EFR 762: Aligning Your Values With Your Workouts, Leaving Crossfit, and Why You Need More Mobility Work in Your Training with Cody Mooney

So we're here at Strong New York 2023. Yeah, and I gotta ask out of the gate, man, what does?

0:00:14 - Speaker 2 strength mean to you? Um, I think strength for me is it's a variety of things. I mean I think, coming from my background, we get tested in a lot of different aspects of strength. So I think that strength for me is that strength is that strength is having all the best equipment in that Maybe not even a fitness environment, it could be more of like a friendly hike or something like that, but you're going to be okay, you can really get through it.

0:00:39 - Speaker 1 And I think for me that strength and that's be able to like a good foundation to be able to kind of tackle life in that way is kind of my definition that uses strength. When did you know that Maintaining and then developing even more will say physical strength, was something that really interested you and you young.

0:00:58 - Speaker 2 I was like probably 15 when I first got introduced to something beyond just like a traditional high school weightlifting kind of area, where I saw some people doing more of this like CrossFit style functional fitness stuff, and I kind of got into it and I just realized that I think that in that space there's a lot of people that I shared the same values with and I think at such a young age.

It was very important because they helped kind of guide me in ways in life. So I I just kind of fell in love with the feeling not only of working out in fitness and what it made me feel like. I think it was also the life that it was allowing me to live. That was different than the normal teenage go to college parties, stuff like that and I enjoyed it. And then kind of fast forward a couple years I decided not to do college baseball and I was like I'm gonna run at this thing and then I started competing to the thing being cross cross fit yeah sorry.

And then, 2014, I competed at my first regional. I was 19, I was the youngest one on the floor, and then, wow, competed at the games a couple times. 2017, 2019, stood on the podium with a team, which was awesome. The such good, yeah, and that was kind of my ending. To be fair, I I felt like that was good for me. It's a high demand of being in the gym. I went, I coached for 15 years. I mean, I coached the whole time, full time as well, because that was my way to give back and I think that was one of my coolest. Things I've always loved to do is and I still do it to this day as a hobby with a local gym over here in Brooklyn where I'm at. That's amazing, man, yeah, cuz I think it's just. I think, when you learn how important health and wellness is and how it can kind of trickle over to your life and so many different things for me, I just wanted to share that with people.

0:02:37 - Speaker 1 I wanted people to kind of have the same experience. It sounds like pretty early on, fair to say, that you realize all of those cascading benefits that a lot of people get eventually, I think, from the physical goals, the physical transformation. Yeah, if you can kind of take us back to that moment or those moments when you're like you know what, I'm leaving way more out of the gym than just, you know, a great workout yeah, I think for me it was.

0:03:02 - Speaker 2 I mean, I come from a background of a group in Maine where there's not a lot to do and you know, substance abuse is a very, very high level thing yeah, my father having a dad.

0:03:13 - Speaker 1 I'm just no, I guess. Yeah, yeah, I grew up in the middle of nowhere too. I know what. Nothing.

0:03:16 - Speaker 2 I grew up in like a log cabin my dad built, like in the woods, and everyone's a contractor and I love it. I mean, it's always my roots but unfortunately, like substance abuse, is a massive thing there and you know my. I watched my father struggle with that for years and years and I think I always knew I wanted to find a different outlet and that was the big thing for me. When I went into the gym I was finding this outlet that really made me just want to be a better person. Yeah, and what it was. It was also a part of my time that was allowing me to be a better person, a better friend, a better partner, a better student, because I was having this time I felt was for me, something I appreciate so much yeah.

So, yeah, it was like a. It was a really cool thing to find so young, because I think what I was able to do was start to implement it and bring my friends into it, bring my family into it, like at such a young age and, you know, helping coach my high school football team while it's a quarterback of the team and stuff like that. So I was a really really like true blessing that I still love to do today yeah, talk about leading a community.

0:04:20 - Speaker 1 If you guys maybe heard in the background we got Michael Chernow yelling everybody. I guess the events kind of kick off here soon, so shout out Michael reaches a habit. He'll probably be back on here later today. So am I understanding correctly, you're not Competing?

0:04:33 - Speaker 2 anymore. Right, I do not compete anymore. So 2019 was my last year that competed at the games. It was kind of like I Don't know, I had a weird last couple years. I think that weird, how weird in a way, where I felt that I Got all I wanted to from the competition side of Working out this. Okay.

0:04:55 - Speaker 1 It was that.

