Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 358 - Cassio Werneck

Episode Date: April 2, 2020

Cassio Werneck is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, 2003 IBJJF Pan American Champion, 2003 IBJJF World Champion, and former pro-MMA fighter. He is regarded as a legend in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community, has had an enormous influence on the NorCal BJJ scene, and still teaches everyday at his school in Sacramento, CA. Amongst his many students is our very own co-host, Nsima Inyang! Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Support us by visiting our sponsors! ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/power25 Use Code "POWERPROJECT" for 25% off and free shipping on orders of $99! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Icon Meals: http://iconmeals.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" for 10% off ➢Sling Shot: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Power Project fam, what's up? Today we have an awesome guest, a very interesting guest. If you are into jiu-jitsu and especially if you're in the Northern California area, then you know exactly who this is. Today we have Casio Wernick. Casio is Nsema's jiu-jitsu coach. He's responsible for essentially bringing jiu-jitsu to the Northern California area. He and his brother started one of the first jujitsu schools in, uh, in the area. Um, what's great is he has so many connections with the Gracie family. You guys of course know who that is. And, uh, he shares all that information. And one thing that a lot of, even his students may or may not know is that he actually competed in, um, in powerlifting when he was, when he was a lot younger, he, he says he was like 16 competing with, uh, with adults.

And it's funny cause you know, the way he, he puts it, he's like, yeah, it was a weightlifting competition, you know, but it was just a squat bench and deadlift. And, you know, we're all looking at each other like, yeah, that's a powerlifting meet. But again, he shared some really cool information with us, some stuff that, again, like I said, some of his students may or may not know. I was talking to Josh Settleage, who is another one of his students. He works with us actually here on the Power Project, telling him some stuff. And he's just like, dude, I had no idea. So I think for those that don't know who he is, you're going to get a ton of value.

And those that do know who he is, you're also going to receive a ton of value because he shared just some like great stories. And again, just like some background information on him really quick. I'm going to get out of your guys' way, but if you guys haven't, please take advantage of markbell.com. Right now, Mark is giving a free 30 day trial of markbell.com. Markbell.com of course is just where you can get daily workouts from Mark himself. And right now, he's doing a big emphasis on body weight and slingshot and hip circle movements. Again, free 30 days. Just enter your email address and boom, you have access to the entire website. And really quick, to help out with some of those body weight workouts and some of those

home workouts, we are giving 20% off any slingshot and hip circle combo. Go to markbellslingshot.com, add any hip circle of your choice, any slingshot of your choice, and at checkout, you'll receive 20% off. Thank you again for checking out today's episode. If you guys like what Casio was talking about, please find his social media links down in the YouTube description and the iTunes show notes and let them know what you think. And please enjoy the show. I said, hell no, actually I'm in Wakanda.

Oh, of course. Yeah. But all the purple stuff is vibranium behind them. Yeah. I haven't been able to figure out a change the background. Wait, really?

How'd you do it first i don't know i just hit a button and then it's been like that ever since it's always a button how you gents doing today we're good be good hey andrew what does it sound like his sound is coming through his earphones or his phone? It could be the phone. It sounds like the phone. Yeah, but I mean, even that's still okay as long as the echo doesn't play through. Groovy. Yeah, I don't know how to...

My whole house is super echoey. Maybe I could just move into a different room. There's no carpet in here. Oh, yeah. yeah that'll sound okay it sounds good to me i mean it's i mean yeah it could all everything on here could be better but um right for for what we got going on i think it sounds fine got to be sweet yeah but, if you guys want to just get cracking right now, and then when he joins. I'm ready. Yep. Yeah.

All right. So what's happening, Mark? Hey, they shut down the Olympics. You guys see that? Yeah. What? I thought it was postponed or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. Postponed for a year. Yeah. So it's postponed at least least until 2021 they're saying oh that's gonna throw me way off because i only know the olympics if i can count back from 96 and then add four every year to know when the next olympics is gonna be now you're effed you can't be on an odd number that's gonna ruin everything. That's so crazy.

