Barbell Shrugged - 139- Positivity, Coaching, Comedy & CrossFit w/ Kenny Kane

Episode Date: August 27, 2014

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we interview Kenny Kane of Kenny Kane's Positivity Project. Hey, this is Rich Froning. You're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to barbellshrugged.com. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Mike Bledsoe here with Doug Larson, Chris Moore. We have CTP behind the camera. We are in Anaheim, California. The secret location. Right next to Disneyland.

Oh, you gave it away. And we're here for the CrossFit Games this weekend. And we're just hanging out. And I got to meet Kenny Kane yesterday. Yeah, bud. What's up, man? Boom. Cheers, guys.

You might know him from Kenny Kane's Positivity Project, which is a legit podcast. I will admit on the front end, I have not listened to a lot of them, but a few that I've picked out, they were gems. Thank you. They're fantastic. Cheers, man. And we got talking yesterday and you got a lot of stuff going on, not just a podcast. I was like, oh, this guy needs to come on the show.

Yeah, dude. For sure. Cheers. Yeah. Before we go any further, make sure to go to barbellshrug.com, sign up for the newsletter and CTP will send you only interesting emails. No dick pics. In addition to that, if you want. Do you guys get dick pics?

Well, we got actually a pretty good one the other day. Seriously? I didn't see that. Oh, no. Now people are going to start sending them. Let's clarify. We don't want your dick pics. We're just commenting.

That was my question. Was this solicited? No. Absolutely not. Come on. Don't send them. Seriously. We're all sitting around barbell shrugged headquarters.

Man, you know what? This day would make this day much better if we get some dick pics in our email accounts. I did get a dick pic one time on accident and I ignored it over text. Oh, this was great. Yeah. And then I ignored it and then he texted me again and I ignored it again. And finally, a guy called me like an hour later. Dude, did you get my picture or what?

I'm like, hello? And he goes, yo, is Tina there? And I was like, no, man, you got the wrong number. And you could hear in his voice, he was like, oh. I feel like he realized just what had happened. You go, but nice dick, dude. Also, if you're wondering how you can support the show, there's a little shop button on the website.

You can click that and check it out. And we have the 21 easy tips. 21 easy tips? What do we have? We're talking about dick pics and tips. What do we have? Back to 21 tips. That was such a great segue.

It's not a movie. 21 tips. He's talking about a webinar that we did a while back called the 21, 21 easy tips to clean and snatch more weight. So it's kind of like the eight snatch for six video that Mike did with Rich Frone. He's expanded a little bit. So if you don't check out that webinar,

you can go to the top right corner of the website. Yes. Doug with the save. Nice job. Yes. It's not a porno. Something we made. It's supposed to be educational.

Does have the word snatch in the title, but if you have Doug's number, be educational it does have the word snatch in the title but but if you have Doug's number be free to send him a dick pic and then ask for Tina it was great so we do something

called a muscle gain challenge and we have a road regionals we have two programs where athletes can come be coached by

Barbell Shrug and a lot there's a lot of questions around you know which program is right for me do i where do i fit you know what do i need to do for training all this stuff so uh we don't answer the emails that come through you know you can feel free to email help at barbell shrug.com but we have a a woman elise who checks out email and somebody sent a picture of themselves as to her It was like the question and then the picture of himself like

what do you think? Which one should I go into? The picture went fairly low. She was like I think someone sent me. They're naked? Almost naked. It was like everything. It was like right to the penis.

She was like oh. It's the bottom like right to the penis and she was like oh in the picture yeah yeah who should i forward this to we were like nobody so there was no pre-qualification it was just a picture and them going yeah there was like a it's like a paragraph like i don't know which program to do picture i was like all right uh it was a good laugh that's fun we appreciate it whoever you were yeah in all seriousness do not send us pictures of your genitals we're not interested in that we want to see genitals let's go to porn like normal americans we'll go find porn just what we want this is what we're looking for so we brought kenny on and the thing is is like i

don't know exactly what we're gonna end up talking talking about because the few hours we've got to spend together so far collectively, it's been nonstop conversation. So this can go pretty much anywhere. There's that and there's the side issue of we don't ever plan anything. Oh, there's that other thing. Right. So you've been coaching since 84, you said? 89? Yeah, I mean, I'm 43 now. So effectively, my first coaching started in 84.

I was getting my black belt in 84, 85. So I was a teenager at a dojo teaching adults. Yeah, it seemed karate kid. You were ready to take your training to the next level. Exactly. And so I got my wax on and wax off there. And that's where I got my coaching chops is, you know, when you're a teenager and you've got to teach adults how to fight, the first thing they want to do, and Doug will probably attest to this,

when it's time to spar, an adult's going to want to kick the crap out of a teenager. So I learned as a kid. I hate those teenagers. I had to learn as a kid to kind of hold my own as an instructor. And then through the years, through my teen years, as a martial arts instructor, soccer coach, and then I grew up in the fitness industry.

My mom's business was a swim and tennis club that had like fitness too. So she, she didn't have any trainers. And back in the eighties, it wasn't, it was sort of an industry. And so she said, Hey, I've got a bunch of members that need coaching and training on how to use the universal machine, which was back then this machine that could do about 15 things. The lat pulldowns. Yeah. The lat pulldowns. Hamstring curl. You can flip it over bench press on one side and then flip it and then do squats you know sitting on the bench and squatting this thing upside down and so that was my first squat first get upside down exactly feet nowhere near the ground you know so that was my first exposure to

to sort of training and then i went to i went to school at uc davis uh where i played soccer and ran track and did a lot of hip-hop shows back then i learned hip-hop shows yeah man i learned i learned hip-hop by watching you on tv raps you're a what's that oh dude i had the hammer dookie pants i had zodiac patent leather shoes is there a picture of this somewhere? There's got to be pictures. Yeah. I,

but they're, but they're not digital. So there's, there's actual photographs of me and the hammer pants. And back then, right. Totally. I'm going to borrow some of that for burning,

man. So, Oh, I still have a couple. And you guys could go as a barbell shrug dookie pant crew. Do it, do it. Just come to the closet.

I'm not opposed to this. Totally. Totally. I'm in. to this. Totally, totally. I'm in. So then I kind of self-taught myself hip-hop, and back then white guys didn't sort of dance, and so all the martial arts sort of taught me how to. Are we dancing yet?

We're always dancing, come on. Is this on your resume still? Like 1984 is on your LinkedIn account? Self-taught hip-hop professional. Yo, yo, MTV Raps taught meaps experience with uh adidas jackets and run dmc tunes right 1984 1989 totally so so yeah then then through college played soccer ran track and then post-collegiately uh i ran a a thing at davis called the uc davis aggie pack which became the sort of template for all universities for their athletic promotions.

So I was huge. I've always been a huge sport junkie and I've always been enthused by just the element of sport. Like it's I feel that it's such an elemental, critical component to human existence. And without it, society collapses. Like I honestly believe that. So this thing that we did, like thousands of college kids, like Davis had no spirit at all. And then me and a couple other kind of like crazies got together and go, all right, we're going to start getting people to the games and the events. And pretty soon there would be like 300 people. And that became, you know, 3,000 people. And that became 5,000.

And it started growing. And then just like you guys, I mean, the network starts to grow, right? The economy starts to grow. And then, you know, sponsors are wanting a piece of the action. And then all the other major universities and professional sports teams in the Bay Area started borrowing all of our athletic promotions. And then you just can't keep the hot chicks away. You can't beat them off with a stick. That's been our experience.

It's amazing. You've got to like wade through. You've got to wade through piles of just tens, California tens everywhere. Just get out of here. We're trying to do a podcast about lifting weights. You got to wade through piles of just tens, California tens everywhere. Get out of here. We're trying to do a podcast about lifting weights. I like how you took the breaststroke through the bra. Breaststroke and like, get all these girls out of my way, son.

