Lifting Cues, Pulsing and Coming Back From Injury With Brian Carroll

And I've been, like I said, I've been spreading my knees and spreading the floor ever since I've been lifting for 20 years. I didn't understand that it needed to come from the medias. I just didn't. I just thought I'd spread my knees. The problem with just spreading your knees is you're not getting full engagement and you also might be putting a little extra torque on your knees unnecessarily. You're listening to the Restoring Human Movement podcast, where movement experts discuss the latest evidence-based practices to help you and your clients move with mastery. And now, your host, Dr. Sebastian Gonzales.

Hey, everybody. I'm Dr. Sebastian Gonzales. Thanks for joining me on the newly branded Restoring Human Movement podcast. I've got to get used to saying that. But what you just heard, there was a 15-second or so clip of the podcast interview that I did today with Brian Carroll. If you have already heard one of my other podcasts, I think it was number 63. Scroll down and check that out after. I have Brian Carroll as well as Dr. Stu McGill on to talk about their book, The Gift of Injury, which was basically a co-management of Brian's spinal fracture in the sacrum, L5, and multiple disc herniations where they basically got him pain free and he was in a ton of pain. And he overcame that and was able to lift again. So Brian's lifted a ton of weight. He's 35 years old, almost 36, and he's lifted. He squatted over 1,000 pounds. I want to say like 52 times or something like that. And he did it again after he had that injury. So it's an amazing book, Gift of Injury, if you want to check that one out. But we're going to be talking a little bit more about his other book today as well.

That is 1020 Life. And we're going to share some awesome tips and tricks that he's learned throughout the way. He wrote that book actually after the injury as well. So there will be parts of it in there. So we kind of blend those two topics together a little bit. But if you don't know if you're in the right spot, I want to make sure that we qualify all of our listeners first. If you're a rehab professional of any level that you're still looking to learn, you're in the right place. So you're going to get a lot of, I asked him some questions about how to co-manage with someone like him and how to co-manage someone like him. All right?

Because I know we don't always get that in our education as rehab professionals. If you're a strength coach, you're going to love some of the cues and tips that he gives. If you're an athlete, you're going to get a ton. Or if you're a lifter, you're going to get a ton as well. So all three of those should stay and listen to this podcast. The show notes are going to be found on my website, p2sportscare.com. I'll provide a link into this description as well. Some of the topics we're going to hit is some of the mental aspects of lifting, some of the cues that will improve your lifting mechanics. We're also going to go into how to frighten a German Shepherd, sustainability, or how to be able to be healthy for a long career of lifting, not just be successful for a short period of time, and tons more. So Brian is a wealth of knowledge, and a lot of the great trainers that I know have already listened and been to some of his seminars. So he has some great tips, and I've had some good success implementing some of the strategies that him and Dr. Stuart McGill have come up with in managing people with hip issues, back pain, and so on. So before I start, I actually, the old podcast actually used to have, I would tell a little story about myself, and I strongly believe that if we are, if you guys, I think you guys should know a little bit about your host. I think of it kind of like Jay Leno or Conan O'Brien. You might not watch both shows, but you listen to one or the other because you like the person or the way they tell stories or so on. So I believe it's in everyone's best interest for me to tell a little story about myself so you guys get a little depth into who I am because I'm usually interviewing people. So a personal story here is that since I live by the beach, I live about, I grew up actually about three miles from the beach here in Huntington Beach area, and they call it Surf City USA, and people say, hey, do you surf? And I say, no, I don't surf. I used to go out and bodyboard a little bit, and then I started surfing, and then I stopped. And people are like, well, how come you don't surf?

I'm like, well, I have an irrational fear of sharks. And so I still have friends now that surf, and they're like, hey, why don't we go out and surf? Waves are good. I'll teach you. Don't worry. I got some wetsuits and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, cool, great. No, I'm good. And they're like, well, how come? I'm like, well, I have an irrational fear of sharks. And they say, well, don't worry. We haven't seen sharks over here in a long time. And I said, I just said, I have an irrational fear of sharks, right? I'm already qualifying that it's irrational. But to lead into that as well is actually, to be fair enough about it, over the last couple years here, there has been a lot of wights out. And I think one stretch of beach called Sunset Beach about, gosh, it's basically the next beach from the ones that we would go to had literally like 15 baby great wights swimming around like all summer, signs up and everything. And yeah, there's nothing worse.

I would hate to be surprised by a large animal and being eaten alive. So it just ain't my thing. You know, I'd rather go fish. I'll go fish the beach, you know, a little bit. Anyways, that's a personal story about me. And I just want to thank you guys as well for being part of this podcast. I do this for you guys. I do learn stuff from this as well. But at the same time, I want to hear what you want to hear about. So if you can do a review for me, that would be amazing. Go on iTunes and do it. And if you're struggling to find the proper time to listen to podcasts like this, honestly, I do it when doing dishes, going for my walks. I do it sometimes with lifting or on drives.

So those are all times where I'm able to listen to other people's podcasts and I learn a ton. So I'm hoping you guys get the same thing. So without any further ado, let's go in and listen to Brian Carroll talk about some of the awesome tips and tricks he's learned over this past 20 years of lifting and through the injuries he's sustained and overcome them. Here we go with Brian Carroll. All right, everyone. We're on with Brian Carroll, the author of 1020 Life, as well as a co-author with Gift of Injury with Dr. Stu McGill. Brian, say what's up? What's going on, Seb? It's great to be here. Thank you for having me. How's the West Coast treating you?

I can't believe that 4th of July is coming because it is the best weather around here during the 4th of July. Although I see it's nice in Jacksonville. Yeah, it's very nice. It's about 80 degrees, nice and breezy, sunny, not too humid. And, you know, I've thought of you guys over there a couple of times. I remember during the playoffs, you guys had some world record heat going on when the Dodgers were playing. What was up with that? Yeah. You know, the heat is really not, I mean, we love to say heat is a, it's, actually, so I have a friend who lives where I grew up, which is about two miles inland from where I'm at now, and I'm about a mile and a half off the beach. So he calls me during the summertime, and he's like, hey, you want to go to the beach? And I'm like, I look up, I'm like, it's foggy, man. And he's like, no, it's sunny. And it's, he's like 80 degrees. I'm like, dude, it's 60 here. So it's very different inland, even a couple miles.

So I think the record heat I didn't experience too much of. Yeah. I was surprised to see it because I know it's, you know, Southern California area, man, it's like year round beautiful. And man, they were sweating their asses off in that baseball game. And everyone was talking about the record setting heat going on. So that was a little surprising. And then, of course, a little while ago, the whole daggum area was burning down. That looks pretty. Did you saw videos of that? Yeah, it looked like Armageddon. Yeah, it was crazy. There was that one where like up by the Getty Center that the freeway kind of basically drove through hell, right?

I saw that. Yeah, I saw that exact one. And then outside of Santa Barbara, they had some serious flash flooding not long ago. So you guys have been going through it. I know. But, you know, I know that where I live, it's like, you don't like, I know that's up towards LA a little bit, which is about their 30 minute, 40 minute drive, no traffic. Like there would have to be millions and millions of houses decimated to even reach where we're at. Because there's not really a ton of brush around here to burn, you know. Thankfully. We got concrete. Yeah. And then we have hurricanes. You know, we had Irma come through here that hit Florida pretty hard last fall.

