Blaze Your Own Trail - Building Strength Farm with Sam Johnson

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

About Sam:  Sam believes everyone is an athlete and that strength & conditioning is for everyone. Native to Portland, Oregon Sam is passionate about leading all people to live a sustainable, strong, healthy lifestyle.  His 10+ years of coaching experience as well as personally competing in the CrossFit Games, USAW Weightlifting Nationals, and numerous sports give him a unique perspective to help Athletes reach their Goals.  His prior experience as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force also gives him a unique perspective to help prospective military members train to be mentally and physically prepared for service.  While he's not coaching, he enjoys studying ways to improve his methods to ensure all people he works with receive the best strength and conditioning program possible.   No matter who you are or what you do, Sam believes Strength is for you. In this episode we discuss: Sam's upbringing What sports he played Any early injury High School Sports Deciding to serve the Country Personal Training Journey  Launching Strength Farm SFX Athletes App And more! Connect with Sam: https://www.strengthfarmpdx.com/ Download the SFX Athletes App: Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sfx-athletes/id1540857080 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sfx_athletes_prod.android Connect with Jordan: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/therealjordanjmendoza/⁠ Clapper: ⁠https://clapper.vip/jordanjmendoza⁠ Join my Facebook Group: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/linkedintrailblazers⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you ready to find out how to blaze your own trail? Welcome to the Blaze Her Own Trail podcast with your host, Jordan Mendoza. In this podcast, Jordan interviews people from around the world to find out about their journey to success. If you are looking for valuable content with actionable advice, you've come to the right place. And now your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host Jordan Mendoza, and I've got a very special guest today. His name is Sam Johnson, and I'm going to give him just a second to tell you a little bit about who he is and what he does today.

I have a fitness app that's coming out in January called SFX Athletes. It's geared towards sports performance and personalized training. Awesome, man. Thank you for sharing that. And, you know, one of the favorite things about my show is I get to rewind and give the audience context into my guest's journey. So, so where did it all begin, man? Let's talk, you know, from elementary up through high school years. You know, I know you're from Portland.

You grew up here. So give the audience some context of, like, the area you grew up in. And then also, you know, what kind of kids you were, where you focus on academics, were you more into athletics, like your brand is saying today. I'd love to give them some context. Yeah, I'd say I've been a life for years old, for baseball to football. Yeah, I'm from Portland.

I grew up mostly, you know, with a mom that lived in Southwest near Wilson High School and Alpenrose area, like Gabriel Park area. And then my dad was more northeast, 15th and Deacon, over by Woodlawn Park, near Jefferson High School.

So I would say personally I had best of both sides of Portland. I was in the suburbs and I was kind of in the hood. My dad was from Compton or like South L.A. So he was very adamant about like, you know, like Portland's not really that good like compared to how he grew up. So it wasn't like it was that crazy. But there's certain things like around our neighborhood like don't wear red, don't wear blue.

Try to stick to like black, gray, and white. Listen, you know, it's crazy because, you know, the, you know where Deacon Cordis? You know the apartments right there? Yeah, yeah. That's why I lived in seventh grade. Right across from Fabian Elementary School, near Concordia right there, right, right where Deacon Park is. So I know that area, man. And, you know, those are some hard times for us.

We had, you know, food stamps and, you know, but yeah, yeah, it was that same thing. It was like, make sure you're not. wearing any solid colors of either of the other because you had the Kirby block crips you know you had you had some uh things that could happen to you man just just from walking down the street yeah so you know from early age i was taught about my dad was uh he was in the army and he was a police officer for the Oregon state police and he wanted to be a police officer because he i mean as a as a black male he was like trying to make a difference and be yeah be somebody that was a good example in the community. He was very passionate about people and service to people first over

himself. And he was in Iraq when I was in high school. So I had to email him just to talk to him. He was there for about a year. Yeah, growing up, I mean, I spent most of my time playing sports. I was deaf playing to school. I knew the importance of school. Went to Bridal Mile Elementary in the west side, and then West Sylvan and Lincoln. So even though my parents were, you know, I'm biracial, my parents wanted me to go to a school of education. And then ironically, when I play sports, I would play more on the east side.

It was a little bit more competitive, I guess. We played basketball at Boys and Girls Club on MLK all the time. And we went to summer camps there from like, I remember being like 10, 11, 12 about those camps and then, you know, the SEI camps. Went to like a church camp one summer. So yeah, we were very involved in the community on the northeast side of Portland. But I would say growing up, basketball was my thing. I had a injury playing football, though, when I was 12, tore my ACL and broke my femur.

So that was a pretty substantial injury for a 12-year-old. and I had that surgery on my ACL. So I learned about the rehab process at a really early age. I think that's what helped me into training. Awesome, man. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, you played basketball and you played football, you played both. So what positions do you play when you were playing basketball

and then what did you play on the football end of the spectrum? So basketball, I was, I mean, I was a big Allen-Iverson fan as a kid. I liked Jordan. Jordan was a little bit before, like barely a little bit before my time. Like I grew up watching him, but I would say when I was at the peak of like my, you know, 10 to 11, 12 year old teams, it was Alan Iverson was the guy. I had like cornrows and everything. So I was like a shooting guard slash point guard slash small forward, you know, so I played it all.

