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Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
This episode is powered by Celsius. Now, whether you're in the gym or you're on the run, or hey, you're just doing a podcast, grab yourself a can of Celsius and live fit. So this is a shameless pitch for strong New York, September 27th, right at the Glass House on 48th and 12th Avenue. We are throwing the biggest fitness and wellness event this city has ever seen.
Every year it gets bigger and bigger. This year we'll have 5,000 people, 80 plus brands, and you will be there. So make sure you get your tickets@strongnewyork.com. It's that simple. Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of Strong New York podcast. I'm your host, Kenny Santucci, and as always, we're cracking open some Celsius, so grab yourself a can and live fit.
Alright, so today's guest, um, I've admired for quite some time and out of nowhere I get a dm. Uh, finally. It's not me sliding into the other guy's dms, it's a gentleman sliding into mine and I was blown away and I grabbed my phone and I showed it to Christie and I was like. I can't believe Harley passing me up and I was like, this is so cool.
And we're gonna talk about the event. So if you guys haven't gotten your tickets to Strong New York yet, definitely get your tickets. Um, I'm very upset. Harley's not gonna be there this year, but hopefully we'll have him there next year. He is. Got some family engagement, right? Friends wedding we have, we have, uh, Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco's wedding that day.
I mean, Sarah's not gonna, oh, Sarah's not gonna, okay, so one of our clients. Is his, her, uh, Benny Blanco's literary agent. Oh yeah, she's great. Oh, I know her. Yeah. Yeah, she's awesome. She's awesome. I trained Benny. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like her. Yeah. Oh, that's so funny. She's such a small world. Yeah. So I was having, uh, do you know Jason Karp?
Why do I know the name he used to own? He owns this hu uh, human Co. Okay. So it's a, basically a chocolate bar. It like, he started with the chocolate bars and he had a restaurant here in the city. Okay. And now he's buys up a bunch of different brands that are all, you know, kind of healthier, cleaner. Okay.
Products from like cleaning supplies to food. And he was supposed to speak to, and he just gave me a call about an hour. Mm. Being like, dude, I would've missed the wedding if I didn't have to be in it. Mm. So it's all right though. It's a, I knew, I knew that time, this time of year that we're having it, uh, the end of September to basically it's wedding season.
November is it's wedding season, but it's also a lot of Jewish holidays. Right. So I have to like maneuver around those. Right. And then you have, uh, the Mr. Olympia or Yeah. The Mr. Olympias then. Then there's like, uh, Comic-Con, there's so many events right within this like timeframe, which is I feel like 20 years ago nobody had anything to do.
Right. So they stuffed all their shit into this bucket. Right. But I'm so glad to have you. I am, I'm happy to be here. I've heard of your name, but also your event in New York. I know a number of people who've been, uh, and. I love these things. Yeah. Because it gives you a sense of community, teach everyone lives online today.
And to see a physical event where there's energy and people and people sharing ideas is, is special and important. Yeah. And you know what, I, a couple years ago, Jim Quick had hit me up and he was like, Hey, I see what you're doing with this thing. I'd love to be a part of it. So it's like between you and Jim quick, it gives me goosebumps.
Oh, that. Two people that I admire, that I look up to, that I'm like, I don't think these guys would ever speak at my event to, for you guys to see the value in it. And a lot of people, most of the time say to me, they're like, but why are you doing this? What is the point of this? I go, well, what's the point of Fashion Week?
Right? And Comic-Con and Fanatics Fest. It's a time for people to celebrate an industry that they really admire. Yeah. Um, it's a chance for all of us to come together. It's like we're basically creating a holiday. It's the same thing as like, what's the point of any holiday? And it's real community. People talk about community online.
Mm-hmm. That's a thing. Yeah. But that's not the same thing of being with people and the energy of engaging with people. So, so I, I'm sure you've been invited to a thousand different events and I'm sure you've been to so many of these different wellness. Uh, you know, extravaganzas throughout the years, the Arnold, the Olympia, perform better.
All these things. What one stick out in your mind that you were like, man, I really like what they're doing. Propel did something for a few years called Colabs. I remember that. I love that. We did that. And in LA we did here LA we did Denver, we did, we did a bunch of different Chicago. I really liked those.
Yeah. Um, I thought those were cool too. It was kind of what gave me the idea for what I was doing. I just wanted it to be more grandiose. I was there, gunner had spoke about it. And I thought this was an opportunity for people to kind of come together, and at the time I was like, I would've paid. 500 bucks for this.
Right. Just 'cause it's a cool event. Yep. It's a, it's an opportunity for people to like, go outside their gyms and hang out and meet other people that would never normally work together or try something they wouldn't normally not try. I remember going to one and I was doing like yoga and I'm like, I don't really do you guys.
Right. I know there's benefits to it. I just, if I have an hour in my. Day, I want to lift weights or I want to go do jiujitsu or something like that. I don't want to spend my time doing yoga. And it gave me an opportunity to go do yoga and a couple other things and listen to, you know, gunner speak and stuff.
So I yeah, I, I agree with you. Um, you've had an unbelievable career. Thank you. It's very impressed. Just means I'm old all man. Well, no, but I mean, you look great. Thank you. Yeah. I think it's that LA air that keeps you guys also. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so you, you started your career. At a time when the industry wasn't what it is today.
It wasn't personal training wasn't a career. 1992 I started. Wow. I started, there was one Bally's in Canada. Mm-hmm. Um, and I remember started to train people there. And one of my first clients I did a consult was, do you know who Ben Johnson was? No. Ben Johnson was the fastest man in the history in the world.
The sprinter. Yes. I do know. He got tested, tested positive in the 88 Olympic Games. Yes, I remember. But he loved going to public gyms. To do, uh, fitness evaluations. Okay. Uh, anyways, um, so I started there and, and just loved it. And I was studying kinesiology at university and. Spent the next 10 years in university.
What made you wanna do it? Like what? I was a hockey player. Okay. I was a hockey player. I got hurt, and then I got really into bodybuilding and I just admire a lot, a lot of these bodybuilders. Mm-hmm. And how you can manipulate the way you exercise and eat to dramatically change the way you look. And then growing up in the Reagan era mm-hmm.
You know, the men we emulated was Stallone and Schwarzenegger and Van Damm, and we felt like, oh, that's what a man is supposed to look like. Mm-hmm. The gravitas they have from walking into the room, seeing how they took care of themselves, sort of represented the, the kind of person they were in many ways, you know, the discipline and the consistency and the work ethic.
