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2:25

live. Hey everyone,

2:28

Chris Gresser here. Welcome to another episode of

2:30

Revolution Health Radio. This week I'm

2:32

really excited to welcome Jason Kalipa as my

2:34

guest. He's the founder and CEO of NC

2:37

Fit Gems and Train Hard Online Training. He's

2:39

a CrossFit Games Champion and a

2:42

three-time Team USA CrossFit member. He's

2:44

also a pediatric cancer advocate after his daughter

2:46

was diagnosed with leukemia in 2016, host

2:50

of the Jason Kalipa podcast, author of

2:52

As Many Reps as Possible and a

2:55

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Brown Belt. This

2:57

was a fascinating conversation. We

2:59

covered everything from how Jason got started in training, how

3:02

his training has evolved over time as his

3:04

goals have shifted, how he juggles

3:06

being a dad and husband and

3:09

business owner during intense training times

3:12

as a professional athlete, how

3:14

he approaches programming for others,

3:16

both in his in-person gym and with

3:18

his training app, and tips

3:21

for newcomers, people who are just

3:23

starting fitness routines, and tips for

3:25

staying motivated and avoiding burnout. I

3:28

really enjoyed the conversation. I hope you do too.

3:30

Let's dive in. Jason,

3:33

pleasure to have you on the show. I've been really

3:35

looking forward to this. Yeah, no, thanks for having me.

3:37

I appreciate it. I always

3:39

love to start with people's background,

3:42

like how you've had some pretty

3:44

remarkable accomplishments in your life, CrossFit

3:46

Games Champion, three-time Team

3:49

USA CrossFit member, and

3:51

building incredible business, helping

3:54

people to train and really become

3:56

a better version of themselves. But

3:59

how did you get here? How did this all start

4:01

for you? Yeah, I mean I was introduced to fitness

4:03

at a really young age So I was 15. I

4:06

started working at the front desk of a health club I

4:09

then when I graduated from high school and I got

4:11

into college I you really wanted to pursue I mean,

4:13

I was really inspired at that time about making money

4:16

and so I was introduced to sales And

4:19

so I started selling gym memberships when I was like, I

4:21

don't know a freshman in college So whatever

4:23

rap made me 17 18 years old I

4:26

sold gym memberships throughout my entire college

4:28

career and at the time I knew I wanted

4:30

to open up a gym It was just like I was destined for

4:32

it. I had been meeting with the owner of the gym I had

4:35

been learning a lot about business and sales and

4:37

then I found CrossFit when I was like a maybe a

4:40

junior in college really fell in love with the idea

4:42

of a coach a community and Complexity

4:45

like learning new skills. So

4:47

I opened up a CrossFit gym right out of college

4:49

I ended up winning the CrossFit games and for the

4:51

next long time I mean until

4:53

now I will not till now but for

4:55

a long time from 2008 for about ten

4:57

years I competed profession in sport of CrossFit.

4:59

I Also taught

5:01

seminars for CrossFit. I opened gyms globally

5:04

with our business NC fit at the time and

5:07

then In

5:09

2016 I pivoted away from the sport. My daughter

5:11

got sick. So I decided to stop competing there

5:13

professionally and I found

5:15

jujitsu and so since then

5:17

I've been exploring jujitsu running the business. I

5:20

have two children and About

5:22

four months ago. We launched an online program

5:24

We've really been passionate about which kind of

5:27

brings together everything I've learned in the fitness

5:29

space underneath the train hard umbrella So that's

5:31

kind of the synopsis, you know, I yeah,

5:33

I'm just a fitness guy who cares

5:36

about his kids and family Nice.