0:04:56 - Speaker 2 I competed at the games individually. I did demo team. I went multiple years at regionals. I we as a team like did well in Dubai, I've traveled the world and stuff like that and I got the stand on the podium I had like, in my perspective, I get that in win the games or anything like that. Okay, but I had a great experience.

0:05:12 - Speaker 1 All right, let me ask you right there, going into that experience of those experiences, yeah, were those your goals, were those your benchmarks for success? Or did you just reach those moments and go? You know what I'm good, like I feel really satisfied, like I want to move on to the next thing.

0:05:27 - Speaker 2 Yeah it's, it's helpful because I am Like at my foundation and athlete and competitive as hell, you played baseball, right baseball football, basketball. I did it all, and, but I don't think that my goal was to ever. I don't want to say my goal was never. Not to win, to be fair. Okay, but I wasn't willing to sacrifice some of the things that I still loved about my life, and, for instance like what yeah, coaching full-time. I coached full-time when I competed. Most athletes don't do that like stuff like that.

0:05:56 - Speaker 1 If you're competing at that level, yeah, you're a full-time, because you're a full-time athlete between working out and coaching.

0:06:03 - Speaker 2 I mean I was in the gym for nine hours a day, five, six days a week, you know I mean Writing program on the weekends, like my life was the gym. So I think that like, but those things, I also believe that that's what was filling my life bucket, like I was able to have these you were getting a lot of fulfillment in other ways.

0:06:22 - Speaker 1 Not relying on this one thing, this one thing or into you, yeah.

0:06:26 - Speaker 2 so in that one thing I felt like was when I was able to have some success little success in that one thing, and it still wasn't really filling that bucket. For me, it was like wow, this is amazing, I'm here and I am, I'm appreciating this time and I'm so thankful for it. But like I wasn't feeling what I really wanted to in life, I realized that like, okay, this is a good exit for now. Yeah, if I want to come back to what I can you know, it's always gonna be on anywhere.

It's not going anywhere like I'm just gonna see what else kind of comes my way. Because when you're Dedicated that much, you close a lot of doors as well Do? That's huge realization. Yeah, you close, you have to. I mean, right, especially in a, in a sport where we don't sign contracts, we don't say, oh great, I'm in the league for four years. Basically Everyone's like a free agent exactly. And beginning of every year, wow, one slip up, you're gone, you know. So it's a. It's a lot of dedication and it's tough mentally like it. It's very tough mentally. So I think my last couple years I was at a space mentally where I really didn't want to be in it that much. But I think has a lot. When you live a certain lifestyle and what you're used to, it holds you in there a bit more. It kind of had a trap on me, unfortunately not only from a Like lifestyles and travel and competing and all this stuff it was. I was almost, oh, in a way, like addicted to fitness.

Walk us through that, because I know like what I have to break myself down from the past four years. What did you do to break yourself away from that dude? It was tough. It was like I mean you're talking about a guy that like never went on a vacation without Like working out at least like the max I would ever take is like scheduling your travel around.

0:08:03 - Speaker 1 Oh yeah, the gyms are, yeah. Does a hotel have a sufficient training? Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah like it was.

0:08:09 - Speaker 2 It was like a big thing for me to break down that mental barrier in my mind and like knowing that it's okay to do this. It's still something I fight with today. If I go the weekend, it's just a Saturday, sunday.

0:08:21 - Speaker 1 I'm like, I'm with him and I showed what that even this weekend.

Yeah, I'm even because personally Pretty to be here and all that in it especially at this event I'm this is all for fitness, wellness, care of yourself and A little like kind of promise I like to keep to myself is training four days a week? Yeah, that's like my gold standard. I'll really if I hit three and like I, cool. But so this week I hit three and so I normally would like kind of make up for it on the weekend. Yeah, but just with travel, with doing this event, I was like you know, it's not gonna happen. So even coming to an event focused on what we're talking about Mm-hmm learning to let that go.

0:08:56 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I think unfortunately, like with most things that have a massive benefit of feeling good, there's a negative side to it, and then, like with anything, there's an addictive side, that you can get almost addicted to this thing, and for me it was like I think at such a young age to where you just like go, go, go, go, and you can just go, go, go, go go, I mean at your age, I mean that becomes your norm.

0:09:20 - Speaker 1 Oh, those are such prime development years, especially as you go back. Four hours of working out was my normal. Yeah, who is Cody without that?

0:09:26 - Speaker 2 Yeah, multiple pieces. Exactly, that was my name. That was what made me feel good. I had a public identity. Exactly, I relied so much on that. So to first step away from it, but then to like, break my mind from being like OK, if I want to grow in other areas, I'm going to have to learn to give Like, I'm going to have to learn to give a little bit.

