Barbell Shrugged - The Intersection of Mental and Physical Health w/ Matt Hesse, Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash - Barbell Shrugged #524

Episode Date: November 23, 2020

The core mission of FitOps is to improve the physical and mental health of veterans by creating purpose and community through the power of fitness. We believe that fitness is transformative to every aspect of our lives, and that a community that encourages a mindset and lifestyle of physical, mental, and emotional health is the way to help veterans achieve greatness in life after they serve.     We don’t believe that any service member starts from scratch professionally when they enter civilian life--in fact, quite the opposite. FitOps is specifically designed to build on the fitness and leadership experience that veterans gained during their time in the service. The result is Certified Veteran Fitness Operatives (CVFOs), who guide themselves, their clients, and their community down a path toward being their personal best in fitness and in life.   To learn more go to http://fitops.org   In this Episode of Barbell Shrugged:   The FitOps Foundation and mental health for Military Vets Fighting suicide and awareness for mental health Building a university for the FitOps Foundation Building a university for veterans in fitness The path to helping military vets transition to civilian life   Matt Hesse on Instagram FitOps Foundation  Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram ————————————————   Training Programs to Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/34zcGVw   Nutrition Programs to Lose Fat and Build Muscle: https://bit.ly/3eiW8FF   Nutrition and Training Bundles to Save 67%: https://bit.ly/2yaxQxa   Please Support Our Sponsors   PowerDot - Save 20% using code BBS at http://PowerDot.com/BBS    Inside Tracker: insidetracker.com/earlyaccess to be the first to hear about InsideTracker’s BEST DEAL of the year    Fittogether - Fitness ONLY Social Media App   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   www.masszymes.com/shruggedfree  - for FREE bottle of BiOptimizers Masszymes   Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://bit.ly/3b6GZFj Save 5% using the coupon code “Shrugged”

Struck family this week my good friend Matt Hesse is on the show you will remember from way earlier in this year we interviewed Matt Hesse on our first trip down to Bentonville Arkansas to go to the fit ops camp which was one of the most powerful weekends of my entire life we had seven interviews down there and literally was life changing. Meeting all of the vets, transitioning out of the military into the civilian life and trying to get through some PTSD issues, behavioral health issues, mental health. And I have never been a part of much of the military community, much less the PTSD side of things and understanding what mental health really looks like. And the man that is leading the charge is Matt Hesse, CEO of the FitOps Foundation. And he is one of the biggest thinkers and smartest people in the room. Every time I see him, I learn something. He's just been a phenomenal resource for Barbell Shrugged, a tremendous connection to tons of people. And it's been a

real honor being a part of FitOps Foundation. I truly believe that that entire community of veterans going through FitOps are part of the shrugged family and I feel honored to to be a part of it and tell their stories what they have going on and what we're discussing in the show today last about eight weeks ago we were down in Arkansas in Bentonville and they have purchased a 400-acre farm out in Arkansas in which they're building a university for military vets specifically to be able to have a home that they can come to, learn how to become personal trainers,

go through a three-week-long camp to become a certified personal trainers, go through a three-week long camp to become a certified personal trainer. And then, you know, anything beyond that because the fitness realms are so large that they can really take many angles. And because of the reach that the FitOps Foundation is building, the people that they're bringing in. We've kind of become a little bit of the media wing for them to tell their story, which is a complete honor. But there's so many different angles that people in fitness take to be a part of the fitness industry to make this thing work. And the fact that they're building a university, building a campus, building bunks so people can stay and be a part of it and really have a home for them is beyond anything

that I would ever think of. And the fact that Matt Hesse's on our team and picks the phone up every time I call to talk. And we get to spread the message of mental health, mental awareness. Suicide and our military vets has been an honor. And I'm just truly grateful to be a part of the FitOps family, all the way from Matt Hesse, John Cena, Johnny Martin, Coach Wade. There's just so many people that have touched my life through that,

and we've only been working with them for a year. It's just an honor to be a part of that group. Bobby Somers, another one. There's just so many people down there that have truly touched my life and made me understand so much more. So, um, we were a little bit rushed because Matt had to, um, take some calls and, and we were just kind of imposing cause we wanted to see this new property

that they're, they're building out right now. Um, so we get cut short a little bit at the end, but phenomenal episode. Every time Matt has, he's on the mic, it's time to listen because he's got big things to say and big plans for military vets suffering from PTSD and how we can all help.

So get over to fitops.org and see how you can help. Mental health is the next chapter in understanding how we can create strong, healthy humans. And he's doing a phenomenal job, and I'm really grateful to be a part of it. Let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrug. My name's Anders Varner, here with Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, Matt Hesse. We are out in the middle of northwest Arkansas on 450 acres. There's about 500 cows behind us,

and we didn't just drive out to the middle of nowhere for any reason. Matt Hesse is building the vision of FitOps. And we are, I guess, the first people to bring some cameras out here and introduce this to the barbell shrug community. And I'm really excited to feel. I feel like you guys walked into quarantine. We were all on our way down for Class 11 to meet more vets, and then they shut the world down. And it may feel like FitOps slowed down a little bit, but in reality, I feel like you hit the gas pedal, and this thing's grown in scope.

We're at this beautiful piece of property, and I'm really excited to see kind of where your go, where, where your vision's headed for, for mental health and helping veterans, um, in that transition and just the overall FitOps mission. Um, but before we get into it, make sure you go back and check out episode 444, 444. That's when we had Matt Hesse. And then from about 444, uh, till about the next seven shows, we had seven people from the fit ops camp and really the high level understanding of what they have going on. Um, but for people that haven't heard of fit ops or maybe finding this show for the first time, what is, what is really the high level, um, mission of fit ops? Um, well, first, thanks for having me on the show. I appreciate, uh,

all your guys' support and continued coverage of our mission. So in a nutshell, the foundation, the original concept of what this now is being built into was built around the struggle and veterans transitioning from the service. And a lot of that transition and challenge is loss of purpose and trying to help the men and women who protect and serve our country reoriented back into civilian life is, you know, I'd say the primary mission along with helping them find new purpose again. And so, you know, the overarching, i guess uh plan uh was built around the you know obviously the suicide epidemic that is gripping the veteran population and now during covid worse than ever um a lot of the struggle and transition is is related to loss of purpose and finding the something you can put your heart and soul into in the way you put you did while serving your country and so um you know the the mission is to

reduce suicide and the means in which we're doing it is through fitness um and our our belief is that by um taking them uh out of the you know the the chaos of of civilian life and back into a controlled environment where we can help them invest in them mentally, physically, and emotionally. That allows us to then invest resources from a vocational perspective and build them into trainers. And so that's ultimately what the camp originally was about. And what we're here today to talk about and explain is where we're going with it now. Yeah. And you guys have had 10 camps, which is about 30 people at each camp, so roughly 300 people go through the program. And now all of a sudden we come up on this quarantine.

How were you guys able to keep everyone together? And the systems that probably just were moving and building, there has to be some sort of transition to keep the entire crew together and keep that mission running. What were a little of the problems you guys were facing going into this quarantine in this tough eight months and how you were able to really keep that tight-knit group together? Yeah, I mean, I think you used a word when we first started the show around community, and I think that's what, I know that's what we built. You know, our team, Johnny Martin, who you've interviewed, is our director of

aftercare. We're doing a lot of Zoom classes, and, you know, we, like team, Johnny Martin, who you've interviewed, is our director of aftercare. We're doing a lot of Zoom classes. And, you know, we, like everybody, are adapting and doing what we can to keep that community tight. You know, we're a group that have been built on our shared service in the military. And so, you know, you take a soldier from anywhere and you put him into a room, he'll find the other soldier. And all of a sudden, they're, you know, you take a soldier from anywhere and you put him into a room, he'll find the other soldier and all of a sudden they're, you know, their best buddies. And so I think just by nature of the people that we have involved in this, I think they naturally gel together. And, you know, our programming originally, we're graduating them as platoons. So, you know, they all have, you know, in the military, there's something called a battle buddy buddy which is the person we go through basic training with um you know we have sort of a battle buddy system at camp and that the

the squads um inside the platoons are yeah really tight so i think i think they're supporting each other on on sort of a squad level and then you know as an organization um you know we're as you said busy building um uh we're taking this time to build the future of the program. And so our director of operations, Harrison, who you've spoken with before as well, and I have been doing a lot of exciting stuff, planning for the future. And, you know, inside of that work

is some really exciting culturally building programs. And so everybody within the organization is really excited about what we're about to do and and that trickles down into the community so yeah doing the best we can last night at dinner you were saying you live your life based on morals ethics and values um how do you how do you ensure especially as the organization grows that those those morals ethics and values are still infused through the whole organization culturally you mentioned community a minute ago. How do you ensure, especially as it gets bigger, where you may not be doing the hiring

and you're not doing all of the leading, how do you make sure that those values stay consistent as you grow? I really believe that the most authentic you is the best way to lead. And I am myself, and I always have tried to stay, not even tried, I just live that way myself. And I think when you live that way, you attract other people who live that way as well. And, you know, I'm quite proud and very confident that the team I have, as we scale, it'll just filter down through the organization and we'll continue to be that way.

So the good thing about good energy is it attracts other good energy. The good thing about bad energy is it doesn't attract if you don't have it. So I think that's just an easy fundamental skill, not even skill, just something that you have, and I believe it makes us, ours is unique to us, and it'll make this organization unique, and it'll stay there as we scale. Yeah, one thing it looks like you guys did a ton of, I want to say it was probably around the June, July mark, early summer, it looked like you were building like a board of directors with some very high-ranking military officials.

Can you walk us through that process and who you were looking for and kind of some of the partners that you brought on? Yeah, sure. You know, this program started as a, as a nonprofit trying to reduce suicide through the purpose and power of fitness. Ironically, or not, maybe, you know, back to purpose and why we're doing this. I transitioned and have lived my whole life around understanding who I am physically and where I have lived my whole life around understanding who I am physically and where I want to take my body, understanding who I am mentally and how I'm going to invest in myself intellectually from a knowledge perspective. And then maybe the most important piece is on the sort of spiritual or emotional level of understanding who I am, where I came from, why I am the way that I am, and how do I

not necessarily improve, but understand those things. Um, you know, there's a lot of trauma in, in all of us, everybody grows from their trauma. And that's how I think human beings, um, you know, the, the beautiful thing about humans is when you have trauma in your life, you can either go a bad way and start traumatizing other people, or you can go a good way and you can help people. And I think the whole of the military service, especially in the enlisted ranks are, are folks who have had, you know, come from backgrounds of some sort of trauma and they want to help other people versus hurt other people. Um, and you know, and serving people is helping people. And so when you take someone out of the uniform and put them into

civilian life, even in a lateral job and to the exact same job they were doing the service, they've now lost the ability to serve a greater purpose. And I think that's just the crux of the whole, the whole struggle. And so, um, you know, one of the, as you guys are coaches, you know, the power of coaching and the power of, of changing someone's life through their physical body, it changes them mentally and it changes them emotionally. I have a guy, I actually told him all about FitOps now since we've been here, but his name is Wayne McCulloch, and he was a Apache pilot. So obviously he's been through a lot of stuff, just like all of you guys.

To hear his stories, it appears that like 50% of his friends get killed in action. So I'm telling him about this whole plan and my question is is like you know once they go through the program and you know they get the certification you know are they placed in you know do you guys have a placement how do you follow up with them what happens when it's over is what i'm saying it's not over um as i said we're building a community and, and communities are, are, you know, built around the desire to, um, to share and help other people, um, you know, at least the kind of community that we were, we're, we're building. So when you graduate from our program, yes, you have an accredited certification from, you know, a nationally recognized organization like NASM. Um, and, and you have a certificate from, from fit ops called a CVFO,

which is a certified veteran fitness operative that gives you your, your, your basic, um, we'll call it basic training level of training. So you have an understanding of, of how to train someone physically, but you also understand how to connect with them on an emotional level. Um, and you guys know great coaches are not just great body coaches. They're great mental coaches, probably the, one of the most important and maybe underdeveloped or overlooked areas of coaching is, is how, um, you know, these, these books don't teach you that you can't, you can't get into an asthma book and, and nothing, you know, any of these accreditations and it doesn't talk anything about how to connect with the consumer or your client emotionally, because that's where your

barriers are going to break through. So we're, you know, our program is designed from end to end to be everything you'd need to be, you know, certified and qualified as a trainer, plus all the tools of how to market yourself, how to become a leader in your community how to you know build a resume how to interview for a job all the skills are all kind of wrapped up into one big program and that i think is you can't get that in any other certification i totally see it you know why he worked for me too you know he worked was one of our coaches and excelled and like every person in my gym loved this guy because he just had that ability. All of you guys have the ability to, like, push people in a good way,

push them in and get them to do things that they never thought they could do. He had that. I think once he could get some of the science a little bit more and then the understanding of the marketing end of it, he would be. Well, that's why they brought in Nate, and we interviewed him last week. This will probably air before then, but Nate Palin, he's the new strength coach and bringing in the full program. How did you guys find him?

Because he's, I feel like one of the biggest issues with so many certifications and processes like this is it's a weekend certification. And he's actually got a two-month-long onboarding before they even get here. And then it's three weeks of super intense training, hands-on, actual queuing, working with athletes. How did you guys find him and come across him? So, you know, as we start to look at expansion of our program, you asked the question, how do we keep them engaged? This isn't a quick hit. You're graduated, you're graduated

and you're out. This is a lifelong journey of investing in them in all of the physical, mental, emotional ways that I believe will change someone's life. One of the exercises which we're introducing this year, which is a formal process around helping each of them have a roadmap is what we call purpose blueprinting. And purpose blueprinting is understanding who you are physically and where you want to take your body physically and how you're going to get there. So a set of, a set of goals and tools, uh,

how you, who you are mentally, where you want to go mentally, um, and intellectually, a set of goals and tools there, and then who you are emotionally, uh,

understanding where you're at and where you want to go, um, emotionally and in terms of investing in your soul and in, in your spirituality and not from a religious perspective necessarily but from a you know understanding maybe it's trauma understanding emotion understanding so you know that purpose blueprint will give them a framework and it's not that that's going to deliver your purpose but it will give you a set of strategies and goals that are you know tangible that you can

come back multiple times to our program and see how you're making improvement or how you want to adjust against that blueprint you mentioned the the eight-week lead-up and then the three-week intensive is that the same as the fitness university you mentioned earlier yeah so so nate palin um is our director of education and he he is an Army vet himself. He was a Ranger for seven or eight years. He came out, and while he was serving in the Ranger battalions, he found that the lack of tactical expertise from a training perspective within the units was significant in causing skeletal injury and taking soldiers out of service because they weren't trained correctly

from a mobility and tactical perspective. They were trained, basic training, push-ups, sit-ups, and running is the sort of test to get into basic training and pass. So as you guys know, that's not a very good measurement of how strong you are from a tactical perspective when you're, you know, everything soldiers do is training for, you know, for combat. That's their job to protect our country. what is now a very different situation from what it was 50 years ago. Kits now, what soldiers are wearing, it's 25, 30 pounds heavier than it was back then. So I think even just that little change requires a pretty big change in programming to train them up so that they're able to do their jobs.

And so he came out and went through school, got his master's degree in kinesiology, went to EXOS for a few years, and then actually worked inside a range of battalion. And then NSCA, which is probably the most recognized, is the most recognized accreditation platform, recruited him to build and refine the tactical athlete, which is what's now called TSAC,

which is probably the most widely recognized military or first responder training program. Isn't there a brand new way of testing soldiers now, like actually trap bar deadlifts? It's like a whole different ballgame. Yeah, Army Combat Fitness Test. Right. What is that about?

So it's a test designed to more closely simulate what kind of strength, mobility, speed you would need in a combat situation. And so it's a better gauge of the health and deployability, physicality of the soldiers that we currently are training than push-up setups on a run so dead bar a deadlift on a hex bar you know power throws drag and carry that's all you know all the you know I think it's a better representation of what they actually will need to have as a in their toolkits and so that gets implemented this year and our programming

you know ironically the army army's program that built that is called h2f holistic health and fitness and it's sleep readiness nutrition readiness spiritual readiness mental readiness and physical readiness so the five pillars that we all believe and know are important for all aspects of training and recovery. Our program was already built to do exactly that. You know, we're doing all of those things at FedOps Camp anyway. So it's a perfect, you know, sort of symbiotic relationship between what we're doing here and what they're training for there. Yeah. As you guys have grown and brought on kind of this new board of directors,

has some of the government officials really woken up to the mission of what's going on here? And I guess been, been allies in this, cause I can see there being, there obviously is a massive need, but you're going to need external help of saying, of bringing awareness to what you guys are doing. Yeah, that's a great question. It's, you know, it's one that Harrison was really focused on as he transitioned out. You know, we've got 22 million. It's, you know, it's one that Harrison is really focused on as he transitioned out. You know, we've got 22 million veterans in the in the population now who are transitioning and struggling. Not all of them, but a lot of them. And then you have, you know, three, four million service members that are currently serving that are going to transition eventually. Our mission is to reduce suicide in general using the purpose and power of fitness.

So how do we how do we address this issue and get ahead of this one and turn the spigot off? So you asked earlier about the generals and the high-level military folks we've brought in. Everybody who's served, suicide has touched them in some way. And it's a really sad situation to have someone who was called to serve, did that, and comes back and can't find a way to feel fulfilled in serving in their civilian life. And then, you know, the issues, suicide doesn't just happen to someone. It's not, they're predisposed to it. Everybody has a different level of mental, you know, strength and health. But, you know,

suicide doesn't start with waking up one day and say, I just think I'm going to kill myself. It's an iterative process and decline, which starts with, in my opinion, losing purpose. So what do you get up for every day? How do you feel about yourself? How do you feel about what you're giving back to the world? And if you transition with no strategy, you actually just don't have a way to serve. And so, you know, I think that's the first piece. And, you know, so let's say you lose that. And then, you know, physicality and being, you know, training is such an important part of my day.

It has been my whole life and keeping myself mentally healthy. We all know the studies that are out there on the effect of physical training on mental health. And so we have to train every day, PT in the service. And when you get out, that's no longer required. And I don't think they really realize how detrimental that's going to be. So they're like, ah, I'm out. I don't have to do PT anymore.

Finally don't have to wake up. Yeah. Put on 20 pounds. All of a sudden, they're feeling bad about themselves physically and mentally. And then all of a sudden, they're not able to do even the job that they got because they're overweight. They don't have any energy. So they lose their job. Now they're obese.

They're making bad choices, eating bad things. Mental health continues to decline. Lose the wife, lose the girlfriend, husband, boyfriend. And pretty soon, it's very easy to see how you went from this to that, but you didn't really see it happening because it was little iterations. And so I think that's what we have to get ahead of is to not transition and lose purpose. I think there's several career paths you can go down where you can still serve other people, and training is one of them. I feel like the private sector in things like this is really the most positive way

because I feel like business is just the best tool to building something that can help the most people. When you have a great product and a great service like this, you have the ability to help more people. And when you are able to partner up with the government and create some sort of feeder system, but are there, you know, contracts out there for private contractors and organizations like this to actually be able to say, you know, here's a five-year window where we really get to dig into this, you know, this issue that we know we have. And instead of having like short-term fixes, which is like your 30-day exit strategy, like, is there, are there contracts being bid on, on a, on a larger scale of saying, here's your five-year,

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Make sure you use the code shrugged. Friends, Matt Hesse back on the show. Let's get it. You know, unfortunately, the DOD's mandate is to train and deploy soldiers, not to protect our country. They're not, like any other job, you don't get a transition strategy out of a job at Walmart. You get a transition strategy out of a job at GNC. So, you know, while we all look at the DOD and say, like, you need to do a better job, and they do. I think that's totally a fair thing to say. that was not that's not their mission and mandate yeah and the va is really think of

doctors their their job is to treat illness yeah and mental health has just become something i don't say it's new but they're they're a treatment-based organization and they're not equipped yet holistically from a health perspective to treat what we just talked about yeah so you have over here the va which is a treatment-based organization and over here the dod which is you know that's it's it's their job isn't transition yeah and and down here is what i call the valley of death and the valley death is unfortunately exactly that it's it's suicide and soldiers who have nowhere to go. And so what we're trying to do at FitOps is build bridges and help them make a transition in a healthy way.

So you ask about programs, because of those two things and that gap in the middle, there are no programs. So I think our program and hopefully others see what we're doing and build different versions of it in different areas. And, you know, I think that the specialness of our program is, trainer or a coach or as in a different job and using physical health and training every day to keep mental health strong and, you know, whatever their purpose blueprint ends up being. So, you know, we're networking into the DOD and the VA in this places that we can. Again, our mission and mandate is to reduce suicide. So whatever means necessary, we'll do that. And the generals and the high-ranking enlisted folks who we've connected with, Command Sergeant Major Troxell, who was the outgoing SEAC in the last four years, has become a really big help and partner to us.

You guys should interview him. He's an amazing guy and had an amazing career. But he's, you know, he's suicide touched him in his, a lot in the role he was in, especially in the last four years, his job was really keeping the Joint Chiefs informed on troop readiness and lethality deployability across all the forces, not just the Army. And so that job gave him a pretty big window into what's happening and also, you know, into all of the forces. And so that job gave him a pretty big window into what's happening and also, you know, into all of the forces. And so, you know, each force has some different struggle,

you know, the National Guard, our citizen soldiers, you know, they're struggling probably the most relative to suicide. And there's a few reasons for that. So really, I would not, I'm actually interested in that. I would not have guessed that. Yeah. I mean, there's some new reports coming out from COVID, but a lot of the citizen soldiers obviously have other jobs. And they're a younger force. Part of the struggle in keeping, uh, National Guard and reserve folks in inside, um, they only train for two days a month. And so we talk about physicality, uh, and its effect on mental health.

If they're, if they're only training for two or three days a month, how, how are you? And you go home for 28 days. You guys know as coaches, you eat like shit for 28 days, but the two days I have you, you're good to go. That doesn't, that's not going to change your life. And so I think it's actually just, they have all the pressures of civilians and soldiers, and they only have two days of actual training. And so I think that it's a struggle to keep them physically fit and you know they're

40% of our fighting force yeah that's a big part of man I had no idea 40% yeah they deployed they deployed a ton over the last 10 years and so they have you know their families are at home they're not conditioned necessarily to leave but yet they are and then they come back and they've sort of got this start start and stop life so it's like you like if you're if you're enlisted and this is your job the the wife and the kids continuity yeah they all experience it and they know that things are going to happen but if you're like national guard like the wife might not even be thinking that you're about to get deployed next thing you know something happens now you're gone for a year then you

got to come back i can see how that would be way more challenging it's not prepared you know like so that's a place where i think we can really help um you know our organization is built to do this uh so you know we're we're pitching in where we can and you know we've we've met with a bunch of folks from the national guard and the reserves and, and we're trying to help them understand all of the pieces of H2F and our program. And if we can figure out a way to deploy some of the skills and tools we've used into their programs, then we'll do that because ultimately we've got to get ahead of suicide, and that includes enlisted. What was it like for you? I mean, like post, you know, now you're out and now you're a civilian.

So what was that transition? I transitioned through a trauma. My mom got in a really bad car accident. And so, you know, one of the skills we talk about is compartmentalization and the ability to seal it up and move on. And so, you know, I didn't a lot of that time in my life. I don't even remember because I was dealing with the trauma of my mom's accident. She was quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down. I had been in service maybe 18 months.

So, you know, I transitioned through that. I mean, I spent the rest of my four years and then transitioned and took care of her. Right. did the rest of my four years and then transitioned and took care of her. So, you know, I, I, but I used, I used physical fitness all the way through that. And I remember specifically for my entire life that when struggle came up for me, I use training to beat it down. And so, you know, I just think it's such an effective tool. You know, obviously there's a lot of tools, therapy, et cetera.

Well, we interviewed Dr. John Brady that that wrote the book Spark and they're like actually doing the real research on the connection between physical fitness, mental health and he's out by you right now he works at Harvard Medical School that's where he does all of his research but he's actually in LA right now

and he wrote the book Spark which was basically the connection between the different layers of the brain from a prefrontal cortex, getting deeper, how BDNF when you actually exercise connects at all. And really exercise isn't just, it has very little to do with the physicality and it's more about the connection and mental health and emotional health that goes along with, um, how your brain is structured and the proteins that it builds while you're doing fitness. Yeah, like it increases dopamine. Dopamine is like that's the, obviously that is the neurotransmitter that where you, you know, you find joy or you get a sense of like, you know, gratitude. And like if that's limited, then I guess things get super bleak.

So, you know, I mean, exercise helps a lot with the brain. Not only that, but, you know, it's helping ADHD.'s you know exercise is great for a lot of what one of my life one of my life goals is is to do the research um you know one of my life goals and a goal of our foundation uh is to do the research and take that research and specifically on the effect of our program um and take it to Congress and lobby to get gym memberships for veterans after they transition for a certain period of time. I believe that, you know, while people may say like, ah, gym membership doesn't cost a whole lot. A lot of these vets don't, it's not just, it's not just that they don't have, you know, well-paying

jobs and that their transition struggle is causing financial hardship. It's just the ease of access. So, you know, go to the VA, VA, VA has a bad rap because it's a bad experience. It's just not a, you know, it's not, it's not a high level of care. It's not that the doctors don't care. It's that there's so much overwhelmed. It's an overwhelmed situation where, where, you know, Harrison just transitioned. He's been to 25 different VA appointments simply just to stay on insurance. And at some point, that becomes so frustrating. They're just like, you know what? Fuck it.