But I would say definitely a combo guard. It was always trying to dunk, you know, in six and seven. grade and I got my first dunk when I was like a seventh grader. I was like eight grade I was every every fast break I was trying to dunk in the games. I probably missed like 10 or 10 or 15 of them. My coach was probably really frustrated like dude just lay it up. But that was the thing back then. It was like you know even dunk just try to dunk in the game. So yeah that was basketball football, I was a receiver, running back, safety, outside linebacker type of player. I was real aggressive. I mean, I definitely loved playing football. Once I played football, basketball was kind of

an afterthought. I felt like football was like the most fun. Like just just tackling somebody was like the best feeling that I'd ever had. Like I remember feeling that way in seventh grade. And it's weird to say like a kid broke his ribs because I tackled him so hard. And like, you kind of to take pride in that a little bit, like statistically, but it's just part of the game, you know, and you hit somebody really hard. You feel like you made a good contact. My face mask was all bent up and stuff from going right into his rib cage. So I felt like that was a really fun thing to do. It was hit. And then catch the ball. I mean, watching Randy Moss play football. I was definitely a Randy Moss fan growing up. I wore his number even. Like I said, I was into individual athletes

and I would try to emulate them and kind of looked up to them. But on a personal level, I definitely looked up to my dad, you know, given that he was a soldier and a police officer, I felt like he was doing things that. It was cool seeing people play sports on TV, but he was doing things in the community that felt like we're, not on TV, obviously, but he was making a big impact. So I had kind of best to both worlds with that.

But, yeah, I would say, you know, when I was playing, football that turned into like one of my passions. All right. Awesome. And so so what happened after after high school? Did you decide to go to college? Did you play in college or did you decide to do your own things start working? Where did you go after high school? Yeah. So with football, I, you know, I had a substantial injury with the ACL femur. So I had to I had to rehab that. I was out for a year and a half. So by the time high school came around, I was playing basketball again. My dad was sent to Iraq. And when he was sent to Iraq, I was kind of like, I have three younger siblings, two brothers and a sister.

And I was kind of left to be like, you know, the man of the house or whatever you want to call it. But I feel like as a kid, like 14 years old, it's kind of a lot to have to deal with your dad being in Iraq. You know, during the height of the after 9-11 and wars over there. So sports were kind of tough for me. I would say I was stressed out about my dad, you know. It was hard to sleep. Like, we were all just kind of stressed out at home. It was kind of tough.

But I started losing weight, like uncontrolled. I lost, like, 30 pounds, and I was not doing very well. I was hospitalized. And they tested me for Crohn's disease and all these other things. But it turned out I had IVS and I was stressed out about him being over there, which is understandable now that I look back on it. But as a kid, it was like I didn't know how to deal with it. I internalized a lot of my feelings.

I didn't really talk to anybody about it. try to play sports, but I just was getting sicker and sicker. So playing basketball lost like 30 pounds, was down to like not even 130. And I was like 6-1. You know, I'm still 6-1. To give context, I was probably about 150, 160 as a healthy freshman. But down to 130, you know, in the 120s, they were worried about me.

So they put me on prednisone, this like oral steroid to help get my health back. and put some weight back on. One of the side effects, your face kind of like swells up. So my face swelled up. So I was out of school for like months. I got back into school. People didn't even recognize me. So that was kind of crazy.

I finally got back to full health by like sophomore year. So I started playing football again, sophomore year at Lincoln. And it just, my body felt weird. My joints felt weird. I felt slow. Overall, it's not not feeling very healthy. feeling very healthy. And I remember playing a couple games, just feeling kind of like out of it.

Got into track season after football. And when they, when they repaired my ACL, they took part of my handstring from my right leg to repair my right ACL. And that's an important note because when I was going back into track, I was a sprinter. So I was like, when I was in middle school, I ran a 10-800. They clocked me at like one of the fastest times they'd ever seen on a 100-meter dash, which like 10-8, like, you know, whatever for a grown adult, but for like a 12, 13-year-old, it was pretty fast at the time. Like I won every track meet that I was competing in.

But by the time I got back into track and I had that missing part of my hamstring, my hip flexor started to take over for my hamstring. My hip flexor started really tighten up, And I felt really tight during track practice, but I kept competing. I didn't really say much to the coaches. I wanted to, like, you know, do well and make the team or whatever. But during a practice one time, I remember we were doing 100 meter repeats in the rain. And I mean, it rains a lot in Portland, but it was cold.

It was rainy. Not good conditions for a sprinter. And I felt like this, like, pop while I was sprinting. It was in my hip. And apparently my hip flex were pulled. So I was pretty much out for that year. in the most of my junior year. So I was rehabbing another injury.

