Meet David Michael

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My name is David Michael. I am the CEO and sole proprietor of Performance Edge, and I'm located at 700 Fieldstone in the Exeter Shopping Center in Leesburg, Virginia. All right. Awesome. Could you take us back through your journey and what inspired you to start your business? Like I told you earlier on the phone, I s- kind of started when I was really young. Came from a broken family, like a lot of people. Married, moved around, military. So what kinda drew me to getting included in stuff was athletics. So I played pretty much every sport known to man, at, back when a long time ago. And, uh, from there, uh, I even went through high school and college. I really didn't know what I wanted to do. So at, at one point, I actually went to college because of a friend invited me to say, "Hey, why don't you move up with me?" 'Cause my parents were, my stepmom and my dad were leaving Tennessee 'cause we moved there because my grandfather passed away. So I lived with my grandmother for years after moving from Colorado and other states. And I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I was working three jobs, you know, factory jobs, working in a video store, doing construction, river rafting. I did all kinds of stuff. And, um, so he invited me up there and he says, "Why don't you go to college?" And I'm like, "What's that?" We literally, nobody in my family's ever went to college before. Wow. It was all military or they just worked all the time, or trades that, you know. So, uh, y- I decided, "Sure, I'd apply." So I mean, today you have families, the whole family goes up, and there's parent day, and they enroll you and all that. I did all that myself. And then when I got there, they told me I had to stay in the dorms as a freshman. And I'm like, "Well, I can't. I already got a deposit on a place. I moved in with somebody." So I was probably one of the few freshmen in my class that never lived in the dorms. I was always off campus. But I decided to go into physical education, or no, business, marketing undergrad. And, uh, 'cause I like drawing, I like design, but I had no idea really what I wanted to do, but I knew I had to do something. And I didn't wanna work in factories and stuff like my family or go in the military. So I, uh- Started doing that, but midway through I realized that I s- wanted to be in sports still. So some guy said, "Why don't you go out for the team?" So I literally walked

Sports As A Way In

2:41

on the football team, and then I played some baseball. But it was a lot of work, working and paying for your own school and playing sports at the same time, but it was always something I always wanted to do, was always athletics. If it was new school, again, athletics, you know, to become part of something or even going to college, I still like being active and playing. Sitting at a desk was just not something I like to do. So after undergrad, I started working at some health clubs here and there in Colorado 'cause we moved back out there, or I did with my brother and my mom, they live there. And, uh, I kinda liked it and I thought I knew what I was doing 'cause of training with, football people in college. I thought, "Oh, I know what's going on." Looking back, I really didn't know what I was doing, but And then I worked in an office job, uh, at a bios- s- biotechnology company as a marketing and, uh, product to sales and so forth. But I just couldn't wait to get out of the building every day. It was just watching the clock constantly going, "What time is it?" You know, and there's like a fire trail when I left. Probably made pretty good money then when I did, but it just wasn't what made me happy. So, um, I decided to go back to graduate school. So I thought I'd go into physical education and be a teacher 'cause I did some substitute teaching and I like working with kids. I worked some day camps. I worked with at-risk kids in camps. I did inner city stuff in camps, even, uh, you know, river rafting with kids from the city and rappelling and rock climbing and, and then sports camps. But when I got in there, I realized that doing a physical education was kinda limited in where you're going with that other than you just stay at schools and, and at the time they were changing certifications left and right, so you'd pay 900, $1,000 a cert and then the next week or next year you had to do it again. And then I realized when I saw some of the kids I was helping get out 'cause my teacher actually wanted me to do s- helped advise students 'cause she knew I did all these camps and all these coaching, all these clinics even before I got into school, and she needed help. So I'd go watch some of the undergrad while they're going through their teaching certifications, and I realized they're getting out and they're getting $22,000, 30,000 maybe if they're lucky, and it, it's, you couldn't even make a living. So I took some athletic training classes, and, uh, some s- kinesiology classes just 'cause I found it interesting, and I really fell in love with the science and biomechanics of how the body moves and physics, which I didn't understand physics when I was in high school to college, undergrad. It didn't make any sense to me. But once you applied it to the body and the movement and the leverage and levers and arms, it was really neat. So I really started to focus on that. So I got out with a double emphasis, but still playing sports, which was really difficult. But I got out of college and I didn't owe a dime, and I got, you know, the degrees in undergrad by myself. But in, in graduate school, it was working for the GA, and I worked with the Denver Broncos while they were doing the training camps there in Northern Colorado. And through that, I started talking to the strength coach, and from there he recommended me that I go over to NFL Europe as a learn, get more experience, and then come back and then be his assistant So once I graduated I went to, uh, NFL Europe, and I spent three years in Barcelona and one year in, in Scotland. And working with players that are drafted by the NFL but are like sixth, seventh, eighth, or walk-on or free agents. So you have really high athletes, but they all come together and they have to learn one thing, which was kinda difficult. You only have one year, and then the next year it was a new group of kids, so. When I got back, uh, found out they had hired someone else. Mm. So I was looking around, working for places, and then got hired through an interview from a former colleague from NFL Europe, Sam Rutigliano, who was the former Browns coach. And he had hired, uh, the strength coach for them back then, and he now became the strength coach of the Redskins. So I interviewed with the Redskins at the time with their name and, um, got hired. And then when I came out to move out here right before we left or on the way, the head coach of the Redskins got fired, Marty Schottenheimer, and that means the entire staff, which means now I don't have a job, but I don't have a job at home 'cause I just quit everything. And my wife at the time decided to take a an internship. She asked if it was fine, and I said yeah. So she got an internship out here with a company she had worked for out in Colorado,

