Barbell Shrugged - 55- Interview with Kendrick Farris 2-Time Olympian for USA Weightlifting

Episode Date: April 10, 2013

On this episode of the Barbell Shrugged podcast the crew travels to Johnson City, TN for the USAW Weightlifting Collegiate Nationals to interview two time olympian Kendrick Farris.

yo this is ctp and you're listening to the barbell shrug podcast the number one strength and conditioning podcast for crossfitter if you want to check out the video version which you should go to fitter.tv and watch that because it's way cooler than just listening. And how do you spell fitter.tv there, Mr. Bledsoe? F-I-T-R.TV. He's a good speller. All right, while you're there, definitely go and sign up for the newsletter. As part of signing up for the newsletter, you'll get a video that Mike made where he shows you the top seven snatch mistakes that you're probably making that are keeping you

from hitting that next PR and lifting some big weight. Yeah. Look at the seminars. Tune into the show and get ready to become a more awesomer version of you. We give you the tools you need to succeed. You become a tool. I'm nervous with an audience. We usually do this in a room with nobody.

Don't be nervous. We got these three audience members. But you train with these guys and girls right here. Oh, yeah. Guys and gal. All right, here we go. Okay. They're used to him making a fool of himself.

That's true. So he is. So it's totally cool. All right, Mike Bledsoe here with Barbell Shrug. Doug Larson and I are here on the show. We are at University Nationals at East Tennessee State University. We're here with Barbell Shrug. Doug Larson and I are here on the show. We are at University Nationals at East Tennessee State University. And we brought our team.

Faction Weightlifting Club came and competed. Everyone put up good numbers. Nobody bombed out. Yay. That's always a good sign. We also have our second-time guest, Alex Macklin. Hey, everybody. He's back. Back from the very first episode ever.

That's right. Number one. That's right. And we have Kendrick Ferris, two-time Olympian. He's going to be competing this weekend, a Pan Am qualifier. And we're going to get into a little bit about his weightlifting career and how he trains so you can learn how to be big and strong like him. First, make sure to go to the website, barbellshrug.com, sign up for the newsletter,

go to our Facebook page, click the Like button, and follow us on Twitter, at Barbell Shrug. All right, guys. Hey, Kendrick. Yes, sir. What's up, man? What's going on, guy? So you're a two-time Olympian. Yeah, I just happen to be.

Just happen to be. Yeah. How long have you been weightlifting? So I've been doing it, you know, 15 years plus now. Oh, my goodness. All right, can you hear me? Yeah, so I've been doing it for 15 years, man. We started after the 1996 Olympic Games.

USA Weightlifting started 12 satellite programs around the United States. And Shreveport, that's my hometown, Shreveport, Louisiana, they put in a bid for it, and they got one, and, you know, the rest is history. So, yep. And you recently moved up from 85 kilos to 94 kilos? Yes, sir. What prompted that decision? And it was time.

You know, you really have to listen to your body. Like, you start to get to the point, like, in your training and in, like, your competition career, and it's a struggle for you to, you know, keep the weight down and, like, constantly just make that weight. I mean, you just got to let your body weight just flow naturally, I believe. So I knew it was time to go ahead and move up. I wish I would have moved up after the 08 games, but we can talk about that in a little bit. But I'm happy to be getting a good weight on now and training.

Was it always a struggle for you to make weight? I mean, no. I mean, I was making weight pretty smooth, man, until probably around like 2010. So that was two years after the games. My coach, he wanted me to go up after 2008, but I was like, no, I feel good. You know, I think I can maintain. And then I'm doing the same dieting, same, you know, routine, and then my weight was just bubbling. I'm like, my goodness, what do I need to do?

You feel like that's just a result of getting older? I think so. Just feeling out. Nothing else really changed? Dude, just naturally feeling out. But like I said, I was able to keep it down through 2012, and I'm just excited now just to show up and just lift now. I don't have to worry about my weight.

Just show up and come compete. Okay, and how old are you? 26. Oh, shit, you're not old at all. I thought you were going to say you were like 34 and your metabolism was slowing oh shit you're not old at all i thought you're gonna say you're like 34 and your metabolism was slowing down you're getting old dude i feel like it like i'm like dude think about it we've been doing 15 years same gym still training the same gym same coach my whole life is like one workout i went to gym i was 11 and it's like today i'm 26

crazy yeah it sounded like you had a pretty long career i was not expecting you to say 26 26 started early started early man Started early, man. Started early, yeah. Like weightlifting just now is kind of getting more popular. And you found it, you know, 15 years ago. How did you even stumble into that? So it was the same way. Is it tight?

Yeah. This is just what we talked about, man. My uncle, man, he read about the article in the newspaper about the weightlifting development center that they were starting in Shreveport. And, you know, just that Olympic buzz. It was after the 96 games, and I was playing other sports at the time, but my uncle thought it would be a good idea for us to learn how to do the movements. I mean, I called him, but he was like, yeah, you know, that would be good. You guys learn how to do some weightlifting supervised.

