Getting Better At The Game Of Life - Kelly Starrett - #119

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Oh yes, hello friends. Welcome back to Modern Wisdom. My guest today is the one and only Kelly Starrett, CrossFit trainer, physical therapist, author and speaker. His book, Becoming a Supple Leopard, is one of my favorites on mobility and general fitness well-being. I'm super glad to get to sit down with him today. I get to ask him what are his thoughts on the most recent Game Changers documentary, which is definitely worthwhile listening to. His recent movement from Mobility WOD, which is his old company, to The Ready State, which is the new vision that he has for that and why he felt it was needed. We talk about training, nutrition, sleep, his principles for how he makes sure that he's constantly moving in the right direction with his health and his fitness. It's an awesome episode. Super, super fortunate to have spoken to him. Thanks to Dr. Stu McGill for linking me in with yet another fantastic guest. But for now, please welcome the one and only Kelly Starrett. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. I'm joined by the Super Leopard himself, Mr. Kelly Starrett. Kelly, welcome to the show.

**Kelly Starrett** (1:22)
It is a pleasure to be back on the, I don't know, I can say it's the better side of the ocean, but I do have an affinity for the UK.

**Chris Williamson** (1:32)
Yeah, man. Are you with me now? You're adopted for the next hour. We're gonna be talking about whatever we talk about. You can be British for a little while. Get a cup of tea out.

**Kelly Starrett** (1:40)
Well, really what I'm gonna need is a cup from the Borough Market and then also a sausage roll. So if you can make that happen, I'm in.

**Chris Williamson** (1:47)
That's like knowledge, but that's you dropping your peak UK knowledge bombs, isn't it? It's like, what's the most quintessentially British thing that I can think of? It's a cup of tea and a sausage roll.

**Kelly Starrett** (1:57)
That's right, that's right.

**Chris Williamson** (1:59)
So how are you, man? It's awesome to see you again. I follow your stuff. I'm sure a lot of people that are listening will be as well. You guys have been super busy recently.

**Kelly Starrett** (2:08)
You know, here's the deal.
We try to treat our thinking about human beings and our lives as a game you cannot win. All you can do is sort of play better and better and better. And to that end, if you treat your fitness, your wellness, your health, like a game with clear and clear winners and losers, you know what all the rules are, you're a fool. I mean, that's the same in business, the same in raising kids. You know, these are open-ended tasks and we have always reserved the right to get better and refine our thinking and to think differently and critically about the needs of the people we serve. And to that end, you know, we just applied that same amount of thinking to our business. And what we had is 10 years of experience helping people improve pain, helping people take a crack at moving more efficiently, more effectively on the things that they love. And we're trying to get the physio and the doctor out of the conversation. Because frankly, so much of this of what we're working on is disruptive in the way that, hey, this is a part of the language of being a human being. The same way that you don't have to talk to your nutritionist when you have lunch, right? You don't have to talk to your doctor before you go to bed. I mean, it's crazy that we have divorced muscle, skeletal health and care and understanding from our environmental lifestyle selves. Now, we're trying to fix that. What we realize is that people were a lot more clever than we have originally given them credit for. I mean, we've always assumed that people are more clever, but I don't think that our traditional industries have necessarily. To that end, we went ahead and rebranded and changed the user experience and user interface and we went for Mobility WOD, which was really confusing for people. Mobility now means nothing and WOD is a technical term that has been co-opted by lots of companies like Sobriety WOD and Faith WOD and Mentality WOD. Then we really felt like what we were doing was trying to help people in the context of their lives get as ready as they could for whatever they want to get ready for. I've been talking about this notion of this ready state, which is saying, you're not a monk, you have family obligations and previous history of injuries, and maybe you played a sport, and maybe you have a job that forces you to stay awake sometimes at hot hours. So how ready can we get you? What can we control? Which is really a different idea around, hey, I have a box of 100 things, and if I don't check off my list of 100 things, I'm somehow a failure and I haven't biohacked or optimized. Instead, we're saying this, hey, look, let's play a more beautiful game. That was really the birth of the ready state.