September 2, 2025 • 61 mins
Brian Larson's journey from pharmaceutical industry professional to movement specialist, breathwork facilitator, and coach reveals powerful insights about transformation that extends far beyond physical appearance. The conversation opens with Brian's early realization that changing his body could lead to changing his mind, setting him on a path of continuous growth and service to others.
Diving deep into movement principles, Brian explains the critical difference between stretching and mobility—the latter being the game-changer for injury prevention and athletic performance. His candid assessment of CrossFit as both "the cure" for many health conditions and "a disease" for those who overtrain offers a balanced perspective rarely heard in fitness circles. The practical advice for newcomers to train three days weekly and properly scale workouts provides a sustainable approach to intense training.
Nutrition simplicity shines through as Brian emphasizes protein as the foundation (0.7-1g per pound of bodyweight) while advocating for gradual, sustainable changes rather than restrictive diets. "You cannot out-train a bad diet" serves as a powerful reminder that nutrition fundamentals trump exercise intensity for long-term results.
Perhaps most fascinating is the transformation of both host and guest from breathwork skeptics to passionate advocates. Brian expertly explains how controlled breathing creates hormetic stress that trains your nervous system to handle external stressors, improves sleep, enhances recovery, and even helps process trauma. This science-backed approach to breathwork strips away the "hippy dippy" stigma, positioning it as an essential tool for high performers.
The distinction between high achievers who sacrifice health and relationships versus high performers who excel across all domains captures the essence of the Do Hard Things philosophy. As Brian puts it: "I want so many people to step into this space and grow and accelerate their life forward."
Ready to transform your approach to fitness, stress management, and performance? Try the Do Hard Things Wellness Academy free for seven days at DoHardThingsNation.com and access mindset training, movement coaching, breat
Welcome to the Do Hard Things Podcast with your host Jay Tiegs, Are you ready to amplify and improve your life? Then you are in the right place. On this podcast we have unfiltered conversation with inspiring people who take on challenges and share with us, the wisdom from their journey. We talk about how doing hard things adequately enable all of us to deal with life's struggles and challenges and ultimately improve the quality of our lives.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
All right, welcome back to the Do Hard Things
podcast.
I'm your host, siegfried JTeagues, and today we've got a
powerhouse episode lined up foryou with guest Brian Larson.
But before we dive in, do me aquick favor.
If you're finding value inthese conversations, make sure
you smash that subscribe button.
Share this podcast with someonewho needs a little push just to
(01:03):
keep doing hard things.
And don't forget to check outthe Do Hard Things Wellness
Academy.
Go to dohardthingsnationcom.
You'll find all great resourcesthere.
We've got apparel, we've gotevents.
You can check out the academy.
This is where we give you thetools, the training and the
community to unlock your fullpotential.
And let's get into today'sconversation.
So today I'm joined with mybrother from another mother,
(01:25):
brian Larson.
He's one of our powerhousecoaches inside the Do Hard
Things Nation Wellness Academyand he's also the brand new
co-host of the podcast.
I met Brian about five years agothrough our women.
I met Lacey.
Lacey brought Lainey, who washer really, really good friend,
and not knowing who I was, if Iwas a serial killer or not,
(01:46):
obviously you know.
Woman doing a smart thing, shebrings Lainey and I started
dating Lacey and not long afterthat, somehow Brian shows up to
date Lainey.
So we got Lainey and Lacey, wegot Brian and Sig.
And so immediately when I metBrian, I'm like, oh man, I love
this dude.
And we immediately just hit itoff.
(02:06):
We're talking about the topicof just helping people.
I sensed his passion.
We were talking about coachingand his vision for the future.
And I know, brian you mentionedit like you just knew that we
were going to work together atone point in time.
And here we are.
So a little background on Brian.
Brian is a certified CrossFitcoach, expert in movement and
nutrition.
He's a skilled breathworkfacilitator and he's got years
(02:29):
of experience training athletesand guiding people through
transformation.
He knows how to push you pastplateaus and into peak
performance and you know, brianjust brings intensity, clarity,
practical tools that will helpyou break limits, step fully
into your potential.
And today we get to hear astory, his philosophy, tools and
, ultimately, what Brian'spurpose is here.
(02:51):
And so, brian, welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Thanks, man.
Did I miss anything in yourintro?
No, it was pretty.
It was better than I had donefor myself.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
What I love about Brian like if you meet him, he
has such a stature, like he isjust, like he's just got the
physique, he's chiseled and theflexibility that you have is
incredible.
Like so just you want to talkabout a master of movement.
He knows what he's talkingabout and what he is doing, and
so I have tremendous admirationfor your knowledge base.
In addition to you've draggedme into this breathwork journey
(03:23):
so I did, didn't I so all right.
so I've got a bunch of questionshere for you.
Let's roll, let's dive in.
Take me back.
When was the first time thatyou realized movement and
fitness weren't just aboutlooking good, but about like
transformation and just living agood life?
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It probably 98, I think.
So I had started working out inhigh school Cause I mean I was
about that big around.
I was same height, 130 pounds.
I'm 185 now.
So quite a bit of muscle massdifference and that was just
about okay.
I want to put some muscle onthis frame, but I got married in
98.
I got married, started in thepharma industry and bought a new
(04:08):
house.
How old were you then?
I was hold on, that would havebeen 25.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And up until that point I had been pretty fit all
the way up until then.
But I blew out a tendon in myelbow and started that pharma
job, and we call it the pharma15.
You gain about 15 pounds in thefirst year if you would eat all
the food you're taking tooffices, and so I gained an
(04:34):
unhealthy weight not like oh, ohyeah, it wasn't muscle mass.
and so I got all the way up to198 and for me that was a lot of
weight and I lost some musclemass and I've got really bad
family history and so type twodiabetes, heart disease, and I
just one day was like this is Icannot keep going like this, and
(04:55):
I started really cracking downon.
I rehabbed the elbow, got backin the gym, then really went on
a fitness journey or a nutritionjourney.
I didn't really know much aboutnutrition at that standpoint.
I had done, you know, genetics.
When you're young you can puton muscle mass and stay lean,
(05:15):
but as you get a little olderit's a little harder.
And so I really learned aboutnutrition and somewhere in there
I had this transformation of mybody that was very profound and
went okay, there's more to this.
If I can change my physicalstructure, can I change my
(05:38):
mental structure?
And I stumbled upon this guynamed John Benson and he had a I
can't remember mind meals,muscle that was the name of his
program and he taught me somestuff about the mental aspect of
of training, which I carriedover into personal development,
(06:02):
and so those two pieces justclicked for me all the way back.
Then those two pieces justclicked for me all the way back
then.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
What did you have?
So how were you influenced?
Like, who showed you?
Who was the person that maybehave showed you, like I don't
know just how to, maybe thepower of coaching and the power
of, like you know, physicalfitness and nutrition?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Was there any?
It's funny when you like.
Last week, when you weretalking about I don't know the
cross country coach, I almostinterrupted you and said reach
out to them while you can.
Mine like.
The person who had an influenceon me in that way, like seeing
how a coach could impact a life,was my high school wrestling
coach and I tried to find thatman, dennis Boyer.
(06:44):
He was Eureka Missouri.
Man, dennis Boyer, he wasEureka Missouri.
This guy, he just he was sogood as a just coach but somehow
he got inside your life withoutreally even trying and just
showed you a little bit of adifferent path and I stood back,
(07:04):
I don't know, several yearsafter graduating high school and
college and going.
Man, that guy just had aprofound impact on me just by
being there and speaking intothe small things.
I remember we were runningsprints one day and there was an
end marker on the mat.
He's watching us go back andforth and he gets on us about
(07:25):
that last step.
Like you guys are quittingbefore that last step, and if
you're going to quit on thatlast step, I mean it was pretty
much like might as well not evenrun it, give it all you got the
whole way or don't do it, andsomething about those little
things just stuck with me andI'm like, oh, yeah, Okay, I can
see that he was really good.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
It's amazing how an individual can have tremendous
lifelong impact on you, someonethat can push you, see your
potential, push you beyond yourlimits, and it's remarkable.
And to your point, I do need to.
I need to find Mr Danner,michael Danner.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, man, I just I don't even know if he's around.
I've looked.
I even called the high schoolat one point.
They, I mean they had losttouch with him, but yeah, it was
, he was.
He was amazing, just absolutelyamazing.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, Wow.
Well, when it comes to asomething really hard in your
life, like, describe a moment inyour life where you had to do
something really, really hard,something that may have broke
you open and you might realizethat you know what.
This is what I'm supposed to do, this is what I'm supposed to
teach.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Hmm, let's see the teach, Let me.
Let me see if I can focus onthe teach part for a second.
I mean, really, it's been myown journey with injury and
immobility that has made merealize I probably need to do
more teaching of mobility andmovement.
So I had I mean, I don't, Idon't know what year I started
(08:57):
CrossFit, but I did it for anumber of years and I, like a
lot of people in CrossFit, justwent at it too hard.
I was not giving my body breaksand every it's almost like
every joint would hurt, or oneone started hurting and I'd
rehab it or take some time offand another one would hurt.
Well, what I learned was itessentially was my lack of range
(09:20):
of motion and strength at allend ranges.
So you get in a squat.
If I'm down in the bottom of asquat, oh, my glutes weren't
still engaged, so I was losingsome squat.
If I'm down in the bottom of asquat, oh, my glutes weren't
still engaged, so I was losingsome stability, which, once you
start all those things happen,it like breaks everything down
all along the way.
And so I I just I had enoughinjury where I started trying to
(09:44):
figure out what do I need to dodifferently.
And so I just, man, I wasalmost done working out
completely.
I'm like I can't keep doingthis, but I also can't keep
getting out of bed every morningand hurting the way I do, and
that sent me down the path ofreally learning about mobility,
(10:06):
learning about adding that intoweightlifting, trying to.
You know, there's a differencebetween just stretching and
mobility.
They're very different.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah.
And just really working on?
How are they different?
Can you describe the differenceWell?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
yeah.
So you know I could.
I could stand up right here, Ican touch my toes and that's
just going to be a stretch.
And if I squat down in thebottom of the squat I might be
squat, you know, kind ofstretching my muscles out.
But can I then from a squat,can I, can I stay in that squat
and walk forward?
That's mobility, where just thesquat itself is stretching.
(10:42):
Can I move through all range ofmotions?
Can my, can my arm come up here, as opposed to, oh, it gets
stuck here.
That's, that's my range ofmotion and I could stretch this
out.
But then to be able to take itand turn it and move it through
this range of motion is themobility of my shoulder joint.
I could stretch it all day longbut if I can't let it turn and
open up, I lack the mobility ofthat joint and I I learned that
(11:10):
it's that stuff.
Those tissues working in thoseways build a stronger foundation
for lifting.
I quit lifting for severalmonths and just went all in on
mobility, because I just hurtmobility, because I just hurt.
I didn't lift a single weightand came back and PR one of my
Olympic lifts without evertouching a weight because my
(11:31):
mobility had improved my endrange of motion strength.
It's just, it's really goodstuff.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So when I think of CrossFit, I remember the first
time that I'd heard aboutCrossFit and I was really
interested in it.
But then I always hear, oh mygosh, you're going to get hurt.
And I and to full transparency,I have went to CrossFit and I
have gotten hurt by pushing toohard.
I love it, but it's the thelittle competitive edge when you
(11:57):
do some of the AMRAP and thingslike that.
What are some of the trends,the mistakes, the things that
CrossFitters make that causeinjury and what advice do you
give them to mitigate more?
There's lots.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
I love CrossFit as a motto that says CrossFit is the
cure, and they're talking aboutpeople who maybe are overweight,
have hypertension, type two,diabetes, because doing workouts
in that fashion can reduce allof those markers Like
inflammation goes down, like allthese pieces that are really
good for a body.
But I've said that CrossFit isalso a disease.
(12:35):
It's a disease for those peopleand it draws a certain type of
person, people who havecompetitive, like athletic
backgrounds.
They used to play sports orthey're very driven in business.
It very, it's like performanceoriented people tend to flock to
crossfit.
Yeah, and it's a diseasebecause they go in there and
they bust it a hundred percentall out five to seven days a
(13:00):
week.
I think that's the biggestmistake I see especially the
seasoned athletes in the gymmake is that they're training
four or five, six times a weekat maximum intensity.
Crossfit as a modality.
It's supposed to train all ofthe energy systems, from short
acting to long acting.
