From sleeping in an ice-cold pickup truck to catching rattlesnakes barehand at 6 years old, Chris Duffin’s upbringing was unconventional and surreal.

Better known to the powerlifting community as “The Mad Scientist of Strength”, Chris discovered his strength by embracing his fear and facing the pain. As we discuss his autobiography, The Eagle and the Dragon: A Story of Strength & Reinvention, Chris explains that no set of circumstances defines who you are. Whatever has happened to you, does not define who you are.

In this episode, Chris and I talk about how why he decided to share his life’s story and how that has helped people from around the world. Listen as we go over:

• Why his story is not about his life, but about your future
• Handling uncertainty
• Adapting through struggle
• One of the 4 pillars of Kabuki Strength, Giving back
• Dropping 600lbs on his face
• Effort Base Training
• Squatting 1,000lbs
• Gymnastics premier!

Featured Guest/People Mentioned:

• Chris Duffin @mad_scientist_duffin
• Kabuki Strength Lab @kabukistrengthlab
• https://christopherduffin.com
• The Eagle and the Dragon Book
• FREE Audiobook Download
• Rudy Kadlub @rudykadlub
• Autoregulation Book Of Methods Free Download

If you enjoy the show, please take a few minutes to Rate & Review us on iTunes. Your reviews help the podcast grow!

Want to support the show? Pick some apparel here! Snap a pic and tag us in it, we’ll feature you on our social media channels!

This episode is brought to you by Core Strength & Performance. Core’s community is built on the journey. We understand that it takes more than a few days to reach your goals of building stronger relationships, stronger bodies, and stronger minds. Visit www.Core256.com for Online or In-Person Training, or find us on Instagram at @CoreSandP @futureisfemalepowerlifting and Facebook @CoreSandP.

Episode Transcript

— Speaker 0 00:00 Swamp people to live better through strength in all aspects, you know,

use those opportunities, become stronger and better versions every day.

Speaker 1 00:08 Welcome to the future is female power lifting a show where women of all

strings can explore the world of female power lifting. I am your host, Heidi Denelle, a 60 kilo

power lifting gym owner and each episode we bring you an inspiring interview for a message to

help you unlock your true inner strength potential. Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 2 00:33 Aloha, my beautiful friends and welcome back. We are on episode 40 and

I’m sure you already know that today’s guest is none other than the mad scientist himself, Chris

Duff and founder of Kabuki strength and all around crazy ass man. I’m just going to put that out

there, but today’s episode was phenomenal for so many reasons and I’m going to get into that in

just a second. I wanted to read a review and recommendation that Ms. Stephanie Young left for

us on Facebook and I really loved what she said. It really, you know, I hate to sound like Ugh,

but I love when I hear that you guys are are getting something out of the show that the

interviews are touching you, that you’re getting information out of the Q. And. A. I love that

feedback and so whenever I hear that and knows, I know that I’m on the right path.

Speaker 2 01:29 So Stephanie, thank you so much and she said as a female power lifter

who trains in my basement, these podcasts make me feel less isolated. I’m not only, I’m not the

only lady out there doing this shit and struggling to balance training, menstrual cycles, stress and

kids. I find the content enlightening and entertaining. The insightful content has really helped me

understand my own nutrition programming and goals. I’d recommend any beginner specifically to

tune into our preparing for your first powerlifting meet podcast. It was by far a favorite, even

though I’ve done a few meets the question and answer sessions, always have some fantastic

tidbits in the in there as well. Thank you for your comment and thank you so much Stephanie for

your feedback. And if you all have a few minutes that you can carve out of your day, I would so

appreciate either a rating on iTunes, a five star rating.

Speaker 2 02:19 And if you want to leave me a little feedback, I love hearing what you have

to say, even if it’s just like, Hey Heidi, this is me. I listen to you. You know, whatever. Uh, I

always enjoy hearing what you all have to say. And if you don’t have iTunes, Spotify doesn’t

allow you to do things. You can head over to our Facebook page, which is the future female

power lifting podcast. And leave a review over there. Now to get into our amazing guest, mr

Chris, the mad scientist. Duffin this was awesome. And let me tell you that I like to read stories.

Um, I would say for the last couple of years it’s a lot more self-development books. And, um, if

there is somebody in the field who is in the industry that produces a book, I’m going to read it.

Swedes has a, uh, a poem book.

Speaker 2 03:08 It was amazing, uh, clues about ghosts. And, um, so when I saw Chris’s,

you know, biography, I thought, well, I need to listen to this because I knew that Chris had, um, a

different upbringing, upbringing. I really didn’t realize how different it was and the book, um,

which really gets into his upbringing, how he’s used that to leverage himself and build, I would

say build a, a tough mentality, um, has been amazing. So the book is called the Eagle and the

dragon, a story of strength and reinvention. And if you are looking for some inspiration, hearing

about people’s struggles, um, you need to turn to his book. And he really made it a point to say

that his story is not there. So you can be like, Oh, look at me. You know, I struggled. Oh, look at

my hard pass. But I think it’s very important to hear how somebody who could have very difficult

upbringing, you know, and many people out there have their own difficulties in their upbringing,

um, that it’s not about what happens to you, but how you respond.

Speaker 2 04:23 And I think that that is a huge statement throughout the book. So I strongly

recommend that you go and buy it. It’s actually out for if you want to listen to the audio book for

free, he has it. It’s in the show notes. I linked that for you all so you can listen to it for free. And if

you do listen, Goshen, you know, go over and give them a five st —

— ar rating if you enjoy the book. Um, but we do get into many aspects of his, um, very hard

upbringing and it, you know, the book starts off with him being being, catching a rattlesnake of all

things. It’s crazy. Um, but I think throughout there, Chris and I really dive deep on what is his

goal with sharing his story and how you as somebody who is going through your own struggles

or have gone through your own struggles, how you can find, um, inspiration and just powering

forward and how you can do it.

Speaker 2 05:17 If he did it, you can do it. And I think that that is the biggest theme

throughout his book. And of course this podcast is sponsored by my gym core strength and

performance in Huntsville, Alabama, where we live through strength. And if you’re looking for in

person training, we offer small group classes revolving around strengths. So if you want to get

stronger where or the blaze you want to go to. But I also do some online training. If you are

interested in competing in power lifting, don’t know where to start. Don’t want to start off with a

template or you’ve been doing a template for a while and you kind of want to get a little bit more

specific schedule call with me. We could talk about it, see if it’s the right step for you. Now let’s

get into it with Chris. But I want to thank you so much for joining me and being on the show

because, um, I loved your book and I had known about, um, parts of your past because of other

episodes.

Speaker 2 06:11 And it wasn’t until, um, I had, you had talked about it briefly on one of your

posts and it was something that I just kind of glazed through and I downloaded, you know, I

actually, I actually paid for it not knowing that you could get it for free for audio. So it was like I

really, I really enjoyed, um, almost every part of it. And I think what I loved the most was one that

you narrated it, which I find sometimes can be good or bad depending on the author, but I was

sort of used to listen to your voice already. So that kind of worked out really nicely. But, um, I

guess my thing was like what, what made you want to share your story? Cause it is such a

strong, strong story.

