The Sevan Podcast - #300 - Joe, Illuminati Iron

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

Joe is the guy behind the instagram account "Illuminati Iron". He is a military veteran, certified personal trainer, and lives in a van for a lot of time out of the year. He loves fitness and encouraging other people to get healthy. When asked what his long term goal is, he said he just wants to be the dad or grandfather who is still able to go hiking when he is 70 and carry children around in one of those backpacks while hiking.  https://www.paperstcoffee.com/shop https://www.barbelljobs.com/ "The Sevan Podcast" T-Shirts https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealseva... Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event skip to the good bit using the card member entrance let's go seize the night that's the powerful backing of american express visit amex.ca slash y amex benefits vary by card other conditions apply uh bam we're live joe what's up up, brother? All is well, man. Can't complain. How are you? Awesome. Joe, this is Caleb. Caleb, Joe. Caleb, what's going on, brother? You guys, it's 100% Joe's fault that we're 45 minutes late today.

Not true at all. Not true at all. Guys, yesterday I looked at the schedule, and I had it for six but on mondays i gotta take the kids to jujitsu and i wasn't gonna be home till 6 30 and that was my screw up and i know a bunch you've been waiting 45 minutes and i deeply apologize and i really mean that that sucks you guys uh load up in the live chat and and i left you hanging sorry i'll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again are Are you in your van? I am, sir. Yes.

Are you? Wait, where? Are you in Australia? No, I'm here in San Diego. Were you in Australia? Never have been, no. Oh, for some reason I thought you were in Australia. Okay.

Because maybe Susie told me you were on Australia time. No. PST, brother. Okay, cool. You popped on my radar when I saw Dave Castro reposting some of your workouts. And Dave, we trust. Do you CrossFit? No, I do not.

What do you do? What is this? By the way, your Instagram's awesome, highly motivational. And the fact that you spend six months a year in the van is so freaking cool. I think it's like something that a lot of people want to do. They just don't have the balls to do it. So I was like, man, I got to talk to this guy and see how he's juggling this. How did Dave pop on your radar? Because you're both Navy guys or how did Dave pop on your radar?

How did Dave pop on your radar? Because you're both Navy guys? Or how did Dave pop on your radar? So when I was starting to build my account and doing workouts, and once again, I wouldn't say I'm strictly in one niche of fitness, so to speak, but I like to dabble in a little bit of everything. I remember going off once during a workout and I get super passionate and I like to tag different athletes or different people who seem to be like-minded individuals who, you know, are about it. And I once tagged Dave and got a positive response from him. And every once in a while, I'll go back and forth and in the DMs with them,

and I've never got a chance to meet him, but would definitely like to. And he seems like a great dude. So every once in a while, he'll shout me out and give me some love and it's all good vibes. What was the, um, what was the first thing you ever posted that he reposted? Man, there's been a lot. I believe, I think I was doing a double or triple Murph the first time I talked to her, or at least tag Dave, or maybe it was one of my calisthenics challenges or some slaughter sesh on the echo bike. Uh-huh. That's and, and he reposted it and then you would do some funny stuff too, right?

I remember some funny things you would do, or you would get extra really hype and David would write stuff like, holy cow, this guy's lost his mind or some shit like that. Right? Sure. Sure. Yeah, man. I mean, I'm super passionate about what I do and I am, or I strive to be unapologetically myself. And so when the camera's on and I get done with a workout or I have something to say,

I let it out. And a lot of people like that. And of course, you know, a lot of people don't, but try to gravitate towards the good people or the one that I vibe with well. And every once in a while, he'll, uh, he'll think I go on something crazy here and gets a good laugh or, you know, writes this dude's crazy. He's lost his mind. And it's all in good fun. But I definitely get into it and let it out. It's a trip because Dave doesn't follow anyone.

So that means that you either come up in his search, right? Or he goes out of his way to find you. I should have asked him. Before, I should have asked him how the first time he found you. And it's not like he must actually be going to your account because he's reposted your stuff many times over the years. Right. oftentimes will send a lot of my workouts or maybe a rant I go on to Dave. And so he tunes in. So a lot of good people on the team. And I know a lot of people who love CrossFit, of course, and it's a great sport. So I'd love to see it. Yeah. You went to the Naval Academy and then you were in the Navy? Yes, sir. Why'd you go to the Naval Academy? So growing up, man, I mean,

it was always a dream. My father attended Annapolis. And so growing up, I would go to the campus and we would tailgate at the football games and always loved the city of Annapolis. And so that was the dream, man. And I worked my ass off in high school and somehow was able to trick them to let me in. And sure enough, went there, graduated after four years and joined the fleet as an active duty officer and was lucky enough to spend my entire career in the Navy here in San Diego. Yeah, that's awesome. And you're from Boston originally? Just outside the city. Yes, sir. When I think of Boston, I think of it as people who don't send their kids into the military. Am I thinking about that wrong?

Yeah. So both my parents grew up just outside of the city. My dad's from Newton and my mother's from Winchester. And so originally I was born in the Midwest, grew up in a town outside of Toledo, Ohio. I was born in Toledo. And then my family or my parents moved us there when I was young and I'm one of four boys. And so we grew up right outside of the city there in one of the suburbs near Concord, Massachusetts.

A lot of people know Concord. And so I grew up there, went to high school around that area and then went to Maryland for school upon graduation of high school. Do you have siblings? Yeah, three younger brothers. I'm one of four boys. Oh, shit. Wow.

Did they serve? Did they go in the military so the second brother he went down to school in south carolina uh the third brother the frap star he came out here to sdsu and then the youngest right now is a sophomore at the naval academy so he's fathering he's following my footsteps and my dad's footsteps. Yeah, that's cool. Did you play any sports over there? At Annapolis? Yeah, no, no. At the, at the Naval Academy. Yes, sir. No. So, I mean, I was a gym rat there trying to get a good pump on, and that was some of my early lifting days. Um, and then I was a intramural warrior, man. So nothing special, just, just playing street hockey and trying to stay after it with the rest of the

boys. Is, is annapolis the naval academy those are those are synonyms same thing yep so uh the naval academy is in annapolis maryland so it's referred to as usna or naval academy or annapolis just like army is with west point and and did your uh is your brother doing sports over there yeah he's playing uh sprint football oh wow yeah because when i think of that school i think of just super highly disciplined kids and just your brother doing sports over there? Yeah, he's playing sprint football. Oh, wow. Yeah, because when I think of that school, I think of just super highly disciplined kids and just incredible athletes, especially like wrestlers, football players. I just think of just incredible athletes. Oh, yeah, absolutely. A lot of the football players, a lot of my buddies that played sports,

they're all men and women, absolutely talented, and they know how to work and grind. So it's really fun watching them play over the years there. And the curriculum's intense too, right? It's no joke. Yeah. I mean, I'm not the smartest guy, so it definitely kicked my ass and I was, uh, I was lucky to get through it there and was able to secure the choice of San Diego because at the end of our third year, I believe, yes, we go and we, um, select where our station will be or our duty station following commissioning as an officer. So I was able to sneak myself in there into a good spot to at least get San Diego as it's one of the top choices, as you can imagine. What did you study there? Economics. Oh, wow. Would you say you're a critical thinker?

