Barbell Shrugged - Mastering the KettleBell and Holistic Practices for High Performance — The Bledsoe Show #136

Episode Date: May 31, 2019

In this episode, we talk about competing in kettlebells, suples Bulgarian bags, Mike’s experience working with Paul Chek, becoming a world champion in kettlebells, and his new programs and Costa Rica retreats.   Mike Salemi specializes in human performance and is a sought after international presenter in the field of health and fitness. Mike has a diverse background in strength and conditioning and has competed over the course of 15+ years at an elite level in Powerlifting and Kettlebell Sport. Through his own path of resolving sport-related injuries, Mike understands the importance of integrating the body, mind, and spirit as a means to foster high performance for the long term. His motivation is to help athletes, fitness professionals, and coaches discover their own potential from the inside-out. Professionally, Mike has served as a Division 1 strength and conditioning coach for Santa Clara University, as well as been the trainer to elite athletes across a wide range of sports. His focus is teaching educational workshops, certifications, and creating programs on unconventional training that build more balance athletes.   Minute Breakdown:   0 - 18 How Mike became the top kettlebell athlete in the world.  Salemi upcoming retreat in Costa Rica and healing. What are Bulgarian bags and why they are safe and powerful.   18 - 29  Continual journey of working on yourself. Mike's experience working with Paul Chek. Eldoa Stretching and how it works with the fascia to release trauma.   29 - 42  Trying to be more balanced individual while still pushing yourself.  Work in vs. work out. The four main criteria that are needed for working movements.   What’s in Mike’s kettlebell program and how this is different than any other program out there. Discount on Mike Salemi kettlebell program  www.mikesalemi.io/bledsoe --------------------------------------------------- Show notes: https://shruggedcollective.com/tbs-salemi ---------------------------------------------------   ► Travel thru Europe with us on the  Shrugged Voyage, more info here: https://www.theshruggedvoyage.com/ ► What is the Shrugged Collective?  Click below for more info: https://youtu.be/iUELlwmn57o ► 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

Coaches, I've got a free webinar going up on this next Thursday, 4.30 p.m. Pacific. How to build your coaching business. It's going to be one hour. And if you want to get signed up for that free webinar, you're going to be able to ask me questions along with my head coach, Danny from The Strong Coach. Make sure you're on the mailing list. Go to thestrongcoach.com and make sure you're signed up there. Additionally, I've got a retreat coming up. This is the first time I'm doing this in three years. The last time I held a retreat for coaches and business owners was three years ago. I shut it down. That was with Barbell Business. And man, over the years, I've really learned that I love working with coaches, and I'm super fired up about that right now.

Another thing that I'm doing is I used to charge more for these retreats. So for this retreat that's coming up, I'm actually cutting the price in half because I want to get more people in the room. I used to get 25, 30 people in the room. I'd like to get 50 get more people in the room. I used to get 25, 30 people in the room. I'd like to get 50 to 100 people in the room. So it'll still stay pretty intimate. And we're going to pound you with information on how to build your coaching business. We're going to be talking about the art of coaching. We're going to be talking about building a business and really getting you into the business that you love doing. A lot of coaches that have worked with me this past year have found not only did they make more money,

a lot of people have doubled or tripled their revenue. They've actually fallen in love with coaching again. They feel fulfilled. They're enjoying success. And everything has gotten a lot easier for them. So if you want to have that experience, go to thestrongcoach.com, click that retreat button. We're going to be just, we're going to, we're going to give you tons of information. And because we're going to have 50 to a hundred coaches at that retreat, we're going to be, we're going to have that community thing going on.

We're going to share movement. We're going to share breath. We're going to share ideas. So it's going to be a ton of fun. Now, for today's show, I'm interviewing Mike Salemi. I interviewed him at Paleo FX, so it may sound a little different, but we have a lot of fun. I've been hearing about Mike. We've interacted a couple times, mostly on Instagram.

And it was cool that we got to sit down and get to know each other during this interview. So I think you're really going to like it. This guy is a kettlebell master. I've been working a lot more with kettlebells, less barbell, more kettlebells, more other things. And he gave me access to his course online and it is stellar. If you want to dig into kettlebell and become a master yourself, go to Mike Salemi.io and you can find out more about that there. Now for our sponsor Organifi. I love Organifi. I love their green juice, their red juice, their gold tea before bed. I hung out with Drew Canole. He's the CEO

last week and I interviewed him. That'll go up in the next month or so. Real, real pleasure. Awesome team over there at Organifi. I love what they're doing as an organization, how they're growing and their products keep improving. They got new stuff coming out all the time and I love testing them out and seeing how it makes me feel. And you know, it always starts with the green juice. So if you're not, if you don't have a green juice in your life or you don't like how yours tastes, I guarantee you, you will like the Organifi green juice because it is super tasty. And when I start my day with that, the rest of my day goes a lot better.

