Barbell Shrugged - Barbell Shrugged  -  Creating the Ultimate Gym Culture w/ Kenny Santucci  -  316

Episode Date: May 23, 2018

Kenny Santucci (@kennysantucci) is Program Director & Creator of Body by Solace, a total conditioning program using bodyweight movements, kettlebells, Assault Bikes, rowers, and more. Kenny is a dynamic leader, who encourages clients through his no-bull approach to training. When training with Kenny, expect plenty of tough-love. He nicknames his class and clients ‘Team Beautiful’ because he encourages members to exude positivity in all facets of life. In this episode, Kenny shares with us how he has brought Solace to compete with other boutique gyms in New York, while having operating costs that are near the cost of running five gyms. How a beautiful space and world class coaching attracts an audience big enough to fill 200 classes each week, how to provide value in building a strong base of clients and athletes, and much more. Enjoy! - Mike, Doug and Anders Show notes at: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs_santucci ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please support our partners! Thrive Market is a proud supporter of us here at Barbell Shrugged.  We very much appreciate all they do with us and we’d love for you to support them in return!  Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of FREE Organic Groceries + Free Shipping and a 30 day trial, click the link below: https://thrivemarket.com/shrugged How it works:  Users will get $20 off their first 3 orders of $49 or more + free shipping.  No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week anyway, so why not give Thrive Market a try! Organifi is another great company with whom we’ve chosen to partner.  They offer a premium line of health supplements you can use to optimize your body.  Doug and Mike use their products everyday and highly recommend you give them a try. If you’d like a discount you can use the code “shrugged” to instantly get 20% off your order, click below to check out their supplements: https://organifishop.com Code: BBS20 for 20% off Strong Coffee! ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedp... TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

I did Ironman to marathons and triathlons since my early 20s. And I love that stuff. I love the endurance aspect. And you're never going to be good at one and be good at the other as well. You know, it's like I last just this year, I ran the marathon and I was squatting. I was getting my squat back up and I run the marathon. And then I'm like, all right, my legs are fucking killing me for the next three weeks. This episode is brought to you by Organifi. Anders, tell us about it.

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You're going to make people happy. You're going to feel better. All you got to do, Organifi.com backslash shrugged. Save 20%. Go do it now. This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market. Anders, tell us about it. Oh, Thrive Market, the coolest grocery store in all of the internet.

Actually, if you are very interested in eating organic food, fueling your workouts for performance, and making sure you are putting the highest quality ingredients and food into your mouth to make sure you're getting bigger, stronger, faster in the healthiest possible way, Thrive Market has all of the answers for you. And for shrugged listeners, you're going to get $60 in free organic groceries, free shipping, a free 30-day trial, all at thrivemarket.com backslash Shrugged. Once again, $60 in free organic groceries, free shipping,

and a 30-day trial at thrivemarket.com backslash Shrugged. Word up. Welcome to Marvel Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner. That's Doug Larson. Adam von Rothfelder. Yeah. Gorgeous day here in San Diego, California,

wrapping up the Fitness Business Summit. We are joined by Kenny Santucci, owner of Solace. Solace Fitness? Solace New York. Solace New York. If you have not seen this thing on Instagram, look, you guys created this gym, and then all of a sudden you put a camera in the thing.

It's freaking gorgeous. Every piece of it, which is so nice to see because when I opened my gym, I had a dollar maybe, and it looked like crap. It's just kind of dirty. The equipment sucks. The exact opposite of what you guys are going with at Solace. Well, I mean, the thing is, you know, people are always like, oh, do you consider yourself competing with other CrossFit gyms?

And there's, you know, the Fifth Avenue location. There's the brick and all this. But those aren't our main competition. Our main competition are all these, like, boutique, beautiful studios. Yeah. Like the Tone Houses and these fitting rooms and all these, like, small boutique places where it's like you get a towel, you get a water, they wipe your ass if you need them to.

Really? That's what we need to compete against in New York. small boutique places where it's like you get a towel, you get a water, they wipe your ass if you need them to. Really? That's what we need to compete against in New York. New York is a completely different animal. So even coming here and listening to a lot of these guys talk, I mean, like, oh, I got a small boot camp and I got $50. I'm like, it'll never fly. I mean, yes, you can do okay, but you need millions of dollars to make things work. Well, if you're going to open in Manhattan,

I mean, your rent just alone to get into the door to even put a piece of equipment in there is astronomical. It's a totally different ballgame, and I tell everybody that. I'm like, my rent alone is what most guys are spending on four locations or five locations. And I think one of the first gyms that opened, CrossFit specific, was like CrossFit New York. Yeah. And they got kicked out of like 12 places before they i don't even know if they have a home anymore but i was actually just over there

the other day you know talking with the owner because they had bought about three four years ago when you know crossfit was at its like peak and everybody's joining you hear more and more people joining crossfit now they kind of plateaued they had at one point 12 you know 1500 members it was doing ridiculous and then it kind of dropped off a little bit and now there's all these other boutique studios that aren't calling themselves crossfit but they're doing crossfit so they're not paying the affiliate and things like that so now they have these two floors 1200 uh 12,000 square feet a piece you know that they put like a cement slab on so they could drop and all the shit and they're not doing as well as they could drop and all this shit,

and they're not doing as well as they were at one point. And I think CrossFit as a whole isn't doing as well as it used to do. I was at Fifth Ave one time, and they were putting in a new floor that had springs under it or something to try and dampen down the noise, and it was insanely expensive what they were having to do just to try to make it where they could drop weights again. Imagine being a 300-pound clean and jerk, and the only thing underneath you is like one piece of plyboard.

