Barbell Shrugged - Real Chalk  — Expanding Mind and Body w/ Eric Leija, Primal Swoledier  — 22

Episode Date: May 8, 2018

Eric Leija, Senior Kettlebell Coach at Onnit Academy, a.k.a. the Primal Swoldier, is a kettlebell training specialist. Eric has been coaching for over three years, but has been working out and living a fit lifestyle for over 12 years. Eric got into physical training at the age of 15 with the goal of becoming a mixed martial arts fighter. Struggling to make friends and find purpose in academia, he dropped out of the University of Texas, Austin, and turned to daily use of DMT and other plant medicines to gain some clarity and perspective. Shortly after, Eric met Aubrey Marcus, the CEO of Onnit who mentored and helped get him started in the fitness industry. Eric has had the privilege of taking seminars with some of the top movement coaches in the industry such as, John Wolf,  Dr. Mark Cheng, Mike Fitch, and Dr. Andreo Spina who opened his eyes to the importance of body weight movement and mobility to help improve performance and overall healthier fitness routine. In this episode, Eric shares with us his past journey, how he builds workouts to create long lasting humans, why he is a kettlebells enthusiast, why his motto is “Money in the bank”, and more. Enjoy! - Ryan and Yaya ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc_leija ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please support our partners! Thrive Market is a proud supporter of us here at Barbell Shrugged.  We very much appreciate all they do with us and we’d love for you to support them in return!  Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of FREE Organic Groceries + Free Shipping and a 30 day trial, click the link below: thrivemarket.com/realchalk How it works:  Users will get $20 off their first 3 orders of $49 or more + free shipping.  No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week anyway, so why not give Thrive Market a try! ► 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/barbellshruggedp... TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged  

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, this is Doug Larson, co-host of the Barbell Shrug Podcast. Of course, this week only we are doing a 50% off sale for a nutrition course that I developed called Nutrition for Weightlifters. For years I competed in weightlifting at either 85 kilo, which is 187 pounds, or as high as 94 kilo, which is 207 pounds, while simultaneously competing in mixed martial arts as a welterweight at 170 pounds. That's a 37 pound swing and I was always going up and down. I got very good at manipulating my weight to hit my weight classes depending on which

competition was coming up next. So that's all built into this course. How exactly I did that, how I put on muscle mass when I needed to get bigger, how I lost body fat when I needed to get smaller, and how I kept strong and stayed in shape during the process. So I teach you what to eat, how much to eat, when to eat it, how to count your macros, what to eat before, during, and after training, as well as what to eat before, during, and after competition. If you're interested, you can go to shruggedcollective.com slash N4W, like nutrition for weightlifters, N, the number 4, NW, just three characters. Check it out, 50% off, and enjoy the show.

Welcome to Real Chalk, a Shrug Collective production. Mike Bledsoe here. Stoked to be launching this network so that we can introduce you to amazing content providers like Ryan Fisher. We'll be posting new shows every weekday, so be on the lookout. As a thank you for listening, Thrive Market has a special offer for you. You get $60 of free organic groceries plus free shipping and a 30-day trial. Go to thrivemarket.com slash real chalk.

This is how it works. Users will get $20 off their first three orders of $49 or more plus free shipping. No code is necessary because the discount will be applied at checkout. Many of you will be going to the store this week, so just hit up Thrive Market today. Go to thrivemarket.com slash realchalk to get set up. Enjoy the show. All righty, kids. It's that time of the week again.

I am Yaya, and this is a brand new episode of the Real Chalk Podcast on the Shrugged Collective. This is one of the first episodes that we recorded on our trip to Austin at Paleo FX. And day one, we made our way over to the Onnit headquarters and the Onnit gym, which in overall was already a really, really great experience. And we had the pleasure to sit down with Eric Leija. You guys might know him as the Primal Swolger on Instagram. He's now the senior kettlebell coach over there at Onnit. If you guys want to see some really cool shit that you can do with just a kettlebell, go ahead and head over to his Instagram.

He posts videos every day and super creative with what you can do with just a kettlebell go ahead and head over to his instagram he posts videos every day and super creative with what you can do so we had a lot of fun with him during the show after the show got a nice little workout in and like i said this is the first one of many shows that we recorded for you guys while in austin super pumped to be bringing this content to you. We have podcasts, videos, vlogs, all that stuff. So make sure you guys are subscribed to the channel wherever you guys are listening first and foremost. Then check out Shrug Collective on YouTube and also head over to the shrugcollective.com

to sign up for our newsletter so you never miss any of our episodes or all the other podcasts that are also on The Collective. All right, I'm going to stop talking and let you guys dive into the episode. Enjoy. All right, kids, what's going on? Yaya here. Got a special episode coming at you sitting down with Fish. We are at Onnit headquarters and we've got a very special guest for you today. If you want to go ahead and introduce yourself, I'll let you take the stage. What's up guys? My name is Eric Leija, or you might know me as the Primal Swolder on Instagram.

I'm a specialist in kettlebells and I work at Honored Academy. Alright, and we figured since you were here in Austin, Honored is such a big thing, so we definitely wanted to stop by. I know Fish was here yesterday already working out, and so we wanted to get a couple of you guys on the podcast as well. I know Fish has been huge in kettlebell, so we figured this was the perfect connection to make. Yeah, I was really excited, so I made a post on my Instagram, and a lot of guys tagged this man here, so I figured I would just come here and see what he has to say. So I think we should get into maybe a little bit more about your story and how we got to where we're at right now. Awesome. I think it's kind of cool. Yeah. So as far as like how I got into fitness. I know that you have an interesting story.

So right. So right now I'm 25 years old. I started working on it when I was about 19. So almost six years ago, I got into the business through my brother, my older brother. He was good friends with the CEO, Aubrey Marcus, and they were always good friends, training partners. Aubrey had this dope setup in his garage. We used to call it El Garage. He had a dope sign on the top of the wall that said El Garage. This was before all this existed. All this existed before even the supplements that we sold.

