Nick: 0:12

Hey folks, welcome back to the Stronger is Better podcast brought to you by Starting Strength Gyms. Today, I am talking to my online client because he's in the UK and a friend, James Colinge, right? Colinge, did I get that right? Nearly, Colinge, but we'll talk about anything right now. Damn it. I was even practicing before we got on. Colinge, so not Colinge, Colinge, so the accent on the first syllable. All right, cool. James is a very interesting guy. He's got a lot of cool stuff going on, and he's also very impressive from a training standpoint. And I'll talk a little bit about that. We've got some cool things to discuss in terms of training and goals and things like that because your goals have sort of slightly shifted. It's shifted in the last couple of days, actually, so we've got some things to talk about there. But also, we want to have a discussion on training and parenting or living with – how would you – what's the proper terminology.

James: 1:15

My son's autistic, but disabled children.

Nick: 1:19

Okay, disabled children. Yeah, so we've kind of briefly talked about this a little bit, so this will be good to kind of have a full discussion and maybe help some people out, right? Absolutely. In the process here. Yeah, so I guess, James, let's get started with a little bit of training talk so that people have a frame of reference for where we're at and everything. I know – so you've been working with me now for – how long has it been? It's over two years, right.

James: 1:45

I think it's about three years now. Three years.

Nick: 1:47

Yeah, three years, and it's been awesome. James is one of the guys that I'll talk about kind of in a general sense when I'm discussing clients. In terms of – Being one of these folks who is just like really just easy to train, right? So like James doesn't miss training, works hard, has a very busy life, is a business owner, travels a lot, but training always gets done. You know, at least it seems to me based on what's going on in our discussions that outside. of the gym, you know, you're doing everything that you need to do. When you want to gain weight, you gain weight. When you want to lose weight, you lose weight. When you want to get stronger, when you want to hit a goal, we hit it and then things move on. Whenever you're like, whenever you get a tweak of some kind, we work through it fairly quickly and things just kind of progress. So, you know, whenever, and the reason I'm bringing this up is not to like, you know, gas you up too much, James, but mostly because I want people to, one of the things that I want folks to understand is that from a coach's perspective, the folks who, like you're going. to hear some of James's numbers in terms of how he's doing. He's, he's performed. Um, and that is all James owns that, right? So all, all I do is like, tell him, tell him what to do over the week. And then we see how it goes. And then we make small adjustments and your program is very simple. And it's been very simple for almost as long as we've worked together. Um, so the magic isn't like what I'm doing. The magic is in the consistency and the compliance and then doing all the things, um, on the client side. Uh, so, so it's, it's the, uh, it's the, uh, things I always talk about in terms of what makes training work. And this applies across the board, not only to strength training, but anything you're interested in improving and it's just compliance consistency. And then, um, and, uh, and that's really it, you know, the programming is, is almost secondary. So you show up, you work hard, you do what you need to do and really, really amazing things happen. So, um, anyway, let me, let me just, uh, start off by saying when, when you came to me, uh, you were doing some pretty wild, like pretty. in my opinion, pretty complicated programming and you sent me an email and kind of gave me an overview of what you had going on. It made, I mean, it kind of makes sense from, as I read through it, I was like, okay, I kind of see what's going on here. But in terms of like, something that I would prefer to deliver to a client and actually like the progress that I wanted to see, it made very little sense. It was very complicated. There was like weeks of, ramping volume and then weeks of like transition. It had goofy names and stuff. And then weeks of. like expressing the strength through PRs. And then essentially what I remember is that you were essentially looking at a PR maybe on a six to eight week, maybe even 12 week cycle.

James: 4:42

Yes. And then even that was based around how do you feel that week? Because if that's the week where you're not particularly performing well sleep wise or nutrition wise, then it's another.

Nick: 4:52

six to eight weeks. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's, um, you know, that, that's a, that's a, at least in my view, That's kind of a more traditional way of handling advanced training. And, you know, if you look at practical programming, there's examples of that kind of like sort of block training or whatever, whatever it's called. Right. I think I do really, really well with advanced programming, but I don't really pay attention to names and what actual programs are. I just kind of go with what's what's happening. And in my view, it's like the way to go is heavy and often because we're looking for a strength training adaptation. So my primary way of programming for advanced lifters is through exercise selection and variations and keeping things as heavy as possible as often as possible and letting the exercise dictate the level of stress rather than trying to like lay this out over a long time frame. And then hoping that on the on the week or the two weeks that you're that you're essentially like peaking in order to hit your PR is that you that you've done all the things that are necessary to do that. Right. And the way I look at it is like that. That's probably. More suited, at least at least the. Thinking is more suited to somebody who's got a date in mind for an event, a PR event, a meet or something like that. But even then, the way I've been running things with my clients works really, really well for even competition and stuff. So anyway, if you wouldn't mind, give us a brief rundown on kind of what your programming looks like and maybe your numbers because I think people will – I don't know if they feel impressive to you, but you're strong as hell, man, and it would be cool for people to hear.

James: 6:27

You never feel impressive to yourself, do you? Because you're always thinking about the next one. But yeah, I've been training for about six years. At the moment, I'm on four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. So upper body, lower body – well, upper body, so pressing really. On the Tuesday is sort of a heavy squat or a heavy deadlift. On the Thursday, more pressing. And then on the Friday, we do the sort of dynamic work where there may be 10 lots of two reps of squat. And five lots of two reps of deadlifts or rack pulls, et cetera. A lot of heavy press singles, but what I like about it is before on the old sort of, I don't know if it was called conjugate, I don't know really what it was called, but the old style of training that I was doing before I came to you, I didn't really feel like my PRs were my strength level, if you will. It felt like a weight that I had managed to lift on X date, whereas now I'm always very close to what my PR is, so I actually feel like that is my strength level. It makes a big difference training like that, I think.

Nick: 7:34

Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. You always have a good feel and gauge for where things are, and you're like, I don't want to, the terminology may be off here, but I think a good way to think about it. is that you never have to peak, because it's like, there's like this thing, it's like if you're just like always ready, you never have to get ready, right? Yes.

James: 7:59

And you can get the most of the days where you do feel ready.

Nick: 8:03

Exactly. And if you have an off day, and by the way, you know, you're running almost the exact expression of what I discussed in the very first Starting Strength Gyms Stronger is Better podcast, the advanced program episode. I mean, it's pretty much almost exactly the way I described it there. And the cool thing is that if you do have a, like, not the best day, you don't hit a PR. Like, let's say that your squat is coming up this week, and you've got a squat single, and it's not a PR, okay? You're going to see it again in four to six weeks, you know? And not only that, in between there, you're going to see really heavy singles in a variation. So super clean, pretty straightforward. And then from an online perspective, it works really well because I don't have to, I don't necessarily have, there's some leeway. I don't have to necessarily worry about, like, what exactly is going on. And during your warmups, like, I don't have to see. bar speed and stuff because you've got a little bit of leeway there in the in the singles and i know that you're still going to get a good dose of force production stress no no matter what happens. like even if you're even if you're five percent off of the of the one rep max right even when i'm.

