Increasing Performance and Health

You are listening to the PT Proffitt podcast, episode number 32. Today I am sitting down with Gregory Hawthorne Jr. To discuss all things increasing performance and also health. So are you ready? Stay tuned. Hi, I am 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 in 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? Welcome back to the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host Beverly Simpson and I'm really excited to share this episode with you. Today I sat down with Greg Hawthorne Jr. Of Thorne Training and Therapy where they believe in treating the person as an individual and we had an incredible conversation all about increasing performance, his experience with COVID having Covid himself, what his facility went through, how his facility is managing Covid times. Also, he shared his personal experience with social media starting from the beginning as a strength and conditioning coach and moving all the way up to the top level as a strength and conditioning coach for the NFL. Greg is a certified athletic trainer who spent nearly a decade working with elite level athletes. He's worked for the Carolina Panthers, Florida University of Michigan athletics. He's implemented human performance programs with great success in a variety of populations ranging from the high caliber athletes to the geriatric population. Greg has a hungry for knowledge and the need to use that knowledge to help individuals perform and function at their optimum level. We also both shared our lessons in our strengths and also what we would tell ourselves when we if we were just starting back at the beginning. And honestly, it was a very powerful episode for me. I left feeling incredibly inspired and flooded with new innovative ideas to each increase performance both on a marketing level and also on a training level. So I'm really excited to get this interview out to you. So without further ado, let's roll it. Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm doing great. How about yourself? Well, I mean, I guess considering.

Hey, no considering. I'm really glad that you came on the show. I can't wait to actually dive into that. But it's really a pleasure and a privilege to have you on the show. I know a lot of people are going to benefit and I'm super excited to dive in. So thank you so much.

Appreciate you having me on.

So just for some clarity, for anyone who doesn't Know you can you just tell us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Okay. My name is Greg Hawthorne. I'm a certified athletic trainer. I went to University of Michigan for undergrad, Michigan State for grad school from Pennsylvania. So currently I work at Robbins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Georgia at the same time also run a private practice within like a complex of sports performance. So essentially it's set up to. It's called the lab sports complex. I'm also on social media for throwing training and therapy, but it's set up like a university setting. So it's like a community university setting for youth athletes. So we have sports specific skill, sports medicine. My aspect of things, athletic training, strength conditioning and tutoring all under one roof. And so provide essentially decrease distress and make it easy for the athletes in our community to essentially become the best they possibly can be. We try to remove as many barriers as possible for them. Have everything loop in the same package. My journey was pretty much starting from undergrad. I knew I wanted to work in professional sports or non specific or I guess non conventional athletic training. So I ended up working for. So after undergrad I worked for the Detroit Lions. From there they gave me step into NFL Europe. So I spent three, three months in Europe working with there and that was a fantastic experience. From there I went to grad school at Michigan State and there that was more of an osteopathic school. So we learned from a lot of osteopaths, so that was a pretty good segue for me. And then I went from there. I worked for the Jacksonville Jaguars for a year as a seasonal intern and then from there went to Florida State University, worked with the football team there, then worked with the Carolina Panthers for three years, left them and then moved down here and actually been in Warner Robbers since. So the whole manual therapy aspect really helped me get jobs. To be honest with you in athletic training setting. At the same time I think I'm a good person so I think that helps. But that's kind of led me to where I am and I've always wanted to kind of help youth out. And that's the big thing for me is what I saw, what the collegiate athletes got, professional athletes got is and even how we're kind of similar model we have here on the Air Force Base as well. And I know it's kind of like removing barriers and giving them the best option to succeed is going to essentially create the best athletes and I think really good humans as well because we have A lot of touch points with them. So we kind of can preach solid mentorship within our program. So that's a big deal. And why I wanted to kind of grow that. It took me a while to do that because for me, I don't like working alone. I already know that, like working in a team. And so I need to find the property partners to kind of do this, do this business aspect of things. So it took a couple years from leaving the NFL to creating this.

Was it hard to leave the NFL?

Yes. But my wife, she's a superstar, she had a good job and that's what brought us down to our area. My wife got a, she's a professor in the business school at Mercer University. And based on finances and family, I'm a big family man. That really helped with decision. I mean I got, I didn't like, hey, look, I'm leaving the NFL. Like I got fired and then I had job offers afterwards and then, but it was me. I had to make that decision of am I going to go into it or not anymore when it comes down to family aspect of things. So that was a decision. Yeah, the family, it was family based decision, which makes it pretty easy in.

My opinion for sure. I'm a mom too, so I definitely get it. Family always comes first. And there is a level of consistency that I feel like is important for young kids. So I love that. So I guess I'm curious too. What caused you to want to work with professional athletes versus, you know, the general population? What are the big differences that you feel like you've noticed or needed aside from, you know, things like discipline, for example.

So the big tell. So athletic training and profession is generally, I think, undervalued. A lot of times we're, I hate to sound super shallow when I say this, but you know, we're not paid very well. Like it's, you know, we put in 80 hours, 90 hour weeks a lot of times and you know, the pay is maybe 40 grand, 42 grand a week or a month. A year. A week would be awesome. A year. And so it's one of those things where I know In Professional Sports 1, their pay is a little bit better. You know, we're not on the same par as coaches, but it's if you're an assistant assistant athlete, trainer, assistant coach. But it's still much better than it is in many settings, including university, even high level university. And so you have to deal with that. But the big thing for me was besides, because for an athletic training generally there's no Private practice. Right. That's something new. So what I'm doing is fairly groundbreaking. It's grown a lot more, but they're comparably not a lot of us. And so it was a conventional setting or high school sports, college sports. And then in professional sports from a times perspective for me, again, I've always look at family from a. When it's football and professional level, it's a business. So it's. There's hours are pretty set, pretty regular schedule, boom, bada boom, bada bing. That sort of deal. Where college, they're at their student athletes, student comes first. So you have to get everything's around that schedule where football is a priority there. And so from a scheduling and time standpoint, that's what really drove me toward professional sports because I knew it's kind of set now again, you're 24 hours on call because people can hurt people. You know, you are their medical liaison when you're working with sports teams. So you have an injury at home, guess what, I'm getting a phone call, you know, hey, look, these little things here and there, you're the guy or the team we should say. And so you got to be ready for that. But time at home, time away is pretty much set. The numbers are a lot lower. You can imagine one professional sport team versus a college sports team versus a high school overall, you know, so it came down again, very much driven by my choice of family first.

I love that. I love that. Okay, and so now in what you're doing with the youth athletes are these people that are you. I know what you're saying in terms of how you're doing it all new and that it's groundbreaking because to me it sounds like you're creating a university setting for people who want to move into professional sports. Right. Is it specific or is it all types of sports?

