Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 258 - Chad Hooker

Episode Date: October 2, 2019

Road Trip! We stopped off at CSA Gym in Dublin CA to podcast with some of the very best athletes they have to offer. Chad Hooker is the founder and head trainer of Puzzle Piece Athletics, a company that has been creating personalized exercise programs for children and young adults with autism and other special abilities for over the last five years. Chad currently operates out of Combat Sports Academy in Dublin, CA Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢Quest Nutrition: https://www.questnutrition.com/ Use code "MARKSQUEST" at checkout for 20% of your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

I'm super excited because we're lining up with Quest Nutrition, and these are people that I've known for a really long time. We've met all the owners of Quest Nutrition, really awesome people. And then our boy Bruce Cardenas has been setting us up with some products for quite some time. And it's great to come together and have them sponsor this podcast. Quest Nutrition has a lot of great products, but the cookies are going to be something that you might want to check out if you feel like you have a sweet tooth like I do, I always need something to look forward to

in my day. And I do love eating my meat and I do love eating some of these foods that are on a ketogenic style diet, but man, sometimes it feels kind of hard if you don't have something to look forward to. And I like to end my day with something sweet. So I'm always grabbing like a quest bar or a quest cookie. Yeah. I mean, it's great to have in your house, especially if you have kids, you know, and if you want something sweet, better than having like Snickers bars and Doritos, have some Quest stuff.

Yeah, exactly. And the chips are really delicious. My kids actually like the chips and they like the bars quite a bit. Andrew, what do you got over there, buddy? Yeah, I was gonna say that. That's how you know something's good is when your kids like it.

You know, usually I try to give them something and they end up like, ah, that's healthy. I don't want any of that. Give them a Quest cookie. They don't even know the difference. Uh, if you guys want to get on this, head over to questnutrition.com at checkout, use Mark's Quest. That's M-A-R-K-S-Q-U-E-S-T at checkout for 20% off your entire order at questnutrition.com. You know, I've been on a ketogenic diet for a long ass time and I've experimented with all kinds of stuff. And even in like the mid nineties where I started was with these keto strips, which sounds kind of weird because it's this thing that you pee on. And then you see how you registered ketone wise. I started out with the body opus diet many,

many years ago and I've tried all kinds of stuff. I've tried, you know, pricking the finger and all that. It's inconvenient and stuff. Have you ever messed around with any of this stuff? I honestly haven't. I've heard of the strips. I've heard of pricking your finger, but I've never ever tested my ketone level. So like, why does someone, why would someone want to even test that? I think because the main reason why you would want to test it. And I, I'm not a fan of pricking the finger. And some people say, you know, the blood is going to give you more information than the urine and so on. And, but I really don't think it matters a lot, but I think the reason why you're going to test is because you want to learn about how you feel and you want to actually know what's going

on in your body. So if you get to a stage, you hear people talk about being fat adapted. If you get to a stage where you're producing a good amount of ketones, it will register when you pee on these strips and you'll be able to say like, okay, that this is probably the reason why I'm feeling a little bit better because I am producing more ketones. If you don't produce ketones or it's registering that you're not, you're going to have to make some changes in your nutrition because you're probably going to feel like crap because you haven't eaten carbohydrates in a couple days. And you're going to start to feel lethargic and kind of lose energy. The ketones can help be a preferred source of energy, especially for your brain. So it can help a lot with clarity.

So you're going to want to kind of monitor it. You don't need to like pee on it five times a day and you don't need to like, you know, gather all this research and information on it. It's just nice to know. You're like, okay, well, I'm in a good, I'm in a good standing. And then if you cheat on your diet, you can see how your body reacts to all that too. Nice. If you have a big old carb meal, you're probably not going to register a lot of ketones. Andrew, where can they find out more about these?

And plus, I forgot to mention, these are a lot cheaper option than pricking your finger. So it's and plus it doesn't hurt. Yeah. So if you guys are on a ketogenic diet, don't front and just say you're on a keto diet. Actually get your ketones tested and you can do so today by going to perfectketo.com slash power project. Use code power project to get 15% off these piece strips and everything else at perfectketo.com slash powerproject. Use code powerproject to get 15% off these pea strips and everything else at perfectketo.com. I think all of us here really, really love meat. But the one person that loves meat more than anybody is Mark.

