Building Elite Athletes at Kinetic Haus with Dante Martella - #245 - The Athletes Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
For me.
I've always wanted to open agym and now I'm fortunate, with
my incredible business partners,to have this performance center
and sports therapy clinic herein Toronto, and one of the
things I always knew I wanted todo was like make it more than a
gym.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Dante has been instrumental in preparing me for
the court.
My mind and body feel ready forthe grind of a season after
training with Dante because hetakes such a specific approach
to his training.
That was Andrew Nembhard of theIndiana Pacers talking about
Dante Martella, and this is the245th episode of the Athletes
Podcast today featuring DanteMartella of Kinetic House, the

(00:35):
owner of a performance centerand sports therapy clinic in
Toronto, where we were able tovisit, prior to my marathon, get
a little work done from Tina,an amazing osteopath, and get a
little bit of resistancetraining with Dante, after
chatting about his upbringing,the pre-skip team, what he's
doing at Kinetic House and somuch more.
Some of the athletes that he'sworked with, like Josh Hosang,

(00:58):
amongst others, I was able tochat with, and every single
person talks about howincredible it is to work with
Dante.
And every single person talksabout how incredible it is to
work with Dante.
I'm very grateful to have spenta couple hours with the team in
Toronto and I can't wait foryou folks to listen to this
episode, the 245th of theAthletes Podcast.
But I have to let you know I mayor may not have a new protein

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(02:01):
listening to this episode,because we know the benefits of
it.
This is the 245th episode of theAthlete's Podcast featuring
Dante Martella.
Here we go.
You're the most decoratedracquetball player in US history
, world's strongest man, fromchildhood passion to
professional athlete, eight-timeIronman champion.
So what was it like making yourdebut in the NHL?

(02:22):
What is your biggest piece ofadvice for the next generation
of athletes, from underdogs tonational champions?
This is the Athletes Podcast,where high-performance
individuals share their triumphs, defeats and life lessons to
educate, entertain and inspirethe next generation of athletes.
Here we go, the 245th episodeof the Athletes Podcast here

(02:43):
today at Kinetic House, whereI'm going to get the full
athlete treatment we are goingthrough.
I'm 10 days out from theToronto Waterfront Marathon.
Tina is going to give me anassessment here.
Dante is going to go through afull workout.
This is the full athleteexperience here on the Athletes
Podcast here today at theKinetic House.
Tina, thanks for coming on.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Thanks for having us.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I'm excited here today because, as a non-athletic
regular person, I get to getthe best treatment in Toronto
here at Kinetic House.
What else can I expect from thenext session?

Speaker 3 (03:12):
So we're going to take you through a few things.
We're going to take a look atwhat your training history has
been.
We're going to take a look atwhat your past injuries have
been.
We're going to form a clinicalpicture and we're going to do a
few tests to figure out what wecan do to help you towards your
goals.
Okay, so start off with.
What has your training regimenbeen like for the last, say, two
, three months?

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Basically been running and strength training
every other day, so resistancetraining on a Monday, Tuesday
run back and forth For the mostpart, maybe one rest day mixed
in there per week.
A run back and forth For themost part, maybe one rest day
mixed in there per week, varyingfrom a short, medium to long
run and then resistance training.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Just getting all of my essentials taken care of.
Have you ever noticed any areaswhere you have pain when you're
running, like at the beginning,middle or end?
Or has there been a change inyour gait pattern while you're
running?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
It's been about six months worth of running
consistently.
Now I don't know necessarilywhether I've noticed a huge
change in my gait pattern.
I think I've gotten better overtime progressed hopefully
that's the goal and I've noticedthat my body has started just
to perform better in general inall aspects, not able to quite

(04:24):
lift quite as heavy, but that'swhat happens when you're doing
endurance training.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
I guess have you noticed any blisters forming?
No Perfect.
Have you noticed any changes inyour shoe pattern, shoe wear
pattern, so one side being wornmore unevenly than the other?

Speaker 2 (04:41):
No, not necessarily.
Maybe running a bit more on theoutsides of my feet.
New Balance sent me some newshoes that I've been wearing and
I also just train in my Bevobarefoot.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
Perfect.
Barefoot running is great.
Have you noticed any pain inyour knees, your hips or your
back?
No, great, okay, so let's startoff with a general assessment.
I'm going to have you stand up,I'm going to take a quick look
at you and you can stay rightthere Taking a look at your hips
, your shoulders, seeing ifthere's any asymmetries that I
can see.
I can see there's a slight dipon your right side.

(05:12):
Are you a right-handed dominantperson?
Yep, and I'm also looking at thehead to see if there's any tilt
or turning, and I can see thatyour head is slightly in an
extended position, but your bodyis relatively aligned.
Your ankles, your knees andyour hips are stacked upon each
other, as well as your shouldersand your knees and your head

(05:32):
alignment is probably becauseyour ears are trying to get over
top your shoulders so thatthey're in balance, which makes
sense.
I just want to check to seewhat the alignment is of your
back, see if everything istogether, if there's any spots
where I can see any kinks, orany spots where it seems to be
deep or shallow, depending onwhere I see the shallowness and

(05:56):
the kinks.
It might be, because there's aplace where it's taking a little
bit too much weight or notenough weight, and yours looks
pretty good.
So what I will also dosometimes is feel to see if the
skin wants to move in certainareas, or if there's any areas
which might be something I wantto look at later.

(06:17):
That seems pretty good, and nowI'm going to have you face the
wall, the last wall, yep, andsometimes you'll see asymmetries
happen in different ways.
You might have a turn that youdon't know of, and so this way,
by looking at all four sides,you're getting a full look at
the body.
What I want you to do, I'm goingto put my hands on your hips

(06:39):
and I'm going to take a look atwhat your hips are doing.
To take a look at what yourhips are doing.
So I'm going to find a point onthe hips and I'm going to have
you bend forward for me as muchas you can, and what I see is
there's something going on inhis right side.
So what I see is, when you godown the right hip, the, the
iliac, is following your bodywhen it goes down, and so it's

(07:04):
not separating like it should.
The left side is, the rightside isn't, and I'm going to see
whether that's a problem ofyour pelvis or if that's a
problem with your tailbone.
So this is something we seecommonly in a lot of athletes.
They might not know it, butthey're putting pressure on more
on one side of the body thanthe other, and so it just causes

(07:25):
an imbalance that they aren'taware of until they do something
extreme, like running a26-kilometer run, when they're
used to running only 10 or 5 orwhatever Right.
And that can also affect you inthe weight room, where you're
putting more emphasis on the oneside versus the other, when

(07:46):
you're really supposed to beworking on both sides of the
body and then so how would youmitigate something like that for
an athlete or someone who ispursuing these endurance goals?
so oftentimes it's.
It's something that they're notaware of and what we try and
make them do is make them awareof it.
We do do small little fixes,incremental fixes, especially if

(08:07):
they're running up to an event.
We know we won't make lastingchanges in that event.
But it's after the race wherewe'll make a huge difference, in
that hopefully, by the timethat they run the race, they
won't notice any differencesafter the race than before, and
it's just those smallincremental changes that can

(08:29):
actually make a huge differenceno doubt.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yeah, it's so interesting because this doesn't
feel like much is being done,but it's these subtle
adjustments, kind of like.
As a coach, you make littletweaks.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, yeah, as a coach, you make little tweaks.
Yeah, osteopathy is a differentpiece altogether.
You know, like massage, you candefinitely feel pressure.
They ask for different gradesof pressure.
Even athletic therapy there'slike implements being used, tape
.
You know.
There's definitely, you know,more of like a sensory
experience, this type of workwith osteopathy.