So currently it's our. It's. The goal is to grow towards all what we can. But you know, currently we focus more on baseball, basketball and football and then softball and softball. But mostly it's basketball, men's and women's football and baseball. And we're trying to get softball breaking the softball market. But it's. That's really heavily based on the sports specific skill. Like we're not big enough necessary to hire that many people. And we believe in, you know, you should get the best service. Right. And so it's not like, oh, we're just going to, hey, we're going to coach ourselves. Like no, we're not. That's not Our skill set. Right. So why would I try to do that when they. That wouldn't serve the athlete better? Now we offer the other aspects from conditioning wise and, you know, sports medicine aspects to them. And so that's kind of where we are with that. But that's our main sports.

I love that. So now, how has the pandemic and Covid impacted the university or impacted your business, especially? Because earlier in the podcast you were saying, you know, you like to be part of a team. How has that and part, you know, part of a team in your business? How has it impacted the facility?

So until recently. I'll stop there and I'll go back to current, current situation. We. So we shut down early, but so we lost our strength, conditioning. We lost our sports center skill. We have a boxing, actually a boxing gym. So we do boxing. I don't even know how I forgot that. That's huge. Our youth boxing had just blown up, right? And then so that hit and so we had to shut down. So we shut down for about a month based on Georgia rules. Now we're in Georgia, so we're the wild west out here compared to Covid, compared to the world. Not even the country. The world. So it was only a matter of time before I got it, essentially. And so we shut down for a little bit. However, myself, I shut down to new people, but I was able to see people that was continuing to sing because being medical services, I consider essential business. And so I never actually shut down on base. We never shut down. But mask cleaning, you know, the good thing is we always clean normally in my facility in our area because we're medical. So we had the proper cleaning stuff and it was easy transition again at that point for our other companies to do it because we had some guidance and I was able to guide them in that decision. And we had a conversation about how this is, what's going on. So we slowly opened up, we dropped our numbers down to how many people were going to be in the gym at the same time, especially with the children. And then we upped our cleaning regimen within the gym itself to, you know, after every use, you know, a little bit of, you know, mask here and there, depending on the situation currently. Now, like, I recently tested positive this past Monday actually for Covid. So I'm shutting down for at least three weeks, or I say two weeks. And then mask heavy. Heavy mask use at this point, you know, not even social distance to say, hey, you're coming in with me. You gotta have a mask on period. Within the room. And so I'm dealing with that now. So that was an interesting experience. You know, I'm currently going through it right now, I guess. Yeah. So currently, I'm COVID positive.

Oh, my goodness. Okay. So I definitely want to talk about that in terms of, like, well, there's so many different ways that we can go, because I feel like with COVID specifically, given that it's the pandemic, people have all these preconceived notions about what Covid is and about who's impacted and who's not. Not. And so I'm curious from your perspective, you know, what. What happened, how. You know. But I think people have this belief that, oh, if you're healthy, you're not going to get it.

Right. So I'm not saying I'm a pillar of health. Right. I'm actually probably in the least health. And that's not true. I'm not as healthy as I've ever been. Right. I'm 37, so it's, you know, I have family and kids, so. But I'm a fairly healthy dude, feel like. And my wife, she's also fairly healthy.

When you compare it to, the rest of, you know, when you're comparing statistics again.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll say the top.

Yeah, probably. So. So, like, how this started was, so my wife, she works at Mercer, so she started going back to school, you know, end of August, you know, so I guess, you know, fairly recently. And we look back on it now, and so, like, two weeks or so ago, two and a half. Like, she was tired, but at the same time, she had just started school back the. There's a bunch of stress involving Covid with that, you know, so there's all those things, but that's all she had. She had, like, extra fatigue, maybe a little headache, a little sinus stuff. But we also own a farm, so I have a little mini farm, and we breed dogs. So, like, we have a lot of dust. And she doesn't sleep great. Like, again, trying to work with family is impossible. So don't do it. She don't listen to me. Just don't do it. Yeah. Outsource. Have a buddy or something, you know, they'll listen to them way better. So we have all this stuff going on, and so. And it wasn't. She's literally every year at the time, she has kind of this little fatigue time frame. Right. No big deal. So we didn't think anything of it, per se, because it was normal. And then so Labor Day weekend comes, and my kids, they get goggles. Okay. And so over the weekend. Oh, it's goggles. So they started bobbing for apples. Not really, but ducking their heads in the animals. Animal waterers. Right. So they're literally going headfirst with the goggles, looking in the bottom and things like that. Right. This is important because then on about Wednesday of last week, like, the. Each kind of like a. Like a. And they did this all weekend. So Monday, all that. So Tuesday, Wednesday, one had a mini fever for short period of time and had gastrointestinal issues. Right. The next day, the other one did, but it was literally 24 hours next day, gone. No fever, nothing. Puking, you know, no, nothing. And then gone like that. And then come Friday, Thursday or Friday that week, I just started, like, noticing. So this is me personal now. And then I started noticing more fatigue. Like, for me, I sweat. If anybody knows me, I am a. I have a very efficient cooling system. 98.6 all day. But with that, it's constant water that's flowing out of me. Right. I am constantly sweating. So. But one thing I did notice was, like, almost had, like, hot flashes when I went to do something. It was like, man, I'm really hot. It was a little bit different. I would do something like, man, I'm kind of tired, and I'm like, oh, I heard. You know. And then one day, I had a muscle. Like, I hadn't worked out like I normally would. I'm like, this little sore. And then come Saturday, I actually saw my beer snob, and I don't necessarily wear the hat here. I do this on purpose. Company local. So, like, I do craft beers and actually went to sniff, you know, very floral ipa. And I was like, oh, crap, I don't smell this. And so my wife, she also does hand soaps, like, high, high designer soaps. We're busy people. And I knew we had this one. Yeah, we're always doing something. And I knew we had this one soap in the house that was super fragrant. And I went to go smell that, and nothing. And at that point, I'm like, all right, I probably got Covid. Because I felt the muscle. I felt the muscles, Muscle fatigue, the kind of hotness. And I was a little tired. And this is Friday. And then Saturday, I couldn't smell a damn thing. And I'm like, all right, so we probably have Covid. I probably had Covid. And then we didn't think about this, you know, the things I talked about, the kids or her until after I tested positive. So then on Monday, I have to go in Rapid test. If you haven't had the test, it is miserable. As much as somebody's gonna tell you it's bad, it is bad. Like, it is really uncomfortable. Like, it is. They are in your nose, like, they're touching your brain. I swear, it's insane. So they're sticking in there. They twist it up like this. We only have 15 seconds. The longest 15 seconds of your life. I'm telling you right now. I watched Hard Knocks on hbo, and when my man was, like, super nervous about it. I get it now. I totally get it. Because that was miserable. And so they did that, and they came back positive, obviously. And so I've been out of work since. So we shut down. The good thing is, during the past week, I had a slower week, so I really didn't expose too many people.