I eat healthier. I have more energy. And it's more fun. And then the gold before bed always helps me sleep better. I like to mix a little collagen in there with it, a little bit of that Bubz collagen. And yeah, it helps me recover after a hard day of work, hard day of training, and really, really love it. So I'm going to let y'all dig into the show here. Make sure to subscribe to my channel because I'll be leaving the Shrug Collective here in about a

month. And if you want to keep hearing this show, which we know you do, make sure to go over to Stitcher, iTunes, wherever you're listening, maybe it's Spotify, search for The Bledsoe Show and hit that subscribe button. All right, I'll let y'all get to it. Enjoy the show. All right, so we're at Familyo FX in the Sunlight Studio. Sunlight and sauna media experience. This is quite the experience already. We're surrounded by great things right now. Here we go. I think we've got to aim our faces into the microphone like this.

You just handed me. There's so many goodies here. This is the adult Disney world, and this is an essential oil you just hand to me. You said, do you want some of this? Do I put it in my eye? Do I put it in my mouth? Let it rain. Let it rain all over your body. Maybe that's a bit much. It's like you're wasting all my essential oils here.

God's Eye Essential O is a good sign. God's Eye Essential Oil. Oh my God. And you got all the fanny packs. I'd love some too. This is... No leaves in there. This is...

People, when I travel, people ask me what am I carrying in my fanny pack. Yeah. And it is the essential. I've got socks, because every presenter needs socks. Got some strong coffee, essential oils, a little deodorant, and we're good to go. All right, all right.

Man, I got a fanny pack, but I We're good to go. All right. All right. I got a fanny pack. How about I tell you that we're getting hooked up right now. So not only do we have essential oils, but we got some Slumderella drinks. Cheers. Slumderella. These guys have put all sorts of science in that delicious ice beverage. It's good for the gut.

It's good for the brain. They gave me some stuff earlier that boosts dopamine, serotonin, you know, my favorite neurotransmitters. Dude, that's why you look so blonde right there. Yeah. Yeah, it has nothing to do with anything other than the substances I've been doing. Now I'm getting hooked up to an IV. So we're going to podcast with this IV, okay?

So we're podcasting with an IV in our veins. So this is the second time I've been in this. Oh my God. And you've never had a drip? This is the second time? You've never had a drip? I've never had a drip. When you ask me a drip, you're like, you want a drip?

I was thinking you need a drip coffee. And I'm like, no, no, no, we're not. Look down there. We're straight up going to go through had a drip. When you ask me a drip, you might want a drip. I was thinking you need a drip coffee. And I'm like, no, no, no. We're not. Look down there. We're straight up going to go through an IV drip. So you'll have to explain this to me. All right. So real quick, what's in the drip?

You got Slenderella. Slenderella. Glutamine. Glutamine. Arginine. Arginine. Carnitine. Carnitine.

B5P. B5P. And B-Complex. And B-Complex. And B-Complex. Okay. So all I know is that when these guys from the Slenderella company give me stuff, I feel really good. Okay.

So this morning, I start off at Paleo FX every morning. I stop over at the booth. And I did this last year. You know, I just started this morning. Before the doors even opened, they gave me an injection in my hip. I don't know what was in it but it made me feel really good. And then they said put this under your tongue and I put it under my tongue and that felt even better. And then they hand me a drink and then I've been, I think I've consumed like 300 calories. I feel amazing. I'm going to have a movement workshop later on the Bulgarian back. So I'm going to be a focus in not only sparkling creativity and energy for this podcast, but also bringing it on later. Oh, you're going to be, you know, you'll be so broad.

So I've been hearing about you. Well, since last year, Paleo Fest, you were interviewed on Borough Strong. And Doug and Andrews They come up to me after the interview and go, you've got to talk to this guy. You all are going to get along. And then I see you go down to Costa Rica with Connor and Kirsten who are a really good friend of mine and They have amazing things to say about you and then I talk to Paul Cech and he has amazing things to say about you. So I go, okay,

I got to fucking hang out with this guy. We were going to hook up and have coffee on Wednesday and I said, scratch that, let's have our first meeting on a microphone

because I think that's going to be way cooler. So, I know you're like one of the best kettlebell dudes in the whole planet. Not, I'm okay.

I'm alright. You're in the top 1%. I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot of, a lot of people doing bad things with kettlebells. So, I mean, to're in the top 1% I mean there's a lot there's a lot of a lot of people doing bad things in federal so I mean to be in the 1% you have to be that so tell me where do you come from and I want to get the Bulgarian bags I played with one a little bit and they're fucking amazing oh dude if we also have time I love, love this anytime this weekend to take you through it because it's one thing I'll

definitely share my experience what I love about it but the most important thing for me is that people get their hands on it. You need to feel it. Just for example, so in Kettlebells 4 I can either double 32 kilo kettlebells to 72-ish pounds one at each hand. How big are you? I might be like 170. In kettlebell sport I compete with either double 32 kilo kettlebells, 72-ish pounds, one an inch AM. How big are you? I'm probably like 170. And you're managing two 32-pound belts. Also compete with double 40 kilos. 32 kilos.

