S06E181 - Navigating Olympic Lifting and Personal Training with Guest Coach Brian DeCarlo
What happens when a college football player turns his passion towards CrossFit? Join us as coach David Syvertsen @davesy85 talks with guest Brian DeCarlo @decarlob1 as he shares his journey from the fields of college sports to the world of CrossFit Bison, transforming not only his life but also the lives of countless others.
His story will leave you inspired as we discuss how his athletic history, especially in football and baseball, has shaped his coaching philosophy and approach. Brian opens up about his personal and professional evolution, uncovering how the CrossFit Games on ESPN became a pivotal moment that steered his career towards personal training and Olympic lifting.
Our discussion takes a deeper dive into how personal training can serve as a catalyst for beginners and seasoned CrossFit athletes alike. With a spotlight on the economic balance between personal training and group classes, we unpack how tailored sessions can offer a fast track to mastering fundamentals. We also reflect on the challenges posed by the pandemic, illuminating the increased significance of coaches and their pivotal role during such times. If you're curious about how to enhance your CrossFit experience, whether you are new or experienced, this conversation is filled with insights and practical advice.
We further explore the nuanced world of specialized training, particularly in Olympic lifting. Brian shares anecdotes of breakthrough moments that athletes encounter and emphasizes the importance of having the right coach to guide their journey. We talk about the often-overlooked benefits of specialized courses that zero in on technique, providing a refreshing break from the typical CrossFit routine. This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone eager to refine their lifting skills and embrace the journey of continuous improvement in their fitness endeavors.
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S06E181 - Navigating Olympic Lifting and Personal Training with Guest Coach Brian DeCarlo
TRANSCRIPT
David SyvertsenHost
00:05
Hey everybody, welcome to the Herd Fit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, coach David Syverton. This podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and, most importantly, mindset. All right, welcome back to the Herd Fit Podcast. I am Coach David Syverton. I am not here with my co-host, dr Coach Chamery. I am here with a special guest today. This is Coach at CrossFit Bison, Brian DeCarlo. Brian, what's up, my man?
Brian DeCarloGuest
00:36
What's happening?
David SyvertsenHost
00:39
We're going to touch on a really key component to the future of Bison, also something that Brian does more than anybody on our staff and it's been that way for a long time and that is personal training. He's also our kind of like our olympic lifting coach, kind of our specific olympic lifting coach, and we have some plans for the future in regard to that and him. Um, but, brian, before we get into that, I really kind of want to intro you, because not everyone that listens is from Bison. And even the people that are from Bison, they might not take the Wednesday morning class, they might come midday, they might come at night and they see you a couple of times a year. They see you in the coaches pictures. So I kind of want you to briefly kind of touch on some of your what we call the CrossFit start story. A little bit of brief background on why, when, how and how we're sitting here right now.
Brian DeCarloGuest
01:28
Yeah for sure. One day, watching ESPN, I saw the CrossFit Games it's maybe 2012 on TV and it looked interesting. You know, I played football in college and I always trained hard to try to be better at football. Getting out of college it kind of got monotonous at the gym. I started to look for something and this was it. Someone local opened up a gym and the rest is kind of history.
David SyvertsenHost
02:00
That's a really common CrossFit star story. For the former athlete, at some point you get told that you're not going to be in the NFL someday. It's not that you're waking up every day wanting to compete anymore, if anything. I know a lot of especially college football players, that you're like dude, I'm kind of done with that, that training routine and playing through pain, fighting through pain, training all year, but there's still something that kind of makes you feel alive. You know something that you're really going for and some guys find it at the Globo gym with their curls and bench press and just lifting a lot of weights and looking at themselves in the mirror and loving that feeling.
02:37
Others join men's leagues and you know kickball, flag football, softball, all that stuff. You know you found CrossFit and because you watch it on ESPN, which is such a common story for people in our age group, you know like late thirties, early forties, that you saw it on ESPN and not necessarily like hey, I can do that one day, but you're just intrigued by it. What was the most intriguing part about that? You know watching it on ESPN like, was it, hey, I want to do that someday, or is it hey, that just looks cool and hard, and I think I have the skill set for it.
Brian DeCarloGuest
03:11
I knew I was athletic enough to do some of the things they were doing. I was at the time maybe 26, 27 years old. I was gaining weight. I didn't like the way I looked and looking at the bodies of the guys doing crossfit I'm like geez, I can maybe get to that point at some point. And again, when my wife Nicole and I started, we went in head first full paleo.
03:39
We went to three different grocery stores to do our shopping this is before kids, and I mean. Nicole lost about 15 pounds, I lost like 30 pounds and we started to look and feel great and it just snowballed from there into wanting to help others achieve the same things that we did. So that's kind of where I got into coaching.
