Barbell Shrugged - Helping Military Veterans with PTSD Achieve Greatness in Fitness through the FitOps Foundation w/ Matt Hesse, Anders Varner, and Doug Larson - Barbell Shrugged #444

Episode Date: February 26, 2020

FitOps is a non-profit organization powered by PERFORMIX® that trains and certifies veterans as elite personal trainers. The on-site program concludes with the certification of fitness industry professionals — who are experts in exercise and in leadership, designated as Certified Veteran Fitness Operatives (CVFO).   In this episode of Barbell Shrugged Matt, Anders, and Doug discuss:   The life of a veteran facing PTSD The core values at the heart of FitOps and how they drive the mission forward The current state of veterans and why Matt felt the calling to create FitOps The importance of fitness in and out of the military The current resources inside the military for PTSD How you can help support military vets And more…   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   Matt Hesse on Instagram   TRAINING PROGRAMS   One Ton Challenge   One Ton Strong - 8 Weeks to PR your snatch, clean, jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench press   20 REP BACK SQUAT PROGRAM - Giant Legs and a Barrell Core   8 Week Snatch Cycle - 8 Weeks to PR you Snatch   Aerobic Monster - 12 week conditioning, long metcons, and pacing strategy   Please Support Our Sponsors   “Save $20 on High Quality Sleep Aid at Momentous livemomentous.com/shrugged us code “SHRUGGED20” at checkout.   US Air Force Special Operations - http://airforce.com/specialops   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   PRx Performance - http://prxperformance.com use code “shrugged” to save 5%   http://kenergize.com/shrugged use Shrugged10 to save 10%   ------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-hesse ------------------------------------------------------------------   ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► 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

Snatch, clean, jerk, squat, deadlift, and bench press. The One Ton Challenge is coming to a gym near you. Gym owners, CrossFit West Richland has 80 people signed up for the One Ton Challenge. Along with that, they have emails, they've got training programs, they've got social media, we've got pictures, we've got video, we've got all the marketing expertise that you need along with using Barbell Shrug to promote your event. We're on your team, gym owners,

and all I need you to do is email me, anders at barbellshrug.com, so you can learn how to host the One Ton Challenge at your gym. And on top of that, we are partnering with the FitOps Foundation and $20 from every single sign up through your gym will be donated to the FitOps Foundation. And if you don't know what the FitOps Foundation is, today we have the CEO and founder Matt Hesse of the FitOps Foundation, which is a foundation for military veterans suffering from PTSD. I just spent four days down at the FitOps camp, class 10. Those are my people. We were doing talks, recording shows, finding out everything that's going on with the FitOps foundation

and how we can get more military vets with PTSD certified as personal trainers and not just bring as much strength and conditioning knowledge to the world, but how do we use Barbell Shrug to do as much good as possible. So what we are doing is partnering with FitOps and $20 from all the registration fees that you're charging is going towards the FitOps Foundation. We're going to do as much good as possible to the people that need our help the most,

that have served our country, and they need us. I saw it firsthand. And over the next seven weeks, we're going to be hearing stories from the vets. We're going to be hearing from the education leaders, behavioral health specialists, behavioral health specialists, mental health specialists, the people that are organizing the camp and bringing all the influencers together to bring as much visibility as possible. Matt Hesse is leading the charge.

Today's show is featuring him. It's an incredible organization. I've never been so touched by something I've ever done in my professional life. I want to say thank you to all the people that brought us down to Arkansas last week to see the camp. Thank you to Johnny Martin Harrison for highlighting us and putting us in front of the vets, trusting us with this microphone. We have so much good stuff to bring you from the past four days as well as future camps, which I'm incredibly excited about. So the One Ton Challenge, we are aligning with the FitOps Foundation. We're going to be donating all of the pros that are $20 per registration fee

to the FitOps Foundation. So it's not just about lifting weights and seeing how strong you are. Gym owners, we need you hosting events so we can raise money for military veterans with PTSD and use the barbell to bring as much good to our country, to our military vets as possible. Seen it firsthand. I was down there this weekend.

We're going to be telling the stories on Shrugged and thank you Matt Hesse I cannot wait to get your message out to the world and thank you for letting us in enjoy the show friends well I mean Omaha is dangerous

I lived in a little farm town in Nebraska so not Omaha. But when I went to the big town, that's where I went. Yeah. Did you actually grow up on the farm? No. I grew up, our family had a tractor implement dealership, which is basically like a car dealership for tractors.

So I grew up turning wrenches and shit like that, servicing the farm with the equipment. That's wild, going from the farm straight to the big city. You wereicing the farm. Yeah. With the equipment. That's wild, going from the farm straight to the big city. Well, you were in the military before then. Yeah, I stopped over, stopped in the military

and stopped in Kansas and then ended up in New York a few years later. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have like home, family, everything in New York now?

Uh. The whole operation runs out of there? Yeah, my wife and kids are the only family out there, but the whole company runs there. Manhattan, that life. Yeah. I commend you.

It's fast. Very, very fast. The buildings. Every time I go there, I'm still never used to the fact that you look up and you're like, someone built that? No way. You start thinking about how each little piece was built and all the wires that run in there. Yeah.

A few hundred years ago, none of that shit existed, and now we have all that shit. It's crazy. It's crazy. Welcome to Barbell Strugged. I'm Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Matt Hesse. We're here in Bentonville, Arkansas. I'm just going to go with the big town named Northwest Arkansas. Close enough.

We're at VidOps. And it's interesting that we're doing you last for the interview because when I rolled in here on Wednesday, I was the Anders that I had always known. And now it's Saturday. And a whole lot of my life has changed hearing the stories. And you are the one that had the big vision to put all of this together. How did this happen?

