May 12, 2025 • 49 mins
What if the key to lasting fitness success isn’t found in the latest workout trend, but in understanding your identity? In this episode, Michael Kurkowski—strength coach with 15 years of experience and host of The Strength Connection podcast—shares powerful insights into the psychology behind sustainable progress. After a hip injury as a teenager led him down a path of rehabilitation and movement quality, Michael discovered the transformative power of proper assessment and mindset work. He explains how the pandemic revealed a widespread struggle with autonomy in training and how true change stems not just from tactics, but from a deep belief in one’s ability to grow. Through stories of elite athletes, the power of fundamentals, and his own evolution from structured training to earned autonomy, Michael offers practical wisdom for coaches and everyday fitness enthusiasts alike. This conversation dives deep into building confidence through mastery, creating habits that stick, and connecting physical strength to every other part of life.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode of the Primal Foundations podcast,
I'm joined with MichaelKrakowski, strength coach,
educator, host of the StrengthConnection podcast.
With over 15 years of strengthand conditioning and training,
michael has trained eliteathletes, everyday adults and
even kettlebell instructors.
Michael is on a mission to helpeverybody connect to strength
(00:21):
on a deeper level.
Michael, welcome to PrimalFoundation's podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you so much.
Tony Really appreciate beinghere.
I'm pumped.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, I'm excited.
I told you off air.
You know I love your podcast,your Instagram.
You put a lot of content outthere and for some of the people
that don't know you and haven'tconnected with you yet, you
know, can you share, kind of tostart us out of, like, how you
got into fitness and athleticsin the beginning and what
inspired you to pursue a path asa strength coach and an
(00:49):
entrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Sure, you know, I think, like like most people who
get into you know, personaltraining or fitness or so, had
an athletic background, playedbaseball and basketball growing
up.
My dad was a fantastic athleteand you know baseball was kind
of my first love, uh, that I gotinto.
But like a lot of coaches, Iwas a good athlete Um, not like
(01:12):
great, um, not mediocre, kind oflike in that middle zone.
So for me to really compete atthe highest level, I knew at an
early age that practice was soimportant.
I actually kind of enjoyedpractice more so than the games,
because I just inherently knewthat like that was where you
could tweak things and kind ofreally work on technique or form
(01:34):
.
So I always kind of had a lovefor the process of getting
better.
Things shifted a bit.
I've told this story a fewdifferent times but at 14 years
old a lot of things changed forme where I had a it's called a
slipped epithesis, whereessentially my femur slipped out
of my growth plate and I had tohave emergency surgery on that
(01:55):
day when I found out.
So before then it kind of thesymptoms kind of feels like a
bad groin pull.
I thought I just pulledsomething and so I was kind of
going through basketball seasonjust trying to stretch it out,
but it never got better.
So finally my parents broughtme to an orthopedic saying, you
know, maybe something's going on, and he saw it immediately and
I had to have surgery that daybecause the big risk of that is
(02:18):
for the femur to completely slipout.
And then there's a lot of youknow issues that could come up
from that.
But what was challenging aboutthat was that kept me off my
feet for over like a year and ahalf.
So I went from athletics, whichnot only was something I love
to do, but all my friend groupwas a part of sports as well.
(02:40):
So they all went on andcontinuously played sports while
I was sidelined for a bit, sokind of was a loner for um, you
know, a bit throughout my life.
But then in my early 20s I justhad this itch of seeing if I
could fulfill that lifelongdream of playing professional
baseball and wanted to.
You know I knew I had to get inreally good shape and that's
(03:01):
when I kind of fell in love withthe gym and getting into
fitness.
Kind of very, you know,grassroots, just beat the crap
out of your body.
Type training, you know, likewhen you're 20, you're made of
rubber and magic, so you canjust beat the crap out of your
body as much as possible.
So I did that for a bit.
Moved down to Florida.
That didn't pan out.
Moved back up to where I am inupstate New York, and during
(03:21):
that time I was just working ata restaurant.
But a friend of mine who workedthere was also a personal
trainer and I was kind of justlooking to get back into shape.
I had a trainer before when Ilived in Boston and so I met
with him and he introduced me tothe FMS system and functional
movement from Gray Cook and LeeBurton and he put me through a
(03:43):
functional movement screen.
So, going back to when I was 14years old, what I didn't
realize, as throughout thatwhole time I developed so many
asymmetries and compensations inmy movement.
So when he did a screen with me, I realized how out of balance
I was, and so he was kind ofshowing me the you know what was
going on in my body.
(04:04):
And then we started to do somecorrective exercises to get my
body back in balance.
And what I realized, Tony, is Ifelt amazing, like felt so
strong, so energized but didn'teven realize that I didn't feel
well before that until it wasactually corrected.
So that's when I really kind offell in love with understanding
what the body is capable of.
(04:25):
I knew there was a lot morethat was going on than just this
meat suit that we walk aroundwith.
So a little ways down the roadmy trainer, who ended up being
the manager of that club, justasked me like, hey, do you ever
think about getting intopersonal training?
I think you could be reallygood at it.
And I was like well, how doesit work?
What do you need to do?
And he told me about somecertifications to do.
(04:46):
And I was like, you know, mightas well give this a shot.
And got like a NASMcertification.
And immediately, as soon as Igot on, just fell in love with
it.
I always liked, I always knew Iwas going to work with people.
I like talking to people and,you know, seeing how I could
help them.
So it just was, I kind of justfound my niche at that time.
And then, you know, just a yearor so down the road was very
(05:10):
fortuitous is Brett Jones cameto my gym and did an FMS
workshop where he was a masterRKC at the time with Pavel
Tatsulin, with hard stylekettlebell training, and I had a
fascination for you knowkettlebell, the you know the
kettlebell training, and I had afascination for the kettlebell.
The kettlebell world waschewing his ear off over that
weekend and decided to go intothe original RKC with Pavel in
(05:32):
April of 2010.
So 15 years ago, and since thattime, that school of strength
and that methodology has beensomething that I've been working
on aiming to master throughoutthat time.
So went from there, managed athroughout that time.
So went from there, managed aclub for 10 years.
Then me and my former partnerhad a small kettlebell studio in
my area.
Then a lot of things changedaround COVID when we were locked
(05:53):
down at that time and wecouldn't be in person with
people, and that's when I reallystarted to look at the
psychology of success and reallywhere the mindset and mental
performance side needed to be apart of the physical side of
training and planning.
And so about three and a halfyears ago is when I opened up my
own business calledBreakthrough Secrets, where I
(06:15):
work with individuals who are Icall it like the advanced
beginner stage, where they'veseen some success, They've maybe
got through like the beginningstages of making positive
changes in their life, but nowthey're at that kind of tough
spot where the early things thatthey are doing aren't working
as well anymore and they'retrying to find, like, what's
that next progression to go into.
(06:35):
So that's really thedemographic and the people that
I really aim to work on with now.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's amazing time and I got over it and they end
up kind of going into thatprofession as well.
And same thing with people thatfall into this.
You know strength trainingworld of wanting to get better,
wanting to get stronger, wantingto build a really good
foundation.
Maybe if it's a performancething, maybe it's just a
lifestyle thing, but what a whata journey.
I mean that's crazy from from.
(07:21):
You know an injury in sports.
Now you're an entrepreneur, yougot your own business.
And one thing that you saidthat I want to talk about too is
with those clients that havesome success there.
They want to get in shape orwhatever it's performance, but
they have trouble sticking totheir goals.
Can you kind of talk aboutpeople that you know might be
self-sabotaging themselves whenit comes to goals?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
that you know might be self-sabotaging themselves
when it comes to goals.
Yeah, a lot of avenues that wecan go down in that route right
there.
So where it started for me,where I was looking at it
differently, was during thattime of COVID.
I'll just kind of paint thepicture of where I was at at
that time is you know me and myteam.
We had a small studio, but wewere super successful.
We were bursting out of theseams.
(08:04):
We had like 150 members in athousand square foot space and
we're actually expanding.
At that time there was a spacenext door to us that we were
knocking down the wall on and wewere expanding out.
We signed that agreement to dothat a week before the COVID
lockdown happened, in March of2020.
So not exactly the best time tobe expanding and building out
(08:25):
of space at that time, but I wasat such like an optimistic
viewpoint at that time becausethings were going so well.
I was like, all right, like wewere very forward thinking.
We took our entire system oftraining.
We went in like the weekendbefore and recorded all of our
classes that we were doing andput them right online.
So as soon as we were lockeddown, we immediately popped this
(08:47):
thing up and people could keep,you know, going forward with
their programming.
For a short period of timepeople were doing very well, but
then we started to slowly seepeople like not getting into the
workouts.
We were doing live streams.
They weren't showing up, kindof like their spirits were down
and I was kind of in that momentof like, well, we still are
offering everything.
It's not in person, but youknow it's still available.
(09:08):
Why are so many people nowfalling off?
And as we were calling peopleup during this time, how's your
spirits Just trying to keepconnected with everybody?
There was an answer that I gotpretty regularly.
That kind of shocked me, wherepeople said I don't feel like I
know what I'm doing if you'renot there, and I was like all
right, that's kind of curious,that's interesting.
And I started to explore that alittle bit more and what I
(09:30):
realized is, as coaches, I think, and even as clients, we get in
this habit early on of liketelling you exactly what to do
when you're following our planand our you know our system, but
as soon as you remove the coachout of the equation and now
you're following our plan andour system, but as soon as you
remove the coach out of theequation and now you're there to
fend for yourself, you feellike you have no idea what to do
because you've been followingorders really well.
(09:52):
So we're very good soldiers,but actually being autonomous
with our health, that was reallygetting lost.
So as much as we were trying tohelp people, I think we were
subconsciously enabling peopleat the same time.
And then I was havingconversations with some of my
other friends who were in thebusiness and they were having
the same things that was goingon with their clients.
(10:13):
So that's when I started to lookat the psychology of success,
like what makes some peoplesucceed in the long term versus
so many people are in this yo-yocycle of succeeding for three
to six months and then fallingoff for a year and then going
back, and it's this endless loopof success versus failure and
what I think what it comes is.
Number one is its identity.
(10:34):
You know, if you don't believethat you're capable of change,
that inner voice is verypowerful.
It is going to self-sabotageyou back into what you believe
you deserve.
So if you look at it withweight loss, like if you don't
believe that you're that healthyperson and that capable person.
Eventually you're going to getto a sense where you're going to
(10:55):
start self-sabotaging yourselfand that's why so many people go
back to the weight that theywere at before.
It's not a change in tactics orstrategies, it's more of who do
you believe that you really areunderneath the surface.