What's that moment of like, I can't believe I have it?

Not really. I'm like, I'm not. I could just. For me, when we talked about slowing the curve, I really thought that was it. Hey, look, we're gonna slow the curve, which means people are gonna get it. I'm probably gonna get it. And then being in Georgia, odds are I'm gonna get it. So wasn't a. Oh, my gosh, am I gonna get it? I expect to get it. It's a disease. It's sickness, you know, the flu. All these things I expected. Question was, how bad was it going to hit me? Because as I mentioned before, me, my wife, and my kids all had different symptoms right Now. They didn't test positive. Like, they haven't got. They didn't get tested. My wife tested after I tested positive, but again, she was about two weeks out, potentially, from it, if she did have it. But she never tested positive, Right? So technically, we can't say they had it from a research standpoint, Right? It's just odds are that's what these symptoms were. Because it is a crazy, crazy thing. And for me, it's like how I manage it again. Like, you can hear me talking now. I tested positive five days ago, right. My symptoms started a week ago, maybe, and I never really had a day where if it wasn't because it was Covid, I would take off work. I never felt that bad, right? I felt fatigued. But, you know, whatever that happens, sometimes it just. But again, I'm also in decent shape, I would say. And I, you know, I mean, talk respiration. I daily, daily work on maximizing lung volume or, like, filling my lungs up completely, entering out, like, that's a big thing for me is I'm a big fan of cell turnover on all aspects. And I think that's a big aspect of health, really.

Okay, so even if you don't work out, you're still working on increasing your lung capacity, essentially.

Well, my ability to utilize my entire lung. Right. So I'll do like, some breath holds. I do breath work daily. I guess it's part of my daily routine.

And you do feel like that has helped you recover faster? Who's to say?

I'm not a scientist, I'm not epidemiologist. Right. It's just like, oh, yeah, I'm gonna say all this stuff out here. But, like, for me personally, yeah, I think that does matter because again, I think most diseases and most issues come from stagnation. You know, it's poor fluid flow. You know, the big thing with. And I've been in intensive with Bill Hartman, and he really talks about compression and expansion and fluid flow and fluid dynamics. And, you know, look at some of the path by Perry Nicholson. Stop chasing pain guy. Like lymphatics and a lot of that. And then for me, a lot of the issues do come from literally, fluid flow and which is just getting stuff moving. Cell turnover. That's all that is. Cell turnover. We have to utilize things, get things old, get old things out, get those things in. I think cancer is a big part of that. Like, I think all these things really play into it. And so, like, I do think me breathing that way, me exercising a certain type of way, doing these things helped. You know, I got sick. I did not say, oh, I'm going to be bedding. Like, that's the last thing I want anybody to do. You know, if anybody ever asked me about it, my whole thing is move now. If you over train, you know, don't be stupid. You know, but if you're. So, like, if I was working with someone and we had this conversation with my patients, I always talk with them and it's like, if you're a heavy, heavy workouter. So with the athletes I'm dealing with, a lot of times I'm going to decrease the amount of activity they do, but then also have the people on base I work with and they're sedentary a lot of the times, minus their job, and I'm going to increase their activity when they're sick. And it's because it's kind of reading the happy medium. Like, look, you do a lot. Like, you drive yourself to the point of like, super high level of stress. The athletes do. And then they recover from it, because they can. But now they have this added stressor of fatigue or the illness or the sickness, whatever it is. And now it's like, all right, we need to step you back because that's adding stressor. So we're going to do a little bit of less. We're not going to shut you down, but you're going to do less. And that depends on how high, how bad they are, where the other individuals. Unless they're really, really, really bad, right? It's like, you need to go for a walk. You need to get. Look, I know you only get 2,000 steps a day, which is crazy, but people have that right. You have to get 8,000 steps. So that's their activity level. Now you have to get your 8,000 steps in. You have to do this. If you got a bike, you have to do something to move stuff around in your body because that, otherwise it's going to get, you know, you got to get stuff out. You got to have your body repair. And it has to repair everywhere. Like it's a, it's a, it is a collective group, It's a team effort within the body, everywhere, at all times.

So good. That's so true. You know, you did bring up something that I'm curious about, because I feel like you work with two ends of the spectrum. Like when you talk to your people that are on the base who are sedentary, and then you're also working with athletes who are high intense performers. What are, you know, do you notice any similarities in how you train them or the main differences between them?

Yeah, so 100%, that was the big thing. My student course was like, look, I've worked from, again, the ends of the spectrum. And they're literally a lot of times the ends of the spectrum. Like some people I have like, bro, wow. Like, how did you get there? And other people, like, this dude's a freak. Like, this guy, will, I need you to stop doing stuff because you're doing way too much at this point. It's a load management game. And so what I do notice is the human body is the human body, right? So they're going to respond. If I can get the same activity, the body's gonna respond the same way. I have to really pay attention now to the intensity. And so an athlete, I have to jump up the intensity to get the response I need while within the center person, I may. I have to keep it super light. And so there's those aspects. And athletes, they learn generally, like the real High level athletes. So like, I'm not talking about high school kids. High school kids are different. If you go to the NFL or like professional sports coach, Big house power, he says like the two set rule, whatever it is, he's like an athlete is going to have an exercise down on the second set at the latest point, like the high level athletes. And it's like, it's pretty set. Like you teach them something, you show them how to do it, they know their body so well, they get it like that. It may take eight sets to 10 sets. You may never get it with some of these sedentary people because they just can't feel anything. They have no sense. And so you have to put in so many constraints just to get them to again activate their body, if you will, the same way. And so that's where the, really the difference comes into play. Like for most people, Gen pop is all I say is a good exercise program for general population is generally going to be a decent rehab program for an athlete. Like that's where that spectrum is. Like they're, once they like I can give someone, I can crush, crush a person even like a middle school, high school, like a high school athlete with the rehab programs I'd have for the high level athletes because I mean like bury them, they wouldn't make it through. Like it would be absolutely brutal because it's just their, their level is so high, their set rep scream, the amount of weight you got to use, the intensity you have to provide the, you know, they got to perform for hours at a time. Potentially. Like it's so much higher to prep them for a game or get them ready to return to their play than what a general person is going to experience in life. So like a lot of times, again, like a high level rehab or elite athlete is kind of how I program Gen pop workouts or training overall. And it's even lower level again for rehab from there.

Wow. So I'm curious, in your opinion, do you think that those types of skills are learned or do you think it's innate talent?