So we went in a couple times a week learning how to do the movements and just fell in love with it. So you had a good coach from day one then? Oh, yeah, same coach, Dr. Kyle Pierce, man. Dude, he's the guru man he's like the phil jackson of weightlifting man he's he he knows his stuff like science he's all behind it and just doing doing it the old fashion way so and you've been with him since you were a little kid that's the guy that taught me how to lift man same coach that's lucky dude it's a's a blessing, man. You find the right person, and you guys really flow and groove together. So, yeah, I had no need to move around or want to go anywhere else. I had no desire to, man, because I feel like everything we were doing is working.

Yeah. Very cool. What is – you were talking about moving up. When we were talking about weight class, you were talking about you're doing the same diet. What is your dietary habits? Dude, my diet is crazy. So it's not like i was like really strict on it but at the same time there's certain things that i that i wouldn't eat like i say i don't eat junk but it may sound like junk to somebody else not junk to me love pancakes i love gummy bears i love candy that's that's

things those are like my guilty pleasures right but at the same time i try to make sure i'm eating you know five six times a day um Those meals are like 400, 500 calories. I don't eat a lot of – I don't do the fried foods. I don't – I just don't do what I feel is nasty, like just greasy foods. I don't do it. I just try to – a lot of salads, man, a lot of grilled fish or grilled chicken. Not a steak guy, but I love pork chops. You bake pork chops.

I mean, I'm just – dude, just a country boy, man. I can put it down. Cornbread, greens, chops. I mean, I'm just, dude, just a country boy, man. I can put it down. Cornbread, greens, whatever. There you go. Was that hard avoiding fried foods growing up in Louisiana? Oh, yeah. Because, I mean, that's what I was raised on, man. We ate a lot of fried foods, whether it be fish, chicken, whatever.

Your turkeys, deep-fried turkeys, all that stuff. You know, I can have that maybe once a year if I want to just kind of indulge one day. But, nah, man, it's crazy though just to kind of get away from that and you start competing you're like all right i know i can't have this because it's not gonna you know it's not it's not gonna benefit you in any way so right still working on it man do you uh do you take any supplements or anything oh yeah i know i'm gonna sound real tacky right now so look i'm gonna shout out progenix man that's and it's really progenix I like to call it Progenix. So, look, Progenix, man, dude, I love their products.

So, I used to do, like, the GNC, like, muscle milk and all that stuff, like in high school. And then I met Aaron Thomas. He's one of the owners of Progenix, man. And a dude came up to me, wanted me to try the stuff. I'm like, all right, I'm going to go to one of these dudes. It tastes pretty good. I was like, but, no, man, I would have to just try it in training.

I just left it alone, dude, contacting me. Got to get it in training, man, and tried it for like 12, 13 weeks, and I was like, yeah, it was legit. So I was like, that's all I take. Whatever Progenix makes, Progenix, whatever they make, that's the only stuff I take, man. Like the recovery? Dude, I do the recovery, more muscle, the creole oil, and I just got

the force and the cocoon. Dude, the cocoon is crazy. You gotta try it. I'm actually not familiar with the cocoon. What is that? It's crazy. It's the night time. Listen to me. Okay, so it's their night time recovery, right? You take it right before you go to bed. It's supposed to slow down the digestive system, help the muscles repair

while you're sleeping. That's really your main time for your body to recover is when you sleep, right? So this is going to aid in that, man. It's really incredible. I don't know all the ingredients in it. I know it's legit. It's on point. I let my boy Mike try something the other day.

This dude, oh, man, he wants my bag. I'm like, no, you can't get the bag. I get you some, but it's legit, though. You know what's in it? I have no idea. I saw like one advertisement for it, but it's legit, though. You know what's in it? I have no idea. I saw one advertisement for it, and it looked interesting, but I've yet to even see an ingredient list. I've never heard of it.

I wish I'd have brought it up. I took it out of my bag right before I came here, dude. I ought to pull the bag of you guys to check out the back of the deal. It's crazy. Is it like a protein mix with some other stuff? It is a protein. Yeah, it's a protein mix with some other things, man. Oh, okay, okay.

Does it have like a ZMA or some other stuff that helps it's a protein mix with some other things okay yeah they have like a zma or some some other stuff that helps you sleep please don't ask me i don't know dude i don't know all that stuff man i'm like when listen i'm i'm so sold on the whole brand it's like they come out with anything i'm i'll take it i got it i'm telling i'll take it all right a lot of brand loyalty there. I like that. Everyone go to Progenics and check out Cocoon, right? Yeah, I think it comes out April 8th. That's when it's going to drop. It hasn't even dropped yet.

You got the people fired up about it, man. Comes out Monday, huh? Yeah, Monday. We're on Instagram. As a prophet, what is it, Trinidad James? As he would say, we're Instagram, straight flexing, man. Dude, we got the pictures of it just posting every day. It's crazy. I feel a hell of a lot better about not knowing what it is now.

