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The Shark Bite Show Episode 27: Adam and Dez Muir on 352 Fitness and the Gainesville Wild

Nick 
Welcome to the shark bite show. We dive into the stories of our members, coaches, friends, and fam; welcome to the shark bite Show. Today I am here with Adam and Dez mirror. A couple runs a fitness center called 352 Fitness; there is the 352 up in Gainesville, Florida. They’re also coaches and players on a team in the Florida grand League, the Gainesville wild; they’ve been friends for a couple of years, and we’re going to dive into a whole host of stuff. So guys, thank you very much for doing this. Yeah, thank you.

Adam 
Thanks for having us.

Nick 
Yeah, no problem. So let’s start with the two of you talking more than me? Who are you guys? What are your backgrounds? Does? Let’s have you go first.

Dez 
Okay, I started CrossFit when I was about to turn 30. And I was like, oh, no, I’m not in shape anymore. Like I used to be in college. So I need to find something. So I moved to Florida to work at the University of Florida, and just looked at the local CrossFit gyms and started, and I had no idea that CrossFit was even a competitive thing. I thought it was just, you know, a regimen to the usual body workout. And I instantly fell in love with it, and then later, I learned that there was this whole other group of people who are actually going across it like I thought I was like, good at CrossFit, right? Because I started to get a deadlift PR every week, and you’re like, I can do a pull-up now. And that’s, like, some people are actually good at CrossFit. But that was just sort of a very, like, it’s a very humbling thing. When you start to stay in, you’re like, oh, yeah, like we killed it. And you’re like, but it’s cool, but it’s for everybody, and I am talking too much.

Nick 
You’re gonna talk a lot.

Dez 
I’ve been doing CrossFit since 2013. 2013 and then we met at that gym, and then we started this gym. It’s been a fun process. I switched from wanting to be more of a competitive athlete, and he did the opposite. So he’s your partner.

Adam 
So I started in 2011. I grew up in Gainesville. I was at UF. I happenstance had someone tell me about CrossFit. And when I was working at a restaurant, I said, ” Oh, this is an awesome group fitness thing. I’m like, okay, group fitness. Yeah. And then I remember specifically, one night, I was at work, and ESPN was on the CrossFit Games came on, and I saw that, before I saw the titles, what the hell is this, like, I want to do this. And it was very big, please, Chris Spealler pushing the dog sled. I remember it down the tennis stadium. And the name came up, I was like, Ah, dang. So went out and signed up. So I got into it. As a competitor, someone you know, I played sports all my life growing up. So something that I want to do is a competitive outlet. So we got I got into more with that. Then, as time went on, you know, I started to coach. I was in college, so it was easy to transition to that coaching role. And as I grew into the sport and kind of learn the ins and outs of running a gym, or what I thought were the ins and outs of running a gym at the time, I had no idea. You know, I decided to change my career path. So I was on the path to doing EMT firefighting and all that good stuff. And then in 2014, like I said, it was, you know, decided to take the leap of faith, and we started the affiliate, and we haven’t looked back since. So it was awesome. It’s really changed my life. And, you know, where I thought it would be over the last six years, seven years of it now. And it’s been great. So I started like I said, like that said, as a competitive side, I did once one match of grid. So well, I’m definitely, you know, I enjoyed just for the training more, and now it’s just a daily trying to be a daily part of my life. But you know, in and out, try to work out at least every day or every other day, you know,

Nick 
and that was gonna be my next question. You both just talked about how you decided to open up the gym? How do you make fitness a priority for yourself? So you’re both very busy people.

Adam 
That’s, that’s tough. So for me, it’s, I want to lead by example. So I try to fit in workouts when I can; the members always make fun of me because I say they never see me working out. Because I’m using coaching or so. I’ll usually try to get it in the mid-afternoon. Lately, we’ve I’ve been going swimming early in the morning, so that’s been nice. And then just, you know, hopping in a club, so often. And that’s pretty much it. But, you know, for her, it’s a little more intense, I guess, to say,

Dez 
We have a little more structure; we both have a personal trainer; Kyle Ruth is our trainer from Training Think Tank. So I have usually programmed an hour to two hours of work. So I usually have to go to work before I go to my job. So I come here in the morning; I’m a morning workout person, for sure. Especially since I’m not from Florida. I’m from Pennsylvania. So once it starts getting hot, I’m like, I’m out like, I’m a fair weather exerciser, I needed to not be 110 degrees. So the morning is a great option for that. The sun’s not up yet. We’re not roasting. So I typically work out before work. And then I go to work. And then, if I have a nighttime session, I do that at night. Again, when the sun is down and my fans are on.

Nick 
Yeah, that’s gonna talk about your job. But we’re not talking about it because I’m gonna spend a lot of time on that. What do you guys offer at your gym? Because it’s not like a normal 24 hours tile. Here are some machines that can talk to me about three-five teeth crossing through.

Adam 
So we offer a few different things. Our main focus is definitely across the group bosses. That’s our bread and butter. That’s where we started. That’s where I learned to love fitness was teaching those classes. So it’s definitely something that we like to focus on. You know, caution is very hot constantly, I can’t remember. If you remember it. The pause concept of very high-intensity functional fitness is definitely a quiz later. Yeah. Yeah, no, I definitely believe in it. And like Devin said, I believe that, you know, functional fitness is really for everyone. Whether you’re looking to be a competitor or whether you’re looking to just stay fit. It’s all dependent on one of your level one second-year goals. And third, who are your coaches, r? If you go into a gym, and they’re just on their phone, not paying attention, and the quality of coaching is not there, then you’re not going to get what you’ve come to get from that gym. It’s very important to have a high-quality coach and coaches that just want to care and pay attention to you. So long story short, we offer group classes. We do some personal training and some remote coaching. And then, does the HSN nutrition work with our clients?

Nick 
Cool. Yeah. So personally, I do personal training and disinfecting remote coaching as well. Right? Yep. So I think that’s talking about this a little bit the before the episode. But, like in 2020, we obviously were shut down because of COVID. And people were from all over the world; Florida for us wasn’t shut down nearly as long as it was probably for most people not in our state. Right. How did you guys handle that situation? Because I think that’s kind of where personal training came from. Right?

Adam 
Yeah. So I mean, we saw the writing on the wall; we knew there would be a shutdown. Just as you know, most of us knew that there was going to be something happening. So the first thing we did was we prepared to just lend out our equipment to our members; we had a signup list, and we would have them come in either to the gym; we ended up adding actually doing another house just so we could avoid issues with the city. But they come one at a time, have their scheduled appointment, pick up some equipment they want for the week, and then go on to work and bring it back the following week. So that’s kind of what we did, like online classes. So that’s kind of where we brought the gym to the members. Then also started our Valkyrie programming, which was remote coaching. She and I have been with Kyle Ruth for at least a year. So we kind of knew what it was like to be coached remotely. In fact, we’ve never met Kyle in person. So, you know, the whole relationship between us has been remote. So I felt comfortable. I got my OPEX certification during the quarantine, which was a huge help. No one really showed me how to program and handle remote athletes. OPEX did a great job of shifting their educational stuff towards more small stuff. Especially since it’s COVID, they, you know, they took down the requirements of having in-person or in-person clients to doing it all remote, so that helped me a lot kind of launched me into the remote coaching program, and then we’ve certainly grown tried to grow it from there. We’ve got a few of our great athletes doing it. You know, I’ve got some people in Oregon trying to think where else a lot all over Florida Orlando’s a big one. So that’s kind of where that came from was then needed to continue during a pandemic and a very easy transition to something.

Dez 
he really likes launched in action when they shut us down. And it was really cool to see. So he said, like, we love the equipment out. But it wasn’t that simple. Like he organized it into packages. So if you’re doing if you want to focus on the Bodyweight Workouts this week, take home these parallettes, this ad bat, and the wall ball, and then if you want to do the work via weightlifting workout, take them a barbell, and these plates are, and then there’s the kettlebell package. So it was really organized, and they would log on and do their zoom class and then come straight out equipment, they’d had to, you know, schedule a time, and our garage was kind of like fitness prohibition during COVID just sort of, like, come with their little stuff swapped out, and we’re like, didn’t see you like didn’t see you either. So that was pretty cool. And I think it kept people some hope that there would be l, like, some normalcy coming soon. Not just sitting at home, like I have my kettlebell. Great. I guess I’ll just, like, you know, do 100 snatches.

Nick 
Well, Adams, did you still do your training?

Adam
Yeah, yes. Such service. Yeah. And it’s been, it’s been kind of taken off, not, it’s not crazy. I’m kind of kept; I think I’m at a dozen clients now. So kind of is a lot for me to handle between the personal training here and the coaching, you know, I coach about half the classes at the gym. So I’ve got a pretty full plate. Eventually, I’d love to grow the program more, but I am just out of the possibility.

Nick
Who would be an ideal client for that? Right? If I was looking into getting into fitness, what would make me think that Valkyrie or remote coaching would be good.

Adam 
for me. I mean, I would say the ideal client is someone who really wants to take their fitness to their control. And not a newbie, put it that way, if you first stepped into a CrossFit gym, if you’ve never had any kind of coaching is definitely doable, but it’s going to be a lot; there are a lot more obstacles that come along with it. And you’ve coached, you know that the hands-on aspect of coaching in person is a big deal, right? You can help people show tactile, visual, and verbal cues; they all work together simultaneously versus online. It’s pretty much, I mean, you can do some visual cues and send them videos, but it’s all pretty much like, hey, try to fix this. Just tell them in a paragraph or so. You don’t get any you don’t get instant feedback. That’s the thing, not for the week, I can see the videos they submit and the results and everything, but I don’t get to be their one-on-one with them. So having someone with little experience in the sport or doing CrossFit is ideal for them. And if they have a home gym or home gym, it’s much easier. Way easier.

Nick 
So your remote training ly more of your intermediate athletes, right? Intermediate or advanced athletes? What if you were a brand new person? How would they use 352?

Adam 
So we would actually have someone that just signed on, we take you through a process, do some workouts, and submit the videos. And from there, we start working on small goals that will be very elementary-style goals of just getting the positioning in the lifts. Most of it will be bodyweight if they’re brand new odds are they don’t have a full setup of a barbell, you know, the ability to do the Olympic weightlifting. So we’re going to work on bodyweight stuff, mechanics. Functionality first, obviously; as you know, proper squat technique will take you much further than just loading up a bar and doing what you think is the squat.

Dez 
Probably like the benefits of the group classes are so much bigger for a new person coming in. Yeah, that we would always, even if they came in the door saying like I’m in, I want personal training, I think we would always try to steer them towards the direction of the group classes just because we all had that. That experience of being a new crossfitter and new person new to this in the group setting is just what gets you, and it’s what makes you want to stay, and then you want to work on your goals from there. But I think missing out on that dynamic would be like we’d be doing them a disservice to not at least let them know that there is another aspect of this that you might love. Even if you’re a little shy or nervous about working out with people, you overcome what I think in the first class. So

Nick 
yeah, that’s a good feeling. So what do you guys do to help? If I’m a brand new version? I’ve walked into your gym? What do you do to help people overcome that shyness and that fear to get them comfortable in those group classes? This episode is brought to you by punch gunk. Punch gunk is a pain relief and anti-inflammatory rub. You put it on your muscles and joints; you’ll feel much better if you use it. I know that a couple weeks ago, I had my back was killing me from a deadlift workout couldn’t bend over without strong discomfort. One of the players convinced me to use them rather than on my back. 15 minutes later, I was doing muscle ups and snatches with no pain at all. I absolutely could not believe it, but it’s true. They’re a supporter of the podcast now. If you want to try it out, go to punchgunk.com and use code sharks 10. You’ll get a discount. This stuff is amazing. It’s all over my gym. Now the South Florida sharks and Florida Grid League use it. Big, big, a big supporter of it. Now. Check it out at punchgunk.com. Use code sharks 10 for a discount.

Adam 
That’s tough. I mean, it depends on the person; I think you really have to be social, just making them feel accepted as the first part,

Dez 
there’s usually at least one dog that launches here.  We’re a very dog-friendly gym.

Nick 
Dogs make everybody feel more comfortable. As always,

Adam 
I don’t know if you’ve seen our Instagram, but we routinely have a dog running on the assault runner just himself and start running and enjoys not.

Dez 
our dog, our dogs. Not very fun.

Adam 
But back to the question. Yeah, if someone walks in, no, we’re gonna might; my goal is to immediately make them feel as comfortable as possible. So they’ll kind of started hanging out with them, asking them questions like, were they from? What’s the career? What are their interests? Why? Why did they want to start CrossFit and kind of go from there? Introducing them to a few people will always have an icebreaker at the beginning of class. If it’s a stupid icebreaker, it makes it even easier for people to feel more comfortable. It’s always fun. So that’s what gets them feeling like a part of the team. And then honestly, if they come in on a what, like a Saturday, we’ll do a group workout. And just giving them that personal connection with someone as a team seems to help a lot more. And I know, like personally, when I first started, I started in foundations like one-on-one. And I just felt more comfortable with that coach going forward. So I’d go to her classes. And then, you know, I learned the other coaches, I’d meet them, and then I’d start branching out to their classes. So if you can get that one or two people, that will give them the confidence to say, Okay, well, I like this coach, I’m gonna try to come to all their classes. And I see this person is in the class, they were my first partner, then I’m gonna try to come to that class with them. And just makes it a little bit easier for them to stay on.

Dez 
Trying to like match them up. Because you almost always can integrate somebody up, even if they’re brand new, you can sort of match them up. Even if it’s just height-wise, using the same barbell on the rack, you can usually start matching people up pretty well. And I think that’s a good way to get them back there. Because that person will be asking them when they’re coming back, you kind of gets that team-like camaraderie right in the beginning. And then you can see as a new person like, okay, like, I’m scared, but they’re doing it and kind of like watching what they’re doing. And then you know, this isn’t like a global jump, there are no mirrors, but there’s like other humans to look at, where you can watch what other people’s movements look like, and sort of gain some confidence that way.

Nick 
Yeah, do you guys remember that feeling like trying to think back long ago when you were the brand new person in the class, and you’re like, What am I? WhattWhat doing? What is what is that? Who? What is this movement everyone’s talking about? I just was teaching a beginner this morning. Because we started everybody in like one on ones, right? I was just teaching a beginner this morning or the last everyone one on ones before you went to class. And I was telling her a bunch of things. I’m like, Look, if you don’t remember this, it’s not that big a deal.
Just look at the person in the front of the room. They’re gonna smile at you. They’re gonna show you how to do it. Like you’ll be alright. And she was like, Oh, thank god. Yeah, I remember. Yeah, me too. I remember getting partnered up with somebody. When I first found CrossFit, I was, and I was still in the army. And I looked fit, but I wasn’t fit at all. So part of me of somebody was like, world’s better than me, and he wrecked my day. That’s awesome. Okay, so do I know? You guys said you have personal training. You have group CrossFit classes. We have distance training. Do you run a nutrition program? Right? Yes, I do. Yeah. Talking about what’s it called?

Dez 
It’s 315 nutrition as

Nick
a trend there. Okay, cool. That’s it.

Dez 
And yeah, it sort of sprung out of me just looking where it was. I was doing CrossFit. I’ve been doing CrossFit for five years, and I had been seeing a lot of positive changes, and then all of a sudden, like five years in, I plateaued, and like I plateaued hard, like, I was not getting better. I was like, you know, I have spent five years exercising on a bad diet, and I really liked that. But it stopped. It was like, obviously, you were 35. Like, get your shit started. It was really, everyone sorts of when you start CrossFit, they’re like, oh, like do paleo, or at least that was back then it was like, You got to try paleo and then you got to try macro counting. So I sort of went through the gamut of all the fad diets you could try. Um, I, you know, I stuck with counting macros. And I was doing that on my own, which is not having the accountability of someone to send my numbers to or to check in with. And I knew I was not doing a great service by fitting things in my macros at night. And I just had no sort of consistency with my diet. So I started looking into getting a nutrition coach, and I got one, and I instantly felt I’m just sort of a checklist person. So I felt like I had, like, I had a duty to check in with her. And that really helped me right away. And I just had such a great experience from that, knowing that she would be thinking about what I was about to eat, you know what I mean? Like, just, I didn’t want to let her down. So I stuck with my diet, and I saw a lot of positive changes. And then, I started taking online coaching. And I got, like, certified by NASM to be a nutrition coach, which only took a few weeks, that was during COVID, too. And I just it’s one of the I love learning, and I love being a perpetual student, and just one of those things where you start learning and then you’re like, Oh, my God, I don’t know anything. And then you like to learn a little bit more.
You’re like, Oh, my God, I don’t know anything. You just learn a little bit about how much you don’t know every day. And it’s just like this, never-ending. But I think the good thing is that process sort of really translates well to nutrition clients who are also just trying to figure out what to eat and trying to figure out what to do. And I can’t answer it just by being open with my nutrition clients when they have questions. The nice thing about working with HSM is, you know, I have a registered dietician that I can ask right now, and we can work this out together if I don’t know something. But I think I just like having the accountability of now I have the accountability of nutrition clients looking up to me. So I think that’s like extra, not pressure. But just like, I want to make them, you know, proud of me. So now I have not just one coach; I have like 20 people who will notice if I’m kind of like falling off. So I have that.

Nick 
added pressure and accountability there. So since you guys didn’t have that for a long time, now you do, right? Why do you think it’s important for people to participate in nutrition coaching? Because we do the same thing? We didn’t use to have one, and then we created a program? What did you guys learn from that? How does that help your members?

Dez 
Yeah, I can just see. I mean, I like it when we sit down, and kind of establish our goals; I just, everybody’s goal is usually performance based when they come to me because it’s all members from the gym so far that I have. So you know, we can always improve and work on something you want to improve in the gym if you clean up your diet. And I think many people didn’t realize they weren’t drinking, like any water all day, that you don’t realize you’re not doing because you’re not writing it down or checking in with anyone. But a lot of the performance-based goals are improved by just improving nutrition. Like, if you’re not eating any vegetables, we need to adjust that. And it’s just, many people are coming to Jesus moment and saying, Okay, here’s what I ate today. And it’s very not it’s not enough food, usually. And I think as soon as people start fueling themselves properly, they can reach their goals here. And they’re just overall just so much happier. Not to mention the like body composition changes that always come with it. I think everybody’s doing much better with reaching their performance goals, which is my ultimate goal. Really?

Nick
Yeah, that’s when we started our program. I got to have similar moments that do. I was like, man, I’ve been working out a lot. And I’m not getting in better shape; what’s happening in your day. And so we tested out the program behind the scenes, and I was one of the test dummies, you know. And that was like the year before I started playing grid. Anda pretty drastic change next year just from eating a little bit better than drinking a little more water. So we were like, okay, this has to be like a foundation of what we do now because if I’m only taking it seriously, we can make some significant changes with people. Yeah. Okay, so this is my personal most important question on this entire goal, right? Yes, you are a top-tier Instagram follower. Oh, dude. Instagram is filled with unhappiness, and your account is guaranteed to make me laugh at least once daily, right. So what is your exact job title? I don’t want to say the wrong thing.

Dez 
Okay, I’m a zoological medicine veterinary technician.

Nick 
Okay, so for anyone who doesn’t have a degree in that and doesn’t understand what those words mean. Worked with animals all day, but not like yeah, not like dogs and cats like other cool things, like reptiles generally.

Dez 
A lot of reptiles because it’s Florida. So we take care of them, birds and reptiles, but people have exotic pets.

Nick 
You see, a bunny is an exotic pet.

Dez 
That’s because the cat and dog, like if you go to a small animal hospital, don’t typically see rabbits. They only see cats and dogs, and so many cats and dogs can’t see, so we have rabbits.

Nick 
someone’s bringing in their pet alligator, and then someone’s bringing in their rabbit, and these don’t seem the same.

Dez 
And sometimes someone’s bringing in their pet rat. This is one of the things I don’t know if I can say; sometimes someone brings in their pet rat, but then I also need to thaw a frozen rat to feed to an eagle and the same. Oh my god, I wash my hands a lot.

Nick 
What is what is yours? What’s your favorite part about that job? And is it as much fun as it looks because your social media makes it look very funny?

Dez 
I will tell you that it is a lot of fun. I will not lie and say that it’s like not hard at times. And I will also say that I started my Instagram. I don’t know when I started Instagram, but I was late in Instagram life. Like I was, I was already 30. Something, so it was already like, is it just too late for me? Should I live without this, I sort of like to use it as an outlet to do my stories. It’s like an Alex. I have this constant dialogue in my head about what animals are saying. And I needed an outlet for it because I was gonna go nuts. So when I’m having a stressful day, and just like having a tortoise, you know, having a little conversation with itself, and you cheer me up, and I have an outlet for it now, and I’m glad people like watching it. So that’s my story.

Nick 
Yeah, I feel there’s a strong possibility that I will see like you said, a bird of prey staring at me angry or a random alligator foot? Yep. Awkward position. It’s fantastic. So okay, well, cool. Let’s get on to the thing that brought all of us together, right? Because I met you guys through the grid. Right? So the Florida grid League, YouTube, were the owners of the Gainesville wild that’s a team in the Florida grid League. Adam, you’re the head coach. And, like you said, a one-match player. Right? That wasn’t done. That was it? You are a player on the team, right? People already know my story. I’m a coach and a player, right but talking about yours. Like how did you get into the grid and the league in general?

Adam 
So I mean, I saw I knew what the grid League was Since Tony’s budding left, and they made the national progress league. And from my understanding, which is gone, I was like, Oh, that tank that sucks. Watch. And then one day, we actually had a member walk in, and she was somehow associated with the freaks she went to storms gym previously; I think they had a grid six team that she was part of. And she was telling me about it. Trials were happening at the same time. So I think we’re seeing it on Instagram. I was like, I was just cool. I was like, it’d be awesome to get a team in Gainesville. And she’s like, Oh, just call the commissioner, and he’ll get you a team, and I was like, all right. So I don’t even know how I got Mathers’s number I just got Mathers’s number, and I think either call them or text them, or something is like, yeah, so we don’t have a team. Like we can’t make a new team. But we have a team for sale, which was Jacksonville steel. Cool wrote that maybe we can rebrand next year; it was right before the season. So he said, ” Okay, well, you know, we got it all set up, is, here’s what you got to do. And he’s like, just so you know, Knight has to put a team of six minimum of 16 people together. Okay, how long do I have? He’s like six weeks.

Dez 
Yet the All right, not understand the assignment. Oh, no. We were very excited about the assignment. But we did not understand the assignment.

Adam 
So I contacted a couple of the old players from the steel that had played the previous season and was like, Hey, do you guys wanna play again? I think we got two people to say yes. And there’s layering. So I was like, alright, let’s learn this sport together. And then we just kind of pieced together what we could from the trials information and got together what we thought would be, you know, a competitive team like, oh, yeah, like these people do. Some ex-athletes do competitions, and they do pretty well in them. Like, we’ll be alright; I’ll be in every race. What could go wrong? That was not the case. These athletes are animals. So we quickly

Dez 
told me I was going to be a strength specialist. And I was like, I don’t know what that is. That sounds awesome. I think being strong took me like 25 seconds on Instagram to determine I would not, in fact, be a strength specialist.

Adam
Why didn’t you know I thought you would be

Nick 
for anyone who’s not seeing this right now, guys are tiny. She’s a very small person. There are not many strengths specialists her size.

Dez 
These women are strong, like Yeah, are not strong for women.

Adam 
strong. One of our current strengths specialists is a professional strongwoman. Yes, like, in that sense. So there’s that we rush to put together.

Dez 
a utility player. That’s the CrossFit one. That is

Adam 
interesting. Half the team fell apart halfway through the season. We ended up having the reason I explain because I think we had four guys in one match. And then I was like, alright, well, I guess I’m in. And then, the next match, we had even fewer, so we had to pick up random players, one of them now we have still on the team. San Martin Yeah. And then we just kind of limped our way through the first season. And then we rebranded as the Gainesville, wild and COVID hit, but at least I had a whole year almost to recruit. So that is kind of a bit of help. And we are the team we are now.

Nick 
Adam, have you ever been coming to you at the end of that first season?

Adam 
Yeah, you really; I’m sorry. That it gets better.

Nick 
Yeah, that’s; I may have said the sidebar, but I definitely said it gets better. Because, like, you guys, we’re a year late, you know, we were on our second season. And I was like watching you guys. And I’m like, Man, I remember that.

Adam 
I don’t think he broke double digits in a match for points.

Dez 
One time we finished a race. And we were celebrating as though we had won the whole thing. And the other team was like, Oh, do you understand? I don’t think they do

Adam
want to relay against the aces. First, in the first relay, we played the first match, and we lost every race if we hadn’t finished it and finished two aces. And then we won the relay. We finished. And we thought we were on touching on the whole thing. But it was fun.

Nick 
What? So that’s probably what makes this so cool, right? Because it’s fair to say you guys were not good then.

Dez 
Right? More than fair.

Nick 
Now, three seasons later, you’re on your second straight playoff appearance. Right? And you currently have the best record in the league. Like, what changed? Did you accomplish that?

Dez 
After that season, where we didn’t understand the assignment, I think he made it his mission to make sure the team he puts out there makes it very clear that he now understands the assignment. And I think recruiting online, getting the best players for the best positions, and putting people where they need to be.

Adam 
I think a lot of it was luck. So we had going back into 2020. Like I said, I had a whole year. So I started I instantly started recruiting as soon as the season the 2019 season was over. I was like, Never again, never again, all embarrassed that’s like that. So I started to recruit; I had a few interested people. And then the trials happened. And we ended up finding Blake. And that was a big signing because Blake led to a few other people who led to a few other people. So it was just kind of almost a referral-based program. So I didn’t have to go nearly as deep into the roster of the trials as I normally would. And again, we had some people come back, we ended up picking up Dan as our assistant coach, and he, you know, through him, and I met him through actually hit he’s worked with Kyle roots. So we kind of has that connection there. And he’s like, Oh, hey, I’ve got these, this guy on the AGL, who wants to play, which is the Atlantic grid league up north. And we just kind of piece together his team. And somehow, we all gelled; we just got together or got along well. And I think it came down to finding the right puzzle pieces for the team versus finding the best talent. And you can see that there’s not a lot, but some teams are full of studs, right? You gotta. Yeah, all the teams now are stupid and good. I would not have come back if we had played them in 2019. It would have been that. But yeah, I think everyone has said, like all the teams, it can be anyone’s race at this point. But I think the thing that pulls us through is we do have a team that is so cohesive. And if someone needs help, someone will always dig them out of trouble.

Dez 
And if someone’s better an in an element, and we find that out, though, you know, practicing and chatting with each other and online videos, no one gonna be like, that’s mine. You can’t have that, you know, that’s, I want to do that. We think that the overall understanding is that this is a team sport, and the individual will not win this for us at any point. I think really important for everyone to understand. And I think that’s helped us grow as a team and just as friends, just like you know what I practice; I’m not as good as you; you’re faster. Switch it up, and no, there are no hurt feelings. It’s like this is for the team. This is for all of us. This isn’t nobody’s showing off. Nobody’s, you know, getting their feelings hurt if they get swapped out. It’s just it’s for the team. And that’s, that’s where we need you at that moment. That’s where you go. Yeah, that’s really important.

Nick 
Well, you guys also have a very different thing from the rest of the teams. I think how many of your players live in Gainesville? Does and Tracy, There we go. Oh, yeah, right. Like that’s, that’s crazy impressive.

Dez 
work out together. We send each other constantly, sending each other videos like every day. It’s just 24/7, just sending each other. Here’s what I practice. What did you do? And I think having that, like starting that relationship with the remote coaching, like having all this experience with remote coaching, has really helped. But I think it also helps that everyone has the accountability to send in their videos and say, like, here’s where I’m at. But yeah, if we got to work out together, I can’t. I imagine that would be a huge help, but I don’t think we need it necessarily. But I think it’d be cool to work out with everybody.

Nick 
Yeah, I think that’s a massive advantage to the teams that, you know, live in the same city. That matters quite a bit. Because we’re not, we’re not nearly as spread out as you are. But we have players that are hours from each other. So getting together is pretty, pretty unrealistic most of the time, but you guys have, like, literally out of state. Yes. Yes,

Adam 
sir. Involved? Well, half the team. Yeah. A lot of times, they get to practice.

Nick 
That’s a good point. And do like textures and practices. Occasionally. Yeah.

Adam 
They’re already putting together a Texas, like, training camp. I think. Yeah.

Dez 
They’re also spread out in Texas. They’re not necessarily that’s not necessarily like super convenient for them, either. Because

Nick 
yeah, Texas is a gigantic state; you could be in the same state. It’d be like seven hours away from each other, right.

Dez 
But yeah, that is cool. But then when we do, if we can’t make it, we’ll just FaceTime in and join with the workouts and everything. So

Nick 
that’s that’s cool. I like, personally, coming from another coach Adam; I think that’s super impressive because I know how challenging it is to get players on the same team who like to work and work towards the same goal. Every once in a while, I yell at them in person. Like I couldn’t imagine how much more challenging that would be when you’re like only texting or calling or videoing and

Adam 
what’s nice is when we send in, or they send in videos, other like players, don’t hesitate to speak up and say hey, like, try this and see if this helps or you know, if watch that lockout, yeah, watch the lockout. That’s a lot; I got a lot of watches. But at least going in, you know, we have a few athletes or several athletes who have a great experience before the Florida grid League. So like, Laura Braun, she was on a team, which was Phoenix. I think she was on the Phoenix team; Julie Reiter would play for the surge. RJ Hibbard was trying out for one of the teams; I can’t recall which one. Blake wanted to try out for one of the teams. So we did have people with great experience in their pockets. And that definitely helps get them acclimated to the sport. And then the knowing some of the elements of the sport like double touches, triple touches, transition transitions. Yeah, that’s the base thing. And you know, from coaches, your transitions as the sharks are impeccable. Yeah. Like,

Dez 
we talked about that a lot. Yeah, we, I feel like if we

Adam 
talked about, like you said, the thrust transition you had in the last race? Yeah, that’d be the smoothest thing I’ve ever seen. And I will not be impressed by that flipper. Performance. You thought it was so smart. No one knew what to do. Were like, Wait, is it happening? Maybe they can do that. Even Mather, the commissioner, was sitting there like, I don’t know why.

Dez 
No one had thought of that yet. No one had thought of that. Yeah. Cuz they were all like, we’re stopped this. Keep going.

Adam
So for those who weren’t there, Nick, just explain what your thought process was. Because it was so fantastic.

Nick
So well, here is some background. I remember having a conversation with Mather long ago; I had been asking him how the waterfall came about, right? You know, and for anyone who doesn’t know, I’m talking about water falling when two athletes are doing, say,
 toes, the bar next to each other. One person goes forward, and one person goes backward. And you can actually get like two reps in, like, half the time.

Adam 
reversed. I’m sure there’s what’s that? Reversing, bro?

Nick 
Yeah, right, so instead of you going at the same time, you’re alternating, and you can get more reps because, effectively, only one portion of the movement counts as the movement or whatever, right? And he was telling me basically how that started. Because at the beginning of the grid, that wasn’t a thing. Right? Somebody was looking at the rules and was, ” Oh, like, ” based on the verbiage, this works. So they tried it, and the rest couldn’t tell him no, because of the rules, you know, so that’s stuck with me. And I would say that every season we’ve tried at least one thing where there’s been a couple we’ve done more than one where the rest are genuinely like, I have no idea if that’s allowed. And I g,o I easily got neither one of the commissioner matters nor one of the head risks. I’m like, heads up, we’re going to do this if you don’t tell me I can’t do it. And we’re rocking like a 50/50 success rate. The best part is generally the other coach flipping out as they’re like, I’m pretty sure that’s against the rules, but I’ve been out. So, in this echo, there was this thing called the flipper, which is like, A, how do you guys explain that it’s similar to a tire flip. But, you know, CrossFit is like big-

Dez 
big with the games.

Adam 
like a big square tire. It’s a rectangle fire.

Nick 
Yeah, a big it’s kind of like a coffin, like a big metal rectangle with weights on it, you know? And you flip it one way, then flip it back the other way. And we’re supposed to have a guy and a girl out there flipping, and it’s really heavy. So generally, it’s the guy doing most of the flipping, and then the girls helping out, like on occasional wraps around a change out. So we have a girl on our team named Jenna, who is, I mean, if it weren’t for you guys, I would say she’s up there as the strongest female in the league. As far as brute strength goes, we have somebody who demolishes that, but, like, She’s really strong. And we knew she could do more than the average girl could on this flipper. So we also realized that the rules did not disallow help. On the flipper, it just said only one athlete could be working at a time. But if you look at, like, bar changeouts on, like, snatches and cleans, I think the same thing that they said would stop us from being able to do what we did would probably stop you from, like, passing the bar, kind of like you guys said, like Julian Blake pass the bar to each other.

Dez 
Yeah. Yeah. Like you can’t fall back from Advil pull-ups.

Nick 
Yeah, right. Like that same thought process.

Dez 
But someone can hand it up.

Nick 
exactly that same thought process we thought should probably have allowed us to get away with what we did. So what we did was we had Jenna do about 80% of the lift. And then Francisco grabbed it and ripped it pasture. Yeah. And then we were what, like, 10 or 12 reps behind them? Yeah, yeah. And we caught up pretty fast.

Adam 
It was pretty close to you. I think you guys won that race.

Nick 
And nobody could, nobody could seem to tell who won. And that’s what caused the exceptional freakout, which is pretty funny.

Dez 
It was a shock.

Adam 
The entertainment value was-

Nick 
I went to another beforehand, and I’m like, Hey, I just want to clarify; I’m allowed to do this, right. And I was like, Yeah, because I laid out the same thought process I gave you guys. And then Jamie, the coach. Yeah, right. Jamie, the coach of lions, walked up. And I was like, now that we’re good, and I ran away. I did not want to let her hear anything.

Adam
That’s that strategy.

Dez 
Believe it, there was; it didn’t help here.

Nick 
You know, the handstand? The handstand. Oh, sorry. So long, long story short, it ended up not counting, and we got disqualified. I still kind of think it should count. Whatever. It was really fun. It should be right. I remember watching everybody freak out. And I could see the Fort Lauderdale players looking at us, crying, ” Well, why is that? Okay? And I just like looked away. And I’m like, I can’t let them see the smile on my favorite. A couple of years ago that you know, the handstand walks Jack and Joe. We saw. I’m not 100% certain, but I think we came up with how everybody does it now. Because we had practiced him behind the scenes. And nobody else was like them to run across together. One waiting on the other side. They tag the foot then they go. Nobody else is doing that yet. I think Taylor saw us doing that in practice. Yeah. And then the next match. They were doing it so that one worked. What the hell does not work. You’re right; the same thing. Whatever. So fair warning, refs, I’m going to try and break the rules next year; we’re going to do it every time. We’re going to try and come up with something.

Adam 
push the limits, I wouldn’t say break the rules.

Nick 
That’s a better way to put it. We’re going to attempt to not break the rules. So what do you do individually as coaches and players? What do you like about the grid?

Adam 
I enjoy the strategy as a coach. It’s not you, and I have talked about this before. I’m stressed leading up to the match, like the week before. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking, ” Oh, do I have this person in the right spot? That part’s horrible, but I love this strategy. This is basically a chess game. Do I have the right pieces in the right place? No. Can I counter this athlete with this athlete? So it’s a lot more of a mind game for me? Obviously, I’m not out on the floor. So once we start the race, it’s like I’m way less worried and less stressed. I’m like, I’ve done everything I can, you know, from here, if I need to, I’ll just do damage control. But Then, I went back and watched the race and the athletes perform. So that’s definitely the fun part for me, just making the gamesmanship of ensuring I have everyone in the right spot.

Dez 
For you raise your pawns? Yeah. Thank you. I played in every race in the first season, the year we did not understand the assignment. And I did not enjoy it at all. Because I wasn’t doing a very good job because I wasn’t I was not prepared for all the things I was supposed to be doing. But I think as we started to understand the sport and started doing our homework, and now so the people, these people in 2019, wouldn’t have recognized to even say to you, Nick, well, your transitions are amazing, like, we wouldn’t have known that was even a thing. It would look like a blur of people we didn’t know; we couldn’t even focus on what was happening. But now that we’ve been studying it for so long, we can see exactly where you make changes and where other people make transitions where we can speed things up. So I think I’m just a person that likes learning. So I think learning about this is that it’s never gonna stop because you’re never gonna stop trying weird things. And everyone’s gonna keep doing, you know, pushing the limits and getting better things like, Oh, you think you’re the fastest at whatever triple touches, this person’s faster, just finding different ways. So I think I also sort of thrive at being in the middle and helping, like from behind the scenes, like I don’t want to be, I’m not a strength specialist, it turns out, so I like being I do like being utility player. But if you had told me that in 2019, I would have been like, oh, that sounds like I’m just gonna be doing burpees. And you know what, I’m just doing burpees. But I like burpees. Now, because it’s helping get the next, you know, to help get Sam to do three rope climbs in nine seconds after I finished my stupid little burpees. So I do like being layered there to do some stuff so that the people who are really strong and those who are really climbing and really super talented will get to their next thing and be done before I can even catch my breath for my little burpees. But yeah, that’s the part I like about the team. That’s

Nick 
I like it, you say little burpees. What you don’t understand is that nobody else wants to do those. Like, you’re, you’re saving somebody from dying.

Dez 
Yeah, I like that. I’m better now. So I can actually like I feel useful. I like to feel useful. I don’t like to feel like, let me try this thing. I might fuck up everyone. I like to be like, I can do these really fast, and then they’ll be over, and then we can move on with our lives. And never think about them again. And it’s always Barbie some things. But that’s okay. Because that’s important because it’s part of the race. They’re not going anywhere. Burpees are not leaving anytime soon. So here we are.

Nick 
Sadly, this will actually be really answering the question for you. I think. So with the out-of-yoga dancer, this one has the change in match styles, right? Where they went from basically like two hours to one hour. And then like 11 races too, like, seven-ish, right? Obviously, all of our playing times have gone down, right? Yeah. How do you feel about that as a player?

Dez 
I feel again that I was so underprepared for the first season. I think that it’s more exciting. So if a grid wants us to become really like a spectator kind of sport, I think it’s way more exciting to have somebody doing a couple of things really fast, switching somebody out and coming back in. I don’t think anybody wants to watch someone doing 60 of something. So I think the speed of the new format is better for entertainment purposes. It’s definitely more fun. I do so much less now than I did in the first season that it’s hard to say if it’s because of that or because we have such a good team now. But my role is very small. Like I recovered almost instantly. I’m also in better shape, good, doesn’t it? But I also have not done every race. Like that’s never gonna happen again. So I do think it’s a better format. I think it is because it’s more entertaining. And I think that as far as it goes, the way that the whole match goes. Turns out, I think it is more fun for everyone, I think.

Nick 
So, even if your role is smaller, it’s more defined now. As a player, I enjoy that; I now know I enjoy knowing what I’m relied on for.

Dez 
right? Yeah, much less of a chance of you getting called back out to finish some, like 45 to 60 of whatever.

Nick 
I feel like Adam; what about us? So as a coach, how do you feel about

Adam 
that? I like it. I think it lets your specialist shine. You know, the mixed-gender actors, I think, have been a huge improvement. Uh, obviously, you know, you can’t rely on one gender. But, you know, some teams in the past have gotten away with having a strong women’s team. That was a great example of the championship team being made of really strong women. But now you can’t hide behind that. Now you have to have, you know, a really strong starting lineup, essentially, because you can’t just rely on your women to take both echoes and then take the triad. You know, there are six points for you right there. So it’s a little more inclusive of a more cohesive team. And like that said, that transitions having, again, the echos as an example, having 10 people, instead of five people available to do the work, you have so much more depth and speed, because now you guys said on one of your passes, instead of having three or four assignments, you have one, maybe two. So you’re gonna go out, you’re gonna hit it so much harder, just knowing that, okay, I’ve got 20 Pull Ups, or I’ve got 20 box overs, and I’m gonna go as hard as I can, I’m gonna get the get off the floor, so my next teammate can come on, so I can make the racism much more entertaining.

Nick
Yeah, I agree with that. We, we decided that it did not benefit us. But it was it does still make the sport better. Like, I enjoy it more that way.

Dez 
Is it because that’s not the format? Were you guys used to it? Kind of thing? Yeah,

Nick
yeah. Maybe you guys might have benefited a little bit from that. I mean, this is like not having been ingrained in that format. You know? Yeah, it was a little bit easier transition. Whereas we’re trying to break three-year-old habits, you know, four-year-old habits, five-year-old.

Dez 
habits. Yeah, that makes sense.

Nick 
But you know, that, like, kudos to you. That’s not a shot. That adaptation is what makes our sport. Great. So for sure. Okay, so you guys eliminated us a couple of weeks ago, you jerk, on the way to the playoffs? Right? We had a match against you. And then we played against Orlando afterward. And then you guys had a fantastic match against Tampa that we all watched was really fun to watch. You’re rolling into the playoffs tied with the SE bombs. You guys had the best record, right for now. What are your thoughts? Because on October 9, you’re gonna play possibly two more matches, and then maybe win a championship? What? What are your guy’s thoughts leading up to that?

Adam 
I mean, the job’s not done. We still got two matches, and then we can relax. But, I mean, if you watch that Tampa match, it was back and forth the whole match. I mean, for the first time, we went into a ladder, and I was like, I threw the flag. And I was like, oh, no, I should not have done that. And that’s the first time we’ve had that issue in the ladder. So that was concerning. And then we had a tide ringer point that I thought we were going to take, and I was like, Ooh, this is not how I planned the first half of this match. So, you know, we had to pull ourselves together add to add, you know, I went into it a little more relaxed, actually, honestly, it was one of the issues is, we’re already three. No, you know, the outcome of this race doesn’t really matter. So let’s go out. Let’s polish up the team and go from there. And then I guess, you know, I wanted it to go for now. I was like, Yeah, it’d be great. But I was like, we also don’t need to. So halfway through the match, I was like, What am I doing? I need to focus on this. And even one of my players said he’s like, what, like, we’re playing a really good team, this is a great chance for us to practice and for you to practice what it’s like playing against a really good team right now. So focus, I was like, You know what, you’re right.

Dez 
Yeah. Like it was like, Do you want to strategize against a team that might actually beat us? Because it’s about to happen? Yeah.

Adam 
So it was, it was a very close match. I think the only one of the only other teams that have given us that close of a match was the Poms because we played them twice in the tournament last year. And I believe both races came down to one or two points. And they’re duds this year. So I expect them to wait for us on the other side in the championship. So we’ll see what happens there. But we’re definitely not relaxed. We got to focus. We got two more races if we wanted to win. And it’s important, you know, we want to be, we feel like we should have won the tournament. You know, the lions have outperformed us. And we won’t let that happen again.

Nick 
Cool. I know I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be there. Not playing this time. But I’ll be spectating. I’ll be hanging out.

Adam 
your nomination right here for you. Yes.

Nick 
You’ll be about that. We’ll be about that. So podcasts, and I like to end them. They were talking about getting started on their fitness journey. What would you tell them?

Adam 
you just got to come in and meet us, you got to come in, step out of your comfort zone, be brave for 10 seconds, and then you’ll be fine. Right? It’s scary to start a new program; it’s scary to step into a room with, you know, anywhere between five to 10 people you don’t know. But I promise you, it’s gonna be one of the best things you’ve done, you’re gonna get in the best shape you’ve ever been in, you’re going to feel great, does, it’s gonna make you drink a lot of water. I’m so aligned with a lot; you’re gonna pee a lot. It’s mild life; now I would feel better; I do feel better. And you’re gonna make a lot of friends. So just come in and try us out. I promise we won’t let you down. And we’ll go from there. It’s the hardest.

Dez 
part is reaching out. So if you’ve already recognized that you want training, you’ve already recognized that you want to change something. That’s the biggest, that’s the hardest part. Honestly, not coming into the door, the fact that you reached out at all, whatever it wasn’t, email called us. So you kind of have to. I learned from HSN. I heard people saying before, like, you have to learn someone’s love language. And I was like, that doesn’t sound like that’s for me, I don’t, I’m not like that. Like, I don’t want to know what your love language is like; leave me alone. But actually, it doesn’t make sense to learn something. I wish it was called something else. But for someone’s love language, you’d have to know how to talk to somebody. So it doesn’t sound like you’re either talking at them or talking down to them. And you just have to, like, find out what they want. And then say we can do that and then explain it to them in the way they want to hear it and not say like, you need to work out because you know, we’re all getting older, we need to start working out like don’t just start saying facts to them. Just say, what are you looking for, and here’s how? Here’s how we can provide that for you. Kind of thing, and it’s not going to be the same. There’s not the same dialog for every person, for sure. That sort of boot camp mentality that works when the guys are working out together with the screaming like that doesn’t work on me. Like if I’m lifting, and he starts screaming about it. I’m like, I will go home like I can’t. So I think you just have to learn someone’s love language and then use it and know that this program is adaptive for everyone. So use it, as you know, way to evolve our program.

Nick 
Guys, anything else we’re gonna bring up? Nope. Cool. Thank you for your time. How would people find you on social media, your gym, or whatever?

Dez 
Do you go to 352fitness.com. Our Instagram is 352_Fitness_nutrition.

Adam  57:38
352_fitness.

Dez 
They’ll never find us because I don’t have to resort to fitness and nutrition. I hand out stickers because I am really bad at technology, and my Instagram stories are the depth of my internet skills.

Nick
What about the games? Oh, wow, that would they find your

Adam 
Gainesville Wild through the Florida Grid League or websites of fgl.com; you can find us there. Or you could do the Gainesville Wild on Instagram.

Nick 
Awesome. Guys, thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Alright. Thanks for hanging out with us today on the Shark Bite show. If you’d like to get a hold of us, you find us on Facebook or Instagram at Shark Bite fitness Nutrition or on our website at SharkBiteFitness.com. If you’d like to learn more about our guests, their information will be in the show notes. If you’d like to talk to us about getting more fit. Schedule a free no-sweat intro at one of our Cape Coral, Fort Myers, or Naples, Florida locations.

Check Adam and Dez Muir on these social links:

IG: @gainesvillewild @352_fitness_nutrition
Website: www.352fitness.com

Be sure to check out this episode of the #TheSharkBiteShow.

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