Oh, yeah. One of the only CrossFit workouts I've really jumped in was at the Black Box, which was like third or fourth story of a building that no dropping weights, right? And the workout was very like deadlift, axe, you know, get to pull-ups. And then we had to go for a run. And we're running down like three flights of stairs. Well, by the time we got to the last round, two people fell as they were trying to get down the stairs as fast as possible so they could win this thing. And I'm like, I don't want to fall down the stairs.

I'm like walking down the stairs. No, it just doesn't make sense in the end. So what was – Oh, go ahead was oh god sorry no like even running like one of those things where it's like everybody's like oh yo we put running into a workout i'm like i can't have 30 people running on 30 second people are running over cars knocking people over i've had a hundred people come in the gym and be like stop running i was like you should start especially if they have equipment they're all carrying carrying kettlebells oh yeah yeah all the time in the morning people are like mortified by like what they see like girls and like little sports bras walking down the street that's awful

well it's it's always like the people who've never even seen the inside of a gym are like what are they doing why are they doing that yeah it's like adopt that style what was they're obviously torturing people up there. What was kind of the vision when you guys opened, though? Because you've not just attracted or created a gorgeous gym, but attracted talent on the coaching side that's world class. Yeah, well, for me, I had a gym in New Jersey. I opened up back in 2012, 2013.

Got into it a little bit with my partners. You know, it happens to the best of us. Things. Yeah, so that kind of fell apart. 13. Got into a little bit with my partners. It happens to the best of us. Thanks. That kind of fell apart. When they opened up Solace, about six months in, the guys who originally opened it up contacted me. They were like, hey, you want to come coach for us?

I went over there and I just looked at their model. It was this beautiful space. They had Dave Durante there and they had Coach Panda over there. They had all these guys. I'm like, you guys are underutilizing all the talent you have here. You have this beautiful space. You're underutilizing it. So I was like, let me play around with this a little bit.

So they kind of gave me the reins to the business for a while. And now I kind of run at me and one other guy. But we did like a hit style class because they had this whole top floor that they were only using for gymnastics. I was like, but the market for people who want to do gymnastics isn't that big once twice maybe even three times a week but you need to put something else in here that could kind of compete with the the the rest of the landscape here in new york so we started doing uh you know kettlebells assault bikes we were like the first ones to have like assault bikes in these hit style classes i had um skiers and uh rowers and kind of just made it we

called it body because it was all the people who didn't give a shit about the performance side of crossfit they don't want to snatch they don't want to deadlift they don't care about any of that stuff they just want to look better naked so we kind of just so we just kind of did like the bare bones it's like crossfit basically without a barbell and that's what most of these studios are. They're CrossFit without a barbell. So I started that program with three classes. Five o'clock on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Three went to five. Five went to 15.

15 went to 30. And now we have over 60 classes a week just in that. We run over 200 classes a week. Out of how many educators, coaches? I have close to 25 25 coaches yeah so we do like gymnastics class we have a barbell class we have a strength class uh we're actually looking at a new space downtown in like financial district to do like more of a barbell type club like where you could do some uh strongman stuff um more you know weightlifting powerlifting stuff like that because we're starting to see I'm doubling down on it

especially in New York, people are doing HIIT classes but it gets old and I'm starting to see all these what we call the basic bitch they're the ones who are consuming they're the ones who are buying and they're the ones who are now over the HIIT stuff and they want to start playing with a barbell, they want to squat, they want to deadlift

they want to do these things, so I'm like I want to create a whole gym where that you know i mean yeah we'll have a little bit of crossfit here and there but for the most part it's going to be like barbell stuff yeah that's cool because there's nothing else like it yeah i mean i could definitely second that there's nothing like that in new york yeah i spent a decent amount of time there and i would love to find a gym that had a atlas stone yeah or a keg to carry and it's in the basement it's it's going to be a cool spot. That's very cool.

Most gyms, they run, like, say, eight classes a day, something like that, seven days a week, which is like a fourth of what you're doing. What does 200 classes a week look like? I mean, so we run CrossFit classes on the half hour. So it's like 5, 5.30, 6, 6.30, 7, 7.30 during those peak times. Those one-hour classes that are overlapping? Yeah. They're one-hour classes, and we kind of just separate the room.

