Simple Nutrition Insights
Welcome to Simple Nutrition Insights, your practical guide to understanding nutrition in less than 30 minutes. Join us as we break down the science of healthy eating into digestible insights and actionable tips. Whether you're a busy parent or just short on time, our goal is to provide you with straightforward advice to enhance your well-being. Tune in for expert interviews, evidence-based advice, and quick, easy-to-implement strategies for nourishing your body and living your best life.
Simple Nutrition Insights
From Doubt to Dominance: Ben Nevares's Path to Powerlifting Glory and Holistic Health
Ben Nevares went from lifting weights in a sweltering South Texas garage to becoming a world-record-setting powerlifter and the owner of IE Health. This episode is an inspiring journey that highlights the power of resilience and mentorship. Ben shares how his early passion for exercise, reinforced by a challenging yet supportive environment, propelled him to pursue a master's degree in exercise science. Listeners will gain valuable insights into the turning points that shaped his career, including overcoming early discouragement from family and channeling skepticism into a drive for success.
Have you ever felt the sting of doubt, only to turn it into your greatest motivator? Ben opens up about the moments of skepticism that fueled his determination to excel in powerlifting, eventually leading him to set a world record at the age of 16. This episode explores how mentorship, continuous learning, and a supportive community can pave the way for extraordinary achievements. Ben's story is a testament to how a single goal can catalyze personal growth, helping him navigate injuries and build a thriving career in fitness and nutrition.
Balancing the demands of fitness, nutrition, and daily life is no small feat. Ben discusses his transition from competitive sports to a holistic approach to health post-retirement. He shares practical strategies for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and the importance of collaboration in personal training. With a focus on long-term health goals and client care, this episode provides actionable advice for anyone passionate about health and wellness. Join us as we explore the journey of founding IE Health and the passion-driven growth that continues to shape Ben's fulfilling career.
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Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of the Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast. I am your host, leonila Campos, registered Dietitian, and in today's episode I am excited to have a special guest, ben Navarez, and he is the owner of IE Health. He's also a former Team USA athlete. He is a publisher and researcher in nutrition. He also holds a master's degree in exercise science and education coaching education. So welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much for having me. I'm very happy to be here this beautiful morning.
Speaker 1:Awesome. So I always like to start with this question right, like what got you into this field? Right? Maybe what motivated you to get your master's right? And then we'll go through that path after that.
Speaker 2:So initially, what got me into this field was I liked lifting weights, and that was as simple as it was, and I found something that was authentic to me, that maybe not everyone else shared, but I don't know that I really cared. And so I was fortunate enough to have a gym at the house growing up, and so I was exposed to the gym very early on, and there was something about being alone in the gym where I could work on everything that I wanted to improve on, and as long as I did it well enough and for a long enough period, then I could see the results I was looking for, and the results were an immediate, but I wasn't necessarily super interested in the immediate results At the time. I was just enjoying getting a good sweat in. Sometimes I would be with some friends, we'd go to the house, we'd turn off the AC and I'm from South Texas, so it was a very, very hot, pretty much garage room where, um, we had, you know, benches and and, uh, leg press, cable pull downs, we had all this stuff that you could want in a, in a gym at the house, and so we would, you know, do all that, and then we had a pool, so we'd got to the pool and it was just a really fun time with a community of people and I felt like I was probably the head of that group because I had the most experience in the gym at that time and so I saw direct benefit from going into not being the strongest person whenever I was in the group at the middle school level to entering high school as being one of the strongest, and so I found a lot of value and a lot of love for that there.
Speaker 2:The master's degree was kind of never really anticipated. All I wanted to do by the time I got in high school was to be good at lifting weights and I wanted to understand the difference between a bodybuilder and a powerlifter. And I was naive and I didn't really understand that there's a lot of drugs that go involved in their training regimens. But I was so focused on the genetic component because at the time my uncle probably a couple of years before then had told me you know, you're just not built for it, you're never going to be successful in sport. So you should probably, you should probably just give up now and just focus on the education which. Focusing on education is valuable. Don't get me wrong. He is a physical therapist now and he was then, and so I understand his point of view. But at the same time I was confused as to why he was so dead set on the fact that I wasn't going to be successful in something when he couldn't tell the future.
Speaker 2:So I reached out to a professor at the University of Texas or Texas A&M University, up in College Station, and I emailed a gentleman by the name of Dr Lightfoot and, dr Lightfoot, I hadn't been accepted into the program. I was still a junior, I think I hadn't really even thought about college at that point, and I was just interested in, like, what are the differences here? And so that was my question to him. Hey, I was just. You know, I'm a power lifter. I was wondering what these differences are. And he's like well, ben, there's a lot there.
Speaker 2:Whenever you get accepted, if you get accepted, make sure you come and visit me at my location in my office here at ANA. So I got accepted, went up there and, with a lot of guidance and mentorship from Dr Lightfoot, I was able to get into, start working with laboratories and doing initially basic exercise, physiology, and then so we did research on rats, looking at plastics, the couch potato gene, the dopamine receptors in the brain, and then moved over into the nutrition world and I graduated. I wanted to make money, but at the same time I still wanted to move forward and be successful in whatever I thought was success at the time, and so I was like I guess I should go get a master's. And so that's what I did Amazing story.
Speaker 1:I love how you started it right With you were interested in like lifting weights, right, you had a little. How old were you at that time when you started?
Speaker 2:I think my dad said he took me to the gym the first time when I was like five years old, so I definitely grew up in the gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's just so amazing how that progression is right, because it's almost so natural. You grew up in it, right, and so it's not like, oh, I'm doing it because I want to lose weight, right, I'm not doing it because I I don't know, whatever the reason is, it's more so because you grew up in that environment and it's almost so natural, right, that it almost makes sense, right, that you might want to do it. And I see that often too with my children. Right, we do have a little gym here at the house, and it's not that we work out because, you know, the same reason we want to lose weight or whatever the case may be it's because it's a way to move our bodies, right, it's because we love it, and so they join right, and obviously they're little. You know, I have a four-year-old and an almost eight-year-old, and so they experience that right. And so I think we are the role models, right, as parents we are.
