October 1, 2024 • 37 mins
Ready to transform your fitness journey and achieve true wellness? Join us on Stay Modern with Murray as we bring you an insightful conversation with Mike Hahn, the powerhouse behind BFT Fitness in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mike’s vast experience in exercise science, corporate wellness, and physical therapy has uniquely positioned him to revolutionize how we approach fitness and health. From improving your range of motion and strength to optimizing crucial health markers like glucose and cholesterol levels, Mike shares his expert knowledge on achieving overall health.
Have you ever wondered how to maintain a balanced lifestyle without obsessively counting calories? Mike delves into practical strategies that include whole foods, regular indulgences, and the critical role of daily physical activity. Fitness isn't just for the young and fit; it's accessible to everyone, from teenagers to octogenarians. Mike and his team offer personalized training programs that cater to different abilities and goals, ensuring that everyone can safely and effectively participate. The episode also emphasizes engaging the core through functional exercises and multi-joint movements to build a more substantial, injury-resistant body.
But fitness is more than just physical; it's about fostering a supportive community and overcoming personal challenges. Mike opens up about his mission to create a welcoming environment at BFT Fitness, from offering a free class for newcomers to his hands-on approach to coaching. He shares his own journey of sobriety and weight loss, underscoring the idea that everyone has a unique story that shapes their fitness path. Tune in to hear inspiring stories, expert tips, and motivation to help you stay committed to your health and wellness journey.
*Sound quality was affected by being onsite in the gym.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to another episode of Stay Modern with
Murray, brought to you by MurrayCustom Homes, where we build
your dream home together.
Now sit back, buckle up andenjoy the ride with your host,
matt Murray hey everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to another episode of Stay Modern
with Murray, the podcast wherewe dive into everything related
to modern living, home designand, of course, interviewing
local business owners here inLincoln, nebraska.
I'm your host for today,matthew Taylor.
I'm a penchant for Matt Murray.
Today we are on location at BFTFitness here in Lincoln, joined
by this very special guest, theowner of BFT Fitness, mike
Connors.
Mike, please introduce yourselfto our audience.
(00:44):
A little bit about youpersonally.
Sure, thanks for having me ontoday.
I'm excited to be on yourpodcast here.
And so, yeah, a little bitabout myself.
We've been here.
Bft's been here for about 18months.
I've been in the fitness worldsince college.
I came to UNL out of highschool in Pass, nebraska, so you
know, out west God's country,exactly so grew up out there in
(01:07):
a small town.
Obviously, in the UNL I was anextra science major in fitness.
I worked for physical therapygroups.
I ran gyms before I got intocorporate wellness for about
eight years.
So I did that kind of side ofthings I kind of did on both
sides of the fitness world,whether it be in the gym or
trying to get people throughcorporate wellness programs,
(01:29):
those types of things.
And a partner of mine, my wife,got into this about two years
ago.
We've been with her for about18 months and yeah, it's been
great.
Well, I came back here.
I've been a certified strengthcoach for about 15 years, so
glad to be back here doing sometraining here at BFT Corporate
wellness.
Now tell me a little bit aboutwhat corporate wellness is.
(01:51):
When you say that I'm in a stepprogram, you get cheaper
insurance if you give $10,000 tothe kid.
There are some that are verymuch like that.
So the program that I wrote Iwas at the Beatrice Union
Hospital before this.
I did a lot of classes like popclasses for the employees.
We did wellness out in thecommunity so we brought people
(02:12):
in.
We kind of did some of thecorporate wellness gigs for some
of the other businesses atBeatrice.
But yes, it is a lot of money.
It's your stuff.
Let's help you help yourself alittle bit and because of that
you get the cheaper chance.
So you know, trying to helppeople get to a point where
they're helping themselves behealthier and then they get
(02:34):
rewarded for it.
You know that could mean comingto a place like this on the
other side of things and hey, ifyou come to the gym, say 10, 12
times a month, you'll getcontrol over that, you know.
So you know, here, once againat BFT, we're trying to help a
few other businesses do the samething, like, hey, we can help
you with your corporate wellnessBecause I've been on both sides
of the coin there, so I knowhow hard it is on the corporate
(02:56):
side of things and you know,obviously it's hard on the side
of things too.
If you can a little bit aboutthat, yeah, absolutely.
And my wife is a physicaltherapist, okay, and she's a
sports fan, gotcha.
She did her study for McDonoughand then I think it was back
with her.
Sure, one of the biggest thingsabout McDonough that she
(03:16):
pointed out to me was the signof progress.
Right, like here you get to seepeople get into a healthier
lifestyle to better themselvesand their families.
There, you know, she washelping people literally walk
again.
Can you talk about maybe someof your successes or the biggest
reward that you find out inhelping people find their inner
self?
Well, you know, there's a lotof different metrics that you
(03:39):
can say is a measure ofconfidence.
You know, and I think whenpeople think of gyms they think
that, oh, it's gonna be weightloss.
Well, you can't lose all ofyour weight, right, you know.
There's no way that you can,you know, lose every ounce of
fat in your body.
It wouldn't be healthy.
So, you know, there's peoplefrom here that have lost a lot.
We've had one lady who's lost ahundred and thirty pounds in
(03:59):
two days.
Surprise, that's a huge success, you know, on that.
So there's a lot of you know,that's a great success.
But there's also people who youknow hadn't worked out since
high school and they're in their50s and now they're coming
three or four times a week andthey just, you know, they just
feel better.
Yeah, maybe the skills changed alittle bit, but they're able to
(04:20):
move better.
They're able to run when theythey would be able to before.
Their range of motion is better, their strength is better.
You know, we've had people whocome in and after a while their
glucose has gone down, theircholesterol has gone down, so
they're getting healthier, andso, yeah, there's a lot of
different measures of progressthat people need to look at
(04:40):
Whether it's just beingconsistent hey, I came two times
a week for a month.
Now I'm coming three times aweek, I'm coming four times a
week or my diet's changing.
So there's all these thingsthat people can look at to
measure progress, and it's notjust one or two metrics that
should be looking at this.
That didn't get you, but I usedto work with physical therapy
myself and I mean, look at,there's definitely differences
(05:09):
between, say, say, clinical areaof fitness versus a gym area of
fitness, but it's kind of thesame rules apply.
There's three different metricsthere whether the range of
motion is better after surgeryor whether the strength is
better when you go back to work.
Here we're looking at scale,body composition, strength
improvements, muscular endurance, all those things have a
benefit there, those things wecan measure to make sure that
people are making a promise.
Yeah, so a little bit about me.
I was 357 pounds about threeand a half years.
(05:32):
I quit drinking and got rid ofall the silly partying.
I cut down my carbohydrates to35 grams in a day.
My sugar intake is little tonone.
I mean's in my intake.
So it's been really, I say, alittle over 10, but it's
literally a fruit at a highamount of sugar what I would
want, and I'm walking around atabout 180, 190 now.
(05:53):
So it's a way I do the mathright now.
It's a way of loss of around170.
That's awesome, man.
Now what advice would you giveto somebody like me where I want
to start bulking up?
Right, you know what, is it?
Just consistency?
Or what advice would you give?
Consistency and weight lifting?
I mean, you know I'm stilleating a diet.
(06:16):
So if you want to bulk up, ifyou want to add muscle, you not
only have to lift weights andthose are pretty heavy and be
consistent with that, but youalso have to add in pounds.
You know, I think themisconception there is we're
always trying to subtract.
I guess people want to loseweight.
That's just what they do whenthey work out.
But if you want to add muscle,you have to add to your calories
.
So you know, go to sugars,fruits, veggies, whole grains.
We're fantastic.
(06:37):
Protein is always important.
We're trying to add muscle massto yourself.
But then be consistent.
You be consistent in the weight.
Do big lifts, multi-jointexercises, squats, bench press,
shoulder press, deadlifts.
Those types of big musclemovements are going to help you
(06:57):
build the most muscle over aperiod of time.
Also, be realistic with the timeframe.
It's really really hard to gainmuscle.
You know we hear this a lot oftime, especially with people
like Mike Bolt, where he's likeyou're probably not actually
adding muscle that quickly.
You know you're probably, youknow, feeling some of the
(07:17):
effects of inflammation fromthose muscles.
It can take, you know, three tosix months to gain two or three
pounds of muscle.
But when you do that, your bodycomposition changes quite a bit
.
You're going to feel and look alot different just based off
three or six months ofconsistent doing that.
Dude, this is fascinating.
You talk about two pounds in along stretch, but two pounds of
(07:39):
muscle are way different thantwo pounds of fat and two pounds
of water.
Absolutely huge difference andyou know we used to have, you
know, you know versions ofmuscle that are five and a half,
versions of fat that are fivepounds and the density is so
much different, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And so you're going to look and feel.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You know there's pictures out there that are in
every time.
You know I could be the exampleA lot of times.
You know husband's playing here.
You have a 225 pound linebacker.
Let's take this A lot of fat.
That guy's pretty shredded.
Yeah, you have a guy who's 225pounds.