Speaker 0 06:50 Yeah. Um, well it, it’s actually been something I’ve wanted to do for a long

time because you know, everything I do is about strength and it’s about challenging yourself

and, and the outcome of that is being coming, uh, a stronger, you know, better version of

yourself and, but everything that I do is all in the physical world. And I really believe that, you

know, the mental, the emotional or even spiritual aspects of that are not only just as important

but probably more important. And it wasn’t something that I can really teach in our, in our

business. Like you know, our logo was the squat face, which is you know, we will, we will, we’ll

PR will give you the methods, we’ll give you the tools but you’ve got to bring the game day. The

mental side of it. Yeah. And so this is, this is really about that and I use the story, it was a

framework for telling the philosophy, the pieces around that of how to, how to really separate

your identity from you know, circumstances, environment to like your actions, your decisions,

your responses to things.

Speaker 0 08:01 And then also how do you, how do you not make like fear, struggle. Like all

these things that could people kind of view is negative challenges, uncomfortable things in life,

not as it adds challenges but as opportunities. And how do you use that to, to become, you

know, just like your training. Yeah. You go into the gym, you challenge yourself with a load

greater than last time and the next time greater than that. And what happens if we stopped going

to the gym? We get, we can soft. And the same thing happens in life if we don’t challenge

ourselves. So, so as to, you know, kinda changing your framework and then giving people tools

on how to approach those things in life. Cause we, we all have our own struggles and, and uh,

so yeah, the book wasn’t about like, Oh, what was me or look at me and look what I’ve done. But

like it’s a really good framework to tell those just because I’ve had a, an interesting life scope for

sure. Um, so

Speaker 2 09:03 interesting. Is it a very mild way of putting it? I, yeah, I mean the story starts

off with you, you know, narrating a, catching a rattlesnake. And I thought to myself that, um, you

know, you had a lot of difficulties early on, which I think too, —

— maybe somebody else, they seem to of course crazy and very odd and um, you know, that

you were put in with these challenges early. But I think with your perspective that you are put

through these challenges so early that I think that it helped mold you to view things as not so

traumatic. Like when you broke your arm and you talked about how <inaudible> yes, it hurt but

not hurt like how it normally should have. Right. But that you die compared to everything else

that you had been through that that wasn’t even that big of a deal. Um, and I see that, that your

stories, when they start off with something as simple as catching a, a rattlesnake and you

walked around, I thought it was, I could, I could picture it so vividly that you walk around with a

walking stick that has three prongs to it, cause you’re going to have to, you know, maybe

occasionally catch a rattlesnake, right?

Speaker 2 10:12 Yup. And, and then you had to learn how to manage that and live in those

wilderness. And so, you know, I, I what I loved the most was that you talked about your parents

and your stepfather so vividly and, and wonderfully, you know, like I think there was a lot of

struggles at the your family had, but you seem to admire their values. They’re more owls, their

sense of integrity in what they valued in life. And do you think that that’s helped you a lot, you

know, as, as an adult and going through these struggles?

Speaker 0 10:44 Uh, yeah. I think it has, but I also want people to understand that you don’t

have to have a crazy life to have, to have those experiences to do big things. And that was the

point I was trying to get across really the book is to show people how far you can move the

needle. Yeah. And so that’s the important, that’s why, you know, I tell those pieces and it’s, it’s

not to cause I don’t want people to think, well, I haven’t had those experiences. You know, how

am I supposed to have, and that’s not the case cause it’s all where we’re starting from today.

Right. You know, those stories are not, that’s not how I define myself today. You know, until

writing the book. A lot of people didn’t know the full depth of like what was in there because

that’s, I, I don’t need to do that to explain who I am.

Speaker 0 11:34 I am who I am in the world today. Yeah. But, you know, kind of on that topic,

I thought it was interesting. It was a, Oh gosh, I wish I could remember who, uh, who made the

comment. Um, but, uh, it was, uh, it was one of my female followers, uh, talking about the, and,

you know, I think some things in there, like people could read it and think, Oh, you know, my

mom or others like, didn’t, you know, she wasn’t like the greatest mother, but at the same time

they’re like, wow, you’re <inaudible>, you know, you, you really actually showed despite all that,

like how strong of a of an individual she was. And, and, uh, and I’m glad that, I’m glad that came

through. Like, because that’s, that’s something I’ve always been surrounded with between her.

My mother’s like, that’s is strong women in my life. That’s it

Speaker 2 12:35 pretty much everybody close to me. Yeah.

Speaker 0 12:39 And, but I, I love that people could pick that up about, uh, uh, my mom as

they, as they read the book and not just, you know, the negatives that were, that were, you

know, could be easy to pick up on.

Speaker 2 12:51 Yeah. I, I didn’t feel that. I, I mean, I think that that, you know, actually, you

know, as a parent there’s going to be negative and positive things as parents ourselves that our

kids are going to say about us. And I could say the same thing about my parents, you know, and

I definitely felt like there, there wasn’t an attack on your parents. It was definitely like, this is the

choice. It might not be what everybody agrees with, you know, this is how they want to live their

life. And I admire that they’re willing to take a stand and not want to conform to certain things in

society. And I thought that was amazing. And to me you applauded the, your mom’s intelligence

and her resilience, which I think was a great one. Um, even when you got into those, uh, those

chapters really talking about her struggling, um, keeping your family together and, and, and

keeping that all together.

Speaker 0 13:40 Oh, just an off story cause nobody’s hurt. I just found this one myself. But

uh, uh, the portion, I, I was just recently visiting her and she was, uh, she was telling me about a

fe —

— w corrections cause she read the book, you know, and she’s like, Oh, you know, you really

misspoke about the eating maggots thing and she’s going on and on. She explains, she gets to

the end of the story. She’s like, they were weevils.

Speaker 2 14:05 Oh, okay. Mom. I don’t think that changes the storyline. That’s really funny.

Listen, you got to keep it real. Keep the context.

Speaker 0 14:23 If that’s the context of my mistakes in the book,

Speaker 2 14:26 I’m okay with that. Yeah. I thought, I thought it was interesting that you

actually pointed out, and I didn’t catch it towards, towards the end of the stories, but did you did

point out like there are parts of my memory that I just don’t remember. For example, when you

broke your arm, you had a young boy that would help you write everything during that time and

he later on passed on. But you said that you couldn’t remember him. And I thought that was

interesting that you, that you made it a point to say there are parts of your memory that you sort

of just don’t remember. Do you think that, I mean, I as a kid can’t remember anything, but I feel

like you remembered a lot of things in your childhood and maybe your brain just sort of was like,

ah, I don’t need to remember this or that. But it was that a point for you to, to point that out?

Speaker 0 15:11 Um, I think that was important because I think that there’s, I, I think that

was one of the things that, you know, maybe I’m blocking because I had so many, uh, closest

friends die, uh, while I was growing up. Yeah. And, you know, close friends, family members,

and somewhat like the, yeah. And, uh, this was yet another one. And I out for the life of me, this

is an age I should be able to remember me every day writing, you know, writing for me. And then

he died and I w I don’t, I don’t even remember him at all. I only know from my friends.

Speaker 2 15:47 Well, so you don’t even remember him? No. Interesting.

