Mark Bell's Power Project - Train for Life Not PR's: Embrace Functional Movement - CJ CJ Kobliska || MBPP Ep. 1111

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

In Episode 1111, CJ Kobliska, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza discuss the importance of movement. How it plays a big role in pain relief, coordination and overall well being. Follow CJ on IG: https://www.instagram.com/movement_exploration_channel/   Official Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below!   🥜 Protect Your Nuts With Organic Underwear 🥜 ➢https://nadsunder.com/ Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 15% off your order!   🍆  Natural Sexual Performance Booster 🍆 ➢https://usejoymode.com/discount/POWERPROJECT Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!   🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎 ➢https://emr-tek.com/ Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!   👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶 ➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject   🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!   🩸 Get your BLOODWORK Done! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel, and use code POWERPROJECT for 10% off any lab!   Sleep Better and TAPE YOUR MOUTH (Comfortable Mouth Tape) 🤐 ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!   🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained:      ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell   Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Become a Stronger Human - https://thestrongerhuman.store ➢ UNTAPPED Program - https://shor.by/JoinUNTAPPED ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en   Follow Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Podcast Courses and Free Guides: https://pursuepodcasting.com/iamandrewz ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz/ ➢ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

but there's a lot of people that are in fitness that do work out, they're in a lot of pain. And I think it would be great to see those people start to seek other things out rather than just bashing on, oh, I think that looks stupid. You can say this looks weird or whatever, but can your body do that?

Most likely not. So maybe it's something you wanna try out. Whatever you're doing that got you into pain, you keep doing it to try to get you out of pain. It's probably not gonna get you out of pain. Where would someone kind of start with some of this? So they walked in here, I know they can walk. I know they can step. I know they can step.

So technically they can lunge. What's the rope doing? What are the benefits? Like, what are people getting out of it? People feel better after doing it for five minutes. How do you feel? I don't want to tell you this, but my lower back feels a little bit better.

This is fitness. Like we're building you up. You don't have to be doing this insanely heavy stuff. We just need to start building a path to something that can build some intensity in your life and movement. Yeah, how do you say your last name again? Kobliska.

Kobliska. That's dope. It means donut boy. Really? For real? No. Baker boy. Oh. Check. Check for baker boy. Making some donuts.

I love donuts. Kobliska. Dangerous. How do I say Kowalski from Kobliska? That's not even- You gotta do a lot of kettlebell flips to get past all those donuts you've been making over there. How'd you get into all this stuff? All the movement stuff that you've been exploring, the kettlebells, rope flow, where did it all

begin for you? I couldn't give you a date, but I'll tell you, it was probably my wrestling background in high school, middle school. A lot of just different dimensions of movement and different positions and working with leverage, it excited me. It's fun to wrestle, but it's also fun to be in positions. My body was just like, this is new, this is a puzzle.

And then when something starts to click, I go, now I've downloaded this movement or I own this pathway. And then integrating it starts to click, like, oh, now I've downloaded this movement or I own this pathway. And then integrating it in other pathways, like kind of like chain wrestling. So you put one movement to another movement to another movement and eventually becomes this flow or this dance with an opponent. And I think that's kind of what ignited that sense within me. But with the route that I'm in now, it wasn't where I started at all. It was much more focused on athletics. that sense within me, but with the route that I'm in now, it wasn't where I started at all.

It was much more focused on athletics, and I didn't know what I was gonna do with the rest of my life, just more into, I'm gonna go into fire department or do something of service, but kind of fell into movement as a way to work fitness, not as fitness to work fitness, but movement to ignite a journey

into somebody's fitness journey. Yeah, what I'm starting to kind of notice from a lot of people is there's more people that seem like they are training, and they're training a little bit more like you would see a pro athlete train. They're trying to be inclusive of jumping, sprinting, rotational work, things like that.

We haven't seen it like leak all the way into our regular general population quite yet, but it's starting to, and you're starting to see more people just kind of looking for answers, I think. I think that bodybuilding stuff is great. And I think the one thing that's amazing about bodybuilding and lifting on machines

and doing some hypertrophy work and stuff is that probably is something you can do forever. And it's a skillset, it is a skillset to learn how to have that mind muscle connection and kind of build up some muscle mass and so forth. And we know some of the benefits of it and things like that. But there's a lot of people that are in fitness that do work out, they're in a lot of pain.

And I think it would be great to see those people start to seek other things out rather than just bashing on, oh, I think that looks stupid, you know, you're twirling around a rope, like what's that gonna do? Sure, I mean, movement can look dumb and silly. I think there's a lot of silly stuff out there and a lot of gimmicky stuff and like quick sale of,

let's, you know, this is the movement that you need to do that's gonna solve all your problems when it's never that simple. It can be that simple in the sense of starting and just finding some of that works, but I think a lot of people gravitate towards something that worked and not necessarily why it worked. And they just kind of get caught in that working and keep working it out, even though it's not working anymore. I'm hoping it does.

You know, whatever you're doing that got you into pain, you keep doing it to try to get you out of pain. It's probably not going to get you out of pain, unless you start doing it differently, whatever you are doing. It's a different intent to get you out of pain unless you start doing it differently whatever you are doing It's a different intent a different mindset And in a lot of a lot of my training is Intent based there's a lot of things that you might see externally that are happening It's kind of flashy and some things are like that doesn't look that hard But internally my body is processing something and I want to help others

Find a way to process for themselves, you know build that back to their feet, to their hands, to their core, to their hips, their heart, their head, their hands. We call them the four H's at Gymnasium. Your hips, heart, head and hands. You know what I find so cool about you though, CJ, is that first off, you move extremely well. So when you go look down your page and you go look at all of these different things you're doing in different planes of motion, it's all extremely smooth, all extremely clean.

So one can look at you and be like, or they probably should look and be like, well, this looks like whatever, but could I even do that? I think that's one thing. It's like, you can say this looks weird or whatever, but can your body do that? Most likely not. So maybe it's something you want to try out, but at the same time, you're also extremely jacked. Like you cover yourself up a lot.

I notice I don't even love to do some stuff. I'm oversized, baby, I wanna cover this shit up. Once that shirt comes off, you see like you're also very built, very jacked. And the fact that you're able to do both is a testament to kind of the stuff that you're doing. You're not just a big dude, you're also a big dude that moves extremely well.

And that's something people need to pay attention to. You inspire me, bro. I want to be as big as you. But like, let me ask you this, man, cause like, what got you starting to train differently? What got you starting to actually pay attention to that? Cause obviously you did some sports, but did you ever go down the rabbit hole

of traditional strength and did it serve you the way you wanted it to? How'd that shift happen? Yeah, I mean, I was in the high school weight room and wanted to get up on the leaderboards of weights and to the cleans and the bench press and the squats and all that. So that was kind of my initiating force for fitness. I mean, my first time at the gym was with my dad

in middle school, took me into a weight room and here's the sheet with all the stuff that he's been working with his trainer and he's teaching me it. And I was like, oh, this is cool. I mean, the first time at the gym was with my dad in middle school. Took me into a weight room and here's the sheet with all the stuff that he's been working with his trainer and he's teaching me it. And I was like, this is cool. I mean, the first time with the gym, am I old enough to be in here kind of thing? So I had a lot of that traditional background and linear movement and working with machines and feeling the muscles pump.

And like it was a, now it's like, it's compared to like making love to your body. You're like getting all the juices squeezed, your rings stuff out. It's you're there, you're present. And so with the traditional stuff, yeah, I was climbing the ladder of making gains. But with that came a lot of different injuries and discomforts and pains. So I think part of the pathway for me was processing my pain, figuring out what was going on with my shoulder, what was going on with my low back, what was going on with my knee here and there. And, you know, going to doctors originally saying, oh, you have got Osgood Slaughter,

or you've got a little compression in your back, or you've got a pulled muscle in your shoulder, and all these things that was kind of labeling the pain. It wasn't solving anything. And so for me personally, in wrestling practice, I'd have to work around my pain and figure out a way to keep muscle people around. And with my technique, I had to step into that

quite a bit more because I couldn't use as much musculars on my left side. And so I was working a lot with like technique, I had to step into that quite a bit more because I couldn't use as much muscular on my left side. And so I was working a lot with like 80-20, 80% right side, that started to create compensation patterns. And I'm like, oh, I've got to change something a little bit and change up my stance or work from a lower position. I don't want to be up here. I want to be underneath them. I have the same stuff in my jujitsu, by the way.

It's so funny you mentioned that. They bring one side way more. Yeah, you naturally tap into it. And you're like, I know I have a... If they catch me on that side, I'm on the phone. Yeah, you can actually tap into it. You're like, I know I have a, if they catch me on that side, I'm on the bone. But if I get this side, like, you ain't getting by, you know? So I think with the pain, I was processing just different ways, not necessarily in a very organized manner,

just exploration and going through, you know, three quarter drills with other wrestlers and working with each other, giving resistance and saying, hey, that's like too much or hey, give me some more. And having that feedback, I started to have that feedback with myself when I was doing lifts and being able to tame it back a little bit. But that really didn't happen until college.

So in high school, I had a big injury on my shoulder. My junior year, I had like a little pulled muscle or something going on on my shoulder. And then in and out of different tournaments, I'd actually have my dad pop my shoulder back in place. He'd like dislocate and my dad would be on the mat and he'd be like, all right, we're good kind of, you know? And I'd win with more muscle effort from one side and not a lot of the techniques I wanted.

And long story short, towards the end of that year, I had a, I slammed a kid down and went to pull my arm out and fully just rip my arm out of the socket. And I had a, I slammed a kid down and went to pull my arm out and fully just rip my arm out of the socket. And I was like, I'm done, I'm out. Lay on my back, I was just like, this is the most excruciating pain I've ever been in. I'm done, like this is it. So we ended up getting MRI and stuff.

They're like, where's your shoulder at? You know, like looking at the imaging. And I was like, that's what it feels like. They're like, how long have you been wrestling like this? Like a year with it like this? Like, you shouldn't have been doing that. I realized that, but pull muscle, right? Pull muscle.

Just keep going through it. So I had to do a real hard to heart with myself of what do I want to do after high school and do I want to try to wrestle in college? And I basically had this conversation myself like, what's my tagging to think, you know? And I told my mom first, I was like, I don't think I want to wrestle in college. Like I think I'm going to, I want to solve this and not, you know, doctors are saying, coaches are saying, you're probably going to be paying the rest of your life. You're not going to be able to lift your arm up.

And I'm like, I don't want that. You know, so I got the surgery, Doc was like, you shouldn't wrestle next year. And I was like, okay. And I did. And it didn't get more hurt, but it certainly brought up more of those like, oh, I shouldn't be doing this.

And this time I'm making the call that I don't do this. So I didn't wrestle a lot of pre-season, just wrestled post-season. I didn't do the best that I wanted to do. But I was like, I'm satisfied with taking this year because I feel better now. And then I went to school for kinesiology at Cal Poly. And in that four year span,

I had a lot of wrestlers in my dorm and stuff and hearing that there are two a days and I'm like, I'm so happy I'm having the college experience that's not in athletics right now. Sounds like I can really explore and do what I wanna do. And I worked out often, they had a brand new rec center at Cal Poly, they had like indoor track, two levels too,

it had a wrestling room in it and stuff. And it was just, I found myself in the studio very often. I'd go do my weight stuff on the different machines, get my pump and then I'd go to the studio very often. I go do my weight stuff on the different machines, get my pump, and then I go to the studio for about an hour and grab a bozu ball or a yoga ball or some med balls or something and just move around, you know, look in the mirror and kind of see how things are going. And I think in that experience, I developed more of a conversation with myself, like what do I want to do now? And what do I want to do with my movement? And there's a lot of about

discovering what freedom means and feeling not restricted to do the things I want to do with my movement? And there's a lot of about discovering what freedom means and feeling not restricted to do the things I want to do, whether I wanted to lift heavy, I wanted to swing some shit, I want to slam some stuff, I want to just roll around and shadow wrestle. And through that process, I was solving my shoulder. I could do a pull-up again, I could do like heavy curls. My left side was actually finally meeting the size

of my right again, because I had this arm that was half the size for a year and a half, and that was its own mental shit. I'm like, I'm wearing a tank top, you're like, yeah, I look inflated on one side and deflated on the other, this sucks. And I realized it's just, it's part of the process. Everybody's going through some shit.

You could have gotten the other side smaller too. I know, I was like, I just cut off lifting. No, dude, no way, I'm going to go heavier on my right. I can do it. And it got bigger and my left side didn't. But over time, they matched up. And now, do you still have that pain in your shoulder or is it fully healed? No, there's some things that will set it off a little bit, but it's more like, oh, okay, like ego check.