Try to be. Try to work on that every once in a while. I was reading, I think it was a Thomas Sowell book, but he was basically saying he was talking about a study where they tested students' critical thinking when they started school. And then four years later tested it when they were leaving college. And the only major where critical thinking where they improved was economics which makes which makes sense because it's numbers right sure and um it's uh we went and visited a um big insurance company one time when I worked for CrossFit who wanted to deliver insurance to CrossFitters. And they had their actuaries do some studies and some research, basically scraping data off of Facebook and scraping data off of the open website that basically showed

that people who did CrossFit spent like 13% less or use their insurance. They were 13% cheaper than the average American to maintain as a person on it for an insurance carrier to maintain, to keep on. And I remember, I think it was Greg who said it. I'm sure it was Greg who said it like, Hey, that's all the proof you need. Like you don't need any doctor studies. You don't need anything else. If the people who are in charge of the money are seeing that CrossFitters are spending less money on medical issues, then that means CrossFit's working. Because they don't lie, right? They're not influenced by anything. At the end of the day, they only care about the dollar.

So they can save money. And no surprise, most of the expenses were orthopedic issues. Interesting. Whereas people who don't do CrossFit, it's most of the expenses were orthopedic issues. Interesting. Whereas people who don't do CrossFit, it's probably more like cardiovascular and chronic disease and shit like that. When was the first time you worked out? Do you remember? First time I worked out? So, dude, I mean, I was always active in sports in high school.

I played lacrosse. I played hockey. I played a lot of baseball growing up. So out of all of us boys, we were all very, very active. But dude, I mean, I talked about this all the time with my audience and my team and the followers, but I was so lazy in high school, dude, just super, super lazy. I think I could count on my hand how many times I went to the gym because I relied on my natural ability, but just didn't want it. So it was always a fight as my dad was trying to get me to do pushups and sit ups and

start working and training. I just didn't want it. And so when I got accepted into the Naval Academy, so actually before going to the Naval Academy, I got accepted into a prep school. So I did a basically victory lap of senior year. I got accepted into a program called the Foundation School Program that Annapolis sponsors. And so after I graduated from public school, I went and did a year right before Annapolis at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Western Massachusetts. So it was a PG. Is that common? Is that common? So at least within.

I've never heard of that. Yeah. So within the service academies, they have a certain budget or a certain number of people that they'll slot into those spots. Or sometimes it's athletes or people who want that extra year before going, whether it's to a service academy or going to a regular D1, D3 school. People will go there just to get an extra year before going, whether it's to a service academy or going to a regular D1, D3

school. People will go there just to get an extra year of usually sports. So I went there for a year and basically as soon as I had gone in, of course, to that program and was a year away from Annapolis, when I went to that school, I started doubling down and really taking weightlifting and just trying to learn and continue to move my body, get stronger, practicing pushups, pull-ups, calisthenics, and had a great year of a lot of eating too. So I was thrown on size and a little bit of weight because I'm naturally a thinner, leaner dude. And so, oh yeah, absolutely. I have a runner's build, a runner's physique. And so yeah. You look yoked on your Instagram. It's been a long time, man. It's been about, about 10 years,

10 years plus of training consistently. So I've had to put a lot of work into it and always trying to learn and grow and, and get better. So. How old are you now? You're 28. I just turned 30. 30. Congratulations. Thank you, sir. So that is North. So tell me about this high school again just real

quick so basically it's a high school that does does annapolis take a lot of people from there is that like the is that common for like when you went when your freshman year at um the naval academy were there a lot of guys who took your route were there a lot of kids who were 19 or 20 years old so i believe if i if my memory serves me right. So there's about, I think 20 of us that got accepted into that program. So before going to the Naval Academy, there's two paths usually, or three, we could say three paths. One is usually people will go to like Auburn or go to another university or college. They'll apply again for Annapolis. And after their freshman year, go straight to the service Academy. Okay. There's also the pipeline in which I went down, right.

Which is foundation school program, or there's the Naval Academy prep school in Newport, Rhode Island. And so from it's called naps, um, naps or the foundation school program where I went to, there's a list of, um, schools or private schools that are part of foundation. list of schools or private schools that are part of foundation. And so when I got accepted to the program, there's usually one to three future midshipmen that go to one of those private schools. And so it was me and another gentleman at the school. And so we were both in the same boat. Okay. Caleb, Caleb, are you an officer? No. Officer is basically someone who comes, you have to go to school first.

You graduate from college first, and then you go, and then you're automatically an officer? You either do what he did and you go to a service academy or you go through an ROTC program. Otherwise, there's OTS for the Air Force, which is officer training school, and you just apply after you finish your bachelor's degree. And did you need a letter from your congressman or a senator or something like that, too? Yes, I did. Okay. I think I remember a couple of kids trying to do that. That should always, I remember being in high school and that should always sounded scary to me. I'm like, how do you get that letter? Was that interview with your congressman just horrifying? Oh, I was petrified. Yeah, absolutely. Because a lot of people they'll get into

Annapolis or they'll get accepted and all they need is that nomination and they end up because of the area or maybe it's super competitive. I know, especially the States of Virginia and Maryland, my buddies and friends that got into the academy. I mean, they were battling to get a nomination because there's just so many people in that part of the country that are trying to go. So it's, you know, a lot of luck in some ways, depending on where you live, but got lucky. It's a, it's a weird, um, it's, it's kind of a weird thing to ask for your bait. It's kind of like some mob shit, right? You're asking like the, your, your local Senator or Congressman to vouch for you. Does he tell you, Hey, Joe, don't fuck this up. I got my name on you.

Does he tell you, hey, Joe, don't fuck this up. I got my name on you. Well, so we all got basically we all applied to get a nomination and then they basically look at your resume, everything you've done, and then they basically take you in one by one. And they have a certain number of spots, if my memory serves me right, in terms of how many they can give. And so they go with who they want to put their name on or endorse. And it also depends on how many people they already have in the service Academy. So I think they can only have like 10 people at the service service Academy per, uh, like cycle essentially. So if there's already two people or they're there, they already have 10 people there with between freshmen to senior year, like they can't take anybody that year and you're kind of fucked.

I mean, then you end up maybe going to a prep school and doing that for a year. And then finally the slot opens with your congressman and you're able to get in that way. Do you actually meet the guy, Joe? Shake his hand and all that? Oh yeah. Yeah, okay.

Yeah, no, great point that Caleb just made. I mean, I know when I was applying, there was a lot of competition for Army and, of course, Navy. And it was actually funny that if I had applied for Air Force, I believe for numbers wise, since there was nobody else in my area or my district applying to the Air Force Academy in Colorado, I believe I would have gotten accepted straight in, but at least for me, going to Navy was, was the goal and the dream. So I never even considered air force, but obviously a great school and, and a lot of people coming out of there, they're doing great things. So you do four years, you do four years of high school, one year at this, um, prep school, and then you do, and then how many years are you in the Navy? So I owed five years of active duty service the day we graduated. Wow. And you did that?

I did. I completed it. Was that determined on the job you got to or was that just like flat out you had five years? So depending on which pipeline you go, there's a certain number of years you owe. So, for example, the route I went, it was five years that we owed. But if you went pilot, there were more years there. I'm not super familiar with the number of years, but all of my pilot buddies are still in because they owe X number of years post-graduation. Then if you go the medical route and they're

paying for medical school, of course, you're going to owe more years because the Navy wants the best bang out of their buck for all the training they're putting you through. That's the best bang out of their buck for all the training they're putting you through. Dude, 10 years. That's intense. I mean, not including high school. How was that? Are you glad you took that route?

