Strong Ambition Podcast

Mitch Calvert has a sports writer and has now been an online trainer for over 10 years (before it was cool). However, what makes his story great is that he came from being a very high BMI to what would be classified as obese, and he said to himself “I’m not going just be a statistic.” He has turned his life to now be a fit dad that trains over 150+ clients in the city and helps them get great resu...

This week is a super fun one! I reached out to my Instagram followers and they gave me a HUGE list of great ideas to discuss some awesome and valuable topics. The big theme is advice for those starting out in fitness and nutrition, plus some great concepts around some challenging topics. Questions that we asked The best form of training for a 60-year-old who’s starting outHow do I get out of the “...

How could you even know that answer? Jen and I dive deep into this and I think we found a great answer for it… Through curiosity and discomfort. Jen Hernandez was another friend I met through maverick coaching, and she specializes in helping people discover confidence and clarity in their life. You may say “Life Coach” but I think that’s too simple and you’ll see why when you hear her speak. Jen w...

Did you ever have someone in your industry you really looked up to? That was Jeff Wood for me. Jeff tells an awesome story of being involved in training for many years and then creating his own strength and conditioning organization that grew dozen of professional hockey players out of Winnipeg. He’s a pioneer in Winnipeg training culture and we dive into some great knowledge of his as he’s done i...

Did you have a childhood dream of playing a sport but felt like you didn’t have the talent? Well so did Matt Bailey, but he didn’t let that stop him. I met Matt at Focus Fitness, over 10 years ago, and he was just starting off playing junior hockey. Matt has an incredible story of initially being denied by teams at a young age, but one day making his way to playing a great hockey career in the AHL...

Can you imagine breaking your back being the thing that makes you find a career for yourself? Well, Vinney Crispino did just that. He is the founder of Pain Academy. In his younger years, he was a very high-level and successful swimmer but changed his focus to suffering when moving out west to LA. This tragically led to him breaking his back and dealing with injury throughout his 20s. However, his...

Shaquelle Hibbert is a kinesiologist, that specializes in those challenged with chronic conditions, especially diabetes, to reclaim their health and lifestyle. What’s really special about her approach is focusing on improving their perceptions of what ‘health’ can be defined as. Shaq and I come from very different approaches, as she focuses on intuitive eating, I focus on educating with more metri...

Deciding to be a goalie when I was maybe 11 or 12 years old was one the biggest decisions I ever made. Why? Well this episode we dive into just that AND how this year tested me more than ever going back into being a goalie competitively again. This episode will dive into some fun topics and great lessons for youHow I started in goaltending in hockeyThe mental challenges of being a goalieWhen thing...

Returning to the podcast is Jon Jorundson and Brent Lohmer, my strength coach friends! We chat each week about business or fitness, so why not record it? Both Jon and Brent have great experience with their clients in the strength of strength and conditioning for an aging but athletic population. This was a great time to discuss all the major mistakes we see people making with strength and give som...

Bob Doyle is best known for his work contributing to the book and film “the secret” which captures the law of attraction. However, has an awesome perspective on how people are NOT doing the work right and think the law of attraction is like magic. Bob has created a program to help people understand the process of the work to ‘rewire’ your brain so that you can do the work you need to do to go afte...

Jonathan Quinit is the founder and owner of Quinit Boxing in Vancouver, and this business is only a few years old but thriving! The gym's instagram account alone has over 63 thousand followers! This is because Jon is an amazing coach, and a former national champion himself. He speaks with very practical and tactical advice, but with great passion. In this episode we discuss his career and the evol...

Brent Lohmer is a strength and conditioning coach I met through Maverick Coaching Academy, and has recently become a colleague I meet with to talk about business with. Brent has an amazing story, of coming into fitness with an immediate ambition to want to be in great shape, and become a trainer. He later discovered an obsession that led him to an eating disorder, in which he was even admitted to...

