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Relentless Roger

Relentless Podcast

Marissa Pellegrino: Stand Next to Yourself, Feel Strong Inside and Out, and Respect the Grind

Posted on October 22, 2015

It’s time for episode fifteen of the Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World podcast!

In this episode I welcome in Marissa Pellegrino – aka “Relentless Riss” – Relentless Fitness co-owner, Kid Relentless creator, competitive gymnast and 1998 National Vault Champion, gymnastics coach, and personal trainer.

LISTEN UP!

SHOWNOTES: 

  • Drawing inspiration from a kid client – Devin – who recently completed his goal of running over the Ben Franklin Bridge. “I feel super lucky.”
  • Being impressed by current gymnast Simone Biles, who is ahead of the game.
  • Starting gymnastics at the age of 3 and moving away from home at 14 years old to pursue greatness. Experiencing a rigorous day of a shortened school schedule, followed by 6.5 hours of training.
  • Moving back home at 18 and transitioning into the working world as a gymnastics coach: “The only thing I really knew was gymnastics.”
  • “I decided that I wanted to open a gym. I wanted to use fitness in a way to bridge everything I was doing at the time – social work and gymnastics. I wanted to find a way to make it all one.”
  • Reflecting on the world of competitive gymnastics: “The world is very harsh there. You are always striving to be better and you are never where you are supposed to be. It’s always nitpicking…When you are in it you’re really grinding and as a teenager you don’t know any better.”
  • Being grateful for the experience: “Looking back I can see how that shaped me now. I feel very fortunate for the experience. A lot of times it was very hard and very difficult. I think it messed me up in some small ways, but for the most part it taught me a lot about dedication. It taught me a lot about loyalty to myself and setting myself up to win in different situations – climbing the hill and grinding. If you’re an entrepreneur that’s a skill that’s really hard to learn. You can’t learn it I don’t think. I think it has to be in you, and I think gymnastics helped that come out.”
  • Evaluating both sides of the coin – the drive to finish what you started versus having perspective and not blindly following a path.
  • Advice to those that struggle with the grind: “I glance at the big picture, but mostly I just look right in front of me…When we run over the Ben Franklin Bridge, the sidewalks have lines…every 5 feet you cross another line. You keep your head down and you watch for the line. Every day come up with ‘What needs to happen today to set me up better for tomorrow?’“
  • Struggling with chronic back pain stemming from her gymnastics career. “I still imagine that I can do certain things, and I go to do them and the pain is outrageous. The pain isn’t what makes me cry afterwards. It’s my pride, it’s my identity…I’m mourning my old self.”
  • The need for reinvention and shifting from pure physical output to inspiring and teaching youth.
  • Coaching influences: tough love gymnastics versus high emotion social work.
  • Her coaching style: “I individualize everybody. Everyone is their own person. Everyone needs something. It’s motivating them by giving them what they need – the attention, the structure.”
  • Kids thriving on structure and seeing themselves progress.
  • Her mission: “Gymnastics is one thing, and it’s a great thing, but my mission is to help kids feel strong inside and out. Feel good about themselves. I want them leaving tall and proud. I want people leaving and making good decisions because they feel good about themselves. Not because they can just do a cartwheel and handstand but because they are thriving and becoming really good people within the program. It’s more holistic than just coaching.“
  • Advice for working with kids: Structure, routine, positive re-enforcement, asking the children questions and involving them, teaching them to take ownership.
  • On perfection: “Everybody makes mistakes. Teach kids that it’s ok to step out of line and it’s ok to not be perfect. Nobody is going to be perfect.”
  • On effort: “It’s about effort more than anything else. What are you putting out consistently? That’s more important to me than a straight-leg cartwheel and a perfect handstand. Some kids might never get that, but if they’re learning other skills that will help them in their lives – who cares?”
  • Expectations versus reality: “I think I’m the only entrepreneur in the whole entire world that thought starting a business would be easy. I was sorely mistaken.”
  • Why “If I build it they will come” is untrue in 99% of situations.
  • On the pressure of growth at the beginning: “It will do things to you that you can’t imagine.”
  • Organically building a business and experiencing a slow climb. “It allowed me to grow in a different way and challenged me to start re-branding myself…More is not always better…I don’t want that many kids if I’m not able to give them the experience they need.”
  • Advice to those at the beginning of their journeys: “Breathe. Just chill out. Your business is an extension of who you are so in some ways you may feel rejected, not good, not worthy of, it must be you. Remove yourself from the equation. Flip it and go onto the customer or the client side. What would I want? Does that line up with who you are? Are you waking up and doing that? Do you feel good?“
  • The importance of positive self talk during tough times.
  • Whether you have 2 or 200 people, viewing each and every interaction as a chance to provide a great experience and positive word of mouth.
  • Why she would become an engineer or a toll booth collector as an alternate career.
  • Black and white versus gray area and providing flexible plans.
  • Having a family, not a staff – shouting out the Relentless Fitness team. “We really couldn’t do it without them.”
  • Hiring a personal chef: “I love the convenience of it. It’s pretty great to open your fridge and have choices.”
  • Tangible versus intangible costs and evaluating the price of not stressing about food and by extension making better decisions.

