Alex Stewart | Classic Physique Competitor, Sales & Athlete Director at Gaspari Nutrition, Owner Boom Athlx

Welcome to the platform podcast. I'm your host Jordan Kunde-Wright, founder and head coach of the Twin Cities Kettlebell Club And I'm on a mission to help others build sustainable healthy habits I know how hard that can be because I've struggled and succeeded to varying degrees throughout my life But I've lost over a hundred pounds and kept it off for over a decade now the key for me was discovering my passion for lifting weights in Kettlebell Sport on this podcast we'll talk to athletes coaches experts and everyday people about Kettlebell's fitness programming nutrition mindset making an impact and generally striving to grow and leave a legacy of positive change Please join me right welcome in to the platform podcast my guest today is Alex Stewart He is a competitive classic physique competitor as well as the sales and athlete director at Gaspari nutrition He is a husband and a father of two as well as the owner of boom athletics Alex thank you so much for coming in do you want me to call you Alex? I should have called you big stew You can call me whatever you want If you some people that know me by big stew they just they roll with that You can call me Alex either or I have plenty of friends and people Actually when I meet people and most of the time it is big stew because through now with social media Obviously I've built a kind of reputation and brand from from a young age as big stew so You are mr. Consistency on Instagram every morning or every evening and we can count on a big stew live stream on the treadmill Walk and talk getting in those steps Yep, that that actually squeaky treadmill now my dad down in town He's gonna help me my wife got the oil Okay, so she went to Amazon and got the oil she knows that I'm not going to fix anything because that's just who I am I never used a hammer in my life except well, no, I did use a hammer but I hit myself with it My fingers even though my dad told me to stop nailing nails and the trees back in the back but No, man, I'm not a fixer kind of person in that damn treadmill bro every day. It makes too much damn noise So the pops came down. He's going to oil that baby up and Yeah, every morning we do a we do a live To start today, but Yeah, man. No, thank you for having me. I'm very excited to to be on here and talking with you today You know about obviously supplementation and and myself Some of the things that you know I've accomplished and and I'm doing right now both as a as an athlete and and in the supplement industry Yeah, man. I'm excited to have you on so it's it's very cool For those of you that don't know I'll probably put a little intro on this I'm officially part of team Gospari. I'm really excited about that They are they are the official supplement company that I'm working with as an affiliate As is kind of my trend. I don't affiliate with multiple brands Affiliate with one brand at a time in any particular area and Gospari is the company I've chosen to Affiliate myself with after after vetting After vetting them and them having a chance to vet me They're the company that I'm that I'm officially affiliating with for Supplementation we'll get into some of the reasons behind that But I'm excited about that and I'm really excited have have Alex on Alex give us a little bit of your background as far as as an athlete because you're competitive classic physique competitor So give people like me who have never been on a bodybuilding stage a little bit of an education about what the different Approaches are in the different classes and divisions are in in figure competition because they're there are different Physiques that you see at the different levels and different aesthetics that you guys are going for right so can you differentiate what what what makes you different from say a bodybuilder Yeah, no, absolutely, man well things started you know for me as a competitive Bodybuilder When I was a teenager, you know, I actually got into bodybuilding when I was Competitively at 18 years old. I was a basketball player as a kid And made that transition into the love of of lifting weights and my late teens At the end of my high school career A I did at that point I was doing natural bodybuilding which was fully drug tested bodybuilding up in the northeast It was very popular at that point The the natural arena was a way for you know To compete you know again not having you know being drug tested But the thing with bodybuilding at that time is that the physics and the open bodybuilding Which is basically any way class we're getting very very huge. So it was it was very tough for the average person To compete In regular bodybuilding without you know having to use an excessive amount of performance in his and drug So at a younger age, you know, I was kind of turned off. I looked at the guys like Arnold A guy's like Sylvester Stallone and Rocky and I wanted that kind of physique I didn't I didn't really enjoy The look of those bigger bodybuilders. So you weren't going for a Dorian Zane or Jay Cutler Yeah, Jay Cutler is the mass monsters Correct. I really I actually liked Jay Cutler from a perspective of He intertwined always business with the bodybuilding. I was always a business oriented person So he found ways to monetize you know what he was doing and and he was also a guy from Massachusetts But it's just his size was just not something that I thought that you know I could personally want to get to and replicate So you know, I competed I was actually very successful over two years in a row or I was able to win my both the shows that I did And and then I made a you know transition into Into the supplement industry. So my competitive time kind of Took a back seat now The original question that you were mentioning is there was no classic bodybuilding at that time. There was a division called physique so physique was you wore board shorts. Okay, so the longer bathing suit that cut that went about to your knees and You know, so this division didn't appeal to me. I actually had a really good legs um and I didn't want to cover up my legs, you know, and then also it was a new division and they really didn't know the guidelines So they kind of went for a beach body and so The couple things that I was always known for was my conditioning in my legs I had a shoulder injury when I was younger so things like chest And shoulders were we're not strong points of mind So I spent a lot of the time, you know, building up my legs. So this didn't really interest me So, you know natural bodybuilding. I made that I made a transition to moving to Miami natural body building wasn't Big at all down in Miami So when I moved down I kind of really focused on my career A if you fast forward another about five or six years They opened up the division of classic bodybuilding now This itself Was a division that they Attached a height and a weight To the um to the class So now you you couldn't be you know You know five foot six and be two hundred and forty pounds and guys like branch war and guys like Jay color or five foot eight five foot nine You know, they step on stage at two sixty Um, they are they wouldn't be able to compete, you know someone like myself to compete at the amateur level your height Has to be in in relation to your overall weight So what it did is it brought a more aesthetic physique. So the the physics mainly like a Frank Zane a Arnold Schwarzenegger that kind of idea now Arnold would probably the broad the broad chest narrow waist big legs, right But yeah kind of still in like what you would consider a natural-ish looking physique where it's like you're you're still a freak But you're absolutely you're not but you're not pushing you're not pushing Cycles of gear through your body over and over again to to put on an ungodly amount of mass onto a small frame Yeah, I mean the thing is is I think they got away from what the the beauty of it, you know, and like to say is the Physiques in Arnold's era where we're beautiful physics, you know, the guys were there to train hard You know, Rich Kaspari was another one. I mean he was similar to Arnold where he probably wouldn't be able to You know compete in the in the classic Because of his it's density But a guy's like lila brada guys like lihanie We're talking lihanies in eight-time Mr. Olympia guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger is a six-time Mr. Olympia these are guys that you know with a 10-pound muscle reduction I would even say maybe a five-pound muscle reduction in an improvement in conditioning They could be a current, you know, classic physique Mr. Olympia, you know, at those ear at those days they were Definitely not as conditioned as they are now But I but I still think they had tremendous tremendous, you know, physics. So I really enjoy this, you know, division once you become pro I'm at the amateur level, you know, I'm a national level competitor um A certain I'm again three and a half weeks out from the universe which if I get top two in my class that will turn pro They get you they allow you an additional 15 pounds of muscle to put on um, so it allows you know, it allows for a great looking physique a marketable physique and And it's and it's always been my passion. It's really been something that I love to do I love to train But I also