So on it, first started selling supplements. Even before that, Aubrey had his own badass little setup in his gym. He had all these mats, punching bags, kettlebells, steel maces, swords. Like, he was super into, like, the warrior path. And so he made really good friends with this UFC fighter, Roger Huerta, who was really good friends with my brother through wrestling in high school. So they would work out together all the time. And I got into fitness when I was, like, 13, 15, into, like to like martial arts and so they invited me to come train with them and wrestle and

spar and so I got to meet Aubrey and he beat me up a little bit too and some sparring sessions he never let's me live it down too there's one punch me and busted my nose made me bleed and how old is he at this time he was by like 25 and your house 15, 16. Yeah, but it was funny. Yeah. But, yeah, that's how I met Aubrey and got into the martial arts stuff. Oh, that was a start for you for martial arts as well?

I had already been training in jiu-jitsu and kickboxing for a couple years. I started when I was like 12, and I met Aubrey and the UFC fighter, Roger, through my brother when I was like 15. And met Aubrey and the UFC fighter Roger through my brother when I was like 15 and so I got introduced to those guys and then fast forward three years I graduated from high school I ended up going to Texas UT Austin and I just didn't fit in man I was it was really hard for me to make friends I just wasn't digging school. Growing up, I wasn't a big drinker or partier, so it was hard for me to connect with other people and make friends. So I kind of, like, went off the deep end.

Not the deep end, but, like, started trying new things, like psychedelics. Which is literally a lot of people in Onnit are – that's kind of, like, part of the culture, correct? Yeah, it's just being open-minded, you know, and like to different methodologies of like experimenting with different medicines to treat different like – just different problems that people have, you know, not being afraid to try something different to see if it helps. Just kind of take like an out-of-the-box approach to things. Exactly, yeah. Is everyone that works at Onnit kind of like that? Yeah, everybody's super cool, super open-minded.

You know, I think we've done a really great job of developing a community of like-minded individuals, which is what keeps attracting a great tribe. Okay. And so that's what keeps me, you know. It definitely feels different when you walk in here versus like another gym. You can tell that like,

I feel like I'm part of like Home Tree and Avatar. Yeah like everyone's kind of just like interconnected dude i was just gonna say that like i mean every gym you walk into you kind of got the little like everyone's kind of like okay who the fuck are these guys but no when you walk in like everyone kind of looks at you i remember starting coaching at chalk and i've only worked out at chalk maybe like three or four times before that and then got to starting coaching there and everyone was like, who the fuck is this guy? Like, what the fuck are you doing here? Like, this is our place. Everyone's just so like protective of their gym.

And people didn't even like him for like – like I hired him to coach and people were like, I don't like him for like a month. They were just like, dude, I just don't like this guy. And I'm just like, dude, just give it time. Just like let it go. And then eventually like it grew. And I definitely got that vibe walking in here too which i think honestly is a good thing you know what i mean like you want people to be so proud of what they've built and what they have that they don't want outsiders coming in and like messing with it yeah i don't i feel like we're

pretty open to a lot of people maybe you know initial oh no it's not like a standoff vibe it's just like there's a vibe oh yeah i mean like there's a specific vibe yeah for sure um so yeah i had a hard time making friends in college so i ended up actually dropping out and reconnecting with roger the ufc fighter he had a big fight coming up and he's like hey man like you know i was trying to pursue mma at the time i had always been you know training and i was like you know what i want to try to be try to do an mma fight he's like well you know what how about you know you leave school and come to minnesota with me and come train so i ended up leaving texas drove up to minnesota and trained up there for a couple months and kind of got the full

you know mma experience you know training three times a day, wrestling practice, kickboxing, conditioning, you know, day in and day out. And then, you know, after that, after Roger fought, I came back to Texas and kind of realized, man, you know, I dropped out of school, and I still haven't done anything with this. You know, I'm kind of, what am I doing?

So I started, it's like, I'd already been, like, smoking a lot of weed. Like, when I was up there in Minnesota, I was smoking weed every day. There's not much else to do up there, man. I hardly ever got drunk as a kid. So, you know, smoking weed, getting into that was kind of a big deal for me. And I kind of just, like, for me, like, when I do something, I'm all in. Like, I go ahead first. So I was smoking weed every day, all day, every day.

And then somehow, you know, I got into listening to the Joe Rogan podcast. And he had these like dope guests on there talking about DMT. DMT, the most powerful psychedelic in the world. And I'm like, that sounds crazy. And at the same time, one of my close buddies who's super into jiu-jitsu and the same shit that i'm into he said hey man you should uh you should try dmt i can get some i'm like what all right let's try it i tried it man it blew my mind away so what is that what is that experience like we were actually

talking to somebody today about it i know we just heard a story so it's like perfect to like get listen to you talk about it would be cool be cool. My first experience, you know, a lot of people's first experience I feel like that I've dealt with. Can we talk about what DMT is first of all for people that don't know? Apparently it's like all living things produce DMT. I watched a documentary on it to try to learn as much as I could, but apparently every living creature, plant, has DMT in it. And they theorize that when people have near-death experiences or that when we die, our pineal gland,

which is where a lot of the DMT is stored or is produced, something like that, it gets shot out into your bloodstream and you have a powerful experience, a psychedelic experience. So when people have a near-death experience, they think that that's what happens. You know, they come close to death, that stuff gets shot into their bloodstream, and they see God or whatever.

So when you smoke DMT, that pretty much happens instantly? Yeah. And how long does it last for? You know, it lasts like 5 to 15 minutes, 5 minutes of a really powerful psychedelic experience where it feels like – Have you ever watched like Doctor Strange? Yeah. Yeah.

Everything is like up and down. It's like you're going through this like tunnel of kaleidoscope patterns and weird things that might be hiding in your subconscious. Fuck, dude. And if you go deep enough, you can like really like – They say it's really good for treating addiction or problems because you really confront your inner demons. If you're holding some stuff in, you got some skeletons in your closet, they're going to come out when you see this stuff.

Maybe not vividly, but through visions that if you decipher, you can kind of piece it together because it's always very unfamiliar. You go into it and you're like, what did I just see? Sometimes you don't even remember. There's no words to describe what you see. It's like alien patterns, alien feelings. Sometimes you have no language. Like you feel dead.