That's a much more preferable stroke than the butterfly. It is the ladies. So good. So then from there, I went on to be a instructor and and drama coach at a K-8 school and then uh you know ran post-collegiately competed in soccer post-collegiately for a couple years each and uh at sort of like sub-national class levels and and then from there just kind of carried on I moved down to Los Angeles started stand-up comedy while I was uh while I was a teacher and traveled the world started stand-up comedy while I was a teacher and traveled the world

doing stand-up comedy for the better part of 10 years and recently retired just because of the coaching. I mean, I've always been coaching, but it was just too much to try to balance both. And I got really exhausted

by sort of the entertainment industry and really... Well, I think there's two hardest jobs in the world. The first one I always say is if you're going to be a professional chef professional chef like i want to go to cooking school i mean good luck motherfucker that's the hardest job you can possibly have you're working all the time cooking always stand-up comedy stand-up comedy it's like they want you to do

your job or something every time i hear a heckler like uh we're at a show the day and there's always this guy who wants to talk shit to a guy who their job or gal their job is to get up in front of a room of people who don't know them and they're expecting to be entertained and made to laugh and you gotta get up in front of them and fucking deliver right on time right when they say right when they're expecting they start talking shit to you right to be able to masterfully work a crowd of 100 people 10,000 people whatever it is that is a powerful thing to be able to achieve, man. That's why I fell in love with stand-up. I mean, I was always pretty successful

at the things that I'd chosen to do. And then I went to my first open mic, and I've been on a microphone since I was a kid. So like being in front of large crowds, small crowds, being on a mic has never intimidated me. I'm almost more comfortable on a mic than anywhere else. But the first time I did stand-up comedy was the first time that it was a true gut check i was in it was uh october 7th 1996 i was in a room

called king's x in oakland california there was two homeless people three people did you make them laugh no i ate so much shit and immediately I was drawn to it just because of the complexity and the difficulty I presumed that it was going to be easy

I'm like oh I'm Kenny Kane I've been doing this I've always been the funny guy I get on the money so you grew up the funny guy you're like I'll get on stage

I'll just do the same thing I'll tell the same stories totally people connect do you think it's like when a guy watches UFC like I could throw a fucking punch I could fight this guy Chris no you can it's like when a guy watches UFC, like, I could throw a fucking punch. I could fight this guy.

Chris. No, you can't, man. No. What a mistake. 100%. And it took years. And I learned from a lot of comedians who've been doing it for forever that, like, listen, it's not till the amount of years that you've been doing it, 12, 13, 14 years, that you

develop an authentic voice. It's like the 10,000 hours. It's completely that. Same thing. And it was because of the difficulty of it that I got immediately attracted. And then, you know, when I started, I was still a school teacher, still competing post-collegiately in track. So I had another, I had like a full-time occupation. I trained twice, sometimes three times a day. And I was just, I didn't give standup too much time.

And then in 2000, I had a career ending injury and I was running at best at a very mediocre level at that point anyway so as an old mentor once taught me yeah breakdown leads to breakthrough if you let it and so that was the that was the thing that I needed to kind of go cool now I can go kind of harden the paint and go chase a comedy career and so I was I moved to San Francisco where there's an amazing comedy scene and just hustled. Every night I was on stage. I would perform at laundromats. I'd perform at coffee shops. I'd perform in front of homeless people.

And I just hustled. People forget this key step in success. Oh, dude. It was relentless. No one skips this step. Don't give a shit how lucky you think they are. Relentless. Every single day I'd get up.

I'd go to Pete's Coffee in West Portal in San Francisco and I would write for two hours and it was like a habituated habit. Then I would record every single set, audio and visual, go through the notes, take notes,

take notes. You would record it in the coffee shop? No. That would be awesome. Speed up. Talking to yourself. Totally.

No, no, no. I'd record the shows from the night before. This guy thinks he's real funny. He's just sitting in the corner telling jokes. He's saying, Michael, he'd go back and analyze himself. You see, study himself.

In San Francisco, people wouldn't even think twice if some guy was like, you know, talking to himself. He's sitting in the corner of a coffee shop. It's exciting to be here tonight, ladies and gentlemen, in this coffee shop. Tippi Waite staff. I'm here all night talking to myself. It's crazy, son. So there was a lot of that. And I just, I mean, it was just grind and hustle, grind and hustle. And then I started, I started,

you know, that non-paid work became paid work. And before you knew it, I was doing gigs in Wyoming and Montana. So you didn't go to a comedy club and be like, I've been working on my shit now really hard for two weeks. And I think you ought to put me in a headlining spot. No, it was, it was 1300 mile trips for a hundred dollars. And you know, I perform in, you know, buildings with bullet holes in the ceiling in Wyoming. And I would, I remember one time I was driving to Utah to do shows and I was driving across interstate 80 across the salt flats. And I just, I broke down. I just, I, I had no money. The guy that I was, that was supposed to put me up that night,

the place fell through, and I realized yet there was another night that I was going to have to sleep in my car. And I'm there in the salt flats, and there was a Walmart that I pulled into. And I had 20... It must be a really not very great Walmart. It was a bizarre, bizarre memory.

I go in, and I buy the No Doubt CD. There's the No Doubt CD. Tragic Kingdom? Yeah, Tragic Kingdom. bizarre memory i go in and i buy the what was it the no doubt cd right there's a no doubt cd tragic kingdom yeah tragic kingdom so i buy that and i just and i started crying in my car realizing what i go what the fuck am i doing i just bought a no doubt city this is rock fucking bottom man i'm a grown man crying in my car next to the salt flats. Like this is horrible, you know? But those are the kind of things that nobody sees, you know? But I look back at that experience and I go, man, if I can get through crying on the salt flats, I can get through anything.

And then so, you know, enough trials and miles, you start getting good, you start polishing your craft. And then, you know, and then it became part of the 1%, part of the 1% of the stand-up comedy population that supports themselves off of stand-up and well what i what i realized when i got to that sort of tears right when i got there and and was at the same time that i became a father and and right i had been 2009 2010 as my daughter was born i'm like i've gotta've got to retire from this because that insatiable hunger that I had to do any gig anywhere for any amount of money was expired.

And all those years of being an athlete, stepping into the moment, performing optimally at your best or laying an egg, having your worst moments, being exposed in front of crowds of people and your friends, your family, it like, it all sort of came together. And I realized that like authentically, what I really, really was moved to do was continue coaching and be the greatest coach that I can possibly be. And so I realized that standup was the greatest gift for me because it taught me a, how to be in front of a room of people that are learning movement and be engaging to them but more importantly it taught me the value of being truly authentic in any movement anymore i was a comedian as a comedian how do you handle those failures like if you're a weightlifter you go out there you lift a snatch you get a little wobbly you drop it and

then you kind of just go all right and then you walk off the back everyone everyone claps for you anyway but like if you bomb a joke so everyone just stares at you like that was terrible. Like the biggest asshole in the world. That is, it's the most awkward. I'll tell you, I told Mike this story off air yesterday. But this is the most awkward thing that's ever happened to me. In 2004, I went to Iraq to perform for the troops. And we actually did a 13 country tour.

I came back and right before the trip, my girlfriend had broken up with me. And it was a horrific breakup. I mean, this was the girl that I was going to marry. So it's so traumatic. I'm getting on an airplane to go to Iraq, which in 2004, in the fall of 2004, it was hot. I mean, there was a lot of action. And so the first day that we're there, we're traveling to this remote place and we're actually

in Afghanistan. And this 55 year old colonel's like, all right, we're going to give you the Kevlar vest and the helmet. Now we're going to afghanistan second and this this 55 year old colonel is like all right we're going to give you the kevlar vest and the helmet now we're going to drive through some very unsafe areas the taliban is in the mountain range adjacent to this area that we're traveling through now what happens is these buggies pretend that they're broken down on the road and usually when that happens we stay start taking fire and i'm just like like, I'm just here to tell jokes. I'd really like to be where are we going to put all this fire? Oh, you mean bullets? Oh, shit.

