Building the Durable Athlete with Cristian Plascencia

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 95. Today I'm sitting down with Christian and we're talking all about how to build the durable athlete. Are you ready? Let's get started. Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up coach? Thank you so much for pressing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. If you're new around here, welcome. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson and today I have a very special podcast I'm super pumped to bring to you today's episode. So I'm sitting down with Christian now. I'm not going to try and butcher his last name. I have tried to say it twice and I recognize that I should have asked him how to pronounce it, but I'm not going to mispronounce it publicly because, you know, my maiden name is Fillion. So I've been there. But Christian is the co founder of the Durable Athlete and he shares his story story in this episode so powerfully that I am not going to ruin it for you here in this pre intro. I'm just going to go ahead and cut to the chase and let you hear his extraordinary story of how he turned his love of basketball from the age of eight and his experiences in how he made powerful decisions in his life throughout his career. From training to be a pro basketball player to physical therapy to going to college, transferring from college to a different college, then going to get his master's degree, working with athletes, and now being the co founder of Durable Athlete, he's going to share this story all with you inside of today's episode. We talk a lot about mobility, the definition of mobility. We talk about training, breathing. We talk about working with athletes, the definition of athlete and how some people don't identify with that word and yet we still can train them to perform in the same way as people who do identify with professional athlete. This is such a good episode. So let's go ahead and roll that interview. What's up Christian? Thanks so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm doing great. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I'm super excited to dive in. So for those of you who've Never heard of. Christian, I would love for you, please, to share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, my name is Christian George Placentia. I was born in Salinas, California, which is, you know, Central California, near like Monterey, Santa Cruz. Those are beautiful cities. Unfortunately, Salinas is not like Monterey or nothing like Santa Cruz, but it is very close. So it's just an easy reference for many of the people who have maybe traveled down the central coast. But yeah, I was born and raised out there, you know, really at a young age, you know, I found, you know, the game of basketball. I think I was about 9 or 10 years old when I first started playing. And I really believe that everything else that has kind of happened in my life has really, I guess, been facilitated through my like, passion and through the love that I've developed and the relationships that I've developed through the game of basketball. So, yeah, I guess, like where I'm at today, I am a durability and sport performance coach. You know that the word durability could mean so many different things. You know, really for me it's really all about kind of looking at athletes and the people that we serve as trying to build a solid foundation and also trying to build as much resilience into their body. Meaning that like nothing around injury prevention. Right. I think that it's so it's almost impossible to say that you can prevent an injury from happening because it's so multifaceted. But there are definitely things that we can implement and set up in terms of like a foundation to if some type of setback or some type of injury does occur, we have the resilience to not maybe have so much of an injury that's like a long term ACL complete rupture, but rather maybe it's a slight meniscus tear or maybe it's something a little bit more like low level. So a lot of that has to do with not just specific training modalities like inside the gym and kind of manipulating our body, but it's also about setting up a sturdy foundation around like breathing and like what is like your stress mitigation practices look like, right. So more of like that mental side and then, you know, how are you sleeping? Right. Like maybe one of the biggest facets of recovery is around your quality and the quantity of sleep and then nutrition. Right. So like, what are you putting in your body to actually fuel yourself and recover after training bouts and just maybe even after intensive like mental days. So yeah, movement, breath, nutrition, sleep, kind of serve as like the foundation for how I try and step in and facilitate some type of like a change with like the clients and the people that I serve. I guess maybe to answer the last one, like, who do I serve? I mean, at this point where I'm at in my career, I've really, really tried to get to this point which is I really want to work with athletes on a day to day. I want that to be like my main meat and potatoes again. For me, like basketball and sport is still a very big like passion and love of mine. Even though I don't necessarily play like on a professional level or anything of that sort, like it is still a big passion for me and it still drives a lot of the relationships that I have to this day. And so yeah, the majority of my clients and people I serve are, you know, that athletic. Athletic population. But I also have, you know, maybe a couple clients who are, are not necessarily your professional athletes, but your everyday athletes. Right. I firmly believe, right. That every single person is an athlete. Every single person is expected to perform and be at their best on a daily basis, both mentally, physically and emotionally. And so even though I might not look at myself as a professional athlete, I still am an athlete and needing to perform and compete on a daily basis to ultimately show up as the best version of myself. So yeah, hopefully, hopefully that was a good little start off to the conversation.

That was good. I mean I have so many things and you actually did clarify because I was a little curious, you know, when you taught and I definitely want to get into like durable athlete and, and this, this methodology essentially that you have built. But I was curious, like when you use the word athlete, how do you define it? Are you specifically speaking to the professional athletes that those who are you're working with like aspiring pros or are we talking professionals that have got hurt?