Where did FitOps come from? Well, first, FitOps has a way of doing that to everybody. So, you know, it's a life-changing experience coming here. And even the gravity of it for me, though I created it, still the weight is too hard to understand because the stories that come out of here um the way that lives are changed here are just it's such a profound place that um and it's special for that for that reason um so you're not the only one that feels changed when you leave yeah um uh so the idea for fit ops is that what you would like yeah yeah so just kind of the high level just the backstory of how 10 classes later we're here yeah um so

you know late in 2015 2016 i started um i mean my whole life had been around the military and i've had plenty of friends that have struggled uh both leaving the military and with sudden abuse. And, you know, I saw all of these, I guess what I'll call inputs of data around, you know, suicide and having firsthand experience and seeing it. And, um, you know, you get to a point in your life where you reflect on the things that you're doing, um, every day and, and, you know, we're all chasing our own greatness in some way in terms of, you know, building a business or, um, you know, chasing a career or, um, and so, you know, I got to a point where I wanted to, um, try to enrich my life a little bit more in my employees' lives.

Um, and when I started thinking about the things that mattered to me in life, um, fitness has been a massive part of my life, my entire life. Um, the military, um, I'm more proud of the military than anything, um, outside of my family. And spending time reflecting on how those things have changed my life and the struggle that I think a lot of veterans feel as they get out. And I wanted to try to put together the pieces of a transition program. I think the biggest issue that I identified and that we're now seeing a lot of, a lot of organizations talk about is loss of purpose. And, and it's really hard.

You think about, you know, people here ask, I think you guys have heard over the weekend you know, how do I find my purpose or, you know, what is purpose? And it's a massive question and not an easy one to answer. And, you know, what is purpose? And it's a massive question and not an easy one to answer. And, you know, I think that if you understand, if you're in the military, you understand at least while you serve what your purpose is. And it's, you know, there's probably no greater, at least for someone who served, I feel, purpose in life than serving your country and, you know, being willing to lay your life down on the line for your brothers and sisters

and for your country and, you know, being willing to lay your life down on the line for your, for your brothers and sisters and, and, and for your country. And so, um, you know, how do you create a career path coming out of the military that is, um, that can replace something like that? And it's, you know, it's very challenging. Um, and the, the two pieces, the other two pieces of, of the were you know drugs alcohol and and I guess crutches that folks are using when they're transitioning became debilitating for so many and I was watching this and and then the the third piece of it was the, if you think about the, as you look to transition from the military and you're getting out and you've done PT your whole life, you've trained, It's required. And that when you're in, you don't really understand that the whole military runs on the chassis of fitness and readiness and physicality. But you've done it so long that the first thing you do when you get out is you stop working out. Many, many folks do.

Yeah, because you hate it while you're in. Yeah, because it's required. And you don't really understand the value that it had on your life from a mental health perspective. And so, you know, taking all those inputs together and sort of my, I guess my value in the world, I think, is I'm able to take sort of streams of consciousness and pieces of data and mash them up into some something new yeah and um so when i thought about how to attack this um uh i knew that biological physiological and sociological were the three pieces that i needed um and then the output of that is an amazing vocational program and so um i didn't know exactly how to attack it uh i started thinking about, you know, do I just pay for people to get personal training and therapy

and, you know, partner with some AA groups and, you know, pull all that together. And I was watching a TV show and I saw, it wasn't a TV show about anything to do with this, but I saw kids at a kids camp. And I was like, it was just, it just sort of all came into focus. I had several vets who I was working with who were dealing drugs and alcohol. I knew a few who had treated their drug and alcohol addiction with fitness. And I knew that a meaningful transition from the military would be something in serving other people. And so when you mash all that stuff together, it made a ton of sense to create a camp where we take veterans away from all of the things that are hard.

And we pull them into a place where they can trust and be, you know, the camaraderie of the military never, ever leaves you. It's just something that you get around guys. I don't care how long you've been out, that feeling just comes right back. And it's a, it's a, the irony of it is you're created in often in unsafe spaces, but these folks are in unsafe spaces. They're trying to find a new purpose in their life, and they're lost. And so take all the distractions away and bring them to a place

where they can just spend time with each other. And I've been fortunate in my life to have some successes which came from some of the chaos in my life, which helped create these ideas. But those men and women who don't have the perspective because they basically spent their whole career in the military, put their lives on hold, and now they're out, and they just don't know where to go, don't know what to do, don't have a starting place.

They've lost purpose. They've lost their fitness. And they are lost in general and so i've heard a lot of military guys say that they also don't know who to trust when they get out it's like when you're in there's the good guys and the bad guys it's us versus them so to speak it's kind of very binary yeah then when you get out it's just who's on my team yeah and i and I think part of that is civilians view military folks in a way that makes us uncomfortable. And not all civilians, obviously, but there's a lot of pity in the space of veterans. And, you know, I don't think, I think people care, and I think that's a really important thing because, you know, humanity is, is still beautiful.

If people care about helping other people and for the most part, most people want to help veterans. But I think sometimes the drivers of that desire to help are more about pity than they are about, about like, Hey man, thank you so much for your service. I'd like to offer you an opportunity, not just because I feel sorry for you, but because you earned it and you're qualified, and I want to enrich your life. That's more the direction that this country needs to go in celebrating veterans. Not pitying them, I think, is important. Was there some incident that drew you specifically to this, saying we have to act now, go and celebrating veterans not pitying them i think is important uh was there like a some incident that drew you specifically to this saying we have to act now or um was it just kind of like a underlying kind of itch that you needed to scratch i'm like i gotta do something

uh i mean i think it was a huge question because we all play out our own things in our lives as well. I joke with the guys a lot that I created this place for myself in some ways. I wasn't struggling from the transition from the military. I got out a long time ago. But, you know, the secret sauce of Fit ops is about laying down your shit and sharing with people and, um, you know, in a safe space where, where no one's going to judge you. And that stuff may be, it may be war trauma, combat trauma. It may be, um, personal things that you carried into the military. I think often folks who are called to serve at a deep level and have a servant's heart often have trauma in their past. And I believe that that trauma has created some debilitating things