So how much meat have you had this week, Mark? I don't know. You know, I do eat quite a bit of meat, especially like after I've fasted. I remember one time I came home from the gym and probably just slaughtered like maybe it was a tomahawk ribeye. I think it was gigantic. But, you know, I do smash a lot of meat in a given day. What I like about the Piedmontese beef, though, is for me, a lot of times I have trouble because I do love the fattier meats. And so I still might go over my calories, but with the Piedmontese, I don't know

how they do it, but their, their steaks are a lot leaner, but they're still super tender. Yeah. I don't know how they're doing it over there. And then on top of that, they cook faster. How are they doing it over there? It's crazy. It's, but the thing is, it's so sick for people that are like having to diet and they still want to eat, and they have to lower their fats or whatever, and they still want to eat that red meat. Well, Pete Monti's is perfect because it's not as fat. I don't understand. It's crazy. You're still getting a nutrient-dense food.

You're getting a lot of protein. The other thing that's great about this company that I think separates it out from a lot of others is the fact that they're giving you a cook guide. And I don't know about you, but I don't know a lot about cooking, man. I just throw stuff in a from a lot of others is the fact that you're, you're giving you a cook guide and like, I don't know about you, but like, I don't know a lot about cooking, man. I just like throw stuff in a pan.

A lot of times I just put salt and go, but this is actually pretty awesome. You can actually make tasty food. I'm not too bad with the grill. Andrew, where can people find out more about Piedmontese and where, where can they get an awesome deal? Cool.

Yeah. Our friends at Piedmontese are hooking you guys up with an insane deal. Head over to piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E dot com. And enter promo code POWERPROJECT. If you can't spell that, well, maybe it's not for you. Enter that promo code for 25% off your order, along with free two-day shipping on all orders over $100. Button going.

Almost ready. Okay. And, yep, now we're going. All right right we're here with chad we're at uh csa chad what's your last name this is our first time meeting it's hooker chad hooker so you you've been working here at csa for quite some time and uh my friend jesse burdick he made me aware of some of the work that you've been doing uh. It seems like you do a lot of work with special needs athletes. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. How'd you get into that? So I kind of just fell into it, to be quite honest with you. I was teaching the kids CrossFit classes for CSA and

I had a lady come up to me and she was like, hey, like, do you do personal sessions? And I was like, oh, of course. And she was like, well, it's not really for me. It's for one of my friends. And it's really not for her. It's for one of her kids. Like, would you be willing to work with him? It's like, oh, yeah, sure. Like, oh, he's on the spectrum. And at that point, I was like, what do you mean? And she was like, oh, you know, he has autism.

And I was like, oh, like, cool. Bring him in. Let's see what happens. And then it's just kind of snowball effect from there. You know, I was doing it for free in the beginning, just kind of helping parents out and kids out. And then it's just a snowball effect into Puzzle Piece Athletics. Yeah, what you were doing with the athlete that I saw that was in here earlier, the young man that was in here earlier, Jesse, was really some unbelievable stuff and some unconventional style of training that I haven't really seen before.

The movements were similar to things I've seen many, many other athletes do. You had him on the bike. You had him walking with some, holding some weights. But what I was observing that was quite different was how much contact that you were kind of making with him. And you were, you know, kind of illustrating to him to get on all fours and do like a bear crawl and stuff. Why is some of that necessary? How is it, you know, kind of illustrating to him to get on all fours and do like a bear crawl and stuff. Why is some of that necessary? How is it, how's it, you know, so different in training some of these people? So, so everybody on the spectrum is different. You could have someone high on the spectrum. I really hate using that, but high on the spectrum, low on the spectrum, some could be verbal, some could be nonverbal with Jesse. He's nonverbal. Let's use selective verbalness, right? So he'll talk, but it's very short words,

right? Like, yes, happy, happy, no, right? So it'll never give you a full sentence. But with Jesse and people on the spectrum like Jesse, that contact cue that I was using, the hand on the back or let's say like grabbing his hand and placing it where I want it or like monkey see, monkey do, like, okay, like here's a bear crawl. Here's my hands going down to the ground. Like now you go. So that, that cue works really well with him, which is why I was using that with Jesse and might not work with somebody else on the spectrum. They could be like verbal. I just be like, Hey dude, do a bear crawl. Right. And they would go. But with Jesse, it's, it's kind of monkey see monkey do and a lot of, a lot of contact cues for him. And a lot of positive reinforcement.