I know it's wild. I mean, that goes down in the history books, right? I did have Gabrielle reach out to me and tell me that, you know, not to send everybody into a panic, but she did say that things are getting a little little bit worse but uh you know the drugs are on their way so hopefully that helps and that assists and the parents that she was talking about of her client um she was able to get them uh the drugs that she talked about on the podcast the chloropin and stuff like that now it's really hard to get you have to be diagnosed with it um you have to be positive that you have it and stuff like that but anyway she was able to get it to them and then uh we'll just keep you updated you know hopefully uh those people survive that would be that would be amazing if uh that was the case hopefully we can be all be hopeful of that

dude that's insane um Well, that's huge. I'm happy to hear that. Also, I've been seeing a lot more people kind of with the same, I guess, idea that you had about the virus is going to definitely affect a lot of people. But this quarantine is going to affect a lot more people for a lot longer. And I'm seeing a lot more tweets, a lot more posts on Instagram, kind of with that same idea behind it. I'm like, hey, this is what Mark has been talking about for like a week now. Yeah, maybe quarantine without like quarantining your mind, right?

You know, maybe there's a way to meet up in the middle without uh you know over interacting with people so they you know you don't continue to spread spread the uh virus around you know yeah there was one uh who oh it was on tony huge's ig story where it literally broke down i know it broke down um like what it actually means in in in a um like a short little test group of like 3 000 people like because they he well whoever it was that posted it uses the actual statistics and out of those 3 000 people x will get affected you know x will die and but then it goes down into those that aren't affected and it like went all the way down to like 300 people will lose their job 200 people will lose their house 100 kids will not have like reached their full potential and then it went on and on and on and it said like and it'll take seven years to get all of that back i was like oh shit like that's

really crazy way to look at it did it give like a timeline for like if this lasts x long i mean it's hard to calculate but is it did it say if this continues on for this long that'll happen or was it just a general type of idea yeah it was a very basic general like uh just something to kind of consider type of deal it wasn't like actually like obviously it wasn't like scientifical or factual it was just kind of like a more of like an idea of like hey this is what could happen yeah yeah i know the 2008 thing took you know 10 years or so you know it took us till 2016 2018 for things to

for things to be strong you know and then we were able to cruise along for about two years or so or three years before before this thing came along yeah so and sima what can you tell us about your uh do we call them your coach your sensei i don't know what the no one uses sensei mentor mentor usually like coach people uh people call them like professor or coach so um yeah so is is sensei only like on karate kid then sensei's karate kid sensei is purely karate kid or make a dojos or maybe taekwondo schools maybe i don't know but um yeah casio whenever he gets on her he's uh he's dope pretty much he's like the granddaddy of all jujitsu down here in sacramento he was the guy

that pretty much brought it down here so he had one of the like he had the first gym a lot of the gyms that are down here um are stemming from his black belts so a lot of the gyms in the Sacramento area and even in NorCal are some of his black belts. He won worlds back in 2003, IBJJF worlds and then Brazilian nationals. And he's just, yeah, he's won also masters worlds for like quite a few years,

maybe four to five times. He's won masters worlds. And I think last year or the year, yeah, I think it was last year he actually went down in the age bracket because as a master, um, you know, there's different age brackets, like 35 to 38 or whatever. So he went down an age bracket last year and then won that masters worlds. So dude's a beast. Dude's a beast.

Does anybody, uh, do, do the anybody do the other students try to mimic him? Yeah. Like his, the cool thing about jujitsu is like, there's so many different games. There's so many different types of body types. The cool thing about Cassie is like, he does have a main game,

but I'll notice like when he's rolling with certain people, he'll know what they do. So he'll try to, he'll, he'll change his game to help the student try to get more out of the role. So he won't go to his A game. He like, he, he won't use his A game all the time. He'll use something like, okay, uh, this person likes playing this guard. So let me do this so that we can see if we can improve that somehow. You know, he doesn't try to like smash his students

to show cause he can, but he doesn't like have to smash his students to show because he can but he doesn't like have to smash him hard he really tries to teach everybody while he's rolling with them so have you ever have you ever seen him uh you ever seen him lose his cool at all lose his cool no i haven't seen him lose his cool um i've heard stories when like maybe he was like younger like when he was like younger because like uh right now cassio like his uh since i've been there i've been like oh this is the nicest guy and in the past he was nice too but he was like harder on the students like they've had harder drills so um i think i've gotten the the uh let's say the senior well he's not a senior he's he's still pretty young but but I've gotten

the very warm Casio because I've heard some stories, man. He can put it on people. Do you know how old he is? Have you ever... I was saying, do you know how old he is? Dude, he's in his

40s. This is why Zoom is so dope. You can just Google stuff. I think he's in his 40s. This is why Zoom is so dope. You can just Google stuff. Yeah, but I think he's in his early 40s. And then he was born in Brazil, right? He was born in Brazil, yeah. I think he came here in like 96 or something. Yeah, he was born in 74.