(09:03):
You often notice it when you'reoff the table, once you're done
.
There's obviously a lot thatgoes through while you're on the
table as well, but it's just.
You know, it's a very delicatecraft.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
Basically, we're feeling for changes in your body
and we're trying to make yourbody run more efficiently, more
smoothly, based on your ownmechanics.
We're not trying to change,make huge changes.
Uh, we're trying to make thesubtle changes, the ones that
your body won't necessarilynotice, but you'll feel it in

(09:37):
the in the end because you won'tbe feeling it right.
Yeah, and sometimes we do dealwith people that have huge
injuries, but sometimes we havepeople that have smaller,
smaller things, but just a bunchof smaller things can make a
huge difference what got?

Speaker 2 (09:55):
what's your origin story in the world of sport?

Speaker 3 (09:58):
originally I wanted to work with volleyball, but
then when I started doingathletic therapy, I discovered I
did not like the injuries and Ijust didn't have the knowledge
to to help them the way that Iwould have wanted to.
I actually found my my niche inthat I cover a lot of combat

(10:21):
sports.
I work with Taekwondo Canada,work with Karate Canada, I've
worked with Wrestling Canada inthe past, and all these
experiences have shown me that Ireally like the type of
injuries that combat sports have, and so I've kind of gravitated
towards those sports and afterworking at the college level for

(10:44):
14 years, I decided to justhelp out here at Kinetic House
and do my own thing.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
So when you say the injuries, do you mean being able
to help people recover fromthose injuries or prevent?

Speaker 3 (10:59):
Help people recover from those injuries.
Most of the injuries that Iused to see in volleyball
they're the chronic, long-termthing things that it's because
of biomechanics, because ofoveruse, it's, uh, because
people aren't training aseffectively as they should or
could and things weren't addingup um with.

(11:21):
With combat sports it's moreyou know how they got it, you
know they're going to try andget up, and if they're not
getting up, it's because there'ssomething seriously wrong.
And so those injuries were moreinteresting to me at the time.
And now, as an osteo, I findthat I have techniques that I
didn't think I could deal with.

(11:43):
Something as simple as a bruise,something as simple as you,
simple as somebody pulled amuscle, but they're extremely
flexible.
How are they pulling muscles?
Well, it's because there'ssomething biomechanically that's
not working exactly right, thatwe can make minor tweaks to it
and see huge differences.

(12:03):
It's not necessarily yourmuscles, it's not necessarily
your muscles, it's notnecessarily your joints.
It's a combination of thingsthat have happened to the
traumas in your body which iscausing it, that's causing the
restriction, and so we'll we'lltry and deal with those
restrictions by working oneverything that we find in the
body.
So, so, even in your case, as aformer goalie, I would probably

(12:26):
look at where have you gottenhit in the past, how many
headshots have you received, orhow many games did you play in
net where you did the butterfly,and what type of butterfly did
you do?
That all makes a hugedifference in the type of trauma
that your body receives andwhat type of restrictions you
might have in your body.

(12:47):
So, based on what I've seen,you've probably gotten hit in
the face a few times.
Your head's gone back, which iswhy your head is in slight
extension, and so I would lookdefinitely at your head, your
neck, your upper chest right andsee where the restrictions are
coming from, see if I can fixthat.

(13:08):
That also might be why yourhips are tight, because there's
something up above that'scausing the restriction below.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Okay, yeah, so things that I can do on my own and I'm
not on the table.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Absolutely, and I'll show you those in a little bit.
They might involve you learninghow to breathe a little bit
better.
It might involve you working onyou know something as simple as
trying some meditation orrelaxation stuff and working on

(13:42):
your general mobility of yourback.
Okay, so we're going to take aquick look at your chest and I'm
actually going to have youlying on your back, okay, yep,
just leave this right here.
So what I'm going to have to dois put my hands on either side

(14:04):
of your chest and I'm going tohave you breathe in for me and
out Good.
In and out Good.
Same thing breathe in and out,breathe in, okay.

(14:25):
So what I'm seeing right now isthat your lower left chest
doesn't expand and contract aseasily as your right side does,
so we're going to do a littlebit of work on the left side,

(14:51):
and one thing that I want you todo is.
We're going to work on givingyou some breathing exercises to
focus on expanding that leftside, if you can, okay.
What I'm going to do is I'mgoing to put one hand underneath
and one hand over top, okay,and what I want you to do is
breathe in deeply Good, andagain and again Out Good, again,
good.
Slow down the breathing Againand out Good, one more Good.

(15:25):
Last time, good.
So quick recheck Feel a littlebit of a difference.
Mm-hmm, yeah, better, and I'mgoing to have you sit up.

(15:56):
One thing I want you to focus onwhen you're breathing is to
open up your chest.
Keep your upper body uprightand you're gonna focus on
thinking about the chest.
You want to try and expand thatarea.
So when you breathe in, try andfocus on opening up that area
by doing a little bit of a sidebend towards the right to get

(16:18):
that side to open up and take adeep breath in and out Slowly,
slowly release the breath.
You're rushing your breathingin and you're rushing the
breathing out.
I want you to slowly focus onletting that area expand as much
as you can by taking a long,deep breath, hold it for five

(16:40):
seconds if you can, and thenslowly letting it out and
getting it fully out.
Do that about five, ten timesover the course of this week so
you can get that chest to expandand contract as maximally as
possible, because there seems tobe some kind of restriction in

(17:01):
your left side and I think thatjust a simple breathing exercise
can help it.
Okay for your hips.
What I want you to try and dois open, open the door and close
the door exercises focusingespecially on that right side to
try to get that hip to open up,and when you're working on this
, you're gonna bring your hipsin maximally and bring your hips

(17:25):
out maximally, okay okay, good,thank you so much, gina
appreciate all your help.
Good luck this week, thank you,was it two weeks?

Speaker 2 (17:33):
10 days 10 days.
10 days from now we're on,we're on and we're better off
now, thanks to kineticos.
Yep, thanks so much.
We'll see you soon.
We'll be back in here.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
So one of the things that Tina said was opening up
the left side of the rib cagethere, particularly closer to
the lower ribs, which is goingto have an implication on the
right low back, and we can tryto get some movement through
here, some movement back here,and that'll help how your hips
move.
So the first one this littlewedge, this could be anything
like a little pillow, and you'regoing to lie down on your right

(18:06):
side facing the wall.
So put that right under yourright rib cage and just lie down
on your side Perfect.
Bring the knees up like thisPerfect and just kind of cradle
your head Perfect.
This guy's going to come inlike that.
Reach this hand forward.
So see how that already opensthis up here, yeah.
Okay, the wedge here is justopens this up here.

(18:27):
Yeah, okay, the wedge here isjust pushing this up to the sky,
right.
So even if you were flat, youwould still get something out of
this, but this just kind ofprops this up and helps open up
some of this, right.
So now I want you to justbreathe in and push my hand up
to the sky and now keep some ofthat height that you just gained
and when you exhale, feel thework down here to the ribs.
Exhale, hold, inhale and push,slow down and get a little

(18:57):
longer on the inhale Long, morePerfect.
So now we've got the sameposition that you're in.
You can stand up.
I'll show you this next one.
So we're going to use almostthat exact same position that we
go up against the wall herelike this.

(19:19):
Feet are up on the wall, justlike that.
So now your left side left sideis up like this.
Right side is down, just likeyou did.
Feet are going to be about sixto ten inches apart and you're
going to rock one forward likethat.
Top leg is going to driveforward, bottom knee is going to
come up.
Touch the top knee, come backdown.