Knowing that it's not even launched yet. You're intrigued, man. I am intrigued now. I'll have to go get some. All right, so give us a little more about your background, kind of high school, if you lifted in college or if you just skipped college, or just kind of give us your progression. Winning competitions, obviously you went to the Olympics, you know, what

are kind of your most notable things leading up to that? I would say my first international competition, it was in Canada, I was 14, I was fired up about that, like, you know, it was the Louis Sear competition, just a junior meet, and I think I got second place at the competition, but I was just fired up to be able to leave the country and compete. And I was like, man, once I did that, I was like, man, I'm going to make the Olympic team. I'm making it in 2004. But I graduated from high school in 2004,

and I didn't even qualify for the Olympic trials to go and try out for the Olympic team. So I was like, dang, I got some work to do. Okay. Do you remember what your lifts were back then when you were 14, what your weight class was and what you were hitting? When I was 14, I was a 69 kilo lifter. I think I had 80 kilos snatched in a 100 kilo clean and jerk. So Wow

That's a little body weight and close to body weight in half as a 14 year old kid that's pretty solid pretty solid Me hitting that right now. I'm like, I did it. Good day. That's some good numbers, man. What's your take on CrossFit and weightlifting? And kind of like that crossover that's happening. Dude, I love the CrossFit community, man. I really love what the sport is all about.

I love what the community is about. And it's bringing a light back to weightlifting, just the whole sport. I know a lot of people, man, they rag on CrossFit. I don't get it. It doesn't make much sense to me. I'm like, man, it's weird. I don't know. I love it, man.

It's like what's the point of ragging on it if it's presenting you with an opportunity, whether it be to go help people or whether it's bringing, you know, more people into the sport. So, I don't know. I don't get it. I'm all for CrossFit, man. Yeah, I mean, it definitely has increased the number of people who even know what weightlifting is and can appreciate, you know, the skill involved in it.

So, yeah, I mean, I didn't know what weightlifting was until I started doing CrossFit. It's crazy. People stop asking me, like, how much can I bench press? Now they're like, you know what a clean is? They're like, how much do you squat on? They're like, how much can you clean and jerk? I saw the CrossFit games.

And so it's cool, man. So what are your best, I guess, clean and jerking snatch as of now? The best snatch I've done, I did a 162-kilo snatch in training. I did a 211 clean and jerk in training. Damn. Wow. What's the world record for clean and jerking? 218.

Was that 85? Yeah, that's an 85. That's an 85? Those are my best lifts in training. In competition, 203 in the clean and jerk and 160. Doug, the spreadsheet Larson, can you put that into pounds for the viewers? What, the 211? The 211?

You know it in pounds. Yeah, 465 and the 162 snatch, that's, what is it, 356, 356 pounds. Wow. Had a body weight of 187. Had a body weight of 187, yeah. Do you have any words for John North? He didn't come this weekend. I thought he was coming. What a boy he is,7. Yeah, 187. Do you have any words for John North? He didn't come this weekend. I thought he was coming.

Where the boy at, man? He's – I talked to him last week. I'm a Christian, man. I don't want to curse on your podcast. John, I was looking for him. I was like, dude, come on, man. He could have gotten a car. He could have drove his tail down here, man.

That's what I'm going to say. We're supposed to have a pancake challenge eat-off or whatever, and then I know he's going to lift in the Pan Am deal. He's on the start list. He was supposed to lift. He need to be here. I was looking forward to seeing him lift. I think I saw him on – he posted on Facebook that he just opened his new gym

today or this weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina. Yes, I had pictures up. Yeah, so maybe he's busy with that. Still, he should have brought his tail down here, smashed the waist here, right? With his slam bars and kill PRs here. That's right. And then he could have opened up the gym Monday because you got the buzz from the weekend, and then you open up the gym Monday.

Priorities. That boy had a plan, man. And you guys could have had a pancake-eating contest. And we're going to have a pancake-eating contest. I'm like, come on, man. That would have been epic CTTK material. Pancakes for PRs. Yeah, pancakes for PRs.

Charity event. That's going to be a new T-shirt. You heard it here first. Those are coming, though. The pancake for PR TK material. Pancakes for PRs. Charity event. That's going to be a new T-shirt. You heard it here first. Those are coming, though. The Pancake for PR T-shirts. Oh, for real? Yeah, real life, though. Oh, hell yeah.

I think, Kendrick, you coined that. Yeah, man. We coined it, and then I saw that. Is that really going to be an event during the CrossFit Games? What's that? The pancakes. Eating pancakes? Did you not see that?

Was he playing with Dave Castro playing? No, no, no. I thought you were just joking. What happened? Did you not see that? Was he playing with Dave Castro playing? No, no, no. I thought you were just joking. What happened? Okay, so listen. Dave Castro, I saw he made the announcement. I'm serious. It was like pancakes.