I don't want to be offensive with any of my words, so I'm going to try to apologize ahead of time if I say something that doesn't sound right. But I do not deal with these kinds of people, so I don't know anything about it. No. Like what it's like. Yeah. People will say like, um, neurodivergent or neurodiverse. And a lot of people just won't like, ah, they have autism. They'll use the neurodiverse or neurodivergent. And you know, what I was also, uh, noticing was you started having Jesse do some pretty cool movements. Like he was doing like box jumps and stuff. You had him jumping down. He had him jumping on the box. I mean, that must've been a process that must've taken some time to get him to pick up and learn that. Right. Oh yeah. In the beginning, he wouldn't even step on the box. It was like, I would have to step up and then I would have to like legit, like pull him up on the box. Right. I would have to keep him close.

And then we just started building on that. right? Like I, I'd give him my hand and he would step up and I would, I would praise that. Right. I'd be like, yes, like that's what I want. Exactly. Right. And then we just built on that and built on that to then where I would give him my hand and he would, he would jump on the box like three out of 10 times. Right. And then we just keep building on that. And my goal is to have him jumping on that 24 inch box with, with no hands. Right. Like he knows he can do it instead of – that's why you saw me over there, like, kind of stopping him and be like, you can do this. Like, when he would get frustrated, he'd kind of come, like, real close to me and almost, like, headbutt. But that's when I stop him, like, no, man, like, you can do this.

You have to believe in yourself. And then just building his confidence for that jump. He kind of gets mad at you. Yeah, he gets a little frustrated. Yeah. That's why he always goes in for that. Like it's, it's almost like a headbutt, but then he'll stop and then he'll go in for the hug, but he's just looking for that, that confirmation, you know, um, in dealing with, uh, autistic people, um, like my observation, again, I don't have a huge background on it, but just from, uh, having friends, having relatives, uh, that have dealt with those situations in the past, sometimes it's hard to get a kid to even eat certain foods.

And I recall a nephew that I had that was just, you know, they would only eat like macaroni and cheese. Yeah, or chicken nuggets and stuff like that. And the parents, they tried and tried and tried. And people are like, well, why'd you give up or why'd you give in? And it's not really like it's kind of not right to say gave up. It just gets to be so difficult. And there's so many other things to worry about with someone that has needs like that. Yeah, so I run into that issue a lot.

A lot of the kids are like, we only like French fries. They only want something crunchy, right? But it's not like a broccoli crunch. Who French fries, but it's not like a broccoli crunch. Right. It's, it's that French fry. It's that, that chicken nugget. It's that, that thing that they're safe with. Right. They, they don't want to delve out. It's really, really hard to get them to start eating like, um, healthier foods, if you will. Have you seen that Netflix special, The Magic Pill? I have not seen it. I've heard of it.

So that's, I believe they follow a family that had two girls on the spectrum. And then there was another younger kid that was on the spectrum and they switched him to a ketogenic diet and they followed these families around. And I think there was someone that had cancer and then they followed these families around. I think there was someone that has, um, that was, that had cancer. And then they followed like an Aborigine, uh, Aboriginal tribe from Australia, right? Cause they own, they have to like they're hunter and gatherers, right? So they have to get their own food. So they're so healthy just because of that. But they switched the families over to a ketogenic diet. And you could see like in the beginning, like these kids just had meltdowns, like super bad meltdowns, right? Like throwing their food across, like, I'm not going to eat this. I'm not going to eat this,

but they didn't feed them. Right. If they didn't eat that food, they didn't eat. So you could see the change. Like when they get hungry, they're like, okay, like they would go to that broccoli. They would start cooking it themselves. And you could see over a week to two week period that it was just crazy difference. It's a really good documentary. So they were able to get some improvement with a ketogenic diet. Yeah, yeah. It was a huge improvement.

And it doesn't necessarily, when you're feeding these kids, it doesn't have to be a ketogenic diet or paleo, right? But just feeding them these healthy foods, you know, trying your best to keep them on that path, you know? I guess kind of standing your ground and saying this is the option. Yeah. And then understanding that they're going to be okay if they don't eat for that particular moment. Exactly. I did see that documentary.

