Barbell Shrugged - Feed Me Fuel Me  — Always Faithful w/ Mike Burgener  — 100

Episode Date: August 16, 2018

If someone asked you what your crowning achievement is in your life, what would your answer be? For Coach Mike Burgener, the answer is simple: his kids! When you get through listening to our conversation with the man who has seen it all, and done it all in his life, it will make so much sense.   In this week's episode, we get into what this hard headed football player from Notre Dame learned as an Officer of Marines that has translated into the abundance mentality with which he leads today. The founder of Mike's Gym has dedicated his life to giving. As a result, he has made huge waves in the weightlifting community, and been instrumental in the development of coaches and athletes alike.   Because of Coach B's influence on weightlifting, and subsequent acquaintance with the likes of Greg Glassman as CrossFit was in its infancy, USA weightlifting's participant registration has increased almost tenfold. Given all of those accolades, still his crowning achievement revolves around his family.   You'll discover, as we did, that the metric of Mike's success is gauged by the fulfillment of his family. Nothing worth achieving, is worth achieving in the absence of family. Although he does not feel that anything happens due to luck, there is a greater plan at work. In focusing on building an institution in which he could bond with his children, be home and still serve his passion, the net he has cast over the landscape of fitness almost immeasurable.   The coaches that live and die by the "Burgener Warm Up", the athletes that have engaged in the CrossFit Weightlifting Seminar, and the athletes that have crossed over to competitive weightlifting after hanging out at Mike's Gym for a day numbers in the thousands. By serving his family, Coach B has impacted the world and truly set the standard for what it means to live a purpose driven life.   Sit back and set an intention to absorb a wonderful perspective on fulfillment, paying it forward, and relentlessly upholding the standard. Thanks for sitting down with Coach B, and sharing your light with our listeners!   - Jeff and Mycal   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/fmfm_burgener ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ► 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

This is episode number 100 of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast with our special guest, Coach Mike Bergner. Welcome to the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. My name is Jeff Thornton, alongside my co-host, Michael Anders. Each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message related to our three pillars of success, manifestation, business, fitness, and nutrition. Our intent is to enrich, educate, and empower our audience to take action, control, and accountability for their decisions. Thank you for allowing us to join you on your journey. Now let's get started.

Hey, what's going on, crew? Welcome to another episode of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. Ders and Jeff coming to you from the CrossFit Games, Madison, Wisconsin. And we are honored today to have Marine Captain Mike Bergner, the coach of coaches, the founder, the owner, the developer of Mike's Gym out in San Diego, California. And just by chance bumped into you at the Hold the Standard Summit with Logan. And just really appreciate you taking the time to be with us. You know, so impromptu. This is usually something that, you know, we schedule out that we schedule out weeks, maybe even months in advance.

So the fact that you're even here on the mic with us is really, really awesome. Thank you. It's an honor to be here. Appreciate you guys having me. Yeah, definitely. So I kind of gave a very brief resume for you, for everybody who doesn't know who you are. Kind of give us the cliff notes of your journey to where you're at today. Well, I don't even know where to start, but I grew up in Southern Illinois, Marion, Illinois, and my dad was a dairyman, farmer, milk farmer, and dairy farmer and coal miner at the same time.

I went to high school at Marion and was a little all-American football player in high school, so I got a scholarship to play football at Notre Dame. There you go. 165 pounds. And at that time I was 5'10.5", 5'11". And now I'm like 5'8". All the crushing blows and the old age, the geezerhood has caught up with me. But nevertheless, Parsegian wanted me to gain some weight.

So he sent me down to a weight room with Father Lang. And fell in love with Olympic style weightlifting. And back then it was clean and press, the snatch, and the clean and jerk. It was three lifts. And after the first year in the weight room, I came out, went 182, and my speed increased. So I was pretty addicted to the weightlifting.

Sure, sure. My journey from there became I got a master's degree at the University of Kentucky. And was a strength coach there for a little bit. My journey from there became I got a master's degree at the University of Kentucky. I was a strength coach there for a little bit. I fell in love with competing and then eventually into coaching. That's basically it in a nutshell. In 2005 or 2006, I think it was, Coach Glassman called USA Weightlifting and asked if I would hold a course for him and his athletes, which included Nicole Carroll and Annie Sakamoto and Greg Amason and those guys. We saw Annie last night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they brought, he brought 15, 20 athletes down to my high school. Okay.

And we ended up giving them a USA weightlifting club coaches course, which I was leading at the time. Mm-hmm. And he loved it. Yeah. And then he ended up doing a course out in, I think, Golden, Colorado, and he did it for these first responders, firefighters. He also did it for Marines and Navy SEALs, and he had several of us. They had a kettlebell guy.

They asked me if I'd come out and do the Olympic weightlifting portion of it, and so we did that, and this is even before CrossFit affiliation was even a thought process because coach really wanted to do the CrossFit mentality with the first responders, you know, he wanted the military firefighters, police officers, and that sort of thing. And so after he saw what this guy did, this guy had 50, 50 athletes, I guess, and he charged them 500 bucks. And this guy made 25 grand, and he paid Glassman eight. And so Glassman, I could see his face. It was like, oh, my God, this will never happen again.

So we all left and went back. I went back to San Diego. I'm a coach. We went back to Santa Cruz. And a week later, he calls me up, and he he says we're going to start doing seminars once a month we're going to charge a thousand bucks and we're going to have 60 in a class and he says will you be part of it I said hell yeah so I would drive my motorcycle up to Santa Cruz once a month and I'd give my three-hour portion of crossfit of weightlifting which was the burden of warm-up and the skill transfer exercises, and a high-hang snatch, a hang snatch, and a floor snatch with PVC pipe.

And Coach paid me very, very well. And after one year, he says, we're going to reduce the classes to two days, and so we're going to drop the SMEs, which is a subject matter expert. Mine was Olympic weightlifting. And he says, we want you guys to handle your own courses. And I'm going, oh, boy. I said, well, thanks, Coach. I appreciate it.

I don't think anybody's going to want to pay for this shit, right? And he said, no, I think you'll be surprised. And I was very surprised. So 2006, I think I did, no, 2007. Because 2005 and 2006 was with Santa Cruz. In 2007, I went out on my own. I was a 1099 athlete or coach, employee through CrossFit. We did five seminars.

2008, I had my knee replaced. I retired from teaching, and I did 10 seminars. 2009, I did 40. 2010, I did, well, after 2009, 2010, I had to become an S Corporation because I couldn't do as many as we had scheduled, so I started hiring Josh Everett, Stephon Roche to help me, other athletes, other coaches that I trusted. Sure. ever, Stephon Roche, to help me. Other athletes, other coaches that I trusted. And then I no longer was

a 1099 employer. I was now Mike's Gym. Became Mike's Gym CrossFit. CrossFit sent me checks automatically deposited into and then I went ahead and paid all my coaches and my businesses and stuff like that. And then gosh, ahead and paid all my coaches in my businesses and stuff like that.