So, like, you know, the class will start here and it moves to here, and everybody kind of follows that train. And then the basement's big enough where we have a barbell or a strength class going on in the back. So we do starting strength. Mike Wolfe's one of our coaches, so he runs this whole program Monday, Wednesday, Fridays. And then we do our weightlifting classes on the opposite days. And then we have our studio upstairs where it has,

it's basically like a yoga Pilates studio that we have a class going on there. And then we have a class upstairs in our hit style studio. It really is like the future of, I think, I mean there's so many gyms right now that are struggling to keep up with what people like you are doing. I mean you can't just have like that dingy gym that looks like the basement only and you have to you're not going to attract the talent people are only going to be there a little while and you're really talking to this like like

everybody knows there should be some intensity in your workouts yeah you're not you're not just having like high level crossfitters only show up or people with massive strength backgrounds but finding that person that just wants to show up look good but they know they have to go to a real gym now yeah but real gyms don't have to suck they don't have to be dirty they don't have to be gross well i'm it's even now at the point where like the equinoxes are catching up like equinox is now building hotels yeah that like are destination spots where people are like i'm gonna go work out there. So they're going to have all the bells and whistles that you want.

But I started at Equinox 10 years ago and they had two benches, maybe one squat rack, and now they're changing out their, you know, their floors and stuff and starting to make them more functional spaces. So as soon as those guys catch up and all these guys start doing like the lifetime fitness and stuff, they already have these, you know, alpha programs where they got 10 squat racks down the, you know, down the length of the space. Yeah. I mean, you can't compete with money like that.

So a lot of these smaller gyms, I mean, everybody is going to have to try to compete with these guys. I think it comes down to those coaches, right? Yeah, for sure. And that's really, you know, and the ability to have a educated staff that can pivot at any moment and start bringing something new. And that's where it's like you brought up Equinox, you go to the Chelsea one, and it's actually got a serious amount of kettlebells and squat racks and platforms. You're like, I actually could work out here.

Well, in the Midwest and in California and stuff, you guys have the space. In New York, there's very few spaces, very little spaces where you can have everything. Unless you're on the West Side Highway or the East River or something, nobody wants to go all the way over there. So you'll be able to do some stuff. But for you guys out in the Midwest or down south and stuff, people could buy a space, a 20,000 square foot facility or 40,000 square foot facility and put everything in there. Yeah. You know, and it's like, you can't compete against that because people want those amenities.

Plus they'll be able to have, they'll be able to charge less because they'll have all this, you know, income from a bigger corporation. So it's going to get harder and the landscape is definitely going to change. And people are now, it went from, Hey, I don't like doing any type of fitness to I do too much fitness to like, what's the next wave? You know, there's so many people who, like, if you look up the hashtag fitness, everybody's doing it. Like, my mother puts up 65 years old. I'm like, is it cool anymore?

Damn, now you got me thinking. Where did this fitness thing come into your life? Because you're clearly not starting just running 200 classes a week. But when did this kick in for you? My entry into the fitness world was I was really fat as a kid. My whole family. Very Italian, very like New Jersey. So you always had to eat everything on your plate plus whatever your grandmother had left over.

So I got really heavy and I was just like, I'm fucking miserable. I fat like so i a lot of times when i tell people they're like oh how do you coach i'm like i coach from an empathic empathetic point of view but nobody was ever nice to me about it my whole family like abused me for being a fat bastard so it's kind of the same way i teach i'm like listen i'm not telling you anything you don't know you're clearly fucking out of shape let me help help you. Come in. Do what you got to do. And I promise you'll feel better. Because anybody who's like, I feel great being fat.

No, you don't. It's a fucking lie. I know exactly how you feel. You wouldn't be adjusting your shirt and buying fucking double X clothes all the time. It doesn't feel good. So I was like, all right, how do I change this? I started reading muscle magazines and getting into the whole Arnold thing. What age was this? What age was this? What age was this?

13, 14. But I went into high school weighing 235. I remember I tell this story all the time. So when I tried out for the freshman football team, they're like, all right, if you're going to be a quarterback, go over here, and the linemen go over here, and the receivers go over here. So I went with the receivers, being 235 pounds and a 5'3", and they're like, no, buddy, you've got to go't know i was like five four five five okay you've had a

girl's person so they're like no no you gotta go with the fucking line i was like ah shit so i don't want to be one of those that would be cool i was like i can't run for a touchdown you're gonna be a little slower than the rest of you yeah yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I started playing football. I fell in love with wrestling my freshman year of high school, and I did it all through high school and college. And even in college, I'm like, I want to take some kinesiology classes. I want to understand more. Like, the more I knew, the more I wanted to learn more.

And then I was talking to a friend who worked at Equinox at the time, and I was working out with a trainer in Jersey, and she's like, yeah, I could get you who worked at Equinox at the time and I was working out with a trainer in Jersey and she's like yeah I could get you a job at Equinox no problem so I started working over there fell in love with it you know kind of and it was very humbling because I was on television and I started working the floor at Equinox like cleaning up weights and handing people fucking towels and shit and then slowly but surely I opened up a gym in Jersey and then I you know now I'm at Solace, and I get to work with a lot of great brands and stuff.

