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Ryan 0:00
So we might have a workout where one partner might be doing kettlebell swings. And the other partner might be doing a ground pattern that’s taking them through like twisting and squatting ranges. And that is mobility in motion.
INTRODUCTION 0:15
Welcome to the fit and healthy Denver podcast where we discuss all things revolving around health, fitness and wellness in the amazing state of Colorado so you can get behind the scenes information from industry insiders, special events, and more. Coming up is our host, physical therapist and strength coach, Dr. Jamie Beauvais. And here we go.
JAMIE 0:42
In this episode with Ryan Tropicana of Jin fit, we find out why Ryan has a 100% barefoot gym, how he incorporates strength, mobility, and movement and play and who he doesn’t want to see in his gym. All right, I’d like to welcome my guests Ryan truffle Cana, as I said the right sort of Acana terrific Kana I never get it right. I’ve known him for a while now. And I can’t get it right. Last Name, right.
RYAN 1:09
I’ve heard way worse.
JAMIE 1:11
Okay. Australia, like plus fairly close. So I would like to welcome Ryan, he is the owner of gym foot in Denver. And we’re going to talk today about his gym, who it’s perfect for why you might be interested in some of the things that he’s doing that are different from any other gym in Denver. And I’ve known Ryan now for a while. And I can’t say enough about the guy. And I think it’s really common, like a lot of people know you, Ryan, like, I know a lot of people in the fitness industry. And you know, I’ve been talking about something and like, you would come up somehow. And it’s like, how do you know him? And they’re like, Oh, I love Ryan, you know, he’s been doing this. And I think one of the things that I’ve noticed is everybody loves you, man. Like, you are just everybody who has an outpouring positive. They just can’t say anything. Or they, all they can say is nice things about you. And I think that says a lot about you. And I’m sure everybody in your gym is big. So as well.
RYAN 2:10
I didn’t know that that many people thought so. I love me. That’s really, really cool. Thank you. Like I’m blushing.
JAMIE 2:16
Yeah, I think I’ve talked to three or four gym owners now. And somehow we had a conversation. I think some of it was we’re talking about some of the videos we were shooting and things like that. But yeah, you just have a very positive outlook on life. And I think that spills over. And I’m sure it does, you know your energy and everything into your gym as well. But let’s get started. Let’s tell us a little bit about you and how you got into fitness. And then give us the story of Jin fit as well.
RYAN 2:43
Oh, G is the origin story. And oddly enough, the way I got into fitness is tied to Gen fit. So about 15 years ago, I was a bartender. A full time bartender definitely lives like that late night, bartender lifestyle wasn’t really the healthiest time in my life. So I decided to kind of like, change things up a little bit. And my boss actually recommended this fitness bootcamp called Genesis fitness. He said it was a five week program where you show up every day, Monday through Friday, and it basically said it was a really great way to kickstart your fitness. So I got in there and it was a different workout every day. Super intense, super crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. And I was hooked. So I basically was doing those boot camps, like back to back to back to back for the better part of a year. And that’s kind of like how I got really hooked into fitness. And then I loved the bootcamp so much that one of the coaches asked if I wanted to actually start teaching them so I went from being a devout student of Gen Genesis fitness at the time to becoming a coach for them. And that’s how I started getting into actually liking coaching and really like embodying that fitness lifestyle.
JAMIE 3:55
Great. Were you always pretty fit to begin with, like what? Oh,
RYAN 3:59
not at all do not at all though. I was overweight most of my life.
JAMIE 4:02
Okay, so a little bit of self transformation there as well. Yeah, man,
RYAN 4:05
I was just like I was. I was tired of like, you know, like sleeping until, like 12 o’clock, one o’clock the next day, like kicking off hangovers. Like I didn’t have anything that would get me out of bed like it. It was weird. I decided to stop drinking for a month and that was the time my boss told me Hey, man, we’re doing this boot camp thing like my husband and I love it. You should do it with us and it was like a switch flipped like all of a sudden I had something to look forward to to get up the next day. So it would start making me make better choices with, you know, my habits the night before. So it was like a really quick one at like from going from that late night party lifestyle that most bartenders that I knew to like this guy that actually started caring about his body and his health.
JAMIE 4:47
Right. And so since you started with the boot camps, and then you kind of took over Jim fit from there.
