Better Than Yesterday with Todd Dengler

lifter, pro wrestler, and chronic pain driver. Both for life is a podcast about living

with the challenges of chronic pain. Our goal is to acknowledge, inspire, and relate

“to people living with chronic pain. I believe it is not only possible to survive, but to”

live a full life and thrive with chronic pain. No matter where you are in your journey, our mission is to give you the information and inspiration that will help you become Bolt for life. Today on the both for life podcast, we talk with Todd Dangler. Todd is a website developer and brand consultant and he herniated his C6 while doing some crossfit. So today he shares with us some information about his journey and now he's gone

from powerlifting to power tools. Welcome to the both for life podcast, Todd. Thanks for having

appreciate it. Yeah, man, thanks for stopping by. So can you tell the audience a little bit

about yourself? I can. I am a branding consultant and a website developer here in Momentan in my website, it's yondershort.com. Father of two, stepfather to two, my wife is Abby Me. Cool. So a little bit that I know about you is that you were a crossfit trainer

“correct? I was for a very short time, long enough to learn how not to warm up for giving”

a class. Yeah, pretty much how it went. Yeah. Spent four years, training and crossfit, got certified, Todd of class, and blew out my C6. Oh, man. It was, it was humbling. It was a humbling experience in my life. Yeah, so that was four years ago. That was, yep, it's not four years ago. Wow, man. Yeah, and that's, you know, on the both for life podcast, we talk a lot about injuries and ways to live with them and to be active and thrive

in live a full life with them. But maybe could you tell us a little bit more about your background like what got you that point and your life where you were interested in CrossFit,

what did you do before that? I've always been sitting mine to desk building the websites,

been doing it for 20 years. Wow. And I needed something different to work out. I needed, couldn't work out at home. I needed that that community and my friend Tony came in to where I was

“working. I was building websites and he was trying to get me all on board for CrossFit. And this”

was 2008, 2009 and I was skeptic. I was like, yeah, it sounds like it's like a cold. Yeah, right. So I finally went into a CrossFit gym. It doesn't exist anymore here in town. And I was, I got the bug and so I just found the next gym that was open and started going there and went there for a while and then went to do another gym for about four or five years and then built my own CrossFit gym in my backyard and I've got, you know, all the kids are into it. So, no, they're not.

That's a total lie. My wife loves CrossFit, but she's not, she's not into the whole hype of it. Mm-hmm. She's not into the yelling. Yeah. There's a lot of yelling in CrossFit. Yeah, yeah. So we put a little CrossFit gym in our, in our shed in our backyard and she works out there three days a week. My, my step sign is 1480 pounds six feet tall. Wow. It can back squat 350. Nice. He's a monster. He's willing to football next year at Hogwarts, so he's been working out like a champ back there.

That's awesome. So 2009, that had to be around the time CrossFit was really just starting to get big. Yeah. Yeah. It was. So I got into it. I got certified in 2014. Okay. And it was shortly after that about a year after that, I took over one of my own class at a gym. We were doing a, we're doing an Amrap, which is as many rounds as possible for 20 minutes of 10 pull-ups, 10 overhead squats. All it was. Wow. So I demonstrated a strict pull-up.

I walked over to the bar, walked over to the bar, didn't do with PVC. It was actually a load. And I demonstrated it overhead squat right out of the gate. Wow. Six o'clock in the morning. And I felt at the pop. Mm-hmm. And I knew that I hadn't warmed up my hamstrings. I had warmed up my lower back. So it was weird that it popped at my neck. And I came to learn about you know, the posterior chain and how everything is linked. And if, you know, if something's

tight down low, it's going to look for a spot that's loose. And it's going to grab it. Yeah. And I'm not a physiologist. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a chiropractor. I don't know anything about the human body other than my own and what happened to me. Mm-hmm. And I knew it was because my lower body was tight. Yeah. You know, it's been it's taken a lot to to get back where I can surf because when you surf you're prone and you're looking up. And if you've

got a C6 injury, there's no looking up. Right. It's pretty miserable. Yeah. Any injury is miserable. But when you're sitting behind a desk 10 hours a day and you've got a C6 injury, it's brutal. Yeah. So you can't hold your shoulders up. Yeah. That's tough. Totally. Totally. I hear you, man. I'm sorry. That happened. And I can relate several different

I didn't warm up as much as I should. I was having trouble with my other shoulder. And

“I was just doing floor presses. I can't do regular bench presses anymore. And I was coming up”

and pop, pop, pop. And I completely tore two of the muscles of the rotator cuff and I tore the other two. And yeah, it's like that moment. You just know, you know. It's, uh, yeah. And if you've ever experienced it, you know what we're talking about. Yeah. But yeah, man. So what's the recovery been like since that? The recovery has been great. About that time, I had left web development and got into working construction. Mm. It was a kind of a post and divorce type thing. Yeah. I've been

doing one of those. Kind of. I kind of lost my mind for a minute there. Mm. Seemingly. But I worked for a great guy. Um, I'm going to plug you right now, Randy Black.

