Barbell Shrugged - Gym Culture w/ Kenny Santucci, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash #820

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself a known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. Brand ambassador for Michelob Ultra and Fitaid, Technogym Master Trainer, host of the Fitaid Morning Show, Michelob Ultra MOVEMENT Fitness Festival, Model Beach Volleyball, and more, Santucci has established himself as a force within the fitness space. He has collaborated with industry titans across the health, wellness, and lifestyle space such as Reebok, Under Armour, Adidas, ASICS, Rhone, Melin, Cellucor, Bodybulding.com, CrossFit, the National Academy of Sports Medicine, Precision Nutrition, Nautica, TimeOut, Gregory’s Coffee, and more. Kenny has also shared his training approach and wellness philosophy with features in top health and wellness publications such as Shape Magazine, Men’s Health Magazine, Men’s Journal, Well+Good, Askmen.com, Reebok.com, and Women’s Health Magazine to name a few. Kenny lives his mantra of helping others well beyond the walls of the gym. As the creator of the STRONG New York health and wellness series, he is the heart and leader behind these events that have already raised thousands of dollars and brought awareness to the community around men's and women's health issues, with a portion of the proceeds going to different health-focused organizations such as the Alzheimer’s Awareness Foundation, Movember Foundation and Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Work With Us: Arétē by RAPID Health Optimization Links: Kenny Santucci on Instagram Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

Shark family this week on Barbell Shr, Kenny Santucci, our good friend. We used to hang out with Kenny Santucci like quarterly. And then, if you remember back in the day when they locked us all in our houses over a scary, scary bug we all couldn't see called COVID-19, if you remember that one? Once that happened, we stopped seeing Kenny Santucci, which is really depressing because Kenny is one of the most fun people in the entire fitness industry. I've never had a bad time. And everybody that's around them always has a good time, which is also why we're talking about gym culture. day and he owns two gyms up in the jersey in new york area and when he was a part of solace if you were ever to be a part of that gym or train there in new york city pre-COVID days i remember

walking down the stairs and just a blaring loud bad beats going non-stop and classes were packed people are having a great time working their butts off and nobody better to talk about what makes a great gym than kennie tantucci as always friends make sure you get over to rapid health report That's where Dan Gardner, Dr. Andy Galpin, are doing a free lab lifestyle performance analysis. You can access that at rapid health report.com. Friends, let's get into the show. Let's do it. I'm Andrews Warner.

Doug Larson, Kenny Santucci, dude, the best. How are we doing, boys? Hold on a second. Before we get rolling, everybody needs to understand Kenny Santucci. You are, every time I have been to New York and hung out with you, there is like a flock of humans following you around, whether we are at Strong, New York, whether we were at Salas, probably as your new gym, or whether we're out, have it a few cold adult beverages at night. But that flock of humans knows that if they follow Kenny Santucci, things will come

their way. It's usually a beautiful flock of humans for the record. It is not bad-looking people for certain. I appreciate that. Thank you. You are a man that exudes friendship and friendliness and a good time to people. and I've never had a bad time, even like a slightly mediocre time

in which you were a part of. Well, I attribute some of that to a mutual friend of ours, Aaron Hind, because he was definitely one of the guys who's influenced a lot of what I've done in the last couple of years. I mean, I met him back in 2014, 2013, somewhere around there. and just fell in love with that guy and he was just the energy he has and the way he's so magnetic with people

I just admire that and I'm like I gotta be more like that guy so good dude not to divert from Strong New York right off the bat but what is going on at Life Aid these days have you have you stayed in touch with those guys yeah like me and me and Aaron

we don't really talk shop about the business that much but we definitely we definitely stay in touch we'll always like you know anytime I see him doing something And they're doing a ton of, I mean, it looks like they're branching out a little bit. I know they had like a rough go during COVID and then they shot back up. The reason why their business model kind of sucked during COVID was most of their sales were through affiliates.

And if the affiliates were closed, then they couldn't sell product. So that's what they had to pivot a little bit and it took them a little bit to bounce back. But it's, dude, I see it everywhere. Like I go to places I'm like, oh, shit, they sell fit in here. So I always like to buy myself. I walk into places that I would never. never expect. And I see like a focus aid on the shelf. And I'm like, what? Yeah. Where did this come from? Like, how did this get here?

Travis Mass dropping in. Hey, buddy. What up? Sorry, boys. Sorry. You know Kenny Santucci? Yeah. I mean, I know of him and like, I've been around him. But I don't know if we hung out. Yeah, we've never really gotten to hang out. But I've heard only great things about him. Same. He's good guy. We like him. Yeah, man. I see the life aid everywhere. It's kind of one of those It's very interesting Because we were down at Wadapalooza In 2018-19-ish together

And then we went down Doug and I went down in 20 mass Did you come down with us? Everybody got COVID here Like the whole place It was just sharing COVID And I remember it was like It would have never happened

If it wasn't in Miami But we I had to fly home early Because my whole house got it And I was bringing it back Oh yeah I totally remember That was 2020.

Wasn't that February 2020? They had moved in. Something like that. But I remember walking Vender Village and just looking around and there was like, not a single company I recognize. And I was like, Life Aid was the only one that things going on. That's what that person went missing, the swimmer. Oh, yeah. They're dead.

But they found them. You were there. Remember that? Emily came down too. Yeah. There was also, did you just notice that it was a headline? I forget who posted about it. But Dylan and his company just bought up Waterpaloosa from Live and Loud.

Oh, nice. Yeah. So he's the head guy now, which will be interesting. I would be careful with the water stuff, obviously. Jump into the ocean in the middle of the dark, basically. And don't do it last. Don't do the swim part last. Yeah.

