Transcript
Speaker: Hi, welcome to Levels, the podcast where we explore the people and the stories that make up our awesome community at All Level CrossFit.
Speaker: Today, I've got with me one of our very own, Kirk Roy.
Speaker: He's a coach and a member.
Speaker: Been with us for how long?
Speaker: Half years.
Speaker: Five and a half years.
Speaker: Man, it always blows me away when people tell me how long they've been here because all the years seem to blend a little bit and it's just like your kids, right?
Speaker: You're like, how old are you again?
Speaker: Anyways.
Speaker: I'm glad that you think of me as one of your kids.
Speaker: Well, maybe not kids, but one of the family members for sure.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So tell me a little bit about yourself.
Speaker: Where did you grow up?
Speaker: I was born in Toronto.
Speaker: We moved to Windsor when I was in grade school.
Speaker: Then we moved to Toronto, Calgary.
Speaker: And when I came back to high school, I was in Windsor and then I've been in Windsor ever since.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So a little bit of moving around as a kid, you were in grade school and you moved to Windsor the first time?
Speaker: Yes, I was in grade
Speaker: Yes, I was kindergarten when we came to Windsor and then grade three when we moved to Toronto, grade five when we moved to Calgary, back here for grade nine.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And in school, did you play any sports when you were growing up?
Speaker: So this is an interesting story.
Speaker: I tried all the sports.
Speaker: I played baseball.
Speaker: I played hockey.
Speaker: I played basketball.
Speaker: I am not a team sport person.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so when I got back to, in Calgary, I started skateboarding.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that was,
Speaker: Troublemaking and skateboarding were essentially my high school avocations.
Speaker: I can really not envision you as a troublemaker at all.
Speaker: I can envision you as a skateboarder, but not a troublemaker.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Things were a lot different when I was a teenager.
Speaker: See, that's the thing is that people always say, they're like, oh, people don't change, people can't change.
Speaker: And I'm like, people change a lot.
Speaker: I have changed a lot.
Speaker: It sounds like you've changed a fair bit.
Speaker: Now, I don't know if that's brought on by circumstances, environment, or whatever, but I truly believe that people can change.
Speaker: Just like most other teenagers, I got into a lot of trouble.
Speaker: And because I crashed my parents' car into a telephone pole, I had to get a job at Taco Bell to pay for the telephone pole.
Speaker: And that, and meeting my now wife, who I met in high school, Jen, those are the two things that straightened me out.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: Because I cracked a few cars and did some stuff and it didn't straighten me out.
Speaker: So I guess different strokes.
Speaker: It was that having to have the discipline to go to sling the tacos at Taco Bell that created discipline is freedom.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I wrecked my parents' car and all the money I had made that summer doing menial farm jobs, corn detastling and so on and so forth went into fixing the car.
Speaker: And that was like, oof, like a whole summer for the work.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Goodbye.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Lesson learned.
Speaker: Well, sort of lesson learned.
Speaker: Okay, cool.
Speaker: So then did you go to university in Windsor?
Speaker: I did.
Speaker: You go to university in Windsor?
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And what did you take in university?
Speaker: Mathematics and statistics.
Speaker: And that would make sense because now for your job, you have a title of the... I lead our actuarial and underwriting team at Blue Cross.
Speaker: So I'm the chief actuary.
Speaker: Nice.
Speaker: Yeah, it took me a long time for some reason.
Speaker: I thought an actuary had something to do with birds, like an aviary.
Speaker: So I was like, oh, wow.
Speaker: Pretty close.
Speaker: Pretty close.
Speaker: But no, it has to do with numbers.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: We've already gone over how long you've been doing CrossFit.
Speaker: What prompted you to start CrossFit?
Speaker: This is also an interesting story.
Speaker: Again, I've not been a team sport person.
Speaker: When I've always tried to be active, I studied food for a while, trail running, rock climbing.
Speaker: Again, all fairly solo, kind of outdoors was my thing.
Speaker: And then in 2019, I kind of wasn't running anymore.
Speaker: I don't know why the kids were getting older.
Speaker: One day we're having coffee, my wife and I, in the morning, and she's like, dude, is everything okay?
Speaker: Because like, I was not like, my mood was gone down.
Speaker: I was probably being depressed.
Speaker: And she's just, I said, I feel like I'm just not myself and all that sort of thing.
Speaker: I said, I haven't been doing anything.
Speaker: She's like, well, what excites you?
Speaker: And I had seen one of the documentaries on the CrossFit game.
Speaker: I saw this stupid CrossFit thing.
Speaker: And they're like, well, I'd look at these Spartan races.
Speaker: And she's like, you should probably talk to somebody.
Speaker: So,
Speaker: My goals were to call a CrossFit gym and sign up, call a therapist, and then sign up for a Spartan race.
Speaker: And I never signed up for a Spartan race, but that next day I called up, Zach Mack was working the front desk.
Speaker: That's how it started.
Speaker: And it was to get me moving again, because apparently when I do not move, I'm not a pleasant person to be around.
Speaker: And it was not good for my own mental health.
Speaker: And this is, again, Taco Bell, my wife, and CrossFit.
Speaker: Those are the three things that have saved my life.
Speaker: The three ways that you've learned discipline.
Speaker: That's right.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: Now, going back to the not too sporty individual thing, I'm kind of this thread that I kind of see run through this, the things that you do are a little, little counterculture, a little like left of center, maybe, you know, Kung Fu skateboarding, rock climbing, even CrossFit for a while, maybe it's become more mainstream, but it was a very like kind of radical thing to do, niche thing to do.
Speaker: Now, is that by design?
Speaker: I don't think of myself as having a counterculture personality, but somehow I am intrigued by people that do extreme sports.
Speaker: I'm fascinated by ultra runners.
Speaker: I watch these high divers we talked about, like, what are these people doing?
Speaker: And just the, when people are doing something that's sort of outside the norm, but really takes a lot of talent and skill.
Speaker: I'm just fascinated by that.
Speaker: So I think I've always been attracted to that.
Speaker: I'd even say like.
Speaker: through music as well.
Speaker: Some of the music that you listen to that I know you listen to might be a little bit counterculture as well.
Speaker: Some of the metal.
Speaker: The metal, the prog, even jazz stuff.
Speaker: It's stuff that's pushing the envelope of what's possible.
Speaker: I think that is the thing that attracts me because the more I reflect on myself, what gets me excited is someone finding their thing and trying to reach their potential in it, which is like I watch these kids on the skateboards these days.
Speaker: I'm like fascinated by it.
Speaker: the mastery they have over the body.
Speaker: And I would watch that all day long.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I think it's from what I can sense as well, too, is that it's people that are taking their own path, and maybe swimming a little bit upstream, but still succeeding and having that conviction that I don't care what's
Speaker: quote unquote normal or typical, I'm going to do my thing and I'm going to do it really well.
Speaker: And I explore the boundaries of it.
Speaker: I'm going to push that.
Speaker: And, and that, I guess that's the counterculture part of it is that you don't have to fall in line with what everyone says, Hey, you need to play baseball.
Speaker: You need to play football.
Speaker: You need to listen to top 40.
Speaker: You need to do this and that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So that's, I find that very, very cool that just like,
Speaker: And I say this with the utmost respect, is that you're not afraid to fly your freak flag and be like, yeah, that's what I do.
Speaker: And that's what I like.
Speaker: Fly the freak flag.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I think that's something that I've tried to even in our family, with the kids, my wife, it's like, what moves you?
Speaker: Do that.
Speaker: And find your thing.
Speaker: And who cares what other people think you should do?
Speaker: I like that.
Speaker: I really like that a lot.
Speaker: And it's something that I aspire to, I guess, impart that wisdom on my kids too, is like, you know, they do a lot of stuff that is, quote unquote, you know, typical for kids their age, but I do want them to find the thing that moves them.
Speaker: And I think that, I think it's a lifelong pursuit.
Speaker: Like, I think we're all still finding things that move us and looking for things that move us in the right way, because it's really easy in our day to day to get stuck in that, you know, this is what I do every day.
Speaker: And this is the routine.
Speaker: But sometimes getting outside of that and pushing the boundaries and looking for other stuff is part of what gives life a bit more spice.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm still experimenting right now.
Speaker: I took up archery this summer.
Speaker: Like, just why not?
Speaker: And it's been super cool.
Speaker: Yeah, I've started to try to learn to play the guitar.
Speaker: We're going to jam.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You're going to see an album.
Speaker: My fingers, I still feel like they're Frostbitten.
Speaker: I hope that that goes away at some point.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So you went over it already.
Speaker: You had a turning point that made you try Frostbite.
Speaker: Do you remember your first class or session?
Speaker: Well, when I started, we had the four foundation classes.
Speaker: And I remember Terry, Jack gave me my four foundations.
Speaker: And I was not a capable human being back then.
Speaker: And it was a little bit of an eye-opener.
Speaker: I do remember our first class that I did, the full class, was a workout called Leadfoot.
Speaker: And it was four-minute intervals, three minutes rest.
Speaker: And in the four minutes, you had to do 27 row cales, 27 burpees, 27 pull-ups, then rest, then 21, 21, 21, and then 15, 15, 15.
Speaker: I did not touch the pull-up bar at all.
Speaker: And again, it was like, oh, there's something out there.
Speaker: It doesn't seem like it should be this hard.
Speaker: That's a challenge.
Speaker: And actually that, like I'm seeing, and there's other human beings in here that have the capacity to do that thing that I cannot do.
Speaker: That actually made me want to come back again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Cause it's, it's, I find that there's a lot of, and I'm going to very generally rely people into two camps when they start CrossFit.
Speaker: It's, it's the ones that enjoy the challenge and are excited about,
Speaker: things they can't do and being able to do those and those that might not be that get turned off and like, wow, this is really hard.
Speaker: I don't think I'm ever going to be able to do that.
Speaker: And maybe they don't pursue it that further.
Speaker: Like when I did my first CrossFit class, I thought I did really well.
Speaker: I didn't do very well.
Speaker: And so that kind of, that got me and it's like, okay, well, I want to do well.
Speaker: So I want to pursue this and get better at this methodology so that I can
Speaker: be better at it, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's the difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, right?
Speaker: The growth mindset person says, this challenge is something that can help me be better, have more capacity, more capability.
Speaker: The person that says, I'm not good at that, if they tell themselves, you don't grow, and either you got it or you don't, then it's a test whether they got it or not.
Speaker: And so people tend to avoid that.
Speaker: And I think trying to foster that growth mindset is something that this community does really well.
Speaker: And so it really attracts those type of
Speaker: Yeah, I guarantee that when I first did a workout, I didn't know anything about growth mindset.
Speaker: Probably didn't have one, but I think deep down inside for sure.
Speaker: I think you've got a growth mindset.
Speaker: Maybe it's developed and it's something that I've become aware of, but I know that when I was younger, I did have
Speaker: very closed mindset in terms of not wanting to look bad doing things and not wanting to seem silly which is just funny because that's something that now with my kids like you need to be bad at something before you're good because no one wants to look foolish and that's a lot of the parts of things that people are a little bit worried about with crossfit too is because there is a learning curve with crossfit like there's a there's a vernacular there's a vocabulary there's a physical learning curve
Speaker: You know, there's a learning curve in the community amongst like, how do I log a workout?
Speaker: How do I sign into class?
Speaker: All the things like that.
Speaker: And I think sometimes that learning curve can be scary to people, but if you embrace it, you're going to get there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I figure out what the quote is, but like, you know, to succeed, you always have to be willing to be a beginner and willing to fail.
Speaker: And I think that's a very powerful mantra for people, because if you're unwilling to go through that step, then you're only going to be able to do what's already in your comfort zone and you don't expand your boundaries.
Speaker: I see a lot of coaching stuff on Instagram and I save a few things.
Speaker: The one thing I save specifically for my kids is that you have to be willing to look silly to learn a new skill.
Speaker: And the examples the coach gave I thought were great.
Speaker: He said, hey, do you think that when you were a baby that you just started talking or did you think you went through all of that kind of goo goo ga ga and all that kind of stuff before you got there and looked silly?
Speaker: And when you first started eating, do you think that you were
Speaker: This is perfect, you know, with manners and etiquette.
Speaker: Or was there food everywhere?
Speaker: And you didn't care because you didn't have the awareness to care.
Speaker: But it's the same thing when you're learning a skill.
Speaker: It's going to be sloppy.
Speaker: It's going to be messy.
Speaker: But if you keep persisting, you'll get it.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: What accomplishment in the gym are you most proud of?
Speaker: There's a lot you've been doing, you've been checking off the list.
Speaker: I know that you've got a list somewhere and you've been checking them off.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: What am I most really, um, I'm drawn towards the gymnastics movements.
Speaker: And so I think the fact, I think when I got my first bar muscle up, that was a big, that was a big day.
Speaker: Uh, the bar muscle up and the ring muscle up, I guess I'm most proud of it.
Speaker: It just takes a lot of coordination.
Speaker: You're a big fella too.
Speaker: And so like moving your body through space like that is not the easiest thing.
Speaker: And you've like,
Speaker: Watching you do strict ring muscle ups, man, that's an impressive skill.
Speaker: Impressive skill.
Speaker: It's the 20 years of rock climbing that helps.
Speaker: You should see me press though.
Speaker: It's terrible.
Speaker: Same, same.
Speaker: I tell myself I'm a puller and not a presser.
Speaker: But I'm not sure that's true.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: If you could give your day one CrossFit self some advice, what would it be?
Speaker: I think that Michaels from these interviews, I think just show up as number one.
Speaker: I would add to that though, worry about moving well.
Speaker: not about moving fast or heavy.
Speaker: And so I think the longer I've been in, it's kind of like anything.
Speaker: When you're a beginner, you have this learning curve and then you're like, oh, now I know what's going on.
Speaker: And you almost relearn everything.
Speaker: I feel like I'm in the relearning phase, getting the mastery of every single movement.
Speaker: Because you do have this thing, I want to get better.
Speaker: I want to do a more advanced move.
Speaker: I want to get heavier.
Speaker: I would rather go lighter with
Speaker: perfect for.
Speaker: So move well.
Speaker: Don't worry about moving heavy.
Speaker: I think that's one thing that's tough for people because it's so much easier to look at a weight, a number and say, okay, I back squatted 225 pounds, or I can clean 185 pounds.
Speaker: And those are easy to measure, but measuring how well you move much harder.
Speaker: Yeah, much harder.
Speaker: I've always said that
Speaker: know people might not try to lift this heavy if there were judges on this side giving him like three out of ten four out of ten and you had your like judging score plus the weight you did it and there's some sort of multiplication or it's like okay well you lifted 200 pounds but your form was three out of ten so it's only worth this i think not that that would ever happen but i mean if people have that in their head like what would i be judged on here you know that little like self-regulation like did i move well
Speaker: as opposed to did I move fast or a lot of weight or did this thing?
Speaker: Yeah, I heard the guy who runs Bird Box Gymnastics, he said, your goals should be mastery of the movement.
Speaker: I'm like, well, how do you measure mastery?
Speaker: But his example was for the back squat, when you go down and when you go up, does it look exactly the same?
Speaker: And I'm like, ooh, that's a good thing because going up, it does not always look the same, but at the weight that you have mastery, that's what you want.
Speaker: No, that's a really good point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's hard to measure those kind of things, but I mean, but being mindful of it, I think it's helpful.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: How has CrossFit helped you in your daily life?
Speaker: Well, I already told you the story that is like my mood, mental health.
Speaker: My wife does say, oh, you know, things must not be stressful at work because he's still going to the gym.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If I miss the gym, that's usually a bad sign that, you know, things are off the rails.
Speaker: So I think it just stabilizes my mental health more than anything.
Speaker: I think the other thing is, I also come to the 5.30 a.m.
Speaker: class.
Speaker: You do that right in the morning, it's hard work, and then you're off to the day and you're like, it's like the people who've seen Fight Club.
Speaker: When you're fighting, everything else in your life gets turned down.
Speaker: When you come and do a CrossFit workout first thing in the morning, everything in life gets turned down.
Speaker: And I even think about this, because I come here, drive to work, and then there's like about a hundred meter drive from the parking garage to the building.
Speaker: When I walk across that thing,
Speaker: My body's a little bit sore, but it feels open.
Speaker: And I'm like, I feel great.
Speaker: And whatever I'm walking into a work, this works crazy sometimes.
Speaker: I can handle any of that.
Speaker: So I think it's the confidence to handle whatever comes, I think comes from choosing to do hard things out here in the gym.
Speaker: Yeah, that's great.
Speaker: I spoke to Mark Campbell last week, and that was one of the things too.
Speaker: And it's one of the overlooked things about CrossFit.
Speaker: Everyone looks at CrossFit and they see a certain thing.
Speaker: They see hard workouts or they
Speaker: You know, they see the people competing at the games.
Speaker: And I've always said CrossFit's kind of like an onion.
Speaker: There's a lot of layers to it.
Speaker: Community, ability to do hard things, mental resilience.
Speaker: And I think that mental resilience, we do some really hard things in the gym.
Speaker: And if you're able to translate that skill into your everyday life and say, yeah, I can do hard things, right?
Speaker: And it's the same way you'll do it in a workout.
Speaker: I might have to pick up the bar and drop and pick up the bar and drop it and chip away at that.
Speaker: But that's the same thing in real life too, right?
Speaker: Yeah, 100%.
Speaker: Just keep pushing forward.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Do you have a morning routine?
Speaker: My current morning routine is I'd say five of those stupid New York Times Wordle games in the morning while I'm having my coffee.
Speaker: I used to have a practice where I had the daily stoic and I'd read a page out of that every day.
Speaker: I did that for two years, but now I'm on to the game.
Speaker: Let's keep my brain sharp, I guess.
Speaker: And my daughter plays them too, so we
Speaker: One, kind of the map.
Speaker: But those, we can only play them once a day.
Speaker: I also have been known to have an addictive video game thing.
Speaker: So it's just like, oh, one more game.
Speaker: I'll never get anything done in my whole life.
Speaker: So that's the way I get it in, but keep it limited.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I like that.
Speaker: Okay, do you have a night routine?
Speaker: I go to bed early, period, but no specific routine.
Speaker: Would you try to get a certain amount of sleep each night?
Speaker: I get up before five, so I try to go to bed at nine o'clock, shooting for around eight hours, probably seven hours.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Seven to seven and a half is usually.
Speaker: I want to get eight, but that might be a weird.
Speaker: I shoot for eight.
Speaker: I usually get seven and a half unless things go south.
Speaker: And then I might sleep in a little bit extra on the weekend, even though they say you're supposed to be consistent.
Speaker: Yeah, I know.
Speaker: It's nice to take advantage of that.
Speaker: It's tough because you're supposed to be consistent with your sleep and your wake time, but there's also a sleep deficit.
Speaker: And how do you ever make that up?
Speaker: I'd rather make up the sleep deficit than be consistent.
Speaker: 100%.
Speaker: Okay, let's go rapid fire.
Speaker: Favorite movement in the gym?
Speaker: Overhead squat.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: I did not expect that.
Speaker: What did you expect?
Speaker: I don't know because usually, and I'm not saying that you're not good at overhead squats, but usually people, when you say favorite movement, and I'd be the same as I pick a wheelhouse movement, something that I'm good at, right?
Speaker: I'm not saying you're not good at overhead squats.
Speaker: No, I'm not good.
Speaker: The overhead squat challenges every part of you, and I think it was for one of those ones for me.
Speaker: I do one-on-one training with Jaleesa.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And the first thing I said to her, I said, going back to the camp, I think my squats are terrible.
Speaker: And she's like, here's a barbell, do an overhead squat.
Speaker: And like, I think I maxed out at a hundred pounds.
Speaker: And like, we worked on that.
Speaker: And again, working on something that challenges those positions, I've made a lot of progress.
Speaker: And so when I come back to it, I'm like, oh yeah, this is hard.
Speaker: Let's do it.
Speaker: It's fun.
Speaker: One of the, I mean, I experienced the overhead squat in CrossFit, but I remember I went to a, and he gave me a PVC.
Speaker: He said, overhead squat is PVC.
Speaker: And
Speaker: And that was his test?
Speaker: That was his test to see, just to look at your body and see where you might be lacking in some of, and obviously a PBC is not going to challenge your strength, but even a PBC challenges your mobility and they can say, okay, you need some work on your ankles or your shoulders or internally rotated.
Speaker: And there's so much you can see from that movement because you're right.
Speaker: It requires even unloaded.
Speaker: It requires mobility in so many joints, right?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Thoracic spine, shoulders, hips.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: In the level one, when they give you the PVC and they can do the pizza version, you, it requires a lot of mastery of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I always think of, uh, Egyptian hieroglyphics when I feel like I'm, you know, one of those things.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, I think, you know, the answer this morning, afternoon or evening class morning, some people would say if I had no other work constraints,
Speaker: would not come in at 5.30.
Speaker: I do like coming out at 5.30.
Speaker: I think the discipline and consistency is there.
Speaker: I would probably work out at 9.00.
Speaker: We've seen one of our 5.30 brethren do that, right?
Speaker: And today, he's taking baby steps back.
Speaker: Yeah, I get it.
Speaker: There is something to be said first thing.
Speaker: They say that you're always sacrificing performance for consistency by coming in so early.
Speaker: But I mean, yeah, I think so.
Speaker: Long endurance workout or short endurance workout?
Speaker: Long endurance.
Speaker: I would rather have a grinder, low skill, put your head down sort of thing.
Speaker: Now, do you think that this is my theory on it because I'm the same way?
Speaker: Do you think that it's to do with the amount of suffering involved in a short sprint?
Speaker: Yes, 100%.
Speaker: I do not want the Franlong.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's more an avoidant of the pain that comes with the thing.
Speaker: Although we have been doing a lot of intervals lately.
Speaker: And I am really appreciating the intervals.
Speaker: It's like today, I can do that for four minutes and I know I have a couple minutes rest.
Speaker: But like, that's been, I think that's been very effective.
Speaker: I think that- But longer is better.
Speaker: And I think longer is better.
Speaker: To avoid the pain.
Speaker: I think that intervals, you know, interval workouts, I did one on Saturday.
Speaker: And I think that intervals can be the hardest workouts there are because it's just amount of
Speaker: how much are you willing to push yourself in that interval, right?
Speaker: Knowing you have a good chunk of rest on the other side makes it a little bit easier.
Speaker: But man, if you do an interval right, that's going to be painful.
Speaker: Okay, favorite indulgent food?
Speaker: Indulgent food, my wife makes
Speaker: chocolate chip cookies called kitchen sink cookies.
Speaker: Ooh.
Speaker: And there's chocolate.
Speaker: There's all kinds of stuff in there.
Speaker: They are probably the best cookies that ever existed.
Speaker: You have to be a friend and share that with the community.
Speaker: So not to put any pressure on your wife, but holy moly.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Roger that.
Speaker: Jen, there's an order coming.
Speaker: Favorite healthy food?
Speaker: I am such a huge fan of oatmeal with protein powder, R&F, of course.
Speaker: Put some berries and a little bit of almond butter in there.
Speaker: That is my go-to.
Speaker: That's one of my favorites as well, too.
Speaker: I've kind of gotten away from it in the last little while.
Speaker: I don't know why.
Speaker: But I feel like that is the perfect food for active individuals, right?
Speaker: You've got your fiber.
Speaker: You've got your complex carbs.
Speaker: You've got your fats.
Speaker: It's delicious.
Speaker: You've got your protein.
Speaker: You've got your antioxidants and berries.
Speaker: I haven't really looked at an analysis of it, but in my opinion, it's the perfect food.
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: Every time you watch a video with a high-level athlete, what do they eat in the morning?
Speaker: That.
Speaker: Right?
Speaker: So pretty much that.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: favorite pre or post workout snack.
Speaker: I always eat a pre workout in the morning, got to have something in the system.
Speaker: So I always eat a little fancy granola bar called, I forget what they're called now, better made.
Speaker: It's like it's a peanut butter chocolate thing.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a there's an interesting study over that even post workout is the oatmeal.
Speaker: There's there's an interesting study about
Speaker: carbohydrates before workouts and even rinsing your mouth with a carbohydrate solution makes you work out better.
Speaker: Because it tells your body you're not going to be deficient.
Speaker: You're ready.
Speaker: Like it's almost like it's like, okay, flip the switch on.
Speaker: It's time to go because we're fueling our body for this thing.
Speaker: This is where you get all the coaching.
Speaker: When I first started, I think you asked everybody what they had to eat before they came in one morning and I said, I had a handful of nuts.
Speaker: And it's like, you were like, wrong answer.
Speaker: You know,
Speaker: You know, I've kind of I've softened my my stance on wrong answers now.
Speaker: You can have a better answer.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I think that's probably a better way to put it is that maybe not the ideal or optimal way to feel yourself.
Speaker: I've gotten away from the optimal stuff because as you get older and, you know, we have more responsibilities.
Speaker: Optimal is great.
Speaker: But is it realistic a lot of the days?
Speaker: Maybe not.
Speaker: So I'm just trying to do the best that I can rather than the optimal version.
Speaker: My mantra is progress, not perfection.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: What's your favorite way to relax?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: I play music.
Speaker: My son and I play music all the time.
Speaker: I do like playing those like little brain games.
Speaker: My favorite indulgence that keeps me staying outside the gym.
Speaker: I play Dungeons and Dragons every week.
Speaker: And that is
Speaker: Like it is an escape and it is, but it is so,
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: I can't say.
Speaker: Is it an online or is it a in-person?
Speaker: No, it's online.
Speaker: It's actually started during COVID.
Speaker: A friend of mine I used to work with said he was playing and said, we're going online.
Speaker: So now we've been playing for five years.
Speaker: My son plays as well.
Speaker: So it's a family affair.
Speaker: It is something I told somebody it's a way to explore all the big questions in life.
Speaker: And personally, without the defense mechanism of your own psychology or the culture,
Speaker: do that that's how powerful it can be really yeah it seems nerdy and silly and people think you're just running like with swords or something like that yeah it can be really an interesting and it's like i love that perspective on it i would never in a million years i don't play so i don't i don't know i think i played when i was 12 or 13 a little bit but that's a great way to look at it and i never would have thought about that and it gives me a whole new perspective on
Speaker: maybe people that are playing Dungeons and Dragons right now, cheaper than therapy.
Speaker: It is there.
Speaker: And there's a big study that said therapists have actually prescribed people play Dungeons and Dragons to work through a bunch of that stuff.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Holy moly.
Speaker: I might be joining the Dungeons and Dragons.
Speaker: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker: I heard that here first.
Speaker: I'm going to have my own little bag of dice.
Speaker: It'd be nice.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I don't think I've got anything else.
Speaker: Well, you've,
Speaker: Got a lot here because you've created a great community, a great gym, and it's done a lot for people.
Speaker: It's done a lot for me.
Speaker: So I want to say thanks.
Speaker: Well, thank you very much for joining us today.
Speaker: And that's all we got.
Speaker: Thanks, Kirk.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, I love, you know, I just like chatting to people.