So it's been a journey, for sure. Where did you find the CrossFit? So a buddy of mine who lived out here was talking, and he's like, dude, you've got to do this workout, blah, blah, blah. This was, God, 2008, 2009. He's like, let's do this workout really fast. And at the time, I'm still doing it. Let's do this workout really fast and at the time i'm still doing this workout really fast that's literally it yeah i'm still doing like concentration curls i never really

like squatting even in college and shit i would like i gotta go to the bathroom skip the squats and shit i fucking hated squatting i still do uh i rather deadlift all day um so i got into it and there was like so much squatting and there wasn't a lot of when i first started doing it like most of workouts were like kettlebell swings and box jumps and shit like that like any work any gym i went to that was a crossfit gym wasn't really doing a lot of barbell shit um and then a friend of mine when i really got into it was when black box you know um a friend of mine was like dude let's try out this black box place it seems cool but and i went over there and it was like power cleans and shit and i'm like i wasn't really good at them even in college in high school they were you know it was still like

curl the bar you know bounce it off your leg curl the bar and i'm like all right that sounds easy enough so i started doing that and then i kind of just fell in love with the culture when like fifth app first came up i met a bunch of guys over there who i like just fell in love with the culture when like fifth at first came up i met a bunch of guys over there who i like just fell in love with uh dre who was like the original head coach over there um fell in love with him fell in love with him and like all the stuff that he preached about crossfit like he really taught me about crossfit um and that's when i was like oh this is it and i i would argue i was still working at equinox at the time they were like you can't be doing crossfit it's a direct competitor of ours and i'm like you guys got to embrace this because this is going to be the future. This is what's going to, you know, kind of take over.

And it did, you know. That sounds like Equinox. You meet a lot of people that, you know, started there. And, like, the dogma is actually what sent them away. Oh, yeah, for sure. Because then they're like, wait, like, this isn't everything, actually. Yeah. Like, fitness is much bigger than just this.

Yeah. Yeah. And there are so many people that I've met through the the years who started there you know kind of learn and because it's a great foundation they have a great foundations program to like teach their trainers and they it's pretty extensive and i i appreciate it and i'm glad i took the journey i did and when younger trainers asked me like where should i go i'm like you know you should find either a really good crossfit facility that's willing to teach them spend the time with you for you to understand what's going on. Or start at an Equinox or somewhere where they have a good fundamentals program to get people to understand just basic human movement.

Because anytime I meet people who are like, oh, I invented this or I did this. It's like you can't invent the way the body moves. It moves in seven ways. We do the same fucking three lifts everywhere and anywhere you go. You didn't invent anything. What does some of the coaching development at Solace look like? So now we have, we built it out because now we just need so many more trainers all the time. We kind of onboard them, kind of test their interest.

It's like, here, listen, be a member here. You know, if you're a member here for two, three months and I see that you love the business, then I'm willing to invest the time into you. After I see that you're interested in doing this, depending on what your background is and what certifications you have and things like that, could kind of push you forward a little bit faster than other people just because I need the talent. But what I have them do is I kind of have them start taking shadowing classes, understanding every aspect of it. Because it's not just one thing. It's not just CrossFit.

So I need them to understand CrossFit. I need to understand hit style class. I need them to understand the studio stuff. I also have them go through working the front desk for a little bit. So now I have employees who could kind of work anywhere. Like, God forbid somebody doesn't show up or something happens, I could kind of have them cycle through the business. So depending on what your level of interest is, what your background is, will determine where I start you on that train. But everybody's got, I need to see that you love it.

I don't need to have to convince somebody to be there. You hear like, oh, they pay really well over there. I don't want you to just be here for a fucking paycheck. Just like they were saying inside. I want you to show up 15 minutes early. I want you hanging out there all day. Like, I'd rather you be here and, you know, kind of help out and do certain things and go that extra mile like i mean between some of the sponsorships i have i always give my coaches like something extra like a pair

of sneakers or you know anything anything i have that i could give away to them just to show them i appreciate what they're doing how much do you guys do that's not group classes how much do you like coach athletes that want to compete in crossfit in CrossFit on a one-on-one basis or personal training or small group stuff? We do some personal training. The space is limited. We literally max out the space most of the time. But we do a lot of private training as well.

There's not a lot of athletes. Most people in New York have real jobs. Real jobs is being lawyers and doctors. We're down the street from NYU. We're surrounded by financial firms. So nobody really has that much of an interest to do that extra stuff. They want to come in and run out. That's what I say.

I sell a shit ton of Fit Aid and bars and stuff like that because people come in, they grab shit, and they run out. There are very few people, some of the younger kids, some of the college students who come in. We do some private one-on-one training with them. So we have Dave who does all the gymnastic stuff stuff and we have this guy nick who does all our weight lifting and wolf does all our strength training so there are different people in different avenues who like if you want to do this we'll send you to him if you want to do that we'll send you to her you know so on and so forth so i haven't guys like dave durante on staff someone who's like just super high level gymnastics most crossfit gyms do not have that maybe they have a weight

lifting coach maybe they have someone who did a few super high level gymnastics. Most CrossFit gyms do not have that. Maybe they have a weightlifting coach. Maybe they have someone who did a few years of gymnastics if they're lucky. But like most people don't have someone like Dave. Like does that set you guys apart in the gymnastics realm compared to other gyms? Yeah, 100%. You know, I attribute a lot of the stuff that we have going on to him. Like people come in from all over the world who are like, oh, we follow Dave. We want to come meet him.