Yeah, dude, nine years of Strong New York. You're like sort of, I shouldn't even say sort of. You're like almost a decade into this event space as well. Yeah. What have I learned a lot? Yeah, like not even what have you learned. That's like a whole book. But like where is the kind of current state of Strong New York?

We had like 4,100 people there this year. Obviously, it's been a slow build. It's taken us a long time. Like, obviously the first one we had was 20, 15, 2016, we had like 60, 70 people, then jumped up to 100 or so. Like, we never knew, like, what we were really doing. Like, I definitely don't know what the fuck I was doing. And, you know, Christy was coming along for the ride and kind of figured out a lot of stuff that I definitely couldn't figure out.

But now this year, I mean, we got great brands there. We have a ton of great people. I mean, Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reese were our keynote speakers this year. Yeah. Yeah, they're amazing, amazing people. just she is such a boss like talking to that woman is just everybody

I met somebody that was talking to her recently and they were like Gabby Reese runs that house yeah yeah yeah there is no doubt that she is in charge of everything that goes When I was young I was in love with her I didn't even know people like

like if you if you are like in Greek mythology she was like the ultimate siren Bro. Like, don't get too close to the sun. You will melt. She could have definitely been in fucking that land where one of the woman can. She's so pretty that you will drive the boat into the shore for her. I met her at Gold's Gym Venice.

I was there and I froze like the most little boy that's ever been. I mean, I was just like, I couldn't talk. Yeah. She was. She's intimidating. She's powerful. She's beautiful. Great coach.

Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea about coaching back then for her, but didn't care about her coaching skills. Yeah, the first time I went to her house, like, not that she saw anything in me, but I was like, we're going to, like, really try and lift weights underwater today. And every time I came up, there was like 6'4-gabby Reese at the top, and I was like, I think I got one more in me. Yeah, I think I can do more.

Yeah. But, yeah, no, it was a great year. I also had, this guy, I don't know if you guys know him. His name's Rich Devaney. He was a former Navy SEAL, and he was in charge of recruitment for the Navy SEALs for a while. We just came out with a book called Attributes. Very cool book. Very good guy.

But we're changing it up, right? We're trying to innovate. We're trying to stay on top of things and make it cool. And I just always wanted to make it the way I saw. I wanted to make it. So there was a music element. I had a bunch of DJs this year. We had a ton of food.

Kids classes. like we're just doubling down on like all the things that I'd want to have there that would make it more of a festival and less of just an expo. Like I'm going out to the Olympia this weekend and I like a lot of it's great but would I bring

my family to the Olympia? Probably not. You know, I want to see. No. You know, you kind of glossed over like 4,100 people at your event like it wasn't a big deal a second ago. Like that's a lot of people. That's a big deal. Before the show, like you were talking about some other event that was bigger. Like, don't compare you something

those fucking people do. 4,100 people is a fucking legit event. That is... 9900 people more than went to the first Crosfit games. Yeah. But I, you know, like, I'm just always one of those people. I actually just, I forget what book I read it in, but I had just read something where it was like,

you know, I think it was, um, what's his name? Hermose's new book where it's like, you kind of take two minutes, realize like good, bad, or indifferent, win, loss, whatever. You take two minutes, you take it in, you realize, to what you did, have fun with it, and then move on from it.

You know, so I, the way I look at things, I'm like, it was a win. It was great. I actually just did a jiu-jitsu tournament out in Vegas a couple months ago. I won. I won it. Everyone's like, how do you feel? I'm like, great, got to go back to training. Got to get better.

Got to improve. You know, like, I'm always like, what's next? How do I get better? So I don't look at his wins and losses. It's just like moving on and improvement. Yeah. Yeah. Space has changed so much to, like, the group competition, I feel like there's a pat on the back that you can give yourself of just, like, none of those event competition type fitness things ever make it nine years.

No. The competition scene, just, it's like a three-year-long thing where people go, oh, this is like an enormous amount of work. And the day after you finish it, you start on next year. Yeah, yeah. So fun involved, unless the way you do it. it, which is extremely fun. I know there's a ton of hard work, but it's like one is like kind of at the center of it.

Yeah, I think that's the goal, right, is to have people have a good time. So, you know, what does that look like? It's brand activations. It's music, it's food. It's kind of what keeps people happy. Yeah, I look at a lot of the competitions that we used to go to and stuff.

I mean, Wada Blues are still around. I think Hirox does a nice job. But High Rocks only really got popular. Erick's like Hirox. It's been around for a while, but it really only took off. in 2014 here in the states because in 2019 I had such a hard time trying to convince people to do it like so many people were like why am I going to do this the crossfitters didn't want

to run that far and the runners didn't want to do all the crossfitting shit so it was a you're caught between a rock and a hard place trying to convince a bunch of people who aren't really you're you're introducing them to a new sport I thought it was great that's what I partnered with them I was totally bought in when I first saw it dr. Andy Galpin here As a listener of the show, you've probably heard us talking about the Artei program, which we're all incredibly proud of. It's a culmination of everything Dan Garna and I have learned over more than two decades of working with some of the world's most elite performers, award-winning athletes, billionaires, musicians, executives, and frankly, anyone who just wanted to be at their absolute best. Arte is not a normal coaching program. It's not just macros and a workout plan.

It's not physique transformation and pre-imposed pictures. Arte is something completely different. R-T-A is incredibly comprehensive and designed to uncover your unique molecular signature, find your performance anchors, and solve them permanently. You'll be working with not one person, but rather a full team of elite professionals, each with their own special expertise to maximize precision, accuracy, and effectiveness of your analysis and optimization plan. Artee isn't about treating symptoms or quick fixes. It's about unlocking your full potential and looking, feeling, and performance.

at your absolute best, physically and mentally, when the stakes are the highest. To learn more, visit artaelab.com. That's A-R-E-T-E-E-Lab.com. Now, back to the show. I was totally bought in when I first saw it. It's about six miles. It's like five-something. So it's 800 kilometers or something, or 800 meters.

