Barbell Shrugged - Your Ancestral Responsibility to Strong w/ Jen Widerstrom — Barbell Shrugged #370

Episode Date: January 12, 2019

Jen Widerstrom (@jenwiderstrom) is a personal trainer and fitness model. She is well known for her role of a trainer in the NBC's long-running and hit series The Biggest Loser, replacing Jillian Michaels where she worked as a body coach and guided the participants through a well-planned exercise regime and also provided the required emotional support to them during their journey to a fitter body. Jen worked with the popular faces including Bob Harper and Jessie Pavelka.   In the year 2008, Jen got an opportunity to work in American Gladiators, in the character of the female gladiator Phoenix for its second season. The show helped her to change the course of life. It was an amazing experience which helped to boost the brilliant athlete career. She also got the chance to play crazy games and compete with the other contestants. After she left the show, she again focused her career as a fitness trainer and improved her skills by adding Pilates and CrossFit to her workout.   In addition to her fitness, Jen is devoted towards charity. She has been on Goodwill Military Tours to raise troops' morale and has volunteered at orphanages and schools, helping kids find self-confidence through sports and gymnastics. Recently in 2017, Jen published a book named Diet Right for Your Personality Type: The Revolutionary 4-Week Weight-Loss Plan That Works for You.   In this episode of Barbell Shrugged, Jen discusses her time on American Gladiator and The Biggest Loser, Leaving a lineage of strength for the world, body image and understanding the body positive movement, and helping women embrace strength training.   Enjoy! - Anders and Doug   ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Show notes at: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/bbs-widerstrom ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Please support our partners! @drivennutrition: https://drivennutrition.net/shrugged/ to save 20%@bioptimizers: www.BiOptimizers.com/shrugged  “shrugged” to save 37% ► Subscribe to Barbell Shrugged's Channel Here ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Our family, it's Saturday, Saturday Shrugged. We're back hanging out with Jen Widerstrom. We met up with her at Strong New York, at Solace New York. And let me tell you something. When Jen Widerstrom walks in a room, it's like the lights get a little brighter. Everyone's having a little bit more fun. There's a whole lot of personality that just walked in.

And if you've ever wondered like, why was Jen Widerstrom so successful on The Biggest Loser? Then you meet her in person and you go, oh, of course it's because she's so awesome. She makes everyone's life better as soon as she walks in the room. Such a fantastic human. This interview's super cool. I've never really gotten the full story behind Jen and all the things that motivate her and make her such an awesome trainer. And even cooler, she's going to be at Wadapalooza with us. We're going to be hanging out at the FitAid booth.

She's coming down, she's gonna be running workouts, not with FitAid, doing her own thing. She's gonna be competing a little bit, but she's gonna be hanging out with us, with the Barbell Shrugged crew, me, Doug, Ryan Fisher, and it's gonna be super fun. We're probably gonna have our co-host, and I'm really excited about it.

You, if you want to hang out with Jen Widerstrom, can get over to the new You app, N-E-O-Y-O-U app. She has all of her workouts on there and not just the workouts, but all the cool little Jen Widerstrom motivational pieces. And look, she just launched this new You app or her workout platform on the new You app. And she's already in the top four trainers in the world on this app. That's incredible. There's a lot of trainers on that app.

And for her to only have released this a couple weeks ago and to already be in the top four trainers in the world, it's pretty impressive. So you can go go over there all the workouts are streaming live and all the motivational components but if you ever were thinking man it'd be cool to be on the biggest loser and hang out with Jen Widerstrom now she's going to be streaming right into your household you can work out with her she's going to be cheering you on there's cool workouts on your tv get over to the new you app hang out with Jen just like I'm going to be hanging out with her. She's going to be cheering you on. There's cool workouts on your TV. Get over to the new you app, hang out with Jen, just like I'm going to be hanging out with her at Wadapalooza and like I was hanging out with her at Solace New York, making everybody have a better, brighter day.

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Put it right in my fridge. I've got three meals ready for me every single morning. Cateredfit.com. Use the coupon code shrug25. Shrug25 is going to save you $25 on your first meal. Cateredfit.com forward slash enter. Cateredfit.com, you're gonna use Shrugged 25 to save 25 bucks on your order. I've really enjoyed these meals. My wife really enjoys these meals. They're really delicious.

They're incredibly easy and very healthy. I feel great on them. So make sure you get over to Catered Fit. We really enjoy them. And once again, get over to Fit Aid. Come hang out with us at Wadapalooza. January, Miami, let's do this thing. What did you do? What was your sport? well i i know i don't look like it but i was a hammer thrower nice i know it's so badass i did shot put a little bit in high school yeah because i think everybody had to no that's the opposite because women like they certainly weren't encouraged at least where i went to school but i was like hey i'm kind of beefy up top like yeah you know and it worked so i have an older sister and a younger brother and like

I mean I have like a size 8 ring finger and I'm by far the smallest in the family my sister's a 10 my mom's a 13 or 12 so we always joke that like we're built to like work in the fields bear children and probably I don't know yoke water around there's an apocalypse you're carrying things

the Widerstroms are going to be just fine you have a good house name for that too oh totally we're the Widerstroms were going to be just fine. You have a good house name for that too. Oh, it's, oh, totally. Where are the Widerstroms? We need something moved. So, perfect.

And ironically, my grandfather owned a moving business. It's my grandfather's name. He's an immigrant from Sweden. So people think it's German,

but it's not. there it is. So anyway, so my sister and I were like doing shop work, but anyway, I ended up doing Hammer Throat.

It's a funny story how it happened. However, it reminds me back to Solace of those platforms where you know you have the wood platforms that were, to me, like starting CrossFit when I tried it years ago. I was like, what's this rubber shit? I was like, I don't like this stuff, man. I was actually, when we were up here, I was wondering. I was like, this is unsafe. They should not be Olympic lifting on this.

It's so squishy. It's crazy. And then I went downstairs. It's nice down there. You know what's funny? I have my little, like like, this is unsafe. They should not be Olympic lifting on this squishiness. And then I went downstairs. It's nice down there. You know what's funny? I have my little, like, sorrel boots on. Whoever created those boots is genius, by the way. Yeah, right.

Because I'm fashion. You're in high heels. I've got a wedge. But it doesn't look like it. I like the sporty ones, like the Nikes or whatever. They look like gym shoes. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

There's a lot of designers that are, like, doing, whether it's Reebok or Nike and stuff. Doc Gen Fit rocks them all the time. I've got a pair of something Alessis. Everybody's going to get mad at me. It doesn't matter. But the heel and they're waterproof, so they're legitimately functional. Well, I'm glad that you found a boot that can get around New York City

because you live in Denver because San Diego got off the plane wearing sandals and went from 70 to 14, found himself in five inches of snow all in one day. Well, that's San Diego's fault. You know better than that. And then I looked at my bag and I said, hmm, how can I keep my toes warm? I don't know. I have nanos.

That's the warmest thing I own. And then San Diego took a second and was grateful that it could go from multiple cities in one day, whereas in the old days, we'd have to take a carriage and people would die on the way. It was so, so unprepared. Did you call it Santa Yoga? I said it wrong. I thought you did it on purpose.

Because yoga is such a big thing in San Diego. I was like, dang. Keep slamming the yoga books in San Diego? I'm going to start calling them crazy hippies out there. We just made it a thing. Santa Yoga that are in San Diego. How long have you been in Denver? Only a year.

Do you like it there? You know, I do. I hated it at first. It felt... From L.A., right? Yeah, I was in Chicago and then L.A. for 10 years. And then I moved for a job. And when I finished work there, like around February, I was like, all right, wrapping up my lease.

You finish it out, kind of kick around shit and get ready and move. And I don't know. I feel like I just slowed down enough to actually see Denver. I hadn't been on one hike in eight months. I hadn't seen anything or done anything. LA is terrifying. You're just trapped in that place. You just got to find your pace

and Denver brought my pace back to my life. What about mountains versus the ocean because I'm always near the ocean. Have you not seen the meg yet okay i'm like a beach girl boat girl but i don't touch the water i'm trying i'm actually going to an event on the xpt training um with laird and i went to their montauk event yeah oh you are amazing okay am i gonna die kelly's kelly Kelly and Juliet are like, no, don't. You know, he's like, woman up.

You're going to be fine. He like had to pep talk me. But I'm going and I'm terrified, but I have to go. You're not going to die. Hold on. You already did. We have a friend in common, Amy Morrison, that put you through all this fun stuff. What was funny?

