Barbell Shrugged - Sickness, Wellness, Fitness: A CrossFit Business Model For REAL Healthcare - EPISODE 37

Episode Date: December 5, 2012

http://www.FITR.tv  On this episode of the Barbell Shrugged podcast we traveled out to Jackson, TN to visit Wellfit, a CrossFit gym mixed with a doctor's office.

This week on Barbell Shrugged, we travel to Jackson, Tennessee to visit WellFit Medicine and CrossFit Jackson. We're going to talk about injuries, sickness versus wellness. Next week, stick around, or come back next week, and we're going to visit Rich Froning at his new CrossFit gym. Hey guys, this is Rich Froning, and you're listening to Barbell Shrugged. For the video version, go to fitter.tv. Alright guys, welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Mike Bledsoe here with Doug Larson. You bet.

We've got CTP filming, of course. And we are here at WellFit and CrossFit Jackson. Jason and Jenny Keel, they own CrossFit Jackson. And they've joined up with Dr. Jeremy Draper here. And he owns WellFit. But I'm not exactly sure how any of this works. So they have joined together a doctor's office and a CrossFit gym for a whole wellness idea going on. CrossFit Jackson's been in business for quite a long time. How long have you guys been in business for? I think first of 2008 into 2007 we affiliated, so right at five years. I think if you go down the old affiliate page list,

we're right in the 250 mark of affiliates right there. About the same time y'all did. I think y'all were just quite a few before us. Yeah, we were November of 2007. November of 2007 or September of 2007, yeah, something like that. y'all did i think y'all were yeah quite a few before us but yeah we're november 07 november of us or september of 07 yeah something like that december or january of 2008 yeah we beat you guys trailblazing well it was kind of surprising i remember i do remember seeing you guys pop up and uh when i discovered crossfit i was like oh i oh, I've got to find the CrossFit Memphis. And it didn't exist.

I was like, man, how could this thing not exist in Memphis? It's a relatively big city. I mean, it's not huge. And then you guys opened up one. And I opened up one in Memphis. I was like, man, this is kind of hard. You know, finding people. I'm like, they opened one up in Jackson.

That's got to be even harder. It's a smaller city. How did that go in the beginning uh it's slow going i mean there for the longest it was the typical one guy in a global gym and everybody wondering what you're doing with a set of rings so we did that for a long time i finally got my wife on board that was a process we'll probably talk about that too but uh you know one thing led to the next. We started with a park group. You know, like you hear that a lot, a park group of about five people, and five brought five more, and eventually we had 30 people in a park in 98-degree heat in the middle of summer,

and they're all standing there willing to sweat until it was their turn because we only had five barbells, and we were dragging all that around in the back of our truck. So we built a pretty dedicated group that eventually came to us and said hey how would y'all feel about finding a location and kind of going legit with this so it was really uh client driven so i think that's the right way to do it man build a community first and then pay money for a building absolutely don't pay money for a building then hope somebody shows up and that's a a process in itself because we started teaching our friends and you all have probably seen this too, you know, the first people that ever come work out with you are

your buddies and then you have to transition that management and training style into clients that aren't necessarily your buddies but how do you weigh that? That's a process that's been interesting. Yeah, and those people usually end up becoming your friends. Oh, yeah. So that's one thing that's really cool about running a CrossFit gym is you go into work and you hang out with your friends. Yeah, absolutely.

Not too bad. Yeah. So you guys, how many, you guys have been in a few buildings. I know that. So you guys were driven by your clients to say hey let's move into a building um were you what were you charging them at the time like how did that work did you guys already have them up set up on membership or did you guys we what did that look like we uh we actually kind of started this pro bono you know with the first five in the park and then as that

five turned to 30 we were just kind of getting our feet under us. You know, it was one of those things where I wasn't sure of myself as a trainer and, and, and exactly what I was doing. So I wanted to grow myself as we did that. And as I became more confident in my training skills and, and through and increasing my training knowledge,

that's when, you know, like they, we started getting more people and started looking into the. Uh, that's when, you know, like they, we started getting more people and started looking into the businesses and, and, and what we're doing now is really no different than what we did when we first started to, uh, to charge. We've, uh, we're not a contract model. We don't, we don't use contracts. I don't believe in the predatory contract. You know, I, I'm a free market guy. So if, uh,

if I'm giving someone the training that they feel like they deserve, then I feel like they're going to bestow that money upon me for the training that I gave them. So if they want to be here, they can be here. All they have to do is pay me the first of every month. We do that on a handshake. It's an honorable system, and those that want to go at any given time, I'll shake their hand, and there's the door. You can go somewhere else and be happy. So it's worked out well for us, and we're steadily seeing people walk in the door and smiling.