Cool. He's an amazing guy. Um, but working for him, injury was gone. Because I was moving.

“I was picking things up the right way. But I was picking things up. Right. I was active.”

And, you know, it's kind of like a hydraulic jack. If you don't ever use it, you know, it'll go bad. But if you keep using it, it'll stay working for a while. Um, and it was just, you know, the, the pay wasn't near what it was building websites. So I had to put a pin in that dream and go back to building websites, which I love to do. Yeah. But it's, it's not, you're not active for 10 hours. Right. You're sitting for 10 hours. After I went back,

it was, the injury was back. The biggest I have to say another plug, Keith Nelson at when he was he owned pork city CrossFit. Oh, yeah. I went in there after the injury and he showed me six or seven movements, weighted movements, self-weighted movements, that really helped cool the whole chain, the whole thing, hamstrings, but lower back, mid back and the C6 and it all came into, it's all just lined up.

And, and no amount of chiropractic did that. No offense to chiropractic. There's a love them. Yeah. They did, and they have a great purpose, but I went to a lot of chiropractors to get this right. And it was just me doing these six, six or seven or whatever movements on a daily basis. And it took 15 minutes to do it. It's just a matter of, do I care about myself enough to take 15 minutes to do this? Wasn't yoga and any trans music plan. I didn't have any incense burning,

but probably would make cool. Yeah, right. But I took 15 minutes every day to just stretch it out the right way, and it gave it enough margin in the neck to, I don't know if it's

healed. I haven't had an MRI since the first one, but I don't have the issues. That's awesome, man.

And you look great. I mean, you know, the proof is in the pudding, right? Well, this isn't audio thanks to anybody who can tell if you're lying, but right, you got to have to take my word for it. I have to post some pictures, Brian. Well, tell our producer Brian about some pictures. Yeah, man, I remember like when, you know, the Arnold classic, Arnold Schwarzenegger holds this big convention every year, and it's actually where I met my wife. She was a figure competitor.

“I was at my powerlifting buddies, but I think it was the year after we met, they, like,”

showcased CrossFit at the convention. And it was like, it was packed. You couldn't even get near the

place. It was amazing. That's the first I had heard of it. And I'm coming from a powerlifting

background. I'm really a big fan of it in that, that CrossFit incorporates a lot of the power lifting moves, a lot of Olympic lifting moves, a lot of just good hardcore calisthenics, get your heart rate up and kick some butt. You know, I think it's an awesome thing. And I know, you know, some of the criticism of CrossFit, especially early on, was concerned for people getting injured. But I have seen, I've seen some great CrossFit people in Chicago where I'm from,

come and actually hire some well-known powerlifters to work on their technique with certain things I've heard of. CrossFit coaches going to Olympic weightlifters and paying sessions to learn better techniques, you know, and on an art show here, we're a big fan of Dr. Kelly Storet, who owns a CrossFit gym out in San Francisco. And he's written a couple of great books. One of them is becoming a supple leopard and it's a lot of mobility type stuff, you know, that goes with the movement.

But yeah, man, I mean, life is movement, right? You got to move? Yeah. And that's the, that's the biggest

400 pounds. If you can't touch your toes, if you can't jump out of bed in the morning,

“you got to think about your mobility. You got to think about your range of movement. You got to”

think about those muscles that you're working. Are they rock harder? Are they like, like, Dr. Kelly said, are they supple? Hmm. And you want to keep them supple? My wife talks about it's all the time. She talks about self-care. And that's just paying attention to what you need and taking care of that the right way. And, you know, if you're stiff, don't overlook it. Hmm. Don't go, I'm just getting old. You're not. You're just being lazy. Yeah, that's that's

so true, man. It's so true. It's been a little time. Yeah. I mean, I joke with some of my friends now

is that I'm doing the stuff that I saw my friends that are 10 years older than me,

that stuff they were doing 10 years ago, you know, and about half of my workouts now, my, you know, everything's changed. I'm sure, you know, with age, it things change. I have to find different ways to do things. I have to be more creative. But sometimes half of my workout is to do mobility work, you know, depending on the day and what I need to do. But that keeps me walking, you know, I've had teams of doctors tell me if I didn't do what I do, I probably wouldn't be walking.

So, you know, it's good motivation to keep going. And like you said, taking care of yourself. And

“that's that's the name of the game. Yeah, and that's the thing you have to, um,”

you always have to keep that in the forefront of your mind, whatever you're doing.