He was like, you're going to eat, I think it was like chocolate pancakes or something. I was like, dude, can't be serious, man. I was like, dude, I probably can't do a handstand pushup for reps, but I can smash some pancakes. I'm like, let me in, man. Have you ever done any CrossFit workouts? Never, never. I got one coming this summer.

My plan is to go to the CrossFit Games this summer, and I'm going to do my first workout there. I'm going to do something that's weightlifter friendly. You should do Isabel, 30 snatches per time. Yeah, 30 snatches per time. What is it, 60 kilos or 130 pounds? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I'm going to kill it. What's the record?

Seriously, what's the record? Probably under a minute. It's around a minute. I can do a minute. A minute 14? A minute 4. I don't know if I can do a minute 4. I can keep it under a minute and 15 seconds for sure.

I just know this. I don't need it to be... Doing snatches? No, I'm serious, man. Not to sound like that guy, but listen to me. 60-kilo snatch, 30 reps, right? Yeah. Yeah, I can handle that. They're not me, dude.

No, have you looked at them and then looked at me? I'm being serious. I want video evidence. I'm so serious. Listen, this summer I'm planning on being at the CrossFit Games and I'm planning on doing my first CrossFit workout. It has to be weightlifting friendly, like I said. So I'm going to do Isabelle, right?

Okay. 30 snatches. And I'm not going to lay out after I do them. You're going to walk away. I'm going to walk around and I'm going to high-five the people. Do something different at the Games. You come to Memphis and do Isabelle with us. When are you all doing it?

When are you trying to do it? We'll do it whenever. Whenever. Look, he wants to say whenever. Let me get another. We'll do it at the Barbell Look, he wanted to say whenever. Let me get another. When do you want to come out? We'll do it at the Barbell Shrugged Weightlifting Championships where we do the Barbell Shrugged Total.

Yeah, we're having a weightlifting meet at the end of October. We'll do that. We'll do a weightlifting meet, and then we'll do Isabel afterwards. Dude, I'll be ready for sure because, look, this is my first training cycle I've got under my belt, right? So I took some time off after the Olympics, the games in London, and just started back up in January, first training cycle under my belt. So I get some more training done, some more weeks under my belt.

Dude, I'll be good to do whatever, honestly. You guys do workshops for – and do you guys do that primarily with CrossFit gyms? Yeah. You know the weightlifters, they know everything. So they don't invite us in they know everything oh yeah yeah of course they don't need any help so they know they know everything so dude the crossfit community is really embracing what we're doing um so you know we go go in and do breaking down um the olympic movement snatch clean and jerk we do three different jerk styles uh do the question and

answer of course and then you know we do a demonstration as well people like to you know they want to see you kind of move some weight so we'll do that but it was really just to break down a lot of this uh what i call bull job i see a lot of bull job out there it's great yeah seriously i want i just want people to be successful i want people and also i don't want people to get hurt so i don't know i just see a lot of different things out there i'm I'm like, eh, I don't know about that. But it is more one way to skin a cat, so I can't say I know everything. There you go. What are the three types of jerks you're talking about?

So, what we'll do is a kick jerk, which is my version of a split jerk, right? And then we'll do, you know, power jerk, or some people call it a push jerk. And then we do a squat jerk. So, you know, I do all three of those kick jerk squat jerk and uh power you don't kick jerk in competition anymore do you nah i done chilled out with that man like i could do it it's like it's just too much to think about it's easier for me just to go into the competition and lift and i'm like all right it's power jerking yeah if you want to see an interesting looking jerk just search for a video of kendrick ferris doing clean and jerks in, what, 2008? Mm-hmm.

And, yeah, I remember the first time I saw you, it was at the American Open. I think it was 07 or 08 at the American Open. It was 07, yeah. And I had never seen that style of jerk before, and I always just thought it was your thing. You got a name for it. Did you invent that, or is that a style? Yeah, man, we came up with it, man.

It's a kick jerk, and the reason for being, like, it's just like if you see a bike guy has a kickstand. It looks a little awkward, but it ain't going nowhere. So it's the same thing. You look at my jerk, you be like, oh, no, he's good. It looks scary as shit. Yeah. He be like, oh, it does. Like, that boy kind of leaning.

I thought he was going to die. I didn't know it was intentional. Oh, yeah. And you also did the squat jerk for a while, didn't you? Oh, yeah. I still do that. So you're still doing the squat jerk. Still working and perfecting it.

Why did I choose the squat jerk? So, man, you really have to find what works for you, right? So I use this doing the squad jerk. Still working and perfecting it. Why did you choose that? Why did I choose the squad jerk? So, man, you really have to find what works for you, right? So I use this example all the time, this analogy. If you think about baseball, you see the pitchers. These guys, they learn the fundamentals, and then they just make the movement their own. So if you see a guy throwing the ball side on him, is he throwing it incorrectly?

