Video review! Mikhail Prygunov. Interview with Mikhail Prygunov What discipline did you do in athletics?

Are you here: Pokrovnaya

Mikhail Prygunov - champion of St. Petersburg in bodybuilding,

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

practicing athlete in cross-fit and weightlifting,

personal fitness and bodybuilding trainer 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 trainer’s work with clients, motivation
About Youtube, business, life and creativity

There will be competitions, sweepstakes and a performance by a club DJ.

_________

The seminar 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, get positive energy

and have fun and useful 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 create working training programs for different body types.
- workouts for weight loss, cardio
- gain muscle mass
- Work and motivation

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

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

Each participant is given a Certificate!

_________________________________________________________________

Feedback from participants in Mikhail Prygunov’s previous seminar:

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

Thank you for your humanity, sincerity and humorJ

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

positive, informative and very sincere.

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

Veronja95 « How fast J thank you again for such a fun weekend)

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

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

At first, the athletes were paid 1,500 rubles for filming. When we already had a lot of subscribers and the athletes saw in the filming an opportunity to become famous, money faded into the background. This is a sport for narcissists. But we, for example, began to give them the clothes they wear for filming (it was provided by the sponsor). Now, we’ll probably return to money relations. The most savvy athletes understand how to use their appearance on the channel, and, for example, they say: all questions should be directed to my page. And on the page it says: I write out diets - 2,000 rubles, conduct personal training. Our task is to explain to athletes that they should not think about personal gain, that for them filming is, first of all, an opportunity to bring benefits. What is valued on YouTube? Sincerity.

If in the video you start to be boring, don’t look at the camera, feel shy, then that’s it. The athlete must be presentable, speak clearly, and smile. And it is imperative that the information in the video be useful so that the person learns something.

If not textured, then just to look good.

Or to have charisma.

And sexuality. We have a girl who seems to be nothing special, but this is how she talks and behaves, she bites her sponge... In general, there is so much sex that she is very well watched. Fitness is about sexuality. That’s why we dress our athletes very openly—exposing their bodies as much as possible. We also sometimes undress boys - for example, as in the “Superpress” video, which is our most viewed and so far the only one with 1 million views (we have 18 million views for all videos). Denis Gusev, the dream man of all women in the world, is filming there.

Videos that are not catchy quickly go to zero 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. A person watches, enriches himself with knowledge and goes to the hall.

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

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 point that we need to post them less often: people don’t have time to watch, and the value of each video is lost. We saw on socialblade.com that top channels do one or two releases a week, no more.

Monetization

The affiliate program means that YouTube places advertising on your channel, and the income is divided between him and the channel owner (he gets the majority). At first it was not much money, but it quickly became noticeable, and so far this is the basis of our earnings, which amount to $10,000 a month. Now we have 3 million views per month. That is, this is already a large advertising platform for both our and other people’s products. In addition to income from YouTube, we do product placement. We recently got a sponsor - the largest importer of sports nutrition. By summer, we expect to triple our income, and this will mainly be income from product placement.

The money goes towards a new application made by our fan from Kazan, it should appear in the AppStore in June. We will place 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 determined to download for free. There are few iPhones, but they are solvent.

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

Mikhail Prygunov The personality is extremely bright and interesting. Here is a review of him with moments from his life and video blog.

Born in 1984. Lives in St. Petersburg, married to Olna Prygunova. Works at the Nova Arena Fitness club as a personal trainer.

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

Recently he has been involved in weightlifting, and Dmitry Klokov provided him with assistance in mastering the technique.

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

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

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

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

He left the project in 2014, did not give any official explanations about this, but in one video he said that they made it clear to him that they could cope even with him.

After leaving, I started developing my personal blog and I want to say it was very successful, now it has 182 thousand subscribers, which is not bad for a channel about fitness, training and just about Misha’s life.

Mikhail always treats his audience very kindly and tries to please them with interesting content. He admitted that he wanted to do some really worthwhile project with directing and a good script.

We wish Misha good luck and fulfillment in all his endeavors.