for people they just can't get over or haven't been able to get over. And it also creates an incredible energy to help others because if you can't serve yourself um what can you do you can serve other people that service of other people makes you feel uh fulfilled and and i think a lot of those people filled that gap in their heart with service in the military and then they got out and they were just um they just, you know, couldn't, couldn't, now they had no ability to serve anymore. And they are also dealing with their own decompartmentalization of emotions and, and failure. And,

you know, that's easily leads into drugs, alcohol, losing your job, you know, hopelessness and suicide. I feel like as a, as a country right now we do a really good

job of bringing awareness without any follow-through action on anything and just being here i realize like providing a curriculum providing a family providing this tribe of people that can say we're class 10 and now we're entering into the the real world like that's how change happens it's not by doing the push-ups. Everyone's doing the push-ups in a way to say, oh, look at me, but not really helping anybody. Yeah, and I think you asked the question about, or you made the point about action

and what point I decided I had to do something. I just, I think life brings you things when you're ready to, to, you, you, you see, you see points in time, um, repetitive signs, I guess. Um, and I had just seen a ton of data. I had seen some friends firsthand. Um, I, I knew several guys who were struggling and, um, you know, back to the point of like taking action and changing it, um, throwing money at problems doesn't work. We see that all over the place. Um, again, no, no lack of desire to give it's 40,000 veteran nonprofits. Often, you know, a lot of them have no trouble raising money because people, people in this country, thankfully are, are still great people there. They have a heart to help and but money is just not

enough um and so it you know it takes it takes under to understand how to solve a comprehensive problem it needs a very comprehensive approach and building this program was was maybe on its face a simple idea but and like everything my wife would say oversimplify everything. So I, I one day said, listen, we're going to run a boy scout camp. We're going to fly in 30 vets. Um, we're going to find, use our network to find them. Um, and we're going to fly our trainers in and we're going to get 30 textbooks and we're going to live there for a month and we're going to train our asses off physically. We're going to study and learn how to be amazing personal trainers mentally. And then at night we're going to get around a month and we're going to train our asses off physically we're going to study and learn how to be amazing personal trainers mentally and then at night we're going to get around a circle and we're going to talk about our shit emotionally and you know the performance talk

piece of this i think you guys are probably after being here you would say we've had more performance talks than anybody in that room yeah they only get half an hour out there we're like 90 minutes i know i know know. I know my guys came in here the last couple of last few days and you guys walked out like, like, right. Uh, but those talks are, are the secret sauce there, you know, because if you think about, um, what we talked about in childhood trauma being, um, a common reason, uh, not a common reason, but a common driver for help wanting to help other people. Um, you know, it's, it's one of the beauties of human beings that someone hurts you and you're like, I want to, I want to help

other people. And it's, it's, it's, it's all, it's often desire to help yourself feel better from the things that you're suffering from. And so, you know, if you take that and turn it around and look at, you know, why that is and how do you quench that, the military is an amazing place to do that because it's such a big purposeful life. And, you know, aside from the politics of the military. And as you... Red tape, all the things.

Don't mean to sidetrack of us all of us love the military we all have the politics of the military also very challenging but getting out and coming here and being able to spend 30 days or 20 days

with no distractions at all studying opening up talking about shit, the decompartmentalization starts. And it's, I think, one of the most misunderstood parts of transition from the military, the two things that I think are super, super important for people to understand.

The challenge in transition in loss of purpose is probably the biggest piece. super important for people to understand the challenge in transition in loss of purpose is probably um the biggest piece it's it's because it's the macro problem and the micro problems of job drugs and alcohol hopelessness they're all they're all they're all the uh result of losing yourself and it doesn't matter if you know people who have lost themselves, maybe they lost their job and this spiraled into out of control. It's really because they just don't know what to do with themselves. And, you know, the idle mind is just a dangerous, it's dangerous if you've not, if it's idle

too, too long. And then the other, the other piece is for military folks is decompartmentalization and understanding your trauma. You said that word a couple times. What do you mean by decompartmentalization? So one of the things that happens the second you get into the military, the second you step off the cattle truck at basic training, is you are already compartmentalizing trauma because you can't understand what's happening i mean you understand but you don't you think you understand going in like ah this guy's gonna scream at me like i know what's gonna happen but you just don't really get it and i don't i haven't been in a long time basic training is 20 years ago for me so it might have changed but um

but compartmentalization is an essential tool for battle, and the military is built for battle. And compartmentalization means that you compartmentalize trauma so that you can execute your mission. Your buddy gets blown up next to you. You don't get to stop and cry. You compartmentalize and make sure that somebody else is going to die um and you know that's an extreme case of of compartmentalization

but it happens to all of us all the time um if you see a car accident you will and someone is hurt you'll compartmentalize your own emotion to go deal with someone else to help somebody. Again, one of the most beautiful things about human beings. But it's also one of the most toxic things if you don't let it out eventually. And we're really good at teaching how to compartmentalize. And as a country, we don't understand the damage that compartmentalization can cause. And, you know, we don't teach anything to these guys as they get out about how to unwind the things that they've done and seen. And so, you know, I always say that essentially you have,

let's think about a lot of the men and women who enlist who, maybe like me, running away from childhood trauma, going to the military for the first time ever i had structure and i liked it um and that structure also meant i had i didn't have time to think about the things to decompartmentalize like a lot of young men and women would do from their childhood as they were growing up and so you know because you have structure and discipline around you and your training and your compartmentalizing um and your training is about teaching you to compartmentalize putting you in high pressure situations where you don't get to think about

your feelings and you just don't it's just not you can't there's no place for that and so if if we've spent our whole lives teaching ourselves how to hold shit in, and whether you went in with childhood trauma or you went in and experienced some sort of trauma on the battlefield, you come out and now you don't have structure. You don't have a plan plan you've lost your purpose and the demons the decompartmentalization decompartmentalization starts to happen meaning you start letting some of this stuff out and for those that have endured a lot becomes too much and they either treat it with drugs alcohol or suicide and you asked the question earlier about why i got involved

i couldn't i couldn't stand to see any more suffering. Yeah. And suffering in people who want to give so much and help so many people is, it's like, for me, it's like the worst thing to see because I, these people should feel good about what they've done and they feel the exact opposite and they're lost and scared. And so, you know, I did a couple thousand push-ups on Veterans Day a few years ago to kick this off and started raising money for it and and um you know as I as we talked a lot of people want to give but

you know it takes more than money it takes um it takes people really caring and understanding the problem and then you know grabbing a hold of them and saying i got you and you take them away and and you teach them to start letting things out in a controlled way um and a lot of them don't know they have this stuff like they just don't realize that those issues are there and so um you know if we could help them release the things, the macro problem of the compartmentalization and help them find new purpose and wrap it up in a vocational program where it gives them a job straight out of here. That is a job of serving other people and helping them become better. You know, I believe the best coaches in the world are not coaching your body. They're coaching your mind, your soul, your body.

Like, these are, you know, like I call our guys weapons as they leave here because they understand the value of emotional, physical, and, you know and mental and training. They understand all those pieces together, and they're not just personal trainers. I think that's something that I've really noticed with a lot of the people here is that when you interview Bobby or you interview Randy and they just start telling their stories, they don't want to be dealing with the issues that they're dealing with,

not because it's like, oh, this sucks. It's because they want to do good. That's right. They know they're capable of doing good. Like sometimes when I see, when you're just casually observing people when they're in class, sometimes or many times when I've,

throughout this weekend, I've just kind of like looked around the room to see like, who's this really sinking in with? Like, is this hitting people in different ways and you know some people will be like off looking they're not maybe really ready to deal with their shit yet and then you'll see the kid in the corner that just can't stop crying and he's just you know maybe drying out a little bit or he's just he's just he's in it and he's in the battle where he's just like, I didn't ask for any of this shit,

yet I'm trapped in my own brain. And you can see that they want to do good. And I think that's one thing that's really come out for me in this week is that everybody that's here really wants to do good. They just don't have the tools and resources to understand how to be good at something because for so long, someone's told them what to do to be good at something because for so long

someone's told them what to do to be good and you get in the real world and you go uh okay well someone tell me what to do yeah and no one tells them so they they sit and wait and then they're stuck in their own brain um when when they get out of here you've got johnny martin in here um kind of building that curriculum for post-grad what does that look like right now and what's your big vision guy where what does that look like going forward so you know we're trying to build a full-time camp here in Bentonville Arkansas and and you know part of the strategy and getting down here you know plop plop your team down in the place where there's people with big hearts that want to help. I think this area, one, there's a lot of men and women here who have served.

Two, the people here are either of some sort of faith or they just have the Midwestern values of I want to help other people. And so I think it's a good place for us to build this. Um, the future of fit ops from a vision perspective is, is about creating a health and wellness transition camp, um, where no matter where, what your goals are, um, fitness plays a role in, you know, as one of the pillars of, I think, healthy life. Whether you're a personal trainer or a nutritionist or a physical therapist, we want this to be the first stop after leaving the military before they get into these challenges. We want to help them navigate them before drugs and alcohol start playing a role. so um you know aftercare for for our program is is about helping make sure they find a great job but it's also about making sure that they have access to mental health if they need it they have

access to community and um even though they're leaving this tight-knit group and you know they you see them they're bonding it's really cool to watch um you know new friendships being created and trusting relationships and for some of these guys it's the first time they've even shared their feelings some of these guys first time they've cried um and they don't you know i think we're as a society we're evolving into um a more a unicher creature that is open to emotion and letting, letting our, you know, I think,

I think it's just as we grew up, I don't know what your dad was like, but you know, my dad didn't cry. I didn't see my dad cry when I was a kid. And, um, I think,

you know, as Bobby would say, we have tear ducts for a reason. They're, they're like exhaust pipes for our emotions. Um, and that guy just always seems to have the right analogy for something. But, you know, it really is true.

If you don't let the things that are hurting inside out, you never deal with them. And so, you know, we want to make sure that as the guys transition and they go back home and start their careers and start changing lives through fitness, that they continue to invest in themselves. And so, you know, curriculum here for us is just the beginning. We've put over 350 vets through our program now. You know, we intend to scale it. There's thousands waiting for a slot. And, you know, my purpose in life is to make sure that every single one of them gets into this program that needs it.

And then as they transition into their full-time jobs, that they have the resources and tools to not just be successful trainers, but to be epic, live epic lives and change other people's lives. Do you ever tell people not to go back home? Like not to stay here necessarily, but like if you go back home, you're just going to fall right back into the same patterns you've been in. All your friends are there. They have an expectation of you.

And it's just too hard to fight that uphill battle. Totally. They just need to go somewhere new. Yeah, we actually had a couple guys show up without, you know, any place to go after they packed everything and brought it with them. And we're like, where are you going? And they send you back home. We have like, where are you going? Send you back home. We have a return ticket for you. I'm not going home.

I don't have a home. For those listening, that's some powerful shit. It makes me feel emotional because to be that... We're going to take a quick break to thank our sponsors over at Momentous. I know you've been hearing me

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friends over at organifi you love them we love them the green the red and the gold you gotta get them you're not get trust me you're not eating enough salad you don't eat enough broccoli you're not getting the greens that's why they created the green the red and the gold juice that's why i take them every single day of my life and that's why you should go over to Organifi.com forward slash shrugged to save 20% on your order. You're going to save the cash. You're going to get the micros, minerals, the nutrients, the vitamins, all of it. You're going to get it. The green, the red, and the gold. Organifi.com forward slash drug. And let's get back to the show. Like to be that lost, to not have family, that you could go home and, you know,

I thankfully have family where I could go home if I needed to. A lot of these guys, they don't have that. They come from broken homes and they're dragging their stuff from their past around with them still. And, you know, Johnny Martin calls it unpacking your backpack, taking the things off of your back that are holding you down, dealing with them, and then, you know, moving forward. So, yeah, we've had a few people come here without a place to go or not wanting to go back to it. You know, it depends on the candidate.

I think certain candidates are able to, um, leave here with a pretty clear perspective on what they want, crystallized perspective, um, or mission and goals and saying like, it doesn't matter where I end up. I know what I'm doing now. And for those folks, I'd say go back home. Get rid of the dead weight of friends that aren't good for you. Invest in people that are. And those who are struggling a bit more, we may suggest that they go somewhere else. Because influence, I guess it depends on how strong of a conviction you have to persevere a challenge. Sometimes people, it's easier for them just to let go and say, all right, I'll just do whatever everybody else wants me to do,

what they expect me to do. We certainly, you know, we've been really fortunate in having candidates here that have come in with drug and alcohol challenges. In this program, we don't do any clinical treatment we don't have resources or facilities we don't have doctors on staff we have doctors on staff from a consulting perspective they're not sitting here on camp waiting for somebody who's who's got a you know a drug issue um so we've had folks come here with dependency and they kick it while they're here and um we do the best that we can with that.

But you have to know who you are and what your mission is and be super clear about that, and we are not an outpatient, an area inpatient program. I actually wonder how many people's issues along those lines you could solve by just giving them a supportive group and a thing to do. Purpose. Somewhere where they have to be every day. When you get into Class 1, you talk about how a lot of companies are very willing to give money and support people that are building foundations like this.

But the big problem with building a foundation like this is not the money. It is a massive problem, but it's the time and energy and curriculum and building a team and scaling it so that it's not just a giant waste of your time when you have one and then two doesn't happen. That process going into FitOps Camp 1, can you just go back to the very early days and the lead up to Camp 1? And then maybe it wasn't like a specific moment, but when you left and you were like,

we have to keep going. I knew from the second night on camp one that we had something special. Yeah. I didn't know. I mean, I knew that the emotional piece was going to be an important part of this. I didn't realize the gravity of it. Um, and year, the years later now, a couple of years later, since we started this, it, and I mentioned it to be the show that it's, this is a heavy weight for me as well. It's because I'm still unpacking my backpack, man. Like I'm, this is, it's like,

I'm healing here with the vets along, along with them maybe in a different part of the journey but I come here and it's like it's like I'm doing work too yeah and so you know that that happened the first night I got up and I didn't know I was gonna say what I said um and I just was my job was to get up and open up and I ended up telling 35 guys most of who i didn't know um who were sitting there for the on the second night and you know they've been studying all day and i started laying down shit that they were like holy shit and i watched their eyes and i watched them start crying and then i started crying and it you know it ended in this big like bear hug from all of them and it was just you know it's like the most special thing one of the most special things that ever happened to me um and from that from that moment i knew that this this had to

had to grow and scale and become something that um you know whether it was 500 vets a year or 5 000 um i knew that the recipe that we created was one that would change um you know i don't say the world because we're impacting u.s veterans but eventually the world i think what's super special what that i've noticed the most is there's the perfect combination of people wanting to get better combined with kind of that unknowing trust that these people are going to help like you have enough case studies now where and i don't know if it was on you know camp one where it felt that way to everybody i'm sure there's some skepticism of like what are we doing here i still see it today yeah walk in and then first talk and people like what the fuck did i get into yeah but the for me specifically this

is just my story of being here for the last three days. I give that talk to a group of trainers. If I came into Performance House, I could give that talk and tell these cool stories about how you make it in fitness and how great it is. And not ever really get into the emotional struggle of being an entrepreneur and how hard it is to go lead from the front and lonely. And you're just there, and who's helped you along the way, and how much those people actually mean to you when they give you the nod of approval that your work matters. But I've been sitting back here hearing these stories,

and they just keep being as real and authentic, and they know there's a whole team in there of people that are willing to have their back. And I broke down hardcore yesterday after hearing so many stories just because it was i watched it yeah i when you're faced with that level of authenticity and that level of honesty about your life every single day if i were to walk in and give the standard trainer talk that the trainers want to hear on how to get better at their job, it's not authentic. Because everybody else has gone to level 10.

And I would be keeping it at level 8. So everybody in there has to hold this standard where you have to play the game at that level now. And the expectation is that you're going to be honest and face your shit in front of everyone. And it's a very crazy transition from day one to day two, getting the whole group together. How it costs, I've heard multiple times, at least $4,000 to get everyone here. When you start to look at the financial burden of you have 1,200 people on a wait list, it's really heavy. Yeah, I never think about stuff like that i mean i i do think about about the the ones who are trying to go through um but it's never deterred me to think about uh to to think

will we be able to solve um for all the people that need it. I'm 1000% going to do that. And as the need grows, we will figure out how to grow the support to solve that. But, you know, the thing you hit on about entrepreneurs who, you know, leading from the front and it's just a grind and it's why military folks make such good entrepreneurs because they know how how to do that yeah um and you know but it is it is a lonely ride and you know i think mentorship you talked about it yesterday is so important and a lot of um especially if you've just gotten out of the service you have built-in mentorship in service. We'll call it mentorship. Maybe it's, you know, great, great leaders know how to mentor while they're leading.

And, you know, a lot of these men and women don't have that network because they spent 10 years with one built already for them. And then they get out and they don't have those people in their lives. They don't even have any idea where to start um and so you know you asked about curriculum and johnny martin's involvement and you know my my goal for our program as it evolves is you know and we do this now first table stakes if any one of our vets needs help at any time in any place we're there there's no no questions asked you have we have a big enough network now that you know we've had we've had vets who have graduated our program who fell down a hole again and ended up in a hotel with a gun in their mouth and we're thankful enough that they were able to reach out and um because we have a fast you know a quick

response and are able to get somebody to them um you know we've been able to to to stand off issues like that yeah um and to be able to help that's that's like the first piece of this so that they never feel alone no matter how bad it is you've got got us and we, we will be there. Um, and that, I think just having somebody like that in your life is, is important, um, for all of us. And so if they don't have that from family, um, we're their family and we'll be there. Um, second piece is I don't care who you are, how successful you are. We're all facing challenges. Um, you know, I get in, in here and everybody wants to ask me like, Oh my God, you built this a hundred plus million dollar business and you've got this cool foundation.

And like, how do you have so much success? And I'm not stupid enough that I don't recognize or appreciate the success I, I have, but like anybody else, I struggle, you know, we're all, we're all struggling in some way. And, and we, it might be relative, um, to, to you, but it's still the same level of struggle. And I have a support network and I'm able to reach to that network. And I, and I, you know, I often do, um, if they don't have that, we want to be that for them too, you know, mentorship and making sure that they have the um the resources to learn and grow and and and continue to develop so you know it's there's there's no shortage of people in this organization who are heartful and desire to help um and so you, the curriculum here is built to, you're built to become not just an amazing personal trainer, but a coach, someone who can help ask the hard questions as they're training you to get an answer or even to get you to understand one of the barriers you might be having mentally is preventing you from getting to where you want to go physically or vice versa.

Personal trainers are not taught that way today. They're taught to be, to train your body and the future of this industry. Um, and you know, we see it last night with this, we do these lifting parties, deadlift parties, and you ran the one time challenge. And, um, when you have energy around you, energy positive energy motivating energy you break barriers you break records and that same thing works in life and i want our trainers to go into these facilities and gyms and for the people that they interact with for them to be able to serve them the way they served in the military not not just to train them, their bodies, but to help them learn to evolve and grow as human beings in general.

And, you know, we all have our lane we have to be in. It's not like we're creating therapists. But if you have a trainer who cares more about cares more than just cares more about you than just the transaction of you paying them to train their body um wants to understand your life and talks to you about about you know i used to have this hair this this hairstylist dude that would cut my hair and it wasn't a haircut it was like a therapy session like we were we'd talk and you know i i looked forward to those to those he was an amazing i don't know his hairstylist he was an okay hairstylist but he was he was an amazing hairstylist because he he

invested in his clients and and added extra value and every one of these men and women who graduate this program understand how to do that to ask ask questions, to be open, to share. And we come from the world of personal trainers are largely, not all, of course, but there's a lot of ego, there's a lot of insecurity, there's a lot of bravado, there's a lot of I'm tougher than you, there's a lot of bullshit, which is part of why people don't want to walk into a gym because of all that stuff.

I want our trainers to cut through that and to change that. And three or four years, five years from now, the term CVFO, which stands for Certified Veteran Fitness Operative, And for all those things I just described as being open and empathetic and career-minded in building an arsenal of certifications and qualifications, not just in training, but in coaching, in nutrition, all those things wrapped up into one what I call human weapon in personal development. When you start to build a team around here how do we how are these people finding you or is this kind of one of those you're putting the bat signal up and use the right people are showing up because they're leading from the front there they care so much that they're here just in owning multiple businesses myself i know that building that team becomes the most instrument especially at the

beginning and making sure everyone's so bought in um how is how is that team building process i mean harrison's been phenomenal by the way don't tell him i said that we want to keep him down yeah yeah i mean he's he's been phenomenal such a well-spoken dude and has a great story. And you can tell he's very passionate about it. But where do some of the, I guess, the employees that you have, I don't even know if employees is the right word, but people that are building the team here with you. Yeah, I think it's interesting.

I didn't think about it until you asked the question just now. But building the people in this foundation has been easier than finding amazing people in my businesses um and i think part of that is the uh the transactional nature of you know entrepreneurial businesses where you're building and everyone believes they're super fun um running a more mature business um where you're hiring people to do jobs, if you lose that fire, it can be hard because businesses have to mature and org structures have to become more complicated and all of that stuff.

With something like this where people, Johnny Martin is a career educator and 20 years in his profession. He spends a day on camp and says, man, I want to be a part of this. He quits his job and here he is. He comes in here. Is he moving down here or working on it? He would say no. I would say yes. I don't know.

Getting people to leave Massachusetts that have been there for 40 years is really hard. Bentonville is a hotbed of physical activity, though. Yeah, you know, the saying really, I've been saying this recently, like, if you build it, they will come. You know, I have this massive vision for turning this into, you know, uh, I don't call it a university of sorts, but, but, you know, a health and wellness transition ranch camp. Um, but, you know, built around, um, education and, and, uh, change and it's new, it's not, it's not been done before. And I think, um, I think the right kind of people want to be a part of it i haven't attracted you know it's not like we're perfect at at you know any

organization goes through changes and um but if you're pure in your in your goals and your missions you know if your heart is pure and something like this it just seems that energy brings the right people to you um and the people that are around this organization, both the people that work here and the people in this town in Bentonville, and the vets that we find, they're ready for it. We didn't advertise it. We haven't done any real advertising. People just kind of find their way when they need to. And our job is to be ready to serve them.

And so, you know, I think it's. How many people on staff here were previous class members? You mean the squad leaders and coaches? Yeah, like they went through the course, and then now they've kind of graduated, and now they're squad leaders or they're just on staff in some way. All of them. Yeah. All of them.

You know, we take either a squad leader from the previous class and bring them back, or a persistent from the previous class and bring them back, or, you know, several classes back. Some of the squad leaders have been here multiple times, and, you know, when this scales into a full-time operation, right now we do three-week bursts. When it scales into a full-time operation, we'll have full-time squad leader staff,

and it'll all be incubated from the inside because we want the experience that they went through, which is authentic to the program. We want that same experience for every participant that comes through. And so they come back because their lives were so profoundly changed by this experience. And you said something earlier. We do these exit interviews, and every single vet that we interview on the way out, we ask them, you know, what are your dreams and aspirations and goals, and where are you know, we do these exit interviews and every single vet that we interview on the way out, we ask them, you know, what are your dreams and aspirations and goals and where are you going?

And what are you going to do with your, your certifications? And, um, and, you know, almost, I would say a hundred, almost a hundred percent of the time, the first thing they say, I want to help other vets. I want to use what you guys taught me to go help other vets do the same thing. And so, um, you know, we've got some pretty big goals about taking, you know, reinventing, um, the VFWs in the local markets and trying to, to merge concepts into, into, um, you know, taking community and fitness and pulling them together and, um, you know,

whether or not we're able to do that on the localized level, um, partnering with CrossFit gyms perhaps might be a way we can do that. We need to solve veteran suicide, and the only way we're going to solve it is getting into these communities. And not every one of the vets who are struggling want to be a personal trainer um but there's enough vets who want to be personal trainers who who can then go back to their communities and create their own blast radius of impact yeah for those that get out and they and they they don't know what to do they're like i don't know how to fucking fix cars or write code or whatever it is like they don't have a technical skill yeah but they do have years of leadership experience. Like should, in your mind, they be really, when they're selling themselves to the world,

they're selling their leadership skills. Like they should kind of skip the low level technical employee level and just like jump right up to leadership and management. Yeah. And that point you just, that 100% is that should be the conversation. Getting them to be confident enough to say that is part of the challenge. You know, that's why this camp exists, because it's not like they're unemployable. It's they don't have the, they know they don't have the experience.

They're 30 years old instead of 20 and you know they also might have some i don't call baggage but they have some some stuff lingering and and that that knowing you have that creates confidence issues and and when you show up for an interview the person on the other side of the desk may be heartful to help a veteran but if they don't understand why you have those challenges, they're going to see you as a weak candidate and pass on you. And, you know, that, that sort of thing turns into, man, I can't get a job because I have, you know, I know I didn't, I don't interview well because I have this, you know, I don't feel like I'm, I don't have the confidence to interview.

And, you know, we have them for three weeks and we i can i can tell you and i think you guys should come back at the end of camp and see the graduation and see that they're different people yeah it's like it's like a new a renewed life where they're like i i have the ability to do this and part of that is the emotional work they did. Part of it was getting physically fit again and getting back into really good shape. And part of it is unloading their backpack. And all of that adds up to, I'm a worthy person

and I have all these skills and skills that other people don't have. The leadership that I learned for years in the military and the discipline. And now I have those things, plus I have all these things. that makes me the best candidate. And I think that's the change we're looking for. Yeah.

I think it's also very interesting that if you walk into a room and everyone says I'm disabled and you look around and there's no wheelchairs, nobody's missing a limb. Yeah. And to all tbis um does the invisible wounds seem to be not that people that are missing limbs or dealing with spinal cord injuries stuff like that aren't traumatic but it seems to be that voice in your head when you're very idle is the thing that really starts to lead to suicidal thoughts yeah um and it's a much deeper problem on your side,

on the healing side and curriculum side to help people break through that. Yeah, I think a lot of people have a hard time understanding the word mental health because they think of their brain and they think of mental is how you think. And it's actually, you know, mental is how you think. It's actually, in my opinion, mental health is full body cellular health.

And the trauma you store in your body is not stored in your brain. It's stored in your cells. And, you know, an analogy I can give for your listeners to understand, when you're a little kid and you grab a hot pan for the first time out of the oven, um, accidentally grab a hot pan, you're, you burn your hand, you hold it too long. Um, and the next time you grab a hot pan, you touch it and you pull your hand away really fast and you don't burn yourself. Or if you do way less than you did the first time, the cellular response in your, in your body reacted to that. What a vet experiences, especially with combat trauma,

you see flinching because of loud sounds, and whether they were in direct conflict or just deployed and had nine months of the pressure of being in a combat zone and the fear that a bomb's going to drop on the base. I think, I think there's several different types of PTSD. Um, there's, you know, brain injury, um, from a explosion, which a lot of these guys have, there's the pressure of being in country and having, worrying about getting, um, uh, hurt and that's all compartmentalized trauma. You don't even realize it's there i've talked to tons of like national guard guys who were deployed but not in direct conflict

meaning they they weren't in action and many of them came home and had ptsd just from being deployed even if they weren't in a direct conflict situation. And so I think helping them to understand how to, at a cellular level, let go of those traumas so that they can move forward, so that those things aren't debilitating, is part of the work. And it's a really complex thing, because mental health, you think about like

psychology and having a therapist and and there's a there's the combination of conscious and subconscious and the alignment of those two things are where you feel where you feel um no conflict yeah and all of us have some misalignments of their subconscious and conscious war vets um and or trauma victims have trauma in their cells that they don't understand and when when something triggers that trauma and it comes out sometimes they hurt other people sometimes they hurt themselves um and it's in those moments that that um where it's open where you can actually see it where you could understand it and start to deal with it that's that's what we're trying to get to um and again three weeks we can't solve all those issues it's why it's important to

partner partner with other foundations who deal with you know mental health like headstrong or um there's a bunch of them out there, but I think headstrong is probably the most well-known, uh, to make sure that they have that, um, they can continue to unpack as they leave, but we want to start them on their journey. We want to be there for them, um, while they're on it. And, um, you know, we do that through, through physical fitness, of course, but, um, and, uh, and it's i think all aspects have to be addressed yeah make it work i feel like you're you're walking into or your 10 classes deep into what should be hundreds thousands um should be backed backed and commissioned by the military

the dvd or something yeah um and and the problem you're tackling is not a small one which is very cool and being a a foundation is this the first like non-profit you've ever run yeah uh what are some of the challenges that go along with that you're just kind of learning along the way you've you've owned multiple businesses you've been very successful in the and you know entrepreneurship but being your first foundation your first non-profit where where do you see a lot of the roadblocks where you just were like oh if we could just get past this thing or if we why doesn't everybody understand yeah doing so much good i think that what you just said happens in profit in building businesses for profit and nonprofits, same, same.

Like I, if you believe in something in your heart and, and you, you put all you have into it and other people can't see it. It's part of what is why grit so important that you, you know, you don't quit and you don't give up and you don't let anybody tell you your idea is not good. And you know,

somebody doesn't like your idea, fuck them, go find somebody that does. Yeah. I've just, I don't know where it's, where it came from in me. I've just never find somebody that does. And I've just, I don't know where it's, where it came from in me. I've just never, ever quit ever. And I just, um, do I go through, you know, doubt and shit like that? Everybody does. But, but if somebody tells me no,

I'm like, all right, cool. And I go find somebody, I'll, I'll keep working until I figure out. And, you know, I think you're, you set an intention an intention um and you put energy out and eventually other people find that and just like putting good energy out good things find you putting bad energy out bad things find you like it's mindset um so yeah it's been incredibly hard and i'll meet somebody and tell them about the foundation like oh my god it's amazing and i'm like yeah yeah, I'm going to send you a link and you can donate. And as you go to those people and say, hey man, are you ready to donate? They're like, yeah, yeah, I'll get back to you. And I'll flip them the FitOps video

because if anybody listening wants to understand FitOps, go to the website, watch the video. What is that website? FitOps.org. If you watch the video um what is that website uh fitops.org um uh if you watch that video and you don't want to leave a buck after watching it you need to go like get some therapy because that that shit will fucking jerk tears out of you and um and it's not meant to do that it's just the story of what we do here and it's it's so incredibly impacting i mean you guys have been here for a couple days and done you know hundreds of podcasts and and the stories here are touching because they're meaningful and they're important and people if

we could just get people to to um to stop for a minute and put a plan in place to help yeah it would change everything. We've put millions of dollars to get this to the place that it is now. John Cena spent a day on camp. We could probably have some tears about how good a dude that guy is. Comes here, sleeps on Camp of the Vets, does some mentoring, leaves the next day, calls me and says, Hey, man, I'm going to give you a million bucks.

We got to fix this so you know i get emotional talking about that because it matches my like he matches my desire to to do good in the world and yeah um and you know steps up in a place where you ask the question is it hard it's really hard until you meet a guy like john cena who's like fuck that i got some extra cash i'll help yeah and it takes those types of people um that's how i felt about my relationship with him the whole time yeah he has that i it's an unexplainable yeah um phenomenon that he is um and you know those who don't know him that way, because he's also very private about it, he's just an incredible person.

And he didn't come here and say, yeah, I want to be involved in this because it's going to make my reputation better. He did it quietly. Nobody even knew that he did the first 400 Make-A-Wish foundations. It wasn't until 500 when people were like oh wow and his gift his gift to the foundation uh was massive like it it it's not just the gift of money probably the money was the least important thing it was someone who has built his whole life around respect and trust and hustle and never giving up and is, from a reputation perspective, one of the cleanest reputations of any celebrity. It's a hard thing for celebrities to keep their stuff private. But John, it's not hard for him because he lives the life of a saint.

He's just that good of a guy. And when he made the announcement and shared it, and I asked him also to do that. I wanted to get the message out. Like, your donation's amazing. Let's use it. Let's use it to inspire other people to give as

well. And, you know, he went on Ellen and talked about, um, getting involved in the foundation and, and, you know, that was him putting the stake in the ground and saying, yep, experienced it. Amazing. We need to do it. We need to help. And, you know, and since then, um, a lot of people have, have wanted to get involved in a lot of donations. His fan base, within a few days, had donated $100,000 as well. You know, I don't stop and smell the roses very often. What happens when I come to FedOps camp is it's forcing me to stop and smell the roses. And I'm like an emotional mess the whole time I'm here.

Me too. I'm just on camp one. You'll be back. Trust me. I'm getting kicked out of here because I've got to go to the airport. Thank you so much. Where can people donate, find you, find wherever you want to point them to? FitOps.org is where you can donate. Watch the video.

If you're a CrossFit gym out there listening to this or a coach, reach out to us. Ask us. Tell us where you can watch the video yeah i mean that hi if you're if you're a crossfit gym out there listening to this or a or a coach um you know reach out to us ask us tell us where you're at tell us if you need coaches um we're producing some of the best weapons in the business and um we'd love to we'd love to network with you and send some coaches your way doug larson you bet yo thank you for having us out here i didn't know anything about fed ops before i showed up other than the elevator pitch that Anders gave me and I just trusted him and knew that Cena was behind it and it's got to be a cool thing to do

all of our friends this weekend are at Wadapalooza on Miami Beach fucking having a great time he sent me a text I landed in the airport he was a couple hours late and he sent me a text he's like dude everyone's in Miami I really hope this is going to be cool because everyone's in miami i really hope this is gonna be cool because everyone's in miami right now just getting smashed on instagram with all the fun that said this was fucking way cooler than going to that same competition we've gone to

a thousand times um i feel very accepted here i didn't know anyone was gonna who we were i didn't know if they were gonna accept me specifically i was not in military. I didn't know if they'd be like, oh, you don't fucking understand my struggle, and kind of just shun me away. I had no idea what to expect. But I had a phenomenal time here. I'm stoked to be a part of it and watch it grow. And I think you're doing some really good things in the world.

Amazing, man. Thank you, and thank you guys for being here and opening up to the vets the way that you did. I think the reason that they accept you in here is because you showed up authentically and just were yourself. And by the way, everyone fucking knows you here. I learned that. I was like, oh, okay.

They've all been sitting in a box in the desert for a long time. They're like, I'm going to listen to that show. That Doug guy's cool. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. Make sure you get over to fitops.org. Donate. I can't wait to be a part of this and the growth and getting the message of all these guys out. Thanks, Paul. Thank you for having

us. We'll see you guys next week. That's a wrap, friends. Thank you, Matt Hesse. Thank you, FitOps Foundation. What a phenomenal weekend. Learned so much. Met so many cool people. Gym owners, make sure you send me an email. Anders at barbell shrug.com to learn how you can support the fit ops foundation and how you can host the one ton challenge at your gym.

Send me an email. Anders at barbell shrug.com. Thanking our sponsors. Live momentous.com forward slash shrugged use the coupon code shrug 20 to save 20 on your first purchase of 50 or more and organifi.com forward slash shrugged you are gonna save 20 on the green the red and gold friends we'll see you on monday