So I wish, okay, everybody listening visualize. So in the XPT training, you have to go from the 30-some degree water into the hot sauna, and there's this oscillating between the two for all these amazing benefits, which we won't get into just yet. And so you have to sink down to a certain point in the tub. And first of all, I started to get in, and then she goes, no, you have to fully dunk right away. And I was out of that water, so I was like gymnast like no way and then she's like no no we can do this i'm like okay i have to do it once so i do this splash flash and i'm what's sad is like i'm like a health professional and people are like looking to me to be you're the

strong one create stability perhaps if jen can do it create a little emotional safety so i ruined that for everybody and then uh and then she kept putting her hand on my shoulder. She's like, okay. Just sink down. She goes, sink in. She goes, sink in. Settle in. Settle in.

And I was like, okay, emotionally settle in. Settle into my thoughts. She's like, and she's like pressing my shoulder. She's like, you've only put your right foot in. Get your neck in the water. Yeah, no, no, no. Exactly. Because I think I was only, like I was maybe up to the top of my chest.

I met her at Laird's house. We went and did the whole thing. Been up there like twice now. It's phenomenal. I love we knew all these connects. Yeah, it's phenomenal. I literally have Amy in my phone as Amy with a big snowflake and a fire emoji. I really thought the breathing part.

And then the middle finger. The breathing part of XCT was the most life-changing to me. Did you get all hallucinating? I grew up in Canada, so I'm used to being freezing and cold all the time. So that part was exciting and fun and interesting. The workouts were super cool, super fun, spending time with all these amazing athletes

and awesome human beings. I'm so worried. But the breathing stuff, the first time we did that holotropic... Did you go crazy? I was stoned out of my mind for 30 minutes, but in the best way possible. Hold on. It's crazy.

Have you ever done like the halotropic thing like for maybe half an hour at a time? Yes, that's what it was. And did you hallucinate your, you're like trip balls the whole time? It wasn't so much hallucinating, but are there mushrooms in this oxygen? No, no, no, no, it's real. It gets to that point, though. It very much gets to that point. That you can feel that way without drugs.

That's the incredible part of it. Well, it's funny. I work with a woman, Dr. Belisa Vranich, and she puts out something called The Breathing Class, and I was doing Biggest Loser, and just the pain, it was like knives that were covered in hot lava that were dragging through my throat, because you're coaching and you're trying to be on camera, but I was talking up here and I didn't know that I was doing this

and I was bracing my core because I'm in a sports bra on television. So I'm totally sucked in. I'm not using any diaphragm. I'm like using upper quarter of your lungs. And, you know, if you do this, any kind of breathing course, they'll start to teach you that. The depth of where your lungs can take you, really. And she's like the most thing that the whole planet's malnourished on is air. And it's because you're not getting air in and what it does for your body, how healing it is.

So she taught me literally how to breathe again and save my life, save my throat, save all this stuff. But it was crazy what it did for all the other functions in my body. Like I didn't like see, you know, the big Lebowski bowling scene like you did. But like it changed everything about the way I saw breathing. I saw it as priority one now. Is that a big concern while you're on TV is like doing belly breathing and then someone snaps a photo right right at the peak time where the people are like is Jen pregnant what the hell's going on I'm actually better with it now but yeah I mean there are photos where I've worked really hard for my

hanging belly I love this it means I'm open it means I'm in my diaphragm it means I'm digesting it means I I it's it's an important for me, and it took me years to achieve. And one shot, and everyone's like, oh, ew, she's not even in shape. And I'm like, yo, bro, you know what? I'm healthy. I am so tuned into my body. I've literally had photographers, it happened like six months ago, he's like, is there anything you can do with your stomach? It's just, you're so bloated. I'm like, oh my God. You're like, go fuck yourself. But regardless, my attitude's like, yeah, dude, okay, ha ha.

I was a disaster that night. Just do a close-up on the arm veins instead if you're worried about that. I'm like, just zoom in on the neck while I'm doing push-ups. Trust me. But I was on my menstrual cycle. I was hydrated. I mean, what I used to do for a shoot is to cut down and to restrict food. And it's all for a photo.

And, like, you've got to think about even, like, any shirtless scene. Think about, like, Wolverine because he's, like, my favorite. Hugh Jackman. He is not yoked out, shredded crazy for the entire filming. They're like, all right, Hugh, we need you for this one date. We're going to shoot you every naked scene. And then you get to start being a normal human because you can't maintain that. You can drink water three days later. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah. We're going to shoot you every naked scene. And then you get to start being a normal human because you can't maintain that.

You can drink water three days later. Yeah. Yes, exactly. So, anyway, yeah, it got tough. And I'm not perfect with it yet. Ironically, it still gets in my head a little. But then I remind myself I want to be healthy. And even if I had, like, a gut, well, that doesn't even make sense either because you should live what you teach. But if a bloated belly is keeping me from career moves, I'm probably not that good at my job.

You've created a platform, though, that you can kind of educate people once that happens. Well, I think that's the responsibility. Here's what's really going on. Yeah. I might not have the perfect picture right here, but I can also breathe into my belly and use my diaphragm, which is cool. Just like chill out. Like let people's bodies be the same people's bodies not if you're on social media you cannot how do you find the balance though between being accessible to people and wanting to respond to people who are asking you questions and kind of being in that community but also like not paying attention to the trolls

because it's hard to kind of be enmeshed in social media and not see all that negative i'm not that enmeshed i mean anybody that follows me knows like I post content. I do take some time to go through. I rarely look at DMS. I do DM roulette. So I'll just do like a, like a stop on one. Sometimes it's a dick pic,

but more often than that, I have like a beautiful 17 year old girl that said, wow, I know I'm worth the word. You know, there's always something good. And, and it's hard because you, you want to, onceold girl that said, wow, I know I'm worth the work. You know, there's always something good. And it's hard because you want to – once you hit that allow button to start talking, then if I write 50 people in one day, I get 50 responses in one day. And the volume of being sucked into my phone, although those people are so valuable,

I start to miss the opportunity with the people in front of me. And it dilutes my excitement around being in person events like Strong this weekend with Strong New York. I want to be here. I want to award the people with my full presence and full attention to be here, and that's what I am to combat that. I'm coaching more classes.

I'm doing more events. I've been in my live-give tour is what I'm calling it this entire year just to achieve that face time, but it's still tough to keep up. Before we get too far down the line, we are at Solace, New York. Oh yeah. Strong New York. How did you become a part of all this? So I've known Santucci for, um,

long enough to call him only by his last name. Kendall, you know? Yeah. He, we, we met through, uh, we both ambassadors for the brand. Uh, um, uh, I think we met like literally four or five at least four years ago and then he had had kind of done you know kenny i mean anybody knows kenny he's like the social glue yeah he just wants everybody have a good time do you have enough food to eat did you have something to drink did you get us he wants to make sure everyone feels supported and he brings a community together and he he's always been passionate about like what is this fitness festival I want to it's like Woodstock but like for people that want to sweat and work out and it doesn't have to be just CrossFit

it's just all these walks of life and people that want to move and so he came up with Strong and then he asked me to host and it's just been kind of a blast because what we also yes we'll have you know bigger names we've had christmas abbott we we've had joe defranco but then you also will have i had bert soren and brandon lilly come next year but then you have a lot of up-and-comers like really great gems in the fitness community that lot have passion that love educating that love being in front of people and i really have something to say and that's not like a replication of regurgitation of something else it's something that that's really kindred to them and we get to elevate them here and just bring the city like one of the greatest

cities in the world together so i actually don't know your your background as far as training goes like i know you from all the things that are that are in the public eye but like how did you start lifting weights and just get into lifting to fitness in general uh like most things like an accident um long and short i did sports as a kid. You know, we always were, movement was always encouraged in our family. My parents are coaches and teachers. And then got to college, walked on the rowing team, was terrible at it, but great at lifting. And the rowing coach and the throwing coach, like, made a deal and said,

yo, because, like, cardio is not. We'll just get her to do power cleans. And it'll be cool. Yeah. Honestly, how much of good rowing is, like, being tall, though? Dude. Yeah, it's not going to happen for me and you. And that's okay. Okay.

