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Restoration Beyond the Couch
The Beyond the Couch with Dr. Lee Long podcast is intended solely for general informational purposes and does not represent the practice of medicine, therapeutic and psychiatric services, nursing, or other professional health care services. It also does not constitute the provision of medical, therapeutic or psychiatric advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is established. The information on this podcast and any materials linked from it are used at the user's own risk. The content provided through this podcast should not be considered a replacement for professional medical, therapeutic, or psychiatric advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is important that users do not ignore or postpone seeking medical, therapeutic, or psychiatric advice for any health or mental health condition they might have, and should always consult with their health care professionals regarding such conditions.
Restoration Beyond the Couch
From Aeronautics to Athletics: The Engineering Mind in Fitness Transformation
Discover the inspiring journey of Lee Hargrave, the visionary founder of EnduraLab, as we uncover how a bet to run the Chicago Marathon transformed his life from aeronautical engineering at Lockheed to spearheading a holistic fitness revolution. Through Dr. Lee Long's engaging interview, you'll learn how Coach Hargraves analytical mind shaped his unique approach to wellness, blending physical and mental health strategies to overcome the challenges of entrepreneurial life. Get ready to be motivated by Hargraves story of resilience and his innovative methods for managing time and productivity amidst the unpredictable world of startup culture.
In this episode, we explore practical steps to build resilience, particularly for athletes dealing with burnout, injuries, and fatigue. By setting small, achievable goals, Coach Hargrave demonstrates how focusing on the process rather than daunting outcomes can lead to significant progress. From adjusting daily habits to leveraging community support, our conversation highlights the powerful impact of simple actions and relational connections on overall well-being. Tune in for invaluable insights into fostering healthy habits and future strategies for mental wellness that will keep you energized and motivated on your path to better health.
Want to know more about EnduraLAB's upcoming Longevity course? visit www.refertorestoration.com/longevity
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Welcome to Restoration Beyond the Couch, hosted by Dr Lee Long. In this episode, dr Long interviews Lee Hargrave, a former rocket scientist and founder of Endurilab. Since creating Endurilab in 2011, lee has applied an analytical approach to health and fitness, filling a void in the wellness industry. A passionate endurance athlete, lee has tackled marathons, trail runs and extreme endurance events. His dedication to service and creating a supportive community is evident in his work at EnduraLab, where he helps clients achieve their fitness goals. His dedication to service and creating a supportive community is evident in his work at Endura Lab, where he helps clients achieve their fitness goals. Join us as we explore Lee's journey from aerospace to fitness and his innovative approach to wellness, highlighting the connection between physical health and mental well-being. Your path to mental wellness starts here.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for being here with us, Lee.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the L squared moment. That's right, it's Lee Long and Lee Hargrave. Well, I'm really, really glad that you're here, because I think that there's such a deep connection between mental health and physical health and I think we're starting to become aware of that in our society, but I still think it's a little overlooked.
Speaker 3:No, I mean completely agree. I think that it's obviously something that we see a lot in the gym, but unless you know, people take that next step to actually go to the gym. Not going to see that, but yeah, yeah, Well, speaking of go to the gym, You're not going to see that, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, speaking of go to the gym, I was thinking about this in preparation for this moment and, man, we have known each other for more than 13 years, a long time, a long time. And the way for our listeners, by way of the way that we came to know one another, is I had never run longer than a 5K, maybe a 10K, I don't know if I was successful, and I decided I wanted to run an ultra marathon. Yeah, I mean, it's logical progression, very logical, and so I bought a pair of shoes that required a certain type of run form. They told me our run form was trash. They said it really nicely and they said call this guy because you really need help. And the rest is history. With what? Eight marathons, two ultra marathons and a host of half marathons. Yeah, so, uh, thanks for all that. Oh, you bet. So you? You were not, you have not always been a gym owner, a coach. You were a rocket scientist at one point. That's right. Tell us about that transition from rocket scientist to gym owner coach.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so aeronautical engineer by trade, but always kind of a runner or athlete. And I mean one day we're sitting down I think it's the mechanics at Lockheed will always tell you like hey, you know, the freshman 15 at college will just wait till your first year of working a profession long hours, fast food, you got money to blow. And they were right. I think that was my heaviest ever in my first year at Lockheed. And so it's like January and I I'm telling the guys downstairs I'm like you know what? I think I'm going to run a marathon. And so they start joking around there's no way you can run a marathon. And so a bet really changed the course of my profession Ran the Chicago Marathon in 2006 and kind of developed this love for endurance and pushing myself and just wanted to do training a little bit differently, and so that led to a lot of strength training.
Speaker 3:My wife was starting to want to train for a marathon, so I wanted to make sure she did it right and so just changed the way, brought back some of the old track and field stuff I did, learned as much as I could about the sport and requirements and opened up a gym called Enduro Lab.
Speaker 2:Sounds like fun. Yeah, it was fun. What's so interesting about all of that is that there's that thread of education, that thread of always wanting to stay on top of your game of education, that thread of always wanting to stay on top of your game and I think that's probably one of the reasons perhaps you and I hit it off so quickly is it's like when we see something we want, it's like there we go Right. Like you're going to run a marathon, everybody's like, yeah, no, how much did you win off that bet?
Speaker 3:I don't even remember.
Speaker 2:It was probably really cheap, it's probably like a hundred bucks or something. I think it was seed money for the gym.
Speaker 3:No, I wish that would have been a lot better.
Speaker 2:So what kind of challenges did you have you faced transitioning, or did you face transitioning from the aeronautical engineering into the physical health space?
Speaker 3:Well, I think you know, just transitioning from working for somebody to working for yourself probably the biggest structure, right. So I knew I was going at a certain time, I was clocking out at a certain time when I controlled that. It was very difficult. So being at home, being at the gym, trying to control my own schedule, that was hard. So I would do little tricks, like I would go to a coffee shop and not bring a computer charger right, so it would force me to be really efficient with my time, otherwise I would spend days wasting time. So that was probably the biggest jump.
Speaker 2:I like that hack. So when your computer dies, you're done.
Speaker 3:You only have a certain amount of time, so it gives you that timestamp or that time window. You have to really crunch A race against the battery. I like it. Yeah, so that's also how I transitioned from being a night owl to a morning person, because I used to think I was very creative at night and so I would stay up all night, because you really don't have a time where you have to stop until, like, you have to go to work the next day. But when I started changing that to the morning hey, I'm going to wake up early and I only have an hour to do my work I would be get a lot more work than I would in four hours at night so just little hacks like that than I would in four hours at night. So just little hacks like that.
Speaker 2:So you had these really cool hacks about transitioning as a gym owner. How did aeronautical engineering or did it influence how you train people?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm going to see athletes in a little bit different light, right. So I'm not classically trained in kinesiology but obviously I dove into it, but just seeing angles and lines and the way the body is supposed to move. And then I have this other trait called OCD that really helps me dig into when I see an athlete walk in, like what's, you know what's going on, so you know you might walk into the gym and you know this right, and I would be like lee, what's, what's up with the right leg? And then you would start telling me just, you know, just noticing really small things and how the body is supposed to move, and like what's preventing that from happening? So I think that would be a difference maker for sure. Angles torque, you know, I kind of understand all of that. So when I put that into a movement or you know, look at an athlete move I can tweak certain things that others might not think about, just to get the load where I want it, or the load out of some place that's causing pain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just to get the load where I want it or the load out of some place that's causing pain. Yeah, what would you say is the greatest benefit that you've seen to your athletes from your approach?
Speaker 3:Well I would say there's never been an injury. We couldn't work around, Right? I think also, athletes are going to you know more repetition, so they're in the gym more often. I can train them more frequently, so the volume of work grows, especially for, like, a young athlete, right? So if I see an athlete in high school, I always tell them I don't even care if I tell you to do something. If it doesn't feel right or it feels too heavy, I want you to stop, because the amount of times I can get you to do a lift, it's all about volume. So if I can get more volume into you over the course of four years, by the end of high school you're going to be a man amongst boys, right? So it's just repetitions.
Speaker 2:I love that because you're also blending a self-awareness for them to understand that proprioception of how their body kind of floats, if you will, in space and time and how it interacts with gravity, and I personally believe that there is such an interaction with that, also emotionally speaking, that do we understand where we emotionally are in space and time, as it also relates to our physical body, and so teaching them, giving them a category for that at a young age, and that's a really powerful tool that you're giving them on top of volume, right?
Speaker 3:I mean, an athlete at Enduro Lab should be able to coach a class after a year, because it is education. We're not holding back the secret sauce somewhere, right? So like when you come into the gym, I should be able to be like hey, lee, I'm really busy, can you run this class and you?
Speaker 2:can do it that would be fun. That's the next podcast lee long as a as a gym coach, how? How would you delineate the differences between EnduroLab and any other gyms out there?
Speaker 3:Well, there are a multitude of different gyms out there. Number one we're not a chain, all right. So we're very localized. So we pay close attention to our athletes and programming changes because of our athletes, right. So programming is controlled by one person, one person only.
Speaker 2:That would be myself, and so there's something I said about OCD earlier. I'm kidding.
Speaker 3:So if you go to a class you know you're going to get the same thing, no matter what time of day you come in. The coaches are very educated and they understand all the modifications for injuries and it's all based on progression. So there's no randomness. You know you go to like a lot of big box gyms or chains they're doing some kind of workout that they don't even know the purpose of. So our athletes know the purpose. There's testing, retesting, progressions. We're very intent behind the purpose of each workout and what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I would say being a member that I think is quite unique. I would say amen to all that I think is quite unique. I would say amen to all that, and I would also add that the beauty of being a member is there's never been a goal. Let me say it in the positive Every goal I've ever set, I've attained, and then some. Yeah, Every goal I've ever set I've attained, and then some. Um, even the goal of being ready for when my agent called for the uh, for the uh combine, I was ready, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're ready to go Now. The agent never called, but I was ready, you were ready, I was ready, I was ready, but I was ready, you're ready, I was ready, I was ready. But the other thing, other than you know, and I think that meeting goals is really important because, like you said, there is a component of learning at the gym you want to learn about you, you want to learn about the idea or the concept of proprioception and you may not use that term, or and I love that, especially with running, yeah, perfect.
Speaker 2:But, the and and and for our listeners that if you've never heard that term, it's really just understanding where your body is in, about your body, how it functions, how it moves, and setting a goal of the things that you want to improve, the things you want to achieve. I mean, those are really amazing attributes that you offer the community, which brings me to what I think is the magic sauce. The magic sauce to me is community. How would you describe the role that community plays at Endura Lab?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean it's big. I mean, even when we think about an individual athlete when they walk in the door, we want multiple touch points, right. So not only do we want a relationship with the coach they may see the most but we want a relationship with our front desk, we want a relationship with the owners, we want a relationship with the classes. So it's very important because you're expected to be there. You know there's this expectation. You walk in the door and you know it's hello, lee, how's it going today? You walk into the class, you have your classmates or the athletes that are with you. They're like what's up, lee, you know, and they know what's going on with you.
Speaker 3:Right, it's that sense of belonging which, as we know, everybody needs. That and I think COVID really brought that out. We did it. So, yeah, huge, huge role Even in our personal training clients. We don't have them in like one room really sequestered. We tried to enroll them even in group classes and challenges. We train multiple clients together. That we think might mesh well train multiple clients together that we think might mesh well.
Speaker 2:That's the thing that I would say. That I think is unique is that you may be training individually, but even the individual training does oftentimes end up in a one-on-one group class. Yeah, Now do the math on that, but it does sort of equal out to a one-on-one group class. It's like you're working out with your trainer in a group right, yeah, and the coach that's coaching next to you and the person they're coaching with, and there might be a little bit of healthy competition set in there.
Speaker 3:Which is good. Yeah, oh yeah, I like competition, Not for everyone, but certain people like yourself competition is good. Myself competition is good.
Speaker 2:When you think about all of these the community and you think about how you're building athletes, how do you foster this sense of motivation? Because one thing I know in my own life is that burnout is very real. One thing I know in my own life is that burnout is very real and I'm imagining that there's a lot of people, especially through COVID, like you said, we got lulled into a sense of being separated and I know that there's an emotional burnout that's come from that and I'm wondering if you've seen a physical burnout from that.
Speaker 3:I think I would just classify all of what you said as a comfort crisis. There's a book Comfort Crisis, right, I feel like COVID brought us into a state of comfort of just being sedentary, of being by ourselves, and that's something I mean. There's a flag in my wall in my office that says comfort is a slow death, and I believe it. So there was this overcoming and fear, you know, fear of coming outside and being with other people without being sick, and so I think, for the probably first year after yes, now not so much, but I think you saw, you know, as far as you know, on the end of health and wellness, you saw an obesity crisis during that time and we are still feeling the effects of that.
Speaker 2:How do you speak to the idea of burnout? Like an athlete who's tired, maybe they've struggled through some injuries and they're just at that point to where it's like they just want to hit the pause button. What would be your encouragement to them?
Speaker 3:I think when people are kind of being, you know, become defeated, or something like that comes up, you have to give them something that they can do right, little steps, understand like, hey, listen, I get it, I could go home too if I was injured. I understand where you're at. That feeling is valid, but when you come back it's going to be that much harder. How much easier would it be. Let's just do some simple stuff. Let's come in and do pushups and work on your upper body and let's work on nutrition, or let's work on recovery and let's get those really good. So when you're ready to come back, that's just more tools in your toolbox. And I think you know, by diverting maybe away from what they're feeling or the injury that they're having, you can give them something that they can actually work on. And that's what people want. They want change, they want to be able to make some kind of change. And when you sit there and you're doing the same thing and there's no change coming, that's what leads to burnout.
Speaker 2:Right. So I love, I love your philosophy on this. It's the, it's the giving them a goal that they can achieve and not overwhelming them with something that feels too daunting or ominous.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, I mean, I hate resolutions. I think when people talk to me about goals and resolutions, we have a big slogan on our walls that say focus on the process, not the outcome. So when you you know, even you when you give me a goal of, hey, I want to lose this much, or I want to be at this body percentage, or I want to run this race, I come back with a very simple okay, well, this is what your day looks like. Can you give me this day? Oh, you can't give me, you know this. Well, I need you to knock out. You know? High schooler let's take a high schooler.
Speaker 3:I want to put on mass, right, what can you not need? 50 push-ups, or 50 push-ups a day. Can you do that for me? Okay, Well, that's a starting point, right? And then we start building upon that. Something really simple, you know, it might be for weight loss. It might be somebody who's going to Starbucks every day. I see something that's very frequent and I'm like can you get one pump of sugar versus three? Right, can you just do that for me? That's all you want me to do, yeah? And then those little things start to snowball and a lot of these healthy habits come into place and then all of a sudden, you're at your goal or someplace way past A lot of these healthy habits come into place and then all of a sudden, you're at your goal or someplace way past.
Speaker 2:You know it's so fascinating about that, is you know? We're talking about the idea of blending the mental health with the physical health. We recently did a study here on chronic depression and the one thing that we found was that, of the people that were in our study, the ones that learned problem solving meaning what you're talking about just taking one small situation at a time and bringing about a different outcome those are the ones who had gone for over a decade and a half so more than 15 years being depressed. They remitted, they were free of their depression and in the eight month follow up spoiler alert they were free of their depression still. And so what you're talking about is not only helpful for physical health, but the blend into mental health of simply accomplishing your goal, that it puts something in your, in your value bucket, in your accomplishment bucket. I don't know how I would want to label that bucket just yet, but it certainly puts something in the encouragement bucket Right.
Speaker 2:And that's really powerful that people who show up to your gym and are under your care are being given that opportunity to to see, hey, I can accomplish. I can accomplish things because when we offer learning, well, let me, let me. Let me back up from that and ask you as a question do you see cause? I see this in mental health, but I'm curious if you see this in the physical realm. Do you see, because I see this in mental health, but I'm curious if you see this in the physical realm? When you offer somebody learning, that's one thing. Like they learn it, they're likely to do it. But you also have to offer that sense of motivation that they have to find the want to Do. You think that's?
Speaker 3:Well, absolutely. I mean knowledge of the application doesn't really do you that much right? Right, yeah, you think that's. You know? Hey, did you do your work today? You know, did you get one pump? Or like, how was your coffee this morning? Did you put anything in it? You know, I'm asking those questions and our coaches are asking those questions because that's important. Follow up If I just educate you, even if you're pretty good at application.
Speaker 2:There's going to be a certain amount of time where, if nobody is asking, unless you're really self-driven, it's not going to work.
Speaker 2:Which brings us back to community Right and that. That, to me, that's fascinating, because what you're saying for your athletes is what we found in our study is that you have to be relationally connected and you have to have means in thinking, which is just a fancy way of saying you have to have goal directed behavior, meaning little things you can accomplish, and you believe that you're connected to your therapist and your depression goes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would totally believe that 100%, because that's what we see, right. So you're offering an antidepressant? Because that's what we see, right. So you're offering an antidepressant. Well, I mean, we know, right, that exercise enhances, mood enhances. You know that feel good, right? You start feeling good about yourself and it reduces stress. So I mean you start throwing all of that in. It's a very powerful thing.
Speaker 2:You know one thing I read recently and I've heard from multiple sources if you want a longevity hack, it's really not a hack, but if you want a longevity hack, we'll air quote that the one hack that you should attempt is regular exercise. Sleep is paired with that, but I think that regular exercise is almost more important than sleep, in that regular exercise helps improve your sleep Absolutely. Therefore, it's one A and sleep is one B.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I always tell clients this, like if I can make one change in your life and it was exercise, recovery, sleep or nutrition, which one is going to help you live longer? And everybody chooses recovery or nutrition and it is exercise. That's right. It's crazy. I mean you improve your VO2, you can overcome smoking. That's not a ploy for smoking, but I mean seriously like you could pick up smoking as long as your VO2 was going up, you would live longer, which we all know smoking kills. But that's how important movement and exercise is. Strength VO2, that's why we're called strength and endurance. There's no fluke in that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah. So the beauty of what the gym is offering truly is like an antidepressant the natural kind, the sustainable kind. Again, I know I've said this before, but I'm going to keep saying this because I think this is key. I don't know that this is something that everybody pays attention to is the concept of proprioception. Is the concept of proprioception, is the concept of body awareness, not body dysmorphia or body shaming. None of that, right, it's, it truly is an acceptance of where you are in space and time. It's that awareness bringing self-awareness to something. It's this idea of helping people understand attainable goals while being grounded and connected to a community that cares about the outcome. That's the magic sauce of EnduroLab.
Speaker 2:We talked about burnout. We talked about the fact that when somebody's burnt out, it's trying to find a smaller mountain to climb, one that's a little more attainable. What is one thing that you would like to leave our listeners with and I take that back. What is anything? Something, one thing, two thing, three things, whatever you choose. What would you want to leave our listeners with that they could do at home that might help them go beyond the couch?
Speaker 3:I think it's something very simple. It's just movement. You know what what movement looks like to people is going to be different, you different. There might be people that it's hard to get up and down a chair. So I would say, hey, every time you sit down, get back up one more time. It's simple stuff. Let's go for a walk at night after dinner. Take the family Number one.
Speaker 3:It does a lot of things Lowers blood sugar, it gets you out and about, lowers stress, gets the body ready for sleep. But I'm not going to tell you that. I'm just going to say, hey, just go for a walk after dinner with your family. You know, take 20 minutes, spend some time away from your phone. Any little thing, the smallest thing you can think about, that you can do every day. Start it, and what that's going to happen is it's going to become easy. I want the thing that you pick to be so easy. It's hard not to do it Right. So pick something like that and then develop a streak and then do something else and that's going to compound and you're going to be healthier, you're going to feel better, your energy is going to be aware to pick something, an attainable goal. Be aware in the sense of move, bring movement into your world. Be aware of that.
Speaker 2:Pick a goal that's attainable, one that's small, that you can replicate over and over and over again, and I love the. You know, ask your family or a friend or somebody to go for a walk, and there's the community, and that's seems to be the trifecta of of what helps us grow, and in my mind it helps us beyond the couch. So thanks for that, absolutely, thanks for being here today, thanks for having me. Absolutely. One more shout out no goal that this man right here has ever made has ever gone unattained.
Speaker 3:That's right and beyond and beyond.
Speaker 4:Stay tuned for our upcoming episodes, where Dr Long will continue to delve into empowering therapies and strategies for mental wellness. Your journey to understanding and embracing mental health is just beginning and we're excited to have you with us every step of the way. Until next time, keep exploring, keep growing and remember to celebrate restored freedom as you uncover it.
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