Both, very much both. Like the whole thing is you're gonna have a genetic limitation. I'm sorry, it just, that's life, right? Your skeletal structure is gonna drive these things. I think that's probably one of the biggest tales there. And also, you know, then you have your mental aspect of how you are, genetic procedures, how you're raised, you know, that matters. But you know, certain predictions, you know, we know from a research standpoint, psychology and things like that, you know, addiction that that's almost, you know, hereditary. You know, there's different types of things that are hereditary and genetic based, you know, congenital things along those. So those will matter. Now, when it comes to actually reaching your full potential, very few people do it. The effort that takes to do it, the time it takes to do it, the ability to even have it. If you're constantly having to feed your family or you're constantly having to work to do things, there's no way physically you're going to be able to reach these levels if you don't already have a certain predisposition for that. Right. You know, you have these athletes, you hear, oh, they, you know, they had to start working at 8 years old with their families to provide food for the family because they came from such a poor family and a broken home and then. But they made the NFL. These most those guys are studs. Like, they have it. Like they are already jacked. Like they are just going to be those guys where you have other people, you don't hear who, oh, they did that, but then had to train a bazillion hours a week because they just didn't have it. They had to actually adjust their body, had to reach that limit of potential. You have those guys, like, but the issue is they had the opportunity to train like that. They had the opportunity to do that. Be it a thousand variables that come into play, right. It's just you have those abilities to reach that cap. Most people don't care about their genetic potential, but it's extremely hard and difficult and you have to have the stars aligned for that to really happen.

So that's why it's so. I mean, that could, that's why it's so such a competitive industry. Because everything has to fall into place at the exact time at the exact right moment. It's not just you have to be top 1%.

Yes. I mean, less than that. Like legit. Like you're a professional athlete. You are the elite of the elite. And how you. And it's your elite in something. It doesn't matter. Like you may be those guys who again, I have a guy, a friend, he had no business being NFL. That was the one thing I always talk about. The guy was undersized, a little bit slower, whatever. The dude was a workhorse, one of the most mentally tough individuals I ever met and could stick to a schedule routine like no one else. So he was the elite. Elite of those little things. Right. He didn't have the genetics. He didn't have like, he had enough, obviously. But he had to push himself. He worked harder than anybody on the team to make the team. He was never going to be a Pro Bowler because he would. There's no way his body could keep up with those other guys. Like, his body would eventually break down from effort level if he played every snap. He just didn't have that. But he was a good role player. He was good special teamer. And so though. But he was able to make it there. Just, he had to go a different route, potentially.

Yeah, I mean, the Rudy, he's the Rudy of the team, 100% for sure. I totally get that. You know, this brings up a good point, is, do you have to deal. Do you find any of your work that you have to deal with the mental, the mental abilities of your players that are potentially trying. Because now you're working with people who are trying to get into the NFL. Is that a huge component that you have to manage?

Yes. So, like, I have a little system that I have, I guess a model, you could say. And so, like, within it, I have the person phase and peripherals. So within the person, you have the body, the mind and the nutrients. And so with that being said, the mind plays a role. Every single person I work with, like psychology, plays into who they are, their thought process, their goals. All these things have to be addressed now. You have to address them. If you're a clinician, no matter what, like, you have to. Now the goal is, does it fall inside your scope of practice? Right. I may have someone who, as I'm working with, I'm like, all right, this person literally has a disorder or whatever you want to call it. I don't know what the PC term is. Something's going on with the brain and it's outside of my scope of practice. I need to have a referral network that's going to, hey, look, I know who you go talk to, and I need you to go do that. Otherwise, I know we're not going to reach the goals that you want to reach, or I know anything I do is not going to stick because of this other mental block. And I need you to get that fixed, you know, But I can always play my part and do what I can within, within the mind. You know, getting them to buy in, getting to understand what's important, getting them to understand and appreciate their goals. All these things really play in. Into the athletes, especially now with the youth athletes, because they have a lot going on and some of them are unrealistic, some of their parents are jerks because they over you Know, they over push and it's like, this kid is not, you know, he just ain't got it. Like, it just. I can tell you, he's already 17 and he's. And he's like, you know, he's not even a starter. It's like he's not gonna go pro, let alone probably get a college scholarship, you know, so, you know, let this kid be good at what he's good at right now. But, you know, so a lot of that is, you know, sometimes we're sort of to lean on as athletic trainers. Many times we play a lot of roles, like a lot, you know, a ton of roles. Mom, teacher, psychologist, all that. Because we have so many touch points, you know, especially when you work with a team specifically, you have, you're always with them, especially if they're hurt. Like, you're always there. You play every facet of their life almost. It's insane.

Yeah, no, for sure. But I mean, at the level that you're playing, these people, this is their whole life. So when they get hurt or something goes wrong, I mean, I can't even imagine what kind of strain that puts on the person.

100%. Like, again, mitigating expectations, letting know, you know, hey, look, this is the, this is normal. You know, look, there's a way back. And the good thing is having worked with some guys who had like, serious injuries in return. Like, we had a guy, three ACL tears in his 30s, and it's like, oh my gosh. And like, look, he's like, he made a Pro bowl after this. Like, it's, it's, it's okay. Like, you can get back from these things again. His special skill was he was the most competitive individual I ever met in my life. Like, the guy would just try me, I'm gonna beat you. Right? And so he was very good at that. He was also a freak talent. But like, you have these, so you have these expectations and you have these examples. So, like, the more experiences you can have, the more you can be honest with a lot of these younger athletes and a lot of these athletes overall of saying, like, yes, you have this injury, but it's not the end of the road for you. At the same time, say you do have a catastrophic injury and they're done, right? Like, you know, it, like they're not going to come back at that point. You know, you also have to have these conversations about, you know, them as a person, like getting them to identify as, you know, Steve or whatever their name is and not as a football player. Or not as a soccer player or basketball player, getting to identify with themselves. And because you're with them all the time and you're especially during this, you know, essentially it's a liminal moment at this point. Right. And so you need to, you have a really good opportunity to get them to change their mindset. And so when we're working with them, we have these conversations of guiding them down to who they are as an individual, what they like, what they're good at outside of sports, you know, so a lot of times I try not to talk about sports in those situations. It's more about life and other things. You know, hey, how's high school going? Hey, how's the, oh, what's, what's going on with, you know, these ladies, these girls, you know, guys like talking about that or the girls with the guys. Hey, what's going on with the, you know, keeping up Kardashians, whatever these kids watch these days, I don't even know. But like, you know, having these conversations outside of who the, of the sport is extremely helpful. And when you're with them for, you know, hour at a time or longer, you have a chance to do that. And so like, you know, that's again, that's a big part of what I like about my job.

That's awesome. I'm curious because I, before I moved to the online space, I used to be a fitness manager. So I have worked with hundreds of trainers and a lot of them wanted to become a athletic trainer because I think there was a sense of eliteness when it comes to, you know, when it comes to training at an, at an athletic level or a high performing athletic level. So I'm curious, is there any pros that you have found or things that you love about training the general population? Not say that you like it better per se, but are there things that you have been able to enjoy about training your sedentary people?