5:38

Yeah, we'll come back to train art I want

5:40

to ask you a little bit more about that

5:42

But I want to dive in a little bit more

5:44

to you know You went from I discovered CrossFit in

5:47

college and then I won the CrossFit games Imagine

5:50

there's there's a lot of work

5:53

between those two milestones and it's

5:55

a competitive Sport

5:58

at this point, so I'm just curious, you know how,

6:00

what was instrumental for you in taking

6:02

you from, you know, being new to

6:05

CrossFit to winning the CrossFit games? Because,

6:07

you know, what were the things that

6:09

made the biggest difference for you in

6:11

your training, your regimen, your mindset, you

6:14

know, whatever it was that you attribute

6:16

most to achieving that goal? I

6:18

mean, I'd say back then it was just luck. It

6:21

was, you know, 45 minutes away from my house

6:23

was the first original CrossFit games. I

6:25

had great coaches and I was just ahead of

6:27

the game at that time. You

6:29

know, competing then for the next 10 years, I watched

6:31

the sport blow up and grow and I

6:34

was able, I was very fortunate to be at the top

6:36

of the sport for a long time. And

6:38

that, you know, you started really working

6:40

with mindset coaches, exploring new coaches

6:42

and, you know, spending hours and hours and

6:45

hours a day training. But in the beginning,

6:47

it wasn't like that. In the beginning, it

6:49

was very raw and I attribute

6:51

a lot of that early success just to being in

6:53

the right place at the right time and putting in

6:55

hard work and having this kind of mental grit to

6:58

get through it. But as the years went on and

7:00

the competitors got smarter and the competition got

7:02

greater, you had to level up and a

7:05

lot of that happened between the years. But

7:07

then a lot of that also just happened physically,

7:09

you know, breaking up your sessions in a three,

7:12

you know, morning, afternoon, evening sessions, really being aware

7:14

of your recovery, all of those things became really

7:16

important to me. So

7:19

what are now that you're on the other side

7:21

of it, coaching and programming, what

7:24

are some of the basic

7:26

things that are most important to you when

7:29

you're working with someone who's starting out and

7:31

wants to get into CrossFit? And then maybe

7:34

also share some of the biggest

7:37

mistakes that you see people making when

7:39

they're training. I mean, going too hard, too quick. I

7:42

mean, the biggest mistake I've seen, I've seen this since

7:44

I was 16 years old at the

7:46

Health Club, was people coming in at New Year's and

7:49

we see the parking lot just packed and by March it'd

7:51

be empty. And it's because people come in and they don't

7:53

realize like they need time to develop these new habits and

7:55

to make it a part of their routine. So they come

7:57

in and they want to go zero to a hundred. Five

8:00

days a week eating paleo all this stuff and

8:02

they're gung-ho for a couple weeks and they burn

8:04

off And so the initial recommendation I'd have is

8:06

like earn your confidence Start

8:09

off and say hey this week. I'm gonna do two times

8:11

this week I'm gonna go out for a walk then

8:14

the next week try and do a little bit more and

8:16

then say okay for the next Month I'm gonna try to

8:18

do three training sessions a week And if I earn the

8:20

right to do that like if I earn after a month

8:22

that I'm doing three days a week consistently Then

8:25

I've earned the right to unlock a fourth day

8:27

as an example but what isn't the right

8:29

way to do it is Not

8:31

earning it and just say I'm gonna do it But

8:33

then the problem is your mind and

8:36

your body aren't connected your your mind is

8:38

saying let's go do it Then all of

8:40

a sudden your body gets fatigued you start

8:42

realizing like you don't prioritize as much Instead

8:44

just prioritize it twice a week and then

8:46

start building on that I think that's my

8:48

biggest takeaway for new people coming in now

8:52

From a training modality perspective, you know

8:54

My training's really changed from trying to be the

8:56

fittest on earth to now trying to train

8:59

hard So I could protect and provide for my

9:01

family and those are really important key pillars for

9:03

me Like I don't necessarily care about winning the

9:05

crossfit games. I mean, there's no necessarily I just

9:07

don't care at this point It's not my goal

9:09

of mine My goal is

9:11

to be able to run jump climb lift do

9:14

whatever I need to physically to protect myself my

9:16

family Including if I need to self-defense and other

9:19

means but at the cornerstone of that is being

9:21

able to breathe and and Have

9:23

the fitness like if you don't have that you're screwed and

9:26

the second piece I'm really inspired by and I think

9:28

everybody should think about this one is like providing and

9:31

a lot of times we think about providing Financially, I

9:33

think there's definitely something to that for sure, but

9:36

I think about providing experiences You know, my son's

9:38

gonna get home from school today's and say dad,

9:40

let's go do this. This is this this this

9:42

this this this And I don't know, you

9:44

know, do you have children? Do

9:47

they do the same thing daughter? Yeah Mm-hmm.

9:49

Yeah, it's very active now.