0:09:43 - Speaker 1 Learn to give man. What did you learn to give? How did you learn to give? What did giving look like?

0:09:48 - Speaker 2 It was tough at first because giving from an area that was not only my, like me, time, what I relied on, which made me look good, feel good, all these things. It was going into an area that was more like building life, which was I started working for a company called Pliability, so it's like developing a work schedule, realizing that I might not have all this time of the day Adulting.

0:10:10 - Speaker 1 Adulting, exactly Adulting. We all have to get there eventually somehow some way yeah.

0:10:15 - Speaker 2 And I think that's the evolution of life. You know what I mean, no matter what it is like you have a kid, you get married, you do all this stuff. You get a dog Like you're going to have to learn to bring these things into your life, and my life was so consumed of one thing I had to give from that. So I think it's been a really cool learning process for me. I've learned how to still give myself what I need, because I still understand. I mean, the biggest part is I still got to give myself enough, because that does make me a better person. What is it enough for you?

0:10:46 - Speaker 1 How do you kind of know your bucket's been full Like I'm good I can hold this.

0:10:50 - Speaker 2 That's a hard one because you said like four days a week or something like that. For me it's more a feeling I can go in the gym and you can give me 30 minutes and I'll go crush myself and I'll be on the ground laying on and I got to feel like I'm good. You know, like I did what I wanted to, I achieve fitness.

0:11:05 - Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly.

0:11:06 - Speaker 2 Yeah, and it's just like it's a lot mental, it's a big mental thing for me of like crossing a barrier. I just feel like, OK, I pushed myself because I always want to push myself. That's one thing for me, like I always want to challenge myself. I always want to know I'm capable to. Hey, you want to go run a marathon? Yeah, let's do it.

0:11:22 - Speaker 1 That's got to be the athlete in you it is. I don't think that ever goes away.

0:11:25 - Speaker 2 You want to go to flag football.

0:11:26 - Speaker 1 Yeah, but I want to win. You know what I mean. I want to do it, let's do it. Do you want to play? No, I want to win. Yeah, exactly.

0:11:31 - Speaker 2 So it's like I think that is what I still do this for, and it goes beyond that. I want to be able to be there for my kid when I'm over. I want to be able to be the dad that hopefully can run and hike and do all these things you know so like, and I'm still bringing other people in my life into it, which I still enjoy so much. But it was dude, it was a challenge. I can't look in the eye and tell you it wasn't because it was a big difference.

0:11:56 - Speaker 1 You know it is for a lot of people and I think the events get rolling here. So, guys, we're live here.

0:12:03 - Speaker 2 Yeah, I'll try to put my mic a bit closer. We'll get real close to the microphone.

0:12:06 - Speaker 1 My editor. I feel sorry for you. Thank you guys. But to kind of just go deeper a little bit there, because I think whether the person listening is a competitive athlete, they play sports, they play CrossFit or they're just competing in life. That's kind of my personal definition of athlete. That mentality in my experience only comes many months, many years later of that feeling, that mindset connection to the feeling of you know what I move my body. I'm happy with what I did. Maybe I didn't do what I used to do, but that's okay, it is.

0:12:41 - Speaker 2 And so how?

0:12:42 - Speaker 1 would you kind of translate that to the everyday person, to that feeling, getting a better, deeper, quicker connection, to that feeling?

0:12:50 - Speaker 2 Honestly, I think, like anything, it's time. I think you have to understand yourself, you need to kind of go through the process and you need to lean on others. I think one of the greatest things about a fitness community is that everyone is really open to talk about things and you know like to share experiences and I think that you can lean on them, on these communities, as a resource. But it is finding what works for you and that was a big thing for me.

My wife is completely different than I am. My business partner can work out completely different than I do. Like it's finding what works for you and knowing that you need to prioritize that, because I think that's when things get happened, because if you are someone that enjoys working out and it's that big of a pillar in your life, it means a lot to you and it's okay that it means a lot to you and you gotta be okay with letting someone like this means a lot to me. I need to take this power of my day so that way I can do X, y, z and do it to the best of my ability, because it really helps me do that. But I think it's also prioritizing that because sometimes that's 6 am. Sometimes that's 8 pm.

0:13:49 - Speaker 1 You know what I mean being malleable with your discipline, with your goals without feeling is huge.

