1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,660 This episode is sponsored by Bubs Naturals, yet another company that I track down to bring 2 00:00:04,660 --> 00:00:08,700 on as a sponsor because I myself love their products. 3 00:00:08,700 --> 00:00:13,140 They are offering you, the audience of the Behind the Shield podcast, a 20% discount. 4 00:00:13,140 --> 00:00:17,280 But before we get to that, I do want to highlight a few of the products that I use myself. 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:18,840 Firstly, collagen. 6 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:25,500 I am about to turn 50 and so my hair, my skin, my nails, not really a big concern when I 7 00:00:25,500 --> 00:00:28,320 was younger, definitely a lot more of a concern now. 8 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:33,400 However, where I've really seen the impact is joint health and gut health and I've been 9 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:38,620 blown away that when I'm consistent using collagen, Bubbs collagen in this case, I see 10 00:00:38,620 --> 00:00:41,400 a massive improvement in both. 11 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:46,280 Another area I drink coffee, love coffee and in the morning I use the Halo Creamer. 12 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:51,560 Now originally I used the MCT Oil Powder but now they have the Halo Creamer which has also 13 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:56,860 got grass-fed butter in it, a lot more creamy if you're not trying to go for the vegan option 14 00:00:56,860 --> 00:00:58,680 that they have as well. 15 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:03,060 Now it's important to mention as well the altruistic element of Bubbs Naturals. 16 00:01:03,060 --> 00:01:08,800 The origin story involves Glenn, Bubb, Doherty, one of the two Navy SEALs killed in Benghazi 17 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,140 and a good friend of the founders, Sean and TJ. 18 00:01:12,140 --> 00:01:17,660 So 10% of every single sale goes towards the Glenn Doherty Foundation. 19 00:01:17,660 --> 00:01:22,760 Now as I mentioned before, they are offering you, the audience, 20% off your purchase if 20 00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:24,800 you use the code SHIELD. 21 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:29,760 That's SHIELD at bubbsnaturals.com. 22 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:34,400 And finally if you want to hear more about their products and Glenn's powerful story, 23 00:01:34,400 --> 00:01:40,920 listen to episode 558 with co-founder Sean Lake. 24 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:46,720 This episode is sponsored by a company I've used for well over a decade and that is 511. 25 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:52,140 I wore their uniforms back in Anaheim, California and have used their products ever since. 26 00:01:52,140 --> 00:01:58,320 From their incredibly strong yet light footwear to their cut uniforms for both male and female 27 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:03,560 responders, I found them hands down the best workwear in all the departments that I've 28 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:04,560 worked for. 29 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:09,080 Outside of the fire service, I use their luggage for everything and I travel a lot and they 30 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:15,360 are also now sponsoring the 7X team as we embark around the world on the Human Performance 31 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:16,360 project. 32 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:20,480 We have Murph coming up in May and again I bought their plate carrier. 33 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:25,440 I ended up buying real ballistic plates rather than the fake weight plates and that has been 34 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:29,280 my ride or die through Murph the last few years as well. 35 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:33,240 One area I want to talk about that I haven't in previous sponsorship spots is their brick 36 00:02:33,240 --> 00:02:35,080 and mortar element. 37 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:39,760 They were predominantly an online company up till more recently but now they are approaching 38 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:42,520 100 stores all over the US. 39 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:47,560 My local store is here in Gainesville, Florida and I've been multiple times and the discounts 40 00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:50,840 you see online are applied also in the stores. 41 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:57,460 So as I mentioned, 511 is offering you 15% off every purchase that you make but I do 42 00:02:57,460 --> 00:03:02,520 want to say more often than not they have an even deeper discount especially around 43 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,140 holiday times. 44 00:03:04,140 --> 00:03:14,100 But if you use the code SHIELD15 you will get 15% off your order or in the stores every 45 00:03:14,100 --> 00:03:15,940 time you make a purchase. 46 00:03:15,940 --> 00:03:21,240 And if you want to hear more about 511, who they stand for and who works with them, listen 47 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:29,400 to episode 580 of Behind the Shield podcast with 511 regional director Will Ayres. 48 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:34,360 This episode is sponsored by Inside Tracker and what makes me smile is before I even started 49 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:40,160 my podcast seven years ago when listening to other wellness conversations, Inside Tracker 50 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:44,240 was always the company they recommended for comprehensive blood work. 51 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:50,640 Well now in 2024 they have begun to offer a brand new first responder panel which will 52 00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:57,120 cover nine biomarkers hitting several of the pillars of health that affect us in uniform. 53 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:01,960 Stress, heart health, metabolism and gut health. 54 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:07,880 After a very simple intake form, a blood draw, you will get the results sent to your computer, 55 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:13,840 smartwatch, phone, not only detailing where you are on the scale from poor to optimized 56 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:18,120 but also tips on how you can improve each of these markers. 57 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:24,360 Now this panel is usually $310 but they are also offering first responders 30% off any 58 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:26,220 of their blood panels. 59 00:04:26,220 --> 00:04:30,980 So that brings this specific panel down to only $217. 60 00:04:30,980 --> 00:04:35,720 Now I myself went through their ultimate which is their comprehensive blood work which also 61 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:40,760 includes micronutrients, hormones and other areas of overall health. 62 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:45,920 And I have to say I was absolutely amazed at firstly how easy it was but secondly the 63 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:51,720 comprehensive information I got and the actionable information on how to improve each of my own 64 00:04:51,720 --> 00:04:53,160 biomarkers. 65 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:57,640 Now as with all my sponsors if you want to hear more about Inside Tracker you can hear 66 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:04,280 my conversation with senior sales executive Jonathan Levitt on episode 887 of the Behind 67 00:05:04,280 --> 00:05:05,800 the Shield podcast. 68 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:12,460 So to sign up or simply learn more go to insidetracker.com and for the first responder panel the easiest 69 00:05:12,460 --> 00:05:17,880 way is to Google Inside Tracker first responder panel. 70 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,960 Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast as always my name is James Gearing and this week 71 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:25,840 it is my absolute honor to welcome on the show former law enforcement officer and the 72 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:30,300 man behind fit responder Ted Stern. 73 00:05:30,300 --> 00:05:35,320 So in this conversation we discuss a host of topics from his early life, his journey 74 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:41,840 into the world of law enforcement, training the tactical athlete, fitness standards, defensive 75 00:05:41,840 --> 00:05:48,440 tactics, entrepreneurial ship within the uniform professions, his transition out and so much 76 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:49,520 more. 77 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:54,280 Now before we get to this incredible conversation as I say every week please just take a moment 78 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:59,160 go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and 79 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:01,080 leave a rating. 80 00:06:01,080 --> 00:06:06,160 Every single five star rating truly does elevate this podcast therefore making it easier for 81 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:14,120 others to find and this is a free library of almost 900 episodes so all I ask in return 82 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:19,320 is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so I can get them to every 83 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:23,320 single person on planet earth who needs to hear them. 84 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:48,040 So with that being said I introduce to you Ted Stern enjoy. 85 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:52,620 Well Ted I want to start by saying thank you so much for reaching out and coming on the 86 00:06:52,620 --> 00:06:55,760 Behind the Shield podcast today. 87 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:58,160 Thank you it's a pleasure I appreciate you having me. 88 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:02,680 So where on planet earth are we finding you this afternoon? 89 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:08,800 Well let's see I am just near Salt Lake Utah I moved out to Utah about three years ago 90 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:13,480 from Southern California I was born and raised in Southern California. 91 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,680 So let's start there tell me where in Southern California you were born and tell me a little 92 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:22,240 bit about your family dynamic what your parents did and me siblings. 93 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:27,800 I was born in Ventura County which is about an hour from Los Angeles. 94 00:07:27,800 --> 00:07:37,720 I have a bunch of half sisters and a half brother I have a couple of full siblings my 95 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:44,880 dad's dead and my mom is I don't know where she is drug addicts, mental illness I haven't 96 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:49,680 talked to her in probably 15 years. 97 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:53,760 What else did you ask me born and raised in Ventura County that's kind of a family dynamic 98 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:59,840 I have since created my own family I love very much but what else can I share with you 99 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:00,840 there? 100 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:04,960 Well I am sorry to hear about the kind of family dynamic you experience but this is 101 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:10,320 an important kind of thing to really pull out the shadows that so many of us that saw 102 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:15,200 a life in uniform have less than Disney like upbringing. 103 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:19,240 So you know when we talk about the mental health side in the first responder profession 104 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:23,880 a lot of time we'll be like oh well Ted was on that shooting or James was on that extrication 105 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:30,800 with the dead child but they don't factor in or what happened from 0 to 18, 20, 25 before 106 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:33,840 we ever put the badge on. 107 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:39,040 Now that's true I mean a big influence for me becoming a cop was seeing deputies show 108 00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:45,520 up to my house they talked to me you know they you know dealt with my mom and her various 109 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:51,040 issues and that they were kind of a source of comfort and like reassurance when I'm a 110 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:56,000 little kid and you know I looked up to them so yeah that was a big influence on me for 111 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:57,640 sure. 112 00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:02,400 Now I'm writing a book at the moment I really want to tell the multi-generational trauma 113 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:07,680 story because no one was born an addict no one was born wanting to be in a gang you know 114 00:09:07,680 --> 00:09:12,740 this is what happens as we evolve or devolve through a series of life events. 115 00:09:12,740 --> 00:09:20,280 When you kind of look back at your parents parents did they kind of were they exposed 116 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:24,940 to kind of trauma in there did you ever see a kind of causation to some of the struggles 117 00:09:24,940 --> 00:09:27,560 that they had themselves? 118 00:09:27,560 --> 00:09:34,920 I didn't know them that well really I mean but I did funny enough see my mom's room that 119 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:40,040 she kind of grew up in and it was pretty well preserved and she was like an obvious hippie 120 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:45,880 and I heard something that she had kind of experimented and you know probably did drugs 121 00:09:45,880 --> 00:09:50,400 and obviously that's a big contributor to a lot of people's mental illness. 