Did that make you a different man doing that? Yeah, brother. I think I want to change it for the friends and the people and the experience I had at Annapolis. It was definitely worth it. And I'm glad I did it. My time in the Navy, like I said, I had an open mind. And it was a great experience. One of my dreams or one of the things I wanted to do and to put myself through was going on an overseas deployment. And so I ended up doing

two overseas deployment in my five years. And that was definitely an experience, a lot of highs, a lot of lows, getting used to not having control of your schedule or your life. That was something that I had to really, you know, embrace and kind of be flexible with. And, you know, going out to sea and coming back and sometimes having plans maybe to fly to a wedding or, you know, be out of town for a weekend somewhere, just changing like the flip of a switch. That's just the military. And that's just just part of the game. So it was definitely interesting. And I said at the end of my time, whether it was the best five years of my life or the worst five years of my life, I was gonna, you know, do my commitment, do the best I could

and serve the sailors and Marines that I worked with. And if it wasn't for me, um, then, you know, the country and the taxpayers didn't, uh, you know, deserve me just being half-hearted in the service. And so it was time to just move on and do something else. And for me, it was following my passion and dream. Oh, you sound like a good dude. And you deployed to the Middle East and Asia. Yes, sir. And how was that?

What's deployment like? So my first deployment, I was brand new. I think I graduated and then six or seven months later deployed. And that entire first deployment was the Southeast Asia. So we pulled into Guam, Philippines, South Korea. When you say pull in, you were in a boat. Yep. So I was on a ship. I was on a missile cruiser. And so every 15 to 30 days we would pull into a new port. And that was really fun,

had a lot of buddies on the ship, and we would go out and, you know, of course, run amok. And it was just a ton of fun seeing different places around the world. And hopefully, you know, not too many days in between places just to at least break up the monotony. But working every day, serving on the ship there, driving it and whatever our normal job was there and of course staying after it grinding in the gym and staying physically active that was important to a lot of us so southeast asia was a really really good time seeing the different cultures japan obviously absolutely stunning and beautiful and how do you know if you're a boat person what if what if they what if they put you on a boat and you're like, like I was on a boat one time to Antarctica.

I'm not a boat person. It was brutal. Dude, so, I mean, I had the opportunity and privilege, and this is at least while we were at the academy, that during the summers we had trainings where they would fly us to San Diego or they would fly us to Japan or Hawaii, and we would get opportunities to train

and basically shadow or follow officers on the ships to see if we liked it, what we didn't like, the type of ship we wanted to be on. They all have different cultures, and depending on how far from D.C. a ship or a command is usually dictates how strict or relaxed it is. So at least for me, getting on a missile cruiser was my goal, a smaller type of ship than an aircraft carrier, an amphib. And I mean, I didn't hate being on a ship. I didn't love it, but it was the right path for me post-graduation and was glad I did it. So the first deployment was successful. And second deployment was half in the middle east and half in southeast asia and that was a lot different i was on an amphib so a way bigger ship and um when uh yeah over to the middle east and through the strait of hormuz a couple of times and off the coast of uh djibouti somalia for a

little bit so supporting operations over there and and definitely spent more time at sea and actually got turned around during the deployment and we got extended. So that was a good taste of a morale killer to say the least and just being flexible. What do you mean? So you're out there, your deployment's over, you start to come home and halfway home, they're like, no, no, we're sending you back. Yeah. So I forget where in the world, um, a tweet was sent out. We were on our way back to the States. So everyone's like celebrating. We're out of the middle East. We're going to be spending, I think like Christmas and Thailand and new year's in Singapore. And then like a week or two in Guam and a week in Hawaii. So like the

second half of the deployment was going to be like unbelievable, amazing, just, you know, soaking in the liberty and freedom when we pulled in. And so we were on our way back. It was just good to be out of the Middle East. And a tweet got sent out about taking troops out of some part of the world. I can't remember if it was Syria or whatnot. And as soon as the tweet got released, literally the order was given by DC, hey, turn back around. We need you out there. And so the ship just turns around, morale plummets, and people are at each other's throat because we've been just wanting to get home

and make our way back. What was the tweet? Oh, I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember. I just remember the message coming across my email or our command's email from Mad Dog Mattis saying, hey, get back. We need you in this operating box. It was literally a tweet? knee-jerk reaction from DC to at least get us back there to help out with the withdrawal of troops, which we were all about, at least to help people and, you know, get US service members out of

wherever they were. But we ended up doing, I think, circles or donuts and like the same operating box for like three to four weeks, I believe off the coast of Afghanistan. So we were just like waiting for tasking, waiting for tasking. And what was frustrating, at least at that time was it was right around the holidays. So like the order was given, Hey, you know, get that ship back into that area, like stand by for tasking. But everyone in DC at this point, right. Is like at home with their family celebrating Christmas and new year's. So for like two or three weeks, we don hear anything from dc and the command center of like hey what are we supposed to do and once everyone came back into the office like you know a week or

two into january they said hey false alarm it's all good you can come back to san diego so we spent a little bit of extra time which was frustrating but from that point on we were just going east and we didn't hit as many ports as we would have liked but it was just hey we're itching to get home see our friends and family and once again get back here to san diego which you can't complain about can i see this boat caleb what did you call it a missile cruiser so that was my first deployment on the missile cruiser were you ever motion sick on that uncertain i mean on that ship when you were going through some of the seas of j there and some of the waves, that got gnarly, but never threw up or got super sick. You get used to it after some time.

And then on the Amphib I was on, which is basically like a smaller aircraft carrier, you can barely feel that rock at all. So thousands and thousands of sailors, tons of aircraft aircraft on board and and plenty of marines as well so it's like almost a flight like a floating city but still not as big as an aircraft carrier god that's crazy and so uh so that boat right there that cruiser how many dudes are on there with you oh we had about i believe 40 to 50 officers and then a few hundred sailors so do you know everyone yeah I mean you definitely recognize all the faces and especially with everyone going to the gym um you start seeing the same people and over and over again but it gets there's a routine definitely on board just kind of getting the flow of things and obviously we're working with sailors

and and reporting to our division every day so we know the people we're working with sailors and reporting to our division every day. So we know the people we're working with directly. And then, you know, all the officers, as you eat all your meals and, you know, are working with the captain almost every day. So you definitely get to know people, but on the amphib, I mean, absolutely not just thousands of people. The amphib is like a big high school and the missile cruisers more just like your senior class sure i was thinking about it like just 300 people 400 people yes wow um and do you feel do you feel safer on one on one boat versus the other oh that's a great oh my god that's the boat that thing's nuts yeah if you type in lhd lhd, that was the ship I was on. Um,

what's that, what goes into that giant opening right there in that mouth? That's where other boats go in. So it's basically, I would say like a garage to where smaller boats or landing craft or like floating tanks, so to speak, can drive in and out of the back.

So the purpose of that ship is to get close to shore drop down the well deck there and then vessels can exit and deliver marines or troops to the shore crazy crazy crazy crazy and you'd be on that boat when planes land and take off on it oh yeah i was sleeping right underneath the flight deck. So, um, jets taken off or, um, you know, helicopters spinning all throughout the night. So that was one of the adjustments that was pretty difficult, at least with sleep and just trying to get rest as like, you know, dust is falling from the ceiling as like, there's a helicopter right above you. And, you know, it was, uh, it was interesting to say the least it wasn't always fun.