But everything that I seepeople do, even if it's
(13:23):
programmed on the board to be asix out of 10 for perceived work
rate, people are in therehuffing and puffing.
Well, if it's a six out of 10,I should be able to do the
workout, mouth closed, breathingthrough my nose, and so they
just go all out.
All out because they're chasingthe scoreboard and where they
rank among other athletescompared to what is the goal of
(13:44):
this workout, so that one isdefinitely one in it.
They go together, pushing toohard and not taking enough time
off because we have to recover.
If you push your body every day, it never recovers and there is
some good adaptation that'llhappen.
But you reach a point where itcan't recover anymore.
(14:07):
And if you, on top of that, addgetting a fight with your
significant other or stress atwork, now have mental neurologic
load along with physicalneurologic load and the brain
doesn't know the difference andit just starts like everything
goes haywire.
So I think it's the shut theintensity and frequency down a
(14:27):
little bit and just have somerest in there and be okay with
that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So how many days a week should a CrossFitter,
someone new, do CrossFit then?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
See, that's a hard one too because, depending on
the way it's programmed, if youcherry pick certain days like
there might be in aweightlifting cycle, pick
certain days like there might bein a weightlifting cycle and
let's say it's they're doing Idon't know, some Olympic lift
and maybe a squat or maybe ashoulder press on three
different days, and if everyweek you just go to the squat
day, so that's hard to say.
(14:59):
I would, I would probably tellanybody when you're starting out
to probably find three days aweek and go in there and scale
it.
If it's, depending on where youare like.
If you're a season like we have, you know we're in home of
university, missouri, here,right, we get collegiate
athletes, you know formercollegiate athletes.
(15:20):
They can come in and crush itfive days a week because they're
still 22 years old and theirbody recovers.
But for the average persontrying it out, I'd say three
days a week, go in there andjust scale it.
Ask the coach this is where I'mat.
How can I make this fit forwhere I'm at?
And really don't push so hard.
You want to be able to be inthat place where you can't have
(15:45):
a conversation, but not in thatplace where you're working so
hard that your hands are on yourknees and you can't hardly
breathe.
That comes later and that comesin shorter workouts, but
initially it needs to be dialedback and we really, as the
coaches, should be working withthe athletes on that, but
sometimes we just miss it.
It's just you're busy withother people and you're not
paying enough attention.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I still do it to this day and I've been coaching it
five or six years now.
Yeah, I think where people getin trouble is you push it too
hard, you start getting sloppywith the technique and then
you're pushing a little bit toomuch weight and that's where you
get in trouble.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, part well part of the modality of CrossFit is
you are supposed to be pushed tothe point where the form breaks
down so we can see where yourform needs to improve.
Yeah, the problem is somepeople it goes back to the
movement thing don't have theright mobility and movement to
even add weight to a barbell andthey need to be back up and do
air squats instead of backsquats.
(16:38):
So it can.
It's a little bit of all thepieces together.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, we get a lot of runners, ruckers, cyclists,
triathletes that listen to thispodcast and, as a running coach,
I definitely try to promotestrength training.
And it's the same with, likemany CrossFitters they love
slinging the weights, they don'twant to go do the cardio.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
They need to run more .
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I'm guilty.
Yeah.
So those that are runners,ruckers, triathlet, your VO two
(17:26):
max, which is the amount ofoxygen your body can carry, and
if your body can carry moreoxygen you can run farther, you
run faster, and we have so manyathletes who will come in.
My favorite is when you have ahigh level wrestler or baseball
player and they come in and theydo CrossFit for three months
(17:47):
and like, oh my goodness, Ican't believe how this has
impacted my sport.
And so I think you know musclebuilding is more about, um,
moving the weight and theneating the calories to support
it.
You don't want to take a longdistance runner and add 15
pounds of muscle to them, causeit's a lot harder to move that
extra 15 pounds of muscle.
But if they take the mass theyhave and improve that strength
(18:08):
and output and performance,cause CrossFit is about output
of, of energy.
It's like how much it's forced,is it?
Force equals work, work equalsforce times distance, right?
If I can put out more force andgo a further distance, then
I've created more work, and it'sthat same concept.
(18:29):
So, coming in, you increase thestrength of the muscles you
have, then your leg drive isgoing to be stronger, your
stride might have betterstrength, stability as you hit
the ground with that stridecould be better.
So I think I think themechanics could probably improve
by stability and strength forsomeone that might be getting
(18:52):
back on the saddle of workingout.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
They might have some interest in crossfit, they might
have some interest in running,doing all the above.
Do you have a recommended likewhat?
What would a week look like forthem when it comes to working
out?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah, I mean at first I'd say do all things Just move
the body.
Yeah, I mean I, you know, I gota buddy who says find a movement
, find movements you love.
Because if you don't findmovements you love, you'll only
do them until like, oh, whateveryour goal is, oh, I want to
lose 10 pounds.
Once they lose, the 10 poundsgoal hit, I'm done.
But if you truly get in thereand love it like people who have
(19:29):
an athletic background, acompetitive athletic background,
tend to love crossfit and theywill show up again and again and
again and there's this bigcommunity aspect to it, that's
really.
I think, it's more aboutfinding the movement you love
and then move every day.
I, even if I'm in a recoveryday, I will still do mobility
(19:50):
work and I will walk two plusmiles.
So that's where the 10, I thinkthe 10,000 steps is an amazing
thing.
I would say 10,000 steps everyday because it actually serves
as a form of recovery based onyour heart rate.
If your heart rate is below,like I don't know, one 30, one
35, depending on age and allthose factors, you're actually
(20:10):
getting recovery.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And so I would say do the walk, lift three or four
times a week, and then if you'rea runner, I guess it depends
like how many days a week areyou running.
If you're running four or five,I'd lift a couple and just find
a 30 minute session.
It doesn't have to be CrossFit,it can be any weightlifting
program that just really worksmultiple muscle groups at one
(20:34):
time.
But I would say, do them all,because one of the best
predictors there's two reallygood predictors of longevity,
lung capacity and your abilityto get up from the floor yeah,
yeah and it's you know theyalways joke about some of the
crossfit movies movements, butall the burpee is it is teaching
(20:56):
yourself how to get from yourchest up into your hands and
standing straight up.
It's all a burpee is floor tostanding up, and so those two
things are really goodpredictors of longevity.
And can you live a life byyourself, or do you have to be
admitted somewhere where theyhave to take care of you?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think you hit on something that I want to
emphasize, because I can'toverstate the importance of
walking, as simple as it is.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
When you do a workout you might burn maybe 500
calories.
Well, if you're working out anda healthy weight loss is two
pounds a week, well, it was like3,500 calories per pound and
well, you're going to have toburn up some calories, calorie
deficit and burn up somecalories.
You're not losing the weightspecifically from the workout.
(21:45):
It's the movement throughoutthe day and the steps are what
really really make a bigdifference in that.
And for runners, can'tunderestimate the time on feet,
underestimate the, the uh, theuh, the, the time on feet.
So just walk like spending yourbreaks throughout the day.
Walking or getting somemovement in is so incredibly
(22:07):
important and can't I mean it'sit.
It's so simple.
People forget about it, but the10,000 steps a day is a great
rule of thumb.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It is, it is, and it I mean it really takes,
depending on your pace, 45minutes at the longest maybe,
yeah, yeah, or you break it upin several chunks during the day
.
It it just makes such a bigdifference and it really truly
does help recovering.
One of the one of the thingsI've started doing recently it
kind of aligns with our breathwork is you can actually I read
(22:34):
the book the oxygen advantageand he talks about, instead of
hyperventilation,hypoventilation, and so
breathing slow and really lightand then taking an exhale hold
for five to 10 steps and you'llget a little bit of air hunger,
and then you breathe in for acouple of recovery breaths, walk
(22:54):
for another minute and do that,and that too, improves your
body's ability to discharge andabsorb like oxygen and CO2.
It's really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Something I just recently learned I think it's
probably through our breathworksessions is that fat is burned.
I guess maybe burned is thewrong.
It's maybe the wrong it'sdepleted or leaves your body
through liquid, so sweat, ormost of it's, through the breath
which I had no idea Mostcalorie discharge is through
(23:25):
breathing.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I find that fascinating which makes sense,
but it didn't, because I didn'teven think about the breath.
I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's funny, it's central, it's so central it
makes all the difference in theworld because we can't live
without the breath.
But breathing and weightlifting is so important because
if you don't get a good breathin and a good core brace and you
stack 315 pounds on your backand squat, you can destroy your
spine.
But that proper bracing breathand knowing how to get the air
(23:58):
in and compress it and hold itdown, it's, it's so, it, it, it
is the key is the key and from arunning perspective it's the
same thing your vo2 max and theamount of oxygen you can get in
it.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Just, you know, the more mitochondria you have, the
more red blood cells, the moreenergy and oxygen that you can
get to the body, the faster andthe further that you can run.
So I just overestimated andoverlooked the power of the
breath.
And then doing these breathsessions and seeing what you can
do with it, like it isabsolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, I mean you start working up the two and a
half three minute breath holds.
It's pretty fascinating whathappens.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
So if you're in the do hard things wellness Academy,
breath work is a criticalfunction of what we demonstrate
and show and facilitate there.
So if you have any interest inthat, come check us out, because
we'll be hosting sessions inthere.
We host sessions there all thetime, so awesome, all right,
let's.
Uh, you want to switch gears tonutrition, or do you?
Whatever man any gears or onany gears before we switch gears
(24:57):
.
Is there anything else you'dlike to speak into when it comes
to movements?
Speaker 2 (25:01):
No, I just it, just move.
I think that's the thing.
Just move, just keep moving.
Find something you love to do.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
But I'm always an advocate for weightlifting
because if you you don't like torun, I get it.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Well, I don't like to run, but that's not even it.
You can't change your bodycomposition by running.
Yeah, whatever size you are,you can make smaller.
But if you want broad shouldersand biceps and all the muscle
groups or for women if they wantyou know this really nice
figure eight shape, runningisn't going to do it.
(25:37):
You got to get in the gym andyou have to build muscle and
then, once you build muscle,more burns more calories than
fat, so you actually become acalorie burning machine.
And building muscle.
It's not that complex.
You put enough calories in, youmove increasingly heavy loads,
either the load or over morereps over time, and you build
(25:58):
muscle.
It just happens you get to aspot where you're done like I I
don't know that I could put onany more muscle, but it it's not
.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
It's not a complex science what advice do you have
for women who are afraid thatthey're going to look and turn
into a man?
I hear that or forms of that.
Like I don't want to lookmuscular, I don't like a man.
They're scared of that.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You've got to move some heavy loads over a long
period of time.
It's like the.
I call them the crossfit girls,right?
If you watch crossfitcompetition, they are some
muscular women, but they aretraining multiple times a day
with heavy loads.
You could throw a woman in thegym for two years and have her
(26:42):
do sets of six to 12 reps onwhatever movement, and most
likely she doesn't havetestosterone levels high enough
to build the kind of musclethey're afraid of becoming.
I would say if that's your fear, go try and do it and you'll
probably find you can't.
It just takes a different level.
(27:02):
It's, it's something you know.
It's the same for guys, right?
I mean there's, there's somemonsters out there.
They they're different beastsand they're different animals
and they work out at a differentlevel, at a different pace and
with way more frequency than theaverage human being.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, yeah, All right , let's transition into
nutrition.
Do you have any like when yournutrition is dialed in?
I mean, I see what you eat andhow you eat, which is pretty
admirable.
What are some generalguidelines that you have for
your CrossFit athletes when itcomes to like nutrition and
(27:39):
staying kind of dialed in?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Yeah, I mean I have a little different belief than
what CrossFit would say.
There.
I would say number one leadwith protein.
You have to have adequateprotein and if you get enough
protein then you're not ashungry for the rest of the day.
And it varies widely.
A rule of thumb is anywherefrom 0.7 to 1 grams of protein
(28:02):
per pound of body weight, but italso varies on where you are.
If you're a little overweight,from where you want to be, it
might be 0.7 to 1 of your leanbody mass or 0.7 to account for
getting rid of the extra weight.
Somewhere in that range is anideal spot and that's hard to do
and meal meal numbers can vary.
(28:25):
I probably eat five or sixtimes a day.
That way I don't have to ingestmore than 30 35 grams of
protein in a sitting.
But it to me is lead withprotein and just occasionally
choose healthier carbohydrates.
White breads are probably notthe best, breads in general are
(28:46):
not the best source of carbs andchoosing to not eat out as much
can help reduce caloriessignificantly.