122 00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:55,680 I know that she was a drug addict as well throughout her life and an alcoholic so I 123 00:09:55,680 --> 00:10:00,400 wonder you know who knows maybe she just dropped acid once and it sent her off the wrong path 124 00:10:00,400 --> 00:10:04,880 I mean there's a lot of like the butterfly effect right there's a lot of even small events 125 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:09,640 that could send someone on a totally different trajectory but I don't know of anything 126 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:17,680 specific in terms of her parents you know experiencing trauma or even her really but 127 00:10:17,680 --> 00:10:19,160 there could have been of course. 128 00:10:19,160 --> 00:10:23,520 And how old you when you lost your father? 129 00:10:23,520 --> 00:10:31,680 Let's see 24 he was old he was 89 he conceived me when he was like you know what 67, 65 I 130 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:39,000 don't recall but he was a World War II vet great guy I still think highly of him but 131 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:45,920 yeah he had me old and I think my mom was 33 and he was old enough to be your grandpa 132 00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:51,360 almost kind of a weird situation but yeah he's my biological dad so he died at 89 cancer 133 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:57,920 all kinds of issues which was I was able to kind of grieve over time because I knew from 134 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:02,780 very early on that I knew I knew he's gonna die early you know I knew I wasn't gonna he 135 00:11:02,780 --> 00:11:10,640 wasn't gonna see his grandchildren most likely so that helped a little bit yeah he died I 136 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,480 think I was when I was 24. 137 00:11:13,480 --> 00:11:18,040 We've lost a lot of them I actually sat and interviewed two Iwo Jima veterans back in 138 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:23,360 December and you know the percentage now is absolutely minute of how many veterans of 139 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:28,620 that era that we have left and a lot of them didn't speak very openly my grandad was in 140 00:11:28,620 --> 00:11:34,960 the Auckland orkney islands protecting the UK against the German bombers and never never 141 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:38,520 really talked about the war were you able to share stories either when you were younger 142 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:44,920 or maybe putting a uniform on opening some doors for that conversation. 143 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:50,920 He yeah my dad told me stories for sure he had a lot of close calls he didn't get into 144 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:56,880 the gory details but you know he told me he saw friends die and and it was very hard and 145 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:00,820 actually he told me from a young age he's like if you ever get into the military he's 146 00:12:00,820 --> 00:12:06,080 like I will disown you like he was so shook I think he was definitely proud of serving 147 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:11,680 his country and fighting the Nazis was totally like an honorable thing to do I don't think 148 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:16,040 he necessarily had regrets per se but I think it shook him so badly he didn't he didn't 149 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:21,560 want his own son probably in a selfish way right like yeah let let let the soldiers fight 150 00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:25,080 the good fight but like I don't want my son to experience that so he told me for a long 151 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:30,800 time like don't you dare enlist and even when I became a cop he wasn't happy about that 152 00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:37,960 he wasn't happy about me exposing myself to danger or seeing some trauma or whatever but 153 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:43,200 no he told me some wild stories I mean of nearly getting killed a bunch of times or 154 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:50,800 or capturing a German without even a weapon by surprise and like all kinds of cool things 155 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:55,640 so yeah I'm I've written a lot of it down I think it'd be a cool maybe part of the book 156 00:12:55,640 --> 00:13:00,080 or something to share because it's pretty awesome stories and as you said there's going 157 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:05,480 to be less and less of them as these guys and gals pass away absolutely well I don't 158 00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:13,040 know if this is actually a thing but I can't help but wonder if that generation the the 159 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:18,320 pendulum swung strongly the other way they've seen so many horrors of war that they try 160 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:23,280 to protect their own children from which then may in you know down the road as they got 161 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:28,000 older had factored into you know entitlement and some other things because we always look 162 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:31,640 at the young kids about entitlement but I would argue that you know some of our pensioners 163 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:37,560 these days you know can be acting entitled as well and you know they talk about that 164 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:41,520 when you when you've you know when you've had such hard times you're really kind of 165 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:46,680 fighting to make them you know for your children to never experience that level of trauma and 166 00:13:46,680 --> 00:13:53,840 suffering so but sometimes that overprotection could almost swing the other way too far. 167 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:58,640 Yeah and I think that's a that's fair and you know I didn't experience a ton of horrible 168 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:04,520 things as a cop obviously some things that were bad but I wouldn't I mean unless my kids 169 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:08,920 were dead set on becoming a first responder I'd probably want to steer them in other direction 170 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:12,840 too I mean you're going to look at life differently you're going to look at life through a different 171 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:18,360 lens that I don't know if necessarily is good right I mean maybe there is something to say 172 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:22,840 about ignorance is bliss right and you know maybe I don't want them to see what could 173 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:28,120 be seen as a first responder so even in that kind of similarly I'd like to maybe really 174 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:33,480 caution them if not persuade them to go another direction even though we need it right we 175 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:38,040 need first responders we need soldiers we need people to fight that good fight and I 176 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:44,760 have a ton of respect for first responders in military obviously but yeah it's tough 177 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:49,120 like how do you how do you tell your kids like the people you love absolutely the most 178 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:54,400 in our program to protect them how do you tell them yeah go ahead expose yourself to 179 00:14:54,400 --> 00:14:58,360 some of life's worst things that you can see. 180 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:04,080 Yeah absolutely 100% well going back to your early life what about sports and exercise 181 00:15:04,080 --> 00:15:12,280 what were you doing through the school ages yeah so that's funny because you know my dad 182 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:19,320 liked tennis so I played tennis and wasn't super passionate about it so I did okay with 183 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:24,880 that but I was pretty weak and scrawny and skinny didn't like working out my dad did 184 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:29,880 my dad enjoyed lifting weights and he tried to get me into it and I was not into it I 185 00:15:29,880 --> 00:15:34,800 mean I remember being 13 and being in the gym with him and going this hurts like I don't 186 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:42,760 want to do this I had no desire to be strong buff I came later in life you know and yeah 187 00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:49,400 funny quick story I ran into a one of my coaches from high school later on in life when I was 188 00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:54,560 pretty built and like obviously muscular and he was blown away because all he remembered 189 00:15:54,560 --> 00:16:00,480 was this weak kid who complained about doing push-ups didn't want to work out lazy so he 190 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:05,320 was like anything can happen this is amazing so yeah I didn't I did not have a strong athletic 191 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:10,000 background like I said played some tennis you know dabbled here and there but I was 192 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:16,740 not an athletic kid was not in my wheelhouse at all and it wasn't really pushed in my family. 193 00:16:16,740 --> 00:16:22,240 I moved and played a lot but I was still really scrawny I was very small I had my growth spurt 194 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:27,080 when I was 18 so at school age which is up to 16 in England you know I was I was tiny 195 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:31,520 and I had one of my friends on the show supposed to be my very first episode but we had some 196 00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:36,800 technical issues so he came on a little bit later but he was in the interview he said 197 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:42,720 James just so you know of our entire school you were the last person I would I thought 198 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:47,000 would become a firefighter and you know obviously I'm not a big big lad now but you know full 199 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,560 career and you know all this athleticism that I've been able to do but it's funny because 200 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:56,440 people talk about oh it's so hard being overweight well the skinny kids it sucks too like you 201 00:16:56,440 --> 00:17:00,480 know you're you're written off for everything you're picked last in sports and when it comes 202 00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:05,520 to law enforcement or fire you got to put the work in to be strong enough other people 203 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:09,200 are trying to lose weight you're trying to gain strength which arguably you know if you 204 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:13,040 look at the physiology is actually harder. 205 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:18,760 Yeah true because you know you as a skinny guy or gal you can put in a lot of effort 206 00:17:18,760 --> 00:17:24,720 and maybe not necessarily see great results and it can be discouraging I've actually experienced 207 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:28,760 both sides of the coin you know I was the skinny guy who had a hard time putting on 208 00:17:28,760 --> 00:17:36,120 muscle and then in my early 20s I got fat like I got I gained a bunch of weight after 209 00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:41,600 graduating the academy so I lost a little over 40 pounds of fat which isn't a huge amount 210 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:47,440 but I can I understand I think the challenge to degree on both sides for sure. 211 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:52,120 Now what about career aspirations your father's obviously dissuading you from the military 212 00:17:52,120 --> 00:17:57,200 what were you dreaming of becoming when you were in high school? 213 00:17:57,200 --> 00:18:03,160 You know I never had any big passions so I kind of landed on lawyer because I liked to 214 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:09,980 debate you know it's a fairly lucrative career right it has a good kind of status symbol 215 00:18:09,980 --> 00:18:16,820 in your in most societies so and my dad liked that idea too so that's the track I was on 216 00:18:16,820 --> 00:18:21,400 but then in college I just learned like wow being a lawyer requires much more than standing 217 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:26,320 in a courtroom and debating with people you're gonna have to do a lot of studying and research 218 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:33,560 and you know office hours and I don't you know one day I had an experience where I saw 219 00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:38,360 some deputies in action and that's when I clicked and I was like maybe I could do that 220 00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:44,880 that sounds really cool so that was my original track was to become a lawyer but just oh I'm 221 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:47,640 definitely glad that didn't pan out for sure. 222 00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:52,160 Did elements of that journey factor into your law enforcement obviously they're parallel 223 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:59,640 careers but what I find fascinating Steve Jobs for example did calligraphy in university 224 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:04,800 he didn't have any particular track he wasn't pursuing a major he just took random classes 225 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:10,680 fast forward a few years he creates you know the the Apple Mac and then is the first person 226 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:15,840 to put fonts on a computer so his random not community college his random college course 227 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:20,960 factored in later did you see a kind of crossover at any point during your career? 