Barbell Shrugged - 26.2 Mile Bear Crawl at the New York City Marathon w/ Devon Levesque, Anders Varner, Doug Larson and Wade Olsen- Barbell Shrugged #466

Episode Date: May 7, 2020

In today’s episode the crew discusses:   Finding inspiration through adversity.  Fathers suicide and finding purpose Building an online fitness business and inspiring others How the idea of bear crawling 26.2 miles came to be Training for a 26.2 mile bear crawl Raising money and answering to higher calling Expectations on being in a bear crawl for 15+ hours And more…   Connect Sam Miller Science Instagram: @devonlevesque  Website: https://www.devonlevesque.com   Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Wade Olsen in Instagram ————————————————   Training Programs to Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/34zcGVw   Nutrition Programs to Lose Fat and Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/3eiW8FF   Nutrition and Training Bundles to Save 67%: https://bit.ly/2yaxQxa   Please Support Our Sponsors   Paleo Valley  - Save 15% at http://paleovalley.com/shrugged   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   Purchase our favorite Protein, PreWOD, PostWOD, and Amino Acids here and use code “Shrugged” to save 20% on your order: https://bit.ly/2K2Qlq4    Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://bit.ly/3b6GZFj Save 5% using the coupon code “Shrugged” http://magbreakthrough.com/shrugged to get a 10% discount with coupon code SHRUGGED10.

Shrugged family, bonus episode of Barbell Shrugged today, hanging out with Devin LeVake. The reason we are doing this as a bonus episode instead of a regular Wednesday show is because he has a big article coming out in the New York Times today, and my man is raising money. I met Devin up at Performix House in New York City last time I was up there. We had a killer workout, did a bunch of fitness trick shots. He was doing kettlebell backflips, muscle-ups. We were pushing sleds. We had a blast.

And then we met up down at the FitOps camp in Arkansas, and I actually got to learn about his story, which you're going to be hearing about today. I always just kind of assumed he was just a smart guy that ran a good fitness business, had a big following online, and his story is actually significantly deeper than that. And the fact that he is going to be doing a bear crawl for the entire New York City Marathon is one of the most epic feats.

And the fact that he's raising money and doing it all for charity just shows how great of a person he is. So if you can get over to devinlevake.com, that's D-E-V-O-N-L-E-V-E-S-Q-U-E, uh,.com. You can learn more, um, and make sure you get over to barbellshrug.com forward slash store. That's where we keep all of our eBooks, all of our training programs, the EMOM aesthetics program right now, all 20 minute EMOM Aesthetics program right now, all 20-minute EMOM aesthetic-based training programs flying right now.

It's really, really cool seeing how many people are purchasing that program. If you want that specific one, it's all 20-minute AMRAPs, 50 of them. You can go over to barbellshrug.com forward slash EMOM and that will take you directly to the program and you can use the code SHRUugged to save 10% on the purchase. Devin LeVake, you're the man. I'm really stoked to get this episode out. I'm super proud that I got to tell this story and that we get to introduce

it to our audience. And you're the man, dude. I really enjoy having you in our corner and being a part of the shrugged team. And can't wait to watch the New York City Marathon this year. Holy crap, you're nuts. We will see you guys at the end of the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Andrew Farner. That's Doug Larson. Wade Olson.

Welcome to the show. Thank you. First day co-host, Devin Levesque. Did I get that? Levesque. Levesque. It's Levesque. I got it on the second try.

It was better than Levesque yesterday. Dude, you, speaking of doing things in weird angles and doing them for a long period of time and being ridiculously athletic, you're going to bear crawl a marathon, New York City Marathon. That's exactly what I'm doing. You also are the co-owner, kind of the big face of Performance House, which is one of the most beautiful gyms I've ever been into. Thank you so much. And you guys are opening in L.A.

I assume there's many locations on the way, which we're going to talk about. But, dude, when did you – you clearly are a very, very athletic human. What sports did you play growing up? Football, basketball, baseball, track and field in high school. I did ballet as a child. Beautiful. Hold on. Back up. I want to know now. Ballet did gymnastics. Beautiful. Hold on. Back up.

I want to know now. Ballet. You said it. Yeah. How long? I have four sisters, so I kind of get pulled into that part of, you know. I feel like I would take ballet right now. Dude, ballet, I remember it.

And, no, I was not in, like, a 2-2. No. But, you know, I was in spandex, and I definitely did get on stage and, like, perform a couple times. I do remember vividly. And, yes, I was the only guy there, but my dad made like a good point He's like look all the NFL players do it. They have balance you want to do it? I was like, okay And so I did it I want to say maybe when I was like 10 11 when a lot of boxers do too

Yeah, it's it's I mean now that I think about it I'm glad that he maybe do it and then the gymnastics party when I played I did it. When I played ice hockey, the majority of the, like, really good skating coaches were actually figure skaters. Really? Yeah, like the balance and you have to be on one leg and you're spinning and twirling and doing all of it and they just turn out to be really good coaches because to teach really high-level skills instead of forwards

and backwards is a real thing. I would love to take ballet if I had an extra hour in my day somewhere. I want to take a dancing course because that's like my biggest downfall. I have zero rhythm with dancing. Yeah. You know, but I don't know. I was going to ask you yesterday

if you ever did gymnastics. You say you did? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How long did you do that? I would say overall, maybe like five years when I was a child. But I think that's probably the most important time to do it because that's when you're developing all your muscles and your mind to body.

And your myelin is building up. So I did that for like five years. And then all throughout high school I played football, basketball, baseball, track. And then college I played football, tango, a little baseball. Do you struggle working with people when they're not athletic? No. I think it's – everyone is different, and so you can't, like, expect if you're going into the fitness world that everyone's going to be an athlete because not everyone was,

you know, able to play sports or were pushed to do that. And so I think the biggest part of, you know, working with play sports or were pushed to do that. Um, and so I think the biggest part of, you know, working with all different types of people is just understanding how the body moves, not necessarily reading a book and seeing how it moves, but physically having experience and seeing people throughout the years play sports and like running, jumping, throwing, catching, and like seeing how your shoulder is moving in that situation or your legs, your hips, your calves, or your ankle. Um, and understanding that and understanding like where the pressure is and then you can under, then you can analyze.