So that's why I think there'stime for structure, like
following, like a set plan.
But then there's also an avenuewhere you need to start being a
(11:18):
little bit more open with it.
I like the intuitive trainingtype style and I think that is
the phase that we don't oftenget to and we don't market a lot
in fitness because it's verysexy to talk about.
You know, from the ground, youknow getting to the first steps.
That's a very easy sell for alot of people.
But what happens after theinitial honeymoon period?
You know, comes in and lifestarts to get in the way, life
(11:40):
starts playing defense at you.
That's when you really try andsee where consistency lies,
where your resolve is and whereyour resilience is.
So that's where it's, in thatkind of middle zone of the
journey, where I think so manypeople start to fall off because
the feeling, the nuance of itfrom the beginning steps starts
to fade away and then you eitherchase, you start to program hop
(12:04):
and try and chase that high ofthe new program over and over
again, versus just staying thecourse and just sometimes
aggressively maintaining whereyou're at or just making those
incremental steps going forward.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That's so interesting Because when you, when you,
when you talk about theintuitive training, when you
talk to a trainer right, andmore more than likely a trainer
is not on a program yeah, you'relike what, what's your uh
splits, what's this, what's that?
I don't know.
I just go to the gym and I liftheavy or I lift till I feel
(12:38):
good, or I'll do.
You know, I'm going to do somedeadlifts here, whatever, but
there's literally no likeprescription for the day Most of
the time because you're goingto do some deadlifts here,
whatever, but there's literallyno like prescription for the day
Most of the time because you'regoing to get in where you fit
in.
I got 30 minutes.
What can I get done in 30 kindof deal?
Can you talk about in, likewhat it means to train
intuitively?
And I also look at this as aneating as well.
(12:58):
You know there's people thattrack everything and then, when
they don't have the numbersright, they have to kind of,
like you said, fend for yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, I love you brought this up.
It's one of my favorite topicsto talk about because I made
every mistake in the book withtrying to teach people intuitive
training from the jump.
So you know intuition.
I think it's a.
It's a very fun buzzword to sayaround like trust your
intuition, know thyself right.
Know thyself is a skill, justlike everything.
(13:29):
Intuition is a skill that youneed to build up.
So in order to get there, it'snot the first phase that you
need to go down to.
So if you take a lot oftrainers, if you've been
training for years, you've builtthat those early stages of
consistency and of pattern.
It's now just a part of yourlifestyle.
You identify with a healthyperson or somebody who trains on
(13:51):
a regular basis.
Yeah, an intuitive approachmight be very good for you, but
if somebody's first learning andjust getting into the stages,
that's where structure reallyneeds to come into play.
And I made this mistake is whenI first began my business that I
do now.
I was in a zone myself of veryintuitive training.
(14:12):
I was doing, you know, workingwith Brett Jones with an iron
cardio based protocol.
You know we were doing that fora while where, at the
beginnings of a brand newbusiness.
You've got a lot on your plateand a lot on your mind to get
things off the ground.
And I was like I don't have thebandwidth right now or really
the even like the motivation ordesire to follow like a strict,
you know, progressive overloadtype program.
(14:34):
So that's when I went into like, all right, what do I feel like
doing today?
All right, I'm going to playaround with some different
movements.
And I was still making progress.
I was like, oh my God, I feellike I, you know, found this
golden treasure.
You know, at the end of arainbow here I'm like I'm going
to teach this to everybody.
Then I started really promotinga lot of like this intuitive
training.
(14:55):
The challenge was is, when I wasgetting in with people who were
at those early stages andgetting into an intuitive
approach, they were sooverwhelmed and so freaked out
about that because they don'thave that intuitive muscle
that's built up yet.
So that's why I think having atthe first phase of getting into
something and a phase I thinkis six months to a year of
(15:18):
consistency, yeah, that's a goodtime where you should be
following a pretty set program.
You know, it doesn't need to belike stripped down, like
exactly five days a week orwhatever.
There could be some wiggle roomin there, but you need to kind
of just get your reps in andjust follow that.
And if you ever read the bookMastery by Robert Greene, if you
haven't, it's a phenomenal book.
(15:38):
He goes into the three phases ofmastery.
The first phase he callsapprenticeship, which is shut
your mouth and get your workdone, where it's like follow
your master from there.
He uses examples like Mozartand stuff like that.
You first need to just build upyour reps of just knowing this
inside and out.
But then you get to the secondphase, which is the creative,
(16:00):
active phase, and this is whereyou take all of the knowledge
that you've built up and and nowyou start to you know, make it
your own, you start to playaround with different things.
So it's like learn the rules soyou can break them down the
road.
That's, I think, where, like,intuition comes into With
nutrition.
I think it's.
It's a great concept, butpersonally I think it's a very
(16:25):
small percentage of people thatdo really well with an intuitive
eating type structure, at leastat the beginning steps.
You need to learn thefoundational principles and the
knowledge and the wisdom downfirst and then you can kind of
talk about intuition.
So I think it's a great thingto do and it's a great skill to
(16:45):
work with.
And if you are kind of lookingat this on a 1% better every day
and really build like a masterytype process of getting a
little bit better each day,intuition is going to come into
play.
But be very wary about jumpinginto it early on.
Before you build that muscle ofpatience and consistency down
first.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, and you get.
It kind of depends on theperson too, whether they're
proficient in the gym or not, orknow their macros, or you know,
or have the MyFitnessPal andthey've kind of mastered that a
little bit.
But there's just sometimespeople that also I get in the
gym all the time.
I'm like, hey, you know, we'redoing some warmup rounds, some
(17:24):
mobility, like two to threerounds, you know 10 minutes, if
you can kind of just kind ofloose.
Well, is it two or is it three?
I'm like two, two to three.
They're like I need to know,because I need to manage the
client, I need to know you haveto tell me.
And I'm like, okay, make itthree.
Like, well, you go three andyou get just tell me what to do,
(17:45):
I don't want to make a decisiontoday, I will do that.
And I was like, okay, fine,that's all good.
And then some people like theautonomy.
They can move at their own pace, they don't want to be bound
down by a clock.
And I find sometimes thosethings work.
I usually try to give rangesfor people, but sometimes
they're like is it two, is itfive?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Well, you need to wave in between both of those.
Right.
It's like, I mean, there'stimes where it's you know, we
call it uh.
I use an analogy of the highway, um, where it's like there's
the left lane, the right lane inthe middle lane.
So if you think of a highway ina plan, your middle lane is
like your set plan.
This is what I have set for theday or for the week.
(18:28):
The left lane, that's the speedlane.
That's where you're going alittle bit faster.
Maybe you've got more energy ormaybe you've got more open time
for this week.
So we're going to try and makea little bit more progress.
That might be increasing yourvolume this week or putting a
little bit more you knowattention into the mental
performance work that you'redoing.
But then there's the right laneno-transcript.
(19:31):
We're trying to really pushyour progress right now because
we've got an open window.
But then there's other times ofthe year where we're going to
ease off the gas pedal.
We're going to go into theright lane and maybe we're
spotlighting one or two things,but not everything all at once.
But you're still makingprogress, going forward.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I love that.
I love that Making progress.
Even if it's a little slower,you're still.
You're still moving, which iswhich is what we want.
You know it doesn't have to be,you know, going 95 every day.
You know you're going to burnout, you're going to burn out
100%, exactly.
You kind of talked aboutbuilding like the importance of
like foundations.
When, like the importance oflike foundations when it comes
to strength training, you knowwe get you get some of these
(20:11):
misconceptions about.
You know chasing performanceand chasing aesthetics, right,
can you kind of talk about youknow the importance of building
a foundation and the proper waysto kind of transition into if
aesthetic is what you're lookingfor or performance is what
you're looking?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
for you know, I think you know the Dan John like.
You know, big five protocol, Ithink, is always a great way to
start.
You know, if you're getting apush, pull, hinge, squat and a
loaded carrier, a core, youcan't go wrong with that.
You know, if that's as far aslike a foundation of getting
those things down, um, the, theolder I've gotten now you know
(20:49):
I'm 41 now, so I'm not old, butI'm getting seasoned in that
time.
Mobility plays a huge role inthe work that you do.
A full range of motion.
I have such a deeperappreciation now in this stage
of my life of lighter weight orsubmaximal load with full range
of motion than I did justpushing the volume or pushing
(21:10):
the intensity of getting inthere.
You know, with foundation things, I always like to just look at
it from the client's perspectiveor the person that we're
working with's perspective,right?
The last thing that we want todo with anybody is make them
feel overwhelmed.
Most people who are trying toapproach them, specifically if
they're working with a coach,they already probably feel a
(21:31):
little uncomfortable.
They're not really comfortablein their own skin or maybe it's
the first time even asking forhelp.
Giving them a million differentthings to remember is gonna be
way overwhelming.
Okay, focusing on mastering ahandful of things at one time
and get them feel reallycompetent in one or two things,
(21:52):
that starts to build confidenceand it starts to build
self-trust.
You know there was a guy I hadon my podcast his name's Joel
Cochran that he dropped thisline that I've never forgot,
where he asked me he's likewhat's the number one role as a
coach that we need to do first?
And I was like, oh shit, likeyou know what's the answer.
He's like our role is toinstill confidence.
He's like if somebody isconfident, they can move
(22:14):
mountains.
He's like so the best thingthat you can do is help somebody
build confidence, celebrate thesmall wins that they have over
and over again.
So from a performance side fromthere I think I mean total body
movements I'm a personal one Ithink you know the kettlebell
swing or the kettlebell snatchis just go-tos that you can get
in there If you can work onoverhead mobility and getting
(22:36):
into pressing.
So vertical based strength workis always going to be there of
getting in.
You know, getting a squatpattern in there like goblet
squat or a heavy front squat, ofjust adding that in there.
So kind of to.
I think if anybody's reallylooking to get that foundation
down, I can't stress enoughBrett Jones's work that he's
done with iron iron cardioprotocol of single rep complexes
(22:59):
.
Um, from the structurestandpoint, as well as the
intuitive standpoint, as well asjust the movements that you're
doing of focusing on one singlerep at a time, that is just a
foolproof.
I think, regardless of whetheryou're a beginner or if you're
really advanced, that is aperfect protocol to go into.
In fact, from that, I wrote ane-book called the One Day
(23:22):
Strength Challenge, which is howto just incorporate a single
rep complex one day a week intoany program that you're doing,
whether it's a strength doing,whether it's a strength focus,
whether it's conditioning focus.
This is how to incorporate thatin.