Please push that line back 35%.
Yes, there's scale.
(08:16):
It's the exact same, but theway they look is completely
different.
And so muscle has such a hugeimpact on how you look, how you
feel, how you function, andthat's why we do so much
strength training here at GIFT,because it's so important to
maintain muscle mass, tomaintain strength as you go
through training.
All those things are vital tobe a healthy person and it's
(08:38):
something that gets lost onpeople that maybe just do the
cardio or not do anything at allLike how muscle and strength is
to have a body.
We talk about fitness andpeople automatically go to just
big muscular things.
For me, that's what it's anutrition.
So what's a day in the life ofmine, right?
(08:59):
I mean, you're a pretty thinguy.
I do that walking in here, andit's not just a kid or business
owner.
I'm assuming that the kids youcare about your own family,
right?
So on a day to day, I've heardyou talk about how things are
macro.
You know, great, great question.
I've tried my diet so much overthe years.
I just kind of have thisrolling number in my head.
But you know, I try to eatpretty much as much whole foods
(09:25):
as I can.
I don't really count macrosthat much anymore.
But if it has my guy was adietician for a while back if it
has protein, fiber, then I'dprobably eat it.
So fruits, veggies, wholegrains, wheat, cuts of wheat,
stuff like that, that's good togo to have.
Now do I have French fries?
(09:47):
There's so many, so it's notlike I'm restricting myself to
anything and I'm, you know,putting things out that you know
I'll go have a burger and friesor I'll go to Memorial Stadium
and have a slice of Valentino's.
You know, of course I'm humanbut for the most part,
consistently speaking, you know,I'm going to be pretty healthy
(10:09):
at most of the time of the day.
And then, you know, I work out.
What I do with me is I doworkout every day.
I make sure to get 30 classesof time to do it.
Today I'm doing a millionclasses.
So we're, you know, five or sixdays a week.
I'm doing our regiment ofclasses here and that's what
keeps me moving here.
I try and walk around, makecalls, stuff like that.
We're up around stuff here atthe gym all the time.
(10:30):
So, you know, kind of movingmost of the day.
We have a really hard workoutevery day.
I'm being pretty healthy.
It's, you know, it's prettyeasy recipe to do.
It's hard to be a practice.
What would you say I canimagine the I call, call them
students but your clients thatcome in and see the, the owner
of the business, if you're doinga bft workout with them, I
(10:52):
imagine that people believe inbusiness owners or even in
construction.
When you're getting your handsdirty, you're in the field,
you're in the trenches andyou're trying to do it for
people, they take it a littlemore serious.
Now, what's a bigger teamworkout?
So you were talking aboutyou're 30 more to be in a bigger
team workout.
What's that?
It depends on the day.
(11:12):
So every day is a differentclass and so, for instance,
today our class is a hit so highintensity in the midterm.
Yesterday it was a class aboutstrength, which is low reps,
high weights.
Every day is a different classand we're going to focus on
different things for that class.
Usually we do a lot of strengthtraining.
Our roots are in strengthtraining, so even though we're
(11:33):
doing some conditioning classes,we're going to have some sort
of strength component to it, butwe have our workout.
Sometimes our workouts are bothin the upper body or lower body
some of the big muscle groupsand that's it.
Sometimes we do core work withour strength training.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Other days we do more conditioning things.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So we have a couple classes like stunt and cardio
view and HIIT that are moreconditioning you can't forget
about.
You know, part of the month wegotta make sure that our
cardiovascular system is off thedate, you know if you will.
So the way our programmingprogram works is every day kind
of things.
In the next we try and focus on, you know, three different
(12:13):
muscle groups or three differenttypes of muscle fibers.
You know three different modesof metabolism every week.
So we don't burn them out.
We're not trying to come hereand you, you know make you kill
yourself one day and then you'renot even going back to three.
You know we're going to break itup.
Like yesterday was another bodyday, today's a little bit more
lower body focus for cardio,because you know they're human.
(12:35):
That is refreshing.
So that's kind of how we sortof built up and then we have
eight to ten training blockswhere you're going to move
through a training block andyou're going to focus on a few
different lifts so you're goingto get better.
After that training block ourprogramming is going to grow.
So, for instance, the HIIT thatwe did today, um started out
with you know, short intervals,about 20 seconds on, 30 seconds
(12:58):
off, you know.
So you're working hard for avery short period of time.
Couple steps there today, there, Today it was closer to 45
seconds.
So as you work through thistraining block, you group with
that particular program, soyou're always getting ready for
something.
And then you know, in a fewweeks we'll have a new training
block that focuses on some otherthings and we'll start the
process over again.
That's absolutely fascinating,I can imagine.
(13:20):
So something that drives mecrazy is when I go it's too late
for me, you know, or I'm on aclass that I don't need to worry
about getting back to the shape.
What is the range that you seefor your guys?
Uh, 17 to 84.
No, no, no, 84.
If you like, you got severalpeople in their seventies that
come in and lots of people intheir sixties.
So the great thing about BFT isour program will meet you right
(13:44):
there.
It doesn't matter if you'veonly worked out 20 years, it
doesn't matter if you've been anadvanced exerciser for 10 years
.
Our program is going to meet youright here at home, because
we've got different weights foreverybody.
We're going to put you into agroup that allows you to do what
you're able to.
We might have a former D1athlete in here and then we
(14:04):
might have an L84-year-old.
They might be in the same classdoing the same things.
It isn't going to lookdifferent, Absolutely.
You know they're able to do thesame workout.
We have two trainers in eachclass.
Everyone here is a certifiedstrength coach or a certified
personal trainer.
So if people need things thatare modified past injuries or
range of motion issues you knowwe're going to be able to modify
(14:25):
those things for them if needbe, and need, and so you know we
really are for everybody.
You know, depending on whereyour background is, it's never
too late.
In fact, the later you are.
I'm going to go off and justdecide.
Can you believe me?
I mean, I worked at a hospitalfor a while, I worked in
physical therapy for a long timeand you know I used to tell
(14:47):
people, hey, if you can't do apush-up, you're in trouble like,
can you do a push-up to saveyour life?
And the reason I say that isyou know, if you're at home,
you're in the kitchen, you're inthe bathtub and you slip a ball
and you're hopefully goinggreat, can you get off the floor
?
Right, that's a strength issue,you know, can you do a push-up
to get off the floor?
Can you do a lunge, get up offof your knees?
(15:10):
That's a strength issue.
It's not a matter of anythingelse besides that.
Can you, or do you have thestrength to do those things?
And that's where, if you're inyour 50s, 60s, 70s and you're
not able to go downstairs or mowyour lawn, or travel like you
want to.
It's time to get in here and dosome strength training, because
that's what you need Absolutely,my wife.
(15:32):
So I went through.
I had her a couple years back Iwas helping my mom go to the
fridge.
It was right when I started tolose all the weight.
I was talking to my wife aboutit and I'm like God, I feel like
I'm strong in this and that I'mlike what is the deal here?
She said she was talking aboutyour core, my core not being
strong, my core not havingstrength in these abs.
(15:52):
What can somebody do besidescrunches to help strengthen
their core?
Great question.
We don't do a ton of justcrunches.
In fact, we do very, verylittle, but we do focus on core
work on everything.
So if you're doing a squat, ifyou're doing a bend, if you're
doing, you know, military press,your core should be engaged the
whole time.
So you know there's easy waysthat I tend to tell people to do
(16:14):
that.
You know.
Pretend that someone's going topunch you in the belly button
every time you do a lift.
That's going to engage your atleast your abs.
Your core is going to reduceyour abs.
Your core is, you know, yourabs in the front, your pelvis in
the back, diaphragm, this kindof big-shaped conglomerate of
(16:36):
muscles there in your lowerabdomen that need to be engaged
to stabilize your spine.
And if they're not going tohave some muscle balances,
there's going to be some muscles, like the glutes, that aren't
going to work properly throughcore style right.
So we work on that with a lotof people, because we have a lot
of people that have publicinstability because they're, of
course, not right or you couldget.
Yes, if you're not engaged inthat and you do heavy lifts, you
(16:58):
know.
So those are all things that wedon't do.
A ton of just paper I'm goingto sit down and do absolutely.
We do a ton of unilateral stuff, so you've got to make one side
of your, your core, versus theother side and the form is scary
and stuff like that.
But we teach that technique toeverybody, regardless of what
exercise you're doing.
So everyone who comes in here,we're gonna talk about your core
(17:20):
a lot.
Yeah yeah, like we just did acore class the other day, we're
at the work.
It all fits together.
My wife is a big component onnot doing sit-ups and crunches.
I know your wife.
Can you elaborate on that?
Well, in my opinion and thismight be our first Crunchverse-
but let's go.
(17:43):
Crunches, sit-ups are notfunctional exercises.
You don't sit around and beable to do, yes, you're going to
make your abs stronger, maybe,sure, but you don't utilize them
in a way that's going to befunctional.
If you're picking up a bag ofboxy, you know, or you're
picking up your chai, or you'rereaching out and putting
(18:05):
something in the high shelf, youdon't crunch when you do that
high shelf, you don't crunchwhen you want.
