EP 28 | Craig Bongelli | Meet The Coach

Coach Craig is your go-to strength coach. A former Strongman and current Coach at Westside Barbell, his goal is to teach you how to build muscle, strength and confidence under the bar.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Then then then.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
What's up Bodybilly dot com listeners. My name is Daniel Bits,
and welcome back to the bbcom podcast Today. I'm joined
by master coach Craig Bonelli. Craig, you are no stranger
to the be Become ecosystem by now, but we want
to connect you with our audience, help them get to
know you a little bit more, and we're going to
do that with a series of questions today. Are you
ready to jump in?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I am absolutely ready.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Tell us what brought you to being a coach and
the purpose behind your journey of becoming a coach.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
So when I started being a coach, I was working
menial labor jobs, balancing, and I was training myself and
learning to help myself. And at first I did it
for the money. And then the first client transformation I had,
I was like whoa Like this changes who people are?
And from there, like what else was I going to do?

(01:00):
After having a feeling like that, I was all in.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
No going back after that. How would you describe your
coaching style?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Honest honesty is my number one policy as a person
and as a coach. If somebody's blowing it, I think
they deserve the respect of hearing it. If they're crushing it,
I think they deserve that. If there's certain things they
need to do to achieve their goals, Like I'm not
sure you're coding it. Here are the steps, here's what
it takes.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
How do you want people to feel when finishing a
workout with you, whether that's one on one training with
you in the app. What's an emotion that you hope
they have once they click finish or once they walk
out of the room.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm not sure what the emotion is. So if you
can put a word to this, I would greatly appreciate it.
I'd like people to feel like they took a step forward.
They didn't just do something, they moved closer to where
they ultimately want to be accomplished. Yeah, that's a great word.
Love that that word.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Why is strength at the core of your teaching principles?

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Because without strength you have no meaningful physical qualities in
anything or anything like strength is the mother of all
other capacities.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
You know. I love that you put it that way
because oftentimes, and we talk about this often here in
our newsletters, in different episodes and whatnot. You know, when
somebody is very eager to get started on something. They
usually go heads down on just that one single modality.
Maybe they want to do a five k, a marathon
and iron Man, all elifting competition, whatever the case may be,

(02:31):
and they are very very gun ho on just jumping
into that single modality. But regardless of whatever fitness or
health goal that you're chasing after, I think we can
agree that strength needs to be the foundational building blocks
to whatever goal that you set.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Completely, and my most prevalent mentor, Louis Simmons, the founder
of Westside Barbill, repeated endlessly that a pyramid is only
as tall as the width of its base. So the
wider the base, the taller the peak, And you can
point that at anything want, like all of the things
you mentioned, but strength is so prevalent to having that
broad base that if you want to get anywhere high,

(03:07):
you want to reach the heights of accomplishments, you need
strength to do it.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
And I think that's applicable for just everyday life and
longevity as well. I mean, forget other competitions that I
just threw out there a second ago. I mean, if
you want to live a longer life, if you want
to be able to carry the groceries through your door,
lift up your grandkids, whatever the case may be. It
all starts with building that foundational strength.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
I absolutely agree, Craig.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
What's your favorite movement and why.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
My absolute favorite movement in the gym? Yep, it's probably
a deadlift. I'm not naturally suited to deadlifts with my leverages,
but they're so raw, like, they're so fundamental and raw
that they have to be my favorite, even though they're
also somewhat my nemesis.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I would expect nothing else from you. What's your advice
for someone who's just getting started.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
My advice for someone starting out is to absorb as
much information as possible. To read everything, watch everything, find
all the experts, absorb as much as you can, and
then stop absorbing new information and go put it into practice.
With the bodybuilding dot com app. Check out all the coaches,
see everything we have to say, look at all the

(04:18):
different approaches we take. Then pick one. You go, I'm
gonna do this for four to six, eight weeks, maybe
four to six is a reasonable test, and go like
head down, do that and perform some self experimentation from
which you can you can make better decisions in the future.
But what you like, don't like, works, doesn't work, a

