Taught Not Told Podcast
Our mission is to teach you everything you need to know and implement so you can be extremely successful on your journey towards health and fitness. I strive to make complex topics and challenging methods stupid simple to understand so YOU can take action with confidence knowing what you're doing will WORK! Please enjoy!
Much Love,
Coach Tyler
Taught Not Told Podcast
EP#17: Jake Jeries: How Past Injuries Became His Strengths
In this podcast, I interview my good friend and fellow TNT Coach, Jake Jeries.
Jake has a very unique background of dealing with and overcoming a wide variety of injuries from playing sports growing up.
Thanks to this experience, he has been able to confidently take the skills and knowledge he learned on his own journey to help others.
Jake has now worked with many people from all walks of life who have and are dealing with many of the same injuries he faced and he has been able to help them overcome them in ways they never thought were possible!
Please enjoy this interview where we dive deep into his past, his experience, and his tips for others trying to work on recovering from injuries on their journey.
In This Podcast:
00:00:00 - Intro: Jake’s journey & Insight
00:04:58 - Journey from Soccer to Trainer
00:12:44 - Preventing and Treating Low Back Pain
00:19:37 - Personal Training Philosophy & Mentorship
00:31:09 - The Evolution of Coaching Experience
00:43:19 - Inspirational Connections Through Fitness
00:49:48 - Career Growth & Future Plans
00:58:54 - Building Deep Client Relationships for Success
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P.S. If you’d like my help with mapping out your path to success on your fitness journey, click here to book a FREE strategy session 1-on-1 with me:
https://calendly.com/tntcoaching/strategysession
FOLLOW JAKE ON INSTAGRAM:
https://www.instagram.com/jakejeries.coaching
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM:
https://www.instagram.com/ty.lerstuder
Also, if you’d like to see what others say about working with us check us out on Yelp:
https://yelp.to/wcgcPgoMRg
Lastly, to find out more about TNT coaching, what we offer, and how we can help, check out our website:
https://betaughtnottold.com/
CHECK OUT OUR FREE GUIDES:
https://betaughtnottold.com/free-guides
Hope you found this helpful!
Much love,
Coach Tyler🤍
Just about anything and everything you can think of. I messed up. I've had two patellar dislocations, tearing in my quad, tearing in my hamstring, vertebral fractures, sprained ankles. Soccer was not not kind to my body. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. What was like the most?
Speaker 2:common reoccurring injury. I would say low back.
Speaker 1:I have my three key pillars.
Speaker 2:So what I got from that was step number one. If you're experiencing back pain or if you have a desk job to either prevent or to aid in your low back pain, one of the most important things is welcome back to the Tottenham Toad podcast. Today we're doing something a little bit different. This is something I've always wanted to do, never had the opportunity, but today is finally the day where we're bringing on our first guest, our first interviewee, to the Tottenham Toad podcast, and today I'm so excited to introduce to you my great friend, jake Jerry's. What's going on, guys? Thanks for coming on today, man, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:So Jake is part of the Tottenham Toad team We've been working together, for we just hit about two years or two year anniversary just passed right, coming on to yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome man, and so, ultimately, part of the online coaching process is, after the clients go through me, I figure out who they are best fit for whether it's me, whether it's Jake or Coach Nate, who you guys will meet in the near future but ultimately, jake has been one of the coaches that I've seen progress faster than probably any coach I've worked with.
Speaker 2:I've worked with probably about 10 coaches over the last six years and ultimately, jake's been able to progress, and also his background has allowed him to succeed as a coach in terms of giving his clients great results from many different realms, and not only just strength and building muscle, losing body fat, but also rehabbing injuries. And so we're going to dive in today to some of his experiences, some of his knowledge and some of the things that make Jake who he is today. So, jake, I just want to start off maybe just like a spark-noted version, but ultimately, what led you from where you are today, what got you into fitness, and then what ultimately led you to become a coach?
Speaker 1:Yes, all right. So first off, thank you so much for having me on the Be Time Not Told podcast. Thank you, it is an honor to be the first guest of what I would presume to be many in the future.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. For me, my fitness journey began. I mean, I guess it took it way back to when I used to play soccer, and that's kind of how well. We played soccer under the same clubs and at the same high school, so that's where I began my athletic journey, right as far as resistance training goes, I actually started resistance training probably around 13 or 14 years old, just messing around with weights at the gym in my house, and I was definitely doing things incorrectly.
Speaker 2:That's how we all learn, man. Yeah, trust me, when I started I remember so many times I remember I'm running into. My favorite thing, man, when I was first starting out was I would go to the biggest buffest, most jacked-dude in the gym who everyone is intimidated by. I was just kind of like that childlike curiosity. I'd go up to that guy and be like, hey, man, could you help me move my form on this? Yeah, they would always give me that bodybuilder half-rep technique. But it was cool learning from people like that.
Speaker 2:But I feel man, my form was if I go look back at some photos and videos.
Speaker 1:It's embarrassing, it's atrocious, bro, even when I started training people man it was just different. Yeah, so I started off weightlifting at home, just trying to build a little bit more muscle, and definitely doing things incorrectly, went through the whole nine yards of messing up A lot of different joints. Even so far is having vertebral fractures in my spine from what I would presume to be deadlifting incorrectly.
Speaker 2:So that was your mid-back lower-back, Lower-back.
Speaker 1:And I was young. I was 15 or 16 years old dealing with vertebral fractures in my spine. That's when I started to realize that the resistance training can be a dangerous game if you're doing it incorrectly Absolutely. And I think that set me on the journey of trying to figure out how to do things correctly, which took a long time, and even to this day, I'm still learning how to do things correctly Absolutely. And so, yeah, I had to learn things the hard way. Which is what's cool about this job is that we have the ability to help people not have to go through that and they can learn things correctly from the start of their resistance training journey, as opposed to having to go through incorrectly and possibly get hurt.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's what TNT stands for is to teach people, man, and that's ultimately what led us here, so that people can learn the right way from the get-go. So ultimately, after you went through some injuries, you started working out in your home. I know you had a great soccer-sport background. So after that, after going through some of the beginning early stages of your injuries, what did you place? You played sports in high school, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, soccer, Soccer all four years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just soccer all four years, yeah absolutely, and then going into graduation like when you graduated high school. What was the next step for you?
