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Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast. As always, my name is James Gearing and this week it is my absolute honor to welcome on the show strength and conditioning coach Melissa Mercado.
So in this conversation, we discuss a host of topics from her journey into the world of coaching, training Marines, the wounded warrior battalion, recruitment standards, programming, nutrition,
wearables and the innovative programming app team builder. Now, before we get to this incredible conversation, as I say every week, please just take a moment.
Go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback and leave a rating.
Every single five star rating truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making it easier for others to find.
And this is a free library of well over 1000 episodes now. So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so I can get them to every single person on planet Earth who needs to hear them.
So with that being said, I introduce to you Melissa Mercado. Enjoy.
Well, Melissa, I want to start by saying thank you so much for taking the time and coming on the Behind the Shield podcast today.
I am beyond excited to be here. You have no idea. This is my first podcast. So I was freaking out and I'm just so excited for our conversation. So thank you for having me.
Me too. It's going to be brilliant. All right. Well, the very first question, where on planet Earth are we finding you this afternoon?
I am currently in Tampa, Florida. You would think it's really hot here, but it is freezing today. It's like 41 degrees. I don't know what's going on. So that's where I'm currently located.
I'm in Ocala. So I'm just over an hour away from you and that's why I'm wearing a hoodie.
Me too. I haven't even been outside today. I just know it's really cold.
Yeah, that's gorgeous. That's the thing about Florida though. I mean, it's cold, but there's still blue skies and sunshine. So I think back home in England, it would be cold, but it would be gray, it would be drizzling.
And I think that really sucks your soul. But for me, even the winters, and actually, to be honest, the winters in Florida are my favorite part of the year because you can actually wear jeans and a hoodie and not sweat to death.
That's true. That's true. Because whenever I step outside, I'm sweating before I even go on a walk. I'm just already drenched in sweat. So yeah, I would have to agree with that. That's a good point.
All right. Well, let's start at the very beginning of your timeline. So tell me where you were born and tell me a little bit about your family dynamic, what your parents did, how many siblings.
Okay, so I was born in a small city called Fredericksburg, Virginia. So it's about 45 minutes south of DC. So everyone knows what DC is. So I just usually say it's 45 minutes south. It's this cute little downtown.
I grew up in a relatively great household. I was very lucky in the fact that just my mom worked at a bank. She was a wholesale, well, she still is. She's a wholesale representative.
And then my dad was a principal at a local high school. So it was a very stable, loving family. I also have one sibling who is currently overseas. He's deployed and he's in the Marine Corps. So it's just me, my brother, my mom and my dad in a small little town in Virginia.
I was just watching a documentary about a infamous bank robber. I think it was in California. Have I got that right? Anyway, and they interviewed some of the tellers and they'd been robbed numerous times, not just by the same person.
Did your mom ever have any interaction with robberies?
It's so funny you say that. So she told me a story whenever I was young and I was at a little mini land. It was a daycare. So my mom had to send my dad to go pick me up because somebody, the cops were tracking somebody that was trying to get my mom to kidnap her to open the safe at the bank.
So it was a whole crazy thing. So yeah, they were trying to kidnap me. They were trying to get my dad, my mom. So it was thankfully the cops were tracking it. But yes, that definitely happened when I was younger. It was wild.
That's terrifying.
Oh yeah. It was probably terrifying for my parents because I was so young. I don't remember how old I was. I was probably like four, like very young. My brother wasn't even here yet.
I'm curious. I mean, it should be a good question to ask her if they've seen a downward trend as we've relied more and more on debit cards, if the banks just don't even hold as much money as they used to anymore. And if it's even worth robbing over and above just a few hundred bucks.
Right. That's so true. No, that'd be a good question to ask her. I'll definitely ask her after this. Now I'm interested.
All right. Well, we're obviously going to talk about strength and conditioning. When you were young, what were you playing and doing as far as sports and exercise?
Okay. So I'm definitely a strength coach who did not do the typical started soccer when they were young sort of thing. So I danced my whole life. So I was a competitive dancer my whole life. I did ballet, tap, jazz, musical theater, lyrical, any type of dance. I was in it from when I was little all the way up until high school.
But I also did track and field. I was very into running at the time. Well, I still am. I did track and field in high school and in middle school. And in high school, I primarily did the 800 meter, which in my opinion is like the worst race. I don't know why I did the 800 meter run.
But I also did pole vault. So I took my dancing skills over to pole vault and that translated really well.
I'm always curious when I talk to either people that were young athletes and or coaches about the arguably gray area between forging performance through children and being cognizant of their longevity and their health.
You know, and sometimes I think, you know, schools and colleges win awards at the expense of some of their kids with you having arguably a pretty diverse sporting skill set. When you reflect now, were there any kind of detriments from that or did that diversity actually forge longevity and resilience physically?
I think when I think about it, I think it does. It did develop resilience within myself. I feel like having that those different types of dance styles are very diverse, different personalities within the teachers, within the students. You really had to be able to shift yourself multiple times.
So I do think that did develop my resilience as an athlete, but also as like professional for sure throughout my career.
And mentally that that changed because if I think of like, you know, contemporary dance versus tap, very, very different. Did that keep it interesting for you?
Because I feel again, if you're just that single sport athlete and a youth athlete, so many of them you hear that emotionally, you know, mentally they just get completely burnt out on that one sport.
Oh, right. No, I agree. I think if I would have stuck with just ballet, I would have got completely burnt out even just within any sport, just all of the needs required for that one sport to be absolutely perfect at it is going to be very taxing on the body and the mind specifically.
So I think just having the opportunity to be creative in all those different ways allowed me to have like that mental clarity. In other words.
Did you ever do the kind of really unorthodox kind of interpretive dance element?
No, I never did that. No, that is interesting though. But no, I don't think I could.