I'm like, if he's here he's and he's the nicest most humble guy you'll ever meet he's by far one of the best people i've ever met um and he he'll work with people on a moment's notice if he's around he just had a kid and stuff so he's kind of busy with his family and then busy with traveling and stuff but if people come in and want to work with them and you know we call him up he'll he'll be more than happy to help them out but uh even michael wolf i mean he's he's one of the first starting strength guys in new york i mean he works directly with ripito um he's one of his main guys so he's there all the time um he helps people a lot i mean like i said i i can't thank the world enough for my staff yeah so i mean

so how do you go from i don't really like to squat to owning a CrossFit gym? That's a leap. It's one of those things where you've got to do the shit you suck at. So I kind of force myself to do that. I just fell in love with the – I did Ironman to marathons and triathlons since my early 20s. And I love that stuff. I love the endurance aspect. And you're never going to be good at one and be good at the other as well you know it's like i last just this year i ran the marathon and i was squatting

i was getting my squat back up and i run the marathon and then i'm like all right my legs are fucking killing me for the next three weeks because it feels terrible it's you know you that's the second time i've done new york and every time you cross that bridge on like mile 15 16 you're like this feels terrible and i have another 10 miles to go people were not meant to run for hours straight on concrete no i don't even like to drive that far yeah it's not that far and people are like are you going to do it again i'm like i guess if i get the opportunity it's an amazing experience it's like it is the only race that i've ever run that there are people every inch of that road. There are people from Staten Island to when you finish in the park

that are screaming, and it's awesome. It's an unbelievable experience. And I want to do another Ironman again. Why do you hate yourself? It's one of those things. It's like I go back and forth. Anytime I start to get ahead a little bit with weightlifting or powerlifting or anything, now it's like, I'm like, oh, well, that'd be a cool race to run.

Let me try that. Yeah, that's that rounded life, though. I mean, you're not, like, soulless kind of embodies that, whereas, like, the dogma is not there because you guys are willing to teach all these other things outside of CrossFit. So you doing your running in itself is a direct reflection of your business. Yeah. And that you run.

It's exactly like, I tell everybody, I'm like, don't just pigeonhole yourself to like one thing. I mean, I have all these experts in these different fields. But like, you know, Dave will jump into CrossFit and do some weightlifting and powerlifting and stuff. I mean, it's very across the board that I kind of preach to them to try other shit. You know, it's like, yeah, he's an expert in that, but it doesn't mean he only does that. Well, all these things used to be so hard to find. Like, even when I opened my CrossFit gym, I thought for a lot of times people were just paying all this extra money just so they could drop weights. Because we were the only person in town that was allowing it.

Yeah. And now, and then, like, powerlifting was in these, like, really seedy corners, like Westside, side barbell how many people are invited to west side like none none you literally nobody would even want to be there right and then gymnastics like that's impossible but now we've got high level coaches all in one place it's pretty freaking incredible yeah yeah it's great i mean and that's why like i want to create this other satellite box where i could kind of do all the specialty stuff down there and like leave this for for a lot of the classes and stuff. And how far do you think that is in the future for you to be able to, for me to be visiting New York and checking out number two and carrying some kegs?

God willing, like three to six months. Sweet, I'll hold you to that. Keep in touch. I'm hoping it works out. You know, I see a lot of these gyms that I like to travel to. A lot of the stuff, and that's what I was going to say on stage, but I only had about five minutes. A lot of the shit I've done, it's okay to say you're selfish. Like a lot of the times I'm like, I buy equipment that I want to play with.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one. And it's like I create a space that I want to be in. You know, I want to keep it clean. I want to have, you know, different different shit there like different amenities and stuff so it's okay to be selfish because you're probably not the only person who thinks or wants these you know different things so i'm like if i create a space where i want to train like i went to um barbell brigade probably like maybe two years down la yeah yeah and i was like this is a cool space this is just something different we don't really have anything like this um so i'm

like all right if we had something like this in new york with a little something extra because we need that but you have to be dialed in i mean there's so much shit in new york they're the craziest fucking workouts it's like hanging from bands from the ceiling and spider fitness yeah yeah like what the fuck even is this like people will do and everybody's like it's the best work i've ever done i go really yeah i saw that i saw it on the news and i was like what are they doing yeah i mean like yeah it's a little scary have you seen um do you know who logan gelbrick is no he's uh he owns deuce gym oh okay yeah yeah yeah they've done a really great i only bring it to you because uh it'd be a good place to look at it.

They've kind of incorporated that strongman model into a CrossFit-esque gym. I know Josh pretty well. I've been there a couple times. I love that gym. It's so simple. It's so accessible.

You could go in. You could do anything you want. You've got so much shit there. They have a little bit of everything it's kind of crossfit but not really and it's kind of strongman yeah it's mostly strongman stuff so yeah i mean there are very few places there's a place out in queens right um what the hell is it called crossfit bell and they did a lot of like strongman they do strongman saturdays and stuff like that and they had kegs and and uh i've been you know been slowly collecting those strong fit bags. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll buy one a month on my own dime.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll buy one a month on my own dime. And I'm like, I just want the whole fucking thing because I could drop these in the basement and they'll be fine. He puts on a great seminar. Does he? Yeah. Yeah, I want to check that out. He puts on a great seminar.