And then, gosh, I think in 2013, we did 150 seminars all over the world. And then an amazing thing happened because in USA Weightlifting's world, they didn't believe in CrossFit. Sure. They didn't believe in Isabel and Grace, so to speak. Right. They did that 30 reps. They didn't believe in Isabel and Grace so to speak. They did that 30 reps. They didn't believe that. But what they did believe in, and I was on the board of directors when all this took place. We had 2,500, 3,000

members within weightlifting at the time. All of a sudden they see the amount of money that Mike's gym is making, giving CrossFit weightlifting seminars and covering the fundamentals of teaching and, you know, what's it take to be a great weightlifter. And I'm trying to teach teachers and coaches how to teach their clients, so to speak.

And they're going back, Jesus, this guy's making a killing, you know. So I think we better change our tactics. Sure. So then they started better change our tactics. Sure. So then they started becoming more open-minded to that. Adapt or die, right? And I think now they've got like 30,000 members. Oh, yeah. No kidding.

Wow. It's up there. And, you know, now the American Open at one point in Dallas, I think they had 800 participants. That's insane. And we used to beg, borrow, and steal to get 80. Right. That's crazy. So we used to beg, borrow, and steal to get 80. Right. That's crazy. So the growth because of CrossFit.

CrossFit has absolutely turned weightlifting around. And I think the guy that runs USA Weightlifting, Philip Andrews, I think he's an outstanding leader for weightlifting because he sees the benefit of what CrossFit can do for his organization. And so now they're working together. You know, I mean, Rogue is another great example. Kate, Katie and Bill Henninger started the same time I did. And these kids have, you know, they just went after it and worked their butts off. You know, there wasn't any handouts. You know, they worked their butts off and uh uh and

look at the dynasty that they've built yeah yeah so it's incredible to see like you go to the regional events this past year and katie who's rogue she was sitting there pulling the equipment off of the rigs at regionals after it's all done so she's still putting in the time and hours outside of running a massive business it's crazy you i'll tell you what rogue has been so good to me i mean literally when our uh when we had the fire damage to our house rogue stepped up and they just took care of me you know yeah uh bill and katie have always been like that and there you know i mean they're just two dadgum kids that went to met when she was in ohio state and i and i don't know the full

story but i think one of their dads their katie's dad or bill's dad was a welder and they they came together and build you know he can build anything right sure and uh so they just built that dynasty and you know they they've grown grown grown and they're the most giving people of anybody, I think, in that organization I've ever met. Well, you know, as we continue to refine the message of feed me, fuel me, one of the constants from one guest to the next seems to be that abundance mentality and giving before receiving and you know really applying that directly in as many facets of life as possible um and it's one of the the true tenets of what makes somebody successful in any endeavor you know whether it's athletics business relationships what have you and uh um which kind of brings, uh, what I want to dive into with you.

And that's the, the humility that it took for you to write the letter to your 15 year old self. And I want to preface that with, as you sit here with us today at any point prior did you think that this is where you'd be at this point in your life absolutely not you know i i am so humbled by what i've been given the opportunity to share you know i'm a you know as as marines you Marines, you become extremely motivated. I mean, I think it's in our blood anyway that your passion for leadership, your passion to save your men, your passion to lead by examples kind of thing that takes place. And then the humility of it is that, you know, I've never expected anything. My dad and mom raised me that way. I was an absolute dickhead, you know, so to speak, as a kid.

And I didn't think my mom and dad knew anything at the time. And as I said in that letter, you know, there's times you wish you could go back and say thank you for what they brought to the table. And my dad was extremely hardcore. He was just, and he didn't let me get away with anything. Thank God. Sure. You know, and he told me, he told me, he says, you know, you need to be a coach and a teacher. And I'm going, are you kidding me?

There is no freaking way I'm going to be a coach and a teacher. I said, I'm not going to deal with those kids like I am, you know. And so anyway, you know, it was just that point in time, too, of being in a leadership position in the Marine Corps and understanding the vulnerability of your troops and, you know, and how they look to you for the leadership and then how you look to the staff NCOs for leadership. Right, absolutely. We talked about that yesterday. We're just a dumb and stupid second lieutenant that doesn't know anything. And then if you're smart, you'll have extreme ownership

and let your men do their jobs. And then you just stand by and do all the leadership you can for them. Right, right. Yeah, I think that the humility, so to speak, was developed in my youth, but it wasn't recognized until I was much older. Sure, sure. And now it's, my wife and I pride ourselves that we have a gym. It's a two-car garage. It's a very humble gym.

And we have four platforms, and it's maybe 600 square foot with another 300 covered in the back that we just covered it about a year and a half, two years ago. And we've had 40 people training in that gym at the same time. That's wild. ago yeah and we've had 40 people training in that gym at the same time and we don't i mean we've never charged any anything for our services because i never had to pay for services so why in the hell would i want to want to charge i mean we're both school teachers we made a living yeah we had to pass a hat to get a cold beer but i would rather have my my kids up at my home i know where they are yeah and have uh have their friends at my house because I know where they are too. Right?

And my kids because of that, you know, that opportunity to have a gym in your home and have as many people there as you could, Olympians, training. I mean, I think it kind of paved the way for their development as well. Yeah. I'd agree with that. I sort of want to go back to, you know, sort of the letter aspect that you talked about. You know, the last things you do, you want to say things to your parents. When's that reflection point come for you?

Because I found as I'm, like, getting older, you start thinking when you're coming up, you want to be that hard ass, you know, big, tough guy, play ball, don't care about anything. But as you start getting older and you see your parents start aging, and then there's things that you reflect on as you're sitting by yourself and like, well, I wish I would have been, you know, more kind in that moment, would have said thank you, would have done this. When did that reflection point come for you? Well, that's a great question because, you know, when you're 22, 23, and you're a second lieutenant, and, you know, you end up going to OCS, and I'm going, geez, Dad, I think I made a mistake. And it's like, because, I mean, it was like I'm hardcore. I'm hard charging.

I get off that bus, and I put my feet along those little yellow footprints, right? And this drill instructor, gunnery sergeant, yanked me right by my ass and just put my head and butt wired together really quick. And that night we had to write a letter home, right? We wrote a letter home to mom and dad. And, you know, I think, dear Dad, I think I made a mistake. So, I mean, I think it started there, but it wasn't recognized until, you know, you go and you, you know, I got married later in life. And all of a sudden, you know, you have a couple of kids and and you now take your kids home and your dad's now 65 and even younger than I am now. And, you know, he's he's had a couple of knee replacements and he's frail. And here's a guy that used to paddle my behind with a leather belt and I needed every one of them.

And you're looking at, you know, I'm now becoming my dad, so to speak. And I've got to take care of him and my mom. And I live 2,000 miles away. But luckily I had two sisters that just stepped up to the plate. You know, so it's a good question. But I think the journey comes from when you're put into a harm's way type situation that you're not real comfortable with, and then all of a sudden you think, God, Mom and Dad weren't – they're pretty damn smart, aren't they? I think that throughout my lifetime, I think it's been that.

God, Mom and Dad are really smart about that. Maybe I should follow in their football step you know foot footsteps uh you know maybe i should invest properly like they did and instead of just going out and doing whatever yeah yeah so i mean the journey's continuous and i'm still learning yeah you know i mean i'm 72 and you know i am my dad is what i am yeah you know you know i'm a real hard ass and then all of a sudden i can start crying over anything. And I can remember my dad doing that. And it drove me nuts.

But then all of a sudden, you know, somebody will bring up something. And all of a sudden I become choked up. Sure. And just the voice starts, you know, quivering. The eyes start watering a little bit i become very emotional right uh and i'm going i used to drive me freaking crazy with my dad do you do you feel like that acceptance of your vulnerability comes from uh and i can remember an instance in my life where uh i was exposed to my own mortality for the first time.

And I had to admit to myself as a young, hard-charging 20-something that I was not invincible. And in that moment, I think that what I got from that was that it's probably better that I not leave things unsaid and that if that's what I'm feeling that I need to feel that as opposed to brushing it aside or not living in that moment for as long as I needed to do you feel like that's that's an honest assessment of where that kind of starts for a young man? Yeah, there was a time that when I was at the University of Kentucky,

I ended up having an assignment that I was supposed to recruit an athlete. And this athlete probably lived 35 miles from my hometown where my mom and dad were okay and uh i drove over to you know this this town and and uh um recruited this athlete you know attended his game and then i drove home uh not to my hometown but back to university kentucky and it came out in the paper that Mike Berner was recruiting John Doe back in this deal, and I didn't even call home. Didn't say, hey, Mom, Dad, I'm here. And there's not a day goes by that I don't think, boy, you are such a dumbass you know that I should have would have and could have

taken the opportunity to you know tell them how much I appreciate it that's what if you could go back what would you say thank you thank you for everything that you did for me because and you know and I think just the rites of passage I just think that happens

almost with everybody you know you come come into this world. You are young, dumb, and stupid until you become maybe a father yourself. And then all of a sudden you're thinking, Jesus, this is harder than I thought it was going to be. And then you grow up and all of a sudden your kids are out of the house now. And, you know, your kid now may not come and visit you. And you reflect back on, Jesus Christ, I did the same damn thing. Why am I pissed at him?

Because I did exactly the same thing. You know, life's a journey. And that's what I love about what CrossFit is all about and Olympic-style weightlifting. You know, I am so humble about what I've been offered and what I've been given and what I have the opportunity to present. I mean, it's just an appreciation. And I want to play it forward. I tell my kids all the time, you know, you've got to play this stuff forward. Your life is, don't worry about anything.

And, you know, there's nothing you can do about it anyway. Sure. If you're going to worry about whether the sun's coming out or if it's raining or the house is on fire, dude, there's nothing you can do about it. Right. So live your life accordingly. Play it forward and try to help as many people as you can with the gifts that you have. Yeah. My gift is only one thing.

I can teach Olympic style weightlifting. That's what i'm all about yeah anything else i don't know my ass from all around but i do know about that and i will take credit for that so i like to play that play that aspect for it what prompted you to write that letter somebody uh i think it was god i didn't forget who it was now. I think it was the Chalk Talk. The gal that, you know, she asked me, she says, if you had to write a letter to your 15-year-old self, what would you say? And I said, shit, I don't know. God almighty. I mean, it's, I know that I wish I could go back and turn around a lot of mistakes that I made.

And I wish I could tell my mom and dad how much I love them and appreciate it appreciate them uh my sisters in in my family I was the athlete so my mom and dad followed me everywhere my sisters took it in the shorts they had to play second fiddle with me and and I've really tried hard to make amends for that uh you's, it's like, I'm a very spiritual person. I'm not saying I'm religious, but I'm very, very spiritual. Uh, and I thank God every single day for the gifts that I've been given and the people I've, with whom I've come in contact and, uh, you know, and it's, I don't know, I'm just blessed. Yeah. So it was, it was really interesting as I was reading through that, um, because you've spent so much of your life caring for others. Um, you know, your, your kids, your wife, every athlete that's come through Mike, Mike's gym, you know, the, the

hundreds, the thousands of athletes that you've influenced in the CrossFit and the weightlifting community, the high school kids that you've taught. And that's a very selfless endeavor. And I don't think that you acknowledge it for what it is when you're actively participating in that and uh as you're writing that letter there was a lot of um uh acknowledge self-acknowledgement that you and derived from introspection that probably wouldn't have come about had you not written that letter. The one thing that I've said, you know, and people always talk about, you know, I give to this and I give to that and I coach this guy and all this.

You know what? I do. But you know who that's for? That's for me. The beauty of what I'm able to give is something that my dad talked to me about years and years ago, is that you take your gifts and you share those gifts. And with me, the high school kids, I mean, the Marine Corps taught me how to lead you know, how to lead basically and how to, how to have that command presence that, that, um, that deep guttural voice that is very succinct in exactly what you want and when you want it. And then the command presence of saying, is that clear? You know what I mean? We've all been there. And honestly, if you took my weight all been there. You're just taking me back to the day, man. Oh, yeah.

And honestly, if you took my weightlifting class, that's exactly what you get. I mean, and that's not, I mean,

because that's my gift. Yeah. I mean, I have to go back, God, what am I? I got Alan Rancorn, I'm 75.

I got to go back 30, 40 years and I still can, I can still call in air support. I can still call in, you know, I can, I can still call in air support. I can still call in. You know, I guarantee you I could take a column of boot Marines

and march them in a column of threes and give them a close order drill. And to me, that's the style of leadership, and I was good at it. And so all I'm doing is taking my gift and giving it to these kids because the information i'm going to give them is extremely important and if i don't present to them in a certain way sure then they're not going to just like you and i did i mean when that gunnery sergeant was telling us to get our head and butts wired together okay we were paying attention right so i run my pe classes like that i run my gym like that and uh you know try to be you know i'm not sir i'm now coach b sir was my dad you know mr was my dad

you know i am coach b and that's what you'll address me as is coach b but that leadership principle is what i was really good at and And so I think that is when I present. And even though people think, well, thank you, thank you. I see your passion. Man, that's for me. It really is something that I've been given. So I want to share that. It's just, I think it's a very good feeling.

It makes me feel good, but I'm very humbled to be able to do it at the same time. What has been, as you look back on it able to do it yeah yeah what has been as you look back on it all up to this point what has been your crowning achievement oh my god that's so easy for me so here's the shithead right that's getting a little emotional because it's my son you know uh you know i've got three sons and I'm extremely proud of all three of them. But, you know, my son Casey was an Olympian in 2008, an Olympic-style weightlifter. And the journey that he had as a little boy and, you know, God Almighty, you know, raising him up to this tall, skinny kid and getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning and making him drink peanut butter milkshake so that he would gain weight.

And then, you know, he was in my P.E. classes, and so every hour, on the hour, you will eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich. You know, and he'd go to class, and then after the first hour, he'd eat a sandwich, and I had spies all over the class, all over the school, watching to make sure he wouldn't take these peanut butter sandwiches and throw them away. It's the only way he could gain weight. But it was a journey before the two of us. And it was, I'll never forget that.

And it's like, oh, my God, here's this kid. And I think about it now, I should have thrown my ass in jail for child abuse but you know this journey that we had and then all the way up to you know making that olympic team and i mean it was that to me because he's my family it was it's been the greatest journey and then you know that my son was bo was a navy seal Navy SEAL, and watching him go through buds and doing that kind of stuff. And then my son Cody's a firefighter in Prince William County, and then watching him do the things that he does. And then I have these three buff, strong kids, and then I have this little girl that's got my heart. And she's so much like me it's unbelievable so i have these three boys that they're not they're not gonna bull the neck and bubble the snot they're not gonna talk with that

guttural thing but my little girl who's the youngest she's hardcore she's harder than i am i'm going dude you should have been a marine drill instructor. And she's very feminine, and yet she's not afraid to, you know, get in the— she's got a super heavy weight right now that weighs about 142 kilos, and this kid's 20 years old, and she will bring him to his knees, you know, and, you know, just give him shit that, you know, because she's a leader. She's watched me do this for so many years, and she's just pulled up the slack, man. Yeah. You know, so, I mean, the crowning moments of my life has been, you know, my kids and, you know, and the support of my wife and being able to, you know, see where my vulnerability is and, you know,

and knowing that the kids need a dad, they need him to be home. And, and then, you know, going to work at, you know, six o'clock in the morning, come home at seven o'clock at night, isn't, isn't going to work. And so her knowing and being smart enough to say, well, okay, let's build a gym in the garage. And then, you know, so I'd go to work at six o'clock in the morning, but I come home at three 34 in the afternoon and all the kids at school follow me home, you know, so it was like the Pied Piper coming home and, you know, and working out at coach B's garage, you know? And, uh, so yeah, I, I would, I would say that, you know, that's a great question, but it's very easy for me to

answer because it deals with my own poor children. That's beautiful. I love that. Is that by design, like that they followed your life path? You have two kids that pursued athletics, made the Olympic team, one that is a coach now. The military route, the firefighter, the firefighter, the, the, um, the, the community service involved in all of that. Um, did you push them down that path or did you kind of let them find it for themselves and you just endorsed it as they made those decisions? Yeah. I, my wife and

I have been very, very strong in the belief that they have to forge their own path. Um, you know, I like public service, you know, it's, it's a, it's something that is important for, I think for me, and I've tried to show that through leadership, you know, I think school teaching and being a, being a school teacher, you know, um, is part of the public service route. Uh, but in our world, you know, in the, in the gym of weightlifting I could have very easily made all my children do the Olympic lifts

and in retrospect I probably did make them do the Olympic lifts but I never forced them to compete but every one of them chose sports and the big thing for us is that they were going to be kept busy, and they did have to participate in sports.

But I didn't care what the sports were. I was a football player. Not one of my kids played football. Okay. You know, Casey played football one year his freshman year, and he hated it. So he says, Dad, I want to be a weightlifter. And that's when the 2 o'clock feedings took place. And then, you know, Bo wanted nothing to do with football,

but he wanted to choose sports that I didn't know anything about. Sure. I mean, he didn't like baseball because I knew about baseball. He didn't want football because I knew about football. Basketball wasn't in his cards. So he chose volleyball, water polo, because I didn't know shit about those sports. So I wasn't going to get in his space. He's really a private kid.

You know, Cody chose baseball. He played football one year, didn't like it. But he chose baseball, and he was a hell of a baseball player. Played college baseball. And then Sage, like her daddy, right, she chose weightlifting. She did all these other sports, but they didn't have to choose a sport, weightlifting, until they were a junior in high school. And if they were a junior in high school and they wanted weightlifting,

then they came over to my school, which is Rancho Buena Vista High School. Okay. And then, you know, Bo and Cody stayed at Fallbrook High School, which was the district because their sports were other sports. And all they had to do was they had to train in Olympic-style weightlifting to help prevent injury and to enhance performance. But as far as competing, they didn't have to compete. They all competed. Every one of them was a national champion, a school-age national champion or a junior national champion.

And as far as I know, we're the only family in weightlifting that had four siblings at a national championships at one time. That's cool. That's beautiful. So, Charleston, Illinois. And what's really fun about it is that was the last time my mother got to see all the grandkids together.

Oh, wow. And compete. Yeah. So it's really a surreal moment. So, you know, family is extremely important to me. But at the same time, we wanted them to, you know, go their own path. Yeah, sure. I didn't tell Bo to, you know, become a Navy SEAL.

I didn't tell Casey to join the Navy and become a nuclear submarine officer. And I didn't tell Cody to be a firefighter. Those are all paths that he's chosen. Yeah, yeah. You know, Sage is an Olympic weightlifting coach. She's got a great team called Sage's Tribe, you know. And she's one hell of a coach, you know. So now I'm

her assistant. Okay. So I get to count attempts while she gets to organize everything. That's cool. What are some lessons as you've developed as a parent, an individual, that, what lessons have your kids taught you that you already didn't know about yourself? Like, what have they uncovered? God, I hate to say this online you may make fun of me uh i think my sensitivity okay you know um i think back in the day you know

you will not cry you know uh today i mean as we talked about a little bit earlier uh you know my if any of your kids go through a hard time you relive that with them and you know and then it's it's really hard uh for you not to enable them. You know what I'm saying? Sure. It's, you want to do everything for them, but you know that that's not the path of righteousness, so to speak. Sure, right. And it's not going to teach them anything.

So you have your own ways. I mean, I go through my life and I think, okay, well, this one really needs a lot of help. Yeah. You know, and how can I help them without enabling them? Right. So, you know, I say, okay, hey, how would you like to make a thousand bucks? You know?

Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to unload the gym. I want you to take all the equipment out of the gym. I want you to wipe down the walls. I want you to repaint the the walls and i want you to redecorate the gym and for that i'll give you a thousand bucks so that they're industrious so they go out and they get their friends to help them they're not going to pay them anything but so the point is is i'm trying to make is that is that i think a parent is responsible for you know the growth and development of your kids yeah and as much as you want to give them the world it's really not in

their best interest for you to do that yeah and that's the hardest thing that i've had to come to grips with is to know that okay look you got to really be a semi-hard-ass here, but at the same time, your sensitivity is going to allow them to be able to work for you so that you don't give them, but you're giving them opportunities that they can make a living. Because, you know, at my age, I don't give a shit. What do I have? I mean, I don't give a shit. I don't, what do I have? I mean, I don't want for anything. I mean, it's, for me, I just try to get rid of half the stuff I got anyway, you know. Right.

So, I think sensitivity is a big thing that my kids have brought out in me, you know. I try not to admit that too much, you know, because they still think I'm a hard ass. But, you know, when my kids go through stuff, my wife sees my vulnerability. Yeah. And I'm not afraid to admit it. I mean, there's times in my kids' development and the hard times that they've gone through that I'm telling you, I have deep, deep sobs coming from my gut. And I think that's helped me grow a little bit more, I think, you know. Whereas when I was 30 years old, I wouldn't, that, I wouldn't happen. It just would not happen.

Sure, sure. As you get older and you raise your family and you're brought into their injuries and their hurts and their boyfriend, girlfriend stuff. And then the experiences they have in life that just brings you to your freaking knees. And you've got to be strong in front of them but when your partner and you are together and my wife is so tough and i'm the biggest pussy that ever lived you know because it's it's that time that i cannot i can be vulnerable but i can really let that emotion out yeah and i there again that that time period as you grow older you know you're not afraid to show that emotion out. And there again, that time period as you grow older, you're not afraid to show that emotion. I'm not afraid to show it now.

But I've got to be in the right company. Sure, sure. Were there instances as an officer of Marines where there was value to the expression of your vulnerability for your men? Yeah. You know, the thing about, I guess for me, it's a simple thing is when you go to the mess hall, the chow hall, who goes first? You or does your man go first? Junior enlisted.

They always go first. You know? And so, I mean, that's what the Marine Corps taught me. Sure. You become selfless. Who are you? I'm nothing. Leaders eat last.

That's exactly it. You take care of your freaking men. Right. You know? And when you do that, they'll take care of you. Right. And for me, I've always said that the best teachers I ever had were my staff NCOs. These are the guys that taught me.

And I'll tell you what. I mean, I've had guys that were just fire breathers in the Marine Corps that I had to reduce down to rank, to PFCs. Right. And these guys were very gifted. But if I didn't do that, then I would have been enabling them. And then, you know, they'd come back up and rank again.

And I'm just absolutely convinced they love being an E1. They love to be that private. They'd do some dumbass thing again and you just have to... But, you know, my staff... Because I think all second lieutenants want to be liked.

Sure. Right? And it takes that staff NCO to, no, lieutenant, you've got a job to do, and you've got to protect these guys. And if you don't protect them, if they don't follow you, if you don't kick their butts, if you don't make sure that they respect what you do. Sure. And you love them to death, and you give them everything you can. You put them first. But then when they're're wrong you have to come down on them hard you know you got to let them know that you're in charge yeah so yeah i i just think that's a very important part of life you know yeah how do you because you know i would imagine that you know when you're on that

platform all by yourself uh working through an o lifting meet, that's such a cerebral process. It's easy to jump into your athletes' successes and enjoy that with them. How is it for you as a coach when they put all that work in and you only, it's not like a football game where there's multiple points where the game could turn. But when it's just you and you have three attempts and you bomb out and you know that you put everything into that moment, how do you help an athlete through that? Yeah, that's a tough one.

It really is because they're devastated, you know. And I think I guess the easy answer is that, you know, tomorrow's another day, right? And we've got to pick ourselves up and, okay, grieve this little bit of time. Be upset with yourself. But we're going to take our heads and we're going to hold them high. And by God, we're the journeys next week is going to be different. We need to get right back on the wagon again. And, you know, the hardest part on any of this stuff is getting into the athlete's head

and every athlete is different. I mean, there's athletes right now. I've got, I had this one athlete that I swear to God, she made me drink. I mean, I mean, I drink Jack and coke only because i had to get through it the training session you know and if she's ever listens to this she knows exactly when the hell i'm talking about you know and and that today she's like my adopted daughter you know she's uh so you know but you as a coach the trust that you develop and bring to the table, because in reality it's not anything about you. Right.

It's not you. It's about them. That's the athlete. She's the one that's performing. And you've got to do everything you can to make sure that that athlete's successful. Right. And there's going to be some of those athletes that need a swift kick in the ass, and there's other athletes that if you did that to them, it would break them. Right.

So you've got to be able to know your athlete it's just like every workout program is different now i write a program for you it's going to be different than a program for michael it's just it's got to be different it's if i give you the same programs then i'm going to expect the same thing but your differences your needs are going to be different than his and so your program's got to be different than his type of program. And every athlete's mentality, you've got some guys that are going to go out there and they're going to bust their ass and they're going to lift better. My son was one of these guys. I never knew what the hell he was going to do on game day,

except I knew he was going to be better. And I gave an experience one time where we were at this meet, and I'm very conservative coaching. And I said, okay, you're going to start with 150 in the snatch. He comes out, and he misses 150 in the snatch. And my rule is, you've got to get one in, dude. And he says, Dad, I can make this lift. And I said, son, you're not going to take any more than this lift

because you missed your opportunity. He says, if I make 150 in the back room, can I go out here and take 160? I said, you've got to be freaking nuts. I said, yeah, go back in the back room because I was convinced that he would miss it. So he went back in the back room and he made it. And he gets called to the platform with 160 within two minutes. And he goes out there and nails it. Frickin' nails it.

And so there was that time where the athlete and you come together. Right. It was like, okay, I'm stubborn. You're not going to do this. And yet he challenged me to let him do it. But the caveat was he had to do it in the back. And I'm going, yeah, okay, I'll teach you a good lesson. Sure.

And he blew it away in the back and blew it away on the platform. So at that point, you have a trust. Right. The trust between the athlete, even though it was my son, the trust between the athlete and the coach. I learned to trust my athlete, and when my athlete told me something, I trusted him. Okay. He trusted me to listen to him as well. I learned to trust my athlete, and when my athlete told me something, I trusted him. He trusted me to listen to him as well. So we bonded.

And so that's what you really try to develop with that coach and that athlete relationship. And it's not about you as a coach. It's about the athlete. You've got to do everything in your power to build that athlete. Sure. And then when that athlete goes out and wins a gold medal, you get the hell out of the way. You just stay back here in the back. You're behind the screen, and you don't want anybody to know.

They know anyway, but you don't want to call attention to yourself because the love and that journey is the athlete's journey. Sure, sure, sure, sure. What's that vetting process look like for somebody who wants to get your guidance in coaching? Like if somebody walks in off the street, do you vet them and say, like, you're worthy to, like, not worthy, but like you're going to be accepted into my coaching program or, like, you just don't meet the cut? No, you know, that's a great question because for me, I don't think I vet anybody. Okay. You know, it's like if they have a desire, like right now, I mean, anybody on a Wednesday can come to my house and get help in the Olympic lifts.

I don't know anything about CrossFit. What do I know about CrossFit? I have a gym that's called the CrossFit Gym. But, you know, programming, come on, I don't know. Sage knows programming. What i do know is about olympic style weightlifting so somebody comes in and they want help in the olympic lifts then i will you know i'll help them we give free programming on our website sage writes this program out and there it is right there we do instagram lives you know sage has got youtube articles and stuff like

that i used to do the same thing so anybody that needs help that wants it, then they're there. I fired one athlete in my life, and the guy was a jerk. He used bad language around my kids. He was in my gym. We gave him everything, you know, gave him a place to train. We fed him periodically. But this kid was, you know, he just wasn't a very good person or in our family so i fired him you know and i and you know i'm that's the only athlete i've

ever fired in my life yeah we just i think athletes are appreciative of what they have right they have a free place to train sure you know i mean i get i've been blessed by getting people give me protein products and stuff like that. I give it all to my, I don't even take this stuff. I bet I give it to my athletes. So they, they have a pretty good gig going and I think they appreciate it. So if, if this person is good person, then they can come and train at my gym. Yeah. It's not, it doesn't, I don't even care care i could care less if they're a good athlete sure they just want to get better you know and it doesn't matter if they're

a weightlifter or they're a volleyball player but they need some help and explosive development so we'll let them they we let them come in i love that yeah let's go when it comes to the the character of your athletes and um people that spend a considerable amount of your time at Mike's gym, at what point in somebody's development, they come to you and maybe it's just a tips and pointers kind of interaction, and you, with that coach's eye that you developed over the year, discover that there's actually something there. Right. Um, do you push for them to pursue it or like, how do you help them acknowledge that? Like maybe CrossFit isn't your thing. Maybe you should commit to this barbell, you know like when you see that and

they don't like what how does that conversation go yeah well it goes you know you know you're built for this sport right i mean you're five foot nothing and you're probably you know 140 pounds and you know what you're this is your sport right i I mean, you really want to do Murph? Are you freaking crazy? You know, I mean, so, but I think you ought to go to a weightlifting contest. You know, in fact, there's one coming up. The California Games is coming up in a month. Why don't we take out the challenge and see what it's all about, you know?

And I don't force them. I mean, I taught high school, and, you know, in and i don't force them i mean i taught high school and you know in in my high school journey i i had uh you know mexican americans i have had asians and i'd go out and actively recruit the short bodies because they had great flexibilities and i had some great men mexican men kids that could have been wonderful weightlifters, they didn't want to wear a singlet. They'd come to my gym and they would train hard. And I had kids that could set national records.

They didn't want to wear a singlet. And they wouldn't. But we still coached them. They were in my PE classes and stuff like that. But I think it's my job to try to make people understand that, you know, I love this sport, and I want you to love it too. And if they don't, they choose not to compete, that's okay. You know, they come to my gym and they're just like,

you know, Coach, I don't think I really want to compete. I just want to do these lists because it's challenging and I like them and it keeps me in shape. That's okay. But my goal is to get everybody I come in contact to be able to snatch body weight and be able to clean and jerk 1.25 times body weight. And if I can get them to that level, then I know I can take them past that level. And when they start getting to that level, I really start pushing them to, let's think about going to a weightlifting contest.

And with Sage's team, she's got the Sage Tribe team, I mean, it's just, all the other people, she didn't even have to talk about it, it was all the other people who make them kind of move over. Are you going to go to the meet on Saturday? And maybe they're not lifting, but they're going to go to the meet and cheer.

And then now they're going, well, that's pretty good. That was fun sure you know and so they all of a sudden do it but there's no pressure but there's pressure i understand that you know what i mean it's organic yeah it is and it's it's once once they go to their first meet cha-ching i got him got him right i got him getting him to the first meet. Cha-ching. I got him. I got him. Getting them to the first meet. And the beauty of what USA Wheellifting did too was if I can get them to the first meet

and they can wear normal clothes, normal PE clothes without the singlet, then oh, okay. I guess I could probably wear the singlet because they see everybody else, all the other 50 competitors wearing the singlet. Right.

Now, the girls, they don't give a shit. They like to wear the singlet because it's like a bathing suit for them. Right. Got nice legs. They want to show off their legs, and they don't have any problems at all. It's the guys that have the issue with that. Interesting. Yeah, it really is. But once they can get there

and they see all these kids wearing the wrestling singlet, you know, well, yeah, I guess I could do that. And then they buy into it typically. I haven't lost a lot of them. But you just kind of see the potential. And even if the

kid's not any good, get him to lift and then hopefully he'll love the sport. Right. And they'll all get better doing it. It's just a matter of continue with your journey. And if they start out snatching a barbell, then you can probably snatch the barbell with five kilos on each side of it sometime. So they will get, with progressive overload, they'll be able to get it. I love that.

Where you currently are in your life, how would you define your life purpose right now? My life purpose is life coaching. Okay. And for me, coaching weightlifting is an art. But the art of this coaching weightlifting is life coaching. You know, being tuned into a discipline. Yeah. Being tuned into teamwork.

You know, being in tune to this isn't about me necessarily. Maybe on the platform it's about me, but knowing that it's really important for my team that I make this lift. Yeah. You know, so it's becoming, you know, understanding that self is important, obviously, but the team really is important. Ah. You know, so, and I think when you go through raising a family, how important is the team of the family? Right.

The family team is extremely important. Right. Sure. And if you have one person that goes outside that family, it can destroy the whole family. So I think that's where I'd like to think about it. And sort of like a follow-on is how long have you been living in that purpose? Or is it something, has that been from the beginning? Or is it over the past 10, 20 years? I think the moment that I learned to be a good husband, a good father,

was when I learned to say, yes, dear. Because I will tell you this, women are so much stronger mentally than men are. There's a reason why I call my wife Boss Hoss. Now, I mean, I'm coming out of the Marine Corps, and I'm a hard ass, right? I wasn't shit. But the boss, the boss knew, but I fought. And then that moment that I realized that this team was going to be held together by her yeah and that it's just internal with them yeah yeah I mean it's like I said I've got four wonderful

grandkids and I love them dearly but I got him for two hours man I'm toast I want the hell out of here but she's 24 7 yeah you know and she's i mean we we were the fire in southern california affected us and yeah and this woman's on a freaking mission you know she wants that house rebuilt and she wants and i said look you you deal with the contractors she's one tough cookie sure and uh and i think in our in years of marriage, we've probably, we hardly ever fight. Never. And we never fight about money. It's all hers anyway, right? So I just get that, you know.

But I think, you know, she can work all day in the yard and get her hands dirt, you know, and she's got a vision and she goes after it where, you know, I'm one-dimensional. I mean, my weightlifting is, that's all I care about, you know. But, you know, I think the point is that when I realized that team person, you know, that the commander-in-chief's really in charge. Sure. When you let Soka, just let her go, man. You go out and let her do her thing and you'll be better off for it sure i love that yeah what's your method for helping the the young hard chargers who are 100 from the outside looking in it's obvious to

everybody else but them that they are their own worst enemy standing in their own way. How do you get them to achieve that next level of enlightenment where it's not about the goal? It's falling in love with the process. Because so often in life, you commission as an officer, you get your scholarship to Notre Dame, you know, like those events that are milestones in your life. But once they're achieved, it's very anticlimactic. The credits don't roll. The music doesn't play. The sun comes up tomorrow. And at some point, that happens enough that you realize that, oh, all the shit that I did to get here is what made it worth the while.

Not the actual achievement of that thing. Is that part of your coaching process to get them to come full circle with that concept? Yeah. I think so. And my journey has been very blessed, obviously, because of the people with whom I've been brought in contact with. My coach in high school was a guy that was very fundamentally oriented. You know, drills and skills were the name of his game.

And it was his favorite word, and I laugh now because Nick Saban talks about it all the time. It's like trust the process. And trust the process. You know, boot camp, trust the process. You know, you're here today and you're nothing but a piece of horse meat. But, you know, 10 weeks, 12 weeks from now, trust the process. All of a sudden you become a Marine. And, you know, I think that's the hardest thing.

I think dealing with young kids or even young athletes, everybody wants it tomorrow. I want this tomorrow. I want to be able to snatch 300 tomorrow. And, you know, it's up to you to get them to understand there is a process here. And we're going to do the process. That's why it took 18 weeks for my kids to ever snatch in my PE class. I worked drills and skills and fundamentals 18 weeks before anybody snatched, and that's the way I teach my classes.

They get me for two days, right? They get me for two daggum days, and we don't snatch the first day. And then right after snatches, we get into the clean and jerk because the clean and jerk is easy, They give me for two daggum days, and we don't snatch the first day. Right. And then right after snatches, we get into the clean and jerk because the clean and jerk is easy. And you have to milk the snatches, and it's hard to teach, but you've got to win with the clean and jerk. Oh, sure. So it's a process. It's trusting the process.

And you work one day at a time, one second at a time. You know, and it's like I've gone in my journey. I've gone through Al-Anon. I don't know if you know what Al-Anon is. It's family and friends of drug addicts and alcoholics. You know, that type of thing. And one of the feats in my journey, you know, I went into this thing and the first meeting I ever went to was like, oh, my God, talk about a humbling, you know, sucking in gut-wrenching meeting, and after the meeting, you know, I had these two old

ladies. One was 75, and the other one was 80, and they grabbed me right by my ear and just pulled me into this corner, and it was like they taught me because I was so vulnerable at this time in my life. And they taught me, dude, I want you to repeat after me. One second. He's sober. Two seconds. That he's been sober two seconds. Three seconds.

And then all of a sudden you build up to one day. One day, one second. And that's the way you talk to yourself it's one day at a time it's the process of acknowledging you know i can't cause it i can't control it i can't cure it it's you know it's god grant me the serenity to accept the things i can you know can change and the the ability to know the difference when i should change it you know it's basically a serenity prayer. It's a whole process. And you have to understand that the process is there and you can only take it one day at a time. And I have this thing that, did you guys ever see Bridges Spies with Tom Hanks?

Yes. I haven't seen it. It's one of the greatest movies of all time for me. And I just saw it about, you know, I don't know, six months ago or whatever. And in this movie, the spy is this guy that's an artist. He's very cerebral and he's doing this thing and he's the artist and he's a spy. He's the guy they're going to put to death. And Tom Hanks is a, I think he's an insurance attorney. And he gets, you know, they ask him to represent this guy for criminal defense.

And Hanks is beside himself with this guy because he just shows no emotion. And Hanks says, aren't you afraid of dying? And the guy says, will it help? That to me was a turning point in my life. Because all the shit you worry about, when you really think about it, how much control do you have over it? Right. Wow. You don't.

You don't. And why worry about it? Right. Will it help? OMG. It's not going to freaking help so just let it go man yeah damn i mean and to me that was that was heavy and uh i wish i would have had that 15 20 years ago because you know you worry about all kinds of stuff you know is my kid going to be okay it's

easy you know i mean it's just shit you can't control right so you have to trust the process you know, and I learned that from my head football coach in high school. I learned it from Eric Parsegian. I learned it from Vince Lombardi. I learned it from, I'm still learning it from Saban because I study Saban and the way that

he coaches and the attention to detail and that whole thing. Those are all the things. My brother played for Saban. Oh my God. Those are all the things. My brother played for Saban. Oh, my God. Those are all the things that he describes above and beyond him being, you know, the overuse of the word motherfucker. You know, his attention to detail, his ability to hold the standard as has been the theme the last couple of days. You know, nobody's above it.

Nobody. Nobody. And I tell you what, he holds his staff accountable. Sure. You know, and if you can't uphold that standard, then he'll get rid of you. Sure. And, you know, you know how important the strength program and conditioning program is for that man? Oh, yeah.

He's got the highest paid strength and conditioning coach in the nation. Unbelievable. And that guy is the dude. Oh, he's a pit bull. He is a pit bull. And I'm thinking he was a Marine, but I'm not sure if he was or not. I want to say he was Army. Okay.

Well, aren't really Marines yet. It's the same thing. That's what Army stands for. And, you know, the Army guy's going to come back and he says, okay, well, what's Marines stand for? Muscles aren't, you know, required. And intelligence. Muscles are required. Muscles are required.

Intelligence, not essential. And that's what they tell me. And I'm going, okay, I get it. That's right. I'll take that. I can understand that. That's why they say attack the middle. What's flanking?

What's covering the fire? I mean, Jesus. Oh, God. Yeah. You know, the parallels of your life from athlete to marine to father and coach, you know, the way that leadership manifests in those completely different lanes of your life, but yet the principles seem to be the same. Do you, it seems like that's the theme that I'm getting as you tell your story, is that you live a very principle-based life. And, you know, in doing that, you're able to adapt shift uh shift and pivot accordingly based on the the situations that you're presented with because the the fundamentals right are can

be applied right differently given the situation right everybody's different and you know every gift that i've ever been given has been given to me by somebody else you know the leadership of my head football coach in high school you know you think about you think about this for a second i can tell you right now almost to a t what that man did i watched him i studied him i mean i it wasn't oh i'm going to study clay damati it was like i just sat back and just watched him. The guy was unbelievable. You know, I watched Eric Parsegian. I watched him in my dorm room at Notre Dame at 10, 30, and 11 o'clock at night

that he and his staff were still working, developing the game plan for the next opponent. I watched Casey Roberts. My son Casey Bergner is named after Casey Roberts, who was my first officer in the Marine Corps. Cody Jackson, Stormy Bergner. Stormy Sexton was five silver stars in World War II, Korea, Vietnam. And I had

the opportunity to be led by him. Wow. And so in my journey, it's like if you'll sit back and keep your mouth shut and watch and understand that God gave you two eyes two ears and

one mouth right and you can absorb all of this even though when you don't even know you're absorbing it you're being it's being absorbed that's that's going to it's going to kind of permeate with you and and if you're smart you'll use those lessons that you've learned from others and the process, trusting the process that you learned for others to kind of play your path forward for the people that you're going to come in contact. Love it. I love that, man. Yeah. So, yeah, as much as we would love to sit here and just milk your wisdom, we know that you're on a schedule this weekend and you've got other things to do. So I want to kind of tie this up with two questions about how you live your life on the daily.

