[00:00:00.920] - Joel Del Rosario
Remember that when you hang up that uniform, you don't hang up your responsibilities. You're still responsible for your own health. You're still responsible to your family, to your community, and everybody around you. And part of being responsible is being physically fit. So, turn your mind back on and your mindset back to understanding that you are an asset to this community.
[00:00:23.580] - John S. Berry
Welcome to Veteran Led. Today's guest is Joel Del Rosario. Now Joel is the founder of Readi. He is a recently retired Marine Corps Major.
[00:00:32.520] - Joel Del Rosario
Yep, correct.
[00:00:33.790] - John S. Berry
And he started this venture before he got out, which was a smart thing to do. So, what Joel does is he takes tactical athletes and makes them even better. So, let's talk about Readi.
[00:00:43.670] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, thank you for having me here. Uh, yeah, Readi, what we do really is take tactical athletes, which is people who wear the uniform and are expected to perform like professional athletes, but really don't have the resources that professional athletes do, right? So, but we're still expected to perform and do the things that we were trained to do on a daily basis. My job with Readi is to help law enforcement, firefighters, military, and Veterans be able to perform at their best by incorporating strength training, mobility training, mindset, and also little bit of nutrition here and there so that they can just increase their effectiveness along the way.
[00:01:24.740] - John S. Berry
And not just effectiveness, but longevity. And I think this is important, right? Because you can't play the game forever, but you want to play as long as possible. And it's crazy. I'm in my 50s. I still run. But when I look at other Veterans, I'm like, oh man, I haven't ran since I was in service. And it's not because I don't want to. It's because my body hurts too much. So, the longevity piece matters as well. So, thank you for what you do in that regard, because we all need it. But let's talk about who's your ideal consumer at Readi?
[00:01:52.180] - Joel Del Rosario
It is the— right now we're getting a lot of interest from the law enforcement community, believe it or not, but I know why. Law enforcement community, they are expected to perform every single day, interact with people every single day, do arrests whenever somebody breaks the law, which is every single day. And then they are also underfunded when it comes to performance, right? They already have to spend a lot of money on buying equipment or doing things for their daily training, for getting them ready to use the equipment they have, which is their service weapon, or buying new vehicles for their fleet. And they fall short when it comes to buying or providing resources to the individual for the performance, which is their body, to use their body properly, but not just to use it while they're in uniform, but also to be able to last long and not break down so easily. So, we're getting a lot of interest from law enforcement, but we have programs for the Marine Corps PFT, CFT, the Army's new, what do you call it, their PFA? They call it PFT now? What do you guys call it in the Army now?
[00:03:09.990] - John S. Berry
Yeah, so there's the—
[00:03:12.570] - Joel Del Rosario
The ACFT?
[00:03:13.210] - John S. Berry
Yeah, well, yeah, something like that. I don't know, I got out.
[00:03:16.410] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, so the ACFT, they just recently changed it again for the Army, where now they have a new combat fitness test for the Army. So, we're continuously updating our programs to make sure to fit each branch of service's requirement and law enforcement as well and firefighters.
[00:03:34.610] - John S. Berry
Yeah, and I think that's an interesting thing about law enforcement being so interested, because as you think about it, know, when we wore the IBA, right, it was heavy, it was uncomfortable, couldn't wait to get off. But law enforcement every day, they're wearing that, you know, and
[00:03:45.610] - Joel Del Rosario
every day
[00:03:45.940] - John S. Berry
and if, as, as I learned from wearing it, you know, deployed, I'll tell you what, like, if you aren't taking care of your body and building those muscles, I mean, it can, it can, it can cause some real damage.
[00:03:58.020] - Joel Del Rosario
I completely agree. A little thing that I didn't even tell you yet is I'm going through the police academy right now. I just retired in April and I'm going to the police academy because I'm going to be a deputy sheriff. 2 reasons for that. I want to serve my community, obviously, because I have a purpose. I love my community in Texas. I'm in the Dallas area. But also, I want to learn what they go through every single day because even though I wore the uniform as a military member, what law enforcement go through every single day, it's very different. And like you said, they have to wear that every single day. whether it's hot, whether it's, you know, whatever, they have to sit in a vehicle, get up and run after an individual wearing that equipment, potentially on a very regular basis, depending on where their agency is. So even though we are very similar in what we are, you know, how we think and our discipline, what we have to do every single day is they do it more frequently than military members do. The only time military members really do it is on deployment.
