The Power Monkey Podcast

In another addition of a movement focused podcast, we welcome our good friend Chris Gatti to the show. Chris is a former collegiate gymnast who went on become an incredible circus performer with Cirque Du Soleil and eventually one of the best hand balancers in the world. Today, when not focused on his own training, Chris is a highly sought after hand balancing coach, which is why the focus of this...

Our guest today is Steph Mireles, who you may be more familiar with as Steph Chung. Steph was a CrossFit Games athlete who has recently made the shift into the medical world beginning a career in Boston as a Physicians Assistant. We discuss what that change in lifestyle and training has been like as well what she believes can change in the healthcare and fitness world to bridge the gap and provide...

We figured that after more than 200 episodes of the podcast that it was time to give a bit more insight into the founder and leader of Power Monkey Fitness. Today we chat with Dave Durante. Starting with his earliest exposure to gymnastics in Garwood New Jersey, all the way up through his time competing at Stanford and onto the 2008 Olympic Games. These stories will illustrate where his drive,  co...

On today's movement focused episode, we welcome 3 time US Olympian, Olympic Bronze medalist, and World Record Holder: Cheryl Haworth to debate the benefits and limitations of the Split Jerk vs Squat Jerk with our very own weightlifting head coach and National Team Member Mike Cerbus. We hope that you enjoy this episode format, as we intend to bring you many more of this type where we debate the nu...

Our guest today is Evan Slaughter, more commonly know by his social media handle on Instagram and TikTok as: Fit2Serve1. Evan has an interesting story, having formerly been quite fit and competitive, but after being injured on a tour in Iraq and developing an opiate addition he slid into a pretty dark place.  After getting clean, Evan has reignited his passion for fitness and comedy, and uses both...

Today's "movement focused" episode revolves around the skill of spotting. We believe that this truly is a skill that is all too often discredited or overlooked outright. As a coach, having the ability to spot someone correctly serves many purposes. Obviously creating a safe environment is primary, but even at higher levels, the ability to spot an athlete through a movement so that they can feel wh...

Bo has an incredible resume. Dave originally met Bo when he was a Strength Coach for a huge variety of sports at the US Olympic Training Center. Since then, Bo has been the Director of Strength and Conditioning at the UFC, the Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning at the University of Michigan, and he is Currently the Assistant Athletic Director at Texas A&M. Bo has worked with such a wi...

For our 200th episode, we brought on one of the OG's of CrossFit. Dave Lipson was a multi-time Games Athlete, a professional baseball player, and a long time member of the prestigious CrossFit Seminar Staff. Dave is an absolute wealth of knowledge when it comes to fitness and performance. Most recently, Dave has taken his years of experience and directed them towards his new fitness goals within t...

Today we welcome Pat Vellner back to the show for his second time. Pat had an incredible season this year, winning WZA on a team, being crowned the Second Fittest Man on Earth at the Games, and most recently winning the Rogue Invitational. We love having Pat on the show, he is fun to chat with and always speaks with passion and excitement about whatever topic is at hand. We cover everything from t...

As we prepare for the launch of our newest program in the Power Monkey Training App, Handstand Walking - Advanced, we decided to take an episode and pick the brain of our Captain and the creator of the plan, Dave Durante. Dave goes into depth regarding what the new plan entails, and what you will get out of it. Specifically, this plan will take an athlete who can Handstand Walk in a straight line...

We welcome back today one of our favorite people, and wealth of knowledge when it comes to the nutritional sciences: Dr. Mike Molloy, owner and founder of M2 Performance Nutrition. Today we had a very specific topic that we wanted to discuss with Dr. Mike. Training for Performance vs. Longevity.  Recently we have become more and more interested in what it means to eat and train while keeping our f...

Megan was a world class athlete in maybe one of the most insane sports there is. Imagine flying head first down a sheet of ice at speeds of up to 80 MPH, on essentially a baking tray. That is the sport of Skelton, and Megan was one of the best in the world at it. There is no surprise that it takes a special mindset to subject yourself to such risk, and to do it at such a high level while managing...