Now that you started talking more about it, it did hit me like, oh, yeah, I did see that. But in the very beginning, like as a parent looking on the outside, you're just like, whoa, dude, like you need to control your kids. But then it's like, oh, wait, no, like they're doing their best. Yeah. And then when they do switch the diet over,'re just like whoa dude like you need to control your kids but then it's like oh wait no like they're doing their best yeah and then when they do switch the diet over it's like dude it almost brings you to tears to see like the difference in these kids like their their whole demeanor and then of course like seeing the look on their parents being like oh my gosh like they're happy i'm happy and it's just all because of like switching the diet something

that nobody even wants to think about or nobody wants to talk about. And it's crazy, too, because the younger kid on the spectrum was nonverbal. It's selective verbalness, right? But at the end, like, they would have him. And, you know, the speech therapist was working with sentences with him, right? But he started putting these sentences together. That's where I lost my shit. Yeah, it was crazy. And it was because of switching his diet, you know?

So food can be huge, you know. But then you pair it with fitness and getting these kids out of the box. You know, so many people put these kids in a box and they're not capable of this. They're not capable of that. You know, you pair the right food with the fitness and then it's just like it's a whole new person. With you personally working with the clients that you work with, have you first off had the parents switch their children to a ketogenic diet? Is this something that you do or you don't really mess with? No. So I, I don't really push diets to the parents just because it's, it's extremely hard to get everybody to follow through with that.

Right. Like then that the parents are so busy and then, you know, that making of the food like relies on them. Right right because that child can't make their own food right so they have to do that so that's that's extremely hard however i do have a new coach michelle anderson that is trying to put together like a puzzle piece athletics nutrition site right so if you want to really try that and the parents are on board then you get like a three month or like a six month or nine month like package and you stick to that plan and then as best as you can try and get those kids on a healthy diet, but haven't really delved into it too much yet. What are some of the major improvements that you've seen in working

with some people? Confidence, huge confidence boost. As soon as they figure out that they can do this and you keep using that positive praise with them, it's just insane. Just the confidence goes through the roof. I have a young gentleman. His name is Curtis. And the first day Curtis comes in, we're on the side over there.

Doesn't even make it in the gym, right? Comes up to me. It's the first time I meet him. He walks up to the side and I can see in in his face he's scared shitless, right? He's like, fuck this. I'm not coming into that place. Like, uh-uh, not going to happen. Can I swear on here?

Absolutely, yeah. He's like, fuck this. I'm not going in. And he looks at me, and he goes, I quit. I didn't even introduce myself to him. Turns around, walks the other direction. His parents look at me, and they're like, ah, just give it a second. So I kind of go up to him.

I'm like, hey, Curtis, like, you can't quit on a teammate. And he's like, you're my teammate? Like, you're my teammate? And I'm like, yeah, Curtis, like, come on. Like, we don't have to go inside. Like, let's just work out. Let's just work out here, bro. Like, we'll work out to the side.

We'll push some sleds, whatever, right? So I think that first day we worked out for like 15 minutes, if that. And they came from Palo Alto. So, yeah, very nice to meet you, Curtis. Like, think that first day we worked out for like 15 minutes, if that. And they came from Palo Alto. So very nice to meet you, Curtis. Like, have a great day. Like, see you next time, teammate. And it took me about a month and a half, maybe two months just just to get Curtis to come inside. And I remember the day he came inside. I was standing in the back and Curtis like kind of peeks his head around the corner and he looks in.