You feel like you can't even think. You feel like you have no vision. I felt like I could see in all directions. I felt like I was just like a dot of light floating through the universe. But I could feel and experience everything and nothing at the same time, which was, for me, as I did it, what ended up happening was I got so into it, I ended up realizing, man, this stuff is too expensive to keep buying. I'm just going to make it myself.

You did it every day for like a year, right? Yeah, I did it. That's what someone was telling me. Yeah, I did it every day for a long time. I just realized there were a lot of benefits to it. Yeah. It was helping me sleep better. I was recovering really well from, you know, like work and training hard. And I even realized my nails were growing really long. My hair was growing really fast. I was shredded. Apparently, it was, like, increasing my growth hormone production. So then I was like, whoa, this stuff is dope. It helps me sleep, and it helps me get shredded.

So you were doing this while also working out? So at what time of the day would you start smoking DMT? I would use it to go for bed. I would hit it, pass out, see some visions. Okay. Yeah. Oh, so you just see some visions. Okay. Yeah. Oh, so you just go right to bed after. Yeah.

But you were completely able, like. The thing is, when you smoke it, the best thing to do is to be in a dark room so you can just, like, pass out, close your eyes, and see powerful visions. But you were able to still sustain. In bed. You were still able to sustain like a healthy lifestyle you're working out you were doing all that but it did get to a point to where i stopped seeing because i was doing it so much i stopped seeing visions i felt like i was burning out whatever however this stuff works like i couldn't see things anymore and i felt like fuck man i think i burnt out my pineal gland. If I'm ever in an accident or I die, I'm not going to see anything.

I'm just going to die. You know? I'm going to fuck myself up. So I got scared and I stopped doing it. I put it away. And I also got to a point to where I was doing it so much. And once you stopped doing it, you still haven't done it since? I did it recently.

So what happened was I stopped seeing stuff. I felt like I wasn't – I was at a point to where I wasn't accomplishing the things that I had seen in my visions, the things that – the powerful messages that I was receiving early on. I hadn't accomplished those goals. I hadn't really achieved what I wanted to achieve so I was kind of just like seeing repetitive I stopped seeing visions so I started feeling more than I was seeing and I felt stuck I felt I wasn't addicted to it I just felt like I wasn't I was doing it all the time but I wasn't gaining anything from it anymore. And I felt like I was stuck in my career, in my life.

And so I stopped doing it to try to focus on what's going on now in my real life. Right, right. Like the real world and the fake world were almost like merging into each other type of thing. I couldn't make any gains in the real world. So I put it away and I just focused on work. And at the time, I had gotten a job gains in the real world. So I put it away, and I just focused on work. And at the time, I had gotten a job working in the warehouse. So I just did my best to just kick ass in the warehouse, hear it on it, pack kettlebells, supplements, you know,

work my way up to, you know, being a little bit better at, like, in the position in the warehouse and just kind of stuck it out, you know. I got my, I didn't, like, it's not like my life was in shambles. I just was a stuck it out you know i got my i didn't like it's not like my life was in shambles i just was a little lost you know i was partying a lot uh just chasing girls and so i got to a point where you know i'm just gonna focus on work and then eventually on it decided or aubrey decided to open up a gym he's like you know what we sell all these tools we sell maces kettlebells clubs battle ropes let's try it maybe we should open a gym and and develop an

education system so we can show people how to use these tools and further you know expand our sphere of influence with with uh our company yeah to help people optimize their lives. And so he's like, hey, man, you've always been into MMA and fitness. How about you get your trainer certification, start training some people out of our company gym, get some experience, and work for the gym? I was like, yeah, man, totally. Let's do it. So I went straight edge, stopped doing drugs, and started just focusing on training clients, teaching some boot camps,

and got some experience, got my kettlebell certification back in 2013. Is that the Russian kettlebell certification? The IKFF. IKFF? Yeah, through Steve Cotter and Ken Blackburn. We had Ken Blackburn fly down, and he taught my brother, Aubrey, Aubrey's fiancé, and our coach, Sean, and me how to – our first kettlebell cert. So we got some experience how to use kettlebells.

And then after that, I kind of just ran with it. So now people think of you as the kettlebell guy, I would imagine, right? Yeah. So at this point, now you're working at the gym. Do you feel like this is where you really wanted everything to go? Yeah, man. I would have never foreseen this happening. I never thought I was going to be a coach.

I never thought I would fall in love with the fitness side of things. I always thought, oh, I'm going to pursue MMA and become an MMA fighter. But the more I trained people, the more I realized how rewarding it was to, you know, be able to inspire people and teach people. Yeah, it's really cool. Owning my own gym, I feel the same way. Like, man, a lot of my clients, they're people who are, like, previously injured or older men who, you know, are just tired of doing the same old routines and they want to try something new but that's also effective to you know help them better themselves and man for me it's been the most rewarding ride these last especially like two years where i've i was able to develop myself on social media so on it and my my

superiors they they saw, hey, man, you know, you got a big following. We should position you since you're really good at kettlebells to start teaching, helping assist and teach our kettlebell certifications because we ended up developing our own education system. And so I started assisting in the kettlebell certs, and I still do that. And I've been able to reach people around the country through the kettlebell certs,

and it's been awesome. Yeah, that's really cool. It's actually interesting to walk into this gym and not see a lot of barbells. Right. Especially for us. We're CrossFit guys, and I've been competing in CrossFit forever, and to walk into a gym and not see a barbell being the main piece. Yeah.

You guys have so many kettlebells and and then the maces and all that stuff. The ropes and all that stuff. The battle ropes. Which I've seen too, but it's not the piece of equipment like it is when you walk in here. When you walk in here, you can tell at some point I'm probably going to have to use that. We focus a lot on just body weight training and durability training. The whole mission through the Iron Academy is longevity and not just training for performance and getting your numbers up, getting faster, getting stronger, but also being able to last into your old age,

being able to keep your gains for a long period of time. So we focus a lot on mobility and durability. So a lot of our classes, a lot of our coaches, we incorporate a ton of mobility training to make sure our clients are not only getting what they want but what they need. And so I think that's why our programs have been really successful and are really kind of changing the game around the country. That's why I actually like kettlebell training in general.

