and we should podcast again we'll podcast before that but we'll do it again if we're still podcasting in Brazil if we're still podcasting

that's a long time from now that is a long time two years yes we could be doing something totally different well I'm trying to freak people out so man maybe it won't be around forever.

Don't take this part for granted. Scarcity. Scarcity. That's right. Watch it while you can. It could be over any day now. Yeah. Let's take a break real quick.

When we come back, we're going to talk about some of the projects you're working on and specifically your book. Let's do it. Yep. Barbell Shrugged is brought to you by you. To learn more about how you can support the show go to barbell shrugged.com and sign up for the newsletter and we're back all right so she's taking over for mike that's right yes i have taken over i didn't fall asleep run by diane foo um so

we were simply talking like i get the question all the time hey you, you know, where's FUBAR Bell going next year? You know, what are you going to do? Like, what's in store? And that's a legitimate question. And my answer is like, I have really no idea. I haven't thought about it. I'm always like, I don't know. Free spirit.

I like it. It's more of a Taoist view. Like, the path will unfold before me. You can try to plan it, but it's not going to work out the way you planned anyway. The river flows on its own, doesn't it? You guys can be my consultants how that is.

I'll start calling Mike. I'm like, hey, Mike, what do you think of this? I just grunt. Sounds good. Good job. Keep going.

But, you know, the honest answer is I don't know, but what I add on to that is like, I really hope that FUBARBELL continues to bring interesting experiences in my direction because that's really what I chase is I chase the like, I really hope that FUBARBELL continues to bring interesting experiences in my direction. Because that's really what I chase is I chase the experience.

I chase the education. I chase the conversations. Like I want to continue furthering the conversational weightlifting on a much greater, larger scale. So that's the future. That is the future. And so, for example, my seminaring got me the opportunity. I got to go to Latin America this last, just a couple months ago in April. And I hung out there for two weeks.

And I did, you know, one seminar in Argentina. Then I went over to Brazil. Then I went over to Colombia. And, you know, that is just, the country is amazing. And it's beautiful. And the people are warm. Like, it was just fantastic. And so in each of these boxes, like, you know, I walk I walk in and A, the members are super stoked to have you.

The community is very welcoming. And then B, in each of these locations, they already have these weightlifting coaches kind of installed teaching class. And so I'm the first one to be like, okay, I want to take class from each of these coaches. I want to see how they teach. I want to see what they're doing, et cetera, et cetera. And not only are these coaches, these are like highly decorated athletes. In Argentina, I met this woman named Nora Coppel. She is a three-time Olympian representing Argentina. Her very first Olympics was in 2000 when women could

actually compete in the Olympics on that level of international her very first Olympics was in 2000 when women could actually compete in the Olympics on that level of international platform. So she was in 2000, 2004, 2008. I met her, I met her coach. We trained together. We chatted, we talked about shop, you know, I asked them about their system, her history. Like it was, it was just as amazing. And they were as excited to have me as I was like completely excited to be in front of them and talk to them. It's like always this like reverse, like fanning thing going on when I meet these people. Amazing educational experience that is. I know.

You can't pay for that anywhere. You cannot. And so it was, it was just so great to be around her and to be around her coach and talk and, you know, hang out with their community. And then when I went to, you know, Brazil, same thing, you know, or Ecuador, excuse me, not Brazil. I want to go to Brazil. We're going to Brazil. We're going to Brazil.

We are going to Brazil. 2016, maybe sooner. Yeah. Ecuador was my next country. And so I get there and same thing. They have a weightlifting coach that's already there that teaches like, you know, five days a week. And here I'm walking in. I'm like, I want to take that class.

I want to be around. You know, I want to, I want to take that class. I want to be around, you know, I want to, I want to be here. And so I get in and this coach, Professor Corral, he ends up being, um, the national or not yet the national team coach over at their Olympic training center inside Ecuador. And so I meet him, we start talking and chopping it up. And he invites me to come down to the training center and train with their junior level girls which you know they're all amazing young women like i walk in and there's literally a room of like 30 girls from like the youngest being age 8 all the way to like 19 18 19 and so i'm training with them and it's just the this amazing again it's this amazing experience right And the girls are super excited for me to be there. I'm like this tatted up Asian American thing.

Western rock star. Coming in and they don't really know what to make of me and I'm just like lifting with them and we're having a good time and that was super fun. And then I head over to Columbia, Beijing and Beijing is beautiful, guys. I mean, if you guys have never been out there, shout out to my Beijing friends. What what up meijing the city is like gorgeous it's like eternal spring out there

and everything's lush and green sounds terrible i know damn never want to visit like you go there and we'll stop there on our way to brazil it's hard it's hard to leave if we have time hard to leave um so I make it out there and it's it's the same thing you know their weightlifting coach Juan happens to be an actual you know he's a professional weightlifter that lifts for Colombia and he's on the national team and uh you know we got we got to hang out. We had a good training session together. And, you know, there was like, he doesn't really speak much English. I don't speak much Spanish.

So we had to have a translator. But the conversation was just very genuine. You share the language of the barbell. You share the language of the barbell. And it's really cool because, you know, out there, these guys are literally like paid to weightlift. Like they're government sponsored, government supported employees.

