Barbell Shrugged - Train Your Body, Build the Mind w/ John Martin Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Coach Travis Mash Barbell Shrugged #586

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

John Martin is the Director of Aftercare for the Fit-Ops Foundation.  Fit-Ops is a charitable organization that trains US Military Veterans to become trainers through a fully-funded three-week Bootcamp.    During their time at Fit-Ops, veterans learn the skills and techniques they need to know to become personal trainers, and Fit-Ops also instructs them business and job-searching skills.  Most importantly, however, Fit-Ops dedicates much of their training to help veterans to overcome their mental blocks and potential mental trauma.    The organization has a dedicated staff that’s meant to look after veterans after they leave the camp. This is called “aftercare” and it continues as long as graduates remain in the Fit-Ops network.    Join M2H Fundraiser: http://mightycause.com/event/fitopsm2h   In this Episode of Barbell Shrugged:   Why physical health is the gateway to mental health How to eliminate the victim mentality Why suicide is so common among veteran populations How to change language to improve mental health Finding purpose after service through fitness with FitOps   FitOps on Instagram   Contact John Martin   Anders Varner on Instagram   Doug Larson on Instagram   Coach Travis Mash on Instagram   ————————————————   Diesel Dad Mentorship Application: https://bit.ly/DDMentorshipApp   Diesel Dad Training Programs: http://barbellshrugged.com/dieseldad   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   Organifi - Save 20% using code: “Shrugged” at organifi.com/shrugged   BiOptimizers Probitotics - Save 10% at bioptimizers.com/shrugged   Garage Gym Equipment and Accessories: https://prxperformance.com/discount/BBS5OFF Save 5% using the coupon code “BBS5OFF”

Shrugged family, this week on Barbell Shrugged, our good friend Johnny Martin is back on the show. He is in charge of aftercare at the FitOps organization. If you have not been over to FitOps to find out how Matt Hesse and crew are helping veterans with PTSD regain their livelihood and get back into the workforce using personal training, getting certified as personal trainers, and really overcoming so many of the obstacles that they faced while they were combat veterans and entering the workforce as civilians. And what's so cool is that they're doing it through fitness.

Johnny Martin's in charge of the entire aftercare program once people are done going through camp down in Arkansas, which we talked about on the show today. And on top of that, make sure you can check out the link. They have a big fundraiser going on for people that want to run, rock, walk, crawl, bear crawl, however you want to get 22 miles in. They have an awesome fundraiser that they're running right now and everything is in the show notes. So make sure you get over there and check that out. I also want to let everybody know that the Diesel Dad Mentorship Round 2 is open right now. We are accepting applications and you can head over to dieseldadmentorship.com.

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Use the code shrug10. Friends, let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell shrug i'm andrews warner doug larson coach travis mash johnny martin back on the show from fit ops director of support and aftercare i just learned that whole title thing what it really is is you're the guy that makes sure all these veterans which is fit ops's number one mission to prevent suicide in veterans, which we're going to talk about the average number right now. It's 22 veteran suicides a day. And of all of the, I believe you guys are at 10 classes times about 30 people per class. You're 300 plus veterans that have come through your program and zero suicides of everyone

that has come through the program. And much of that has to do with the system that you guys are building out and the initiatives you guys are leading. And first off, I'm so stoked that we have been a part of the FitOps community. How's life, man? Brother, we are blessed. And let me just say that we are equally as excited to have you and doug and travis as part of our family as well i mean you guys have been down on camp you've you've had a chance to work with our veterans we've been to the new camp and you haven't yet no i'm just a man i'm a worker b brother yeah they know they know how to bring the right people to the right place without question i got i got thick skin man when they invited you guys down

i was like i'm only a little bit jealous no big deal i'd like to go anybody you're like you know what harrison's showing them around though so who needs that and that's dude there's not a human on the planet that loves arkansas more than harrison so he was the right guy to show you all around. There's only a few people that are huge Arkansas supporters, and Harrison happens to be one of them. What I tell people all the time is if you've never been to Arkansas, okay, I can kind of understand. Like I'm a Massachusetts guy. There's plenty of people around the country that have these preconceived

notions about people from Massachusetts and the Northeast. But what I tell people all the time is you shouldn't say anything about Arkansas until you go down and visit. And if you go to Northwest Arkansas and see the beauty that is Northwest Arkansas, not just the landscape, the people, the opportunity, it makes perfect sense that we're down there. Perfect sense. Yeah. Man, I am, I have a ton of questions because you, when we were down at class 10, I believe it was last February, right before the lockdowns happened. And you guys kind of had to shut things down and in person and having the actual camps.

But really what that did was accelerate your job probably like 100x overnight in understanding what these veterans are going through. And now we're entering into probably one of the craziest mental health crisis times in the world in which we've taken all human interaction over the last, call it 12 to 14 months away from people and the entire community that you guys are building down there to keep people healthy and it's a mental health organization. What's been going on in the veteran community for the last 12, 14 months during this pandemic? Yeah, so for me, when I stepped into the role last July full-time, right in the middle of the pandemic, what I very quickly realized is that our inability because of what was going on with the country to run camps was actually

a blessing for me. And the reason for that is I was able to fully immerse myself in the role from my office and be very, very deliberate about identifying several things. One, there were eight classes, seven or eight classes of veterans who I had never had a chance to meet. You know, I was only involved with FitOps class eight for a couple days, class nine and 10 for a little bit more time. But my first job was to figure out what this community looked like, where they were, what their family situations were like. And, you know, just like anything else, when you step into a new foundation, it's a huge learning curve because not everything goes the way you want it to go. Not everybody's

as responsive to communication as you'd hope they would be. And for a lot of these men and women, man, they had gone through our experience in 2017. And so the biggest challenge I faced outside of what I later realized were some of the very real mental health struggles that not just our men and women who have been downrange faced, but that all of us as dads, as brothers, as husbands, as sons, that we all faced during this pandemic. The first thing I had to do was figure out who these cats were and where they were. And so that took some time to say, okay, I've got veterans literally in almost every state in the country, most of whom don't know me. And so I've got to start reaching out to them, introducing myself and figuring out where they're

at. And if they need some support, how can we work to help support them? So that was step one is figuring out where they were at and who they were. What it has evolved into, and I'm sure we'll get into this more later on, but over the last year, man, I've really had a chance with the help of the team. They've been amazing to really get to know some of these men and women. And what it's really done is reinforce what we believe is at the core of our mission is that these veterans, if we continue to talk about the veterans as being broken,