And then we had Matthew the year before. So yeah, it's been a crazy couple of years with weather in general. And I know that's not our topic today. We're not meteorologists or anything, but... You could be. Stand up, take your shirt off. It's still relevant because if the weather gets bad enough, we won't be here. So I guess it is kind of relevant, right? Right. Well, I think, actually, I saw an app one time that right outside, I was in Jacksonville one time, and someone told me about these great whites that they were tracking just offshore in Jacksonville. So you got those things just hanging around too, right?

Yeah. Outside of St. Augustine it was. It was a 25 footer or whatever it was, and it hung out for a bit and then drifted off. But yeah, we get a couple of white sharks here and there, not as much as you guys do, but we have plenty of bull sharks. Yeah. We got a lot of bull sharks and a lot of hammerhead sharks. But again, you're more likely to get bit by an alligator than a shark down here in Florida. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think we should get on the topic. We could talk about meteorology for a long time. Well, I guess so everyone listening here, I just want to frame this a little bit because I know that from my experience with young docs coming through and I have some interns, we go through some things like some cues that you have, spread in the floor, lobster claw, things of that nature, and they're like, where'd you learn this stuff? And I'm like, well, Brian Carroll's the man, you know?

So I've actually suggested that they buy a great gift of injury and to help out with, I mean, we have a lot of young clinicians and sports medicine people who just want to be able to co-manage lifters. So I thought if we frame that a little bit today and kind of target it at them, I think it'd be really helpful for a lot of people. Yeah, I like that idea. And, you know, it's more opportunity for them to not just learn more, but help the athlete instead of just getting them somewhat rehabbed and healthy and then dumping them off and then letting them get back to their own, you know, their own devices, for lack of a better way of putting it.

It's going to help all of us. The more the clinicians learn about the strength athletes and resilience in sport, the better off they'll be because, you know, I hate to downplay it, but, you know, anyone can get someone back to sitting on the couch again, but it's a whole different animal to get them back to sport. Right. And I do remember hearing on that other podcast that Stu told you that he was not going to work with you further after pain has dissipated, right? And then you conned him into it, and that's what Gift of Injury basically became, right? Yeah. So the whole story of Gift of Injury, initially, when I went up to see Dr. McGill in 2013, right at five years ago, actually, May 2013, we headed up there.

He was very frank with me about the damage of my spine and told me that if I were his son, he would urge me to retire and not consider lifting any kind of measurable amount of weight again and enjoy a pain-free life because he did believe he could get me pain-free once again. And with that, he, of course, you know, that hit home to me. But of course, when he said that he could get me pain-free, I said, well, I'm letting you know, once I am pain-free again, I'm going to attempt to lift. And he says, okay, one thing at a time, but after six months or so, and if you're pain-free and you're ready to lift, come back up here and we'll talk about it. Who knows, maybe you're writing a book about it. So the whole thing started at our first meeting in 2013, a month of May. And about July, I was completely pain-free and I was already transitioning back to lifting.

And basically, I said, hey, I'm back to lifting. I'm doing good. And so I asked him a couple of things. He goes, you know, my job is to get you pain-free. You know, you're the expert in the strength realm. Well, it wasn't really that easy because he gets emotionally invested into his clients and his athletes. And so, of course, we kept talking and I ended up making another trip back up there in October of 2013. So a couple of months, I had some times to tinker and continue to build upon the pain-free foundation. And of course, he played a big part of my comeback, not just from the rehab standpoint, but fine-tuning and showing me some tricks that he learned from guys like Bill Kazmaier and some people that I can't even name that have come through and worked with him. And he's met over the years and built relationships with. So we put Gift of Injury together and we hope that it helps a lot of people, you know, in my situation. But best case scenario, they don't get to my situation.

They circumvent it and they build resilience instead of having to rehab and start over. Yeah, yeah. Actually, so question, tangent question. When you went up to have dinner and talk about this, did you have a whole side of apple pie when you're done? Was that dessert? Yeah, I can put away some food. I definitely have a sweet tooth. This time we went to the burger place once again and had some really good burgers and a couple beers. And I'm sure I had some dessert. So yeah, I'm sure I ate my weight and some food. Well, I find it interesting that Stu being so good at a lot of cueing as well as implementation that he would kind of hand you the strength portion. And I think a lot of the young clinician listeners, I think we probably struggle with that where we might not trust the other side or be able to communicate well of what we want or what the parameters is or just basically relinquishing our power. So how did you guys go through that?

Well, I look at it this way. You know, Stu said, and I've heard many other great, great scientists and pioneers in our industry say that most of the time, the athletes are ahead of the clinicians and the scientists. For the longest time, we've known things worked. We just didn't understand exactly how and why. On the other side of the coin, we didn't understand why things didn't work and why. So the scientists come behind us and give us a little bit of a definitive answer as to why. So that might not be so clear to some people, but I can tell you this. I knew to spread my knees on the squat. I knew to spread the floor. The problem with that was I didn't know that it needed to come from medias and not my knees. So when you have someone that understands the biology and someone who understands technique and they're merged together, you have a lot better pathway of getting across to the clinicians and the athletes across the board because they can all relate. And I've been, like I said, I've been spreading my knees and spreading the floor ever since I've been lifting for 20 years. I didn't understand that it needed to come from the medias. I just didn't. I just thought I'd spread my knees. The problem with just spreading your knees is you're not getting full engagement and you also might be putting a little extra torque on your knees unnecessarily. So there's a whole bunch of good that can come from the athlete that has a history like I do and understanding anatomy and physiology. I was a massage therapist for 10 years.

And of course, Stu with 30 plus years in the lab, my 20 years of lifting, you know, Stu's 30 plus years of working with top athletes and seeing back pain patients. It was just a perfect marriage. Mm-hmm. Well, um, we're talking a little bit off air of why, um, why, why did you guys decide to write a book together anyways? And, um, cause he's worked with so many other people. Why did you guys blend so well? Um, I do want to come back to spread the floor though. So yeah. Yeah. So I think that the biggest thing is, is there's, there's a lot of different ways to skin the cat. We know that there's people that have a lot of different methods to get strong. There's people that have different methods of rehab, different ways to attack, uh, attacking weak points and weaknesses and, and, and injury. But when Stu and I started to come together and decided we want to write the book, which was kind of decided the first time we met and then, you know, subsequently me getting healthy and returning and winning the Arnold the next year. Uh, so it was kind of already set in motion early on that said, our principles aligned. So the things that I knew innately, like my last point were things that he knew through trial and error in the lab over the years and working with athletes. So, um, it was the, it was the perfect mesh together because a lot of times people can get to the same, same way through different paths. So if we had totally different methods and our styles were completely different, it wouldn't have made for a very good book. Now it's not to say that we agree 100% on everything in the way we say it, but for the most part, we're going the same way. And even though maybe some styles might be slightly different or the wording might be a little different because Stu is a lot more intelligent and seasoned than I am in a lot of ways. So, um, you know, with that said, there has to be a, you know, there has to be a kinship there. There has to be a good, a good mesh. And we've all been around people that we've really meshed with well. And there's also on the other side of people that we didn't mesh and click with well. So obviously if we didn't click well and we had, and our ideals were totally different, the book would have never happened. And rightfully so we would have been doing people a big disservice. Yeah. I think it's an amazing book. And I think that, um, definitely Stu has his, uh, he's an intelligent dude. And, and, uh, I think he's very, uh, when I read his books anyways, they seem very like non-biased and just very, from a clinical standpoint. Um, but I want to hear all your content. I, you, you put things very simply, um, and even reading through the book, it's funny, actually, I was living, I was listening to that, uh, Riddell podcast. He had, he said he read it on a plane. So did I, you got it, you got a trend going. Um, did you go to sleep? No, I did highlight some. Um, and then I realized I got into a pro a little bit of more technical stuff and I'm like, Hmm, we probably won't get that deep into this. So I won't finish this last 25%. Um, but, uh, uh, it was, it was just simply put. And, um, as you, as I was reading and I was kind of thinking about what is Brian trying to solve in this? Why did he write this? What was missing in the weightlifting world that you're trying to solve?