So I want to be able to do that in my gym and have it right in Manhattan because to go to Queens, I'm like, fuck. I've been wanting to go to Queens, I'm like, fuck it. I've been wanting to go for like a year now. I never have a moment to be like, oh, yeah, I'm going to go out to Queens, work out, and then spend the rest of the day fucking around. Yeah. We're going to take a little break. We'll be back, though. I think one of the underlying things that goes on at Solace New York, it sounds like there's a really deep culture that you guys are looking for.

I want to dig into that when we get back. Cool. Shrug listeners, incredibly excited to be announcing our recent partnership with Onnit. Onnit is the leading company in clinically backed research and development for nootropics and supplementation. We recently spent a week down

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the ability to stay focused and have clarity throughout your day we are operating at a very high level we need to be on for interviews we're traveling a lot and we need to be performing in the gym Alpha Brain gets us there it keeps us there and we're able to perform in the gym out of the gym without having these gigantic crashes throughout the day make sure you get over to on it.com backslash shrugged you're going to get a 14 pill trial which is a week-long trial of their best-selling alpha brain no Neurotropic. Welcome back to Wild Rouse Rug. Kenny Santucci in the house.

Boom. Do you see what's going on out here? Somehow in the middle of the first segment, this gigantic boat. Parallel parked. Yeah, we bring it into the break, and there's a 400-ton monstrosity behind us. But we'll get back. You can squat that. Twice, maybe.

Back with Kenny Santucci. Solace, New York. Tell us about the culture of this place and why you guys are so successful and how we're going to be able to replicate that into the next chapter here. Well, same, well, same stuff I talked about on stage yesterday. Um,

kind of eat your own shit. And everybody's like, Whoa, it's a little much. I'm like, no, I was like, you're shoving bullshit down people's throats.

You know, there's so many fitness instructors and everybody's like in the fitness world now, whatever you're selling, whether it's fucking shirts, hats, uh, you know, fitness program,

are you doing it yourself? And people see that, you know? And I think, whether it's fucking shirts, hats, you know, fitness program, are you doing it yourself? And people see that, you know, and I think the more I kind of created that culture of like, hey, if we're going to sell this shit, we should take it. And if we're going to, you know, talk about these workouts, we should do them. And the more you kind of create that, the more people start to believe you. They're like, oh, this guy's really into this and he does it himself, so I might as well jump on board. So I think that's kind of created what we have here.

So a lot of the coaches do the classes then? Yeah, I try to get the coaches to do as much as they possibly can. I mean, obviously, like I told you, we have 200 classes a week. So the more – There isn't room for them to do their own thing. If you would like to work out, you got to go. Yeah, but some of our coaches like they'll do the programming before they you know my head coach and uh one of my other assistant

coaches they do the programming the day before so they know how to like they'll be like okay it's going to take 15 to 20 minutes for the average person to do this we did an eight or ten so we have a good estimate of what everything will take and how it's going to uh shake down as far as like the floor goes because running two classes at a time is pretty difficult do you at solace as part of like the community and everything that you built you guys run uh i i had my first experience at a friday night lights here and like seeing like crossfit you know really happening and people competing is that something that you guys hold you hold open workouts for sure yeah and then get the whole hoorah like getting those people uh jacked up to so for the past couple years we do like a thursday night like so the announcement

comes out and then right afterwards they'll have like we'll build it up we'll have two people going head to head this year this year we started doing four people so we kind of got more of an audience and we'll have them go head to head and we'll have people come show up and stuff but i think what it is it's we've given people variety we've given people a couple different programs if you join like we were talking about like a rumble or something like this you're getting that workout that's it you know it's like yeah you could go do it once to maybe twice a week but it's like you could kind of invest in us where it's like well one day you're going to do you know our endurance class the next day you're going to do cross and the next day

you're going to do this so people people have very short attention spans, obviously. I mean, you can't look at the same naked girl three times on fucking Instagram. You've got to kind of scroll through and find different ones. I need more. I need a different one. But think about it. I had a conversation with somebody about men's blogs versus women's blogs on the Internet. And guys, just everything is scrolling scrolling it's like barstool sports

like you go on you're just scrolling through you know videos and pictures and ideas and stories whereas like everything for women is like more organized and put in place so um so anyway like in our culture it's like okay i don't want to do this today i could do this and i could do this and we'll have people do two and three classes a day, which I don't kind of encourage. But, I mean, if it's there and you want to do it and you're willing to pay for it. Prioritize fun. Yeah. Yeah, and that's what it is, too.

Unbelievable. I mean, that's kind of what I missed saying. We just want people to have a good time. My three rules for everybody is, like, keep people safe, keep people smiling, and get them results. Because if they get results and their friends are going to see it and then they're going to invite their friends and blah blah that's kind of how you keep the ball rolling so you you got a lot going on that's not just running the gym how much time are you actually able to spend in the gym talking to members hanging out i mean i get there most days at like five six o'clock in the morning i'm a

control freak so i like being there i like being involved in everything um and i'll stay there till eight nine o'clock at night. I rarely sleep. I mean, that's why I kind of look like a bag of shit now myself. I was going to say something, but you're doing all right, right? I feel like I'm falling apart some days because I want to be there. We have so much going on. And now, you know, kind of coming up with this new facility and stuff like that, it's just going to completely wear me out.

