The Project: Kuwait

Mahdi, Meg and Danica Discuss: The Benefits of F45 and its Different Workouts from TABATA to EMOM! Plus Overall Evaluation of CrossFit and Orange Theory!

December 20, 2020 Mahdi Al Oun, Meg Guthmiller, Danica Ayala Season 1 Episode 214
The Project: Kuwait
Mahdi, Meg and Danica Discuss: The Benefits of F45 and its Different Workouts from TABATA to EMOM! Plus Overall Evaluation of CrossFit and Orange Theory!
Show Notes Transcript

In This episode mahdi and Meg dive into F45 with Danica! Danica brakes-down  the interworking of F45 and the benefits. How the programs work and the overall structure works.

the guys also talk a lot about CrossFit and other workout modalities that never lasted. they also dive into different gyms and their outlooks on F45 and CrossFit 

Support the show

 

Episode - Meg Mahdi Dynac [82min]

Sun, 12/20 8:34AM • 1:16:21

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

crossfit, people, class, shit, workout, coaches, gym, movement, kuwait, nice, meg, rope climbs, cardio, dude, push, fucking, bit, buy, point, pull

 

00:00

You are now listening to the project quake project quake project

 

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where we stop at nothing to bring you the right backs on health, fitness and psychology, featuring some of the world's most experienced professionals. So you can learn when and play with your hosts make dirty. And

 

00:21

I love it because it's sort of like an evolution of CrossFit, something more structured, and you're just kind of like you go in, okay, here's your water break, because people don't know. I mean, a lot of trainers, coaches assume that people know when to take a roster and know when to get a drink of water will know when to do something. And in reality, a lot of gym doors really don't. And I was having this conversation that there are people that go to these big bodybuilding gyms here in Kuwait, that have recently opened up boxes, and you go in there, and you just see the guys that don't know what to do at the lower levels, you know, inside with all the machines, they have no clue you compete against other people on the leaderboard, depending on your points, too. So you also get that competitive side of it if you want to be a part of that. And some people really enjoy that. So it's nice as a coach to be able to look up at a heart rate monitor board, and I'll know like if someone's doing cardio and they're in the Blue Zone, I'm gonna immediately be over there being like, Alright, buddy, we gotta like pick it up here. You know, I'm looking at your heart rate monitor, and I know you're not pushing yourself, you could stuff like, Oh, well about harder. I did appreciate that when I went to a class and being like a coach, myself and a more seasoned athlete, like it's easy for people to see like in a class where there might be beginners, it's easy for coaches even brushed by and not say like a word to me either.

 

01:33

And I really appreciated that having those videos up front of like a demonstration of what the movement is supposed to like for people to keep their eyes on and see and then the coach can kind of walk around and give little cues. I didn't feel like I got more coaching and attention in the class, which is nice. All this and more in today's episode. Meg, you got to give me a song this time. Okay. Your friend is on the podcast. You got to give me a song. I always give a song on this podcast. It's your turn. Throw the ball in your court. I've been playing an assault. Like I have to pick a song you got to sing a song you got to sing a song to sing a song.

 

02:05

Danica you could sing a song too. All right. Why don't you guys as I sing on this podcast, someone else has to say not gonna lie. The first thing that came to mind was a lot but I feel like that's highly inappropriate.

 

02:17

That is fine. Go ahead.

 

02:25

Take it away.

 

02:27

I you know, is a big cardi Vee fan and she, cardi B because her first video was in Dubai, right? Yeah, well, it was funny. The first time I heard the song. I was in Dubai. And I was like driving down like one of the main strips like we were stuck in traffic and the song came on. I just was like looking around. I was like, This is such an amazing song. I was like a lot out here and I pulled the music video and I'm like, wow.

 

02:54

There may have been drinking involved that made it a little bit more exciting at the time. But you know, escaping for a little bit to go party at Iris. I've got a great dancing video of Danica and I from our

 

03:08

number. Yeah, I'm on a new level

 

03:13

into gangsta rap.

 

03:17

No, we'll send that one Maddie, you can?

 

03:20

Oh my god. If you want to do it, that's fine with me, but yeah, so he actually had to tell me what that whap song was about. Oh, boy. And I felt like an outdated old man. Like an outdated dad. Yeah, an hour later. She looks at me and she goes, You look like such a dad right now. Like what the fuck? What do you mean I look like such like you got the dad shoes and the dad shorts. Just like whatever. At least I don't have a Wop. And and it was just like that. Yeah. So dad jokes. Yeah, Dad jokes. You know, it creeps up on you. But I mean, that's hilarious. I honestly, I've heard the song. I think it's got good rhythm to it.

 

03:58

He can say that it is what it is. But yeah, it's a good song. You know? I mean, it's like gin and juice when I was young. DJ her gin and juice. Come on, you know, because I've had it on my playlist when I was working out. And he's like, Daddy, why's that person peeing on the radio? mic? Let's change the song.

 

04:17

Teacher.

 

04:20

So we were talking earlier and Danica, you were giving me an intro to f 45? Yes, that's something that I'm actually very unfamiliar with. I've seen a couple of programs my cousin did at 45 for a while. And I looked at it. I was like, Oh, this is awesome. It's kind of like CrossFit. But without the complicated movement. She did it in Dubai at 45. And she loved it for a while. And I think it's great to be honest with you. I think it's a lot better in my opinion for people who don't want to go that extra level with CrossFit because some boxes get a little crazy. Yeah, well, and I think so the whole idea I think originally when f 45 was started was people who love CrossFit. I believe you

 

05:00

No, CrossFit is basically the franchise is very loose. So it's, you know, basically you pay your fee, you get the name, but you can run things how you want. So every CrossFit gym you go to could potentially be a different experience, you might not be doing the same workouts that day training is different coaching, sells different focuses are different, you know, it's, you're a part of this bigger community, but then your own community is individual in itself. So I think what f 45 did is it took kind of that loose franchise model that CrossFit was using and wanted to make it basically wanted to make it a little bit more of like a hard set. So if you go to that 45 in Dubai, or you're at 45, or I'm not, you're doing the same workout for that day, and it's going to be the same, pretty much the same experience, you know, as far as like coaches and stuff go, I mean, we don't really have a script or anything like that, you know, there's like, basic points you hit. But as far as like the actual programming, the class goes and the setup, it's going to be the same no matter what do you go to. So it takes that, you know, on the if you're unsure, like, what am I going to be walking into, if I go into this gym, you don't have that with the 45. But you still get the functional exercises. There's not a lot of cardio equipment, which is kind of what you know, you tend to see in some of the boot camp classes, you know, treadmills and the rowers, and all of that stuff, a lot of people don't like running on those treadmills. So basically, the only two items we have are the bikes and the rowers, which is very similar to CrossFit. So those are only cardio equipment we have everything else is bodyweight, and then they split it into strength days and cardio days. So there's not necessarily like a body point focus, but it's a on these days, we're going to be focusing on you know, using heavier weights. So all the movements we're going to do are going to include, you know, some sort of calisthenic or you know, a weighted exercise. And then on cardio days, you're just going to be basically running around jumping around moving as best you can, you know, doing burpees doing high knees, jumping jacks, I mean, all of that stuff. So that's kind of how they split it up, which is nice. So it's a little bit lower impact, I guess, I would say for CrossFit, maybe a little less intimidating for people who are just starting out also, like that's kind of the selling point of it makes it a little bit. Yeah, I think what they did I remember when I attended my first class, I did it in Minnesota, they were pretty new to opening there when I came back from Kuwait. And like looking at it from a facility management standpoint, like they really solved a lot of those problems with like warmups and just like instruction and just how the class and everything said like, so for a business owner, like somebody can own an F 45. Like CrossFit, what you find is usually it's like somebody started out as a member, right? And then they got into coaching, and then they decided to open up their own gym. And now they're like, doing everything, right, the programming, the cleaning, the, you know, setting up the structure for the day, coaching the classes, like they're trying to do all of that. And this like kind of helped just streamline and systemize everything for a business owner. So like even coaches like you, they don't even have to come up with their own warmup, right, like, it's all done video. Hold on. So yeah, so basically, when you walk in the gym to come take a class, you'll walk in, obviously, you check in once you get into the class, the coaches do a full introduction of the class. So you get from the moment you walk in the door, they're gonna say, this is what we're doing, this is your work, this is your rest times because it's all hit. So you're always doing a work in a rest set. And then this is what your focus is going to be. So is it more of like an E mom style? Like, is it like a two minutes of work woman and a rest? Or one minute of work? Like how? Because that was my question about 45? Is how's it structured? Is it like amrap? style? Is it you know, like, every minute on the minute, is it circuit based where you go from circuit to circuit, I mean, I would say you probably looking at more of kind of that circuit, I mean, we also have to they call it to bata style. And it's like, we'll have 20 seconds or 10 seconds or so, or 30 seconds or 10 seconds or us Honestly, it really depends. So they have what like each workout has a name. So it's like either a strength name workout, or a cardio name, workout. And that template gives you what your work your rest, if you have water breaks, if you don't, all of that stuff, it's kind of built in. And then they're just kind of plugging in those exercises. And they do typically outside of COVID, there is a certain it's kind of like crossing the sense like when you program for CrossFit you programmed for for building up to like there might be a movement that you're working towards, right when you're programming for CrossFit. The focus might be on like certain push ups or whatever, whatever body position, you're, you know, area you're trying to work on at 45 does something similar. So it's not you don't notice it outwardly. But there might be like more of certain types of movements that are happening for that, like 10 week period, or whatever it is because their focus for the first eight weeks is this and then shifts into building strength in this section. So it really just depends on what workout you're like, what day you come on, if that makes sense. No, it really is. I mean, it's constantly changing. We have one, there's 16 workouts for cardio days, like cardio is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and there's 16 different styles, right? Is that like kind of accurate? So like there's different names for them. So like I see 22 so that one is longer sets and shorter rest and then there's like one named Abacus and that's like,

