Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
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Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast
Angelo Kelly
Angelo Kelly returns to discuss the evolution of his mindset through the peaks and valleys of pursuing weightlifting goals and how his approach has changed over time. We explore the journey of finding your path, accepting failure, and focusing on progress over perfection.
• Being comfortable with not seeing success for long periods while trying different pursuits
• Finding flow states in different creative activities, with writing feeling more natural than speaking
• Leaving the familiar routine to explore new places and experiences
• The mental battle after bombing out at nationals and the valuable lessons that came from failure
• Opening with realistic weights in competition rather than ego-driven numbers
• The psychological aspects of competition preparation and managing energy throughout meets
• Building podcasts from genuine interest rather than chasing metrics
• Finding motivation in daily improvement rather than distant outcome goals
What's up, dogs? Welcome back to the Hungry Dog Barbell Podcast. This week we're joined by the very first person I ever had on the show, host of the Barbell Drop and the Better Than Yesterday podcast, longtime weightlifter, all-around good dude and journeyman, angelo Kelly. Angelo comes on to talk about the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys of pursuing goals and how his mindset has changed and evolved over the years. Hope you guys enjoy the episode. Peace First off, bro. Multi-hyphenate Do you ever think of yourself as that, like Angelo Kelly?
Speaker 2:multi-hyphenate that does so much I don't know and it's funny because whenever I come on other people's podcasts I'm always so nervous about what questions they're going to ask. But I think just something that's been on my mind recently is I'm okay with going for a while without seeing any success, so I'm okay with trying the podcast. I'm okay with trying YouTube, I'm okay with trying writing and seeing where all the pieces kind of fall. I've done the podcast for a while and then I haven't done it and then I've been doing it with cory. So just like I don't know, I I'm like fine, just kind of finding my way, finding my path. If I fail at something, I'm like totally fine with it and then I'll just move on. So I don't think it's like I look at myself as doing all these different things or even like trying to be good at them. I just like to try them and see if I like doing it. If I like doing it, I'll keep doing it, and if I don't, I'll move on to the next thing, which?
Speaker 1:one do you think so far has made you feel like I don't know the most in tune, like get into that kind of flow state where you're like, oh, I could keep doing this repetitively. Has there been one yet that has hit you?
Speaker 2:like that. I think writing, honestly, as far as podcast goes, if you hear somebody like Joe Rogan, he's an expert at conversations. He never says like, he never drags out words and he's the best of the best, so it's not like you should be comparing yourself to that. But I think with writing I'm able to get there much faster than I am with speaking. So sometimes I'll do a podcast and be like damn, I missed what I was trying to say, and with writing I feel like I'm able to get there a little bit faster. I still have to edit stuff. I still will write a whole thing and be like okay, this is useless, I'm just deleting it. But I think it's just a little bit more natural for me to write than to speak.
Speaker 1:Right, people that are the opposite way, like Rogan, I'm like, dude, how do you do that? You know like I kind of speak for a living. You know like between coaching and the event event plan in and it takes like a lot of work and effort to really make it seem like it was seamless. You know like great openings tomorrow and I'm like all right, I got to like practice kind of what I'm going to say and especially how I'm going to transition from like kind of host just introducing people and toward people of the space and then also coach who's going to make sure people get a good workout. The new people that are coming, coming in want to come back and all those different things you know. So it takes a lot to make stuff seem seamless and like it was effortless. So that's just going to say. Next, so all the podcasts right, this might be telling people a little bit how the food was made. I forget that freaking saying, but do you still edit it?
Speaker 2:yourself yeah, everything is me. I'm like, ah, I said something stupid and then I'll go back and edit it and it's like, okay, it wasn't that bad. So. So, yeah, I just try to go back. I take out like all the, the calls or the, the ums or whatever, but I try not to make it seem like I want everything to be a real conversation. You know like if you're taking out so much to where you're cropping the best 15 seconds of their answer, I just don't think that's the right way to go about it, for sure but dude, so now, like take me back.
Speaker 1:We just talked about you left in 2023 and it kind of went on the move. Right, you guys didn't have a a consistent space that you were staying at for a little bit at the beginning. Like, take me back to where your headspace was at that time period. You, you know, were you just like sick of being in one spot. Did you want something new? Like, tell me all about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we were just like we're living the same day over and over and over again in Westchester and we're seeing the same people. Not that that's a bad thing, but we're seeing the same people. We're going to the same restaurants, we're working out at the exact same time and we're working out at the exact same time and we're just like if we don't do this now, we're probably never gonna do it. So it was just we. I have to give credit to dana because she sold all our stuff. It wasn't me, I wasn't doing any of that, but like we got rid of everything and basically just picked colorado springs. We wanted to do the mountains and luckily, nationals that year was in Colorado Springs, so we got out here like two weeks before that. So um had a place to stay for competing and all that. But yeah, we were just like.