So like when I train people for the first time ever, I make them do body movements, um, like a bear crawl. Um, and I can see how they're crawling. I make them run. I see how flexible they are. You know what I mean? It's like my own, uh mean it's like my own uh it's like my own test and with yeah and with that like i'm i'm able from my own experience to be like wow they've never ran

before you know so let's let's work on their posture with this or wow they've never been on all fours before so they're really uncomfortable let's get them comfortable in that state you know i feel like a lot of people that got into, like, all the locomotion stuff got into it through Ido Portal. Mm-hmm. Do you ever go through, like, an Ido Portal phase? Yeah, I definitely, like, saw some of that moving. He trains, like, Conor McGregor and them. Yeah.

He, yeah, I mean, I love his vision of and his approach to fitness. And I was actually with Noel Mack, who's the chief brand officer of Gymshark the other day, and he was explaining his portal is his, like, main goal is to be comfortable in every state and never be, like, uncomfortable. So that's another reason I really like the Bear Crawl because you're on all fours. And if I can do it for a long period of time, then I'll eventually be comfortable. Just as comfortable as you are on two legs i'm gonna be comfortable as on all fours i bet the learning curve right now is insane like you just

feel yourself like it just clicks after a while like your body's like okay this is just part of life now we have to go back to all fours but you get so comfortable yeah very fast right now yeah for sure and then like i was that weird kid that would just like crawl on all fours around the house like i was never into video games or um or like i mean i was sort of i i love playing sports i was never into like the sports teams that much i was never like oh that's my favorite team or this that i was always just like trying to figure out weird stuff on the horse ranch i grew up on and like go outside and like run around no shoes and i was always running around the house climbing up the walls and running around the house climbing up the walls and running around in a bear crawl didn't know it was a bear crawl i just like being

all four so i think my body's developed in a little sense that way so i have i have a solid base but um overall yeah i mean it's still a new learning curve and like going uphill compared to downhill uphill is actually much easier downhill and a bear crawl is super hard and you have to be much more on your hands is the new york city marathon hilly uh new york city marathon is pretty hilly there's a there's a lot of bridges um oh yeah jesus yeah 26.2 miles november 1st 2020 when did this thing pop into your brain so i was i was in england um and i was with my buddy ross edgley who swam around great britain in 157 days uh he's just a legend in the fitness world as well like he's he's super super smart and he he his whole thing is i want he wants to leave like an impact

on the world of like pushing the body as far as it can go and like testing limits and finding out new ways to innovate and showing that like the basic movements and fitness aren't the only way to you know be in shape and have fun and so i went and met with him and you know he's like he's like devon you're a complete psycho with the way that you work out. I want you to do something that's going to leave a mark on society. And I was like, Ross, what is that? And he's like, I don't know. And then like a week later.

Just throwing it out there. And I was like, okay. And he's like, comes to me like a week later when we're done our campaign. And he's like, I think you should bear crawl a marathon. And I like thought about it for a second and I'm like, I'm actually pretty good at bear crawling. Did he know you bear crawled everywhere? That sounds reasonable.

Yeah, he saw me bear crawl the UCLA practice football field, which is a total of 100 yards, and I did it in 18 seconds. Oh, shit. On all fours. I like sprinted it. That's legit. Yeah. Thank you. So you might be the fastest man on all fours i like sprinted it that's legit yeah uh thank you and um so you might

be the fastest man on all fours i mean maybe we have to hit up guinness i'll call johan blake please he's fast on two you'd be fast on four we'll set that race up let's do it i talk shit to him on instagram all the time i'm with it yeah i'll show you the video of me racing him it's terrifying did he smoke you oh it wasn't even close okay yeah next one yeah next one it was like a wounded deer getting chased by a lion that's right yeah it's your loss yeah and so i like thought about it and then i just like i don't know 10 minutes later i was like i'm gonna do it, I'm going to do a fucking marathon. And he's like, all right, let's do it. He's like, I'm in your corner the whole time. And so then I came back to America.

And, you know, I've been, but the biggest thing, sorry, the biggest thing that Ross said, he's like, you know, a big way for you to push yourself through it because it's going to be hard. You know, he swam around Great Britain, which which is insane yeah right like no one is doing that um and he's like you're going to come to points where you want to give up but when you do something for a purpose um it helps you push through and I was like that's a really good point and I've always like in my past like whatever like I've always wanted to like give back to society like whether it's like helping at camps or not just spit off camps but like summer camps for kids or um maybe people would you know less fortunate you know giving food out or you know whatever it is trying to give it back

and I've always wanted to like come and support some type of foundation and so on and so forth so like I've known Matt for quite a while um you know obviously through performance house and he's always talked about the fit offs but I never really knew what it was about and him and I have had some pretty cool alone time and like we've talked about like our past and um things we've gone through and one of the things I've gone through when I was 16 is my father committed suicide and so um I don't know that was like a really tough point in my life um to like deal with and it was kind of just like hit me like he was my best friend. And, you know, he took his life, you know, due to some, you know, depression and personal things.

And it just took everyone by shock. And so it kind of like left me hanging. I was like, now what? And so I've done my thing and tried to like pursue my career. And, you know, I've been've been pretty you know successful at it but i've i've wanted to give back and when i talked about about the fit ops foundation and how it helps veterans um and you know with all the what people are going through regardless if you're a veteran or you're not or you know someone that's a veteran people that are depressed and

people that you know lose their purpose doing something is like the most painful thing to watch of like in the world like it's it's that that i've ever experienced it's like it's like someone just loses their like soul you know you're just like they they lose like where they're going like what they're doing they don't know like who to talk to what to do like why they're waking up and then they just like take their life and like i don't think anyone should have to go through that. Everyone, anyone should have to experience it, see someone doing it or themselves. And so when I talked to Matt about FitOps and like, I knew Matt was the one that founded the foundation and like, I knew exactly where the money would be going.