 

09:48

decreasing work time. So like they each have their own different structure. And there's Yeah, yeah, and that, like Abacus is a sprint. So you're doing short work such short rough sets, but then we have some days where it's like you might start off on

 

10:00

Doing a minute of work with 30 seconds or less and then end on, yeah, 20 seconds of work with five seconds of rest. So you might build down to that. So it's a con like it is, it's varied, and they're constantly coming out with new ones, like there's a bunch, I think we just had two or three new ones rollout kind of during or pre COVID. Now, we haven't been able to do yet. And that's so like that one would be, it's one of them, I won't say the name of it, I don't know if they've like fully released it, or if it's just on our side, but uh, it's actually a strength workout. But what they did is they took basically, you'll do 25 seconds or 30 seconds of this lift. And then without any rest, you immediately go into a cardio set for 15 seconds. So you're doing like high knees straight into 15 seconds, and then you get your rest. So now they're kind of doing like a combo One, two, which is pretty cool to kind of see how your body reacts to like going from that slow movement, you're lifting heavy to like immediately going. It's like cardio. So it's kind of nice, how they, they're definitely trying to come up with more they do listen to kind of feedback, which is nice from coaches and gems, and, you know, things like that. So they are trying to build, you know, a better network, and I definitely see it. I mean, here in the US. I think it's exploding right now. Like it started off where like nobody heard about now everyone's like 45 What is it makes started in Australia, right? Yep. So in Australia. Mm hmm. And then the, I believe the first one the US was in California, or at least.

 

11:18

But yeah, no, they I feel like every city has I mean, shoot even where my parents live. Now. There's one. So yeah, I love it. Because it's sort of like an evolution of CrossFit and probably what like sports, like, you know, CrossFit. And like you said earlier, you know, orange theory, all these things needed something more structured, and you're just kind of like you go in, okay, here's your water break, because people don't know. I mean, a lot of trainers coaches assume that people know when to take a raster and know when to get a drink of water or know when to do something. And in reality, a lot of gym goers really don't, I was having this conversation that there are people that go to these big bodybuilding gyms here in Kuwait, that have recently opened up boxes, and you go in there, and you just see the guys that don't know what to do at the lower levels, you know, inside with all the machines and shit. They have no clue. So they go up to the box. Yeah. And then like, I mean, I mean, no offense to any of these big gyms, but you go into their boxes, and it's a shit show. It's almost like a bodybuilding class and not, you know, a CrossFit class of what it's supposed to be. So it's like, yeah, f 45, I think, from what I've seen, personally, and my cousin thought I was gonna shit on it, like my cousin thought I was gonna rip it apart. And she showed me the program, and I was like, that's actually not bad. I was like, that's really not bad. I was like, Yeah, I wonder if I came there when I kick their asses in a class. You know, like when she showed me the program she was doing because of the whole CrossFit thing. And it looks really cool. Do you guys do like, you know, the big four big five lifts? Like, you know, a deadlift, a squat? You know, like bench press? Or is it you know, more shoulder to overhead stuff? Like, how does the movements work? And what are the movement capacities that you guys have? We definitely Yeah, there's definitely it's on strength days, you're pretty standard, you're definitely gonna be doing deadlifts, you're probably gonna do front squat or back squats. We don't always do stuff like cleans but definitely overhead presses either strict or push press, trying to think what else I mean, it's funny because going from CrossFit to F 45 was a super easy transition, because when it comes to the lift, like the strength days and the lifting side of it, it's very similar. The only thing I'd say is that we probably get a little bit more focused on some of the like, we're doing flies like dumbbell flies and things that you might not necessarily see doing CrossFit. You know, you might not be bent over doing bent over flies and a class right but in our CrossFit would consider like the accessory where

 

13:34

it's a little bit more of a mix of that, you know, again, some of that stuff in we have a lot of like the balance trainer stuff so doing a lot of balance work. So like we might do squats on balance trainers to get some like core activation, stuff like that.

 

13:47

I bite my tongue okay.

 

13:51

I fucking crazy.

 

13:53

Seeing someone on a Bosu ball doing like an RDL or some crazy shit like Maddie, there's a new fitness thing. I'm gonna I'm gonna get them on and it's called VESA fit and it's basically an entire method all around like a miniature bosu ball, I'm gonna bring them on for you I will ever buy. until the day I die till I go to the grave. I will never buy into the bosu ball, except for high level athletes or athletes that are in a sports specific game like baseball, football, basketball and hockey. That's it. Other than that, there are so many more movements that you could do without a Bosu ball and gives you more bang for your buck. Sorry, I would say the ones no one's doing anything. There's no like

 

14:34

it's just like squats, sometimes we'll do lunges on them just to have a little bit of a also we were limited on equipment too. So depending on what it is or where you're at in the room, it's like we might have to you know, work around some stuff. So sometimes we'll use those just to add a little like, you know, height to it or something, a little instability just to get them working a little bit more challenging them a little bit more. We use a lot of abandoned stuff. So like a lot of like the band aid pulls things

 

15:00

Like that, that's kind of what you're looking at for strength. And depending on the template, so again, like depending on the workout, like we have one where it's like you spend the first like your first half of the entire class is spent doing one portion like one section of the body. So you basically overwork your upper body, you get a quick water break, and you're going to go on, and you're going to just overwork and load the lower body, which is kind of nice. So I think it's constantly varied, which is kind of what CrossFit, the whole idea was functional fitness, and constantly varied. That's what f 45 has, then you add in kind of the fancier what I call like the boozier things, which is, you know, that's why I was saying, like, kind of like the orange theory stuff. So you have, we do have heartrate monitors. So it's optional, we don't like some do. But yeah, you we have the heart rate monitors. And the whole goal is you want to get to 45 points. So 45, keeping with it 45 points is what you want to hit in a standard 45 minute class. So basically a point a minute, and that way, it kind of forces like you compete against other people on the leaderboard, depending on your points, too. So you also get that competitive side of it, if you want to be a part of that. And some people really enjoy that. And it's also helpful, I think, from a coaching standpoint, it's nice, because, you know, typical standard gym, on non COVID, you can get up to 36 people in a class, typically, with 36, you'll have to coaches for that. But that's still especially on a strength day, that's a lot of people to have moving through a room doing different things. So it's nice as a coach to be able to look up at a heart rate monitor board, and I can and I'll know like if someone's doing cardio, and they're in the Blue Zone, I'm gonna immediately be over there being like, Alright, buddy, we got to like pick it up here. You know, it kind of helps like it adds to the experience for the client. But it also kind of helps us out as coaches too. Because you know, you can't tell me that I'm like, I'm looking at your heart rate monitor. And I know you're not pushing yourself, like we could definitely go well about harder today. So I kind of like that aspect of it too. And it also is a good way to track I mean, they can see like what their heart rate was at during which workouts, it tracks all that what their lowest point was, what their average and what their highest and kind of see the scale where they were at during the entire workout. And it tracks it all for them. And we also do like health challenges and all that stuff, too. So it's good to have the monitoring system. So you can track all your workouts and everything for that. Which is pretty cool. Do you guys have your own brand? Or do you use like a my zone? Or is it you bring your own heart like polar? Like how does it work with you guys? I hold Lionheart what they call it, it's their own little system. I know like they're, I mean, obviously, I don't know, the actual like company that made that specific Lionheart monitor. But I know like, there are certain brands that can like link into it. So I mean, I'm assuming they must use a fairly common one for their stuff. But yeah, so it's pretty cool. I mean, I really like it. I don't know. How are the points calculated? Is it like this? He said Blue Zone? That's like a low low. Yeah. So they like what they get into the red or something, then they get a point? Yes. Yes, you're gonna earn, you're gonna accumulate basically your point. So it'll even go down to like, I've gotten to where it's like, I'm like, 44.8, or something like that. And I'm like, Are you kidding me? I was that close. So depending on what zone You're in for, the amount of time you're in is how it's going to accumulate your points faster. So obviously, the harder you work, and the closer you are to the red zone the entire time, the more your points are going to accumulate, you know what I mean? So, and that's kind of how it works. And then once a week, we have a 60 minute class. So the hour long one, which is like a hybrid, it's a strength and cardio workout, that one if you have to get 60 points. So again, a point per minute, do you work and so you've got your strength days, you've got your cardio days, you've got your hybrid days? Do they work in any like, let's say you have somebody who wants to do this everyday? Do you work in like recovery days for them? Or what does that look like? So 45 did create recently, a recovery program that it's called Calypso, it's a stretch class is what it is. So typically, no we do obviously, when you come into class, like I said, you go in we do the coaches go over the whole workout, you go into a warm up, and then you do the workout. And then typically, hey, see you later nice glass by depending on the facility, they don't encourage necessarily a cool down because they provide a recovery option to do at home. So F 45 also has a challenge app, they do different nutrition challenges and fitness challenges. And that app is basically it's really cool Honestly, I for people who it's a really great idea you put your information in you put your membership information, like what gym you're going to, and if you join the challenge, it'll actually give you Hey, here is recipes, here's your food blog, here's your grocery list, like if you're going to be a part of the challenges which you get part of that too is you can go to an option in the app where it's called train, you actually can get access to all the workouts through that as long as you have an active membership with a gym and include and that includes that recovery one. So most of it is just education and just making sure that letting the members know hey, go into the app, download it, this is how you get to it. This is what it looks like. It'll lead you right through it. You can do it while sitting in front of the TV. If you want to do it times it for you. I mean, and it will cater it to specific so like if it's a certain strength day or cardio day, it caters

