Melissa Perkins

Welcome to the Live Louder podcast, sponsored by FITKYT.  FITKYT is a health and lifestyle business supporting their Community to Live Louder by living their best, most authentic and active life.  FITKYT is the inventor of the patent pending, hang-fold-go bag. A sport fitness and travel bag that turns into a hanging closet. This bag will absolutely revolutionize how you navigate your day to manage, all the things you need to Live Louder in your life. With multiple pockets and a thoughtful unfolding design, FITKYT, lets you organize and access your gear in seconds. Go big or go small. It folds up to a compact Carry On approved size. The Hang-Fold-Go is built for everyone from athletes, adventurers, the pool weekend warriors, and everyone in between.

Today's guest is Brad Montgomery, he really is a true inspiration. A genuine person who is following his personal and Group Training dream, whilst being there, for his mum and stepmom who are not well, even though he may be isolated and out of his normal network and routine, he isn't letting this stop him to achieving his dreams.

Enjoy this podcast, with our guest Brad Montogmery from Cincinnati Ohio. He is currently obtaining NASM certification. He has worked at two different gyms, he trains, many individuals and hopes to soon train groups, he has a marketing background, social media, expertise, and welcome to the Live Louder podcast Brad.

What is NASM certification? Can you take me through what that means?

Brad Montgomery

NASM is the National Academy of sports medicine. It is a lot more than just telling someone to go do a bench press or do deadlifts. This is actually breaking down the biology and science behind exercise.

It breaks down muscle groups, which muscles are being activated during different exercises. And also, it's good for recovery. You know, if you have some type of injury, sports injury, whatever it might be, we can help you do therapy for it. There's a lot of pros of having your sports medicine background. And that's why I chose to go after that one. If you don't take care of your body, you're not gonna live a long, happy life that we all want. 

Melissa Perkins

Yeah, absolutely. And particularly when you get into middle age, weight, bearing exercises is the best thing that you can be doing, however the motivation to exercise gets a little bit harder. So how do you stay motivated? What keeps you getting out of bed and doing exercise each day?

Brad Montgomery

Well first, I do remodelling as a career for 'One Day Bath', so I need to stay strong or I'm not going to be able to do my job, so that's step one for sure, but, I just love it. I love trying to get better. I want to be healthy as long as I possibly can be obviously, but I love pushing myself. I love trying to reach new limits. I try to help everyone else break through their limits and just keep doing better every day. It's just something I love doing. It's a passion.

Melissa Perkins

Do you have, um, an ideal your customer that you like to work with?

Oh, absolutely! If you have never worked out before, if you've never watched Youtube videos on working out. I like to work with people who just wants to pay attention, listen and try their best. Not, this guy on Tick. Tock said this. Not this guy on YouTube said, this.  Someone who can just come in with an open mind and who is willing to work hard. And that's all I could ever want.

Melissa Perkins

That's awesome. Although that's probably me. Although, I must admit, I do watch a couple of YouTube videos for kettlebell and jump rope....

With online training versus face to face, online is not the same?

Brad Montgomery

You know, obviously during COVID online was a lot more popular. I am seeing more people come back to face to face training.  Honestly. I've seen a slight increase, but it's not crazy. Online training is still a very big thing. People really appreciate it.

People will do it, especially when you're not trying to become a professional powerlifter or bodybuilder. Athletes are people who just want to, you know, take care of their bodies. The online fitness is a very boom community because people want to work out from home whether that be going outside doing some body exercises or just to stay  fit. So I can see the pros of the online fitness community, and it's probably going to be around forever now.

Melissa Perkins

With your personal training program, what do you offer? Could you take us through some of the exercises or what do you do with your program that makes you unique?

Brad Montgomery

Well first I'm going to break down the individuals health. What makes you, you.  Have you had any prior injuries? or have you plateaued?  do you have or had any type of issues with particular exercises? What is their personal experience? Etc. Etc. And also you can tell just by looking at somebody you look and see, okay, their legs are pointing outward and they're trying to swat. Okay, we need to work on this, or if their elbows are too tight when they're trying to bench press.  Different, things like that, I can go through and custom make a program for an individual, that's obviously not something you're going to get when you Google a random exercise program and that's something that I really pride myself on, because I will make a custom workout for your body and what you've gone through and what your goals are.

Melissa Perkins

Yeah, that's really important. isn't it, to get that customisation because everybody's different, you know, right?

Brad Montgomery

Yeah, absolutely.

I actually just saw a lady walk into the gym the other and she was in her mid 50s and said she was having some knee problems.  Her doctor recommended that she exercise, and they are trying to get her to do do jump squats and I'm like No, like absolutely not.

You've never exercised a day in your life, you don't want to be doing that.  That's how you blow out your knees and I went over, and I talked to her and I walk her through some other stuff, but that's the exact same issue.

If you Google something online like all jump squats to help you lose weight you will get the exercises but you won't get the type of exercises that are designed for you.

Melissa Perkins

I think the problem for me, anyway, is my pelvic floor and with a lot of people who have back problems.  What is the the importance of pelvic floor exercises for people with back pain and for women after childbirth?

Brad Montgomery

I think the major issue people run into are their hip flexors as so many people's hip flexors are so tight.  People are sitting all day long, you sit in a job for eight hours. You drive to work everyday. Sitting down. You come home. You sit down our hips are not made to do that.

As you do that every day, it has so much of an impact on your hip flexors. I can't really show you because it's audio, but this is like your hips and they slowly start to twist.  And that's where everyone starts to get that back pain. So, without proper stretching, or at least some movement your back will hurt.  That's why you have so many doctors, chiropractors, emergency departments, they'll tell you like, oh, we need to get up and walk. Well, my back hurts. I don't like it. Well the best thing to do is get up and move. It's because your body is not meant to sit all day yours, that's where all those issues start to come from. So I always recommend people, just walk, stretch and walk, that will fix so many your back problems that people run into on a daily.

Melissa Perkins

Yeah, you're right.

I always think that we are one of the very first Generations that have sat for longer periods of time, you know, with work and cars, etc.  You go to work for eight hours, your back in the car to get home, you know, that is essentially 10 hours a day. Sitting!

I love your explanation of that. So, how do I get motivated? I know I've got my equipment here at home or I've got my personal trainer. Like, what can I do to motivate myself? Have you got some easy ideas, or thoughts?

Brad Montgomery

For everybody. That's intrinsic. It's what motivates you. Do you want to have a better body to look good in the summer time or do you want to be healthier? You have goals that are all intrinsic. For me, I have nothing else to do when I get home. It's my biggest hobby, II will get bored if I just sit here all day. So I try to workout at least once, sometimes twice a day on weekends.  Honestly, get a partner. If you have someone else pushing you, who is always there for you.  Especially the day's that you don't want to train. Well this person's already going to be there. You can't just bail on them. It's always something I recommend. I never want to train by myself.

Melissa Perkins

Yeah, you're right. So, outside of your workouts and work, what do you do for fun? What's good in Cincinnati? 

Brad Montgomery

Well, it's not a whole lot. I live out in the middle of nowhere on a farm and there is not a whole lot to do. I work, workout and study, read and that is about it. Yeah, I don't have a whole lot of hobbies, I need to find some more, but right now that is pretty much it.  Either work, train or work out and like I said, doing them a three or four times a week, but that's about it.

Melissa Perkins

Yeah, so you live on a farm, how did that happen?

Brad Montgomery

I'm so this actually isn't my house. I live with my childhood best friend. He lives a few minutes from my mom, as I've mentioned to you, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and I wanted to be closer to her. I moved in with him to be able to be closer to help her out as often as I can. So I'm actually not in Cincinnati right now. I'm in a very very small town called Wilmington, Ohio that's about an hour north of Cincinnati. I'll probably move back, but in the meantime I'm staying up here.

Melissa Perkins

So you use your exercise as an outlet for managing a lot of the stress that you have on a day-to-day basis.

Brad Montgomery

Absolutely.

That's my biggest stress relief. I don't think I can go a day without training because of that.

Melissa Perkins

Yeah. I'd imagine. You are a brilliant son. I'd love that support from my son if that ever happened to me.  Do you have any brothers or sisters?

Brad Montgomery

I have an older sister named Jennifer.  I am sure she will listen to this, when it comes out, she's a down in Raleigh, North Carolina with her boyfriend. That's where she moved to. But she comes up and visits when she can.  She's really good, she gets on a plane and fly's in and I got to go pick her up.

Melissa Perkins

It must be very hard with your mom and everything that she's going through at the moment. We gave her some of our Live Louder Affirmation Cards.

Well, she just got them yesterday.

She's already posted about it, on Facebook, taking pictures of it. She absolutely loves them. So, the other pack that I got, I actually plan on giving to my stepmom, she also was diagnosed with breast cancer, so I'm going to give her those, hopefully before this comes out. So she doesn't know about it ahead of time. I saw the impact it made on my mom, so the second pack I'm giving the my stepmom.

Melissa Perkins

Oh, that's so wonderful to hear. Katie and I actually developed those ourselves when we were going through some hard times.  All of the the sayings are very personal to us and they helped us through some difficult challenges that we've had. So it's just amazing hear the impact that they have had. So that was why they were designed. We've just wanted to help other people. So it's wonderful.

Brad Montgomery

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciated them.  My mom loved it. Absolutely loved it.

Melissa Perkins

That's wonderful to hear. Thanks Brad.  Just going back to your fitness journey.  Ntrition. How important is nutrition to your own reaching your fitness goals?

Brad Montgomery

Honestly it's the most important part. If you don't have a good fitness plan and you're not eating properly, ie: eating 2 pieces of cabbage every two hours, it doesn't work.  You need to get all your nutrition. You need to be eating properly to be able to fuel your body.  You may think that you need to starve yourself to lose weight. That couldn't be more incorrect. That's a terrible way to go about it. 

I'm sorry, but nutrition is the most important part of fitness in my mind.

Melissa Perkins

With supplements, it's a real trend at the moment. All these high protein bars? I'm not sure what you call them there. you scoop them out and put them into like your smoothie are they a bit of a gimmick, or do they actually work?

Brad Montgomery

Yes. And no.  There's obviously thousands of companies out there, some of them are good, some obviously are not very good. A lot of that comes down to what, you know, if you actually go through and study this science and nutrition, you'll discover that.  As an example with protein bars, it says 100 grams of protein and you discover that your body, can only process, so many grams of protein at a time. So even though you're eating 100 grams of protein that makes you feel like yeah I'm gonna kill it. I'm going to get huge, your body's not going to be able to process that.  It's just going to get stored in your body is fat.

Well there are a lot of them out there that are good. Just do your research and find which ones are worth it, which ones have a ton of fillers and chemicals and stuff like that. You want to get away from them, but there are some good ones out there.

Melissa Perkins

What do you use right now?

Brad Montgomery

I'm using a couple different things. I use Syntha-6 for my protein shakes, it's one of my favourites and actually tastes really good.  That's a big part for me the six ultra-premium protein matrix it's my absolute favourite. I've used it for years and then for pre-workouts I use Dr. Jekyll's stimulant. It works by trying to get more oxygen flowing through your body. And then I'm using another one for when my really tired, those days that I really don't feel like working out. It's called a psychotic by insane labs. I've never gotten a better wake up than that. It's like drinking one hundred energy drinks at one time and you'll jump up and be ready to go. That's for sure. There you go.

Melissa Perkins

I'm going to search that one up, psychotic. Okay.

Brad Montgomery

Yeah. It''s a good one. It gets me out of bed awfully quick.

You should try to drink your pre-workout mix at least 30 minutes before you plan to workout. A lot of people, you see them at the gym? Drinking their pre-workout, while they're there.  Well, that's how you end up having a heart attack afterwards, because it's not kicking in yet.  It doesn't kick in for half hour, 40 minutes after you consume it. And you'll see so many people doing that at the gym.  But I don't want to be that, you know, toxic masculinity guy to say anything. I would recommend that you always drink it before you go to the gym.

Melissa Perkins

Yeah, you don't want to be that guy, but when you see people doing the wrong thing, it's hard not to say anything, isn't it?

Brad Montgomery

It is very, very, very hard. I've been going to a couple of different gyms lately.  I have just kind of bounced around a bit and I'm a bigger guy, I realize that. I'm what other people probably think of as a stereotypical Gym Bro, as people say. But yeah, it drives me nuts and it's really, really hard for me to not say something but also I know if I go say something, they're probably going to take offense and it's not going to go so well.  So unless they're hurting themselves, I just keep my mouth shut.

Melissa Perkins

Yeah, probably the safest way.  So what are your big goals?

I ultimately want to compete in a powerlifting competition next year. Assuming I don't get hurt, I just had surgery last year. So I'm still building myself back up from that. And I would like to eventually debut in a fight professionally.  Do a Jiu jitsu tournament. I would really like to work myself up to going professional.

Melissa Perkins

Wow. That'd be really cool. You know, Joe Rogan. 

Brad Montgomery

Yeah, I listen him everyday. He's great. 

Melissa Perkins

Well, he was the one that really started podcasting and there's so many people that do podcasting. Now, there's a podcast for pretty much everything.

Our last question is, what does living louder mean to you?

Brad Montgomery

Living louder means getting up every day. Getting up and doing something. Bettering yourself, not striving to just be comfortable. Always, try to reach the new height. A new level do something better, to do something new. Don't just live life lying down. That's what I think living louder means to me.

Melissa Perkins

Wonderful. I love it. Thank you. Now, what's your mom's name?

Michelle Montgomery. Okay, I'll just say hi Michelle, we send our love to you and I'm so glad that you love the motivation cards as well.

So lovely talking to you Brad.  Stay in touch, and I'm sure that you'll reach your big goals. Thank you very much for being on today's Live Louder podcast.

Brad Montgomery

Thank you and I hope that we can do this again sometime.