32 kilos. And also... Yeah, no, no. That would be much more pleasant. And also double 40 kilo kettlebells as well. And as I'm skating right now, a needle just went in my pocket. So I'm trying to breathe, trying to relax,

trying to move my hand in place. You don't like needles. You're such a tough guy. You're a wrestler, right? I train wrestlers. I spend a lot of time around them. But kettlebell sports, that's gnarly. And then this needle's fucking you up.

It's trying to stay focused. it's trying to stay focused it's trying to stay pressing but where was I going but the Hungarian bag so to give people a perspective double 32 kilos double 40 kilos the Bulgarian bag I've been using it for about 10 years and I own my main weight for 10 years has pretty much been just 26 pounds. Because the way you use it is so, so different than anything else. And when people order bags from me, like guys especially, they go, what weight would you recommend? And the funny thing is, is like, tell me a little bit about your athletic background, how big are you, how much do you weigh, et cetera. And I'm like, you know, I think for you maybe 17 pounds maybe 26 They rarely take my advice. They order a 50-pound bag. They get reps every time this happens with us

And we work with the steel mace. Yes people do the same thing. I'm gonna get the quad mace I'm gonna get this and then they get it. I can't do shit with this thing My shoulders all you need is like 10, 20 pounds. What do you need? That's all you need. You know how to use it, you know how to move it. So the Linerian Bag is such a unique tool by how you use it, the rotational movements, acceleration, deceleration, acceleration, deceleration.

And so it's just a completely unique tool from anything else out there. So it has a completely different feel and effect from a kettlebell, farm, as a specialist. You get a lot of rotational forces there. What I've witnessed, I haven't plugged out much, but I've been watching people use it, like, oh, that looks, is that safe? Obviously it's not.

I think a lot of people are so used to training front and back, side to side, that rotational piece, I've been playing a lot more with rotation the last few years, and that's taken a broken down weightlifter and made me feel whole again. I think that's super important because like, well, is it safe? Interestingly enough, like, because it's usually when I go teach, a lot of times it's the kettlebell people, kettlebell people, and they're like, is that really safe? I always say, if you feel remotely, remotely confident teaching the morning with a bell, you'll be fine with a bag. It's soft. First and foremost, if you bang yourself in the shoulder, drop it on your foot, get yourself in the head, it's soft, so it's not going to wreck you. If you do that with a kettlebell with bad technique on a knee, it's going to bruise your forearms pretty good. So in that respect, it's a lot, you know, it is safe. But also, no matter what movement it is, if your shoulders don't work, if your spine isn't open, you probably shouldn't be doing dynamic movements that go overhead anyway until that stuff works.

But it is a very safe movement if you know how to progress and go for sure. Gotcha. All right, so how did you get into this game? And how did you get to be cool enough to be hosting retreats down at the Curse of the Week? So I want to hear about that. Let's restart. What's going to hook people the most?

Are you hosting a retreat coming up? Yeah, let's start there. I think that's one. We're kind of backwards, which I've never done that in a podcast. We may find out why we don't do that. So in just a few weeks, I'm going to be going down with Kirsten Asher, Connor Moore. We're going to be going down to Saltar, which is just an incredible, incredible healing retreat center in Costa Rica. You've got the jungle there, but you've also got the beach.

And they practice plant medicines in the traditional Shipibo culture. And so that was you know my last trip was just a few months ago I had never done plant medicine in the Shipibo tradition usually it had been in more of like the Mexican type tradition and so they just use essentially their voice to send Icaros and they have their pipe so no offering nothing like that and I was just blown away at the community the organic foods are growing all their food there the integration talks I mean it was just just an incredible experience I mean look some more stuff we're You gotta put this under your tongue. This is under my tongue. I'm a...

So I'm hooked up to an IV. I'm drinking... I'm color blind, so you have to tell me what color this is. It's purple. It's purple. So I'm drinking a purple drink. And then I'm putting some pepper powder. This is the first one I really... It's sublingual, so you gotta put it under your tongue for like a good 20 seconds. I'm going to go too.

Nice. I'll put it in the bottle now. Yeah. So hold there. That's supposed to lose both your serotonin and your dopamine. It's my second one today. I don't think you're going to hit me. I'm partially questioning myself. I mean, I touched it because you come

very well like talking about the wrong mutual friends. I don't think I'll never do any of these things by themselves or in tandem with anyone else. So, there's a lot of trust going on right now. Yeah, I appreciate that. Yeah, I've run into that a lot. For some reason people trust me. I don't know how that's happened. Here we are. There's this common, I have a sub-headline, so my DJ name, my DJ name is Dose Daddy. Dose Daddy?

Dose Daddy. Okay. Sub-headline, open your mouth and trust. A bunch of girls did that one. I wish I could kind of do that. A lot of girls I got out dancing. I think I may have said too much already. I have to edit that one out.

I have lots of those. So you're hosting a retreat with Connor and Kirsten I may have said too much already. I have to edit that one out. I have lots of those. All right. So, yeah. So you're hosting a retreat with Connor and Kirsten going down to Saltara, which I went down to Saltara a couple months ago and spent a week there. And I had a lot of plant medicine experiences. It was top notch. Top, top notch.