I feel like it requires a lot of core strength because you're always, everything kind of starts with the swing most of the time. A lot of hip drive. And then there's also you can get into a lot of the movements a lot easier with a kettlebell and like a lot more fluid. But it does require flexibility. I think it's also a lot harder to fuck yourself

up with kettlebell training, you know, because it takes skill to like progress and go heavier. Whereas with the barbell, I feel like you can just keep throwing weight on and your form keeps getting worse but you just kind of figure it out type of thing so i think for me too i think over the years the longevity factor has grown so much more important compared to other things where when you're younger and i mean i'm still pretty young compared to fish for example but 26 i played semi-pro football for a while so like i had, I had times of, like, really intense training. And I can feel my body, like, hurting now.

You know what I mean? Like, my back is hurting. My knees are hurting. My hips are, like, bothering me every now and then. So, I'm like, if I keep doing exactly this and it's going to get progressively worse, where am I going to be in 10, 20, 30 years, you know? Yeah. So, and now I don't really care if I squat 4 or 5 or if I squat 3.55, like, or it doesn't, the numbers don't really matter anymore. Yeah.

Right? It's more importantly that I move well and that I'm able to move well for a long time to come. Exactly. Yeah, what we like to say around here is with our mobility training and our more, like, movement-based exercises, it's like you're putting money in the bank you know it might not affect you right away but i like that shave away at that at those problem areas and put that money in the bank you're gonna need it later when you put

yourself in a bad position and or you'll be more ready for those chaotic situations you might run into when you're not like in an unfamiliar position or if you're doing like a jiu-jitsu match or you're on the field and you turn the wrong way. If you put that money in the bank with your mobility training or exploring different ranges of motion, you're preparing your body to absorb that impact a lot easier. I know you guys have a lot of bigger athletes, professional athletes, come in here as well and train with you guys. Do you feel like they're able to sustain the same level of like strength and conditioning than it would be in a traditional gym oh yeah for sure uh we're definitely higher some of the top elite trainers like we have a whole uh sports performance side to our art academy i work for the general public side where i teach you know your teach your average person how to use kettlebells,

how to get in shape, but we have a whole side dedicated just to training athletes. We have our strength coach, strength and conditioning coach, CJ McFarlane. We have our football specific coach, Jeremy Hills, who used to be a running back for Texas Longhorns. And we have a whole team of stretch therapists, Tim and Kim, TK Stretching. They're in-house stretch therapists. I don't know if you've ever heard of stretch therapy.

No. So it's like manual stretch therapy. They lay our athletes down on a massage table, and they manually stretch them. So that's what's going on over there right now? Basically, yeah. That's Tim over there stretching the client out. Gotcha. Okay.

So how does a membership here work? So you guys have, like, class going on and stuff like that too, right? And then you've got that, and you've got the cafe. Yeah, we have our basic membership for, you know, access to the gym and classes and small group trainings. Okay. And then we have our jiu-jitsu membership. So those are all separate. membership for you know access to the gym and classes and group small group trainings okay and then we have our jiu-jitsu membership so those are all separate but there's different deals where you can combine you know the whole package being able to do the martial arts side of stuff and adding packages of sessions for stretching you know it's all a la carte type deals okay cool yeah gotcha

and what is your what is your regular member look like? Like what is because you guys are pretty like off-site, right? You're like, you know, it's like industrial side So I feel like someone would have to know that you guys are here Yeah, so like walks into your door on like a daily basis, man. We get all kinds of people. Okay, so you can have like your average guy who works from 9 to 5 Working out next to a fucking football player, you know, a super athlete, and everybody just kind of coexists. It's like a super motivating environment.

Sometimes it can be a little crowded. There's a bunch of guys sprinting on the turf while there's class going on you know but the um the like the appreciation is a lot more than the complaints yeah i have a lot more clients saying man it's super motivating being able to train next to lance armstrong or these elite level football players because they're inspired to want to keep training hard keep coming back to to class, and, you know, it's super dope. Yeah, that's really, really cool. Actually, at our gym, it's a little bit smaller. Yeah.

And we have just crazy amounts of people who come. This is a pretty successful gym. Yeah. And no matter how crazy it gets, like, I don't think we've ever even had a complaint. Like, people are just like, man, it was a little bit crazy, but, like, that's it. Yeah, you make it work. People love, like,, but, like, that's it. Yeah, you make it work. People love, like, I think, like, the mayhem. Oh, yeah.

I think I would rather walk into a little bit of mayhem than, like. Than a quiet. Than it just being quiet. There's a little, like, fear that lives inside you when you work out. Like, especially, like, we have, like, Saturday, like, partner workouts, and we have, like, 40, 45 people in that place. And, dude, if we tell you it's not big, it's not big. Like, if you take, like, this room. It's not big it's not big like if you take like this room

it's the size of just their small area when you walk in yeah and there's like fucking barbells dropping people coming down from ropes and stuff

so there's this little bit of fear in your head that you might die and that just like that just like pushes you like to the next level you know

yeah man it keeps you focused yeah exactly it's really cool it's not fucking around did you say Lance Armstrong before Lance Armstrong

he works out here sometimes yeah he works out here all the time he trains a lot with our head coach and chief of fitness, John Wolfe. A lot of durability and mobility training. Oh, that's super cool. And I heard Taylor Swift works out here as well? No, she doesn't work out here.

She works with one of the trainers. Yeah, one of our coaches. Just goes to her house or something? Her and her dance crew. That's really cool. That's really cool. That's really rad. So you guys are a supplement company first, right? So Alpha Brain was like your first product.

Yeah, that's our flagship product is the Alpha Brain. And then we have our Shroom Tech Sport. And we just took one of those Alpha Brain shots right before the podcast. We were in a little cafe. And you like it? Dude, I can feel it right now. Right? Like absolutely.

