TSTS #14 Health and Fitness - Step By Step w/Brian Baker

In this episode of TSTS, I get to visit with Brian Baker, owner and head coach at Crossfit Bartlesville and the owner of Kikr, about taking the right approach to health and fitness. 

Brian and his wife Aubrey opened CrossFit Bartlesville in June 2011. Together, Brian and Aubrey have a passion for exercise and for helping people meet their health and fitness goals. They discovered CrossFit in 2008 and found it to be the best method for general strength and conditioning. They started coaching people in their garage, inviting friends, relatives, and anyone interested in fitness to join in for the “workout of the day.”

Brian Baker is a Certified CrossFit Level 3 Trainer. Starting his athletic career on a soccer field, at age 6, Brian excelled and earned an athletic scholarship at NCAA Division 1, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. After college, his continued interest in fitness led him to pursue martial arts and bodybuilding, finishing in the top 5 worldwide in the 2005 Body for Life competition.

Contact info for Brian Baker
email:  crossfitbartlesville@gmail.com
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/kikr.fitness/
Website:  http://CrossfitBartlesville.com

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Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:01  
Welcome to The Scott Townsend Show brought to you by Deetsoman Productions. 

Brian Baker  0:05  
Make sure   that it's sustainable. You know, these overcharged, "I'm gonna get it done this time I'm sick and tired..."  No, it doesn't work that way, you have got to embrace a slow walk through this process. If it's a journey of 1000 steps, you only get one a day. That's it. You can't jump ahead 10 steps. And by the way, you can either take a step forward, or step backward. If the journey is supposed to take 1000 days, don't turn it into 10,000 days.

Scott Townsend  0:44  
Hey, this is Scott Townsend. And you're watching/listening to The Scott Townsend Show and today I have with me a certified CrossFit level three trainer, Brian Baker. How's it going, Brian?

Brian Baker  0:55  
 Oh, great. Doing good. Thanks for having me.

Scott Townsend  0:57  
You bet. So today, it's all about health and fitness. And, um, that's why I brought Brian on because I really can't talk about that kind of stuff. I probably need to pay more attention to that, like a lot of us do. But Brian, so I'm gonna stop just real quick and say, What do you have for breakfast?

Brian Baker  1:19  
What I have for breakfast, I had a set protein shake, as sort of my go to on the fly. And gets it tastes good fills me up just enough to kind of make get me to lunch. So yeah, a little bit of protein got me out the door.

Scott Townsend  1:37  
That's awesome. So you on your website, I was looking at the CrossFit Bartlesville. And by the way, Brian's CrossFit studio was in Bartlesville, Oklahoma here. You and your wife, Aubrey, is it Aubrey this Yes, it got started in 2000 discovered CrossFit in 2008. Can you tell us a little bit about how you guys? Were you guys looking for something or what?

Brian Baker  2:04  
Well, I, I was I was doing personal training. And one of my clients was, came across CrossFit. Somewhere Kansas City, I believe it was, and she told me about it, she was getting ready for an Ironman competition. And she kind of turned me on to CrossFit. So I looked it up started following the main site workouts, which they published the workout every day, the workout of the day, or more affectionately known as the WOD. And so I started doing CrossFit on my own. And out of that came my interest in that style of fitness up until then, you know, working out was basically just sets and reps, you know, like, like, you would go go to the gym and on Mondays you do back bi-s and tri-s and on. On Tuesdays, you do legs on Wednesday, you do core and something else, you know, and you kind of follow a certain pattern and routine. And CrossFit was flying in the face of all that. Whereas my workouts used to be long and drawn out. CrossFit was very short and intense. And my thinking as I was doing these workouts was you know, where's this, Ben? Just simply because of the variety, we you know, the workouts were different every day, they were more intense, they focus more on fitness and less on aesthetic look. Right. So that was my initial exposure to CrossFit. And my immediate interest was, was those things that just kind of grew from there.

Scott Townsend  3:48  
  you kind of got into it there for a second, what is a CrossFit workout? How's it different than and you kind of went into it a little bit there. But yeah, overall, what's the difference?

Brian Baker  3:58  
I think I think the difference is, you know, there's variants, you know, CrossFit as a as a methodology that really encourages variety instead of doing the same stuff every time you go to workout. And although that's good, you know, maybe you do the same thing every every time you go to work out. CrossFit is just saying, Hey, you know, your body will adapt. So let's, let's bring variants into the picture. Let's do more than just jogging, let's do if you like to run, let's do long distance, let's do short distance. Let's throw in some push ups, some squats and lunges. And let's mix it all around. And let's get well rounded in our fitness versus simply getting good at a niche. So sometimes people can confuse activity with accomplishment. If I go to the gym every day and get on the treadmill for an hour, I've certainly done something to to better myself. But if I do the same thing all the time at the same pace I'm not introducing intensity into that mix, which is the single most important ingredient to soliciting physical change, right. So you have to have intensity, at some point, not a lot necessarily, but interject intensity. And you have to have some variance. Otherwise, your body just sort of, you know, adapts to what you're doing.