- Misha, for those of our readers who have never heard of the channel YouGifted, although I doubt that such people exist 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’m exactly 30 years old, I turned a month ago. Currently I work as a personal trainer at the Nova Arena Fitness club. I have a YouTube channel that I am slowly developing. This is a channel in the format of a light video blog about me, my friends, sport as a way of life and everything that may be connected with it. I've been in sports since I was 11 years old. The first serious activity in my life was athletics, which I did from 11 to 16 years old. Then I abandoned this matter and went to college. At some point, I didn’t know what to do next in sports and just came to the gym to work out. I was so fascinated by this that I have been doing this for more than 10 years. I am a master of sports of Russia in bodybuilding and won the title of 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 of variety this 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 regular bodybuilding is that they have different categories. Those. in regular bodybuilding, weight categories are the same as in weightlifting. You have no right to weigh more than that many kilograms. And in classical bodybuilding there are height and weight categories. Athletes in it are divided more by height than by weight. And there are certain weight standards depending on the height of the athlete. People of different heights can also weigh differently. This, I believe, is the main advantage of classical bodybuilding. We all know that of two athletes, one of whom is short and the other tall, but they weigh the same, the one who is short will win. Because it will look much more massive. But in the classics this is somehow leveled out. If nothing has changed since then, then weight is calculated based on height using the formula (height (in centimeters) - 100 + 8). That's how many kilograms you can weigh on stage, no more. And as a rule, classics do not stand out in large volumes. As I always like to say: “Classical bodybuilding is bodybuilding for skinny guys who can’t get pumped up.” It values beauty, aesthetics, proportions, super relief, super dryness. These are perhaps the main criteria in classical bodybuilding.

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

I am very ashamed that the Mr. Olympia tournament has already been held 49 times, and I still have never been there. But I think there is still more to come. The fact is that for me now bodybuilding is not a sport that I follow closely and of which I am a big fan. This was the case before, when the eight-time Mr. Olympia, the incredible, unique and one-of-a-kind Ronnie Coleman, reigned on the throne. So he was my favorite. I would binge watch documentaries where he would rock his huge cans and shout, “Lightweight, buddy! This is what I give!” (“Yeah, buddy! Lightweight, baby!”).

I watched these films with my mouth open and my eyes wide open and I still watch them sometimes. He was unique. And now I somehow don’t have any special favorite that I would root for. I won't even root for anyone. I’ll just be interested, and maybe I’ll even watch the live broadcast. I get up early in the morning anyway. I’ll wake up on Sunday at about 7 o’clock, turn on the computer and there will be an awards 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 Greene, 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 shape now, since they don't really show it. Maybe Kai Greene ate so much of something secret that he grew to incredible proportions. Overall, I won't 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 own YouTube channel. Many people believe that without you, YouGifted is, as they say, “not the same.” Can you tell me why you decided to leave him?

I have not yet commented, and will not now comment on my departure from this project. I think this is a normal life situation. There was a time when I thought that I would be in this channel forever. This may sound a little strange, but sometimes thoughts appeared in my head 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 thoughts appeared that I could develop myself the way I see fit. Well, that's how it happened. But, again, I think this is normal. All people must develop. There is no need to cling to something if you feel that you can achieve something more in another.

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

No. Now I can say that I don’t regret it for a second.

After your official departure from this project, were there any offers from any others? Or did you initially decide for yourself that you wanted to do your own project, didn’t want to work for someone else, and didn’t even consider other options?

Second. There were no serious proposals as such. In general, I think that this is all a frivolous matter, all these channels. Many people don't even consider it a business.

- The fact is that I once read an interview with Borey, where he quite clearly stated that initially YouGifted was built as a business for sale. Those. From the very beginning, this project included a clear model for scaling it as a business.

It was Borya's idea to make this project a business. I didn't feel that way about it. Borya tried to do business, and I created a channel. I found athletes, talked to them, helped the cameraman shoot these videos. I walked with him, looked into this camera and pointed with my finger what needed to be removed, and only then he beautifully filmed it all. Then, when there were no cameramen left, I took the camera myself and went to film, although I had never done this in my life. I just decided to try it. If it works out - good, if not - well, okay.

This is exactly one of the most common opinions why the channel has changed so much since your departure. Because you were largely responsible for the semantic content.