228 00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:27,700 Yeah I mean I was a philosophy major which is either the number one or the second pre-law 229 00:19:27,700 --> 00:19:32,240 major so people go to law school usually are literary or philosophy majors and there's 230 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:37,960 a lot of like debate and whatnot in philosophy but there's a lot of writing so that helped 231 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:43,440 me write reports really well I mean my first FTO said I've never seen anyone write reports 232 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:49,000 so well and so fast which was really a great compliment of course when you're struggling 233 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:53,880 and stressed out and worried about your job it's nice to hear that but so it did play 234 00:19:53,880 --> 00:20:00,200 a huge role writing those 20 page papers that were due made a three page report that was 235 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:08,800 very simple English very easy for me but yeah I mean you know even when you talk to a suspect 236 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:14,560 and you're a detective and you're interviewing like you can kind of think a few moves ahead 237 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:19,760 and maybe help it helps you corner them and I think that my background with speech and 238 00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:26,360 debate and that kind of thing helped a lot in those circumstances definitely. 239 00:20:26,360 --> 00:20:36,040 So you shift from philosophy to law enforcement walk me through your academy and on-ramp experience? 240 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:41,720 So my background investigator was also the guy that helped prepare people for an academy 241 00:20:41,720 --> 00:20:48,120 they had a pre-academy and he was so strict and serious and frankly intimidating he made 242 00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:52,920 the academy easy his name's Scott I don't know if he wants me to say his full name probably 243 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:58,840 never hear this but he made the academy easy because I came into the academy going oh my 244 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:02,920 gosh this is gonna be the hardest thing I'll ever do in my life and I honestly kept waiting 245 00:21:02,920 --> 00:21:11,440 for it to get harder physically I was already in good shape good enough shape honestly the 246 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:17,360 academics in the academy weren't hard for me so I don't know not to try to sound like 247 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:23,960 a big ego or anything but it was easy you know it was a six-month academy you know they 248 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:30,120 yell at you they have you do assignments they have you do the physical testing so that wasn't 249 00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:32,520 a big deal knock that out. 250 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:38,520 Now what did the defensive tactics trainer like when you went through school? 251 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:44,440 It was kind of minimal and honestly the problem I had with it is it wasn't like real-world 252 00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,560 application like they had these different moves you do or okay like this is how you're 253 00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:53,960 gonna do a particular wrist lock and hey grab these two fingers and twist them up I never 254 00:21:53,960 --> 00:22:01,720 once saw anyone use those tactics in the field ever there were some things that were good 255 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:09,360 and applicable like you know learning basic ground control and stuff or striking the bags 256 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:14,880 but a lot of it was not practical and I'm fairly certain they've revamped it like since 257 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:21,800 then they've taken a more practical approach to tactics but it's minimum I think you could 258 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:27,960 probably talk to most cops across the US and they would tell you that the emphasis of defensive 259 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:33,400 tactics is pretty minimal and that even the ongoing testing for a lot of agencies is like 260 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:41,160 once every two years which you can't really say is good training or you know consistent 261 00:22:41,160 --> 00:22:49,000 regular training so I think a lot of citizens have this preconceived idea that cops are 262 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:56,480 gonna be better fighters or like better with defensive tactics than most and I don't necessarily 263 00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:01,680 think so I think they do I think from what I've seen is pretty much a minimal job done 264 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:07,920 to prepare people in regards to defensive tactics and arrest and control now I'm no 265 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:12,920 longer with my department it's been a few years I saw them improving that and it's probably 266 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:17,440 way better than it was back in 2010 when I went through the academy but yeah I think 267 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:20,560 I think agencies could do better with that for sure. 268 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:24,560 Well what's scary is you know the level of wrestling that's out there some of these high 269 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:30,080 school and collegiate athletes you know the MMA world jujitsu you know and obviously you 270 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:35,720 got the strike in as well it's a crap shoot I just saw it went around social media and 271 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:39,840 a lot of the the martial artists that I follow it was a fight it must have been in Europe 272 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:42,920 because one guy was wearing an England football shirt I think the other one was wearing a 273 00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:49,760 French one and I mean these punches were so weak every single one missed and you know 274 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:54,400 so there's an example of you might get in a street fight and you know have not very 275 00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:57,920 little worries at all and you'd be have no problem getting away from it or detaining 276 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:02,280 that person but then again you might come across someone who's a trained athlete and 277 00:24:02,280 --> 00:24:06,920 you as a law enforcement officer is entering that conflict with a sidearm strapped to your 278 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:11,760 belt so you know there's such a spectrum that I mean I think it's terrifying even the fact 279 00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:17,760 that we send cops one to a car that one officer you know they might be a 280 pound former 280 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:23,760 linebacker or they might be a 90 pound police officer and they're gonna go into that arena 281 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:26,660 and it you know it might be an arm might be an arm might be a psych patient might be a 282 00:24:26,660 --> 00:24:33,620 hypoglycemic it might be all the things the the fact that there isn't an absolute laser 283 00:24:33,620 --> 00:24:38,320 focus on the strength and conditioning the combatives and the actual real world tactical 284 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:43,240 firearms training blows my mind you know in some department but we see a complete parallel 285 00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:47,720 on the fire service too there are phenomenal departments out there and there's departments 286 00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:51,960 like the last one I work for that you could have the world's biggest near miss on your 287 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:58,120 doorstep and still nothing changes it is sad it's sad it's shocking there's a lot of change 288 00:24:58,120 --> 00:25:04,640 that needs to be made but you know you're right like one one thing that's that's interesting 289 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:08,960 is that there's kind of negative training in the field in the sense that cops are used 290 00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:13,920 to people obeying their orders because 99 times out of 100 or even more you say hey 291 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:17,940 sit down you know put your put your hands behind your back or whatever they're gonna 292 00:25:17,940 --> 00:25:24,640 do it and what you see in a lot of these cringey videos of cops being unable to control you 293 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:29,600 know resisting subjects as you see them you know stop resisting stop resisting they'll 294 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:33,640 say it a hundred times get on the ground get on the ground get on the ground and it's like 295 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:40,760 their brain can't adjust to the fact that my verbal commands are no longer working so 296 00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:45,780 I need to go put hands on so yeah I think there's that that element of like negative 297 00:25:45,780 --> 00:25:51,300 training these cops get complacent you know and and I'm sure this happens in the fire 298 00:25:51,300 --> 00:25:56,840 service you respond to a hundred different incidents that don't require either a technical 299 00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:01,320 skill or your physical abilities and then all of a sudden you get that call and it's 300 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:06,480 like oh my gosh I need to do something and I haven't prepared for it my analogy is like 301 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:12,620 an airline pilot who has forgotten about or neglected to study emergency landing procedures 302 00:26:12,620 --> 00:26:17,040 because they've done a thousand normal landings and all of a sudden now they have to do an 303 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:20,880 emergency one and it's like crap I didn't study for this I didn't prepare for this it's 304 00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:26,400 been so long since I looked into this because I'm so used to and complacent with the everyday 305 00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:32,640 stuff that tends to go smoothly you know so but I see it all the time as a fitness coach 306 00:26:32,640 --> 00:26:36,720 I get a lot of people reaching out to me for help to lose fat build muscle and a lot of 307 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,860 it is a terrible incident they're involved in Ted I got no foot pursuit I couldn't keep 308 00:26:40,860 --> 00:26:47,520 up or I got into a fight and this 16 year old kid whooped my butt and then they go oh 309 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:52,680 my gosh I need to get fit I need to lose the fat build the muscle maybe I needed to take 310 00:26:52,680 --> 00:26:58,440 some defensive tactics courses whatever but sadly a lot of them wait until it's too late 311 00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:02,560 when extends beyond the uniform too I was just thinking about this you know say you 312 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:08,080 are a deconditioned 40 year old in America you know and you know you haven't exercised 313 00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:12,080 and you haven't watched what you've eaten you certainly haven't gone into any kind of 314 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:16,600 in a martial arts school whatever and then someone bigger than you just simply grabs 315 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:22,320 your kid and runs imagine that that you knew you couldn't catch him that you couldn't stop 316 00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:28,240 them that to me terrifies me and that's without the uniform now throw on a uniform where you're 317 00:27:28,240 --> 00:27:32,720 not only responsible for your own family but now the community that you serve as well and 318 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:38,460 more importantly arguably the man or woman to the left or your right so the ownership 319 00:27:38,460 --> 00:27:44,080 element is so so important and even if let's say you know you've kind of got burned out 320 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,660 and you're not as worried about when you're at work then refocus on home when you're not 321 00:27:48,660 --> 00:27:52,820 wearing your gear when you don't have a radio and you get response you know screaming towards 322 00:27:52,820 --> 00:27:57,840 you in a matter of seconds and now it's your family your home your child and this is what 323 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:03,840 I you know uses the analogy is like how would you feel if your family died because the responder 324 00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:07,480 hadn't trained now imagine you're that responder. 