Oh, fuck. They're going to shoot at us. So now, so this is just, it starts to mess with your mind. Right. And so then, then we start to do the tours. And the really cool thing about doing these sort of armed forces, entertainment, USO tours is that you get to meet the troops in a very vulnerable way. And the thing that always hit me the most was going to the hospitals where,

you know, to see the guys and gals that had been blown up on the road. Now, one of the hospitals we went to also had some Iraqi children that had been knocked up by some of our stuff. So you see something like that, and that juxtaposes these philosophical, political views that I hold simultaneously. Then you're seeing this is as real as it gets. Children, super vulnerable, not having any part to do with any of this. And then you get to see,

in our hospitals, they would take care of the taliban who were also they drive a suicide mission and survive it which is literally hell to them that they didn't get killed in the mission so you've got a taliban person some iraqi kid that's been torched and then you know some of our some of our guys and gals that have been had shrapnel go through at these very obtuse angles you at the foot of the bed going, two men and a rabbi walking through a bar. Whoa, is this thing on? Dude, it's the most, and that's exactly it. You captured it, Chris,

because your mind, you're trying to, that's our job to go in there and bring levity. And all of us are just like, it makes your knees wobbly, man, because you're just dealing with all this. So now I come back. I come back to the States. I get this huge gig. You. I come back to the States.

I get this huge gig. It's for the improv on Melrose in Hollywood, and it's basically a trial for the Tonight Show. Now, on that particular night, Seinfeld had just come back. He was polishing his act. He had retired. He's getting his show together.

The following week, he was going on Letterman to perform. I go on stage this is my first time back in america my ex-girlfriend at this point shows up my mom shows up because you know because i'd been in iraq and all this crazy stuff had happened and so i'm on stage and i'm like with one of the biggest i mean this is one of these opportunities like okay we're throwing a fastball let's see what you got it's the ninth you know what we let's take a crack at it man this is your big break i lay the biggest egg i get on stage and all these emotions just start coming to me because i literally because i look at my ex in the thing and then it just and then the the memory of like the the iraqi kid that's got like basically a burn victim and i just start like i just start crying crying. So I'm on stage at the club

crying in front of Seinfeld. So now the audience is like, they start like, it's the most awkward. Seinfeld's like, this guy's not very funny. So now the audience turns into a thing that's like a 12-step program right they're like

they don't know what to do because you guys have been to shows where it's awkward on stage i made it as awkward as could be right so they're like they start like cheering like you you can do it so they're trying to cheer me on right just get through it we believe like it was no way it's fucking terrible man horrible dude and so I get off stage. I had one buddy, Adam Richman, who's a great stand-up comedian. He busted my balls. He goes, what the fuck was that? And then everybody else is hugging me.

I had just done some therapeutic thing. It's OK. You're going to be OK. And my mom. My mom. Now, listen. My mom loves me more. I mean, my mom will kill you.

She'll knife you. My mom is the most competitive person you've ever met. I know you guys only pretty much interview people that are highly competitive and highly competent. I'm telling you, my mom will dwarf anybody that you've ever had on the show with her competitive. Should we bring her on? You've got to bring my mom on.

My mom is an 80-year-old lion who will knife you, dude. She is no joke. She was a world-class swimmer, and she's got the best kinetic eye that I've ever seen. She can break down. She doesn't know all the different sports, but she'll go, okay, Doug, you know, in your hook, this is where you're losing power. And you're like, 80-year-old lady, have you ever? And she goes, easy.

Is your hand your meatloaf sandwich? Eat this, son. You look skinny. She's such a badass right so she she got off and she hates seeing me lay eggs like that and so adam richmond and my mom my mom started laying into me and you think that it's mom and she's gonna be like you're gonna be okay and she's like if you ever do that again i'm never coming to another comedy show again so you know i've learned a lot of incredible lessons from my mom i I got my kinetic eye for, you know, coaching people from her because I learned at an early age, she just like would watch, she would coach us, you know, in the eighties when,

when women didn't coach anything, she'd just be like, Oh, um, I'm going to coach your team because the head coach had a family emergency for the season. It's got to go take care of a relative in Seattle. I'm going to coach a team. Now where I grew up, we had the best soccer players in this, in the entire country. Right? So she's coaching us to like championships and she had never played soccer, but she was just such a great competitive mind that she just like analyzes, how do I win? And then she goes, what do I need these players to do? What do I need the human body to do to extract that result? So she's like, she's very extraordinary, but her, her expectation for performance is unparalleled. I remember I told her when I was

in high school, I'm like, yo mom, I want to be a standup comedian. And I was like student body president. And I was like captain of the soccer team, all this stuff. And like, in her view, it's just like, she, she literally said, no, you don't, you want to be president or at least Senator. And like, that's her level of expectation. Right. So anyway, the point is my mom busted my ass after like weeping in front of the crowd. And she's like, don't ever do that again. So that was like this awkwardness that can happen in stand up comedy.

I don't know if anybody's ever really good at what they do though. They haven't had a moment that was just so really painful and embarrassing. Like you look back on it and your whole body just quivers and shakes. Oh, dude. You're right there again. I think back at that's the worst. You can't just have everything shake out just as you planned. If you went up, went up.

No one just, like, kind of breezes through the early stages of developing a career like that. Gets a big opportunity and sees Jerry Seinfeld in the front row and just fucking crushes it the first time through. I mean, we're all, we're so, you know, critical of ourselves. Right. Inside your own intense critic. You think that you're the only one who's ever struggled back. Every person that ever grabbed a microphone has these moments that are terribly embarrassing.

Absolutely. You're just seeing Jerry Seinfeld's highlights. Right. He's surely gone through a moment where he's like, that was just so terrible. How am I ever going to make this show happen? If you watch the documentary Comedian,

it shows him going through that awkward process. Oh, yeah. I've heard about it. I haven't watched it yet. It's amazing. As you guys are all coaches, I mean, it's really effective to get the insight. And again, Doug, back to your question,

how to deal with that. I mean, that is something that is... In the psychology of stand-up comedy, there's two directions. There's two roads that you can ultimately take. And once you find your voice, it's going to go one way or the other in my view. And that is that you're going to go down this very neurotic view where you're completely associated with the result that you're trying to yield. In other words, you're married completely to audience response. That, in my view, is a married completely to audience response. That in my view is a very, very dark path. It's like when you only think of what you're going to get out of your training,

not the process. Like I'm not worth anything to a snatch with that guy. Exactly. Same kind of thing. If you're not in, in the process, you know, richly thinking about the process orientation and you're only thinking about the product, that will rob you emotionally. And that's one of the reasons why I retired from stand-up. As I saw myself, I've got a lot of emotional tools to deal with life positively. Yet there were things, there were behaviors that I was starting to modulate into my life

that were fire in the hole. Damn it, Ian. It's just electronics. What are you doing? Just a laptop, don't worry about it. That were, fire in the hole. Damn it, Ian. It's just electronics. What are you doing with that? That's all. Just a laptop, don't worry about it. There was parts of my life where I just, I started going, man, I'm going to go down that dark road.

And if I don't unglue and modify career orientation, this is going to be me going down that road. And so it was a very intentional choice to leave stand-up. Now the other one is to deal with it with neutrality. Like you have a a very intentional choice to leave standup. Now, the other one is to deal with it with neutrality. Like you have a good show, you have a bad show, good show, bad show, it doesn't matter. And take more of a Zen approach. And the handful of guys that I know that can do that day in and day out are the guys that are ultimately the most successful and even more importantly, the most happy. And if you go down just going, I got to kill, I got to crush,

because what happens is your manager and agent, all these, your team goes, okay, well, the next, we need Comedy Central. Okay, now we need HBO. Okay, now you need the movie. Now you, oh, that movie was a flop. Now you need this. And it's like, when does that end?

It doesn't. And when is it about process orientation? And oh, comma, by the way, we live in a content-driven society now that is insatiable for you to generate material. Now, in the stand-up world, generating quality content takes years. Yet nobody has the understanding

that it takes a maturation process. We see things on YouTube. We see things, we consume all of it for free, primarily, which as an artist is like very frustrating, but that's a whole nother side point. But we see it, we see, we see it. And then you go to see the standup. It's like, Oh, I saw this on YouTube. It's like, fuck, you have no idea how difficult it is to produce. I heard Jorgen talk about, uh, he was mentioning that somebody was doing a podcast. I think this was a context where like every week they were committing to doing like five minutes

of material. and like when i heard that i go oh we can blabber on a microphone for a long time three hours we needed to just telling dick jokes and just doing this and that yeah that's like five minutes it seemed that long he quickly like calibrated me he's like that is so intense like every week you commit to doing five minutes of something that you want people to hear right and then you get a perspective about how a comedian should write how much care they take there's like you know if there's five lines of text right every word is being so painfully if you can imagine like writing a paper in school like 10 page paper it's hard it's hard summarizing that into a one paragraph abstract that is well written you know like one little

summary tell me what i need to know super. Writing a joke that makes a room laugh, just fucking three lines of text, you have to so painfully go over every element, every nuanced bit of timing. If I add one millisecond of delay after this word, it goes from funny to extra funny

or if I don't have it, it goes from being really funny to not fucking funny at all. Right. It's insane the amount of detail goes into it. You know, and it's weird

and there's that expectation of dance monkey dance. Because, oh, you're a comedian. Which is like, I would always get on airplanes. And I never. I learned from a comedian who had been doing it for years. He goes, if you get on an airplane, never, never make the mistake of telling the person next to you that you're a comedian. Simply say you're an accountant.