[00:04:56.700] - Joel Del Rosario
They have to do it Pretty much every week for their— until they decide to retire.
[00:05:01.760] - John S. Berry
The knees, the shoulders, all those things, if you're not taking care of them, they just fall apart. I mean, the body starts sending them back to the factory, you know. And so, if you're not proactive, you're, you're good, you're gonna lose it. So, tell us about Ready and the app and what it does.
[00:05:14.660] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, so we— my wife and I created all of the, all of the exercise library, mobility exercises and everything. We have videos that people can follow along on. We have the ability for you to be able to click a few buttons and be able to determine, okay, I only have 30 minutes to work out today. I only have this equipment to work out. Create me something. And it'll create something for you if you don't want to follow a program. If you want to follow a program, we have programs that are going to progress and help you get stronger, better at what you do every single day, right? And then we also have resources for stress management and be able to get your mindset right. So that when you have a tough day and you don't feel like, hey, maybe I can't work out today, I'm just too exhausted, my brain is just, you know, I've done too much today. We can get you in a mindset where maybe you can do more, maybe you feel better, or you had a really tough day and you're about to go spend time with your family and you need to get back into baseline.
[00:06:12.220] - Joel Del Rosario
We can help you with that too.
[00:06:14.220] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. And what about injuries? Coming back from injuries, do you guys handle that as well?
[00:06:18.480] - Joel Del Rosario
Absolutely.
[00:06:19.070] - Joel Del Rosario
Not only do we help with coming back from injuries, Now, we're not going to— we always want to work with your doctors and your therapists to be able to be an asset to them, to what they're telling you to do. So, we'll provide the exercises. We're going to have all those exercises there. So, when they tell you, they say, hey, I need you to do more core exercises, we're going to have an entire exercise library of core exercises that you can use according to what your therapist or your doctor told you to do. But On top of that, we're going to help you be able to be more resilient so that you don't get as injured as frequently, right? We're going to— we have proper movement, which is a big reason why people don't— people get injured is they don't know how to do the movement properly. If you want to learn how to do a certain movement like a barbell clean, we'll show you how to do that. There's a video for that. If you want to learn how to kettlebell swing, there's a video for that as well. So, we're going to teach you how to Do things properly to not get injured, but also, um, be able to be a supplement for the things that, uh, for if you have a doctor that tells you need something, we're gonna— it's gonna be there for you too.
[00:07:23.070] - John S. Berry
Yeah, I think it's really important, especially in the day when there's a bunch of YouTube videos of people doing this stuff the wrong way, right, is to find something. Hey, pay the money to get the right stuff. It's, it's well worth it. You know, a long time ago I did a bodybuilding competition, right, and it is, you know, the diet, everything, but I learned from experts. If, if YouTube would have been around back then, I probably would have screwed it up. I wouldn't have, because there's so much noise out there for people that have no idea what they're doing. And then you get hurt. And that's what I, that's what I love about the app is that it's, you have something that is going to make our lives easier. It's, I think you were out here right when Nick Lavery was just on.
[00:08:01.190] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah.
[00:08:01.210] - John S. Berry
And when Nick said, you know, he's like, look, you know, you build systems, you build processes, and that's, and that makes it easier to do the hard things. Because a lot of people don't like to work out. Guys like you, me, I love every day. I love to exercise. But, you know, sometimes even I need to dial it in.
[00:08:14.940] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah.
[00:08:15.200] - John S. Berry
I'm sure you feel the same way.
[00:08:16.160] - Joel Del Rosario
I do feel the same way. And it's not just— working out is not just about making people tired. This is where people get it wrong. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. This is where a lot of trainers get it wrong. A lot of trainers like, I'm going to make this person tired. That way they feel like they got a good workout. It's not about that. It's about making you better. Anybody can make anybody tired. I can have you do 1,000 or 100 burpees. You're going to be tired. But are you going to be better? Sure, you're going to be better at doing burpees.
[00:08:43.610] - John S. Berry
Yeah.
[00:08:44.420] - Joel Del Rosario
But are you going to be better at what you do? What is your goal? Is your goal to be a better soldier, to be a better Marine physically, to be a better airman, to be a better sailor, to be a better police officer or firefighter? Then yeah, we got you covered, right? There is a You know, there's a health and then there's performance. Those 2 things don't always match, right? Because when, like, for example, look at a football player, a lineman, he has to perform. He's not necessarily at the best health because he weighs a lot of, you know, probably 300 and something pounds, probably not a healthy weight, but he's able to perform. He has to be that heavy to perform. Same thing with law enforcement, military members. Sometimes we have to lose sleep. Sometimes we got to do things that are gonna be dangerous, but you still have to perform. But we want to try to keep you healthy at the same time, and those 2 things don't always match. We in Readi, we focus on readiness, which is the intersection of health and performance, and trying to get you where you can still be a full-fledged asset to your unit while still have longevity.
[00:09:53.160] - Joel Del Rosario
for the job. And once you decide to hang that uniform up and spend time with the family.
[00:09:59.110] - John S. Berry
How do you handle the problem of overtraining? Right?
[00:10:01.190] - John S. Berry
For me, sometimes it's just like, hey, this is my mental escape. I'm gonna go work out. But sometimes it's like, hey, when I'm— the more stressed I am, the more I'm doing it. And then it might be I'm gonna lose sleep, which is never a good thing, you know, for over a long period of time. But, and then training every single day, day in, day out. Now I'm doing, you know, people like to talk about grinding, but grinding doesn't create muscles. Grinding creates dust. So how do you prevent the overtraining problem for people that are hyped up about your product? They want to do all the, you know, they see all the work like, oh man, this is great. I can do all these exercises. I learned how to get excited and then they injure themselves because they overtrain. How do you deal with that?
[00:10:34.410] - Joel Del Rosario
Oh, it's, uh, that's a great question. And I think the best way to deal with that is to train smart because so many people want to just, hey, I gotta, I have to work out today. I have to work out today. Right. Well, do you have to work out today? Or maybe is today a good day for you to get some extra sleep today? And maybe today is a good day for you to get to work on mobility versus just working on maxing out. If you have a good program, which we develop the best programs, if you have a good program, we're going to have recovery sessions set in your schedule as well. But we're not going to program something to destroy you. Like I said, we're going to program to make you better. And sometimes that may be a less intense workout today. So, you can get more out of you 2 days from now, right?
[00:11:21.660] - Joel Del Rosario
So, training smartly, uh, and then progressing properly will always win over just working out hard every single day because the body can break down. There's overreaching, which is, you know, getting to the point where your nervous system is taxed out, and there's overtraining, and that's when we start getting injuries. We want to reach but we don't want to overtrain. We want to be smart.
[00:11:48.000] - John S. Berry
So, what about for older guys like me? Have you broken any of the systems down by age as well?
[00:11:53.280] - Joel Del Rosario
We do. Yeah, we have a system broken down where we ask you, what's your age? What's your activity level? Sedentary, active, medium or so? What do you have available to you? Dumbbells, full gym, body weight, whatever it is. We ask all these questions in the beginning. And then we recommend a program for you. And if you like the program, you continue with that program. If you want to check out the other programs we have, go ahead and check out the other programs. But we're going to make sure that we provide you with what fits best for your schedule, for your resources. So that way, if you're a 50-year-old that is physically fit like yourself and you want to challenge yourself more, you have that ability. If you're a 50-year-old that's just starting to work out, and tomorrow's your first day, we have that for you too.
[00:12:41.580] - John S. Berry
What advice do you have for people once they start the program? Like, oh, I don't know if I want to do this one or this one. Do you, do you just say, okay, look, just do it all? The best advice is just to pick one, go all the way through, because you're not going to— like, let's face it, sometimes I've done this where I've switched exercises or programs and it took 2 or 3 weeks before I can start to see the results. And at first, I'm like, ah, this is worthless. I'm not feeling like I'm, you know, and then, okay, either A, I'm doing it wrong. Or B, it's just going to take time to see results.
[00:13:07.290] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, that's a big problem that we see in the fitness industry. People get bored easily with programs. But what I would say is that stick to it for at least a month and a half. Give it at least a month and a half. And if you're getting the results you want, then stick, just finish it out. If you don't, if you're like, hey, I want to switch my goal, maybe I want to do hyrox. Or maybe I want to do a marathon, or maybe I want to do a Tough Mudder or something like that, and you find another program in the app that provides you that, it's like, give— try it out. Uh, what's great about our app is that if you decide to switch programs and then you go back to the other program, your, uh, your progress is going to stay there. You're going to see that you're, you're, you're not going to have to start from the beginning if you don't want to.
[00:13:55.250] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. So, Joel, that takes us to the after-action review. Your example of great leadership and horrible leadership. And they can be in fitness or the military or wherever you want.
[00:14:04.080] - Joel Del Rosario
We've all seen great leadership. I think we all remember more bad leadership than we remember good leadership, right? So, I'm going to start with the bad leadership first. And I think that's an inconsistent leader. Someone, a leader who either a commanding officer or senior enlisted member or CEO or whatever, or your boss, that is inconsistent in how they treat people, what their standards are, and how they handle situations. So, if, for example, one person comes in late and they're like slapping, slapping the wrist, and another person comes in late the next week and they get maybe fired, that's an inconsistent leader. And, you know, obviously in the military you have some people that, you know, their personalities, they're people, but You have commanding officers that maybe have favorite people, people that they prefer over others, and they show that versus just keeping that internally. So, if you show favoritism and you're not consistent with how you hand out punishment or awards or whatever the case may be, people see that. And so, inconsistency, I think, is what makes a really bad leader because you can be a hard Like, you know, excuse my language, you could be an asshole, but if you're an asshole to everyone, then that's just who you are.
[00:15:25.820] - Joel Del Rosario
But if you're that individual, if you're like that to only some people and not others, then that's inconsistency and people see that. So that's bad leadership. And then good leadership, I think, are people who, leaders who hold people to a higher standard no matter what. Right, hold people to a higher standard. People will meet whatever standard you set. If you set too low of a bar, people will meet that and probably will not exceed it. You'll have a few who probably exceed it, but not many. If you meet— if you have a higher standard, people will meet that eventually. And those leaders, I think, not only are setting their unit up for success, but the institution up for success as well. So, I recommend that leaders have high standards with our people.
[00:16:12.980] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. And so, Joel, where can Veterans, other listeners, LEO learn more about Readi and you?
[00:16:19.960] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, for Readi is at social media or the website. Social media is @getreadi.app. And then on the website is getreadi.app as well. And then for me is—
[00:16:34.340] - John S. Berry
And we got to break it down for the Marines here. The way we spell Readi is R-E-A-D-I.
[00:16:38.900] - Joel Del Rosario
Correct. Yeah.
[00:16:39.540] - John S. Berry
R-E-A-D-I.
[00:16:41.010] - Joel Del Rosario
Thats not the correct spelling of ready. That is how we spell readi. Yes, for Marines out there. And then for me, uh, @joellerblades, J-O-E-L, another L-E-R-B-L-A-D-E-S. That's the spelling. You'll find me on there. I have a lot of, uh, kettlebell workouts on there. You— a lot of Marines have probably seen me on social media, so if you want to hit me up there, feel free.
[00:17:02.860] - John S. Berry
So I want to end with this: your one piece of advice for Veterans got out who used to be in shape, they got out, you know, their body's a little bit banged up. What's the first step they can take to start getting back into shape?
[00:17:15.260] - Joel Del Rosario
First, remember that when you hang up that uniform, you don't hang up your responsibilities. Remember that. You hang up that uniform does not mean you hang up your responsibility. You're still responsible for your own health. You're still responsible to your family, to your community, and everybody around you. So don't hang up your responsibilities. And part of being responsible is being physically fit. So Turn your mind back on and your mindset back to understanding that you are an asset to this community and understand that first. Second, if you need to take the— need to start again, just take the first step. Just walk into the gym. Just start with something simple. Mobility exercises. Start getting your body to feel a little bit better, more lubricated, so that when you go to— and you start moving better, you feel better, and then you can start Up in the weight, increasing the intensity and all that. But it doesn't— you don't have to go from 0 to 60 like we did from when we got to boot camp. We don't have to do that. We can start slow. So start slow, just start doing mobility exercises and then go from there.
[00:18:21.110] - John S. Berry
Thank you for joining us today on Veteran Led, where we seek to help Veterans build an even bigger, better future after military service. Unfortunately for some of our Veterans, the roadblock to a better future is that they are not receiving all of the benefits that they earned. If you need help appealing a VA disability decision, contact Berry Law.
