Mikhail jumpers in contact. Maximum Body: How YouGifted Turned Fitness Video Tutorials Into A Business

Misha, for those of our readers who have never heard of YouGifted, although I doubt that there are such people at all, tell us a little about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

I was born in 1984, i.e. now I am exactly 30 years old, turned a month ago. At the moment I work as a personal trainer at the Nova Arena Fitness club. I have youTube channel which I am slowly developing. This is a channel in the format of such an easy video blog about me, my friends, sports as a way of life and everything that may be connected with it. I have been in sports since I was 11.

The first serious occupation in my life was athletics, which I did from 11 to 16 years old. Then I dropped this case and went to college. At some point, I didn't know what to do next in sports and just went to gym sway. I was so carried away by this that I have been doing this for over 10 years. I am the Master of Sports of Russia in and won the title of the absolute champion of St. Petersburg in classical bodybuilding in 2013.

I also tried powerlifting. It was a long time ago, when I was 23-24 years old. Now I am trying to look for something new for myself, because I want to develop further in sports, and I became interested in CrossFit and weightlifting.

Classic bodybuilding is bodybuilding for dryness

Mikhail Prygunov

Regarding classic bodybuilding. Can you explain what kind it is and how it is fundamentally different from what we are used to seeing at the "Mr. Olympia" tournament.

The fundamental difference between classic bodybuilding and conventional bodybuilding is that they have different categories. Those. in normal bodybuilding weight classes, as in weightlifting. You have no right to weigh more than so many kilograms. And in classic bodybuilding there are height-weight categories.

Those. athletes in it are divided more by height than by weight. And there are certain weight norms depending on the height of the athlete. Those. people of different heights can weigh differently too. This, I believe, is the main advantage of classic bodybuilding. We all know that of two athletes, one of whom is short and the other is tall, but they weigh the same, the one who is short will win. Because it will look much more massive than tall.

And in the classics it is somehow leveled. If nothing has changed since then, then the weight is calculated based on the height according to the formula (height (in centimeters) - 100 + 8). You can weigh that many kilograms on stage, no more. And as a rule, the classics do not stand out in large volumes. As I always like to say, "Classic bodybuilding is bodybuilding for dicks who can't pump." It values \u200b\u200bbeauty, aesthetics, proportions, super-relief, super-dryness. These are perhaps the main criteria in classic bodybuilding.

The 50th anniversary tournament "Mr. Olympia" will take place in just a few days. Who will you root for and who do you think will be the winner this year?

So it was before, when the eight-time Mr. Olympia reigned on the throne, the incredible, unique and one of a kind Ronnie Coleman (Ronnie Coleman). Here he was my favorite. I watched with gusto the documentaries in which he rocked his huge "cans" and shouted: "Lightweight, buddy! This is what I give! " (English "Yeah, buddy! Lightweight, baby!").

I'm open-mouthed and huge eyes watched these films and still sometimes even watch them. He was unique. And now I somehow do not have any special favorite for which I would be rooting. I won't even root for anyone. I’ll just be interested and maybe even watch the live stream. I still get up early in the morning anyway. I wake up on Sunday at 7 o'clock, turn on the computer and there will be a rewarding ceremony.

And now they will stand together, look at each other, puff up, tighten their muscles. Of course, it will be Phil Heath and Kai Green, as it was in previous years. But I don’t know which of them will win. The thing is, I don't know which of them is in what form now, because they don't show it much. Maybe Kai Greene has so much eaten something secret that he has grown to incredible proportions. In general, I will not be upset if Phil Heath loses this year.

I just cannot ignore this topic. In May of this year, you left the YouGifted project and launched your YouTube channel. Many people think that without you YouGifted is, as they say, “not a cake”. Can you tell us why you made the decision to leave him?

I still have not commented and will not comment on my departure from this project now. I think this is a normal life situation. There was a time when I thought I was on this channel forever. Maybe it sounds a little strange, but sometimes I had thoughts that I was somehow not comfortable continuing to do this. I constantly drove them away from myself and believed in a bright future.

That everything will be cool, there will be success, then recognition, money. But still, sometimes there were thoughts that I could develop myself as I see fit. And so it happened. But, again, I think this is normal. All people must develop. Don't cling to something if you feel that you can achieve something more in another.

Well, after these 4 months, do you regret your decision?

Not. Now I can say that I do not regret it for a second.

After your official departure from this project, there were no offers from any others? Or did you initially decide for yourself that you want to do your project, do not want to work for someone, and did not even consider other options?

Second. As such, there were no serious proposals. In general, I think that this is not a serious matter, all these channels. Many people don't even mistake it for business.

Borya tried to do business, and I did the channel
Mikhail Prygunov

The fact is that I once read an interview with Borey, where he quite clearly indicated that YouGifted was originally built as a business for sale. Those. from the very beginning this project was based on an understandable model for scaling it as a business.

Well, it was Borina's idea to make this project a business. I didn't feel like that. Borya tried to do business, and I did the channel. I found athletes, talked with them, helped the cameraman shoot these videos. I walked with him, looked into this camera and pointed with his finger that he needed to shoot, and then he shot it all beautifully. Then, when there were no operators left, I took the camera myself and went to shoot, although I had never done this in my life. I just decided to try it. It will turn out - good, no - well, okay.

We made this channel together with Borya, he and me
Mikhail Prygunov

This is one of the most common opinions why the channel has changed a lot since you left. Because you were more responsible for the semantic content.

At first, yes, and then everything somehow washed out, smeared. But I don’t want to pull the whole blanket over myself and say that I did everything there. We did it together, each in our own way. We made this channel together with Borya, he and me. Now the whole YouGifted team is doing it. And then this format was revolutionary. Nobody has done this before. Nobody filmed this workout. Nobody knew about the athletes we were filming.

Later, these athletes had armies of fans. They have more work to do in terms of personal training. People started coming to them. They began to root for them at competitions. Shouting, waving flags or whatever. And now it is on stream and looks more like a conveyor for stamping videos - twice a week, Monday and Thursday, a new video is released on YouGifted.

There is an opinion that it began to resemble the "House 2" project more only in the field of fitness.

Maybe. To be honest, since I left this project, I stopped following what is happening there now.

And now you somehow maintain contacts with Borey?

Not long ago, you got into CrossFit. What is your hobby connected with? Just a fashion statement or something more? Initially, after all, CrossFit by its progenitor Greg Glassman was positioned precisely as the opposite of traditional fitness, with its biceps curls, dumbbell dilutions and 3 to 8-12. Why did you, as a competitive bodybuilder, suddenly decide to take up CrossFit?

Then why am I not competing? It's a sport. So I have to compete. Here is such a simple thought I had. And I went to compete. I won and I am very proud of this title, although I do not think that I have achieved anything serious. People win national championships several times, and I just won the Peter's championship. But I still enjoyed it. And, having been engaged in bodybuilding for 10 years, I stupidly began to get bored with it. The pitching is all very monotonous and monotonous. There were periods when I trained purely for myself. You just go stupidly and do a routine.

Of course, I enjoyed it because I like changing my body. Bodybuilding he was created in order to build your body the way you want. And then, after winning those competitions, I had the idea that I had achieved what I wanted in this sport. And I started looking for something new for myself. I knew that I was not hardy, I hated running crosses and it pisses me off to do something long for the number of reps. The first time I came to CrossFit was a year ago in the summer of 2013. But again it was a rivalry, not that I decided to just go and try something like that.

We did the 21–15–9 complex "kettlebell swing + burpee". The complex was done different people for a while. I wanted to "screw up" everyone the first time, because I'm kind of such an athlete. As a result, I did this complex in 6 minutes and 40 minutes later I felt very bad. I had a headache, nausea, ringing in my ears, darkening in my eyes. And then the whole day down the drain, because I really could not do anything. And that's it! I said that I would never return to CrossFit again.

Those. you didn’t have such that it somehow hurt you?

Not. I didn't like it that much. I was not ready to kill myself like that at every training session. I didn’t know then how the training goes. Nobody explained it to me. I just went and killed myself in those 6 minutes. Because he wanted to kick everyone. But it didn't work out. In the end, I returned to the pitch. Then I decided to try weightlifting, did jerks and jerks.

Then my back hurt. Now I'm fine and nothing hurts. And then I did a couple of jerks and the lower back was "covered" so that I could not walk for several days. Whether it is pinched or something else, I don't know. And I returned to pitching again. And then I realized that I can't take it anymore and everything about her pisses me off. Then I just left YouGifted and went to work as a coach at Nova Arena Fitness, which also has a CrossFit area. Well, I started to go there myself from time to time. Then I started to work with the group and little by little something started to work out. Then I realized that it was difficult, but doable. So I was sucked in.

I really like the competitive aspect of CrossFit. Although all the coaches say that you shouldn’t “get lost” at every workout, but I like it. But I very rarely, about once a week, go to group training. Well, and there somewhere I dangle in the tail. And about this neuroendocrine response that everyone is talking about. That CrossFit is like a drug. I somehow did not really understand. I just get goosebumps after a complex sometimes on my back and on the back of my head. Maybe this is it, I don't know.