James: 9:13

five percent off it's always just as hard as if i've set up a gap exactly i mean that's the idea right you train to use capacity um in regards to numbers it's a 535 squat for a single, 291 press for a single four or five bench single and deadlift 555 fantastic yeah and at a body.

Nick: 9:35

weight of what 235 235 511 235 yeah that's uh that's awesome it's pretty cool yeah we've and you've just uh started talking about doing the uh denny stones right in scotland yeah that's the.

James: 9:53

new aim i would like to um i think to push all of those numbers again and again and again it's going to take some, a lot longer and more weight gain than i really want to do i don't particularly want to be 250 260 pounds right um as you say i've got a busy life i've got a disabled child i've got another child um and i can notice at 235 240 pounds i do feel very different to 220 yeah um so i'd like to do something different yeah that's the dinny stones so it's a set of stones in scotland that. were first lifted in 1830 and there's been around three four hundred people lift them since there's a record kept of who've lifted them some quite famous people some completely unknowns like me.

Nick: 10:38

but yeah i'd like to work towards it yeah it's pretty cool i did a little bit of uh like grok research and uh i guess the recommendation is that you need to be able to pull um it doesn't matter what kind of pull it could be a rack pull or whatever but you know over over 700 is the uh is the recommendation, you know definitely over 600, But you're there, right? So I think the plan is to keep driving some base strength, probably more in the pulls. And then also probably a big component of this is going to be the grip, right? So it was interesting because I was like, okay, so he needs to figure out a way to duplicate these things. So I looked online, and then Cerebrus has the exact – Rogue has some too, but apparently the Rogue ones aren't – yeah, they're not quite the right diameter for the grips. At least based on the reviews. So anyway, so I sent you a link, and I was like, hey, man, you should get these. And you're like, oh, you already had them. They're just sitting in your garage.

James: 11:38

I'd like to be prepared, yeah. I've messed about with them before, but, yeah, I think I do want to look into them. It's quite important that the handles on them are a replica of the handles you're going to use.

Nick: 11:47

Exactly, yeah.

James: 11:48

Because you have to be quite particular about where you pick them up, especially if you use the hook grip with that amount of weight. It is slightly easier than a traditional pull because the way that people actually lift them is almost like a sumo. deadlift. So you've sort of got your legs out to the side and you have hands between your legs. But yeah, I think if I could pull 600, it would be around. I'd be there.

Nick: 12:09

Yeah. And the other complication is that they're different sizes, right? So one weighs 300 something pounds. The other one weighs...

James: 12:18

One's 405, almost bang on. And then the other one is about 320, 330, something like that.

Nick: 12:25

And they're also different sizes, right? Absolutely, yeah. So you're going to pick it up from a slightly different height and then also, they're asymmetric in terms of the load and then the rings are different sizes too, right? So one ring is bigger than the other.

James: 12:39

You've got to hope your thumbs don't fall off. And you've got to hold them off the ground for two seconds. That's counted as a lift. If you just manage to lift them and put them down, it's counted as getting air under the stones, but that's not.

Nick: 12:51

recorded. Got it, got it. And then you have to lift them up from 18 inches, is that right.

James: 12:57

Yeah, once again, slightly different with the... The weights too, it's like the weights too, sorry. So one is from about 19 inches, one's from about 17 inches. Fortunately, the heavier one, with it being bigger, the handle is higher. You tend to have that one in front of you. And so you've got the sort of 330 behind you on your posterior chain more than anything else. And that tends to be the way that people lift them.

Nick: 13:20

Nice. Have you messed with it at all? Are you going to do, like I've seen some people do it with both handles in front and then one with like a split with one in front, one in back. Have you messed with it at all? What feels better.

James: 13:33

I've messed with it. I've only tried one version, which is sort of a one in front, one in back. It felt very natural to lift it that way. And I think I got up to around about 350 on the front stone and around 300 on the back. The weight plates on the Cerberus handles we're talking about. And that wasn't the limit. It felt okay. It's just the hook grip, which I need. I need to get used to because it's not something I use.

Nick: 14:00

Right, right, right. Yeah. Another thing. So, so I think the plan will be to obviously get some specific practice in with those and the advantage is that they're heavy. Right. So, um, uh, you know, the, the, we'll keep pushing the barbell lifts. And then one of the things, the other things that I was thinking about is, uh, is getting you some grip work. So maybe like, maybe like a fat bar attachment or something to work off of on some of your heavy poles. That would be a very good idea. I've not thought of that, but yeah, it's going to help. Yeah. And then maybe some like towel chins or something like that, where you're having to use your, your hands kind of in this direction. So, um, I think that'll make a big difference because it doesn't matter how much you can pull in on an ergonomic, uh, uh, device, like a barbell that has neural, because these things aren't neural, right. They're smooth. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. Um, so, so not that it doesn't matter. I mean, that obviously matters, but, but the, uh, the grip component is, uh, is going to, is going to probably make the difference, right? So even if you could deadlift 800, you can't hold onto those rings. It's not going to, um, I mean, you can be recorded with.

James: 15:00

straps but i'm not really interested in that right guy in 1830 didn't use straps so that's.

Nick: 15:06

right properly yeah yeah very cool very cool yeah so we'll uh we'll keep everybody posting on that that'll be uh that'll be fun man it'll be cool so what you'll be one of 350 or so people yeah.

James: 15:16

i mean you've had brian shaw eddie hall people like that lift them and i think there's i think there's one uh gentleman that lives in scotland he's lifted them hundreds of times um oh cool that's it you know he lives close to it that's what he does you know right right so i may be able to get some advice off somebody a couple of hours away from me you never know uh well let let's.

Nick: 15:37

let's run through real quickly um how what you uh what were your numbers when we started if you remember because i know i know one of your goals was to was to press close to 300 and by the way man at 230 pounds 235 pounds and you fluctuated right then you get up to 245 or 250 or so up to.

James: 15:55

240 but on the day that i did do it, these lifts it was around 235, 240 was just water weight, do you know what I mean, 235 is more the body weight, but yeah, I mean, I started off with a press, I think when we met, 240, bench of around 365, but squat was only 460, so we've put sort of 80 pounds on that, and deadlift was 475, so we've put about 80 pounds on that too, and I do think, waiting for the right deadlift day, I think 585 is there, it's just, at the moment, I've been working through a back tweak, and, I've just got to wait for that to come around, the strength was there, when I did 555, I just never took it, because waiting for the next beat up.