Remember that when you hang up that uniform, you don't hang up your responsibilities. You're still responsible for your own health. You're still responsible to your family, to your community, and everybody around you. And part of being responsible is being physically fit. So, turn your mind back on and your mindset back to understanding that you are an asset to this community.
[00:00:23.580] - John S. Berry
Welcome to Veteran Led. Today's guest is Joel Del Rosario. Now Joel is the founder of Readi. He is a recently retired Marine Corps Major.
[00:00:32.520] - Joel Del Rosario
Yep, correct.
[00:00:33.790] - John S. Berry
And he started this venture before he got out, which was a smart thing to do. So, what Joel does is he takes tactical athletes and makes them even better. So, let's talk about Readi.
[00:00:43.670] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, thank you for having me here. Uh, yeah, Readi, what we do really is take tactical athletes, which is people who wear the uniform and are expected to perform like professional athletes, but really don't have the resources that professional athletes do, right? So, but we're still expected to perform and do the things that we were trained to do on a daily basis. My job with Readi is to help law enforcement, firefighters, military, and Veterans be able to perform at their best by incorporating strength training, mobility training, mindset, and also little bit of nutrition here and there so that they can just increase their effectiveness along the way.
[00:01:24.740] - John S. Berry
And not just effectiveness, but longevity. And I think this is important, right? Because you can't play the game forever, but you want to play as long as possible. And it's crazy. I'm in my 50s. I still run. But when I look at other Veterans, I'm like, oh man, I haven't ran since I was in service. And it's not because I don't want to. It's because my body hurts too much. So, the longevity piece matters as well. So, thank you for what you do in that regard, because we all need it. But let's talk about who's your ideal consumer at Readi?
[00:01:52.180] - Joel Del Rosario
It is the— right now we're getting a lot of interest from the law enforcement community, believe it or not, but I know why. Law enforcement community, they are expected to perform every single day, interact with people every single day, do arrests whenever somebody breaks the law, which is every single day. And then they are also underfunded when it comes to performance, right? They already have to spend a lot of money on buying equipment or doing things for their daily training, for getting them ready to use the equipment they have, which is their service weapon, or buying new vehicles for their fleet. And they fall short when it comes to buying or providing resources to the individual for the performance, which is their body, to use their body properly, but not just to use it while they're in uniform, but also to be able to last long and not break down so easily. So, we're getting a lot of interest from law enforcement, but we have programs for the Marine Corps PFT, CFT, the Army's new, what do you call it, their PFA? They call it PFT now? What do you guys call it in the Army now?
[00:03:09.990] - John S. Berry
Yeah, so there's the—
[00:03:12.570] - Joel Del Rosario
The ACFT?
[00:03:13.210] - John S. Berry
Yeah, well, yeah, something like that. I don't know, I got out.
[00:03:16.410] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, so the ACFT, they just recently changed it again for the Army, where now they have a new combat fitness test for the Army. So, we're continuously updating our programs to make sure to fit each branch of service's requirement and law enforcement as well and firefighters.
[00:03:34.610] - John S. Berry
Yeah, and I think that's an interesting thing about law enforcement being so interested, because as you think about it, know, when we wore the IBA, right, it was heavy, it was uncomfortable, couldn't wait to get off. But law enforcement every day, they're wearing that, you know, and
[00:03:45.610] - Joel Del Rosario
every day
[00:03:45.940] - John S. Berry
and if, as, as I learned from wearing it, you know, deployed, I'll tell you what, like, if you aren't taking care of your body and building those muscles, I mean, it can, it can, it can cause some real damage.
[00:03:58.020] - Joel Del Rosario
I completely agree. A little thing that I didn't even tell you yet is I'm going through the police academy right now. I just retired in April and I'm going to the police academy because I'm going to be a deputy sheriff. 2 reasons for that. I want to serve my community, obviously, because I have a purpose. I love my community in Texas. I'm in the Dallas area. But also, I want to learn what they go through every single day because even though I wore the uniform as a military member, what law enforcement go through every single day, it's very different. And like you said, they have to wear that every single day. whether it's hot, whether it's, you know, whatever, they have to sit in a vehicle, get up and run after an individual wearing that equipment, potentially on a very regular basis, depending on where their agency is. So even though we are very similar in what we are, you know, how we think and our discipline, what we have to do every single day is they do it more frequently than military members do. The only time military members really do it is on deployment.