No, he just learned the fundamentals, and he makes the movement his own. You have to do what works best for you. And like I said, I've done all the different styles of additional split jerk, power jerk, squat jerk, so I'm just finding what works for me and just trying to perfect it. What do you guys do that's different than maybe some other workshops? So there's a ton of weightlifters doing seminars for CrossFit gyms, and we actually interview a lot of those guys.

We've talked to Justin Thacker, Zach Critch, John North. What's different about how you guys approach things? I feel like my approach to it, like I said, it's a Blessed Gym tour, so we get to talk about the mindset a lot, you know what I mean, and a lot of people they overlook that. And the lifts, I mean, the lifts is there's no way around what we're doing. Everybody's going to be covering the lifts if it's a workshop, seminar, right? But what I'm doing, I feel like my approach is different.

Only because, like, we're tackling more than just, okay, what is this natural life? What is this position? Of course, we're handling the positions. But at the same time, your mindset is very important, like, into going into doing these movements, going into training just day in and day out how you're overcoming obstacles i mean i've been there so it's i think what i can do i can relate to the people uh very well in that in that sense so i just feel like that's the different approach i'm bringing man we're just spreading love man that's what it's about so do you teach people i guess like cues when they go to lift or mental cues or how they

want to perform the lift when they get on the platform or anything like that. Well, yeah, I mean, I give them the cues that I tell myself. Right. But I'm telling you, man, we dig a lot. So we just try to get to know the person in that short amount of time that we have. But at the same time, we just try to find what triggers in their mind and what helps them work. Dude, we iron that position out. That's really the most important thing.

The positions are key. And then we just deal with the mindset, right? Everybody that comes in, they know how to do the lifts. So we got to see what we got to work on upstairs first and then everything else will follow. Kyle Pierce's program is known to be more strength-oriented versus a lot of other weightlifting programs. Is that reflective in the seminars you guys do, the workshops?

Well, the workshops are really quick, man. They really just tackle the list. People ask questions about that, but we're starting to do the training camps now. Like I have a training camp that's coming up. It's going to be April 16th and 17th. It's going to be out in Los Angeles. I'm saying Los Angeles. I'm a country boy.

So it's going to be out in Los Angeles at I think it's Paradosa CrossFit. I think that may be like Santa Monica, the Santa Monica area. But that's going to be the training camp where we focus more on the strength stuff, you know what I mean, and some technique things as well. But the workshops, you're really just breaking down the movements. And like I said, people have questions about, you know, strength questions about how can I strengthen this, how can we do this. And then we answer those questions.

So the workshops are mostly technique, and now the training camp's added in the programming? They add in the programming and in some technique stuff. Because the strength and technique, man, they go hand in hand. You cannot sacrifice one for the other. But with the workshops, man, we're really just trying to, like I said, break down some of the myths about the lifts, right, and a lot of the gimmicks or whatever that's out there

and just help people with the positions and just, you know, and the positions and mindsets and the workshops. But, man, the training camps, we're going to turn it up a little bit. Like, you'll be doing squats. We'll be doing deadlifts. We'll do some of the Olympic movements. But we're going to do more, like, strength-based things in the training camps. How long will these training camps go?

Dude, the training camps are two days, man. So we'll do two days, and they're going to be for two days. So, like, the one in LA, I think the first time is starting at like 1230 to 230 and then we have another one that'll go from we pick it right back up, it'll go from I think 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock.

So it'll be two hours, two a days. Wow. I know a lot of weightlifters don't prefer to deadlift and you just said the word deadlift. So you're a big fan of deadlifting. Yeah, I'm all about it. You're talking about like a clean to deadlift, and you just said the word deadlift. So you're a big fan of deadlifting. Yeah, I'm all about it. You're talking about like a clean deadlift? Clean grip deadlift or a snatch grip deadlift?

Is that a powerlifting style deadlift? Nah, nah, nah, nah. Okay. Wait, listen. Hands over here. I don't do the, what is it? Reverse grip? Well, I'm also talking about bar path.

High hips or? Yeah, do you do like the high powerlifting hips, or do you try to mimic the snatch and the clean, that's listen and that's what it's about so you have a lot of lifters that i feel like they run from the deadlifts because they're heavy right but man it's about building it over time so look we're doing the deadlifts it's to mimic the movement so it transfers over i don't do the deadlift like a deadlift i don't think the move slow i think the move like i'm about to do a lift. So if you see my lifts, people are like, man, he's moving

so fast and so violent. I'm like, dude, think about it. I'm deadlifting 230 kilos for reps, right? And we're doing it for position work at the same time. How do you think 200 kilos is going to feel? How do you think 180 kilos is going to feel when I pull it off the ground like nothing? One of the main things when I do a lift,

if it feels light coming off the ground, confidence that i'm gonna make the lift is so much higher than if it you know is a grind coming off the ground you know so i mean yeah doing yeah making doing a heavy deadlift you know lifting several kilos below that it's not gonna feel like anything yeah so do you go off a percentage of your deadlift max or are you going off percentage of your clean when you or do you work with percentages at all and just go strength by feel every day? No, no, we work off percentages, but at the same time it's a percentage feel. That's the way our training is set up. And I know it sounds kind of funny because people like you.