But just on a day-in, day-outbasis.
Get the protein in.
Find more fruits, morevegetables and less starchy or
breads and grains.
Helps a lot of people there's.
(29:09):
There's a component of itthat's very specific to
individuals.
Like some people can cut outcarbs and they will do amazing.
They'll.
They'll do an adkins or they'lldo the.
All the diets are escaping I.
I just don't do a diet.
I don't find you eat the rightthings in the right amounts and
it works out.
But getting away from some ofthe starchier, sugar-driving
(29:33):
carbohydrates really helps.
I can't go carbless.
I just don't have the energy towork out.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I go to work out and I feel like somebody shot me
(30:02):
no-transcript in protein andgrams or your target body weight
, and that's hard to do without,like I'm.
I'm right around 225 right nowand you get 225 grams of protein
.
Like I have to supplementbecause it's just hard to eat
(30:22):
that much meat or protein richfood and it's so satiating, like
when I do eat it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
So yeah, I'm not opposed to protein powders from
that standpoint.
I mean, I I've got one that Iuse post-workout that throws in
a bunch of protein, a bunchbunch of carbs and then I'll eat
a handful of nuts with it.
But it's really hard to getthat much protein.
But even if you're, you knowsomebody who's only getting 60
grams a day and they need 150,if they even got to 120, then
(30:53):
there's more.
There's less room to put otherfood in your mouth if you're
putting protein in your mouth,and that I think that's the
thing I've learned more thananything else.
My favorite line is you cannotout train a bad diet, doesn't
matter how hard you work.
It's calories in, calories out,and then it even gets to a
(31:13):
point where it's the type ofcalories that go in.
Yeah, but leading with proteinis the.
For me it's been the mostimportant thing what do you in
regards to, like counting?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
do you count macros?
Do you?
Do you not anymore?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I would recommend anybody starting out to count
macros.
And so there's, there's a lot.
You can go to youtube, you cango to google.
You can find all the differentways to calculate what you need.
It's.
You know, I if, if anybody'sreally really trying to do this
and they're really trying to geta handle, I would say find a
(31:51):
supplement superstore or sometype of local.
We've got fit factory here intown.
Go in there and get on theirmachine, and they've got a
machine that will measure yourbody fat percentage.
Now they're not perfect, butthey give you a baseline and it
shoots out your basal metabolicrate.
So that tells you, okay, if Ido nothing today but sit on the
couch, I'm going to burn 1900calories, and so I know to
(32:14):
maintain where I'm at, it's 1900calories.
And so from there, do I want togain weight, lose weight or
maintain, and I go up or downbased on that, and so calories
are one of the most importantfactors.
So figure out how many caloriesyou need in a day, and then
from there I like.
So I don't do them anymore.
(32:34):
When I started this wholejourney, I counted calories and
macros, but now I can prettymuch tell you like a good rule
of thumb.
About a four ounce piece of meatis about the size of a deck of
cards and it's going to be about30 grams of protein.
The size of your fist is abouta serving of carbs for somebody.
(32:54):
A little handful of nuts in thepalm of your hand is the size
of fat.
So I just have gotten to whereI.
I don't even think about it, Ijust kind of know.
But to track it, to understandwhat you're taking in, you'd be
surprised if you write downevery single thing you eat in a
day, how many times you pass bythe kitchen and grab like a
couple potato chips, or ifthere's chocolate out.
(33:17):
I mean it adds up and it can bethree, four, four, 500 calories
.
And 500 calories a day, sevendays, is a pound, yeah.
So tracking them is important.
The macros become important atsome point, but I think tracking
overall calories is probablythe most important starting
block and then figuring out whatmacro ratio do you need, and
(33:39):
that's a whole differentconversation.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah Well, I think that's a good point.
If you focus on the protein,don't overcomplicate it, keep it
simple.
But when you start some levelof tracking, you have to track
until you get good enough.
You got to do what's Pearson'slaw?
What gets tracked, measured,and what gets tracked and
measured improves.
What gets tracked, measured andrecorded or, I'm sorry,
(34:03):
reported ie having a coach tosubmit it to improve
significantly.
So, I think.
I think that's where someaccountability comes in, and so
if you're finding yourselfstruggling.
You got to track it and thenlearn the tools.
It's, yeah, people overcomplicate nutrition.
It's not complicated, but it is.
(34:25):
I mean, I will, I will say this, like your habits.
And then we have big food.
The cards are stacked againstus a little bit.
When you have the, the, theamount of, I mean you can have
door dash, you drive through youhave to leave your couch, man,
it'll just come in your houseand drop it in your lap.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
I know They'll almost feed it to you.
It's going to be the nextservice.
Yeah, to me I think it isovercomplicated.
And then we're always lookingfor the newest diet and what's
going to help lose weight thefastest or whatever.
But I tend to think, if youeating well, for like you even
(35:06):
know, man, I eat like crap.
I'm going fast food three timesa week and I'm eating hostess
ding dongs or what I mean, Idon't know whatever and you want
to make a change, change onething.
Change get more protein and eat.
Make sure you eat a breakfastthat's more balanced and then
don't worry about the rest for acouple of weeks.
Let that adaptation sink in.
(35:28):
Your body will shift and changeand then dial it in more, like
if you're trying to get to this.
You know, let's say some guywants to get to 12% body fat but
he's sitting at 30, just addingprotein in will probably cause
him to drop a couple.
If he then moves to liftingweights, he'll drop a couple
percent more and then you juststart dialing it back more and
(35:48):
then it becomes lifestyle not oh, I'm depriving myself.
I don't really drink hardly atall but if I'm in a scenario
where I feel like a drink, I'mgoing to have it.
But desserts I love desserts Idon't buy them.
If I buy them, I'm going to eatthem.
So I will buy small things oflike dove dark chocolate and
I'll eat one and call it goodand it satisfies the craving.
(36:12):
But that's not where I started.
I started by eating a fulldessert and go, oh, okay, well,
let me dial it back.
But that was after I made otherchanges to get there.
It's like one if you go onestage at a time, it actually
starts to alter your lifestyle.
And you're not on a diet, likediets are short-term things.
You don't want to be on a diet,you want to have a a a
(36:34):
lifestyle of eating nutritiously.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yeah, what do you think is the so many people
struggle with this?
So if you had any bit of adviceor how someone could really
dial it in to make to break freefrom the yo-yoing of diet into
a routine, what advice would yougive?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
someone.
I love the line why alwaysconquers how in the battle for
success.
What's the why?
Why do you want to do it tostart with?
And then, once you answer thatquestion, ask yourself why again
?
And then ask why again Do thatfive to seven times and figure
out why do you want to do it tostart with?
And then, once you answer thatquestion, ask yourself why again
?
And then ask why again do thatfive to seven times and figure
out why do you really want to doit.
And then you're gonna getdeeper.
You gotta peel the layers back.
Yeah, what's the real motivationbehind it?
(37:18):
For me it, like my familygenetics are a disaster and if I
kept going the path I was gonnago, I I probably wouldn't, I'd
probably be gone already.
But as I got into it, I startto realize how much better I
feel when I'm leaner, when I'mmore muscular, and so figuring
(37:39):
out the why is to me the biggestthing.
And then, beyond that, it's.
I think it's.
There was some other thoughtthat just popped in and I lost
it.
It'll come back.
So, yeah, I mean, the why isbig, and then really, then just
start moving towards it.
It doesn't have to be perfect,it doesn't have to be every day.
(38:05):
If you fall off the bandwagon,it's okay, like just get back on
.
But I also think don't find afad diet.
Find a way of eating that'ssustainable for life.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yeah, you said something earlier, that kind of
comes.
As I have been training peoplein the space the.
A lot of people are training tolose 10 pounds because they've
got a class reunion or a wedding.
They just want to get to acertain size.
They achieve it and they justquit.
Yep, I think when you take onthe mindset of an athlete of
(38:41):
some way, shape or form whetheryou're a runner, a CrossFit or a
cyclist when you have thatmindset, then you're in and you
start getting around.
It becomes your lifestyle.
You're around those types ofpeople.
It's part of your daily routine.
That's it's finding themovement you love and dabbling
until you find it, whatever thatis, whether that's pickleball,
(39:03):
whether that, whatever it is,but making that part of your
lifestyle yeah, yeah, and then Imean finding other people that
share it.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
it's.
It's funny because youmentioned jim rohn earlier,
before we started, and I waslike, yeah, one of my favorite
jim rohn quotes is you're someof the five people you spend the
most time with right.
That's physically, economically, all those pieces, yeah, and so
I think it is one of theamazing things about crossFit is
there is a community of people.
But if you go to any gym at thesame time, like Lainey goes up
(39:34):
to the country club and worksout, well, it's the same people.
When she's gone out of town andshe shows up oh, where you been
?
Like there's almost, theyalmost hold each other
accountable even in that space.
So I did, I.
I finally remembered thenutrition thing.
Just to jump back to that, theone thing I would really
encourage people to do eat acouple healthy meals that you
(39:56):
know, like you Google.
If you don't even know what,some people don't even know what
healthy means right, good, leanprotein, a good carb source, a
good healthy fat, like avocadoor almonds or cashews, some type
of nut, whatever it is, andthen notice how you feel
(40:16):
afterwards.
And then just start payingattention when you sit down to
eat, notice what the food smellslike, tastes like.
Be conscious of your chewing,be conscious before you.
When you eat, consciously, youslow down those hunger hormones
that tell your body it's hadenough food actually turn on
quicker.
You could scarf down a plate offood and then 20 minutes later
(40:39):
you're like, whoa, I'm so full.
But if you slow down, but ifyou pay attention to how you
feel, I rarely eat fried foodsanymore because when I do I feel
awful, I just do not feel good.
I feel them bring my energylevel down, I feel lethargic and
my body does not like them.
And I pay attention to how Ifeel after I eat and that in
(41:02):
itself, if you realize your foodis making you not feel good,
you change your eating habitsyeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
A great uh tool that comes to mind is the yuka app.
Have you seen that?
No, it's called y-u-k-a.
It's got a little carrot logo,it's free and when you go you
can scan barcodes and it'll givea score of like zero to a
hundred.
Oh, and it's it's red amber,and it'll tell you why it scores
(41:32):
it that way, whether it's achemical or it's a really
powerful app.
In fact, we had our kids areusing it and looking at stuff
now and it's a really, reallygreat tool.
Because you go to the grocerystore, man, I tell you what from
that app, like the things thatare packaged, that look healthy,
that are marketed as healthy,many of them are not.
And there's other things thatare unsuspecting.
(41:52):
And it's crazy.
You go to the spaghetti aislespaghetti sauce there's like 20
different kinds and you startscanning them.
They're all over the place onthat, yeah yeah.
So, yeah, there's somethingthat's a useful tool that can
help you make some betterchoices.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love friedstuff when it's in my mouth.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
But to your point, man I like the taste, but my
body does not like it.
Post eating it at all.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Oh well, let's.
Let's transition to to thebreath work, because here is my
take on breath work.
I used to think it was hippydippy.
Yeah, me too.
And people, you see peopledoing it on the TikTok.
They're looking all weird, likein fact I was doing it out in
the yard the other day andLacey's daughter's like like
what's he doing out there?
He looks like he's, he'sembarrassing us, he's.
(42:41):
But man, just tell us how yougot into breath work, what has
it done for you and why have youdecided to teach it and why is
it part, a critical componentnow, of what we're doing?
Speaker 2 (43:03):
So it's.
I'll start at the scientificlevel, because I love fitness
and working out, because you'reinducing hormesis, this positive
stress that causes your body torespond and change, and I've
(43:24):
always loved that.
I've liked the idea of oh, if Imove my muscles in this way, I
can build them.
If I add cardio, I can burn fat.
So I can constantly stress mybody in ways to change it.
And breathwork does the samething.
It induces stress to the body,which then helps you learn how
(43:44):
to deal.
So your internal stress, andthen in everyday situations, it
helps you learn how to deal withexternal stress, and so I love
that concept of inducing stresshelps you manage stress.
I got into breath work.
Oh, I learned about this crazydude, wim Hof, that lots of
(44:04):
people have heard about and ifyou don't know him, they call
him the Iceman.
He has, I think, 40 worldrecords for cold exposure.
The dude climbed Mount Everestwith just shorts on it just
ridiculous things.
And they called him Superman orsomething like that.
And he said I can't rememberthe quote exactly I'm not
Superman, you're just not livingoptimally, or something like
(44:26):
that.
Yeah, you're not living to yourfullest potential.
Yeah, that's it.
And he, he went.
It was all because of the, thebreath work and doing breath
work and cold exposure, thosetwo things.
And so I had done some of hisstuff and I had no idea what was
going on in my body.
But I know it felt weird Likesomething was going on and but I
(44:46):
liked it and I then found itwould help reduce stress or
cause me to sleep better.
And then I stopped for a while.
I don't know why I can't likethose pieces don't fit together
as to why.
But then you actually got meback into breathwork.
I did.
You did because you Did, Istress you out.
(45:08):
No, back into breathwork.
I did.
You did because you hadstressed you out.
No, you, you had done, you haddone.
You pick something up that likebefore we stumbled upon any of
this stuff and I'm like, oh crap, I forgot about breathwork, so
I started doing it again.
And then you know, once youstart doing it, you know you
just tell your phone what you'redoing and it'll start putting
(45:29):
crap on your Instagram.
Most of my Instagram feed islike weightlifting.
It's like Chinese weightliftingteam, it's Jim Rohn, it's like
all these helpful things andsuddenly I get and I love Danny
Morrell and I can see AubreyMarcus.
I just like the content.
Those guys put out A lot ofrelationship stuff, lot of
plant-based medicine stuff andI'm scrolling through and I find
(45:52):
this, this awakened breathpeople.
I'm like huh, I don't know whothey are, but I like what
they're talking about.
Yeah, which then led to thiswhole training, and it has.
I'm trying to figure out how toarticulate.
I know what it's doing at abiologic level, but as we're
(46:17):
doing this, I'm seeing my ownenergy shift, my own ability to
be more resilient, to be morecalm, to respond to situations
better, to be more calm, torespond to situations better.
And I had somebody tell me theother day I hadn't seen him for
(46:38):
a while.
They're like your energy isdifferent.
It's like you're vibrating in adifferent frequency which I
would attribute to the breathwork.
It just opens you up, it drivesblood flow through your body,
it decreases inflammation,improves your immune response,
decreases CO2, which increasesblood alkalinity.
(46:59):
Vo2 max is improved.
With some of the breath holds,it's just so good.
I can't knowing all of that.
I know how it's made me feeland how, on a daily basis when I
do it, how much more regulatedmy nervous system is.
And we all walk around,dysregulated, our culture, the
(47:26):
United States and othercountries for that matter.
We are not meant to see thepain of the world.
And when we turn on our TVevery night and we watch the
world news and see what adisaster this place is, we feel
that stress and that trauma.
We're not meant to feel thatstress and that trauma.
(47:49):
We're not meant to feel thatstress and that trauma.
So I don't watch it.
But when I'm feeling stress ortrauma and I turn to breath work
, it reduces that stress and youand I both know we've learned
some techniques that actuallycan help people release stuck
energy and release trauma.
And it is just so knowing wehave the ability to teach people
(48:12):
tools to help them manage theireveryday life and stress better
.
Why would I not want to sharethat with everybody I can?
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
So that's where I landed.
I'm like this needs to be outthere more.
More people need to do this,and it's generally like you said
, the hippie shit, like it tendsto be in a different circle of
people, not necessarily amonghigh performers, not among, like
I'm in, a pretty I mean, I'vebeen in corporate jobs for 25
(48:41):
years.
You don't.
You don't hear people incorporate world talk about
breathwork.
It's more for you know theoutside nature, people sort of
thing.
I'm like, oh no, that wholemarket needs this stuff Cause
they have higher stress levelsthan most people.
So I just want to get it outthere, man.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
I mean for me personally.
When you, when you said, whenwe partnered up and said we're
going to work together, I waslike, yeah, man, go do the
breath work, I'm going to gostudy this other thing.
And then, as I got moreinvolved and I talked to the
wake and breath folks, I'm like,okay, I need to learn this
myself.
And it has been absolutely agame changer, Not only in my
(49:21):
athletic performance keeps mefrom reacting versus responding.
Putting space when I'm feelinglike this morning I had an
incident where I was feelingjust irritable about something.
So I went out and did dynamicand gave me space, gave me
clarity.
I struggle with mindfulness byitself.
My mate, my brain, is alwaysgoing.
(49:41):
I think it is a form ofmeditation.
It slips you into it.
It's a meditation green and it'sa.
It is a hack for regulating orderegulating your nervous system
where you have full controlover it.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Absolute game changer .
And then the sonic neural.
You know, helping people,guiding people through trauma,
emotional expression, all ofthose things.
So that's why it's a criticalcomponent.
Plus what I love about it I'malways looking for challenges
that are a little bituncomfortable.
Dynamics is a little bituncomfortable.
Wim Hof style breathing it'ssuch a game changer.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
I don't think it's the breathing that's
uncomfortable.
It's the breath holds that areuncomfortable.
It's the breath holds that canbe.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
You're pushing yourself to the limit, but
always looking for ways to.
It's one of those things thatare healthy.
It's a hard thing to do, butyou're better for it when you do
it, and that's why it's part ofwhat we're teaching in the
Wellness Academy.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Yeah, we should probably pull Ben on one of
these at some point.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah, we absolutely will.
Yeah, Definitely.
All right, we're 15 minutes in.
We've talked about a lot in ashort amount of time, so we're
going to kind of start gettingto the exit of the door here.
Let me ask you a few morequestions.
Why did you decide to join theDo Hard Things Wellness Academy
and be a part of this journey?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
What are you hoping to achieve it's.
We just are so aligned on somany things.
The base for me is the missionof service and trying to put
myself in a place where I canget alongside other people and
encourage them, help them pushpast barriers, sticking points,
(51:22):
be it physical, emotional,whatever it is, to just be in
there, helping people achievewhatever that next level is.
I love that you're.
You say all the time there's adifference between a high
achiever and a high performer.
Helping people who don't theywant to perform but want to
(51:43):
leave behind achieve.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Cause that achieve comes with some baggage, Like I
have to perform for other people.
I have to prove myself asopposed to.
I want to step into thefullness of whoever I'm meant to
be or can be and man, to beable to have a platform where we
can just put that out there andhelp people break plateaus.
That's I'm all in man.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yeah, high performance is achieving above
standard norms, not sacrificinghealth, relationships and and
and happiness.
Yeah, and there are plenty ofhigh achievers where you might
crush it in business, absolutelydestroy it, but you leave a
wake of disaster behind you witha divorce, or you're not
(52:28):
connected to your kids, oryou're struggling with your diet
.
You know all of those thingsare just.
You reach the top, thinkingit's going to provide happiness,
and you're still not happy.
That's the.
That's not what we're trying toachieve.
We want to be a high performerand and, yeah, man, I'm just
honored that you're with us,brother.
Your, your skills and ability,your skillset I mean.
(52:51):
What I have envisioned ishaving a bench of coaches
mindset, movements, the breath.
Like we've said before, it'snot on our bingo card, but it is
a now a critical component towhat we're teaching along with
the other coaches.
Man, I just you bring so muchknowledge like your flexibility
and your, your just mobility,background and just your
(53:12):
physique and knowledge is isincredible and I hope people,
people are going to get a chanceto connect with you in the
academy and and improve becauseof it.
So, yeah, it's exciting.
Yeah, man, All right, a coupleof questions here.
If you could only teach onemovement or exercise to people
for the rest of your career,what would it be and why?
Speaker 2 (53:32):
One movement or exercise.
Assuming everybody could do it,it would probably be a snatch,
which is an olympic lift.
Yeah, because it.
It combines a deadlift,somewhat of shoulder movement
and a squat.
All together it's the best.
It's just full range of motionthat works on strength, speed,
(53:52):
power, mobility, it it is anall-encompassing lift.
If you don't have the mobilityto get in the bottom of the
squat, you're not doing a fulldepth snatch If you don't have
the shoulder mobility to get uphere and get stacked in this
position with that weightoverhead, with solid lock,
locked scapula and just all thepieces in place.
But it's also it's my favoriteto coach too because it's so
(54:16):
technical that even and even theOlympic lifters.
you know the Olympic Olympiclifters, the guys who are going
for the gold medal.
They have coaches their entirecareers.
It's, but it's so good, there'ssuch good lifts, but they're
really complex.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
That's a technical movement, even without lifting
anything, Cause I've practicedit numerous times with just the
PVC pipe and just yeah, pipe andjust yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
But once you get it, once you're able to add loads it
, the benefits are just enormous, because it covers every,
almost every aspect of what youwould want for weightlifting
yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
If your younger self say 18 year old brian, could see
you today, what would he think?
How the hell did that happen?
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Yeah, I, I think it'd be a.
I didn't see that coming,partially because I came to
Columbia and went to MU with thethought I was going to go to
vet school and I got three and ahalf years in and went.
This school stuff sucks.
I'm not doing this.
And then you know, I've been inthe pharmaceutical industry for
20 plus years and it's been agreat career.
(55:28):
But now, with this, thisendeavor and the breath work
coming in and knowing I'mtransitioning out of that into
something different, I had neverseen that coming, yeah, but how
exciting to be able to take allof the learnings through my
entire life, be it emotionalclarity in relationships,
weightlifting, nutrition, andI'll be able to take it and give
(55:52):
it to somebody else so thatthey can learn it faster without
having to.
You and I have talked aboutthis.
We've read so many books andcompiled so many pieces of
knowledge that it took us yearsand years and years, and what we
have we can give to people inthe.
What took us years might onlytake them six months, yeah, and
that's amazing to be able tooffer that to other people for
(56:13):
their own growth and for theirown, you know, moving forward of
life, just uh, and for theirown, you know, moving forward of
life, just yeah, I've neverseen it coming.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
It's definitely rewarding, for sure.
Yeah, one final question Fastforward 10 years from now.
What impact do you hope yourcoaching and your work inside
with the Do Our Things WellnessAcademy and everything you're
doing in the coaching space,what impact do you hope that you
, you, you created?
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Immeasurable.
Like I, I think I would like tolook back and not even be able
to comprehend how many peoplehave come through that would
then turn around and come backto us.
Go it was.
It was the best, best time andresources I ever spent on myself
, which I've been able to sayabout some coaching I've hired
(57:04):
for myself at points in my life.
I want to have people be ableto say the same things about us,
and I don't want it to be small.
I go back to the retreat, right,and I'll use my exact quote I
don't know what it's going to be, but I want it to the retreat,
right, and I'll use my exactquote I don't know what it's
gonna be, but I want it to befucking epic.
Yes, and that's it.
(57:27):
I just, you know, I, I alwaysthink we cast a vision for our
lives, but it's within our ownparameters of what big looks
like.
Like you're too, too afraid tomake a big vision.
I, I want this to be big.
I want so many people to beable to step into this space and
(57:51):
grow and accelerate their lifeforward.
I don't know that.
I can quite articulate it.
I'm super excited about whatwe're building.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
There's a quote that you have mentioned numerous
times.
I forgot her name.
You weren't meant to live inthis world.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
Oh, Marianne Williamson.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (58:14):
Yeah, yeah, you want me to find it and read it real
quick.
Yes, I can't quote it exactly.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
It's in the end of the book.
I don't have it.
I mean I wrote it in here but Idon't have it verbatim.
I was trying to find it realquick, but I've got it here in
the tail end.
Oh, by the way, the Life onOffense book is an Amazon
bestseller now, so in the book.
When you read this to me, I'mlike this has to go in the book
and I have referenced it.
Speaker 2 (58:49):
Yeah, go for it.
Our deepest fear is not that weare inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we arepowerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not ourdarkness, that most frighten,
frightens us.
We ask ourselves who am I to be?
Brilliant, gorgeous, talented,fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does notserve the world.
There's nothing enlightenedabout shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecurearound you.
(59:10):
We were all meant to shine, aschildren do.
We were born to make manifestthe glory of God that is within
us.
It's not just in some of us,it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light andthis is my favorite line as we
are liberated from our own fear,our presence automatically
(59:30):
liberates others.
Yes, when we show up for who weare, for what we've been
through, for the struggles we'veworked through and we're
transparent and authentic, wegive people permission to be
transparent and authentic andback, and so you can know them,
you can know their struggles,you can offer wisdom and pieces
to help them move forward andget unstuck.
(59:53):
I think that thing of being intransition in life be it kids
leaving the house, divorce, jobwe just sometimes get stuck.
I want to help people getunstuck.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Yes, it's good stuff and on that I think we're.
I think it's a great way towrap up this episode.
Brian, you're going to hearmore from Brian, co-host of the
podcast, and he one of thecoaches inside of the Do Hard
Things Wellness Academy.
So if you'd like to learn more,go to DoHardThingsNationcom and
just fired up for everythingthat we're going to build
(01:00:27):
together with Do Hard ThingsNation For everyone listening.
If today's conversation inspiredyou, just make sure you smash
that subscribe button, sharethis episode with someone who
needs it and if you're ready totake your performance to the
next level, check out the DoHard Things Wellness Academy.
This is going to be your hubfor mindset movement community
and you can try it out free forseven days.
(01:00:48):
Seven days, you can try it out.
We got a whole bench of coacheslist of classes.
Try a breathwork session.
Go to the mindset call.
Go to the movement call.
Check us all out.
We got a bunch of trainings inthere.
It's going to be epic andthat's it.
That's it for this episode.
In the meantime, keep doinghard things and we will see you
in the next episode.
All right, welcome back to the Do Hard Things
podcast.
I'm your host, siegfried JTeagues, and today we've got a
powerhouse episode lined up foryou with guest Brian Larson.
But before we dive in, do me aquick favor.
If you're finding value inthese conversations, make sure
you smash that subscribe button.
Share this podcast with someonewho needs a little push just to
(01:03):
keep doing hard things.
And don't forget to check outthe Do Hard Things Wellness
Academy.
Go to dohardthingsnationcom.
You'll find all great resourcesthere.
We've got apparel, we've gotevents.
You can check out the academy.
This is where we give you thetools, the training and the
community to unlock your fullpotential.
And let's get into today'sconversation.
So today I'm joined with mybrother from another mother,
(01:25):
brian Larson.
He's one of our powerhousecoaches inside the Do Hard
Things Nation Wellness Academyand he's also the brand new
co-host of the podcast.
I met Brian about five years agothrough our women.
I met Lacey.
Lacey brought Lainey, who washer really, really good friend,
and not knowing who I was, if Iwas a serial killer or not,
(01:46):
obviously you know.
Woman doing a smart thing, shebrings Lainey and I started
dating Lacey and not long afterthat, somehow Brian shows up to
date Lainey.
So we got Lainey and Lacey, wegot Brian and Sig.
And so immediately when I metBrian, I'm like, oh man, I love
this dude.
And we immediately just hit itoff.
(02:06):
We're talking about the topicof just helping people.
I sensed his passion.
We were talking about coachingand his vision for the future.
And I know, brian you mentionedit like you just knew that we
were going to work together atone point in time.
And here we are.
So a little background on Brian.
Brian is a certified CrossFitcoach, expert in movement and
nutrition.
He's a skilled breathworkfacilitator and he's got years
(02:29):
of experience training athletesand guiding people through
transformation.
He knows how to push you pastplateaus and into peak
performance and you know, brianjust brings intensity, clarity,
practical tools that will helpyou break limits, step fully
into your potential.
And today we get to hear astory, his philosophy, tools and
, ultimately, what Brian'spurpose is here.
(02:51):
And so, brian, welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Thanks, man.
Did I miss anything in yourintro?
No, it was pretty.
It was better than I had donefor myself.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
What I love about Brian like if you meet him, he
has such a stature, like he isjust, like he's just got the
physique, he's chiseled and theflexibility that you have is
incredible.
Like so just you want to talkabout a master of movement.
He knows what he's talkingabout and what he is doing, and
so I have tremendous admirationfor your knowledge base.
In addition to you've draggedme into this breathwork journey
(03:23):
so I did, didn't I so all right.
so I've got a bunch of questionshere for you.
Let's roll, let's dive in.
Take me back.
When was the first time thatyou realized movement and
fitness weren't just aboutlooking good, but about like
transformation and just living agood life?
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It probably 98, I think.
So I had started working out inhigh school Cause I mean I was
about that big around.
I was same height, 130 pounds.
I'm 185 now.
So quite a bit of muscle massdifference and that was just
about okay.
I want to put some muscle onthis frame, but I got married in
98.
I got married, started in thepharma industry and bought a new
(04:08):
house.
How old were you then?
I was hold on, that would havebeen 25.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
And up until that point I had been pretty fit all
the way up until then.
But I blew out a tendon in myelbow and started that pharma
job, and we call it the pharma15.
You gain about 15 pounds in thefirst year if you would eat all
the food you're taking tooffices, and so I gained an
(04:34):
unhealthy weight not like oh, ohyeah, it wasn't muscle mass.
and so I got all the way up to198 and for me that was a lot of
weight and I lost some musclemass and I've got really bad
family history and so type twodiabetes, heart disease, and I
just one day was like this is Icannot keep going like this, and
(04:55):
I started really cracking downon.
I rehabbed the elbow, got backin the gym, then really went on
a fitness journey or a nutritionjourney.
I didn't really know much aboutnutrition at that standpoint.
I had done, you know, genetics.
When you're young you can puton muscle mass and stay lean,
(05:15):
but as you get a little olderit's a little harder.
And so I really learned aboutnutrition and somewhere in there
I had this transformation of mybody that was very profound and
went okay, there's more to this.
If I can change my physicalstructure, can I change my
(05:38):
mental structure?
And I stumbled upon this guynamed John Benson and he had a I
can't remember mind meals,muscle that was the name of his
program and he taught me somestuff about the mental aspect of
of training, which I carriedover into personal development,
(06:02):
and so those two pieces justclicked for me all the way back.
Then those two pieces justclicked for me all the way back
then.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
What did you have?
So how were you influenced?
Like, who showed you?
Who was the person that maybehave showed you, like I don't
know just how to, maybe thepower of coaching and the power
of, like you know, physicalfitness and nutrition?
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Was there any?
It's funny when you like.
Last week, when you weretalking about I don't know the
cross country coach, I almostinterrupted you and said reach
out to them while you can.
Mine like.
The person who had an influenceon me in that way, like seeing
how a coach could impact a life,was my high school wrestling
coach and I tried to find thatman, dennis Boyer.
(06:44):
He was Eureka Missouri.
Man, dennis Boyer, he wasEureka Missouri.
This guy, he just he was sogood as a just coach but somehow
he got inside your life withoutreally even trying and just
showed you a little bit of adifferent path and I stood back,
(07:04):
I don't know, several yearsafter graduating high school and
college and going.
Man, that guy just had aprofound impact on me just by
being there and speaking intothe small things.
I remember we were runningsprints one day and there was an
end marker on the mat.
He's watching us go back andforth and he gets on us about
(07:25):
that last step.
Like you guys are quittingbefore that last step, and if
you're going to quit on thatlast step, I mean it was pretty
much like might as well not evenrun it, give it all you got the
whole way or don't do it, andsomething about those little
things just stuck with me andI'm like, oh, yeah, Okay, I can
see that he was really good.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
It's amazing how an individual can have tremendous
lifelong impact on you, someonethat can push you, see your
potential, push you beyond yourlimits, and it's remarkable.
And to your point, I do need to.
I need to find Mr Danner,michael Danner.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, man, I just I don't even know if he's around.
I've looked.
I even called the high schoolat one point.
They, I mean they had losttouch with him, but yeah, it was
, he was.
He was amazing, just absolutelyamazing.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, Wow.
Well, when it comes to asomething really hard in your
life, like, describe a moment inyour life where you had to do
something really, really hard,something that may have broke
you open and you might realizethat you know what.
This is what I'm supposed to do, this is what I'm supposed to
teach.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Hmm, let's see the teach, Let me.
Let me see if I can focus onthe teach part for a second.
I mean, really, it's been myown journey with injury and
immobility that has made merealize I probably need to do
more teaching of mobility andmovement.
So I had I mean, I don't, Idon't know what year I started
(08:57):
CrossFit, but I did it for anumber of years and I, like a
lot of people in CrossFit, justwent at it too hard.
I was not giving my body breaksand every it's almost like
every joint would hurt, or oneone started hurting and I'd
rehab it or take some time offand another one would hurt.
Well, what I learned was itessentially was my lack of range
(09:20):
of motion and strength at allend ranges.
So you get in a squat.
If I'm down in the bottom of asquat, oh, my glutes weren't
still engaged, so I was losingsome squat.
If I'm down in the bottom of asquat, oh, my glutes weren't
still engaged, so I was losingsome stability, which, once you
start all those things happen,it like breaks everything down
all along the way.
And so I I just I had enoughinjury where I started trying to
(09:44):
figure out what do I need to dodifferently.
And so I just, man, I wasalmost done working out
completely.
I'm like I can't keep doingthis, but I also can't keep
getting out of bed every morningand hurting the way I do, and
that sent me down the path ofreally learning about mobility,
(10:06):
learning about adding that intoweightlifting, trying to.
You know, there's a differencebetween just stretching and
mobility.
They're very different.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Yeah.
And just really working on?
How are they different?
Can you describe the differenceWell?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
yeah.
So you know I could.
I could stand up right here, Ican touch my toes and that's
just going to be a stretch.
And if I squat down in thebottom of the squat I might be
squat, you know, kind ofstretching my muscles out.
But can I then from a squat,can I, can I stay in that squat
and walk forward?
That's mobility, where just thesquat itself is stretching.
(10:42):
Can I move through all range ofmotions?
Can my, can my arm come up here, as opposed to, oh, it gets
stuck here.
That's, that's my range ofmotion and I could stretch this
out.
But then to be able to take itand turn it and move it through
this range of motion is themobility of my shoulder joint.
I could stretch it all day longbut if I can't let it turn and
open up, I lack the mobility ofthat joint and I I learned that
(11:10):
it's that stuff.
Those tissues working in thoseways build a stronger foundation
for lifting.
I quit lifting for severalmonths and just went all in on
mobility, because I just hurtmobility, because I just hurt.
I didn't lift a single weightand came back and PR one of my
Olympic lifts without evertouching a weight because my
(11:31):
mobility had improved my endrange of motion strength.
It's just, it's really goodstuff.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So when I think of CrossFit, I remember the first
time that I'd heard aboutCrossFit and I was really
interested in it.
But then I always hear, oh mygosh, you're going to get hurt.
And I and to full transparency,I have went to CrossFit and I
have gotten hurt by pushing toohard.
I love it, but it's the thelittle competitive edge when you
(11:57):
do some of the AMRAP and thingslike that.
What are some of the trends,the mistakes, the things that
CrossFitters make that causeinjury and what advice do you
give them to mitigate more?
There's lots.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
I love CrossFit as a motto that says CrossFit is the
cure, and they're talking aboutpeople who maybe are overweight,
have hypertension, type two,diabetes, because doing workouts
in that fashion can reduce allof those markers Like
inflammation goes down, like allthese pieces that are really
good for a body.
But I've said that CrossFit isalso a disease.
(12:35):
It's a disease for those peopleand it draws a certain type of
person, people who havecompetitive, like athletic
backgrounds.
They used to play sports orthey're very driven in business.
It very, it's like performanceoriented people tend to flock to
crossfit.
Yeah, and it's a diseasebecause they go in there and
they bust it a hundred percentall out five to seven days a
(13:00):
week.
I think that's the biggestmistake I see especially the
seasoned athletes in the gymmake is that they're training
four or five, six times a weekat maximum intensity.
Crossfit as a modality.
It's supposed to train all ofthe energy systems, from short
acting to long acting.
But everything that I seepeople do, even if it's
(13:23):
programmed on the board to be asix out of 10 for perceived work
rate, people are in therehuffing and puffing.
Well, if it's a six out of 10,I should be able to do the
workout, mouth closed, breathingthrough my nose, and so they
just go all out.
All out because they're chasingthe scoreboard and where they
rank among other athletescompared to what is the goal of
(13:44):
this workout, so that one isdefinitely one in it.
They go together, pushing toohard and not taking enough time
off because we have to recover.
If you push your body every day, it never recovers and there is
some good adaptation that'llhappen.
But you reach a point where itcan't recover anymore.
(14:07):
And if you, on top of that, addgetting a fight with your
significant other or stress atwork, now have mental neurologic
load along with physicalneurologic load and the brain
doesn't know the difference andit just starts like everything
goes haywire.
So I think it's the shut theintensity and frequency down a
(14:27):
little bit and just have somerest in there and be okay with
that.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
So how many days a week should a CrossFitter,
someone new, do CrossFit then?
Speaker 2 (14:37):
See, that's a hard one too because, depending on
the way it's programmed, if youcherry pick certain days like
there might be in aweightlifting cycle, pick
certain days like there might bein a weightlifting cycle and
let's say it's they're doing Idon't know, some Olympic lift
and maybe a squat or maybe ashoulder press on three
different days, and if everyweek you just go to the squat
day, so that's hard to say.
(14:59):
I would, I would probably tellanybody when you're starting out
to probably find three days aweek and go in there and scale
it.
If it's, depending on where youare like.
If you're a season like we have, you know we're in home of
university, missouri, here,right, we get collegiate
athletes, you know formercollegiate athletes.
(15:20):
They can come in and crush itfive days a week because they're
still 22 years old and theirbody recovers.
But for the average persontrying it out, I'd say three
days a week, go in there andjust scale it.
Ask the coach this is where I'mat.
How can I make this fit forwhere I'm at?
And really don't push so hard.
You want to be able to be inthat place where you can't have
(15:45):
a conversation, but not in thatplace where you're working so
hard that your hands are on yourknees and you can't hardly
breathe.
That comes later and that comesin shorter workouts, but
initially it needs to be dialedback and we really, as the
coaches, should be working withthe athletes on that, but
sometimes we just miss it.
It's just you're busy withother people and you're not
paying enough attention.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
I still do it to this day and I've been coaching it
five or six years now.
Yeah, I think where people getin trouble is you push it too
hard, you start getting sloppywith the technique and then
you're pushing a little bit toomuch weight and that's where you
get in trouble.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, part well part of the modality of CrossFit is
you are supposed to be pushed tothe point where the form breaks
down so we can see where yourform needs to improve.
Yeah, the problem is somepeople it goes back to the
movement thing don't have theright mobility and movement to
even add weight to a barbell andthey need to be back up and do
air squats instead of backsquats.
(16:38):
So it can.
It's a little bit of all thepieces together.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, we get a lot of runners, ruckers, cyclists,
triathletes that listen to thispodcast and, as a running coach,
I definitely try to promotestrength training.
And it's the same with, likemany CrossFitters they love
slinging the weights, they don'twant to go do the cardio.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
They need to run more .
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I'm guilty.
Yeah.
So those that are runners,ruckers, triathlet, your VO two
(17:26):
max, which is the amount ofoxygen your body can carry, and
if your body can carry moreoxygen you can run farther, you
run faster, and we have so manyathletes who will come in.
My favorite is when you have ahigh level wrestler or baseball
player and they come in and theydo CrossFit for three months
(17:47):
and like, oh my goodness, Ican't believe how this has
impacted my sport.
And so I think you know musclebuilding is more about, um,
moving the weight and theneating the calories to support
it.
You don't want to take a longdistance runner and add 15
pounds of muscle to them, causeit's a lot harder to move that
extra 15 pounds of muscle.
But if they take the mass theyhave and improve that strength
(18:08):
and output and performance,cause CrossFit is about output
of, of energy.
It's like how much it's forced,is it?
Force equals work, work equalsforce times distance, right?
If I can put out more force andgo a further distance, then
I've created more work, and it'sthat same concept.
(18:29):
So, coming in, you increase thestrength of the muscles you
have, then your leg drive isgoing to be stronger, your
stride might have betterstrength, stability as you hit
the ground with that stridecould be better.
So I think I think themechanics could probably improve
by stability and strength forsomeone that might be getting
(18:52):
back on the saddle of workingout.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
They might have some interest in crossfit, they might
have some interest in running,doing all the above.
Do you have a recommended likewhat?
What would a week look like forthem when it comes to working
out?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah, I mean at first I'd say do all things Just move
the body.
Yeah, I mean I, you know, I gota buddy who says find a movement
, find movements you love.
Because if you don't findmovements you love, you'll only
do them until like, oh, whateveryour goal is, oh, I want to
lose 10 pounds.
Once they lose, the 10 poundsgoal hit, I'm done.
But if you truly get in thereand love it like people who have
(19:29):
an athletic background, acompetitive athletic background,
tend to love crossfit and theywill show up again and again and
again and there's this bigcommunity aspect to it, that's
really.
I think, it's more aboutfinding the movement you love
and then move every day.
I, even if I'm in a recoveryday, I will still do mobility
(19:50):
work and I will walk two plusmiles.
So that's where the 10, I thinkthe 10,000 steps is an amazing
thing.
I would say 10,000 steps everyday because it actually serves
as a form of recovery based onyour heart rate.
If your heart rate is below,like I don't know, one 30, one
35, depending on age and allthose factors, you're actually
(20:10):
getting recovery.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And so I would say do the walk, lift three or four
times a week, and then if you'rea runner, I guess it depends
like how many days a week areyou running.
If you're running four or five,I'd lift a couple and just find
a 30 minute session.
It doesn't have to be CrossFit,it can be any weightlifting
program that just really worksmultiple muscle groups at one
(20:34):
time.
But I would say, do them all,because one of the best
predictors there's two reallygood predictors of longevity,
lung capacity and your abilityto get up from the floor yeah,
yeah and it's you know theyalways joke about some of the
crossfit movies movements, butall the burpee is it is teaching
(20:56):
yourself how to get from yourchest up into your hands and
standing straight up.
It's all a burpee is floor tostanding up, and so those two
things are really goodpredictors of longevity.
And can you live a life byyourself, or do you have to be
admitted somewhere where theyhave to take care of you?
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I think you hit on something that I want to
emphasize, because I can'toverstate the importance of
walking, as simple as it is.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
When you do a workout you might burn maybe 500
calories.
Well, if you're working out anda healthy weight loss is two
pounds a week, well, it was like3,500 calories per pound and
well, you're going to have toburn up some calories, calorie
deficit and burn up somecalories.
You're not losing the weightspecifically from the workout.
(21:45):
It's the movement throughoutthe day and the steps are what
really really make a bigdifference in that.
And for runners, can'tunderestimate the time on feet,
underestimate the, the uh, theuh, the, the time on feet.
So just walk like spending yourbreaks throughout the day.
Walking or getting somemovement in is so incredibly
(22:07):
important and can't I mean it'sit.
It's so simple.
People forget about it, but the10,000 steps a day is a great
rule of thumb.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
It is, it is, and it I mean it really takes,
depending on your pace, 45minutes at the longest maybe,
yeah, yeah, or you break it upin several chunks during the day
.
It it just makes such a bigdifference and it really truly
does help recovering.
One of the one of the thingsI've started doing recently it
kind of aligns with our breathwork is you can actually I read
(22:34):
the book the oxygen advantageand he talks about, instead of
hyperventilation,hypoventilation, and so
breathing slow and really lightand then taking an exhale hold
for five to 10 steps and you'llget a little bit of air hunger,
and then you breathe in for acouple of recovery breaths, walk
(22:54):
for another minute and do that,and that too, improves your
body's ability to discharge andabsorb like oxygen and CO2.
It's really fascinating.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Something I just recently learned I think it's
probably through our breathworksessions is that fat is burned.
I guess maybe burned is thewrong.
It's maybe the wrong it'sdepleted or leaves your body
through liquid, so sweat, ormost of it's, through the breath
which I had no idea Mostcalorie discharge is through
(23:25):
breathing.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I find that fascinating which makes sense,
but it didn't, because I didn'teven think about the breath.
I know, I know.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
It's funny, it's central, it's so central it
makes all the difference in theworld because we can't live
without the breath.
But breathing and weightlifting is so important because
if you don't get a good breathin and a good core brace and you
stack 315 pounds on your backand squat, you can destroy your
spine.
But that proper bracing breathand knowing how to get the air
(23:58):
in and compress it and hold itdown, it's, it's so, it, it, it
is the key is the key and from arunning perspective it's the
same thing your vo2 max and theamount of oxygen you can get in
it.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Just, you know, the more mitochondria you have, the
more red blood cells, the moreenergy and oxygen that you can
get to the body, the faster andthe further that you can run.
So I just overestimated andoverlooked the power of the
breath.
And then doing these breathsessions and seeing what you can
do with it, like it isabsolutely incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, I mean you start working up the two and a
half three minute breath holds.
It's pretty fascinating whathappens.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
So if you're in the do hard things wellness Academy,
breath work is a criticalfunction of what we demonstrate
and show and facilitate there.
So if you have any interest inthat, come check us out, because
we'll be hosting sessions inthere.
We host sessions there all thetime, so awesome, all right,
let's.
Uh, you want to switch gears tonutrition, or do you?
Whatever man any gears or onany gears before we switch gears
(24:57):
.
Is there anything else you'dlike to speak into when it comes
to movements?
Speaker 2 (25:01):
No, I just it, just move.
I think that's the thing.
Just move, just keep moving.
Find something you love to do.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
But I'm always an advocate for weightlifting
because if you you don't like torun, I get it.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Well, I don't like to run, but that's not even it.
You can't change your bodycomposition by running.
Yeah, whatever size you are,you can make smaller.
But if you want broad shouldersand biceps and all the muscle
groups or for women if they wantyou know this really nice
figure eight shape, runningisn't going to do it.
(25:37):
You got to get in the gym andyou have to build muscle and
then, once you build muscle,more burns more calories than
fat, so you actually become acalorie burning machine.
And building muscle.
It's not that complex.
You put enough calories in, youmove increasingly heavy loads,
either the load or over morereps over time, and you build
(25:58):
muscle.
It just happens you get to aspot where you're done like I I
don't know that I could put onany more muscle, but it it's not
.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
It's not a complex science what advice do you have
for women who are afraid thatthey're going to look and turn
into a man?
I hear that or forms of that.
Like I don't want to lookmuscular, I don't like a man.
They're scared of that.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You've got to move some heavy loads over a long
period of time.
It's like the.
I call them the crossfit girls,right?
If you watch crossfitcompetition, they are some
muscular women, but they aretraining multiple times a day
with heavy loads.
You could throw a woman in thegym for two years and have her
(26:42):
do sets of six to 12 reps onwhatever movement, and most
likely she doesn't havetestosterone levels high enough
to build the kind of musclethey're afraid of becoming.
I would say if that's your fear, go try and do it and you'll
probably find you can't.
It just takes a different level.
(27:02):
It's, it's something you know.
It's the same for guys, right?
I mean there's, there's somemonsters out there.
They they're different beastsand they're different animals
and they work out at a differentlevel, at a different pace and
with way more frequency than theaverage human being.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, yeah, All right , let's transition into
nutrition.
Do you have any like when yournutrition is dialed in?
I mean, I see what you eat andhow you eat, which is pretty
admirable.
What are some generalguidelines that you have for
your CrossFit athletes when itcomes to like nutrition and
(27:39):
staying kind of dialed in?
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Yeah, I mean I have a little different belief than
what CrossFit would say.
There.
I would say number one leadwith protein.
You have to have adequateprotein and if you get enough
protein then you're not ashungry for the rest of the day.
And it varies widely.
A rule of thumb is anywherefrom 0.7 to 1 grams of protein
(28:02):
per pound of body weight, but italso varies on where you are.
If you're a little overweight,from where you want to be, it
might be 0.7 to 1 of your leanbody mass or 0.7 to account for
getting rid of the extra weight.
Somewhere in that range is anideal spot and that's hard to do
and meal meal numbers can vary.
(28:25):
I probably eat five or sixtimes a day.
That way I don't have to ingestmore than 30 35 grams of
protein in a sitting.
But it to me is lead withprotein and just occasionally
choose healthier carbohydrates.
White breads are probably notthe best, breads in general are
(28:46):
not the best source of carbs andchoosing to not eat out as much
can help reduce caloriessignificantly.
But just on a day-in, day-outbasis.
Get the protein in.
Find more fruits, morevegetables and less starchy or
breads and grains.
Helps a lot of people there's.
(29:09):
There's a component of itthat's very specific to
individuals.
Like some people can cut outcarbs and they will do amazing.
They'll.
They'll do an adkins or they'lldo the.
All the diets are escaping I.
I just don't do a diet.
I don't find you eat the rightthings in the right amounts and
it works out.
But getting away from some ofthe starchier, sugar-driving
(29:33):
carbohydrates really helps.
I can't go carbless.
I just don't have the energy towork out.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
I go to work out and I feel like somebody shot me
(30:02):
no-transcript in protein andgrams or your target body weight
, and that's hard to do without,like I'm.
I'm right around 225 right nowand you get 225 grams of protein
.
Like I have to supplementbecause it's just hard to eat
(30:22):
that much meat or protein richfood and it's so satiating, like
when I do eat it.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
So yeah, I'm not opposed to protein powders from
that standpoint.
I mean, I I've got one that Iuse post-workout that throws in
a bunch of protein, a bunchbunch of carbs and then I'll eat
a handful of nuts with it.
But it's really hard to getthat much protein.
But even if you're, you knowsomebody who's only getting 60
grams a day and they need 150,if they even got to 120, then
(30:53):
there's more.
There's less room to put otherfood in your mouth if you're
putting protein in your mouth,and that I think that's the
thing I've learned more thananything else.
My favorite line is you cannotout train a bad diet, doesn't
matter how hard you work.
It's calories in, calories out,and then it even gets to a
(31:13):
point where it's the type ofcalories that go in.
Yeah, but leading with proteinis the.
For me it's been the mostimportant thing what do you in
regards to, like counting?
Speaker 1 (31:26):
do you count macros?
Do you?
Do you not anymore?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I would recommend anybody starting out to count
macros.
And so there's, there's a lot.
You can go to youtube, you cango to google.
You can find all the differentways to calculate what you need.
It's.
You know, I if, if anybody'sreally really trying to do this
and they're really trying to geta handle, I would say find a
(31:51):
supplement superstore or sometype of local.
We've got fit factory here intown.
Go in there and get on theirmachine, and they've got a
machine that will measure yourbody fat percentage.
Now they're not perfect, butthey give you a baseline and it
shoots out your basal metabolicrate.
So that tells you, okay, if Ido nothing today but sit on the
couch, I'm going to burn 1900calories, and so I know to
(32:14):
maintain where I'm at, it's 1900calories.
And so from there, do I want togain weight, lose weight or
maintain, and I go up or downbased on that, and so calories
are one of the most importantfactors.
So figure out how many caloriesyou need in a day, and then
from there I like.
So I don't do them anymore.
(32:34):
When I started this wholejourney, I counted calories and
macros, but now I can prettymuch tell you like a good rule
of thumb.
About a four ounce piece of meatis about the size of a deck of
cards and it's going to be about30 grams of protein.
The size of your fist is abouta serving of carbs for somebody.
(32:54):
A little handful of nuts in thepalm of your hand is the size
of fat.
So I just have gotten to whereI.
I don't even think about it, Ijust kind of know.
But to track it, to understandwhat you're taking in, you'd be
surprised if you write downevery single thing you eat in a
day, how many times you pass bythe kitchen and grab like a
couple potato chips, or ifthere's chocolate out.
(33:17):
I mean it adds up and it can bethree, four, four, 500 calories
.
And 500 calories a day, sevendays, is a pound, yeah.
So tracking them is important.
The macros become important atsome point, but I think tracking
overall calories is probablythe most important starting
block and then figuring out whatmacro ratio do you need, and
(33:39):
that's a whole differentconversation.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah Well, I think that's a good point.
If you focus on the protein,don't overcomplicate it, keep it
simple.
But when you start some levelof tracking, you have to track
until you get good enough.
You got to do what's Pearson'slaw?
What gets tracked, measured,and what gets tracked and
measured improves.
What gets tracked, measured andrecorded or, I'm sorry,
(34:03):
reported ie having a coach tosubmit it to improve
significantly.
So, I think.
I think that's where someaccountability comes in, and so
if you're finding yourselfstruggling.
You got to track it and thenlearn the tools.
It's, yeah, people overcomplicate nutrition.
It's not complicated, but it is.
(34:25):
I mean, I will, I will say this, like your habits.
And then we have big food.
The cards are stacked againstus a little bit.
When you have the, the, theamount of, I mean you can have
door dash, you drive through youhave to leave your couch, man,
it'll just come in your houseand drop it in your lap.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
I know They'll almost feed it to you.
It's going to be the nextservice.
Yeah, to me I think it isovercomplicated.
And then we're always lookingfor the newest diet and what's
going to help lose weight thefastest or whatever.
But I tend to think, if youeating well, for like you even
(35:06):
know, man, I eat like crap.
I'm going fast food three timesa week and I'm eating hostess
ding dongs or what I mean, Idon't know whatever and you want
to make a change, change onething.
Change get more protein and eat.
Make sure you eat a breakfastthat's more balanced and then
don't worry about the rest for acouple of weeks.
Let that adaptation sink in.
(35:28):
Your body will shift and changeand then dial it in more, like
if you're trying to get to this.
You know, let's say some guywants to get to 12% body fat but
he's sitting at 30, just addingprotein in will probably cause
him to drop a couple.
If he then moves to liftingweights, he'll drop a couple
percent more and then you juststart dialing it back more and
(35:48):
then it becomes lifestyle not oh, I'm depriving myself.
I don't really drink hardly atall but if I'm in a scenario
where I feel like a drink, I'mgoing to have it.
But desserts I love desserts Idon't buy them.
If I buy them, I'm going to eatthem.
So I will buy small things oflike dove dark chocolate and
I'll eat one and call it goodand it satisfies the craving.
(36:12):
But that's not where I started.
I started by eating a fulldessert and go, oh, okay, well,
let me dial it back.
But that was after I made otherchanges to get there.
It's like one if you go onestage at a time, it actually
starts to alter your lifestyle.
And you're not on a diet, likediets are short-term things.
You don't want to be on a diet,you want to have a a a
(36:34):
lifestyle of eating nutritiously.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Yeah, what do you think is the so many people
struggle with this?
So if you had any bit of adviceor how someone could really
dial it in to make to break freefrom the yo-yoing of diet into
a routine, what advice would yougive?
Speaker 2 (36:57):
someone.
I love the line why alwaysconquers how in the battle for
success.
What's the why?
Why do you want to do it tostart with?
And then, once you answer thatquestion, ask yourself why again
?
And then ask why again Do thatfive to seven times and figure
out why do you want to do it tostart with?
And then, once you answer thatquestion, ask yourself why again
?
And then ask why again do thatfive to seven times and figure
out why do you really want to doit.
And then you're gonna getdeeper.
You gotta peel the layers back.
Yeah, what's the real motivationbehind it?
(37:18):
For me it, like my familygenetics are a disaster and if I
kept going the path I was gonnago, I I probably wouldn't, I'd
probably be gone already.
But as I got into it, I startto realize how much better I
feel when I'm leaner, when I'mmore muscular, and so figuring
(37:39):
out the why is to me the biggestthing.
And then, beyond that, it's.
I think it's.
There was some other thoughtthat just popped in and I lost
it.
It'll come back.
So, yeah, I mean, the why isbig, and then really, then just
start moving towards it.
It doesn't have to be perfect,it doesn't have to be every day.
(38:05):
If you fall off the bandwagon,it's okay, like just get back on
.
But I also think don't find afad diet.
Find a way of eating that'ssustainable for life.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yeah, you said something earlier, that kind of
comes.
As I have been training peoplein the space the.
A lot of people are training tolose 10 pounds because they've
got a class reunion or a wedding.
They just want to get to acertain size.
They achieve it and they justquit.
Yep, I think when you take onthe mindset of an athlete of
(38:41):
some way, shape or form whetheryou're a runner, a CrossFit or a
cyclist when you have thatmindset, then you're in and you
start getting around.
It becomes your lifestyle.
You're around those types ofpeople.
It's part of your daily routine.
That's it's finding themovement you love and dabbling
until you find it, whatever thatis, whether that's pickleball,
(39:03):
whether that, whatever it is,but making that part of your
lifestyle yeah, yeah, and then Imean finding other people that
share it.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
it's.
It's funny because youmentioned jim rohn earlier,
before we started, and I waslike, yeah, one of my favorite
jim rohn quotes is you're someof the five people you spend the
most time with right.
That's physically, economically, all those pieces, yeah, and so
I think it is one of theamazing things about crossFit is
there is a community of people.
But if you go to any gym at thesame time, like Lainey goes up
(39:34):
to the country club and worksout, well, it's the same people.
When she's gone out of town andshe shows up oh, where you been
?
Like there's almost, theyalmost hold each other
accountable even in that space.
So I did, I.
I finally remembered thenutrition thing.
Just to jump back to that, theone thing I would really
encourage people to do eat acouple healthy meals that you
(39:56):
know, like you Google.
If you don't even know what,some people don't even know what
healthy means right, good, leanprotein, a good carb source, a
good healthy fat, like avocadoor almonds or cashews, some type
of nut, whatever it is, andthen notice how you feel
(40:16):
afterwards.
And then just start payingattention when you sit down to
eat, notice what the food smellslike, tastes like.
Be conscious of your chewing,be conscious before you.
When you eat, consciously, youslow down those hunger hormones
that tell your body it's hadenough food actually turn on
quicker.
You could scarf down a plate offood and then 20 minutes later
(40:39):
you're like, whoa, I'm so full.
But if you slow down, but ifyou pay attention to how you
feel, I rarely eat fried foodsanymore because when I do I feel
awful, I just do not feel good.
I feel them bring my energylevel down, I feel lethargic and
my body does not like them.
And I pay attention to how Ifeel after I eat and that in
(41:02):
itself, if you realize your foodis making you not feel good,
you change your eating habitsyeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
A great uh tool that comes to mind is the yuka app.
Have you seen that?
No, it's called y-u-k-a.
It's got a little carrot logo,it's free and when you go you
can scan barcodes and it'll givea score of like zero to a
hundred.
Oh, and it's it's red amber,and it'll tell you why it scores
(41:32):
it that way, whether it's achemical or it's a really
powerful app.
In fact, we had our kids areusing it and looking at stuff
now and it's a really, reallygreat tool.
Because you go to the grocerystore, man, I tell you what from
that app, like the things thatare packaged, that look healthy,
that are marketed as healthy,many of them are not.
And there's other things thatare unsuspecting.
(41:52):
And it's crazy.
You go to the spaghetti aislespaghetti sauce there's like 20
different kinds and you startscanning them.
They're all over the place onthat, yeah yeah.
So, yeah, there's somethingthat's a useful tool that can
help you make some betterchoices.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love friedstuff when it's in my mouth.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
But to your point, man I like the taste, but my
body does not like it.
Post eating it at all.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
Oh well, let's.
Let's transition to to thebreath work, because here is my
take on breath work.
I used to think it was hippydippy.
Yeah, me too.
And people, you see peopledoing it on the TikTok.
They're looking all weird, likein fact I was doing it out in
the yard the other day andLacey's daughter's like like
what's he doing out there?
He looks like he's, he'sembarrassing us, he's.
(42:41):
But man, just tell us how yougot into breath work, what has
it done for you and why have youdecided to teach it and why is
it part, a critical componentnow, of what we're doing?
Speaker 2 (43:03):
So it's.
I'll start at the scientificlevel, because I love fitness
and working out, because you'reinducing hormesis, this positive
stress that causes your body torespond and change, and I've
(43:24):
always loved that.
I've liked the idea of oh, if Imove my muscles in this way, I
can build them.
If I add cardio, I can burn fat.
So I can constantly stress mybody in ways to change it.
And breathwork does the samething.
It induces stress to the body,which then helps you learn how
(43:44):
to deal.
So your internal stress, andthen in everyday situations, it
helps you learn how to deal withexternal stress, and so I love
that concept of inducing stresshelps you manage stress.
I got into breath work.
Oh, I learned about this crazydude, wim Hof, that lots of
(44:04):
people have heard about and ifyou don't know him, they call
him the Iceman.
He has, I think, 40 worldrecords for cold exposure.
The dude climbed Mount Everestwith just shorts on it just
ridiculous things.
And they called him Superman orsomething like that.
And he said I can't rememberthe quote exactly I'm not
Superman, you're just not livingoptimally, or something like
(44:26):
that.
Yeah, you're not living to yourfullest potential.
Yeah, that's it.
And he, he went.
It was all because of the, thebreath work and doing breath
work and cold exposure, thosetwo things.
And so I had done some of hisstuff and I had no idea what was
going on in my body.
But I know it felt weird Likesomething was going on and but I
(44:46):
liked it and I then found itwould help reduce stress or
cause me to sleep better.
And then I stopped for a while.
I don't know why I can't likethose pieces don't fit together
as to why.
But then you actually got meback into breathwork.
I did.
You did because you Did, Istress you out.
(45:08):
No, back into breathwork.
I did.
You did because you hadstressed you out.
No, you, you had done, you haddone.
You pick something up that likebefore we stumbled upon any of
this stuff and I'm like, oh crap, I forgot about breathwork, so
I started doing it again.
And then you know, once youstart doing it, you know you
just tell your phone what you'redoing and it'll start putting
(45:29):
crap on your Instagram.
Most of my Instagram feed islike weightlifting.
It's like Chinese weightliftingteam, it's Jim Rohn, it's like
all these helpful things andsuddenly I get and I love Danny
Morrell and I can see AubreyMarcus.
