Podbit · Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
The biggest problem training elite athletes isn't motivation — it's getting them to rest. Kula uses Charlie Francis's high-low periodization model, alternating intense neural days with lighter recovery days, and strictly follows planned deload weeks regardless of how athletes feel.
Where this was said
At 22:10 · chapter starts 20:28
Asked how he determines recovery readiness, Kula begins by acknowledging that after 30 years, he has internalized a strong intuitive sense of training load and recovery timelines — but he backs that intuition with data. [1] — Brian Kula "Rather than relying on how athletes feel — because elite athletes never think they're tired — Kula uses force plate counter-movement jumps …" 19:35 Force plate counter-movement jumps give him a quick, objective readout of neuromuscular status that can be done near-daily, though he cautions that frequency can cause athletes to stop taking it seriously. Fly-ten tests — a 20-yard build with a timed 10-yard fly-through — tell him where an athlete's maximum velocity is on any given day, and that number guides what the session should look like. He mentions grip strength as another accessible proxy for overall readiness, drawing a parallel to how Mind Pump coaches use it with regular clients. Whoop data, particularly sleep tracking, added another layer when he used it with academy athletes, though he notes the frustrating gap between what the data recommends and what sport schedules actually allow. The deeper point Kula makes is about the nature of elite athletes: they never feel tired, always want to go full tilt, and will talk themselves into more work than is wise. His solution is a rigid 4-week undulating block — light, medium, heavy, then back down — that removes the question of how much to do from the athlete's subjective perception entirely. This mirrors the Soviet periodization approach he admires, where the schedule is the schedule regardless of athlete sentiment.
Kula's top strength exercises for speed development are trap bar deadlift, box squat (with velocity focus), and overcoming isometric split squats.
Trap bar deadlift, box squat with velocity focus, and overcoming isometric split squats are Kula's top three strength exercises for speed — and he uses them the same way for youth and elite athletes. The trap bar deadlift alone touches 7 muscle groups and mimics the pushing forces of sprinting.
Thomas's wife deferred her CrossFit career — she's in the global top 1% of athletes — to put him through law school debt-free. He wants her to chase the dream now; she wants the emergency fund and house down payment first. On a $200K lawyer income with no debt, the opportunity cost is just a few months of slower saving.
Underground calisthenics battles are exactly like UFC meets a rap battle — 150 people crowded around a circle, fighters walking out with masks and chains, nicknames like 'Extra Money' vs 'Calisthenics the Prince,' and people throwing money and betting. The battle set: 100 burpees, 50 muscle-ups, 75 dips, 75 squats with a 65-pound dumbbell. This is the next big spectator sport.
Rico Verhoeven controlled the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion for approximately 10 rounds — and had his appeal upheld when officials admitted the fight was stopped after the bell. The result was never overturned. Rogan calls it either incompetence or corruption, and argues the money behind Usyk made an upset politically inconvenient.
Rogan lays out a blunt case: boxing's 3-judge system is structurally broken, and the judges know who the promoter wants to win. Glory's 5-judge format is the right model. Corruption doesn't have to be conscious — just knowing Usyk is the cash cow is enough to tilt the scales.
With the Usyk-Wilder fight stalling and Fury-Joshua coming too late, the real fight the world wants is the rematch. Rico is a free agent. Usyk vacated his belts. The story is unfinished and both Rogan and Rico know it. His Excellency Turki Alasheikh already called for it ringside — the question is money.
Rico texted Jason Statham during the Canelo-Crawford fight. Statham showed Rico's highlight videos to promoters. Two days later, Rico was on a call about fighting Anthony Joshua. When Joshua pulled out, Rico pitched Usyk himself — Undisputed vs. Undisputed. Usyk said yes in two weeks. The whole thing started with one text.
Every heavyweight who faced Usyk tried to move to the right — straight into his power hand. Rico and Peter Fury identified the obvious solution: move left, away from the left hand, and smother him with size. It sounds simple. Nobody had done it. That one adjustment was the foundation of 10 dominant rounds.
MMA fans boo when fights go to the ground. They love stand-up. Kickboxing is pure stand-up. Yet it barely exists in America while boxing and MMA are enormous. Rogan's diagnosis: no promotion machine. If the UFC got behind kickboxing the way they've built MMA, it would explode. The talent is there — the storytelling machine is not.
A nation of 17 million people gave the world Ramon Deckers, Peter Aerts, Badr Hari, Melvin Manhoef, Rob Kamen, Ernesto Hoost, and Rico Verhoeven. Rico's theory: the country is so small that every gym shares knowledge freely. In the US, you need a flight. In Holland, you drive 40 minutes and spar the national champion.
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