#002 – Today’s guest, Kevin Gregory has been a fitness trainer since 2013 and has an amazing story. He has spent years training people at all levels. Kevin shares his experience to help you kickstart your running program. In addition to running a personal training and small group training gym, Kevin hosts a running club that includes a running clinic open to all experience levels.
Topics Covered:
- Benefits of having a trainer
- The balance of cardio and strength
- How to stay motivated to run
- Running tips for beginners
Today’s Guest
Kevin Gregory
Kevin has been a fitness trainer since 2013 and runs Finesse Fitness and Nutrition Inc – a personal training and small group training gym. Played college lacrosse at State University of NY at Oneonta. Post-Collegiate, He played semi-pro football, winning Defensive MVP for the Oneonta City Stallions. Found Obstacle Racing in 2011 with Warrior Dash, also did a Tough Mudder that year. Masters Degree in Fitness and Wellness Leadership from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Have a Master Level Training Certification with the International Sports Science Association, Nutrition Certification from Precision Nutrition, and an SGX (Spartan Group Exercise) Certification through Spartan Race. Also have certifications in Corrective Exercise, Exercise Therapy, Sports Nutrition, and Strength and Conditioning.
Connect with Kevin Gregory:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bubblestheclowne/
Richard Conner 0:00
Here’s what you can look forward to on this episode of Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast.
Kevin Gregory 0:05
The goal or how I would program that in also depends on who I’m working with. But for beginners, just getting out and just moving and practicing running and running slower than you think you should. Even if it’s just a jog, I use the word running loosely, jogging. Just doing it initially, and then learning how to do it better is going to be the most beneficial thing. Just do it consistently. And don’t feel like if you’re not dying, you’re not doing it right.
Intro/Outro 0:37
Welcome to Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast, whether you are new to running or seasoned, get tips in the inspiration that you need to achieve your health and fitness goals. Now, here’s your host, Richard Conner.
Richard Conner 0:55
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Inspire virtual runs podcast. I’m here with a special guest, Kevin Gregory. Kevin has been a fitness trainer since 2013. He has a master’s degree in fitness and wellness leadership, numerous exercise and nutrition certifications, and currently runs Finesse Fitness and Nutrition Inc, personal training and small group training gym. For me personally, Kevin is a coach, mentor and a friend. Welcome to the show, Kevin.
Kevin Gregory 1:28
I appreciate you having me on Richard. I’m really excited to be a special guest here and really excited about the topics that we’re going to cover today.
Richard Conner 1:37
You know, I think you have an amazing background, and so many great stories professionally and personally, some of which that we’re going to get into today. And I just want to start with one of your one of your personal stories that you’ve shared on social media just just for the listeners to get to know you a little bit. You You went out to the Adirondacks and had some amazing pictures and videos. Well, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about that.
Kevin Gregory 2:05
For sure. Since the COVID, all the races have been canceled. So my whole race calendar has been erased. And my wife, Jess and I, we were we met in Spartan Race, we love doing obstacle course races we like training and trail running. But she’s a part. Fall is her favorite season and we love getting outside and without any any races, we decided we wanted to hike some mountains. And I don’t know if you know much about Adirondacks. But for your listeners who don’t. There’s 46 high peaks. So if you climb all of them, you’re considered a 46. Or, oh, it’s like an exclusive club up there to climb all those. The 46 peaks are all over 4000 feet as of some guy that measured them a long time ago. So some of them actually aren’t 4000 but traditionally, there’s 46 high peaks over 4000 feet, and they also have to protrude a certain distance from the next highest peak. So you can have like two mountains that are kind of the same that are connected the whole way up. And we wanted to take a trip up there and hike so Saturday night we drove up in our Subaru parked at the trailhead, took a nap, I mean slept overnight in the car and woke up in the morning with a couple of friends from the Albany area. And we conquered the MacIntyre range, which is a series of four mountains, which it only counts as three of the high peaks because one of them like I said before doesn’t protrude enough. And we climb these 4000 footers. The tallest of the three that we covered was called Algonquin. It’s the second tallest mountain in Adirondacks range. And second only mount Marcy, which we climbed a couple years ago together. So we set out at sunset and we hiked some mountains for about nine hours. It was a blast. We packed packed some snacks for the for the trip and loaded up our backpacks and just the casual hike for nine hours with friends. Lots of laughs, lots of joking around. But I mean, just a great day of just being out in nature and seeing some incredible sights and majestic views. Algonquin was the second peak we climbed that was engulfed by a cloud. So the wind up there is actually pretty strong. I don’t know how many miles per hour, but Algonquin the second the first one we climbed, we had a great view of everything. And then when we climbed Algonquin you couldn’t see me. You could see feet in front of your face but you couldn’t see off the the mountain top to the distance or anything. And the wind up there was incredible and I have a great video of just scampered to the top of Algonquin before us and the wind was blowing so hard she hovered. She sat down on the ground and curled up in the fetal position next to a rock because she Afraid to blow off the mountain. So overall, one of one of the finer things in life is a blast. And we ended up getting caught in the rain for the last two hours of our hike, which was the way down, which is a, I guess, a little slippery. So I guess I’d rather be caught in the rain on the way out, but it was great, but uh, just, uh, just overall amazing mazing experience. And we’re looking at hiking a lot more mountains this fall, whether it’s in the Adirondacks or the White Mountains of New Hampshire. But it was it was awesome. If you haven’t been up there, you should definitely check out the Adirondacks. There’s, like I said, 46, high peaks, but a bunch of shorter runs. And you could do a day hike with, with your family and have a great time. And there’s some restaurants around after effect. But, uh, have you ever been up there, Richard?
Richard Conner 5:49
No, I haven’t been and you know, as you’re, as you’re talking about this, I’m thinking Hmm, number one, I’m afraid of heights. Number two, the wind and the rain sound a little scary. But uh, but you know, I’ve been on this journey myself over the last couple of years of trying to conquer my own fears. So you know, maybe I’ll have to check it out.
Kevin Gregory 6:09
Hey, it’s defiinetly worth the trip. I mean, if you could hike the local mountains and Connecticut, you could definitely do something like that. It’s one foot in front the other and until you get to the Alpine zone, which is the last, I don’t know the distances, but you get to a certain point where the trees stop growing. And there’s signs that you’re in the Alpine zone, that’s where you’ll see the bare rock and the wind. And if you look down, it’s scary. But if you just keep your eyes on the horizon, like they say, on the boat, and it’s just majestic.
Richard Conner 6:41
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that. Like I said, I saw the videos and the pictures, and it just looked amazing. So maybe one day I’ll work up the courage to do something like that. But I hear you, with, with the pandemic canceling most activities, you know, they’re, they’re very limited options these days. So hiking is a good one. So let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your background. So your personal trainer, you’ve been a personal trainer for quite some time. What, what led you to get into personal training into fitness?