So they go, it helps. And so literally like how, you know, we would all come into our boxes at, you know, whatever time to meet with our athletes or start our day, they would kind of get up in the morning and go down and that's their job. That's what they do. And they can't be late and, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

And it's like, it's really interesting to learn late and you know, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. It's really interesting to learn about how things are done outside of our own country. I'd say this is the most amazing development I've ever seen in my lifting career

is to see weightlifting, I guess even powerlifting and stuff, but especially weightlifting. See, opportunities opening up for people to mix and share ideas and for like,

individuals like you, like, you know, before 2006, 70, I don't know when that, Mike, when do you think this current renaissance actually kicked off where guys like Kendrick folks like Diane could actually be prized for their weightlifting knowledge on a wide scale it's not been very long people started getting some note you know note of noticed probably then but like it's been like three years I feel like I feel like it's been like three years it's like really taken off.

Because there was always a few weightlifting coaches that kind of dominated on the internet. And now there's just like everybody. Now we have the situation where weightlifting is prized. And then international too. The knowledge is prized. The experience is the opportunity to mix and match and to get education from these coaches. This is a phenomenal opportunity. If you want to learn it, now is the time to sort of jump on board and get engaged. Well, here's what's really interesting and why I,

you know, I feel like it's such a special time for the strength and condition community or weightlifting community, however you guys want to look at it, is that now that we do have all these other voices and some very dominant voices coming in from other countries, sharing their information, very eager and happy and open to share their information. No one can now say there's, there's this one best way to do something. Nobody can say that. Right. And that's why we don't really hear that. I don't think as much anymore where it's like, Hey, there's this only one way. And what you do is bad and blah, blah, blah. Cause there's so many ways to be able to look at movement. There's so many ways to be able to move a barbell. And some of it might depend on body type.

Some of it might not. Some might depend on how strong, not strong, you know, whatever you are. But there are very, there are a lot of different ways to make this movement occur. Yeah, the difference is like, you have coaches like 30 years ago. So you have some coaches that are, I mean, and I don't want to, maybe some people might get mad at me now, but I

don't care. Go for it. Name names. I'm not going to name names. But you know, there's a lot of older coaches that like, and it's not their fault. You know, 30 years ago, they were isolated. When an athlete walked in the gym, it was like what that coach said. And the coach said, this is the best system. And the athletes go, yes, sir. And they do it. And it works.

Right. And it works for everybody there because it's the only thing that's happening. Right. And that's a good thing when you don't have access to information. But what's happened now is people can see what's happening over here, over there. People are sharing ideas. No more iron curtains where the Soviets have these secrets you don't know about. Yeah, I mean, it was happening inside the United States.

What was happening in Florida isn't being shared with what's happening maybe out in California. And there's two totally different styles or North Carolina or whatever, whatever state you want to choose. And there's like, you know, these coaches that dominate that region and they have very different philosophies than even other parts of the United States. But now, you know, an athlete has the freedom to just click a button and go, oh, that's not what my coach said or this is different. And so the coaches that aren't very open-minded anymore

may become less relevant, I guess you could say. That's a very kind way of putting it. Here's my, because I am always the type of person where I'm like, hey, let's try to see all sides of the coin, right? And so my thinking with a lot of the coaches, maybe from an older generation or an older school, that have this one way or have this one philosophy is I've got to believe they continue to hold on to that because, you know, it worked for them in the past. And if something works for you for like 10, 20, 30, 40 years, there's really no reason to have to change the way you think if it's if it's working for you.

Well, when people, athletes come to me and go, Oh, should I change programs? And I go, Oh, are you reaching your goals with what you're doing now? And they go, yes. I go, well, don't change anything. I mean, I agree with that, but there's also open. I think part of the benefit of having multiple perspectives is that it might've worked for you, but you're you, you're, you're one body type. You're, you're one set of experiences.

You're, if you're training a variety of people with different body types different backgrounds different levels of strength different whatever then having multiple perspectives makes you a better coach because you're not getting just one type of person you're getting a variety what's been very useful about you know seeing all these different having all these different conversations you know and obviously recently i've been having for those of you guys that follow me on social media um you know i've been having for those of you guys that follow me on social media. Um, you know, I've been having more conversations with the Chinese coach, uh, his name coach Wu, he's the Singaporean national team coach. And, uh, you know, I've been having more conversations. He's been very graciously spending time with me literally on a weekly basis, um, over Skype talking to me about Chinese weightlifting philosophy, how he coaches, he's been coaching me a little bit. Cause I've

been trying to kind of, you know, anytime I come across a new philosophy, a new style of movement, you know, I make it a point instead of just understanding it conceptually, I try to internalize it physically. So I will go through whatever span of time it takes for me to adapt to that style of movement and be able to then, you know, experience it for myself because I feel like that's more interesting and to me that is more valuable, which in turn is going to be more valuable for my audience. You're like a weightlifting technique connoisseur.

I am. I am a purveyor of all styles. She's learning the right way. This is how you become an awesome coach is you're open and absorb everything you can. Yeah. And here's the deal is like so far my experience has been with, you know, practicing all these different ways to move. It's like immediately it's awkward. Immediately your numbers go down. Immediately, like, everything is just like, you know, feels like it's falling apart. But then as you start to adapt to the movement, as soon as your body starts to develop that motor control, what I find is my numbers start coming back to around the same area as what I had before.

