Order of Man - OoM 046： Building Physical, Mental, and Emotional Strength with Chris Duffin

00:00:00.000 When we think of strength, we think of being physically strong, and while there's certainly an element of physical strength,

00:00:04.760 masculinity requires you to be strong physically, mentally, and emotionally.

00:00:08.620 My guest today, former world record holder for the back squat, Chris Duffin,

00:00:12.440 teaches us how building our physical strength will help us become strong in every area of our lives.

00:00:18.620 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest.

00:00:21.520 Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.

00:00:24.440 When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.

00:00:28.560 You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.

00:00:33.960 This is your life. This is who you are.

00:00:36.500 This is who you will become at the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:00:43.860 Welcome guys to the Order of Man podcast. I am Ryan Michler, the host and founder of Order of Man.

00:00:48.760 Now we're talking all things manly on this podcast, as you know, from health and leadership to fitness, money, and so much more.

00:00:54.740 But today we're talking specifically about building strength, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.

00:01:01.140 Now just a quick heads up, I do want you to tune into another podcast this week.

00:01:05.220 That is the MFCEO podcast, as I had the chance to spend some time last week with the MFCEO himself, Mr. Andy Frisilla.

00:01:13.500 We talked about my favorite subject, masculinity, and what it means to be a man.

00:01:17.360 Again, you will not want to miss our conversation as we pull no punches, if you're familiar with his show, and what it means to be a man in today's society.

00:01:24.600 So you can go to themfceo.com to check that out.

00:01:27.880 Now, as always, I want to share with you about our elite mastermind, The Iron Council.

00:01:31.740 This is exclusively for men who are ready to level up in their lives.

00:01:35.620 The men who are tired of sitting on the sidelines and letting life pass them by.

00:01:39.920 They're not getting the girls, they're losing in their marriages, they're having a hard time connecting with their kids or growing their businesses.

00:01:45.200 But frankly, they're sick and tired of seeing their buddies pass them by and feel like there's just got to be more to life.

00:01:53.000 So if you're ready to actually do something about this and stop talking about it, head to orderofman.com slash ironcouncil.

00:01:59.320 So you can connect on a deep level with other men who are doing what it is that you want to do in your life and want nothing more than to see you succeed.

00:02:07.580 So again, orderofman.com slash ironcouncil.

00:02:10.920 Also, our weekly giveaway with my friends over at Seneca Creek.

00:02:13.620 Congrats to the winner of last week's giveaway, which was the Achi Knife by CRKT.

00:02:18.320 Now, this week, we're actually going to be doing another knife giveaway by CRKT since it was such a big hit last week.

00:02:24.460 And if you're interested in joining or entering for that, you can enter the giveaway by heading to orderofman.com slash Seneca Creek giveaway six.

00:02:34.640 Now, let's get into the show.

00:02:35.920 Remember, you can find all the links and the resources and the discussion over at orderofman.com slash zero four six.

00:02:41.480 And, of course, you can join in the conversation we're having with over 1,900 men now on Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash order of man.

00:02:49.560 Now, let me introduce my guest.

00:02:51.160 It is Mr. Chris Duffin.

00:02:52.980 Now, he's a dominant force in strength lifting.

00:02:55.280 He at one point held the all-time raw world record with an 881-pound back squat at a 220-pound body weight.

00:03:02.820 In 2014, he posted a raw total of 2,061 pounds in the 220-pound class.

00:03:08.960 In addition to his own competitive success, he has been the owner and coach of Elite Performance Center in Portland, Oregon since 2008.

00:03:15.600 Not only is this guy strong, but he's extremely intelligent.

00:03:18.380 Chris Duffin holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from the Oregon Institute of Technology and also an MBA from the University of Phoenix.

00:03:25.020 His unique approach and insight into training has helped many of the students go on to success beyond their expectations.

00:03:32.880 Chris, thanks for joining me on the show.

00:03:34.080 I'm glad you're here today.

00:03:35.300 Me as well.

00:03:35.800 Thanks for having me.

00:03:37.000 So, is strength and conditioning something that you've always been into?

00:03:40.440 Is this relatively new?

00:03:41.760 Obviously, you've been working out for a while just by looking at your pictures.

00:03:45.140 But tell me a little bit about how you got into this and how long you've been doing it for.

00:03:48.520 Yeah, it's been a pretty big cornerstone of my entire life.

00:03:53.520 I guess I was a little bit of a social outcast at some levels when I was growing up just because I grew up homeless and just like, you know, the way I dressed and the way, you know, just I didn't interact well with a lot of people.

00:04:07.160 And so I was with sports at the time and that really helped me be able to connect.

00:04:12.960 And also, you know, I was that nerdy guy.

00:04:15.120 I ended up being, I was a valid Victorian of my high school and, you know, I was like that nerdy guy as well.

00:04:19.900 And just for me, the strength training was great balance.

00:04:25.660 And, you know, the level of, you know, what it brought to me as far as self-confidence.

00:04:30.700 Again, you know, able to build relationships with other males.

00:04:34.760 And it just, it became a huge thing for me.

00:04:37.860 And, you know, so I continued, you know, the academic or professional side of my life but never lost the, you know, the strength aspect, the strength training.

00:04:46.600 And so that's been, you know, from a very early age, a critical component of my life.

00:04:54.880 And, yeah, so I've been doing, I've been strength training for like 25 years or something, something like that.

00:05:00.400 And I've been competing professionally for, oh, 16 years now.

00:05:07.660 And so a pretty big piece of the life.

00:05:11.680 You've been doing it for a while then, it's safe to say.

00:05:13.840 Yes, yes.

00:05:14.480 What sports did you play?

00:05:17.320 What did you get into in high school?

00:05:19.300 My big thing was wrestling.

00:05:21.380 And then I did track and field as well.

00:05:24.700 But wrestling was, I think I went all the way through districts and all the way through state without having a single offensive point that scored against me until the final state match.

00:05:35.120 So I was pretty decent at that.