Do you ever get used to it or every time they take off and land, you stare like, holy shit, I can't believe I'm witnessing this. No, you get used to it. You get used to it for sure. I know when I first got on, um, my first ship and then of course the second ship, there was an adjustment period there. And it's like really cool at first when you're seeing these things and, and working with the pilots and the different sailors, but it becomes like anything just kind of standard and normal, normal day. So, um, super interesting. Hey, when you said that, um, the, the rules were different depending on how close or far away you were from DC, where, where is it more lax, the further you are from DC or the closer? Yeah. So I would say further away from dc definitely more relaxed so san diego hawaii

definitely have a different vibe than if you're stationed in norfolk virginia for example like you might see dudes like with their shirts off on the west coast walking around you won't see that uh maybe like closer to dc everyone's like a little tighter like and like basically meaning like the boss could walk in at any moment kind of shit feeling it's kind of hard to describe it's kind of a culture of the ship or i mean they do their best in all the ships and commands to follow protocol at least and whatnot but just i don't know it's maybe two as well when you're walking around the bases there's just kind of an environment or like even here right across the waterway, we have Coronado, the amphib bases. So where the EOD and SEALs are across the water, it's just definitely a different vibe and you can feel it.

I don't know exactly how to explain it, but each base feels very, very different. And Marines, of course, that feels different than, you know, traditional sailor bases or, you know, U S Navy bases here. And of course, if you go to an air force base, like Nellis air force base, and just outside of Vegas, they're completely different. So they each have their own feel. Um, when you say your team, what are you doing? What is Joe? What is Joe? What is Illuminati? It's Illuminati iron, right? Yes. What is that? So that's my gym. That's my company, my account. And so that's where I started off here with Instagram and building my business. So Illuminati Iron is the brand. And you guys do, you train people? Yes.

And you have a suite set up in your garage. And do you still have that? I do. I do. Yeah, that was actually one of the things on my second deployment that I was saving up for. So one of my purposes or one of my personal goals on my second deployment, I traditionally trained not only at the school gym, of course, but when I graduated and got out here to San Diego, I was a commercial gym guy. Loved going to different gyms and testing out the equipment and being a part of different atmospheres. And I said on my second deployment, when I get back here to San Diego, I want to build the greatest home gym in all of Southern California and something that's going to suit me,

my future clients, and just have a good vibe and feel to it. And sure enough, I saved up. And especially before the entire surge here of gym prices and everything went through the roof, I was able to secure and build my gym and basically set it up within 24, 48 hours of pulling back into San Diego after that second deployment. And then over the months and years here, I've continued to swap out equipment and continue to craft it and build and do upgrades where I can. So super, super grateful and blessed just to be able to have that only 10 steps away from the kitchen and has brought me a lot of, uh, a lot of gratitude and at least purpose and fulfillment, um, through the highs and lows of my life.

Yeah, for sure. That's it. And that you described to Jim perfectly. What a great place to go and just get stuff done. Do you have a TV in there? No, no TV, no TV in there. Do you wish you had a TV in there? No, I'd get there do you wish you had a tv in there no i'd get distracted all the phone itself is already a demon and trying to resist that right so i try to keep the phone down just get the work in and and make it happen but of course there's a lot of great setups and sweet gym setups with a nice tv you can throw a football on and every once in a while you know during a football sunday i'll throw the laptop on the dumbbell rack and you know watch my patriots there get after it it. So, um, but no TV.

I never listened to music when I worked out ever, ever. I thought it was like, why would I listen to music? I just want to hear myself breathe. And then about, I don't know, four years ago, I got a TV. I got a TV in my garage and it's like, I don't, man, I probably shouldn't admit this. I don't know. Like sometimes I'm just like, I don't, man, I probably shouldn't admit this. I don't know, like, sometimes it's almost like I'm not even working out. I'm just watching TV. You know what I mean? Like, I'll be watching a podcast that you were on.

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just open the app. It's as easy as that. See the PC Optimum app for details. And I'll have the headphone on and I'll be going back and forth between doing, you know, a salt bike and push-ups and pull-ups. but really what i'm doing is i'm listening to take notes down okay he was in the naval academy and then i run over and type it in and it's a good thing and a bad thing it um it's kind of an excuse to rest and like i like i don't get after it but but also at 49 it's kind of good and uh and i kill two birds with one stone but it's not like what you're doing it's probably not like conscious movement, get better every day. My shit's more like maintain. Well, that's awesome for you to keep moving and continue to grind and get after. And that's, what's great about fitness. I believe is that there's not one Avenue. There's different ways to go about it. Everyone's body's different.

Everyone has different goals, different obstacles, different history or past. So just getting in there and doing something of course is awesome. And it is a huge win. It all depends on how hard you want to take it or where you're trying to get to. And it's just basically in my mind, monitoring input and matching that with output in terms of, hey, these are the results I want. This is the performance I want to get to, or maybe these are the aesthetics I'm trying to reach. Hey, what's the input or what do we need to put into it to get there? And just having that hard, realistic, transparent conversation with yourself and admitting what you're doing well and what you could do better on. Right, right. Why Illuminati?

What is Illuminati? What does that mean? That's like, isn't that some group that like runs the planet that we don't know about, right? Correct. That's the speaker group that runs the planet. So I obviously had a lot of time on that second deployment to be thinking about what I wanted to do when I came back and ultimately got out of the Navy. And I wanted to do something a little bit different. I wanted to have a different type of name, but something that was true to me

and my beliefs, at least within the fitness realm or, you know, the whole journey of life, so to speak. And I was thinking about it and, you know, it was very, very simple kind of design of just my Illuminati triangle, which is obviously a pop culture icon, the Illuminati and them having, you know, influencing, you know, the world or whatnot from hundreds of years back. And there's a lot of people that are super into it. But for me, I was trying to think, okay, in terms of fitness and health and just staying after it, what's something that can resonate with people that I truly believe in. And in my mind, if people take control, and at least are working on their health and fitness, they themselves will be better.

So maybe they're a better husband, wife, friend, significant other, colleague, maybe more patient or less anxious, whatever it may be. And through that and their presence alone, or maybe people watching from the outside, they positively influence other people. And so through health and fitness, people are essentially bettering one another. And it's a kinetic chain of you leading by example, whether it's the way you look, the way you perform, or the way you talk to people, people feed off that and that can be very contagious. And so in my mind, whether you're on Instagram or you're in the limelight or on the field, or maybe in the shadows and underground here, no one's seeing your work.

It doesn't matter. You're able to help positively change or influence people for the best. I'm looking at the Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious, historical. The name I mean, do you know about them? The Bavarian Illuminati and Enlightenment Era Secret Society founded on May 1st, 1776? Yes, I've looked into that and read up a bit about it. Yeah. Are you an expert on it? No, I'm no expert. Okay. Okay. Okay. There's a lot of experts out there, but I'm not one of them.

Okay. And then you changed the eye to a dumbbell. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's cool. It's cool. Simple, black and white, clean. Tried to be at least. And do you just do one client at a time in your gym? No, I do group sessions as well. You do? So I have both in-person clientele and then people online as well.