I went to drama school for a year. And I remember hip hop class was kind of fun, but we had to do that.
And it was my friends that got the top wards and they were just basically taking the piss. And the person was like, Oh my God, that was inspired. So I'll never forget that.
Because I felt like such a knob trying to be this kind of open minded interpretive dancer and, you know, I had nothing to lean into whatsoever.
So that was probably one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in the dance world.
Oh, that's amazing. I honestly can't even picture you doing that.
I wish I had it on video. Well, in our hip hop class, we would have to make like very serious faces.
And I am definitely not somebody that can keep a serious face like that and just look mad when I'm going through the motions.
And so that was definitely a difficult, difficult realm for me. The hip hop was. Yeah. Yeah. I love the movement of hip hop.
I think contemporary dance is my favorite though. And in that show, I think it's so you think you can dance.
It was always those, especially the couple ones that were the most powerful.
I want to hear something really funny. So actually for Christmas, I got a pair of tap shoes because I really want to start tap dancing again, like once a week at a local studio.
Because I danced my whole life and I was like, oh, might as well just try it. So brilliant.
Yeah, I just started playing football again, soccer. So I'm actually playing tonight. And same thing. I played.
I wasn't like competitive when I was younger. I got into the martial arts, but it's just so much fun.
It's just, you know, the one one game I play is with guys are from Latin America, from the Middle East, just a super diverse group.
And it's just a bunch of lads that just want to play for fun. There's no, you know, expectations of winning anything.
It's just getting together. And it's nice tapping into that doing a sport simply just for the enjoyment of it. For sure.
And I think as an adult, that's also the joy in it. You have no judgment. I mean, I'm still competitive.
Don't get me wrong. But you just literally get to do whatever you want and you don't have to focus on all those other aspects you may have to as a younger athlete.
Absolutely. Well, what about career aspirations when you're going through the school ages? What were you dreaming of becoming?
So when I was growing up, I always dreamed of becoming a performance dietitian.
So I always had this idea in my mind that I wanted to be a dietitian for some big sports team and just be successful with dietetics because growing up, my mom,
just they ate very well. They very they cared about their nutrition a lot and taught me a lot about nutrition growing up.
And my dad was very involved in sports and coaching and so forth.
So I was very involved in just athletics overall and seeing athletics. And I love the nutrition side of things.
Like I was probably the only person, which I don't know why I did this in high school that would meal prep their lunches, like actually meal prep their lunches.
So that's kind of that was at first my dream.
So how did that then transition into the world of strength and conditioning?
So interesting. Interestingly enough, I would always go to the weight room with my dad when we had any vacations growing up.
He would always lift a lot of weight. So I'd run in there, grab a smaller dumbbell and try and do the same thing he was doing.
So I always had this idea of just loving the gym and loving what weights could do for somebody.
And even in high school, I remember we had a track and field strength and conditioning class and I was only female that could squat.
I think it was ninety five. It might have been less. I don't know. But it was a lot. It was the most weight. It was a lot.
So that really fired me up. And I feel like those little events kind of started the fire for strength and conditioning, though I didn't know that was a thing.
And then when I went to Radford University for undergrad, I went there to major in dietetics and I actually did not get into the dietetics program.
And I would have had to wait another year to restart it. And I was a little impatient. So I was like, what other options are there?
So our professor told me or the adviser, she told me that there was a career called strength and conditioning or a major in strength and conditioning.
And I was like, oh, yeah, a major in lifting weights. That's right up my alley.
So I honestly didn't know much of what it entailed. Just I knew that I'd be in a gym.
And then I then found out it is way more than that. There it is beyond the weights, in other words.
So that's kind of what led me to strength and conditioning. It was just a career, a major change. And I went with it.
What was your experience when you got to the academic portion of strength and conditioning specifically?
The reason I asked this, and this is the UK and the US, I did sports science in London for a two year degree.
And then I finished my degree only a few years ago in UF here in Florida.
And the takeaway for me, aside from one class at UF, which is basically preparing you for the NSCA, CSCS.
So that was a very pertinent class. But to me, what it seemed like is it was a very myopic look.
So it didn't give me a set of tools to then go out and start coaching.
It was almost like you were then being prepared to be to study a myopic thing in a lab still.
So almost like to keep you in that college setting. What was your experience of your strength and conditioning academic route?
I would say the same exact thing, to be honest.
I felt like it was very much so focused on like the exercise physiology side of things and more focused towards labs and research and less of the application and less of what it's like to even be a coach.
I'll be honest, I feel like I got more of my education out of my practical experiences than I did from undergrad, because I mean, a lot of those X's and O's of undergrad, I am going to use.
But a lot of it is based for research or based for a different career field and not necessarily to become a strength and conditioning coach.
Yeah. I mean, when I look back at what I used to coach now, I did CrossFit since 2006.
So an athlete and ultimately a coach and then studied some strong first stuff and some strong fit stuff and foundation training.
And it was all that cumulatively that really factored into the coaching.
And it's sad. But I mean, if I'm being blatantly honest, the only real benefit I get from having a degree is when people are like, well, who the hell is this James Gearing guy?
Oh, he's gotten a degree in ex-Fizz. Okay.
But really, that doesn't reflect the experience. Experience comes from trial and error and injuries and seeing what works in my sport, seeing what doesn't.
That long kind of, and I've just always been a weekend warrior. I haven't been a full time coach either, but it would be interesting to see that.
And maybe it's starting to now, but that morph into actually giving a young potential coach the tools, like you said, even the interpersonal tools to actually understand programming, understand how to program for individuals and size and time of the month.
If it's a female, all these different nuances that you need to actually learn as a good coach.
Right. And I think it is up and coming.
I am starting to see more programs, like even just have a second degree, just anything that they can do to better their skills for practical application.