[00:04:56.700] - Joel Del Rosario
They have to do it Pretty much every week for their— until they decide to retire.
[00:05:01.760] - John S. Berry
The knees, the shoulders, all those things, if you're not taking care of them, they just fall apart. I mean, the body starts sending them back to the factory, you know. And so, if you're not proactive, you're, you're good, you're gonna lose it. So, tell us about Ready and the app and what it does.
[00:05:14.660] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, so we— my wife and I created all of the, all of the exercise library, mobility exercises and everything. We have videos that people can follow along on. We have the ability for you to be able to click a few buttons and be able to determine, okay, I only have 30 minutes to work out today. I only have this equipment to work out. Create me something. And it'll create something for you if you don't want to follow a program. If you want to follow a program, we have programs that are going to progress and help you get stronger, better at what you do every single day, right? And then we also have resources for stress management and be able to get your mindset right. So that when you have a tough day and you don't feel like, hey, maybe I can't work out today, I'm just too exhausted, my brain is just, you know, I've done too much today. We can get you in a mindset where maybe you can do more, maybe you feel better, or you had a really tough day and you're about to go spend time with your family and you need to get back into baseline.
[00:06:12.220] - Joel Del Rosario
We can help you with that too.
[00:06:14.220] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. And what about injuries? Coming back from injuries, do you guys handle that as well?
[00:06:18.480] - Joel Del Rosario
Absolutely.
[00:06:19.070] - Joel Del Rosario
Not only do we help with coming back from injuries, Now, we're not going to— we always want to work with your doctors and your therapists to be able to be an asset to them, to what they're telling you to do. So, we'll provide the exercises. We're going to have all those exercises there. So, when they tell you, they say, hey, I need you to do more core exercises, we're going to have an entire exercise library of core exercises that you can use according to what your therapist or your doctor told you to do. But On top of that, we're going to help you be able to be more resilient so that you don't get as injured as frequently, right? We're going to— we have proper movement, which is a big reason why people don't— people get injured is they don't know how to do the movement properly. If you want to learn how to do a certain movement like a barbell clean, we'll show you how to do that. There's a video for that. If you want to learn how to kettlebell swing, there's a video for that as well. So, we're going to teach you how to Do things properly to not get injured, but also, um, be able to be a supplement for the things that, uh, for if you have a doctor that tells you need something, we're gonna— it's gonna be there for you too.
[00:07:23.070] - John S. Berry
Yeah, I think it's really important, especially in the day when there's a bunch of YouTube videos of people doing this stuff the wrong way, right, is to find something. Hey, pay the money to get the right stuff. It's, it's well worth it. You know, a long time ago I did a bodybuilding competition, right, and it is, you know, the diet, everything, but I learned from experts. If, if YouTube would have been around back then, I probably would have screwed it up. I wouldn't have, because there's so much noise out there for people that have no idea what they're doing. And then you get hurt. And that's what I, that's what I love about the app is that it's, you have something that is going to make our lives easier. It's, I think you were out here right when Nick Lavery was just on.
[00:08:01.190] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah.
[00:08:01.210] - John S. Berry
And when Nick said, you know, he's like, look, you know, you build systems, you build processes, and that's, and that makes it easier to do the hard things. Because a lot of people don't like to work out. Guys like you, me, I love every day. I love to exercise. But, you know, sometimes even I need to dial it in.
[00:08:14.940] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah.
[00:08:15.200] - John S. Berry
I'm sure you feel the same way.
[00:08:16.160] - Joel Del Rosario
I do feel the same way. And it's not just— working out is not just about making people tired. This is where people get it wrong. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. This is where a lot of trainers get it wrong. A lot of trainers like, I'm going to make this person tired. That way they feel like they got a good workout. It's not about that. It's about making you better. Anybody can make anybody tired. I can have you do 1,000 or 100 burpees. You're going to be tired. But are you going to be better? Sure, you're going to be better at doing burpees.
[00:08:43.610] - John S. Berry
Yeah.