I kind of put two and two together. And I thought by doing the New York marathon and and raising money for Fit Ops and for the vets I think it would be a perfect combination so um Runners World and Men's Health got me a ticket into the race and so um I'm going to be doing on November 1st and we're going to be taking uh sponsors every mile um for the marathon it's 26.2 yeah it should take me about 17 hours to complete yeah yeah and um i'm gonna be on all fours the whole time you know obviously i'll take my breaks when i need to but i'm training for it now and i really want to get it done and it's ever a lot of people look at me like oh that's really cool and like clapping and smiling and definitely in the back of their

head they're like there's no way this kid's doing this you know i think you will i hope so you know i really do yeah and like i'm determined to and like knowing that i have fit ops behind me and that i'm raising money for a foundation knowing that there's something that i'm personally connected with you know from my past um and then overall like what i've heard about the new york marathon and the hype and the adrenaline rush you get from all the people that show up. I mean, I don't know if you guys have ever been, but New York city is basically shut down. I mean, it's one of the biggest races in the world. You know what I mean?

Um, and so with all those things combined, I think I have a, a solid chance of like completing this and like raising a good amount of money to help veterans and, um, help awareness of, um, you know, getting people out of the trenches and helping people find purpose and, um, and, and raising, raising, it's really raising awareness work. Cause not a people, people nowadays, um, they don't understand that it's okay to like to express yourself and emotions or whatnot a lot of especially back in the day 20 years ago for males specifically you have an issue emotional issue you're like ah whatever let's go grab a beer yeah right um but now it's coming to a point where it's like dude screw the beer let's let's talk about it and once you start talking about it it's like

you you take a big big you know brick out of your backpack and you're just like oh that's lighter i feel better and i i went through that about like eight months ago um with mad and some people you recommended me to you know johnny from fit ops and i was talking to them and johnny martin yeah johnny martin and i've never really spoken about my past and like what i went through when i was 16 and that whole situation like when i started talking to him about it i just started like crying i'm like what the heck is going on like i don't cry you're crying you know and um and so like by like letting that go and um expressing it to him and now being able to even like express to you guys like i if you asked me to do this like four years ago i'd have been like yeah my dad passed away peace you know and i wouldn't have talked about it but when you when

you're able to talk about a situation you've gone through and realize that you're not the only person that's ever gone through a situation and like it is it is something that you can talk about and it's okay for a male to express his feelings you know i think that's huge yeah when you were 16 and that happened i mean did you see your dad going through the depression and know like something's very wrong but whether you're old enough or mature enough to even recognize it was that yeah like a conversation in your family yeah like um i live with my father when my parents got divorced i have four sisters um i was like with him every day i was working with him every day he was like my coach through all the sports and he was like my best friend yeah i mean and so like to see like to come home

from school um or even at work and like see him you know reading the bible or you know crying as he was a professional bodybuilder as well he owned his own company and in construction and whatnot and to see like a big dude like that just like emotionally break down and like that's your father like that's the person you look up to is like a super it's a tough thing to was there an impetus to like what set it off for him or was it just a slow? No, yeah, my parents were going through a really bad divorce. Yeah. And, you know, they, you know, they weren't getting along.

And, you know, I don't blame it on anyone now. But, you know, it's just, it's something that, you know, they were going through at the time. And, you know, he was handling it a certain way. He was like the greatest person ever. He just got stuck in a situation where he couldn't mentally handle it. I remember the day specifically, and I was working with him that day in the morning. Then I went to driver's ed. My best friend's mom picked me up at the time.

I was like, my dad's supposed to pick me up, and she picked me up at the time and i was like why like my dad's supposed to pick me up and she picked me up with my friend and he uh and i sit in the car and they were quiet and i was like what's going on and they like told me like um your dad died and i'm like what yeah like what are you talking about you know and i i was like this isn't true and i i was like you like i immediately said no and i started calling him and it was like going to voicemail voicemail voicemail and then like i'm like no way like i started screaming i was like i didn't even like know what to do i was like flipping out um i get home and there's like a ton of people at my house like that already found out um and like it was just like a shitty situation yeah you know then i went and got one of my sisters and she was at summer camp at the time and um i had to i had to

like break the news to her and that was like i don't know that was like the hardest thing i've ever done um and then like finding out like how it happened you know jumping in front of a truck on the highway is like that's a shitty way to go you know and like um it was just like not it was just like not ideal for anyone anyone for my family for myself or you know especially him like having to go through that like getting to a point of like that's the decision you make is like it's not good so that's what's like driving me for this especially for fit ops and like i i hear the stories that you know they go through and a lot of people have these stories and when they you're getting quiet when a lot of people have these stories um at you know at fit ops and people in general in the world um and being able to express them and knowing that i'm not the only person i think if he would have known that he's

not the only person going through this and there's other options um he probably could have been saved you know what i mean um you can let go of that it'll stay there yeah and uh and so that that's that's like the driving force behind all this you know um and that's and it's been like the driving force behind like my career just like like unintentionally i didn't really know it until like i started talking to johnny martin and like he's like dude that's why you're so driven like you you you got everything taken away from you at 16 and you're like fight or flight. Like I'm going to fucking fly.

And so I was flying but without telling anyone why I'm flying. And not that I'm like running around New York City and be like, hey, this happened to me. But more of like I can express it to an individual and not be so ashamed of it. When you see the guys in the other room at fit ops and they're at like this transition point, um, do you remember when you kind of started coming out of whatever, uh, morning or whatever process you were going through and saying like, okay, like what was kind of the impetus to, like, I have to move forward? When I was 16, I went to high school. I finished out the year, and then I got sent to a military academy.

And, like, I met one of the Green Berets that were training us there. And he, like, took me aside, and, like, he knew about my situation. He's like, look, like, this shit happens to a lot of people. You're going to have to just push forward. And I don't know if that was the best advice or, you know, the worst advice for a 16 year old, you know? Um, it was good in the sense that it's like, okay, you're not the only one. It was bad in the sense, cause it just made me shut up about it and not make excuses. And I don't think people should body, you know, hold it up, you know, all the, all the things they go through, like you should be able to talk about it. And I think males specifically are, aren't as emotional and like, they don't

express as much. And that's what, you know, that's what causes, you know, us to blow up a little bit more um in situations and so uh i yeah i do i do remember like that point but what's cool about this foundation is that like there's there's you know 35 40 people in one room that have all gone through it and they're all expressing it to each other while they're also learning to get their training certificate. Um, and they create this like family, um, you know, around them for those couple of weeks that they're here. And that's cool. Like I would have loved to be in a situation like that, um, where I know that other people are also going through it and I can express, I probably, it probably would have helped me. Um, but everyone has their different path there's no

right or wrong way I think like when I the things that I've done on my path are good and the things that you've done on your path are good everyone just has their different everyone has different timing for everyone did you think about the fact that in a way you're very lucky that you didn't fall into the traps of or you may have and I just haven't heard it yet, but it doesn't sound like drugs and alcohol ever became a part of it. It was like, okay, I need to start a business.