(19:41):
So you got ten reps.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Lie down on your left side and tell the athletes
podcast listeners a bit of yourback story.

Speaker 1 (19:54):
Slide back a little bit towards me.
Perfect, I'll go to the back.
Sorry, good.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
So now without that?

Speaker 1 (20:01):
thing you're going to try and recreate the same
position that you had.
Good, this foot's going to be alittle higher.
Toes against the wall Good,drive this knee forward and now
hold it there and drive thisknee up to this knee.
Good.
So my back's 30%?
Yeah, good.
So as far as athletics gettinginto the world of athletics,

(20:23):
there's something that you knowwe'll talk a little bit more
when we sit down with thepodcast, but not something I
necessarily targeted.
Uh, it was something that kindof came up organically, based on
my interest in the world ofsport.
Um, I was originally kind oftargeting my way through the
nutrition world and, uh, youknow, before you know it, I was

(20:43):
in a position to work withathletes and it's just something
I fell in love with.
Nice, keep this heel againstthe wall One more Harder than it
looks.
Eh, yeah, good.
And now just stand up and movearound a bit.
One last little bit, just kindof move your hips.
How's that, joe?
Good, it's a nice work.
Open up already, right.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Yeah, and then last one.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
We kind of tie everything together.
It's a little more dynamic.
Before we get into some of theheavier lifting On your side
here, reach your top arm andyour top leg, look over your
shoulder and then bridge up Justlike that On your side.
Okay, Good Knees together,Perfect.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
On your left forearm.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
Perfect.
Drive your right arm forwardand then lift your left arm.
Perfect, on your left forearm.
Perfect, drive your right armforward and now drive your right
leg back.
Good, get as long as you canfrom here and now bridge up and
drive your hips forward.
Freeze, I want to pull you backhere.
I want you to drive the hipsforward, okay, good.
And now you go reach, reach,reach, stretch over here, look

(21:48):
over your left shoulder here,and then come up and push the
hips forward Good.
So it's kind of like a nicelittle active stretch here,
moving through a lot of thestuff that we just worked on
Opening up the hips, opening upthe rib cage Perfect.
Two more Good.
And then drive up, bend into ita little bit, boom.
Last one oh, that feels good,that's nice.
Eh, yeah, that's so good.
This one's kind of worth theprice of admission.

(22:08):
It's probably one of the mostfrequently prescribed drills
that I had.
It just kind of connectseverything together upper body,
lower body, same thing on theother side, right here.
Just that, yeah, yeah.
So you're going to do a littlebit.
It just kind of connectseverything together up and down.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Same thing on the other side.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Right here stack.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yeah, top arm reaches , top leg reaches back towards
me.
Touch the floor back here.
Look over your right shouldernow and then drive up Perfect,
drive the hips forward, perfect.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Couple more.

Speaker 1 (22:57):
Oh that's crazy.
So simple, right?
Last one.
Good, now just stand up, moveit around and put some weights.
Easy peasy.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah, it's actually crazy the difference though.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
So test that little thing that you did with Tina,
where you bent over, touch yourtoes Different, eh yeah, so
that's like some of her workalready taking shape, and then
we just support that with someof the work in here.
That's it.
Thank you, cool.
Change it?
Alright, let's lift.
Thank you, sir.
Alright, so I'll do it.
Yep, so the one arm dumbbellrow is obviously a horizontal

(23:38):
rowing pattern.
Now we're going to kind ofsupport that with a pressing
pattern, but it's much the samekind of concept here.
Heavy on that front foot lighton the back leg and we're trying
to keep that ribcage stackedover top the pelvis Reaching
hold for a second down slow.
So there's a degree ofpreventing rotation down below

(24:01):
but encouraging it up top.
So anti-rotation at the bottom,yeah.
And rotation to that kind ofmidsection.
Almost a similar kind ofposition, very similar position,
yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Heavy on that left side, very good.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
And then I like to use the opposite arm here.
So reach your left arm forwardand notice how that pulls you.
Good, and now just elbow to hip.
Good, nice down, slow Freeze onthe next one at the hip.
Good, nice down, slow Freeze onthe next one at the top Freeze.
Watch.
Here we're going to try tobring the ribs down, see that.
Now reach a little bit moreBoom.
There you go.
Now you're encouraging some ofthe movement through that

(24:39):
shoulder blade and getting moreout of this work for your
shoulder as well.
Down, slow, eyes up, a littlebit.
Press, good, see if you canpress from your abs, press from
the belly.
There you go, working the wholetime.
Good, keep going, couple more.
So a lot of times it's likeseparate, quote, unquote, core

(25:02):
stability work or whatever youwant to call it.
Addom will work and all thatdefinitely has a part to play.
But the more we can integratethat with some of these more
challenging movements, the morewe get at it.
Good.
Last one Eyes up, eyes up, eyesup.
Good, now bring it down.

(25:22):
So you'll notice that whileyou're going through that, it's
very thought heavy.
Right, there's a lot goingthrough your head.
I gotta engage this.
Hold that, push here, pull that, reach, blah, blah, blah.
Where's my head, where's myeyes?
The better you get at some ofthe fundamental concepts, which
is just managing the pressuredown here, the more relaxed you
can be with something like this.

(25:42):
So what we don't want is, youknow there's a time and place as
we load this up and it getsvery heavy where I almost don't
give a shit anymore.
I'm just like fuck, I'm justgetting the thing up overhead,
right.
But especially with thesewarm-up sets, I think there's no
opportunity to work on betterquality movement, which involves
a degree of being able to relaxwhile you're working, and
that's very characteristic ofathleticism as a whole.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
Right, it's not just how fast, powerful, how strong
some of these athletes are, butit's like when and how well they
relax and your ability to getinto that flow state for sure
and still maintain that degreeof awareness for sure, and that
speaks to, like you know, theoverlap of, like, the
physiological and thepsychological right for sure.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
so let's go a little other side there, straight here.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
This is basically any athlete's gonna benefit from
this training.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
Yeah, I mean left, right, left forward a bit.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Everyone needs rotation.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
Yeah, yeah, the spine is designed to both produce and
resist rotation.
I think too often people getlocked into one camp or another,
but the answer is generallyboth.
How much one person needs todepend on the individual, their
goals, their previous traininghistory Good, nice, good.

(27:02):
Lock that right foot in, don'tlet it move.
Push from the belly Up, good,good, good.
And now on the next three reps,just notice your breathing once
you're trying to calm it down.
Inhale on the way down, exhaleon the way up Good.
Last one Good.

(27:26):
So that's another thing.
Now, that's a finer point evenstill.
There's the technical executionof your limbs and then there's
the cadence of your breathing,which can help support how
efficient.
You are with movement and in andof itself is something that can
progress objectively over time.
You'll notice, if we were mic'dup there for a couple of reps,
it was these short three or fourbreaths per rep, almost like

(27:50):
three reps on the way down, youknow.
But because again you'rethinking you're trying to manage
a lot.
But tuning into the breathingis probably one of the quickest
ways that we can get the wholesystem to either relax or excite
, depending on how we breathe.
Cool, yeah, alright, let's loadit up and go again.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
And then would you stack this and do focus on the
one exercise at a time, or wouldyou kind of do one A, one B?