Speaker 1:And I love how you took onto that in such a natural way. You went onto and did a master's right. I want to linger on the idea of how much that affected why your uncle said, right, essentially, you're not going to be able to do that. How were you able to bypass that? Because this is an uncle, right. It's almost like a dad in a way, right, it's almost like a father figure. And for someone to say that, that can crush your dreams in a way, right. So, if it's okay with you, how do you manage to bypass that?
Speaker 2:I think in the moment I was definitely crushed, I mean definitely very crushed. Every single time I would ask him a question like why? Like, why do you think that it was stuff? At the time, I didn't realize that he was talking about panacea angles and he was like you know, if you could just have a specific angle inside of your forearm, like a specific insertion point of a tendon that allows you to create more power, just the way that you're designed? And so I was like well, how do you know that? He's? Like well, I can just you know you probably don't. I was like this is probably not a guarantee and this is based on some data that you can't really gather. And so I think I continue to ask questions. And when my questions weren't answered in a way that I thought was rational, I was like okay, well, let's prove him wrong. And I decided at that moment, no able to be like you know what?
Speaker 1:No, let's let's find out that I can do it right, that I'm going to make it happen, and so, yeah, that's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:I had no idea the extent of which really, uh, I guess was really required of that outside of just time. Um, thankfully had good coaches around. And then my inquisitive nature led me to looking more stuff up on Google and on. I don't know if you ever, growing up maybe listeners do or don't know about T Nation. It was like a blogging platform and I would just go in there and it's like how to bench more. And that's where I learned initially about like a five, three, one method, uh, about powerlifting and getting stronger. So you know you, I forget the actual method, but I think it's five by five, five by three, by three, and then one by one or three by one. Whatever you follow, it's like a, it's like a linear progression pretty much, because it just rotates every single month. So I guess it's kind of like an undulating.
Speaker 2:But I learned about anatomy and physiology and programming and I started reading books from NASM and from the NSCA, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and by the time I got into my undergrad it was all things that I had already read on my own.
Speaker 2:It motivated me, like there was this adjacent item that I didn't realize I was developing, I was, I was becoming an exercise scientist.
Speaker 2:I just didn't realize it.
Speaker 2:I was like I just want to be a power lifter, I just want to get strong, and in the meantime, I was learning how to use resources, how to reach out to other individuals, how to seek mentorship where it may be needed, understanding that I don't know everything. I'm going to need help. So who around me is better than me that I can learn from. So I started to, you know, went to a powerlifting gym that was like 30 minutes away and they had already competed at the world stage lots of world records and so I joined them and my first year training with them, I set my first world record at 16 years old and I was like, wow, this is, you know, this is really fun, this is really cool, I'm learning a lot. So I think that I decided on a goal, but because of that one goal, there was such a beautiful ripple effect that allowed me to be really just a better human being in every aspect and like prepared me for and trained skills that I would use for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, and just as such a young age right, you were already learning so much and thinking about, okay, how can I get better? Right, like, who do I need to reach out to do that? And that mentorship, right, I think that is so valuable because, you're absolutely right, we don't know everything and there's going to be people out there that have more knowledge that can help us. Right, can help us essentially get better, whatever we want to do, and so that is so amazing. Yeah, like, those are your progression and all the things that you have built, and so then you get to become a USA athlete, right To that level. Tell us a little bit more about that, like, how do you get there and how was the journey?
Speaker 2:So my freshman year of high school, I was kind of told hey, you show up on Saturday, we have a power lifting meet, and I was like I don't even know what that is, but okay, sure. So I showed up on Saturday, had a good time. I loved the memory of, or I love the environment of the situation where I get up early, um, get to the school, a bus would take us to the space and then we would. You know, I love that whole environment. I've done it in middle school when I was doing UIL competitions or stuff like that, and so it was not something I was super unfamiliar with and so it was attractive for me and competed, didn't? I don't think they, I think, placed top 10. I don't know, I probably didn't have any real like major success in that first year. And then my sophomore year, I ended up having two surgeries. I ended up having a torn labor in my left shoulder and a torn right medial meniscus and a slight tear of that ACL on that same side, and it was from football, it was a contact injury and I was like man, I'm born August 31st and so the year cycle I ended up being the youngest person. I could either have the option to either move a grade and be the oldest or be the youngest in the current grade. That I was, and so I think I was like 15 or 14 or whatever that age was at that time. And so I was like man, I'm only this age and I've already had two surgeries in six months, or it was probably even less than six months. So I wasn't able to compete in powerlifting that year. I wasn't able to complete um the year of football either, and at that moment I remember talking with, uh, I think father and other people around there were like how, how worth it is it for you to stay in this thing, given the fact that you've already had the surgeries? So you know, that's a really good point. I like the camaraderie, so I have to decide whether this is a good idea or not.
Speaker 2:And during that time it also piqued my interest of physical therapy. I was in a physical therapy, you know, I went through physical therapy for the shoulder and it was a terrible experience. I mean, oh my God, it was the absolute worst. I mean this guy was just there, not really like engaged, just kind of telling me go off and do whatever, and he'd be watching TV and then all of a sudden, hey, do five more. And then look away Like he wasn't really caring. Bedside manner was terrible and so I had to go off on my own and look to see how are there ways that I can help recover this shoulder Either way and that kind of helps like in the future either way.
Speaker 2:And so junior year I ended up qualifying, setting some regional records and then going to state and making second in state, and when I got there you know the guy that beat me. He was older than me, he was a year older than she, he was a senior. I went up there and said you know, shook, shook his hands like hey, thank you so much. Whatever. I said good, good job, or whatever, and he ignored my handshake. He just looked at, looked at you up and down and walked away and I was like you know what? I'm going to come back next year and beat every single record that you made.
Speaker 2:So the following year I ended up coming back and doing that exact thing, and I was the first person in the history of my high school to win a state title in the sport, and on the way to that I had to reach out because I wanted to continue to do this after high school and I found this gentleman by the name of Preston Turner at the University of Texas who informed me that there was an opportunity to compete for Team USA. And I was like, oh my God, sign me up, like that's it right there. And so I ended up going to nationals that same year. I ended up winning at nationals, winning at state, and then so first place, first place qualified for Team USA. And then it was like, all right, we're, we're going to Hungary this year, so we'll be competing in Hungary for Worlds in 2014 or 20, yeah, 2014, something like that. And so I was like, all right, we're going to find enough money.