So I am starting to see that turn. I think the growth is coming for sure. But when I went through, definitely not a lot of it.
A lot of being told I actually one of my internship experiences, which really I feel like just grew myself as a coach.
I don't know why, but I was told I really needed to speak up or I would have to leave because I just, I didn't know what to do.
I wasn't prepared. I wasn't prepared in undergrad to go coach. I didn't know I'd have to like truly step out there and like project my voice.
In other words, I didn't know that. So yeah, it was definitely a lot of learning experiences.
When you reflect back now with this mature coach lens that you have, we've seen the world of strength and conditioning really evolve over, I mean, literally 30 years, if that,
especially with CrossFit, with the Spartan and Tough Mudders and all these things that have changed the way that we look at exercise and functionality.
What were some of the elements that they were doing really well early on and were there any mistakes, any things that if you did it today, you definitely wouldn't do that way anymore?
I think again, when it comes to the practical side of things, I think they did, my undergrad did very well with having that in-person practical application to be able to coach each other a little bit.
I mean, we had it sprinkled in here and there for one or two classes, but I think we did spend a lot of time diving too deep into performance nutrition in a bit.
I felt like it was made more so for someone becoming a dietitian rather than like covering the basics, going a little bit deeper than that, but not into like calculations and things I'm probably not going to be doing as a strength and conditioning coach.
I think those are two primary things off the top of my head that I can remember. It feels like forever ago, but it really wasn't.
What about the actual programming? So you're out there working in the gyms now with some of these early coaches, again, not blaming an individual because we have evolved so much in the strength and conditioning world and the way we think and even the movements and the utensils that we use now.
But what was the good and what was the bad when you reflect on those early years in the gym room?
Got it. So I would say the bad was I felt like we were taught to have to program a specific way for that specific sport. They need those specific needs.
It's basically like I said, those X's and O's. This is what they need and we weren't allowed to really give variety or explore things a little bit deeper.
And I feel like now strength and conditioning can be whatever you want and there's no right or wrong way. It's really whatever the coach has in store that makes those athletes or those soldiers become successful in the end.
So I think going from we need to be doing this. It has to be in this order to being more creative within our programming and our training.
Speaking of the military, how did you find yourself working with the martial arts program of the Marines?
Yes. So I did three collegiate internships. I wanted to go to the collegiate route.
I had a G.A. position in line and I found out there was a position near my house, meaning I could stay at home, save money.
I was just out of undergrad and I took that position as a fitness specialist at Marine Corps Base Quantico.
So that was really my first step. I honestly all I knew about the position was I'd be working with Marines.
And at that time I was like, that is the coolest thing. Like they have I didn't even know they had strength coaches.
That's one thing I never knew that in undergrad that there were tactical strength and conditioning coaches, which is crazy because I mean someone has to train them.
So that's kind of how I got in, got into the tactical space in my time at the martial arts center of excellence and with the FFI program.
I actually was there for some of my internship whenever I was getting my master's degree.
So I would work half of the day at my actual job at Marine Corps Base Quantico as a fitness specialist.
And the second half of the day I felt like was really when I got to dive deep into the Marine Corps and all it has in store with human performance and go work alongside the FFI program.
So what was the FFI program?
So that was the fourth fitness instructor program. So basically what it is, it is obviously ever growing.
So it's a lot grown now from when I was there. But basically they're creating a curriculum that provides a holistic approach to human performance, specifically within the Marine Corps to prepare these fourth fitness instructors to be able to go out to the fleet and serve as that subject matter expert for their Marines.
So basically they're leading PT programs, just giving guidance on any topic related to human performance.
So what were some of the principles that they were trying to infuse? Because we get kind of lost in the intricacies of programming and that kind of thing. But overall to prepare a young man or woman to be an elite Marine, what were some of the principles that they were trying to put as far as nutrition and the physical training side that maybe evolved from the old, let's do a thousand pushups and pull ups of yesteryear?
I think trying to get them away from just simply running. We've got to do more than running to prepare our bodies, but primarily focusing on our warm up and our recovery.
I mean, that was probably when I was there, our main focus is to teach them how to properly warm up and create a dynamic warm up that will not take up a lot of time, but will be effective, but also diving into recovery needs as well.
So whether that is our sleep that dives into recovery, our water intake, what meal we're having afterwards, if that is our MRE, and even the mobility and other movements as well for that recovery.
So those were probably the main hitters for that, but also diving into our nutrition needs and how we can best fuel our bodies throughout the day, whether we're in the field or whether it's just a day to day on and off duty situation.
What were they teaching about sleep? Bear in mind that my population at the moment is working crazy hours and then we're understaffed, so they're working even more crazy hours.
Sleep is the herd of elephants in the room, as I say. It's just people turn their head away from the fact that we just don't get any, and then we wonder why our men and women are falling apart physically and mentally.
So how were they putting that to these young Marines as far as the importance of it?
That was definitely a while ago, I will say, but if I relate it back to my most recent experience with brain core in our curriculum with teaching sleep habits, we not only were teaching different habits to better our sleep quality, but we got to be realistic.
Sometimes we really can't get in the sleep that we need, but it is about having that quality sleep. So giving them those tips and even diving into the different factors that will negatively affect our sleep. So it's going to stem from somewhere.
Sleep just isn't terrible. It's going to stem from some type of daily habit, lifestyle habit. So really looking at those before we dive into that sleep was very effective for our Marines.
So talk to me then about the Wounded Warrior Battalion and what you did with them.
Yes, so the Wounded Warrior Battalion, that was probably, it was a short experience. It was 11 months, but that was one of the most beneficial experiences I've had because that battalion is unlike any other.
We have Marines and Sailors that are combat and non combat wounded. We have different types of illnesses, diseases, you name it, everybody's there to recover and better themselves to either go back to duty or sadly have to go back home just due to any other injury or something it may be.