like to the big thing for me is I wanted to be healthy and I also wanted to look good And I think that you know someone like myself, you know, when I go into the gym, I mean Not too big that I'm intimidating Now if I do wear a tank top and stuff like that, you know, some people you know might think uh, you know Just have that preconceived notion because you know, I am a lot bigger than a lot of the other people there But it's it's it seems like it's more of an attainable physique when you when you see one of the open bodybuilders Or one of the two 12 bodybuilders, which is another division for The open class that is a lot shorter um is it's just too big and and and and for a lot of things in the US Internationally, it's a little bit more popular, but the but in the US it's um It's lost a lot of steam and and just because younger guys like uh, you know football players basketball players MMA A baseball anybody that played high school or college sports You know looks at that and and it's almost like they need to invest another, you know 10 years of their life to just compete in that and or you know utilize too much You know PDs To get to that level so um, you know Where you know doing classic they're like him, you know, we just hired uh, we just brought on board Jose Marte who's an Olympia level competitor He was a baseball player and in two years he's been able to turn pro and also Get to the Olympia stage now. It's not because it's easy. It's because he has tremendous genetics But it's someone who's able to make that transition from playing baseball who is a fairly muscular To someone that is now, you know on the Olympia stage Yeah, and that's the I mean, that's the super role of the sport for people that you know people that that don't know Mr. Olympia is the biggest event uh every every year So you're three you're three and a half weeks out from from your uh from your world So uh, how are you feeling right now? How how hungry are you? How depleted are you at this point? What it you know, what is what is uh, what does it look like being you know being at this point out and what is what is the what is the ramp up look like as you get ready for stage Well, I'm gonna be really honest man, and I'm not gonna I'm not you know Trying to be hardcore or what have you but the the the mr. Consistency title that you've given me Has allowed me this time in my life um to not actually struggle as much um, I'm I'm always in fairly good shape um, and um I always try to stay in really good shape even when I'm in what is considered the offseason I always eat very very healthy and clean um, I don't really deviate from my diet at all. I really don't eat a lot of um You know junk food at all really um So I'm not really struggling at all. I um my my past I've uh, done a tremendous amount of travel uh for work um and with covid um my job Doesn't require me to do any travel um, I literally work from home. I wake up. I do my cardio At a reasonable time. I wake up at six o'clock in the morning. I'm on the cardio machine Doing my live at six thirty. I make breakfast for my family and We eat breakfast and at eight o'clock on my move from my table to my desk, which is literally five feet away um we uh Get to work, you know, and then my my kitchen is 15 feet away If you know if there's an opportunity to grab an app I'll grab an app um, I'm able to get to the gym um in the uh the afternoon um, and um So gyms are open in florida. I assume yes gyms are open in florida um I actually didn't have any problem with it with a gym. I actually had a friend who was able to get me into a gym I had a local school that I did uh, I used to train some of the uh the kids there um and actually did some seminars for them So there was a private christian high school that allowed me to train all through covid You were in a speakeasy gym. Yeah, I was I was it was good, but I was I was able to uh to train all through covid I was actually getting ready for my first national show um and and it got sidetracked, but um, so I've been fairly dieting for a show since probably February, but like I said my job uh the travel significantly changed. So my lifestyle and my life itself is so much easier. There's so much less uh stress I used to get on a plane twice a month and go into a different city. So like I said earlier, you know, I would I was staying in shape year-round doing that and when you're waking up and you know going to the gym at you know 4.30 5 o'clock in the morning uh training uh then getting in a car and or a plane um going into a different city you know continuing to do cardio continuing to find food um get food um you know it's um it's very you know it's very demanding you know it's very dependent on your on your body um I got to custom to that you know so now that I'm doing this and I'm really you know I'm not kind of making it sound easy, but you know I kind of went through a lot worse and now I'm just able to take advantage of this um of this opportunity um yeah the demand the demands of your job added to the demands of your of your chosen person you know passionate pursuit was was you know higher baseline stress levels than than what you have now I mean it sounds like COVID's been a been a pretty nice reduction in in flight you know it's been a reduction in stress for you because you've had more flexibility to sleep more recover better you know you're getting you're getting the family time you're not you're not being forced to try and plan all your food when you're in a strange city or maybe even if it's a familiar city but just you know we all know how fucking hard it is to stick to a diet while you're in an airport you know your flight gets delayed or whatever like good luck it's a challenge. It's exactly what you said I mean it's I'm sleeping in my bed every day I'm not you know on someone else's schedule I'm on my own schedule and that is that mismade it a much easier process now the training is is spot on the cardio has been spot on the diet has been you know again spot on there is really no deviance like today was you know was the one was one of the changes because of this you know and because I had to also meet up with my athletes so I actually transitioned my training to the morning so I mean when I tell people I'm like so I had to work out in the morning and not at the night you know and then after this I'm going to go jump on I got a peloton so I'm going to try that out tonight you know we just got nice so I'm going to jump on that later we're going to get that cardio in and we're going to be good to go so that's what changes you know and then you know being at Gospari we have pivoted tremendously with this you know a pandemic that we had to go through actually before it happened and you know I'm just blessed to be here you know it's a me and Rich kind of sought out a plan and we've executed the plans since day one and we were talking this morning you know being here for a year over a year it's it's been really seamless on on our plan overall you know obviously there's there's stuff that happens shit that goes wrong things like a delay things that we get whatever but overall if you look it from a broad spectrum of a year we're very blessed with what what has happened so it's it's made the competitive side I mean he was one of the guys that pushed me he was but why the fuck don't you compete he goes you're in better shape than half our athletes he goes if I if I was your age I mean I he's like I injured myself when I was your age but he goes I was already competing on the Olympia stage you know when I was 24 and I already put 10 years into it he goes you haven't really even started and if looking guys like Ronnie Coleman they started their career when they were in there mid you know 30s you know competitively I mean Ronnie didn't really start you know breaking out until he was you know 35 so I talked about a freak genetics have you seen pictures of him from when he was in high school yeah he was just a freak of freaks but that's a whole other conversation yeah I was actually talking to the wife about that this morning you know we were we were you know talking about physiques and the weight classes you know I was telling you about someone that I'm like man you know when he when that person isn't shaped they're going to be about 180 pounds and they just don't understand you know being that much out of shape they don't realize how much it takes to get in really good shape the only people that I can't judge are the freaks they have burnt what I call his bird bones they're hollow bones and guys like Ronnie Coleman and Phil Heath and Alex Wheeler and that kind of thing are these guys that just they got these bodies that just blow up off the off the bone and Ronnie was one of those ones I mean once he once he kind of did everything and put it in line it was it was pretty scary to see what he was able to do but he worked you know he worked at it like you said he he was able to put all those pieces later in life it's just unfortunate that he wasn't able to kind of take himself out of the body builder and and be able to enjoy his retirement you know but yeah man that's that's you know that's the competitive side of me like I said it's for me right now it's a it's a fun I'm never gonna stop training you know if if you were to tell me right now that I can't compete I can't go on stage you know that