As a bodybuilder, what is your hardest part about CrossFit? There is an opinion that the builders are very fixed and they have poor flexibility and mobility.

I'm more or less good with flexibility, although I don't think it's good enough. But it is enough for me to perform movements from CrossFit. And the hardest thing is given to new elements that I have never been able to do. For example, I have never been able to walk on my arms and still cannot.

I have never been able to do power exits on the bar. Then I somehow learned when I weighed 95 kg. Now I weigh 100 again and it is hard for me again. Well that is I can do it 2 times in a row and that's it. In terms of endurance, of course, too hard. But I understand that I simply cannot step over my physical capabilities. Of course, sometimes it just needs to be done in order to push this threshold. And, of course, sometimes I do it.

But not often. I just can't die at every workout and then lie down and come to my senses for half an hour. I'm not comfortable with this. There are complexes when you need to do it quickly for a while. There, of course, you have to grit your teeth, endure and do. In general, I can say that after starting to regularly do complexes in CrossFit, my stamina increased quite quickly and noticeably. And now, having made a complex for 7-10 minutes without stopping, it is enough for me to lie down for a few seconds, then walk for 2-3 minutes and I have already recovered. Those. I quickly recover from exercise. I noticed this and it makes me very happy.

I will not return to competitive bodybuilding

Mikhail Prygunov

Do you plan to compete in CrossFit in the future or will you return back to bodybuilding?

I will not return to competitive bodybuilding. That's for sure! Sometimes such thoughts arise. I really want to, but I won't. To compete in CrossFit I need to enter a different training regime. And now it is not in the first place in my list of priorities. Now my work and family are in the first place, while sports are still going on. Very close, but still from the side.

What other sports do you enjoy besides bodybuilding, CrossFit and weightlifting? Do you support Zenit?

I've never been a fan of Zenit. My dad is from the glorious city of Murmansk. There is no premier league football team in this city. And dad from childhood from school rooted for the Moscow "Spartak". And when I was growing up as a little boy, we always watched football and it was always Moscow's Spartak. Therefore, I was not rooting for Zenit, but on the contrary. When Spartak came to St. Petersburg, I was rooting for Spartak. Silently. I didn’t tell anyone about it because it’s not accepted.

Those. do you like football?

I liked it before. I'm not looking now. Those. I watch only the level of the world championship. And that is very rare. Only if I remember that he is coming now. I used to like billiards a lot. I even played in competitions once. But it was not Russian billiards, but British. A variety of British billiards called "snooker". I liked it because it has strategy and tactics. There you have to think. Another bastard from athletics. And if the world league, or the world championship, or the Olympics is on TV, I definitely watch.

What discipline did you do in track and field?

When I began to slowly grow up and show some results in it, they began to move me into a long jump and a triple jump. I really liked it. And in the triple jump at the age of 14, I completed the second category.

Earlier I was still very interested in biathlon. Even ski jumping and speed skating sometimes I watch. Sometimes I really like to watch curling, because there is also a strategy there.

3 months ago you became a father with what I, as a father of 2 sons, congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. Has your sleep, diet, and exercise regime changed dramatically?

No, he hasn't changed much. Even my wife Olya hasn't changed much. The only thing is that she now has to fall asleep 2 times at night to feed Diana. We are lucky that our daughter is calm, does not cry at night. In general, there are no problems at all, which I am pleasantly surprised. Because there is such a stereotype that if small child, then this is a constant lack of sleep, bags under the eyes, minus 10 kg of body weight, etc. The point is that for long years life has already formed some kind of regime. And this mode helps you to cope with some difficulties such as a sleeping child.

Traditional question. Your best results in basic exercises: snatch, clean and jerk, squats with a barbell on the chest and on the shoulders, deadliftbench press.

Those. to a greater extent do you intend to shoot such "staged" videos or is it more of a video blog?

Well, I can't do a 100% video blog because I don't go and chat to the camera incessantly, as is done in video blogs. I start thinking about a new video because soon I need to upload it and the topic somehow comes by itself. And as a rule, I don’t make a video on any one topic. Usually this video is about different things that happened to me this week. If I have absolutely nothing to film about, then I just go and train. I take it very lightly. I am not worried, I do not come up with some scenarios in advance. I try to do it naturally. Content should be mandatory though.

Your videos are always distinguished by some special positive. How to stay so positive in St. Petersburg with its eternal gray dampness?