That's a good question. So unfortunately in every, um, in every, um, whether it be, uh, chiropractors, every field, chiropractors, physical therapists, power leaders, strong men, diet coaches, bodybuilding coaches, there are charlatans that exist in every one of them. And we all know, we all know some of those. And for the longest time, I would read the content put out by some of these people that number one, either it wasn't good or it wasn't sound scientifically, or number two, it was just something that worked for them. And it's not going to work for the, for every other person. We know that the, the 0.1 percenters are going to get strong, get leaner. They're going to have success with, with their people, their clients, in spite of their methods, they just have the, the it factor that does not make them a good coach, a good author or a good writer. So I wanted to put something out there that I knew, uh, from the algorithms that I'd learned over the years with my clients and the people that I worked with, you know, going back close to 15 years ago. And if you want to go further back to my teens, I always led the pack with the people I trained with. And it was something innate that I knew that the body needed just enough stimuli and not too much. How much is that? It depends.

And it depends on person to person. You start with the baseline and you deviate from there. It's just stuff I knew. And once again, going back a point or two, these are the reasons why Stu and I meshed. It wasn't just something that I made up just to make some money. Uh, like, like I feel some people do to sell a product. And at the end of the day, I can sleep well at night because I know that this isn't just, this is what Brian Carroll did to set, you know, 1030 to 20 squat all time world record and 1185 squat at 275 all time world record here. You do the same. That's not the way it works. Everything in this book and this method is customizable and it's comprehensive and it's dynamic. It's got to change because the body is ever changing and you have to adapt. So with that said, I felt there isn't anything, uh, remotely close to this out there. And I wanted to be the first to market with something that was a comprehensive strength guide that was sound, both from a been there, done that in the trenches standpoint and then a scientific standpoint as well.

Yeah. So then, uh, my observation, at least with some people, cause I, I put out, I put out a lot of content that is, I'd love people to understand things so they can then apply and modify kind of like how you said it with yours. But then there's some people that really want a concrete, no changes whatsoever. Um, do you, do you get people like that by the book and say, Hey, what the heck, where's the program? Where's the exact program? Um, well, yeah, yeah. I'll tell them, well, it's a philosophy. It's not a program. If you want a program, I'm glad you write one, but I'd be doing you a disservice if I just put a program in there because every one of us are built different. Our injury histories are different. Our leverages are different. And, uh, you know, someone with super, super deep hips, um, should not be squatting their butt to the ground because it's going to be coming out of their back. So if I told everyone, this is the way you should be training. This is assistance work. You should be doing. This is how you should be warming up bar none.

You know, no, no differences here and there. Some people would be happy because it would take the thinking out of it. But if it's, if people want a program that's just spit out and it's not custom to their needs, then they should probably look elsewhere. Yeah. Or they can look, they can reach me and I can spit them out a custom program. But again, it's going to be based off the principles in this book. So they can pay, you know, a lot more money for me to coach them. I'll gladly do it. I'll gladly write them a program. And yes, they will have my eyes, you know, to watch over their videos and correct their form. Um, which is a good thing. But as far as just me writing them a program, I'm going to be using the algorithms in that book to create it.

Yeah. That makes total sense. And I know that from a, uh, from a clinical standpoint, I, I feel like a lot of the, the people that, um, people like me are going to encounter are people who usually, uh, they don't know how to modify it. They don't know how to listen their body. They don't know how to, you know, turn, uh, turn intensity down a little bit just to recover. Um, and I, I saw a lot of that stuff in your book, which is very useful. Um, even the mental mindset of, you said, go on a vacation, have some drinks and hang out with your wife, right? Yep. Yep. So, I mean, that'd be an example, you know, of, of, of a time where you're not trying to peak strength. That'd be more of a maintenance phase or what I call an off season. So, um, you know, I have a whole, there's a whole rabbit hole that we could go down with that as well, because we all know that you can't push maximum intensity, maximum volume indefinitely. Your body's going to give your mind's going to give something's going to break. So an off season is a, is a good time to attack your weak points back off the intensity, maybe up the volume and work of RPE. And I advocate RPE in the book. It's however you want to say rate of perceived exertion effort, whatever, but basically it's, it's, I look at it as like a pain scale. So, you know, if you're, if you're set to do like a six or a seven that day in your home gym, when you have all your normal meals and you're not partying all night, it might be 500 pounds on the deadlift. If you're in Jamaica, having some drinks on vacation with your wife and you get up a little bit hung over that same RPE might be a 400 pound deadlift. So that it's, that's something to keep you honest. And it's also going to keep you sane because you're not beating yourself up. If the equipment isn't optimal, the food isn't optimal and the other variables aren't quite optimal. So I have, I have systems built into this philosophy to, to kind of keep a checks and balances for people to kind of save them for themselves. And for people that don't want to critically think that longevity is not going to be the thing for them. So they're better off seeking out a little more simple plan that's going to work for a couple of months for them. And then they're going to skip to the next plan. Yeah. And I know that I've heard you say a couple of times that, um, um, you mentioned Bo Jackson durability and, um, you're overall, like you've been lifting for what, uh, 20 years now. Yes. I, I did my first, uh, bench press meet in 1999. So just about 20 years ago. And I've been lifting at a world-class level where I've been placing in the top two in the world, um, for the last 15 years. So, um, yeah, I know, I know a little bit about longevity and, uh, the shelf life for someone in the NFL is what three years or something like that these days, something like that, uh, a power lifter to top levels about five years. It seems like, you know, they start falling apart mentally and or physically. And the problem is they don't have phases in their training.

They don't have, um, checks and balances and they'll, they'll come on really strong and they'll do really well. And they'll, they'll, they'll start to break apart. They'll fade. And then it starts getting difficult when you have to rehab and fight and claw for those last little bit of, uh, percentages and pounds, and then they're gone. And, uh, the phrase that I like to say is availability supersedes ability. It does not matter how good you are. If you are hurt, banged up, and you can't, uh, you can't play and you're sitting on the sideline. And, you know, you mentioned Bo Jackson, we always think of, you know, him in the eighties and what could have been a guy who hit 40, 40 home runs, didn't even have a spring, you know, a spring practice with football went straight to the, you know, the Raiders and would run for a thousand yards. Like it was nothing.