It's just... I had one doctor's appointment yesterday for my shoulder, and I almost said, fuck it. I know. I'll just let it heal. Whatever happens. So that's a good... Gym membership may be a small thing.

But listen, I truly believe that if we study the effect of these programs on mental health, that it will reduce suicide. It will reduce health care costs. And the cost of giving a gym membership away to a veteran for two years will be nominal in the savings that it will create. So you ask about the generals and, you know, I'd say that that's one of the areas that I'm really going to lean on, you know, congressional leaders and, you know, folks like that to help me figure out how to navigate that. If they could get like, you know, not only the gym membership, but if they could like

get a personal trainer to help them, you know, get started too, which that would add a little bit more expense. But, you know, I know that when I was in Colorado Springs and I worked, you know, I worked at a gym while I was at the OTC, people would get in car accidents and insurance companies would pay for, you know, for X, like 10 personal training sessions. But if you could get that and let them get on a plan, because a lot of times, otherwise it'll probably, the percentages are they'll start a gym membership and, you know, maybe it works, maybe it works maybe it doesn't odds are it won't but if they have a plan and they get started and they see results then it can easily you know turn into a lifestyle yep that's right uh for people

that that are dealing with a friend or family member that has actually committed suicide and now they're they're struggling with the demons of their own whether they're in the military or not that's that's going to affect you if If you know someone that's committed suicide, is there, is there any plans or current, um, protocols for helping support those people? I mean, do we specifically, is that, is that our mandate as an organization? I mean, our, our mandate is to reduce suicide and improve mental health in the military affiliated veteran population. So, um, it's not a, uh, a direct strategy, but if you guys know us, if any of our vets are in trouble, even if it's a vet we've never touched is in trouble, we'll deploy our guys in five seconds and they'll be down there to help them. So there's some great organizations out there that have, there's one that is an app I saw called Pop Smoke, which is if you're feeling, if you're struggling, there's a different color smokes that you can pop on this app

based on your level of struggle. And based on which color they pop, they'll send the appropriate resource to that person. So things like that, as the tools are developed, I think we'll grab a hold of them and we'll find ways to integrate them into our program. And, you know, we'll have a literal army. If we put 400 through almost already, we'll have thousands waiting to go through. And as we start partnering into the DOD and other places, we'll have, you know, thousands more. And so, you know, if you ask about this place and what we're doing here, you know, I envision this as a transition ranch, a health and wellness and performance center, a university of sorts where veterans can come through this thing multiple times

on their journey for continued education to become an expert in the field of human performance and wellness. Yeah, I want to get into more of the specifics of this beautiful 450 acres. I mean, it's awesome out here. It feels like we should move out here right now. We're looking for great coaches. We'll build a gym right there, a big barn. I would definitely. This is awesome. I mean, it's awesome out here. It feels like we should move out here right now. We're looking for great coaches. We'll build a gym right there, a big barn.

I would definitely. This is awesome. I mean, this is kind of what it looks like where I grew up, like in the middle of nowhere. You're back home. I know. What is the vision? What are the steps you're about to take on this huge ranch? So about two years ago, as we were looking for communities and places to build our final product, which is ultimately this, we'll call it a university, we linked up with Walmart, and Walmart has a massive veterans initiative and a huge health initiative.

And we said, listen, this is an important place for us to explore. So we rented a camp. Our director of operations, Harrison, is from Bentonville, so knows the area, knows the people around town. And we just started networking into the community. And we ran one camp at Camp War Eagle. You guys came to that camp and just felt like home. And so this has been a vision of mine for probably three or four years of trying to get something like this built. We've been renting Boy Scout camps.

We want a place of our own, a flag to stick in the ground. And so, you know, it's been a couple years of looking for the right spot, and we finally found it. And this place is going to be transformed over the next year or two to be a pretty special spot. Phases? Are you going to do it in phases or one just big boom? I'm kind of a big boom guy.

There's only one way to go with him. Every time we talk to you, how the hell is that going to happen? I don't know. Just roll the dice. Make it happen. It's going to happen. I love it. We've laid out, and I'll shoot you guys some pictures you can throw into the podcast

so people can see what we're building. But just imagine all these different areas being purposed for different things all within the health and wellness field. Um, you know, the whole secret sauce of our program is taking them out of the environment into a safe place with all the other awesome vets. And it's not, it's not, uh, you know, it's not a puppy dog in a cage crying and say, feel sorry for our guys. That's quite the opposite.

It's simply just a program that is investing in them from a physical, mental, and emotional perspective, and every human being could use that. And so we're doing it as a pay-it-forward type of thing versus we don't pity our vets. We are vets who are very proud of our service, and we want to empower them to be part of our amazing community of health, wellness, and performance. And so this place is going to be the mecca for that. If you are a vet and you are transitioning and you are either unsure of what you want to do with your life

or you're struggling in some way, it doesn't mean you're messed up or fucked up. It means you're trying to figure out who you are and where you're going. And that's every 20 to 30, 40-year-old person is trying to figure that out or should be. Yeah, when you meet Randy, you don't see that at all. It doesn't look like you pitied him. That dude, you empowered him.

