The Ready State Podcast

TJ Cooper has been a lead trainer in tactical topics since 1987 and recently retired in 2016 after 34 years of continuous service. He still serves as a Lead Trainer for the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and now works for the University of North Florida Police Department as a Police Officer leading the Training division. TJ teaches civilian, law enforcement and military agencies on demand. As a lead tactical trainer, he continually trains, attends and teaches high liability topics in criminal justice academies, colleges and training forums. TJ opened the second ever affiliate, CrossFit East, and was really the first to bring CrossFit to the tactical community with amazing results. In this episode we learn about how TJ got into CrossFit, how he has grown the community spirit CrossFit by creating the CrossFit East Family, and how CrossFit is a necessary skill set that can be applied in life and death situations.   For more info on TJ, check out his website here, or follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

We are kicking off this season with one of the best and most beloved CrossFit Games athletes of all time. Jason Khalipa has competed in the CrossFit Games on 8 separate occasions - as an individual for 7 consecutive years, and wrapping up an 8th year as a team competitor. Throughout his CrossFit Games career, Jason has only placed outside the Top 10 once, has won every Regional competition he has participated in, and he won the Spirit of the Games award in 2009. Not only has Jason held all podium positions at the world championships, but he was also named to Team USA 3 times. Jason opened his gym in 2008 after winning 1st place in his first CrossFit Games appearance and 11 years later has expanded to over 20 locations. Jason and his wife Ashley live in Los Gatos with their 2 children Kaden and Ava. Ava’s 2016 leukemia diagnosis has led them into a life of philanthropy with the intention of supporting other families faced with the same adversity.   For more info on Jason, check out his website and podcast here, follow him on Instagram, and definitely learn more about the Khalipa’s non-profit, Ava’s Kitchen.

Season 4 of The Ready State is a "Where are they now" of early CrossFit. Juliet and Kelly are coming up on 15 years of CrossFit affiliation and a lot has changed over the years. CrossFit literally revolutionized how we think about fitness and the limits of human performance. Its innovative training style, combined with a focus on community, completely upended the fitness industry. It has led to the creation of thousands of companies that support CrossFit affiliates and athletes, and has produced countless thought leaders. With more than 15,000 current affiliates, it is arguably responsible for creating the boutique fitness industry as we know it today. This season we talk to some of the earliest affiliates, Games athletes, and SMEs that helped shape this movement to find out their CrossFit origin stories, how the journey as been, and what they are doing now.

Nic Gill has been the head strength and conditioning coach for the New Zealand All Blacks for the last 11 years, a time of great international success including World Cup titles in 2011 and 2015. In addition, Nic is a wellness and fitness consultant to numerous international corporations as well as a limited number of individuals. He continues to refine his philosophy through research at the University of Waikato. Nic recently released his first book, Health Your Self, that aims to give practical knowledge to enable readers to build their own health and fitness plan. We talk with Nic about fitness, nutrition, and simple tweaks that are both reasonable and effective at improving health and wellbeing, all through the lens of raising healthy kids.   For more information on Nic, check out his website, blog, and follow him on Instagram.

Katie Wells is the founder of WellnessMama.com, an online resource for women and moms (and dads!) who want to live healthier lives. Katie works with a team of researchers and medical advisors with the goal of making every post a simple answer to a single question. In this conversation we get tons of practical advice on raising kids with a focus on prioritizing nutrition, sleep, and bringing healthy habits into our homes. We were blown away with the system that Katie has created in her own home and the amount of responsibility that all kids can and should handle to become truly valuable members of the team we call family.   For more info on Katie, check out WellnessMama.com, her podcast, or follow her on Instagram.

In this engaging discussion, Dr. Mark Benden, an expert in environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M, shares his research on the impacts of sedentary lifestyles in children. He emphasizes the alarming rise in childhood obesity and chronic diseases linked to inactivity. Mark advocates for standing desks in schools and offers practical advice for parents to combat these trends. He highlights the importance of integrating movement into daily routines and provides innovative solutions to help children balance screen time with active play.

Gray Cook is a physical therapist, lecturer, author, and instructor. He founded Functional Movement Systems which promotes the concept of movement screening and assessment. Gray has been a seminal figure in how we think about and quantify movement, and how we communicate the language of movement. We get into the state of children's health and what's missing from global agreement about movement after a child passes the 21 month old mark. We also get some great takeaways about free play and how a half foam roller can change everything.   For more information on Gray and Functional Movement Systems, check out his website, the FMS website, or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Dr. Stacy Sims is an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist specializing in sex differences in response to exercise heat stress, recovery, and nutritional adaptations for health, body composition, and maximizing performance. She authored one of Juliet's all time favorite health and fitness books, Roar, which is a comprehensive guide to nutrition and training designed especially for women. We talk about all our favorite topics as they relate to kids and really start to get an understanding of why kids aren't just little adults and how girls and boys are inherently different.   For more info on Stacy, follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Dr. Jose Greenspon is a board certified pediatric surgeon with a special interest in metabolic disorders, obesity, and bariatric surgery. He gives us a thorough and rather shocking state of the childhood and adult obesity epidemic, as well as a ton of practical takeaway advice for all families. We also get into the specifics of TeenLIFT, a multidisciplinary adolescent weight management program that was carefully designed to increase the likelihood of compliance, success, and long-term sustainability. Additionally, we put the fructose debate to bed once and for all.   For more information on TeenLift, visit their website or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

John O'Sullivan is the founder of Changing the Game Project, whose mission is to ensure that we return youth sports to our children by providing the resources needed to make sports a healthy, positive, and rewarding experience for kids. After two decades playing and coaching soccer, John is an expert at training high-performing athletes by creating player-centered environments. He is also the best selling author of both Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes, and Giving Youth Sports Back to our Kids and Is it Wise to Specialize? John offers some really practical advice on how parents and coaches can help bring the fun back into youth sports.   For more about John and Changing the Game Project, visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.