Yeah, but you get some pretty loyal clients out of a system like that. Absolutely, absolutely. And up until, I say we've never advertised. It's just been up until recently. We've got a client of ours that works at a radio station, and he wanted to do some advertising for us based on some of the changes he's seen in his life. So I was, you know, hey, speak about it, go for it. So he did some radio time, and he's doing that for us.

But up until then, we'd never advertised. Everything we've ever done has been word of mouth, and people just bringing people. And next thing you know, we've gone from, like I said, five people in a park to what are we sitting at now? About 150. 150 people. Very nice.

Now, were you guys friends when you first started, or did you come in later? No, I came in later. Once I went to their first building, they had been open about a month. And I came. I had heard about CrossFit from all the crazy stuff that my mom was doing with you guys in Memphis. And after hearing her talk about her back squat and her deadlifts, and I kind of figured out, well, maybe I should see if I can do that.

If my mom can do it, certainly I you know, I could give it a try. It's usually the other way around. I know. Usually it is the other way around. But I went over there, interrupted Jenny in the middle of one of her workouts, and she was nice enough to tell me, you know, when I could come back and give it a shot. She was, you know, doing sprints inside this, you know, 2,000-square-foot building and running back and forth from the gym.

I'm like, well, it looks like fun. We'll see what it's like. So that's when I started. It's been about two years now. So CrossFit Jackson was your introduction to CrossFit. Correct. Okay. Yeah, your mom kind of pulled your whole family in.

She did. We got four of your family members training at our place, and then you're up here. Yep. The Drapers are becoming like a CrossFit family. Yeah, yeah. It's addicting.

But, you know, what better way to spend time with your family? Agreed. I wish my whole family CrossFitted. That'd be awesome. Yeah, my family doesn't do CrossFit. Well, yeah, some of them do.

Some of them do. But we like to, we prefer to drink. That's what they all have in common. We've got some drinkers in our family. That's my mom over there. They actually work together. It's cool, the family thing, because my brother-in-law, my sister, my dad, my mom are all cross-footers as well.

Very cool. Just the opposite of him, though. We kind of drug them through after a lot of talk. What is this crazy diet you're talking about? It took me forever to get my mom to do it. I don't know. She's done it at a few different gyms too, not living in the same town. Not because she just doesn't like me.

So, Jeremy, what gave you the idea? How did you guys decide to team up or how did that idea come about? The idea came about when I signed up for my level one cert. I was at the Tennessee Tech facility in Cookville and it was the most awesome CrossFit gym I'd ever seen. And I thought, wow, I want one of these someday. If a CrossFit gym has millions of dollars, that's what it could look like. Exactly. And then I got to thinking, they had all these administrative offices and things like that outside the actual gym area. And I said, well, if you just take some of these offices and turn them into exam rooms, you could put a clinic and a gym under the same roof. And that's kind of where the idea was born. I just kind of filed it

away because I just finished residency, signed on with a great practice in town and, you know, thought that would be something 10, 20 years down the road that I would look into. And then I was leaving the gym, um, about a year ago and I was thinking of how nice it would be if I didn't have to have my day job as a doctor and my night job as a trainer, if, um, I could do it under the same roof. And I was kind of tied on under a contract here in Jackson. But I thought, well, you know, if I did go out on my own, I'd still be fulfilling my contract obligations. So I came to Jason and Jenny, I knew that they were looking to go into a bigger place. Because this is a contract with with West Tennessee Healthcare to kind of stay in the Jackson area. Okay, so it's not, you know, I couldn't decide to pack up and go across the country and,

you know, open this somewhere else. I had to, had to stay locally. But as intimidating as the idea was, it just was one of those ideas that just kept on, you know, lingering in the back of my mind. It persisted. And I, you know, just kept on trying to figure out a way to make it possible and decided, well, I'm not going to let either laziness or fear keep me from doing this. If, you know, if there's any way to make it possible, I at least owe it to myself to, you know, give it a shot and look into it. And approached Jason and Jenny and said, would you guys consider relocating to a bigger facility where we could, you know, combine the medicine and the exercise under the same roof. And that's, that's what I wanted. I didn't want to have a, you know, clinic down the road. I didn't want it to be in a separate facility in order for it to work. I felt that it needed to

be under the same roof where you could combine not just the medicine and the exercise, but also bring in the nutrition component because you can't, you know, you can't achieve any level of health without, you know, having that foundation on the proper nutrition. And we were just talking about your mom and she runs the nutrition for WellFit. She does. She just finished her degree as a registered dietitian. So she's got a master's in clinical nutrition and I'm excited to get started working with the patients here in Jackson. The way she's set up, she's set up as an independent business, so really we've got three different businesses under one roof, and she's able to see other physicians' patients as well.