I think it's 90% you don't mind waking up at 3 a.m. Yeah. And being really cold all the time. It's just, to me, rowing is ugly by the fifth stroke. And I just don't like being in that place. I'm not good at it what i'm great at though is having a million percent pressure on me for a real short amount of time throw squat lift really heavy can you do it can you can you finish your snatch with your bars

wobbly if you grip script most people freak out can't do it i'm like a put the pressure on me i'd rather perform there not i'm gonna row for about eight minutes, plenty of time to mess this up. Plenty of time. Yeah. This is cool. Like sing us absolutely not. I'm a quitter and that's just, but now I know who I am and I'm embracing that quitter. Um, so, but in answer to your question, so did that with a hammer throw and then, but the whole time always, always, uh, working out was always for performance. I didn't know the sets and reps. I didn't think about what I was doing. was completing because coach said so and i threw really fucking far that was it um and then i think the biggest transition happened when i moved to la

i did american gladiators which was a kind of an accident but a blast and then when i got to la i couldn't afford gym membership and i just wanted to be the greeter i'm like i just want to swipe people in work out for free and be cool with this. And the coach, the head trainer there, Mark Harari, said, you really are a coach. You really need to start doing this. So he convinced me to do it. And I started with, like, one, two, three people in my class, which turned into 35, 36, 37, whatever. And it got full.

And even then, I'm like, oh, I'm not training. This is just people working out. I'm playing some fun music I like. I think the big difference for me transitioned when I started to really see with one-on-one clients the way movement changed. Yes, their waistline, that's the easy part. But people stand up taller, their eye contact's better, they're willing to ask for things that they previously would have been nervous to stand up for themselves on. And I was like, oh, man. Because I never really saw it in myself because, like, I'm inside the picture.

I'm inside the frame. I don't know what's going on here. So to see the transformative properties and using that tool kind of became interesting to me. And then I just started to build out and build out and got to do a lot of fun things along the way. And then Biggest Loser came calling and, you know, here we are. When did you get into the CrossFit space?

CrossFit? You're at Horsepower, right? Yeah, that's where I started. Yeah, that's the only place I've competed. That's awesome. know here we are did when do you get into the crossfit space crossfit it's your horsepower right uh yeah that's where i started yeah that's the only place i've competed and uh yeah dan i was working i was in a lululemon and he like had a mohawk he's like you go to crossfit i'm like you're a fucking douchebag am i allowed to say the f-bomb on this whatever you want and then uh i found out quickly that he's not a douchebag. I found out he was educated and he was excited about it. I thought he was 18. Oh, well. I didn't tell you he was like 45.

Hey, dude, that DNA. Man, it's beautiful. Put it in a vial and save it. You're going to need it. When I turn 70, I'm going to start pumping Dan's blood into my body and just start doing lots of chest-to-bar pull-ups. That's incredible. And it was fun, though, because I had heard about CrossFit,

but I really wasn't interested in it. And the ego in me wishes I had started earlier. Because I came out of college. I was squatting 315. My snatch was almost 200 pounds. Because all we, I mean, I couldn't do a burpee. My first CrossFit workout was the 95-pound, like, 10 power cleans, 10 burpees, three rounds. Like, what's the big deal? Oh, yeah.

I laid on the ground for the burpee. Like I did one. I was like, no problem. Two, three. And I turned my head to the side and I laid a second. And that was like the first round. I was like, oh no. And then like in my first six months, if I walked in the horsepower and I was burpees or running or rowing on the menu, like on the board. I was like, I just came to buy this water, and I'm out of protein. Yeah, give me a bag. Perfect. And I would leave.

I literally cherry-picked because I was so scared. And then eventually I just got better. That was like 2013. Well, you went to regionals at one point, right? Yeah. What was that progression? I'm a G1 athlete. You know, I wasn't.

I'm not. It's not an accident. No, it's not. I'm kidding. When did you start learning Olympic lifting? You do this. They can't see this on the radio right now. Oh, yeah.

It's called a snatch. It's called a snatch. This, when people do it properly, when they're talking about it, that means I know that they know what the fuck they're talking about, and it makes me happy. Oh, good. It's like, don't move well. Don't fuck up my eyesight. I know what the fuck they're talking about, and it makes me happy. Oh, good. Don't move well. Don't fuck up my eyesight. I know.

They don't put their arm over their head well. It's tough, though, because let me think. I started probably when I was 18. Really? Doing clean and jerks. Where at? Kansas College. Oh, I guess 18 is college.

Jesus Christ. Yeah, I know. I know. Ouch. That would hurt all of us. I know. All those little children. That would hurt all of us. I know. All those little children. Oh, you're of age.

You're actually, you can drink and you're born in 1993? Great. Okay. That's interesting. I know. No, but I just did a million reps. I've just done a million reps. And so that's, I think, I mean, I'd rather Oly lift than anything if I could choose.

Yeah. Have you seen a sport other than CrossFit where the physical evolution of the athletes has changed as quickly? When you look at 2007 competition and then you look at the monsters that are competing right now, it's incredible. I'm not going to be popular when I say this. I think it's evolutionizing, but CrossFit's not a sport. CrossFit's working out. CrossFit is the application. Sorry, a sport is the application of

fitness people that do crossfit really well can some carry over into actual sports and really make a dent there absolutely but it's different no one's in your lane no one's boxing you out while you're doing your thrusters you you get to say you get to sit and you get to train and you get to work out no defense it's different I think it's totally a different thing and yet does that concept apply across all areas

like is track and field hammer throwing a sport is gymnastics a sport yeah it's an application of fitness golf is a sport they work out and train in a way to make sure that is completed. Right? Bodybuilding, not a sport. Let that sink in.

Yeah, but hold on. I don't think so. There's no defense in throwing the hammer. Right, but I'm working out. I'm doing snatches, clean and jerks, all the same stuff that we're doing in a CrossFit workout in order to take this little ball at the end of a wire and throw it really far. It's an Olympic sport.

So you're saying the snatches for time should not count as sport. No. Well, when you say it out loud, it kind of makes sense. Think about it. Now, are people more athletic than me that do CrossFit? For sure. I'm not saying they're not athletes. I'm not saying they can't do it.

But, like, if you look at, like, I met Randy Moss, and I was like, he was like a Clydesdale. I was like, oh, my God. Can he do snatches for time faster than Rich Froning? No. No, because he's tall. Right. That's awesome.

Ron Matthews would agree with you. He's like, do you know how much longer it takes me to do this stuff? That guy. Another guy. Bottle him up. Oh, God. Yeah, I know. Ron.

Big ups to Ron. It's like SoSoCal right here. Oh, I know. Ron. Big ups to Ron. It's like so SoCal right here. Oh, I know. CrossFit SoCal, tiny little people. But that's the thing. And again, I will tell you, a lot of our top athletes, I mean, Toomey, wasn't she in Olympic? She was in Olympic Kelsey. Yeah, she was in Australia.

Totally. Absolutely. Like there is crossover, but it's not same, same. Okay. I would love to really really really dive into that because those people are like training at the same level probably that you and doing the same thing right i understand the defense part of but if there's no defense i'm not just saying defense but i'm saying it's it's app again sport application of fitness yeah crossfit fitness and what's what's cool about

what crossfit has been doing it has been breaking through different areas to do these triathlons, to do all these water events. I cried for them when they had to do the laps and they had to do a burpee pull-up thingy or a muscle-up. See, I love that shit because I think it's good that they're actually putting a little bit of endurance stuff because for a while I'm like, these are not the fittest people in the world because if they try to run. It's changing the game, though.

Yeah. But when you do that, though, it also made me feel bad that you and sam briggs you know our returning champion because she couldn't walk on her hands come on yeah yeah one physical skill one one upside down thing let's let's like let's find the one thing our champion's not good at and make sure it disqualifies her yeah i like the rich for the rope climbs yeah thank you and i do believe like yeah if you want to be the best, you've got to be the best at all the skills. I agree.

And guess what? Sam Briggs came back walking better on her hands. No one could do a hundred. Like, no one. I remember, I'll never forget. What was the WOD? When it was like 50 wall balls, jump rope, and then muscle-ups. And she was the only one that did, like, two full cycles.

She's a big one. She's got big lungs. No, it's gorgeous. It's beautiful to watch her move. Right. And I bet she'd actually be really great in sports too. Since you've left CrossFit, what does fitness look like? Well, I'm FDO.