Nick: 16:40

Right, yeah, and again, the amazing thing is that you're kind of staying at the same body weight the whole time, maybe you gain a little bit, and by the way, there's a picture, hopefully you'll send me this again, we can show everybody, but there's pictures of you back, how long, five or six years ago.

James: 16:56

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I was one. Sixty-two pounds? So I've put on close to 80 pounds. Very different looking human.

Nick: 17:04

Yeah. Yeah, and then just admittedly, if you did run your body weight up to 265, 275, which by the way, in a competitive environment with your strength levels, that would be totally appropriate, right? To be up around 265, 275, your numbers would be quite a bit higher. So not that that's anything that – because your goals and your lifestyle obviously matter quite a bit too. But just for the audience to understand, right, if – although like those big, big giant numbers are within reach for you if you decided to go that way. But that's where the whole discussion of like specialization and tradeoffs and stuff comes into play, right? Because in order for you to get up to 275, that would require – Quite a bit of work. I mean eating would become a full – time job for you uh because because that the uh and it may already be right but in terms of uh what it would take what it would take it would it would just be uh because because the workload. increases too right uh as you keep as you keep driving the the load the weights up and training volume up um you actually require more food than if everything was just static right so that's a that's kind of an interesting point i want to i think i recall you saying on a previous.

James: 18:25

podcast that you can always progress but there tends to be a time where there's a there's a tipping point where the amount of work and effort into progressing is not worth the reward and i know i could do it i know i could get to 260 i could eat it i could have five and a half thousand calories a day instead of 4 000 i could do it but i know that benching 465 instead of 405 by doing that i'm not interested in it particularly yeah right right i'm just not yep yep yeah man.

Nick: 18:56

yeah, okay cool so we got training history, we've got, uh, sort of your, your current programming, we've got goals. Um, what, anything else you want to, you want to talk about training wise? What is your, um, yeah, let's talk about this. Cause, um, there's this idea that especially, especially men have that in order to achieve, um, you know, not specialized strength levels, but even to achieve like some basic strength levels, like whenever, um, whenever somebody posts, uh, some, some targets, right. For example, I mentioned on an episode that you should be racing to like a one 35 press, a two 25 bench, three 15 squat, four or five deadlift. Um, then the next question people ask is like, well, how long, I mean, racing. So as quickly as possible is my, like as quickly as possible. Okay. So how long does that take? I don't know, man, I can't tell you that because I don't know what your, what your program, you know, so those are all questions you have to, people have to answer on their own. Um, the starting strength method is the quickest way to get there as long as you do everything correctly. But, um, it. That doesn't require a massive investment in recovery capacity, in lifestyle change, other than training and paying attention to your food. Most guys are going to get there in a fairly short amount of time. Kind of the next tier up with a 200 press, 300 bench, 400 squat, 500 deadlift. That's going to take a little bit more work, but still doesn't quite require a strength specialization. And just like you mentioned, at the level that you're at with your body weight and your strength level, you're definitely in the middle of that inflection point of strength specialization and trade-offs in terms of what's it going to take to get to the next tier of strength. So given your current situation, could you give us a rundown of what does a day for you look like recovery-wise? So the sleep, the food, protein intake. How much time, effort, and energy are you having to devote to that kind of stuff? And is it kind of natural for you now? And just give us a rundown there, if you don't mind.

James: 21:04

Well, I mean, I work a full-time job as a business owner, so hours can be strange. But I am fortunate enough that I tend to not work more than 50 hours a week, because some business owners do work more. And lots of people work more. But, you know, it's a full-time job, and I can be called at any time, day or night. So stress management tends to be the big one. Food, I have no problem eating. I like food. I can gain weight easy. I can lose it easy. But I tend to be quite a structured person. So when I do something, I don't lack in willpower. I tend to get at least seven hours of sleep a night. 200 grams of protein is a minimum. Sometimes it'll be 250, but as a minimum, it's 200. I take creatine. Other than that, I live a completely normal life. People are just jealous of how much I get to eat. Right, right, yeah. That's it. It honestly is. I think it's vast. It's vastly overcomplicated. It comes back, well, not by starting strength, but by the industry at large. It comes back to doing the hard thing well. And the hard thing is simple, but it's hard.

Nick: 22:15

Exactly right. Yeah, very well said. Very well said. Yeah. So are you planning out your eating or is it just kind of a consistent thing you do the same every day.

James: 22:26

Yeah, I tend to do the same Monday to Friday. I mean, diet-wise, I'm not a big breakfast person. I tend to eat towards lunchtime and later into the day, but it will be a lot of meat, eggs, milk. But I don't, I'm not vegan. I don't always eat wholemeal bread. I'm probably 20% body fat, something like that. And I eat pretty much what I want as long as it's... I'm not a big breakfast person. I'm probably 20% body fat, something like that. And I eat pretty much what I want as long as it's... ultra-processed yep gotcha no and i mean i i mean ultra-processed as in um a microwave beef burger or hamburger or whatever you want to call it um i was half processed food you know i think there's too much made of um meal prepping is good and if you like meal prepping do it it's wonderful and it's very cost efficient um but it's not for everyone i don't like to meal prep um i do tend to eat the same things but it it's all sorts of different things.

Nick: 23:31

gotcha gotcha what would you like on a on a weekly basis um what would you attribute um, most of your success to like do you do you um or or i should say like where where do you where does your focus kind of kind of lie are you uh over the course of the week are you thinking about your workouts are you going in like excited stressed do you or is it, just the thing like you get into the gym you see what's on on deck and just do it, How does it fit into the overall picture for you in terms of training and how you think about it.

James: 24:07

I'm never stressed about a workout. I know it's going to be hard, but I have learned to just concentrate on it right now. Press singles are hard. If you're pressing heavy singles, you will not like them, but you've got one rep to do. Warm up, put shoes on, warm up, do the first press single. It is difficult to not think about the workout. You do see it planned at the start of the week, and you do look at which days. That might be a harder day, that might not. But in all honesty, the night before, I'm not thinking about the workout the next day. I'm probably thinking about it an hour or two before. I'm well past the stage where I'm excited by going to train, but I don't hate it. It's something I do. It always feels good afterwards. I love it. numbers. I'm obsessed by numbers. That's what helps running a business. It's almost math to.

Nick: 25:06

me. The numbers going up, I love that. Very cool. How did you get started? Did you do the novice program or did you come into it a different way? I did the novice program myself from February.