The problem is he only lasted a couple of years and he was done when he came back to baseball, he was never the same. And, uh, so what could have been, you don't want to be that guy asking yourself, man, what could have been, I came on so strong. It's all about longevity and hall of famers is Bo Jackson in the hall of fame. Hmm. I don't know. Is he, he's not? No, no. I don't know of anyone that's only been in the league for three years that made it the hall of fame. Yeah. Maybe, maybe, maybe he slipped in there, but I think of someone hall of fame numbers, someone that did it for year in year out, maybe didn't have always the number one batting average or home runs or touchdowns or rushing yards, but they're always in the top five, always in the top 10 consistently, consistently a couple of breakout years, top one, two, three, but they're in it for a long time. Those to me are the legends. Yeah. Those are those. I think of the, like the first dream team, that first basketball dream team is that's a team of legends. All those guys were seasoned. They were kind of towards the end of their career a bit, but their numbers spoke for themselves and Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, you know, of course, Michael Jordan, you know, you have the guys that you, you know, that were there and in it for the test of time. They didn't just have a year or two and they're done. Yeah. Well, I, I just, um, coming to mind is the, uh, the, there's that Tom Brady, uh, 40 surviving 40 or whatever the heck it is right now. Um, and I, I mean, what do you think makes someone that sustainable? Is it luck?

Is it hard work? Is it mindset? I mean, um, what do you think? I like, I like these questions because I, they, they go through my head all the time. Um, it's definitely a little bit of luck because in life, some stuff happens to us that literally you just can't make up or you can't avoid someone running into the back of you. That was part of what picked my scab with my back a long time ago. That was what started the precipitation of my back unraveling, which is one of many things. So of course, a little bit of luck has to play a factor, uh, preparation also doing your homework, doing things that people do not want to do. Um, and making yourself do it, whether it's taking your, um, your, your vitamins and supplements when you don't feel like doing it or eating that extra meal or not eating that extra meal or going out and doing your cardio work or training or not partying. Those are the intangibles. I think that, um, that a lot of people kind of overlook me to say, Oh, they're disciplined. No, I mean, it really takes a lot for someone to go years and years and years to be very disciplined and, uh, and do all the right things because we, we see now through Instagram and Facebook, these celebrity, uh, let's just say football players for the sake of it, because they're out there, you know, and football's arguably the biggest sport in the United States, right? Biggest professional, biggest money draw, you know, you name it. Um, you see how these guys live their lives. They're buying four, five cars at a time. They're, they're, you know, showing off their property. They're doing this or doing that. Then they're out of the league in three years and they're broke. That that's, that's not going to be someone. I don't see Tom Brady ever doing something like that. I don't see him ever flaunting. I never see him flaunting his stuff. You know, that guy's got $150 million in the bank, probably if not more than that, he doesn't have to show it. And, and, and I think that's, uh, that's something that speaks to his character. And I've never met Tom Brady and I don't know him, but you certainly can't argue with his numbers. And he's a good example of someone who he doesn't have every single record. You know, he doesn't have the most starts in a row.

He, he may have, he may be coming close to the touchdown record if he broke it last year, you know, single season touchdown record, all time, all time yards, most completions, Superbowl rings, you know, people can give them crap about only winning, you know, four Superbowls or five and losing three. But, um, at the end of the day, he's going to go down as the best quarterback. And I think it's a little bit of luck, a little bit of talent, a lot of talent, I should say. And, uh, man, he just put in the work. He was a third string quarterback at Michigan. He wasn't even a starter there for a while. You know, he was actually behind the baseball player. Oh, really? Zach Henson, Drew Henson, whatever his name was, the Yankees baseball player went on to play baseball. He wasn't even ahead of him on the roster. So sometimes people are late bloomers. So, uh, I think a lot of things make that guy great. I think instead of being a sportscaster, I think you can be on, uh, ESPN.

We can, uh, we can get a sports center on you. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. Um, just thinking too, with like, um, I, I've, I've considered, so people come in, uh, let's just say I have someone who's like even overweight here in like, it's a real awkward time in the beginning, even though they have back condition or whatever, to talk to them about weight loss until you hit a point of inception. Um, so when someone is kind of reckless, being reckless with their training in their body, and when would they even pick up like a book like yours and realize, you know, I need to learn more about how to, um, a little bit more of a theory rather than just sticking to the, is there any inception points that you've found with people?

They have to be ready to do it. And that's been me with a lot of different things in my life over the years. You can know things, you know, it's kind of like the difference between knowledge and wisdom. You know, uh, you can have all the knowledge in the world, but if it's not applicated and you don't know how to use it in your life, it's kind of useless. It's just a bunch of, it's like a college kid coming out of school with no world wisdom. What are they going to do? It's they're going to have to stumble a little bit and make some wrong choices and do some silly things. And I think a lot of the time we can sit down no matter what our accolades are and what, what letters and numbers we have by our name letters for you, numbers for me. And, um, until they're ready to make that change, it doesn't matter what you tell them. It does not matter.

And I think that my point of where I really understood this was in 2013 when I finally just surrendered. And I went to Dr. McGill's lab that day and said, I'm putting my ego and my pride aside. I don't know anything. I've tried so many times myself to recover my back. It's failing. I'm going to go in there. Like I've never lifted a weight in my life and I'm going to start over fresh. And I can tell you, Seth, that was the best day of my life. Um, you know, uh, I won't say best day cause I don't want to discount, you know, marrying my awesome wife and stuff like that. But as far as like making a good decision for my own good, that, that was the day where I dropped the ego and, and really I had to take a couple of steps back, but man, I propelled 20 steps forward because of that.

And I don't know what, what the, what the magical dose is. Um, because people have different, man, some people are really difficult. They're really stubborn. And I think a lot of the time they have to fall flat on their face before they're ready to get picked up. Yeah, I could agree with that. Um, I know that, uh, so last time we spoke actually, when I interviewed you and Stu, um, I, I actually, I was feeling really good with my back and I had an injury in high school. And, uh, funny right after that, I had a little injury deadlifting and I managed it on my own a little bit. And then I realized at some point when I was around, I think October or November, and I realized that I am too emotionally connected to this case to make a judgment call. So I actually went to Cody and, but it took a lot of, um, I'm like, well, crap. I'm like, I'm going to have to basically show Cody. I don't, I don't know everything that maybe he thought I did, you know? So, and, and it was, it's kind of embarrassing. But at the same time, I'm like, look, I, I don't want to be an idiot and I don't want to preach what I don't do. So I need to do this. Um, and actually currently now I realized that actually, so in January baseball season was starting to come cause I still play. Um, and I realized my back feels great, but then, uh, I realized I was hesitant on playing. And so I reached out to, you know, Brennan Gassamia.

So I reached out, I reached out to Brennan and I said, I need you to get me through load. I need you to, to watch me and encourage me. And so he still trains me now. Um, but it was, it was enlightening to me to go through that process because it is very tough. Um, so I can resonate with you a little, I'm sure yours is worse than mine by far. Yeah. So, uh, you know, that scene in Pulp Fiction where, um, where, uh, Bruce Willis comes in and he's supposed to take a fall on the second and he, you know, he tells him, Hey, you're going to go down. And he says, F pride, it never helps. It only hurts. And that's so true. Think about when pride ever helps take you to the next level. Yes. You need to believe in yourself, but having so much pride and ego where you don't want to ask someone for help because you think you might be susceptible to some judgment or some ridicule or something. I mean, look where you're at now. You got hooked up with Brandon. He's a great dude, you know, really good trainer, smart. And then you, you reached out to, uh, to Cody and got some help. And you probably learned a few new things that you can, uh, use not just from a psychology standpoint, but from a clinical standpoint.

