Relentless Podcast

Keith Norris 2: Ayahuasca Yin, Strength and Conditioning Yang, and the Most Anabolic Substance on the Planet

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

In this episode I welcome in Keith Norris, a real life Incredible Hulk, former football player, current Efficient Exercise and ARX equipment rockstar, Paleo FX conference co-creator, ID Life investor, blogger, and unfortunate Dallas Cowboys’ fan.

LISTEN UP!

SHOWNOTES: 

  • Attending a recent Strength & Conditioning conference hosted by Mario Mendez of My Fit Foods.
  • The importance of continuing education for professionals: “If I have a spare moment when I’m not actually doing my own thing or running my own business, I am reading stuff that has to do with my business or S&C, or I’m listening to something, or I’m talking to somebody on the phone. It’s a never-ending process.”
  • Knowing what you don’t know: “The more we are in this, the more we realize how much we don’t know…we know a lot more than the people that we are helping, but we don’t know everything.”
  • Evolving as a personal trainer: “The best in the business realize that there is a balance between the art of S&C and the science of S&C and that neither can answer the full question. Both together can get a hell of a lot closer to answering the full question.”
  • Why a personal trainer is like a chef: “What makes a good chef is being able to feel – it needs another pinch of this. I can’t tell you why, I feel it, I know it.”
  • Ben House and Aaron Davis of Train, Adapt, Evolve, and the Omega Wave – an all-encompassing readiness testing device.
  • Baseline readiness tests for anyone – waking heart rate and grip testing: “The best thing that a person can do is learn themself…I know when I’m ready to go, and I know when I need to back off. I can’t quantify that…but I know it. This is the art of knowing yourself.”
  • Using exercise as a coping mechanism versus dealing with the issues themselves: “My coping mechanism was don’t feel it emotionally, just beat it up…but beating it down doesn’t mean overcoming.”
  • The Ayahuasca retreat: “It is the most intense thing I have ever been through in my life, and I’ve been through a lot of intense things. It was 10x more intense than what I anticipated.”
  • Understanding the metaphysical versus feeling it: “Until you go through it, you don’t get it.”
  • Keeping an open mind: “If I try to explain this on logical or rational terms to people, there’s no way you’re going to be able to explain it and make sense of it or justify it on those terms. You just cannot do it. It gets back to S&C being a combination of art and science. This is total art.”
  • Visual candy and hallucinations: “There were times, yes, when the visual candy and hallucinations were other-worldly and it was fascinating, but that was 10% of the total time spent there. That was minimal. The rest of it was excruciating hard work. It was anything but a ha-ha party.”
  • Affecting lasting change in others by conveying that you truly care: “I am better now at being able to transfer that feeling to somebody else.”
  • Drawing parallels between training athletes and horses: “If you want to be a good trainer just look at a horse trainer and look at his skills and observations. What separates a great trainer from a so-so trainer is his observational skills. They tap into that animal’s vibe. You can’t ask an animal where does it hurt? What’s wrong?”
  • Being impacted by a video of a 12 or 13 year old boy shown by Patrick Estes of the University of Denver.
  • Letting your kids be kids: “I wanted my kids out there moving, swinging, being kids and playing on stuff!”
  • The benefits of unstructured play activity: “If you get them early, it sticks.”
  • Treating the organism as a whole: “The body and the brain develop simultaneously. If you take one of the stimuli away or you dumb down one of the stimuli, the others are going to suffer.”
  • A testimonial for Marissa! “If you’re luck enough to have a Riss and a Relentless Fitness, for Christ’s sake get them into that type of environment.”
  • The stress of overthinking details versus the actual benefit of those details.
  • An earth shattering supplement: “If I could somehow create a supplement that was sleep, I would be a baziilionaire because that is the most anabolic substance you can give somebody. Just sleep. But it’s so easy and there’s no buy-in, it doesn’t cost anything. What it takes is discipline for you to just turn out the lights and go to bed.”
  • On magic pills: “People want the silver bullet. They believe that diving way down deep into the rabbit hole that they’re going to find that silver bullet. Yes, certain supplements at certain times, do they help? Absolutely but the amount they help is minuscule compared to eating real food, smart exercise, sleep, and stress reduction. Those things are the big winners.”

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