Because it's like, oh. I've met a lot of accountants on planes. Totally. And so, I could have been amused the entire time. I didn't even know it. Did they instantly say, tell me a joke?

And it's that endlessly. Every time. And this happened, like I retired a couple years ago and it's funny because, were you guys at the banquet, the Grid League banquet a couple weeks ago? I was.

Okay, were you there when I had to do the joke? Yeah. Okay, so Tony Budding. You didn't know that was happening. I had no idea that that was happening. league banquet a couple weeks ago okay were you there when i had to do the joke yeah okay so tony budding did you you didn't know that was happening i had no idea that that was happening and so tony like and again i hadn't and i was i was at a table and they were asking me about my experience about like stand-up comedy and i was like oh you know one of the hardest things is the dance monkey dance experience not more than three minutes later a a fairly tipsy Tony comes over to me. Tell a joke.

And he goes, Hey man, I'm going to get this thing going, but I want to, and he's already on the microphone. So there is no out. He's announcing it as he, as he's asking you,

he's asking you in front of every, so it's not an ass. It's like, this is, you're one of my analysts, by the way, this is what you got to do right now. And I'm like,

you've got it. And I'm looking at him. I'm like, got to be kidding me dude because you know like listen i've been in a million situations that can improv a million situations and you know nailed it you know oh you did great and whatever as soon as you grabbed it i was like well this is entertaining like just just the delivery right not even the content just like it's like oh this guy's a professional but but the but but but the thing is is as a stand up you know

that Steve Martin said it best he goes distraction is the enemy to comedy you know what we're trying to do as comedians is convey spontaneity and so

like if you're masterful with that you can make people feel like that moment is authentic and you're also living that moment authentically even though you've been through it a thousand times so like Tony hands me the mic man and. And I'm just like, and I just told that story

and thank God, like, I mean, I had something in my toolbox and I would have improv something else, but it's one of those situations where you're like, man, I intentionally got away from that career. So I don't have to do that anymore. And ironically, you know, my, my fitness world like came together with my fitness world like came together with my comedy world and i'm just like okay well i'm not getting out of this what joke did you tell i'm fucking done it was it was it was a joke it was it was it was a it was it was no it was just a stone cold silence in five seconds right don't laugh at this motherfucker awkward it was just a physical bit that i had done from my act from years ago but it was all it was everybody from the from the grid league so i knew that it was

gonna like basically it's gonna land yeah it's gonna land what do you walk in a room like that and go okay these are the three jokes i'm gonna go to like are you like always preparing like for that scenario like you like if you if you think there might be the dance monkey dance thing happened you go kind of get like the three jokes that you're gonna go to well you get yes and no you get insulted first of all there's an emotional response it's like it's like any other profession you like you know you meet somebody it's like they're not gonna say doug will teach me a front kick and they're not they're not gonna you're not gonna be on airplane go we'll teach me the snatch right you know and but that is somehow the expectation in in although i'm sure you guys get it too if you talk to strangers and they go oh you're in fitness i got this thing i've been on a

thing for two weeks and how do i lose my you know you're like it's usually like my back hurts what do you think it is right and then so yeah i have no idea dude so it's the same thing and at a certain point make up some bullshit you just don. Your chakras are misaligned. Yeah. You need to rub some. I like that. Some salt on it. Maybe some fish oil.

Topical. Rub fish oil. Topical fish oil. That's always a good. That'll end any conversation. Topical fish oil. This guy's full of shit. Go home, smell like sardines and shit.

Totally. So, yeah, I think that the standup, what it taught me more than anything with fitness and what my endeavor is ultimately as a coach is to remind people how rich and important the moment is in our world, the metrics of CrossFit, the metrics of high performance. And we've got to measure everything, which I very much, as an algorithmic programmer, appreciate. But beyond that, the physical is only just such a small, small portion of what it is. I think it's the least important. It's the least important. Least important part. And so the context of, of, of, you know, a proper training program is, is as a coach become increasingly more significant to me. And I

realized that through all my years of sport, all my years of coaching, all my years of standup, the lessons were like, look, there are times where you go up on stage and like Joe Rogan was, was working with his guys. Okay. We're going to just produce content. You got to put up new material. You know, you know, the odds are it's going to lay an egg. But you've got to get it up. You've got to provide it. It's like a baby. You know, you've got to get it on its feet.

You've got to get it walking. And then eventually it will grow up to be a teenager and then a strong, strong person. So if a joke totally fails, you don't give up on it? Oh, never. I never gave up. You're like, oh, I've got to just tweak this little thing. Well, I saw him last week with Joe.

He told a joke and everyone was just like, he goes, all right, well, that one didn't land. Totally, he made a joke out of it. But you could tell like he was, and I've heard him talk about this, he's going to go change it or maybe he just tosses that part of the bit out. Totally.

And sometimes the setup can be the exact same, but like somebody at the table, their wedding ring hits the glass and that small little ding, but like somebody at a table, their, their wedding ring hits, hits the glass. And that small little ding, even in a room full of 300 people changes the setup because that, that ding hits a memory for every single person. And so you have all these different levels of intellectual conversations going on 300 different minds. Right. And so that changes the trajectory of this exact same timing that Joe might deliver that joke.

So it's a very subtle, unique experience. So every time you get on stage, it could be the same bit, but it's going to be delivered in a different way? Yeah. And to answer your question, Mike, would I have a set list? Well, I got to a point in my career

where I loved freestyling. You know, I loved, I had so many bits that worked. I had a reservoir of material that I could choose from, but I would, I love like going into the audience and improvving a bunch, but then, and then like drawing back on my bits that were anchors to my, to, to what it is I did. And I love like creating that sort of dynamic show, especially the last two or three years of my career, just being really creative on stage and just sort of going any direction. And you know, time,

time drilling and doing that, you know, from coaching, like when you first start coaching, you're like, you've got your plan and like, you're not going to deviate from that. And then after 10,000 hours of coaching,

you've seen every single thing. You go through your level one. This is how you step one, step five, step three. Right. And so then you eventually just kind of, you're able to kind of go, okay. Then you coach. Then you coach. Then you coach.

So to tie in one of the lessons you talked about earlier, back to sport, you were saying that some of the comedians that, or any comedian rather, that can be disconnected from the outcome of a show. And sometimes he has a good show. Sometimes he has a bad show, but he never really gets down on himself. It kind of just takes the good shows and says, Hey, that worked.

And that's fantastic. Takes the bad shows and says, okay, I can learn from these experiences. And he's kind of emotionally neutral about all of it. That's it. So tie it back into sport. I remember when I was first starting MMA,

I was at team questing in Gresham, Oregon, a super famous gym where like Randy Couture, Matt Lynn, and all this guy started training. And Robert, the guy who owns it, uh,

I was talking to him, um, during practice one day day very kind of offhandedly he said you know who I can tell is gonna be one of the best fighters here and I was like nope I have no idea you know teach me tell me I want to know right and he said the guys that can go for a move totally miss it fall flat on their face and get choked out and they roll over and they start laughing right and then they try it again and if they miss it again they totally don't care they just keep trying until they get it and and whether they get it or they don't. Right. And then they try it again. And if they miss it again, they totally don't care. They just keep trying until they get it. And whether they get it or they don't, they're just having fun.