RELENTLESS ACTION:
“Stand next to you. Really stand next to yourself. Own who you are. Own your weaknesses and your strengths. Hone in on what they are. Be humble, but be proud. Kill it. Go do you, but stand next to you because in the end you’re all you got.”

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FOLLOW MARISSA PELLEGRINO:

DO ME A FAVOR, WILL YA?
If you like what you hear on these episodes, please subscribe to, rate, and/or review the podcast on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!

Relentless Podcast

Reduce Stress in 10 Steps, Take Charge of Your Future Self, and Create Clarity

Posted on October 19, 2015

It’s time for Episode 14 of the Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World podcast:

LISTEN UP!

State of Relentless: 

TonyPodcastGraphic

Relentless Main Event: 

  • Consider who you want to be and/or what you want to create in 1, 10, 20 years. Is today contributing to that? Consider and chart your course.
  • Be honest about your stressors and don’t be fooled by the presentation of others – everyone has their unique set of struggles.
  • Make sure that your go-to stress reaction is not always flight. Balance it with some fight.
  • 10 short-term stress reduction strategies.

Relentless Actions: 

  • Mind: Create a Mastermind group with personalities offering a fresh perspective and external accountability to your hopes and dreams.
  • Body: Eat and drink seasonal, local, and fresh – you’ll be better for it.
  • Business: Provide crystal clarity for yourself first, which extends to others.

Relentless Ask:
Hit me in the comments or at roger@relentless-fitness.com with a question, topic, or theme you’d like addressed on a podcast episode soon!

If you like what you hear on these episodes, rate, review, and/or subscribe on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!

Relentless Roger and The Caveman Doctor podcast

We All Float on Again

Posted on October 15, 2015

Guess who’s back? Yep, it’s Relentless Roger and The Caveman Doctor!

It’s been a long time coming, and we’ve promised many that there are several recorded episodes in the pipeline. Today we make good on those promises.

For those who don’t know, my good friend Dr. Colin Champ – aka The Caveman Doctor – and I have quite an archive of podcast episodes. This one checks in at #77. Among other things we talk: float tanks, ketones, blood glucose, car ride stress, biohacking your breathing, cancer and luck, workout partners, food preparation, purposeful inconvenience, “relentless” stress relief, and spending time with yourself. Enjoy!

LISTEN UP:

If you like what you hear on these episodes, rate, review, and/or subscribe on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!

Relentless Podcast

The Fine Line Between Grind and Rest Your Mind

Posted on October 12, 2015

It’s time for Episode 13 of the Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World podcast:

LISTEN UP!

State of Relentless: 

Relentless Main Event: 

  • The dark side of being an entrepreneur – when caring, taking on more responsibility, and persisting after your vision overwhelm you.
  • Employing three strategies – internal adaptation, external adaptation, and systems – to lessen your burden.
  • Fighting the urge to run and finding a way through the pain.

Relentless Actions: 

  • Mind: Removing social media phone notifications and batching it like your email.
  • Body: Taking advantage of the beautiful Fall season while it’s here via hikes and outdoor activity.
  • Business: Seeing the opportunity in the holiday season, which is a common ground for many.

Relentless Ask:
Help our youth out. Make a tax-deductible donation to the at-risk youth benefited by Steve’s Club.

If you like what you hear on these episodes, rate, review, and/or subscribe on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!

Relentless Podcast

Have Fun at Work, Eliminate Fear Factors, and Posture Up

Posted on October 6, 2015

It’s time for Episode 12 of the Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World podcast:

LISTEN UP!