 

20:00

Those stretches to those days. So it is kind of cool how they do it. We just don't do it in studio as much. You guys are really ahead of the game. And I really mean that. And Meg knows I hate group fitness classes like, you know, it's the Bosu, ball and and group fitness classes. And it's funny because now I'm doing group fitness classes for a little bit of extra cash on the side, because I'm still not working. And like, yeah, it's funny because I look at F 45. I looked at the program, I'm listening to what you say. And for the everyday person that doesn't know it's kind of like Dude, here you're spoon fed the right information at the right time that you need it. And it seems like you know, it's very well thought out the programming seems pretty good you guys are doing and this is my knock on CrossFit to you know, I don't always support CrossFit. But this is my knock. They don't do enough accessory movement or movements that strengthen the smaller muscle groups. Like I think a reverse flyes amazing. I think, you know, a normal fly is one of the best movements you could do for your pecs and get a good stretch, you know, the crossfades, you know, side will say, No, no, you're just tightening your pecs, but my argument to that is, yeah, but you're also getting that stretch reflex to you're building that movement pattern. And you guys seem like you're taken to the next level where you're doing these small movements. What other accessory work or what other movements are you guys doing that really kind of goes against the grain with CrossFit and the other group classes? You know, sans the Bosu, ball stuff.

 

21:29

sides

 

21:31

same

 

21:33

Well, it's funny cuz like CrossFit thing is constantly varied, right? So nothing should be off limits from CrossFit. But it's funny how it's that it goes against the grain like you said Maddie, but uh, I don't know, I think it's just some of those like, it's probably I think it's more of maybe like the options of like, how classes structure like, it'll have like, super setting options, which you would see like traditionally in like bodybuilding and not in a CrossFit class, or it would have there's like I was trying to look at the strength ones to see like, which one you should go try out and I was thinking the red diamond one might be the one that you like it. I'm in and Romans, it's muscle fatigue, I think Romans would be has Hey, that's like just lift heavy.

 

22:11

enrollments are the probably the two that like every time I do that one I leave and I'm like sore. Like Absolutely. For the next couple days. I'm like, it's been a while

 

22:21

on Instagram as much I think Meg, but I just had a strongman mini throwdown at my house last weekend, where it was all strong man shit like sandbag carries Atlas ball carries, you know, just picking up on Yeah, dude, just picking up heavy shit, and moving it as fast as you can. And it's funny, and I really hope no one's listening to this, the crossfitters beat the power lifters. I mean, it was kind of

 

22:47

I really

 

22:50

was there was listening to this, because

 

22:55

I was crossfitters it was me and David and I had a really good teammate. He's like, 23. So you know, he's out there. And we did a number on those power lifters. Like, we could lift heavy shit. And this is this is where I saw, I was like, wow, CrossFit isn't as bad as I thought it was when it came to functional movements. Because we could both pick up Atlas balls moving fast sled push, yo carry awesome. Yeah, dude, that was it. Yeah, that was it right there. That was one of the things we did. Yeah. And then the power lifters wanted to do deadlifts and bench press. I haven't benchpress in two years. So I was like, I was right there. I only fell off one set Dave match them. And then on the deadlifts, you know, we match them on the deadlifts, too. And it was funny because, you know, when you try to move heavy shit, and you're just doing it for the functional side of it, and having fun, you'd be surprised. And if you just do three movements or four movements all the time, you're not going to be able to do that other stuff. There's no carryover. And you know, 45 seems like it's probably moving in that really functional direction. And I've seen some strong trainers from F 45. To do they do the weird movements to like the you know, bar muscle ups for instance, can they do that shit, or is that like not anywhere in the programming? There's definitely no muscle ups there pull ups? Do they do like the butterfly shit, or is it like real pull ups? Oh, no, no.

 

24:18

No, yeah, no kid. Bang. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But I can't.

 

24:23

I know. I was like, man, I did a couple of kipping the other day. So I'd done it so long. And I was like, Oh, this is just so much easier. I want to do this. But it's probably easier because you've been doing straight direct for so long. I found that when I backed off kipping, and I only did a program for like two years. All I did was just strict shit. And when I went back to kipping, I was like, holy shit, listen, I mean, I dive in and show with you so

 

24:49

I hated my Polo program.

 

24:51

It was just that stupid Swan thing. I oh my gosh, I hate it. I can't. What is this? Well, what do you got to talk about this?

 

25:00

arching sconul is what it is so you hate it's a dead hang. Yeah. And then you depress your scabs and then you push down on the bar with straight arm. So it's a straight arm movement. There's no bend in the elbows and then you like it's working into like a front lever. But that is I like that massive for your pull up string. Oh, yeah, I do it on a tempo. I like that. I like the video. Maddie. There's one where she she tried playing with me and like Ashley was with us too. And Ashley like drops out after like one.

 

25:28

So it's basically kind of a straight arm lat pull down? Are you bringing your toes up? Are you bringing your bellybutton to the bar like what's your legs are just kind of dead weight in it, you're more focusing on everything through the shoulder. So it's like that dead hang, you first depress the scabs. And then you press down on the bar using Yeah, like you're like a tricep, how you move it but and by arching and lifting your chest to get like up parallel to the ceiling is like Vogel So ultimately, then like you'd build enough strength without where your legs would be able to come up and it's like a front lever. Like you're basically like this. And then your arms are here holding on to the bar. So you're basically like trying to start to go into this but you're like kind of stuck here. That's pretty exactly yeah, it's a great move. That sounds like you would throw my toes to bar over the roof like that sounds like a move that way? No.

 

26:15

Cuz I was doing a lot of lat straight arm Rob had me doing a lot of straight arm lat pull downs for a while. And then my toes to bar went up. Yeah, and that's when it clicked in like, Oh my God, if I just use the momentum plus a lot pull down you know, straight arm pull down my toaster bar going to go up and it's shot up like insanely, it probably feel good on your low back to it's good for your spine. 100% 100% I even shortened up my camp. You know, I shortened up my camp. I used to have this big, really long camp, and then kind of like curl everything and it looked like shit. And now it's like this small little compact movement. It's like, yeah, it's like an evolution, but I really like Oh, yes. Straight pull ups all nice. Dude, I honestly I would love to go to an F 45 class, but I won't do it in Kuwait. I'd rather do it in Dubai than in Kuwait. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how it's running Kuwait. But they're one in Kuwait. There is one in Kuwait. There is Oh, wow, I saw it. I don't know if it's like you guys over in the States. But cwap in Kuwait. I can see there is probably going to be variations, I wonder or do they just steal your name? Do they steal the name? Because that happens to in Kuwait.