that is what it is but if you're if you're telling me I can't compete that's life or death like I can't you know yeah it's oxygen man yeah yeah training training to me is is is what I love to do I will train till I die I will I like that I actually really enjoy the healthy eating it's it's what I really really like to enjoy but the competing side of it not that I don't enjoy it it's that I really just love the the training aspect I love getting into the gym and pushing myself I love what you're able to do and and make the the progress to your physique the results that you get the feeling you get when you're in the gym so but yeah that's that's that in a nutshell but yeah the competing part of me we're gonna see you know we're gonna push it as much as I can obviously the fun other part is is you know kind of building content for social media growing that you know growing you know the awareness you know to kind of do what you're doing is bring knowledge and and and help people I really like to to spread knowledge and help people you know with wherever I go when it comes to fitness you know one of the things that I that I do and I make a very very very adamant point is every single day I step in the gym I make it a point to help someone and this is you know like I said I you know I'm bigger than a lot of the people I go to the gym um I'm not shy to wear a tank top I'm not shy to take my shirt off and take a picture shaman I wouldn't even own shirts if I looked like you most people don't think I do if you judge but uh but I do have a clothing company and I have fun friend of mine he's like how the fuck do you have a clothing company you're even fucking wear shirt I can promote it but the fucking logo on the chest but um so I I make an effort every day to help someone that I see is doing something wrong and I think that one one area is from from two perspectives too many people go into the gym and consistently do things wrong you know they kind of see it but they don't really know what they're doing um and you you should see the just a change when you when you tweak a hand position or grab the the dumbbell differently or or squeeze here or squeeze there how much it makes a difference to what they're they're doing um as well as it opens up a an opportunity to communicate with someone new you know and and it's uh you never know who that person is you never know who that person um you know could potentially be um and I'm a big networker so you know networking in that way so um it's a uh it's something that I that I've been doing for for a couple years now and uh and it's and it's one of the best things that I ever decided to do because it it really opens up um and people know people know I'm the meathead that makes noise in the gym or whatever it is um but I'm also there very helpful and humble person um when it comes to it yeah I love that like you you you had the thing on uh on one of your livestreams the other day where you you you pushed everybody said hey you know comment on come you know if you're on social media you're clearly on social media make a comment on somebody else's content that that you're enjoying and make it don't just give them a like don't just give them a heart but actually give them a thoughtful actual comment and tell them why you like what they're doing right like and I love that because it like how long does that take 15 seconds you know but but for that person like that's the you know if we had more actual interaction happening on social media if it was actually more social I feel like it would be much much better for people and I I really I loved that because it's it's so true like when you actually interact with people social media is great if all you're doing is scrolling and comparing yourself or looking chasing likes or any of that shit like then it's then it's just vapid and it sucks but but if you actually engage with people it can be a lot of fun you know and I love that you can use it as a tool absolutely I mean that that's honestly how I finish every one of my uh team Gospari uh talk's you know I speak with each one of my team Gospari members which we're definitely pumped to have you you know officially on board um but I ask and I challenge each one of my teammates to say hey reach out to team Gospari the hashtag and comment on um one of their posts and say something you know positive say something positive but make sure that the person that you're reaching out to doesn't look like the person in the mirror and if you do that you'll be very surprised of how much improvement your engagement goes on because what social media has done is basically limited your engagement to the people that you communicate on a regular basis with so they've limited your engagement with you know 5% um and in cases maybe 10% if you have a bigger following and are more active um but you know like I was talking with another lady last night you know she's a uh uh uh an african-american from Georgia you know if you click on her page uh the little like you know recommended profiles I mean basically all you see is a lot of other black people from the south if you click on you know your page you're just gonna see a lot of white people from the Midwest you know you click on kettlebell people I see I see all sorts kettlebell people which is great but I love powerlifting and Olympic lifting and bodybuilding and like any anybody that's pushing themselves to do something hard strong man highland games all that shit I love it I think it's awesome anybody that's pushing themselves to do something physically I think that's it's awesome but the algorithms that you're right they it's the algorithms are trained to seek seek out similarity that's what they're trained for right exactly you gotta you gotta school that a little bit you gotta you gotta hack that a little bit that's great yeah and opens up your eyes to different perspectives it opens up your eyes to a different network opens up you to other people in a country um and uh it's been something you know like I said I do it on a very small level like at my gym and I do it in a much bigger you know piece uh through social media so um both of those are things that I would definitely challenge anybody to do um I do it because uh you know being what you know an expert or whatever you want to call and fitness I know that that what I what I have is knowledge that I can help on the other side um you know when it comes to social media I'm reaching out you know more to spread positivity um but then that network when you network with people they said I'm not a fixer person what if I need someone to help me fix me you know something in my house sort of need a recommendation or of someone to uh make a wall for me like what do you do what's the best way to find someone is through a recommendation I got a guy yeah I'm from Chicago originally man everybody's got a guy like that's what it's all about you got a guy like oh you're muffler we're not I got a guy you need a diamond if I got a guy yeah and Miami the issue is you need a guy but that guy's Spanish so I need my wife to talk to him but I got a guy that knows a guy that can speak to a guy so that's there you go I mean so um well yeah man that's that's definitely something that that I'm all about um but yeah it's meaning you know you know kind of transitioning with Kaspari you know things have it been great we've been able to launch a lot of products a lot of new things um and uh it's been very very exciting yeah you've been you've been in the supplement game for a long time I mean you you started in bodybuilding back in your teenage years and I know that you you've been in the supplement industry for over 20 years now so you know talk to people a little bit let's let's share some of that expertise because I mean frankly the supplement industry is is kind of scary for a lot of people because there's so much stuff out there and of course we all hear that the horror stories of like somebody took a tainted supplement and died or you see the scare tactics and stuff but like what are what should people look for when they're evaluating a supplement company like what are the things that you think people should look for when they're like can I trust this and to put it in my body yeah so my my um my tenure in the in the supplement industry started as a as an athlete for bodybuilding.com this is when when bodybuilding.com was probably this was before they were the biggest they were they were climbing the reins there was very few companies out there. Gaspari was one of the largest companies in the industry you know which has been around for for over 20 years he's brought us 23rd year in business and which is a long time in the supplement industry it's very long there's very few people that that have that kind of tenure um so the um I made the transition of moving to Massachusetts to Florida to work for a company called Betancourt Nutrition. Betancourt Nutrition was owned by a company called Nutrophores. Nutrophores was a was a very very high-end contract manufacturer and um so we were one of their brands we were the only the only sports nutrition brand and during this time I was able to kind of learn the whole process of manufacturing. I was also um you know involved in the in like a the inside of seeing all the processes that went into a very very high end contract manufacturer