And I was really drawn to that. And I didn't have the genetics to be a good bodybuilder. I never tried any performance enhancing drugs. Mm-hmm. Um, if I did it again, I'd probably do all of them. But, um, so yeah. And, and I got into the science behind it. And so then I did degrees in kinesiology and nutrition and in ex.
I was working on my doctorate and got recruited by the military and yeah. That's amazing. You know, I became a trainer in the early two thousands and when I had said to my dad, my parents, I was like, I want to be a trainer. They go. You can't make any money doing that. Right. Because that's not a real job.
They're like, what are you gonna do for money? And I was like, I don't know. But I really love this. And I, I, I always liked it when I was a kid. I was 13, 14 years old. I got into Muscle magazines. Sure. I'm watching which ones? I mean, muscular development. Yeah. I loved Men's Fitness. Yeah. And, but I always gravitated towards, like, I grew up during the Ronnie Coleman.
Sure. Jay Cutler. Doane yer, right. So it's like, these were like the freaks, but obviously Arnold and, uh, you know, uh, Franco Colombo and a lot of these guys were still in the magazines. They were always featured. Right? Sure. And I love the classic physique stuff, but there's something to be said about these guys in the nineties who were larger than life.
Oh yeah. Like, I, like Lou Faro kind of ushered in that during the early eighties and. I just think I, and I still tell this to people, still to this day, it's when you're a kid, when you're a young guy and you're looking at these guys on screen, whether you're watching The Incredible Hulk or Commando or The Predator or something, you're like, oh my God.
Oh yeah. These guys are like, I got you just named my favorite movies growing up right there. Yeah. Just the scene in Predator when Arnold and, and Carl Weathers, you know, high five each other. Yeah. And there's like a pause on them flexing their biceps. They knew exactly what they were doing. Course. Yeah. It was, it was incredible.
And I just. Even like the, the training montages from Rocky, they just like got better the years ago. Yep. I don't even think they really meant to do them that well in the beginning and then as time flowed on, it was just, the one door in Rocky four is just incredible. Oh yeah. When he is like pushing the Oh yeah.
The big cart with everybody in it. And Dolf l Grin as Drago training in the, in the winter, in the, yeah. Yeah. This technology. And so you, I mean, you've been out there, you've been in Hollywood, you've, you've been a part of this, right? Like is it, as you know, as somebody who, like, I've gotten to train a couple celebrities, but being in Hollywood, being there, I just feel like it's a different environment.
You know, you get to see behind the curtain. It's funny 'cause we, you I've been doing it so long now. Yeah. That. Some of the people that I trained, uh, for movies. Mm-hmm. Now I'm training their kids for movies. Wow. It's the weirdest thing, but it's, it's a blessing I think. Um, you just can't take it too seriously when you start to think that you are part of the Hollywood world.
Mm-hmm. I think you get lost in it all and it's not something I was ever interested. I'm not looking to be an actor or anything like that, so. Well, I've seen the success of. Yourself. I've had, uh, Jake Stein fell down before. Oh, he is a legend. I love him. He's a legend. He's such a, like, I could sit on the phone with him for hours and just like.
For my 30th birthday. Yeah. One of my clients in la he's, he knows Jake, he's friends with Jake. Mm-hmm. Maybe it wasn't 30th, maybe it was 28th birthday. And, and I said, I have a birthday request. I want five minutes on the phone with Jake. I want some, I want like advice. Yeah. And he set it up. And I remember I spoke to Jake and he, he gave me some really great advice and I'm very, I mean, he probably to this day doesn't remember it, but he was really kind.
And then he was like the weirdest thing. 'cause I grew up. Looking up to all these fitness icons. Mm-hmm. And then all of a sudden I, you know, I was helping Richard Simmons and Jane Fondo was my client, and the Schwarzeneggers and all these people became clients of mine. Mm-hmm. And you kind of take a step back.
You have to look like if I was to leave my body and look down and say, whoa, this is the craziest thing in the whole world. The reason you got into this business was. To be like them, and now they're hiring you to help them. And I just thought that was so cool. Yeah, it's an incredible moment. Like, I, I started crying when it happened, so growing up in New Jersey, being Italian, yeah, that's redundant.
But go ahead. I, I, you have to like Bon Jovi and Bruce Springs. I thought you were gonna say the mob, but Yes. Yeah, the mob too. Yes. I mean, Goodfellas is absolutely my favorite movie. Yep. Um, so. I had the opportunity to train John Bon Jovi for a while, and when he first called me I'm like, I gotta stay cool.
I mean, that's, anybody would freak out. Yeah, I was from anywhere off for John Bon Jovi. So was there ever a moment for you, like, because you've trained so many people, like was there ever a moment where you're like sitting, like there are times I was sitting at his house in the Hamptons and I'm like pinching myself.
I'm like, I can't believe I'm here. You know? Yeah. I, yes, there have been, um. There have been, but when you find, uh, that they never, they never are what you think they're going to be, you have them built up in your mind. They're this certain thing. When you meet them, you're like, oh, okay. You know, they're a normal person.
They got a bum shoulder. They, they're a lot of other things. And you, you kind of realize they're just people just like you. Yeah. And they're insecure just like you. And they have all these issues just like you. But there's been some crazy ones where I was like, I can't believe I'm sitting. Here with this person in this space.
Mm-hmm. So yeah, it's happened. Yeah, it's happened a by, it still happens. I still get, you know, messages and requests from people. I went overseas to see a royal person from a, from a country and mm-hmm. I'm in the palace and I'm looking around, I'm like, what am I doing here? This is the weirdest thing in the whole world.
So do How'd you grow? Like, my backstory is I was super fat as a kid, I was uncomfortable. I hate it. And I wanted to be like everybody I admired, like. What wa I, I know you saw this, but like, what was, what was your childhood like? I had a great childhood, great parents, you know, two brothers. They're great. Uh.
Hockey was my life. Yeah. And it was just, I was, in my head, I was gonna be a professional hockey player. Mm-hmm. Like everybody. Okay. But I wasn't, yeah. Everybody. Yeah. I wasn't fast enough. Mm-hmm. Strong enough, tall enough, technique enough. I didn't have anything. You needed to be a professional hockey player.
Yeah. And once I kind of dawned upon me that wasn't gonna happen, and then, you know, I realized I really couldn't play hockey at all anymore. I took all of that and put it into strength training and put it into bodybuilding. And then I really got fascinated by the science. Just really. Fascinated by it.
Mm-hmm. And so, um, and then when I was 18 and started work as a trainer at Bally, I was like, wow, grownups are listening to me. Mm-hmm. That's the weirdest thing in the whole world. Wow. How cool is this? I'm getting respect from older people who are, you know, who are successful and have means, and. I thought, this is really cool.
I get to help people. I get people to listen to me. Mm-hmm. I get to do what I love. I'll never have to wear a pair of long pants for the rest of my life. I can wear t-shirts and shorts every single day. It's a perk of the job for sure. And then, you know, then opportunities started coming. So then whether it be, uh, writing books or video designing video games, or designing gym equipment or designing gyms, or you realize like being in the fitness industry doesn't have to be counting reps and sets.
There's so many other things that have come from it, so. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that I love just as much as I love fitness and, you know, obviously the, the physique is eighties metal music and one of the scariest, like I think about the Poison song and the Guns N Roses song, they've always, um, kind of romanticized this idea of somebody from a small town.
Going out to LA Sure. And tackling the jungle. Right? Right. How was that for you? Like going out? Terrible. Yeah. You didn't know anything? Oh, everyone was so mean to me. Oh, it was so terrible. Um, Canadians by nature are just nicer people I think. I think so. Yeah, I think so. I, when I was in Toronto, my business was booming.
'cause all the Hollywood films that came to Canada, I would train the actors and then we expanded to Vancouver and Montreal and business was great and a lot of the Hollywood, uh, trainers, uh, that I would see their clients when they were in Canada. I had a great rapport with them 'cause I wasn't a threat to them.
Um mm-hmm. And so when I moved to LA a lot of the clients I had worked with in Canada. Left their local LA trainers to come work with me. And I, I mean, I had, I was working out of a training studio, paying to bring clients there. One day I came and the um, the gym owner said, you're not allowed in, uh, we heard that you're selling drugs out of here.
Um, uh, steroids. What years? And I was like, what? This is in, um, 2003. Wow. And I was like, what is happening? I don't understand. I, I'd never even smoked. Tried weed yet. Yeah. And so I got home and there was a voicemail from a trainer who, a couple of her clients left her to train with me. She says, you f with my business, I'll f with yours.
She had told them that I was selling steroids. Yeah. There was that, there was, you know, uh, gunner and I did not get along really at all. 'cause we were the two sort of alphas in la Yeah. Um, we're good friends now. Yeah. But, um, but it was like, we didn't even know each other. We just didn't like each other.
And then the second we met each other, you know, we got along really well and our wives became friends and our sons became friends. Yeah. And you, you guys don't even have enough hours in the day to train all No. Train. No, of course not. He's so good at. I, I, you know, I don't train athletes in performance.
Mm-hmm. That's a whole other skillset. He's fantastic at it, and he's passionate about it. There's lots of room out there. I, I've had a lot of ups, I've had a lot of downs. I've had, um, I've, you know, con artists, I've had, I mean, so many challenges, but all of it you learn from and you grow from and mm-hmm. It makes you better.
I think there's, I, I have an audience of a lot of people within the fitness space who are, one of the questions that I get is like, how do you get to work with. The, the type of clientele that you do, right. Obviously being in the, where it counts. Like I, I'm not gonna go open up a gym in the middle of Iowa City and expect to have the clientele that you have.
Um, obviously the one thing I would say, what I tell most people is be really good at your job. Right? Be good at the craft. You know, people are like, you, you're still on the floor. I go, yeah, because the guys I admire are still on the floor. Yeah. And they're older than I am, so it's like. If I'm, if I spent my whole life getting really good at this craft, why would I stop when I'm at my best?
So. For yourself. It's like, what do you think attributed to you? Oh, I learned that the hard way. You know, I got a little bit, I, I drank my Kool-Aid a bit too much. Yeah. I was busy doing, I had a TV show. I had a talk show on A, B, C, and I had all these other things going on and endorsements and products and, you know, on the QVC and pro, you know, all this stuff.
And I wasn't seeing many of my clients. I was just doling them out to my trainers. Mm-hmm. And I kind of, I became a, a dull blade. The thing that made me who I was, you stopped doing it. I, I, I wasn't doing enough of it. You know, if you Wolfgang Puck still cooks. Yeah, yeah. You know, he's still in the kitchen.
And, um, and so I realized like, I, I gotta get back and do this. And I, I, uh, I spent more with clients and more time with clients. When COVID hit was the best thing for me because I stopped traveling. I couldn't travel anymore. Mm-hmm. And a lot of my clients were in town and they weren't traveling. And so, you know, they would hit me up and say, Hey, can you see me?
Yourself if I come in, I was like, yeah, of course. I have nowhere else to go. And then another, another, and next thing you know, I was, I was doing 10 hours of sessions again, and I hadn't done that in years. Yeah. But I loved it and it, it energized me and, and I got my hands dirty again. And I remember what it was to work with clients and make mistakes and learn and evolve.
And I came up with new ideas in the process. And so it was really great. I don't see 10 hours a client a day anymore. Mm-hmm. But I still see clients every single day and I get excited. You had asked me a minute ago, were there any clients that you got like freaked out, you couldn't believe that? You know, I'll never forget.
I got a call for Whitney Houston and Wow. She's my favorite. And her management team made me do a call with her and they said Whitney's on tour. This is shortly before she passed. Yeah. Yeah. And she, um. She's tired and exhausted. She needs to get in good shape. So we get on the call and her agent's like, Whitney, this is Harley.
He works musicians. He'll get you in shape and this and this and that. And then they said, Harley, do you want to say a few things to Whitney? I said, sure. And Whitney goes, uh uh, hold on Harley. I said, yeah. She goes, I'm sure you're great at what you do. Working outs for white people. Whitney out. She hung up and it was the best feeling of the whole, like anyone else.
I'm like, screw you. It was Whitney hanging up on me and saying that I was so happy and I was happy to not meet her because I think of her still as. On such a pedestal, Uhhuh. Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. So, I mean, being out there for as long as you have, was there ever a point where there were so many people, because you, you've been at the top of the game for a long time.
How often have you had, you know, like you said, people were attacking you. You know how many people are like, this guy's bullshit. Why is he the every day? Yeah. Every day. Every single day. I mean, I don't even look at messages on social media. You know, people are all the time there, there's conspiracy theories that I'm in.
The ccia a there's conspiracy theories. This, there's, you know, I definitely saw something that was like, oh, he's a part of like, um, the fucking, the Illuminati and stuff. Yeah. I'm a, I'm a Illuminati. Oh, yeah. There's all of that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I, I think, you know, it, it bothered me at first, and then someone who I really respect said.