Speaker 2:You know there's so much more than Pennsylvania and I know a lot of people who live in Pennsylvania will always live in Pennsylvania and they'll always go to the Jersey shore on vacation. They'll just. You know, you go to Disney world every year, whatever you do. There's a lot of people who that's just their routine and that's their life and they love that and that's totally fine. But I think for both of us we're just like. We got to explore, we got to get out and I noticed, like how beautiful America is. I didn't know. Like're going to delaware, you're going to new jersey. You just think everything's the exact same. So when you go to a place that has a giant mountain, like this exists and it's in the united states, it's not like you have to go to italy or you have to go to japan or somewhere crazy. It's like you can literally drive for two days and just be in an entirely different world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, you know you want to solve, uh, working out at the same time every day and routine open a gym, there you go. That's how you solve that one Like three weeks in a month and now I still really haven't found the workout time, like what, what's going to be consistent every day. But man, that's awesome though. So you pick up and move, like like I'm not even gonna ask you if you were nervous. I know like everyone's nervous when they have changed, depending on what level it's at like. But what were your nerves for? You know, I'm sure dana had her own set of nerves, but like what were you nervous for?
Speaker 2:I mean, the good thing was I kept my remote job so I didn't have to worry about that. But just like you know, finding a, finding a coffee shop, like just stuff like that we used to have and it closed, sadly, but Sterling Pig and Westchester, we used to love going there. We'd just sit there and they didn't even care if we didn't order anything. Dana would get a beer, I'd usually get a water, and just like having a routine like that, being able to go somewhere and watch the Phillies game, going somewhere and watch the Eagles game, just stuff.
Speaker 2:That is super small. I think we didn't even worry about the big stuff, like not having furniture or um, living somewhere new, like we just kind of didn't even worry about that. But it's like the day-to-day, the gym is always the most important part, I think, like once you're able to find a good spot and I don't even know if we found that yet. So we're like trying to at least I I haven't told you this, but we're we are moving to, uh, south carolina in the next like month or two.
Speaker 1:There you go, so we where are you guys at right now? We're in colorado springs, so okay, because did you go to texas or south?
Speaker 2:for a little bit. Yeah, we went to texas, for we were there for three months and then we came back here.
Speaker 1:Nice. So tell me about like that journey, right, like actually before we even go to that. Tell me about the drive, cause you guys drove out there, right? How was that two day drive, bro? Take me back two years ago.
Speaker 2:We drove. It took us four days. So we drove like three, eight hour days. And then I want to say like maybe the first day we went to Columbus the first day, so it was like six, and then we did like an eight, an eight and then a four. So our dog, luckily, is amazing. In the car he just sleeps the entire time. The only thing is, once we get to wherever we're going, he's like all right, let's go, and we just drove for eight hours. So that's the only tough part. But honestly, I don't like driving Once we move down to, we're going to the Greenville area in South Carolina, but once we're there I'm like dude, I'm not doing anything, I don't want to drive anywhere, I don't want to, I just want like routine now Like we were so against the routine and now it's like, okay, maybe this is important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you shook it up enough, and now you're ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, you know. So you basically did like a mini weightlifting tour.
Speaker 2:So we trained at bear in San Antonio. So that was we were going there for. We trained for like a month and then did AO finals and then I did the Texas state championship down there. So we knew I was going to do those two meets and Dana did finals that year too. So we were like we'll train in house for a little bit, see what it's like. I honestly I hated Texas. I was allergic, I was sneezing 50 times a day.
Speaker 2:Did any bugs get you? The bugs weren't bad. The bugs weren't bad, but it was just. I would sneeze constantly. And I was like we need to get out of here. I was so ready to leave, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:So you went out there like training goes back to normal with that now right, like how's training been over the past two years? Before you left for Colorado Springs, were you already with Britt over at Bayer, or did that happen somewhere in the middle?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did the Arnold in 23 and that was my first meet with her. So, yeah, training the last two years, it's it's been a roller coaster, as I'm sure it has been for you. Like you find times where things are really consistent, you're doing really well. Then there's times, like now, where you're focused on opening a gym so you're probably not you know, not worried about the numbers. And uh, so I've been able to crush it through it but no, it's not happening, and that's fine, you'll get back to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's fine, you'll get back to it, yeah. But yeah, I swore that I was gonna be able to crush it through it. Like I changed up my diet, got my fucking life together from like august on of 24, started crushing lifts. I was like, oh fuck, in the next year I'm gonna snatch 110. This would be lit, you know. And then after the meet in november, I kept lifting but then the gym stuff started to kick up a little bit more and freaking, I don't know, I developed some the low back shit, probably from all the stress of trying to do too much, and it's been just rolling since then. I'm, I'm.