You know, is this, is this contributing to my quality of life or is it detracting from it? And, you know, you also have to know the mobility things to do specifically for what you're working on. Yes, you can do your the general mobility workouts on the day-to-day basis. But when you step into that gym and you step into that workout room or wherever you're loading up, so to speak, you need to know what you're working out so that you can, so you can prepare those muscles for

what's going to happen. Otherwise, injury. Yeah. And that's, you know, the big thing about, I've always thought of CrossFit gyms as churches. And it's pretty obvious where I'm going with this. If you go to a church, and I don't care if it's just a community of people who believe the same thing, could be a church, a synagogue, a mosque, whatever. But if the person leading you is, is leading you outside of the parameters of that faith, kind of going off on their own little

rogue, there's injury that's going to happen. There's spiritual emotional injury that's going to happen when you buy into a false doctrine. Same thing with CrossFit. There are a lot of good CrossFit gyms. But there's a smattering of guys who just want to make money. They don't know anything about physiology. They don't care anything about warming up. They just want to grant yell and tell people good job or, you know, setting PRs and being on social media, telling everybody that, you know,

one of their highlights did a really good job. Those people are getting injured because they're not trained right. And, you know, luckily for us in Wilmington, we've had really good CrossFit gyms. And the only athletes that are doing CrossFit in this town that are getting injured, this is really going to put a red flag in my reputation if I even have one. They're not preparing for what they're doing. That's because the coaches in this town are great. I have to agree

with you there. The owners set the precedent for CrossFit gym. And each of the owners of CrossFit gyms in this town passed in present. They've known what they're doing. And when they bring up a culture of trainers, those trainers are expected to know what they're doing. And, you know, so I haven't experienced a bad gym. I've just been a bad athlete. You know, that's where my injuries came from. Just being a bad athlete. Yeah, I mean, I loved the way you compared it with the church.

That's a perfect analogy. You know, I've heard really great things about the CrossFit gyms in town here have been down here about four going on five years. You know, then fortunate thing,

“I think with CrossFit around the country is investors realized, oh, you can open a gym and you”

don't have to buy all this big expensive equipment. And we can charge people money and they'll come, you know, and they don't invest in the trainers. They don't invest in the quality people. And I think

and it's the trainers. It's the people running it and teaching. You know, I always like to,

“when I give any fitness advice or work on advice, I didn't invent any of this stuff. You know,”

I have my own experience with it. But I learned it from somebody else. And I was fortunate to be around really great athletes and great trainers. But, you know, the continual desire to keep learning, you know, and to keep, and I see that with really good coaches. You know, I like that you brought that up and and I do think we're fortunate here in this area. We've got some really great people and great gems. But yeah, I mean, the people that think that, oh, I can, this is, you know, cheap overhead

and I can just get some grunts in here and we can just, you know, knock this out and charge people a monthly rate. And that's where the problems come in, you know. I hate to see that because I hated the fact that I got hurt in a powerlifting competition because I competed 16 years,

I had a pretty high level before that and never had a serious injury powerlifting. And I

“lived in a small local competition where they weren't used in the same equipment that we use at”

an national level. It was going to be a small warm-up meet that was getting ready for nationals and they didn't have the 100 pound plates that we use. So the bars were the weights were close to then to the bar. They didn't have the same competition collars and I did a deadlift and the collar came off and the weights came off and it broke a vertebrae, you know. And that was my responsibility. That was on me. I chose to go to that competition and then even seen the quality

of equipment, I chose to do that lift even though in hindsight, I shouldn't have done that lift. I could have done my opener. I would have won the competition and I didn't have to do that lift. But my ego, you know, reared his ugly head and here we are today. I did it. I had when you were saying that you saw the condition of the equipment, you did it anyway.

“It reminds me of a story. I got a lot of stories that have nothing to do with what you're talking”

about what they do. I got you. Love it. About 15 or 16 years ago I was in Costa Rica, been there for about a month. And I was in Haco, which is on the West Coast, and I needed to get a taxi to the airport early in the morning. And my guy had met there. He had to get the same flight out so we paired up on a taxi and I just walked up to any old cab and just said, hey, take us to San Jose. And this cab, it was awful. I mean, I figured

our red cabs are red cab. It wasn't clean. It was as you can tell. It was pretty old. It was just the pulse tree was soaking and cigarette smoke and you could smell all of the things that happened in that cab. I can almost smell it now. This is disgusting. But I was like, I will do it. So we get halfway up the mountain from Haco to San Jose and it dies. Hey guys, call the backup. We made the flight by a scanner or nose, but you got to look at the

equipment. Yeah. You got to look at the equipment before you make a decision. And that's socks, dude. Yeah. That just won little one little piece of equipment failure. Just ruined everything. Maybe it ruined that. But I don't think it ruined. Didn't ruin who you are now. It made you

you are now, right? Well, that's the flip side of the coin. I always have struggled since

I've had different injuries in training and powerlifting because prior to that, I prided myself on the fact that I had, I mean, I broke bones. I dislocated my shoulder rusts and different things, but those are injuries from other sports. And I prided myself on the fact that I had never been hurt powerlifting and lived in all this weight. And then once I had, I struggled a little bit, going back in the personal training. And I wasn't training powerlifters specifically. But I,

I struggled with that. Well, you know, what kind of an example am I? I hurt myself. And here I am. And I made decisions that led me to this point. And, you know, of course, the thing I've learned from that is I've learned from that. You know, and that's the value that I feel I have. The value and those experiences is that, you know, I've experienced that. I've learned from that. And now, not only can I teach you what to do if everything goes right, but I know an awful lot about

what to do if things don't go right. You know, and I'm not, I'm not quick to learn those lessons. I'd rather learn them from someone else. You know, at that, I find to be a much better way to learn those lessons. But yeah, I guess it's kind of the same thing here. We are through, you know, our experiences and where they brought us. Absolutely. I don't surf have as much, but I got a lot. I got a lot of projects in my house. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, dude, I bet the, um, this is

Oh, I love it. Yeah. We're a little jealous. But we, we had originally, um, I had it set up in my garage. And it was just, you know, myself and my daughters living in that house is a tiny little 12 hundred square foot ranch house. And when I got married, we had to convert the garage into a master's suite. So we're, we're my, we're my weights going. Yeah. So the weights went in the yard. Wow.