When I was there, I worked primarily with Marines and Sailors who are just trying to better their experience before they go back to duty. So we did that through different programs, whether it is road cycling, whether it is specifically strength and conditioning, whether it's swimming or archery, shooting, all of these programs were developed just to better their recovery process.
So when I was there, I primarily was with the cycling program. So I would go out, I don't know how my legs did it, but I would go out and do road biking with the Marines and Sailors as well as do strength and conditioning programs in addition.
What about the mental health side of that? Because I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people that felt that they were taken from their tribe, maybe their identity is being threatened, maybe they already realized that they're not going to be able to go back to their core.
So we've got the physical kind of rehabilitation journey. What about the mental side?
So depending on the severity of that, they could be going somewhere else for further help and assistance. But when it comes to the Marines and Sailors, I was working with that I knew were also struggling with whatever it may be.
I think the power of just conversations were very helpful for them, just reinsuring them that they are where they need to be. This is just part of the process. They are going to be back to full duty, or they do have a great future in line for after they're off duty, whatever it may be.
I think just having powerful conversations with them to remind them of their why was very beneficial when it came to the mental health side of things. Granted, the severity is going to be different for everybody. But with the ones I was chatting with, that is basically how I would attack it.
Just simply have a conversation and just show them they're wanted.
Absolutely. Well, can I go on the other side of the coin? The Army PFT, I think I've got that right, I know changed a couple years ago, I think it was, and they put in a lot more kind of functional movements. Has the Marine Corps adopted that or a version of that?
No, so the Marine Corps still has the same exact standards for their physical fitness tests as well as their combat fitness test. So the needs of the physical fitness test and the combat fitness test for the Marine Corps does translate very well to their day to day.
I think the Army did do a really good job of really creating a dynamic physical fitness test, and I'm sure that is in the future of the Marine Corps. I'm just not positive on that one.
So what were they seeing as far as the ability of these young recruits? We in the first respondent profession are at a recruitment crisis at the moment.
It's far less about the ability of our young people, even though that pool is undoubtedly shrinking, and more about the fact that we haven't changed the horrendous working conditions. And until we fix our profession, young people just aren't going to be excited to be firefighters and cops. It's that simple.
But I do know, I mean, obviously, we just look at the increasing ascending line that is our obesity crisis, and then you look at the inactivity that you don't have to be a mathematician to figure out that the number of people that are even able to pass military standards is getting less and less and less.
So what were you seeing as far as the ability of these recruits? And then what's the discussion of trying to turn that around so that we can get more young people fit again?
So a big thing I saw is whenever I was working with a body composition program, so Marines and Sailors that were put on a body composition program because they were out of line, they simply just didn't know what they didn't know.
They didn't know they needed this much protein. They had no idea they needed this much water. So I think just the power of simply educating them was all that they really needed.
And that really shifted those gears, not saying that will do it for everybody. But I think just educating them from the start will be very beneficial long term so that they won't end up on any program such as body composition program because they have the tools in the toolbox to be successful over time.
So simply they just don't know what they don't know.
Have the Marine Corps seen a kind of decline though in the number of recruits and or the physical ability of them?
I would say that yes, I feel that the Marine Corps is seeing a higher level of obesity and those rates are going up, which is causing a little bit of that decline in recruits. I don't think that's the primary reason for it, but it definitely is part of that pot for sure.
And then what about the functional strength and conditioning principles again? In the fire service, I did CrossFit for a long time since 2006. And then we've actually transitioned to a thing called Wolf Brigade, which is their program is an offshoot of CrossFit, but it's more Mesa's, single arm, kettlebells.
And then I've always done the strong man, the strong fit programming as well, which is sandbags and sleds. And I found that extremely functional as a firefighter specifically or a police officer.
What has been the metamorphosis and what are the principles now as far as the tools that you're using to train these young Marines or sustain these older Marines?
Right. So I think it, depending on where these Marines are and what they have available is going to be key, but a lot of times they're not going to have that amazing human performance facility.
So when it comes to their needs, it's going to be using their pack. It's going to be using their ammo cans, their water jugs. It's going to be using anything they have to be able to create those functional type movements and build those basics to better their physical fitness.
Did you ever use BeaverFit equipment?
Yes, I have.
Because that's another thing that I mean, there are some legitimate reasons why some fire stations don't have gyms and it's just space and the age of the building and those kinds of things.
And I would love to see BeaverFit be the go-to brand for strength and conditioning because as many people have told me on here, there's BeaverFit equipment sitting on battleships.
BeaverFit dropped into Afghanistan and Iraq and they're working out in the deserts. If you go to Miami Beach, there's two of them, in the beach and the sand and the ocean there.
So I think that really solves the issue with not being able to leave gear outside versus the beautiful Sore-Nex gear, for example, that's built primarily for the college gyms.
Right. And I think especially within the Marine Corps, even in all the other forces, those types of Connex boxes that are small, don't take up a lot of space, have all of that equipment stored in them are going to be absolute key for all of these units going forward, without a doubt.
I'm a big fan of those and they have an amazing company. I love them.
Absolutely. All right. Well, let's go to the transition to Team Builder then. What made you kind of step away from the gym room and go into the programming app space instead?
Oh man, big step, let's say. It was a big leap of faith, I will say. I was on the floor, strength and conditioning for six years. That's all I knew.
We moved to Tampa, Florida, because my husband is in the Marine Corps, so he got stationed here in Tampa. And I didn't know what to do. I didn't have a job. I couldn't find one. I actually worked the front desk at a small private facility here in Tampa for a couple months.
And then one day I got a call and was like, hey, I know a position and I think you would do absolutely great at it. And I was like, all right, I'm just going to go all in and give all my trust and see what I can accomplish.