I forget about it. No, it's a thousand. It's a thousand kilometers. a thousand meters maybe is it like 900 that's like 750 miles yeah yeah that'd be way too far um you do a marathon and then you do some burpees

and then another marathon no it's like a thousand meter track and then you do like a thousand meters on the ski organ a thousand meter track i haven't done it in in a little bit but i've done like six or seven of them but yeah it takes it i mean listen somebody really good at it does it in like 50 minutes It's 55 minutes. Most people are doing it in like an hour and change. So it takes a little bit to do.

I mean, it's definitely more endurance-based than anything else. Yeah, Matt, it's kind of like if you, like, if you did CrossFit, you would love the weightlifting events. Yeah. But somebody that doesn't lift weights like you that does CrossFit loves high rocks because they love long endurance, but they're still like the wall balls and still the sled pushes. It's like of all of the things that like splintered off from Crossman, all the people that ended up choosing like Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting were the strong people that hated conditioning. Yeah.

And all the people that love conditioning that hate being strong. Not me. Yeah. But it's cool in a way that like you can train. Like it's training for CrossFit, especially now when I see them doing like whatever handstand walks with twirls and quadruple double under things with Chris cross rope and all this. It's like, how do you even train for that? I have no idea. But having, like, this is the event. Like, they do it every, every event, every place, no matter what,

it's all the same. And I think that that was actually something that like CrossFit really struggled with. Yeah, I hate that about Crossbat. But nobody knew what they're doing. When you have to say I rocks, everybody has a unified. I did 55 minutes. Sure. And so you can make a training plan and you can, like, you know, you can, you can peek for it. Like, I hate the whole randomness, like, of CrossFit. For a scientist, it just is like, it grates on my nerves. But, I mean, I respect what they do. Let me be clear.

They're good. Yeah. I've coached a few of them. But, yeah. Yeah. Back to Strong New York for a second. So after this year nine event, a very successful event, like, what did you take away with for year 10?

What are you going to add in? definitely uh well one of the things i want to invest in is a coffee company because for the past three years every time i'm like i invite two or three coffee companies and they're like well we want to be the only coffee company i go listen i have a couple thousand people there you're not going to be able serve all of them in a two hour window it's just impossible yeah so i invite a couple none of them ever fucking show up in time they're all unreliable and shit so i go you know what i'm just going to buy my own cold brew. I'm going to name it strongly you are a cold brew or some

shit and just have vats a cold brew there available at 6am in the morning when my staff is there and they need fucking coffee because I was nothing gets me more mad like I'm all about taking care of my people and I wanted to have coffee there in the morning

and I want to have them have their uniforms and stuff so everything was on point everything except the fucking coffee so now I'm ordering coffees from eight different coffee shit. Yeah, it was so annoying and i got 25 30 people working and there's no coffee and then the guys show up at eight o'clock nine o'clock with coffee i'm like the fuck are you guys doing you had one fucking job you have one product one product i love new orers yeah what the fuck yeah that's awesome so

what about have you ever like caffeine in kilos if you ever talked to those guys i mean yeah i actually they were at so those guys were at the first strong i ever did right you know i would love it it was awesome i mean i had them just come in and a demo on like weightlifting and stuff and we gave away a bunch of product you know i didn't i didn't even i didn't even think because i know it's such a big ass to come out here these were all like local new york coffee shops yeah dry vats a cold brew over that's what i thought and they're late man get your ass up wake your ass up i don't want the guys from uh gregory he'll get him up yeah i mean that's what that's the problem it's like having somebody who could come over

and bring like a truckload of cold brew over you know i got to serve at least at least five, six hundred cups of coffee. Man. Have you been to this? Yeah, okay. We've been out there a handful of times. I'll go ahead, Anders. No, I'll say, I wanted, sorry, Mass.

What did you say? I'm just curious about this strong in New York, you know, like, I haven't been there. Oh, yeah, give them the one pager. Yeah, so it was started as a kind of a fitness, kind of wellness project that I wanted to do. I was going to everything here in New York. Comic-Con, Fashion Week, the Boat Show, the New York City Marathon Convention, everything. There was nothing really based around fitness. And then when I would go to the Arnold, the Olympia, Summer Strong, all this other stuff,

it was all like very communal-based. It was fun. But most of it was either for trainers and coaches or for the, you know, bodybuilder supplement world. So I go, no one normal, like my family's never going to come to this ship, but there was so much good information. I'm like, all right, if I could get some of these great speakers and I could start to facilitate workouts and stuff and make this a fun environment, this could be good for anybody.

Like, anybody who wants to live a better. Yeah, anybody wants to live a better life. So I took all the elements that I liked out of all these other events. I put in a big venue when we have like workouts going on all day, everything from yoga, Pilates, jujitsu, weightlifting to, you know, anything and everything in between kettlebell workouts. And then we'll have a main stage where we'll have, like, more motivational stuff, more of like a TED Talk style thing where it's like, what could everybody buy into? How do we self-improve?

That sounds awesome. Yeah. So we do a little bit of that. And then I have an expo floor. This year we had about 81 vendors on the expo floor. So it was cool. But doing anything here in New York is fucking triple the prices. I can't imagine what it would be like in New York, no doubt.

My favorite part of all of them so far has been Jen Wiederstrom, just generally. I think that's what that's why he sold 4,100 tickets. Yep. No doubt. You're in. Yeah, you left Salas. You're on year five now, the new place. Yeah, so it'll be five years in end of January, beginning of February.