We were like halfway into the podcast and I was like, what the fuck is actually happening to me right it? Dude, I can feel it right now. Right? Like, absolutely. Like, we're, like, halfway into the podcast, and I was like, what the fuck is actually happening to me right now? Dude, that's crazy. Like, it's, like, instantly. Yeah, man. Yeah, I take AlphaBrain. I take our Total Strength and Performance, which is, like, our version of a pre-workout. No stimulants, just, like, tons of amino acids, beta-allyn, you know, all your basic stuff.

But we like to source all the best ingredients, so I feel a lot healthier than, you know, taking some pre-workout. I have no idea what's in, you know, which is like 99% of them. Yeah, man. FDA approved. Yeah, right. Exactly. So, um, when I'm a client here, do you guys make recommendations as far as the supplementation goes as well? Yeah. I mean, we don't go out of our way to, like, throw things in people's faces. But we definitely recommend stuff that we think they might need or might help them in their performance. That's cool. I like how everything is, like, kind of all encompassing here.

Yeah, no, it's definitely a one-stop shop. Let's get a little bit more into, like, your kettlebell stuff. So now you're teaching kettlebell certifications. Certifications. We're on an academy. So what does one of those look like is it like a couple days long is it one day a couple days long uh anywhere from eight to ten hours a day how many movements are they learning oh man over a hundred movements over a hundred movements with a kettlebell we teach them all the basics you know the swing the snatch the clean uh but then we also help them build a foundation of uh going through all the movement patterns from the hinge movement pattern, squat, push, pull, anti-rotational work.

We give them all different regressions and progressions to getting into the more advanced exercises. Yeah, I love that. That's cool. And I think it's good for the listeners to know that he's teaching over 100 movements. That's what makes having a kettlebell so versatile, especially for people maybe in the middle of America who are listening to this. Maybe the closest gym is like an hour away from you or two hours away from you, but you want to work out at home, and maybe you can't afford like a full – well, what everybody thinks they should have is like a bench with a barbell and then like maybe a couple dumbbells type of thing.

You can get by with a kettlebell and I think a lot of people just really don't understand. There's so much you can do. All it is is a weight with a handle on it. Yeah. You know, you just got to get creative. And so we teach people the fundamentals of body awareness and maintaining a proper structure. We teach them all the basic movements so that you can eventually

build your own flows, your combinations and experiment with your own stuff. And I love kettlebells as well and a lot of people listening to the show know that I do and you guys know about my 50 kettlebell swings a day challenge. If you guys follow me on Instagram or follow the thousands of gyms out there that follow it every day as part of their warm-up.

That sounds dope. I think I'm going to start doing that. It's actually really, really good. I just did it here the other day with the 100 and... The 105, 104? The 105, yeah. 48 kilo. And I did it. I try to do it every single day. I have one in the back of my truck. And you did it on broken with the 48? Yeah. No way. I'll do it with you right after this. Damn. We'll get that on tape for sure. Crush me.

I've done, the last time I did it, I was doing an endless EMOM. Alexia Clark, you know who that is? She's like a... I've heard of her, yeah. She's like a fitness girl. She sent me a DM. She's like, hey, you should try this challenge.

I'm like, what is it? Can't be that hard. Yeah. She's like, it should try this challenge. And I'm like, what is it? It can't be that hard. She said, it's an endless EMOM. I'm like, what? Is it like 10 on the first minute, 11 on the second, 12 on the – Yeah, I think two reps every minute. And so I was like – she did it with like I think a 20 kilo. And I was like, damn, that's pretty good. And so I was like, man, I bet you I could do at least more than three times her weight.

So I did a 48 kilo. Man, I was like, man, I bet you I could do at least more than three times her weight. So I did a 48 kilo. Man, I did like 40. I got to like round six or seven before I couldn't even hold it anymore, man. Oh, I bet, dude. It was so hard. Yeah, there's no way I could do 50 reps. The grip. Maybe I could.

Maybe in one go I could hit 50 reps. That's what I'm saying. That's the thing. Yeah, because I did like 10, 12. And the reason I really like get after this is because I was reading a couple studies about kettlebells because I'm super interested in kettlebells. I love kettlebells because I just like people to get their fitness on, and I feel like it's just the easiest, best way to get people introduced to fitness, I think.

I think it's way better than bringing people to a gym like right away and overwhelming them. I think a kettlebell is just a great introduction. But anyway, there's a lot of science out there right now and they're talking about how just the motion of a swing done at high intensity is actually burning the same amount of calories and giving your body the same exact

scenario as running a six minute mile. Really? Wow. I want to find the study and hopefully put it in the notes. Yeah, for sure. Once you start making a strenuous, like, once you start getting into a strenuous situation, sorry, and you really start getting a good sweat going and you're constantly moving, it's the same as, like, running a mile. Oh, yeah, for sure. Full effort.

And the kettlebell snatch is the same and, like, all that stuff. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so anything like a big full range of motion type of movement. Yeah. I'm a big runner. Yeah. I love running. Like, that's my go-to exercise is running for 30 minutes to an hour and a half.

I like putting my jams on, drinks caffeine, and just fucking just get lost in my own little world. I used to love running, but now I have a bad knee, so it's like – So now I stick to my 50 kettlebell swings a day challenges. Yeah, that's the thing, you know. Sometimes I don't have time to, you time to go knock out an hour-long, two-hour commitment to run. So I have some time in between clients. I've got like 30 minutes to 45 minutes.

I'll knock out a kettlebell flow. And, man, it'll burn maybe just as much or more calories. And it's fun. And you're burning calories after. So once you have an elevated heart rate, it takes a while to come down. Oh, yeah. So that's the reason I go shower. I'm still sweating after, for sure. So it's fun. And you're burning calories after. So once you have an elevated heart rate, it takes a while to come down. Oh, yeah. I'm still sweating. I'll go shower.

I'm still sweating after for sure. So it's fun. It's like you're doing a little dance, man. You combine all kinds of moves. It can be. Yeah, I've seen some of your videos for sure. Oh, man, I'm Latin. I'm Mexican.