Definitely. Like I feel definitely better about, um, management of, uh, some guy came in a couple weeks ago and he literally just walked through the door and laid on the ground, you know, and so, you know, that's life. Um, and you know, this common collective, I basically went over and asked him a handful of things and put my hands on his hips and compressed them together. And he's like, Oh my God, that feels so much better. You know, and just kind of knowing what it's, uh, what it feels like and just other tricks to use are very useful. Yes. Um, I was going to ask you something. What the hell is I going to ask you now? Do you have any questions for me? I, you stalled me.

No, we can talk about pride a little bit more because it's something I see hold people back all the time. They don't want to drop the load. They want to just jump right back. As soon as that the pain seems to be gone, they want to jump right back, not just a little bit of load, but going back, you know, two, three, 400, 500 pounds right away. And something that Stu's really hammered home to me just because it's pain-free does not mean it's healed yet. Especially when we're talking about bone, we're not talking about soft tissue, soft tissue and bone are way different. And, uh, you need to give these areas, especially concerning the back extra time and always, uh, err on the side of caution. You know, what's another couple of weeks in your whole life and the grand scheme of things, what's a couple extra weeks of laying low, stabilizing the core, you know, learning how to unleash the hips and the ball and socket a little bit better, stiffen the core a bit, um, walk, you know, work on yourself inside, you know, a little bit and understand, you know, grow some patience for lack of a better way of putting it. And then when it's time, you can flip the switch and turn, you know, hit the fuse box there, but people just want everything right now. And I think that kind of goes back to the earlier conversation about some people who aren't really ready or the overweight person that isn't quite ready to pick up a book to go to the next level. Um, man, it's all about, it's about getting, getting rid of the ego.

You gotta get rid of it. Well, you know, you reminded me of something that I can't, I, I'm glad you said this cause I wanted to ask you, I could just imagine it when I was reading your book. So do you really walk through the house and turn tension on and then stop? Yes. Yeah. I pulse it. I pulse it. Do you have a face with that? You do? Yeah, it's an ugly face. Um, but I, but I think about going there. So I go there mentally and I, and I turn on like super strength and then I turn it off. It's kind of like relaxing and then, you know, pulsing, relaxing, pulsing, relaxing. And that's one of the biggest things that Stu and I were working with NFL coaches out in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. It's been, it's been a month now. And, uh, we're, you know, the pulse is important in the NFL, man. It's fast twitch. It's really, really fast game right now. And if you've noticed the players have gotten smaller and faster over the last few years, it's a fast game, man. So them, you know, having that little bit of an edge, that quicker pulse, that quicker burst. I mean, that's, that's, that's a moneymaker right there for someone that's the difference between a touchdown being broken up and a touchdown, you know, for, for your team. So, um, yeah, I do walk around and I, and I practice, I practice, um, you know, playing mind games with myself and, and locking in a hundred percent that way when it is time to do it, it's not unfamiliar territory for me. I've already done plenty of dress rehearsals for it. So that's a, you're building the ability or having the ability to have a pulse on and off is a skill then. Um, what is it, how long does it take to build a skill like that? And what does it feel like? I don't know how long it takes. I've always been like a fast Twitch guy. And I'll give you an example of how I know that this mental preparation works. I was, uh, I was leaving my house one day and, um, um, in the neighborhood I live in, we have a lot of dogs and a lot of stray dogs just all the time. You know, I live in an older, I live in a newer subdivision that's gated and way back tucked, tucked in the corner of a neighborhood, but the neighborhood surrounding me is one of the oldest neighborhoods in North Jacks.

So there are a lot of just stray dogs running around. And there's also some, uh, neighbors that aren't too, um, not too good with keeping their dogs, you know, in their yard. And, uh, there's one dog that's chased me a couple of times. It's about 125 pound German shepherd, highly trained. And he's a, he's a, he's a bad dog. He's a, he's a bad dog. He's not a friendly dog. And I could tell you this story and how this worked for me because I was, I do my walk every day and I'm walking and I have my earbuds in and out of the corner of my eye, I sent something coming at me. Right. And I see this dog tearing down the driveway coming at me. I can promise you. And after this podcast, I can send you the video. I had my gun out of my hoodie and on this dog in less than a half a second. Oh yeah.

Just because I'm ready. I'm, I'm, I'm always ready to turn it on or do whatever I have to do. That's part of the mental preparation, whether that's popping out of the hole in a squat or a deadlift or turning it on mentally to approach the bar. It's something I can turn on and turn off. And it probably saved my left arm from getting chewed off. Yeah. Because as soon as the dog saw the gun, he took off in the other direction. The dog knows the look of a gun. I didn't know that. Well, he's highly trained. Oh, got it. Yeah. Yeah. Remind me, I'll send you the video. It's, it's, it's pretty interesting.

Okay. Wait, did you have your phone out at the same time? No. Uh, the camera from the front of our neighborhood, uh, we have a fisheye. Oh, dang. Yeah. So it was caught on camera, uh, just in case, you know, the police need to get involved because, you know, you, you know, there's a leash law in Florida and you get fined 500 bucks, especially if the dog's aggressive. Yeah. Yeah. I've met some cats around here that are kind of like that. Cats like to chase people walking dogs. I would rather a cat be coming after me than 125 pound German shepherd. I don't know. I thought German shepherds were like omnivores, you know, like they do have fangs, but they can eat some vegetables. They don't want you for flesh.

When you watch cops, what kind of dog is, is eating the criminal? Yeah, I know. Um, well, yeah. Uh, I've seen some, I've seen some chihuahuas or some cats, you know, like just get in the mix, scratch people's faces up. You can't get them cause they're tiny, like squirrels. Like if squirrels are like getting all in your face. Yeah. I would just use my hands for a cat and I wouldn't be worried about my arm going missing or being shredded. Have you ever seen what some of those police dogs do to the, do the perpetrators? Oh, I'm sure that is destroyed. It looks like a, it looks like a great white shark gets a hold of them and it just shreds them to the bone.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's awful. I wonder if, uh, you know, like, I don't know if you have, you don't mountain lions there, do you? Uh, we have, we have, um, they're called, uh, is it, I think they're referred to as cougars here. Cougars. Um, is that right? They have some small cats that aren't big, but we do have, um, we do have something similar to that. Uh, I'd have to, I'd have to look into it, but we, we do have been, we have been having coyotes popping up since we've been building so much around here. Oh, right. Yeah. They got nowhere to go. Um, well I know with cougars, like you're supposed to get taller than them. Right. Is German shepherds, is there a, is there a strategy or is it just like, they're so trained? They're like, you know, I'm going to ignore, I've seen this before. I'm going to keep going except for the gun.