What is that? You don't know FDO? I'm about to learn. Poor display only. Ah, there you go. I love that. I love it. I look fitter than I am,

but part of that is what I think a history of training does for you. You've got a big savings bank. You create foundation. Muscle pays for the party. You know what I mean? I know I make sure I'm eating enough and making sure that I actually try to put heavy load on my body once a week, even if it's just a squat, something like that. I might be a little softer with all the travel, but I'm like, I'm okay.

Like, I'd rather just be a little softer and keep my muscle than worry about withering. And then because like the backlash of that is then like you wake up and you've got a pooch. You're like, what happened? It's nice when you realize how little you actually have to do to kind of keep it all together. That's where I'm in kind of a nice spot. But the other responsibility is now shifting to what kind of care. So I really feel myself needing a yoga class. I really find myself needing an outdoor run, reset my body, just flow.

I miss the sweating. I miss that with CrossFit. I miss the mental push. I miss the camaraderie. I miss seeing my friends every day. Sometimes when I go back to the CrossFit gym, I'm like, man, I really miss this. Holy shit, this is so hard. Well, and that's the other thing.

God, this sucks. If you're in, you're able to sustain, I think, a sense of belonging in your body. But when you're just, I'm going to jump in, it's like I'm wrecked. And that's what gets tough because of the volume and the way the system is set. And I love what Craig, listen, Craig did something that nobody else did. He was able to create community around well before Peloton did, well before anybody else did, getting people to show up at the gym and say, uh, uh, the well before Peloton did well before anybody else did getting people to show up at the gym and say, well, this is cool. It reminded me of like college sports again.

Like that's what I loved. It found all the athletes that were looking to be athletes still and wanted to train. And then it was like, Oh, there's a message board where we can just talk shit to each other. I mean, I literally, it was right before biggest loser. I was going through a lot. Didn't know what I was gonna do with my life. I'm like, I don't know if I want to keep training like this.

And like CrossFit saved my life. And those people, like every single one of those teammates, like it changed everything for me. Is that how you trained people on the Biggest Loser? Doing a bunch of that stuff? Sorry, I didn't watch the whole show. Oh, no. Oh, no, it's okay. So to me, there's so many systems of movement that qualifies.

I always joke that like CrossFit is the cleaning of tissue paper. So CrossFit, he didn't invent Olympic lifting. He didn't invent pull-ups or burpees. I think the wall ball is probably the only thing that I hadn't seen anywhere else. But there was, you know, Macaulay's invented the Dynamax medicine ball in the 1970s. So let's be real about what's been existing for a long time. Greg was genius and said, ooh, I love this modality. I love this thing.

Let's package it and make it digestible for anybody. I don't like walking to gyms and seeing snatch being taught on the first day. Yeah, that's bad. I think people are irresponsible with what Greg created, but I think it's beautiful. So I think what we're doing in CrossFit, we've been doing for generations and for decades in the fitness world. Yeah, the interval training. So do I do it in Loser? There are components. I think that what's been fun is using CrossFit is a, I call it like a treat.

On my first day, it's always power training, strongman training. Push, pull, pick up, put down. Feel strong in your body. I don't care your size. I want you to feel strong, empowered. You can. And then what's cool is when they get to tell their wives or their kids, I did CrossFit today. It's like, what?

That was one of the best things about CrossFit. I think when it first started, was that empowering, especially women to tell the average chick, you can do a pull-up. My mother just turned 70. She's like, I do CrossFit. She's dead lifting more than me. I was like, I got to start like, let's start like let's go like you know because and she loves it and she's proud of herself and it's opened up a world to her so on loser it's like for sure i mean bob really elevated it and i mean it changed bob's life um so i love that he gave it a lot of um a lot of like airtime because i mean he's the only one that hasn't missed a single episode on that show um but i think it's got to be a lot I mean, there's so many hours of footage that hits the cutting room floor

and so many more. I mean, like the Sundays I would bring over, like, there's no cameras, and I'd bring over, like, coffee, strawberries from the guy in the corner, and we would do a pool workout. Like, you don't really see that. That, to me, especially with their bodies and the care and the weight and the pre-stress fractures that are happening on their feet and the shoes that they're busting through in two weeks,

it's like, we're going to get in the pool and just move. We're just going to hike. Like most of the stuff that was, I was most successful with my team. You don't see because it's not that exciting to watch. I was going to say, because the stuff that they show you, that's so high intensity and you're getting after people. That's what makes for great TV. That's three times a week. They were doing that like twice a day, seven days a week.

Yeah, but I mean, both seasons undefeated. I literally, my first season, I went 10 weeks, didn't lose a weigh-in, didn't lose a mat. Like we didn't lose anything. And it was like, they literally had to break up my team. And I'm like, guys, we just lifted weights. We recovered. We took care of them. Yeah.

But they also knew team. How much freedom do you have to do whatever you want as far as the training? Anything I want. Oh, really? Anything I want. We have a great athletic training team that is like, hey, one of my contestants there, she had some pretty stress fractures, so did Colby this last season.

And they were like, you literally, I can't have you have any kind of bending or extension of their legs. I was like, great. You're throwing a wrench into things. You can't use their legs. And if you're smart as a trainer, you listen to what your people say, unless your people break their legs and that's on you.

So, so there, there's restriction, but you, you figure it out. You got battle robes. We have arm bikes. We have the skiers.

And, but at the same time as a trainer, you're like, I don't want to cash out. And like their upper bodies, you got to get creative, shorter workouts. They, they would have shorter workouts, but more times a day kind of a thing. It just was you've got to get creative. Shorter workouts, they would have shorter workouts,

but more times a day kind of a thing. It just was, you've got to get just creative. I like that you mentioned, though. And we did Pilates, every stuff, all kinds of weird stuff, too. The stuff that you guys did that maybe didn't make it to the show, because that's not the sexy stuff. And I think that's a good commentary on fitness and health in general, because everybody wants to think about these, like, the sexy diets and the sexy workouts and these exciting kind of whatever, like magic pills, where it's usually it's the non-sexy go for a long hike, go for a walk, get some sleep, take care of your body, recover.

That's the stuff that does it, right? Yeah, no. Like, I'm so glad you recorded that. That is so dead on. Right? It's not sexy sorry everyone's like what's the one thing what's the one thing that you would say I'm like you're not gonna like my answer like what's the one thing to lose weight okay it has nothing to do with a gym

I literally need you to go to bed a little earlier I need you to probably drink more water tomorrow and every day after that and please don't go outside three hours without food yeah that's that's like my baseline if you want my help let me give that to you and you do that first and if you're really serious you'll have done that for me i think about how hard like that show fit to fat to fit whatever and then like i half like auditioned for that and i was thinking like if i get this i'm fucking terrified for my life. You should be. And then I was thinking, because we talked to, like, gigantic powerlifters that walk around. They're 308 pounds, and they're about to die, and they're eating 20 cheeseburgers a day from McDonald's. And it's, like, it's really hard to get to the size.

Like, there's a lot of dysfunction. And fitness is, like, almost, like, way down the road. Like, CrossFit is, like, a million miles away outside of what you're talking about, which is like just get a little treat. Like make them breathe a little bit. But if we can sleep a little bit, maybe just like shed some things. A lot of it is possibility. For me, you know, why is there a gap between the information that we're given and actually doing it?

And that gap to me is the risk. It's the I don't have the personal testimony, the personal experience of knowing I'm going to survive that. So yeah, I start to give them into these little bite size. We're going to do a 10 minute EMOM. Okay. And I'm like, yeah, you did CrossFit man. Totally. And they're like, oh, I did it. So the next time it's gonna be 15 minutes and maybe I'm going to add a run, some pop flies, some 400s or some whatever I do. And that becomes, so I'm bridging emotional safety, as I said, when I got in here today. Right. And, and their trust in me knowing that they can. And in the beginning, it's me believing for the both of them, you know, us, but then they start to, they have that personal

experience and that risk, that step is like, to me, the fabric that I work with more than anything. I wish they just showed the slow days. Like that doesn't make for good TV. I know, but I wish they did because it's better. I think that the show is really cool. You're helping people change their lives, but then the general population thinks that they need to go out and take a baseball bat to themselves every day to feel like shit,

and it's very unsustainable, and then they get frustrated, and then there's an education piece that needs to be there, but it's not sexy. The other big component that I wish we could talk more is the mental health side of... The outside changes a lot faster than the inside so and i mean that

the mental emotional so it's tough as i have contestants that look in the mirror and they still see the 300 pound body even if they're under 200 pounds at that point and what's difficult is you know you get the show has gotten in in the media a huge amount talking about everybody gains back the weight. And what is it? There are metabolic factors like where your body has lived most of the time. It wants to go there. So I've lived at this body weight for a long time and it has an easier time staying there. Same with people that are obese or morbidly obese.