David SyvertsenHost
04:07
And I kind of want to add in some of my personal history with Brian, because I think that's equally important for everyone to know that we didn't meet in the CrossFit space. Out of all the Bison current and past community there's very few people that I've known for as long as I have brian, and vice versa. Uh, brian and I, we both grew up in midland park, you know. So I moved here in 95. Brian was a year above me, but basically since 1995 we've known each other through sports. Um, his cousin was one of my really good friends in high school that we played sports growing up together and Brian and I crossed paths, mainly in high school, with sports.
04:48
So I was a pitcher in high school. That was like my thing growing up. I played all different sports but pitching was my thing and if I ever see myself coaching a sport down the road it would be as much as I love football. It would be baseball and it would be pitching biased. And they often call in baseball the pitcher's mound the loneliest place in the world and it's a figure of speech in that in baseball you can hide in right field, you can hide at third base. You can never have a ball hitting to you. You can strike out four times and your team can still score 30 runs. When you're a pitcher in baseball, there's a lot of pressure on you, a lot of eyes on you. Every play starts with you. If you do well, your team does great. Usually, if you don't do well, your team gets smoked, and there's a lot of pressure there. And when you're a pitcher, there's one person on the field that can help you the most, and it's it's the catcher, and I played on a lot of baseball teams growing up some, and I played on a lot of baseball teams growing up some really good teams too, with a lot of good players and a couple of guys that went on to play in the pros. And to this day I would say my favorite slash, best catcher I ever had was Brian.
05:51
Brian was my catcher, and the more I reflect on my childhood, growing up with him and playing sports with him, it goes to show like why he is a good coach and why he is trustworthy, because as a catcher, you have to be so many things you gotta be smart, you gotta be in tune, you gotta be you know, have to read body language and no situations. You have to have a great recall. You need to be able to, you know, remember things from three years ago, very subtle details. You also, personality wise, need to wear a few different hats. You need to be a therapist. You need to be a therapist. You need to, like, pick someone up when they're down. You also need to tell someone to stop being a little bitch when they're being, when they're scared or something, and you think about, like, what a CrossFit coach is, what a personal trainer is. You kind of have to do that too.
06:34
And you know, when you're a catcher, you're a catcher to a lot of different pitchers and Brian's probably caught hundreds of pitchers in his day. They had different personalities, different strengths and weaknesses and I I loved having brian. You were, you know, it's like when you get older. You appreciate things more when you get older than you did back then, and brian was also.
06:53
We were also linebackers next to each other in football and if I ever die and my brain says, oh, they have cte or some sort of brain damage, brian's gonna get a notice in the mail from a lawyer saying he gave me three of my first four four concussions. All right, but there there's um, there there's a history here, and I wanted to just put that out there before we dive into the meat of today's topic, because you know we've discussed a lot what makes a good CrossFit coach, what makes a bad CrossFit coach, what makes someone that could be good for a long time, because it's not easy to be a good coach for a long time in professional sports, but also in CrossFit boxes. So, brian, do you ever look back on your athletic experiences as a team captain, as a catcher, as a linebacker? He was the general of our defense back in the day, right? Do you think that really has bled into your coaching career and teaching career, because Brian's also a teacher?
Brian DeCarloGuest
07:49
Absolutely. I mean playing those two positions linebacker and catcher. You know you're the captain on the field. You're you know directing what the defense is going to do. You know you're directing what the defense on the baseball field is going to do. You know you're working with the pitcher. You're trying to call the game. Coach Ehring, sometimes let me call the game, sometimes he called the pitches himself.
08:14
But you know, and being able to work with a lot of different personalities, being able to know when to calm someone down, knowing when you have to rev someone up, you know it all bleeds in. And I also coached football. I coached wrestling at the high school level as a defensive coordinator and, again, being able to kind of know how different people tick. It definitely bleeds into coaching CrossFit and being able to, you know, pat someone on the back and say it's okay, like, don't worry about that last lift, or being able to say, hey, put 10 more pounds on the bar, you're being a bitch Like. You know that bar moved really fast. I don't know how it felt, it moved, just trust me, you know, again, it all bleeds together.
09:05
I think my coaching career made me a better CrossFit coach. I think being a CrossFit coach made me a better football coach. Um, and teacher for that matter. Uh, you know, I say sometimes teaching uh, you know, kindergartners is easier than teaching a group full of adults. Um, you know, getting them to listen sometimes is easier than than getting, uh, you know, 40, 50 year old people to listen.
David SyvertsenHost
09:24
For sure.
Brian DeCarloGuest
09:27
All those things kind of blend together and have kind of molded the coach that I am.