100% when it comes to, again, when they're in the pros, they're good. As much as I like to say I didn't mean a damn difference. It could have been anybody doing the job. Like, it's just they're so good, they're so determined that you can like as much as I wanted to do, hey look, I remember you should do manual therapy and things like all these have these crazy changes. It's like, boom. That had nothing to do with me. It had to do with these guys where bodies are so primed for change and so good. Again, the cell turner, like they're so good at things. I could have, you know, gave him a skittle and like, hey, they're gonna make your knee feel better. All of a sudden their knee feels better, right? It's just everything was so mental and they're so physically amazing that what I did honestly is, you know, I'm downplaying it, but like what I did really wasn't that important. Now when you work with this gen pop, like, you literally can make a huge difference far more I think a lot of times in these guys lives because they don't know anything. Like a lot of these people, they don't know like you tell them, like the simplest thing is you thought everybody knew and it's like, oh, I didn't know that. And it could change their life. Like all of a sudden, like, you know, they're, because how we work with the long time sanitary people, they're hurt, but they also have a bunch of comorbidities, right. You know, they may have diabetes, you may have all these things. So while you're working with them, you can be affecting them or I, you know, that's how we do it. Be affecting like through their life on top of their sports stuff. From a health standpoint, like, so you can make a, I feel like a much larger impact in the gen pop than you are in the NFL guys, the pro sports, because they're, they're studs now. Again, you with, you're with them all the time, so you play those different roles. But from a medical standpoint, like, you make a much larger impact in my opinion, with a gym pop. So that's been extremely rewarding and very nice to see. And especially, especially with the youth athletes that I work with, the ability to help guide them and mentor them has been, you know, that you can't, you can't beat that.

It's rewarding and you use the same principles on them. There's just the intensity level is different.

Correct. You're right. And it takes a little bit longer for them to make that change because they're just not as prime. Like, I mean their whole life is sport, right? So, hey, look, you need to get better. Okay? What I need to do, you need sleep 12 hours a day. All right? Bet. Don't go sleep 12 hours. Like, it's just like, you know, a kid. Hey, look at like, I got homework, I got this class, I got to take care of my sister. I got all this other stuff. So like, you can't make those changes as fast because they just don't have the time to Literally put the work in, you know, comparably and, or their kids and they're just not going to listen as much or you can't be as specific.

Tell a parent to sleep 12 hours a day.

Not having a trust. I know, I know.

I know for sure. Yeah, that's true. And they also, you know, they, it's their job. It's exactly have to do it.

There's always someone there to take their place. So they have that motivation of like, if I miss time, I may be done. Like I may lose millions of dollars if I don't sleep 10 hours a day. Which sounds insane, but it's like, it's just legitimately like you have to understand like there's a. There's not getting. There's the elite. The elite, but that's only a certain few. But within the industry, like you said, there's always someone there trying to take your spot.

It's true. You know, it reminds me for me just from my perspective, it's bringing up a whole bunch of stuff because I actually moved to New York because I wanted to be a professional performer. I was a singer.

Oh, nice.

A lot of it, it's very similar in terms of, you know, I was always asking myself these questions like is this innate talent or is this skill? Blah, blah, blah. Right. All those things come up I think at every, in. In every.

In everything. Everything. Yep. And it's just people are. People are predisposed at being, you know, good at certain things. And some people are, you know, are not good at certain things. And you'll never be as good as that other person. But you still reach your level, in my opinion. But the amount of effort and time you have to put in can be insane. You know, look at Britney Spears. She can't sing a lick, but she's, you know, she's famous. You know, she did what she need to do.

Yeah. To me, I just came to this. For me, I came to this realization, and I believe that this is true in every industry, is that you have to love the process more than you love the outcome because you're going to spend more time in the process than you are in experiencing outcomes. The outcomes are fleeting moments. Getting onto the NFL, right? That's a fleeting moment. Now you have to play and now you have to. To perform. And always looking to ways to be in the process to increase your performance. The same true in any industry. So all that to say, you know, you listen to a Rudy example, what he has to do in his everyday process, that's not something I, as a parent, as someone who prioritizes family life, I'm not going to enjoy that.

Right, right. There's always sacrifices, and that's the big thing for me is there's always secondary consequences when it comes to these decisions you make, no matter what it is. Right. It's like, oh, I want to be a parent. If that's number one, guess what? Everything else is going to fall short of that. Like that you need to clear a path and focus on your goal. And if you, if you know who you are, that's a big thing for me is getting your principles down. If you know who you are, what you care about, what you actually want, then it's easy. It's easy. Nothing's easy. It's simple to know where you're going. Right. But if you don't know who you are, you need to spend time that needs to be number one goal at that point, figure yourself out, figure out what you actually care about, what you want, you know, and for me, I've been blessed, having crazy experiences. I went to boarding school, went to, you know, grew up poor, went to boarding school, went to private school, got the NFL experience, you know, lived in the hood, lived in rich community. So I've had a walk of life from friends from everywhere. And so it's like I've had all these experiences which helped me work with people, helped me connect. Like, you know, you go through precision, nutrition and things along those lines. And they talk about finding your superpower. Like, for me, like, it's empathy. Like, I can, I can justify anybody's decision. It may be the worst decision in the world, but, like, I can see why I did it. Like, I understand, but I think it's wrong, but I still understand where he did it. You know, like I always say, the empathy of Ender Wiggins. I don't know if you're into sci fi anyways, that's.

Oh, who's that?

That's Ender's game. And everybody should read that book, by the way. It's fantastic. It teaches you how to crush your enemies. It's super interesting, but it's. I always have the empathy of Ender Wiggins and. But like, that's my superpower and I think that really helps. But it's also, again, secondary council comes into play where I sometimes have a hard time of making very hard solidified statements and like, you know, turning my back on people, like, I can almost always understand where they're coming from. And so, like I say, you know, a lot of time I'M a martyr. Because I'll tell, like, I get it. I'll jump on this one for you, you know, because I always look at myself as, like, I'm pretty. I'm pretty happy. I think that's, you know, I don't mean to sound brag, but, like, you know, we have a lot. Every stressor in my life is created by me. I create every stressor in my life. Like, I can quit my job. Technically, my wife has a good job. If I wanted to, I could do all these other things if I wanted to. And so for me, it's like, if I know people aren't in that situation, they have to do these things because of. I say have to. You always have a choice, no matter what. It may be between crap and more crap, but it's a choice. You always have a choice. But, like, my choices are pretty solid. Like, I don't have a bad choice to make, you know, and so I always, you know, I don't even know where I was going with that. But it's just, you know, I feel like from empathy standpoint, that's my thing. And so I can connect to people and I can understand when I'm talking with them about. I get what you're saying, you know, to a certain extent, and also understand, like, I don't understand what you're saying. And I'll tell them, like, I don't. I can't. I can't be in the shoes. I've never experienced that. They don't have a conversation about it, you know, and that helps me understand them and helps understand other people who are in the same situation.

