Barbell Shrugged - From Coals to Competitor with Cory Gregory — Real Chalk #77

Episode Date: May 28, 2019

Cory Gregory is a real life Zoolander story. Starting as a coal miner, he eventually built a huge following and fitness business. He’s competed in almost every genre of fitness there is, including a powerlifting, bodybuilding, and Olympic lifting meet all in the SAME weekend. He’s been on multiple huge magazine covers (13 to be exact). He was one of the original owners in Musclepharm. And he now owns Max Effort Muscle, the Biz and Biceps Podcast, and Old School Gym.   This guy was my most highly requested person to have on the show when traveling to Columbus, Ohio and he definitely did not disappoint. You’re going to love this one for sure. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-gregory ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @Hylete- Hylete.com - RC15 for 15% ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

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Ladies and gentlemen, it's Tuesday. It's time to drop the new hotness on you. This time I'm sitting down with my man, Corey Gregory. This guy is fucking for real. His story is so fucking cool. Like honestly, he's probably my favorite story I've had so far on the podcast because he started as a coal miner and now he's like this big fitness model. He's on 13 covers of different magazines. He's got all sorts of businesses going. He was one of the original owners of Muscle Farm, if you guys remember that supplement company back in the day. He's got all sorts of stuff going on and he owns a gym called old school gym, which I just think is so rad. Um, and there was a particularly a moment in his life where he did a, actually it was recently he did a bodybuilding show, a powerlifting show and an Olympic lifting meets all in the

same weekend. I mean, what? I just think that that's so cool. I never even thought about that. So, um, yeah, I'm super, super hyped on this episode. I really, really liked our talk. This was at the Rogue Invitational in Columbus, Ohio. And I think you guys are really going to dig this one.

It's just dope. I like to call it the real Zoolander story because he was a coal miner before, which I just think is rad. And when you see him, he's a good looking dude. So I feel like the Zoolander reference works. So before we get into the show, I want to talk about High Elite real quick. You guys know about the High Elite brand that I've been talking about the last couple weeks. They're one of the OG sponsors at the moment.

And they've been in the game just literally as long as Corey G. So my favorite products that they have right now, I've talked about it a few times. The shoe is crazy. It's got the Vibram sole on it. Way more durable than the Metcons out there. And I like the ability to change my sole. They have three different soles come with the shoe. crazy it's got the vibram sole on it way more durable than the metcons out there um and i like the ability to change my soul they have three different soles come with the shoe you have your weightlifting sole a running sole and then you have like a middle sole and they all have different

millimeter drops on them so they feel totally different every time you put a different sole in it feels like a new shoe again which i really really like a lot also um and they just look clean you know what i mean mean, I just feel like no matter how many pairs of Reeboks I have, no matter how many pairs of Nikes I have, everybody already has the damn shoe. I mean, it looks good. I love all of the shoes I have. But when I throw the High Elite ones on, I do feel like I have a unique shoe that nobody else has. And I like the way it feels. I like the way it performs. So it's not just the fact that no one else has it that I like. It actually is a dope shoe. And it does look good. And I feel cool having, you know, something that no one else has. Um, besides that,

the backpacks are really, really dope. I'm a huge backpack enthusiast. Um, uh, and I have tons of backpacks and this backpack rivals my favorite all time Lululemon backpack that I have that has like a million pockets. I think that they beat them in pockets. There's so many things to stash in this thing that it's out of control. So, so many pockets. I went to the Rogue Invitational and they actually gave up looking in the pockets. So I was able to sneak some snacks in that I wasn't actually supposed to have. So I mean, that's how cool the backpack is. I would definitely check out the backpacks that they have. And then if you're into the shorts and the pants and all that stuff, they have really good materials that are super, super soft. The shorts for me, they're

a little bit too long. They're the nine inch inseams and I like seven personally, but they look dope. If I was tall, I'd probably love them. So you guys should go ahead and check that out. Personally, the shoes and the backpacks are just all time for me. I'm a huge fan. And they do have a 60 day money back guarantee. So if you wear it, like it, don't like it, whatever you want to return it, go ahead and return it. And for right now, for the Real Chalk listeners, they are doing the 15% off, which they don't really have any discount codes anywhere. So this is pretty cool. It's RC, capital RC 15. That's it. Capital RC 15. You can go to highleet.com and check out all the stuff that they have. It's R-C, capital R-C 15. That's it. Capital R-C 15. You can go to highlight.com and check out all the stuff that they have. It's H-Y-L-E-T-E.com.

Very, very easy website. Very, very basic stuff. Yeah, no big deal. Also, you guys have seen me wear my Whoop band for the last probably year and a half, year. And I haven't really talked about them at all because because I, like, I liked it, but I didn't love it, but now they have a new, a new one, a 3.0 edition, and it has a real-time heart rate monitor on it, which now I can use a hell of a lot more than I used to be able to use before, so I really do like the new Whoop band quite a bit. I definitely recommend getting this thing now. So not only is the sleep

feature really, really cool, and it has some things that the Apple Watches out there don't have, but it's just rad. I feel like I use it as much as my iPhone now. I look at the things on there all the time. I check out my sleep. I check out my recovery, my strain levels and stuff, and I really like it. I'm a big fan. So if you guys go to whoop and type in, um, fish capital F I S C H, you guys will get a discount on your membership for the whoop band. Uh, so again, that's whoop W H O O P.com. And you guys can type in fish F I S C H and get a sponsor. Uh, I mean, you get a discount on the whoop bands, big fan, and they have all the sorts of different little bands that you can change out,

which I'm a big fan of. You guys can make them look all cool and stuff. And then lastly, what is wrong with me right now? You go to jimryan.com, G-Y-M-R-Y-A-N. That's my personal website, and I have all my e-books on there, my nutrition challenges, all the stuff that is just killing the game these days, and the Chalk Online programming. So right now I'm doing a Chalk Online programming promo, and it's Memorial Day, and you get a whole month for free. So you get to try it out for a month,

see if you like it. If you like it, sweet. If you don't, cancel, no big deal. And then all the books, if you guys type in REALCHALK in all capital letters, you get 25% off anything on that website. So a lot of people don't take advantage of that, but you should. It's a pretty good deal. Yeah, that's it. Let's get into the show right now. I want you guys to hear Corey G's story. And we got some good banter going back and forth, but there's also just some serious motivating stuff in there. So I'm real excited for you guys to listen to this one. I loved this show, and I actually loved being at the Rogue Invitational. It's so fun to go to these events. The next one that I'm going to is... I don't think I'm going to Granite Games. I don't really like St. Cloud, Minnesota at all.

It's awful, but I'm sure the event would be great. Oh, I'm going to the Spartan World Championships in Lake Tahoe. So if you guys are going to be out there Oh, I'm going to the Spartan World Championships in Lake Tahoe. So if you guys are going to be out there, you can say hi. I'll be there with everybody else from Barbell Shrugged. And yeah, it's going to be a good time. That'll be the next one for sure that I will be at. If you guys are there, let me know. If you guys love this episode, make sure you guys find us both on Instagram.