325 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:14,920 Amen to that I mean I've seen it like I remember I was at a park on a soccer field and it looked 326 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:21,080 like a kid is maybe two to three years old was running toward the street and the dad 327 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:26,160 was very significantly overweight is yelling stop stop and you see him like try to get 328 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:31,800 up and try to run and it's just pathetic like his three-year-old absolutely outpaced him 329 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,360 in and for a moment I'm like I'm gonna have to start running I'm gonna go save this kid 330 00:28:35,360 --> 00:28:39,000 this guy's kid because he's running for the street and you know I feel terrible this kid 331 00:28:39,000 --> 00:28:44,560 got hit by a car and luckily the kid finally stopped and listened to whatever it's like 332 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:50,100 how does a moment like that not tell him and maybe it did but tell the dad oh my gosh I 333 00:28:50,100 --> 00:28:56,920 am not being a good dad I'm not being a good dad because to me a good dad is somebody who's 334 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:03,960 is capable of protecting their kids for at least normal stuff I get it you get punched 335 00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:09,440 in the face by some MMA professional and they out of nowhere and they steal your kid I mean 336 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:12,960 you know there's not much you could have done to prepare for that but like can you prepare 337 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:18,480 to keep up with your child if they're running can you prepare to reasonably defend yourself 338 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:24,200 against the average person you know and and I think a lot of it too is people have inflated 339 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:28,480 egos maybe they remember what they used to be able to do but now they've gotten more 340 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:33,360 out of shape and haven't been tested in years or or they just have overconfidence oh you 341 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,760 know they play out the perfect scenario in their head here's what I would do and they 342 00:29:36,760 --> 00:29:40,480 they think they could handle it perfectly and until that moment teaches them otherwise 343 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:44,520 yeah I love that phrase I think seals that use it a lot you know you don't rise to love 344 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:49,000 like expectations you fall to the level of training and it's so true you know the whole 345 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:54,840 hold me back I just see red we've seen those guys on youtube they don't do very well so 346 00:29:54,840 --> 00:30:00,840 uh yeah well you spoke about being slim when you were smaller and then having to lose weight 347 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:04,720 after you graduated the academy walked me through that weight gain and then what was 348 00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:11,560 that pivotal change that got you to realize that you needed to take action yep so you 349 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:15,920 know I was still a weightlifter and my focus is like let's get big and strong and there's 350 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:20,680 a couple guys that I was working with in the jail so we start in custody who were big strong 351 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:26,600 dudes and putting away a lot of food so I'm like okay that's the way to do it you know 352 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:34,200 I want to get big and strong and um it eventually turned into a bad habit you know and I think 353 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:39,240 anyone who ends up overweight usually didn't expect to get there and they might have this 354 00:30:39,240 --> 00:30:42,780 moment where they're like I didn't realize how fat I've gotten and I knew I was gaining 355 00:30:42,780 --> 00:30:48,600 some fat but and you know you ignore it you brush it to the side whatever I'm still fine 356 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:55,400 I still got it um so a couple things happened like you know I'm eating a lot of food eating 357 00:30:55,400 --> 00:31:00,100 food that's not that good for me I'm snacking here and there and even though I was lifting 358 00:31:00,100 --> 00:31:05,120 weights you know and I was still pretty strong which also gave me a false sense of confidence 359 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:10,360 hey I'm still strong you know hey um a couple of wake-up calls I remember I responded to 360 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:16,640 a fight in the jail another deputy was in a fight and just getting there I was winded 361 00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:20,920 and somebody made a content comment like were you even were you even involved in the fight 362 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:25,620 like you're breathing so hard and I was like oh my goodness that was one thing another 363 00:31:25,620 --> 00:31:30,920 one is I saw a video of me running and I looked silly running like it just did not look athletic 364 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:36,240 and I was like oh and then the final straw I went to the doctors and you know they're 365 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:40,760 like yeah your blood pressure is out of control here's your meds here's your prescription 366 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:45,000 and they're like don't worry you know it's genetic you said you said your mother and 367 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:49,240 that side of the family has blood pressure issues it's just genetic I've seen doctors 368 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:53,880 say this a million times but I also took a look at myself in that moment I'm like I am 369 00:31:53,880 --> 00:32:01,120 240 pounds I have a belly I have I have love handles and I'm like let me try to do this 370 00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:07,920 the right way so I ended up through a few steps you know losing that fat and you know 371 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:13,800 lo and behold my blood pressure was good again you know I can move again I felt good and 372 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:19,320 I learned a better way to approach building muscle and not get fat in the process but 373 00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:24,400 yeah that's you know one thing led to another and one day I was overweight and I just decided 374 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,080 in that moment I needed a change. 375 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:30,600 What was the training philosophy that you had was it more of a powerlifting side then 376 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:34,700 if you put on the weight because I mean usually bodybuilders they have the kind of off-season 377 00:32:34,700 --> 00:32:39,320 weight gain but then they slim down for competition but the powerlifting community tends to be 378 00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:43,720 a little heavier because they're looking just for that strength. 379 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:49,680 Yeah it was definitely very powerlifting focused which is great but unnecessary fat gain is 380 00:32:49,680 --> 00:32:56,400 not great and never a good thing so and I would kind of engage in periodic cuts when 381 00:32:56,400 --> 00:33:01,840 I saw a picture myself that I didn't like or I would try to lose some weight but I was 382 00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:06,880 approaching it like bodybuilders would at the time and you know like chicken and broccoli 383 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:12,200 and turkey and sweet potato and eat every two hours and this is actually what led to 384 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:16,600 me starting the fit responder program is that I had a coach who was telling me all right 385 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:22,240 you know eat your turkey and asparagus and your you know your six almonds and these it 386 00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:27,080 was kind of a really rigid schedule workout six days a week for an hour and a half to 387 00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:31,720 two hours and I was having trouble keeping up with it but I you know I was determined 388 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:38,040 hey I can be a fit guy I can do this but I remember I had an incident where I was on 389 00:33:38,040 --> 00:33:43,160 a traffic collision for like six hours directing traffic and I told my coach it's like I missed 390 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:48,040 two of the meals and I'm dang exhausted like I if I can take the day off from the gym today 391 00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:54,240 that'd be appreciated and he said oh you must not want this bad enough and yeah I'm sure 392 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:59,520 his intent was to motivate me but I felt pretty discouraged like what what did this guy want 393 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,960 me to do say I'm not gonna stop I'm gonna stop directing traffic now I need to go eat 394 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:07,800 my meal that's timed every two hours and in that moment I'm like I could probably do this 395 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,520 better but it didn't come till a little bit later that I decided I wanted to actually 396 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:16,640 coach people but that was a big inspiration for me and starting fit responders I realized 397 00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:22,560 like a good coach is also someone who understands the actual challenges their client is dealing 398 00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:28,240 with and rather than giving their client a cookie cutter approach might give them things 399 00:34:28,240 --> 00:34:32,360 that are actually doable given their life given their preferences given their schedule 400 00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:36,280 and all that and it might take somebody with that understanding with that background so 401 00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:40,480 that's kind of what it was a big moment that inspired fit responder. 402 00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:46,320 It seems like some of the more extreme versions of dieting they've literally sucked all the 403 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:52,160 fun out of cooking and food and eating so where you know where I kind of find the middle 404 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,960 ground is yet of times you obviously have got a got to start reeling in certain elements 405 00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:02,920 macros etc but if it becomes the the point where you're just staring at 12 Tupperwares 406 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,840 that with the same shit and that's all you're gonna eat for you know three days straight 407 00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:11,600 then you got to ask yourself if I if I'm this miserable eating then what is that point if 408 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:18,200 I'm literally going to train for Mr. Olympia I get that kind of fanaticism but I'm a firefighter 409 00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:22,200 you know do I need to be all the way on that extreme the same way as even lifting do I 410 00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:28,480 need to to constantly figure out what my one rep is or do I need to be able to pull five 411 00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:35,600 reps with great form at 80% of what I can so I can foster strength and longevity yep 412 00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:41,720 100% agree with that so you mentioned about you got to a point where you really kind of 413 00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:47,520 got into the coaching world what what again kind of led you onto that path sure thing 414 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:55,000 so like I met my wife and so my girlfriend at the time and she saw me prepping you know 415 00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:00,640 a dozen Tupperware with with chicken and rice and she goes you know you could do this easier 416 00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:05,960 right like she was in great shape she had already done a fitness show she's also a personal 417 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:11,040 trainer and you know she introduced me to how she approaches food definitely imperfect 418 00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:16,960 you know like kind of budgeting so to speak for the date night and for deviations and 419 00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:22,680 also just making food more fun that isn't bad for you you know different ways to make 420 00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:30,000 burritos and tacos and lasagna that is to your palate really enjoyable still kind of 421 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,960 hits that that button that we need to enjoy our food right I mean there's food is fuel 422 00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:40,400 but it's also a little bit of recreation too so she just taught me kind of new ways to 423 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:44,160 go about it and that was really eye-opening for me it definitely helped me lose the weight 424 00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:50,640 I was looking to lose and we started sharing these methods with people at work and people 425 00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:54,280 were getting great results and they loved that and we're like we're changing lives and 426 00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:59,080 that was when I was like why don't we just coach people officially let's let's get clients 427 00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:03,440 and coach them she's pretty skeptical at first she's like no one's gonna want we're not 428 00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:07,720 professional bodybuilders no one's gonna want us as coaches come on but I put it out there 429 00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:12,200 I said hey you know Emily and I were a fit couple and we know what it's like to be a 430 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:17,400 first responder let's coach you let's help you so the results and the word spread really 431 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:23,400 fast the the the attention to us