(04:40):
lot of information, put it into practice, then reevaluate, put
it into practice, repeat.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Be a sponge, and then execute completely. What's your advice
to someone who's maybe hit a plateau in their fitness journey.
So maybe this is somebody a bit more advanced, right,
They're going after more of a niche goal within the
gym or the competition setting, and they just can't get past,
you know, a certain thresholder a certain pr and kind
of can't level up their game for lack of a

(05:06):
better term. So what's your advice for that type of
fitness enthusiasts or athlete in.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
That type of place. So if we extend that out
from my advice for someone starting, for someone who's stuck
on a plateau, there are, depending on what your goal is, hundreds, thousands,
tens of thousands of people who have who have crushed
the plateau that you can't figure out yet. Go learn
from an expert, find somebody who's who's walked the path,

(05:33):
who's been up the mountain, and go, hey, how do
I get past this? And go find it from someone
who's done it. Because once you're at a point where
you have a great base where you've you've moved past
the beginner stages of training. Now you can actually go
talk to an expert about your particular situation and get
some advice that'll be that will save you years of
time and hundreds of hours of frustration.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I love that because I think as our fitness journey progresses,
and the more knowledge that we gain, the more experience
we gain, our ego grows with that, and we often
forget that we can always benefit from a coach. And
there's the saying great coaches need great coaches, right, you
can really never outgrow having a coach. You can outgrow
a coach. But I think there's always opportunity to go

(06:16):
out and find somebody who's doing things you know better
than you or maybe who can provide you with the
insight in terms of doing it differently to reach your
goal completely.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
And there are coaches out there who have helped hundreds
of people beat your specific plateau. Like some of those coaches,
depending on your goals, they're going to be in the
app like you'll have access to us. But regardless, like
you go find somebody who's been like, oh, yeah, not
only have I done that, I've shown one hundred people
how to do that and then get their advice.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Absolutely, Craig. As you know, we're relaunching Signature, which is
our house brand here at be become very exciting. We're
going to have way protein creating, EAAs, hydration, everything you
can imagine in this line. Tell us what your current
favor Signature product is and why it's a part of
your daily stack.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
This is going to be a boring answer. It's the magnesium.
I find. I find a high quality magnesium supplement, I
recover faster, I sleep better, which also assists in the recovery.
Everything about how I feel and how I function works
better when I'm using a high quality magnesium. And that's

(07:25):
not a cool answer. I'd love to be like, pre
work out this protein. This BCA is that I don't
have it the magnesium for me, Like that is the
one where if I if I had to forgo something
that would be last on my list, don't.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Sleep on magnesium. Magnesium plays a significant role in all
of the points that you just discussed. It helps with
sleep as well. It's key in hydration. So magnesium, I mean.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
It's massive. It's just not a cool answer.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
That's all right, Craig, you're a cool guy. How do
you fuel your day? Tell us about your meal prep,
tell us about you know, your day to day nutrition
and what that looks like on a weekly basis for yourself.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
So right now, I've been experimenting with essentially an animal
based diet with fruit, so milk, eggs, cheese, an obnoxious
amount of beef and fruit, and I've been feeling pretty good.
But I'm at a place now where I'm experimenting with
my diet for personal interest. I'm not following a really

(08:29):
intensive plan the way I have in the past when
I was targeting a really specific goal. So I'm doing
a lot of self experimentation, which I wouldn't recommend to
somebody who hasn't spent a lot of time doing things
more regimented so they can figure out is this better?
Is this worse, and have a better understanding of their
body to know how they're actually responding to something. But

(08:53):
that's what I'm doing presently.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
What's your recommendation for somebody who's just getting started, right,
So the example that you just gave, you know, one
one could argue that there's some aggressive elimination that goes
into that, but somebody who's maybe just trying to shed
a couple pounds and gain a few pounds of muscle.
What's your advice for them?