David SyvertsenHost
09:32
Yeah, I think that for the sake of our future, we both have kids and when you are looking at it from a perspective of a parent, you really do value how important a coach is and a teacher is. And I remember having completely different thoughts or I'd even say different thoughts, I would say strengthened thoughts and notions during COVID, when a lot of people really found out how important the teachers are for kids. And you know, unfortunately it took a scenario like that for a lot of people to realize how they're not just important, they're vital. They are vital components of our society and the topic is personal training and specific areas of coaching for CrossFit. A lot of CrossFit athletes not all, but a lot of CrossFit athletes, members of gyms, they have some history of having a personal trainer and if you know anything about the business model of personal training, if you work out three, four, five days a week with a personal trainer, you are spending a massive amount of money. In the past and currently, I know people that spend 12 to 15 grand a year on personal training and to some that's mind-numbing, but that's actually a pretty general market and there's a lot of personal trainers that you're paying a lot more Basically when you get one-on-one attention every time you go to the gym. It's 30, 45, 60 minutes, you know, and you talk about hourly rates and what personal trainers need to sustain. You know their livelihood. That's how much it is and at some point some people just cannot afford that. That's how much it is and at some point some people just cannot afford that.
11:27
And then, as CrossFit exploded, you know one of the angriest groups of people you know on the face of were personal trainers. Because you know a lot of people said, hey, economically, I'm still getting the coaching, I'm not by myself and it cost me 200 bucks a month instead of 1500 bucks a month. Why would I not do that? And you know Brian does both. Brian coaches CrossFit and he does personal training. He's done more personal training than any coach on our staff since since we've been open. Brian, you know, and no bias, just like, let it rip here. When, how, how, who is the person that needs personal training the most? In a CrossFit gym, you can kind of keep the outsiders away for now We'll get to them, but within a CrossFit gym, who are the people that need it the most?
Brian DeCarloGuest
12:14
The people who need it the most, I would say beginners. There's kind of two groups of people who need it Beginners, who you know they really need to be at the 6 am class.
David SyvertsenHost
12:26
Right.
Brian DeCarloGuest
12:26
The 6 am class. You know, if you take 6 am, you know you're clicking reserve at 6 o'clock on the dot to make sure you get your spot. And there's, you know it's consistently filled with 30 people. Yeah, and as great as our coaching staff is, you cannot give the attention to 30 people that you would, you know, at a 715 class with five people. So I think, I mean, I think beginners, you've kind of tried to be like, hey, these are the classes that that you might want to go to, in the beginning at least.
David SyvertsenHost
12:59
Just had a conversation with a couple last night on the phone who's going? They're going to try it out this week and then I said, what time do you work out? I'm like, ah, sometimes in the morning I'm like, hey, I honestly would recommend you not come at 6am and and they get it and they understand, but that's, that's a. It's hard to learn when you're new in a group that big.
Brian DeCarloGuest
13:14
Yeah, it's hard to let it towards those new people. We spend a lot of time with them and kind of you know the rest of the class is going to miss out a bit. So those new members, the new CrossFitter who kind of wants to, kind of, you know, speed that process along of learning. Because when you're one-on-one, you know I'm spending you know 45 to 60 minutes looking at you. I'm not, you know, I'm not distracted by any of the other members who I'm coaching in a class. Uh.
13:50
The other group of people are the group who are like, want to take it to the next level, like they're like you know, um, they're pretty good they're, they're at the top of the whiteboard a lot of the days, uh, but they, they, they're missing a little something. Like they're missing, uh, some strength in their, in their olympic lifting. They're missing a little something, right, they're missing some strength in their Olympic lifting. They're missing some technique, where they have the strength and the technique isn't there, where someone who has similar strength is lifting a lot more than them and beating them in competitions. So I think those two groups are kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum, but I think anyone can really benefit from one-on-one sessions, even if it's just like, hey, I really want to work on my muscle-ups. Can you set me up with someone for just one session or two sessions to clean them up a little bit, because sometimes it's just one cue from one coach and all of a sudden it clicks and you're able to do things that you didn't realize you can do.
David SyvertsenHost
14:43
Yeah, and I think that's the predominant answer that I want everyone to take away. Personal training can be and should be for everyone, if circumstances can allow, your schedule, the money, all that. When I started CrossFit I did two personal training sessions during the Open, because there was a week where this is before RX and Scaled in the Open it was just here's the workout, guys. It was 30 snatches at 75, 30 at 135, 30 at 165, max at 205. A lot of people would get to that second barbell and either not be able to lift it or you would just be getting one rep every 15 seconds and I remember doing it, getting smoked by that 135 barbell. And I lined up a personal training session the next day with one of the coaches there 60 bucks for a half hour. Warm up on your own, show up. We work on snatches helped a little bit, beat my score the next time, but that was I was the new guy in the gym at that point where I wanted to work hard but I just didn't know how to do things.