I love dance. Oh, you got in your blood then, yeah. Oh, yeah, man. So I'm just out there having fun, mixing up these different movements. Yeah, it's hella fun. Why do you think that the kettlebell itself hasn't really caught on yet in conventional gyms? I mean, Ryan and I talk about this all the time. Even if you look up random kettlebell movements on the internet, it's some fucking weird Russian guy doing it in his backyard, right?

And it's like there's not really that much traction behind it yet. They are getting into globo gyms a little bit more now. Yeah. Like you can go to 24-Hour Fitness and they and they're there they have them but do people really use them yeah that's super you know they're doing russian swings and american swings and then that's it but they need people like us on instagram doing shit like this so people are like oh maybe this kind of cool this guy's doing it yeah they just don't think they can get the best results from this lightweight you know they're they don't have the understanding yet that you can, you know, create full body, like, awareness and tension with just a lighter weight. And there's techniques that you can use that help you gain strength

and mobility at the same time. And people are just focused on, you know, the big lifts, being able to see their numbers go up, you know, big chest, big arms. Yeah. When, you know, big arms. Yeah. When you can use the kettlebell to achieve most of those results, maybe not maximum strength, but you can definitely use these tools to help assist and help with your numbers. When's the last time you used a barbell?

I use a barbell every now and then. Okay. I'll do a heavy deadlift maybe once a month. I'll squat with a barbell maybe twice a month, once every couple weeks. I don't omit anything from my training. I like to use anything that works. If I'm on the go, I'll knock out 30 heavy reps of squats, some kettlebell swings, some pull-ups, a quick little 30-minute circuit.

It helps me get my heart pumping, helps me, you know, break down that tissue a little bit in my legs, you know. And it's just I don't – I'm not – I'm definitely not kettlebell only. Yeah. I definitely mostly kettlebells, you know, just because they're super easy to – they're super accessible on the go. I'm the same way. I do a little bit of both.

Yeah. But I don't lift heavy squats and deadlifts, like, all the time. Yeah, no way. It's a lot more rare than it used to be. I used to do that all of both. Yeah. But I don't lift heavy squats and deadlifts, like, all the time. Yeah, no way. It's a lot more rare than it used to be. I used to do that all the time. Yep. And it started breaking you down. Yeah.

You started seeing how much it hurts your spine, your knees, your hips. Well, especially a lot of people don't realize, too, is, like, you need that unilateral work where you're doing single arm, single leg. 100%. And when you're using the barbell, you could build some serious discrepancies in your body. That's why I have the issues that I have. Every chiropractor, every doctor I've ever seen, my back problems come from the fact that my left side is stronger with everything. That's weird because I'm right-handed and right-footed. But if I'm doing single-leg lunges, even if I'm doing single-arm shoulder press or something like that,

dude, my left arm is still going, my right arm is not. So that's why my whole left side I'm kind of hunched over almost to the left. And so the left side muscles are working so much harder, and that's why that whole side is just fucked up. With the barbell, you can overcompensate. If I'm squatting and my left side is doing 65% of the work and my right side is only doing 35%, you won't even notice it. And over time, it'll create some serious problems.

That's what I like about the kettlebell, I think, the most. And it's kind of like what you said with the form. You can't snatch a kettlebell with a shitty form like a heavy one. You can't pick up a 70-pound kettlebell and be like, I'm just going to snatch this and you don't know what you're doing because it won't go up. And with the barbell,

if you snatch, it's my fucking favorite thing when people do this when they snatch and they duck their head under it yeah you ever see what i'm talking about like totally they only get it to eye level and they have to like tilt their head to the side to get it under the barbell oh my god dude that's so fucking so terrible you're probably not used to seeing that no i'm not we got some guys in here who do a lot of explosive movements and some barbell stuff, but I shy away from that stuff, man. I'm not a big overhead anything, honestly. I do some kettlebell presses, snatches, but barbell overhead just fucks with my shoulders.

Oh, okay. I have super tight legs. I love doing a lot of pull-ups, a lot of rows. I love the ski erg. Do you guys have a couple of ski ergs? Oh, hell yeah. That's my favorite. So good. I love the a lot of pull-ups, a lot of rows, you know, so. I love the SkiErg. It's like you guys have a couple of SkiErgs. Oh, hell yeah. That's like my favorite. So good.

I love the SkiErg. So I think a little bit before the show you were talking about you created your own kettlebell program. Yeah. Yeah, so I just launched my website, ericleha.com. I have a full-on over 150 instructional videos on all my go-to kettlebell techniques, bodyweight warm-ups, cool-downs, and some workouts, some flows and combinations that you see me doing on Instagram. I put that all into a big course.

It's like over three hours of video. So if you want to check that out, you can go to ericleha.com and, you know, if you could learn with me online. And if you'd rather learn in person come check out one of the kettlebell certifications they're very similar the content that i teach at the certs to what's in my course and the course i just go into depth on my personal style of how i like to combine the stuff together this is something that they buy and it takes a couple hours to go through all the videos uh it's literally like, yeah, it takes a long time. There's so much content on it.

I go through the warm-ups, the importance of breathing and joint mobility, and then I get into the basics of all the movements, all the basic techniques. I show you the beginner, intermediate, advanced exercises for hinging patterns, swing variations, snatches, everything. And then I get into my favorite exercises that aren't specific to movement patterns. And then some core work, tons of decompression exercise I like to use to cool down. Okay. Make sure I'm recovering strong from my kettlebell workouts.

It's interesting how many people ask us all the time about warm-ups and cool downs yeah because like I'm one of those people who's like I really have a hard time giving you a warm-up at our cool down yeah I don't know that much about you and you probably need something a lot more specific than I do yeah but like for kettlebell stuff I could see how because you're gonna be using like multi joint and kind of a lot of the same things. Yeah, I give them a pretty general full body like cool downs. There's some of them that are really targeted, like hips, knees, ankles. I think it's cool that you do that because a lot of people – Yeah, honestly, from all the feedback that we get, a lot of positive feedback,

some of the best is people being really appreciative of the warm-ups and cool-down section because nobody really does any of that, you know? No, they don't. People just get into the gym, knock out their workout, and cool down section. Cause nobody really does any of that, you know, no, they don't just get into the gym, knock out their workout and they're done. And then, you know, they,

they're missing a pretty important part that over time, if you don't, you know, get your warmups in, get your cool downs in, you can develop some, some pretty bad habits. Yeah.

