Glutes of the Gods, Lateral Training, and the BRRRN Board with Jimmy T. Martin

WELCOME TO EPISODE 166

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Freddie Kimmel (00:02.831)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the beautifully broken podcast. I'm here with the buttery sounds of Jimmy T. Martin, Jimmy, welcome to the show.

Jimmy T. Martin (00:11.038)
You are the first person to ever say buttery sounds, and I really appreciate that.

Freddie Kimmel (00:14.959)
Well, I appreciate your microphone quality, but more importantly, what I appreciate is your knowledge and body of work around slideboards and lateral movement. Jimmy, when I was at the gym this morning, I'm looking at everybody do their workouts and I'm thinking, not one person in this whole space is moving laterally. What's going on?

Jimmy T. Martin (00:24.274)
Hmm.

Jimmy T. Martin (00:41.006)
Freddie, that's something that chaps my ass, as my close friends say. And I don't blame them, man, because 100% of the popular cardio-focused pieces of equipment is sagittal plane. It's north to south movements. It's rowing, it's running, it's cycling. But the body's meant to move in all directions. And if you're trying to...

Freddie Kimmel (00:59.667)
Mm-hmm.

Jimmy T. Martin (01:09.698)
have a well-balanced routine that should include not just sagittal movements, north to south, but also transverse movements, which are rotational. And the topic of this conversation, lateral movements in the frontal plane, the side to side, the east to west movements. And because there's a dearth of exercises, specifically cardio respiratory equipment that are lateral plane focused,

and people aren't training laterally, we are seeing an abundance of muscular imbalances and chronic injuries to people's hips, their knees, their lower back, and it's causing people not to feel and move their best. And it is my mission to get people to look forward to lateral moves. So I'm glad you're seeing what I see.

Freddie Kimmel (02:00.491)
I do. It's only because I had got the slide board and I've been doing the classes from burn, which is an online, is it a, is it a click and mortar company?

Jimmy T. Martin (02:14.018)
You are speaking my language again. I'm glad that you're using that phrase, click and mortar. Whether it's the roof over your own head at home or it's under a Jim's, we meet you where you're at. And that is, yep, yep.

Freddie Kimmel (02:25.223)
So before we, before we jump in, can you just explain the offering of burn? Because I posted it on my social media. I have the slide board sitting outside. I've just did this. I just did a, a fire or a burn video of like some of the glute muscles that I've developed from using the slide board, but I want you to reference what it is and, and why people would do it.

Jimmy T. Martin (02:42.214)
Oh yeah, the best.

Jimmy T. Martin (02:48.298)
Yeah, so, so burn. So in terms of like our company, right. We, we started as a brick and mortar company that was the world's first and only cool temperature fitness experience where we exercised in 50 degrees for 50 minutes, began that conversation way before cold was cool. One of the workouts that we were doing in the space was our slide board class, which I knew about, you know, slide boards since then, you know, I knew about them since the nineties, but I also did it as a, as a former division one athlete.

for all year round training. And it was really important for me and my co-founder, Johnny, to have a workout that gave you goosebumps in a different way while you were inside of our fridge. And that slideboard class, as you know, as a regular participant, was one of our most popular, always packed. And when the pandemic happened and we were forced to close in New York City, we had no choice but to literally make a lateral move as a company and pivot and deliver this.

at home workout experience with videos and our slide board that we had over 23,000 people on while we had our studio. So as it stands right now, we have free workouts on YouTube. We have this six foot adjustable slide board that looks like a yoga mat, but reflective like a mirror that you put booties over your sneakers or over your socks.

and you slide side to side, or you do abdominal work, or you do upper body work, or you do any work from head to toe in order to feel and move your best.

Freddie Kimmel (04:22.211)
Yeah. What I've noticed is that the workout, it's extremely low impact. And at the same time, if I, I want to give you just a comparison. Like if I were to sit on a bike and pedaled at a gym versus doing, let's say I'm five minutes air, five minutes. On the slide board sliding, I mean, sweat dripping off your face. Your lungs are working. It's a total game changer of cardio. And.

Jimmy T. Martin (04:40.707)
of sliding.

Freddie Kimmel (04:51.395)
I sort of, there's a level of joy that inhibits the workout every single time because you're sliding is inherently fun. It it it's fun.