And I had bumper plates, bumper plates and never rust. Right. Right. But you're only borrow rust.

You know, rust quick. Yeah. So, um, and the squat rack rusted. So we had to figure out, you know, what to do with that. And so we, we just built a 12 by 14 shed and just put everything in there. Nice. That's just recent. I mean, we're still working on that thing. Yeah. The inside, we got the gym all

“set up. We're working out like crazy in there. But the shed's not done. Have you named it yet?”

The shed. The gym that just shed gym? No. No. No. No. We haven't named it. Okay. That'd be interesting. How, how has it been? I love to hear that like your steps on is training and your wife trains. And how has it been like getting your family involved in training? Oh, there's, when it comes

to Abby's kids, they're motivated on their own. My kids don't really care about that stuff.

They're, I have daughters and they're nine and 12. Okay. You know, they're into, and ride bikes and stuff like that. They're not into, into training. My, I'm 11 year old to step daughter. She's not into training. Right. Right. You know, she's a dancer, though. Oh, cool. And my nine year year old to dancer. My 11 year old is a reader. That's, that's her thing. Very fantastic. She's so freaking smart. Anyway, Abby and my steps on day, my steps on is motivated because he wants to be

the best freshman football player than world has ever seen. Very cool. He comes by that from his, his dad, his dad is extremely motivated. And I think he played football in college. So, you know,

“he's got that, that drive that his dad has. And my wife's got killer drive. You have to, you have to,”

you have to have drive to be a personal chef. Mm. Oh, no doubt. You can't just sit around

wait for people to call you in your personal chef. I had to. She has that drive like it's her up in the morning and gets her out in the gym. She asks us a really good trainer that she does. She does the zoom training. Yeah. She puts her phone up on the shelf and her coach coaches are and watches her form and stuff like that. Also, your coach is badass. They're a boy. She's badass. Yeah. I don't know if she does the exact same thing for all of her clients. I think she just

gets no reclients. And, you know, it comes up with a plan specifically for them. Yeah, that's the way it should be, man. Really. You can't get that in a group, you know, kind of the CrossFit gym, but you get that community. When you've got tailored workouts just for you, you lose a little bit

“of that community because it's just you. I think that one of the benefits that I've loved about CrossFit”

just going back to that is scaling. You know, you got somebody you can't do the 300 pound deadlift that's in the workout. Do it you can. Do it you can without mailing it in, you know, because when people scale it they're like, oh, I'm going to do 60-footed pounds. Don't talk to me. Yeah, keep it honest. Keep it honest. Struggle. Yeah. Don't hurt yourself. It's struggle. That's part of becoming stronger is, you know, one of the gyms that I went to, I can't remember

which one it was. I had a big old sign on it. It's better than yesterday. Nice. That's all you got to be. Yeah. Yeah. And when we're, when we're rehabbing injuries, we wake up in the morning, and we, you know, a little self-assessment wiggle, better than yesterday. Yeah. Means you did yesterday, right? And you can do it again today. It's better. Right on. That was a really big tangent. You know, I love to. And for people that aren't familiar with CrossFit, I've heard you mentioned

the PVC pipe earlier, and that in CrossFit and really any good decent gym or coach will have alternatives. So regular barways, 45 pounds, Olympic bars, sometimes are heavier, power lifting bars are heavier, but not everybody can do a 45 pound bar, you know. So there's lighter bars and there's PVC pipe which are literally like beginners and people like that. How did you work with people when you were doing some CrossFit training that had the limitations like you talked about scaling

or people with injuries or how to deal with that? Oh, I just, you know, if they had an injury,

Let's, let's see what we can do. You know, and I'll have them, you know, put the PVC pipe over there,

and do it. You know, it kind of is a rule now. I don't like over it's what's. I don't like full snatches. I think that, you know, hang snatches. Those are great. But the, the toll that a, that a snatch and no red squat puts on your back is unbelievable. Yeah. Then you really have to know your body and you really have to be flexible to do a move like that, to do, even to do a full clean, just a full squat clean, that movement. It's so dynamic. So when, you know, an athlete

would come in and, and they got a shoulder injury or they got a low back injury or whatever it is,