He's just right in. And now Curtis comes in just telling everybody jokes like hey what's up like giving people high fives like a whole new person it's it's crazy yeah it's really astonishing to see them to see them when they come in and then see him after like eight months nine months of this and just how much it changes in as people, you know, and not only confidence, but strength and balance and coordination and all that stuff that comes along with it, you know. So it's really impressive. It's a cool thing to witness. It really is. What gave you the experience to work with the children the way you do? Because you just mentioned that story with Curtis, right? And then you also mentioned like some, Mivon or something? Minov. Minov, right? Which was amazing. You can tell that again. But right and then you also mentioned like some uh mivon or something manav manav right which was

amazing you can you can tell that again but what have you learned that's allowed you to like use all these very specific things with all these different kids who have different needs all around you know to be quite honest with you i i just kind of came natural to me like it just that that connection with with this group just came natural it wasn't i never went to school with it for for it. I never did anything. I didn't have anybody in my life growing up that was on the spectrum. You know, I knew some people in school that were on the spectrum,

but I never went out of my way to help them or do anything, right? So it just really came natural. And the cues that I use I've picked up over the years, right? Like I know what works with them for a certain group. Right. And I know what doesn't. So everything that doesn't, I kind of push to the side and then everything that works, I just keep growing. I keep using those cues and what what work what might work for somebody might not work for the other person because everybody on the spectrum is different. So it's you kind of have to you kind of have to build a connection with that athlete and figure out what works for them. And that's, that's another huge thing. It's like a, that lock and key that, that connection

with the athlete, like if they don't feel connected with you, it's not going to happen. Yeah. You, you got to have that connection right off the bat. So like the first, first session, second session, third session, I'm not really like giving them anything. Right. It's just like, just trying to, to get them to be my friend and just building that connection. And then once you have that connection, it's off. Do you maybe have to go into like little kid mode? Like you got to almost be like six or seven years old. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of, I don't want to say get down to their level, but yeah, you just kind of got to open up and let them, let them kind of see who you are, you know, like, yeah, I kind of, I don't want to say get down to their level, but yeah, you just kind of got to open up and let them kind of see who you are, you know? Like, yeah, I'm not here to put you down.

I'm not here for you to do bad. I'm here to build you. Like, I'm here to be your friend. You know, if you're verbal and you can talk to me, like, great, let's have a conversation. Like, we're real people. I don't treat you like anybody, like, different. Like, I treat you like a human. You're a human. Let's do this. You know? Do you think, uh, sometimes this is doing more for you than it is for them? Oh my gosh. It must be so uplifting and it must, I'm sure it's

frustrating too at times, but it must be doing a lot for you. It's, you know, I, I keep talking about growing their confidence, but it's, it's the other way around. It completely, I was so shy, like would never be able to sit here and talk to you like this or get in front of cameras or anything. Like now it's just like, Oh, I don't care. You know, I've had worse like this isn't bad, but it, yeah, it's really built my confidence. It's truly changed me as a person and it's opened up my eyes to a whole new, whole new world. Break out in that Aladdin song. It's, it's an interesting, it's an interesting thing because I think that this is like something you could, you know, somebody asks you at a party, you know, you're at a family

gathering for the holidays or something and someone, you know, Hey, you know, what do you do? Hey, you know, and then you talk about what you do. It's like, who doesn't want to talk about that? Yeah. Like, Oh my God, that sounds fascinating. How does that all work? How'd you get into it? Right. They're going to ask you a lot of questions and be, uh, you know, super fascinated. What has been kind of the worst of it? Like what's been the worst part of it? Because it does seem like, I mean, man, you better be loaded up with a lot of patience. Yeah. It's you, you have to have a lot of patience. Um, you know, there, there is no worst part of it, to be quite honest with you. It keeps me engaged.

Every day is different. It's, like you said, it's very uplifting. However, there are challenges. Like some could be violent. Some could bite. Some could scratch. You've had stuff like that happen? Oh, 100%.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's, you just kind of have to go into this knowing that that's going to happen. And if you get punched in the face, you get punched in the face and you kind of move on. But you try and correct that. I don't want to say bad behavior, but you try and correct that in a positive way, right? To not make them feel like they're doing anything wrong. Like correct it in a positive way. Try to figure out where did that come from.

Exactly, yeah. And it could happen at any given moment. Someone could be just totally chill, and then all of a sudden it just switches. I can't snap with my left hand. It just switches, right? So you kind of have to be wary about that. But most of the time when you get these kids in here

and these adults in here, this is their place to get that out, right? So I don't, luckily, I don't have too many issues, right? Everything goes pretty, it's pretty chill. You know, they come in, they have a good time. We have, we work and then that's it. It probably helps a lot to have like a new energy for them, right? Like so they're with their parents or they're with a caretaker or whomever they're with.

