Clay Cooper: @DiscoveryDeadlift, Creativity, and Powerlifting Through Anxiety
From dad and full-time employee to powerlifting adventurer, Clay Cooper has conquered the art of hard work.
He started @discoverydeadlift in 2020 when powerlifting proved to be more than just an outlet for him to change his mental and physical health. Since then, he's hiked and deadlifted in over 180 unique locations across 10 states with his wife and kids.
Clay joined host Andrew Vontz to talk about stereotypes surrounding anxiety and depression and how embracing your passions and doing difficult things can transform us into the most mentally and physically strong versions of ourselves.
LISTEN NOW: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Google Podcasts, Stitcher
In 2020, Clay’s dad passed away, he had a new child coming soon and his life-long depression and anxiety intensified. He wanted to do something to help himself and to share it with the world as a way to demystify stereotypes about depression and anxiety.
Clay started lugging his Olympic bar and rucking 500 pounds of plates out to the most beautiful places in America. He deadlifts while his wife shoots footage. And thus, @discoverydeadlift was born.
With international plans already in the works for 2023, it's clear that Clay's journey is far from over. To see more from Clay, check out @discoverydeadlift on Instagram and TikTok.
LISTEN NOW: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, Google Podcasts, Stitcher
Choose the Hard Way is a podcast where guests share stories about how hard things build stronger humans. Sign up for the newsletter to get the story behind these stories updates and more. If you’d like to suggest a guest or say hello, DM @hardwaypod on social or send an email to choosethehardway@gmail.com.
Host Andrew Vontz has spent more than 25 years telling and shaping the stories of the world’s top performers, brands and businesses. He has held executive and senior leadership roles at the social network for athletes Strava and the human performance company TRX. His byline has appeared in outlets like Rolling Stone, Outside magazine, The Los Angeles Times and more.
Today he advises and consults with businesses and nonprofits on high-impact storytelling strategies and coaches leaders to become high-performance communicators. Find him on LinkedIn or reach out to choosethehardway@gmail.com
In This Episode:
Clay Cooper: Instagram, TikTok
- - - - - - - - - -
Andrew Vontz LinkedIn
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher
Sign up for the Hard Way Newsletter
Choose The Hard Way is a Palm Tree Pod Co. production
-
Andrew Vontz 0:00
Are you know, I was eating an almond butter and jelly sandwich. I just finished a workout before doing this. And I was about to take another bite while I was sitting here and then I decided that's that's definitely not the right move.
Clay Cooper 0:16
You have to you have to have some post workout recovery. Andrea, so if that sandwich is waiting for you no judgment on my part.
Andrew Vontz 0:22
Yeah, I mean, it's it's more about I just thought it could be rough. If I had the, you know, if I got some almond butter stuck in my teeth or, you know, it's just it's not. It's not really optimal podcast food, I don't think. Sure. Great. I was just pulling up your Instagram. And of course, Blake with his shirt off was the first thing that popped up in my Instagram feed. I don't know, a guy must have a shirt off like 90% of the day.
Clay Cooper 0:50
Hey, if you're if you have a body like Blake, you know, you want to show it off the guy. The guys worked hard for it, though. He it's funny. I woken up Instagram this morning. And the first realize I was Blake's.
Andrew Vontz 1:03
I mean, the algorithm knows what we want. Right? Yeah. Gosh, like the best way to start our day is gonna be Blake. Right on. So I, you know, I know you've talked quite a bit about the project, how you started the project, all that. And I always record an intro so people will have a bit of context about you about the project. One of the things I've been really curious about though, is I've been thinking about this interview and in talking to you is at the inception of the project, what like, what else did you consider that you ended up not doing? Because I have this feeling you might have thought of 10 different things. And then this is the thing that you ended up going with? Did you start anything else? Or was this just like your one shot?
Clay Cooper 1:51
You know, it was kind of this was kind of the one shot because honestly, it wasn't really it was kind of happenstance that it happened I, I you know, COVID started, I'd had the weights in the garage. Even before I had the weights actually my upstairs office. In between like calls and emails, I went and got like a PVC pipe, and then two backpacks that I filled with rocks for my pack yard. And I was like trying to do like shoulder presses and squats with them. And it's, of course slipped off. And it hit the ground really hard. And it knocked out the light from the basement. And my wife came upstairs and said, hey, just find some weights. So I bought some weights, and then it was the garage stuff for a while. And I still just felt like this mounting anxiety and it was, you know, an anxious time for everybody. But yeah, when I went outside one day, it was more than anything to just kind of get out and get clear. And then when I played the video back, because I was recording myself lift. I was like, oh, that's actually really that's really beautiful. So it evolved from there where that first lift I you know, I drove and unloaded the weights from the Subaru and just lifted lakeside. And it's evolved into, you know, a much more like arduous, hard thing, because some of the locations are accessible with a vehicle. So the hike and the rock has kind of been the evolution of it.
Andrew Vontz 3:12
So many questions based on a an answer. So I'm gonna start asking a lot of questions. Sure to the first question that I have is you describe being anxious during that period of time as a lot of people were, this is super common thing. Had you had you experience anxiety or depression anything else in your life in a significant way prior to that point of time?
Clay Cooper 3:35
Yeah, I think anxiety I would classify this as anxiety up to that point, I think, you know, as I've lived longer, I've realized that it's, you know, coincided with bouts of depression. But ever since I was a kid, I would I was fairly anxious. I was that kid that would worry that like when my parents left that maybe they wouldn't come back. Or like, if I go over in a sleepover, I'd like call my parents late that night, okay, you should probably come get me because I was just anxious that something bad would happen to the people that that I loved. And it was that way for a long time I used to, I played basketball in high school and I used to get really anxious before games to the point where it was probably beyond like normalcy, I'd have a hard time eating and and I just get so stressed out. So becoming a father kind of moved that into hyperdrive because I felt like okay, now I'm responsible for this, this little human and now these two little humans and and how do I be there for them and take care of my own mental and physical health. So, you know, I can relate so I can get through life but anxiety has definitely been something that's been a part of my existence as long as I can remember.