whatever we feed grows gents. And so, and so we don't believe that these veterans are broken. We believe that these veterans are resilient. We believe they're strong. We believe they're bright. And we also believe that they have a skill set that 99% of people in this country do not have because they're the 1% that raised their right hand. Yeah. And they said, yes, I will go. So what they learn about leadership, teamwork, camaraderie,

resilience, being able to pivot, discipline, remaining calm under pressure. All of these things are so adaptable to the civilian world. So as we transition them, whether they have a great background and understanding of strength and conditioning and fitness already, or whether Camp FitOps and the FitOps experience is a catalyst for that growth, we go into camp with the mindset that we are not treating the broken veteran. We are treating an unbelievably strong and resilient human being that maybe doesn't have the toolbox yet to transition into the civilian world. But we don't want to take their experiences from downrange

and continue to feed the narrative that they're broken, that they want our pity, that they to feed the narrative that they're broken that they want our pity that they're all suicidal that they're all damaged that is bullshit these are the most resilient beautiful men and women i have ever met in my life and they don't want pity they don't want a handout they want an opportunity and i think that's what we give to them when you say that the pity is that that is what's causing the problems is like, cause you go from being, you know, a hero to like now people looking at you like feeling sorry,

nobody who's been in that role, I would assume wants to now assume the role of like, you feel sorry for me. You want to continue to be the bad-ass, you know, you know, or someone that's respected. you don't want the other i but i'm just guessing no and and you're so your guess is not wrong travis and you know it it as i work with veterans every single day it's like any other section of society right if if we have a certain job and people continuously hand us stuff but never teach us how they were able to acquire it. Right.

Then what we begin to learn is that by virtue of who I am, I'm just going to be handed stuff. Right. And what we believe is that the opposite of that is what it takes for all of us, veteran or non in order for us to bridge the gap between a civilian world and world and military veterans, we have to start sharing some commonalities in language. So even though I've never been downrange, I don't know what it's like to be in a combat situation, I can still be a heart with ears. I can still listen. I can open my heart and head to another

human being. And I can use my skill set, even though I don't understand that moment of their lives that in many cases changed the way they look at the world forever, it doesn't mean that's how they have to look at the world forever. We can't erase the data that we collect, right? We can't erase that. But once we learn to discuss it, to talk about it openly in a culture where you're not going to be shunned, you're not going to be called weak, you're not going to be disrespected, well, then what it does is it opens the doors for other veterans who have had similar experiences. And we see this now, not just through FitOps, but we see in the veteran community all over the country is that people are willing to lean into more difficult conversations about why they're scared, why they're hurting, why they're depressed.

And what we're doing is we're attaching a title to that, that is strength. That's not weakness. That's not vulnerability. For the same reasons that our men and women love the shit that Anders, Doug, and Travis love, being under a bar, the intensity that comes from being in a weight room, the camaraderie that comes from pushing someone to get another set or rep. Well, that is the very conduit that we use for them to step into those uncomfortable environments mentally as well. There's a direct correlation. You guys know this better than anybody. There's a direct correlation between the work that's done in a gym and in a weight room to change your lives physically and the work that it requires to change your lives mentally and

emotionally. And so we have to start spending as much time on mental fitness, mental strength, and conditioning as we do under the squat rack. Yeah. I'd love to get into a little bit of your story because this Fit this fit ops thing, I mean, we've had roughly 10 shows, I feel like in the last two years covering what the work that you guys are doing down there and the crew that you guys are building, but even going back to your first day at camp and, and seeing fit ops, what was your like first impression of, uh, the people coming in and, and the immediate connection to the work that needed to be done there. Yeah, I love the question. As you know, buddy, I found FitOps by accident

through our mutual friend. And then I was asked to go down and speak and to do some work with our veterans. And I remember having a conversation with two people when I got down there. One was a lady by the name of Jennifer Knuckles. And Jenny is still our director of admissions. She has been with this foundation since day one. And when she picked me up from the airport, we started talking before we got onto grounds. And she said, you will be different when you leave here. This experience will change you. And I've had a chance to speak all over the country I've I've attended and been part of some pretty amazing experiences that all all of which have sort of changed the way I viewed

the world and people but uh she was she was absolutely right about that uh and then the other person that I talked with a lot while I was down there was Harrison about his experience in the Army, his combat deployments, and his time on the drill field. And then the third was Bobby Summers, who you guys know well. Yeah. And Bobby became an instant brother of mine. I'm now the godfather to his daughter. That's awesome. But to say that that experience changed me, what it did was it helped me look at,

and even as a mental health professional, I had the same sort of ideologies around the veteran that Travis and I were just talking about, you know, because that's what we learned culturally that when they come home, that we have to feel bad for them. And what I saw right away is none of them wanted that shit. Yeah. None of them. They wanted to learn and to grow and to maximize the skill set they learned in uniform to be a really

productive father, mother, husband, wife, training professional. So that first experience for me, when I left there and I went down as a volunteer to speak and Matt was unbelievably gracious as he always is. But when I left there, I was definitely changed. Yeah. If you're new to the show and you can go back to, I don't know the exact episode numbers, but we had about six shows in a row that we did down in Arkansas when we first went down. And I was asked to do a talk that I normally give that's like very rah-rah. Here's how you make it in fitness. This is the path to finding your passion and turning your passion into a career and how to make money doing this and blah, blah, blah. And I heard we did six interviews in three days before I did my talk.

Bobby Somers was one of them. Harrison, Matt, you. We just had like the crew. Man, I'm forgetting his name. The guy that's running the Walmart Health Center now, Travis, that you lifted with him. Oh, yeah. Randy.