James: 25:20

2019 till around the August when I got an online trainer, online coach. I was terrible. I mean, I look back at my squat and deadlift form that I did myself and it is laughable. It's so incredibly powerful. But even with that, by sleeping and eating, I still did a 405 deadlift within the first three, four months. Oh, cool. And I started at a 220 deadlift. And it was horrific form, but the weight came off the floor and was lifted up. Yeah. And that took real. long specialize. Just the novice linear progression three times a week, ate some more, put on 20 pounds, and it happened.

Nick: 26:06

Nice, nice. Yeah, and had you already started gaining weight at that – like before you started or did – No, no.

James: 26:12

I only started gaining weight once I started training. Very cool. I watched the – what were they called? Was it Brett? It was a blog called Brett and Rip.

Nick: 26:23

Oh, Brett McKay from .

James: 26:24

Brett McKay. I saw that. That's what got me into it. It was just a random video that appeared on YouTube, and I was watching more and more videos about starting strength. And I trained for – I've trained from when I was 16 all the way up until I was 35 when I started this. And I'd wasted time in the gym. I didn't know I was wasting time in the gym. I was between – I was 154 pounds when I got married at 24, and I'd managed to put on 8 pounds in the next 11 years and zero strength increase. And I went to – the gym for about four hours a week so yeah yeah i've got a bit fed up right right i'm surprised.

Nick: 27:06

you got married man i don't know that people want to marry a guy that small well yeah that is true.

James: 27:10

the uh the wife does try and limit how much she did marry 160 pound male right it's now 240 pound male she only has so much control fortunately yeah hopefully hopefully give it a.

Nick: 27:23

couple more years and it'll just be normal first it'll be fine yeah i'm working i'm working on 260 okay man well let yeah let's get into it in terms of uh how this has affected your i mean obviously from uh uh from a you know physical standpoint you know obviously you look different and we'll show people the the kind of some before and after before you started training versus now um you know i'm sure you you carry yourself differently now after four or five years of of uh of getting much bigger and stronger but you know there's all this there's all this other stuff. that we kind of uh talk about sort of perennially, peripherally in terms, of the additional benefits, you know, outside of just, not just, but outside of, you know, health, and assuming, I'm making an assumption here that your health is in generally good order, right? So you're, yeah, so, you know, metabolic panels, all that stuff's good to go. You're not, you're outside of training, you know, aches and pains, you're doing well, you're moving well, stuff like that. So there's the health aspect, right? There's the longevity aspect in terms of being able to do, what you want to do for as long as possible, right? And, you know, as a guy, 30s, 40s, 50s, that's, that's sort of in the future. But still, you know, once you're over 35, you start to feel things for longer, whenever, whenever you're, you get an injury or tweak or anything like that. And then there's the aesthetic, the aesthetic aspect, or how you look is the other part of barbell training, you know, so I would say, you know, at least from my perspective, as your coach, all those, all those aspects are covered. But there's always this, this, secondary component that, that we sort of peripherally talk about a lot. But rarely get the opportunity to just kind of get into in depth, which I'm hoping we'll do here with you today, James. But, you know, barbell training, strength training, doing hard physical things affects things universally, right? So you've had some benefits and some impact in your family life and in your personal life. So, yeah, you want to take us through some of that stuff.

James: 29:28

Yeah, of course. I mean, I started this to, I think, like all people do, look better. And it was just for me. And that was that. And I've realized, I mean, my son is now seven years old. He was born in 2018. And he's nonverbal or non-conversational. He's autistic. He has sensory processing disorder. He struggles a lot with general aspects of life. And it's become more and more apparent over probably the last three years. I think since about when we started, you coaching me online. That it's more important. for him and the rest of my family than it is for me. I do see, he goes to a specialist disability school, and every single one of the parents there are amazing. But you do see a lot of them struggle physically. When you're looking after a two month old baby and you're carrying it to bed and you're picking it up out of bed and you're changing its diaper, and you've got a stroller, you've got a sterilizing machine, you've got this, you've got that. It's what you expect. and the baby's reasonably light and you think we can do this. But when the child now weighs 70 pounds as my son does and lots of those aspects are still present. He needs carrying on to, for example, we just went away, we just went on vacation, he needs carrying on to the plane. So we've got cases, we've got a stroller and he needs carrying on to the plane. He needs changing on the plane. So changing a 70 pound human in a plane toilet as well as yourself is not. for the week oh yeah yeah simple things like that can make such a huge difference and i can get i. can do a an 11 hour flight do all these things go through an airport um you know wake up early if he's working if he's waking up during the middle of the night deal with all these things and then at the end of it my body's the same i've not suffered i don't have a bad back i don't i haven't strained something i'm not dreading tomorrow because it may be the same it just is fine um and i think that's the biggest thing it gives us it gives us freedom to move around as we wish almost as though the disability didn't exist physically mentally it still takes a big toll on. him more than anyone but on everyone but physically it doesn't affect us and that's mainly because of.

Nick: 31:47

what i've done yeah that's okay that's really interesting um because not only not only is the child getting larger obviously but then all the all the support equipment obviously like so you've got a stroller, or whatever other things, all that stuff's getting bigger, too. So, man, how do most people deal with this? I mean, you're talking about a plane and having to change him in an airplane bathroom. What happens in most cases? Are people just, like, putting a diaper on and just letting it sit until they get somewhere.

James: 32:23

I think what people are managing to do is sacrifice their bodies. And they're managing to achieve a lot of what I achieve, but they're sore for the rest of the vacation. They've pulled something. They wear wrist supports and knee supports, or they can't go to a particular theme park for quite as long because X needs to happen, or we need a particular type of transport home or to wherever they stay on vacation. So they're managing to do it, but the toll it's taking on them. And then, for example, you know, we can get back from going. I don't know. world for the day and everything's normal we go out for a meal we we do what we want we go to the pool etc but if you've injured yourself around disney world you can't do that yeah um so it happens but it's very very difficult and you see a lot of parents with injuries and limiting their activities um limiting places that they can go you know so there are special days or special. events for autistic children disabled children at play parks and trampoline parks but it's lovely.

Nick: 33:35

if you're not limited to those yeah and i guess i guess probably the way it actually comes out in, practically is that uh it at the very least is a consideration for folks in this in this situation where it's like um i would love to go do this thing but i have to either think about this or just it's just not going to work because of because of all the all the uh issues and then on top of that if you if you do like, If you decide you're going to do it and you put yourself through the trip or the travel, just like you mentioned, at the end of the day, even if you're not injured, at the very least, you're extremely fatigued physically because of what you've had to do.