Speaker 2:So then I started to go get sponsors, and so I started to look at different businesses, door knocking, going and like offering different deals. I understood I understood a little bit more taxes at that point, as I had to learn about taxes and understand that this is a tax break, this is a marketing, this is, and so this is a write-off for companies, and so this is something that's valuable for them, so long as they can align with the brand. And so I understood branding, I understood taxes, and so I would go to these companies and start to ask for, you know, any donation that they would be willing to offer. And then I ended up getting to the point where you know I was able to afford it and went to go compete and then I think I placed third my first year.
Speaker 2:Second, my first year I got a couple, a couple of gold medals, um, in like the bench and maybe the deadlift or something like that. Uh, but I think I ended up getting um bronze overall and my hunk, my, my uncle said I couldn't do it, was there watching me, uh, so he took a trip to go watch me compete for for the teams at that point. So I mean, it was a hell of a journey. Um, again, I wouldn't have been able to do with all the help with the people around me. Just I need, I needed to be the person that was willing to ask. I was willing to humble myself and realize that, you know, I don't know everything, so who around me might? And so let me see team usa power lifters and, like you, never know what's going to come up, you know, uh ended up finding some really good people yeah, and so many lessons learned right along the way.
Speaker 1:Everything that you had to learn on your own in a way right, the sponsorships and trying to get that um, you know those resources that you needed to to go to hungary, and I'm sure just that experience right traveling to a different country, and all that as well. And I'm sure you know how proud you felt being able to show your uncle right that said that you couldn't do it. I mean, I'm just everything that essentially you learn along the way, which it's something that we just don't use. Then, right, once you learn something, you can use it in so many ways. So I'm sure you know now that you have your own business right and your own company applying those things to you. I'm sure that has helped as well.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. I think that running a business is almost no different than the stuff in health and fitness that we see, which is why I believe that health and fitness is such a great teacher, in every single sense of the word, and every single day you have to practice these things, these little things that ultimately will make you successful and healthy, and so I think this, like this balance between this is now a job and I'm having to go compete and I'm making money, and now this is kind of I need to uphold this, this standard of excellence, uh versus. I started off doing it just because I loved it, and so you, you have to learn that there's a there's a balance between those two uh things and understanding when to maybe bow out or stay more aggressively in the sports, but your priorities change, and in the gym and in life, priorities change, and so maybe at the time I was very aggressive with trying to lift heavy and do all these things and I needed help, so I reached out for help, and then now there's comes a time in the career of an athlete where maybe lifting as heavy isn't necessarily the priority. So out of the 12 months of the year, I'm only lifting heavy. For the rest of the time I'm kind of doing maintenance items or I'm still working towards being able to do those four months aggressively and intensely.
Speaker 2:But the rest of it is just designed so that I can do that. So I'm eating well, I'm recovering, I'm getting those massages, I'm making sure my nutrition's honed in on, I'm making sure my sleep's good and I'm in school. So there's a lot to balance there and I think that's in business and that's in life. We have kids, we have families, we have business, we have our health, and so it like I think it really highlights all of those things in the gym on how to balance, and then you can just take those skills and then apply them to any, any part of your life and that that you know that could be in like a very, very micro view of of family and like, okay, I got to take care of my husband or my wife or my partner, and then my kids, and each kid needs their own individual kind of attention Like it really does, I think, become very detailed and I think that the gym really allows you to learn those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's important to talk about the nutrition aspect of it, right. So how nutrition you know how that role has, or how has it played in your journey, right, as an athlete, as you know, being in the Team USA, right, and I'm sure your nutrition has changed over time as well but how important our nutrition is right and has been through your journey well, initially, when I started to make this change, it was like I'm from south texas.
Speaker 2:Everyone eats, you know, tacos and enchiladas, and we're having tamales and everybody's you know everybody's eating, eating, eating, eating.
Speaker 2:You know, mccallan, te, texas, is right next to where I'm from and that's one of the most I think it was the number one most obese city in the nation, and so it's very common that snacking and unhealthy eating are just built into the culture. And so whenever you go against that culture and start eating more clean making sure I'm watching how much salt I'm eating the week before, powerlifting me so I make sure I make weight I'm starting to cut weight, understanding the implications of that and how my you know what happens to me physiologically and then how to rebound from all those things. And so it became like I started taking my food. You know that I'd make it home to school during the month of a program or whatever all that may have entailed. It was intense and it was going against the grain. I was probably almost seen as the weird guy, and then it came into.
Speaker 2:I started competing again more aggressively. I competed for the university at A&M and in that team setting there was a lot of peer pressure around how much to eat, when to eat, and it was definitely understood and appreciated I was trying to fit inside of a weight class. My body was no longer designed to fit in. I was competing at 181 pounds, or like 83 kilos or 183 pounds, and the next jump was 205 pounds, and I was almost afraid of letting myself get up to that point. It's like, what does that really mean for me? But it feels more comfortable just to walk around at that weight. I'm not really having to weight cut, that's just what my body's designed for, so I should be able to listen to that. And so there is peer pressure in the right direction. But at the same time, I remember there were times where I'd overeat to the point of I need to sit in my car or else I'm going to throw up. And so there is this binge eating relationship with food as well that I had to really come to terms with, like how much is the peer pressure worth it, or how much is my sanity worth it? And so my food at that point really had become a significant priority and understanding like, okay, now food is a medicine and how can I use it for my performance? So I need this amount of carbs before, like an hour to two hours before I work out, these are the things I should eat. I need a high GI carb during this time I need. You know I want preservation of tissue, and so we know you know le want preservation of tissue, and so we know. You know leucine is one of the best at doing that, and so protein is in charge of protein synthesis, and so I know that's good at doing that. Let me make sure I have that during my workouts.
Speaker 2:So it became a initially a good thing, and then it became a binge eating kind of an unhealthy relationship with food, and then, if I finally got eating kind of an unhealthy relationship with food, and then I finally got to the point where, like, okay, I'm getting the hang of this, maybe I can start finding a more comfortable position. And then I retired in 2017, where I competed at Worlds again and I, you know, at that point was kind of lost and I started gaining. I gained like 30 pounds in like six months or something like that, cause I was still eating the way I was when I was training, which was like 20 hours a week. So it was rather hard, like scary, scary hard, and I didn't know who I was anymore.