I just like the content.
Those guys put out A lot ofrelationship stuff, lot of
plant-based medicine stuff andI'm scrolling through and I find
(45:52):
this, this awakened breathpeople.
I'm like huh, I don't know whothey are, but I like what
they're talking about.
Yeah, which then led to thiswhole training, and it has.
I'm trying to figure out how toarticulate.
I know what it's doing at abiologic level, but as we're
(46:17):
doing this, I'm seeing my ownenergy shift, my own ability to
be more resilient, to be morecalm, to respond to situations
better, to be more calm, torespond to situations better.
And I had somebody tell me theother day I hadn't seen him for
(46:38):
a while.
They're like your energy isdifferent.
It's like you're vibrating in adifferent frequency which I
would attribute to the breathwork.
It just opens you up, it drivesblood flow through your body,
it decreases inflammation,improves your immune response,
decreases CO2, which increasesblood alkalinity.
(46:59):
Vo2 max is improved.
With some of the breath holds,it's just so good.
I can't knowing all of that.
I know how it's made me feeland how, on a daily basis when I
do it, how much more regulatedmy nervous system is.
And we all walk around,dysregulated, our culture, the
(47:26):
United States and othercountries for that matter.
We are not meant to see thepain of the world.
And when we turn on our TVevery night and we watch the
world news and see what adisaster this place is, we feel
that stress and that trauma.
We're not meant to feel thatstress and that trauma.
(47:49):
We're not meant to feel thatstress and that trauma.
So I don't watch it.
But when I'm feeling stress ortrauma and I turn to breath work
, it reduces that stress and youand I both know we've learned
some techniques that actuallycan help people release stuck
energy and release trauma.
And it is just so knowing wehave the ability to teach people
(48:12):
tools to help them manage theireveryday life and stress better
.
Why would I not want to sharethat with everybody I can?
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:21):
So that's where I landed.
I'm like this needs to be outthere more.
More people need to do this,and it's generally like you said
, the hippie shit, like it tendsto be in a different circle of
people, not necessarily amonghigh performers, not among, like
I'm in, a pretty I mean, I'vebeen in corporate jobs for 25
(48:41):
years.
You don't.
You don't hear people incorporate world talk about
breathwork.
It's more for you know theoutside nature, people sort of
thing.
I'm like, oh no, that wholemarket needs this stuff Cause
they have higher stress levelsthan most people.
So I just want to get it outthere, man.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
I mean for me personally.
When you, when you said, whenwe partnered up and said we're
going to work together, I waslike, yeah, man, go do the
breath work, I'm going to gostudy this other thing.
And then, as I got moreinvolved and I talked to the
wake and breath folks, I'm like,okay, I need to learn this
myself.
And it has been absolutely agame changer, Not only in my
(49:21):
athletic performance keeps mefrom reacting versus responding.
Putting space when I'm feelinglike this morning I had an
incident where I was feelingjust irritable about something.
So I went out and did dynamicand gave me space, gave me
clarity.
I struggle with mindfulness byitself.
My mate, my brain, is alwaysgoing.
(49:41):
I think it is a form ofmeditation.
It slips you into it.
It's a meditation green and it'sa.
It is a hack for regulating orderegulating your nervous system
where you have full controlover it.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
Absolute game changer .
And then the sonic neural.
You know, helping people,guiding people through trauma,
emotional expression, all ofthose things.
So that's why it's a criticalcomponent.
Plus what I love about it I'malways looking for challenges
that are a little bituncomfortable.
Dynamics is a little bituncomfortable.
Wim Hof style breathing it'ssuch a game changer.
Speaker 2 (50:20):
I don't think it's the breathing that's
uncomfortable.
It's the breath holds that areuncomfortable.
It's the breath holds that canbe.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
You're pushing yourself to the limit, but
always looking for ways to.
It's one of those things thatare healthy.
It's a hard thing to do, butyou're better for it when you do
it, and that's why it's part ofwhat we're teaching in the
Wellness Academy.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Yeah, we should probably pull Ben on one of
these at some point.
Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah, we absolutely will.
Yeah, Definitely.
All right, we're 15 minutes in.
We've talked about a lot in ashort amount of time, so we're
going to kind of start gettingto the exit of the door here.
Let me ask you a few morequestions.
Why did you decide to join theDo Hard Things Wellness Academy
and be a part of this journey?
Speaker 2 (51:01):
What are you hoping to achieve it's.
We just are so aligned on somany things.
The base for me is the missionof service and trying to put
myself in a place where I canget alongside other people and
encourage them, help them pushpast barriers, sticking points,
(51:22):
be it physical, emotional,whatever it is, to just be in
there, helping people achievewhatever that next level is.
I love that you're.
You say all the time there's adifference between a high
achiever and a high performer.
Helping people who don't theywant to perform but want to
(51:43):
leave behind achieve.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Cause that achieve comes with some baggage, Like I
have to perform for other people.
I have to prove myself asopposed to.
I want to step into thefullness of whoever I'm meant to
be or can be and man, to beable to have a platform where we
can just put that out there andhelp people break plateaus.
That's I'm all in man.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yeah, high performance is achieving above
standard norms, not sacrificinghealth, relationships and and
and happiness.
Yeah, and there are plenty ofhigh achievers where you might
crush it in business, absolutelydestroy it, but you leave a
wake of disaster behind you witha divorce, or you're not
(52:28):
connected to your kids, oryou're struggling with your diet
.
You know all of those thingsare just.
You reach the top, thinkingit's going to provide happiness,
and you're still not happy.
That's the.
That's not what we're trying toachieve.
We want to be a high performerand and, yeah, man, I'm just
honored that you're with us,brother.
Your, your skills and ability,your skillset I mean.
(52:51):
What I have envisioned ishaving a bench of coaches
mindset, movements, the breath.
Like we've said before, it'snot on our bingo card, but it is
a now a critical component towhat we're teaching along with
the other coaches.
Man, I just you bring so muchknowledge like your flexibility
and your, your just mobility,background and just your
(53:12):
physique and knowledge is isincredible and I hope people,
people are going to get a chanceto connect with you in the
academy and and improve becauseof it.
So, yeah, it's exciting.
Yeah, man, All right, a coupleof questions here.
If you could only teach onemovement or exercise to people
for the rest of your career,what would it be and why?
Speaker 2 (53:32):
One movement or exercise.
Assuming everybody could do it,it would probably be a snatch,
which is an olympic lift.
Yeah, because it.
It combines a deadlift,somewhat of shoulder movement
and a squat.
All together it's the best.
It's just full range of motionthat works on strength, speed,
(53:52):
power, mobility, it it is anall-encompassing lift.
If you don't have the mobilityto get in the bottom of the
squat, you're not doing a fulldepth snatch If you don't have
the shoulder mobility to get uphere and get stacked in this
position with that weightoverhead, with solid lock,
locked scapula and just all thepieces in place.
But it's also it's my favoriteto coach too because it's so
(54:16):
technical that even and even theOlympic lifters.
you know the Olympic Olympiclifters, the guys who are going
for the gold medal.
They have coaches their entirecareers.
It's, but it's so good, there'ssuch good lifts, but they're
really complex.
Speaker 1 (54:29):
That's a technical movement, even without lifting
anything, Cause I've practicedit numerous times with just the
PVC pipe and just yeah, pipe andjust yeah.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
But once you get it, once you're able to add loads it
, the benefits are just enormous, because it covers every,
almost every aspect of what youwould want for weightlifting
yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:49):
If your younger self say 18 year old brian, could see
you today, what would he think?
How the hell did that happen?
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Yeah, I, I think it'd be a.
I didn't see that coming,partially because I came to
Columbia and went to MU with thethought I was going to go to
vet school and I got three and ahalf years in and went.
This school stuff sucks.
I'm not doing this.
And then you know, I've been inthe pharmaceutical industry for
20 plus years and it's been agreat career.
(55:28):
But now, with this, thisendeavor and the breath work
coming in and knowing I'mtransitioning out of that into
something different, I had neverseen that coming, yeah, but how
exciting to be able to take allof the learnings through my
entire life, be it emotionalclarity in relationships,
weightlifting, nutrition, andI'll be able to take it and give
(55:52):
it to somebody else so thatthey can learn it faster without
having to.
You and I have talked aboutthis.
We've read so many books andcompiled so many pieces of
knowledge that it took us yearsand years and years, and what we
have we can give to people inthe.
What took us years might onlytake them six months, yeah, and
that's amazing to be able tooffer that to other people for
(56:13):
their own growth and for theirown, you know, moving forward of
life, just uh, and for theirown, you know, moving forward of
life, just yeah, I've neverseen it coming.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
It's definitely rewarding, for sure.
Yeah, one final question Fastforward 10 years from now.
What impact do you hope yourcoaching and your work inside
with the Do Our Things WellnessAcademy and everything you're
doing in the coaching space,what impact do you hope that you
, you, you created?
Speaker 2 (56:41):
Immeasurable.
Like I, I think I would like tolook back and not even be able
to comprehend how many peoplehave come through that would
then turn around and come backto us.
Go it was.
It was the best, best time andresources I ever spent on myself
, which I've been able to sayabout some coaching I've hired
(57:04):
for myself at points in my life.
I want to have people be ableto say the same things about us,
and I don't want it to be small.
I go back to the retreat, right,and I'll use my exact quote I
don't know what it's going to be, but I want it to the retreat,
right, and I'll use my exactquote I don't know what it's
gonna be, but I want it to befucking epic.
Yes, and that's it.
(57:27):
I just, you know, I, I alwaysthink we cast a vision for our
lives, but it's within our ownparameters of what big looks
like.
Like you're too, too afraid tomake a big vision.
I, I want this to be big.
I want so many people to beable to step into this space and
(57:51):
grow and accelerate their lifeforward.
I don't know that.
I can quite articulate it.
I'm super excited about whatwe're building.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
There's a quote that you have mentioned numerous
times.
I forgot her name.
You weren't meant to live inthis world.
Speaker 2 (58:11):
Oh, Marianne Williamson.
Speaker 1 (58:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (58:14):
Yeah, yeah, you want me to find it and read it real
quick.
Yes, I can't quote it exactly.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
It's in the end of the book.
I don't have it.
I mean I wrote it in here but Idon't have it verbatim.
I was trying to find it realquick, but I've got it here in
the tail end.
Oh, by the way, the Life onOffense book is an Amazon
bestseller now, so in the book.
When you read this to me, I'mlike this has to go in the book
and I have referenced it.
Speaker 2 (58:49):
Yeah, go for it.
Our deepest fear is not that weare inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we arepowerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not ourdarkness, that most frighten,
frightens us.
We ask ourselves who am I to be?
Brilliant, gorgeous, talented,fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does notserve the world.
There's nothing enlightenedabout shrinking so that other
people won't feel insecurearound you.
(59:10):
We were all meant to shine, aschildren do.
We were born to make manifestthe glory of God that is within
us.
It's not just in some of us,it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light andthis is my favorite line as we
are liberated from our own fear,our presence automatically
(59:30):
liberates others.
Yes, when we show up for who weare, for what we've been
through, for the struggles we'veworked through and we're
transparent and authentic, wegive people permission to be
transparent and authentic andback, and so you can know them,
you can know their struggles,you can offer wisdom and pieces
to help them move forward andget unstuck.
(59:53):
I think that thing of being intransition in life be it kids
leaving the house, divorce, jobwe just sometimes get stuck.
I want to help people getunstuck.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Yes, it's good stuff and on that I think we're.
I think it's a great way towrap up this episode.
Brian, you're going to hearmore from Brian, co-host of the
podcast, and he one of thecoaches inside of the Do Hard
Things Wellness Academy.
So if you'd like to learn more,go to DoHardThingsNationcom and
just fired up for everythingthat we're going to build
(01:00:27):
together with Do Hard ThingsNation For everyone listening.
If today's conversation inspiredyou, just make sure you smash
that subscribe button, sharethis episode with someone who
needs it and if you're ready totake your performance to the
next level, check out the DoHard Things Wellness Academy.
This is going to be your hubfor mindset movement community
and you can try it out free forseven days.
(01:00:48):
Seven days, you can try it out.
We got a whole bench of coacheslist of classes.
Try a breathwork session.
Go to the mindset call.
Go to the movement call.
Check us all out.
We got a bunch of trainings inthere.
It's going to be epic andthat's it.
That's it for this episode.
In the meantime, keep doinghard things and we will see you
in the next episode.
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