They don't care. You know, to dovetail that point, you know, we were talking before the show, I'm really good friends with John Hackleman and he's taught me that by his own experience several times. Like the level of emotional neutrality that he has and what he tries to get out of his fighters is the same thing. And great martial artists are that are that way is that they're not tied to the

outcome. They're just constantly in the process of learning. And that is, you know, I mean, 10th planet jujitsu is really clever. I remember having a conversation with Tate Fletcher about a 10th planet beard, the beard. I got to meet him yesterday. It was as epic in person. Oh, yeah. I tweeted that. I mean, I want to hang out with him. Yeah. He's a really interesting guy, 10th planet beard the beard i got to meet him yesterday it was as epic in person oh yeah i tweeted that man i want to hang out yeah he's a really interesting guy but one of the things that that he talked about especially with all the 10th planet guys is that they want their opponents to know everything that they do best because only that is going to force them to be their best self and as a philosophy as a martial arts philosophy,

you know, and watching, listening to Tate, you know, talk about that. And then, you know, watching Hackleman,

because we work camps through the years and stuff, just watching him work with the fighters, work with me. Like, you know, there's so much to learn from emotional neutrality and not get tied to, you know, the end result.

And if you talk to John personally, he's like, I got knocked out. I've knocked a bunch of people out. It doesn't matter. You know what I mean? Like, it just doesn't matter. At a certain point, it doesn't matter.

People make importance off of the results, but really it's about the process. That's what I mean in business and coaching and fighting. It seems like knowing there's some magic about going in, knowing that eventually you're going to get hit right in the fucking teeth and it's going to hurt so bad there's something magical about going in knowing that eventually you're gonna get hit right in the fucking teeth and it's gonna hurt so bad and you just embrace it going in. And then also the attitude of like everything that's best about me

I wanna share as openly and as freely as possible. I just get better. What's best about me now gets given away and I'm only gonna make better shit and have a better outcome because of it. That's in such stark contrast that people will say everything I do well i have to hide

because i don't want anybody knowing my secrets wink wink right right i gotta keep all the best shit to myself and then if you if you really want to know what i think pay me for it or whatever and then the the fascination of if i like a like an athlete in the gym they miss one heavy lift they should have gotten all of a sudden i'm a worthless piece of shit they don't expect to ever get punched in the mouth they always expect that i'll just fucking be what i want to be right when things get painful they get scared or they get nervous they start looking around the room thinking everybody thinks i'm this weak asshole now no you just missed the snatch right you know relax yeah it's just one competition this means fucking nothing right you know and that's i don't

know how you guys feel about that that that concerns me a little bit about like, as much as I love our culture and our community, it concerns me how emotionally wrapped up we get in to our workouts. And I'm the first person to be vulnerable to that. And I'm a coach who has, I've been coaching since the eight. I have a lot of tools, you know, to deal with this, but I'm so susceptible to it myself. And so when I see it in athletes and when I see it in others, just that anger and that self-judgment,

I'm just like, man, that's not the point of this. It's somehow we're getting tied up in something that we're creating manufactured energy around. Do you know any athletes that kind of come into it fresh and they're just like that? They're going after the journey right off the bat because my experience has been, especially with myself, is, you know, you got to like fail like miserably. It's like you almost have to hit rock bottom as an athlete.

Like, oh, I am, you know, I fail over and over and over again. Then you finally go, well, if I could just learn to enjoy the journey. Right. This would be a lot better life. And so I don't know if I know any athletes that didn't beat themselves to death for the numbers or for the win and that got to that point.

No one walks in and goes, man, I just enjoyed the journey. Right. Well, I mean, I think sometimes fighters get, I mean, there's a vulnerability in fighting because you do get the crap knocked out of you all the time. Humbling sport.

It's a very humbling sport. And I think the barbell doesn't, a few cases, but the barbell doesn't really fight back. It just tells you if you're moving wrong. The worst time I ever got knocked out was to a 14-year-old kid. Are you serious?

When I was like 26. The worst I ever got knocked out. What did he land uh i don't know i didn't see it coming that's horrible really like my coach comes up to me says hey you want you want to box with this 14 year old kid and i was like looking at my coach like why why why yeah what do you got planned yeah young and i go i go like a new brand new 14 year old kid that needs some help or like i'm going to the olympics soon for a two year old kid right and he goes olympics i was like uh yeah but still he's 14 year old 14 years old i'm 50 pounds bigger than him i'm taller right i'll be all right right and i was all right until i got knocked out right um humbling and and you're right, Mike, there is, but on, on, on that side and to your

point, like there is part of that where you need that drive, you need something, you need something to chase. But I think, you know, the balanced perspective is one that, that, that understands that pursuit, but also understands not to stay too much in the positive or the negative. Like I, I hit the result. I'm me, me, me, me, me, or I didn't hit the result. I'm an asshole. Like at some point, like if you can create a little more emotional neutrality to that,

I think your experience as a human being will be deeper, longer and healthier. Yeah. They're letting those results of their competition define them. Right. Yeah. Right. You know,

and I, I watch that, you know, as a former, my girlfriend's a, know as a former my girlfriend's a she's a former or she's a current olympian she ran for sweden and and last olympics in the four by four team for sweden and you know she's over in europe right now getting ready to race and you know track is like very punitive if you're not hitting times i mean it's just like

it's so it's so direct it's not there's all about it. You can't hide from your performance. Nothing at all. Yeah. I mean, you're just exposed. And so the psychology of a track athlete, having been one and then also watching what people at her level do is just like, it's mentally exhausting. Word. Let's take a break real quick.

When we come back, we're going to learn how to tell jokes. This is Andrea Ager, and you're going to learn how to tell jokes. This is Andrea Ager, and you're listening to Barbell Shrug. For the video version, go to barbellshrug.com. Barbell Shrug is brought to you by you. To learn more about how you can support the show, go to barbellshrug.com and sign up for the newsletter. And we're back.

You missed the big Zumba conversation we had. Professional Zumba. We have this new idea. Everybody Zumba's. We're calling it Barbell Zumba, and it's going to be super sweet. From the makers of Barbell Shrug, we bring you BarbellZumba.com. Oh, geez.

Who would coach that? Of the three of you? We'd derail ourselves. Of the three of you, who would coach that? I knew there was something we were going to talk about. I would do it would coach that of the three of ourselves who would of the three of you who there was something we were going to talk about i would do it because i would do it because it would look ridiculous on camera it'd be very funny i mean just dancer what do they do in that shit what is zumba dancing it's like it's like uh hyper salsa but it becomes very athletic oh you want to see me in a speedo doing salsa in front of an hd camera with a bunch of brazilians that

would be amazing welcome Welcome to Zumba. You're going to teach her how to tell jokes I think you're going to lead off with. No, no. We're not going to do that. I just like to make shit up. See what happens. I think that's the best part about podcasting is that inevitably things just sort of organically fall into place. That's the cool thing about podcasting. It's not

forced. You know what I mean? It's just like cool. If it lands there, it lands. Cool. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Yeah, because I mean it's just like cool if it lands there it lands cool if it doesn't it doesn't yeah because you're going to just post one again next week and it'll be that one might be better

they're like that Kane guy Kane guy sucked thank God I can go back and listen to the other 150 episodes totally

I know there's one guy that was way better than that I'll just listen to that one again right yeah that's you know I used to that one again. Right. Yeah, that's, you know, I used to be on the WODcast podcast,

and, you know, Eddie Eft. Did you guys meet Eddie? I got to meet Eddie as I was walking in on Friday. We just happened to be, he was standing next to John Wilborn. Oh, yeah. And John obviously got my attention. I was like, there's a giant. John is a piece of bull. And then there's the funny-looking guy next to him, yeah.

I wish he was on Game of Thrones. I mean, I feel like he's big enough to be on the Game of Thrones. Yeah, absolutely. He could be a giant. John is a piece of ball. And then there's the funny looking guy next to him. Yeah. I wish he was on Game of Thrones. I mean, I feel like he's big enough to be on the Game of Thrones. He could do it. Yeah, absolutely. He could be the giant. We talked about fighting and all that. I made a point to somebody yesterday. I was maybe talking to my wife or somebody.

A guy like that, that big, who had been paid professionally for years and years, millions of dollars to keep freaky people away from the person he didn't want them to get to using fast hands and ultra fast feet and superhuman strength and the guy's 330 pounds and six what how tall is john like six six or something probably at least jack just not like you like not a human like you're a human a different kind of human like game of thrones shit i was trying to make the point i wonder if even like if against a guy like that if you brought a guy who had really good jits really good striking what would you even against a guy like that, if you brought a guy who had really good jits, really good striking, what would you do against a guy who got paid for so many years

to keep people away from other people? You just got to watch Dan Severin fight. But no, this is even different. This is not just a big fucking guy who can crush. Dan Severin was a fucking Olympic wrestler. I mean, it's not that much different. And he's fairly skilled. And then you saw him go against Hoist Gracie.

And it looked like Dan Severn's winning the whole time. And then he taps out. And you're like, what happened? Yeah. I don't know. There's weight classes for a reason. Right. That shit matters.

It's not the only thing that matters. Thank you. But it matters. Thank you, Doug. It definitely matters when there's concrete involved and you're not in a padded room. The good thing about alignment is you're also trained. You can viciously attack when you're supposed to attack, but you can also retreat and perfectly defend

and sense when somebody's coming after you, too. I guess it's kind of like it's a different kind of wrestling skill, but I'd really be fascinated to see him. He's not going to do it because he's, he's, I imagine he is not always feeling so great. I mean, I got fought battles every set of years,

years, but I would love to see a scenario where a guy would match up because John and see what would shake out those hands. It's actually, you're a big guy, but I, I'm you next to him is going to be, Oh yeah.

Well, John's just, he's just, he's just different kind of person. It's huge. It's huge. Yeah. On that note, I said that

weight classes do matter, but whenever they do an absolute class at a jiu-jitsu tournament, it's always the middle-sized guys that win. It's like the middle of the bigger. It's never the biggest guys. It's always the middle biggest guys. Kind of like CrossFit. 170, 185. Kind of like CrossFit. Middle range.

There's definitely a weight that I feel like where I'm most athletic. What do you weigh at? I weigh like 185, 190. Okay. God, I'm such a, I feel so, it's funny, like when I first started CrossFit, I was like, you know, OPT was sort of the model. Yeah.

You know what I mean? And Amundsen was sort of like on the bigger side, you know? Right. And it's just like how this thing has so explosively morphed. Oh, yeah. sort of like on the bigger side you know and then just like how this thing has so explosively morphed guys have just gotten they've added that 15 20 25 extra pounds you know and they're way more 90 195 200 and the weights the weights are heavier than they were years ago you gotta you need that against that's another myth we talked about with dr gab was another myth that's fleshing out now is you can be really big and muscular and just be more and more and more fit

because surprise surprise that's that's where all the action happens is in the muscle usually big muscular guys are big and muscular they just lift weights and they don't do fitness shit but these big muscular guys are doing lots of fitness stuff yeah it's better and better and better it's freaking run a marathon they snatch over 300 pounds crazy man that's nuts it's crazy that's a new kind of thing it is a new kind of thing. So you did leave the WODcast podcast. You started your own podcast. Yeah. And what's the goal of that?

So an old mentor. The Positivity Project. Yeah, Positivity Project. So it's got kind of a long name. It's Positivity Project Masters Program. And so the ultimate intent is to follow a question that a mentor had once asked me. And he asked the question. He basically said, listen, your actions can contribute to the world

or they can contribute to the misery of the world. What are you going to do? You can contribute to the joy, you can contribute to the misery. And so the thought with the Positivity Project was with that question in mind, answering that over a long amount of time with content.

And so within that was to talk about, uh, talk with people about how they optimize their experience mentally and emotionally to basically leave a small over time, large toolbox behind for people to like get little gems and so to improve their lives. So as we start, it's, it's primarily sort of a crossfit fitness niche program i have a lot of friends outside of the crossfit world business people actors professional athletes in different sports that i intentionally intend to get on with the idea that let's answer that question with content and then i overlap that you know at my gym with my training methodology which earlier we were talking about context and how the the physical is just a small portion

of any training program any true training program i feel and so like i'm really dialing in the methodology of my training program so the the ultimate objective is to kind of synergize these two things content-wise over time. So if I've got a balance of scientific evidence that can corroborate, listen, I have over years to help these people. And here are the tests, retest models three times a year. And here's our product. This is what we can deliver. Then simultaneously layer onto that the context of the training program, like then I've left my mark as a coach. And so the podcast is just an extension of that

to take that a little bit further, to talk to people who are really good at what they do, to find out how do you, it's not so much about the numbers, but how is it experientially that you get to the place that you get to and that you stay in and how, and what takes you out of the moment, what keeps you in the moment and when are you most alive so that's the that's a principle sort of thing to provide content in both of those areas so the podcast serves that my training template and program and jim serve the other and so together like again over time the big picture is like let's put these pieces together and go here is here's like 10 15 years of work to kind of support what i've been believing all these years in my lifetime of experience

yeah you talk to a lot of gurus and a lot of times they have like these theoretical templates and concepts and people are like kind of bring it in bringing that context in like this is an example of how this works with this person and people can like fit it into their lives and learn from that probably a little bit better. Yeah, one of the things, you know, being around CrossFit for as long as I have, the big concern that I have as a coach is that the fitness triangle

that Glassman originally put together has in many ways been inverted. You guys know the triangle I'm talking about. You got sport on top, weightlifting, throwing. Then you got gymnastics, metabolic conditioning, and nutrition. And so what I thought about is like, listen, what if we add another layer to that? Because in my experience, what I've seen in the last, especially four years, is that thing's flipped.

At the bottom of the pyramid is like this sport. And people are so focused on the sport of it. And they're like, okay, we've got to get on the barbells. We've got to lift. And I'm looking at people going, you don't have good body control. So they haven't even dealt with that gymnastics ability portion and then it's like uh is your heart and are your heart and lungs actually capable of oxygenating your blood oh by the way you're just following an nutrition program that a professional

athlete follows i i would like to see your blood work and see how your kidneys are actually looking. So as this triangle is inverted, in my view, it's concerned me as a coach. We've gotten so far away from a long-term picture of health and wellness. And so at my gym, what I said is, look, let's just add another layer. And underneath that nutrition layer is context. And the context of which we train is just like a sport. You've got your practice days, your competition days, and your mental toughness days. Now I create an algorithm, a test retest model. And of the movements that we train, of the movements we test, we train those movements. And we come up for three months in different combinations, all these different movements, and then retest. So at the end of that, we've now we're going into our second year of doing it. We continue to produce amazing, profound results and very

everyday people because CFLA is not a gym of fire breathers. And my interest is helping everybody be fit, not necessarily like elite level athletes. So then if I'm talking to them with deeper context that's relatable to them in their life, where I'm saying to them, hey, your 530 class is your team. You're coming to practice. Just like any other sport, a practice day at CFLA requires that you work on your skill, you work on your virtuosity, you work on your humility. You're not going at a hundred percent. You're going at reduced percentages, both, you know, in the, in the glycolytic and phosphagenic phases. Um, and, and, uh, you're, you're, you're just really demanding that they pay attention to the basic skill of the movement

on competition days. It's about, okay, this is what CrossFit has traditionally looked like that, that high intensity thing that yields the positive adaptation. But we don't do that day in, day out. Because my belief is that the market for creating sustainable CrossFit requires that gym owners have a membership base that stays. What I've witnessed in years of doing this is you got an 18 month window to a three-year window of sustainability for the people before the people just go fuck it i'm out why either they're tired they're injured or the thing that i found most consistent emotionally exhausted yeah you've got coaches coming in going intensity is a variable you gotta dig you gotta provide that and it's just like got it by the way i have a mortgage. I just had a spouse yell at me.

My kid is pissed at me. And I've got an old sports injury. Now, you're fucking talking to me at 22 years age, aging school to me? Uh-uh, ain't having it. Talk to me like I'm an adult. And so my thought is, like, any successful team I've ever been a part of, and I've been a part of many, isn't like, we we got to extract the best of you every day. And then when you're done, which is 18 months from now, I'll find another.

What I'm looking at is like something entirely different. Look, yo, we want you here for a long time. You brought back the Ren DMC style now. Yo, yo, son. Yo, son. Seriously, son. Let's not get it twisted up in here. Seriously.

And like, let's create a sustainability model that is, that looks like a sports team. If you're going to practice and that's 60% of your training volume and you're just thinking about it as practice, you're suddenly letting yourself off the hook of like we talked about early in the show, going for the metric. If you can release that emotionally, you might actually improve your skill. But if you're only going for the metric, guess what? Not likely that you're going to listen the metric, guess what? Not likely that you're going to listen to your coach that's on your ass for whatever sort of line that's off.

So you get an opportunity to repeat those basic movements over and over and over. Competition days, it's a very different emotional experience. Competition days constitute 30% of my programming. That's where you tell the athletes, yo, Barbell Buddha's coming in. Yo, he might not be the swiftest guy, but he can lift. So it's- Well, who are you calling not swift? Well, I actually don't know that. That's presumptive. You should see his fucking feet in action, man. Twinkle toes. You are going to be the Zumba instructor. Barbell Zumba. So the thought is,

how do we create the context to compete? How do you not only compete against yourself, but against your teammates and classmates? Now it is time to go for a result. Now it is time to go for a win. That, to me, reflects life. You practice a lot. Every once in a while, you go for it and put all your skills together in a game, which is basically a traditional CrossFit workout. Lastly, as I mentioned to you guys before the show, like a huge influence to me was coach Mark Devine as a martial artist, you know, as a martial artist,

as he's, he's my coach, I call him coach. Like what he reminds me of is this mental toughness thing where you have to go beyond yourself and be your most excellent self in service to people around you. So that's my vision for training program and template is to use, you know, a lot of the grinders that you'd, or the, the, the, the grinders that you'd see in seal fit, they're longer, you know, the 30, 40 minute, and they're pretty abusive, but I only allow that in the programming 10% of the time for that reason. It's not sustainable. However, the benefit of that is that you're really tapping into the emotionality and the communal aspect of being on a team and thinking of yourself in what he calls other orientation. So we try to think about when you're in pain, our job at CFLA is to bring the people up around you.

So then you get oriented towards the other energy and elevating it. It's all past, uh, fitness and performance into humanity. Cause if there's one thing humans are, it's highly social creatures who can't really be them optimal. They're optimal self without pain. Right. The whole,

our whole, the whole history of our species is one of, uh, these tight moments of like joy and abundance and music and revelry contrast is sharp against, uh, you know, loss, pain, uncertainty, fear, and that it sounds good to get that out of your life, but you can never escape the fact that you're always going to be this creature who needs one and has to expect the other to be in balance.

Without that pain and acute suffering, you have no idea of what it is to appreciate the person you're suffering with in the water. You can't dial into the fundamental humanity of what you are right that's what a gym setting that's why the community is there it's like you have to suffer a little bit right you can't suffer too much right and that and that's that's exactly what we've tapped into is to try to balance all these like emotional components with it with just the people are paying for value they need to know that their program works with efficacy. So we're doing it.

We're providing that hands down. Like it is like, as far as I'm concerned, like the most profoundly effective model that I know of for like an everyday gym. It's really hard to coach it outside of the walls or scale it because you need the coaches who understand how to coach the context of what it is we're doing.

Otherwise, it's just a training program. And if you don't have good eyes on you, it's not going to make much sense. So the real heart of it is, hey, we're having a broader conversation. We want you to be your best physical self. We want to see positive adaptations across the board, multiple domains. But we want you to be able to sustain this emotionally for your lifetime. So we want you to come in day in day out and practice with your team. And, you know, I'm real proud of our, we've got great retention and that's, that's, and because I think a lot of it has to do with this because we're having a conversation that's not just a workout on the board. What we're talking about is, all right, we, and we always do

the circle. We circle up at the beginning of the class. We're like, okay, here's a practice day. It's a competition day. We do our call outs, you you know we do mental toughness day let's bring it up let's elevate together and so there's different emotional qualities that resemble our lives as human beings and so i want a training program that resembles the experience of being a modern human not just a unidimensional 100% intensity. It's just like, I don't know if life exists like that. You've got to practice things and to get really well to provide the intensity. So that's really what the training program at CrossFit LA is about. And again, my long-term vision with the podcast and with the training template is to sort of unify these things just by talking to brilliant minds,

people who are really exceptional what they do and then at the same time provide enough science to corroborate that that you know because it is theoretical i mean all this is all of what we're doing is theoretical this thing is so new we're all great minds we're super well educated but it's it only time will tell like is this sustainable it's rattling off down the road at a faster speed than we can really even, we don't even know where we're going with it. It's crazy.

I can't keep, like, I'm always proud of myself on being able to keep up with top ideas. But like, right now, it is unlike anything I've ever experienced being in the fitness business my entire life. It's only accelerating now that you get another layer of the MPGL coming in. Where you take the thing that's still rapidly accelerating and you put it in another even rapidly or accelerating environment where

there's different pressures and different time domains and other influences and a different structure where things get more and more intense and more rapid and more just different. The team aspect where people actually have to operate as a team. As a unit. Yeah. It's not testing the fitness of the team. Right. It's testing the team. As a team. You know, it was interesting. I went down to Miami to call a couple of the matches. And I called San Francisco twice, not thinking that they were going to win the basic preseason sort of thing.

And I was looking at the team kind of going, well, they've got some good players, some good tools. But then their ability to work together as a team and like they didn't have like some of the other teams that i believe had a little bit more like strength and speed on the barbell for example they were making mistakes they were guys who had you know 300 pound plus snatches were going to the bar at 225 and failing not really sure like that they were going to be able to make the lift. Then, by the way, they were chewing up eight, nine seconds to set up. Meanwhile, a girl from San Francisco just got through three barbells, scored those points per second. Beat your ass.

And beat your ass. And a lot of that's the coach. People are looking at the athlete and like, why are they making that decision? They're like blaming the athlete. I'm like, the coach is right there making that call. He's calling a play, basically. Yeah, he's calling a play. It's probably more on the coach than it is right there making that call. He's calling a play, basically. Yeah, he's calling a play. And, you know, it's probably more on the coach than it is the athlete at that point,

as long as the athletes are listening. Right. So this is, again, a whole other twist to that whole scenario is coaching is actually becoming involved during the competition. Right. You know, it's not something where, like, you coach someone all year, and you're like, you put them on the field and say, good luck. Yeah.

Yeah. This is actually where the coach is it's critical strategically involved and tactically involved just with the athletes yeah yeah really really interesting stuff it was it was fun it's gonna be really fun to see where all this i mean we were talking about it just off air and i i have no idea where all of this is going i mean like i i would i would i would think that i'm competent enough to predict but i'm also mature enough to understand that I've lost no idea. My point would be just kind of what you've been echoing the whole show, is that I think there's wisdom in a situation and a lot of optimism.

If you just say, who cares where it goes? Look at what's acutely happening. Smart people coming together to do a brand new thing in an organized way. Everybody wants to see it succeed who Who's involved in it? Absolutely. If everybody just lets go and just gives it all they've got, it's going to go in an awesome place. There's no need to try to guide it. There's no need to worry about everybody's so obsessed like MPGL thing. Either it's going to be fucking huge. This thing's going to be awesome. Or this is the stupidest thing. What the fuck does grid mean? There's two groups of people

who are reaching out and projecting over the end result. Meanwhile, my point of view is, hey, look, man, it's a cool new thing. Right. That's awesome. Right. There's smart people involved. Awesome. Everybody's got a positive attitude.

Right. No one's trying to force anything. They're trying their best to organize it acutely in a way that makes sense. Yeah. And if all that's in place, it's going to go in a direction that's cool. Right. So if that's the case, which it is, wink, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Here's a fucking hint to everybody. It's going to work probably because acutely it's gonna go in a direction that's cool right so if that's the case which it is wink wink wink nudge nudge here's a fucking hint to everybody it's gonna work probably because acutely it's

working it's it's it makes sense but if you just let go of the thing and embrace it and see the opportunity yeah and everybody can win with it that's just how awesome opportunities happen let go of the thing let it be what's gonna be give it your best and cool shit's gonna happen it's it's it's great to see the opportunities that it's providing for cool shit's gonna happen it's it's it's great to see the opportunities that it's providing for athletes you know i mean it's like just to see everybody and people are so stoked i mean there's now there's multiple outlets for if you're committing your life to this fitness thing there are multiple outlets for it you know you can chase the games you can chase the grit i mean there's like yeah you can make a living doing this stuff i hope to see in like 10 years time

only some little girls christmas tree a big fucking Aliko barbell right next to, right next to a backpack and a football, whatever else a kid might get and idealize Christmas present situation. I want to see that time where it's like, Oh yeah, we saw that thing last year. Once the championships, dad got me a fucking Aliko barbell.