Speaker 1:So after I got out of high school, I enrolled at community college in your home. So I was going through doing my first two years of college there my undergrad and I had. My dad came home one day from physical therapy and at the place he was going to they desperately needed some hires. They were short staffed on AIDS. And so my dad comes home. He's like you're into working out, you're into fitness, like you should go apply at the physical therapy office. And I was like I don't know anything pertaining to physical therapy. I barely have resistance training under my background and I'd like maybe like three or four years of lifting incorrectly, right. So I go in and I landed the job. At what was that? Probably 18 years old, 19 years old, and I started working in the physical therapy office, and so that was like the next progression.
Speaker 2:So my quick question for you is like what you know? It sounds like you started lifting really young, yeah, and it sounds like you know you had a natural affinity for it and clearly have some natural genetics from muscle building. But when it comes to actually starting that, like, I feel like a lot of people don't find fitness or health, or later in life, they find it because they have to or because they feel insecure about their, like, self image, for example. But like, my question is like how did you find fitness so young? Or what made you? What drove you towards that? What made you decide like I'm going to go pick up stuff and put it back down?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so going through and playing soccer. I was always the guy who was never the most talented, but I was always the hardest worker and I think any of my teammates to this day like if I called them up and be like, hey, you know who, who was the one working around the clock.
Speaker 2:What? What do I remember? Yeah?
Speaker 1:exactly. And so I mean I was always first one in, last one out. If I wasn't injured, I was first one in, last one out, kind of like that, that Mamba mentality. And I still have that to this day. I still like to be the first one in, I still like to be the last one out and I feel like that not being talented at anything athletic wise like I was good, but I wasn't naturally gifted made me work harder 100%.
Speaker 1:And so the resistance training was like a branch off that I could become stronger, like a branch off of soccer that would tie back into my performance. So, that's why I fell in love with it, and then it just kind of went its own separate way after after I finished playing soccer.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that. That's awesome man and man, that's crazy. Actually, I didn't know that about you and I actually relate to you, tom, because, like when I first stepped on the soccer field, my little brother was like the most gifted you know, yeah, Dylan's just gifted when it comes to soccer ball and so like when, when I saw him starting to play, he, like, he went from like never playing soccer to like the captain, like lead score.
Speaker 1:And I was like, I know that's so cool.
Speaker 2:I was like I want to, I want to play soccer, and like when I was, when he was, he was two or three grades, but he was like four, no, four or five grades, three and a half years younger than me, and I remember, like his first team he joined, I was like, oh you know, it's like after my knee injury, I was like I'll put some cleats on a try and like these little kids were school with me. But I was like man, that kind of makes me want to work harder for it and so that was very similar man.
Speaker 2:I wanted to work. I wanted to be able to work harder than everyone, because I was far less skilled than everyone else. So very relatable. So that's awesome. So that drove you into using soccer or lifting as a catalyst for better performance as a soccer player Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
Speaker 1:So my perspective was always like you know what? I might not be the most gifted, but I am the heart. I am going to be the hardest working.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 1:And then, if I fall short, at the end of the day I gave it as much effort as I could give you know, and then you just continue to move on.
Speaker 2:So what made you stop playing soccer after high school? Why didn't you go?
Speaker 1:in further. I was dealing with a lot of injuries, a lot of injuries from soccer. Can you elaborate Just about any and everything you can think of? I messed up Like knees, I've had two patella dislocations, which is I'm actually dealing with rehabbing one right now from a fight which I'm you know, dive into that. But I've had two patella dislocations, I've had tearing in my quad, I've had tearing in my hamstring, vertebral fractures, sprained ankles. It's just, soccer was not not kind to my body, yeah.
Speaker 2:We need to put like hashtag injury prone on your arm or something. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I was. I was definitely injury prone like coming up, and I think there's a lot of factors that go into that.
Speaker 2:But which is crazy because it almost sounds like that PT job was almost like a calling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the way that I perceive it to be is that I had to go through all these injuries so that I could learn from each and every single one of them. And it's funny because most of the injuries that people have come to me with through this, through this job that we do, I have already rehabbed for myself and I have experience with. So that's why, you know, a lot of my work up to this point has been rehabbing people. I've dealt with low back, knees, shoulders, elbows, ankles, like all of it, and I have experience with all of it. Just from just from the injury history of myself, you know.
Speaker 2:And that's one of the best things about the coaching experience and the journey is like I feel like most coaches that get into the space at least the good ones that I know and that I've worked with all come from a place of like. I wanna prevent you from going through the same shitty horrible taunting experience I had to go through.
Speaker 2:So this is great and unique and, like Jake's, my go-to. Like every time I get a client or we TNT as a whole gets a client is like when we have someone that has lagging or nagging injuries or knee pain, hip pain, ankle pain, back pain something that's just kind of bothering them. It's like the most common stuff we see, and when we run across those people it's like okay, jake's our go-to guy.
Speaker 2:So, I love having you as someone on the team, especially for that reason, because we have more value to add to the universe, to our clients. So that's amazing, man. So just to kind of recap, we went from high school a little bit before they started lifting. High school, you started the PT. So how long did you do the PT job for? Was that something you did for a long time? Was it just a short little?
Speaker 1:bit. So shout out to Body Mechanics in Team U Valley that two years-ish that I spent there during my undergrad. It was one of the most transformative experiences I've ever had in life. I will forever be grateful for the time spent in that office and the knowledge that I was able to obtain and bring into my career with me, I think, being there for as long as I was. I was there for almost two years right, and I worked with so many different people and there were so many different injuries that would come across. You had people coming in after car accidents and they were just debilitated and you could just see it. That's crazy. They were just crushed their whole life. Everything that they've ever known is completely altered just from the accident One freak accident, one something, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, that being said, what was the most common reoccurring injury? Was it like a shoulder? Was it back or like, because I know PT can be for like acute stuff in terms of like so many different situations in so many different cases Did you see, one that you're like man. I keep seeing this over and over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was definitely low back shoulder, shoulders and knees. Those were like the most common Low back shoulders and knees. I would say low back. I would say first and foremost low back and there was a common theme across the board with low back patients was sedentary lifestyle and being seated too much.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is fun. We can kind of let's dive into that a little bit more, because I feel like we'll get into this more as we get into like your training and like where you are now. But I think, while we're here talking about low back and sedentary lifestyle, because I'm sure most of the people that we know, most of the people that will probably watch this as you know, the podcast is a little bit newer, so hopefully we get a couple decent views, but ultimately, more importantly, I hope that at least one person watching this gets some value and I feel like this could be for that person. And so, when it comes to sitting a lot and having this low back pain, which, again, is super common, what kind of approach would you take then and or now to aid in that low back pain or even prevent it from coming in the first place?