So it doesn't just have to be my patients that she sees, but different physicians in the community will send their patients to see her. Do you feel like people may be intimidated to come see you as a doctor, knowing that you're attached to CrossFit, that thing they see on ESPN where people are climbing ropes and all that kind of stuff? I've gotten that quite, especially now that it's gained popularity. I think because I had already kind of established my reputation as a physician before I even got into CrossFit, that that's been something that's kind of evolved over time. I think patients, you know, they definitely think of that because they'll bring it up and they'll tell me, you know, well, I'll come and see you, but I don't know if I'm going to, you know, do what you tell me to.

Are you going to make me do pull-ups? I come in, get a checkup. So that's, that's, that's always funny to see the reaction. Um, you know, so far I haven't, um, you know, really had it be anything that's, that's hindered the relationship. I think if anything, it just helps knowing that. And I think the biggest thing for me, and one of the things I try to stress to my patients is I'm not going to ask them to do anything that I'm not willing to do myself. I'm not, you know, telling them to exercise and, you know, eat right and, you know, not doing it myself. I mean, I think if anything, I hold myself to a higher standard because I feel like I need to set that example for them. I was actually talking to a guy on Saturday.

He's applying for his residency right now. And he talks about he's talking about how, like, doctors have how doctors have some of the worst health a lot of times. They smoke cigarettes. A lot of them are alcoholics, and it's just crazy how bad their lives are. And then they tell people, you know, you need to lower your cholesterol. And then they don't even really know the first thing to tell people in order to do that. They just eat food that has less cholesterol in it. That's all the doctor really knows, which, as we all know, if you listen to the show, that's not how it works.

But he's talking about that. It's refreshing to have a doctor who really takes care of themselves, and he's going to prescribe things that he does himself. So, yeah. Yeah, it's amazing to think that I went through four years of medical school, three years of residency, and I can't remember having lectures on exercise, nutrition, vitamins, supplements, healthy diet, all these things that, you know, are so important to health. We, we spend all the time focusing on sickness. And that's why we, you know,

we have a medical system in this country where, you know, the focus is on sickness, emergency rooms and hospital visits and things like that. And then we talk about prevention just as a side, a side thought, something that's, you know, crammed in at the end of a, of an already rushed visit, because you've got 30 people on your, on your list to see. I think that's something a lot of people don't know and um i i ended up learning this at some point somebody told me and i uh we ended up with a few doctors at our facility uh and i i did a one-on-one nutrition consultations with just about everybody um and i was talking to these doctors i'm like well how much you know just out of curiosity like how much nutrition training have you had and they're like i don't think i had a single one tell me they had

any at all like oh i've never had any so like when i was talking to them it was like all really new stuff to them i was like and these are the same people who uh who are usually gonna gonna be held at the highest level of advice like if if I tell somebody something, you know, people go, oh, okay. And then a doctor says something, you know, completely opposite. Who are they going to listen to? They're going to listen to a doctor. My grandfather, he does that. He's like, this is a great story.

So he has higher blood sugar, so the doctor's like, you need to eat, you know, you need to change your breakfast. And I told him to eat, like, he didn't want to do, like, bacon and eggs and some fruit or anything. So I was like, just do a smoothie, put some whey protein, some berries, and some spinach in there. So the doctor goes, he comes back to the doctor and tells him he's doing this. He goes, well, don't do that. That fruit, those berries have sugar in them. So my grandfather goes back to eating on doctor's orders, but this is how he comprehended it, was the instant waffles,

the frozen waffles, and then biscuits and gravy at the place down the street. I was just like hitting my head against my desk, like this is terrible. That's pretty tough as a coach a lot of times to encounter that type of stuff. It's really nice to have like a doctor. I actually referred a guy to you to come out here. He drove all the way from Memphis to come see you because he asked me what doctors in Memphis do you know and trust?

Because this guy, he likes kind of the paleo stuff. I'm like, man, I don't know anyone in Memphis. Go see Dr. Draper out there in Jackson. He made the trip. Totally worth it. So, yeah, if you're a doctor in Memphis, maybe you should contact me. People don't have to drive all the way to Jackson. But that's really nice.

So how do the gyms work together? Like if you get a client and they get injured, you just send them his way? Or when you get somebody in there as they heal up or you help them deal with whatever issue they have are you sending them over to him do you guys kind of work together like that or is it all part of a package deal where you can see both facilities or both businesses on under one i know you said you didn't do contracts but under one system how does that work uh yeah we're two totally separate entities as far as his memberships and, and, uh, enrollment in his, uh, his medical practice. Um, now we collaborate in that there are several

of my clients that, uh, are trying to live a better lifestyle and this works well for him. And I can push people his way, the same way you did, you know, you're, I'm looking for someone that has that mindset. Well, guess what? He's right across that door. That works well. And then Jeremy being a trainer, he's there with those people and can walk right from this office right into that gym.