Yeah, and I didn't even know anything about training besides what the physical therapist would tell me. And the physical, like physical therapists back then, they would give you a sheet of paper, show you a few things, maybe three to five exercises, pretty much do it on your own. And I didn't really have a trainer. My family didn't have money for training.

Like there's four of us kids. Like they were just trying to feed us and get us to school. make sure we had school supplies. You have kids, you know. Yep. It's a grind. So, yeah, junior year was tough. Finally, you know, felt good by my senior year.

But my dad got back from Iraq, like beginning, middle of my junior year. My younger brother, Ethan, was at high school with me. And by the time I was a senior, he was a sophomore. And he was a defensive man. 6-4, like 240 at the time, something like that. And my other brother, Paul, he was at Benson High School. And he was a sprinter.

But senior year, played football, felt healthy, felt good, you know, scoring some touchdowns, catching some passes. My receiver coach, he wanted me to go play in college. I had some looks from like Oregon State from a couple city colleges around. but mostly the Oregon State, they wanted me to go to a city college and play another year, only because I didn't play my junior year. I didn't really play my sophomore year. I was on JV.

And junior year, I was out. So then senior year comes and it's like, who's this guy? You know? Yeah, yeah. Maybe he has some talent. My coach was talking me up. But my dad was in my ear about the military from when I was super young. And when I was super young, I was, I mean, we went in open.

Oklahoma for like nine months when I was four years old and we were on a base. And I remember that, you know, just waking up to hearing explosions from the training he was in. So it was like I was living this military life at home with a very discipline oriented. He was a nice dude, but drill sergeant type of that, who was very hard on doing your homework, studying, making sure that people don't see you as an athlete only. He's very adamant about that. He was like, you know, coming up, people, people, people, people, expect you to be an athlete already. You show up in a room, they look at you a certain way. If you speak a certain way, they might actually take note of you. If you speak intelligently, they might actually be like, oh, you know, and take you seriously.

So take studies seriously, read books, all those type of things. He was very in tune with, you know, having balance across the board. He wanted me to go into the military because he felt like it was a good way to not only pay for school, but develop those sauce, they're not even

soft skills, but like just life skills that aren't really taught in the college environment, especially for an athlete that's, you know, on a scholarship or whatever. You're kind of, you know, things are regimented, but it's really hard to go from that into like the workplace where not everybody is treating me like a special athlete. You know, but um, so I, at 17 years old, I enlisted, in the Air Force. And I was to go in full-time as an active duty airman. So I did about 18th, went off to San Antonio, Texas right after high school.

So I didn't play any sports right at high school. Definitely was very into sports and very into going to play. I personally wanted to go play in college. But I felt like the right thing was, you know, obeying my dad. I did that at 18. And he was actually dealing with a health issue that he contracted while he was in Iraq. So from the time he got back from Iraq to when I was 23 years old, about nine years ago, he was kind of like on a steady decline in his health. And apparently it was because he was exposed to chemicals over in Iraq.

Hexavalin chromium contributed to his. health condition, but he lost his vision, he lost his ability to walk. His health kind of deteriorated over time. My brother, Ethan, who mentioned played football with me when I was a senior, he was a sophomore, we made state championship my senior year, so we played against Jesuit high school in the state championship. Ethan was a big reason why. I mean, obviously our offense, you know, was doing well, but we had the number one

defense in the state. He was a five-star recruit, national recruit. After a game in his junior season, I think I was home on leave or something like that. Or no, I hadn't left for the Air Force yet. So I was still around waiting for my ship date. My shift day was in December. So his fall season of his junior year, I went to every game, watched every game that he played. There was one game against, like, Tollalton high school where he had like 20-something tackles and like four sacks or five sacks.

You know, it was crazy. So we sent the game film to USC, Notre Dame, Auburn, and Michigan. And within like a week, they all offered him a full-ride scholarship. So by the time he was a senior in high school, he was a pretty beastly dude. And he was the number one player in the stage, junior year and senior year at high school, went on to Notre Dame. And by the time he got to Notre Dame, he was a freshman, I was at Mississippi. I was stationed in Mississippi.

So I would drive up there, watch his games, hang out, you know. So I spent a lot of time at Notre Dame University from like 08 to 2011, 2012. He was there on a full ride. And then my youngest brother, Paul, he ended up going to Oregon State and studying political science. And then he would eventually go into the Marine Corps and do that full time. So two of us went into the military. One went and played college football, and then he eventually played NFL for the Chiefs. But yeah, I would say, you know, growing up, it was just very much about discipline.

And, you know, if you're going to be an athlete, be an intelligent athlete. Awesome, man. So let's talk a little bit about the Air Force. And so you go to San Antonio. So is that where your training was there? And so how long were you in San Antonio? And had you been to Texas before, this is your first time to the Longhorn State? You know, I've been to San Antonio a few times.

and the cool, cool little city. So I'd love to hear about your experience there, training, and then where that led you to next? Yeah, so, yeah, when I was 18, man, it was full time, full go into the military. First place they sent me was San Antonio. I think my family had driven through Texas, like when we lived in Oklahoma. But I was four years old. I'm like, first time really in Texas, San Antonio, anything like that.