Speaker 0 15:51 Yeah. I don’t remember anything about that. Uh, but my friends have told

me about it. Wow. I remember breaking my arm. I remember it being in a cast like I, but none of

that. And they’re like, yeah, don’t you remember? And he’d hide. And I’m like, I have, I don’t like,

and I should, but there’s definitely a distinct, like, I should remember that I was in fifth grade, but

yeah. Uh, a

Speaker 2 16:15 lot of things. And when I just have poor memory in general, I, I come to the

conclusion that if I don’t put it into my calendar or write it down, it’s, it’s not going to be taken

care of. So I kind of laugh when I think of, there’s very few people I remember in my, I had a very

small school as well. Not definitely not as small as yours, the ones, some of the ones you went

to. But um, there are things that I just don’t remember, but I, I would think that for you in the, in

that book, you know, as you talk about it, that it’s probably more just, you know, your brain is

probably picking what it’s going to remember because it’s got so many things it’s kind of holding

onto.

Speaker 0 16:50 Yeah. There’s still things that kind of flashed to my memory that are like,

Oh, you know,

Speaker 2 16:54 is there anything in the book that you didn’t share that you like realize now?

Speaker 0 16:59 Uh, well there’s a lot of things that were just left out of the book just

because they would be horrific and bad. And the only point is tell it would be to show how bad

certain things were, but they didn’t like added anything to the story or what I was trying to do.

And maybe it was happening to my sisters or people around me and not necessarily me or so

I’m like, it’s that this is my story. Like this is what I remember. And yeah, there was a whole lot of

other really bad things. Yeah. But you know, the, the goal isn’t, uh, to, to write, here’s the worst,

you know, the, the, the most horrific stories you can find. Yeah. Um, so there was, there was a

lot of that. Um, not a lot, but there was a, a, a number of that as well. So, um, so it’s, it’s tough to

differentiate between like, well, maybe other stories that are remember now or things that I just

chose to leave out. So

Speaker 2 18:00 what has been, uh, what has been the, yeah, I will, I can imagine. Well I

think that that’s important, you know, to not even for me, what I’ve, I’ve talked about maybe

some of my struggles, I don’t give every detail because that I think maybe pulls away an —

— d maybe that’s what you’re saying, it kind of takes away from where the direction of the book

you want it to be. Um, and I did feel it there’s always up a presence of a resilience throughout

the book so that each story, even though you said they’re kind of not necessarily in line with age,

they’re for the most part in a way, telling the story, um, that, you know, you don’t have to be a

victim of your circumstances in that sense. And you did have people around you who kind of

were and ended up, you know, either having a very bad ending or not succeeding the way that

you did. Um, which I thought was very interesting. Is there been any kind of, um, feedback that

you didn’t expect from the book?

Speaker 0 18:59 Um, not any that I didn’t expect. It’s just been more positive than I than I

thought as far as the impact it’s having on people. And I just had a lot of concern, uh, about

when writing the book. I didn’t feel that I was writing it in a, again, like a Whoa, look at me or an

egotistical manner. It was intended to be for the person reading the book, right? Like what can

they do with their life? What can they, but you just never know. And so I was expecting a mixture

of this is a great book and Oh, you know, you really like yourself or you know, like that type of

stuff. And it’s really like what I intended like really came through because I’ve really gotten

nothing on the other side of it at all. It’s been just resoundingly positive. I think there’s, God, I

can’t tell you how many emails and messages I’ve got, but you know, there’s so, you know, 105

star reviews on Amazon now.

Speaker 0 20:00 Um, and uh, so I guess just overall I was really surprised that how well

what I was trying to accomplish, cause you just, you second, you just don’t know. You could

have your friends and family read it right? But you’re still not going to get that real, like what’s

another person gonna think when they, when they read this, did I really hit the nail on the head

for, you know, trying to get into their head, get into their actions, get into, you know, really am I,

am I inspiring them to really do the work of thinking about, you know, their goals, their life, their

values and doing that evaluation of oneself. And so it was really, really pleased about that.

Speaker 2 20:48 Yeah. I, I, I mean I loved everything. Even the reference. Maybe you can

talk a little bit about what the dragon and the Eagle is and why that was chosen for the book.

Speaker 0 21:00 Yeah, yeah, I’d love to. So yeah, it’s, it’s really the book is in two pieces and

the first ha pieces based on a tattoo that I had done around 19 years old was it was finished

between 19 to 21 took a few years cause it was about 40 hours. But uh, it’s, it’s an E, it’s a big

tattoo. It starts, it starts with one of my ankles and runs up across my stomach and across my

back. And they’re two Eagles and they’re shackled. Each of them is trying to take flight. They’re

not in traditional tattoo Eagle poses, but they’re trying to take off and there’s, uh, a chain running

from their ankles all the way down to my ankle. And I had that done at that age because I was

<inaudible>, you know, my viewpoint was you can fly to whatever Heights in life that you want.

At the end of the day, the only thing holding you back is yourself.

Speaker 0 21:57 And that truly is the first half of the book because I had so many struggles

and things to overcome in my life and I was at that point of, you know, realizing my strengths,

what I could contribute to the world, and really separating my identity of who I was from the

circumstances environment that I lived in. There’s a lot of people, and I, and I think this is why I

kept this, you know, this concept from that time to, to, to when I wrote the book 20 years later is I

still see this today. Like you ask somebody who they are and they will tell you their story about,

I’m, you know, a parent of a, you know, of alcoholics, uh, a, I was sexually abused. I am the guy

with a bad back. I, you know, these are the definitions that people are surrounding themselves

with and there are things that they didn’t choose. You know, that is, that’s the, that’s the wrong

place to be. Yes. They’re going to have an impact on you. Yeah. I’m, I’m not denying that. But

you are defined by your responses to those things, your actions, your decisions. And so that is

where your identity comes from. Yeah. So, yeah, definitely those things have an inf —

— luence on it. Don’t get me wrong, but you can’t define yourselves by your circumstances and

environment and things that have happened to you. Yeah.

Speaker 0 23:34 You’ll never, exactly. Yeah. And that’s the point. You. So the first half of the

book is all about finding your strengths, finding your, your identity within that and separating it,

those things. And the second half of the book is the dragon. So I’ve got a, an aura, Boris, you

know, it’s a, it’s a dragon eating its own tail and it wraps, it starts on my chest, wraps around

both my, my arms under my arms, around my back, and then back across my chest. It’s, it’s a

pretty big, another 40 hour tattoo.

Speaker 3 24:07 Yeah. Ginormous. And in fact, you did that one in pretty much one sitting

correct after a surgery. Well, one week you can’t sit down for one week. There we go. Yeah.

Speaker 0 24:17 Yeah. So it was, I had a surgery one day and the next day they were like,

you can’t go back to work and

Speaker 3 24:24 trying to maximize your time.

Speaker 0 24:27 And at the time, you know, I’m in videos all the time and I’m shirtless, so I

don’t want to have like this half finished tattoo for like four years. Like my first one and a

<inaudible>. So I challenged my artists like, Hey, let’s get this done. So he works seven to nine

hour days every day on it. And this is like across my sternum, through my arm pit in my armpit,

like all sorts of fun fun

Speaker 3 24:54 that’s across my rib cage. So it was good times. I can’t even imagine that

my husband did a whole arm piece and uh, in one day, one and a half days before we got

married. And so he was bleeding on the day of our wedding. He was like, well, I don’t want it to

be half done when we take pictures. And so now, now I see. He wasn’t crazy to think that was

good logic. Great. Hopefully it wasn’t bleeding in the picture. It was bleeding in the pictures. I’m

going to put that out there. Maybe a few days prior to the wedding shirt was that his shirt was a

little stained and we kind of Photoshop that one out, you know? But yeah, it was, it was kind of

funny. I was like, maybe we should’ve just waited. So right after, so the oral Boris, of course,

Speaker 0 25:40 the course is, is, uh, it has a lot of meanings. Continual renewal of Lanai

life, infinity. But, uh, the meeting that I was taking from it, which kind of ties into all of those is the

purposeful reinvention of oneself. So the dragon is continually eating itself. It’s a destructive

nature, but to renew itself, to become a new version of itself. And this process never stops.

Yeah. But it’s, it’s more of a purposeful or willful destruction, reinvention of oneself. And I did this

in my late thirties as I was in the middle of walking away from a very successful career, uh,

doing, uh, corporate turnarounds in the aerospace and automotive world.

Speaker 0 26:29 I walked away from that to do what my passion was. I retired from lifting.

Uh, I got divorced. I chose a lot of, those are just some of the big ones, but like, I chose lot of

action to, to repurpose my life and do what I am doing today, to have the right people, the right

relationships, the things around me to accomplish, to accomplish it and have, you know, that

thing, that purposeful mission. Yeah. And people that are bought into that and moving forward

with that. And so it was a, uh, it was an interesting time and that was, um, and, but that’s, that’s

what that tattoo is. It’s really the taking that next step and really deciding who you want to be in

this world. Not discovering your strengths or your identity, but deciding specifically this is who I

want to be. This is the impact that I want to leave on this world and taking the action to become

that person. And so it’s a very purposeful side of it. And so that’s the second half of the book.

The second half is definitely laced with a lot more philosophy, especially as you get into the last

quarter of the book, which is my favorite, uh, of tying all this stuff together in, you know, usable

pieces that you can put to place in your life, in your business with your family. Um, by the way, I

am happily remarried with, uh, the third child. Now.

Speaker 3 28:05 I know that baby is so cute.

Speaker 0 28:08 She’s the cutest. Oh my God.

Speaker 3 28:11 So cute. And you see, I think to myself like I don’t know, my husband and I

have talked about having another one and and we have —

— three and as well and uh,

Speaker 0 28:20 <inaudible> a tough number to go from because your vehicles have to

change. Like you can’t just get a Ford or you know, you can, you can deal with a whole lot of

vehicles with three kids. But once you go beyond three, it’s minivan, suburban and then your

house. Well,

Speaker 3 28:40 Oh, I’ve still come to the idea of yeah, now you start looking at like now this

office becomes another room. That’s what happens. So my office is no longer my office. I have

to succumb to another baby room if that was the case. But I, we, we laughed about it. I was like,

you know, when we see, you know, I get the little fever when I see cute little kids and cute little

babies and I’m like, no, I don’t want to be, I don’t want to be 40 pregnant again. Like that’s going

to be, that’s a big one for me. I don’t know. It was cool when I was 35, but now I don’t think I

want to take that route again. I would have to say though that the, that part of the book that

you’re talking about like a quarter way. I mean almost towards the end where we’re in chapter

nine or so. I really enjoyed, um, how it got into relationships and for me that’s been a big one. As

I’ve gotten older,

Speaker 0 29:27 it’s huge. Like people want to think, especially like entrepreneurship is this

big topic. Like everybody, it’s the new hot thing. Used to be like a few years ago, I, uh, I live in

Hollywood and I’m, I’m an, I’m an actor. I’m like, no, no, you’re, you’re a waiter.

Speaker 4 29:41 He’s trying to get a gig ballots.

Speaker 0 29:45 Yeah, I’m an entrepreneur. No, you’re a waiter trying to come up with, you

know, whatever. Nothing against waiters. That’s just, uh, but, uh, now I lost my train of

<inaudible>.

Speaker 4 29:57 Yeah, we were talking about being an entrepreneur. I know what you mean.

And you know, it’s funny is that my husband doesn’t even like seeing that he’s an entrepreneur.

Like he’s like, I don’t even like the word. I hate the word. I have four companies though. So it’s

like you’re the epitome of it. You’re the real deal. Not everything else. I’m like, it’s reality. That’s

what I, what I am, but I hate the damn word. Yeah. I think it’s because it’s been used the way it

is. I would say the last couple of years.

Speaker 0 30:22 It’s this business process. It’s this new product, it’s this what, whatever it is.

Yeah. That’s not what drives success. Yeah. Everything in life, everything in life, business and

family and friendship and anything that you’re going to see success in is always driven through

relationships. And that means you need to spend the time like cultivating and really caring about

the relationships that are a value to you. It’s imperfect because that is, that is, that’s, that’s the

driver. That’s the thing that’s actually going to move things forward, change that needle position,

whatever, whatever verbiage you want to use. But it’s going to be done through relationships.

And so you know, if someone is a value to you, you need to spend the time and invest in that

friendship, that family, that business relationship, whatever it is. And also at the same time not

invest in ones that are just, Oh, there’s a relationship I’ve had because it’s been a person from

high school that I knew, or an X work person.

Speaker 0 31:32 But there it can be very negative towards <inaudible> and negativity is not,

let’s differentiate like somebody that’s questioning you doesn’t mean they’re negative. Yeah.

That’s not a point. That’s not a hater. That’s not a, that could be your best, that could be your

best ally. But the people that <inaudible> look at the negative side of all aspects or want in the

back of their heart for you to not see success or those type of things or the people that you just

don’t need, they’re constantly taking energy and never putting it back. Yeah. And you’ll see it

across the board and a lot of times in there just sometimes residual relationships that we have

and those ones you need to do move away from. So you can take that time that you’re putting

into that and put it into the people that you value, that you want to have to be part of that life, that

business, whatever it is driving forward. And that’s a really important thing to understand. And

we hear a lot of people in the entrepreneur, uh, hustle, porn arena, whatever you want to call it,

always talking about just the negative, like cutting those people. Yeah. So I like to —

— make sure I’m spending time on the other side of the equation, talking about no, actually

spend the time investing in people and that’s the part of the equation that’s really missed. And

that’s the part that’s really going to drive things. And I think that really gets lost in that arena.

Speaker 2 32:58 Yeah. I think there’s so much of, even in the female community, uh, just in

general when, you know, there’s a lot of boss babes and things like that, which I think is great.

You know, as, as far as, you know, women looking at themselves and trying to take their own,

you know, business or whatever deal they want to do. But there is like an I, it’s harder for me to

do this, but there’s a lot of that cut throat sort of feeling like they wish you, they out, you know, or

this, this kind of, this kind of feeling that’s it’s very, I don’t even know if it’s negative, but, um, it’s

like, it’s all about me, you know, like, I can do this, this is me and, and I understand that there’s

some strength in solitude and knowing that you can take your own destiny and do this, but I just

don’t like the way that it’s presented in way. People are just so cutthroat about cutting people out

or, um, in, in not in a way that it should be. I think that like how you said

Speaker 0 33:54 part of it, but it’s a small part. The bigger part is like what you’re investing in

and building a team around you. Yeah. Because you can sure accomplish a lot more that way.