Speaker 1:There's so many different things and there's so many things that Give me like one to three key pillars.
Speaker 2:I have my like three.
Speaker 1:I have my three key pillars.
Speaker 2:Let's go let's go.
Speaker 1:So the first thing I always tell people when they come in and they have low back pain I'm like stop sitting so much, like it's gonna compress your spine, but I can't cause of my job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you gotta get up and move around. You gotta take longer trips to the bathroom. You gotta get up more frequently, stretch, walk, can't? It's hard, cause I, you know a lot of people, it is their job, like they're seated and they gotta work. But also, at the same time, if you're sitting there nine to five all day, every day, you're just, you're just compressing your spine, you know, standing upright and they sit, it doesn't help when they when they're sitting like which?
Speaker 1:is a whole another set of issues on the neck, mostly in the shoulders, but my three key pillars when people come in with low back pain, I think the primary emphasis goes towards strengthening the core to work to stabilize the spine 100%, especially because most people have very underactive core muscles and everybody thinks, when they come in, like core is your six pack, abs, like there's a common misconception surrounding that and it's so much more than that. It's your glutes, it's your abdomen, it's your lats, right. So we try to get all those core or those large muscle groups engage right. And then you know, usually, due to the fact that they're sitting so much, their hips are extremely stiff, right. So my go-to, my bread and butter, is like that banded hip mobilization. Basically, we just wanna get the hips mobilized and you see me doing that with my clients all the time, right.
Speaker 2:So hip mobilized. What is that exercise called again?
Speaker 1:Banded hip mobilization. I stole it from Squat University.
Speaker 2:There we go, so if you wanna look that up, that's a good idea. I see you use that one a lot.
Speaker 1:Dr Aaron Horsig from Squat University, and then there's also the Stuart Miguel Big Three. So I follow those two. But yeah, I mean get the core active and engaged. That's gonna take some of the tension off the spine immediately and work to stabilize it, mobilize those hips. That way you know, if you're sitting all day and your hips are stiff, that's definitely not gonna contribute to the wellbeing of the spine.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And then lastly, it would be spinal decompression. So I mean spinal decompression kind of comes as a result of those two things, but there's also specific exercises and movements that I have my clients go through to decompress the spine. Can you give me one of your favorites? Ooh, there's so many. Give me one. Yeah, I think one of my favorites would be just like a dead hang, okay.
Speaker 2:Dead hang, or even Feet up or hands Upside down hang, or no, no, no, just hanging, just hanging from the bar, just hanging from the bar, just hanging from the bar.
Speaker 1:I love that, yeah, just hanging from the bar, okay.
Speaker 2:So what I got from that was step number one. If you're experiencing back pain or if you have a desk job to either prevent or to aid in your low back pain, one of the most important things is let's prevent more from happening by moving more, so more steps. Number two would be strengthening your core and I think number three would be allowing for more movement in these joints, so by working on mobility, flexibility, so your hips and your spine, so hanging, doing the hip mobilizations I think that would be the best way to summarize that, would you say that's pretty accurate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty accurate. Okay cool, it's pretty spot on.
Speaker 2:So kind of rewinding just a little bit back to kind of your physical therapy route, kind of what you see most commonly. So after you finish physical therapy, it sounds about two years, which took was about two years of school as well, right, so both those two in tune end around the same time.
Speaker 1:It sounds like yeah, cause I was transferring over to Cal State, fullerton, and so that's where we kind of touch back, Reconnected, Reconnected in life. And then, you know, making the move from CME Valley out to Orange County. Ultimately, you know that prompted me to have to leave the job and go pursue other things in life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was grateful for my time there, though, like seriously, it taught me a lot.
Speaker 2:And you went from. You know living at home your whole life. You went from. You know the experience of having a job to okay, I'm gonna move out. And I know firsthand from CME Valley both of us. You know where we were young kids playing soccer and tag on the streets growing up and then coming to a new place Orange County living on your own, being on your own, learning how to survive on your own.
Speaker 1:An experience I wouldn't trade for the world, chore home.
Speaker 2:I mean, dude, it's like you, like I don't think people our age or younger even realize like it's a definitely quite the experience, but it's one of the most humbling things.
Speaker 2:Like going through it, it's like damn it's tough but after you're over it you're like man. I needed that Cause it makes you, it forces you to grow up really fast and I know you experienced a lot of like development in that time in terms of like coming into who you really want to be and who you are. And you know, getting away from all of you know family, your background, your history all of that, I think, allowed you to really come out of your shell and become unique and an actual individual. And so, that being said, like what was the beginning stages? Or you know what, what, ultimately, what was your first you know couple months or year of school? Like what did you think of it? And then what kind of brought you from that like transfer to Kelsey, fullerton to like maybe contacting Tyler about training or that experience yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean, you and I had always stayed in touch. Absolutely, we were in touch on social media. I saw you down here doing your thing and immediately when I moved down I was like, oh, I got to stop by self-made and go see what's going on with Tyler and see he's got it. He's got it going on Like I was always keeping up with your videos and watching everybody train and I was like, damn, he's got a good thing going on here. It seems super dope. I love the energy and the impact that you're making. And so I remember I had just moved down and we had reconnected and we went to that fish spot over in Fullerton yeah, yeah, the good stuff.