like exploded we had more clients than we knew what to do 432 00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:28,920 with after a point and fitness is great because when you get people fit they're like a walking 433 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:33,920 billboard hey John you look so good how did you do that oh you gotta talk to Ted and Emily 434 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:39,160 so that was really the beginnings of fit responder what were you seeing within your department 435 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:46,720 as far as the fitness standards and the the kind of what's the right word culture the 436 00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:52,800 fitness culture within that department as well I think it's a lot like most departments 437 00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:57,920 in America like there's this general understanding that of course we should be fit and there's 438 00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:02,800 you know you'll see a poster in the building somewhere that says you know you gave up the 439 00:38:02,800 --> 00:38:07,000 right to be out of shape when you put on the badge and there is a little bit of that culture 440 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:13,840 but there's next to no incentive I mean other than the really important ones like not dying 441 00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:21,560 and doing your job and but there's no other external incentives to keep people fit and 442 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:26,600 the problem with departments and agencies in America is they find themselves in this 443 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:33,040 battle where if they demand somebody to be fit they're often met with litigation like 444 00:38:33,040 --> 00:38:39,280 oh you're discriminating against me because I'm overweight you know or you know oh so 445 00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:43,360 you're gonna force me to work out well I got hurt so I want you to cover that because you're 446 00:38:43,360 --> 00:38:48,640 forcing me to work out you know I need workers comp so a lot of agencies know they need their 447 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:54,720 people to be fit and healthy but they just don't know how to get their people to do it 448 00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:59,200 and then then you do have both ends of the spectrum you have fit fit first responders 449 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:04,320 who recognize the importance and take action and you have the other end of the spectrum 450 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:09,640 where you got people who are literally morbidly obese walking around in uniform on the front 451 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:16,160 lines expected to be able to perform and do their physical demands of the job when intense 452 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:21,760 situations arise and they're incapable of doing it and you have everyone in between 453 00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:25,480 but if you look at especially in the US and I don't know what it's like over there in 454 00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:30,360 the UK but like first responders are some of the most obese groups of professions in 455 00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:36,000 America you look at the statistics and they end up damn near the top of the list if not 456 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:42,000 top of the list and that's so sad and ironic I mean first responders ought to be some of 457 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,880 the fittest people like it is in your job description that you may need to do things 458 00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:52,160 that require your physical abilities jump walls run climb flights of stairs carry out 459 00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:58,240 victims carry out your partners fight you know bust through doors endurance strength 460 00:39:58,240 --> 00:40:03,920 all of these things so yeah I mean I'll tell you that the I guess gonna wrap it up like 461 00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:08,000 the internal culture was this kind of understanding that we ought to be fit in the academy they 462 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:14,440 preached it get fit they enforced it in the academy but then after the academy you kind 463 00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:20,560 of just left everyone's left to their own devices I found that crazy as well and it's 464 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:23,580 someone made an interesting point when you got the right culture you don't need fitness 465 00:40:23,580 --> 00:40:31,000 standards and I agree like Anaheim when I worked out there the first 12 months of probation 466 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:36,560 in the academy and then probation was was hard like really really hard and if you didn't 467 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:41,440 make the cut they let you go they literally had a 25% attrition rate of every class at 468 00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:46,760 least when I was there and so after that year you know there was just this culture of excellence 469 00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:50,440 not saying that I achieved excellence but the pursuit of excellence and you know we 470 00:40:50,440 --> 00:40:53,800 would work out all the time we'd play sports we'd you know we'd run at the track we'd 471 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:59,320 do all the things because that's just what you do but then you know I ended up changing 472 00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:06,400 to other departments and seeing you know like you're talking about the other side and it 473 00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:12,880 maddens me because if you ask the SEALs the Green Berets the PJs the SAS if someone doesn't 474 00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:18,280 cut it they're out they have standards and they have you know not so much a fitness test 475 00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:23,400 but an overall performance level that they've got to maintain you ask the ocean lifeguards 476 00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:27,440 of the world and I was a lifeguard in open water not not the oceans but lakes you know 477 00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:33,120 if I fail my swim test I cease to become a lifeguard I just don't understand how in police 478 00:41:33,120 --> 00:41:40,160 and fire I mean it should be EMS as well how we allowed it to you know unions administrative 479 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:45,520 whatever it was the combination to resist an annual fitness standard because if in in 480 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:50,200 Florida where I went to fire school we call it minimum standards so they label it that 481 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:55,680 this is the absolute shittest you should ever be and you're asked to climb stairs and dummies 482 00:41:55,680 --> 00:42:00,680 and you know breach doors and all the things so they've set the bar no one can say oh it's 483 00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:06,240 not fair that was your fucking front door so I blows my mind but then you're like oh 484 00:42:06,240 --> 00:42:11,340 it's not fair to test me I mean I just I'm still waiting for someone to give me a good 485 00:42:11,340 --> 00:42:15,320 answer how the fuck especially when we have unions that beat their chests saying that 486 00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:20,480 they're just the strongest union in the country and we can't even set a fucking fitness standard 487 00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:28,000 for a profession that depends on our fitness it does blow my mind as well and there are 488 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:33,520 there I know there's ways to reform it because there are departments especially the troopers 489 00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:38,560 a lot of trooper departments which are highway patrols have standards I mean I've had clients 490 00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:44,920 who come to me to help because they go I know I'm not going to pass the test this year unless 491 00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:49,760 I lose some weight and I prepare better for the physical demands and they can't lose their 492 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:55,640 job so there are some agencies that have the standards that hold people to the standards 493 00:42:55,640 --> 00:43:05,040 and obviously are able to avoid any of the worry about unions or litigation but you know 494 00:43:05,040 --> 00:43:09,240 I remember talking to a guy who's pretty high up in my department and when I brought these 495 00:43:09,240 --> 00:43:14,040 things up he immediately was like yeah that's a dead end he goes I've tried everything there's 496 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:19,800 no way and I just I don't believe it yet I don't believe it I think he just I know he 497 00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:23,960 believed what he was saying he probably felt like he tried a bunch of different things 498 00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:28,320 and there's just there's no way but I think it's just going to take some really strong 499 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:32,560 people who are in the management who are in the leadership positions to put their foot 500 00:43:32,560 --> 00:43:37,880 down and maybe deal with some backlash maybe deal initially with some litigation with some 501 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:44,320 problems and until they can solidify it maybe it maybe it's new contracts moving forward 502 00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:51,240 with new hire ease to say you must abide by these it's in your contract that you need 503 00:43:51,240 --> 00:43:57,320 to be fit and we're going to hold you to standards fine you know but I yeah there's a ton of 504 00:43:57,320 --> 00:44:02,480 room for improvement and you're right it blows my mind it's sad and it's freaking pathetic 505 00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:08,040 and embarrassing too I mean I can't I cannot put myself in the shoes of someone who's 50 506 00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:12,640 plus pounds overweight can't pass a physical test oh it's my department's fault because 507 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:18,980 they won't you know do xyz and you're being unfair you're discriminating no like open 508 00:44:18,980 --> 00:44:24,460 your eyes you are the problem well I've been very fair to really you know over and over 509 00:44:24,460 --> 00:44:29,840 and over and over and over again bring great great minds to come on and talk about especially 510 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:33,760 in the fire service our work week which absolutely sets us up for failure and you look at law 511 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:37,760 enforcement you know you've got these long hours you know in your your profession the 512 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:41,580 shifts swinging from nights and days you're in a car you know you've got the belt now 513 00:44:41,580 --> 00:44:47,960 you've got postural issues so we are set up for failure a lot of us so it's not just on 514 00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:54,320 the responder it is on you know the the employer as well but again when you were expected to 515 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:58,200 do a certain amount of things at the front door and then you have the audacity to say 516 00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:02,000 oh it's not fair no one you know especially the one I hate is oh they're trying to take 517 00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:06,320 our jobs like I don't get me wrong if they said right starting tomorrow if you're not 518 00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:11,480 fit you're out of course that's completely unfair you'd have to introduce an on-ramp 519 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:15,880 system where over a series of two or three years everyone has to get to that standard 520 00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:21,600 again because you've allowed them to devolve up to that point but it all goes back again 521 00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:27,520 to what would you how would you feel if your family died because that obese firefighter 522 00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:32,960 tapped out three floors up or that bodybuilder firefighter tapped out because all he focused 523 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:37,480 on is to paint himself orange and not actually be able to do the job properly so this is 524 00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:43,320 the thing we've got to remind ourselves that not only to our family first but the people 525 00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:48,280 that we serve we swore an oath to be able to do the thing and as you said I'm not going 526 00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,960 to be able to beat an MMA fighter but I hopefully will be able to hold my own with the average 527 00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:57,120 Joe I'm not going to be the fastest person up you know Grenfell Tower I'm not going to 528 00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:01,800 be able to carry the most weight but I'm going to make myself the best version of James Gearing 529 00:46:01,800 --> 00:46:08,360 in that uniform to be able to do it so it's not about taking jobs I mean defending someone 530 00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:12,840 who can't do a job as a firefighter is trying to persuade the school bus company allow the 531 00:46:12,840 --> 00:46:17,520 blind guy to drive you know if you can't do the job you can't fucking do the job. 532 00:46:17,520 --> 00:46:23,600 Yep I'm with you 100% right and I've said that too like I don't need you to be a professional 533 00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:29,320 athlete you know like but will you be able to get into an incident that requires your 534 00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:35,320 physical fitness and say you know I reasonably prepared for this right it would be like you 535 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:42,960 know you respond to an active shooter and they have you know a tank like okay well I 536 00:46:42,960 --> 00:46:48,840 can't beat them but I still came reasonably prepared you know that you could absolutely 537 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:55,920 get involved in something that virtually nobody could overcome but my goodness like if you 538 00:46:55,920 --> 00:47:00,360 like just look at the normal kind of scenarios that you might be involved in you might have 539 00:47:00,360 --> 00:47:04,520 to run up four flights of stairs to get to a victim could you do it and don't think yeah 540 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:08,640 I could do that well when's the last time you tested yourself really you know a lot 541 00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:14,760 of there's there is an alarming statistic I want to say it was like 90% of men who are 542 00:47:14,760 --> 00:47:19,320 over the age of 35 will never sprint again did you hear this James did you ever hear 543 00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:24,440 that statistic no I didn't yeah and I want to say it was 90 but it was a staggering amount 544 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:29,120 of people and you know how many of those guys at the age of 40 would say oh I could handle 545 00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:33,960 it if whatever incident occurred that required me to it's like we you haven't sprinted in 546 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:41,360 five years so yeah I mean you know I think it makes absolute sense that first responders 547 00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:45,280 whether you're fire cops like you need to have a reasonable standard of fitness for 548 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:49,440 yourself but you ought to be able to run you probably should be able to hop a four-foot 549 00:47:49,440 --> 00:47:53,760 wall you probably should be able to run up four flights of stairs and not be absolutely 550 00:47:53,760 --> 00:48:02,920 winded or you're useless now so like test yourself get into the damn gym workout because 551 00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:08,240 you're right like you you don't want to be that guy or girl that goes man like I'm not 552 00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:13,920 the first responder I would want come into my aid or my family's aid you know don't wait 553 00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:19,760 till then where you take care of it now there's a pushback against the term tactical athlete 554 00:48:19,760 --> 00:48:26,840 and I was at a the Orlando Fire Conference once I asked one of the Denver Chiefs how 555 00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:31,520 how many stories do you expect your firefighters to be at a climb and he said to the top of 556 00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:35,240 the tallest building we've got and I that was a mic drop moment to me that's exactly 557 00:48:35,240 --> 00:48:40,840 what I was hoping he was going to say where I just finished working next to my station 558 00:48:40,840 --> 00:48:44,520 and this is a you know a department where a lot of them said oh we'll just get the elevator 559 00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:52,360 if we have an issue there's a 28 story hotel tower and we would do a thing where you simulate 560 00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:57,840 then when I say we like I would organize this it wasn't a department thing at all but we'd 561 00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:02,660 simulate a high-rise exercise and so you'd have your bunker gear on your pack but then 562 00:49:02,660 --> 00:49:06,640 you'd have spare air bottles because when you climb that high there's no one to turn 563 00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:10,920 around to and just get you more everything you you need you got to take up with you the 564 00:49:10,920 --> 00:49:15,120 section of hose and a forceful entry tool so you're not pack mule ing it you're just 565 00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,880 the bare minimum of everyone so that when you get up there you've got the resources 566 00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:24,480 to work and then it was 28 story climb now when we did that I weighed myself without 567 00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:28,000 my gear and then with all this and it was a hundred pounds of gear on my skinny ass 568 00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:33,400 in a hundred and sixty eight pound frame at the time no one gives a shit how fit I am 569 00:49:33,400 --> 00:49:37,040 how old I am what color I am who I sleep with they just want to make sure that I can get 570 00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:41,180 to the top and get their children so this is the thing when there's pushback against 571 00:49:41,180 --> 00:49:45,400 tactical athlete and it's the complacency that you were talking about 90 percent of 572 00:49:45,400 --> 00:49:50,800 the calls you run on may take minimal physical exertion but when someone starts shooting 573 00:49:50,800 --> 00:49:57,280 from you know a hotel in Las Vegas when bombs go off in London you know when the tower in 574 00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:04,520 Grenfell Tower is ablaze in in London and you have to make you know make entry or climb 575 00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:09,640 numerous amounts of stairs or drag people out that is what you're training for you're 576 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:14,680 not training for the everyday nonchalant calls you're training for the worst case and like 577 00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:19,960 you said you're not expected to be Superman but you're expected to at least perform at 578 00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:23,080 the highest level that you physically can. 579 00:50:23,080 --> 00:50:32,040 Amen to that absolutely and you know I think that you can reasonably be said that if you're 580 00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:39,960 entering the first responder profession and applying for a position that's going to require 581 00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:46,120 and potentially and realistically require a high level of fitness you are when you swear 582 00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:50,600 that oath you ought to also be swearing an oath that you're going to stay fit and you 583 00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:55,640 will do what it takes or freaking resign but get out of there stop being a liability to 584 00:50:55,640 --> 00:50:58,280 yourself and others for sure. 585 00:50:58,280 --> 00:51:02,080 Absolutely well let's talk about the kind of training philosophy that you have then 586 00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:09,200 I do a class every week for free here in Ocala and I've been in CrossFit now for like 16 587 00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:13,440 years I've kind of moved away a little bit and focusing on more kind of Macy's kettlebells 588 00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:18,040 the Wolf Brigade programming now which I'm really enjoying but when it comes to the missing 589 00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:24,240 piece from the CrossFit space I've always loved sleds sandbags kettlebell carries because 590 00:51:24,240 --> 00:51:27,940 it's the kind of real world application especially for the fire service we're pushing pulling 591 00:51:27,940 --> 00:51:32,880 climbing dragging so talk to me about the kind of principles and philosophies that you 592 00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:36,080 like to use when you're coaching. 593 00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:40,360 I love that yeah I love the sled love those like practical pieces of equipment what I 594 00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:48,000 found with people when most people I'm coaching have a problem with their habits right and 595 00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:53,760 they have a problem staying consistent so what a lot of people do is they inject themselves 596 00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:58,880 into some kind of program or style of coaching that they can keep up with for a period of 597 00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:04,280 time as they ride that motivation wave but then fall out you know fall back in old habits 598 00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:10,360 so I realize as a coach what's important really to help people see long-term success is giving 599 00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:17,280 them very achievable small steps to accomplish day by day and you know eventually ramping 600 00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:22,600 them up to the person who's doing a strenuous workout with different pieces of equipment 601 00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:29,080 and challenging them but it's it really needs to be kind of a step-by-step simple process 602 00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:34,400 so yeah when I coach it's kind of an individual basis like let's start with where you're at 603 00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:39,440 now are you already working out pretty consistently and you know your way around the gym your 604 00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:46,440 process is gonna look a lot different than the person who I also am coaching who really 605 00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:52,560 just struggles not overeating you know really struggles just avoiding snacking you know 606 00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:58,560 and really struggles just getting in the gym once or twice a week giving them steps that 607 00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:05,840 are achievable and doable given their mindset as it is you know what I mean like coaching 608 00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:11,840 a program for someone should not feel like pounding a square peg into a round hole so 609 00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:18,560 yes ultimately if somebody has kind of graduated to like that achiever status I would say yeah 610 00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:22,560 we're gonna be working with them on a higher level like let's work with equipment that's 611 00:53:22,560 --> 00:53:27,840 really practical let's challenge you let's like push the boundaries but I guess like 612 00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:34,680 to zoom out my perspective on coaching as I said is very like on an individual basis 613 00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:39,440 and that's why I think like kind of custom one-on-one coaching makes sense is you know 614 00:53:39,440 --> 00:53:44,600 for some people the idea of counting calories just sounds incredibly difficult and two-time 615 00:53:44,600 --> 00:53:49,000 consuming whatever that's fine so for that person I might say like what are foods you 616 00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:55,360 like you know let's just work on portions right now let's avoid let's kind of preset 617 00:53:55,360 --> 00:54:01,320 parameters on the number of snacks you eat per day simple stuff you know just to get 618 00:54:01,320 --> 00:54:07,680 that momentum rolling give them confidence allow them to see some progress with with 619 00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:11,880 the process that's doable does that make sense no it does completely and it's another interesting 620 00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:17,800 observation I've made I'm curious to get this this is more really within the department 621 00:54:17,800 --> 00:54:22,580 so I was able to kind of be one of the voices in the wellness program of the last place 622 00:54:22,580 --> 00:54:27,680 I worked and we're the first finally got the first class through a PT program first orientation 623 00:54:27,680 --> 00:54:32,080 class you know new hire a class they weren't even doing PC with them before but what I 624 00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:38,160 realized was especially in our guys in a department that aren't you know off their own back coming 625 00:54:38,160 --> 00:54:45,080 to a gym there's a lot of fear a lot of fear of looking stupid a lot of fear of other people 626 00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:50,120 realizing they're not as fit strong fast as they thought they were and again I commend 627 00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:55,260 anyone who then steps up regardless of that but coming from the CrossFit space where there's 628 00:54:55,260 --> 00:55:01,520 snatches and you know a lot of kind of more complex movements the sandbags the sleds you 629 00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:05,720 know the carries it was like all you got to do is pick that up and walk over there and 630 00:55:05,720 --> 00:55:11,040 they're like oh okay and so you reduce that fear that anxiety of looking stupid because 631 00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:15,760 you've made it a real-world task conversely you know if I gave someone a snatch and their 632 00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:20,000 mobility is terrible and they can't even squat down with the bar over their head I'm really 633 00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:27,120 adding more to their their desire not to work out them building confidence exactly right 634 00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:32,520 yeah because even though they may fake it and go through the motions in that moment 635 00:55:32,520 --> 00:55:38,720 they're thinking man this is too hard this is not for me I'm not a fit person I'm not 636 00:55:38,720 --> 00:55:44,240 made for this I don't like this I'll never be fit right but you give them steps that 637 00:55:44,240 --> 00:55:49,920 are achievable and simple enough and it starts it allows them to start building that confidence 638 00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:55,240 like okay okay I can eat better I'm doing it or I can work out I just got it done and 639 00:55:55,240 --> 00:56:01,680 I'm sore okay you