Virtual Training

during this time, is staying active. Our guest today is NFL legend La Charles Bentley, who has created a virtual home workout video series that are available online as part of the NFL Way to Play series. Welcome back, La Charles Nis. Thank you for having me a reallyier pre say that. Well, the first thing I'd like to ask

what these videos. If people are able to get to it and be active with these virtual videos, not only the current players that you work with, but also people at home, if they take key to your videos, pay attention to them with Charles, the question I would have does that mean they are able to uh deform their bodies into something or what I would call like a Bentley that fancy car? About that it might turn into

a kid, but I don't know about a Bentley. Uh well, I think what these what these videos, what they're gonna do is at least get people, as you mentioned, and get your back moving and get your back active. And even for those people that uh people being the fans, parents that are going a bit stir crazy and you want to just kind of get out here and move your body around a little bit, these videos will help

them as well. The server tremendous purpose in there, and they're lives during this current climate there we're in, so to speak. But they they're supplementary. You know, this is something that is serving a need that the world has at this point in time, and at some point in time we get back to some level of normalcy people get back into the weight room. But as of right now, I think this is a great opportunity to get people

moving or keep athletes moving. You know, one of the things Charles, you're usually doing off season, you're usually training NFL alignment anyway, a lot of them in person, but also because of the virtual the videos that you've already done, it's almost like literally you were set up already and prepared for this global challenge. To train people. It just so happen now it's not just office alignment. But with

these videos, what are you hoping people can get from them? Well, I'm hoping the biggest thing is peace of mind, uh, knowing that you are in a place where, yes, as I said, the world is not exactly where we would like it to be right now, but we will get back to some level of normalcy. But right now, I think it's just important for people to form a mental health standpoint, especially just to get their bodies and minds

active and keep it going. Uh. And I think that is really the focal point, and the opportunity that we're trying to take advantage of is to serve a need, and the need is yeah, people are stir crazy. People don't have the opportunities and the luxuries that you know, we're used to being afforded. But having an opportunity now, uh to just sit at home and still be active,

that is invaluable. And hopefully, over a period of time, as I said, the world will get back to the point where we can get back out here and uh continue to live our lives under the format that we're accustomed to. But as of right now, there's a need uh leave these videos, and this content serves that need

at a very high level. And I think another component is this you see so much on social media, you know, where people just posting, you know, posting content and just showing look at what I'm doing, and look at what I'm doing without context, And I think that can be a bit of a slippery slope where you're not providing

true programming to individuals. So if I'm gonna show you how to do a push up or how to do a bodyweight squad, whatever it may be, I should also provide context to that, meaning some sort of roadmap is gonna get you from point A to point B. Am I doing a hunted push ups? Or by doing fifty push ups? Or am I gonna change the volume over a period of time? And I think that's again what these videos provided. It gives you a structured program that we'll get you from point A to point B. And

so you've already described some of the content. Is there are specific videos, you can tell us what they are and also, uh elaborate a little more what will people experience as a result of going through those videos? Well, in terms of what your experiences is through three phases, and I tried to marry the three phases. Uh, these particular three phases with what happens in our game. So you're gonna have an isometric, a bandit component, and dynamic.

And relative to football, the isommess my symmetric is the strain. So you get into a tackle or a block, you're gonna strain into that. With the bandit, you're receiving constantention or constant load, and that's another element of our game, is receiving load. And the last but not least, the dynamic or explosive part. You don't want to drag yourself into a block or a tackle when you want to

drive dynamically through it. So those are the three components relative to the training side that you're gonna experience isommetric, the bandit, and the dynamic. Now, typically in a weight room environment, UH, you're gonna be able to receive those type of stimulus under a squad rack or a power clean or whatever it might be. But in this instance, we're just simply replicating these movements of replicating the stimulus

through a basic bathtile, a rubber band. And as we kind of get further into the system itself, we actually end up taking a gallon water jug, filling it halfway up and creating a bit of a dumbbell type deal. And then week later on put it rubber band through it and we create a kettlebell type deal as well. So what ends up happening over the four week period is you will experience football type training, but you would