9:51

Imagine if your daughter can use like hey dad Let's go

9:54

play volleyball and you're like dude, you're

9:57

like man. I'm so tired. You know, I can't

9:59

do it I always

10:01

want to be able to provide for

10:03

my children experiences, whether that's, you know,

10:05

whatever it might be. And so my

10:07

fitness goals have evolved to reflect that,

10:09

meaning I need to train hard so

10:11

I could protect, and so

10:14

I could always be able to provide experiences and

10:16

never be in a situation where my fitness inhibits

10:18

my ability to do so. Yeah,

10:21

I love that. I mean, I've heard

10:23

the term functional fitness use sometimes, which

10:25

to me has a similar connotation. Your

10:28

fitness is to achieve some kind

10:30

of function, whether that's protecting,

10:32

like you said, providing for your

10:34

family, being able to play

10:36

with your kids or grandkids or great-grandkids

10:38

as you get older, being

10:41

like a fully functional human being, rather

10:43

than, in your case at this point at

10:46

least, competing in cross-fit games or something like

10:48

that. And I mean, I would imagine that's

10:50

probably the goal of most people who come

10:53

to the gym or come to see you. Only a small percentage of

10:55

people are going to get to the point where

10:58

they're competing at a high level and

11:00

want to do that. So how has

11:02

that changed your training

11:05

and your approach to programming? What

11:07

did your training look like before

11:09

and what does it look like

11:11

now given the shift

11:13

in your goals? I'd say

11:15

before, obviously, your goal is to be the

11:17

fittest on earth. So you start thinking about,

11:19

okay, well, what's going to be incorporated? Long

11:21

events, short events, heavy events, this event, and

11:23

you have to train across those modalities, right?

11:27

And you have to train at volumes that are conducive

11:29

to you hitting a week's worth

11:31

of events. And you're talking 20 events

11:33

in a week. Well, you've got to make sure you're not so

11:35

fatigued. You can't come back and

11:37

do another event later in the day. So volume

11:40

becomes a really big factor in recovery. Nowadays,

11:43

my training is not three times a day.

11:45

Nowadays, my training is more revolved around, what

11:47

can I do in the morning to set myself

11:49

up to feel the way I want to

11:51

feel? That's something I think about. Like, what can I do

11:54

this morning to do the

11:56

things I know I need to do to feel the way

11:58

I want to feel? So that could be. sauna,

12:00

cold plunge, cardio, whatever. Like do something,

12:02

go for a walk. And

12:05

then later in the day I get my training. And so

12:07

I just finished a really hard workout now, right before I

12:09

recorded with you. I like doing

12:11

that because it gives me good mental clarity,

12:13

especially when I'm talking to someone like right

12:15

after. And then later today I'll go

12:17

do jiu-jitsu. That's typically what

12:19

my day looks like. I follow our train hard

12:22

app, probably five,

12:24

six days a week. I go for

12:26

long rucks one day a week. And

12:28

then I train jiu-jitsu three days a week,

12:31

in addition to. Nice.

12:34

That sounds like a full training routine.

12:36

And I know you mentioned you're a

12:39

father, two kids, you've got

12:41

a business, you're doing

12:43

a lot. How do you, what works for you

12:45

in terms of juggling all those different commitments? Well,

12:47

I mean, one thing's for sure. Like I have

12:49

to admit, like I have an advantage over

12:52

most people listening that this is what I

12:54

do as a profession. So right now I'm

12:56

in one of our gyms. I

12:59

have a full blown gym at my garage. That definitely

13:01

benefits me in terms of time constraints, for

13:03

sure. So I wanna acknowledge that.

13:05

But I prioritize my fitness. I

13:08

know for me to show up the best I can for

13:10

my kids and my wife, I have to

13:12

get after it. So if that means

13:14

waking up at five when I'm traveling and

13:16

on vacation with my family, that's what I

13:18

do. Because I know I'm a better dad.

13:20

I'm a better husband if I train. And

13:23

so with that in mind, like

13:26

if that's like, like let's just say that's

13:28

like your, that's your

13:30

vantage point. Like my philosophy is that

13:32

I know I show up the best

13:35

after I've worked out. Well then

13:37

that changes the way I look at everything when it comes

13:39

to my family. In that I know

13:42

that I need to prioritize my fitness first.

13:45

Not only so I could be healthy and all that

13:47

kind of stuff, but also just mentally clear and

13:50

in a positive state of mind.

13:52

And so with that, That's

13:55

the cornerstone of how I look at my training. Is

13:57

like, I know I'm the best when I do it.

14:00

That means the my kids of events like my

14:02

son had baseball your say on Sunday I am

14:04

or the day before and I knew that I

14:06

had a wake up at five thirty on a

14:09

Sunday to make sure I trained sir. I should

14:11

have the best I could for him and my

14:13

family. For a six I knew there wouldn't be

14:15

time. That's what I look at it now verse

14:17

before where my training would take parody. now it's

14:20

my trains his party. As long as

14:22

he doesn't in in. Impact. My family

14:24

so I need to work around them. Young.