15:38
And I always say on the podcast and when I coach the amount of skill in CrossFit is part of what sets it apart in CrossFit is part of what sets it apart. But until you adopt that mindset that there is a skill in everything you do, including the ring muscle up, which is obvious, but then also your rowing, your biking, your bar facing burpees, your wall balls there's a skill component to every single thing you do, and you only develop skill by doing it over and over and over again correctly not doing it over and over again, but doing it over and over again correctly and for you to really understand the components to what does correct actually mean. More often than not, you either need a personal trainer or you got to go spend a lot of time on youtube and even then you're still kind of thinking. You ever try to teach yourself something and you're like I'm trying to teach myself how to snow plow and I'm like, am I doing it right? Like I think I am.
Brian DeCarloGuest
16:34
It's like the worst thing ever is to go on YouTube right before a golf outing and think that you're going to drive the ball 350 yards.
16:41
But with lifting I watch people and I'm like you know, if I'm taking class I'm like brace, brace, brace, like little things, and it's hard not to turn that coaching mindset off. Yeah, but there's subtle little subtleties that are in every movement that you can make more efficient. Everyone can make more efficient. Very good point, it's just how it is. I mean, even the top guys, once they fatigue, like their form breaks down, it's going to happen. They just get better and better at, you know, being able to do those things while fatigued and be as efficient as possible. I mean the guys that's I don't know, maybe not the most fit guys win, but the guys who are able to be most efficient while being under fatigue.
David SyvertsenHost
17:30
Yep, I mean, that's a huge part we see here on a daily basis. You can be fit, you can look the greatest, but if you can't keep your shit together when you're really tired, things start to break down and it's almost like adding weight to a barbell that didn't need added weight, like it's just. Everything becomes harder, every little thing becomes harder if the skill isn't there. Now I've seen you personal train athletes that are brand new or people that don't cross it. Okay, we're gonna dive into them in a little bit.
17:57
But I actually think one of the most under developed markets in personal training within CrossFit is the highly experienced athlete. And sometimes it's like, hey, just don't feel like doing it, hey, I don't want to pay my money for that, like I already spend a lot of money to come here. But if you are not in that camp, if you do have some extra disposable income, if you do have the extra time and the willingness, I think that there's a lot of people I can think of 10 people right now off the top of my head that would benefit from just two or three sessions, or maybe one session every two months, of meeting at the gym. You can do a couple of weakness work, or just a consultation, a talk. Watch me do a workout hey, let's rest five minutes. Go over the video, let's do it again. Workout hey, let's rest five minutes. Go over the video, let's do it again. Or watch me lift Touch on, because you really have worked with a lot of different experience levels, especially with your OLE class, which we'll get to.
18:58
But do you agree that some of these people that have been doing it a long time, they do know their stuff and you can actually start on level six instead of level one with these guys and really kind of take that game to the next level, like if I came to you, I have a lot of experience across it? I was like hey brown, I really want you to help me work on my squat, snatch and my cleans for the open and quarterfinals this year. Um, you know, let's spend five sessions together. Can you kind of describe what the difference is between working with someone like that and someone who just obviously started off and who needs help learning how to air squat?
Brian DeCarloGuest
19:25
right. Well, someone who's just starting off here, I mean you're, you're looking for like gross errors, like just you know, um, no, not disgusting errors, but like big errors obviously and you can. You can fix those pretty easily and like when I'm working with someone new yeah I'm looking for them to to move safely right right, all right, we're moving safely. Let's start to like um chip away at the the subtleties of the movement. Right, like everyone oh I would say everyone who starts bends their elbow early yeah, on any olympic level yeah um, and I'm not worried about that until they're they're moving safely right now.
20:01
Let's let's get to the, to the next part. Someone like you who is experienced, who moves well, you know you find much finer errors in the lift.
David SyvertsenHost
20:14
Right.
Brian DeCarloGuest
20:14
And sometimes it's just that lift and sometimes it's you know, if you see it over and over and over again, it's like, let's tweak this, let's make sure we're doing it right, let's tweak this, let's make sure we're doing it right. And sometimes it takes some humility from the athlete. You're like, all right, let me take down some weight and do it right at a lighter weight so that I can build it back up. You know, unfortunately, if you're, you know, if you're an experienced athlete, unlearning a bad technique takes just as much time as building it back up and getting to where you want to be. Um, so it does.
20:48
It takes time, it takes some humility, uh, but for someone who's experienced, you're going to look for much. You know much smaller imperfections in the lift. Um, that will, you know, eventually help you if you find enough of them. You know those one percents, eventually they're going to add up and you're, you're going to find yourself, um, you know, lifting more than you, than your previous foot, or lifting the same, just doing it more efficiently and being able to do it under duress, and and those kind of things yeah, the gains you make as an experienced athlete are just so much smaller.