 

27:24

I'm wondering if there's a girl that I know. And she had mentioned, knowing the person who was partnering and opening the F 45 in Kuwait I want I should reach out and see who it is. I do not want to say her name. You could type her name. I might know her because I've been following a couple of the F 45 people here in Kuwait just to throw that I know she lives here and she's Lebanese. So she just yeah, so I don't know. I need to ask her again and find out but yeah, that's that's funny, but I didn't realize it was open yet. I thought they were just in the process. Because I made a joke like, hey, maybe we should go consult for like, a few months and like just travel around the Middle East for a little bit. I was like, that could be fun. While our gym is closed anyways. Yeah, you know, I actually so we're back to we're talking about kind of the CrossFit The difference with F 45. I think one of the other things I just thought of this f 45 does a lot of like sports agility movements, which you don't see in CrossFit. So you think like when you like doing almost kind of like those football moves like the fast fee into like a half burpee Oh, like a lot of like, so that also we'll do like the pole so the agility pole so you'll run like in between them backwards forwards. We do like a fold so basically like doing suicides or you know Texas up downs that's what we used to call Texas up downs where Yeah, feet move really fast. Down, up, down, up. Yeah, you know, on the coach's whistle, so to speak, and then suicides I personally as a baseball coach, I loved suicides and up downs like the Texas up down. Yeah, they were the best movements. And you guys do that you guys do a lot of stuff like that, or Yeah, we do. We have like the I don't know if you've seen them the mats that have like the they're like they're called ladders, but their mats, your raw and they have boxes and like you're supposed to like top your feet and between you do different ones. That's what that's a lot of stuff that we do also, in addition to again, like the strength and some of that other cardio. So what is the age group? Like? Can a teenager go like someone? Is it a 16 plus thing a 15? Plus? Or can someone as young as like 13 go and attend a class and do normal, you know, like lightweight with body weights just to get because I think teaching younger people these movement patterns, especially with suicides up down, stuff like that. It does wonders, not only for the body, but for the brain, too. Yeah. So do you guys allow younger people in there? Or is it strict in terms of ages, technically, we have an age limit, which is usually 14 or 15. around that, again, I can't speak for every single facility. I mean, there could be some people who you know, are kind of being discretionary if they're mature enough, or they're coming with a parent or whatever that is, I think it's kind of that and honestly, it's hard. I mean, 45 sets like a standard But again, it's hard to because at least you

 

30:00

Hear the weight, like, it just depends on the gym, really. But for us personally, it's probably around 14 or 15. But I live in Seattle, so I don't like, I don't even see children usually. So

 

30:13

I definitely am not seeing any high schoolers. I mean, the youngest typically is going to be like 18, or 19, they'd probably go into the college around the corner. But for our specific location, I don't see that now I have heard of, you know, parents bringing their teenagers to the classes, I think, you know, I actually take that back, I lie we did, I did have a husband wife who brought their, their two kids, they had a son and daughter both in high school, and they both came in, but again, they were with them the whole time, I think that kind of also makes a difference. Because, you know, for liability reasons. And also, as a coach, it's like, you don't want to become a babysitter too. So I mean, I'm Are you already feel like you are in some ways, I love that. So you guys cater basically, to all age groups, really. And yeah, that's amazing, to be honest with you, because you said, parents bringing their kids. So I'm assuming they're probably early 40s, maybe mid 40s, or even late 30s. And, you know, just kind of trying to get into that, you know, get fit, get healthier type of deal. And, you know, make sense. And all the time just getting their body moving. And oh, yeah. so forth just to get healthy. That's pretty cool. Well, and that's the I think that was kind of the other side of it, too, is having a program that really anybody could just walk in off the street and do. And I think that's also part of, you know, coaching, too, is you should know, your scaling options, or, you know, for each movement, I mean, ideally, that's the one thing 45 doesn't give you, they don't tell you here is a pull up, this is the scaling options you should do. But they don't get that detailed. I mean, they have a lot. I mean, they're already giving you program, we talked about the app already, when there's a lot that's already going on. But when it comes to being on the coaching floor, the idea is, you know how you can scale that movement up or down depending on the person. And so when someone comes in, it's okay, if you can't do a squat, well, you know, we're gonna have you sit on a box and stand up, we got boxes, we can do this, like, that's totally fine. So that's something that I really, I feel like, again, CrossFit does that too, I just think because CrossFit has kind of the reputation of being a little bit more of a higher impact a little bit more intimidating, you walk into an F 45. And it is, it's a little bit lower impact, it does seem more like kind of that orange theory sale, so people are a little bit more at ease. So you're gonna we do get a lot of people who have never worked out in their entire lives coming in. So it is you do have a very wide range of people that come in, which is kind of nice, it definitely keeps you on your toes as a coach too. And I know 45 had started, they didn't completely roll it out, I think with COVID and everything coming up, but there was actually kind of like a, like a senior program. So for people who are you know, 65 Plus, essentially, they were kind of kind of rollout a separate program specifically for that age group, that would be even lower impacts, you know, taking because f 45 we do a lot of jumping. That's the one thing when we're doing cardio days, you are kind of I mean, we're doing lateral tuck jumps, high knees, you know, all that stuff. So it can be you know, box jumps, it can be a little you know, tough on the on the knees and stuff like that the lower body and there's some people that might not be able to do all that jumping. Sorry, not to cut you off. But a tuck jump. You mean like a legit tuck, jump up, grab your knees tuck like a gymnastic seat tuck or is it a different type of tuck? Just to be clear for the listeners and myself? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're doing like flips and stuff. So.

 

33:19

Whoo. Yeah, it's just so you know how like when you do Hi, so basically, you're just jumping as high as you can and bringing the knees forward and getting them up as high towards the chest as you can. You're not like hugging or anything like that. It's just the idea. Instead of doing like just jumping in the air, which normally bring your feet back, so like towards the butt, you're basically just bringing the knees up just like you wouldn't high knees essentially. Alright, I thought it was like a legit tuck, like jump up in the air, grab your knees, and then bring it back down on the ground. I mean, some people probably could do that. I would definitely try that after this episode, to be honest with you, like

 

33:52

I will, I'll tell you both. Yeah, that so I think it's kind of neat. I think they are 45 really thinking about the future. So honestly, I think with that rolling out, it really would not surprise me if they didn't do kind of follow with kind of what CrossFit did and kind of did like a kids or a youth programming. I would not be shocked if something like that came out or some sort of like kids camp version or like whatever I really like if they rolled that out and like in 2021 I would complete I would not be surprised at all I could definitely see them going some sort of direction like that or maybe even doing like a beginner's you know, almost like an on ramp for people who have never been to a gym who don't know what squatting is, who don't you know, because that's the that's the other thing you come into a class and I mean, you come in, you walk in and you're kind of thrown into it. I mean, obviously you have coaches there that you know, typically if there's a new person, the idea is that's why they really like having two coaches that one coach can kind of you know, help all the you know, the two or three new people in the class the rest of the other coach kind of keep walking, encouraging, you know, making sure everyone else is set up. So you still kind of get that individualized, you know, portion a little bit you know, you're constantly being corrected. I mean, we do we walk constantly moving through the room, constant

 