Is it important to be able toengage those muscle groups in
that capacity?
Absolutely, but I would ratherhave people engage them and do
it deadlifts or do it squats ordo it shoulder press, because
that's a more functional waythat we move outside of it.
Your everyday activity, Everydayactivity, and think about it.
(18:25):
It may have been twisting,getting out of a car, you know,
pushing along or go up and downstairs.
You have to engage your core.
That is having a crunch, youknow.
And so, for the most part, ifyou're spending 20 minutes doing
abs, you are wasting your time.
You need to be doingmulti-joint, you know, big
(18:46):
muscle exercises, with your coreengaged, doing proper breath
work, and you're going to goweigh, stronger core doing that
and you're doing it in a waythat's going to be functional
for you know lifts outside ofthe gym than sitting there and
doing you know side planks andsit-ups and having that for 20
to 30 minutes.
It's kind of a waste of time.
No absolutely, and there'ssomething about the back part of
(19:08):
the stick of the leg that can'tbe good on your spine, your
back or even your back therewhen you're just constantly
moving.
Well, a lot of that, you know,are you able to.
Your body itself is going tostabilize your spine in any way,
shape or form.
It's going to protect yourspine at all costs.
Okay, so yes, if you're bendingforward and stuff like that,
that's fine.
(19:29):
Your spine can kind of engage.
But if you're eating somethingheavy on the floor like a bag of
dog food or something like thatand I use that analogy a lot as
well dogs, cats, whatever youknow, if you, if you can't
stabilize your spine by having astrong core, you may be
straining your core in a waythat makes things up off the
floor.
You're going to strain yourback muscles, you're going to
have problems and issues.
You know those are things thatare just probably, unfortunately
(19:51):
going to happen unless youtrain the way that it is is
appropriate to you in that way.
Yeah, and it's all kind of theentire conversation so far is
the way I take it is you'rewaiting for a better tomorrow.
It's not about what I do, doingwhen I don't need it Exactly Do
I want to?
(20:11):
You know, I can't really think.
That's why I'm trying to go onthis journey this way positive.
I didn't want my kids to feelmy death, my hurt, because you
know, kids are nasty, kids aremean, kids are the king of
darkness, third grade pick yourkids up.
How can I be a true leader inmy family if I need to prepare
(20:32):
myself first?
Yeah, that's great.
I mean, I applaud you for that.
That's awesome, man.
You're a figure.
I appreciate it, and I say thata lot.
You do one workout that day fora minute.
You do 100 workouts for adifferent person.
You know, are you a month fromnow, six weeks from now, six
months from now, a year from now?
What's your health going tolook like if you do something or
if you don't do something?
(20:53):
You know, because it's notsomething like people kind of
get a little antsy or how you'relegitimately getting hurt.
Yes, well, that might benegative and that might happen.
Probably won't, but you're morelikely to get hurt and have
health issues if you don't doanything.
Right, it's not a matter of, oh, if I don't do this, nothing
will happen, but something'sgoing to happen, and something
negative if you don't take careof it or if you don't exercise
(21:15):
stuff like that.
Right, what drives you?
You know, like we talked about,you're a fit person.
Everybody in here, you know, isrelatively fit.
So what gets you going?
You know, I go back to kind ofthe same emphasis that I used
when I was teaching classes.
(21:35):
I told a story.
So when I when my daughtershe's a little used to playing
air hockey and she's played withmy wife one time, so I get air
play with her around her houseand she's a two-year-old and we
did.
I'm like 30 pounds, whateverthey are, and we did that for
like half an hour.
I said I'm like sweaty and I'mlike gosh man, that was a good
one.
My wife said, well, you gotyour work back for the day and
(21:57):
it just kind of got to me.
I was about 32 or 33 at thetime and I'm like man I know
some people who can't do thatand I just got to think, gosh,
you know, I want to be able todo that with my grandkids.
I want to be able to pick up mytwo or three-year-old, play
everything with them aroundtheir house and be like, hey, I
just played with your mom 30years ago.
Well, if I'm 33 and I need to beable to do that 30 years from
(22:18):
now, I'm going to be in mymid-60s.
So what do I need to do betweennow and then to be able to do
that?
Well, that's staying strong.
You know, standing member,having been cardiovascular,
worked, that's day in and dayout, work that you better do.
The other thing is and that's apositive point the other thing
is you know, I have familymembers and stuff like that that
haven't taken care ofthemselves.
(22:39):
I've seen their progress, ortheir downfall, if you will,
throughout their life.
I mean, I don't want to be likethat.
You know, I don't want to notbe able to get up and down out
of a chair when I'm 74.
You know, I want to be able toget up and still go hiking and
biking and play with mygrandkids when I'm that age.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I've seen, you know, the positive side of exercise
and I've seen what happened whenI'm done and I don't want to be
in that boat, you know.
So that's what gets me up,that's what drives me and that's
what drives me.
I follow other people herebecause I think everyone needs
to realize that, like I said, ifyou do nothing, it's not like
nothing happens.
Negative things happen, and socan we help you, help yourself,
(23:16):
be a better person 15 years fromnow, on a work that you do on a
random Friday, and there's somany gyms across the country not
Lincoln, but Lincoln, omaha,the metro area what would you
say to you guys in front of us?
We have true block programming.
It's just not.
We don't do anything.
Bringing the forecast.
You know our programming isgoing to be like personal
(23:38):
training and group setting.
So you know a great way tothink about us is they would
choose their personal training,but we have the same type of
program.
So you're kind of crowdsourcingthat, you get that personal
training price.
So you're kind of crowdsourcingthat personal training price
and you're doing it with a greatcommunity.
You're getting great strengthtraining.
We're the only group that hasbig weights and big kettlebells
(24:00):
and cardiovascular all the samebuilding and so you get a true
strength conditioning programhere that I don't think anybody
else has.
They have their boot camps,camps out there, cardio gyms,
stuff like that, and that's whyI met you.
But if you want to do truestrength and conditioning and
make an investment in yourhealth, this is the perfect way,
(24:23):
absolutely.
I saw somewhere online that youguys received a global or
national award.
You guys received a global ornational award.
Now can you kind of speak onwhat you guys see yourself doing
five years from now?
Ten years from now?
Do you still have this onelocation?
Do you have aspirations to goelsewhere?
We do so.
We have a lot of challengeshere, about every other day,
(24:45):
about every two months or so,depending on how the program is
set up.
And one of our members won theNorth American National Award.
It was fantastic.
Out of the little lake inNebraska there's EFTs in LA,
houston, dallas.
We had a win.
We're really proud about thatand you know we have aspirations
(25:08):
to be a league.
We want to move into Omaha.
We want to move into thatbigger metro area.
We have a product and a gymthat would fit well into the
Omaha area.
You know I live here in Lincoln.
This is where and why westarted here first, and then,
you know, get our feet wet here,you know, slip out of this
place and then move on to thenext year or two to Omaha.
I think we're that way.
(25:29):
That's fantastic.
You know, still try this placeand then move on in the next
year or two to go on a pod andthink about that.
That's fantastic, man, I think,just knowing from this
30-minute conversation, yourpersonal, you care about people
and you care about yourself, youknow.
So I think that's kind of adrive you guys have.
Yeah, thank you.
So what would you say to someonewho's you know fitness world
(25:50):
can be intimidating.
You know, gym anxiety is on theway and I think if you're new
to it and you're gonna have alot of questions, you're gonna
have a lot of anxiety, because alot of people even come in here
like I don't know what to do.
I'm gonna look like I don'tknow what to do.
Go to a place that will teachyou what to do and be there to
(26:12):
support you.
That's that's very important.
And you know, here at work, ifyou don't know how to do you
know a squat or an overheadpress or learning to work with
those things.
That's why we'll teach you howto do it, you know, and so you
don't feel like you're, you know, lost in the you know sea of of
the gym.
You know you're, you're goingin there and you're just waiting
and picking exercises.
(26:33):
We're going to tell you whatyou're going to show that you're
good at.
We're going to teach you how todo it, and go to a place that
has that ability for you.
Go with a buddy.
Go with somebody who maybe youlook up to that can help you out
a little bit.
So, if you don't have a workoutbuddy, go to someone that's
going to teach you.
If you don't have a workoutbuddy, go with them.
(26:54):
You know, find a place thatyou're comfortable going to, and
that's probably the biggestthing.
The second thing is beconsistent.
You know, if you're notconsistent, you go on a Monday
and you don't go to the nextweek on Wednesday you're not
going to get the results thatyou're looking for.
You're going to get out whatyou put into this, and so if
you're thinking about doingsomething, making a change,
(27:15):
you've got to.
You know I may just tilt, don't, just don't just stick your toe
in the pool.
You've got to try.
I think a lot of it's going tobe like you versus me.
I don't want to get on the lineand look at some bodybuilder
that's been lifting like this.
That's been 12 years old.
What your goal is, your goal isyou can.