You're doing something right. If there's that many people talking about you and they're talking about you in ways where you have this incredible power to do things that are, that no human being has to, I'm like, all right, that's a different way to look at it. Mm-hmm. But, um, yeah, I got, you know, uh, I'll, I might say.
I like chicken. And so, you know, people will attack me who are vegan and say, how dare you eat chicken? And then other people that are, you know, I'll say, I love apples. And then carnivore people will, and veto keto people will freak out at me. Like, oh, you're gonna make people have to be diabe. Everyone's got their own opinion, but very few people.
It's grounded in knowledge. Mm-hmm. It's grounded in science. It's grounded in, in experience. Yeah. So I kind of, I know I can walk into a room and with confidence I can say no one in this room knows more about personal training than me. They might know, know more about a thing and I wanna learn from them.
Mm-hmm. But I'm, no one has done more hours than I have. No one has studied it more than I have. Um, and I'm still learning. Yeah. I'm still learning. Yeah. And I think that's incredible because one of the people we have coming to the event this year is Phil Deru. Do you know who he is? The name's familiar. He, he trains a lot of fighters down in Miami and he's.
Kind of specializes. He is like a west side barbell guy. Okay. Yeah. He specializes in training a lot of like, uh, MMA fighters and stuff. And we were chatting and I had to hit him up on Instagram 'cause I loved what he was doing. But constantly I see these people who are, who are doing practicing what they preach, they're doing the thing, they're helping people out.
They're on the floor. One of the things that young trainers say to me all the time, they're like, well. I eventually want to get off the floor and do something else. I'm like, well, do you know what you wanna do? And a lot of people think, well, the only lateral or the only up is for me to go and open up a gym.
Right. How often do you get? Oh my gosh. I, I, I, the best things that have ever happened to me are the things I failed at. Mm-hmm. I tried to open a gym so many times in Canada before I left Canada. That's really, if I did, I'd still be there. I never would've done any of the things I've done. Yeah. Yeah. And I got to a certain point where I realized like I, it's a different business.
Owning a gym is sales, is is, and managing people is, is a whole, that's not what I do. No, I don't, you know, you don't see doctors saying, I wanna open a hospital. Mm-hmm. Right. It's a whole other thing. And I'm, I'm that, I'm not the, the operator of a gym. Yeah. But, you know, uh, I do love. I'm sure you're the same when you walk into a gym, you'd be like, oh, I, I would've done this differently.
I love that they did this. Mm-hmm. That I, and so that I, I got into designing facilities. So we've done over 420 fitness facilities now. Wow. Most of the Four seasons hotels around the world, a lot of discovery lands, uh, you name it. So that has been a great outlet. How'd that come about? Clients would say, Hey, I just bought a house.
Can you put some equipment in it for me? And then I went from that to one of my clients was a real estate guy and he is like, Hey, uh, I have a condo development. Can you do the gym for it? And then that was well received, and then a hotel, one off hotel, and then on and on and on. And the call I was doing just there is for a really interesting hotel chain.
Um, so yeah, I started to dabble in that a little bit too, because. I love equipment. Yeah. You know, we, we kind of geeked out. Yeah, dude, this, when you were telling me about the POI stuff, and I'm like, well, if I had endless amounts of space, I would to get this piece from this one, this piece from this. So anytime a client has asked me, so I built probably like 10 gyms now up to this point.
And when John asked me to build his gym in New Jersey, I was like, oh my God, you did John Bon Jovi's gym. Yeah. I mean, that's cool. Yeah. You know? That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. And he was, he's like, all right. Because he was coming to my gym here. Did he take a steel horse or did he? Yeah. I'll tell you what, I did get to, he gave me a shirt.
It's so funny that this happened. He gave me a shirt from 2000 when they first came back with the Crush album, and he's like, here, you want this? It was like in a box with all this other memorabilia. I was like, I want half the shit you got in here. He had a ton of really cool stuff, but he gave me a shirt.
Bon Jovi or Bruce Springsteen. As a kid. Yep. I was a huge Bon Jovi fan. I obviously have a relationship with him. You know, I was trained his son, I've been to his house, it's great. I've built his gym. Um, so I'm always just a Bon Jovi guy. As I've gotten older, I've gravitated towards Springsteen's music more, you know, just 'cause I just feel like it's an older guy's music.
Yeah. You know, like the eighties Bon Jovi stuff to me is what I grew up on. Yeah. Then he started, started to become like more of the mom rock stuff as he's gotten older. I love crush. I think it's one of my favorite albums, but like Springsteen's old man shit that he's putting out now, it just speaks to my soul.
Right. I love that stuff. Yeah. And up there with the two of them is Billy Joel. 'cause he is as New York is New York. Oh, Billy Joel's. Yeah. One of the great, he's a pizza bagel from New York and it's like, I can't not love him. Right. Yeah. So have you ever met him? I've never met Billy Joel. No, no. Um, but you know, you're an equipment, uh, fanatic.
So I, uh, I design a lot of equipment. I designed for icar, which became pre-core. I designed equipment, I help hoist consultants and design equipment. I've helped techno gym design equipment and Cybex. I helped them design some equipment. Well, I think like ICAR and IEX and a lot of these brands, hammer Strength Yeah.
Had ruled the, you know, the. Space for a very long time. Mm-hmm. And now you're getting a lot of these new brands in there. I guess Atlantis has been around for a while, right? Atlantis has been in, in fact, when I was in the military, we used Atlantis equipment. Uh, it's from Montreal. It's, yeah, it's Canadian brand.
Yeah. It's, yeah, it's really, really, it's great stuff. But you're seeing like, um, there's that new, uh, what is it called? New Tech. Have you seen this? I don't know, new Tech. So New Tech is like a new brand outta South Korea. And they're at the Arnold, they're going to the Olympia. They're, and then obviously like pinata's been around for a while, but they dumping a ton of money into stuff.
These brands are kind of taking some of the, the space up, but like you're seeing guys like Chris Bumstead and a lot of these other guys who are super into product looking for all this old Arian equipment. So I collect the vintage stuff. Yeah, you were telling me. Yeah. So strength equipment, up until. I would say the, uh, two early two thousands was all made in the US It was all American Steel was bent, most none of it was really bolted.
It was bent and welded really. So you had Magnum, you had Paramount, you had, uh, Nebula, you had all these, I mean, awesome companies. Yeah. And um, body Masters. Mm-hmm. And, and then one of my best friends owned icar and he told me this story yesterday. It was really funny. He said, I said, why did you guys ever sell to Precore?
He said, we went to China because we need to order these parts that it was hard to get in the US And we went to this factory and we saw what they were doing over there and they were designing equipment for some other company. Mm-hmm. And they were designing it 10 times faster than us, 90% cheaper than us.
And it was, it was awesome. And he came back and he said to his partners, we have to sell the company. And they're like, what do you mean things are going great? He is like, no, we're gonna get decimated in the next two years. Everything's coming outta China. Yeah. And what, what was this, the early two thousands?
Yeah. So. Back in the day, you know, they were coming out with equipment and it wasn't as versatile as it's now. Do you like the versatility of a lot of the equipment now? Right. Like, I mean, everything's got a, you know, joint handle where you can kind of move it around now. I mean, everything's not as. Rigid as it used to be.
But I was just in a gym that was built in 1974. Wow. They had Oh wow. Touch damn thing. Oh, it's my favorite gym. Yeah. I gotta see a photo of it after. Yeah. I'll show it to, yeah. It's called, uh, Attila's Gym. It's all the way in Wildwood, New Jersey. The owner of it bought it in 1996. He's like, I haven't really touched it.
It Oh. And I love it. And it's got old hammer strength equipment. Yeah. And I carry pieces and stuff. I love training on it. Yeah. Like the old Hammer strength plate loaded shit. Sure. From the nineties is great. Well the human body hasn't changed. No. Yeah. Made changes. But the human body hasn't changed. So the things that work then still work today.
I think it's just too expensive to make this stuff we used to make. 'cause it was just a lot of steel. Mm-hmm. And it was all here in the US and if you go even before that, I have collections of stuff from the late seventies and uh, universal. Right. And some paramount. And it was all chrome and leather.
Where, where are you buying a lot of this stuff. Oh, don't I have a problem? Don't. My wife's so mad at me. She, this, she's getting, I have, I have like collectors who do stuff front look stuff for me. And really I have stuff from the late 18 hundreds. I have a stationary bike from 1857. I have like some really, so you're like a junkie for, you got like a museum in your apartment kind of.
Yeah. I, I, that space that you showed me, it's got the outdoor indoor space. Right. So that's my office. The equipment is not there. Okay. Um. Keep all, I hide it from my wife. We have this sounds, uh, this sounds nauseating, but we have three gyms in our house. That's awesome. Like I love that we should have an extra bedroom, but it's unavailable.
'cause I, yeah. So, um, I'm the same way. I want, like, there are so many times I'm like, I wish I had more space. I want to get a bigger space here in the city. But space is obviously very expensive. Yeah. But I'm like, I want to have everybody's like, what? 'cause my gym looks kinda like gunners. I just have shit everywhere.
Yep. And I love toys. I love equipment, and I love playing because there are so many different ways I can facilitate a squat or a hinge or whatever it may be. Yeah. And I'm like, I want every toy because I'm playing with it every day. Right. Sure. You know, so it's like if you're playing with your same toy every day, you're like, I, I need something new.
I wanna play with something that, the, the cool thing that did happen is, and I'm aging myself, but I was part of the team that invented the dual cable pulley. Yes. You were team. Yeah. So. Who was the first one to do that? ICAR Ian. Yeah. 'cause it was free motion ground zero. Mm-hmm. They were the first to come out with a single weights stack, two arm, and then Iion took the cable crossover, moved it closer together, angle it and bolted it.
But now you see something, which I've been waiting years to happen, and a lot of people are doing it. It's a dual cable pulley, but then there's J Hooks in the front. So it's a squat rack as well? Yes. Everybody's doing it. And now other ones are putting storage shelves in it. So you can store all your dumbbells in it, then the cables, then your barbell, and you have a whole gym in this area.
That's pretty cool. Mm-hmm. So I think that's, that's a, in the last two years, where's your favorite place to work out? My favorite place to work out. I have, I have crazy. A-D-H-D-I need, it needs to keep changing. Me too. I work outta my office mainly. Mm-hmm. Um, but, uh, uh, there's a new Golds Gym in Los Angeles, in the Beverly Center.
Mm-hmm. It's like a meathead gym, but a new meathead gym. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. I've been going there. It's the first public gym I've really gone to in the last year. Yeah. Um, the, the Four Seasons Alai in Kona. Okay. Oh, just sick. Amazing. Yeah. Um. Uh, the, the, the Gold's Gym that I went to when I was a bodybuilder in London, Ontario, Canada, it's in a basement, and it was just, we had a, a leg room and there was buckets in every corner of the leg room, and they weren't for garbage.
Mm-hmm. Like, that's when people, you know, guys were thrown. Yeah. Dude. Those are the places that I really enjoy. Yeah. Yeah. I, you know what, there are so many gyms popping up here in New York like it, it's mainly Equinox in lifetime. Just going head to head. Who could put more gyms everywhere and people gravitate towards like the big box gyms.
And I do appreciate obviously people wanting to work out and go into these gyms, but there's something to be said about a boutique space. Like something that Oh yeah, it's a one of a kind. Yeah. There's nothing else like it. That's what I love about, I said the My favorite gym and I've been around the world and you could ask one of the first things I do when I go away, I'm like, I need to find like an old school bodybuilding gym.
Yeah, sure. Someplace I could work out. And I've been to that alpha land down in Houston. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I, there's so many places I love all over the world, but the place I like working out the most is this dumpy little place in South Jersey with old beat up equipment. Sure. The carpet's from the seventies.
Right. Like nothing's been changed. Um, there's just something to be said about that energy. I and I talk about culture all the time. Yep. What do you think the secret sauce to a great gym is? I think everyone's different. You know, someone, my wife, my wife might walk into that gym and turn around and walk out.
So I think it depends who the person is and what they're looking for. Um, and who the people, if you know the people there versus not, you know, that also changes it. A gym that's crappy might feel better 'cause you love the, the people around you. Yeah, I think it's all different. I think even in Equinox there's some equinoxes I love going to in different cities because they have everything that I want, everything I need there.
Mm-hmm. Um, regardless of who the people, I don't know around me. But I think for everyone it's different. And you know, lighting can be a huge thing. I need natural light. I can't do a basement gym. I agree. I agree. Um, ceiling height for me is important. I don't like low ceiling gyms. Have you seen the New Anatomy in Miami?
Have you been there yet? I have, yeah. It looks, yeah, it looks like a church. Yeah. It's beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. He did a great job. Yeah, I think he does a really nice job. He did a great job. Um, there's a bunch, like I did the George Sank in Paris, like that's pretty cool. That's in a basement, but it's in an old bowling alley from 200 years ago and it's no France and it's super cool.