Tag us. Share the show. All the good things that you guys are pretty much used to doing all the time. All right, here we go. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're still out here at the Ohio Invitational in Columbus at the Rogue Warehouse, which is insane, by the way. It's like I really can't get over how big that this thing has grown. I remember when Bill, the guy who owns this whole deal, literally was just making like regular Rogue Infinity rigs. Yeah. And it turned into like, now he's like one of the biggest fitness producers like in the entire

world. It's an impressive feat. Me living here, seeing it kind of happen. Impressive, man. So yeah, guys, we're here with Corey G. What up? What up? Otherwise known on Instagram as, what is it, Corey G? Corey G Fitness. Corey G Fitness. Yep. And let's just do like for my listeners who don't know you, just a really quick recap. You've been on 12 covers of several different magazines, co-founder of Muscle Farm. If you guys don't remember Muscle Farm, that's weird.

It's been out of the game for a while, but it was a good run. Yeah, and now you have your own podcast, Biceps and Biz. Business and Biceps. Oh, all the way around. Yeah. And now you have your own podcast, Biceps and Biz. Business and Biceps. Oh, all the way around. Yeah. And then now you also have a gym. Yeah. So I've got kind of multiple things going on.

I like the name of the gym. Yeah, Old School Gym. It's retro shit, man. I love it. So I'll give you kind of a quick background. It's kind of cool because we don't know each other really at all. So I'll kind of give you a quick version of the story. So I started off as a coal miner. Oh, wow. I did not know that. a quick version of the story. So, um, I started out off as a coal

miner. So, Oh wow. Yeah. So I'm a fourth generation, um, I am, I am the, I am the real zoo lander motherfucker, but actually lift weights. So, um, yeah, so underground coal miner saved my money for six months, moved to Columbus to start my first personal training studio when I was 20 years old. And so I've been, uh, I'm 40 now. I've been doing this for 20 years. So I did, I built a personal training business and competed in natural bodybuilding and powerlifting for like about 10 years while I was building my business. And then I started in the supplementation, um, co-founded muscle farm 2008, did that for 10, about close to 10 years, or I say seven, eight, seven years, gave that a run. Um, since I left muscle farm,

sold my percentage of ownership, I started another brand called max effort muscle. It's direct to customer. So I'm really well started a website, core g fitness.com. Uh, I was telling Ryan before the show, you know, my squat every day program, which is when I was on barbell shrug before did a hundred million page views on bodybuilding.com, which that's insane. Yeah. And I also wrote multiple programs with Arnold that that was called the blueprint too so i worked with arnold multiple times and so anyway so programming is kind of my jam um i've kind of carried this torch as being a drug-free athlete in powerlifting and bodybuilding i've hit multiple elite totals at 181 198 multiply i haven't done a multiply elite total but i've done raw totals and then competed in 14 bodybuilding shows multiple covers i also like in it bro i like the trifecta that you're telling me about muscle trifecta uh two

years ago i decided to do an olympic lifting meet on a friday a bodybuilding show on saturday and a powerlifting meet on sunday and i don't believe it's ever been done before now i've never heard of it is there multiple people that could do it and probably do it better than me i'm sure yeah but i'm the guy that actually said fuck it i'm gonna do it yeah that's really cool i like that a lot yeah you know here's the thing ryan i've just always tried to push myself i've always kind of had that like i wasn't really recruited to play anything in college i'm like six man on my basketball team i'm like kind of like the epitome of like the underdog from genetic standpoint from just like um i've just busted through all these walls my entire career you

know when i came into the game i wanted to be a cover guy like i lifted weights but that was like kind of like the thing from reading magazines yeah i remember dude i'm 40 it's pre-internet so you're talking like you're talking pre-internet like i only all the only all my information was coming from muscle bags yeah i couldn't google i mean i'm almost 33 so like i mean i'm not like super far off but i do like yeah the internet was just popping up, like, when I was in high school. That's what I'm saying, man. The resources are so different now. Instagram was not there.

All that stuff is dead. Yeah, dude. It's so much different now. Dude, so much different. So I think, like, you know, aspiring to do those things, and I go to New York, and I'm 170 pounds, and I don't realize all these dudes are 220, juice to the max. I'm like, oh, shit, I got some work to do. But either way i busted through all those things and i love what i do and i'm at old school gym every morning that's

a gym i own locally it's west side barbell certified um from four to six a.m monday through friday and i got a bunch of savages in there getting it we're having so you guys are getting up at like three i get up at 305 what time you go to bed uh between nine to ten okay yeah so i get about six yeah roughly you know but i solid with that? 6 hours are good? I don't have a choice, man. Yeah. Running multiple businesses, still competing, and have three children, something has to kind of lack a little bit, and here's my thing with that.

People can get 8 hours, but if 3 hours ain't worth a shit because they're not really sound, it's like I get a solid 5 to 6, and it just kind of is what it is. If I still want to compete, I have five different businesses. And with the children, the ages they're at now, 14, 11, and 8, they need me there. So that's kind of why we were having a hard time getting up. I try to have some non-negotiable times. I have five businesses also.

Yeah, it's just so busy, dude. It's interesting, like five. It's like that number. I don't have anyone right now that I could have children with right now. Yeah, that's all right. Just practice out there a little bit. Yeah, I'm practicing as hard as I can. I'm mad at you.

I live through you, bro. It's all good. I'm mad at you. The Bumble app right out here in Ohio. I'm sure it's on fire at this event, dude. Speaking of the internet world, I was talking to RFE Strength yesterday and they have this giant iPhone over here for those of you who can't see and you can touch it and everything. And I was like, oh, I'd love

to pull Bumble up on that thing. Savage. And just see everybody like see me talking to all these girls. Love it. Anyway, having five businesses and being where I'm at right now, I can't imagine what it would be like to have these kids as well. So even just talking to you, you're like, all right, I can meet tomorrow, but I have kids and I've got to do this and I've got to do that. And I was like, shit, one day I'm going to have to like – It's a whole different world, man. It's got to be.

Honestly, I think – so one of my greatest accomplishments, Ryan, was I really – it was like 2011 or 12, I was really pushing to be on the cover of men's health or fitness rx those were the two that I paid attention to men's health kind of went more like celebrity route and I'm still not giving that dream up I'm still pushing but at the end of the day fitness rx at that time was the one that was a little bit more of a hardcore version of men's health and I went and did this like they came to my gym, did an eight hour photo shoot. And literally at the end, I was peeled up. I felt real good. My kids jumped in the picture with me. They took eight shots. I shot for eight hours. They shot eight shots and that became one of the actual covers. It had never been done before. So I'm on the cover of FitnessRx during,

I think it was June of, I forget the year. I actually saw that cover. Yeah. And I got kids hanging off of me. And dude, when it came out and I went to the year. I actually saw that cover. Yeah, and I got kids hanging off of me. And, dude, when it came out and I went to the store, like Kroger's or whatever, with my kids, my oldest, which he was only like maybe 10 or 11, he's like, Dad, we're on the front? Like, what? And the fact that that kind of really represented what really I do. And until you're a parent, you really don't understand that.