So that's a component. But the other thing is they go home. I have not had enough time to work with their behavior change, the psychology behind, not just habits, coping mechanisms, and those default behaviors, those kind of personality potholes that we go through to sustain them at home. Because what happens is the pressure to keep the weight off is almost unbearable that they choose to put it on. They're familiar with the way they used to feel. But you know what? There's no pressure now. I don't mug contestant. They're familiar with the way they used to feel and look, right? But you know what? There's no pressure now. I don't have to worry. I can't do it.

It's too much. Everyone's asking me, how was my workout? I'm just going to put the weight back on. And then fortunately, even though they could be at 175, they still see 300, so they feel like they're failing. It's almost like there should be a class at the show that says, how to get new friends, how to go home and completely rearrange your environment. Is there post-show support? I think for every team it's different.

I mean, we have nutritionists. She's amazing. We have a psychologist. We have everybody that's available. The contestants I've found usually just want to talk to their coach. So I've got a text thread with both my teams. Actually, Sonya Jones, she was barely runner-up, like .01% to her teammate

my first season, and she just had the skin removal surgery. We're on the text, so we all started Marco Polo, which has been a headache because we're all like, blah, this is awesome. There's like 19... Do you guys know Marco Polo? Everybody's looking at me with blank stares. It's basically text messaging, but only by video that you can't erase.

What? Excellent. So it's like the opposite of but only by video that you can't erase. Excellent. So it's like the opposite of Snapchat. It's like, you can't get rid of this. Exactly. But we had a plan and we knew the weight she wanted to sustain for these six months. Okay.

Let's sustain it for these six months. We're going to drop be here. And she found it. She's removed the skin and it's been like life. We were all there supporting her together. It's it's you have to me but i was also at the ranch every single day that was my choice as a coach not everybody makes that choice and it's kind of joked about finding new friends but do you find that when they go back to

their same environment that their family their friends and whatnot that just to be accepted by the people that they care about like they go back to being the old the old them so to speak accepted and also not sabotaged yeah yeah because it's more comfortable for the people that they go back to being the old them, so to speak? Accepted and also not sabotaged. Yeah. Because it's more comfortable for the people that they went home to in those circles, families, whatever, to allow them to be this new person. Because you're doing that's disrupting my stuff. And it puts a spotlight on those behaviors. So it's been actually really difficult for some, easier for others.

For some, I think it spotlighted unhealthy relationships that they did remove themselves from some didn't and went back to old habits I can't imagine what it would feel like to be living your life a certain way and and be like come back to it and to your home to your stuff to your life and say I don't fit here and and I imagine taking on that juggernaut right of all this emotional stuff you've just processed and while why your food is at this level why why your behavior is at this level. And now all the people that I usually lean on, my inner circle of support are actually people that are derailing me. So it's, I can't, because I always explain like, you know, the ranch is like rehab.

You know, the amount of people that I know that have gone to rehab that have had those setbacks. What do you call it when you? Relapse. Relapse. Thank you. And it's the same thing. But unfortunately, people that are struggling with an eating addiction or just obesity, they have to wear it on the outside of their skin every single day. And I have no idea if you were sober and you got drunk last night.

I have no idea. She was good. She was good. She was good. She fell by those traps. She doesn't get drunk anymore. She drinks all the time. Water. I'm just passing.

And that's what becomes, and then it's the public shame. Whether people are shaming them or not, which I actually think people do. Well, I was going to ask you, before you were on the show, what did you think about obese people? And after the show after like really being engaged in their lives how does that perspective change um but just i already had empathy but even more i i think it's the one form of bullying that's accepted somehow that people that are obese it's like oh you did this to yourself you have that i'm like listen we all got our stuff and the fact is you none of you standing here can see what I do to cope.

You have no idea. Maybe I don't sleep. Maybe I have road rage. Maybe I bash in random people's car windows when I'm upset. You have no idea what I do. But they don't have a choice but to reveal it. And it's accepted to bully them. And that was the really big, it was the big thing.

And it's, they feel shame. And then they give up. And I think that when people just really, at the end of the day, we want to be seen, we want to be heard, and we all just want a little support. Yeah, you mentioned a lot of the behavioral factors that you wish you had time to get into. How do you address that stuff, one, in just a short period of time, but maybe in your continued communication with them?

I think it's like anything else. It's rep by rep. So I equate a lot of the psychological breakthroughs to what we do in the gym. The first time we've all done snatch here. Yep. How did that go? Probably not well. The first time?

A long time ago. I don't remember. I wish I remembered. Yeah. I literally don't remember, like, catching, like, I think 40K. I was like, I wanted to break, like, my head into the glass. Like, Latimer. I was like, why can't I get this?

I couldn't get it. So it's a rep scheme. So what happens is when that happens, you have to create a safe environment and say, hey, I had this setback. I did this binge. I had this thing. I had this blow up. Okay, let's talk it through. But they have my cell.

They have my number. They know I'm here. The biggest thing, though, part of that psychological breakthrough in rep is asking for help. That's really hard. They won't ask me. Wait, why don't they? They've already built a trust with them.

Because they don't. Do you want to disappoint your coach? Hey, coach, I failed again. Oh, guess what? Tap, tap. Failed again. Yeah, that's interesting. I'm not carrying judgment, but there's no greater judgment

than we carry for ourselves. Without, like, an actual percentage, like, how there's no greater judgment that we carry for ourselves without like an actual percentage Like where how often do you think the success rate like continues through of the of the there's a hundred people that have been through? The show are 30 of them 70 of them. I'm still doing well. Do you have any any clue? I don't actually know I don't know all the feedback and all of that I do know we have more relationships that are successful from Big Loser, then The Bachelor and Bachelorette. Nice. High five. We've been through some shit together.

That's how you build relationships. You go through some real shit. I mean, some of my best friends I have on the planet right now. Is that your water? No, it's not. That's totally mine. I'm dying over here. I've been looking at it. I'll have some after you do it.

I don't know if this actually is mine, but I think it's actually mine. This makes for great radio here. I have another question, though, similar to the great question that Anders asked about, like if you felt any differently about people who have this struggle with obesity, is what your thoughts are on the body positivity movement and the argument that some people have that it is allowing or encouraging people to be unhealthy and overweight. How much time we got?

All of it. All of it. How much time you got? We're here. You brought us. This is a tricky one. So I'm never going to stand here and claim to understand what it is to have someone's genetic background, understand what it is a day in the life and their shoes and their body. I do know I've worked with people that are in the public eye that are overweight

in an unhealthy way. And unfortunately, there's two things going on. One, there is peer pressure. Once I see some of these guys and gals lose weight, they are shamed from the overweight slash obese community. Sound like you're selling out. Well, you can't just be yourself. It's like.

I think about that a lot, actually. Yo, dude, I'm just actually trying to be healthy. My cholesterol is over 300. Metroglycerides are blah, blah, blah. Like, I've got a kid. I've got a whatever. Don't worry about what I'm doing. But they are ostracized because they are no longer in.

But because they've still been through a lot with their bodies, we're not going to be, you know, Gwyneth Paltrow. So now where do I belong? You know what? I'll just stay over here with the unhealthy fat people. You know what I mean? And that's literally how they go, like, I'll just stay fat. That's the word they use.

They go, it's not just fat. It's unhealthy. And you're going to give up your life because someone's going to be a bully because they can't get their shit together? No, thank you. Now, there are a percentage of people that I am witnessing. Embrace your body. Do these things. I'm seeing these posts.

And I was like, okay, this is terrible. Have you guys seen Infinity War? I'm like a nerd over this. Oh, my God. This is a great press. Wait, is this a video game? No, this is a Marvel. This is Chris Pratt.

Chris Pratt was one of the guys that got in really good shape. Yeah, I did see that. And Bradley Cooper's the raccoon in the scene. Everyone's like, no, Quill is Chris Pratt's character. And he goes, you're putting on some weight. And he's like, what? What? And then the raccoon goes, come on, Quill.

You're one sandwich away from being fat. You know, it's like these people are pushing their health to a place. That was too long of a story for the point. It didn't deliver. I'm bummed. It's a good movie, though. It's our fault. We didn't see the show.

