365. JEFF FLAGG: Rotational Power Secrets from a World Long Drive Champ.

Guest: Jeff Flagg (2014 World Long Drive Champ, Founder of Flagg Performance)
Host: Jeff Pelizzaro
Episode Number: 365
Podcast: The 18STRONG Podcast
Partners: Linksoul, 1stPhorm

Summary

Unlock the secrets to enhancing your golf game with the wisdom of Jeff Flagg, the 2014 World Long Drive Champion, as we traverse the significance of rotational strength and athleticism on the fairway. Our conversation is not just a swing analysis; it’s a full-fledged exploration of how to invigorate your game, regardless of whether you’re in your prime or enjoying the sport’s golden years. We tap into Jeff’s expertise in functional training, using tools like PurMotion, to fortify your strength, mobility, and ultimately, your performance.

This week’s episode is a treasure trove of insights for the discerning golfer who recognizes that power drives are just the beginning. Jeff and I pull back the curtain on the nuanced interplay between sport-specific exercises and our body’s mechanics, challenging the status quo of traditional workouts. We share stories from both the tee and the gym, illustrating the importance of a comprehensive training regimen that acknowledges the unique demands of golf – from honing rotational movements to fostering endurance for those challenging back nine holes.

Finally, we chart Jeff’s inspiring journey from baseball to the links and how a philosophy rooted in functional movement revolutionized his approach to fitness. Our discussion underscores the need for tailored training that respects the intricacies of different sports, advocating a holistic strategy for strength and injury prevention. So, whether you’re aiming to lower your handicap or simply wish to infuse your lifestyle with vigor, this episode is your caddy to a more athletic and assured presence on the green. Join us as we help you shape not just your game, but an energetic and enriching life beyond the course.

Main Topics

(00:03) Building Athleticism in Golf

World Long Drive Champion Jeff Flagg discusses rotation in the gym, social media engagement, and embracing individual perspectives in fitness and nutrition.

(12:16) The Importance of Rotation in Golf

Rotation is crucial in golf, impacting mechanics and endurance. Physical deficiencies can be exposed, requiring more rotational exercises in training.

(14:59) Rotational Strength for Athletes

Rotational strength is crucial in sports like golf, and sport-specific training with dynamic movements can prevent injury and enhance performance.

(25:11) Transition to Exercise Education and Driving

A former baseball player found a new passion in golf after studying philosophy, working with a swing coach, and seeking functional movement training.

(28:36) Building a Rotational Athlete

Nature’s interconnectedness in sports training, emphasizes rotational exercises, fascia’s role, and individualized approaches for injury prevention and performance.

(36:25) Gym Equipment and Protein Supplements

Proper post-workout nutrition, innovative fitness equipment from PurMotion, and the benefits of ground-based tools for functional training.

(49:35) Golf Training for Strength and Confidence

Nature’s versatile fitness program for golfers of all ages and skill levels, using movement variety and alternatives like bands, to eliminate weak links and build confidence.

(56:44) Favorite Golfing Moments and Advice

Debating golf movies, walk-up songs, book recommendations, and dream celebrity foursome with generational talent.

Follow Jeff Flagg

• Instagram: @jeff_flagg

Links Mentioned

It Takes What It Takes – Trevor Moawad

Getting to Neutral – Trevor Moawad

PurMotion

Episode Partners:

LINKSOUL: For your 20% discount on LINKSOUL gear, go to 18strong.com/linksoul or click the logo above.

1st Phorm: Try any of the 1st Phorm products with FREE SHIPPING, go to 1stphorm.com/18strong.com (By using this link, you will be entered into our Monthly 1st Phorm Giveaway!)

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Want the full episode transcript? (click the “+” )

0:00:04 – Jeff Pelizzaro
The 18STRONG Podcast, episode number 365 with Jeff Flagg from Flagg Performance. What’s up guys? Welcome back to the 18STRONG Podcast, where we’re here to help you build a stronger game, because we believe that every golfer deserves to play better, longer. This episode, we have a return guest from episode number 170, Jeff Flagg. Jeff was the 2014 World Long Drive Champ and is the founder of Flagg Performance. Jeff has been working with golfers on their fitness, on their game, for several years now, and we bring him back on the show to talk about building the athleticism in your game. And he’s actually here making the case for golfers rotating more in the gym and not just rotating more, but rotating better in the gym, utilizing some different pieces of equipment. Especially, we talk about the pure motion pieces of equipment that he used a lot in his training program that helps his golfers, whether they be teenage golfers or all the way up into their 80s, move better and hit different areas of the body, different angles, different forces, to make sure that they’re able to handle everything that the golf course could ever throw at them. So you’re going to really enjoy this episode with Jeff.

Right after this, our partners over at Lynx hole have been providing us with the best apparel for both on the course and off the course, from polos to t-shirts like the one I have on right now. Everything that they have is meant to be worn from the golf course to wherever you’re going next, whether that be casual, whether that be to the beach there’s all different options over there. So you’ll get 18strong.com slash Linksoul. You’ll get 20% off of anything in your cart over on Linksoul’s website. So again, 18strong.com slash Linksoul for our favorite brand of apparel for anything on the golf course and off. Now let’s get to this week’s interview. What’s up? Yeah, man, thanks for doing this. This is cool, not too much. I was just kind of scrolling through your Instagram and realized, holy shit, he literally just kind of started posting that.

0:02:18 – Jeff Flagg
I’m so bad. I’m so bad at it.

0:02:20 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I’m so bad at it.

0:02:25 – Jeff Flagg
It’s like provided me so many opportunities in the past and it’s like I just got to tell myself that like it matters and like I just post and like get in the rhythm of it. Yeah, so that’s my 2024 goal is to get on it, because it’s just like it’s just just where people find you. It’s just like it’s kind of dumb not to.