My life journey isn't the sameas mine, so you first need to
(27:38):
get what you're right, whatyou're going to do, what you're
going to do better.
Yeah, you know, and you knowyourself.
You know I have something.
Oh, I need to work out in themorning.
If that's not you, if you'renot a lawyer or something, don't
work at our point becauseyou're probably done with the
bank.
Find a time of day that worksfor you.
So, know yourself, know yourcapabilities.
Don't over-expect yourself bythe way you're working.
(28:06):
They have to go to the goal.
I think one of the biggestthings like I coach baseball and
football and soccer and one ofthe biggest things I tell my
athletes is have something thatyou can achieve and then reset
your goal.
Yeah, and we'd say the samething.
You know, start tracking andthen, actually, you know, find
out what you can do better thanthat.
You're coming in here.
You know, hey, you're startingout this way.
We're going to make sure thatwe're going to support them and
that's what we're going to talkabout in the game.
(28:28):
Metrics what metrics are youmeasuring to make sure you're
having some success and makingthe world feel that way and
really be successful?
Yes, before we get to our finaland last question, I want to
talk about fasting, ourpresident and owner of the
company, matt, just did a72-hour fast and they issued for
like 48 and just kept going andgoing and going.
Do you believe than a fast?
Food and nutrition is key,correct, nutrition is key.
(28:55):
You know I work with a lot ofdieticians.
There's a lot of differentideas out there on different
types of diets, different things.
I think fasting has a place forsome people.
It depends on what your goalsare and what you were doing
before you started.
You know, whenever I talk aboutdiets to somebody, you know, is
that diet, whatever it is, isit sustainable?
And obviously some of you arefasting.
(29:16):
There's probably not so muchthat you want to do there.
There are different foods.
I would eat whatever I want,but what's sustainable for long
term.
So why fasting sometimes worksfor people is, you know,
depending on how you do it, withdifferent fasting weights, the
less you say.
You know, don't eat in themorning until whatever, whatever
(29:37):
your goal is, that might stopyou from eating Starbucks, or
you know sugary coffees, or youknow whatever, whatever you know
donuts from the doobie store orsomething like that, that might
stop you from doing thosethings.
That will get you into yourdiet in the first place, do you
quite well have success at thesame time as that's something
that you're going to do to yourfuture family.
(29:59):
You know what I usually tellpeople for diets and things is
fight a little thing.
You know, healthy foods havegood effects on your body.
Feed your body first, and thenthe reward you get is you know
what is the mic on that, what'sthe Mac on that?
What is something that you cando for the long term and receive
something in five years fromnow.
(30:20):
First, you just need to do itin the next 90 days.
Yes, you're getting results in90 days, doing something that's
pretty outrageous, but that'ssomething that, when you're done
with it and you work back on ita little bit before, that got
you into needing outranges.
But that's something thatyou've done and you've worked
back and you've done it before.
That got you to needing to dothat.
Or are you going to, you know,have something that's
sustainable, that you cancontinue to do for a long period
(30:40):
of time to achieve your results?
Absolutely Well, how can peopleget a hold of you?
Where can they find we'relocated there?
We're located down on 17th andPine Lake.
You know, I say everyone knowswhere Costco is these days.
We're just south of Costco andjust to the south, so if we're
in the same parking lot as JimmyJohnson, you can find us.
(31:01):
So that's where we're locatedhere down in the southwest part
of Lincoln.
You know we're on Instagram.
We're on Facebook.
You can give me a call.
I'll write to my cell phone at402-817-4286.
You can email us atlincolnatbodyfittrainingcom.
So there's multiple differentways you can get a hold of us.
(31:22):
If people have questions, wantto get in for a class or first
class, go to LMS.
We want people to make sure thatthey're comfortable coming into
a new environment.
You know I'm very encompassingabout that because I didn't
think that is a good deal, andso we want people to feel
comfortable that they're makinga good decision about their
fitness and health journey, andso we'll be everyone a free,
(31:44):
free class here if they want totry us out, and then we'll go
from there.
That's amazing and I thinkthat's the biggest thing is
people don't want to sign up forsomething that they don't know.
Their name.
Right, it's investing.
You're going to invest insomething you don't know nothing
about.
So come in here, take a class,maybe make a new thing too.
We'll talk to you, we'll talkyou through that.
We have so many different classcase we have 14 different
(32:05):
classes that we do you jump intoa hit and you're like I don't
want that Well, hey, I want tolisten to your lifting class.
You kind of, you know, come upwith a okay, that was.
And then you can solvedifferent membership options
based on what those goals are.
They just want to doconditioning, they want to do
lifting, they want to do thewhole line of arts.
You know we've got differentthings that work for different
(32:26):
people, different budgets, allthat kind of stuff In schools
back in session now.
So are you guys open andavailable during the day when
kids are in school?
We are.
So you know we usually don'thave classes all day long.
We have five classes a day,like 5 am, 6.15, 8.30, usually
5.30 pm on days, but we'realways available.
Like you know, my phone'salways open.
(32:48):
You know we're here usuallyuntil the afternoon.
We kind of run around and dosome stuff in the afternoon.
But you know, if somebody needsto stop by here and see us in
the afternoon, we'll be here.
You know we will do stuff andmake sure that we're around for
people to stop on the end andsay hi and see the place.
Maybe it's not for a class.
You're more of a coach than acandidate at this point.
I coach, I do everything.
I love that.
He's big, he's so big for you.
(33:09):
He's got a couple of otherpeople that you need to cover up
.
Got your money, you got yoursign, you got your program, but
it sounds like you'll be therefor your clients.
Yeah, so I coach.
You know, I don't know, thisweek I'm going to coach 10, 12
classes.
So you know there's that.
So I coach a lot.
I love coaching.
That's one thing that wants me.
That's what we'll get to do inthe morning.
(33:30):
I don't want my coaching or Iwant to get better.
You know, in here, get as muchout of it as we can.
So, yeah, I'm not in one room,that's.
You know.
I'm going to be sitting,sitting at home just watching my
team from afar.
I'm here every day, eitherworking out, coaching, you know,
calling on the phone and helpget in here, stuff like that.
That's accountability'saccountability, man, I like that
(33:51):
.
I think that's what separatesyou from the rest of the team.
It may be easy for you to justopen the door and say, here you
go, but if you're in the trancebefore them, it's following you.
Yeah, thanks, you bet, man,let's go all the way back.
Before I get you out of here,let's discuss what advice you
would give to your teammates.
You know that's a greatquestion.
(34:11):
Those questions are, you know,that kind of means the general
opinion.
Maybe you're not in a placewhere you'd like to be.
You know, I don't know what Ican give to a 16-year-old Mike
that would put him in adifferent place than I am now.
You know, I think the onlything that I would say is you
know, make sure you're.
Studying in college is a bithard, but in reality, where I'm
at, where my life is, I love it.
(34:34):
I love what I'm doing.
I love where I'm at, you know.
So I don't know if there'sanything that I would do
different.
I'll be honest, you know that'snegative and perfect.
As a teenager I certainly didn't.
Nobody did um, you're not smartenough for that, but you know,
I think the only thing that Iwould say is be diligent, work
hard, you know, work harder.
The only thing that I would sayis that a big deal is to work
harder, you know, work harder.
Sometimes you need to workharder than you ever thought you
(34:56):
could, and sometimes there'sprobably some times in my life
where I didn't do that and thatprobably would be one thing I'd
say to them.
But I love my.
So I'm on year nine of mysobriety and when I go and get
speech advice or when I go andtalk to you know the youth that
(35:18):
are going through it right now,they always ask you know well,
why don't you go back and not doit?
I don't get so mad because I'mhere with Murray and everything
kind of led me to here.
I go through my college courses, everything kind of led me here
.
I had to go through my mom'sbruises.
My story is my story, right,and I'm proud of it and I'm
proud of the whole that I wasfound out of and same with the
weight loss.
I wouldn't be able to talk topeople about my story or my
(35:42):
journey unless I went throughthe trials and tribulations.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It's all with you.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Everyone has their own story.
Some of them are great and someof them are not, but they
always swear to God.
I hope most people are proud ofwhere they're at.
I'm proud of where I'm at, soI'm pretty proud of where you're
at.
I mean, that's what makes adifference.
Yeah, can we do somethingdifferent?
That might have been.
You know, hey, there's dumbthings we've all done, but for
the most part, I'm glad we'rehere.
(36:07):
We've done, I'm glad we're here.
I appreciate you taking thetime to be with us today.
The next thing I want to do is Iwant to take you up on one of
those free courses.
We'll meet up on a podcastFantastic, that would be awesome
.
Video blogging We'll get allcompany.
We do that.
A couple things we can do forcompanies.
(36:32):
I'll listen to.
My question here we go, here wego.
Listen to me Is if you guyshave, you know, a workout, you
want to do team building, stufflike that, we'll do a private
class for you guys.
We have a special class forthat.
We're actually running it thisweekend.
We have a BFTM off this weekend, so we're running our special
(36:52):
class for people who haven'tbeen in before.