14:27

Daughters largely power. I looked at it

14:30

to and for similar in the sense

14:32

that I it's kind of a non

14:34

negotiable I have to be active if

14:36

it. If I'm not, I'm I'm a

14:38

desert. Not gonna be the parent that

14:40

I want to be, the husband's the

14:42

friends from the you know person at

14:44

work that I wanna be and so

14:46

I just have to find ways. I

14:48

mean there's a lot of other things

14:50

I cut out of my life that

14:52

in order to make time for those

14:54

priorities are worse. I'm just curious or

14:56

some other things. For you that you've

14:58

let go of her cut out of

15:01

your life in order to be disciplined

15:03

at the about that commitment or mean

15:05

just figure I've been doing this for

15:07

you know. My. Wife and I

15:09

met were fourteen. I've. Been in

15:12

the gym since I was sixteen sisters that part

15:14

of my life for as long as I remember.

15:16

That being said, You. Have to

15:18

cut out like for lack better term like.

15:21

Some. Like the bullshit meaning? like. Arguing

15:23

example. Every. Weekend I host men's

15:25

club or that's every weekend. On Saturday or

15:28

Sunday I get forty fifty sixty guys to

15:30

just go to your hard stuff outside. That's

15:32

what we do and it's free. It's available

15:34

to anybody any guy in the bay Area.

15:36

I just want to be other try make

15:38

an impact on M. Voice That's

15:41

my mindset that I know that on yesterday

15:43

for example we went on a we did

15:45

a work out of six thirty on Sunday

15:47

right? This is early before the all the

15:50

on baseball stuff happened and. I.

15:52

Know that if I plan on getting all these guys

15:54

out there. That. I.

15:57

Can't go out and drink that much on

15:59

Saturday. And so what does?

16:01

He starts prioritizing my overall health and

16:04

wellness because now typically booties on Saturdays

16:06

on this somebody on Sunday is actually

16:08

the base on Saturday. I apologize and.

16:11

When you're going on Friday night, you're thinking, okay,

16:13

I gotta get to bed by on our ten

16:15

eleven o'clock sign on You get up at five

16:18

or whatever to get ready. To

16:20

bring the sandbox do different things and so that's

16:22

that's what Cut Out I've cut out like super

16:24

long nights, the excessive drinking on in in height

16:27

or like identity drink at if we go out.

16:29

I generally try to balance of my life but

16:31

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first order. I

18:05

struggled. I got into this work that I'm

18:07

doing now because I had a very serious

18:10

chronic illness that I recovered from

18:12

and that really shaped who I

18:15

am personally and professionally. And I believe

18:17

that, like you said, you

18:19

know, when we face adversity, we don't have

18:21

control over that, but we do have control

18:23

over how we respond to it. And

18:25

that's the only thing actually that we have

18:27

control over. So I'd love to chat about

18:29

that. But I want to hear a little

18:32

bit more about Train Hard and then

18:34

how you approach programming. I know you

18:36

have an in-person gym and then you

18:38

have the Train Hard with multiple programming.

18:41

So tell me a

18:43

little bit more about your approach to programming at

18:45

this point, both with your in-person

18:47

gym and with Train Hard. Well, at the

18:49

in-person gym, because we have coaches, it's

18:51

a little bit different. So we could

18:53

have more complex skills like snatching and

18:55

rope climbing and musk-lepping. But for

18:57

our Train Hard online program, for people in their

19:00

garages and for just people that want to train,

19:02

protect, provide, a lot of those people don't need

19:04

to be doing heavy snatching

19:06

and rope climbing and musk-lepping. And

19:08

so my philosophy on programming has shifted over the years.

19:11

In the gyms, we still provide the complexity for those

19:13

people that want it because we have coaches who are

19:15

there to support them if they want that. But

19:18

for online, we have three programs, one that's

19:20

called FORCE, which is just really good strength

19:22

conditioning, like pull, push, squat, plus meccons. We

19:26

have one called FLEX, which is more of a

19:28

functional bodybuilding. And we have one called EMOM,

19:30

which is just an EMOM 20, 30 minute a day,

19:33

every minute on the minute program, and it's

19:35

badass. So that's what we have for the end

19:37

user. In the gym, it's more like

19:39

your traditional CrossFit because we have the coaches available.

19:41

And I think where I've evolved is

19:44

like I first got inspired

19:46

by the complexity. I wanted

19:48

to learn a muscle-up. I wanted to learn a

19:50

handstand push-up. I wanted to learn these skills. But

19:55

those skills, if you desire

19:57

them, are very valuable. But if you just want them from like pure, from

20:00

a fitness perspective, I think

20:02

you could do a lot of different things

20:05

that could impact your fitness in a much...

