S2 E201: Danny Wirt | The Art of Self Reflection

Connor Agnew:
What’s going on Samson Strength Coach collective listeners on today’s episode, we have Danny Wirt. Danny and I originally met, we were just discussing before the show about, well, actually we probably originally met about 11 years ago and last saw each other eight years ago, if that’d be correct. know, somebody I always looked up to as a student, an incredibly smart human being. And I remember asking you,

a bunch of different questions when we were in undergrad at Temple University together. And now it’s very cool for us to link back up after eight years.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, man, it’s been a long time, long journey. And I really value the time at Temple. I think it was pretty formative for both of our careers. it was a good time. I really enjoyed my time through the program at Temple, and I think it’s come a long way, too.

Connor Agnew:
Absolutely. We’ve had a couple different Temple alum on. We’ve had Nick LaRue, who I’m sure you remember. And then Sam Whitney was actually on the show as well, too. So we’ve in Merv Lumba. Actually, the more and more I think about it, the more people from Temple we brought on. So I think we all have positive things to say about the program. But we are here for Danny Wirt, not Temple. So I’m excited to talk about you and your career. Can you just give us a background of your full career and then what you’re currently up to?

Danny Wirt:
Mm-hmm.

Danny Wirt:
Okay.

Danny Wirt:
Hey man, so as we just discussed, started my undergrad at Temple University that originally started as undecided. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I loved sports and exercise and through various different changes through physical therapy, AT, I sort of landed on exercise science and fell in love with that and finished with my undergrad at Temple, then moved on to Appalachian State University, which is conveniently where you’re located.

And I ultimately fell there through my relationship with Dr. Mike Isertel, who I’m sure you’re familiar with. It was his alma mater and now my alma mater through the master’s program there. And there are some great faculty members there. Dr. Travis Triplett was my mentor and she is a juggernaut in the strengthening conditioning world. And that experience there was also invaluable.

Connor Agnew:
Absolutely.

Danny Wirt:
I learned a lot. ended up teaching for two semesters there towards the end of my, my tenureship and my degree program. Once I finished, I moved back up to the Northeast, back to Philly where I was a trainer for a little bit, but then I also began teaching, ironically enough, at Temple. So I taught at Temple, you know, probably for three or four years and some introductory courses, but

Also in a upper level, senior level course, was like research and writing and extras in sports science. So really exciting stuff, you know, learning how to interpret research. And I really, really loved the education component. Like I love being able to talk to students and, it, it’s important to that as an educator, you’re not just talking to the students, you’re helping to teach each other because there are certainly perspectives that the students can provide to help you to learn as well and grow.

And I’m sure you’ll find that as a coach too, you learn from your athletes. But, you know, after that, I sort of transitioned into my role now with RP Strength, also co-founded by Mike Izzertel. So my relationship with Mike has continued. I had a part-time job with them since about 2017. So right when we were finishing the undergrad at Temple.

And so I hold a of different roles in the company. One, I coach for the company. And then two, I also work a lot on their consumer affairs end. So customer experience comes to customer service, some marketing stuff, some hands in the YouTube stuff. So multifaceted and I carry a bunch of different hats inside the company. But that’s kind of where I’m landed now. And now I’m out in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia.

Enjoy my time with my wife and newborn son.

Connor Agnew:
It’s just amazing and I love hearing about your journey and especially how ours have intersected just at slightly different times as well. Obviously with you coming to ASU. The one funny story I always tell about Dr. Mike that I have to reiterate here is when I was in his nutrition class, I’ll never forget getting roasted by him for five minutes straight because I told him I like listening to Johnny Cash when I work out. And I mean, just absolutely blasted. He was dumbfounded and just could not.

think it was like a test review that we were on. some of the students were like, come on, we gotta get back to the test review. And he just kept being like, I don’t understand it. Like, how could you possibly be so sad and lift at the same time? So I have very, very high quality memories of working with Dr. Mike as well.

Danny Wirt:
He has a way with his words and it’s always an experience anytime that you’re in a classroom with him. But what’s interesting is he was, moreover, outside of my relationship with him professionally, with him being my professor at the time, it was cool to have that relationship evolve into something further, into more of a friendship with him. So always something new with him for sure.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah.

Connor Agnew:
Absolutely. Well, you know, as you mentioned, you love the teaching aspect and you loved being able to help educate students. What was the kind of driving force for you to transition into working as a coach with RP?