We signed the lease for that. Yeah, so during COVID, left Salas, started doing workouts in the park by myself. I didn't even want to go through the mess. that that that was going on i literally new york closed down on a friday by sunday i was out in the park with a kettlebell at trx and some bands and i'm like i'm just going to do this to keep myself sane and you know do something i can't just sit in my apartment there's like well if you go outside your house they're going to lock you up i'm like great rather sit in fucking riker's island with people than at home by myself i go because think about it this way

if we all agree that societally the worst thing you could do to somebody other than killing them is to put them in a jail cell. And the worst thing you do to somebody in a jail cell is put them in solitary confinement. Now, we're all agreed to be in solitary confinement. The whole fucking world. Everybody's that stupid. So you're doing this to yourself,

and it's like, it's basically a form of torture. Like your brain is starting to atrophy because you have no human connection. So I'm like, fuck this. I'm going outside. I started working out. I put up one video on Instagram and me fucking working out in the park.

I had like 10 people hit me up. Like, yo, let me come work out. how with you. So right away, I started like training people. Obviously, some people are losing their job. Some people, you know, we're still making money and more money than they ever have before. So I had some income coming in. I had no overhead.

I didn't have to pay for a space. I did. I started buying up equipment from all these gyms that were closed. Is it legal in New York to do a facilitate business out, you know, within the park? Is that legal or? I mean, at that time, at the time, you could just fucking do whatever. Like literally,

there were no. There were no surviving. Yeah. There were no rules. I had a buddy of mine's car that I was borrowing and I'd park it right in front of my apartment. Do you realize, like, you can't even walk in front of my apartment right now, let alone fucking park a car there. It was like a ghost town.

I think Kelly Starrett did the same thing. I'm pretty sure in California. Yeah. Yeah, it was incredible. And it, like, I was making, like I had no overhead. So I was making money. There was all these gyms closing.

And I started to buy up all the gym equipment from these gyms that were closing. I bought like 45, $45,000 worth of equipment, skierks, rowers, bikes, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, racks, all this shit. And everything, what are you going to do it? I go, well, if the world ever does open up,

or even if it doesn't, I'm going to put this shit all in my mother's garage. And then when I'm ready for it, I could either pull it out or build a really sick gym in my mother's garage. So I bought basically four, I bought four of everything. And when the world started to slowly open back up, I started to look for a space. and in 2021 I signed a lease on a space

first time solo dolo by myself. Nobody involved, no investors, nothing. And I opened it up and I had a 20, I still have it, it's 2,500 square foot space. I'm trying to find a bigger one. It's just like the economics just don't make sense right now here. Not New York, man.

You mind me asking how much is a 2,500 square foot place in New York? I'm on the fifth floor of the building and I pay $11,000 a month. Awesome. So I was just talking to a buddy of mine who's got a space. Stay right there, man. You're not going to get that. No, and that's not a COVID deal.

That was like a COVID deal. Most of the building. COVID deal. Yeah. At the time, the building was basically empty. There was nobody in it. So I took it because they were like, fuck it, well, rent it to anybody at this point.

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, everything's triple the price now. You guys would love your sin. because I would be like middle finger like well I'll tell you what I was just down in Tampa and I fucking loved it there yeah I bet you did but yeah I was just in Tampa and I was like everybody was beautiful it was easy to get around everything's pretty close I'm like this is a pretty damn good town I never even thought of going there yeah and affordable but yeah yeah yeah everybody's like oh my God it's so expensive here I'm like I just bought six coffees for

under 20. This is pretty. I live in New York here. Don't tell me expensive. Yeah. Everything's expensive. The breathing's expensive here. No doubt.

The finding sunlight after 4 p.m. for like six months of the years, impossible. Buildings are too tall. They just talk about solitary confinement. Dude, that's the jail cells. Just those towers above you.

I know if he wants to go to North City when he graduates, he's at the University of Tennessee, but he wants to go to New York when he graduates and like get his experience there. like, man. Good luck. You have like such a community up there with the gyms and all this things. It's like it's home.

Yeah. Yeah. That's what I noticed when I go up there. I've taught weightlifting search up there a few times. Like, it's all everybody's got their little group. It seems, even though it's a big city, in the little, you know, boroughs where they are, it's not so big. So it's interesting town.

You never have to leave your block. What's up? Yeah, you never have to leave your block. there's seven different restaurants and two gyms and it's all right there i rarely have ever leave my neighborhoods yeah that's what you have to do then man yeah yeah uh yeah did you open like what are what's like the what's like the what's what is uh if i were to open a gym today what is like the the up and coming cool thing for what you need to be doing kind of in a way of like everybody knew CrossFit was going to explode

like what's happening in the gym scene so I mean if you ask me right now like obviously High Rocks is really big the biggest thing right now that people are fucking buying big into is Pilates like Pilates is up like 45% really oh my gosh

everywhere playing right now huh just everything every place in the country every town every city is like buying heavily into this Pilates that do I think it's going to last because think about it right this was the same that happened with cycling 10 years ago cycling was so hot there were cycling studios on every

fucking corner in new york they're down 35% or 36% i can't tell every space that i've looked at in the last like two years for a new space of my own was a closed down cycling studio so what i believe in is what i know works and that's strength training it's simple people need to do push-up pull-ups, squat, deadlift, lunge, simple shit really well. And that's what I facilitate. And we do it either in private training, small group training, or a big group of like no more than 15 to 20 people. Oh, my gosh. Dude, I didn't know how much that had fallen off.

That is so real. I don't even know what the market cap would be on, but the five years since 2021, like getting out of COVID, Peloton was trading at 115 in. in 2021 or, no, 146, and today it trades at $7.40. Yeah, that's crazy. The bike game is over. It's absolutely dead. And you know what it is? Everybody's like, oh, it doesn't do anything.

