Barbell Shrugged - Is CrossFit a Great Way to Get Fit, Joint Friendly Strength Training, and Being a Certified Nice Person w/ Ben Bruno  — Barbell Shrugged #355

Episode Date: November 14, 2018

Ben Bruno lives and trains clients in West Hollywood, California. He's known as a celebrity and professional athlete trainer, who helps some of Hollywood’s biggest names get in shape. In this episode, we talk to Ben about the one piece of equipment you need in your gym, landmine training, celebrity training plans, working with professional athletes, learning from Mike Boyle, and much more.   Enjoy! - Doug and Anders ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs_bruno ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Please support our partners! @bioptimizers: www.BiOptimizers.com/realchalk  “shrugged” to save 20% @thrivemarket - www.thrivemarket.com/shrugged for a free 30 days trial and $60 in free groceries @OMAX - www.omaxcbd.com/shrugged and get 50% off a one months supply of Omax Stress Remedy. ► 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

Shrug family, it's Wednesday. We're hanging out with Ben Bruno this week. I often get the question from people, should I open a gym? What goes into opening a gym? Well, it's important for everyone to know, before I ever opened a gym, I had written hundreds of training plans. Before I ever opened a gym, I had written hundreds of nutrition plans. Before I opened a gym, I had answered thousands of questions helping my friends live a healthier life. You have to understand, the internet didn't exist. It was incredibly hard to find information, coaches, and people that knew how to train.

In my world, my best friend Brian and I were the only people putting in the work to find the information, test it in the gym, and then create our own ideas after seeing the results. In our very small circle, we were the internet of strength. We were the experts for our friends, their friends, and our friends' friends. Nobody cared as much as us. We spent hundreds of hours debating hypertrophy and performance, bodybuilding and CrossFit, and nutrition methodologies. However, before I opened a gym, everything in my life that was not the gym was going to shit. I spent so much time focused on training and learning that I had become terrible at everything else.

My real job suffered, I half-assed my way through grad school, and I broke up with the girl I'd been dating for over three years. The only thing that wasn't going terrible in my life was the gym and my desire to train. I was living small paycheck to small paycheck, had accumulated over $5,000 in credit card debt, $60,000 in student loan debt, and had a dead-end job I didn't care about. In order for me to train, I rode my bike to a bus that dropped me off at a train station that dropped me two miles away from the gym I was going to. I didn't have a car, and I consolidated my life into 50 pounds of clothes. I opened a gym because I backed myself into a hole. I sucked at everything else except one thing, training. The only place my opinion mattered was in the gym.

The only people I wanted to be around were my training partners. I wish it was a glamorous story, but it was not. I only had one thing left, the gym. It was the only place that mattered so I went all in so how do you open a gym you get asked this question a lot you don't have to follow my path you can be well-funded have a clear vision and a perfect business plan that sounds like a much safer model for me I opened a gym because I knew that if I gave myself the opportunity to be great at something I loved, I couldn't fail.

I knew I would find a way to make that love last for the rest of my life. This week, Ben Bruno is on the show. He is a gym owner as well. It's in his garage and is about 50 square foot. Inside it, he trains professional athletes from the NBA and NHL the list of celebrities and athletes is endless I've been a fan of Ben Bruno since I found him on t-nation he is most famous not only for his work with celebrities but becoming the go-to resource for landmine training please go give him a follow at Ben Bruno training on Instagram and at benbruno.com online for all of his programs

and sweet t-shirts that he puts out. Make sure you get over to 30daysofcoaching.com. I have compiled 30 emails going to your inbox every morning, going over the basics of Olympic lifting, nutrition, adding muscle mass, getting lean, the basic principles of strength and conditioning. This email list has taken me a long time. I had to scour through thousands of podcasts, hundreds of articles, consolidating it down into the best 30 articles to guide you through your journey of strength conditioning. Get over to 30daysofcoaching.com, T-H-I-R-T-Y, daysofcoaching.com. You're going to get an email every morning from me. It's awesome. It's got a cool story and you're going to learn something really cool that's going to be a foundational piece for the rest of your strength and conditioning career. Also, make sure you get over to DougLarsonFitness.com.

Doug Larson's got all kinds of killer things going on on his website. Movement-specific mobility, nutrition for weightlifters. If you have a fitness business, he is doing consulting over there. DougLarsonFitness.com. Check him out. And I also want to thank our sponsors of the show today, Thrive Market. Make sure you get over to ThriveMarket.com. ThriveMarket.com, we're going to save 25% off your order at Thrive Market.

These guys have been with us in the entire year. I'm a huge fan. And you get that sweet box. All the organic pantry things that need to go on in your life. All the butters, all the oils. There's always a healthier, more organic option. And Thrive Market has compiled all of these into one shop for you delivered directly to your door. I love the fact that you can go to their website and you can look by all of your dietary needs and it will pop up with the products that you have.

So get over to thrivemarket.com forward slash shrugged and you will save 25% off of your first order. And now, Ben Bruno, let's get it. Yeah, yeah, NSC estate. Just make this casual. I'm actually not even certified by the NSCA, but they said that was fine. You know, I actually wasn't even certified ever as a trainer until like five years in. But I have, so I started working with Mike Boyle, and he has a certification called the Certified –

Functional Strength Coach. Yep. I'm one of them. Yeah, and so am I. I feel good about it. I did that because, you know, the real reason I did that is because, like, Mike gave me my start. I'm a loyal guy.

But the other reason is there's like a uh a practical component to the training which makes more sense to me so you have to do the test and then actually show you can train which is like uh you know that makes sense to me because I think that so many of the trainers that I meet have like you know way more certifications than me and just suck as trainers. They just, you know, like I think there's a big value in being able to translate what you know into like actually training people. And so I do that certification mostly because that concept. Just pull it a little closer to your mouth.

You know, that idea just seems to make more sense to me, but, you know, whatever. I find there's a lot of people who, they're brand new, and they want to have all these on-paper credentials to, like, show that they know something, and then there's people that have been doing it for, like, 20 years, and they're like,

why do I need a piece of paper to tell anyone that I'm good at anything? I've been doing this for 20 years. You know, frankly, I get a lot of trainers that want to come shadow and observe and various things like that you know you know pick your brain is a big one and like they're all like way more qualified than I am you know on paper and you're like I don't even know you learn in these things because you know I think uh I've I started with internships I started with an internship at uh Mike Boyles and I liken the internship process to studying abroad so uh and

and what I mean by that is you can go through like most people start a language in school because you have to in like sixth grade or seventh grade or something like that and take it all the way through 12th grade. And so that is what that's six or seven years of a language in school where you just like memorize your vocab for your test and spit it back and you fill in the blanks on your homework and things. And most people at the end of 12th grade can't speak their language. You know, they can probably like do the vocab tests and they can do whatever, but they

can't actually speak the language. If they went to that country, they, they suck. And, you know, likewise, if I, I, uh, the summer between high school and college, I spent six weeks in Spain and was fluent at the end and i just uh i went by myself i didn't go with any english-speaking people and you just like figure out how to speak the language and that to me is the difference between like internships and a bunch of like certifications and stuff like i i was a sociology major in college and we can get into kind of how i got into training but I really uh I started with no ostensible qualifications to even be a trainer but I started at an internship with really good

coaches and as like a high volume training facility that's another thing I think is very important when you first start out but there would be hundreds of people that came into the gym every day. And there was athletes, there was, like, older people, younger people. When, you know, when I started as an intern, I was, like, helping with, like, middle school kids and the adult classes and, you know, stuff like that. And that's the stuff that, like, a lot of trainers might, that might not be their goal or their end goal but i think that that's where you actually really learn it's way harder way way harder to train a group of 20 middle school kids than it is to train a pro athlete you know it's

just way harder and if you can train if you can like sheep herd 20 middle school kids and get them to do like push-ups pretty well and decent squats and shit like that then you can easily wait am i allowed to swear oh yeah okay sorry yeah okay i was probably i actually i don't even know that i swear so i apologize uh but uh that's good then and But I think that if you can do that with middle school kids, then, you know, a lot of people think that the trainers that train like pro athletes are the best trainers just because of that. But, like, training pro athletes is like one of the easiest jobs under the sun. You just kind of show them like a half-assed demo, and then they do better than you and like with a ton of weight yeah that's like that's honestly how it works like i've i've like trained my balls off for like 12 years and like eat right and like follow workout programs

and shit and then these pro athletes come in and they just like take down every record i have in like a couple weeks it's just you know and they make different they make you look good as a trainer but like uh I think that um you know it's very valuable to start uh kind of training everyone and uh so that's why I say the internship is kind of the there's the foreign language study abroad thing where you can just kind of go there and come out in four months a good trainer if you go to the right place. What does that internship process look like at Boyle's Place?

Because he's got a slew of really high-level coaches that have come through there. Yeah, well, so I think, you know, well, I don't know exactly what it's like now, but I know that, you know that it's very competitive. They get tons of applicants, and a lot of reputable gyms now do too. And they require a degree in a related field, I think, usually certifications. I really lucked out because I didn't have any of that shit when I started. Um, but I think that you, I, I just, uh, kind of right place, right time. They didn't have enough interns when I wanted to do it. So I

just was able to get the internship. I wasn't actually qualified for the internship. So that's why I'm very, you know know lucky and also grateful to them because i got a chance i probably shouldn't have gotten um and you know it's like i used to play golf and there's a saying in golf like it's better to be lucky than good and that's probably like uh you know how that went what's got to be also just the number of kids that are running around that place because they run huge summer summer programs yeah there's tons of people but what's cool about the internship process is it's not like uh you don't just go and like rack people's weights and clean the gym and shit it's like you uh go and you actually help coach and things and as the time progresses and you show that you're

uh gonna do a good job then you're you know you can actually work with people and you know so when i when i was coming up through, through college and graduate school, like, like Boyle and Cressy and like kind of all the guys that used to write for teenation, like they were like the majority of the guys that I, that I used to follow yourself included. Um, how is, I have my thoughts on this as well, but how is that type of training different than like what a lot of people now view as strength and conditioning which is kind of synonymous with saying people think crossfit is strength and conditioning but they're not they're not the same thing at all like yeah i mean i think

it's the difference uh i'm trying to think of how to say this but you just let it rip yeah yeah I mean um I would say that uh that it's the difference between a well thought out plan and uh just kind of doing whatever sounds good at the time and uh I think that what makes uh you know there's like smart strength and conditioning where there's sort of a long-term plan. And I think that, you know, like when I get a new client now, this is disjointed, but I think it'll help say what I'm trying to say. When I get a new client, I give every new client the same spiel, which is, you know, until I know your level, I would rather you leave feeling like I'm too easy rather than too hard. We're not really training for today. We're kind of building. And if you know how much weight you use, let me know. But otherwise, I'm going to start on the light side. And I would always rather do an extra set than go too heavy

and things like that. I like to start people off on the easy side and build. And I try to impress upon my clients the idea that you don't train for that workout. You train for an overarching goal, and the time frame can be different depending on those goals, but to build towards any goal, you don't just like, it's not just like a bunch of workouts that exist in a vacuum, and then you get to the goal. It's like you build towards the goal. It's like you build towards the goal. So I think that, uh, that the, the crossfitting mentality is just like, just try to go to hell and back every day and hope that that adds up to get you to your goal. And I think sometimes if you like survive the gauntlet, then you'll get to your goal, but like, it's probably not the smartest way to get there. And my, my feeling about stuff like that, like when I talk like, uh, I got like the caveat on stuff like that,

when I'm not talking about like the CrossFit dudes that are like on TV, cause those guys are fucking savages. And I respect those guys. And they're the types that can kind of do the quote dangerous exercises and never get hurt. Uh, and they're, you that can kind of do the, quote, dangerous exercises and never get hurt. And, you know, they come from an athletic background, can Olympic lift well, all that type of stuff. If you played college football and, like, you can clean well and you have, like, the wrist mobility and you can use good form

and stuff like that, then, like, it's pretty cool. Like, I don't think doing a lot of trainers like hate that CrossFit does like 15 reps of cleans with like however much weight I actually don't for a guy that like used to clean like 300, then that's probably fine. And it's not that hard. But for just a general fitness program, it's, it's not ideal to me. And by ideal, I mean it just seems stupid to do that type of stuff. It seems to me that people, as you get more experience as a coach, I've seen this happen many, many times, as you get more experience,

you pass that, I've been training people for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, people tend to get more conservative over time, almost systematically. The athletes as well. There's kind of the Captain Obvious component of fitness to where like, you know, I once made a tweet that like pissed off. By the way, your Twitter feed is so fucking hilarious. You're so witty.

It's so sarcastic. It's amazing. So I made a tweet that pissed a lot of people off. It's so good. And I really like lost so much faith in people that this was even controversial. But I said that for young, healthy athletes, Olympic lifting is a great way to build power. For general population, older clients, it's a great way to get hurt. And to me, that's just pretty straightforward.

That's not even controversial. But that became controversial. And I had a really good family friend that had to have shoulder surgery from doing snatches in CrossFit. And he's like 55 or 56. And I'm like, dude, why? I don't know. So here's the thing.

Me becoming a trainer inspired him to start training, which I think is cool so he just went to crossfit and never worked out like why would you do snatches if you've never worked out you know things like that but like at the same time i used to train high school hockey players we do snatches we do cleans like there's the context matters. And, uh, I have no problem programming snatches for young dudes that are super athletic, or I say dudes, but women too, like that are super athletic. But, uh, for general fitness, a lot of that stuff's really stupid. And then when you, uh, add like the, I really have a problem doing workouts for time. Cause like,

I mean, I guess that's a whole nother topic that we could get into, but I mean, my reason for that is once you can do like a workout straight through, the only way to improve your time is just to use shittier form. So it's like, I don't know if that's really a win. Um, so that's, uh, you know, another thing, but I think that, um, I, I say a lot of that to say that, um, when I'm talking about, uh, issues with certain things, it's not for like the elite people that do that stuff. It's just like for a general method of fitness. Like, um, there's a, I forget who said it, but I really like it, um, talking about distance

running, but it said said don't do distance running basically to get in shape you gotta get in shape to distance run and I again made a tweet that said you could also sub CrossFit for distance running meaning like I don't think that doing CrossFit workouts is a good way to get fit

but if you're super fit and you're like a fucking savage then you want to do like one of these workouts just to test yourself have at it like i i'm somebody you know i preach safe training all the time like i talk about like joint friendly strength training and then like the lights go off and i see how many you know deadlifts i can get or you know i i i'm like a fucking weirdo that likes to load up a heavy bar and lunge up my hill. I'm hurt a lot, and I like to talk about joint-friendly strength training.

At least you know what you're getting yourself into, though. It's do as I say, not as I do. A lot of stupid shit I do, I would never have clients do, but it's just my fun. Some people like to do whatever, and I like to just crush legs. It's what I like doing. I don't know why. I wish I liked like literally anything else I just I just don't I don't have any other hobbies it's just uh what I like doing and you know but I wouldn't do that with clients I think I remember you having some knee problems and so you yeah a lot of your a lot of your leg exercises were

were unique compared to a lot of other people because you're always working around achy or injured knees. Well, so I've never really trained with like a – I've never been like a healthy person since I started training. That sounds weird. No, no, no. No, you can check out – I'm so bad at popcorn. What was the show that just did a feature on you about your backstory? Yeah, the Today Show. The Today Show, yeah, had a big thing this week, right?

Or it came out, right? Yeah, so basically I got into training, I guess, in a kind of weird way because I played a lot of sports growing up, but I never really trained. And then my sophomore year of college, I had a back surgery halfway through. And, like, I had thrown my back out a bunch of times. And it culminated, I actually pissed my bed twice in a week, which is like when you go to a doctor for, yeah, it's crazy. Dude, when you're in college.

Once a week is fine. That's the thing. Look, you're not the first boy in college to piss his bed. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy. Dude, when you're in college. Once a week is fine. Twice a week. That's the thing. Look, you're not the first boy in college to piss his mind. Yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Sober, so drunk right now. I had no reason. But that's like a real red flag, like neurological shit. So, like, I had a back surgery, which I didn't know anything about the body, really.

I just sort of, I was like the uninformed consumer. I just went to the doctor, got a, you know, was recommended surgery, went to the first surgeon and, uh, they told me whatever the rehab was and it ended up, uh, being worse before it got better. And I had to take two years off from college. And so in that time I started learning about training and, uh, I, during that time, when I took the time off, I was like, uh, super depressed and the way, you know, I, I guess that stuff manifests differently for everybody, but how it did for me is I didn't eat that much. Uh, and I was just, I couldn't like be active. So I lost a shitload of weight. And so then I started learning about weight training and nutrition and stuff to gain the weight back, get stronger.

I actually saw this doctor, you know, I started in just like regular physical therapy, which is like a pretty generic. And, you know, I was, you know, able to do the stuff that the people in physical therapy, you know, the, the form says you're supposed to be able to do, but that form for back surgery is probably written for people that are like in their seventies and I was 19. So like I could do it even when I was in tons of pain, I could do the easy stuff they're having me to do, but I was still in pain. And so I saw this guy at New England Baptist Hospital. And I'll probably never, I mean, I can't remember the name of any hospital in the world except that one

because it was kind of life-changing. But I remember that somebody had told me that this guy worked with the Boston Celtics. So I was like, oh, he must be, like, the best. I went there, and he had a program called back bootcamp. And what back bootcamp was, is it was basically like a weight circuit where I don't remember the details, but like you did like leg press, you did like lap pull downs, uh, ab stuff. Um, and we did, uh, we deadlifted these crates off the floor that were varying weights and put them on shelves. And, uh, so I started with that and basically like, uh, I've always been

competitive. So like I started doing the, the back bootcamp stuff and trying to do the heaviest crate and like do like the stack on the leg presses. One of those leg presses with the stack and do like lap pull downs with a lot of weight and stuff and then that basically like progressed into just me being just like a full-blown meathead like something along the line you know uh you know one day i woke up yeah exactly exactly one day i woke up and i was eating pounds of meat yeah exactly reading about like snatching Branch chain amino acids or whatever. Like drinking protein shakes, yeah. But, yeah.

Exactly. Yeah, reading like internet forums and shit. So that's – I don't even remember what we were talking about. So how did you end up again training at Mike Boyle's place? Well, so I had this back surgery went back to school got into i really like training so my last two years of school i would just like lift in the mornings and really kind of wanted to uh i decided this is also uh when the economy tanked so a lot of the people I was in school with were like having trouble finding jobs and stuff.

So I kind of decided I wanted to be a trainer. And I had done an internship with Raymond James. And a really good guy there connected me with a guy who trained his sons. And his sons played football. One was in high school, one was in college. So he connected me with this guy and just kind of oddly i parlayed uh my finance internship into a strength and conditioning job but i basically i know about that i say that but we have that same funnel so there's a little bit more to the story run them through i guess we there's no time

limit on this right so so it turns out this guy seemed cool so like my whole uh senior year of college i kind of thought i was going to just like do this long story short right before i graduated the guy gave me uh this thing about how he had to like hire his cousin and he couldn't hire me anymore so I was like you know that that really sucks I didn't so then I ended up moving back in with my mom and I started applying to just like regular jobs again because I figured that training probably like it didn't get off to a good start so I was just kind to kind of stop before I started, I guess. And, uh, so I was looking at regular jobs reading online and I read an article that was written by Mike Boyle and I clicked through on the bio and saw that his gym was like a half hour from my mom's house. So I actually just drove down and, you know, basically, uh, I met with a guy named Steve Bunker who

is, uh, to this day, he's kind of like a dad to me. He's become one of my biggest mentors in life and in training. He, he, uh, runs, Mike Boyles has two gyms and, uh, Mike Boyle strength and conditioning is two gyms and Steve runs one of them. And, uh, so I went down and talked to Steve and basically, you know, I'll never forget. I was like, where, I didn't know like what you even wear to go to a gym. So I wore like golf clothes. I was dressed like a douche. And, uh, I just talked to Steve. That was just New England at the time. Everyone in New England looks like that. No, no, no. You know, to be honest, I, uh, I don't even wear golf clothes when I play golf. I felt like such a tool, but like Everyone in New England looks like that. No, no, no. You know, to be honest, I don't even wear golf clothes when I play golf. I felt like such a tool, but, like, I was trying to, like, you know,

look like I cared or whatever. Fit in with all the prep school kids. Yeah, so I went down in a golf shirt and talked to Steve, and, you know, I was, like, way past the internship deadline. Like, no, you know, I think they require uh you know certifications and stuff which i didn't have but they let me do it and uh i think just right place right time steve and mike and bob hansen gave me this internship so that's kind of a circuitous way to get into it but that's uh the sort of the path in a nutshell it's a cool program program. Boyle, when I was exiting the CrossFit world,

was the first guy that I kind of found and was like, that guy makes a lot of sense too because I've been in a few internet arguments inside thestrengthcoach.com with Boyle about why CrossFit is effective and I don't get any of that time back in my life. No, at all. I don't have any of it.

It's gone. Just me typing and Boyle yelling at me and calling me an idiot. But it turns out I think he's a little bit more right now. I'm an idiot too. I'm somewhere in the middle of it. But that's why the internship is an interesting thing to me because it's like the foundation of that program and how he's kind of set the internship process up,

how you become a coach, is a really good progression, I think, for a lot of coaches in kind of structuring it as a career. I think Boyle's right way more than he's wrong, by the way. Yes. And then 9% of the time when someone's arguing against him, as a career. I think Boyle's right way more than he's wrong, by the way. And then 9% of the time when someone's arguing against him, I feel like they don't understand the context at which,

why he's saying what he's saying. That was like the biggest thing once. It was probably like, I was in strengthcoach.com for whatever, my one year subscription or whatever. And CrossFit just gets blasted in there all the time. And I was like, you know what?

Someone's got to stand up for this. So I was the idiot. Yeah, I mean, but there's people in there. But it was more like I was – the idea of just trying – like there are smart people in the CrossFit world that are doing the right thing. It's just it's such a large thing now. But once I started to like really dig in, like, okay, what is he arguing with me about and understanding what he's trying to get across you're like oh that guy's actually pretty freaking dialed in on what what he's got going on um which

led to going to the search because i wanted to like see the methods happen yeah i mean i just think the internship's a good a good thing like you know if i were going to hire an assistant trainer, which I don't have any employees or anything, but if I were, obviously it doesn't have to be either or, but I would much rather pick just some dude off the street that had really good people skills than somebody with like a million certifications and whatever that was socially awkward yeah because i think uh you know um you know actually mike has this thing which i like he always says the the most uh i'll probably butcher it but whatever but i think he says the the certification he requires is called a cnp a certified nice person and i and i kind of like that because I've actually

at various points thought about hiring an assistant. I go back and forth all the time, but if I were going to find somebody, it would just be somebody that was smart so they could kind of just not be an idiot, but mostly just somebody that is good talking with people. Your direct messages

on Instagram just got a lot longer. You throw that out there you're about to get seven billion hey ben by the way by the way i'm really nice and i would love to come in turn here for free enter 2 000 messages tomorrow morning yeah i don't yeah i don't do that stuff but it's much easier to teach someone how to train somebody than just to teach them how to be enjoyable to be around yeah that's the thing. Yeah, exactly. And you guys probably know from talking to a lot of people in the field, like some people you just spend three hours with them, and it's like you want to delete them out of your phone

because you're like, I don't want to talk to them anymore. They just are dragged to be around. And that's the type of thing where I think some people – I'll get questions a lot. Like sometimes I do Instagram Live Q&As and really just because, like, it's a good way to kill 20 minutes. But I also really like seeing – It feels like you're working. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

But I also really pay attention to the type of questions that people ask. And, uh, you know, a lot of young trainers will say like, what books basically will help me take it to the next level. And I don't think there's any book that's going to help you take it to the next level as a trainer. You know, like, I think that it's important to know stuff, but that's never going to take you to the next level there's a lot of people that i would consider to be clowns in strength and conditioning that are booked with clients and probably have more people ask them than anything you know and uh so i you know uh like they don't know how to train people that well really but they're just fucking really fun to be around and

people love them and they therefore people are gravitating towards them, and so they have lots of clients? Yeah, there are some clients. There are a lot of trainers that I'll see on the internet that are whatever, and I look at their workouts, and I'm like, that's really dumb. The workout's dumb. The whatever's dumb, they have a way of connecting with people. And I think for most people, especially with general fitness, if people enjoy it and feel good, they'll just keep coming back, you know. It's always going to be a balance, I think, of psychologically what does the client think is good for them and that do they really enjoy slash what you need to infuse into the program that's actually going to give them some results.

What were we talking about earlier? Lie. Like lie constantly. Lie constantly. That's the going to give them some results. What were we talking about earlier? Lie? Like lie constantly? Lie constantly. That's the key to success. Tell them what you were telling me earlier about that because that's pretty funny. Do you remember what I'm talking about?

Yeah, no, I think what we were talking about is I put tons of thought into my training, but I think that for most people, the whys are kind of boring. So we don't really talk about it. And, uh, I think, um, if clients, I mean, so your clients, their clients. So if you heard me talk to my clients as a trainer, you'd be like, dude, this guy's a dumbass. Like, you know, uh, you know, cause on the, on the internet, for example, in strength and conditioning, if you said like, you know you know uh squats are for your butt like

that sounds stupid like somebody would go that's like knee dominant or that's whatever and to like when i'm training a woman like squats are just for your butt and that's it yeah uh it's really a question of what's motivating this person yeah like what are they going to actually give a shit about to keep them coming back for more yeah i i I think, you know, how do you, how do you frame the context? You're not lying specifically, but you're just, you're just, you're framing it in a way where they go,

okay, this is connecting with what I actually care about. Yeah. I don't think it's lying. It's just, uh, I think you have to learn how to speak your client's language. And that language is just like every buddy's different.

Like in terms of their goals, their body, their injury history, everybody's different in terms in terms of their goals, their body, their injury history, everybody's different in terms of like their personality and how much they really care about training. And I think you got to like meet people where you're at in that regard. Some, some clients, I explain the whys and talk a little nerdier and some clients, I just kind of give them a demo of the exercise while we're talking about whatever and then let them do their thing and we keep talking about whatever.

How do you manage that? You train elite athletes at a very, very high level, and you also train extremely high-profile celebrity clients, if you will, right? How does this mega celebrity come in and an hour later you got an NBA All-Star coming in? Like, how do you do that? Well, you know, some trainers kind of talk to me about that or think it's weird, and I don't really think it's weird because one thing that I always preach, which again sounds so simple, but the personal part of personal training is them, not me. And so what I mean by that is uh when i start with a

client you could pretty much erase their name because when it comes to bodies that stuff doesn't matter like the thing about training training is a really good equalizer in life because it doesn't matter how rich you are how famous you are and stuff uh you got to put in the work your squat still sucks 45 is still 45 pounds gravity doesn't give a shit how much money you have yeah there's all that type of stuff and there's also you know um so at the end of the day you pretty uh don't matter who it is before we start we talk about their goals their injury history and their past training history and what's, their injury history, and their past training history, and what's worked and what hasn't. And the past training history isn't quite as important to me,

but it is because it helps give me context into their personality and what jives. And for me, like I said, it's always a process. So those are actually the only three questions I ask when people start. Goals, injury history, and past training history. Goals and injury history are to help create the program, and past training history is just to get an idea about kind of what people like and don't like, and what makes them tick, because I think that that really matters. And where I start with a new client is very different, depending on the answer to those three questions. So some people we start much further along the continuum.

Some people we start super, super basic. And like, for example, with women that have never done strength training, it's not like the first day they're just like going ham on deadlifts. We start much easier. And then somebody that might've come from another trainer that did weights, but they're just looking for a little bit different type of workout. So, you know, the, to answer your question, I think that the reason that, uh, or, or how I, you train people from all different walks of life is you just answer those three questions. And, you know, if I train six basketball guys, they're not all doing the same thing.

Like, you know, by the time you have, like, mileage on your body in basketball, there could be two 27-year-old basketball players that are totally different in terms of what we're doing for the workout, you know. Some people are, you guys know this from lifting, but, like, you know, a lot of people could squat with good form, but that doesn't all look the same, if that makes sense, you know what I mean? Like, some people, no matter what, they just like fold forward when they squat. It's like just how they're built. Like, you know, some people can go super upright. Well, some people, the people

that can go super upright, uh, we might squat the people that can't, we might not. And we kind of, you know, just do a reverse lunge for example where they can't stay super upright so that's uh you know um i'm i don't i don't know if it's lucky or unlike i just do personal training so it's like not everybody has to do the same workout but that's kind of it answered your question that's how it works if somebody somebody, again, Captain Obvious, if you take names and jobs away, if you just, like, say it was, like, a certification test in, like, column A, and the question was should column A and column B train the same, column A was 24-year-old girl wants to improve butt, back of arms, stomach, and column B was 57-year-old guy, you know, couple surgeries,

whatever. The answer is no, you know. You shouldn't do the same or, you know, even if two people are healthy, if one person's goal is to build up their chest and whatever and one person's goal is to build up their vertical jump and become more explosive again both guys around the same age again the the answer is going to be a little bit different you know and so i think that um the the best way to approach things when you're a trainer is to just uh meet people where they're at and then find out where they want to be and kind of just, like, come up with a plan for that. Are you doing in-season and off-season training for these guys? No, no, no.

Athletes, it's pretty much always off-season. Off-season. Yeah, yeah. Right on. Wouldn't say more of the, like, performer side of things. If they have to go out on tour or they have a movie coming up or whatever the hell it is are you taking that stuff as well and how like how does that change things because they're

not in here every single day they have to go out um schedule suck people that show when people travel it's like it's it kind of depends i do travel sometimes and then sometimes uh clients that travel a lot will do travel workouts so i'll write workouts with like video links and uh we facetime and stuff like that do you do much online stuff at all uh i don't do any that's yeah i don't i don't do any interesting yeah yeah i don't yeah i don't know i i wish i mean i probably should like i'm probably an idiot for not, but I'm an idiot, so. Well, I don't think there's many people that still just strictly do personal training. Like, it's almost like how everybody gets their chops,

and then it's like to scale it up or whatever. They always end up going online. I actually really do. I've started thinking about it, but I've They always end up going online. I actually really do. I've started thinking about it, but I've started thinking about it for years. I just don't ever do it. But I like the idea of having a workout program that people could buy or download

or whatever they do. You seem really excited about it. A bunch of schmoes out there butchering your program. You seem really excited about it. A bunch of schmoes out there butchering your program. You seem really excited about it. I would love to find a way to do that. Like I've actually started – this is like totally irrelevant to the podcast, but I've started finding ways.

I have a goal of having a men's and a women's workout program that rather than just pictures or whatever, had tutorials for every single exercise, which would probably be a shitload of work on my part, so I don't know if that's possible, but I do think it would be cool to have something like that. But I don't do anything. I don't do online training or have online clients, but I do, when clients travel, write travel workouts that either are exercises that we've done a ton together so I feel comfortable with it.

Or I will do video links or film tutorials myself that I just sent to them. And then we FaceTime. We kind of make it work. What did you move out here for training? So I, I came out here for a job and then, uh, just,

sorry, I know the backstory here. So I'm laughing. Yeah, I quit. I quit. And then, and then I,

uh, didn't stay at the job and just kind of did my own thing. Um, long story short. What about the long story? Yeah. Let's not do the long story. story yeah let's not do the long story let's not do the long story but yeah so i uh i started um you know i started at a gym and then

i just did my own thing right on yeah so what do you what do you feel like is next for you like where do you feel like you're you're like the style of your training it still evolving, or do you feel like you're pretty well established with how you train, or are you always picking up new things? I'm always picking up new things. My mind is just always thinking about training. So how I train now is differently than how I trained a year ago. Uh, but the, uh, you know, I think sometimes, um, I, I often share just like different exercises. And I think that that probably sometimes gives off like the wrong message because my training like structure and philosophy really doesn't change that much. Like, uh, we, I, I tend to mostly do like full body, uh, workouts, which,

um, or sometimes upper lower splits. Um, but the, the, that type of stuff with the program, the, has stayed the same for a long time, but sometimes I'll pick up new exercises here and there. I'll learn new techniques from other people. I really like, you know, I love when, you know, good coaches come through the house. And we just, I don't, I would much prefer people come, you know, my good friend is a guy named Mike Mancius. He's trained LeBron James for 14 years. And Mike just came over this past week for six hours, and we just talk shop. Basically, I haven't seen him for a while, so I would show him one new thing that I was doing. He'd show me one new thing.

We'd go back and forth. That was awesome because the stuff that he shows me, while he's telling me, I'm thinking about which of my clients it would apply to and things like that. And I love learning new techniques. Um, you know, I, uh, I recently started on myself because my knee's been bugging me having this, um, working on my mobility and, uh, that stuff that, um, like I, so a guy named Chad Eldridge has been helping me, and he has a lot of cool mobility techniques that he's gotten from various places. And so I'm getting kind of the cliff notes.

And, again, I'm using myself to learn them, but then I'm also thinking about which of these exercises would help my clients and uh you know I'm pretty I'm very lucky I have a great network of people in strength and conditioning and personal training and stuff that I can kind of bounce ideas off um and that's how I learn new stuff you know you're you're really innovative with your uh the exercise techniques in fact if you looked at my Instagram save clip things, I don't save many Instagram posts, but I'll probably say 30% of the ones I saved are yours.

Okay. Well, thanks. So it's a very good Instagram feed because you do constantly post things with your innovative ways to do hamstring curl or whatever thing you're going with. And I like them because I also have a knee issue. So I'll typically be like, ooh, I could do that, still get my glutes and hamstring curl, but that won't hurt my knee.

So I have a bunch of things on there like that. So what are some of the things you have? Any examples of some exercises? We talked about some modified hamstring curls you're working on. What other things like that? We're going to take a quick break, and we'll get back to that. Fucking lied to me. I know.

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taking on lebron uh my actually one of my good friends trains him he's he's got a full-time guy oh yeah mike manceus oh so michael come out probably then with him yeah yeah yeah my yeah uh mike's out here now. Oh, okay. So how long ahead of time did you know LeBron was coming out? I didn't. Oh, don't lie to me. Don't you lie. Don't you lie.

I wish. Really, all the clients is just kind of like word of mouth. It's kind of random, I guess, when you get people sent your way. I don't always even know. It's less random when it happens over and over again. There's a word of mouth that happens. Yeah, I think people tell their friends. I won't say any specific names, but how funny is it when you look at your phone

and you see a number that you don't recognize, and it's like, hey, Ben, this is Michael Jordan. My friend told me I should try it. I'm coming out here. I'm like, how funny is that to you? Yeah, I mean, it's just, yeah, sometimes it's like, it's weird. I mean, that's how it happens, right? Sometimes, like, you get a text from a number, and it's like, hey,

this is when you're like, wow. Yeah. I mean, yeah. There you go. They're total freaks. The seven-foot basketball player, what do you do with somebody like that? I've never, like, when I see somebody that's, like, 6'8", 6'9", 7' in your garage, and they're deadlifting 4.05 with a trap bar, I'm like, what a freak.

Like, he just pulled that thing 4 foot. Like, it's insane. Yeah. I like Stephanie Cohen's style about moves 8 inches. I tell you, that type of stuff makes me look like a good trainer. But, like, again, training pro athletes, like, it's – they just make you look good. They do stuff that – I frequently say it's hard to explain sometimes the stuff people do, but I just chalk it up to that's why they play on TV and we watch.

Like, you can't necessarily explain it. You know, this guy Myers is 7'1 and can do – I went to his physical therapy, and he did an overhead squat with a dowel, like rock bottom, complete upright torso. He's 7'1, huge, long arms. I have a pretty good build to squat, and he probably did it better than I do. like rock bottom, complete upright torso. He's 7'1", huge, long arms. I have a pretty good build to squat, and he probably did it better than I do.

And I'm like 5'9". Like, it's nothing I did. It's just, you know, he's just like, he's just a beast, you know. A lot of pro athletes, like I said, they just, their learning curve is so quick. And they move well, they're athletic. Do you spend a lot of time segmenting based on like what sport they play or is this just look at the body get it wired as well as possible and let them go do their thing that's interesting because i don't like uh buy in too much to the idea of sport specific training in the way that some trainers do as far as, you know, we're not going to, like, have, like, a –

well, I'm trying to think of how to say this. The main difference, I think, is, like, the conditioning demands of certain sports. But as far as strength training goes, like, basic full-body strength serves just about everyone pretty well. I think sometimes more so than the sport when it comes to training is people's injury history and things like that. And then the conditioning demands is really where things change. You make this sound really dumbed down and easy and like you're just hanging out in your garage, but these people are working their asses off. Yeah, they all are and by the way uh it uh it's yeah it's i think pro the training to you

is a very simple conversation but you're putting a ton of uh like years into this thing but i think to be able to see movement in a manner that matters to you and the athletes are still in their grinding and working their asses off to get better at what they do yeah you work very hard and uh very hard and i put a lot of thought into what i do but like at the end of the day like we're just lifting weights and it's like strength and conditioning so i think you can overthink things quite a bit too um you know, but, uh, one thing that I think, uh, people don't often realize, like if you're a, a pro athlete, that doesn't make you like, uh, the pro athlete equivalent in the gym. Like a lot of, a lot of really good athletes, uh, can really benefit from just a basic strength

and conditioning program. And, uh, you know, for athletes that haven't done that type of stuff, it's, it actually can be pretty life-changing. Like if you just establish a good base of strength and the key movements and stuff. Um, but I, I don't, you know, uh, you could be one of the best in your sport, but not necessarily, like, good in the gym, you know, and I think. Highly skilled is not highly trained. Yeah, you know, like, you know, I'm somebody I would consider myself an advanced lifter. I do, you know, a lot of weight, do, like, the hard exercises, can do, like, you know, pistol squats and, like, all that bullshit. But, like, I suck at most sports, like, you know, like, it just like you know pistol squats and like all that bullshit but

like i suck at most sports like you know like it just you know like all those really unathletic power lifters that pull seven eight hundred pounds yeah that's my point you know that's my point so like you know uh it doesn't always both ways it doesn't always translate you know uh so so you train most of your clients in your garage which which isn't a very big space like even as far as garage gyms go it's pretty small like but you're we were talking to you earlier when we're out there you're like yep this is it it doesn't look like much but like i get it all done right here in the in this small area like what have you learned over time about about getting good results in such a small space because we have a lot of people that probably train in their garage that listen to the show yeah i mean i think uh

if you if you looked at the commonalities between um the the best strength and conditioning coaches because everybody's going to have their differences and that's fine like i i don't actually uh i never would say like you know there's more than one way to do it and uh I mean I I'm obviously like uh partial to my way of doing things but I think there's other ways to do it but it the amongst like the top coaches I think probably you know about 75 percent is going to be the same. And if you look at that 75%, it's just being good at the basics. And then when you think about what that really takes from, like, an equipment standpoint, it's not much, you know. Can you describe what you have out there?

Yeah, I have, well, I mean, I have actually a lot of toys for a small amount of space, but I think one thing is probably I might have a – I don't have a rack, which is pretty interesting. That's unique to me. And the reason being – Because you're a boil person. Boil. Anti-squad. They have tons of racks.

And they bench too. So I don't barbell bench. Typically we dumbbell bench. And I also don't back squat or front squat. So instead we landmine squat. I have the K-box. We do goblet squats, sleds, you know, lunge every which way, split squats, things like that. But we don't back squat or barbell bench.

Most people listening to this have probably never done a landmine squat. Like, in your mind, why is that preferred or even is it preferred? Is it a space issue or, like, why do you do those variations? Well, I think it's – I don't dislike, I like front squats too, but it's actually one of my best exercises personally. But I think that what's cool about a landmine, one of the drawbacks of front squats is that it's not that comfortable on your collarbone and with the landmine it's just more comfortable to hold.

And then it's essentially a front squat from a movement standpoint. But if you just, the bar goes on an arc, so like it travels, I guess nobody can see, but the arc travels a little bit back. So it just helps you stay a little more upright and keep weight on your heels, which people struggle with with this. And with front squats or back squats i think the tendency is for people to kind of fold forward a little and you just can't do that with with a landmine it'll jam into your chest so it's just a little bit easier uh the the obvious uh limitation

is loading so if somebody were trying to do you you know. You got to get it off the ground. It sucks. No, no, no. I just mean, like, there's probably no way. Like, the most I've really ever had anybody, like, landmine squat on a bar is probably, like, maybe 150 pounds of plate loading, which is way harder than 150-pound front squat. I don't know exactly how things translate, but I know, I mean, I've front squatted 425 before and I can, I can only land mine squat like 135 on the bar before I started to full forward. I know it's like a lot harder, but I, um, I don't, there's no way to with,

with a landmine or a goblet squat or anything to, from a lower body loading standpoint, to, like, recreate super heavy squats. But that's not, like, the type of people I work with. I'm not training, I'm not training lifters that are doing those types of loads. So for my purposes, it's totally fine. A lot of the training that I feel like I do these days is I just have kind of

like the structural, like in my brain, I just think about the structural integrity of staying healthy. When you're working with really high-level athletes, is there a performance piece that you're kind of trying to help them get to or just keep them injury-free and make sure all the shit works really well? Well, staying healthy is obviously the biggest part, but I don't really like when I hear people say that the goal is just to stay healthy because I think you can – a lot of pro athletes,

just as I was saying that you can be a very high-level athlete and not be super high-level in the gym, a lot of athletes have a lot of untapped potential training wise and so uh it's not like they just come in and we're just like gonna pack it in and do like foo-foo bullshit no and try to stay healthy because i and i actually i mean in sports i think being weak is dangerous too so uh we uh, we're going to train really hard. Um, I, I think that I, I take, uh, everything for me there, you know, with anybody I train, it comes down to risk reward. And I think that that is, uh, always going to be different. That's a case by case thing, but,

um, I tend to be a bit of a mom as a trainer. Like I'm kind of overly cautious sometimes, but I think that we still, we still train hard, but it, but, uh, I'm not, um, I think my exercise selection is probably a little more conservative than some, but, but I, I don't, I don't feel comfortable saying that you just train to stay healthy because I do think that getting strong, you know, helps you in a lot of ways. Yeah. Yeah. And I actually think getting strong helps you in terms of staying healthy, like big time. So.

Can you go back to the question that I tried to ask before Anders cut me off and went to a break? Yeah, Anders. When we're talking about... Oh, my God, we're recording over another show. We have to stop. I didn't even think that we didn't come back to this question. Of course you didn't, because you know why?

You don't care about me. I didn't consider it. Every time Galpin's on, he hogs the mic. We've got to find our ways to get in here. Man has a point. Ask Natasha. She'll agree. And we're ready for a break. It's been great, man. Thank you for being on the show.

And we'll wrap. With the way that you innovate exercises, so you went through, and I would love for you to recreate this as it's organic, like we never did this. But just the different hamstring exercises you're coming up with. You talked about the Nordic curl and how you didn't like that as much, how people were doing the glute ham raise and maybe weren't getting out of it what they think. And then what you did to solve that. Just any innovations like that I think are really interesting. Cool.

So what you're talking about is just, well, I actually didn't create slideboard-like curls or body curls. Yes, you did. For this episode, you did too. But I think that- They're called Bruno's. Yes. Bruno curls.

Boom. Done. I'll take it. I'll take it. Hashtag it. Yeah. What you people also don't know is you also invented the hip thrust and then Brett Kankara stole it from you. No. No, no, no. That's also not true. God damn it. Yeah. What you people also don't know is you also invented the hip thrust, and then Brett Concare stole it from you. No.

No, no, no. That's also not true. God damn it. Yeah. No, what you were talking about was leg curls on the slide board where your feet are on the slide board, and then you progress to your shoulders being on. And that's called a body curl.

And that, I think, I got that from mike boyle again and then the way that we progress that is like through single leg and we do loaded it's almost i guess a cross between that hip thrust concept and the body curl concept where you actually put a barbell on your waist and bridge up and then lower down so it's a knee flexion based hamstring exercise, um, with emphasis on the eccentric component of it. Um, similar to a glute ham, but, uh, the form just tends to be better. And you don't see people, uh, with that big, like, uh, arched back, ass out, like anterior pelvic tilt type stuff. It's just the same idea, but probably, I want to say safer, but it's funny. Like I think sometimes people talk about, like I've never actually seen anybody,

to be fair, I've never really seen anybody get hurt doing glute ham raises. Oh, I definitely fucked my back up massively. Really? Oh, yeah. Well, cool. Because I look at like some of the stuff, not cool, but like cool. Thanks, man. Oh, I definitely fucked my back up massively. Really? Oh, yeah. Well, cool. Because I look at some of the stuff, not cool, but like cool. Thanks, man.

I'm glad you heard. Thank you for having a fucked up back for this example. Yeah, exactly. Thanks for taking one for the team. We needed one. That is time you do an interview and now you can say, I know one guy. You really took one for the team. I appreciate it. You're welcome.

But, yeah, no, sometimes you just look at the way that people perform glute ham raises, and it just doesn't seem safe, and it also doesn't seem like they're getting from it what they're trying to get from it. I assume you mean overusing back arching as opposed to hamstring. Yeah, exactly. So I think that is why I don't do those as much. Now, again, just like what I was saying about CrossFit, I don't have a problem with people that are like the savages that do it well.

I can actually do glute ham raises well. You're sober. But I don't prescribe without hurting his back. I've seen people, I actually saw, I've seen this shit going around the internet, which I just think is cool. I used to talk shit about Nordic ham curls

because I said I've never seen anybody really be able to do it without just pushing off. It's just like a free fall to a push up type thing. And then now it's like I've been seeing these, it's blown like a free fall to a push-up type thing and then now it's like i've i've been seeing these like uh it's blown up videos go viral of these people like doing it and no hands and i i mean i think it's awesome but i saw a girl do like eight in a row or something really oh it got it became a challenge i saw two guys playing chess doing it and one would go down

and move his chest piece and then slowly come back up and then the other guy would go down move their chest piece and come back up fuck you ben sometimes i feel like a hypocrite because i'm i think that like i'll talk about how that stuff's done but then i just love watching the the outliers that can do it well you know and i i mean uh i mean that's just badass to me but it still still isn't, like, going to, like, make the cut in, like, a general program. Yeah. You know? So...

Your actresses probably aren't doing that. They're probably not making that cut. Yeah. So, I think a lot of what I try to think about in training is, like, how can you – I mean, there's no way really that I've found – I wish there was a way to train so hard to see really good results in the gym, whether it's for strength or for appearance or whatever, without training really hard.

But I also think that if you can minimize the wear and tear on your body in the process that's a good thing you know and uh and then i also think that sometimes strength and conditioning people are like the you know the the people that kind of just live for training i think once a lot of them arguments that i see online and stuff come from people like uh not taking context into account what no just like not the internet yeah never yeah you know um you know just like uh you know people that just like live to lift don't realize that like most people don't care about what exercises they do they just want you know and know, and, uh, I think, um, in general, if, if you can get results with less wear and tear on your body, that's a good thing.

And, and where I think some people miss the boat is they really think you only start doing this stuff once you're hurt. But to me, like with my clients, like I don't really ever want them to get to the point where they're hurt. So I think if you can see results with stuff that's like a more joint friendly, so to speak, then that's just going to be better. And to clarify, you don't mean you're not doing eight pound dumbbell. No, no, no. Like you're still squatting and lunging and pressing and pushing. Yeah. Yeah. I just think, um, if you like, uh, if you could – I'm trying to think of a tangible example. You know, I think you're probably better off in the long run doing front-loaded squats than back-loaded squats.

You know, I don't think you'll really talk to somebody that's done – you won't talk to many people that do heavy ass back squats for a long time that don't have back problems, you know, and, uh, again, um, you know, that, that being one example. So when you talk about front loaded squats, that could be front squats, that could be goblet squats, that could be landmine squats, whatever, but I think that type of stuff in general would be more user-friendly. I think that, uh, I don't really do conventional deadlifts with any of my clients. That's another, you know, uh, I think most of the internet arguments come from, um, from back squats, but we don't, we don't do conventional deadlifts and actually very rarely sumo deadlifts if we do sumos they're lighter but

i don't do conventional deadlifts because uh i prefer the trap bar and think that you from a training standpoint it's similar enough that i don't see any reason to do conventional deadlifts now i don't look and go like oh that's like a horrible exercise, but I just go all things being equal, I have a hex bar. I would just use that instead. And now the way I teach the hex bar kind of depends. Like some clients do more of a squat style hex bar, which I would call like a hex bar squat, I guess. Some people do more of a hex bar Romanian deadlift and some clients do kind of somewhere in between which more mimics like a conventional deadlift just with a hex bar and

I think just having the your hands at the sides as opposed to in front is just a little bit safer and you don't really lose anything from a you know um again now i don't i don't train any power lifters so if you power lifted you would have to do that stuff but like for all other purposes uh i don't think you like lose anything using a hex bar and you and you can just kind of uh change your form to get the training effect you're looking for but uh yeah we don't we don't do any conventional deadlifts. What was the study that you just posted, Dr. Eddie Joe, just put up about hex bar, straight bar, deadlifts?

That was my study that that motherfucker reproduced, put on his platform, acted like that was his shit. Well, if you put a nice infographic up... Just like Eddie would do that. Just like Eddie. He is very artful. He makes an infographic out of my study. And guess who he didn't tag and give credit to that study to?

I love that. Jimmy. I love that. And I just published a paper like three days ago where he's a co-author on. He's definitely not giving you street cred on that one. No Instagram cred. No, no. We did it.

This is a. Fuck, Gal. Well, you know what's funny about it? Dr. Eddie Joe. I'll do this shit acapella over here. See, that type of stuff's annoying. What I think is funny about Instagram... Him not tagging you?

I know. No, no, no. So this is what I was going to say. The internet's such a weird... Ben Bruno says, fuck you, Eddie. Not tagging me. My own goddamn study. What's up, Eddie?

No, no, no. I was going to say something different. The internet, to me, is a funny place because people just love to start shit when there's no issues. For example, I will frequently share exercises. I'll put out an exercise and say, hey, give this one a try. like inevitably for several days after that these people send me messages of people of other people's videos doing the exercise but like they didn't like tag me and they're like this guy's like stealing your shit this guy's stealing your fucking exercise you know who i'm like exercise right now instagram and you're like instagram owns it they know but you're like, dude, I literally told everyone to try this. I just did.

I mean, I guess it would be nice to be tagged, but we're just like, I literally told people to try this thing. And all these people are like, this guy's doing this, and this guy's doing that. And I'm like, I told them. That's cool. I used to get those all the time. That's the thing. I like when you're like, dude, I

saved that's why I share that shit. When you put out educational information, the point is for other people to take it. The whole point is for people to try it. There's no issue there. I think the study you're talking about is we did

a bunch of different things where we looked at hex bar versus conventional deadlift, EMG, and things like that. And what we found with force production and all that typical stuff, what we found versus what we saw internally was a little

bit different. I think one of the interesting things was when we looked at muscle activation between the trap bars, because traditionally people talk about how a conventional deadlift versus a trap bar, a trap bar is more vertical. Right? And so it would be more quad activation, less low back. Well, I want to cut you off, but then I'll let you talk.

The thing I have to say when you say, here's the thing. When you say the trap bar is more vertical, the answer is it can be more vertical. So here's why you do it more vertical. Or you can just like, so here's why you should let me finish, you asshole. That's fair.

Fair point. Because, listen, personal trainer, I have a PhD. Have you heard Snoop Dogg's thing about the PhD? No. I've always had a PhD. Pretty huge dick. Fucking Snoop Dogg. Man, hey, did you know Warren G just came out with a new documentary?

No. It's called G-Funk. Really? It's on YouTube, but you have to have one of those membership things to watch it. I was so jacked last night. Tell me you watched the Cash Money Records one. No. Oh, you are missing out.

I don't think I can do that. Birdman put out the first half of his life. Please be arbitrary here. Tell me that's garbage hip-hop. It changed a lot of things. Thumbs down. Thank you, Ben Bruno. Thumbs down.

Fuck, that's garbage. Birdman put out... Dude. That is not hip-hop. Dude, Lil Wayne being 13 years old, chugging cough syrup with Birdman, and then Birdman fucking stealing all of his money is not something you're interested in?

That part's pretty awesome. Yeah. I can't jive on that. That's like a business piece. Like, look, that little 13-year-old, let's get him hopped up on some cough medicine. Jack all of his rhymes. Yeah.

Anyways, what we found with the muscle activation. The second half of the show. Well, what we noticed was the people that actually did the hex bar deadlift in the exact same position that they did their conventional deadlift in. Guess what? Guess what? No difference in muscle activation. Uh-huh. So that's exactly the point you just said.

So what we found in the study was actually a bit different because you have to report group means and things like that. Sure, sure. But individually, we were able to be like, well, that person actually, even though he used a different implement, he didn't execute it any differently than he had executed the other thing. So it was, to me, I tried to put this out there, that this is a reminder about how execution trumps everything. Sure. And so that's the thing. So when we use the hex bar, for example.

So you didn't need to cut me off because I was going to say the same thing you said anyway. Yeah, you did. Well, cool. Right on, man. I'm glad. Yeah. So what I would say. Fuck your science, Andy.

You don't need your science. Yeah, exactly. I'm in the, I learned my science in the trenches. I hate when people say that. I hate when people say that. That's so stupid. But. It's like, I learned how to be a personal trainer.

Well, you know, it's funny because I'm probably one of those schmucks in the trenches. But when people say that, I'm like, dude, why the fuck would you want to be in the trenches it's like a badge of honor but like anyway uh with the hex bar i we kind of have three ways to use the hex bar because you know uh one is an rdl like i tend to prefer rdls with the hex bar better than RDLs with the straight bar. I don't like, we actually do do RDLs with the straight bar too a little bit, but typically with the hex bar. But more often we use the hex bar for what would be like akin to a conventional deadlift, but you're just holding the hex bar. And then I also use the hex bar extensively and the other thing too a lot of people do high handle hex bar and i do that in some cases but i like to progress people

to low handle so in general when i'm talking about hex bar we use low handles if people are able to and so it'll either be like more of a conventional deadlift type thing or more of a squatty motion, which I would use for... I typically think of things in terms of hip dominant or knee dominant. I would use the hip dominant version of the hex bar to replace a hip dominant conventional deadlift, I would use the knee dominant version of the trap bar, uh, to replace something like a front squat for somebody that has, uh, that can't necessarily front squat well with good form or has knee problems or something. I think, uh, the, uh, trap bar squat type movement can be a very good knee friendlyfriendly way to train that pattern. Like a low handle, trap bar, deadlift, squat, whatever you want to call it.

So we use it in different ways. Again, part of that is, again, I'm personal training, so I can just show people, like, here's how you're going to do it. That might be not as easy to do if you were training big groups and stuff, but that's just, uh, how, how I do it. Okay. I was going to say,

how do you handle cardio out here? That's exactly the question I was going to have. Stole it. Unbelievable. Seriously, that's what I was going to ask. Just run that hill. Yeah.

You got hills out here for sure. I mean, cardio, all kinds of stuff. you know, uh, for some goals, we don't really do any cardio,

you know, but I think, analogy that I use that I think resonates with people because it's simple. Like, I like simple analogies, but I always usually say that strength training is the entree and cardio is the side dish, meaning, like, they're both good but in the right proportions like you know the entree is going to comprise a bigger part of your meal than the side dish but you also just like wouldn't want just like a steak on your plate with nothing else you know i actually would like yeah because i just like steak and actually i'm a good example because i also just like hate cardio, so I'm fine with chest lifting. It's a universal thing for you. In theory. A lot of guys are cool. Yeah, in theory.

That's like every guy ever. No, and I actually do cardio. You know, I don't like it, but I do it. You have to walk to the gym. Yeah, exactly. To the garage. Four steps. One, two, three. Hey, guys, I'm done. Yeah, no. And I have to say, the last, like, two years, I've kind of got into it a little bit more.

How dare you. Yeah, you know. You have two of the nastiest pieces of cardio equipment. That VersaClimber, is that what it is? Yeah, the VersaClimber's a beast. And the Roper thing. Honestly, we only have, like, we don't have any of of like the the wussy cardio stuff like there's no like elliptical like you got four things of death out there you have an airdyne no no there's like

20 things of death that's basically a death trap out there but we uh there's uh the airdyne airdyne versaclimber nasty versaclimber skier got. VersaClimber. Skier. You got that prowler with the wheels. The Endless Rope. Sled. The Hill. The Hill. Just the Hill Sprint will fuck you up all day long. Oh, that shit's hard. Well, here's the thing. Yeah.

The hardest one is whichever one you're doing at the time. Like, if you do the Airdyne, like, all out. We'll just chop that right there. That's so good. When you go ham on the airdyne you're just like i spent so like because i'm one of those people that just loves like kicking the shit out of myself in the gym like i i'm surprised it's funny that i like hate crossfit because i have that mentality where i just like to beat the shit out of myself you know like

i love that feeling of like just like huffing and puffing whatever but uh when i do like the airdyne for so we have certain challenges like on the airdyne we have a 0.5 challenge just a half mile as fast as you can go and you know everyone competes against each other that's who wins that's so fucking hardly how much time does it take people usually? Well, I had one dude did 47 seconds. Yeah, okay. We have a lot of guys in like the 50 to 52 range, which is hard. I'm at like I think like 54, but it's miserable. Brutal. And every time you do it, like even like my record's 54,

but like anything under a minute and you just want to die. Like it's just hard. But you get off that thing and you're like, that was the hardest workout of my life. You could have just done 1.5 and you're like, that was just the hardest workout of my life. But then the next day you do the VersaClimber and we have challenges on that. Like how far you can go in a minute or how far you can go in 30 seconds. And you do that, balls to the wall and you're like nope the versa climber's harder you know and you know it just is you know

you're girls that was doing uh uh pressing up or pushing up the hill with the sled and then it took off as a big internet challenge people were trying yeah you know it's it's pretty cool. So, like, we share some videos, and I really enjoy, like, you know, it's funny because people mostly talk about, like, the problems with social media, but I actually love it. Like, because, you know, I learn cool stuff, and then, like, I think it's pretty cool. Like, it's actually crazy to me I'm not a very technologically savvy person so it's like absolutely insane that I could share some video and like if you saw how dumb I am with phones like you'd die like I'm basically like a caveman trying to figure out how to post shit but then you can do that it like finally posts and then within 24 hours people all over the world are doing it and you're like that's awesome you know like that's awesome like i can't believe somebody in

australia is now doing these sleds and trying to like and do that that blows my mind uh you know and i think it's really cool. Like, I think competition can be huge for pushing you to new levels. Like, you know, that's how I train. I like to compete against my friends and stuff. And, you know, you can do that on the Internet too. You know, I think it's actually pretty badass. I forget who I was talking to just recently, just a couple days ago. I can't's actually pretty badass. I forget who I was talking to just recently,

just a couple days ago, and I can't remember who they are, but they were saying that, I don't know where they were, but there was some booth somewhere, and every time a group of guys who have been drinking would come by the booth wherever the hell they happened to be, they always had the one-minute Airdyne challenge that they were

trying to recruit people to do. If you don't know what you're getting yourself into, and you're a little bit drunk, got a couple beers in you, and you got, like, three or four buddies around you that are, like, egging you on, calling you a fucking pussy, like, telling you to go faster, you are fucking guaranteed to throw up. It's going to be the worst day of that dude's life. It's like a 500-meter row test.

Yeah, just jump on. It's 500. No big deal. Yeah, that stuff sucks. I did a 2, 2000 once on the rower and that yeah that sucked yeah i'm not yeah i'm yeah i'm my new kick is uh how far you can go in 30 seconds on the versa and then the 0.5 test on the back to back airdyne no no no no fuck no you only that type of stuff you can only do one.

Like, when you really test yourself, like, there's a big difference with the conditioning stuff and testing yourself versus training. So, like,

for example, like, I bet if I left it up to my basketball guys, they would just try to take down the record every single day, but I have to tell them.

Can you imagine, like, a seven-footer climbing on the VersaClimber, just, like, arms flailing all over? And they beast that thing. We have these arm extenders, too.

I mean, honestly, there's a bunch of... They're becoming savages on the VersaClimber. We have I think like four guys right now over 180 feet on the Versa in 30 seconds, which is flying. I mean, I guess nobody has any context, but that's flying.

It's interesting how the VersaClimber hasn't really, like, infused its way into the CrossFit space yet. Like, airdynes and rowers are so prominent, but VersaClimbers just never really made their way in. But they're a great tool for just burning yourself into the ground metabolically in a very safe environment. I'm going to try to find a way to do a kipping Versa, and then that shit will take off.

A salt-woven airdyne. Like, Schwinn had the air bike, but they couldn't make them to hold... Like, once you started pumping out some real, like, watts into that thing, they would just explode. So a salt came by and made one that could actually handle strong people. That's another issue I got with CrossFit. They're so popular now that the airdyne now,

the default setting is on calories, which is annoying to me. But I think I realized it was because those workouts are based on calories. It used to be on watts, but now it's like a pain in the ass. I like to do everything by watts, but now it's all based on calories. So I have to, like, whenever i do it i have to like go back through the computer a couple buttons how annoying if you knew how dumb i am with the buttons i i spend my whole day in the gym and it's like it's like uh you ever seen that movie 50 first dates like every time i navigate like the computer it's like the first time

video for the tv out there dude i mean yeah if you ever try to watch me do machinery you would just be like this guy is so dumb and you'd be right stay in your lane train people yeah exactly train good athletes pick things up and put you had some pretty interesting comments earlier about volume too we're talking about rep ranges and you said strength training a bunch of times kind of is the king and but to clarify that you're not talking about doing max effort singles or doubles like what is strength training to you yeah so so that's what we're talking off air but uh we're talking about like the kind of textbook ideas of like you know uh one to five reps being strength eight to twelve reps

being hypertrophy 12 to 15 being muscular endurance or whatever and then i just don't even think you can describe anything over 15 reps because it's zero it doesn't exist it just doesn't yeah it's just nothing happens i guess uh i guess that's cardio but you know's hundreds on T Nation. Yeah. So. You got him with that. That was good. That was a deep, good belly rub, too. He's read that article. Yeah.

I probably wrote it. It's an idiot. Loser! Exactly. Exactly. exactly uh so what i was saying though is for me uh the the rep ranges i use on exercises it's very it's not as much about that because that to me uh is like textbook stuff but not that not that practical but like each exercise kind of has like a like a sweet spot, I think, that it's hard to explain, but it kind of just, like, makes sense for that exercise. Meaning, well, Andy, we were talking, like, the first rep on deadlifts is, like, always the worst rep.

And so I tend to deadlift. I'm different from a lot of trainers in this way. And, again, nothing's, like, right or wrong. I'm just telling you guys what I think. But I tend to prefer doing deadlifts in, like, the 8 to 10 rep range. And we do touch and go style. We don't reset. I had some clown, like, say I showed this basketball guy deadlifting,

and he was doing touch and go. And some guy was like, that's not like deadlifts. Like, it's fucking deadlifts, you know. What is it then? Yeah, exactly. It's just deadlifts. You're right. Those are bench presses.

He was like, you know. James, now do you want one? Yeah, exactly. Like, it's just deadlifts. But, like, the reason that we do it that way, first off, again, we're hex barring. So I do a touch and go hex bar. And the reason for that is, like, I think the first rep is usually the worst, like the ugliest rep when you're breaking the bar off the floor.

So I try to basically have as few of those as I can. And touch-and-go, we don't, like, slam the bar. It's not bounce-and-go? Yeah, it's more of a kiss and a bounce, you know? Sometimes it's like, and again, that's like. I don't know how you kiss, but. Softly. Like that, yeah.

That's why I'm single. Reminds me of Mallrats. They're in there and they're messing up. Exactly. Man, there was some pressure. Yeah. It was a great movie. Yeah.

So good. Jay and Silent Bob. Amazing. So I forget what I was talking about Jay lost a bunch of weight yeah exactly he's down like 120 pounds or something or Bob did

I love how they're like the opposite in real life like Kevin Smith does all the talking and I don't know Jay Jason Mewes he kind of just sits there and smiles so while we're talking about rep ranges, I tend to live like most of my clients Thank you, Ben, for getting us back on track.

kind of go like in the 8 to 12 range. And the main reason being, I think it's just a good sweet spot of kind of safety, strength benefits. Logistically, like if you're doing a dumbbell press, the safety, strength benefits, logistically. Like, if you're doing a dumbbell press, for example, it's one to five might be, like, best for strength, but it's, like, damn near impossible to, like, kick up the dumbbells on, like, a three rep max.

Like, you just can't. So, like, a lot of it is just practical. Like, you know, I think practical trumps perfect every time. And I think that when also, you know, probably more people get hurt doing stuff in the 3 to 5 range than 8 to 12. And so that's just kind of why we do it. Again, I don't train, like, power lifters and stuff. So you've said a couple times that you, for the most part, stick to total body workouts. Occasionally you do upper-lower splits.

It's going to be different for every person, of course, due to the questions that you mentioned earlier. But what would be like an example of a full single workout? So typically the way that I program is, and again, there are exceptions and stuff, but I tend to do things in tri-sets. So I'll do like three exercises at a time. And there's several ways that you can, so there's several examples of a tri-set. One would be a lower body exercise, an upper body exercise, and a core exercise. One would be, um, a upper body push, an upper body pull, and a core exercise. Um, it could be, uh, a hip dominant movement, a knee dominant movement, you know, something like that, but it's typically three exercises. So, uh, the way, and, and on paper that looks like, uh, you know, cause I, I, I email clients workouts all the time on paper

that looks like a one, a two, a three B one B two B three. And so what that means is that say we're doing four sets each of the A exercises. You would do A1, then go to B, then you'd go A1, do a set, A2, do a set, A3, do a set, then go back to A1 and do your second set, A2, do your second set, and so on and so forth for your four sets. And now that set, it's not really like a circuit in the sense of like nascar pit crew from like one to the next like whatever it's kind of like uh it's like hurry up but don't rush from one thing to the next catch your breath um i think you need to be fully to mostly recovered during the strength like when you're doing strength training,

uh, you need to be like fully to mostly recovered. Like if you're doing those type of exercises for a metabolic effect and that's different, but like when we're training for strength, we take a lot of time to recover, uh, a lot being, uh, it's hard to tag that down. Cause I think if you do a set of a dumbbell bench you don't need as much recovery as if you did a set of deadlifts so it kind of depends on the exercise if you do a set of core you don't need hardly any recovery for the next thing but if you do a set of 10 squats or 10 deadlifts you might need five minutes it just depends so fully to mostly recovered kind of going through and i think that's um

and we'll typically do like two tri sets and then maybe some sort of finisher and finisher can be like conditioning or finisher can be like arm type stuff but typically uh most like regular people do about two tri sets and a finisher in an hour and that's a that's kind of a workout are you training gen pop people still yeah oh cool tons yeah uh-huh um it's actually i mean i uh i train you know athletes actually pretty small part of what i do um it's just that's very seasonal yeah so yeah it's, it's typically tri sets, uh, and we'll do about two tri sets and a finisher. You know, I think, you know, I used to have a friend, uh, who was at men's fitness and when I would send in workouts,

he would always be like, dude, your workouts are, like, so, like, short compared to everyone else on paper, but, like, they get good feedback. And, like, I think that's, like, the difference when you just send in a workout that, like, you actually did with, like, a real dude for an hour versus, like, sitting at your computer and just trying to look smart for an article. Like, when you train people all day, like, most of the shit I read, I'm like, no, like, real people aren't doing that workout. Like, that's fucking brutal.

Yeah. And, like, I think a good, like, hour-long workout for an average person doesn't necessarily look, like, crazy on paper. But, like, that's what people do. And, like, that's what's, you know. So if you had a client, Jen Pop, and they were doing four days a week working out, are you going to do conditioning at the end of all four of those workouts or three of those workouts?

And if so, how much? You said, I mean, sometimes is that one round on the Airdyne or the hill? No, no, no. So the one round is just if somebody's – there's a difference between testing and training, and that's, like like kind of my issue with a lot of workout programs a lot of workout programs just like take you to hell and back each day and that to me isn't like training that's just like testing yourself and there's a time and a place for that i love like just kind of throwing aside the plan and just kind of like seeing what

you're made of like i like live for that shit's why i get hurt all the time too but you know like i just i really love uh a good challenge but i don't think that that's a good fitness program if that makes sense and so like uh for example if if you uh if you could do a 0.5 on the airdyne in 50 seconds once. And that's, like, your max. If I wanted you to do five of them, you'd probably have to go in, like, the minute two range to be able to repeat it. You know? But if you take it to the extreme, it'd be like if you just, like, crushed, like, the old classic,

which I also like, like the 20 rep back squats. Oh, boy. You know? this takes me back to college took us an hour and a half but we got there where the last the last 10 reps you're just like questioning your life if you were to take that that uh yeah if you were to do that same weight again i don't care if you rest an hour you're probably going to get like 12 reps it's just how it is like you kind of blow your load and that's how it is with anytime you do one of those conditioning tests you blow your load so like that's not that's not something you would want to do all the time you know um i think when you say the conditioning well first off when you do strength training in that tri-set format and when you do full-body strength training,

you do get a cardio or conditioning effect no matter what. Like if you're doing, you know, anybody that's ever lifted weights, if you do a set of 10 reps, a set of 10 deadlifts, a set of 10 dumbbell rows, and a set of 10 dumbbell rows and a set of 10 dumbbell shoulder press, you're sweating after that. It's cardio. If you watch your heart rate, that's interval training. But we also usually do, for most of my clients' goals,

there's some form of cardio in there too. And you're not monitoring heart rate. You're not really worried about it. Sometimes we do. Yes, we were heart rate monitors sometimes. Some clients, yes. Some clients, no. I actually spent two years of my life charting my heart rate

for every strength exercise I ever did because I was very interested. So this is actually really geeky. Every strength exercise. Well, so what I did is I was curious in which exercises affected heart rate the most, both conditioning and I learned pretty quick that like upper body stuff doesn't really get your heart rate up to any level to be like worth noting. But like, for example, I spent so much time again, like i don't have a lot of friends as you can probably tell but like i spent time doing stuff like doing sets of welcome to the conversation blood like sets of 10 squats for example monitoring like how high my heart rate got doing 95 for 10 135 for 10 185 for 10 225 275 315 like until i couldn't get 10 type of thing i did the same thing with hex bar from light to heavy because

i have always kind of like believed that heavy weights get your heart rate up higher or like but i was like curious to the extent and so i did it for deadlifts i did it for squats uh front squats i should say um i did it for dumbbell rows oddly i uh dumbbell rows with heavy weight get your heart rate or my heart rate uh as high as most of the lower body stuff, like a heavy, like almost like a, like a kind of cheat dumbbell row, 10, 10 reps per arm, got my heart rate sky high, but like doing like chest supported rows didn't chin ups didn't. Uh, but I did, um, single leg Romanian deadlifts. I did heavy Bulgarian split squats for 10 each side. I also did heavy

Bulgarian split squats for 5 each side. I just tested stuff. I did walking lunges, heavy walking lunges. And then I would compare the sets of 10 with the weights to 30 seconds on the various cardio machines. Cause the sets tended to be about 30 seconds. And, uh, I just kind of was curious, like, uh, you know,

bogey like heavy. So doing, uh, nothing got my heart rate higher than a heavy set of 10 Bulgarian split squats without any rest in between. So, So that's kind of like cheating a little because I guess you could say it's 20 reps. But second to walking lunges, like heavy split squats and walking lunges got my heart rate. Like my numbers, I think, you know, again, it's relative to anything else, but I think I got around like 173 after 10 on each side. But what I would do is i would just it's not perfect science so like probably like as a scientist you're just like thinking i'm a douche but like i've thought that for yeah two hours yeah that's fine but like again it's no perfect but i would

basically just took took a bunch of rest until my heart rate got uh down like yeah you know whatever and then i would go again so and i just charted like building up um and i because i was also curious like uh i've always had like i've i'm curious how certain conditioning stuff even works like like uh i used to test my heart rate because i've always kind of felt like battling ropes were kind of like bullshit conditioning. Like I see them as like really popular, uh, but I've always kind of thought it's stupid. Great for photo shoots. Yeah, exactly. And actually, but, but so like when you wear a heart rate monitor, you realize it's like not very good for cardio and you know, your arms, they're hard, but like your arms give out before you can really like get it, you know, your arms, they're hard, but, like, your arms give out before you can really, like, get it, you know. So I think probably we use them sometimes, like, for just a change of pace.

And one thing that I did that I think which I actually like is I got – they're actually women's ropes rope so they're lighter and can actually get your heart rate a lot higher because your arms don't give out so again like uh uh that came from when you use a heavy rope like your heart rate just doesn't get very high it's basically like uh i would program something like that i guess i well i actually wouldn't program it but if i were going to i would do it in place of like uh maybe like front raises or like lateral raises as like a finisher for arms than i would for conditioning like i think you kind of have to know what you're doing but i think too often people use that as like cardio when it's not uh very i guess it is any it's cardio but i wouldn't say it's the best cardio. Right on, dude.

This is a blast. Where can people find you? Laying on your couch on Instagram. Yeah, exactly. Fucking rad. I love that. Yeah, exactly. Couch side planks.

Blood so stealing your game over there. If that's my legacy on the world, I'm totally cool with it. Yeah, I mean, pretty much that, I guess. Yeah, I have a website, which is just my name, Ben Bruno. And then I do, like, Instagram and Facebook and shit. What's your Instagram handle? Ben Bruno Training. Yeah, either Ben Bruno or Ben Bruno Training.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Ben Bruno Training, I think. Doc, what do we got? You can also read a ton of your stuff still up on T Nation, right? Yeah, T Nation and, yeah. I'm going to look up that 100 Wrap article and see if that really was you.

Yeah. That'd be great. You wrote a lot for that website. You've got a ton up there. Yeah. What do you think of T Nation these days without ruining anybody's friendships? I like it.

I mean, I think it's... I think it's... The best strength and conditioning articles are on there. So I think that some of them, I wouldn't say, are in that category. But I think that the best – like, if somebody were to tell me I want to get into writing, where should I write? That's what I would say. I would say T-Nation.

I think I've read the best – I've learned more from that website than any website. Yeah. They were kind of the first. I've learned more from that website than any website. They were kind of the first. It's got a bunch of schmucks like Brett Contreras and Eric Cressy and all those jerks that write for that. Why is Contreras in the game these days?

It's a glute squad. What does Eric Cressy guy know about shoulders anyways? What's he doing? Eric and Brett are two of my best friends in training. But I've always,

you know, the internet's a funny place. I remember doing these articles. I'll never forget. One was like about Bulgarian split squats. And I was like the dude in the video.

Like I was in all the videos just like doing them. You were puffy. And like doing them like super, super, like I go like you were puffy and like doing them like like i go like meathead on single leg stuff too so i was doing like heavy weight i don't remember how much weight it was on split squats but like all these comments were like can we get a can we get a rider that actually lifts and i'm like fuck like have like I'm like on the short

I'm in the running for the world's smallest calves so anything I ever do on the internet it could be just like chin ups I've actually people would probably tell me like you only can do that because you're calves it just is what it is

so I'll probably get calf implants it's easy we don't have to pull anything up I'll just get calf implants or something. It's easy. We don't have to pull anything up. Yeah. I'll just get implants or something. Calf implants. That was a thing. I watched that on MTV one day. I'm thinking about it. Calf implants.

True life. True life. People do like. I got implants. Yeah. People do like. One of my buddies was one of the guys they interviewed in the bar on it. Like, would you get calf implants?

I was like, I know that guy. It seems way easier than actually working out. Yeah. True that. Around here, you have to put that into your initial athlete questionnaire. Where do you have implants? We know you have

them. Just where are they? It's funny. Oh, that's an LA joke. It's a Beverly Hills joke. We're not in la bro beverly hills i have my my uh client application it's not i don't really actually like send it out but it's more just a joke but it just uh it's it says there's only two things it says one are you nice and you can circle yes or no and then two I ask for a picture of their dog. And those are the only two criteria. I'm a real dog person. So, like, my gym is like, I don't have a dog,

so I kind of live vicariously through other people's dogs. Nice. So I have a very dog-friendly gym. Well, you can come down and see Ghostface Killer anytime you want. Yeah, I'm down. That's the best name for a dog ever, Ghostface Killer. Yeah. He's the shit, down. That's the best name for a dog ever. Ghostface Killer. Yeah. He's the shit, man.

It's crazy. What kind of dog? He's a rescue, so he's... Okay. But he's mostly German and Aussie. Cool. Jeopardy, yeah. He's a mix.

Gangster. He's a complete goofball. Jump in the ice bath. Yeah. Jump in the freezer. Call a mate. Do some training in the garage. Hang with the dog.

Andy Galpin. What's up, buddy? Where can people find you? Oh, yeah. Sorry. Just in the garage. Hang with the dog. Andy Galpin. What's up, buddy? Where can people find you? Oh, yeah. Sorry. Just andygalpin.com. Yeah. Dr. Andy Galpin on the socials.

The 20 to 55 minute physiology on YouTube. I blast those out. I know you don't read my fucking emails. I write about you all the time because I dig the YouTubes that you put out. I have to say the email you wrote out the newsletter about the simultaneous birth of our daughters. Fucking awesome.

Anders and I had daughters in the same day. The title of the email was something like The Revolution of Female Strength Training Has Begun. It took me about two and a half days to write an email making fun of Mark Ripito using our daughters as the basis for it. Really?

It was awesome. It was great. It was good. Well, I'll forward it to you. Sign up for the mailing list, Dad. Barbell shrugged back. Eat that whole bag. The easier way to find me, too, is also just on Ben Bruno's Instagram,

liking every single thing he puts up. So just search through the likes. You'll find my name on there. Doug Larson. Appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. Very likely by the time this episode posts, I should have a new website, DougLarsonFitness.com.

I probably won't put a whole lot of weekly content on there, but I do plan to put some courses that I'm going to be recording very soon. Including our weightlifting one. You should plug that. Ooh. Ooh. Maybe that's already gone. Maybe I have to come to the next one. Oh, the seminar you mean?

Yeah, the seminar. Oh, not the online course. Yeah, me and Andy are going to be doing a weightlifting seminar with Travis Mash called Comp Camp, getting you ready to approach your first weightlifting competition. It's going to be at the Mash Compound. You guys are recording that? We need to discuss that. We have discussed that, but I'm not sure

if that's actually going to happen or not as far as putting it out as a digital product. But that's at the end of August. So go to Travis Mash's website, mashleet.com and look at the events slash seminars tab and it should be on there. Or send me a message. You can DM us

for sure. Or of course you can follow me on Instagram, Douglas E. Larson. At Douglas E. Larson, do that. I'm all over the Strug Collective. That's what I do. Come on, Dad. E. Larson. At Douglas E. Larson, do that. I'm all over the Shrug Collective. That's what I do. Monday, Proof, Viviana Smith. Wednesday, Barbell Shrugged, my boy

Doug Larson. And everything else, Shrug Collective, trying to keep Bledsoe in line. Oh yeah, and Techie Quad's back. I love making those episodes, so I post those on Sundays. Now that we've made the connection, you've got to get Landmine Single Leg Deadlifts to Ben Bruno. He'll share it.

We go viral. I just did Landmine Single Leg Deadlifts a couple weeks ago. Is that where you got it, Ben? Is that why you're so jacked? That's why my glutes are so pumped all the time. That makes sense. That's why he's up to 205 now. That's right.

It only takes one workout. Yeah, that's right. That's all you only takes one workout. That's the magic exercise. They're really good. If you want to know what's going to be on TechSneakWad next week, just watch Ben Bruno the week before. That's right. See his Instagram. I'm going to steal it. I hope Doug Larson

has TechSneakWad laying on the couch, side planks. By the way, I may wear techniquewad.com just forwards over to the Shrugged Collective techniquewad page, so you can see all 130 plus episodes. We have one of those? What?

Techniquewad.com? Well, it just forwards to the Shrugged Collective page that has all the techniquewad videos just to make it easy. I try to make it easy. That's nice of you. I didn't know that existed.

I'm learning things. Yeah, at Shrugged Collective, like, subscribe, send a nice friendly message. Do it in the DMs. I like hanging out in the DMs. It's creepier. Six star and positive views only. Six stars.

We'll see you guys next week. Thank you guys for tuning in. Another killer week. We've been on such a good roll with Shrugged lately. Posted top five episodes in health and fitness on the weekly we had two in the top five last week which is just killer i appreciate everybody that tunes in it is unbelievable that i get to be on this microphone and talk to you guys and the people that reach out through instagram and send me messages and just all the love is super felt super appreciated and uh just very grateful that i get to be here each week and hang out with you guys.

I want to remind you to get over to ThriveMarket.com forward slash shrug, save 25% on your first order, 30daysofcoaching.com, T-H-I-R-T-Y, daysofcoaching.com. I've got 30 days of emails coming to you with all the best coaching tips, tricks, podcasts, technique wads, everything you can imagine, 30daysofcoaching.com. Get signed up. It's going to be awesome. Also, make sure you go and check out my boy Doug Larson's website, Doug Larson Fitness,

for coaching, mobility, nutrition, you name it. Go check it out. It's awesome. Also, masszymes.com forward slash shrugged. You are going to get 20% off your order. Masszymes.com forward slash shrugged. M-A-S-S-Z-Y-M-E-S.com forward slash shrugged. 20% off your order. And then Omax CBD oils. Try Omax. It's the best. Omaxcbd.com forward slash shrugged.

50% off a one-month supply plus free shipping. I think we're posting a show on Saturday. We've got all kinds of good stuff. Doug and I are going to be in LA this weekend and then in San Diego towards the end of the weekend. We've got Friday and Saturday up in LA. Sunday we're going to be back here shooting shows, hanging out with Dr. Jen Fitt. She's going to be doing some co-hosting and we've got some really cool shows coming up on gut health enzymes uh dr theresa larson is going to be on her on the podcast she's probably one of the guests that has been on here the most in the last three years um and all kinds of cool stuff so thank you for tuning in thank you for all the messages. Um, show's picking up steam.

I love being here. We're kicking ass and I appreciate you guys. We'll see you next week.