Maybe they're at school and and maybe just over time maybe this stuff kind of wears some people out you know maybe mom and dad like it's sad but i think this happens people maybe just get kind of getting worn down it's just and then if you have other children too i can only imagine the pressures and how hard it would be and so now you drop the kid off here you get get that hour break. Yeah, they get right. The parent gets the hour break. It's now the kids with somebody who's super excited to see them every day. Yeah, for sure. And the kids pick up on that too. But yeah, you know, it's, it's huge for the parents. You know, they get, they get to bring them in, they get to drop them off. You go,

go get your coffee, go to the store. It's like an, an hour and and and I don't have any kids yet went on the way but that that hours got a feel like five five to six hours you know that that's your break and everybody needs that you know so it's very good for the parents too yeah I think um because you were mentioning before to a lot of trainers you know kind of avoid working with children with these needs, right? Now, for a lot of the trainers that are listening, they probably know someone that they could potentially work with. What do they need to be thinking about before taking an individual on? Because like you mentioned, they all have different needs. They're all individual.

One thing doesn't necessarily work with the other. So how can someone build, you know, I guess the empathy and the understanding to, to do that? First off, if, if you are a coach and you're thinking about taking on clients like that, you better have a lot of patience. I say that's, that's number one. If you don't have patience and you're not compassionate, don't do it. Like this is not the thing for you to take on. Right. That's, that's huge. And, and, you know, compassionate, don't do it. Like this is not the thing for you to take on, right? That's, that's huge. And, and, you know, I, I would honestly say that that's the biggest thing. If you're, if you're compassionate, if you have patience and you're willing to take on new challenges, that's all you need. Yeah. I think that's, that's over half the battle right there.

You know, you can, once you start taking on these clients, you can, you can kind of figure out what works for one and then you have another one, you can figure out what works for them. And then you can kind of, you can kind of build on that until you've worked with generally everybody on the, on the spectrum, right. And you can, you can kind of, I don't want to say put them in groups, but you can kind of like generalize the way that they, that they interact, right. And you can kind of like generalize the way that they that they interact. Right. And you can use those cues for the different interactions. These people that are coming to you, it must matter, right? Like how they feel about their fitness. It must matter how they feel about their bodies.

Otherwise, they probably wouldn't have such a marked improvement in their confidence, right? And so I think sometimes, I think, as you said, sometimes people put these, put people, they put limitations on people. 100%. And they say, oh, you know, maybe that's the last thing that family or that kid needs to worry about. But we all need to worry about our health. We all need to be conscious. It'd probably help all of us if we're able to lose a little bit, a little bit of body fat or be able to do something that we thought before that we couldn't do. That's got to have a huge impact on their lives. Yeah, it, it, it truly does, you know, but most, most of these kids and, and it's sad to say, but most of them don't, don't want to go out, right. They want to sit, they want to sit on that iPad or, you know,

they're, they're so, and that's what they're used to. Yeah. They're so prone to that TV. Like when they get home, they're like TV, iPad. And then they sit there hunched over looking at this iPad for hours. You know, it could be legit hours, you know, and then having them having them come in here and kind of break that habit, you know, getting them to see that there's something else that can, that can kind of keep them motivated, getting them out, like just almost into a real world situations. Huge. It's, it's a really sad thing because you would think, Oh, well, you know, why don't these parents just pull those electronics away from the kid? It's like you try to do that at like three or four, uh, you know, you try to pull it away from the kid goes absolutely insane. It's like a different level than maybe your average parent deals with.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine. And then it's nonstop. It's like, you know, they're not going to slow down from it. And so you'd have to just be a saint and have, you know, a crazy amount of patience to be able to handle that. Yeah, that would be extremely tough to deal with, you know. And how do you as a parent, how do you take something away from your kid that they, that they enjoy so much? Like, you know, that would be hard for me because then you feel bad

for them. And then you're like, man, how, how do I take care of this without making them feel bad? And I just, I give it up to the parents, man, that that's gotta be extremely hard, but, you know, up to the parents, man, that, yeah, that's gotta be extremely hard, but, you know, kudos to them, and all of them do the best that they absolutely can, and, you know, I'm just running my program to, to help everybody out, you know, trying to change the mindset of people on the spectrum, and, and fitness, and really trying to change the world with that, you know, because not, not very many people are doing it. I don't want to use the word guilty, but do you maybe have a hard time, or, I always find it difficult when somebody comes up and they're like, Chad, you're such a saint. Oh my gosh, you're doing such good work. Meanwhile, inside you're just like, I'm just doing