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, my advice for them, figure out what you're doing
right now, honestly, not the whole Okay, I'm gonna keep
a food journal, so I'm not eating any more donuts. Like, actually,
look at where you are. And the mistake people make
is trying to have a better peak. So they they're like, man,
last Monday, i ate ninety percent perfect. This Monday, I'm

(09:31):
needing one hundred percent perfect, or I only screwed up
my diet on Wednesday instead of doing that, instead of
looking at raising the peak, if you look at raising
the floor, so never doing worse or as bad as
you did the week previous. So you ate nineteen donuts
last week, No offense to anyone who likes donuts. I don't
know why that's that's my target today, but I'm going

(09:52):
after donuts. You had nineteen donuts last week, but on
Monday you only had one. So instead of thinking, Okay, Monday,
I'm having zero this week, I'm going to eat less
than nineteen. And if you can continually eliminate your worst
habits or making them less bad. You improve significally faster mathematically,
and we can break that down later at a video

(10:14):
like I can show you the numbers because it's magic,
but it's also easier. If I want to improve my
average in high school. I'm a high school student and
I've got a ninety in English, but I've got a
forty in math. I can get a ten percent improvement
in English going from ninety to one hundred, but ninety
to one hundred is a lot of work. I can
get a ten percent improvement in math going from forty

(10:36):
percent to fifty and get that same ten percent improvement.
It's a lot easier to do. The worst something is,
the easier it is to improve it. There's a lot
more low hanging through. That's what people should be focused on.
You don't need a perfect diet. You need one that
isn't as bad as the one you have right now,
and then once you get used to that a little
bit less bad again. And if you creep the floor up,

(10:57):
the results as are mathematically improved and so much easier.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Striving for that gradual evolution over time completely. I feel
like you just use Homer Simpson as your client reference
with the donuts last one here before we get into
our rapid fire Q and A Craig. What do you
do for recovery?

Speaker 1 (11:20):
If I'm being intelligent, I do a ton of sled pulling.
I did a little video that'll be in the app
explaining the benefits of sled pulling, and it is dynamite.
I'm a huge fan of that. But to be honest,
outside of that, if I have time to go walk
the dog with my wife, if I'm doing stuff with
my daughters, I use a lot of real life stuff
to do that. I have a hard time switching between

(11:43):
like ten out of ten. It's hard for me to
find like a three or four, so I typically need
other people involved. Or sled polling.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
We'll call that functional recovery for lack of a better term.
But why the sled? Tell us? Tell us why the
sled helps with recovery?

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Okay, so the sled, apart from being a very natural
movie you're walking, there is no lowering portion or eccentric
portion to doing something like a sled, whereas if I
was doing a bicep curl, I curl up, I lower down.
It's the lowering that beats you up. And takes more
out of you than the raising await. So the idea

(12:18):
that if you can do something light with no lowering
portion or no eccentric portion, and do something for a
fairly long duration that pumps blood through your entire body,
it can be really beneficial in terms of recovery and restoration.
And that's definitely what I've found awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
We'll stay tuned for that video on the BBCM app.
All right, you ready to get into our rapid fire
Q and A.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
I'm as ready as I'm gonna be.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
All Right, here we go. Number one upper body or
lower body.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Upper body for looks, lower body for function.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Number two push or pull, pull, dead lift or squat,
dead lift, Biceps or triceps.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Biceps for fun, triceps for function.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Morning or night workout.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
Morning for fitness, Night for strength. Favorite book An Open
Society and Its Enemies by Carl.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Popper, Favorite food, Steak, Favorite.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Music that really depends what I'm doing.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Workout music.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Nipsey Hustler, Kevin Gates.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Right now, one word to describe you, Craig hopeful in
one word to describe your workouts, hopeless.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
No.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Cut, We'll just cut it right there.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
When we're describing the workouts legit. Like the workouts are legit,
I think. I assume all the other coaches feel the
same way. But everything I put in the app is
what I would be recommending if my closest friend in
the world is like, how do I achieve this goal?
How do I do this? That's what I'm That's what
I'm putting in there.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Craig, thanks for stopping by for a quick one with
us in the studio. We're so excited to work out
with you in twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Stay tuned as we gear up to launch the bodybuilding
dot com ap where you can work out with all
of our coaches in twenty twenty five.