But if your company wants tocome in, we'll give you a
special class, a special timeWe've got it.
We've got it Alright everybody.
Thanks for joining us on theStay Modern with Miriam podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
I appreciate everyone's support.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
We look forward to the next episode.
Mike, thank you for everythingand thanks for having us.
Yeah, thanks for coming.
I love this.
I love talking to people likethis, so I appreciate learning
your story.
You guys can come in here.
You know I love to visit, so Ihope you have a good weekend and
go big.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
If you have questions or topics you'd like us to
discuss, you can email them toinfo at murraycustomhomescom.
If you like this episode, besure to subscribe to Stay Modern
with Murray on Apple andSpotify, or check back on our
website and social mediaregularly for the latest
episodes.
Welcome to another episode of Stay Modern with
Murray, brought to you by MurrayCustom Homes, where we build
your dream home together.
Now sit back, buckle up andenjoy the ride with your host,
matt Murray hey everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Welcome back to another episode of Stay Modern
with Murray, the podcast wherewe dive into everything related
to modern living, home designand, of course, interviewing
local business owners here inLincoln, nebraska.
I'm your host for today,matthew Taylor.
I'm a penchant for Matt Murray.
Today we are on location at BFTFitness here in Lincoln, joined
by this very special guest, theowner of BFT Fitness, mike
Connors.
Mike, please introduce yourselfto our audience.
(00:44):
A little bit about youpersonally.
Sure, thanks for having me ontoday.
I'm excited to be on yourpodcast here.
And so, yeah, a little bitabout myself.
We've been here.
Bft's been here for about 18months.
I've been in the fitness worldsince college.
I came to UNL out of highschool in Pass, nebraska, so you
know, out west God's country,exactly so grew up out there in
(01:07):
a small town.
Obviously, in the UNL I was anextra science major in fitness.
I worked for physical therapygroups.
I ran gyms before I got intocorporate wellness for about
eight years.
So I did that kind of side ofthings I kind of did on both
sides of the fitness world,whether it be in the gym or
trying to get people throughcorporate wellness programs,
(01:29):
those types of things.
And a partner of mine, my wife,got into this about two years
ago.
We've been with her for about18 months and yeah, it's been
great.
Well, I came back here.
I've been a certified strengthcoach for about 15 years, so
glad to be back here doing sometraining here at BFT Corporate
wellness.
Now tell me a little bit aboutwhat corporate wellness is.
(01:51):
When you say that I'm in a stepprogram, you get cheaper
insurance if you give $10,000 tothe kid.
There are some that are verymuch like that.
So the program that I wrote Iwas at the Beatrice Union
Hospital before this.
I did a lot of classes like popclasses for the employees.
We did wellness out in thecommunity so we brought people
(02:12):
in.
We kind of did some of thecorporate wellness gigs for some
of the other businesses atBeatrice.
But yes, it is a lot of money.
It's your stuff.
Let's help you help yourself alittle bit and because of that
you get the cheaper chance.
So you know, trying to helppeople get to a point where
they're helping themselves behealthier and then they get
(02:34):
rewarded for it.
You know that could mean comingto a place like this on the
other side of things and hey, ifyou come to the gym, say 10, 12
times a month, you'll getcontrol over that, you know.
So you know, here, once againat BFT, we're trying to help a
few other businesses do the samething, like, hey, we can help
you with your corporate wellnessBecause I've been on both sides
of the coin there, so I knowhow hard it is on the corporate
(02:56):
side of things and you know,obviously it's hard on the side
of things too.
If you can a little bit aboutthat, yeah, absolutely.
And my wife is a physicaltherapist, okay, and she's a
sports fan, gotcha.
She did her study for McDonoughand then I think it was back
with her.
Sure, one of the biggest thingsabout McDonough that she
(03:16):
pointed out to me was the signof progress.
Right, like here you get to seepeople get into a healthier
lifestyle to better themselvesand their families.
There, you know, she washelping people literally walk
again.
Can you talk about maybe someof your successes or the biggest
reward that you find out inhelping people find their inner
self?
Well, you know, there's a lotof different metrics that you
(03:39):
can say is a measure ofconfidence.
You know, and I think whenpeople think of gyms they think
that, oh, it's gonna be weightloss.
Well, you can't lose all ofyour weight, right, you know.
There's no way that you can,you know, lose every ounce of
fat in your body.
It wouldn't be healthy.
So, you know, there's peoplefrom here that have lost a lot.
We've had one lady who's lost ahundred and thirty pounds in
(03:59):
two days.
Surprise, that's a huge success, you know, on that.
So there's a lot of you know,that's a great success.
But there's also people who youknow hadn't worked out since
high school and they're in their50s and now they're coming
three or four times a week andthey just, you know, they just
feel better.
Yeah, maybe the skills changed alittle bit, but they're able to
(04:20):
move better.
They're able to run when theythey would be able to before.
Their range of motion is better, their strength is better.
You know, we've had people whocome in and after a while their
glucose has gone down, theircholesterol has gone down, so
they're getting healthier, andso, yeah, there's a lot of
different measures of progressthat people need to look at
(04:40):
Whether it's just beingconsistent hey, I came two times
a week for a month.
Now I'm coming three times aweek, I'm coming four times a
week or my diet's changing.
So there's all these thingsthat people can look at to
measure progress, and it's notjust one or two metrics that
should be looking at this.
That didn't get you, but I usedto work with physical therapy
myself and I mean, look at,there's definitely differences
(05:09):
between, say, say, clinical areaof fitness versus a gym area of
fitness, but it's kind of thesame rules apply.
There's three different metricsthere whether the range of
motion is better after surgeryor whether the strength is
better when you go back to work.
Here we're looking at scale,body composition, strength
improvements, muscular endurance, all those things have a
benefit there, those things wecan measure to make sure that
people are making a promise.
Yeah, so a little bit about me.
I was 357 pounds about threeand a half years.
(05:32):
I quit drinking and got rid ofall the silly partying.
I cut down my carbohydrates to35 grams in a day.
My sugar intake is little tonone.
I mean's in my intake.
So it's been really, I say, alittle over 10, but it's
literally a fruit at a highamount of sugar what I would
want, and I'm walking around atabout 180, 190 now.
(05:53):
So it's a way I do the mathright now.
It's a way of loss of around170.
That's awesome, man.
Now what advice would you giveto somebody like me where I want
to start bulking up?
Right, you know what, is it?
Just consistency?
Or what advice would you give?
Consistency and weight lifting?
I mean, you know I'm stilleating a diet.
(06:16):
So if you want to bulk up, ifyou want to add muscle, you not
only have to lift weights andthose are pretty heavy and be
consistent with that, but youalso have to add in pounds.
You know, I think themisconception there is we're
always trying to subtract.
I guess people want to loseweight.
That's just what they do whenthey work out.
But if you want to add muscle,you have to add to your calories
.
So you know, go to sugars,fruits, veggies, whole grains.
We're fantastic.
(06:37):
Protein is always important.
We're trying to add muscle massto yourself.
But then be consistent.
You be consistent in the weight.
Do big lifts, multi-jointexercises, squats, bench press,
shoulder press, deadlifts.
Those types of big musclemovements are going to help you
(06:57):
build the most muscle over aperiod of time.
Also, be realistic with the timeframe.
It's really really hard to gainmuscle.
You know we hear this a lot oftime, especially with people
like Mike Bolt, where he's likeyou're probably not actually
adding muscle that quickly.
You know you're probably, youknow, feeling some of the
(07:17):
effects of inflammation fromthose muscles.
It can take, you know, three tosix months to gain two or three
pounds of muscle.
But when you do that, your bodycomposition changes quite a bit
.
You're going to feel and look alot different just based off
three or six months ofconsistent doing that.
Dude, this is fascinating.
You talk about two pounds in along stretch, but two pounds of
(07:39):
muscle are way different thantwo pounds of fat and two pounds
of water.
Absolutely huge difference andyou know we used to have, you
know, you know versions ofmuscle that are five and a half,
versions of fat that are fivepounds and the density is so
much different, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And so you're going to look and feel.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You know there's pictures out there that are in
every time.
You know I could be the exampleA lot of times.
You know husband's playing here.
You have a 225 pound linebacker.
Let's take this A lot of fat.
That guy's pretty shredded.
Yeah, you have a guy who's 225pounds.
Please push that line back 35%.
Yes, there's scale.
(08:16):
It's the exact same, but theway they look is completely
different.
And so muscle has such a hugeimpact on how you look, how you
feel, how you function, andthat's why we do so much
strength training here at GIFT,because it's so important to
maintain muscle mass, tomaintain strength as you go
through training.
All those things are vital tobe a healthy person and it's
(08:38):
something that gets lost onpeople that maybe just do the
cardio or not do anything at allLike how muscle and strength is
to have a body.
We talk about fitness andpeople automatically go to just
big muscular things.
For me, that's what it's anutrition.
So what's a day in the life ofmine, right?
(08:59):
I mean, you're a pretty thinguy.
I do that walking in here, andit's not just a kid or business
owner.