At first, yes, but then everything somehow became blurred and smeared. But I don’t want to now pull the whole blanket over myself and say that it was I who did everything there. We did it together, each in our own way. We made this channel together with Borya, he and I. Now the whole YouGifted team is doing this. And then this format was revolutionary. Nobody has done this before. Nobody filmed these training sessions. Nobody knew about the athletes we were filming. Then these athletes began to have armies of fans. They have more work to do in terms of personal training. People started coming to them. People started cheering for them at competitions. Scream, wave flags or something else. And now it has gone online and looks more like a conveyor belt for churning out videos - twice a week, Monday and Thursday, a new video is released on YouGifted.

- There is an opinion that this has become more reminiscent of the “House 2” project only in the field of fitness.

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

- Do you somehow maintain contact with Borya now?

Not long ago you became interested in CrossFit. What is your passion for? Just a tribute to fashion or something more? Initially, CrossFit, by its progenitor Greg Glassman, was positioned precisely as the opposite of traditional fitness, with its biceps curls, dumbbell flyes and 3 to 8-12. Why did you suddenly decide to take up CrossFit as a competitive bodybuilder?

I have been involved 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 the desire to beat everyone. And when I was involved in bodybuilding, it was the same. Why did I crawl onto the stage in my underpants, smeared with something incomprehensible? Because I kind of do bodybuilding and there are competitions in it. Then why don't I participate in competitions? This is a sport. So I have to compete. This is the simple thought I had. And he went to compete. I won and am very proud of this title, although I don’t think I achieved anything serious. People win national championships several times, but I just won the St. Petersburg championship. But I still enjoyed it. And, having been involved in bodybuilding for 10 years, I just started to get tired of it. The pitching is all very monotonous and monotonous. There were periods when I trained purely for myself. You just walk stupidly and do the routine. Of course I enjoyed it because I like changing my body. Bodybuilding is designed to build your body the way you want. And then, after winning those competitions, I had the thought that I had achieved what I wanted in this sport. And I started looking for something new for myself. I knew that I had no endurance, I hated running cross-country, and it infuriated me to do something for a long time for the number of repetitions. I came to CrossFit for the first time a year ago in the summer of 2013. But again, it was a rivalry, and not so much that I decided to just go try something like that. We did the 21-15-9 complex “kettlebell swings + burpees”. The complex was made by different people for a while. I wanted to knock everyone out the first time because I’m such an athlete. In the end, I did this complex in 6 minutes and then I felt very bad for about 40 minutes. I had a headache, I felt nauseous, my ears were ringing, my vision was getting dark. And then the whole day was down the drain, because I couldn’t really do anything. That's all! I said I would never go back to CrossFit.

- Those. Didn't you feel that it somehow affected you?

No. I didn't like it that much. I was not ready to kill myself like that at every training session. At that time, I didn’t know how training generally went. Nobody explained this 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 pitching. Then I decided to try weightlifting, did snatches and jerks and my back started to hurt. Now I'm fine and nothing hurts. And then I made a couple of jerks and my lower back “covered” so much that I couldn’t walk for several days. Whether it’s pinched or something else, I don’t know. And I returned to the gym again. And then I realized that I couldn’t do it anymore and everything about her infuriates me. 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 going there myself occasionally. Then I started working with a group and little by little things started to work out. Then I realized that it was difficult, but doable. So I was drawn in. I really like the competitive aspect of CrossFit. Although all the coaches say that you can’t “stress yourself” at every training session, I like it. But I very rarely, about once a week, go to group training, and hang around somewhere in the back. And about this neuroendocrine response, about which everyone says that CrossFit is like a drug. Somehow I didn’t really understand. After the complex, sometimes I just get goosebumps running down my back and across the back of my head. Maybe this is it, I don't know.

What is the hardest thing about CrossFit for you as a bodybuilder? There is an opinion that bodybuilders are very rigid and have poor flexibility and mobility.