Speaker 2 34:07 Yeah. I agree. And there was a quote that I wanted to read that you from

your book that I really loved and it was relationships are the rocket fuel that propels you along

your chosen path. And I thought that that was so, uh, powerful because, um, I think that myself,

I, I know I work better when I don’t have anybody distracting me, kids, husband, whatever. Um,

but I sometimes get so wrapped in that that if I’m not able to take a step back and, and be

present with my family, then it just creates this sort of havoc in me and I don’t feel right. And so

when I’m able to reconnect with my family, my friends, everything else is with, you know, Rose

colored lenses, like I can view everything much better. Um, and it wasn’t till I got a lot older did I

realize that.

Speaker 2 34:52 And Jay Ferrugia had spoke about that once. I’d seen him speak at a, at a

business seminar and, uh, he’s very big on, on connecting with people and, and creating these

relationships. Um, and I thought that that was really interesting because you talked about that a

lot in your, in that part of your book. Um, just creating those relationships. And maybe you’ve

talked a little about about like Rudy. I like how on the show you guys like cut each other all the

time. You give each other shit all the time, but in the book you talk so wonderful about him. Um,

and maybe you could talk a little bit about your relationship with him and how that has grown and

created what you guys have now. Yeah.

Speaker 0 35:30 I, I don’t think I touched on how our relationship started, which is kind of a

kind of funny, but I want to hear. So, uh, there wasn’t many power lifting meets going on in

Oregon, basically. Like all the federations had fallen apart. This is like early two thousands and I

started hosting some meats and Rudy had just gotten into power lifting and decided to host

some meets and he’s hosting a meet, had no idea what, what he’s doing by the way.

Speaker 3 36:01 Well, he started at 55. Right, because he’s 70 now. And you had said that

he started at 55, which I thought

Speaker 0 36:07 that for that itself. That’s awesome. Yeah, he was, I mean, he was an ex

football coach back in the day, uh, for Idaho. Uh, Boise state would have, you know, and he has

a degree, a PhD in <inaudible> kinesiology, but that was, you know, 1920, so long time ago.

And, uh, he started lifting weights again at 55 because he needed to get in shape and found

power lifting shortly thereafter. Cause his trainer like you’re pretty strong. You should like do a

power lifting mate.

Speaker 3 36:46 Well, he looks jacked. I mean, even for his age, I mean, he’s got a good

physique.

Speaker 0 36:50 Yeah. I mean, these a 500 plus pound, mid 500 pound dead lifter at, at 198,

a 300 plus bencher squat and close to 500. These are all raw numbers, uh, drug tested numbers

at 198 pounds at 70 years old. Isn’t that nuts? It’s nuts. That’s not, yeah. With a dual shoulder

replacement too. So, —

— Oh my gosh. Wow. But he hosts this meet and I, I, I’m, I’m going to go and you know, I call up

and I say, Hey, do you got a dead lift bar? He’s like, what’s that? And I’m like, bad, don’t worry

about it. Let me bring mine. He’s like, Oh, okay. So I show up at the meeting, I show up at the

meet with all my own bars. Of course, you know, kind of walk. It was a local meet. And so he,

he’s like, who the hell is this guy?

Speaker 0 37:40 So then over the next year we ended up bumping into, into each other at a,

a number of other meats. And this is back when power lifting gear was pretty much the standard,

right? So there’s one meet, we ran into each other in Idaho. No, it was a Washington <inaudible>

and I dropped 630 pounds on my face from, from the top of my, I was locking it out and it fell off

the back of my wrist and the spotters were too slow. So I had to turn my head and it caught the

side of my face, tweaked up my elbow. I’m black and blue and everybody’s like, Oh my God,

what are you doing? Are you going to go to the hospital? Where are you going? I’m like, okay.

And Rudy’s like they’re in the group. I’m like, I’m going over to the bench over there. What the

judges table so I can enter my third attempt. And they’re like, what? Yeah. I’m like, I just missed

that one. I’ve got to take my third,

Speaker 4 38:36 I want to take it up to six 50 and if he’s like, you’re nuts, there’s video of me

like dropping the bar on my face on the internet. Oh is it? Okay now I’m going to have to Google

that and attach that. Go to Tim,

Speaker 0 38:48 record it. Cause they’re just afraid. Afraid of it. And so I go and I’m like, I

have to go take this because if I don’t, I’m going to be afraid of this bar for, you know, a year or

two years, however long it’s been. Like if I get up there and just own this right now, it’s going to

be out of my head. Yeah. So I went up there. Good clean lift is six 50 done. Move on to the dead

lift. Second attempt. I like open up my hand like you know when a callus tears and goes all the

way down the finger. Yes. And so I’m in the back trying to like fix it up and Rudy comes through

and he’s like, Hey, you need some help? I’m like yeah, get some tape and super glue.

Speaker 4 39:32 Sorry.

Speaker 0 39:33 Let me like piece my hand back together so I could go out and make a 750

pound deadlift attempt or whatever it was for my third attempt. And I can just see this guy

shaking his head like who the hell is this? He’s a little nuts. And I’m like man, cause Rudy’s

techniques sucked.

Speaker 4 39:52 You need to like

Speaker 0 39:52 come over to my house and I need to teach you how to lift. Yeah. And he’s

like, ah. He’s like okay you could, I don’t remember which lift it was. He’s like, I’ll show up for one

session of bench press and you’ll, that’ll be good enough. My squat and dead lift or are perfect.

They’re fine. I’m like, uh, no they’re not. But, okay, cause I knew it was Buddhist. I had him for

one session. So his side of the story is so Rudy’s like mr fancy. He lives in the very, like he’s the,

he’s the leading real estate, like the largest in our state. He’s the largest residential real estate

developer in the, in the history of the state. So he’s done massive projects like building and

basically entire communities, cities type thing. And he’s in the height of that at the time. And I’m

still coming up in my career. I’m doing stuff I lived in like, what should we say, the, the ghetto.

Speaker 4 40:53 So he’s rolling up to your place.

Speaker 0 40:55 Oh, the poles in it is his brand new Mustang pulls up, you know, there’s,

it’s, it’s a bad neighborhood. And he comes downstairs and it’s me, my training partner who’s like

400 pounds in this tight little space. And he’s looking around, he’s like, Oh shit, what did I just

get myself into? His recollection as he walks down there and he was like, Oh crap,

Speaker 4 41:22 we’re getting raped today. But she’s like, what did I just get myself into? I’m

sick of a neighborhood and these guys are scary. So when

Speaker 0 41:34 he tells the story, it’s pretty funny. Yeah. That was, that was, uh, about 12,

12, 13 years ago. So

Speaker 3 41:42 that’s where the magic started. And so you guys became friends ever

since.

Speaker 0 41:46 Yeah. So, and we’ve had a great release cause I, we were both, yeah. Like

I said, I still lived in the ghetto, but I was doing pretty we —

— ll in my car. We were <inaudible> you were these two like guys that are really successful in

our careers but really love our power lifting and you could talk business and he was kind of

became a father figure to me on a lot of aspects and mentor and um, you know, just cause I, I,

you know, I had that growing up, but I didn’t, you know, it was, it was different. And so, uh, yeah,

we’ve had a fantastic relationship and then we, you know, we opened a commercial facility

together a few years after that. Never intending it for it to be a business. Like, we just wanted to

have a great community, like to create this place where we could come train with the tools and

have the best environment so we could pursue our hobby. Cause we both did really well and

we’re like, there’s no way we’re ever going to be able to do this full time. So.