Well, I bowed up at them. So I think that helped. And, uh, the guy that actually owns these dogs actually trains them for the police too. Right. So yeah, I knew all this going in. So, um, unfortunately I did everything I could. I didn't have to shoot it thankfully, but, um, if it's going to be me or an animal and I love animals, I've, I've got two pit bulls, uh, love them, love dogs, but I'm not going to let myself get, get eaten up by, by anyone's dog. That's a good call. That's how I feel about white sharks. Yeah. Well, all you have to do is worry about, uh, or I'm sorry, have a couple of killer whales have their way with the white shark and you don't spend a chance. Those things are lethal, man. Yeah. Have you seen that video off the Pacific coast where the, the two, uh, shamus, as we call them from sea world, the two killer whales are just nose in the great white. He's up on, on his side out to sea to go eat them. Uh, I think I, I didn't think I saw that one. I think that they, they flip them. Right. And then they just kind of like toy with them a little bit.

Yeah. They make them go. I think it's called camp catatonic when they sleep sleepy time. Yeah. They knock their equilibrium off and then they just put them out there and they go and feast on them. They're just nosing them out there to see. Yeah. I, it's that guy. I, like it's surprising that such a, uh, such a killer of an animal would have such an easy thing. You just turn them on their back and they become a slug. And you know, those killer whales are so smart. They know all these little tricks. I know. They're so smart. You, how much tension do you think they can get? How do you think they can turn it on and off?

Uh, I bet they pulse quick. Yeah. They're quick. They're explosive. It's like a white shark is, but more deadly. So, so, um, in regards to some cues that you think, or that you've learned over the last few years, especially after getting injured that have been helpful for the major lifts. Um, yeah. And, and I'm, I'm thinking of the clinicians in mind because they might not have heard these yet. Yeah. So, uh, one big one is the lifter's wedge. So what you're doing is you're rooting into the floor. You're gripping, you're gripping the floor with your toes and you're, you're anchoring in kind of like a monkey would grab a tree branch. You're rooting in, you corkscrew a little bit.

And once you feel like you're locked into the floor, then you lock your toes in and then it starts there. And of course you have your lat, which runs, you know, the whole length of your torso. Basically you want your lat locked down your chest up. You want to bend the bar and apply that lobster claw. What I mean by the lobster claw is you're not, you're not doing a false grip, like a bodybuilder style. You include your thumbs and your first two fingers and pinch and then crush the bar. And, uh, you apply that force. So you, you, you cam in the upper body, you lock in that upper body entirely for a squat or a deadlift. You're locking in those lats. You're, you're, you're doing an anti-shrug posture. You see a lot of people sometimes deadlifts so quick and then you do a shrug at the top.

Right. I can't imagine that's too good for the neck or the AC joints or anything. Um, so you want to have those depressed and nice and locked in and you want to focus on bending, bending, um, putting pressure on the bar to bend it. You don't want it to come from your forearms, bending it. You want it to come from your lats. You want to centrate, bend the bar. If it's on your back, you want to bend the bar. If it's on the bench press, you want to bend the bar. If it's on the deadlift. And, uh, that those little bit of cues spread from the floor on the squat, when you're, uh, when you're coming down towards the hole, keeping that head and neck locked into one, one posture. Now it's going to depend if you have a, a longer neck, you might do a little bit of movement as you go to pulse out of the bottom of a squat or a deadlift. But for me, I had that neck fixed and I don't move it. Um, eye gaze is going to depend on, on a few different factors, but usually it's going to be somewhere between slightly up and straight ahead. Um, but again, some people, the longer neck are going to have to look down a little bit more. So there's a, there's a lot of different things. Um, but if we could just go with a couple, um, that would be really easy to kind of digest would be always a tight grip on the bar, full, full lobster claw, rooting into the ground, solidifying the lats, anti-shrug and, uh, using your hips and shoulders to do the back. There was one thing I observed actually the other week and, um, I haven't seen it in a while, but I also have been looking. Um, a young kid came in, he was about 16. He, I said, show me your best back squat cause he's asking to learn squat techniques. So, uh, he, when he goes up, I hear this clink in the bar and, uh, it kind of made me remember of, uh, remember people that are squatting that they get to the top and the bar has this vertical displacement after they stop.

Right. Um, any thoughts on that? So the bigger guys you see are the stronger guys. You see the explosive guys that we see, they put so much force on the bar that it keeps going at the top of the squat. So there's no, there's, there's no loss of stabilization with that. It's just momentum of the bar. I don't, I don't think it's healthy for the spine. I think you should control it and you should, you should push force through the bar and it should be contingent upon the load. So for me, if I wanted to try to throw the bar off my back of foot with two or 300 pounds, I could do that, but I don't think that'd be so good on my shoulder. Um, so I think that you need to still attempt with 100% effort, every single lift you do, but you also have to control it. You don't want that bar jumping off your back and you want to secure it. You want to use that grip, pulling it down, doing the lifter's wedge and keeping the bar nice and secure. So it doesn't hop around. You tweak a peg, you tweak a shoulder, you tear a rotator, you hurt your neck, you hurt your back, or it pops off your back and ends up, you know, smashing one of your partner's feet. So, um, I wouldn't, I wouldn't recommend, uh, I would recommend them slowing it down a little bit at the top and driving through it, but also being conscientious of the load as well. Yeah. Um, in regards to, uh, student lifters or beginners, and I know that you've been there for a long, or you were, you started when you were 15, 16, something like that. Yeah. I started, uh, I started lifting in high school about, about 13 or 14 years old, and then gradually started training my full body as I was getting ready to graduate high school. And, but I started off with the typical stuff, bench presses, overhead presses, curls, you know, really light squats. Um, but you know, squat, squats are pretty new or were pretty new to me. Um, far, far after bench press, you know, everyone goes to the bench press first. That's, that's the first it's bench and buys, I think, right? Yes. Yes. A little bit of triceps maybe. So what was the question about beginners? Um, what would you tell your 15 year old self that you would have improved on that first year of lifting? Uh, I would have deadlifted.

Um, and I would have learned proper form with maybe a trap bar or, um, I wouldn't have plopped down on a box squat and smack, you know, and who knows what I was doing to my spine because I, I naturally had a strong squat whenever I did it. I remember within our first couple of squat sessions when I was training at the local gym, you know, in a 11th grade, I could squat 225 for 20 or 30 reps with good form. So that, that came pretty quick, but what I wouldn't do is bench four days a week. That's what I used to do. I used to bench Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So every day is not chest day. I thought it was, it was for me at the time, but you know, innately I realized after a while that I'm not recovered. Why am I benching again?

This doesn't feel right. So it went from Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday to Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then eventually Monday, Thursday. So I just, I just, something I knew just to scale it back. Yeah. I know that you lifted with quite a few, uh, people who are experienced back then, right? Or when you're 15 or when it took a little later, did they probably had some guidance with you, right? Yeah. So when I, when I joined the gym, when I was 16, um, at the time you couldn't join a gym, uh, even with a waiver until you're 16 years old, has it changed at all now? Do you know? Uh, I, I feel like, uh, LA fitnesses have daycare. So I feel like they, once they get out of daycare, they can just jump in the gym. They can do power pump. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, you know, regardless, I, uh, I, I would go to the gym two and three times a day sometimes because I just started driving. I just got a membership and I would watch the strongest, biggest people. And they all had something in common. They did heavy compound movements. They did leg presses, they did squats, they did overhead presses, they did bench presses, they did deadlifts. And then after a while, a couple of older guys kind of took to me and saw that I was putting on size, I was pretty strong. Uh, I benched my first 300 at 16 years old and, um, three 15 and 16 years old. And, uh, they told me, Hey, don't worry about that fluff stuff. You know, stay with compound movements, eat plenty of food, get plenty of rest.