So kind of all roads kind of lead to the same destiny. You know what I mean? I think a lot of athletes get caught up in that, that you maybe make a suggestion for a technique change. Right. And they don't feel an immediate PR coming on. Yeah. And they want to ditch the technique.

I'm like, well, you might want to, let's commit two or three weeks to this technique to see if it benefits you over time. You have to learn how to do it for one. And then maybe you need to build up a little strength in slightly different positions. And so, you know, a lot of people want to like, you know, they want that immediate result from a technique change. Right.

So. And sometimes it happens if it's something that is similar enough to the way they move and you can simply feel like, hey, do this. And they do it and you're like, oh oh my God, I'm the best coach ever. But other times it does definitely take some time and positional strength and awareness, et cetera. Well, it sucks when people only think of progress in terms of what they can do now.

When you make a change, you experiment, which is a great thing to do to get outside of your comfort zone. Numbers go down. You've got to keep in mind, what do I stand to benefit? What are the benefits that could come to me three months, a year down the line? That is doing something different. Understanding and internalizing

that there's not one way of doing things. That there's not one sort of magical program, not one thing that's going to work for you. If your numbers go down now, be patient.

It could be the best thing you ever did with your lifting career. Right. Well, here's the other thing that I believe is like, you know, I make the statement out there

and hopefully I'm not like bursting anyone's bubble, but I'm like, Burst it. Burst it hard. None of us are going to the Olympics right but we are we're going in 2016 so that's not true we might be all

we're all going to the Olympics to watch I'll be drinking a beer while other people are competing with the drinks and cocktails maybe we can sneak backstage like you know all of us are maybe a little too late to the party to be able to make it onto that national platform, unless you are a special person, right? And we've seen, obviously, special people inside our own community that is now representing us on an international stage,

and that's really damn cool. But for the rest of us, it's about, you know, it's about the experience. And, you know, if you just want to chase performance great pick a style you know nail that style down get strong around that style build your body build the mechanics and just have at it and see how far you can go you know but for the rest of us you know the experience might be like hey you know let's see how many ways I can you know make this barbell gymnastics work for me right how many ways can I do this and what's been really cool for me, right? How many ways can I do this? And what's been really cool for me as a coach is that having learned and had all these conversations and trying to really internalize

all these different styles of movements, athletes that come in from out of town, from different regions of the world, different regions of our own country, I can watch how they move and do a little intake with them and be like, Hey, what coach do you work with? You know what, you know, how did you learn and just kind of watch them move, find out who they've worked with. And immediately I know what style of movement they can do. And I can coach that if it's appropriate and that's what they want. Or sometimes they're like,

no, just like pretend I'm a piece of clay and remold me. And so then I could teach them something that I may personally feel is better for their body type and may or may not be, you know, obviously it's always a big experiment, but it's, that's been the value is I've taken athletes that come in and I've been like, well, this is how, um, this is how I learned. This is how, you know, you know, whoever I've worked with number of people, you know, want me to change. And I'm like, no, you know, actually the way you're moving works ends up working really well. Let's go ahead and teach you how to utilize how you're

naturally moving to your advantage. And I've recently done that with a couple, um, games athletes, uh, where, you know, they were then now able to take it out onto the field and basically snatch like a lifetime PR in the hang. And, and that's been really cool to observe just validating, like what they're doing isn't necessarily incorrect, right? Isn't incorrect that we can actually make that line of movement a little bit stronger. Tighten it up a little bit. Tighten it up to their advantage. Exactly.

Well, I need you to coach me today. Let's do it. Might need some tightening up. I have snatched. Well, I'm in the perfect situation because I've snatched twice this year. Yes. And when you said 115, I hope I didn't offend you when I asked pounds or kilos. Well, I mean, I'd been injured, so you didn't offend me.

I was like, kilos? I'm like, and this is your second time snatching? You haven't muscle snatching. Really heavy. I've been muscle snatching. You're not just sitting on your ass. No, no. I was training hard.

I just hadn't snatched in a while. Like, real snatch. That's amazing. That's impressive. Thank you. Yeah, but I'm in the perfect spot because I think my technique is probably just all over the place right now.

It didn't feel tight the other day when I did it, so maybe we can... I'll just let you... Can I watch you mold Mike and then just ask Popcorn to watch you mold him and laugh? I might actually then be in turn watching you.

Don't mold me. Oh God. You got a lot of molding to do. We have to get a machine out for Chris. Yeah. I was going to say, do you and Kendrick share a lot of very similar philosophies

and that's why you guys decided to partner together for this seminar coming up? Kendrick and I share a lot of very similar philosophy because obviously we can't, we, you know, he came up in the American system.