Yeah, no, that's, that's a, that's a great question. And honestly we received that question a lot. Whether it's just through an email or whether it's an inquiry on the website or even just on social media, there's a lot of people that are like, hey, I don't, don't know if you'll like work with me because like I'm not like an athlete. But you know, to be honest, from, you know, from like a global perspective, we're all human beings first and, and then specialize into whatever we want to put ourself in, in terms of a category after that. Right. So like humans, regardless if You're a pro NBA player or just like a, I hate to say an average Joe, but let's just say somebody who works at more of a 9 to 5. Right. Like we're all designed to breathe very similarly. We all have certain muscles in our body and joints in our body that are expected to move in a very similar fashion. Really, where the specialty kind of just comes in is being able to maybe take a little bit of a deeper dive in each individ and just see, okay, these are like the foundational things that everyone can benefit from. And then if you're doing maybe a little bit more of X, Y and Z on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, then we'll take that into account in your training and into really the rest of your, you know, holistic approach to like optimizing health and performance. So yeah, I guess from like an athlete perspective, you know, we serve everybody from middle school all the way to professional. And then again on the general population side, we really don't turn down anybody because they are not like professional athletes. And to be honest, we've actually got to the point in our business now where, you know, I might see one, maybe at max, two general population clients like per week, but we have a team and the staff now that is starting to develop and build underneath the durable athlete umbrella to where, you know, some of our younger coaches can kind of begin to get reps with some of the general population clients. And again, the great part is there's still a lot in those training sessions that carry over and might even be completely identical to what we do with athletes. Right. So it just kind of depends, right, it just really kind of depends on what everyone's goals are. But for the most part, our big take on training has a very, very big respect behind mobility and being able to move your body freely and with articulation and control and awareness behind what you're doing. And again, I think that's a principle that you could take the professional or to the everyday athlete as well.

Yeah, I love that you use the word athlete specifically in how it correlates to identity. The thing is that you're 100% right, is that if you are a human being and you can move, you essentially can perform maybe not to the level, the level or the to, to the degree that a professional athlete would move, but yet you still can train like an athlete even though you might not necessarily identify as one. So I'd love for you to just go deeper a little bit. You brought up the idea of mobility and I feel like in our field right now you have a lot of controversy around mobility. So I'd love for you and how you essentially train it. So I'd love for you to expand and I, I put train in quotes for those of you listening and not. Yeah, I'd love for you to expand a little bit more in your mobility approach.

Yeah, definitely. That's a great question. So I think the best place to start is like getting to a common level and common context and understanding of like the word mobility. Right. Because I think it can mean so many different things to so many different people. And every single one of those people could be, you know, potentially right in what they are saying. Right. And in their definition. So I love to use the definition. I wish I could say I invented it myself, but it really wasn't, it didn't stem for me. It was a certification that I took with functional range systems. So some people would maybe hear that or know that as FRC Functional Range Conditioning. And the person who started the company started that kind of like concept and idea and is a doctor named Dr. Andre Osfina. He's based out of Canada, but really travels all over with his team to teach these mobility style of certification. Now beyond just showing movements and showing techniques that you can utilize with your clients, he does such a great job in kind of having this presentation to begin with to give the basis of what is mobility. And really mobility kind of serves almost as a two part definition here. So over or sorry, under the word mobility as the umbrella is flexibility. Right. And then strength. So in order to be mobile, we need to have some level of flexibility. And flexibility, to me, the way I would kind of describe it is really the ability to move freely, right. Without restriction, without pain, without discomfort. Right. Without some type of like limitations in your body, whether it be a bone, a bony structure that's kind of like limiting you and maybe something you were just born with or potentially just like some soft tissue limitation or even just like a neurological kind of restriction behind like what somebody is doing. Right. So that's the flexibility component. And then the other side of it, the strength component is really the ability to articulate and control your body and your joints, your muscles through that free range, freely moving range of motion. But again, with a high amount of, we can call it activation and control. Right. So for example, like, I think it's pretty easy to kind of just like you know, somebody just to kind of very passively like lift our arm up overhead. Correct. Now there's a difference between being able to move up Here, you know, pretty freely. Right. And the difference between that and then kind of adding a little bit more tempo, a slower movement up overhead, and. And maybe more of a conscious awareness behind trying to activate your bicep, trying to activate your tricep, trying to squeeze all the muscles and the tissues surrounding, like, that shoulder and arm joint. Right. So really, when we kind of take both those definitions and we kind of try to, I guess, define it under the umbrella word of mobility, it's being able to move your body freely through the ranges of motion that your joints were designed to move through with high amount of articulation and control. Right. And I think a lot of people, maybe not a lot, but most people have the ability to move freely. A lot of people who tend to have maybe some, like, constant aches, chronic pains, whatever it may be, they really haven't been taught the ability to actually, like, turn on what we'd call, like, the muscles and the motor units and all the tissues surrounding that moving joint. Right. And so that's where, like, the strength aspect of mobility ties in to that word there. Right. I think a lot of people, when you say mobility, they might think, oh, you know, you're just trying to get into, like, the splits, or you're just, you know, passively holding some type of frog or pigeon stretch or whatnot. And there's nothing wrong with that. But for most populations that are very active, like athletes, and even just people who are going into the gym three to six days a week, right, you need that neurological strength aspect to your ability of moving your body and controlling your body, because without that, you know, then there's really a lack of stability, you know, in our joints and in our muscles. So then, therefore, that lack of stability will often lead to the injuries and the setbacks and the aches and the pains. So hopefully that kind of, from like, a very general standpoint, without being, like, too specific, like, on one thing or one technique, can kind of give, like, a good understanding, at least of what I think of mobility and how the durable athlete really turns and looks at mobility.