do so with a very minimal approach. And I think again that is going to keep athletes ready, uh to receive and deliver force when the time becomes appropriate. Once again, I remember, one of the things you've implemented is what my high school coach implemented when when I was a freshman high school we didn't have at our schooled to budget for the weights in the enormous weight room that we've see in a lot of facilities. You were able to do these videos look like it required very little

equipment a trainer or non trainable. Also, you've catered it to just the basic human being, not the elite athlete. Tell me about that, Well, that's a that's a great point, uh, And this is why part of me feels that the time that we're in right now is it's gonna actually be a positive for young athletes, especially because it gives it gives us an opportunity to get back to the basics, you know, building overall general fitness by getting the heart rate,

of relearning basic movement patterns. That's that's what it takes to be a high level athlete. But to your point again, you know, when you give much more I guess you could say equipment and tools and information, it can become a bit burdensome for individuals to to weed themselves through what is the most appropriate way, what is the most

effective way uh to build an athlete? And you hear so many different voices and opinions and thought patterns and whatnot at schools of thought, that message of getting the athlete ready to play this game can often become difficult to understand and us again burnensome to week through. But when you remove and you have to get back to the Spartan like mentality or a Spartan type world that we're in right now where you have very minimal resources.

Now we get back to that innate human ability to thrive, not just thrive, but to survive at a very high level. And I think that's what these videos are gonna be able to do is It gets us back to that base ground level of where our game is truly playing at, and that's through general fitness, and that's again getting the heart rate of relearning basic movement patterns. Uh. Not seeing athletes with a bunch of weight on the bar but

they're doing the movement's wrong. You know, you're gonna give kids a unique opportunity throughout this time period to really build the proper capacity to play this game at a high level if we take advantage of it fully. Last time you all with me doing a podcast, you talked about your injuries and finding your purpose training alignment. But let's talk about your philosophy during this time many you're calling a crisis, and the word crisis has a dual meaning.

One part of it means danger, to other means opportunities. When you talked about your injuries and the challenges and adversity was going through, it seemed to have formed your philosophy behind what you do, what you're training modules, and your training. Talk to us about your philosophy, Well, I tried to not have a general philosophy because I always believe this is that once a person says, well this is my philosophy, it means that you aren't willing to adapt.

So I guess my philosophy is to stay fluid. Now, there are some experiences that I have that are unique that allows me to think maybe a little bit differently than some. I think that that's unique to all of us based on our experiences. That's the culmination of who we are as people. But relative to how I go about developing athletes, the the philosophy or the fluidity in that philosophy is just said, for this focus on the necessities, eliminate the fluff, and if you can develop the person

that after it becomes infinitely easier to develop. So this time period that we're in right now, it really feeds right into the first two premises. Two basis of what I believe is you have to eliminate the fluff and focus on the necessities because we don't have the access, uh to all of the extra stuff that we used to dealing with in and and and player development and

human performance and whatnot. So with all that being said, yes, my experiences of the past have built how I think, and I think how I think sort of fits perfectly into where we are. Uh. But what that being said, even once the world gives back to a sense of almost say, I feel that on a personal level it would just be much more invigorating and I'll be much more appreciative of what you're used as a set accustomed to happen. Here's the thought, we all rightfless. So we're

required now and encouraged to stay home. So a lot of people are at home. You've geared a lot of your module and your training obviously to be able to do this at home. Getting back to the basis, it's interesting when we're able to get outside, a lot of times we may have found ourselves being busy but not yet productive. Now challs were required to stay home, it's easy to be unproductive wasting time. So you said, if you build the person that will correspond to building an athlete.

How are you encourage people to actually what kind of mindset do they need to have to even stay consistent in not waste time video games, not just waste time watching Benjing on programs. Tell me about that. It's funny you say that it's a whole I just instituted a rule in the home because all of my kids are at home. My six six kids, five boys, one girl, and the oldest is sixteen or the youngest is five, so you get everything in between. And I found, uh,

the environment becoming to becoming conducive to them not being productive. Yes, they have the little online school that they have to do, but you know they're they're done with that in ten minutes and then they have the whole day to figure out what to do. And so what I saw is everyone's spending much more time on the iPads and YouTube and social media, and even myself, you see yourself starting to slide it down that that rabbit hole of spending

more time on social media, more time watching Netflix. I think I watched The Tiger King in one day. Uh, I think I watched two or three other two three other series like it just one sitting. Not granted they were really interesting, but nonetheless that's not exactly how you stay productive. So what I've done is I've now mandated that our kids now have to read parts of parts of one book every night and then have to do

a one page report on it before they go to bed. Now, in terms of how that would manifest itself in terms of general population, I think we have to be wise with how we're using our time and making sure that that time isn't just being spent on social media, It's not just being spent in front of the TV. But pick up a book that you may have been putting off and you wanna you want to read. Uh. You know, there's so many other activities. Like I found, I've just

really discovered myself that I have no hobbies. Uh, And this is a problem. My hobbies have been revolving around the business and revolving around my kids, and you know, I'm like, I have nothing that really interests me outside of that. But you know, I'm trying to not pick up a hobby. My daughter now, she's big into uh, the the legos that have this robotic type lego system that she has, and I'm trying to help her with that and get into that. So I'm discovering more about

my family. I'm discovering more about myself. But to your point, I think that we have to be open to that discovery. We can't allow this time to consume us. We can't allow this time uh to use us as much as we should be using this time. And how different has it been. You've homeschooled your children, so this setting of being at home as at least as students they're used to. So what's been the biggest challenge now in keeping them motivated now that it's not just I'm home for school,

but we're home for a while. That's a great question. The biggest challenge has been they got a taste of regular school and so so now they got that, they got that taste and they're like, you know what, we kind of like this and now having this additional time, you know, and it has been a bit of an adjustment for them. Although for the first five years or

so they've all been homeschooled. H but now they got into that rhythm of hanging out with friends and and that social element of school and uh, you know that just typical school routine, and I think they really began to enjoy it. So now that they can't experience that, it was a little bit woe is Me type of persona that they all kind of took on. And that's where the social media and the YouTube and they're gonna kind of just lounge around. Uh, they really got adapted

to that. But you know, we gotta break that happen, not to let them get too comfortable with that. As we trans transition back to the actual legend. One of the things I noticed about legends we worked out, but a lot of times to workout was because we wanted to ball out. And now when we're legends now, instead of training being a part of our lifestyle, it's been stopped because now our legends are saying, man, I don't want structure. I don't I don't want being a weight room.

I just want to do what I want to do. How do you motivate legends to make fitness, stand in shape, taking care of their their bodies, make that a part of their lifestyle. How do you motivate them to make it a part of the lifestyle now that they're no longer training to do their jobs. You know. I think that's a that's some layered discussion. I think it's a little bit difficult, you know, but you have to get

to the base of it. I think part of the issue with that is many legends, uh post career, we we now want to take ownership of our lives, so to speak, because we were so accustomed to both telling us what to do. You have to work out at this time, we have to be here at this particular time, and now that we don't have that structure, you know, and you know I don't want to do that because

I don't have to do that. And I think the biggest shift that we have to make is, you know, at one point in time, yes, we trained because we wanted to be the best player we could be, But oftentimes we trained because we didn't want to get in trouble. Either we wanted to stay in good graces of the coaches or the team, or the organization or whatever may may or not have been. But in this instance, I think the good graces you want to stay in is

good graces of you. How you wake up in the morning and you roll yourself out of that bad How do you want to feel when you look into the mirror, How do you want to feel about the person looking back at you when you play with your kids? How do you want to feel? How do you want your kids and your wife to look at you. I think that is something that we have to take ownership of because no one is going to mandate, uh that we take ownership of that. But that's something again that we

all have that inside of us. That and we decide to do something, you know, we do it at the highest level possible, but we have to take and make that that initial take that initial step and make that choice to take ownership of it. Uh, it's no longer I'm doing this because of I want to be the best player, because I don't want to coach to be on my butt. I'm doing this because I want to do it for me. I want to do it for my kids, I want to do it for my wife.