Andrew Vontz 4:46
When did you become aware that the feeling that you had was something that would be described as anxiety versus Hey, I'm Clay and this is just the way I am and maybe I think all people are like this.
Clay Cooper 4:57
Ya know? That's really helpful question because that inflection point, I think is is something that a lot of folks go through that like self discovery. For me, it was the birth of my son. So I was 26. And my father had died, he had kidney failure. So I was actually lined up to be his kidney donor. And, you know, is a really difficult thing. My father was a hero of mine, and really wonderful man. And, you know, I had positioned myself to be able to give him one of my kidneys. So I thought, like, you know, hey, Dad's gonna be okay, he's gonna have one of my kidneys, and that he just got so sick that it wasn't possible, he passed away, right before he passed away, my wife woke me up one morning with the pregnancy test, and said, Hey, I'm pregnant. So there's a couple of weeks period there before he passed away, we knew we were expecting. But I was just kind of going through this this period of, you know, maybe this isn't just me, being me, maybe this is something more. And then when my son was born, I tell people, it's, it's maybe a strange thing to say. But, you know, I was flooded with this huge sense of love, but also simultaneously, like realizing, Oh, I had this protective instinct that was almost kind of scary, like I had this capacity to stop anyone that would try to hurt him in a way that caused some pause. And with that came anxiety, because everything, you know, if my anxiety rolled out of control, I could see everything as some kind of potential threat to harming my boy, or my wife and our family. So I think becoming a father helped me realize that like, Hey, this is maybe a disorder. And it still took like, a year or two after that, before I actually went to therapy for it, thanks to the the love and patience of my wife that kind of helped me understand that.
Andrew Vontz 6:48
How did you make that decision to seek out a therapist? And what was your process? Like?
Clay Cooper 6:53
Um, I think, you know, my wife was, she's a huge part of that. I think we just have conversations. And you know, I've like, the media that I've taken in through the years, right, like I, I wouldn't be one of those guys that didn't think had any stigmas about anybody going to therapy, I'd be like, oh, you should go to therapy. That's great for you. But then in my mind, it was like a lot, but I probably don't need it. So it was still stigmatized internally. And I think just getting to a point where I was having a hard time, making it through my day to day without just feeling really nervous. I was having a hard time focusing at work. And ultimately just said, Hey, I think I think maybe I should talk to a therapist. And I think it was just through a Google search in the area around me. So I found somebody and she was near my home at the time, and just started speaking with her.
Andrew Vontz 7:43
In clay. Where are you based? Where do you live right now.
Clay Cooper 7:47
So I'm in the I'm in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. So it's a town called Saratoga Springs.
Andrew Vontz 7:53
And among your community, and your friends and your family is going to a therapist, something that's common or normal?
Clay Cooper 8:02
For me, it wasn't really common or normal. I think that it wasn't, no one was there to I think, like, if I told anybody, I didn't really have a situation where I was shamed, or people raise their eyebrows like, oh, man, you're crazy. But I think I didn't know a lot of people growing up that went to therapy. And yeah, I get my introduction to therapy was like watching Tony Soprano, talk to Dr. Melfi, you know, on this pro, so I think that. Yeah, there are lots of, there's been lots of positive traction, I think just in the world or our country in even in this local space, where I think it's much more normalized. But for me, it kind of felt like I was taking a step into the unknown because no one in my family had really done it.
Andrew Vontz 8:48
Yeah, Clay. I'll just share a bit about my experience with therapy, if you don't mind. Cuz Yeah, of course, I think conversations like this are great, because I think they can normalize how people think about these things, if it's something that's not currently in their sphere of consciousness. I moved to Los Angeles in 1997. And I was there until towards the end of 2009. Prior to that, I didn't have a high degree of awareness of therapy, probably other than singing on television. But living in Los Angeles, working in a creative discipline and being around a lot of creative people. And not that therapy is just for creative people. But what I discovered in Los Angeles was in my peer group, everyone had a therapist. It was a super normal thing. Everyone talked about it. So that was how I initially ended up going to therapy. You know, I was going through some stuff and one of my friends was like, hey, you know, I see this therapist, she's great. You should, should give her a try. So I ended up going to that therapist. Fast forward, you know, a couple of decades the advice that I give people now you If they're just beginning on this path, because as you noted, you can go to Google, you can go to other places you can go to Psychology Today, you can go to your insurance provider, they have a pretty comprehensive list of, I was just having this conversation with someone last week, but what I recommend to people now if they're just starting on this path, so number one, you know, if, if you have insurance, try to find somebody who's in your network, try to find somebody, you can get a first degree recommendation, like if you have a friend or someone in your network, who has a therapist that can be really useful. And then I also read, this is something that I find a lot of people don't do, particularly if they're just entering into exploring therapy for the first time, because I think it's a pretty intimidating thing, particularly if people carry some stigma about it. But I really recommend that people reach out to three to five therapists who they think might be a fit, and then call them and talk to them, because it's someone you want to feel some rapport with. Right? So I mean, I'm just sharing a bit about what I've found to be helpful and useful. But thank you for sharing about your experience. But I just want to put that out there for anybody who's listening and may not have done this before might be therapy, curious, as many people I think are just to normal and okay thing. And if you have the privilege of being able to afford it or have access to health care, you should feel totally okay about taking care of yourself and going to do that.