that was C-GMP certified so it's certified in good manufacturing processes they had multiple other certifications at the place but the biggest thing that you want to look for is when it comes to reputable companies is to figure out where where their manufacturer and if you want to dig dig deep into there if they're C-GMP certified none of the supplements itself are a you know governed by the FDA okay so there is that little bit of a gray space that you have there but when you look at you know pricing when you look at pricing of supplements and though we've made this transition from um you know a being supplements being kind of a specialty to now being in Walmart. You got to also look at um you know the they've also had different price structures so you look at some of the stores that sell you know the specialty stores something like um that will sell you know we're protein for you know $50 and then you go to Walmart and you'll get something that is you know say $30. Well it's going to be honest with you guys it's a quality you know it's not that the store that is selling at the specialty store that is selling a you know the supplement the same kind of supplements certain supplements are actually created for those bigger box stores so the quality that you're going to find at a Walmart is going to be a lot less than a specialty store now I'll give you an example you buy and we'll stay with the same example of Walmart Nike sells a lot of product at Walmart okay um they also you know you can probably buy Nike shoes there you can probably buy Nike socks there you can probably buy Nike shirts there but the quality is not going to be the same than buying it in one of the the signature Nike stores that we have down here in Miami or going on Nike online you're not going to be able to find the same shoes that you get at a footlocker or you know one of the you know the shoe stores you know so there is a quality of supplements that you're going to get now the the tougher piece is online you know online nowadays um you do have a lot of companies that are created with a very small amount of employees they go to a contract manufacturer and they you know produce the product if they're sold on Amazon they pretty much are going to be reputable in the sense that what is probably in the product is going to be there now what I say is probably and it's not 100% Amazon does a very good job um taking stuff down when there's issues okay um they if they get flagged if a company gets flagged more than a certain amount of times and people are very open and honest and things get around very quickly and they scour uh message boards and in different areas um lawsuits okay um and I we know this because unfortunately for Gospari there was a gentleman um who uh basically tested positive um with a uh performance enhancing drug and he blamed Gospari actually for their multivitamin um and our multivitamin was actually taken off Amazon we were doing tens of thousands of units of of our anivite um and it was taken down and then still to this day um it has is not able to be sold on Amazon because Amazon it's a very tough machine to work with it's a very tough but they that you know items and and they have a very um you know strict policy on if something something gets negative press they'll take it off they do not want to see a lawsuit they do not want to see something where I bought this on Amazon and I got sick so um your online retailer is a as a barometer for for that is Amazon Amazon has a very good job of doing that um I know that's not always the best thing people want to support small business I always say you know do definitely support your small business but Amazon does a very good job of delivering product and also vetting it um if you get products that are out of you know your bigger box stores you just got to realize that like chicken breast is chicken breast okay you don't get better you don't get cheaper chicken breast anywhere else okay when you start to see yourself paying cheaper for protein okay from one store to the other there must be a quality when you buy a diamond from Walmart it is different than buying it from um a very high end Julie store okay there is a quality and there is also a price okay and the same thing is is in with supplements is that when you buy commodities like that you know things like protein um there's higher grades better quality better ingredients better formulas um better in your specialty stores okay then there are in your other ones now they create some brands create specific pre workouts they'll create different formulas that have similar names you know there's certain brands out there that have branded a name um and they will make different products um similar to Jordans they'll make different Jordans for different you know right Jordans not mine yeah exactly but they'll make different products you know for the different channels that they're selling into yeah and that's the problem with the proprietary blends right is you could make uh whatever you know just you know call it call it Jordans pre workout uh you know you could make it and say oh here's the proprietary blend uh our energy matrix formula and you don't have to say what what specific what specific amounts of the specific sub ingredients of that went into that proprietary blend so they can have two different formulations of the same product and sell it in two different places well one of them might have a clinical dosage of you know whatever acetyl carnitine you know we'll use that as an example uh and they could say okay well this has an actual clinical level dosage and we sell that at you know the high end store and then oh we're gonna half that dose and we're gonna add something else that's cheaper to the you know to the other blend and we'll sell those ones at Walmart right like that's the lack of label transparency is one of my biggest problems I have like I I want to know exactly in what amount everything is is going in because the research is out there like you can research like what's a clinical level dosage of creatine you know well five milligrams a day until you get to saturation and then you need five milligrams a day to keep it right like that's out there you know five grams five grams on the crew oh yeah did I say milligrams yeah I'm sorry five grams yeah you need that's an old school yeah it's an old school uh serving for for for a certain brands that used to just sprinkle it in there yeah yeah there was a there was a huge transition and supplementation where you know brands were were abusing the proprietary blend when it comes to stimulant formulas and and pre workouts I'm not against when it comes to proprietary blends when it comes to the stimulant side of it I do believe that you know brands have their their their their secret sauce in a sense they create um the the right stimulant blend to get the effect of result now um it's like it's like it's like Coca-Cola Coca-Cola is not going to tell you what it is uh what their formula is because it's their recipe okay but um but like you're saying and in performance ingredients there's certain performance ingredients that there's a standard for that performance ingredient mixing that performance ingredients with something else doesn't it doesn't make that ingredient better or worse it it's just an added you know ingredient but when it comes to stimulants there are certain stimulants and other other ingredients that work synergistically together to give you a certain feel you know like the certain things like you know theobrol mine and and and caffeine you know there's things like PEA and and caffeine as well that combine together you know do a stimulatory effect but also have a calming feeling or it hits you um a little bit you know faster or slower or um you know it doesn't give you the jitters so in certain aspects i'm not opposed to um proprietary blend um but when it comes to research proven ingredients that really don't change um how it how it affects your body and your body needs it you know beta-alanine um creatine um those kinds b-tain those kinds of ingredients um those yeah yeah you want to have a properly dosed product um you know figuring out you know what kind of you know protein is in that um you know uh product is another you know very important thing um sometimes you know people think all proteins are the same which is a huge misconception i uh live for that is you know there's certain proteins that are much better for different times of the day there's certain proteins that have gotten negative press um and they're just not understood and then other proteins have gotten kind of put in um you know um in different areas that don't don't you have any validity to it it just kind of was kind of if that and then then and you know i can kind of go into that you know and we have we have several you know griswari carries um several different kinds of proteins all for different you know reasons um you know we have an egg white protein uh which is a hundred percent institized egg whites um has no lactose no dairy i think it's one of the best proteins out there i love that i i just i just started taking it i freaking love it my so my wife is my wife is allergic to dairy like definitely allergic so for me to be able to get casing and weigh out of the house is probably it is probably a good idea but also to have a protein