But as soon as you arrive, they just start treating. you like a trainee. So it's a lot of yelling. The drill sergeants are organized and everybody. They have about 60, 50, 60 dudes in a, they call it a flight in a squadron for basic training. So I was a part of a flight of 60 guys. And they had us just stand there, you know, where it's fresh off the plane while they yelled at us. And it was just a lot of yelling and organizing and teaching us how to be in the military, shaved our heads. I still have the shaved head. But yeah, taught us how to shave and shave every day.

Learn how to wear the uniform. It was from 4 a.m. to 7, 8, 9 p.m. every day, Monday through Saturday. And then Sunday's half day, you get, you know, if you elect to go to church, you get a little break, go to church for two hours. And, yeah, I'd say, you know, basic training in San Antonio, I just had never seen so many grown men falling out, falling out of their minds, like crying, like babies. Was that from, was that from emotional, physical, all of it?

All of them. You know, I mean, I was 18. There was a mix of guys for 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. There's guys with wives. There's guys with kids. There's kids who are leaving home for the first time. I was one of those. It's just a lot.

I mean, it's a lot you're going through. I think, you know, you can't leave. Like, so you sign up, you sign the paperwork to go into the military. You're signing your life for whatever that contract says, whether it's four, five, or six, seven, eight years. I think the reality of that, it's hard. And it especially hits really hard in basic training because you can't do anything. You're pretty much on lockdown 24-7 following their rules, following their schedule. You stand when they tell you to stand.

You sit when they tell you to sit. You eat when they tell you to eat. You stop eating when they tell you to stop eating. You shoot when they tell you to shoot. You crawl when you need to crawl. It's basically just learning how to follow direction. And I think there's a lot of transformation that occurs in that process. I would say I was definitely more prepared than most because of my upbringing with my dad,

whether that was, you know, his intention or not, he was definitely preparing me for that lifestyle from when I was a kid, you know, making your bed first thing in the morning, brushing your teeth, paying attention to, you know, the weeds in the yard, the pieces of yarn on the rug. Yep. You know, all those type of things, like paying attention. That all, that all adds up, my friend. That all definitely adds up. And, you know, I, you know, the military, I don't think it matters what branch.

They need to make sure that you're mentally strong, right? Because you're going to go into situations that most people don't go into. Right. And so if they don't make sure they break you and build you back up and break you and build you back up, then you might not be resilient. And I know that, you're serving the country and they want to make sure that they're putting the best soldiers, right, out there to do the job. So I would say a thousand percent, you know, the way that your dad raised you helped you with the mindset game, right? Because the inner game controls the outer game.

If you don't think you can do it, if you feel like, woe is me. And man, I made the mistake. If you're doing that to yourself, you're not going to win, you know, until you get over it, you know. So you built up that mindset from an early age, you know, and also, you know, and also, you being involved in sport. You know, all of those things helped you along that journey. For sure.

It was, it was tough. But it was a, it was a process of transformation. Like you said, like they break you down. They build you back up into what they need you to be and what you need to be to be to be able to survive and be able to thrive in that environment. But, you know, in that training environment, it is still, it is still training. There's a little bit of lenience in terms of like, you're going to fuck up. You're going to make mistakes. Like, they understand that.

So it's a grooming process. I think I learned that the further along I got in the military, like when I started training people myself later on. But initially, yeah, it was a shock. I mean, it was definitely a shock for me to see guys every, like every age, every race, like am I where they're from, what part of the country? That was the first time I've been around guys from like the South, the Midwest, you know, the East Coast on a normal day-to-day basis.

And I think, you know, we're all the same. It's just all the same kind of stuff. Just different upbringing, different backgrounds, different ways of looking at things. But I think people who've been in the military, they have this understanding that, like, you have a common goal mission. I think, you know, sports definitely take part in that concept, too. But, like, when it comes to survival, like, you don't really care where somebody's from or what race they are. Like, you're going to try to accomplish the mission and get through what you need to get through. I think that was the best part about the military

is it brings a bunch of people from different backgrounds, different everything, and molds them into a cohesive unit. By the end of basic training in San Antonio, I mean, it was like, you would have thought we knew each other our whole lives. We were all just, like, very on it. Like, one person says go, we all go.

We all do the same thing. It was like we moved in the same way. So I think for the parents and the people that came to visit at the end of that ceremony, from basic training. It was about nine weeks after the initial day. Um, your family can come see you.

You know, a lot of times they think, they're like, damn, different person. Or just more mature, you know, so like mature in a way that's very much like, you know, organized manner. It's designed that way. So from there, from San Antonio, I went to Missouri. So I was in Missouri, um, Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for seven eight months after basic training. So I'd never been to Missouri.