0:02:53 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, can I give you one suggestion on yours, because the black and white that you have of you just doing some exercises just do nothing but that like, keep it simple for yourself and that will look sick and people will.

0:03:10 – Jeff Flagg
It’ll come, just it’s fun, like people just the look of it feels cool and I’m sort of played with, like the you know you talk about, like the art and science, right, like and I sort of tend to lean towards the art side of it and like my dad’s artistic, and it’s like I looked up, like I just kind of like the look of black and white and it’s like you know what makes black and white phones different or whatever, and basically like the science or whatever says you know, it’s like your, your, your eyes drawn more towards the subject and not like crazy colors, and the other part of it is like our gym at Bears Club is the ugliest shade of yellow so it’s like that was the main reason, but.

But it was like, yeah, it, and that’s kind of what I want to try to do is like like focus your eye on like what’s happening with the body and not like peripheral stuff.

0:04:08 – Jeff Pelizzaro
But yeah, like I was just kind of scrolling through and looking, I’m like this just looks cool, plus, the movements that you’re doing are cool and eye catching. You know the pure motion stuff that you use. So I’m like, yeah, if he just does this and it’ll keep it really simple myself to just shoot those kind of videos.

0:04:24 – Jeff Flagg
Yeah, and it’s just like trying to take all the friction points out as much as possible because I’m a classic like over thinker, like all right. But you know I’m showing this, but it’s like somebody’s gonna say this and it’s like, and I know there’s nuance and it’s like in social media, it’s just not. It’s not a place for nuance. You just you post it and you’re falling across the room.

0:04:48 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Well, we just had Jeff Levecchio on recently and you said you’d listen to that episode and like talking to him, he’s like man, you just gotta you put it out there. You say what you know your audience is gonna need to hear in the way that they need to hear it. And, yeah, people are gonna chirp you. They’re gonna say, oh well, your glutes don’t actually activate that way, you don’t turn muscle, you know whatever.

0:05:07 – Jeff Flagg
But it’s like no, I’m talking to the people that need to hear this, need to understand it and everybody else just it brings up and it’s like everybody’s got you know everybody’s got their you know takes, getting older and stuff like that they realize like everybody’s got their own bias, like everybody does. It’s like you’re not gonna be completely gonna make everybody happy and it’s just like you know everybody’s got different experiences and and you know view points on things and lenses to look at things and it’s like to me that’s that’s unique and that’s like it’s not something to like go, oh, it’s right or wrong. I mean, you know our field is just shades of gray, you know, and it’s like there’s nothing established really much on any end of you know exercise, nutrition, like there’s so many factors. It’s like unique perspective I feel like is is, you know, that’s kind of yeah, that’s one man’s opinion. It’s kind of like how I see things this way and you know, thank you for what it’s worth.

0:06:07 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, it’s like anything any golf pro, any fitness professional you could ask somebody to create a program. You could ask ten different professionals to create a program and they could be the smartest people in the world. They’re all gonna do something different and they could all probably critique a little bit of what the other person, what the other trainer or coach or whatever, did it. That’s just, it’s our natural inclination.

0:06:26 – Jeff Flagg
So, yeah, for sure you’re doing it, you know, and that’s it’s funny, like just going through, you know, I’ve been primarily in person and then, like you know, kind of launching an online product here shortly, and it’s like all those things going through my head and it’s like, and obviously there’s like all the you know scientific justification and you know swing speed and injuries work around it’s like. But it’s also like the other day, it’s like we’re training.

It’s like you know there’s obviously boxes we need to check, but another box that I feel like is important to check is like it’s gonna look cool, I think like I mean look at, look at look at any golf swing, you know pro golf swing, let’s say amateur, the pro golf swing, you know, in slow motion or a cool different angle, it’s like it looks cool, it’s like a cool athletic, coordinated, you know body, it’s just twisted up and it’s like it’s cool. Look at watch and it’s like eye catching and it’s like you know. Why don’t we bring a little bit of that into training, not only to prepare for what you’re trying to do, but also, like you just want to move cool, like you don’t want to walk around like a brick, you don’t want to walk around. Like you have the, you know, as we all get older, the old man shuffle. Like you know.

It’s like you, you just, whatever you do, however, whatever your talent level is with golf, it’s like, at the end of the day, I think you want to move, you know walk in. And like you walk in, you know you carry yourself well, you move smoothly, it’s like you flow. You look at all the greatest athletes. They’re all just like a swag to them and it’s like, bring it a little bit of that into into your training. It’s like, why not work on that a little bit, you know?

0:08:00 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, you know, that’s the athleticism part to me, right, like we talk about. You know you want to be an athlete when you train you want to be an athlete. Golfers are athletes, but like so. For instance, I just had a gentleman in here the other day. He’s a year younger than me, 44 years old. He if he’s listening to this, he’ll know who I’m talking about having some back pain. I worked with him years ago when I was in the physical therapy clinic. But he came back and he, you know, played high level football, played a lot of high level sports, loves golf, and he’s been having so much pain recently that he’s like dude.

I literally feel like an old man and almost to the point where it’s. It’s become depressing because he feels like the pain may never go away and this may. He may be just on the down slide right and I was like dude, you have so much athleticism in your history, in your background. Yeah, you beat your body up so we got to fix some things, but like it’s not over, you’re 44 years old, like we’re going to get this back, we’re.

And I saw like the weight fall off of his shoulders and be like are you kid? Like like, oh, that’s all I needed to hear. And now you know he’s doing some things and we’ve only met one time but like I have very high hopes of where we’re going to go with him and just to make him feel like like he’s a strong, powerful dude again. You know, he’s like a 6’3 big guy and like and he said he was golfing with his dad not too long ago and his dad’s like what’s wrong with you? You look like an old man. He’s like I feel like I’m your age, you know so, so it’s that kind of thing. It’s like, yeah, I want to be able to move and do things. And you know, like, move around and not just stick in a box.