Jimmy T. Martin (05:01.31)
It's fun. Yeah, 100%. You hit the nail on the head. You break a sweat and a smile at the same time. And I think that's really hard to find, really hard to find with most traditional pieces of fitness equipment. You're almost like belaboring through a workout because you know that you need to do it where there's a joy in sort of moving in a different way. The human experience is very forward and backwards or always going forward towards something. So to be able to enjoy a different plane of motion.

with a workout experience that's fun and makes you feel like you did 60 minutes of cardio in only 10 minutes, five to 10 minutes, it's a win-win for me. And we joke and say it's like the gym that fits under your couch. You can put it away if you don't wanna see it. It doesn't have to permanently live anywhere. And you're getting like a rehabilitative type of a workout that's also a incredible low impact core and cardio fitness experience. So my goal, Freddie, is not only to have a board

in as many houses in the US and beyond, you know, so that people can supplement this into the whatever routine they already do at home or in person, but also to have a board in every single gym and boutique fitness studio in the country because we know as health and fitness professionals, the value of being able to constantly move your body in different ways, stimulate and prime yourself in different ways so that you're prepared for no matter what.

What comes your way?

Freddie Kimmel (06:31.399)
would love to see these in a, and because they are such space savers, they can be hung up on a wall. I would love to see these in a Broadway theater and have people train five to 10 minutes before they went out and did an event because it's incredibly activating to the stabilizers. I've noticed like from history with different surgeries in Lyme that I will get some, I will, I work around knee pain. So for me, I always noticed that I have better mobility in the capsule.

Jimmy T. Martin (06:56.632)
Mm-hmm.

Freddie Kimmel (07:00.887)
And because I mobilize the ankle, working through the ankle on the slides that I walk better all day, I just move with less pain immediately when I get off the board. I don't mean like, Oh, after 90 days, I mean immediately after each workout, me moving throughout the day, I have less pain every single time I do it. And so it's a great reset for me. And I'm imagining it has to do with all the sitting I do at a desk and 45 years of just moving.

back and forth. I want to, I don't want a tangent on this very precise episode, but I will say there is something energetically about the loop that we get in as, as human beings and ladder climbing. I'm forward on to there's a perception that in front of me exists, something which I don't have yet that is going to bring me back joy. And there's something really cool in the morning. I'll put on my Alan Watts. He'll talk about

Jimmy T. Martin (07:43.294)
No.

Jimmy T. Martin (07:55.854)
Oh yeah.

Freddie Kimmel (07:56.983)
existentialism and all these cool ideas about what life is. And I'm going lateral and that's my stack, man. And I love it. I love it.

Jimmy T. Martin (08:06.13)
That's, I love it. I love it. That brings me so much to this for you to say that. I was talking to one of our, one of our close friends, who, who was, you know, has been the lead in Hamilton for quite some time. And I'm trying to figure out a way to get, get into those houses because, you know, as a, as a, you know, former at that's being myself, I, you know, I just seen the demands that, that

that these Broadway actors have to go through, eight shows a week, it's a lot on the body. So if they can feel assured in their movement, their performance both on and off stage is gonna be better. And going on to the lateral thing, Dr. Andrew Heumann talked about lateral eye movement. You can't help but to have your eyes move side to side while you are moving side to side. And lateral based thinking.

I mean, that's where all the vibrancy of decisions come from, from being able to think outside the box. So for moving our body the same way that we want our mind to move, to be able to show up better than the day before, I think that we need, again, we need to look forward to lateral moves, whether it be how we move or how we think. So it's just like trying to autocorrect just a lot of the foibles of our past.

and as innovators to be able to confidently stand tall and improve the systems of our predecessors for the benefit of all. So that's, yeah.

Freddie Kimmel (09:41.839)
Let's yeah, let's branch off that a little bit. Just the thing that you mentioned about our friend and Hamilton, our, our friend, Greg, we, we talk about the. The everybody can visualize the idea that you're going to go into a play and you're going to tell the same story. H is a week you work. You are, you are going through a mapped out pattern of movements, many of which are moving up and down the stage and you're going to develop.

I'm going to sound really intelligent here, compensatory patterns within the body to be able to tell that story. So injuries are wrought with a performer. Now I want everybody to just close your eyes and I want you to think about your day. And I guarantee many of us tell the same story every day. We have our things that we do, our jobs that we engage in. You pick up the kids to school, you sit down in your car, you imagine driving to and from work.

Jimmy T. Martin (10:12.046)
Heh. Mm-hmm.

Freddie Kimmel (10:38.619)
You imagine taking the trash to and from the street. A lot of it is on that plane and we get stuck in our stories. And because of that, it's hard to have outside of the box thinking. So talk to me a little bit about the musculature that is involved in the sum of this lateral movement with a slide board.

Jimmy T. Martin (10:57.579)
Permission to open my eyes. I enjoy them closed per your per your queue. Okay

Freddie Kimmel (11:01.479)
Go ahead. I also thought maybe me developing a guided meditation for the slideboard could be fun because it's a free, free skate with Freddie.