My flexibility is more or less good, although I don’t think it’s good enough. But it’s enough for me to perform CrossFit movements. And the hardest thing is the new elements that I have never been able to do. For example, I never knew how to walk on my hands and still can’t. I've never been able to do power moves on the bar. Then I somehow learned it when I weighed 95 kg. Now I weigh 100 again and it’s hard for me again. In terms of endurance, it’s also, of course, a bit difficult. But I understand that I simply cannot step beyond my physical capabilities. Of course, sometimes this simply needs to be done in order to push this threshold back. And, of course, sometimes I do this. But not often. I just can’t die at every training session and then lie there for half an hour and recover. I don't feel comfortable with this. There are complexes when you need to do something quickly for a while. There, of course, you have to grit your teeth, endure and do it. In general, I can say that when I started regularly doing complexes in CrossFit, my endurance increased quite quickly and noticeably. And now, having done the complex for 7-10 minutes without stopping, I just need to lie down for a few seconds, then walk for 2-3 minutes and I’ve already recovered.

- Do you plan to compete in CrossFit competitions 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 go into a different training regimen. And now this is not at the top of my list of priorities. My work and family come first now, and sports are still next to me. Very close, but still on the side.

- What other sports do you like besides bodybuilding, crossfit and weightlifting? Are you a fan of Zenit?

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

- So you like football?

I liked it before. I'm not watching now. Those. I only watch the World Championship level. And that's very rare. Only if I remember that he is coming now. I used to really like the sport of billiards. 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 had strategy and tactics. There you need to think. I’m also crazy about athletics. And if there is a world league, or a world championship, or the Olympics on TV, I definitely watch it.

- What discipline did you do in athletics?

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, for which I, as the father of 2 sons, congratulate you with all my heart. Has your sleep, nutrition, and workout routine changed significantly as a result of this?

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

Traditional question. Your best results are in basic exercises: snatch, clean and jerk, front and shoulder squats, deadlifts, bench press.

Snatch: 95 kg;

Clean and jerk: 130 kg;

Front squat: 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 videos of your training and some episodes from your life mixed in there 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. For what? Because in the future it might help me survive. Also, so that people don’t forget who Mikhail Prygunov is and what he does. I'm not showing off now. But since it’s fucked up, since people started liking me when I started filming on YouGifted, it means they can like me when I’m filming on my channel.

To a greater extent, do you intend to shoot such “staged” videos or will it still be more of a video blog?

I can’t do a 100% video blog because I don’t walk around and talk to the camera incessantly, as is done in video blogs. I'm starting to think about a new video because I need to post it soon and the topic somehow comes to me. And as a rule, I don’t make videos 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 this very lightly. I don’t worry, I don’t come up with any scenarios in advance. I try to do it casually. Although information content must be required.

Your videos always have some special positivity. 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 like to joke around in life. It is very difficult to talk to me seriously, because people do not always understand when I am serious and when I am joking.

- You've been promising to record a video about AAS for weeks now, but you put it off every time. When already?

There will be no video about steroids. Fuck steroids!

- Well, the last question. Did you bring buckwheat and breast meat with you?

Certainly! I always have it with me. Only this time I have beef, not breast. True, I won’t have time to eat now, because I have to run to train at Nova Arena Fitness

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

I was born in 1984, i.e. Now I’m exactly 30 years old, I turned a month ago. I currently work as a personal trainer at Nova Arena Fitness. I have YouTube channel, which I am slowly developing. This is a channel in the format of a light video blog about me, my friends, sport as a way of life and everything that can be connected with it. I've been in sports since I was 11 years old.

The first serious activity in my life was athletics, which I did from 11 to 16 years old. Then I abandoned this matter and went to college. At some point, I didn’t know what to do next in sports and just went to the gym to work out. I was so fascinated by this that I have been doing this for more than 10 years. I am a master of sports of Russia and won the title of 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.

Classic bodybuilding is bodybuilding for skinny guys

Mikhail Prygunov

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

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

But in the classics this is somehow leveled out. If nothing has changed since then, then weight is calculated based on height using the formula (height (in centimeters) - 100 + 8). That's how many kilograms you can weigh on stage, no more. And as a rule, classics do not stand out in large volumes. As I always like to say: “Classical bodybuilding is bodybuilding for skinny guys who can’t get pumped up.” It values beauty, aesthetics, proportions, super relief, super dryness. These are perhaps the main criteria in classical bodybuilding.

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

This was the case before, when the eight-time Mr. Olympia, the incredible, unique and one-of-a-kind Ronnie Coleman, reigned on the throne. So he was my favorite. I would binge watch documentaries where he would rock his huge cans and shout, “Lightweight, buddy! This is what I give!” (English: “Yeah, buddy! Lightweight, baby!”).