Speaker 1 (28:22):
I think it depends on the population.
Like the vast majority of times, just from an efficiency
perspective, I like to do two,three, maybe four exercises back
to back and run through them.
That kind of speaks to a littlebit of like the breathing
economy.
We're talking about howefficient you are with your
breathing.
Yes, like the muscles areresting from this, but the whole

(28:42):
system is still fatigued.
But I'm still asking you to domore.
Can you relax when you need torelax, in other words, the short
rest time between here andthere, and then can you fire it
up quick enough to get a heavierrow or press or whatever?
Okay, so some of the drills thatwe did there.
You know, one of the criticismsof things like that is that

(29:02):
we're not loading the body.
So we're not just doing thosedrills and not loading the body,
we're still lifting heavy.
So we're going to use a one-armdumbbell row now to support
some of the work that we didthere breath work, getting some
of the finer point movementsthrough the pelvis, opening up
the rib cage.
We can now translate that tosomething heavy like a one-arm
dumbbell row.
So technically, I want theexecution to be like this you

(29:23):
can still go heavy, like even ifyou grab a 100-pound dumbbell
here.
As long as you can keep what wedon't want to move Static and
what we do want to move dynamic,we're good.
So one hand is a point ofreference.
Same side leg is going to bedown on the ground.
Back foot kind of becomes ourlittle anchor, but most of the
weight is on this front foot.
Okay, I'm gonna try and keepthis steady, keeping my back

(29:46):
steady, and reach across withthe dumbbell.
So you'll see that that'sopening up some of the ribcage
stuff that we were working onand keeping the pelvis steady.
So, from here, pull the elbowto the back hip, just like that.
Cool, yeah, give me six toeight reps and maybe start with

(30:06):
something a little lighter.
Just like that, cool, yeah,give me six to eight reps, and
then we start with something alittle lighter and then we can
work our way up.
So a slight twist, reachingacross to the big toe Okay, six
to eight reps, you want to slideyour chest in.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
So you're going to start.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
We want you to row with your left hand so that we
open all this up Right.
So we want left toes backbehind you.
Right foot forward.
Bring this right foot a littlefurther forward.
A nice cue here is back toe inline with the front heels.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Perfect Back toe front.
Heel Heavy on this leg.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Shoot the hips back a little bit.
So now this has to stay lockedin by using these guys, and when
you reach across, I want you tofeel how this opens up.
Okay, there you go.
Grab the dumbbell heavy withthat right hand Good, and give
me like a three second count onthe way down.
Three, two, one, good.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Now I want you to keep the head still too.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yes, there you go.
So now we're isolating rotationthrough that thoracic spine.
Okay, there's a degree ofpreventing rotation, but we're
also opening up some of thetissues that's associated with
the lateral side of the ribcagethere, the lat, these types of
things, which is coinciding withsome of the work that we've
done on the floor there.

(31:24):
Let's go.
Two more, reach across One more.
Nice, there you go.
How does that feel relative tolike a different one on down the
road you've done before?

Speaker 2 (31:40):
Have you intent around that keeping everything
steady too, right, I think youcan feel.
Think that is in place, exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
And I think a lot of that comes from.
It's an underrated aspect oflike lifting in general.
But even for an upper bodyexercise like this, full
pressure, right, like it's notjust about the upper body, it's
how we use the lower body tointegrate with the upper body.
So full pressure with a row.
You want to be heavy on thatone side, very light back here,
and then kind of rip it through.
See the other side.
There you go.

(32:15):
Heavy on the left foot, reach,stay low, pull back to the hip
and then reach across.
There you go.
What are common?

Speaker 2 (32:25):
mistakes with this exercise?
Then Just the lack of.
There you go.
What are common mistakes withthis exercise?

Speaker 1 (32:31):
then Just the lack of Probably the set up more often
than not.
So, like right now, you can seehow your right heel kind of
went to the floor.
Yeah, get right up on thosetoes.
That's going to push youforward more.
So on that opposite foot,perfect.
So I would say like footpressure is one thing, getting
set up the arm path is anotherbig one.
So people will often try andaim for higher height with the

(32:53):
elbow, when we're actually, youknow, trying to move along this
more horizontal trajectory withthe elbow in back to the hip, as
opposed to vertical up to thesky.
There you go, awesome, niceBeauty, thanks.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Beauty.
It's interesting you say I havean ability to stay in the
moment because I find one of mymaybe struggles or things that
I'm working on is stayingpresent and not being too
excited about the future ormaybe discouraged at the
difficulty that is associatedwith trying to do something like
this yeah, I think, uh, like,we'll probably explore that a

(33:36):
little bit today.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
I think there's people struggle with applying,
or there's a powerful kind ofaha moment for people when you
just show them that you mayalready be adopting this
beneficial strategy somewhereelse in your life with some
other endeavor, and maybe it'sbecause there's a degree of
comfort that you have with thatthing that you're just
automatically or at least moreautomatically adopt this ability

(34:00):
to, in this case, be present,relax, slow down and then when
there's something either new,uncomfortable, challenging or a
different type of challenge, youjust struggle to apply that.
You know it's not as simple asthat, but very often people just
struggle to apply.
You know that same style ofthinking and I think it becomes
this powerful moment I see thisa ton in rehab where you're like

(34:23):
listen, you're already doingthis, like you're already
applying this kind ofprocess-oriented, chip-away,
brick-by-brick approach.
Just apply that to what thisnew endeavor is, this new scary
situation that you find yourselfin, and inevitably that alone
is kind of like oh shit, a coolrealization for people.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
When was that first moment for you?

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Oh fuck.
I think the first moment foryou oh fuck, um, I think the
first moment was, at least as itpertains to this industry
training, health, nutrition waswhat we alluded to before when
you and I were lifting was likethe decision to get in the gym
yourself.
You know where athletes to meat that point in my life, just

(35:07):
it felt like it was such a worldaway.
You know, we talked a littlebit before about you know, your
background in this industry,your background in athletics,
and for me it was nonexistent.
Like there was a time in mylife when I was really young,
like probably you know, before Iwas 15 years old, where sports
were, you know, something I was,you know, involved with,

(35:28):
interested in this type of thing.
And then there was, you know,through a number of different
experiences in my life, throughmy mid-teens right through to my
late teens, where there was alot of other life stuff that I
was dealing with and that, youknow, sort of faded into the
background for me and I didn'thave this ability to realize
that that was like that lost apassion, right, like it was.
Just it just happened by naturebut I didn't realize like this

(35:50):
was something I'm incrediblypassionate about, and it's maybe
reinforced this idea thatathletes are so far away from
like what I'm interested in.
And then I think, as I startedto realize, like nutrition,
training is something I'mpassionate about, and then
getting into the gym and havingthis realization that every
little thing that you do in thegym can contribute to moving

(36:12):
forward at a pretty, prettydecent clip, especially when
you're new to the game, right,and that was like a powerful
moment for me, maybe more inretrospect than it was at that
exact moment of you know, likeyou know, if I, if I chip away,
then now you can get to whereyou want to go.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yeah, I think the gym provides that with the newbie
gains.
We talked about that more thananything initially, but then you
can start to see changes inyour body over time, relatively
fast.
Like you said, if you're dialedin with your nutrition, you can
see tremendous change, bothphysical and mental, and then
people end up staying with theirjourney, not because of the

(36:49):
physical but because of themental and the other aspects
that it impacts To your point.
In business, you can applyprogressive overload,
progressive stimulus, as JordanChalo would say.
There's ways that you canintegrate these performance
methods into everyday life andsee success.
And then you're like oh man,it's's a game.
Everyone's playing the game.

(37:10):
Some people are playing itbetter than others.
When you break down we talkedabout how education has been
formative for you, but now, evenas we were working out, you're
like sometimes you got to rip it, sometimes you got to think
about it.
How do you do that in businessand in life?