Now, you have to have a really good partner with you, too. My wife's a G because she knew what she signed up for, which is this crazy-ass life of that me going to lead our passion and set us up. But at the end of the day, like, man, it is difficult. There's no doubt. It's a selfish sport, dude, between the diet, the traveling, the training. I try to tell everybody, like, for some of us who have been in it for so long, it's kind of cruise control. It's not super difficult, but it's very time-consuming. Oh, dude.

That's why I'm in it from, like you said, I'm getting up at 3.05. I'm not really done doing things until like 7, 7.30. That time to do GPP and driving to the gym back and forth. 9 to 5 is a half day. Come on, man. That's a half day. When people tell me they're 9 to 5, I go, I'm tired from work. I'm like, I don't think I've ever had a day off. I don't think I've ever had an hour off. But I love it. So it doesn't feel

that way. I mean, there's no doubt you need recharge from time to time, but I get up every day and I was not willing to give in to do something I didn't love to do. You got to remember, like I said, I grew up, I worked in a sawmill. I worked in a coal mine. I worked in places where a lot of guys don't like their job. Now they taught me how to work hard. And I just thought, man, if I can just apply those principles to the thing I love to do, then I'm going to be a bad motherfucker. And that's what my plan was.

So it's worked out good, man. I'm blessed. I have a similar story where I had a really big low before I started to get the highs. Yeah. But I definitely worked through a bunch of things to stick into it. Tell me a quick about it, man. I'd love to hear it. So I actually moved out to California to work at a gym.

It didn't wind up working out. I quit. And I was a big competitor at the time. Sure. And I was trying to compete. And at the time, I I was trying to compete and at the time I had like lost I'd got burned through all my money and wind up couch surfing for a while on sure on people's couches I didn't even know and then I wound up going to a huge event doing really well and it got my name

out there and I wound up getting a job nice and um wound up becoming like a huge name in the in the sport and then also was the first person to open a gym that was like a million dollars. I opened this really, really pimp gym. And it really was because every time I was coaching classes or any time I had a chance to do what I love to do, which was coaching classes at the time, that was my only thing. And I wanted to compete. So when you're competing, I feel like coaching classes is like the best way. Sure. Yeah. You like you're always around the cross that people,

you're always in the gym. It's like it's just it just works well. Yeah, absolutely. So every time I coach, I would just coach like my hard way. And then eventually one of the people in the gym asked me if I could personal train them. I found out that that person was like super wealthy. He gave me money for the gym. That's awesome. A great connection that I built. Yeah, good for you, man. He actually made MySpace. He has like millions of dollars. Yeah, that's like one of the best ways about personal training, man, is you get to meet high net worth individuals that once you help them feel better about themselves,

they want to help you just because they're already rich as shit. And they're like, man, this guy's killing himself. He makes me feel good about myself. He can help build my confidence. Of course, that same kind of things happen for me, man. I try to tell everybody, and I almost want to have a whole podcast about it, is just how important networking is in general. Oh, dude.

It's the single most important thing. It's more important than the degree, homie. Way more. People don't get it. Sadly. I mean, I don't have a degree. I went to school one year here at Columbus State, get like a certificate for personal training. Dude, it's all networking.

It's been that same way. Networking and retention. And like at the end of the day, like probably one of the things I'm most known for is the customer service piece. Every tweet, every Instagram DM, every Facebook. Like, dude, I've been answering them all no matter how big MP was, how busy I am, what I'm training for. I've been doing that shit for over a decade. Yep. And so like, I have like a really unique involvement with my community, my online members, all that. And it's like that customer service, which is really like small town living. And I

try to think of it like this. If somebody walks in old school gym and they ask me a question, I'm going to answer it the same as if they, they messaged it to me on Instagram. And when people, when people just take time with others, man, it just pays off big time. Well, what I think people like really they oversee is they think that everybody who's making money in the fitness industry has a million followers. Oh, wow. They're like, oh, you know, because there's people out there right now. There's a lot of people listening to this show and they're like, man, you know, I really want to be like Corey. I want to be like Ryan.

I want to be like so-and-so. And it's like, oh, but they have 100 and something thousand followers. Or they have this or they have that. And I'll never forget this. One day I had someone on my show, a female, and she specialized in pregnancy programs. Okay. And we were talking off air about how much money she was making per month. And it was a five-digit number.

Sure. And it was a high five-digit number. And I was was making per month. And it was a five-digit number. And it was a high five-digit number. And I was like, per month. And I was looking at her Instagram. She had like 9,000 followers. And I was like... But 9,000 unique people. 9,000 fucking people that are super engaged.

She has a niche group. She's like postpartum pregnancy stuff. So smart. She answers everything. She probably loves it. She loves it. You know what I mean? That's it. And I think She answers everything. She probably loves it. She loves it. You know what I mean? That's it.

And I think a lot of people are missing that step is like for you to answer every email, for you to answer every DM. There was a point where my DM, I think I had like maybe 50 or 60,000 followers and I never answered anything. So I was just like, dude, that's a lot going on, man. And I was like, and I couldn't figure out like why I wasn't growing and blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, I just started answering everything all the time.

Works so good, right? And it made a humongous difference. Well, it also, like, it also humanizes you. Dude, you look like a freak show. The things you're able to do. And then on top of it, when you're like, ah, I'm not really going to be, you know, interacting. Dude, people have a hard time identifying. Like, dude, I'm like the fucking people's champ, bro.

Like, I'm just like the fucking people's champ bro like well it's just like the gym it took me a while to like accept because you know you get a question that's like so broad and so ridiculous you're like dude i can't even answer that yeah of course you know what i mean that comes with like dude how do i get jacked and it's like i i can't answer this you know of course so then i was like you know what i'm just gonna i'm gonna dumb myself down yeah i'm gonna start answering these like in a right way. And then I just figured out like a way to say something to everything. Yeah, dude. It's really just humbling yourself to say like, hey, this is important to me because these people are going to support you forever, Ryan. Like the retention.

I have people that still come to my gym and pay for a personal trainer that paid me when I was 20. That still walk into old school that were paying my bills when no one give a fuck you know what was going on with me like and there's people that have followed every supplement company every training program I mean dude it's it's one of those things just where it's one of those things it's one of those things where it's like that every interaction is so important for your business and just for spreading what we do, man. Yeah, it's super, super important. And that connection is what really people are buying.

Dude, yes. So I think a lot of people are so concerned with having the perfect product, having a product, and this and that and blah, blah, blah. And they don't realize that the brand that they're building is actually themselves. Dude, yeah. It's huge, man. Every single thing about you is what people want to aspire to be. They want to see you wake up in the morning and have a bad day. They want to see you run out of gas on the freeway and be like, fuck.

Yeah. No, I think that when you – and that's when I started to realize the things that most people want to hide is usually what you should be showing. Because it makes everyone feel like this. Because, dude, you can look like a total fucking machine. But then when stuff doesn't go the right way, I think it's good to showcase that. Because people thought, oh, man, this guy's just like everyone else, you know? Well, it's such a bummer because the fake stuff is still crushing. Eventually it has to have a cycle, though, don't you think?

It has to. I think so. I keep thinking that too. Like, hey, this fake motherfucker that's not doing it right. Here's what I do know. So I'm at the point now where I've actually started to manage other influencers. Okay. Because I have a huge ad team that does a bunch of stuff for me and we do ads.

That's cool. I'm sure you do ads and stuff too. I don't. Really? No. We should talk about that. But anyway. No, we should.

My stuff's all organic. Yeah. So I do a bunch of ads and I push a lot about that. But anyway. No, we should. My stuff's all organic. Yeah. So I do a bunch of ads and I push a lot of things in a lot of different ways. Okay. And now I help other influencers. Nice. So what will happen is I'll get someone who has like a million followers and I'll be like, all right, well, I need my ad lady to sign into your account and kind of see who your

followers are and see what your engagement is and see what your population is so we know who to market to. Sure. And a lot of times they'll sign in to their account, check out their stuff, and it's like 90% just creepy dudes that are checking out the stuff. Of course. And there's really no value in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Or they're fake. Yeah, which is so big. You know what I mean? So I think people don't understand like 100,000 real followers is like more than enough. You know what I mean? So I think people don't understand like 100,000 like real followers is like more than enough. You know what I mean? Oh, dude. So there was a thing I read a long time ago that said you can make a business on 1,000 true fans. So 1,000 people that support everything that you do, I believe I probably have.

Well, 1,000 people spent $10. Exactly. And I believe I've got somewhere between 10,000 10 to 20 000 that have supported everything i've done ever since see because back in the day the programming went along with the supplements it was like a free thing that i just did like i put out programs every day this is like early like 2008 2010 and i started to kind of catch a name for a lot of you know where were the programs on bodybuilding.com or just on social media for muscle farm back in the day and then um once bodybuilding.com started shooting like mini movies so i shot one was called the busy diet one was called get swole plan one was called squat every day and then i did both blueprints with arnold

so i did i mean it had between all of them they had crazy amounts of views and then people started coming to me because hey i tried this arm. It was outside of performance type stuff. I added the power lifting, the conjugate stuff a little bit. The first part of it was straight bodybuilding, supersets, stuff like that. I added the conjugate power lifting stuff later after I learned from the Westside guys. How far is Westside from here? Not even 15 minutes. Really?

I have to go see it. I have to go. So there's a Sunday crew. I wish you would have told me. I could have probably introduced you. So I used the bench there on Sundays pretty often. Right now I'm not doing any multi-ply stuff. That's the thing is, so that's what people don't realize about me.

It's like I had this, like, kind of cover model pass, but I really love multi-ply powerlifting. Like, that's what I get up for. Like, I squatted 700 at 198 two different times. I just missed it at 181. That's my plan in the next calendar year is to squat 700, 181. And I pulled a high 575 in meat at 198. I just missed 600 at 181.

Like I'm – that's really what I'm driven to do. Like I do the bodybuilding stuff. I do some Olympic lifting. But at the end of the day, like, dude, I just love competing in powerlifting. That's, like, my favorite thing to do. Yeah, that's great. I used to love squatting and deadlifting. So fun, man.

And I have my left knee now is all bone on bone. It's totally shot. Well, dude, going through this stuff is... Honestly, it happened because I had gotten a bad snowboard accident. Oh, it had nothing to do with CrossFit. So I had full knee reconstruction, and then I did CrossFit for 10 years after that. Maybe it had something to do with it, but my right knee is still totally fine.

Yeah. And my left knee is totally fucked. So I'm assuming it's mainly from the snowboard accident. I'm sure. But, dude, I used to, like, without even following a squat program, I used to squat 515. And even just the other day,

I pulled 555 for five on deadlifts. That's crazy. I've never done a legit powerlifting program, and I always wanted to get into it, but now I just can't even squat anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can lunge. That's my thing. Dude, I can do lunges.

Like the other day, I did 365 for a set of 10. Yeah, that's impressive. Like back rack lunge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Five on each leg. No, that's legit. But I can't even back squat that for five i did a i did a front rack i went to i used to go to crossroad gym from time to time i have my cf

level one but i never taught or anything and um i used to do anything anyway yeah it's the worst thing i've ever had i'm sorry across i went to uh i went to uh damn i'm getting trouble for that you you are for sure i went to a box one time and they and they programmed front rack lunges like in a front squat and i made 315 for just a single one each leg but i didn't even know i could do that yeah but basically um i tore my labor my left hip squatting 740 in a suit like in 2010 and so did it happen during the lift yeah during the lift oh man that'd be painful yeah it was painful and i didn't realize dumb i was a dummy i didn't go get it checked out. I didn't realize what I did. So I had a lot of problems with it for a while until I figured out I started just doing lunges as GPP. And so I do 800 meters every day.

And so, like, this morning before I got here, half-mile lunges out the track. So I've done it for body weight. Yeah, just body weight. I have alternated where I went up to, like, I made three-quarters of a mile in an 80-pound vest. That was my best I did, like for duration and weight. I used to do overhead rack, like overhead squat. I would take like a 50-pounder out and do a lap and then do a lap body weight. So I've changed it up.

But to recover from my other training, I've realized body weight kind of keeps my metabolic rate high. All that, that's kind of my condition. I don't do any other conditioning. So that transfers over into all my powerlifting stuff, keeping all my tendons and stuff strong. And it manages this hip. So it allowed me to come back. Like I just pulled 545 at 181 in a meet two weeks ago. Squatted 500.

And a lot of it's come from the GPP stuff. So I'm at, today was day 285 in a row of 800 meters of walking lunges. Wow. So I've got a streak of a year, which is what my plan was. And I was having some problems with it again. And I think because I was doing 400 meters four to five days a week, and I realized 800 is where it really challenged me. And I made a pact with myself.

I was like, you can't do – I always have that kind of like you've got to earn it back every day. How long does that take, the 800? I've done it in under 20 minutes before. Okay. But most of the time between 18 to 24, depending on how i feel from the other training and you're focusing on every step pretty good or you're just kind of walking no no so i do different step patterns so i'll go depending on how my hips feel from the squat session because i do it post weights i'll step across to try to hit ql a little bit more i'll step longer i'll step closer if i want

more quad i'll do where I'll just try to balance on one leg in between, but I don't, knee has to touch. You have to, there's no steps in between. It's, and then sometimes I'll do them for time. So I try to kind of flip it up a little bit. I'll step out wide if I want to, you know, kind of make it more like a sumo kind of step. It just kind of depends on how I feel that day. But man, it's everybody that I know that have tried it, whether NFL running backs, baseball pitchers, I got a lot of college guys that follow it. Feeling good? Man, that just makes their leg drive and their endurance because that's the thing

is like. And they're all doing 800 every day? Yeah, 400 to 800. And that's the thing is if you get to a point where that's not even hard. Like I did the Open this year for the first time ever. I only did four of the five events. The last one I won, I was so deep down. I was like, man, I'm good on all this. I never tried it before. I assume you crossed the wall ball row one because it's a lot of leg endurance. I did really good on that one, actually.

And I did good on the overhead rack lunge with a dumbbell. But I had never done a bar muscle-up before. So I got to there, and I think I got like, I don't know know like 16 of them or something but i was like you know yeah i did pretty good man honestly for i don't like i do the i go to the box a couple times a year but it was it was cool yeah it was a nice challenge i like that yeah let's talk about uh some of the strength stuff you're doing with the bands yeah so that was something that he told me about before we got on the show some really want to share this with you guys. So once again, I said I got this 4 a.m. crew that comes to my old school gym Monday through Friday. 4 a.m.

Yeah, so we started at 4. And I've got about 20 guys that come consistently. And I've got probably 12 of those guys are either elite power lifters or borderline elite right now. And one of the main things that we did, now we do a five times a week conjugate base squat system. And so we change the variables every four weeks. So I go four front squats to one back squat. So I go, let's, I'll give you guys a, um, an idea of the program. So a Monday might be a front squat, pause one count. Tuesday might be a regular front squat. Wednesday we'll do a back squat. And then this would be just the protocol without the bands. Some type of back squat, pause, regular, whatever. Maybe a box squat,

depends on the day. Thursday, we do some type of usually like a longer pause or some type of eccentric descend count. And then Friday, we usually take everything off and just do a straight up max front squat. And what we started doing was 16 weeks weeks ago, is adding minibands. So I got them from Westside. I learned how to do all the band training from Louie and those guys. We double up the minibands. So if you, and you can, this is what I love about this, you can set it up on any rig or anything.

You have to have about 200 pounds of dumbbells to do on each side to do the full amount because that's how much tension it is at the third week. But if you put a 100-pound Dumbo on each side of the rig, take a mini band under, wrap up both loops on each side, that'll give you about roughly, depending on your height, yours might be a little different than mine, but 100 pounds of tension at lockout extra. So we do one week, two bands a side,

one week, three bands a side, one week, four bands a side. And so we go against those variations, 200 pounds of bands, 300 pounds of bands, one week, four bands a side. And so we go, um, against those variations, 200 pounds of bands, 300 pounds of bands and 400 pounds of bands, and then cycle back through it again. Sometimes we take a week of straight weight depending on when we have meets. Sometimes we go, so I've created this whole system like this. And I saw guys, no shit, throw on 30 to 70 pounds on their front squat within two or three training cycles because the front rack has to get better because when you unrack the bar and 400 pounds of band tension it punches you in the

fucking face like i just made my best front squat 420 with knee wraps i made um you know a quarter plus 400 pounds of bands on a pause this week and it felt like i was getting punched in the face like grinding it all the way up and i've got guys making 185 through those weighing 165 like i'm not even close to the strongest in my group so i got some fucking freaks man two questions real quick so it's two it's two weeks of building on the bands so three weeks so it's three two bands three bands four bands oh yeah four bands okay now that no some people might have to go one band two band three band and then you go straight back to the two bands again? That's what we normally do.

Now, some guys want to go straight weight week because what happens is you can essentially, in the conjugate method, you've got all these different variations. You should keep it on your phone so you can beat it by five pounds. So what happens is you come back like, okay, on a three count front squat pause, I made 95 pounds versus three bands or whatever. And then next time you need to make a hundred pounds. Now you might not see that variation in the program again for a month or six weeks or even longer, but you got to just beat it each time. And that's kind of how that system has worked. Now, what we saw in our back squat, I had guys making, you know, 405 through four bands, 315 through four bands. They go to the meat man and they're taking out their opener and they're unracking it.

And it's like, you get in the warm-up room with 225 or 315. These guys have not touched a bar with less than 200 pounds of band tension on it for months. I take them to meets and there's crushing PRs, dude. It's been unreal. And then the front squad has transitioned in the deadlift. My best 181 just missed 661 yesterday at a meet sanctioned he pulled 650 weighing 190 and he pulled 640 weighing 181 in the last two meets previous to that with a 580 squad at 181 i mean just some freak show stuff man my next question was going to be what happens if you fail with bands oh we

have so many guys no problem oh and they're walking them out too so like when you fail and you got these guys i mean in a normal gym you can just dump it especially with the bumper plates the bands pull the bar down like a motherfucker it would be the worst sound in the world oh yeah no it's but but no one's that's the thing is we have enough help to do it yeah but i've also dumped shit on my own in in my house yeah so that's the thing i think people are scared to miss weights man some people have different like i learned from john bros i don't know if you're familiar john bros john bros is a g man so his big athlete was pat mendez right correct yeah and so

bros bros actually is the one that kind of hit me to the bulgarian squad every day shit i just did i just took what i learned from louis simmons and john bros and it went like this and this is my thing he was the first person who talked about the garbage man effect. You remember that? He was like, people say you can't squat every day or you can't lift every day. He's like, if a garbage man can't do his job every day, then he doesn't get paid. He said, well, you can't walk every day. Like, that's the shit he used to say to me.

Yeah, that's what he was saying. I love John Brose. And I remember he was the first person that was ever like, that's fucking bullshit. Like, that doesn't make any sense. Well, he lived with Abidjayev, the best, the guy who snatched 500, you know, the true Bulgarian fucking freak show. And so I took John's system that he kind of brought to America from living with that Bulgarian. And what I learned from Louie and what I saw through the West Side Barbell method, I kind of mixed my own shit together. And then recently just came up with this band stuff and do just my guys like my

whole goal is to have the strongest drug-free powerlifting team out and i believe i have the platform to talk about it the the guys in every weight class to do it and it's fucking right on the edge right now top to bottom it's really exciting time for us ryan that is really cool i fucking love it dude i like like the money and all the business success i've had is great but dude if i can't lift weights i'm just not a fucking happy dude. Yeah, I like it. Like, the money and all the business success I've had is great. But, dude, if I can't lift weights, I'm just not a fucking happy dude. Yep, for sure. That's straight up it. I know.

As my knee gets, like, oh, I mean, I haven't really messed with it in a while. But as I was still competing, it would start getting worse and worse. And I started getting, like, kind of depressed. And then I started kind of just doing my own style workouts. And then it turned into, like, the high-intensity interval bodybuilding stuff that I do now. And I was like, oh, I kind of just, like, stumbled upon this. But it's mainly because I had something going on. But it's really, like, even coming here today, like,

I woke up early this morning and I worked out. Where did you train at today? At Grandview. Yeah, oh, Grandview is awesome. I know that guy. Do you know Marcus Philly? I don't know Marcus. I know Brandon who owns it.

Great place. So Marcus and I are the only people in CrossFit that kind of promote like bodybuilding. Okay. So we do like, he calls his functional bodybuilding. Okay. And I call mine interval bodybuilding. Sure. So his is a little bit more slower. Mine's like more, has like more of an interval style to it.

Yeah. Like AMRAP bodybuilding. Kind of. I think it's dope, dude. I've done stuff like that. I focus on body parts for the day. Sure. Instead of CrossFit's kind of like full body all the time.

Well, dude, I think that's part of also the lacking part of some of this stuff. Those guys aren't doing enough rear delt work, accessory stuff. I mean, I think that's huge for the regular competitors, too. So Marcus does a lot of that stuff, and I went to his class this morning basically to support him. That's pretty cool. So, yeah. So you're essentially programming competitors? Yeah.

In a way? I don't really care though. Yeah. Like in the beginning when I first started my businesses and stuff, I didn't want to have anybody on the podcast who sold programs. I didn't want to have

anybody on the podcast who did anything relatively to me. And then I realized what we were talking about in the beginning of the podcast is people aren't buying, people aren't comparing programs.

They're comparing people. For sure. You know what I mean? Like no matter, you could be selling right now the greatest program in the whole world and like, you know what? I fucking love Ryan. I'm going to stand by Ryan and that is what it is. Yeah, no. You're comparing people. You know what I mean? Like no matter, you could be selling right now the greatest program in the whole world. Like, you know what? I fucking love Ryan. I'm going to stand by Ryan. And that is what it is. Yeah, no, you're right. There's people that, or they might buy both. There's people that jump around a lot too, but having like, and also having

different, different ideals is good, man. Like I, obviously I've done some of that stuff. I've never programmed it for my people, but I've done it on my own because once I started kind of learning CrossFit, I was like, oh, but what if I do arms and shoulders this way? And I am wrapped this, this, and this. And it's a good way to jam in a quick afternoon workout. So when I saw your program, I was like, oh, yeah, of course. I knew somebody would do that eventually. I think the best way to ruin your brand is to either talk down about somebody else's.

Oh, dude. Or to not accept other ideologies. Yeah, agreed. You know? Oh, dude, Or to not accept other ideologies. Yeah. Agreed. You know? Oh, dude, when you think you're the only, then you're fucked. And when you promote something and you say that this is like the only way or something like that, you already know that you're about to buy something that's full of shit.

Dude, so that is my thing. Like when I have other people that throw hate at me, they're usually the people that are saying their shit's the most absolute. And I'm not even paying attention to them. Or it's someone who's saying that you hate at me, they're usually the people that are saying their shit's that most absolute. And I'm not even paying attention to them. Or it's someone who's saying that you're on drugs and they're on drugs. They're saying that because they're on drugs. They're so mad that you're not. Oh, I've had that one a lot.

Well, I always tell them like, yo, the pictures and stuff might make me look a certain way or the numbers. But at the end of the day, like, dude, I'm not that big of a guy. I'm like 5'11", 185, 190 190 and i've been doing this for 20 years i i whenever someone says something like that to me i'm like here's my gym address you're welcome to come work out with me and see if you can hang with me on a workout yeah like i work out fucking hard like you're probably gonna go home and take a nap and i have to work for like 10 more hours today so that's part of it though you know what i mean that's what the outside looking in they don't understand nobody understands that's why like i tried to have like that was the one thing that was a little different for me like

coming from kind of a small town mentality small gym when shit kind of blew up catching from people you don't even know or giving you all this kind of heat and you're just like man you don't know that about me or this and i had to like get a thicker skin i'm a genuinely i'm a genuinely nice guy so it was like a little bit weird for me at first but i got used to it i'm just like look none of these people give a fuck anyway so it doesn't matter it actually means that you're successful once you start getting the hatred you're like cool i made it but i also get way more love than hate so it's like i had to start to like go 100 this is you know this is just part of it man because people want to be they want your spot yeah but they don't want to they're not willing to work for it so they're going to hate on it's just part of it, man, because people want your spot. But they're not willing to work for it, so they're going to hate on it. It's just part of what it is.

And it's different. I've always done my own thing. Even when I was a personal trainer, World Gym was really big here. That was kind of the system. Get in the World Gym. I was like, man, fuck it, I'll start my own thing. I just have always kind of just done my own thing and done it my own way and really not gave a fuck. And it's just kind of what it is.

And if you really believe in it and other people see that. And living it. And you live it. Yeah. I mean, I eat and breathe and live it. It's all I want to do. I mean, it's all I ever want to do. That's why I thought like in 1999, I might have been in trouble because in my town, there

wasn't one person that made money from lifting weights, fitness, gym. Even the guy that owned the gym had another job. So I'm telling my mom, like, I thought I was going to be like a PE teacher. So I didn't know what I was going to do because I was like, I don't like to do anything else. So thank God when I came to Columbus, I realized that personal training was a thing, that that was my entry point in the business. And then over that, it morphed into I was better with nutrition and supplements and those things. I still like the training.

So like programming and programming diets and stuff and trial and error. I hooked up with Dr. Eric Serrano and Dr. Mario DePasquale early. And Pasquale was the one who wrote the anabolic diet, which was attempting to get drug-like results from natural type insulin raises at certain times and carbs and all kinds of things. And I wasn't like, I was like when people started buying dextrose, like crazy. Yeah, dude. So it wasn't like I'm a hundred percent on that ideology, but it, it got me thinking and testing and testing high levels of branch chains. And that's how I kind of got into supplementation. Cause I was always trying

to create that environment for myself from a, from a non-drug cause I was going against all these dudes on drugs. And so it was like, that's like that's what kind of the curiosity of that is what's led me to this and the body of work. And I really believe I've given everything I've had as often as I can to get what I've had. It's like nothing was ever given to me just like you. And it's like I put in a ton of work every day with like that underdog kind of mentality. I love it.

It's interesting because like when I was younger, I used to always be jealous of people who had the silver spoon. Maybe they were in a family where, I don't know. More of a cash. If you were Arnold Schwarzenegger's kid and you started a personal training business, you probably would do really well right away. Or an online business or something like that. And I'd look at that and be like, man. But now, where I'm at now and I look back,

dude, my super poor days and like my grinding days, those are like, I get like emotional. I'm like, those are the days, you know what I mean? Like so much better than what it is now. I mean, I can't say so much better. I mean, I have such a big influence now that it's really amazing. But those times are so, so important to me. And without them, you would never be you so i told my mom like i

tell i tell this story about living in this trailer and being fed up and seeing her paycheck one year and like making these like at 15 16 years old making these like packs for myself that this shit is not going to continue with me that and that's kind of my whole narrative is like the legacy of like i'm the og motherfucker that my great grandkids or grandkids would be like, that motherfucker changed it for everybody. That's what I wanted to do. Yeah. I sat there and I was like in my trailer and I saw my mom's W2 for the year and I'm looking at how we're living and I'm thinking, man, fuck this. Fuck this.