I'm assuming that the kids youcare about your own family,
right?
So on a day to day, I've heardyou talk about how things are
macro.
You know, great, great question.
I've tried my diet so much overthe years.
I just kind of have thisrolling number in my head.
But you know, I try to eatpretty much as much whole foods
(09:25):
as I can.
I don't really count macrosthat much anymore.
But if it has my guy was adietician for a while back if it
has protein, fiber, then I'dprobably eat it.
So fruits, veggies, wholegrains, wheat, cuts of wheat,
stuff like that, that's good togo to have.
Now do I have French fries?
(09:47):
There's so many, so it's notlike I'm restricting myself to
anything and I'm, you know,putting things out that you know
I'll go have a burger and friesor I'll go to Memorial Stadium
and have a slice of Valentino's.
You know, of course I'm humanbut for the most part,
consistently speaking, you know,I'm going to be pretty healthy
(10:09):
at most of the time of the day.
And then, you know, I work out.
What I do with me is I doworkout every day.
I make sure to get 30 classesof time to do it.
Today I'm doing a millionclasses.
So we're, you know, five or sixdays a week.
I'm doing our regiment ofclasses here and that's what
keeps me moving here.
I try and walk around, makecalls, stuff like that.
We're up around stuff here atthe gym all the time.
(10:30):
So, you know, kind of movingmost of the day.
We have a really hard workoutevery day.
I'm being pretty healthy.
It's, you know, it's prettyeasy recipe to do.
It's hard to be a practice.
What would you say I canimagine the I call, call them
students but your clients thatcome in and see the, the owner
of the business, if you're doinga bft workout with them, I
(10:52):
imagine that people believe inbusiness owners or even in
construction.
When you're getting your handsdirty, you're in the field,
you're in the trenches andyou're trying to do it for
people, they take it a littlemore serious.
Now, what's a bigger teamworkout?
So you were talking aboutyou're 30 more to be in a bigger
team workout.
What's that?
It depends on the day.
(11:12):
So every day is a differentclass and so, for instance,
today our class is a hit so highintensity in the midterm.
Yesterday it was a class aboutstrength, which is low reps,
high weights.
Every day is a different classand we're going to focus on
different things for that class.
Usually we do a lot of strengthtraining.
Our roots are in strengthtraining, so even though we're
(11:33):
doing some conditioning classes,we're going to have some sort
of strength component to it, butwe have our workout.
Sometimes our workouts are bothin the upper body or lower body
some of the big muscle groupsand that's it.
Sometimes we do core work withour strength training.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Other days we do more conditioning things.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
So we have a couple classes like stunt and cardio
view and HIIT that are moreconditioning you can't forget
about.
You know, part of the month wegotta make sure that our
cardiovascular system is off thedate, you know if you will.
So the way our programmingprogram works is every day kind
of things.
In the next we try and focus on, you know, three different
(12:13):
muscle groups or three differenttypes of muscle fibers.
You know three different modesof metabolism every week.
So we don't burn them out.
We're not trying to come hereand you, you know make you kill
yourself one day and then you'renot even going back to three.
You know we're going to break itup.
Like yesterday was another bodyday, today's a little bit more
lower body focus for cardio,because you know they're human.
(12:35):
That is refreshing.
So that's kind of how we sortof built up and then we have
eight to ten training blockswhere you're going to move
through a training block andyou're going to focus on a few
different lifts so you're goingto get better.
After that training block ourprogramming is going to grow.
So, for instance, the HIIT thatwe did today, um started out
with you know, short intervals,about 20 seconds on, 30 seconds
(12:58):
off, you know.
So you're working hard for avery short period of time.
Couple steps there today, there, Today it was closer to 45
seconds.
So as you work through thistraining block, you group with
that particular program, soyou're always getting ready for
something.
And then you know, in a fewweeks we'll have a new training
block that focuses on some otherthings and we'll start the
process over again.
That's absolutely fascinating,I can imagine.
(13:20):
So something that drives mecrazy is when I go it's too late
for me, you know, or I'm on aclass that I don't need to worry
about getting back to the shape.
What is the range that you seefor your guys?
Uh, 17 to 84.
No, no, no, 84.
If you like, you got severalpeople in their seventies that
come in and lots of people intheir sixties.
So the great thing about BFT isour program will meet you right
(13:44):
there.
It doesn't matter if you'veonly worked out 20 years, it
doesn't matter if you've been anadvanced exerciser for 10 years
.
Our program is going to meet youright here at home, because
we've got different weights foreverybody.
We're going to put you into agroup that allows you to do what
you're able to.
We might have a former D1athlete in here and then we
(14:04):
might have an L84-year-old.
They might be in the same classdoing the same things.
It isn't going to lookdifferent, Absolutely.
You know they're able to do thesame workout.
We have two trainers in eachclass.
Everyone here is a certifiedstrength coach or a certified
personal trainer.
So if people need things thatare modified past injuries or
range of motion issues you knowwe're going to be able to modify
(14:25):
those things for them if needbe, and need, and so you know we
really are for everybody.
You know, depending on whereyour background is, it's never
too late.
In fact, the later you are.
I'm going to go off and justdecide.
Can you believe me?
I mean, I worked at a hospitalfor a while, I worked in
physical therapy for a long timeand you know I used to tell
(14:47):
people, hey, if you can't do apush-up, you're in trouble like,
can you do a push-up to saveyour life?
And the reason I say that isyou know, if you're at home,
you're in the kitchen, you're inthe bathtub and you slip a ball
and you're hopefully goinggreat, can you get off the floor
?
Right, that's a strength issue,you know, can you do a push-up
to get off the floor?
Can you do a lunge, get up offof your knees?
(15:10):
That's a strength issue.
It's not a matter of anythingelse besides that.
Can you, or do you have thestrength to do those things?
And that's where, if you're inyour 50s, 60s, 70s and you're
not able to go downstairs or mowyour lawn, or travel like you
want to.
It's time to get in here and dosome strength training, because
that's what you need Absolutely,my wife.
(15:32):
So I went through.
I had her a couple years back Iwas helping my mom go to the
fridge.
It was right when I started tolose all the weight.
I was talking to my wife aboutit and I'm like God, I feel like
I'm strong in this and that I'mlike what is the deal here?
She said she was talking aboutyour core, my core not being
strong, my core not havingstrength in these abs.
(15:52):
What can somebody do besidescrunches to help strengthen
their core?
Great question.
We don't do a ton of justcrunches.
In fact, we do very, verylittle, but we do focus on core
work on everything.
So if you're doing a squat, ifyou're doing a bend, if you're
doing, you know, military press,your core should be engaged the
whole time.
So you know there's easy waysthat I tend to tell people to do
(16:14):
that.
You know.
Pretend that someone's going topunch you in the belly button
every time you do a lift.
That's going to engage your atleast your abs.
Your core is going to reduceyour abs.
Your core is, you know, yourabs in the front, your pelvis in
the back, diaphragm, this kindof big-shaped conglomerate of
(16:36):
muscles there in your lowerabdomen that need to be engaged
to stabilize your spine.
And if they're not going tohave some muscle balances,
there's going to be some muscles, like the glutes, that aren't
going to work properly throughcore style right.
So we work on that with a lotof people, because we have a lot
of people that have publicinstability because they're, of
course, not right or you couldget.
Yes, if you're not engaged inthat and you do heavy lifts, you
(16:58):
know.
So those are all things that wedon't do.
A ton of just paper I'm goingto sit down and do absolutely.
We do a ton of unilateral stuff, so you've got to make one side
of your, your core, versus theother side and the form is scary
and stuff like that.
But we teach that technique toeverybody, regardless of what
exercise you're doing.
So everyone who comes in here,we're gonna talk about your core
(17:20):
a lot.
Yeah yeah, like we just did acore class the other day, we're
at the work.
It all fits together.
My wife is a big component onnot doing sit-ups and crunches.
I know your wife.
Can you elaborate on that?
Well, in my opinion and thismight be our first Crunchverse-
but let's go.
(17:43):
Crunches, sit-ups are notfunctional exercises.
You don't sit around and beable to do, yes, you're going to
make your abs stronger, maybe,sure, but you don't utilize them
in a way that's going to befunctional.
If you're picking up a bag ofboxy, you know, or you're
picking up your chai, or you'rereaching out and putting
(18:05):
something in the high shelf, youdon't crunch when you do that
high shelf, you don't crunchwhen you want.
Is it important to be able toengage those muscle groups in
that capacity?
Absolutely, but I would ratherhave people engage them and do
it deadlifts or do it squats ordo it shoulder press, because
that's a more functional waythat we move outside of it.
Your everyday activity, Everydayactivity, and think about it.
(18:25):
It may have been twisting,getting out of a car, you know,
pushing along or go up and downstairs.
You have to engage your core.
That is having a crunch, youknow.
And so, for the most part, ifyou're spending 20 minutes doing
abs, you are wasting your time.