Don't do these things every day, do them once or twice a week and you're going to grow. And, uh, you know, those, those early principles were instilled in me. And, uh, yeah, I definitely had some, had some wild guys that I was around that, that were doing things that I didn't understand for sure. And it was my first, uh, first dose of the real world hanging out at the gym with some guys in their, uh, late thirties and early forties. So you can imagine how that went. Well, I think around that era is when, uh, you could have possibly encountered the ab, uh, the ab squeezer thing in the, uh, in the gym. What are those things called where you put them between your legs and you squeeze them?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did see that. Actually my friend, my friend got one for Christmas and he was, um, I want to say he was about 17 years old and he called me one day and I said, man, where you been? I'm not trying to get ahold of you. Obviously we didn't have cell phones back then. Right. I don't know how the hell we got ahold of each other, each other on a landline. How do you even do that? Yeah. I don't, that would, that'd be impossible to do today, but I bet you remember his phone number right now, don't you? Yeah. 6 4 2 1 6 8 2. But, um, so he called me and said, man, I got this thing for Christmas and he was squeezing it together and his hand slipped off of it and it popped them and it split his chin open. So you had to go to the ER and get some super glue.

Oh my God. Yeah. Um, with your, with your book, the 10 20, not the other one. Um, what did you want to include that you had in there that you took out? Uh, what did I have in 10 20 that I wanted? Um, you're like, well really I wanted to hold back. I wanted to hold back because I didn't want to put absolutely everything in there that I wanted to. Um, because that's why we do, you know, later editions when it's, you know, refined a little bit more. Um, in the next edition that I'll be starting on shortly in the third edition of 10 20 life, I'm going to talk more about speed work. I'm going to talk more about pulsing. I'm going to talk a little bit more about, uh, how not everyone should be squatting a parallel depending on their, their hips. You know, if they have deep or shallow hips.

I love that. You're going to save so many people on that. Yes. Yes. So we, we hit on that and gift of injury a bit, but I'm going to talk about it for powerlifting too, about how, you know, for the person with really deep hips, they should really save the squats below parallel for when they're getting ready for a competition. And, um, you know, that's a big one because people, I mean, even in the football arena where it's pretty much been decided that footballers don't need to squat that deep and it just isn't, it isn't necessary for the demands of their sport, right? It doesn't really line up. And I've been lucky enough to work with the Jacksonville Jaguars a little bit here in the last couple of weeks. And, um, Tom Molenski is, uh, someone who's, uh, was a buddy Morris's protege who, uh, learned a lot from Louie Simmons. So they spent a lot of time with Louie Simmons and they do. If you walked in there, you would see that they do a lot of powerlifting stuff. They have reverse hypers, belt squats, kettlebells, power racks, fat bars, you name it. So they do a lot of powerlifting movements, bench presses, squats, deadlifts, you know? So, um, I'll talk a little bit more about how you can get a little more creative in the off season with, uh, with the different, the different bars and their usages, um, their uses over time. But, um, man, there's, there's a lot of stuff that I can add in the third edition, but I thought the second edition was good enough. I added enough stuff to it, uh, over the first and I just didn't want to try to try to do too much at one time. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was, it was definitely, it was definitely complete, I think. And, uh, I do agree with the second and third editions or else you wouldn't probably never get, uh, those published because you keep adding to it. Yeah. Yeah. There's always something that comes to mind. Like, you know, I, I don't need to go into this yet. I don't really have enough to, to give a full good chapter, but I'm going to elaborate a lot more on speed work for sure.

And pulsing. Those are two things that I think people really, uh, overlook and don't include in their training and they could really benefit from, especially athletes that need to be quick. Mm-hmm. Fighters, boxers, NFLers, NBAers, the pulse is a big deal. Mm-hmm. Do you have anything currently in regards to, uh, articles on your site or videos kind of elaborating on these things that are not yet in the book? Um, yeah, I've always got some new content on poweractstrength.com. Um, as far as specifically about the speed work and those things I have not, um, I am actually working on and putting a lot of time into another project. It's a 1020 life for power building. So what we're going to do here is we're going to attack the demographic that doesn't want to compete in bodybuilding, doesn't necessarily want to compete in powerlifting, but wants to basically be, be the best, most jacked, strongest gym rat in their, in their local health club. So they're not going to try to have the strength of a competition powerlifter or the, you know, the 5% body fit of the bodybuilder, but we're going to merge these two ideas together to something a little more sustainable. That way they can have the best of both worlds. And that's been a fun project because that's what I grew up doing.

You know, the first time I benched 405, it was, you know, I was 19 and that was just as important to me as looking good at the beach. So I totally understand like that's, that's where the populace stands. They're not trying to compete in powerlifting and bodybuilding. They just want to look good naked. I agree with that. I think there's probably a lot of people that take parts of all these other programs that are like, so you got your powerlifting program and they're like, yeah, I just want to look good naked. That's it. Yep. Um, so this book's going to have a lot of diet stuff, a lot of supplementation. It's again, it's going to be straightforward. And like you said earlier, it's simplified. Um, but the purpose of these books is not to show someone how smart I am or, or however you want to put it. It's to get across the information the best way I can. So it can be assimilated by everybody. And that's what we're going to do with power building as well.

Yeah. I almost feel like that, like with that goal in mind, you can almost decrease chance of injuries since you don't need to push them as hard. Right? Yeah. So you got on the, on the powerlifting spectrum, when you're pushing ultimate performance like that, you are more susceptible to injury because you're pushing the human limits, right? Then on bodybuilding end, when you're dieting that hard, you're also more susceptible to injury because your diet, your calories are so low, you know, your fatigue is really high. You know, some people are, are eating next to nothing, doing a ton of cardio. They're still trying to lift heavy also because they don't want to atrophy all that harder and muscle they had. You know, we know that you don't just go and do really lightweight for 25 reps, like people used to say, because you're not using the muscle that you've, uh, you've built over the years and it starts to flatten out and go away a little bit. So, um, I think it will help people stay a little more injury resilient with this approach. So are you also going to, so this is mainly a man demographic, I think, right?

It's going to be, yeah, I would say probably so more of a men, but we've tested it on some females as well that want to look good because hell CrossFit's done a great job for women looking great, you know, um, on the beach and in the gym and, and a lot of them compete in powerlifting now. So, um, this is going to be a little more of a sustainable approach with a lot more diet and supplementation and it'll be a lot more cerebral than, Hey, go, go around the gym as many times as you can in the circuit and, and see how much, uh, sweat you can do and how many reps you can, you can put out, how much sweat you can, you can, uh, you can create.