I did it once, did Ayahuasca. I had like, going down. I did four ceremonies in one week. The prep- I've never had preparation quite like that in film. They did an amazing job. And being prepared for integration was really nice too. Had you ever done the volunteers? I've never done that type of Vomitivo. Neither have I, that was a first for me.

Then a combo, which is, there's definitely Vomitivo involved with that, but not from just drinking a bunch of tea. Tell us about Vomitivo. Yeah, so Vomitivo, from my understanding, that was the first time I had done it, which is also unique to the experience. But essentially Vomitivo, from what I was told, could be really any liquid. What they were using was lemongrass tea. So the lemongrass was actually grown on the premises.

They took fresh lemongrass there, brewed a tea, and then essentially, the way we set it up was they had all the fruit that was probably like 14 of us there, and they took two by two at a time of us, and we went overlooking the jungle over a rail with one facilitator each. And essentially, if you can envision this, they took a bowl, filled it with lemongrass tea, and essentially they would not let you put the bowl down. You had to chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. So the whole idea is to begin the purging process.

And that can serve a few benefits. Like, one, it can first start to kind of open the gates there. And a lot of people do have difficulty in ceremony purging and releasing. So if that's someone, like, and I know, like, Phoenix Conner has some difficulty with that, but that kind of gets the process started. But the cool thing, too, which I thought was so unique is, you know, a lot

of times in these ceremonies, it's serious work. It really is serious work. It's introspective work. And what was so cool is on this one, it was more like very playful. We were cheering for each other in the back, like, go, go, go, drink, drink, drink. And you're already showing that vulnerability from you and the group. So I felt like from the get-go, you had a bonding experience. And I think that also set the tone for the rest of the trip as well. Yeah, what do you say to people who, I hear a lot of people go, I want to try these plant medicines but I don't want to pull it off. I think like it's, it's, it's part, you know, well I think that's potentially a cultural thing because on the west, vomiting is viewed as a negative thing.

But when we're looking at some of these tribes and these cultures, it's a huge healing practice. Look at Pongo, look at the Purge, whether it's crying, laughing, vomiting. It is a part of the growth process, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And so letting go and losing control is something that most all of us have difficulty with. So I think the more potentially you have resistance to it, potentially means the more reason there is to try something like that, or at least be open to that concept. I remember the first time before I did, before my first high-roster experience, I was. That was my thing.

I just don't want to throw up and shit my pants. And I didn't shit my pants, but I did throw up. I did purge. The first few times I purged, I was actually a little confused by it. And then after that, it became a celebration because I really got to recognize that letting go. Oh wow, I'm letting go. Oh, I'm letting go of some shit from the past. Oh, this is really beautiful. So the purging became a really beautiful process. It's easy to appreciate over time.

I love that. I love that. One thing that brings up for me is what you mentioned earlier, was combo. Now combo is not psychoactive, but the purge is such a big part of that process. With that, when I've done combo, one of the big things that I was encouraged to do, which helped me a little bit, is while during the purge, make it a conscious

practice. And so if it's an idea or something that you feel blocked or struggling with, verbalize that into the bucket as you're purging. And it's like you can feel that shift you can feel that change I had a combo experience recently so I have

actually have a few friends that we get together and do combo together and so this last time we did it I did it 10 days before I did it I lost it we do 3 days in a row. So we do an intention-setting session beforehand.

We write out. We use vocabulary technology. So what we do is we really get focused on our words, and specifically it's setting the intention. So what is it that you want to get out of this session? Write it down in the friend walking in the middle. And he helps us dial in the intention to be a very succinct, focused phrase. And so getting into that, getting that exact phrase in there

and then taking the medicine. So my experience this last time is also having the mind racing when the medicine sets in. And then, for instance, as an example, I had this one word pop-up, my mind was racing, racing, racing. I watched my mind start creating deals with the medicine. You know, if you let up, if you let up,

I won't do this thing anymore type of thing. And I'm sitting there watching the mind try to be a deal maker and then really chuckling at myself and then all of a sudden big gold motors in the front of my head. The word selfish pops up.

And as soon as it pops up on the screen in my mind, purge right into the pocket. And what it was was I was seeing where I was judging myself for being that way. I was letting go of that belief that if I behaved a certain way, that know, being selfish. So, and I had a bunch of stories from like when I was a kid that going, watching you know somebody important in my life talking about people being selfish and then me turning into being judgmental about myself and other people who were happening. Now I'm just curious with that uh vocabulary, you know it's called vocabulary, so in that process

did they, you identified the word that you wanted, they just kind of helped you put it into a succinct sound first? Yeah, not a single word, what we'll do is, what do you want to get out of the session? Write it out, and then my friend Mark, he'll help us get it out, so one, two, you know, down to a word possibly, maybe three, four, five words.