I was like, I don't know even where Missouri is. So I looked at the map. It's like, okay, cool. Get to Missouri. There's tornadoes. There's like snow everywhere. It's colder than I've ever experienced in Portland, Oregon. And that was pretty tough.

I mean, that was tough to acclimated to. San Antonio was kind of warm. It was cool. Pervert weather. Yeah. And I was there in the winter and it was like it was warm. So it was like 70 degrees every day in the winter. But then get to Missouri in the winter in the spring and it was like totally different.

So yeah, just just learning different environments. But my my actual job in the Air Force was combat engineering. So when I was in Missouri I was learning that job. And the specifics of that job were. to build and maintain any military installation around the world. So there's a lot to that, really, but just anything from building the base to repairing the base. Like if the base gets attacked by an enemy, how do you repair the airfield? Because that's a priority.

If our plans can't take off, you know, shit's going bad. So you have to get things back up and running. So learning that whole process, learning about going out into the middle of the military. nowhere, building a base from nothing. So yeah, and then the combat side of it, you know, self-defense, offense, all those type of thing with your job in the military, which is to protect and serve the United States, but also to go around the world, do your job. Awesome, man. So let me ask you this. I don't know if anyone's ever asked you this before, but did you play with a lot of Legos as a kid? Where are you into Lego? Right? Because, like, I think

about that job and I'm like, you know, it's a human version of Legos and you're having to figure things out and put this stuff together. Is that something you did as a kid? Yeah, I would say my parents would probably know best, but I think the Legos were definitely around. And all I remember about Legos, man, is my dad would put his boots on in the morning at like 4 or 5 a.m. And he would stand up and be like, oh shit. There was a Lego in his boots. So yeah, we were definitely playing with Legos as kids. But like I said, you know, I have two brothers, and we're all the same age. Like, you've been as a year and a half younger than me.

Paul is three years younger than me. So yeah, we did everything together. And then I have a sister, Candace, she's five years younger than me. You know, for her, it's like, she's just like shaking her head at us. We were fighting with stuff, building stuff. We dug a hole in our, in our yard. one time. It was kind of in the driveway, but it was like a three or four foot deep hole. Like, think about like three guys that are like...

I'm assuming your dad was out of the country when you guys were doing this. So like growing up, our dad would be like at work. Like he would work as like a police officer during the day. And by the time I was like 10 and 11, he was in the National Guard for the Army. Actually before it, it was like by the time I was like five or six, he was National Guard. and then he was full-time state police. So he would be at work from like 6 a.m. to like 6 p.m. So he would come home at 6, 7 p.m., you know, dead tired, I can imagine, from the day of like dealing with criminals and dealing with, you know,

he was highway patrol for a while, like arresting people and like just, I can't imagine how hard that was for him. Yeah. To come home and like, you're driving, you drop you a drive way. And you almost. like literally driving to a hole. So he gets out and he's just like, what are you guys doing?

Like we had a treasure map and all this stuff. Like we were crazy. Well, it sounds like, you know, that added value to your military job, right? Like,

you know, you're like, oh, I did this as a kid. I remember digging holes in my drive play, you know, I can make, I can make something out of nothing already.

Right? And, but it's, you know, you know? All right. So what happened after, you know, how long did you serve in the military? You know, and, you know, for the audience, I'm sure they're going to want to say this to you.

But, you know, thank you for your service. You know, it's awesome when people, you know, have the self-awareness that they want to do that. Because I can tell you, I knew I didn't want to go in the military. You know, I knew I didn't want to, you know. But I think we've all got to be self-aware of what our gifts are and what our strengths are and how we can add value to the world. So, yeah, thanks for your service there. So how long did you end up staying in and, you know, what were kind of your next steps after? Yeah, I feel like initially, for me, it was about...

Verona. You know? I wanted him to be proud of me. So I wanted to do something that I felt as far as the service goes. I mean, I definitely learned about... I really learned what it meant, what it meant to be. So after Missouri, I was in Mississippi. From there, I was in, like, Florida and Washington State.

And then Dakota, South Dakota, North Dakota, both. I can't remember Baltimore, Turkey. Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Korea, South Korea, Japan. Yeah, I just, you know, I definitely had a wealth of experiences. But I really got into training and lifting while I was stationed in Afghanistan. I was there for almost seven months,

first time going. They told me on a Wednesday that I was going there on a Friday. Wow. Which is not like that crazy, you know, when you're living in the military. But typically, you know when you're going to go. Like, you know a few months out. Yeah. So I guess somebody like got sick or something and I had to replace them.

So they were like, hey, you're leaving. Hopefully you have your bags back. I was 20 years old. So that was very hard, you know, for my family especially to see me go and not know. I was going to make it back because that becomes a reality once you. Yeah. I think for me it was like a coping mechanism to not really think about that bad side of it. But just to stay positive.