know even though maybe to me that's a pretty elementary workout super 640 00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:08,200 simple like super basic but it's allowing them to feel that it is achievable it's doable 641 00:56:08,200 --> 00:56:12,400 and they see the results from it and then they can begin to ride that momentum wave 642 00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:17,720 and and be more eager to try new things and challenge themselves that was one of the things 643 00:56:17,720 --> 00:56:21,920 I really liked about CrossFit you know when you're let's say you are in a bodybuilding 644 00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:27,560 style gym you know a regular globo gym if they determine they like to use and you know 645 00:56:27,560 --> 00:56:31,700 you you put the pin down you know you add a little bit more weight on your peck deck 646 00:56:31,700 --> 00:56:36,000 not really a feeling of achievement but what I loved about the kind of play element of 647 00:56:36,000 --> 00:56:41,540 CrossFit the rope climbs a pegboard the handstand walks was that you know as a 40 year old dude 648 00:56:41,540 --> 00:56:46,000 and you do a handstand you're like this is this is brilliant and there's a sense of achievement 649 00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:51,560 a sense of short-term goals and I think that's important because if we just go to the gym 650 00:56:51,560 --> 00:56:58,480 and do the same movements three sets of whatever there's never really you know a sense of accomplishment 651 00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:02,600 but when there are some of these tasks woven in because I mean even the sandbags you go 652 00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:07,560 up a sandbag okay great but it's not a huge thing but you climb a rope for the first time 653 00:57:07,560 --> 00:57:12,120 when you couldn't even as a child that is a huge accomplishment so I love kind of weaving 654 00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:18,120 in some of those those kind of play elements that are you know are physical as well so 655 00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:24,160 that someone has a real sense of wow I'm doing something I couldn't do before yeah that's 656 00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:29,840 great and something we do inside the fit responder program in our app when people are consistent 657 00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:34,360 with their workouts they get like these little badges these little achievements if they hit 658 00:57:34,360 --> 00:57:40,020 a PR in the gym you know they they do more or you know more weight or more sets whatever 659 00:57:40,020 --> 00:57:43,960 they get a badge for that and then we'll commend them on it so there's like a community aspect 660 00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:49,000 to it as well so there's there's also another sense of encouragement like man I got 10 workouts 661 00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:54,960 in a row done you know and I hit a new personal best so yeah I found that that's something 662 00:57:54,960 --> 00:57:59,720 like our clients look forward to keeps them engaged kind of similar to what you were talking 663 00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:01,960 about with CrossFit. 664 00:58:01,960 --> 00:58:06,200 This is kind of a little bit more of a bizarre question but as a martial artist and someone 665 00:58:06,200 --> 00:58:12,120 who's you know on the slimmer side I've been trying to figure out that happy medium between 666 00:58:12,120 --> 00:58:15,960 the cardio element and my motor has always been good but also the strength because the 667 00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:22,000 less strong I am the more effort it has for me to create strength against a bigger opponent 668 00:58:22,000 --> 00:58:27,200 my aerobic side is is kind of coping with it but then if I built more strength does 669 00:58:27,200 --> 00:58:33,280 that in turn improve my you know my capacity so talk to me about that especially in law 670 00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:39,880 enforcement you obviously you need you need the muscular endurance but at times improving 671 00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:43,960 overall strength as an asset too. 672 00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:51,480 Definitely and I think what can really help people is workout efficiency so like you know 673 00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:59,400 there was a time where I was preparing for a SWAT tryout and I do not like running I 674 00:58:59,400 --> 00:59:04,960 don't enjoy it but I knew that running four plus miles was a requirement of this tryout 675 00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:12,600 so what I did in my workouts is decreased the rest periods and increased my reps and 676 00:59:12,600 --> 00:59:18,240 decreased the weight so that like I was able to get some cardio benefits from my weight 677 00:59:18,240 --> 00:59:24,840 lifting and lo and behold with minimum running to prepare for this tryout I did quite well 678 00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:30,060 and so that's that's a feature I think people ought to consider is that you often can kill 679 00:59:30,060 --> 00:59:38,120 two birds with one stone but I mean frankly it's very possible to have decent endurance 680 00:59:38,120 --> 00:59:44,040 and be strong as heck you know I've done it but yeah if your sole focus is one or the 681 00:59:44,040 --> 00:59:49,760 other you will end up neglecting you know the other side of the spectrum I mean marathon 682 00:59:49,760 --> 00:59:57,240 runners are typically very thin and probably not strong and conversely you have competitive 683 00:59:57,240 --> 01:00:02,320 power lifters probably couldn't run a mile to save their life so you know I think as 684 01:00:02,320 --> 01:00:07,040 a tactical athlete as you said or as a first responder you ought to be decent in both you 685 01:00:07,040 --> 01:00:12,200 ought to have decent endurance you ought to have decent mobility decent strength but not 686 01:00:12,200 --> 01:00:16,360 necessarily a specialist in one or the other. 687 01:00:16,360 --> 01:00:20,400 As you progress through your own training from as you said carrying too much weight 688 01:00:20,400 --> 01:00:27,400 to where you were was there a moment where you started to see that physicality and or 689 01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:37,080 performance really factor into success it seems like a lot of the very fit very well 690 01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:42,480 trained when it came to you know defensive tactics officers I've had on here report 691 01:00:42,480 --> 01:00:47,400 a lot less hands on because these people are looking at them going yeah I'm not even going 692 01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:52,520 to try and mess with that guy so talk to me about as you got fitter and stronger if you 693 01:00:52,520 --> 01:00:59,600 notice any either any kind of de-escalation through physicality and or the actual calls 694 01:00:59,600 --> 01:01:02,080 where your strength helped. 695 01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:10,240 Oh my gosh so many and I need to say this with the preface that I'm not trying to brag 696 01:01:10,240 --> 01:01:18,480 here I really am not but so many times in my career looking obviously fit helped and 697 01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:24,240 being fit helped literally an application so I mean there's times where you know like 698 01:01:24,240 --> 01:01:28,600 some guys getting agitated and you know I'm telling them what to do and he's like look 699 01:01:28,600 --> 01:01:32,440 I'm not going to mess with you clearly you could kick my ass. 700 01:01:32,440 --> 01:01:37,040 He has no idea how proficient I am in martial arts or whatever but he made an assumption 701 01:01:37,040 --> 01:01:42,200 like this guy looks built he doesn't look like a big fat slob and he looks like he's 702 01:01:42,200 --> 01:01:45,760 got some muscle and you know I probably saw the veins coming down my forearm and he's 703 01:01:45,760 --> 01:01:50,200 like this guy probably could beat me up he made that assumption. 704 01:01:50,200 --> 01:01:54,160 I remember there was another incident where there is a guy who would not get in the back 705 01:01:54,160 --> 01:01:58,600 of the cruiser and he had his hands his hands were already handcuffed behind his back and 706 01:01:58,600 --> 01:02:02,480 a couple of my partners were trying to convince him to get in come on like just get in we 707 01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:07,000 don't want to fight you you're already cuffed just get in the car and I ended up just walking 708 01:02:07,000 --> 01:02:12,760 up and he looked at me and he goes oh I see you sent the bruiser I'll get in the car now 709 01:02:12,760 --> 01:02:14,480 and he just got in the car. 710 01:02:14,480 --> 01:02:17,880 I don't know what he assumed thought I was going to kick his ass but obviously my physical 711 01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:21,800 presence did something. 712 01:02:21,800 --> 01:02:25,520 I used to get comments like that all the time you know just some comments about how I looked 713 01:02:25,520 --> 01:02:30,720 or that I was obviously muscular I saw definitely practical benefits I did get in fights as 714 01:02:30,720 --> 01:02:36,240 a cop I got in foot pursuits I had to kick indoors I did stuff like that no question 715 01:02:36,240 --> 01:02:41,480 my physical abilities helped in those moments. 716 01:02:41,480 --> 01:02:47,720 So yeah I mean I loved it and I wanted a reputation that I was capable I wanted my partners to 717 01:02:47,720 --> 01:02:52,360 know that oh if Ted's backing me up like we're good and there was one incident where I got 718 01:02:52,360 --> 01:02:57,520 into a fight and ended up knocking the guy out and he ended up going to the hospital 719 01:02:57,520 --> 01:03:02,480 and some somebody else in the department made a comment saying that like well the guy's 720 01:03:02,480 --> 01:03:08,200 lucky oh he fought stern like that guy's lucky he didn't end up in a body bag and I just 721 01:03:08,200 --> 01:03:14,600 loved it that was my reputation a lot to do with me being you know fit strong having that 722 01:03:14,600 --> 01:03:17,600 kind of being known as the fit guy. 723 01:03:17,600 --> 01:03:24,240 I love that and just the idea of anyone whether it's a victim or a suspect or my partners 724 01:03:24,240 --> 01:03:29,160 the idea of someone looking at me going oh Ted would be way too fat to help me out or 725 01:03:29,160 --> 01:03:36,880 I don't have any confidence that Ted could help me that's awful just embarrassings like 726 01:03:36,880 --> 01:03:42,600 just the idea of that is just I could not even allow that to ever be a possibility so 727 01:03:42,600 --> 01:03:48,320 yeah long story short without trying to brag 100% I saw my fitness benefit me numerous 728 01:03:48,320 --> 01:03:50,440 times throughout my career. 729 01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:56,120 Beautiful well we talked about the training side what about rest and recovery I was kind 730 01:03:56,120 --> 01:04:00,720 of totally naive and it was Jeff Nichols from the SEAL team strength and conditioning 731 01:04:00,720 --> 01:04:06,840 coaches he was both that really opened my eyes you know I used to go off shift and go 732 01:04:06,840 --> 01:04:13,040 to the gym and you know do Murph or whatever was the workout the day because I would sweat 733 01:04:13,040 --> 01:04:17,600 out my stress air quotes and then he kind of made me realize right James you know you're 734 01:04:17,600 --> 01:04:21,160 already in the red and then you go to the gym and you do a workout that's going to put 735 01:04:21,160 --> 01:04:26,080 you more in the red where is the sense in that and I'm like fuck you're right so understand 736 01:04:26,080 --> 01:04:33,320 the days to hit it hard the you know the deload days you know the sleep versus a day in the 737 01:04:33,320 --> 01:04:38,760 gym when you have a lot of people that you coach now that do work shift work you know 738 01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:42,760 what are the nuances between some of these professions that you've seen since you've 739 01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:44,760 been coaching? 740 01:04:44,760 --> 01:04:49,280 Yeah right and that's something I've had to learn over time is to not over train and to 741 01:04:49,280 --> 01:04:57,560 really value and take advantage of my opportunities to recover as a way to progress because I 742 01:04:57,560 --> 01:05:01,600 remember my dad telling me hey Arnold worked out eight hours a day you know just try harder 743 01:05:01,600 --> 01:05:07,000 and I've seen influencers online say there's no such thing as over training you know just 744 01:05:07,000 --> 01:05:14,720 go so on the one hand obviously over training exists and we ought to give ourselves a good 745 01:05:14,720 --> 01:05:22,960 chance to recover because muscle is built during the recovery process and there's obvious 746 01:05:22,960 --> 01:05:28,600 benefits to not allowing ourselves to recover I mean there's a point of diminishing returns 747 01:05:28,600 --> 01:05:33,600 right like with effort and time if it was a graph you would see you know accelerating 748 01:05:33,600 --> 01:05:40,160 benefits and then after enough time and effort those benefits tend to decrease and then eventually 749 01:05:40,160 --> 01:05:44,720 you'll have the other side where you'll be hurting yourself literally if you work out 750 01:05:44,720 --> 01:05:48,880 too much and don't recover enough and you don't sleep enough. 