And what's the age range of your clients? All ages. All ages, all fitness levels. Do you have a preference who you like to train? No, I like to train and work with whoever has an open mind and is willing to put some work in. When you said you were lazy as a kid, what do you think happened that changed that and define lazy for me? So, I mean, you like, like, were you like, I was raised to avoid discomfort, like not in a, like that, you know, like, Hey, I thought sweating was bad.

And like, you know, like don't do things that are too hard. Don't put yourself out. Is that what you mean by lazy? Like, did you, did you hate sweating? No, I enjoyed working hard and I love being on the ice and skating and playing hockey, of course, and then grinding on lacrosse field. Um, so in practice, I always gave my all and, and really worked. But for me, it was working towards something or feeling proud, at least about the work

that I was putting in extra. I didn't really have that. I didn't have that fire lit underneath me. And I joke about this all the time on my page, but this is all true. I loved playing Call of Duty and eating Sour Patch Kids watermelon like it was my job. That's what I would do. And it probably kept me out of trouble, which is great, right? But ultimately, that's what I would do sometimes is go play video games.

Now I think about it and it kind of holds me accountable even to this day because I think about how much time I personally wasted not grinding, giving it my all, or going to the gym, at least practicing and running, or doing something at least to better myself. And then at least when I got to the Naval Academy or before going to the Academy, when it was like, hey, I'm joining the military, it's time to get hard and grind and start putting on some muscle and size, I felt that fire in me to try to be better, at least a better version of myself going in to that bootcamp summer called Plebe summer when we first arrived to Annapolis. So I want to be good at pushups, pull-ups, have a little bit of a pump on me, um, and get, be able to survive the Acure and stay in shape.

So as soon as I started training that year before going to the Academy, I essentially have not stopped since and, uh, you know, grown in a lot of different ways and always having an open mind to try to continue to push the envelope and get better yeah speaking of pushing the envelope that's that that video you posted with the biceps is crazy it was the worst day of my life man one of the one of the worst days of my life for sure it was tough yeah is that just a um is that just a crazy head fuck or how are you right now? Feeling great. Honestly, feeling really great. We're about six months post-op now. That was my first injury. That was my first surgery I've ever had. It's a tough video. I can't watch it. It strikes, at least right now, too much PTSD and trauma, but

I was in the lab doing something there, trying, experiment and made a mistake and at least put that out there for people to see. What was the mistake, though? It didn't it was just too much. I mean, you're so I would never think that that would happen. I would think that you would have failed. Before that happens. I mean, you've been training so long. Yeah, man.

I mean, that wasn't even my max weight and it was my first time at least in that setup. So the rack I have there, you know, you can transform it to get different exercises that get different types of work in. And I was going to be going up actually to a music festival that day and was going to film some content there to get after it with the jammer arms and setting up like a preacher curl bench. And, um, it was the last rep of the last set. And at the very bottom, my body hit the breaking point there and all the weight was placed on my tendons and, um, they gave man and usually one will fail and then you drop the weight. Right. But it was the first time doctors had ever seen, or at least my surgeon, when he was calling across the country, trying to figure out how to proceed forward.

They had never seen this. It's always been one arm. And so, you know, lucky for me, I, I guess I got, you know, both arms there and they both popped on me, which absolutely sucked. But, you know, it was my first injury and it was a tough one to swallow, but was petrified going through the surgeries and going through rehab here, but feeding off all the love, all the support

and really getting introduced to another side of health and fitness is there's a lot of people, which I never really realized when I was perfectly happy and healthy and everything was going my way. And all of a sudden you get into this niche of like, there's a lot of people, whether it's overseas in combat or in the military, you know, getting

messed up or screwed up and coming home or everyday people here are athletes suffering ACL issues or different types of freak accidents happening. There's a lot of people recovering and going through some obstacles and fighting demons. So for me, at least it allows me to resonate a little bit more with the rehab crowd or people that are trying to bounce back. And so it's been super, super humbling and I've been doing the best I can with what's been going on.

I think someone called on your phone or something. You went black, but we can still hear you, but we can't see you. For those of you who don't know, he was doing what looks like to me, preacher curls. I don't know if that's the exact word. And he was doing slow controlled sets. He was talking us through them, what he was doing.

He was doing some sort of like increased weight going up very slowly, slow controlled reps. And then, like he said, just in perfect symmetry, you basically saw both tendons. What would they detach from? What is this? What is this called on the human body? This is the armpit. What's this they detach from what is this what is this called on the human body this is the armpit what's this is this called something what is this called so basically the elbow ac joint okay so basically the tendon here with our biceps there's proximal bicep tendon and distal bicep tendon so distal bicep tendon connects here at the elbow and then proximally right here,

a little bit more up towards the shoulder. And so both distal bicep tendons ruptured at the same time on me. Oh, okay. And this right here. Basically detached from the elbow joint. When you say ruptured, mean detached right there off the bone yes and and uh so did the is the was the tendon damaged at all or just by damaged i mean was

there any part of it still attached to the joint or just the whole thing came off no so the whole thing came off i believe the doctor said i mean that's kind of good right well when they opened me up they said dude what's crazy is like, I mean, it took obviously a lot of force here, at least, um, the physics behind it with the weight being away from me, it took a lot to have my tendons rupture because they said when they were opening me up and, um, looking inside the tendons were very, very healthy, very strong, very thick. And, um, you know, at least they were both had come off. And so what they need to do is basically drill a hole through the bone there, reconnect or reattach the tendon and then letting

it mend over the months. And it will basically wrap itself around the bone there and, and be good to go. And I never realized how many people experience and suffer distal bicep tendon issues. Like I said, it's usually just one, but I've been getting just tons, dozens and dozens of messages from people sharing their story, whether it's a distal bicep tendon or people experiencing their own injuries that either happened before mine or around the same time or after mine. So it was wild, man. It was absolutely awful. And I don't wish the injury on anyone in this case here i don't wish any type of surgery or any type of injuries i hope people can stay healthy um continue to work

hard you know train hard train smart and i'm hoping my journey or at least you know my comeback here hopefully inspires people just to keep going and make the most of what you can um did it go ahead caleb did you have any like bicep tendonitis or like any sort of, I don't know, chronic pain leading up to that? Or is it just? No, man. I felt great, man. I felt good. I was coming off eight, nine hours of great sleep, fully hydrated, had a great meal in me. Like always, always warming up, prepping and priming the body for exercise, no shortcuts there. And like I said, I actually was crazy. And maybe, you know, depending on what people think or what they believe in, I wasn't even supposed to be doing it that day. I was actually going to be

doing a Murph and getting out just a Murph. I was supposed to be getting after it with a Murph and getting some work in there and ended up having a detour and ended up going down, you know, the, the route of what I was filming there. And of course it happened on the last rep of the last set and it, it sucks. And I wish I could do it over again or hindsight's 2020, but I can't change anything. And that's been something I've been trying to work on and stay mentally in the game to, you know, live in the present and, and not go back in it. How often were you training like

preacher curls? Like, is that something you would do normally? Or is you just like, Hey, I got this new toy, let's try it out. So I would do single arm preacher curls with my adjustable bench. And so what I would do is I'd be standing, I'd be creating tension or torque there, basically wedging myself into the bench or into the pad. Like I said, controlling the rep all the way down, all the way up, building up over time, not just jumping to super heavy weight. And so I love doing preacher curls. I would say, um, at least, you know, once a week or every other week or so is a staple of my training. But obviously, there's a lot of different ways to hit arms and get after it. But at least in that setup there,