Like perceived effort? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, so like you have a target number. So they say if you aim at nothing, I mean, if you aim at nothing, that's usually what you'll hit, right? Right. So we have the target percentage and then you base it how you feel.

So if you feel really good, knock out that percentage. If it feels okay, we're going to make sure, we'll take it down a little bit and make sure you get the reps in. How many times a day do you usually train? Twice a day? Once a day. Just one time. One time a day, five days a week. You said there's a lot of

bull jive out there and a lot of myths. What are the most common ones you see? He wanted to touch on it so he could look it up, but this is what it is. This is what I feel. I just see a lot of stuff, and like I said, it's more than one way to skin a cat, so I don't have all the answers. I've only been doing this 15 years plus. There are coaches that have been doing this a lot longer than I have

way before I was born, so I don't know. Like I said, I just see some stuff out there, and I'm'm just like I don't know what that's supposed to help what's an example of something you see I'm not you don't want to call anyone out nobody out dude because I'm because listen man I'm telling you I'm I'm all about love I'm all about embracing people as long as you're doing something positive I don't want nobody to get hurt I just like I said I just see some crazy stuff And I'm just like man How am I supposed to get Some controversy on this show I know Come on man John would have to come

Like if John Norman Would have been there John would have no problem John would definitely He would definitely start I don't speak on it too much now If he says something about it Then I you know

I co-sign I kind of co-sign on things You throw some stuff out I'll be like yeah Well you know Saw that What do you think about The Archangel

What is it Tom Brady on a white horse I don't like I don't like anybody With the first name Tom And last name Brady What do you think about the Archangel? What is it? Tom Brady on a white horse. Tom Brady on a white horse. I don't like anybody with the first name Tom and last name Brady. Dude, I'm a Miami Dolphin fan, man. Dude, nah. Little known fact. I was going over your bio earlier, and you also do some stand-up comedy.

I do some. I'm really not that funny, though. That's the thing. I'm so serious. That's a problem. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think people not that funny, though. That's the thing. That's a problem. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think people just come to laugh at me. They don't really laugh with me. So I think that's how that whole thing got started.

But it's really more on the hosting side. So I'm just trying to perfect that. And I hosted a step show. Are you familiar with the step shows? I am. Yeah. Have you ever seen Stomp the Yard? Uh-uh.

Okay. I'm going to bring you to some urban living real quick. So you have like these Greek organizations, whether it's a fraternity or sorority, and what they have, they have these, you can just say these routines that they put together, like steps, they do all these different things, and it's pretty crazy.

So I hosted one of those not too long ago, and I was just saying that to say this. He asked me about the comedian, about doing a stand-up comedy thing. I've done some of that, but hosting is really what my passion is. I love hosting the comedy shows. I have a friend. You guys should look him up. His name is Robert Powell.

He's on the Shaq Comedy Tour, but he's given me the privilege to open up for him and to host some of his comedy shows. It's easy. I get up there, make sure the crowd is engaged, make sure people are alive, slide a couple of jokes in, co-sign on some of the jokes that the comedians just did, and it's easy, man. I think I get a lot of love with it, yeah.

That's probably fun as hell, being in front of a bunch of people and they're all laughing at what you're saying. It's easy, man. Yeah. It's easy, bro. Favorite comedian? Dude, I love Bernie Mac, God rest his soul. Eddie Murphy.

Oh, yeah, Eddie Murphy's top dog. Dude, Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor, yeah. Jerry Seinfeld. Dude, that's my favorite show, Seinfeld. Martin Lawrence. Man, and dude, and right now, it's honestly, man, not just because he's my friend, Robert Powell.

Robert Powell, man. Dude is hilarious. Look up Robert Powell III. I'm telling you. Is he out of Shreveport? No, he's from Monroe, Louisiana. Okay. This dude, I'm telling you, he is so funny, dude.

It's ridiculous. Like, his timing. His timing is just like no other. Like, you'll see. He doesn't, man. You find him on YouTube? Look him up. Look him up.

I mean, he may have something on YouTube, but like I said, tonight I think they're just recording. Like, they're on the Shag Comedy Tour. Kevin Hart was on this tour a couple of years ago. And like I said, Robert, he's got the opportunity to be on it. And, man, they're recording for the DVD tonight, and it'll be showing on TV, I think, in a couple weeks. But Robert Powell, man, look him up.

We're all pretty big fans of stand-up comedy. I love it. We go out of our way to watch it. Greg Giraldo, man, that guy was always my favorite. Yeah. We went and saw Joe Rogan last week. We saw Rogan live in Nashville. Who did you see?