00:05:37.260 Everybody wanted me on the football team because I was a pretty athletic and large, strong guy.

00:05:43.360 But I ended up, I was did cross country, if you can imagine that.

00:05:47.580 Really?

00:05:48.060 Yeah, for a big guy doing that.

00:05:49.460 That's interesting.

00:05:50.320 But I was getting in shape for wrestling every year.

00:05:52.680 And so I was, I was the largest cross country runner in the state, I believe, and probably one of the slowest.

00:06:02.000 Hey, but you were out there doing your thing.

00:06:03.580 That's a good thing.

00:06:04.140 And then you also kind of broke the mold and the stereotype with, you know, the jocks, the quote unquote jocks and the intellects don't typically mix.

00:06:12.480 So for you to be on both sides of that aisle is an interesting perspective, I'm sure.

00:06:16.040 Yeah, it's actually kind of the foundation of what I do now because I bring so much data driven and just intellect to what I do and how I approach it that that's where my main following and basically my business is today is around that.

00:06:31.840 So I, even though I don't have, you know, any degrees in the field, I lecture at PhD level courses.

00:06:39.020 You know, I travel around the States, you know, speaking and it's, and it's about kind of the systems and stuff I've developed based around.

00:06:46.360 And, and so it's really interesting, I mean, to sit in from a room of from 30 to 150 doctors and, you know, talk on the subject, even though, and then strength athletes, I mean, obviously follow me.

00:06:56.720 I mean, that's kind of my core, core following, but it's, I'm the, I'm bringing the, you know, that aspect of it to the strength training world, which is, I think is needed.

00:07:05.600 And it's definitely people that follow my work, you know, see the results.

00:07:09.140 So, so how does that compare your intellectual type approach in the scientific research and all the data that's supporting what you're talking about?

00:07:19.020 And how does that compare with the other trainers, the other coaches?

00:07:24.300 I mean, is there much of that going on or is it completely opposite of that?

00:07:27.840 It's getting more popular now for sure.

00:07:30.020 So there's a lot of similar type people kind of popping up now that are getting, you know, getting some good traction, but there's still a huge gap.

00:07:38.200 And this is the gap I'm trying to bridge because, because if you look up, you know, fitness, you're going to find like all these models and celebrity trainers.

00:07:46.120 And, you know, it's all about the look.

00:07:48.760 And if you get anywhere in the industry, it's the same thing.

00:07:51.680 It's this very, I don't know, I almost find it disgusting like this, the level of it's just this look and everything's over makeup and the hair and like, you know, it's just all this.

00:08:03.200 But, so I'm kind of the antithesis to that because there is so much great content out there, particularly like on the clinical side, but nobody's able to bridge the gap because people get on, they start looking, you know, get online and they're on Instagram or Facebook.

00:08:17.380 And they start following all these, you know, inspirational models that post pictures and, you know, their training and stuff like that.

00:08:23.500 So, you know, that's where I'm trying to bridge the gap is I'm trying to be the guy that is popular within that, you know, group that people can follow.

00:08:32.400 They can get behind, they can be inspired by what I'm doing, but I'm bringing true content.

00:08:36.760 And I'm working with the doctors, the people that are, you know, developing some of the key material that, that, that I use in my systems and bridge that gap and help, you know, bring people to, to stuff that really makes them better.

00:08:49.920 Because to me, strength training should make you better at life.

00:08:54.780 It should make you function better.

00:08:56.360 It should make you, it should help your emotional, you know, wellbeing, your mental wellbeing, like all these things.

00:09:03.340 And if done correctly, I mean, have a positive impact across every aspect of your life.

00:09:08.200 What are some of those lessons for you, you know, as you were growing up and I want to hear a little bit more about your backstory because it sounds like it's interesting.

00:09:14.060 What are some of those lessons that you learned in the gym and through athletics that have transferred over into now running a business and in general, just being a man?

00:09:23.540 I'll try to keep the backstory really brief because we're, I think we're tight on time.

00:09:28.000 But essentially by the time I graduated high school, I'd spent half my life being homeless.

00:09:32.480 You know, we lived, we lived in the woods, you know, foraged for food, killed animals, you know, lived in tents, lived in abandoned homes.

00:09:39.820 So I ended up putting myself through college on academic scholarships and, you know, in the middle of college, things got really bad at home.

00:09:47.460 I ended up taking custody of my three sisters and I raised them, you know, while I, while I finished my engineering degrees, while I got my master's degree and while my career, which was very successful.

00:09:57.900 But, you know, that the, the lessons learned are very, some of them are very, very simple.

00:10:02.480 And it's just a matter of, I preach three things really, really key, um, which is vision, consistency, and hard work.

00:10:12.640 And, you know, so many people, I think they're what I call dreamers, you know, everybody says you need to be a dreamer, but dreams get you nowhere.

00:10:21.380 You know, you've got to be, you've got to combine that with action, right.

00:10:24.580 And action over time.

00:10:26.720 And you've got to be willing to have a plan, but also adjust the plan and have a lot of different routes, you know, alternative outcomes and know, you know, when things hit you, what steps you need to take.

00:10:38.940 And, and all of this is practice in your training and realizing that, you know, guess what?

00:10:43.060 You know, you could look like me, but it's going to take you 25 years.

00:10:46.880 Right.

00:10:47.320 Yeah.

00:10:47.600 You've been doing it most of your life.

00:10:48.720 It's the opposite of instant gratification, right?

00:10:51.100 Yeah, for sure.

00:10:51.920 So you've got to dream.

00:10:52.600 I want to be that person.

00:10:53.620 I want to be that, but you've got to, you've got to realize that there's a lot of steps and a lot of hard work and a lot of missed, you know, non-miss training sessions and pushing yourself, you know, those physical and, you know, mental limits.

00:11:06.620 That's, that's all, you know, how you are successful in life.

00:11:10.140 That's how you, that's how you're successful in business.

00:11:12.200 That's how you're successful in relationships, you know?

00:11:15.040 And then the other is just what I call the practice of the practice of living in fear.

