Barbell Shrugged - Brandon Schrom- Sport Scientist for Team USA, Hemophiliac, and Aspiring Gym Owner — Real Chalk #75

Episode Date: May 14, 2019

Brandon contacted me a few weeks ago in regards to opening a gym. I figured instead of writing him a long message, I would just go down and see him at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista and record it. Not only was it an amazing experience to be around all these amazing athletes, but I got to hear a lot more of Brandon’s story and understand why he’s where he’s at and why he would want to open a gym in the first place. He’s overcome a ton adversity, he’s a brilliant guy, and literally everything we talk about has so much value to anyone looking to open their own business or even train athletes in general.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-schrom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @Hylete- Hylete.com - RC15 for 15% ► 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/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

What's up, everybody? It's Tuesday. We're back on. I'm so excited every Tuesday to bring you guys a new episode. Sometimes I wait till last minute to get these things because I really want to get shows that I'm very interested in, and I really want the shows to be something that is exciting for you guys to listen to. So I never try to just get shows. I try to really get shows that I want so bad, you know, or I want to hear something that I haven't heard before or is going to be very valuable for you guys. So this time I drove down to Chula Vista, California to the Olympic Training Center, and I got to hang out with all the track and field athletes. And I got to hang out with this guy named Brandon Schramm, who is the sports scientist who does all the complicated computer

work and stuff and movement analysis for all the track athletes down there. And we got to just hang out with him the whole day and really just kind of see the whole facility and talk about what he does. And he was a biomechanics major, so he geeks out a little bit on the show about some like blood flow restrictive training, which is really cool. And then we get into a big reason why he even reached out to me in general. So the original reason he reached out to me is because he wanted to open his own gym and he had some questions for me and he wanted to know my opinion on some things. So I was like, you know what? Why don't I just come down there? We'll record this. And I

think that it'll be a lot of great information for a lot of people out there who either want to open their own fitness business, want to open their own gym, or whatever. I'm sure that they would love to hear my opinion on this subject as well. We kind of turned it into a show. It's a little bit under an hour, so it's good, easy listen. Brandon is really, really great on the show and goes over a bunch of things that he's got going on in his life that are pretty inspiring, actually. He has a blood disorder, and he went through a lot of things to get to where he's at right now, and he wants to open his own gym.

And he's a really smart dude, so you're going to really, really like this show. It's going to be an easy listen. Got a little bit of everything in there, so real excited for you guys to get into it. But before we get into it, I have to talk about the people who make this whole thing possible. So for me right now, that is Hylete. But before we get into it, I have to talk about the people who make this whole thing possible. So for me right now, that is Hylete. And Hylete is a clothing brand, but not only a clothing brand. They build backpacks and shoes and different types of apparel.

They have men's and women's and all this stuff. And if you've been in the CrossFit world at all, like at all, you've heard of Hylete. So when I think of Highleet, I personally think of really cool backpacks that have a gazillion pockets of storage, which is like always my like number one selling feature. I don't care how cool your backpack is. If it doesn't have a million pockets, I'm out. I might not even use all the pockets, but I really like the option of having so many pockets because I like having pens and, you know, maybe like supplements or something in case I get really gnarly and, you know, some other stuff that, that maybe gets sweaty that I don't want in that pocket and just a dirty pocket. And then it just, it's, it's, I have to have the pockets, but I'm actually looking at the backpack right now because I'm in my office at the gym and it really does have so many damn pockets.

And they have an even bigger one than the one that I have, which I can't even imagine how many pockets to be in that. It's like so many activities. Um, so the backpacks are super, super legit. I'd highly recommend you guys check out their backpacks. And I also highly recommend the shoe. The shoe is freaking legit. It looks like a Metcon shoe, except it's a lot more like stiff and it has a Vibram sole, which is, you know, those are like the old school soles from like the five finger shoes. They have a lot of durability to them and you can feel it like right away. Like with the Metcon shoe, like my shoe kind of, you know, it starts to get flexible like pretty early on. I've had this shoe for a few months now and it's still solid. Not only that, when you buy the shoe, it gives you three different soles. So you have one for lifting, you have one for in the gym, and you have another one for running. And they're all

different millimeter drops. So depending on what you're doing, it's just it's a different heel drop, which I think is so freaking smart. I'm surprised no one else has done that yet. So yeah, the shoe is literally kind of bulletproof and you can lift in it, run in it, work out in it, and it stays really stiff all the time. And it looks good. Like the black one looks really, really good. I wear it all the time and people love it. So those are my two favorite things that High Elite makes. They do make shorts and they make pants that are really, really comfortable as well. Personally, I'm just a fan of like really, really short shorts and they don't really have short shorts. So I have one pair and I do love them for the comfort, but they're a

little bit longer on the, on the inseam. So if you like the longer inseam shorts, those are the ones for you. And for the women, they have some cool stuff for you guys as well. They have tights and shorts as well. And the best part is the 100% satisfaction guarantee. They can refund anything up to 60 days. So it's almost like the Nordstrom of CrossFit training workout apparel. Wear it for a little bit. If you don't like it, you can send it back. No big deal. So if you guys want to try anything from Hiley, again, I highly recommend the shoes and the backpack. Big fan. You always see me wearing those in my snaps and stuff. It is 15% off and they don't have any discount codes out there. So this is better than nothing. You're definitely going to get a good deal here.

It's RC15, capital R, capital C, 15. That's Real Chalk 15. And you guys get 15% off and you guys go to Highly.com. It's H-Y-L-E-T-E dot com. You guys can check out all their stuff. They have a lot of great athletes that work with them as well. Go check out Highly.com. Get a freaking backpack. Get a pair of shoes. I'm tired of seeing everybody wear freaking Metcons and Reeboks all the time. It's time to wear something new. I like having something new on my feet, you know, and I get to change out the soles and they feel new, new all the time. I'm always on the new, new. I always got the new, new. All right. Anyway, let on the new, new. I always got the new, new. All right.

Anyway, let's get into this show. You guys are going to hear all the things. You guys are going to get all excited. You're all probably going to want to open your own gyms. And it's going to be my fault. And let's hope that the gym that you open is dope. And let's hope that I gave you enough information for it. And let's hope that you guys love Brandon and you guys go ahead and follow and see what he's doing down at the Olympic Training Center on the reg.

He will input his IG at the end of this podcast. All right. I love you guys. See you. All right, Chalk Nation. We are back. I'm at another amazing training facility. You guys know I was in Oregon, and then now I am in Chula Vista, California at the Olympic Training Center.

And we're with Brandon Schramm. And he just gave me a pretty good little introduction to this place. And we ate a shit ton of food in the cafeteria. So much food. Taco Tuesday, man. Taco Tuesday. It was pretty funny to see one of the athletes really stressed out because he missed the shrimp tacos from last week. Which actually, it was devastating when you miss something like that.

When you're in that robotic phase for your life, it just becomes a devastating scenario. All right. So you are a sports scientist here. Yes. So what does that actually mean? So my job here is to implement technology and innovation and science. and we pretty much just day-to-day operations is just like using science and tech to track athlete performance and practices competitions um just to get a better understanding of like what their body's actually doing so you're basically just dissecting movement all day long

absolutely yep okay so there's no is there anything else besides that that you're that's going on like are you doing anything with programming or anything no besides that that's going on? Are you doing anything with programming or anything like that? No, no. So that's going to be Jamie Myers, who's the head strength and conditioning coach here for the center, and he primarily works with the track and field athletes. It's with him in conjunction with the athletes because some of the athletes program for themselves too.

They're pro athletes. They know what they're doing. But Jamie will guide those athletes as to what they're doing, give them his opinion. But for the most part, he's the one in charge of all of the programming. Is there a lot of pushback with the athletes? I've heard a lot of stories from people who go to school for exercise science like myself, and they wind up getting these jobs at colleges or NFL teams, and they tell someone what to

do, and they're like, dude, fuck you. I've made it here. Oh, absolutely. And like, I'm just going to do what I want. Absolutely. There's going to be some of that pushback, but I think it's, it's, it's a, it's a symbiotic relationship because if the athlete does well, it looks good on the coaches and then vice versa.

Like the athletes want the support from the coaches. So for the most part, it's a pretty solid relationship, at least the athletes that are here that are still here. Okay. Yeah. So, all right. Now you're doing a lot of movement analysis. Do you specialize in all sports? Just a few of we specialize i specialize in track and field okay um that was

why i came out here uh when we have time we'll support some of the other sports like archery and rugby and bmx um but track and field takes up the majority of our time okay uh that bmx track looks gnarly for those of you who can't see it. It's intense. Yeah. I was very excited to get picked up from Brandon in a golf cart, and then we just mobbed around. Yeah. There's nothing better than just cruising around in a golf cart. Absolutely.

All right. So now you're dissecting movement and stuff like that. What are some of the things that we're looking for when you're doing all these things? i saw your equipment it's like a very complex looking deal yeah yeah so day-to-day operations we use like doppler radar technology um so what that is that what they use for weather yeah okay yeah it's the same type of tech um these radars are used in golf that's what they were primarily designed for um but the software companies that that we do work with um they designed a track and field specific program for throws. Okay. So this technology will, as soon as the implement, whether it's the hammer, shot, discus, or jav,

it'll detect when it's released out of the hand. And then with the information that comes from that is speed of release of the implement, angle of release, height of release, sector angle. And then it will actually give us a generated map as to where the implement lands. And then it's actually give us a generated map as to where the implement lands and then it's all exported into a database and then we just track that every single day and then we're able to tag how heavy was the implement what type of throw was it was it a stand throw was it

you know was it a three turn or a four turn whatever um and then we all have it in a database and it's for years we've been doing this like i think there's like some throws up to five years ago is there anything that the other countries are doing that you guys aren't doing? I'm not sure. Are you guys, like, usually ahead? I shouldn't say you guys, but is the U.S. usually ahead of the game, a little bit behind the game? Right now, just the throws in general, we're a little bit behind the eight ball.

A shot put, we're dominant in. Obviously, we have the reigning Olympic champion for the United States, Ryan Krauser. Such a big man. Humongous. So big. You should have seen him in the fall time. He had a mullet. Oh, that would have been awesome. I wish he kept it. It was Redneck

Thor. That's who we would call him. But shot put, we're dominant in. Discus, we're pretty good in. Hammer throw and javelin, we're coming on strong um we're really starting to up our game with that and i think it's just because like it's at the it's a developmental thing yep at the high school level you don't do hammer yeah and watching those guys today like you can tell there's a lot of technique involved exactly so i mean my my friend

who was a d3 thrower the division three thrower like it was like 38 meters was his pr and i'm like these guys are doing that with like a 10k yeah and it's a warm-up these guys are throwing like 77 meters 70 yeah sean threw 70 yeah so 77.26 today yeah yeah and his best he needs to throw 77.5 for the olympics yeah yeah that's what he said yeah all right well yeah that's pretty cool to have somebody on that level in the u.s because we don't have people like that in the u.s. that are throwing that far. No, so that's a testament to how well he trains and how well the coaching is, like Coach Tagata does, and Jamie works with Sean on his programming. Is that the guy that gets really stressed out, Tagata?

Yeah. Okay, yeah. All right, so you went to school for? Exercise science. I got my bachelor's and my master's degrees from SUNY Cortland in upstate New York. It's a small little state school, I got my bachelor's and my master's degrees from SUNY Cortland in upstate New York. Okay. It's a small little state school, but we're really known for phys ed and for exercise science.

That's what our school is mainly known for. So, yeah, I graduated my undergrad, and they offered me an assistantship to teach biomechanics labs. Oh, wow. Yeah. I remember biomechanics. That was rough. That's my favorite class. It was a rough class, though.