that was the first time I ever done it. Now, if you're in a normal gym or commercial gym, there's like benches or the preacher bench that you can actually get in there. And it's designed, you know, maybe you're up a little bit higher, and you can kind of wedge yourself a little bit in to the bench. But everything beneath basically the chest was just dead weight which was uh which was an issue and did not help my uh my case or cause so um that was the first time in that setup and like i said it sucked could you not um trina brings up a good point could you wipe your ass that was one of the things i was dreading more than anything. And I was really having to have some tough conversations with myself because who was going to do that work if that was potentially, uh, you know,

the call of duty, so to speak. Right. So my surgeries were split up. I actually had a few weeks in between the left arm and then the right arm. Oh, so it allowed me at least with the opposite arm to not have any hygiene issues or any problems what's really great were you normally a right-handed wiper no so i'm a lefty oh so so you had to oh well that's good lefties are usually more ambidextrous than righties so you probably had some a little and i guess brushing your teeth man brushing your teeth with the with the wrong arm is dangerous like if i try to brush my teeth with my left arm, it could come out and like poke myself in the eye and shit. Like you gotta be careful. There were a lot of adjustments, man. It was

definitely, it was wild. And I mean, um, I got a lot of great help from, from great people, but ultimately having the surgery spaced out definitely helped my cause. And what was crazy about at least the human body as it's very resilient is that once the swelling, like the purple and blue started to go away within maybe day five, day seven, my arms actually felt like they were recovering and starting to actually have less pain and get more movement and mobility. And that was something the surgeon or the doctors had asked me when I first went to the ER, at least had my, uh, my setup actually, um, a few days after going to the ER and getting the results back, um, when they confirmed that both had ruptured and they said, like, you know, honest question, do you want to have biceps again? And I was like, what are you

getting at? Well, they're like a lot of people actually elect not to get their distal bicep tendon repaired and to pay on what their style, style their lifestyle is or maybe the less they like to do um i know he said some power lifters or guys that like to deadlift they elect not to get the surgery but what happens if you don't connect the distal bicep tendon back to the bone what happens over time is that it starts to almost atrophy or curl up into your arm and withers away and so you lose X number of percentage of strength in that arm. And then of course, aesthetically or visually, your arm will start to look very, very different. And, um, with my lifestyle, the activities that bring me a lot of happiness and

joy and, um, my obviously occupation with, with being a personal trainer, I need to get the surgery. I've heard that before too. And I've seen arm wrestlers who, who continue their career without that. How like, so isn't that so, so this thing is attached here and, and I'm, I guess I'm wrong. I, I make the, the, the assumption that it's what allows you to do this, but it's not right. Yeah. So go ahead. No, you're good. You're good. I'm going to look it up. So what do you lose when that thing, I mean, you would think that your arm would just like just dangle, but yours didn't,

by the way, did it hurt when it happened? You seem so calm. No, it was controlled chaos for sure. It hurt. It hurt. They both, it felt like a zipper just going up in both arms. And I knew, I knew it, I knew what had happened and I kept my arms straight. I didn't want to make anything worse. And, um, you know, yeah, it hurt. I was, I'm no tough guy by any means. And, uh, you made it seem like it was nothing. Like you didn't look like you were in shock. You chilled, you looked at them. I was, uh, I would say I was in shock for sure i mean i try to remain calm and um just get help and and take it one step at a time and uh yeah i mean if i start thinking about it it's crazy because

that experience in general of course was traumatic and so i start thinking about the injury and it's funny that the body it starts to heat up like you start like kind of visualizing what happened and it feels like yesterday, but what's nuts is that six months or so, almost six plus months has gone by. So every day we get a little bit better and the mental game gets stronger. And that's part of, you know, uh, at least recovery here is not only physical, but, but mental as well. Did you notice yourself going into shock or anything when it happened? You would think something like that could put you into shock i believe i was in shock you were i believe so how did you get to the hospital did you drive yourself or someone took you so my mom actually took me she lived over in coronado and so i called her like usually right with my arms completely straight i reached over

for for the phone and called my mom and said, hey, we got a problem here. I need your help. She came over. We iced it. Started talking about, hey, should we go to the ER? Should we not? And we made the decision and the right decision to go get looked at. And sure enough, with an MRI there, they said, yep, both had been ruptured. And then it was just basically planning the surgery and going about that. But yeah, wild. How's your range of motion? Can you straighten your arms? Yeah, feeling great now.

Every day it's PT. So we're doing PT every day. I go into the office to see my physical therapist at least a few times per week. Of course, slowly but surely building and working on what I can here and just getting, once again, range of motion back and strictly following the protocol to make sure we do this once and not go backwards. And everything thus far has been going well. I'm currently at 15 pounds for each arm,

so feeling really, really good about that big weight. Wow, so you are training like that. Good job. Can you do this? Can you put your wrist back like this on a table and do all that stuff? Yeah. Yeah. That's not a problem right now. Yeah. It's getting better. Like slowly but surely, I probably a few, maybe one to three degrees away, but yeah, they're responding really well, really well. And the PT said we're, we're ahead of schedule here and just got to keep basically doing what we're doing right now and getting good sleep,

fueling the nutrition as we always have and staying hydrated to let the body recover. Pull-ups. Can you do pull-ups? No. So I'm on the pull-up assisted right now. Every session thus far, I've been taking a little bit of weight off the stack. And so just trying to get everything turned back on again. That's the one thing with this injury is that upper body being stagnant and basically on bed rest for months. Everything needs to get turned back on again, trying to rebuild and make sure that the, um, rotator cuff, everything in my shoulders, right. Are all building back up appropriately. And, and, uh, we'll get to the pull-ups eventually, but I'm on pushups, which is fun. Did you, did you attempt to break the

world record for the most pull-ups in 24 hours? I was working on it. I was working on it. Yep. I had done, I had done 2020 pull-ups in just over around five hours. Wow. So that was like to celebrate the new year as 2020 was going to be the best year ever. Right. That was the goal. And so got a 2020 pull-ups uh completed and then just over time from them was trying to build and continue to build up my hands um and the calluses and of course the shoulders and having good health and um they were clicking they were feeling good and i was coming off coming after uncle goggins there and um was super stoked to give him a run for his money. But obviously with the setback here, it's, uh, delaying some things. So we'll, we'll get back on the pull-up grind and have some fun.