00:11:20.040 You know, the big things that hit you in life, you can never plan for early on.

00:11:25.240 You know, we have these primal urges is like, you know, you need to leave, you need to leave the house, you know, you know, you're growing up, you want to find a mate, right?

00:11:33.480 You want to find, you know, you want to have kids, right?

00:11:36.800 And all these, if you think back, they were actually, they were really scary, but exciting, right?

00:11:42.060 And then people stagnate, look at them, they get through that phase and then, then they seek comfort.

00:11:48.420 There's no more of these primal urges, right?

00:11:50.900 And guess what?

00:11:52.180 Every one of those brought growth is for you as a person.

00:11:56.240 You need to practice actually staying in that state in your life.

00:11:59.260 If you want to continue to progress and grow, you've got to live in uncomfort.

00:12:02.740 You've got to seek the uncomfortableness, seek to challenge yourself, seek to push yourself, seek yourself to be scared.

00:12:08.900 Like for myself, I just told you, I hit a really epic Scott squat.

00:12:13.500 Yeah, right.

00:12:14.140 This morning.

00:12:14.580 Yeah, that was a half an hour ago.

00:12:17.120 And, uh, you know, do you think there was a level of fear getting under that bar going, if I go down, is things going to, are things going to rip apart?

00:12:24.700 Right. 0.97

00:12:25.160 Or kill me, literally kill me. 1.00

00:12:26.480 Am I going to come out of this? 1.00

00:12:27.580 I've got 944 pounds on my back.

00:12:29.820 You're scared doing that, but you've got to be confident at the same time.

00:12:33.120 You've got to believe that you can do it.

00:12:35.020 So, you know, that's just kind of that mental practice of, you know, walk into the gym and it's like, you know, I'm not saying push yourself and hurt yourself.

00:12:42.940 That's actually the opposite of what I preach on movement.

00:12:45.300 Do it absolutely correct.

00:12:46.800 But you need to push the mental aspect of it.

00:12:49.420 Like it's an opportunity to discover who you are, like what you're capable of today.

00:12:54.920 You could have been a war here 20 years ago, done some amazing things, but you've sought comfort.

00:13:00.240 You've become a different person, you know, and that, that challenging, that scary time comes up and the challenge arises and you step away from it.

00:13:08.240 You're afraid of it.

00:13:09.040 You don't know how to handle it.

00:13:10.160 You've got to, you've got to practice to be in that state your entire life.

00:13:13.460 So that's, that's what I call the practice of living in fear.

00:13:16.520 So that's an important lesson.

00:13:17.800 The other one is that, you know, vision, consistency, hard work, you know, that's, that's what makes you in life.

00:13:23.440 So these are two really important lessons.

00:13:25.600 There's a lot of others that we could delve into from project management to in developing training cycles.

00:13:31.280 You know, a lot of, a lot of other stuff, but those are, those are two big things.

00:13:34.540 And I see people either not take those lessons from the gym and apply them to their life, or they're great and successful in life.

00:13:43.060 And they come into the gym and they go through the motions.

00:13:46.040 Sure.

00:13:46.600 Yeah.

00:13:46.820 And you can have both.

00:13:47.940 I mean, life is about like, I call it a balance of extremes.

00:13:51.720 You don't achieve balance through moderation.

00:13:54.680 That's where you achieve boredom.

00:13:57.960 That's where you don't stagnation and plateaus, all these things.

00:14:00.940 Right.

00:14:01.440 So, so for me, like we get back to what I was just saying, you know, you know, pushing yourself, living in fear.

00:14:06.680 You know, if we talk about when I'm, when I'm speaking to athletes, I say, I want you to push yourself to the absolute freaking limits, but I want you to do it.

00:14:16.840 Absolutely.

00:14:17.300 Right.

00:14:17.940 Like, well, that's the antithesis of each other.

00:14:19.560 You can't do that.

00:14:20.260 I'm like, yes, you can.

00:14:21.660 And you will.

00:14:23.020 That is how you achieve balance is through it.

00:14:26.220 It's through extremes, not through moderation.

00:14:30.020 Moderation never got anybody anywhere in life.

00:14:32.580 Yeah.

00:14:33.120 I mean, at least nobody that I care about looking, looking up to.

00:14:37.180 Nobody that you would know or recognize, right?

00:14:39.460 Exactly.

00:14:39.860 What kind of life is that?

00:14:43.480 The phrase that I think about in sports is you're only as good as your last at bat.

00:14:47.460 That's what's coming to mind for me when you're talking about this.

00:14:49.580 So how do you personally stay motivated?

00:14:51.780 I mean, how do you keep pushing it?

00:14:52.900 Because I know you had a previous world record for squat, which was like 890 pounds or so right in there.

00:15:00.160 And you can correct me on that number.

00:15:02.200 How do you go from that, which just sounds like an insane amount of weight on your back to a guy like me, to thinking, I've got to push this.

00:15:10.760 I've got to add 50 pounds.

00:15:12.100 I've got to add 60 pounds and to be where you're at today.

00:15:14.520 How do you do that personally, not just only in gym, but in life in general?

00:15:19.120 That's a good question.

00:15:20.040 I don't know if I got a direct answer right off because that's just part of who I am, I guess.

00:15:25.680 I mean, I think people do too many things.

00:15:28.720 They do too many things because, again, they're trying to moderate.

00:15:33.080 You know, you need to pick what you really value in life.

00:15:37.160 And as you're walking through life every day, you need to assess how things fit in.

00:15:44.220 Tasks to me are not important, like all the little crap that so many people get tied up in doing.

00:15:49.240 I've got to watch my show.

00:15:51.140 Okay, admittedly, I'm kind of bad on some things.

00:15:52.880 My wife will tell you.

00:15:53.960 We all are, right?

00:15:54.880 Yeah, right.

00:15:55.900 That's how you achieve excellence, though, is limiting those things.

00:15:59.640 I want an epic life.

00:16:02.400 And I do a few things in my life, but I don't do too many.

00:16:07.600 So, you know, I love off-roading.

00:16:09.960 I have my own personal machine shop where I build vehicles, make parts.

00:16:15.280 I've got – I love lifting weights.

00:16:16.960 I own a gym.

00:16:18.380 I speak on movement.

00:16:20.340 Family is huge for me.

00:16:22.200 If you can't tell from the back story, I'm really close with my siblings, and I have my own family now.

00:16:26.960 But you know what?

00:16:27.720 I don't waste time watching football on Sundays.

00:16:30.240 And, you know, not that – I'm sure some people are not going to like that comment.

00:16:33.440 But it comes down to –

00:16:37.480 If it's important to you, you're going to find time, and you're going to make it happen.

00:16:41.560 Going back to that consistency factor, that – the vision, consistency, and hard work, right?

00:16:45.960 A lot of people want to dream that they can, you know, be that person.

00:16:51.320 But when it comes to doing the work, following the steps, they don't do it.

00:16:57.040 As an owner of a gym, you know, I have people that come in and say, God, I want to be – I want to set the American record at this.

00:17:03.400 I want to do that.

00:17:04.180 And, you know, other things – and they've always got excuses because their work's so hard or their family – and, you know, I don't accept excuses.

00:17:12.720 I have this injury.

00:17:13.940 I have that.

00:17:14.620 And I'm like, you know what?

00:17:15.740 I've had – I can't count the number of surgeries.

00:17:18.760 On top of running the gym, the last 20 years, I was running companies, doing turnaround work.

00:17:25.860 I've got a family.

00:17:26.900 I've got all – you know, like I have – I rarely find a person that can outdo me as far as the, you know, the stories.

00:17:32.760 And I'm like, they're just excuses.

00:17:37.160 If it's important to you, don't be just that dreamer.

00:17:41.380 You set the importance when you decide what you're going to do every day.

00:17:45.560 And so to me, it comes down to it.

00:17:47.260 It is an important thing.

00:17:48.400 So I do the work.

00:17:50.720 I develop the plan, and I follow through on it.

00:17:53.340 So that's just an everyday thing.

00:17:55.140 But, yeah, that's what I'm going for right now.

00:17:57.100 As I said, at the time, it was the 881 pounds.

00:18:00.320 I did it, 220-pound body weight.

00:18:03.000 Which, at the time, was not only a world record in that class, but it was the heaviest four-times body weight squat ever done in the history of powerlifting.

00:18:11.680 Really?

00:18:12.320 I thought it was going to be a record that stood for 20 years.

00:18:14.980 A good friend of mine actually reset it just above that.

00:18:18.260 So, yeah, now I'm doing the work to take that record back.

00:18:22.060 I thought that was going to be, you know, there for kind of the rest of my career.

00:18:26.060 And that's not the case.

00:18:27.500 So now I've got to do the work.

00:18:29.400 And so to me, does that answer your question?

00:18:33.180 Oh, absolutely.

00:18:34.420 Yeah, absolutely.

00:18:35.300 I think, like you said, just putting in the work and getting after it at the end of the day.

00:18:39.080 And like you said, too, is that I think a lot of guys will make excuses and say they can't do things.

00:18:44.020 But at the end of the day, the only reason they make those excuses is because maybe it's just not that important to them.

00:18:48.320 Because if it were, they wouldn't make those excuses.

00:18:50.020 And then this is what will get excited about things.

00:18:53.940 And they do it hardcore for like six months.

00:18:56.780 And then it drops off and they go into the next thing and the next thing.

00:18:59.900 And that's where, again, that prioritization and understanding like what you really want out of life.

00:19:05.860 And, you know, following through on that and the consistency.

00:19:08.640 You know, guess what?

00:19:09.880 This is no matter how people live today, believing that, you know, and living the instant gratification world that they do.

00:19:16.720 This is this comes down to all things like manly.

00:19:19.500 It takes it takes work.

00:19:22.000 It takes commitment.

00:19:23.460 It takes follow through.

00:19:25.140 That's what separates us from these the boy men that run around in the world today, in my opinion.

00:19:30.880 I agree.

00:19:31.460 What is so let's talk about commitment and discipline specifically to your craft, which is strength, strength and power lifting.

00:19:38.960 What does your routine look like?

00:19:40.600 What are your days look like?

00:19:41.600 What does it look like for the at the gym for you?

00:19:43.800 I'm just curious of your level of working out.

00:19:46.440 Yeah, so it's varied a lot based on my schedule.

00:19:50.480 So like the last oh, the last 10 years, like I said, that I was doing like some company turnaround, stuff like that for other people.

00:19:57.620 My schedule was pretty hectic.

00:19:59.080 I would get in about three to four sessions a week, two hours a piece.

00:20:02.720 So pretty set on the time limit because I would get off work on a on a Monday and a Wednesday and I've got to be home at a certain time to be with my family because that's the priority.

00:20:12.460 Right.

00:20:12.780 So so that one, you know, trumps and if I get in late, you know, sometimes it's a shorter workout and then I then Saturday morning.

00:20:19.560 So it was basically a three day, three day training.

00:20:22.620 The last couple of years, I knew I was here.

00:20:25.340 So I started taking, you know, a longer lunch break on like a Thursday or Friday and mixing in some an extra session to get it up to four days a week.

00:20:33.480 But I've since left the corporate world and well, in a sense, I own my own company.

00:20:40.600 But right.

00:20:41.440 So I train pretty frequently now, I think a lot more than what's needed.

00:20:45.480 But I train six days a week just because I love to do it and I can.

00:20:50.980 And a couple of those days sometimes are doubles.

00:20:54.240 So it's like eight sessions a week.

00:20:56.140 So that sounds like a lot.

00:20:57.080 And it is.

00:20:57.460 I don't know anybody else that does that.

00:20:59.800 And it's not something that you need.

00:21:01.600 You can see how successful I was at doing three days a week for years and years and years.

00:21:06.940 But it's it's it's it's a lot of work now.

00:21:10.340 But that's that's kind of my job.

00:21:11.900 And that's what I enjoy doing.

00:21:13.300 And and I'm enjoying the benefits of the, you know, the choices that I've that I've made in my life.

00:21:18.880 Yeah, I can see that.

00:21:20.240 How do you recommend?

00:21:21.220 I mean, I'm a big proponent of exercise and working out.

00:21:23.800 I've told a lot of guys and most of the guys listening to this for any amount of time know that two years ago, I was actually 50 pounds more than I was today and not in a good way.

00:21:30.600 I was overweight, heavy, fat, and I've lost that weight through diet and exercise.

00:21:36.300 How do you recommend somebody who's maybe in that same situation that says I need to get stronger or I need to get more fit actually start moving in the right direction?

00:21:44.860 Well, first thing I would recommend is that they go find my website.

00:21:51.120 Yeah.

00:21:51.580 Hey, throw it in there. 0.99

00:21:52.780 So kabukiewarrior.com, it's going to be changing shortly to kabukistrength.net.

00:21:58.660 Currently, that's the latter house my store.

00:22:02.440 And you'll find links to to my YouTube channel, which is really well known because it goes through some really fundamental pieces on breathing, bracing, and some of the basics of all loaded human movement.

00:22:19.460 So there's a lot of it that's coached specifically to squatting, benching, and deadlifting, real basic push, press, and pull.

00:22:30.120 But the same fundamentals approach apply to everything.

00:22:33.560 It doesn't matter whether you're doing strong lifting.

00:22:35.520 The concepts are the same.

00:22:37.760 And we want to get those in really early.

00:22:40.600 So you don't need to be a competitive lifter or even have that in your goals.

00:22:45.520 But that's how you – so movement, if you think about this, I mean movement is – we're designed to do it all the time.

00:22:53.760 And that's what goes wrong with a lot of people in our society today.

00:22:57.760 Let's take a quick question for you.

00:23:01.620 I'm going to give you a pop quiz.

00:23:03.260 All right.

00:23:03.460 Let's see what I – let's see how I can do it.

00:23:06.400 Number one healthcare cost in America, diabetes.

00:23:11.500 Sure.

00:23:11.880 Okay.

00:23:12.360 Heart disease, back pain, cancer, AIDS.

00:23:16.920 All right.

00:23:17.260 Which of those is –

00:23:18.300 All right.

00:23:18.320 The number one, I would say diabetes because it's ongoing in my mind.

00:23:23.540 So that's what I would say.

00:23:24.640 It's back pain.

00:23:25.600 Is it really?

00:23:26.260 Back pain.

00:23:27.500 Number one –

00:23:28.040 Well, I guess that's ongoing as well, right?

00:23:29.440 That's bigger than cancer.

00:23:33.420 And it is totally preventable.

00:23:36.100 And that happens from all the things that's from us not moving and not moving correctly.

00:23:41.760 And actually, it doesn't even get into all the other because as soon as you start having issues there, they can lead to outputs of knee problems, shoulder problems, all this stuff.

00:23:50.140 Yeah.

00:23:50.420 It creates a lot of other additional problems.

00:23:52.340 I could see how that would be.

00:23:53.280 Exactly.

00:23:53.720 So moving and moving correctly, it's going to lead to a better quality of life.

00:24:00.380 And so you can do that through strength training.

00:24:02.500 And actually, strength training is one of the best teachers if you do it correctly because you can find out where your breakdown's at, what you're actually not doing properly.

00:24:11.580 And so that's what my channel is dedicated to.

00:24:14.840 You're going to see a lot of videos of me lifting and stuff like that, whatnot.

00:24:18.600 But fundamental, that's where you've got to start from.

00:24:20.920 And it's so much better to start there than start five years from now or ten years from now from after you've got this nagging issue or that issue because that's a lot of what I deal with is, you know, people that have gotten into it and been training for a number of years then, they've got this plethora of problems because everything is taught incorrectly.

00:24:38.080 Right, right.

00:24:38.740 And so that's absolutely where I recommend people start.

00:24:42.480 I will have a subscription-based website up by the end of this year on my Duffin Movement Systems.

00:24:49.220 And that's going to go really into depth on that, provide a whole lot of different exercises and approach to dealing with it, exercise programs, and basically be the whole system for managing and moving correctly.

00:25:01.860 I think there's a big disconnect between what maybe the general public looks at because we look at these strongman competitions or we look at these – any type of competition and we wonder if a lot of strength, like big-time strength and functionality and movement don't necessarily go together.

00:25:19.560 And it sounds like what you're saying is they actually go hand-in-hand.

00:25:21.640 So what are some of the mistakes that either people understand or know and that they're actually seeing, the mistakes that people are making?

00:25:29.020 One of the disconnects that we – a lot of it happens through disconnects in the environmental factors that we live in today.

00:25:34.780 So we spend a lot of time seated.

00:25:36.960 We spend a lot of time with technology.

00:25:39.520 We spend a lot of time in high-stress situations.

00:25:42.480 And you may not even realize that they're high-stress because they're just naturally not just dealing with traffic or texting on your phone or staring at a computer.

00:25:51.080 All these things have some commonalities in them and they cause a disconnect basically in our breathing patterns.

00:25:55.720 And the breathing patterns, if you get off, then you get a disconnect in your abdominal bracing strategies.

00:26:02.780 And that's the core of where everything is connected.

00:26:05.880 So as that gets off and particularly with the sitting, you also have a shortening of the psoas which then down-regulates glute activity which then leads to non-awareness of pelvic rotation.

00:26:18.540 All this stuff leads directly into back issues or knee issues.

00:26:23.680 The additional, like the technology advices and the breathing patterns will also lead into – start leading into what's called a frozen back type situation where we start getting all this stress into our traps.

00:26:34.360 Scab, all that starts tightening and pulling upwards.

00:26:37.020 And you can see it.

00:26:37.600 I mean I do assessment just as people walk into my gym or when I'm walking around in life and you can just see it happening to people all the time.