It was a very rough class. So then from there, you got your master's? Yep. In? Exercise science. Okay, exercise science. You didn't branch off into anything specific? I specialized in biomechanics.

So I spent the majority of my time in the biomechanics labs, took biomechanics-specific classes. And then I did my master's thesis in biomechanics as well. And I did, like, have you ever done Katsu training or blood flow restriction? I haven't really done it, but I've read about it. Yeah. So my master's thesis was on that. Um, and, and its effects on like muscular strength, um, through like a five week training protocol that I did. So just real quick, what was the conclusion on that? Um, so we do, we had this machine called a quad mill. It is this, as I know you like to train legs a lot. It's it mimics mogul skiing if you're familiar with that okay and it's just this treadmill that just oscillates up and back

in a rotating fashion and you just have to eccentrically load your legs the whole time it's killer so a lot of soreness coming in a big time like i did it for three 30-second sets, and I was done. So for my thesis, my thesis advisor was like, well, you would have to have 60 participants, and no one wants to do that, because we would have to have a control group and an experimental group. And he was like, just make them their own control. Just do blood flow restriction on one leg.

Yeah. And that's what I did. So I just did blood flow. It was randomized, so it could be your dominant leg, it could be your non-dominant leg, Yeah. And that's what I did. So I just did blood flow. It was randomized. You know, so it could be your dominant leg. It could be your non-dominant leg. Whatever. And then I tested knee extensor torque like pre and post. We saw a 21% increase in strength over five weeks.

Holy shit. With the blood flow restricted limb and a 9% gain in strength on the non-included limb. So training with it, blood flow restricted? Yeah. And then just, would you let it go after every set? Nope, nope. You keep it on for, I did six sets on my protocol.

Could you do something similar with that, with like floss bands? Absolutely. That's exactly, so I was going to use that, but like our ethics board committee said that they wanted it measured just for like to be safe. So I had to have like special cuffs. But no, like there's a lot of research out there that suggests that you can just use floss bands

and just like use like a pain gauge. It's like it should be like a 6 to 7 out of 10 in terms of like uncomfortable because it's supposed to be uncomfortable. So then just squatting or doing something like that? Yep, squatting. You can do squatting. Are you just following your typical strength program and it's just making you stronger yeah but like you can only you only have you can only use 20 to 50 percent of your one rep max okay that's the beauty of it is that that blood

restriction training yields the same similar gains in muscle hypertrophy as lifting 80 to 90 percent of your one rep max oh my god this is a dope piece of information by itself yeah so what i would normally i use it as a especially for, I will typically use it as a finisher. Because you still want that neuromuscular adaptation for strength training. With the weight, yeah. Right, but using it as a finisher, just doing air squats. So you're calling it like a, what would you call it? It's like a drop set.

Yeah, exactly. Almost, or like a cash out. But it hurts so bad because when you get that burn after doing a lot of weight, a lot of time under tension, it's like, wow, it burns. But it goes away. No, no, no. That pain stays. And it just sits there. Because the physiology

behind it is that the muscle cell is swelling. And it gets these little microbursts or micro holes in the fiber even though it hasn't been exposed to an external load load to make it sore the body still thinks it's damaged and it sends a shit ton of growth hormone and testosterone to that area for repair yeah there's something just amazing about when someone says testosterone growth hormone you're like i want that i need that now it's like even if you didn't know what it was just like mentally you're like i don't know that just sounds man just like mentally, you're like, I don't know.

That just sounds manly and I need it. I need it right now. That is real neat. You might die in five years. I'd want double. If I can have big quads and big pecs now, that'd be great. I'm in. Let's go.

So now you've spent – how long have you been out of school for? I've been out of school for two years now. Okay. And you've been here the whole time? No. So I left school in 2017. May 2017 is when I graduated. I spent the summer working with my dad on the paving crew.

Okay. And then I got – yeah. Stuff like that needs to happen. Doing it. It lets you know what you want. No. My dad had me do it because it was called – this is what you did your education for, to not have to do this. Yeah. I know what you want. Yeah. No, my dad, my dad like had me do it. Cause it was called, this is what you did your education for to not have to do this. Yeah. I think that's great. Yeah. Um, and I got to spend time with him, which was really cool. Um, but no, I got to,

I kind of call in late July to come to Colorado Springs for the USA cycling. Um, and USA cycling brought me on as like an intern and they hired me on in September of 2017. Um, and I got to travel all over Europe over and even in South America and Canada with the indoor track cycling team. And did that up until January of 2018. And then I was like, there was rumors that there was going to be a position opening up up here. And my coworker, who you guys met, John, he's down at Discus Practice right now. But he was already here. And he was like, like yeah there's a

position i wouldn't go home i would not go to new york i would try to like live and survive in colorado because that's where all the big wigs are you can go to luncheons and you know you go get coffee with like a lot of like these like big time guys he's like it's a good way to keep like your foot in the door and stay in the circle and i'm like okay i'll try that's what it's all about connections so i couch surfed. I met some friends. I got my L1 in Colorado and became a head coach at a CrossFit gym there for a little while. And then John called me in, God, like late March of 2018.

And it was like, hey, you want employed? And I'm like, kind of. Yeah, I'm just working at a CrossFit gym right now. And he's like, cool. All right, well, we created the position. Can you move out? Can you move out here? Like on Labor Day weekend? And he's like, can you start June 1st? I was like, yeah, no, that's awesome. Absolutely. Yeah. That's sweet. Yeah. So then I, yeah, I came out here June 1st, so I'm coming up on a year. Oh, okay. All right. Yep. So now, I mean, you reached out to me

cause you were like, Hey, you had some questions about opening a gym. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So what is it about owning a gym right now? sounds like the passion that you want to go into? Yeah, dude, so fitness in general, fitness changed my life. So I have severe hemophilia. Oh, yeah, we should touch on that. Yeah, yeah. So severe hemophilia is a rare genetic blood disorder where my body doesn't produce a clotting protein that's essential for clotting your blood.