0:13:55 - Speaker 2 It was massive when I started bringing more life into my life, allowing like, okay, I'm not gonna be able to work out optimal times every day from like 10 to two, like no, like that's middle of the day, like it's gonna be in the morning it's gonna be you know, a lot of people struggle with that.

0:14:10 - Speaker 1 I can't do this workout because I haven't hit my calories. It's not the right time I haven't had my caffeine, haven't had enough of the life to support my protocol. But I'm here and you say kind of learning to adapt to life and then just build around it.

0:14:24 - Speaker 2 Yes, use the fitness as a foundation. Don't let it ever go anywhere, but build upon it. Don't have it be something that holds you back. Don't make it be the ceiling of like I can only do so much in a day because I gotta do all this other stuff I get. When you have goals and specific goals like different grind, go do it. You know what I mean. But, like if you are someone that is using this thing as a platform to bleed into your life and others and communing and all that, don't let it become something nasty because it can. Unfortunately it really can, and I see it happen all the time. People come addicted to it and then they're they're not happy with their performance, they're not happy with this, they're not happy with that and perspective things. It's like we're all blessed to be able to do this.

0:15:02 - Speaker 1 Oh my God, yeah, every day, if you can wake up and move your body like you're already killing it. Dude, you're killing it, you're already killing it.

0:15:07 - Speaker 2 So it's like enjoy it, and when you enjoy it you'll get 10X out of it. 10x, you know what I mean? At least, At least, yeah, for sure.

0:15:16 - Speaker 1 I wanna go back a little bit to what I heard you talk about kinda having it kinda sounds counterculture. A lot of us here find like-minded people right, which I support and agree with, but what I kinda heard you describe was you had it was like same thing but different. You had people that didn't necessarily go along with your training protocol or had different walks of life or different forms of training. How aware of you were that, how conscious were you in building that, and do you agree that, in order for us to have this happiness around it, instead of it consuming our life to keep different walks of life for people?

0:15:49 - Speaker 2 around us. Oh, of course I mean. I think that we all have something to learn from everyone and I think that that was a huge thing for me. I mean, right off the bat, one of my biggest people that influenced my life was my coach through CrossFit. He had a whole different perspective of it.

0:16:02 - Speaker 1 You know.

0:16:03 - Speaker 2 He was a coach, he was a family man, he was a gym owner, he was a businessman. He worked out like a couple times a day and was jumping with a peep to me, but he helped me keep a mindset of like live in the moment, be here, understand what you're doing. This is a process and it's beyond just like the gym Get out of the gym, go do this stuff, enjoy your life. You're young. He kept a really good balance for me. Later on, I've met people that were coming to me as a client and they were, you know, 40, 50 pounds overweight and I helped them get back on track and get their life going and make them feel good about themselves. But I was able to learn so much from them. They were amazing fathers, amazing family men, great business men, stuff like that.

0:16:46 - Speaker 1 Like all the other parts of them that maybe when they walk into that gym with you, consciously, subconsciously, they're checking out the door. Of course, but you're still that multifaceted person. Yeah, you can break it down and train different aspects, but remember when you walk out that door you're not walking back to just one vertical?

0:17:04 - Speaker 2 No, not at all, and it was just really cool to see that. And it was really cool to see how they navigate through life and I was able to just watch all these people with different lives bring fitness into their life and watch how it helps them, watch how it helps them grow, watch how it helps their marriage, the way they feel about themselves, the way they present themselves, the confidence all this stuff and it was just really cool to see. But I was also learning. I was having conversations that were so cool to me because it wasn't just about fitness or something like that. It was great. I mean, it was a very mutual thing that we both loved to do, or whoever that was. I really enjoyed it and I think that's why I kept coaching for so long and it was wonderful.

0:17:49 - Speaker 1 So what do you have to now? What's the biggest thing that you're working on bringing to the world?

0:17:53 - Speaker 2 Yeah, so in 2019, I took a. It's funny, I was an athlete with a company called Rawmawd. We were a mobility and flexibility company. I was with them for like four or five years and then in 2019, the founder came to me for some health and wellness stuff and I really started working with him one on one, kind of trying to get him back on track.

0:18:13 - Speaker 1 Very, very successful businessman, but on the life side of things he let that really consume him and he kind of got some news where it's like which is kind of par for the course a lot of times, Of course.

0:18:22 - Speaker 2 And it's a bit dangerous. So she had someone that young and it was a bit like hey, I got some news and I really had some help on this. So I started working with him pretty in-depth and getting him understanding of how something that he was so like I hate to work out Like let's try to make this a benefit, let's try to make this feel good, like you can feel good about yourself, you feel good about your day.