Um, I, I did an awesome one I like in Cabo. Um. I really like. Even there's a Vice Ray one I did in Cabo. That's, that's very cool. I did years ago. You, that portion of your business. Yeah. How many people do you have working for you on that side of the business? I have an office in Toronto that does our procurement.
Okay. And then in San Diego that does design. Okay. And so you have two separate offices. Yeah. And so we keep it, 'cause most of it's international business. Mm-hmm. It's good to have an office outside of the US Yeah. And we run a lean and mean machine, and I'm part of every design. No kidding. And, um, these days you don't need to have a big team to do stuff, you know?
Yeah. You, you can be more efficient. Yeah. No, I, I agree. I think. I think there's something to be said about having the diversity that you have through your business, like you have this training. Yep. Right, and a lot of people see that as a, you've probably built your business though on regular pe I mean obviously celebrities too, but like you still probably train some Oh yeah.
Honestly, people that nobody knows who the hell they are. Y yeah, yeah, for sure. It's, there was a time where I kind of only wanted to train celebs because. It created a tension for me so I could sell books and sell products and sell this and sell that. Now I'm at a point where I just wanna work with people that are really nice, people that wanna work hard mm-hmm.
And can afford to pay me. Yeah. Um, but, uh, yeah, you don't have to be famous to work with me. Yeah. One of the things, I mean, to that point. There's a lot of people out there, especially when I'm training younger trainers on how to progress their business. I was like, obviously you have to believe that you're worth what you're asking for.
Mm-hmm. You know, and I think that comes with time, comes with experience, um, but owning that and understanding that, when did you, and did you ever suffer from that point where you're like. I can't charge somebody $500 an hour. Yeah. I think I've Al and my wife's the one who's like, I can't believe you're only charging this.
You have to charge more. I'm like, but no one's gonna wanna work with me. Yeah. She's like, okay, we'll work with less people. Yeah, yeah. But you're working too many hours now, so maybe that's a good thing. Mm-hmm. But I think diversification's really important when you're able to do it. I think young trainers today too, early on, they want, they use the word brand.
Mm-hmm. I wanna be a brand, I wanna build an empire. Yeah. I wanna build, and they, you know, they've only been training people for a year or two years, or. They're spending more time making social media content than actually learning, making t-shirts that say like Scott Johnson Fit or something. You're like, no one's gonna work.
Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. I remember I tore my calf years ago and I wanted to find the best athletic therapist I could, the best physical therapist I could. Mm-hmm. And the woman who rehabbed Kobe from his Achilles stare, I tracked her down. She didn't have social media. And I said to her, I'm like, I couldn't find you on social media.
She goes, I don't have, uh, social media. I'm too busy. Doing what I do. Yeah. I don't need to do social media. And I think people forget that. They think if someone has a big following and they have cool posts, yeah. They're really good at what they do, but it's quite, they're really good at the inverse. Yeah.
Like I post a lot of recipes. I'm not a chef. There's people that cook way better than me. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but, um, nobody even knows. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I went over to, uh, there's a great place. I mean, I wish we were staying around. I'd love to take you to dinner. Um, uh, what's the steak place that we go to all the time?
No, no la um, Lato or I'll come back and try it next time you come back. The gold head. So is that what it stands? Lao? Yeah. He's French. Yeah. So it's um, Daniel Ballou's place. Oh, oh, right. Of course he's Bel Yes. Daniel Ballou. He's, I, how many times have we been there that he's in the back cooking? He's Oh yeah.
He's pushing 70 years old. This guy's in the back making steaks talking to people and I'm, I, it just blew me away. Nobus the same. Nobu is the same. He, he still at his original restaurant. Matsa in, in la Yeah. He's still, there you go. You see him there. His wife is standing there at the reception. He's still, he owns, I don't know, a hundred restaurants, 30, 40 hotels.
Yeah. No's still in there walking around. That's incredible. I love that. And it just gives me hope because when I was, when I was in school. I was like, I, I wanna be a trainer and everybody's telling me there's no money in it, and blah, blah, blah. I said, but if an accountant is gonna become an accountant and he's gonna do that till he is well into his fifties, sixties, seventies, I don't ever want to sit at a desk, right.
And do my own accounting, let alone other people's accounting. So if I picture myself as a 6-year-old or a 50-year-old. I'm like, well, the only place I like going every day is the gym, right? Because I never even go to the same coffee shop every day. I could go to the same gym every day and work out, you know, I'd love to change it up and have a bunch of them.
Um, because people always ask me, they're like, why do you have so many gym memberships? I was like, one, I support what I do. Um, but I also, I like to, I need to change it up. I want to work out some. Yeah. And it probably inspires you and you see different things and see different people. You know, for me, I, I still train clients because some of them, I mean, I don't want them to know this, but I would probably pay to spend time with them.
Mm-hmm. They're paying to spend time with me. I think of like the, the, the times I've spent with Will Ferrell and Sarah Silverman and Jack Black and, and Jason Siegel and Jason Sudeikis and all these comics that are, that's Amy Schumer and, um, who's really fed you? All of them? No, like. There had to be one or two people who were just like, yo, Harley's a man.
Go see him. Oh, Halle Berry. She was the, i, I gotta give. Well, there's two people. Eliza dku, she's still my client for really 20, I don't know how many, 20 something years. She was my client from the age of 18. Now she's in, in her, I'm not gonna say how old she is, but she's not 18. I was in love with her when I was younger.
She's beautiful. She's family. Yeah. Her and her husband Peter, I love, yeah. And then Halle Berry's, she's the one who convinced me to come to the US to get her ready for Catwoman. Note. Um, and that was early on. She was, yeah. Early two thousands. Yeah, she was integral. Um, you know, people I really love and think fondly of Pusha T from Clips, everyone's gotta get his album now.
He's been my client for so many years. He's just the best person ever. Mm-hmm. The album is incredible. Um, common was such a great client. All the comedy class. Oh, um, uh, Jed Apatow, if he hears this, I know him a lot because he put me on so much hope comedy movies really on. He was so great. So good to me. So there's been so many people along the way that are just, they don't even, it's not that they're even taking extra time.
They're just giving you a chance, or they say one nice thing about you and they don't realize how far it goes. Mm-hmm. So to help people today to do this little kind thing, ugh. Goes a long way. Yeah. It goes a long way. Like I tell people all the time, there's about three or four people I could think of right off the top of my head who are responsible for my business being where it is, and.