From Marketing To Movement Science

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and then she got a job from that, so we just came out anyway. And a few years later, I I applied for another position with the Redskins with a new s-strength coach back then. It was, uh Uh, John Hastings and Bobby Crumpler. And, uh, three days before, after signing with them Spurrier quit, the head coach then. And now they're all gone. And I'm like, "Man, this is a tough road if I wanna be in professional sports." So I decided at that point, um, my wife said I-- she didn't want me to go back to NFL Europe 'cause I was gone all the time, and we wanted to have kids. So I stayed here, and then I looked for jobs, and I, I met up with a guy who was trying to open a new facility in Ashburn called Dynamic Sports Performance. And, uh, paired up with him, and we built that business and started it up, and it was going well for nine years. And then that ended, and I moved into Performance Edge, which I named myself, and I ran for the last 15. I started it because, one, I had a passion for it and I enjoyed it, but I also knew that from high school into college and pros, there was something missing, and that was an individual approach to c- coaching and teaching these things so you could focus on specific individual needs. And, uh, by doing so, writing individual programs is a lot of work, but you get great results because you're not doing a canned approach, which is what most health clubs, most high school teams, and most college do. Most-- In sports, high school, and college, and pros, it's not really about the program. It's more about the athletes. So it's all about recruiting. I mean, the best teams with the best athletes win. It's not a, a great coach that wins all the time. I mean, a good coach can change the dynamics or increase the efficiency or production of an athlete 'cause their job is basically, as strength coaches to, or any coaches, to put athletes in the best possible position to be successful. But then they have to do the work. But if you have subpar athletes, not a great team, you can coach your butt off and still not do well. But if you have the best athletes, so that's why you're seeing in college and high school and pros, it's always the team with the best athletes that usually wins. Coach can make a big difference and maintain that type of dynamic for a while, but it's still about recruiting and getting the best athletes. But if you don't have that talent or you don't have the individualism, like when I was in college, I needed help with certain things, and they'd say, "Well, fix it." Okay How? Right. 'Cause what you're doing right now was designed for a group of people, not for me, and I needed help doing some certain things, and I never got that help. And I always thought if someone could've spent the time with me doing that, 'cause, I mean, I didn't have the money to hire someone individually- a lot of us don't, then, uh, I probably could've been better. Mm-hmm. So I designed this to help people that need help and who wanna get help versus just forcing everybody to do a canned approach. And then how do you individualize programs for each of your clients? Well, first of all, we do an evaluation, which is a battery of tests that help us do proprioception, balance, uh, mobility, stability, height, body weight, body fat composition, and through those tests it gives us a better picture of who they are. Now, it's pretty long. I mean, a lot of people are like, "Wow, that was, like, an hour and 15 minutes of testing." And then we go over the results with them. But it gives us a baseline for where they start and an idea of how to start them. 'Cause someone gives you a free program or a free first-day workout, or say that's your evaluation, how do they know that, that this is what you need or that you can do safely? 'Cause they don't, and then it's too general, and you might find out, "Oh, this is kinda boring," or, "It doesn't really meet my needs," or, "It's too hard and I can't do it." So you can miss out on the person as an individual, but by doing the evaluation we do, which is all based on research and science it helps us determine who they are. And over the years, I've asked assistants and interns, and if they have any ideas, they fix it, and we haven't changed it, which I don't-- I'm not patting myself on the back 'cause I got these tests from a lot of other people, but how I put it together, it's worked really well. Oh. And then you work with young athletes and adults that just want to become stronger and healthier. Does your approach change depending on what someone is trying to accomplish? Hu- 100%. It's still the same science, and it's still the same development but like I said, if someone comes in and they have a lack of mobility which prevents them from doing, say, a squat or an RDL