And you can answer them on any level, mental, physical, spiritual, what have you. The first of which is what do you do each and every day to feed yourself and create the momentum with which you live? And the follow-on to that is what do you do each and every day to fuel yourself and make sure that that momentum is sustainable over the course of your life? Yeah. That's good because I'm a creature of habit. My alarm goes off at 0530 every single morning whether I want it to or not. I get up in the morning and I do my bathroom

duties and stuff like that. And then I go down and I weigh myself every single morning. And then I usually come in and make my bulletproof coffee. And then I have a journal that I write into a journal every single day. And I talk about what I want to try to get achieved for the day or what my thoughts are for yesterday. I meditate, so to speak, not sitting there going, um, um, but I meditate in thinking and appreciating, you know, what I've been given and the people that I want to make a difference, you know, with. And all of a sudden it becomes 0730 or 0 7 45 and the geezer starts showing up at my house and uh you know the first guy comes up to the driveway and in the garage and and uh we start giving each other shit right off the bat because that's what men do and it's you know and i've got

an 83 year old geezer and i've got a 74-year-old geezer, and five or six 72-year-old geezers, which is what I am, and then our youngest is 60, and we just banner back and forth. But the workout of the day has been put on the board, been explained, and we fulfill that. And then after that workout is over with, we sit around and just we're all retired, so we just kind of talk about what's happening and what's the best bourbon that they've had lately. And, you know, and just, you know, the kids typically.

And, you know, I don't want to say this too loud, but if there's any wife bashing going on, you know. Can you believe she did that shit you know i mean it's like that's when we kind of have our little secret together meetings right because the wives never hear this kind of stuff and and we laugh and it's like my wife and i or the geezers and i talk about you know make fat you're the biggest piece of shit i've ever seen you're gaining weight you're too fat you know and it's it's none of it's of shit I've ever seen. You're gaining weight. You're too fat, you know. And none of it's true, right? Oh, sure, sure, sure. But it's just kind of the way men band back and forth.

Oh, yeah. But on the other side, my wife has a group that's called the Mambas, Mothers Against Making Bingo Arms, right? And she's got her little group and they're going, oh, you go, girl. You look so good. And that girl may be 50 pounds overweight, but you look good today, honey. And they're saying shit that they don't believe is true either, you know. So we have our moments with our friends now as you get older and the kids are all gone.

It becomes very important that you stay in contact with your brothers and sisters, right? And I tell them, look, if you're going to miss a workout, I get it. But if you miss two or three workouts, you better call my ass because I'm worried about your health, man. Because we know everybody's vulnerabilities at this point. Yeah. We know who's on high blood pressure medication, who's got diabetes, and who's having an issue.

We know all that stuff. So, you know, we kind of feel like you took the family you raised them but now we got a different we still have that family but they've all got you know they've all got their own families to work so our family now becomes our generation so sure we we i do that you know hard and spirituality is a very important thing to me and and i don't do it all the time, but, you know, typically on a Tuesday and a Thursday I'll go to Mass at, you know, 0730 and then go to the beach and walk

and kind of spiritually get my head wired together and, you know, thank God for the things that I've been given and blessed with the things that I have and just understand that, you know, tomorrow's promised to nobody, and I want to be able to look back and say, you know what, man, you are one lucky dude,

and I am, you know, and as I said, you know, I just wish I could say to my mom and dad right now that, I mean, you guys did a good job, and thank you for everything that, you know, that you've given me, you know, and my sisters feel the same way. We all feel, you know that you've given me you know and my sisters feel the same way we all feel you know feel that our parents did the best that they could and they were the depression family the depression mom and dad so you know it was it was hard for them sure and

they did a really good job for us i love that and thank you for your time first off where can everybody in this community go support you and everything you have going, your families, anything professional and personal? Well, I tell everybody, you know, there's kind of a joke about it. My wife's the yard Nazi, right? She wants me working in the yard. And I hate that shit. I'm telling you right now. I feel like I'm talking to myself right now.

No kidding. You know, the only reprieve. Nicole, I hope you're listening. Well, I know my boss. She may be listening or not. But if, and I tell everybody, I give them out my, MikeBergner at Mac.com is my email address. My phone number is 760-535-1835. You can text me. You can call me. You can ask me any questions. Don't ask me about my life. Just ask me about help that you need. You know,

you know, don't ask me about Al-Anon. Don't ask me about, you know, that, but ask me, hey, coach, you know, I'm having trouble with this. I need to, can I send you some videos? And, you know, people are very, very friendly and very nice about it because they don't want to bother you. But I'm telling you, man, you're keeping me out of yard work. If you send me videos, man, I'm telling you, I could watch them and then I don't have to go out and work in the yard. So it's, and for me, it's a challenge of being able to take somebody, break down their movement pattern and watch that and then screenshot it and then send it back to them and say, okay, what do you see? And then, because I don't want to give it to them. Sure.

But I want to say, what do you see here? And almost probably 75% of the time they're able to, oh, I say, Jesus Christ, I'm really up on my toes. I never saw that before. But they never break down the sequence before either. Now what? How can I correct that? Because now that's the challenge. Can you identify it?

Yes, I can. Okay, how do we correct it? Well, here's the drills, dude. And then, you know, send me a video in another week of their practice and let me see what's happening. And so that's fun for me. I mean, I've worked with Olympians. You know how hard it is to work with an Olympian? Oh, good job, dude.

You know? I mean, come on, really? I mean, okay, what should I do? Lift more weight. His technique is perfect, right? Sure. What do I have to do? Squat more.

You know, I mean, that's easy. Anybody can do that but to take a 17, 18, 19 year old kid that can't chew gum and walk at the same time and make them efficient in the list that's what drills and skills and trust the process is all about so YouTube I've got YouTube

Sage has got our stuff down you know CrossFitWeightLifting.com all that stuff is there for you and you know we make ourselves available it keeps my ass out of trouble i love it well hey we really appreciate you taking the time coach uh and really sharing all that with us and our audience and you know the the value that you've you've brought to the table today has just been extremely awesome. For everybody out there in Feed Me, Fuel Me land, if you have any interest in touching a barbell, you now have a resource.

And, you know, he's open. Yeah. So, you know, take advantage of that and, you know, get the help that you need if you don't have access to it already. And we really appreciate you. Thank you guys for having me. And thank you for taking the time impromptu to be here with us this weekend. So much. So until next time, guys, feed me, fuel me.

And that'll do it for this episode with our special guest, Coach Mike Bergner. If you want to check out everything that Coach B has going on, please go check out the full show notes on theshrugcollective.com. Also, be sure to connect with us on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at FeedMeFuelMe. We would love to hear from each and every one of you. If you found this episode inspiring in any way, please leave a rating and a comment in iTunes so we can continue on this journey together. Be sure to share with your friends and family on social media, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social platforms that you use.

We really appreciate you spending your time with us today and allowing us to join you on your journey. We would love to hear your feedback on this episode, as well as guests and topics for future episodes. To end this episode, we would love to leave you with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. Thank you again for joining us, and we will catch you on the next episode. you