Like how am I just going to let this keep happening? How old are you at the time? 15, 16 years old. And I didn't know how I was going to do it but i knew i was going to and and and i made a pact with myself that i was going to be the grandpa that was the og motherfucker that they were like this dude took it on and changed it for all of us and and that's that's been my like my pursuit dude i mean and that never so that's what people don't realize they're like how you stay so motivated, G?

That doesn't burn out. Like I'm a huge Andrew Carnegie fan. I've read all of his books. Like that's who I follow. That's my guy. And it's definite of purpose. My purpose is that. Now my passion is fitness and helping people.

But my purpose is to change it all for my family forever. And I've already done that. And I'll continue to do that at a higher level. And it's not only just like people think it's financial. I'm already teaching my kids things that, like, my parents weren't even in the ballpark of. And that's what I was telling my mom. Like, Mom, never be mad when I'm telling this story. You were a single mom.

You worked your ass off. And I wouldn't be me if you didn't do that. I know my mom gets a little sentimental when I say certain things too. Yeah, dude. She does all the time. I wrote a book called The Mindset Manual and she read it and she was like, I don't know about that. I'm like, Mom, I got to tell the truth.

You didn't do anything wrong. Plus, no one's going to meet you and be like, you know, you should have done this. Yeah, exactly. No, Mom, you still raised this dope-ass human being. Yeah. I mean, here's what's the cool thing. My mom a couple years ago was like, I started my business, Corgi Fitness, in 2015. I realized shortly after I needed customer service really bad.

Honestly, my mom taught me the best customer service because she's so good with people. That's what she did for a living. My mom's actually like that too. Dude, and that's how I got this way. So here's what she did. My mom's actually like that too. Dude. And that's how I got this way. So here's what I did, Ryan. I said, look, I'm going to teach you how to do this from home. And because I didn't hear when you give anybody anything, whether it's your mom or not, there's not the same kind of feeling when they earn it. It's just what it is. Right. I said, ma, I got to hire somebody to do this. Now I might be able to pay you a little bit more than I would

pay somebody. I don't know. But if you can do this from the house, I need it. And as it grows, your salary can grow. My stepdad can retire early. And she can take my grand. My grandparents are in their 90s. My grandpa that taught me how to lift weights, 92. So he's seen it all happen, which is amazing. And it's like, you can work at home.

So she's been my customer service main person. Dude, I am literally, my mind is blown right now. I'm like, I think I can hire my mom. You should, you should. Listen, my mom's not very good at writing though. Like she'll say, I know. And it's N-O. Well, that's okay. As long as you can talk to people and write some one sentence emails, you're good. I mean, it's been unbelievable. And I really am thankful because my stepdad just, just retired from the coal mine. He'd been there since he was 18 years old, 62 years old. This is a full circle convo.

I love it. Yeah, dude. And he's the one that got me a job there and said, hey, get a job here, save your money, and go to Columbus. Now, for me, it's fourth generation, so it was pretty natural for me. And he saw me getting comfortable. He's like, I don't want you to stay here. I was making like a G a week, which is a lot for a kid that's like 19 years old. Especially here.

Yeah, in the middle. Yeah, about two hours from here. This place is not very expensive. Oh, dude, you can live like a king here if you make some cash. Yeah, it's not even close, right? Coffee money. And so he was just like, you know, so seeing him come around and then partly why he's able to retire three years early is because my mom's rolling with me.

Dude, when I packed up and left home, the furthest thing would be mom could do customer service on an internet business. Are you fucking kidding me? In 1998 or 99, what? Your mind is blown when you think about what can happen with 20 years of work, perseverance. It's really been amazing, Ryan. It's pretty wild. If lightning struck me,

dad, right now, I'd be like, all-time podcast right now. I love that. Here's what's pretty cool. I'm going to show you my tattoos. So this is my great-grandfather, Joseph Boone. Joseph Boone died in a coal mine explosion in 1935. So we're looking at his left forearm right now. My left forearm. So my great-grandfather was teaching my grandfather, who's 92 now,

how to lift weights when he was 90 years old. So my chalkboard at my gym is his barbell when they were round. So I have it split in half on one side. You have the original. I have the original. Wow. So it's split in half, and that's my chalkboard at my house, and my chalkboard at my gym is his original barbell set from the late 1800s.

Wow. So when I say, like, I'm a fucking fourth-generation, like, coal miner and lifter, it's for real. It's passed down. I'm just the first one to actually do something with it as a job. This has been going on in my family, both of those professions. Now, I'm glad that the coal mining profession stopped with me, but I'm also glad I got the experience working with men when I was a boy that don't give a fuck.

It taught me a lot, man. So it's pretty wild so that's actually a solid segue into like what taught me how to work really really hard yeah i'd love to hear it my mom got remarried to this guy named robert and he liked living out like kind of in the woods and i was from the beach okay so my mom wound up we wound up moving out to like the woods area like a mountain man yeah all right and i hated it and uh i like i wound up like out to the woods area. Like a mountain man. Yeah. All right. And I hated it. And I wound up moving in with my grandparents who kind of still live by the beach. But I would go stay with my mom like half the week and my grandma for half the week. And during that time, he was like, I got a job for you if you want it.

Because I was working at a restaurant the year before and I hated it. Sure. And this guy, my new stepdad, was like, I have a job for you. I don't think you can do it. It's not your style probably. But, I mean, like it really kind of made me mad. Yeah, you're like, you. I don't think you can do it. It's not your style probably. But, I mean, like it really like kind of made me mad. I was like, dude, I can fucking do it. And it was getting in the back of a semi and taking watermelons and like tossing them into a bin.

For hours, I'm sure, right? The whole day, eight hours. So I had another buddy. So I would take the watermelon out of the bin, out of the semi. You're talking about a humongous semi with thousands of watermelon in it. Sure. And I would take it, I'd toss it to my friend, and I would say large, medium, or small. Every single time, right?

So he would take it and put it in different bins. And then they would go to different distributors or whatever. Sure. I did this for, I wound up loving the job. I did it for like two or three years. The whole time I was doing it, I hadn't lifted weights yet. Yeah. I was like getting pretty jacked.

Yeah, of course. And I started to realize that like I was like addicted to it. Like I loved it. It was the coolest thing ever. Yep. And we started like, we were young kids, like 14, 15. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I started like, he would be like, or the guy that owned the company, this guy Mikey,

he would say, you know, if you guys break your last record, like it took you so and so many hours to beat it last time. Sure. We get to go to the pizza shop and you guys can get whatever you want. Otherwise, you just get one slice of pizza. And send it for 15-year-olds, yes. It was one slice of pizza, one soda, and like a little dessert every single time that I worked.