Like a week ago, Joe Rogan. Oh, man, I know that was crazy. I didn't know he did the comedy, though. Yeah. Dang, that's crazy. He is funny. Is yeah dang it's funny is he raunchy i know he's very raunchy i know he is look it's just watching him host the x factor and stuff like that not the x factor what is it fear factor x factor but yeah fear factor man so yeah he seems like a funny guy all right so here we get off comedy and back to weightlifting for a second so yes so um all your fault coming up yeah so coming up i'm sure you've hit many plateaus over the years what are the types of things that you've done to kind of break through some of those plateaus you're not you're

not gaining strength you haven't pr'd in a while what do you do what do you change man you really just have to go back to the basics you have to see i mean if most people keep a training log and if you're not keeping a training log i suggest that you do because you can go back and just kind of see what numbers you were doing around a certain time in some of your assistance exercises or the strength exercises and then and line it up because you got to understand what season you're in and when i'm talking about what season you're in like weightlifting man they're ups and downs so sometimes you got to know when to really bet you can't just be trying to go balls to the wall every workout even though we want to give a max effort right i mean you got to just load up the weight and just try to force it man

you got to move with the momentum so in order to get over those flat toes man bring it back to the basics figure out what was working at a certain period of time and then figure out where you are and i think that'll help i'm still learning man okay so say you have a competition coming up in three months kind of how does your training look leading up to that competition? What do those waves look like? Or should we start further out? Nah, I mean, three months, that's about a perfect training cycle. A full training cycle for myself is like 12 to 13 weeks.

And, I mean, we'll start with our endurance phase. You know, it's high reps for us. Like, you know, we're doing like 10 reps. And then it comes down to our strength and power phase. We're down in fives. And we'll come down to threes and then our taper you know what i mean right into the peaking phase and i write this this has been a taper week for me started monday coming on through so okay it's kind of been hanging out so i didn't expect you to say 10 reps what do you mean when you say 10 reps you're doing you're doing tens on on the big

list no i don't even we won't no, we weren't doing any lifts at all. Just squatting? Dude, just the strength stuff, squats, deadlifts. Oh, really? Okay. I didn't know that. Yep. How many weeks do you do that for? It freaks me out.

They're like, my goodness, I'm not doing the lifts. I'm going to get weak. But no, man, it's about building the strength, man. How many weeks do you do the strength only? It really just depends. I know some people, they do it like four weeks. I do it maybe two or three weeks, maybe. You build up that base, and then you start throwing in the Olympic lifts?

Yeah, and we start sliding them in. Once we get the strength and the power phase, we start sliding in some lifts then. What's some assistance work? Some of the assistance work you found to be most valuable for weightlifting man it's gonna go back to the deadlifts i love the deadlifts i love the squats like those are those are like the base exercises i just love them so much but it's just thinking like just assistant lift it would have to be maybe like a push press like i love those um of course like some overhead work.

Like we call them the three-by-threes. You know, you got a snatch grip, so you got the bar behind your head, and it's like a behind-the-neck push press basically with a snatch grip. So you're dipping, pushing it overhead for three, and then we'll do three overhead squats. Feels like your wrist is about to explode, but I'm telling you, think about just doing one snatch. It feels like nothing yeah that's true

yeah we've programmed a little bit of that lately yeah slide it in man a lot of complexes we've been doing a lot of complexes lately what kind of complexes just what you were talking about oh okay something like that i've been programming a little bit of that for our weightlifters lately yeah playing around with that i think it's been. Yeah, like we'll do a power clean and then to a front squat and then a couple of jerks, so that kind of complex. Okay. You want to take a quick break? Yeah. All right, we'll take a quick break.

Back in a minute. Hey, guys, this is Rich Veroning, and you're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to fitter.tv. Welcome back. Barbell Shrugged here with alex macklin our faction weightlifter and two-time olympian kendrick ferris and my co-host and oh yeah oh yeah that guy doug we got something coming up on the 21st what is it we do uh we're gonna do a live q a with chris moore for everyone who's purchased Simple Strength. So if you have questions about Simple Strength

and you want to ask Chris on a live feed, look through the product, find the parts that you're a little confused about or that you wish that Chris would kind of expand on a little bit, and I'm going to email that out. I don't know the exact time we're going to do that event quite yet, but I'm going to email that out here in the

coming weeks. So if you've already bought Simple Strength, you can come to that event, and if you want to come to that event then there's still time to buy simple strength and you can get on the list and that event will be a live webinar on the internet so you don't actually have to come to memphis to participate that's right yep so that's coming up on april 21st again i'll send out the time and i'll probably send out a survey um prior to that as well i think on the last show i said that i was going'll send out the time, and I'll probably send out a survey prior to that as well. I think on the last show I said that I was going to send out a survey to figure out the time, but we've been out of town.

I haven't done that yet, so someday I might get to that. We've been out of town the last few days. Every night I'm like, I'm going to get some work done tonight, and every night I work for about five minutes. Then I hand you a beer, and I'm like, you can do it later. Later's the best time to do everything. Doug's a good influence on me. It sounds like it. What day is he going to be in Santa Monica?