James: 34:17

I mean, imagine planning to go for a hike, you know, two, three miles and the child halfway through decides I'm not walking. And an autistic brain cannot be controlled or manipulated the same way as a neurotypical brain. It's not a case of, well, tell them to walk. It doesn't work like that. But that's not a stress to me. Well, I can carry him for a mile. So we'll just do that. So it doesn't have to be thought about. And it reduces. A level of anxiety because suddenly there isn't anxiety about doing that. Right. And I think the message I'd like to get across is that strength training makes it easier. Yep. It doesn't necessarily make us capable of doing more things. It makes it easier when we do those things.

Nick: 35:04

Right, right. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so what about in terms of maybe the other people, other parents in the groups that you're involved in, do they realize or recognize the situation or like do people ask you or is it not even a consideration? Because I think one of the things that may be important is that some folks may be out there not even considering that this is a thing they should think about, right? Because you have so much going on, I'm sure, and everything is sort of geared around solving the immediate problem. I think it's always difficult for people to take a step back. It's like, okay, so how do I improve things fundamentally across the board and also at the same time have this direct benefit because you're so involved in the immediate situation? And then also here's the other part of it that this could easily be seen as like, like you mentioned, you started doing this for yourself, right? So it could also easily be seen as like an escape versus.

James: 36:31

Or a selfish endeavor.

Nick: 36:32

Exactly, a selfish endeavor. Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. I cut you off.

James: 36:36

No, it's not a problem. I think the capability is noticed. It's definitely noticed. I can go to kids' swim parties. And, you know, there's- Children there that are seven, eight, nine, ten years old that are behaving in not a bad way at all, but more like a three or a four-year-old. And so they may want throwing in the pool. They may want to play catch. want to do things that are maybe slightly more physically demanding especially when you've just been the one to change them and carry them and they weigh 70 pounds it can be quite a common. occurrence where i'm doing that with those children for everybody's child oh yeah yeah i love that i don't mind helping at all it's it's nice and i think there's a people notice that the capability is there but they never think how do i do that because i think most of the world believe somebody's born with strength it's not exactly yeah yeah it's not a choice so.

Nick: 37:36

they never consider it yep yeah again very well said yeah it it actually is a choice yeah and obviously people are born with higher higher levels of strength for sure uh and and there there's some of that probably going on with you of course but still no matter what you can it can always be developed it can always be improved and uh and like we were discussing before, it doesn't require a specialization right so in other words um they don't have to be you in terms of like squatting squatting 500 plus pounds and deadlifting 600 plus pounds that's one of the.

James: 38:11

things i'd most like to get across is that they do not need to be training four days a week i know that novice linear progression is three days a week but i honestly think with an adapted two day a week probably an hour and a half a week they could gain so much strength agreed probably double their strength and vastly improve their capacity and how it affects their lives and how they feel about themselves in certain situations you know i don't like to say it like this because it seems so big-headed but since i've weighed 235 240 pounds the interactions with people are very. different yeah you have a confidence about yourself which means there is no aggression and you have a presence with people that means, you encounter less problems, If I want to change my son on a table, it's in a restroom, but it's perhaps not the changing table. Nobody questions me, really, because they think, well, I don't really want to question it. And I do think there's an aspect to that. There definitely is an aspect to that, which isn't there for everybody. It depends on how much you take this up, but the strength gain is definitely there.

Nick: 39:25

Absolutely. Yeah, there's no question that people respond differently to people who appear more capable, male or female, right? It doesn't matter what sex. People respond differently because that is innate. That's innate in all of us to respond to physical capability. And the best way to improve that or affect it, not even improve, the best way to affect the appearance of physical capability is to become more capable. And the best way to become more capable is to lift heavy weights. There's no other way that you can do that. You can run, you can do high intensity for time stuff like CrossFit, but it doesn't fundamentally change your physical, like fundamental physical appearance.

James: 40:14

Yes, you can change your architecture, not the current architecture. Exactly. The running and the CrossFit is great and it's better than doing nothing, don't get me wrong. But that is more a thing that is for yourself. You enjoy it, but I do think the strength training can be looked at as a less selfish endeavor. It is for other people. I use mine not just for my own disabled child, but for many others.

Nick: 40:40

Right. Is there an aspect of, especially as kids grow older, do they need to be physically restrained sometimes.

James: 40:49

Yeah. And that is an area where you do have to be very careful, especially when it's not your own child. Yeah. Fortunately with ours. Yeah. He doesn't have many autistic children. I wouldn't like to say they are violent because they don't really realize it's violence, but it is violence in our context, and they need to be restrained, and you need to be able to do it in a controlled manner. And I always think that the closer you're getting to your limit, the less control you're going to have.

Nick: 41:18

Exactly right.

James: 41:18

If you're panicking that you're not about to control them, you're going to squeeze too hard or hold too hard.

Nick: 41:25

Yes.

James: 41:25

It's never close to my capacity, so it's never a worry. Exactly. And there are lots of disabled children that do not react, and I don't think it is innate for them to look at the presence of an adult and see them as more capable or less, but there are many that do. And children that do have a meltdown that can lead to violent behavior that is not meant but happens to be can be dealt with much easier if you have an increased strength level. Yes. You know your own.

Nick: 42:00

capability more and they can sense it yep well in a yeah and this is this is tough because it's a it's child potentially your own child but in any physical um highly physical encounter like that the ability to make decisions under under physical stress is really really important you know whether you realize it or not and in that moment you're kind of just you know holding holding them down or keeping them from hurting themselves or hurting somebody else or whatever. but just like you said if you're if you're at the at your redlining your physical capacity, your mental and emotional capacity is seriously diminished you know this is like in a like and you know we've all seen videos of of a police officer for example going too far right starting to starting to do hyper violent things which which you know and and what's happening on a camera may or may not be the full context but either way you still see them struggle to control.

James: 42:59

exactly.

Nick: 43:00

Exactly. Fundamentally, 100% of the time, people who are highly capable from a physical standpoint don't tend to go to extremes in a context where you need to restrain somebody in a – where it's not an all-out just violent fight because there's an element of – you have a job to do and you have to control and you have to make it look a certain way to the public. So my point being that I just want to kind of highlight the idea that if you're operating at your physical endpoint or your physical – the end of your physical capacity, everything else gets reduced and that's where bad decisions happen. That's where people get shot or people get choked to death where they don't necessarily need to, like in a law enforcement type context. It very much applies here because if you're in a situation where there's an unsafe situation, I don't know. Like maybe the – Yeah. A kid's about to run out into traffic or something like that. It's like if you're – Uh, at the end of your physical capacity, all you can do is, is the physical aspect and you don't have the capacity to do anything else in terms of making a good decision or, or even afterwards. Like what's the, what's, cause, cause I imagine that the, the child in this instance just continues not, but just continues to kind of go about their day. And I don't know how, how much of a, like an event that was for that kid in that moment. It's like, maybe it's just something that happened and then they just move on. But for the person, like the parent or the person having to deal with this, that's, uh, that is, uh, you know, I mean, that's got to affect your whole day, your whole week, your whole month, potentially, depending on what the situation is. Right.