Once I got there, I was like, damn, this is real. You know, like that first briefing they give you. Well, actually, from the plane ride in, everything goes dark. And they're like, you know, race for impact or whatever they say. But sometimes planes get shot down just coming in. Yeah. They'll be out there with the rocket launchers and trying to shoot it down. But yeah, so I was there and started training with some guys that older than me, more experienced

than me, they've seen some shit. They were going out at night to hunt people. And I was during the day, I was building things around the base. I was doing a lot of work that involved getting dirty and just being out in the shit. And a lot of times, you know, you see people with AK-47s, you don't know if they're going to shoot you, you see kids that don't have arms because there's mines everywhere. I had to demine some areas.

That was pretty freaky. It's like you never know what's under the ground. Yeah. Big under the ground. You don't know what's going to happen. So it was a constant state of alert and stress. I think that training side of it at night, I would get back to like the barracks area.

And I would train with some guys. And they, you know, essentially taught me how to lift, like a power lifter. And taught me how to deadlift, squat, bench, did pull-ups. They were like some army like green beret guys and some Air Force combat control guys. So they were real well-versed in the training field. But also just do it to take out a lot of aggression. you know and a lot of the stress is uh you know it's high over there yeah where people that were getting blown up in their sleep they'd just be sleeping and someone would come down in through the

roof and blow them up you know so it was like hard to sleep at night you're hearing things and you're constantly under attack and things like that but um really learned that training can be a good outlet so it became a real real good outlet for me i started competing in weightlifting and CrossFit came back to the states, started doing Honor Guard. I was I was like a staff sergeant by this time. I did Honor Guard for a year where going around doing funeral services. So that was a pretty rough time. I would say that was probably, I mean, Afghanistan, obviously I was over there like fulfilling a mission, but the Honor Guard side of the military is very like emotionally taxing because you see a lot of the family members.

numbers. Yeah. It has on them. Yeah. And then I was the guy that was holding the flag and giving it to like, right. Yeah. So that was real heavy. I remember one mom, she wouldn't let go on my hand. I had to kind of like pull it away, but started to like tear up because she was. Of course. Yeah. That was tough. But yeah. So, so that was a tough time. But by the time I was 23, I was on my way to go be stationed in Japan as a combat training instructor. And my dad passed away from that situation that he incurred over in Iraq. Oh, man, sorry to hear that. Yeah, so it was kind of tough, but it was also like just a moment of reckoning for me.

Like, I just really realized what was important in life and life's not guaranteed. So one of the things that he preached to us growing up was make sure you have a career that has guaranteed benefits. obviously there's some credibility there with that concept but the negative side of what he did was you know it took his life eventually yeah but you know at the same time that's kind of what he signed up for so he kind of knew that that was possible but for me it was like man do i really want to do this military thing for 20 something years you know and how that be my life and not really have any stability as far as like have a home base um besides where they tell me to go, where my family, and if I want to have kids, where they're going,

because it impacts them too. Yeah, so all those things were going through my head. I was working out that day that he passed away. I found out my mom called me, so I had to go work out. I had to get some stuff off my chest and out, some aggression out and some like frustration, you know, with that. But it was a good thing for me, and I realized, you know, training might be my thing. it's the thing that I can turn to. It's the thing that I know. I started studying a lot more, especially in Japan.

I was training as part of a CrossFit team for the CrossFit games with a bunch of other military members. And the guy that owned the gym there in Okinawa, Japan, his name is Jamie Light. He's a former Air Force combat controller. And real tough-minded dude. But he was like, he was a good mental. for me because he was like, man, training is fun.

Like, it's nothing compared to the military. Like, he spent about 20 years in, and then he stayed in Japan, married somebody out there, and he was like, this is the great life on in the gym. So it became something that I looked at us. Like, that might be something that I want to do. And the first, I was all about the CrossFit games. I wanted to go to the CrossFit games. I told him that when I met him.

I thought I was crazy. I was just like blowing smoke, you know. But I think over time, over the next year so that I was training there, you saw, I was, you know, I was pretty determined alongside the other people that I was training with. There was a guy who's a par rescue guy. There was a couple women that were like, one was a Marine. She was pretty intense and strong. It was a Japanese fitness instructor that worked at the gym there.

and he was a beast. So we eventually made it to the cross of the games in July 13th, or July 2013, in L.A. And that was after winning the Asia region in South Korea. So that was a good time competing because, I mean, for the military, we were like the only military team doing anything like that. That's awesome. Yeah, we were in like the military newspaper and stuff like that. got out of the military the month after that August 2013 with the goal in mind of having my own gym. That's awesome, man. So what was that experience like? You know, I'm coming home, you know,

coming back to Portland, seeing the brothers, right, the family, your sister, your mom. I'm sure it had to feel good, right, coming back home. And then I love to find out when, so when did you take action? Like when did you, you know, start to put the wheel in motion to start that gym after you got back? Yeah, I would say, you know, right away that day, the Olympics, like, I started getting a lot of certifications. And at the time, the military was able to pay for some of them. And, yeah, initially when I got back home, was able to finish most of my college degree while I was in the Air Force. fortunately they have a system set up for the community college of the air force so like i had like my associates already and was doing you know pretty well in school so i went to

Portland state university i didn't know if i wanted to have the gym right away or if i wanted to coach a college football team so i took an internship as an assistant strength coach at the Portland State football program. And the strength coach, he was interviewing me. He asked me a couple of interview questions or whatever. But I remember one, he was like, you know, where do you see yourself in five years? So this was in, you know, like September 2013. So as soon as I got home, I was like, I was motivated.