State of Relentless: 

  • Press: Train along with our public Spartan Training workouts via Philly.com. Last week? Bodyweight manipulation. This week? Building race volume.
  • Video: Strength Authority Pam Leary takes you through a 1-minute bodyweight workout video aka her “Minute of Manipulation”.
  • Podcast: The Tony Federico podcast interview talking about reversing rock bottom, properly dosing your exercise, and keeping it real.
  • Next up on the interview front: Marissa Pellegrino aka “Relentless Riss”.

Relentless Main Event: 

  • Addressing your work/life balance, incorporating fun into your everyday, and appreciating the long-term.
  • Using the examples of exercise, nutrition, and your professional life to break down why not having fun is a short-term, losing strategy. (Why do diets usually fail?)
  • Two strategies to have more fun:
    • Literally do it. Get creative and find ways within your “work and workouts” to incorporate it.
    • For the brutally hard or mundane tasks that are inevitable, change your perspective. Focus on how these activities are benefiting you – that can be fun!
    • (Bonus #3) Change what you’re doing altogether if 1 & 2 are impossible.

Relentless Actions: 

  • Mind: Eliminate fear factors by addressing them and repping them over and over again prior to your “race day”, whether that be a Spartan Race or work presentation.
  • Body: Focus on your posture – especially those of you with desk jobs. Put a piece of tape on your desk chair and perform the postural exercise described on the podcast every time you sit down.
  • Business: Become more proactive and less reactive.

Relentless Ask:
Follow me on Instagram @iam_relentless!

If you like what you hear on these episodes, rate, review, and/or subscribe on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!

Relentless Podcast

Tony Federico: Reversing Rock Bottom, Appropriate Exercise Dosing, and #FatButter

Posted on October 1, 2015

It’s time for episode eleven of the Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World podcast!

In this episode I welcome in Tony Federico, personal trainer and fitness manager, Paleo Grilling author, Paleo Magazine Radio podcast host, Paleo Fitness Magazine editor, avid blogger and Instagramer.

LISTEN UP!

SHOWNOTES: 

  • Reminiscing about my appearance on Tony’s Paleo Magazine Radio podcast and his frequent mentions on the Relentless Roger and The Caveman Doctor podcast.
  • New York Times best sellers, successful business owners, etc. – “Nobody is really that different from you…Podcasting has demystified a lot of people and put everyone on a single platform. We’re all human beings and it’s what you choose to do that really makes a difference.”
  • Professionally helpful resource: The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
  • Relaxation oriented resource: Jon Ronson short stories.
  • Growing up as a chubby and nonathletic kid: “I had this underlying sense of not really being in control of myself.”
  • Experiencing rock bottom: “In retrospect that was a great and necessary thing because it emptied me out…I had to face refilling myself from scratch…It was an opportunity to say ok, starting today what am I going to do that’s going to start building up the person that I want to be.”
  • Asking the important question “What else is there?”
  • Exploring Eastern literature and religions: “They planted seeds of hope and responsibility…I began to take actual responsibility for the state that my life was in.”
  • Focusing on single positive actions: eating a salad, going for a run, not smoking a cigarette, having a productive conversation, etc.
  • The unseen journey: “What people see today is the end result of a full 10+ years of really deliberate personal transformation.”
  • Referencing Deepak Chopra as a resource contributing to his turn-around for blending science and mysticism.
  • Adopting a long-term view: “Eating a salad with low-fat ranch dressing from a supermarket might not sound great, but it’s certainly better than the Hot Pocket I was eating before. A lot of people get caught up in perfectionism, and that may have been one of the things that threw me off. I really began to appreciate progressive approaches towards improving health.”
  • Boiling down Paleo to this: “Why don’t we eat better quality food?”
  • Avoiding militant approaches: “There are some people who take a real alarmist approach to nutrition, and I’m just not going to do that…The stakes aren’t that high to feel guilty if we had a slice of pizza…on the whole emphasizing good tasting, nutrient dense, fresh, whole, real foods is going to be a more enjoyable way to eat.”
  • …while also holding yourself to a standard: “I do think some discipline is helpful. For example, everything you eat doesn’t have to be a 5-star level intoxicating food experience.”
  • Maturing as a trainer and differentiating between those who are willing to change and those who are not ready.
  • Understanding the amount of exercise he needs to do to maintain his personal fitness standards.
  • Tony’s weekly workouts:
    • 3-4 30-minute (at most) strength mixes of “push, pull, squat, lunge, plyometric jump…yes, bicep curls and triceps pushdowns.”
    • 2 30-minute functional core classes per week (teaches and participates)
    • 3 runs – 30-50 second sprints with 1+ minute of rest, 1.5-2 mile tempo run, and a relaxing run
    • 10,000+ steps per day
  • Workout baseline for the listener:
    • 10,000+ steps per day
    • 1-2 days/week – intense (90% effort) conditioning performed safely (ex: rowing, running, biking, etc.)
    • 2-3 days/week – primal movement patterns (pushing, pulling, squatting, pressing, lunging, twisting) broken into circuits – 3 supersets of 8-12 repetitions per exercise
  • Being aware of your overall workout quantity: “Like medicine exercise has an appropriate dose. It’s a law of diminishing returns. Up to a certain point you have improvements in health outcomes, whether that’s longevity, disease, mortality risk. If you keep exercising, you hit a plateau. If you keep exercising, it actually goes in the opposite direction and now you have an increased risk of mortality.”
  • The risk of using exercise as a form of entertainment. “If you are deriving your daily charge of socialization and fulfillment from kicking your ass in the gym…that can be a slippery slope.”
  • Teasing our upcoming podcast and audio/workbook product for the personal training community – Powerful Personal Trainer.
  • Looking eerily similar to his Dad when they’re both fit: “Genes definitely matter. Don’t get so hung up on the specifics of programming. Bust your ass really hard one day, moderately hard a couple days, and move around a lot every day.”
  • Current vice: #fatbutter.
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T-Fed and I at a PaleoFX 2014 farm dinner (photo by Basil Gravanis)