Jimmy T. Martin (11:07.6)
Oh.

Jimmy T. Martin (11:13.042)
Freaky Freddy could be a fun Friday thing that we do. I mean, look, your glutes don't lie. And I'm so happy to see one, the incredible response that you had on social media from that post. But you know I'm down to do anything to work with you. You're an inimitable force to be reckoned with.

Freddie Kimmel (11:31.751)
Dude, I'm going to name the things. I've said this on other podcasts that I have some expensive tools in the house, anywhere from some things are like $35,000. What does a slide board cost? This the biggest first, the big slide board.

Jimmy T. Martin (11:46.578)
Yeah, if you were to pay it in all one clip, it's $3.99. But we have a lot of people that pay over time, that pay anywhere from 35 bucks a month to pay it off in a year's time. I mean, it's incredible. And the workouts are free. We're slowly transitioning off of our subscription platform to make it more accessible to people all throughout the world. So we'll be officially, you're actually the first that we're saying this to, but we'll be on YouTube in come September.

Um, so, uh, that's really exciting and you'll be able to stream effortlessly to your, you know, to your Roku to whatever it's see on your phone. Um, again, we've, we developed, we're the only platform that's really taken the time to really make an effort to deliver quality workouts that really meet anybody, anybody where they're at. And so that's, that's really, we're really excited about that.

Freddie Kimmel (12:46.549)
That's incredible news.

Jimmy T. Martin (12:46.694)
But to answer your question about what body parts are affected, so the one thing that, again, if you're a certified trainer, health and wellness professional, you know about the lateral subsystem. The lateral subsystem is a group of muscles that work together to provide support and stabilization in the frontal plane, the sort of east to west movements. These muscles include your gluteus medius, your tensor fasciae latae, which sounds like something you would order on Starbucks.

Starbucks menu, your adductor complex, you know, ab and adductors, your quadratus lumborum, and all these muscles do high level is they provide stabilization, again, during these east to west frontal plane movements. Now the problem that we're noticing, you know, especially with just the, again, historic pitfalls of the fitness industry of only caring about north to south movements, sagittal plane

They develop, people develop excessive pronation of their hips, their knees, their feet, which is often indicative of dysfunction in the lateral subsystem of like the underutilization of these muscle groups in this subsystem. And without the support of these muscles working together, our pelvis can become misaligned. And this can lead to lower back pain, hip pain, knee pain. And

You know, we also carry a lot of trauma and stress in our back and our hips. So, so there's going back to the joy of this movement. I feel like we have, we're releasing this tension, this trauma because of embracing this new type of movement while also giving these supporting characters, you know, a sort of headliner, uh, sort of, you know, we're, we're kind of giving them the spotlight, whereas they're usually, you know, either not getting aligned in the show.

Freddie Kimmel (14:38.991)
Mm.

Jimmy T. Martin (14:43.534)
or not being able to go on stage at all. So we're kind of giving these supporting characters, you know, center stage with this type of movement.

Freddie Kimmel (14:51.355)
For the people at home that don't know the physiology of the body, like you or I, when you say excessive pronation of the hips or knees, what does that mean to the, to the person listening to this and not understanding the body in that way?

Jimmy T. Martin (15:03.614)
Yeah, so just high level, if you can imagine your hips being even because you're doing well-rounded workouts that are hitting all three planes of motion, by only doing north to south movements, by only sitting on a bike and rowing and running and not really doing anything else that's in other planes of motion, which there's three transverse, frontal and sagittal. Sagittal is what I'm talking about. The hips being misaligned, like one hip being higher than the other.

have to compensate for that sort of structural change in your skeletal system. Having your erector spinae being tighter on one side because one part of the body is more concentrically contracted, is stiff because it's condensed versus the other one being elongated. So it creates an absence of symmetry with the muscle groups.

certain muscle groups are being underutilized and overutilized to compensate for these structural imbalances. So my whole thing is because there's an absence of focus in the modern fitness industry with lateral movement training, by adding this to your weekly routine, you're creating balance. It's all about the way that I think about fitness now is not just necessarily intensity and frequency. It's about I really, I go.

30,000 feet above and think about, am I moving in all three planes of motion? Am I getting my sagittal plane work in with certain exercises? Am I working on frontal plane movements? Am I working on rotational movements? I think that way now. I don't just think about, am I getting anaerobic and aerobic, you know, cardio respiratory training in? Am I getting strength training in? Am I getting my mobility work in? I really, I go above that and think about, am I training in all three planes of motion? And most people aren't. And that's why we're trying to change that conversation.