James: 44:41

That's very true. And the, the closer you get to that, uh, the danger point with the child, because my son's called Hugo. He has very, very limited danger awareness. Um, it's starting to improve, but it was at the stage probably 18. Months ago where he would see a road. with cars doing 60 miles per hour and he feel absolutely fine standing in the middle of it wow yeah so it's not a case of you can just walk along the side of the road holding his hand you've got to hold his hand yep um and you do see it at specialist schools i mean you see some. abhorrent behavior with but that's always everywhere around the world in every profession just because of the difference in people but i think you do see situations where somebody has. harshly controlled a child from doing something and they've ended up losing the job and they probably have done something wrong but they were probably redlining exactly and couldn't make the right decision and my wife and i see it a lot with our own son um wonderful mother but she knows i'm. more physically capable than her so if we're walking around an environment i'm far more relaxed than she is for sure because i know i can manage far more, Right. If he's two meters away from me, I've got it. But if she hasn't got his hand, she hasn't got it. And that's fine. But my wife trains too, but it's a realization that that freedom's there.

Nick: 46:12

Sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah, man. Okay, well, could you maybe talk directly to the folks who may be in a similar situation? You know, you have all the context, you have all the detail and all the knowledge. I don't. So yeah, kind of like the typical question, what would you say? Or how would you recommend somebody get started? And then we can refine that a little bit.

James: 46:43

Sure. I try to sympathize heavily with everybody in that situation because it can feel very dark at times and lonely. But you have to, everybody puts a job first because they know they need money to buy food. and heating and a house put a roof over your head and i think this is similar to that but it's just not recognized and the improvement available for an hour and a half a week of some heavy lifting. and eating some more food is there for you and it's not a selfish endeavor you're doing it for your child and the rest of your family that the children my daughter's called isabella and she is a wonderful help with hugo and i am very happy that i can provide her more freedom because we're more capable as a family unit right this is not a selfish endeavor this is for your wider family a selfish endeavor if you don't have the time and it's affecting your family is worrying. about 300 press it's not getting to a 200 pound squat as a woman that is a fantastic thing to do that will help you more than you can believe and it takes less time than you think you.

Nick: 48:00

Yeah, for sure. And, um, there's, uh, there's kind of a, another underlying aspect to this, where if you are, um, if you're taking care of your body, you're going to be, um, yeah. And I don't think this is an overstatement. You're, you're going to be better able to handle life stress. Um, if, if your body is also in a, in a, uh, in a wrecked state, uh, you know, aside from just the, the, the stress and fatigue of daily life. Um, again, it's the same concept. If you're, if you're just constantly redlining, then everything is a problem. You know.

James: 48:37

humans are very, very aware. I think, uh, what is ticked off and what is not in their lives. You know, everybody knows if their job is going reasonably well, everybody knows if the house needs lots of maintenance or not. It's the same with your body. If you, if you know, you've done something to look after your body that week, it's a thing that you now don't need to worry about. Right. So it's less.

Nick: 49:00

Yeah, yeah. In fact, I mean, it's once again, I don't think this is an overstatement, but really, really it is. It's our responsibility as parents and as men to to be capable enough to take care of our families. And some some people, unfortunately, have have a have have been dealt a different hand that there's more of a requirement. Right. So, yeah, it's this is not a definitely not a selfish endeavor. It's actually it's actually kind of required. You know, and I think I think that's it's required that you take care of yourself. Right. And and, you know, our contention is that that's two times a week, three times a week, ideally, but two times a week of barbell training will cover your needs. Right. So I agree with you, man, that that two times a week is is perfectly fine. And it really is. It's perfectly fine in a lot of instances. Three, three or four is better. But, you know. Three days a week is just how we've arranged our lives. Like we've just decided to do a week schedule, right? So three days is ideal, but two times a week will be fine and you can make quite a bit of progress. Go ahead. Sorry.

James: 50:12

I think once people get their heads around doing two times a week and do it for a period of time, they now realize they have the time to do three days a week.

Nick: 50:21

Exactly right.

James: 50:21

So sometimes it can just be the foot in the door to getting you into the routine of doing it. And then you see the benefit and you think, actually, yeah, I can do this. Yep. And I do feel incredibly sympathetic towards people that feel as though they don't have the time. But if you structure your life in a particular way, I think you'll find that you do have the time.

Nick: 50:45

Yeah. There's also the there's also the idea that at some point you will be forced to have to figure this out. Yes.

James: 50:53

You know, sorry to cut you off. It's a thought that is very important. Lots and lots of disabled. I have to. Disabled children are constantly worried about how long are they going to live, because, if their child is going to be 50 when they pass away and still not capable of living by themselves, that's one of the main things they have on their mind all of the time. This doesn't necessarily make you live longer, but it makes you capable almost right until the end. The last 20 years of life that most people have, they're living, but they're not doing. a lot. You will be 90% as capable as you were at 40 when you are 75.

Nick: 51:33

Yeah, at least that's the goal. That's the idea.

James: 51:35

Yeah, that's the usual, I would say. You've got injuries, you've got things you need to work around, but all in all, you are much, much more capable.

Nick: 51:43

Yeah, and this is the way to get it done if you're going to do it, right? Yes, yes. Very good. Yeah, the point I was making, which, yeah, thank you for expanding on it. But the point I was making is that at some point, whether you're in a situation like, uh, with an autistic child or, or anything, you're going to have to confront your physical capability, uh, whether you want to or not. And this is where you end up in these situations where you're just kind of like slowly declining at the end of your life versus being, being. capable. Right. So you're going to have to, you're going to have to deal with it at some point. And, um, the, it's always the sooner, the better, right. The sooner you can start the better. And once again, it's not, it doesn't take a massive time investment. Um, if, uh, I think the, I think the better point here is that at some point you will have to do, something. And when that occurs, you make it happen. Right. So, so whenever, whenever something happens in life that you, uh, that is now a requirement, um, and, and people, people in, in a, in a situation like yours do that all the time. It's like, whatever, whatever is, is the thing that needs to be dealt with right now, we're going to figure it out. We're going to deal. with it. I think the point is that your physical capability and your health is that. It's just a.