I came into the American system and so, you know, a lot of the thinking, a lot of philosoph similar philosophy because obviously we can't we you know he came up in the American system I came into the American system and so you know a lot of the thinking a lot of philosophies are the same and you know Kendrick is you know he's like he he keeps things his coaching style is very effective very simple in the sense like he's like hey do work he's like the snatch is a snatch and the way he coaches is it's very simple, but it's very powerful. And we decided to come together because, you know, we've been following each other on social media for quite some time now. We, you know, had opportunities to hang out at nationals last year. So we've had many conversations and we like how the other person, you know, represents themselves. And we have a lot of respect for one another. And so we decided to like, hey, what would happen if we decided to come together and do a training workshop,

you know, for our respective audiences. And we're like, let's just make this a one-time deal. Let's make it special. Let's make it fun. Let's do it at, you know,

uh, like NorCal, Jason Kalipa's gym. Right. Can we go? You guys should absolutely. It sounds like a situation where the parts equal something far greater than the whole strategies. And yeah. What's the date?

Strategies. What's the date on this? June 8th, 9th, and 10th. So next. It's like next week. Yeah, it's next week. You guys want to fly back next week? Damn it, June.

We just flew to like six cities in a row. We fly home and then fly right back. And then I got to go to three cities in a row right after that. I'm going to stay home on this one. Yeah, not doing that. Sorry. I would love to go. Yeah, trust me. I would love to be there. It'm going to stay home on this one. Yeah, not doing that. Sorry. I would love to go. Yeah, trust me.

I would love to be there. It's going to be, we wanted to create a fun experience. We want to create a unique experience for people. And so we're test driving this out. Cool. If you are within driving distance, get your ass to NorCal.

Yeah. Come on out. Come hang out. Or you can just fly. Oh, yeah. It'll be like a couple days out. When this podcast posts, you'll have like two days notification.

Two days. Get in the van and drive. We still have a few slots left. A few slots left. Okay. So maybe on Wednesday when this posts, there'll be a spot open for you. I want to talk a little bit about your Kickstarter. Let's do it.

You talked about the last time I was here, you talked a little bit about a potential book that might be coming out. Right. And then you pulled the trigger and put it on Kickstarter. Actually, I'll let you talk about it, but the Kickstarter may not have gone. It doesn't look like it went like you wanted it to go. So I want to talk about two things. First, the book, because I think the book idea is brilliant.

And secondly, what we might have learned from Kickstarter campaigns. Well, this is where now the audience is going to get to learn from other people's failure. So there you go. There you go. It's a good learning experience. So last time we got together, I had this idea for a book. I came across this guy, Eric. He's down at CrossFit Hollywood in LA.

And he's in the animation world. So he works a lot with animators in both cartoons, animators in comics. And so he's been doing that side for, I mean, I think over 30 years, he said. And so we decided to come together because I have appreciation for art. I'm into animation. A little bit geeked out. Not super geeked out animation. A little bit geeked out. Not super geeked out, but a little bit geeked out on that side. Yeah, tons of cool tattoos.

Yeah, obviously I got tattoos. So I like art. And so when we kind of got together and started talking, we're like, hey, let's put this project together where we can write a book that is part philosophical about my experiences, about the way I think about weightlifting, but let's also combine the art side of it. And so instead of like photos of people where, you know, you would open a traditional weightlifting reference or technique book.

We've done a thousand times. Yeah. You know, there's like photos of people on the block and the hang and the whatever. We wanted to make it all illustrated and so the idea was to be able to procure like eight to ten artists and have every single one of them have a different style of art and have them take up different pieces of this book and we didn't want to get too too geeked out where this became like a reference book we wanted it to be beautiful enough so that people can prop it up on their coffee table and be able to flip through it, learn something from it, but then also be able to appreciate beautiful art at the same time. It'll be on my coffee table.

Yes. Even if I'm living in a trailer and I'm trying to minimize my life. Thank you. Deepens the connection with the sport. And so we put together this project. We had this great idea. We created a video for it and we decided to launch it on Kickstarter. And it came out the very first day. It generated, you know, a decent response. I you know, but for what we needed in terms of volume of people, it was a little underwhelming and it's been continuously to be underwhelming. A lot of people might not know what Kickstarter even is. Like, how does that work briefly? Well, you know, so Kickstarter, if you, A, first of all, if you don't have Kickstarter, to even buy the book, there's a couple loopholes you have to jump through, right?

So you have to go on to Kickstarter. You have to have the person create an account on Kickstarter, sign into Kickstarter, and then find your project and then, you know, support them too. But they're going to crowdfund the book. They're going to give you money so you can make this thing. They'll give you the money. Well, they're pledging the money. So the idea is like with the Kickstarter,

I pledge at these different tiers, and at different tiers you get certain, I don't want to use the word rewards, but you basically get certain, you either buy the book or you get books plus wrap, t-shirt, et cetera, et cetera. So there's different tiers you can pledge into. Just so you know, I went for the highest tier. That's why we love you.

Mike's the man. Brown noser. So I think a lot of people see that and they go, oh, wow, I can just have an ID and people just give me money for no reason? That's fantastic. And it's probably not that easy. Not quite that easy. It's technically true. Yeah. And so, you know, we kind of went into this thing thinking like, oh yeah, you and I think it's such a great idea. Let's try to sell this idea. And so as we kind

of got into it, what we found is that we were, when we started the Kickstarter, we were already behind and we didn't even realize we were behind. And we had 30 days to get $50,000 funded. And, you know, based off just my audience alone, my supporters, we got, you know, what I would consider a normal response from my audience when I put out a particular product. But unfortunately, it's just not quite enough to fall on that level of volume. And so, you know, we were trying to learn as you go. And with something that's a little time sensitive, you cannot learn as you go. You have to be ready. And what we learned from this last month is like, you know, if you're going to start a campaign where you're going to fundraise, you need to have all your ducks already lined up.