FOLLOW TONY FEDERICO:

DO ME A FAVOR, WILL YA?
If you like what you hear on these episodes, please subscribe to, rate, and/or review the podcast on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!

Relentless Podcast

Always Show Up

Posted on September 28, 2015

Always Show Up
In Episode 10 of the Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World podcast we talk about asking questions, evolving from amateur to professional, and consistently executing your highest ROI activities.

LISTEN UP!

State of Relentless: 

  • Press: Train along with our public Spartan Training workouts via Philly.com. Last week? Grip strength training. This week? Bodyweight manipulation.
  • The Dr. Colin Champ (aka Caveman Doctor) podcast interview talking about training health versus training fitness and questioning everything, including your physician.
  • Next up on the interview front: “Powerful” Tony Federico!

Relentless Main Event: 

  • Evaluating your day-to-day, targeting high ROI (not just $) activities, batching your efforts, and creating a concrete calendar.
  • Growing as an “entrepreneur” from someone who takes on too much to someone who subtracts in order to add.
  • Using a realistic calendar to remain consistent no matter what occurs.
  • Referencing Steven Pressfield as a mandatory resource and model of professionalism.
  • Extending the analogy to your physical world – training consistency compounds.

Relentless Actions: 

  • Mind: Highlighting the Pressfield book The War of Art, and this quote: “Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we’re thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don’t show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin’, no matter what.”
  • Body: Challenging you to tackle one of our #RelentlessPope workouts, a collection of videos our trainers recorded at Relentless Fitness to have fun with the Pope’s arrival.
  • Business: Analyzing your highest return activities based on your long-term goals. Will your day-to-day schedule repeated over and over produce an end result that you can be proud of in several years?

Relentless Ask:
Send me a question! Comment right here, shoot me an email at roger@relentless-fitness.com, Facebook me, or Tweet me. Let me know what you want to hear about in future episodes. You ask, and I’ll answer!

If you like what you hear on these episodes, rate, review, and/or subscribe on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!

Relentless Podcast

Dr. Colin Champ: Question Everything, Play Infinite Games, and Let the Haters Hate

Posted on September 24, 2015

It’s time for episode nine of the Relentless: Real People, Real Results, Real World podcast!

In this episode I welcome in Dr. Colin Champ, aka The Caveman Doctor, radiation oncologist, Relentless Roger and The Caveman Doctor podcast co-host, Misguided Medicine author, MyHealthWire writer, blogger, and unfortunate Pittsburgh Steelers’ fan.

LISTEN UP!