Randy, that's right um when you say that you leave a different person than the person you are when you show up i gave my normal talk or i was planning on it and about eight minutes i shouldn't say eight minutes before i got on stage about an hour before i was supposed to go talk i had to go walk for 45 minutes to clear my head because I was so insanely emotional of realizing how much you're not allowed to be a part of the BS that normally surrounds our life in this like fake, it's not fake, but it's the facade of happiness without the reality. And it broke me down. I don't know if you remember though, what was awesome about what you did, and Doug will remember this and I remember it like it was yesterday,

is you became sort of the living example of what we're trying to ask our veterans to do while they're down there because you didn't hide from it. What you did when you started your presentation was you stepped right into it and you acknowledged that you are feeling a certain type of way. You've done thousands of presentations all over the world, but you stepped right into it. I don't know if you remember and you're like, hey guys, I'm just going to tell you the truth. I've done this a million times. I usually have it very well prepared and planned, but I feel like I just have to tell you the truth right now. Yeah. It was, I mean, even thinking about it right now, it's like super heavy because when you listen to Bobby tell his story about the abuse that he had as a kid, the abuse that he felt in the military, losing friends, and then you hear Randy's story and drug

addiction and people just trying to find themselves amidst the chaos and find their place after they get out of the military. It's, it's a really, and you know, we all have these stories like, um, I don't want to tell Travis's story because I'm going to make sure he doesn't stand on that same mat when we all get down there. But, um, you know, there's like real, real life that happens to all of us. And when you get around people that are dealing with real things not like made-up problems but like legitimate things that they've gone through in their life that has transformed them and and forced them to focus on this mental health like what is that and here's the here's the thing I think that it should be, I hope, the biggest

takeaway from anybody listening to this. And what you just illustrated, brother, is a perfect example of where we go wrong a lot of times as a society, right? What's beautiful about those stories that you just shared is not the story itself. The story itself is horrific. The story itself is filled with trauma. It's filled with chaos. It's filled with abuse. It's filled with pain. It's filled with hurt. That's where we stay stuck most of the time, societally and individually. We stay stuck in the story. And so when the story becomes our narrative, we become the story. What's beautiful about those stories is the strength developed through the struggle. That's at our core, guys.

That is what mental strength and fitness is all about. Small, deliberate, correct actions taken every day. Well, what is training? What is physical training? I can't go into a weight room and do what you, Doug, and Travis do. I'm going to break my back. But if I go in and I take a small, deliberate, correct action today towards change, I'm going to get stronger physically. If I take a small, deliberate, correct action towards my mental fitness, I'm going to improve daily. But when we stay stuck in it, those are our reps. Those are our sets. That's our volume. We can't grow that way. So we don't focus on, we recognize the story. We recognize it. And we say, yes, this is part of your book. This is a chapter in your book. But today, on this day, you can fill your pages of your book with anything

you want. And if the chapter repeats itself, that's going to be a shitty book to read. And it's going to end quickly. Agreed. I think the focus should be on post whatever you're talking about that happened. Has to be. What did you do after this?

Sure, you had abuse and things happened and people died and whatever. But now here's what I've done since that moment to change my life, to make it better, to make sure my kids don't go through the same thing, to make sure their kids don't go through the same thing. That's the focus is what comes after. What are you doing? And the reason for that brother is a thousand percent, right? The reason for that is neurologically, we do not have the ability to, everybody uses the word closure when they talk about death when we talk about

trauma i'm just looking for closure it's not possible yeah i've always wondered what does that actually mean it's not that it's not possible from a neurological perspective every experience we have from the time we're born we start to collect data. Is it continuum? Right. You can't erase it. My father died tragically and forever I tried to, I wanted to close that so I could find some peace. Well, how can I erase all of the years that I had with my hero and my idol? We take the same thing with any human being. It doesn't have to be a veteran.

We talk about mental health. We are working towards completing the loss. Because when we complete the loss, we recognize that the loss, it's not gone. We don't forget it. But when we work to complete the loss, then we can find the peace and joy in our lives that we weren't able to find because we were trying to close that out. As if it didn't exist. Right. Every one of us on this call right now, every one of us has a story, has a past,

has trauma in some form. There's no closing it guys. No kidding, man. I'm so glad to hear someone say that. I've often wondered like we see, you know, you hear people like, you know, so they had a child get murdered or whatever. Now they go to this person's trial and they see the person get convicted for closure. I'm like, that shit would not matter to me. My son is still dead. Like, that did not close that out. Or, you know, but, yeah, I just couldn't hear someone admit that.

Well, think about what you just said, man. So our veterans, many, you know, a lot of, not all of them, but a lot of them have faced death, right? And they have been the instrument of that death in many cases. Sure. But in other cases, they've witnessed their brothers and sisters. Right, right beside them. Right beside them. Okay, so when I work with them or when

their clinicians work with them in their cities and towns and they say to me i'm just looking to find some closure i tell them all i tell them all the time you're driving down the wrong street right that the street of closure does not does not exist it's going to keep you circling back to that day in iraq or that day back in afghanistan you're always going to go you circling back to that day in Iraq or that day back in Afghanistan. You're always going to go back there because you're trying to close it. Let's step into it and recognize that it happened. But how do we complete that loss? And that takes a lot of work.

That takes a lot of work. I'd imagine in a handful of those situations, there's a certain amount of guilt or blame that they're blaming themselves for what happened. And to move forward, they need to have some level of acceptance and self-forgiveness. a certain amount of guilt or blame that they're blaming themselves for what happened and they, to move forward, they need to have some level of acceptance and self-forgiveness. Is that a big component of the aftercare, like getting people to just accept the past and forgive themselves? You said two things that are dead on, Doug, is that there is a ton of, for our population, and it's important to remember that not everybody that goes through fit ops has what we would call, you know, direct combat action where they were outside the wire. And,

but Doug, you made a great point. The two biggest things that we see from those folks, of course is guilt and blame, right? If you are a, if you're the saw gunner at the top of a Humvee and you're called down from your post and 10 minutes later, your best friend gets killed in that very same spot. You're going to carry that guilt for a long time. Right? So a huge piece of what we do is working on processing grief and loss. A huge part of what I do, but I would be completely remiss and disingenuous. Like this is not a Johnny Martin job. This is a literally a team job for, even though I'm the guy in the foundation right now with the mental health background, I'm on the phone every day with other

nonprofits and clinicians all over the country, trying to help our guys and gals that are in Las Vegas, Nevada, that are in Atlanta, Georgia, wherever they are. Right. But a huge piece of it is recovering from grief and loss and that blame and guilt that's associated with some significantly traumatic events. Right. Sure. And it's real for these guys. But the beauty of it, the beauty of it the beauty of it guys is and i always try to it's i think it's so important that we circle back and we continue to frame

the narrative around the strength and resilience that these cats have these men and women have every right in the world to feel sad to feel to feel, and I hate using the word broken, but those feelings are real for them. Our goal, our optimal goal is to try to get them not to suppress and backpack those feelings. Step into them. Acknowledge them because you were told for a long time that you can't. You got to suffer in silence, right? You got to suffer in silence. You can't openly discuss this, especially not when you're still in uniform and you're trying to operate down range. There's no time for that. Right. That gets people killed. Yeah.