You need to be doingmulti-joint, you know, big
(18:46):
muscle exercises, with your coreengaged, doing proper breath
work, and you're going to goweigh, stronger core doing that
and you're doing it in a waythat's going to be functional
for you know lifts outside ofthe gym than sitting there and
doing you know side planks andsit-ups and having that for 20
to 30 minutes.
It's kind of a waste of time.
No absolutely, and there'ssomething about the back part of
(19:08):
the stick of the leg that can'tbe good on your spine, your
back or even your back therewhen you're just constantly
moving.
Well, a lot of that, you know,are you able to.
Your body itself is going tostabilize your spine in any way,
shape or form.
It's going to protect yourspine at all costs.
Okay, so yes, if you're bendingforward and stuff like that,
that's fine.
(19:29):
Your spine can kind of engage.
But if you're eating somethingheavy on the floor like a bag of
dog food or something like thatand I use that analogy a lot as
well dogs, cats, whatever youknow, if you, if you can't
stabilize your spine by having astrong core, you may be
straining your core in a waythat makes things up off the
floor.
You're going to strain yourback muscles, you're going to
have problems and issues.
You know those are things thatare just probably, unfortunately
(19:51):
going to happen unless youtrain the way that it is is
appropriate to you in that way.
Yeah, and it's all kind of theentire conversation so far is
the way I take it is you'rewaiting for a better tomorrow.
It's not about what I do, doingwhen I don't need it Exactly Do
I want to?
(20:11):
You know, I can't really think.
That's why I'm trying to go onthis journey this way positive.
I didn't want my kids to feelmy death, my hurt, because you
know, kids are nasty, kids aremean, kids are the king of
darkness, third grade pick yourkids up.
How can I be a true leader inmy family if I need to prepare
(20:32):
myself first?
Yeah, that's great.
I mean, I applaud you for that.
That's awesome, man.
You're a figure.
I appreciate it, and I say thata lot.
You do one workout that day fora minute.
You do 100 workouts for adifferent person.
You know, are you a month fromnow, six weeks from now, six
months from now, a year from now?
What's your health going tolook like if you do something or
if you don't do something?
(20:53):
You know, because it's notsomething like people kind of
get a little antsy or how you'relegitimately getting hurt.
Yes, well, that might benegative and that might happen.
Probably won't, but you're morelikely to get hurt and have
health issues if you don't doanything.
Right, it's not a matter of, oh, if I don't do this, nothing
will happen, but something'sgoing to happen, and something
negative if you don't take careof it or if you don't exercise
(21:15):
stuff like that.
Right, what drives you?
You know, like we talked about,you're a fit person.
Everybody in here, you know, isrelatively fit.
So what gets you going?
You know, I go back to kind ofthe same emphasis that I used
when I was teaching classes.
(21:35):
I told a story.
So when I when my daughtershe's a little used to playing
air hockey and she's played withmy wife one time, so I get air
play with her around her houseand she's a two-year-old and we
did.
I'm like 30 pounds, whateverthey are, and we did that for
like half an hour.
I said I'm like sweaty and I'mlike gosh man, that was a good
one.
My wife said, well, you gotyour work back for the day and
(21:57):
it just kind of got to me.
I was about 32 or 33 at thetime and I'm like man I know
some people who can't do thatand I just got to think, gosh,
you know, I want to be able todo that with my grandkids.
I want to be able to pick up mytwo or three-year-old, play
everything with them aroundtheir house and be like, hey, I
just played with your mom 30years ago.
Well, if I'm 33 and I need to beable to do that 30 years from
(22:18):
now, I'm going to be in mymid-60s.
So what do I need to do betweennow and then to be able to do
that?
Well, that's staying strong.
You know, standing member,having been cardiovascular,
worked, that's day in and dayout, work that you better do.
The other thing is and that's apositive point the other thing
is you know, I have familymembers and stuff like that that
haven't taken care ofthemselves.
(22:39):
I've seen their progress, ortheir downfall, if you will,
throughout their life.
I mean, I don't want to be likethat.
You know, I don't want to notbe able to get up and down out
of a chair when I'm 74.
You know, I want to be able toget up and still go hiking and
biking and play with mygrandkids when I'm that age.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
And.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
I've seen, you know, the positive side of exercise
and I've seen what happened whenI'm done and I don't want to be
in that boat, you know.
So that's what gets me up,that's what drives me and that's
what drives me.
I follow other people herebecause I think everyone needs
to realize that, like I said, ifyou do nothing, it's not like
nothing happens.
Negative things happen, and socan we help you, help yourself,
(23:16):
be a better person 15 years fromnow, on a work that you do on a
random Friday, and there's somany gyms across the country not
Lincoln, but Lincoln, omaha,the metro area what would you
say to you guys in front of us?
We have true block programming.
It's just not.
We don't do anything.
Bringing the forecast.
You know our programming isgoing to be like personal
(23:38):
training and group setting.
So you know a great way tothink about us is they would
choose their personal training,but we have the same type of
program.
So you're kind of crowdsourcingthat, you get that personal
training price.
So you're kind of crowdsourcingthat personal training price
and you're doing it with a greatcommunity.
You're getting great strengthtraining.
We're the only group that hasbig weights and big kettlebells
(24:00):
and cardiovascular all the samebuilding and so you get a true
strength conditioning programhere that I don't think anybody
else has.
They have their boot camps,camps out there, cardio gyms,
stuff like that, and that's whyI met you.
But if you want to do truestrength and conditioning and
make an investment in yourhealth, this is the perfect way,
(24:23):
absolutely.
I saw somewhere online that youguys received a global or
national award.
You guys received a global ornational award.
Now can you kind of speak onwhat you guys see yourself doing
five years from now?
Ten years from now?
Do you still have this onelocation?
Do you have aspirations to goelsewhere?
We do so.
We have a lot of challengeshere, about every other day,
(24:45):
about every two months or so,depending on how the program is
set up.
And one of our members won theNorth American National Award.
It was fantastic.
Out of the little lake inNebraska there's EFTs in LA,
houston, dallas.
We had a win.
We're really proud about thatand you know we have aspirations
(25:08):
to be a league.
We want to move into Omaha.
We want to move into thatbigger metro area.
We have a product and a gymthat would fit well into the
Omaha area.
You know I live here in Lincoln.
This is where and why westarted here first, and then,
you know, get our feet wet here,you know, slip out of this
place and then move on to thenext year or two to Omaha.
I think we're that way.
(25:29):
That's fantastic.
You know, still try this placeand then move on in the next
year or two to go on a pod andthink about that.
That's fantastic, man, I think,just knowing from this
30-minute conversation, yourpersonal, you care about people
and you care about yourself, youknow.
So I think that's kind of adrive you guys have.
Yeah, thank you.
So what would you say to someonewho's you know fitness world
(25:50):
can be intimidating.
You know, gym anxiety is on theway and I think if you're new
to it and you're gonna have alot of questions, you're gonna
have a lot of anxiety, because alot of people even come in here
like I don't know what to do.
I'm gonna look like I don'tknow what to do.
Go to a place that will teachyou what to do and be there to
(26:12):
support you.
That's that's very important.
And you know, here at work, ifyou don't know how to do you
know a squat or an overheadpress or learning to work with
those things.
That's why we'll teach you howto do it, you know, and so you
don't feel like you're, you know, lost in the you know sea of of
the gym.
You know you're, you're goingin there and you're just waiting
and picking exercises.
(26:33):
We're going to tell you whatyou're going to show that you're
good at.
We're going to teach you how todo it, and go to a place that
has that ability for you.
Go with a buddy.
Go with somebody who maybe youlook up to that can help you out
a little bit.
So, if you don't have a workoutbuddy, go to someone that's
going to teach you.
If you don't have a workoutbuddy, go with them.
(26:54):
You know, find a place thatyou're comfortable going to, and
that's probably the biggestthing.
The second thing is beconsistent.
You know, if you're notconsistent, you go on a Monday
and you don't go to the nextweek on Wednesday you're not
going to get the results thatyou're looking for.
You're going to get out whatyou put into this, and so if
you're thinking about doingsomething, making a change,
(27:15):
you've got to.
You know I may just tilt, don't, just don't just stick your toe
in the pool.
You've got to try.
I think a lot of it's going tobe like you versus me.
I don't want to get on the lineand look at some bodybuilder
that's been lifting like this.
That's been 12 years old.
What your goal is, your goal isyou can.
My life journey isn't the sameas mine, so you first need to
(27:38):
get what you're right, whatyou're going to do, what you're
going to do better.
Yeah, you know, and you knowyourself.
You know I have something.
Oh, I need to work out in themorning.
If that's not you, if you'renot a lawyer or something, don't
work at our point becauseyou're probably done with the
bank.
Find a time of day that worksfor you.
So, know yourself, know yourcapabilities.
Don't over-expect yourself bythe way you're working.
(28:06):
They have to go to the goal.
I think one of the biggestthings like I coach baseball and
football and soccer and one ofthe biggest things I tell my
athletes is have something thatyou can achieve and then reset
your goal.
Yeah, and we'd say the samething.
You know, start tracking andthen, actually, you know, find
out what you can do better thanthat.