This is awesome. She goes out in her front or backyard, starts practicing snatches. What is this? Like that's, that could be the future of fitness. That's something worth pursuing. Yeah.

I can see that actually. Yeah. I can see that. I think, I think it is interesting. Like the people getting caught up, whether it's going to work or not. Right.

It's like, how's that even affect you? Who cares? Right. You're asking the wrong questions. Just watch it and enjoy it. Why, why worry about,

they're like, Oh, but it's not going to work. I'm like, yeah, who cares? This is your projection. Why,

why, why are you letting that affect whether you enjoy it or not you're like i don't want to get on board because it's gonna fail i was like you i was talking about you got a fucking crystal ball in your pocket what are you talking about you don't know anything you know i was talking to an affiliate owner yesterday who was very opinionated about it he was just like i just i don't i don't know if i would watch you know something with a bunch of failed games athletes and i was like you're carrying some baggage in this discussion i'm like i'm like there was so much failed games athletes. And I was like, you're carrying some baggage in this discussion.

I'm like, there was so much projection in that statement. And I was like, man, these are extraordinary athletes. And by the way, that's not even fucking true. I didn't know what signed with the team. The guy was in the top five all fucking week so far or whatever. A, it's untrue. And B, it's a different sport. And C, like these athletes are remarkable.

I mean, just the cycle speed and like it's funny to watch actually some games veterans move rather slowly oh yeah on some of the races you know you get these sort of body weight ninjas or these barbell you know badasses moving and their cycle speeds is unlike anything the elite crossfitters are doing you're kind of going man there might actually be a limited window for the best crossfitters to to actually make it in this thing i've had conversations where people i'm like yeah crossfit's training people to be slow and they're like what i thought it was for speed i'm like no it's like there's a lot of sports that train you for speed crossfit's not the one right when you said it in contrast to you know fucking nfl or nba where everything is like

boom bang like you can't imagine like the biggest thing i learned when i got up to the higher levels of sport like football in my case like when i went from high school football to college and i got around guys like i started training for combines to try to i don't know what the fuck i was thinking i was not going to nfl i was trying to sneak in the back door of the nfl to be a long snapper actually because i could actually long snap all right. Okay. But you look between your legs and you hit a guy with a chest. That's an important skill, man.

With a football from 20 yards away. You hit him right in the chest as two giant guys are trying to run you over. Right. It's a skill. It's a niche. It's a niche skill. Occupied a niche. But I got to be around guys who, like 6'8", 380 pound guys who are running as fast as

linebackers and stuff. guys who are just not human right when you see that kind of force and speed you go there's a lot left a lot more experimenting we can do with a barbell to make people to take this thing that's rapidly changing and make it more i like the intense and the power and the speed me too the the sort of nascar yeah rumped up you know you know a lot of the guys in the media booth for the grid were guys that used to work hockey. So,

like, one of the fastest sports in sport. Super explosive. And they're like, dude, following the grid is way more complex and way faster

than hockey. And I'm sitting there going, following the puck, like, yeah, man, because there's just so many things happening

and then it's all over in like three or four minutes. They're like, you got to pay. But they're also incorporating all that Tron-like fucking tech into it where you're going to be able to sit down with a beer in the crowd, yay, fitness, and be able to see a guy jumping or lifting and be able to immediately know

here's where they stand in this competition. You can dial in and see, okay, I'm seeing progress. This looks enough like other sports. I can tell what's going on, despite the madness, despite the fact that they're calling plays with barbells. What in the shit? This is so different. But I think those are the fascinating aspects of it. And just to fucking nail

the point home and reiterate it, that experiment only feeds back into what exists. It's not like they run away and they go, sorry, all you other CrossFit motherfuckers, we're going to take our big, giant bag of money. See you soon. Thanks for the help. No, all that experiment, all the data from it, all the

wins and losses, everything that comes out of this feeds back into CrossFit. It'll make it stronger. Where are these people going to go to get training advice? Where are they going to go to lift and train for this thing? They're going to go to CrossFit gyms. People moving better. Motherfucker, they're going to go to CrossFit gyms. Everybody's going to win from it. It's going to be fantastic. Yeah. I mean, just take your eye off the short-term acute ball, which is,

I got to have all my answers right now. I got to know how it's going to work. I don't, I'm on board. I'm not, no, just let it happen. It's going to be good for you. Trust me, man. Yeah. Yeah. I, I agree with you, man. I I'd like to see, you know, there are elements of our community that are very opinionated and, you know, I have no problem with people expressing that. But I also just, I'd love for our people to think with a little bit broader of scope. Like, we don't know. And this, I think the people moving and moving well and firing up other people to do fitness is only going to help society. Yeah, exactly.

Are you going to go to the first grid match in new york i won't be there i'll be in sweden actually i'm taking the first vacation that i've taken in dude i i the last vacation the last true vacation i had uh was in 2000 i went to italy no so um 14 years ago yeah because all those years of stand-up and all these years of coaching it's just been like wow i mean i'll have like two you're not. You're not going to know what to do. I know. I'm not, I don't. You're going to be miserable.

I don't, I don't stop that much. That's my, like, as I coach people, one of my biggest things is like, you know, you need to take it easy. You need to slow down a little bit. And then most athletes who know me well enough are like, dude, kettle black, like you're worse than anybody I know. You know, I don't stop. And that black, like you're worse than anybody I know. You know, I don't stop

and that's, but I'm really looking forward to it. So it's going to take you three days to break through that I'm going crazy on vacation. Right. And by the sixth day

you'll settle in. Right. And then it's time to go home. And then you'll go home. I'm looking forward to it, man. I'm going to Sweden with my girl who should,

I don't know if she'll be done with her track season then or not, but it's like her family's like, she's from a badass crew. So there's like an archipelago that we're going to that is in their family.

Like, I don't even know what an archipelago was. Basically an island, you know? I'm just like, they have their own island in Sweden. Like, awesome. So we're going to go to that. And, you know,

so it'll be good for me. It'd be really, really good to just stop for a little bit so I won't be in Madison Square Garden I'll be in Sweden bummer but I will be in LA

calling the match on the 31st of August and then I'll be in LA calling a match on the 14th of September as well so yeah I hope

are you guys going to be out there then or what's up no I don't think we're going to make any I'm going to make the first match you're going to some other I got a bunch. I don't think we're going to make any. I'm going to make the first match. You're going to some other.

I got a bunch. Yeah. There's about a million other things going on. Yeah. Make the first match and the last match. The last match is supposed to be the beginning of October. Yeah. Or it's just Mandalay Bay.

Mandalay Bay. Yeah. I feel like you guys are omnipresent. It's like people go, I feel struck. And then you're popping out of different places. We manifest. I feel like it too, I'm never home we manifest where you are

we drink tequila and coffee, we podcast we take all the California tin chicks and we get out of there before you even know we're there we're gone like a vapor alright Kenny where can people find you? really easy

on twitter on instagram Kenny, where can people find you? Okay, really easy. On Twitter, at TheKennyCain. On Instagram, at TheKennyCain as well. Also, you can find me at CrossFit Los Angeles. If you're ever in the L.A. area, please swing by. Check us out. Come by. And I coach. Well, my schedule's always changing, but I coach five, six classes a week there at the gym.

And that's our home. All the stuff that we talked about, you can come and experience me coaching you. So, yeah. Excellent. Thanks for joining us. And iTunes. iTunes for the podcast as well. Kenny Kane's Positivity Project.

Big shout out to my co-host, Allison Trushite, who's a national class Olympic lifter. Oh, sweet. She is a badass. She's a total badass. So, anyway, Allison Trushite, owner of CrossFit Synapse up in the Valley. she's a badass she's a total badass so anyway Allison Trushite owner of CrossFit Synapse up in the valley

so if you're up in the valley of California of Southern California check her out there excellent sweet thanks cheers

cheers guys