Speaker 3 42:43 Right. Especially cause you both had very successful, which I think is funny

because that’s what a doctorate in kinesiology gets. You’re a fabulous real estate agent. I always

tell people like that. Unfortunately it, my degree in kinesiology actually worked out right now. But

normally that’s, you know, the communications of the health area. Like it’s, you never know

where it’s going to get you as far as the degree. But yeah. So he, he left his job as well. And so

you guys,

Speaker 0 43:09 he was, he was, uh, you know, he was coaching for Boise state and there

was, you know, there’s always some sort of politics, like some, you know, like maybe the head

coach, I think there was some sort of drama got in trouble for like recruiting practices bad or

maybe some athletes were using, I don’t remember that. I have no idea what the details was, but

there was some drama and stuff going on and he was working real estate during the summer

and he’s like a second year in and he’s like my residual checks, like through the winter from what

the three months of work I did during the summer are more than I make on my paychecks. He’s

like this. And then, yeah, there was stuff coming up. He’s like, Oh, I gotta change jobs. I’m gonna

have to move somewhere else. He’s like, you know, I think I’m just going to go over here and do

this.

Speaker 3 43:57 Yeah,

Speaker 0 43:59 clearly it’s working out a lot better.

Speaker 3 44:01 Oh yeah, I would, I would, I would, you know, now that I know more and

more about being like even a strength and conditioning coach at a, you know, at a school level, I

don’t think I’d want to be part of it. I just, there’s, there seems to be too much politics in that area.

And if there’s a lot of parts that you can’t do, I think there’s freedoms that you can’t do as a

coach. You know, that I think that would be very hard.

Speaker 0 44:24 Yeah. It’s only if you’ve really built like the trust in the entire staff in there,

you know, cause you’ve got your athletic, you’ve got your position coaches you’ve got and they

may not all be on the same page and then head coach changes. He’s going to change what he’s

going to change the head strength and conditioning coach, which is then going to change all the

people under it. So next thing you know, you’re getting bounced all over the nation. Yeah. Cause

you’re going to follow your old coach or yeah. And you lost, you might’ve lost your job for literally

nothing to do with how you performed your job. Right. It’s a tough, it’s a tough game. Yeah.

Speaker 3 44:59 I would rather try it in the private sector.

Speaker 0 45:02 I, a lot of people will, they’ll spend a number of years doing it and if they get

really successful, then they’ll move on to private practice. Yep.

Speaker 3 45:11 I could see that. So right now what I think is amazing, and this is one of the

things that, uh, I wanted to talk to you about, is that when you retired from powerlifting, you

decided to use your feats of strength for charity. And right now you’re doing crazy, crazy charity

where you’re trying to squat and dead lift over a thousand pounds.

Speaker 0 45:34 Well, I already did the dead lift, so I’m not going to do that again. I thought it

was okay. So it’s not bone on. So one than the other doesn’t. Like I said, I realized I wasn’t able

to fully express myself in the strength arena within power lifting anymore. Like I was giving up a

couple of hundred pounds because my arms only move a little bit. So if I’m dead lifting the bar

on one side is six inches in front of me. Oh. Um, you know, —

— basically it’s a deficit, which I still have to deal with. Then when you go to bench, when you go

to squat, all this stuff just gets additive and just ends up destroying the shoulders. And I’m just

like, I, I’ve been, I was ranked number one in the world for eight years straight. I’ve been on the

platform for 16 years. I’ve been lifting at the time for 25 years.

Speaker 0 46:22 I’m like, I just want to do what I want to do now. And so, well, I’m going to

do chase this grand goals. I came up with a, I’m like, Oh, that’s a catchy title. I like it. It’s great on

a shirt and a change. Uh, you know, basically, you know, choose things that will allow me to truly

express what I want to show, which is a little beyond one rep. It’s a lot of either repeat

endurance feats. So they show you have to have the rehab, the prehab, the prep, like all these

things in place. When you’re doing this Epic thing every single day repeatedly, right. It’s a whole

different challenge or doing things for a larger number of reps, it seems minor. Like what’s the

difference between a one rep and a three rep? Well, you’ve got to actually hold your stabilization

for about 30 seconds.

Speaker 0 47:15 For me to do three reps with anything over 900 pounds. The ability to

control and manage spinal position is just through the roof for that compared to a single lift.

Right. So, so I chose to, I’m going to do things that kind of showcase and allow me to, to work

and actually learn. Cause then each of these processes I go for these things. I’m, I’m learning

because it’s, it’s uncharted territory. Yeah. You know, just like I squatted two days ago I took,

what’s an example of volume that I hit every week? I hit nine Oh five for a double. I hit nine 38

for a double nine 55 for a double and nine or sorry, nine 60 for a double and then nine 70 for a

double. I’m doing this stuff on a weekly basis. Nobody, nobody else can tell you what it’s like to

train at that level of intensity weight, right?

Speaker 0 48:12 With that kind of volume on a weekly frequency cause it’s never been done.

Right. So it’s a huge learning process like with how we use our tools and our recovery and

everything. But the other side of that is pairing is pairing these events with charities that I believe

in. And you’ll notice every one of these charities are kind of aligned with concepts from the book,

right? The big one we’re doing right now is the home builders foundation, which I love. It’s a local

one, but we just did the, when I, when we did, when I did the grand goals the first time, uh, the

funding went towards a housing for homeless mothers and sexually abused teen teens. So

there’s a home for them, uh, helping on the mental and the, just also a place to live. And kind of

get moving again. Uh, and the more recent one we just did, this wasn’t relying to my, uh, this

was just with our black Friday.

Speaker 0 49:08 Uh, we built, uh, housing for homeless veterans. So we funded it and then

also went down, uh, our staff and helped install the homes. And, uh, we’re going to do some

actually continuing, they’ve got a little weight center outside, so we’re going to build them a

covered area and go teach them a little bit about using this stuff. And then, so these are all

pretty tied to, you know, things that either myself or my family experienced growing up. Um,

Alex’s lemonade stand again is another great one. My business partner, Rudy, uh, at the time we

were going through this, his, uh, his grandson was, uh, was battling cancer. And so that’s in

remission at this point. It looks like it’s all good. Uh, but that’s another one. And all these, all

these charities were very specific about finding ones that nearly everything go to the end

organization, right.

Speaker 0 50:00 Because there’s so many charities out there that I’m sorry, they’re just

really, uh, yeah. Yeah. It’s crazy. Yeah. Like Alex’s lemonade stand is 100%. Like everything

goes to childhood cancer research. Homebuilders foundation. Basically everything is going out

to, to, there’s a couple staff mentors that administer it, but again, like that’s all paid through, um,

the builders and stuff that are associated with it. So it’s like there’s no, there’s no high paid

executives. It’s all like volunteer position stuff on the staff. A lot of them, like it’s nearly a hundred

percent going to these, uh, these charities. So that, and that’s important to me.