Speaker 1:I have now, like I live three days a week and one and a half of my sessions are good. You know, I've I've kind of switched it now from uh, started off with snatch, even if that's what's first to do, it cleans, because, like day one, I'll start off with my snatch, do what I can on the clean and jerk, and then I don't want that to happen. Then I'll only ever snatch throughout the week. You know, um, but yeah, dude, I swore, I swore I was gonna be able to do it all. That's what you think right, like, oh, I can handle all this shit. And then I think I got probably like 95 better.
Speaker 1:Like the week of christmas we're taking out all the old carpet from here and freaking the back door it snowed that week, so we're taking it out the back door I slip, bust my ass and like my knee points straight down like I did the splits with my knee hitting the ground. So I was like, oh, I know, as soon as I get up it's gonna be killing me and I'm not gonna live for the next three weeks. You know. But you do what you can, right, like that's what you learn to do. But how was that learning, right, like like I'm sure that you thought I'll be able to do. You never think that you're going to completely fall off, right? You never tell yourself in that, that in your head. So how is it learning that for you? That like you got to go with it and learn to prioritize what needs to be done?
Speaker 2:You know it's a learning process. Yeah, national. So this year or last year 24 nationals I bombed out and that was the first time I ever did that. It was my 20th meet and it was same thing, kind of like I'll get right back to training, it's fine. And then I was just in a weird head space for months and it was like this very big mental hurdle to get over, like just being so disappointed because you put so much time into training. And I was visualizing I was doing all this mindset work and bombed out on clean and jerk and I'm like what is this all for? Like what am I doing this for, am I? There was a point where I was like I'm just going to be done weightlifting probably and uh, I took a month off in October of last year.
Speaker 1:And I think you said nationals. Is that is nationals in mid year, or is that the end of the finals at the end of the year? Right yeah?
Speaker 2:Nationals is in June, every June.
Speaker 1:Yeah, midyear. Okay, I thought so, so that you took a time off in october yeah.
Speaker 2:So june, I competed, bombed out and then I ended up doing a meet, I think in august. It was like a quick turnaround and this is funny my opener was 123 and yeah, and I've opened at 135, 136, 137 basically every year since, like 2021 my first, first, first lift. I pulled out, the ground felt a little bit heavier than I thought. It just completely gave up on the clean and I was like, so it was after. You know, I bombed out on clean and jerks. I missed three clean and jerks, come back first meet, miss my opener, and at that point I was just so frustrated I'm like, what am I doing? Like, is this how I am as a weightlifter? Am I just not good anymore? And, uh, I ended up coming back like making that, making my third attempt, but I think I was just burnt out, like mentally trying to do jujitsu, trying to keep life stress, trying to do everything the same. Like you said, it's just you think that you can piece all the puzzle pieces together, but sometimes you just something's got to give. You just can't keep doing it the way you're doing it and I think, looking back on nationals, it was probably the best learning experience that I could have had. I could have hit my third attempt. Hail Mary made it look like shit and just somehow got three white lights and I probably would have been okay with the result and, I think, bombing out. I was totally pissed off about the result and totally heartbroken about the outcome of that meet. So I need to change things, I need to figure out what's going on in my head. I need to figure out what I need to change about training.
Speaker 2:So for the first couple of months, like you think it's a terrible experience, is a waste of time, flew all the way to Pittsburgh to miss three lifts on the platform and then just go back. So so yeah, it was rough couple months and then ended up taking time off and then just ease back into it. Three days a week, three, four days a week somehow seems to be that magic spot. And I think everybody hearing Olivia Reeves now too, that she trains three or four days a week, people are like okay, that you can actually do that and be really good at weightlifting. So like remember when we were getting into CrossFit it was just people were training eight, 10 hours a day and you're like, well, you know, I'm going to start doing two a days. I'm going to stay after the WOD. I'm going to do all this extra stuff and I think now I'm noticing like, if you're dialed in for an hour, 15 hour, 30 minutes, three, four times a week, that's plenty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pro tip of the episode New segment there you guys. Way less people need two-a-days. Way, way less people need to be doing two-a-days there. But, dude, I love what you just said there. Something's got to give and that's what it is. I was at a business mentorship meeting three weeks ago. We talked about exactly what we're saying the priorities. If you are a high-performing person, you need to focus on what matters to you, right then, and perform high. Excel at that Cause. If you're trying to do so many different things, you're going to get mediocre performances.
Speaker 2:You know and it's hard to accept and everything exactly Right.
Speaker 1:Like nothing's going to be that exceptional thing, so it's hard to accept, but you've got to go there. I know Britt probably said something great and motivational that stuck with you after you bombed out. Like before that next meet, did she give you anything that really stuck with you about, like keeping your head in the game or anything like that?
Speaker 2:I mean, we talked about the same things that coaches can talk about, like what changes do we need to make? Um, how can we change training? Um, I think the biggest thing that I learned is I was going into meets just expecting to for those numbers to be there, even if they weren't there in training. So my top single in training leading up to nationals was 135 on clean and jerk. I opened at 136. So I hadn't touched that in months and that was.