And if he needs to show them, hey, here's what you need to be doing and that kind of thing. So it just gives him a lot more freedom to do what needs to be done to show these people the right way to go. So are you coaching CrossFit classes then? I am. Yeah, so you're doing a little bit of everything. Yep.

Jack of all trades. Renaissance, man. That's right. I consider myself a physician trainer, and I'm really trying to embrace that role and maximize it as much as I can, because it's hard to separate the two. So I've got a lot of patients that I also coach, and I try not to confuse the roles, because I don't want them talking about their medical problems when they're supposed to be

doing burpees. And the same thing, you know, I'm not going to be talking to them about, you know, how to improve their Fran time necessarily when they come in for a medical visit, but there's so much overlap. I don't see why we need to compartmentalize those things when they all fall under the same umbrella, which is health and improved quality of life. That's probably convenient on your end to have a detailed record of everyone's injury history before you have to train them out there.

Granted, a lot of coaches probably ask their clients, what surgeries have you had in the past or what issues are you dealing with? But in your case, you really have an understanding before you put them on the floor of what kind of issues they have going on. How do you use that knowledge to train people in a more effective manner? We've only been open since October, so I haven't had as many experiences as I would have would like so far. But in the experiences I have had when we've, you know, discussed injuries and ways to improve mobility or to address, you know, a certain

concern, I can reinforce that in the gym. I can, you know, show them in the office what to do, but, you know, I can show them a lot more and kind of remind them as we're preparing for a workout that, you know, is going to require that they, you know, do something extra to kind of maximize their benefit. What do you think about the possibility of health insurance ever covering CrossFit memberships in a scenario like this? Think you could pull it off?

That's a good question. It would be an excellent investment. I mean, I think that would be probably one of the smartest things that, you know, could be done. But, you know, again, do we want our employers or the government subsidizing and having that much control? That's kind of the problem. And one of the things that's been nice about this practice here is I've been able to, you know, not include the government

plans. So the oversight and the regulation isn't as bad as it would be with, you know, some of these facilities that are receiving federal funding. So, you know, once you open up that can of worms, I could see, you know, all the regulations, you know, there'd be certain things that we wouldn't be able to do because they could be too dangerous. So this partnership would be more made more difficult is what you're saying? Yeah, I think it definitely would. So I'm kind of happy with the way things are right now. And I think, you know, over time of necessity, you know, we'll grow and expand. But, you know, right now I'm just enjoying being in the moment realizing that, you know, a year ago, this was just a crazy idea and now it's a reality yeah i remember talking to you about it originally you're like i think i'm gonna do that and i was

like okay i don't know what he might do it i was like oh we'll see what happens you know and then and then uh when i found out that you were following through that i was really excited uh because the idea just i mean it seems perfect um let's go ahead and take a break real quick and we'll watch a technique wand and then we'll be back all right we're back here in jackson tennessee at crossfit jackson and wellfit um and now we're bringing j into the conversation. Hello. Left her hanging. I know.

I was like, she's wearing an arm brace or something like that. I did. I had shoulder surgery a couple of weeks ago. First started CrossFit, didn't really know what I was doing. We started CrossFit ourselves without really having any coaches, and nobody told me I shouldn't be doing that many kip and pull-ups before I could even do one strict pull-up and you know just I pushed it and pushed it pushed it for years and it was just finally time to get it to get it fixed so that's gonna be a question now some people are gonna be like how many strict pull-ups am I supposed to do before

I do kipping pull-ups what was your recommendation I definitely try to get people to have um two or three at least before we put them on that kip and pull up. And we've just found that after injuring my own shoulders and a couple other people's shoulders, that if we put people on ring rows and just some more focus on mobility more of the shoulder, we just haven't injured anybody in a good long while on the shoulder. And, you know, we just learned from our mistakes. And so I really try to get people strong before we teach them a skill that's going to injure their joints. Do you all do banded pull-ups?

We do occasionally. But after our CrossFit kids start where they showed a progression that they use for kids and teens, we found that our adults are progressing faster by using that box pull-up more so than the banded pull-up. What is that progression, if you don't mind? Oh my goodness. You just run through it real fast. Then I'd be exactly right. Could you show us right now? One-arm box pull-up. It's where you get on your shoelaces and you do a strict pull-up by using as little foot as possible. You know, if you stand on the soles of your feet, there's going to be a tendency to jump. So you're starting on your knees? Is that what you mean? No, on your shoelaces. So you kind of hang your knees off the front of a box. Okay. Oh, I got you. I got you. I got you. Okay. So

Jason, I thought you meant your front knee was on the box too. Yep. Okay. So just your shoelaces. So you can help with your legs a little bit without being able to jump. And you know, you just pull chin over. And we have just built a lot of strength that way. I feel like when we give people the band, although we still let people use a band, they become dependent on it and just stay on it too long because it's easy. And they chase a clock more so than I'd like for them to. Yeah.