NFL Europe And Pro Sports Reality

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or even a bench, or they've had past history of injury, and then I will call their physical therapist or their doctor and try to work with them if they're willing to speak with us, then it makes a big difference. If you're a novice and you never lifted before, then I'm gonna start you with very basic remedial stuff and build you up while we're educating you and teaching you and it-- so you understand. I always tell people what we do or what anybody does Maybe relate to what I know, but if you don't understand why you're doing it and how to replicate it, then you're basically gonna be dependent on me and the facility, and it doesn't really benefit you outside. So we do not only coaching and, and teaching, but we're trying to educate you on just the basics of what it is and why. So some places they'll shame you or say you're not working hard or call you this or push you out or, you know, you need to do this or that. If someone doesn't wanna be there, then we don't want them there, 'cause that doesn't benefit either one of us. But if they're there, we want them to understand why they're doing it. So if they ever leave, and they will, uh, they go to college or high school or they may just move away, if they ever go to a gym or another training facility, they're gonna have a better idea of how to do things safely so they don't get hurt and to help them progress along the way. And if they want something more complicated or a lot more technically skilled, then we can progress them through that. And we have clients that stayed with us for the longest was 20 years. Wow. He recently moved to Florida and retired, but I trained him and his wife and his kids. But, uh, he's in his 60s and still plays ice hockey. Wow. And I got an 85-year-old right now that's been with us for five years, and he plays pickleball and tennis and golf, and he had an accident recently and broke his neck, and he's already back in training with us. But the people at the hospital are like, the nurse is like, "He's up the day after the surgery and he wants to walk around. He doesn't wanna use his walker." So he's grabbing their arms and he's trucking around the hospital. And they're like, "What is with this guy?" Because he hurt his neck, but the rest of him's still in shape, but he wanted to get out there and do stuff. And I always told him the best way to recover from anything is not to lay there and wait, but active recovery, as long as you're doing it in a safe manner with professionals that know what you're doing. Yeah. And then how important is it to you to help your athletes and your clients to build sustainable habits? Extremely important, because we talked about teaching them how to do it and then leave. So we will talk about nutrition. I'm not a nutritionist, but we had classes. Most of the people, if they wanna get really involved, we try to recommend somebody or pair up with people in the area that know that. But just general knowledge of eating healthy, stay away from processed wrapped food, stuff that's, you know, healthy, good foods, and eat consistently. Don't wait till you're hungry. Get on a routine so your body's always getting fed consistently versus being up and down, like having bad sleep habits. And I tell most of them, I said, "If you're wanting to get physically stronger or active or in better shape, 80% of that is rest and recovery. So if you're working too much, you can overdo it," and that's a big problem today with a lot of sports and kids is they're trying to compete at a level like a professional athlete, and they're not professional athletes. But even professional athletes in college, I'll tell them, are limited to how many times and how often they work, and they don't play the same sport year-round. Whereas a lot of the kids are being forced to or expected to or encouraged to by a lot of these clubs that are saying, "We gotta play year-round. You gotta do this and this." And their bodies are still not developed all the way. So, learning those habits is paramount to having a better quality of life. That's part of what we say to people is, "We don't teach weightlifting, we teach movements." Now, we add weight to those movements to make you stronger, but the key is, is we're teaching better quality of movement so

Building Performance Edge Around Individuals

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you have a better quality of life down the road, regardless if you're seven years old, which has been our youngest, which is un- unusual, to someone who's 85. So he can continue to have a good quality of life and go do these things he wants to rather than sitting in a house or a home all the time. And so you've worked with athletes in a lot of different sports. What have you learned about the things that, that separate someone who has talent from someone who is willing to put in the work to reach their potential? We find that, um, and I say me and colleagues and my, some of my assistants, that oftentimes people that have great talent, they're blessed with a gift, can be kind of prima donnas and kind of coast on it. It's rare to see someone, I give examples of like Jerry Rice, the receiver who has most of the records in NFL history. He played 20 years in pro football, which is including college and high school, is unheard of. But he was a consummate professional and made sure that he did everything on and off the field, weight room, eating, sleep, studying. And yet I've looked and tried to find where he's had a better 40 time than 4.7. I ran a 4.5 once in wind-aided, but and 4.6s, but why am I not in the NFL playing? He had a better work ethic. He was much smarter. He really focused on everything he did. But then you got people like Randy Moss, who's, you know, 6'5" or 6'3", can jump 42, could catch any ball he wanted, but he's known for taking plays off, not working hard when he didn't want to, you know, getting involved with the police and doing drugs He had every gift known to man to be the best receiver ever, and people remember him, but do they remember the other things when he was lazy and not blocking or not going out for routes or not showing up for workouts? It's a big difference. So I've seen in the NFL and in high school, in college that there are still players like that all the way through. And, uh, a lot of times when they get hurt, they don't know how to come back and work. Whereas an individual who's driven and, and works can take them further than they normally would. And that'd be someone, say, like J.J. Watt, who wasn't even recruited