SHOWNOTES: 

  • Recapping our history of 79 recorded Relentless Roger and the Caveman Doctor podcast episodes.
  • Leveraging wine, good books, stretching, and kung fu movies to snap out of a funk.
  • The book Finite and Infinite Games: it will “blow your mind”. #1 takeaway = goal in life is to avoid playing finite games in favor of large reward infinite games.
  • How the Caveman Doctor relaxes: Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. “Watching kung fu movies puts me in a different world, especially if they involve Shaolin temples.”
  • On questioning things: “I’m not the kind of person who loves to do what you’re supposed to do because you’re supposed to do it. I’m actually the person who more questions narratives. If we’re supposed to do something I want to know why we’re supposed to do it.”
  • On his social circle: “I like to be surrounded by people who challenge me.”
  • Changing his priorities from “fitness” to “health” over the years. “People who don’t make that change, it can be detrimental.”
  • His workout routine: “I don’t go to the gym for 5 days a week for an hour and a half to be as big and muscular as I can to look good for girls. That’s not healthy. That’s being fit to be big or to bodybuild. I’ve never been a jogger – I never saw the health benefit in that. I do run sprints. I go for long walks. I go for hikes all the time. I do martial arts now. Again, it’s more of a whole approach.”
  • On his addition of marital arts: “It’s the only thing I do that when I’m done I’m utterly mentally and physically exhausted.”
  • Still lifting some weights but doing it in a more unstructured manner (versus linear periodization): “I still do weights. I want to push heavy weights around because I think it’s good for you – get your mitochondria pumping, strengthen your bones.”
  • Applying Finite and Infinite Games to fitness:
    • Finite game: “If you’re on some crazy strict diet, you are going to fail it.”
    • Infinite game: Incorporating exercise into your life – using a farther parking spot and walking, taking martial arts, going for hikes, etc.
  • Re-evaluating your activity pyramid: “Going to the gym should be your cherry on top, not the base of your pyramid of activities. That way if I don’t make it to the gym I don’t care because I’ve been active all week. If the gym was my whole activity that would put me in a bad spot.”
  • His motivations for writing Misguided Medicine.
  • Encouraging patients to question their treatment and physicians to have good answers: “I want you questioning me. You should be saying why am I doing this? Everyone’s physician should explain to them why they are doing this…You damn better have those numbers for people.”
  • Using common sense: “Things that make you throw up are probably not good for you. Who thought of you are supposed to workout so hard you throw up?”
  • Possible reasons for overtreatment: “Regret is the hardest thing for humans to deal with. They would much rather do something that causes side effects and barely benefits them than to not do something and miss out on reaping the benefit from that.”
  • Dismay over the evolution of salt intake recommendations: “The recommendations are so far out from what the data shows that it’s actually scary. They put people on these crazy salt restricted diets and their rate of dying went up significantly.”
  • Remaining productive creatively with a full-time, demanding profession.
  • On putting yourself out there: “Haters are gonna hate, and they’re the loudest.”
  • Being comfortable expressing your unique set of opinions and referencing Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans and Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Smurf It Up” for support.
  • Going from hearing his own podcast voice and questioning its value to seeing fans engaged and taking notes.
  • Seeing his writing motivation go through the roof during the last 2 years of residency and publishing 22 peer reviewed publications (compared to his initial goal of 4), starting his website, and beginning the Relentless Roger and The Caveman Doctor podcast.
  • On sleep: “8 hours a night with rare derivation.” Using tools like LED lights on remote control, no blue lights past sunset, no cable, showering and music/writing before bed, dark bedroom, and Phillip’s blue light for wakeups.
  • Prioritizing sleep no matter what and accepting no excuses: “It makes you organize your life better.”
  • The untapped passions of being an architect or being a barista in Florence.
  • Loving Cahors Bordeaux wine.
Dr. Colin Champ and I at the Ancestral Health Symposium

Dr. Colin Champ and I at the Ancestral Health Symposium

RELENTLESS ACTION:
“Question yourself. Question your narrative. Question why you’re doing what you’re doing. Not to the point where it’s detrimental, but in a positive way…That’s how changes happen…
If you’re doing something because you think you’re supposed to but it makes you feel terrible, maybe you need to change it.”

FOLLOW DR. COLIN CHAMP:

DO ME A FAVOR, WILL YA?
If you like what you hear on these episodes, please subscribe to, rate, and/or review the podcast on iTunes.  Thanks for your support!