But, yeah, I mean, all the members know who i am they know my name if i i always tell them like i'll send out a monthly uh you know monthly letter to the membership base whether it's for me or from one of the coaches if you need anything please feel free to reach out to us like we want we want them to know and i want them to know that like we're there it's like you're paying a premium if i was there and i was paying a premium to go to my gym i'd want to be able to get in contact with the owner and know that he gives a shit about me being here. You know, with having such a, getting back to your gymnastics program and the culture in the community, having somebody like David Durant, do you have people that are actually coming in that are, you know, people that want to continue as a gymnast? Or do you have people that are looking at more of the gymnastic strength training aspect of it and you find that that gymnastic strength training is enough for a member to be like i worked out today yeah right where it's like sometimes

people are like i didn't work out i did gymnastics yeah you know and it's like you worked out that happens a lot so a lot of people come in and they'll like back they'll like kind of back to back, like do either a hit style class and gymnastics or gymnastics and then CrossFit, weightlifting and gymnastics. So they'll always double up on a day like that. The way Dave runs it is it's more for strength. You know,

you'll kind of start to build the ability to do a lot of the stuff where it's like, it's not, you know, you're not doing all these pull-ups and stuff like that he's not running like a crossfit class it's more like here build the strength to finally be able to do these things right skill development and with skill comes strength and yeah and it's a lot of skill and if you're doing it for strength i mean the way it's done it's like you're doing smaller sets three and five sets to kind of build you up to like where you want to be so i i get the feeling of like hey i didn't do enough but you definitely do i mean you're you're sore the next day it's like when you're he does muscle

up training and stuff with a lot of our clients the people who don't have it you're doing assisted muscle up so people are helping either with the the ring thing the ring thing or you know i love it got one of my garage we'll have to we'll have people working like groups of three and they like kind of help each other up and stuff like that but after like you're doing three sets of five or five sets of five you're like oh shit my arms are sore yeah so yeah and dave also has power monkey camp are you involved with that at all no no but i've been i went to the last intensive and i'm going this november uh this october the first week of october i'm gonna go to the uh official camp and if you guys haven't gone it's definitely worth going is that one sold out yet i want to go no this is the one in april

sold out he's got like 100 people going it's it's awesome it's really cool going. Is that one sold out yet? I want to go. No, the one in April sold out. He's got like 100 people going. It's awesome. It's really cool. He's done a nice job with it. That's held down in like Tennessee? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's something.

So it's not too far from Mayhem. So they go over there and work out with Mayhem. He's good buddies with Froning and stuff. Oh, cool. Yeah. Very cool. All those cool people hanging out together. We should do that.

Dude, they show up and there's like Olympians. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. He used to be able to let go and be like, check out my strict muscle up up and there's like olympians yeah yeah exactly you used to be able to let go and be like check out my strict muscle up and i was like yeah cool and then you go to see those people are like oh that was like the start yeah that move doesn't even count like shit i have nothing now right right a muscle up is actually how you just get their whole ring routine going yeah now you're ready now you're ready. It's like, no, that's all I got. I was done. Yeah, what we think is like the epitome of being a CrossFit athlete.

It's like, oh, he's got to muscle-up. You've made it when you've got to muscle-up, but you're like, that's nothing in gymnastics. It's like, it's how you get yourself up. It doesn't even have a difficulty rating. They rate skills A, B, C, D. It doesn't even have a rating. It's just considered to be a basic skill.

They don't even give it a difficulty. It's just getting harder and harder to be good at gymnastics too it's you know some of the stuff he shows us and does so if you're listening i imagine some of the stuff i watching some of the like youtube training videos of what crossfit girls i assume the guys as well um but what they're able to do it used to literally be like you can do a muscle-up cool you're probably going to go to regionals you may be going to the games but even girls at the games weren't just, like, knocking these things out. And now they're doing programmed routines. They're linking these things together.

Everything's strict and tight and, like, levers, and you're just like, man, how? But they've put such a good program together. It's like it's so obvious why the skill and the sport has progressed so much. Well, at the camp, I mean, everybody who's on his team, I mean, Chad Vaughn, all these guys, together it's like it's so obvious why the skill and the the sport has progressed so much well at the camp i mean everybody who's on his team i mean chad vaughn all these guys everybody to be accepted into onto his team to be one of the coaches you have to be an olympian yeah you know in some capacity it's a high standard yeah that's good man that's awesome it's a tight team and it's like it's weightlifting it's gymnastics it's endurance it's everything like he goes through

the whole game and it's not just for CrossFitters who want to be good. It's anybody who's interested in fitness at a very high level, this is it. So, I mean, it's interesting because I think in our age, like the age that we're all in, we've kind of seen two sports really be created, MMA and CrossFit. Yeah. Right? And I believe that MMA is a great historical lesson as to where CrossFit goes. Right. Where it's like MMA fighters like myself eight years ago were had like very specific skill sets where now MMA is its own art. Yeah. And kids have been practicing it since six instead of 21. Oh, yeah. Right. And now it's like, that's insane, and I never could have done that. Well, it's scary because, you know, I think we've all aged out here.