I love that. So good. Love that. Now, you also mentioned that you talk about breathing a lot, so I'd love for you to expand a little bit on. On breathing. So now my. Just for context, you know, my first understanding where I was really introduced, it introduced to when PRI matters was when I started training postpartum moms and we started talking core and the pelvic floor. And then it expanded when I started getting exposed to a lot of PRI concepts from a lot of my physical therapist friends and high level strength and conditioning. And so now typically, and we can talk about dogma, of course, but typically when I hear frc, I feel like, oh, that's the other side of the spectrum. So I'd love for you to just talk a little bit more about your take on breathing.

Yeah, definitely. That's a great question. So really, I mean, to try to keep it, I guess, as like general as possible, like breathing for us and optimizing breathing. Right. That can mean so many different things. And I guess, you know, the answer is like, you know, what's your take on breathing and how to optimize it? And I guess the, you know, for lack of a better term, the candy ass answer is like, oh, well, it depends, right? Depends who's in front of me. It depends on the context and all that. But I think the substance behind that is, okay, are we being able to utilize our entire body and when we say entire body, like certain muscles and tissues in our body that were designed to actually, you know, expand and contract through breathing. Right. There are certain areas in our body that are meant to mobilize and meant to move and incorporate themselves through a full body cohesive breathing unit. Right. For example, I think people have maybe heard, you know, oh, I'm a, I'm an upper body or I'm a chest dominant breather. Right. Very common to kind of see that, especially through athletic population or just people who have not been maybe told or brought to the light, brought to some awareness around those different areas in our body. So usually it has to consist of, okay, well, let's start to show people where their diaphragm is and how we can stimulate that through breathing and through movement and even just do soft tissue stuff of just tactile feedback. Right. So that's usually going to be one of the first places that we start is like, are you actually breathing through your diaphragm? Awesome. And then if so, are you able to then kind of like in unison utilize your diaphragm and your upper half both, you know, both on the front side and posteriorly to allow breath to really expand to those, those different areas of your body. And then after that, it's looking at potential, like cadence. Right. So for example, most people might be one, not only just breathing through their mouth, right. As like a predominant way of breathing, but then they're also maybe breathing at a rate that could be relatively lower. Right. They could have potentially a lower breathing rate compared to just breathing through their mouth and not being conscious to that so that's like another thing that we'll kind of try to bring light to is where are you breathing from in terms of like inhaling and exhaling through the mouth and through the nose. And then the third one is being able to kind of just have them understand, hey, if we can mess with our breathing rate, for example, if we can either expand our inhales or shorten our inhales or, you know, start to like, really dial up our nervous system through like breath holds, right? Like, how long do we want to do a breath hold or how long do we want to exhale? How short do we want to exhale? Being able to kind of manipulate those factors right there, have the ability to, to start driving someone's nervous system right on the dial frame from like slowly sympathetic and then slowly, a little bit more parasympathetic. Most people that we see receive a humongous benefit from becoming a little bit more aware of how to become a little bit more parasympathetic. Right. And oftentimes that's just teaching them how to get into their nose. Right? So start breathing through your nose and then just kind of taking some like, conscious breath, just kind of taking a minute to like, you know, this kind of ties in, I guess a little bit with mindfulness is being able to just focus in simply on your breathing and really like entirely nothing else for that minute or hour or really how long you're practicing that breathing practice for. So, yeah, hopefully, hopefully that kind of serves just like a very general purpose. Obviously there's things like the Salva maneuver and things that way that we can manipulate, like our breath to hold intra abdominal pressure. And when we're doing like max effort lifting or whatnot, or even the more like fluid style of like exhaling when we're going through things like maybe like a hard style kettlebell, you know, clean to jerk to, you know, kind of like movement circuit that people will put themselves through at certain points. So, yeah, hopefully that was, hopefully that was a good little gist on just, I guess, our very general take on breathing.

Yeah, I love that. And I'm curious for you to just expand and go deeper a little bit on how you are able to, to really get your professional athletes. So these are your top 1% people that are used to, you know, going hard. They're pushing their upper limits of what is, you know, what their body can both mentally and physically handle. So how do you get them on board with like, let's do some mindful breathing?