But now you're back home. And so for some people, yeah, maybe it's counseling for some people, yeah, maybe it's counseling. For some people, maybe it's counseling and fitness. For other people, maybe it's a support group. But growth in any form is an inside job. And only you know how you're going to grow most effectively. We've painted all of our post 9-11 veterans. A lot of us have painted all of them with the same brush. They come home, they're broken. Let's overly medicate them. And because we got more to deal with. Yeah.

And we just don't believe that as a foundation. Let's use the word closure is some ambiguous term that you can get these people searching for that will never happen. It's in America. I feel like so many terms out there, so many things that we're telling people is something that will never happen. It's like, where did you come up with this shit? What is closure?

Explain it. Define that shit. So to me, it's a bullshit, sexy way to keep people in their pain. Right. Exactly. And how disingenuous are we being to, I mean, our foundation was started by a veteran who has his own story. Our director of operations, everybody that, just about everybody that works in our foundation is a veteran, most of whom have combat experience. I think as of right now, I'm the only, myself and Jenny are the only

two civilians, but how disingenuous would it be of us to continue to push the narrative of, hey, we're going to help you find closure. As if we can somehow erase that moment in your life or that 13-month deployment in your life where you were outside the wire for three, four, five days at a time. So we have to get away from that. There's There's, there's two things that I can't stand, not just in, in my work with veterans, but I think the narrative generally, two things, one closure and two, this notion that we deserve anything. Amen. Like I hate that term. And you know who taught me that years ago, Anders, many years ago was our buddy, John. He's like, Hey man, you ever think about switching the word deserve with earn? Just try it. Just try it for a week.

Every time you think about saying deserve or you hear somebody else say deserve, insert the word, I'm going to go earn it. Right. He's a smart guy. How do we ever deserve anything? I love when like quantify that. I love when someone's like you, I deserve to go out and buy a new car. Okay, do you? Like, define deserve.

Well, here's the problem with that, brother. Here's the problem. We start using words like deserve, happy. Here's the problem with that. Those are conditional. Totally. And what I mean by that is I may think I deserve a promotion. I may think because I spent time in uniform, I deserve this job.

But when we start using the word deserve, what we often forget, because as human beings, we're selfish by nature. I mean, we're selfish beings. It's survival. We have to be. But when we use the word deserve, that is predicated very often on somebody else's decision. Right.

Something that we can't, I have no control over. Zero control. Right. I deserve to be the keynote speaker at this lifting symposium because I know I'm 10 times better than the dude that they have. But guess what? Which is true if you're talking about me, but anyway. You're damn right. You're damn right. But you don't get to make that choice no exactly yeah bro you are hitting on so many cylinders that i i've been thinking and writing about for so long so i need to be happy

define happy man like what does that even mean replace happy with joy. Dude, 100%. I can't believe you're saying these words. Yeah. Because I've spent my whole adult life thinking about it, man. The same way you guys dig into changing people's bodies, my whole life, my whole adult life has been immersed in thinking about how we perform up here. And I'm just blessed that I can share a platform with people that want to have these discussions. But just think about these three terms, gents. Replace deserve with earn.

Replace happy with joy. Just practice that for a week and watch how your life changes. Because happiness, because think about happiness. Same thing as deserve and earn i'll be happy if well how many of those ifs are dependent on somebody else's right right how about being content in where you're wherever you are in life and we've taken all the power away from ourselves we've taken all the power away from ourselves and we've given it to somebody else i'll be i'll be happy if she likes me i'll be happy if i get else. I'll be happy if she likes me. I'll be happy if I get the raise. I'll be happy if we've taken all the power away from us and we've given it to somebody else. Right.

Right. The entire – it's cool that so much of what you guys are doing down there is a mental health um like project almost with with the it's a giant organization for mental health but all of it is kind of coordinated on on the back end of what appears to be up front a fitness certification yeah yeah and how have you found that you know the mental and fitness, mental health and physical fitness play together and support each other? Yeah, I would only frame it a little bit differently. You're not wrong, but I would only say that we are a hundred percent a fitness and

wellness first foundation. The byproduct of that work, the byproduct of the environment that the gym and training creates for people allows them to then step into those uncomfortable situations emotionally because that's the environment that's created for them. If I am a novice weightlifter and I walk into a gym with Doug, Anders, and Travis, but I show you guys for the minute I walk in there that I'm going to work my ass off, the three of you don't care that I can't move the same I show you guys for the minute I walk in there that I'm going to work my ass off. The three of you don't care that I can't move the same weight that you guys can move. What you care about is this dude's willing to put in the work and he wants to learn. Right. Okay. Now I watch Johnny do that. Holy cow. Now Doug, Anders, and Travis, they see 25, 30 other people of all different walks of life, all different economic backgrounds, all different stories from service, but they're all stepping in to the same space

with the same affinity and passion for fitness. And then what we do is we weave in the importance of mental strength and mental conditioning. And we intentionally weave in discussions that force you to get just as uncomfortable as you were in the gym, in the chow hall or in a classroom or in a discussion with no judgment, no analysis, no criticism, brother. I'm just a giant heart with ears,

man. Yeah. When you say that fitness also gives you the fuel, because like what we all learned from, you know, Dr. Rady, who's this,

he's a psychiatrist from Harvard university university is that you know yeah decent it's not bad and like uh you learn how plastic our brain really is meaning that we don't we don't born we're not born with x amount of brain fibers and then we stop like things change they grow we get new ones but the plasticity you know actually exercise is shown to be a very big ones, but the plasticity, you know, actually exercise is shown to be a very big, like driver of that plasticity, allowing us then to like form new ideas, to change where we are in life, to change our thought process and views on life. So it becomes like a medicine where then someone like you steps in and gives them the correct path to now use this medicine. Hey, you just, You just hammered it perfectly.

I mean, Anders and Doug, how many dudes did you hear when you were down on camp that said fitness and the ability to train has saved their life? Forget about just their experience on FitOps, but just training. Travis, how many people have you guys worked with around the world that you know would not be alive had it not been for the gym? Me, for sure. Okay. Yeah.

Right, brother? So when you talk about neuroplasticity, right? When we talk about neuroplasticity, that is exactly what we were speaking about before. And that is all of that data that we create, right? Well, how do we go in and move that data around so that the stuff that is at the forefront that we always recall, right? Because as human beings, when we meet any obstacle or conflict whatsoever, neurologically, our brain is going to take us back to a place that is safe and comfortable. Even if that safety and comfort is chaos, it's abuse, it's drugs or alcohol. Okay.