No shit, I've been saying this for fucking 40 years. Like, I was doing endurance training. Like, I got in, I heavily got into, like, triathlons and shit. in my 20s and 30s and I loved it but I thought one of the most boring parts of it was training on the bike

some people love it because they were like type A kind of fucking weirdos and they enjoy like just sitting there on the bike you cranking away at their legs I just found it terribly boring

so when people would go and do two and three classes a day I'm like for what and it was more about the dancing bullshit right like people are tapping their ass back and bouncing the fucking bike I never saw I know people loved it

and it was a crazy and now it's over. It's like the emotional support side of it. Like, you're the best. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. But Pilates is going to be the same thing. And there's no, like,

at least the biking thing had a, like the Peloton, at least had like a business model to it. That did very, very well for a while. There's nothing except a bar in the Pilates class. What do you think actually accelerated that, that's the one that has the reform? I think it's,

I think social media has a lot to do with the Pilates thing where it's like you have all this hot pussy who's they'd be hot anyway and they're like I do Pilates so everybody's buying into it and now it gives them a job as well so they're like I'm a Pilates instructor like does it I mean is it it's it's it's basically another form of stretching is it good yeah I mean do people enjoy it absolutely I have to like I have it at my event only because it's what people want right like I'm right now right Yeah, so I'd be an idiot not to have it, but at the same time, like, do I think it's the most effective way to train? No, I mean, even running.

Like, I'm not, I used to love running. I run all the time, and I run more for the mental clarity aspect of it. And if people go to Pilates for the community aspect, great, I love that. Like, I want people to move more. But if we're talking about effectiveness of a workout, well, then you have to start lifting weights and training. after all these years in the like fitness industry do not just find it absolutely insane like whoever you're following on instagram you're like they do Pilates i want that body they didn't get that body stretching on a reformer they were looking weights and eating protein yeah that's how

they got the body like now they just like Pilates but that's not where they started that's not what they did. You can't argue that logic, man. That's not what they did at all. They ate a lot of protein and lifted a lot of weights. And then they were like, hey, I got all this muscle mass and I look really good. I can go do whatever I want now. Yes. Yeah. And there was actually a girl I started following. I forget where she is. I think she's in Florida or something. Because I'll tell the girls, you know, I have a team of girls that I work with. You met Christy and then I got a couple other. But anyway, I would be like, all right, guys, if we have $50,000 to spend right now, What female influencer would, could we get that we could fly out and she could teach a class and fucking women will go nuts over it?

And they'll flood me with these like different people. And I'm like, most of these girls, right? Some of them are just like skinny, just they happen to be hot. Like somebody's like, who becomes a model? Well, nobody who like worked really hard to become a model. They just happened to be fucking the hottest girl in their town in Minnesota and came to New York. Right. So a lot of these girls, but there was one girl that was like a bodybuilder or something,

or she was into CrossFit and shit, and then stopped doing that, but like kept some of the muscle tone and started doing like all this Pilates stuff. And she's like, oh, you guys could look like me. This is how I got here by doing it. Oh, man. Yeah, she's a shrunk down version of what she was. And I go, she wouldn't look as good if she didn't have that muscle mass before. No.

Totally. Oh, wow. Nothing ever changes in that world. Yeah, you got to find out, like, what were you doing in year three? And let me go chase that person. I'm looking at your, this was the strength club. It's like, it's beautiful. It's perfect.

It's like basic, come get it done. Like, I love it. As simple as I can make it. And that was the thing. The economics of a gym just don't make sense, especially if you're a small business owner. No. You can't make it worthwhile. like if you're going to put a million dollars into a buildout i now need operational costs and i need

to make back that million dollars for myself or whoever i borrow them from and and there's so many people who are like well i want to put you know fancy windows in and fucking lights and all this shit i just literally yesterday i had a conversation had a call with a buddy of mine who during 2020 21 he's in finance my other buddy was on television they have a ton of money they wanted to get into the in a space. They saw that rumble boxing was killing it. They sent them all the economics on the business or what they thought were the economics on the business. They put $1.1 million into building out this space. And now they're hemorrhaging money. Yeah. 15,000, they're losing $15,000 a month trying to just keep afloat because they owe so much on the rent and stuff. And I said to

them when they did this, I go, guys, you have to understand, I know you want a marble countertop. and I know you want a fancy front desk. I go, but that doesn't bring in money and you have to pay for that. And if you have money, great. And you want to burn it, awesome. But if you're trying to make this a business, that doesn't make any sense.

Save that money for marketing. Exactly. That's the sort of save that money for it. Right. Exactly. Or save it on somebody who could help you move the needle. Like sometimes I think there's great business models where they're, like, for instance,

you get certain influencers to come in and be like, hey, come take a class, talk about my business. I'll give you five grand. That shit works better than half the stuff that you think you'd get. Like traditional marketing doesn't work. If I put an ad in a, like years ago, at Solis, we put in ads in all the caps. People would be like, oh, I saw your ad in the cab. Did anyone ever come in?

No. Hey, I want to buy a membership because I saw the ad maker. Not one. Not at all. You know, brand awareness is through social media. Social media. Right. Yeah.

Right. It's so easy to target. And so it's so easy to track. You know, to know this, I paid this much. These many people came in. I sold this many. You're silly to do anything else. And you know what?