Kevin Gregory 7:19
That’s a great question. And I guess it starts back when I was a kid. I grew up as the oldest of three boys and my family is always in the sports who watched on TV. I played sports like at the peewee level and then moved up and played football in high school, I wrestled I played lacrosse, I decided to go to college and play lacrosse, and picked up rugby and after college played football. So I’ve been around sports my whole life. And I always thought that kind of kept me in school. Because if I didn’t go to class and didn’t get good grades, I wouldn’t be eligible. So that was huge. But it wasn’t until college when I had a strength and conditioning coach that I realized how much better I could be with the proper training, and also a nutrition coach. So I’m just a freshman coming in and not knowing much about anything and being able to work with those coaches. And they were able to teach me what I needed to eat when I need to eat it to maximize my performance. And as a senior in high school on the lacrosse team, I didn’t start I was a bench player. And lacrosse is like hockey, you have a position and then you’re kind of in the depth chart wherever, however many people down so lacrosse plays three defenseman maybe four at a time. And I was just low enough to not not get much playing time. And then as I went to college, I contacted the school I committed to and asked to talk to the coach and got to try out. And I worked hard enough during tryouts to make the team and then once I got the attention from the coaches, helping me get in better impre increase my fitness and get me in better lacrosse shape and help me eat the right things. It really, I just saw my athleticism go up so fast. I worked my way onto the team as a freshman. That’s what I was just like ecstatic. I’m like I couldn’t start as a senior. And now moving on to the next level. And just to be able to make the team was was awesome. And then staying working with that coach. I did I was like I’m here. I’m appreciative. I’m going to do anything you say. And I just followed every thing that they told me to do to a tee I want to every team lift I want to every team run I did everything I was supposed to do on my own. And the coaches noticed that and they just gave me more and more attention. And when it came time to pick the starting lineup in the spring of my freshman year, I got the the third defensive spot so I got to start as a freshman. And I think that was the first time I realized that if you have the right guidance and you get to you, you do what you need to do. Then you’re going to be able to earn your spot on to the field or in high school is just like okay, go work out Go run. And like, I think back to like, when I was a kid and football practice football season was supposed to start like in a few weeks, and my dad’s like, you better get ready for football practice. And I went outside with my brothers with a nerf football and threw her on the street. And I thought I was getting ready for football. But the linemen and if you’ve ever watched the NFL, the offensive linemen don’t touch the football. So all I was doing was goofing around. I wasn’t preparing for anything. So that’s like sports, best sports specific training. I saw the payoff from that. And after college, I coached at the college level for a bit. And I just want to pay it forward to all the athletes coming in. Because I didn’t have that luxury in high school to have a personal trainer or be able to go to any of these camps. First of all, I didn’t really know they existed, and they’re way more prevalent now. But also, my family didn’t really have the financial means to send me to these expensive camps or hire a personal trainer for me so that I could get that coaching that I needed to take it up to the next level. So that was like my first real aha moment like, wow, fitness and nutrition really makes a huge difference in your performance on the field. And then. So after college, I got into retail sales and chasing the dollar that and into retail management and realize that that’s not the lifestyle one I was working long hours and not sleeping while I couldn’t take care of my body because I was just working, working, working. And that’s why I pursued like an education in in fitness and nutrition and health and wellness. And I had my undergrad in economic Business Economics. And I was like, well, what’s, what would it look like for me to take my business skills and move into the fitness realm. So I got my first personal training certification in 2012 or 2013. And started training a couple people on the side from that retail job. And after a few months, I was like, let me see if I can do this full time. So I moved out of there. And that’s when I started doing strength and conditioning coaching at the college level, aside from personal training, and then I just got more certifications. And I was fortunate to have one of the college coaches point out that one of the benefits of working there was you get a free class every semester. And SUNY Plattsburgh State University of New York Plattsburgh, it’s a mouthful. It’s a it’s up near Canada, they, they had a program where you can get your master’s degree in fitness and wellness leadership. So I was like, Well, if I’m going to get my master’s for free, I might as well pursue it. So I started taking those classes. And I just finished that degree up. And that’s how I ended up with my Master’s in fitness. But all the while working in the field with student athletes. And then some of their parents, I decided to, I found a way to work with local high school students because as I mentioned earlier, like I didn’t know anything in high school. So I partnered with this local soccer camp, and I did strength conditioning for soccer athletes at this camp, in addition to what they were already offering, so these kids are gonna steal because they’re paying their costs for a soccer camp. And then they get to work with a college coach in strength and conditioning. And then that worked out great. So I ended up creating my own camp. And I ran that for three summers in Oneonta, New York, which is where I was I went to college and where I was working. And that that was great. And the kit the following was amazing. And now years later following those kids, because I’ve been in Connecticut for three years now. So I guess those kids that were rising ninth graders or even high school seniors following their progression since then, really like just confirmed with me how important what I did was because I watched some of these kids go from seventh grade where they couldn’t even run a straight line without tripping to playing on state championship teams. One kid that I coached went on to play college lacrosse and Oneonta is not a hotbed. You go to high school and you play lacrosse there. It’s like that’s only because you couldn’t make the baseball team. So that’s not not the place to come from. It’s not like you grew up on Long Island like I did, and everybody’s born with a stick in their hand. But one kid I coached when he was a seventh grader he had he went on to play with limestone, which is a Division Two team and he won multiple national championships with them. So the feed like seeing what those kids were able to do and knowing where they were at age, I started working with them. And I know I didn’t work with them straight through but I had a piece of building their foundation and then communicating it with some years later and that just the fulfillment of that and being able to pay it forward to other athletes. And knowing I made a difference in their life has just been like Like that, like I said, that really like confirmed my decision to follow that path. And now like, since I moved to Connecticut and working in a big box gym, I’ve been able to work with just a different demographic, but still take people that come in off the couch, have no idea about fitness or wellness or health or diet and they think keto is the answer to everything or whatever their their belief is, and helping them not only hit their weight loss goals, because that’s usually what most people’s goal is. but exceeding them, and not doing it in a crash diet way where they bounce back, or the yo yo back up, but in a way that changes our whole lifestyle, and then they sustain those those pounds off. And they just have like a whole new like rebirth, I guess where they found things. And I guess that that’s just been like my story, I guess going into into fitness and why I’m still here, so.
Richard Conner 15:55
Mm hmm. That’s, that’s amazing. I love this story. And, you know, something that you said is really interesting, there was a point in time where it was very difficult for for you to take, be able to take care of yourself. And I think a lot of people struggle with that, right? A lot of us have the nine the nine to five jobs, we’re working way more than 40 hours, we’re taking care of families, the house, and fitness is not prioritized it just deprioritized. That’s really kind of one of the the focus areas of Inspire Virtual Runs right is to is to help our community prioritize your fitness and wellness and incorporate running as part of that. So how do you see how does running fit within you know, the fitness programs? And what do you tell your clients about like why they should run?