We are excited to welcome our friend, Dr. Julie Foucher onto the show. Julie, as many of you may know, had an incredible career as a CrossFit Games Athlete before she retired from the competition world and continued to pursue her medical career. Today she is a practicing physician of functional medicine within a direct primary care model at Wild Health. Julie takes a holistic approach to wellness...

We recently had the pleasure of working with both Emma and Jack at a Power Monkey Course in their home town up in Canada. We already knew that both were incredible athletes, Emma having just been crowned the 2nd Fittest Woman on Earth at the 2023 CrossFit Games as an 18 year old, and Jack having put on a show winning the Olympic Total event, also as a young 21 year other athlete. What we didn't kn...

We enjoyed having Brian on the podcast so much last time, that we invited him to come out and spend a week with us at our Power Monkey Camp this past September. And surprise! We loved having him there as well! Brian specifically requested to come back on the podcast because he wanted to talk with us further about his experience at Camp just a few short weeks ago. But what surprised us even more wa...

Mark is the creator and head coach of "Enlifted", which gives coaches practical mindset tools to use with their clients. Mark focuses largely on how his clients use language to create the story that they want to live, and to attain their goals. Mark outlines a number of tools within this episode that you can start using right away to work towards reaching your highest potential. Mark's IG: @enlift...

If you are like us, we are big fans of Cody Anderson. Not only is he an excellent person, but being on the smaller side when it comes to CrossFit Games Athletes, Cody is capable of simply incredible lifts. When he was competing at the Games, he was at a bodyweight of 150-160 and could Clean and Jerk 320lbs on top of being known as the "King of the Muscle-Up" due to his impressive gymnastic skills....

We are lucky enough to welcome onto the podcast for a second time; Jeff Adler and Caroline Lambray. Except this time they join us as the Fittest Man on Earth, and Coach of the Fittest Man on Earth. Jeff and Caroline are long time friends who have become a part of our family after having attending Power Monkey Camp. Getting to speak with them again was a treat, as we discussed topics including what...

Today's guest is future US Olympic hopeful Sunny Choi. Sunny is looking to compete in the first ever appearance of Break Dancing in the Olympics next year in Paris. Having a background in gymnastics has helped Sunny to succeed in her new found sport, where she is the number one ranked female in the US, as well as a World Medalist. Sunny is an accomplished and impressive athlete, who is one of the...

Today we welcome back on the show, Brent Fikowski. Brent is fresh off of his most recent appearance at the CrossFit Games, where he improved his previous years performance at the Games by 12 spots, finishing 4th this year. We talk about what changes Brent implemented over the past year in his training to result in such a large improvement at the Games, as well as his feelings around the programmin...

Last week, a team of 12 Monkeys (Great movie by the way), descended upon Portland Oregon to tackle a legendary 200-mile relay race from Mt. Hood to the beautiful Oregon coast. They ran straight through the night. There were laughs, there were tears, there were...moments of delirium. But all in all, what transpired was an incredible 36 hours of overcoming physical and mental adversity, team buildin...

Miguel is a fascinating athlete. His background was initially in gymnastics, where he was dominating. Eventually he grew tired of the rigid nature of the sport. Growing up in Brooklyn, Miquel found himself exposed to the world of Break-Dancing. With his foundation of gymnastics, he took to it and excelled immediately, earning him the nickname "Gravity" for his explosive moves on the dance floor. N...

Michele is a good friend who we have been following within the CrossFit space since her days out on the competition floor as an athlete. Michele is a 6x CrossFit Games Athlete who has made the transition into the world of coaching, founding the programming company: Deka Comp. She was the first female CrossFit Games coach to break into the space, and she has had tremendous success having coached Pa...

In this special pop-up episode, we are intentionally limiting the discussion to 10 minutes. We are doing so to celebrate Dave's accomplishment of finally chasing down his 8 year goal of holding a 10 minute long freestanding handstand! And we couldn't be more proud of him. This comes after Dave finally decided to put a structured plan in place to get him from her previous record of 9 minutes and 1...

Fresh off the 2023 CrossFit Games, we have John Singleton. Who not only had 3 individual athletes compete at the Games, but is also the head coach and founder of The Progrm. It was a pleasure getting to discuss all things "programming" and CrossFit competition with John, as he truly is one of the best minds in the space, and is clearly passionate about what he does. This episode is a dense one, wi...