That is very simple, it's hard to get outside of it. It's a lot of hard rails, you're being very dramatic in the way you're getting the experience. So it's been a really powerful practice. What made you want to go down? Was that your first IWASPA experience when you went to SoulT? Was that your first ILSP experience when you went to Salt Travis for the first time? No, I think that was probably like number 20. Okay, so you've been doing it for a while. What has you, what caused you to want to

hold the retreat? Show other people. Yeah, so that's, I really feel, so my last kettlebell competition was about a year ago. And so one thing that's kind of come up through the medicine ceremonies has been this kind of, this theme about where I feel my purpose is. And a lot of it has been to work on myself, which will never stop. That's a continual journey. But to really focus on how can I support others at a deeper level. And so when I took a break from competition, such as this whole last year has been traveling and teaching and don't get me wrong, like the physical side of stuff is, that's where my heart, that's where I actually started everything, physical body, physical performance,

physical potential, but then especially working with Paul, Paul was the first person, Paul Cech, I'm sorry, he was the first person who guided me on a medicine experience. And through his practices as a shaman, and really guided me through it as a celebration. Actually, the first time he took me through a medicine ceremony was to celebrate achieving a rank that I had been trying to achieve in kettlebell sport, which is called master sports, kind of like a black belt level. And I had gone to fall to one-on-one coaching because I had an orthopedic issue that no one could figure out for years.

And so we celebrated that victory with the medicine, and it was such a beautiful experience. And prior to that time, I had such a kind of a negative connotation with plot, and I always thought it was a distractor to someone's goals and dreams. And so I had gotten so much out of it and put so many more things into perspective about why I am the way I am, why certain patterns in my family or generational stuff are potentially repeating themselves and wanting to break that cycle and wanting to get more out of life and performance. So it's been kind of digging deeper and understanding myself during the medicine period. And at Salterra it's going to be really cool on this trip because I'm so stoked. So, Kirsten, Connor, and myself are all going to add something to kind of the schedule.

We're not going to partake in facilitating medicine or anything. But I'm going to share outside of the medicine schedule a workshop or a class, you can call it, on LDOAs and myofascial stretching. Oh, yeah. I've been introduced to that. Okay. But, yeah, tell us about it, because the couple sessions I've had were amazing. Yeah, I really enjoyed them. It's such a unique thing, and I've never really, I've done it on myself before medicine work,

but I've never shared it with others in the medicine space, so that's going to be a first for me. So I'm also like, I'm excited, nervous, like, we'll see how it goes, but essentially, in LDOA, E-L-D-O-A, it's a system of, it's essentially, so when you translate it, it stands for LOADS, L-O-A-D-S, and the translation, which is a French acronym, in trans, it's a long word, so every time I say it, it's like a mouthful, but it's longitudinal, osteoarticular, decoaptation, stretching, and the word stretching can be interchangeable with strengthening. And so there's a specific aldoa stretch or specific posture that you go into. And these aldoa postures, they're so, so, so precise and so specific that there's a specific posture for nearly every single joint in the body. So we can get as precise as C6, C7, T6, T7, L5, S1.

So we can identify a specific joint that could be causing someone a problem, whether they're experiencing a nerve impingement, circulation issues, biomechanical issues, and there's amazing, amazing structural benefits. But the reason why I'm excited to bring that into the medicine work is because like if we look at t6 t7 so t67 which is pretty much the area of the mid-back like if you look at the curves of the t-spot where the curve is the largest or the greatest that's right around between t6 and t9 which is directly in the heart space yeah and so i want to use this like example, that specific Aldoa to not only create, you know, an opening there, but to create better awareness so that people can hold their posture

in the medicine and in the form, but also open up their heart, open up their hips with some myocardial stretches. So I definitely want to use it for structural opening, but more to open up the heart in those spaces. This is really cool. Now I want to go. Go, please. I have a schedule in the conference.

But I do want to talk. I want you to show me what I can do for the, I think I'm blocking my flow. Yeah, I want to. I think I'm blocking my flow. I'm blocking my flow. I'm blocking my flow. You have to correct me. You have to come check on that. Yeah, I want to see what, I guess, stretches would be included in that T6, T7, that range. Because one of the things that I've been really big on, I've met a lot of people who do medicine. So I've been in that world quite a bit.

I've been in the physical world quite a bit of this physical fitness thing. And what I started recognizing over time is that medicine, especially ayahuasca, has allowed me to unwind certain aspects of my body. It's a very physical medicine. So there's this psycho-emotional component. It's tied into the body physically,

and I think a lot of people, they maybe plant medicine, but then they don't have the physical practice to really cement the work into their body. And so I see the both needing to be gone to have really good integration. You see it so well. I think he hit the nails just spot on because like, especially

for a few reasons. If you think about how does the medicine get into our system, it gets into the physical body. We drink tea. You can't separate physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. One of the things that I don't know if you want to call it a pet peeve or something that kind of

hurts me a little bit is when you see people that are quote unquote very spiritual, for example, but treat their body like shit. Like they're eating crap quality food. They're super inflamed. And so the people that I really look up to, like, for example, someone like Paul has been such, such a huge mentor to me. Like Paul's in his mid-50s, mid to late 50s, and the dude is jacked. But also he's a very balanced man, a very spiritual man, but also a very strong man. And that is, for me, the embodiment of the type of person that I want to be when I grow