You know, like Levecchio said, like do all my exercises in a phone booth, right like you need to be able to move like a, like a cat, you know. So I’m glad that you said that, because it’s it’s the athleticism and we we hear that word all the time, but to me that’s like really.

0:09:48 – Jeff Flagg
What that means is like no, I’m it’s not downhill, I mean, that’s like I actually had so much, like you know, being at a golf club and you know my day to day is a lot of the older, you know, club golfers and it’s like it’s almost when they first come in. It’s like there’s a little bit of like that wall up that you got to break down. Like you know, the gym is, it’s intimidating call these weights, like all these things you know. And it’s like I, you know my doctor told me this I got this hip replaced, I got this bad knee, I got this shoulder, I got this neck fusion or whatever. And it’s like I’ve sort of I’ve worked with all of that and it’s like, okay, great, and I’m not here to diagnose you, that’s not my lane. It’s like I’m here to find what can we do. You know, as opposed to you told me all the things you can’t do, right, so it’s like what can you do? That’s where we start. And then you just built from there and it’s like, and you guys are in your playing golf three, four times a week.

You know how hard a golf swing is on your body, like, if you can swing the golf club like, you can do a heck of a lot in the gym and it’s just again it’s like we’re here making the gym, you know, a, a, a, you know not a intimidating place, start here and then you just build it out and I think it’s yeah, it’s one thing I always try to do when trying to put myself in people shoes, being there in the past, injuries and you know kind of that feeling of I mean I was 20, you know, playing college baseball, and like I felt fragile, like I was big, strong, but like I felt fragile because I love training. It’s training hard and getting I’m not gonna anything, but it was a lot of the Olympic stuff, a lot of the square stuff, a lot of that it’s like. And then I always had to do a bunch of hip mobility and all that to get my body ready and it’s like had you know the little, you know the little oblique strains, little you know rhomboid strain, things like that, it’s like the little connectors and stuff, and it’s just like it got to the point where I was like I’m on paper I’m strong, but I don’t feel strong and it’s like there was just a disconnect there. So again, over the years of got athletic career taking its course, you know being exposed to different things over the years and you know competing myself, obviously in a different sport long drive and swing a stick for a long time and it’s like just trying to find what’s gonna. It’s never gonna be one-to-one, but like bringing you know all the benefits of training right. We all know to be healthy, resistance training is great, cardiovascular health and all that like that’s all like we get it.

But golf is like my luck and I play it a lot and it’s like no-transcript in the traditional sort of approach is like you gotta do this, then go play your sport. But it’s like can we? You know, like we have to do the basics right. But what if the basics were a little more, kind of speaking to me and what I like to do and the rotation is a huge part of the golf swing and like that’s kind of where I kind of looking at the landscape and like when everybody comes to me, it’s like you know what is.

What does every golfer say? When I get tired, I quit turning. You know I go to the golf pro. I can’t turn. Like I need more. I need more turn, I need more backswing, I need more like with.

You know I’d say everybody says it and it’s like, okay, well, like, let’s work on that, you know. Let’s like let’s you know, if you, if you got it, let’s keep it, train hard and let’s keep it, and if you don’t have it, let’s sort of try to cultivate it and like, little by little, everything you do sort of goes into that bucket of like it’s helping me turn better. And and that’s where I, you know, when you think of next stuff, low back, you know, hip to knee, any of the you know pick your, pick it out of a hat, a lot of it comes back to it. For me, for golfers, it’s like it’s that’s, it’s not turning fully or inefficient, sort of mechanics and sequencing and and comes from, like you know, physical capacity not being able to rotate right, left, you know, or some you know, the golf swing will expose. If you have a, if you have a physical deficiency of any kind, the golf swing is going to expose it.

0:13:48 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, it’s interesting.

You know, when we were communicating back and forth, you said something to the effect of you know, there’s a lot of of professionals out there saying that you know, like, and and I’m I’m one of them I’d said it in the last couple episodes that you know, golfers rotate all the time, and so one of the things we need to do when they’re in here is is not necessarily have them rotate, but you’re like, actually I’m here to like make a case for a little more rotation for these golfers, and what you just said about you know, at the end of their round, them losing their rotation, like that makes a lot of sense to me.

We just had Mitch Sodowski on talking about the fact that golf isn’t explosive sport, but it’s also an endurance sport. No matter what level you’re playing, if you’re riding in the car for four hours, maybe five, or if you’re playing for four days, but yeah, at the at the end of a round, you still have to have the same mobility and capacity of the endurance of that rotation. So you know that that definitely kind of changes my mind a little bit on the idea of, yeah, maybe there we do need to, maybe I do need to start putting a little bit more of that stuff and and a lot of the unilateral stuff that ends up going in has some rotation to it. I’m watching a lot of your videos and seeing how you utilize the cables and things like that a lot. But yeah, so you’re here to plead the case for more rotation.

0:15:00 – Jeff Flagg
Yeah, I mean again, it’s like I’ve only snicked my whole life and it’s like you know, and it’s one of those things like over the years it’s just like aha moments and again being and it’s kind of like I feel like a lot of you know fitness professionals and trainers and things.

It’s like we have, whether we have an athletic past or like have an injuries in the past, and it’s like that’s like sort of you know pushes us in this direction of like I want to help people not have those injuries and things. And and yeah, it’s just like it’s you know. It’s kind of how I see it is like it’s just preparing. It’s it’s you know we talk about building strength and it’s like rotational strength and that’s sort of where I sort of I guess you know my viewpoint sort of centers on, because obviously, with like power and speed you know I used to be a long drive champion like yeah, people kind of you know want to hit it further. It’s like I see the recipe being, you know, trained and get yourself strong and ripped drivers like do the thing Right and and again, we try and yeah, and I, I, I.