I have none of it in my system at all. So I have to infuse myself with like synthesized clotting factor three days a week. Let's tell people why it's dangerous to have this condition. Because like I can just give you an example. Like I was with my girlfriend the other day and she accidentally like elbowed me in the eye and my eye swelled up like it was a very like light tap. So like my just like I can get a lot of like bruising really easily internal bleeding and it just doesn't stop so sports really wasn't a thing for me in school like like as a young kid um my parents like got

me to like sort of like be above the disease like my parents got me go-karts and snowmobiles and stuff like that as a kid so i still had fun because what's life worth you know what i mean like you gotta you gotta live outside you can't be inside a bubble stuff like that as a kid. So I still had fun because what's life worth? You know what I mean? Like you got it. You got to live outside of, you can't be inside a bubble, man. Like that's just not cool. So,

um, I, but I was born with it. It's something that I've always known. Yeah. I mean, it would be scary. It is scary from time to time,

but like knock on wood, like I haven't had a, a single like really gnarly threatening. Yeah. No, I mean, I've, I've definitely done some dumb shit.

Like, you know, like, are you having fun? If you don't, not the same. Yeah. No, I mean, I've, I've definitely done some dumb shit. Like, you know, like, are you having fun? If you don't, not the same risk for me, but yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's my take on it. And, um, fitness really changed my life. Cause like I was really out of shape, like really, really, really out of shape when I was like younger. Um, and my mom lost weight. My mom lost 90 pounds and she became an inspiration for me to do it. So when I was 16, I was getting sick and tired

of being bullied in school and everything and just being the fat kid. I was the funny fat kid, literally. At least you were funny. Yeah, right? Exactly. We had that something. You have to. You need to have something. Yeah, right? To make it. But I know I lost all my weight. I did my first bodybuilding show when I was 17.

Yeah, man. And I just got into fitness from there, but like fitness changed my whole life. Like without fitness, I wouldn't have became a sports scientist. I wouldn't be here in Southern California right now, podcasting with you, working with Olympic level athletes. I'm going to the Olympics in 2020 with the team. I mean, it's that without fitness, that wouldn't have happened. And without guidance from people that are fit like i had so many mentors like throughout my fitness journey that have brought me to where i am and brought and like allowed me to like learn from them and i really just want to give that back to people like that's that's why i do what i do here is that like these athletes i mean you guys

all saw how intense they train. One competition matters. Like that's it. Like the Olympics is the only thing that matters. Like, yeah, great, the world championship, whatever. But no, no, no, it's the Olympics. That one thing that happens every four years. And it sucks too, man, because I remember when I used to train for Skeleton and Bobsled, like the world championships would be going down and nobody was there to see it.

Yeah. Because it's not the Olympics. Right. People don't realize world championships every year is the exact same thing it. Yeah. Because it's not the Olympics. Right. People don't realize world championships every year is the exact same thing as the Olympics. It's just not on the fourth year. Exactly. And like these poor people, they're spending four years of their life. The year of the Olympics when I got injured, I had torn my ACL, got a total reconstruction on 2009 and the Olympics in 2010.

Yep. And I remember trying as hard as i could to come back to get ready to like prep myself to see how good i could do and make it and when i got injured again went up tearing my hamstring in the process from favoring my other leg no they just wound up being like this giant clusterfuck for me that just like really ruined me and i was like do i want to spend another four years doing this yeah and there's people out there who are spending 16 years like trying to go to the olympics you know yeah because they missed it one time where they got injured this time or they didn't win this time or they're the best athlete in the world and then they go to trials and they just blow it

exactly which happens a lot absolutely especially like for track and field there's a lot of athletes how it happens because in with the qualifications for the Olympics is nationals. Yeah. Like our national, our USAs is our Olympic trials. And then you're just salty for four years, bro. Because you've got to go top three. Like you could just fuck up a throw. Yep.

Just foul. And then like. It's over. It's over. Like you can't like. Yeah. You had the best throws all year long. For four years long. Yeah, exactly. And know, all year long, like for four years.

Yeah, exactly. And then you just screw up and then it's gone. And then it's like, wow, I have to wait another four years. I feel like there should be some sort of coach's discretion there where it's like, you know what? You had a bad day, but like in reality, you're the best athlete and you should go. Yeah, that's definite. Like that. I think that would be a thing, too. But like you got to have like there's certain athletes that don't show up. Yeah. Show up to practice. They don't show up at a meet. Yeah. And then that's another thing. that's a skill you know what i

mean like that's a skill that you gotta have to be able to master it'll be like okay can i handle the pressure can i handle like when it's when i'm on my sixth attempt and i'm in fourth place and i know i can bomb this i just gotta hit it i think what bums me out the most is like we were sitting at the lunch hall today and like listening to one of the guys talking about you know if i go to this event and i win like I win a couple hundred bucks for winning this event or this event, I win another couple hundred bucks. And I was thinking to myself,

I'm like, this guy should not be winning a couple hundred dollars for winning an event. And he shouldn't be getting $1,000 for a world record. He should be getting $10,000 for winning an event and $100,000 for a world record. And it's the sponsorships, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? That's why you see these guys at the NFL players making all these millions of dollars,

and everyone's like, how do they do that? And I'm like, it's your fault, man. You watch TV. You buy their jerseys. You buy their ticket sales, and that's what pays their paychecks. No one comes out for a hammer throw competition. No one even knows it's a real thing half the time. And I mean, 100-meter dash, 400-meter runs, those guys make a lot of money.

Yeah, exactly. Well, it's the television. I don't think I've ever seen... Sean White snowboarding. Exactly. I don't think I've ever seen a throwing event on actual TV before my job here. We used to watch the Olympics all the time. Probably at 2 a.m. on NBC Sports Network.

Which is unfortunate because these guys are stellar athletes. They're insane, yeah. Watching that one guy throw the freaking hammer today was unreal yeah that was amazing yeah literally launching a cannonball yeah all right so now like you you've gone through all that you have your own reasons for wanting to do whatever you want to do in the fitness industry because you have you know your own barriers yeah and then now you've been at the olympic training center you have a great educational background what do you want to do in the fitness industry because you have, you know, your own barriers. Yeah. And then now you've been at the Olympic Training Center. You have a great educational background. What do you want to bring to a gym that's going to be different than everybody else?

I just want to show people that fitness is fun. You know, I think that there's a huge – like, I'm also a personal trainer part-time at 24. And it's – you see a lot of these, like, trainers who are, like, bodybuilders, which is fine or whatever. But, like, the fitness industry makes it really complicated. And it's like – and it's a grind to have to go to a gym. And I'm like, I don't view it as that. Whenever I go to the gym and train Strongman or whatever, I've got a smile on my face the entire time because this is play. This is fun.

And that's the atmosphere that I want to bring to a gym because I know I can make the atmosphere fun. What's the programming look like to you? It's going to be like fun like there's a lot of like functional training like um have you guys followed julian pannell for like strong fit and stuff like that i don't oh he's a great guy he's he's down here in socal as well but um he's an old strongman athlete but like he has fun with sandbags sleds and just tortures people with those things. That's the kind of training I want to have. Just like a lot of Atlas stones, sandbags,

sleds, and just a lot of functional, like moving, just kind of like grunt work. You know what I mean? Like that's what I grew up doing. Like with my dad, like my dad's a mate,

like my dad's a Mason. My grandfather's a Mason. His father before that was a farmer. Like that's the kind of like, that's how I used to grow up. And I think that's rad. However, I promise you that will not pay the bills. Oh, really?

I do. All right. I mean I can't promise you, but I can guarantee that if you had that plus like two other programs, you would do a lot better. Okay. Yeah, I mean definitely for sure. And it's weird though because like with my gym you know you guys have several programs that i that you guys have a bunch of different programs but in the gym i only have two okay i only have crossfit and i have sweat all right but i've literally turned my crossfit programming into like ryan fisher programming

like my high intensity interval bodybuilding is like part of my CrossFit program. So like I'll have days where like this week, for instance, I have one where it's like 10 bench press, 20 wall balls, 400 meter run, 90 second rest. That's awesome. And then you go up and bench and like it's 30 minute window and you get as many rounds as you can, but there's a rest every time. Right. Right. And they're doing bench, like you're doing a push and a pull and a cardio and like you just don't see that in crossfit gyms you know like i'm not gonna not call it crossfit but i'm not gonna like call it crossfit either you know what i mean exactly that style of programming is literally bringing so many people in my doors because they're like oh i like what's happening here you know like like we're not doing snatches every day.

We're not doing clean and jerks every day. I don't feel like I need to be very skillful to come here. Yeah. We're doing very hard workouts. And then sometimes they're so hard that I don't know if I want to come in. So then I have this other class. It's called sweat. And that sweat class is bringing in the average person all day long, every day.

And that class is packed. And it's a huge reason why I have so many members because there's an unintimidating class matched up with a very intimidating class. You know what I mean? And the unintimidating class, the sweat class, is honestly, in my opinion, is harder than CrossFit. Like if you do it with intensity,

I mean there's a huge amount of work in that class. There's no strength, but there's a lot of cardio and lifting that class there's no strength right but there's a lot of cardio and lifting like there's a lot of thrusters or a lot of you know something with a dumbbell or a kettlebell or whatever but there's a lot of it and if you put more weight in the bar let's say like you're a stronger athlete and you just want to come and do sweat for the day yeah and you add a little extra weight like i mean that could be a devastating class absolutely but on paper you look at it you're like oh i can do that yeah but those are the workouts that are normally the hardest to like review program for something and it's like

yeah it looks all right but there's no snatches there's no cleaning jerks no handstand push-ups there's nothing skillful there's nothing skillful so that someone off the street who's like hey i've never done this before i'm like all right well you just do sweat for a couple weeks let me know what you think if you start watching the crossfit class and you want to do that yeah that's something we can talk about we'll do a one-on-one session. We'll get you ready to go. Make sure you know all the movements. But they already know how to do everything except Olympic lifting and, like, kipping pull-ups. Yeah.

And which those get picked up, like, within the first, like, few weeks or whatever. That's just a skill acquisition thing. Mm-hmm. But you're – so, like, you know, in the terms of, like, income, you have the meatheads of the world and then you have the crossfitters of the world. And then those strong fit people that you really want in your doors is significantly smaller. That's a small niche group of people. It's not to say you can't get them. But when you're in an area where there's – so what's what's happening now is there's so

many gyms that everybody has so many options so like if i if we drive 10 miles up the road away from where we are and kind of in a little bit of middle nowhere out here um you could just type in crossfit and there's going to be five yeah you know what i mean it's like which one do i go to so you know you'd have maybe the strong fit one or this one or that one or blah, blah, blah, blah. Um, so there's a ton of different options, right? So because people have so many options, it makes it harder for them to like, want to go to your gym, right? In my opinion. So like now you have to have a better product with more things available and, you know, better coaches, better equipment equipment better location yeah like these things all matter more than anything else and i think when i was where you're at right now and i

wanted to open a gym i had like this very easy uh model in my head where i was gonna be like well i'm really passionate about it and that's what's gonna work and sadly that's not the way it works you know it's like you need people to walk in the door and be like all right this place is worth it so there's like you know your big nut in the beginning where you're like holy fuck should i spend this much money to do this right and you absolutely have to i try to use the analogy all the time it's like have you ever been have you ever been into like an orange theory or a barry's boot camp oh absolutely you've been in both right yeah you've been in one that like wasn't that nice or are they all the same they're pretty much all the same for the most part there's a reason for

that yeah you know what i'm saying like an orange theory doesn't come out and say all right you know what let's just do like let's like spend half the budget on this one and let's just hope everybody comes in and then as it builds we'll build on it no and that's what crossfit gyms do yeah and this is why i was one of the most successful crossfit gyms ever was because I was like, no, fuck that. I'm going to have 100 people my first day. I'm going to have 300 people after my first year. I'm going to have a lot of people taking classes all the time. So let's just go ahead and spend the money now and go for it.

Right. Like let's either crash and burn or – Which you think about it like that's probably why most CrossFit gyms like just they fail. It's a huge reason why. And I'm fucking blown away that more people don't see this. People hit me up all the time. They're like, dude, am I going to be cool if I get two rowers, two assault bikes, blah, blah, blah, and then like all these weights? I'm like, no.

I don't care how many people you plan on having your first day. Even if you have ten people the first day, you want them to walk in and be like, dude, go to this gym they have every 10 assault bikes 10 skiers 10 rowers yeah it's dope and then all of a sudden they're like okay then maybe that dude's really cool at his gym and he goes and then six of his other friends that he always goes with are like well i gotta go because he's going right that's how my gym was like when i opened up i would have a member who was the coolest member at their gym and then i would get 10 more because they're like, I don't want to not work out with them. Exactly. They would all roll over too.

That's sick. Okay. That's good advice, man. But as far as like if you like that strongman stuff, I feel like you should specialize in having the equipment, but maybe it's not even a class. It's just like, hey, guys, from like 1 to 4 every day, you guys can come and do all this cool shit that I put on the board. That's a cool idea. Because the people who are going to do that, I think they're going to be so specialized. They're not even going to want to class.

Yeah, small niche guys and gals that just want to come listen to the cool music and throw down in this train together. That would be sweet. It's like an auxiliary program that you add in that I think would be cool. So what kind of capital are you going to be working with to do it? Are you going to borrow money? Do you have money? Parents or something? Yeah, so my parents want to invest in it. My mother and father are kind of getting close to retirement.

They miss their boy because they're still in New York. So I'm having me being, and I'm the only child too, so me all the way across the country is killing them. So my parents want to move out here eventually, at least for like half the year. And my mother is super into fitness like she's probably like the fittest woman i know just how hard she works and like just also like because of her work schedule and my parents are remodeling the house and then my mom still finds times to crush weights and and crush on it because

she has a peloton bike at home which is in my old bedroom which i knew for a fact that they were going to turn that into a workout, my bedroom into a workout room. They lied to me. They said they would. Do you like the Peloton bike? I love it. It's amazing. I've never used it, but it seems really rad.

Well, they have like a George Hincapie, like who's a professional cyclist trained with like Lance Armstrong. Like he's one of the instructors. Wow. And it kills you. Yeah. Because it's your own workout. And the crazy thing is too, is that like they have a leader of whoever's, A, working out during that workout right now, and all of everybody else who's ever done that workout.

And you get power output, so you compete with people. That is freaking pretty sweet. And that leaderboard's there, and you've got 5,000 people, and you see this one guy who's in 40th, and you're in 41st, and you're like, I have to beat him. I have to. There's no way I can't. I can't do this. I like that. that that's really cool it is really cool and i they they are doing a killing i mean the bike is well put together it's it's awesome and then they're doing yoga now they have like yoga classes on there i heard now they actually have more members than soul

cycle really yeah like they're they're actually doing better than soul cycle right now without all the overhead that That is crazy. Yeah, man. I mean, they are just – my mom loves it. I mean, it's her – like the best investment she said she's ever made. So that's another thing I was going to add. So I know this is what you want to do. You want to open a gym and stuff.

So the theory that Peloton is above SoulCycle right now is a crazy, crazy thing to think about. Yeah. Like SoulCycle crushes everyone, and they have humongous storefronts in Manhattan, in Chicago, in San Francisco. Don't they have one in Carlsbad too now? Yeah, debatably. I mean they have one in Newport Beach where I live in like one of the most expensive shopping centers in the world. Okay. I can see like there it is.

They have like the biggest Lululemon in the world there. I mean you have the average car in the parking lot is $100,000. Right. Like, average. I mean, there's a lot of $300,000, $500,000 cars in the parking lot all the time. And, yeah, I mean, there's a huge force. And now you have this, you know, online bike that came up, and it just is crushing. So I think that – actually, I don't think I know that like,

if you want to open a facility, I try to tell people that the facility is window shopping for whatever your mass product is. Right. Like the facility is the dress in the window. Yep. And then everything else in that store is the other things that you offer. That's a really cool idea. Yeah. And it's something like you were talking about. That's the first time I ever said it like that. That sounded dope. Yeah. So like, like I've always thought of it that way, but I'm like, how can I say this where

like it means a lot? So like, that's dope. So you want to have like, you know, you want to have a goal of having an online program. And I think for you specifically, it sounds fucking awesome to put on your resume. Like, hey, I worked at the Olympic Training Center. I did this and this and this, and I specialize now in strongman training. So maybe strongman training doesn't crush in the gym, and that's where your heart and soul is, but it crushes online. You know what I'm saying?

Yep. Like that is what's important right now. So I think if you have that in your mind and that is like a focus point for you, like whatever it is that keeps you passionate is so important. Yeah. So I think if you have that in your mind and that is like a focus point for you, like whatever, whatever it is that keeps you passionate is so important. Yeah. So like what's passionate for me is like, I love programming. Like I love it and I hate it. Right. It takes a lot of time, but I'm very, very good at it. Yeah. And every Sunday it's like my whole day and I bitch and complain all day. And then when it's done, I'm like, damn, that came out so good. And then I put it up and like everyone freaks out. So I mean, that's what I'm passionate about. That's what I'm good at. And no matter what, I will always be able to do that. I'll always have that skill. It will always make me money. And for right now, I didn't know that that was the secret sauce to everything I was going to do in my life. Right. But it literally – that program though is more important than how much money my gym brings in. It's more important than this podcast. It's more important than everything.

Like that program is what feeds my life. Yeah. It will buy me a house. It will buy me my kids' freaking school. It's everything. And I think that that is the one thing that as you go into this that needs to be your number one focus point is what your passion is going to be and what you want to do with it. And to know that opening a gym

is not your end goal. Creating a brand or creating a entity or creating a big fucking shopping store where you pull everybody in with that really fancy dress. That's a really good analogy store where, you know, you pull everybody in with that really fancy dress. Yeah.

That's a really good analogy. I just massacred that. To cap it off with that laugh, it's even better right there. So what do you think about that? I think it's a really good idea, too. I mean, I love programming. I program for a couple of athletes right now. Just on the side. It's just for fun.

But it's my buddy, Marcus Diaz, who he trains was at the Body Blueprint down in Westchester County in New York, but now he's somewhere else now. Now he does powerlifting. And I was his coach and we got him a national qualifying total his first meet.

And now we're training for 2019 nationals now so that's really rad he's a great athlete and i think what i love is like just getting the feedback from him and just because it makes because i tell him like don't be don't be shy like tell me like what did you not like about this like what did you like about this what would you love what worked what didn't um and i just love being a mad scientist like that and just like so like when you think about powerlifting, for instance, that's a great example. Like how many gyms do you know right now that crush it that are powerlifters? Oh my god.

Like barely any really. Exactly, right? So that's like someone's passion and it's really hard to make it work. There's one guy that I can think of who's, I mean, killing it, which is Westside Barbell. Yeah, right. Well, Louie Simmons obviously. Louie Simmons, right? So you have that.

And that was always a thing in my life where I was like, man, this is what I really love. I love Olympic lifting. I love like the heavyweights and such. Yeah, but like no one – that's such a small – Nobody wants to do it. No. Not at all. You'll start to realize that when people are coming to a class, what they really want

is to feel like they did a lot of work. Yeah. So the old school benchmarks are gone like you can't just do fran anymore there's no fucking way it's got to be like like in my gym for instance it would have to be like a back squat single leg deadlift combination or like a back squat like hip thrust combo like some sort of like lifting superset followed by fran with a cash out yeah and it used to just be like fran dang no lifting no this no that like things are evolving now and i think you need to like kind

of go with the way things are going or you just get left behind yeah i actually have like a few hundred i mean i mean there's there's a lot of gyms right now that are following my programming and marketing it now oh wow that's awesome yeah and like it's bringing in crazy amounts of members for their gym which is pretty unreal yeah it's just because of the style of the programming so that's like really really important for you like when you're ready to go and I think that's something we could talk about another time too is just like creating the program that's going to make people want to come back like all the time. Because they want to – I mean a lot of times now CrossFitters have already – they've already experienced CrossFit in like three other gyms in my opinion.

Or they've done it in some capacity somewhere else. Yeah. Or they're just really competent in the movements and now they want to try a CrossFit gym. Right. There's not a lot of new crossfitters anymore so when you open a gym that's in that style you have to have a program that's like man that was really fucking awesome yeah and that's what's going to create the hype and that's what's going to create like your success in it that's a good idea where's the what kind of location you looking for i'm looking for like north county san diego um just from being up there like a lot of it

like there's a lot of like niche gyms you know i mean like or there's a lot of niche gyms. There's a lot of Orange Theories and F45s and all those studios up there. But if those are in the area, that actually tells you that a bigger company thought that this was a good area and there's a good demographic. Exactly. And I figured like, okay, I'm going to pull. Those guys are probably going up there because right now they're probably

the only guys in town. And I'm like, let me get something up there that offers something completely different. And then I can pull in another population as well. And like not because I don't want to try to be them. I don't want to be them. No. Yeah. Of course not.

Yeah. I get a lot of people from Orange Theory like, hey, I'm just ready for the next step. Yeah. I'm just ready for something harder. Yeah. I get that all the time. Yeah. So, you know, it's another really good asset to have that's like within 10 miles of your

gym. I know it's like sounds funny because it's coming for me, but whole foods yeah whole foods will not open their gym unless it's in a high income area wow and it's going to generate x amount of revenue and like the average person has like a certain amount of income wow i mean they only open in like very very specific spots that's so smart though i legit don't know any CrossFit gyms or gyms in general that are near Whole Foods that don't kill it. Damn. Alright. Noted. If you're near one of them,

you can get a spot that's near it and you don't see a whole bunch of gyms that are doing what you want to do, that's one really amazing way to know that you're in the right spot. But then also to go on Wikipedia and look up the demographics for that area and find out what the median income is because that's what's going to let you know what your membership rate is going to be.

That's a good idea too. Also, when you sign a lease, there's a big step there. If you want a space like mine, that's like a million dollar location. For me personally, for me to sign that lease, I had to have a bank account that had five million dollars in it.

Wow. A guaranteed five million lease, I had to have a bank account that had $5 million in it. Wow. Yeah. Like a guaranteed $5 million had to be in a bank account that showed that I was going to pay it if I had zero members for the next five years or whatever it was. Right. Right. Something like that. I remember it was something crazy like that. So obviously in my predicament, I had to have an investor and it wasn't necessarily because I needed it to open the gym, which I did anyway, cause I didn't have any money. Right. Um, but I also needed it to sign a lease of that magnitude. Right. So a lot of times it's nice to bring on like certain investors for stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Which is what I'm trying to find right now. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, I got like a nice, like five year goal window to like want to do this. Yep. And I was considering starting and going online first and like building my brand online and then just moving and then eventually, again, like that window shop.

You know what I mean? I think that's actually a great way of doing it. Yeah. That's actually a pretty popular way that people are doing it now is they're starting more broad and then they're creating the gym as almost like a, you know, the showcase room. Yeah. Just a little headquarters type deal. Yeah, and worst case scenario, if it doesn't kill it, the other stuff is. And they have that, and they have a place to film, and they have a place to do this and that and all these different things.

So it's a great – I think that's a great way of doing it. Yeah. And it would actually show you in terms of like barrier of entry because it's much cheaper obviously if you start your own online thing. Yeah. If you start getting that going, it's going to give you a lot more confidence to open the gym. Exactly.

So I think that's a great way of doing it. That's happening a lot now in that reverse order. Yeah. But then once people start to open a gym, if they're doing really well online, I'm like, I don't think you need to, man. I try to tell them, try to tell them, because then you're stuck in one area. Exactly. I get stressed out to travel.

Do you really? I was just gone for like 10 days, and now I'm here all day in San Diego. I mean, I'm not gone, but I'm out at my gym. Right. Exactly. I get stressed out to travel. Do you really? I was just gone for like 10 days and now I'm here all day in San Diego. I mean, I'm not gone, but I'm out at my gym. Right. Exactly. And it kind of sucks. It gets a little bit stressful. I'm like, well, what's going on over there right now? You know? Right. I wonder if they're like, who? Fuck a boss. Not in town. Let's party. You know? Yeah. You can drop in for free. Forget it. You know, forget the drop in. Nobody's here. I mean, you'd be surprised. I got to come up and drop in one of these days, too. Oh, you got to check it out.

It's cool. Yeah, man. It's got a good vibe. Yeah, you said paddle boarding and beach house and workouts. I'm fine with that. I'm excited for some of those guys to come up. Yeah, dude. Those guys are a riot, too, man.

I'm sure. Yeah, those guys are awesome. We had a good little combo in the mess hall over there. Yeah, that was fun. So as far as the gym goes, is there any other questions that you have that I didn't hit? No, man. Like my biggest thing was just like getting your advice on just like just doing it right, doing it right the first time. Don't build up and just be confident in yourself because like I feel like if you invest that kind of money, you are confident in yourself that you are going to do that.

And it's – I mean it's a big risk but like also huge reward too at the same time. So that's a really good piece of advice. Yeah, I think you come out guns blazing for sure. Yeah. I mean, it just gives you more options to program, too. If you only have two skiergs and two concept two rowers and a couple of softbikes, what can you really do with that? I mean, you can get super creative with it at some point. You have a lot of stations.

It's not... Yeah. It's not the same. Yeah, exactly. So it's like, if you just have everything, like, you have unlimited resources at that point, like, you can get really creative with your programming, and that's going to sell people, too. And, dude, with the competition out there right now, it's insane. Like, there's so many gyms, and it's like, what really differentiates people? Yeah.

Even when you go to, like like a 24-hour fitness. Like I'll go to a 24-hour fitness because I have a membership at 24. And I'll go to one and be like, man, this place sucks. I'll never go back again. Yeah. But then I'll go to this other one and I'll drive farther. Right. Just to go to the one.

That's really nice. It's really nice. And I think people will do that for your location if you have like that super pimp location. I mean a loan is just – it is what it is. know you're always gonna have some sort of loan yeah i have student loans yeah i mean i don't think it's a big deal um yeah i mean otherwise it's just such a slower process yeah and when it's a slow process it's a painful process yeah even with me with guns blazing like for me to actually make money like took such a long time like i paid off the loans that i had took me three or four years to pay off

we've made some money since all right uh guys we have to do wrap up javelin is going oh okay right yeah yeah i just got a bunch of text messages okay um but yeah paying uh it took me a few years to pay them off and then now the money that I am making, I'm actually just putting right back in and I haven't paid

any of it to myself so if I didn't have all the other options, then I would be in a heap of trouble for sure. Damn. So I am grateful

that we got to sit down and talk about your story. Dude, same, man. I can't believe you guys came out. This is awesome. Yeah, this is cool. I definitely want to come back.

And get some interviews for sure. I think we got some athletes that definitely want to be on the show. Yeah, sure I think we got some athletes that definitely want to be on the show yeah it's exciting it's going to be great they're all super stoked that

you came yeah a lot of gold medalists and stuff out there they're ready to talk yeah man alright so we

heard about your story what was the condition hemophilia hemophilia yes homo

oh my god I've heard that joke so many times I actually wasn't even trying to make a joke. I just couldn't remember what it was called. All right. So we have that and your whole experience here at the training center has obviously been awesome. Great educational background.

I want to open a gym. I like that. I think there's a lot of people out there that are very interested in what I had to say about your tips for opening a gym. Yeah. And at this point, if people want to look you up and find out what you're doing over here at the training center, hopefully you're doing some documentation on your Instagram.

Yes, sir. What do we got? Where can we find you? Yeah, my Instagram handle is Brandon Friggen Schramm. Brandon Friggen Schramm. Yep. Yep.

I like that. Is it double G? Yep, double G. All right. Yep. And how do we spell Schramm? S-C-H-R-O-M. Okay.

All right, all right. And I'll attach that onto my IG handle. All right, so Brandon Friggen Schramm. Anything else? No right. And I'll attach that onto my IG handle. All right. So Brandon, freaking Tom, anything else? No. Yeah. That's the only platform I'm on other than LinkedIn.

Okay. Cool. Yep. Yeah. Start putting some more stories up there so people can see you with the athletes and stuff. Oh, yeah. We do all the time, man. Just like whenever we have like cool high performance camps or when I'm traveling.

Yeah. No. There's updates all the time on there. There's a lot of good characters around here too, guys. So you definitely want to go ahead and follow that along. Yeah. All right. So without further ado. Thanks, ahead and follow that along. Yeah. All right. So without further ado.

Thanks, guys. Thanks for coming. Yeah, thank you. You got to go get to the Javelin. Yep. And we are over and out over here in the Chula Vista Training Center. See you guys next Tuesday. Thank you for listening.

Thanks, guys. As always, I love you guys.