And so they will stand together, look at each other, puff up, strain their muscles. Of course, it will be Phil Heath and Kai Greene, 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 shape now, since they don't really show it. Maybe Kai Greene ate so much of something secret that he grew to incredible proportions. Overall, I won't be upset if Phil Heath loses this year.

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

I have not yet commented and will not now comment on my departure from this project. I think this is a normal life situation. There was a time when I thought that I would be in this channel forever. This may sound a little strange, but sometimes thoughts appeared in my head 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 thoughts appeared that I could develop myself the way I see fit. Well, that's how it happened. But, again, I think this is normal. All people must develop. There is no need to cling to something if you feel that you can achieve something more in another.

Okay, but after these 4 months, do you regret your decision?

No. Now I can say that I don’t regret it for a second.

Second. There were no serious proposals as such. In general, I think that this is all a frivolous matter, all these channels. Many people don't even consider it a business.

Borya tried to do business, and I created a channel
Mikhail Prygunov

The fact is that I once read an interview with Borey, where he quite clearly stated that initially YouGifted was built as a business for sale. Those. From the very beginning, this project included a clear model for scaling it as a business.

Well, it was Borya’s idea to make this project a business. I didn't feel that way about it. Borya tried to do business, and I created a channel. I found athletes, talked to them, helped the cameraman shoot these videos. I walked with him, looked into this camera and pointed with my finger what needed to be filmed, and only then he beautifully filmed it all. Then, when there were no cameramen left, I took the camera myself and went to film, although I had never done this in my life. I just decided to try it. If it turns out good, if not, that’s fine.

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

This is exactly one of the most common opinions why the channel has changed so much since your departure. Because you were largely responsible for the semantic content.

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

Then these athletes began to have armies of fans. They have more work to do in terms of personal training. People started coming to them. People started cheering for them at competitions. Scream, wave flags or something else. And now it has gone online and looks more like a conveyor belt for churning out videos - twice a week, Monday and Thursday, a new video is released on YouGifted.

There is an opinion that this has become more reminiscent of the “House 2” project only in the field of fitness.

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

Do you somehow maintain contact with Borya now?

Not long ago you became interested in CrossFit. What is your passion for? Just a tribute to fashion or something more? Initially, CrossFit was positioned by its progenitor, Greg Glassman, precisely as the opposite of traditional fitness, with its biceps curls, dumbbell flyes and 3 to 8-12. Why did you suddenly decide to take up CrossFit as a competitive bodybuilder?

Then why don't I participate in competitions? This is a sport. So I have to compete. This is the simple thought I had. And I went to compete. I won and am very proud of this title, although I don’t think I achieved anything serious. People win national championships several times, but I just won the St. Petersburg championship. But I still enjoyed it. And, having been involved in bodybuilding for 10 years, I just started to get tired of it. The pitching is all very monotonous and monotonous. There were periods when I trained purely for myself. You just walk stupidly and do the routine.

Of course I enjoyed it because I like changing my body. Bodybuilding is designed to build your body the way you want. And then, after winning those competitions, I had the thought that I had achieved what I wanted in this sport. And I started looking for something new for myself. I knew that I had no endurance, I hated running cross-country, and it infuriated me to do something for a long time for the number of repetitions. I came to CrossFit for the first time a year ago in the summer of 2013. But again, it was a rivalry, and not so much that I decided to just go try something like that.

We did the 21–15–9 complex “kettlebell swings + burpees.” The complex was made by different people for a while. I wanted to knock everyone out the first time because I’m such an athlete. In the end, I did this complex in 6 minutes and then I felt very bad for about 40 minutes. I had a headache, I felt nauseous, my ears were ringing, my vision was getting dark. And then the whole day was down the drain, because I couldn’t really do anything. That's all! I said I would never go back to CrossFit.

Those. Didn't you feel that it somehow affected you?

Then my back started to hurt. Now I'm fine and nothing hurts. And then I made a couple of jerks and my lower back “covered” so much that I couldn’t walk for several days. Whether it’s pinched or something else, I don’t know. And I returned to the gym again. And then I realized that I couldn’t do it anymore and everything about her infuriates me. 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 going there myself occasionally. Then I started working with a group and little by little things started to work out. Then I realized that it was difficult, but doable. So I was drawn in.

