Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, four
Speaker 1: teen year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer A. Nius Williams. Hello,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast. I'm A Nius Williams.
Speaker 1: We're hosting our podcast series remotely during this COVID nineteen crisis.
Speaker 1: One of the things that is important for anyone be
Speaker 1: at a player, legend are just someone else at home
Speaker 1: during this time, is staying active. Our guest today is
Speaker 1: NFL legend La Charles Bentley, who has created a virtual
Speaker 1: home workout video series that are available online as part
Speaker 1: of the NFL Way to Play series. Welcome back, La
Speaker 1: Charles Nis. Thank you for having me a reallyier pre
Speaker 1: say that. Well, the first thing I'd like to ask
Speaker 1: what these videos. If people are able to get to
Speaker 1: it and be active with these virtual videos, not only
Speaker 1: the current players that you work with, but also people
Speaker 1: at home, if they take key to your videos, pay
Speaker 1: attention to them with Charles, the question I would have
Speaker 1: does that mean they are able to uh deform their
Speaker 1: bodies into something or what I would call like a
Speaker 1: Bentley that fancy car? About that it might turn into
Speaker 1: a kid, but I don't know about a Bentley. Uh well,
Speaker 1: I think what these what these videos, what they're gonna
Speaker 1: do is at least get people, as you mentioned, and
Speaker 1: get your back moving and get your back active. And
Speaker 1: even for those people that uh people being the fans,
Speaker 1: parents that are going a bit stir crazy and you
Speaker 1: want to just kind of get out here and move
Speaker 1: your body around a little bit, these videos will help
Speaker 1: them as well. The server tremendous purpose in there, and
Speaker 1: they're lives during this current climate there we're in, so
Speaker 1: to speak. But they they're supplementary. You know, this is
Speaker 1: something that is serving a need that the world has
Speaker 1: at this point in time, and at some point in
Speaker 1: time we get back to some level of normalcy people
Speaker 1: get back into the weight room. But as of right now,
Speaker 1: I think this is a great opportunity to get people
Speaker 1: moving or keep athletes moving. You know, one of the
Speaker 1: things Charles, you're usually doing off season, you're usually training
Speaker 1: NFL alignment anyway, a lot of them in person, but
Speaker 1: also because of the virtual the videos that you've already done,
Speaker 1: it's almost like literally you were set up already and
Speaker 1: prepared for this global challenge. To train people. It just
Speaker 1: so happen now it's not just office alignment. But with
Speaker 1: these videos, what are you hoping people can get from them? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm hoping the biggest thing is peace of mind, uh,
Speaker 1: knowing that you are in a place where, yes, as
Speaker 1: I said, the world is not exactly where we would
Speaker 1: like it to be right now, but we will get
Speaker 1: back to some level of normalcy. But right now, I
Speaker 1: think it's just important for people to form a mental
Speaker 1: health standpoint, especially just to get their bodies and minds
Speaker 1: active and keep it going. Uh. And I think that
Speaker 1: is really the focal point, and the opportunity that we're
Speaker 1: trying to take advantage of is to serve a need,
Speaker 1: and the need is yeah, people are stir crazy. People
Speaker 1: don't have the opportunities and the luxuries that you know,
Speaker 1: we're used to being afforded. But having an opportunity now,
Speaker 1: uh to just sit at home and still be active,
Speaker 1: that is invaluable. And hopefully, over a period of time,
Speaker 1: as I said, the world will get back to the
Speaker 1: point where we can get back out here and uh
Speaker 1: continue to live our lives under the format that we're
Speaker 1: accustomed to. But as of right now, there's a need
Speaker 1: uh leave these videos, and this content serves that need
Speaker 1: at a very high level. And I think another component
Speaker 1: is this you see so much on social media, you know,
Speaker 1: where people just posting, you know, posting content and just
Speaker 1: showing look at what I'm doing, and look at what
Speaker 1: I'm doing without context, And I think that can be
Speaker 1: a bit of a slippery slope where you're not providing
Speaker 1: true programming to individuals. So if I'm gonna show you
Speaker 1: how to do a push up or how to do
Speaker 1: a bodyweight squad, whatever it may be, I should also
Speaker 1: provide context to that, meaning some sort of roadmap is
Speaker 1: gonna get you from point A to point B. Am
Speaker 1: I doing a hunted push ups? Or by doing fifty
Speaker 1: push ups? Or am I gonna change the volume over
Speaker 1: a period of time? And I think that's again what
Speaker 1: these videos provided. It gives you a structured program that
Speaker 1: we'll get you from point A to point B. And
Speaker 1: so you've already described some of the content. Is there
Speaker 1: are specific videos, you can tell us what they are
Speaker 1: and also, uh elaborate a little more what will people
Speaker 1: experience as a result of going through those videos? Well,
Speaker 1: in terms of what your experiences is through three phases,
Speaker 1: and I tried to marry the three phases. Uh, these
Speaker 1: particular three phases with what happens in our game. So
Speaker 1: you're gonna have an isometric, a bandit component, and dynamic.