what I love to do. Yeah. And I do. Yeah. It's very hard to take, to hear those words, you know, like, oh, you're, you're doing so well. Like, thank you so much. Like you are like, I've gotten that. You're a saint. I'm really not like, just you're a saint I'm really not like just like you said I'm I'm just here like I'm I'm doing what I know I love to do I just I just do it and and for me I'm really lucky that I kind of fell into this because it has changed me it has shown me a different part of my life and you know how I can help these these kids out and build their confidence. And yeah, it's very hard to take those words. Yeah. Most of the time I just hear it and I'm like,

thanks. Did you ever dream that you'd be capable of like helping people in this way? Because this is like, I mean, this is dramatic stuff. This is a big deal. Yeah. No, I did not. Yeah. When I was younger, I thought I was going to play professional soccer, go off and travel the world with that. And, you know, never happened. Came close, but never happened. But, uh, yeah, no, I think you're making a much greater impact with this. Yeah, I believe so. And thank you very much. Yeah. I appreciate that. Yeah. I think I am. Hopefully it just keeps going. You mentioned that a lot of this has come natural for you have you had to or have you run into situations where you were working with a kid and it just

you just couldn't figure it out or it just didn't work yeah 100 and do you have to just like switch it on the fly you're just like yeah okay yeah that's why like a lot of people ask me what do you do for your programming how programming? How do you program for these kids? Okay, well, are you ready for this? I don't. I don't because if you write something down, right, and you're in a one-on-one session, and that child or that person comes in and they're not feeling it, right,

and something that you had was like, okay, like 10 sets of eight Russian kettlebell swings, right? And then we're going to go into 20 ground to shoulders with a 20 pound medicine ball and you have it structured out, right? And they come in and they just fricking turn the other way and walk off. And well, what are you going to do? I can't, I can't get your kid to do that. Right. So you kind of have to, you kind of have to work on the fly, right? Oh, you start running. Great. I'm going to grab your hand and we're going to go on a 400-meter run. Right? Okay, cool.

You want to go walk? Great. I grab a TheraBand or an ExerBand, and I put it over. Great. I'm going to make you walk under tension. Oh, you want to walk? Grab a hip circle. Put the hip circle on.

Cool. Let's go on our 400-meter walk, or I make him walk 800 meters with the hip circle. Great. Now you're going to get on the bike with the hip circle constantly. That's a huge thing in my, in my training, by the way, Jesse was telling me that you,

you, you put a lot of them in the hip circle every, every single time. If they fit in that hip circle, that's what we're doing because they, they like that feeling. They like that. They like that tension. They really do.

It's like, um, have you heard of like gravity blankets and stuff like that? Absolutely. Yeah. Helps with anxiety. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It weighs them down. They like that feeling. So, have you heard of like gravity blankets and stuff like that? Absolutely. Yeah. Helps with anxiety. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It weighs them down.

They like that feeling. So that kind of mimics that. Not the weighted down part, but the tension on the legs. And then sometimes I'll make them carry a medicine ball with that on. Or I'll make them do like farmer's carries. But, yeah. Where should someone start if they have a child that they would love to get more exercise for that fits into this category, like are movements where you're kind of carrying stuff, is that a little simpler?

Because it's like it's just walking with weights like a farmer's carry. Yeah, like two-pound dumbbells. Yeah. Whatever. They're holding something. They're walking. Good. That's good exercise.

They're a little bit bigger. They can hold 18s, 26s, whatever that may be. Cool. Get them walking. You want to try overhead walking with them, right? Their mobility is not very good. They're holding it here. Is it still overhead? Get an ab mat. Make them work locking out their elbows. There's a lot of stuff that you can do. Bear crawls. Simple, right? Put your hands down. Get your knees up off the ground. Okay, now walk on all fours like bear crawl. So there's a lot of stuff that you can do. While those movements might be easy, it might be kind of tough to get them to do,

which is where the contact cue comes in, which is where the positive. Yeah, I saw your hand was on his back the whole time, so he kind of knows where he is in space and all that, right? Exactly, yeah. So finding those cues that work for your children. If you can figure that out, then you're golden. Yeah, we have a kid in our gym that has struggled with some of the same things your athletes face. And this kid pushes a sled and he carries some weights. Probably loves it.