I've been in this position for roughly five months, so still pretty new to it. But I would say the transition has been nothing, nothing greater. It's been awesome. Just still being able to make an impact, not only on the Marine Corps, but being able to make an impact on the Army, the Air Force, even the fire department and law enforcement, government agencies.
It's a gigantic learning experience. I will say, going from strictly Marine Corps, that's all I really know. I know a little bit about what each of these different branches are doing. I did not know anything about fire and law enforcement at first. And now I'm just having constant conversations, learning more. It's been a ride. It's been awesome, though, I will say. It was hard, but it's been awesome.
So prior to us talking about what Team Builder is bringing to the table, what were some of the challenges or frustrations that you had with apps, the ability to disseminate programming up to that point?
Time. I did not have time to be going into Excel and having to create these programs for every individual Marine or Sailor I was working with. And transitioning to something that has everything in one space is just a time saver. And I mean, that's what coaches need. They need something quick. They don't have time to sit and program in Excel for hours and hours to give all these programs to all of these
soldiers or whoever it may be. So it is absolutely a time saver off the top of my head.
So talk to me about the creation of Team Builder then and then let's get into all the different facets that they offer.
Yeah, absolutely. So funny story are two CEOs. They actually played football together in college and they came up with this idea of Team Builder and being able to provide strength and conditioning coaches with a way to program, do reporting, monitor their athletes like a one stop shop.
So basically what Team Builder is doing is we're not only providing programming for strength and conditioning coaches to be able to give to their athletes, but we're also providing different reporting features, questionnaires, different ways to monitor our athletes progress, whether it's physical progress, mental progress, having a more, I like to say, a behind the curtain approach and seeing what's actually going on with our athletes.
See, we talked obviously before and I am incurably optimistic that we're at the beginning of a health revolution in the fire service. It's starting very small here in Florida with some very progressive courageous departments and I'm hoping that's going to have a ripple effect across the country.
And I think a real, you know, stark red flag of how far from where we need to be we are is if I have conversations with coaches that work with fire departments and nutritionists that work with fire departments, they're not having elite performance conversations.
They're having let's try and stop them dying conversations, which is not human performance. It's hanging on by your fingernails.
So to be able to do a baseline analysis of all your firefighters, all your cops, all your paramedics, all your dispatchers, and then be able to infuse programming and then be able to track that person.
So rather than just some annual doctor's visit, you actually get to see and when there's some red flags rearing their head, you can maybe get ahead of a shoulder injury or you know, you know, cardio respiratory issue, whatever the thing is.
So I see this as the next step getting our tactical athletes actually as tactical athletes rather than which I've witnessed with my own eyes, paying a strength conditioning company to come in walk you around the fire station three times and then make you a bowl of oatmeal.
True story. So I think this is a this is a phenomenal platform, especially when you do have progressive departments that actually have higher strength and conditioning coaches.
The or a network of departments that are using one central one, the ability then to disseminate individualized programming to all these people with the wearables and the tracking.
So just as a kind of preamble there, this is where I see there's so much value to team builder. So let's start at the very beginning.
What if you have a department and they want to do a baseline analysis on their people, what are the tools that you have for that that we can then carry on tracking over the years? Right.
So whenever they have team builder, they have the ability to build assessments. And when it comes to building the assessments or really any of our reporting, it's going to be very customizable.
So whatever that department needs or wants to look at, whether that is body weight, whether it is. Yeah. So body weight standards or if they have any specific testing measures, they can use that assessment as that first step.
They can also look back at that when they complete that assessment again and again, and then they can also view it as a whole and see those results over time and be able to target those specific firefighters that may need more work in that one specific area and so forth.
So that would be that first step is doing those assessments or another option we have is we also have customizable questionnaires. So being able to gather that subjective data, whether that is a readiness questionnaire.
So maybe some questions that are from the dietitian, if there is a dietitian involved or if there's a cognitive specialist involved or any other leadership that may want to add some sort of question in there for their needs, you can add whatever you want.
That's the best part about it. I can ask my firefighters or service members whatever I want and gather that data and then reevaluate over time.
So talk to me about the interaction with wearables.
Yes, so our platform we integrate with multiple wearables. So whether that is the O-ring, whoop bands or Garmin watches or even Apple watches, we're able to use our wearable dashboard and integrate with those depend on what you have, and we can track that load monitoring and the data over time.
Because in many conversations on here, the sleep data, if people really dive in is extremely unreliable, it's almost fictional.
But the HRV and some of those ones are extremely powerful and I think especially you've got a firefighter that had just got murdered in a 24 hour shift, you know, the HRV is a good indication that maybe that's not the morning to do Murph in your gear, you know, okay.
My HRV is zero, so you know, I need to just go and chill and go for a walk, walk the dog, you know, go for a swim, whatever it is, but not hit some red line workout.
So as that kind of ongoing flow, if you're able to tap in even shift by shift, it can give you a kind of indication of the intensity. You can still do the same programming, but do it at 50% rather than 100%.
Right, and we're able to see if they're well rested, are they not well rested at all, are they very high level of fatigue, is their exertion level extremely elevated, we can track those factors over time through our wearable devices and create a dashboard that we can just quickly
print down and give to leadership or whoever may need that.
So you mentioned dieticians, so talk to me about the nutritional element, how is that kind of infused?
Yeah, so when it comes to nutrition, we do not have anything specific like my fitness pal or a macro tracker within here, but we do have an area within our programming to where you can add a link to go directly to that application if that's something that dietician wants.
But another way we can use our application for the nutrition side of things can be through the questionnaire. So asking how much water did you have today? Did you eat a meal prior to training? What meal did you eat prior to training?
Anything and everything the dietician can ask. We can even insert educational documents on any type of nutrition strategies or even if we want to insert a video for our firefighters or our service members to go watch prior to training, maybe during a recovery session, we can do that as well through our programming.