David SyvertsenHost
21:19
Like you look like centimeters, half inches at a time, like you know, and when you're new like that's that's with any crossfitter you make such big gains early on and then that that rate of increase just does not hold up. But, yeah, I think one of the hardest components to personal training or giving specific instruction to an experienced crossfitter is that they really have to like, be aware and present with the concept that the gains they're making are not going to be enormous. You're not going to figure something out and add 20 pounds to your snatch tomorrow, but what you could do is make every snatch you do safer and a little bit more efficient so that the gains can eventually come. But a beginner, you could probably fix their bar placement on their front, squat and their squat goes up 20 pounds. You're not going to do that with an experienced athlete.
Brian DeCarloGuest
22:08
Right, I mean it's. It's a lot of fun working with new athletes because the gains are just they're so quick and they're.
22:13
They're like people get excited, they see results. When you're working with someone with experience, I mean I've had people who they you know they signed up for a session and I think they were disappointed that they didn't PR in that session and like never called me back. I'm like I, you know I I don't take offense or I don't take it personally, but I'm like, listen, it's going to, it takes time, like if you're, if you're looking to improve, it's not going to happen overnight. You need to put in the work and it's. It's going to take some time and it takes some trust too. I get you know, if you trust that I know what I'm doing. You know, take down some weight, let's and build it back, let's build it back up and eventually, um, you know those, those big lifts will come again.
22:50
I, working with the newer athletes is is so much fun because you see so much many gains. And then you get, I mean it can be a little nerve wracking working with someone with experience, because you know they're, they work with you five, six, seven sessions and nothing's right. You know they haven't made any gains yet and you know, if you trust the process, they will come and you know sometimes it's not. You know it's not a lifetime PR, especially as we get older. Sometimes it's just moving better. I can wow, I can overhead squat where I used to have to power snatch every single rep, or I can get lower in my, I can get out of the hole in the clean. But again, there's small, subtle changes that take a lot of time to do. Like you said, the more into this you get, the smaller the PRs, the less often they happen, if at all.
David SyvertsenHost
23:41
At this point, Yep, and it's the pursuit of chasing objective results versus subjective right Like objective is your PR, your times are better. Subjective is like hey, you're moving better, you feel better, you look better. You know I have an athlete in the gym who says, oh, I haven't lost a pound in two years that I've been here. But she looks completely different and you know that kind of ties into our in body machine that we have right behind us is, you know there's more to making gains in fitness than than how much you weigh. And it could be what you look like your body fat percentage, your muscle mass, your lean muscle mass, everything can kind of be tied into it. But if you're only looking at one thing, right, if you're only looking at your lifts and your PRS, it's short sighted and it doesn't really. It doesn't mean as much as you always think it does, especially as you underdeveloped.
24:29
One of the underutilized tools that experienced athletes use is personal training. But you also want to know a group also gets tied into, that is coaches. How important is it for a coach to have a coach? You know, like one thing I love as a CrossFit coach, we have a lot of our coaches work out in our classes and it's great to see them in there for a lot of different reasons, but I know myself as an athlete. In one of your classes or in any of our classes with our coaches, I always try to pick up something from them, uh, based on who's coaching, what that day is and what the movements are. And do you think coaches you know, not even just in this gym, just in general how important is for them to seek coaching themselves?
Brian DeCarloGuest
25:09
Well, it's vital. I mean, if you want, if you want to improve at all, um, you know it would be very arrogant to to think that you don't need to be coached, you don't need, you know, fine, tuning on your movements. Um, you know, I, I personally don't record my workouts, so I I could be not. Yeah, I can think I'm doing everything right, and not unless someone like Dave or another coach comes up to me and says, hey, you know your wall balls and I've dealt with knee injuries and you know, I would sometimes go up to the coaching class I can just make sure I'm getting my depth because I'm just coming back.
25:43
But being able to be humble enough to take coaching, I think, is vital. I think you'd be crazy, not especially when you have a group of coaches, like we do, who know what they're doing. I think the other side of that is being a coach in a class with your, with your coaches and and having, you know, being comfortable going up to them and coaching them, cause a lot of times I shouldn't say a lot, but there are times where I'm like, ah, do they? Do they want to hear from me? Do they like, I don't know, are they just moving today?
David SyvertsenHost
26:14
Is there a mutual understanding here that you don't have to lock out your elbow?
Brian DeCarloGuest
26:17
Yeah, like right, exactly. I remember one time I was doing like dumbbell snatches or something Like can you get that dumbbell back a little bit?
26:24
It's a little in front of your head, I'm like oh shit, sorry, but again it's for coaches. We absolutely need and I think all of us want to be coached Anytime Dave gives me a cue, or anyone else in the class, especially some of those newer coaches who, you know they're fresh off their L1, they're excited to be able to like, spot flaws and if they, you know they hit me with something, I'm like cool, like I accept it and love. You know, having the feedback from from someone else's eyes, yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
26:55
And I mean you can look at it from two advantages here. If you're an athlete getting coached like you should and you trust the coach, it's going to help you out. But I'll be honest with you, I think coaches also view taking coaching as I'm going to use that. You know, like we like we beg, borrow and steal from each other all the time, you know, and sometimes coaches feel a little uncomfortable and they feel like, oh well, I learned this from this person. So that's why I'm going to tell you that no, like I always tell people just beg, borrow and steal. That's everyone does. That Every coach you know in any industry honestly is what you learn from others. You kind of reflect on it and then you put your spin on it and then you put it out for others to consume. That's a big part of taking coaching as well, and that's what, as a coach, I think it's a borderline, not even borderline. It's a responsibility to take in coaching and A to help yourself but B to help others, and that's where I think that we do a pretty good job here. But it's something I think a coach should understand out there in any walk of fitness that I do think you should seek coaching, maybe even seek personal training, seek a session with someone and try to really kind of help that improve your craft and your brand as a coach. Now, when it comes to this is something I'm actually curious to hear about.
28:14
You have some clients that are not CrossFitters I would even maybe say, from my perspective, majority, or at least half there and when I say not CrossFitters, meaning like they're not members at a CrossFit gym, but they come here, they do their thing. What's your philosophy on that? Do you have one? Like, if you, if we put this episode out and you get an inquiry from some random person that we went to high school with, like, hey, Brian, I want to come to bison to personal train with you, do you put a crossfit spin on it? Or is it hey, I'm going to train this person? Um, and maybe just, you know, kind of keep crossfit out, like you're not doing a fran with them, but you are kind of doing some of the movements Like where do you find the blend of the two?
Brian DeCarloGuest
28:55
It depends. You know, if someone comes to me looking for sports-specific training, then I'm going to train them to be as strong and powerful within that sport.
David SyvertsenHost
29:06
Got it.
Brian DeCarloGuest
29:06
You know, if hockey players, I'm going to do a lot of rotational stuff right. Like football players, I'm going to do a lot of explosive fast. You know fast sets with a long break.
David SyvertsenHost
29:16
Yeah, so they're not doing like Cindy, 20-minute AMRAP type stuff.
Brian DeCarloGuest
29:19
Right, yeah, I'm not going to go have them. You know, like when we were in high school, like, oh, let's get ready for football, let's go run a couple miles. You know those days, you know, that being said, someone else who is just looking to get in a better shape. I absolutely use CrossFit methodology. It's, you know, it's what we do here, it's what I believe in. You know I'm not going to, it's not going to be the same. You know it's not like I'm putting in through a CrossFit class.
29:43
But you know I try to mix, you know, vary the movements. I try to vary the lengths of the workout. I try to make them as fit, as positive. If just general physical preparedness is their goal and I talked to them beforehand, of course, if they want to put on a massive amount of muscle mass, then that's going to be different than someone who wants to lose as much weight as possible. So, either way, I do put some of the CrossFit methodology into it because it changed you know, it's changed my life. It changed the trajectory of my fitness journey and it's, you know, it's what I love. If you know again, if people are looking for something specific, like to gain muscle mass, to get better at sport, then you know we tailor their programming to that.
David SyvertsenHost
30:30
That's. Another huge advantage of personal training is, you know, when you're a CrossFit gym member, even if it's a great CrossFit gym and great programming, you're still kind of restricted slash, a victim to what the whole gym is doing. And, yes, there's levels, there's RxS scale, but you're still doing the workouts. Gpp is what we call it. Yes, we prepare for the open and benchmark workouts here and there, but at the end of the day it's just general physical preparedness. And if you have a very specific goal, that is where CrossFit training and programming in terms of your day to day process, workout regimen, that might not be the best route for you to take.
31:13
If you do want to just put muscle on, if you do want to just burn fat, if you just want to get stronger, there probably is some extra attention that you need in addition or in place of a general CrossFit program. So let's kind of tie that to another kind of specialty of yours and something that we're going to be rolling out on a more common basis for you and with you, and it's the Olympic lifting course. And you know we're in our second run with this right now and we've talked about, we've kind of had Olympic lifting classes here and there it's never been like a very, not a very consistent component to our programs, kind of like, hey, when we can do it? Um, we have some plans for for that in the future with Brian. But before we wrap this up, can you touch on what you like and what you're personally getting out of and what others are getting out of, this Olympic lifting class that meets once a week with you to just focus on that component of CrossFit.
Brian DeCarloGuest
32:18
So we're working on again. We're looking at Olympic lifting, and in a regular Olympic lifting program your goal is to lift as much weight over your head and then the clean and jerk, or the snatch, as possible. So we're not over your head and then the clean and jerk or the snatch as possible. So we're not.
David SyvertsenHost
32:33
It's not that it's it's.
Brian DeCarloGuest
32:34
It's tied into CrossFit. So this past week we had a barbell cycling class. You know you're. You know if you talk to an Olympic weightlifting coach they're going to laugh at you if you said you're doing barbell cycling, but for us it's something that is is effective.
32:49
So we, you know, we did sets of six or, excuse me, sets of five, sets of four, sets of three, with less and less rest, and you can see how it affected everybody. Um, you know, and my point is, it's just a little bit different than like a, you know, a regular Olympic weightlifting cycle. Um, and what members are getting out of it. They're getting, um, the specialized programming. Um, you know, we we have, I think we've had eight or nine in each of the classes, and what I, what I've tried to do is split them up, have one group on one side and I do everything on a clock. So I'm like, all right, this side go yeah I can look at everyone on that side.
David SyvertsenHost
33:26
This side because there's a lot of rest. You're not doing 30 burpees between sets correct.
Brian DeCarloGuest
33:30
It's, it's all. It's only either a lift or um, a complex of lifts. Um, for for each set and we're doing each set once every two and a half minutes um, with the exception of the, the barbell cycling, okay, um, and we can fine tune that. Sometimes people are like I really want to go for it and I'm like, all right, as long as it looks good and looks safe, then let's go for it. Some people are going like, all right, as long as it looks good and looks safe, then let's go for it. Some people are going to stay light. Today. I really want you to focus in.
33:54
You know, we talked about hip contact last week. Can you really look and make sure that that I'm getting that hip contact? I'm like, yeah, all right, you're getting the hip contact, now let's get to the next level and hip contact and finish. Now you know again, it's it's getting people to move safely and then chip away at the little imperfections of their lifts. And I think the people I think it's a perfect group of people with some experience, people who lift well, who just want to get a little bit better and more efficient at the lift. Dave H is someone who comes to mind because he was in the first group and I got him to get the bar to his hips, okay, and I'm like, oh, it looked awesome, how'd it feel? And he, like it was wide-eyed, and I'm like what's going on? He's like that was a PR and I'm like it didn't look like a PR.
34:54
It. So it feels good. And he's been doing CrossFit a long time, yes, so he did the first session. He's doing this session also Nice. But seeing people make those breakthroughs, you know like one little thing can click. I was working, you know, I worked with Dan Dodd on Olympic lift and he was my coach and I was talking about coaches being coached. One cue, just like you know, just put my snatch over the edge and he said don't let the bar no, don't hope the bar gets to where it has to be, put it where it has to be, got it. And that just like, for whatever reason people have probably said that to me in various different ways, but that little cue, it made it work. On the other side of that, trying to coach my wife, nicole I'll be, you know, I'll tell her to do something she's like no, I am doing that, I'm like no. And it becomes an argument. I said, nicole, I love you, I'm not coaching you. Go talk to Dave, go talk to someone, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not doing it.
35:47
But again some people, just, you know, they, they might, they might go to Dave, they might have. He might say the same thing over and, over and over again and I put it just a little different and it clicks Right. So I encourage people to seek out different coaches because, again, I'm not, you know, I'm humble enough to know that there's someone out there who might be able to, who might be a better fit for an athlete, um, but as far as our Olympic liftingic lifting course, I think, um, I think that people get, you know, specialized um training in just the, the olympic lifts. They don't have to worry again about doing box jumps or pull-ups in between, they just get to hone in on, uh, the lifts, which for me is my favorite part of crossfit and really always has been.
David SyvertsenHost
36:28
Yeah, and that's the area that you're very, very good and just snatched. Would you snatch last? Was it 225 or 35?
Brian DeCarloGuest
36:35
Sorry, we missed you 35. I just missed you 35.
David SyvertsenHost
36:37
You had it, you had it yeah, yeah, no, he's a great lifter Combination. I mean, when we hired him years ago, one of the kind of like I don't know selling points, if you want to call it that. But one thing we always said about it he's like, yeah, he's like really strong, but he also moves really well, and that's not actually been doing this a long time. It's not a very common combination. You know, a lot of people either are biased towards moving well, but they're not that strong, and other people are really strong, but they don't move that well, and that's what makes Olympic lifting very hard.
37:07
I think it's important to know that that is an area that you really want to get better at. You can get better at it in classes, but it's the rate of progress in a specific class, such as the one that Brian runs, is significant. You are going to get better faster and it's partially because of the coaching less like a little bit more attention on just like these little fine points, but you're not doing it in a workout, like I know. We're very much aware that it's hard to really get better at lifting if you're exhausted from other things. It just is Like I just did a workout that had toes to bars, skier and heavy cleans and, like I know, like some of my movements started to break down a little bit towards the end, like I started really widening my feet out. When I caught you, it wasn't catching it in the right spot. It wasn't catching it in the right spot, it wasn't getting my hip contact and it's because you just lose body awareness of where the bar is going because you're so tired in other areas. So I think that it's kind of a no-brainer.
38:06
If you really do want to get better at lifting and this goes for you coaches as well you should do one of these six-week periods with Brian. You have to try to find the schedule at the time. It might be next year, it might be the better time than right now, but I think it's a really important thing. I've done a lot of stuff with Dan Dodd over the years. I've taken classes by Brian. I've taken classes by Dallas. I know I've had online programs. You kind of have to dive into that and what makes it hard from a crossfit coach and programming perspective is, you know, we do have lifting days, but a lot of times it's mixing with other stuff and I fall victim to it as a programmer. It's like you want to make sure it's fun for everyone, because not everyone wants to get better at lifting, they just want to work out. And so that that I can say this right now if you really want to get better at lifting, you're probably gonna have to do one of these classes these six week periods.
Brian DeCarloGuest
38:57
I would agree. And going back to your, you know the, the, the programmed lifts, like you know, being able to um, having the freedom to set your rest period as much as you want, like I, you know, and it's funny, cause the snatch, I think, on the EMOM for me anyway, like if I'm trying to get to a heavy lift, it actually takes the thought out of it, I think, but clean and jerk, I need time, Like I cannot. You know I, if I'm going on the minute, there's no way I'm getting to, you know, a volume or a weight that I'm, that I'm looking for, it's just, you know, and I get it. Like we have to get a lift in in a workout or we're trying to get a lift in a workout, but in the Olympic lifting class, you know, if the goal is to lift heavy, then we're going to give you plenty of time to rest and you know, sometimes the class go it's between an hour and an hour and 15, hour and 20 minutes sometimes so we have the time to.
39:48
You know you can sit down. Bring a chair if you want, sit down between your sets so that you can fully recover and get to the next lift. That's one of the. I don't want to say a complaint, but if I had to change anything, where we're lifting in class I'm like man the emoms suck they do.
David SyvertsenHost
40:02
They're tough with the top, with the weights. Yeah, absolutely I. I think that one um, one of the the biggest challenges to programming, like lifting days at the gym, is and you'll see it in our programming. Sometimes it's like hey guys do these weights two or three times and then add weight. You know, and part of that is because, like you know, if you're changing weights after every set, you're just going to be rushed and you don't really get what you need to out of that session.
Brian DeCarloGuest
40:29
Yeah, or you have someone who you know does 135, 135, 135, 245. It's like all right, you know I did 245 every set, but okay, yep.
David SyvertsenHost
40:39
And it's a different mindset too. Like if you sign up for that class, it's a specialty class and you know it's just Olympic lifting, like that is what your mind is and you know everyone that's in that room is there for that reason, where, if you have 145 people come to the gym in a day, 120 of them are going to be like I don't want to just come in and just lift, like I'm not going to come here if that's what we do every Monday and every Tuesday, that kind of thing, but at the same time, if they really do want to get stronger, it's kind of like a near mandatory approach to it. So, yeah, that's like that whole programming, how to put this into classes. It's a complex situation and I think one of the solutions is exactly this is you have a class that is just for lifting, you have a coach that wants to really devote his time and energy into that and as time passes, we'll put more information out to the CrossFit Bison members about what our plans are there Once we get everything solidified with the staff and the schedule and make sure everyone's happy and getting what they want out of everything.
41:36
But that that's something that I'm really looking forward to in the future, both you know. Circling back to the personal training side and the Olympic lifting, is it's part of our duty here to provide opportunities for people, both on the staff side and on the athlete side, to get what they want and put in what they want to help improve their experience and and lifestyle. Uh, that surrounds crossfit and that's I think that's one of our big goals in the next years is to think deeper than just the crossfit classes, because I think there's more to chew off there yeah, I would, I would agree.
Brian DeCarloGuest
42:10
I think people uh, you know, people sometimes are surprised when they're like oh yeah, they'll see'll see me back there with someone. Oh, you do personal training and then, you know, it's kind of how I pick up more, more clients. So, you know, if it's something you're interested in, I think that it's something that can benefit anyone. Whether you're 10 years in the game or you're just starting out, it can benefit you. That goes for personal training or the Olympic lifting class.
David SyvertsenHost
42:33
Yep, and that's a good way to wrap it up. You know, again, we will put more information out there in the coming months, once we can free Brian's schedule up a little bit. And you know we really thank you for coming on, brian, it was fun talking to you. You know he's not as scary as he looks, but at the same time don't piss him off. You know he's got the combination of teddy bear and uh and and bouncer he's. I'm sure he's been both in his life at some point. But, um, brian, thanks for coming on, we'll see you around at the gym it's a pleasure, thank you all right.
43:02
Thank you guys. We'll see you next week. Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the herd fit podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.