Sure. But if you beat the time, you got whatever you wanted as much as you wanted. So good. So we would just crush these things. And then, I mean, a couple years later, a lot of years later, when I started CrossFit, it just seemed so natural to me. I was like, oh, I had this insane engine. That's pretty cool.

But my work ethic actually came from that. And then it transferred into everything. And I was always thinking to myself, I was like, man, no matter how much money I ever make in my life like my kid's gonna do something fucking hard yeah like he needs to learn some stuff you know i mean especially right now because everyone's like playing video games or like they're on their phone right now to the point now like they can't even look up i'm like oh my god well so here's what's interesting and i'm already telling my kids like if you have any any type of customer service from this age group, you're going to kill everybody.

Yeah. Dude, I mean, it's bad. It's really bad. And managing that as a dad right now, because my oldest is 14, I mean, it's interesting, man. I rarely see kids that I'm impressed with. Yeah. Where I'm like, oh, I'm like, wow, that was a really good kid. Yeah.

Like, it happens, but it's more rare than ever. I'm seeing it um fewer and further between because now i like help coach a little bit so i'm around these kids and i've seen them as they were young and you you kind of know backgrounds and stuff but yeah dude it's it's a tricky spot right now and there's going to be some interesting basics that if people are good at in this next generation they're going to win in their businesses because the rest of the people are going to be so lackluster in it. It's going to be crazy. It's insane.

But I think the watermelon thing is cool, man. It probably also helps your lower back strength. Yeah. Dude, it made me an animal. In school, getting a presidential award, all that stuff was so easy for me. I was like, all this stuff is a joke. That's cool. I tossed, I don't know, 100 100 000 pounds of watermelons like over the

weekend or something like that i just thank god that i went through that because one i knew when i was doing it no one was going to have this story when i moved to the city there's no way i was going to meet another coal miner i just knew it and i haven't and that i was going to learn what all of these generations prior really did what it really felt like to go 600 feet underground. What it really felt like to shovel coal for fucking 18 hours. What it really felt like to be like that. And then to understand and have the gratitude for what I'm able to do with my life. Dude, there's just nothing that can replace it.

I mean, that was almost 20 years ago and it still feels so fresh. Because I just remember when I was going there every day, all I cared about was getting a paycheck, working as many hours as I could because overtime was unlimited and lifting weights. I didn't do anything else. And this is a funny story. When I was dating my wife at the time, I had to go to Cleveland to see her after I had to get out of a shift. It would have been like, I hadn't seen her in like two, three weeks. So I got out of shift actually at four. Dude, I couldn't drive my car car i hadn't seen the light in three weeks because i was going in at five it's dark i work in the dark already all day long and

i would come out and it was dark i tried to drive my car after quitting time which was normally four and my eyes were watering so bad i was fucking basically nocturnal because i was working so much and so driven on just getting the fuck out of there that i had to fucking sit on the side of the road for a half hour and let my eyes like literally dracula style adjust it was unbelievable oh wow i was like i remember driving around i was like fucking wise or why like what the fuck is going it was like i was like dracula i remember like my first year opening the gym after like a year, I started like being able to go outside and like do things a little bit more. Yeah.

And I remember just like the feeling of like just pure like happiness that came over my body just from being in the sun. Like how important it is for us to be outside. Dude. And like that's a whole other podcast. I remember just like now it's very very important to me like if anybody who follows me on social media you see like every single like almost every day i ride like 10 to 20 miles on my bike outside cool and um like you do your lunches i do my bike ride it's like your meditation kind of and i have to do it and like i just get out in the sun and i'm like a dog you

just like let out of the house and i just go fucking ape shit for like that's cool 10 20 i'll still work out that day no matter what. It's just kind of your general. But I need it. I need to get out in the sun and do that. And it's a big deal to me. I put a gym out outdoor by my pool for the same reason. I do all my content out there a lot of times. I love to get just like build basic. I put a plate-loaded cable machine, a GHD, a Rogue squat stand,

and I have all the bars inside. But I've got a nice little spot out there where I just can be out whether I'm benching, doing arms, I'm cleaning, whatever, just to be out there and just, just, you know, it's, it's good for the content. It's good. Dude, you, there is a whole nother podcast on that. Like you have depressive tendencies when you don't get, when you don't get the sunlight. Yeah. Our body needs it. Legitimate scientific fact. It's legitimate. So this has been really cool, man. You know, I enjoy the fact that we're uncovering things about each other during every time I've been on really any podcast, I either already know the person or I'm pretty

aware of them. And so I think this was kind of a cool jam really for both of us. It's been great for sure. Uh, I'd love to definitely chat on a little bit more another time. Yeah. Anytime, man. It was good. Where can everybody find you right now currently? So best place is Instagram, just like yourself, just at CoreyGFitness is everything. I made it. I can't say that I loved being at whatever fitness, but that was the only thing that everything had available. So CoreyGFitness.

Plus your OG, so you started the fitness craze. Maybe. I might have. That's what I need to start claiming. Then everybody started doing it. But it's at Corey G Fitness across all platforms. And Max Pepper Muscle is my supplement company, myself and John Fosco. And really, if you're into business stuff, Business and Biceps is our podcast.

And it had been through the top ten on iTunes a bunch. It's done really well. We've got some big sponsors there. I'm real proud of that. So myself and John Fosco own Max Upper Muscle and Business and Biceps. How often do you put a podcast out? Twice a week. Twice a week? Yeah, so we do. We talk about business, but a lot of it's about mindset

more so. John's got a great story. He's recovering a drug addict that had built multiple businesses. He was the most powerful UFC agent during the heyday. That's how I met him. We did all of our sponsorship stuff through John with the muscle farm back in the day. So he's a very interesting guy.

And so we have some great, great talks on business and biceps. And then old school gym, if you're in Columbus, has been ranked one of the top, most hardcore gyms around. It's a really cool spot. It's like an airplane hangar, no windows. I definitely need to see a photo of the old grandfather's chalk bowl. Oh, yeah. I will.

I got one. Actually, I got one. I'll show it to you. I have to see that. Yeah. It's pretty cool. But, yeah, I appreciate you having me on, man. It's been cool.

The real-life Zoolander. Yeah, motherfucker. Cole Minder. Has anyone else ever said that? Oh, yeah. Just me. For sure. Damn it.

Damn it. That's been a known thing. I didn't know that. It's pretty funny, though. Oh, right on. It just seems so natural to say. All right, guys. I hope you really, really enjoyed this.

I definitely did. It was amazing. And I think I'm going to have to have you on another time and talk about some more stuff. But you guys check out his podcast. Check out his IG. He's got a lot of stuff going on. And he's been an OG for a long time. Yeah, appreciate it.

Great. Nice to have you on. Dude, that was awesome.