James: 53:08

little bit easier to set it aside and you should, right? Right. Absolutely agree. I think it gives you more options. For example, if you were getting to an older age and you were struggling to get up out of a chair yourself and go off your own shopping and walk up the stairs, then you're not going to be much use of helping somebody else. Right. And you may need to look at disability housing for your child. You may need to look at having some help. Right. These are all solutions. that mask over the fact that you probably could have made yourself more capable. So let's do that.

Nick: 53:47

Yep. Yeah. Yep. Okay, man. Is there anything else that you think we should discuss.

James: 53:58

Uh-huh. In regards to parents of disabled children, I don't think there is anything else, apart from the fact that I do sympathise that there are some with extremely demanding schedules who may, may not have the time to do this. And I have utmost sympathy for it, but I think 99% do. Yeah. I really do. And I would like to emphasise it does not need to be to the level that you see a lot of people do it to.

Nick: 54:28

Right.

James: 54:29

This programme, I think, as I've heard Ripsay many times, helps the older, ageing female more than it helps anybody else. More than it will ever help me having a 500-odd squat.

Nick: 54:43

That's correct. Yep.

James: 54:45

I agree with that. I would love to see that for more parents of disabled children.

Nick: 54:49

Yep. I really would. Yeah. Okay. All right, man. Anything else you want to discuss? Anything training related? Or not? Whatever. let's go.

James: 55:00

is it, for this podcast or in general.

Nick: 55:04

either way yeah either way.

James: 55:08

I, I think people will be interested if you want to put it out there in more information on where Stats and Strength Gyms is going and your, thoughts over, where you want it to be in five years time.

Nick: 55:23

okay.

James: 55:23

I think you'll have put a lot of thoughts into it in the past year I think you have a lot of influence there now I'd love to know that okay.

Nick: 55:32

yeah so I guess off, off the top of my head, the next five years for Starting Strength Gyms obviously continuing to grow in terms of the number of cities that we're or gyms that we open right so we're definitely pushing hard on getting more franchisees and more people more people involved while and the tough part is always uh you know, maintaining the standard. And when I say maintaining the standard, it comes down to. the type of people that we select as franchisees. Because there's a lot of people who are interested in doing something like this. There's not a lot of people who actually qualify from a cultural standpoint. So there are lots of franchises out there who will sell a franchise to anyone. Um, and we're just not interested in, um, in, in working with people that, uh, we don't like, like that, that aren't, that aren't like, I mean, essentially family, right. That aren't, uh, that aren't needs to have an identity. Exactly. Right. Yeah. And people need to fit within that. culture and that identity. So, um, so there's that aspect of it is, is growing the gyms and we're, we're, uh, intentionally limiting, but I think, uh, I'm confident that we, there are enough people out there who, uh, who are good people. Who have the right, uh, motivations and who, uh, who would be a good fit for us. Uh, we should, to find them and they need to, um, and we need to talk to them. Right. So, so I think that's, that's on track. Um, uh, this, this will get, this will get, it already is, man. It's, it's, uh, this is very popular. Strength training is becoming, um, more, uh, I guess mainstream is the word or more accepted, more part of the general, general culture, general population. Like strength training is not a thing that exists on the fringe. Um, and, and, you know, there's all kinds of reasons for that, but, you know, you have regular, you have physicians regularly, uh, recommending that people do resistance training or strength training now, and you'll outright have, have, uh, physicians and medical professionals recommending barbell. training specifically. Um, and you know, it, it just hanging around fitness stuff online. Uh, there's a, there's a, a, a large component of, of, uh, of, of fitness, um, culture that is barbell. based or barbell you know headed towards towards barbell so anyway all that to say that like you know people have short memories but 10 years ago even five years ago um it was doing barbell. training was fairly niche like fairly it wasn't it wasn't uh it wasn't a thing but i think if you walk into any commercial gym now you'll see people on the racks you know if you want in here in the u.s if you go into a crunch fitness there's going to be five six seven ten platforms really nice.

James: 58:30

anywhere on vacation unless it's a hotel gym which are notoriously bad they always have a rack exactly yeah plates might be rubbish the bar might not be great but you can do it you can do a session there yeah and when i started this six years ago that wasn't the case it was not like this say yeah you could i mean when i started training at 16 there was two gyms in my local town of 70 000 people there's now double figures 10 12 gyms right yeah all of them have barbells exactly.

Nick: 59:00

Exactly. Exactly right. Yeah. So the availability of equipment is there. The information, the knowledge is there. We're the first ones to do this in the kind of a retail, especially a premium retail setting where people are walking by, right? They're going to Target or Jimmy John's or whatever, and they're walking by and seeing our sign and seeing our facility. So we're the first ones. But honestly, you know, and I think I've said this before, this isn't that hard to duplicate. It's hard to duplicate well, but it's not that hard to duplicate. So to answer your question, the future of starting strength gyms is to be the gold standard for how strength training is delivered to the public. So, you know, we will have competitors. We'll have competitors with lots of lots of money behind them, but they'll never have the level of coaching and the level of service that we're going to offer. So or that we already offer. So, you know. So one of my. one of my objectives for the company right now is to have a bit of a cultural shift, in terms of full confidence in the starting strength method, which we already have. We already come with that. But getting better at serving the member and offering very high levels. of service and learning how to make starting strength work in terms of how people think about their goals. So it's really easy. The way that starting strength has sort of developed and come up, especially new coaches come into this and they've discovered the truth, right? And there's this idea that either you immediately understand what we're talking about or you're not a fit for us. And when I say cultural change, what I mean is that it's our job to teach people how barbell. training will help them reach their goals. Whatever there are, whether it's health, longevity, or looks, we can cover all of those. And I think people new to starting strength, especially on the coaching side, allow themselves to sort of limit their thinking in terms of how barbell training can fundamentally, not fundamentally, but is actually the best way to get people what they want in the fitness world, right? So that's just, it's all there. It's just kind of like a learning thing in terms of dealing with people who are walking in the door and have no idea what you do. Like they've never seen a barbell. So they walk into a gym, and people have an idea of what a gym looks like. And they just see like racks and bars and a couple of benches and not much equipment. So yeah, so that's the...

James: 1:01:50

I do think that's a good thing, the thought of a cultural shift. Not to say that there was anything wrong with it. Well, just for the starting strength gyms, especially because... You can tell people how good a novice linear progression will be for them, and limit it at that. Or you can start from their viewpoint, which I think is what you're getting at. Exactly right. Yes, it's still a novice linear progression, but right, okay, you want to achieve that. Well, I'll tell you what, how about we do this with the squat, we do this with the bench, or this is how it would help this. Rather than just do this, it will help, just trust me. Exactly. I think that will help, yes.