So, as far as a foundation, Ithink those are the things that
I would really focus on firstwith the general population of
anybody that I'd be working with.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You don't want to build a house on a shaky
foundation.
You know it.
Just a lot of people aregetting into I got to do this
muscular failure stuff because Iwant to build a house on a
shaky foundation.
You know it, just a lot ofpeople are getting into I got to
do this muscular failure stuffbecause I want to be shredded
and I want to look great andthey're doing crazy, different,
weird stuff that I've never seenwith a cable machine before and
it's just like can can youlunge, Can you rotate, Can you
(24:04):
squat Right, and they can'treally do those movements
proficiently and they're worriedabout you know, more of like
this aesthetic feel.
That's what I see a lot, andmaybe there's two ways to think
about Instagram and social media.
Like for as many things as youcan find that are amazing,
you're going to find equallyamount of just like bad
(24:25):
information, and I get you knowI work with a lot of youth
athletes as well and they'llcome in and they'll be trying to
hook up bands to the squat,like to the barbell for squat.
I'm like Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.
Like what do you?
What are you doing?
I go go front squat that um, uh, you know that 24 kilo real
quick.
Let me see that and it's reallybad.
I'm like okay one, you're notback squatting yet and you're
(24:56):
not adding bands and chains.
You know what I'm saying, Ithink, and there's, there's
something especially and I wantto get to some strong first
stuff too.
But there's something reallyimportant and just amazing about
getting brilliant at the basicsand I think people overlook
that a lot.
If you know, you, you start offwith those basics and it's
those.
Um, you know a push, a pull.
You start off with those basicsand it's those.
Um, you know a push, a pull, ahand just squat all those things
and people start starting torun with that, which is great.
But I can't stress enough Likeyou need to really take some
(25:18):
time into that because you canalways make those basics even
better.
Like a basketball team right,the first thing, when they get
on the court of game, they dodribbling drills, know how to.
They know how to dribble.
They do dribbling drills, they,you know they go into layup
lines, right, they, they are anba player, you know they know
how to make a layup, but theyjust over and over and over
again until it's it's absolutelyperfect.
(25:39):
But, um, I think we can'tstress the, the basics.
Uh, yeah, enough do you ever?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
do you ever hear that story of when that youth hockey
kid met Sidney Crosby on histown rink?
This was one of my favoritestories ever.
This young kid from Canada wasin an outdoor rink or something
like that and just playingaround just doing some drills
and some guy came up like hey,do you mind if I work in?
He looks over and it's SidneyCrosby who is from this area.
(26:06):
And if anybody doesn't know,sidney Crosby is one of the
greatest NHL hockey players ofall time.
And the kid's like yeah, sure,or whatever.
And he's like just sits kind ofto the sideline and he goes and
see Sidney Crosby start likejust you know, working on his
stuff, and he said Crosby wasdoing the most remedial like
edge drills on his skates, likejust side to side, and he was
(26:29):
doing it for like 90 minutes ofjust getting on his edges, just
back and forth things that youlearn when you're six years old,
of just learning how to skate.
Crosby was doing this and hesaid the look in his eyes was
this such focus of just gettingin.
This is a guy that's mastered.
You know the basics and reallyunderstands that, but at the
(26:56):
same time too, like you know,variety for the sake of variety
is a very slippery slope to getdown.
But at the same time too, likemaking something fun is a huge
part of what we need to do too.
Like throwing in a little justlike variety piece that's going
in there is always a good ideaIf somebody is having fun, like
that's when we learn.
You know, brett Jones has agreat quote If you're not
laughing, you're not learning,like.
So he always tries to crackjokes and make it very
(27:17):
lighthearted in that same time.
But then with that, whensomebody is kind of open with
that, I like to say like, looklike I want, I know you want all
to get to all these goals andstuff for the next four weeks.
First, as we just get started,just trust me, we're just going
to get these basics really downand then all these other things
are going to open up for us.
But just have some faith andjust lean in and just, you know,
(27:38):
trust me and we're just goingto focus on these things.
Can you do that?
And everybody's like yeah, sure, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
But you can get that down, yeah, so you know you.
You know, you know, give themwhat they want, but also give
them what they need at the sametime.
I love that.
There's a coach that I crossedpaths with.
He's from Indiana, kevinVanderbush, and he goes we do
like he's.
He's a really good high schoolstrength coach.
He's got national championshipsyou know, multiple state titles
.
She's got nationalchampionships.
You know, uh, uh, multiplestate titles.
He's like yeah, we do bicepcurls, like every other day
bicep curls.
(28:14):
And they're like talking to himabout it, and he's just like
they're like is that like afunctional thing?
Is that he goes listen untillike, when somebody scores a
touchdown and they flex theirhamstring instead of their,
their biceps, we'll, we'll do itwith hamstring curls every
other day, but for right now,the kids just want to see their
arms pop it out of their shirtand they get jacked about it and
(28:35):
they're excited to see theveins.
He goes that's what we programto every like two days, okay,
curls, curls, till you can't dothem anymore.
And he's he's just like yeah,it's, there's no function for
that.
It's just like intimidation andthe kids love it.
I love it, amen.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
He's tapped into something and I think that's you
know, a big thing, tony.
That I see as well is it's soeasy for coaches to just take
this stuff so seriously, likeeverything has to be so just
broken down and just dissectedinto everything.
Yeah, you should know whyyou're programming specific
programming, but at the sametime, if you're working with
(29:12):
kids, you're working withgeneral population and even
working with professionalathletes or whatever it is.
They want to enjoy the process.
Make sure that they're havingfun.
Mike Boyle had a great speech inhis seminar of like 25 years,
25 mistakes, and the first slidethat he has is don't be an
asshole.
He's like if you're a, ifyou're a dick, like nobody wants
(29:33):
to spend an hour with you.
It's like the first thing to dois make it an enjoyable process
and not take it so seriously.
Like getting in shape should bea really fun thing, getting
stronger, like preparing for agame, that should be really fun.
Like let's not make this.
Like you have to be this, likestern face, like stoic, you know
, focus down there, cause thatworked for 5% of the people in
(29:55):
there, 95% of people.
They want to feel comfortable,they want to enjoy the process
and if they do that you canteach them anything you know.
You can teach them principlesand mastery and all these
buzzwords that we use all thetime.
But make it fun.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, I love that.
You're strong.
You're strong first and Idefinitely you know.
I just got back from the domewith the SFL.
I helped assist.
It was a first time assisting.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I got to assist Fabio with the bar certification One
of my favorite people in theworld.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
He's the man.
We had, mark Valenti as well,and they're amongst other
assistants and just the wholecrew was out there and it's just
a great time and it's Chicago'sthe one of the only places that
it has all the certs and youget all those master instructors
in there.
So it was fantastic.
But being a part of StrongFirst and doing that
certification, you kind oftouched on a few pieces of it.
(30:50):
But how does that systeminfluence your approach to
teaching and programming and theway that you view strength?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
April of this year, 15 years since I went to my
first event of RKC in 2010.
So I found this worldrelatively early, where Pavel
was still teaching atcertification.
So I feel really fortunate thatI got to learn directly from
him in a couple different eventsfrom there.
(31:22):
What I saw from the School ofStrength which is strong for us
now but was like the originalRKC with Pavel is coming from a
baseball background.
Baseball was such aninteresting sport for me because
the details matter so much.
Like just changing the angle ofyour elbow or shifting your
weight, like all those littleintricacies could be the
(31:44):
difference between a pop fly anda home run.
So I was always kind offascinated by the form and the
technique and like alwaysgetting better at that and then
repeating that.
And I saw that in, like inkettlebell training, just like
learning things like the swingyou know in the Turkish, get in
the Turkish, get up and thesnatch and you know, when I
(32:04):
first got into it it was kind ofmore of like a challenge.
I just like something.
Something feels like it'scalling, you know me to to learn
this more.
And that first certification Iremember was very life-changing
for me.
Like you know, not just the,not just going through the event
and the, the challenge of it,of having to get through it and
really test your, your grit andyour will and your resilience,
(32:27):
but the coaches that I met there, who wore the instructor shirts
and stuff, the way that theycarried themselves, the way that
they spoke, the way that theyarticulated strength, not just
in a technical piece, but justhow you felt like this whole
teaching embodied them as partof who they were and it was
(32:51):
authentic across the board.
And I was like this feels verydifferent than other programs,
other workshops and things thatI've been a part of before.
There's something that is verydeep within and that was really
the system of strength is askill like strength is a skill
just like anything, and skillsare meant to be built like,
(33:12):
they're meant to be mastered.
And when you master something,you realize that there's never a
full end.
You know result, you'll always,you can always get better at it
and I, just from that, I wantedto find something that I could
focus on few things but do themvery well.
And you know, you know like,going from SFG one like, you
(33:33):
learn six movements in SFG one,right, it's not a lot, but the
depth and detail of how to breakit down, how to teach it, how
to coach it, how to look for youknow different um, you know
asymmetries or compensations andhow to fix that on the fly.
Different, you know asymmetriesor compensations and how to fix
that on the fly.
(33:53):
That was just something thatreally hit me.
And then I went to, you know,sfb, you know with Karen Smith,
and then I went to SFL.
I did that with Fabio and thenbecame an elite instructor and
I've assisted a few differenttimes and that same you know
just mindset that I had fromthat beginning stage has only
gotten stronger every event thatI've gone into.
So you know, the word authenticgets thrown around a lot with a
lot of different people.
(34:14):
But what I've just learned fromStrong First and the people
that have really taught thereand are in leadership there,
like they really walk the walk,you know, not just talk the talk
, and I just, you know, thinkthat I wish that was something
that I saw in every program thatI've gone into, but
unfortunately that's just notthe case.
(34:34):
So that was really like themain thing is everything that
I've gone through.
From there I was like I trustthese people because they
believe in what they're saying.
They're not trying to make mebelieve in what they're saying.
They believe in what they'resaying and that's a very
powerful message.
Cbt.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Be a quiet professional right, like you
some of these people are.
I mean, I've seen some, someinstructors, we're doing the if
people don't know, the gradworkout, the graduation workout,
when you do SFG one, um, youknow everybody either pass your
snatch test or you don't, or youdidn't do a skill right.
Whatever, it doesn't matter.
Everybody's getting bells andyou do like what seems like an
(35:12):
endless workout.
But uh, I don't know how yourexperience was, but it's still
the armor building, like the,the two, one, three we were
doing I, if I remember it wasjust like yeah, uh, basically it
was just clean squat pressingfor a long long time.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And then it was swings, and then it was single
arm swings and then it was cleansquat pressing again, uh, but
then I just remember instructorsgrabbing like a 48K on the side
and they were doing it with us.
