368: CODY WESCOTT- Lift Heavy, Swing Fast.

0:00:04 – Jeff Pelizzaro
The 18STRONG Podcast, episode number 368, with Cody Wescott from Cody Wescott, golf. What’s up guys? Welcome back to the 18STRONG Podcast, where we’re here to help you build a stronger game, because we believe that every golfer deserves to play better, longer. And this week we have Cody Wescott from Cody Wescott Golf and the Swing Heavy Lift Fast Program. This episode is a fun one for me because this is the first time I get to meet Cody and talk about the growth that he’s had, first of all in social media in the golf and fitness world, and I think he’s one of the guys putting out some of the best content when it comes to education in the golf and fitness world and really taking a no BS attitude and laying on what’s going to make your program most optimal. Is traditional weight training? Is traditional strength training good for your golf game? Yeah, it can be, but is it optimal for what you’re wanting to do and what your goals are in the gym? So we have some great conversations about what that looks like, what you want to do, what are the things that you want to put into your program simply because you like them, and what are the things you need to put in there because they’re going to work. And then we talk about a couple topics that Cody’s been pretty hard lined on, and that’s the difference between golf exercises and golf drills. Where is that crossover and where is the separation? And are you doing golf exercises or golf drills and are they really being effective in your training program? And then, lastly, we touch on a bit of a sensitive topic for probably a lot of the listeners of this show, for those of you that are coaches and trainers. But talking to the golfers out there, cody discusses why you may not need a personal trainer and why that actually might be detracting from your goals and detracting from your results, and we go have a great conversation around that. So you’re going to really enjoy this episode of the 18STRONG Podcast.

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0:02:49 – Cody Wescott
Hey, thanks for having me.

0:02:50 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, for sure, man. So this is really fun to finally get to connect with you. I’ve been following your stuff on social media for a while and one of the cool things and we just had a couple other people on recently and, I said, one of the cool things about what we do at the podcast here cool things for me is being able to connect with people like you, that I really respect the way that you’re putting your content out, the content that you’re putting out. So, first of all, just keep doing what you’re doing, because I love watching it and I learned stuff from when I’m watching your content and I know that our crew is too.

So I’m excited to have you on.

0:03:21 – Cody Wescott
Yeah, man, thank you so much. I mean the content game, social media has been such a game changer. I think you know I’ve listened to your show a few times, so I know I’m not alone when I say that Like it really has just like opened so many doors Because I’ve been doing, you know, the fitness thing for a long time and just when you consistently start posting content, like things happen for you that I never thought would happen. So it’s really cool. Like I’ve been on you know, someone’s podcast. Like you know, if you were to go, I never would have thought about this. So this is really cool.

0:03:50 – Jeff Pelizzaro
When did your? Is Instagram your biggest platform as far as your social media content? For sure, when did that really kind of take off for you?

0:03:57 – Cody Wescott
You know.

So I was a trainer for, like you know, 12 years before I ever like made a post about my services, right, so? But I think it was summer 2022 is when I started posting about every single day, because I was in an environment down in a gym down in Jupiter, where, like that was pretty much what everybody was doing is like that was like bigger part of our job was actually like creating social media content, and that’s when I started doing it every single day. And then I think you know, the thing is like I didn’t. It took me forever to like get up and going. I mean, I think I made. I think I posted like 90 days in a row before I got like a thousand followers, you know. So, like you know, I get like 12 likes on a post or something like that. So it was a little discouraging, but I was like you know what? Like I think it’s one of those things that you just keep trying and work hard and put out good stuff. It’s eventually going to catch on, and so that’s what I did. I just kept going, kept going, and I want to say it was probably like right around like holiday season, so probably like Thanksgiving of 2022, you know, probably like almost like six months into the thing, I got to 10,000 followers and then that’s.

I don’t know if it starts like kind of snowballing or if the algorithm like kind of catches on and people are watching your stuff and then, but that, that first 10 was super hard and then now I think we’re you know what, like 14 months later, I’m at like 70,000.

And that’s been really cool. Just because you know, when you’re a personal trainer, you are pretty limited on how many people you can work one on one with, right, or how many people you can really make a change for Cause I’ve done group fitness before too, where you’re coaching like 40, 50 people at once. But you know, as a personal trainer, if you’re super busy I mean, if you’re talking about doing 30, 40 sessions a week that is a very, very busy personal trainer, right. And you have, you know, people doing two or three sessions a week like what are you looking at? You may have? You might have like 10 to 12 to 15 clients, really right. So for me to go from that on a weekly basis, like I’m only touching like 12, 15 people, to reaching thousands has been like really gratifying and a lot of fun too.

0:06:05 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, when? When did you kind of shift out of the the in-person training role, cause I know you said you really just work with, I think, a single client in person. The rest is pretty much online.

0:06:15 – Cody Wescott
Yeah, it’s all on my app. Now why use trainer rogue? But you know I have my programming on their app. It’s been since I moved back to Oklahoma. I moved back here in December of 2022. I moved back here and I was still doing some zoom sessions. So I’m still doing one on one. But now, yeah, for the past like I think about 12 months I’ve had just one guy that I trained a person and the rest is I’ve got some. I’ve got people that I’ve been doing one on one programming for for years now. But now I just put all my time into creating the programming on the app.

0:06:54 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, it looks great. We’ll be sure to link all this stuff up in the show notes as well, so you guys can go and check out the website, check out the app. You know everything, everything about looks really good. You know like it just kind of draws the eye in your content is great. As far as just really pointing out the, the no BS right, which I think is really one of the big messages that you, that you have, is like hey, don’t do the silly stuff. Here’s the way are here, here are ways for you to really get to where you want to go with your, your golf, with your fitness. And you know, one thing I wanted to ask you about, which is a message that continually goes through your content is not training the old way you used to train. You know it hasn’t gotten you where you want to go yet, so why are you continuing to do it? Expand on that a little bit.

0:07:42 – Cody Wescott
Yeah, that’s been, that’s been a topic that’s done pretty well for me lately. So you kind of catch onto things that people kind of believe in in what you’re saying more right Cause, like that is like a truly like authentic thing for me is like I have literally experienced every possible image or every type of fitness that is out there. Right, so like I feel like I can speak to that Right Like. So I’ve done CrossFit, I’ve done bodybuilding, I’ve done powerlifting, I did Spartan races, I raced high rocks. My wife used to teach yoga. I’ve done yoga. She also taught Pilates. I’ve done Pilates. Like I’ve literally we her and I co taught a boxing class together. So I mean I’ve done like pretty much everything in fitness and I’ve also ran gyms. I was a regional fitness manager in Washington DC. I ran three gyms. Like when I tell you like that I have pretty much done everything that normal people in fitness can do, like I’ve done it.

So now, like my thing is that I don’t think that any method of training is necessarily bad. Right Like. So for golf, that is like, so like I don’t think that anything that’s going to get you in better shape, like you know whether it increases your, maybe you’re doing like a orange theory. Right, it’s going to increase your endurance, you know it’s going to make you a little stronger. You know stuff like that. But any kind of workout program CrossFit, bodybuilding, whatever it is that gets you in better shape.

I think it can help the game of golf, now. What I always tell people is like is that optimal for the game of golf? And my answer for some of that stuff is no, like I don’t think that training like a bodybuilder is going to help you play your best. You know can it. Is it going to be better than you sitting on the couch...