Barbell Shrugged - Feed Me Fuel Me — Firebreather Lifestyle w/ Anders Varner — 87

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Starting point is 00:01:09 This is episode number 87 of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast with our special guest, host of Barbell Shrugged, Anders Varner. 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.

Starting point is 00:01:55 Hey, what's good, fam? Welcome to another episode of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. There's Jeff coming at you from Scottsdale, Arizona. And with us today from the beautiful beaches of SoCal we've got Anders Varner former owner of San Diego athletics and founder of movement RX and most notably to date co-host and director of programming with barbell shrugged what's up baby how you doing man living the dream dude it's good to be here good to have you on boss we know you're busy as heck dude so I appreciate you taking the time bro no. No, this is great. We're going to Paleo FX.

Starting point is 00:02:27 This is the last thing I got. We can go all night. I got a flight at 6 o'clock, so if you got five hours, we're good. We can make it happen. Yeah, we'll just have the longest podcast ever. Joe Rogan, watch out. Yeah, come on. I'll take it.

Starting point is 00:02:43 Five hours just straight at people here. There you go. For everybody in the Feed Me, Fuel Me community that isn't up to speed with who you are and how Anders Varner became the Anders Varner of Barbell Shrugged, give us the cliff notes, man. Where you come from and your background in strength and conditioning and whatnot. Talk about your path man so we kind of talked a little bit about a little bit pre-show but my the entire journey for me started when i was 13 so um i played hockey in virginia beach for the first i started when i was three so 10 years after starting um i had become i guess what you like decently good at hockey, ice hockey.

Starting point is 00:03:26 And living in Virginia Beach, you think you can be really good at a sport like ice hockey because it's not cold there and nobody plays that sport. And I got recruited to go play in this national tournament representing the Mid-Atlantic, and we got our teeth kicked in like really really bad kids from Minnesota don't mess around kids from the northeast like they they live in cold weather all the time they're playing pond hockey all day long they beat the crap out of us um so what happened was I I realized like if I'm going to be good at this thing that I'm really that I really care about I need to go find people that are good at it so I can be around them.

Starting point is 00:04:06 And started to do some research. I was going to go live with my aunt and uncle in Minnesota. And then I learned about this thing called prep school and realized I could leave home. I could go basically live in dorms. I went to college basically like 14 we we had mandatory study halls the whole thing but in order to play sports with these guys um i was 13 i was a late bloomer i i didn't deserve to be on the ice with these guys like i was tiny and just some of

Starting point is 00:04:40 these guys got drafted straight out of high school to go play in the NHL, and they weren't big enough, or they were missing a step here and there, or they wanted to go play college for a year before they went, and they would go do a postgraduate year. So there would be me at 14 and them at 19, and those five years in life are very, very different. And in order for me to actually just not even like be good at the sport, but to be able to live on the ice with these guys and not just get killed every day, I had to learn how to lift weights.

Starting point is 00:05:15 So I was really lucky. My dad came from a bit of a strength and conditioning background. He trained a lot. So he had some very basic knowledge. It turns out many, many years later, I'm like, man, dad, you actually kind of knew what the hell you were talking about which is pretty cool um i i lifted weights actually at the same gym my first the first gym i ever went to is the same one that ben smith used to train at um so it's really cool when crossfit would go back and see um like the

Starting point is 00:05:41 the dingy gross gym at the stadium that he worked out at. I'd be like, that's my spot. But yeah, so strength and conditioning was just a means of survival for me for a lot of high school. Just being smaller, I'm 5'8", 5'9", probably in high school, 175-ish. That's really, really tiny in a game that moves that fast with that many big people. And so I had to get get strong I needed to get faster

Starting point is 00:06:08 The weight room in the back squat was the only way to get there So I learned to just love being in the weight room got to college Trained a little bit, but I think I fell off the rails just a tiny bit Like I'm still in the gym three four days a week, but it was very misguided like after Playing sports at such a high level or being on in that team atmosphere and then getting to college, there's a lot of things that can steal your attention. Um, but I, I met my, one of my roommates, uh, my senior years, name's Brian Borstein, who I ended up opening the gym without here. Um, I met him and he was dialed like he had been in the bodybuilding world. If you guys ever remember the Bill Phillips Body for Life Challenge back in the day. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He finished in the top 10 for like teenagers. So he was really dialed and understanding nutrition, understanding like training programs. He was, he had written like a strength and conditioning ebook

Starting point is 00:07:06 like when the internet first started was like in all the chat rooms. Um, so he was, he just fired me up. Like it was kind of one of those like, ah, I'm really interested in this. And then I met him and he brought a lot of the education side to it. Um, so we went on a freaking journey together and trained up until about probably I was like 22, just doing a lot of the bodybuilding, a lot of just basic strength and conditioning work. And then CrossFit showed up. And when CrossFit showed up, then I got to play sports again. This thing that I had developed like real passion for over the last 10 years and it like united all the people that really cared about their back squat and then all of a sudden I learned about Olympic lifting which I was doing but really really ugly there was no reason I was doing it for explosive

Starting point is 00:07:57 power I didn't really care about form technique the amount of weight on the bar mattered less than you know am I am I just doing this to create explosive power, basically. That was the only reason for it. When I got to the CrossFit world and I realized that strength and conditioning could then become the sport that I played, man, like everything just happened. It was, I was the most annoying human being that like existed. It was, I remember going out to dinner with my girlfriend at the time and she – there was somebody in the bar with a CrossFit t-shirt on. And this was 2006.

Starting point is 00:08:36 Like nobody did this, right? And I walked up to the person and I just started talking to him about like what his fran time was he was like at dinner with his family and probably it was like who is this loser that's talking to me about working out but it was there was just nobody around doing it I was doing it at Gold's gym and it was you know we were getting kicked out all the time they were getting mad at us there was one trainer in there that was doing it the closest gym to us was 30 something minutes away and they were giving away free intro classes like you get your first three intro classes to get through the foundations program for free they were just dying for people to show up it was in a warehouse they'd like rent I don't even know if they're paying rent it was just in like this gross

Starting point is 00:09:20 corner like nobody knew what was going on so So I really attached myself to, you know, from working out with Brian and then finding CrossFit, I always just felt like the training program that I was doing had to have been the best one. Like nobody else was talking about strength and conditioning like me. Like no one cared as much to do the research and to really put the time into asking themselves, am I doing the best program right now? It was always just, oh, yeah, we work out. Like what do you do?

Starting point is 00:09:52 Why do you do that? Like what is the purpose of what you're eating right now? And I don't think it – I mean at 16, I don't think many people were asking that question. And then at 22, when you get out of college, everyone's talking about work. And I was talking about training programs and how to get stronger, faster, better. And then CrossFit hit, and it gave me that real driving purpose behind training. From there on, I mean, it was 11 straight years of CrossFit. I moved out here. I went to grad school and went to Carolina CrossFit.

Starting point is 00:10:25 A buddy of mine, Paul Beckwith, owned it. Watched him grow that from, I was probably member number 30 there. And when I left a year and a half later, over 300 members, he rode the wave at that place and had an awesome program. But he was the strength and conditioning coach for Carolina football. So super smart dude. On top of that, I really got the inside track on just how to run a gym and watching how little he slept. I knew what I was getting into. But just the conversation with him was always just so elevated.

Starting point is 00:11:00 It was just another person in my life that cared so much about strength and conditioning that when I was around him, I, there probably was better programs out there, but I just assumed that I was part of the best one. And, um, when I left grad school, like I didn't really have anything to do. I didn't want to go back to my corporate job. That was so uninspiring. Um, I didn't really want to move back to DC and I didn't want to go back to my corporate job that was so uninspiring. I didn't really want to move back to DC. And I moved to San Diego where Brian was. And I was really lost at that time in life. I had just broken up with my girlfriend of three and a half years. And I knew I didn't want to go back to my job. I didn't have a girlfriend. I didn't have anything. I literally had no place. So I sold all my, I sold it, I threw it all out.

Starting point is 00:11:49 I had 50 pounds of clothes. I know it was exactly 50 pounds because I had so little money that I was kind of scared of paying the overage fees on getting all my stuff out here. We rented a 500 square foot dingy gross apartment. It was just not like a, I had no purpose in life outside of like going to the gym and um I had always just knew that this like crossfit thing was my calling

Starting point is 00:12:14 and I said fuck it I'm opening a gym I was hammered one night in Vegas and the next day I got back to PV and started writing a business plan. Landlord called me one day and said, if you have the money, we have the space and let's start negotiating a lease out. And man, three months after living out here, we opened the gym and six years later sold it, 70 plus regional athletes. I competed at the regional four times uh we coached Kenny Leverts at the games I've been boys with John Cena for the last four plus years of my life

Starting point is 00:12:52 um like the coolest dude the greatest mentor um literally just everything I have in my life and everything that I ever want in my life just comes straight out of being able to lift a barbell off the ground and just truly caring about it more than everyone else that I know um or as equal to everyone I know I don't want to know anyone that doesn't care about it as much as I do um they just we're not gonna we're not gonna get along if you don't enjoy that grind and you don't um share that just I don't know what it is about like gym culture I love it I. I always just tell people, sometimes finance people or accountants or whatever, they make their money when they go to the golf course and they're a scratch golfer. That's not me. If you want to hang out with me, the only place that I'm a scratch golfer and the place that I'm confident and the place that I know how to make the energy right and the vibe right and to make sure that we're all on the same page and like really build trust with me let's go lift some weights see what happens and that's just that's my dojo that's where I'm comfortable and that's where I want to be I love that wow that's awesome man your progression uh one night in Vegas, I decided to rent a business plan. That's awesome.

Starting point is 00:14:06 That's right. That's how it happens, I guess. Yeah, man. So when you opened San Diego Athletics, was it your vision to coach 70 plus regional athletes, to go to regionals four times to do all those things was that part of the plan or was it i i don't have a home and i need to build that home uh no that was 100 the plan right off the bat um i think and and we can definitely get into this because my my transition out of the gym actually um started probably the day that I stopped caring about competing in CrossFit and really having a very different conversation. So when I opened the gym, so much of our progression as we just age or we get kicked in the teeth enough as our ego becomes less important to us. And at 27, my ego pretty much fueled the majority of my decisions.

Starting point is 00:15:11 Like I wanted to be good at it. I wanted to be the best. And I, prior to the open, I did the, it was like, you guys were probably even at it maybe. The San Diego, Arizona sectionals that was out here. So the year before the Open, they had the sectionals. And CrossFit was so small that I could like show up at my gym, go out the night before. I was just athletic enough, young enough.

Starting point is 00:15:39 I had been in the weight room long enough that like I was going to win the workout in my age group or in my gym not a big deal whatever I was in good shape um but there was no like purpose to it it was it was very fun to me to talk crap to my friends and train and compete every day but when I walked out and I realized there was people on the west coast that were getting after it I knew that I was like I was like this is my spot like I have to be here and And I got waxed. Like I got crushed. These people out here were doing it and they were doing it better than me. And I realized I wasn't having the best conversation about training. And then I knew I have, I have to go, like, I have to do this. I mean, like if for me to train, even in San Diego, it seems so ridiculous now because there are so many gyms.

Starting point is 00:16:27 But I was literally living in Pacific Beach. The gym that I trained at because there was only like three or four gyms in all of San Diego, I didn't have a car out here. I would get on a bus and take it to the train stop in Old Town, which is a 15, 20-minute train stop, train ride or bus ride, get on the train, take that downtown and then walk two miles to the gym. So me getting to the gym just to do CrossFit and be at this thing so that I could train was an hour each way plus the hour and a half that I was in the gym. So like I was like, commitment is not a problem for me. I'm there. If that's the thing I want to do,

Starting point is 00:17:09 I'm going to find a way to make it happen. And like, that's just, I knew that there was a conversation going on out here. And when I got my ass handed to me at sectionals, I realized like, I need to step my game up. This,

Starting point is 00:17:20 this thing is what I care about the most. So I opened the gym and day one, we had, I think we had seven or eight regional competitors our first year, and then it continued. We had two teams the fourth year of the gym being open. You know, and that, a lot of that stuff is fantastic for a brand, and on the other side of it, which I later learned,

Starting point is 00:17:46 and it's really sexy. And what I also realized is that I was leaving a lot of people out or discounting a lot of people that I could have really helped because the attitude and the ego and the aggression that goes into just the culture of creating something that is based out of competition is really alienating to a lot of people because there's only one person that could win every day. And, um, if I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't have changed anything because we were awesome. Like it was, it was the most fun thing ever. Um, I just think I grew as a trainer and I wanted to take a much more lifestyle

Starting point is 00:18:28 approach because I was broken, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally. The friendships that I had were super strange just because I was breaking up with the methodology. I often compare it to just, you know, if I was in college and I had this my favorite band was like the local garage band that played at the bar down the street and we knew all the band members and everyone high-fived and it was just the best Friday night every night when they played and then all of a sudden one day they signed like this massive record deal right at the exact same time where you're in like a big life transition and you're just like i need away from this but the problem is like everything you have

Starting point is 00:19:10 in your life is built around this thing right so you have to break up with all your friends and you have to break up with your business and your wife goes through that with you. And like I – literally everything I had in my life is – was CrossFit. And I had to refine myself on the other side of it. And it was – yo, that's terrifying. And also leads me to that, you know, all in all those seemingly overwhelming scenarios that you've obviously overcome over the years. That competitor culture that you fostered at San Diego Athletics, you know, you said that there's a lot of people that you could have helped that got left behind as a result. Do you think you managed to do it? You created a gym based on

Starting point is 00:20:36 that competitor culture. What I've seen is that not everybody's able to do that successfully. And most that try to build their brand on the competitive aspect, and by that I mean we're all going to regionals. Everybody in here is committed to that. They crash and burn because of everybody that they leave behind in their wake. How did you create success with that model when so many others have crashed and burned? Well, if you really started to try to take that on right now, that would be a terrible decision. I think that a lot of timing has a lot to do with success in general. And 2010, you could be in good shape and then dedicate yourself to CrossFit for a year and go to regionals. 2018, you better have six years in the bag of really good coaching plus a really extensive athletic background plus be if you're a

Starting point is 00:21:47 guy you should be about 5'8 and about 205 and like we've we've found the people right so right the the ability to do it in 2010 to 2016 was a significantly easier process. And a lot of it, so a lot of it was maybe the culture of our gym, not to discount like the work that we did, but it was also the culture of CrossFit. There's a lot of people that may or may not remember that Greg Glassman was the ultimate egomaniac back in the day. He stood on stages, on the biggest stages that existed telling the entire fitness community to screw off like he was not a friendly human he was there he

Starting point is 00:22:35 was out for blood and i was right behind him i was number one you wanted a warrior i got you i'm your dude and i would fight people about that. Like I would be in legitimate arguments about, and truthfully, in 2010, the education wasn't there on how to do it well. The marketing for CrossFit hasn't really changed. It's Matt Frazier now and it used to be Greg Amundsen. And it was still here's the biggest and baddest that exists. Come get some. And that's the culture that we all had.

Starting point is 00:23:10 And I just played that game really, really well because that's where I was in my life. If I was to go back and open a gym starting today, we would take a very different approach. We would not be snatching and clean and jerking and then back squatting three days a week. Like we would not be doing the intensity. There would be like, you know, there's so many people that have come out of the CrossFit world. And I've always thought CrossFit was founded on like one person, Greg, Greg Glass, really just gave all of the free thinkers a platform to express themselves, right? Like we didn't, if you can work out intensely, like program something that makes you the best. I don't care. I'm not stuck on my program or my ideas. Like I just want

Starting point is 00:23:59 to find out human potential, like make it happen. And that's, that's what we, we all did. And then a sport was created to test who was the best. If I was to do it now, um, I would have a completely different vibe. I would have a completely different everything because I think the competition thing, not only is it a very short sighted, if that is your business plan, which I, you know, part of me learned that in a very challenging way. Um, but it's also a very short-sighted physically, mentally, emotionally on each person that's in your gym. I mean, I remember I would have grandmas coming in and I'd be teaching them like clean and jerk. Like, I bet there's a competition out there somewhere that we can get you in like local local competitions like mattered it wasn't as it's it's it's almost challenging to talk

Starting point is 00:24:53 crossfit has changed so much in the last you know 10 years um eight years from when I opened the gym, 13 years since when I started CrossFit, it's the attitude, the education, how to do this thing that millions of people are doing well, but how to progress it and how to make it a better product has changed so much because, I mean, there was no education. It was, we're going to go do Michael. And next thing you know, I'd be doing 150 GHD sit-ups after running a mile and a half and all, and terrible decisions. I would shred my abs. I'd be injured for two months trying to re put my abs together because I didn't know what a GHD was, but I don't know. Coach put it on the website, so I got to go do this thing.

Starting point is 00:25:47 And I think that the free thinkers that have come out of CrossFit, look at it, like Rob Wolf, incredible. Kelly Starrett, Carl Paoli. There's like lists and lists, and just the number of people that have come out of this because it was like, we know there's a better model than what is currently in strength, conditioning, and fitness. Glassman created it and just said, show up. We're creating the freaks,

Starting point is 00:26:13 and if you got something better, we'll adopt your methods. But as it grew and as it spread across the world, I think a lot of those people started to find holes in the methodology on scalability, not so much the core tenants. And that to me was really, really challenging in a big gym setting when I've got 300 plus people and I don't necessarily believe that they should be doing my program or the culture that we've created. Like I would, uh, it was like I was taking their money and I knew I was going to get them results, but I thought there was a better way that I should go about it instead of feeding them that, that thing every day. Like you don't need that intensity thing. You don't need the Metcon every day. Let's

Starting point is 00:27:05 maybe do that once or twice a week, but maybe there's just general movement patterns that we can really start to dig into. That's really where my brain started to go because through my injuries, I had to go so far back into relearning movement because, you know, you pick up a 135 pound barbell and it's just lightweight. That's, that's set one. Well, what if I'm injured? If I'm injured, that should, that might just be what I need to do for the day and move really slowly. And, you know, constantly varied, maybe that constantly varied piece means I should move really slow. And maybe high intensity isn't for every single person or needed. So maybe there's like an appropriate level of intensity that we can get to.

Starting point is 00:27:58 And, you know, functional movements are awesome. But functional movements only done, you know, if we're only doing functional movements, we start to create a lot of imbalances, specifically for people that are sitting at desks all day, carry a lot of stress in their lives. And, you know, I was that injured person. And that's why I started to ask different questions, because what I had been doing for 10 years stopped working. So where are the holes if I can't do this until I'm 100 years old? Like, is this the training program that if I was going to write the next 100 years or 80 years of programming for myself, where would I start? Probably not at a 300 pound clean and jerk. Maybe I should just make sure all my joints and tissues are healthy. And then every once in a while, if someone wants to play ball, I can still play ball, but I don't need to do it every day. It's not healthy to do it every day. And you go

Starting point is 00:28:53 downstairs and there's 25 people in a class and you got to look at them like five by five back squats. And they don't know what that means. Um, they don't know, they don't have that relationship with their body, they just know high intensity. And that's where I really started to struggle with the methodology. Were there key individuals as you're making this evolution and coming to this new perspective that really helped you through that journey of like, giving you that new insight and perspective? Because it's sort of hard when you're dealing with it yourself but like who are people that you relied on that you know sort of helped you through that path totally um so i actually so dr theresa larson who i'm business partners with at movement rx um she was the physical therapist uh in my gym and she at the time, so she has got an incredible story herself,

Starting point is 00:29:47 but she was a Division I softball player, went overseas, played softball professionally, came back lieutenant in the Marine Corps, went to, oh, man, I want to say it was Afghanistan. One of the two over there, butchering her story already. She was a female lieutenant in the Marine Corps over there, and she did all of this while having bulimia for like 10 years. Just really, really crazy stuff. So she got a book deal actually from like HarperCollins,

Starting point is 00:30:22 and they wanted her to tell her story just about overcoming adversity being you know eating disorders are such a prevalent thing and how she kind of went through that process and I knew she was writing the book I knew a little bit about her story like anytime you lay down on that that table, like everything just comes out. We had talked many times about kind of the struggles that I was going through and her struggles of just overcoming adversity, being in like high stress, you know, combat situations and throwing up four times a day. So you've got the mental side of it it plus the external things going on and just the amount of stress that she's got to overcome to get back to a homeostasis and functioning level and I just

Starting point is 00:31:12 literally called her one day and I was like you know I'm going through this stuff but like can you just be my coach I need like I'm the first person that anytime something bad I'm like I just need a coach I'll do whatever you tell me to do. I just need someone that I trust that is looking out for me to like put me on a program that's going to help me. So she told me to walk down to the beach. My gym was three blocks from the boardwalk and I would – she was like just go down to the beach and try and count to 10 breaths. Sit still and count to 10 breaths. That's really hard by the way if you've never tried and you're a total head case like me.

Starting point is 00:31:51 And you – honestly, if you built your life out of being a complete meathead and being more aggressive than everyone else you meet, going to the beach and sitting on your butt dead, super still and trying to slow your body down to count inhales and exhales is like that is the hardest thing in the world. So I realized I was like, oh, man, I've got some serious stuff to work on here. I don't know what you're teaching me right now. this beginning stage of like poking holes in my ego and, you know, getting me to slow down, teaching me about down regulation, meditation, which is a weird little word. But, um, she was literally like the number one person and we would just have calls all the time. And I'm like, this is what I'm going through. What do I do? And it was just about that, like consistency and really hammering home. Like, what real purpose my purpose isn't crossfit like

Starting point is 00:32:47 that's somebody else's purpose that's greg glassman's purpose and you know it was my purpose for a long time to be good at his model but if if i really wanted to be just truly authentic to what i want to teach and how i believe strength and conditioning and how i want to affect other people's lives what does that really look like where how I want to affect other people's lives. What does that really look like? Where do I want to start? Then we can start to build out from there. And I don't know the exact moment, but somewhere in that process, I really started to really break up with just CrossFit in general and reestablish just, I became really comfortable being out on my own. And, you know, that there was a lot of strain. Don't get me wrong.

Starting point is 00:33:26 It wasn't an easy thing, especially the guy that I owned the gym with. We were the best men at each other's weddings. I've been best friends with him for 12, 13 years now, and we don't really talk that much anymore. All these processes of growth are really, really challenging. But she really helped a lot. And through the process, we really started to find some common ground on how we can affect change in other people. And a lot of the things in strength conditioning that interest me the most now aren't so much like movement's cool but movement

Starting point is 00:34:06 everybody can kind of like we can get on the internet and understand movement a little bit better right like we can all learn how to squat a little bit better that information is there um you know like mobility and stability kelly starrett blew that stuff up we all really kind of have a good understanding of tissue health, joint health, that those answers are out there. But the piece that really resonates with her and I and what the transition that I've gone through is really the behavioral side of understanding health and longevity. And I think that it's really, I wish I was super scientist because I would be in the lab all day doing research on behavioral health. But I really think that there's something to understanding why are some people successful.

Starting point is 00:34:55 It's not the reps and sets. It's not the stretches. There's behavior patterns that go into why people are living in pain all the time. Depression. Just I believe that movement is the answer, but the behaviors behind why they do things is really the thing that separates everyone. And I think just knowing you guys a little bit and stuff that I see, I think we all focus on the way we behave and the way that we're being around people and that's a massive part of who we are

Starting point is 00:35:31 and that she was the person that kind of just slightly altered the direction of where I was going and getting away, not getting away because I still love training, I love coaching, but reps and sets and periodization and all that stuff is less important to me now. And what I really like focusing on is just consistency, developing confidence, trust in yourself, eliminating anxiety, just creating a space where people feel comfortable coming and growing every day and getting a little bit better because if they consistently show up and they have results just a little bit every day or they feel a little bit more comfortable that that isn't i'm gonna go pr that's like that's that's a behavioral

Starting point is 00:36:17 change that people need in their lives to to keep going Wow so as you're going through this transition man there there's a lot of ego swallowing all of it yeah yeah and you talk about the behaviors of the successful. As you're to adopt this new, to create this new paradigm of yourself as you move away from uh crossfit as a um a life philosophy to a philosophy of just movement and consistency yeah the uh i would say probably the biggest thing is just, you know, it's strange in the strength and conditioning world or being a personal trainer or gym owner because all day long people are coming to you looking for answers. So in order to prove your worth to them, you have to have an answer.

Starting point is 00:37:43 So that answer that comes out of your mouth you should assume that you're right and I think one of the things the biggest things to me is like I've just gotten away from thinking I know everything or like I actually have an answer and one of the most beautiful things about being on barbell shrugs is that I get to talk to people that are like I believe actually do have answers. But for me, when now when I work with people or in my own life, like I don't know what the best way for everyone to get in shape is. I don't know what the best way for me to live my life, but I get to learn from people. And instead of knowing things, I just attack everything as if I'm just

Starting point is 00:38:20 learning and eliminating right and wrong, because there's no such thing as right and wrong. That's just your opinion of something. And if some person's doing CrossFit, some person's doing yoga, who am I to say that you're right or wrong in what you're doing? Are you enjoying yourself? Do you keep going back? Sounds pretty healthy to me. So I, I would say that breaking up with the idea that I have to be right. And I truly now when I hear people talking and they're like, no, you have to do it this way. I just instantly block that out because they're not open-minded to the other possibilities or the fact that people aren't exactly like them. Um, I think for a very long time, especially when you live in that ego of like,

Starting point is 00:39:10 I have to put myself on a pedestal or I have to be the best and then other people will follow me. Now it's a scenario where I just want to have a conversation with people and find out about their lives. It's really easy for me or for someone to approach me and say like, well, what kind of diet should I be on? And I could very easily just go, what I used to do was go do the paleo diet. Like, duh, that's stupid. Why would you ask me that? Like, eat some meat and eat some vegetables,

Starting point is 00:39:34 and you'll probably be pretty healthy. But now that conversation is much different. I just want to know about their life, because they already have the answers. What they want is someone to talk to and work through problems instead of just having answers. And I think eliminating your ego has just been such a massive – trust me. The ego will show up. You don't have to – it's always there.

Starting point is 00:39:56 It's just how much do you want to pay attention to it, right? Like I'm the host of Barbell Shrugged. It's the freaking coolest thing in the world. But if I attacked that by saying I'm awesome and I know everything, that's so unattractive. And I don't know everything. That's why the job is cool because I get to learn and I get to be around people that are experts in this one tiny little thing that they do.

Starting point is 00:40:25 And I just want to learn from everyone. And if I tell people the answer, one, they're not going to do it. Two, I'm leading that conversation as if I know the exact perfect answer for them. But if I learn from that person, we give them the opportunity to express themselves. We get to learn about their lives. We get to build a relationship. And that is really where just, I think that coaching needs to be now. And it's not a, all that information is out there, but the real magic in being a coach is creating a relationship and understanding that like that In order to have that connection, you have to let your own guard down.

Starting point is 00:41:08 You have to be willing and open to learn from other people and challenge your own beliefs and be able to meet them where they're at. That's dope. to evolve in your journey. You know, you mentioned, you said your old circle begins, like as you've been breaking down your walls, your ego, you start finding new circles of people that have this new idea and concepts that you never realized before. How did that sort of the universe, I'll just call it, bring you into the Barbell Shrug community where you met Doug and Mike? And how did that, you know, the evolution of relationship begin to evolve from all of the transition that you made I'm laughing because I have no idea um and I so it's impossible for me to have this conversation without um talking about John Cena and this is like the ultimate, it's the ultimate like relationship in my life.

Starting point is 00:42:10 He, so Greg Glassman was incredibly important in my life. And I've probably met the guy one time. I don't even know. I think I met him at the games once. But, you know, that guy was really, really important to me because he was a personal trainer. Like I can play that game. I know how that game works. I'm good at that game. But that guy was really, really important to me because he was a personal trainer. I can play that game.

Starting point is 00:42:27 I know how that game works. I'm good at that game. I know how to get a client. I know how to get results. I know how to make that work. But Greg Glassman invented something called CrossFit in which he packaged squats and deadlifts and clean and jerks into a manner that got results better than everyone else and got such good results that literally millions of people around the world are doing what he invented a sport. He's a personal trainer from 24 hour fitness. If you think he is anything more than that, you're wrong. He's a guy

Starting point is 00:42:59 that believed in himself and created a product and a story and a way to deliver squats and deadlifts and clean and jerks. It's so simple, but he was so good at it that he inspired millions of people. Like I'm friends with John Cena. That guy is a personal trainer from Gold's Gym in Venice Beach. It's fucking important that people know how hard you have to work to be good at what you do. And it's really important to know that if you dream bigger than I'm just a personal trainer, you have the ability to go places. And I don't know why Doug and Mike walked into my life, but I didn't have to show up to that breakfast that day. Like they used to run an entrepreneur's breakfast around here. And I was just interested to go learn from those guys. Like I just wanted to be in their presence and understand how they did what they did and how they were, how they

Starting point is 00:43:49 acted around people. Um, and, and anytime I'm in a situation, like I just believe that I'm, I'm going to gain something out of it. Like I didn't have to go, but I chose to go. And because of it, I developed a really good relationship for the last three years with those guys and we built a lot of trust and they didn't have to invite me and I didn't have to go on the road with them and just like do nothing right like I would just be there and make jokes and hang out and if they needed someone to carry things I would do it um I was never there for the job I was always just there to learn from them. And I'm really lucky. Like I'm in the right place at the right time.

Starting point is 00:44:28 I don't know how much I believe in luck, but I know that if you put yourself in the right place at the right time and you come with an open mind and a willingness to learn from people, like you just have the opportunity to be bigger than anything you could ever uh like dream of really like i i never i never thought that i would be able to sit in a car with those guys and talk about how we can create a network of strength and conditioning um that's that's just bigger and more important than a show like how do we get all of our friends here that are Doing I mean it's the ultimate gift like if I if I acquire a new level of something And I don't bring my friends with me. That's fucked up. My friends are in this grind with me, too I better bring them along with me because if I get lucky and I just happen to be in a different car

Starting point is 00:45:21 they're gonna do the same thing for me if they're in a different car. They're bringing me with them. And that's what the collective is. You guys are really good friends with Mike and Doug. I'm friends with you now just because I trust them and I trust you. Like Ryan Fisher's my boy. We were basically homeless together back in the day eight years ago.

Starting point is 00:45:41 I'll do anything for that kid. So if something cool happens to me, I'm bringing him with me. There's no doubt. And that's just what the collective is. Like these guys started this podcast. They invented strength and conditioning on this medium. And it would be ridiculous if we all didn't gain from this, this thing that they created and this culture and education. And man, it has to get bigger. Everything has to grow.

Starting point is 00:46:15 And when we grow, the more of our people that share these same core beliefs, the more of those people that we can put in the same room, the better the conversation is going to be. We don't have to win. We can all be in it together in the same fight. And out of this collective, someone's going to get something somewhere and we're all coming with. It's the ultimate – it's the way things are supposed to work. We're all supposed to be in this together.

Starting point is 00:46:41 It's not about me being the best. It's about me being my best and you being your best. And then if we're all the best we can be all the time, out of that something amazing is going to happen. And when it happens, we're all coming with. It's gonna be incredible. But it's the only way to really get to that level is work your ass off and every day you have to be the best you are, the best you can be. And we're all going to win because of it.

Starting point is 00:47:08 That's baller. That's it, man. That's it. You know, Jeff and I really admire your path, your passion, and just your outlook on this whole collective thing I'll never forget when we got the well I was on Mike's the Bledsoe show

Starting point is 00:47:33 and Mike told me about this thing that was about to happen and I was like oh that's really cool and he's like Feed Me Fuel Me should be a part of it. I was like, okay. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:47:50 I'm totally down. All right, let's talk some details. And then he's like, in order to make this happen, we're going to bring on Anders Varner to take over Barbell Shrugged. And I was like, I know of this guy, Anders Varner. Yeah. But I don't know a lot about him. And then we announced Feed Me, Fuel Me's debut on The Collective a couple of weeks ago

Starting point is 00:48:21 and really got to dive in. And when we got off that Instagram live, I was telling Jeff, I was like, this dude's energy is fucking infectious. Like I am riding so high right now. And it's because of people like you who have essentially renounced their ego in an effort to become a forever student and just be, be present in the moment of learning that like, to me, that's where greatness occurs. Yeah. And yeah. So kudos to you, man. You know what I'm saying? Obviously timing is everything, but the universe is a very reciprocal entity and it only gives after you've given. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:14 Not the other way around. And it's because of all the stuff that you've put in to mastering your craft only to take a step back to further learn that mastery, then all these opportunities are at your feet. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, man. Well done, my friend. Well done. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:34 Jeff, going back to something you asked earlier, I wish I had this on the top of my brain, but I think one of the biggest things that I learned or I have kind of come to is just the idea of leading from a place of love. And when I really get down to – I mean I can't express enough to people. Like strength and conditioning, the barbell. You're not supposed to make a living out of this thing. It's supposed to be this thing that you're not supposed to make a living out of this thing.

Starting point is 00:50:09 It's supposed to be this thing that you just have to go work out. But if you care about it more than everyone else or you care about it as much as you possibly can and you want to learn everything about it and you want everyone in the world. I just want I wish everyone in the world knew how awesome it is to go into a gym that's got an awesome culture and everyone's vibing and you walk in and like the music's right like not too loud not too aggressive but like it's just that like crisp baseline and it's just good and everyone in there is talking and it's so right barbells are dropping like the coach at the front of the class has like the perfect voice cutting through the music. Like that thing is so awesome. And if you can find a place that you want to be like that, it doesn't have to be strength and conditioning. It doesn't have to be – it can be chess.

Starting point is 00:51:00 It can be – I don't even care how many things there are. Just wake up and do the thing you love so well and find the people that love it just as much as you and like man i think that i think a lot of people in our world right now don't do they a lot of people in our world are consistently doing things they don't like right and it crushes people it kills their soul and i'm just really lucky that I get to speak to people about this thing that has literally been the catalyst to everything in my life. From the time I was 13, the ability to play sports at a decently high level, every friend, every relationship, the house that I'm talking to you in is paid for by barbells. The mortgage gets paid because I like lifting weights.

Starting point is 00:51:49 My wife, I met her in the gym. All of my friends, everything I do is literally because I wake up every morning and think about how I can try to get more people to love lifting weights and living a healthy life. It's so strange to think about, but we live, we live at a time where it's, you're allowed to do it. And the only thing that's stopping people is, is this fear of the unknown and their unwillingness to commit to something that is just, it's right in front of their face. They're supposed to go chase it. The world's, the universe is telling you to go do this all the time and people just need to go.

Starting point is 00:52:26 I'm really lucky that I've been around people that have supported me and fueled that passion and shown me the path of how I can do this for the rest of my life. I love that. That's beautiful. You basically summed up the story of the alchemchemist all and everything you're saying like following your path through the journey you know the ups and the downs but understanding like once you get to the end of your journey like or you know as you're finding it that's the beauty and everything that you've gone through so i love that man that's you're a huge inspiration bro that's that was awesome very motivating stuff dude seriously so before we let you get out of here man uh because if you're anything like me it sounds like you are you haven't packed for your trip yet so uh you would be 100% correct

Starting point is 00:53:15 before we let you get out of here man we want to ask you two questions game recognized game we're all there um i want to ask you two questions man answer on any level of mental physical spiritual what have you uh each and every day it goes back to what you were talking about behavior and consistency um each and every day what's something that you do to feed yourself and kickstart your motivation and the follow-on to that is what's part of your routine each and every day to fuel yourself and create that sustainable carryover of consistency to make you successful, man? Yeah, I would say the thing that I try to do every single morning, the alarm goes off at six and by six ten every day I am sitting or laying on my back doing breath work and mainly for two reasons. Like I'm a pretty intense human being and once I get rolling there's no real stopping this train. Like it's an all day

Starting point is 00:54:21 thing. That intensity from training carries over into the business world pretty well. I can just go. But that also has its downsides at times. And I've kind of learned, maybe I operate at a 7 out of 10 on stress and intensity throughout the day. Um, and just my, my go factor is always on. Um, so my ability to wake up in the morning and do just 20 minutes of down regulation, breath work, meditation, whatever you want to call it, just starting my day in a calmer place. And hopefully I can move that needle down to a five or a six because I know once I start, it's only going up from there and the intensity of my day is going to, it's only going to, you know, build throughout the day. So instead of entering my day at a seven, I try and get, you know, somewhere down to a six and a five and just be a little bit calmer as I start to get into writing and whatever the tasks are for the day. The next piece of that is for me and something I've learned about myself through many times of screwing it up is the difference between kind of responding and reacting.

Starting point is 00:55:40 And it's taken me a very long time to start to learn the differences in the two. But my ability to create space in my day, whether it's when you think about reacting to something, it usually happens quicker than you would like. It's probably not the most thought out answer or response that you would like to get. But your ability to think about responding is a little bit more thoughtful. And the way that I try to think about everything really is there's not really a problem that I can't solve as long as I have enough time in between when the problem presents itself and you need a solution. And my ability to create space between there is very, very dependent upon just my mental or my, the ability to downregulate and slow everything down.

Starting point is 00:56:38 Man, I learned that lesson way too many times in the gym, way too many times with employees where they do something wrong and I just snap judgment reaction. And then I got to rebuild that relationship and, you know, doing things not the right way. So that that really is like it's you know, I don't want to be that ex meathead hippie that moved to like or ex meathead that moved to California. And now he talks about meditation, but, um, for people that, that ride on that intensity, like I do, um, it's something that really helps a lot. It really gives me the ability to just slow things down a little bit, see the problem for what it is and just, um, respond and create space before I do something and create it and make a decision that I'm proud of versus just reacting and then having to kind of unscrew that problem up too.

Starting point is 00:57:36 That's dope, man. And before everything – before we really let you go, where can everybody follow you and support you on everything that you're working on, either personal or business? Yeah. So if you wanted to come to MovementRx, it's your.movement-rx.com. All things low back, knees, shoulder pain, Dr. Teresa and I have programmed seminars. Everything is online. That way it's just like working with me in person. And you'll even hear this voice playing in your head on videos all day long. And then of course, every Wednesday, part of the Shrugged Collective, Barbell Shrugged, Doug Larson and I are traveling the world. We're going to make this thing happen, man. It's the most exciting. My purpose in life, try to tell everybody this at some point when I hang out

Starting point is 00:58:27 with them, but my purpose in life is to be in the center of the strength and conditioning world. And every day I try to make a little bit of a step towards that goal. And I'm lucky enough to be on that show. And sometimes it feels like I get to do like a triple jump every day I get on the microphone and get to talk to some of the people that we get to talk to so it's a real honor and anybody that can tune in and be a part of that show with us is be there every Wednesday there you go man much appreciated brother thank you for taking the time before you head off to paleo effects and good luck with the kid man Jeff it was great meeting you i owe you a phone call by the way yeah no problem man great meeting you too brother hit me up anytime we've got uh this paleo effects thing so next week

Starting point is 00:59:13 life gets a little bit easier for sure no all right brother hey travel safe tell the tell the fellas we say what's up and uh everybody out there at feed me fuel me land uh make sure you tune into all the shows presented on the uh barbell collective uh and tune in to anders and doug every wednesday on the barbell shrug podcast and uh until next time guys feed me fuel me and that'll do it for this episode with our special guest anders varner if you want to check out everything that anders has going and support him on the Barbell Shrug podcast, go to the shrugcollective.com. Also, be sure to connect with us on social media, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram,

Starting point is 00:59:57 and Twitter at Feed Me, Fuel Me. 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 a comment on itunes so we can continue on this journey together be sure to share it 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,

Starting point is 01:00:30 we would love to leave you with a quote by Kai Greene. The person with the biggest dreams is more powerful than the person with all the answers. Thank you again for joining us and we will catch you on the next episode. Way to make it to the end of the show. As always, go to Shrug Collect over at iTunes. Give us a five-star review, positive comment,

Starting point is 01:00:51 and hit thrivemarket.com slash feedme to get that great deal on awesome groceries. See you next time.

Barbell Shrugged - Feed Me Fuel Me — Firebreather Lifestyle w/ Anders Varner — 87

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