I was like Jesus, whoa, theseguys are amazing.
But it's this piece of be aquiet professional.
They don't have to tell you howmuch they lift, they just go
(35:48):
and they grab their bell andthey do it and they're the
kindest people they want to help.
But there's also this standardthat you don't get at other
certifications rkc, strong first, right, uh, where you go and
you you have to perform themovements and you have a
standard of quality of movements.
And I'm not telling peopledon't go to other certifications
(36:09):
that don't have this.
I think go see as manydifferent things as possible,
but I don't know of one whereit's like, hey, you actually
have to hit certain standards toget the certification, versus
just going and showing up to aworkshop and then you get your
certificate.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, and you know, to recertify you have to prove
that you've kept your movementsand kept your strength in there.
Like I think that's a hugething to do.
You don't just write in yourrenewal certification and pay a
little bit of money.
You got to prove that you stillare capable of doing these
movements.
But that's another point thatyou brought up there.
Like, some of the strongest menand women that I've ever met are
(36:46):
from this system and not youwouldn't think of them like if
you just saw them walking downthe street as like the strongest
people, but the amount ofdensity in their muscles, the
amount of skill that they builtup to be able to move, you know
crazy loads.
Like I met Michael Willey whenI assisted with him, who's down
in Florida.
He's a team leader and one ofthe lightest beast tamers ever,
(37:10):
and seeing him just playingaround with these heavy weights,
with just this grace ofmovement, I'm like what?
Like what is going on over here.
So, yeah, it's not just the,the mindset approach of it and
that it yields crazy results.
Like if you get strong, like ifyou get really strong.
It's, you know, it's like aglass.
Everything else fills up intothat.
(37:31):
Like afterwards, like it isamazing when you feel really
strong and I'm a light, I'm alighter guy.
You know I'm on the.
You know I'm on the South endof 150 pounds, you know so.
But to be able to maintain verystrong movements and keep them
over over years and keepprogressing, yeah, it's a
phenomenal system.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I want to segue to you and your podcast, and you
have the strength connectionpodcast.
You've had a bunch of different, probably kind of like the
who's, who's, the strengthcoaches on here.
It's a great.
It's a great listen.
Uh, you know, brett Jones, stanJohn, what's one conversation
that you had, or I guess thatyou had on that uh was, would
you say, like a life,life-changing one Oof.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Well, you know we're 285 episodes in right now, so
there's a lot that's flowingthrough my mind.
You know some of them that youknow podcasting is interesting.
I fell in love with it becauseme and my former partner during
COVID, just kind of out ofboredom and trying to figure out
things to do, we decided tostart a podcast ourselves.
(38:35):
It started as called StoriesBeyond the Bell and then that
shifted to the BreakthroughSecrets podcast, where we
started to invite people on and,you know, get deep down into
you know the work that they do.
And hearing everybody's storiesof you know people that you've
admired or you work with, whoare incredible masters and
coaches and have made greatimpacts, hearing their come up
(38:57):
and the journey that they had intheir welcome to the kettlebell
moment where they got smoked bya 12K bell or something like
that, or the mistakes that theymade, I just fell in love with
it.
So when I started my ownpodcast on my own business, I
was trying to figure out whatdid I really love to do, and
what I love to do was havingconversations with people.
So I started inviting people onand, you know, diving in and
(39:19):
getting the work in there I'dsay one that comes up to mind on
the on the strength set was um,I got to talk with Dennis
Vasilov, uh, a couple of times.
So Dennis is from the, thekettlebell sport world, so not
from hard style, but if youdon't know, I believe he's the
12-time consecutive worldchampion right now in sport and
(39:46):
the mindset and the trainingthat he does and just the
strength and the smarts that hehas around training is just such
next level From being in ahardstyle background and knowing
one kind of school of thoughtand philosophy.
I didn't know much about theJerovoi sport and the GS world
(40:06):
at all but after talking withguys like Dennis and then Bill
Lesh and Fionnn Bartul and stufflike the ones that have done
these high endurance based work,it is such a depth of practice
of endurance work and strengththat they need to do breath
control, mindset, like I mean.
(40:26):
You know, I kind of say instart we have to do a five
minute snatch test but you canswitch hands as much as you want
, right, it's a challenging testbut it's very manageable.
If you go into a sport world,you're doing a 10 minute snatch
test but you can switch hands asmuch as you want, right, it's a
challenging test but it's verymanageable.
If you go into a sport worldyou're doing a 10 minute snatch
test with one hand switch andyou can't ever put the bell down
.
Like the amount of yeah, theamount of grip, of grit, of
(40:47):
everything in there isphenomenal.
And to see a guy like Dennis,who I think did like 212 reps or
something like that, with a 32K bell with one hand switch, and
to see a guy like Dennis, who Ithink did like 212 reps or
something like that, with a 32 Kbell with one hand switch and
if you see him he's not thismonster of a guy coming out
there Don't quote me on theexact reps on that, but it's
something around there that likeopened my mind into like oh,
there's a whole nother world ofstrength in different schools of
(41:10):
thought than just oneparticular mode.
And that was like one of thosethat made me kind of probably
subconsciously start to look ata lot of different other masters
of coaches, not just in thephysical strength world but the
mindset world, theology,spirituality and stuff like that
, and you realize there's somecommon threads among all of them
(41:33):
.
But when somebody like is sucha master at one vocation, like
you can learn so much of thatand apply it into your own life.
Even if it's not likespecifically what you do, you
can take so many golden nuggetsfrom them in those conversations
.
So Dennis was one of those, himand Paul McElroy they came on
both together when they weredoing a charity thing.
That was a really special one.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, that's awesome, yeah, and it's great.
We think of these people aslike, oh my gosh, these are
giants in the industry and, uh,whatever you know, you DM them
and they're like yeah, I'll do aconvo.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Great, everybody wants to talk.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, yeah, they're like the nicest people.
It's great.
And for you, what's?
What's coming up next?
Is anything big coming up withthe podcast yourself, business,
what have you?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah, I mean, you know my business always runs as
it flows.
You know, as far as myclientele work and stuff like
that, you know, if I can, youknow I'm always looking for for
new clients, if I can fit themin or not.
But with the podcast, Iactually have two podcasts that
I run right now.
So the Strength Connection isthe one that is on just a
(42:40):
flowing stream.
We do once a week right nowepisodes with people and that's
just on a running loop.
Absolutely love it, it's ablast and I've got some things
that I'm trying to work with onthe production side of that
that's coming up.
The other one that I'm doing issomething that's kind of near
and dear to me, which is apodcast called Inspire Saratoga.
(43:02):
So I'm from Saratoga Springs inNew York and my roots are here
and I'm building spaces and workin my area and what I wanted to
do is also create another showspecifically to my local area
and the people that are doingcool things in here, and that's
something that you know ascoaches.
(43:23):
Specifically now, with onlinespace that's blowing up so much
but it's also so saturated,there's such a power of
connecting with your localpeople in your community, you
know, and I think some peoplehave lost that.
I felt like I lost that alittle bit and shifting a lot
from a lot of in-person into theonline space and I wanted to do
something specifically forpeople in my area, in my
(43:46):
community.
So we created this showspecifically highlighting people
who are just doing inspiringthings, who are doing positive
things in this area, because Ithink you know you can learn
things about your strength andyour health journey by hearing
from you know the executivedirector of Cafe Lena, who you
know runs an arts, you know anarts program because of the work
(44:08):
that she's had to do and buildresilience from.
You can adopt that into yourown, into your own life.
So that's why I called theoriginal podcast the Strength
Connection, because I think wesaw so much of like physical
strength is one thing, mentalstrength is another, spiritual
or emotional or relationships oranother.
No, everything's allinterconnected.
(44:29):
Like the more you havevictories in your physical
strength, you can weave thoseinto work you're doing with
mental strength or with faith oryour you know, your spiritual
connection or your emotions oryour career, like it's.
We're not just in a vacuum ofone thing versus another.
So that's why I wanted to tryand talk to anybody about
different things in strength,not just physical training and
(44:53):
sets and reps but what are someother areas of strength that
maybe you can grab some thingsin and that will help you?
Because if you're inspired andyou feel really good and you
feel connected with anotherperson that you're listening to,
that's only going to help youjust create some more abundance
in your own strength.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
That's great.
I think I love the whole, yourwhole outlook, right?
You even said like we're nottalking about sets and reps here
.
We're talking about life andups and downs and mental
fortitude and having a positivemindset and an abundance mindset
versus a scarcity mindset andthings like that, and I think
that these things are very muchoverlooked.
(45:29):
People get bogged down with allthis stuff about in their life,
social things, their jobs,whatever but I think people
taking a step back and showinggratitude and putting time in
the gym, putting time into theirlife, putting time into their
families, just will makeeverybody even more happier.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah, and I think it's important to like recognize
those things when you're goinginto it too right.
It's like if you want to gethealthier and get fit and you
ask that big question of why,well, it's like if you're
connecting that with yourmindset and your things that you
value maybe it's your spiritualconnection, maybe it's your
work, maybe it's your family andyou recognize that by getting
(46:11):
stronger and healthier impactsthose things.
It's not just a selfish venturefor external gain or looking a
certain way or buildingaesthetics.
If it's actually helping you inthe things that you value the
most, it's going to be a loteasier to get up on that day
when you don't feel like it,because it's a bigger thing than
just you.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I don't know how to end it better than that.
That's a good thing than justyou.
I don't know how to end itbetter than that.
That's good, Michael.
Where could people find youconnect with you?
And I know you said the otherpodcast.
Well, make sure you mentionedthat one again.
So we have it.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Sure so that one's called inspire Saratoga.
And then my other podcast isthe strength connection, which
you can get on all platforms.
You can go to our YouTubechannel, which is called the
strength connection, and, uh,yeah, just grab me on Facebook
or Instagram.
Uh, Instagram is Michaelunderscore, strength connection,
and then Facebook is just, uh,my name, uh, Michael Krakowski.
(47:08):
And then I have a privateFacebook group where I do a lot
of lives and really connectindividually with people, which
is called the StrengthConnection.
And one thing you know I'll dotoo for any listeners that are
out there I can send it over toyou and put it in the show notes
is I have a free ebook that Ican send over to you, which is
called the One Day StrengthChallenge.
This is all the stuff we'vebeen talking about of intuitive
(47:30):
training and kind of, you know,single rep complexes and stuff
like that.
This is just a free resourcethat you can use to start
adopting this a little bit intowhatever you're doing, and it
might be a good resource for you.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Amazing.
Well, we appreciate that.