And you need to come into this thing with momentum so that, you know, at some point in the middle, you hit critical mass. That typically happens. And it just goes viral. The thing becomes real at that point. It becomes real. And so the campaigns that we then started looking into when we started reaching out a little bit further and trying to find information from other people like,

hey, how do you make this thing work? How do you make this thing bigger? We realized like, oh, you, whereas we were like the shotgun shotgun where we're like bang bang you needed to be like the rapid assault like weapon where you're like literally on a daily basis yeah firing information off to your supporters being like just like be the assault weapon and you know i am usually very sensitive about people's time like maybe a little overly sensitive i don't want to you know overwhelm overly sensitive. I don't want to, you know, overwhelm people with posts.

I don't want to fatigue their interests. And so I'm always very sensitive about how I ask for people's time when I post. And so we posted maybe once or twice a week about the campaign. Yeah. And when we looked at other campaigns that were successful that would raise, you know, over half a million. There's campaigns that have been on Kickstarter that raise like serious cash. Serious cash. Like over a million, I think.

Yeah. Serious cash. Like, you know, close to like the one I was following really closely, like they raised, you know, in about a 12 week span, like a three quarter million. Yeah. Like something crazy like that. Wow. And literally they, the kickstarter even started

they had momentum they had a you know they had pages set up there was media already around it they had a product already created and so they were asking for is for money to be able to create more of this product right yeah and then all the way until the very kind of final hours like the very final hours that they were shutting down the campaign, they would literally post on the hour. Like, hey, we have five hours left. Hey, we have four hours left. Hey, we have three hours. Hey, last hour.

Like it was just, you know, it was. It's a whole political campaign. It is a whole. Everything has to be time-based marketing. I was like, this is cool. This is how it should be done. So that was the great kind of learning curve of this whole experience. What I like about Kickstarter is cool. This is how it should be done. So that was the great kind of learning curve of this whole experience.

What I like about Kickstarter is you can sell your idea without having to put that initial investment in. I mean, some people do. You were talking about they already had a product developed. Right. And now they just got to be able to make a thousand of them. Right. Something like that. I think, so we bought into something recently called Coin.

Right. Where they did that. And, you know, when they finally make this product in bulk, we'll get it in the mail. Right. that and uh you know when they finally make this product in bulk we'll get it in the mail um but uh kickstart is cool because you can sell it before you get committed financially uh and then the other thing to do is like so what you guys were asking for was fifty thousand dollars how much time did you give it yourself 30 days 30 well i know right yeah yeah so fifty thousand dollars in 30 days which is pretty aggressive right and then, so what happens is if you, if you, people don't reach, if you don't reach your

goal, $50,000, then the money goes, you know, it's an escrow. It goes back to those people. Right. Nothing gets charged. Right. If you don't reach your goal, it goes back to the, everyone's account. So it doesn't happen. Now, if you hit your goal, you can raise money beyond that.

Right. And so like, there's always that. We did a Kickstarter once and I can talk about that maybe another time. We did way worse than you. Don't feel so bad. We raised hundreds of dollars. We were wanting to do a weightlifting documentary and we even had people like, you know what?

I actually remember that. Yeah. I remember your guys' Kickstarter video. It was terrible, wasn't it? That was like two or three years ago. I was like, it sucked. I actually. Yeah, that was about three or four.

That was maybe four years ago. Three-ish. Yeah, three years ago. It was before the show. You guys wanted to travel the country, right? No, we were wanting to follow. What was it? It was Zach.

We wanted to follow Zach Chris in the Olympics, potentially. We wanted to follow Zach to Pan Ams and then kind of just watch the team as they prepare for the Olympics. But we were going to follow Zach Critch specifically and just kind of see how it all went down, like what that process might look like. And a lot of people were excited about it, but not enough people were excited about it.

I think we needed around, I think we were asking for 30,000, maybe 50,000, I forget what it was but yeah I mean it's it's a lot harder than you think it's going to be because you know but you're like oh yeah of course we only need like 50 bucks from you know 100 people or you know or a thousand people oh we'll do it there has to be a whole campaign behind selling your idea I can't just be like, I have this great idea. And then, you know. That's the whole point. People go, well, that is a great idea. But having the idea translate to me giving you money is just a whole other step, right?

And it's hard because you knew that you needed $50,000. But maybe you could have asked for $30,000 and then kept campaigning after you hit your mark. Right. Because that's like a whole other. That's something we didn't even think about. That's a whole other. There's a strategy behind it. Yeah, that's a whole other. Because once you hit the mark, now you got to change your mark. Right. Because that's like a whole nother. That's something we didn't even think about. That's a whole nother. Because now. There's a strategy behind it. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a whole nother. Because once you hit the mark, now you got to change your marketing again. Right. So it's. But that's the thing is like all the companies we then started investigating when we were like in the middle of this project were, it was like, I was looking at this and I'm like, Oh my God, I would probably need to literally cut my actual work day in half so I could spend half of my day trying to fund for this project.