35:00

Making sure people are doing things right. You know, because at the end of the day, you want to make sure everyone's moving safely and you want them to leave and know what they're doing, you know, you don't want them to go to the next gym. And it's like, that deadlift looks horrible. It's like, I don't want them to say that about having been at F 45. Or me as a coach, you know, so you really like, you know, kind of take pride now you want to, like girl them, and it's awesome seeing people, you know, achieve some of their goals, you know, watching someone who walked in the door and you know, couldn't do a push up on even on their knees. And now they're freaking doing push ups, you know, normal push ups, even if it's just one or two, it's just it's awesome. That competency now, it's just, I don't know, that's why I drew classes. Yeah, I didn't appreciate that when I went to a class and being like a coach, myself, and a more, you know, seasoned athlete, like, it's easy for people to see like in a class where there might be beginners, or it's easy for coaches to even brush by and not say like a word to me during a class. And I really appreciated that having those videos up front of like a demonstration of what the movement is supposed to like for people to keep their eyes on and see, and then the coach can kind of walk around and give little cues, I did feel like I got more coaching and attention in the class, which is nice, because I, you know, I forget Yeah, I just like to be reminded, I guess I should say that. So just so like people listening, understand. So in an F 45 Studio, you have TVs in the front of the room. So you can see as your move. Normally you move through stations, or whatever it is, you can see what the movement is, there's a demo on the screen of the person doing the movement. So not only do coaches go through demo, give you scaling options, and then you start the class, but you then have that live TV demo that is just rolling through for the whole class. So you can see like at each point or wherever your station you're at, you can look up and be like, that's what I'm supposed to be doing if you forget or you need to like know, like, How am I supposed to move. So even if the coaches and they're like, right when the buzzer goes to like start, it's like you still have that cue to look at, you still have something that you can see to know what you're doing, which it is, and it's really helpful to kind of have that on there. I was like that would probably help. But yeah, so no, that's awesome. Now, what are the qualifications of the coaches that coach at 45? And do you guys like, what is your quality control, so to speak? I mean, we talked a little bit about quite a little while ago. And you know, for the listeners that are, you know, around the world, Kuwait's a very relaxed country, I would say, quality control is something we definitely don't have. I think Maggie, both of you guys can agree their ship for quality control here. Yeah, have you ever rode built, it's probably going to fall break and crumble and you'll just have sand. But anyways, because that did happen a couple years ago. What is f 45? Quality Control, not only in the United States, but globally, in terms of the instructors that are instructing the class? Like I'm sure is there like an F 45 certification program? Yeah, like, what's the criteria there. So there's not necessarily a certification program. But I mean, obviously, you do have to be a certified coach. So you have to have, you know, a recognized certification for training, obviously, up to date, all that stuff. But a 45 also gives you basically, as trainers, we have a portal that we can go into. And we actually have to so when you first get hired, you basically have like, it's almost like, you know, when you start a job, and you have to, like sit in the back, and you go through, like all the slides, and it's like, Okay, this is what for this, and this is like, you know, this is what sexual harassment is this what this is, and you go through all those slides, and you pass and then now you're like, onboard f 45, just something like similar to that for training. So it's basically you get on and they basically teach you like, okay, let's break it down. These are all the current workouts that are out, you need to know what it is you have a little test at the end, you go through all that you do a trainer video, they actually do like a like this, like little test thing you video yourself doing, like, you have to do so many burpees and like this amount of time, or whatever it is, and like that's part of it. And then every time we go into a new programming schedule, you're required to go into your portal, and you actually have to refresh, go through all the workouts that are going to be a part of that new, basically 10 week program and make sure that, again, we need to make sure you know what each of those are, what the template stands for what the focuses are. So they do keep up with trying to make sure that you're educated. But I mean, it's kind of like any other gym, you know, you submit a resume, and, you know, you seem like you're great on paper, but until you really get in there, you know, so most places will do like a trial period, they'll have you like, Come take a class, you know, see how you move because obviously they want to make sure you know how to move before you coach. And then typically you do have some sort of like onboarding, you know, like, kind of like trial period that you go through. So I would say it's probably similar to most places, it's just on the back end, we have kind of that extra, you know, kind of educational portion that you know, most places don't have. That's pretty cool. I mean, that's good. I like when you guys do have new things coming up that people have to refresh. I think that's really important. And it's so easy for I think the best part is like when it's one template for an organization, it's so much better because that everyone's speaking the same language versus what you said earlier with CrossFit. It's like, dude, there's apples, oranges and lemons and

 

40:00

You know, in a way, there's friggin date trees too. So

 

40:04

there's so much going on, you know, like, I went to one CrossFit box here, they were doing bar muscle ups, I go to another CrossFit box. And you know, they're doing like basically a bodybuilding circuit. And I'm just like, you know, where there's zero synergy in CrossFit anymore. There's nothing where the brand works together. And I think that's the biggest knock that I have on it. But you guys seem like you have your shit together, excuse my language, and we are not sponsored by F 45. I just have to get that out. We definitely not sponsored by.

 

40:35

But I mean, from what you're saying, like I really like this stuff. Like, it's, it sounds like something I would recommend to people that I know that are trying to get into fitness for the first time. I'd be like, dude, go do this. And you guys have 45 competitions, right? If I'm not mistaken, I saw something where it was like an F 45 cop here in the States. They did like a big like Field Day sort of thing. And they had kind of a big name, like coaches, you know, go out or kind of like running drills with people doing little competitions and stuff like that kind of a fun little that was probably a couple years ago. And it was kind of when f 45 was becoming popular in the US, but they have something called playoffs, which it's a competition but it's more of like a benchmark. So when you think like CrossFit competition, you think like, you know, you have the leaderboard, you'd have that you have all this stuff, and there's like you're going to like win this prize, or whatever it is. So they have that in Australia a little bit just because it's a little bit bigger, and they you know, you can go compete, I think you can win like some money and stuff, but it's almost like you could just walk up and like go and do it. You know, it's not like you don't have necessarily like a pre qualification. It's just this one set. You run through it. You basically have to do you have so many seconds to complete each movement. One of them is like there's the rower. There's bench chops, there's thrusters, there's burpee box jobs, you guys do thrusters, like you do thrusters in there for Yeah,

 

41:55

yeah, like in this f 45. Shit, I was really sad about that. When that came up. I was like, really, I can't even escape thrusters. My god, that's awesome, though. We do thrusters pull ups, there's a dead ball over the shoulder. I think there's the twist. I think that might be all of them. I feel like there's one more I think there's like a slight push or spread that's also in it. That sounds like fun. But basically, what they do those you can have like a live leaderboard connected. And so what you do is whoever wants to try it, you go through one of us coaches basically scores, you score card counts your reps, you get points based on the number of reps you get, they also divide it so like certain The one thing I think we'll see how that goes, I might they don't separate it like gender. I mean, I think you can but like for us, it's like we just put everyone on one. But the way they weigh the points is so like, if you're a female and you did like 10 pull ups versus a man who did 10 pull ups, the woman is going to be weighted just a little bit higher on that, let's say or something like that. It's kind of how that works. But yeah, so you can go through and it's a lot of fun. But basically then you can see what your total points are, you can see your total reps and where you measure up to and you can do it by like your region or you can do it like overall. So you could literally have a TV up and like as your gyms going through it, you could just have your facility or let like we're a franchise and we have four right now that are like under one franchise or one owner, we could have all four studios going at the same time and have a leaderboard in each of them and comparing who's like at which spot so it's really fun See, almost get this live like kind of scoring that's going through. So like as people finish you enter in automatically pops them up onto the board. So it's kind of fun, but it's not. It's just the one it's just you go in you do the one thing and that's it. So I feel like as much it's a competition, but it's To me, it's more like a benchmark workout. It's to see where am I at now and where do I compare to everyone? Maybe I guess you could say it's like the qualifications for you know, the games and stuff like that you kind of when you when you're going to regionals, you can see like, based on your workout where you are, that's like how it is it's more like that. But I know in Australia, they do a huge one where I mean like they have like a barge that pulls up and like people get on they film it. It's like they're going to level I mean, it's very, very fancy, but we haven't quite gotten there yet, but we'll see how it goes in the next like couple years. That sounds awesome. I got a two part question for both of you. One it's for you and Meg because we're you know, we're creeping up on the hour mark here and just real quick and what is a what's f 45 doing virtually and I say this because I have my little box working where I get American TV again, which is awesome. And I see so much stuff for virtual fitness. And where's f 45 going up because it looks like this is gonna be it looks like gyms brick and mortar gyms are gonna close down from all the you know, all the shit I'm seeing right now, especially in the United States. And I saw something by Lululemon. He liked this mag I saw by Louie near the mirror. Yeah. And I looked at it, I looked at Hey, and I go, it's bringing us down, you're gonna destroy the market. I looked at Hey, I go Holy shit, they have done it. They have actually created something that I would fucking use

 

44:59

this person

 

45:00

You know what I mean? Like, this was something that I would have used like four years ago, five years ago if it was available, because it's done well. It's done extremely well. And it's clean and it's everything. So where do you guys see the fitness industry in the United States going right now with all this virtual stuff after COVID? And you know, I mean, obviously boxes have closed down, I'm sure gyms have closed down. So how far do you think 45 is gonna take the virtual thing right now with all the shutdowns and then mag you can talk about the mirror thing, which I think is fucking awesome, by the way. That's awesome. I know I'm trying to honestly I mean, like I said earlier, we have the app which has all the workouts recorded on it already like so you can pull it up at any time you want right now during COVID I mean, most gyms are doing obviously some sort of lives you know, either whether it's instagram live zoom live, whatever it is, I don't think that there is a yet the push to go fully digital or do anything like that. And I think it's just because there's a lot going on right now with a lot of big I know there's a oh my gosh, I'm forgetting the name Meg you probably know the big like sports international group that they're actually quoted on like CDC website and stuff for like if you need information about fitness and health and all that, but they're pushing to basically go to Congress to pass, you know, some grants and all these things to basically change gyms and to being considered more on you know, health wellness essentials, and also give them some of the bailouts that are needed. So there's a lot of that I know a lot of the big heads up, you know, I know like HQ CrossFit is trying to get involved in it, obviously to push it. I'm pretty sure the HQ for any of these big gyms, I'm sure Planet Fitness is even involved in this. They want to make money. I mean, it's corporate American corporate. Yeah, they want to shut down the poor bastard who's, you know, mopping their own floors so that they can you know, get bailout money and make an extra buck off of this thing? Yeah, it's Yeah, it's typical capitalism right there. I think they're kind of waiting to see how that goes. And plus, like, I think it's hard for them. Because the one thing I feel that they've done really well, at least 45 has is you are talking about a company that is pretty new on the market. It's not, you know, that old and they were able to I mean, you have people who are completely open, you know, they don't have any lockouts going on right now. It's people like us who like we're having to do live. So to be able to cater their programming to such an extensive, I mean, that's what I'm saying when really that app that I was talking about really came out probably in March, April May like I think they did it because of the situation we're in to give gyms an option. But also, when you go in there, you have the option of bodyweight or if you do have equipment, so it's like they even have it to the point where like, if you're a gym who can't move stations, okay, and you're basically in like, what they call it, they call it circuit so you're stuck in your box. Okay, that means like, they've basically made a program for the studios that fits that specific phase, you know what I'm saying then they have the phase for like each phase basically has a new programming model and you can literally just load it onto your TVs. The program is there I mean, it's really awesome what they done so I feel like I'm sure they have thought in their heads if something goes like what would we do? And I mean, honestly, I'd most mostly just be in the US let's be real or maybe Europe but the rest of their locations are an other international spots that seem to be opening back up so I don't know that they're too worried about like the US side I think they kind of see eventually us opening back up but I mean, you never know. I mean, who who knows? I hope so. But yeah, there's plenty of online options right now, so I don't see them doing anything too bad yet. Yeah, mag Miss Lulu lemon mirror thing like

 

48:32

fuck the industry

 

48:34

commercial that I saw. I was like, I want to buy that just because it looks so fucking pretty. Yeah, it's just like this sleek rocket thing and you get this kick ass trainer. Whatever. I mean, it's the invisible gym. Oh

 

48:48

my god they're having their best peloton. Yeah, that's another one dude. You guys have some cool shit over there. Yeah, are you guys really cool shit in the United States that I hope we get Yeah, it's so funny like peloton I actually know people in town like me because it is an expensive piece I have like friends that like will go in on it and then like they have it at like one person sounds like they live like all in the same kind of area and they'll like put it outside and all like take turns on it and like people are obsessed with peloton, but the mirror Yeah, the drive there is like it's an invisible gym. So it's like it takes up less than two feet of space on your wall. And it just it's a mirror when you're not using it and then when you are using it, there's like an image of the trainer, whatever class you're doing, there's a trainer on there like doing the class that you're doing. And then you see yourself in there as well. Um, so you can do like cardio, you can do kickboxing, you can dance, you can do yoga, I mean there's all kinds of stuff. You can also link like your you know, heart rate monitors and that kind of stuff to it so as well so you see like your metrics on there, but basically then like like a giant Apple Watch where it stores all your information on there as well. So you can really like personalize things. So they get they get all the information to yeah

 

49:58

they get all that

 

50:00

Ira they get all that shit. Yeah, so they set like a target heart rate for you or like calories or like beats per minute that kind of stuff. And then you can see other people joining the class. Here's my key question here. Yeah. And they do marketing like to people when they're like, can they be like, Alright, well, she's lost five pounds. So you know what, maybe we should start like, I'm sure that's all connect, you know, sending messages for like the slim. Whatever. Yeah.

 

50:25

Yeah, totally.

 

50:27

workout. It's like, Hey, we just got these new yoga leggings that you might really enjoy. Oh, yeah.

 

50:34

Yeah, there's nothing that's secret anymore. Like,

 

50:37

how much does it cost? Like, honestly, it looks so fucking nice that I would buy it for my sister who lives in the States. Yeah, as a Christmas present. Because I think it just looks nice. I mean, yeah, I would want some of that cool to be honest with It's awesome. We're not sponsored by Lululemon. Just so everybody knows. We're not sponsored by Lou.

 

50:57

Okay, so you can get around. It's about 15 $100. But there is a deal right now, where I think you get like $400 off. I think it's holiday. 20 is the code. I'll confirm that in a second. You can try it for 30 days risk free. So if you're not 100% satisfied with it, you can send it back back. We're not sponsored by Lululemon here. All right.

 

51:19

People know how they can get it. But yeah, like the infomercial that I saw the other day. I'm sorry the other morning and I love it because I've seen all these infomercials and I'm like, shit, am I really missing out on all of this? Like, are we that far behind in Kuwait? Like in the Middle East? I feel like it's gonna be a little bit like I don't know, maybe to your delight, like the depth of group fitness I but I think there's always still gonna be a place for like, personal training and one on one and that human connection. I think that I know, I agree with you. Yeah, is a great thing. I wonder about the longevity of it. I don't know. I feel like we're just getting, I think there's still nothing better than like human connection and working out with other people or having a place to connect. And I mean, every study has shown that when you work out with people, especially doing likely to continue you have better results. Yeah, you're more likely your heart, your average heart rate is higher, because you're pushing yourself more because you feel that like I have to keep up or I have to beat the like, whoever I'm with, like that mentality like you do push yourself. Let's look at times right now. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Alright, but look at the times and everything that's going on. Yeah, I know, right? how people are being pushed away from each other, right? With everything that's going on. Whether people believe in COVID they don't believe in COVID I don't give a shit. Personally, I wear a mask. It's you know, out of self protection and whether it's real not real. I don't give a shit. I'm not taking the risk. That's just me. But I mean, with the way things are going the shift of paperless money and buying everything online and no boxes, closing down the social distancing the wearing masks and not seeing who's in front of you. It's some scary fucking shit, especially for businesses. And you know, it's like maybe this is the fitness industry's turn of kinda, this is where the big guys will take over with you know, like, Under Armour, I'm sure Under Armour is going to get on top of this. At some point. Nike is already on board. Lulu lemon, which is your biggest fitness brand for you know, the upper tiers there. I would say it's a very is bhuj the right word or is that a is that

 

53:18

a higher price point? Yeah.

 

53:21

Trouble

 

53:23

I try to be good Yeah, I try to be very I mean by great customer service all right. I mean, mail him those things for you for free. I mean,

 

53:32

for the price. I know we're not sponsored. Praise Jesus Christ. I want to quit Holy shit, no lifetime. I mean, it's like lifetime base. I go into like, hey, this like, bro. Like, can you fix it? They'll be like, don't choose another pair. You're good. I'm like, thank you. Even though it's been a year and a half, dude, their shorts wouldn't fit around my knees and I have so many legs. My thighs are big. Like if I wore their shorts, they would rip I don't care what material they are. Like, I saw someone doing stuff in Lulu lemon. I was like, do your shorts are riding up your ass man. Like you shouldn't be wearing those, you know, and they're made for like smaller guys, which is cool. Like

 

54:13

don't you try it on the right fit.

 

54:17

I'm gonna

 

54:18

set it up

 

54:20

to set it up and I know who's running the store and I'm gonna set it up and you're gonna go in and you're gonna do a fit session and you're gonna find out that does like their CPM. So I mean,

 

54:31

be walking out with like a happy meal. All right, that's the size of the clothes for me like a little

 

54:37

cheese burger. I also go do some f 45 classes, you know, laying those thighs out a little bit.

 

54:46

If someone could give me a fix for my frickin ink for my calves, my tiny calves if someone gave me if I get one more, did you miss leg day? I will fucking kill them. Okay.

 

54:57

I have strong legs. They just don't think

 

55:00

Develop like if you look at my dad, my dad's six three really big he's a he's a hefty guy you know he's a plus size guy but then you look at his legs are just a tiny it's just our bodies. That's just genetics shitty genetics all I gotta say, but Lulu on the cat, I mean, make their shirts are nice. I wanted to buy a baseball tee from there when I was in Boston. And then when I looked at the price, I was like, You know what, I'm gonna go down to friggin Dick's down the road and buy for eight bucks. They're on sale, rather than paying 80 bucks, but the material is nice. You'd have to replace that $8 one like 10 times before that. $80

 

55:37

I've had the same

 

55:40

baseball tee that I've had for 20 years all right, it's faded just a little bit. I still wear that shakes. How does it smell?

 

55:49

stains all over it? I'm sure no, but it's

 

55:52

different. The technical is different on Lulu it's like there's like silver. We've talked about this before. I think we had our EMF episode. Talking about half my Lulu will protect me.

 

56:04

There's like silver, which is antimicrobial and things I talk conspiracy theories. I'll get into it.

 

56:11

Anyway, and a few hours, we'll do a Lulu episode we're gonna get we're gonna get

 

56:19

a fit session and get me that fit session. All right, and I'll take pictures and I'll send them to you. I guarantee you. I will look like the awkward or son of a bitch when I put on those clothes. I can't wait ages

 

56:33

is the cut out. It's like the European cut. I can't buy clothes in Europe. Even if I buy an XL or a double XL. It just looks weird on me it just doesn't fit. Like for me it just doesn't fit right. But if I go to like, you know, other brands, like Under Armour Under Armour fits me perfectly. I love Under Armour. It fits my body like to a tee. And come on ladies, you know, like there are certain brands that fit our bodies really well. And there are certain brands that don't just because of the cuts, you know, hey, thanks. I'm against Lululemon and I shit on her parade when she got to go to the store. She was pissed because I kept talking about price points. And then we walk out. I'm like, why don't you buy anything? She's like, you're complaining about the prices the whole time? Like I'm husband, I'm supposed to go by herself. She said That's what she said. She's like, I'm just gonna go by myself without you. I was like, Alright, that's fine.

 

57:21

But yeah, I like I like their stuff look nice. I mean, I never could get on the stance. Socks bandwagon. Yeah, mainly because of the calves thing too. I was just like, Oh my gosh, I look like that. I look like a little twig. Do you have small calves? Oh, yeah, you do. Oh, that's awesome. I have tiny calves and they're not exactly even which drives me nuts even though I do calf raises on the slides like nothing and like I give up whatever so how are they not even have you actually measured your calves I've never done that but I have and I've done you do like the body scans and I like measures like your like muscles like on each side of the app. My left lower leg is definitely a little bit lacking then the right side now I'm gonna start measuring like my calves and shit. I'm gonna be obsessed I got him created a whole new complex

 

58:07

notice it until I put a pair of Stan's socks on and I was like looking at my legs and I was like oh fuck god this I can't wear these anywhere I gave her I got rid of all them I gave them oils I can't even own these anymore like it go Yeah. Too much at circuit plus they're like a sell them at circuit plus seems like they sell everything now we just had coaches that had like a addiction that they were ordered all the time and constantly coming in. It was like the Yeah, status symbol of the coaching staff. Dude, I don't get the obsession. Alright, this is one thing I haven't figured out what the fitness industry is the obsession with like clothes and workout gear and like I used to wear the Under Armour. Like I had the matching camo shirt and the matching camel shorts. I probably have a picture I'll post it from years ago and I you know is when I was in that little like bubble and now it's like to the point where I'm like, Alright, I'm just gonna wear whatever the hell I pull out of the closet and whenever I feel the most comfortable in and CrossFit is one of those things where now it's like you know you have the socks you have the Gramps you have this you have the whatever else the rogue shirts or whatnot and yoga it's Lululemon. All right, yeah, like I'm not not not dissing what's f 45 just out of curiosity, you guys have like a thing not real. I mean, people love their Lulu

 

59:29

and then um, aloe is another popular one and then met cons people love their freaking fancy Mac cons like they I love them. They just love that dude I ditched met cons and I've gone against the grain Under Armour has a new like metcon version and I went with theirs and oh my god, like so much better than the noble shoes to like, I fucking love. I don't own any of that. Like I think I own one pair of icons and I got them from working the Dubai fitness championship for free. I didn't like them. I didn't say

 

1:00:00

Same thing with the Reeboks, I thought the bottom like the it's like plastic and kind of heavy to me I don't like it. I'm all about the new balance cross trainers personally, they're light I can literally fold them up I can run I can do anything buckshot, that's my favorite constant go to. I haven't tried new balance in a long time and I like new balance because they have a wide foot and I have a really weird foot so it's wide and new balances always fit me but then I got into the whole year CrossFit so you got to wear metcons I tried the metcon I didn't like them. Then you got to try the nobles. I got the nobles. I liked him for back squats. But in rope climbs, I did not like them. And then I switched back to the Met cons. I was like these things suck. I tried the nanos like Dude, this whole spiel of what's going on with shoes. Like it's just I mean, too much too much these days. rope climbing sucks in general. So I mean, you know, if you get the J hook Well, it's easy. And yeah, then it's been a while of just sitting on a bench doing j hooks, but like it was the most mundane thing in the world of doing 40 j hooks just sitting down on a box. It was so boring, but I knew what was going to happen afterwards. And sure enough, like it was easy after that we should all do an episode on rope climbs. Okay, what did you say, Danica? I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. I said my shins are all messed up from Brooklyn. Every time we do rope climbs, I would always be the day that I wore shorts instead of leggings. And I was like, cool, cool. We'd always have to put out notices like wear long socks or pants tomorrow is rope climbs. Dude, long socks and pants into shit for me. All right, I still got like my legs were still torn up. my forearms are torn up. I need to see your rope climbs. I'm like, forearm Oh, like I'm aggressive. Just like tired.

 

1:01:41

Like what is happening here? Look, I get scared at the top. I will be honest. Okay, I'll be 100% honest, when I get to the top, I get really scared. And then on the way down the way up. It's easy for me. But the way down is when I really freak out. And I think it's because I fell a couple of years ago. It's just it's still there. And when I grasp it, I like kind of put my forums like this like Ah, okay, yeah, so I kind of get it right there. And yeah, it's not fun at all. That's why whenever you see my Instagrams I try to like get the way up, but never the way down because it just looks fucking ugly as hell.

 

1:02:16

Sometimes I fall halfway, you know, like, I'll jump off halfway down, but I mean, that's just me, but dude, f 45 freakin awesome. In my opinion.

 

1:02:25

Last thing on F 45 danika is Mark Wahlberg still, there's still a thing with a 45 Is that still? Mark Wahlberg and you have Marky Mark? Yeah.

 

1:02:40

I'm sold on that. 45 Mark

 

1:02:43

sold. So like heavily. Yeah, Mark Wahlberg is a US partner now and so I think I don't know if he's a partner but my gosh, I can't believe I'm forgetting his name. He's really well known for being and Saved by the Bell screen Mario Lopez. Yes, Mario Lopez also does like a ton of the word isolator.

 

1:03:03

like Instagram lives, and Mark Wahlberg will show up, he'll show up. The main like, dude, that's in all the demo videos will like show up and they'll like do this whole life. That's pretty cool. He did a whole tour where he popped into random of 45 just like showed up for a class so there's a chance if I do f 45. I'll meet Marky Mark. Okay, I haven't Gershon Marky Mark. All right. I have like a crush on like Marky Mark. If I could date an actor and it had to be a male. It would be Mark Wahlberg. Mark Wahlberg is the fucking man. All right, like his movies are awesome. Even as shitty ones. He's like, I'm a super fan. So like if I can meet Mark Berg. This is why I did not mention Mark Wahlberg in the beginning because I knew this would turn into a Marky Mark episode.

 

1:03:46

I would wear fucking Lululemon. All right, I love

 

1:03:50

I love Marky Mark. That's awesome. I'm up for 45 dude, I'll try. Yeah, no, I honestly think for anyone who Yeah, it's just looking for a nice group class where you know, it's a little bit of that lower impact, but you're still going to get a lot of that like fat burn, in addition to building that strength. I mean, honestly, it's really, really worth checking out going from I mean, I feel like I've coached everything from boot camps to you know, individual stuff, but like going from CrossFit. So this, it's nice. I definitely think people who you know, even if you've done CrossFit, go on and try it because most of the time my CrossFit we don't do 45 minute hit workouts, you know, we're not usually moving for a full 45 minutes like that. So it definitely is, you'll be tired, you'll be sweaty for sure. It's great. Just before we wrap up, I want to go back to Meg's recovery question, because if you are doing it for 45 minutes, you're definitely going to fucking trash your central nervous system. I mean, that's given especially if you're a balls out kind of person. When you go into a workout. Like, you know, like my first CrossFit class. I thought I was gonna die the next day, just because I went too hard now. Yeah, with that, like, do you guys manage clients a little bit better? Like if someone goes really hard in a class, do you be like, Hey, you know, you might want to turn it down tomorrow or

 