Speaker 2:My, my identity had pretty much just fallen off, fallen off the face of the earth. I didn't know who Ben was outside of being a power lifter, and so I was just eating all the time and it became rather unhealthy, even though I was still working out. I wasn't working out the same and so it's really been I think, even still to this day very much, so a very hard journey. I mean, food is not an easy, I think, thing for a lot of people, especially when it's so accessible everywhere you go. And that's kind of where you know, from a very Hispanic culture, it's kind of like you eat at the dinner table, everyone's eating, you know, it's always around food Celebrate, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have to agree with that Right. And there's so many follow up questions that I have, I'm going to take one at a time. And just, I see that transition right from eating at a young age, right, like trying to have your meals with yourself, right, just having that process right. And, as you said, it's so different when the culture itself, right, is telling you to eat, and so I'm sure that psychologically, you know you have to be strong there. But also, right now, moving into a different scenario, right, a different environment, where you're like now I have to increase my calories, right, I have to increase the way of or change the way that I eat, to meet, you know, to make weight right and what that involves, and just learning along the way.
Speaker 1:But then after, right, after you retire, like you mentioned, nobody says right, you know, this is why you go through, this is how you eat, right, it's not so common to say that right, okay, this is how you eat when you're training or when you are in a camp, and then, once you retire, right, this is how your plan is going to look like. And this is where all the essentially right, the struggles, the challenges come in, because now you're finding yourself right, like, okay, who is this person now that I'm not competing? Right, who is this person now that I'm not exercising 20 hours a week? That alone is a challenge, right. And so I think I want to stay here for a moment and just navigate that right, Like psychologically because you also have experience there right, psychologically, how were you able to change that right, or how were you able to change that right, or how are you able to manage that? And also a follow up question now, right, that you don't have that understanding, how do you help, you know your clients with that process?
Speaker 2:I definitely struggled, and I think I still struggle in that space, and I think what helped me the most was, honestly, I think this is maybe not the best answer, but I, I, I realized that I have to move more, and now I have to. I have to remember, just because I'm not competing anymore doesn't mean that I still don't love working out and moving my body and appreciating the thing that I've, you know, been able to do. And my training modality is going to be different, and so maybe I'm not, you know, lifting or squatting 700 pounds anymore, but I can still go in there and still get a really good workout that fits my caloric needs for the day, at the same time making sure that I'm drinking water, because when I was competing, it was like, yeah, I'm drinking water all the time, and now that I'm not, I'm like, eh, I can drink water every so often, but water is a natural anti, um, uh, uh, an appetite suppressant and so, okay, like I'm, I'm getting the water that I need, I'm getting the food that I need. So I, rationally, I am, I am okay, and yes, I'm hungry right now. But if I waited, you know, 30 minutes or an hour, then let me go ahead and just make that weight instead and, um, I can eat then and have, probably, I feel better about myself rather than eating now than again in 30 minutes, um. So, and then that that small restriction of time I think improves our overall um, restriction of time I think improves our overall ability and grit, as we have more of those sensations, and so when you're driving by a McDonald's you're less likely to go. I'm going to stop by. You're like, eh, I can wait 30 minutes, it's okay. Right, but it starts off with let me wait five minutes, let me wait 10 minutes, let me wait 20. And then, finally, you got to the point where, okay, maybe I want to entertain something like an intermittent fasting or any other you know sort of diet that I think people enjoy.
Speaker 2:I personally don't like diets. I like to make sure that I hit my you know my overall macros, and every so often I'll use macro counting as a, as a guide or like a, a remembrance, and so I have a pretty good knack of you know this amount of food probably is right about here, I'm probably right about you know 2,500 calories for the day, because I've just, I have a lot of practice with it, um but so. So now I just use it as like a re guiding tool, and so if I'm starting to get off and I'm starting like I'm really trying to lose weight, I'm still not seeing anything, then what's going on? But my goal right now is just like, let me maintain, like you know, we're looking good, we're feeling good. Could I lose some weight? Maybe, sure Do I need to for what it's like. What are, what are my real goals here? Who am I doing this for? Am I doing this for me or am I doing it for somebody else?
Speaker 2:With clients? I have a range of clients that deal with I'm trying to gain weight and I'm only a hundred pounds and I'm 60 years old and we need to put muscle mass on me. And then I have clients that I have one client that was 350 pounds, who's now 250 pounds. And now it's just, we are at a point where we're like we're at a kind of a sticking point. So what do we do? We tried these other tools and these things haven't worked well. Maybe some extra accountability.
Speaker 2:And so let's bring a nutritionist into the program and for three months we're going to, you know, we're going to work in hand in hand with me a nutritionist, and then you know, then yourself to make sure that you're successful in your journey, because I don't know everything.
Speaker 2:Nutrition's not my forte. I can write programming better than probably most people, but nutrition's not my jam. And so I realize that inside the business, that I'm also going to need help from other people, help from other people, and I want to be able to build a team where we can service our clientele in a way that is truly holistic and science-based. And so, you know, I bring people who are educated in the program that help with these things, and then we collaborate on the back end like, hey, you know, this is what I'm seeing on programming, this is, you know, on the training side. And then this, you know, my nutritionist will say, you know, this is what I'm seeing, the training side, and then my nutritionist will say this is what I'm seeing on this side. How can we come together to make sure this client is successful? So I talk about food a little bit with my clients, but most of my conversations with my clients are definitely geared around the biomechanics, exercise, physiology, rehab, prehab and performance kind of best way.
Speaker 1:Awesome. I love that you have that vision of treating the client as a whole, right, in a holistic way, and also reaching out to other professionals right, to help that client reach their goals, you know, or get to where they want to be in the best way, and I think that is really important, right, because I agree with you right, we don't always know everything and we all we have our expertise right and areas where we feel comfortable and we're like, okay, this is my jam, right, this is where I thrive. But we also know that this person needs a personal trainer, right, and in order for them to achieve their goals, they need to go with this personal trainer. Or, if it's an emotional aspect of it, okay, we're struggling significantly right there. How about if we suggest talking to a therapist?
Speaker 1:Right, we know that this is huge and even though we're creating this amazing training plan, this amazing nutrition plan, there is something underlying that for some reason, we can get past that and we need a therapist to help us, right, and I think that that collaboration creates so amazing results, right, that are going to be long-term. So I offer collaborations right, and networking and making sure that how can we help this client better? Right. What are the things that we can do together to really give this person right the best tools that they can use, not only now right, but long-term. So I really like that. I really like that you have a team right that you use to help your clients overall.
Speaker 2:I mean you have to. I mean there are GPs right, there's general practitioners that refer out to oncology or everybody has a specific role and I think that a lot of personal trainers want to play all parts and it's like, hey man, you might be a fantastic personal trainer, but you're doing a disservice to your clientele. You should get some help. There are people who have spent a hell of a lot more years studying this one thing. That'll probably benefit your client and give them an overall better experience. At the end of the day, you're not losing money. You are giving a better service to the client, creating more trust and building more success for that client.
Speaker 2:I don't know everything. I partner with other people in town. I'm here in Vegas. I partner with other providers that are in town, like we're looking at pain management clinics, we look at chiropractors, registered dieticians, and we partner with these individuals to say, hey, like we're, we're not just another personal trainer. I want to work with you for the sake of the client's success and you know you have your, you know you have your space, I have mine. Tell me if I, if I'm pushing too far one way or the other. You know, let's collaborate but at the end of the day, the client gets to feel better about the investment they're making on their body.
Speaker 2:And you know, with the amount of people that we have that are overweight, we understand that preventative healthcare is more and more important. Stuff like nutrition and physical movement is so valuable. And so, instead of trying to hold it all in for one person like I want to be the nutritionist, the personal trainer, the exercise physiologist, the blah blah. Like you're waste, like you're not, you're doing a disservice and you're kind of wasting the client's time and you're wasting your own time like you could be so much more effective and productive if you just learned how to work with others and outsource and team up with a good group of people. And it takes sometimes. It takes time to find that group of people, don't get me wrong, but once you do like you're, you're better off until your clients Right, yeah, absolutely Better results too.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, right, overall experience and your clients know, okay, he or she really cares, right, or Ben really cares, and so he's sending me to see this dietician or this physio you know whoever it is, and I appreciate that Right. And I think you can have clients again not only see their results right but just overall say, hey, refer right, hey, ben takes care of me in different levels and I'm seeing results right, and I think that that is huge for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I love the opportunity to create enough rapport and trust with somebody that, like this is the one thing we got, this is the one body we have, so how can I best take care of it? And then you have somebody who actually takes the time to listen and care and provide guidance and understand when to outsource. I love quality service. When I go to a restaurant and my favorite thing in the world, I don't care how much I'm spending on the food If they come out to me and I'm done with my meal and they're like, would you like that to go, I was like, yeah, I would like that to go. And then they take my plate and bag it for me. Oh, my God, all day I'm going to tip you, no matter what, because that level of care and quality of service, I think is the things that we should be able to bring to all aspects of our lives, and so I think it's such a privilege.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, the customer service right. And just definitely going above and beyond helping your clients in so many ways. I love what you said, right, Just listening and have someone on their side. Right to have someone on their side, right. Oftentimes we have so many clients that you know maybe they had a bad experience with a personal trainer or a dietitian or whoever it is. And it's so hard to build that rapport right, so hard to build that trust, that once they come to you, right, you almost have to do double the work because they need to trust you again, right, or they need to have that trust again. And so I think you know, providing that amazing customer service and just showing that you truly care, it makes a huge difference, for sure.
Speaker 2:It makes me feel warm inside. I mean, who doesn't like to be taken care of? Like it's somewhat my job to show up to the session and make sure that you know I'm showing up every single week and doing all these things, but at the same time I also have to hold my trainer accountable. I have to hold like it goes both ways. You know, the trainer has to be showing up every single day, prepared, ready, remembering what's going on with all of their clients and it is tough, you know it's not an easy task all the time. And then that client has to be open and transparent and say this is really hurting today, or I really didn't get good sleep, or actually I drank until 2 am last night, and you know what. That's okay, I can meet you where you're at, as long as you're transparent with me and you know what. Today, meet you where you're at, as long as you're transparent with me, and you know what?
Speaker 2:Today maybe we're just doing a little bit lighter work and that's it. You know, being sleep deprived not only is not good for the brain, so we probably shouldn't learn any new skills today. So the skills training we were doing probably should be put on the back end, but at the same time, we should probably also not be super heavy in any of our movements. We're going to get a lot of there's already a lot of damage to the tissue that it hasn't been able to recover from. So how valuable is it for us to just hammer down these things? So maybe some smaller movements that might be beneficial, for you know, we have been having this ankle issue. Okay, well, cool. Well, if we have manual therapy in our toolbox, let's do some manual therapy today. Some water, let's hang out a little bit right.
Speaker 1:I really love that because it's not that like that saying, right, no pain, no gain, or something like that, which can be really dangerous. Right. And so I think, being gentle, right, and I love what you said about meeting your clients where they're at, that is just huge. Right, because essentially we have to be able to tailor to our client's needs, but also where they're at that moment right, not every day is going to be the same, not every day we're going to have success, right. Or, like you said, okay, maybe today we didn't sleep very well and so, yeah, our mind is not going to be sharp, our body is not as well, right, and we're already exhausted. So, and I'm sure that comes with, again, that rapport and, like you said, right, having your clients, being honest with you and anything that also plays a huge role right, being honest and being vulnerable, it comes with building that rapport as well.
Speaker 2:I agree, I think it takes both people to be like very transparent and honest, and I think it makes for a better business At the end of the day. I don't know why, when I first started getting into business, I feel like I was around so many other business owners that were kind of deceitful or just not transparent, not vulnerable, and so when I would ask questions, it was like, hey, you're asking too many questions. And I was like, okay, I guess that's just kind of the way that this like business runs. And then I met some other business owners that were just honest, that were transparent and like, hey, this is kind of what we're making this month, this is what we're paying out. This is why, um, and all right, sounds good, thank you.