Like it is its own kind of part slash full time. Full time marketing job. Full time. Back to earning money. This is stupid. No, you signed up for it all. I don't think you thought it was going to be easy, but yeah. No. You just don't know until you get in it all I don't think it was going to be I don't think you thought it was going to be easy but yeah

no you just don't know until you get in it you don't know and we just kind of just pulled the trigger we're like hey let's do this you think it's a great idea

I think it's a great idea and I think the other problem is like if it was just a book on you know my experience my philosophy A we wouldn't have had to fund as much

and B it's a little more concrete in people's hand when you start talking about, hey, you're going to buy a book that's, you know, part technique, part weightlifting philosophy, part, you know, your experience as a coach, comma, all these artists, and you don't really have the art to line up to show people,

you know, then they're just buying into something that they can't, that's not as tangible. I think that was the other piece we learned that was difficult. People like things that are tangible. I felt I think that was the other piece we learned that was difficult. People like things that are tangible. I felt real strongly about it for probably a couple reasons. One, I got to talk to you

one-on-one about it. Hey. I got fired up about it. Number two is like, I get excited about new things. Especially pretty colors. Not everybody. Not everybody gets excited

about like new things. Right. So those two things attracted me to it. So I was like, oh, I want this to happen. What is your plan now like now

how many days are left where how much money I mean it's good for people to like see failure I want to see

I want to say that we have what's the date guys is it the 29th 29th and there's 31 days in this month 30 days

yes 31 31 so we've got two days left it'll be over on Wednesday 45k 45 yes we are at 49. No, we are at probably 20% of our funding goal. All right. So 10K, probably pretty low. And, you know, obviously it's, it's, it won't fund and we're going to let it kind of just quiet down, cool down. We'll probably email out to all our supporters that, you know, did help with this project and thank them for their support. And what we're looking at doing now is basically we're still going to create a book.

We're probably going to have to downsize the number of pages. We'll probably downsize the number of artists that we're going to use. And we're going to create a very mini version of this book that, you know, of this like kind of greater scale and we're going to fund it ourselves. So we're going to still kind of go into this thing. And what this, we're going to fund it ourselves. So we're going to still kind of go into this thing. And what we're going to use as this kind of, let's say, half book or mini book that we're going to create. We're going to then create a campaign around that to show the audience. And then we're going to basically start again. And this time we'll have the product. We'll be able to show people.

People will be able to get a sample of the written work. People will be able to see samples of the artwork. They're going to be able to actually have something tangible in their eyes, right? And be like, hey, this is essentially what you are buying into, but take this and magnify it. Make it bigger. You keep saying we. You mean you and the artists or who is we?

Me and Eric. Eric, my partner that I'm doing this. He's in charge of the animation side. So he would be the one procuring the artists, basically kind of producing or project managing that end of it. I'm going to call Eric out. Eric, hey. No, I called him last week. Oh, did you?

He didn't call me back. Oh, he didn't? Bad Eric. Rascal. Oh, no. He's busy drawing. Yeah. He's working on the book.

This whole project is interesting because it's an example of it was not, failure is like a bad word to use. You had a great idea. It is a great idea. You jumped in. You learned a lot. And because you learned a lot, you'll come up with something that's better. If it worked out this first time, it wouldn't have been as good as it will be once you go through the process a few times and refine it and tighten it up and amplify it.

So wise. Absolutely. It is true. Wise words. If it has worked, it would be fucking not fun at all. Right. Oh, we had a different book. It landed great. We did it. Okay, now we're bored with it. Fuck. What it allows, I think what it really allowed us to do is it allowed us to be able to reflect on the experience. And like I said, like Foo Barbell, like I really hope it brings like interesting experiences. I hope I continue to learn.

And this is just another learning process, you know. And what we like about it is like it kind of forced us to kind of make some decisions at the end of like, okay, hey, this isn't going to fund. Now what are we going to do? Yeah. Right? What's the next step? And if you continue to ask yourself those kind of questions, that's when you start to grow.

Yeah. Oh. All right. So what other projects you got on the horizon? Anything else you want to talk about right now? You know, in terms of actual project projects, not really. I guess, you know, I created some programs out there for my more kind of beginning audience, beginning kind of weightlifting fans. Kodi App, right?

The Kodi App. That's fantastic. And so Kodi App is this company that we are working with where they essentially are a training program platform. I think they started out where they are similar to Instagram, where you can track your workouts on a daily basis, you know, provide a photo, a kind of document of what you did for the day. And,

you know, from there you can share with the community, hold each other accountable, see what other people are doing. So that was a really neat concept. And now they're kind of pivoting a little bit and they're, instead of doing just a kind of a fitness, an online fitness journaling,

they're now starting to pivot more into training programs where they want to start providing training programs for the population, like say, hey, I want to learn more about yoga, I want to learn more about Olympic weightlifting, I want to learn more about powerlifting, etc., etc., or gymnastics, or what have you. You'll be able to sign onto their, uh, platform and be able to purchase and follow all these different, um, you know, experts in their respective fields and

purchase programs. So we created a kind of a beginner product out there where it was a 12 week builder program. And the idea or the goal behind the program was to essentially give people a working snatch, clean and jerk by the time they were done. And it had good popularity, very good feedback. And now what we're going to do is we're going to start creating more programs along that to be able to service that audience in the form of correction. So now that you've come out of the 12 weeks, these are probably some kind of general habits you formed. And if you want to break these habits, these are the exercises, this is how you do them. You know, these are things you want to look for. And so it's really providing people a resource for a coach if they don't have already access to it.