You said April 16th? Yeah, April 16th and 17th, man. We're going to be out there. And I feel bad. I want to say, like I said, name of the gym I think is Paradosa. I'm going to be in Santa. I fly out of there. I'll be in Santa Monica on the 15th, and I fly out that night.

Oh, so you just – Otherwise, I could have come out. Yeah, you should stay. You should just miss your flight. Done it before. I was going to say, you bring Doug. You bring Doug. You'll make sure you miss him.

That's right. You don't need to go. I don't know. Actually, the guy – You'll be with a way better guy for that. Yeah, we got a friend, Derek, who – Hold on. I don't think he's ever made a flight.

Like, he's missed every single flight. So hanging out with that dude, we'll probably miss a flight for sure. And I'll come hang out. Just hit me up, man. And you can come on in. You can come in on me, man. If you're in town, seriously, just hit me up. Dude, if I'm still in Santa Monica on the 16th, I'm in trouble.

I'm like, hit me up. We'll make you feel better for the day. Anyway, just come hang out. There you go. Back to reality. So can people sign up for your workshops online? Man, yeah. The crazy thing is they just got to get in touch with the gym.

So depending on where we're going to be and what gym, I just let them get in touch with them. That's how we work it out. Oh, wherever it's being hosted at? Yeah, wherever it's being hosted, they just let them get in touch with them, and that's how we work it out. Oh, wherever it's being hosted at? Yeah, wherever it's being hosted, they just contact that gym. So, like I said, if they're in the D.C. area, April 13th, I think it's April 13th. Is that a Saturday? I'm bad with the days.

I think it's April 13th. So, April 13th, if you're in the D.C. area, we're going to be at CrossFit Trident. I've got a workshop there, so you can contact them. It's going to be in Alexandria, Virginia, the D.C. area. So, you can contact CrossFit Trident. See about coming and hanging out with us. And like I said, 16th and 17th of this month, we're going to be out in Santa Monica.

You guys come and visit us. We've got the training camp going on for two days there. Okay, and how much does that cost? The training camp for those two days, I think it's $150. And we're doing two a days. So it's for the two days. So we're going to have four workout sessions. Okay.

Oh, yeah. That's damn cheap. It is. It's a two-day letter. And you probably learn a whole lot, too, from yourself. Yeah, dude, just bring in your notebook, take whatever you want to take down, and just run off with it and apply it. I thought you were going to say it was $500.

That sounds awesome. Nah, man, trust me, man, it's all love, man, dude. So you can charge a whole bunch of money, but I don't know. I think once you get the people in and they just really see what it's about, they'll be willing to come back because they know it's worth it. Is it just you that goes to these, or do you have like a team? I mean, I have a couple of coaches that may come to different places with me. Sometimes I'll go by myself.

It really just depends on people's schedules, you know. Yeah. But we try to bring in a coach with us every time we go, but I'll knock it out by myself, man. I'll talk all day. Do you have anything else lined up? Any other cities? Yeah, man, just go to blessedgym.com.

You can grab some apparel there, and you can check out the tour dates and everything that we got lined up, whatever city we're going to be in. You can follow me on Twitter, at Kendrick J. Ferris. You can follow me on Instagram. It's the same name, at Kendrick J. Ferris. My Facebook fan page is the same thing, man. So same name for all the different sites, and I keep everything posted on there.

All right, perfect. Alex, you got anything to plug? I don't have anything to plug except shout out to the Faction Weightlifting team. Oh, yeah. We all kicked ass this weekend. Oh, yeah. Yeah, nobody bombed out. We did good.

Nobody bombed out. A lot of people PR'd. A lot of people bombed out. A lot of people PR'd us. A lot of people hit PRs. A lot of people hit PRs. They slammed the bar, though. That's the real question. Amber, I think, slammed the bar. I think Amber slammed the bar.

Girl, you better go, girl. That's good, man. Congrats. Everyone did really well. Everyone hit some total PRs. They hit a PR somewhere. Maybe not on their snatch, but they did on a clean and jerk or vice versa. That's perfect. We had a good weekend jerk or vice versa. That's perfect.

So we had a good weekend. It was exciting. That's good, man. Good times. What do you got, Doug? Anything to plug? I went first, remember? Did you?

I was the very first person to go. You haven't gone yet. That was me. You haven't gone. I'm the last one. You're the last one. This is where you say you save the best for last. I am the best. I had forgot. This is where you say you saved the best for last. I am the best.

I had to tell you, but yeah. Make sure to go to barbellshrug.com, sign up for our newsletter. Go to Facebook, hit the Like button. Go to iTunes, give us five stars, and leave a raving review. Yeah. Am I forgetting anything? Follow me on Twitter. Yeah. At MichaelBletso. Don't follow anyone else. Maybe. Yeah anything? Follow me on Twitter. Yeah.

At MichaelBletso. Don't follow anyone else. Maybe. Yeah, don't follow my Twitter or Instagram. All right, guys. All right. Appreciate you coming on the show. And I appreciate y'all having me.

Thanks. Thanks, Kendrick.