And like, was that entrepreneurial piece in ingrained in you from your dad owning a business? And like, you just went that route in a way filled the void. Yeah. Yeah. Like I,

I always saw him like own a business and I, I was always like, um, I was always like helping him like scrapping metal and like just doing the little stuff on the job site, right, that, you know, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16-year-old kid would do. And so, like, always seeing him, like, run the business was always very inspiring to me. The way he took care of, like, his employees and, like, treated people and people and like super nice and always like hosting. Um, like we were, we were that house that like had everyone over on Sundays and like we'd cook and, you know, um, and so like that was really, really, that was, that's definitely like the base of what I do now. Um, I want to be able to like give as much as possible and give back and like,

you know, whether it's donating or whether it's just having friends over and hosting a party, like I love doing that. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, that's like that's where a lot of the drive comes from. Earlier, just a minute ago, you said that guys aren't as emotional. I feel like there's definitely like some truth in that statement. I totally know what you mean. I feel like more to add like a level of distinction there i feel like the older i get the more i believe that people are just emotional creatures across the board um there are different cultural and societal expectations around how

you're kind of quote unquote allowed to express those emotions you know for guys that might come out as more more anger you're more likely to just like tell someone to fuck off and get in a fight and that's how that that's how it just shows up for you and that's even though that's not quote-unquote allowed and you can get in trouble for it it's it's it's almost more accepted right than than breaking down crying and and even if even if the crying actually might be more healing right and the and the fighting might actually lead to more problems because there's those expectations which which as far as i can tell are shifting radically in society right now, it's becoming more and more okay for guys to, to admit that they're, that they're scared and that they're, that they're hurting and et cetera, et cetera. And, uh, I feel

like that's a big part of what's happening here. It's like, it's like, it's a, it's a container where people can, can express how they really feel because those feelings are in there. They've been bottled up for years in a lot of people's cases and, um, having a safe container where those emotions can come out and you can be accepted and not judged for how you feel like at the deepest level is really important. Yeah. A hundred percent. And to, to that point, um, Matt and I were at men's health, uh, the Hearst building in New York, um, three weeks ago, we met with Rich, who's a chief editor, and Jack Asig, who does revenue for the company. And we were talking about fit ops.

And then we were talking about like emotional. And the way they explained it is like, really, it makes the most sense. So about 20 years ago, the way males would handle their emotional stress is, like I said before, let's go grab a beer. Fuck it. You know what I mean? Now what men are doing are, yo, that's a really nice jacket.

Where'd you go? So they're now tapping into the emotional like fashion, right? Like they're, okay, like they're starting to like, you're starting to break their barrier. Like before like fashion wasn't like huge, like 20 20 years ago like talking to a male about fashion like you couldn't really do it right now like they were doing now they're starting to do it like oh where did you get that jacket that's a really nice hoodie like oh i want to get that jacket right they're talking about fashion now what they're really focusing on um is the mental health so they break they've broken the barrier of fashion,

which is like a kind of hard barrier to break for males. Now what they're breaking into is the mental clarity and like the emotions of a male. And like, it's okay to talk about your emotions. And coming from Men's Health, like that's cool that they're making the initiative as well to like to focus on mental health. Because yeah, you can be ripped and you can have abs and you can be jacked and do the flips and like do all this cool stuff.

Awesome. But if you're not mentally clear, what's the point? You know, like your brain is just as important, if not more important than how your body, you know, looks, right, or performs. Like your brain is like your biggest asset so if your brain is holding all this heavy weight and you're not able to get it out then you're going to hold that heavy weight and it's going to affect some things you do but if if now society is pushing um and a fit and fit ops and performance performance house men's health like and everyone starts making the trend towards let's focus on mental health and like that balance i think um i think

the world will just become a better place there'll be there'll be less um blow-ups you know like people will be people will be less likely to you know blow up at a spouse or whatever um they'll they'll be more everyone will be open-minded in the things they do right like it'll just create a better atmosphere there won't be as many elephants in the room you know what i mean like oh that guy's about to fucking blow up oh he's you know we talked about it he's cool you know what i mean it's really interesting because i feel like i mean i love you bro um appreciate yeah love you too i don't really have like i don't think many guys have like their best friend that they can just fucking talk to. It's really challenging because you have to care.

Well, you don't have to, but most men think that they have to carry this macho attitude with them to be tough, to be able to posture that their shit doesn't stink and they're tough. It's obviously something that we get to talk about a lot we've got families life is hard starting building businesses is no joke yeah and everyone's trying to just figure it out over here yeah and i actually wonder a lot when i see somebody that has a platform like you or i mean i don't think many people know how much we talk about this stuff just to keep us both moving forward and connected. But when somebody looks at you and they're like, oh, Devin, he's cool. Look at this thing on his Instagram page.

This is great. Oh, his YouTube page is awesome. How long does it take for somebody to find out that there's a big story and that drive comes from somewhere and you're fit you were feeling a lot and it takes a long time to be able to like for sure how do you get that message out to people and using the platform to say look guys yeah i have x number of followers and cool workouts and all the stuff but we have to talk about bigger issues because that gets really uncomfortable for people yeah i think i think, I think this, honestly, this is like, this is the best way that I could have announced it. Like doing, I think this is a good, um, stepping point, like by doing the bear crawl and like doing this podcast and like

announcing it. Um, I think it's a good first step to like telling people like, yo, everyone has their issues. Let's talk about them. Um, this doesn't have to be, you know, sitting at a circle and like, all right, hi, I'm Dan. And, you know, I have an issue, right. But like it, it, it can be that you're with a buddy or you meet someone or you're at bid ups and yeah, you talk about it, you know, it doesn't have to be, there doesn't have to be a cheesy way of doing it it can just be a natural flow of dude what's up man how was your weekend oh you know i had some issues you know i was man i i was dealing with you know my girlfriend and you know i was dealing with that and this and you know that like guys don't talk about that yeah you know women talk about all the time