So if we know that about ourselves neurologically, but we know we have the ability through small, deliberate, correct actions, and maybe that's therapy, maybe that's training, maybe that's specific modalities and clinical work. It's all different ways. But we go in and we manipulate the firing in our brain the same way we do our muscles in the gym. And then when we meet those times of conflict and chaos, we have a new skill set by which to draw from because that data is now stronger. We've strengthened that data more than we have the old data that kept bringing us back to that place of chaos and abuse and discomfort.

So for us as a foundation, you know, Anders, you were talking about the connection between mental and physical health. There isn't a disconnect. They are one and the same. You can't maximize one without the other. But the problem is, societally, we've never, ever, ever placed as much emphasis on cognitive performance and mental strength as we have around physical strength. And that happens for a million reasons. Societally and culturally, if I look like Travis Mash and I walk into the gym, nobody's really going to be concerned about my mental health.

They're just going to get out of the way and let me train. But what that does for Travis Mash is it reinforces one day after another, one month after another, one year after another, that I don't have to work on what's up here. And I don't have to work on what's in here. I hide all of that based on what I show out here. Totally. Yeah.

So all I do is I continue to mask problems that I know exist to slow me down, but I don't have to step into them because the world around me tells me that I'm a big badass and that's exactly who I believe I am. Yeah. Even though I'm weak, I'm weak, I'm scared, I'm vulnerable, I want to cry. I do all the time, but I just won't let anybody see it because I can't. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's so hard, you know, the military being a

predominantly male and we met some amazing women down there. I actually, when we did the one-time challenge down there, I had, I ran the rack with like the six girls and they were savages. It was so much fun. They are beautiful warriors. They're awesome. Yeah. Like i feel like you are breaking through like five layers of vulnerability before you're even able to have the first real conversation like being male it's hard to ask being in the military it's hard to ask being a combat veteran even ups the level even more like there's so many layers to this where people have just been told to suppress their feelings suppress their thoughts suppress this suppress hold it all in and now all of a sudden they've suppressed it so much and all they want to do is tell their story and have somebody listen and hopefully provide some sort of way forward like it's it's brutal we coach people

that don't have as many layers to break through and, and it comes to us and shows it up to us as like fat loss, being overweight, being unmotivated, being unhappy in their relationships. When you stack those things on top, it's a brutal process to just find somewhere or somebody that's willing to listen and help you take the next step. Yeah, and you guys saw it on camp. The best story I shared to illustrate that is we had a guy, the first presentation I did a few years ago now, there was about 35 veterans in the room,

and I did a presentation on growth mindset and stepping into discomfort. So I see this one dude, he's big, big guy, about six, four, six, five, he's got hood over his head. And you know, when you're, when you're presented in front of an audience, you know who you're getting to, and you know who you've lost five minutes into the, to the presentation, or at least you think you do. You're like, just not connecting with this cat for whatever reason. So we have a super interactive 60 minutes, but this dude, the whole time has got his hood over his head and he's kind of just down on the desk. And, you know, these are all grown men and women, so I'm not calling anybody out. You know, what I've learned over the years is exactly what we're talking about right now is that there's a reason for

everything. And I might not know what it is in that moment, but I'm also not going to find out the answer in that moment either. So I'm going to let this dude be this dude. And then if the opportunity presents itself, maybe we can figure out why. So he holds over his head. I finished the presentation. And as well as I thought I did with the rest of the group, in my head and heart, I'm like, what did I do wrong, man? Why couldn't I connect with that dude? So I'm walking out of the chow hall to go back to uh our barracks we have an hour or so off and i see this guy and he says hey johnny can i talk to you for a minute same dude that had the hood on like oh shit i hope he doesn't punch me in the face because this is a big cat and uh i'm not afraid to lose one, but I don't want to get hurt real bad. So he, he walks up and he just,

he just starts bawling his eyes out, just, just, just starts crying. So in that moment, it's not time for a counseling session, man. It's just time to be human. And we don't do that enough either. So I just wrapped my arms around him. Like, I got a lot of training in this stuff, but now's not the time to process what's happening. So I just, just wrapped my arms around the dude. And after a minute or so, I'm like, Hey man, let's just take a walk. You know, I didn't ask him anything. Didn't talk to him about anything.

And the first thing he said to me was, I don't want to suffer in silence anymore. I just don't want to suffer in silence anymore. For 10 years of my life, I was told that I was a phenomenal warfighter. And when I left the Army, one of my command staff put his arm around me and said, you're one of the best warfighters I've ever, ever had the honor to lead. But now's the hard part. Now you got to suffer in silence because no one will understand your pain.

Damn. Now, a couple of things, obviously that was unbelievably emotional moment, but what really struck at me guys was that this notion that, that we have to understand his experience in war to understand pain. Cause that dude in that moment didn't give two shits that I was a civilian. He didn't even care that I was a mental health professional. He just wanted someone to tell him, I'll listen, man. I'll just listen.

I'm not going to give you a plan of action this minute. I'm not going to tell you what you need to do to start moving forward. I'm not going to give you a plan of action this minute. I'm not going to tell you what you need to do to start moving forward. I'm not going to give you a rah-rah speech, but there's so much freaking power guys in support, genuine empathy and support for another human being goes a long way. And what we try to do is let's get them into counseling. Let's medicate all of them. And let's fix something because we got more coming.

Well, this dude's not broken. He's hurt. Yeah. He's confused. He's scared. He's not broken. Yeah. So those moments are moments that I realize what we're all doing is right.

The path that we're on is the right one. One person we met down there, and I'm so glad we get to talk about this, the craziest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. When we were down there and Devin LeVake told us he was going to do the New York City Marathon in a bear crawl. It was unreal. You got to coach him through that.