1:05:00

Like, is there anything else that's given from the instructors to the novice trainee that goes in there. I think typically, I mean, I can only speak for kind of how we, my location handles it, most of the workouts, you can kind of tone down. So it's not necessarily if it's someone's first day, probably going to try and put them in maybe like a strength class go a little bit lower on the weights a little bit slower, especially if they've never done anything, if I have someone who comes in and they're like, oh, I've been doing group classes, but I want to try this out, I'm more likely to put them in any class that's available at that point, because I know they've been doing stuff. But for someone who probably hasn't done anything, I try to put them in a slower moving class, because I just feel that a lot of times when you come into a really high intensity cardio workout, and you've never worked out before, and you feel like you have to stop all the time, or you can't complete the class, you're going to leave feeling a little bit down on yourself, as opposed to if we kind of make it so that I know that hey, you can like go as slow as you want in this class. More than likely, I feel like you get more of that positive experience. They're seeing themselves like actually, you know, you're sore the next day, you're, and I feel like you're more likely to come back, I typically try to get someone to start if it's they've never done anything, I try to get them to come to a strength day, and then follow it up with a cardio day. And then typically, after the first two classes, I'll tell them, you know, maybe take a day or two off, see how you're feeling come back in and kind of go from there. But yeah, as far as like, you know, specific stuff. I mean, they typically try to push you to do at least four classes a week is the goal. If it's the only thing you're doing minimum for which I feel like CrossFit is similar to like the I usually say minimum of three or four if you're doing CrossFit too. So it's kind of that that standard thing. But again, it just for us, it depends on you know how experienced the client is, too. So we do take that into account, if you know whether they've never done anything, or they've been doing something. So that definitely does weigh into how many classes we try to get them into and kind of what classes we're choosing for them. Like I'm definitely not going to put someone in a 60 minute hybrid class that is never done anything or hasn't worked out in six months, because that's even hard for someone who's been working out to do 60 minutes of just straight movement. So I'm definitely put someone in there first time to do something like that. Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, honestly, and Meg knows how much I should on group fitness classes. And I like this, that 45 thing I like where it's going to be Honestly, I really like where it's going. I like that there's quality control. I like that there's one, you know, syllabus, so to speak, that goes across the board globally. It's really nice. Like, that's something that either that or I've gone soft with the whole fitness thing. Like, I'm not sure here, but I think it's pretty smart. And it's pretty cool, dude, I think it shows going in with the new trend. I know me a mega, I've talked about this a lot going into that trend of focusing more on listening to your body and the mindfulness and kind of lowering the impact. And it doesn't always have to be you know, Max, Max, Max, Max, Max, go, go go. If you're not puking, you're not working hard enough. Like, it doesn't always have to be that way. And I feel like people even in the fitness industry are starting to kind of turn a corner with some of that stuff. And you want people to succeed. And not everyone is going to come in and wants to compete or cares about, you know, what their time is or whatever, you know, some people just want to come in and as their social or they want to work out, it's, you know, they're doing enough to like, you know, maintain or get into, like, whatever shape they want to get into or what their goals are. But, you know, it's that's kind of what I think I like about the new trend. And I think that's kind of what a 45 saw is okay. CrossFit seems to be too a little bit intimidating, a little bit high impact, let's find something that gives them that the same kind of movements, that same idea, but something that you know, anyone can do at any time, no matter what your level is. So I think that that's kind of nice. I could do. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, I mean, Meg, you got anything else sad now just thank you so much for coming on. Yeah, Danica, and I'm glad I'm glad to podcasting worlds on the project have finally merged.

 

1:08:36

Technically, are you like a new host? I mean, I haven't picked that up yet.

 

1:08:42

Oh, okay. Cool. Like, all right. Are you kidding me? Like, I'm like, Alright, I got Dinka but you know, like, you know, me and Meg, we had a thing going like we were good podcast, but you? I mean, there's a little bit of jealousy. There's a little bit of jealousy.

 

1:08:57

Jedi brought this on yourself, because you are shit scheduling with me. Yeah, no, you're right. No, you're 100% like an hour before. And he's like, I've got a I've got a podcast you can enjoy and I'm like,

 

1:09:11

I'll be honest with you, Meg, like Dude, there's a couple of podcasts the last two weeks where I didn't fucking know I was going on air. And I remind her like 45 minutes before, I'm like, Oh shit, I'm glad I put this into zoom or else I would have no clue. And it's just because like moving in the note new house not being and work. My timing is just so fucked up right now. Yeah, it's so odd. And even with DJ he's not in school. So you know those days where you like I knew it was a weekday like it's kind of you know what I mean? Like the routine the rhythm. Yeah, it's really not there. Like even lately, it's been hard for me to work out like the motivation to work out has been so difficult the last three weeks, you know, yeah, I feel you guys are locked down so you don't have the gyms. I mean, it's so tough. Yeah, I wasn't saying my motivation is it's hard.

 

1:10:00

To go to like, especially now that it's cold I'm like, Oh, yeah,

 

1:10:04

I'm probably gonna go for like a little run with a friend but like when it's like dark and cold and rainy I'm just like, I don't want to work outside. I live in a studio like it's creaky floors people don't want me jumping around in here doing stuff.

 

1:10:20

We're buying danika the mir

 

1:10:24

you gotta give me a coupon code. All right, cuz I really might get that for my sister holiday. Yeah, dude.

 

1:10:32

It's like 10% screw that shit. I want like 20 or 30%. No, I don't know. It takes like $400 off. Oh, really? Okay, so it's 1500 Yeah, so it'd be 11 $100. That's about 350 kd. That's good. I think that would be good. That'd be a good Christmas present for my sister. The great Christmas present. Yeah, I mean, either that or the peloton. We'd have to weigh them out. You know? I mean, the whole Lulu lemon thing. It's just doesn't sit well with me how it's on has a bodyweight one.

 

1:11:03

And there's also the tonal What's that? The tonal? Mirror one. Oh, wait, hold on. So there's more than one mirror? It has these like, pulleys? Yeah.

 

1:11:14

No shit.

 

1:11:19

What is this contraption and it actually will give you resistance based on the strength you build. So as you get stronger, you could add more resistance to your workout mirror went out the window, dude.

 

1:11:33

I don't know. That one might be real expensive. Because I mean, if it has like all that, I mean, I'm sure it has the same stuff. What's it called? Again? What's it called? The tunnel here. I'm looking down. Here. I have a whole episode on $1,000. Maddie Yeah, 3000 with a $500 option to add on the handles and all that other stuff. So just the thing.

 

1:11:55

I know, I'm gonna go with like the Lulu lemon thing. I feel that it's more price appropriate. But here's the thing in the United States, for people in the Middle East and wherever, like anyone could buy something on payments, I think on the phone, right? Like you give them a credit card. And you could get payments. Even if your credit card bounces, they're still going to deduct like the bank still deduct the money per payment, right? If I'm not mistaken. Like if you don't make your payments, it will still kind of like tally up the 35 or $40 a month. Right? You become late on your payments. I mean, yeah, it'll ruin your credit score. But yeah, but it's still.

 

1:12:31

I don't want to people like I know a lot of the qualities that went to the United States, they just ran out credit cards and came back to quaint that's why they don't do the social security numbers anymore. No, there's a lot of people that go to Kuwait and do the same thing and then leave

 

1:12:47

there I take out loans and stuff and then be like, I'm never coming back by really blacklisted from ever traveling through there. I know there's a new thing right now, in Kuwait, like if your contract ends, or if your residency ends right now, if you owe the bank anything, they freeze your account, so you pay everything off in order to leave the country. Oh, it's like right now they've got real strict with that shit. And if you're I don't know how it works for if you're a resident, but I know if you're a if you're on a visa, like a work visa like I was if I had taken out like if I'd gone to whatever and bought a computer and put it on payments or took out, whatever, if I let it go into default, and then I try to leave when they start scanning my information. They won't let me leave. Yeah. Because I owe debt, which I'm like, in the US. We don't have that kind of

 

1:13:35

no one's like, Did you take out a loan? And are you defaulting? No, we don't.

 

1:13:41

I can't wait. I'd be a little I know three qualities. I can't go back to the US right now. One of them is in debt. $100,000. And I'm like, Dude, why would you do that in the US? Like, yeah, we use rainbow AIDS. It's like point 001. But either way, like $100,000 like basically stole like basically this guy knew he was leaving in seven months and just kind of like, bought a bunch of shit or I don't know what he did went to Vegas and had a party or something. And then he just kind of left and now he can never go back to the United States again. It's it's I don't know. I don't get it. That would be really depressing. No, Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. Like, I don't want to be blacklisted from any country. Take your kids to Disneyland. Like it just sucks like you could never take your kids to Disneyland. Like you know like that just sucks. You got Disney Paris and Disney Tokyo I guess so. Yeah.

 

1:14:31

Yeah. Holy in Copenhagen. I'm pushing for Boston this year, but I don't think it's gonna happen. They want to go to Japan. They want to go to Mario World dude. Like DJs on this mic. He wants to go to Mario Mario

 

1:14:45

21

 

1:14:47

That sounds pretty Oh cards and everything like Mario Kart. You should definitely take him for that. But I if you kind of Austin that'd be awesome. Oh 100% I want to go back 100% Yeah, to come Danica. You're

 

1:15:00

more than welcome to come to like you're definitely more than welcome you know, I have family in Boston This isn't like really I can make more in Boston or like outside of Boston. They might live slightly outside now but I know it's just like a quick train ride like they're on like, Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, so I'm like, Oh, well that's nice. That's awesome. My parents went and stayed with them and loved it they got on the train went downtown every day and you know, did their thing was like, dude, more than welcome it's a party house. Definitely. Yeah, we we have a blast like me and hey, are in bed by like 830 maybe.

 

1:15:33

We had a good time. I just went through my pictures the other day. It was fun. Yeah, definitely was down. Alright. Thanks, Erica. Now that I'm an additional co host, you know, I might as well be.

 

1:15:43

I want to ditch Meg for an episode and do an episode with just you. Okay. All right, Meg. How's that sound?

 

1:15:50

episode we

 

1:15:53

were just talk about Lululemon. I know right?

 

1:15:57

But Danica thanks again for the intro. 45 Yeah, definitely everybody. She'll be back on No, thanks for having me.

 

1:16:06

Thanks for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, please head over to iTunes to subscribe rate and leave a review. You can also find us on Instagram at the project Kuwait. Thank you and join us next time.