most of the time you're like shut the fuck fuck up. Like your feelings, your emotions, what is going on? You know, I have four sisters. I get it. Not even to be negative. It's just they talk about it and we don't. Right. And I think like getting out there that men are able and should be talking about stuff they're going through. It will, and to all the men listening, even women, it will

dramatically change your life. If you can like let go and express, um, emotionally, like what you've gone through, um, and understand that there's other people going through it and it's okay to talk about it and you don't have to keep the bottle up because everyone has their issues, which sounds cliche, but they do. Right. Um um and being able to talk about them is like the biggest step that people can take to living a mentally clear life yeah one of the things that i think is interesting about the fit ops is these guys that are that come here to the fit ops programs we're all military and so that that whole sharing emotions is is oftentimes looks at like a weakness or an obstacle especially when you're in that environment you know you're deployed

and you're you're facing the enemy you have to be able to sometimes shut that off so that you can focus on the mission and so even more so just being the whole masculine aspect of hey don't share your emotions and don't do that we we have to lock it up even more. We feel anyways. And when we come here to FitOps, one of the things that we do to kind of help break that ice is, as you guys have seen, is we bring somebody in who has shared that, who's comfortable doing that to show that, hey, this is something that is completely normal and it's something that you guys can actually do very easily if you just take that first step which is sometimes the most challenging thing so yeah you guys do the performance talks

every night which is really cool last night we had our very first one of just uh someone gets up and has 30 minutes to just tell the world yeah which just happens to be a little room but it probably feels like the world the first time to stand up there and express what's going on yeah and i think that and that that atmosphere is what i went back to like um if people are able and a big reason i'm supporting this foundation is because it it supports that man like it if people are able to have those 35 40 people at once and they're able to talk to them um learn with them grow with them um and then talk to them when they're going through that tough time in their life, that's gonna, that's gonna change their life forever. Cause now they're not, now they're not holding on to, you know, what they've gone through. They're not like,

I'm the only person like this. I am the only one that can, um, survive. Like I have to deal with this. It's just me, yadaada yada um they have there's other people around there's there's something that struck me um when when hearing about the fit ops and someone said you know they survived war but we couldn't save them when they get back and like that's like super deep and that goes for like it goes for like of things, right? Like, you survived war. You survived, like, one of, like, the hardest things you can survive, like, guns, explosions. Like, your life is on the line every single day. You could get killed immediately.

Yeah. And then you come back, and we couldn't save them. Yeah. Because of their mental clarity. And, like, that's crazy. One of the things that we were actually just talking about earlier at this camp is right now, FitOps has zero suicide. We have zero suicides.

Anybody who's gone through this program, nobody has gone on to do that. And I mean, I've seen it in action where we have a Facebook group and we have other ways of communicating with the people who have gone through the course. We call them our CVFOs. And I've seen where we've lost communication with, you know, one person's lost communication with a buddy that went through the program for whatever reason, and we knew that person was going through a hard time. And it's just like all hands on deck.

We had people calling. I mean, we filled up a guy's voicemail one time um people were offering to drive like three or four days to get to the person to just drive by their house and knock on their door and and it was all developed from this program in in fit ops and being able to you know start that you know sharing your emotions and and being able to talk about the problems and it builds that bond and that family to that people are willing to do that kind of thing for each other. Yeah. I think a lot of that conversation too, and why this is super important for us to be here and getting the word out. And I mean, a lot of our audiences in the military

and the ability to, it's not like we want anybody to go through this, but the ability to meet people where they're at, and most people are probably still in service, and they're scared to death to get out because they know they have these problems and they're going to lose all the resources that the military provides, and there's nothing there. So if you can meet them before the problem really comes to a head, I think that that's, you know, you bring a lot of awareness to just mental health, behavioral health, and like you go and bear crawl a marathon, a lot of people's eyeballs are on it and they learn about FitOps. They learn that there's actually resources and they don't have to wait until they get out and then go through three years of depression. So thinking about suicide to be able to say, that's my next step.

I need to just get there and that they know that there's a place that they can go. When we think about your bear crawl, though, what the hell are you doing to train for this thing? I was going to wonder. I was like, what's your current PR distance? About nine miles. Nine miles? And it's just because I don't have enough time. What does the ground look like?

So it's kind of cool. You have a real relationship with the floor. Oh, man, I love it. I've gotten to a point where I love pushing my body in different ways. I'll never put myself in a position where it's risk versus reward. I'll never put it in a risk position. Every movement I do, every flip I do, every weird, you might see on my Instagram is healthy for me specifically. I have done it before. I might have not jumped that high, but I've jumped six inches

below that. So I know that I'm able to do this. It's just about pushing my body that much more. It's just like someone squatting 135 and they're like, I want to squat 145 now. It's the same concept. I'm just, I just do things a little different. From a Bear Cross perspective, it's, a marathon entices me running it, but not that much. An Ironman, awesome. And it's super respect to everyone. I probably couldn't do it. I ran 22 miles last Saturday and I was like, okay, yeah, I could do four more. Right.

But I just did it. It's not like real training. It's kind of like, eh, I could do four more. Right. But I just did it. It's not like real training. It's kind of like, eh, cool. Yeah, and, like, it's not that, like, I'm not downing that, like, all the competitions that are out there, right, and the races and whatnot. I just, this is something that's testing my personal body and, like, the physical, you know, level I'm at right now. This is something that's, like, tough for me. You know what I mean? Yeah, people look at it now this is something that's like tough for me you know

i mean yeah people look at it like that's impossible but you know for me it's just like it's it's tough you know it's me training for a marathon so i'm on a beginner's level marathon um schedule so if you've never ran before in your life and you want to run a marathon, this is the schedule you're on. I'm just doing that same schedule on all fours. So last week I'll do three miles Monday, two miles Tuesday, and then one and a half, one and a half Thursday, Friday. Yeah. And then this week it's like four miles, three miles, one and a half, one and a half. And so like it's basically increasing a mile weekly

like for the week span and then by the time i get up to the race i should be about um i should be able to do about 19 miles total not for a week just at one time yeah um but again it's it's just the time i was gonna say, your real life isn't, it's not like you're a pro athlete. That's like not doing anything. You're opening a gym in LA right now. That's not a small undertaking and it's not a small investment. Yeah. And we're launching an app right now.