I think that's fantastic. I've never used that at all. You ever done that? Me neither. You should go to a kids' park. You just taught us something. It's my favorite ever. We're going to start using that at all you're done that i mean either you should go to you just thought of something my favorite ever we're gonna we're gonna start using that at faction now there you go probably because i'm not a big fan of the bands either we we do use them a

good bit but like it's true it's it hinders uh progress yeah so you heard it doing too many kipping pull-ups i did and tore your lab your labrum. I did. Both shoulders are torn. Okay. And they have been for four years. And I just decided after rehab a couple times a year and just trying to push through it that it was time to get it fixed. I want to compete, not at the games, but definitely want to get into some competitions and just see how much my body can do.

And that shoulder was really, really holding me down. So now you have a lot more perspective on how to train other people. You were just talking about the pull-up progression, but you had a back injury before as well. I did. How has that helped you train other people? I know the things that I had to do pre-back and pre-shoulder surgery to be able to get a workout in without necessarily hurting what was hurt. And what I've had to do in the rehab of both surgeries to make that area stronger. And so it

makes it easier to train people that come in with pre-existing injuries or that get injured under our hand. So what kind of things did you do for your back, you know, leading up to surgery and then also after surgery to still stay in shape? it's a lot of um stretching and just mobility and strengthening the core um a lot of our back injuries come from a weak core so we really try to push more core strength stuff and um i guess that's really about it okay so more mobility and more core strength. Yep. Okay, what about single leg work? You probably didn't do a lot of squats and deadlifts right away. Did you start back with things like lunges?

I did. Was that easier on your back? Walking lunges, even in therapy, which therapy was very anti-CrossFit. They told me not to come back to CrossFit forever if I could help it but but they put me doing a lot of walking lunges and and that was really the only strength builder that I considered that I considered effective and the rest of it was just mobility stretching the hamstrings they said a lot of the back injuries and back pain come from tight hamstrings and a weak core so that's the things we focused on the most with stretching yeah a lot of people I mean that's why I guess every person at some point ends up with a

lot of back pain it's probably just from tight hips yeah just a lot of sitting no squatting yeah now everyone that's older that I know is like my back hurts and it's almost like it's supposed to be a normal thing. It's not normal. Yeah. But it shouldn't be. During that time, during my back surgery and back pain and recovery, I was sitting at a desk. I was a professional engineer during the day.

And I got to where I just took my chair away and did all of my work standing up. I was so much more comfortable standing up. I mean, when I would drive into work, I'd have to get out of my car halfway there and shake my hips out because I was so much more comfortable standing up. I mean, when I would drive into work, I'd have to get out of my car halfway there and shake my hips out because I was so sore from sitting. It hurt my back so bad that I just stood up and worked a large part of my day. We actually just got in a conversation with some people on Twitter the other day about standing desks because I have a standing desk and a bunch of people start taking pictures of their standing desk and it kind of went around. And then a company called

Updesk contacted me on Twitter this morning. Do you know who they are? That's awesome. No. I guess they're a Standing Desk company based out of Nashville but they're only online. So I was trying to get into their place this week but we're not able to make it into their office but if y'all are interested

in Standing Desk, Updesk.com might be the way to go. I don't know because I haven't been there yet. But updesk.com might be the way to go i don't know because i haven't been there yet but updesk.com should send me a free desk i just put all my stuff up on boxes yeah right now i'm using scaffolding yeah i have a huge stack of books for mine yeah it doesn't have to be fancy yeah that's why i was using boxes it worked all the books he doesn't read that's right he just wants to look wants to look smart i have a lot of smart textbooks at my house that i've never opened before but i look really smart i have a lot of textbooks he does lots of parties and he's like look how smart i am so how does uh how does uh we were talking a little bit on the break between

sickness and wellness how do you make that transition from being injured and being treated by doctors and physical therapists back into doing CrossFit? I mean, you did a little bit of single leg work. We're on core mobility. When did you start doing the crazy conditioning again? I let my pain be the guide because all of the surgeries that I I've had I could have lived with the pain I could have pushed through but I wanted to be a better crossfitter and I wanted to be a better coach and so I was very serious about my rehab I did not push crossfitting very soon right after surgery on my back or my shoulder my shoulder is definitely not mobile yet. But I started, as soon as I felt pain, I would cut back.