I was like on it. And I maybe took about two or three weeks to just chill. And then I was interviewing with him. So when he asked me that, I was. I was like, you know, honestly, I want to be in my own facility where I have everyday people that work in the working professional adults as well as kids training in the same spot as professional athletes. Everybody trains in the same space, but everybody has their own personal program or their own personalized training because strength is something that we all need. And it's not just physical strength, it's mental strength. It's emotional.

It's a lot of those things that I learned, you know, as a kid, as a military member, putting all those things into action and a tangible product that can be placed in the community for others to benefit from. So I talked to him about that. He thought that was a dope concept, but that, you know, I might like trying out being an assistant coach. So I did that for about three to four months. Honestly, didn't like it. I felt like it's limiting in my it was limiting for me like I felt like I was only working with 18 to 22 year old males very very like a lot of them they looked at me as some dude that they didn't give a fuck about they were like who's this guy why should we listen to him oh he can

power clean more than us fuck him you know they almost resented me because I was doing things that they hadn't really seen a coach do. You know, because, I mean, unfortunately, a lot of coaches, they don't really train that much. They're very busy working with the athletes. And there's a good handful of coaches, and especially now,

I know a lot of the strength coaches in different colleges that are training. But some of the athletes, you know, they didn't like that or whatever. I just felt like, you know, that wasn't the way to do it. So a couple months after that, I just started working on opening my gym.

I was training at a Jimmy Mountain Tualatin for about, it was about 12 months. And I was teaching classes there from like 6 a.m. to like 6 p.m. And then I would take a few of the Portland State classes during the day, train a few personal training clients. Got on social media, started really just like putting out what I do. You know, my training videos, philosophy, nutrition is important. all those things started to kind of happen on a daily basis for me in like 2014. And I found a space that I liked in southeast on 17th in Hague, early summer 2015. I had a few guys from Portland State that were training with me outside of Portland State.

So a couple guys from the team, they liked what I was doing. You know, they weren't mad at me for being strong. they thought that maybe that might be something that they want to do too. And it was like not even from a standpoint of, oh, this guy thinks he's better than us. It was like, nah, I have a different experience than them. I'm not trying to play football like them. But I know what can help them play football at a more effective rate, you know.

Just the same thing is I'm not a volleyball player, but I know what can help a volleyball player be more effective if they increase their vertical jump. They increase their force production and the vertical plane of motion. They're going to be a better volleyball player. Same thing with, you know, any athlete that plays a sport, any military athlete will tell you, I mean, they become stronger, especially relative to their body weight. They become more athletic. And I've seen it personally.

I've seen it with, you know, kids from 12. years old up through adults in their 50s and 60s. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, I was lucky to open up Strength Farm November 2015. That's awesome, man. All right.

So, it had the business now for five years. So I would love for you to share a little bit about, you know, exactly the type of training that you all do. And then as we close up here, really how people can reach out and connect with you. Because I think a lot of people are going to resonate with your journey. you definitely have blazed your own trail, right? You know, from the things that you learned as a kid to, you know, bringing that into sports and into the military and now, you know,

really investing athletes of all different walks of life and different sports and different abilities. So, yeah, tell us a little bit about some of the programs that you offer. Yeah, I mean, from day one, it was group classes at Strength Farm. You know, more recently with the coronavirus, just down to me. more like personal training. So I only focus now on personal training. But the style of training is very specifically focused on four main pillars. You have strength, you have speed, conditioning, and mobility.

So under those four pillars, you know, with strength, you have so many different types of strength physically. And then you have your mental fortitude, obviously, that we talked about. So there's a couple branches there. mental, physical. With the physical, you have your absolute strength, you have your, which is just basically like you take the biggest dude that you know can probably move the most weight possible, right? So you have like a 300 pound defensive alignment, probably hang cleans more than a running back. That's 220 pounds or 200 pounds. But if you take the term relative strength and you make that

where your focus is, you want the defensive linemen to lift at a relative rate, the same relative rate as the running back and vice versa. Meaning if they both squat twice their body weight, they're both extremely strong for their position.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, and then same thing with like, you know, basketball. You take a like a trapart deadlift, you want 250 pound power forward, and a point guard to be relatively the same type of ratio in terms of strength. So it's not just about lifting a lot of weight. It's about lifting weight that's relative to your body weight, to your body type, your sport, your position.