Yeah, that's a great question. You know what's funny is like when I first started my, I guess like, you know, strength and conditioning slash whatever personal training career, right. My first formal one at least was, was at a private gym out here in Austin, Texas. My role with athletes was purely like recovery and mobility based. So I had, you know, absolutely no say like in the strength and conditioning portion, right. Of like the lifts and the running and all the sports skills specific stuff. One, because the majority of them were football. And I'm always a big part of like know your role. I had no formal understanding of like football performance training. I played one year in high school. So I wasn't, I wasn't going to try to pretend like I knew what was going on. For me, basketball was always like where that kind of passion laid. So for me I didn't really see too many people focusing upon like the recovery aspect. And so I would get that question a lot in the beginning was like, hey, how do you get these guys to do like things like animal flow, things like a mobility flow or things like breathing? And to be honest, I think one of the biggest things has less to do. I mean it's a component of it, but it's less to do with like the actual techniques that you're presenting to them and asking them to complete. And I believe it's more on like the relationship and communication aspect with your athletes. So one, I think it's just getting the athletes to understand how much you genuinely care. And that's something that's kind of, it's hard to fabricate, it's hard to fake, it's hard to, I don't know, it's hard to demonstrate if it's not like genuinely inside of you. Right. I think athletes are constantly, constantly analyzing like, is this person in front of me here for me or are they here to kind of like utilize me and use me. I think that's very normal for them to kind of be a little skeptical to people. And so for me personally, like my biggest thing is creating a relationship with the individual. And once that individual understands that I have a very genuine respect for who they are and then that I have an immense passion to help them become a better human being and a better athlete, then at that point I could potentially ask them to run off a cliff and they might end up doing it just for the simple fact that like, well, hey, I trust this guy. Like, I'm pretty sure he's going to steer me in the right direction. And luckily I've had that buy in, you know, since man really Ever since I started this. And again, reflecting on that, I think a big piece has to do with the relationship that has been kind of set in stone and obviously continues to be set on a daily basis. And then to be honest, the second thing on top of that is the being able to communicate. Like, why is it important, right? Like, making it tangible for them. Like, what purpose does this serve for me? And sometimes, you know, that could just simply be, hey, well, you know, if you're doing this, you know, you spend so much time up here, you guys, you know, don't even sleep very much. You guys are constantly up here. So if I can take you more into parasympathetic, right. That'll kind of give you that balance and allow you to recover so that tomorrow when you have your sprint day and your 40 time, right, that 40 time might go down. So that if that 40 time goes down, then you might get drafted a lot higher than you thought. If you get drafted a lot higher than you thought, you might make more money for you and your family. So therefore, doing this breathing practice isn't just about, like, parasympathetic and all that science stuff. It's more about trying to get you and your family to a place that you would look at as succeeding and as a place that you would want to be as a professional and as an athlete. So, yeah, I think, you know, again, it has more, I think, to do with the relationship aspect and then being able to very clearly communicate why this would serve them and why this is important to them.

Yeah. You know, something else, too, that I'd like to talk about, but what I also think it might come down to, my instinct says the. Is you build that rapport, not only explaining the why, but also they're results driven like you gave very tangible, like, hey, you're going to recover faster and then crush your sprint day. So that type of rapport is also coming from the results. So with that in mind, I'm curious, you know, how. How fast. Do your athletes notice the impact that mobility and breathing have made in their training and their performance?

Yeah, that's a. That's a great question. To be honest, I think with most guys and most females as well, the mobility aspect, right. I think it's very easy to feel that right off the top. Right? I think it's very easy. Just simply one session, and really just like the first 10 or 15 minutes that we're serving in a session, it gets pretty clear that they understand, like, wow, this. These movements seem pretty simple, yet I'm pretty Restricted and limited in my ability to do these things right. So I think as competitors, they see that right away and they feel that and they're like, I don't want things to feel hard. I want to feel like I'm succeeding. So I think with the mobility stuff, it's very easy on an acute perspective that they feel it right right away. And then I would say really like, being able to, you know, this is like a challenge sometimes, but being able to remind guys, you know, after a session. So a session with us is usually about like six weeks or so in the off season. Being able to remind them, like, hey, you know, when you first came in, you couldn't get into that, that type of squat. You couldn't get your knee that far over your toes. You know, you had pain. Being able to get into that, you know, forward lunge position. And look, you don't anymore, right? No, you're right. I don't feel any pain in my knees anymore. That's awesome, right? And how about, like, on defense, don't you feel like you're kind of moving a little bit better side to side? You seem like you're able to, like, sit down a little bit easier and it's like, oh, yeah, you're right. Actually, the video that, you know, the skill trainer had actually showed that that I'm a little bit lower on my crossover. I'm, you know, able to jump up a little bit higher now with, like, less pain. So it's definitely, it's definitely like a short term realization for sure. But then I think from like a long term perspective, being able to like, constantly remind them, because athletes are just like always on the go and they're constantly looking towards that next thing and they're constantly striving to be better. So I think it is kind of important sometimes to remind them to, like, just like anything else in life, like, reflect and like, have gratitude for like, where you are at and like, where you were, because that is going to allow you and hopefully continue to drive you in your path of success going forward.

I love that. Okay, so now you mentioned that you were working in Austin. So if you're from California, how did you get to Austin? And I'm also curious, can you close the gap for me a little bit on, in terms of, you know, how you went from being so passionate about people being an athlete yourself to now getting more behind the scenes to help other athletes, like, what happened there?