0:18:42 - Speaker 1 How can you look for exactly?

0:18:43 - Speaker 2 Like use this as a strength, you know, and we kept just growing our relationship and our partnership and then eventually I started kind of helping. He was incorporating me inside the company, which is really cool for me, and not too long ago, like six months ago, I became a partner in the company.

0:18:59 - Speaker 1 Oh, hell yeah, man Congrats, that's what I do full time.

0:19:01 - Speaker 2 We're now Plyability. We rebranded last September and it's just been an amazing journey for me because it's still I feel. I think we do things differently. Our partnership, for sure, is different than others. I mean, we work out three days a week together. We start it, we start our day off.

0:19:17 - Speaker 1 That's so much more realistic.

0:19:18 - Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

0:19:20 - Speaker 1 Probably you can help with the family and everything else. You run the business and not have anything spill over into the other. Yeah, and it's just like.

0:19:26 - Speaker 2 I think we've built a really cool foundation between each other, understanding of how that helps us in the company and the partnership and all that stuff to really like grow this thing. And then the company itself is amazing. It's still like. It's health and wellness, it's mobility, it's flexibility, it's mindfulness and I get to my job. More is director performance, where I am taking all the knowledge I learned from 15 years of listening to people and coaching across all the world and being like OK, how can I give the best product to them from not just fitness but other sports as well? Like to sport in general, because I think mobility and flexibility is like the new kind of kid on the block a bit coming to the scene of like oh wow, I need this.

0:20:08 - Speaker 1 It's not, but it's actually, I think, personally, being finally heard and respected and maintained. Yes, of course.

0:20:14 - Speaker 2 It's starting to become serious.

0:20:15 - Speaker 1 Right, where people are realizing.

0:20:17 - Speaker 2 Ok, I can have a really strong foundation other ways, but if I don't have this like it's a problem. Yeah.

0:20:22 - Speaker 1 Especially once you're in it for a while. If you're just the everyday warrior, I mean if you're doing that for a couple years mobility, flexibility, pliability, all that you will feel it quite literally.

0:20:33 - Speaker 2 So it's not just some flash in the pan, no definitely not, and it's I think it's part of that foundation of creating something you have only an hour and a day like don't injure yourself.

0:20:46 - Speaker 1 You know what I mean.

0:20:47 - Speaker 2 Like don't put yourself to it, because that is such a hard place to be when you actually do appreciate these things. So just give your body what you need. So it's really like I feel like we're doing a really good job of driving that message and giving a product that is just really cool, and it's been an awesome thing to be a part of.

0:21:03 - Speaker 1 Well, I love what you guys are up to. I can't wait to dive in more. And as though we got more going in the background here, Adam taking stage, which he's going to be on the show next.

0:21:11 - Speaker 2 I'm going to ask you my last question, man, I'm going to ask everybody Moving forward in life it takes some unique approaches, physically and mentally, in order to do that.

0:21:20 - Speaker 1 Regardless of whatever the thing is, we're here to work on, work to heal from, to keep moving forward, to live a life ever forward.

0:21:26 - Speaker 2 What does that?

0:21:27 - Speaker 1 mean to you? What are those two words mean to you?

0:21:30 - Speaker 2 Think to live a life ever forward. I think that I am someone that needs to. I Need to challenge myself in life, I think, for me to live my life that I want, and for me, that is that is why I still do fitness, because I know there's gonna be a life that I want to live that is always gonna have this Physicalness to that, just would you know, like I said, running with my kids or playing golf with my friends, or doing whatever I want. So that life ever for is something that I want to be able to maintain, that be able to say yes. I don't want to say no to anything I don't want to say no, I can't do this.

No, I can't do that, so that is for me. I'm trying to keep a foundation and now Learn how to have a balanced foundation that involves life with fitness, but still is something that I am happy, I am proud of and I feel good. Being able to keep saying yes, man, yeah, I just want to keep saying yes to life as well.

0:22:23 - Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm with you on that, man. Well, where can everybody go to connect with you, learn more about the guy on the world?

0:22:29 - Speaker 2 Cody J Mooney on Instagram. I'm on there and pliability on Instagram. That's the company, yeah, but yeah, man like always reach out like I love. I still answer all kinds of DMs about fitness and I coach over across the South Brooklyn a couple times. Yeah, and at Kenny's I'm always at Kenny's.

0:22:45 - Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, kenny's into teaching the whole strong New York club for sure, thanks for having me.

0:22:51 - Speaker 2 Thank you.