I'm guessing we're all over the age of 30. Yes. Well over the age of 30. Yes. But you see these younger kids, it's like, I went to the games like the last couple of years, and you see this team division. These guys are snatching fucking 275, 280.

I'm like, at 17, 18 years old, I'm like, I can't do that at 30. So it's like, this is it. It's over. What is Travis's matches? He's got a kid that's 14 that cleaned like 315. I saw him clean a jerk 330 today. But no one was doing that before. It didn't exist.

Yeah. And with MMA, it's like when I was in college and it's like MMAma was still very underground you know and it's like you'd watch him it's like uh uh matt hughes was like the great wrestler and he and at the time he had that big rival where he would uh saint pierre yeah you know and saint pierre was like a young dude at the time and he was kind of good in kickboxing so everybody had their skills but as time grew as time developed and these guys developed more and more they're they're like killers now. I mean, they could do everything and anything. Yeah, GSP was a karate guy, Kai Okushin, and he'd go against this taekwondo guy, and they'd have a conflict of skill that gave one the advantage over the other in a certain moment.

Being an MMA guy, I feel like a lot of them stand up now. Whereas a lot of the judo guys and jiu-jitsu guys would want to throw or grapple a little bit more. I feel like everybody's got to have a good stand-up game now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially when they force the stand-up now. They're like, no, you guys aren't doing shit on the ground. Stop humping each other's legs. Stand up.

Start hitting each other again. Right on, man. This is super cool. I've always dug what's been going on at Solace New York. I appreciate it. It's been really cool. I remember when you guys built it, just being like, oh, man. This is super cool. I've always dug what's been going on at Solace New York. I appreciate it. It's been really cool. I remember when you guys built it, just being like, oh, wow, we've gotten to the next level.

Now I know what it looks like and how all gyms need to look in order to be successful. Well, I think it's all going to turn around again, just like everything else. When I started working out in high school and college and stuff, gy were dingy and shitty and then they got really nice everybody wanted to go to something like an equinox and then they got shitty again where it's like everybody wants to go to garage and now they're nice again so it all come full circle so like i was telling a couple guys here i'm like don't give up i mean obviously keep it clean everybody wants a clean nice facility don't yeah you know staff people don't facility. Don't stop cleaning. Don't stop cleaning. Don't spit on the floors and shit like that.

Keep the place clean. You could have a garage gym. That's really cool. Clean is important. Even if you're listening, if you're an outdoor gym, still don't spit on the floor. It's one of those things. I'm like, who the hell wants to work out? Nobody wants to do burpees on their spit.

No, no, no. Where can people find you? At Kenny Santucci. There it is. On Instagram, that's all I really use. I don't have a YouTube or a podcast or anything like that. And if people are in Manhattan, you guys take drop-ins and all that? Yeah, anybody who wants to come by, I'm happy to take care of everybody. If they want the first one on me, it's on me.

Anytime somebody's asked, could I just come in? I'm like, yeah, sure. You asked. We'll make it special for Shrugged listeners. Go and say Barbell Shrugged, and you'll definitely get a free session. Or they'll charge you double. We have open gyms, so if people want to just come in and fuck around and use some of the shit we got, awesome.

Happy to have them. Right on. Von Rothfelder. Yes, sir. Where can people find you? You can find me at Von Rothfelder yes sir where can people find you uh you can find me at at von rothfelder or at strong coffee company and www.strongcoffeecompany.com get yourself some latte how do we make it through a whole show without discussing this mike tyson

shirt oh man so fresh dude that is a cool shirt thanks bro yeah i will get lost on youtube of people telling mike Tyson stories, and then all of a sudden it's like midnight. And you're like, fuck, I'm told night's gone, but God was that awesome. One of the most interesting icons of our time. Unbelievable. I saw you had Undisputed on your shelf. My dad and I, we buy each other a book each year for Christmas,

and the year Tyson's book came out, we bought each other the same book. It was Tyson's book. That's awesome. Yeah, the Roots of Fight, man. They're so cool. Is this Roots of Fight? Yeah, Roots of Fight. My friend actually should check it out in New York.

There's stores downtown. There's a shop called Super R, and the Roots of Fight shop, Super R guys opened up, and those are good dudes to check out. Cool Fight shop, Super R guys opened up. Okay. Those are good dudes to check out. Cool. Yeah, I got to check that out. Doug. Right on.

You can check me out, Douglas E. Larson, on Instagram. Come and hang out at Anders Varner. That's me. The show, Barbell Shrug Podcast. Make sure you like, download, subscribe, all the things on iTunes, YouTube. Leave us a cool comment. Go see Kenny in New York. We'll see you guys next week.

Thanks for making it all the way to the end of the show. If you liked the show, which I know you did, please go share it on Facebook, Instagram, or whatever social media channel you happen to be loving at the moment. Pinterest? Twitter? Tumblr. Tumblr. Share it on Tumblr.