Well, today the weather is not so gray. Let's see what happens in a couple of months. In general, in life I love to make fun of. It is very difficult to speak with me seriously, because people do not always understand when I am serious and when I am joking.

Fuck steroids!
Mikhail Prygunov

You have promised to record a video about AAS for a week now, but you postpone it every time. When already?

There will be no steroid video. Fuck steroids!

In one of your last videos, you said that you started taking sports nutrition again. What exactly from sports nutrition are you using now?

While practicing CrossFit, my ligaments and joints began to hurt. Therefore, at first I took one drug for myself (ElastiJoint from Labrada Nutrition), but somehow it somehow works poorly. So now I took another one. Let's see how it works. I also drink vitamins. I also learned that the basic supplement for everyone involved in CrossFit is omega-3. So now I still drink her, but I have not yet understood her actions. Most likely I don't understand. And beta-alanine also decided to try it because it is accepted in bodybuilding that beta-alanine delays the moment of muscle failure.

Do you feel its effect?

So far, I only drank it once before endurance training. The effect that I felt from it was that I recovered much faster after the end of the complex. Those. literally in a minute I was ready to do something else. And in the very process of performing the complex, I did not participate, which is easier for me than usual. Well, protein, to get the daily protein intake.

Well, the last question. Have you brought buckwheat and breast with you?

Of course! I always have it with me. Only this time I have not breast, but beef. True, I won't have time to eat now, because I have to run to workout at Nova Arena Fitness (the interview was recorded in the affiliated NA CrossFit CrossFit Hall).

Misha, thank you again for your answers and good luck in your new endeavor!

And to you, Lesha, thank you for the interview, for the training and interesting communication!

It will be interesting for you

Mikhail Prygunov - bodybuilding champion of St. Petersburg,

co-founder of the most popular sports channel on Youtube YOUGIFTED (over 1 million subscribers),

practicing athlete in cross-fit and weightlifting,

personal trainer in fitness, bodybuilding with over 10 years of experience,

successful fitness entrepreneur.

Mikhail has prepared a seminar for you in which he will tell you:

About training for men and women
About CrossFit, Weightlifting and Bodybuilding
About nutrition in fitness
About the coach's work with clients, motivation
About Youtube, business, life and creativity

There will be contests, sweepstakes and a club DJ performance.

_________

The workshop is intended for guys and girls who have recently started bodybuilding, fitness or cross-fit.

For trainers and instructors of the gym and collective programs.

For those who want to learn something new, will be charged with positive

and have fun and rewarding time outside the gym.

And, of course, for the many fans of Mikhail Prygunov!

_________________________________________________________________

In the program (19: 00-22: 00)
1. About training:
- how to make workout programs for different body types.
- workouts for weight loss, cardio
- gaining muscle mass
- Work and motivation

2. Nutrition in fitness:
- nutrition for gaining muscle mass
- food for weight loss
- how to make anyone follow a diet
Michael will explain all these questions in detail.

3. For VIPs. Buffet (22: 00-23: 30)
Cocktail reception in a closed circle, personal consultations, photo sessions.

Each participant is given a Certificate!

_________________________________________________________________

Feedback from the participants of the previous seminar by Mikhail Prygunov:

Tatjana Perfect (bikini fitness) “THANK YOU so much for the workshop ...

Thank you for your humanity, sincerity and humor.

Valkeriya Anderson (Instagram) “Misha, thanks for the master class. It was super

positive, informative and very soulful.

Nastyafitswim “Uhuuuuu !!! Thank you very much for the drive!

Veronja95 “How fastJ thanks again for such a fun weekend)

Spartak Ivanov ( https://vk.com/spartakong) “This weekend will be remembered for a long time !!))

Sergey Kazubsky ( https://vk.com/kazubski) “After talking with Misha at the seminar,

At first, athletes were paid 1,500 rubles per filming. When we already had a lot of subscribers and the athletes saw an opportunity to become famous in the filming, the money faded into the background. This is a sport for narcissists. But we, for example, began to give them clothes in which they are removed (it was provided by the sponsor). Now, probably, let's get back to monetary relations. The most cunning athletes understand how to apply their appearance on the channel, and, for example, they say: all questions are on my page. And the page says: I write diets - 2,000 rubles, I conduct personal training. Our task is to explain to athletes that they should not think about personal gain, that for them shooting is primarily an opportunity to be useful. What is valued on YouTube? Sincerity.

If in the video you start to bother, do not look at the camera, feel shy, then that's it. The athlete must be textured, speak clearly, smile. And it is imperative that the information in the video be useful for the person to learn something.

If not textured, then just look good.

Or to have charisma.

And sexuality. We have a girl, it seems like nothing special, but this is how she speaks and behaves, bites her lip ... In general, so much sex that she is very well watched. Fitness is about sexuality. Therefore, we dress athletes very frankly - a maximum of an open body. We also undress boys sometimes - for example, as in the Superpress video, which is the most viewed in our country and so far the only one with 1 million views (we have 18 million views for all videos). Denis Gusev is filming there - the man of dreams of all women in the world.

Videos that do not catch on quickly go to zero in views. And the really successful ones continue to gain views and become almost eternal.

Rollers

As a rule, this is a full-fledged workout of any muscle group with advice on technique and nutrition. The person looks, enriches himself with knowledge and goes to the hall.

The athlete sends his thoughts in advance, and we clean up or add. Sometimes we come up with themes, sometimes sportsmen. Friends told us that after watching the video and coming to the gym, they sometimes recognize those who have also just watched the video, because there is usually some recognizable feature or technique, some kind of French press with over-under-puckering. Our traffic from mobile devices is growing by about 0.5 percentage points per month, now it is 13% - already in the hall they are reviewing videos from mobiles.

The material is inexhaustible. You can do other workouts for the same muscle groups, with different tips. We don't have two heads, but 20, and they can be quite creative. Now we post three videos a week, but we have come to the conclusion that we need to post less often: people do not have time to watch, and the value of each video is lost. We saw on socialblade.com that the top channels have one or two releases per week and do nothing more.

Monetization

An affiliate program means that you place ads on your YouTube channel, and the income is divided between him and the channel owner (he gets the most of it). At first it was a little money, but it quickly became tangible, and so far this is the basis of our earnings, which is $ 10,000 per month. We currently have 3 million views per month. That is, it is already a large advertising platform for both ours and other people's products. In addition to income from YouTube, we do product placement. Recently we got a sponsor - the largest importer of sports nutrition. By the summer, we expect to triple in revenues, and basically it will be revenues from product placement.

The money goes to a new application, which is made by our fan from Kazan, it should appear in the AppStore in June. We will post a link to it in the videos and, I think, will quickly promote it to the top. The video is watched 100,000 times - we have several thousand downloads. Any other product can be promoted this way. We will not make an application on Android, Android, in my opinion, is bought by people who are set to download for free. There are few iPhones, but they are solvent.

The application itself will also make money. We looked at the monetization of chef Jamie Oliver, and we will do the same. The application itself is free, so there are a lot of downloads, but tidbits only for subscribers are arranged around it - all sorts of useful chips, more recipes. In our case, more training programs for $ 5 per month, we can also do chips. We want to have clients, not users. After all, this is a business, no matter how much pleasure it brings us. We will make quizzes, promotional codes.

- Misha, for those of our readers who have never heard of the channel Yougifted although I doubt that there are such people at all, tell us a little about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

I was born in 1984, i.e. now I am exactly 30 years old, turned a month ago. At the moment I work as a personal trainer in the Nova Arena Fitness club. I have a YouTube channel that is slowly developing. This is a channel in the format of an easy video blog about me, my friends, sports as a way of life and everything that may be connected with it. I have been in sports since I was 11. The first serious occupation in my life was athletics, which I did from 11 to 16 years old. Then he gave up this business and went to college. At some point, I didn't know what to do next in sports and just came to the gym to swing. It fascinated me so much that I have been doing it for more than 10 years. I am the Master of Sports of Russia in bodybuilding and won the title of the absolute champion of St. Petersburg in classical bodybuilding in 2013. I also tried powerlifting. It was a long time ago, when I was 23-24 years old. Now I'm trying to look for something new for myself, because I want to develop further in sports, and I became interested in Crossfit and weightlifting.

Regarding classic bodybuilding. Can you explain what kind it is and how it is fundamentally different from what we are used to seeing at the "Mr. Olympia" tournament.

The fundamental difference between classic bodybuilding and conventional bodybuilding is that they have different categories. Those. in regular bodybuilding weight classes, as in weightlifting. You have no right to weigh more than so many kilograms. And in classic bodybuilding, the height-weight categories. Athletes in it are divided more by height than by weight. And there are certain weight norms depending on the height of the athlete. People of different heights can weigh differently too. This, I believe, is the main advantage of classic bodybuilding. We all know that out of two athletes, one of whom is short and the other is tall, but they weigh the same, the one that is short will win. Because it will look much more massive. And in the classics it is somehow leveled. If nothing has changed since then, then the weight is calculated based on the height according to the formula (height (in centimeters) - 100 + 8). You can weigh that many kilograms on stage, no more. And as a rule, the classics do not stand out in large volumes. As I always like to say, "Classic bodybuilding is bodybuilding for dicks who can't pump." Beauty, aesthetics, proportions, super-relief, super-dryness are appreciated in it. These are perhaps the main criteria in classic bodybuilding.

The 50th anniversary tournament "Mr. Olympia" will take place in just a few days. Who will you root for and who do you think will be the winner this year?

I am very ashamed that the Mister Olympia tournament has already been held 49 times, and I have never been there yet. But, I think, everything is still ahead. The fact is that for me now, bodybuilding is not a sport that I closely follow and from which I am a very fan. So it was before, when the eight-time Mr. Olympia reigned on the throne, the incredible, unique and one of a kind Ronnie Coleman. Here he was my favorite. I watched with gusto the documentaries in which he rocked his huge "cans" and shouted: "Lightweight, buddy! This is what I give! " ("Yeah, buddy! Lightweight, baby!").

I watched these films with an open mouth and huge eyes, and I still watch them sometimes. He was unique. And now I somehow do not have any special favorite for which I would be rooting. I won't even root for anyone. I’ll just be interested and maybe even watch the live stream. I still get up early in the morning anyway. I wake up on Sunday at 7 o'clock, turn on the computer and there will be a rewarding ceremony. And so they will stand together, look at each other, puff up, strain their muscles. Of course, it will be Phil Heath and Kai Green, as it was in previous years. But I don’t know which of them will win. The thing is, I don't know which of them is in what form now, because they don't show it much. Maybe Kai Greene has so much eaten something secret that he has grown to incredible proportions. In general, I will not be upset if Phil Heath loses this year.

I just can't ignore this topic. In May of this year, you left the YouGifted project and launched your YouTube channel. Many people think that without you YouGifted is, as they say, “not the same”. Can you tell us why you made the decision to leave him?

I still haven't commented, and I will not comment on my departure from this project now. I think this is a normal life situation. There was a time when I thought I was on this channel forever. Maybe it sounds a little strange, but sometimes I had thoughts that I was somehow uncomfortable with continuing to do this. I constantly drove them away from myself and believed in a bright future. That everything will be cool, there will be success, then recognition, money. But all the same, sometimes there were thoughts that I could develop myself as I see fit. And so it happened. But, again, I think this is normal. All people must develop. You don't need to cling to something if you feel that you can achieve something more in another.

- Well, after these 4 months, do you regret your decision?

Not. Now I can say that I do not regret it for a second.

Second. As such, there were no serious proposals. In general, I think that this is not a serious matter, all these channels. Many people don't even mistake it for business.

- The fact is that I once read an interview with Borya, where he quite clearly indicated that YouGifted was originally built as a business for sale. Those. from the very beginning this project was based on an understandable model for scaling it as a business.

It was Borina's idea to make this project a business. I didn't feel like that. Borya tried to do business, and I did the channel. I found athletes, talked with them, helped the cameraman shoot these videos. I walked with him, looked into this camera and pointed with his finger that it was necessary to shoot, and then he filmed it all beautifully. Then, when there were no operators left, I took the camera myself and went to shoot, although I had never done this in my life. I just decided to try it. It will turn out - good, no - well, okay.

This is one of the most common opinions why the channel has changed a lot since you left. Because you were more responsible for the semantic content.

At first, yes, and then everything somehow blurred, smeared. But I don’t want to pull the whole blanket over myself and say that I did everything there. We did it together, each in our own way. We made this channel together with Borya, he and me. Now the whole YouGifted team is doing it. And then this format was revolutionary. Nobody has done this before. Nobody filmed this workout. Nobody knew about the athletes we filmed. Later, these athletes had armies of fans. They have more work to do in terms of personal training. People started coming to them. They began to root for them at competitions. Shouting, waving flags or whatever. And now it is on stream and looks more like a conveyor for stamping videos - twice a week, Monday and Thursday, a new video is released on YouGifted.

- There is an opinion that it began to resemble the "House 2" project more only in the field of fitness.

Maybe. To be honest, since I left this project, I stopped following what is happening there now.

- And now you somehow maintain contacts with Borey?

Not so long ago you got into CrossFit. What is your hobby connected with? Just a fashion statement or something more? Initially, after all, crossfit by its progenitor Greg Glassman himself was positioned exactly as the opposite of traditional fitness, with its biceps curls, dumbbell dilutions and 3 to 8-12. Why did you, as a competitive bodybuilder, suddenly decide to do CrossFit?

I have been in sports since childhood, and the competitive component has always been of particular importance to me in sports. Even when we, as students, went to billiards with beer, I had a desire to beat everyone. And when I was engaged in bodybuilding, it was the same. Why did I climb onto the stage in my underpants, smeared with something incomprehensible? Because I kind of go in for bodybuilding and there are competitions in it. Then why am I not competing? It's a sport. So I have to compete. Here is such a simple thought I had. And he went to compete. I won and I am very proud of this title, although I do not think that I have achieved anything serious. People win national championships several times, and I just won the Peter's championship. But I still enjoyed it. And, having been engaged in bodybuilding for 10 years, I stupidly began to get bored with it. The pitching is all very monotonous and monotonous. There were periods when I trained purely for myself. You just go stupidly and do a routine. Of course, I enjoyed it because I enjoy changing my body. Bodybuilding, he was created in order to build your body the way you want. And then, after winning those competitions, I had the idea that I had achieved what I wanted in this sport. And I started looking for something new for myself. I knew that I was not hardy, I hated running crosses and it pisses me off to do something for a long time for the number of reps. The first time I came to CrossFit was a year ago in the summer of 2013. But again it was a rivalry, not that I decided to just go and try something like that. We did the 21-15-9 "kettlebell swing + burpee" complex. The complex was made by different people for a while. I wanted to "screw up" everyone the first time, because I'm kind of such an athlete. As a result, I did this complex in 6 minutes and 40 minutes later I felt very bad. I had a headache, nausea, ringing in my ears, darkening in my eyes. And then the whole day down the drain, because I really could not do anything. And that's it! I said that I would never return to CrossFit again.

- Those. you didn’t have such that it somehow hurt you?

Not. I didn't like it that much. I was not ready to kill myself like that at every training session. I didn’t know then how the training was done. Nobody explained it to me. I just went and killed myself in those 6 minutes. Because he wanted to kick everyone. But it didn't work out. As a result, he returned to the pitch. Then I decided to try weightlifting, did jerks and jerks and my back hurt. Now I'm fine and nothing hurts. And then I did a couple of jerks and the lower back was "covered" so that I could not walk for several days. Whether it is pinched or something else, I don't know. And I returned to pitching again. And then I realized that I can't take it anymore and everything about her pisses me off. Then I just left YouGifted and went to work as a trainer at Nova Arena Fitness, which also has a crossfit area. Well, I started to go there myself from time to time. Then I started to work with the group and little by little something started to work out. Then I realized that it was difficult, but doable. So I was sucked in. I really like the competitive aspect of CrossFit. Although all the coaches say that you shouldn’t “get lost” at every workout, but I like it. But I very rarely, about once a week, go to group training, somewhere I hang out in the tail. And about this neuroendocrine response, about which everyone says that CrossFit is like a drug. I somehow did not really understand. It's just that after the complex, sometimes goosebumps run down my spine and the back of my head. Maybe this is it, I don't know.

What is the hardest part of CrossFit for you as a bodybuilder? There is an opinion that builders are very enslaved and have poor flexibility and mobility.

I'm more or less good with flexibility, although I don't think it's good enough. But it is enough for me to perform crossFit movements. And the hardest thing is given to new elements that I have never been able to do. For example, I have never been able to walk on my arms and still cannot. I have never been able to do power exits on the bar. Then I somehow learned when I weighed 95 kg. Now I weigh 100 again and it is hard for me again. In terms of endurance, of course, too hard. But I understand that I simply cannot step over my physical capabilities. Of course, sometimes it just needs to be done in order to push this threshold. And, of course, sometimes I do it. But not often. I just can't die at every workout and then lie down and come to my senses for half an hour. I'm not comfortable with this. There are complexes when you need to do it quickly at a time. There, of course, you have to grit your teeth, endure and do. In general, I can say that after starting to regularly do complexes in CrossFit, my endurance increased quite quickly and noticeably. And now, having made the complex for 7-10 minutes without stopping, it is enough for me to lie down for a few seconds, then walk for 2-3 minutes and I have already recovered.

- Do you plan to compete in crossfit competitions in the future or will you return back to bodybuilding?

- What other sports do you like besides bodybuilding, crossfit and weightlifting? Do you support Zenit?

I have never been a fan of Zenit. My dad is from the glorious city of Murmansk. There is no Premier League football team in this city, and dad has been rooting for Spartak Moscow since childhood. When I was growing up as a little boy, we always watched football and it was always Spartak Moscow. Therefore, I was not rooting for Zenit, but on the contrary. When Spartak came to St. Petersburg, I was rooting for Spartak. Silently. I didn’t tell anyone about it because it’s not accepted.

- Do you like football?

- What discipline did you do in track and field?

When I began to slowly grow up and show some results in it, they began to move me into the long jump and triple jump. I really liked it. In the triple jump at the age of 14 I completed the second category.

3 months ago you became a father with what I, as a father of 2 sons, congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. Has your sleep, diet, and exercise regime changed dramatically?

No, he hasn't changed much. Even my wife Olya hasn't changed much. The only thing is that she now has to shower herself twice at night to feed Diana. We are lucky that our daughter is calm, does not cry at night. In general, there are no problems at all, which I am pleasantly surprised. Because there is such a stereotype that if a child is a small child, then this is constant lack of sleep, bags under the eyes, minus 10 kg of body weight, etc. The fact is that over the long years of his life a certain regime has already formed. And this mode helps you to cope with some difficulties.

Traditional question. Your best results in basic exercises: snatch, clean and jerk, squat with a barbell on the chest and shoulders, deadlift, bench press.

Snatch: 95 kg;

Clean and jerk: 130 kg;

Squat with a barbell on the chest: 145 kg;

Squat with a barbell on the shoulders: 230 kg;

Deadlift: 230 kg

Bench press: 190 kg.

- Let's talk a little about your new channel ... What is he talking about? I just noticed that you have mixed in a bunch of videos of your workouts and some episodes from life and, let's say, staged filming with Irina Iris and Margarita Boyko. So what is the purpose of the channel?

The purpose of a channel is to make a channel. What for? Because in the future it may help me survive. Also, so that people do not forget who Mikhail Prygunov is and what he does. I'm not showing off now. But since it was "flooded", since people started to like me when I started filming on YouGifted, then I can also be liked when I am filming on my channel.

To a greater extent, do you intend to shoot such "staged" videos or is it more of a video blog?

I can't do a 100% video blog because I don't go and chat to the camera incessantly, as is done in video blogs. I start thinking about a new video because soon I need to upload it and the topic somehow comes by itself. And as a rule, I don’t make a video on any one topic. Usually this video is about different things that happened to me this week. If I have absolutely nothing to film about, then I just go and train. I take it very lightly. I am not worried, I do not come up with some scenarios in advance. I try to do it naturally. Content should be mandatory though.

Your videos are always distinguished by some special positive. How to stay so positive in St. Petersburg with its eternal gray dampness?

Today, the weather is not so gray. Let's see what happens in a couple of months. In general, I love to make fun of myself. It is very difficult to speak to me seriously, because people do not always understand when I speak seriously and when I am joking.

- You have promised to record a video about AAS for a week now, but you postpone it every time. When already?

There will be no steroid video. Fuck steroids!

- Well, the last question. Have you brought buckwheat and breast with you?

Of course! I always have it with me. Only this time I have not breast, but beef. True, I won't have time to eat now, because I have to run to workout at Nova Arena Fitness

Mikhail Prygunov personality is extremely bright and interesting. Here is an overview on him with moments from his life and a video blog.

Was born in 1984. Lives in St. Petersburg, is married to Olne Prygunova. Workingat the Nova Arena Fitness club by a personal trainer.

In sports since childhood, he started with athletics. Later he switched to bodybuilding.

Recently, he was engaged in weightlifting, Dmitry Klokov provided assistance in mastering the technique.

Mikhail's height is 190 cm
Weight 95-110 kg (98 kg in 2015 after a long break in training)

Mikhail Prygunov is a rather reserved person, he has never been involved in fighting and prefers to resolve conflicts peacefully.

As he himself admitted, he is an introvert, and it is often easier for him to be with himself, although in my opinion, in public and in a team, he is quite cheerful, one might even say the soul of the company.

He started his media activity on the Internet with a project Yougifted , where he acted as one of the creators, and the main characters.

He left the project in 2014, did not give official explanations about this, but in one video he said that he was given to understand that he could handle it too.

After leaving, I started developing my personal blog and I want to say very successfully, now 182 thousand people are subscribed to it, which is very good for a channel about fitness, training and just about Misha's life.

Mikhail is always very kind to his audience and tries to delight her with interesting content. He admitted that he wanted to do some really worthwhile project with a director's work and a good script.

We wish Misha good luck and fulfillment of all his undertakings.

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