This was a good time for self reflection and share my trials and tribulations with you. In this episode you'll hear some solid ranting but always trying to describe this in the form of a lesson for me, and hopefully for you as well. In this episode I discuss- My fitness goals from Fall to now- The challenges of stress and bed bugs- The Body building cut for a photoshoot- The Yo-yo after- My habits...

Jon Jorundson - Can you be an athlete again? Jon is a strength and conditioning coach and a college I chat with weekly about training. Jon came from a background of higher level basketball, but actually had some challenges with finding the appropriate trainers. He even had a trainer tell him he was too tall to squat! Because of that he’s on a mission to help others realize they can, and they don’t...

Adele Spraggon is an award-winning author and international speaker. She has set out on a journey to figure out why the personal and professional development methodologies didn’t work for her for so many years. She discovered after she went back to school to learn about neurology and behavioral sciences, that there was simply more to the picture. From her stance we’re looking at the wrong concept....

Given this is the official start to the second season, I had to have my great friend on again, Ray Lavoie. He was my first guest, and if you didn’t listen to the first episode, go back, and get some background on the topic of flow, and it is still the most downloaded episode to date. Ray is a Ph. D. professor and researcher for Merrimack University, with his main focus being in the realm of “Flow”...

Continuation of last week's podcast conversation. Again, I can't state enough how fun it is to talk with AJ, as he's an very insightful person but also a weight lifting bro like myself. Even after this conversation I walked away with a little more wisdom from him. In this conversation there are a few different topics - AJ's goals for new year for Strength- Problems with motivation- Problem with Bo...

Such an incredibly fun conversation with my mentor and friend AJ Zeglen. This is our 2nd time doing the Whiskey and Barbells discussion, but first time it was less about training and nutrition, this time we stayed on point and had great discussion, despite the solid amount of whiskeys. We broke this up into 2 parts, as it was a FOUR HOUR conversation, because AJ and I can just keep going when we g...

Over the years, Christmas has been so enjoyable but also disappointing and fueled my poor eating behavior. The mindset was to diet super strict until the holidays, then 'Jump Off The Wagon' and binge eat until it hurt my stomach. This podcast I wanted to tell my story about how it's evolved so much. I use to just keep repeating the same behaviour and get mad at myself. But then I started to pay at...

Lucas Root has a fascinating story about following money and working on wall street until that seemed to ruin his health and well being. After just one simple deep conversation with his wife he learnt there must be a new path. He went out on his own to start his own new business venture and grinded his way to have a successful brand. Recently he’s discovered a way to help individuals working from...

Mads Friis is the founder of the Growth Island podcast on health, performance, business and life's bigger mysteries, covering more than 80 episodes with global experts. One of his biggest passions is building health-related impact ventures and during the past years, he has co-built 3 successful start-ups with KRING.In this episode we talk about:· What can you do to increase happiness?· What should...

Alicia Castaneda is a coach for individuals who want to improve their relationship with food. I was introduced to her through my business coach, Gavin McHale, and she offered to run a free seminar for my clients on emotional eating. Within this seminar Alicia amazed me and my clients with her depth and understanding of how many layers we can look at our emotions that are attached to food. Even wit...

This week I wanted to go solo and breakdown something that I’ve had a long poor relationship with - Metabolism. I hated it when I would hear people say “You have a slow metabolism.” It didn’t make sense to me. I also got really confused by the idea of a “broken” metabolism. What was the missing picture? So this week I will break this shit down. I explain what goes into metabolism and I answer a gr...

George Ryles is a Strength and Conditioning coach that has travelled the world to improve his knowledge around optimizing performance for athletes that deal with injuries. I met George when I was experiencing a terrible shoulder issue that prevented me from doing any upper body strength. After he exposed me to some of his therapy experience I was able to heal my should so well I benching my heavie...

Laura Ceccarelli (M.A.) completed her master’s in Kinesiology at the University of Manitoba and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology. Her research examined the influence of self-compassion on athlete’s psychological and physiological responses to stress and recovery and better understanding mental health among student athletes. She has also been involved in research...