RYAN 4:53
Yeah, so the the history of Gen Genesis it like it goes back 15 years this guy founded it and it was like the first Premier do fitness boot camps in Denver, this concept of signing up a group of people for a six week program and they all go through it together kind of like a, like a boot camp like a kind of military esque type of experience. And the majority of the instructors were actually from military backgrounds. So it was genesis for a while. The original owner ended up going out of business or calling it or whatever. And the more loyal members in his community and friends of his actually banded together and bought the existing gym from him with all the clients and the equipment, and they rebranded it as Jen fit. Oh, that’s really cool. Yeah, so Jen, Jen fit actually goes back like 15 years by this point, its origin story, like some of our current members, were actually members at Genesis fitness under the old concept. So it got rebranded as Gen fit, I got asked to be brought on as a coach down the line, I became like a lead trainer or like a manager, and then I eventually was in a position to buy Genesis and own it. Great.
JAMIE 5:59
And so what changes have you made since you have been officially head honcho?
RYAN 6:05
The biggest man is probably like our approach to fitness the program itself. Back in the day, Genesis was hardcore fitness boot camps, it was just day after day of high intensity workouts without really much thought to recovery, movement, quality, mobility, like the things that I value. Now, one of the biggest changes that I’ve made to our concept is prioritizing movement quality, longevity sustainability, while still providing a program that builds robust fitness. Okay.
JAMIE 6:34
Yeah. And that was, you know, that was one of the ways that I found you is I had been following you on Instagram for a while, and I kept being like, Oh, I really liked what this guy’s putting out there. And especially not just the videos, but kind of the meaning behind them. Right? Yeah, what it was all about. And I was like, you know, I really agree with this, I need to get in touch with this guy. And you know, of course, it was 10 months later. I’m like, yeah,
RYAN 6:53
that’s all the time. It’s like, Oh, I love that. And then like, I’ll just like, put it off in the back of my brain. I’ll start leaving a post, writing it on my hand, like sending text reminders to myself, it takes a while.
JAMIE 7:02
Yeah. But eventually we got in touch. And yeah, I think I’ve really liked that about your approach of it’s more than the quality of the movement and you really focus on the mobility, you know, the range of motion and having that control throughout all that. And some of that, you know, so tell me a little bit because I know you do a lot of the animal movements, the GMB Fitness stuff. So tell us a little bit about that.
RYAN 7:29
I mean, I was in the same boat as like, so a little bit of backstory about that I might, my routes kind of start in like that intense fitness boot camp style. And it went to CrossFit. So it was all about intensity and high repetitions and not necessarily moving well. Like I saw my people moving like shit, I realized I was moving like shit and just broken all the time. And I was tired of it and it actually culminated in an injury. So I was doing CrossFit and then that’s not to slander CrossFit. I just happened to be doing a CrossFit workout going for a heavy lift, and I busted my wrist and I caught the lift the wrong way. And that sidelined me, one of the worst injuries I’ve ever had, and I couldn’t start. I couldn’t do the stuff I love doing in the gym anymore, the intense workouts. So to rehabilitate myself, I stepped away from CrossFit and intense workouts. And I started focusing more on bodyweight training. And the therapist I had recommended a book called Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade, I think, coach Paul Wade. And what it was was these like slow tempo movements, it’s like the lowest regret, like the lowest progressions to rebuild your joint integrity and get healthy blood flow back into your joints. And it was perfect for what I needed because I could not do anything anymore. Like I went from being super fit and capable to like doing push ups against a wall or like, standing up and doing Ring Rows like this. It was really humbling and kind of going back to like square one. But that concept or that approach, the world of bodyweight training and calisthenics eventually got me to look into the work of GMB Fitness which is an online bodyweight program that has great values and great teachers and a great mindset and then eventually to Do portals work. And these two particular companies are known or these two particular organizations are known for crawling around on the ground, what they call animal movement patterns, or locomotion. They, that’s not all they do, but like the connecting theme is they place emphasis on your body having options of moving with quality of prioritizing mechanics and integrity and quality of movement versus intensity. So that’s kind of where the turning point for me was. And when I started paying attention to more teachers and you know, movement specialists that touted that like quality first create options for your body. Yeah.