I think that's a shift in mindset that we have to take it, and we have to eventually get gods to that point. Dealing with the mental mindset that obviously you have to develop. And I remember being on the podcast with your last time. You talked about what it took to go through the rehab, to go through the monotony, the tedious things that you have to do. What should the mental mindset be during this time? Now, little Charles, how does a person when you rehab that's adversity. Now

we're staying home. Sometimes we don't know when things will get back to our our old normal, or if it ever will. What should now from your experience, how did you develop the mental toughness that was needed to not only get through to rehab successfully get back on the field, but also how did you translate that to to life, and how would you encourage legends to build that mental toughness.

You know, that's a little tough to answer because all of us are in different seasons of our lives, and all of us have different anxieties and and and pressures that were under So I'm not sure if there's a true one size fits all approach. But speaking from my personal experiences, you know, I knew that my worst case scenario was Okay, you can't play football anymore, a right relative to life in the grand scheme of life, you know,

that's really not that big of a deal. But if I take that same uh reality, and I now put it into a situation where it's, hey, you may not be able to feed your kids tomorrow morning, that's a completely different level a different again level of desperation and and experience at that point in time. But I think the one thing that kind of oversets all of that is your faith. You know, how is your faith, how

strong is your faith? And knowing that even through the worst and the best of situations, things are generally going to work out on your behalf. And I think this right now is a unique experience for all of us. But again, what's unique for me is different from what may be unique and traumatic for someone else. But at the end of the day, my faith is being tested in areas that are important to me. But I think other people's faith are going to be tested in areas

that are more important personal to them. But at the end of the day, the common thread is still going to be the faith that faith word. So I think that the mindset UH is going to be rooted in your faith and how much faith and how much faith do you truly have to be able to get yourself and your circumstances back to the point that you want to envision them being as ironic. As we close it out, they can find your videos to be also found youth football dot NFL dot com. Is that correct? Correct? And

as you're closing out, you mentioned faith. I actually shared a message in doing these type of opportunities, I call them. There's a time I had a football in my hand and the football I reference as my faith La Charles, And as I started sharing this message, I dropped the ball. I fumbled it and I said, a lot of times when people go through things, they end up fundling their faith. I said, but this is the time now where your faith is tested. Now, this is this is like, it's

just like our training. We could be trained professionals, trained professionals in the weight room, practice field. But when you told a story about going against that office alignment and how that impacted you traumatically and how you had to get through, well, guess what your faith was tested in this case as it relates to being on the football field.

You experienced something that you had never experienced. And even though you had heard about this guy, you had heard it because faith comes by hearing, right, So you had heard about this guy, but you hadn't experienced him. And then when you it was awesome because you told the story. And I don't want to go back into it, but it was a player defensive player that your veteran teammates had told you about, I'm sorry, veteran office alignment and told you about to be prepared. But you being that

youngster young in your faith. If I'm using football metaphor right, and then now you experience it right and next day you know your faith was tested. And at a moment during your testing your faith, you were on the sideline thinking and emphasized thinking about quitting. Correct but once again somebody on the sideline told you and challenge you to get back out there, and that's why our huddles and

our teammates probably so important during this time. Could be a spouse, could be children, could be a legend, could be a former coach. Are very very own ourselves, sometimes encouraging us. It's not the time to tap out. We're gonna pass the tests and when we do, it will be victorious as a result. La Charles. As always, it's been fantastic. Thanks for joining us and thanks for listening in. The best is yet Toka. Thank you. This has been

the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request a topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at NFL dot com. M