Freddie Kimmel (16:59.159)
Yeah. Well, the classes speak for themselves. I'm amazed and surprised that these are going to be on YouTube for free. That's absolutely incredible because I've seen the quality of the class and I've, I've done some of those classes and the instructors and the music and the vibe and the comedy and the, again, the lighthearted nature in which the education is delivered at this elite level is an incredible value add. The idea that this is a 390, $399 biohack is

Oh, the value there is silly. I always Texas people. I was like, buy it. Don't ask me just get this thing. Because if you look at something like, Oh my goodness, the, let's talk about Peloton. I mean, I love a good bike race and that is a very expensive, um, piece of equipment, which it, in some ways it's going to be limited for you. I mean, this, you get the cardio.

You get the mobility, you get different planes of movement, and it's not just sliding, there's an incredible ways to use this for lunges, squats, ab workouts, upper body. It's really, it's really beautiful how you guys have incorporated the training, um, using all not only left to right, but both vertical and the lower layers of, of the, of the workout system here.

Jimmy T. Martin (18:16.866)
Yeah, thank you. I mean, some of our, I call them neighbors in the industry, so some like Peloton and the ones that you mentioned, that movement, especially born out of the pandemic, it was really like a lot of these options were available for the group that I called the Healthy Wealthy, that didn't think twice about dropping a few grand on their health and wellness. And I think that the pandemic showed us that

Freddie Kimmel (18:38.732)
Mm.

Jimmy T. Martin (18:45.986)
there's other options out there, whether you wanna do a workout on Zoom with friends or you get creative with gallons of water as your dumbbells. I was always, I'm always mindful about meeting people where their wallet's at. And I understand that if you need to bootstrap stuff because of price sensitivities, I get that. But what I don't like is when brands

tell you have to do this thing in this place only with us. That's where I have a problem. I'm, I'm all about people having a well rounded approach to their fitness, not just with how they move, but the types of exercises they do with, that are hosted by various brands. And knowing that, that this movement brings people so much joy because it's a new movement and knowing that it is like rehabilitation and a great workout all in one.

that you're actually using this as a longevity tool, not just a workout piece of equipment, is the reason to invest in this and to know that whether you're a parent with kids and your kids need something to kind of exhaust themselves. I mean, Freddie, it's so fun to watch kids of all ages hop on a board and just like, are they're mad when they have to leave it? It's like, you got time to go to school, or, hey, it's time for dinner. They're like, no, I wanna get a few more minutes in.

It's wild and I love it because it's again, going back to that joy, there's a playfulness to this movement once you find your flow. But I'm happy that all these brands exist because we're the only ones that do this way and really had taken the time to understanding the long-term ramifications of not having another option to move beyond the schedule plans.

Freddie Kimmel (20:19.099)
Yeah.

Freddie Kimmel (20:39.327)
The only thing people need to do is they need to look at the level. And now listen, I'm going to say this and I'm going to also say there are co-founding factors to the increased number in joint replacements across the U S right now. So I'm having, I'm having friends in their thirties and forties, complete knee replacement, complete hip replacement. These factors are amplified from the lack of diversity we get in our movement.

Anytime you have a professional athlete, obviously they're going to be pushing their body beyond the norm, but for our nine to fibers, it isn't. Peritive. This is one of the most important things you can do. And I'm literally, I had you on. I'm like, um, cause in full transparency, we recorded a podcast where we wax intellectual about life, which we will do again, but we touched, we touched on lateral movement.

Jimmy T. Martin (21:28.418)
We will do that.

Freddie Kimmel (21:31.959)
And I was like, this is such a blind spot for people and it's such a low barrier to entry. It deserves its own 20 minute episode in which I'm going to sit here and be your hype man and say, there's a lot of things I'm doing in my life to, to compliment health. The slide board is really easy. It's really affordable. Everybody can access this, um, because you guys do have a pretty crazy payment plan. Yeah. Like you said, 35 bucks a month. And then it's paid off very, very shortly. And

It's effective at alleviating pain and building the muscles that you're going to need to stabilize. If you look at the work of Peter Attia, Peter Attia says for longevity, the things you need to protect yourself against, obviously heart disease and how your body is, um, uh, optimizing, uh, respiration and breathing. And then there is the fall and you need to be sure that you have the grip strength to brace yourself and you need.

mobility and hip strength and rotation in that hip to mitigate a fall. When you fall, I wish I had the stat pulled up in front of me. Over this age, the instance of death is scary.