Speaker 1: And relative to football, the isommess my symmetric is the strain.
Speaker 1: So you get into a tackle or a block, you're
Speaker 1: gonna strain into that. With the bandit, you're receiving constantention
Speaker 1: or constant load, and that's another element of our game,
Speaker 1: is receiving load. And the last but not least, the
Speaker 1: dynamic or explosive part. You don't want to drag yourself
Speaker 1: into a block or a tackle when you want to
Speaker 1: drive dynamically through it. So those are the three components
Speaker 1: relative to the training side that you're gonna experience isommetric,
Speaker 1: the bandit, and the dynamic. Now, typically in a weight
Speaker 1: room environment, UH, you're gonna be able to receive those
Speaker 1: type of stimulus under a squad rack or a power
Speaker 1: clean or whatever it might be. But in this instance,
Speaker 1: we're just simply replicating these movements of replicating the stimulus
Speaker 1: through a basic bathtile, a rubber band. And as we
Speaker 1: kind of get further into the system itself, we actually
Speaker 1: end up taking a gallon water jug, filling it halfway
Speaker 1: up and creating a bit of a dumbbell type deal.
Speaker 1: And then week later on put it rubber band through
Speaker 1: it and we create a kettlebell type deal as well.
Speaker 1: So what ends up happening over the four week period
Speaker 1: is you will experience football type training, but you would
Speaker 1: do so with a very minimal approach. And I think
Speaker 1: again that is going to keep athletes ready, uh to
Speaker 1: receive and deliver force when the time becomes appropriate. Once again,
Speaker 1: I remember, one of the things you've implemented is what
Speaker 1: my high school coach implemented when when I was a
Speaker 1: freshman high school we didn't have at our schooled to
Speaker 1: budget for the weights in the enormous weight room that
Speaker 1: we've see in a lot of facilities. You were able
Speaker 1: to do these videos look like it required very little
Speaker 1: equipment a trainer or non trainable. Also, you've catered it
Speaker 1: to just the basic human being, not the elite athlete.
Speaker 1: Tell me about that, Well, that's a that's a great point, uh,
Speaker 1: And this is why part of me feels that the
Speaker 1: time that we're in right now is it's gonna actually
Speaker 1: be a positive for young athletes, especially because it gives
Speaker 1: it gives us an opportunity to get back to the basics,
Speaker 1: you know, building overall general fitness by getting the heart rate,
Speaker 1: of relearning basic movement patterns. That's that's what it takes
Speaker 1: to be a high level athlete. But to your point again,
Speaker 1: you know, when you give much more I guess you
Speaker 1: could say equipment and tools and information, it can become
Speaker 1: a bit burdensome for individuals to to weed themselves through
Speaker 1: what is the most appropriate way, what is the most
Speaker 1: effective way uh to build an athlete? And you hear
Speaker 1: so many different voices and opinions and thought patterns and
Speaker 1: whatnot at schools of thought, that message of getting the
Speaker 1: athlete ready to play this game can often become difficult
Speaker 1: to understand and us again burnensome to week through. But
Speaker 1: when you remove and you have to get back to
Speaker 1: the Spartan like mentality or a Spartan type world that
Speaker 1: we're in right now where you have very minimal resources.