But I'd try to add anything that I could, you know, a little bit of running, box steps, or, you know, I went back to single unders. I mean, I just started with the lowest of the low, and I would test that for about a week and see how my body would respond to it. And if it was okay, I would go step it up a little bit. But even a year after back surgery, I still can't do box jumps, you know. And so I just know what my body's capable of, but it's only through trial and error and just testing and ramping up the intensity as I felt my body pain could tolerate it or my body could tolerate. What's your plan

for your shoulder now? So you just had surgery. Yes, three weeks. It's been three weeks. What's your plan for your shoulder now? So you just had surgery. Yes, three weeks. It's been three weeks. How are you training now, and how do you plan on training? I have done three workouts since surgery, and they've all been walking lunges and squats. So I feel like that's about all I'm capable of right now. I can't lay flat, so I can't do sit-ups. I mean, I'm very limited. So I feel like I'll probably go into therapy for the next couple of weeks,

just getting it stretching, getting it moving again. And I'm going to wait, I think, until about the two or three month mark before I really do anything CrossFit-ish. Walking lunges and squats are going to be my go-to for the next few weeks. How do you do your squats? You don't put a bar across your shoulders, do you? I asked if he would make me something that would hold it there. I really would need to do some back squats, but I just can't. So I'm holding one-arm dumbbell front squats right now. Doug had surgery on his shoulder a few years ago, and we came up with a pretty good way to do it.

Tell them about the tire. Oh, yeah. I was like, what are you talking about? Tell me. I need to know no i used a i used a weight belt and i just hung weight from it and i and i stood on a big tire so so that the weight had a place to go below me and then i just did squats on a tire so so it was totally hands-free i didn't have to like put a ball on my back and grab it with one arm or use a safety bar or a giant cambered bar any specialty bars at at all. I would just have somebody else.

I would stand. I remember because I was somebody else. That's right. I was like, man, he's got to do another set. I basically would just stand inside the belt, and then they would pick it up and put it on my hips, and then I could do the squats from there. That is awesome.

So you hung kettlebells or something from it? Yeah, kettlebells, plates, whatever. Kettlebells are probably the easiest i'd load up 500 pounds 500 for doug i was gonna say i hit a pr last week or the week before surgery but it wasn't 500 500 pounds by any means uh yeah i did a lot of walking lunges a lot of pistols a lot of single leg work in general yeah uh and then you know still train my other arm. Once this was, you know, a month out, four weeks out, I think I started training my other arm pretty heavy where I wasn't straining and contracting all these muscles in the process. But, you know, could still do a lot of core work and just, you know,

this arm got detrained for a little while, but everything else stayed in pretty good shape. So you stayed with training the uninjured arm. A lot of people say something, you know something that you might not want to get unbalanced and keep training your strong side or your well side, but you did. You're going to be unbalanced no matter what. So you can still keep training your other side, sure. That's what I'm doing.

You're going to have surgery on the other one anyway, so just build that one up, it gets hurt, and you just go back and forth. It is torn, but I want to see if I can put it off a little bit longer. Do you get a pretty good amount of pain in that other shoulder? It's still very responsive to just stretching it and going to therapy. So I'm going to try to put it off. The shoulder I had surgery on was keeping me up at night. I'd hurt to hold my steering wheel.

He said it was the largest hair he'd ever seen. He used seven anchors in my shoulder. Oh, wow. Damn. shoulder I had surgery on was keeping me up at night I'd hurt to hold my steering wheel he said it was the largest terrier he'd ever seen he used seven anchors in my shoulder oh wow damn so it was time to be fixed yeah I would say train the other side I most definitely would there's uh some research that shows if you train say one leg the other leg actually gets some adaptation out of it so you probably slow down some of that atrophy or whatever. I don't know if it's more, it's probably more nervous system than it is actual like muscular growth or anything like that that comes from the training.

But you'll probably be in a better spot if you were to train one side. That's my professional, I'm a medical doctor. I would agree with that though. You know, I, I've, I've heard some studies that have, you know, kind of supported that. I think they did some of those studies at U of M. Was it not? I'm not 100% sure. I want to say one of the studies was at U of M. It was?

That's Brian. So I think it would be safe now to say I did do some one-armed dumbbell cleans at lunch today. I'll just go ahead and throw that out there. You were going to tell us that? That was a secret until just now. I did do some one-armed dumbbell cleans at lunch today. I'll just go ahead and throw that out there. You were going to tell us that? That was a secret until just now. I wanted to see what y'all said about that one size right now.

Oh, you're so stupid. She's like, I don't want to anger them. Yeah, we're totally judging you. You know what? It's all about trial and error, you know? You've got to try it out for yourself. Just because something works for one person doesn't mean it's all about trial and error you know uh you gotta try it out for yourself just because something works for one person doesn't mean it's gonna work for another so you gotta

treat every individual like a case study yeah um i'm a big fan of tim ferris for that i try to follow in those footsteps so like i don't know that supplement might work for them but in this way but it might do something different to me so i'm trying to get some blood work done yeah so we have a great doctor that works. Jeremy's supposed to be working that out for me. He's like, no, no. I'm working on it. He was like, no, no.

I don't know what Mike's talking about. So Jeremy, how did discovering CrossFit change maybe some of your views on medicine? Every doctor I know changed their views on medicine after they started doing CrossFit. Yeah, I think it really shook things up a little bit because you look at the typical recommendations. Well, have your oatmeal in the morning with a big glass of orange juice and some fruit.