20:08

if you desire to do a muscle up, that's great. If

20:10

you don't desire to, then all you need

20:12

to be working on is strength and conditioning.

20:14

Pull, push, squat, and get your heart rate

20:17

elevated and hit 12 to 20 minute

20:19

workouts and that's really what train hard

20:21

is about and we leave out some

20:23

of the complexity. You can get that through other areas

20:25

or finding a coach in a gym. Right.

20:28

That makes sense and what kind

20:30

of equipment does somebody need for each

20:32

of those different levels of the program?

20:34

Yeah, I mean I think like you

20:36

know obviously I have a full garage

20:39

gym. If you just want the dumbbell

20:41

program we have just a dumbbell EMOM

20:43

program that's just dumbbells and that's great.

20:46

I'd say that if someone was at home

20:48

I'd start off with dumbbells. From

20:50

there I'd probably try to invest in a rack like

20:52

a with a pull-up bar if

20:54

you can't to get that pulling position right and

20:56

then I'd start getting a barbell with some bumper

20:58

plates or weights in general so you load it

21:01

up and then I'd probably start diving

21:03

into some type of cardio tool but in the beginning you

21:05

just run. So for us we

21:07

have you know you would need a rack,

21:10

a barbell, a set of dumbbells and

21:13

some type of cardio. If you could just run that's

21:15

great but if you can get like an air bike

21:17

I think that's a really good option. What

21:20

are your favorite air bikes at this point?

21:22

Man that's a good question. So there's a

21:24

lot of different bikes available out there right.

21:26

My probably seems like there's a ton of

21:28

brands now that it was just a few

21:30

before. I'd say like bang for

21:33

the buck. Rogue

21:35

has one now for like 890 bucks

21:37

the Echo bike. I think it's

21:39

built tough and it's the cheapest although

21:41

I like the assault bikes a lot.

21:45

I love the assault bikes. I also really

21:47

love the C2 bike but that's a different

21:49

different stimulus than an Echo bike. I'd

21:52

start off with like an Echo or assault bike and

21:54

then later on invest in like a C2 bike. Yeah

21:57

I've got a Rogue rack

21:59

and Jim in my

22:01

garage as well. I love their stuff and the Echo

22:04

Bike seems like a good, happy

22:06

medium for most people. For

22:09

sure, for sure. Yeah. And

22:13

talk a little bit more about

22:15

the difference between the programs,

22:18

like who might choose what

22:20

program based

22:23

on what their goals are and what their

22:25

background is. Like if they're relatively new versus

22:27

someone who's been training a little bit more.

22:29

Well, I mean, I think that if you're

22:32

in the Bay Area, you should

22:34

stop by one of our gyms underneath the NC fit

22:36

umbrella. But if you're not, the Train Hard

22:38

app has the Force program, which is really designed

22:40

for someone that wants to like act the part.

22:43

Like fundamental strength conditioning. And you need a decent

22:45

amount of gear, a little bit, right? But it's

22:47

really designed to like help you

22:50

run jump climb lift, be fit, like

22:52

just show up. Whereas Flex

22:55

is really designed to help you look

22:57

the part. So it's definitely more linear

22:59

progressions. It's definitely more functional. It's definitely

23:02

more bodybuilding style versus force.

23:04

And if you are brand new to the game, I

23:06

would just do the E-Mom, every minute on the minute.

23:08

That's probably my favorite way to train. It gives you

23:10

a minute by minute goal that you could shoot towards.

23:13

And especially if you just do a dumbbell program, it's

23:15

a piece of cake. It's low

23:17

gear, highly impactful, and will just give

23:19

you a great stimulus. That

23:21

sounds great. And it sounds like

23:23

people can progress easily through the levels. Like

23:25

if you start with E-Mom, then you can

23:27

move to force if you... Yeah, or

23:30

if you have limited time, just hit E-Mom. Like

23:32

our whole model is like never let

23:34

momentum get to zero. So you never wanna take

23:36

a day that's zero. You need to always get

23:38

something. And so if that's your E-Mom, great. If

23:40

that's something else, go for it. Right,

23:43

so you can actually, is it the sort

23:45

of thing where you could, you sign up

23:48

for Train Hard and you can move between the

23:50

programs? Yeah. Or do you sign up for

23:52

one program at a time? No, no, no. I mean, they're designed to

23:54

be like on their own, like

23:56

tracks, but like for me, I just,

23:59

like, I look at a... workout, get inspired, fired up, I

24:01

hit it. And it's a little bit more intuitive for

24:03

me. That's, that's what I like to do. But for

24:05

other people, they might want to stick with the program.