Speaker 2:And at that point I was, I was more in a managerial role, um, but I was like okay, so you can run business both transparently, kind and effective, like we're here to, yes, to make money, um, but at the same time, we're reinvesting into the company and trying to make it better, not allowing ourselves to come below a standard that we deem as high standard, and so long as we meet all those requirements and it's worth what it's worth, because you know all the time and care that's being put into it. We're not just charging something and walking away and hoping that you know somebody likes it. We're being respectful and honest and putting good, honest work into the things that we're doing. It's so, so important. I think ridiculously.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I definitely have to agree with that too. Yeah, awesome. So follow-up question here. So you created your company, right? Ie? Tell us a little bit more about that.
Speaker 2:IE is amazing.
Speaker 2:So I say that partly because well, obviously it's mine, right, but at the same time, because it was an opportunity for me to get to learn on how to really like I mean, this is my one. Two, this is probably my fourth venture now, but it was like I get to do the thing that I want to do. I get like I don't know. It was like the other things were like a dig for money, and this one is like, oh, I can just do what I was doing and just get like and just like do it on my own and like employ all these other skills that I've learned. Huh, how weird. Um, I just signed myself up for, uh, like to start paying myself and so, like, I've just like investing to the company for a while, being able to like look back and or like today, you know, look, be able to say, oh, wow, like I can, you know, pay myself as an employee. This is really really neat, um, and so it's been a fun, really really fun experience of growth and, at the same time, realizing being patient is key, like it just highlights so many amazing things. But initially it was created because I created my own supplement line and so I. The goal was to I had an attorney that we're working through a process of going in and licensing one of our initial products, and so I used to work in a nutrition lab. I worked in Dr Kreider's lab at Texan, and so that lab is well known for any and all kind of nutrition and supplement research. It's a world-renowned creatine research lab, and so I incorporated some things that I learned there a lot of things I learned there and then through the continuous master's degree and stuff like that, to create a product, and so I wanted to house this product, keep it safe and keep the IP inside of a entity, and so I created IE Health.
Speaker 2:And then IE Health transformed, and this is at the time I was still working for somebody else as well. I was building homes, and so I was project manager and then was doing this other thing on the side, and then I ended up moving to Las Vegas and I was like, well, I might as well start using IE Health for another product and for personal training, and so I started to run my own personal training company. I took the leap of, you know, renting a space and then starting I don't know where, uh, it's grown from you know just renting out spots to, um, now hiring. You know we have. We have a team, we have a whole team behind us that we get to, uh, we get to work with, and so it's been, uh, an absolute pleasure working with all the people that I am, and now we're partnering with other chiropractors. We have a couple of uh uh relationship with chiropractors in town, and then, uh, we're starting to reach out for more dieticians, pain management clinics, uh, rehab locations, uh, to help make the transition over into, uh, just rehab, into more performance, or to improve the results that people are having with either, you know, these ozempic kind of things that are all out there right now, or improved results with men's health clinics, people that are taking more hormones or these peptides, and so we are also, you know, we're able to incorporate a little more of the performance aspect that I was able to use during my master's degree with force plate data, and so, you know, we just got that equipment in recently, and so, like the fact that we're able to constantly invest and make a system of overall health and community and wellness, and like we do events for our members, and so we get to, you know, we'll go play pickleball or we'll go hiking, we're going to be doing Thanksgiving for everybody, and so being able to be on the front like leading charge of this endeavor has been really, I think, fulfilling.
Speaker 2:And I've been around so many companies where it just seems like people are just in it for the money and they don't give back to the clientele.
Speaker 2:And we have such an opportunity when we run our businesses to give back because ultimately, these people are giving to us.
Speaker 2:On the face value of it is, yes, you're paying for a service, but if you do go above and beyond, like you know, we have a system where everyone that pays on our top tier, they get a gift every month, and so last month gift was like blood flow restriction bands, and so we'll give out the blood flow restriction bands and then we provide an infographic with why we use these things, at what times are they useful, why or why not to use them, and so you get a little one page or nothing super crazy, um, but then you get a tool you get like to add to your, to your uh, toolbox, um, and then we use it for the program for the next following month and so creating challenges, making it fun, inclusive.
Speaker 2:But you know, it's just, it's been a really fun endeavor and it'll continue to grow, and so we'll have more products that'll come out here as well. We have a pre-workout that's coming out. We're having some trademarking complications but some difficulties, but we'll get all that settled. And then this is another one that I've also, you know, formulated myself. So it'll be, it'll be a fun time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is exciting, so many exciting news and it's so amazing to see. You know, obviously maybe not all the listeners are going to be able to view the, the podcast, but it's just so amazing to see how your face changed when you started talking about ie. And it's just that passion right, like it's so true when you you can do so many things right. Do them because you know I I'm going to put these just there, but you're getting paid. But then you start doing something that you're really passionate about and you really enjoy doing it Right, and that makes a huge difference. Because you don't see it as work right. You don't see it as like, oh, I have to go to the, I have to go to the gym right, and train somebody. No, it's like I look forward to it because it brings me so much joy, it sparks, it's something that I really love and that makes a huge difference.
Speaker 2:You don't see it as yeah, it's an investment and I understand that it's going to take years to grow these things. I mean, sometimes you definitely you get a lucky shot and maybe there's a product that comes out that does really really well, um, but at the end of the day it's like well, I, I'm going to be here for a while, I hope and I want to be able to make a difference in not just my life, right, I still, I still want to improve um what I have going on and making sure that my home is a home that I, that I cherish and appreciate and can relax in and feel comfortable in. But I also want to make sure that other people go through their days, um, and then even, you know, let's say, I work usually my, my average client stays with me for about two years. Um, after those two, those two years, they ended up going out and, you know, for the next 20 years never had a personal trainer in their lives. But they were able to have increased bone density, they had the knowledge to go into the gym, they could get up and down off the ground. They are now, you know, 70 years old and they're still able to move on their own. If they fall. They're not so worried about breaking a hip Like the the.
Speaker 2:The impact that I get to have on my clients is is infinite. It's for the rest of their lives, and so it's. Oh my God, I mean it's one of the best things ever. Seriously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing. And I think, man, the importance of moving our bodies right, it goes beyond let's just build muscle, right, or let's look good Functionality, right and longevity. It just plays such a huge role. And I know you kind of mentioned about the Osempec, right, and I believe that there has to be such a bigger focus on the importance of building muscle or not losing your muscle mass, because that alone can increase your mortality risk. That alone can increase your mortality risk, right, and so many other issues.
Speaker 1:Sarcopenia is huge in the elderly population, but I cannot, and I'm sure we're going to see these more in this population that is taking the weight loss medications, right, and so I think I honestly feel that whoever prescribes medication, they have to prescribe nutrition and exercise as well, because it's not one or the other, right Like, you have to have these components for long-term results, but also for longevity, right Like? Or what's the point? Like you're, yes, you're wanting to lose weight it would take weight loss, for example, but and I know you mentioned this at the beginning what are your goals? Why do you want to do these things? And it goes beyond the physical aspect of it, right, Like how you're going to look. It has to go beyond that, and I think oftentimes we just look at the superficiality of things.
Speaker 2:I think it's easy to look at the superficiality of things, but it's so much more important to just be able to move and enjoy the thing that you're moving with. Like losing weight is such an a meaningless goal in some regard, like some people really do need. Like we are morbidly obese, we like that is a significant goal, but the goal isn't to lose weight. The goal is to keep you alive. The goal is that you don't have a heart attack. That's the goal, that you accomplish that goal by losing weight. But that's not the goal. That you don't have a heart attack. That's the goal. That you accomplish that goal by losing weight. But that's not the goal.
Speaker 2:Right, and so looking and really understanding well, why do I want to lose weight? Why do I want to build muscle and I think probably most people are probably more on the the former right why do I want to lose weight? Well, losing weight would make me look good. Well, why don't I think I look good? Well, my self-talk probably isn't the best, so maybe I can improve that on my weight, maybe also losing some weight, or being more confident in how I currently look, or I don't feel like I get approached by people, or it could be a whole host of things where I feel like I don't like walking around the mall and getting tired.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, those are significant goals that are so palatable. And losing weight is such a process that if I started doing cardio today and then in a month maybe I lose a couple pounds, but I can tell man, I can go the whole length of the mall or I can go the whole length of the beach or I can walk with my kids or play with my kids for 30 minutes rather than just 10 and not get so tired. You know, like those are real life goals that I think that are probably more of a reason why to do things, not just the what right, what is to lose weight, why? Now that's the question.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, so really looking into the, the actual why, right beyond losing weight or beyond gaining muscle, right, I think definitely goes beyond that. Um, awesome, so you have your new company, so in, you're in vegas. Um, if someone is interested, right, and like working with you, working with with your team, do they? They do they only have to live in Las Vegas? Or do you do online? How do you work?
Speaker 2:I do both online and in person. I would say that the value of online is definitely exciting. We do monthly or weekly meetings with most of my clients, and so I'll check in with you face-to-face on, usually like a Monday, and then you know all your programs written for you. We have back and forth messaging and then the in-person item. You know we range in different kinds of categories, but we have what we started.
Speaker 2:We started using Outsport, and so Outsport is a capture system where we start, you can start measuring um, some more immediate feedback, like specific ranges of motion, uh, for mobility or reactive strength indexes and power outputs, and so it's like a they are a a more mobile um force plate, and so, uh, we get to work in person. We have those tools, person, we have those tools. We don't have those tools online just yet and not sure exactly how that'll look in the future, but we also work online and in person. Here in Las Vegas, even if you're in Las Vegas, we do online stuff too. We have a couple of online clients that live here as well.
Speaker 1:Awesome, yeah, so if someone is interested and I'll make sure to add all those notes and how someone can contact you right in the show notes to make sure that you have all that available for the listeners. So I wanted to ask a particular question. So how do you go about someone that doesn't want to exercise? They have this goal they want to lose weight. Let's take an example like that. But they said I hate exercising, I don't want to exercise. How do you approach that?
Speaker 2:You know that's a really weird one. I was just asked this, I think last week, from someone, and so this is good, and I think my method probably isn't the best method. I counter and just say well then, what do you really want? Because, from a professional standpoint, my professional opinion is, if you want to achieve these goals in a healthy way for long-lasting success, this is the prescription. Well, I don't want to do that, okay. Well then, you don't really want to lose weight. What do you really want?
Speaker 2:And getting to somebody's like or understanding why don't you like working out right, asking as many questions as you can to really understand the reason why behind not wanting to move their body, I think is important, and so you can get to as many whys. And sometimes people are more closed off than others. Maybe it's just because I don't like sweating. Well, I can't really fix that, that's just not going to happen. Now again, another one is it seems like too much work. Well, that's going to be a personality thing, I don't know that I can necessarily fix that or make or you reinforce, like it's not really, it's really not that much work, like you just show up two, three days a week and we'll like we'll make progress, and then, as you start seeing that progress, you might decide, hey, this is worth it, or it's not worth it to me, okay, like that's cool, but you're just to assume that it's going to be too much work and just shut yourself down before even trying. I think it's kind of insane. And and then there's just some like some real, some real hesitations with getting in the gym or working with somebody. It's because I didn't have a good experience in the past. Okay, well, what happened? Okay, well, this is what happened. Okay, well, what can I do to help you make feel more comfortable? Um, I don't like being around people. Great, can we suit something out at your house? Can we make a gym out of what you currently have? Most of the time, yes, can we meet in a park? There's other options for people.
Speaker 2:And maybe not always is it that I just don't want to work out. Sometimes it's just I don't want to work out in that setting. I don't want to work out with those people. I don't want to work out in that setting. I don't want to work out with those people. I don't want to work out at that time because there's an assumption that, oh well, if I'm going to be successful, I have to wake up. At 5 am, I have to go for this run and then I'm going to come home make breakfast. I'm going to do this.
Speaker 2:It's like no, that's not real life. I mean, for some people it is because that, through a lot of neurosciences, some people are more night owls. That's just kind of the way that your body's built and so listen to that. You know it's okay and make sure your lifestyle suits for that and you're choosing the right things. I'm not, at 2 am, eating, you know, some pint of ice cream after just going for a run. Like that's probably not the best choice. Some people have late jobs. There's a lot of factors that go into understanding why somebody doesn't want to go to the gym, but at the end of the day, you have to understand their why for not wanting. Then, after you understand, it's either something that you can correct, something that you can massage, or something that they are ultimately going to need to find for themselves within themselves. It's not. It's not it is our job to help people, but it is it's not my job to convince someone that being healthy is better than not being healthy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love those answers. Right, and really finding out the why. Right, because oftentimes might be a superficial reason why they don't want to do something, and it's. It's probably deeper than that. Right, like you mentioned, the environment or a bad experience or the timing. Right, and just like with everything, it has to work for the person. Right, because that's how they're going to see success. And if it's something deeper, right, where we can you know it's out of scope of practice we can really help them with that. And until they're able to fix that particular thing, they might see results.
Speaker 1:Right, and I have seen that with some past clients. Right, where they come to me for nutrition and we're working on these goals and they're motivated and then come back and they're like I'm struggling. Right, I realize that I'm actually depressed and I can't seem to move past that. And at that point, right, as a professional, as a healthcare professional, is to provide resources. Hey, this is a list, if they accept. Right, this is a list of therapists. Right, maybe they can help you.
Speaker 1:And whenever you're ready, whenever you feel like, hey, now I can focus on my nutrition, right, maybe they can help you. And whenever you're ready, whenever you feel like, hey, now I can focus on my nutrition right. Come back right. I'm here for you, I'm here to support you, but I think it's definitely important to recognize that and not try to push someone when they're not ready, because they will stick to it for a bit, but then they're just going to fall off right and it's not going to be beneficial for them either. So it's important to do that too yeah, I think that's such a hard.
Speaker 2:It's such a hard balance because I do wonder how much of it is just. Like you know, I guess sometimes I have this, this mentality of like you have to get it done, it's. There's not an option here. I'm sorry that you don't like working out, but you are going to die, you are going to live an unhealthy life and everyone around you is going to suffer because of your decisions. So taking some responsibility for your health is not a negotiation. This is mandatory for you. There's other times where you have to be more soft, right, and it depends on your audience, depends on the clientele. It also depends on the way that you deliver that information right.
Speaker 2:I think I've been fortunate enough to have most of my clients who are like I want change. I, you know this is something that I need. But at the same time, I've had other, you know, in the past working in commercial gyms where it's like I don't really know, I just I feel like I know it. You know I pretty much got it. You know, like, you do really like like maybe maybe you have it like kind of down, but I can guarantee you that you hire CPA for your taxes. I can guarantee you go to doctor for your internal health, so why don't you hire CPA for your taxes? I can guarantee you go to doctor for your internal health, so why don't you hire somebody for this thing? Well, I don't see the value in it. Well, you know, there's a disconnect. I think that personal trainers unfortunately have a bad rap because a lot of people just get their online certification and walk away. So I get it.
Speaker 1:I understand why, but there's also a lot of people who are very well educated, and so finding those people, I think is is rather important right, absolutely, and, like you said, right that having that priority right and and helping them see that value right, because, no, because you're just watching a video, right? Or someone kind of showed you how to do something. You're gonna do it properly, right, you actually do. Someone kind of showed you how to do something, you're going to do it properly, right. You actually do need someone to teach you how to move, how to exercise to prevent injuries, right. And I've had clients where they're like, yeah, I started lifting super heavy, right, and the form was horrible and you know that I injured myself and I'm like, oh my gosh, we need you need a personal trainer in your life, because you know, when you think about those things, even if you think that you know them right, there are people that actually have the education about it, right, and they can help you see the results that you want to see. Or if you're doing something that you've been doing for years and you expect to see results, how right, like you're not, because you're doing, you keep doing the same things and you need to. You need someone to show you how to change things and how to create a plan that's for you and for your goals. So, sometimes helping people see that can be a challenge, right, but you're absolutely right. Like you have specific people that you go to do your things. Like if you need plumbing services, you go and search a plumber, right, you're not going to search a computer expert because they are not going to know what to do. Or the same thing, right Either way. And so you have to. You have to change that mindset.
Speaker 1:Right, when you're thinking about your health specifically, which I oftentimes see that in some of my female clients. Right, where they're like I'll just do whatever. Or like they take care of everybody else, right, and they forget to take care of themselves. And I'm like, if you don't take care of yourself and you get sick or something happens to you, who is going to take care of everybody else? Right, that you have to put yourself as a priority. It's not selfish, right, it's a way to take care of yourself, to be able to take care of others. But that takes a long time for my clients to really realize that and be like, oh my gosh, this is so true. Like I have to put myself first. Right, so I can live longer, so I can live stronger, so I can be injury free. But it takes. It takes a lot of time it does.
Speaker 2:I have a client, uh like like one of my a1 star clients, the most consistent one that I have uh, and she is you know, we talk about it regularly, not, we talk about it somewhat regularly where she never took care of herself. She was never the priority. Her kids, her husband, her job, those things were the priority. And it wasn't until one day where she was like I'm so angry and I don't know why I'm so frustrated, I'm tired and something has to change. And so there is this shift.
Speaker 2:It was like I can't take care of everybody all the time anymore, like I have to take care of myself. And then, you know, she got herself a business coach, got herself a personal trainer. She started working with, like doing stuff for her, and because of that she said she's so much happier as a human being, feels better, just like living. Her quality of life has increased dramatically because she focused her energy towards her. And now her business is still going very well, her family is still going well, like there was no decline in those things. It was just I have to also take care of myself as well, and everything else will work out yes, having that mind mindset shift awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay, thank you so much for this interview. We've learned so much about you, we learned so much about ie, and so any final thoughts, any final words that you would like to share with the listeners, or that you that you would want the listeners to know?
Speaker 2:be sure to you know, go check out the podcast.
Speaker 2:Uh ben thinking, and hopefully you know we'll have, we'll do a trade z's here absolutely and make sure you guys go check out iehealthco or iehealthco on instagram, and then I'll go ahead and provide uh links here as well, but make sure ultimately you're moving your body, it's for you. The benefits are long lasting and not only will your health and fitness improve, but, I think, the rest of your life, the way that you think, the way that you breathe, the way that you approach confrontation or difficult obstacles in your life. They're all more manageable so long as you are constantly training in the gym and pursuing a better life. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having us on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. I'll make sure to add all the links and information for the listeners, so if they want to reach out, they have that available. Well, thank you so much, everybody. I'll talk to you and see you in another episode. Bye-bye for now.
Speaker 2:Bye-bye, thank you.