No, delete that part of it. But they are playing with their health. To me, they're playing it's a game of chicken. And I think you're getting likes and you might get a few ads. But the reality is you're keeping your body elevated and actually making it part of a selling point for you when it's actually not where your body wants to live. And people want to look at it black and white, too, where you're either 100% supporting them where they are or you're judging them and hating them for being larger.

No, because nothing we're doing is black and white right come on across the board there's tons of fitness celebrities that top parts i agree with some people i don't period listen there's a lot of people that give jen seltzer a lot of crap for what she does i'm like i've got all i know is out of all the a million people that follow her if if one person guy or girl sees that butt picture and says i'm gonna do squats today jen's great jen's on my team i'm with that i don't care like let's stop picking at what everybody else is doing and stop looking for ways that divide and start finding ways to unite and that's why it's like i i part of me i do worry about their health you know what let them do what they need to do because maybe it's going to inspire someone

to maybe move in that yoga ad. I don't know. I don't know. And it's tough because, like, I look at my family. My sister, I think, I mean, I'm 145 pounds. My sister at 145 would be so emaciated it wouldn't work. Like, her comfortable weight is easily in the 160, 170. She has big bones, hourglass.

She doesn't have an ab. It's her body type. It's beautiful. She would never try to look like me. She loves her body. It's beautiful, but she's not trying to keep her weight up to get a tampon ad. Right. Okay.

I like it. It's tough for me. I don't know where I even – it freaks me out because I see some people and then the fame comes, and with the fame comes, if you don't have those principles in place, even more unhealthiness because you become very busy and you become known as this really overweight person and now you're not sleeping and you're traveling and you're on the road and nutrition sucks. And I don't ever see it really like get a lot better for these people.

And that is weird that we give them fame and all of this attention. And it just goes in the wrong cycle. I think I'm the most unhealthy standing here three days later when we travel and we're doing shows and we don't sleep well. When you go to health conferences. I literally go to health conferences. And what does everybody do? We kind of party. Yeah.

Just eat protein. We haven't trained in three days. Yeah. I haven't trained in three days. And, yeah, it's like so those people are on the road now. There's cameras in front of them. High stress. Yeah.

All the things. Inflammations out of the fucking world. Yeah, but I think at the end of the day, we just, you know, people do what they got to do to make their lives work. And so I think we have to like not pick people apart, like I said, and let them do as they need to do. At the same time, I think the greater question is whether you're plus size or you're any size, you know, it's we're all building this shell.

We're all on this happy pill trying to create this identity instead of actually getting to be what's really beneath it. And that, I think, to me is the greatest loss because we're losing the human. We're losing the heart and sacrificing it for the shell that's pleasing to all these people that actually don't add value in my life except a like or this or that. You know, and that's what gets tricky because then you don't know what to trust. I'm curious. You mentioned your sister a second ago. Have you had much success with helping your family get in better shape? So I'm going to just start with families are hard. Every family, like right now at the holidays, I have found that what's cool is like my parents raised us all. I have an older sister, Chris, and younger brother, Eric.

We're all individuals. We're all encouraged to think for ourselves, do as we need to. Am I looking at my sister's plate telling her what to eat? Absolutely not, never. I do lead by example. I like to take care of myself and be responsible for my experience. And if that rubs off in a positive way for whoever is watching, then great. My mom, I mean, literally, she wrote me. I'm going to read this text.

She wrote me. I'm about to cry. Maybe. It's going to be emotional. You make me proud. I love you, Mom. Well, you know what? It was sweet because I had started working with my mom about five years ago.

She basically said her knees were hurting. She's like, I need to learn to row. I can't walk or run anymore. I'm getting older. And was like just kind of giving up. And I said, okay. Well, she was in L.A. And I brought her to Horsepower.

And I took a video of her on the rower so I could teach her. And she hadn't like taken a picture of herself like below the neck in who knows how long and she saw herself she goes oh my god and she literally says she's i'm a cow i go my don't be you're being hard on yourself she's like no i and she just didn't know it had gotten that bad that's the number one i hear from a lot of people that are ready for a turn i didn't know it was that bad yeah and so then what happened was she literally, we took like a photo of her, not a photo, so we measured her waist. And I won't share it because it's my mom's private business. It was many inches higher than she thought it probably was. I hooked up with a coach in Lyle, which is where we're from, with a CrossFit coach, Mike, at CrossFit Amplify.

And now I literally got this text and it was like, of course, now I'm looking and I can't find it. Oh, here we go. She goes, hi, I'm celebrating six years of CrossFit with Mike, all thanks to you. I will always be grateful you talked me into that first time in California. It changed my life. Not so many almost 70-year-olds have a resting heart rate of 65.

I love you. Yes. Killer. You know, my mom and and i don't write like like we don't send emojis my mom and her kind of like business you know and we love each other but like and when that happened i go six years oh my god all just because i led by example you'd like your people to start your family or people you care about to start trying sooner we all have our own time and you gotta to let people do their time, but be there when they're ready. I have to say from all the, sorry, all the people that I've interviewed, all the successful people who are making a difference in the health and fitness industry, that's pretty much always the answer is that I'm leading by example because I'm always trying to get people to be like, how do you convince like these dummies who aren't doing it right to do it right? I'm always asking

that question. They're like, yeah, yeah no i don't try to convince anybody of anything i just try to do my best and put the information out there and they'll they'll be ready when they're ready and you know that's it yeah i think you have to be the role model 100 but then because you have the knowledge that you have i think i think the sweet spot really is basically what you did you introduced her to someone that you trusted that was outside the family but you knew was really, really good. I did the same thing with my mom where I tried for years to help her. And then finally I was just like, this is my friend Adi.

She runs Working Against Gravity. Like everyone gets great results with her. Just go work with her. And she lost like 30 or 40 pounds like in a reasonable period of time. And it made great progress. And I was like, that's what I should have done the whole time. It's that one degree of separation. Yeah.

Totally. That's a really great point. But I also think, too, you know, it's whole time. It's that one degree of separation. Totally. That's a really great point. But I also think, too, it's that leading. It's that connecting. It's give somebody the opportunity to have that personal experience. Let them feel it for themselves because there's no amount of telling that I can get them to start, especially taking on a juggernaut of what your health is. You know what I mean?

I wanted to ask you another question about your for display only um maintenance plan your body you have here i mean it's pretty fantastic for display only but what are some like uh recovery maintenance kind of i i know it's such a kind of cliche word but like self-care stuff that you do like do you get massages do you what other things besides working out in the gym do you do to take care of yourself? So I'm a big fan of, you know, medicine that's been around for thousands of years, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, herbal therapy. I take, like, an adrenal-herbal combination. I'm getting needles in, like, the sides of my ear and weird stuff.

I've got, like, I don't know. My guy's like, I'm going to put it in your happy place. I go, excuse me? Which happy place? Yeah, exactly. So I'm going to put it in your happy place. You go, excuse me? Which happy place? Yeah, exactly. So on board. I do know you're right.

This is why you're expensive. No, he's amazing. And I do love his wife. But it's right in the center of your crown of your head. So I've done that. I know it's really funny. You're like, I don't believe it. I was like, er. Prove it.

So that's really big for me. I have prioritized sleep. I know it sounds so cliche, but literally it really, it's the only time your body recovers. And making sure I'm taking, you know, you got to inhale to exhale. So what things am I doing in my day to create a pace? And it's more, it's not anything I'm taking, but it's something that I'm doing for myself. The mental health aspect,

like my brain can run this body into the ground. And so for me, it's finding a pace of allowing people to come and go, opportunities to come and go, not just like pushing and trying to make it happen because I want to try really hard, but having this idea of what belongs to you will come to you while also being obviously proactive about the things you're passionate about like I think there is a line there that you can balance but that's made a big

difference in my physical health like I've had I had terrible herniation in my neck it was like 17 millimeters when I was crossfitting more and I I'm like, I'm not getting surgery. I'm going into Pilates. I'm repositioning. I'm thinking about what I'm doing, my stress. And by the way, what am I doing, right? It was the lifting, but the pushing through. But I'm talking like that.

I'm yelling. It's like I need to recalibrate. You're a little high strung. I was. This is the mellow version. Yeah, man. This is the mellow Jen. Yo, man. This is the mellow Jen. Yo, I got dreadlocks. Yeah, you're a hustler.

