← Living Your Legacy
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If you're consistent with anything, especially exercise, you will succeed. LJ Belcito is a compassionate, mission driven and resilient nurse.
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A 17 time world champion athlete, coach, patient advocate, retired captain in the US Public Health Service and the founder of OTB Strength. Through her work, she coaches individuals to adopt healthier lifestyles, mentors those pursuing lasting
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wellness and champions quality care for underserved communities. Going through through my years of learning how to strength train, learning how to eat well, how to take care of myself, it's a process. Being in the gym was another issue that back then, you know, there weren't a lot of women who were big and strong. So the first thing that we have to teach them is the mind body
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connection is changing up your split A recommendation for people who are plateauing. What's your recommendation for the way I train people?
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It's it spans the globe like a super high cold Internet Elvis Brandon I agree. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
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It's not over until I win the
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Living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy that's extraordinary. The impossible has been. Oh, that is sensational. Jordan Open Chicago was the lead. Usain Paul is the fastest man on the planet. You can live your dream.
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Welcome back to another episode of the Inside Success podcast. I am your host Jason Tyler and I am joined here today by LJ Belcito. Belcedo.
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Correct? Correct.
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Got it. Now you just finished filming with Kofi your episode of Operation CEO. What can the viewers here expect to learn about you in your episode? Talk to me. Talk me through it a little bit.
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We talked a lot about my, my life pass and how that has turned into a career of helping wounded warriors, helping youth struggling and trying to use strength training as a way to heal and recover.
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Now, you and I got to have a very interesting conversation before you filmed your episode and we talked a little bit about your experience as a first responder. I'm not sure if you guys got too, too deep into that in your episode, but bring me up to speed on that because when we were talking, we were talking about you were some of the first boots on the ground when it came to the pandemic and a lot of natural disasters. Talk to me a little bit about that.
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I've been a nurse for over 45 years. I always was interested in emergency response, but my career as a whole was pretty much, you know, floor nursing or ICU things. But my first response was to the Avianca plane crash in 96 on Long Island. And then when I went active duty with the United States Public Health Service. I was working three months, 10 days and seven hours on September 11. I worked the night shift going into the day shift.
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And so, like, being a part of those first response teams, what I got to hear was your response during the pandemic, responding to that. The cruise line in Tokyo. Now, a lot of people have a lot of mixed feelings about everything that was going on during the pandemic. I talk about the pandemic like it happened last week. It's been five years. Right. But talk to me a little bit about just, like, there was a protocol created from your team's response, and no one passed away at that time.
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Correct.
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What was that moment like of knowing, like, hey, we. We got a 100% effective rate of, you know, keeping everybody safe?
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Well, our team was one of the first teams sent over to Japan to evacuate 150 passengers, American citizens, off of the Diamond Princess cruise ship. And there was another team that arrived prior to us being on the ground who helped with the original evacuation. But then the thing was that we had to find all of these passengers. And so our team was tasked with the mission to identify all the American citizens and then find which were treated and released and then which were evacuated to certain destinations and which were sent to hospitals all over Tokyo. We did know that there were 25 patients or close to that that had gone to local hospitals. When we finally found out which patients were in hospitals in very critical condition, we had to work with the Japanese government to have permission to access the medical information and then reach back to the families to let them know what was going on.
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And so I want to kind of pivot here, because, you know, even at the beginning when we were doing your intro, you mentioned you're also into strength training. So I want to talk a little bit about that. What got you into it? How does it inform what you're doing today? What's the deal with strength training?
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So strength training to me today is. Is really my passion. When I first started lifting when I was in my 20s, you know, it wasn't so cool. It wasn't what it is today. And a lot of times, going through my years of learning how to strength train, learning how to eat well, how to take care of myself, being a nurse, it's a process. And what I learned was through years of my life, when I had mental health struggles and other struggles, that doing the strength training or doing some sort of an activity to help me deal with it or manage it in a more healthy way gave Me, hope. And I just had to keep, you know, filling that void, so to speak. Because when I was younger, there was really not a lot of people that I felt comfortable talking to about my issues. Being in the gym was another issue that back then, you know, there weren't a lot of women who were big and strong who would go to a gym, who would want to lift weights. So, you know, it was always a struggle. It was always something that I knew I was going to take the heat for, more or less. But I also knew that I had a goal in my head and I wanted to achieve something and I did. You know, I stuck to it. I had good support systems in my life and, you know, wound up where I am today with 17 world titles and five hall of Fame statuses. So it can be done, it can
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be done, it can be done. I, I find that to be, you know, unanimous. I've done so many of these interviews, I think I'm up to like 64, give or take. And one thing I've always noticed amongst the high level CEOs that we bring into this network, everybody's got a thing, as in terms of athletics, movement is a key factor for a lot of high achievers. And it's, it goes to, as you were saying, setting a goal and saying, I want to achieve this and I'm not going to stop before I achieve that.
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Right.
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And I love that strength training is your example because I also strength train myself. I got started with it back in 2023. I was about 225 pounds, which is big for me. And I had just gotten out of a relationship and I was like, you know what, I'm going to take on the weights. I started training with my cousin. He was my personal trainer. And then he passed, actually in 2022. And when Kyle passed, I made a vow to myself. I was like, I'm not going to miss a day at the gym again. And now as I sit with you here, I'm about 195ish, give or take, but like solid, right? The goal is to go back up to 205. Solid and lean. But we'll get there, right? We'll get there. One, one, one step at a time. What would you say is like the number one lesson that you learn from strength training, from putting your mind to something and just going and getting it. What's the number one lesson that you've learned from that?
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You have to trust the process. You have to understand that nothing is going to happen quick. And for people that I Work with on sometimes a daily basis. That's the first thing I tell them, is we have to take it one step at a time. You've got to be consistent. You've got to be realistic with your goals. You've got to be setting a timeline for when you want to reach that goal. And you have to be willing to put in the work and dedication that it takes to get there. Because if you are consistent with anything, especially exercise, you will succeed. And as you know from training, you'll have this brief period where things will just keep getting better and better and better because you're new. And then you sort of reach the plateau.
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That's the hard part.
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Yeah, that's the hard part. But you've gotta be willing to accept that and then figure out, okay, how do we break the plateau? There's a lot of different ways to do that. And it could be the training style, it could be the goal we've set. You know, it can fluctuate. And so it is a science in a way. And you've gotta know what your goals are. The trainer isn't the person who sets the goal. So that's where I think my gym and our way of coaching and training all different ages, all different abilities and disabilities. You have to take every person as an individual and make sure that you're focusing on that person and you're doing what that person's ability is right there today.
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Not, you know, meet people where they're at.
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Right. You have to. And, you know, some of the clients that I've had, I mean, I've had older clients with severe spinal curvature and dementia and things like that. But, you know, you have to teach them in a way that they can understand it, that they can internalize it so that they can do what you expect them to do. And that goes with any athlete. I oftentimes work with youth. They don't even understand how their body works. So the first thing that we have to teach them is the mind, body connection. And a lot of times when I'm, you know, I have a few now that are between 9 and 16 that we're working with, and I take it for granted sometimes when I talk to them about, you know, make sure your spine is straight, make sure your shoulders are back, or if they're doing a chest exercise, let's say, I say, you know, make sure you're bringing it down to your sternum, and they'll look at you and say, what's a sternum? So at the same time that you're trying to teach them that neurological pathway. You're also giving them a little bit of an anatomy lesson. And I love watching, whether it's a young athlete or even an older athlete who's just learning something new where you can go in and you can say, okay, I want you to set up for this. And they just snap into position and they get it.
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Yep.
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And then they realize, oh, that's what I was supposed to do.
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So this is how. This is how this lift is supposed to feel.
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Right.
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I told my little brother when he first started going to the gym with me, I was like, you got probably a good six months of bench pressing ahead of you where it's not going to impact you, your chest at all. You're just learning the form.
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Right.
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Because I didn't feel my chest activate on a bench press probably until I had already bench pressed like 225 for the first time. And I did it completely wrong. And I was getting all front delt activation, shoulder activation, just completely out the bat wrong. I actually would love to get your opinion on this because we talked a little bit about hitting that plateau stage. Right. For me, when I hit that plateau the first time, I think it was around. It wasn't even that long ago. I think it was like nine months ago, where I realized I'm not getting any stronger. Like, I just keep lifting the same weight in the gym every day. But what I did to break that plateau, and I'd love to get your opinion on this, was I switched up my split. I went from a ppl split, which I think most people start on push, pull legs.
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Right.
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And then I just swapped over to an upper lower and then rest.
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Okay.
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So I do a full upper body, full lower body, super high intensity, then take a rest day and then just repeat, repeat, repeat. And that actually broke me past.
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Right.
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That plateau. But is changing up your split a recommendation for people who are plateauing? What's your recommendation for?
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The way I train people, it's different for every person. So when they reach a plateau, you know, I've got some clients now that have been with me for a little over a year. They've lost lots of weight, gotten much stronger, but now their weight is at a plateau, not necessarily their strength level. But in regards to what you're asking, your body is really smart. Our physiology knows what you're going to do. So the best thing that you can do is switch it up.
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Yeah.
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Change it up.
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Which our bodies are super adaptable.
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Yes. And you know, you keep going in, you keep doing the Same exercises Monday, Wednesday, Friday, chest and bias. Whatever the breakup is, your body's going to know that it's sort of like ingrained in your brain. It's a neurological thing that it's going to get used to doing what you do. So if you don't change the rep scheme or you don't change the days that you do certain exercises, then your body is not being forced into that adaptation phase. So, you know, I'm kind of going through this myself right now because I've sort of re engaged in, you know, getting coached and trying to lose a little bit of weight and trying to be more healthy cardiovascularly. So doing a little bit of different exercises for a little bit of a
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higher pace for super high intensity. That was a, I don't know if this, this might be too, this might be too niche of an Internet reference, but have you seen Diamond Gym? Their content?
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No.
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So there are a group of firefighters out of New Jersey. Okay. And so they have this super, super high intensity, like old school Jay Cutler style workouts that they do where it's just, we're gonna start this workout out. You know, our, our first thing that we do is 100 burpees. Yeah, that's your warmup. That's before you even touch a weight. And then when you do touch the weights, I don't care if your form is terrible, you're gonna lift the most amount of weight you could possibly lift. And I'm surprised nobody really gets hurt in there. But they're bringing back this sort of style of just go at it like an animal. I don't care what your brain is telling you, your body's capable of more and it's becoming like a really popular thing. What's your sort of take on that?
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You know, high intensity is definitely a thing. My brother Kenny was one of the first guys into the HIIT training thing back in the 60s, and he used that with us. We would go into the gym and we'd do high rep squats or high rep deadlifts or whatever. And it makes you brutally strong. The thing is, is that there is a certain point where you have to know when to say when. And I think firefighters, obviously, they're expected to do a lot. They are expected to lift their, their uniforms alone, you know, their, their packs, whatever they're doing for their job.
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In response, it's like 80 pounds of gear on them. And then on top of that, they're expected to be able to carry a full human right and run for upward. So go up and down Stairs. It's crazy.
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So physically and cardiovascularly, they have to be able to do their job, you know, and it's. It's. In a way, it's kind of functional training, which is really what. Believe it or not, the military has shifted a lot of their PFTs to that functional training stuff, because running, swimming, push ups, sit ups. What does that do for you in the field or in theater, if you have to be climbing over walls or you have to be lifting things or people or whatever? So a lot of the training programs have been switched up to do functional training rather than just, you know, training like, three body parts.
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Yeah.
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You know, but I think that for the firefighters who are creating their own little niche, that's great, you know, but I think people have to understand that, you know, these are men and women who have probably trained a lot for where they are. And sometimes what happens is you see these things on the Internet, and then you have people doing those things. And unfortunately, people do get hurt, and they do take things further than they should. There is a way to get into it without hurting yourself.
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Don't ego lift kids.
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Yeah. And that's.
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Try not to do that. Yeah.
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And that's one of the things that we. We really teach at my gym, is that, you know, you have to leave your ego at the door, because all of this hope and dreams and goals that you've set for yourselves, we can achieve them, but we have to figure out where you are before we can get there. And then we have to teach you how to get there. And sometimes it can take years. I remember when I first started Olympic lifting, and my coach was like, you know, you're very strong, but you have no flexibility and you have no experience in the sport. Give it five years.
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And I did talk to me a little bit about what was getting into that world like, because I know we had spoken a little bit earlier about, you know, my dad works with the ioc. He's a part of the Jamaican Olympic Committee. I know that the Olympics is an insane, sane world to be a part of. Do you have any nuggets that you can give to our viewers about what it takes to be an Olympian?
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A long time. A lot of years. A lot of sacrifice. I can tell you from a few of the Olympic champions that I've trained with and worked with that you. You give so much of yourself for so many years to be at that level that when it's over, it's over, and sometimes it's over for good.
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What's the identity switch like? Cause I know I've, you know, interviewed some athletes that they cannot let it go when it's time.
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Yeah. Because that's all they know. I've got some athletes that I know personally and that I've worked with personally who've tried to get to that level, and we've seen how much it takes out of them. And then finally, you have to make a choice that you're either gonna continue to dedicate another four years or a quad to getting ready for that, or you just have to give up. Or if, you know, like I had one athlete who was a track hammer thrower who did make it to the trials, but he knew that he could never beat some of the people that were at the top. And because the selection process is even tighter for certain countries and sports that, you know, you can be the best in your state, in your nation, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you have what it takes to be on an Olympic stage. And that's why my years, I've had the opportunity to be out at the Olympic trainer Center for my own personal training and learning purposes three times. And I've watched the wrestlers, the volleyball players, the swimmers, the weightlifters, and how much goes into. It's all day, every day. And it's a big sacrifice coming out of it. You would hope that during all of that time that they've invested in the sport that maybe they've had another interest in their life. And I think for me, it sort of was the opposite. You know, I was a jock and an athlete, but I always dreamed that I would be an Olympic champion and quickly realized that I was not gonna make an Olympic volleyball team. Cause I didn't have what it took in college for the weight training and the strength training, for me is where I excelled. And although, you know, I never got to the Olympics, I did get to 16 World Championships and four Master World Games. So on that note, I think I've achieved my goal.
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I would say so. I would say so. That is kudos to you because that is not for the faint of heart. I'll say this before we head out, I got to interview Kurt Angle for Legacy Makers. And first of all, incredible, incredible guy. And he was telling us the story about how he won the Olympic gold medal for wrestling with a broken neck. I watched that one, and he really hammered it home. How much of an absolute savage you have to be to get to that level in anything, at anything in life. But to have his doctors just hit him with two local anesthetics before he was about to go out for a Olympic gold medal wrestling match is insanity. So if you're. If you're out there and you're thinking to yourself, hey, you know what? I'm inspired. I really want to go out and achieve the level of success of an Olympian. I've gotten to watch. My dad is, you know, a sports psychologist for the Jamaican Olympic Association. I've gotten to watch Usain Bolt train. I've gotten to watch Shelly Ann Frazier, Oblique Seville world champions at the 100 meter. And it's not for the faint of heart. So if you are making a commitment to yourself that you want to be at that level, rest and understand that it is. It's going to require something of you. You're going to have to go above and beyond. It's all in or nothing. All in. As we're sort of wrapping up here, where can people find you on socials? Where can people find your gym? Where can the people look for you on the Internet?
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Just go to Instagram, otbstrengthmd, Put lj Belcito in the Internet. Anywhere you'll find me.
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Make sure you guys go ahead and check out LJ's episode of Operation CEO. I know it's gonna be a good one. This was a great conversation. I'm excited to go and see the episode and learn more about you for us here at Inside Success. That's another episode of the Inside Success podcast. Again, I'm your host, Jason Tyler, and I will catch you guys on the flip side.