up and grow older. And it's like, how can you have a strong man? And he's a big strong, like not big, but he's a 58-year-old dude who isn't... He's doing it in a healthy way, too. He's not just stronger doesn't mention squat he's doing it because I hope the expression physicality not loving up on the juice yeah that's true yeah anyone who's trained with all those

that one is not on teams until they got a test is definitely not on juice but the'll tell him. I'll make that as a test. He's definitely not on juice. But the dude is strong but can also move well. And when you link things like breath and movement, like there's so many things. The last time I was at Saltari, I took one of the facilitators, a guy named John, he's super, just a rock star. And I took him through some of the band work that I teach, which is all breath with movement, multiple movement patterns,

multiple planes. And you can open up your leaps. You can open up the spine in so many different ways. And so you can use movement as a way to, I mean, movement, the body is the vehicle of all of this stuff. You start and you can penetrate even deeper. So I think having a healthy movement practice, you can get potentially so much more out of the medicine. At least in my experience. Yeah. So I'm tying these pieces together and we're gonna fill in some gaps. So we could use something like these plant medicines,

loosen us up, process some things out, use the elbow arm, some stretching to maintain the space that's created in the body. And then we could bring in strengthening exercise while we have really good posture. Create really good positioning and then we build strength in those positions. And we can create really

new powerful patterns in our bodies and our shoulders. New powerful patterns in our lives. I love that. And one thing that, when I heard you say that, one thing that just came up to me is, so the unique thing about the Aldo is they work with the fascia, so they work with the connective tissue in the body.

So it puts the myofascial, the muscular fascia on tension with specific hand movements, head placement, eye position, foot placement, and a lot of emotional tension in the body is stored in the fascia, in the connective tissue. So by putting those things on some gentle gentle tension, and I think potentially the biggest maybe adjustment is, you know, those can be, they are challenging. I'm sure you could be well-known, like, it's not getting me over. Nothing gets me over, but if someone asks me that yesterday, it's work. You are very much working.

But I also think that's part of the beauty of it, because you're working with the nervous system, too. So you're working in the fascial system, you're working in the nervous system, it's all being integrated into one. Yeah. Love it. Love it. All right, so I see the future of training in this. A lot of trainers shoot shooting messages and go, hey, how do I differentiate myself? I'm like, you have to start getting outside of writing

good training programs. Know what to eat, tell people what to eat. There needs to be more integration of the secondary emotion aspect. You, I know that check, Paul checkers are really good. I've seen that in you as well. I think you're embodying it in your own practice. That's not to say that I don't, you know, I do my very best, but that's not to say that I don't have problems or have stuff that goes on.

Like, I've been very open and honest with people. Like, I've been traveling quite a bit lately. And so, like, right now I you know a little tired a little burnt so i'm going to take three weeks off after this and just you know chill stay home at least don't travel but that's not to say like you know trying to be a more balanced individual does not mean that you just you know you meditate all day it's like no you push yourself but then you also that creates the awareness of where you need to rest and in my experience you know the check system does it probably the best if not the best that i've ever experienced so much so that like for example so i've been working almost a little over

a year on creating my very first online product which is a kettlebell program but one other thing that was so so so damn important to me uh was you know, Paul was kind enough to do eight lectures on working in. Because it's like, for me, if I'm only, only supporting someone on the exertion, the working out level, it's like, do I really feel like I'm doing my purpose? Do I really, knowing what I know, having been injured and working through all this stuff that we're talking about, do I really feel like I'm doing what I was meant to do?

And it's like, no, because that's not what I do. And so Paul was kind enough to talk about working in eight lectures, and that's a huge part of the program. That is huge. Yeah, so can you speak more on that? You've got working out, which everyone puts this huge emphasis on. What do you mean? I think it's part cultural, part innate that we want to just do more.

And a lot of working in seems like doing less. When you're coaching people, is that a struggle to get them to work in as well? What does working in look like? So working in, at least how I've learned it through Balls, I'll kind of share my experience with him and how he structures what is a workout and what is a work in. So simply you can think about a working out as an energy expenditure activity. Anything that costs the body more resources than it takes in.

A working in is the exact opposite. A working in is an energy cultivating activity. It could be something like Tai Chi or gentle movement where you integrate breath with the movement. And Paul and his system, so he created, and this is all honestly in his book, How to Eat and Live and Be Healthy. So if you want to reference, in one of the sections of the chapter, it's called zone exercises. And so what he's done is he's divided the body in different zones. He's labeled one through six because he didn't, essentially according to the chakra system, he didn't include number seven because it was something with just a cultural thing, but essentially six zones of the body in that book focused on specific areas to get pumping,

blood flow, get movement in those areas. And so you can take potentially, like I always tell people, you know, especially anyone who's skeptical, let's take a familiar exercise, a non-threatening exercise. So a breathing squat. Let's take a squat pattern that even if you were to do it in the gym, people would poke each other because you're just doing a squat. But the key becomes the criteria in which you perform that move.