Beautiful. Yeah, my wife uses, I think it's my fitness tracker for her daily intake and you know, it's pretty impressive. She says, I've had too much sugar today or got to drink more water. It's pretty good.
I use that as well.
Well then now the shifts to your, whoever it is programming for your fire department. Talk to me about the kind of the usability factor of the coach programming or in-paying programming for the people in the uniform that they serve.
Yep. So when it comes to, we're going to start from the beginning. When it comes to a fire department getting our service, they can, first thing they can do is they can add as many coaches, as many individuals as they want. So there's an unlimited amount of coaches for our applications.
Whether you want leadership, anyone higher up to be able to view certain reporting features or any type of data, they can do that. We can add them to that. The next thing that is super easy for them to do, depending on what plan you have, is we have a giant exercise library that we have already created.
So that is an option. It kind of gives them, it takes that away from them because that is a time, it does take time to be able to develop a full exercise library. So the ability to have that already and then being able to adjust that as they need and even insert their own videos or own exercises, they can do that as well.
So really when it comes to building that program out, we have different categories that make it very easy for programming. They're all color coded, whether it is a speed, agility and quickness movement, whether it is an actual resistance training lift, your warm up, cool down, questionnaire, your notes section, any additional videos, all of that is easily labeled and you're able to then add it to that program.
So it's very color coordinated, easy for our coaches to do in the fire department to be able to create and give out that program. Another awesome feature within that is going to be that if we want to make individual adjustments to maybe one firefighter's program because they might have lower back issues, I can go in there, the coach, and I can adjust and add some movement prep just to his program and it won't affect anybody else's program.
So that is one of the awesome features as well. We can divide up the programs into groups, we can assign them to different groups based on whatever category that may be. There is a variety of ways within Team Builder that we can customize this and make it easy for the coaches to be able to give the programs to their firefighters.
Now back to the firefighter, they're following the programming, are they having the ability to input how they did their, you know, their one, not that you should ever do a one rep max in my opinion, I'm a big fan of three rep maxes now, but you know, so that you're able to start incrementally loading and create that, that, you know, that strength journey that that programming for yourself.
Absolutely. So whenever the firefighters have their application, they'll be able to input whether it's the weight, whether it's the percentage, maybe they went a little higher than they were supposed to or whatever it may be, they can enter in and change anything within there.
They can add notes to the application that specific exercise, they can even keep that notes that journal as a way for them to keep track of different notes they took during that exercise over time.
Another really cool feature that I think is awesome is that there's an opt out feature. So let's say that firefighter doesn't have this equipment available, they can opt out and say they don't have equipment available and then they can choose from a list to what is also just like that
exercise with targeting the same movement patterns, and then do that as well. Or if they have injury, they can say, Hey, my lower back is killing me today, I'm going to opt out. And the best part about it is all of those notes and those opt out options are going to compile into
a report so that the coach can see, Hey, this firefighter has opted out of the back squat week after week, let me see why, and then they'll be able to see their notes. So that's, that's an awesome feature.
I don't know this would just be the same feature, but you've got a firefighter they had knee surgery, for example, they've got physical therapy prescription, can that be infused into the app?
Absolutely. So let's say they have their let's say, Hey, we're going to make up a case study right now together. So let's say they're working with the physical therapist beginning of the day, but then they also have not that I recommend this, a strength and conditioning
program later in the day, we're just going to make that up, we can separate those sessions with a session break and enter in all of those physical therapy movements at the beginning of the day, we can just insert those easily like we would any other exercise, and then they'll know the
session is split and they have something later in the day. So yeah, you can collaborate with many practitioners to really develop a comprehensive program in one place.
I did that, by the way, I did physical therapy in the morning. Yeah, when I was my knees and my back injury, you got to get it done movement is medicine. Okay, you got me there. You got me there.
The real world thing is that a lot of guys that go guys and girls that go to physical therapy, certainly here in Ocala.
When you go to the physical therapy place you're surrounded by 78 year olds that just had hip surgery. So a lot of times they're underselling what you need to be able to do. So when you realize that the very first call as a firefighter might be a 20 story client with 100 pounds of gear on your back.
You have to hit a bar on day one that most people don't even think about, you know, the desk jobs, they don't have to do that. So, you know, you have your PT but arguably you need to be rebuilding all the other areas and you start with a PVC pipe, you know, and then you work your way up.
But for me, I was offered workman's comp, you know, the light duty, where you go in, you just shuffle papers and sit around. And I looked at it completely opposite like no I have a full time job of getting myself rehab. So I do my chiropractic I do my physical therapy, and then I'm incrementally loading in the gym as well.
So that was kind of my ethos. That's so interesting how the environment of for the physical therapy center for instance could play a part into maybe the non 7080 year olds with a hip replacement like that's, that's crazy that it can kind of translate like that to you.
Yeah, yeah, if you think about just compare the first responder profession where you really at the mercy of wherever is available to you in your town, versus I think it's the Thor three program that the the army has things specifically special forces.
I mean night and day they're they're working their men and women up to be able to go back in as a green beret. And that's really how we should be looking at it in the first responder profession but as I mentioned before, we're so far from the human performance element most of us
you have, you have incredible athletes within the fire department, but more often than not, it's not, it's not because of the environment is despite the environment.
Right, no, absolutely.
All right, so we've got that now. Let's talk about tracking over time. So, you know, you've got these wearables you've got this baseline when you first hired them. What's the ability of seeing trends, whether it's strength conditioning body composition, you know, the other things that you can track.
So when it comes to tracking we're going to have multiple types of reporting so again whether I want to go ahead and track that one questionnaire question so if I want to just simply just track how much water, those firefighters are having as a whole or maybe one individually,
I can go into our reporting feature and click that questionnaire report and track that one question over time. And I could also go in and track an entire questionnaire over time.