Speaker 1:And from there, having that conversation with you definitely, definitely intrigued me as to your line of work and possibly getting involved, and it was yeah, it was cool when I moved down initially from Seamy Valley and moved to Fullerton, going to state at Cal State, fullerton, where I did an additional year and a half of schooling. That's definitely a big transition and it was good and bad. Like there was some good high points and it was fun, and there was also some really low points that got dark and so. But I feel like having that experience is something that I genuinely wouldn't trade for the world, like I had to move out and go be out of the house to begin to discover who I am as an individual and what kind of person I want to be navigating this world.
Speaker 1:And so for me, once I was able to start to get in touch with you and start to mentor underneath you and shadow you while you were working, I was like damn, this is such a cool job and it was right in line with kind of. I mean, it's very similar to what I was doing back at Body Mechanics at the physical therapy office, right, except now I had this ability to do it my own way, where somebody comes in with a set of issues instead of going and having and training them underneath the physical therapist guidelines and their exercises. I now had this freedom to pick and choose what do I think is going to be best for people, based on my knowledge through schooling, my experience through work and further furthering my education. Right, so yeah, it was it's. It's cool Having that ability and that freedom to decide what we think is best for our clients based on where they're at. Absolutely, you become Picasso.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that, because before, when you were in the physical therapy office, it was like, because you were an assistant, you weren't a physical therapist. No, you're not a physical therapist, not a physical therapist. We're not doctors. But what we do is we combine our experience, education and practices, and repeated I mean, when you tend to get repeated good results with people, you tend to repeat those actions and so you took some of the a lot of the things that you learned from there and you were able to paint your own canvas.
Speaker 2:Right Now, you had a blank canvas and you had someone coming in and it wasn't just here's how to rehab. It was like, oh man, I can give you advice on your nutrition. I can tell you like, hey, you know, we should try to work on eating more protein. And in combination, you get to hear more about their lifestyles and the things they do outside of the gym that ultimately are contributing to their pain or their discomforts. And what's my favorite part and I think that you enjoy this as well as that, we get such a diversity of clients.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's probably my favorite part, the same thing over and over again where it's like repair this repair this repair this. It's like, oh, this person's like pretty healthy and they just want to take it to the next level. Great yeah, this person has never touched a weight in their life.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I love the diversity. Yeah, I've worked with so many different types of people, and I think that's where I probably love this job the most is how many different walks of life that we get to work with, and I look at my job as like I think when people hear the word personal trainer, they just think of somebody that's going to put them through a workout for an hour and then send them home sour shit.
Speaker 1:Like somebody that's just going to bully them and I feel like that's such a common misconception surrounding our job, because the job that we do for people I know that me, you, coach, nate we all are in the business of helping people make healthy, sustainable lifestyle changes and just meeting people where they're at, and so for some people coming in, that looks like rehab. For some people coming in, that looks like just getting back into moving their body because they've been inactive for so long.
Speaker 1:For some people it looks like making some really significant dietary changes, and then for some people it's all of the above. So I think, more than anything, we're in the business of genuinely helping people with building healthy, sustainable habits. There's so much that we can help people with, based on our knowledge.
Speaker 2:And man, I appreciate you saying that number one, because that's truly the environment and the methodology. That's the mission of TNTs to change people's lives and to ultimately like and people think I'm crazy when I say this, but like our goal is not to work with our clients forever. Our goal, my goal and our goal as a team, as a unit, as a philosophy, TNT, our goal is to work with you for a short period of time whether that's short can mean a six months, a couple months, it could mean a couple years, but in the look at the lifespan of someone, that's a fraction of their time on this planet. But ultimately, our goal is to work with you, teach you everything you need to know so you can go off on it. We want you to go off on your own and actually keep going Like I actually funny thing I called the client that I haven't talked to in probably like five or six years from when I first started and just checked in on her.
Speaker 2:I said hey, how's everything going? Like you're still still working out three days a week. Yes, I'm still eating my protein. Yes, so those things when those stick. And, like I, I always just tell people like how I want to gauge my success as a coach is not based off your results. You're before and after picture Like sure those are cool and those are cool to show your friends and I'm sure you know your friends are jealous of it. But ultimately, what's more important to me as a coach is like I want to be able to call you five, 10, 15, 20 years from now and see you're still doing it.
Speaker 2:And hear that you're still doing the core principles. I'm getting my steps in. I'm drinking water. I'm sleeping good. I'm working out two to three days a week.
Speaker 1:Protein intake, eating healthy. It's the big rocks.
Speaker 2:And like, ultimately, if people can do do those things for a long period of time, they will feel the best, they will look the best, they'll perform their best and their everyday lives. And that's the mission we're on, and so thank you again for saying that.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a lot to me.
Speaker 2:So, ultimately, when, when I come back to you know this process of you going from, what's cool is that I remember like when you started at the gym, it was like, okay, jake, it funny thing and hopefully you're cool with me sharing this but I remember when you came in, um, I had a call with Jake and his dad and it was like I had to sell both of them. Yeah, and like Jake was really passionate. Jake, when he thinks about his passion, nothing else matters, it's like he's.
Speaker 2:He's very laser focused and his dad was like, well, how much does it cost?
Speaker 2:And I was like I'm not cheap man but remember his dad um, also, your dad was was great and very graceful graceful and giving you the opportunity, yeah, and he was like I'm not going to be the opportunity to mentor you and he allowed us to to kind of get this journey started.
Speaker 2:And I remember the first, like six months or so we just started like me training you, and then you'd come in on your, your off hours and not training and watch me train clients and, uh, I think that was an awesome experience and I wish more coaches would do that because, um, man, the stuff we see we've seen a lot of stuff at the gym and definitely, man, some of it irks me and now going to normal gyms, nursing other trainers and even at our own facility, but at the end of the day, um, you got great experience. You got to learn. Um, I don't know how or why, but I think you're a visual learner and an auditorial learner, cause when you were watching dude, you were like a sponge. I remember you would watch for like a day or two and be like, oh God, let me, let me go teach someone how to do this.