I really like the competitive aspect of CrossFit. Although all the coaches say that you can’t “stress yourself” at every training session, I like it. But I very rarely, about once a week, go to group training. Well, I’m hanging out somewhere in the back there. And about this neuroendocrine response that everyone talks about. That CrossFit is like a drug. Somehow I didn’t really understand. After the complex, sometimes I just get goosebumps running down my back and across the back of my head. Maybe this is it, I don't know.

What is the hardest thing about CrossFit for you as a bodybuilder? There is an opinion that bodybuilders are very rigid and have poor flexibility and mobility.

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

But not often. I just can’t die at every training session and then lie there for half an hour and recover. I don't feel comfortable with this. There are complexes when you need to do something quickly for a while. There, of course, you have to grit your teeth, endure and do it. In general, I can say that when I started regularly doing complexes in CrossFit, my endurance increased quite quickly and noticeably. And now, having done the complex for 7-10 minutes without stopping, I just need to lie down for a few seconds, then walk for 2-3 minutes and I’ve already recovered. Those. I recover quickly after 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 competitions in the future or will you return back to bodybuilding?

What other sports do you like besides bodybuilding, CrossFit and weightlifting? Are you a fan of Zenit?

I have never supported Zenit. My dad comes from the glorious city of Murmansk. There is no Premier League football team in this city. And my dad has been a fan of Spartak Moscow since childhood and school. And when I was growing up as a little boy, we always watched football and it was always Spartak Moscow. That’s why I didn’t root for Zenit, but quite the opposite. When Spartak came to St. Petersburg, I supported Spartak. Silently. I didn’t tell anyone about this because it’s not customary.

Those. do you like football?

What discipline did you do in athletics?

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. And in the triple jump, at the age of 14, I completed the second category.

I used to be very interested in biathlon. I even watch ski jumping and speed skating sometimes. Sometimes I really like to watch curling, because there is also strategy there.

3 months ago you became a father, for which I, as the father of 2 sons, congratulate you with all my heart. Has your sleep, nutrition, and workout routine changed significantly as a result of this?

Traditional question. Your best results are in basic exercises: snatch, clean and jerk, front and shoulder squats, deadlifts, bench press.

Those. To a greater extent, do you intend to shoot such “staged” videos or will it still be more of a video blog?

Well, I can’t do a 100% video blog because I don’t walk around and talk to the camera incessantly, as is done in video blogs. I'm starting to think about a new video because I need to post it soon and the topic somehow comes to me. And as a rule, I don’t make videos 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 this very lightly. I don’t worry, I don’t come up with any scenarios in advance. I try to do it casually. Although information content must be required.

Your videos always have some special positivity. 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, I like to joke around in life. It is very difficult to talk to me seriously, because people do not always understand when I am talking seriously and when I am joking.

Fuck steroids!
Mikhail Prygunov

You've been promising to record a video about AAS for weeks now, but you put it off every time. When already?

There will be no video about steroids. Fuck steroids!

In one of your latest videos you said that you started taking sports nutrition again. What kind of sports nutrition are you currently using?

While doing CrossFit, my ligaments and joints started to hurt. Therefore, at first I took one drug (ElastiJoint from Labrada Nutrition), but somehow it didn’t work well. So now I took another one. Let's see how it will work. In addition, I take vitamins. I also learned that the basic supplement for all CrossFit practitioners is omega-3. So now I still drink it, but I haven’t yet understood its effects. Most likely I won’t understand. And I decided to try beta-alanine because in bodybuilding it is accepted that beta-alanine delays the onset of muscle failure.

Do you feel its effect?

I've only taken it once before before an endurance workout. The effect I felt from it was that I recovered much faster after finishing the routine. Those. literally within a minute I was ready to do something else. But I did not participate in the process of performing the complex, which was easier for me than usual. Well, protein to meet your daily protein requirement.

Well, the last question. Did you bring buckwheat and breast meat with you?

Certainly! I always have it with me. Only this time I have beef, not breast. True, I won’t have time to eat now, since I have to run to a workout at Nova Arena Fitness (the interview was recorded at the affiliated CrossFit gym NA CrossFit).

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

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