Scott Townsend  5:24  
So how do you define intensity? Is it? How do I know when I'm intense? Is that my heart rates going up? Or I hit a certain beats per minute? Or what? How do I know that I've hit?

Brian Baker  5:37  
That is a good question. And it really is sort of dependent on the person. Um, you can push to a point where it's unhealthy, and potentially dangerous, although your body will let you know to stop and shut, you know, kind of shut that process down. But it when we talk about intensity, it's something that you grow into, because if you if you have been doing nothing, and all of a sudden, you come into CrossFit, you try to do too much too soon. It, it won't happen in our gym, because we won't let you do that. But I can see where people would, would jump in and go all in and hurt themselves. Like, well, yeah, you know, and if you have that type of personality, where you're, you're, you know how to work hard. And you know how to flip that switch? You know, that could be to your detriment, you know, so intensity is, you know, ramping up and then coming down, ramp up, come down, and then grow that slowly over time. And as you become more fit, your intensity can increase. And you have to get inside that culture a little bit. So you can learn about yourself, right? What am I capable of doing going too hard? Sometimes, that's why it's good to work out with people, because they can help pace you. It's good to work out with some oversight, so people can help guide you through that process. So that's, that's a good question. You know, intensity is, like I said earlier, the single most important ingredient to soliciting physiological and psychological change, we all do better. We we rise to the occasion, when we're pressed to know, there's some types of stress that are bad. And there are some that are good. If I overdo it, that's bad stress. So there's a fine line between not doing enough and doing too much. 

Scott Townsend  7:46  
I, when we were at work, one day, I was working out with some guys that were pretty well, they were they were fit. They've been doing it for a long time. And so they were showing me how to do some stuff. And some of this stuff, I don't know what you know what that is, anyway, I really did that little too, too hard, too much too fast. And the next day, I couldn't even lift up my arms to wash my hair, you know, it was horrible. Yeah. Which kind of killed my incentive, then to keep doing it, you know, because I was trying, it took me a week to recover from just that one exercise. Is CrossFit good for losing weight?

Brian Baker  8:27  
Yeah, CrossFit, is good for losing weight. And I like to look at it like this, I think we're where we have been culturally, at least, you know, in this country is we associate an exercise program with the agenda, almost primarily being to lose weight. Right. And that, that's great. But a slightly more noble agenda is, I need to get healthy, right? Because really, being in good health is synonymous with being fit. The more fit you are, the more healthy you are. The more healthy you are, the more fit you are, almost interchangeable, it's arguable, but we can we can make it work. So I think maybe going about it with a slightly different approach. Instead of going, I need to do an exercise program to lose weight. Maybe the thought process is this. I need to get healthy so that I can be the healthiest version of myself within reason. I like that because then what happens if I do that with one added thing, that I get healthy so that I can bring the best to my relationships. So I almost feel like it's incumbent on me to to be healthy so that I am contributing the best of myself in all of my relationships. So when I'm healthy, everybody wins. I win, certainly. but so does my wife, my kids, my friends, my co workers, my extended family, my neighbors. Everywhere I go, I'm in a position that allows me to to give of my best.

Scott Townsend  10:21  
So you're talking about mental health as well as physical health?

Brian Baker  10:25  
Yes. And pursuing just weight loss can lead to a broken psychology. You're chasing weight loss, which is not noble enough, right? It's good. But what we're really honestly after, if we distill it all down, is we're after better health. Okay, so how do you get there? Well, the answer is hiding in plain sight. It's exercise and eat right. Now, exercise is different. CrossFit is not the only way to exercise. It's a good way. It's not the only way. There's lots of really good ways to get exercise, you know, and mix up and have variety. So when we take exercising and eating right, and we blend that with eating whole foods, then life moves forward, right, you're hedging towards health and fitness in a way from sickness and decrepitude, right? So you can't avoid it. There is no magic formula, pill or shake or anything that's gonna expedite that process. It is a one step a day proposition. It's exercise, eat right with moderation, that is sustainable for you. And you are different than everybody else. So you got to kind of play with what works for you, from an exercise standpoint, play around a little bit with what works from a nutrition standpoint, but by and large, when it comes to nutrition, it's eat mostly whole foods. When you eat most of the time eat whole foods

Scott Townsend  12:12  
But what are whole foods for those of us?

Brian Baker  12:16  
Yeah, whole foods is foods that have one ingredient, eggs, vegetables, I mean, there's nothing processed. It's not packaged. So I'm saying, hey, 

Scott Townsend  12:29  
Won't last for 20 years.

Brian Baker  12:30  
 Yeah, right. And so if you can mostly embrace mostly like, say, 60% 60% of your nutrition is, revolves around whole foods... that's really good. That's certainly better than 50%. Right? Take it, you know, I mean, like, don't, don't, if you thinking I got to start exercising, eating right, well moderation, allows for sustainability. If you do not have a plan that is sustainable, you're going to crash and you're going to, you know, have this process of starting and quitting and starting and quitting. Some people are more bent toward the disciplines of exercise and nutrition. And it's just inexplicable, it's in their makeup. Right? Just like some people are more disciplined when it comes to money and others aren't. Some people are good at making a lot of money, but they that doesn't equal that they're good at managing money. I might be good at eating really well. But I hate to exercise. Right? Right, you've got to kind of know yourself a little bit, and then construct the plan that revolves around the person that you are.

Scott Townsend  13:45  
So a person that is going into looking at a healthy lifestyle, just to lose weight is really chasing sounds like they're chasing after the symptom. And not the what I'm trying to say they're chasing after a symptom. And not the problem.

Brian Baker  14:04  
Yeah, exactly. You're, you're you're, it's 

Scott Townsend  14:07  
a byproduct.

Brian Baker  14:08  
Yes. Right. So what you'll accomplish by chasing better health, you'll accomplish the weight loss,

Scott Townsend  14:15  
and the mental health and

Brian Baker  14:18  
all that if you if you just chase weight loss, you may actually become more unhealthy in the process. 

Scott Townsend  14:26  
Right. 

Brian Baker  14:26  
Because of, you know, like, you know, maybe you go on some kind of a juice fast or some kind of weird, unsustainable thing. You might lose a bunch of weight, but you're not maturing and growing, psychologically. And then when you hit the wall, you haven't matured and grown psychologically to match the change in your body, and then you end up going right back to the way you used to do things. I mean, so this is why it's a one step a day proposition and it's unavoidable. To optimize your health, you have got to embrace eating whole foods and getting some exercise you cannot, there's no way around it. Now, if you're just a genetic freak, right? One in 100 million people can get away with not eating good, and not exercising, and they look fantastic. And they will live to be 90, you know, so there are those freakish people out there. But I'm just saying without, without doing too much, just be reasonable, and keep your plan sustainable, and do something that works for you. And you got to kind of talk through that with, you know, other people or you know, a personal trainer or CrossFit guy or somebody that's already fit. Maybe you have a co worker that's very fit, how do you do it? You know, 

Scott Townsend  15:59  
Right,.

Brian Baker  15:59  
There's no one way. But I tell you what, having the right, the right, thinking, as you go into it is certainly foundational. You have the wrong thinking, like, I'm not saying I need to exercise to lose weight. I'm not saying that's wrong thinking, I'm just saying that's not where you want to start. You want to start with, I need to pursue the healthiest version of myself within reason, so that I can bring the best to my relationships.

Scott Townsend  16:34  
So yeah, I'm some recording. And so now it's kind of want to throw it over to Kikr for a second, can you give us a little bit of an idea of the concept behind Kikr?

Brian Baker  16:46  
Kikr came about,  actually, the name came about several years ago when I added on a component to our daily workout called the Kikr. And so what the Kikr represented was a little bit of extra work after your workout, you get a one minute reprieve, and then do the Kikr, which is usually three minutes or less of additional work tagged on to your daily workout.  

So, of course, the idea is this, that you're not gonna you don't feel like doing anymore, right? You don't feel like doing anymore. So the idea is to step into that, regardless of how you feel, and figure out a way to do the extra work. And it becomes more mental than physical. So we look at the workout as being the physical and then we look at the Kikr as being the mental, right? 

Scott Townsend  17:51  
Right.

Brian Baker  17:51  
Now, a lot of people opt out, they opt out, a lot of people opt in. And it's, you know, completely voluntary and you just do whatever you feel like the way I say it, is I say, " Hey, if you love your family, and your country then do the Kikr." So, so it puts a a humorous spin on a little bit of pressure to buy into that idea that hey, guess what, you've got more in you than you think.  That when you feel like you're done, you're only starting so out of that then came this idea that has really for years have just been in the background lurking which is it mimics life, right? So you know, you don't feel like going to work every day but you go. But that's different than a voluntary surrendering to more work that makes you better. So in life you're gonna have situations and circumstances that are you don't want to you don't want to step into but but you do it because of responsibility or personal gain or whatever, you know, whatever the case may be.

Scott Townsend  19:08  
Talk about you're talk about your Instagram account for a second everybody that's watching or listening they should check out you guys on Instagram. What's your what's your Instagram account name again?

Brian Baker  19:21  
Kikr.fitness  @kikr.fitness  And you know, if you search us that way on Instagram, Facebook, and our YouTube channel, that's how you can find us. You know, so what I do then is we do a video every day Monday through Friday. And we provide in that video content so by the way Kikr evolved into what is now a a online fitness program wherein a person can get a two minute video that's free that contains the wit, wisdom, and the workout of the day. So in two minutes, we compile those components, there's a life application, there's a little bit of humor somewhere and then the workout of the day to some encouragement. So if a person doesn't have a gym that they go to, they don't have a CrossFit gym, or they don't have a workout plan, they can, they can watch the workout of the day. And it's free. You know, so it's just a way to encourage people that don't have a home a CrossFit home, a personal trainer, whatever, they don't want to leave their home, here's a workout you can do at home, and it doesn't cost you anything. And we're going to give you a little bit of encouragement, maybe try to throw in something a little humorous. And that's, that's what Kikr is, okay.

Scott Townsend  20:56  
Was born out of the pandemic or the quarantine?

Brian Baker  21:02  
Yeah, Yes, it was. Yeah. Yeah, it was because, you know, when we had to, we couldn't go to the gym, we were still putting out the workout of the day. And, you know, now it becomes more bodyweight style workouts, you don't have the barbells and kettlebells, and rollers and bikes and all that. And so I, I just, I said, here's the workout of the day, I kind of broke it down, explained a little bit, and then boom, done. So they watch the video, they do the workout, they post their scores, and out of that came or more. We just sort of kept sculpting, the the information that we put in the video, right?  So Monday through Friday, people can wake up, have a look at the video, do the workout of the day and be a part of our community.

Scott Townsend  21:50  
Oh, that's cool. And your videographers really awesome.

Brian Baker  21:55  
Such a good guy.

Scott Townsend  21:56  
Such a nice guy. Yeah.

Brian Baker  21:57  
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. he's a he's, I mean, his editing and his creativity is, is magic. You know, it's the it's the secret sauce to why that works for us.

Scott Townsend  22:13  
So is there anything you know, before we step out of here? Is there any last thoughts about health and fitness? If someone's listening in North Carolina, or they're up in Idaho, or if they're in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, what's Brian Baker got to say these folks?

Brian Baker  22:32  
Okay, I would say this, whatever you do nutrition and exercise wise, make sure that it's sustainable. You know, these overcharged, I'm going to get it done this time. I'm sick and tired of it. No, it doesn't work that way.  You have got to embrace a slow walk through this process. If it's a journey of 1000 steps, you only get one a day. That's it. You can't jump ahead 10 steps. And by the way, you can either take a step forward, or a step backward. If the journey supposed to take 1000 days, don't turn it into 10,000 days. Right? Yeah, don't go sideways, don't go back, you only get one step. And when you when you arrive at a place of momentum, it was hard to get there. Don't lose it, do not lose your momentum. If you get to a place where you're eating good. You got a good exercise program, do not lose your momentum. It's harder to get it back than it was to get it and you may never get it back. So do what is sustainable. Be reasonable. It's a one step a day proposition. Let's get 1% better every day, with the agenda being when I'm healthy everybody wins. I certainly win, but so does my wife, my kids, my friends, my co workers, my extended family people, I don't know yet, will all benefit from my good health. It's a more noble proposition than I got to lose weight. Right? It's not strong enough to pull you across the line to do it from from a long term perspective.

Scott Townsend  24:21  
So that's, that's really awesome. I really appreciate your time today giving us some insight as to far as far as why you should be healthy and fit, ways to think about that. For more information on the I suggest everybody follow Brian on Instagram. I'll put the links in the show notes in the in iTunes and on YouTube. And well, I really appreciate the insight Brian, thanks for joining us today.

Brian Baker  24:51  
You're welcome. Thank you, Scott.

Scott Townsend  24:53  
You bet.   All right, so for Brian Baker, this is Scott Townsend. Thanks for watching The Scott Townsend Show and we'll check you later.

Unknown Speaker  25:05  
The Scott Townsend show is a Deetsoman Production. For more episodes, visit The Scott Townsend Show YouTube channel, listen on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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