You're coming in here.
You know, hey, you're startingout this way.
We're going to make sure thatwe're going to support them and
that's what we're going to talkabout in the game.
(28:28):
Metrics what metrics are youmeasuring to make sure you're
having some success and makingthe world feel that way and
really be successful?
Yes, before we get to our finaland last question, I want to
talk about fasting, ourpresident and owner of the
company, matt, just did a72-hour fast and they issued for
like 48 and just kept going andgoing and going.
Do you believe than a fast?
Food and nutrition is key,correct, nutrition is key.
(28:55):
You know I work with a lot ofdieticians.
There's a lot of differentideas out there on different
types of diets, different things.
I think fasting has a place forsome people.
It depends on what your goalsare and what you were doing
before you started.
You know, whenever I talk aboutdiets to somebody, you know, is
that diet, whatever it is, isit sustainable?
And obviously some of you arefasting.
(29:16):
There's probably not so muchthat you want to do there.
There are different foods.
I would eat whatever I want,but what's sustainable for long
term.
So why fasting sometimes worksfor people is, you know,
depending on how you do it, withdifferent fasting weights, the
less you say.
You know, don't eat in themorning until whatever, whatever
(29:37):
your goal is, that might stopyou from eating Starbucks, or
you know sugary coffees, or youknow whatever, whatever you know
donuts from the doobie store orsomething like that, that might
stop you from doing thosethings.
That will get you into yourdiet in the first place, do you
quite well have success at thesame time as that's something
that you're going to do to yourfuture family.
(29:59):
You know what I usually tellpeople for diets and things is
fight a little thing.
You know, healthy foods havegood effects on your body.
Feed your body first, and thenthe reward you get is you know
what is the mic on that, what'sthe Mac on that?
What is something that you cando for the long term and receive
something in five years fromnow.
(30:20):
First, you just need to do itin the next 90 days.
Yes, you're getting results in90 days, doing something that's
pretty outrageous, but that'ssomething that, when you're done
with it and you work back on ita little bit before, that got
you into needing outranges.
But that's something thatyou've done and you've worked
back and you've done it before.
That got you to needing to dothat.
Or are you going to, you know,have something that's
sustainable, that you cancontinue to do for a long period
(30:40):
of time to achieve your results?
Absolutely Well, how can peopleget a hold of you?
Where can they find we'relocated there?
We're located down on 17th andPine Lake.
You know, I say everyone knowswhere Costco is these days.
We're just south of Costco andjust to the south, so if we're
in the same parking lot as JimmyJohnson, you can find us.
(31:01):
So that's where we're locatedhere down in the southwest part
of Lincoln.
You know we're on Instagram.
We're on Facebook.
You can give me a call.
I'll write to my cell phone at402-817-4286.
You can email us atlincolnatbodyfittrainingcom.
So there's multiple differentways you can get a hold of us.
(31:22):
If people have questions, wantto get in for a class or first
class, go to LMS.
We want people to make sure thatthey're comfortable coming into
a new environment.
You know I'm very encompassingabout that because I didn't
think that is a good deal, andso we want people to feel
comfortable that they're makinga good decision about their
fitness and health journey, andso we'll be everyone a free,
(31:44):
free class here if they want totry us out, and then we'll go
from there.
That's amazing and I thinkthat's the biggest thing is
people don't want to sign up forsomething that they don't know.
Their name.
Right, it's investing.
You're going to invest insomething you don't know nothing
about.
So come in here, take a class,maybe make a new thing too.
We'll talk to you, we'll talkyou through that.
We have so many different classcase we have 14 different
(32:05):
classes that we do you jump intoa hit and you're like I don't
want that Well, hey, I want tolisten to your lifting class.
You kind of, you know, come upwith a okay, that was.
And then you can solvedifferent membership options
based on what those goals are.
They just want to doconditioning, they want to do
lifting, they want to do thewhole line of arts.
You know we've got differentthings that work for different
(32:26):
people, different budgets, allthat kind of stuff In schools
back in session now.
So are you guys open andavailable during the day when
kids are in school?
We are.
So you know we usually don'thave classes all day long.
We have five classes a day,like 5 am, 6.15, 8.30, usually
5.30 pm on days, but we'realways available.
Like you know, my phone'salways open.
(32:48):
You know we're here usuallyuntil the afternoon.
We kind of run around and dosome stuff in the afternoon.
But you know, if somebody needsto stop by here and see us in
the afternoon, we'll be here.
You know we will do stuff andmake sure that we're around for
people to stop on the end andsay hi and see the place.
Maybe it's not for a class.
You're more of a coach than acandidate at this point.
I coach, I do everything.
I love that.
He's big, he's so big for you.
(33:09):
He's got a couple of otherpeople that you need to cover up
.
Got your money, you got yoursign, you got your program, but
it sounds like you'll be therefor your clients.
Yeah, so I coach.
You know, I don't know, thisweek I'm going to coach 10, 12
classes.
So you know there's that.
So I coach a lot.
I love coaching.
That's one thing that wants me.
That's what we'll get to do inthe morning.
(33:30):
I don't want my coaching or Iwant to get better.
You know, in here, get as muchout of it as we can.
So, yeah, I'm not in one room,that's.
You know.
I'm going to be sitting,sitting at home just watching my
team from afar.
I'm here every day, eitherworking out, coaching, you know,
calling on the phone and helpget in here, stuff like that.
That's accountability'saccountability, man, I like that
(33:51):
.
I think that's what separatesyou from the rest of the team.
It may be easy for you to justopen the door and say, here you
go, but if you're in the trancebefore them, it's following you.
Yeah, thanks, you bet, man,let's go all the way back.
Before I get you out of here,let's discuss what advice you
would give to your teammates.
You know that's a greatquestion.
(34:11):
Those questions are, you know,that kind of means the general
opinion.
Maybe you're not in a placewhere you'd like to be.
You know, I don't know what Ican give to a 16-year-old Mike
that would put him in adifferent place than I am now.
You know, I think the onlything that I would say is you
know, make sure you're.
Studying in college is a bithard, but in reality, where I'm
at, where my life is, I love it.
(34:34):
I love what I'm doing.
I love where I'm at, you know.
So I don't know if there'sanything that I would do
different.
I'll be honest, you know that'snegative and perfect.
As a teenager I certainly didn't.
Nobody did um, you're not smartenough for that, but you know,
I think the only thing that Iwould say is be diligent, work
hard, you know, work harder.
The only thing that I would sayis that a big deal is to work
harder, you know, work harder.
Sometimes you need to workharder than you ever thought you
(34:56):
could, and sometimes there'sprobably some times in my life
where I didn't do that and thatprobably would be one thing I'd
say to them.
But I love my.
So I'm on year nine of mysobriety and when I go and get
speech advice or when I go andtalk to you know the youth that
(35:18):
are going through it right now,they always ask you know well,
why don't you go back and not doit?
I don't get so mad because I'mhere with Murray and everything
kind of led me to here.
I go through my college courses, everything kind of led me here
.
I had to go through my mom'sbruises.
My story is my story, right,and I'm proud of it and I'm
proud of the whole that I wasfound out of and same with the
weight loss.
I wouldn't be able to talk topeople about my story or my
(35:42):
journey unless I went throughthe trials and tribulations.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It's all with you.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Everyone has their own story.
Some of them are great and someof them are not, but they
always swear to God.
I hope most people are proud ofwhere they're at.
I'm proud of where I'm at, soI'm pretty proud of where you're
at.
I mean, that's what makes adifference.
Yeah, can we do somethingdifferent?
That might have been.
You know, hey, there's dumbthings we've all done, but for
the most part, I'm glad we'rehere.
(36:07):
We've done, I'm glad we're here.
I appreciate you taking thetime to be with us today.
The next thing I want to do is Iwant to take you up on one of
those free courses.
We'll meet up on a podcastFantastic, that would be awesome
.
Video blogging We'll get allcompany.
We do that.
A couple things we can do forcompanies.
(36:32):
I'll listen to.
My question here we go, here wego.
Listen to me Is if you guyshave, you know, a workout, you
want to do team building, stufflike that, we'll do a private
class for you guys.
We have a special class forthat.
We're actually running it thisweekend.
We have a BFTM off this weekend, so we're running our special
(36:52):
class for people who haven'tbeen in before.
But if your company wants tocome in, we'll give you a
special class, a special timeWe've got it.
We've got it Alright everybody.
Thanks for joining us on theStay Modern with Miriam podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
I appreciate everyone's support.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
We look forward to the next episode.
Mike, thank you for everythingand thanks for having us.
Yeah, thanks for coming.
I love this.
I love talking to people likethis, so I appreciate learning
your story.
You guys can come in here.
You know I love to visit, so Ihope you have a good weekend and
go big.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
If you have questions or topics you'd like us to
discuss, you can email them toinfo at murraycustomhomescom.
If you like this episode, besure to subscribe to Stay Modern
with Murray on Apple andSpotify, or check back on our
website and social mediaregularly for the latest
episodes.
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