Kevin Gregory 16:47
Right, so I’m a very holistic approach kind of guy when it comes to fitness and that. So some people, if you go to the gym, just close your eyes and envision this and then walk in the gym, and you’ll see exactly this, you walk in the gym, and then you see the cardio deck. And then you look around and look at those people. And most of those people are masters at cardio, all they do is cardio, they’re afraid of weights, they don’t want to get to quote unquote bulky, so they just want to work on quote unquote, weight loss. And all they do is cardio. And then you have the other side of the gym, which is full of weights, those guys are afraid of cardio, they’re usually beefier people, because all they do is lift. And it’s not that they don’t do cardio, because they’re afraid to shrink, they just don’t want to lose strength by doing cardio. So they have this, they’re, these two groups of people have this massive belief on off opposite ends of the spectrum that the other one is going to counteract what they’re trying to accomplish. But in reality, if you don’t have good cardiovascular health, then you’re not going to be able to perform as well as you could, if you did, and if you don’t have strength, your body doesn’t have any lean body tissue. So of course, if weight loss is your goal, all you’re doing is breaking down muscle to fuel your your cardio, because you’re not you’re probably not eating that much because you’re trying to lose weight. And if you’re not eating enough, your body is breaking itself down. It’s just this vicious cycle of I can’t lose weight because your body is in starvation mode and XYZ. So what I do as a personal trainer is I sit down with someone I figure out what their goals are. And then they need to do some strength training. Different people have different strength training requirements, depending on what their goals and their body type and injuries or whatever. So we won’t break go into that today. But some people strength training twice a week is going to be perfect. And then other people need it five times a week. But when it comes to cardio, and running, and it we’re talking about running today, so running is going to be huge. It’s going to train you cardiovascularly it’s going to train all of your you can train all of your energy systems. So without getting too scientific. There’s three energy systems. There’s a robotic, whichever nose, a robotic means in the presence of oxygen, and it metabolizes fat. Then there’s anaerobic, which means no oxygen, and it’s metabolizing, glycogen or sugar. And then the top one is the phospho creatine which is like the short burst just a few seconds, and that’s just burning, creating out of your muscles, which replenishes itself, you don’t need to take creatine your body produces it, but we’re not going to do that you’re not going to train that system, but you could if you do sprints really short or whatever. So developing your aerobic capacity and your ability to do work and burn fat is done by staying in the aerobic zone. So think of like a car. If you floor it, you’re going to burn a lot of gas. But if you push the gas at the right rate and you keep it in the right spot with the right RPM, you’re going to be able to go for a really long time. Think of economy fuel, so your fats, your economy fuel and if you train properly, which is putting running into your program, and you do it the right amount at the right intensity. And by right intense intensity, I mean, if you don’t run too hard, too long or too fast, then you’re going to be able to sustain that for a while, and your body’s gonna choose to burn fat to support that, which is most people’s goals lean out somehow. So, programming running in, there’s so many facets to this, we could do like a three hour podcast, this is why I know we’re going to talk about later but the my running club, because there’s so many pieces of it. But putting running in practicing both mechanics. So how you move is going to be huge, because that’s going to help you use the right energy system and not break down your body. Because anybody that’s gone running after never running before or not running for a long time, has a lot of aches and pains that they don’t know where it came from. And then the physiological benefits of improving your heart health and not just fat loss, but just general conditioning. So it the goal or how I would program that in also depends on who I’m working with. But for beginners, just getting out and and just moving and practicing running and running slower than you think you should. Even if it’s just a jog, I use the word running loosely, jogging. Just doing it initially, and then learning how to do it better is going to be the most beneficial thing. Just do it consistently. And don’t feel like if you’re not dying, you’re not doing it right. You should run easier than you think you should.
Richard Conner 21:45
Mm hmm. Okay, that’s very good advice. And you know, it’s funny, you mentioned the aches and pain. I remember when I got back into running, I know all about the aches and pains. But you’re but you’re right that that subsides over time. So that that’s really good advice. And I love what you’re talking about here having more of a holistic approach. We’re obviously focused on running, but there are for those who It sounds like you’re saying for those who only do cardio, they need to incorporate some sort of strength training in their program and vice versa, right. So those who only focus on strength training needs to incorporate some some type of cardio.
Kevin Gregory 21:46
Yeah, for sure. The strength training for will just take runners real quick. So if you only ever run, you’re going to develop a lot of imbalances. And those imbalances lead to injuries and injuries put you out and then you can’t run. So then what are you going to do? So I’m not saying you have to go in the gym and do max effort benchpress and deadlifts and squats. But for runners, there’s certain weightlifting exercises that are really going to increase your durability. And that’s the main point, if you’re training to be a runner, then you’re going to do strength training for that specifically.
Richard Conner 22:54
And in the weight lifting exercises, are they for, like legs only, or their whole body like what kind of exercises.
Kevin Gregory 23:03
Legs obviously, because you’re running, so we’re not gonna say it’s not legs. But core is huge, because your core stability is going to keep your body upright and keep you mechanically moving. And then as far as upper body goes, not skipping it completely, but you, the upper body needs to get toned as well, because the upper body is going to have to maintain a posture and an isometric science word, you’re going to hold the upper body in a specific position, and you’re going to move in a specific way. So if you just think about the developing muscle to hold those pot those positions, because that’s going to make you more efficient runner. If you get tired, think about just sitting at a desk, if you get tired, you start slouching, while you’re running, you’re obviously gonna get tired, you’re going to start slouching, and if you start slouching, you’re going to increase the amount of effort it takes to do the same amount of work because your body your skeleton is not properly aligned.
Richard Conner 23:55
Okay, So legs, core, upper body, and do you recommend like body weight exercises,
Kevin Gregory 24:04
Some sort of resistance training, depending on what the exercises and what the body part is? A, any sort of resistance training to be beneficial if all you have is bodyweight that you can do a lot of stuff with just bodyweight as we’ve learned through COVID because you can’t buy a dumbbell from anywhere.
Richard Conner 24:23
That’s right
Kevin Gregory 24:23
Eight to 20 weeks,
Richard Conner 24:24
You know my story.
Kevin Gregory 24:27
We ordered this in April and it’s Christmas. It’s finally here. But uh, weights are great, but so are bands so is bodyweight if you do the right exercises, there’s as long as there’s resistance involved. You’re gonna get that that adaptation that you’re looking for. So the age old thing is I don’t have XYZ equipment and you don’t need XYZ equipment. You just need to be creative. If you need weight and you don’t have a weight then you could grab a jug of milk or water bucket of rocks or something. And you’re making yourself a little bit heavier to do lunges, or, for example, or squats. And that’s going to make it harder than it would have if you didn’t have anything. So you don’t traditionally need a barbell or dumbbells or a kettlebell or anything.
Richard Conner 25:13
Mm hmm. Okay, so so that that’s great. So it sounds like if someone’s not running today, they need to start slow. Would you recommend even walking first if they’re not used to any kind of activity like that walking, and then get into the rhythm of maybe jogging at a slow pace just to get started. And then in between also work on on weightlifting, right, where some, like you said, resistance training.
Kevin Gregory 25:44
Yeah, you said a great, start slow, just walking and getting time on your feet. And fast forward to when you’re an incredible athlete, and you want to do an ultra marathon, you train time on your feet. So let’s get back to day one. Whether you’re running, walking or jogging, if you haven’t done anything, go for a walk, feel good about it, and just that time on your feet of walking is going to work on your it’s going to strengthen your muscles is going to strengthen your joints gonna make you more durable. And then as you’re ready to start moving faster. So say transitioning from walking to jogging, bring a watch, or even if you don’t go for a walk, and then increase to a jog until the next stop sign and then walk again for like a few minutes and then jog to the next stop sign and then walk for a couple minutes. And you can replace that jog with a run if you’re ready to go a little faster. But those intervals are going to allow you to push hard, but then you get a really good break. So that’s where I’d start with a walk. And when you’re ready to move faster jog to something that’s not too far away, and then take a really good break while you’re walking and so on.
Richard Conner 26:52
That’s awesome. Okay. So you know, I know that fitness and running is just as much mental as it is physical. How do you keep your your clients motivated? How do you how do you keep them going?
Kevin Gregory 27:11
So I always I want to relate with them on their original Why? Why are they here? Why are they sitting down with me? Why? Why is their goal what their goal is? And if I can tie everything I tell them back to that, or at least most of it, then they’re going to be more receptive to doing what we plan out. And I’m I’ve never written a plan and had anyone follow it 110% to the tee. And neither have I ever followed the plan that I was given for my coach 110% there’s always going to be hiccups here life happens there. But the main thing is Do what you can and then adjust and not getting down yourself if you miss a day because Billy came home sick with the flu and you didn’t get to do your run, then that’s okay. tend to him feel good about taking care of your family and then tomorrow go out again. But always tying it back to your why so furniture just using this because this is the eighth anniversary of my first Spartan Race at Killington, the hardest race ever known to man at the time. But anybody who runs Spartan knows what Killington is, and
Richard Conner 28:23
Yeah, that’s funny you mentioned that because I saw I saw a photo or posts, I don’t know many months ago, and it said, one of the one of the hardest Spartan races, and it said, Killington Beast, Killington Ultra, Killington Super Killington, Killington Sprint and Killington Kids.