Danny Wirt:
You know, there are different ways in which you can educate an individual. You know, I looked at my time as a Temple as a way to instruct the masses. So, you know, obviously I’m working with a curriculum and I’m educating the students inside the class. And then those individuals then go on to help hundreds, thousands of other individuals. And so in some way it was nice knowing that I had some impact.

in other people’s lives, so I’ll never be able to see. But coaching provides another opportunity where you’re still educating someone. It’s just on a one-on-one basis, and you have the capacity to educate them and help to improve their lives directly. so, you know, education is involved in anything that someone does. It’s just at different levels and in different capacities. So,

I guess my love for education has kind of filtered through all the different roles and there’s been sort of a central focus in what I do. But ultimately that transition was just shifting from educating the masses to educating on a one-on-one basis where you have the ability to realize the outcomes and see the change for people, which I think is impactful, not obviously for the individual that you’re working with, but even for yourself. It’s nice and it’s fulfilling to be able to see that.

one-on-one with an individual.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah, I agree 100%. I think there’s a higher gratification level. when I look at it from the strength and conditioning side, one of the things I love is coaching up interns, right? And having young students come in and hopefully connecting them to their next job. And hopefully they enjoy strength and conditioning. I also love sometimes showing people that this may not be the career that they’re 100 % looking for because it saves them some time in the long run. But I think

when you work one-on-one with people or with a team, like you said, I think you can just see a little bit more of the result. Like those interns that, you you build great relationships and I might get a couple texts like, hey coach, I really appreciate what you did for me. But those are things that kind of come down the line. And there’s obviously smaller examples that can occur quickly. But when I think about what I love most about this job, I think about just being able to see people succeed and seeing people who…

take on challenges that they once were scared of or transform their bodies and now they’re able to play the sport at a much higher level. I think those things are very exciting.

Danny Wirt:
Well, and you know, in that same token, there’s also some risk there because you have the opportunity to work with someone and have them make a change for themselves and they just don’t want it. And that can be a little disheartening sometimes. I think it’s still, it’s still end up being worth it obviously, because you have those individuals that put all of their effort into it and you you spend a lot of time with them and they end up succeeding. And I can say that this all sort of, this whole educational

passion for myself sort of started with my undergrad when I was working with Dr. Santiago with our exercise and physiology course. was exercise or no, I actually forget the actual course name. I think it was 1203 or 1204, but I sort of held this undergrad TA role where I would hold study sessions with people that were in the course.

And I would guide them. would basically go over the course content that they went over that week. And I had some individuals in those study sessions that had taken the course two or three times. Like this was, was the third time taking the course. And once you’re in that, that third, that third time, you know, that’s it. You can’t take it again. And having people walk away from their second or third attempt at a course and succeeding because they were putting their best foot forward. You know, they were working with me through the course content.

Connor Agnew:
Myself included.

Danny Wirt:
And seeing those outcomes come to a positive fruition, was, mean, I loved being able to work with people in that capacity. and it was nice because again, all those people were going out of the way. This wasn’t mandatory. People didn’t have to go to these study sessions because they were told to, they opted to. And, so that was really rewarding too. And you’ll see that with athletes and with, clients alike, you’ll, you’ll find people are highly communicative and they put the best foot forward and they want the best outcomes.

Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm.

Danny Wirt:
And then there are going to be some people that just, you know, they’ll have asked things and it kind of is what it is.

Connor Agnew:
So I guess my experience can be different sometimes with the lower motivation, right? Because there’s always the essential piece, which is that they’re here to play a sport and you and I are tied in and we’re locked in together. So it’s not like this understanding that, okay, it may not work out at some point, like we have to make it work. Or at the end of the year, you may transfer or you may quit playing the sport as a whole. But for no matter what, we’re kind of locked into this contract until the end of the year.

How do you handle it with clients on a one-on-one basis when there’s not necessarily that locked in piece or kind of that pseudo contract obligation?

Danny Wirt:
I think it’s important to have an honest conversation with them. The reality is that a lot of people can be impulsive when they decide to work with a coach. There’s a lot of instances where people will have gone through various different diets that they found online or in a magazine and this person lost 50 pounds, so it must work. And they’re kind of at their wits end. so they’re like, okay, no, this is working. Let me work with someone.

And sometimes they’re still full bore, they’re ready to go. And then there are some people that fail for the same reasons that they failed everything else. And it was a lack of consistency. And it comes down to priorities and motivation plays a role for sure. And sometimes life just gets in the way. But that’s when you have an honest conversation with them. And maybe that means that you de-prioritize some of the things that they sort of wanted to focus on, which is fine.

You can have an ebb and flow in your priorities and your approach to exercise and diet. But the reality is you should still have a good foundation. And my aim is to make sure at the very least, if someone isn’t fully invested, even though they probably were on day one, to make sure that they can at least walk away with some foundational tools that allow them to make sure that they can center themselves a little bit. Because we don’t want them moving backwards, right?