00:26:45.020 And it's just a matter of our environmental factors that we all live in and have to deal with today.

00:26:52.180 And so now we've just dealt with a whole lot of problems.

00:26:56.720 And so strength training can help bring about – bring awareness to how you're doing these and improving those strategies, bring awareness to those areas, start training those areas to balance and fire correctly.

00:27:07.780 And, you know, the stories I have – well, you can find some of them on my website.

00:27:13.420 I had a guy walk in the gym a couple years ago and I could see just walking in that walking he was in pain.

00:27:20.360 And he came up to me, never done power lifting, never done strength training, but he'd found us through some of the content that I produce.

00:27:27.820 He was facing a hip replacement and he could barely – he couldn't even do a bodyweight squat or deadlift.

00:27:35.120 So a year and a half later, he was completely pain-free, no hip replacement was ever done, and he was deadlifting and squatting 400 pounds for reps.

00:27:45.200 And we rehabbed him through squatting and deadlifting.

00:27:48.220 I recently had a doctor attend one of my seminars, which I have a lot that do that.

00:27:53.220 But this one, a lot of the movement-based stuff out there, a lot of the people that are – develop the material that I use a lot of in my movements.

00:28:01.720 And so this kind of goes kind of on the other aspect of why is strength training really important than just doing some what I call regressive-type maneuvers.

00:28:10.160 A lot of the – you know, you see physical therapy and they're very light, you know, bodyweight-type stuff.

00:28:16.760 And they can be effective for kind of teaching, but they never tell you and really make you force you to fix it.

00:28:21.980 So this guy was – does kettlebells, but he dislocated his shoulder in a powerlifting competition two years ago.

00:28:27.780 And he's been in pain ever since.

00:28:30.020 Hasn't been able to bench press.

00:28:31.800 It happened during bench pressing.

00:28:33.120 Been in pain for two years.

00:28:34.820 So this is kind of like what you're saying that people see, right?

00:28:37.800 Sure.

00:28:38.040 And he was referred to me because over the two years he's in the field.

00:28:43.400 He teaches this stuff.

00:28:45.180 He's gone out to other people as well trying to figure out within the clinical community why this happened, how to fix it.

00:28:53.020 He's gotten nowhere, just major frustration.

00:28:55.880 And so I sell a product called the Shoulder Rock, which is really about building shoulder – basically shoulder functionality, shoulder strength.

00:29:04.340 So he got his hands on that, and within a couple weeks he was pain-free.

00:29:08.400 But he still couldn't bench without pain.

00:29:10.760 Still could properly, but he resolved he could go to sleep at night without like throbbing pain.

00:29:14.820 So he went to one of my seminars, and I taught him to bench, which is what caused him injury, right?

00:29:20.320 Right, which is what he's doing in the first place, right?

00:29:22.560 So within – after going to the seminar, within three days, he was back to benching pain-free, no issue, and knows why it happened and how to prevent it in the future.

00:29:32.060 You know, it comes down to some of the spinal stabilization stuff from the breathing and bracing and actually integration into a lats as a spinal stabilizer and how we cue that.

00:29:40.720 This is a life-changing event for both of these people.

00:29:43.580 Right, yeah.

00:29:44.100 And both were fixed via strength training.

00:29:47.280 I mean this is fundamental stuff like to me.

00:29:50.740 So the second one is – you know, both of those are great examples of why actually lifting weights done properly can be very useful for you.

00:29:58.760 So how does this compare to a lot of the popular type workouts?

00:30:02.580 Like you have CrossFit, which is – you know, there is some strength training in there and weightlifting, but it's more high intensity.

00:30:09.700 And so how does that compare?

00:30:10.840 Are there pros, cons?

00:30:11.800 What are the contrasting comparisons between the two?

00:30:14.200 So a lot of my clientele are actually CrossFit coaches that have realized that there's some fundamental issues with what they're being taught.

00:30:22.820 And CrossFit as a whole, if done correctly, can be very valuable to high intensity interval training.

00:30:27.600 But the way it's applied, you do not want to do push yourself to the limits but do it absolutely right.

00:30:33.120 So you don't take any core basic movement, let's say a snatch, squats, deadlifts, any of this stuff, and you never do them to fatigue failure.

00:30:43.520 This is where things are going to go wrong and you end up hurting people.

00:30:46.060 And this is not a good thing.

00:30:48.540 So you want to mix – you want to do your high intensity interval stuff, which is great for dropping body weight, picking up the metabolism, all that sort of stuff.

00:30:56.420 But you want to do it with stuff that's like prowler pushes, rope swings, stuff like that because this is what keeps all my clinical friends in business.

00:31:06.200 I mean – and just as a side note, I mean the co-founder for CrossFit is a member of my gym.

00:31:15.220 Oh, is that right?

00:31:16.240 So it's – like I said, CrossFit, if done correctly, but a lot of the way the guys that are doing some of their programming in the industry –

00:31:25.040 and I hammer this point home to all the CrossFit trainers and gym owners that attend my seminars.

00:31:30.060 And they get it and they take home and make those changes because they're pretty minor changes.

00:31:35.740 But basically, if you're strength training, you're strength training.

00:31:38.640 If you're going to do high intensity interval training, you do that separately.

00:31:41.340 But you don't do squats to fatigue failure.

00:31:44.780 That violates one of the fundamental principles of do it right because you're going to – that core is going to give out.

00:31:50.900 Some of those things are going to fatigue that are lower threshold but are critical.

00:31:54.920 And now all of a sudden, you are at major risk for injury.

00:31:58.200 Yeah, I've seen that a lot because I actually go to a CrossFit gym here locally and I've seen that a lot.

00:32:02.620 Fortunately, I haven't been injured but I do see a lot of guys that always have shoulder problems or a hip problem or whatever it may be.

00:32:08.680 And I'm like, ah, I'm just wondering if that's the issue and it sounds like it is.

00:32:11.980 It is.

00:32:12.560 So you just have to take those two pieces and separate them.

00:32:16.060 And all of a sudden, you've got a very powerful program.

00:32:19.500 Interesting.

00:32:20.260 So I want to go back to something you said too.

00:32:22.300 You talked about breathing as being a core component of doing this right, of the strength training.

00:32:27.120 Do you – what type of breathing exercises do you recommend?

00:32:30.540 Do you meditate personally?

00:32:31.640 I'm really curious about that.

00:32:33.460 So we do – one of the fundamental things is you've got to make sure that you're breathing correctly.

00:32:38.660 And most people aren't and so there's practice that we do.

00:32:41.680 And I've got a number of different drills because different people kind of understand or grasp it or the cueing strategies just work differently for different people.

00:32:48.940 But we do what's called diaphragmatic breathing.

00:32:52.220 So you don't want to be breathing – you don't want to be chest breathing.

00:32:55.360 You want to be belly breathing. 0.96

00:32:56.940 You want to be breathing what we call horizontally, not vertically.

00:33:02.020 So it's this 360 degrees around the waist.

00:33:05.040 You want to let out your big belly. 0.92

00:33:06.880 You don't want to hold it in.

00:33:07.980 So again, that's another one of those environmental factors because we want to hold that in and look good. 0.90

00:33:11.800 Yeah, we want to suck that gut in, right?

00:33:13.260 And it's exactly the opposite of what needs to happen.

00:33:16.080 So you need to – as you're breathing, you should be watching in that – the air should be coming upwards kind of like in a wave.

00:33:22.160 So imagine like take – imagine your torso is a pitcher of water and water is coming in through your mouth and it's going to fill up from the bottom up, right?

00:33:31.700 And so you should see expansion outward, no movement in the chest.

00:33:35.880 You cannot put your fingers up on your clavicle.

00:33:38.480 So cross your arms over and set your fingers up on each of your clavicles.

00:33:41.680 You should never have your clavicle raising during your breathing.

00:33:45.540 So these are fundamentals that tell you you've got to disconnect.

00:33:48.560 And if you've got to disconnect, you need to practice it.

00:33:50.840 Now, there's a whole other set of strategies that we use for actually creating what's called quality intra-abdominal pressurization, IAP.

00:33:59.960 And that's where everything's connected off of.

00:34:02.200 And so there's ways of grounding that to the floor through rooting processes and actually integrating the shoulders through engaging – using the lats as a spinal stabilizer and plugging the shoulder into that torso as well, into that quality IAP.

00:34:14.200 So that's the whole – that's the second piece in the progression that we teach.

00:34:18.380 So one is we do some breathing assessment, correction, then we start moving into a bracing strategies.

00:34:23.480 And then from there, then you can start moving into actually how do you do movement on each end of that, through the shoulder, through the hip, or take power from the ground transfer, you know, from where you're rooted to the ground, through the hip, which is our most powerful mechanism for generating power, out to the distal end.

00:34:39.880 So that becomes very athletic in nature because look at all your sports.

00:34:43.520 You're applying power, you know, out at the hand, out at the distal, either, you know, throwing a shot put, throwing a football, throwing a punch, like all these sports and all the power is coming.

00:34:53.880 You know, you're generating power in the hips and you need this rigid medium through the torso to apply that power.

00:35:00.800 And then there's also some neuromuscular stuff that goes on.

00:35:03.840 So I use a lot of developmental kinesiology in my work.

00:35:07.100 But from a basic standpoint, any time that you don't have quality IAP or non-proper or don't have proper joint centration, you have what's called downregulation.

00:35:20.720 So the body starts downregulating your power output.

00:35:23.900 And I typically reference this to help people grasp it as the traction control button on your cars.

00:35:31.260 So people that have that, it doesn't, when your traction control is on, it improves your grip on the road, right?

00:35:38.520 And so you don't swerp, you don't, you know, slide off the road and crash and injure your car or you.

00:35:43.000 But how that happens, and a lot of people don't realize, when the traction control is on, it's actually not, it's improving the grip through reducing the engine's power output.

00:35:53.720 So from a performance, a race car or an off-road racer or anything like that, none of those have traction control on them.

00:35:59.060 They have a properly tuned suspension and a good set of tires.

00:36:02.620 So that's exactly what we want because that's essentially what's happening when a lot of people are squatting or doing any of these movements is the body is downregulating and just not allowing them.

00:36:11.620 So when people kind of walk through my processes, they'll walk out and hit a 40-pound squat PR, just like that.

00:36:17.580 They're like, what kind of magic did you just do?

00:36:19.380 I'm like, well, I just turned, I turned off the traction control on your nervous system.

00:36:24.940 Right, you opened it up for them.

00:36:25.940 That's it.

00:36:26.220 I just, the power's been there, but you never able to, and this actually gets to the, you asked me a question earlier about like the trainers and stuff like that in regular gyms.

00:36:34.160 So you get into this whole BOSU ball work and all this other stuff, right, that you see in 24-hour fitness and all the others.

00:36:40.920 Which is just a crock and there's tons of research out there that backs that up because guess what happens if you're, you're, now you're on an instable surface.

00:36:49.000 What is your body going to do?

00:36:51.120 It's going to turn on the traction control.

00:36:53.620 So it's the least effective way to train.

00:36:56.140 It's just like if you went out on an ice rink and you're slipping and sliding around, guess what?

00:37:00.640 You can't run fast and it's not because you're slipping.

00:37:03.160 Your body's actually shutting you down too because guess what?

00:37:05.820 You have the very high risk of actually hurting yourself.

00:37:08.100 Right, and your body knows that it doesn't want you to do that.

00:37:11.200 Exactly.

00:37:12.220 So that's the whole part of the industry that's a big joke is the, some of the, because some of the major certifications rely heavily on this BOSU ball type work.

00:37:24.000 This creating, it's going to work your core because, you know, of the instability.

00:37:28.460 No, it does exactly the opposite.

00:37:29.900 And you never actually get, if you can't push yourself to the maximum in training and actually use the leverages and poundages that you can, you're, you can't get the training effect that you need.

00:37:39.880 So you don't progress as fast and as much as you could normally.

00:37:43.600 So all of a sudden now your training just takes off because you've been squatting with 400 pounds down-regulated.

00:37:50.580 You're basically deloading yourself, forcing your body not to, your nervous system's holding you back.

00:37:55.020 Now all of a sudden you're squatting with 440 pounds and guess what?

00:37:58.340 You're going to get a better training response from that because that's actually where your limitation is.

00:38:02.580 Interesting.

00:38:03.340 Well, Chris, there's so much we could talk about and so many different facets of this.

00:38:06.360 So I want to give everybody who's listening an opportunity to learn more about how to connect with you.

00:38:10.020 But before I get into that, I want to ask you a question that I ask all of my guests and that is, what does it mean to be a man?

00:38:17.620 What it means to be a man, it means that you need to be a pillar of strength and that's physical, mental, and emotional strength.

00:38:29.340 As a man, you don't, that's your responsibility.

00:38:33.440 Sometimes that's a hard job.

00:38:35.260 Yeah, definitely.

00:38:35.700 It's the opposite of what's portrayed in the media and stuff today that you need to be, you know, this soft guy that's ready to cry and, you know, on somebody else's shoulder.

00:38:45.220 But also, you need to possess skills and traits, manly, you know, manly traits.

00:38:50.680 So one of those, you know, being strength, being able to, I'm a big proponent of like the trades and working with your hands, even though, you know, I'm this highly educated guy.

00:38:58.700 Like I told you earlier on, I've got my own machine shop.

00:39:02.520 You know, you need to, it doesn't matter, but you need to contribute to this world.

00:39:06.480 You've got to add value to this world in one way or another, in my opinion.

00:39:11.400 Too many people get shunned away from doing real work.

00:39:15.840 You know, you should get a degree in social sciences and work at Starbucks.

00:39:19.020 You know what? 0.99

00:39:19.400 That's not fucking manly. 0.99

00:39:20.760 So those are my views on what it takes to be a man. 0.99

00:39:23.760 I love it.

00:39:24.460 I know we've just scratched the surface, not even scratched the surface probably with all the things that we can learn about, but it's good to talk about strength, physical strength, and then also those lessons and how they transfer over.

00:39:34.500 So, Chris, if the guys listening want to learn more about what you're doing, I know you've given us a couple of resources already, but how do we connect with you?

00:39:40.460 How do we learn more about what you're doing and start implementing some of these strength type exercises and training into our lives?

00:39:47.000 Excellent.

00:39:47.360 So my website currently is kabukiewarrior.com, which is linked to my web store, kabukistrength.net, where I've got a lot of tools, my seminars, online coaching, all that stuff is on there.

00:39:59.540 And Duffin Movement Systems will be up later this year, which will basically be your self-help online resource.

00:40:07.540 I'm available across all social media platforms.

00:40:10.900 I think all.

00:40:11.660 I don't know.

00:40:12.000 Probably not all of them.

00:40:13.400 It's hard to get all of them though, right?

00:40:14.880 Twitter, Kabuki Strong, Facebook, Chris Duffin, strength coach slash athlete, Instagram, kabuki underscore strong.

00:40:23.520 I think that covers the big one.

00:40:26.200 My training logs themselves, if you want to see my weekly video synopsis on my training and what my training looks like, is hosted on elitefts.com.

00:40:38.560 So that's a great website for finding resources on training.

00:40:42.640 I'm a regular contributor and article on there.

00:40:47.320 My YouTube channel, which hosts a ton of free content, so you need to check out all the playlists on there.

00:40:54.440 So I've got them broken down.

00:40:56.200 The instructional video playlist is where you'd want to start from.

00:41:00.240 Take some time.

00:41:01.320 It's going to take you like a month to work through all the videos in there.

00:41:03.820 But it's Kabuki 07, K-A-B-U-K-I.

00:41:09.320 So that's the Kabuki on all the stuff that I've gone through.

00:41:12.060 07 is my YouTube channel.

00:41:14.700 Well, hey, I know before we hit record on this podcast, you said you were in the middle of a workout.

00:41:19.340 So we're going to let you get back to it.

00:41:20.780 But I do want to thank you in taking your time to go through this stuff.

00:41:23.960 Really educational, really informational.

00:41:25.460 And I know I'm going to implement some of those things in my life.

00:41:27.180 So, Chris, thanks for being on the show today.

00:41:28.620 Thank you, Ryan.

00:41:29.020 There you have it, guys.

00:41:30.360 Mr. Chris Duffin sharing with us what it takes to build more physical, emotional, and mental strength in your life.

00:41:35.900 Now, keep in mind, our elite mastermind, Iron Council, you will want to be part of that if you're ready to take your life to the next level.

00:41:41.800 If you're ready to take action, you're ready to do something about it.

00:41:44.320 And you want to build some solid relationships with other men and have some accountability in your life.

00:41:48.980 And if you're interested, go to orderofmen.com slash ironcouncil.

00:41:52.700 And also remember our weekly giveaway by my friends and partners over at Seneca Creek.

00:41:56.980 Head to orderofmen.com slash SenecaCreekGiveaway6 for the ninth giveaway we're giving away this week.

00:42:02.280 Now, keep in mind, it is a weekly drawing.

00:42:05.180 So, if you don't win this week, no big deal.

00:42:07.620 You can enter again next week.

00:42:09.240 And the last thing, join the conversation we're having about masculinity in our Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash orderofman.

00:42:17.100 Guys, I look forward to talking with you next week.

00:42:18.760 But until then, take action and become the man you were meant to be.

00:42:22.760 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast.

00:42:25.200 If you're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be,

00:42:29.760 we invite you to join the Order at orderofman.com.

00:42:32.920 Thank you.

Order of Man - February 02, 2016

OoM 046： Building Physical, Mental, and Emotional Strength with Chris Duffin

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript