RUNGA Radio

This show focuses on teaching you how to develop the skills you’ll need to swing a heavy kettlebell safely and effectively. As a coach, I know that building up to a Hardstyle Kettlebell Swing takes practice and if you’re new to kettlebells, you’ll need to work on your breathing and on developing the sort of explosive hip power that will allow you to swing a heavy bell between your legs. To get you started, I share some techniques and practices that will help you prepare your body for the swing and, to keep you motivated, I set out some of the many benefits of swinging heavier weights. Support the show

Today, I talk to martial arts guru and fear management expert Tony Blauer about how to understand, control and confront our fears. As someone who’s trained professional fighters, military personnel, and law enforcement officers, Tony understands how to face fear. His personal defense program, the SPEAR System, teaches people how to protect themselves in the event of a physical threat and his KNOW FEAR program provides strategies for overcoming panic and anxiety through the development of a rational and resilient mindset. Our conversation revolves around the consequences of living in fear and Tony encourages us all to stop wasting our time worrying about things that might never happen. Instead, he invites us to reframe our relationship with fear and to think of it as a catalyst rather than an obstacle. We also discuss the crucial role that coaches can play in helping athletes to  overcome their pre-competition nerves and improve their performance.Support the show

This Friday Fitness Workout is a 20-minute EMOM (every minute on the minute) program that you can adapt to suit your fitness level and the equipment you have available. It consists of 10 sets of 10 Hardstyle Kettlebell Swings (that we’re going to do every other minute on the minute) and 10 sets of push-ups or chins-up (starting with 1 and building up to 10) that we’re going to do in the minute between the swings. This format is great for building strength and burning fat, and what’s more, it packs in a ton of density and enables you to get the work done in a relatively short period of time.Support the show

Joining me for the 100th episode of the show is Greg Scheinman, the host of The Midlife Male Podcast. As a committed family man with a successful professional career, Greg feels that he is finally starting to come into his own at the age of 47. Although he had to deal with tragedy and adversity in his younger years, Greg is excited about the future and he is on a mission to help other men successfully navigate middle age, improve their fitness and their finances, and achieve a better quality of life.We chat about fatherhood, friendship, the challenges of parenting in a pandemic, and the need for positive male role models and mentors. As someone who is keen to keep learning and evolving through midlife and beyond, Greg hopes that the informative interviews he conducts with entrepreneurs, innovators, and wellness experts will inspire his listeners and help them move forwards with their lives with a little more clarity, courage, and confidenceProudly Sponsored By:Quicksilver ScientificMy favorite fasting product that enables me to either fast for fewer hours, or not at all when I’m training hard, but still activate my fat burning mode and maximize by health and my fitness at the same time is called AMPK CHARGE.This liposomal, instantly-absorbed in the mouth formula combines some of the strongest AMPK nutraceuticals our there including quercetin, resveratrol, and berberine to catapult you into healthier, fasted state, regardless of how many hours it’s been since your last meal.Head on over to www.coachjoedi.com/AMPK to learn more and as always get a special discount.biOptimizersP3OM are probiotics that improve your digestion and nutrient absorption, helping ensure your digestive tract and immune system stay strong and healthy. In fact, the patented proteolytic probiotic is especially effective at breaking down animal proteins in the diet and is a transient probiotic that eliminates bad bacteria fast, eats up excess sugar, and protects your gut from inflammation and viruses.So if you’re ready to boost your immune system, have healthier digestion and burn the fat, head over to www.coachjoedi.com/P3OM to receive an exclusive discount!KionKion Aminos are a premium blend of essential amino acids in a convenient to consume form. Take 5 grams before a workout and enjoy a clean, low-calorie source of fuel, or after exercise for enhanced recovery and muscle protein synthesis.Find out more and get my discount at www.coachjoedi.com/kionaminos.Support the show

Welcome to my first ever audio Kettlebell Workout where I guide you through a Kettlebell Deadlift, a Hardstyle or Russian Kettlebell Swing, and the Humane Burpees Workout. We start with the deadlift (which is a great precursor to the swing) and move on to the swing before practicing the correct technique for the Goblet Squat and the Push-Up. Finally, we put the Hardstyle Swing, the Goblet Squat, and the Push-Up together in the Humane Burpees Workout which consists of descending reps (from 10-1) of Goblet Squats and Push-Ups with 10 (or 5) swings between each rep. I love this workout because it never gets old, it never gets easy, and you can push yourself as hard as you want. It’s a full-body exercise that builds strength and endurance, activates your core, mobilizes your hips, and raises your heart rate.  Support the show

In this super-informative episode, I’m joined by Dr. Emily Splichal. Dr. Emily is a podiatrist, a human movement specialist, and the founder of Naboso, a company whose proprioceptive insoles, yoga mats, and mobility balls are specifically designed to stimulate the hypersensitive nerves in the feet. As an expert in barefoot training and sensory movement, Emily’s mission is to help people move better and feel healthier by optimizing movement from the feet up.During our conversation, she explains how Naboso’s proprioceptive surfaces facilitate correct movement patterns and she describes how to build strength and stability in the feet. We also dive deep into the mind-body connection, examine the complex and little-known link between the emotions and the myofascial system, and explore the benefits of being barefoot. As a podiatrist, Dr. Emily recommends going barefoot wherever possible, choosing natural minimalist shoes over conventional footwear, and strengthening the feet with exercises rather than simply relying on orthotics.Proudly Sponsored By: Ancestral SupplementsTraditional peoples, the kind that would have been barefoot most of the time, out in the sun, moving all day, and doing ALL the things we biohackers are trying endlessly to figure out and find a way to PUT BACK into our modern existence, sensed intuitively, that eating the organs from a healthy animal would strengthen and support the health and longevity of them, their children, and their elders. In fact, they believed that like-supported-like and the eating fresh organs also corresponded to strengthen those organs of the individual. For instance, the traditional way of treating a person with a weak heart was to feed the person the heart of a healthy animal. Is it any surprise that HEART is the richest source of Co-Enzyme Q10, in a far more bioavailable form than those capsules in your kitchen cabinet? Similarly, eating the kidneys of a healthy animal was believed to support urinary ailments and overall kidney health... The pancreas was fed to people with digestive problems... and the spleen was fed to people with immune and blood deficiencies. And the list goes on. Our early ancestors KNEW these truths, which is why their traditional diets included the frequent and nourishing consumption of nose-to-tail organs that today are almost void from the diet.So please visit my good friends over at Ancestral Supplements at coachjoedi.com/ancestral to see what they can do for you - and put back in, what the modern world has left out! SaunaSpaceHundreds of studies now show sauna therapy to be one of the most effective ways to free yourself from the toxicity of modern living and extend your life and now that not many of us have space for a large, wood-burning Finnish barrel in our yard, SaunaSpace offers the only truly EMF-free sauna experience AND has pioneered the model I got with external EMF protection as well called, The Faraday.I have not looked back and have enjoyed my SaunaSpace sauna literally everyday since I got it, Emilia loves it too. So if you’re looking to add an EMF-free, ritual space for relieving stress and transforming your body and mind take a visit now to coachjoedi.com/saunaspaceSupport the show

This Friday, as a follow-up to my recent episode with Jim Crowell, I talk about my experiences as a coach, a gym owner, and the manager of a large fitness franchise. For the sake of the fitness professionals listening, I focus on the criteria I used to hire trainers and look into the reasons why some gyms succeed and others don’t. On a more general note, I make the case for a more heart-centered and holistic approach to health and caution against the tendency to confuse facts with truth.Sign up for my newsletter at coachjoedi.com/newsletter and receive 10% off all Thorne products!Support the show

This show focuses on the way forward for the fitness industry and my guest, Jim Crowell, the former CEO of OPEX Fitness turned independent adviser and business strategist, explains what coaches and gym owners need to do to survive and thrive in the current climate. Prior to his career in the fitness sector, Jim worked as a commodities trader for an energy hedge fund and his business acumen (along with his coaching credentials and experience of running his own gyms) makes him uniquely placed to provide some timely and much-needed advice about adapting and growing your fitness business in these changing times. As you’ll hear, Jim favors a proactive and pragmatic approach. He points out that sitting on your hands and just hoping that things will get back to normal isn’t an option. As an eternal optimist, he reminds fitness professionals that there are still opportunities to be had in the fitness industry if they are willing to make the necessary changes. We talk about creating successful strategies to scale both online and bricks and mortar businesses and we explore some of the metrics you’ll need to keep a close eye on to make sure your business is growing each month. Jim also shares details of some of the digital fitness companies he’s currently working with and explains how technology can be used to scale your business and make online coaching easier.Support the show

In this AMA, I’m excited to share details of my daily morning movement and breathing practice and talk you through the exercises in my e-book Breathe Better, Move Better, which you can download for free from the RUNGA website. This workout is a combination of strength and conditioning exercises, Kundalini yoga postures, and powerful breathwork practices that have the potential to improve mobility, reduce chronic pain, and turbo-charge your energy levels. The Breathe Better, Move Better flow unlocks stubborn stiffness and strengthens the connection between the emotional and physical body, facilitating the release of stagnant energy and deeply-stored emotions. I find that starting my mornings with this mindful and energizing practice helps me to make the best of the day ahead and I invite you to try it and see for yourself the positive difference that it can make to your life.Support the show

This week I’m joined by the legendary strength and conditioning coach Dan John. Dan is an All-American discus thrower who has also competed at the highest levels in Olympic Lifting and holds the American record in the Weight Pentathlon. Dan has spent many years training high-school and elite athletes and he has recently created the Workout Generator, an online exercise and coaching program that provides personalized workouts tailored to suit your individual requirements and resources. As well as his accomplishments as a coach and an athlete, Dan has written over forty books including one of my all-time favorites, Easy Strength, which he co-wrote with Pavel Tsatsouline. In this conversation, we talk about performance standards for at-home fitness and discuss how a degree of adversity can help us adapt and develop our training programs. Dan looks back over his career as a competitor and talks about his experience of coaching high school athletes and dealing with the expectations of their parents. He tells us how fitness training has changed over the past forty years and even shares details of his old-school 1974 training program. Support the show