Testing, Coaching, And Client Education

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out of high school to play in college, but he worked so hard and driven, he got a way to the NFL. And I've had some clients that I've worked with from this area who are such hard workers, and because of that work, they've got a lot further. But you wanna make sure they're doing it smartly. So it matters. Um, finding someone who's exceedingly gifted and with a hard work ethic is very rare. It's because if you never had to be pushed, you don't know how, and you kinda slide by. But the further up you go, a lot more people are talented, but some of them are still there. I, I'm not a fan of these individuals as per persons, but like Michael Jordan, the guy is a extremely hard worker. His work ethic is off the chart, and it's shown because he's also super gifted. Tiger Woods is another guy, super gifted, extremely hard work ethic. Walter Payton, another guy who's gifted, but his work ethic is unheard of. And J.J. Watt would be another example. And we have kids like that. A lot of times their work ethic is so much better than their talent, and normally people like, they never would've made it to the n- college or NFL or whatever if they hadn't had that work ethic. Mm-hmm. Because physically they just weren't there. But it's trying to teach and instill the fact that, don't be complacent. Work harder, and anything's possible, but you're gonna have to work for it. The, the small percentage of people that are Einsteins or super gifted is really rare, but the people that are super gifted and have a work ethic is even more rare. Based on the fact that why would they have to learn to work hard if it everything came easy? And then how do you teach that to young athletes, the ones that may have the talent, but the work ethic is not there? I try to reason with them and explain that as you're young and it seems easy, and we give examples of people that were like middle school that were way bigger and taller than everybody else, and because they were, they could dominate 'cause it's physical, it's a physics thing. But if they didn't learn how to work and get better at their skill and keep going, that in high school, people are gonna catch up to them. And sometimes those kids grow early, mature fast, but then they never grow afterwards. And that talent isn't keep building on it. By the time they get to the next level, everybody's caught up to them, and then after that, they don't know how to work 'cause they didn't install that. So we try to give them examples of individuals or people or, and try to keep them humble and make them understand that you may be good now, but you gotta think about tomorrow. Don't look about just today. Focus on working today, but you gotta think big picture and long term. Where do you wanna go, and are you willing to work hard for it? And if it always comes easy to you, what happens if something bad comes up and you haven't learned how to w- have the work ethic to come back from an injury or, or setbacks? Yeah. So it's just trying to be honest with them as much as possible. I wanna pump them up and get them fired up, but at other times I wanna make sure they un- they be humble and understand that there's always someone else out there better than you. Yeah. A- and don't think about right now, but you gotta think of the next person. And your real competition isn't someone else, it's the person you see in the mirror. Mm-hmm. Can you overcome that person who wants to take the day off? Can you overcome that person who becomes complacent? And it's not someone else. It's not your coaches, it's you. Awesome. And then you've seen young athletes come into Performance Edge with either physical limitations or lack of confidence that eventually reach opportunities that they never thought were possible. What does that transformation look like from your perspective? A lot of times it's sho- it's shocking 'cause some of the kids you come in, you're like, you look at them and you try to be, you know, open-minded, and you are, 'cause we want them all to do well. But some of them are like, "Yeah, they're gonna, they're gonna do okay, but they're just not physically able," or, "They're not tall enough," or, "They're not fast enough. They're not strong enough." But some of them will shock you because they will do more than you think. And a lot of times it's, it's partly how we motivate them. It's partly how we talk to them. It's try, we reason with these people. We're still coaches and we expect a lot, but we want them to understand we've been there. I've got a lot of experience playing and, and overcoming things, but then we give them other stories. It's amazing 'cause, uh, I've had some individuals come through that y- you did not expect what they were gonna be. And I mentioned to you earlier about the one kid who, local football kid who went on to play at University of Michigan, and now he's in med school. Andrew is an incredible kid, but when he came in and I've told him and his parents, I'm like, "Pfft," he just looked like another, you know, seventh, eighth grade kid who was a little overweight and bad posture and had no real body control 6'3" and 305 and playing in the national championship game as a team captain, as a walk-on and voted by your peers, and then becoming a, going on to med school and becoming a doctor, nobody expected that to happen. And, you know, I've had others that come in that are skinny little girls who thought working and lifting weights is gonna make them look manly, and year and a half later, they're 25, 30 pounds heavier, and yet their waist is smaller. They're no longer a stick. They're very curvy, and every boy in the school, you say their name, is like, "Oh." Because it transforms them not only physically, but that physical change also affects them mentally. I've had parents that have told me after four weeks, their small little daughter who was the smallest on the team, all of a sudden now is just getting in the middle and attacking and coming out with the ball, and they're like, "How is

Recovery, Nutrition Basics, And Burnout

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this possible?" If you can show people, and that's part of why we do the programming, it's not always online. It's, it's tangible paper and numbers. They can see that they're getting better. A, a program is always something that's, it's written out, and it has specific points of progress you're trying to attain, specific goals. Just generally working out doesn't do that. I mean, you may feel good one day and not so much the other day. But working for those days you don't feel good and seeing the progression on paper every day and seeing that you're getting better, it has a efficacy effect of making them feel better. Their self-confidence grows, and we've had kids walk in that are, heads are held down low, and they shuffle their feet and can't see their face. Now they're coming in four, six weeks later, they're chest bumping us, and they're high-fiving, and we're... Parents are like, "What did you do? I mean, you've created this monster who now flexes in the mirrors, and he's walking around, you know, jumping off tables and landing like Spider-Man." We're like, "I didn't do anything." We just helped them see that they have more potential, and because they can see it weekly and monthly because there's actual programming, and we're setting goals, and they're achieving those goals, they realize, "Hey, I can do this. I, I can get better." Mm-hmm. And when you see results, which is what we are, a results-based business, there's more that comes with that. Yeah. Awesome. And then going back to educating people about fitness and training, you have more of a direct approach. Why is it so important for you to be honest with people, even if what you say might not be what they wanna hear? I've always thought honesty is the best approach. Like I said, growing up, moving around, uh, you're moving to different schools and you're being told this and you're let down because people, you know... The world's not always a nice place. It's always trying to sell you something and take advantage of you and get what it can from you. I wanna try to prepare not just my kids but others to understand that hard work and dedication will pay off. And I don't wanna be someone who's, you know, backstabbing and two-faced just to make money. It's never been that for me. So if I tell people when they come in, oh, they wanna do this, I go, "You sure?" And they're like, "Well, why are you asking?" I said-- And I would look at the parents and the kids at the same time and I go, "Do you understand what makes this work?" And I'm looking at the kid and I said, "It's not your mom, it's not your dad, it's not the coach, and it's not me. It's you. You have an opportunity and you need to step through that door and take advantage of it. But if you're not gonna put your foot through the door, you're not gonna get to the other side." And it's important for them to understand that they can achieve about anything they want to if they really want it, but they're gonna have to do the work. I would give the parents kind of an analogy like, "Well, my son, he's here and why isn't he getting better?" He doesn't show up on time. He's not finishing his rep sets. He's skipping and skipping workouts and exercises. He's not doing all the work on the page I give them analogy of, well, if he's learning calculus, if they're younger, in school, they show up every day, but they don't pay attention, they don't take notes, they don't do their homework, they don't open their book. Is showing up and attendance gonna make you better? No, you have to do the work. Now, there are the few that can just show up and they're geniuses and they figure it out, or savants on the field. But again, those are the small amount of people, and we can't always say, "Hey, that's who we need to be," or, "That's who we are." We have to work on getting better and going through the steps and going through progression. So I'm trying to be as honest as I possibly can with them, 'cause I don't wanna lead them on and, you know, make them feel all warm and fuzzy and then let them down because they didn't do what was needed to be done. And most of the parents appreciate that, 'cause a lot of them say, "Hmm, I say that and my kids don't listen to me." I go, "Well, we can switch kids 'cause mine don't listen to me either, so..." That's funny. And with so many fitness trends, programs, and just different information online, how do you help people separate what is actually useful from just things that are trending or popular? It's difficult. For all the years that I've done this, it's really hard to battle the media machine or the corporate- $10,000 a month advertising. For us to differentiate ourselves, it usually comes from word of mouth. It's mostly referrals, and it's-- Again, I give credit to those who have given us those referrals because they did the work. Um, and I could list off a name of people, and I don't like to ride in the coattails of people that are popular, 'cause a lot of people do that. But the k- some of the kids we have come through here, they did the work. I mean, they had some talent, and you saw it. I've had kids come in with great talent, and they leave because they think they're good enough. Then you hear later on that they only did submaximal, and I'm like, "They had more talent than this kid. This kid went further because he put in the work and drive." So it's important that they understand what they can and cannot do, but I wanna make sure that I'm telling their parents and them that it's... it takes work and time, so- I always try to give them credit for what they do. Because I can't make them lift the weights, I can't make them show up on time, I can't make them eat properly. And we also enforce, you know, make sure that they're getting their education. We have had some parents that have used our facility and they wanna train there. It's like, "No, you can't work out there." And I'll tell them, "You're not welcome here." They're like, "Why?" I go, "Because you can have the best grades in the world," or, I mean, excuse me, "The, the best athletic ability in the world and everybody wants you to be on a team, but ultimately, if you can't stay, keep your grades up in school, you're, you're wasting their time." And I, there's some examples of that where kids came through here and they had a lot of recruiting by college scouts, and then they had none the next year, and they don't know why. And it was an opportunity they blew because they wanted to coast and they thought that that was the only way to get through life. And unfortunately it's not, 'cause I mean, athletic ability and your health lasted so long to be able to do that, you gotta have something else to fall back on. Yeah. So we encourage that as well. Do you think that goes back to building a strong work ethic? 100%, yeah. I actually, and I, I don't like to brag about this, but I know there's some clients, and I can name one in particular he's a local teacher now at a middle school. Not very tall, played football, but we got him so strong he should never have been on the field, and the coach told me that. "But I can't keep him off because he can do what others can't 'cause of his physical strength." And now he's teaching middle school and he told me that I was responsible for him having that work ethic and knowing that he could go further. I kinda get all misty about that 'cause I don't believe I did that. He did it. But I gave him the opportunity to show me that he could, and he did. Awesome. And then, uh, what is one

Talent Versus Work Ethic In Athletes

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fitness myth or piece of workout advice that you hear that might not necessarily be true or something that you want to... Or like a misconception that you hear that isn't true? I tell a lot of people this, and it probably doesn't make a lot of the health clubs happy, that I don't care what you weigh. And, uh, fads and trends come and go b- because they're trying to be sold to you, 'cause it's popular and you wanna jump into it. It's a commitment. If if lifting weights was bad, then I don't know why all the people that lift weights are so healthy and strong. And if, if losing weight was the most important thing, well, they're not specifically saying what you're losing. So if, if I always tell people if you have a pound of m- muscle and a pound of fat, which one weighs more? Everybody always says muscle. It's a pound. But if I didn't tell you what they were and you saw the mass, the fat's like big and the muscle's small, but they weigh the same. So the mass of the weight, the area it takes up, is what you're looking at. You wanna be smaller, but guess what? If you're not doing weight training or keeping healthy and strong, and you're doing fat or eating poor, you're adding weight or losing weight, but are you losing muscle or fat? Now, most people wanna lose body fat, but most health clubs don't say that. They say, "Lose weight, lose weight. We wanna get lose weight." It's relative 'cause a program that, starves you or works you too much and you don't get enough recovery, you can lose muscle and lose weight and you think you're better. But I always say you don't wanna be skinny fat. When you see someone lean, you grab the arm and you're like, it feels like, Play-Doh going through your fingers. You're like, "Ooh, I wanna grab someone's arm who's solid and strong." But you can't tell that by looking at it. So one would be f- the myth that women shouldn't lift weights. We've had five or six women come in with osteoporosis in their 50s, and they were taking something like Boniva or some drug. I don't wanna get in trouble saying a drug, but... 'Cause they said it made them feel lethargic and tired. And stopped doing it and trained with us, and a year later they had 120% reversal, and their doctors are like- Wow "What did you do?" "Well, I'm lifting weights." And they're like, "Don't stop doing it." But again, it takes time, and a lot of people don't wanna do stuff. They want something to be handed to them on a silver platter as a magic pill, and there's really no such thing. It's effort. The magic pill is determination and drive. Um, the other one is, like I said, is uh- is you're gonna bulk up and get too big, and that's not true. So it's not what you weigh, it's what you're made of. And I get in trouble with my wife sometimes saying that 'cause she said, "Oh, well, I lost weight." I go, "Well, that's great, but it's what you weigh, not what you're made of. Or what you're made of, not what you weigh." I said that backwards. That's just who I am. That's what I focus on 'cause I want people to understand the truth. And then, uh, lifting weights for women is more important than actually it is for men. Men will always lift weights. They're gonna pick up stuff, pick each other up, lift weights. They wanna get bigger and bigger. Whereas women think it's not a good thing. I tell the women, "You ever watch the Olympics? The sprinters and the pole vaulters, they're lean, but why are they jumping so high? How come they're picking up so much weight? How come they throw that so far?" It's 'cause they're strong. And you get stronger, but you don't add mass. Estrogen and testosterone do a big difference in your body when you have them. Men have more testosterone, women have more estrogen. Unless you're taking steroids like those bodybuilders, which I personally don't wanna be as big as some of those women. They're massive. That's not natural. But the tendency for s- a woman to get large and big and strong is genetics. If your parents are big and strong, both mom and... You're more likely. But most women aren't. Most women are petite and lean and small and feminine, which is what you want. But they think weights are gonna change that. And it does, but in a good way. Not in the way they think it's gonna go. And that's a misconception that a lot of health clubs say. You hear it all the time, "Don't bulk up with weights. Don't bulk up with this." In the meantime, fight osteoporosis, keep your joints protected, protect your body, allow you to be more mobile, and have a better quality of life. Why wouldn't you want that? Do you get a lot of, um, women that come in with that mindset, that not wanting to bulk up? Particularly the older women. Mm-hmm. And, and it was... You see it in a lot of some of the younger girls, too. Like it's, "I'm doing too much weight." I had one girl that was exceptionally strong. Her father was a, a nine-year NFL veteran, and she was built more like her father. She didn't wanna hear that, but he was a strong, burly man. And, uh, she could do stuff as a, an eighth grader that was mind-boggling.

Progress That Builds Confidence

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But her mom was like, "Oh, it's too strong. She's gonna look like a man." She's already kind of a strong build. It's just genetics, where her brother was built more like her mother, and he was lean and thin. She technically was probably stronger than him, and he was older. But it's genetics and how that just happened, the DNA has to work out. Unfortunately, she took her out 'cause she thought she was doing too much. I'm like It's, you're not doing too much. I mean, there's studies come out say you can lose 3 to 8% muscle mass by the age of 30 for women a year, and it gets more and more so. So if you're not big and strong when you're young, by the time you're 60, 70, 80 years old, you could be frail and weak, brittle bones, not good body control, and all those things are because of muscles. Yeah. And so you work with athletes who are trying to get to the next level, but you also work with adults who might want to move better or get back into an active lifestyle. What do you find most rewarding about working with someone who isn't necessarily trying to become an e- an elite athlete? It's hearing that they are like, "My back doesn't hurt anymore," or, "I have more energy," or, "I'm spending more time with my grandkids or my kids and doing things I normally wouldn't do." It's, uh, "I was working with this horse or my horse," or, "I was doing the garden, and man, I got so much more done than I usually, and I got done and I wasn't hurting or sore." Those are great stories, but also they, they sleep better. They feel better about themselves. "Hey, I look younger now in the mirror," or, you know, "This wasn't sagging. My arms aren't flapping in the wind anymore," or, "I-- My stomach's narrower. My waist, my pants went down in size." And our goal isn't to lose weight, but by getting yourself stronger, you lose body fat and you add lean muscle. Again, the size of muscle and the size of fat weighing the same is not the same. And I show them pictures trying to explain that. But when they start doing it, they start feeling better. That's why we have some adults that have been with us for a very long time. They don't ever wanna stop feeling and f- and looking like that. They wanna make sure their back's not hurting. They're not going to the chiropractor all the time, or they're not going to the doctor all the time. Or they can't say, "No, I can't go here and do this because of this." And a lot of times it's this, your body's hurting because you're compensating from something that's n- not working properly. So if you have a certain body part or your hamstrings or your back or it's not flexible, you compensate in your, your other body parts to do that, and that compensation over a long term of time can cause the problems. So helping that and seeing that change- Mm-hmm in their mindset, just like the little kid who was not confident and all of a sudden standing up straight, bumping chest. You see the parents the same way. Now, the key is, is they gotta keep doing it. So we have some people that come in and they go, "I, I made it." And then a couple years later, you come back, and they're all the way back where they started. Oh, man. So it's, it's changing that mindset that it's a lifestyle. Yeah. And do something. Lift something, you know, and doing it properly. That's why we talk about, and I'm really so picky about how you do things. Based on science and research says you do it this way and you maintain it, and you're gonna be healthier

Weight Loss Myths And Women Lifting

35:26

and more productive. But sometimes it's hard because like I said, the fads, people come out there and say, "Oh, we're gonna try this. We wanna try that." It's new and it's fun, but it only lasts to a point. And then you have to do something else, and most of those are classes. That's why people pop around in classes and fitness trying all these different little things. When if they have one thing that encompasses all of that or stick to it longer, they'll see longer results. But it's hard to do 'cause it's, people are out there trying to get you to try new things all the time. Right. So you spend more money. Yeah. After all these years, what is something about coaching that still genuinely excites you and makes you feel like, "This is exactly why I do this"? Seeing the expression on people's faces when they achieve things that they didn't think they could. Watching a, uh, a young kid who's didn't expect to play now is, you know, standing there out there on a field with a championship game, Yeah, the, it, it's just, it's always good to see people achieve goals that they didn't think they could 'cause they didn't know how- Mm-hmm and it wasn't afforded to them. I, I just enjoy helping people. I have a, a spirit of, uh, you know, assistance or help versus, you know, take. I'm the, I'm a giver. So I've been taken, a few times, not really happy about that. But it's because my intention was to help them, and they were takers, so it's not a good thing to have a taker and a giver at the same time. But, uh, I'm willing to put myself out there because it's what motivates me to see people happy and achieve things- Yeah that they normally couldn't. And being a part of that, even though I don't take credit for it, it's nice to know that I gave them the tools, but they did something with it. Yeah. It's such a special passion to want to help people, and then to be able to help them reach their goals that they didn't think were possible. Yeah. When you look at the next generation of athletes

Keep Training Simple With Consistency

37:11

and the future of fitness, what do you hope people begin to understand differently about strength, health, and performance? That it's not as complicated as you think it is, and that, uh, all the little nuances and new things that are out there. And there's gonna be some adaptations and changes of new fads and new science things coming out. I remember back in the '80s and '70s, it was just what doesn't kill you makes you stronger mentality, more like a military approach. And if you survive, great, but they weren't really focused on individuals. It was just herding cattle. It's gotten more individualized. Unfortunately, the model in high schools and college and pros is the same thing. You don't have that many coaches that are there for you to help you as far as strength coaches. You have 100 players and three, and that makes it difficult to do that. So they have to still follow the one program fits all and hope the cream rises to the top, and that's how the programs are set up. The simplest thing to do is to be consistent and do the basics. Everybody's body moves in the same way. My knee, your knee, unless we have a genetic defect or are double jointed, does the same thing. And based on research and science, certain muscles are elicited or targeted or fired by doing certain movements. And how fast you do those movements and how consistent you do those movements, the volume which you do the movements, the intensity with you do the movements, all recruit those muscles in different ways. Most people don't know that. They think, you know, just keep changing it up is gonna make it good, and sometimes what happens is you don't get adaptations. So you gotta stick with something for a while and build so your muscles can grow and adapt, but then when they start to s- get plateaued out or become efficient, then you do little changes to keep it going. Mm-hmm. But you don't do it drastic changes back and forth. I, I would like to tell people that what we do is, is simple, it's science-based, and it's based on consistency. And I've always told people I believe in the KISS method, and that's keep it simple, stupid. People are always trying to create new things and make new changes and do this and that, when if I got five or six exercises that recruit the glutes and the hamstrings and the hips and the quads and they work really well for most everybody, then why would we make something more convoluted and messy just to impress them? It's... I'm not trying to impress me. I want them to get better. Yeah. But going through the research and the science and the periodization and the progression, it's based on facts and principles that have been tested. But the fitness world wants to spice it up, and they wanna make it different, and people don't realize that there's no magic pill. The magic pill is within you. You just have to buy into it and bu- and find someone who's quality to do that, which is difficult when there's so many people out there, you know, snake oil salesmen trying to sell you all these new fancy ideas. Mm-hmm. And they look fun, and the biggest thing I find in the fitness world or what's new out there is If we were all doing nothing, and it doesn't matter where we went and what group we started with, if we started to do something, we're gonna see results, 'cause you went from zero to doing something. But what happens after about five or six, eight weeks when you plateaued and it's still the same thing? Then you just stagnate and you, you don't go anywhere. So I always tell people that train, they look for things that are doing this rollercoaster up and down, but ultimately it's still the same line. They haven't gotten any better. Mm-hmm. The goal is, is to build and then maintain. Build and maintain, so you have steps. So my programming for someone who's inexperienced, it starts basic, but as I see progression, I change the program to fit their needs versus they have to fit the program's needs. So by doing so, you're adjusting to their capabilities and challenging them at new levels they never could've done before. So I've had clients come in and say, "I can't even do the bar." And now you look back and they're doing 135, 135 pounds for a girl in high school on a bench, and you're going- Wow. They're like... I told them, "You're gonna be doing 135." They're like, "No way." And a year later they're doing 95, and they couldn't even do the bar before. And they're like, "How's that possible?" Uh, 'cause you put the work in. See, you've done this. So I'm encouraging them and showing them what you can do, and they look back and like, "But I can't do 135." And then a few later they're doing 135 and they're like, "I remember when you said that." But then they start to not doubt you as much and realize that their capabilities, potential's much higher. Yeah. I think sometimes people just need that little, that little push to, to realize that they have the skills within themselves. But they've got to see it themselves. Mm-hmm. I've had people I work with and they're, like, fighting me every day, and it's not as much fun to work with that, but you do because you care. And you, they're paying you. Obviously it's your job. But sometimes you see that light bulb go off. And all of a sudden they're like, "Wait a minute." And you try to show them that by showing the data. That's why a program with data and facts and numbers- it's tangible. It's not just someone, giving you warm fuzzies every day. Right. And for anyone who would like to learn more about Performance Edge or connect with you, where can they find you?