Yeah. Like you, I would, I would assume your Saturday isn't like, Oh, I just have like six hours to sit around and not do shit. I'll just go crawl a little bit yeah you you have a lot going on 100 and like so it's funny like if you look at my

schedule um and microsoft like outlook my calendar it's like in the morning i have like four hours blocked off and says bear crawl and then like the rest of the day is like meeting meeting meeting meeting meeting right um and then like bloody hands showing up what'd you do this morning people look at like what's wrong with that yeah so are you gonna do this on your bare hands you know so so jim shark um is customized they're like really they're very supportive and i've been with them for almost three years now they're a really cool clothing clothing brand that sponsors me and some really other cool people. Ross Edgley, the guy that convinced me to do the race, is another Gymshark guy. Gymshark, Ben, Francis, the founder, Noel, Jason Dowling, one of the agents there, Derby.

They're all really behind on creating gloves uh for the bear crawl um to because they know the they understand the purpose behind it and they want to help out and so you know i'll wear some of their gear and um they're they're customizing their innovation team is uh making some gloves now and it's really it's just making sure my wrists are super mobile um at some points like when i go downhill i basically tighten up the wrist straps but there's a lot of there's a lot of pressure on the palm of my hand for sure my fingers don't have there it's barely and so yeah for the marathon you're going to be on concrete or asphalt yeah the entire time whatever yeah whatever yes I'm yeah that's what I'm training on so for the past month I've been doing it on a treadmill just to get used to it. So, like, I'll go in the gym and just do, like, three miles, four miles, five miles.

That'd be an interesting time. What speed do you set that at, by the way? 2.2 miles an hour. Yeah. And then what I've been doing lately since I've been in L.A. is I've been bear crawling, like Runyon Canyon, which is about three and a half miles up and downhill. It's beautiful, too. Yeah, it's gorgeous. People look at me.

Like, all the dogs walk by. Like, everyone's walking their dogs up the hill. I hope some dog, like, smells your ass. Is there a dog? Is there a dog? It's funny because, like, the... He looks healthy. Yeah.

I can date with him. The people aren't in shock. The dogs think I'm, like, an animal. Well, you're in L.A. Everyone's weird. They're like, oh, he really... Well, you're in L.A. Everyone's weird. They're like, oh, he's smart. He's definitely smart. He's the smart one.

This is normal for L.A. No, like the dogs literally like walk up and they like get scared as if like I'm a bear or something actually. And they just like run away and like their owners just start laughing. But no, I'm training'm training outside right now. If it's too cold outside, then I'll just go back and forth on the turf in Performance House. That's gnarly. Yeah, which down and back 46 times is a mile. And so do the math.

If I do five miles, it's just like a lot. Have any aches and pains, injuries, you know, wrists, elbows, shoulders showed up for you? No, my shoulders are definitely becoming like bulletproof right now. The palms of my hands, the only thing that were hurting was the cuts on the hands. But besides that, it's just, it's a lot of quads,

you know, shoulders, wrists though though i work on a lot of mobility and it's cool having the performance house team behind it as well because you know all the top doctors and trainers in the world are here and so they see me doing it and after each each session i do like a three miler dr chow will come up to me and be like dude you got to do this exercise before because you're not do this exercise before, because you're not engaging this part of your body. Or, you know, one of the therapists will be like, oh, you're so much on your quads, try to transition your weight or Gabe or, you know, anyone will, anyone kind of comes up and they're super helpful on like adding, so adding exercises.

So now I have like a whole warmup routine that was curated by them that I'm using now. And so I think that's one of the main reasons I'm not, you know, getting too many injuries and I don't feel too achy is because they're kind of curating the warm-ups and the exercises to help myself to, you know, elevate and accomplish this. Yeah, it's super important to have a team. Yeah. What's your team look like on day of? Do you know?

Will there be people with you? Yeah. Walking next to you? Yeah yeah yeah so yeah so so what i've heard in a car yeah an iphone exactly look at that guy yeah so what i'm what i'm trying to do is start the race the night before just because it's going to take about 7 16 17 maybe 18 hours um and so hopefully i i want to end it while you know while everyone else is ending it um will you have a motorcade of some sort to block off the street uh yeah so they give you like a walker so someone that like walks by you the whole time and so that'll be good and then johnny martin will be next to me and i would you know oh god listen to that guy for 18 straight hours. Yeah, I'm going to have headphones on. Don't go. No, no, no, I love Johnny.

But I'm going to try to, yeah, I mean, if I'm allowed to have people walk by me, just to, you know, get the hype up and, you know, keep me motivated and, you know, their support. If I can, I will, 100%. But I won't know until the day of but yeah i mean the the team we have right now is definitely think of all performance house think of jim shark team think of you know ross edgley think of you know dr chow dr craig lievenson um you know a lot of people are like you know really helping me out on this you know obviously Performix team in general, the FedOps team. So it's cool. Already, there's a solid support system.

Yeah. What companies have jumped in on this and sponsoring? Have you gotten there yet? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's kind of what we're working on now. Gymshark, Performix are obviously the two main ones. Core, Water. Cool. He's going to be jumping in on it and then working on it. You've got 26 sponsors to find.

Yeah. You have some very mobile fingers, by the way. Thank you. Oh, you see me playing. I did. Did you notice that? I don't have that. I can't.

Like this joint here was moving more than I thought it was going to. Oh, yeah. There you go. Have you been walking on your hands? Yeah. Yeah, so we're definitely going to start building up the sponsors now and like i said it's the 50th anniversary of the new york marathon it will be one of the biggest races in the world with a lot of eyes on it a lot of opportunities for promotions so what has been the response of the public like you have

i don't even know what the hell you're following looks like but i would imagine the majority of the i would i would imagine the majority of the people are very excited about this and but then you get the people yeah the voices the voices um i think i yeah i mean i get messages because i've never i haven't announced it like this will be kind of the announcement and we'll start you know putting it out there um but people see me doing bear crawls and yeah you get the messages like hey and they're actually super nice about i've never been like that's so stupid can't believe you're doing it like yeah people aren't as negative as you know you would think they are um more people are like wow this looks really cool um what are the benefits of it you know i mean so i'll come out with a benefits video of like bear crawling because

benefit bear crawling is actually super beneficial you know what i mean the 26 miles part yeah the 26 mile part like i wouldn't recommend but but like overall bear crawling and understanding how your body's moving and the joints and um how your wrist mobility is and your ankles and how much your big toe your big toe is working um while you're doing a bear crawl is like enormous. And then on top of that, the biggest part is like the mental. And like pushing through that and creating that next level of mental strength is definitely the most important. Yeah. How are you documenting this whole thing?

Is there going to be like a video crew following you the whole time? For the actual race? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would think that there's so many people on the street watching that they're gonna you know i imagine you know throw it up on their instagram um and do it that way but yeah we have some tricks up our sleeve for um people that are going to be able to donate and we have a lot of pr behind it already a lot of uh you know forbes new york times uh new york post men's health

women's health runners world a lot of people are reaching out and ready to do. I'm thinking like a GoPro on your forehead that just stares down at the concrete for 18 hours. I'd watch it. Every once in a while I have the number where you use the mile mark to pass by. I like that. Like every once in a while one of the center lines of the highway passes by. Like, oh, good. You made it.

Quarter mile. There he is. No, that's a good idea. Let's get GoPro in on this sponsorship and get GoPro to donate to FitOps, you know? I'm in. Dude, I'm super interested in the scheduling of how you, like, really keep it all together, though. Is there a pretty good team? Because you said yesterday you're in the middle of hiring for a brand-new gym.

You've got five hours of interviews back to back to back. Yeah. What time are you waking up to kind of get your schedule set up and then um so i was in la all last week and i would wake up at 4 a.m got to runyon canyon about 4 30 i would bear crawl for about two and a half three hours uh no actually less than that because it's only three and a half miles so it was like hour 45 minutes um and then i'd just go on my day and so once i start now i'm starting to like add more and more i just have to cut more time out and eventually um it's a saturday sunday type thing you know and when i can kind of take some time to myself you'd be surprised when you're on all fours and you're just going and it's

slow pace how much you think about and like how much time you actually have to yourself yeah um it's like it's actually it's kind of like meditation you know i can my brain is clear um i can listen to podcasts i can or i could just take it out and listen you know to the nature and yeah it's like it's it's very it's meditating. You know what's interesting about running that far? I had never run that far at all ever before last weekend when I did 22 miles. Yeah, which is awesome. Yeah, I just kind of did it. But if you told me that I had to go run four miles,

it'd be like, it's like half an hour. Fuck, here we go. Right, right, right. But when you say, I got to go run 22, the first four fly by. There's like a reframing of everything that goes on when you have this long. Yeah, your brain. And then the first, I don't even remember what pace, but say the first four miles. I think we ran eight straight.

But the first eight, we just flew by. You're not tired. You're not anything. You're just kind of hanging out. Absolutely. It's huge it's all it's all those chemicals in your brain working and you're the um the effect that you telling your brain okay i'm only doing four miles so when you're at 3.8 it's the worst 0.2 miles to go it's like you're like oh this is so hard but then i do eight miles right and it's like ah seven miles is easy you know and the 7.8 miles is like oh this is so

hard so it's it's that effect and so you just have to tell your brain um and commit like okay i'm gonna do five miles today and you only do five miles if you start pushing yourself past the five miles it just gets annoying you know and so i i have a strict schedule on like how many miles i'm doing and i don't go below and I don't go above. I just stick to that, and I continue adding, adding, adding. Yeah. I do think what you mentioned earlier about the energy of the crowd. It's such a big event.

There's so many people. Everyone's going to have big signs. Everyone's going to be cheering. There's going to be live music on the street corners. It'll be a fucking totally amazing high-energy event that'll kind of help pull you through. For sure. I've only ran a marathon one time.

I ran the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, Tennessee. Awesome. Like, the first half of it was incredibly easy because everywhere we went, like, we were, like, waving to people that we knew and everyone's cheering for us. And, like, it was just fun. Like, I didn't feel like I was racing at all. I just felt like I was, like, at a fucking big party. Right. And then the second half was much,

much more difficult. Like once we got away from the crowd and it was like the second half turned into like just a ghost town. And now we're just running by ourselves for the second half. But like while the crowd was there, I didn't even recognize that I was racing. And that's a big reason I want to start the night before. So I can,

when I get to that point of the race, when it starts, they say it starts at 6am, but it really starts at like 7, 8, 9am. And when I get to that point of the race, when it starts, they say it starts at 6 a.m., but it really starts at like 7, 8, 9 a.m. And when I get to the point of like 9 a.m., I can like kind of, that's like the last part of the race. I'll probably, if I do the math right, I'll probably be at about 17 miles towards like 9 a.m. And then I'll just finish out the rest with the crowd. And if I can have the crowd behind me on that, it'll kind of help me push through

and it'll seriously raise awareness for the FitOps Foundation. What are you doing for nutrition? So I just try to eat as many calories as I'm burning with a marathon. Yeah, because you're not carrying a lot of extra energy on yeah i'm i'm at a point i'm at a point i'm i mean if i had to guess i'm probably at like four percent body fat right now really yeah oh my gosh that's sustainable for a week yeah but like it's you you have to think of it like it's like fasting cardio. You're just like it's slow.

It's long. You know what I mean? And so I'm just trying to eat as many calories I'm burning. And so I'm maintaining for the past two months. I've just been maintaining my weight. I feel good. I'm not trying to gain. I'm not trying to lose.

What does it look like on game day? Nutrition-wise, I don't know yet. I think I have to evaluate that when I get closer to it. But I have some tips from some marathon runners and long-distance guys on nutrition and whatnot. Yeah. It's kind of interesting because, in a way, you're doing a ton, but none of it is at, like, such a high intensity that it's like, okay, I'm done right now. You're kind of, like, going for a very, very, very long walk. Yeah.

It's kind of like when we run the Spartan World Championships. Like, we're going on a long hike up a couple mountains. Yeah. It just happened to be 12,000 feet. Right, right, right, right. You're not really sprinting a half marathon. You're not really, like, putting the gas pedal down. And I have, like, a solid base.

Like, I trained super hard, so so for the past ever um i'm not out of breath yeah i think someone that does like an average workout three days a week whatever would be super out of breath but right now like it's not that i'm out of breath i sweat a lot i feel good it's more like the tension on my body because it's a different movement so it's developing those little muscles and the muscles you didn't know you had and the pressure on your shoulders and your wrist and your quads. I'm just developing super, you know, a lot of strength in that way. So it's just sustaining that strength throughout the way.