I utilize the all kinds of tools but, like you know, medicine balls are kind of in the middle.

But again, what I see, the limiting factor a lot of times is that rotational strength portion and, like you said, a lot of the you know, unilateral stuff. I mean, I just see rotation as it’s not just twisting right, it’s like you know it’s. You know what do we do right at golfers, right, we’re loading to the right, unloading to the left, right, okay, well, like what if we loaded to the left and unloaded to the right? And what if we, you know, right in a golfers, are side bent to the right at impact kind of creating force in a sort of right side bend, you know, impacting through the ball? So what if we create force side bending the left, like it’s just that the golf swing is very specific, so what? And I just I love again I sort of the the my dad’s architect and like I sort of gotten this eye over the years of like just looking at, like the architecture. You look at the body, you look at the lats and look at the obliques and you look at the pecs, look at the groin, like how they, they all like sort of wrap and and the architecture of it all, like okay, like you know, and I don’t know, not a penguin broad brush, but, like you know, bench squat and deadlift are like not hitting those like I use them, you know, and and it’s there’s a disconnect of a feel, right, and so it’s kind of again, I talk about it like it’s rotation just like ties everything together from a physical standpoint and from like I think when we talk about athleticism, like you know, you see, I mean the example that once comes up in my head is, like you know, you look at an unbelievable athlete like I just I remember this from years ago Adrian Peterson, right running back. I remember watching like a celebrity softball game and he was like swinging and missing Like dude, looks like a Greek God when he’s standing there he’s running on the football field but then like that rotational coordination and awareness and just looked like he was just like you know he was that fit out of water and it’s just like. Okay, so like the athleticism demands are different. Obviously he’s a great football player, but, you know, obviously a rotational athlete has different demands, right.

So it’s like that’s kind of again all goes into like my, my sort of view on things of like you know it’s definitely not loading up a cable machine and holding it with a golf grip and you know, pulling down, like working on your downswing, that’s just that. But I just see, you know, with different implements. You know, I know I’ve kind of been told in the past that like the movements that I do with the foot, the feet pivoting, it’s like they kind of chuck that up to like baseball footwork. But to me it’s like you know we get so you know golfers get so planted in the ground right Again the like globally, sort of looking at the golf swing. It’s the feet are planted, the body’s rotating on top of sort of solid legs, right. Obviously there’s more involved, but so basically in the gym sort of flipping that. So those exercises are sort of getting the hips, the groins, lower leg, everything a little more active.

Looks like a baseball swing, but it’s just, it’s kind of again, looking at it from a balanced perspective of like all right, I can rotate my feet planted, I can rotate my feet, movement, I can rotate with my yo and with those moves it’s like the chest is pretty square to the resistance and then it’s like, okay, I’ll do stuff where. It’s like, you know, feet are solid and the upper half is rotating, so it’s like it’s all. It’s kind of just just looking at all the different directions, it’s kind of like you know, or or from from pure motion, it’s like we’ve, we’ve, we sort of you know the whole planet and orbit, sort of analogy. It’s like you, when you look at the planet and you look at how the planets go around, it’s like you know, you got, you got here, you got here, you got here you got all the different angles and they’re all different.

Like all the muscle activation is different. It’s different. You know parts you know harder than others and it’s just like it’s at the other day. It’s like I want to be able to cover all those bases to be just, you know, a complete rotational athlete. You know, that’s kind of kind of what I’m trying to try to build. You know, when I’m working with people yeah, I mean watching your videos.

0:20:30 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I mean, there’s some some cool things that I had never even really seen before. You know, like some of the bar movements where you’ve got the bar overhead and you’re either pulling or rotating and you’re in kind of that split stance, and I’ve always liked the idea or mentally just kind of seen the idea of like, yeah, we’re just trying to hit different angles, different vectors, and, and if my body can handle, or my client’s body can handle, forces in all different directions they can, they can find their balance, they can create some sort of force and and direction and movement against resistance. Like then I feel like we’re doing our job, like you said. As far as making them more well rounded, yeah, we’re not working specifically on what their downswing feels like in that motion, not to say that I never goof around with that kind of stuff too and play around with some of those things, right, because that’s also what they want they come in and they want the same.

But, yeah, watching your, your different movements, I’m like that just makes so much sense and and some of the different you know apparatuses that you guys are able to use.

0:21:29 – Jeff Flagg
Well, and it’s like you know, like I said, kind of with the, you know it’s like pro guys or or you know, college players, high level players, it’s like you know they have it right. They have rotates like we’re trying to get more the whole Western way more weight, more range of motion, more, more, more, more, more. So it’s you know it’s it’s cultivating that right and sort of solidifying that and stabilizing that. That’s their range of motion. They own it right. And then you know, for the older clubs, I mean I do like again some of the you know more extreme stuff, I sort of pose the me do under stuff like that. Like that that’s there’s obviously progressions, but I mean I do it with 75 year old ladies and I do it with, you know hope again guys that have neck fusions and it’s it’s it’s it’s a systemic sort of you know strengths that I want to build where it’s it’s. Yeah, maybe you do have, you know your, you know a couple cervical vertebrae fused. All right, you’re not getting anything out of that, right, you’re next to me a little stiff, but we got to get as much as we can out of thoracic. We got to get as much as we can out of our hips, we get as much as we can out of your shoulder blades, like we got to be able to like work with what you have. And it’s not just like it’s, it’s, you know it’s, and that’s where it’s like I talk about it more systemically where it’s not just sitting there doing isolated exercises, kind of like you’ve seen, it’s like it’s, it’s I’m on my feet coordinating everything and it’s it’s. Everybody in the boat is rowing the same direction and apparently you know some people are going to be limited, but it’s, I’m trying to. I’m trying to build it where it’s not just one area that’s getting connected to a lot of injuries happen. Right, it’s like you’re too loose in some areas, not strong enough in other areas, and it’s like the one spot that kink in the hose gets hammered and trying to again open everything up where it’s.

And again, with the older clientele not even if I love the cable so much because you can, you can play with resistance and it’s like you can put them in athletic positions and it’s, you know, kind of work in resistance that they’re not really used to and you know kind of you know they’re so used to golf swing rotating. You know loaded rotating. You know, I take all my lessons, do all that and it’s like just getting them to rotate the opposite direction. It’s almost like the whole, all the benefits of like walking backwards.

Right, there is the brain benefits, of what it’s like just getting them rotating in a different direction or having, you know, loading on one leg instead of the other or sort of just it’s sort of you can see their brains sort of light up where it’s like, and that’s where, again, a lot of tightness and stuff comes from just awareness and like you know, a you lock up because you don’t feel strong and you don’t feel comfortable with your balance or your strength or your you know.

You kind of devolved this way, right, so to be able to sort of not only, obviously, you know, strengthen the tissues and things like that, but it’s given the brain that information of like hey, like you’re safe here, like you can turn here, like you can go there, like it’s, it’s all just feeding, trying to feed good information into the system and let the athlete do what it wants. Everybody swings different ways, everybody’s got different ways to do it. It’s just like let’s just try to bulletproof you so you can be, you know, free to do it, use it, how you use it, you know.

0:24:58 – Jeff Pelizzaro
When did your kind of philosophy mentality on training shift so for for people that are listening that don’t know your background, professional baseball won the 2014 Long Drive Championship. Then was it after Long Drive that you went back for your education in exercise.

0:25:17 – Jeff Flagg
I finished baseball and then I had a semester of school left so I went back I think it was 20, 2013, went back to school and then that’s when, like you know, didn’t have baseball. You know, I was like my spring, my spring is freed up. You know, it’s nice to have a spring time, so I was going to go to school and start philosophy and just spending more time to golf course just because I was, you know, kind of I’d always kind of grew up, I just kind of self taught growing up playing. And then I met a swing coach there and you know, we we got on technology the first time, I think first time I, you know, measured my swing speed of, like you know, 132 or four or something like that. So it’s like you know I was, I was a power first baseman, like I had. I had I’ve always had a little bit of juice. You know, being six foot six helps too, but but, but, uh, and just started, you know, long Drive there, and then that was 2013, then one in 2014.

But, um, yeah, I met Jorge from Pure Motion in 2010, I believe, when I would play baseball, and and he just he had this warehouse and he, I like it was an off season job, um, I like I worked there and was able to work out there and, like, sort of, was exposed to sort of his way of looking at things. And you know, it’s cool just thinking back. I mean, it’s been a long time now. But like the development of you know, some of the products and stuff that you see, it’s like it’s kind of fun to be in the lab with the crazy guy that he is, um, but that sort of started to shift my focus of like. It’s like, yeah, I mean I honestly remember having like an epiphany of like, yeah, I forget I was in the car and driving. I was like man, I just wish I could find something like because I love training, you know, with the school, just like you know, you know, at the high school, like Getting into weightlifting, getting hurt, and then you know like having the old, like the old, like Hershey Walker, like the calisthenics, like you know pushups and the side like a body weight stuff, yeah, like doing that as a young kid.

And then like getting and getting the college and lifting heavy and like getting big and strong, like I loved it all. Okay then, I loved it Just the fact that you know it’s preparing me For the sport and because you know baseball was life and it’s just like over the years, get beat up, and it was just like sort of having this little reservations and I’m like on paper I’m strong like bench in 315. Like you know I’m not I know what. I backslotted power clean and stuff like that, but like strong, but like just felt like I was you know kind of stiff when I was going to swing and run and Things like that, and it just like it was like the more I did of that, the stiffer I was getting, you know and without having to do a bunch of, like you know, hip mobility stuff. So that just is a seed that was planted in my head and then getting exposed to to Jorge and like.

Oh, like this is different, like this is like it’s the same stuff, like it’s squatting, it’s the basics, right, it’s squatting, it’s benching, it’s, it’s it’s pushing, it’s pulling, it’s rotating and it’s like oh, like this feels different and it was one of those things like it.

Just I Work there as an offseason job like shipping orders, and then, like then started, then started kind of finishing my degree and then started training intern there and then sort of was going around it and so was there, you know, director of education, that going overseas teaching it and and then just again getting winning a long drive, getting in the golf world, sort of looking at through the golf lens and and just getting putting all the pieces together.

It’s been a bit of interesting, like, looking back, it’s always pretty interesting to see how it all falls together, but it’s it just always goes back to like, yeah, it’s funny, the people that I I exposed to it myself, included Jorge, like Jorge’s in a five-time Olympian In in in martial arts.

So it’s like it’s rotational athletes, it’s just like it just it fits for for for that approach and I’ve sort of you know again, kind of doubling down on Stickin ball, sports, golf and baseball, like I’ve sort of you know, tweaked some things and and you know it’s it’s evolved, but it all goes back to just building a rotational athlete. And it’s like I’m use this with NFL players, like you think about you know I can get making the case right now I’m making the case, but like if I was to to talk to an NFL guy, like if you’re running cutting change of directions, like you got to be able to get in that hip, you got to be able to rotate the torso, or it’s like those forces in your, in your, your knee and back, or like our. There are a lot for big and strong guys. So it’s that ability to be soft but also training hard, lifting heavy, you know good. Again, it’s like those sort of traditionally sort of Opposing viewpoints can try to meld those and bring those a little closer together.

0:30:29 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I would imagine with somebody like that, that maybe has trained kind of that you know straightforward way their entire life. Just Implementing some of these rotational pieces just you know different angles and directions, I mean just having them do a little bit of that stuff could Really really increase the effectiveness of them. Out on the turf and running and cutting and and you know, jumping, I mean everything and in and injured and that’s like it’s the. It’s just that, it’s that it’s a piece of the.

0:30:59 – Jeff Flagg
It’s just that. It’s that. It’s a piece that I see is missing. I feel like it’s just again. You see, and this is, you know, rotational athletes included, I mean again working with some college guys. It’s like to see, it’s like what I went, like it’s it’s, you know, it’s kind of a football workout and then let’s throw some med balls or let’s do some like immobility stuff and there’s a golf workout now, you know, but it’s like kind of Looking at all of it and being like all right, do we should? Does a golfer really need to like barbell bench? That’s all it’s got like.

You know, pressing strength is important, but like if you have a cable or band or a suspension trainer or something like that, like to be able to do unilateral work, to be able to like it incorporates some of that. It’s just our bodies are just you look at everything’s just twisting and wrapping around. You like it just again. It’s like I just feel like there’s gaps, you know, and I don’t know if you felt it, or or just when you, when you sort of add some of that stuff in it, it it just ties everything together, right, and that’s a kind of my goal with anybody, right.

But you know athletes that you know make a living doing it, it’s, it’s. You can’t be injured and you know we can’t leave any stone unturned as far as you know your health and your performance and we, there’s a lot of things that you, you know. It’s that the benefits of loading the body and Doing it in a way that you move, and you know flow and move in your sport and it’s kind of just again trying to Check both of those boxes and not one or the other, and it seems like we’re learning so much more about the body and really like the fascia and how that connects everything.

0:32:40 – Jeff Pelizzaro
So you know, when we went through school we saw our anatomy charts and we saw the muscles and they the origin is here, the insertions here, and and we kind of thought, straight planes and okay, this muscle moves this, this muscle moves this. And now it’s like, oh my gosh, everything’s connected and we’re seeing that some of the most effective ways of training for Athleticism and just to have that we like call that elasticity or hyper elasticity is you have to move in these different directions. You have to to build the, the fascia and the connective tissue so it it’s able to move differently and accept all these different stresses for injury prevention, but also for that, that speed and that explosiveness that you’re so yeah, absolutely.

0:33:19 – Jeff Flagg
I mean, it’s just it’s that, that that interconnected and it’s like just kind of tapping into, like, yeah, and it’s kind of what I preach to people too is just that that, yeah, I want people to like push back on, like this is what I think, but I’ll, you got to feel it like, you got it like and that’s like, again, a lot of the feedback I get is like I’m I’m freed up a little bit like and it’s like and then I’m not talking like, you know, 25 year old professional athletes, I’m talking like you know, 70 year old men and women. It’s like they’re, you know, because we had golf and I feel like you can, you can just everything is, you know, I need to be tight with my, with my form. I can’t take the club out, I can’t take it in, I got to take it here and then it’s like I got a, you know, I got to have, I got to have the posture and everything’s almost like shrinking, shrinking us a little bit In the sake of VR, in the name of control, or, you know, it’s just to be able to, because, again, training is important and it’s like for overall health. But if we can make that training, help them dude, because obviously you’re working with golfers like myself and it’s like that’s such a huge part of their life they’re going to spend, they’re going to invest some time with you to get healthy. But it’s like you want I always preach, like you should be able to hit balls when we get done, like I don’t care how many pounds we’re moving over the course of 30 minutes or an hour, it’s like you should be able to walk out and, because golf is the sport you play every day, like I can’t blast you, take three days to get that sort of out and then blast you again.

It’s like that’s not a sustainable practice and the more it again what I’ve seen like the more you train in this free. It’s controlled, but it’s free. We’re not just rolling around the ground and some of those free flowing workouts which, again, if that’s your jam, go ahead, but it’s freedom, but you’re low in the body and then again it’s going to in applicable ways to how you use it. That’s where, with the golf swing, I kind of look at it like get zooming out. What are we doing? Right, we’re leveraging a tool, we are rotating and we are have to sync all that up and we’re interacting with the ground, right. So it’s like all right, let me check those boxes while I’m training and I can lunge, push, pull, rotate and then check all those boxes as well. It’s like, okay, we’re preparing for imposed demands. So that’s kind of. Again, that’s what I have tried to and I’m always sort of tweaking it and trying to poke holes in it. But it’s been fun to sort of apply it across all populations and as people enjoy it and get better.

0:36:26 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Let’s take a second to thank our sponsors over at 1st Phorm, and this week I want to highlight their Formula One post-workout protein shake. I use this thing pretty much every day after my workouts because, let’s face it, being here in a gym working all the time with clients putting on a podcast, it can sometimes be tough to get my protein in on a regular basis. And so I know that with the post-workout shake the Formula One, first of all, it’s fast-acting. So right after your workout it’s a great time to get your protein in to help build your muscles, get yourself stronger and repair what you’ve done in the gym. But also, if you don’t know if you’re going to be able to get your protein in in your regular meals, it’s just a great way to make sure that you’re supplementing and hitting those marks.

So be sure to go over to 1stphorm.com forward slash 18STRONG to get your 1st Phorm Formula One protein shake, and everyone that enters through that link is going to be put into a drawing every single month for free 1st Phorm products. So again, go over to 1stphorm.com forward slash 18STRONG. For those of you listening, check out Jeff’s page so you can see some of the stuff we’re talking about. For those that are just listening, jeff, we’ve mentioned pure motion and some of their tools a little bit. Just give a little bit of an idea so people can kind of understand what’s different about what you guys have or what Jorge has built.

0:37:45 – Jeff Flagg
It’s also kind of funny about that is when you really distill it down. It’s literally what the Egyptians used the most primitive tools. Obviously they look a little different in a trading setting, but it’s literally like pulleys, levers and free weights. That’s literally it. And honestly, the cable machines is like that’s my favorite piece of equipment in any gym and it’s hilarious because you go in a lifetime where you go in an equinox or something like that and you go in. It’s like the dual cable machine is like sitting in the corner, like nobody’s using it, somebody’s doing chess flies on it.

It’s like to me it’s the most personal piece, just because you can change vectors, you can change angles and it’s like a more of an applicable angle to how we’re moving. In sports it’s like in golf. I mean that golf club is moving diagonally around us and it’s like nothing is like the play of the glass that we learned in school. I’m like you know sagittal play. It’s like we’re interacting with the ground differently. We’re interacting with an outside resistance. So it’s like the cables and the attachments. With the cables that get simple stuff. It’s a longer bar so you can have two hands on it. It’s a longer bar so you can kind of increase the leverage and get that resistance away from you a little bit, which forces the core to work more.

The landmine, called the renegade in pure motion terms, but the landmine system, like in all the attachments that go with that, it’s like it’s so funny because it’s so simple. It’s like the attachment that goes on the user end. Literally it’s just allowing you to have the width or the grip of an Olympic bar, just on that end. It’s just a handle and it’s all it is, and then a longer one so you can load it on your shoulder and do lower body stuff, the different. I know I’ve used the Omega a lot. That’s kind of a little more advanced, but it’s the same sort of thing. It’s just increasing leverage, kind of get your arms out of the way from you a little bit.

Some of the Olympic variations are pretty sweet just because it’s the handle swivel kind of on that landmine setup where it’s just allowing you to keep your wrist neutral, like I mean, working with football guys are like you know, our hands are like linemen and stuff Our hands at risk get crushed in practice. And then it’s like I’m going to go in the gym after practice and do cleans and have to catch it and it’s like, again, the form of cleans is super important and it’s like cleans are valuable but it’s like can we do it in a way that’s like not going to beat you up as much, you don’t have to learn the skill as much, and that’s kind of what you know he’s accomplished there. And then, like suspension trainer, it’s like you know it’s got a pulley so you can do one arm, you can do rotational stuff you can do. You’re free to move a little bit where it’s like it’s just like you know the straps aren’t going to rub your arms raw, like it’s just giving you like more options out of like kind of simple tools. The mopping bar is a great one.

I don’t know I haven’t posted down in a while. I got to. I got to.

0:41:17 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I remember seeing that I haven’t seen it recently. I got to show you that one. I got to post something.

0:41:22 – Jeff Flagg
Yeah, yeah, which, again, it’s like it’s just your ground based. You’re having to like load your body rotation. I mean it’s really nothing that I’ve ever done that hits the trunk like that. We call it the short bite, but like it’s, you load that up and I don’t care. Like it’s a, it’s a different kind of strength that you need to to do some of those moves and it’s like, and that’s again to be able to like load it up and again like to train those patterns hard.

And it’s like nothing, nothing on the golf course is going to like put you in a vulnerable spot, like it’s. It’s like you know the foot pivoting movements and the wide stances and the big. Like you know rotational arcs and bending and flexing and it’s anything else. That’s like if I can do all that or build myself up to do that, it’s like you know hitting 500 golf balls is not going to, not going to move the needle. It’s like it’s just so. It’s again, it’s just building your building that engine to to withstand what you’re, what you’re trying to do, what you, where you want to go.

0:42:31 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I love it. The, the one that I’ve been seeing, the it’s like the elbow slings where you’ve got them like in a plank position. So is that just a?

0:42:39 – Jeff Flagg
pulley that’s attached. It’s called the air fit, but yeah, it’s like. So it’s. It’s suspension trainer, but it’s got a pulley right and it’s like it’s. And the slings again are sort of designed to just sit on your arms. So again, pushing exercises and I use it. I got clipped off and used on a cable machine too, but the whole idea and it’s like a seat belt material where it’s not going to rub your arms like like, like another, like sort of strap would on some suspension trainers, so it’s like you’re able to put your shoulder in a stronger position.

One and then two, the core stuff that the sling allows you. I mean that like that’s like I got to. I got to, I got to come out there in person and like bring you through some of that. Cause it’s like that’s another, that’s a strength, that’s a core strength that it’s so untapped, I guess to say cause. It’s like. There’s not many things that I’ve found that that can you know some like hanging leg raises maybe can, but it’s like there’s a. It it’s those lower abs and hip flexors and it’s kind of it’s in a supported position, right. It’s not like I’m isolating that specifically. It’s like I’m. I’m technically, I’m on my feet Right. But and when I talk to you know, and usually across the board, when I put golfers on that initially, it’s like they they can do five and they’re crushed and it’s just like cause. It’s just a different strength and it’s like it’s and how I explain it is like it’s it’s a strength where you can. When you build it up, it’s like you’re you’re supporting your back from the front and you think about, I know some of the bass, I kind of a reverse sit up move where you sort of like a pike is kind of you know for not having video of it it’s, it’s kind of a pike motion. But what I’m sort of what accentuates is that sort of eccentric lengthening of the abs on the way out and that redirects into flexing the hips and the trunk.

And when you think about the golf swing, I’m you know everybody’s talking about speed, you know ground forces, extension and busting up and through it. It’s like I don’t want all that go, I don’t want just my spinal extensors to like be fired, that I need to have that eccentric strength on the front to protect, you know to, to build that armor. I think I I was kind of the theme last time I was on here is, like you know, building that armor to be able to because, again, you want to increase speed, you got to bang drivers like, and you got to like get crazy, you got to like step into it and you got to like recoil and like do all kinds of crazy stuff and getting your body in a position to withstand that. Like we got to layer those, those, those sheets of armor on you, and that’s especially one that that I’ve found, like guys, a little back and hip stuff sort of I’ll say it’s not immediate, but sort of melt away when they have that strength that that that can protect.

0:45:43 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I, I could see that being super beneficial and and I so, for those of you listening and hopefully watching, we’ll have some videos. But you know, you’re like the one that I watched. You had one of your guys in a plank position and you’re there, their elbows are in like straps right and you had them doing kind of that pike.

But then you also had them do like a rotation like getting their shoulder blades like rotating, and I was like, oh, that that looks so good, cause you’re stabilizing with the shoulders, you’re getting the the shoulder blades moving, you’re rotating that thoracic spine, but again you’re on your feet still, you’re, you’re in a plank position, so you’re having to hold everything still and and taught, and you’re teaching them how to just separate that upper, upper torso. Really get in the serratus, Like I well.

0:46:26 – Jeff Flagg
I call it the riblets, but the riblets.

0:46:29 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I like it.

0:46:30 – Jeff Flagg
And yeah, it’s just it’s. It’s kind of you know you hold that it’s. It’s forcing you to sort of keep the hips up, cause a lot of times it’s that feel of it. It’s kind of you’re in a you know a horizontal plank position. But I still like to think of it as, like you’re, you’re engaged with the grounds, like your, your feet are active, like holding yourself up and contributing to that, like a lot of times people get in those slings and the back sort of sags, and so it’s like it’s. It’s just a you know you get the feel of it and it’s like that it’s. It’s you know then go ahead and do you know 50, 100, 200 reps of it, you know good luck, yeah.

0:47:09 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I’m going to come. I’m going to come.

0:47:10 – Jeff Flagg
It’s miserable and awesome at the same time. Well, I’m going to bring some of my toys.

0:47:16 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Let’s set it up. We’ll definitely do it. We’ll get to have a little 18STRONG seminar here from with Jeff Flagg. That’d be, that’d be awesome. So you’re down at the Bears Club now in Jupiter, right? When did, when did you shift down to there and tell us a little bit about what’s going on? I mean, you’ve got a new training program coming in. That was 2018.

0:47:32 – Jeff Flagg
I was in Chicago, I think, the last time I talked to you. I don’t know how I have to get one. The last time was long yeah. Episode episode 170. And where we? What is this?

0:47:42 – Jeff Pelizzaro

360. This is 365. Full year, yeah, yeah.

0:47:51 – Jeff Flagg
So I was. I got the opportunity to come down here and I mean it’s just, it’s it’s not very lucky to be here. It’s pretty fun. Our members are great. I mean just to you know, again, it’s like kind of you got to pin yourself to like you know I’ll be in there working with somebody and Jack walks through like it’s kind of it’s like, you know, get to pick his brain on you know golf courses or yeah, it’s, it’s. It’s it’s pretty wild but they give like membership is great, you know it’s out for it. It’s it’s, you know, not bad this time of year and I don’t want to rub it in, but yeah and and kind of you know it’s taken me longer than it should, but I probably talked about it last time I was on this, but I getting finally getting an online program up and running, launching that in the next short little bit, hopefully. And yeah, it’s just kind of how I guess kind of how I framed it was you know what no-transcript If I was to work, if somebody’s gonna walk off the street right and and and work with me, and kind of all the things that I look at.

Kind of like we talked about. It’s like what, what can, what can I do to sort of, you know, coach that and and Push that like what, what? What would be the ideal scenario? It’s like, hey, they came in and like they’ve done all these things are good. All these movements like Okay, like now we can roll, like so it’s like it’s. It’s again, it’s my mind online program. I’m sure you can relate like I can think of every way people do it wrong. I can think of all the things. I think of all that if somebody’s got a bum shoulder, like all right, you gotta change this, tweak this, like the in-person, the art of it in person, you sort of got it back off of that a little bit. But but yeah, hopefully, hopefully, people like it. It’s again a lot of the movements.

Again, at the end of the day it’s like kind of Kind of a tagline. But you know you’re just moving different, right, like you got to move different. Like you know kind of Setting it up where it’s simple again, everybody’s got cables at their gym, everybody’s got free weights. Like if you don’t have cables, use bands. Like kind of giving those solutions to Get your body.

It get sort of your mind wrapped around training differently and loading the body differently and just did not only get, obviously, build strength for what you’re doing, but given that confidence and you know it, that bleed over into, you know, into your golf game, into your, into regular life, it’s like it’s it’s sort of, you know again, kind of wrapping it all up when you don’t have any gaps, you don’t have any weak links like that’s. That’s that’s my goal for, for this. So, you know, can kind of I kind of positioned it as, like you know, you know, you know it can be standalone, it can be, if you love, you know, power cleaning and and barbell benching, you can add this to what you’re doing and and Round out, round out everything. So you have tried to make it as like, versatile as possible, just because I think it’s just, it’s valuable ways to load the body and and I’ve had success with it and hopefully more people can, can try it and and you know I don’t know if say, enjoy it, but you enjoy it when you’re done, yeah.

0:51:05 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, yeah, well, definitely let us know when it. When is the launch officially to be? Next to heaven day for it?

0:51:11 – Jeff Flagg
I believe I got a double check, but hopefully at the see Masters at the latest, I would say. So that’s, that’s that’s.

0:51:21 – Jeff Pelizzaro
That’s. That’s at the latest. Yeah, it’s a good launch time.

0:51:24 – Jeff Flagg
So, uh, yeah, and it’s, and it’s kind of we get it sort of designed in a way like from a sustainability perspective. It’s li