Definitely put that in the shownotes.
And again, thanks for coming ontonight and sharing all your
wisdom.
We appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Thank you so much, man.
I've been following your stuffand you're doing a great job, so
I really appreciate your work.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Thanks, sir, and thank you everybody listening to
another episode of the PrimalFoundations podcast.
On today's episode of the Primal Foundations podcast,
I'm joined with MichaelKrakowski, strength coach,
educator, host of the StrengthConnection podcast.
With over 15 years of strengthand conditioning and training,
michael has trained eliteathletes, everyday adults and
even kettlebell instructors.
Michael is on a mission to helpeverybody connect to strength
(00:21):
on a deeper level.
Michael, welcome to PrimalFoundation's podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thank you so much.
Tony Really appreciate beinghere.
I'm pumped.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Yeah, I'm excited.
I told you off air.
You know I love your podcast,your Instagram.
You put a lot of content outthere and for some of the people
that don't know you and haven'tconnected with you yet, you
know, can you share, kind of tostart us out of, like, how you
got into fitness and athleticsin the beginning and what
inspired you to pursue a path asa strength coach and an
(00:49):
entrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Sure, you know, I think, like like most people who
get into you know, personaltraining or fitness or so, had
an athletic background, playedbaseball and basketball growing
up.
My dad was a fantastic athleteand you know baseball was kind
of my first love, uh, that I gotinto.
But like a lot of coaches, Iwas a good athlete Um, not like
(01:12):
great, um, not mediocre, kind oflike in that middle zone.
So for me to really compete atthe highest level, I knew at an
early age that practice was soimportant.
I actually kind of enjoyedpractice more so than the games,
because I just inherently knewthat like that was where you
could tweak things and kind ofreally work on technique or form
(01:34):
.
So I always kind of had a lovefor the process of getting
better.
Things shifted a bit.
I've told this story a fewdifferent times but at 14 years
old a lot of things changed forme where I had a it's called a
slipped epithesis, whereessentially my femur slipped out
of my growth plate and I had tohave emergency surgery on that
(01:55):
day when I found out.
So before then it kind of thesymptoms kind of feels like a
bad groin pull.
I thought I just pulledsomething and so I was kind of
going through basketball seasonjust trying to stretch it out,
but it never got better.
So finally my parents broughtme to an orthopedic saying, you
know, maybe something's going on, and he saw it immediately and
I had to have surgery that daybecause the big risk of that is
(02:18):
for the femur to completely slipout.
And then there's a lot of youknow issues that could come up
from that.
But what was challenging aboutthat was that kept me off my
feet for over like a year and ahalf.
So I went from athletics, whichnot only was something I love
to do, but all my friend groupwas a part of sports as well.
(02:40):
So they all went on andcontinuously played sports while
I was sidelined for a bit, sokind of was a loner for um, you
know, a bit throughout my life.
But then in my early 20s I justhad this itch of seeing if I
could fulfill that lifelongdream of playing professional
baseball and wanted to.
You know I knew I had to get inreally good shape and that's
(03:01):
when I kind of fell in love withthe gym and getting into
fitness.
Kind of very, you know,grassroots, just beat the crap
out of your body.
Type training, you know, likewhen you're 20, you're made of
rubber and magic, so you canjust beat the crap out of your
body as much as possible.
So I did that for a bit.
Moved down to Florida.
That didn't pan out.
Moved back up to where I am inupstate New York, and during
(03:21):
that time I was just working ata restaurant.
But a friend of mine who workedthere was also a personal
trainer and I was kind of justlooking to get back into shape.
I had a trainer before when Ilived in Boston and so I met
with him and he introduced me tothe FMS system and functional
movement from Gray Cook and LeeBurton and he put me through a
(03:43):
functional movement screen.
So, going back to when I was 14years old, what I didn't
realize, as throughout thatwhole time I developed so many
asymmetries and compensations inmy movement.
So when he did a screen with me, I realized how out of balance
I was, and so he was kind ofshowing me the you know what was
going on in my body.
(04:04):
And then we started to do somecorrective exercises to get my
body back in balance.
And what I realized, Tony, is Ifelt amazing, like felt so
strong, so energized but didn'teven realize that I didn't feel
well before that until it wasactually corrected.
So that's when I really kind offell in love with understanding
what the body is capable of.
(04:25):
I knew there was a lot morethat was going on than just this
meat suit that we walk aroundwith.
So a little ways down the roadmy trainer, who ended up being
the manager of that club, justasked me like, hey, do you ever
think about getting intopersonal training?
I think you could be reallygood at it.
And I was like well, how doesit work?
What do you need to do?
And he told me about somecertifications to do.
(04:46):
And I was like, you know, mightas well give this a shot.
And got like a NASMcertification.
And immediately, as soon as Igot on, just fell in love with
it.
I always liked, I always knew Iwas going to work with people.
I like talking to people and,you know, seeing how I could
help them.
So it just was, I kind of justfound my niche at that time.
And then, you know, just a yearor so down the road was very
(05:10):
fortuitous is Brett Jones cameto my gym and did an FMS
workshop where he was a masterRKC at the time with Pavel
Tatsulin, with hard stylekettlebell training, and I had a
fascination for you knowkettlebell, the you know the
kettlebell training, and I had afascination for the kettlebell.
The kettlebell world waschewing his ear off over that
weekend and decided to go intothe original RKC with Pavel in
(05:32):
April of 2010.
So 15 years ago, and since thattime, that school of strength
and that methodology has beensomething that I've been working
on aiming to master throughoutthat time.
So went from there, managed athroughout that time.
So went from there, managed aclub for 10 years.
Then me and my former partnerhad a small kettlebell studio in
my area.
Then a lot of things changedaround COVID when we were locked
(05:53):
down at that time and wecouldn't be in person with
people, and that's when I reallystarted to look at the
psychology of success and reallywhere the mindset and mental
performance side needed to be apart of the physical side of
training and planning.
And so about three and a halfyears ago is when I opened up my
own business calledBreakthrough Secrets, where I
(06:15):
work with individuals who are Icall it like the advanced
beginner stage, where they'veseen some success, They've maybe
got through like the beginningstages of making positive
changes in their life, but nowthey're at that kind of tough
spot where the early things thatthey are doing aren't working
as well anymore and they'retrying to find, like, what's
that next progression to go into.
(06:35):
So that's really thedemographic and the people that
I really aim to work on with now.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
That's amazing time and I got over it and they end
up kind of going into thatprofession as well.
And same thing with people thatfall into this.
You know strength trainingworld of wanting to get better,
wanting to get stronger, wantingto build a really good
foundation.
Maybe if it's a performancething, maybe it's just a
lifestyle thing, but what a whata journey.
I mean that's crazy from from.
(07:21):
You know an injury in sports.
Now you're an entrepreneur, yougot your own business.
And one thing that you saidthat I want to talk about too is
with those clients that havesome success there.
They want to get in shape orwhatever it's performance, but
they have trouble sticking totheir goals.
Can you kind of talk aboutpeople that you know might be
self-sabotaging themselves whenit comes to goals?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
that you know might be self-sabotaging themselves
when it comes to goals.
Yeah, a lot of avenues that wecan go down in that route right
there.
So where it started for me,where I was looking at it
differently, was during thattime of COVID.
I'll just kind of paint thepicture of where I was at at
that time is you know me and myteam.
We had a small studio, but wewere super successful.
We were bursting out of theseams.
(08:04):
We had like 150 members in athousand square foot space and
we're actually expanding.
At that time there was a spacenext door to us that we were
knocking down the wall on and wewere expanding out.
We signed that agreement to dothat a week before the COVID
lockdown happened, in March of2020.
So not exactly the best time tobe expanding and building out
(08:25):
of space at that time, but I wasat such like an optimistic
viewpoint at that time becausethings were going so well.
I was like, all right, like wewere very forward thinking.
We took our entire system oftraining.
We went in like the weekendbefore and recorded all of our
classes that we were doing andput them right online.
So as soon as we were lockeddown, we immediately popped this
(08:47):
thing up and people could keep,you know, going forward with
their programming.
For a short period of timepeople were doing very well, but
then we started to slowly seepeople like not getting into the
workouts.
We were doing live streams.
They weren't showing up, kindof like their spirits were down
and I was kind of in that momentof like, well, we still are
offering everything.
It's not in person, but youknow it's still available.
(09:08):
Why are so many people nowfalling off?
And as we were calling peopleup during this time, how's your
spirits Just trying to keepconnected with everybody?
There was an answer that I gotpretty regularly.
That kind of shocked me, wherepeople said I don't feel like I
know what I'm doing if you'renot there, and I was like all
right, that's kind of curious,that's interesting.
And I started to explore that alittle bit more and what I
(09:30):
realized is, as coaches, I think, and even as clients, we get in
this habit early on of liketelling you exactly what to do
when you're following our planand our you know our system, but
as soon as you remove the coachout of the equation and now
you're following our plan andour system, but as soon as you
remove the coach out of theequation and now you're there to
fend for yourself, you feellike you have no idea what to do
because you've been followingorders really well.
(09:52):
So we're very good soldiers,but actually being autonomous
with our health, that was reallygetting lost.
So as much as we were trying tohelp people, I think we were
subconsciously enabling peopleat the same time.
And then I was havingconversations with some of my
other friends who were in thebusiness and they were having
the same things that was goingon with their clients.
(10:13):
So that's when I started to lookat the psychology of success,
like what makes some peoplesucceed in the long term versus
so many people are in this yo-yocycle of succeeding for three
to six months and then fallingoff for a year and then going
back, and it's this endless loopof success versus failure and
what I think what it comes is.
Number one is its identity.
(10:34):
You know, if you don't believethat you're capable of change,
that inner voice is verypowerful.
It is going to self-sabotageyou back into what you believe
you deserve.
So if you look at it withweight loss, like if you don't
believe that you're that healthyperson and that capable person.
Eventually you're going to getto a sense where you're going to
(10:55):
start self-sabotaging yourselfand that's why so many people go
back to the weight that theywere at before.
It's not a change in tactics orstrategies, it's more of who do
you believe that you really areunderneath the surface.
So that's why I think there'stime for structure, like
following, like a set plan.
But then there's also an avenuewhere you need to start being a
(11:18):
little bit more open with it.
I like the intuitive trainingtype style and I think that is
the phase that we don't oftenget to and we don't market a lot
in fitness because it's verysexy to talk about.
You know, from the ground, youknow getting to the first steps.
That's a very easy sell for alot of people.
But what happens after theinitial honeymoon period?