that we could actually share is uh is uh is very rare so that i i love it and it's it's really it tastes really good um i'm i'm i'm i'm really impressed with us far and i just i got the salted caramel i mix it with my coffee so i've got my like my cheater my cheater frappuccino i love it it's it's epic man i mean i'm i'm not gonna lie there's no other brand that can touch it you know if you want to come at us bro like i i could care less i say it to anybody our egg white protein if you want to do an egg white protein come at us we're you're not going to touch it all the flavors are phenomenal um my everybody that that i've come across is is love the product like you said for everybody that it can't do dairy it's a great option um it's great meal replacement i used it all the way up to my show three days out for my show i was using it i used it in the middle of the night i have a shake in the middle of the night wake up in the middle of the night and i have a shake um in some almonds i keep me you know through the night um but we also have a hydrolyzed way islet so islet protein and hydrolyzed protein go through an extra filtration process this takes out the lactose in dairy but it also makes the speed of the digestion a lot quicker huge for post workout that's that's when you want that that's simple that simple protein and simple carbohydrates for anybody that's that's doing especially high intensity training um you want it to be as easy on your digestion system as possible because your body produces a lot of lactate when you when you were in glycolytic training and because of that that's why you're not typically hungry right after you you work out you know you get that you get all that byproduct your body has to process that so you want something that's going to be easy for your body to digest easy for your body to absorb without putting a ton of stress on your digestion you want to get from from the from the sympathetic state of fight or flight into the parasympathetic parasympathetic state of rest and digest as quickly as possible no that's a thousand percent and then the other part that i also tell people is that if you're waking up like you know my wife would wake up and go right to the gym so you come from a fasted state and you're able to get you know nutrients into your system very quickly so it is a great pre workout um i personally when i was going early on the gym i would wake up in the middle of the night have a full meal go back to bed my body would actually digest that meal and i'd wake up you know two hours later and just have a pre workout and go um but you know i would even find myself you know pre or post workout mixing the hydrolyzed with water um and then uh and using that in my uh adding it to cereal um as my milk for my cereal par say um and having those simple carbs in the protein to fuel or recover from from my training um the other proteins that we you know weight protein as a as a tremendous protein there's different grades of weight protein um it digest well like i said if you would do if you're not having issues with lactose or dairy it's a great alternative um it tastes great it's creamy most of those are are really good um you know casey and i know you mentioned i'm not a believer in casey and i think casings of dog shit protein the quality is is very poor uh your body can't really digest it at all in in this idea that it it's a slow digesting protein is it's just nonsense it's just to me it's a shit protein and and i know that they marketed it as a a slow time released you know protein um i just i wouldn't invest any money in that um some some some some research on that because i'm i'm open to to learning i i don't i i don't have that that that experience with casing uh like i find it it keeps me full longer but i also i would love to see some research on the on the bio availability of it because i know that that that matters so um i'm certainly i'm always open to learning most casey in itself is when it comes to bioavailability is about 50 to 60 percent um and yes it will keep you you won't be as full as long because it's like a gum it just but it's to me it's it's it's junk you know like if you're if you're gonna tell me like you're gonna buy something that's like paying that's like buying Doritos you already get a half a bag i mean i don't eat Doritos but you only get a half a bag anyways but then half that bag you can't even consume that's basically what it is you're basically getting a quarter of the tub um of Doritos but you your body itself can really only absorb a half of those calories so the other calories are just complete junk your body's not absorbing it um the digestion rate is well to be you know say anabolic you know keep you you know you take it before you go to bed so you don't stay hungry um i'm one of those people that i can wake up in the middle of the night and just slam down a shake and i'll be fine um but i also need to you know for people that sleep soundly through the night their body is in such a limited unless you trained unless you trained immediately before going to bed but then i don't believe you're going to be able to have very restful sleep your body's overall caloric um you know what is it's expanding through sleep is very limited so if you're able to take a shake with maybe like a fat before bed you're gonna get all the you know keep your body in an anabolic state perfectly fine if you're worried about that um i just i am not a believer i'm not a believer in taking something that's that such low grade um but yeah i'll send you some research on that as well uh soy protein uh has this idea that soy is is gonna give estrogen uh that's junk it's not it's not gonna you would have to eat you would have to eat like five times the amount that a human could possibly consume for it to really have much effect on your on your estrogen it's i don't even know that if it's gonna do anything for your estrogen but it's not a complete protein um the you know vegan proteins are another one they're not they don't have the full um amino acid profile um they also are very uh in in most cases tougher to eat uh just because they are gritty um we've uh been able to mask a lot of the grit in ours a proven vegan it does uh you know tastes good but you know i'm gonna be honest you know if you're gonna tell me for a person that is not vegan i'm gonna go to the proven egg all day long yeah has all the aminos in it um the other part of it is that to stay on a low carb diet which i love about you know a versatile protein like you know proven egg is that i can choose to add carbs or i can choose to add fat when it comes to a vegan protein you know just to flavor it out the gate you're gonna have to have a certain amount of fat in carbs you know because you need to add those so you really can't do that product and be in a low carb diet um if you're gonna do you know two scoops or something like that yeah i do i do love i love the versatility of the of the the 100 percent egg and the the hydrolyzed way i mean you can to your point it's just it's almost completely protein so you know for someone like me that's taken the glyco fuse as well after a hard kettlebell session uh i know that i i know that i'm getting exactly what i need without much without much else in it anything else i add to it is on me but if if i want to use it you know like i said if i want to use the egg to to mix it with my coffee and and have some whole milk with it too because i've got some fat and i'm taking it as my mid-afternoon snack just to tied me over between lunch and dinner that's that's fine i can do that it's it's it's versatile that way so you can use it in a lot of different ways no absolutely man that's that's um you know that's exactly what i use it for you know i mean i actually do it with almonds in the middle that i um when i'm offseason i uh i like some different nut butters and things like that you know i get a little bit more uh i guess like my friend says freaky with my with my calories but i'll do a couple scoops of some different nut butters that we have um you know for for the extra calories um but it's um but yeah i mean there's the knowledge that the big thing about supplements is you know when when people hear about them that i tell you know when we're working for your spa and always working for supplement brands i tell people like that there is certain things that your body absolutely you know can't get without being overly diligent of on your diet and i use the you know i talk in the third person i'm like you know you're not the big still okay you're not going to be dedicated a hundred percent of the time it just doesn't happen like so you're not crazy like i am yeah i'm a fucking freaky this is what i do for like i tell people this is what i do for living like i eat like this is this is how i have been for years and for most people like i'm not i do understand that people are not going to be as consistent as i am because it's just how it is you know what i mean there's you know it is even guys like Jay Cutler look to himself when he was competing and again i'm not putting myself on that level but guys like Jay Cutler he's like i was a fucking machine he goes there were guys that were a lot more genetically gifted than me but i was a fucking machine and that's how i am is that there's a lot of guys that are more genetically