Exploring Fitness , Red Light Therapy and Recovery in Nashville's Music Scene with Gunnar Peterson and Bradley Carden"

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville, and today I'm here in Cool Springs in the Franklin area at the common Ground Gym. It's owned by celebrity trainer Gunner Peterson and Gunner is one of the most sought after trainers in the world, working with and training a list celebrities such as the Kardashians and the Jenner family, Sylvester Stallone, athletes like Tom Brady and Mike Tyson, and many many more. Gunner served as the director of Strength and Endurance for the La Lakers from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty, and he just partnered with the innovative red light therapy fitness company sole Basium. Also joining here today remotely from Australia is Bradley Carden, the CEO of soul Basium. So thank you both for being here today in person and on zoom. I definitely want to talk about red light therapy and these great products.

00:01:03
Speaker 3: In a minute.

00:01:04
Speaker 2: But this is a very fun and special episode for Taking a Walk in Nashville because our listeners get to hear both music and fitness today.

00:01:14
Speaker 3: As a conversation, Gunner, Can you start off.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: By telling our listeners how you transitioned from working and living in LA to moving to Nashville.

00:01:24
Speaker 4: Uh, the hardest part was getting my wife on board. It was it was time. There was there was a lead up to it. Obviously, my oldest daughter was going off to college. The other two had gone on. I had two little ones. The lease in my gym was about to expire. LA was going through its growing pains or shrinking pains, depending on how you saw it, in twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, and it was just time and things lined up, and I thought we looked at a lot of different places, but Nashville checks a lot of boxes. It has obviously its own industry. It has an international airport. My parents have a farm about two and a half hours from here. They were as all of us, you know, are getting older. But I just thought it's the right time to make a move. And eventually my wife got on board and we're all very happy here. So it was just everything aligned and it was time to do. Time to make a move. Yeah, different chapters in life exactly.

00:02:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, so many people have been moving from the West coast to Nashville and other than you know athletes, You've worked with a lot of musicians and artists. To Jennifer Lopez for an example, why do you think it's important for entertainers to stay fit while they're touring?

00:02:43
Speaker 4: Entertainers and athletes, there's a there's a nexus right where where those worlds collide, and I think they are inextricably linked forever and always will be, regardless of AI. I think that they have to be able to perform at a high level much the way an athlete does. They peak for certain projects, whether it's film tour and the same way an athlete does. And sometimes their season is even longer than an athlete season, So a lot of similarities and working with them also depending on what kind of act it is. Is it a high energy act that is a ton of physical movement and dance and choreography, or is it a standing in front of a microphone barely moving but belting out something from deep within. There are different demands physically which all require training, recovery, proper nutrition, supplementation, hydration, all the things that go along with that, and there's just to me, there's no separation. So you're working with overachievers, high achievers. Those people fire me up as much as I hope I do them when they get into the gym, and I just love being in all those worlds right while they're in my world, right while they're in the gym. Hopefully I've put together something that's going to serve them right, it's definitely not going to hold them back and they can improve. And then I do it alongside of partners like Solbasiums, so they're getting top of the line recovery treatments as we go right, whether it's whether it's a protein shake from someone we work with, whether it's a high end water with lower contaminants and pfas, or it's red light therapy for loosening up prior to or recovery post. I'm going to go with the Solbasiums with the nowadays, off with the gyms, the people that I work with. I'm always looking to partner and align myself with the companies that will help the people who come in here get the most out of their workouts.

00:04:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, and recovery is so important, especially for artists. You know, they hit the in the morning, at the stage at night, which is also strenuous on their bodies and just being on the road, being in a tour bus traveling all the time can take a big toll on people in the music industry. And so Bradley, with your company Selbasium, you are revolutionizing red light therapy and recovery technology. As Gunner said, Bradley, can you talk to us about the difference you have seen with people simply using red light therapy versus other recovery methods.

00:05:30
Speaker 5: Well, I think I think the industry in general, like what we've noticed is that over the past five years has just been an explosion in growth. I mean, like everyday people now are using red light, they're using hyperbaric oxygen chambers, it might be PEMF or even percussion therapy. Now, you know, it wasn't always like this, you know, back in the day, I remember like we couldn't even give red light therapy devices a way because no one knew about it. But to answer your question, you know, what are people using alongside red light therapy and how popular it is? Like, you know a lot of people use the red light, especially the facial masks. They'll also use the full body beds and even the panels and also we're seeing more people that you know are using PEMTH like I mentioned earlier, like you name it all. The recovery technology is really like hitting the mainstream now and it's a great thing.

00:06:27
Speaker 4: It's funny you talk about back in the day, way back in the day, getting someone to consider a monthly or bi monthly massage was extravagant. Recovery meant sleep and sleep only. And then it led into body work. And then Jason Worslin created the Theorra gun right so handheld percussive device, and then everyone else does that and improves upon it. And then it comes to the percussive device built into the PEMF mats. You have what Selvasium is doing, which is taking it next level, next level, next level. The red light therapy a reverse that was like people were skeptical and now everybody wants it, everybody needs it, and Selbasium makes it where it's like you have a specific you have a pad for the back, you have a knee pad, you have an ankle pad, and it's just easy to apply, easy to use, and it's funny to think that. I mean, I've been in this business thirty five years, thirty five years ago, no exaggeration. The bi weekly or sorry, the bi monthly massage was a dream. And now people can grab the gun and you know, handheld, percuss the device with red light therapy on the device and apply it themselves at any time.

00:07:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:07:44
Speaker 2: So speaking of like these products and the gun, if someone uses it with red light therapy in it, how is that how is that better than just using a regular like thera gun without the red light therapy.

00:07:57
Speaker 4: Brad I can answer, But that's your world, all right.

00:08:01
Speaker 5: It's a very good question, and look, it's one that comes up all the time. First of all, with red light therapy, when you're going to deliver the light to the body, there's a lot of things that you have to take into consideration. It comes down to the melanin in the skin, so your skin tone, the amount of fat that you have, and your offer skin layer, so that's all going to come into play. Also the water content in your body. So the magic behind the massage gun coupled with the red light is that as that percussion device is hammering into your muscles, what it's doing is it's compressing the tissue and digging it deep into the muscle. So you're going to be able to deliver more therapeutic wavelengths of light than any other product on the market.

00:08:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that definitely helps with muscle inflammation. And Bradley, just looking at your Soulbasium products, you launch the world's first read light therapy muscle roller, and you just launched the Nova red light therapy bed. We have some products here of yours today to talk about. I think we have the ankle pad percussive device. So how do these different devices aid recovery for athletes versus you know, just taking an ice bath after you know they've worked out.

00:09:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's two different mechanisms between the ice bath and the red light and also every other tool that they use. So we've got multiple models. We have the ankle, the knee, the universal pad, and the backpad, and they all serve different purposes. Like let's say, for instance, an athlete springs their ankle, get some sort of soft tissue injury, or maybe they've broken their ankle. They can wear the Selbasium red Light ankle pad and then they can accelerate the time, the healing time for their injury. So that's the first big thing, and especially with knees because in pro sports, I mean I would say knees and the back are always the two things that we hear from the most from the athletic trainers, especially in the NFL. What it's going to do is it's gonna heal those injuries and get the guys back on the field faster. Now for the full body bed, you can't I mean, you can't heal the body with that, which it will do that, but also it can enhance performance as well. And what I always tell people is that especially in the game of pro sports, you know, a Super Bowl could come down to increasing your sprint speed by even zero point three percent, you know, for a wide receiver to out run that corner to win the game. That's what red light therapy can do.

00:10:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe Gunner canna be our van of White for a second, and I'll have some of these.

00:10:44
Speaker 3: Products to show us how they work.

00:10:46
Speaker 4: Right, the pad here, uh, which you can see it's all and the red left therapy goes there. And then you have the percussive device which I go here and it has not just one speed, but I can take this up. It's probably good to get pretty loud on your microphones. Nice wow. Right, so and the red light coming on the end. So you have the whole thing again, the fact that to me that it's portable, and we talked about oh yeah, we've talked about in the past, how Bradley says any he schooled me on this prior to a big lift, you can hit the target and muscle group, right, and you're gonna brat you want to expound on this, but you talk about prior to big lists from a warm up standpoint, like, this is such an easy carry for anybody to have in their gym bag that's going to world now, even if it's not a pro athlete, even if it's somebody who's a weekend warrior who's trying to have a pr on a Saturday morning. Am I wrong?

00:11:44
Speaker 5: Absolutely?

00:11:45
Speaker 3: No, No, you're correct, Yeah, yeah, these are great for traveling. Yeah.