If we can run them from moving backwards and continuing to spiral, then that’s still a positive, even though it’s maybe not the original outcome that someone wanted, because maybe they wanted to lose 20 pounds and they haven’t lost any weight, but they’re not gaining any weight. Okay. Well, we’ve made progress. That’s not what you wanted, but you also lost your job or you had a family incident or your car broke down, right? There’s so many different things that you’ll experience in your life that end up getting in the way.

And if at the very least you can keep some semblance of a foundation, I think that that’ll carry you through some of those tougher times.

Connor Agnew:
Have you ever had clients come back after taking a hiatus or, you know, like you said, they left with those foundational behaviors and then found a better situation for themselves to be able to come back and kind of get refocused on their main goals.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah. So there are a couple of clients that will, we’ll leave and then, and then come back. Maybe they have some stuff going on or maybe they’re, they’re good. They just want to drive through a maintenance phase, which I actually tell people is probably the hardest phase of, of any dietary journey. losing the weight is generally pretty easy. Gaining weight is for many people, obviously very easy. but maintaining where you are or maintaining results that you, you’ve acquired through a fat loss phase tends to be pretty difficult. And that’s just because the

there’s less objectivity in relation to the weight you see on the scale. It’s not like, okay, you need to be losing X number of pounds per week. It’s less motivating. It’s hard to just stay stagnant. And sometimes clients will come back because they’ll stay in the maintenance phase for a while. Then they want to run through another fat loss phase, maybe they want to go through a muscle gain phase, but whatever it is. And the good thing is a lot of those people end up carrying through those foundational things.

You know, sometimes again, it’s because they want to take a break. Other times it’s life related things. The reality is though, at the end of the day, if people don’t come back and they were successful with me, then I have no problem with that because at end of the day, that means that they were able to walk away with a lot of things that’ll help carry them through to success in the longterm. And there are some people that just love working with someone for years on end because you build a relationship with them and that is totally fine.

And then there are other people that get what they need out of it and then they’re ready to go. You know, you can think of it no different than you have with a college education. You get what you need out of the education and then you go. But then there are other people that want to stay at the university, right? It doesn’t matter what role they can fulfill. They want to stay at the university. They want to work there in some capacity because they just love the relationship that they have there. So, you know, sort of hit a mess, but that’s sort of the trend that you’ll see.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah, think you remind me of one of my favorite online clients I’ve ever had. It was a guy who we had our initial call. You know, every answer was yes or no. You know, there was not very much elaboration on anything. Very stoic kind of personality. Uploaded his workouts, completed every single workout for three months straight, got exactly to where he wanted to be. And then he just said, I’m done. Thank you. And I was like, yeah, that’s okay. Awesome. I think those relationships can be very cool too.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, you know, at the end of the day, you helped to sort of bridge where they were to where they wanted to be and guided them through to be successful. You know, it’s interesting because you’ll have clients that thank you like a ton. Like I couldn’t have gotten here without you. And in some capacity there, they truly believe that. But at end of the day, you just provided some resources, some guidance, and ultimately a lending hand that just helped them to feel more

confident and comfortable crossing the bridge. Like you just give them resources they needed.

Connor Agnew:
Absolutely. Yeah. And I think, again, that’s like the main thing. If, an athlete ever comes up to me and says, thank you so much for everything you’ve done. It’s like, I just wrote the program. Like you had to do the workouts every day. And trust me, there’s some people who have found a way to not care about doing the workouts every day.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, I think it’s, and see, again, working with clients and athletes are a little bit different, obviously, you know, the environment that they’re in, the goals. And I think that that’s where it’s important to sort of meet the athlete or client where they are and recognize that, you know, you just said you wrote the program. You did write the program. You may have also had to make some changes here or there based off of the environments or if there’s injuries and stuff like that. And you do your best to, again, make it optimal, make it.

alignment with what the sport goals are, make it in alignment with where they are in their season. So physiologically, the adaptations that you’re looking to drive are in alignment with their season. And if it’s with a client, making sure that, you know, it’s in alignment with what they’re looking to do if it’s growing muscle or getting stronger. But again, if they’re not consistent at end of the day, it’s not going to be the best program, even if on paper it looks like it is. So there is an art with coaching there.

Connor Agnew:
So what are your keys to relationship development with your clients?

Danny Wirt:
So I think honesty and transparency are super important. I think that the success of a relationship ultimately comes down to communication. And you have to highlight how important it is for the client to feel open and being able to communicate with you about anything that they feel is relevant to talk about. Meaning if you have a really close friend or a spouse or a partner who you recognize as your best friend, they’ll tell them anything.

If they are sort of out of pocket, you have no problem sharing that with them. You should have that relationship with your client too, but you need to set the standards in the beginning to make sure that they feel comfortable being able to have those kinds of conversations with you. If they feel like they’re not getting the best support possible from you, it’s important that they share that information because if you don’t know, then you don’t know that they feel that way. But what’s then important to follow up with is, okay.

Where can we meet in the middle? How can we solve this so that you feel like your needs are met and we can make sure that we’re moving in the right direction? Because it no matter what situation you’re in, even if the if someone feels something and the reason that they feel that is sort of misguided, they still feel that way for a reason. And it’s important to talk through those things. So anytime that you’re working with someone, you need to make sure that you’re building a solid relationship again, that is built on honesty and transparency to make sure that

you’re fostering an environment where the client or the athlete feels comfortable being able to talk to you.

Connor Agnew:
So what are some of the questions you ask or kind of the statements you make when initially meeting with the client to make sure that you guys can meet in the middle?

Danny Wirt:
So whenever you’re starting off with someone, it’s important to run a needs analysis, right? And this goes back to undergrad, sort of like an intro to actually a science basic implementation. need to find out what the person wants because if you don’t know what the person wants, you have no direction. Oftentimes we’ll get people who express that they want to look like a certain individual. And sometimes I’ll even have like a client send like a photo, like,

I don’t ask them to, they just send me a photo of what they want to look like and maybe they express that they want to lose a certain amount of weight but gain a certain amount of muscle. If I just straight up told them like, all right, we got this, three months, this is going to happen. I’d be lying to them. And if after three months go by and they don’t look that way, then that’s a failure on my part because I wasn’t honest with them. That’s not necessarily a failure on their part. So whenever I see sort of some of these red flags,

I instantly ask questions about them. Like, hey, let’s say that they put a certain weight or a body weight or a body fat percentage. Where did these numbers come from? Why are these important to you? Like, is there some significance to these numbers? Was it a weight that you were before that you felt comfortable at? Is it something that you feel would just be ideal for where you are? And I think once you start poking and prodding a little bit,

kind of allows them to open up a little bit with what they ultimately want, why they want those outcomes. think finding that why and helping them to really express the reasons for looking for these outcomes are important for starting to build the relationship. So again, when you find some of those red flags, I think it’s important to ask those questions and you poke and you prod and you get them to open up a little bit more. And I think that’s ultimately the start of building the relationship because if someone can’t open up and you

You’re not really building a good foundation.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it’s a two-way phone call. What are some of the red flags that you may see?

Danny Wirt:
Well, so, so right there was, the body weight. Like, so, so let’s say they’re like, I want to lose 20 pounds in the next four weeks. Okay, great. That’s not to say that we can’t make that happen, but listen, there are some instances where, where that’s totally reasonable. Let’s say that they’re, they’re a fighter and they need to make weight and they’re 20 pounds overweight. Okay. You can make that happen. And that is, that is a realistic.

Connor Agnew:
You

Danny Wirt:
possibility. It’s also something that’s reasonable given your sport, it’s a body weight sport. You need to make weight. But if we have a mom of three who just wants to lose 20 pounds over the next month, I think it’s important to have a conversation about why losing the 20 pounds over the next month is important for them. Maybe they have a wedding in the next four weeks that they want to lose the 20 pounds for, in which case, I mean, the reality is they probably should have started three months prior.

and done a little bit more of a progressive approach. you know, anytime that you see something extreme is ultimately a red flag. Another red flag that I think cannot always be a red flag, but sometimes it is, is if someone doesn’t include like any information in their questionnaire. Whereas if they’ll like, you ask them what their outcome goals are and why, and they straight, I want to lose 10 pounds. Okay.

That makes me feel like you’re kind of closed off and maybe they’re not as invested. That doesn’t mean that they are But you need to poke and prod in order to get a little bit more information and it’s totally possible that they’re just not bought in Maybe they’re super defeated from running all these previous diets. They impulsively, you know signed up but they’re still kind of defeated from all of the the lack of success that they had from from their previous diets and and so

That can be a red flag too. I mean, there are a couple other things for sure that I’m sure you would find in a standard needs analysis and a questionnaire. But again, I think it’s important to figure out the why behind their outcome goals.

Connor Agnew:
No, absolutely. We talked about the initial relationship building. When you have a long-term client, maybe somebody three months, six months, or even a year, how do you continue to develop that relationship with them?