Like, let's not push this or I think we can push through it. Let's go through it. You know, and you end up going through it. I actually feel better going heavier doing this stuff. So it gave it a little different compression. So I started to feel different tensions and torsions and compressions and expansions. And it opened my mind at the same time I was going through this.

I'm having a psychedelic trip in life. And I've never done psychedelics at that time. It was like, oh, this is kind of an unreal conversation that I feel like I'm having with the universe and myself right now about this process. And in my journey at Cal Poly to graduate to get my bachelor's, I needed to do an internship. And there was an individual, two individuals that came to my class, an nutrition class, and said, hey, we got this internship over this place called Gymnazo.

It's a functional movement training facility, and we work with all different age ranges and we do functional fitness. And I was like, that sounds like a cool opportunity and something that would be enjoyable as an internship versus doing a bunch of grant work and paper. And I want to learn stuff. I want to be in the flesh and in the field. And so in 10 weeks, an unpaid, I was there 10 to 20 hours a week when I could be, I was missing some classes so I could be at gymnasium and the teachers didn't really like that.

So they didn't like gymnasium at that time. Another story from that time. But in those 10 weeks, I learned a lot about ankle reconstruction and knee reconstruction and hip and how all these are interrelated. And, yeah, somebody might have knee pain, but let's take a look at their hip and ankle because those tissues may not be working at their best. And now the knee's having to compensate.

And the knee likes to do this. And the hips like to do all this. And the ankles like to do all this. So if the hips are like, and the knee's like to compensate and the knee likes to do this and the hips like to do all this and the ankles like to do all this. So if the hips are like, and the knee's like, I have to do all this other shit, the knee's probably gonna start screaming at you. So this pain response, I can relate to it. I could feel it of like, yeah, when my shoulder's hurting,

I feel referred stuff in my back or my neck or my hip and starting to process that, you know, work on the hip, all of a sudden the shoulder gets better. So I was working with individuals, not on a one-on-one base, but in group training, there were workouts already set for the week and there was programming that was kind of behind the scenes that went on, but every day was a little bit different. I'm going like, what's the organization to all this? And why does it, why are we doing different things every day versus like the same circuit that we hit each week for, you know, six to

eight weeks. And I realized that a lot of the individuals that were coming through at 50 to 80 years old, they're just so out of touch. Many of them were out of touch with their coordination, like their feet and their hands. They didn't know where their feet were in space. They're doing squats and one foot's way out. I'm like, look at your feet. They're like, oh, didn't even know. And so I realized all these little quick cues to help people just get more in tune.

It was very disorganized at the time for me because I was just learning all of these different ways to get people into a better position, but even more than that, a better tension and a better attention to what they're doing. And so it became this like pay attention to your intent while you're in tension. And there's a constant play, a constant dance in here. Pay attention to your intent while you're in tension. Pay attention to your intent while your intention. Pay attention to your intention in tension. So your body is always in tension.

It's always there. That's how you're staying upright. You're not gonna fall over. So your body has holding some form of intent, how it holds itself, how it holds the posture. Your life builds up into a certain position. All right, so you see like a silhouette of somebody that I've been training, I'm like,

oh, I know who that is, I know who that is, because I know how they're holding their body. You see them like, oh, no, that is across the way, you know? Because your body tells a story. It tells a story of what you've been intending, and it may not be a conscious intention. It may have been where your attention has been the past 10, 20, 30, 40 years,

and it may not be on your body. That's why you're so disconnected. So let's get your attention back into the feet, hip, heart, head and hands. And if we can know where each of those are, those are kind of your main stacking points for mobility. You got your ankles, it's your feet, like mobile, your hip, very mobile, thoracic spine, your heart area.

A lot of people are closed off there and they're not moving with their heart, metaphorically and physically. And then their hands and where your head is. A lot of people are just like head down when they're not moving with their heart, metaphorically and physically. And then their hands and where your head is. A lot of people are just like head down when they're lifting, or it's like I'm off in space or I'm looking at something. It's like where are you now? You can have your eyes closed and your eyes are now internally on different parts of your body.

So I've been working with gymnasium now for about 10 years and building this system, systematic way so we can get coaches through and understanding how to get people to, maybe not solve their pains and fix things, but to get them on a better track and a better path so that they stay on it versus, I'm looking for this goal to get rid of this pain and now I'm done.

It's like, if you brush your teeth, you're not just brushing your teeth, you gotta keep the hygiene going. So let's keep your movement hygiene and develop a process so you value this as opposed to something that you gotta do externally. You have to brush your teeth every day? That's what they say.

Andrew, can you make a note of that? Not if you eat just meat. That's true. You don't have to. Where would someone kind of start with some of this? Would you just kind of say very generally maybe just challenge positions? So if you're already lifting, you're kind of say like very generally, maybe just challenge positions, you know? So like if you're already lifting,

you're already into some of these things, maybe instead of doing your normal curls, maybe you do it with a staggered stance, maybe instead of just doing an overhead press, maybe you go down on one knee, as I saw some of the individuals doing that you were working with and training, or maybe they even just like sit down on their butt

and do overhead presses, you know, like a Z press or whatever they're called. You think that's kind of where someone should maybe start is like just try to find challenging positions, but challenging positions for you for where you're at now. Yeah, the first thing I always want to start with is knowing where there's success. So they might say, and I can't do this, I can't do that.

Well, they're starting at a place of non-success or failure. So they walked in here, I know they can walk. I know they can step. So technically they can lunge. It's just we got to find the spectrum of effort. So a lot of times, I mean, what I want to do with somebody ideally is one-on-one and then I can work them into like a group's training space or we work more one-on-one, but it's going to start with some form of an assessment that's passable. Nobody can fail unless you don't do it. But it's looking at positions like, can you step up onto a six inch step or a box?

Can you step down from that? Can you do a squat two legged? Can you do a one knee to the ground squat? And I'm just looking for skill level, like ability, and I'm looking at their ability, their capacity and their availability. So the ability is number one, because if you don't have the skill of something,

you can't get stronger at it until you develop that ability level, like ability to walk. Okay, let's start with just getting your foot in front of the other. Okay, we can't do that. Let's sit on a box and put one foot in front of the other. Let's add some supports, get up and down. Maybe even like they can stand in the stagger.

Let's do a little shift. Now somebody who's more well-off, and they're like, I just have some lingering discomfort and I don't really know a place to start training. I don't know what's best for me. Yeah, I want to see their functional tasks like ADLs, you know, can they reach? Can they squat? Can they step? Can they pull and push something? And so I'm looking at it from a scale of, you know, there's so much that my brain's going on with, but I don't want to necessarily show all my cards. Like I want to, I want to hold on to these until I know what we want to start working on. But I'm looking at it from a scale of, you know, there's so much that my brain's going on with but I don't want to necessarily show all my cards. Like I want to, I want to hold on to these until I know what we want to start working on. But I'm looking

at the positions they can access, is the environment safe for them or they feel unsafe, what actions can they do and thinking about the typical physical actions of like lunging, squatting, pushing, pulling. You can locomote, you can vertimote or jump, you can lift, and you can reach. So those are kind of like the bigger buckets that I see. And I generally want to see first just the functionality of those buckets, not necessarily the fitness of it, but how do they finesse these motions with their own body

and communicate. I'm not going to give them a specific technique, like you got to focus on all these different things. I want to see just how they do it first. I'm going to set them up for safety. I'm not going to put them with a heavy bar off the bat unless that's where we need to go. But I want to see just what's your ability level.

So that we have a baseline of communication where we can say, okay, we can't do this currently. We can do this currently. Let's work with what we can do. And then all these things that we can't, we're going to just bridge that gap. And it's not going to be like, oh, we just go do that thing. If it's, you can't push a cable forward

because it hurts your shoulder. Okay, well, can just go do that thing. If it's you can't push a cable forward because it hurts your shoulder, okay, well, can you reach forward? Oh, no pain with that. Okay, so once we have resistance, that's causing some discomfort. Can we hold that position with tension? Yeah, no pain. Okay, it's the transfer of the motion.

Or, oh, now this whole year. So. That's like that is super fascinating because somebody could say, oh, if I press, it kills my shoulder, but they can do the exact same movement if they're just rowing. Yeah. You're like, I mean, I press, it kills my shoulder, but they can do the exact same movement if they're just rowing. Yeah.

You're like, I mean, I understand that stress is in a different place. That's interesting. It's like, you literally just did the same motion. So you think that you can't do that range of motion, you actually can. It's just that pressing exercises tend to hurt you more than a pulling exercise.

And getting them to relay that back is most important because I could tell, tell, tell, tell, but if they don't believe in it, I might, what am I, I'm just selling myself to them. I want them to use me as they grow, but not just like they need me to grow. You know, get them on a stepping stone approach. But that really starts with where are you successful?

Cause I think so many people focus on what they can't do or they see something like I can never do that. It's like you just put a wall up on all of your potential that's infinite. And it's infinite for everybody. Obviously you're predisposed genetically and your size and what you've done in your history, but everybody has some path to more success.

Many people just shove themselves into a corner and saying there's no point because I can't be like that. But as soon as somebody starts their path and starts moving forward, they're not so much focused on what they can't do. They're going like, dude, the other day I just like got up out of bed. My back didn't hurt. No, I'm amazing. That makes me want to cry. You know, you've been in back pain for 30 years out of bed and this time you woke up.

What do you do that day? You fucking go look at the sunshine. You have a cup of coffee. You're like, fuck, I'm here. Okay, something's working and it's just this motivation Everybody's got an internal motivation if they're showing up, they're already there They're not lacking the motivation but it's this mental construct of the stories are telling themselves and where they're Maybe they don't even know where they want to go or how they want to go there. They're just they're stuck They're stagnant so get them moving. It's gonna break up that mental stagnation Now their mind starts to get into it their heart starts to get into it because they go, I can feel my heart, I can feel my lungs.

And the most common thing is, wow, I'm so out of shape. And it's like this, we're eliciting that, eliciting that response through this so that you can grow beyond it. We got to hit that wall to, to adapt. So I'm referencing one of your posts on Instagram. So I wanted to ask you, how come I don't really feel back pain when I'm sitting down, but I do when I'm standing up? No back pain sitting down.

Yeah. Back pain standing up. Just active standing. Yeah. So it makes me think, you know, I'd want to assess a few things, but the main thing is your position's different. So you're in hip flexion when you're sitting.

When you stand, you're in hip extension. And so if you've been sitting for a long time, your fascia is going, your fascia is learning what you're doing every minute of the day. 24 hours a day, you're training your body. So when you're sleeping, you're still training your body. People say they wake up wrong and stuff like that. But in terms of sitting, let's say you're a, you've been sitting for a long time, whether it's, I've been doing it for years at a desk, I travel a lot, or I just don't get up and move. I prefer to sit and play Sudoku and do the stuff on my phone. Well, the fashion is learning to stay short in the front. So this one of mine goes

initially with people that are sitting is the front sides locked down, you're closed off here. So that spring shortens and it learns to stay shortened and rigid. So when you go to stand up, the hips like, I don't want to get that, but your body's not going to be like, ah, I'm good. So your lower back goes, let me pull you back there. Your QLs, your lats, everything kind of lifts you up. But then it starts to play a game of tug of war with this really strong fascia in the front.

And you don't feel the front, you feel the back pulling back against the fight internally. So you're playing this tug of war that if we then go to like mobilize an adductor, a front hip, psoas area, not even just those muscles, but that whole compartment in the front. And spend time in that, the body then starts to adapt and learn. And it may be very short term if it's something that's more acute, like, oh wow, my back, it's gone.

And for somebody who's more chronic, it might be like, okay, it mitigated. It went down a little bit. All that's still growth. So I check first like adductor and front hip, one for weakness and one for just ability to get into extension. So I might take you through like a lift overhead and like, oh, my back pain is even worse. Okay, we tried to lengthen further and that tissue said no way. So the back has to work that much harder. So a lot of people go to fold over, bend like, oh, it feels so good when I'm there. But then when I stand up, it's back.

Well, you've decompressed some of the spine and the nervous system there that when you come back up, you've now just compressed again the opposite way. It's compressed it further. So if we can get the decompression in the front, now it can let off some of the pressure of the nerves in the low back. And that's generally, if people are sitting for a long time,

that's gonna be a big opener. And just like, okay, every single day, you know you're gonna be sitting, go into a little split stance, just like, okay, every single day, you know you're going to be sitting, go into a little split stance, just hang out there, don't force anything, but let your fascia get into a longer position and value that. If you're someone that's taking supplements or vitamins or anything to help move the needle in terms of your health, how do you know you really need them? And the reason why I'm asking you how do you know is because many people

don't know their levels of their testosterone, their vitamin D, all these other labs like their thyroid and they're taking these supplements to help them function at peak performance. But that's why we've partnered with Merrick Health for such a long time now because you can get yourself different lab panels like the Power Project Panel which is a comprehensive set of labs to help you figure out what your different levels are and when you do figure out what your levels are, you'll be able to work with a patient care coordinator that will give you suggestions as far as

nutrition optimization, supplementation, or if you're someone who's a candidate and it's necessary, hormonal optimization to help move you in the right direction so you're not playing guesswork with your body. Also, if you've already gotten your lab work done, but you just wanna get a checkup, we also have a checkup panel that's made

so that you can check up and make sure that everything is moving in the right direction if you've already gotten comprehensive lab work done. This is something super important that I've done for myself. I've had my mom work with Merrick. We've all worked with Merrick. Just to make sure that we're all moving in the right direction and we're not playing guesswork with our body.

Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, that's over at MerrickHealth.com slash power project and at checkout enter promo code power project to save 10% off any one of these panels or any lab on the entire website. Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Gotcha. Let me ask you this man, because you were talking about coordination earlier, right? What are your, because I think coordination and helping people learn to be better coordinated is something that's totally overlooked.

You know, especially when someone wants to strengthen their structure, their body, they'll go into the gym, they'll lift, they'll do all these sagittal same type of movements, but coordination is never dealt with. What are your things that you do for people in terms of improving the coordination? So I look at it like a continuum. This is like my main priority. It's coordination, mobility, stability.

But all those feed each other. Coordination's not a standalone thing. Even just putting a barbell on your back, you gotta coordinate the position. So I'd say everything is coordination. Everything that involves movement is coordinating a system. We tend to get caught in certain things that we do that we can coordinate a lot easier

and doesn't feel like coordination. It's just something that we can do. But somebody with their first barbell back squat ever, it's like, wow, okay, we gotta coordinate some of the foot position, how you get into the bar, how you hold the bar, how you pull the bar into you, like all these different little things to cue and coordinate.

So in terms of coordination, I'm mainly looking at the feet, the hips and the hands and how those extremities work through the center. And if the hand is moving, but your hips not moving, like when you do a reach and you're like, I want you to reach overhead and do this and I show it with a hip extension and they go like this and they can't do their hip at the same time. They're like, wait, what do you want me to do? Okay, we got a lot of coordinating work to do because that's just a simple overhead reach that if you're going to go catch a ball or something

or lift and wave to somebody, the hip should come with you a little bit. We don't need to be stiff and rigid and go high and come back, right? We need to be able to lift ourself up. So in terms of when I'm assessing somebody, if they say they have a mobility issue or they feel off balance, they're generally not saying they're poorly coordinated, but some people do come and say, I'm just so uncoordinated and I'm okay, there's probably going to be mobility and stability issues if they're lacking coordination. And sometimes they say they have bad coordination issues

and their mobility and stability is fantastic. So I need to get in alignment on what they mean by coordination because I think it's just a very broad term. But coordination is simply just, it's like putting, you have one task, two tasks, three tasks, but then at a certain point, all the tasks can become one task as we train our body. So now when I do an overhead reach, I do actually, didn't actually just let my hips go unless I coordinate to not move it. So I want to see just what's their level of recognition.

And we, I use a lunge matrix from Gray Institute. We use it at gymnasium for every movement assessment but it looks at 66 vital motions of the ankles, the knees, the hips, the lumbar, thoracic, cervical, and the shoulders. Not so much the elbow and the wrist. We're just looking at kind of global functionality, upright stance. In that assessment, it can be just a simple spherical reach. You know, you imagine you have a giant bubble around you and you're trying to trace the top of the bubble and then to the bottom of the bubble

and the sides of the bubble and rotation on the bubble. And so that's kind of a starting point. If somebody has trouble with that, we probably don't go too aggressively into more coordinated tasks that involve a step and a reach. But I might test, you know, more the thoracic spine and hip, the shoulder as they're doing those. And then to say, hey, let's put your hands on your hips. And we're going to go through a lunge matrix that looks at extension, flexion, adduction, abduction, internal, external rotation, mainly. There's a lot more going on,

but I wanna see, can their hips, can their body articulate this? I gave them the task of a step. I know what their ankle, knee, hip should be doing. I know what it could be doing. What is present here right now? So if they look very smooth through it, I'm gonna look at, okay, when they step forward,

did their back foot turn out? Did it turn in? Did it go forward? Did the heel stay down? I'm looking at how they're rooted. Because if they can coordinate it and it looks good, I'm gonna challenge that coordination. Hey, now try to keep your heel down.

Was I doing it wrong? No, I just wanna see if you have the coordination to keep your heel down and can feel that. Proprietively, I feel my heel. Some people are like, heel just comes up and they step forward and they're like, is my heel down and can feel that. Proprioceptively, I feel my heel. Some people are like, heel just comes up and they step forward and they're like, is my heel down? Like, is your heel down? They're like, I don't know.

Figure it out. Tell me if it's up or down. And they're like, oh, it's up. Okay, cool. You need to look at it for now. So coordination right now, you're relying on sight versus the feel. So if I can get people to start feeling their body, articulating these things that they didn't tell it to do, it's just what was the attractor well or whatever the body preferred to do,

the path of least resistance, I may then want to create more resistance to make them more aware, more coordinated. Or they're lacking it a ton, I also wanna work one version of this and we're gonna keep the heel up the whole time. Don't move it, just keep it up, and now step. I wanna see how their body articulates it

so that we can build a bridge of what I see and what you feel, because I can't feel for you. And it's hard to see what's going on because you don't have a mirror. And we intentionally don't have mirrors at gymnasios so that you're really tapped into the environment, the space, and also how you're feeling in your movement, because out there, there's no mirrors.

Right, we're moving around, so if you don't know how to feel a correction or feel a better position, you have to go back to the gym to correct it. It's not feeding you and integrating into your life. I want what we're working on, the coordination, to coordinate more so in your life, so your life becomes easier, your box becomes bigger, it becomes a sphere of potential,

versus this is my safe zone. I don't want to be out of it. How do you get people to calm down, like when they try something and they're kind of out of it. How do you get people to calm down? Like when they try something and they're kind of fearful of it. I realize you could probably just select different exercises and stuff and keep them a little safer. But how do you kind of encourage them

to continue to go through it? Because I know sometimes people will breathe erratically and all kinds of things will happen. It's a fun game to play. It's like a carnival ride. You really don't know what's going to happen. But it becomes a carousel ride in the sense of like, okay, we're seeing some, some cycles here that are coming back up. Like you get out of breath or you hold or you all of a

sudden stop your motion because you get in your head like it's not right. I tell them like I'm so patient. Like I don't care where we get to today. I just care that we get somewhere. And so I need to, I need your body to move so that I can better help you move. And if you don't move and you feel like you're really tense, I want to find a position that makes you feel safer. So a lot of times we'll use the true stretch. The true stretch, as intimidating as it may be, it's a giant half cage. As soon as you get your hands holding and you have four points of contact,

so two hands and two feet, your body's just like, oh, okay, I'm safe. So four points of contact is where I'll typically go first, as opposed to just lunging right away, and then just off balance, unstable. Yeah, a lot of people kind of hate scaling stuff. They hate kind of going down to the lowest level, but it can be really effective. Yeah, and some of that lowest level stuff

can be extremely intense. So I want to elicit an intensity inside of them that they're in control of versus there's an intensity and I don't know what's going to happen now and now I don't feel safe because now their body's not giving me an honest visual of how it can move. It's showing me how it freaks out and I wanted to get you out of that freak out mode. So now make a little note like, okay, you know, got off balance or they got a little freaked out or, you you know felt like they had to step out of position Cool, let's we want to come back to that But I want to show you something that might be more effective

And so I I do a lot of reframing with people because it is tough I don't get a ton of power lifters that come in because that it's not necessarily what we're attracting except for those who then gone through Decades of it and then go this isn't working for me anymore and I need to readjust and reframe what my life's gonna look like for the next 20 or 30 years because I've seen my friends break and I've been broken multiple times and now I don't want to keep breaking I don't want that second hip and that second knee that third shoulder done right so it's talking to somebody's

heart in that sense of like I don't where are we trying to get to today where do you want to get to today I I have my agenda, which is to keep moving forward and progressing you, but I want to progress you with at your speed. So I need you to communicate. So we open up the communication really early and I say, you need to tell me what you feel. And if you're in discomfort, I need to know about it. Because if you're in discomfort and you don't tell me, you're going to, you're going to potentially get worse and you're going to think that this isn't working, but I can't feel anything for you. So I try to make that very clear and just set the stage of and I ask again and again,

let's use a scale of one to three in pain. One is I feel something. It's not that bad. Cool. Let's keep going. Two, the more you have me do this exercise or this movement pattern or whatever the motion is, it's getting more aggravated in a certain area or maybe I'm getting out of breath. Three is don't make me do that again.

It's extremely painful, right? So the pinch or jamming, like, oh, it makes me freeze. So I try to offer that question up in every direction of movement that we do until I don't have to ask anymore and they just tell me. If they don't tell me, I just keep asking. And a lot of times it's like, eh, it's okay. Okay, is it a one? That's like a 0.5.

Okay, now we're communicating like okay There's something there, but we don't know what it is. Usually the point fives are this is new This is I don't know if this is a pain or discomfort. It's just a signal one is I recognize this And there it is and two is I don't like this, you know starting into this certain point So that communications key and everybody's a little bit different I have I work with a lot of 50 and over people and they've gone through a lot of life already more than I have and Even though I'm not at that age and gone through those experiences I've worked with a lot of people in that range

I've had the opportunity to do it with a lot of trust and have learned a lot about how people communicate their discomfort And there's people who are like I don't show anything I'm very stoic in the sense but not stoic in the sense of I know What's going on? It's stoic and I'm numbing myself away from this stuff. And then this other side of it is everything hurts Okay, we need to have a better baseline here because you might be in pain because this is something new But the pain isn't necessarily harming you this pain is signals that are overwhelming your system So I don't want to get you too spiked or now you're just like shaking and frozen. So there's this constant play and dance of mobility and stability and everything is coordination. And I'm just keeping my mind

in it and try to follow the intuitive path with that person. Now I might have a set program that I want to take them through that we've talked about what they're working on specifically. They want to run better. They want to be able to hike again. They just want to be able to squat and pick up their grandchild or hang out in the ground We're gonna set the program for those things and those building blocks to get into the positions to get in and out of it and then I want to overtrain you in the sense of Overpreparedness so that when you do the thing you're like, I didn't even think about that. I did that with a 10 pound kettlebell This is my little five pound dog and I didn't even think about picking the dog up and putting him over here.

I just did it. So I'm working a lot with the the subconscious space with people from what I can deem it right now is that your body's gonna tell me way more than you ever can and so I want to make sure that I put your body in a place where my mind can actually see what's going on and I may not have all the answers but I have a pathway to success with you because I know my four points, three points, and two points in one point of contact, we're gonna get from more mobility focused

with four points of contact, a lot of stability there so we can move better with less points of contact, single lay balance, there's probably gonna be less mobility available. So we're just always bridging that gap of what's your body capable of in the sense of the ability body capable of in the sense of the ability and then in the sense of the capacity, the reps, the weight, the rate, the range

of motion is the availability side. So we're playing with this sphere that's not so much one line of focus, which is what some people need and we'll go that route. But it's the spherical stuff that it's expanding people slowly over long periods of time that feeds into the longevity and the sustainability of their practice. And they don't even know it until they're a couple of years in and go, I've never stuck with anything for more than five months. I've been here for three or five or some people 10, 15 years. So something's working. And what is it exactly? It's a conversation. I wouldn't

say it's just the program and just what we're doing, but how it's being done. And what is it exactly? It's a conversation. I wouldn't say it's just the program and just what we're doing, but how it's being done. And we really work as a team with our coaches too. So there's a lot of cross conversation. We see similar clients or the same client sees another coach and we share insights and we develop our lens together from what we see what this person can do.

You apply a lot of different types of like stretching protocols with people. Seems to be pretty dynamic. And there seems to be some people that think that static stretching is useless, that it's all about stretching dynamically and there seems to be people that think that stretching in and of itself isn't beneficial at all. Causes too much ligament lack, it's not functional. So when you're applying stretching and when you're applying getting these tissues moving, what have you found to be beneficial? What have you found maybe to not be potentially so beneficial by applying it to so many people?

There's this consistent conversation about flexibility, mobility, range of motion training, and it's confusing because it's like I hear both sides of the puzzle. I think it goes for everything like nutrition and fitness and there's a lot of those things but with stretching specifically it's such a large term. What does stretch really mean? Like elongate. With that come may come decompression. With that comes tension. With that comes other things can get compressed. As you're lengthening one thing, something else shortens. So I look at it in terms of a stimulus of leverage,

and static has a place, dynamic has a place, just fluid movement. So if you look at it from an approach of static, fluid dynamic. Static being a hold of a position. Fluid being the transition in and out of a position. And dynamic being some form of rate change or added coordinated piece in a different dimension. Maybe adding rotation to a sagittal movement or it's a rotational movement and you add a frontal to it.

So the analogy is that, you know, think you got like a metal rod in the ground, it's stuck. And you know, like I just, you buy a property and there's a metal rod, you're like, I need to get this thing out. It's just stuck in the ground. I don't know why it's here. You can't lift it straight up. What do you typically do?

Send some dirt, shift it a little forward and back. Still budge, not budging. Okay, let's go the opposite, a little side to side. So you've now created this little cross pattern, like a funnel and sagittal plane kind of movement. And then typically, like, it's coming, but it's stuck. You circle that stick around and you spin it around. And now all of a sudden you've created a space, a bucket.

Now our bodies don't necessarily work like that analogy, but you can imagine how much space you're creating through different directions of movement versus just forcing it one way. So we can think about the main joints that are more mobile are the ankles, the hips, the thoracic spine, the shoulders, the wrists, everything in between like your elbows, the shoulder blade, the lumbar spine, the knees don't like to move a lot of different directions and a lot of different ranges. They like to stick with typically one, a little bit more flexion or one of the planes. So if we can look at the ankle and just look at this general mobility in each direction, flexion or dorsiflexion, plantar flexion, eversion, inversion,

a little bit of internal and external rotation. First, does the ankle have access to those dimensions? It might be really mobile in dorsiflexion and plantar flexion, but it can't invert. Okay, so now when you're pushing off, your foot doesn't want to invert and supinate in a sense. So that might cause something else up the chain to want to create that motion

so that you can walk forward and not walk in a circle. Like a Finding Nemo thing, you know, a small little fin and you're just like, can't spin. Your body's gonna keep figuring out a way, it's gonna compensate. So if we can say, you know, we find a mobile joint that is immobile in a certain direction, what else is happening up the chain?

You know, is the knee feeling issues? Is the hip feeling issues? Maybe you don't feel that at all. You didn't even know your ankle had limited inversion. But now that your ankle has limited inversion, and we now take it up to the hip, and we recognize, oh, you have great flexion extension, great external rotation, but horrible internal rotation.

Oh, okay, we're seeing a pathway here of like inversion and internal rotation of this hip are both limited. And that's really helpful to have that when you're going to walk or going for a full sprint or going to rotate and throw something. And if now you're always, you know, you're rotating but your body is compensating and not going into that inversion, not going into that intranotation because either it's freaked out by it, it's unstable, or maybe like the tissue is really locked and you had an injury when you were seven and you fell or you tripped It on a curb or something and you're like I've thrashed that ankles. I was in a boot for six weeks

We don't think about it so much, but those little things like I actually think about it like my right ankle. I've Twisted it like five times the past ten years Okay, bodies now created some kind of compensation so that you try not to do that again, but now it's at a risk of being more injured, your body's going to hold on to it. This is where mobility becomes a big service because now we're catching something before it turns into a knee, before it turns into a low back, before it turns into a neck kink or something that you're just like, it's just nagging, it's always there. But maybe coming from down the chain, down in the foot and in the hip, that's causing all these other issues. So mobility becomes a really important

thing to practice in some way shape or form as we age because our compensations become more and more apparent. Our attractor wells and the path of least resistance that we fall into, it's just how we move. But then how we move is it serving us every step we take or is it disserving us? And most of the time if we're not having some form of intentional practice there and paying attention to actually doing something, like step one is noticing, recognizing, and then we typically just allow it to be there and then we either numb ourself and just avoid it, avoid it, avoid it, or it goes so deep into it and we're investigating that we get so caught up in that one thing that it takes away from all of our other parts of our life.

And so having little integration, it's good to have an assessment protocol for yourself. Like there's a lot of different ones out there. I love the lunge matrix because it does look at the movement nutrients, the vital signs of what the mobile joints can do. And if I can't do that one day, I'm like, oh wow, I need to go mobilize that space. And I have a much better lifting session. Or I must have a much better week after that versus I didn't touch it, which has happened to where I'm like, I need to go work on that. I didn't I used to go work on that. I didn't I should go work on that. I didn't two weeks later fuck. I

Knew I should've been working on this now. I can't jump today. Like my knees feeling funky I don't want to push on it. So I think mobility has a place but it's Realizing the strategy that you're using when you're mobilizing. It's one thing to say yeah, I stretch Clients tell me that all the time. Okay, what do you do? And they can't tell me what they do. Or they say, I do this, you know, quad stretch. It feels really good. I do this. It's just, it's not helping my back.

And I know you said stretch my quads and my hip flexors, but it's not helping me. Okay, well, how many things that we do in our life are like this versus like this when we need the quad and the hip to integrate with the foot and the spine. So we might be doing the right area that we're stretching, but we're not integrating it into a functional way that our proprioceptive network is saying, I know how to use this. I recognize this position.

So yeah, I think, you know, I didn't value mobility training up until I got injured. And then I was like, oh, this shit actually helps. There's so much to think about, like even just being in a lunge position. I mean, you could push forward on the front leg more, you could extend through the back leg more, you can flex a glute on one side,

which might activate the hip on the other side, or might activate the hip on the same side. You can twist or lean, right? You can be really intentional. When you're training, I'm sure some of your stuff at this point, because you've gotten really fluid with a lot of things, but what are some of the things you're trying to think about?

Is it specific to areas where you're trying to improve? At this point in my practice, I'm really focused on patterns that serve me when I lift. So I'll do a lot of submaximal work with a kettlebell, a 20 kilo kettlebell. It's not super heavy. I've been doing kettlebell for a while. It was really heavy at first. But now that I'm aware of certain things, I'll go into the areas that I was mobilizing and stretching and I'll go do that with 44 pounds on me and see if what's changed or

how my body's holding back. Because that's a great primary. I know I'll typically spend five to 10 minutes with the kettlebell before I actually go into something that's heavier with a barbell and more strict and rigid. Every day is a little bit different too. I know I, this year I've been really focusing on doing the program that I've created for gymnasium at different levels and I'm actually doing the elite program, the G3 program and trying to do that every day and just seeing where this journey takes me because I wrote this thing and as I'm going to take the general population through that that wants to improve their athleticism, one of the things that I do when I go do this

session and how can I help cue and improve people here because it's one thing to do the drill the way I showed it. That's one thing to bring attention to one thing about that drill, how your foot's put in pressure. And so I'm always thinking about my feet. I'm always thinking about how they're pivoting and allowing my hips to move better or how I can root them and force my hips to work harder. So it's one thing to, you know, you rotate and the feet are rigid and you run out of room.

But if I have that back foot pivot, I have all this extra rotation. Do I want that right now or do I not? So I'm always having this cross back and forth conversation of this give and take, this push and pull. And can I meet it in the middle where I'm putting less effort into completing this task so that when I wanna put effort,

I have control of that effort versus- Maybe when you were starting, maybe when you were starting, sorry to interrupt, maybe when you were starting, you had to like think about it more, right? Yeah, like I didn't start with this, this golden kettlebell Cossack squat. Yeah, and that style of like lunge type squat type thing is something where if you're newer to it,

you might have to think about like, oh, I didn't really realize I could push with this other foot. Totally. Like you're kind of just sometimes thinking on like the leg where there's more pressure, where there's more weight, and you kind of forget like I have this whole other leg, this whole other hip, this whole other system, this whole other side of my body. Oh, I turned that on. Holy shit. This is way easier. Yeah, that I'm not even using, right? Yeah. So, in the lunges, we think a lot about the lunging leg. But I'm always thinking about what's that back leg doing,

because I want to see the chain reaction of where our intent is. Because if our intent is in the leg, we're doing the rest of our body a disservice. So if I have this lunge forward, yeah, when I push back, it's my lunging leg that pushes. But my back leg can also help pull me back. I have tension drawn in that hip. So can I use that foot? Like if you think about dragging your foot forward, but not moving it, you're like, oh, there's my hip.

It can turn on. And maybe you don't feel exactly there, but you feel something turn on. You know, for me, initially when I was starting these things, it was just getting into positions like that Cossack a couple years ago. I was folded over, hunched, kyphphosis and using a mob stick and be like, what the fuck, you know, just like the ancestral squat, you get into the range and everybody's a little bit different, but you know, my heels would lift and if I tried to put them down, I fall backwards.

So I started to think about the, add the points of contact and just see what my body is capable of. Not like I have to do this, but I wonder what will happen if, and it was this curiosity of asking my body what it could do and using those the feet in the four H's and then beyond that being able to create internal external torsion You know, I went through DJ Marikami and Chris Chamberlain's cheat torque They heard of this but the cheat torque is basically internal external torsion from like strong first, you know Okay, yeah, and they created this kind of like Dragon Ball Z version

of putting your body into like these Chi Ball type movements and it's like a combination of Tai Chi and tension work. And it inspired me because I'm like, I love this shit, like Tai Chi, martial arts type stuff, I'd never say done a lot of it, but I've explored a lot of it. And with that torsion applied to a position, that's where this like paying attention to your intention.

Intention, I came up, I was like, if I just pay attention to what my body decided to do when I gave it this task and just pause for a second, get static, can I hang out here? Oh shit, no, I'm like losing my balance. Okay, what do I need to do to shift? Well, for me, that conversation continued to come up. For others, there's not even like an inlet there

until we ask them like, can you turn your palm up? And it's like, okay, but nothing else moved. Like what if we turn your palm up and cue this external torsion versus this internal kind of work? And that completely shifted my lifting because I realized I was doing this stuff

when I didn't have weight on me. And then when I did have weight on me, I was just like, oh, let's go. First it's like, let's steer this shit. Let's like wring it out a little bit. And you're like, whoa, this feels really hard already. But then you lift and you're like, it was a part of me. I just lifted my body.

That bar, whatever equipment you use, that is an extension of your body. That's not external. It may start external, but if you know the physics of it, a mace, it's off-sided. A barbell, it's equal. A kettlebell, it's a little bit lopsided, but it's equal in a sense. You start to, for me it was like I was starting to steer physical forces. I'm like, oh, this is what the force feels like.

You know? You can start to shift it under your own command, but it's like you only are allowed so much because it's going to feed back and tell you what you can and can't do. So there's this always equilibrium that I was searching for with my mobility that then when I started to add load on top of it, I was like, oh, okay. Now this internal and external torque is actually already embedded in what I'm doing. I've just biased a certain way of doing it. What if instead of going external, I go internal and then go there?

Or if I do a kettlebell swing and I'm not here, I'm here. And I'm like, oh my God. Wow, you know, there's like parts of my body that didn't even know we're online and now they're here. So I like to share that with people, not in that extent when I'm working with somebody because they may not be ready for the, ah, this is the golden egg, right?

But again, hold the cards, like you might have pocket aces, but what's the other hands that are on the table? And what's the river look like? Like what's gonna come up in this session? And there might be an opportunity to play that, like this is the download that they need, this is the thing that they need to understand, to break through and inspires them.

And you see somebody light up, you're just like, yes. More points like that. Like you're enjoying your mobility now because you've realized the gain, the tension, the connection, the effort that can come from a position. You could be in a stride and I could also be in a stride and go like, yeah, my body's engaging. What am I engaging?

I'm not just squeezing and bracing. I'm driving my foot forward. I'm driving my foot back. I'm trying to rotate and I feel the whole fascial connection. You did a lot of anatomy trains, Tom Myers reading and connections there and embedded it with some of the great Institute stuff and it's amazing. You don't need to feel what the coaches say you need to feel. But what you need to

share is what you do feel because that's a ticket into carving this path where you have this ultimate connection to do the things that you want to do. Maybe it's not to do a bunch of acrobatic stuff and crazy flipping of kettlebells. You just want to feel more embodied and more present. You're trying to get healthier and you're probably eating chicken for every meal or the same beef cuts for every meal. And trust me, I know how good some cuts can be.

You can make anything taste good. But, Good Life Protein is the place that you want to go if you want to start adding some different types of meats into your rotation. They got picanha, they got chorizo sausage, which is still great on the macros because they're using Piedmontese beef. They have lobster, they have all different types of fish. They have actually a bunch of different types of chicken too. They have lamb.

I'm telling you, if you give it Good Life a shot and try some of their different meats, which are still great on the macros, you'll start to appreciate things that you can get from different meat. Don't think too hard about that one. But check out Good Life, because we're sure that you're gonna love the taste

and the quality, and it's good for your health. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, that's over at goodlifeproteins.com and at checkout enter promo code power to save 20% off your entire order. Or if you wanna save even more, use promo code power project to save an additional 5% off your build-a-box.

Again, goodlifeproteins.com, link is in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Use promo code power project to save an additional 5% off your build the box again good life proteins comm Link is in the description as well as the podcast show notes I know Tom Brady has talked about you know you got to keep in mind like Some of these people are so high level right to begin with and then he threw for many many years without doing this But I just thought it was interesting How after being in the NFL for many years and having tons of success that he was still looking for something better, right? And that's probably what made him one of the greatest of all time.

But when he would throw, he would track somebody with his other arm. So he would throw with his right, he would track a little bit with his left. And obviously throwing mechanics have a lot to do with your hips. And so he's Don Brady, so of course he knows about that, right?

But he would kind of throw his left hand out in front of him. He would identify the receiver, and then he would throw and sort of switch hands basically. And that left arm would just sort of do whatever. A lot of times the left arm would even kind of fall downward towards his hips. Sometimes he'd get blasted by somebody, right? And so he was thinking of like different ways

to protect himself a little bit. But also he started to notice that when he brought his hand actually towards him, not only did it protect him, but he could spin his spine around his own body. And he could feel this weird sensation that you're probably talking about. When I heard him talking about it, I only sort of know what he means,

but I don't know how to throw a football like Tom Brady. So I can imagine when he felt that, he was probably like, I figured it out. You know, I found this like vortex that's gonna give me more power when I'm throwing. So I think things like that are just incredible. There's so many little intentional things you can do within the movement that you already have.

And if you're already perfected a movement, you could perfect it even further. Yeah, that's infinitesimal where you can go with it. I think a lot of people want to go to the infinitesimal initially with no foundation set. So they just get burned out by what they're doing because they kind of lost this path. And what's the right foundation? What's the right stepping stone?

I don't think there is one. There might be a strategy that works for a community of people, but you got to really work with the culture, the history that they've been, you know, what have they been doing for their past 10 years, 5 years, or even much longer because they're going to have these habitual patterns and tendencies and it might be mentally, it might be physically, but a lot of people want to just dive in and go all into everything without their physical body adapting to what their mind is doing. Their mind is too far ahead of what their body's allowing or vice versa. Their body's ready for stuff, but their mind is holding them back.

And so it's this constant reevaluating and reframing for people that I think I have a good skill set with because I just, I do have the patience that I'll work with you as long as it takes. I'll spend a little extra time if you need it. But I want to, I would need you to focus in on what we're doing, not necessarily how I'm doing it, but how you're doing it. And it gets them out of a hole. And not reason a hole.

Some people are just, they just want to spice it up a little bit. It might be time to add in a little internal, external torsion or a teacup here and there. Maybe go grab a bowstaff or a moab stick and fuck around a little bit. Let me ask you this, man. Because obviously you're very far in your practice, right? So nowadays, what are the things that you do daily just to tap into your body, see how things are going, kind of assess yourself? What are the daily things that are just your habits now?

Every day I'll do the lunch matrix. So that's something I've done for the past literally 10 years. It just gives me a global connection of my fascia and what it's capable of for the day or the morning. Or sometimes it just opens up space. Let me ask you this too. When you say your fascia, because when you say that, right, people are like, wait, what does he mean like he taps into his fascia? Yeah. What do you mean?

This internal webbing that like I, you know, if you did like a body scan, like I feel my feet, I feel my ankles, I feel my knees, my hips. That feeling, what is that? And everybody's like, yeah, focus on my feet. Okay, I can focus on my feet, but yeah, I know I have feet, but there's no connection there. So typically it's about creating some kind of tension so that you imagine like a cup on a string, another cup. If I'm talking to you in the cup and there's a flaccid string between us, there's not going

to be any vibration. But if we pull it tight and start talking, all of a and there's a flaccid string between us, there's not gonna be any vibration. But if we pull it tight and start talking, all of a sudden there's something happening there. You can feel the vibration. So I want to create that tension in anywhere in my body. It might be a specific area, just my hip, or just my chest, and not just a muscular, like, peck engagement.

But I feel this area, there's something here. And when I first started doing this, it wasn't necessarily like, oh, I feel the tension. It's right there, there's something here. And when I first started doing this, it wasn't necessarily like, oh, I feel the tension. It's right there, there's the length. It was more like, I feel a sensation right here. Sometimes sharp, sometimes buzzy, sometimes a little achy, sometimes I feel like my muscles are fighting me

to get there, and I'm like, ooh, like a little cramp in my muscle. You sometimes can breathe into it? Yeah, and they're like, oh, I can exhale, I'm like, oh, okay, there it is. Or you inhale and you feel the expansion wall from the inside, and you're like, oh, if, there it is. Or you inhale and you feel the expansion wall from the inside and you're like, oh, if you try to take a deep inhale

and then keep breathing, you're gonna hit a wall of tension and you might cramp, you might like, oh, gotta like cough or something. So it's kind of just tapping into the sensory response of the back compartment of my body, the calves and hamstring area. But I look at it as like it's the whole back of the leg,

the quads and the shin muscles. Okay, it's the whole front. Okay leg. The quads and the shin muscles, okay, it's the whole front. Okay, the adductors and the outer hips, glute medius, okay, lateral and medial. In the lunge matrix, it provides an opportunity to feel that tension in each of these areas. So it feels like things are, like light switches are turning on of like, ah, there's my calf, there's my calf, there's my shin, there's my ankle, there's my knee, there's my hamstring, and not let's say in a bad way But just in signals and so if we can imagine like saran wrap and you start to stretch it

You can feel the stretch in your fingers of the saran wrap getting ready to rip, right? So if you have areas in your body that are like vacuum sealed and haven't moved and there's layers that are thick there And you go to reach for something like oh my god, oh my God, it's time to check. Like, I have some people do like their arms out wide, they're like, it's a huge chest stretch. I'm like, okay, your fascia is bound. Like, it wants to be here, and we just did this, and this feels like you're extending way far back.

They feel like they're like this. And they're like, is this right? You feel your chest? Yeah, okay, cool. And you put a hand on their hand, and now you can start to create this pressure, and now we can start to steer that tension a bit more isotonic in the sense of like you've got some tension there and then we're just moving through it.

Or maybe it's an isometric like I push on somebody's hand and they pipe back and we're going to be equilibrium like, okay there's the muscle engagement a bit more. So it's hard to separate but I'd say the fascial awareness is more like I'm trying to search for length and sensation between my joints. So through stretching, you might call it stretching, decompression work, I'm calling it a lunge matrix. You can label it whatever you want. And it may feel different to you. So you may not want to use that strategy. You might want to go land on your back and do some yoga stuff. You're like, is this fascial work? Yeah. Everything's fascial work. Fascial can get everything. You know, I have to go through the Lunge Matrix with you after this. Yeah, please.

But you know, you've mentioned so much compression, decompression. And it's really awesome because like with the way that I've been thinking about things too, like you mentioned thinking about things and thinking about the way your fascia feels. I kind of think about things and thinking about the way your fascia feels. I kind of think about things like how my bones feel. Like you just mentioned that joint decompression, right? When I'm trying to do things now, I'm trying to think about how can I pull at my skeleton? How can I compress my skeleton and see what that feels like?

And it's allowed for just, for me, a better understanding of the way my body moves, right? So when you're thinking about decompression, what are some practices you have and that you do that you think people can easily do that help with some decompression? For me, one of the big practices has been using a heavy rope. I feel total body decompression when I use a heavier rope.

I can access some of that with a lighter rope, but with a heavier rope, if I leverage my skeleton and kind of like let my body expand and let the rope kind of hang off of my body, the decompression is something else, right? So what is it for you or what are some different practices you think people can start to search for that would help with that? Rope is awesome if you can get to that space mentally. I think a lot of people get caught up in the technique of it,

so it becomes more compressive and practice the skill. But as you practice, now it becomes a decompressive practice. So initially, I mean, the simplest thing is find something to stable, put four points of contact, I'll keep them like this, but something to hang on to, and you don't have to hang with your feet up in the air. Just go grab on something that's overhead, because compression is pulling us, gravity is working on to, and you don't have to hang with your feet up in the air. Just go grab on something that's overhead because compression is pulling us, gravity is working on us and it's taking us here, putting us in a more kyphosis,

and our body's like, man, my back, my neck, and it's like, let's decompress your front, you know, and decompress other stuff. So literally putting your hands up on a wall and just pushing your hips back. Like that in itself is super simple decompressive work for a little bit in the shoulders. Like a door hinge or a door. Yeah, something better that you can grab on and just sit and then start to steer a little bit. So shift around and I'll generally give some people strategies of let's move a little side to side and rotational.

Let's not do the necessary ups and downs. Let's position yourself there, but then move your body side to side. So you're going to decompress your vertebra and then rotate a little bit. And you're like, Oh, wow, oh wow, this actually feels really good. My doctor said don't rotate. Okay, well check it out. You're rotating, you walked, you wiped your ass today. I definitely know you can rotate.

You know, so getting that overhead hang, something, it doesn't have to be overhead. Just something to hold onto and then make sure it's stable, but drive your body away from it. So it's literally just creating space. Beyond that, I love band work. Like a one inch elastic band. Make sure it's stable, but drive your body away from it. So it's literally just creating space. Beyond that, I love band work, like a one inch elastic band, and practicing a lot through like, you know, throw it on a chest and then rotate.

So now it's wanting to pull you a certain way. You can kind of go against it and it's going to fight back and it's going to want to pull you this way, you're decompressing shoulders, right? Or if you're in the front of your chest and walk away and you just keep walking forward, it can decompress the front. Throw it on a leg. Depending on the angulation you have, you're going to get of your chest and walk away and you just keep walking forward it can decompress the front. Throw it on a leg. Depending on the angulation you have you're gonna get a bunch of different decompressions. Like this is the one that I was just messing with for a little warm-up.

I've seen this band before. Yeah, the APT bands are awesome. And Goodpoint Train is shout out. They are the most comfortable, soft, hugging, supportive bands out there. I was reluctant to buy and they hit me up and I was like, alright, I guess it's time. And now I've been doing that literally every day at gymnasium in some form So that's the 16 foot heavy prowler band. I was I'm not like that's my first purchase I said what it's a 16 foot. It's like a 90 96 inches of it But 16 feet heavy prowler, is it a rubber band? It's like a cottony.

It's got a little stick in it. It's like sling shot material. Yeah, it's really comfortable. Cool. Where do you get the ideas for like, because like some of these movements get really creative and I'm just curious, do you just throw it on and then you're like, oh, this feels good. And then you just kind of like, especially this one right here. You really tie yourself up and then you get into that spiral movement

and I'm like, I know that feels good, but how did you figure it out? So the foundation of exploration for a lot of stuff that I do comes from what I learned with Gray Institute and Gymnasium in the early days of just three dimensional biomechanics and understanding that everything's a chain reaction. And it's easy to get caught up in the biomechanics if at all. But for me, I was like, hey, I know that if the femur is getting, I learned a lot of hands-on techniques and like driving somebody's femur into internal rotation and how that creates space on the on the glute actually lengthens it. I wanted to see if the band could be like a facilitator of that like my own therapist. So I put the band in

a certain way, walked around and I felt it, okay it wants to steer me into external. So when I fight into internal rotation I actually feel that space. So I'm kind of doing a little checks and balances on how is the band steering me? You know, what's the what's the angle? Is it high? Is it low? Is it mid? Is it in front of me? Is it the side of me? It's like for this one, I'm battling that rotation and this one's trying to steer me to the right. So I'm creating decompression when I turn left, right? It wants to steer me right. So it's like pull away. It's actually trying to pull me the opposite way. It creates a counter rotation.

This one I just was coming on the back, I wanted to just play around with some stuff for some of my older clients that have trouble walking backwards, needing some comfort. People get some push off power playing pickleball and tennis. So I was just kind of thinking like, okay, the people that I'm serving, what kind of movements do they do? And then what does it feel like when we add a banding? Because I can theoretically process it, but once I feel it, then I know it for sure. And they may not feel the exact same thing,

but biomechanically, I know what's happening and it's sound. So over the time of this work, they might feel the sensation, they might not, but regardless, it's going to serve their tissue in that path and in that angle. What's the rope doing? David Weck came up here a few years ago and started showing us the rope. And now people, you see a lot up here a few years ago and started showing us the rope,

and now people, you see a lot of people doing it on social media, and people are probably like, I don't understand, like, what is this? It looks dumb or it looks weird, or whatever they think about it. Maybe some people think it looks cool, but what are the benefits? Like, what are people getting out of it,

and what led you to find out about it? I mean, we could talk about this in different dimensions. My path... Let's stay here on Earth. Yeah. No, Earth is multidimensional, dog. We got 3D. There's at least three dimensions.

The mention of logic in the sense of, okay, well, what's actually happening here? It's creating rotational movement. There's a side bend. There's a form of coordination. It's using my fingers, my wrists, my elbows, my shoulders. They all have to be in the same journey, the same intent in order to be fluid. So in one sense, you're just getting great motion through an articulated part of your body. Whether it's an arm, it's a back, it's a hip, all the way to your arm. So looking at it from that sense, you're just getting movement nutrients to the space. You're giving some reps into the body.

You do nothing, you get nothing. You do something, you're going to get something. So simply put, if you haven't been doing anything, you start grabbing the ropes and just doing an underhand and overhand figure eight. You're getting your spine to articulate rotation, lateral bending, and synchronistically to either side. So you're building this connection to rhythm, to this harmony, to this little metronome of your body that's very similar to walking. At the same time, when you start to feel this out and you get the upper body motion,

your hips, your knees, and your ankles, and your feet all start to become wired up with this movement. So there's a coordination piece to it. There's a mobility piece to it. There's also a focus point of it. You know, before rope flow, I didn't feel like I could focus on a specific movement task for a while. And then I found myself rope flowing for 30 minutes to an hour at some points and just going like, that time flew by. What did I even do in that time? That felt like 10 minutes. You went a little crazy trainer on it. Yeah, dude. Just like, where did I end up?

So there's this calming piece too for the nervous system. Once you learn the technique, it can start to settle into the technique and go very slowly or very quickly. So it builds a spectrum of your ability to contact the speed that you want when you want it. So I could rope flow really slow and be fluid with it. It looks like slow motion

and immediately go into max speed. When you're learning the technique, a lot of it's just like, I don't even know, it's just a speed. It's the one speed. Have you seen anybody that can't do it? Sure, well, depends on what you mean by can't. Like they actually can't do it at all.

Yeah, so I've had a few clients just teaching me overhand figure eight, and the rope is just sloppy. It's just like moving side, it looks like they're scrubbing their feet. They're doing something. Nobody prepared this for me, nobody prepared me for this. And so then I was like, let's not use the rope modality. You're doing something. Nobody prepared this for me. Nobody prepared me for this. Yeah.

And so then I was like, let's not use the rope modality. You're afraid of it hitting you in the face, I can tell. And also your shoulders aren't even moving. It's just your hands and you're like, this isn't fun. Fuck the rope, let's go grab a moab stick. You ever been in the kayak? Yeah. You ever paddled forward in a kayak?

Yeah, okay, paddle forward. They're doing the overhand figure eight. So I don't need the rope to do that. This is just now giving a, giving a tool to the person in the environment they need to process this movement. And maybe they still have like, this is, I don't understand what I'm doing with this. This is so dumb.

And maybe we just kind of revisit it here and there. But what tends to happen, it's been a few instances where it hasn't, and just had to shift gears, just mentally don't want to do it, and their hearts not in it. People feel better after doing it for five minutes. and I just tell them, hey, you just wrote for five minutes.

I initially told him, hey, we're gonna do this for a minute and we're five minutes into it and they go like, how do you feel? Like actually, I don't want to tell you this, but my lower back feels a little bit better. I'm like, let's not say this fixed it, but something helped, obviously. So maybe this motion is valuable to your body. The rope is a fun tool to use. We don't have to use that thing. Mobe stick?

You don't have to use it. Do you like to swim? You haven't swim in years. Okay, start swimming. Boom, there's your figure eight motion. Walking it's a figure eight motion, but we tend to become really rigid and locked up. They start doing this. They're like, dude, I feel like I was was walking down the red carpet, like swaggy.

Get people their swag back, man. People just, they disregard their own swag that's in there. And when they start to get this fluidity, especially with my older women that are in it, they were taught to not move their hips and not move their shoulders. They're like, I have a pencil skirt, I had to be really strict and this is it. They start moving like this, they're like, just smiling, working out. And like, this is fitness. Like we're building you up. You don't have to be doing this insanely

heavy stuff. We just need to start building a path to something that can build some intensity in your life and movement. So for the people that struggle with it, most of the case, I've had two people that are just like, I don't want to do this shit. I'm like, let's not. There's no point. Maybe we'll come back to it. They see other people doing it. I also start grabbing a rope. Like everybody in our gym starts warming up with a rope in between Sessions and stuff and I go should I be doing that? But for the most part, it's like just be patient with the process I have people do overhand typically overhand figure eight. No problem. And then it's like I

Give a disclaimer. I say listen overhand is awesome It's the most natural because it pulls us into more kyphosis overhand pulls you here Most people are lacking some of the lordosis and the play of the posture and they're stuck in one Listen, overhand is awesome. It's the most natural because it pulls us into more kyphosis. Overhand pulls you here. Most people are lacking some of the lordosis and the play of the posture and they're stuck in one. So I'm going to show you an underhand figure eight. It's okay if you don't get this right away or even today, but it's something that we need to help your body unlock in some way so that your body has this play of posture

versus stuck and rigid. This is not a bad place to be when you can get out of it. It's a bad place when you're stuck in it. Just like the other side, the authoritative side is, fuck, now I gotta walk sideways through doorways. Like you just gotta find a way to get through the other side of that balance of your posture. So I have a lot of folks that will try to do the underhand,

then they can roll it on one side or one-handed, but the cross body, you go back to overhand, and I let them go for like a minute, and they're like, how'd I do? You went back to overhand, and I let them go for like a minute, and they're like, how'd I do? You went back to overhand, it's all good. It's just your natural state. And then typically I'll find a pathway to get them there, but then they can't come back.

It's kind of like riding a bike, like once you're going on the bike, you're good. But if you've got to turn or stop, you're like, oh shit, I don't know how to do this part, and you crash. And then you get back on the bike, and you're like, I totally forgot how to ride a bike again. But then at some point, you're just riding the bike,

and you can turn, and you can can stop and it's just there. So the rope, I feel with a lot of people, if they can get through that initial breakthrough of get out of your head about the silliness of it and the purpose of all this and just kind of get into the feel of it, then their feel is just like, this makes sense. There's still pushback from a lot of people

and I think, yeah, it's a silly fucking thing, man. It's a little string swinging around. What could it do for me? I don't need that. I'm already doing some mobility work. But for me, it's beautiful. And there could be cases for some people where maybe they just don't need it. Maybe they run and they play other sports and they feel good.

Rope flow you don't need. But what rope flow does in terms of your movement, I think everybody needs if you want to have graceful, harmonious, synchronistic movement. For years on this podcast, we've been talking about the benefit of barefoot shoes. And these are the shoes I used to use back in like 2017, 2018 by old Metcons. They are flat, but they're not very wide and they're very stiff and they don't move. That's why we've been partnering with and we've been using Vivo barefoot shoes. These are the Modus Strength shoe because not only are they wide, I have wide ass feet and so do we here on the podcast,

especially as our feet have gotten stronger, but they're flexible. So when you're doing certain movements, like let's say you're doing jumping or you're doing split squats or you're doing movements where your toes need to flex and move, your feet are able to do that and perform in the shoe, allowing them to get stronger over time. And obviously they're flexible. So your foot's allowed to be a foot. And when you're doing all types of exercise, your feet will get stronger,

improving your ability to move. Andrew, how can they get their hands on these? Yes, head to vivobarefoot.com slash power project and enter the code that you see on screen to save 20% off your entire order. Again, that's at vivobarefoot.com slash power project. Links in the description, as well as the podcast show notes. I love how like it's such a simple modality.

And the thing I love about it is how it affects older people. Because I have a lot of older people that are doing it and they're noticing that they're more balanced with the way that they walk. They don't feel like they're gonna trip as much. They feel that they can catch themselves easier. It's like the pains that they usually have

getting out of bed. They don't feel as much of that, if any of it. And it's just like a simple tool, a simple silly tool, right? Fixed a plethora of things, and is helping you actually perform better with the stuff you're doing in the gym. It's-

I'll say this, when I went to Wek Method back in 2019, I was just going into the open mind of, there's obviously something going on here and it's fucking crazy and I'm here to be a part of it. This is my mentality and it was absolutely crazy. Wek is crazy, Chris is brilliant, and they're both brilliant. Yeah, but it's just in their own ways

and they feed off each other really well. But when I was learning the rope, it was frustrating, dude. I could get my overhands and underhands, and I kind of got the dragon, but everybody's just sitting here in a dragon roll like... And I'm like, what the fuck? And then I was like, okay, this big global movement, I'm just minor, doing minor corrections

and bringing it in until I'm at my home base. And what happened in three days there, I didn't lift really any weights at all. There was nothing heavy. It was just a limit force elastic with the bands. It was rope flow. It was some pulser stuff. This was actually back on our little rope flow event recently.

I came back, ran my Bishop Peak run, which is like a two, something about three mile run. One and a half up, one and a half down. I cut off 10 minutes. The economy had moved. Bro. I was like, okay, what happened a half down. I cut off 10 minutes. Jesus. The economy had moved. Bro!

I was like, okay, what? I felt like I was falling uphill some... I mean, obviously it was hard, but I ran uphill and this weird thing was happening with my body. I'm just like, ooh, dude, I'm just like catwalking this shit up the hill and it didn't get tiring. And then it did, and then it didn't, and then it did. And then coming down, I was just like, what is this, dude? I'm like, somebody probably thought I was on mushrooms or something coming down.

They were just like, this is so great. And I come down like, dude, this has gotta be wrong. But at the time I'm like, holy shit, dude. My uphill time was so much faster, and my downhill time I didn't have to stop at the turns. I just fed into it, and I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing with Road Flow, but obviously the only thing I attributed to

was learning how to unlock the figure eights, the coil, the connection to that lower lat so I could funnel more efficiently to my feet. And then since then, I mean, I haven't made that kind of improvement, but like that was a download that then got me through something that obviously maybe I was ready for it at that time. And it was just like, Oh my gosh. And then I wanted to take this back to my people and try to prove it that it wasn't just an anomaly.

I was like, I'm going to take you guys through a workshop and go through some of the fundamentals. We do an hour and a half, you know, buy a rope and stuff. And it eventually led into people just being, they were so enthused by it, the ones that showed up, that they started teaching others how to do it in our community. And it was like, everybody's becoming a teacher and like sharing their insights of this too.

Like I'm not even, I can just like step off and people come to me to ask questions and there's something there for what it is. I don't know if we label it, but it's some form of harmony, fluidity, connection, presence and joy. Like ultimately just joy in the practice. I don't even know why it makes me feel good, but it makes me feel good. It's a good thing for you. It makes you feel good. Probably keep doing it. And now we've

been doing a weekly class in there with 60 day or 50 to 50 to eight year old individuals, some younger that come through, but it's like a Tuesday at eight 20. So it's really the only crew that can make it, but it's full. It's got 18 to 20 people in it every week. We've been doing it for two years. You're seeing 75 year old woman doing dragon rolls and they're like, having a conversation and they're like, oh, let me show you how to do this. And then the person's like, oh my God, how are you doing that? Like this is a, it's a, it's magic, but it's, it's just fluidity at its finest. And I love your story because like some people, I see comments like this,

like, oh, this would be great for my grandma or this or that. And it's like that story of you shaving off 10 minutes off of your run just because you became more fluid with your spinal movement within three fucking days. Yeah, I came back and ran, I was like, what though? This is insane. And dude, for me as a grappler, like we were talking earlier, I always would fair to one side when doing certain sweeps, when doing certain movements. But now my rotation on the other side is like, it's not the same as the right, but I'm sweeping and fucking people on the left side too.

And it's like, I never had, I never felt access to that like I do nowadays, right? And it's a plethora of things, but the rope allows you to get that symmetry on both sides of the body. Yeah, and then that fed into kettlebell work, mace flow work, and how I lift is a little bit different too. Like I trust some fluidity with some of the shifts

with heavier loads that I didn't trust before because I feel when my body braces versus feeds into something and I Mean I wouldn't I wouldn't change what change what happened in 2020 because I got to spend so much time with it You know I got to like be in it and just focus on my mental state with all these fluid Really the the rope the kettlebell in the mace. I feel there's a lot of individuals out there that are saying like that's what I carry

In my car. That's what I have in my car I got like 10 ropes in case somebody wants to roll a float or something. I don't know. Sometimes people just want to float on the road. But having that, you know, wherever you go, you got a walking gym, but it's also something about so much about the gym and the fitness side of pushing performance, more so your presence in the play of life. Like this, there's this dance that's always available and we tend to get off the road a little bit and everything's kind of become aggressive and rigid and blocked off. I think with the rope, it's kind of like you have this friend and

this friend right here and they can talk to the whole rest of your body. When you have connection to your hands, it's just like, oh, like you're not afraid of shit. Yeah, there's probably a pretty big gap between, you know, Arnold's time and when CT Fletcher came on board. But somewhere in that time, we got screwed up and like forgot that exercise is supposed to make us feel good, supposed to make us feel better. And it seems like there's a call back to that. And it seems like you're starting to see more people

exploring some of these movement patterns. Some of these things have been around for a long time, not necessarily rope flow, I believe Weck created it. And yeah, so that's fairly a newer practice, but Tai Chi or movements that maybe represent rope flow have obviously been around for a very long time. A lot of the movements that you see professional athletes do, sometimes those things originated in PT,

you know, somebody training from an injury or something like that. But I think it's great. I think it's really cool because I think that more people should be exploring training these ways. I don't think everyone needs all these particular protocols. I just think that in order to kind of preserve

what people are trying to preserve, and a lot of people are talking about longevity and being vibrant and feeling good in their 60s, 70s and so on. And I think that it's possible that you could do that with like a bench squat and deadlift. It's possible you could do that with just straight up bodybuilding, I would assume.

But I think that if you're missing out on some athletic pieces, you're really missing out on a large piece of the puzzle. Because I think that if you're missing out on some athletic pieces, you're really missing out on a large piece of the puzzle. Because I think just throughout history, our body has had so much demand placed on it. There's been so much that you were sort of responsible for. And I also don't think that people ever really consider how much rest people had either.

You know, we were always, we're always working towards leveraging things, making things easier, things like pulleys and just all kinds of systems and all kinds of stuff so that we could relax or so that we can do things more efficiently over a long period of time. But nowadays, we don't have the same physical demand and so therefore we need to kind of make up with it

through artificial exercise, as I like to kind of call it. But I think that a lot of these movements, a lot of these things are designed to help make us feel better. So if you leave the gym and you're always just exhausted and not feeling great and then unmotivated to do your next workout and you need to grab a energy drink for your workout,

I think something might be a little bit off. That happening here and there, maybe it's understandable, but I think for the most part, you should be pretty up for your workouts because your workouts shouldn't be wiping you out so much. They should be encouraging and making you feel better. There's nothing like a kick-ass workout though that just absolutely destroys you. Every once in a while. It's beautiful. I think we can get caught up in it because of the gains we get.

And like, oh dude, if I stay on this path, I'll keep going there, dude. And it feeds that dopamine rush. And it can also blanket what's not being processed mentally. Now you're just full physical aggression. And I've talked with Jared about this too, a crazy trainer. And you know, he goes, he gets into like a heavy mode. And then he becomes a heavy fucking person. Like you're just like, dude, you're like really aggressive right now.

Chill your tits, bro. He's like, oh, I kind of do need to flow a little bit more, you know? Those kind of things. But I think if we chase the gains, there's a certain threshold we hit where we're not making the gains we once did. And then we try to work harder to hit that extra gain, that extra five or 10 pounds on the bar at a time.

And they're like, I'm barely doing two and a half gain. And I'm like, now I'm going down a little bit. And we think that the work harder needs to take the forefront when it really just might be a little shift to the stage a little bit and we think that the work harder needs to take the forefront. When it really just might be a little shift to the stage a little bit, something that's like, maybe go do ballet or ballet class or dance class or Zumba or something. Just get your head out of your rut and be like, yeah, that wasn't for me, but recognize what might happen the next day. And your body just like kind of let go of some shit you weren't thinking about or holding

on. But so many people get stuck in the dynamic of what they have been doing and what's been working. Like we chatted with initially that it's hard to start something new and it's embarrassing sometimes to start something new and it brings too much attention to ourselves and it also spots the weaknesses and other little things that we haven't been addressing. And we're like, they need some time. It's like, no, like we should always be in that some form of learners, beginners, student kind of mindset, just to understand that there is way more out there.

And it may not be for you directly, but it's something that now you can relate to others better. And if we're just doing our thing and we're being dogmatic about it, and now somebody else on the other side is doing something different, it becomes a battle versus like, there's actually something we can share with each other. You know, I hear a lot of times with like college sports teams and stuff that a team will sometimes train in a different environment. The basketball team will go into the wrestling room and they'll go roll around for a little bit and the wrestling team will go shoot some baskets.

They're not good at it, but it's playful. It's fun. You're experiencing it with your team together, too, of this newness that I think it improves the experience versus doing it alone and just being like, what's the point? But if you're like laughing with each other and just having a good time and making stuff up that you haven't done, it's that childlike play that should also be adult play.

Like we should keep growing in that space of unknown, curiosity, and just like let things be awkward, and then let things be silly, but then also like tame it back and organize it, reintegrate it, maybe take one thing from that. Or maybe just like, hey, that was a fun thing to do, I'd love to do that again down the road. It just kind of let me be free again.

Let me ask you this, man. Again, you do a lot of things. I haven't seen as much juggling on your feed, but maybe you still do some of it. What did that teach you? Because I think that's another practice that when people see it, they're like, one, that's dangerous and will break my toes. Two, looks looks cool but probably

useless so what did it teach you? Not be so freaked out. I don't even know when I started it really I bought a kettlebell for the first time in 2020. I bought a pink eight kilo kettlebell and it sat in my garage for like three months. I was like I don't like kettlebells this is stupid. It hurts my forearm and my wrist and my fingers. And like, I could just go get a dumbbell or do stuff with the landmine or barbell, whatever

I want to do with the weight. And then I was like, okay, I recognize this. Let's stop this thought process right now and let's start using it. Let's let this go on for too long. So I started just getting really familiar with like the big six and different swings and just ways to hold it and embrace it. And it brought up this really cool, like, fatherhood feel of like, this is my baby. And I didn't have a child at the time.

And now she's, now I got a two-year-old and it's like, oh, this kettlebell fed me so well. Like, this is great. I can carry her anywhere. I can flip her around and stuff. But it made me feel a lot more confident in the unknown of a pathway of exploration physically, but also mentally. Like when I flipped the bell for the first time, I was like, what, how the hell are they doing? Like two or three flips? They're doing different directions. I was just catching videos on YouTube and I was learning how to like just do a two-handed eight kilogram flip and catch and I couldn't catch it. I was playing at the park and it elicited again frustration initially, but then I was fine-tuning every single rep to be able to connect to this physical force of momentum.

There's mass, there's velocity, there's direction. There's a lot of these things that I learned a lot about in with gymnastics and in school with the forces at play. But it's a lot about the angulation and pulley system of the angle and how to get leverage. This is entirely different because it could go anywhere. Sometimes I catch it and wants to go sideways. Oh, there's my knee. I'm like, oh fun reaction training. And I haven't dropped it on my foot. I haven't hit anything, dude. It's been it's been great. You know, occasional little like knock of a knee and you're like, oh, that was close, but we're good. But never a drop that hit me. It's like, Oh, somebody's shooting at you and you're like, doing a little dance

and you just get ready for it. Yeah, you get happy feet. And if you go to a park, it will just drop on the ground. Just go to the grass. Get some grass, dude. It won't even make a sound. People are going to look at you like, what are you doing? I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. But I started to bring in what I learned from Gymnasio biomechanics and programming that we were developing and exploring different lines of tension. You know, we talk a lot about planes of motion,

but I think that's also a thing like stretching, like, okay, planes of motion, stretching, what do you really mean by the context of this? And so I was exploring a lot of my front and back space, my north and south, my east and west, my lateral space, and my rotational space. And I was like, motherfucker, this is a compass. So I started to feel like I was navigating my space

in a whole different way, that I was becoming more confident in the space that I take up. Because I know where that bell's gonna go. And if it went somewhere new, I'm like, oh shit, how did it go there? Can I get over there and catch it when it's over there? Can I make that mistake a happy accident? Well, thank you, Bob Ross. You know, like, let's paint a picture here.

Let's make it a happy accident. Make something beautiful out of something that was potentially harming. It could hit you or land on somebody or damage something. So I think it helped me navigate my space. So now when I see somebody moving, I can recognize when something is unintentional and when it is intentional.

Because I know when my body does something intentional, it starts to freak out or freeze. When it's intentional, I can catch it and it becomes more fluid. And so I was learning a lot to play with this mass. So I think for people that are in martial arts, it's amazing because you're steering, it's risk control, it's head pressure, it's foot, it's rootedness,

it's like, whoa, this is gonna throw me off balance. So the benefits I think are endless, but you bring a context to why you're doing it. Maybe it's just for fun and play. Maybe it's to develop some kind of power. There's a power piece to it, especially if you start to flip it two or three times. You got to throw that punch at there, you know? You got to be able to steer it left or up or down or angular

and then not be able to when you're not seeing it, where's it going to be? So there's this like time travel in a sense, too. Like, you know where it's going to be before it gets there. I started doing these ones like behind the back and I'm like, ooh, oh shit! You see that? It just ended up on my shoulder. And then you get the other side and you start to piece them together.

So it's a lot of fun. It's scary at first, but it's kind of like just start with where you are. And we have a handful of people that enter at Gymnoso that are like, I want to start doing that stuff. So we like created like a little drop zone with boxes and whatnot. And just get familiar with like a six kilo bell or just just your hand movements and I think the the rope feeds so well into it because how you Started throwing the rope and releasing it and going like I know where that rope is gonna end up Yeah, but wow

There's a lot longer lever here that could flip in any direction if my hand does this or that or that or this So like finger play of the of the rope and like this is rope foreplay over here. Like before you start to get into like this super fast rigid movement. But yeah, I think the number one thing that Kenebell Flow has given me in juggling has been joy. Joy in the practice and doing something that I could not do at all or even want to step into to yes, I can do that. I can learn a new skill and not feel like I can't do that. It's like, okay, what are the steps to do that? How do they get there?

Because there's people that are flowing like in... And Kenil Benjong is like, I can spend around for a while too. Like the competitions and stuff, I'm like, wow, there's people that are really, really good with their lines. And it's almost like different music genres, like how people flow, like you're definitely a rap, like you're definitely jazz, like you're classical, like how they flow. If you watch people kind of over here,

I kind of get that, and this one's like, are you ska? What's going on over here? It's just everywhere. So it's fun to tap into that, especially playing different music, kind of elicit a different state. What's the deal with that pattern that's in your gym?

Is that just for your lunging? The circle, it's a little compass. Yeah, it's a circle that has a up and down line, a lateral line, and then cross lines. So there's eight different vectors. Is that something you just made? Yeah, we've, there's a couple of circles and stuff out there. It gives you a spot to do some of that stuff,

it's kinda neat. Yeah, it helps me recalibrate where I'm stepping and if I'm going inconsistent, I can actually see this. So I don't use this generally that much unless I'm teaching somebody something or if I'm trying to get a new flow. Like this is one I learned from Crazy Trainer. It's called the Crazy 8 Flow. It's got a bunch of different pieces to it.

And piecing those pieces together is crazy. So I use the compass to essentially line up my sagittal, my frontal, and then my transverse kind of lines. And then also range of motion. So you have a central circle, a middle, and then an outside circle. That's like, think of it like initial, medium, and end range. You got the vectors that could be anterior, posterior, right and left lateral, and then you got anterior lateral and posterior lateral. So I see that everywhere I go,

and I know when I'm gonna take a step, I know which part of that vector I'm gonna land on. That's really helpful initially, but there's little nuances in between the steps, and you don't have to step like directly on the line or anything, it's just a reference point, a map to calibrate. So when I was doing this initially before I actually completed this full flow, I was struggling for like 20 minutes.

Just dripping sweat with a 12 kilo kettlebell. I'm like, oh my god, I'm trying to get this in a minute, and I don't know if I can get it. I was all over the map and I was like off balance. And then I started to look at certain points that I hit, come back to that neutral center as close to possible. And it's just a reference point. So when we're doing like lunge matrix type stuff or movement assessments, it's more helpful to the client because it gives them something to aim at.

Versus open space, they're like, I'm hesitant, I don't know where I'm gonna end up. So it gives you a moment, okay, let's go to this line. Or let's take it along the dash line. Okay, your step, I want your foot pointed in line with this line. Or I want you to start with one foot right in the center. So it gives them, again, this connection point to the ground that's always there.