Yeah. Did you have sleep issues, or was that something you had to really actively work on, or it's just paying attention to you a little bit more? It's not that I, it's like, oh, I can't fall asleep when I wake up. I woke up every morning exhausted. So you weren't getting, like, the quality sleep, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Do you sleep well on the road?

Yeah. Do you? Yeah on the road? Yeah. Do you? Yeah. Oh, wow. Doesn't matter. Teach me. I sleep on – I try to race the pilot getting off the ground. I sit in my set.

I can't do that either. And I'm like, okay, okay, we're third in line. I can't do that one either. It drives me nuts. Yeah. No matter how long, I'm just, please, let's go to sleep. Yeah, but i will say too that that finding that cadence for yourself is going to shift i think that's a hard thing too

that people don't get it's not sexy like you said you got to change it man like every year i'm on this planet i feel like i got to change my face lotion the way you know to you know you know what i mean everything like the mascara changes i'm like from beauty products to literally what i'm putting my body to everything else. So I just feel like it's okay that you have to find a new center. Because you are going to be shifting and changing. And the variables coming at you are constantly crisscrossing. That there's no other way to get through it than to just keep adapting.

I feel like some of this kind of wisdom sort of comes with age. It's almost like you can't be 22 and starting your career and able to say no, like let things pass you by and say no to things, right? Like it seems like I never talked to somebody who's young and successful who's been able to do that. It's almost like something you have to trial by fire and go through it and learn to. Could you imagine? I was talking to BJ.

How successful they'd be. Well, I actually, I was going a different direction. Oh, God. BJ Goddard, I met him through Men's Health years ago, and now he's, I don't even see him in his Garden of Gains in his backyard in Venice. I got to hook you guys up. Oh, my God.

He's one of the best programmers I've ever met. Like, former fat kid, super buff and, like, greased out in tiny white shorts and, like, in his backyard cranking. Amazing. Amazing man. But used to be, like, the fitness director for all of the men's health over at Riddell. Anyway, he was like, we were talking. We were like, oh, my God.

Could you imagine being 22 now, starting now? Nightmare. No way. I'm like, oh, man. I'd for sure be the butt selfie girl. Or the Belfie. Isn't there a name for it now? Gross, yeah.

Like the sacrifices that you would make. You guys like them. I want to tell that to Brett. I know. I'm sure he knows about it. Someone's creeping on his game. Over it. Are you friends with Brett Contreras?

The glue guy? No, I met him two years ago at Summer Strong. But Brett's great. Fantastic. He's doing great things. Doing God's work. I do his good shit, man. He makes more appearances on the show, and he's only been on it twice.

We talk about him all the time. All the time. He was right down the street from me. That says a lot about your guys' interest. I'm in the glute lab a lot. Because Brett's cool. We're the only men that have ever been invited to the glute squad. We feel good about it.

We feel cool. I think what's cool is he's helping women embrace weight training and growth of size. It's like, this is cool, man. This is beautiful. Shape is great. That's what I really appreciate Brett for. Specifically. What are you working on right now?

And how much time do you have? Let's start with that one. Let's see. What time is it? I'm still waiting. I had all these shirts ordered for Strong, and they, like, were rejected at the hotel. So I'm trying to get a shipment through. It's for all our presenters, and we have a dinner tonight.

So I've got to – let's give it a solid 10. Solid 10? Solid 10. Right on. What are you working on? You know, it's funny. I'm in a total meltdown. Oh, yeah?

Like, I'm at this point where I don't know fully where I'm going but I can't stay here. I think that I'm at this point where I think a lot of younger people as you brought up I'm at this pinnacle. I get asked to do Dr. Oz pretty much on a monthly basis. Kelly and Ryan. I have a best selling book. I've got

great stuff going on. I'm asked to do all kinds of things and I'm just unhappy. And I know there's more. There's something deeper. You're going to give us 10 minutes and just drop into this? I just, well, I just got there. But there's something, as we talked about, you've got to go up the shell and go for what's more important to you. What's really greater? And for me, I'm kind of peeking through the window with this Weterstrom concept of, it's a way of thinking. Iting through the window with this Weterstrom concept of it's

a way of thinking it's a way of life Weterstrom obviously is my last name but it's this idea of ancestral mentorship right the people that were mentors to my parents that are not my grandparents but like their teachers their coaches have influenced my life and there are ways that people that came into your life and will influence those people. And there isn't a blood line, but there is a mentor line that connects us. So having that component of where, where have you gained this foundation? Where have you learned and where are you going in strength? What is strength to you? Who are you holding? Who are you bringing together? I'm sick and tired of this competitive nature in the fitness field. And I'm wanting collaboration, bringing it together. Everybody can win because there's almost a billion people on this planet and they all need care and they all need support

and they all need like a smile and a high five. And I don't know why it just has to be one of us to do it. I think it's a really cool thing when you get to a place in your career where you start thinking about the lineage, which Doug Larson was the guy that actually presented this idea to me and the lineage of the number of people that have influenced me. And if you would like to jump in and do this because it is your idea, I would appreciate it because I don't want to creep on your shit. I actually don't know exactly which part you're talking about. He says genius stuff when he's not even thinking about it. Just the idea that, like, the number of people that I've learned from and the ripple effect of what they're doing

because I go and open a gym and thousands of people have come through that. And now I get to reach thousands of people every time I just put this microphone on and the responsibility that we all carry in this industry, that if you make it through level one, two, three, four, being a coach and get out of group classes and now you're on, you're being broadcast to millions of people every night or whatever it is. And now you're on dr oz and millions of people see you in the middle of the day your shit better be together and you have the opportunity to really make an incredible influence in people's lives and the responsibility that we all have in strength training to be really good at it and

carry a message with us because it matters and whatever we put out there is the lineage of us. And whoever is inspired by you, it matters that they take that message with them so that they can go find their thousands of people. Exactly. And it continues on. And that is the coolest thing about being on this microphone and on your show. And it matters to people. It's our family tree.

Yes. And that's the thing. Is it a responsibility? Yes. But it's also it takes some guts. You. And that's the thing. Is it a responsibility? Yes. But it's also, it takes some guts. You've got to not be fearless. I actually think, look at the fear. What's holding you back?

Use it as an indicator. Like when I roll my ankle, ow, ooh, something's going on down there. What's going on? Let's figure it out. That's intel. So I'm afraid. I feel resistance. My go-to in the last few years is like, oh, ride it out.

I'm just going to step back. I'm going to get busy, busy, busy. I'm going to do these cool things that feel fluffy, fluffy, fluffy and not touch it. And now I go, gosh, I'm actually miserable. Let's do the other thing. Let's actually do what I've been teaching people, right? Choose that love for what you're doing, your passion over the fear. And now when you can do that, and by the way, we owe it to those ancestors. We fucking owe it to them. And by the way, it doesn't have to be replicated the way it was taught. I get to take it and use it and mold it and give. I literally went to my hometown and interviewed my seventh grade science teacher,

my high school health teacher and diving coach because there are elements of who they are that I now get to pass on and give. That's the beauty. I used to have all these messages from people at the gym, and now I get to reach people that I that's the beauty i used to have like all these messages from people at the gym and now i get to reach people that i have no clue who they are but the number of people that reach out and they're like how do i become a strength coach yeah i'm like find a client just talk to somebody tell them how passionate you are about fitness and like we went and interviewed mike boyle the other day and he's 37 years into this game. And I've been in many, like, online arguments with him about what's right and wrong.

And CrossFit's this. And you're doing this. And what's right. And it's like he's been through it all. And now he just sits back and he's still tinkering with his methods. And he's still, like, playing the game and learning. But what he's doing the most is, like, teaching coaches, like, hey, you're 27. You don't know shit.

But keep going. And here's the thing to look for when you get to the fork in the road. Yeah, and it's also mapping it yourself. That's, again, great intel, but you get to map it. And most of us aren't having the courage to map it out. I know that's where I've been getting stuck. I'm like, oh, God, I'm going to throw this big party. What will people want to eat?

What music should I play? What would I want to play what happens because you're going to recruit those people they're going to come into that place whatever you're creating and i think that's where we get backwards we're so worried about the post effect we're trying to control the outcome versus just being in the moment and saying let's just build it and and see because by the way if it's great party on okay if it didn't work we got great information yeah and you know what what we just did is we created pride my greatest motivator i did that i tried it was worth it and guess who i did it with and now

you've got camaraderie i've got a companion i've got a teammate and i've got someone that did it with me you know there's all the textures of life all the love all the good all those all those beautiful connectors that bring us closer and closer. Like, my goal is to make the world feel like a small English village. You know what I mean? That's a really specific goal. I'm into it. I'm a Beauty and the Beast fan, so I just see Belle walking with baskets.