So we get real specific in terms of like what we want. But then there's also like the speed side of it. So biometrics are one way of training speed. Another is sprinting, obviously, bounding, but not just straightforward, linear speed, lateral, agility and quickness, rotational. So if you're a baseball player, you want to be explosive forward and backward, side to side, obviously. We also want to be explosive in the rotational plan because you swing and you pitch.

That's mostly the sport. And then also the anti-rotation. So every athlete has these pillars that we try to focus on. conditioning, sports specific conditioning, or conditioning for whatever your life style is. So whether you want to be a more endurance athlete or a speed, power athlete, or a combination of both, you know, we can cover those bases. And then with mobility, I've done a lot of yoga. And I think yoga really helps open the body up.

You know, most of the time we're sitting like this. You know, I'm doing a lot right now. but I'm not trying to open your body up so that you're able to move through a full range of motion at any given time. There's a coach I know. He's actually a strength coach for Liberty University basketball. His name's Henry Barrera.

I don't know if he coined this phrase or not, but I'm going to give him credit for it. But he said like strength anywhere anytime, Netflix type of strength, anywhere anytime. something like that yeah yeah that's awesome so like you're only going to be as good an athlete as your body can move if your body's tight and you can't you're not flexible you're more prone to injury yeah something's going to go wrong yeah it's like you shouldn't take an hour to get warmed up yeah you need to do more stretching and you're off time makes a lot of sense yeah that's awesome

that sounds like you're very well-rounded and the people that you can help and impact, which is great, which means that you can really work with anybody no matter what type of sports or what goal that they have in mind. Yeah, I would say that's definitely the message I try to convey, especially to parents, which is why we're creating this mobile app, SFX athletes. It basically takes that system that I've created with all the four pillars, broken down into, you know, a few tests. So we have an assessment test that tests somebody's max plank and their bra jump.

Those two movements, in my opinion, they give you a good indication of where somebody's at athletically, but also like their core strength, their mental toughness, and how long they can hold a plank. You know, obviously that's kind of tough. But we test one to five minutes. And then with the broad jump, it's relative to your body height. So if you can broad jump one and a half times your height in. distance horizontally, you're considered a five-star athlete in our system. So it's one to five-star

rating. But, you know, one times your height is three-star. And then you have one point two-five times your height is four-star and goes down to half your height in distance, your one-star athlete. So wherever you are on that scale, you'll receive a training program. That's four weeks. That's four training days a week. And it's a subscription-based. model. I think the biggest thing I've learned in running a gym, operating a gym in the last five years is that I want it to be accessible, the training to be accessible to everybody, but my personal training clients tend to be more along the lines of professional athletes, such as a Ryan Knoll, who not only has the time to dedicate to training, is able to afford it.

you know because not a lot of people can afford personal training and that's just the reality of the market when you have a subscription-based app that's $20 a month most people can afford that it would reach and impact more people right which is awesome yeah perfect man so my personal time is spent with people like Ryan and others that play elite sports I don't know or sports at an elite level. I want the 12 or 13-year-old kid, you know, from the hood in Chicago or from, you know, Florida, or wherever they're at, anywhere to be able to get on that app and get some dumbbells in their hands, get like a medicine ball, and start training in a way that's going to help

them progress over time. They won't just be doing random things that they see on Instagram or on YouTube, you know, because all that's cool. it's cool to motivate people through social media. But for them to have a systematic approach at training, I would say I definitely try to put everything that I've learned in my experiences from the military, from really from when I tore my ACL to the military

to training people of all ages, all backgrounds, all sports. I've tried to put that into this app. That's why I'm so excited about it because I think it really has the power to unleash the potential in a lot of young athletes. Love it, man. I love it, man. I love that mission.

And, you know, I will make sure that we're linking all that in the show notes for the episode. So where else can people reach out to you? I know you're active on social media. So let the audience know the best places to connect with Sam and SFX athletes. Yeah, I mean, obviously on Instagram, it's Sam Johnson, PDX, Twitter as well. And then SFX athletes is definitely. Definitely the, yeah, I mean, my email, Sam at sFXathletes.com, that's a good spot.

But really, I mean, just, you know, just look out for that app when it's ready. It's going to be ready soon and it's going to be a free trial period. So I think it'll be cool to get it in the hands of people. And parents especially, I mean, a lot of parents are looking for a way for their kid to get that, you know, competitive advantage. your kids at home, you know, pushups, doing squats, lunges, and things like that, that's a good place to start, obviously. But to have that next level training program, the same system that I use with guys like Ryan Knoll and others that play at the professional level, just tailored to their kid. I think that's a really valuable asset. I agree, man.

Well, you definitely are a trailblazer living in the Trailblazer City, which is amazing. Thank you so much, Sam, for taking some time out of your day coming on the show. And, you know, for blazing your own trail, man. Of course. Thanks for having me, bro. All right, man. Yep.