Jimmy T. Martin (22:44.31)
Very high. I was trying to remember that number. I believe it's well over 70 or 80%, Freddy, because my co-founder, Johnny, is a former public health official. He was in New York City. And I remember we were talking about this, but it is very scary how high of a probability of death is following first fall. And I wanted to say, Freddy, some of the high level reasons to get on board, or to, you know, with...

lateral movement training is like I said, first and foremost, your ability to engage your lower body core, upper body, like continuously, not just with sliding, but just with, again, it being a head to toe exercise. It's low impact and incredibly accessible for, again, I say it's multi-directional and multi-generational. So it's joint friendly, accessible for all a variety of ages, whether it's kids to the active aging population, which to your point,

Freddie Kimmel (23:25.843)
Mm-hmm.

Jimmy T. Martin (23:40.182)
being able to improve balance, coordination, and proprioception is so important for our seniors and above because of the high chances of them being a fall risk. In terms of just like the higher intensity, and sort of like the fitness enthusiast buzzy benefits, there's research that talked about, you can burn up to 500 calories in 30 minutes with sliding that it actually has the energy, it was at the energy cost of sliding is around seven to 10,

Mets, which that's around the equivalent of jogging, shoveling snow, or climbing the stairs. Isn't that crazy? Just sliding. So, and not to mention this is beloved. Oh, it's you're like...

Freddie Kimmel (24:17.243)
Hmm. Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, you feel it when you get on the board. You understand that it's a different level of work that your body has, has never known unless you're a professional skater.

Jimmy T. Martin (24:30.634)
100%. And this is beloved by, you know, scholastic all the way to Olympic athletes. I mean, Apollo is one of our investors and brand advisors. You know, as your audience knows, you were incredibly privileged to interview him in front of hundreds of people. It was insane being there and bearing witness to your greatness. Interviewing him, I was so happy to be there in Jackson Hall with you. But he just talks about how he's been using them since he was 12. And it was a no brainer for him.

Freddie Kimmel (24:54.8)
It was a good one.

Jimmy T. Martin (25:00.288)
to help us scale our influence to people of all ages and capabilities across the country.

Freddie Kimmel (25:07.203)
Yeah, it's incredible. Well, Jimmy, I'm going to let people go. There was a discount code on the board with code beautifully broken. Does that still exist?

Jimmy T. Martin (25:14.766)
Still exists, ready? Yep.

Freddie Kimmel (25:17.159)
Great. That's great. I, we will do a, we will do a roundup. As I said, it's so fun to talk and chat and wax intellectual with you. And I just, uh, you know, we'll, we'll do, we'll do a free for all, but I just thought the lateral movement, especially after, especially after I was joking around, I made this video and everybody kept saying, they're like, dude, your, your butt looks really big. I was like, it's the lateral it's a slide board. It's not squatting. Cause I've squatted and lunged forever.

Jimmy T. Martin (25:39.33)
So good, dude.

Jimmy T. Martin (25:45.035)
Mm-hmm.

Freddie Kimmel (25:45.275)
But it was just one of those things where there was like all these comments are like, what are you doing? What are you doing? I was like, it's this board. So.

Jimmy T. Martin (25:50.39)
They didn't Apple, didn't Apple consult with you about, in terms of they created the peach emoji off of you, right? That's what you were saying before? Yeah, okay, just double checking that was true.

Freddie Kimmel (26:00.835)
Yeah, it's not publicly known that was accredited me and

Jimmy T. Martin (26:05.468)
Yeah, well there you go. And I deny. Yes, exactly. Well, look, if people want us to see what this looks like at Burn on Instagram, type in Burn on YouTube, check out our videos, learn about the brand, see what we're all about. And again, to get a wonderful discount off of your purchase, beautifully broken, broken at checkout.

Freddie Kimmel (26:07.049)
I'm not denying it.

Freddie Kimmel (26:27.751)
Awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, Jimmy T Martin will link all your details in the comments. I think I mentioned this, Jimmy, I think you were episode four or something. And one of the early ones, if anybody wants Jimmy's incredible backstory about the original burn location and Jimmy's, why Jimmy is involved in health and wellness and why he's so passionate, it is episode number four.

Jimmy T. Martin (26:38.226)
I was one of the early ones, man, privileged to have been there. Oh yeah.

Freddie Kimmel (26:55.591)
February 21, Jimmy, 2019, Jimmy T. Martin, cold, cryo, and cancer. We go into some other deep personal stories that live within your still unfolding story. And I think people should listen to that. It was a, yeah, episode near and dear to my heart. So one of my favorites, and we're gonna have you on for more. And I just, I deeply appreciate your time and your knowledge and the value you bring to the world. Keep going, buddy. Love ya.

Jimmy T. Martin (27:21.346)
Thanks, Freddie. Likewise. Bye, everybody.