Beautiful. But there's something there. And so that's why, for me, Weterstrang is that community. You know, I'm the fitness director for Shape Magazine, so I know I get to do stuff in the column. I'm leading a lot of retreats. I'm doing a lot of stuff there. But I'm really trying to be disruptive, but not just to be a pain in the ass. Wait, yeah.

Is the Weterstrang thing just a concept right now, or is that like an actual thing? Oh, it's like my website is weterstrang.com. I've got it on my apparel. It's kind of just the beginning. It's one of those things like people will find just, it's kind of just the beginning. Yeah. It's like, it's, it's one of those things like people will find it if it's meant for them. When you started working out, did you know,

or did you ever think, man, one day I'm going to be able to do this and help millions of people? Or at least. Absolutely not. I was so shy. I was, no,

no, no, no, no. Yeah. Absolutely not. I think it's cool. Yeah.

I'm on this microphone. I feel the same way. It's, it's neat, right? I never thought I would ever talk to this many people about something I care about. Oh, my God. You know, I would shake.

I went to speech class for six years. You've got a great voice, though. You've got a great radio voice, doesn't she? Thank you. It's kind of got this, like, nice little, like, throaty. Most people say, I get, like, 10% that say I'm throaty. I like it, which is lovely. And then people are like, ooh, are you sick?

If you hang out in a gym long enough, you have a great voice. Yeah, I know. You should hear my mom. If you're yelling through DMX, he's been smoking a pack of Black and Mild since he was seven. You can yell over that guy, you win. I wish there were more like, he's out. Wait, Tony, you bring that up? They don't hear me at all.

Oh, my God. Literally. So I'm starting. Ow, ow. No, literally, the coaching voice is real. I've dropped actives in my womanhood. There's not a single day where my wife's not like, we're in public. Shut the fuck up.

Like, am I yelling? Shut up. I think we lose hearing, too. Well, actually, it's funny. Have you guys heard of Neo You yet? It's basically Netflix for working out. What? No, yeah.

So it's N-E-O dash U. Neo You. And I literally just joined the platform. So it's like in Netflix, you're like comedies, romance, action. This is like body weight, kettlebell, blah, blah, blah. All that stuff. And right now it's streaming free. Yoga, rom-com. But I spent all yesterday and you teach real classes right here

in New York. And people come and you do it all, but they're filming it and it goes and it's up and it's in a streaming platform. So now like that Peloton thing, but it's for like any kind of workout, you know, anything. Yeah.

Like my breathing coach is going to be on there. Steve Uriah at switch. He's going to do it. I'm doing it. It's just, it's like, again, let's bring everybody in here.

Be available, be accessible because health is for everybody. And you can just watch on your TV, put on your phone. That's another big thing I'm excited about. And I haven't coached forever. Like I'll do classes, but I was, like, so scared shitless. I'm like, no one's going to come.

I'm going to forget what I'm doing. Oh, my God. And I was like, you're bananas. And it was so fun, and it was such a party. But I also have DMX voice. So give and take. Give and take. WiderStrong.com.

WiderStrong.com. Do you care if people follow you on the socials? Do you want to throw that out there? Oh, let's do it. It's just my name across all of them. Jen Widerstrom. J-E-N-W-I-D. I got a last name like that, too.

And then just, when you get to W-I-D, you'll see it. People are there. That's boom. Okay. I wish more, like, world leaders and, like, people with a lot of power were as concerned with uniting people and bringing people together and less judgment and more making people better and happier as you are. You know what I mean?

We got four right here. That's it. We're starting. That's it. That's weird. Someone's got to start. This is what we need. We need more of this.

We need more Jen. Just let the jury show that she's pointing at me. Let the record show. Not these two so much. They're busy in the glute lab, but we need Jen out here to do some good work for people. We're tied up. I got things to do on Tuesday and Thursday night at 6.

This won't be the last time we do this. I'm excited to talk more. You're in Denver now, right? You know what's cool about Denver? I need to get there. We gotta go. I'd love to have you. There's so many cool people in Denver. Shaw's there. Emily Schramm's there. That's right. That's right.

Emily Schramm just opened her new gym. Have you trained there? Of course I did. Homies, like, she's lit. She's, like, yoked out. Is there any girl just getting it like Emily Schramm these days? I do. I mean, I was like... She is savage. She's like, if you need to put weight on, I totally understand. I'm like, we're good.

And she told you, like, I left my hamstring back there in I totally understand. I'm like, we're good. I left my hamstring back there in the last set. No, she was great. So gracious. Brought me in. I mean, it's wonderful. And then she can row, too, because she's tall. Yeah, I'll never, ever, ever do something like that with her.

I don't need to be kicked in the face about it. I don't need to compete. I also don't need to get punished. Yeah. FDO. Yeah. Use it. I'm totally need to compete. I also don't need to get punished. Yeah. FDO. Yeah. Use it. I'm totally using it. Where can people find you, lady? You can find me on Instagram at TheMuscleMaven and now I want to play DM roulette.

TheMuscleMaven is so good, by the way. Go for it. Let people in. No dick pics, but definitely DM roulette happening tonight. You're going to come on Barbell Strike and say no dick pics. You just got all of them. Okay. Well, now you're going to start sending them. Don't do it, Barbara. I'll try to say no dig picks. You just got all of them. Damn it. Okay. Well, now you're going to start sending them. I know.

Don't do it, guys. Send or beware. That's all I can say. Please, guys, don't send them. Doug Larson. Fun fact, by the way. I didn't know about the Netflix for fitness thing, but I pitched Netflix for fitness to investors in 2011. We called it Fitter.TV.

Oh, my God. Which is the umbrella company now that owns this company. Oh, my God. We transitioned from that to this company and did this instead. Dude, your brain was on track. The world probably just technology wasn't ready yet, huh? Do you want me to really destroy this? I built a site called WadHub, but it was the same thing,

but built off of a different company, Porn Hub. Yes. I was going to say. We knew where that was going. Where did the hub come from? We could do streaming fitness on this thing. I hadn't heard of that website. What is that?

What is Porn Hub? I don't know. It's funny where you do your research. You know where I found out about Porn Hubub the very first time I ever saw it? Was I looked up the top websites in the world, and it was like number 12 or 8 or whatever it was at the time. That doesn't sound right. It sounds like it should be way higher than that. It is way higher.

Well, this was a long time ago. It was like, I don't know, 10 or 12 years ago. And back then, you had blue links for the most part, like when you did search, right? Yes, yes, yes. Like on WebCrawler and whatever, Google also. But if you had clicked on it before it was purple yes it changed the color of the links so you know that you had clicked on it before i clicked on all the most popular websites on bledsoe's computer at the gym like in 2008 maybe and that and it was purple and i was like

porn and purple check this out i was like i never heard it before that was the first time so publicly thank you Mike Bledsoe Mike Bledsoe introduced you to Pornhub that's amazing thank you for having us at this event Doug Larson Fitness at Doug Larson at Douglas E. Larson Wednesday, Saturdays

6 days a week at Shrug Collective I'm Anders Varner thank you so much for having us at this event these people are kicking ass, this gym is gorgeous Wednesday, Saturdays, Barbell Shrug, six days a week at Shrug Collective. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. Thank you so much for having us to this event. These people are kicking ass. This gym's gorgeous. I can't wait to hang out this weekend. Thank you.

Shrug family, I know you feel better now about your life. Jen Widerstrom always warms your soul. I actually really, really enjoyed hanging out with her all weekend. Can't wait to hang out down in Miami. Get over and see us all at the FitAid booth. The whole crew is going to be down there. We're going to be partying with the FitAid people, staying at the FitAid house. I'm going to be drinking FitAid, FocusAid, LifeAid, PartyAid.

Probably no golf or aid, but that's because I'm not playing golf. Come and hang out with us. We're slinging high fives, bro hugs, and selfies all weekend. Want to thank our sponsors at caterpit.com. Use coupon code shrug25 to save $25 on your first meal. And

biooptimizers.com forward slash shrug. Get over, save 37%. Use coupon code shrug. We will see you guys on Wednesday.