Yeah, he does. He absolutely loves it. And he'll run. He'll just run back and forth on our turf that we have. But something like the sled, I think, is a concept that he really gets a lot of pleasure in. He's like, I'm going to push this thing from this side of the gym to that side of the gym, and I'm going to feel strong, and I'm going to feel better about myself. And it's weighted, and it calms him down.

Absolutely. And he feels good doing that. That's perfect. It's huge. Yeah, even just the sleds where you put your arms through, the shoulder straps go on and walk. Cool. Go. Okay, one without weight.

Cool. Here's a 10-pound plate. 45, then 95 or whatever, up to 135. You know, just keep stacking it. Cool. They're moving? Great. Yeah, the sled pulls and everything are huge.

Yeah, so is it safe to say that, like, a lot of those things are across the board? You know, like, anybody can try these because it's almost guaranteed to work? Yes. But there are some, some folks that will just be like, just look at it and shut down. But yeah, most of the time sled, sled work, all that stuff. Really good. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's not, I'm not saying it's guaranteed, but like, you know, like a percentage. Yeah, yeah, there you go. For sure, yes, yeah. Trying to like mainly get some of the people that you're working with to be able to like run, jump, throw, like kind of the simple things we take for granted.

Yep, yeah, a lot of that. A lot of ball slams. You know, a lot of my clients will just kind of like. That's got to feel good. You know, you're mashing the ground. Smashing it down. A lot of my clients will just kind of like. That's got to feel good. You know, you're mashing the ground. Smashing it down. A lot of my clients will just kind of pick it up and they'll hold it overhead and they'll kind of look around and then they'll just be like. And it's just like a little toss. But teaching them that they can actually like they can extend their hips when they bring it up and then they can really slam it down.

You know, that that might take a lot. But yeah, that's. You have permission to break this ball. Go for it. Smash it in half. Yeah, 100 percent. How can people find out more about what you're doing? How can people find out more about you?

You can go to my Instagram and Facebook page, and you can follow just Puzzle Piece Athletics for Facebook, and Instagram is at Puzzle Piece Athletics. I have a website up. It's being redone, but the old one is still up. Yeah, and you can just follow me and watch kind of my sessions through Instagram and Facebook and all that good stuff. And hopefully can just follow me and watch kind of my sessions through Instagram and Facebook and all that good stuff. And hopefully in the future, I start running seminars and trying to

figure out if I should franchise and all that good stuff. I've had a lot of outreach from all over the world, everywhere in the US, Australia, UK, Canada. I mean, everywhere everywhere everywhere has been reaching out so it's it's it's very very well needed like unfortunately autism is growing right and it's not stopping anytime soon it just keeps getting bigger and it's very sad but everywhere in the country everywhere in the world there's people on the spectrum and there's not there's not a lot out there especially when they get to a certain age they kind of get pushed off the parents' insurance. And then what do you do? What age category are you usually working with? So I like to start working with the kids around age 10 to 11, just so they've had enough ABA therapy or PRT therapy, and they can kind of stay focused for that hour.

I do take on younger clients, and we run half-an-hour sessions, but they have to be able to stay focused for that half an hour. Yeah. And then do you work with some older people as well? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I didn't answer your question. Yeah, so from that age up into adult. Yeah, and it doesn't matter.

You could be 60, 70, whatever. Yep. Very cool. Well, we love what you're doing, man. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Keep it going. And, you know, what I saw today,

I was just like overwhelmed with seeing what you were doing. Thank you so much. Taking that amount of time, having that amount of patience, really, really cool. Somebody's got to be doing this, and I'm glad that I got to witness that firsthand. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that.

Very nice to meet you. Yeah. Where can people find you on Instagram, if you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Very nice to meet you. Yeah. Where can people find you on Instagram if you haven't said that already? Puzzle Peace Athletics. All right. Facebook and Instagram. Not on Twitter. Strength is never a weakness.

Weakness is never a strength. Catch you all later. Thanks, guys.