Clay Cooper 11:32
Yeah, I cosign everything you said, Andrew, and that idea of talking to multiple therapists do I think, you know, it's, it may be feels like dating at first, right? I've had a couple of different ones, but you find somebody who that you can feel like you can be especially vulnerable with. So I think that the my most recent therapist, I have a friend who's a therapist, and he said, Hey, let's go therapists shopping in my network. And we brought up a few and he said, Hey, I think you'd be a good fit with this person. So I, you know, it's really privileged that I had that kind of connection, where I had somebody who could direct me to somebody. And yeah, the first time though, it was a little scary, because I just googled it and saw that she was nearby. And she turned out to be great. But I've had friends and family that have had to, you know, try a few different therapists out just to basically say, hey, yeah, who can I feel comfortable? Or who can I feel a connection with where I can be myself?
Andrew Vontz 12:29
So you start seeing a therapist, you're starting to explore what's going on with yourself with this anxiety? And for people who aren't listening? You're a pretty jacked, dude. Or if they haven't been your Instagram, have you always liked picking up heavy things?
Clay Cooper 12:44
No. So I grew up playing sports, like I was always involved there. Active basketball was my favorite sport. I played football, I played baseball growing up. But kind of along the same lines of like, understanding that my anxiety was more significant of an issue. I talked about that inflection point with my son being born and being like, Oh, this protective instinct kicking in. And like, it's really like, I don't know, in May, I started lifting weights a little bit more aggressively, as you know, the months after my dad passed, and I was preparing to be a dad myself. So in my, you know, fitness. I guess I'm gonna say the word journey, I hate the word journey. But my fitness journey has basically, you know, started kind of with like a split of like a bodybuilding split, where it was like, Oh, I wanted to work buys and dries today and three sets of 10. And ultimately, it evolved over the last 10 years to where I found myself in about five and a half years ago in a gym with an empty deadlift platform. And at that point, I had been lifting long enough and started to supplement with food and protein and creatine to the point where I was like, okay, I can I can move fairly good weight. I walked up to the deadlift platform one of these times no one was there. So I didn't feel self conscious. And I pulled a really ugly deadlift. I didn't know what I was doing, but it kind of unlock something in me a little bit where powerlifting that world kind of opened up a little bit in that pursuit of, of strength. It has been something I've been chasing for a while now.
Andrew Vontz 14:09
And prior to that when you were doing more of a bodybuilding split, and I asked this because I am I'm not a bodybuilder myself I never have been is a journalist I did write about Jay Cutler who was a multiple time Mr. Olympia I wrote about him after he finished second I think three times so that was the angle of the story of what's it like to be perpetually second place. But you know, I have to ask, you know, when you were going through that phase, were you hitting the calf raise machine?
Clay Cooper 14:39
Yes, I the calf raise machine. There's this t shirt that I need to get it says a team no calves and it's a flamingo. But yes, I was hitting the calf raise machine. And it's funny because I I lift legs about twice a week. And sometimes that includes calf raises mostly it's back squats and Front Squats. But I think the most common refrain that you'll get on social media is dude, skip a leg day, or look at the dude, skip. And yeah, I was hitting the calf machine, I still hit the calf machine now and my calves are just my calves I guess.
Andrew Vontz 15:16
So let's go back to that moment you're in your backyard, you get you somehow source weights at a time when it's almost impossible to get weights. I don't know if you went to the play it again, sports or like, what did you do? How'd you get them?
Clay Cooper 15:29
I had a classified ad that came up. My wife and I were watching TV the night before. And she said, Hey, this guy has some weights list in his garage, this older guy in a neighboring town. And I remember feeling we were really anxiety anxious about going and getting them because it was at the onset of the pandemic. We didn't want to have any contact with anybody. So I called the guy and I was like, Can you leave it outside of your garage and he left it outside of his garage and he had like, wiped it down with Clorox wipes. And I, I like walked over and dropped the cash underneath the door. And he counted it and then I loaded it up and left. So it was actually really fortuitous. Because it was right before. There's a point of the pandemic where people were like, charging crazy amounts for like, weightlifting equipment, like barbells, and plates and dumbbells. So I got it for a pretty good rate. And it was just this haphazard collection of plates. And then I had a friend who said, Hey, I have an extra barbell you can use. And, yeah, I got I got lucky. And a lot of those plates are still the plates I used today.
Andrew Vontz 16:31
And when you got the plates home, did you put them in the microwave to decontaminate them?
Clay Cooper 16:39
Yeah, it was, like one of those situations where? No, I think he had wiped him down. And I told my wife, I was like, listen, he wiped it down. Okay, but just to be careful. She had the Clorox wipes out there. You know, it was a it was a brave new world or a scared new world. You know, we didn't know what was going on, we're still wiping down our groceries at that point.
Andrew Vontz 16:59
And you get the weights home. And as you mentioned, you've lifted and you also recorded yourself, and this is something I'm really curious about? Is was recording your lifts to check your form. Was that? Is that what you were doing? Is that always been part of your routine?
Clay Cooper 17:15
Yeah, yeah. Especially with the deadlifting. Because I think, you know, and there was probably like, you know, some semblance of like, Oh, look how much weight I can lift. This would be cool if I could play this back or watch it. But mostly, it was focused around the idea that the deadlift year are there certain cues that you want to hit and technique and form will keep you safe, but also increase the load that you can move. So I was I took to the habit of recording myself lift. So I could hate watch it later and be like, Look at you, what is this, you know, and when I played it back, obviously, down by the lake, I was like, Oh, well dammit, that's actually really beautiful and serene. And I remember driving back from the lift, there was a herd of deer that ran across this dirt road, and it just felt very, like, peaceful. And that's kind of what I was after. And I called my wife and I just said, Hey, she's like, where are you? What do you do? And I was like, I like took the weights out by the lake. And I guess this is who I am right now. And she laughed and said, okay, and was a support from the onset. And yeah, so I started going, and I showed her the footage, and she's like, Yeah, you should record these. So I started recording them and then loaded a couple up on Instagram. And when I was going by myself, I was just having a haphazard, you know, little tripod that I put my phone up there. And I wasn't really worrying about framing or cinema cinematography or anything like that. It wasn't until she started joining me that she was like, Hey, you want you just do the lift? And she's pretty artistic. And she was able to, you know, film it from a different lens.
Andrew Vontz 18:50
Does she have a good eye for deadlift form at this point?
Clay Cooper 18:54
She does, I think she does. Because she's the poor person has had to watch me deadlift. So many times. I've told her, she's actually she can deadlift herself. And I was like, hey, you know, you're a better looking person than me. Maybe we should have this switched around. And she's just like, No, you're the, you're the show horse here. i Yeah, she's very shy. So
Andrew Vontz 19:17
after you through that first video up, what were your expectations of what was going to happen? What were your intentions? And when did this become like an actual thing in your mind?
Clay Cooper 19:28
I threw the video up and like the traction that I got felt like it was significant at that time. You know, I had maybe a couple 100 followers on Instagram account that had been existing that where I just recorded some of my lifts, kind of with the idea of like, hey, if anybody sees this and wants to send over some supplements, you know, help subsidize my protein or creatine or something along those lines. But it you know, I can't remember the exact amount of like engagement that it received that I remember it was higher than what I was used to, which makes sense because it was kind of stuck. Ah, and then the questions I was getting more like, Hey, what's this about? And I was like, Yeah, I've just been dealing with a lot of anxiety lately. And I kind of just found myself down by the lake today lifting. And the conversations that it spurred were. They were helpful. They were they were conversations where it kind of helped me contextualize what I was going through. So after that first post, I think I went and lifted the next day and actually took my son with me, and then it just kind of kept going from there. So it pretty quickly became like, Okay, this is discovery, deadlift.
Andrew Vontz 20:34
Was there a point when you hit a step change in the magnitude of engagement? And did it happen on Instagram? Or did it happen on Tik Tok? Or both?
Clay Cooper 20:42
Yeah, for it started, I hadn't put on a tick tock for like, tick tock came later. So I started on Instagram. And I remember waking up one morning, and I'd had like, at that point, I'd gotten like 800 new followers or something like that, which was huge for me. And I was like, Oh, how, what is going on here. And I realized that another Instagram account that had a significant following could like take a hold of my account, and they had reshard it. So that kind of was the first like of the point where I was like, Oh, this is growing a little bit. And I think it got me over, like around 1000 followers on Instagram. And then there's just been successive points afterwards, where, you know, something I'll put together a post will go viral. I mean, I had a video watch 40 million times recently on Instagram, which was just it after that point. It's just kind of insane. And I'm like, There's no way I can pay attention to these notifications. I, you know, so I'll just let it ride the wave and that usually translates to additional followers. Tik Tok was really fun, though, because my friends were like, Hey, you should throw your stuff on Tik Tok. So I had thrown a couple on there. And then I did this lift up in the mountains one day, and it was snowy, and I threw it on there with a Childish Gambino song. And I did not think anything of it. And I didn't even like check Tik Tok very regularly. And when I came back, I had been viewed, like 30,000 times, and for me at that point, I was like, This is insane. Like, I was like, I'm going viral, baby. 30 Fasten felt huge. And yeah, it just kind of spurred from that where there's been other videos that have gotten into the millions. And yeah, it's fun. It certainly is fun. But I think it's also kind of stressful in a way too, because I'm somebody who like if somebody is saying something like, kind or has a question, I want to be like, Oh, hey, thanks for watching. I tried to one to respond. But on some of those, it's, it's not really possible to get to all of them.
Andrew Vontz 22:40
Do you have a background in content creation or marketing?
Clay Cooper 22:44
No, I I'm a supply chain professional. So I think you know, Andrew, I think I've always wanted to be a creative person. Like I like there's something innate. And I think that a lot of us where we want to create something. I mean, as I was a kid, I remember printing off tabs and trying to learn how to play the guitar, music and movies. You know, books have always been a big part of who I am, but I've always just felt like okay, well, I'm just appreciator. I guess I can't do it myself. So in a way, Discovery deadlift is like, scratch that creative outlet for us. For a super aspirin, my wife as well, but especially for me. I've always been interested in that world. And I've always liked to think of myself as a creative person, but I hadn't ever really ventured and done anything super creative other than, like, write some terrible short stories that no one should ever see.
Andrew Vontz 23:32
Maybe they should maybe you shouldn't do them. You know,
Clay Cooper 23:35
maybe you're right. Maybe all I'll send it, I'll send it over to you. And you can tell me you can be like, hey, lock this away and never let anyone see it.
Andrew Vontz 23:44
It could be or it could be great. We don't know. Yeah,
Clay Cooper 23:47
yeah. Or, you know, you can say like, but I think you know, that kind of gets to the heart of like that self consciousness of you know, you, you've been in the creative space, right? Like you're a creator. And that was the world that you are in, I think there's probably more second nature to you for the vulnerability that comes with like creating something or putting yourself out there. I think that that's been a learning curve for me, because I didn't have a lot of experience or reps doing that.
Andrew Vontz 24:12
When you made this transition from thinking of yourself as somebody who's consuming things, who maybe in the back your mind has this desire to be someone making stuff and putting out in the world and then suddenly, you're doing it, and you're doing it at a very large public scale. When did you become aware that okay, now I am this thing. I am a person making stuff and there's a high degree of interest in it. And did it change how you approach what you were making?
Clay Cooper 24:44
Yeah, I think my mother in law lives in Florida. And we had had a couple of discovery deadlift, T shirts printed off and we sent her one and I think it was my brother, a lot of her were at the gym and somebody walked up to her in there. Like a discovery, deadlift, I love that guy or something. And they like called me and they're like, Hey, I was in the gym in Florida and I was wearing your T shirt. And I was like, first I was like, stop it. That didn't happen. And then they're like, No, it really did. I was like, Oh, that's cool. So I think there's a couple of times where people have reached out. I had a co worker recently tell me that their friend found out that they worked with me, and they're like, No way, can you get him to, like, look into something for me. And I was just like, Oh, I hope you told him I'm just a boring, bald dad. And that I'm not that cool. But I think is the traction in the following is increased, like, the pressure, it doesn't feel like work to me, because I still like sincerely love hiking and deadlifting outside and seeing new places, I think if it started to feel like work, then I'd have to reevaluate it, but it doesn't feel that way. It does probably increase, like, my desire to create more quality content, though. Or like, you know, maybe that's just refine the craft a little bit to, to get a better shot, or work on the editing a little bit, or even as a deadlift, or to just get stronger and improve my technique. And so I think that, you know, it informs my ability to want to get better across the board, but it hasn't. Thankfully, it hasn't, like, changed how I feel about the core process in and of itself. And it hasn't changed the fact that when I go and hike and deadlift, it really is a peaceful, you know, thing for me where I can go get some respite.
Andrew Vontz 26:34
When you think about what the aesthetic of discovery deadlift is, and what a video needs to look like, and what shots it needs to have, because you have a very distinct style at this point, what are some of the conscious style, or artistic decisions you're making? And like what has to happen when you you know, once you've liked everything out there? I'm just thinking about you. Like, I don't know, like you're walking up for the fourth time with the bar, because you didn't get the shot, the wide shot quite right. But like what has to, you know, which shots do you have to get?
Clay Cooper 27:07
Yeah, so I, thankfully, my wife kind of directs a lot of that. So a lot of the time, I can just bring the weights out, and she does her thing where I, you know, I'm hiking, and I'm stopping in between, and like, I'm cursing, if it's really tight, if I'm tired, it's hard. And, you know, it's just feels like an organic situation. So when I'm loading the bar all the way to, you know, whatever the working sets are that day, or whatever, you know, I'm trying to have finished, there have been times where she's been like, hey, I want you to hit one more set, let me try something different. And maybe I've gone a step beyond what I was going to or two sets beyond, or she's been like, Hey, do you have one more pull in you, I just want to get a shot here with your feet in the plates. So but in the most part, it's a fairly organic process, we have kind of fallen into this, like, creative collaboration where I know where she might want me to be at different times. And it's just kind of an unspoken thing. The editing process, you know, the music that's selected, or like, the pace of the video, I tried to, to capture how I was feeling at that time, because there are some times I'm going out there and you know, I just listened to run the jewels or something. And I just, I just want to lift some heavy weight. And I don't want to talk about my feelings, I just want to feel strong or something. And usually, like the editing or the final product, I'll try to transfer that kind of information across to say, like, you know, this was, this is how I was feeling. And if something was more contemplative, or it was longer, it was harder. I don't know a lot of times it's kind of like what what's been on my playlist recently, and it can motivate sometimes the shots, also the speed with which she she has a gimbal on the iPhone. So it's really funny if people would see her I mean, people don't usually see us because we're done. Look, you know, populated places, but she's sprinting back and forth. And sometimes she's going slow. And yeah, it's just, it all just kind of comes together in the answer. She shoots and films everything and then I ended and put together the final product.
Andrew Vontz 29:14
And so at this point, you've been to more than 180 unique locations 10 different states. There's, there's a lot of time and effort going into producing these videos. And I think that's also with social media in particular. People don't always understand what's going into producing these cool videos that they're getting into consume. How much time goes into each video and and do you think if we take the travel time out, if you
Clay Cooper 29:43
take the travel time out. So it's just the hike and the lift and post production stuff. It's probably four to five hours, maybe maybe a little bit more than that just depending on some locations more accessible than others. Some I can pull up in the truck and others you know take multiple faced rocks to get to. So I think four to five hours would be a good average. And taking taking out travel time drive time.
Andrew Vontz 30:10
Right? And has that been positive force in your marriage? I guess to ask a very personal question. But it sounds like you and your wife have this creative collaboration. Now, that sounds like it's a new and different thing that you started doing. With this project, you're out there working together. And for anybody out there who's been part of a, I mean, this is kind of a professional creative collaboration, there's sometimes constructive conflict. And those collaborations and you're spending a lot of time together, right, and kind of a work capacity in addition to your, your marriage capacity. So what has that been like, for your relationship, to do this project together?
Clay Cooper 30:53
It's been, you know, it overall, like in the aggregate, I think it's been really positive. I mean, we've, we've been married for, you know, 13 years, just about, and we have a really good marriage. And we've basically always just really liked each other, you know, where I It doesn't mean we don't get on each other's nerves, or, I don't say something stupid, sometimes. But I think, you know, sometimes there is tension that can come because you're, you get to a location and the sun setting and you're trying to set up an a macaque, I want to, I want to get a lift in. And like, you know, recently, and she does not do this very often. And you know, if she was here, she'd be like, let's talk about the things that you forget to do. But she didn't hit record on a big set. So I had just pulled like 515 for reps. And I was just like, it was towards the end, it was after a rock. And I was like, Hey, I think that and she's like, I didn't record that. And of course, I was like, Well damn it. And she, you know, ultimately laughed that stuff off. Because, again, to kind of go back to that, that equilibrium, or that nucleus of why we do it, like filming it, and sharing it is an awesome byproduct. I really do believe that we like it so much. And we like what's being created together. Like We'll watch it back enough that even if there wasn't the substantial audience that we have, that I like to think that we'd still continue to do it, because it is it's informing something creative within us. And, you know, I think making something together that we can both be proud of, has helped us grow stronger together. I mean, that probably sounds like a cliche, but we already you know, really like each other and love each other. And I think discovery deadlifts and we bring our kids along to has been something where, you know, we, we kind of all get out there together. And then at the end of the day, we'll get home or we'll get back to the camper, hotel or wherever we're at which like we did kind of a wild thing together today. Not a lot of people do this. So it's kind of fun to take that accounting.
Andrew Vontz 33:02
Does it ever feel like a drag?
Clay Cooper 33:05
I mean, there's been times where I've been like, What the hell am I doing? Like there was this location that I wanted to hike, some weights to and in between dry heaving and realizing that I just bit off more than I can chew. I was like, Okay, this. I was like, I don't feel peaceful right here. But it's interesting, though, at the end of that one, I felt like a huge sense of accomplishment, because after about four miles, I was like, you know, this, we did that a lot of people were able to do this. And you know, you know this the hard things podcast, right? There's there is reward and virtue and doing something that's hard. So even if sometimes it feels like a drag, but at the end of it usually if I'm feeling like tired or beaten down. I haven't had a situation or circumstance where I was upset that I did it more often. I mean, basically every time I'm glad that we had the experience.
Andrew Vontz 33:54
Clay, I need to know more about that location. Where was it? What specifically was hard about it what was different than the 179 other locations?
Clay Cooper 34:04
I think that this one in particular was just the it was in the Wasatch national forests. So it's in this accompanying group Mountain Ranch here in Utah, and it was hiking towards this overlook. And it's funny because the there had been wildfires in the weeks prior to it. So like, it wasn't like we couldn't really see the beautiful valley below like you typically be able to see so we laugh about it now because it was really hard to get to that overlook and then when we got there was pretty smoky. But I think it was just it was just long, and it was there lots of inclines and declines. And it was really windy when she got on to like kind of the outcrop, the wind was just blasting and you know, you my lips and hands were getting dry. And it was just yeah I think the overall length and then just, you know I do in phases. So I take that first phase there, and then I have to walk back and then walk with the second phase. In between the distance was long enough that I was just as I was walking back, I was just thinking to myself, Oh, man, I gotta, I gotta do this, like, by the end of this, I'm going to have done this, like 12 times. So I think it was just maybe the headspace I was in. But I think more than anything, it was just the length and their quality wasn't great.
Andrew Vontz 35:28
How do you find your locations? And how do you scout them?
Clay Cooper 35:32
Yeah, some of this word of mouth. I have. I've had people through social media reach out to me, but like, hey, check out this place in schools, I'll drop a pin or like send a video. Some of it's just like basic places we've always wanted to see. Right? So if you went to like a Olympic National Park, and we always wanted to go to Olympic and, you know, we wanted to go to the Columbia River Gorge, because we had been there years before. We went to upstate New York recently. And we thought, okay, well, we'll definitely want to check out Niagara Falls. But we kind of just pulled up a map. And we'd see like networks of roads or hikes, and bodies of water, and we kind of just like, searched them. So there's there's two different ways sometimes we have a place planned out, and it's researched. And we've either been there before, or like we're understanding where we're going. And other times we kind of just set out in the general direction, or we're in a new area. And we try to find something cool. And both of them have proven to bring us to some pretty sweet places.
Andrew Vontz 36:36
What are some of the locations you're dreaming about hitting that you haven't had time? Or maybe the resources to get to yet?
Clay Cooper 36:44
Yeah, I International is comes to mind at first. Iceland is a place that we currently have marked for Iceland, you know, it's a rich history of stripe, sports and just super diverse landscape. Were just absolutely beautiful. And I think we'd really like to go there and just kind of experienced that, that space and that culture. You know, locally, I haven't made it over to the redwoods or Yosemite over in Northern California. So we've talked about those locations. There's also been other international locations that we've talked about, whether that's like Finland or Japan. Yeah, we have. It's a common like Cooper family conversation. We're like, oh, we should go here. Or oh, we should, we should. We should travel here one day. So but the most immediate would probably be Iceland is our big next level destination. And then in the States, the next couple plans I think we have we're heading to California here soon. And then we'll be up in Oregon again.
Andrew Vontz 37:47
Those will be fantastic locations. I'm looking forward to seeing those in clay, I really feel like I'd be remiss if I didn't dig in a bit deeper on some of the logistics of transporting and moving the way it's savvy Sure, just wanting to dig in a little bit. Like you, I frequently find myself driving around with strength training implements in my vehicle. For me, I always try to keep a loaded go rock in my car so that I can like if I go to the playground with kids, I can do weighted pull ups or other way to movement. It's I always have a TRX in the back of the car. And then sometimes I'm traveling with a kettlebell. I don't know about you, but I always have this fear of any strength training implement, it's becoming airborne projectiles in the event of a collision. So I tried to ratchet strap stuff down, like what do you do to keep everything secure when you're driving? Or my weird that I'm worrying about this? I don't know.
Clay Cooper 38:47
No, I think you're responsible human being Andrew, I think that that is a totally practical thing to worry about. Or if anything, it's validating for me because we've had the same thing. So I, I drive a truck. We started with the Subaru Outback. And we would kind of just put everything in the back and lay the bar over the seats. And we tried to tie it down with some straps with the truck. Now there's there's a process where Yeah, we have some bungees and some straps. And basically the barbell goes in a certain way, the weights are stacked this way. And we just make sure it's really secure. So that kind of answers that like concern. Sometimes it's like, oh, man, if we got into an accident, is this going to be an issue? So we tried to tie things down really well in the back of the truck.
Andrew Vontz 39:30
Okay, and then you get to the trail, you have this multi phase approach and you're rocking everything in what does that what does that actually look like? Like how are you loading the plates? Are they going in a pack? The bar is a very awkward implement to transport over a long distance. So like how does everything get carried and how is your system evolved over time? Yeah,
Clay Cooper 39:53
so my inherited old ultralight frame bag from My late father in law, and so I'll put one of the larger Olympic plates in the frame bag, usually a 55, or 45, sometimes two of them if I can fit them. And then I'll move it usually in 100 100 pounds 245 pounds per trip. And I usually will start with the heaviest phases. So I'll put the 55 pound plate in the bag, and then I'll carry 240 fives in my hand, and then I just start hiking or walking. And you know, there's no, it's not a time trial. So my four obstructive scream at me, or if I need to rest, I'll stop for a second and just kind of appreciate being out there in the solitude. And then I come back. And usually there's another 145 pound trip, and then it starts to get a little lighter from there as I got moved the 45 or the 55. So now it's just 40 fives, depending on what the working weight is, I can include some 30 fives, and then usually at the end, I'll bring out the barbell with one final plate. And how I carried the barbell has evolved, I used to think like, I'll just throw it over my shoulders, but then my shoulders start to scream at me after a while. So yeah, you just kind of do whatever's comfortable. Sometimes it turns into like a makeshift hiking stick. Like he used it to like catapult myself over a few things. But that sounded more athletic than it actually is. I'm not literally catapulting myself, I'm like, dragging myself up a mountain with a barbell. But yeah, it's usually about four to six phases to get to the spot to get all the weight there. So phase being take the weight there, come back without the weight, and then take the weight there come back without the weight, you do that probably four to six times. And then on the way back, I tried to replicate the load in sometimes I'm a little bit more depleted. So sometimes the the way back can take an additional trip or phase.
Andrew Vontz 41:47
At this point, you've done hundreds of round trips. It would be I feel like it would be a miracle if you hadn't injured yourself rucking that much weight for that number of trips. Have you been injured?
Clay Cooper 42:02
I haven't injured myself. That's amazing. Yeah, I haven't had any injuries. I mean, there's been times I had one situation where I had really terrible muscle cramp like just an awful muscle cramp. But that kind of like a woke me to the need to like hydrate better to be smarter, because I am putting myself out there in a situation where, you know, if I don't take the right precautions, like it could be potentially dangerous. So no physical injuries other than like a really awful muscle cramp one time, and I have now learned my lesson.
Andrew Vontz 42:38
And as you've advanced in the project, what's happened with your anxiety? And how have your interactions with people through social media contributed to whatever's going on with your anxiety?
Clay Cooper 42:55
Yeah, I think that overall, I've noticed, you know, I feel more whole, I certainly feel like I'm more capable to contextualize whatever fears that start to creep in. If my anxiety starts to spiral, I can step outside of it and kind of name it a little bit to say, like, Okay, this is what I'm experiencing. And that's not just because of discovery, deadlift, it's, you know, that's one part of the toolkit. Discovery, deadlift helps because I feel like it's self care in a way and I'm, I'm doing two things, I really love being outside and lifting, but I'm also doing it with the people I love the most my wife and my kids. So I think that that brings some, some context in my life, but also just therapy, continued therapy, you know, antidepressants have helped at different times, just to be able to look at life and try to take things a day or a step at a time and understand that they're things without, you know, beyond the realm of our immediate control, and they're things within our control. And once you start to make peace with what you can and can't change, it's empowering in a way because you think like, Okay, here's what I can do to be a better person or to do better for other people. And then here's some things that you know, there's no virtue in in going down that rabbit hole clay because, you know, you know where that leads, and that leads to a lot of anxiety and potential panic attacks, etc. So I think that I feel a lot healthier as a as an individual Three years later, in terms of not just physically but also mentally and emotionally,
Andrew Vontz 44:30
and clay. It sounds like the project is taking care of a number of things that are proven to improve people's mental health. Number one, you're getting a lot of exercise which is proven to improve our mental health. Number two, you're doing it in relation to other people that you care about. So like there's a community and family aspect to it, which is also a very important part of mental health. Because you have, you know, you're working a demanding full time job you have this object, which sounds like it's a lot of fun, it also takes a lot of time. I don't know about you, but once I became a father, it became much more challenging, particularly as I got older, to, like, build and maintain friendships. There's just like, not a lot of time for that. So I'm curious how you navigate that just kind of talking dad to dad here, like what's going on with you and your community or friends outside of your family on this project?
Clay Cooper 45:28
Yeah, no, I appreciate that question. Actually, I, I am really lucky in the fact that I grew up with a core group of friends, you know, from a very young age. And we've been able to maintain those relationships. You know, I'm 36, now into our mid 30s. To the point where, you know, even when we're young, we're like, Yeah, I bet our wives will be friends. And you know, it's like this romanticized thinking. And our wives are now friends. And our kids are friends. So you know, I have, I have a lot of friends that will send me a text message, or they'll be like, Hey, I saw where you were this weekend. That's awesome. We try to make my friends are very important to me. So yeah, being a father having a job during this project, sometimes time doesn't feel as available. But I think it's just more of a conscious decision where we've tried to be like, Hey, we haven't seen these guys for a while, let's go out to eat, or let's, let's have them come over. But it's, I'm very fortunate in that regard, because my friends feel like family too. So maintaining relationships, sometimes, then you'd have to keep watering that plant. If there has been extended period of time where maybe we have like, connected, there is just the underlying, like trust and understanding that's like, Oh, hey, we could go a couple of months without saying hi, or without actually getting together. But it hasn't materially affected how we feel about each other. And I think that that's born from again, us knowing each other for decades, and, and being able to have that level of trust new friendships or or other ones I certainly could see. Yeah, it'd be a little bit harder. Somebody be like, Hey, you want to do you want to go out today? And I'm like, I'm sorry. I am in the mountains with the barbell. And they're like, You are weird. Oh, man. So I think, my, my friends that I've had for a long time understand me.
Andrew Vontz 47:20
Do these friends left?
Clay Cooper 47:22
Yeah, they do. They've actually come with me a couple of times to lift. It's been fun one. I think three or four times they've come with me, and one of them is even he's like, Hey, let me try filming. And he filmed and then my other buddy is Jake and Jake. They're both and Jake in particular, they both came. They've come a few times. So they'll listen to this podcast guy. So there's your shout out. I love you guys. But they've come and they've deadlifted with me. They've also come with me to the gym to and lifted before.
Andrew Vontz 47:54
And through the project. Have you met other creators? And what have you learned from them? How they're shaped how you're, you're thinking about what you're doing and what you might want to do in the future?
Clay Cooper 48:04
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I mean, our mutual connection here was Blake, Blake's favorite band, I think it's the national and I saw him talking about the national and that's my favorite band. And I was like, Hey, he, he's also a father. So he's telling these stories about his life. And he has a really beautiful, like poetic way to kind of contextualize what's going on in his life or talking about difficult things that's happened. So I actually just followed him as a fan, and was commenting on the stuff that he was creating. And then ultimately, we kind of connected and, you know, formed an internet friendship, right? So I think one thing that's been really affirming about discovery deadlift is when you put yourself out there, obviously not everyone's going to love it, right, you're going to have folks that are going to come in with this is, what is this. And I think it's been actually really helpful, healthy for me to be able to see that stuff and then choose to consider the source to choose what I am going to invest my, you know, time and attention to to listening. And once I'm going to just disregard So by and large, it's been really, really positive. And I've been able to connect with other like creative people who makes stuff that I find inspiring Blake being one of them. There's been other athletes that we've come across, I had dinner with a guy who was in town, big verge, verge, if you listen to this, he was in town for his job, and we went out to eat in Salt Lake City the other night and again, we just we met through discovery let deadlifts through Instagram. And it's kind of been cool to form these kinds of relationships with folks from different walks of life and different backgrounds and cultures to kind of be bound together by you know, the universal need to like love and be loved and be understood. And yeah, it's been it's been really one of my favorite parts of the whole thing is been connecting with people and like getting different direct messages or outs reaching out to people that inspired me. It's been Will my world feel bigger in in a really good way?
Andrew Vontz 50:03
In clay, now that you have all of these reps, reps of rocking reps with your family reps getting out there and pulling the deadlift, reps of calf raises, of course, donkey calf raises, I have to imagine like the full suite of toes and toes out like the whole deal. In addition to that you now have hundreds of reps as a creator, creating visual art creating videos thinking in this this way that's different than you'd engage your brain before you started this project. What types of projects do you think about now doing in the future because you have amassed a massive, very significant size audience. It is all centered around deadlifting and the outdoors and the awesome work, you're dealing with mental health. But also, you have this platform now. And you could probably do a lot of different things. So have you thought beyond the scope of this project to potentially other things you might want to explore?
Clay Cooper 51:06
Yeah, yeah, a little bit. We've had, you know, we've had different folks reach out for like, different type of like Docu series or something smaller to just like, kind of, again, that falls in the same line of what we're doing. But to kind of like, follow and Chronicle what we do with discovery, deadlift, and why. But we did, we've done a couple of deadlift competitions in the community where we've tried to raise money for somebody who's maybe underprivileged or an organization that's doing a lot of good. And that's something that we're looking at, again, right now, as with a larger audience, we were looking at like a deadlift a thon or something along those lines, where if we could use this opportunity to actually put some good out into the world, the first time we did it, we were raising money for the wildfires that kind of ravaged the United Way in there in Lane County and Eugene, that ravaged that area. And the second time, it was against somebody I connected with on Instagram was named Jawan. He was starting a business where he's he's an incredible basketball player and incredible ball handler. And he does like this at home. You know, ball handling school and teaching. So we did a micro grant where we call them where, you know, there's an entry to pay. And we had some, some companies donate prizes. So if you win, you get a prize, and you're also entered into a raffle. But all of the proceeds went to Jalon. Or went to the United Way to try to again, help with the wildfires or help Jalon as he's he's he's working on his business. So I think the the micro grant program is something that we're feeling passionate about, as we've gotten larger, the logistics of it have gotten a little bit more complex. So we're trying to figure out how to do that. But hopefully try to use whatever platform we have, for however long we have it to be candid about. Yes, our mental health and my mental health in particular, why I think it's important, but also to try to do some good for other people.
Andrew Vontz 53:07
That's a fantastic goal. And it's a lot of fun to watch. So Clay, thanks so much for being here today. And thanks for the content that you're making. It's incredibly inspiring, and I'm really grateful that we got to connect.
Clay Cooper 53:21
Awesome, Andrew, thanks for the time. I really appreciate it and I really love your show what you're doing here. Thank you