You know, comes in and lifestarts to get in the way, life
(11:40):
starts playing defense at you.
That's when you really try andsee where consistency lies,
where your resolve is and whereyour resilience is.
So that's where it's, in thatkind of middle zone of the
journey, where I think so manypeople start to fall off because
the feeling, the nuance of itfrom the beginning steps starts
to fade away and then you eitherchase, you start to program hop
(12:04):
and try and chase that high ofthe new program over and over
again, versus just staying thecourse and just sometimes
aggressively maintaining whereyou're at or just making those
incremental steps going forward.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That's so interesting Because when you, when you,
when you talk about theintuitive training, when you
talk to a trainer right, andmore more than likely a trainer
is not on a program yeah, you'relike what, what's your uh
splits, what's this, what's that?
I don't know.
I just go to the gym and I liftheavy or I lift till I feel
(12:38):
good, or I'll do.
You know, I'm going to do somedeadlifts here, whatever, but
there's literally no likeprescription for the day Most of
the time because you're goingto do some deadlifts here,
whatever, but there's literallyno like prescription for the day
Most of the time because you'regoing to get in where you fit
in.
I got 30 minutes.
What can I get done in 30 kindof deal?
Can you talk about in, likewhat it means to train
intuitively?
And I also look at this as aneating as well.
(12:58):
You know there's people thattrack everything and then, when
they don't have the numbersright, they have to kind of,
like you said, fend for yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, I love you brought this up.
It's one of my favorite topicsto talk about because I made
every mistake in the book withtrying to teach people intuitive
training from the jump.
So you know intuition.
I think it's a.
It's a very fun buzzword to sayaround like trust your
intuition, know thyself right.
Know thyself is a skill, justlike everything.
(13:29):
Intuition is a skill that youneed to build up.
So in order to get there, it'snot the first phase that you
need to go down to.
So if you take a lot oftrainers, if you've been
training for years, you've builtthat those early stages of
consistency and of pattern.
It's now just a part of yourlifestyle.
You identify with a healthyperson or somebody who trains on
(13:51):
a regular basis.
Yeah, an intuitive approachmight be very good for you, but
if somebody's first learning andjust getting into the stages,
that's where structure reallyneeds to come into play.
And I made this mistake is whenI first began my business that I
do now.
I was in a zone myself of veryintuitive training.
(14:12):
I was doing, you know, workingwith Brett Jones with an iron
cardio based protocol.
You know we were doing that fora while where, at the
beginnings of a brand newbusiness.
You've got a lot on your plateand a lot on your mind to get
things off the ground.
And I was like I don't have thebandwidth right now or really
the even like the motivation ordesire to follow like a strict,
you know, progressive overloadtype program.
(14:34):
So that's when I went into like, all right, what do I feel like
doing today?
All right, I'm going to playaround with some different
movements.
And I was still making progress.
I was like, oh my God, I feellike I, you know, found this
golden treasure.
You know, at the end of arainbow here I'm like I'm going
to teach this to everybody.
Then I started really promotinga lot of like this intuitive
training.
(14:55):
The challenge was is, when I wasgetting in with people who were
at those early stages andgetting into an intuitive
approach, they were sooverwhelmed and so freaked out
about that because they don'thave that intuitive muscle
that's built up yet.
So that's why I think having atthe first phase of getting into
something and a phase I thinkis six months to a year of
(15:18):
consistency, yeah, that's a goodtime where you should be
following a pretty set program.
You know, it doesn't need to belike stripped down, like
exactly five days a week orwhatever.
There could be some wiggle roomin there, but you need to kind
of just get your reps in andjust follow that.
And if you ever read the bookMastery by Robert Greene, if you
haven't, it's a phenomenal book.
(15:38):
He goes into the three phases ofmastery.
The first phase he callsapprenticeship, which is shut
your mouth and get your workdone, where it's like follow
your master from there.
He uses examples like Mozartand stuff like that.
You first need to just build upyour reps of just knowing this
inside and out.
But then you get to the secondphase, which is the creative,
(16:00):
active phase, and this is whereyou take all of the knowledge
that you've built up and and nowyou start to you know, make it
your own, you start to playaround with different things.
So it's like learn the rules soyou can break them down the
road.
That's, I think, where, like,intuition comes into With
nutrition.
I think it's.
It's a great concept, butpersonally I think it's a very
(16:25):
small percentage of people thatdo really well with an intuitive
eating type structure, at leastat the beginning steps.
You need to learn thefoundational principles and the
knowledge and the wisdom downfirst and then you can kind of
talk about intuition.
So I think it's a great thingto do and it's a great skill to
(16:45):
work with.
And if you are kind of lookingat this on a 1% better every day
and really build like a masterytype process of getting a
little bit better each day,intuition is going to come into
play.
But be very wary about jumpinginto it early on.
Before you build that muscle ofpatience and consistency down
first.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yeah, and you get.
It kind of depends on theperson too, whether they're
proficient in the gym or not, orknow their macros, or you know,
or have the MyFitnessPal andthey've kind of mastered that a
little bit.
But there's just sometimespeople that also I get in the
gym all the time.
I'm like, hey, you know, we'redoing some warmup rounds, some
(17:24):
mobility, like two to threerounds, you know 10 minutes, if
you can kind of just kind ofloose.
Well, is it two or is it three?
I'm like two, two to three.
They're like I need to know,because I need to manage the
client, I need to know you haveto tell me.
And I'm like, okay, make itthree.
Like, well, you go three andyou get just tell me what to do,
(17:45):
I don't want to make a decisiontoday, I will do that.
And I was like, okay, fine,that's all good.
And then some people like theautonomy.
They can move at their own pace, they don't want to be bound
down by a clock.
And I find sometimes thosethings work.
I usually try to give rangesfor people, but sometimes
they're like is it two, is itfive?
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Well, you need to wave in between both of those.
Right.
It's like, I mean, there'stimes where it's you know, we
call it uh.
I use an analogy of the highway, um, where it's like there's
the left lane, the right lane inthe middle lane.
So if you think of a highway ina plan, your middle lane is
like your set plan.
This is what I have set for theday or for the week.
(18:28):
The left lane, that's the speedlane.
That's where you're going alittle bit faster.
Maybe you've got more energy ormaybe you've got more open time
for this week.
So we're going to try and makea little bit more progress.
That might be increasing yourvolume this week or putting a
little bit more you knowattention into the mental
performance work that you'redoing.
But then there's the right laneno-transcript.
(19:31):
We're trying to really pushyour progress right now because
we've got an open window.
But then there's other times ofthe year where we're going to
ease off the gas pedal.
We're going to go into theright lane and maybe we're
spotlighting one or two things,but not everything all at once.
But you're still makingprogress, going forward.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
I love that.
I love that Making progress.
Even if it's a little slower,you're still.
You're still moving, which iswhich is what we want.
You know it doesn't have to be,you know, going 95 every day.
You know you're going to burnout, you're going to burn out
100%, exactly.
You kind of talked aboutbuilding like the importance of
like foundations.
When, like the importance oflike foundations when it comes
to strength training, you knowwe get you get some of these
(20:11):
misconceptions about.
You know chasing performanceand chasing aesthetics, right,
can you kind of talk about youknow the importance of building
a foundation and the proper waysto kind of transition into if
aesthetic is what you're lookingfor or performance is what
you're looking?
Speaker 2 (20:29):
for you know, I think you know the Dan John like.
You know, big five protocol, Ithink, is always a great way to
start.
You know, if you're getting apush, pull, hinge, squat and a
loaded carrier, a core, youcan't go wrong with that.
You know, if that's as far aslike a foundation of getting
those things down, um, the, theolder I've gotten now you know
(20:49):
I'm 41 now, so I'm not old, butI'm getting seasoned in that
time.
Mobility plays a huge role inthe work that you do.
A full range of motion.
I have such a deeperappreciation now in this stage
of my life of lighter weight orsubmaximal load with full range
of motion than I did justpushing the volume or pushing
(21:10):
the intensity of getting inthere.
You know, with foundation things, I always like to just look at
it from the client's perspectiveor the person that we're
working with's perspective,right?
The last thing that we want todo with anybody is make them
feel overwhelmed.
Most people who are trying toapproach them, specifically if
they're working with a coach,they already probably feel a
(21:31):
little uncomfortable.
They're not really comfortablein their own skin or maybe it's
the first time even asking forhelp.
Giving them a million differentthings to remember is gonna be
way overwhelming.
Okay, focusing on mastering ahandful of things at one time
and get them feel reallycompetent in one or two things,
(21:52):
that starts to build confidenceand it starts to build
self-trust.
You know there was a guy I hadon my podcast his name's Joel
Cochran that he dropped thisline that I've never forgot,
where he asked me he's likewhat's the number one role as a
coach that we need to do first?
And I was like, oh shit, likeyou know what's the answer.
He's like our role is toinstill confidence.
He's like if somebody isconfident, they can move
(22:14):
mountains.
He's like so the best thingthat you can do is help somebody
build confidence, celebrate thesmall wins that they have over
and over again.
So from a performance side fromthere I think I mean total body
movements I'm a personal one Ithink you know the kettlebell
swing or the kettlebell snatchis just go-tos that you can get
in there If you can work onoverhead mobility and getting
(22:36):
into pressing.
So vertical based strength workis always going to be there of
getting in.
You know, getting a squatpattern in there like goblet
squat or a heavy front squat, ofjust adding that in there.
So kind of to.
I think if anybody's reallylooking to get that foundation
down, I can't stress enoughBrett Jones's work that he's
done with iron iron cardioprotocol of single rep complexes
(22:59):
.
Um, from the structurestandpoint, as well as the
intuitive standpoint, as well asjust the movements that you're
doing of focusing on one singlerep at a time, that is just a
foolproof.
I think, regardless of whetheryou're a beginner or if you're
really advanced, that is aperfect protocol to go into.
In fact, from that, I wrote ane-book called the One Day
(23:22):
Strength Challenge, which is howto just incorporate a single
rep complex one day a week intoany program that you're doing,
whether it's a strength doing,whether it's a strength focus,
whether it's conditioning focus.
This is how to incorporate thatin.
So, as far as a foundation, Ithink those are the things that
I would really focus on firstwith the general population of
anybody that I'd be working with.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You don't want to build a house on a shaky
foundation.
You know it.
Just a lot of people aregetting into I got to do this
muscular failure stuff because Iwant to build a house on a
shaky foundation.
You know it, just a lot ofpeople are getting into I got to
do this muscular failure stuffbecause I want to be shredded
and I want to look great andthey're doing crazy, different,
weird stuff that I've never seenwith a cable machine before and
it's just like can can youlunge, Can you rotate, Can you
(24:04):
squat Right, and they can'treally do those movements
proficiently and they're worriedabout you know, more of like
this aesthetic feel.