And so to do a working-in exercise, there's four main criteria for you. Number one, no matter what movement it is, it could be a deadlift, it could be a push, whatever, a bench, not a bench press, it should be a total body movement, a cable push and rotate. One, when you do the work in movement, you should not sweat. If you're sweating, that's an indication that you're working, right? Or you're going into more of a sympathetic dominance state. Number two, your digestion should improve. So you should be able to eat a big, big meal and be able to do it just like after you have a big dinner with family or whatnot or at a restaurant. You go for a walk. Your digestion should improve.

The third thing is your heart rate should not elevate. And then heart rate and breath rate are interchangeable. So the heart rate and breath rate should not elevate. And then the fourth thing is that your tongue should stay closed. So the tongue should not elevate. And then the fourth thing is that your tongue should stay closed. So the tongue should not dry out. So anyone who's gone for a long run or really doing a pushing like a CrossFit workout, whatever it is, if the tongue dries out, then you know you're going more into synthetic comedy. Now, this is where it can become like, like, this is why I love challenging people.

And I love her inviting me. I'm trying to switch the word challenge with invitation. But you take someone, you take someone and do a breathing squat. Or even if they practice a lot, take a movement. Like Paul would put me through kettlebell movements. And not making me do, but essentially orchestrate the training so that I would do very light, like four kilos, six kilos, whatever. A clean, injured movement. And I had to build up to that with other stuff. But for 20 minutes or 10 minutes, could I perform that movement and adhere to those four criteria, which is so, so, so much harder than it sounds.

So I'm actually trying to do 10 minutes of that movement without sweating, without letting the heart rate elevate, without keeping the tongue moist. If I was dipping into that sympathetic dominant state, then I would set the bells down and then regress the movement to a modified range of motion for each one, regain my composure. And we were not only using it to pump the system to increase the parasympathetic activity, but from a competitive standpoint, when I would be in competition, how can I stay in a calm, relaxed, and not go into that fight or quiet state right next to me and my competitors are. This is really key in competitions.

When I look at athletes and their training in the gym, how much they're training their sympathetic nervous system. They're training to be in a stress state. You don't have to. Exercise doesn't have to equal stress. I think for 99% of people in the gym, that they're basically practicing that association. So what if you

could be exercising, if you could be training, if you could be prepping for competition from a place of comfort, from a place of being chilled out, what kind of edge is that going to give you in the competitors? I know that when you look at the best of the best on the field

and you look around, the guys that are usually winning are the chillest. You're like, oh, I didn't even really break a sweat. Maybe that guy was practicing moving while not going crazy. Yeah, that relaxed readiness.

I think that carries over to how you approach the weight. I have a personal ritual when I approach the weight. What foot I step with first, the breathing that I do when I sit down and grab the weight, whether it's with a barbell or a kettlebell. That's my practice to kind of tap into that. And the practice that you work in, you lay down those repetitions, you lay down that program to prepare yourself mentally and physically as well.

Yeah. All right, so we got a kettlebell program coming out, is that what you're saying? Just came out. Just came out. Just came out, yeah. How long has it been out? Maybe six weeks.

Six weeks. Maybe six weeks, something like that. Yeah, tell me about it. How's it, what's so special about your planning? So, you know, when I created it, I really, I truly wanted a program that I never had when I started. And so when I started maybe like 15 years ago, it was very dogmatic in the kettlebell world.

Like you were either a hardstyle practitioner or you were a kettlebell school guy. And the two didn't really mix. What's the difference? you're a hardstyle practitioner or you were a kettlebell school guy. And the two didn't really mix. What's the difference? So for those who aren't familiar, so hardstyle is essentially the movement of kettlebells more or less brought to the United States by a guy named Pavel. And it's mainly for power, power endurance, strength. It's kind of going to use more of a hinge-based technique.

So if you look at it like a swing, a clean, or a snatch, it's going to stem from more movements that resemble a clean and a snatch. Now, the sport style is very different. We brought to the U.S. by a guy named Valerio Federico, a phenomenal kettlebell sports competitor. And the movement mechanics and the whole goal is very, very different. The goal of kettlebell sport is to be as efficient as possible with the movement. And so if we take, like, let's say, this is technical, but like the swing, clean, and the snatch,

the movement and the breathing rhythm is almost the opposite of a freestyle breathing rhythm. So we actually use more or less what we're trying to do working in the breathing pattern. So we actually exhale as we fold the hips, or go down, and then inhale as we extend up, because we need to go for 10 minutes. So that's more of a parasympathetic kind of type activity.

We have to be able to sustain it. You're trying to downregulate as you go. Exactly. Because if I burn out, it sets over. But it depends not once right or wrong. That's the key thing. Like in my belief and in my experience, like there is no one way to swing a kettlebell into a move.