Great. That's really, really, really important. A lot of people literally just have no idea. I actually just went home last weekend. I, my parents are in New jersey and new york yeah so i went home and i'm doing a workout in the basement with my stepdad yeah and like we decided that we're gonna do every um every four minutes by five rounds and it's gonna and it's gonna be a 500 meter row and then 10 deadlifts

wow right so i i'm he's like what's the weight going to be? And I'm like, all right, we'll put like 275 on the bar. And he's like, okay, cool. And he just puts 275 on. And I'm like, dude, let's do a few warm-ups. He's like, why? And his form was pretty bad, too. And then I was like, oh, my God, do you do that every time? And he's like, yeah, for pretty much everything. I then I was like, oh my God, do you do that every time? Wow.

And he's like, yeah, like pretty much everything. I'm like, bench, everything? And he's like, yeah, dude,

like, he shows me like a door stretch. Right, right. Chest opener. For you guys, you can't see what I'm doing, but he'll do like a little

open chest door stretch for like two seconds and he's like, okay, do 25. And I'm like, whoa, this is crazy.

Like a lot of people really have no idea how to warm up. And that's the longevity factor that comes back into play, right? You can only do that for so long before you really fucking get yourself injured. It will work for that one freak show. Yeah. Until it doesn't work. 100%.

Until it doesn't work. So you got to put that money in the bank. And you're young. You're 24? I'm 25. I just turned 25. 25? Okay.

I can feel this stuff now, man. Dude, I'm telling you. Four years ago, I was good. You know, I would skip my warm-ups. I just turned 25. 25? Okay. I can feel this stuff now, man. Dude, I'm telling you. Four years ago, I was good. I would skip my warm-ups. I would just jump right into it. Now I'm mindful throughout the day with all my clients. I do my joint mobility. I do all the warm-ups with them and the cool-downs,

not only so they can see me in proper form, but I get my warm-ups and my cool-downs throughout the whole day, and it's been helping out, man. I feel a lot healthier. I'm the strongest I've ever been, and there's no turning back for me. We also have a badass durability certification through R&D Academy where we take you through all the different methodologies that we like to teach on how to recover strong in between workouts.

So this is something that, as a member of the gym, it's an extra fee to be part of this thing? No. Like a durability academy, for instance? No. We actually have a class, hour-long class, where we teach you how to use a tennis ball to roll your muscles out, and then we teach you some mobility flows.

It's almost like active yoga stretches. And that's part of your membership. Yeah, because we want to ensure that our clients keep coming back. We want people getting hurt. And is it crowded, that class? Oh, yeah, that's one of our most successful classes. I believe it. People are fucking falling apart.

I've tried to do mobility stuff before, even with people who are really good at mobility. And by us, nobody cares. They just want to get like their death session in and go home it's crazy to me it blows me away but i love that you guys yeah sell out on that i think we just do a great job of you know showing people especially when they see the athletes because we make sure all our athletes really focus on this type on this type of training we make sure on wednesdays a lot of the football players that do their combine training here. Monday, Tuesday, they do

their training conditioning. Wednesday, mandatory come in to the gym recovery day and they train with our durability coaches. That's really cool. Tennis ball stretching, mobility stretches and flows and, you know, that's a good example for the rest of the gym to realize, man, like

those athletes are doing it. Yeah, if you're watching them do it, for sure you're probably like, it for sure and i think it's like it's educating yourself too you know because i think when everyone starts to work out they're like ah i don't need to warm up i need to cool down i need to do recovery or anything like that and then as you go on and you learn more you're like oh shit if i if i squat heavy today but i actually do my recovery after i might be able to walk tomorrow you know or like i don't have to take three days off i'm also super glad as you mentioned the whole mindfulness factor because i think that's a really big role in warming up especially where a lot of people they just kind of rush to their warm-up right they're

just i just got to get this done and then go where i feel like and i'm getting more and more into this now the more connected i feel to my warm-up and able i'm able to like connect to my breathing and i'm feeling like the little muscles move and you know and there's the you're warming up your nervous system on top of just warming up your muscles that carries over into the workout like nothing else like there's no supplement you can take that's going to have that big of an impact on your workout exactly and then combine that with your dope supplements yeah exactly so do you see the fitness world kind of like evolving into this direction, into the stuff that you guys are doing? For sure. We actually, on Academy, just partnered up with Exos, one of the biggest leaders in training top athletes. and we're making some serious headway in combining our methodologies of longevity training

with this higher intensity type training for professional athletes. Cool. And I think, you know, the world as a whole, you know, we're seeing more and more people become more conscious. You know, we have our society, you know, everybody has access to all this information now with the Internet. You know, you can find anything on the internet so i think as a more woke society you know people will start learning more about what really works and what they really need they're going to realize you know this is i need to fucking take care of my body 100 and just train really hard you know if you want to keep training

hard you need to make sure you're not injuring yourself and you're conditioning yourself 100 for anything it's so huge because an injury will set you back so much further than just training correctly will move you forward you know what i mean like yeah maybe you won't make 10 15 20 pound jumps on your back squat every single week if you're doing it correctly right but if you get that injury and you get like a torn ligament or whatever it is you're out for six weeks dude you're sitting on the couch watching fucking game of thrones and then you're gonna lose all your gains right you gotta start it back at 135 and then you're screwed from there and i think it's it's really correct what you're saying that the fitness world itself kind of goes through these waves and through these like stages,

right? Bodybuilding is the biggest fucking thing ever. Then Zumba is the biggest fucking thing ever. Then CrossFit explodes out of nowhere, you know? And I think like everybody just was always looking for like the next big thing. And I think that longevity and just learning about your body in general is

so huge. So like I could definitely see it going that way. Yeah, I think this is the first time in fitness history we're seeing a significant amount of people that are overtrained and injured. But also people that are realizing that's happening and they're trying to do something about it. And it's mainly because the barbell has been so emphasized on an overuse type of scale.