Yeah. There's a lot of people training in garages or, or in gyms where there's not like weightlifting expert. And the feedback that we've been getting, you know, with this application is they're like, Oh my God, we've been following your program. It's helped me so much. Um, you know, uh, I, I train out of my gym or I train out of my own garage and my platform and such and such a place. And there's no access to any weightlifting coach anywhere in my area. So this has helped me tremendously. So, you know, we're really, you know, we're really happy that, you know, we can help these people out when they can't go seek out help elsewhere. You're doing good, Diane.

You're doing good for the world and the community. I'm trying. Trying my best. How does someone get a hold of the Kodi app? They just literally download the Kodi app on their phone? Yeah, Kodi app.com or Kodi app.com website. So it's web-based as well. C-O-D-Y.

Yeah, C-O-D-Y,A-P-P. Or you can go ahead and download it on your iPhone. Yeah. Is that like a monthly subscription thing or a one time fee for a 12 week course or is it free? Okay. So the, the course program is it's $99. I believe if I mistake, I'm sorry. It's somewhere around that price point where you can get a 12 week program. Everything is video based. So what's unique about this product with Kodi is that instead of just giving you a program, which anybody can pull a program anywhere these days, right? Here's my program. There's no shortage of programming.

There's no shortage of programming. And, you know, I'm not saying this program is any more special, but we've laid it out or I've laid it out in a way where, you know, it's really meant to be a foundation underneath a lot of other programs that are currently considered beginner programs out there. Because when coaches take a look at beginner programs, they're like, okay, well, a beginner program means that you are going to snatch, power snatch from the hang for, you know, five sets of five. You're going to do that for, you know, a of five right you're gonna do that for you know a period of time and then

you're gonna hang you know hang power clean and then you know maybe do a push press and you're gonna slowly build up through movement yeah and this program does that but it also contains a lot of under layers of positional work so meaning i will literally program in there footwork drills. So I tell you to do your footwork drills and then I will program in there to do, you know, positional drills with just a PVC pipe. So it's, it's really basic and it really looks to take somebody that's brand new and kind of mold them from the bottom up. And then what we do on top of that is we provide literally video instruction, right? So you'll see video instruction of myself or movement instruction for myself, any one of my other athletes performing every single movement

that's within that day's program. And you'll see like laser beams pop out from every single angle saying lasers, laser beams. Now I'm sold. Right. So it's. It's all right there. You just touch it. It's laid out very simply. It makes sense. Very simple. We give you cues like this is what you look for with the feet, knees, everything. So it's very, very comprehensive. And we really, really want to try and make it as simple as possible for people to follow. You're not just telling people what to do.

It's sort of like it walks you through and sort of gets you comfortable. Yeah, and you can literally pull it up and do it and have your phone with you inside your gym or inside your garage or wherever and be like, listen to this two, three minute video, watch the program, you can replay it over and over and over again. God, we're all so fucking spoiled. Imagine having that when you're in high school,

Mike, this magical device in your pocket that could pull all this coaching information down from the cloud somewhere. I wish I could have just gotten a decent book in high school. Like on training. I wish I could read in high a decent book in high school. Like on training. I wish I could read in high school. I mean, that's one of the downfalls of being homeschooled is not being able to read. But now we're all saying,

you kids nowadays with your iPhones and your coaching. Back in my day, we had to download rogue magazines or not download, just find it on there. I went to Kroger grocery store and picked up muscle and fitness. That was training advice. That was it. I think that's how everyone learned that.

That was very, very common. It was the dark ages, wasn't it? Those were the dark ages where information was extremely limited. You had to break yourself and figure it out. Maybe sometimes even to your imagination. What can you think of to do with a dumbbell? Yeah, definitely do some really dumb things That's how you know not to do it now

How did I not get hurt? Amazing Any other projects we're leaving out here? I think we're gonna wrap it up soon You gotta spread yourself more thin Yeah, I know What do you do all day anyway? I try to do it all.

Can we work together on a special gelato flavor for our cheat meals? We talked a little bit of cheat meals and you weren't divulging much about your... You said people would maybe be... They wouldn't get your cheat meals. They would be... What was your favorite cheat? When Diane is worn out from a long day

of food bar bailing it up and dominating the world. You go home to your nice San Francisco flat or wherever you are. You open the refrigerator. What are you reaching for? Oh, man. My favorite cheat meal would have got to be bacon maple donuts. Whoa. We have donuts.

Do we get maple bacon? Do we get bacon maple? Let's do some training. By the way, thank you to you for bringing us lunch and donuts. John Rushen. Shout out on the show. John Rushen showed up. Show showed up to San Francisco CrossFit. Drove down with a box of Voodoo Donuts, and one of them is a bacon maple donut.

