Elliott Hulse is one of the OG online strength coaches. The 2009 Strongest Man in Florida, he started building his online coaching platform and established Strength Camp in 2007 as a way to bring athletes together and help them become the strongest version of themselves not just through working out, but through meditation, psychology, and self-knowledge.

Hes built a brand worth millions through digital marketing and thousands of informative YouTube videos; he likes to think of himself as a video poet and in2015 he earned the awardYouTube Fans Favorite.But while he first became known for video guides to physical fitness, his brand has gradually evolved to provide a moreholistic approach to self-improvement thats grown fromhis experiences with active meditation, Eastern philosophy, and the Bahai faith.

Today, in addition to training strongmen and hosting Strength Camp, he also offers Grounding Camps that teach active meditation, bioenergetics, philosophy, and self-love. For a male strength coach, hes unusual to say the least, buthes an undeniably effective teacher who is wholly dedicated to helping as many people as possible become as strong and capable as possible, no matter what form that might take.

We sat down with Elliott to learn more about training tips, nervous system health, active meditation, gender politics, and everything in between.

Image via Elliott Hulse on Facebook

BarBend:Elliott, thanks for taking the time to chat.I really want to talk about the changes Ive noticedsince you first started your coaching platform, so lets startwith the physicaltraining. Compared to ten years ago, whats one of the biggest differences in how you train people to get physically stronger?

Elliott Hulse: Its interesting that you use the word change. A lot of what people see Elliot Hulse doing now looks different than what Ive always done, only because it happens to be whatIm choosing to show.

A lot of these changes are not changes at all. What has always been there is to take a holistic approach to performance, meaning when were going to improve someones squat or their vertical jump, we dont just look at the strength of their legs. Anyone who works in biomechanics will tell you youve alsogotta consider the low back, youve gotta consider the shoulder girdle, youve gotta consider the entire mechanism, the whole human kinetic chain, not just the legs.

Image via The Strength Camp on Facebook

So when in terms of supporting someone into becoming their strongest selves, be it jump higher or just to live a happier life, the first place we begin is with the nervous system and how well its functioning.

When I work with a client and I want to get the most effective movement, I have to assess andcorrect any neuromuscular imbalances. And the first place Id begin, in particular withhow the nervous system is firing or how it turns on the muscles, is with the spinal cord. I am a fan of upper cervical chiropractics, especially the atlas orthogonal. Thats the very first vertebrae at the base of the skull. The interesting thing is that it doesnt have the same kind of spiny processes as the other vertebrae so it doesnt interlock as well. It floats.

Your atlas being the first vertebrae at the base of the skull means any information that goes from the body to the brain or vice versa has to pass through it its the first gateway from the brain to the body. And if the very first gateway is obstructed or tilted improperly, then all the information coming down form the brain is going to be distorted.

So how does that change how you train or assess clients?

Ill give you two assessments you can do at home.

The first is pretty easy:stand in place, face a wall so you have perspective on where you are. Close youreyes and start marching in place for about a minute, lifting your knees up to waist height. Then open your eyes. If you find that your marching has caused you to move and youre not facing the wall any longer, its an indication that the left and right side of your nervous system arent firing the same.

Theres another great demonstration, but you need a friend for this one. Lay on your back and raise your left arm up so its perpendicular to the ground and have your friend push down on your arm from behind, just to see how strong you can be to hold it up. Then have him go to the other arm.

If there is an imbalance in strength from one side tothe other, you might think its just because youre right handed. ButI want you to go back to that left arm and turn your head allthe way to the left, so youre facing that arm. Then do the test again. One of two things isgonna happen: that arm is going toget even weaker than it was before, or all of a sudden its going toget really strong. That should give you an indication as to how the atlas is subluxed. Alternatively you can try this doing dumbbell overhead presses. Theres nothing mystical to it its allowing youto recruit more muscle by getting the atlas out of the way.

Without this kind of approach, everything else you do is kind of a waste. Im looking at everything in a holistic way. Im interested in how your body works together, how functional you are, how powerful you are, how great an athlete you can be. And for that you have to make sure the nervous system is firing properly.

I use the analogy of a racecar. If you have a wheel misalignment, I dont care how well you drive, itll never perform at its best.

So is this the kind of thing you teach at your Strength Camps?

Ifyou go to Strength Camp, we do corrective stretching and exercising, but its very generalized. People are there for a different reason, which is to become the strongest possible version of themselves.

What about the other camp you offer, Grounding Camp? Its about active meditation, right? Is that a kind of workout?

Ill tell you how the idea of Grounding Camps first came about. Twelveyears ago my wife got pregnant at about the same time I lost my job and was going through some depression. A few years earlier Id been reading the work of this Indian mystic called Osho. I thought his philosophy was great; he always referred to meditation as the practice of his philosophy. The difference is his meditation was very physical. While most meditations are sit down and breathe which is great, thats what youre aiming for his required that you got up and that you charge the body with breath through various different exercises, it was very physical. Ill leave it at that, but I was drawn to it as an athlete.

So Idid a quick Google search and found thatthe only Osho active meditation bootcamp was happening inNew York City. And I got up at 3:45 every morning in the dead of winter to take the Long Island Railroad for 21 days to go to this camp.

By the end of it, my life had done a complete 180. Id shaken out of the depression and regained a tremendous amount of clarity, and I was able to use it as a launching pad into the next phase of my life which brought me down to Florida, whenI started Strength Camp.

The woman who ran the Osho classes also did one-on-one therapy called pulsation, which was essentially a neo-Reikian therapy that comes from the work of Wilhelm Reich. It was bioenergetics, essentially. And I took this session with her and I had this tremendous experience that woke me up:while I was doing the exercises, I broke into this uncontrollable laughter, the kind of laughing most of us havent had since we were children. It was about releasing the trapped emotions in my body that had been stifled from poor breathing.

So afterI moved down to Florida,I was talking about the benefitsa lot in my videos and peoplewere asking me where they coulddo active meditation and bioenergetics. So I decided to reach out to my former teacher in New York City and encouraged her to work with me on a camp where we can introduce people to it.

In arecent interview you published on your blog, when you were asked if you were a strength coach you answered that you were nothing and everything. Can you explain that?

Its hard because I resist labels, but its hard for people to know whoyou are and what youre doing if you dont label yourself. If I were to identify who I am and what Im doing, Im (long pause) Im a coach. Im a healer. And I support people in becoming the strongest version of themselves. I dont even like the term healing, I like the term whole-ing more. I want you to become your whole self. Im a holistic strength coach.

But on Instagram I say Im a strongman and strength coach. Thats my entry point and its where I shine the brightest.

A lot of the things I say are highlighted in hippie new age cultures, Im not a part of that culture. But I resonate with those ideas.

Im in the strength space,I just have something different to bring to it. Ralph Waldo Emmerson said the greatest value is to bring something from where it is plentifulto where it is lacking. And in the strength and fitness and bodybuilding communities, what is lacking is the holistic approach. Whats lacking is the attention to the nervous system, to meditation, to breathing. But they all support your ability to be stronger and improve performance. So all Im doing is bringing what is lacking in one community what is plentiful from another.

Image via Elliott Hulse on Facebook

I imagine that compared to ten years ago, you must receive a lot more questions about philosophy and psychology and self improvement. Your brand seems to have had a pretty noticeable shift, no?

My clients have always asked me questions likethat. When I was 26 years old I had teenage athletes asking me questions like, Elliott, what do I do if my girlfriend cheats on me?or, My best friend betrayed me, what do I do?

Theyre bringing thingsup from outside of the gym, but it relates to things inside the gym. If someone comes in and his girlfriends justcheated on him, his cortisol levels are up! His testosterone is down! His ability to perform and recover is all screwed up. So I can offer him some perspective thats going to brighten him up and support him in getting through this, if I can give him some empowerment based on his circumstance. That sucks, well, guess what, you just discovered something new about yourself, you had a new experience that allows you to overcome this and gain strength character strength because of it. So reframing, giving someone a new way to look at their problems, I love doing it. I love hearing their problems and giving creative solutions to it.

So I started making YouTube videos and started getting the same sort of questions in the comment areas of videos on how to deadlift. Id love to go to the gym, but my girlfriend cheated on me. So I started answering those questions, and eventually I started another YouTube channel to deal with those sorts of issues and how to grow stronger from your challenges.

Image via Elliott Hulse on Facebook

Its cool how yourunderstanding of strength and performance has grown and change since you started out.Ive noticedin the last few years youve beentalking more about different definitions of masculinity as well, howyou that men should embrace their fragility a little more and not be afraid to show their softer side.

Yeah, well, whats happening in the world is whats happening in each and every one of us. And whats happening in the world is a tremendous amount of reintegration. Were coming out of an era where we were split, we were separated.

But with the advent on the internet and the interrelatedness of humanity now, and the spread of ideas,were living in agolden age where all separation seems to be being dissolved. And you can see it everywhere fromthe strife about the difference between the rich and the the poor, youre seeing the polarity, the duality being exposed in racism in America and many other countries.

I think whats really fascinating with this new generation as it relates to sexuality is this rise in non-dual sexuality. My daughters 12 years old and there are lots of children in her school who are non-binary in their sexuality. Theyre gender fluid; they dont identify with one gender or the other.

Thats a sign. It is an indication of whats happening on a cosmic and global level which is the integration of seeming opposites. What was once duality, like heaven and hell, is now being integrated. And there is no evil and good, everything just is. In the same way that a full day integratesday and night. You cant have day without night. You cant have winter without summer. You cant have yin without yang. You are not fully masculine without the integration of the feminine. Carl Jung would describe it this way: within every man is a woman called the anima. And in every woman theres a man called the animus.

A teacher of mine once told me when I was having some personal challenges, Elliot, you will not become a full man until you become a woman first. And what he was referring to was the integration of the yin qualities that are inherent within every man, except they have been stifled. They have been disregarded, they have been chastised out of us.

I like to use the term tender aggression. The tenderness thats associated with being a a fully alpha male requires the integration of female nurturing andyielding qualities. If youre justaggressive, if youre just one sided, youre not embodying full masculinity. Youre just a premature ejaculator. Youre an example of the immaturity that pervades the patriarchy. Youre looking to dominate with power rather than integrate softness, integrate nurturing, integrate tenderness into your aggression so that youre whole. Thats what makes you full.

Awesome. Well, its been great chatting with you, Elliott! Best of luck with the Strength Camps and Grounding Camps, I hope you help a lot of people findtheir own wholeness.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Featured image via Elliott Hulse on Facebook.

Original post:

Elliott Hulse Talks Strongman, Active Meditation, and Bioenergetics - BarBend (blog)