Nick: 1:02:29

Yeah, you have to make the connection for people because you have to remember we're kind of entering into this environment where the person walking in the door, the prospective member, has no reason to believe that anything I'm telling them is any better or different than the next person that they're going to talk to either that day or they've already spoken to. So why would they believe that the things that I'm saying are any more valid than the things that anybody else is saying? Yes. So yes. The differentiator there is, I mean, we're actually going to produce results for them. That is our, like, we want to produce results for them, and we will through the starting strength method. But at that initial moment, when they're first inquiring or first learning about what we do, everybody's on an equal playing field, right? So the things that differ, and you know this very well, I'm sure, because of the industry and the level of, you know, the premium level of stuff that you do in your business. It's not about, like, I mean, I could say anything, and I could be convincing. Anybody can be convincing. But what is it that people want? People want their problem solved. So it's really actually pretty simple. What you need to do is let the person tell you their problems. Your job is to be a good consultant and explain how your method, how your approach solves the problem for them. And then, by the way, come on over here. Let me teach you how to deadlift with deadlift. Real quick. And then. minutes you get them pulling a bar off the floor and now you've now you've also demonstrated. technical competence a high level of technical competence on the coaching side and it's just.

James: 1:04:08

like a complete it's just a complete picture it sells itself essentially right yeah their subject matter becomes the issue at hand not deadlifting or squatting exactly right yeah i mean it's i mean as boring as this sounds i manufacture and sell bricks but we uh definitely down the route of being the premium brick manufacturer in the uk and across europe really um and and i can tell somebody that this brick absorbs less water and it's harder and it's made in the traditional way. well what they're really interested in is solving their problem exactly i have this building it's 200 years old nobody can make these bricks and i say well i can do those yeah and then they're suddenly very interested in all the aspects i just said, right the the how it's made why it's good but you've got to solve, problem first, or tell them how you're going to solve it first. And I think that's a good.

Nick: 1:05:06

a good thought. Yeah, yeah. Because, right, people are, people are subject matter experts in their own, in their own problems, and they want their problems solved. And that's why they're coming to you. And then everything else just supports, right? So I mean, you told them, hey, I can solve your, I can solve your problem, I can make those bricks. And they're like, okay, now I'm interested. And then, and then they actually see, right? So I don't know if you take them on a tour, send them, show them videos or whatever. Dude, 100%, right? Now you see it, and you're like, okay.

James: 1:05:35

yeah, this, this is, but I think that's one thing that Stein Strength Gyms has got going for it. If you can go in and do your 30 minute session, which I think you guys still do. They're talking to clients that are already in the gym. Exactly. And those clients are probably telling them how it changed their perspective on their lives. And that helps you convince you.

Nick: 1:05:56

Exactly. Yep. And they see people that are just like them, right? So it's, yeah, it'll, It all works very beautifully. Exactly. Exactly right, man. Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, I don't know. You know, we've kind of talked in passing, but I don't know if in the next five years this is in the cards, but hopefully, maybe, we get the right franchisee internationally. We could go international. And I think the U.K. makes probably the most sense. We have a lot of fans in the U.K.

James: 1:06:26

It's something I've looked at many times. Sometimes I think the issue for the U.K. is coaches.

Nick: 1:06:34

Yep.

James: 1:06:36

I'm not sure how many coaches you have in the U.S., but I think it's in the hundreds.

Nick: 1:06:40

Yeah, but honestly, most of them are doing – if they're not already in a gym, they're doing their own thing and coaching on the side. So, yeah, I guess another aspect of the answer to your question is that coach development and not the speed, but the efficiency with which we – We can create a starting strength gyms coach and then eventually get that starting strength gyms coach to achieve the starting strength coach certification is also top of mind for. all of us is getting people through the development process as quickly as possible. What you do have.

James: 1:07:20

You've got to do those things in stages though, haven't you? You are doing the US at the moment and you've got tens of gyms. Like you say, international is a further thought, but yeah, like I've mentioned, it's that thought about the number of coaches you have for said country. Sorry, I interrupted.

Nick: 1:07:37

Well, what I was going to say is that even though you don't have a ton of starting strength coaches, what you do have is a ton of trainers who don't like their jobs.

James: 1:07:47

That's very true.

Nick: 1:07:50

Here's the thing I've been telling people for a while now. It's like how difficult is starting strength? Starting strength in terms of understanding the method. level of starting strength coach, there's some work to be done there, right? But in terms of application, if you have someone with the proper soft skills, meaning that they have experience teaching people how to move, they have experience training people, and they have experience working with clients and retaining clients, then you don't have a situation where you have to teach them how. to coach starting strength and then also teach them how to be a coach. In other words, they're already a coach. So, you know, a place like London with a population there and the number of gyms and the number of high-end gyms that exist and the high-end personal training situations that.

James: 1:08:38

exist. And the number of the type of people that will pay the premium for the service is huge.

Nick: 1:08:44

Exactly. They're all there. And I think if you get the right person, the right coaching candidate into a gym, you can teach them how to be a coach. How to be a, how to, you can teach. in the method in a fairly short amount of time, and then you can make them a starting strength coach in a fairly short amount of time. That's also, something we've been working on heavily. In order to scale, we've got to be able to develop and train people.

James: 1:09:13

I think it comes back to what you said about soft skills. You can have the most educated, intellectual person who completely understands stats and strength, but if they can't sympathize with the, person's day or the person's, schedule during the week, then it's not going to work. You've got to have those first, really.

Nick: 1:09:34

Right. Exactly right. Yep. There you go, man. Hopefully I answered the question.

James: 1:09:40

You absolutely answered the question. Thank you very much. I'm glad to hear it's all going well.

Nick: 1:09:45

It's going great. It's fantastic. It's going great. It's really exciting. It's very cool.

James: 1:09:50

That's really good.

Nick: 1:09:51

Alright, James. Should we wrap it up there? Anything else you want to talk about.

James: 1:09:57

That's it. It's been awesome. Thank you very much.

Nick: 1:09:58

Alright. I really appreciate it. you spending the time and, uh, and talking, talking to us about this. Is there, um, if people want to, want to, uh, ask you questions, uh, how would you prefer that? Do you want them to contact me and me send the, send it onto you or, or do you have.

James: 1:10:13

they can do that or they can go to Instagram, Mr. J. AC. Um, it will come up under my name, James Collins. You'll be there. Yeah. Send me a message on there. I'll answer any questions.

Nick: 1:10:22

Okay.

James: 1:10:22

Very good.

Nick: 1:10:24

All right, man.

James: 1:10:25

Thank you very much, Nick.

Nick: 1:10:26

Yeah. Thanks again. And folks, folks, thank you again for tuning in. Uh, if you have any questions or comments or topic ideas, please send them to podcast at SS gyms.com and we will see you next time. Thank you. All right.