Well, that's all carbs. Where's your protein in that? Well, you can't have too much protein anyways, cause it's bad for your kidneys and, um, just all, just all these things that you hear that, um, you know, don't make any sense. Um, you know, well, you don't, you don't want to squat. That's dangerous. Um, but you know, it's okay to get on and off the toilet by yourself. And that's something that you should, you know, um, uh, strive for. So, um, you know, I think that it's made me question things a little bit more and not just accept, well, this is the way it's always been done. So that's why we do it. You know, that's not a good enough answer.

We've got a lot of things going for us in medicine. We, you know, we've made a lot of improvements. But at the same time, you look over the last 10 years, we've really taken a step backwards in a lot of ways. And they told us this in medical school, you know, in five years from now, 50% of the things that we teach you are going to be obsolete or wrong, but we just don't know which half that is. So, you know, we know that, you know, a lot of the things that we're doing now, you know now are going to change. And there are things that they told us not to do that now it's time to go back because, well, we were wrong and they were right.

So we're going to switch back. So with all that being said, I think there are some things that I need to kind of hold to as a physician. And one of the things is, you know, sometimes less is more. Every medication, if you think that it has a potential for good, it also has potential for side effects. Not only that, it's inconvenient to have to take these medicines and it's also expensive. So, you know, I've been prescribing a lot less, even though a lot of patients always want a pill. Sometimes, you know, a pill is not the answer. And sometimes when you take the time to explain it to the patient, they're like, oh, Sometimes, you know, a pill is not the answer. And sometimes when you, when

you take the time to explain it to the patient, they're like, Oh, okay. You know, that makes sense. Um, and then some patients were like, well, I just want my prescription, you know, forget it. So, um, you get a lot more disclaimers when you're prescribing stuff for people these days. Exactly. I explain it a lot more. Um, and you know, I'm not as quick to put everybody on a, on a pill as I was before, because, you know, that's not really the right answer. Um, you know, I'm not as quick to put everybody on a pill as I was before because, you know, that's not really the right answer. You know, a lot of times patients don't want to hear that diet and exercise is what they need to do, but, you know, I'm still going to tell them that. Does that mean you're not going to give Mike the pills he came up here for?

Well, you know, I'll give him those pills. We need them for Doug's bachelor party. Come on, man. You know, that's kind of a different situation. But I think just from a conceptual standpoint, you know, Coach Glassman, he's just, you know, just a brilliant, brilliant guy. And to take the sickness, wellness, fitness continuum, and to realize that, okay, the healthcare system we're in right now, all they do is focus on

sickness. And that's why I even chose the name WellFit. If you focus on wellness and fitness on that other end of the spectrum, not only will you not get as sick, but you won't get as sick as often. And looking at Jenny and the things that she's been through, I mean, there's no way that if she didn't have that foundation of CrossFit going into these surgeries, she would, she wouldn't be in that, in that, in that same, same place. And if people would realize that, you know, we're all going to get sick, that's just, you know, part of being human. But if we focus on the wellness and fitness, we'll be able to get through those a lot better and hopefully, you know, not deal with things that are as severe and debilitating. And I remember you said before the show, you know, some of the doctors said that you wouldn't be able to do anything for months.

And then, you know, a week or two later, you were out going for a jog and felt pretty good. Right. I just want to point out my back surgery was not due to a CrossFit injury for all of you CrossFitters listening to this show. But I also had half of a lung removed. And my surgeon said, after a week's stay at Vanderbilt, you know, he said, you're not going to be back to normal and able to go do run or do anything for about a year. You won't be normal for 18 months. And I don't guess he really understood at the time of discharging me what my foundation was in my diet and exercise and after CrossFit I was able to come out of that

surgery within two weeks and be out running and I was back front squatting I mean I've got it all logged all of my years of recovery from that surgery because I thought it was awesome and when I went and told him at my 30-day checkup, he said that I was a medical miracle, that he had never seen anybody recover to the extent that I did. Just my lung capacity, it was amazing. He said he had never seen anything like it. And so although he had never seen it before and he didn't think it was going to happen, I think CrossFit and just eating a clean diet really set me up for success and recovering from that. I think it's interesting. I hear I was having this conversation with someone the other day.

We were talking about how I had a buddy who had a really bad motorcycle accident. And he was a pretty in-shape guy. He ran his bike into a wall at like 100 miles an hour. But he almost died. But they told him that the only reason he really uh survived is because he was in really great shape and he was he was in good shape but i wouldn't consider him like you know beast mode or anything like that i mean he uh he he was he'd been through like navy seal training so like he wasn beast mode. No, he probably was kind of beast mode.