So because CrossFit got so big and functional training got so big and high-intensity animal training got so big, which is AKA all the same shit, it just all came together. And everyone just fucking saw all these results, and they're like, I'm just going to do more and more and more and more. More is always better. It just happens that we're in Texas, and bigger is better. I used to have a guy. Austin is, like, very different from the rest of Texas.

Yeah, we haven't really been anywhere else. I was here, like, six years ago. Make our rounds. I used to have a guy that I played football with back in Germany when I played over there. His football in Germany? Yeah, he's a semi-pro. What?

That's cool. Yeah, that was super fun. Played there for two years. You don't hear his little bit of an accent that he has? Yeah, I was wondering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, nice. So his methodology was the fucking funniest shit,

and we're still making fun of that shit today. He was a huge motherfucker. Most of the people that play over there are degenerates, and they've been to jail a bunch of times, and now they just find a legal way to fuck people up basically, right? That's all it is. He was the same way. He had the face tat, everything, the real deal. And this dude believed that

whenever he injured a part of his body, that that part of the body was too weak and he had to train it more. So he would fuck up his shoulder in practice and it would hurt and he would drive to the gym and just do shoulder exercises to train over his weak muscles he just hurt forever yeah basically awesome yeah did it work

for him did he get stronger dude he was a monster like i don't know what the fuck he was on but he would come back the next day and be totally fine i love that that's's amazing. Yeah. But, yeah, I definitely think that the fitness world is, like, evolving and they're learning a lot of things. Yeah, I think longevity is just such an awesome word right now. A hundred percent. It's one of those buzzwords. We've been saying it in, like, the last couple of podcasts. Durability, man.

Durability. Durability. You want to be durable. You want to last. Yeah. Harder to kill. Hell, yeah. All right.

Yep. Sounds good to me. Do you have anything else you wanted to add? Yeah, man. If you're trying to segue yourself into some more durability training, I think a good tool to transition from getting your clients and yourself from being getting your work in, getting your strength work in, and

still getting some mobility in, I think kettlebells are the tool for you. Kettlebells, maces, clubs, and still getting some mobility in, I think kettlebells are the tool for you. Kettlebells, maces, clubs, they still got some weight to them, but with mindful technique, you can get a lot of really good work that not only makes you stronger conditioned, but also more durable and help you last longer. Totally agreed. And you guys can check out your website.

EricLeha.com. EricLeha.com. You guys know me, myself. I sell kettlebell e-books. You guys can follow the Kettlebell 50 Swing a Day Challenge. If people are not in Austin, Texas, what are the best resources they can use to follow your programming, like you and then Onnit in general?

Yeah, I would check out Onnit Academy, Onnit.com. Are you guys ever looking to get out of Austin, like open up gyms somewhere else? We've thought about it, but it's know, it's quality control, you know. Yeah, fair enough. I feel the same way about my gym. Yeah, we don't want to expand and just put our name on stuff. No, fair enough.

No, we want to make sure, like, we don't want to be like CrossFit where, you know, everybody's doing CrossFit and then it gets a bad stigma. Yep. We want to make sure we educate people and they're doing the right stuff. And so at this point, we haven't felt comfortable with expanding. We're just trying to dial in. I think that's awesome. No, I'm with that 100%.

Making sure we're coaching everybody up. Yeah, because one bad on it, Jim, they're all bad. Everything's bad now. Like just in people's eyes. Yeah. You can have a totally different experience at one CrossFit gym and then another one that's great and just depends on the owner. Yep.

Yeah. Quality reps, quality coaches, quality everything. Good. Yep. Go for it. Is there anything you guys want to tell the rest of the Barbell Shrug? Well, as you guys know, just all the graphic design stuff, the production for the podcast, videos, all that stuff is going to come from me. So if you guys are interested in getting any graphic design done,

you guys can hit me up at yaya at crossfitchalk.com. Whether you guys are small, big, whatever you guys need, we'll figure something out. And then what do you got going on, Fish? You guys know me as the Chalk CEO. You guys want to follow the online app that I have for you guys, CrossFitChalk.com. You can follow our online programming.

I also have affiliate programming for all the gyms out there. I'd help you guys increase your business. You guys can follow me on CrossFitChalk. CrossFitChalk Instagram and Ryan Fish. You guys know me. Come on. And your kettlebell e-books. We were talking about kettlebells all day come on and your kettlebell e-books since we were talking

about kettlebells and I do kettlebell e-books as well and I'm a big kettlebell fan so this has been a great podcast for me and I really really liked it a lot

it was my first time over here at On It Gym in Texas it's been a great opportunity to meet everybody and just kind of feel the space

and feel the vibe and we're going to be off to Paleo FX for the rest of the weekend over here yep dude thanks again for being on oh thanks for having me it's weekend over here. Yep. Dude, thanks again for being on.

Oh, thanks for having me, man. It's always a pleasure. Appreciate it. Learning new things. Thanks, man. All right. And that will wrap it up with the Primal Swolger. If you guys are super hyped up on kettlebells now or maybe dropping acid, go ahead and head over to the Primal Swolger's Instagram account.

Like I said, he posts a bunch of cool stuff every single day give him a follow and make sure you guys are subscribed to our channel the shrug collective make sure you guys are on newsletter so you never miss what's happening and as always guys we love when you guys reach out to us so if you want to hit me up, Yaya at CrossFitChalk.com or Ryan at CrossFitChalk.com or Yaya's view on Instagram, Ryan Fish on Instagram, CrossFitChalk on Instagram. All the Instagrams, give us a follow, show us some love, leave a comment on this thread as well on this episode below. Subscribe, tell your mom. Tell your friends. And I'm done with this outro.

So, yep. Hope you guys have fun. We'll see you guys next week.