That's what I see a lot, andmaybe there's two ways to think
about Instagram and social media.
Like for as many things as youcan find that are amazing,
you're going to find equallyamount of just like bad
(24:25):
information, and I get you knowI work with a lot of youth
athletes as well and they'llcome in and they'll be trying to
hook up bands to the squat,like to the barbell for squat.
I'm like Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.
Like what do you?
What are you doing?
I go go front squat that um, uh, you know that 24 kilo real
quick.
Let me see that and it's reallybad.
I'm like okay one, you're notback squatting yet and you're
(24:56):
not adding bands and chains.
You know what I'm saying, Ithink, and there's, there's
something especially and I wantto get to some strong first
stuff too.
But there's something reallyimportant and just amazing about
getting brilliant at the basicsand I think people overlook
that a lot.
If you know, you, you start offwith those basics and it's
those.
Um, you know a push, a pull.
You start off with those basicsand it's those.
Um, you know a push, a pull, ahand just squat all those things
and people start starting torun with that, which is great.
But I can't stress enough Likeyou need to really take some
(25:18):
time into that because you canalways make those basics even
better.
Like a basketball team right,the first thing, when they get
on the court of game, they dodribbling drills, know how to.
They know how to dribble.
They do dribbling drills, they,you know they go into layup
lines, right, they, they are anba player, you know they know
how to make a layup, but theyjust over and over and over
again until it's it's absolutelyperfect.
(25:39):
But, um, I think we can'tstress the, the basics.
Uh, yeah, enough do you ever?
Speaker 2 (25:44):
do you ever hear that story of when that youth hockey
kid met Sidney Crosby on histown rink?
This was one of my favoritestories ever.
This young kid from Canada wasin an outdoor rink or something
like that and just playingaround just doing some drills
and some guy came up like hey,do you mind if I work in?
He looks over and it's SidneyCrosby who is from this area.
(26:06):
And if anybody doesn't know,sidney Crosby is one of the
greatest NHL hockey players ofall time.
And the kid's like yeah, sure,or whatever.
And he's like just sits kind ofto the sideline and he goes and
see Sidney Crosby start likejust you know, working on his
stuff, and he said Crosby wasdoing the most remedial like
edge drills on his skates, likejust side to side, and he was
(26:29):
doing it for like 90 minutes ofjust getting on his edges, just
back and forth things that youlearn when you're six years old,
of just learning how to skate.
Crosby was doing this and hesaid the look in his eyes was
this such focus of just gettingin.
This is a guy that's mastered.
You know the basics and reallyunderstands that, but at the
(26:56):
same time too, like you know,variety for the sake of variety
is a very slippery slope to getdown.
But at the same time too, likemaking something fun is a huge
part of what we need to do too.
Like throwing in a little justlike variety piece that's going
in there is always a good ideaIf somebody is having fun, like
that's when we learn.
You know, brett Jones has agreat quote If you're not
laughing, you're not learning,like.
So he always tries to crackjokes and make it very
(27:17):
lighthearted in that same time.
But then with that, whensomebody is kind of open with
that, I like to say like, looklike I want, I know you want all
to get to all these goals andstuff for the next four weeks.
First, as we just get started,just trust me, we're just going
to get these basics really downand then all these other things
are going to open up for us.
But just have some faith andjust lean in and just, you know,
(27:38):
trust me and we're just goingto focus on these things.
Can you do that?
And everybody's like yeah, sure, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
But you can get that down, yeah, so you know you.
You know, you know, give themwhat they want, but also give
them what they need at the sametime.
I love that.
There's a coach that I crossedpaths with.
He's from Indiana, kevinVanderbush, and he goes we do
like he's.
He's a really good high schoolstrength coach.
He's got national championshipsyou know, multiple state titles
.
She's got nationalchampionships.
You know, uh, uh, multiplestate titles.
He's like yeah, we do bicepcurls, like every other day
bicep curls.
(28:14):
And they're like talking to himabout it, and he's just like
they're like is that like afunctional thing?
Is that he goes listen untillike, when somebody scores a
touchdown and they flex theirhamstring instead of their,
their biceps, we'll, we'll do itwith hamstring curls every
other day, but for right now,the kids just want to see their
arms pop it out of their shirtand they get jacked about it and
(28:35):
they're excited to see theveins.
He goes that's what we programto every like two days, okay,
curls, curls, till you can't dothem anymore.
And he's he's just like yeah,it's, there's no function for
that.
It's just like intimidation andthe kids love it.
I love it, amen.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
He's tapped into something and I think that's you
know, a big thing, tony.
That I see as well is it's soeasy for coaches to just take
this stuff so seriously, likeeverything has to be so just
broken down and just dissectedinto everything.
Yeah, you should know whyyou're programming specific
programming, but at the sametime, if you're working with
(29:12):
kids, you're working withgeneral population and even
working with professionalathletes or whatever it is.
They want to enjoy the process.
Make sure that they're havingfun.
Mike Boyle had a great speech inhis seminar of like 25 years,
25 mistakes, and the first slidethat he has is don't be an
asshole.
He's like if you're a, ifyou're a dick, like nobody wants
(29:33):
to spend an hour with you.
It's like the first thing to dois make it an enjoyable process
and not take it so seriously.
Like getting in shape should bea really fun thing, getting
stronger, like preparing for agame, that should be really fun.
Like let's not make this.
Like you have to be this, likestern face, like stoic, you know
, focus down there, cause thatworked for 5% of the people in
(29:55):
there, 95% of people.
They want to feel comfortable,they want to enjoy the process
and if they do that you canteach them anything you know.
You can teach them principlesand mastery and all these
buzzwords that we use all thetime.
But make it fun.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah, I love that.
You're strong.
You're strong first and Idefinitely you know.
I just got back from the domewith the SFL.
I helped assist.
It was a first time assisting.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
I got to assist Fabio with the bar certification One
of my favorite people in theworld.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
He's the man.
We had, mark Valenti as well,and they're amongst other
assistants and just the wholecrew was out there and it's just
a great time and it's Chicago'sthe one of the only places that
it has all the certs and youget all those master instructors
in there.
So it was fantastic.
But being a part of StrongFirst and doing that
certification, you kind oftouched on a few pieces of it.
(30:50):
But how does that systeminfluence your approach to
teaching and programming and theway that you view strength?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
April of this year, 15 years since I went to my
first event of RKC in 2010.
So I found this worldrelatively early, where Pavel
was still teaching atcertification.
So I feel really fortunate thatI got to learn directly from
him in a couple different eventsfrom there.
(31:22):
What I saw from the School ofStrength which is strong for us
now but was like the originalRKC with Pavel is coming from a
baseball background.
Baseball was such aninteresting sport for me because
the details matter so much.
Like just changing the angle ofyour elbow or shifting your
weight, like all those littleintricacies could be the
(31:44):
difference between a pop fly anda home run.
So I was always kind offascinated by the form and the
technique and like alwaysgetting better at that and then
repeating that.
And I saw that in, like inkettlebell training, just like
learning things like the swingyou know in the Turkish, get in
the Turkish, get up and thesnatch and you know, when I
(32:04):
first got into it it was kind ofmore of like a challenge.
I just like something.
Something feels like it'scalling, you know me to to learn
this more.
And that first certification Iremember was very life-changing
for me.
Like you know, not just the,not just going through the event
and the, the challenge of it,of having to get through it and
really test your, your grit andyour will and your resilience,
(32:27):
but the coaches that I met there, who wore the instructor shirts
and stuff, the way that theycarried themselves, the way that
they spoke, the way that theyarticulated strength, not just
in a technical piece, but justhow you felt like this whole
teaching embodied them as partof who they were and it was
(32:51):
authentic across the board.
And I was like this feels verydifferent than other programs,
other workshops and things thatI've been a part of before.
There's something that is verydeep within and that was really
the system of strength is askill like strength is a skill
just like anything, and skillsare meant to be built like,
(33:12):
they're meant to be mastered.
And when you master something,you realize that there's never a
full end.
You know result, you'll always,you can always get better at it
and I, just from that, I wantedto find something that I could
focus on few things but do themvery well.
And you know, you know like,going from SFG one like, you
(33:33):
learn six movements in SFG one,right, it's not a lot, but the
depth and detail of how to breakit down, how to teach it, how
to coach it, how to look for youknow different um, you know
asymmetries or compensations andhow to fix that on the fly.
Different, you know asymmetriesor compensations and how to fix
that on the fly.
(33:53):
That was just something thatreally hit me.
And then I went to, you know,sfb, you know with Karen Smith,
and then I went to SFL.
I did that with Fabio and thenbecame an elite instructor and
I've assisted a few differenttimes and that same you know
just mindset that I had fromthat beginning stage has only
gotten stronger every event thatI've gone into.
So you know, the word authenticgets thrown around a lot with a
lot of different people.
(34:14):
But what I've just learned fromStrong First and the people
that have really taught thereand are in leadership there,
like they really walk the walk,you know, not just talk the talk
, and I just, you know, thinkthat I wish that was something
that I saw in every program thatI've gone into, but
unfortunately that's just notthe case.
(34:34):
So that was really like themain thing is everything that
I've gone through.
From there I was like I trustthese people because they
believe in what they're saying.
They're not trying to make mebelieve in what they're saying.
They believe in what they'resaying and that's a very
powerful message.
Cbt.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Be a quiet professional right, like you
some of these people are.
I mean, I've seen some, someinstructors, we're doing the if
people don't know, the gradworkout, the graduation workout,
when you do SFG one, um, youknow everybody either pass your
snatch test or you don't, or youdidn't do a skill right.
Whatever, it doesn't matter.
Everybody's getting bells andyou do like what seems like an
(35:12):
endless workout.
But uh, I don't know how yourexperience was, but it's still
the armor building, like the,the two, one, three we were
doing I, if I remember it wasjust like yeah, uh, basically it
was just clean squat pressingfor a long long time.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And then it was swings, and then it was single
arm swings and then it was cleansquat pressing again, uh, but
then I just remember instructorsgrabbing like a 48K on the side
and they were doing it with us.
I was like Jesus, whoa, theseguys are amazing.
But it's this piece of be aquiet professional.
They don't have to tell you howmuch they lift, they just go
(35:48):
and they grab their bell andthey do it and they're the
kindest people they want to help.
But there's also this standardthat you don't get at other
certifications rkc, strong first, right, uh, where you go and
you you have to perform themovements and you have a
standard of quality of movements.