gifted than me but there is nobody that's doing what i'm doing and that's the mindset that i have now i don't expect other people to do that so with a supplement i realized that i i have you know a product right here in front of me is our proven greens and reds so i know that every day i get through and i get vegetables so i don't need this product per se like i could go without it now i get more from it i get prebiotics probiotics and fiber but even when it comes to all that the fiber i get the greens the reds i get so this supplement itself if i was to pay for it really it's not going to be super super epic just for me but i know the average person is not going to get fruits and vegetables every single day so what is supplements therefore to supplement what you can't get in your diet and protein is a very tough thing most people don't don't work from home like i do you know in here's an you know they don't have access to protein all day long so a protein shake you know my wife she's on the go she's a realtor she always puts a protein shake in the middle of the day she's picking up the kids she's going showing houses one of her meals in the middle of the day is a protein shake it's never a protein shake for me now what only like i said that meal where i might do the hydrolyze with the cereal i might do that pre workout but that's an extra meal that i add in when i'm in the offseason so things like greens and reds a multivitamin multiminal like our our end of life okay the creatine creatine is one of the most backed ingredients guys and girls like i don't get shit scientifically proven and it works like whatever you have heard is horseshit if you haven't heard all positivity because there's only positive only only positive when it comes to create it's it's like 12 bucks it less it less a couple of months for five to five to ten i still have some betting court dude i i got a case of that stuff i got a thousand gram k a bottle that's a thousand grams i got a case of 12 i haven't worked for betting court for six years and i still have that shit and it's still good in it's not in it's necessary i still have it because five grams a day is all you need it's the cheapest or scientifically proven and you don't have to load for anybody you can no it's all about getting to saturation if you load with a 20 gram a day serving for five days it gets you to muscle saturation faster um and then you'll start seeing the strength benefits and the performance benefits that are backed by the research but you don't have to do that you can also just you can just do the five gram a day and you'll get there it's not even worth it you'll get caught in mouth you won't like it you'll you'll you'll just go in there um i i don't recommend loading i don't load i don't ever tell my i don't ever tell my athletes to load but i'm just like you can if you want to but i don't think you don't need to cycle you don't need to cycle it you don't need to cycle it you know i don't lose it every day it's just like i tell it's like a video game it's the turbo do you ever not want to have the turbo in a video game no you always want turbo in a video game that's what creatine is it's not it's not a steroid it's not going to make you jacked and when you go off of it you're not going to lose all your muscle you know why you lost all your muscles could you stop going to the gym you stop taking your supplements you stop eating healthy it's not the creatine creatine doesn't blow to you it puts moderate into your muscles if you feel bloated it's either that time of the month in your female or your fat and that's just what i tell people is like you have body fat you're getting a muscle pump the muscle is covered by fat and so you look more bloated and that's just plain and simple you're not retaining water men don't retain water more unless they are injured or sick that is what happens when you when you have an injury or when you are sick you retain a little bit more water your body uses water attention as a survival mechanism okay uses sweat as well as a survival mechanism it is not going to retain water for no no random reason and creatine actually works with the muscles it does not work within the skin so there is no correlation to that women absolutely should be taking it just like a man it is one of the most backed ingredients things like beta alinean is another tremendous ingredients we put that in our antivite the reason we put it in our antivite is because the beta alinean is something that is normally in your pre workouts and you take your pre workouts about four to five times a week so you get three point two grams of that is the the clinical dose of beta alinean if you're not taking it every day your body is missing out on at least two to three days worth of getting it in your system so you're actually not going to have a proper amount of beta aline in your system buffers it buffers lactic acid production if you're not familiar with beta alinean it's a great performance enhancing supplement it's one of those that I I put in the optional category because if you're not training for performance enhancement and maybe it's not worth the money for you but it's not super expensive and it's it does have it does have performance benefits yeah I mean it's great for endurance athletes it create for muscles any kind of weight training leg days are so much better with it things that burn you know are just so much better with it so I highly recommend yeah for kettlebell for kettlebell sport athletes I think that I would definitely recommend it we're actually kind of getting into one of my one of my questions I actually had was how do you adjust supplement protocols based on goal and I think it's important that people understand like you for example are going to take a pre workout stimulant you're going to take something that's a vasodilator you know nitric acid oxide booster vasodilator because you're going for the pump I'm not going to take either of those things because I'm doing sets for I'm doing sets for time for as long as possible I want minimal burn minimal pump minimal heart rate response right like I'm trying to keep my heart rate down as long as possible I don't want the pump I don't want burn right I want all of those things to be as minimal as possible so I'm not going to take the same supplement protocol that you are going to take because we're training for different purposes and I think that's I think that's important yeah no I I think that is it was it's very important obviously I mean it's certainly ingredients that Taylor themselves a little bit towards certain you know disciplines that you're doing I think you know you hit on a one for for pre workouts I mean it's our industry our industry is is built up for pre workouts and fat burners and protein okay there's no money protein so you know margins are very tough it's very heavy so the majority of the of what is sold is pre workouts and fat burners and I and I strongly tell people that those are the least important supplements pre workouts itself you know when you you know there is ingredients that will help you with your performance there's absolutely ingredients that will help you with your performance those you can take you know on their own for myself you know the stimulatory effect that you get from caffeine and some of these other you know products for you know working out like I said with a proprietary blend everybody's different what in my opinion whatever kind of gets you to go to the gym to get the overall best workout to get you kind of in the zone I believe is the best for you and for some people that is a very high stimulant product I can tell you that it's negative on your performance but if that gets you to go to the gym you know and I'm talking to you know basically 85% of the people out there maybe 90% of the people out there if it gets you to go to the gym every day by all means take that pre workout you know I know friends of mine that take the same damn pre workout that they took 10 years ago and it's a very poorly formulated you know caffeine products but you know what it gets them going you know it's the same thing like my mom my mom takes coffee in the morning to get her going if that's what takes her to go or you know you could take a bang a bang is 300 milligrams of caffeine that's it it's nothing fucking else in it but if that gets you going it gets you to do you know what it is that you need to do then by all means the thing with fat burners as well as all the ingredients that were there to burn fat or were taken away by the FDA what fat burners do now you know our detonators are fat burner it doesn't burn fat does not burn fat I'm gonna be very very blunt and honest with you you take that you're not gonna fucking get leaner okay what it does and it allows you to go through the dieting process much easier so through you know the formulation it increases your energy so as you lower your calories your energy goes down so it just helps increase your energy it also helps with mood elevation okay so there's a europhoric effect to that when you have less food you get cranky okay that happens it also suppresses appetite okay when you're eating less your appetite gets suppressed okay it also can increase your internal heat so there's another you know affect to that is obviously when you're when you're dying you have less