I think that's so good. And you brought up a point that I've actually just been grappling with myself the other just this weekend, which is sometimes I feel like my greatest strength, like precision, nutrition, talks about their superpower. Sometimes your greatest strength can also be your worst enemy.

Without a doubt. Without a doubt, right?

It's both. It's always right. There's a paradox in everything, right? It's always, you cannot know the light without the dark. So it's always both. I feel like that about my superpower, too. So yours is empathy, and mine is definitely drive. But it can also be like, you know, go the other way.

You have to stun it sometimes, right? You're like, oof, I have to, like, I get it. But it's like, I have to stop this because it never goes away, right? It's never gone. It's always gonna be there. But you could, you have to make that decision. Sometimes that makes you feel bad, but in the end it's probably the better decision. But because like you're, it's like you're. Again, this is me being empathetic again, where it's like I feel bad about it, but it's like, it's like, you know, it's like I get where it's. It's like, you know what I mean? It's just you have to sometime go against it, even though you think it's what you should do, you know, but you have to look big picture. And it's just, you know, you go down a rabbit hole of all that, but 100% secondary consequences on everything you do, whatever you're doing, you're not doing something else. I mean, that's what this comes down to.

And I love that you said about choice, everything is a choice, no matter what. You are not a victim of your circumstances, which I think is a good thing. It doesn't feel like it all the time. Times you can't see what the lesson is going to be when you're in the thick of it, but it is there. It is. The world is always working in your favor. And when you can really operate from that place, no matter who you train, doesn't matter if you train athletes, gen pop, that will change the game for you.

Yes, and without a doubt. I know it sounds crazy like you're saying, but like if you can get your mind on that choice of like, of the idea, like it's always your choice, your stress levels drop drastically like, and from a health standpoint, you're gonna be much healthier because now you're not like, oh, I don't have no control. You're worrying about things you can't work that you really have no control over and again, that's metabolic syndrome. That's every chronic disease in the world is just stressors that you can't control because you're stressing about them. And it's like once you make it realize I always have a choice, you don't. You know, you can not stress about those things. It's like, all right, this is happening. What's my choice? Pick it, then go about it. You know, again, simple, not easy. You know, it's one of those situations.

Yeah. Okay, so I do have a last question for you because I do want to be mindful of your time, but I'm curious because I always say that someone was going to pay to me, they'll be like, you always say that. Yes, I do.

But.

But, you know, for me, and from my perspective, you have been someone who's a high performer and also on the cutting edge of fitness education or of, you know, strength and conditioning education. Always at the top level, always sharpening the saw. And since this podcast is about, you know, is about helping professional professionals become better at their craft, how have you been able to continue learning? Right? Continue learning and also implement without perhaps, you know, going back on something you said before, you know, does that make sense? Like, how are you continuing to push the envelope since you've been in the industry for so long?

So 100%. So, like, you always, if you don't go back and like, I probably wouldn't have done that now, you're probably stagnant. You know, you got to keep moving. So, like, you know, I'm not saying I wouldn't take things back. I did in the past, but at the same time, I'm not that person who says, oh, I'll look back at myself and I'd be mad at myself for doing like, nah, because you did your best, you did your best and that's all that matters. You know, overall, and I understand the intent versus impact, yada, yada, yada. It depends, like, the person still got better, right? It just may have taken a different route for me. So how I started off is, again, working with the professional sports teams, colleges, things like that. I was blessed with the ability to do a bunch of CEUs, continuing education credits without me having to pay for it. Right? And so as a young individual, experience as much as you can. Don't get caught up in dogma, right? The whole thing is, see everything. Hey, look, this seemed to work. This seems to work. This seems to work. But be savagely good at your basics. Know your anatomy, know your physiology. Those are the two big things that really, really, in biomechanics. Like, again, it's all the same. All injuries. Again, for me, when I'm working with injuries and assessments and diagnosis, it all comes back to anatomy and physiology and biomechanics like it is. Everything goes back there. Special tests, all that doesn't really matter. They're just names. If you know those things, you're going to be good. But then know your basics. Know your savages, savages, your basics. Experience as much as you can. When you're younger, if you, you know, when you have that time to go to all those courses, do that once again. Once you have family or once you have a business going, you're going to lose that time. So go through all that there and Then based on your basics, based on your first principles, what. Why would those things work for people? Because everything that sells works for some reason, right? It may not be as specific or as precise, but it works for those people or some people, some population. Then you can figure out why that works. And then from there you start now honing down your own model and focusing on the courses or the subjects that really, that you really care about and are really going to now when you niche down more to your population, that work well for your population. Because what works for my population may not be a good course for me to go to for someone else's population, because it just, it's just not nearly as applicable. I may go there and may pull one thing from it, which isn't, in my opinion, some courses are like a grand. Now it's like that's not worth a grand to me. It's just like, you know, maybe $200, $100 here and there. But again, it depends on where you are in your career and the money you have. Again, I'm blessed. And so you have to start broad and then slowly narrow it down over your time. That's the biggest thing. But you really, really have to know your basics. And your first pr, One of the big thing with Bill Hartman that really kind of emphasized was like, look outside your industry as well, especially when it comes to basic sciences like physics. I would never thought how much I focus on physics now. Fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, things like that. All those things actually really come into play. I'm not saying you have to know those things specifically, but appreciate them, understand that they're there. And then again, narrow down, Start broad, narrow down and then focus on what works well for your clientele. And then practice, get your reps in, as many reps as you can. Do what you can, try things, don't worry about it. Do safe to fail experiments all the time with your clients and then maybe end with the banger that you know is going to 100% work. But you can always hit things out of the park sometimes with these safe to fail experiments where it's like, oh gosh, we've just gained three weeks of whatever we're trying to go in this one week or this one session, because I tried something different where if you never tried that, you may not get it. Where if you did try it, you lost 10 minutes of a session. Oh, well. But you already know your go to, which is going to drive the changes that you want overall, right? No one needs a full hour. No one needs these full 30 minutes even of something super targeted. Unless you know it's going to work. Like if you can get those super target things and you know for sure, but you never know, that's the problem. So you have to kind of hit it. But when you do get that change, own it. You know, when you get those progress, own it and just drive that home until those changes stop.

So good. Well, you said three things in there. One of them like, really, you know, because now we're talking about marketing and it's something that I really love is when, you know, people are always. Is having that pricing conversation in their brain. And what they're really talking about is, is the perceived value worth the asking investment. That's really the conversation people are having in their brain all the time. So I'm curious, how do you determine for you? And I know you're saying that everyone's at different levels, like, just learn as much as you can and implement. And I think that's really important and get out of the dogma. That's something that I wish if you were to say, Beverly, what's one thing you'd want to know when you were starting strength and conditioning coach? It would be that is that it's. There's not. There's. And I noticed this in myself now. There's more than one way. Lots of ways are right. Learn, be familiar with them all. So how do you, you know, especially now with so many different opportunities coming to the market, how do you discern which ones you want to invest in?

So I'm ruthlessly savage with myself when it comes to what I, what I, what I'm bad at. Like, one of the things I would tell myself as a younger person was do more things that suck. Like, I was again, my friend says you're the king of the humble brag. And I was like, I don't mean, I don't even mean to do that. Right. But I must say I was pretty good at a lot of things when I was a kid. Like, and also there was a lot of things that I could do that I was decent at. And so I would do those things. I didn't do a lot of things I was bad at. And so when I got older and I started experiencing triumph and failures and things like that, it was like, holy crap, this sucks. Like, I gotta, I don't know what to do. Like, you know, I had to figure out how to grow and in the thick of things, right? And so do more things that suck. But so now currently I am, I'M terrible, I'm mean to myself. I'm compassionate enough. But like, I am. I treat myself way worse than anybody else mentally. Right. And so I really look at, like, where am I bad at it? Like, where am I bad? What am I not good at? And, and that's not for me, you know, part of this, me what I think. But really it's like, where am I struggling when I'm working with patients? Where am I struggling working with life, you know, even with my family? Where are my struggles? I'm learning to go and gravitate. Where can I find something that's going to help me get better at that? And then once I think of a subject or target market at that point where I'm going, I then ask people who've taken a course. I won't take a course. Silent scene. Like, that's just not something I'm doing. I'm asking friends, I'm looking at testimonials. I'll email people sometimes from testimonials. If it's like someone who's high in the industry who I know is known to like, kind of write back or say something, I'll say, hey, what do you think about this? If I feel like the person super marketing, I generally don't do it. I'm sorry. It's just like for me, you gotta, you gotta look genuine and like. And I don't care about dollar signs at that point, I'm not there. You know, when I was younger, yes, that mattered. But now where I am in life, I can look at it and say, if this value is going to generate something for me, like a better outcomes, like for my patients, I'm going to take it. But it has to be something at that point that I think is going to drastically help me. Has to be like, this is a logjam in my current abilities and I know it's gonna remove that logjam. And I know if I don't get this logjam taken out, I am not going to move forward. Like, I'm going to struggle here. So it is like a pivotal point and that's where I'm really going to focus my thoughts are. And that could be like skill set, it could be marketing, it could be. It could be like this mental, like psychology. It could be, you know, whatever it is. Like, that may be the. This is where I need to go. Like, I've done several things to kind of get over these logjams. And so, yeah, that's how I make.

My choices, which is why it's so important that fitness professionals find a way to communicate authentically what it is and what problems they are specifically solving so that people like you can make those decisions. That's why it's so important. That's why marketing is important.

One of the things I do like to say also with that is, like, I'm older. I say older. I'm not that old. I'm 37. But there's a lot of young guys, right, on the industry doing education stuff, and I am not hesitant to take classes from these younger guys. Like, put your ego aside when it comes to that, because a lot of these guys, again, they got the time now, right? These guys don't have families. These guys have the time. And, like, if you're a nerd, great, I love you. You know, be the nerd. Do all this stuff that I have time to do and then teach me it. Like, I don't care if you're younger than me. I don't care if you're 25. Like, you know, if you're. As long as you're not trying to tell me about life experiences. Like, oh, you have, like, bro, you shut up. You know, you don't know anything about that. But, yeah, look, you spend, you know, a bazillion 10,000 hours on this subject. I haven't had time to do that. And all the new research and technology has come out. You have to be able to utilize that. Hell, yeah, I'm gonna go take a course from you. It's so, like, if you're older, don't worry about that. I know, like, I talk with a lot of people in my profession. It's like, all these young kids, they're out. I'm like, bro, they got the time now. Like, they. They can do it. Like, research is better. School should be better. And if we haven't stayed up on education or even we'd have the time, like I said, it just depends on who you are. And, like, so many variables come into play on how good you can be when you talk about sports. Same thing with our profession is, you know, they may have it, and you just. And they can give it to you in a better. In a much concise, hey, look, I've done these issues. I've had this. And then you just need to come correct with your experience with the right questions. And so now you can. Then I'm gonna ask these questions based on my experiences that I have these extra 30 years I have that. You only have five or 10. But now I can ask you a very specific Question based on the knowledge that you have. And now, boom, I've taken this huge idea from this course or from this individual that has helped me, based on my experience, to combine with their, their knowledge. And that's a big thing for me is, you know, ask good questions.

That is so powerful because you're learning, you're learning information from them, and then you get to filter it through your principles, through your module over or your model, how you live and your context. That's. That is very powerful. And I think too, that that's. I think you were talking about ego. Putting your ego aside, I think too. And I'll just say for me, when I get it, when I got into dogmatic practices, it all comes from the ego. All comes from trying to prove yourself. But when you can both, I think it's just very powerful when you can both say, I know nothing, but I can help you and I can implement people who need my help. Like, that is just, that's what brings you to the top. Definitely having beginners mindset. I think that that's so important.

Got to stay there all the time. You gotta understand that every individual is an expert in something that you're not because they're their own individual. That's the, you know, I can't. Every time I go to a room, I know someone's smarter than me in something because they live their life like their life has made them smarter than me. I don't care how old you are. Like, they've gone through certain experiences I haven't gone through. So I can learn something from everybody.

And I. It's so powerful. And I'll be honest with you, it's something that I still have to check on a daily. Even when I go into marketing conferences, I'm really checking my ego and being like, no, Beverly, doesn't matter.

Big time.

You're gonna learn something. And I always do.

Big time. It is, it is a like, say it's simple, simple said, not easily done. Like it is, you constantly have to check yourself. And that's. And that's natural. That's human nature, right? You know, you read Dale Carnegie's Halloween present for Sweet Bowl. The one big thing is, like, every decision you make is, it's your decision. It's because it benefits you. You made the decision. It's the best choice for you. No matter what it may be like, oh, I've donated $10 million to this company. All I had was $10 million. But that decision I made was because it's gonna make me feel a Certain way. And that's the only reason I'm doing it. Like, you know, and so, like, all the actions that you take, essentially, you know, I feel like it is, like, it's a choice that you're making because it's your. It's selfish. It's a selfish decision no matter what you choose. You know, obviously, relative principles, but, like, 100%. And you have to check your ego every single time, every single day, because we're naturally. That's what kept us alive. Like, that's evolutionary. We have to worry about ourselves. We're dead. We can't procreate. You know, all these other, you know, we got to see another day. It just. Life's changed since we were, you know, cavemen.

True. It's true. Well, Greg, this has been such an awesome episode. Thank you so much. I really want to be mindful of your time. So for all of the people that want to learn more from you, where's the best place that I can send them?

So, currently, I guess I'm most active on Instagram at Thorn Training and Therapy and then all my other handles. ThorntonTrainingTherapy.com is the website Thorntraining Therapy on Facebook. I'm not on Twitter. I don't have time for that. I don't like writing. I guess I'm just not on Twitter right now.

Your Instagram posts have been fire recently.

I am so sporadic, though. I'm not gonna lie. Like, it's just. It takes me, like, an effort. I'm putting effort in now to kind of get on there, you know? Like, that's the whole Alex. Alex effort. A friend of mine, he's been good on that. He's been kind of motivating me. I don't know if he knows it, but I'll get on there, he'll start posting things. I'm like, you know what? I could. I could probably post some stuff, too. It's just. I had to get away out of my own ego, right? It's like, oh, people are posting things that, you know. Like, I'm like, people are really good at posting stuff. Like Katie, Katie Sinclair, Jason Sinclair, Alex. Like, all these guys are posting things. I'm like, man, this stuff is like, that's why I was. I couldn't say it better, right? But the thing is, my audience is different. The people I talk to, the people are going to understand me. And again, I've. I've told myself this for years, but it's still hard for me to do it. It's like, I don't Want to pose the same thing. It's like, dude, there's a bazillion people out there. Like, who's to say, like, what I. How I say it's gonna be better than how, you know, gonna connect with someone different. And like, for me, again, 37 years old, I still struggle with that daily. Like, it's just every single time I go to post, I'm like, does this matter? It's like, doesn't really matter if it matters. Like, if I can help one person now, especially now, I'm trying to write posts to kids with my youth athletes. And that's helped me really focus on how I post things. And so it's like, I'm trying to say things are gonna help my current population that work with. And. And so everybody, every single time, like, is this gonna connect with them? And it's like, it doesn't matter. Just say something. If it's what I believe, it really doesn't matter. And. And so that's how I've started doing it.

And it goes back to, you know, we can't control it. All we can do is right from our heart, and we can't control what the impact is their side. And I think that that's, you know, very powerful and always, too. Like, I was actually. I was actually talking to Alex the other day, and I was talking about your baby post, and I literally. I was like, thank you. Finally someone said it. But then I went back because I was telling Alex, I was like, oh, my gosh, if I was as strong as my baby, my children can't even walk down the street, right? Fall off the curb and fall back. They can't even step off the curb. And. But it's funny because before I had children, I used to say that all the time.

Like, that was a big thing for me. It's like, oh, look, baby squats like this. And it's like, you know, I'm like, bro, like, I suck at squatting. I have some S1 I'm making. I'm terrible. Like, my squat. I'm a hingey all day, you know, like, yeah, all day.

I'm a huge wide. I couldn't even come out.

Oh, yeah, see? Yeah, I can see that. So it's like, you know, something. Oh, you know, like, again, I'm very harsh on myself. It's like, if I can't do it, it's probably. If I'm good at. It's probably the wrong way. Like, I told you where my mind goes. Like, I'm really good at this or if I'm bad and I'm like, that's probably the right way. If I'm not good at it, then that's probably the right way. And so it's like people just squat like that and it's like you look back at it and you learn. It's like, bro, like, no, that makes no sense. Like, look at him. I'm stiff on my kid, you know, boom. Knock him over. Like, get up. You know, it's like it's super easy and I don't do that. But it's like, yeah, they're terrible. They don't move very well at all. Like they barely move. Babies barely can get by. Like they're surviving. It's like if you're trying to be an athlete or trying to do things, you're trying to thrive, not survive. So it's like, look, you can't compare yourself. Don't compare yourself to kids.

I mean it takes 60 minutes to get them in the car.

The truth, right?

Oh my goodness, that's just really powerful. Anyway, so you've been just writing some killer stuff. I think that.

Appreciate it. I appreciate that.

It's awesome. Are you working on any projects right now? I mean you mentioned a million. A million. Because you are an entrepreneur at heart. So there any project.

I don't know about all that. Like I forget for me it's like I got it. I would love a steady paycheck, you know, that's why I'm still kind of in there, you know, the business. But no, like my wife is definitely entrepreneur. So she helps me, she helps guide me and then you know, even talk with you. When I was working with Chris and you know, upr, which kind of, you know, we're putting on the back brunch right now. You know, a lot of things. You said resident. Well with us in regards to, especially with the post and like, hey, just kind of get out there and do that. But like, you know, me and Alex are Alex ever considering within hopefully next three months or so hopefully have a foot course out on X1A and kind of propulsion, foot propulsion and how the foot moves and eventually I need to upgrade my soon, hopefully within the next month I'll have how to manage acute injuries. Quick one hour, two hour seminar, hopefully get some cus with that for not just medical professionals like myself but for what you deal with. If you are a trainer or client, strength coach or a personal trainer, even yourself, the goal would be to have something out there. Hey look, this is what you should be looking for. This is what you should do following an acute injury. And, you know, ice and rest generally are not going to be the answer. And so the goal is to maximize your body's ability to heal itself. And so that should be coming out hopefully within the next month. And I'm not sure if that's going to be through. We definitely advertise on my platforms and then potentially through UPR as well, or even Alex efforts prep platform.

So cool. Okay, well, definitely keep me posted with that. I'll definitely update all the show notes so when they're out, it'll always be on this podcast.

Awesome. Appreciate that.

Yeah, for sure. So people can check that out. You know, I was just saying the other day when I started as a strength and conditioning coach, all I had was like my NASM book and you had to wait until go. You could go to like a certification for the week. And I'm laughing at myself now because that's only like, I don't know, seven years ago in the pan, right? And now people are like, oh, everybody's doing it. There's so much in the market space. But I think it is a gift 100% that we can really raise the fitness industry. It will be a game changer because I think people like us, we forget that there is a whole slew of people that can call themselves a fitness professional and have no business being a fitness.

Very much so. Very much so.

Greg, thank you so much. This has been awesome.

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate that.

Thank you for listening to the PT Profit podcast. If you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So it would be a huge service to us if you would please leave us a review and share with your friends on your social media channels. When you leave us a review, be sure to take a screenshot of it and email that screenshot to my team atinfo simpson fitness.com and we'll send you a very special Instagram podcast that will show you how to create compelling content so that your ideal clients come to you and you go from wanting clients to a wait list of clients ready for your services. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.