Speaker 2:And right away was able to pick it up and, um, that's not something you can teach to people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I learned. I learned through application. Yeah, and when, when I'm learning something, I have to go and apply it, or else I'm just I don't retain it very well. Um, definitely a big, definitely a big. Shout out to my dad. I remember back when I was I was 20. Shout out Ted, I was 20 years. I was 20 years old when I started under you and had just moved down. It was super broke, cause I blew through all my savings, like the first couple months.
Speaker 2:Sorry for the interruption really quick. If you've made it this far and you haven't liked or subscribed to the channel or platform whatever you're listening on, you need to do that right now, and I also want to say thank you so much for being here. On top of that, the worst thing happened during this interview my camera stopped recording. I don't know why. This is a rookie mistake and I want to apologize right now, because the audio quality is about to drop tremendously, but the information and the value is the same. It's going to be absolutely amazing. There's a ton of great things said after this portion of the interview. So, moving forward, the audio quality will be bad, but the information and quality of what we're giving you is fantastic. So, if you can stay tuned, stay listening. Enjoy.
Speaker 1:Shout out Ted, I was 20 years old when I started under you and I just moved down. It was super broke because I blew through all my savings like the first couple months being there and I was like, hey, dad, this is a really good opportunity. It's also a little bit of an investment. Life now has become so much more beautiful because of that investment and I was happy to pay that money back. Man, I'm genuinely and forever grateful for you and for what you've been able to do for me in my life and, like I said, having the experience and coming in and mentoring under you, starting my career, helping the people that I've helped make an impact that I've made and will continue to make. I don't think I've traded for the road man. It's amazing. Give me a chill.
Speaker 2:Huh, it's amazing, appreciate you, man, Seriously, genuinely. And so, now that we're in the thick of it, right, it's been two years now. You've been getting more experienced training people. You're a coach that I can trust with, giving any client of mine while I'm on vacation, or a client comes in and they're like, oh, Jake's my guy. And so this next step on your journey, right, we're getting to a point where we're growing the online side of things. So not only are we getting online clients, we got a good mixture of online and in person. And, what's beautiful, like you said, you have more experience now and you have more confidence as a coach, because I remember early on, you're like man I don't know, and I was like Jake you can, you can, and I think, more than anything, it wasn't the lack of skills, it wasn't the lack of anything, it was the lack of belief in yourself. And I think I've seen that flower blossom in a sense where, like I know, I could throw anyone at you.
Speaker 2:You're like I got that so one thing I want, I would love for you to share because I think it's so unique about you, and one of the things I would love to hear you share more about is, like some of the very, without saying, share client names, obviously, so we keep it private, but, more importantly, I'd love to hear about some of the types of people with some of the challenges of clients that you've had to deal with, the more challenging clients, but also like how rewarding it's been.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And like some of the cool things that you've been able to do on that journey.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, there's so many and you know, you know, obviously, working in the same space, you see all the different types of clients that I have to have people come in, like I have. I've had a lot of people come in for rehab. I've had I've worked with disabled people. I've worked with just, I've worked with athletes, gen Pop, so I mean there's just so many different walks of life that I've had the ability opportunity to work with them.
Speaker 1:I'm so grateful for that. I think you know one of the biggest success stories that I've had. I have a client and she'll know who this is. She came in post lower back surgery. Yep, yeah, that was like a very significant surgery, Absolutely. She operated on her spine.
Speaker 1:So I remember one of the trainers had came up to me and she was like, hey, like I have this referral for you. She just had low back surgery. And so I was like Whoa, like that's, that's intense that's exactly the word I'm going to use. That's intense and you know, that's, that's high risk, that's very high risk for our job. High risk, high reward, but extremely high risk, especially when you haven't worked with somebody with that severe case. And so in my mind I was like, Okay, let's do this, Like you know. So we brought her in and we started her kind of underneath those three pillars that I gave you earlier right, Shrink in the core, mobilize the hips. He compressed the spine and so, immediately off the back, we were able to find some success with getting out of pain, Right, and so she had just came from physical therapy. So she was rehabbed, but not strong. Not strong, you know, like we needed to get her back to being strong, being pain free and being comfortable in her own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when she came in, just to kind of elaborate a little bit, like when she came in, what was, what was the main thing she was experiencing, what was her mobility like, her strength, like, and then when you finished her, when she is now, what, what, what is that transformation? Crazy transformation.
Speaker 1:When she first came in, her biggest, her biggest intolerance was deflection intolerance. So just like for bending for people that might not know what yeah, just like bending over to pick something up. And so it caused pain, yeah, and she had a flexion intolerance and it was pretty, pretty severe and she also had some sciatic pain. So she was having pain basically from her lower back running down through her leg, which I know I've dealt with myself and experienced myself, and it can be very debilitating. Low back pain for people who have never experienced it before, it can be extremely debilitating. It is the type of pain that makes you question a lot of things. You're like, oh my God, right here, can I bend over to pick this up, or am I going to, or am I going to throw my back out, or it's just getting up laying down? Everything is painful when you're dealing with severe low back pain, and so we got her in, got her training, and so one of the first things that I did and I think this might be a little controversial was I had a deadlift, and the reason why I had her deadlift is not so we could throw on like eight plates on the bar and start ripping 405 off the ground. It's not I'm not trying to, not trying to breathe a powerlifter yeah Off. You know.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to teach her the mechanics of let's teach you how to pick something up and put it down correctly, with good form, because that is one of the biggest triggers is people will go to pick something up, like a box when they're moving, or for her she has. She's a kid, like you know at a time, and at the time of the kid was young. So she's picking a kid up and transferring kid and then putting the kid back down into the crib. And so if you're going through and you're doing that multiple times a day and you're doing that incorrectly, you are just going to be loading your spine as opposed to loading the musculature. And if you're her, that's extremely dangerous because you just had surgery on your spine. So there's no, there's no room for that. There's no, you know. So one of the first things I taught her is all right, let me teach you how to pick things up and put them down incorrectly. Let's teach your body how to move as one unit as opposed to your spine just moving below, and that's that's amazing.
Speaker 2:And I think that, well, that's exactly why I wanted you to dive deeper into this, because most people, when they think of pain or they have pain and they're experiencing these discomfort or these ailments in their life, instead of what they should do, what they're doing is they're going home and listening to maybe other people's opinions or doctors saying like, oh, just rest. Yeah, you know, and it honestly like it bothers me.