00:11:50
Speaker 2: So people and companies can find these products online at Sylbasium dot com and Bradley I saw the two percent of every purchase of these products go to towards the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

00:12:02
Speaker 5: Correct, that is correct. So it's something we started up, was it two or three years ago? So, yeah, a portion of each sale is given to them. We actually gave our first contribution to them. When was it three months ago? So it was pretty cool.

00:12:19
Speaker 3: Nice, Yeah, that's great.

00:12:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, obviously these products are very portable, but you know, gems and fitness and recovery centers, they can.

00:12:28
Speaker 3: Also invest in products like the red light therapy bed for recovery for people to use while they're in the gym.

00:12:36
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. But the big thing that we're doing with the bed, and it's called the Nova Bed if anybody wants to check it out online, is we're really changing the game when it comes to people having access to full body like therapy beds, because I would say ever since they were brought into the market, red light therapy beds have been incredibly expensive. I mean, if you want to get one, you're looking at paying eighty thousand dollars one hundred thousand dollars. And you know, we were just studying the market, looking around and we were like, why are these beds going for eighty K one hundred k or whatnot? And we knew from an engineering standpoint where like, it's not that difficult. We could come up with something better at a better price, and that's what we did with the Novas. So that bed's designed for at home US. It's also designed for clinics, gyms, you name it.

00:13:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's great.

00:13:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, so definitely check out these products on Solbasium Gunner. Another question for you, So you've worked with an elite group of celebrities, but any person can access your workout programs and meal plans through your app, Common Ground, which hosts a supportive community of you know, everyday humans trying to stay fit. So can anyone listening find a tailored workout for their needs in this app?

00:13:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, they can go with the common Ground app. What's fun about the app is the community. I mean you touched on it that the So yeah, maybe you're working out alone at home, but if you have questions you you can access that on other people who are going, who are who are toiling alongside you, which makes it fun. And the workouts. It took me a while to get into the app game because I do work still day to day with people. But I also wanted to make sure that when we did one, it was right and that it highlighted the way we trained in the JIB. So there's there's a I don't want to say there's a lot of screwing around it. It's fun. It's definitely fun while you get the work done. Because to me, what I always hear is people can't be consistent, they can't come back way they can't and if it's fun, you're more likely to return to it.

00:14:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:14:43
Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest issue with that home workouts is making it fun.

00:14:49
Speaker 4: There should be, yeah, but then you're helped with like you said, there's nutrition, there's a recovery stuff mentioned, and it's easy to get questions answered, and that's the way to do it.

00:14:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's great.

00:15:01
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was going to ask you, what's the biggest mistake you see in clients?

00:15:06
Speaker 3: Is it consistency?

00:15:07
Speaker 4: I think the biggest mistake is doing nothing or very little for a long time and expecting to reverse that in a short time. And well, you know, exercises, the miracle drug. You got to be reasonable with the miracle you're expecting. Yeah, so if you give it some time, it's definitely going to pay off. And everything you do in here makes everything you do outside of here better. It makes you more patient, more resistant to disease, more resistant to injury. You're a better father, you're a better mother, You're a better spouse or a better partner in general. And I just think if you realize if you take this as not each one's going to be you know, perfect or personal records of that kind of thing. But if you take each one for I'm coming in there and I'm getting a little bit better, a little bit better, a little better. I mean that's I think that's all you can ask for any kind of workout or any protocol. It's the same with It's the same with the treatment. It's the same with staying on your hydration. It's the same with your diet. Right, It's not like you're going to eat one meal with perfect macros and perfect calories and turn around and have that physique. But as you continue to lay those bricks, you're going to build something special.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a huge I always say there's a huge correlation between fitness and music. It's all about consistency, practicing writing the songs as it is getting in the gym and exercising.

00:16:31
Speaker 4: I had a conversation with a girl today who changes me twenty one years old heavy, and I said to her, everything you're doing is right because you're twenty one, so you're the demographic so to sit in a room with people, you know, forty fifty sixties, maybe they like it, maybe they don't. As long as you're consistent with your she plays guitar, she plays piano, she's saying, she songwrites, as long as you're consistently cranking it out, not just like work for work sake, but if it's coming from inside like she journals and all that's coming out in your music, you're essentially honing that, right, You're honing that instrument. You're fine tuning up the same way you are your body in the gym, and it does pay off, and it does end up where it ends up, which will always be better than where you started if you're consistent with it.

00:17:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's so important, staying motivated and focused. And you know one thing I noticed, especially when you're in your early twenties, you don't.

00:17:34
Speaker 3: Really think about recovery.

00:17:36
Speaker 2: You just think about doing the grind, doing the workouts, and so I mean, it hits you hard when you know you get older and then you find out, wow, I do need to focus on recovery. So I think these tools and these products where like there be is so important and it's good to remember that you do need days to recover from all the work you've done.

00:17:57
Speaker 4: We talked about the similarities between the reformers and the athletes, and I've seen them in their twenties. We call it playing through right like in golf. Like they'll go out at night and party and roll right into the gym, no sleep and just gut it out and then recover on the other side. And you can. I've seen them get away with that in their twenties, But good luck with that in your thirties and forties. That's just a that's a tough road.

00:18:23
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:18:23
Speaker 4: So you know, with all the tools, with all the with all the recovery aids, maybe, but there comes a time when you have to know when to shut it down and when to separate work and play.

00:18:36
Speaker 2: M hmm, yeah, I agree. It's so important. So for both of you, Bradley and gunn Are. My last question is something I ask in every episode. I think it's especially fitting today. But Bradley, I'm not sure if you've spent much time in Nashville, so you may or may not have an answer for this question. But my question for both of you, whoever wants to go first, do you have a favorite place to take a walk in Nashville.

00:19:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can go first because we've only been here four years, but I did a lot of recons so I probably got about seven and a half years of Nashville walks under my belt. I think it's cliche to say downtown Franklin, but it is. That is the movie set, right, That is the place that if your wife is on the fence about moving here, you walk her there and it's a quick sale. I'm a big fan of walking around downtown, not necessarily broadly, but there are so many other areas downtown to little little dip roots that you can find, and you find there are a lot of cool spots. I think that you can go to food, music, It has its own culture. Again, that was a big draw. It's not a city that you need to bring anything to. There's literally everything here.

00:19:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, in downtown Nashville, and Franklin is so walkable that you can certainly get your steps and just.

00:19:56
Speaker 4: Walking in this area. And there's other parts where you talk about Franklin for downtown, yes, that's yes, that's quaint. But going outside towards where the Battle of Franklin was and the little museums and the little houses and where the cannons are still there and things that you see. I've taken my kids there and we talk about, like, think about what life was back then, right. None of the stuff that you have now, they didn't have it then, not also including the car that got us here. So think about what that looks like. What that looked like walking through here. This wasn't all clear. When you see woods off to the left side, it was probably all woods, and getting through from place to place was a big deal, and the roads weren't paid, and you think about what the people did. It's very easy to understand the pride they have in the area because they fought so hard to make it so special and maintain it. So it's cool that they do maintain it. And it's cool that it's walkable and it's safe and it's family oriented. It's a pretty special place.

00:20:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, so much history to see.

00:20:55
Speaker 2: Bradley, Do you have a favorite place in Nashville to take a walk?

00:21:00
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:21:00
Speaker 5: One, just because like I haven't really explored Nashville. I mean I was there for a trade show. That's when I went Mett Gunner at his gym. But I would have I would have to say the first thing that comes to mind is walking to the football stadium.

00:21:13
Speaker 4: That would be it for me.

00:21:13
Speaker 5: That might sound cheesy, but I've been in Australia for so long, i haven't seen the NFL game, hadn't gotten to experience that atmosphere and so long that I mean that was that was pretty cool during my last trip, got to walk to the stadium. It's right outside the city, you get to cross over the river, it's beautiful and yeah, you get to go watch a game. In a hire interview, So right now, that's what I would say.

00:21:35
Speaker 3: That I like that answer.

00:21:37
Speaker 2: I do love that about the Titan Stadium. And even with the News Stadium, you can just go from downtown Broadway to walk on the pedestrian bridge to get over there.

00:21:46
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think that's great.

00:21:48
Speaker 1: Well, Gunner and Bradley, thank you both so much for being here today. And if it's a rainy day, you know, come check out common Ground Gym and check out the common Ground app.

00:22:00
Speaker 2: Check out for more information on Soulbasium on their website.

00:22:05
Speaker 3: And Red Light Therapy.

00:22:07
Speaker 2: And thank you again both for being here with me today on taking a walk Nashville.

00:22:13
Speaker 4: Thank you for having us very cool.

00:22:14
Speaker 5: Thank you.

00:22:17
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson. Please check out our other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions, Comedy Save Me and Music Save Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman, and Taking a Walk hosted by Yours Truly Buzznight. All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and are part of the iHeart podcast network