Speaker 2:It's a total ego thing Like you just get attached to. Like this is my opener, this is these are the weights I'm doing. You get attached to being in the a session. You get attached to whatever I think. As weightlifters, like we all have that that broken ego thing inside of us. You need that to succeed. But for me, if I would have just probably opened at one 30, I would have been way more confident that I was going to hit that. So, like that's what.
Speaker 2:Going into the Arnold, I just put a super low entry total and I'm going to be in the B session. I'm just going to have fun. If bigger numbers are there, they're there. If they're not, it's totally fine. So just kind of like being accepting of what you did in practice. Like now, I'm starting to think of training as practice. That's practice. You have to do what you did in practice in the game. You're not just going to show up and you can be a performer, but that's only going to get you so far. If you're not confident, if you have in the back of your mind hey, I haven't hit this in six months, maybe it's probably not going to be there on the platform.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean that lower opener like you could push it up, right, like so, if you get to, if you open at 130, even if you don't go on the platform and take that, even if you end up going 32, 34, like somewhere in the middle of that 36, you can still groove those numbers better. You know, in the back room, like you could do pulls in the middle of it, you could groove your way up to build that confidence forces, versus like you're in the back room, openers 136, I gotta put 130 on, I gotta make that feel good, because if that doesn't feel good, 136 ain't fucking moving, you know. So exactly, it's one of those things. But uh, and I love what you just said about like taking it as practice, because the thing that really separates pro from like novice, right, like when you're, when you're we'll put it in football terms when you're in high school and you're playing, then you're as novice as it can get.
Speaker 1:Right, your practices are really hard because you need that training to develop the toughness out on the field. Versus when you're a professional, like your practices are just that you're practicing. If you're not tough enough already, you go in against your scout team defense. It's not going to make you tougher for the NFL games. Right, like they're walkthroughs, they're situational football out there. You know when's the next time you go back on the platform. What's your mindset like when you do get back on the platform? Like, tell me about the climb up, the hill now.
Speaker 2:So this Arnold coming up in a couple of weeks will be the first time since that local meet that I did so. So, yeah, I've been. I've been reading uh, inner excellence Shout out it's. It's actually a great book. I highly recommend it for anybody Um, especially weightlifters. Like the.
Speaker 2:Weightlifting is such a mental game, yeah, I think. So the last time I PR, like my full snatch and clean and jerk were in Like lifetime PR Lifetime PRs were probably June or August of 2021. So that's hard to be mentally invested into something that you haven't performed your best at for four years now. Invested into something that you haven't performed your best at for four years now. So I think what I'm reading with inner excellence is that we're wired to think of all the times that we failed in between that time, all the times that I've gone out on the platform and haven't hit that best total. We're protecting ourselves because we already know what failure feels like and we replay that over and over over again in our mind instead of thinking like.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to reshape my thoughts into it's not what numbers are on the bar, it's not, um, it's not whether I'm in the A session, it's not whether I beat this guy. It's about like how I can be mentally prepared to take every single lift on the platform. So that's like what I'm going into it with. It doesn't the numbers are going to be down just because I haven't been like peak in training. So, um, and I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2:I've like gone in with the expectation I want to hit what I'm going to hit on the platform in training multiple times. So, just like around my opening numbers, I've hit them a bunch already and I'm going to keep hitting them in training. So I'm not worried about pushing PRS right now, but just like just having a bulletproof mindset, like being able to take the ego out. I wrote the other week about just like no one gives a shit what I go and do at the Arnold. There is not one single person who's going to look at my name on the result sheet, see what I did. Oh, he opened 10 kilos lighter than he usually does.
Speaker 1:Nobody gives a shit.
Speaker 2:The Redditors are out there, bro. The Redditors do not care about me, I'm not that important.
Speaker 1:Now that I'm looking up more weightlifting stuff on there, like re-weightlifting dude the shit that people talk about is so funny. I love Redditdit. I think it is the top notch social media. If it is, it's the worst and the best social media out there. The trolls on there are next level.
Speaker 2:It's crazy I don't go on there much, to be honest. If something happens like in our town, I'll just go on reddit colorado springs and see if anybody posts about it, but other than that I know it's a cesspool.
Speaker 1:It is so quick side note, last week my mom went to Cabo, came back Sunday night late, late late trip. She landed like 1230. Of course I had to go pick her up because she's like oh, I don't want to leave my car at the airport, we're leaving. I have class at 545 the next morning, so I'm already trying to hustle. We're leaving, getting off of the exit, about to come back towards fricking civilization and all that. And you've been at that Philly airport, you know there's nothing around there when you get off the exit. It's you should. There shouldn't be people on the side of the road.
Speaker 1:I see when we're turning off the exit, this dude, like car, pulled over the side of the road, doors all open. He's running back and forth in the street. I'm like this looks like an escaped crazy person, but it can't be that. It's like maybe this dude's broken down. I slowed down a little bit. I don't plan on getting out, but I slowed down a little bit and this dude literally is bashing his head like Saquon in the fricking NFC championship game. What he's running and running, still back and forth. He sees me and runs at my car and tries to jump in front of it like holy shit. So I keep driving then and like I literally had to swerve to get out of the way keep driving. Get home and like, right before I go to sleep I'm like, dude, I bet something's gonna end up happening with that. You know, I bet something's gonna end up happening.
Speaker 1:I wake up the next morning and I talked to one of my message, one of my friends that's an emt in the city, and she's like oh shit, that's crazy that you were there because and then sent me this news report. The cops responded to a complaint about that guy being out there, talked to him. He was yelling how he got stabbed and then wouldn't be compliant with the cop. Cop tried to tase him and he didn't go down. So he calls for backup. When the backup arrives, he had to gun the guy down. This crazy looking like old uh what's what's the name of that show? Uh, rick and morty. He looked like freaking.
Speaker 2:Uh, morty, that's the old guy right I don't know the show, but I feel like you know that's what he looked like.
Speaker 1:I mean sad he got killed, but I guess he was like a crazy. He seemed like he was methed out. You know, if you don't go down from the taser it seems like that. Like damn, I can't believe I was right there for that. And then now it's fucking in the news that that shit happened. That's wild crazy people out there, man, you know. But back to training, back to inter-exilence and stuff like that. Like tell me about your back room experience. Like what kind of person are you like as you're, uh, hitting your your warm-up lifts in between the snatch and the clean and jerk session? Are you a chill person? Are you music in? Are you a pace person? What are you like?
Speaker 2:I need to change because I've been all that I've been listening to the hardest rap music. I've been a person who hasn't listened to music. So I think for me I'm my best when I'm just kind of in my own zone. I'm able to just focus, but not be super focused. So in baseball I was never the guy who cheered for people. I was never the guy who was rah-rah. I never got the team fired up or anything like that. I usually just sat by myself, I'd talk with a guy or two, but that was what I needed to be dialed in and I think I've kind of gotten away from that. Like you, you see what other people do. I think weightlifting is such a comparison sport where you see, you see Maddie Rogers do this and you're like I should do that. You see somebody else do this and you're like I should add that to my training. So I think AJ Brown with the book at halftime, I should do that. I had the book before.
Speaker 1:I'm not even talking about that like would you be a person in the back room. That's what I want to see, national. Meet someone in the back room, read a book in between, snatch and clean and jerk. I'm like, damn, that bro's got it together I don't know if I'll do that.
Speaker 2:I probably won't bring a book, but uh, no, I think for me it's just like being. It's a, it's a calm focus, because you can't be dialed in for two hours straight. It'd be like if you were coaching. You coach a class for an hour. There's there's a couple minutes where you're not totally focused, like people are warming up, but you got to. Also like you got to have conversations hey, how's your day going? How's your kids? Like that's not. You're not dialed in staring at every single rep that they're doing on the squat warmup. You're there and then, once the workout starts, then you can really start coaching and finding your groove. So I think weightlifting is the same way. Six lifts on the platform are all you get credit for. So it doesn't matter how good you look in the back, it doesn't matter what jumps you're taking. It's like you have to do what you have to do.
Speaker 2:I think in weightlifting like that that would be my recommendation for people is stop looking around so much and trying to see what other people are doing and just figure out what works well for you. So it's it's going to meets and not listening to music. It's going to meets and listening to music and just figuring out like what you need. So sometimes I just like really chill music Camp is a band that we love and just listening to songs that I know. So when you hear stuff that's unexpected it might take your mind off lifting.
Speaker 2:So if you're listening to a new song so sometimes for meets I've had just like the same five or six songs just playing on repeat. I know every single word to the song and I'm able to listen to it and like enjoy, think about the moments when I was listening to them, like when I did like them and then but also be focused on lifting. So I think, because everything can kind of take you out, there's so many variables that meets that I know a lot of people, like a lot of beginning weightlifters, get really nervous at meets because there's so much going on around you. There's so much stimulation, coaches walking in front of you, people yelling, somebody misses a rep and starts panicking. So all those things. Like you have to figure out what keeps you focused enough and then when you're on the platform, that's when you really have to dial in.
Speaker 1:Now what you were saying on, on like staying in the moment, right, Like I think of it as being focused but not detached, right Cause you don't want to like leave like that headspace but you don't want to get overly focused on something else, when you're like transitioning from snatch to clean and jerk, or when you're doing your warmups and all that stuff. So when you have those five or six songs going on, like, are you, is your energy coming out? Like, are you moving your shoulders, or are you just like stoic and still Like, does your energy come out for you? Like, are you a pacer, a walk arounder?
Speaker 2:So I think this is something like I need to get better at, because usually snatch I'm fine snatch and I've been opening really heavy and I think this is why I've had so much anxiety like going into me, just because I'm like shit, I haven't touched this weight in a long time. So I'm like real nervous on snatch and then usually if I hit my opener, I sit down, hit my second and third and then I'm just like I'm down on cleaning jerks.
Speaker 2:I have a hard time maintaining energy throughout the meet. So that's something where I feel like if I open lighter, I'm not going to be as nervous going in and like all that mental energy. It's kind of going back to what we've been talking about, like you only have so much to give all the time. So when you, when you have a meet, say you're at a hundred percent when you start the meet, you might go down 5% if you're focused on what everybody else is doing, and then you might go down another 5% If your opener is really heavy and you haven't hit it and you start thinking about that and your heart's racing faster than you would think. So I think, just like maintaining your energy, that's something that every weightlifter is going to have to figure out how to do, something like. I've done 21 meets now and I don't feel like I remotely have it figured out Like I need to. Every meet I go into I need to change something. I need to figure out what's best for me, right?
Speaker 1:So yeah, so so you've done the full gambit. You've opened up light to have safe lifts. You've opened up heavy because you're trying to be competitive. You've made big jumps, all those different things. You get six lifts right Three snatch, three clean and jerk. What do you think for you is the most difficult lift or the most pressure-filled lift? I should say.
Speaker 2:Definitely the second clean and jerk. Second, clean and jerk. Usually I've gone in no matter how you do in snatches. Second clean and jerk, because I'll make my opening clean and jerk for the most part. But you start thinking about your third attempt, like, say, you have a good opener at 130, 135 has been like a weight that I've opened a bunch at. So like, second attempt might be 138 to 140. And then I'm already thinking like, hey, maybe I can get 145 today, maybe I can get 144. And then you lose a little bit of focus 138. You're like, oh shit, that felt way heavier than I thought. So I think to maintain focus on your second clean and jerk and not to be thinking about your third is for me that's the hardest thing to do. Right, finish, finish it out.
Speaker 1:You know, I hear that. Tell me about the podcast. The classic lifts that right. That's your Corey's podcast together. The barbell drop, the barbell drop. Does he have one called it?
Speaker 2:Who's the class? There's another one. Who has?
Speaker 1:Oh you had the dude. You had the dude. I listened to that episode. Yeah, yeah, that guy, you had the host of that one on your show. That was good episode too. I like his podcast. When I was listening to him talk about like how he started it and kind of what he thought he was going to do and what it transformed into, I was like I hear you, bro, you know you you never know like what kind of guests you're going to get on and then you get you know whatever kind of people on you're like. Oh shit, now I gotta keep staying in this vein. It's having a guest show is hard. I wish I could go back and just make it like a solo show and have five years of practice at that. But when you guys started the barbell drop, like what was the intentions with it and what are you doing with it now and how's that going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we I think Corey and I both like we just always we've had a good relationship where we're able to go back and forth and we're able to make fun of each other and like be honest with each other. So we've always had that just good chemistry. We've, honestly, we've never trained in person which is like, yeah, so does he train with bear too, but he's out in, he's in indiana. So we've just never crossed paths at bear. We've seen each other at finals but like we've always just had had a similar outlook and it's funny like we we go back and forth. I'm definitely the one who's like I'd say more I like disagree with people and not cause I like disagreeing with people, but I just like I kind of go back and forth with people and Corey's way more like oh yeah, that's cool, that's cool, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So, we just have a good. It's like we had good chemistry, naturally, when I had him on the podcast and I was like, hey, we both like weightlifting, we enjoy talking about this stuff. Like why don't we just have our own and join forces? So we've done, I think, like 25 episodes, 26 maybe, but we just like to.
Speaker 2:I think there's so many people in USAW, specifically, and same thing with CrossFit, like there's so many cool stories where people you know, overcoming injuries, overcoming addiction it's not we don't care about. Like if you look at a guest that we had on, mary Tyson Lap, and she went to the Olympics, so fucking cool, it's awesome to go to the Olympics. But I I'm interested in like, oh, you quit your job. Like you quit your full-time career to do this. Like what were the struggles like? And those were questions that I asked her.
Speaker 2:Like going on the platform, she missed her first two attempts in competition ever and had to make the third snatch. So like people were hyping her up right away, like thinking, hey, you're gonna be great at this. She wasn't great at it right away. Like she had struggles and it took a long time to get to the 2024 Olympics. So I like highlighting those kinds of stories and just kind of hearing what people go through. Um, we like talking about nutrition, sleep, all that stuff. Dana is so tired of me talking about sleep, but it's just like just stuff. There's so much off the platform that we can talk about that you don't see on Instagram. Yeah, what's it?
Speaker 1:like having a co-host instead of like being on the show yourself. Like, how do you guys prep for conversations or do you do any prep? We?
Speaker 2:don't prep much, just shoot. I love it. Yeah, and Corey's definitely more comfortable at just going from the hip. I'll usually write down some questions, but he's just, he's really good at just being in the moment and just coming up with good questions, like right off the spot.
Speaker 2:I feel like I'm not as good with that. Like I need to kind of think about the guests, think about where I want the conversation to go and hold. Just ask a question and I'm like shit, I didn't. I wish I thought of that. So I think having a co-host, that's the only thing you're like. You both want the podcast to be good, so it doesn't really matter who asks the better questions, it's just like hey, how can we get the most out of a conversation with somebody? How can we learn? So I don't. I think like and you can speak to this too like having a podcast as much as it's for other people, it's for yourself too. So like you can do it for selfish reasons as well and like want to learn about people. And then, usually as a by-product, you start to, you start to become unselfish and you start to like that's what I did with Better Than Yesterday Like I thought I was just going to talk to all the top 67s, figure out their secrets and then just kind of be on my merry way.
Speaker 2:And then I'm like hey, you guys aren't like super interesting. It's amazing what you can do with the barbell. But, like I'm more interested in hearing people's health journeys and hearing people who, like, are doing stuff that's out like out of the ordinary. I think that's super cool. So so yeah, I feel like a podcast and we said earlier, you just go in so many different directions. Where you start with it is probably not where you're going to end up with it. Yeah, 100.
Speaker 1:I mean, you were the first guest on on mine, you know, way back in the day, like when we started around the same time, and in the beginning my, my thoughts were I already wanted to do a podcast to talk, but then I started at that time to talk to people to highlight how important it was to continue to work out and move your body. In that timeframe, you know, my first five guests were all people that were in shutdown and talk about hey, how'd you get to this point and how are you dealing with? You know, covid pretty much like we we try not to say COVID a lot, but that's, that's what it was in that timeframe. And then I had someone on that talked about their recovery journey and I was like, damn, I could do this, you know. And then I had someone I just posted about this the other day there was a gym owner and I was like, oh, I want to own a gym someday. This is an easy way to learn a lot about it, you know. So I've I've stacked up five years and it's like 34 episodes or something like that of CrossFit gym owners and gym owners in general and all the knowledge that they have over. I'm sure it's probably over 200 years of experience combined, you know, between all those different people. So in that way it's totally selfish and that, like that's what I was conveying the other day when I made the post. Like hey, like these are one of the things that I've done to prep for this. Like I love that people listen to the show, but I would do this if it was one listener every week.
Speaker 1:When I looked at the analytics, you know like yeah, because I listened when I was having the conversation and I learned so much from all the people and it makes me like look back. You know, like I had barry widener on two, three years ago ago, the owner of CrossFit Generation, and when we talked he sounded like to me at the time. He sounded like he thought that I was going to open a gym within the next six months and it was so far away in my brain at the time. But then, looking back, I understand now better the timeframes in which you can speak in that manner. You know like, just because it wasn't six months later, I was building towards it in that time period and that helped me understand. Like, hey, even if I'm not going to go do this in six weeks or whenever.
Speaker 1:Like I could start the habits. I can start the work that will progress towards that right now. You know, like it's almost a it's never too far off thing to start. You know, even if it's a small habit, it takes you 10 years. You know, I I was never a person that had a five and a 10 year plan. I didn't. I was like how the hell could people plan for 10 years from right now? But now I understand a little bit better that it doesn't have to be a written out plan. You could start right now the habits that you'll look back on and be like, oh shit, this is what helped me to get here, you know. So yeah, if you're out there starting a podcast, for sure don't worry about the analytics at the very beginning, unless you are Jason Kelsey and you're trying to be super amazing at it. Then go hire the best manager ever, because that's what they had to have done to be everywhere like they are. Like find out what you want to grow and develop and do that.
Speaker 2:You know, like Simply just go do that. So when you started the podcast, is that like you said? When did you notice that you wanted to open a gym? Was it because you were having conversations with other gym owners and you thought you could do it?
Speaker 1:Well, no, I had wanted to open a gym. Probably I'm sure thousands of people out there have this feeling. But you get into CrossFit and at the time I was a manager at Walmart just doing my nine to five job for 10 hours a day. But whatever my job there and it was paying me like good money, you know, to be able to do everything I wanted, right, and I had the opportunity to grow and get promoted there. But I love the gym stuff more. I loved just the impact that I could have as, like one of the people that was at the gym all the time. You know, you develop those relationships and then people start looking at you for accountability, motivation, all those things, and I appreciated that a lot more than what I was doing at my job as a manager, you know. And so eventually the goal for me to open a gym probably started developing in 2017, 2018.
Speaker 1:Last year my goal was to by 2028, open a gym. You know, yeah, it was definitely more far off. That was probably one of the first, like more long-term plans that I wrote down 2024. Kop Barbell had just left and so it was. The plan was to have my barbell club become like the official barbell club there, grow that first and then transfer all those people over to my own space.
Speaker 1:You know, I thought things would be able to go a little bit more copacetic, but you know things happen how they happen. So, yeah, fast tracked, three years quicker, sooner than I thought. But looking back on all the conversations and all the stuff that I've been through, I felt prepared, you know, and I definitely feel like I wouldn't have been as prepared if I didn't have these past four years of doing podcasts, even when there would be days and months where I'd be like, why the hell am I talking to these people and uploaded it and paying for it? Like, and not getting paid for it, you know. But yeah, like things change and you, you just got to be willing to go with it, man.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I mean it's super, stuff happened. It's super impressive. Anybody who builds something from the ground up, like I'm sure there's been a lot of stuff moving the floors, painting the walls, like when. When you're involved in all that stuff, it's such a different feeling like when everything's on you. So I don't have anything like that besides, like mine's just kind of on the computer. You know podcasts and writing, but like I don't have.
Speaker 1:That could be harder. I, to be honest, I think it could be harder. Like I see the return on painting the walls almost right away, like it goes from one color to to the next and it's like it changes the look, like in front of my face with podcasting, like it's so intrinsic that it's it's hard to push with that you know, yeah, I even I was having a conversation with Dana the other day and I was saying, cause I've been doing so?
Speaker 2:I write on sub stack and it's the only reason it's there is just cause it's free, like you don't have to pay anything, you can upload it, you can put pictures on very easy to do. But I'm like you know, no one's reading these. And she's like how many people read them? And I said like 20 to 30. And then I'm like 20 to 30.
Speaker 2:Imagine if, like, I had an idea and 20 people or 30 people were standing in my living room, I'd be freaking nervous to talk to that many people at one time. So I'll get a message once in a while and usually, like, the messages come at the right time. When you're feeling discouraged, somebody says, hey, I read that, really liked it. I, I wanted to implement something that you wrote about, and it's like that's what keeps you going, way more than seeing if you get a thousand followers or if you get a certain thing, if you get a sponsor, like I think we're so focused on that in the beginning. No-transcript people are going to start a podcast and two of them might get a contract for a couple million dollars.
Speaker 2:A contract alone, yeah, and if that's your goal, you're probably going to fail. But if you go into it thinking maybe I might change one person's mind on something, maybe I might get one person to sign up for your gym, those things are important. So I think a lot of times we have these such big goals in the beginning and then you realize you branch off and it turns into the little things make you the most happy, for sure.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent Dude at the end.
Speaker 2:Here last few things how many podcast episodes like do you have right now with just better than yesterday it's probably like 237 and I haven't done it and it makes me sick when I don't post a podcast for a long time, so I know. But it's the same thing Like when you, I don't want to post shitty ones, just to post them. You know, I want to like get back to it when I feel like inspired to do it and I want to put my full effort into it. So, and the cool thing is like they stack up, like you, just even if you're not putting out new ones. It's like you have two, 200, whatever episodes in the bank so you can just right, right let them ride for a while.
Speaker 1:Are you gonna wherever you hosted it? Does it stay up there definitely? Or is it like if you stop paying, they will go away?
Speaker 2:well, I use anchor now. It's on spotify, so you don't have to pay anything, so I think they'll just stay what are you hungry for right now?
Speaker 2:What's your motivation? I just want to get better. I just want to get better. Mr. Big answer ends with a big answer. No, that's it Like. I want to get better at weightlifting, I want to get better at podcasting, I want to get better at writing. I just I'm obsessed with getting better and I've noticed, like when I want those big things, when I focus on having my best total ever, when I focus on getting a thousand listeners or whatever it is like, usually that's when I feel the most off track, when I'm like just today, what can I do today to get better? That's like that's my mindset, and someday, most I'd say a lot of days I don't do like what I need to do. But if I can like, at least at the end of the day, you know, spend 10 minutes doing mobility work, like that's going to push me, that's going to push me closer. Or if I can write, even if I delete everything, at least I spent that time writing.
Speaker 1:So that's all you did. The intention? Yeah, the daily dude. I love that. It's just like we've been saying this whole time, man, when, when you push it out so far, you're like I'm going to do all this, almost none of it gets done. Yeah, exactly. So people out there, if you're listening, to leave with that message, you'll go do the thing today that you need to do. You know, hell, yeah, all right, bro. It's been a great conversation, man. Thank you for coming on again.
Speaker 2:I can't we get back in town. We'll definitely be there to be hype. I'm excited for that. We're putting together the weightlifting room right now, so it'll be hype. That's awesome, man. Well, congratulations. Thank you, man. We'll talk to you. Talk to you later. Bye.