So let's say going back to those maxes if I want to go in and track those trends over time I can do that as well through our max or one rep max reporting as well, or if I want to track the assessments we can do that.
We have a wide variety of reporting I can go on a list right now for you, but a big thing, a big reporting feature that we have is going to be that completion report, or are they truly getting through all of their training sessions, that's going to be a big one.
Yeah, well while we're talking another thing that hit me when, when we do fix what's broken in the fire service and the work week is a huge one. I don't know if your area has a 42 hour work week in the fire service but most of the country is 56 and then 80 hours when we get forced to stay another
week. So when it does turn around. The next step really one of the big steps is to put a, an actual fitness standard because people don't realize that almost zero fire departments in the country have a punitive fitness standard like you have to maintain this or you go to light
duty, or fire prevention, until you can get yourself back or if you choose not to.
The, there will be an on ramp process of course you're not going to announce it and say if you don't pass tomorrow then you're fired you're going to have, you know, a one year 18 month whatever it is on ramp.
So, in that example again you'd have the ability to kind of reverse engineer programming to prepare people for an event that would be ultimately an annual fitness test.
Okay, so if I have a group of firefighters and I have a few that are on the edge of being on those programs, I can assign them specifically to a more so reconditioning program and insert that assessment in there to be able to reassess and see if they're ready
to go, or if I want to make anything specific to them when it comes to questionnaires I can do that as well. So we can separate our groups and easily be able to monitor those different groups of firefighters.
So we talked about the physical element we talked about the nutritional element. Before we hit record you mentioned spiritual and cognitive so talk to me about the other kind of veins of this.
Yes. So, when I think of this I always, I always, I have to bring this up but whenever I think of all of these different parts of performance I almost always go to the rope analogy, because if one strand is hanging it's not going to be as strong for us to be
resilient. So I think having an application where we can keep those strands, I'm not going to say they're going to be perfect they're not keep them as tight as we can. That's what we're going to do.
When it comes to the spiritual element, depending on whatever the branch is or the services whether it is the fire department or so forth, if they have a chaplain I think being able to collaborate with them to develop any type of spirituality
or any kind of spiritual desires, but when I say spirituality, especially with my experience in the Marine Corps, the first thing we go to is we go to religion. So, it's going to be separating those and really diving into what is my purpose.
Why am I doing what I'm doing, kind of thing, what are my core values so diving into those and we can really incorporate different discussion questions within team builder through the programming to be able to just start the conversation, really,
that's all we can do when it comes to spiritual is start the conversation, get it going, honestly, use it as a self reflection. So when it comes to that spiritual domain I'm thinking of inserting questionnaires that are self reflections.
All right, I'm having a bad week. This questionnaire is really reminding me of my why this is this is my why this is spiritual fitness, this is a spiritual domain.
That's an important point because a lot of us enter this profession with this burning desire to serve, but if you listen to a lot of firehouse conversations 1015 years in it shifts to drop, you know, which is part of the retirement it's just a retirement
that's to, you know, health care benefits and all these things and it kind of gets away from that purpose and so then you know let's say you're not getting well supported by your department that becomes a lot of almost animosity.
So, being able to tap into well why did I put the uniform on in the first place, and either that that fires you up again or maybe it even sows a seed of what maybe I should go and do something else now.
Maybe I have come to the end of my organic road in this uniform. And this is what's so interesting is if you meet a Marine that serve for eight years you'd be like oh wow thank you for your service.
You meet a firefighter or a police officer that serve for eight years you'd be like why'd you quit. What's wrong with you.
It's a completely different mentality but to me that number of how many years we should stay is dictated by a pension company, not by that burning desire so I think that that's a really important point is tapping into your why and if you're still, you know, extremely
proud and fired up to serve then you keep serving. But if you've always thought about doing that board shaping company or that personal training company, maybe just maybe this is your, your sign to be like you know what my time at home is more important than my pension
I think I'm going to turn the corner. And that is a beautiful thing too because you paid your dues and then it frees up an opportunity for another young person to come in and and you know fulfill their, their dream.
So I think that's that's amazing. Yeah, really just kind of be able to tap in remind yourself of your true why. And if you're far from it and you realize this from external circumstances like the work week, then maybe you get fired up and you start fighting for your time, you know to recover,
like you said in the Marine Corps that was a big focus. Right. It's completely disregarded in the fire service so if you still love doing the job then fight for the environment that allows you to thrive.
Right and having being able to insert those type of questions, even if they just in my head even if I'm like, I don't need to know that I don't care about my purpose type thing. I mean just seeing it it's going to get it's going to be in their head they're going to think about it at some point and just being able to do that is all I need.
So, absolutely. Well you mentioned cognitive as well as a different vein.
So when it comes to cognitive performance so that's going to be another domain that is upcoming within and not just the military but just overall within all of the services.
So, with cognitive a lot of times we can collaborate with the content specialist if that is available I know that's not available everywhere that's for sure.
But inserting different cognitive testing to into directly into team builder by doing that separation within the programming, or even having after action reports inserted after cognitive training to really dial in back on the performance.
And again going back to those questionnaires asking any type of cognitive related questions that would be more so with a cognitive health specialist but just showing that we can collaborate not just with strength and conditioning coaches but with all other practitioners to truly get that
behind the scenes approach.
So there's an ability to an assess a cognitive level. So for example, you'd be able to see after 48 hours without sleep, you know, I mean because I mean this it's common sense, obviously we need to have rest and recovery but the.
Really I guess the most value would be tracking before a department makes the shift which Gainesville has done, and then tracking after but seeing just how far from culturally us to be cognitively perfect.