Speaker 1:And they're just treating the treating symptoms, not the root cause. And, by and large, the root cause is usually the mechanics, like how you repeatedly going through bad mechanics just with day to day things. It doesn't have to be in the way of it, it's just in life, like you got to know, you know if you're hurt. You got to know how to pick something up and put it down correctly or else you're going to put yourself at a high risk for re-injuring yourself Right, absolutely. And so you know. Like I said, as controversial as it may be, I had her. I had her start dead looking from day one and we started extremely light started with a kettlebell that was elevated on a platform, like so she doesn't have, she didn't have to have this great mobility to go down and get it Right. We just needed to teach the body how to move in one fluid chain.
Speaker 2:She was probably hinging enough to reach over to grab something off like a desk.
Speaker 1:Yes, literally Just enough. Yeah, very, very little mobility.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was like the weight. Was it like a 16 kilogram? It was lighter than that, like an eight kilogram. It was probably Like four kilograms.
Speaker 1:It was like you know the color four kettlebells that we have with the gym.
Speaker 2:Oh, the colored ones, the colored ones that we're calling out with their large. Is it the?
Speaker 1:gray one, it was like a pink one.
Speaker 2:Oh no, it wasn't the gray or the pink, I don't know. It's been like it was like a year and a half ago. That's only like 15 to 20 pounds, yeah it was like.
Speaker 1:It was like, and I was like you know what, let's just pretend this is the weight of the child, right? That's the most practical application is. Let's just pretend you're picking up the child, right? So we went through and I taught her the mechanics and yeah, so, like off the jump was like let's teach you the mechanics on top of on top of getting the core engaged, decompressing the spine, mobilizing the hips, all that good stuff, right? So you know, training her, we trained together for a solid. I think it was like a year and a half had to be. She just recently kind of went off and started doing her own thing. But we're still in touch and you know I check in with her. But yeah, she like by and large, since starting training has been pain free and it's super strong. Like by the time she was getting out of there we had her on the trap bar deadlifting, like I think it was like 115 pounds for sets of 10.
Speaker 1:And she's like this five foot tall, like she's not like. You know what I mean. She's like 5'1", 5'2" she's like short but she's jacked now Like she's got strong legs extremely strong glutes, right Like strong abdomen as well, and so that was probably my biggest success story just giving this a very case and then being able to help her to get back to life, pain free and strong, strong shit yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:And dude, like that's absolutely amazing. I think as a client, like those things to her were forever amazing to her, I'm sure because it was transformative in her own life. Yeah, she's able to pick up her child now without having to worry about her back being thrown out. She can probably do her just a day to day activities are now easier for her. But most importantly for us as coaches, like the most rewarding thing is seeing that change and seeing like man, I had a girl come in to me she'd go pick up a barely pick up a 20 pound kettlebell and now 120 pounds on a bar trap bar For sets of 10, for sets of like 10 to 12, like dude we never even got close to one rep like one rep maxing, because we didn't want I didn't want to play with those lower rep ranges too much Like.
Speaker 1:There's just no point.
Speaker 2:That's like a 500% increase which if I could increase my man, if I get a hundred pounds to any lift yeah. I would not, I would quit, because that'd be awesome, I'd be too good.
Speaker 1:Yes, but that's amazing and that goes to show your skills as a coach, and so simultaneously, though, life happens right, and there is going to be a time and there was a time which she was experiencing a little bit of pain, which I presume happened outside of the gym, because when she's training with me like it's safe, I'm making sure, I'm watching everything, making sure it's safe.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm not perfect and sometimes, sometimes people move weird and I don't catch it and it happens Like it's happened before. It's probably happened with you too. I know we're not perfect, right, but the cool thing is that when she would experience a flare up or when she was dealing with some type of residual pain or inflammation, whatever it may be, whatever was going on, we had methods that she could use by herself, without me there, to get her out of pain. And so, to this day, like, she still stays on top of those, and you know, I took the time to give her like a full sheet of homework and take her through all the homework while she was with me, and so she has a really good idea of what she can do.
Speaker 2:When it comes again. Yeah, I have a lot of people like that.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you do too. We're like we. Just we show them what they can do without us being there, or without even being in a gym, for that matter. Just something they can do with their body weight to get out of pain.
Speaker 2:Always going above and beyond me.
Speaker 1:Right, that's what we do. I wonder if that's how we make the impact.
Speaker 2:I wonder if that's how we make the impact and that number one. Thank you for sharing those. That's absolutely inspiring and it's cool because you know, seeing these journeys, seeing these people and like from the outsider's perspective of like I don't work with her directly, but I even saw over time.
Speaker 2:Over in the gym her happiness, her confidence completely turning over. And there's some other clients too. Like I know Jake. Actually he came to me and I was like I knew the person you needed to work with.
Speaker 2:He actually had a stroke and he was very debilitated from on one side of his body, was big, he's barely able to walk comfortably and doing anything was painful and really hard, you know, shaky. And so when Jake started with him, I remember him like Jake would literally put a belt on him and hold him and help him step onto a three or four inch tall box. I was like man, this guy can barely walk up a curb and I don't think people realize. But like you should be grateful for your ability to do that. And this man, over time, like he started doing this stuff on his own. Jake was just standing there just in case, but he started doing step ups and doing like farmers holding dumbbells. I was like dude, this is amazing to see. And then Jake also has another client that I have to mention, which is she's in a wheelchair.
Speaker 1:Still with me to this day.
Speaker 2:She's. She's in a wheelchair, and you know, it is the most inspiring thing to see what you've done with her, because I remember when she came in, she was quiet, very weak in a nice way. She just she had tons of potential, though, and I know one of the things that I've seen you post about that I think is so cool to hear and to see is like I remember you had her like drag this rope. You had a kettlebell at the end. You had to drag the rope and you started tying it without the kettlebell?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we just took it with the rope, yeah, and so, like I would, so I'll take this battle rope and I'll walk it across the turf at the gym. The turf is probably like 20 yards, 25. Yeah, 25 yards. I'll walk it across the turf and then I'll leave it at the end and then I'll go to one end with her and I'll hold the rope and then she'll be seated pulling the rope Right.