How much, how much can I make this gym owner clean this for today? Yeah. Yeah. And, and thank God for CrossFit in a lot of ways because it's made the barbell live sexy again, you know, for women before you would look at the cover of muscle and fitness or whatever magazine you want to name. And for a while, if you had a female on there, it was them doing a lunge or like some kind of silly Pilates move. Now you see them with good, hard, lean muscle and, uh, not lean muscle. It sounds goofy, lean physique, right? Right. Lean physique. And you see them squatting, deadlifting, bench pressing, overhead, pressing pull-ups, you know? So it's made all these different things that were thought of as making women look like a man. It's made them sexy again. So, hey, probably to CrossFit for that. Yeah. I definitely think the, uh, I don't know what started that inception or that idea before where women thought lifting would make them extremely bulky. And they're always the exception that like, when I lift, I get big after. You want to know my opinion? Yeah, I do. They don't monitor their diet when they're doing that stuff. Okay. So they, they, they get hungrier, they're lifting heavier and they, they watch the guys eat, right? And they watch the guys eat. And of course, a lot of them are real sloppy. So then they lift heavy and they don't watch their diet and, uh, you know, they end up, uh, you know, getting bulkier. But I think the countless, uh, pretty awesome CrossFit female physiques kind of speak to the fact that it isn't just about how you train. It's also about your diet too. And your diet will dictate whether you're really, really soft or you're really, really lean. Yeah. So as a, as the first testimonial for that program, are you going to take a before and after picture of you just massive and then just the biggest dude at 24 hour fitness?

Well, luckily for me, I don't have the best genetics for the best physique. So, um, you know, a lot of people make fun of Tom Brady, Tom Brady because of his physique, but Hey, he still gets it done on the field. Um, I have plenty of, uh, case studies that we'll use for those before and after pictures, but who knows? I might, I might slip in there and do a little bit of the programming as well. Um, and the, in the meantime, before we release the book. Nice. Um, is there anything you think we did not cover so far in, in this talk and, um, that you think is pertinent to the rehab professional who needs to learn how to speak to someone like you? Um, making sure when, when they are, uh, having a client come back from injury that they treat every weight the same, that's a big thing, especially if they are an athlete, they need to treat the bar as if it was a maximum effort lift. And that's something that I had to learn the hard way, taking it serious, a hundred percent of your brain focused on that one lift, whether it's one plate or five plates. And, uh, you know, it's not a one size fits all, um, you know, cookie cutter program for the, the, the client coming back to sport or, or just coming back to rehab. You got to, you got to listen to them. And we've kind of already talked about that. Never overlook how important the warmup is. And I have a nice comprehensive guide and gift of injury and 1020 life of how to properly warm up, you know, and warming up is just as much mental as it is physical.

You want to break a sweat, stiffen your core. We know how important, you know, core work is to unleash distal athleticism. And I think people see some of these movements and they laugh and say, okay, well, what is that about? I don't need to do that. I deadlift 800 pounds or I used to deadlift 800 pounds. Well, if you used to deadlift 800 pounds and you're coming back from injury, it's all the more reason for you to, to build a little more resilience in that course since the bat gave out on you. Um, and then, you know, mobility is another one that people, it's very controversial, but that's also part of the warmup that I have where I suggest that people fine tune their mobility to their needs and their sport. If you're a gymnast, you're going to need to be way more flexible than you will for a power lifter. So it's, again, it's not, you don't want to follow the stretching routine and mobility routine for a gymnast just because you feel like your back or your hips are a little bit tight. So it's all about fine tuning mobility. And then the last part of the warmup that I think is essential is every lift starts with an empty bar. I've squatted 1185 pounds of competition. My first rep of the day starts with the bar.

Mm-hmm. I did hear you say on the other podcast that, uh, common sense is not always common practice. I thought that was a good quote for you. It isn't. And, and, and sometimes, um, we forget, like you talked about going to see Mac, um, not Max, but, um, Cody, uh, Brandon, Brandon, and then you saw Cody. And sometimes you kind of forget about the basics because you're too busy, you know, helping other people and showing them the way that sometimes you kind of like, Oh man, I haven't done my walk in three days. No wonder my back's a little bit stiff or man, I've been so worried about other people. I've been doing my core work or I've, yeah, I've been moving kind of poorly. So sometimes it's, it's always good to iron sharpens iron. Surround yourselves with like-minded people. And sometimes you want to smack yourself because you realize you forget some of the basics and I'm speaking to myself as well. It's essential.

Yeah. Did you do your McGill big three today before you sat down? Yeah. I just finished my walk too before we, uh, before we started. So yeah, I didn't have to pull my gun out today though. I can't wait to see that video actually. If we could just get audio on it, get the, get the like light scream. There was no scream. It was all, there's no, when you're pulsing, there's no time for that panic. It's, it's going right to pop. There it is. Um, how can everyone find your books? Uh, books are on amazon.com, uh, gift of injury, 10 20 life. And so is cutting weight, my weight cutting manual for weight class sports. Um, I'm actually going to read you that one as well and make it into a soft copy. And I've learned so much more again about cutting weight over the last five years. It's time to redo that. Um, the easiest way for people to pick it up. It is my website, powerackstrength.com. And we just revisited and redid the whole website and it's been live for about two months. So it's a lot more easily, uh, navigable and, uh, it's a lot more aesthetic as well. So you can find, uh, you know, those books at those two places and I appreciate all the support and I hope these products help people.

Yeah, I'm sure that I'm sure they will. And I know that with, uh, you guys just announced doing that, um, the seminar with you and Stu, um, I, I tagged a couple people on that. I'm like, you got to go to this thing. So, yeah, so we'll be, we'll be at Swiss, uh, doing a little one there, um, up in, uh, up in the Toronto area in October, but then we're kicking off our seminars in November and December in Seattle and Columbus. And soon as the schedule's out, I'll, uh, I'll be sure to let you know exactly what the dates are, but I'm excited for that. Okay. Yeah, me too. I really am. I'd love any of my interns, uh, who have been through my office to go to that because I think it'll definitely accelerate, uh, their learning curve. Awesome. So, um, awesome. That was fun. I know that we've been, uh, playing with, uh, I've had your book and then lost it once. And then, I mean, I've been planning this for a while. All good, man. I enjoyed it. Yeah. Cool. All right, everyone. That was an awesome interview. Thank you so much, Brian, for being on everyone. That's Brian Carroll from power rack strength.com. You can find all of his books and any of the services he provides on that website. Uh, if you're looking for the transcript for this podcast, uh, go on to p2sportscare.com.

You'll see an area for the, uh, uh, for the podcast, or if you actually just go onto the search function, search Brian Carroll and you're going to find this. So we're trying to really bolster up that search function on the site because we have so many, I believe 250 different pages on the site. Um, I mean, at this point we have 93 podcasts, um, probably in counting if you're listening to this in the future, but we have a ton of information. So, uh, use that search function. And actually, if you go through there, if you have patients asking about, Hey, what is six scapula? Hey, what is, uh, the core four? Hey, uh, what do you think about running injuries? Uh, I've written so many articles on this stuff. Um, and I tried to include the, uh, when relevant, I include the, uh, the, the related research in any of the stuff I drew from to make sure that, uh, you can trust the information that's coming from me. So, uh, share some videos with people as well. I have tons of multimedia stuff for you to educate your patients. Spend time on the site. It should be like you're at ESPN, but for sports medicine. Now, um, lastly, uh, go into iTunes and please review this for me. Five star is always appreciated. And remember, be good to each other and leave each other better than how you found them. Talk to you guys soon. Bye.