So we need to be able to show that there's a difference between after 24 or 48 hours without sleep because a lot of departments are moving to a 48 hour to two day without sleep, which is pure insanity but to be able to show the decline in cognitive ability I think
would be a powerful data that maybe would turn that around and be like all right time out. Maybe we need to give them 24 72 more time off in between because this is borderline insanity and people are going to get hurt or killed.
And so I think that's a good way to make an assessment, even something very small prior to that long shift, and not saying they have not saying they have the time to complete it after but if let's say they completed that same exact thing after or even the next morning, how are
they going to perform, I think that right there will give you the answer to why that 48 hour work week is insane.
All right, well there any more kind of veins that you want to talk about before we address the different kind of programs that you offer.
I think that's it I think just showcasing that team builder is more than just the physical side of things yes we can do programming we can make your coaches lives easier by just being able to copy and paste that training week, week after week, but being able to insert more
into nutritional focus domains and spiritual well being and cognitive health, as well as more sleep and sports medicine like we can do all of it in one place and I think that is just the power that team builder has.
Absolutely, I like the way that rather than an individualize everyone you can do a kind of blanket programming and then start tweaking it, you know you've got this person who's an uber athlete or this person who, you know is coming back like you said after a back injury
or whatever it is and that way you can then go in and tweak those rather than, you know, have to program 100 different workouts from the beginning.
Yeah, I can't even imagine as a coach so anything to make the coaches life easier we will do.
All right, so people listening you know they're all all different uniform professions some might be a fire department with a single station and maybe 10 people working there. Others might be FDM why so what are the different kind of programs and packages that you offer.
So all the different things we offer, we offer plans based off of an athlete count, but when it comes to the athlete count. We can move that around a little bit based on the department's needs, so I would just say overall when it comes to trying to figure out
which plan is best for your department. It's going to just be based off of your needs. We are very customizable when it comes to our approach with our customers.
So we will do what it takes to meet your needs. So usually our higher programs are going to consist of 1000 plus athletes, and our lowest plans are going to consist of 500 and less athletes.
So it all depends on that athlete count but throughout all of our plans we do have those unlimited coaches. So whether that's other leadership like I said previously practitioners, we can add as many as we want to those, and then when it comes to which plan you have they're going to have different features
so again, the higher we get in the plans, the more the more reporting, the more features we're going to have within those plans.
And for people listening where's the best place to go online to learn more about team builder.
The best place to go is going to be teambuilder.com and you can see you can see our pricing and see everything specifically listed out. You can do a demo with us, you can do a demo with me, whatever you want we have everything there listed for you.
And spell team builder for me just so they don't find themselves at the wrong site.
Oh, you're going to test me what if I spell it wrong, just kidding.
It's going to be team builder so T-E-A-M-B-U-I-L-D-R so there is no E in builder. It is that R. I'm so proud of myself for spelling that right James. I did not know I would on the spot.
I just want to make sure that they didn't do the E because you know how the internet is one letter wrong and you might find yourself with some very bizarre dark website so.
Right. No, I totally get it.
All right, well I want to go to some closing questions quickly if you've got time.
Yeah, of course.
So the first one I love to ask, is there a book or other books that you'd love to recommend it can be related to our discussion today or completely unrelated.
Yes, so this is my favorite book of all time. So it's called the energy bus.
And it is not, I mean, okay, I could say it can be related to strength and conditioning, because I did have it. Okay, it is related because I did have a coach recommended to me whenever I started one of my internships she made us read it.
So the energy bus is basically how to always have a positive attitude, no matter the situation. So, I not only would take that into my coaching but I would take that into day to day life, not saying I'm perfect and I can always be positive because I'm human,
but just always having a positive outlook and attitude on everything I think it makes it it's a game changer especially in the coaching world.
Absolutely. What about films or documentaries.
Oh, that's a good one. I don't think I've ever been asked that a film or documentary. I'll be honest I'm not a big documentary girl.
Not a big documentary girl, I would say a film does a film have to be related to the field. Not at all.
You know I really don't know, I'm going to be honest I'm gonna have to think about that and then what's going to happen is I'm going to think about that right after the podcast and I'm going to wish I said it.
Not at all. All right, the next question. Is there a person that you recommend to come on this podcast as a guest to speak to the first responders military and associated professions of the world.
Yes, I do. Aaron with Virginia Beach Fire Department he oversees their human performance. He would be incredible.
I would absolutely recommend him to come on the podcast.
I'd love to make that happen then. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Well, within the last question for you make sure everyone knows where to find you specifically, what you do to decompress.
What do I do. So I typically go on walks, I'm always going on a walk with my dog I have a giant long hair German Shepherd and I'm so happy he was quiet throughout this whole time.
So I usually I go on walks, or a workout working out is just where I let everything loose. So that's usually where I am I'm either walking or I'm working out, I know that's probably the opposite decompressing for some people but
same for me.
Yeah, mine's that my German Shepherd is outside my door. Oh really exactly the same thing. I leave my phone at home and I walk my dog twice a day so. Yes.
I don't have any type of instrumental music when I'm walking. Just because my mind will wander from listening to lyrics so I don't know it just clears my head I'm able to. I mean floor is beautiful, I'm able to walk by the water and just enjoy it, get away from everything for a little bit.
Absolutely. All right well for people listening, where are the best places to find you specifically online or social media.
So I am big on LinkedIn so I would go ahead and find me on LinkedIn you can find all things team builder or even if you just want to talk shop or connect I'm always opening to just having a conversation doesn't have to be about team builder,
I love meeting new people. So you can find me on LinkedIn as Melissa Mercado.
Well Melissa I want to thank you so much it's been such an interesting conversation I mean your journey through strength and conditioning and finding yourself in the tactical space and then now working with team builder.
There's so much cross pollination for the show specifically so I want to thank you so so much for being so generous with your time and coming on the behind the shield podcast today.
Thank you so much I am so happy to be here and I really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you so much, James.