Speaker 1:So when we first started, when we first started it was like a five minute pull to get it across the turf with no added weight, just just the weight of the rope. Five minutes, wow, I would say about. Well, if we're talking today's time, which is about a year and a half later, she's currently pulling that rope across the turf in one minute. She got down from five minutes Five to five. To actually sub one minute. The last time we timed it was about 55 seconds Insane.
Speaker 2:And you weighed on it, and you weighed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, no, without the weight she pulls it like at 55 seconds. That's crazy. Yeah, that's like our PR. We go for like time to see how fast we can pull it. But to train to pull it that fast, we started tying a kettlebell on like a 32 pound or it's like a 16 kg, so like almost 32 pounds or something like that, and we'll tie it on and we'll just pull it across. It's a slow burn, but it's gotten her to the point where when we strip the kettlebell off flying, it's like she's also dropped down. I want to say I think it's about 30 pounds, 40 pounds, I don't know. Oh, I didn't even know that. Yeah, she's lost a lot of weight, dude. Yeah, she's lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 1:Just from moving her body, just from moving her body, and then I think you know, obviously the physical stuff is great, yeah, like getting stronger and losing weight, but more importantly, in my opinion, we built a beautiful relationship, yeah, and like we're just always shooting the shit, having a good time, laughing, I see you guys laugh. This is an awesome power because we're just having a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and.
Speaker 1:I get to that point too. Is the exercise you know is so conducive to the mental health right and bettering the mental health Like so for her. I think she's a prime example of a client and my lower back client we talked about earlier. You know, I think both came in in a position where the mental health was not as good due to where their body was at. Versus now it is Today's timeframe being stronger, more pain free, yeah, and I think that the mental health aspect is often overlooked as well. Proud of you, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's what I really wanted to highlight overall is that like it's not like us, his trainers, our goal is not. Most often it's not even at all our goal, unless it's specifically asked for for the client. But it's less about the weight loss, it's less about the muscle gain, it's more about the internal confidence and when the clients start looking in the mirror and smiling, they start having open conversations, like they start to make friends with other trainers and other people in the gym, like this client, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Like you're calling her, just talking on the wheelchair. Like I remember when she first came in, very shy, timid, and I would talk to her a little bit and she was just like you're quiet, now she'll go, she'll like stop, like just straight tanks to roll over and just like what.
Speaker 1:Like just shoot the shit. Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Like it's just, it's a good time. She's got some funny jokes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's, she's laid. She knows who she is this is the best.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she's funny. She's giving me a hard time a few times. She's, she's great.
Speaker 1:Trust me, me too.
Speaker 2:And like the only reason I wanted to single out a couple of those people, because those ones really stood out to me, but I mean all of your clients. I see one specifically who's named after a mushroom. He came in this morning. Yeah, he's, he's great too, and then I feel like I've seen him come out of the shell Like yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 2:My favorite part is like when he first came in, so quiet like when talking, when very like closed off. Yeah, now I hear him Like when I'm around. I don't know if he does it only when I'm around, but oh, he throws jabs at you Like he'll, he'll, he'll, like throw jokes, and I think he's really, really, yeah he comes out of his shell.
Speaker 1:Man it's. It's my favorite part.
Speaker 2:Man it's like you know, being a coach, we we build these deep relationships with our clients. That's what's all about, like our friendships, and that's that's one thing that I think is the coolest part about being a coach is building these like Ideally lot lifelong connections of humans and that are like great humans that we meet and the diversity you have people from all walks of life, from all areas of the world even so, and so that's the difference in work.
Speaker 1:Where am I in my career now, at like two years in, versus where I was at when I first started? When I first started, like it Was, it was hard to see it that way because I was so focused on like, okay, I gotta get them. Like Muscle gain, I gotta get them results where I was like nowadays yeah, don't get me wrong, it's still about that like we deliver on that, but that comes as a byproduct of building healthy lifestyle habits, right?
Speaker 1:And so I think both of us you know and not I don't want to talk about other trainers I've seen trainers and I don't think all trainers are like us. Yeah, I don't think they're like us, not regard, but I think from a standpoint of what we want to help people achieve when they come in, I think we all you know us as a team we want to see people be the best version themselves mentally, physically and spiritually and we try to help in any and all ways that we know how to, and I Think for us that also looks like embodying it too. Right Like we make conscious, healthy lifestyle decisions, and I feel like that's why people gravitate towards us to help them make those decisions as well. Right Like what types of movement would be best for them, absolutely, how to go through those movements, specific dietary advice or mono advice, whatever it may be like without you know, hunter, I smell advice.
Speaker 2:I think, to close that loop. I think one of my favorite things to explain to past future Clients is like so many people come in with the focus of I just need to lose this way, I just want to lose this way, or I just need to get more of jacked and so I can why be happier? And it's like exactly what's driving it at the end of the day, one of the things I see time and time again. The minute you take your focus off of the goal and they shift towards the experience, the journey, they start focusing on Okay, I'm just gonna get really good at walking and getting my eight to ten thousand subs every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah or I'm just gonna get really good at making meals at home. We're all. I'm gonna get really good at not sitting at my desk all day and I'm gonna get up every hour and go walk for a couple minutes around my office.
Speaker 2:Those things when they start shifting the focus to those things. What happens? That's when the results are every freaking time, man. That's when the scale starts dropping. That's when the muscles are showing. That's when the progress pictures they look at the like oh my, I didn't realize. Yeah, I lost three inches of my waist when, exactly because you weren't focused on it. So, that being said, jake, I think ultimately going into um coaching, it seems like it was a calling for you. It seems natural, and I'd love to see how far you've come. It's funny.
Speaker 1:I always I always say this because it's true. I didn't. I didn't choose this path, this path, just like it shows me like Funny story. I wasn't going for college and my neighbor across the street was helping me to enroll because he was at one part college and he just had like experience with going through and selecting classes and make like he just knew how to operate the system. He's like so what do you want to? What do you want to major in? I don't know business. Everybody goes business route. When they're undecided and he's like you should do a kinesiology, I was like what's that?