I mean, I start thinking about it. It's going to be harder to stabilize the groin if you're exhaling. So that's a great point. So I didn't learn this until Russia. So when I was in Russia training out there, one of the things that they used, they used more or less like hybrid breathing pattern. And so essentially on the downward phase, it's a partial pressurized exhalation breath. So you are exhaling, but you are maintaining

tension in the system. Then as you come through the acceleration phase, you're also delivering the second half of that partial pressurized exhalation breath. And then as the belt floats up and the spine extends fully, that's the inflation. So you're getting the benefit of working with our anatomy physiology, but you're also getting enough compression in the midline to maintain stability. You teach this in your course? Teach this in my course and so much more. So like the other thing, you know,

I've been injured over the years multiple times trying to compete in powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, kettlebell sport. And what I found was, is one of the things that was so just not there was teaching people, trainers, a logical thought process

before someone even picked off the kettlebell in terms of like you asked me earlier is a barbarian bag movement like a spin safe it's like well it just depends on the individual right depends on if they have the shoulder the hands can they meet the flexibility stability of that movement to do it safely no matter how great the movement is like i hear all the time like people ask me to write workouts and for me it's, it's, I always have a hesitation, you know, being a coach to like just prescribe random workouts because it's just not what I, like to train someone else like I train myself is not the best scenario.

The goal is to educate people in terms of having a logical thought process before they even do the weights to know, okay, like, am I ready for this? So the program, I do a whole pre-qualifying based off of every single kettlebell movement, pre-qualifying movement screens or whatever you want to do to see if you're ready for it and if not. I've got flexibility exercises with my own personal principles involved, segmental strengthening. So it's essentially like three certifications in one. There's over 500 videos. And that's why it took me over a year.

If I were to go back, the biggest lessons I've learned is to, I should have done probably a much shorter program that maybe brought in some income earlier, as opposed to wanting to truly give it, you know, almost everything that I know. It's only one bell. 500 plus videos on just one bell movements. I love that.

And I feel your pain i don't know if i fully learned the the lesson yet but i've done the same thing where oh yeah there's 300 videos and there's one year program no one's going to consume all that no damn it but you want to do a good job because you care you get you go ahead this is I want people to leave feeling complete I've had I've had a few point business intelligence some things that I've created some products and stuff they go you didn't think wanting any more you gave me yeah you want to empower people yeah and like yeah I want to set coaches up. You want to empower people.

I want to set coaches up to think for themselves. I don't want them to be a enemy. I want them to learn the thought process so that they can educate themselves and their clients whenever they're working with it. What should I do before, during, working in? All those components that make a balanced athlete. That's what I really saw missing. I think I reshot it two or three times because I was like the interesting thing about the program because it's a direct reflection of

my life like not only in that year but the 15 years plus of what it took to create that and what I found was like if I'm not teaching almost every weekend I'm trying to take the force to expand my knowledge and so every week I go to my my you may have been Eli he's a Paul's film guy so every month or every week I'm like dude my, you may have met Eli, who's a Paul's Film guy, and he does film work for me. So every month or every week I'm like, dude, we've got to reshoot this, or I've got to add this. And it was like a year, and it's because if I'm learning something new, I was just like, in that moment, I felt like I was doing a disservice to the people purchasing the program if they weren't getting the very best version

of Mike in that moment. And I had to be okay with at some point saying, enough's enough, and this is good enough. And there will be more programs. There will be more. And it is a living program. So as I develop as a person and evolve as a coach, that program, it's called Mastering the Kettlebell,

will evolve as well. And once I came to that realization that it can change and it doesn't have to be a fixed program, then I was okay with saying, okay, now's the time. So thank you, thank you, thank you, first that I came to that real estate. Otherwise I'd still be cheering in. In a basement somewhere.

In a basement, just not having to pay for the money. I'm gonna have to get this program on before we go. All right, we gotta roll. I was given the one minute warning. Oh wow. So where can people find you? And if they want to get this kind of a program, if they want to do,

well, I think this might go south of the tree. There's also people here in the university. So, yeah, just tell us everything about finding what you're up to. Hell, yeah. So the best place to find me, I'm most active on Instagram, and it's mike.selemi. My website is mikeselemi.io.

And then you can find this program at programs.MikeSolemi.io. And if you guys go to, go ahead and do, I'll create a special page for you guys. I'm going to hook you guys up with a discount on the program. And if you guys go to www.MikeSolemi.io. I'll create a special code for you guys. So anyone interested, or just hit me up with questions. You know, I'm always down to answer questions, but anything I can do to support people out there,

that's how they can find me. Thanks for doing that for the fans. And I want to mention, before we roll, we're hanging out with Sunlighten, some media booth here at Paleo Effects. Go check out those songs. They keep on corrupting me. We're still on the grid. I'm still on the grid. My host keeps giving kink over here because I can't sit still.

This is the company that's got us on the grid, Slenderella. That's their professional brand. They do some sub-media as well. And if you're in Austin, Texas, check out the MSW. Hope. Hope Lounge. And you have to do vitamin injections. I really don't know what these guys do. All I know is that when I hang out with them and they give me stuff, I feel good. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you so much, brother. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Woo. Make sure if you're going to catch more of these shows, go over to the blood. So show, um, go over on iTunes, stitcher, search it, subscribe to it. And if you're a coach, go over the strong coach, got that retreat coming up. You know, you want to get in and, uh, yeah, just be on the mailing list. Cause we're doing new stuff all the time. And I love working with you. Uh, and, uh, make sure to go check out the sponsor, Organifi.com slash shrug. You'll save 20% on all your green juice, red juice, gold,

and any other products they have. Thanks for joining me today.