I'm not doing, like, five miles and be like, you know, it's more like, oh, God, that was annoying. Yeah. Have you noticed a lot of changes in your body, though? Yeah. Like, I imagine your fingers are super flexible, your shoulders are growing. But do you know, kind of like that beginner's mindset of, like, you figure it out and then all of a sudden take off. Yeah.

It becomes very easy to start to notice a lot of changes. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Like, towards two miles, i start breaking a sweat now um and then towards like three four five i start like warming up and like i get in a rhythm you know what i mean so that's that i'm i feel like that's a good place to be at i'm not like gassed at five miles at first i was but now i'm like starting to amp it up um but besides that you have to think about it like a bear crawl is a full body movement you're not just using your legs you're not just using your legs. You're not just using your arms.

You're using everything. You're even using your neck. You know what I mean? So your abs, my abs start to get super tight, my obliques, right? So it's a full body movement. And I think this year is going to be interesting because we're launching so many things, right? We're launching Performance House LA. We're launching the app.

You need a kid. Drop a kid in there should i do a kid yeah drop one in i think i'm gonna start with a puppy like i have a dog i have kona right and kona needs a friend so i think we're gonna get a puppy but then uh maybe a kid yeah drop one in see if see if your schedule fills up kid a marathon bear crawl couple gyms couple gyms and app i think it's good if you I think it's good. If you have the right team, it all works. It's all about putting the systems in place. You can get on your back a marathon.

That would be interesting. Yeah, I think a kid would be a good one. Dude, what is the way that people can donate? What do you need right now from the audience that can help this journey? I'm going to put a link up in my bio that i'll have for pretty much the rest of the year um when we when we launch this when is the marathon november 1st yeah so we have about nine months um to to get it up and to keep it rocking but we're gonna get a link up um there'll be a whole website it'll have this podcast on it

there'll be some videos there'll be some stories um there'll be you know obviously the reason i'm doing it all about the fit ops foundation you'll know some stories about them and um the sponsors that are currently involved so um if the more the more sponsors the better i i really want to raise a lot of money because it does cost about four thousand dollars per veteran to put them through the camp so um and what there's a fifteen hundred two thousand person waiting list to come into the camp so there's a lot of people that want to you know do the fit ops foundation camp and find purpose through fitness and if we can push those as many as possible the more the merrier so um we'll get the link up yeah i think that's what's really cool about this thing right now.

I feel like we're really at the ground. They don't even have a home. Yeah. Just kind of floating around to camps. And I feel like we're in the middle of this, like, super groundswell of people that are very motivated to make this happen. It feels – I had no idea what was going to happen when we walked in here. Yeah. You have really just no clue.

And it's been very cool because you really get the vibe that everybody here is, like, very motivated to make this work yeah um and the fact that you get to have your platform we get to have this platform you guys are doing your work and it all aligns very well together it's all it's all like uh it's it all goes back to like timing and yeah and you know helping people with mental stability and finding purpose through fitness yeah Yeah. So they're going to find that link on your Instagram? Yeah, Instagram. And it'll be out there quite a bit. There'll be a lot of articles out there and a lot of PR, you know, with the big names in the business, Men's Health, New York Times, New York Post.

Yeah. Women's Health, you know, Runner's World, et cetera. How do they find you? Devin Levesque. Levesque. That's an S-Q-U-E at the end. Yeah, L-E-V-E-S-Q-U-E is probably the best way to find any way to donate. And I'll be posting it on my stories and stuff quite a bit.

And I'll be getting some people. I'll get some awesome people and companies involved for this. Awesome. We're going to New York. For sure. Dude, you know what you can really do? I feel like this would be very good for PR. Since you're going to start the night before,

there's going to be some really fast people chasing you down the next morning. Just get in their way. Yeah. He was on pace to run a sub-three marathon, but this dude on all fours tripped him up. Tripped him. He tripped him. We were going to have a world record. I feel like that could potentially be bad PR.

But I don't know. That's just a guess. He ruined the marathon. The guy on all fours. Local jerk. No, I think it'll be good, especially for the cause that we're doing it for and the team and everything. I think it'll be good.

I'll definitely stay out of the runner's way for sure. I'm on the side. They don't even see me. Left, left. Sprinting by you and running a sub-three marathon. Wade, where are you at? Where can people find you? Coach Wade Olsen.

Welcome to Barbell Shrugged, though, bud. Thank you. That's great. Fantastic. Where can they find you? Coach Wade Olsen. How do you spell that? O-L-S-E-N.

No H in there, huh? No H. It is. Doug Larson. Yeah, I'm stoked to watch this whole process unfold over the coming months. Thank you. And stoked for you to fucking get out there and make it happen. Thank you.

I really appreciate it. You bet, man. I appreciate it. And we totally should go to New York. We're definitely going to New York. We have to. For sure. Definitely.

You've got to get to Performing's house. It's fucking awesome. I can't fucking wait. You can get your teeth whitened. You guys have teeth whitening. The perfect teeth over here. Yeah, we have teeth whitening. Dr. Alex.

I've never gone to the gym and thought, I need my teeth whitened. Now I think about it all the time. Yeah. It's a little perk for the tier three guys. Yeah. Incredible. That's good. But thanks for having me, guys.

I really appreciate it. I met you a month ago, two months ago, and I feel like we have a lot of work to do together. It's great. Let's rock it. You can find me on Instagram at Douglas E. Larson. I'm Anders Varner, at Anders Varner. We're the Shrug Collective, at Shrug Collective, one-ton-challenge.com, forward slash stronger. 97-page e-book, snatch, clean, jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench, a lifelong pursuit of

strength, one-ton-challenge.com, forward slash stronger. We'll see you guys next week. That's a wrap, friends. What an awesome dude. Devin LeVake. Killer, killer human being. Make sure you give it over to his website, DevinLeVake.com,

and then make sure you are able to get to BarbellShrug.com forward slash store. Use the coupon code SHRUG. Save 10% on all your purchases. Get the email mass that expo 50, 20 minute AM wraps, all aesthetics based. You're going to get jacked.

You're going to get shredded. It's going to be phenomenal. Barbell shrug.com forward slash EMOM. We'll see you guys next week.