Where To Find Performance Edge

42:06

Well, recently we just moved from Lansdowne after being there for 15 years. We moved into a new facility. It's a little larger, and it's at the Exeter Shopping Center off of, uh, Battlefield and 15. It's 700 Fieldstone Drive. We're in unit 146. It says there 142 through 148, but our main door is 146. Like I said, I, it's not for everybody, but if you wanna come in and learn a little bit about what we do or even go online and look, but we're always happy to have visitors come in. You know, just give us a call, 'cause I don't wanna take away from my clients who are working with them. We wanna help anybody we can. And I've got some instances where we've had people that came with some very unique requests, and they said they went all over town and nobody would help them. And I said yes. And they're like, "Why did you help me?" I go Why can't I help you? If I understand anatomy and physics and biomechanics and how the body works, then all I gotta do is find your weaknesses through our eval, find your limitations, and f- work on those things first. Not the things you're good at, 'cause you already can do those. Work on the things you're not good at, and if you buy in and put the time and effort in it's proven you'll get better. I just showed you someone who does nothing and does something, even though it's ridiculous, it's an adaptation to change because your body's doing something it's not used to. But if it's based on research and science and medical, then you've got a much better chance. Mm-hmm. So, an example is that 67-year-old

The 67 Year Old 40 Time Goal

43:26

man I told you that came in and wanted to beat Tom Brady's 40 time. And we thought, everybody who went around said, "No, you can't do that. That's ridiculous." And he left. And he came in and asked me, and I go, "Okay." And he's like, "What?" I'm like, "I can't guarantee you're gonna beat Tom Brady's 40 time, but I'll do everything in my power based on what knowledge I have and what research is out there to get you in the best possible position to be able to do that." And lo and behold, he did. A lot of people, "Oh no, there's no way a 67-year-old can run under a five," 'cause it was like a 5.1 he ran, and Tom Brady's a quarterback. He's not expected to. Mm-hmm. This guy had never run track. He's 60 years old, 60 plus, but he did it, and then he stopped 'cause it was a bucket list. But the point is, is he achieved the goal 'cause he had someone to help him do that. I wish someone would've helped me do some things when I was younger, but stuff like this didn't exist, or financially we couldn't afford it, so... Awesome. And as we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add that we haven't touched on today?

Final Advice: Get Uncomfortable

44:27

I, I don't know. Don't be afraid to try things that you're not good at. Sometimes, most of the times, I'd say all the times, putting yourself in uncomfortable positions is what makes you grow. I always give the kids an example of what's one plus one, and they say two. I say, "One plus, what's one plus one?" They say, "Two." I go, "What's one plus one?" And they're like, "Two." And I go, "What's the point exactly? Why keep doing the same things and expecting different results?" You have to step out. Being uncomfortable and living in, outside of your box helps you experience more things and realize that there's more out there. So we try to put people in uncomfortable positions, not massively and, and, and, and to where they're in, in causing them harm or putting them in danger, but in ways that we're gonna help them grow and realize that, "Guess what? I was afraid of something that I shouldn't have been," or, "I can actually do this." And I think that's important. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Dave, for joining me on "The Alimond Show" today. I wish you the best in everything that comes your way in the future. Well, I appreciate that, and thank you for having me. This is a new experience for me as well.