Um, one, there's probably, I don't know how many billion people follow him on Instagram. Cause he does freaky feats of strength and crazy backflips with kettlebells and all kinds of gnarly gym shark type things. But when we started to interview him, I assumed that that's what we

were going to get, like how to do circus tricks and how to be Devin. And once he started talking and getting into his story about his father committing suicide and trying to make sense of all that throughout his entire life and realizing, oh, there's like a really deep story to why he is the way he is and his motivations and pushing the limits. And then announcing on the show that he's going to run bear crawl, not run bear crawl, the New York city marathon. And then they canceled the New York city marathon and he still goes and does the New York city marathon and a bear crawl. Man, I want to know what the lead up to that was and like some of the stuff you guys were doing and then actually being with him for, what was it? It was,

it was 14, 15 hours, something I may have 22, 22 straight hours of bear crawling with someone. Cause you guys didn't just, it wasn't just you and him out there. Like the entire fit ops crew showed up. Well, it was, it showed up well it was even it was even more than that but i'll take you back to the to the lead up uh again matt just visualizing so so matt and devon had known each other for a long time and matt knew that you know outside of the work i was interested in doing with fit ops as you know i do a lot of performance

coaching mental performance coaching for elite level athletes. I'm very lucky to still work with some professional athletes. But Matt was like, hey, I really want you to talk to this guy. So as I start to get to know him, Matt and I thought it would be really good for him to come to Fit Ops. Again, not a veteran, but certainly has his share of trauma to present. But also for selfish reasons, we were like, this dude, he's a beautiful dude, but he needs this, right? So he had always challenged himself physically with all different sort of feats of strength, and he was a bear-crawled nut,

like could just do it without training for a mile or two at a time without a break. Yeah. On his hands and feet. Matt, I'm cutting you off one second. Matt, you would love watching this kid train. He's doing like crazy fast sled pulls. He went into House of Athlete with Brandon Marshall about six months ago.

You guys know what House of Athlete is? It's Brandon Marshall, the ex-wide receiver. Unbelievable, unbelievable athlete. So he goes into House of Athlete with Brandon Marshall, and they time him on a treadmill he ran like 23 miles an hour yeah yo one of the fastest of all you know faster that's about it before we interviewed him he was training and doug and i were sitting there watching like what is this kid doing over here? Like, what is the world?

He's pushing. He's like bear crawl and pushing with one arm, 45 pound plates down the slab. We were like, I've been in a gym a long time, but what is this guy training for? Like, what is he doing? Whatever he wants. He's going to run the marathon in a bear crawl.

Ha! Well, you know what he's doing now? You know what his latest is? No. He's going to ascend the seven summits of the world. Ah, that's it. That's what you need. He's already done one of them.

He's already done one. That's so gnarly. He's a freak. Sorry, I had it. Reneer? Oh, really? Reneer, I think. Gnarly.

Sorry. Go ahead. No. veneer what oh really yeah i think gnarly sorry go ahead no this is this whole story is just so fun to me to like have seen it behind the scenes truthfully my biggest role in working with him privately and individually my biggest role upstairs is is to slow him down yeah and to get him to be present in moments they're as as it sounds, there was only one point during our lead up in the work that I was doing with him, and he had an amazing team of folks, man, therapists, trainers, massage. But my work with him individually when we would talk was just to get him to slow down. Brother, you have already crossed the finish line mentally,

but we haven't even started yet. And we got a few weeks yet before you're even going to attempt this. So let's talk about the perceived roadblocks that you think are going to stand in your way. Let's talk about what you're going to accomplish today to get one step closer to your goal. And then I would ask him, Hey, tell me what I can help you with in terms of a sounding board, right? A lot of times people that have expertise in a field, we don't realize how much we can learn by just listening. And we assume that we know what someone needs. But for an elite level athlete like this dude, I need to hear from him as well. Because my assessment from one week to the next of what he might need mentally might be completely off because he's just it's a different breed of cat so yeah we

fast forward to the to the bear crawl itself i was there harrison was there from fit ops but what we also had this was beautiful man we had some of our veterans show up. One came all the way out from the West Coast. We had a vet from Brooklyn, a vet from New York City. And I thought they were going to come just to walk with him a few miles. And all of those vets started with him, and they finished with him. 26.2 miles. Now, how the hell could we complain that cat's on his hands and feet all i was doing was walking and by the way they had a tour bus that followed us so every mile or so he would take a break just to stand up and stretch

there's a beautiful dude you guys got to look up his name is Richie Van Hooten he's a he's a mixed martial artist and a boxer and he trains uh elite level combat athletes but he's also amazingly beautiful spiritual guy yeah and Richie and and some other guys but Richie's the one who I most connected with um a bunch of guys. So it wasn't, wasn't just me. I mean, a bunch of guys were in his ear and gals were in his ear the whole way through. What I kind of had to take a look at is when he needed really to get gassed up. And when we had to tell the crew, Hey, he's in an unbelievable flow right now. Everybody just shut up. We don't need the hype train right now. Just let this dude move one foot in front of the other. You know, sometimes when you're trying

to motivate people, one size doesn't fit all, as you guys know, as coaches. Like, there's always that dude that needs you to smack him on the back as hard as you possibly can before he gets in the squat rack. But there's also another guy who just needs you to leave him alone because he's in a headspace that he doesn't want disturbed. Yeah, totally me like right somebody asked me one day i was competing they're like you want me to slap you i'm like only if you want to do a different sport yeah boxing but like yeah yeah only if you want to get punched in the face i would have knocked someone out like yeah so we kind of love that i guess you know and and so devon had a crew of dudes and women with him there that they've known him way longer than i've known him so there were times where i

intentionally backed off and i would tell some other guys guys man you you got you got this right you got this i it's not about me the the goal is to get this dude to finish yeah so we start in Brooklyn at five o'clock p.m. go through Brooklyn go over the Brooklyn Bridge we get into Harlem as the sun's coming up the next day by the way huge shout out to New York City in general but the people in Harlem most beautiful human beings I've ever met in my life. I mean, when we hear about all the nonsense that's going on in this country, if you just take a second just to be a decent human being and just communicate with people and tell them what's going on, man, these people in Harlem were coming out of their apartments,

coming out of their businesses. It was the most beautiful. Color didn't matter. Creed didn't matter. Economics didn't matter. Nothing, nothing. Right. So we go through Harlem, eventually into central park. He did his last several miles in central park and there was one, only one moment where I'm like, it's not a matter of if anymore. And if is gone, like he, and at this point,

we've got hundreds of people walking with us now. But there was a crew of about 25 of us that did every mile with him. And I just remember screaming. I don't know where it came from, but I just remember screaming. It's not if anymore, dude. Like he was stretching and he was sore and hands were just, oh, I was, I'm like, there's no more ifs. The ifs are done. Now just one hand, one foot. One hand, one foot. When you need to break, take a break. We'll stretch you out.

We'll do whatever it takes. But watching him finish, I'll be honest, everybody was – they swarmed him. I walked away and cried like a baby. Yeah. How long did it take him? Yeah, the celebration video was incredible. 22 hours, I think, Travis. Good God.

Look at him. Almost a whole day. 22 – because what he would do is he would go like he started really fast yeah started started really fast and what we what he would do he would choose to just okay i'm gonna take every mile i'm gonna stretch and rest every couple miles he would get on the bus his mom and other people that were helping him would take his uh all the tape and stuff he had on his hands, take it off, re re gel pattern, re tape them.

