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0:00-15:00: Apiros isn’t a typical gym, which tracks because Austin Einhorn isn’t a typical trainer. At the top of the show, Austin offers a virtual tour of his space and discusses what makes Apiros different from traditional gym spaces and how he approaches the kinds of movement that go on when one is being trained in the Apiros space. Austin gives us a peek into his nine-year-old scientist self wondering why the kid ahead of him on the soccer field is running so much faster than him, and if it has something to do with how he’s moving his feet, a curiosity that he’s carried forward into his movement work at Apiros. Austin also gives some insight on his background and course of study, and discusses how he likes to infuse a playful spirit in everything from the gym to writing poetry, and how that spirit of play can be used to combat the “symbolic virus” of the American tendency to define one’s worth as a person by what one does rather than who one is. If you thought this was a lighthearted chat about lifting heavy weights, ten minutes in should disabuse you of that notion. We are tackling some big ideas, here.
15:00- 20:00: Mitch Haniger update. Austin describes the working relationship he has with Mitch, someone he says is his equal in intellectual curiosity. A question about rehabbing athletes who have suffered injuries leads to Austin noting that there’s no torn ACLs among lions or wild horses whose knees are failing them; people’s bodies aren’t failing them, it’s the environments they’re in that are failing them.
20:00-33:00: Gator rolls, rock climbing, a 330-pound offensive lineman looking graceful as a ballerina; these are some of the unconventional movements that might be found in a training session at Apiros. There’s no “typical” day, but Austin walks us through a general version of a training session he’d go through with Haniger, whom he sees three hours a day for almost ten hours a week.
Oh, also: your sport is poison! Unlike what you might think, that’s not a tough sell to athletes, but rather a breath of fresh air.
33:00-40:00: What kinds of athletes seek out Apiros? According to Austin, athletes who seek mentorship and someone who will be in their corner and treat them as more than a piece of meat. And what kind of athlete does Austin want to work with? Conveniently enough, one Mitch Haniger. “I want to learn things from my athletes.” Although he wouldn’t turn down Lionel Messi if he showed up to train at Apiros.
40:00-54:00: The conversation about Messi leads to Austin pointing out that paying him 20,000 dollars a minute to dance around a mannequin is a waste of money and Messi’s own natural skill, which of course leads to a conversation about hacking practice and specifically for our interests, hacking pre-game or batting practice.
54:00 - end: What are some of the challenges of getting athletes who have a “do it till it hurts” mindset to embrace a more playful mindset? Austin points out this way of thinking is rooted in a negative self-image, and the idea that one must suffer in order to be great is a myth. What are some things the average person can take away from Austin’s work in order to move better?
Music: Outkast - “The Way You Move”// Sonny J - “Can’t Stop Movin”
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