Oh, wow. That's the record 4,100 pull-ups in 24 hours. Cam Haynes, his son just broke it. Uh, like yeah. September 7th. Yeah. True. It's a beast. Awesome dude. Awesome dude. Who, who, who beat it? Who's son? Cam Haynes. He uh cam haynes he's uh it's like a hunter kind of i don't know he basically just trained super fucking hard just to go hunting and provide for his family and his son he's got one of his sons he's a army ranger and then his other son just fucking animal in the gym and his son did 4,321 in 24 hours, 4,124 hours. Oh, what's this other number I see on the screen here? This 4,321. Is that, Hey, um, what, what is, uh, so, so if you did 2020

in five hours, could you've kept that pace for 10 hours at that point there yeah i was now about what about two years ago so at that point no i was very happy to get to the 2020 um like i'd been trained for and then over the next year or two i started to amp up my pull-up game even more. And once again, for that, at least with pull-ups, it's literally all practice listening to the body and just basically bulletproofing your shoulders and getting your hands in the skin to be able to be accustomed to that type of friction, so to speak, or, you know, um, how big are the sets? How do you do that? How do you do 2020 pull-ups in five hours? So like I said, it's all practice and repetition. And what I would do and what I think is a

successful strategy in general to build your pull-ups or at least endurance, it all comes down to what your goals are. And I don't expect everyone wanting to do this, right? But you would basically set, maybe it's a set of three instead of five maybe you can only do one pull-up right whatever it may be you could set a timer for example and every minute on the minute do one pull-up five pull-ups ten pull-ups whatever it may be and just maintain that pace and you know maybe you start off with just a five minute pull-up marathon and every every minute on the minute you do one rep or five reps for 10 reps, then boom in five minutes, you maybe did 25 or 50 pull-ups. And then you

basically build over time there and allow your body for hours and hours for every minute on the minute. Or maybe you get to a point where it's every 30 seconds you're doing reps. You know, you basically build on those numbers over time. Really, really get up there. you're doing reps, you know, you basically build on those numbers over time. Really, really get up there. Damn. And, and, and did you, did you ever do onesies when you do 2020 or is it always at least two, three, four? I was always doing anywhere between if my memory served me right, I was between sets of five to eight. Wow. Wow. Man, was that enjoyable? No, not towards the end. Not towards the end. I had a buddy of mine, my best friend came down from LA to help me with it. And there's no way I could have done it without him because I mean, your mind starts to go a little bit there. You

need to maintain focus and you really need to watch the clock because it was funny when we were talking earlier about the TV or being on your phone is that rest goes really really quickly i mean it's like you you turn around and all of a sudden one two three minutes go by so with all these marathons i do whether it's my pull-up marathons my my dip marathon squat marathons or push-up marathons your eyes are on the clock and you just have to focus of just, hey, one round at a time, one round at a time. And over time with practicing and bulletproofing everything, the body is incredibly resilient.

And that's why I have so much faith in people in terms of really – Uh-oh. Oh, bye. He was – something weird was happening. I think it was internet cutout. Yeah. I went back and looked. Actually, on the Infraworld records, it shows like 7,000.

There's like seven – somebody did like 7,000. So I don't think those are actually the records. Oh, really? 7,000024 hours? 7,715 done by Brandon Tucker in 26 October 2019. Yeah. What? Man.

I think this is the same guy that did the most bar muscle-ups. He just broke the bar muscle-up 24-hour record too. Amazing. Amazing. He's another Army Rangeranger they're just animal did you do it did you do it barefoot um i took off my shoes i took off my shoes to minimize the weight um sometimes i'll do this sometimes with the marathon training i have shoes on or shoes off it's all preference but it's just getting the same grip and and uh you know knocking it out one rep at a time damn so much of it's mental so much of it's mental but you obviously have to train and build up for it i wouldn't recommend anyone just go for it right it's just yeah a little bit of every every

butt you know every workout getting some pull-ups in practicing and just making it automatic and getting more efficient with the poles there was a I don't know if you remember the show, there was a show called Brady bunch and there was a character named Bobby and him. And I think it was Bobby. Maybe it was the girls, Jan, or maybe it was both of them jam, but they were going to break the teeter totter world record for most teeter totter. And I think they ended up falling asleep on the teeter totter and didn't

break the world record. But I remember as a kid loving that idea, man, the Guinness book world's record. I love that book as a kid oh yeah i remember that yeah that that's a great book um and and what are you so is that your greatest feat with with pull-ups have you done anything else crazier than that i mean that's pretty i'm not i'm not second guessing that that's i'm not talking shit by by the way. That's fucking incredible. So every challenge, at least, that I've done, they've all presented their own kinds of suck, so to speak. So they've all been really good, at least for personal growth, physically and mentally. I've ridden the Echo bike, the torture bike there, for three hours. Wow.

And that sucked. but that was once again building up to it that was a process and a journey i've done 4 000 push-ups um push-ups are fun but that's another thing that you got to be really focused on the time and rest goes quick dips are always a challenge done a few dip marathons which have been good and then recently at least with my two busted arms i did uh 2022 consecutive air squats to celebrate hopefully a good year here for all of us so they're all very different are your legs getting how are your legs doing have you been oh is it hard not to overwork your legs now that your arms are like in a rest period brother i mean i've always been training legs and getting after and always loved leg day, but they've definitely got some extra love here since the injury. And that's one of the things

that I've tried to do with at least showing my audience and people that are watching is that, hey, our upper body is out of commission, but we can really get after it here and develop some other strengths. So I worked on running a marathon after I got hurt. And once I was cleared by the doctors and the PT, so I was able to set a marathon PR for myself, which I was super pumped about and really just trying to thank you. Thank you. And, and just try and develop my legs with using different pieces of equipment and getting out of my comfort zone and just trying to push it. So at the end of this, when I hopefully can get back to the form I was in, hopefully I can be better because my posterior chain or my entire lower body and my core and everything and cardio is, is up a level. So I'm doing the best I can. And it's been fun.

What do they say about the surgery you had? Do your tendons come back stronger or like, do you come back stronger normally or, or weaker or like what's the deal with those screws? So the surgeons that I have talked to and some of the PTs, they said, if you do it the right way, you feel your body appropriately, you take your time, follow the protocol. They say that you can come back here and not have really too much of a difference. Now, every surgery is different. Every rupture is different, of course. So there's not one way or one result but you fall and trust the process and have a good mind with it all it should be no problems whatsoever and and we look forward to

that you know like when a fighter loses his fight and you're like oh man is that fighter gonna avenge his fight do you um um does any party you want to get back and try that workout again and avenge that and avenge yourself are you like fuck that i'm not using that thing anymore. I mean, dude, it's a good question. I mean, for me, at least it's all, at least with that exercise at this point, because of what I've gone through, I got to really analyze risk versus reward. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To me, at least, you know, it might be fun or a cool, um, form of mental training to maybe do, you know, a be fun or a cool um form of mental training to maybe do you know a 10 pound or a 15 pound preacher curl again once i'm recovered just to at least kind of come back with dumbbells or an easy easy bar to just you know kind of tackle that demon that you know put me down at one point

but at least getting that set up with that bar and doing it again, for me, I just think it's probably not a great idea. Um, especially if something were to happen again, we would all include myself, be looking at it and go, dude, didn't you learn your lesson the first time? Or like that went wrong. Let's not, you know, let's not repeat. Right. So, um, for me at least with that set up, uh, I'm going to leave that alone for now. Things can change. There's no guarantees in life. There's no guarantees in life about anything. We can get hurt anytime things happen. But I want to come back with a vengeance in terms of coming back to my old self here and hopefully coming back and being better and serving as a positive example for other people to push forward and continue on when they have setbacks. have setbacks it's it's um you could also use the uh analogy of of a girlfriend you know or a boyfriend you break up with them you have your heart broken and then like and then they want to get back together six months later and you're like oh shit here we go again you know it's like do i want to mess with that that curl again um how how what about van life? So how did you – tell me about van life.

Is it dope? Oh, dude, the best. You pee outside. You have solar panels on your roof. You have a refrigerator. You have a generator. Like how is it – what do you do? So I'm no van life expert, but I'm an absolute enthusiast that loves it.