Bacon maple donut. He drove 14 hours to bring us donuts. Well, can you imagine any combination more perfect than bacon maple? Because the donut essentially is just a canvas, right? Is there chocolate in there? I don't know. We can maybe add it. I don't know.

We can probably add anything. We'll smear it on. Bacon maple donut with some custard. Oh, you just took it to the next level. I'm custard anything. You can see I'm thinking, and now I'm salivating. Take anything and inject custard into it, and I'm joining the party. Yes.

Bacon maple with custard. Well, next time we're coming with a dozen of those. We're going to get a shot of these donuts. Voodoo donuts are the best donuts in the entire world. Get a tight shot, CTP. Man. That's it right there. If you're listening right now, you're like, what are they doing?

Oh, there is bacon on it. There's nothing good about them. There's nothing wrong about them. There's nothing wrong about them. There's nothing wrong about them. They're just what they are, and they're glorious. Full strips of bacon on that donut, by the way. What is that? Is there custard in that one?

You got it. You're playing that one, food. Let's work out, and then you can have that one. More on the bottom. They're stacked in there. There's a box full of donuts. That's a beautiful thing, and I love the box. Bless your heart, sir.

That's our post-workout meal. Well, I got an email. I was like a week behind on my email and we were going to meet up today, obviously. That's all I knew. He had sent me an email on Monday. He was like, hey, I'm going to drop by and would you guys want

some Voodoo Donuts? I'm on the plane checking my email. I'm like, I'm going to meet him in a few hours. Shit, man. I hope you got those donuts. Yes. Yes. You made the right decision. This guy's got talent. You're going someplace. And you coincidentally had just done a seminar up at his, his gym in Seattle or the gym that you work at. Yes. Yes. It's a great community. Um, I love Seattle. I'm going back there, I think. What was the name

of the gym again? The Lab. The Lab. Lab Gym. Shout out to those guys. We're going to be heading up there in a few months,

I think. I don't know my interior off the top of my head. But if you guys are ever in Seattle, you need to check out this restaurant called Quinn's.

It's amazing. Do you know that restaurant? Quinn's? Quinn's. Oh my God. So you know that restaurant? Quinn's? Quinn's. Oh, my God. So when I travel around, I allow myself at least the luxury of, here's Diane Fu when she travels.

I'll hit up a new city. I'll roll in, check in, whatever, get my car, and I'll yelp a nice restaurant kind of in the area. And my favorite thing to do is show up at this restaurant. I like to sit at the bar. I had to order myself a nice cocktail. And what is the cocktail of choice? I usually either like an old fashioned or a Manhattan. Look at you. I'm fancy. Yeah. Hardcore. And so I'll have one, not two, because then if I'm two, I'm very slow the next day, but I'll have a nice cocktail. And then the way I decide which

restaurant I'm going to go to is I look up three things and I hope I don't enrage anyone by saying these three things. Foie gras is number one. Not enraged so far. It's fantastic. I know, I know. What was that? Foie gras. Goose liver, man. Fatty goose liver. It's fantastic. Foie gras, bone marrow.

Oh, yeah? And pork belly. Yes. Oh, yes. You know what the best pork belly I've ever tasted in my life? Where? Was prepared by this man right here, Chris Moore. Oh, yeah.

I have some culinary skill. I'll roast you a nice pork belly, Diane. We'll have two Manhattans with it because I like being slow the next day. That's the whole point of drinking, right? He must be having those Manhattans every night. That's a hell of a thing. Oh, the doo-doo.

You rascal. Look, you're so adorable, man. You're so adorable. Let me get away with it. But yeah, those are, you know, my three, my three qualifiers for restaurants.

So if it has one of those three and especially if it's got good reviews on Yelp, then I am beelining for that restaurant. And Quinn's in Seattle it has one of those three and especially if it's got good reviews on Yelp then I am beelining for that restaurant and Quince in Seattle has all three of those. I want to go to Seattle now. Let's go to Seattle.

Pork belly and bone marrow. I'm on board with the first thing you said. I'm still a mystery to me. We'll learn you. Learn me. Where can people find you Diane follow

Foo Barbell on Facebook Diane Foo on Instagram Diane Foo on Twitter or you can send me some smoke signals

carrier pigeons that'd be actually as well yeah Diane has the best Instagram for weightlifting

in the whole wide world Mike has been so kind so well I mean you, you like type paragraphs. Yes. You take like a 15-second video and then have like a book written underneath. It's a lot of great free information, man. It is a skill. I had to spend.

Her thumbs are amazing. Well, yes. They're very calloused also. But it literally took a very long time to figure out how to create paragraphs, how to maintain paragraphs. Yeah. Is this not, they don't let you just do that. No, you have to hack it.

You have to hack the system. Yeah. I have learned how to hack the Instagram platform. Please Facebook, do not change that. No. Destroy me. But, uh, yeah, it's been fun. Thank you.

Very cool. It's working. All right, guys, after you, uh, go follow Diane everywhere, make sure you go to barbellstroke.com, sign up for the newsletter. Thanks for joining us today. Guys, thank you. Now we're going to wait. So much fun.

Let's do it. Thanks, Diane.