Yeah, and that's a two perfect questions because I think that the answer for one of them kind of answers both and vice versa, right? So, you know, at a. At a young age, right? Born and raised out in Salinas. At the age of 13, I injured myself playing basketball. It was like the first injury I had, like, the typical ankle sprain coming down on someone's foot, right? So I went into a physical therapy office. I didn't necessarily know what a physical therapy office was other than they were going to help me, like, get back on the court and rehab. And so I remember after that first day, I was sitting on the treatment table, and of course, like, at 13, no one had ever been, you know, like, massaging my feet and like, and just like, giving me that soft tissue, you know, type of, like, treatment. So of course I'm like, I'm loving that. Like, wow, this is great. I'm damn near getting, like, a foot massage and then just like, seeing and like, really more of, like, feeling the environment inside the entire office was, like, really cool to me. The music, right, Like, I really, like, you know, like, really resonated with me, right? More of, like the hip hop and the R and B was playing more upbeat, like, friendly stuff in there. And then seeing, like, other athletes, other local athletes in there as well. You know, kind of going through, like, certain, you know, return to play type of drills. And like, that looked cool to me. That almost kind of felt like it was a sports training facility to a certain extent. And so I remember leaving and I told my mom. I was like, man, I don't, like, I don't know what everything in there entails, and I don't know what it takes to be like a. I guess, like a physical therapist, But I want to be able to, like, be that one day, like, if I can't make it to the NBA, because again, like, in my head from, like, age 10 all the way, so maybe I could be beginning of my senior year. I was like, completely set that, like, cool. If I don't, like, get into Duke, if Duke doesn't give me, like, a scholarship, I'll probably just go to Stanford. And, like, if Stanford doesn't give me a scholarship, then I'll probably just, like, walk on at any other D1 school and it'll be fine. Like, I'll find my way to the NBA at like, 5, 7, like 175 pounds or something. So. Yeah, obviously. But I think. I think what's cool with that, though, is honestly, like, you know, my. My mental approach every single day from, you know, the age of 10 until that, you know, really till I graduated was like, well, like, this is, this is my job. Like, I want to be a professional athlete. Like, this is what I really want to do. But to kind of backtrack just a little bit with the physical therapy stuff. Like, I mentioned that to my mom and literally that next day she knew like the owner, slash head physical therapist of that facility. And so she signed me up for an internship. There's. So at the age of 13, I was really just like a fly on the wall. Like, of course, like cleaning tables when they get done, folding towels, doing some of the very basic work around the facility. But I did get to spend a lot of time asking questions to the physical therapist and to their aides around, like, well, like, what's wrong? And like, what are you touching for? And like, why are we doing, you know, this drill? I thought it was like, there's something wrong with their shoulder. Why are we doing like a plank? Or why are we doing this weird looking drill? And so that was kind of like the basis of like, really where I'm at today is kind of just having, I guess like a different perspective and understanding of like the human body and like respecting that. Like, there's more that goes into it rather than like just jumping as high as you can every time on a basketball court, right? There's like a process that can kind of get you to a better place. And so graduated high school, got into a 44 year university, not in Los Angeles, but in Southern California, in Camarillo, in the Thousand Oaks area. So went to school out there again, continued to intern. Really. I interned from 13 all the way until I graduated my senior year of college.

Now, are you still playing basketball at this point?

Great question. No. So after high school, like literally like right after my senior year, I remember I was like, man, I'm not going to lie, I. I was burnt out. I was completely burnt out. I felt like I had absolutely no life. I shouldn't say that. I felt like my social life had really been compromised because since the age of 10, like it was head down and like it's professional or nothing type of deal. And I think, you know, now where I'm at today, I can see that in a lot of younger kids, right? And like specializing very early and like not having a break the entire, you know, the entire year for like four or five years in a row. And it's funny, my parents always told me, hey, you should like maybe take a break like this two month period. And I just never listened, right, Because I was so dedicated to playing. And so, yeah, to answer that question? No, I did not. It was funny though. So I was about, I was like 195 to like like 200 pound my senior year. And really probably my junior and senior year I was definitely like a little bit more heavyset, I mean about 20 pounds heavier than where I'm at today, same height. So as you can imagine, I was carrying a lot of baggage. And my freshman year of college I lost probably about like 10 to 15 pounds. And in my intramural leagues I started to play. And in college I felt like as athletic as ever. And it was nuts because to me I was like, man, my biggest thing was I always felt like I couldn't keep up with some of those higher tier guys. Like just being able to keep up with them from like a agility standpoint and even from just like a vertical and like a jumping standpoint. Like, I just felt like something was always missing. I just felt like slow. And of course it probably had to do with like my body just couldn't support itself at that much of a weight. And so after my freshman year I actually started to kind of get back into the whole training process thinking that like my junior year when I transfer because I was at a four year to begin with right out of high school, but they ended up dropping like a physical therapy and extra nutrition physical therapy, but a kinesiology as a major there. So I transferred to the school in the city over which was a private school called Cal Lutheran and they were Division 3 school and they had a basketball team. So my goal was to like walk on there if I didn't receive any type of like help to actually play on the team. And I remember I actually got to the point, I think I went and played pickup with them one time and I felt great, body felt great. I felt like, okay, like I haven't played with competitive guys in a while, but I feel like I could definitely catch up to these guys within a couple months. And it really came down to the point of one, like I received a research and a research, a grant to really spend almost like, I think it was damn near almost like eight months on like a study about whole body vibration. Which was like super cool to me that I even got like elected and selected for that. So it was either focus on that or kind of like start to, you know, play basketball again. And I mean, to be honest, at that point I was pretty realistic with myself and understand that, you know, if I'm going to do this basketball thing, like I want to go play pro and chances are I Probably won't be able to go play pro and support a family like the way I want to one day. So why don't I just kind of jump in to my major? And it looks like this grant, this research grant is like a good way to kind of like help push me in that direction of learning more about the human body and more about like, you know, the exercise physiology aspect behind like, you know, training. So that is kind of like when I've like finally decided, okay, like, no more sports. I'll continue to stay active just for the fact of I want to see how my training either helps me or hinders me in my performance on the court. But yeah, it was at that point where it was like, okay, like physical therapy, like all the way. I'm just going to become a physical therapist and I'm going to help athletes in the same fashion that I feel like I could have been helped out in, right. Which is understanding my body on a deeper level, having an optimal training program rather than just doing like heavy squats all the time. And so, yeah, that's kind of like where that shift, shift happened. And then to try and fast forward, senior year comes around, I'm applying to schools and I didn't get into any physical therapy schools, which like blew my mind. And then I got into two schools though for exercise physiology, for my master's, which was in ut, right. So out here in Austin and then East Tennessee State out in Johnsonville, Tennessee. And so it was pretty easy that I was going to choose Austin, Texas to come and live at. And at that time, luckily my, my one of my mom's best friends from the Salinas area, so where I was born and raised, just moved to Austin and was like the head of director of like fitness at a gym, at a private gym. And so he said, hey, if you come out here, I'll give you a basically like a workmanship slash internship. And then if you do well enough, like, you know, it grow into a part time, then hopefully like a full time position. And so, yep, came out here, maybe worked for like a month and a half before I started my first semester of exercise physiology for grad school. And maybe about a month into my first semester of grad school, I was like one, I received a tremendous opportunity to go and work with athletes and actually some of it consisted of traveling. So I was like, okay, well my main goal is to help athletes and work with athletes. And I'm kind of getting these opportunities right now as I'm in grad school. And as much as I would love to do both. I just can't do one. I wouldn't be able to do each either one of them to the best of my ability. So it's kind of like pick one. And after kind of consulting with a lot of different people, it was like, you know, you know, people strive their whole life to receive opportunities and if you feel like you're the person that loves education and values that you'll find time to educate yourself. Right. You don't have to lean on school to do that as a. Lean on it as a crutch. So that is kind of like after one month, put grad school to the side and just like completely jumped into my career and it's obviously kind of led me to where I'm at today is so amazing.

I mean, to me I am someone who lives and breathes by. You're either going to get the lesson that you, that you need or the success that you want. And I just feel like from the start, like from age 13 or even 8, you know, 10, when you were like, yeah, like such a perfect example of that really unfolding right in front of you, 1000% so amazing. Are you running your own facility now? Yeah. So you're doing now is Durable Athlete. I know you were talking about how it's an app, which I'd love for you to talk about that, but are you in person, like, do you have a facility?

Yeah, that's a great question. So currently, right now we do not have a facility. I'm just gonna like briefly say so that nothing weird gets put out there, but the hopes and the dreams are that very soon we would be able to have our own facility. And I say we as in me and my significant other Natalie, who is also co founder of the Durable Athlete, but then also my business partner Zach Urbanis, who runs a a training program out here called BTY Basketball. So we have kind of partnered up and he handles like the on court skill work and then I handle all like the strength and conditioning stuff. So yes, the goal is to eventually one day have our own facilities that we have more kind of freedom to, you know, bring in teams, bring in organization, you know, be able to serve high level athletes in our own kind of facility and environment. So yes, currently, no, right now we really just utilize my garage for any private training for one on one and then for anything group wise. Like what we do right now we just rent space at a couple gyms that have both a weight room and a basketball court. So that's kind of like how we handle the majority of our business right now. When I to kind of give you some I guess a little bit more context behind the durable athlete. So I was working at a gym called on it from 2015 all the way to about 2019. Go ahead. Sorry.

I know that place.

Yeah, yeah, it's out in, out here in Austin, Texas. That's the spot I received my first kind of like internship slash like part time job and eventually into a salary position there. So while I was there, like I said, I was working with a lot of football athletes handling a lot of like mobility and the recovery stuff. I was also doing the private training there, like the one on one stuff. And then I was also doing like the general population group classes. So I was getting really a good mix of everything there on top of being a part of their education team. So they have an education system there where they teach like, you know, really like the foundations of like all of their move like the basic movement patterns with all of their tools. Right. Some of the unconventional tools that they have. So I was a part of like that foundation certification and was also really a co teacher for the durability delivery which is like the mobility, the recovery, the breathing aspect behind like everything that they did. So yeah, I was able to kind of start to like formulate like my own kind of like ideas and thoughts behind. Okay, well this is how they teach this and then this is like how FRC teaches this and then this is like how animal flow teaches this. And there was really for like the first year and a half, like I swear it was like a blessing. Like literally almost every single weekend there was somebody new coming in and teaching a certification. So if it wasn't like us teaching the in house cert, it was another educator coming in. And I promise you, like those were probably like the most valuable years in terms of like, I guess just like not just education but just like really being able to understand like the human body on a like deeper level and then understanding it from like a holistic perspective that like without taking into account the human being and everything that makes up a human being, like we're not going to maximize one area. And ultimately, you know, a lot of that was like fitness. We're not going to maximize their physical fitness and their physical performance without a holistic approach to everything else that we are doing. And so in about 2019 I started and myself, my girlfriend started the LLC durable athlete. And once I formally left on it, I started to, I traveled and trained my first NBA player. And that was really like the Big reason of kind of why that jump happened. It was like, this is it, like this is my time, this is what I want to do. And even though this is like a 11 month gig, like this is going to push me in the direction, it's going to force me to do what I think I need to start doing. And so really right after that one month gig, I'm like back in Austin, Texas and it's like, okay, like sink or swim, like figure it out. Luckily I had a couple of clients still that I was training one on one. I then met my business partner today, Zach, that ran a lot of the on the court basketball stuff. We then kind of partnered up together to where he would send me a lot of his clients and then vice versa. If I had any basketball clients he wasn't serving, I would help to filter to him. And then that led to us creating like a program and then you know, that program basically grew into, you know, hey, you know, we're going to meet up for maybe like you know, these three weeks or this, you know, six weeks before school to start training to now like we're damn near, you know, at least for a high school kids and middle school kids. We're now building into like almost a full year round of training. So it is kind of becoming like our main line of business together. So the majority of my in person stuff is like in a group setting and now that's like grown into like, okay, this is a lot and like almost too much to do by myself. So I now have like a team with me to attack all of those sessions. And then now it's like growing into, okay, well, travel teams and other basketball organizations that maybe want to bring like our services and our strength and conditioning services to their program, to their practices. They are now like hiring us out and hiring the durable athlete team and staff out to like show up, train them and like help them in their ability to like push the line of performance. So yeah, a lot of our business now it kind of grown from like the one on one stuff to now predominantly group training with, you know, we still have, we probably still serve between me and the rest of our trainers, probably about like eight different private training clients. And that obviously I'm sure, you know, can kind of go up to 20 in like two days or it could go down to two in a week. You know, you just kind of never know with everyone's schedule and they're in their kind of situation. So yeah, you know, and obviously a lot of cool things that have kind of Happened up until, you know, the point that we're at today. Like, for example, when Covid hit the Junior mba, reached out and was asking us to basically start creating content for basically everything Junior MBA international. So every country except the US which is like super, super cool that we were able to talk about the importance of breathing and then like show breathing, like dynamics and then talk about like body weight exercise and mobility training and then kind of show them like the importance of plyometric training and the importance of like, kind of like base baseline level of like periodization. So that was like super, super cool that we were able to not just like work people out and give them workouts, but like provide educational content for like coaches and parents for these kids that were enrolled in Junior mba. And so, yeah, there was lots of different little things that have kind of popped up that were very much like remote that have kind of led us to this point of the in person stuff. And then now having our durable athlete app as like our main source of really trying to like scale our business without having to be there in person with them, because majority of people don't live in Austin, Texas. They're probably living elsewhere. And so that was our best way to kind of help provide them resources.

That is so cool. And also I also am here in hearing your story. There have been multiple times where you've been faced with a decision that it's like sink or swim. So what I've noticed a lot, especially for people who still get stuck in the mud or they're struggling, it really ultimately comes down to making the decision and trusting that you can handle whatever's going to happen on the other side of that decision. Right?

For sure. For sure.

What has been some of the things that you have done that has helped you come to the decisions that you've had to make that have been hard. And what would you say to someone that was like, you know, facing their own what should I do? Decision.

Yeah, no, that's. That's a great question, man. To be honest, I feel like I always take this back to like my upbringing. I feel like my parents were, oh, especially my mom and my dad without directly telling me to be confident. Right. He was more along the lines of like, I'm going to push you to like your tip, like your breaking point. So a lot of times that was like playing one on one outside and like basically taking me to that point where I wanted to cry and quit is trying to like instill in me like the utmost confidence. Right. And trying to instill in me that if you are working your tail off and you have a very sincere, genuine drive to want to be a better person every single day, like, that is going to set you apart. That is. That should be able to give you, like, that passion and that fuel and that fire, that, like, yeah, I can step into this position. Like, it doesn't matter if it's something you've never done before. If you have the habits and the character behind it, you can do absolutely anything. And I know plenty of people have probably heard that before, right? Like, you can do anything you set your mind to. But. But to be honest, I kind of feel like that's. I mean, yeah, like, at surface value, that's true. Like, the mind is so powerful that, like, whatever you set your. Whatever you set your mind to. And again, like, not just setting your mind to it, but as long as, like, your habit and your process is, like, a part of that passion and is in line with those passions in those goals, then, like, anything is attainable. And obviously, that's always easier said than done. But I think what helps me get to that point and what I would tell others that would hopefully try to help you get to that point is, you know, daily deposit. You're putting daily deposits to where you want to go. Like, trust yourself and have confidence in yourself. Because, you know, there's no such thing as, like, failure, right? Or, like. Ls is what we say. Like, there's just a lesson. Like, no. Ls only lessons. And if we have that, like, positive mindset to keep going, like, there should be nothing that ever stops us, you know?

Yeah, for sure. You know, I felt like I'm a mom and my kids are little, like six and four. Right. So I'm just. Yes, that's what I'm gonna do.

I love that. I love that. How are your. Are your kids, like, in. Pretty active, like, in sports and, like, competition, you know?

It's interesting that you asked. My husband and I have been talking about it right now. This, at the time of this recording is August. So they're in camp, and the camp that we've picked is very active. So they're very. I mean, like, my daughter Gwendolyn, she comes off the bus and she's like a zombie. She's like, I'm so tired and eating like a crazy person. She, like, can't get enough food, which I love. So we're starting to introduce different. You know, we're starting to introduce different modalities. So they're doing soccer. She's. The camp will Teach tennis, but she's a little young for that. But they're doing gymnastics. Like, we're getting. We're giving her a taste, you know, and it's very interesting. One of the things that I have been kind of tossing back and forth in my mind is, and I'm curious, your take on it. I'll let this be the last question. Question is because I feel like there is. There is a distinction and you brought it up in terms of, you know, burn out and pushing someone so hard that it's like the discipline at all costs. Right. You know, versus making sure that we instill that you need to show up even when you don't feel like it all the time, that there is, like, sense of discipline. So I'm curious how you navigate, especially for your young athletes, finding that line.

Yeah, that's. That's super. Super. That's a great question. And that is tough, to be honest. Like, I wish I had, like a gold standard answer, right, that like, worked for every single person that I've worked with. But, you know, even I'll make this personal, I guess, first, and then I'll kind of try to tie it into maybe how I use this with, like, you know, people that I serve. There are days, I'm not going to lie. There are days, for example, like, maybe yesterday I was in Vegas, since Sunday, Sunday to Wednesday, probably got a total of eight hours of sleep over like three or four days. So, you know, obviously, even though I went to bed super early that night before I'm waking up the next day, back into my routine of heading to the gym and training the athletes, like, I was in the car thinking to myself, like, to be honest, like, I just want to pull over right now and go to bed. Like, I don't want to talk to nobody. I just want to be asleep. I don't really feel like, driven right now to want to go and like, serve, you know, serve the people that I've been serv. But I think one of the tools that I use is, like, is being able to, like, reflect and have perspective behind okay, if I am going to take. So if I feel like, don't feel bad for having the feelings that I have right in that moment, like, embrace that and then remember and try to take myself back to that day or during that time where I had just left my salary job, I had just got back home, and like, I didn't necessarily have a schedule. I didn't have really too many clients with me at that time. And I didn't really have A steady source of income. And so, like, I remember, like, what that felt like, and that was, like, super, super scary. And to be honest, like, I kind of felt like I was a failure at some point. And if I can kind of, like, put myself back in that, in those shoes, it kind of provides me with that perspective of, like, oh, no shit. Like, I'm actually, like, pretty, like, grateful. I'm actually pretty, like, blessed right now to be even to say, like, I'm going to work and it's not just, like, I'm going to this place that I'm working for and, like, don't necessarily have too much energy and, like, passion invested in. This is, like, you know, quote unquote, my program. This is something that, like, I get to choose how I want to create the environment and the culture here. So if I'm telling these guys to show up with, you know, with. With heavy hands and heavy hearts every day, and you want to be there with the utmost passion, but I can't do that for myself. It's okay if I don't have it naturally every day, but I got to be able to be that rock for them. And so it might feel, you know, some people might feel like maybe that's a little bit of added pressure, but to be honest, the athlete in me and the point guard in me growing up was like, no, like, I want that. Like, I want the pressure. I want everyone to kind of feel like they need to lean on me, because I want to feel like I can support you, and I want to be able to feel like, hey, my character and my process has been set, and I have worked my tail off to get to this point. And, like, trust me, you know, I can help you get to where you want to get to, which isn't like, you know, making a lot of money playing basketball, but just simply being better that day and, like, giving them energy, feeling their cup up that day. Because, like you said, a lot of times you can just tell most guys. I don't say most guys, but, yeah, most guys on a weekly basis, they're going to have a couple of days where they're like, you know, I could. I can maybe skip this day. And then it turns into, like, two days, Then it turns into, like, six days in a month, and then. Then, you know, it just kind of continues to compound.

You just explained my 2020.

I'll work out tomorrow, next week, next month. Okay, fuck it. When Covid's over, I'm working out. You're not the only one, though. I guarantee you you're definitely not the only one.

Amazing. Okay, so I definitely want to be mindful of your time. So for those of you who want to learn more about what you do, your app hang out with you. Where can I send them?

Yeah, definitely. So the Durable athlete dot com. Sorry, not the. But just Durable athlete dot com is our website there. We have an immense amount of blogs and educational type of like information there for people to just learn about. Just like simple stuff. Not even, you know, what we consider simple stuff. Not just the training and the mobility. Obviously that's a big piece in there. The breathing kind of some of the stuff that we spoke to today. But just like the importance of building sustainable habits and the importance of maybe like why having a breathing practice and a mobility practice is bigger than just a physical aspect or it's bigger than just a mindfulness practice. Like the other ways how this can affect and feed into the rest of your life. So yeah, there you'll be able to find our blog, you'll be able to find our app. The first 14 days are free. So, you know, we really want people to kind of take a couple weeks to dive into it before, you know, they even get charged. You know, majority of people who actually try the app, you know, we've seen plenty of people who just try it for a couple weeks, have put off like paying for the app just because for whatever reason they might not be in the right stage for that and have come back to us at a later point and have continued to subscribe to this day. So it's been really, really cool to see all the people that have been with us from the get go. And then it's really cool to kind of see the people that are like, have to be like very choosy of when they are subscribing. But it shows to us that there is value there and people do value the information and the techniques that we have to provide for them. That again, that are bigger than just physical, right? It's the physical, it's the mental, it's the emotional, it's really the holistic approach of human performance.

I love that. And we'll make sure I link all of that up. That'll all be linked up in the show notes.

So awesome. Love that.

Amazing. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Of course. Thank you so much. We'll talk soon.

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