[00:08:44.420] - Joel Del Rosario
But are you going to be better at what you do? What is your goal? Is your goal to be a better soldier, to be a better Marine physically, to be a better airman, to be a better sailor, to be a better police officer or firefighter? Then yeah, we got you covered, right? There is a You know, there's a health and then there's performance. Those 2 things don't always match, right? Because when, like, for example, look at a football player, a lineman, he has to perform. He's not necessarily at the best health because he weighs a lot of, you know, probably 300 and something pounds, probably not a healthy weight, but he's able to perform. He has to be that heavy to perform. Same thing with law enforcement, military members. Sometimes we have to lose sleep. Sometimes we got to do things that are gonna be dangerous, but you still have to perform. But we want to try to keep you healthy at the same time, and those 2 things don't always match. We in Readi, we focus on readiness, which is the intersection of health and performance, and trying to get you where you can still be a full-fledged asset to your unit while still have longevity.
[00:09:53.160] - Joel Del Rosario
for the job. And once you decide to hang that uniform up and spend time with the family.
[00:09:59.110] - John S. Berry
How do you handle the problem of overtraining? Right?
[00:10:01.190] - John S. Berry
For me, sometimes it's just like, hey, this is my mental escape. I'm gonna go work out. But sometimes it's like, hey, when I'm— the more stressed I am, the more I'm doing it. And then it might be I'm gonna lose sleep, which is never a good thing, you know, for over a long period of time. But, and then training every single day, day in, day out. Now I'm doing, you know, people like to talk about grinding, but grinding doesn't create muscles. Grinding creates dust. So how do you prevent the overtraining problem for people that are hyped up about your product? They want to do all the, you know, they see all the work like, oh man, this is great. I can do all these exercises. I learned how to get excited and then they injure themselves because they overtrain. How do you deal with that?
[00:10:34.410] - Joel Del Rosario
Oh, it's, uh, that's a great question. And I think the best way to deal with that is to train smart because so many people want to just, hey, I gotta, I have to work out today. I have to work out today. Right. Well, do you have to work out today? Or maybe is today a good day for you to get some extra sleep today? And maybe today is a good day for you to get to work on mobility versus just working on maxing out. If you have a good program, which we develop the best programs, if you have a good program, we're going to have recovery sessions set in your schedule as well. But we're not going to program something to destroy you. Like I said, we're going to program to make you better. And sometimes that may be a less intense workout today. So, you can get more out of you 2 days from now, right?
[00:11:21.660] - Joel Del Rosario
So, training smartly, uh, and then progressing properly will always win over just working out hard every single day because the body can break down. There's overreaching, which is, you know, getting to the point where your nervous system is taxed out, and there's overtraining, and that's when we start getting injuries. We want to reach but we don't want to overtrain. We want to be smart.
[00:11:48.000] - John S. Berry
So, what about for older guys like me? Have you broken any of the systems down by age as well?
[00:11:53.280] - Joel Del Rosario
We do. Yeah, we have a system broken down where we ask you, what's your age? What's your activity level? Sedentary, active, medium or so? What do you have available to you? Dumbbells, full gym, body weight, whatever it is. We ask all these questions in the beginning. And then we recommend a program for you. And if you like the program, you continue with that program. If you want to check out the other programs we have, go ahead and check out the other programs. But we're going to make sure that we provide you with what fits best for your schedule, for your resources. So that way, if you're a 50-year-old that is physically fit like yourself and you want to challenge yourself more, you have that ability. If you're a 50-year-old that's just starting to work out, and tomorrow's your first day, we have that for you too.
[00:12:41.580] - John S. Berry
What advice do you have for people once they start the program? Like, oh, I don't know if I want to do this one or this one. Do you, do you just say, okay, look, just do it all? The best advice is just to pick one, go all the way through, because you're not going to— like, let's face it, sometimes I've done this where I've switched exercises or programs and it took 2 or 3 weeks before I can start to see the results. And at first, I'm like, ah, this is worthless. I'm not feeling like I'm, you know, and then, okay, either A, I'm doing it wrong. Or B, it's just going to take time to see results.
[00:13:07.290] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, that's a big problem that we see in the fitness industry. People get bored easily with programs. But what I would say is that stick to it for at least a month and a half. Give it at least a month and a half. And if you're getting the results you want, then stick, just finish it out. If you don't, if you're like, hey, I want to switch my goal, maybe I want to do hyrox. Or maybe I want to do a marathon, or maybe I want to do a Tough Mudder or something like that, and you find another program in the app that provides you that, it's like, give— try it out. Uh, what's great about our app is that if you decide to switch programs and then you go back to the other program, your, uh, your progress is going to stay there. You're going to see that you're, you're, you're not going to have to start from the beginning if you don't want to.