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yeah, I think that's a good question.
I think probably the mostpowerful learning moments are by
experience themselves.
So you know, the idea of likegoing into that question with
this idea that I have to have ananswer before I try is already
putting yourself behind theeight ball as far as.
I'm concerned Because you'regoing to learn a great degree by

(37:51):
actually putting yourself outthere first.
So a lot of people put the cartbefore the horse where it's
like, oh I need to know if thisis going to be something that's
fruitful or not before I attemptit.
You're going to find out ifit's fruitful or not by fucking
attempting right, or the degreeto which it's applicable to your
journey or whatever right, um,and so I think that's you know.

(38:13):
Send it, rip it.
However we want to say it.
I think that's just always thestrategy.
I think that, at leastgenerally you know, I try not to
use absolutes, but for the mostpart, I think there has to be a
degree of like willingness toto, you know, get your hands
dirty and send it, because thenyou're going to find out much
more efficiently, effectivelyand inform further decisions in

(38:37):
a way that has a greater depthand more power than someone
telling you like you should onlysend it to a 7 out of 10.
Well, it's like fuck it, let'stry an 8 or nine or ten and
fucking see what a sevenactually means you know.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
So how do you, if you were to apply that to, uh, a
status celebrity athlete thatyou are now responsible for, if
you're training here at kinetichouse, which is an incredible
facility, if you haven't beenyet in toronto, uh, you've got
to also be aware of the factthat you don't want that person

(39:11):
injured.
So, hey, andrew, I want you torip it, but I need you to rip it
to the best of your abilitiesand not break anything.
How do you describe that for ayoung coach listening?

Speaker 1 (39:21):
yeah, great question.
So I think that you know thiswill help shape you know my
previous answer a little better,or give it some context.
That like, by nature of beingwilling to send it, doesn't mean
that you're being reckless orcareless.
Right, there's.
There should be a degree ofthought, um, of forecasting the
degree of like, being able topotentially buffer what

(39:45):
consequences are at play withoutsacrificing that main intent of
like I'm still to fucking sendit here and send it is.
You know, it's very vague inthis context, but let's just
take it to that example ofworking with an NBA player like
Andrew.
I take on a much greaterresponsibility there, where you

(40:07):
know, if you're in the industry,you might look at it and say,
well, why isn't he pushing itharder?
Why aren't you doing morechallenging movements?
Why aren't you squattingheavier?
Why aren't you deadliftingheavier?
Well, if you work with athletes, one of the things that is a
constant is this nature of atimeline crunch.
They come to you.
Andrew, in particular, thisoff-season is a great example.

(40:28):
Deep playoff run gets named tothe Canadian Olympic team is a
great example.
Deep playoff run gets named tothe Canadian Olympic team here
for two weeks, then in Paris,then here for three weeks, then
back to the season Pretty shortoff season.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, five weeks total training.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Basically All right Five to seven and we're in
contact while he's there and wesupport him throughout the
season.
But if I were to take someonelike that it's always going to
be context dependent orindividual specific I'd take
someone like that who's alreadyincurred a great deal of fatigue
, who's coming off of not justthe Olympics but you know the
fallout from the Olympics.
And then there's, you know,rest week and you know athletes
do what they do on rest weeksand then you come back and and

(41:05):
just even having a break duringthe summer, right, like, think
about from a human being.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
I know you know people during a nine to five
yeah, you know, take a coupleweeks vacay throughout their
year as an athlete, people justassume well deserved, right,
well deserved as they should.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
Um, and so you come back and there's a nature of
like having to understand boththe person and the fundamentals
of you know, physiological needs, biomechanical needs, these
types of things.
So when you marry both yourrelationship with the person
with a biomechanical, a deepunderstanding of biomechanics
and physiology, that cap, thatconstraint, has already been set
for you.

(41:39):
Right, I don't choose that.
He needs to send it to thislevel when his body is telling
me this is the max we can go.
So you look for differentthings.
You look for there's a certainstyle of questioning that we ask
.
There's a certain way that theycarry their body language,
there's a certain way that theymove that's going to help you
indicate and you'll learn thisthrough experience as a coach

(42:00):
indicate what that person'sthreshold is today, this week,
this month.
And by nature of sending itwith a certain constraint, we
choose exercises that, bythemselves, when you're pushing
this exercise as hard as you can, it's naturally going to
constrain how much you can loadit, because we know that the
body is already slightlycompromised, because it's under
recovered.

(42:20):
So that's kind of how you goabout it.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I'm always curious because you know we talked about
Tina just did some work on me.
I'm 10 days out from TorontoMarathon.
I'm like I understand a low CNSday, being a little drained,
maybe not nutrition at where itshould be, and it's like okay,
as a coach, you get an athletefor an hour or two per day.
You don't know what they'vedone, whether they're being

(42:44):
honest with you.
That takes a certain individualthat has the ability to draw
that out.
One of the things I admireabout you listening to a pod.
Also talk about thepsychological aspect that you
almost put more emphasis on that.
How do you acquire thatknowledge?
Where's that come from?
How'd you do it?

Speaker 1 (43:03):
I think it starts with, you know, going back to
that willingness to be curious,you know, like daring to be
curious enough to honor thething that's always kind of
crossing your mind in some wayshape or form.
So, growing up in therestaurant industry, my parents
had a restaurant in the city ofToronto for three plus decades.
Myself and my three siblingsgrew up working in the industry,
working in the restaurantspecifically, and in Italian

(43:27):
there's a word it was an Italianrestaurant.
We're of an Italian background.
There's a word, casa bottega,which means like house and store
, or business and home right,and it's kind of one word that
evokes this imagery of like,both of those kind of being the
same thing, because very oftenin Italy and European towns
you'll see businesses, you know,on the storefront level, and
then the house just above it orthe apartment just above it, and

(43:49):
that's how we live.
We grew up above the restaurant, and so it was very much kind
of synonymous where house andhome were.
You know, house and businesswere all together.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Work-life balance.
Ever heard of it?
Yeah, no, that doesn't exist.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
You know, you wake up in the kitchen.
There's a Sebastian Maniscalcojoke, one of my favorite
comedians Italian-American guy,of course, respect, uh, where he
talks about he's like I met myfather for the first time at 14
years of age and he came aroundthe corner.
He's like hey, go start abusiness.
You know like, to a certaindegree that was very much true.
It was like this responsibilitythat was almost like inherently

(44:23):
, like bred into you as you grewup.
Yeah, you know, it's like I'mgonna be asked to either like be
involved in this business orthere's just an expectation that
you work there.
And I'm grateful for it, becauseI learned a ton there and one
of the things I learned was thatit wasn't just a restaurant.
It was much more than arestaurant.
They offered Italian languageclasses, they offered cooking

(44:45):
lessons, it was a space that wasrented out for ceremonies, for
different presentations, forspeaker series, they had a
number of politicians fromaround the world, there was
concerts.
It was all kinds of things thatwere run through the restaurant
, although very much on thefront of it it was a restaurant.
So for me, I've always wantedto open a gym and now I'm

(45:05):
fortunate, with my incrediblebusiness partners to have this
performance center and sportstherapy clinic here in Toronto,
and one of the things I alwaysknew I wanted to do was make it
more than a gym On the face.
When you come in, there'sdumbbells, barbells, whatever,
but when you come in it's morethan that.
And what is it?
There's always a qualitativelike can't quite put your finger
on it, but for me it's a veryintentful, I'm putting my finger

(45:27):
on it.
It's relationships, it's theability to connect with people,
and how do you do that?
It's something I grew uplearning from my father and my
mom in the restaurant industrythat you have to be willing to
go and create the conversationyourself.
Um, and it was something that,as a kid working in the
restaurant, it was, you know,thrust upon you, you know like I
turned the corner, my dad waslike hey, come say hi to

(45:49):
so-and-so and you.
You're a 12, 14-year-old kid,very illegally, working behind
the bar pouring alcoholic drinks.
But you look up and it'ssomeone of prominence, whoever
it is, an athlete, a politicianand you just know in that moment
there's a presence here.
I have to act a certain way andyou adopt a behavior.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Why is?