Speaker 2 50:40 Yeah, I agree. I a —

— gree. That’s awesome that you, so how do you go about raising the money? Is that people are

just donating or how, how does that process go

Speaker 0 50:50 best at setting that stuff up? So usually I rely on our marketing person to do

that and it’s changed a little bit through the, through the years. So we’ve done some just partner

with a go fund me. Uh, we’ve done like Alex’s lemonade stand. They have, you know, we

basically just have a, an official link that people are going in directly. It’s bypassing us and going

straight to the straight to them. Um, and then we also do a portion of proceeds, so, Oh, I don’t

have my grand gold shirt on today. Um, but you know, we sell the grand gold shirt with a large

portion of those proceeds going, uh, to that as well. So it’s, uh, it’s just a mixture of different

avenues. So whatever works, whatever works well for, you know, trying to have some different

options for the end consumer. We haven’t set up the, the, the next series of grand goals. So I’m

not sure if he’s planning on doing that like right before or post or, you know, how that’s, uh, how

that’s gonna work. So.

Speaker 2 51:47 Well, I’m definitely inspired and like I had said that my husband, he doesn’t

really compete in power lifting and the one who, you know, enjoys power lifting and everybody

thinks it’s him because he’s kind of a big guy. And so it was a great conversation when people

come to the gym, they’re like, Oh, those are your metals. He’s like, no, those are my wife’s

metals. But he does, he has a soft spot for giving back and charities. And so, um, I, I don’t think I

had told you, but we just did something for Christmas. So he did 12 workouts of Christmas. So

each hour was filled with a different workout, any work, technically he actually did 13 hours of

workout cause he didn’t actually calculate the time. Right. And so he did 13 hours where each

hour was donated so somebody could donate for each hour. And uh, I think we raised 1800 for

just that day, which was awesome.

Speaker 2 52:38 Um, but he and I are going to do a charity in a few months where it’s going

to be 24 hours of dead lifting. Oh, nice. And my old professor, you might even know who he is.

Have you ever heard of Lincoln Gottschalk? Dr Lincoln Gottschalk? Sounds familiar. Yeah, he

was actually, I think he was one of the first unofficial strength and conditioning coaches at temple

before they even had that kind of position in the 80s. He was my professor in college, but he had

did it, uh, at, at temple, uh, 1980, maybe 81. And uh, he did it for ALS at the time. Stephen

Hawkin had just been dying, uh, diagnosed with ALS. And so that, that was his thing. And so my

husband got up, uh, you know, bug in his, he’s like, I want to do it 24 hours. Like anything,

anything crazy, uh, where it’s like slightly

Speaker 3 53:26 nuts. He wants to do it. So I feel, I was like, well, listen, I, I can’t let you do

that one alone. I’ve got to do it in there with you. Um, but how would you think that somebody

even trained for stuff like that? So like in your case, you’re doing this on a weekly basis and

you’re, you’re taking all these loads. Do you, do you and your, uh, you know, your training staff,

do you guys put together some sort of training plan and it changes, I’m sure right? From time to

time?

Speaker 0 53:48 Yeah. No. Uh, so yeah, this training plan that we’ve been working on is, uh,

been a four year process. Oh my gosh. So there’s been slight deviations for like the, the every

day, uh, events where I squatted 800 pounds every day for 30 days and then attempted to do

the same thing with a 880 pounds for a dead lift every day. And you got only 17 days. Yup.

That’s right. Yup. That’s when I detached the hamstring. Kind of put an end to that one. But I

didn’t know that. That’s crazy. That’s another reason I’m not attempting to do the deadlift again

as a, they weren’t able to reattach it. So I am missing a hamstring now. Are you kidding? No, no,

that’s crazy. So how was that for you in squatting, uh, the affects that needs stability on that

outside? Yeah, just that’s just something to deal with, but they actually all fit in because it’s all

about, it’s been all about increasing, uh, axial load tolerance to be able to do this.

Speaker 0 54:45 So everything is either squat or deadlift. And so it’s a been building up my

tolerance for being able to handle these axial loads and then building the more work that you ca

—

— n do in a given time is going to result in more strength. Right. So you are trying to tight window

add volume slowly at this level. It’s like a lot of people want to think it’s about adding a set, you

know, from one training program to the next. It might just be or training block to the next. It might

just be a rep within a certain style. Like that’s, that’s the type of minutia of detail that we’re, you

know, we’re dealing with there. Normally I’d be squatting more than once a week, uh, at least

compared to where I was four years ago. But I haven’t been able to tolerate that as I’ve gotten a

little older.

Speaker 0 55:30 So we’ve had to adjust that. Like with the a thousand pound deadlift. When

I did that for almost the triple I got to where I was dead lifting a heavy twice a week. So I was

pulling off a blocks like in the eight 50 to 900 range for 12 to 15 reps one time a week and then

dead lifting 12 to 15 reps off the floor from 900 to nine 50 pounds twice a week during the final

phases. Uh, when I like started going for the deadlift everyday challenge, we just started working

on increasing the frequency so it wasn’t near as nuts as much of volume and working that to

where I was training, you know, every third day, every second day, then the final phases every

other day it was a higher load. So I was like dead lifting 900 like every other day or every third

day, which then got me to the point of, okay, we’re ready to pull the trigger on moving to daily.

Yeah, 880 so

Speaker 2 56:29 yeah, when to tell you this is so crazy because you had a new baby, you

have a new baby. Right. And I think to myself, like I, I even have a hard time starting coffee in

the morning when the baby was like, you know, getting up throughout the night. But you were

still,

Speaker 0 56:44 my kids have always been good sleepers. Oh, that’s so all three of them

have been always from baby on, uh, slept through the night.

Speaker 2 56:53 What about nights when should they got sick or something?

Speaker 0 56:56 Oh, they don’t, they don’t because of that. Yeah. That just happens. That’s

part of it. So you’ve got just got to deal with, you’ve got to deal with that. Yeah. It may involve

moving a training session. It may involve dropping the load on a training session or it may

involve just getting it done. Yeah. So that’s where a lot of the autoregulation principles come into

place. I don’t get to watches me lift, we’ll see that there’s always a speed device hooked to it.

And so we monitor the output of the speed on the bar and that actually tells the preparedness

and the capability of what a, what my daily max is that day. And then we know. So instead of

saying, Hey, I want 12 to 15 reps in the 90 to 95% zone, we call out the speed. And so I chained

to those speed parameters and that allows me <inaudible> lot, you know, we’re talking about

the, the reducing it factor, but mostly it actually ends up finding every opportunity that you have

to attack on five pounds, 10 pounds, whatever, through a training cycle that you wouldn’t

normally see. Because guess what, even if I’m dead lifting 800 pounds, well if this is a clean

podcast or not, but yeah, no, 800 pounds is fucking heavy. Yes. I can’t tell you that. Oh, I should

have been training with eight Oh eight that day. But I could have been like if I knew everything.

And so that allows me the opportunity to take advantage of those.

Speaker 2 58:22 I have a 10 unit because of that. And because you had, um, you had

introduced it years ago and so we got one right when the rep one came out or the, Oh, I think it’s

the same guys that you guys use. Yeah. Yes, yes. And I, and, um, I didn’t realize, and for our

listeners, we’re talking about a device that actually measures a bar speed. So if you watch, um,

Chris’s pod, I mean his videos or any of Kabuki strength stuff, you’ll see that they’re measuring

the bar speed. And what he’s saying is pretty much that if it moves slow, quote unquote, and I’m

buddied air quotes here, slow for the exercise that you’re doing, then that might mean that you

need to bring the bar down or the weight down. I mean, there’s a number of things. So what he,

that’s the autoregulation that he’s talking about and I didn’t realize that you guys actually map it

out, which is awesome.