And I'm not telling peopledon't go to other certifications
(36:09):
that don't have this.
I think go see as manydifferent things as possible,
but I don't know of one whereit's like, hey, you actually
have to hit certain standards toget the certification, versus
just going and showing up to aworkshop and then you get your
certificate.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, and you know, to recertify you have to prove
that you've kept your movementsand kept your strength in there.
Like I think that's a hugething to do.
You don't just write in yourrenewal certification and pay a
little bit of money.
You got to prove that you stillare capable of doing these
movements.
But that's another point thatyou brought up there.
Like, some of the strongest menand women that I've ever met are
(36:46):
from this system and not youwouldn't think of them like if
you just saw them walking downthe street as like the strongest
people, but the amount ofdensity in their muscles, the
amount of skill that they builtup to be able to move, you know
crazy loads.
Like I met Michael Willey whenI assisted with him, who's down
in Florida.
He's a team leader and one ofthe lightest beast tamers ever,
(37:10):
and seeing him just playingaround with these heavy weights,
with just this grace ofmovement, I'm like what?
Like what is going on over here.
So, yeah, it's not just the,the mindset approach of it and
that it yields crazy results.
Like if you get strong, like ifyou get really strong.
It's, you know, it's like aglass.
Everything else fills up intothat.
(37:31):
Like afterwards, like it isamazing when you feel really
strong and I'm a light, I'm alighter guy.
You know I'm on the.
You know I'm on the South endof 150 pounds, you know so.
But to be able to maintain verystrong movements and keep them
over over years and keepprogressing, yeah, it's a
phenomenal system.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
I want to segue to you and your podcast, and you
have the strength connectionpodcast.
You've had a bunch of different, probably kind of like the
who's, who's, the strengthcoaches on here.
It's a great.
It's a great listen.
Uh, you know, brett Jones, stanJohn, what's one conversation
that you had, or I guess thatyou had on that uh was, would
you say, like a life,life-changing one Oof.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Well, you know we're 285 episodes in right now, so
there's a lot that's flowingthrough my mind.
You know some of them that youknow podcasting is interesting.
I fell in love with it becauseme and my former partner during
COVID, just kind of out ofboredom and trying to figure out
things to do, we decided tostart a podcast ourselves.
(38:35):
It started as called StoriesBeyond the Bell and then that
shifted to the BreakthroughSecrets podcast, where we
started to invite people on and,you know, get deep down into
you know the work that they do.
And hearing everybody's storiesof you know people that you've
admired or you work with, whoare incredible masters and
coaches and have made greatimpacts, hearing their come up
(38:57):
and the journey that they had intheir welcome to the kettlebell
moment where they got smoked bya 12K bell or something like
that, or the mistakes that theymade, I just fell in love with
it.
So when I started my ownpodcast on my own business, I
was trying to figure out whatdid I really love to do, and
what I love to do was havingconversations with people.
So I started inviting people onand, you know, diving in and
(39:19):
getting the work in there I'dsay one that comes up to mind on
the on the strength set was um,I got to talk with Dennis
Vasilov, uh, a couple of times.
So Dennis is from the, thekettlebell sport world, so not
from hard style, but if youdon't know, I believe he's the
12-time consecutive worldchampion right now in sport and
(39:46):
the mindset and the trainingthat he does and just the
strength and the smarts that hehas around training is just such
next level From being in ahardstyle background and knowing
one kind of school of thoughtand philosophy.
I didn't know much about theJerovoi sport and the GS world
(40:06):
at all but after talking withguys like Dennis and then Bill
Lesh and Fionnn Bartul and stufflike the ones that have done
these high endurance based work,it is such a depth of practice
of endurance work and strengththat they need to do breath
control, mindset, like I mean.
(40:26):
You know, I kind of say instart we have to do a five
minute snatch test but you canswitch hands as much as you want
, right, it's a challenging testbut it's very manageable.
If you go into a sport world,you're doing a 10 minute snatch
test but you can switch hands asmuch as you want, right, it's a
challenging test but it's verymanageable.
If you go into a sport worldyou're doing a 10 minute snatch
test with one hand switch andyou can't ever put the bell down
.
Like the amount of yeah, theamount of grip, of grit, of
(40:47):
everything in there isphenomenal.
And to see a guy like Dennis,who I think did like 212 reps or
something like that, with a 32K bell with one hand switch, and
to see a guy like Dennis, who Ithink did like 212 reps or
something like that, with a 32 Kbell with one hand switch and
if you see him he's not thismonster of a guy coming out
there Don't quote me on theexact reps on that, but it's
something around there that likeopened my mind into like oh,
there's a whole nother world ofstrength in different schools of
(41:10):
thought than just oneparticular mode.
And that was like one of thosethat made me kind of probably
subconsciously start to look ata lot of different other masters
of coaches, not just in thephysical strength world but the
mindset world, theology,spirituality and stuff like that
, and you realize there's somecommon threads among all of them
(41:33):
.
But when somebody like is sucha master at one vocation, like
you can learn so much of thatand apply it into your own life.
Even if it's not likespecifically what you do, you
can take so many golden nuggetsfrom them in those conversations
.
So Dennis was one of those, himand Paul McElroy they came on
both together when they weredoing a charity thing.
That was a really special one.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, that's awesome, yeah, and it's great.
We think of these people aslike, oh my gosh, these are
giants in the industry and, uh,whatever you know, you DM them
and they're like yeah, I'll do aconvo.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Great, everybody wants to talk.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Yeah, yeah, they're like the nicest people.
It's great.
And for you, what's?
What's coming up next?
Is anything big coming up withthe podcast yourself, business,
what have you?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
Yeah, I mean, you know my business always runs as
it flows.
You know, as far as myclientele work and stuff like
that, you know, if I can, youknow I'm always looking for for
new clients, if I can fit themin or not.
But with the podcast, Iactually have two podcasts that
I run right now.
So the Strength Connection isthe one that is on just a
(42:40):
flowing stream.
We do once a week right nowepisodes with people and that's
just on a running loop.
Absolutely love it, it's ablast and I've got some things
that I'm trying to work with onthe production side of that
that's coming up.
The other one that I'm doing issomething that's kind of near
and dear to me, which is apodcast called Inspire Saratoga.
(43:02):
So I'm from Saratoga Springs inNew York and my roots are here
and I'm building spaces and workin my area and what I wanted to
do is also create another showspecifically to my local area
and the people that are doingcool things in here, and that's
something that you know ascoaches.
(43:23):
Specifically now, with onlinespace that's blowing up so much
but it's also so saturated,there's such a power of
connecting with your localpeople in your community, you
know, and I think some peoplehave lost that.
I felt like I lost that alittle bit and shifting a lot
from a lot of in-person into theonline space and I wanted to do
something specifically forpeople in my area, in my
(43:46):
community.
So we created this showspecifically highlighting people
who are just doing inspiringthings, who are doing positive
things in this area, because Ithink you know you can learn
things about your strength andyour health journey by hearing
from you know the executivedirector of Cafe Lena, who you
know runs an arts, you know anarts program because of the work
(44:08):
that she's had to do and buildresilience from.
You can adopt that into yourown, into your own life.
So that's why I called theoriginal podcast the Strength
Connection, because I think wesaw so much of like physical
strength is one thing, mentalstrength is another, spiritual
or emotional or relationships oranother.
No, everything's allinterconnected.
(44:29):
Like the more you havevictories in your physical
strength, you can weave thoseinto work you're doing with
mental strength or with faith oryour you know, your spiritual
connection or your emotions oryour career, like it's.
We're not just in a vacuum ofone thing versus another.
So that's why I wanted to tryand talk to anybody about
different things in strength,not just physical training and
(44:53):
sets and reps but what are someother areas of strength that
maybe you can grab some thingsin and that will help you?
Because if you're inspired andyou feel really good and you
feel connected with anotherperson that you're listening to,
that's only going to help youjust create some more abundance
in your own strength.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
That's great.
I think I love the whole, yourwhole outlook, right?
You even said like we're nottalking about sets and reps here
.
We're talking about life andups and downs and mental
fortitude and having a positivemindset and an abundance mindset
versus a scarcity mindset andthings like that, and I think
that these things are very muchoverlooked.
(45:29):
People get bogged down with allthis stuff about in their life,
social things, their jobs,whatever but I think people
taking a step back and showinggratitude and putting time in
the gym, putting time into theirlife, putting time into their
families, just will makeeverybody even more happier.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah, and I think it's important to like recognize
those things when you're goinginto it too right.
It's like if you want to gethealthier and get fit and you
ask that big question of why,well, it's like if you're
connecting that with yourmindset and your things that you
value maybe it's your spiritualconnection, maybe it's your
work, maybe it's your family andyou recognize that by getting
(46:11):
stronger and healthier impactsthose things.
It's not just a selfish venturefor external gain or looking a
certain way or buildingaesthetics.
If it's actually helping you inthe things that you value the
most, it's going to be a loteasier to get up on that day
when you don't feel like it,because it's a bigger thing than
just you.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I don't know how to end it better than that.
That's a good thing than justyou.
I don't know how to end itbetter than that.
That's good, Michael.
Where could people find youconnect with you?
And I know you said the otherpodcast.
Well, make sure you mentionedthat one again.
So we have it.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Sure so that one's called inspire Saratoga.
And then my other podcast isthe strength connection, which
you can get on all platforms.
You can go to our YouTubechannel, which is called the
strength connection, and, uh,yeah, just grab me on Facebook
or Instagram.
Uh, Instagram is Michaelunderscore, strength connection,
and then Facebook is just, uh,my name, uh, Michael Krakowski.
(47:08):
And then I have a privateFacebook group where I do a lot
of lives and really connectindividually with people, which
is called the StrengthConnection.
And one thing you know I'll dotoo for any listeners that are
out there I can send it over toyou and put it in the show notes
is I have a free ebook that Ican send over to you, which is
called the One Day StrengthChallenge.
This is all the stuff we'vebeen talking about of intuitive
(47:30):
training and kind of, you know,single rep complexes and stuff
like that.
This is just a free resourcethat you can use to start
adopting this a little bit intowhatever you're doing, and it
might be a good resource for you.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Amazing.
Well, we appreciate that.
Definitely put that in the shownotes.
And again, thanks for coming ontonight and sharing all your
wisdom.
We appreciate your time.
Speaker 2 (47:49):
Thank you so much, man.
I've been following your stuffand you're doing a great job, so
I really appreciate your work.
Speaker 1 (47:54):
Thanks, sir, and thank you everybody listening to
another episode of the PrimalFoundations podcast.
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