“then you have to know number one what you're working out that day, not just that you're doing”

deadlifts or you're doing sumo deadlifts or you're doing high poles or whatever you're doing, you have to know exactly what is involved in that. So if somebody's got a shoulder injury, and you guys are doing thrusters, how about you do some weighted air squats? And let's not go over ahead today. Yeah. You know, let's, let's do some goblet squats, maybe in between there, do some like bench pushups, where you just put your hands on the bench and just do some pushups, just to,

just to get those shoulders moving, you know, but you're not going to load them up. You know, say you say, you know, let's work the crap onto the body parts that are working. Let's kill it. Let's not aggravate injury. Yeah, right on. Yeah, I talked before on, I have my some things better than nothing days, you know, where I have something planned and it's, it's not

happening. You know, but I reinforce the habit, first of all, of going to the gym, and then I've

already gone through my warm-up to assess where, you know, how things are, how my feeling, what kind of do, what can I do? And at that point, I've already done some things better than nothing. I've reinforced the habit, I've done some movement, I've identified some points. And even if I just ended up doing some mobility work that day, well, I did that, and then I love what she said, the little bit better than yesterday, you know, and tomorrow's another day, and you know, keep on keeping on. I mean,

I think that's the thing that so many people, even people without injuries miss, in training, is, you got to have a plan, you got to know where you're going, you got to know what you're doing, what you're working, connect with your body, and then get a little bit better, and get a little

“bit better, a little bit better. And then when you stagnate, then you have to change things up,”

you know, you have to have something a little different, you know, and I just back and up a little bit too. I love that you mentioned the community in a CrossFit gym or having a virtual trainer or having some accountability or the fact that, you know, your wife and your steps on train, and just for me, man, that's the thing that's kept me going all these years is people, you know, the people around me, and I need those people, whether it's my wife, trains, and then she's competed in

physique and figure, and she's, I've talked to him to do in a few powerlifting meets, but you know, our son is only seven, so again, he's pretty young, but he does some martial arts and stuff, and I think it's just, it's a lifestyle, right? I mean, that's the part that makes a difference. So now you're wife being a chef, you might as I ask like how you guys eat, your diet, that's sort of a thing. We eat well. Yeah. We eat well. She's, without going too far in this, she's probably the best

aircraft. That's whatever. I mean, she's, let me back up. She's really good at aircraft, and I think she's

“the best, but the best thing about being a married to a personal chef is now I appreciate food.”

I'm not just shoving McDonald's in my face. I'm not shoving McDonald's in my face at all just to be clear. Right. Right. But no, I can relate to that. That's great. When I eat her food, it is a full body experience. And, but we eat smart. I mean, she, what she cooks for people, she can cook anything really.

She's an amazing baker, so the food that she prepares.

Number one, she goes to, to alchemy ranch to get her her meats. She goes to the ports that you produce to get her vegetables. Nice. You know, she, she knows where the food came from. And when you eat like that, you really can't put anything bad in your body. Yeah.

if you have confidence in the farmer and you have confidence in the rancher, then you can have

confidence in what you're eating. Yeah. And that's, and that's part of how we eat. Yes, we do have chips in the house. Yes, we do have Malano cookies. But we're not stuffing our face with that stuff. Right. As a matter of fact, this month, we decided to do Whole 30. Okay, which is a totally different experience. Um, I love bourbon. Okay. Absolutely love bourbon. And I love tacos. Um, bourbon tacos. That's kind of a thing. That's your thing.

Plug satellite and block taco right now. Right. Oh, that place is awesome. By the way, then there. Yes. Indeed. But Whole 30, you're not eating any grain. No dairy. No sugar. And no booze. And it's been tough. It's been tough to, to, to navigate that. Even, even

living with the chef. Even, I guess even as a chef, Abbey made this, this sausage, a casserole,

the other day that was totally 100% whole 30. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah. You know, and that's, that's one of the things about, you know, you do what you can with what you got. And she can. And so we eat really well. That was a long answer, but no, that's really cool, man. I, I, I'm with you in that sense when I was a power lifter, I ate, I ate to compete. I ate the way 270 pounds of muscle that, you know, and, and I did not eat nearly as well as I do now,

with meaning the quality of the food that I would eat. You know, when you're training, you're burning all that toxic stuff off. Yeah, I just can get away with more. You know, I, I think that's definitely the case. And even my wife and I before we had our son, and I was

still doing power lifters, but just bent press meats. And she was still competing figure. And we could

get away with tons, you know, and she's a nurse practitioner, but she's really passionate about nutrition. And when we had our son, things started to change. And he had some developmental issues. And we decided to go organic and gluten free to give him the best chance. And, and he's doing great. He's

“doing phenomenal, but we figured the best way to do that would be for us to also go organic and gluten”

free. So, that's been a whole huge challenge for me. It was a process for me to get there. But, but yeah, man, I think that's the basic rule. Like, if, you know, you put good stuff in your body, you get good results, you know? I mean, it'd be cliche, but, you know, yard which eat, you know? I mean, it's true. But the other thing is, as you have to know your body, to know what's right, to eat. Not everybody's different. Absolutely. You respond to grain different than I do.

If I eat a peanut, my neck hurts. And it's not psychosomatic. I've tested it. Right. I don't know if I can test it on myself. Yeah, like we call it elimination diet. You introduce things back into your body. And that's another thing, like, if you're an athlete and you're training and you're doing, you know, those dynamic movements, whether you're playing football, basketball,

“powerlifting, whatever it is. If you have to move and you can do those quick, quick twitch muscles,”

and you're eating something that's causing information in your body, that muscle is going to be inflamed. The joints around that are holding your parts together are going to get inflamed. And you're going to get hurt. Absolutely. So, I mean, it all, it all comes down to what you put in your body and how aware you are of yourself. Absolutely. And I think, you know, just another run on this podcast, we talk probably every episode about resistance training and the benefits of it.

You know, it just, just encouraging people to move and especially people with, you know, chronic pain and injuries and disease. But I think, you know, there's so much value in doing those motions, doing those movements and being in touch with your body, like we're talking about, you know, I mean, I feel like that's one of the biggest, one of the biggest assets that resistance training is given me throughout the years where that was powerlifting,

nurse body sculpting, or whatever you want to call it. Just being able to walk is given putting me in touch with my body. When I do know, like, if I eat something that's going to

“flare me up a little bit, I can feel that more. And I think the more you train, the more in touch”

you are, you know, that mind body connection. Yeah, man, that's, that's a great point. Very cool, man. It's, it's, it's really great to connect with you. And what do you see going forward? Now, I know you said you're sitting a lot now. And it's so interesting to me in your story that working construction, your neck felt better. You were moving, you were doing stuff. And then you went back to web design and the neck flared up. And, you know, I've, I've heard the saying that

sitting is the new smoking, you know, and, you know, and, yeah, I mean, it's, I mean, yeah, it's tough, man, because like, even these last so many months, me, my wife and my son have been on our devices

I've got to old football injury, my neck, nothing like yours. But, um, butterfly is up on me

that I'm not doing the things that I was doing. I'm not being able to go to the gym and do those things. Yeah, I noticed a difference. So, how do you kind of balance out that, that's sitting now? See my backyard. You know what I do with my free time. Okay. Yeah, we had, um, when I moved into this house, it had a 14 by 20 workshop with a seven foot ceiling. Small can't work out in that. You can't work out in with a seven foot. No, no overhouses.

Yeah, you can do all, you know, if you have a shoulder injury, that's the best. Right. Best way to keep you in check. Seven foot ceiling. That's a good tip for the day. If you have a shoulder

injury, work out in a room with a seven foot ceiling, you won't be doing shoulders. That's right.

“And that's why we had in the garage. So, when we had to relocate it,”

I was like, well, we're building. And so I took that project on myself, all by myself, no help. And that's the best part because I'm moving. I get up in the morning and I go, you know, maybe make some cuts, get some things right. Get ready for the, for what's going to happen after work. And then at 530, I clock out and I go to the backyard and I put those things together. They're not only does it refocus my brain to all of the things that are happening in life,

to just this is three and a half inches. I need to cut it, you know, this way. And it's a strange cut. I got to cut around this thing. So, I got to do this. I got to make sure that it's on center. I do. There are so many things that are for one thing that your thought is moment to moment. This has to be exactly right. It's been very intentional. And it's a one thing I love about building. The one thing I love about, I set tile a couple times. Oh, cool. And when you're doing things like that,

“people call it like manual labor or whatever. You can call it if you want to. I call it for”

consent. When you're, when you're setting tile, especially if you're doing a a strange shape room and they want it that they want these 12 inch tiles to cut that done diagonal. Yeah, yeah. And you've got all these strange cuts. You got to make, you got to be very aware. You can't, you can't flake out. Yeah. Because if you do, you're going through materials. Yeah. That's costing you money. Yeah. So, when I'm building these sheds or building the deck or building this storage thing for the

kids bikes, whatever I'm doing, I'm focused, focused. Number one, I'm focused on what I'm doing. I'm not thinking about regrets or any of that crap that, that toxic negative crap that we get in our heads. When I'm doing this stuff, that's gone. I don't have time to think about stuff like that. Doesn't even enter my mind. And then you're lifting, you know, these four by eight sheets of three quarter inch plywood up onto a roof by yourself. Yeah. That's working. My steps are nothing

with. My steps are nothing with that part. I can't say I did all out of my own. But, you know, when you're lifting things and you're, you've got to put things on a high place and you've got to work on balance and you're doing all of these things and swinging a hammer, framing hammer, you know, your body's moving. Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's my big hobby right now is building stuff. Oh, that's awesome. Because I'm moving and I'm not thinking about anything. My

self-talk is so good when I'm doing the things that I enjoy. That's awesome. Kind of almost like a mindful kind of experience I would say. Absolutely. I can totally relate to that. And the satisfaction of having created something, the creative part of it. That's, that's the big benefit. You know, and it's, you know, doing a project like this shed that we're building is, it's built. But it's kind of like reading a really good book. You get to that last chapter and it takes you

about six weeks to read that last chapter because you don't want to get to the end of it. So we're right now we're working on taking it over the finish line. I spent this weekend cleaning up the original shop because every time I went in there get a tool, I was like, I can't find anything in here. So I spent a day and a half just completely organized and that thing. And now you talk about that Zen place. I got distracted like four times today, working. I just couldn't get my

mind it into the game. So I walked into the backyard, walked in the shed and looked in the old shed. And I was like, this feels so good. This feels really good. And then I went back inside and I had my mind right. Nice. And I did what I needed to do. Yeah. You know, and that's part of the creative

“process though. I think that the creative process has is a full body experience. You have to have”

good night's sleep. You have to, you know, not be in pain. So you have to take care of yourself.

You have to have a full belly. I've never written a song or, you know, come over with a logo or anything.

And yeah, there are a lot of creative people out there who don't like themselves.

But the stuff that I create, you know, like myself, I got to be pretty good, feel pretty good about myself. And not in a cocky way. But when you lose sight of that, you got to go to your last accomplishment. The last thing that made you feel good about yourself, go sit there for a minute if you're feeling

“down. That's why I was walking out to that shed. That's a last big accomplishment that I did.”

That's not much for myself. But when you're there, you're creative. You're motivated. You're taking care of your body. You're taking care of your spouse. You're taking care of your kids. Your business is thriving because you take care of your clients. It's because you're you're creating, but you're also positioning yourself to be healthy. If you just jump out of bed and go to work, you're not preparing yourself for the day.

If you just jump into the gym and start deadlifting, you're not preparing yourself for the day. I try to prepare myself for the day. I'm not a guru at it. I'm not consistent. But I know when I haven't. I know when I haven't prepared. I can tell. And I can tell when I have prepared. Yeah, man. That's great. I think what you said can apply to anybody, whether they have chronic pain or injuries or disease or anybody that might be listening

to this and the creative process that you describe and the feeling of well-being for lack of a

“better word or being for me being right with the world and with myself when I do things, right?”

Like you said, I don't always know when I get exactly right, but I do know when I get it wrong.

And then I can learn from. And then things can go a little better. And this podcast has kind of been a creative process for Ryan to produce her and I, throughout one of my major surgeries. And this is a nice thing for me to work on after that. And it's been a great thing where I get to meet cool people like you, you know, and how they're using conversations and share some cool things that work for people, you know.

And it sounds to me like you got some really cool things that are working for you. I do. I just gotta keep doing it. You know, sometimes you get cocky. And you know, I'm feeling good today. And I think I'll just, I'll just mail it in today.

Sometimes you need a rest day, but if you're going to rest, rest, that's something that my wife

gets on me about. You know, if you're going to rest, rest, otherwise do the thing. But don't, you can't play both sides of the coin. You know, you can't have a rest day and then try to be productive. Because you want to rest. Everybody's not into it. And you're going to get hurt. Are you going to do a really bad job of whatever you're doing? So just take your rest. Yeah, that's just been a big lesson for me. My surgeries in chronic pain. And I was spinal cord

stimulator implanted in all these different things that had helped me with the pain and the constant pain and the issues I deal with. But there's no replacement for rest. You know, I mean, it's such such a big deal. And I've had to go to the point of like, with my wife and my son, and I'll schedule my rest time. You know, like, well, I'll set the timer. I'm going to go lay down for 20 minutes. You know, I'm going to put my music on. I'm going to lay down. I'm going to chill out, you know.

“And, you know, and that's what I've learned. I can't give away what I don't have. You know,”

if I if I'm burnt out and I'm spent and I'm in pain and I'm angry, I'm not going to be able to give my son the attention and the love that he needs. You know, I'm not going to give my wife the attention and love that she needs, you know, that exactly. The rest part is one of the biggest things I struggle with. You know, is, you know, going from when we were talking before the podcast, where I used to work in construction at a day job, that was modeling acting. I was personal training.

I was doing all three jobs. And, you know, eventually I crashed and burned, you know, all right. But that's kind of my default is, well, I'm just going to do more, you know. And I have definitely suffered from from overdoing it. No doubt. Well, I think we all have whether you're whether it's physical burnout, mental burnout, that's life. Everybody gets burned out. But I think that I don't know. I think our culture takes, takes it when you burn out as they end.

I think they take it all the way to the extreme. And so if you're having a hard day, it's the, you know, you may as well just quit and do something else. Instead of just going, yeah, this is our day. Yeah, should I wasn't hard? And I think I've had a hard day before and didn't kill me. Like you said, take your experience, all of your experiences. When you're having those moments and reflect on them and realize that you have learned, you have learned from that experience.

knees hurt, when your heart hurts, whatever it is, go back to those learning experiences and

“go, how did I get through this before? You know, like you said, throw from it. Yeah, yeah, man.”