Danny Wirt:
So the one I think it’s important to make sure that you continue to communicate. So one of the hardest things you’ll find is if someone’s really successful and things are just moving really well, like you’re looking at their check-ins and their weight’s progressing exactly as you would expect it to, their numbers look exactly as they should, it’s very easy for you to sort of fall off and not like check in as frequently. I think it’s really important to make sure that you make a concerted effort to continue to

communicate, reach out, ask if there’s barriers, ask if there’s areas for improvement. And I think it’s important to talk about transitions for goals because someone will start with you with an initial goal and whether they reach those exact numbers or not, I think it’s important to continue to have the conversation and relationship with their goals because two months down the line, their goal may look a little bit different. One year later, two years later, their goal may look totally different from where they started.

Some people may start off wanting to get involved in powerlifting and a year later they got wrapped into some YouTube videos about triathlons. Now they’re trying to do triathlons. And if you don’t continue to engage in a conversation with them, then you’re really not going to have a program that’s in alignment with what they want. Or if you don’t foster an environment where they feel like they can express these things to you or feel confident, then you are not on the same page. And that’s going to ultimately lead to the failure.

of you as a coach. I mean, no different for me. I went from powerlifting as my main focus and cardio is stupid and I’m not going to run and now I do it all. Now I run, I cycle and I still lift. But I’m certainly not competing in powerlifting anymore. you know, goals change. And so when you’re working with these people long term, it’s important to make sure that you’re continuing to keep the program in alignment with what the person wants.

not necessarily what you think is best for them.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it’s funny. You actually make me think you’ve been making me think this podcast, which I appreciate greatly. But it reminds me of one of our players on this team who came in. He was kind of our biggest body transformation guy. This was somebody who was like, OK, if he can get his body right, you know, then he will be somebody who can be a big impact for us. Ended up losing 30 pounds within a year. And we had a really great relationship. And then he started playing a lot more and he didn’t redshirt with me.

Danny Wirt:
Mm.

Connor Agnew:
And so it was almost as if he reached his goals. I kind of fell off coaching a little bit. I remember I came up to him one day, was like, you know, just speaking with him as how he would talk. It’s like, you don’t mess with me anymore, man. What’s up? You know, and then I kind of realized that that is again, like we talked about a two way street and I was a little bit more of the one who probably didn’t mess with him as much because he reached his goal. And in my mind, it was like, okay, objective complete. What’s the next kind of biggest project that we have coming up?

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, mean, objectives change. I think that you have to also just sort of be honest with yourself. mean, even, you know, within our day and our week, if we feel like we’re successful at something, we stop asking questions. For instance, when I was competing in powerlifting, I had a back injury which sort of forced me to stop squatting and deadlifting.

And I had to do bench only, but the problem was my bench was terrible. It was atrocious. And my squat and delft were always something that just sort of moved well and instantly clicked. But it forced me to focus on what I was really weak at. And then I started to get really good at bench. All of these little nuances, how I moved my wrist, how I moved my shoulders, how I moved my back, my legs. And then I got really good at the bench. And then it became very easy for me to just kind of get caught in the motion and then just stop looking for areas of improvement.

How can I continue to improve my bench? Because I got really good at it. So I think it is important to continue to ask questions even when we’re good at something, because if we’re not, we’re kind of just getting lost in where we are and just accepting that where we are is good enough. I think the moment we stop asking complicated questions is the moment that we sort of digress and spit.

Connor Agnew:
Mmm.

Danny Wirt:
I guess fail to continue to improve at a rate that we otherwise could.

Connor Agnew:
Have you ever caught yourself doing that as a practitioner? Maybe not within bench press and like how would you advise other practitioners to be able to understand that, that there may be within this kind of limbo area where they’re not achieving the levels of, I don’t know if you’d call it success or drive that you would hope to see.

Danny Wirt:
So it’s kind of complicated and I don’t know that everyone has the same level of introspection as the next person. I think it’s important to have some level of introspection. Otherwise you’re not going to be able to ask yourself these questions and think about these things. But I think sometimes having a moment of silence to think about what it is you’re doing, why you’re doing it. And then that can sort of lead down a rabbit hole into asking 20 different questions about what it is that you’re doing.

Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm.

Danny Wirt:
And whether it’s you end up then transitioning to have you reading a bunch of books or using chat GPT or whatever to educate yourself. I think that can help you to gain more insight. So, you know.