What's funny is that most people have this misconception about the way they should pay for fitness. For instance, my buddy just opened up a gym, a $7 million beautiful gym in New Jersey. And it's a bodybuilding. And, yeah, it's unbelievable. Now, the guys who own it have a ton of cash, so they don't give a fuck. But they do treat it like a business and they are very efficient with it. this is their third one really nice space best fucking equipment

they have over a million dollars worth of equipment in there it's like atlantis and arsenal and um yeah panada like the best shit you could get um anyway yeah and it's a great space and I said I go dude I say

you should charge a fucking premium for this thing you should be charging four or five hundred dollars he's like dude nobody will pay that I go but as people understand what this costs and how you would make money off this that's the only way you do it otherwise otherwise you have 2,000 members in there it's a shit experience you can never get on the equipment and it's a hundred dollars a month but it's like that doesn't really work anymore if you're putting in this premium shit so you have to charge a premium and fitness is the only thing that people are like I want the cheapest possible version of it you know and that's and I want to pay the bottom of the barrel I don't want to pay any fitness playing fitness,

ruined it for everyone. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So. So I like the rap, you know, the rapping model. Just make it the best possible thing that there is. You know, just go for that crowd.

That's, if I were to open a gym again, I would just make it the most elite gym, but charge the most elite price. So I can really service these humans that I was working with. Yeah. And from somebody like myself, like I was just down at Ben Pekulski's gym in Tampa this weekend

and he was talking about that he's like dude I'm just gonna make you know I'm building out another space I'm gonna make it super early I think the guys from elevation just did that they just opened up elevation unlimited

it's in Miami if it's $100 to drop in I'm gonna go I would be I want that experience and I don't need all the bullshit like I don't need a coal plunge in a sauna I don't want to spend two three hours there

I want to go I want to work out with the best equipment I want to be in a good environment and I want to be able to bring like some friends and stuff. I realize that this weekend how important what I do for people is because I got such a better workout working out with two or three other guys who are on my level, who want to work hard, who want to train.

That was amazing. And I think that's what people don't realize is that if you want, if you want the most bang for your buck, then pay the premium, 30, 40 percent more out of your workout because you're around people that are going to push you to go beyond what you normally would do. if I go to like a gym around here by myself I'm going to do the bare minimum and that's my bare minimum which is more than what most people do I am a member of this gym called workout anytime and like it's it's a nice gym and the the manager is a nice guy and there's some people that but in that gym it drives me insane that the people there's just a culture

of sitting on the equipment and scrolling through their phone I'm like I'm watching you sit there for 30 fucking minutes scrolling through your phone. Like, what are you doing? And like, but, you know, but that's what the membership I paid for. I'm paying 30 bucks a month. So what can I expect, you know?

Yeah. But that. Don't realize how important, just the vibe of until you walk in and you're like, get me out of here now. Seriously, I'll pay triple, quadruple. I remember going to your classes and solace and walking down the stairs and like the music just being

so loud that it was, the only thing you could do was work out because there's no walking going on. There's no way. You can't hear anything. It's just loud music and everybody grinding. It's the best. But that's actually a great point to like, we said this earlier. Like, Kenny, you do a phenomenal job of creating culture, making people feel welcome. Like the vibe is right. It's a good time. Some people don't have that, that aura, that skill like that.

And so they kind of have to have like the nice equipment and all the other amenities to point to to be like, look, we're really great. but I can put you in a fucking you know we talked about this with COVID like it puts you in a prison cell with a couple of people and they'd be like this fucking cool this workout's rad I'm really enjoying myself here so that that piece is phenomenally important

but not everybody can pull it off yeah no I I agree with that like when we were out in the park the first couple times I'm like I don't really have much equipment I had two kettlebells a TRX and some bands and I started buying up shit pretty early and I was like all right we got to make this as fun as

possible. How do I make this fun for a group of 15, 20 people? And I got really crafted with it. So, yeah, I could do that pretty much anywhere. I was out in the last two years, I've done a event in Wyoming. So the biggest state fair in the country happens in Wyoming. I forgot the name of the town, but they flew me out there. I was working with New York to Wyoming. That's awesome. It was cool. I flew into Salt Lake City, which I love, I love that town. And I drove out to Wyoming and I did these workouts and I had at the state fair I probably had about 150 people

everything from the youngest kid there was about six or seven years old and then I had this like 81 year old woman so I'm like how do I make this fun for everyone and you just have to get crafty with it and it's like what can everyone do everybody should be able to tell me I was like yeah

so I just had them start with marching like all right everybody needs to know how to walk like I take it from the most basic human movement I'm like, could everybody walk? Okay, good. Now we're going to like reach down, touch our toes. And we're going to go through this process.

And if you can't do that movement, just regress and go back to the other word. So I started with like line drills with everybody. And just kept going. And just kept going and just ramped it up. And then I gave them bands and stuff. So I'm like, if somebody's older, have them backpedal. If somebody's younger, have them do high knees. Like we were just going through it.

And the kids will have fun with it. And then I took them and I had them all get in a circle. and then I had them kind of lay on the floor. And I was like, could everybody get on the floor? We had them all lay on the floor and everybody's doing push-ups. And then I had them all do help each other do sit-ups. And I partner them up. One of the things that if somebody asked me, and I've been asked this a couple times,

they're like, well, what do you think differentiate your gym? I go, you can't come into my gym unless, or you'll never work out my gym, unless you're either with a trainer or I partner you up with somebody in class. You'll never work out alone because I think the brain has to be built the same way, body is. And it has to be consistent. It has to be in a fun, warm environment so that you can make it really happen. And you'll get more out of your workouts. Wait, so you essentially have a rule at your gym that you can't train alone? Is that basically what you just said? Yeah. Yeah. So like if you're in a class, we partner you would up with somebody. You're either in a group of two to four. And you guys

facilitate like part of the workout together. And then if you're not in the class, you have to be with a trainer. Gotcha. I feel like that a lot. Like, I go to a, you know, a $10 month gym. It's just like, if you're convenient, get in there, it's got all the stuff I need. I train in and out, makes it easy. But I usually is trained by myself.