It's funny. On my first deployment, I went to Hawaii for the first time and we ended up getting where I went to the rental car agency. Um, the island was packed. It was super busy that summer and they didn't have the sedan I had rented. And they actually had a white cargo van that was the only vehicle available. Like a box truck. Exactly. Like a white free candy van. That's a stereotypical, you know, kind of creepy van. That's all they had to offer. And so I had a choice of having that van or nothing. I obviously needed a vehicle for those two weeks in Hawaii. And the gentleman told me,

you will love this van. It will be the best decision you ever did in your life. Yeah. So I trusted him, went with it. And I got done, you know, whizzing around the island there, slept in the back a few nights. It I trusted him, went with it. And I got done, you know, whizzing around the island there, slept in the back a few nights. It was completely empty, but had at least the freedom to kind of go wherever I wanted with it. And, you know, I was able to let the ego at the door, so to speak, in terms of being seen in Waikiki with a white, you know, free candy van. At that point, you know, once the trip was over, didn't care anymore and i said if i ever get the chance to own a van can build it out and live the van life i'll absolutely do it and so i was

scourging the internet for months maybe over a year um especially on that second deployment really trying to you know get something locked in and and sure enough was able to find a deal on my first van um um, and going to the national parks and, and traveling throughout Southern California by yourself, by yourself. Yeah. By myself, or I had an ex-girlfriend at the time who would come with me as well. So, um, you know, it was a great time and absolute adventure. And then I ended up trading, uh, this van here and upgrading for the one that you currently see in the pictures there. And so that's been a really fun upgrade.

That's obviously what I'm in now. And it has solar panels. It has a heater here, a high altitude heater for when you go into the mountains and want to get after it with the skis or snowboard and running water and just the freedom and independence it's given me. And if I ever need to get out of town or need a place to stay, get worked on, have a private office. I mean, it's been such a blessing and I highly, highly recommend that if anyone's interested

in van life, Hey, rent one, if you can, or get your whole, get ahold of one and give it a go for a long weekend. And it's been the best for me. I absolutely love it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. So you can just get in there, open up your computer, hotspot, your phone, your computer, and you're good to go. Absolutely.

You have the world at your fingertips. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I made a trip even once out to Montana and made stops at national parks along the way, hitting Zion National Park, Grand Teton, stopped through Yellowstone, and then got to be in Bozeman for a few nights and went all the way up to Glacier National Park. And just having a headquarters or a place to rest your head and also vibe out. It's just absolutely unbelievable. Or when I go rollerblading and want to kick it with the doors open here in Pacific Beach or La Jolla, it's just super, super relaxing to be able to have a home base and not have to go home to either shower or have access to a fridge or freezer.

home to either shower or, you know, um, have access to a fridge or freezer. Damn. You made that trip right there. Yes. Yeah. That's killer. I spent a bunch of time in Moab by myself. Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. I slept in the back of a pickup truck there. Nice. Different type of van life. There's no one way to do it. Yeah, it was great. And then you drove back. Did you take a different route on the way back? No, no, no. So I picked it up in Kentucky, drove it back to San Diego. And so that was a different trip. That was with the new van here. So I've had two vans, like I said.

There was my first one and then this one here, the Mercedes. So it's been unbelievable. Just highly recommended for people. Where are you going with your training? What's the end game? Do you build a YouTube channel and build people there? Do you open your own gym outside of your garage? How does it grow? every once in a while, at least, and with the current world environment, and at least me being here in California and how businesses are held or how they, you know, manage everything. It's been, you know, kind of come and go with certain ideas, but ultimately, man, I mean, I keep it real and I say it from the beginning. I mean, at least with me and my training and what I love to do in terms

of moving my body, hiking, skating, lifting weights, is I literally just want to be a hot dad one day, right? Like the dad or the grandfather who's still able to move around with his kids or grandkids or, you know, be in Hawaii, you know, with, you know, an Osprey backpack and a little toddler in the back crushing a hike, you know, with this core up and shoulders back, just feeling good and moving well. For me, that's really important. And I really try to see long term value and being able to even, let's say, go to the bathroom, be able to squat down when I'm 60 or 70 without needing help and still having that independence. So for me, everything I do is for longevity. And also, at least with my mental game or the mental toughness side of it all,

I try to push myself and do something hard, whether that be with running or the weights here or, you know, digging deep on a hike or a skate after, you know, I went through a workout or whatnot. So to me, at least it's a long game. And just, I think at least being, you know, an in shape, you know, 20 something year old or 30 something year old definitely takes, you know, work and, you know, time. And of course, you know, you got to want it. Right. But to me, the people that impress the hell out of me are honestly like people like you and others that are older, that are still moving and getting after it and just leading by example. So in my mind, you know, if you're training there at 49 or, you know, a couple is training in the mountains of Hawaii and hiking at the age of 65 and they look great and they're young and they're happy

to me, that's the goal and the dream. And I'm trying to do what I can now to set myself up to hopefully, you know, still be here around then. Yeah. My mom started CrossFit at 69. Love it. Love it. She's 77, 78 now. Yeah. It's nuts. Congrats to her. That's really awesome. Absolutely. Absolutely nuts. Well, dude, it was great. It was great meeting you. Um, likewise, I'll continue to uh follow you what what what a what a cool thing you're doing and it's awesome how much you're sharing and i think it's really cool you shared the tenant thing let me finish with that was there any party that didn't want to share that like like i think it's really smart you shared it i mean i know it's smart you

shared it but was there any part of you that was like, Hey, maybe I shouldn't share this. Great question, man. I mean, I knew what was going to come with the video and me posting it. I knew there was gonna be a lot of love, a lot of support people in my corner. And then there was going to be a lot of hate or negativity or the peanut gallery was going to be chiming in or talking like they knew, you know, our training history, our goals, what happened that day, what went down in the surgery. That's just the internet. And so there's something that comes along with that, of course.

But I said from the very beginning, and this is very honest and truthful and transparent, but I said from the very beginning of starting the account, whether it blew up, whether I had a couple of people following, whatever happened, I was done and didn't want to contribute to the Instagram or social media BS realm. I wanted to keep it real. I wanted to document my journey and show people through the highs and lows, you know, what my training looked like. And when I was doing things well, showing people that, and when things didn't go well, showing that as well and what's worked for me and what hasn't. And that injury, I would tell you, was the real first time that that got tested of, hey, a lot of people wouldn't share this

and they're kind of scared of the scrutiny or what's to come with it. But if you are truly transparent and you really will show people what's happening to you and what your body could look like, especially after this injury and having to start over, so to speak again, or, you know, really have to, you know, build back yourself up. You're going to have to show this video because it would have been super easy at least to say, Hey guys, got hurt having surgery, but I'll be back better than ever, you know, stay tuned for the comeback, but not actually show them. And I said, you know what, we can't deviate. You know, we've been going this many years now, you know, being an open book here and, and showing the people the journey. So I stuck with it, man.

And I'm so glad I did. And it's been able to connect me with a lot of great people. And, um, you know, like I said, we'll keep working at it and always trying to learn and get better. So there's, there's no time to deviate. Yeah. Six months, six, it's been six months. Are you, are you like, man, I really did the right thing by sharing that. That's awesome. Absolutely, man. No regrets. No regrets.

We're just learning and continuing our way forward. And that's all we can do is give our best and have an open mind. Thanks, man. Great talking to you. Appreciate you. Seriously. Yeah, no problem. I'm glad Dave found you.

I'm glad he pointed me at you. And we'll talk again. Sounds great, man. Can't wait. Caleb.