If I were to spend just a couple of minutes sitting here thinking about why it is that I’m running, I could come up with five to 10 different answers as to why I’m running. And then each of those questions could then sort of populate their own five to 10 different questions. But if you don’t ever stop to think about these things, then you’re never going to question them. And I think it’s very easy to get caught up in the monotony of the day to day. For instance, if you just want to go out and run and just feel good.

then you can just go out and run and feel good. And that’s sort of the end of the loop, right? But if you don’t stop to question, okay, well, what is it about my day that isn’t making me feel good? What is this adding that I wasn’t getting before? Now you can start asking yourself more questions about other things that maybe are related to that. But if you don’t ever stop to think, and again, you’re stuck in a monotony of the day to day, then it’s pretty easy to sort of come stagnant.

So I don’t know that there’s any right answer. I think it just requires you to be present, which I think is really hard for most people on the day to day. And I’m certainly a victim of that. have a problem remaining present and in the moment. But you have to just give yourself some time.

Connor Agnew:
Do you think that, like you said, there are different levels of introspection. Do you think it’s a skill that can be trained?

Danny Wirt:
think it’s a habit that can be worked out. I think it’s a skill that’s innate. just like any skill can be innate in someone. but that doesn’t mean that can’t be trained into someone. and it doesn’t mean that you can’t sort of work it into your day to day. So, you know, just, just like brushing your teeth, you know, if you’re brushing your teeth twice, twice a day, great.

But if you’re sort of falling off the wagon there and you need to do better, then you sort of need to set up a foundation to make sure that you’re repeating that action. And the more you repeat an action, the easier it is to continue to follow through with it. So if it means, you know, the first five minutes of your day, you want to just set a timer or like an alarm that’ll go off after five minutes and just spend your time just sitting there thinking, then do that. If you want to do that right before bed, then try it right before bed.

Whatever it is that you feel is reasonable for you, just make sure that you can fit it into your day. And I think you’ll, you’ll find that at the very least starts the wheel moving and maybe you change when you do it, how you do it. But I think, I think in some regard, it’s important to do it and begin to ask yourself these questions because I think it’s, allows for a lot of self discovery and, and what is it you’re doing? Why does it, you’re doing it. Um, I think it’d help with your relationships as well. You may respond to someone.

with sort of an angry tone and maybe you were just having a bad day and you sort of reflect on that and you realize, like, they weren’t wrong. I see where they’re coming from their perspective. But I think it’s very easy to just kind of bark back and get mad and not think about it again. But the moment you start giving yourself even just five minutes to think about these things, I think it’s a lot easier to start seeing things from different perspectives and then improve yourself as an athlete practitioner.

spouse, partner, friend, whatever it might be.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah, I’ve never reflected and regretted it. I may have regretted it in the moment, right? Because I’m kind of giving myself a dose of truth, right? And understanding that this is an area I can get better in or I haven’t really been doing exactly what I need to be doing. you know, I think what I noticed a lot was early on in my career, there’d be a lot of anxiety around things that I wasn’t familiar with or I hadn’t done the research on. Like our listeners have heard me a million times talk about conditioning, right?

Danny Wirt:
Mm.

Connor Agnew:
my conditioning was terrible. My first couple of years for the teams. And I just didn’t really understand it. And I almost went inward and kind of got in a shell. And I just got angry when people would ask me about it. And I’d be like, well, I’m figuring it out, you know, right? Instead of spending that time to say, okay, well, what are the actual steps to actually get better at this? and then when I found like what you were saying, the ability to just stop, ask myself questions, understand what’s a good path to actually get started instead of just staying in this limbo of being frustrated.

It changed a lot of things within that specific subsection, but then within my career as a whole too.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, I mean, it’s very easy when, when you’re in a profession that’s sort of data-driven, you can get lost paralysis by analysis, and then you can also, you know, feel as though you, your background sort of inadequate. maybe, maybe I don’t have enough credentialing to, be in the, the, the role that I’m in. I mean, I, found that when I was teaching, I felt as though it was, it was a strange position to be.

educating people who are maybe five years younger than me because at 27 years old, I’m teaching people in their undergrad and sort of about complex topics. And it was pretty easy for me to feel as though I was sort of inadequate. But when you stop and think about the content you’re teaching, what you’ve done in the past, why you might feel that way, I think it’s a lot easier to become or at least come to terms with maybe why you felt that way in the moment.

But then again, improve, you you start then getting more confident in what you’re doing because you start thinking through these things and the better you, or I guess the more you are confident with the thing that is that you’re doing, the better it is that you end up performing. I don’t know a whole lot of athletes that perform well when they’re not confident in their sport.