internal heat keeps you warm so that you know when you're doing your activities you you stay warm and you also can sweat out but it's self-forburning fat absolutely not it's not gonna burn fat it's gonna help you through that dieting process for me I take it before I do my cardio and it allows me to do my cardio with good energy laser focused I'm a great mood and I'm not hungry you know I'm doing it in a fasted state so it allows me to get through what it is that I need to get through more comfortably so that dieting process is being able to be done so what I heard is I need to take the detonate to help me not hate cardio especially dude it's it's fucking I mean again obviously I worked for this fight but dude detonate is phenomenal man that that made is you know I tell people this like here we did we're we just launched we're launching a new product on super fun progression super fun progression is a new formula of our pre workout I think it's a great product I think it's formulated very well I think it's gonna do an incredible we're putting a lot of marketing behind it but I'm gonna tell you straight up you do not need our pre workout as opposed to anybody else's pre workout it not one is better than the other it's how you feel from it you know and even the same thing with detonate I personally think we formulated it so it feels good I personally feel that you get a great response from it my wife loves it my wife loves the aggression but you might be a super fun max guy you might be a liposix you know person again I'm talking about my competitors here you know or hydroxy cut these are other ones you know you might be a fucking stackers person you know which is like an old school one that you used to get like CVS of a fat burner it it really just you might you might do your your just caffeine you know I know it's not a espresso in the in the coffee bar in the gym on the way in and those guys too whatever whatever that is that could be you like I said each of these like our our our aggression you know has a 3.2 grams of beta aligning so there is certain performance ingredients in these that can make that product a little bit better and help with your performance but what I find with people is that the action is the toughest thing to get them to do it every day is the toughest thing doing it correctly is the next toughest thing the extra boost that they get from that pre-workout is where you know like a like a person like myself who is been doing it for a very long time that's where it can make the difference so once you check the box of I'm getting there and doing it I'm also doing it correctly you know that's where like someone like yourself who is a coach and you coach people doing the kettlebell like you know I brought up a whole you know thing on my life the other day you know of people that go to the gym and don't know what the hell they're doing you know too many people that go to the gym they don't want to spend money on a personal trainer but they literally go to the gym every single day and they don't realize that they're going the same every single day and not making any results so let's push the puts the facts of that they're eating is okay because most people it's dictated by the eat like shit um if they're eating properly you know there's a huge amount of people that just do it improperly the exercise improperly and again that goes back to how I help people at the gym by giving them a little bit of a push so if you take your pre-workout you're all amped up and you're still doing everything improperly you're not going to get the result so that's the thing that those are the two check boxes that I always tell people is like you know get to the gym do it properly and then then the other things like supplements will help you out so don't invest in supplements first first investment it's the peak of a pyramid yeah first invest in you know because but like I said first invest in your diet that's your greens and reds that's your your antibiotic that's your egg white protein that's part of your diet invest in that first yep and then later on once you've invested in the time that you're putting in is you make a lot of results by just eating healthy you know you can lose a lot of weight just that way and stay healthy that way um then invest yourself in a trainer to get to know how to do the exercises and set you up a program and then invest in things like you know um you know pre-workouts and fat burners and and all that kind of stuff but you know too many people want to you know load up on the supplements and I tell them I'm like in a day you know it helps me my kids have a new pair of shoes you know my wife I don't really care if she buys something on Amazon because you just helped my my commission you just helped my business so I'm cool with that but at the end of the day I'd rather I'd rather look at the lifetime of the customer and no one quits taking supplements when they get results yeah so that that's my mindset is that if I can get someone to get results they're always going to do it okay because it is it is part of their lifestyle you know what I mean yeah well and it's it's funny because I always it's you hear people talk about you know the body body builders or physique competitors and they're like oh they're taking all this stuff when you add it like yeah have you ever talked to them like the first thing they'll ask you is how are you eating how are you training like like go go spend a day with them and see how they eat like I had a guy that worked next to me at the one of my first jobs out of college who was who was competing in a nat in the natural division and was you know 260 and was 62 and walked around it you know eight or nine percent body fat and it was like he was almost always eating something but it was almost always boiled chicken breasts weighed and measured you know sweet potatoes broccoli green beans tuna white rice brown rice like and it was like everything came in containers and everything was prepped and it was like that's the stuff he was taking care of first it was like you know I did my cardio in the morning I've got all my food I'm going to the gym at lunch I'm you know or I'm going to the gym after work like all of those things first yeah did he did he take his supplements yeah but he didn't even start with supplements until after he already had it already had a solid diet already had a solid training plan was already working with a coach you know was getting enough sleep you know doing his steps you know all of those things like those are all higher on the prioritization list but then when you when you're consistent with those things yeah supplementation can absolutely help and when you're you know to your point when you're when you're figuring out how to get your diet to a quality diet supplements can definitely help with that the right supplements can definitely help with that because it will help you get your protein it can help you get your micronutrients it can help you get your your healthy fats right all of all of those things but the all the other stuff like it's not going to get you the results in and of itself it's part of the overall strategy it's the tip of the spear you know once once you get to the to the point where you've got the metal behind it correct and I think that that is one thing I mean look at my life right now I mean I can I can show anybody a picture I used to bring all of my supplements with me whenever I go on a trip every single day of my life was when I was home I had my supplements with me I would I would easily be able to bring my supplements on trips I would bring packets of protein powder I would put my pills in little baggies I would bring them on an airplane and I would you know I would leave and so every day the supplements didn't change but what did change the quality of the food the quality of the sleep and the quality of the training all of that had changed and with the quality of the results were there so yeah it really does start with that I will tell you that there is a tremendous amount of added benefit from supplements I mean that's why I took them that's why I do not go off of them there is you know a need for it you know are the omegas or another one you know you know high quality omega that has a high EPA to DHA ratio that's another one you want to get a cheap omega go to Costco they'll give you they'll give it you like a bucket of of those soft gels and those soft gels are about 20% of quality omega-3 okay the purity is important you look at the what's the overall milligrams and then how much of that is coming from EPA and DHA and if it's not over 90% it's shit yeah so most of those are 20% so that means that that soft gel is basically filled up with some kind of nasty oil that your body is not going to be utilizing properly and yeah it's just you're basically putting cheap gasoline in a really good car and what eventually happens is I tell people is that eventually that really good car is not a really good car anymore it turns into what you put in it so you know that's another perfect example of quality versus quantity you know ours comes I think it's 60 caps per per per bottle it's about 2499 as a wholesale retail value like that you get it on a website you for 2499 you can probably buy a thousand of those at beijas or Costco again the quality is much poor you know