He goes into Walmart and does a thing. He just on his own starts this whole initiative like, I'm just going to teach people about fitness. They don't even know why I'm here, but I'm about to do a thing. It looks like you gave guys like that purpose, and now they are becoming like monsters in the industry. He's like in the beta Walmart in the health clinic teaching people how to squat on his own he's got people in there he was telling me that their workout plan is to get up and down off the chair

like 20 times in a day like that is the workout plan that's who he's able to go in there and he just had to make it up he just made it up on the fly he's like i don't know really why i'm here but i'm gonna do something awesome how has walmart really been a part of because i know last time we talked they have this initiative to have i want to say it was like a quarter million something like that employees or some crazy number of veteran employees in there yeah they have they hit their goal of a quarter million and i think they've they've also have a goal of maybe it's a hundred thousand like affiliated spouses um so um i mean they're one of the biggest supporters of veterans in a bunch of different ways um some of it quietly um you know i think walmart as they grow in you know

all companies as they grow in health and wellness and they're the field of of health and wellness you have their employee culture to think about and then you have the customer culture to think about and that that applies to walmart to best Buy, to Dick's Sporting Goods. Every company should be thinking about how to invest in their people physically, mentally, and emotionally. You want to create a great culture, invest in people, and they'll work 10 times harder for you. And so I think back to the mental health piece, if you have employees who are all mentally healthy because they're physically healthy and they're emotionally healthy, they're going to do a better job. And they'll also appreciate that you invested in them. So our goal is to work with organizations, whether it be Walmart or the DOD to help them invest in their people the way that we've now been investing our people. And I think, I think,

you know, we created a framework that's going to allow us to, to make a pretty big impact from the, from the perspective of mental, physical, emotional. Yeah. When you look at the, the university structure that, and that vision that you're building out here, um, do you see multiple kind of areas like just Matt Musgrave yesterday, hanging out with him? I think he's one of the most important people in fitness. He controls the supplement industry in a way and who, who he's bringing the products to on, on such a large scale. But nobody ever thinks of him as a fitness person. Like, how do you meet the demands of where we go from 300 to 3,000 to 30,000 people that have been through the program?

And, you know, taking those individual skill sets and then using that towards improving people's lives and in the fitness space is that part of kind of the bigger vision in in building the university yeah i mean the university is is going to produce thousands of calm soldiers soldiers of health and fitness performance whatever i call them um they have to go somewhere yeah and you know there's as i was just saying there's an incredible need inside of every organization for leaders in those areas. And so, you know, our, our, our strategy, again, is to reduce suicide and build a community that empowers veterans versus pities them. In order to do that, we need partners who, who share that vision. There's some leaders in the, out there in the, in the, in the commerce space commerce space like Walmart who obviously get that.

They're investing in veterans for a reason. They're good workers. They understand service and culture, and they came from that. So we're going to work with the organizations that see it, and those that don't will eventually see it because they're going to fall behind in terms of the value equation in customer service and commerce. Is there any data on the efficacy of your program yet? You know, like is it working at a great rate, good rate? We've got over 300 graduates, and we've not lost one to suicide.

That's a good number. Zero. I think the data you're talking about with SPARC, the doctor who's doing this research, there's tons and tons of research out there on the effect of mental health, physical health and mental health. We want to formalize that around our vocational programs so that we can actually go to Congress and say, hey, we reduce suicide and we improve mental health and we reduce costs of health care. That's an easy one. So I think, you know, over the next two or three years, the mandate of the foundation will be to continue to do that work, to provide scholarships, to come to the university, to do research with with top universities like ASU, Harvard. These guys are doing some of that work already. And then to provide entrepreneurial grants.

The two things that every graduate says to me when they leave on their exit interview, I want to help other vets and I want to open my own gym someday. So give them the ability to do that. So our foundation is going to be scaling and aggregating funds to be able to actually help them become entrepreneurs. And what rate are people, what is the suicide rate normally for a person? Pre-COVID, it was 22 veterans a day, which is nearly twice the civilian rate. Obviously, you know, that's a terrible number. Terrible.

The early data is that it's up 30%. So add six vets to that. So it's 28, 30 vets a day. While we're standing here, one vet's killed himself. There's a freight train of mental health issues coming. Where is that data? Why is no one talking about that? The only way you find out about that is by people doing push-ups on social media.

But the majority of veteran organizations out there are well intended but they're most of them are what i'll call give a man a fish he eats for a day i i want to empower them amen give them the ability to serve again by teaching them to fish yeah and i think that's the big difference between what we're doing and what a lot of other organizations are doing and so we were out here, I mean, I got completely leveled by the hard work, the honesty, like the brutal honesty of everybody that walks through the doors because you just can't fake it. I think there was a few people that we saw at the beginning that were kind of like half in, half out, and then a day into it and everyone's bought in it's just there's a level of just authenticity and honesty that goes along with when people stand up in front of you and just bare their soul you can't hide from it man have you ever i mean you made such a good point about

the whole you know you know give a man a fish he gets to eat that time you know but like teach him you know he can he can feed himself forever but like you know why why is no one talking about that as well you know they're like oh we need to give this people money we need to give this like when does that ever work because fundraising is puppies in a cage of sad music and so what what we've done as a society is yeah we basically put veterans in a cage and played sad music look how look how fucked up he is oh They don't want that. Combat messed him up. That's like the worst thing you can do to a vet who's proud of their service. Pity and pride don't go together.