Connor Agnew:
Very very rare

Danny Wirt:
Yeah. so I think again, it’s, important. and, I don’t think that people do it enough. I think it’s easy to also just kind of get lost in the phone, look at social media. And, if someone thinks that they don’t have five minutes to just sit by themselves, whether it, and you could even look at it like you’re meditating. I am not, well equipped to discuss meditation as a practice. but.

Connor Agnew:
yeah.

Danny Wirt:
It’s the closest thing that I could think of that this relates to is just being present with yourself and thinking through these things. I think you can learn a lot about yourself.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah, it’s like we talked about pre show, right? About what draws me to cardio. I couldn’t care less about my times or what I look like when I’m running or anything, but it’s a very, very reflective time period for me. And it’s different from lifting for me and it’s different from anything else that I really do because it allows me to just think and it allows me to have a very clear mind. And so sometimes I’ll…

spend the whole run thinking about something I want to improve upon. Sometimes I’ll spend the five minutes like you’re talking about, but it’s always been constructive.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah. And so when you, you provide yourself that outlet in that time, it means, mean, you’re kind of sort of killing two birds with one stone, right? You’re providing yourself a nice physical stimulus. going out, you’re being physically active, which you’ve already recognized that it’s important to do. And you’re also providing yourself the time to think. And, maybe that’s something that you, didn’t really give yourself before.

that’s why, again, I I I mentioned it before the podcast started. I’m an advocate for, for running or doing cardiovascular work without any headphones on, just being present and again, in the moment, taking in your surroundings and sort of just spending some time in your head, which I know sounds a little bit weird, but, like you can, you can learn a lot about yourself in that time. and if, people feel like they don’t, again, have the time to sit down and think and go out for a run.

Again, you’re killing two birds with one stone. You’re being active and you’re spending some time thinking and getting to know yourself a little bit more.

Connor Agnew:
Absolutely. love it. Now with your career as a whole, know, I will get to, when I get quite his questions about division one athletics all the time, right? And it’s, it’s about, you know, okay, my son’s being recruited. How should I operate with this or how should I, you know, make sure that he’s a division one athlete or do all these things? Is there a lot of myth busting with your career, whether it’s clients who initially come in or maybe a family member who kind of comes up to you at a Thanksgiving dinner and

Talks about these brand new diets that you’ve previously mentioned.

Danny Wirt:
I think that could be a little bit challenging, particularly with diet. And I think there’s sort of an art to defusing certain situations. People get very emotional about their diets and the foods that they’re eating. It’s sort of like talking politics at Thanksgiving dinner. Like you probably don’t want to do that too much. you know, the diet piece and myth busting just like

Connor Agnew:
Yeah

Danny Wirt:
I mentioned before, if someone feels a certain way, they feel that way for a reason. Whether you think it’s valid or not, they feel that way for a reason. So it’s really important that if someone approaches you with something that’s sort of wrong or maybe slightly incorrect, it’s important to recognize why they feel the way that they feel and provide some merit. For instance, if someone comes to me and says, well, why want to intermittent fast?

And they’re, they’re super like stuck on that being how they’re approaching their diet. have no problem if someone wants to approach their diet that way, because you can see success with intermittent fasting. But if they also say that they, they want to do intermittent fasting and they want to maximize their muscle gain, then I think that’s an important conversation that you need to have because that’s not going to maximize muscle gain. You know, you need to have protein throughout the day. And so, you know, I think.

once you diffuse the conversation by discussing some of the value and merit in the actual myth or thing it is that they believe, that it is to have a discussion about it, it becomes less of a black and white argument. Argument is not the right word, but you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe, and there’s no crossover. There’s no Venn diagram.

Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm.

Danny Wirt:
And the reality is there’s a Venn diagram, there’s some crossover and where you meet in the middle is really important to help shift that person over to your side and recognizing that maybe there’s some flaws in their perspective or the way that they’re viewing, whatever it is that they’re viewing, which could be related to diet or sport or whatever it is.

Connor Agnew:
So it’s the basic understanding of each other as well too.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, mean, we’re, listen, we’re all people. We all certainly believe things that aren’t true or maybe a little bit silly. But I’m sure you and I both recognize that if someone comes to us and says that we’re wrong, I’m immediately putting up a wall. Like who are you to tell me I’m wrong? Right? And no different than anyone else. I think again, once you meet in the middle, find yourself in the middle of that venn diagram, see where you see alignment.

Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Danny Wirt:
with what they’re saying and what may be true and then working to at least give them insight into your side of the circle so that you can possibly shift them a little bit closer to your side and recognizing that maybe there are some flaws in their perspectives that they didn’t see before.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah. When you bring up the immediate you’re wrong and walls coming up, I’ll never forget posting a video on social media of the process of making our recovery shakes for our basketball team. Right. And we had a muscle milk protein powder on there and somebody immediately commented like, you know, this specific preservative that’s in it will give them cancer and you know, in about a year’s or anything like you’re completely wrong. And I’ve never had a comment bother me more than that. I don’t know what it was, but

But like you said, know, the only way I ever eventually got over it was understanding, okay, well, this person has no clue that we have a deal with Muscle Milk for us to use that as our primary protein source. And that’s the only like protein that we’re gonna be able to provide for the athletes. And it comes in a much more cost effective way. So maybe I should just relax a little bit.

Danny Wirt:
Well, see, and the other thing is that that individual who maybe wrote that comment is possibly a little misguided, but that doesn’t mean that they’re wrong in their own sense in that there may be a study where they identified that the preservative in question that may be in muscle milk at extremely high doses in rodent models demonstrated some cancer risk. But the reality is a lot of these things that are studied in human models

do not have the same outcomes in rodent models. And that requires a little bit of nuance and also taking in the totality of the literature and the additives and stuff that are in food. mean, they’re studied pretty rigorously in order to be able to make it into the food supply. So there is very little to no risk with anything that’s added to something that’s cleared by the FDA. So for food and consumption.

Um, but the reality is again, that that person may have had some, merit. They probably didn’t have a, uh, maybe they actually felt that they needed to, to write the comment because they felt like they were doing a service and saying like, this is bad. You shouldn’t be doing this. And I think it’s important to recognize that. Like they’re just a person. They think that what they’re doing is in writing it and saying that on the post is, is trying to enlighten you and tell you that what you’re giving them is poison. Um,

Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm.

Connor Agnew:
Yes. Yes.

Danny Wirt:
because they feel they may have a calling or a duty to do that. But it doesn’t mean that there aren’t flaws in the logic and what they’re seeing too.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah, that is another great point that’s kind of been key for me in my career is understanding that usually, and even if it may not be, I still frame it this way in my head that it’s coming from a place where that person wants to help. And so if they truly think that what they are saying is correct and they’re just trying to help. And so it’s allowed me to kind of not put that wall up immediately as well.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, I mean, listen, if you ended up having a conversation with that person, the first thing you could have said to them, and I obviously wouldn’t advocate for having it be in that same thread. Sometimes it’s better to have it as a private chat. You could have responded in a DM and said, hey, man, I had no idea. Where did you hear this? like, how did you find that this preservative led to cancer? Then they can give you the facts that they have, the information they have, the insight they have.

Connor Agnew:
Yeah.

Danny Wirt:
And again, that’s where you may find that they just picked out one study that found that the preservative was found at extremely high doses in rodent models led to some cancer risk. then you can sort of add some questions like, like I had no idea this was an issue. I did see that, you know, over in this instance, it didn’t. What do you think about this? Now it’s a conversation and it sort of diffuses the situation.

Connor Agnew:
Mm-hmm.

Danny Wirt:
And again, I think it’s a good perspective to have these conversations with. People are coming from a place of kindness and good intentions. And I think that’ll help you change the mindset when you’re having conversations with people like that. Or it’ll possibly diffuse some instant anger that you get from someone maybe being a keyword warrior, which sometimes people just want to watch the world burn, which is fine.

If you think that they’re just being a positive light, then it’s no skin off your back.

Connor Agnew:
It certainly helped me. I can promise you that as somebody who has a quick trigger for getting angry. Well, Danny, thank you so much for coming on, man. I really appreciate you. It’s great to connect with you after all these years again. And I appreciate hearing from you and I appreciate you making me think, like I said, which is always the fun part of this podcast. If somebody wants to familiarize themselves with your work or follow you on social media, what would be the best way to do that?

Danny Wirt:
BAM.

Danny Wirt:
Yeah, so I have a fairly inactive Instagram account that I use. think it’s just Danny work. Again, I’m fairly inactive on it, but I do like to post some educational stuff on there, some family stuff, my kid now more often. So they can certainly find me on Instagram. They can also find me at RP strength if they were looking for coaching services.

but yeah, man, I listen at the end of the day, I think people need to spend a little bit more time being present, thinking, and, just learning a little bit more about themselves.

Connor Agnew:
I love it. And I agree wholeheartedly. And I do think there’s a slight pun within your inactive Instagram because you do post stories every day of you being very active on cardio, whether it’s running or biking. something silly, but Danny, thank you again. I appreciate you,

Danny Wirt:
Mm-hmm. I love it.

Danny Wirt:
It’s been a pleasure being on. Thanks.