JAMIE 9:52
And as you’ve put that into your gym, what changes have you noticed in the people that go to gym fit?
RYAN 9:59
Um, I NOTICE like when I think back to what was going on before that lot more injuries and a lot more like shitty movement patterns, like overuse injuries, less less range now I noticed are people can, like, you know, you know, access more positions, they could squat nice and deep without paying they can. They’re more coordinated. They move through ranges without like aches and tightness and stiffness. If they do have injuries, we know to customize the movements for them. So they can do something that will benefit them more in the gym while we help them rehabilitate the energy of the injury. So they train a lot smarter, they move a lot better now. That’s one of the biggest things I noticed.
JAMIE 10:37
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we’ve talked about this, but I did GMB, just for a short period of time and nobody noticed I could move in different ways. Almost immediately, you know, two weeks in, I was like, Oh, I didn’t know I couldn’t do that. Yeah. And then four weeks later is like, I don’t have you know, I can pick things up off the ground now, would not have to bend my knees, or I don’t have to go to my back. I have the flexibility. And, you know, I can do an inchworm and push myself all the way up to standing. I could never do that before. And so I really like your approach, because it’s, I think they focus on quality motion. I think you folk focus on quality of motion with strength. Right? Yeah, having that strength throughout that. And like moving great is great. But people like to lift weights too, you know, they like to get a great workout. And I think you really try to combine all of those things really well.
RYAN 11:22
Yeah, man, like, I mean, I and I, that’s a great way to frame and I like the way that you said that it is important for people to come into the gym and feel like they’re accomplishing something to they want to leave, they’re feeling like they got something done, they want to feel sweaty, like they, you know, got a good session. And so we can’t just do an hour of crawling around and like, you know, mobility, you gotta throw some weight. You don’t have to, but I like to man, because that’s how I like to train. And I think it’s beneficial. I think there’s a good balance to be struck with lifting some weights, you know, pushing yourself, and also still doing some good stuff for your body.
JAMIE 11:52
What are some of the pushbacks that you’ve had from new people who didn’t know what to expect? And came into the gym fit in there? Like, what is this?
RYAN 11:59
The barefoot thing man that we tell them to take their shoes off? Like I? Yeah, that’s probably one of the biggest ones. I get, like a lot of what the fuck looks? Can I say fuck, I should have asked me to lay down. Cool. All right, so WTF looks when they come in, and they see a scientist take off your shoes, and they’re like, this is the sub barefoot place. That’s probably one of the biggest ones.
RYAN 12:18
Okay, and why do you make people go barefoot?
RYAN 12:21
The short answer is, shoes can be kind of a limiting factor in foot health. They tend to do a lot of the work that your feet should be doing for you like stabilization, strength, balance, sensitivity with striking the ground. So it’s low hanging fruit for us to tell people to take their shoes off when they move within our walls, like within an hour session, because it’s going to build stronger. It’s going to build stronger foundations for their bodies, like we give you a chance your feet a chance to stabilize and strengthen and, you know, contact surfaces the way they were meant to, it’s ultimately going to build a better foundation for your body. So for us, it’s just did you know, she was like going shoeless when you move is better?
JAMIE 13:05
Yeah, absolutely. So I’m curious, do you do any sort of balance testing, because one thing that we see frequently in our clinic is people don’t push through their big toes anymore because of the shape of shoes, because of bad habits, because of past injuries. And you get a lot of balance from your big toe? Do you do any sort of balance testing?
RYAN 13:26
Not right, not like how you’re framing it like a regular not a specific test or assessment. But sometimes I’ve had my class start out just by balancing on one foot, and then just letting them stand there and seeing like, how much they start, like wobbling and then again, you do that barefoot, you notice a big difference than when you might have the stability or the support of your shoes? Well, I
JAMIE 13:46
would I mean, I would, I could only see a pretty vast and pretty quick improvement as people got out of their shoes and got used to using those toes and everything. And you probably would bet money if you tested a month one or day one versus month, the end of month one. If we had some sort of balance, I would almost guarantee they would improve. And there’s other ways you can know, you could also measure it with rope like skaters, right? Like rotational type bending motions that I think they would, I would almost guarantee that
RYAN 14:13
Hey, I have a lot of my older clients that do that kind of stuff. A lot of single leg stability skaters curtsy squats like rotation and balance. I doubt down the road. I mean, we’re currently working on an intake or assessment kind of protocol that we want to have all of our people do on a semi regular basis or for newbies that come in just so we can kind of get an idea of their baseline. So we have a better sense of what is prescribed in them and balance would be amongst that because I agree it’s super important. I think it’s overlooked in a lot of fitness programs and to tell you the truth.
JAMIE 14:46
Yeah, for sure. For sure. So let’s know who should come to Gen fit and why should they pick you over another gym?
RYAN 14:58
Anyone that so people that come But let me backtrack, you should come to Ben to Gen fit. If you care more about it, you know the quality of movement, like your well being, like moving well and doing it for a long time. If you want to come in and get an ass kicking day after day, that’s not really what we offer, you will find challenging scenarios in our workouts. But if you want to prioritize your quality of life first by having a strong mobile, a strong mobile body, those are the people that I would ask to come in. Like if you want to learn to move better if you don’t take yourself too seriously, but you’re invested in your fitness because exploring is a big part of what we do. So if you want to have fun and get stronger and move better along the way, that’s your forte, your first priority. Those would be the people I’d say.
JAMIE 15:45
Yeah, yeah. And I’ve noticed from a lot of your videos and everything. Everybody’s kind of laughing while they’re working out. But like, you know, a lot of the cartwheels and all that stuff and stuff like crap. I don’t think I can do a cartwheel right now.
RYAN 15:58
Everyone says that until they do I could teach anyone to do a cartwheel.
JAMIE 16:02
Okay, all right. All right. Yeah, and I think a lot of those movements that you teach are, they’re weird, but they’re fun, you know, and I think what people love is improving, right? Absolutely. Yeah. And you’re gonna be able to give them these improvements in these strange movements. But I think what many people overlook is there’s a large carryover, right, like, so if you can improve some sort of balance crawling movement. You may you may, and you may not even realize you’re just like, Hmm, you know, I don’t, I can, I can do certain things. Now, you know, that I couldn’t do before.
RYAN 16:36
I’ll do it. Absolutely. Like, if there’s something I try to give people it’s like, big, like the biggest bang for their buck or like free games. Like, if there’s something they can practice that’s gonna unlock a bunch of other stuff for them, like a particular movement, that’s gonna give them free gains and other movements that they don’t necessarily have to practice. It’s good shit, man. Like I remember when I was like, really consistent with GMB. And the IDO portal stuff. I didn’t do CrossFit for like a year. And I went back to my old crossfit box to do the open. And I crushed it. Like me after a little bit of practice, my Olympic lifts were on point. And I think like, in the open gym competition, I finished top three in the gym, and I hadn’t even touched a barbell really in a year. Because all that stuff I was practicing was teaching body awareness, I was working those strength patterns, those ranges, that coordination, that dynamic movement, just in a different system. And it carried over really well when I went back to doing CrossFit. So
JAMIE 17:29
yeah, and it’s a little bit kind of that train, train smarter, not harder. Right? Yeah, you improved all the other aspects of your health. And it just only increased your lifting, despite being gone for a year, which Yeah,
RYAN 17:41
exactly. And when I went back to it, it was like that much better at a better understanding of my body. And I was enjoying it a lot more because I was doing it well. And I wasn’t breaking myself down. So yeah, it’s like when we apply it to our students in our gym, we definitely throw some weird shit in there. There’s a foundation, there’s like a structure to what we do and like, admits that there is some novelty, but for the most part, it’s like we want to build that foundation, while still exposing people to novelty and showing them that there can be carryover through these from these explorative movements like crawling around on the ground, and like hanging and break eating and like rolling. It provides a lot of benefit and body awareness development that carries over when you take it back to basic lifts.
JAMIE 18:19
Well, I think there’s a lot to be said for novelty and play, and just what that can do for your brain and share it in how it changes your movements. And plus, it’s you know, it’s fun, it’s fun in a weird way. But it’s you know, you want to be while you do want to get a good workout. Like, it’s always nice to go to the gym and
RYAN 18:35
have fun, right? Absolutely. Yeah,
JAMIE 18:37
We try to have something like that. And much easier. So yeah, yeah, I think that’s really cool. Well, tell me tell me about your classes. So you’ve told us about Gen fit and who it’s for what the Genesis just because I know you’ve got a couple different classes once you tell us like, who those are perfect for? What’s the difference?
RYAN 18:54
Yeah, we’ve whittled it down. Actually, what we’re trying to do, we went from having strength classes, conditioning, mobility, and it was all kind of like, separated. So we still have a mobility class on the schedule. But for the most part, our classes are a strength and conditioning model with mobility built in, so you get a blend of everything within the hour that you’re with us. So there’s a general group warmup that typically has some strength, cardio targeted, like some targeted stretching, there’s a specific warmup for the movements that we’ll cover that day, usually superset of strength and then some conditioning mixed in. So it’s a really well rounded experience you’re going to be getting, you know, strength and flexibility, balance, some conditioning in there, like an hour, an hour with us is a pretty well rounded experience. Okay, yeah.
JAMIE 19:40
And so, are all of those kinds of inner woven within the hour or is the first first 15 minutes you work on mobility? The next you work on strength and extra work on conditioning? How does it work?
RYAN 19:51
Sometimes it’s layered like a structure like Hey, guys, we’re gonna get warmed up. We’re going to do our mobility at the front of the class, like at the beginning of the class, and then we’re just going to focus on this particular lift Um, sometimes it’ll be mixed in throughout. Sometimes the exercises themselves are training mobility, like anytime we do crawling animal patterns on the ground, you’re training strength, flexibility and motor control. So we might have a workout where it will be partnered, one partner might be doing kettlebell swings. And the other partner might be doing a ground pattern that’s taking them through like twisting and squatting ranges. And that is mobility in motion. So that would be an example of how it’s like mixed in while the class is actually going. I like the mobility motion, you shouldn’t Yeah, it’s all well and good to like, sit there and stretch it has its place. And I love it, you know, intentional work on your end ranges, like your joint end ranges is super important. But you gotta take the car out and drive it every now and then if you just work on it in the shop, and like to keep honing it, you never take it out on the road. You don’t keep that range. So it’s super important that we do that intentional work, but also tell our students to go apply it in these like moving patterns. So they retain the range that they’re earning.
JAMIE 20:55
Absolutely. Yeah, that’s great. We always say gain the range before you train the range. And yeah, so because you’re right, it doesn’t do you any good if you don’t have it, but it also doesn’t do you any good if you don’t use it, because it just tightens right back up. And you start from square one again. Yeah. All right. Cool. Well, what else would you like to talk about? Tell our listeners,
RYAN 21:17
all the stuff that I’m doing to try and better my client experience, the student experience is all shit that I’ve been through. It’s as a result of like, mistakes that I’ve made bad coaches that I’ve had poor experience that I’ve had, I’m taking all that shit, all the mistakes I’ve made and all the poor experience I’ve been through to try and put together a much more, much more positive and coherent fitness experience for the people that I’m in service to. So that’s a big motivation for me, I never stop learning. I’m always, you know, thinking how can I make this better? How can I provide a better experience for you know, the people that I’m taking care of that I’m training. So that’s, that’s a big motivator for me, like, a lot of my motivation comes from my own stuff that I’ve had trouble with.
JAMIE 21:58
Yeah, and for you listeners out there, Ryan’s not just saying that the first time I met him, he kind of walked me through some of his back end systems and some of the stuff that he’s trying to do. And it’s pretty unbelievable. I was blown away. And so you know, I just can’t wait till you get some of that in play and start getting that to your gym, not to know I’m not going to break any secrets or anything. Everything that you’re doing behind the scenes is going to be impressive, to say the least.
RYAN 22:23
So I appreciate that man. And it’s fun. It’s like one of those long labors of love. I’m just kind of plugging away just kind of doing this and like every now and then popping my head up. And it’s like a lot of work right now. And then hopefully, I’ll be like, oh, man, it’s ready. And it’s like it’s going and I’m in the middle of it, you know,
JAMIE 22:38
it’ll pay off and all your clients will definitely appreciate it as well. All right. Well, I don’t have anything else. Welcome our welcome. rdn. Exactly. All right. So thank you, Ryan, for joining us and all of you out there. Check out Jin fit and what Ryan can bring to you. All right, thanks, dude.
OUTRO 23:04
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