Speaker 1:I didn't even know I was like 18, just fresh out of high school. You know young, dumb and doing dumb things, and so, yeah, that that path chose me. Like he, he, he clicks kinesiology, not me. My dad comes home. Hey, they need work. They need employees to work at this PT office. You'll get the job if you go. I, I had no experience. I know business being there. Yeah, I was reading through medical charts. I had no knowledge of anatomy whatsoever.
Speaker 1:It took me. It took them once, two months, three months, to get me up to speed, just to read the charts and then, and then obviously, you know you and I, we go way back. Yeah, we know each other since, like basically before I had memory of life. Yeah, so I run into you out here. Hey, come mentor under me. It's, this is a awesome avenue for a career. Yeah, I don't know, I gotta think about it. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, this is dope, yeah, all of it.
Speaker 1:Oh, when I, when I look back and I reflect that's why I feel like I'm always feeling like I'm doing the right thing Is because I didn't have to. It found me, naturally, all of it found me and I couldn't be more grateful. I can be more thankful to God because the I think the most important thing when we leave the spirit is the impact that we've left while we're here. I don't think I would be as fulfilled or happy sitting in a desk job cubicle setting, maybe Making more money doing that or something I don't know, but I mean I don't think I would be as happy, you know. I mean I was like when I first started, the career was slow, it was picking up, and now it's picking up a little bit more just because I've had time to build a Network being out here. I didn't know anybody out here when I started, so it was slow. It was a slow start, but yeah, now we're to that point where it's starting to pick up and I'm super grateful, man. I love when I'm trying that experience for anything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And now you know, there was a couple things there that came up, but I'm like I'm gonna hold these off because I know we're gonna do some more Podcasts in the future.
Speaker 1:But I want to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's next? What's what's coming next? I know you went through this whole journey, the first two years of building your business. It's scary as all hell. Oh yeah, it's a fine and it's really starting to get some momentum, in terms of in person, the online as well. So I want to know, like, what is what do you see in the next couple years? Like, what growth do you want to see? What kind of education, what topics are you diving in, delving into more now? Like, what things are really fascinating, jake, and what are the next you know a few years looking like in terms of like coaching and like yeah, it's a good question.
Speaker 1:It's a very good question. There's just so many things that run through my mind. I love learning. I'm learning right. I like, I like the idea of Having any and everybody being able to step into the gym looking for something and I can help them right 100. So you know, I want to continue to further my education with rehab. I'm gonna continue to further my education with diet, nutrition, hormones, hormone and balance is how to correct them.
Speaker 1:As you know, people out there might not know most so part-time mixed martial artists that you do get to the Muay Thai, a little bit of boxing as well. So I'm looking for me. I mean that's, that's, that's huge in my life, that's that's something that I found that has genuinely transformed me as a human, maybe a much more peaceful person. I encourage, I Encourage everybody to go through and do that, because you learned a lot about yourself in the process. But for people that are, you know, coming in, maybe looking for that as well, I'm learning how to just some some basics as far as I want to be able to defend myself and you know any in all situations. Okay cool, let's go through some jiu-jitsu. Okay cool, let's go through some striking.
Speaker 1:But I'm very new in that right. I've been doing it for about a year and a half now, so I see myself just continuing to build and develop that skill set and then also being able to Offer it to others. Yeah, and I would also like to get involved with massage therapy at some point. So I just want to be like an all-encompassing like yeah, if you're looking for training, I can do that. Hey, I'm looking for rehab, I can do that. Hey, if you're looking for martial arts, you can do that. Massage therapy, I can do that. Just from, just from years, like I'm talking like a decade of experience. It's not just like, oh, I went through and did this for like two days.
Speaker 1:An online course into this? 10 bucks, dude. That bothers me, bro. Can I talk about that? Oh yeah, you can go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh, just because you have a certification does not mean you know anything. And just because you've worked with a couple, people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I Don't want to. Actually, I don't want to do too much on that. I just want to say, at the end of the day, when you meet a coach or you meet a client, or you meet a coach or someone that's been a trainer, whatever they qualify themselves as or call themselves, yeah, really, if you ever look to hire a coach, just know, like, what you look for is Not the education on the sheet of paper as nothing to do with their degrees, their certifications, as Everything to do with who they are as a human. Is that someone you can deal with for hours and hours? And then I think one of the things that a lot 100% don't actually think about is, like some of my closest friends now are my clients we spend like we spend a lot of time with them.
Speaker 2:Think about it like I have a client comes me one hour, three days a week. Yeah, the past three years.
Speaker 1:It's like a minimum of three hours. Yeah, you know, sometimes they're hanging out longer to most of the week.
Speaker 2:The hours I spend with my clients are typically more than sometimes what they spend with their families.
Speaker 1:They're friends, people that they love in the eyes, like well for us. It's like that too. Yeah, we're spending More time with them. I built beautiful relationships.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of my clients, yeah, and and they're like I know some things about my client. They're friends, don't even know about it.
Speaker 1:It's like it's crazy, it's great because that's what creates deep-lasting.
Speaker 2:You know, come like great, great humans. I honestly am so thankful to work with some of the best humans, but ultimately, I think when you look for a coach, I think what you should look for is they're genuine wanting to help you. They're genuinely care about you, your health, and it's not just like, oh, I'll get you to fall us or oh, I'll get you the muscle games, like no, no, no, like there's a lot of other stuff going on your lifestyle. Yeah, a lot of other things that we want to help with. And I think when you take that all-encompassing approach, it really Is an alignment with what this is, what TNT stands for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why? Why I wanted to start podcasting, why I want to start YouTube and doing more long-form content, and so we can really put this out there and share with other people like what is right, what is wrong, but also like speak from our experiences of how I've been able to help people, and I think you're an absolute asset to the team. I think it's been an absolute pleasure to work with you. I'm so excited to see where this goes and I'm definitely excited to see what other things we're gonna be bringing to the team, what other avenues we're gonna be going down to bring to our clients, to bring a more value, and I'm just, I'm just extremely excited for the future, what's to come. I just want to say thank you again for taking the time to get this podcast to me, brother, thank you.