[00:13:55.250] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. So, Joel, that takes us to the after-action review. Your example of great leadership and horrible leadership. And they can be in fitness or the military or wherever you want.
[00:14:04.080] - Joel Del Rosario
We've all seen great leadership. I think we all remember more bad leadership than we remember good leadership, right? So, I'm going to start with the bad leadership first. And I think that's an inconsistent leader. Someone, a leader who either a commanding officer or senior enlisted member or CEO or whatever, or your boss, that is inconsistent in how they treat people, what their standards are, and how they handle situations. So, if, for example, one person comes in late and they're like slapping, slapping the wrist, and another person comes in late the next week and they get maybe fired, that's an inconsistent leader. And, you know, obviously in the military you have some people that, you know, their personalities, they're people, but You have commanding officers that maybe have favorite people, people that they prefer over others, and they show that versus just keeping that internally. So, if you show favoritism and you're not consistent with how you hand out punishment or awards or whatever the case may be, people see that. And so, inconsistency, I think, is what makes a really bad leader because you can be a hard Like, you know, excuse my language, you could be an asshole, but if you're an asshole to everyone, then that's just who you are.
[00:15:25.820] - Joel Del Rosario
But if you're that individual, if you're like that to only some people and not others, then that's inconsistency and people see that. So that's bad leadership. And then good leadership, I think, are people who, leaders who hold people to a higher standard no matter what. Right, hold people to a higher standard. People will meet whatever standard you set. If you set too low of a bar, people will meet that and probably will not exceed it. You'll have a few who probably exceed it, but not many. If you meet— if you have a higher standard, people will meet that eventually. And those leaders, I think, not only are setting their unit up for success, but the institution up for success as well. So, I recommend that leaders have high standards with our people.
[00:16:12.980] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. And so, Joel, where can Veterans, other listeners, LEO learn more about Readi and you?
[00:16:19.960] - Joel Del Rosario
Yeah, for Readi is at social media or the website. Social media is @getreadi.app. And then on the website is getreadi.app as well. And then for me is—
[00:16:34.340] - John S. Berry
And we got to break it down for the Marines here. The way we spell Readi is R-E-A-D-I.
[00:16:38.900] - Joel Del Rosario
Correct. Yeah.
[00:16:39.540] - John S. Berry
R-E-A-D-I.
[00:16:41.010] - Joel Del Rosario
Thats not the correct spelling of ready. That is how we spell readi. Yes, for Marines out there. And then for me, uh, @joellerblades, J-O-E-L, another L-E-R-B-L-A-D-E-S. That's the spelling. You'll find me on there. I have a lot of, uh, kettlebell workouts on there. You— a lot of Marines have probably seen me on social media, so if you want to hit me up there, feel free.
[00:17:02.860] - John S. Berry
So I want to end with this: your one piece of advice for Veterans got out who used to be in shape, they got out, you know, their body's a little bit banged up. What's the first step they can take to start getting back into shape?
[00:17:15.260] - Joel Del Rosario
First, remember that when you hang up that uniform, you don't hang up your responsibilities. Remember that. You hang up that uniform does not mean you hang up your responsibility. You're still responsible for your own health. You're still responsible to your family, to your community, and everybody around you. So don't hang up your responsibilities. And part of being responsible is being physically fit. So Turn your mind back on and your mindset back to understanding that you are an asset to this community and understand that first. Second, if you need to take the— need to start again, just take the first step. Just walk into the gym. Just start with something simple. Mobility exercises. Start getting your body to feel a little bit better, more lubricated, so that when you go to— and you start moving better, you feel better, and then you can start Up in the weight, increasing the intensity and all that. But it doesn't— you don't have to go from 0 to 60 like we did from when we got to boot camp. We don't have to do that. We can start slow. So start slow, just start doing mobility exercises and then go from there.
[00:18:21.110] - John S. Berry
Thank you for joining us today on Veteran Led, where we seek to help Veterans build an even bigger, better future after military service. Unfortunately for some of our Veterans, the roadblock to a better future is that they are not receiving all of the benefits that they earned. If you need help appealing a VA disability decision, contact Berry Law.