But like he's not. Every Navy SEAL listening to this is like, man, shut the fuck up. He let himself go. Maybe we can just say he let himself go. Anyways, yeah, this guy. No, anyways, I don't think he was abnormal is what I'll say. And so like that was like the only reason. The doctor said that was the only reason he survived was because of that and it kind of i hear that story all the time from people who

stay in shape you know i'm in was in really great shape and i recovered really fast i'm like that's what normal should be but most people that go in and have some crazy accident you know their body's already having to fight every day to keep them alive you know people who are smoking cigarettes and stuff or just eat mcdon McDonald's and all that kind of stuff, their body is probably actually extremely resilient because they're putting under crazy stress all the time. So then you throw this injury on top of that, and then it's whatever. Like, I feel like you should be, like, the normal scenario,

but you're actually abnormal. Right. If we could have more cases like that, that would be great. How much of the population in America trains? I don't know. Single digit? Like 1% or something like that? Or was that 4% have gym memberships?

How does that work? I think it was 14. The last I looked was like 14% have ever had a gym membership. They don't necessarily use them, but they've had a gym membership at some point. And the people that actually train, I'm sure it's much lower. And how effective is that gym membership in helping them reach health, wellness, and fitness?

Yeah, like what type of gym are they a member at and what's the quality of the training they're getting? Only 3% of that population has ever had a trainer. And then, I don't know what... 3% of the 14 percent right so less than one percent a very low percent i'm not very good at math but you know whatever yeah i tried to do math on the show and i like math but yeah a very small percentage of people have actually you know gotten a trainer and tried to improve their health granted there's the the

people you know kind of like us that just you know we grew up training and it's always going to be a part of our lives but again we're we're definitely in the minority. Most people are, are not in shape and they're not the norm. Kind of like you were just saying. Yeah. So Jeremy, what's your average client? Is this, is this somebody, do you feel like you're, you're treating the general population or are you treating a lot of people who are doing CrossFit? I think the biggest distinction between this practice and my other practice where I spend the other half of my week is here when patients come in, they've got a goal. One of the ways we summarize what we offer at WellFit is goal-oriented care for motivated

patients. So they might not know what they need to do, and they may not be setting their standards very high, but for whatever reason, at some point in their life, they are sick and tired of being sick and tired, whether it's dealing with the weight, whether it's being on a lot of medications, whether it's, oh, you know, I'm going to have to go on insulin. I'm going to have to all of a sudden face something that I don't know how this happened, but all of a sudden I, you know, woke up one morning and found myself in this situation and they're, you know, ready to make a change. So I'm meeting them at a point where they actually have a goal and some motivation. And then we have to kind of help them to not only get to that goal, but show them that they could

get even further than that if they would even consider what possibilities are out there and what their potential is. Because for most people, they live far below their potential because they, they you know don't even have a clue what's out there and then when they come up to you and they say wow you know I feel better than I have in five to six years or and I look at them I say you know what I'm not surprised but just wait because you haven't seen anything yet yeah people don't know how good they can feel all right we, we're going to wrap this up. We're going to go around the circle here and let every person promote something of theirs. We'll start with Doug, give you guys a good example of what it's like. All right, Doug, go for it.

You guys, if you have not seen Maximum Mobility, it's probably the most relevant product for injury prevention on our site right now. You were talking about for your back injury and your shoulder injury, really, about improving your back injury and your shoulder injury, really, about improving your mobility and improving your core stability, and that being kind of the two main things that are helping you rehabilitate yourself. That's a big component of that seminar. We teach people exactly where you need more mobility and consequently where you need more stability to stay injury-free.

So if you want to check out that product, can look in the fitter store which is if you go to fitter TV they'll be one of the tabs up top that says shop just click on that and click on seminars and you can check out maximum mobility cool yeah everything you want to plug you can plug the gym you're hearing Jackson I think that I think that's all we've got to plug is our gym if any of you are ever in town Jackson Tennessee stop by and see. We'll be glad to train you. Okay. I guess I'll throw a plug in for WellFitMedicine, www.wellfitmedicine.com. We've got everything online. We've got some technology that really sets us apart as far as being able to access your medical care and your medical records.

I think that that's an important thing because that helps people take ownership. I know there's a lot of listeners in Memphis. I would say that we're certainly worth the drive up here. You may spend a few hours in a waiting room anyways. Why not drive up to Jackson and let us get you in and out and take good care of you. Excellent. Yeah, and the guy who stopped by, who I referred over to you, he didn't complain about the trip one bit.

He was like, oh, yeah, he was totally happy he came out here. I'm going to plug just our own website real quick. That's fitter.tv, F-I-T-R.TV. Make sure to go there. Sign up for a newsletter. Next week we'll be podcasting with Rich Froning. All right, I'll see you guys with Rich Froning. All right. I'll see you guys

next time. Thanks. Thanks, guys. Thanks.