Kevin Gregory 28:45
Yes, I can’t imagine what those kids go through, but the that was the original, like, race location for Spartan I believe. And then they made that the World Championship a couple years later, and it was there for a few years before it moved out. But eight years ago, this weekend, I ran Killington for the first time in my second ever Spartan Race. And it took me five and a half hours, it was only 13 miles or so. And I ran with five friends, and we trained our butts off all summer for it. And we finished. Well, I got the great idea in 2013. I’m like, oh, that that was really hard, but it was awesome. I want to do the ultra beast, which is two laps of that course, in one day, like back to back, like, you finish and then you go right back out for a lot too. Because one lap wasn’t enough punishment. So 2013 I trained like I thought I should and I went there with my buddy and he was training too. And we ran it together and 12 hours in they’re like, sorry, guys, you didn’t make it far enough. You’re out. you’re disqualified. Oh, no, we were like in tears. But we’re kind of happy cuz we’re like, four miles left, you can finish before 10pm. Right. And they’re like, no, it’s really a lot more than four. We just didn’t tell you it’s 31 miles not 26. So you are not going to make it. So you’re done. So we were heartbroken. We paid all this money to do this race and they wouldn’t even let us finish it, but we’re freezing, getting borderline hypothermic, and we still had to go back and Lake. And that just one year later 2014 my whole goal for the whole year is I have to finish this ultra beast. So for 12 months, I did a bunch of races, but all I cared about the entire time. Every morning I woke up, I’m all I have is the Killington ultra beast in my head. And every morning, I’m doing 100 burpees. And I’m running for however many miles and doing all my training and all this and that and long runs and like I don’t feel like going outside wait Killington ultra beast, I’m not failing that again. And a year later, I ran it, and I finished it. And like 14 hours in the dark, like, no one was even there to celebrate across the fire. And I looked around and like, Where’s my metal. But I pretty much just made the cut off. But that whole year, like, I know how I felt hooked to that goal. So what I do with my clients is I try to find what that goal is for them. And it’s probably not a Spartan Race, but it might be the local five k that they’ve gone and watched like every year and always wanted to participate in or their friends always invite them to a 5K or 10K or half marathon and they had been putting it off because they don’t want to go unprepared. Or they did it once. And they couldn’t walk for two months, because they ran like crap. And their body really hurt or they injured themselves. So I find that hook and then I just keep tying it back to that. And like I said, you’re gonna pick ups and you’re going to miss a day training, or you’re going to get sick or whatever. But always being able to tie back in that point, that time where you feel bad for yourself is gonna go away much faster, because you’re like, no, I got this goal. I got to get on that. When you have the right motivation, anything is possible.
Richard Conner 31:58
Oh, that’s, that’s great. And like I said, I think it’s, I think it’s a big thing. And I talk about it all the time with the community with the IVR community about remembering your why and really think about that. And keep that in mind. You know, as you’re planning out your week and your fitness and your runs, because that’s that’s what’s gonna keep keep you going. So great stories there.
Kevin Gregory 32:19
Thanks.
Richard Conner 32:20
So, Kevin, if you didn’t have enough on your plate, you also host a running club. And you mentioned you mentioned earlier, so let’s talk about that, like, how does a running club help your clients and how does it work?
Kevin Gregory 32:36
Right. So I designed this running club because I wanted my clients to run more, and I’d tell them and I’d teach them in our one on one sessions, but then they wouldn’t go run. I mean, some of them do like you, but most of them like how’s your run like I do it. So I, I wanted, I’ve never been part of a running club before. So I’m not sure how they’re quote unquote supposed to work. The way I run my running club is it’s designed for beginners. So they come in, I’ve my running coach Richard DS, you can look him up. He’s awesome. At at D at Diaz, HP or at dehp. Look, Richard Diaz on Instagram, you can check him out. He’s my running coach. He’s out in California. He comes this way every now and again to run his clinics. And he I’ve been to like five of them or more, I don’t know. So my running clubs kind of designed on the basic skills that he teaches us, just not in as much detail because like, we don’t have time for his for our running club in my weekly our class. But I’ll start off everybody, I always teach down to the most basic person because no one’s coming to my running club. That’s an advanced runner. No Boston Marathon finishers are showing up. It’s the regular people from the gym who want to learn a new skill. So we start with foot strengthening and balance drills and activation inhibit and everyone’s got some sort of injury or some pain that they’ve had somewhere in life. So we really break it down to the bare bones. We do some ever and most most people as sure your job is you end up tending to sit a little bit. So people get short hip flexors, and they get weak glutes, and that causes a hitch in their in their hips. So they stand up straight, their posture is not quite perfect. So we release the hips, we do some movement drills and that kind of thing. When we work on running mechanics, we use the use of tools like a metronome. I also have a sled and some bands and things to get people to to move properly. And then we finish it up, we go outside, and then we run. So I’m not going to have like someone whose first day it is running, who usually only walks go out and run of five, five miles or anything. Most of them we do the activation and then the people that can run and have been running and they’re working on their form. I’ll send them out for a little bit longer. On, and then I’ll stay behind and work with the beginners on some shorter distance from like, across the parking lot, watch their form, have them rest, kind of like I told you that the walk around walk. So that way we can critique their their form. And the feedback I’ve gotten from these from some of these people is Oh my God, I’ve been trying to run for years, and I can’t go far because it starts hurting and my shins hurt and my ankles or my hip, and I have this thing in my side. And they’re like I can I feel like I can run for for an hour. And I’m like, that’s perfect. That means you’re doing I told you, you’re not trying to run too fast, you’re landing on the proper part of your foot, your posture is good, your breathing is better. You’re you have the right cadence, so your foot striking the ground close to your center of gravity. And so the way out in front of it. And it’s just been like a huge success. And people I love it, because I’ll get a text like later in the week from someone who was in class and like, Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I ran for 30 minutes all by myself today. And I’m like, Oh, I’m like proud. That The thing is, like most of these people, they might do like a five K or something if their towns running it. But in general, they’re not aspiring to be a Boston Marathon or they’re not aspiring for anything more than just general health and wellness. And to see their their love enough to get up and go run because they can do whatever cardio they usually do. Or take 15 classes a week, at the gym, they just seeing them mix in a new style of activity is just going to increase their longevity and an overall fitness results. So that makes me so proud. Richard Conner 36:44 That’s great. It sounds like it sounds like your clients are getting great results. And you know, when I think about a running club, I’m thinking we’re just going running, right? So it sounds like you have your very, very good process, very approach a very systematic way of kind of teaching some of the techniques and help with the strengthening some of what we talked about before. So that that’s great. So Kevin, this, by the way, this is awesome. You have been great. I love this conversation. how can how can our listeners find you? How can they sign up for the running club? or How can they just find you and follow you? Because like I said, you post great content on social media. I love your philosophy about fitness and wellness, how can people find you?
Kevin Gregory 37:34
So the best way to find me is on Instagram, at bubbles, the clown bubbles like normal clown with an E at the end. I know there’s a whole podcast we could do on why on bubbles the clown, but you’re gonna have to go there and check out some pictures and figure it out or just shoot me a DM and I’ll tell you a little bit of a story if you want. But that’s that’s gonna be the best way to reach out to me. I checked my messages on a daily basis and I can talk to you directly versus any other way.
Richard Conner 38:04
Okay, awesome. So I’ll include some of this in the in the show notes. Kevin, again, thank you so much. This has been great. I think our listeners are going to get a lot out of this. If you’re just starting off running if you’re if you’re looking to improve right get over those aches and pains and the hump of getting started. This is really helpful information. So thanks for the time, Kevin. Thanks for experience and expertise.
Kevin Gregory 38:31
Thanks, Richard. I can’t wait to hear some of these episodes. I’m really excited to see what other guests you have on the podcast and I’ll see you, I’ll see you soon enough and hopefully we’ll have a real Spartan Race sometime soon and get back out there and get muddy.
Richard Conner 38:44
I hope so. Thanks again, Kevin.
Kevin Gregory 38:47
My pleasure. Have a good one.
Intro/Outro 38:52
That’s it for this episode of inspire virtually runs podcasts. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review. Also, be sure to click the subscribe button so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks for listening.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Here’s what you can look forward to on this episode of Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast.
Kevin Gregory 0:05
The goal or how I would program that in also depends on who I’m working with. But for beginners, just getting out and just moving and practicing running and running slower than you think you should. Even if it’s just a jog, I use the word running loosely, jogging. Just doing it initially, and then learning how to do it better is going to be the most beneficial thing. Just do it consistently. And don’t feel like if you’re not dying, you’re not doing it right.
Intro/Outro 0:37
Welcome to Inspire Virtual Runs Podcast, whether you are new to running or seasoned, get tips in the inspiration that you need to achieve your health and fitness goals. Now, here’s your host, Richard Conner.
Richard Conner 0:55
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Inspire virtual runs podcast. I’m here with a special guest, Kevin Gregory. Kevin has been a fitness trainer since 2013. He has a master’s degree in fitness and wellness leadership, numerous exercise and nutrition certifications, and currently runs Finesse Fitness and Nutrition Inc, personal training and small group training gym. For me personally, Kevin is a coach, mentor and a friend. Welcome to the show, Kevin.
Kevin Gregory 1:28
I appreciate you having me on Richard. I’m really excited to be a special guest here and really excited about the topics that we’re going to cover today.
Richard Conner 1:37
You know, I think you have an amazing background, and so many great stories professionally and personally, some of which that we’re going to get into today. And I just want to start with one of your one of your personal stories that you’ve shared on social media just just for the listeners to get to know you a little bit. You You went out to the Adirondacks and had some amazing pictures and videos. Well, why don’t you just tell us a little bit about that.
Kevin Gregory 2:05
For sure. Since the COVID, all the races have been canceled. So my whole race calendar has been erased. And my wife, Jess and I, we were we met in Spartan Race, we love doing obstacle course races we like training and trail running. But she’s a part. Fall is her favorite season and we love getting outside and without any any races, we decided we wanted to hike some mountains. And I don’t know if you know much about Adirondacks. But for your listeners who don’t. There’s 46 high peaks. So if you climb all of them, you’re considered a 46. Or, oh, it’s like an exclusive club up there to climb all those. The 46 peaks are all over 4000 feet as of some guy that measured them a long time ago. So some of them actually aren’t 4000 but traditionally, there’s 46 high peaks over 4000 feet, and they also have to protrude a certain distance from the next highest peak. So you can have like two mountains that are kind of the same that are connected the whole way up. And we wanted to take a trip up there and hike so Saturday night we drove up in our Subaru parked at the trailhead, took a nap, I mean slept overnight in the car and woke up in the morning with a couple of friends from the Albany area. And we conquered the MacIntyre range, which is a series of four mountains, which it only counts as three of the high peaks because one of them like I said before doesn’t protrude enough. And we climb these 4000 footers. The tallest of the three that we covered was called Algonquin. It’s the second tallest mountain in Adirondacks range. And second only mount Marcy, which we climbed a couple years ago together. So we set out at sunset and we hiked some mountains for about nine hours. It was a blast. We packed packed some snacks for the for the trip and loaded up our backpacks and just the casual hike for nine hours with friends. Lots of laughs, lots of joking around. But I mean, just a great day of just being out in nature and seeing some incredible sights and majestic views. Algonquin was the second peak we climbed that was engulfed by a cloud. So the wind up there is actually pretty strong. I don’t know how many miles per hour, but Algonquin the second the first one we climbed, we had a great view of everything. And then when we climbed Algonquin you couldn’t see me. You could see feet in front of your face but you couldn’t see off the the mountain top to the distance or anything. And the wind up there was incredible and I have a great video of just scampered to the top of Algonquin before us and the wind was blowing so hard she hovered. She sat down on the ground and curled up in the fetal position next to a rock because she Afraid to blow off the mountain. So overall, one of one of the finer things in life is a blast. And we ended up getting caught in the rain for the last two hours of our hike, which was the way down, which is a, I guess, a little slippery. So I guess I’d rather be caught in the rain on the way out, but it was great, but uh, just, uh, just overall amazing mazing experience. And we’re looking at hiking a lot more mountains this fall, whether it’s in the Adirondacks or the White Mountains of New Hampshire. But it was it was awesome. If you haven’t been up there, you should definitely check out the Adirondacks. There’s, like I said, 46, high peaks, but a bunch of shorter runs. And you could do a day hike with, with your family and have a great time. And there’s some restaurants around after effect. But, uh, have you ever been up there, Richard?
Richard Conner 5:49
No, I haven’t been and you know, as you’re, as you’re talking about this, I’m thinking Hmm, number one, I’m afraid of heights. Number two, the wind and the rain sound a little scary. But uh, but you know, I’ve been on this journey myself over the last couple of years of trying to conquer my own fears. So you know, maybe I’ll have to check it out.
Kevin Gregory 6:09
Hey, it’s defiinetly worth the trip. I mean, if you could hike the local mountains and Connecticut, you could definitely do something like that. It’s one foot in front the other and until you get to the Alpine zone, which is the last, I don’t know the distances, but you get to a certain point where the trees stop growing. And there’s signs that you’re in the Alpine zone, that’s where you’ll see the bare rock and the wind. And if you look down, it’s scary. But if you just keep your eyes on the horizon, like they say, on the boat, and it’s just majestic.
Richard Conner 6:41
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that. Like I said, I saw the videos and the pictures, and it just looked amazing. So maybe one day I’ll work up the courage to do something like that. But I hear you, with, with the pandemic canceling most activities, you know, they’re, they’re very limited options these days. So hiking is a good one. So let’s, let’s talk a little bit about your background. So your personal trainer, you’ve been a personal trainer for quite some time. What, what led you to get into personal training into fitness?
Kevin Gregory 7:19
That’s a great question. And I guess it starts back when I was a kid. I grew up as the oldest of three boys and my family is always in the sports who watched on TV. I played sports like at the peewee level and then moved up and played football in high school, I wrestled I played lacrosse, I decided to go to college and play lacrosse, and picked up rugby and after college played football. So I’ve been around sports my whole life. And I always thought that kind of kept me in school. Because if I didn’t go to class and didn’t get good grades, I wouldn’t be eligible. So that was huge. But it wasn’t until college when I had a strength and conditioning coach that I realized how much better I could be with the proper training, and also a nutrition coach. So I’m just a freshman coming in and not knowing much about anything and being able to work with those coaches. And they were able to teach me what I needed to eat when I need to eat it to maximize my performance. And as a senior in high school on the lacrosse team, I didn’t start I was a bench player. And lacrosse is like hockey, you have a position and then you’re kind of in the depth chart wherever, however many people down so lacrosse plays three defenseman maybe four at a time. And I was just low enough to not not get much playing time. And then as I went to college, I contacted the school I committed to and asked to talk to the coach and got to try out. And I worked hard enough during tryouts to make the team and then once I got the attention from the coaches, helping me get in better impre increase my fitness and get me in better lacrosse shape and help me eat the right things. It really, I just saw my athleticism go up so fast. I worked my way onto the team as a freshman. That’s what I was just like ecstatic. I’m like I couldn’t start as a senior. And now moving on to the next level. And just to be able to make the team was was awesome. And then staying working with that coach. I did I was like I’m here. I’m appreciative. I’m going to do anything you say. And I just followed every thing that they told me to do to a tee I want to every team lift I want to every team run I did everything I was supposed to do on my own. And the coaches noticed that and they just gave me more and more attention. And when it came time to pick the starting lineup in the spring of my freshman year, I got the the third defensive spot so I got to start as a freshman. And I think that was the first time I realized that if you have the right guidance and you get to you, you do what you need to do. Then you’re going to be able to earn your spot on to the field or in high school is just like okay, go work out Go run. And like, I think back to like, when I was a kid and football practice football season was supposed to start like in a few weeks, and my dad’s like, you better get ready for football practice. And I went outside with my brothers with a nerf football and threw her on the street. And I thought I was getting ready for football. But the linemen and if you’ve ever watched the NFL, the offensive linemen don’t touch the football. So all I was doing was goofing around. I wasn’t preparing for anything. So that’s like sports, best sports specific training. I saw the payoff from that. And after college, I coached at the college level for a bit. And I just want to pay it forward to all the athletes coming in. Because I didn’t have that luxury in high school to have a personal trainer or be able to go to any of these camps. First of all, I didn’t really know they existed, and they’re way more prevalent now. But also, my family didn’t really have the financial means to send me to these expensive camps or hire a personal trainer for me so that I could get that coaching that I needed to take it up to the next level. So that was like my first real aha moment like, wow, fitness and nutrition really makes a huge difference in your performance on the field. And then. So after college, I got into retail sales and chasing the dollar that and into retail management and realize that that’s not the lifestyle one I was working long hours and not sleeping while I couldn’t take care of my body because I was just working, working, working. And that’s why I pursued like an education in in fitness and nutrition and health and wellness. And I had my undergrad in economic Business Economics. And I was like, well, what’s, what would it look like for me to take my business skills and move into the fitness realm. So I got my first personal training certification in 2012 or 2013. And started training a couple people on the side from that retail job. And after a few months, I was like, let me see if I can do this full time. So I moved out of there. And that’s when I started doing strength and conditioning coaching at the college level, aside from personal training, and then I just got more certifications. And I was fortunate to have one of the college coaches point out that one of the benefits of working there was you get a free class every semester. And SUNY Plattsburgh State University of New York Plattsburgh, it’s a mouthful. It’s a it’s up near Canada, they, they had a program where you can get your master’s degree in fitness and wellness leadership. So I was like, Well, if I’m going to get my master’s for free, I might as well pursue it. So I started taking those classes. And I just finished that degree up. And that’s how I ended up with my Master’s in fitness. But all the while working in the field with student athletes. And then some of their parents, I decided to, I found a way to work with local high school students because as I mentioned earlier, like I didn’t know anything in high school. So I partnered with this local soccer camp, and I did strength conditioning for soccer athletes at this camp, in addition to what they were already offering, so these kids are gonna steal because they’re paying their costs for a soccer camp. And then they get to work with a college coach in strength and conditioning. And then that worked out great. So I ended up creating my own camp. And I ran that for three summers in Oneonta, New York, which is where I was I went to college and where I was working. And that that was great. And the kit the following was amazing. And now years later following those kids, because I’ve been in Connecticut for three years now. So I guess those kids that were rising ninth graders or even high school seniors following their progression since then, really like just confirmed with me how important what I did was because I watched some of these kids go from seventh grade where they couldn’t even run a straight line without tripping to playing on state championship teams. One kid that I coached went on to play college lacrosse and Oneonta is not a hotbed. You go to high school and you play lacrosse there. It’s like that’s only because you couldn’t make the baseball team. So that’s not not the place to come from. It’s not like you grew up on Long Island like I did, and everybody’s born with a stick in their hand. But one kid I coached when he was a seventh grader he had he went on to play with limestone, which is a Division Two team and he won multiple national championships with them. So the feed like seeing what those kids were able to do and knowing where they were at age, I started working with them. And I know I didn’t work with them straight through but I had a piece of building their foundation and then communicating it with some years later and that just the fulfillment of that and being able to pay it forward to other athletes. And knowing I made a difference in their life has just been like Like that, like I said, that really like confirmed my decision to follow that path. And now like, since I moved to Connecticut and working in a big box gym, I’ve been able to work with just a different demographic, but still take people that come in off the couch, have no idea about fitness or wellness or health or diet and they think keto is the answer to everything or whatever their their belief is, and helping them not only hit their weight loss goals, because that’s usually what most people’s goal is. but exceeding them, and not doing it in a crash diet way where they bounce back, or the yo yo back up, but in a way that changes our whole lifestyle, and then they sustain those those pounds off. And they just have like a whole new like rebirth, I guess where they found things. And I guess that that’s just been like my story, I guess going into into fitness and why I’m still here, so.
Richard Conner 15:55
Mm hmm. That’s, that’s amazing. I love this story. And, you know, something that you said is really interesting, there was a point in time where it was very difficult for for you to take, be able to take care of yourself. And I think a lot of people struggle with that, right? A lot of us have the nine the nine to five jobs, we’re working way more than 40 hours, we’re taking care of families, the house, and fitness is not prioritized it just deprioritized. That’s really kind of one of the the focus areas of Inspire Virtual Runs right is to is to help our community prioritize your fitness and wellness and incorporate running as part of that. So how do you see how does running fit within you know, the fitness programs? And what do you tell your clients about like why they should run?
Kevin Gregory 16:47
Right, so I’m a very holistic approach kind of guy when it comes to fitness and that. So some people, if you go to the gym, just close your eyes and envision this and then walk in the gym, and you’ll see exactly this, you walk in the gym, and then you see the cardio deck. And then you look around and look at those people. And most of those people are masters at cardio, all they do is cardio, they’re afraid of weights, they don’t want to get to quote unquote bulky, so they just want to work on quote unquote, weight loss. And all they do is cardio. And then you have the other side of the gym, which is full of weights, those guys are afraid of cardio, they’re usually beefier people, because all they do is lift. And it’s not that they don’t do cardio, because they’re afraid to shrink, they just don’t want to lose strength by doing cardio. So they have this, they’re, these two groups of people have this massive belief on off opposite ends of the spectrum that the other one is going to counteract what they’re trying to accomplish. But in reality, if you don’t have good cardiovascular health, then you’re not going to be able to perform as well as you could, if you did, and if you don’t have strength, your body doesn’t have any lean body tissue. So of course, if weight loss is your goal, all you’re doing is breaking down muscle to fuel your your cardio, because you’re not you’re probably not eating that much because you’re trying to lose weight. And if you’re not eating enough, your body is breaking itself down. It’s just this vicious cycle of I can’t lose weight because your body is in starvation mode and XYZ. So what I do as a personal trainer is I sit down with someone I figure out what their goals are. And then they need to do some strength training. Different people have different strength training requirements, depending on what their goals and their body type and injuries or whatever. So we won’t break go into that today. But some people strength training twice a week is going to be perfect. And then other people need it five times a week. But when it comes to cardio, and running, and it we’re talking about running today, so running is going to be huge. It’s going to train you cardiovascularly it’s going to train all of your you can train all of your energy systems. So without getting too scientific. There’s three energy systems. There’s a robotic, whichever nose, a robotic means in the presence of oxygen, and it metabolizes fat. Then there’s anaerobic, which means no oxygen, and it’s metabolizing, glycogen or sugar. And then the top one is the phospho creatine which is like the short burst just a few seconds, and that’s just burning, creating out of your muscles, which replenishes itself, you don’t need to take creatine your body produces it, but we’re not going to do that you’re not going to train that system, but you could if you do sprints really short or whatever. So developing your aerobic capacity and your ability to do work and burn fat is done by staying in the aerobic zone. So think of like a car. If you floor it, you’re going to burn a lot of gas. But if you push the gas at the right rate and you keep it in the right spot with the right RPM, you’re going to be able to go for a really long time. Think of economy fuel, so your fats, your economy fuel and if you train properly, which is putting running into your program, and you do it the right amount at the right intensity. And by right intense intensity, I mean, if you don’t run too hard, too long or too fast, then you’re going to be able to sustain that for a while, and your body’s gonna choose to burn fat to support that, which is most people’s goals lean out somehow. So, programming running in, there’s so many facets to this, we could do like a three hour podcast, this is why I know we’re going to talk about later but the my running club, because there’s so many pieces of it. But putting running in practicing both mechanics. So how you move is going to be huge, because that’s going to help you use the right energy system and not break down your body. Because anybody that’s gone running after never running before or not running for a long time, has a lot of aches and pains that they don’t know where it came from. And then the physiological benefits of improving your heart health and not just fat loss, but just general conditioning. So it the goal or how I would program that in also depends on who I’m working with. But for beginners, just getting out and and just moving and practicing running and running slower than you think you should. Even if it’s just a jog, I use the word running loosely, jogging. Just doing it initially, and then learning how to do it better is going to be the most beneficial thing. Just do it consistently. And don’t feel like if you’re not dying, you’re not doing it right. You should run easier than you think you should.
Richard Conner 21:45
Mm hmm. Okay, that’s very good advice. And you know, it’s funny, you mentioned the aches and pain. I remember when I got back into running, I know all about the aches and pains. But you’re but you’re right that that subsides over time. So that that’s really good advice. And I love what you’re talking about here having more of a holistic approach. We’re obviously focused on running, but there are for those who It sounds like you’re saying for those who only do cardio, they need to incorporate some sort of strength training in their program and vice versa, right. So those who only focus on strength training needs to incorporate some some type of cardio.
Kevin Gregory 21:46
Yeah, for sure. The strength training for will just take runners real quick. So if you only ever run, you’re going to develop a lot of imbalances. And those imbalances lead to injuries and injuries put you out and then you can’t run. So then what are you going to do? So I’m not saying you have to go in the gym and do max effort benchpress and deadlifts and squats. But for runners, there’s certain weightlifting exercises that are really going to increase your durability. And that’s the main point, if you’re training to be a runner, then you’re going to do strength training for that specifically.
Richard Conner 22:54
And in the weight lifting exercises, are they for, like legs only, or their whole body like what kind of exercises.
Kevin Gregory 23:03
Legs obviously, because you’re running, so we’re not gonna say it’s not legs. But core is huge, because your core stability is going to keep your body upright and keep you mechanically moving. And then as far as upper body goes, not skipping it completely, but you, the upper body needs to get toned as well, because the upper body is going to have to maintain a posture and an isometric science word, you’re going to hold the upper body in a specific position, and you’re going to move in a specific way. So if you just think about the developing muscle to hold those pot those positions, because that’s going to make you more efficient runner. If you get tired, think about just sitting at a desk, if you get tired, you start slouching, while you’re running, you’re obviously gonna get tired, you’re going to start slouching, and if you start slouching, you’re going to increase the amount of effort it takes to do the same amount of work because your body your skeleton is not properly aligned.
Richard Conner 23:55
Okay, So legs, core, upper body, and do you recommend like body weight exercises,
Kevin Gregory 24:04
Some sort of resistance training, depending on what the exercises and what the body part is? A, any sort of resistance training to be beneficial if all you have is bodyweight that you can do a lot of stuff with just bodyweight as we’ve learned through COVID because you can’t buy a dumbbell from anywhere.
Richard Conner 24:23
That’s right
Kevin Gregory 24:23
Eight to 20 weeks,
Richard Conner 24:24
You know my story.
Kevin Gregory 24:27
We ordered this in April and it’s Christmas. It’s finally here. But uh, weights are great, but so are bands so is bodyweight if you do the right exercises, there’s as long as there’s resistance involved. You’re gonna get that that adaptation that you’re looking for. So the age old thing is I don’t have XYZ equipment and you don’t need XYZ equipment. You just need to be creative. If you need weight and you don’t have a weight then you could grab a jug of milk or water bucket of rocks or something. And you’re making yourself a little bit heavier to do lunges, or, for example, or squats. And that’s going to make it harder than it would have if you didn’t have anything. So you don’t traditionally need a barbell or dumbbells or a kettlebell or anything.
Richard Conner 25:13
Mm hmm. Okay, so so that that’s great. So it sounds like if someone’s not running today, they need to start slow. Would you recommend even walking first if they’re not used to any kind of activity like that walking, and then get into the rhythm of maybe jogging at a slow pace just to get started. And then in between also work on on weightlifting, right, where some, like you said, resistance training.
Kevin Gregory 25:44
Yeah, you said a great, start slow, just walking and getting time on your feet. And fast forward to when you’re an incredible athlete, and you want to do an ultra marathon, you train time on your feet. So let’s get back to day one. Whether you’re running, walking or jogging, if you haven’t done anything, go for a walk, feel good about it, and just that time on your feet of walking is going to work on your it’s going to strengthen your muscles is going to strengthen your joints gonna make you more durable. And then as you’re ready to start moving faster. So say transitioning from walking to jogging, bring a watch, or even if you don’t go for a walk, and then increase to a jog until the next stop sign and then walk again for like a few minutes and then jog to the next stop sign and then walk for a couple minutes. And you can replace that jog with a run if you’re ready to go a little faster. But those intervals are going to allow you to push hard, but then you get a really good break. So that’s where I’d start with a walk. And when you’re ready to move faster jog to something that’s not too far away, and then take a really good break while you’re walking and so on.
Richard Conner 26:52
That’s awesome. Okay. So you know, I know that fitness and running is just as much mental as it is physical. How do you keep your your clients motivated? How do you how do you keep them going?
Kevin Gregory 27:11
So I always I want to relate with them on their original Why? Why are they here? Why are they sitting down with me? Why? Why is their goal what their goal is? And if I can tie everything I tell them back to that, or at least most of it, then they’re going to be more receptive to doing what we plan out. And I’m I’ve never written a plan and had anyone follow it 110% to the tee. And neither have I ever followed the plan that I was given for my coach 110% there’s always going to be hiccups here life happens there. But the main thing is Do what you can and then adjust and not getting down yourself if you miss a day because Billy came home sick with the flu and you didn’t get to do your run, then that’s okay. tend to him feel good about taking care of your family and then tomorrow go out again. But always tying it back to your why so furniture just using this because this is the eighth anniversary of my first Spartan Race at Killington, the hardest race ever known to man at the time. But anybody who runs Spartan knows what Killington is, and
Richard Conner 28:23
Yeah, that’s funny you mentioned that because I saw I saw a photo or posts, I don’t know many months ago, and it said, one of the one of the hardest Spartan races, and it said, Killington Beast, Killington Ultra, Killington Super Killington, Killington Sprint and Killington Kids.
Kevin Gregory 28:45
Yes, I can’t imagine what those kids go through, but the that was the original, like, race location for Spartan I believe. And then they made that the World Championship a couple years later, and it was there for a few years before it moved out. But eight years ago, this weekend, I ran Killington for the first time in my second ever Spartan Race. And it took me five and a half hours, it was only 13 miles or so. And I ran with five friends, and we trained our butts off all summer for it. And we finished. Well, I got the great idea in 2013. I’m like, oh, that that was really hard, but it was awesome. I want to do the ultra beast, which is two laps of that course, in one day, like back to back, like, you finish and then you go right back out for a lot too. Because one lap wasn’t enough punishment. So 2013 I trained like I thought I should and I went there with my buddy and he was training too. And we ran it together and 12 hours in they’re like, sorry, guys, you didn’t make it far enough. You’re out. you’re disqualified. Oh, no, we were like in tears. But we’re kind of happy cuz we’re like, four miles left, you can finish before 10pm. Right. And they’re like, no, it’s really a lot more than four. We just didn’t tell you it’s 31 miles not 26. So you are not going to make it. So you’re done. So we were heartbroken. We paid all this money to do this race and they wouldn’t even let us finish it, but we’re freezing, getting borderline hypothermic, and we still had to go back and Lake. And that just one year later 2014 my whole goal for the whole year is I have to finish this ultra beast. So for 12 months, I did a bunch of races, but all I cared about the entire time. Every morning I woke up, I’m all I have is the Killington ultra beast in my head. And every morning, I’m doing 100 burpees. And I’m running for however many miles and doing all my training and all this and that and long runs and like I don’t feel like going outside wait Killington ultra beast, I’m not failing that again. And a year later, I ran it, and I finished it. And like 14 hours in the dark, like, no one was even there to celebrate across the fire. And I looked around and like, Where’s my metal. But I pretty much just made the cut off. But that whole year, like, I know how I felt hooked to that goal. So what I do with my clients is I try to find what that goal is for them. And it’s probably not a Spartan Race, but it might be the local five k that they’ve gone and watched like every year and always wanted to participate in or their friends always invite them to a 5K or 10K or half marathon and they had been putting it off because they don’t want to go unprepared. Or they did it once. And they couldn’t walk for two months, because they ran like crap. And their body really hurt or they injured themselves. So I find that hook and then I just keep tying it back to that. And like I said, you’re gonna pick ups and you’re going to miss a day training, or you’re going to get sick or whatever. But always being able to tie back in that point, that time where you feel bad for yourself is gonna go away much faster, because you’re like, no, I got this goal. I got to get on that. When you have the right motivation, anything is possible.
Richard Conner 31:58
Oh, that’s, that’s great. And like I said, I think it’s, I think it’s a big thing. And I talk about it all the time with the community with the IVR community about remembering your why and really think about that. And keep that in mind. You know, as you’re planning out your week and your fitness and your runs, because that’s that’s what’s gonna keep keep you going. So great stories there.
Kevin Gregory 32:19
Thanks.
Richard Conner 32:20
So, Kevin, if you didn’t have enough on your plate, you also host a running club. And you mentioned you mentioned earlier, so let’s talk about that, like, how does a running club help your clients and how does it work?
Kevin Gregory 32:36
Right. So I designed this running club because I wanted my clients to run more, and I’d tell them and I’d teach them in our one on one sessions, but then they wouldn’t go run. I mean, some of them do like you, but most of them like how’s your run like I do it. So I, I wanted, I’ve never been part of a running club before. So I’m not sure how they’re quote unquote supposed to work. The way I run my running club is it’s designed for beginners. So they come in, I’ve my running coach Richard DS, you can look him up. He’s awesome. At at D at Diaz, HP or at dehp. Look, Richard Diaz on Instagram, you can check him out. He’s my running coach. He’s out in California. He comes this way every now and again to run his clinics. And he I’ve been to like five of them or more, I don’t know. So my running clubs kind of designed on the basic skills that he teaches us, just not in as much detail because like, we don’t have time for his for our running club in my weekly our class. But I’ll start off everybody, I always teach down to the most basic person because no one’s coming to my running club. That’s an advanced runner. No Boston Marathon finishers are showing up. It’s the regular people from the gym who want to learn a new skill. So we start with foot strengthening and balance drills and activation inhibit and everyone’s got some sort of injury or some pain that they’ve had somewhere in life. So we really break it down to the bare bones. We do some ever and most most people as sure your job is you end up tending to sit a little bit. So people get short hip flexors, and they get weak glutes, and that causes a hitch in their in their hips. So they stand up straight, their posture is not quite perfect. So we release the hips, we do some movement drills and that kind of thing. When we work on running mechanics, we use the use of tools like a metronome. I also have a sled and some bands and things to get people to to move properly. And then we finish it up, we go outside, and then we run. So I’m not going to have like someone whose first day it is running, who usually only walks go out and run of five, five miles or anything. Most of them we do the activation and then the people that can run and have been running and they’re working on their form. I’ll send them out for a little bit longer. On, and then I’ll stay behind and work with the beginners on some shorter distance from like, across the parking lot, watch their form, have them rest, kind of like I told you that the walk around walk. So that way we can critique their their form. And the feedback I’ve gotten from these from some of these people is Oh my God, I’ve been trying to run for years, and I can’t go far because it starts hurting and my shins hurt and my ankles or my hip, and I have this thing in my side. And they’re like I can I feel like I can run for for an hour. And I’m like, that’s perfect. That means you’re doing I told you, you’re not trying to run too fast, you’re landing on the proper part of your foot, your posture is good, your breathing is better. You’re you have the right cadence, so your foot striking the ground close to your center of gravity. And so the way out in front of it. And it’s just been like a huge success. And people I love it, because I’ll get a text like later in the week from someone who was in class and like, Hey, I just wanted to let you know, I ran for 30 minutes all by myself today. And I’m like, Oh, I’m like proud. That The thing is, like most of these people, they might do like a five K or something if their towns running it. But in general, they’re not aspiring to be a Boston Marathon or they’re not aspiring for anything more than just general health and wellness. And to see their their love enough to get up and go run because they can do whatever cardio they usually do. Or take 15 classes a week, at the gym, they just seeing them mix in a new style of activity is just going to increase their longevity and an overall fitness results. So that makes me so proud. Richard Conner 36:44 That’s great. It sounds like it sounds like your clients are getting great results. And you know, when I think about a running club, I’m thinking we’re just going running, right? So it sounds like you have your very, very good process, very approach a very systematic way of kind of teaching some of the techniques and help with the strengthening some of what we talked about before. So that that’s great. So Kevin, this, by the way, this is awesome. You have been great. I love this conversation. how can how can our listeners find you? How can they sign up for the running club? or How can they just find you and follow you? Because like I said, you post great content on social media. I love your philosophy about fitness and wellness, how can people find you?
Kevin Gregory 37:34
So the best way to find me is on Instagram, at bubbles, the clown bubbles like normal clown with an E at the end. I know there’s a whole podcast we could do on why on bubbles the clown, but you’re gonna have to go there and check out some pictures and figure it out or just shoot me a DM and I’ll tell you a little bit of a story if you want. But that’s that’s gonna be the best way to reach out to me. I checked my messages on a daily basis and I can talk to you directly versus any other way.
Richard Conner 38:04
Okay, awesome. So I’ll include some of this in the in the show notes. Kevin, again, thank you so much. This has been great. I think our listeners are going to get a lot out of this. If you’re just starting off running if you’re if you’re looking to improve right get over those aches and pains and the hump of getting started. This is really helpful information. So thanks for the time, Kevin. Thanks for experience and expertise.
Kevin Gregory 38:31
Thanks, Richard. I can’t wait to hear some of these episodes. I’m really excited to see what other guests you have on the podcast and I’ll see you, I’ll see you soon enough and hopefully we’ll have a real Spartan Race sometime soon and get back out there and get muddy.
Richard Conner 38:44
I hope so. Thanks again, Kevin.
Kevin Gregory 38:47
My pleasure. Have a good one.
Intro/Outro 38:52
That’s it for this episode of inspire virtually runs podcasts. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review. Also, be sure to click the subscribe button so you don’t miss an episode. Thanks for listening.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai