Barbell Shrugged - How to Build a Strength Seminar w/ Zach Even-Esh, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Mash Barbell Shrugged #619

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

Founder of The Underground Strength Gym (Manasquan, NJ) which started in 2002 out of my parents garage & backyard. Became one of the earliest pioneers in the warehouse gym business for strength & conditioning.    - Creator of The Underground Strength Coach Certification. Over 1,000 Certified Coaches around the world.   - Creator of The SSPC Certification (Strength & Sports Performance Coach).    - Consulting & training of athletes / coaches since 2002 on full time basis.   - Consulting for D1 Athletes, D1 Coaches, Tier 1 Military & Organizations Focused on Optimizing Human Performance on All Fronts (Mind, Body, Life, Business).   - Best Selling Author, The Encyclopedia of Underground Strength & Conditioning   - Daily Consulting / Coaching: I consult with athletes & coaches from around the world, sharing my knowledge in training as well as business building for strength & conditioning coaches / performance coaches.    Here are just some of the companies / teams / organizations I have consulted for:    Spartan, CrossFit, U of Texas Strength & Conditioning, Sorinex, Hammer Strength, Naval Special Warfare, U of Tennessee Football Strength & Conditioning, Lehigh University Wrestling, Rutgers University Wrestling, Blair Academy Wrestling, Men's Health Magazine, Men's Fitness Magazine, Muscle & Fitness Magazine, NHSSCA (National High School Strength Coaches Association), NSCA (National Strength & Conditioning Association) & More......     In this Episode of Barbell Shrugged:   Finding a niche in the market  Focusing on exactly what coaches and athletes you serve Being skilled in working hard to serve those people Finding holes in the market because you have time and experience on your side How to deliver a world class seminar   Connect with our guests:   Follow Zach on Instagram   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   Coach Travis Mash on Instagram   ————————————————   Diesel Dad Mentorship Application: https://bit.ly/DDMentorshipApp   Diesel Dad Training Programs: http://barbellshrugged.com/dieseldad   Training Programs to Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/34zcGVw   Nutrition Programs to Lose Fat and Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/3eiW8FF   Nutrition and Training Bundles to Save 67%: https://bit.ly/2yaxQxa   Please Support Our Sponsors   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   BiOptimizers Probitotics - Save 10% at bioptimizers.com/shrugged   Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://prxperformance.com/discount/BBS5OFF Save 5% using the coupon code “BBS5OFF”

Shrugged family, this week on Barbell Shrugged, we're hanging out with our good friend Zach Evanesh. I want to say Zach has been on Barbell Shrugged maybe more than anybody over the last decade. He used to hang out all the time. Now we got to travel a little bit more to see each other and it's a little bit trickier because we all have kids and we're all busy as hell, but we got to go down to Soren X and take his seminar certification down there. It was fantastic. We hadn't been to a seminar

certification in so long due to the world being shut down and large groups not getting together and all that crazy, scary pandemic stuff. But guess what? We're back, baby. And it was super fun because when we're on the road so many times, it's like such a hustle to find places to record and find the right time because everyone's so busy bouncing around doing seminars coaching uh we had like panels where people were asking us questions and all this stuff we actually posted up in the middle of a hotel lobby where the front desk people were staring at us like we were totally nuts recording this show and immediately after we all hopped in the car and drove to

Bert Soren's house and had a big night out on the boat grilling sausages and maybe having two adult beverages a piece because we have a limit and it was a phenomenal night this is just a really cool way to kick it off but if you're wondering what goes on when we're on the road, it's like, it's like a nine hour day in the gym, then two hours of recording, then traveling. And then we end up on a boat and then all of a sudden it's like 1am. And then the next day we wake up and do it all again. Um, that's why we miss being on the road, meeting all the people. Um, which we will be back to doing a lot more of come 2022. Now that the world seems to be a little bit more open and people are getting together again. But Zach Evanesh, How to Build a Strength Seminar. Before we get into the show, I want to thank our sponsors.

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Thanks for having us down. One. I'm so pumped. We're back in person. Life feels normal. Lots of people smiling, lifting weights on the same rack and everything. I know. I love it. This.

Even better to be able to meet up with soreness. Dude, how did, yeah, hold on. How did you, obviously you and Bert have been friends, but this is your first one, right? So this is my sec. So, you know, for, to give kind of like the explanation of this, my first certification was called the Underground Strength Coach Certification. I had the underground. Yeah.

Have the underground strength gym. And I just felt. You can the Underground Strength. Yeah, have the Underground Strength Gym. You can still buy that product, right? You can. The squat dead and bench. Oh, that was, yeah. Underground Strength Evolution is still available that we did together. And that's part of my certification. It's all based on the progressions and regressions.

You have to buy the vault to get that. If you want in, you've got to be all in. You've got to buy them all. You've got to buy them all baby if you want in you got to be all in gotta buy them all don't be half dedicated so i changed the name of the cert because you know as we we did a q a at the end of this cert and bert and you guys and joe rigio were saying you have to listen to people and you also have to have i don't know if it was said said exactly like have your nose to the wind what are people doing and so i started saying like looking at i had a lot of people go through my certification the underground strength coach cert but i felt like the wording was off in this day and age meaning if you were to stand in front of a large group

of people corporate people adults athletes and you, I'm a certified underground strength coach, what does that mean? We don't even know. It's not so underground anymore. Correct. It's pretty mainstream these days. Exactly. Because you were like the OG. You were one of the first, like, swing a sledgehammer into a tire, sandbags.

There were certainly many people doing it before me. Like, the garage gym setup. Like, all that stuff was, like, there were a few other people around. But, like, you can count them on, like, one hand. Like, the people that were, like, known back then. You were one of the real OGs. How old are you? 45.

Yeah, so you, I found you, what, 12 years ago. So that's, what, 33? For him, yeah. Yeah, 30s. Yeah. So I just. But, like, you're fire for, like, I wasn't joking around. I literally was talking to you when we were doing that QA.

The first video I saw of you was, like, you walking around your parents' house and, like, picking shit up. You're like, yeah, we can do, like. Was it the CrossFit video? Yeah. When they did the, they sent the CrossFit journal. They You're like, yeah, we can do like. Was it the CrossFit video? When they did the, they sent the CrossFit journal. They did like three videos on you. Yeah. That was after CrossFit affiliate gathering in Miami.

I gave a very unique presentation on like how opportunities everywhere, but I related it to like girls that I wanted to date and I should have approached them and then I didn't. And then a guy was like, dude. You were right in Glassman's wheelhouse, dude. You nailed it. He was like, I like this guy. Let's get a camera crew to his parents' house. Yeah, he loved that kind of early days, small, grassroots stuff.

My favorite thing that he said then and ever was about if you go into somebody's gym and the bathroom is dirty, then that means you don't give a fuck. And he said, that's fatal. I can't. If you don't care, we can't really help you. And to me, I believe that's true. Like if you want to leave stuff dirty, you walk into the bathroom and it looks like a garage off of a bad highway. We don't want that. But going back to the CERT, I was just like, I always, when I would write articles, even in the early 2000s, it would say Zach Evnish is a strength and performance coach.

Because I felt like I was doing more than just getting people strong. And I really had to look at this also from a business perspective is there was a lot of coaches, hundreds upon hundreds, maybe 1,000-plus that went through the cert, but I felt like they wouldn't fly the flag, but they would use everything they learned. You need an acronym. I don't know if that's how I looked at it. That sounds good. Well, I had a conversation with our good friend um aj roberts yeah it'll i feel like underground strength doesn't allow you

to go get a better like high school or college job but ironically i got hired at two big division one universities that i didn't even apply for they called me but they had seen strength and sports coach though sounds like i'm to make your athletes way better. Strength and sport performance coach. So I had this conversation quite often with A.J. Roberts. We go through these spurts where we send each other audio text messages. And so he's like, you just got to break down what you do. I was like, dude, I get it.

Athlete's strong, but I'm building athleticism. It's sports performance. He goes, there you are, man. Certified strength and sport performance coach. And so, you know, certified SSP coach or SSPC. But I wanted people to also take pride in flying the flag. So I also had to look at this from a business perspective. And let me tell you, there's a lot of certifications out now and the thing i kick things off with is this is one piece of the

puzzle yeah you got the wrong guy if you think i'm gonna tell you learn from me yeah you know i'm god don't go to anybody else that's a bunch of bullcrap to me even you know, I invited you guys to come and help coach, whether it was on the floor or during the Q and a Bert got in and started coaching. He's like, is this okay? I'm like, dude, let it rip. Let's go. I want to bring people together because I was in a business where somebody felt like we're going to dominate. We're going to gonna take over I don't want to take anything over I want to T I want to do things and do it together yeah we were talking about this at the end with the QA is like bring more value bring more people together doing stuff alone is I don't want to say zero fun but this is fun right here like when we're done we're gonna go uh meet up with burt joe's gonna

come and hang out another friend um that i've i knew from burt from early 2000s gonna come i want to start saying yes to more stuff like this yeah yeah now the covid's over like we're getting back out in the world to do stuff like this i'm so happy like doing zoom interviews is just not the same as sitting down at the table training together like going out on a boat and having dinner like we're gonna do here in an hour or two like it's powerful so so much cooler i'm to be back out in the world i don't want to say i'm zoomed out but the human interaction heightens and enhances the experience tenfold yeah and uh look part of this cert, we recorded it, not this one, the first one.

Then we did more add-on recordings. That's probably going to be an aspect of the cert because, realistically speaking, lots of people, A, maybe don't want to travel. B, us three are dads. It's not easy to just get up and go. And so what I explain to coaches is not just this, but there's other investments that you could make that will pay you back for a lifetime that will. So like I was in a coaching group, strategic coach, I've used that information, but I was in that group 10 years ago. Or my initial business mentor, Ryan Lee.

I'm still using his information from the first business product I bought from him. Oh, yeah. I remember seeing you on one of his products that I bought like 15 years ago before I met you. And so whatever it is you want to get better at, you've got to find something and understand, if I invest in this, now I've got skin in the game. Now I want to take action with these things. It's very much like I'm still running my gym. You guys had gyms.

When people sign up, they pay. They've got skin in the game. They've got a coach. So there's these, you know, you just are more fired up to do it. And I think we got to a place, not we, but, you know, the people of the earth where they're just learning off Instagram and YouTube. And it's like, dude, you can't stop there. You're hitting a wall. You need to expose yourself and get uncomfortable. Doug knows I don't like flying. And that's why I said, I got to do a cert and fly.

I got to get somewhere and fly. And I want to, you know, I'm reiterating, I want to say yes to more things. Learning about it on YouTube, I actually watched a YouTube video and someone was talking about like, you could spend $100,000 on a coaching cert or a copywriting certification or take some sort of online class. And then your, your business doesn't like 10 X the next day. And you're like, that class sucked.

It's like, no, you took a copywriting class, but if you don't understand the financials, you don't have a business. You can take the financial class, but if you don't understand copywriting, you don't do class but if you don't understand copywriting you don't do marketing if you don't understand social media like there's so many things that go into being a real coach pieces of the puzzle you have to go learn from everyone and try and be out there like that's literally the greatest part of this job i learned today you know bert teaching that way to, like, really get your – I've seen people do the mobility where the bar's in the rack, but he did it in a different way, like driving into the rack. And then Andrew, who's a coach at one of the big high schools in South Carolina,

I think it's on the border of North Carolina, Spartanburg. Yeah. That's kind of – is that near you? I don't know where it is in relation to – It's the border, I think. That's a big sports school. It's growing fast as you can get to. He gave two cues on the clean.

And so I don't know if you could, when you're learning from the computer, see free information, you don't have to fight for it. And so you don't value it. Not because you don't want to value it. You just didn't have to fight for anything and uh you know coaching athletes that's sometimes what i tell them is i go guys you're training right now for your sport baseball basketball hockey wrestling whatever it is you know if you grew up in the 80s your training was kind of twofold number one you're

like if i get more muscles, maybe these girls are going to like me. But the main thing was... Most important. Yeah. I really think that for me, I was afraid of a lot of people I might run into. Like, all right, we're going to be out riding our bikes in this area.

Well, dude, somebody would want to steal your bike or they would want to beat you up. So you knew that if you could add muscle and you looked bigger, nobody was going to mess with you. I remember John Welborn saying, he's like, you know, there's all this anti-bullying stuff. If you want to stop a kid from getting bullied, put 30 pounds of muscle on them. That'll change everything. And so when I started training, the bully in the neighborhood stopped messing with me because my body started growing.

People had a different respect towards me. And then same thing, when I got into wrestling, there was that fear. It was like, all right, the wrestling season is over. Is Doug going 152 like I'm going 152? I got to train now. So I had this like, you know, you have somebody, like, on your back, so to speak. You have this fear that inspires you to do work. And I think that's what pushes you for greatness in many things.

Now that you guys are experienced dads, that even changes how serious you are about business. Oh, yeah. Because now. experienced dads that even changes how serious you are about business oh yeah because now i got 12 hours to 12 hours of work and seven hours to do it you gotta figure it out i got it's like i've got i need a certain amount of money with kids for food for this for that but when it's yourself you're like you know what i'll sleep in my car i don't give a crap you don't care i slept in my gym for 18 months yes yeah we can't do that now that's right my wife wouldn't be cool with that yeah those are the best days of my life those are the greatest days i definitely look back on those and go oh those are good old days for sure they are i think they're also important days yeah

because they taught you how to get a lot done with imperfection, with not a lot of stuff. It was interesting that the first question today was what would be the top 10 pieces of equipment, and Anders said, fuck that shit. Build the culture. Yes, build the culture. And if it's too perfect, it's too nice, sometimes that's my concern with the colleges. This episode of Barbell Shrug is brought to you

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the 21 Day Challenge, the Proteach Challenge. That's right. Lose nine pounds in 21 days, written by your boy. So get over to Proteach Challenge. Get to Walmart right now. I feel like at the beginning, and look, I've never owned, we talk about this all the time. I've never, I've never like started a business where I was like, I need to go find a couple million dollars of investment money. Correct. I'm always like, uh, let's, let's try this thing out. I think we're onto something here.

And then you go and then you try and grow it and make it cool, make it better. And then serve people better you start grass like the gym was like four barbells and as many plates as we could buy within our budget because we only had three three or four months of rent before we had to go back to our regular jobs which we hadn't even quit yet because we didn't trust ourselves and it's like you don't what you need to do is like every member that walks in needs to know that like you desperately need to put a great product together. And you are willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Step one is be great. Not so much great equipment.

And Bert is even saying that as somebody who sells equipment. Yeah. equipment and Burt is even saying that as somebody who sells equipment yeah because he knows that if somebody's not great at their craft and they buy all this equipment that equipment somebody that place is going to go out of business and so it's that fight to be you don't know what you're good at if you spend all that money on equipment you're like what are you good at nice equipment people are no one cares there's people oh. There's people opening up places with, they're opening up with Sorenix equipment, the amount of it that would go into a college.

And so what I think, and I've heard Gary Vee say this a while ago, is that people start their businesses with investors and a million partners. So now you've got many hands in the business and you're starting you're actually beginning at a negative because uh you took out a loan to buy all this equipment that it's it's crazy i like starting my um philosophy is uh low hassle high profit yeah which i learned r Ryan Lee had a business partner back then and they would do a lot of business seminars

and that guy didn't want headaches. So he said low hassle, high profit. And that's been how I feel good. Some people, their unique ability is managing large teams. If that's you, then you can have a big gym and a lot of employees and all that stuff stuff i don't like

that that makes me nuts yeah yeah yeah i've managed larger teams than i have currently and you definitely get more headaches yeah i mean or just having members of the gym like that 200 members of my gym and you just you have you have mostly happy people but then you have a few people that just aren't always happy it's like a pain in the ass that i just don't want anymore that's right and that stuff breaks your heart and then it's on your mind a lot at night and so in you know it's crazy how fast time goes because we met uh it's so it's 20 about 10 years ago dude in 10 years i'm 55 that means I'm getting senior citizen discounts. That shit is crazy. That's a RP. It's wild for sure. It's crazy.

So time goes so fast. Like, I fucking deadlift 405. Get out of here. Get away from me. You think you're taking your senior citizen discounts? I don't need that senior citizen. Okay, I will. Hook it up.

Hook it up. Wait, I'm going to get two more pancakes at IHOP? Okay, load them up. By the way, the first thing I ate when I came here was a Waffle House. I love Waffle House. We stopped to get gas this morning. It was like a Huddle House.

It was like the same thing. The cook still smokes. We went to Cracker Barrel. There's like nothing on the way here. It's fast food and Cracker Barrel. Huddle House and Waffle House are basically the same. It's like nothing on the way here. No, it's fast food and Cracker Barrel. But Huddle House and Waffle House are basically the same. It's like the cook is ashing their cigarettes into your hash browns. Dude, Waffle House ain't going out of business.

It's so great. But I was – I sat at the counter and I looked and I was like, damn, that floor is dirty. Have they mopped that shit this year? But it was great. I think my bill came out to like $11. Basically free. So I leave a $20 bill. I don't want to change it. You come back, baby.

They are so nice here. I love it. Compared to New Jersey? I could tell you some stories of places we've been there. People aren't polite on the Jersey Shore. I have gone on a rant of, like, just do your job. And so I'm shocked at, like, you could order food,

you could ask to get something done, pay to get something done, and people are not getting it done. Yeah. It's blowing my mind. Dude, I want to talk about coaching your uh you aim this cert at middle school and high school coaches people that are trying to build athletes sport performance but um you know we have a couple that's here a husband and wife that's going to go kind of like um uh niche and more adults they're doing They've done body transformation

themselves, but you never know what door might open up for you. Yes, this is about building athletes, sport performance, and then I also interject with, if you're training adults, here's the things that you want

to tweak. Here's what you don't do. Here's what you, yes, would do. The reason I'm bringing it up is I feel feel like and i don't know if it's just because we're we're dads now and we're it's it's facing us that we want our kids to be lifting weights at an early-ish age and being active and learning mechanics and body awareness and all that um but we've also had multiple high school coaches on like strength conditioning has moved itself down into the high school level where it's becoming very important i mean uh down here it's morgan king's uh weightlifting coach he runs put me on the spot here uh because

it's spencer arnold He runs a high school program, and he had, like, two Olympians, three Olympians. Yeah. That's insanity. Where is he located? Okay. I'm not sure.

South Carolina, Georgia. Georgia. Dude, all right. Georgia. So this area here. That's insanity, though. Like, literally two or three athletes in this year's Olympics,

and he had Morgan King in the last one, so he's had at least three Olympians in the last four or five years, whatever you want to – last two quads. And he's at a private school. He's at a private high school. Imagine if your high school coach was like the Olympians coach. That's insane. The private high schools in the carolinas and georgia if you look on sorenix's

website for uh like the schools that they've outfitted just click on high school you're like that's a high school dude they'll be you know uh three rows of 10 double-sided x racks. And so my high school is not like that. My high school was a dump. And my first two weeks, I was so flustered by it all, by the kids not wanting me to coach them, by the lack of organization, by the mess that it was in, until I came across a podcast by Ron McKeifrey. He has a podcast called Iron Game Chalk Talk. He interviewed a guy and the guy said, make the big time where you're at. And during my

first two weeks there, I was like looking every day. I was like, I can't be working with these kids. I got to get back to the division one level, or I got to be working with Special Forces Military. I need to be around elite. Then when I listen to that podcast, and by the way, I mentioned how people don't value free. What I try to do is if I'm going to take time to listen, invest time, not just money, I have to do one action. So I was like, all right, make the big time where you're at. I'm like, I am no longer going to conform to the energy level of the people at the school who don't want me to do these things. This place was set up for, like, chest and biceps.

So it had six incline benches, six flat benches. The plates were all over the place. You know, seven two-and-a-half-pound plates on this side of the rack. One five-pound there, 345. People weren't putting their shit away. I was like, like f this i'm trying not to curse too much i was like f this i had a group come in i needed room to teach people how to do bodyweight squats i had no movement no place to do movement i got three kids on each incline bench i said take them put them all the way on the other side

where they got like the big closets for all the equipment storage. I got rid of all the incline benches. Then they had stacks of old York plates and Ivancos. I spray painted them blue, and then the 10s and the 5s. So the 45s were blue, and then quarters, 10s, 5s were silver, which is our school colors. I organized it big time anything that was like excess i got rid of so every bench and squat rack had the same amount

of 45s quarters tens and fives so it was looking like a college weight room anything that was extra i put in a milk crate and peace out and then I kept saying to myself, make the big time where you're at. I'm not going to let this shit defeat me. And so you talked about building culture. I had to change the culture and I had to, you know, working at a high school is effing hard compared to working at a college. Cause when I work at a college, Hey, I need 30 kettlebells. Okay, have it for you next week. These squat racks, can we get something else? Absolutely, we'll get these out. There's endless funding.

All right, guys, here's what we're doing today. I'm going to show you how to do a clean. Boom, you guys do it. Bang, they do it. All right, three cleans, three box jumps, and then do three heavy med ball, blah, blah, blah. Like turning on the lights is the hardest thing for those guys. You're dealing with elite.

They not get to the high school, and you got, you know, kids that are sometimes in, sometimes not. Kids that train on their own, quote, unquote, air quotes for our friends listening. I squat 500. When, bro? Show me. You know, you can't squat 225 all the way down. 225 first. Right.

And so you're wrestling with a lot more different mindsets. When you go to Division I, you have 95%, 93% of them are on that level of just excellence. They're genetically on another level. Getting to the high school requires heavy-duty coaching. I've never been anywhere where someone didn't specifically hire me to coach them. I've never done a high school where I just show up and I'm like, I'm your coach, now you have to lift weights. And they're like, I don't fucking like lifting weights.

I'm like, well, sorry, today we're lifting weights. Yeah, and that's the thing. The other thing I wrestle with is does your head coach make this very important? Because if they don't make it very important, then you don't think it's important. Sure. And, you know, people always ask me, oh, man, they must love having you there.

They don't know who I am or what I do. They still go to private coaches. And then they come and can't do a good dumbbell bench, and I go, fire your coach. Fire your trainer. I don't know how you can't do a good dumbbell bench. And I go, fire your coach. Fire your trainer. I don't know how you can't do good dumbbell benching. So the high school sector is growing. And it's also, speaking of being dads, it's healthier.

You're not working these crazy-ass hours. You get paid more. You have more time off. You don't have pressure from administrators who actually don't know what needs to be done. And so I think it's better. Does that mean I'll never go back to the college sector? You know, never say never, right? Things can evolve and change if there's a great opportunity.

My decision now, did you ever read that book by Derek Siver? It's called Hell Yeah or No. I haven't read that book. My brother used to work for him about that guy, by the way. Really? Yeah, but I haven't read that book though, but I've listened to a lot of his talks and stuff on YouTube. You don't even need to read the book. That's all you need to know. Is it a hell yeah? If it's not a hell yes, then the answer is no.

Yeah, we always said hell yeah or hell no. Hell yeah or hell no. He was was interviewed initially i came across his work from timmy ferris but to me that's how now i'm gonna make decisions about anything i do does this benefit my family you know is it a good move is it a hell yes or if it's not it's a no so last summer and right after covid the same position was offered to me at a military position. It had like, I want to say seven years or five years left on the contract. Awesome, like government contract, great location, great everything, da da da. But my son was like, oh, leaving our friends. My daughter's going to high school. I told my wife, if the whole family is not a hell yes,

then the answer is no. And that's now how I make decisions. Not paying me enough, then it ain't a hell yes. Peace out. Yeah. As I emphasize, time goes too fast. You learn that most as a dad because you're like, oh, my God, when you were around my kid you know he may

have been five or six you know now he's 13 now he's a teenager like you start um kind of measuring time by how quickly your kids grow up and you realize whoa time waits for no man and so i'm i'm more cognizant of time and you know time with them and lifetime you were talking about earlier like kids and bullying and things like that have you read or have you have you bought rather for your kids jocos warrior kids books all of them yeah okay cool me too yeah dude they're great they're great and kids need to read that because I'm not sure what they read in school, to be honest with you. And it teaches them that being strong is normal. Yeah. And eating right.

Jocko's teaching that that stuff is cool. That stuff is normal. And to me, that's where i want my kids to think i don't want them to think it's normal to sit on a computer all day it's normal to make excuses it's you know discipline and my daughter's getting into this very competitive place with tennis and i tell her um you know it's you're gonna have to be home at a certain time at night when your other friends may not want to come home. But you're competing in tennis.

If you don't want to do this, then we don't do it. That's going to be an interesting one because I feel like there is a time where you have to look at your kids and go, hey, would you like to be good at this? Have you had that? That's the age we're at now. That's where we are now because – You go, hey, all that stuff that's fun and easy that they're doing, you no longer do. I'm sorry.

You want to know what the most heartbreaking thing that I've had to teach my kids is that sometimes you're going to be on a sport team that, you know, I don't coach. I didn't play baseball, tennis. And it's going to be a dad whose son, or maybe it's an all-star thing, and you may not get chosen. You might learn about politics.

I'm teaching him about politics. How heartbreaking is that? I actually approached a guy who's in charge of our town, and I had to say, I got a real problem when adults hurt kids i go like that's when you're on my shit list now dude yeah when you're fucking with kids that so to me that's a problem and uh i've had these conversations with other dads and so that's why you got to emphasize to your kids listen there's actually more pressure on you because i'm not the coach yeah so you have to get so if you struggle doing, I'm leaving it up to you to go out and hit the ball off

the tee or go do X, Y, Z with tennis. This is where it falls on your own desire to do that. And it's an unfortunate lesson that I had to teach them that other dads are going to sit you out, even though you're hitting the ball and making plays and somebody else isn't. And I tell them, that's why you have to be awesome. You have to stand out because that's going to help them in life. Yeah. In the cert today, during one of the Q&'s you were asking uh kind of the panel of like what

what separates the people that have been in this game for 20 25 years yeah kept them going um your network and like the name that you built for yourself over the last 10 12 years of just being you like everybody knows zach ev Evan Ash um coming down like just hanging out with Bert being at Sorenix knowing Pops like um how do you like answer that question yourself of like what actually keeps you going and I think we talked before this cert about how it's like that hell yes or hell no of like we have to be around our friends now like we realize like this thing's so it's only important if we get to do with the people we like yeah and then we did a whole 18 months where we did it without all the people and it got it was like not as cool and uh joe also said some of us have lost people to covid or other things, you know, cancer.

You get older. You start losing people. And then you realize, I don't want to see Doug once every eight years. You know, I feel like it's not – I'm, like, embarrassed to say it, you know. I did a business seminar with Joe DeFranco in May. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, dude, last time you and I hung out was at your wedding.

We can't do that no more. And he's like, you're right. He's like, I'm not texting you anymore. I'm just going to call you. FaceTime. I blow people up on FaceTime nonstop. Yeah. It's like the way.

There's no other way to do it. Yeah. I think that's uncomfortable for people, but we need more of that. You get too good at text. You get too good at text you get too good at it's called you get too good at whatever it is to like i think you gotta be around you have to be around people yeah and um so what what was the question why why um the the thing that just kind of keeps you going yeah keeps you like and you know, I think our networks are the thing that really inspires. Like we get to be around such savage people.

Like Bert is such a savage. Yeah. Pops is such a savage. Yes, that's inspiring. You throw the cert here for a reason. I would be coming down to this. Let's say I won the lottery and didn't need money. I'd still hold the cert.

I'd still coach athletes. I probably wouldn't coach them, obviously, as much, but I'd probably two or three days a week run a group. And so what would you do? I know that's like a common question. Hey, what would you do if money was no object? Man, I'd still be training athletes. Yeah, I would actually dial it in more.

I would do less of the things I don't want to do and more of just the thing. Because then you could pay everybody around you to be great at the ability. I would do exactly this, traveling around the world, doing cool shit, going to my friends' seminars and whatnot. But I would be bringing more people with me. I'd be bringing my friends with me. I'd be bringing my family with me. My wife would come.

My kids would come. Who would be Johnny Drama? We'll find somebody. But yeah, man. Our audience is still there. Yes. They're still. I agree.

I want people. I want to do this stuff with people. And from a business perspective, you can say, well, now we're splitting the money. I don't give a crap. I don't care. It's going to be better. It's going to be more fun. We're going to have more energy.

Travis and I said this like a couple years ago. We were doing our search together. And Travis told me, he's like, man, I'm so glad I'm doing this with you. He's like, because when I do it on my own, he's like, I'm exhausted on that second day. He's like, but you go for 90 minutes. I go for 90 minutes. I go for 90 minutes. It breaks it up. That's also healthier than you being a one-man army.

Rambo could only go for so long before he had to give up. I love Rambo, though. Sometimes you've got to be like Rambo. Don't get me wrong. I love Rambo. So what keeps me going is I love it. I love coaching and getting these kids better. And I also love improving as a coach.

I'm still – I mentioned – you guys are there. I purchased the speed certification from Stronger Experts. Because I believe in that. I mean, if I could – Justin's not too far. He's in a D.C. area, right? Coach Cav? Yeah. He's in Northern Virginia. Oh, he's in that. I mean, if I could Justin's not too far. He's in a D.C. area, right? Coach Cav? Yeah. He's in Northern Virginia. Oh, he's in Virginia. Yeah, so not too far. Like Reston.

Yeah. When he does something live, I'm going to travel there, and I'm going to learn. I may not be able to do it all because I'm 45, and I'm not going to sprint like an Olympian, but I'm going to get better. Dude, yeah. You've got to come down. to come down. We'll put you in touch with Phillip. He's so rad. They're bound to go back down to Jamaica at some point.

I already spoke with Phillip. I'm saying if Cav does something just at his gym. I want to learn. The toughest thing is I feel guilty when I leave during sports. to learn. The toughest thing is I feel guilty when I leave during sports. In the spring and summer, I don't coach on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I coach Monday through Wednesday

and I'm at every tennis tournament and every baseball tournament and I love that stuff and go eat like a crappy pretzel and some pizza when it's over like even even if you know it's a bad game or a bad match you know i spoke uh i have a friend we did some podcast together with spartan um gabe dean so gabe's a real high level wrestler his his

dad was an olympian and gabe told me that dad, kind of the way he tricked them into wrestling was, he'd be like, all right, when we're done wrestling, we'll go on to the go-karts, we'll get some ice cream. And so I would, like, say to Gabe, I was like, Gabe, what about if, like, you know, my son has, like, a bad game? He's like, even more important to get the ice cream. And that's a, you know, that guy's a two-time national champ. And so I make sure that, and I reiterated that to the coaches, like finish everything on a positive. You might have to be tough on an athlete when you're coaching them,

but finish the workout on a positive. Let them get a bicep pump. Give them compliments. Make sure you get the high fives in. Finish on a positive. And so with all of life, I'm looking at that and applying it to everything. And, you know, as a dad, I can't reiterate it enough, man. For the diesel dads out there, time goes fast. Take care of your body.

Spend that time with the family. Dude, it's so easy. I'm sure you've had moments in the middle of it where you're like dude i'm out of shape like what happened maybe not like out of shape but you just go yeah the older you get it's not the easier not in the game anymore correct yeah you just lose it a little bit if you for example if i go on a one-week vacation and i don't do anything i definitely feel like i've lost some of it but when you know, a young kid, you don't lose that stuff. I liked when we did a podcast you told me about like this 50, what did you do?

Two exercises, 50 reps in the morning? Yeah. 50 each. Yeah. Two exercises, hit 50 reps of each and get on to your day. You could do that with a high school athlete, a college athlete. That shit's amazing. Two exercises, bang, bang, just killing it.

Get things moving. Yeah, I like that. And I think anybody can do that. Dude, right now, because I have the nine-week-old at home, eight-week-old, something like that, I'm like the dude chugging hot coffee on 85-degree mornings, walking around, pushing a stroller with a weight vest on. Oh yeah.

Like I, it's like my wife gives me so much crap about it, but like I, you have to figure out ways to make fitness work. Because if you, if you think there's going to be some cookie cutter hour to like go to the gym and do your, do your cleans and then do your squats and then do some

accessory and then do a conditioning you're out of your mind what you have to do is like just have a weight vest because if you get an hour go walk or if you get 30 minutes go Saturdays I always did a stroller and I would like run the there was like hills near my house would do the hills and uh i had a kettlebell always in my house even to this day so i'm getting i gotta get swings in or i get high pulls in but you probably go like tennis practice whatever you just bring the kettlebell you have to like figure out a way i have done that get it done i've done that kettlebell brought a 70 pound sandball um or do just like a crazy ass long trip of lunges you you got

to be strong yeah and it keeps you young are you guys in your 40s yet or no 38 38 38 yes but you look like you're in your 20s we look young that's why you say you look like you're in your 40s that is the interesting thing is and this is like the worst thing that you could possibly have Facebook for. But when you see the people you go to high school with that haven't stayed in the game, you're like, man, things got weird quick, huh? With the health stuff going on now? It's crazy. You need to be strong and fit.

You need to be dialed in with just your vitamin mineral supplement intake and it's not so complicated people want to complicate it yeah i'll take b vitamin c zinc d b complex and most of it if you just go outside you you're going to be okay correct i think that that's like the absolute most if i'm in my house like i feel like a house is just a place that you eat and sleep it is not a place to be hung out in i i get so anxious being inside like i just cannot yeah i can't be in there it drives me nuts what's the weather in tennessee in the winter doug what temps um for me it definitely gets below freezing at times, but it's fairly tolerable.

For you, you guys have... I've been in North Carolina... January, February is just cold, but it's not snowing. It's not Jersey. We don't have blistering cold days. If you have a coat and a hoodie, you're ready to rock. The first time I ever came to North Carolina was early January.

It was 70 or 72 that's on the high side I know because I've been here in January where it's not it's typically around like 40 to 50 and just for me 50 degrees I'm wearing shorts I'm out

so in New Jersey like the summer time I could work behind a computer maybe two hours. Then I'm outside on my bike. I got a beach cruise. We live near the beach. I'm down to the beach. I walk it.

I breathe in some air. Then I could get more creative. But I cannot sit behind a computer. So I think if you're a dad, dad you gotta either bang out that workout early in the morning when nothing's going on in the house i always say can you train before the dogs want to get off the couch then you're going to be good because once people start moving in the house now you got things to do other option is lunch and then final option is from work you cannot go home. You got to go straight to the gym.

If you go home, it's over. Yeah. What is your like general mindset when it comes to training? Like if we just kind of under the umbrella that it's rarely going to be perfect, what are like the big rocks that you're trying to move forward in your own training? Yeah. So I'm not worried about the max effort, one rep max type thing. I like what you do.

Two exercises, 50 reps each. But for me, I had a pretty heavy-duty knee surgery in March. And even before that, work capacity stuff.eds carries calisthenics those are like my three go-to things i could do all kinds of pull-ups and pulling motions push-ups um carrying anything so i might carry a medicine ball from one side to the other or carry five squats with it carry it back five overhead presses and sleds i think are just low impact and they're great if i want to go all backwards forwards backwards they get the wind going so i feel like sleds carries and calisthenic can work for an adult it can work for a high level

athlete it can work for really anybody yeah those are my three go-tos. We're kind of in like the closing minutes here, but I do want to, have you found anybody that you like recently have just seen either on Instagram or met, talk to that's like coming up in strength and conditioning where you're just like, dude, that guy is so dialed in. I don't have my phone on me.

Let me try to think of somebody that's really firing me up with a lot of training. Dang. It's just interesting i the main reason i ask is we talk to so many people that um yeah it's not that it's not that people aren't interesting it's that you you hear so much that when you hear something like new or you see somebody like building crazy momentum behind their programs it's a really interesting thing being in in it for so long talking to so many people having a network and then you go oh wow this guy i've never seen somebody take this angle before man i'm still that's how hard it is i know for very long time, I've been big fans of my buddies at Power Athlete. You know, John Melbourne, Tex, been big fans of them. Of course, Ben is killing it with knees over toes.

That's the guy that we just found. When did you find him? I feel like it wasn't too recent. I feel like it's certainly been like maybe two years. It's been a while. Jake Tura, very good. He's new to me too. Jake's

in his 20s. He was in the college sector. College was kind of making him nuts. He does a lot of stuff on knee health and vertical jump training, hypertrophy, like cluster training. He's got different programs on that. And I like that his kind of program is overall athleticism,

so it's very applicable for me to watch what he's doing, take it to my athletes. Ben, of course, was super applicable with my knee. I have a – Yeah, go ahead. Ben, you owe me money, buddy. You owe me money buddy you owe me money my whole like

neighborhood is on his program that's amazing they all come over and try and build their own slant boards they like come over

and hit some of the tip bar I have to they'll just come over and like literally sit my phone's over there while we're just hanging out they don't even come to train

they just come to hit the tip bar and go home hit the tip bar I can't even look through like who but then there's guys that like I said I've been following for so long like Travis John They don't even come to train. They just come to hit the tip bar and go home. Hit the tip bar. I can't even look through who. But then there's guys that, like I said, I've been following for so long, like Travis, John, and, of course, when we have a network, you get a little spoiled, so you're not so much on the internet.

You got a little Nick who you text message. I text message, K-Star for hire. I joke with him like that. Or I actually, one of my closest friends I met some years back at Summer Strong, Jesse Ackerman. So he was in the NFL. He was released last year from the Falcons. But he's such a high-level guy where every week we call each other on the phone.

We talk training. We talk parenting. And so maybe a little bit spoiled, but like some of the people, I just call them yeah um and it's cool to like that's what's so great about the show yeah it's like you can just and and really guys you know who put a lot of these people on the map barbell shrugged like got so many people out there you're the guy the first guys that really got louis simmons on a podcast when he was showing you guys to do like banded cleans with a power bar he was all all hyped up and i don't i mean some people have gotten some interviews with him but i remember seeing i was like dude that was my favorite interview because i had been speaking

with louis for so long so i think you know being in it for now two decades really, I've been following a lot of the same people. You know, rest his soul, John Meadows, his stuff is amazing. That was the first, that was when Pollackin died, it was the first time that I went, shit, I always assumed I would be in a gym training with him, doing shows with him, hanging out, like having like a whole day. You think he's going to live forever, so you think you're going to live forever, and now it changes the game. Meadows is the second one that I was like, the number of times I've been like, I should send him a DM and get him on the show. And then now I can't. It's so weird. I probably in the last year, because I actually started doing Meadows Rose in my garage.

It's like I have the perfect setup in my garage for Meadows Rose. And I've been like, dude, I got to get him on the show just to say thank you. Just to talk about this one back exercise that I love doing so much. And then now I can't. That's right. Time is weights for no man. And we don't know when anything's going to end anymore. Yeah. is waits for no man and we don't know when anything's going to end anymore yeah um speaking of uh you know john meadows uh dr ken kanakin he's got like the swiss conference which we should all

go to when he does this next one in person in canada that he's basically kind of like what you guys do but he does it from the conference so he records all those interviews and puts them all on his swiss website and then a guy that i had known about and heard about since early 2000s maddie nickel i've had him on my podcast he doesn't put out content but you i gotta put you guys in touch with him he has been training he was mentored by Charles Polquin, Charlie Francis, Mel Siff, Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, like the OGs of keto

and training and all that. So he's up in Canada. He just expanded his gym. Before that, he was in like a storage closet inside of a hockey facility. No windows. He trains pros, pro hockey players. He's awesome. So I love talking with guys like that because they're not just showing me new age

bullshit. He's talking to me about how he's borrowing stuff from, you know, old school super squats and implementing, you know, speed training of Charlie Francis and nutrition of Dr. Marlboro Squall with professional hockey players. That's who I want to learn from. I want to learn from guys who've had their boots on the floor, not from guys that, hey, I'm ripped. I could deadlift 800 pounds. Let me show you.

Well, it works for you. Have you trained 100 or 1 a thousand or thousands of people that's who i want to learn from kelly starrett laid that out on our show the last one we did with him he was like here's what i want to know can you work with the all blacks and write a book that's a best seller that helps the average person have better mobility i was like oh and then can you run a gym can you coach thousands of people in person? Can you have this many sessions? Can you then get hired to go do this? Can you fit in all of these holes?

Because that's what I consider to be good. And I was like, I got a little ways to go, Kelly. You know what? Let me tell you what that is. Hey, that's – You just said I'm not good enough. I need to get – That's just –

That's real. That's real. That's people who have spent time with their boots on the ground. Listen, what did we say before we recorded? K-Star would go and do, let's say, for example, I did my first mobility seminar with him in Alexandria, Virginia. That was a Saturday. Then he rented a car or had a car and drove to a neighboring state.

I think he went to Delaware Sunday. Then he finishes that seminar, flies to San Fran. He gets like a red eye, got the three hour time change. Then he sleeps in the storage container and coaches a 6 a.m. class. Dude, that's a tough motherfucker

and nobody has asked him about that grit toughness part. They're always asking him about the training. We totally got into that on that show. That's tough right there. That's like when he was going back-to-backs for three straight years. Like Drake, back-to-back-to-back. How's that song go?

He was going back-to-back every weekend. Three weekends a month. I go, dude, going back to back like every weekend. Three weekends a month. I go, dude, I don't like leaving my family. How the hell do you do that? He goes, I slap myself in the face and I do it. Because he knew that that was going to set up family and set up business for long-term success. We got to shut it down, guys. We got to hit the road.

We got to go. Tell the people where they can find your seminar. SSPCoach.com It's a certification, right? Are you working on getting CEUs and all that? Well, if you call it a certification, you cannot get CEUs from the NSCA, which

stinks. I was tempted to just call it a course, but it's a certification. By the way, I love what the NSCA does. I'm not one of those guys that's like, F that cert, do my, I'm not. I believe go get that cert. Go get Joe DeFranco's cert. Go do the speed training cert with stronger experts.

Learn. Be awesome. Go study under people. Like immerse yourself. If you want to be a great coach, immerse. I'm a piece of the puzzle, and I'll you want to be a great coach yeah immerse i'm a piece of the puzzle and i'll never pretend to be the end all yeah the end all be all and a strong life podcast there it is doug larson doug larson on instagram dude i'm totally stuck we've got to

hang out i haven't seen you in many years and now we get to go kick it on a pontoon boat eat some dinner and kick it the rest of the night so dude i'm so happy to see you i love it yeah i'm anders varner at anders varner we're barbell shrugged at barbell underscore shrug get over to barbell shrugged.com forward slash diesel dad all the busy dads are getting strong lean and athletic and coming in november we are going to be in 2200 walmart's nationwide so if you walk into performance nutrition in november you are going to see my face on three boxes on the shelf in the Performance Nutrition section. And if I'm not there,

go to the one next door because we're in over half of the Walmarts in the country, which is really savage. That's beast. That's beast, dude. Savage, dude. Holy crap. We'll see you guys next week. I haven't figured out how to get this outro because it's so new,

and it's so rad that we're in literally half the Walmart in the country. Impressive. Big stuff. We'll see you guys next week.