I like your reference, though, going back and looking at the, the clean workshop, man. No, a clean organized workshop, like, just had you been something to day I accomplished before, you know, I love that. That's a great recharge. I'm going to use that. That's just like, it's just like washing your truck, driving this old truck around your, like, it has a piece of crap. I want to get a new truck. I'm going to get it cleaned up for I sell it. Then you wash it and wax it, put some

arm roll on the leather and like, oh my god, nobody's, I'm just, I'm keeping this thing for the time you're done. Yeah, man. That's so true, too. You know that feeling after you've, when you're taking about a month or two off, it's just really hard working out. Just kind of been taking it easy on yourself for a while. And then you're good today's the day. And you do, you have a really good session. You warmed up really well. Done. And you feel that it's not pain but you're

not comfortable. And then you wake up in the morning and you're like, this isn't, this isn't chronic pain. But this is the kind of discomfort that I want to be chronic. Right. Right. I want

“to feel like this. I want to be a little sore. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I think that that's that feeling”

that we always go back to that feeling where it's just a little bit uncomfortable, but you're not

in pain. Yeah. The good pain. Yeah. Definitely, man. Definitely. Yeah. I can totally relate to that. How long did you do ceramic tile? 16 years. What's a long time? Yeah, I left, I left. I was in a form in this position. And, you know, I went back to work a couple of years, but I was a work in form and I worked with the tools. So yeah, it got to be where I couldn't even be on my feet let alone my knees for eight hours. Yeah. And eventually it gave me the opportunity to go into a

personal training full time where I had more control over my schedule. And it was in a great area up in Connecticut, where it's Connecticut, and then I worked in Ryan, New York, personal training. And met some great people, you know, and but, you know, it's interesting like we were talking about head that not happened to injury that would not have led me to getting out of the tile business. And that would not have led me to going and meeting my wife and moving to the east coast, you know,

and and these amazing people. And then eventually having a son and moving down here,

meeting more great people. It's interesting to look back on that. It's kind of see how everything's connected a little bit. That's right. That's not looking back for the experience. That's not the looking back at the regret. Right. You know, those books has choose your and adventure books. Yeah. Yeah. You know, trying to page 12 or turn to page 47. And one thing you don't do with those books is go back. And when you do it, everybody does it.

And you go back and read. Oh, what happened? Yeah, what did I miss over here? That would have been like, am I going to be written famous? You know, like you said, you know, that injury brought you to a new place. And you had to have a new mindset. You had to have a new way of looking at life and and rolling through this life. And by doing that, you met what you weren't doing tile and you were injured when you met your wife. I had had one fusion and was getting ready to have

my second fusion, actually, when I met it, when I actually had the horrible accident. Yeah. So trying to put the timeline together. Yeah. Yeah. So it was, yeah, that was, she actually, we were dating long distance. We met in Columbus at the Arnold and she was from New York. I was from Chicago. And I had to have the surgery. And so literally, within the first three months of our relationship, she was out here. I was in the hospital intensive care for eight days with a drain of my spine.

And she never went back and you're working to go back together three months later.

Wow. So yeah, that was kind of a miracle grow for the relationship, you know, right.

“But yeah, I think thank God for it. You know, it's amazing to have a great partner.”

And I have to admit, we've referenced this before. It doesn't hurt that she's a nurse practitioner with extensive medical knowledge because he's up in the whole meet together. Right on. But she understands the physiology about the whole thing. And she's like, okay, he's hurting. He's not faking it. Yeah. No, she's been, she's been awesome, honestly. And for us to be able to, to go in our relationship and, um, and work on all aspects of it,

you know, including the chronic pain. And we talk about it technically and in many parts of our story, she's been in my caregiver, you know, and what they go through on the other side of chronic pain. And, um, you know, I think it's important to look at all of that. And so we've worked really hard

on here. We've had, um, one of my old mentors and idols Eddie Cohen, who's a world famous power

“lifter. And we've been able to do all that. And all of us kind of share our own personal experiences”

like you and I are doing today, you know, kind of feel honored to be in that. Hey, man, we're honored

to be in that crew. That's pretty amazing. You've shared some awesome stuff with us today, Todd,

and I really appreciate that. I can totally connect with where you're coming from and whether I did powerlifting you to CrossFit or it doesn't matter, you know, I feel like the message that

“you shared today is pretty universal, you know. I think I've migrated from CrossFit and powerlifting”

to power tools. Oh, nice. I love it. Don't mind. It's at that creative stuff. And that's

we want to encourage people with injuries or disease to get out and do something, find something move, man. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Oh, that's great, man. Well, Todd, we really appreciate it,

“man. Thank you so much for being on my family podcast. Hope to have you back again. I want to hear”

how the garage comes out the workout shed. Yeah. Right on. Thanks a lot, Todd. Appreciate it. Thank you. I hope you took away as much as I did from my talk with Todd. Todd really took the injury and the pain that he suffered and he found a way to put it into being constructive and building and creating with it. And for that, Todd Dangler, you are both for life. We appreciate you listening to both for life. Our goal is to help you or anyone that you might know to live and thrive with

chronic pain. And you can help us out by subscribing or giving us a review on iTunes or anywhere else that you hear both for life. If you guys have any ideas, we'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to us at [email protected]. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Hope for life. Thanks again. This is Garrett Bolt for Hope for Life.