they said you can get them you can get a burger at McDonald's or you can get a burger at a steakhouse and one's you know completely different and it's what you want to put in your body and the results that you're and I get from it so it's definitely a big part it's a big part of my life I've made that huge transition over the last five years I've taken a you know that a healthy approach and then you know earlier in my life to a more complete dedicated approach to you know basically I'm 100% on all the time when it comes to consistency you know that's my nickname Mr. Consistency I've you know made the realization that you know eating healthy to a degree is going to only get me a certain a certain way to look a certain way but when I kind of made that huge transition just staying on year-round I feel better I've been able to be much more successful as for business with my family I've been able to you know stay laser focused with work with my training and and and also you know my family life you know I put a lot into all this you know again I have two kids my son is eight months be nine months nice congratulations I was gonna I was gonna ask because I seen pictures of baby girl flexing and that's just super cute but I think she's four baby is four he yeah he's a he's a mad man bro he's strong he's crazy always had a smile on his face my daughter it's a ball of energy loves of my my mother that's here right now with us but again having that energy for them having that energy also for my wife um and and she's another perfect example she was you know a little bit more heavy set when we first started dating she lost some of the weight and uh whenever could I able to get that you know um physique that she wanted and and it was because she wasn't doing the little things she wasn't um taking care of herself when it came to the the extra cardio the dieting and as well as a supplementation my wife was one of those people that did not want to you know swallow pills I can take a handful of pills and and frigging down him in one one go wife has to do one pill at a time um and so she just wouldn't take him and now it's in the morning she knows that she needs to take him she knows she needs to have uh her supplements um it's very important for her she's seen the difference she's seen how is it affected her body and she's in the best shape of her life I mean she's 33 she has two kids um so she's a full-time realtor you know she when I say like you know she's a full-time realtor she you know she brings home a full-time salary it's not hey you know the thing is is sometimes with these these jobs like you're looking at you know you're looking at someone that it takes their job very seriously she she does very well for herself um jobs like that sometimes can be oh yeah you know I make you know a very small income I'm not going to you know talk numbers but you know I you know I sell a house you know every two or three months I mean no she's she's selling well over a house a month uh rentals and stuff like that she does it full-time she's a full-time mom I call her now a full-time bodybuilder um and uh and uh in a full-time you know has a full career um so she she kind of made that transition because she knows she needs the different things but you know we sit down and we talk to each other about what we need to do uh and and one of the areas that I told her is you need to improve uh your sleep she doesn't she is one of those people that will you know get on her laptop and just kind of you know mess around a little bit but she wants to do a uh a wellness show a wellness is a new division it's kind of in between bikini and figure um they have a little bit thicker legs a little bigger quads bigger glutes uh same upper body as uh as bikini um but she uh she wants to do a show but I told her I said babe you know one of the issues that you have to sleep you do not take schedule naps you do not when you run yourself ragged you do not take the time to recover and that's your issue and so those are things that you need to address you need to address certain things in your diet you need to address certain things in your rest recovery and as well as your supplementation like you said whatever it is that you're looking to do you need to address that and you know um put the right things to fuel your body and to help your body recover what's awesome yeah the the sleep is definitely the longest lever we have for recovery and improving performance I mean getting enough sleep is is crucial and it's I'm with you the the one benefit for me from COVID has been I've I've actually been able to get more sleep because I don't have to commute so uh the last day that extra 30 minutes of sleeping in the morning rather than driving which is great yeah I mean it's a miracle I mean uh the dry what I have to or what I but I visit places I'm like man I I do one of those like you know in the middle of the day I'm like oh my god I used to be in this every day I can't even do this one day in a row hopefully it's a permanent change uh you know I know my my company's 100% remote now so that's that's nice I hope a lot of hope a lot of other companies uh stay that way too where they're like yeah we we're we're finding this way and our employees are happier so I hope I hope that's a positive that comes out of this whole craziness so well I want to I want to be respectful of your time and um give people how do they follow you how do they uh how do they get at you how do they hire you as uh as a coach if they want to hire you what uh what's uh your handle and and how do they how do they track uh big stew so you can find me on Instagram that is the easiest way is Alex big stew um is my is my IG um a you can also you know support my company boom athletics and that is B-O-O-M-A-T-H-L-X um that's a clothing line that me and my wife have recently launched um I'll put the link in the show notes yeah we're boom pre-orders um right now we have some shirts we have some tanks um and then some women's clothing as well we're going to be expanding that um it's a fun project you know boom is another slogan that I just I say all the time I've been saying it for a long time uh boom yes that little slight boss in accent still still comes through a little bit a little bit a little bit it's probably coming back a little bit more because my parents are in town when I'm definitely around family and friends it it comes back a little bit there but you know I'm always here to help and and the thing is is you know when I tell people that I do coaching um I do coaching from anywhere from uh life life coaching business um training diet nutrition all that kind of stuff um but if you want to reach out and you just have a question reach out okay um I don't mind answering questions I'm one of those people that I'm not here just upon my services um I I help out a tremendous amount um to to just regular questions and if you feel that it's better that we get together you know on a one on a level um and and also maybe the time is needed than then absolutely um you know we can do the coaching aspect if I do believe that you need um a lot of uh framework to what you're doing you know that I will advise it on there but I don't answer in questions um you know for your intermediate beginner or even your expert or if you just want to you know shoot some ideas back and forth um so don't just think that you know I'm going to ask you about uh you know getting on board for for the coaching side of it I usually use that you know when I when I realize that the person okay this is going to take a little bit more than a one one person answer uh one a few you know a few word answer um but um you know again follow us team Gaspari if you are interested in joining team Gaspari we do have you can apply um it is a hand selected group of people we do not allow everybody on to this I'm not one of those people that believe and everybody gets a trophy um you've got to have the framework to to to be you know part of the uh the Gaspari community and uh and and have what it what it takes and and and the look um in the persona of of team Gaspari for us to kind of look at you as the adding you to that to the to the team so um but that's a great opportunity uh for trainers for coaches it's huge for trainers and coaches for athletes alike um and that's it man I mean I'm super happy that you guys you know everybody will talk to you today I know I talk a ton uh so when I say at the end of my calls with my uh my new athletes I know I spoke a ton um I'm like hopefully some of this information was very helpful um Jordan you're doing a great job with all this I'm glad to have you part of the team and excited to uh you know do more things with you uh and expand your network so thank you again for having me man I appreciate it thank you Alex thanks for coming on really appreciate your time you got to play it all right see you guys thanks for listening to this episode of the platform podcast I'm Jordan Kunde-Wright if you have a question please email me at Twin Cities Kettlebell Club at gmail.com follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Twin Cities Kettlebell Club on Twitter at TCKB Club online at Twin Cities Kettlebell Club.com and please help us grow our reach and give us a review on Alex podcasts Spotify Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts until next time