Speaker 1 (46:07):
that Well, it's certain subconscious
psychological elements at playthere and I kind of started
exploring that slowly and slowly, and eventually it led to, you
know, a passion forcommunication and psychology
it's almost the athlete to coachrelationship too.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Right, there's an inherited respect that's there
and that you should provide asan athlete to your coach.
We just actually at KelownaHockey Fest in Kelowna.
We were listening to the Oilershead chef was shallow there and
he was talking about the factthat nutrition brings so much
more than just the food.
It's the camaraderie within theteam, it's the excitement

(46:43):
around what meals coming next,how you can bond together over
that food and you know, when youtalk about communication, that
goes hand in hand with whatyou're eating during your
day-to-day and afterwards andhow the team feels the next day,
the next week.
There's a story that he sharedair canada decided to throw some
treats on the plane after theoilers made the stanley cup
finals and mcdavid jumped onthat plane.

(47:05):
He's like immediately sent atext to the coach or the head
chef.
He's like what the blank isthis stuff doing on here?
They are that detailed thateverything that goes everywhere,
just the amount of thought thatgoes into that I'm always
shocked.
You see it, obviously, whenyou're working with players
individually, are there specificplayers that you love working
with in particular, I sayplayers, athletes.

(47:26):
Is it gen pop?
Are there specific sports thatathletes pursue that you find
are kind of unique or that havea sixth gear that you love
working with, in particular whenyou see those intangibles that
they apply well, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
You bring up connor like I've had the good fortune
of having worked with him in thepast.
Briefly, I'm not his coach.
He's amazing coaches with garyroberts program, adrian and
sylvie who work with him veryfrequently friends of mine, they
work with him every off-season,I should say.
And you know, in those shortexperiences that I had with him,
that mentality was like rangtrue very quickly.

(48:04):
It was very apparent, veryobvious that there's a presence
here.
Much like you know meintroducing myself to these
people of prominence in my youth, you know it was very obvious
that there was like a this guybrings something to the table
and it's like my responsibilityto match that or to respect that
and to give that space.
Yeah, uh, and that I think thatinherent.

(48:25):
You know, I get often asked likewhat's the best advice for
young coaches?
And I always say the same thingleave the room better than you
found it.
And I think the reason why Ilove that advice is what it
takes like two things.
It takes two approaches kind of, you know, well melded together
one, being able to appraisewhat makes this room successful
already when you walk into it.
So there's a degree of humilitythat you have to sensitively

(48:47):
tune into what's alreadyhappening.
That's good here, and there'skind of like a challenge to you
of like how, what can I do tocontribute and make this better
right?
So it's both an awareness andkind of an impetus to to act on
that and do something about it.
And so with connor particularly,you know like it's giving that
respect, it's giving him thespace to do his thing, and but

(49:08):
you notice the humility and thework ethic kind of meld together
very quickly.
He's not brash or arrogant byany means, but he's very
detail-oriented.
If you're going to ask him todo something, he's going to want
to know what the exact tempo is.
He's going to want to know whatthe reps are.
He's not just going to go intoan exercise haphazardly without
an intent, and I think that'sone of the things that you see

(49:30):
prominently with athletes.
So I I like to work witheveryone who has that right.
And I like to the people whodon't or don't come to it by
nature, that I have the goodfortune of working with.
I like to try and discover thatwith them right.
Like, or what can I do to helpthem discover that that kind of
approach, Cause I think it's,it's powerful.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah, the weight room can instill that like that dog
in you.
For sure that some people don'thave.
But then when you, you know,have a couple hundred pounds on
your back or over top of yourhead, you, you got to get that
up yeah, sink or swim, for sureare there moments that you taper
that in or expose your athletesto when you know it's the right
time for?

Speaker 1 (50:06):
sure and I think it comes back to reading body
language right like there'sgoing to be times, rehab or not.
You take on differentapproaches, different energies,
different psychological energies, you know, go at different
stages of the training process.
So let's take, you know, anathlete in the early stages of a
rehab.
They got injured in season,their season's over, you know.

(50:27):
Now they have to bring in thislong, arduous rehab process and
and there's a no matter who itis, there's, you know, generally
a degree of anxiety that that'spresent with it.
Whether they let that on or not, you know, overtly it's there.
And I think, being able to getto the point where you have to
tell them listen, relax, theseason's done, there's nothing
we can do about that.

(50:47):
Let's control what we can,which is, you know, know, get
better today and maybe you havesome success with that over time
.
But there comes a tipping pointwhere, at some point in the
rehab process, even if theseason's not next week, you
notice that this person hasfallen into a bit of what we
call like a rehab mindset, wherethey don't want to push
themselves anymore.
They start to think more aboutwhat hurts than what doesn't.

(51:10):
They start to think more aboutwhat's limiting them than what
opportunities they have, andit's present in their body
language and the language thatthey use.
Now's the time to flip thescript.
Now's the time to tell themlike hey, listen, I know we've
been through this rehab together.
You've worked hard, I get itAcknowledgement off the hop
right, but I think you have morein you, right, positive
language.
I'm encouraging them to bringmore.

(51:31):
I'm not just, you know,cracking the whip and saying
fuck you, suck, do more you know, that doesn't work very rarely.
So I think some level ofpositive encouragement with you
know, a very kind of I know yourstandards here, whether you're
injured or not, let's you know.
Let's pick up the pace here alittle bit.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
And then yeah very quickly.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
You very often see this kind of like flip switch
and then they're on it, so Ithink that's always a cool
moment for me uh, I can imaginea non-cool moment is when mike
camilleri calls you out for notnot sending him and andy chiodo
the stretches you did the nightbefore yeah, good times, man
learned a lot, you know, I think, again, going back to the whole

(52:11):
willingness to send it like Istepped into that training
environment with no trainingexperience whatsoever and you
know I'm grateful for theopportunity to have worked with,
you know, incredible athletesin the NHL, um, you know, in a
pretty cool, like grungytraining environment and one of
the things I learned routinelywas you're going to fuck up,

(52:35):
just like they're going to fuckup, their coach is going to tell
them they fucked up.
Uh, you know, but if you, if youcan find a way to like level
with them on a human level orhumanize the process and the
relationship a little bit andnot be afraid to kind of
acknowledge when you, whenyou've done something wrong and
be very quick to then write ityou, when you've done something
wrong and be very quick to thenwrite it, you'll put yourself in

(52:55):
a good spot.
And you know that was a funmoment where Kami called me out
for something.
I, you know, I promised him tosend him this list of stretches
that he wanted to do and then Iforgot and you know the day went
as it went and he just fuckinglaid into me the next day.
But you know it was a powerfulmoment, I could tell you.
I was very, you know,positively on edge after that
where you're.
Just that speaks to like thesensitivity to the environment.