24:08

Yeah. No, that makes sense. What

24:11

about, um, people who are relatively

24:13

new and you know, like tips

24:16

for staying motivated, uh, you know,

24:18

we mentioned before that one of

24:20

the biggest mistakes people make is

24:23

over-committing and then that generally just

24:25

leads to burnout and stopping. You

24:27

know, like I'm going to hit it super hard. Then

24:30

they do for three days, five days,

24:32

two weeks, whatever. And then that's

24:34

it. You know, that you mentioned the phenomenon

24:36

of the full parking lot in January and

24:38

empty parking lot in, in March and the

24:40

gyms, which is well known. So what's

24:43

a better approach for someone

24:45

who's, who's starting out to

24:48

increase the chances that they'll still be at

24:50

this, you know, six, nine, 12 months later.

24:54

I was trying to think of a good

24:56

analogy, but I think for anyone who's listening,

24:58

who's interested in changing their life fitness wise,

25:01

they have to at the

25:03

cornerstone rely on a why,

25:05

like, why do they want to make this change in

25:08

the first place, like, you

25:10

know, why, why does it matter to you? And

25:13

let's just say it's like, well, I want six pack

25:15

abs. Okay. Well, that's not going to come quick

25:17

and it's not going to come easy. So you have to have

25:19

a strong why first and foremost, like I

25:21

want to be able to be there for my kids. I

25:23

want to be able to, you know, be there

25:25

for my grandkids. I want to like, whatever that is,

25:28

you should write that on a piece of paper, put

25:30

it on your mirror, whatever you got to do, because

25:32

you have to remind yourself on a daily basis why

25:34

it's important for you to change your habits. Cause these

25:36

habits have been a part of your lifestyle for decades,

25:39

maybe. And you've been drinking soda, eating

25:41

like shit and not training for 30 years. You're

25:44

not going to just switch tomorrow and that's okay. It's

25:46

actually a good thing if you don't switch tomorrow. So

25:49

what you should do is just pick something, pick

25:51

something simple. Let's just say it's removing

25:53

soda out of your diet, something simple. And

25:56

switching out for carbonated water or

25:59

start. by saying, hey, every day I'm going to

26:01

walk for 10 minutes a day. But you,

26:03

you, whoever is listening to this right

26:05

now, who has not been training hard

26:07

for many years, pick something

26:09

you feel like is a no-brainer piece

26:11

of cake, 10 times out of 10,

26:13

you're going to get it. And then

26:15

from there, start building

26:18

on that and stacking habits would be the example. And

26:20

everybody's going to be different, right? For someone who's like,

26:22

maybe like right now, working out twice a week, consistently

26:24

for the last 20 years, but wants to ramp it

26:26

up. Well, that's different than the person that's been sedentary

26:29

who wants to ramp it up. So each person needs

26:31

to pick something they feel like is going to be

26:33

a little bit better than where they're at today, but

26:35

that they know they could do. Then

26:37

do that for like a month. And

26:40

then you now have had that new thing. We say,

26:42

okay, well, I've already been doing it two days a

26:44

week. Like I could easily ramp up to three days.

26:46

And then you go from there. That that'd be my

26:49

recommendation. You, you want to get wins

26:51

and you want to get wins early. And the

26:53

problem with fitness is that, especially if it's like

26:55

aesthetic looks, especially for

26:57

women, men, you know, they

26:59

have it a little bit easier to kind of like lean out or

27:01

get to whatever they want to do, but for women

27:04

and men, I should say like, it's

27:06

hard to see results immediately, but

27:08

what you can see immediate results are, is you made

27:10

a commitment to walk every day. And you're

27:12

doing it. Yeah.

27:15

Yeah. That, I think it's important to

27:18

set realistic goals and know what you

27:21

can expect during that, that initial period

27:23

of time. Like you said, if you

27:25

experience wins, that's going

27:27

to build momentum. And then that leads to more

27:30

wins. You build more momentum. And that's kind of

27:32

a basic coaching principle. Um,

27:35

the, you know, we train health coaches and

27:37

that's one of the biggest things is shrink

27:39

to change, you know, like big

27:42

changes are a series of many

27:44

small changes along the way. Exactly.

27:46

Exactly. Helping people to understand that.

27:49

Well, and if you had asked me when I was 21,

27:51

I started the business or 22. I

27:54

didn't really understand that, but now as

27:56

I've matured, I've gotten older, I've met with

27:58

thousands and thousands of people. in

28:00

person and online, I've realized

28:02

like I'm doing them a disservice by

28:05

trying to go too hard, too fast.

28:08

Shame on me for allowing them to

28:10

do that because I've just witnessed countless

28:12

times them failing. And as

28:14

a health provider, as a fitness

28:16

provider, we need to recognize that

28:18

like our duty is to change lives. Our

28:21

duty is to make an impact. You're not

28:23

doing anything if you allow them to go

28:25

too hard, too fast because the likelihood of

28:27

them burning out is like 95%. Yeah,

28:31

yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So speaking of

28:33

burnout, what happens when someone

28:35

does reach burnout? Maybe

28:38

for any number of reasons, they just hit

28:41

a brick wall and they've lost kind of

28:43

motivation. Maybe that's happened to you at some

28:45

point. What's usually the

28:47

best way for helping people

28:50

to get refocused in that situation? I mean,

28:52

this can sound super lame, but

28:54

it's reflecting back on your why. Like,

28:57

you know, when you're competing at the CrossFit Games, it's

29:00

super challenging. And the

29:02

events are grueling. And

29:04

if your why is like, Oh, I want to

29:06

make an extra 100 grand, 200 grand, 500 grand,

29:08

I want to make money, I want to be

29:10

famous. When things get really

29:13

hard, and they will, like,

29:15

you're just gonna fold. And

29:17

you have to have a stronger why when you're

29:19

competing, be also stronger why when you're looking at

29:21

your fitness and health goals. And

29:23

when you do burnout, taking

29:25

a deep breath and being like, dude, what am

29:27

I doing this for in the first place? Okay, well,

29:30

maybe I need to level set my expectations. Maybe

29:32

my expectations if my goal is

29:34

to be, you know, a super fit

29:36

grandpa. Well, maybe I don't

29:38

need to train seven days a week for

29:41

two hours a day. Maybe I just need

29:43

to train five days a week for 45

29:45

minutes a day. And I'm still going to

29:47

be fitter than 99% of the grandpa is

29:49

out there. And so recalibrating your goals and

29:51

aligning that with your training. That's the key,

29:54

in my opinion to avoiding burnout. Because honestly,

29:56

and here's another thing too, like, Once

29:58

you've kind of like built up. Our apartment the

30:00

third day with them I'm of you know

30:03

thomas allow or is both second another day

30:05

and. We're. Time Up This a

30:07

roller coaster effect. When. You

30:09

are new in the fitness. You

30:12

are like it's like a roller coaster climbing

30:14

up with like kick, kick, kick. It's hard.

30:16

Like you're building strength. You're building conditioning.

30:18

It's hard work. Let me do, you got

30:21

into it in your twenties, thirties? whatever. But.

30:23

Once you hit like a certain points.

30:26

You could kind of like. Like.

30:29

Coast a little bit and still maintain a

30:31

lot of muscle and condition your have if

30:33

you put it all that hard work. So

30:35

motivate yourself today. Winner in your thirties forties,

30:38

fifties to build up their hedge because it's

30:40

gimme a lot easier to maintain that on

30:42

that rollercoasters kind of keep cruising. Then.

30:45

It would be to try climb back up

30:47

again. you know is is kinda theory. Yeah,

30:50

I like them and make sense

30:52

earlier. Only mentions your daughter was

30:54

diagnosed with leukemia back and twenty

30:57

sixteen and and I am I

30:59

know that that had you known

31:01

for any parent that so monumental

31:04

change in my son. How to

31:06

How did that impact. You.

31:09

As a person, Your focus

31:11

and how you live your life. A

31:13

display anatomy. Not that changed. My life

31:16

changed all of our lives and it's

31:18

still affecting us today. You know she's

31:20

so going through some some tough stuff

31:22

today, especially with mental health and what's

31:25

going on in the sea. It's just.

31:28

Ah man, it just it changed my perspective a lot

31:30

of things like us as soon as today. I.

31:33

Think it helped me and so does

31:35

I'm to learn to be more compassionate,

31:37

Man be more understanding. Learn.

31:39

That like, just when he seems like

31:41

you're convinced of something like. Be.

31:43

Careful how convince you are of

31:45

something because. You. need to be

31:48

stay open minded like i can't tell you

31:50

the amount of things that i was convinced

31:52

on five years ago and now i'm not

31:54

quite so sure about and i think that's

31:56

important like as you get older to have

31:58

perspective and when when you see sick

32:00

kids, it definitely shifts your perspective.

32:02

And so those are things that I think was

32:04

good about it, right, it taught me a lot

32:06

about family, about building my fitness and

32:09

financial hedge so I could be there for my family.

32:11

Talking about what it means to have good relationships because

32:14

you need them. And then it also

32:16

taught me about like what it means to build

32:18

a great team at work so that when or

32:20

if you ever need to be prioritizing something else,

32:22

you have other people that got your back to

32:24

take care of things. Yeah,

32:27

it can be really be transformative experience

32:29

and it sounds like you've really allowed

32:31

it to impact you

32:34

in some meaningful ways. I

32:36

know you're also a pediatric

32:38

cancer advocate. It

32:41

sounds like you've put some energy into

32:43

giving back and helping

32:45

others who are going through the same type

32:47

of experience. Tell us a little bit more about that. Yeah, I

32:50

mean, my family and I, I like to think that we're pretty

32:52

blessed in the sense that when our daughter got sick, we

32:55

had been embracing a work

32:57

ethic and where we had built a

33:00

financial hedge, we had built a

33:02

fitness hedge and we had built a

33:04

hedge in our relationships and that played huge dividends

33:06

for us. And soon

33:09

after Ava got diagnosed, we said, hey, look, we need to

33:11

be able to make an impact on other people. And

33:14

so my wife started a foundation called Ava's Kitchen.

33:16

We just hosted our seventh annual Ava's Kitchen

33:18

and she's been killing it, killing

33:21

it. I think they've raised, or we

33:23

have all raised 3.2

33:25

million, I think, at this point. And

33:27

the goal of that is to put smiles on

33:29

kids' faces and we donate the money through an

33:31

organization called Never Ever Give Up. And

33:35

really for me, it's just reinstated

33:37

this idea of why I wanna go build

33:39

a successful business, why I wanna be successful,

33:41

what I'm doing is like, the

33:43

more I make, the more we could go give, the

33:45

more we do, the better we could show up for

33:47

others. And I think that when you frame

33:49

it in that way, you

33:52

can't be generous to others if you don't have

33:54

anything. So go out and bust your

33:56

ass, Say you could then go

33:58

do really cool things. You care about?

34:00

That's my theory. Yeah. I

34:03

think that's a great way to

34:05

approach it and you know it's.

34:08

We. Were chatting little bit before

34:10

offline and we don't always have

34:12

control over what happens to us,

34:14

but the one thing we can

34:16

control is how we respond to

34:18

what happened to us and that

34:20

it sounds like you've chosen to

34:22

do that. No way it. It

34:24

will not only benefit your family

34:26

but also your community in other

34:28

people who are struggling with the

34:30

same thing I'd Jason Isbell a

34:32

fascinating conversation. tell people where they

34:34

can learn little bit more about

34:37

train hard, particularly those. You are not

34:39

in the Bay Area and then does

34:41

her are in the Bay Area where

34:43

they can find some of the Nc

34:45

set gems. Yeah, I'm in Mountain View

34:47

and Campbell. We also have a location

34:50

presidio that if you're up not area

34:52

but really it's Ma'am You and Campbell

34:54

On and bear Yes and Train hard.

34:56

So visit T H.sit that's website as

34:58

in train Hard.say it. But th dot

35:00

fit kept it simple for you. but

35:02

your the programs on it. I think

35:05

if you're looking at the I'm Stacey

35:07

profit we agree programs. For you and

35:09

we have a really cool group. People

35:11

like a help on advise you self

35:13

messages and check us out on Instagram

35:16

at Train Hard.fit you gotta check out

35:18

at Jason Kleber on Instagram. We have

35:20

a really cool newsletter. Every week

35:22

to keep people fired up. Inspired us to

35:24

train hard. Street. And

35:27

I really enjoy the conversation. Do some

35:29

good luck to you and all the

35:31

listeners. Keep sending your questions. Chris or.com/podcast

35:34

question will see you next time. That's

35:38

the end of this episode of Revolution Hauser

35:40

Easier. If you free see

35:42

the show on. help me create a healthier and

35:44

happier world sees had. Or would I tunes

35:46

in the Us or do. They

35:48

really do make a difference. if

35:51

you'd like to ask a question for

35:53

me to answer in a future episode

35:55

he can do donna crisscross or.com/podcast question

35:58

you can also lead us to suggestion

36:00

for someone you'd like me to interview there. If you're

36:03

on social media, you

36:05

can follow me at

36:07

twitter.com/chriscresser or facebook.com/chriscresser L

36:09

A C. I post

36:12

a lot of articles and research that I do

36:14

throughout the week there that never makes it to

36:16

the blog or podcast, so it's a great way

36:19

to stay abreast of the latest developments. Thanks

36:21

so much for listening. Talk to you next time.