751 01:05:48,880 --> 01:05:55,000 One thing I'll say though is I think we're not the best subjective judges of how much 752 01:05:55,000 --> 01:06:01,060 recovery we need because on the one hand you could be like me and ignore a lot of signs 753 01:06:01,060 --> 01:06:05,360 and symptoms that ought to be taking it easier myself but well hey I'm a badass so I'm going 754 01:06:05,360 --> 01:06:09,320 to keep pushing that's one end of the spectrum but I would say more often than not people 755 01:06:09,320 --> 01:06:13,720 are on the other end of the spectrum I ought to take a break oh I'm sore so I'm not going 756 01:06:13,720 --> 01:06:18,960 to work out or I'm kind of tired so I ought to just sit on the couch so I think for most 757 01:06:18,960 --> 01:06:24,580 of us especially if you're out of shape you are way more likely to give yourself more 758 01:06:24,580 --> 01:06:31,360 excuses to not work out and to not you know because I've just seen this from working with 759 01:06:31,360 --> 01:06:36,400 out of shape people for a long time hey you know I had a tough day on patrol you know 760 01:06:36,400 --> 01:06:40,760 you walked for like an hour so I'm going to I'm not going to do my leg workout today but 761 01:06:40,760 --> 01:06:44,480 you walked for an hour and you think that was your leg workout what are you what are 762 01:06:44,480 --> 01:06:48,600 you talking about you know so I think we are if you're out of shape and you're listening 763 01:06:48,600 --> 01:06:52,940 to this you ought to realize that you're way more likely to be giving yourself excuses 764 01:06:52,940 --> 01:06:59,000 to rest when you don't need it then conversely but you know at the same time like if you're 765 01:06:59,000 --> 01:07:04,720 in legit pain or your soreness is pretty much debilitating then it's those are good signs 766 01:07:04,720 --> 01:07:08,840 and symptoms you do need to recover so yeah it's like where do you draw that line right 767 01:07:08,840 --> 01:07:14,000 I've had clients who go man I only slept five hours last night should I work out you got 768 01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:18,280 to zoom out I mean how many workouts have you gotten in this week you know do you have 769 01:07:18,280 --> 01:07:23,480 an opportunity to rest more tomorrow night you know do you really feel like you're dragging 770 01:07:23,480 --> 01:07:27,320 ass like it's you're just gonna have a useless workout or you can you get something done 771 01:07:27,320 --> 01:07:33,720 can you work out for 30 minutes 20 right so there is a lot of gray area within that but 772 01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:38,200 yeah I mean I think one thing I could just say is get a good coach who understands the 773 01:07:38,200 --> 01:07:43,560 need for recovery and understands your lifestyle fit responder could do that by the way wink 774 01:07:43,560 --> 01:07:49,120 wink but that can help you kind of guide you and help you understand when you do need that 775 01:07:49,120 --> 01:07:55,920 recovery and when it's time to say no it's time to work even though I'm tired I know 776 01:07:55,920 --> 01:08:00,880 a lot of the wearables you know they'll tout things that they claim to do that they just 777 01:08:00,880 --> 01:08:04,520 don't and I've had you know people from the tech industry and people you know neuroscientists 778 01:08:04,520 --> 01:08:09,240 on here that like no for example your watch cannot tell you what phase of sleep you are 779 01:08:09,240 --> 01:08:13,080 in at certain time they can tell you if you didn't move but they can't tell you if you're 780 01:08:13,080 --> 01:08:17,800 in you know deep sleep or whatever that's basically fake news however one of the places 781 01:08:17,800 --> 01:08:23,880 that they're really good at which ties into this conversation is HRV so you know if you 782 01:08:23,880 --> 01:08:29,360 have this completely linear space between your heartbeat that's a sympathetic response 783 01:08:29,360 --> 01:08:35,520 so if you get off a 24 as a firefighter and your HRV is the metric is high or how they 784 01:08:35,520 --> 01:08:41,480 measure it but you you clearly are in a high sympathetic stress state that's not the day 785 01:08:41,480 --> 01:08:47,760 to do Murph but conversely it might be a great day to do a gentle row or go for a swim or 786 01:08:47,760 --> 01:08:53,360 or rock or so still move still exercise but maybe don't do your max lifts do you know 787 01:08:53,360 --> 01:08:58,560 like you said higher higher rep you know lower weight but then when it's the opposite when 788 01:08:58,560 --> 01:09:03,280 you've got this variability now you're in that that rested parasympathetic state now 789 01:09:03,280 --> 01:09:08,280 is a great time for you to do the ones that are really going to test your you know neuromuscular 790 01:09:08,280 --> 01:09:12,800 system and and challenge your body a little bit more so that's one of the things that 791 01:09:12,800 --> 01:09:18,960 I think the HRV element of wearables is really giving responders an insight into how am I 792 01:09:18,960 --> 01:09:24,000 doing of course how you feel as part of it but physiologically if you're still like 793 01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:30,260 dripping with cortisol may not be the best time to do you know your your full marathon 794 01:09:30,260 --> 01:09:32,160 that day trying to break the record. 795 01:09:32,160 --> 01:09:37,400 Yeah yeah a couple things to say there like I think that's interesting how technology 796 01:09:37,400 --> 01:09:42,640 is evolving in that realm and I think we will get way better insights into our biology physiology 797 01:09:42,640 --> 01:09:49,980 and really how to treat ourselves based on that feedback but yeah I mean another thing 798 01:09:49,980 --> 01:09:57,360 to say is that I think that a lot of a lot of us are gonna get pretty reliable biofeedback 799 01:09:57,360 --> 01:10:04,440 from ourselves if we push it too hard so if you do lean lean toward that end of the spectrum 800 01:10:04,440 --> 01:10:08,560 of I'm just gonna push it when I don't feel like it first of all I like that because it's 801 01:10:08,560 --> 01:10:13,640 gonna build a mindset that's great it's gonna build character that I will do hard work even 802 01:10:13,640 --> 01:10:19,360 if I don't feel like doing it I love that aspect of just doing it even when you don't 803 01:10:19,360 --> 01:10:25,720 feel like it but you know through my own experience through working with clients like if you ignore 804 01:10:25,720 --> 01:10:29,800 obvious pain and your body is sending a signal from whatever part of your body like we are 805 01:10:29,800 --> 01:10:36,120 in pain stop like probably listen to that you know but also know that if you are stressed 806 01:10:36,120 --> 01:10:42,560 out that working out is proven to be very therapeutic exercise could actually do great 807 01:10:42,560 --> 01:10:47,940 things for you you know don't see that oh I had a stressful day so the right coping 808 01:10:47,940 --> 01:10:51,600 mechanism is for me to eat a bunch of food and sit in front of the TV that's actually 809 01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:56,840 not a good outlet you know so recognize it actually pushing yourself to get in a workout 810 01:10:56,840 --> 01:11:02,480 when you don't feel like it not only builds that character but is a proven means to improve 811 01:11:02,480 --> 01:11:08,960 your mood and alleviate stress right and recover so yeah a couple points to make there. 812 01:11:08,960 --> 01:11:14,120 Yeah absolutely I think it's just understanding intensity what we know it's not it's not a 813 01:11:14,120 --> 01:11:19,520 lesser workout if your intensity is low you need undulation you need highs and lows so 814 01:11:19,520 --> 01:11:23,680 you know if you're moving like you said you got off shift and you made yourself go for 815 01:11:23,680 --> 01:11:28,200 a bike ride or whatever it is you will absolutely feel better but I can say having come off 816 01:11:28,200 --> 01:11:32,380 shift you know you then go into a CrossFit gym and it's a high intensity workout that 817 01:11:32,380 --> 01:11:38,040 involves snatches and other highly technical elements you're gonna leave more pissed off 818 01:11:38,040 --> 01:11:43,280 than when you went in so understanding that kind of spectrum of intensities I think is 819 01:11:43,280 --> 01:11:48,360 important sitting down doing nothing unless you're absolutely crashing is probably not 820 01:11:48,360 --> 01:11:52,720 the best thing but what can you do where you're moving the blood is pumping you know you're 821 01:11:52,720 --> 01:11:58,720 breathing hard you're getting daylight on your face but you're not crushing your soul. 822 01:11:58,720 --> 01:12:03,440 Yeah and I think it's also giving yourself some grace in that learning that balance takes 823 01:12:03,440 --> 01:12:08,960 time I'm still figuring it out it takes time so like know that there will be times where 824 01:12:08,960 --> 01:12:13,200 you might go yeah I'm gonna get after it I'm gonna do this workout and go man I feel like 825 01:12:13,200 --> 01:12:18,920 crap and I hurt myself I mean it happens there's risk right I mean there's risk involved in 826 01:12:18,920 --> 01:12:23,400 fitness and whatever else but I think if you generally have good intentions especially 827 01:12:23,400 --> 01:12:28,000 if you have a good coach and you lean more toward getting the work done when you don't 828 01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:31,560 feel like it more than the other end of the spectrum you're gonna end up all right you're 829 01:12:31,560 --> 01:12:33,480 gonna end up just fine. 830 01:12:33,480 --> 01:12:36,560 Absolutely well I want to get to the app so I'm mindful of your time but just before we 831 01:12:36,560 --> 01:12:42,560 do I ended up transitioning out and doing this full time which was a real leap of faith 832 01:12:42,560 --> 01:12:47,000 obviously you're giving up the so-called quote unquote stable job you know with benefits 833 01:12:47,000 --> 01:12:52,280 and pensions and stuff but at that crossroads in my life this was actually doing the greater 834 01:12:52,280 --> 01:12:54,720 good so I took that jump. 835 01:12:54,720 --> 01:12:58,860 Talk to me about what made you decide to go all in with Fit Responder and leave your law 836 01:12:58,860 --> 01:13:01,360 enforcement profession. 837 01:13:01,360 --> 01:13:06,800 Yeah I mean I can resonate with what you just said it's like the greater good and I just 838 01:13:06,800 --> 01:13:11,200 saw there was a huge need for it we were obviously good at it. 839 01:13:11,200 --> 01:13:17,760 It was already a stable source of income for me and I had a choice I had to go well do 840 01:13:17,760 --> 01:13:21,840 I want to do it half and half like keep my career and just keep a small number of clients 841 01:13:21,840 --> 01:13:28,560 and keep fit responders small or give up fit responder that was not an option in my mind 842 01:13:28,560 --> 01:13:33,200 and focus on the career or go all in go all in with Fit Responder and quit my career and 843 01:13:33,200 --> 01:13:37,680 I had just promoted I loved my job I had I think I had a good reputation on the department 844 01:13:37,680 --> 01:13:44,520 I worked a lot of different assignments but I think when you're obsessed you know it literally 845 01:13:44,520 --> 01:13:49,240 was a calling for me I knew I had to do it like I just had to do it was scary right because 846 01:13:49,240 --> 01:13:53,920 you do give up the pension and everything you invested in but I just knew I had to do 847 01:13:53,920 --> 01:13:58,580 it and I knew also that 10 years 20 years from now if I didn't do it I would always 848 01:13:58,580 --> 01:14:02,760 wonder what if what if I had just gone all in with fit responder what could I have done 849 01:14:02,760 --> 01:14:09,520 with it you know so I knew I just had to do it was definitely scary but absolutely no 850 01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:15,760 regrets here like as you said like it's just a calling I I've helped way more people as 851 01:14:15,760 --> 01:14:19,960 a fitness coach than I could have ever helped as a cop for sure I've had I have clients 852 01:14:19,960 --> 01:14:25,300 saying all the time Ted I'm no longer on medications I feel great or I got into a foot pursuit 853 01:14:25,300 --> 01:14:30,280 and I was successful or we had a raging fire that I responded to and for the first time 854 01:14:30,280 --> 01:14:38,040 I had no fear of tapping out or you know using all my tank like and and then the ripple effect 855 01:14:38,040 --> 01:14:42,160 of that the citizens are able to help you know them not only themselves but just the 856 01:14:42,160 --> 01:14:47,440 partners and the victims and and patients that they're working with and there's a huge 857 01:14:47,440 --> 01:14:53,040 need for it obviously with first responders so yeah that's that's how I jumped back in 858 01:14:53,040 --> 01:14:56,960 two thousand and twenty one that was when I officially quit my job as a cop and went 859 01:14:56,960 --> 01:15:03,880 all in actually funny story I got hurt at work I snapped my ankle and my ankle swelled 860 01:15:03,880 --> 01:15:08,000 so badly I could no longer work light duty I was still trying to work behind a desk despite 861 01:15:08,000 --> 01:15:12,080 the injury and my doctor said you're gonna need at least two weeks where your foot is 862 01:15:12,080 --> 01:15:16,840 like totally elevated for most of the day we got to get this swelling down and it was 863 01:15:16,840 --> 01:15:20,640 during that time I really focused on fit responder I was like well I'm laying on the couch I'll 864 01:15:20,640 --> 01:15:27,480 coach people talk to more people and that's when I saw I saw real in real time how I was 865 01:15:27,480 --> 01:15:31,840 getting a return on my investment of effort in time and I'm like what if I did this full 866 01:15:31,840 --> 01:15:36,160 time and that was really when I was like I could I could do this so well it's so good 867 01:15:36,160 --> 01:15:40,600 to hear I mean there's people out there that are wondering the same thing you know and 868 01:15:40,600 --> 01:15:44,800 we're we're groomed to say oh you stay 25 years because that's when you get your pension 869 01:15:44,800 --> 01:15:50,480 well a pension you know deadline is not the burning desire in the profession and I adore 870 01:15:50,480 --> 01:15:55,680 the job till the end but I realized that doing this was a false multiplier if you help a 871 01:15:55,680 --> 01:16:00,480 bunch of firefighters and police officers and how many people do they in turn end up 872 01:16:00,480 --> 01:16:05,600 you know helping so it's it's a beautiful beautiful kind of amplification of your experience 873 01:16:05,600 --> 01:16:11,800 plus your new skill set so for people listening where can they find fit responder online apps 874 01:16:11,800 --> 01:16:21,720 etc yeah for sure so easiest thing would probably be fit responder.com fit responder r e s p 875 01:16:21,720 --> 01:16:27,960 o n d e r.com you get a little introduction to our program and you can apply it right 876 01:16:27,960 --> 01:16:34,200 there otherwise a lot of people find me through social media so on instagram it's also at 877 01:16:34,200 --> 01:16:41,760 fit responder and or you can just email me ted at fit responder.com so a few different 878 01:16:41,760 --> 01:16:46,000 avenues right there to check us out and see what we're doing beautiful well ted I want 879 01:16:46,000 --> 01:16:50,000 to thank you I know you've got to go and take care of some some family issues now but it's 880 01:16:50,000 --> 01:16:54,520 been an amazing conversation I truly appreciate you being so generous with your time and coming 881 01:16:54,520 --> 01:17:00,320 on the behind the shield podcast today I feel the same James thank you I hope that this 882 01:17:00,320 --> 01:17:05,440 was impactful to some of your listeners you do an awesome job love your stuff so thanks 883 01:17:05,440 --> 01:17:17,040 for having me on appreciate it.