(53:15):
Every time I walked into thatroom or saw him I was like what
does cammy need right now?
hyper aware like is his drinkfilled up?
Is it fucking this, that?
And then eventually thatdissipates and there's this kind
of like he recognizes whatyou're doing and then you can
kind of get back to like jokingand being being cool with it.
But if I, if I didn't have thatapproach, I don't think you
know you re-establish thatrelationship uh, what sports did
you play growing up?

Speaker 2 (53:36):
because you said you were playing everything up till
15.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Then you discovered the gym like hockey, a little
bit of hockey.
I actually liked like maybequote-unquote non-traditional
sports.
In canada, badminton wassomething that I like gravitated
towards in my like really earlyyouth.
Yeah, I just liked like thespeed of the of the sport itself
it's incredible to watch crazyat the highest level.
It's one of those sports wherejust like from the hips down,
like delete what's going on.

(53:59):
And the fact that it's called ashuttlecock, like just throw
that out the window and justappraise from like a movement,
like the agility is, isunparalleled there's a reason.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
On social media people are like this guy's
prepping for badminton or thisgal's prepping for badminton,
like it's legit yeah, it's crazypeople for sure, what are some
other underrated sports in youropinion?

Speaker 1 (54:18):
tennis, again like another racket sport which are
amazing for mental acuity.
Like yeah, the results yeah,like kind of hand-eye
coordination.
Tennis is one of thoseinteresting ones because there's
the necessity to be able toproduce power, there's the
necessity to be able to producepower repeatedly, in other words

(54:41):
, power endurance.
Then there's aerobic fitness.
Some of these matches are three, four hours in length.
There's agility.
So you look at a sport likehockey, which is a very
traditional Lacrosse, anotherone like a very traditional
Canadian sport, you would veryquickly say speed, strength,
power endurance, power endurance.

(55:01):
Those are very obvious.
But you wouldn't look at asport like tennis and apply the
same.
But it's that and more Becauseof the nature of that kind of
conditioning level that'srequired.
It's infinite respect to tennisplayers at any level, having
been fortunate to work with acouple of them.
Another sport was soccer,classic Italian background right

(55:23):
.
Like played goalie, a little bitgrowing up and I think Same
tendies.
Yeah, love it, man, Like evenshallow right.
Shout out to shallow forhelping us get this organized.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
I think there's something to be said about
goalies.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Don't do it.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Don't say it.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
It's not that we're crazy man A little fucked up
right.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
I mean, I think there's more of a there's
thought going on, yeah.
Whether people call that crazy,yeah, I think there's.
You know, people are goingthrough a bit more of a process.
You're able to witness theentire game being played,
whereas athletes who are on theice as a centerman or defenseman
only have three-quarters of theice or half the ice.

(55:57):
Your goalie.
You see everything, and I thinkthere's something to be said
for those athletes that seeeverything.
They absorb more if they havetheir eyes open.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, and I think it speaks to again the challenge of
different sports, differentpositions.
We talked earlier when we wereworking out like it's not just
like when you're on, but howwell athletes can like, quote,
unquote turn it offpsychologically and
physiologically, this kind oflike rest, this static and
dynamic kind of nature orinterplay.

(56:24):
And I think you know you look ata goalie in the NHL, like there
can be minutes, definitelyseconds, but sometimes minutes
at a time where there's nothinggoing on for them, and then all
of a sudden they're hemmed in,the puck gets dumped in and now
it's shift over, shift over themand it's overtime and you know,
all of a sudden they went fromlike watching for two minutes to
like doing the splits and likethrowing their body all over the
place and like being dialed inand doing that very methodically

(56:47):
and with care, care, um, and soI think to me, I think,
gravitating towards not justsports that had, you know, a
very unique element, but like agenuine passion, for you know,
the athletes that I looked up to, growing up, were all there was
like the singularity to them.
There was this very like,unique, you know, kind of, you
know to the self element, towhat they did goaltenders and
specifically, I loved, you know,gianluigi buffon, the italian

(57:10):
national yeah, yeah footballlegend Curtis Joseph, obviously
growing up in.
Toronto, and so I relished that,I looked forward to that.
I enjoyed the responsibility ofthat kind of like being the
last line of defense type thing.
But it also manifested itselfin different ways for me and
like the hobbies that I selectedas well.
Poker, like no limit, texashold'em poker was something I

(57:31):
was like extremely fond ofgrowing up and it's like when
you get down to heads up andit's you versus the other person
, it's psychological warfare andit's a really, really
interesting, you know, play oncommunication, on psychology.
You know, one of my favoritepoker players is Phil Ivey and I
took a lot from going back toyour question about how did I
learn some of these things aboutcommunication and psychology.

(57:52):
Phil Ivey taught me a lot notdirectly, indirectly, very much
about reading people, aboutbeing aware of your surroundings
, about tells, and so I thinkthat goes a long way in
communication and it just was atheme that was present in some
of the sports that I gravitatedtowards what are some of the
other themes that make DanteMartella unique and like the

(58:16):
hammer is the that's what I'mgoing to point.

Speaker 3 (58:21):
it yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
I think I always like to ask this question because
there's specific attributes thatpeople bring to the table that
makes them unique, that allowsthem to succeed in whatever they
pursue.
Clearly you've got some ofthose, maybe identified, and if
you don't, you're being humbleyeah, um yeah, unique is an
interesting word.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
I I don't know if they're unique, but I know I
know what makes me me like.
I don't know if they're.
I guess you know everyone'sunique to their own degree, but
I think it's like in the amount,like I'd use this analogy a lot
with my athletes or like justlike dials on a switchboard or
for a dj right like becauseoftentimes they're like oh we're
not doing enough conditioningor they.
There's apprehension around.
When am I going to lift heavier?

(59:02):
I'm like, listen, all thequalities are just going to be
present all the time.
Sometimes this dial is going togo up, this dial comes down a
little, but it's never going togo down to zero.
For the most part it's there,it's present.
So I guess for me, like you know, if I say something like, I
like to like, bring, like athoughtful approach to training,
I like to quote, unquote focuson the individual, both from an

(59:25):
injury perspective, from amovement perspective, but also
from this kind of psychologicalelement we've alluded to.
So I don't know if that meunique, but it's definitely one
of the dials on my switchboardthat I find is high, it's a very
high priority for me.
What else I think?
A willingness to constantlytake risks as a person, as a

(59:49):
business owner, to send it, um,as a person, as a business owner
, to send it, uh, to send it, asit were, but to to have
guardrails in place as well.
You know to be humble enough tolike ask for help, um, or you
know, at least you know, beaware of the insecurities and
kind of limitations that I haveas a person, um, and do my best
to to you know, acknowledge themand make those part of the

(01:00:13):
process as well.
Lean on other people this kindof thing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Who are those?
Some of the people that youlooked towards or look up to as
you were going through thisprocess.
Yeah, business and strengthconditioning, like as you're
talking about that, you'releaning on individuals, but you
also probably you know when youwere going through over the past
decade, but you also probablyyou know when you were going
through over the past decadeaspiring to own your own gym who

(01:00:36):
are those people that youlooked up to, that you could
kind of see that vision comeinto fruition.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
I mean, you know the guys are pretty scripty.
I don't have to look too muchfarther than that, of course, my
business partners, my family,my wife, my two dogs, like
they're it's it's crazy how youknow impactful um, these people
have been in my life, but I lookto what Shallow and Junta and

(01:01:03):
Killian have built at Prescriptand the ethos that they model.
This isn't just who you see onsocial media, it's very much who
they are.
I remember when I started mybusiness prior to Kinetic House,
my independent business, youknow it was one of the first
things I did was reach out toShell and we didn't really have
a relationship yet, but I sawwhat they were doing with
Prescript and I was already likeeight, nine years in the game.