And now they can check it and go, am I actually think, am I where I think I am? And they're like in the left back corner of the circle. I'm like, I need you in the center of the circle. Look where you ended up. So if they do like a rotational lunge, like a Cossack type step, and they come back, but then they're like on the side of the circle, I can point out and they don't have to trust what I say. They can see their body and they're like, oh shit, I don't even know how I ended up there.

Okay, let's keep that foot tacked down and open back up. So yeah, that's the eight vectors. You probably heard like eight vector movement stuff. I know that's been around for a little bit, but it's just a way to multidimensionalize your movement practice. You're going forward and back, okay, go along a different vector. As opposed to knowing all the biomechanics and all the different terminology, just express yourself in different angulations here.

And that's a starting point. You don't really need all this labeling and words unless you're going to maybe be having a conversation with somebody who's trying to understand a surgery or a pain or an injury or something that we need to talk very specific on what bone what muscle what joint what Angulation at what like, you know, a lot more little nuances that can help us get somebody healed more efficiently I think even someone is using that compass even without the kettlebell Oh, dude, just say it was super challenging just moving, you know from side to side back and forward backward and so on Yeah, it's a it's a helpful map

There's another company called Mopo Solutions that actually has like a, this is like an iron-on. The company's not around anymore. We wanted more of them, and we don't know where to find them. But they make a circle mat that's like a felt. It's kind of soft. They use a slider mat too, but it's got a full rainbow of colors and degree lines,

so it's more labeled, so for more assessment protocol. Twister-like, yeah. Right foot, yellow, assessment protocol. A little twister like. Yeah. No, I mean I make... Right foot, yellow, 75 degrees. Honestly, it makes a ton of sense. I mean if you're... Yeah, you put... And you put your hand...

There it is right there. Yeah, that's the mobile map. Put your hands down too, right? You put your hands on certain spots and you know you could really be moving in all kinds of different directions. And that's, I mean that's really how to map out the space. It's fun if you want to go more linear and like the lines and have this all like mapped out mathematically and track it all.

But it's another thing just to explore that space and make yourself a child again and just play around with the different colors and reaches. And you're like, damn, my body feels worked. What's that map called again? What website? Mopo, M-O-P-O solutions. That looks cool.

Mopo, I'm gonna buy that right now. What made you open to, you know, you went to school for kinesiology. What made you open to more unconventional stuff, like listening to someone like David Weck? I wanna say that I've always been pretty open-minded. I definitely feel like I've pushed myself into a speed blast in this sense. Like you get the mushroom in Mario Kart and like, okay, we're going now.

Like this is it. And I'd give some credit to cannabis in that sense. That's been a really helpful decompressor. Cannabis brought you to David Weck. Okay. I love it. The path. I'll bring the bridge together.

But essentially, I didn't smoke or consume cannabis at all, like through up until college, even through college. And then I was like, man, my shoulders still kind of funky. People been saying, you know, it can help with this discomfort that's going on. I was getting better, but I was still kind of struggling. So I was like, it's a bit more accepted now. I can go get my medical card and go do this. And I'll tell you what, man, like it opened my eyes of how helpful a plant can be and

use as a tool as opposed to, I mean, it could be called a medicine tool, whatever you want to call it. For me, it was a tool. And I was like, I want to just explore this stuff. I was reading a lot more about CBD, THC, the receptors in the brain, and just this. I had this whole upbringing of like, not that my parents were super strict, but they're like, don't get into that shit. I smoked it once, I'm like, ah, I smell that, I know what you did.

Don't ever do that again. I was like, I'm just exploring it. But I wasn't using it for a purpose at all. And then for this, I had a purpose to explore it, so I had an intent going into it. My shoulder started feeling miraculously good. Like I would take it through, I'm like, I just wanna get on the ground and be a fucking puma right now, and just like shift around.

I was doing pushups differently, and I'm like, this shit is amazing. And then there's like, you know, there's different doses and stuff, and I was exploring that, and I found too much, and I found like the right amount, and started moving with that and not being lazy with it. I got to add in real quick.

I was told to be lazy, you know? It is really cool. Like when used with intention, how that can kind of allow you to just venture in your body a little bit. It kind of takes you out of your head and it lets you get in, it lets you feel. Yeah, so anyway, sorry to interrupt,

but I just had to add to that. It's a sticky plant, you know? And so you can get, for me, I got stuck in certain zones of like, oh, there's something here, I gotta figure this out. And you're like, it's already all figured out, dude. What do I hear? Like, the point is to play in this space. Like you're just high.

Yeah. I was seeing spirals and shit. So like, all the math and like writing notes. I'm like, okay, wait a second. This is not what I'm doing. Move. Be somatic with this. And I was processing some emotion and stuff too.

So I didn't realize that it wasn't just physical. I had some different connection points in my brain to my shoulder that were holding me back. And part of that was just this story I'd written about my life and where I am now and what I'm doing. And it was kind of confusing. I kind of pieced some parts together. And through my physical expression,

could reframe mentally what was going on and just get out of the whole mental state and back in the physical space and just go like This is a this is a very spiritual experience. Like I'm ebbing and flowing between this mental and physical state. I'm kind of understanding What a lot of these ancient people are talking about in the sense of it's a presence. It's a connection It's this infinitude of opportunity that's here But you need to bring purpose to it and intent to it and see things before they're happening in a sense. I'm like, okay, what does my shoulder feel like? I know I have this like hesitant to do that kind of push-up.

Let's do a single arm push-up and like find a connection. It was like, oh wow. I would have never thought about that in my sober state unless somebody helped guide that, but the state that I'm in right now is explorative, playful, and accepting, And I'm investigating this. And the more I started to consume it, and more often in my movement practice, my movement practice started to shape, shift into kind of this freedom of expression.

And I wasn't in it so much for the gains of muscle and mass and what I could do, but so much more of how I could communicate to my body. And to everything else around. I was like, wow, I actually feel the room I'm in and how it's influencing how I'm moving. So I set up my dojo, my little home gym. So it's like a lounge area and a fitness area versus it would hold my motorcycle and then it had like a little room to kind of work out like this isn't, this isn't convenient

for moving at all. Let's move some stuff around, make this a space where it's just inviting that everything goes and I have ways I can put it on little pulleys. I got my kettlebells. I got my landmine. I have this little table here that I can use. I have a little drum that I can kind of lean on and reach. And the room started to become this space where I could learn. It was like my own, my own little studio to explore. And so I think through that I was, I was resonating with people who are also exploring some of these realms of communicating with the body and new downloads and like some

of this talk just influenced me. But for that actual connection with David Weck, I was in Peru with my wife and we were at this retreat and it was like a movement retreat with DJ. I recall me this is actually right before Cheatork was created. He was like creating it there. We got to like witness it. I'm like, what the fuck is going on? But a lot of it was like all this coiling and teacup stuff. We had consumed some San Pedro and it was like a 10 hour experience. San Pedro, is that alcohol?

Is that? Wachuma, it's cactus. It's like a, not peyote, but another one. Very cool. Okay. And I went there to, not just for that, I was going to visit Cusco and Machu Picchu and then also be part of this. And I was going to go alone. I told my wife about it. She's like, I want to go. I'm like, are you sure you want to go on this little movement retreat?

Like, we might also be doing some psychedelics. And so in that experience, my body was going through these like teacup spiralizing flows. And I... It's the only way I felt good during the experience. If I was solid, my body was like going to explode. Like it was just like, get the fuck up. I'm like, okay, okay, go pick up a rock. Oh, it feels better. Go toss a rock in the water.

Oh, it feels so good. Oh, look at that bird. You know, like you just like kind of in tune with all the stuff. And then my body's just like whipping around and it feels like this like, I don't know, there's like a Kundalini breath. There's like a, there's ways to describe it. It's just a figure eight motion. But I was going through these figure eights

and I had two boulders in my two little, you know, three or four pound rocks in my hands and just like circling and I was like, dude, I could do this for hours. And I think I was out there for 90 minutes. And I'm like, I got such a crazy bump right now. And like DJs over there like tucking into a tree and I'm like, okay, this is like, this is insane.

And then I was like, I like coiled and was twisting it before I even knew David Wex stuff. Another day, DJs out there with some ropes, DJ and Tom Mountjoy, they're out there with some ropes, showing some guys, I'm just kind of sitting up reflecting on what the fuck happened the other day. I was writing stuff down and I see them like kind of just throwing ropes and I'm like, that's cool. But I wasn't like, I'm gonna go get involved with that. But I was watching from afar and just, they would look so intent with what they were doing. I'm like, just spinning a figure eight.

Like, why is this so profound? And I didn't realize it, but then I, they had been talking about like David Weck and I was like, who's this guy? I started following him and I was like, oh my God, I gotta meet this guy, this guy's crazy. And seems like he knows some stuff. So then I literally signed up for the Weck Method One.

That was like two months later. I was like, this is like in July and then the WEK Method 1 was like in September or something. And that's when I, I was like, I just pulled the trigger. I was like, I'm going to go, I'll spend the money. I don't want to talk to anybody. I'm just like, this is worth it to me to go learn and show up just as like an outside, not hit up anybody, give me a discount, anything like that. I just want to, I want to go in for me. And that opened my eyes. I had to meet Chris's methodology, like Chris's way of programming what Weck was talking about, Weck's crazy antics and where he goes mentally and it makes all these connections that you're

like, where are we now? How do we get to this conversation? But something was connected there and I was just fascinated by his mind. As crazy as he is, he's brilliant and he's a great dude and really does care and he's done some serious work and spent some serious time and I just respected that. So I was like, I want to learn from another guy who's exploring too, the fellow explorers out there. And then since then, it wasn't just the coming back and cutting off 10 minutes of my time. Like I truly enjoyed that

weekend connecting with people and networking, meeting people that I had just barely been following on Instagram. And it was kind of this weird, is this life right now? Like what's especially still processing what went down in Peru. Like there's like what's happening right now. And it just helped me reframe again where my mind was at with fitness and understanding what we're all doing here, how we're going to help people. And I was already at gymnasium for a handful of years, five years or so. But since that shift, it was kind of like, what we've been

doing is working, but there's always something more we can integrate and help serve this community better. And we haven't, we'd never been dogmatic really. I mean, you know, initially in our initial days, we did a lot of grand student stuff and it was all 3D biomechanics and this is how to do it. Didn't do any bench press or back squats or anything like that. It was all three-dimensionalized. But I was like, I still miss the pump and like the heavy lifting stuff. And I got into programming,

got to bring some of that stuff back. And it's been a lot of integrating of multiple methodologies, but even more so what these methodologies pull from in terms of principles and strategies that may serve the athletes and coaches coming through. But then when these people take it back to their community, there's no bridge there.

And like, we're some of that bridge to help, you know, a 60-year-old doing a landmine drill. Okay, we're not doing it for the performance aspect of a split jerk and all this stuff, but I want them to get really familiar with this barbell going up over their head and they feel leverage and it's not a barbell up in front of their chest, front rack and pressing it

and they're worried about it. They're like, I have leverage here. And it's this gateway into, I can do stuff and I can use the methodologies that you see these other athletes doing, but modify it for what you can do. And I think there's the whole scaling thing, but I think with a lot of older individuals that are kind of like, I've kind of come to what's in here. I just need to figure out something different.

They're open to it. Um, and I'm not going to force anybody to go through some of this stuff, but there is insights always available if you're open-hearted, open-minded with it. We got a lot of like-hearted coaches at Gymnozo that just want to share. Movement exploration, do you think that could be maybe changed to mind exploration? Because it sounds like that's kind of the journey that you're on. Movement is mind. Maybe mind is movement for sure.

I think movement is far beyond the physical side of things. It's happening in our mind. Baby, mind is movement for sure. Everything, I think movement is far beyond the physical side of things. It's happening in our mind. It's happening in our thoughts. It's happening in our communication. It's happening when we're traveling. It's happening. Life has to move. If there's no movements, it's just decay and death. So, yeah, man, it is a mind game. But your body's your mind too. Where can people find you? Movement Exploration Channel on Instagram, of course.

I'm also at Gymnazo EDU. We have a spot in San Luis Obispo. We do some group training and we do a lot of online courses as well. So we have a few mentorships for biomechanics, for programming. I help a lot with the structure of that. And then our lead, Michael, he owns Gymnazo. He does, he's the Dean of Education. He does a lot more of the actual mentorships,

but I'll be jumping in when I got some more time to do it. So stay tuned for those. We got one launching today and then another mentorship launching January and sometime next year. So I'll be leading some of those if people want to dive into this stuff on the programming realm, the biomechanics realm or both. Just multi-dimensional movement in general.

But best way to get me is on Instagram. Strength is never weakness, weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later, bye.