Speaker 1: Now we get back to that innate human ability to thrive,
Speaker 1: not just thrive, but to survive at a very high level.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what these videos are gonna be
Speaker 1: able to do is It gets us back to that
Speaker 1: base ground level of where our game is truly playing at,
Speaker 1: and that's through general fitness, and that's again getting the
Speaker 1: heart rate of relearning basic movement patterns. Uh. Not seeing
Speaker 1: athletes with a bunch of weight on the bar but
Speaker 1: they're doing the movement's wrong. You know, you're gonna give
Speaker 1: kids a unique opportunity throughout this time period to really
Speaker 1: build the proper capacity to play this game at a
Speaker 1: high level if we take advantage of it fully. Last
Speaker 1: time you all with me doing a podcast, you talked
Speaker 1: about your injuries and finding your purpose training alignment. But
Speaker 1: let's talk about your philosophy during this time many you're
Speaker 1: calling a crisis, and the word crisis has a dual meaning.
Speaker 1: One part of it means danger, to other means opportunities.
Speaker 1: When you talked about your injuries and the challenges and
Speaker 1: adversity was going through, it seemed to have formed your
Speaker 1: philosophy behind what you do, what you're training modules, and
Speaker 1: your training. Talk to us about your philosophy, Well, I
Speaker 1: tried to not have a general philosophy because I always
Speaker 1: believe this is that once a person says, well this
Speaker 1: is my philosophy, it means that you aren't willing to adapt.
Speaker 1: So I guess my philosophy is to stay fluid. Now,
Speaker 1: there are some experiences that I have that are unique
Speaker 1: that allows me to think maybe a little bit differently
Speaker 1: than some. I think that that's unique to all of
Speaker 1: us based on our experiences. That's the culmination of who
Speaker 1: we are as people. But relative to how I go
Speaker 1: about developing athletes, the the philosophy or the fluidity in
Speaker 1: that philosophy is just said, for this focus on the necessities,
Speaker 1: eliminate the fluff, and if you can develop the person
Speaker 1: that after it becomes infinitely easier to develop. So this
Speaker 1: time period that we're in right now, it really feeds
Speaker 1: right into the first two premises. Two basis of what
Speaker 1: I believe is you have to eliminate the fluff and
Speaker 1: focus on the necessities because we don't have the access,
Speaker 1: uh to all of the extra stuff that we used
Speaker 1: to dealing with in and and and player development and
Speaker 1: human performance and whatnot. So with all that being said, yes,
Speaker 1: my experiences of the past have built how I think,
Speaker 1: and I think how I think sort of fits perfectly
Speaker 1: into where we are. Uh. But what that being said,
Speaker 1: even once the world gives back to a sense of
Speaker 1: almost say, I feel that on a personal level it
Speaker 1: would just be much more invigorating and I'll be much
Speaker 1: more appreciative of what you're used as a set accustomed
Speaker 1: to happen. Here's the thought, we all rightfless. So we're
Speaker 1: required now and encouraged to stay home. So a lot
Speaker 1: of people are at home. You've geared a lot of
Speaker 1: your module and your training obviously to be able to
Speaker 1: do this at home. Getting back to the basis, it's
Speaker 1: interesting when we're able to get outside, a lot of
Speaker 1: times we may have found ourselves being busy but not
Speaker 1: yet productive. Now challs were required to stay home, it's
Speaker 1: easy to be unproductive wasting time. So you said, if
Speaker 1: you build the person that will correspond to building an athlete.
Speaker 1: How are you encourage people to actually what kind of
Speaker 1: mindset do they need to have to even stay consistent
Speaker 1: in not waste time video games, not just waste time
Speaker 1: watching Benjing on programs. Tell me about that. It's funny
Speaker 1: you say that it's a whole I just instituted a
Speaker 1: rule in the home because all of my kids are
Speaker 1: at home. My six six kids, five boys, one girl,
Speaker 1: and the oldest is sixteen or the youngest is five,
Speaker 1: so you get everything in between. And I found, uh,
Speaker 1: the environment becoming to becoming conducive to them not being productive. Yes,
Speaker 1: they have the little online school that they have to do,
Speaker 1: but you know they're they're done with that in ten
Speaker 1: minutes and then they have the whole day to figure
Speaker 1: out what to do. And so what I saw is
Speaker 1: everyone's spending much more time on the iPads and YouTube
Speaker 1: and social media, and even myself, you see yourself starting
Speaker 1: to slide it down that that rabbit hole of spending
Speaker 1: more time on social media, more time watching Netflix. I
Speaker 1: think I watched The Tiger King in one day. Uh,
Speaker 1: I think I watched two or three other two three
Speaker 1: other series like it just one sitting. Not granted they
Speaker 1: were really interesting, but nonetheless that's not exactly how you
Speaker 1: stay productive. So what I've done is I've now mandated
Speaker 1: that our kids now have to read parts of parts
Speaker 1: of one book every night and then have to do
Speaker 1: a one page report on it before they go to bed. Now,
Speaker 1: in terms of how that would manifest itself in terms
Speaker 1: of general population, I think we have to be wise
Speaker 1: with how we're using our time and making sure that
Speaker 1: that time isn't just being spent on social media, It's
Speaker 1: not just being spent in front of the TV. But
Speaker 1: pick up a book that you may have been putting
Speaker 1: off and you wanna you want to read. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: there's so many other activities. Like I found, I've just
Speaker 1: really discovered myself that I have no hobbies. Uh, And
Speaker 1: this is a problem. My hobbies have been revolving around
Speaker 1: the business and revolving around my kids, and you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I have nothing that really interests me outside
Speaker 1: of that. But you know, I'm trying to not pick
Speaker 1: up a hobby. My daughter now, she's big into uh,
Speaker 1: the the legos that have this robotic type lego system
Speaker 1: that she has, and I'm trying to help her with
Speaker 1: that and get into that. So I'm discovering more about
Speaker 1: my family. I'm discovering more about myself. But to your point,
Speaker 1: I think that we have to be open to that discovery.
Speaker 1: We can't allow this time to consume us. We can't
Speaker 1: allow this time uh to use us as much as
Speaker 1: we should be using this time. And how different has
Speaker 1: it been. You've homeschooled your children, so this setting of
Speaker 1: being at home as at least as students they're used to.
Speaker 1: So what's been the biggest challenge now in keeping them
Speaker 1: motivated now that it's not just I'm home for school,
Speaker 1: but we're home for a while. That's a great question.
Speaker 1: The biggest challenge has been they got a taste of
Speaker 1: regular school and so so now they got that, they
Speaker 1: got that taste and they're like, you know what, we
Speaker 1: kind of like this and now having this additional time,
Speaker 1: you know, and it has been a bit of an
Speaker 1: adjustment for them. Although for the first five years or
Speaker 1: so they've all been homeschooled. H but now they got
Speaker 1: into that rhythm of hanging out with friends and and
Speaker 1: that social element of school and uh, you know that
Speaker 1: just typical school routine, and I think they really began
Speaker 1: to enjoy it. So now that they can't experience that,
Speaker 1: it was a little bit woe is Me type of
Speaker 1: persona that they all kind of took on. And that's
Speaker 1: where the social media and the YouTube and they're gonna
Speaker 1: kind of just lounge around. Uh, they really got adapted
Speaker 1: to that. But you know, we gotta break that happen,
Speaker 1: not to let them get too comfortable with that. As
Speaker 1: we trans transition back to the actual legend. One of
Speaker 1: the things I noticed about legends we worked out, but
Speaker 1: a lot of times to workout was because we wanted
Speaker 1: to ball out. And now when we're legends now, instead
Speaker 1: of training being a part of our lifestyle, it's been
Speaker 1: stopped because now our legends are saying, man, I don't
Speaker 1: want structure. I don't I don't want being a weight room.
Speaker 1: I just want to do what I want to do.
Speaker 1: How do you motivate legends to make fitness, stand in shape,
Speaker 1: taking care of their their bodies, make that a part
Speaker 1: of their lifestyle. How do you motivate them to make
Speaker 1: it a part of the lifestyle now that they're no
Speaker 1: longer training to do their jobs. You know. I think
Speaker 1: that's a that's some layered discussion. I think it's a
Speaker 1: little bit difficult, you know, but you have to get
Speaker 1: to the base of it. I think part of the
Speaker 1: issue with that is many legends, uh post career, we
Speaker 1: we now want to take ownership of our lives, so
Speaker 1: to speak, because we were so accustomed to both telling
Speaker 1: us what to do. You have to work out at
Speaker 1: this time, we have to be here at this particular time,
Speaker 1: and now that we don't have that structure, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know I don't want to do that because
Speaker 1: I don't have to do that. And I think the
Speaker 1: biggest shift that we have to make is, you know,
Speaker 1: at one point in time, yes, we trained because we
Speaker 1: wanted to be the best player we could be, But
Speaker 1: oftentimes we trained because we didn't want to get in trouble.
Speaker 1: Either we wanted to stay in good graces of the
Speaker 1: coaches or the team, or the organization or whatever may
Speaker 1: may or not have been. But in this instance, I
Speaker 1: think the good graces you want to stay in is
Speaker 1: good graces of you. How you wake up in the
Speaker 1: morning and you roll yourself out of that bad How
Speaker 1: do you want to feel when you look into the mirror,
Speaker 1: How do you want to feel about the person looking
Speaker 1: back at you when you play with your kids? How
Speaker 1: do you want to feel? How do you want your
Speaker 1: kids and your wife to look at you. I think
Speaker 1: that is something that we have to take ownership of
Speaker 1: because no one is going to mandate, uh that we
Speaker 1: take ownership of that. But that's something again that we
Speaker 1: all have that inside of us. That and we decide
Speaker 1: to do something, you know, we do it at the
Speaker 1: highest level possible, but we have to take and make
Speaker 1: that that initial take that initial step and make that
Speaker 1: choice to take ownership of it. Uh, it's no longer
Speaker 1: I'm doing this because of I want to be the
Speaker 1: best player, because I don't want to coach to be
Speaker 1: on my butt. I'm doing this because I want to
Speaker 1: do it for me. I want to do it for
Speaker 1: my kids, I want to do it for my wife.
Speaker 1: I think that's a shift in mindset that we have
Speaker 1: to take it, and we have to eventually get gods
Speaker 1: to that point. Dealing with the mental mindset that obviously
Speaker 1: you have to develop. And I remember being on the
Speaker 1: podcast with your last time. You talked about what it
Speaker 1: took to go through the rehab, to go through the monotony,
Speaker 1: the tedious things that you have to do. What should
Speaker 1: the mental mindset be during this time? Now, little Charles,
Speaker 1: how does a person when you rehab that's adversity. Now
Speaker 1: we're staying home. Sometimes we don't know when things will
Speaker 1: get back to our our old normal, or if it
Speaker 1: ever will. What should now from your experience, how did
Speaker 1: you develop the mental toughness that was needed to not
Speaker 1: only get through to rehab successfully get back on the field,
Speaker 1: but also how did you translate that to to life,
Speaker 1: and how would you encourage legends to build that mental toughness.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a little tough to answer because all
Speaker 1: of us are in different seasons of our lives, and
Speaker 1: all of us have different anxieties and and and pressures
Speaker 1: that were under So I'm not sure if there's a
Speaker 1: true one size fits all approach. But speaking from my
Speaker 1: personal experiences, you know, I knew that my worst case
Speaker 1: scenario was Okay, you can't play football anymore, a right
Speaker 1: relative to life in the grand scheme of life, you know,
Speaker 1: that's really not that big of a deal. But if
Speaker 1: I take that same uh reality, and I now put
Speaker 1: it into a situation where it's, hey, you may not
Speaker 1: be able to feed your kids tomorrow morning, that's a
Speaker 1: completely different level a different again level of desperation and
Speaker 1: and experience at that point in time. But I think
Speaker 1: the one thing that kind of oversets all of that
Speaker 1: is your faith. You know, how is your faith, how
Speaker 1: strong is your faith? And knowing that even through the
Speaker 1: worst and the best of situations, things are generally going
Speaker 1: to work out on your behalf. And I think this
Speaker 1: right now is a unique experience for all of us.
Speaker 1: But again, what's unique for me is different from what
Speaker 1: may be unique and traumatic for someone else. But at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, my faith is being tested
Speaker 1: in areas that are important to me. But I think
Speaker 1: other people's faith are going to be tested in areas
Speaker 1: that are more important personal to them. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the common thread is still going
Speaker 1: to be the faith that faith word. So I think
Speaker 1: that the mindset UH is going to be rooted in
Speaker 1: your faith and how much faith and how much faith
Speaker 1: do you truly have to be able to get yourself
Speaker 1: and your circumstances back to the point that you want
Speaker 1: to envision them being as ironic. As we close it out,
Speaker 1: they can find your videos to be also found youth
Speaker 1: football dot NFL dot com. Is that correct? Correct? And
Speaker 1: as you're closing out, you mentioned faith. I actually shared
Speaker 1: a message in doing these type of opportunities, I call them.
Speaker 1: There's a time I had a football in my hand
Speaker 1: and the football I reference as my faith La Charles,
Speaker 1: And as I started sharing this message, I dropped the ball.
Speaker 1: I fumbled it and I said, a lot of times
Speaker 1: when people go through things, they end up fundling their faith.
Speaker 1: I said, but this is the time now where your
Speaker 1: faith is tested. Now, this is this is like, it's
Speaker 1: just like our training. We could be trained professionals, trained
Speaker 1: professionals in the weight room, practice field. But when you
Speaker 1: told a story about going against that office alignment and
Speaker 1: how that impacted you traumatically and how you had to
Speaker 1: get through, well, guess what your faith was tested in
Speaker 1: this case as it relates to being on the football field.
Speaker 1: You experienced something that you had never experienced. And even
Speaker 1: though you had heard about this guy, you had heard
Speaker 1: it because faith comes by hearing, right, So you had
Speaker 1: heard about this guy, but you hadn't experienced him. And
Speaker 1: then when you it was awesome because you told the story.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to go back into it, but
Speaker 1: it was a player defensive player that your veteran teammates
Speaker 1: had told you about, I'm sorry, veteran office alignment and
Speaker 1: told you about to be prepared. But you being that
Speaker 1: youngster young in your faith. If I'm using football metaphor right,
Speaker 1: and then now you experience it right and next day
Speaker 1: you know your faith was tested. And at a moment
Speaker 1: during your testing your faith, you were on the sideline
Speaker 1: thinking and emphasized thinking about quitting. Correct but once again
Speaker 1: somebody on the sideline told you and challenge you to
Speaker 1: get back out there, and that's why our huddles and
Speaker 1: our teammates probably so important during this time. Could be
Speaker 1: a spouse, could be children, could be a legend, could
Speaker 1: be a former coach. Are very very own ourselves, sometimes
Speaker 1: encouraging us. It's not the time to tap out. We're
Speaker 1: gonna pass the tests and when we do, it will
Speaker 1: be victorious as a result. La Charles. As always, it's
Speaker 1: been fantastic. Thanks for joining us and thanks for listening in.
Speaker 1: The best is yet Toka. Thank you. This has been
Speaker 1: the NFL Legends podcast. To provide feedback or request a
Speaker 1: topic for discussion, email us at NFL Legends at NFL
Speaker 1: dot com. M