Like, unless I go to jujitsu, I don't interact with people while I'm working out. Like headphones are in. I train, enjoy myself, and I'm out of there. Yeah. When he used to be in a cross gym, it was very social. I talked to everybody that was there. at jujitsu you can't not talk to people at jiu-jitsu like you're going to be you have to make eye contact you have to slap hands and like you're in a prolonged hug for five minutes and then you move

on to the next partner like it's very interactive but i really like the idea of having a gym where you where you have to be engaged with another human being while you're there yeah and it's it's as simple as like now you're facilitating that communal aspect right now you're getting people to get out of their comfort zone and i think that's what most people are afraid to do they're they don't really here in new york it's like it's a massive city with millions of people and you could go all day without talking to somebody like there are people like i've been online at coffee shops where the people don't even address the barista like they don't even say hello nothing it's like give me that and walk the fuck out you know and i'm like we need to just treat each other

like humans more right like there needs to be a little bit more interaction and i think that's why people are lonely and they go crazy and they're sad and people fucking I say this all the time and everybody's like oh you can't say that I go but that's why you're seeing mass shootings and shit all the time right we were all around the same age I remember when Columbine happened that was so devastating and so like what the fuck that's crazy Bob now it's every other day it's every other day and I go I think a lot of it's social media a lot of its loneliness a lot of it's like you know misguided fucking people people you know it's like you know the the social media spread so much you know misinformation so quickly now people get mad all the time you know back that you can just turn your phone on and watch like someone getting shot her like just yeah what the hell yeah totally crazy it's not healthy for your brain lots of scratches on the record when you're when your whole Instagram feed looks like that I would just like you know the thing about kidding with making sure that everyone has something he's like people most people quit fitness

because they just feel lost you know what they're doing but you just don't feel like they know what they're doing but you just no matter what they do in your gym guaranteed they have someone to go to i think that's they're going to get more out of yeah yeah yes so i i have a gym membership so like the days i'm just like swamped with shit i can't get in i have a membership to this temple gym over here. And I bounce around to different gyms. I like going to different places. I like support in smaller businesses. So I go to the temple gym over here now. And sometimes I'll go in there a night. And I watch people walk in and they don't know what the fuck to do. And they'll do like a couple curls. They'll jump on a treadmill for five minutes. And they'll walk out. And I'm like,

you can't, there was no point even working out walking over here. I don't care if you live next door, that was completely worthless. Because they've done nothing. But if there was somebody there that they were meeting and it's like hey i'm going to do this what what's the end game are you trying to get better or you just want to say you have a gym membership because if you're just trying to say you have a gym membership that's fine yeah i mean there's a lot of that you know honestly so planet fitness he's one that's saying yeah i have the gym i go there even i just eat pizza and leave but yeah but i go there i do want you to know mash there there are many many many towns in this beautiful country of ours that do not have meathead gyms no i know

And this is the only place. I, when I go see my in-laws in New Hampshire, there's two gyms. And one of them is one that we would hang out at, which is awesome. But it is not for everybody. Like, there's like many squat racks. Yeah. The condition sometimes doesn't work. There's like a lot of, it's like kind of, like, it's not bad by, it's not the worst I've ever been in.

But it's also like, you can grunt a little bit. I love it. And then there's a plan of fitness. So like if you go in and you're trying to lose 40 pounds and change your life and like getting on a elliptical is like a good day for you, you're going to the planet fitness, man. You're going to go do that whatever the 45 minute round is that they have people do. But do you think people actually lose weight in planet fitness? No, exactly. But that's that's not.

I want those people to lose weight. So I'm not hating on it. I just don't see their model helping people. That's not planet fitness's fault, though. um and and planet fitness runs a great model like they they collect all the money for people to not show up like they want they want i don't know when you say that's their fault if they're not you know they're they're selling lies like but the people that would need to lose the weight um i can't believe i'm just steel manning why planet fitness is a good idea right now it's

yeah um but the people that need to lose the weight they got to try you can also not try and a meathead gym. Like, that's just intimidation. Like, I can't go in there. But Kenny's gym, they're going to learn what it takes to get these goals. Isn't my point? It's like, you know, Planet Fitness isn't going to provide them with a roadmap to get to where they want.

They think that's what's happening. Yeah. We also have to buy in to whatever you're doing. Like, you have to want to do that. And that, I think is why this exists. It's like, I can at least go in and, like, do some leg extensions and feel good about myself in the same way that. You would never go to Kenny's gym to not get results.

You know what results sound like and it's a giant speaker blaring in your ear with a whole bunch of people sweating on you. I would pay way more for a good experience. It's super, super hard in many places. Like where I live right now, there is one gym for like the county. I have to drive 17 minutes to drive to a gym. That's terrifying. That's a long way, right?

Yeah, where in the hell do you live? God. I live out there, man. I'm not, I bought a, Kenny, I bought a farm, man. Where? I still want, like cows and chickens and Doug and I, he helped me build a log cabin with our bare hands. No shit. We are out there, buddy.

Yeah, it's like 45 minutes northeast of Raleigh. Mm, damn. But there's like nothing out here. Like, literally, like, if you want to go. Go lift weights. You either have to have it. You're going to design something on your property that, because it's just nothing but farmland.

And then just to let you know how out there in God's country we are, when you go into the gym, there is scripture painted on the walls. Wow. Of where we are. We are out there. I'm all about scripture. I just don't know if it's a gym.

Yeah, you're all short a rep if Jesus is watching you. You guys. Look, anyway, this is, I feel like this is an episode about, no shallow squats here. I swear, if I could do anything in my life, it would be to travel the world and go from gym to gym and just write like, you know, my... You want to hear a very funny story about that? I was lifting with Sina, and I was like, I straight up pitched him that TV show, and it went nowhere. He thought it was a dumb idea.