It was the people who didn't need to do it. They didn't need to help out. Nope. They did it out of the kindness of their heart. I think it's so important. Even Joel Silver, I owe him a thanks. Uh, he put me on a bunch of movies early on with, with A DMX and Steven Segal and really some really, oh, some terrible movies.
But, but he did. I love John Carmody. You probably don't know. He is a big movie producer. Back in the day. He put me on some, some early movies, like a Wrong Turn and Cold Creek Man, or some really crappy movies, but still, you know. Yeah. I mean anything with Steven Segal in it from 88 to 93, I was obsessed with, oh yeah, I love all those movies.
They were all, almost every one of his movies, except for one, I think is three words. Yeah. Hard to Kill Above the Law. Marked for Death. Marked for death. Under Siege was two under Siege. Yeah. Those are gr I love all those movies. I could tell you every line in undersea, it was like one of my favorite movies as a kid.
Yeah. Um, so, um. Now, just like I was saying before, you have your training business, you have the gym build out, which I admire the hell out. 'cause I've just been dabbling in that and I just find joy in it. Like John's gym, I basically did it for nothing. Well, it's like you're a chef and you know what a kitchen would would wanna look like for you to work in.
Of course. So you're designing kitchens for people. Yeah. And that's exactly, and then now you have, I mean you've obviously done a ton of stuff on television, but you know your whole book career. Yeah. With the new book. Yeah. You know, uh, on carbs. Yeah. Which a lot of people, I mean, and I'm guilty of this too because I'm just not, when I cut carbs outta my diet, not completely like I love fruit.
I'll eat plates and plates of fruit and vegetables. And even this morning I had like a little bit of, uh, potatoes and stuff. What kind of m. What kind of sparked the idea to want to write this book about carbs when people are like denouncing it? It started, um, it started when I was in Japan. The first time I was in Japan.
I looked around and no one was overweight. Mm-hmm. Right now Japan is a 4% obesity rate. It was 1.3% at the time, and people were just knocking back bulls of white rice just knocking 'em back. Yeah. And I remember thinking, well, why is the US going so low carb crazy when. Japan that basically doesn't have obesity and lives a decade longer than us mm-hmm.
Is really a carbohydrate based diet. So I took a year off my practice and I traveled to the 10 healthiest countries in the world to the Asian countries, the Mediterranean countries, the Scandinavian countries. And the one thing they all have in common is they're all high carb diets. Every single one of them, they all have low, lower obesity rates, diabetes, heart disease, cancer.
Mm-hmm. And here we are in the us, arguably one of, if not the most unhealthy country in the world. We actually have a low carb diet in the us. The US actually gets significantly less than half of its calories from carbohydrate, and there's almost been this linear relationship as we've dropped carbs.
Obesity's continued to rise, so dropping carbs as a country has not at all slowed at all, slowed or reversed the rise in obesity. That was the one thing that I saw, and the other was as a bodybuilder, I remember, you can't think of any other demographic that gets as lean as a bodybuilder. I mean, you see striations on the muscle and veins, protrude.
We eat carbs up until the day we go on stage. Up until the day we go on stage we eat carbs and sometimes we'll cut carbs two days before and then carb load the night before. But whatever it is, we're eating carbs. Mm-hmm. Sweet potatoes and, and rice, and rice cakes and all that stuff. And I remember wondering like, why are people cutting carbs?
And so I took a deep dive and this really comes, it boils down to there's no faster way to change the number on a scale than cutting carb. There's no faster way. Mm-hmm. If you, if I cut out all my carbs today, tomorrow I'll be several pounds lighter. Mm-hmm. But it's just water. I do it all the time. Be before I do a juujitsu tour.
Right. Just water. Yeah. And the second you eat carbs, that comes right back. Mm-hmm. And if the goal is to burn body fat, why is dropping water, which your body needs to, to be healthy a good thing? So I looked at the literature and I remember in, in university one of the first things we learned in, in metabolism was fat burns in a carbohydrate flame.
If carbohydrates. Present, your body is much better at burning fat, much, much better kreb cycle. Mm-hmm. And, and looking at all the literature, at no point did science tell us we should cut carbs. At no point ever. You had keto and you had Atkins, and you had all of these extreme diets. And where the Atkins came about was he was a cardiovascular surgeon.
May he rest in peace. Mm-hmm. And a lot of people needed to come in for surgery, but they were too obese and it's dangerous to put them under general anesthesia. And he came up with this crash diet of cutting carbs so you can drop weight to be lighter, to get anesthesia. At no point did he say it's healthy or sustainable.
People didn't like, wow, I took cut out all my carbs and I, I've lost weight. So the first thing to think about is you're, you're cutting calories, you're cutting back water, and you're cutting a lot of foods that you think are carbs but aren't, you're like, all right, no more pastries. Well, that's not really a carb.
Pastries are are fat, right? No more french fries. Well, that's mainly a fat as well. No more donuts. That's actually mainly a fat. Mm-hmm. So a lot of these foods that we attribute to being carbohydrates aren't, the issue is not carbohydrates, it's how refined is that carbohydrate? So, you know, filo dough, if you have a, a cake, that's very different than having, uh, a potato.
Yeah. French fries is different than having a potato. Yeah. Apple juice is different than having an apple. Mm-hmm. And I think that's the most important thing we have to think is that carbs are good. Carbs are, you know, uh, countries that eat the most legumes. Uh, whole grains. Yeah. Fruits and most vegetables tend to live exponentially longer, have better health markers.
So I want people to return to carbohydrates, embrace carbohydrates, not be scared of carbohydrates, have them in their whole state. Mm-hmm. Whenever possible. And just know that there's no such thing as a bad food or a forbidden food. It's all about balance and moderation. Do you think because I, I have gotten travel a lot over the, uh, over the years and I look at other countries and we are by far, if not the, I think we're probably the worst.
When it comes to, yeah, diet and exercise and all these things, like we just don't move. I think just this weekend I was walking on the beach and I'm looking at all these people who are. Morbidly morbidly obese. Yeah. In a chair with a cooler next to them. They plan to not move to sit there to drink beer and eat shitty food.
Mm-hmm. And I'm just like, where did we go wrong? What happened here? I think success and efficiency, you know, we hyper uh, process foods mm-hmm. In order to make them more available, more delicious, uh, more cost effective to drive industry. And I think that comes from. Uh, working more than, we work more hours a year than almost any country in the world.
Mm-hmm. So we work a lot and we want foods that are quick and convenient. You know, TV dinners is an American thing and so really our food today is an extension of that. You have a TV dinner. Yeah. Sitting and eating while you're watching TV is not a good thing. While sitting at your desk while you're working or scrolling through social media and knocking back whatever processed food you have is also not a good thing.
Mm-hmm. So I think it comes from success and tends to be the wealthier a country is. The more overweight, it often is a poorer country. They're eating cheaper things like potatoes and rice and things like that, and they actually tend to be a lot healthier than we are. Yeah, I I do you, would you say it's the combination, and this is what I tell a lot of my clients is, you know, there's only three macro micronutrients, there are macronutrients, you should have all three.
Right. Uh, it's just the way it's kinda served to becomes the problem and, and the ratios. Yeah. So I tell people follow the path. The word path, PATH. Mm-hmm. A palm of carbohydrates like legumes. Mm-hmm. Uh, sweet potatoes, uh, fruits, whole grains. Yeah. Um, a is all the vegetables you want. T is the mass of your thumb of a healthy fat, like avocados, nuts, seeds, olives and H is the mass of your hand of protein, chicken, fish, eggs, et cetera.
Mm-hmm. Even an egg is not protein. That's a thing that people don't know. An egg is more fat. Right. Receives 70% of its calories from fat. Mm-hmm. An egg white is a protein. Yeah. Wow. So. The new book, it's Out. Kim's out today, carb Reset. Super exciting. It's a science, it's an evidence-based, which today people don't believe in science as much as they once did.
They believe, whatever the hell, they believe it. I think everybody makes up the right. Um, this is an evidence-based book. Mm-hmm. Uh, packed with incredible references. Um, and a lot of 'em are common sense. So, you know, whether you understand science or not. It's, it is common sense. And when people have kids, it's really a simple question.
They're, they ask me like, Hey, should I cut out carbs? And I say, do you have kids? They're like, yeah, would you tell your 7-year-old to cut out carbs? They're like, no, of course not. Well, why would you cut out carbs? Yeah. Well, I guess you're right. And that's really a great thing, whether you have kids or nieces, nephews, your friends, have kids.
Always ask yourself before you embark upon a health practice, what? I want that kid to do that. And if not, why would you do it? So many people think like the rules that apply to adults. Shouldn't apply to kids as well. Right. What are some of the, the myths that you've heard about exercise over the years?
And obviously, you know this. I actually, I'm very interested in reading this now even more than I was before, because it does make perfect sense to me. I mean, it's very impressive that you spent a year now like traveling and mm-hmm. Finding all this out, but, um. What do you think some of the myths are that, you know, I even the other day, for instance, I had a, a woman in the gym and she has a 7-year-old daughter and she's like, I want her to start working out, but I don't want her to lift weights 'cause I don't want it to stun her growth.
Right. So it's like we have all these myths, like that stunts your growth and that you know, you shouldn't have too much protein or you shouldn't have too much red meat because it's gonna cause uh, cholesterol and heart attack. What are, what are some of the myths that, you know, you wished we could just do away with?
Um, that you need to be sore for it to be a good workout. Mm-hmm. Uh, that weights bulk, um, that working out in a hot environment is in any way good for you. Uh, I think those are three, three pretty good ones. Or that, um, if Pilates is all you need, uh, or yoga is all you need, I think a, a different modalities can all be helpful.
Um, I think those are, those are pretty good ones. Yeah. There, it's, it's. The more people, I feel like the more people who come into the fitness space or the wellness space, whatever you wanna call it, uh, the more we start to hear like, oh, well this is it. Everybody's looking for that definitive, or people that walk around with continuous glucose monitors and are not diabetics is in.
It's insane to me. Yeah. Um, people that focus on pre-workout, anything, um, you know, caffeine takes a while to enter a system. My job in the military was a caffeine scientist for three years, really for performance. So, you know, caffeine is a peak concentration, 90 minutes after ingestion. So when you walk into a gym and you start to drink your caffeine, it's not gonna hit you until you're done your workout.
Small things like that. Yeah. What's your thoughts on c I'm a huge coffee guy. I, I genuinely like the taste of talking to the right guy. Yeah. He used to go to the World Barista contest every day. Oh really? Jimmy Butler, he's a buddy. He, um, he gave me the best 50th gift that anyone could ever give. He gave me a setup at home, Lamore Zko Linein, a G three, and a Grinder, and the whole like, commercial setup.
And I have beans sent in every week from, um, 49th parallel roasters in Canada. Okay. Like, I, I'm not well. I mean, I really am into my coffee. How many cups do you have a day? I have two espressos. Okay. Yeah. And even this morning I got a cup of black coffee and it was with a bunch of these younger guys who were doing this photo shoot and they're like, dude, you're like old man style.
You drink it black. I'm like, if you get a good cup of coffee Right, you ruin it with milk. It's like having a steak and putting ketchup on your steak or ice cubes in your wine. Yeah. It ruins it. It's like you defeat the purpose of having it. Yep. Yeah. Um, I mean, listen, in my opinion, you've have done, like, if I could have, if I could figure out how to do one eighth of what you've done, you're doing it right now.
Yeah. I'm trying. Hey, I'm the one that reached out to you. I'm the one that said I wanna speak at your event, and you have no idea how much that meant. Like I get goosebumps. Like I appreciate that so much. Of course. Because if I look at the landscape of guys that I admire, and I told this many times, I wrote in a book years ago.
Little notebook that I have at home. I said I go, success to me wouldn't be having a ton of money, which that'd be nice, but it would be sharing a stage or sharing the industry with people that I admire. And you are one of 'em. So I'm honored that you reached out. I'm honored that you said yes to this.
Thank you. Um, for those of you out there who don't know who Harley is, I'm sure you all do. Definitely go check out the new book. Thank you. Right? Yep. Card reset. Available link on my bio on Instagram, or you can go to Amazon. We'll, and we'll put it, we'll have it in our email. We'll send it out. Awesome. Um, and then maybe we'll get a couple copies.
I'd love to. Dish it out at the event or something there? Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. Maybe we, so a couple years ago we did like a little bookshelf and we had all like our speakers and different people that like books we recommend. So I'd love to put that up there. Oh, that'd be, yeah.
That'd be awesome. Yeah. Thanks man. Well thank you so much for coming by. I appreciate you. Being here, and hopefully we'll get to hang out again. Some yes. Other time I wanna meet Bon Jovi, so I gotta see him again too. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in, obviously, like share, subscribe with a friend. Uh, hope you enjoyed another episode here on the strong New York slash String Club podcast.