Speaker 0 59:09 Yeah. And there’s a, uh, if you go type into Google autoregulation book of

methods, you’ll come up with the, you should find a, both a —

— seminar, a film seminar on it as well as a written, a written piece on it. And attached to the

written piece is a downloadable sheet for you to map out yours. So once you map it out, it’s just

a slope line. We can, we get to call it off Annie. It’s a linear regression line. But, uh, I, you know

what I’m talking about, the slope of the line, right? So what you do is you just start working up

towards your max. You start at a lightweight and you start capturing. The caveat is you have to

try, like you have to try with all your reps and you’ll just start mapping that out and then you plot

that line. There’ll be a little variation up or below it, uh, but that will allow you to tell, Hey, if my

max is 500 pounds, I know every PO point along this line how fast the weight should move.

Speaker 0 00:16 Yeah. Now I know what 85% is, what 90% is. So you take basic

periodization. So your program is exactly the same. You just replace the speed with the

corresponding velocity. It’s that simple. And now you use the same periodization principles. So

instead of calling a specific weight, you call the same speed, right? And so that allows you,

instead of training at 90%, which would be 400 pounds, you’re going to train at such and such

speed that equates to that. So it might be three 91 day because child was up sick all night. Yeah,

it might be four Oh five or four 10 another day because you don’t actually know. You can plan all

you want, but when you, when you plan out your training cycle and it’s going to net you 7% gains

over the next six, you know, six months, you don’t know that. That’s guesswork.

Speaker 0 01:16 Yeah. And so this allows you to actually, it’s going to self-adjust your you,

you actually don’t even have to adjust it. It’s going to manage your training through that whole

course and actually take advantage of all your ups and downs cause it’s any, your progress is

also not linear. It’s so the wave up and down, it’s the slope goes up but it’s a wave up and down

and this is a problem with like people that take some program off the internet and go, I’m going

to do such and such program. Well that was a program that followed somebody training in some

meat prep some time ago and it had their ups and downs and so on. Your body’s not going to

respond to it because you’ve got a different life. You’re going to also burn a spawn to the weights

differently and all of these things are going to happen.

Speaker 0 01:59 So on a week that they’re doing a little more, it might be a little less like it

just doesn’t, it’s not the same thing. So the only, the only important thing to understand if you do

any velocity of training is we call it effort based training. Cause sometimes you’ll come in and

you’re like well I’m supposed to be at 400 today but three seems to be the speed. I guess I’ll

train there. It’s like the first question is have you tried hard enough yet? Okay go back and do it

again but put some effort in. Oh cause it, it really is effort based. You have to put the effort in.

Yeah. Cause you can just by not trying to do it.

Speaker 3 02:40 Yeah, I could see that. I think it’s so awesome that you had made a great

point where um, sometimes you don’t realize that you can do more but then the bar is over

faster. That’s a, that’s a very good <inaudible>.

Speaker 0 02:52 Let’s say you’ve got 12 reps planned in a certain zone, three sets of four

gets you there and you get through your second set and you’re like, man, today is tough. It is

just not moving. I’m going to be smart. I’m going to auto-regulate. I’m not going to do this last

set. Then you look at your velocity device and you go, Oh, some of them bitch, I hate you

because it is actually moving good despite how I feel and I got one more set in me. Yes, so

autoregulation is pulling back. Right, but you, a lot of people miss. It’s also taking the opportunity

of every of every opportunity. That’s kind of silly, but that’s what it is along the path. Yeah. The

other thing is that you have to be like, you’ve got to have good movement quality. Like if you’re a

new lifter and there’s a lot of variability in your squat technique, when you go to map it, you’re

going to see it. It bounces all over the place and we have some parameters about how much it

bounces, whether you should use it or not. But if you’ve got a lot of technique variation, it’s going

to be all over the place. Versus me, my technique is, well, I’ve been trying for over 30 years —

— and pretty experienced at these lifts, so mine’s pretty spot on and it makes a great tool, but

that is an area, um, you know, where it’s a pitfall. It can be challenging for new lifters.

Speaker 3 04:16 Right. So then that would be something maybe they could incorporate as a

technique is gets better and they’re more solidified in that. Yeah. That’s interesting.

Speaker 0 04:25 Unfortunately, new lifters, you know, the other option is to use subjective

feedback, but if you’re a new lifter, everything feels heavy.

Speaker 3 04:33 Yeah. So my RPE, it’s a 10. Yeah, weights are heavy.

Speaker 0 04:39 Get used to this.

Speaker 3 04:41 Yeah, it is the best one. I see that when a, they’re like, Oh, that was heavy.

Like, all right, let me show you the video. Sometimes they are like, Oh, that, that actually move

kind of fast. Yeah. Well you still, you ended up with 40 pounds more so it wasn’t that heavy. So

that was wonderful. Before I let you go, Chris, this is one part of the show where I ask

everybody, what the hell was I thinking where you think back to the time and since you’ve had 30

years of training, he could probably think back to some good times where you did something

where you thought, no, what the fuck was I thinking doing that? Can you think of any a moment?

Give it to me. I want to hear it. Okay.

Speaker 0 05:29 I was a, I was bench pressing, and again, this is shirt, had bench pressing

days. So I’m working up, I’m working like around six 5,700 hitting all my work sets. I get done.

I’m like, let’s do some Rob benching. So I slapped four Oh five on do like 10 reps with it. And

then I’m like, well, I’ve got to, let’s go. Let’s go over to these rings over here. So I’m doing, I’m

doing flies, I start with doing dips and then I go to flies and then I’m like, it pops in my head. I’m

like, I wonder if I can do an iron cross. Ah, mind you, I’m 250 pounds and I’ve never done an iron

cross before so I pop up, stick my arms out and I do an iron cross for about, I don’t know how

many tenths of a second before two heads of my Peck release and rip off the rip off my arm. Oh

my am. I immediately think what the fuck was I doing that is just like the stupidest series of

events like let’s completely free pre fatigue, like everything in the package shoulder complex and

then let’s get into a highly dangerous position that I have no experience doing that is done by

150 170 pound men that train their entire life to be able to do that. I’m going to do that at two 50

with no experience in a completely fatigue state. I was like, that is some stupid shit.

Speaker 3 07:05 Did you think that immediately after it popped through, was that the first

time? Have you done it since? Have you have you, okay. Oh my God. To do it. Of all things.

People are probably like, Oh, well you Benji, and like 700 you’re like, no, no. I was not

mentioned 700 when I did that.

Speaker 0 07:22 I was just being stupid about one of the stupidest Jim mistakes I’ve made.

Speaker 3 07:28 Yeah, I could see that. Chris, this is, this has been great. And I’m going to

leave all the information for the audio book where people can actually get this for free. You can

go on Amazon and if you’ve already read it, leave him a review as I planned to do. And I want to

thank you so much for being on. This has been wonderful. And I know that a lot of our listeners

are going to take away a lot from what you’ve shared with us today. Is there anything extra you

wanted to say about, uh, your experiences in the book or anything like that?

Speaker 0 07:56 Mmm, I just want people to live better through strength in all aspects. You

know, use those opportunities to become stronger and better versions every day.

Speaker 5 08:07 <inaudible>.

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