He didn't even acknowledge it. He was like, yep, okay. So on to the real business of my life, besides you talking about being a meathead on camera. We'll tell all the good stories about, like, Metro-Love it. And it'll be so sick. He's like, I've been there. They're all assholes. I don't really want to do that.

It's like, back to cleans. I don't know, man. It would be like, go to New York, you know, see Kitty's gym, you know, go to Miami. There's so many gyms in Miami I like to check out. Oh, my God. To Miami's got. Yeah. Miami, and I probably say, on a whole, I think Austin's probably got the best fitness scene right now. Oh, yeah.

I mean, that is just the premium when you talk about, like, fitness culture is Austin's all, you know. I have a good question that I think the people listening will benefit. What does it take, you know, for a facility, what does it take for that facility to provide? to guarantee that, you know, anyone going in there is going to reach their goals, what needs to be there. I think culture is probably one of the most important things. I think shit runs downhill.

I think it, you need to have somebody good at the top who actually gives us a shit about, you know, the people and getting them results. I've been in a lot of gyms. I've worked in a lot of gyms. I've owned multiple gyms. And it's who you have at the top that made sure everybody's like live in a better.

life i think you go to the gym to live a better life uh whether it's physically mentally emotionally um you know i think a great example of that uh i've never actually been to his gyms but he's obviously been wildly successful with him as jason calipas jims i think he's a great figurehead for a gym um what's his name uh he's never been out there to see him no oh he actually came to solace once um he had something like 17 locations in like two years yeah um my buddy sam tully's got he just spoke at my event he's got 21 gyms here in the tri-state area uh nice yep he he's a big culture guy he's got a great knack for business and stuff um what's the guy's name owns anatomy down in miami those guys are smart that's like when i think about new cool like gyms it's like very high end

everything is looks like an Instagram video ready to happen yeah also got a good vibe and like people training hard in it let me ask you then Kenny like when you say culture because it's such a word that so many people throw around and they have no idea about what they're talking about because i just had this talk you know bert um for bert soren from sorenex i actually had this talk with him it was the best talk ever because uh sorenex has an incredible culture in my opinion and i said you know i asked him you know is it's just something that's it just naturally occurs, or is this something you guys intentionally work on? And he said, it's very intentional.

He said, that's, you know, all they work. That's the majority of the conversations they have. So my question to you, like, when you say culture, like what type of a culture, you know, has to be there for a gym to be a good place? I think, yes, it could be intentional, but I think it comes natural to certain people, right? I've been to Summer Strong. do I think they realize the impact they have on people I don't I don't even really think they realize how big of an impact they have on it to bring all those guys together and everybody's working out now that place yeah it was one of the I went back four or five years in a row the people that I met there I'm still friends like Jay Faroojia I met at summer yeah met Brett Bartholmiel at uh yeah both incredibly great guys I mean the amount of coaches in trainers that they bring together, they're facilitating an amazing environment. They're getting

people who are very involved in the community, but also like want to help people build a better life. Literally want to help people. Yeah. And I think they facilitate, yes, it's intentional, but I think it's just like when you have that many great people and good people in one area, you're going to, it's going to happen. And I think, like I said, I mean, Bert's the guy and then good people gravitate towards good people, right? So now he's got this funnel towards him to create an amazing environment. That's what he said he does. He's identified the type of person, and he will only hire that type of person.

Even if someone is really, really good, and it could probably bring in extra revenue. He will not hire them if they're going to mess the culture up because the whole thing will fail. I'm the same way. It's like everybody I hire has to, there just has to be certain characteristics that they have. I mean, and this is a, if you want to read a great book, I finished it like two weeks before my event.

The book that I tell you about attributes. And it's by Richard DeVinney, and he spoke at Strong, and he talks about that. It's like, how resilient are you? Like, what, I mean, I read a lot of self-help books, and every time I read them and I hear about, like, what makes you warmer, what makes you magnetic.

It just reinforces what I already believe. So I think some people read it and they're like, I need to adopt that. It just reinforces what I believe. And I think there's a lot of people who could benefit from that. If you're starting any business, if you have a hotel, if you're running a hospital, if you're running a gym, a nail salon,

these practices, being good to other people, pays off no matter what business you're in. No matter what business you're in, we people, And this is a good way to do it. Yeah, man. So that's, I think that is what makes a great gym. Great. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Because you can have those. Oh, sorry, but it's finished. Sorry. I was about to dump you. There you go. Finish.

Oh, you could have a great facility. But if the guy at the top or the girl at the top is a jerk off, and nobody wants to go there. I mean, that's what happens. That's what happens. No one likes an asshole. Where can people find you, man? easy to find strong new york

dot com we just released a ton of new gear so you can go shop strong new york dot com check that out we'll be at comic con all weekend we got a booth at comic con this is the first time we're doing comic con we got a booth at the new york city marathon this year so are you doing it are you running again uh no i haven't ran in two years um i got asked about doing it i might do it uh at the last minute uh i like doing it kind of cold turkey

but yeah and then my gyms I have a gym in New York and a gym in New Jersey the Strength Club New York Strength Club New Jersey come check us out join us hang out

workout first one's on me I love it Coach Travis Mash SmashLead.com you can go even though Jimware here a lot of my articles

are Timware.com for a lot of my latest but we're starting the majority are going to go on Mass Elite from here forward there go Doug Larson

I'm on Instagram Douglas Larson Mr. Kenney Santucci. Good to see, my friend. Thank you, boys. I appreciate you guys. This is awesome, man. Great seeing your face.

I'm Andrew Varner at Andrews Varner, and we are barbell shrug to barbell underscore shrug to make sure you get over to rapid health report.com. That's where Dan Garner, Dr. Andy Galpin are doing a free lab, lifestyle, and performance analysis. You can access that at rapid healthreport.com. Friends, we'll see you guys next week.

Later, boys. Awesome. Hey, thank you.