And in the meantime, there were people with like Thera guns that were working his whole body over. He had a nutritionist with him that had every, every mile sort of blocked off. And she had all the meals separated of what he had. So it was, it was a, uh,

bro, it was a science project. Like there were a lot of people involved with helping this dude, but he has an amazing, amazing group of friends, childhood friends and friends that he grew up with. Another dude that did the whole thing with us, he's another Gymshark athlete. This guy just ran across the country and just finished last week.

You were wondering what it takes to be a gym shark athlete. This dude started in California and just finished in central park last week. He ran across the entire country. I feel like I'd have gotten to the Rockies and just turned around and said, I'm going back to the beach. I'm sitting here. I'm sitting here telling you guys, I want to, I want to deadlift 500 pounds. I'd like to run across the country.

Who's the guy that we interviewed that ran across the Sahara and he was doing another crazy across the world type run? I feel like these guys need to meet. That's a true story. They made the documentary running the Sahara. It was at Spartan World Championships. He runs Spartan Trails, or at least that was his role years ago. Yeah.

Charlie Engel. Yes. He comes from a very drug addiction alcohol background and turned the whole thing around, but there's something in there that people got to go find themselves and move away from the negative and turn the whole thing around but there's there was there's something something in

there that people got to go find themselves and move away from the negative and turn it into a positive so that's it's interesting you say that like so i'm a big believer in the power of perspective right so like obviously witnessing that witnessing devon do that as surprised as i was it didn't like it didn't really surprise me all that much because I had worked with him so much. But when I share that about perspective, it's a very individual thing. I mean, in the same way that we go, oh, my God, that is amazing. And anybody with any rational sense would go, that is amazing. If somebody walked into a gym, when any one of you were at their heyday

i'll use travis as an example though like if somebody walked into the gym and watched how travis forget an enormous feat of strength he was trying to accomplish if they just walked in and watched him on a training day yeah just just a training day. And they did not exist in that space, right? They were a runner maybe, or a triathlete, or a swimmer, or a martial artist, or they would walk in and go, this is insane, right? So our perspective is unbelievably powerful, but the mistake we make a lot of times is we try to write our story through other people's lens. Correct. I can't be Travis Mash. I can't be Anders Varner.

I can't be Doug Larson. I can't be Devin LeVake, right? But every ounce of time, attention, and energy that I waste trying to be one of you guys, I have now exhausted from the ability to try to write my own story. And it's one of the biggest issues that we face right now is I don't want to be Travis Mash. I want to be the best Johnny Martin I can be. And I sure as hell don't want to bear crawl 26.2 miles. But what I want to learn, what I want to do is I want to get inside the head of that dude and figure out what makes him different. Right? So, and that's what we miss, I think, a lot of times when we look at social media and, you know, popular people or celebrity

people or we rob ourselves of the ability to write our own story because we're so consumed with what everyone else is doing totally yeah even those athletes are doing it i mean they sure are when i was i was arguably the best power from the world for a while and i was still comparing myself to somebody somewhere out there or the past or it's crazy. And that healthy competition I think is good, but that healthy comparison is also good. Where we get in trouble is where we become obsessed with what other people are doing.

Because guys, at the end of the day, we all have the same amount of days in the year, a week, an hour. It's the same timeframe for every human on this planet, right? And we only have so much energy. Some of us know how to regulate it better than others, but we only have so much. And so if we exhaust our attention and energy on what other people are doing, ultimately we're robbing ourselves of the energy to do the work that are required for us to maximize our potential. I tell people all the time, don't ever, ever, ever expect people to understand your goals because they don't have your vision. Yeah. You know, what's so interesting about you saying that is like, I remember multiple times and talking to Nate Palin

and Harrison and being back down at camp and stuff. Like when we get to go back to camp, now that I'm relatively prepared for the stories and the people and understanding kind of the whole scope of what's going on. I think what I really want the message to be in speaking to these people and getting them moving in the right or helping them understand is like, it's not about running from the story of their life. It's about owning it completely. And the number of times that we have to step into that role to be like that truly authentic piece of life is what actually attracts people to it. It's, you know,

for us, it's really shown up in this Diesel Dad thing for them it's it's owning that story like how many additional people need help and can learn from their story and connect with them uh it it that piece of it is so hard to do to fully buy into your own thing and instead of seeing yourself as a victim of it but seeing it as the launch pad to where you want to go and and not overcoming it but owning it and just this is me and and being able to push forward to to move into that space that is truly authentic to them yeah i couldn't i mean i couldn't even add on to anything that you just said it's just you just hit the nail right on the head we've got a big event coming up brother movement to mental health yeah this is m2h tell me about what you guys got going on this is going to be awesome so this is going to be awesome after we just have the backdrop of devon it won't seem as crazy anymore. He's going to do something with us.

So Movement for Mental Health, or M2H as we're calling it, it is a brand new sort of launch of a national fundraiser. And we chose June specifically. And the weekend of June 26th and June 27th is PTSD Awareness Day. Okay? And what we really want to do is two things. One, we want to bring more attention and awareness to mental health struggles that all people face, right? So instead of continuing to create that separation between veterans, active duty military personnel, and civilians, we want to bring attention to a very real mental health issue that that all of us or somebody we know has probably dealt with we want to do that

through what we all love what our community loves and that's fitness and movement so on june 26th and june 27th we are launching movement for mental health what is it it's a 22 mile distance challenge. Now that freaks people out when they first hear it, but this community, like I don't even have to sell this. This is at the foundation of who we all are. We love to exercise. We love to move. Okay. I'm not a runner. I hate running. All right. So don't run. I'm going to put a backpack on or a tactical weighted vest, and I'm going to rock for 22 miles. And I'm going to do that in every mile in support of destigmatizing mental health, allowing people to have open and honest

conversations about health and wellness, about their mental health. And what we're doing is we're doing it across the country. We've got veterans, active duty military personnel, we've got civilians that are going to engage in movement for mental health. Some are going to do it as individuals. Some are going to do it as teams. I've got folks that are doing half bike, half ruck. So they're going to bike 11 miles. They're going to ruck back 11 miles. I've got some dudes and women that are going to run the whole thing.