At all. So what you've done is disenfranchised 20 million veterans, and 2 million of them have become, oh, I'll take free shit. So you've got an entitled group of veterans who are more than happy to take the house or the car or the tickets to a concert or you know a retreat riding horsies you know that that stuff's all great but it's not empowering them to to to use the skills their skills to serve yeah so you know my my whole heart and belief is that is that these are some of our best assets as a country and we've got to give them the pathway to be successful. I agree.

Wouldn't you say that pity would probably add to the suicidal? 100%. Yes. If someone feels sorry for me, it makes me feel like this tall. I think men in general, wouldn't you agree that men in general want to, I feel like we're put on the earth to protect our families, to protect our friends, and to empower our children. And then when you start feeling sorry for me,

I feel like that would put me in a black, dark place. So what you just said, amplify it by 300 times. You come home from deployment. You've been protecting your country. You've been taking care of your family. And they're all proud of your home. And all of a sudden, you start to feel pity from everybody around you. You've gone from here to here.

And it's an identity issue because you don't identify with a broke weak pitied person but every civilian no offense to civilians most civilians actually think that every vet's fucked up from combat and it's just not true they want they're they're struggling to to to reorient into civilian life for many reasons some of those reasons are combat and the pressure of deployment but it's not it's not universally that they're all messed up from it. They're just, they're just transitioning from a, a chaotic, in some ways, chaotic career protecting our country to a civilian who has to use those. They have to come back to the real world and yeah, they got to get through some PTSD. They got to get through some ptsd they got to get through some some struggle and and you know that's normal of any transition i don't care yeah the nfl boys

have the same same problem yes these guys are idolized for their whole careers high school stars they've done all these amazing things and now they gotta get a job and now they got to come back get a job a lot of these guys you know just didn't manage their money correctly or you know they just you know they they had trauma had trauma, again, trauma from childhood. They covered it up by Super Bowls and all the different things that these guys experienced. The bullying, big houses. It's the same thing as coming back from combat. These guys are covering up and compartmentalizing, and then they hit rock bottom.

And that's where suicide comes in. Would you say that the suicide is more directly related to the pity than it is to the PTSD? I don't think I'm qualified to make that kind of – I don't have the data to back that up. I would say it's a big contributor to the general narrative. That's an issue in this country. It's an identity issue.

Sure. I mean, they go from. I mean, imagine, you know, I am civilians. I have no idea. But I can imagine that I'm in this battle. I'm protecting my buddy. We got each other's backs. You know, we're fighting off these people.

And now I'm working a job. Now I'm an accountant. Yeah. That would be, yeah. And I think that's a pretty normal struggle. Hey, guys, I could do this all day. I've actually got to get on the phone with the general now. Beautiful.

I need to wrap it up. Yeah, I've been watching the clock here to make sure we get you to. Go talk to the general, man. Yeah. Fundraising. And how can people be a part of this that hear this and help as much as they can? I'm going to shoot you guys some pictures so the folks out there can see what we're building. I mean, obviously the foundation

is a non-profit. Our work is coming currently from donations. Anything that anybody can do, donating time, donating money, donating intelligence, whatever you have out there that could benefit this program, reach out. There's a website at fitops.org. You can donate there.

You can send an email there. We'll take all the help we can get. Yep. FitOps Foundation on Instagram. You can donate there. You can send an email there. We'll take all the help we can get. Yep. Fit Ops Foundation on Instagram. Harrison's on there. Coach Travis Mash. Mashlead.com. Go hang out with him. He's the important one. Don't go to Mashlead.com. Go to there. Doug Larson. You bet. Matt, a lot of respect for you and everything you're doing. Appreciate you coming on the show. Personally, man, I just want to say thank you for bringing us and letting us be a part of this ecosystem from just being here, being able to bring the cameras out and show our audience where you guys are building your home,

and then just the fact that you respect us and we respect you and we're in this game together to make as big of an impact as we can. I respect everything about you but your bicycle game. I'm all jacked up. If you're watching this on YouTube right now, maybe I'll redeem myself out here. Barbell Shrugged. At Barbell Shrugged, I'm all jacked up. I'm watching this on YouTube right now. Maybe I'll redeem myself out here. Barbell Shrugged, at Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner.

Anders Varner, get over to the FitOps. Help us make this thing as cool as we can out here and build a FitOps university. We'll see you guys next week. All right, friends. That's a wrap. My man, Matt Hesse. What a gangster.

Love hanging out with that guy. Friends, we got a big Black Friday sale coming up. We're going to be back on Wednesday talking about horizontal and vertical pressing. Also want to thank all the Diesel Dads showing up last week. So rad. We've got such a cool crew of people hanging out. Want to thank our sponsors, Organifi.com forward slash shrugged.

Save 20%. Info.insidetracker.com forward slash early access to hear all about InsideTracker's best deal of the year coming up for Black Friday. Buyoptimizers.com forward slash shrugged. All of the Black Friday deals are happening right now and then fit together. Download it. New challenge coming in December. Friends, it's been a beautiful day talking to you. I hope you have an amazing

Thanksgiving. I love you. I miss seeing you all in the real world and all these events that we typically go to, but it's beautiful that we get to stay in touch over social media and on this podcast. Peace out.