(01:01:24):
I felt like I was a pretty goodcoach.
I'd had some experiences withsome of the aforementioned
athletes.
But when I left my previousplace of employment and took the
leap to start my own business,I think you just naturally
gravitate towards people who aredoing that and you see the
people who are maybe a littleahead of you and where you want

(01:01:46):
to go, and more than that.
Again, I prioritize therelationship.
So I looked at what they wereand.
I took L1 because I wanted toget to know them more.
Yes, I wanted to see what thecourse was about and check my
knowledge level, where myperceived abilities were
relative to where they actuallyare.

(01:02:06):
I took a lot out of that course.
There were some fundamentals,for sure, that I felt
comfortable with, but I alsotook some learning lessons home.
But the most fruitful thing wasreaching out to Shallow and
saying hey, man, thanks for whatyou do with Prescript.
It was one of the reasons why Itook the leap and did my own
thing.
I saw what you guys were doing.

(01:02:26):
I felt like now was the righttime.
Let me know if you have anyfeedback for me.
That's the message I sent tohim.
Pretty quickly he responded and, you know, said like keep doing
your thing.
Words of encouragement, andthen we just kept in touch and
and the relationship formed asit has.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Yeah, now you're running l3 down in tampa with
them l2 courses.
You've got foot uh anklenutrition.
You're ripping everything heyis there anything?

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
you can't do or anything you avoid doing, like
yeah, I think my wife has apretty long list so things I
can't do, she'll be happy we'llget her on for the next episode,
the bloopers um, but yeah, Ithink, yeah, we've got the,
we're l2 is coming up and we'reteaching a couple of weeks, uh,
of lectures on the foot, in thehand, specifically, and that
came by way of the.

(01:03:10):
You know, again, this goes backto like there's not like one
linear path for the way you goabout things.
I went from like not beinginvolved in athletics for
several years of my life totraining some of the best
athletes in the world veryquickly.
Um, I went from not taking l2to like teaching l3 you know.
so all of that came by way oflike putting myself out there

(01:03:31):
type thing, and so, whencommunication and psychology was
something I knew this has arelationship with mental health,
which I'm very passionate aboutand this is something that I
want to explore and bring to mycraft and place an emphasis on I
reached out to Shal and said,hey, man, this is what I'm
thinking of doing.
Is there an opportunity to dothis?
With Prescript, they weretrying to scale down on some of

(01:03:53):
the courses they were offering,but they were launching L3.
And it was like perfect timingfor me and what felt like for
Prescript as well, what Ibrought as far as like a unique
element with a focus oncommunication and how that
impacts a coach's journey andgetting back to working with

(01:04:15):
some of these elite athletes wasvery powerful for me.
So, as much as like yes, I feltlike I brought something to
them.
It was incredibly rewarding forme to get back to a level where
, you know, I had built mybusiness for a couple years.
I had worked with some eliteathletes, but you know, I hadn't
had that experience of being ina room with like 20, 30 of the
you know tops of the tops for afew years, and so they afforded

(01:04:36):
me that opportunity, which I'msuper grateful for, and then L2
came after that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Now you got Kinetic House.
You're going to be filling out.
Dude, I sincerely appreciateyou having me out here, getting
me on the table with Tina,putting me through the ringer
here with a couple of lifts.
First of many conversations,where can people find you on
social?
Is it something that they canbe reaching out?
One of the things I always dois leave space here for people
to share their biggest piece ofadvice.

(01:05:02):
You've dropped like an hourplus worth of bombs here, but
where can people find you?
Where should they be sourcingout your content if they want to
learn more about what you gotgoing on?

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
And then drop that last wisdom gold nugget if you
got me Okay, so you can find usat Kinetic House H-A-U-S on
Instagram.
Follow us there, because we'llbe launching some of the
services that we have on ourwebsite coming soon.
I'm specifically at MalleusPerformance M-A-L-L-E-U-S

(01:05:32):
performance on Instagram Happyto chat about any of these
concepts if you want to, andthen come check us out.
Come by the gym if you want tocheck us out.
We're kind of uptown Torontohere on Orifice Road 107.
Orifice Road by Yorkdale Mall,come check us out.
And Gold Nugget Wisdoms.
So I said that I love Leave theRoom better than you found it.

(01:05:56):
That's probably my favorite one.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Shiloh didn't love the way I positioned this
question, so maybe I pushsomething in particular here.
You've worked with TVpersonalities like Kate Burness.
You've got Olympic athletesunder your belt.
You've got burness yeah, you'vegot olympic athletes under your
belt.
You've got the podcast thatyou've hosted.
You possess a plethora ofskills as you continue to add

(01:06:21):
layers to your tool belt.
What are some things, as youfocus on staying present, but
also look to the future that youwant to achieve, that you can
put out there that people canmaybe associate with or align
with, and maybe even get.

Speaker 1 (01:06:35):
Um.
So you mentioned kate.
She actually gave me a greatpiece of advice.
So when I hosted her on mypodcast uh, so kate is, is kate,
she's incredible, right, shedoes so many things so well.
Uh, and speaking specifically toher broadcast career not that I
want to limit her to that inany capacity I was curious.
Like I'm hosting her on apodcast, we've been friends for

(01:06:58):
a long time.
I train her, but you know, we'vebeen friends for a long time
and I was curious because, goinginto that, there was still a
moment, despite like knowingthis person really well, there
was still a moment where I waslike, oh fuck, I like I gotta be
dialed in here for sure, thisis kate burness, yeah, and I

(01:07:18):
asked her at the end a verysimilar question like what, what
advice do you have for me?
And she was, like you know,ditch the script.
So I think ditching the scriptin a certain way is incredibly
powerful.
You got to learn the rules ofthe book, but you also got to
know when to throw the rule bookout, because being able to kind
of stay in the moment, beorganic with it, tuned to the
person, and the relationshipthat to me is, has been a

(01:07:39):
powerful lesson that I'll nevertire of learning and you know
Kate was was the one that kindof had maybe the most powerful
reminder for me, because shesaid if you can ditch the script
and, just you know, play off ofthe person, especially in an
much like you've done, it's uh,it just makes for a way more
organic and powerful interactionas the title of the pre-script

(01:08:00):
episode that you're on, 490, Ithink it is.
Uh, play the man there you go,yeah, full circle appreciate it,
brother.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
yeah, dude, we'll do it again.
Hey, thanks for tuning in tothe athletes podcast, the 245,
245th episode.
Big shout out goes to Dante andTina for coming on the show
helping me out in preparationfor my marathon that we finished
in under four hours.
Can you believe it?
Can you really believe it?
That was pretty crazy.
Hey, I just want to also saythank you to you for being along
right until the very end ofthis episode, and if you listen

(01:08:29):
to every single episode, Isincerely appreciate it more
than you know.
I can't thank you enough fortuning in on a weekly basis,
supporting us purchasing perfectsports products using the code
AP20 at checkout, so that we cankeep doing this on a weekly
basis.
I hope you enjoyed the show.
I can't wait for next week'sepisode for you to tune in.
Oh and, by the way, I listenedto a Mel Robbins podcast that

(01:08:50):
talks about the fact we need tohear that people love us more,
and I want to remind you ifyou're listening to this I love
you.
I appreciate you.
I hope you have a great day.
Bye.

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Building Elite Athletes at Kinetic Haus with Dante Martella - #245

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Building Elite Athletes at Kinetic Haus with Dante Martella - #245