Some are going to do a combination of all three. They're going to ruck half of it. They're going to bike half of it. They're going to run half of it. We don't care how you do it. We don't care how you do it. We don't care what you do. We want all of you across the country that have a love for fitness and affinity and appreciation for our men and women who are served our country and who understand that mental health and mental

illness is very real in this country, not just for veterans, but for all of us. And all of us together on that day are going to move in some form or fashion with the ultimate goal of destigmatizing this issue that we can't talk about our problems. And we're going to try to raise some money for our foundation so that we can provide the same experience that over 300 of our veterans have already had. That's movement for mental health in a nutshell. The only thing, it's so easy to find us, fitops.org, F-I-T-O-P-S.org. You can create your own team. You can join a team.

You can make a flat donation if you want and not do anything on that day. We prefer that you move and move with us. We got people all over the country doing all different kinds of things. I actually have a trail that's exactly 22 miles. I wish we had known. I did this last year. People can go to fitops.org to learn about it. Everything's right on the homepage there.

There's tons of copies. Also, we mentioned Bobby Sommer. That video of him telling his story and doing it all at Performance House in New York City, that's all up there. So people can get a real understanding of some of the people and the things that we're talking about in that video. Yeah. I mean, if you go to fitops.org, you'll get a really good snapshot of who we are as a

foundation, what our mission is, and what we're driven to do. And there's also a ton of very detailed information on, on M2H. We are super, super excited to get this thing off the ground. And what I think will be fun is to be able to see photos and stories from all across the country during that day of all different people doing, doing all different things. And although we are doing it under the sort of flag and umbrella of FitOps, this is hopefully and will continue to be, this is much bigger than any one organization. This is about having real conversations with our brothers and sisters around their mental health and around moving forward and knowing that they're not doing it alone. And we are super, super excited, man, to get this going. There's so much great stuff coming from this foundation in the next few months.

You know, you all know about the development of our land in northwest Arkansas. I can say with pretty close to absolute certainty that it won't be long before we're running camps again. Yeah. that it won't be long before we're running camps again. We are already working regularly with some of our veterans that are in the pipeline for applications. I've had a chance to meet a lot of them and do some group and one-on-one work with them. Got awesome, awesome group of folks coming through. We are always, always encouraging more people to apply. If you are, the only prerequisite to apply for FitOps is that you have to be either active duty, reserve, National Guard, or veteran and have an affinity for fitness.

You can go to fitops.org to apply, but we welcome new applicants. We want to meet you. We want to work with you. We want to grow with you. I don't have to sell this foundation to you guys. This is, this foundation has literally changed my life, but moreover, I've watched it change the lives of so many, so many of our brothers and sisters that have done what 99% of us haven't

done. And that's, they've raised their right hand, regardless of what their job was. They went out and they did their job their job and now they want to now they want to work in a different field man they want to be the next travis mash and andrews varner and doug larson's of the world and we want to try to get them there yeah i highly i after we came back i had so many people reach out and then uh camps kind of shut down but i know that there's applications of just friends that i've met that i know need to be a part of this um even in our facebook group we have you know people that right in there getting out was one of the hardest things that they they've had to do and um it's it's cool that we get to be at whether whether you guys chose us or not we get to

hear these stories and and introduce everybody that's a part of what you guys are growing. Like it's, it's been a really good piece of the last two years. We're so thankful, man, that you guys chose us too. I mean, it's just like any other relationship. Some of them work really well and some of them don't. It's, it's easy with you guys, man. It's just when you, when you can share a room with like-minded people that have the same passion for training and helping other human beings. I think we, I think we,

I think we complicate stuff that should be kept really simple sometimes. Yeah. Me too. Like, you know, and I see it all the time in my line of work, but we try to get to X, Y, and Z before we even figure out A, and c and and sometimes when you know you have good people that share the same heart and head for helping other people and love fitness and for us we're just lucky because you you guys are all of those things but you're also really good freaking teachers uh that's a huge benefit to our veterans because they're getting taught by people that they don't just do this. You know what I mean? It's a, there's a lot of people that have reached out to us,

all very well intentioned or beautiful people. But we want our vets to be exposed to the best in the business. Like it's, it's just that simple and we don't feel like there's any reason why they shouldn't be exposed to the best in the business. Like it's, it's just that simple and we don't feel like there's any reason why they shouldn't be exposed to the best in the business. And we, and we get that with you guys, not physically,

emotionally. We love having you there and they love having you there. It's awesome. If people want to reach out to you directly and kind of learn a little bit more, have questions specifically for you. These things always kind of evoke some emotion. How can people find you?

Yeah, please reach out, man. I get emails every day from folks all over the country. Jmartin, J-M-A-R-T-I-N, at fitops.org. Jmartin, at fitops.org. And then on Instagram, it's just at real John C. Martin. There it is. Coach Travis Bash. Fitops.org and then on Instagram it's just at real John C. Martin. There it is. Coach Travis Bash. Fitops.org. Yeah. I can't wait

to get you down there and actually be a part of a camp, man. Appreciate it. Yeah. Doug Larson. You bet. I'm on Instagram. Doug C. Larson. Johnny Martin. Dude, good to see you. So good to see you too. I'm stoked the hopefully the next

coming weeks or or maybe months this fall ideally we get back out to camp and hang out in person so a lot of respect for you uh matt harrison all the guys and everything that you guys do so i'm proud to support you guys and i'm looking forward to doing more together appreciate it man yeah we have an awesome team and we're glad you guys are part of it. I'll never get tired of telling the story that the entire fitness world, the first weekend we went down to Arkansas was in Miami at Wadapalooza. And Doug and I were like, are we really going to go to Northwest Arkansas instead of Miami where all of our friends are?

And I was like, like look this dude named cena said we gotta go little did we know is gonna change all of our lives we're gonna meet all you guys we're gonna uh lifting weights with the freaking head dude at walmart like just yeah would you go and do the thing that's supposed to happen um choice i uh it was it's super cool so um make sure you get over to fitops.org it's it's truly one of the best foundations that uh i i'm so grateful for this partnership and um it's it's just that weekend changed my life it was as simple as you can put it um i'm andrews varner at andrews varner we are barbell shrugged at barbell underscore shrug get over to barrugged.com forward slash DieselDad,

where all the busy dads are getting strong, lean, and athletic without sacrificing family, fatherhood, or fitness. And if you are in San Diego, Palm Springs, LA, or Vegas, get over to the pharmacy at your local Walmart. We have three programs on the shelves. Friends, we'll see you guys next week. That's a wrap, friends.

Let me remind you to get over to magbreakthrough.com forward slash shrugged. Use the code shrugged10 by Bioptimizer to get magnesium breakthrough and Organifi.com forward slash shrugged. That's where you get the green, the red, and the gold from Organifi. Friends, we'll see you guys on Wednesday.