So what does that make him? 46? Either 46 or like 400. I don't know. Yeah, he's 46. yeah yeah he's 46 46 damn he's 46 didn't realize that all right he's a beast he's in good shape man yeah great shape yeah he's in really good shape he moves really well um doesn't like there's like when you roll with him you like i think he he's maybe 175 or 180 now, but he feels so much heavier than that.

And it's so crazy. This is the main school that I train at, obviously. Oh, here we go. There he is. I wonder if we can hear him. Oh, he's connecting audio. Yeah, we'll be able to hear him in a second. Yep.

How's it going, Casio? Hey, Mark. Mark, right? That's right. Yep, I'm Mark. That's Andrew. And you know the black dude over there. It's so good to connect with you and have you on the show man

we're super appreciative of your time thank you i'm sorry i run a little late my my headphone wasn't working i have to come here to the school it's too noise in my house poor kids there well it's great to have you on the show. And how are you dealing with the coronavirus? Because it shut down your school and stuff like that, right? Yeah. It's tough, right? It's tough in a lot of different ways. Not run the business.

It's a lot of students that rely on this to release stress, to train, right? And a lot of those guys, I would say that 30% come from the medical field. They're so busy, I can't imagine how much they need this to release stress. But other than that, can still support us. A lot of people are going to need support too. I'm imagining after this thing passes, that's when it hits hard, the economy. But it is what it is. We're going to have to support each other.

Are you still able to get in some exercise now? I still, yes. I still work out. I have a workout at home. And I still follow the workout that Isima gave to me at least twice a week. The rest, I try doing more cardio, like endurance stuff. You know, try to stay busy, you know, because without jiu-jitsu, if you're just doing weights, it's not going to release the adrenaline,

the energy that I need to deal with the rest of the day. That's why I push a little harder more in the cardio and endurance exercise or do a few things at the same time for like 30-40 minutes. But try to stay in shape as much as I can during training. Are you able to use the gym in the back much?

Is that what you use to lift right now? I feel, yes. I come here twice a week. The last what? We've been out for nine days right now? I feel, yes. I come here twice. So the last, what? We've been out for nine days, right? I would say that I came here three, four times to do the one day just upper body, one day just legs. But it's depressing, man. It's really depressing to come here and not see it.

And look at this. It's not good. I feel like a traitor to come here by myself. I don't see it. Anyway, look at this. It's not good. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like a traitor to come here by myself. Use the gym. But anyways, it's not a – I come here, let's say, on the Sundays. And when we have a regular schedule, there's nobody here. That's good.

Because tomorrow I know that we're going to open, it's going to be full of students. But right now, you know, it just feels awkward to be here. I'm sure you need somebody to – you probably need somebody to choke out, right? Yeah, yeah. That's good that we're doing this online because i don't have to see me if i probably forget around around the seam i'm gonna jump over his neck yeah how cool has it been seeing the um because i haven't seen it with many other types of like fitness like uh you know gyms and whatnot but i've seen a lot of like uh people who

are into jujitsu still saying like hey we need to still support our small you know jujitsu clubs our schools um it's been really cool seeing you know a lot of practitioners still saying that they're going to continue paying to support because they're like hey we need somewhere to roll once this is all over with and if the And if the school shuts down for good, what are we going to do? How has that felt being on the other side of things? Incredible. Incredible. I see so many support, so many messages.

Yeah, people online say those things and all the social media. Yeah, especially this school here, it's probably one of the only schools in Sacramento nowadays that is still main adult. I would say that I have 30% kids and 7% adults. Wow. Yeah, compared to the other schools. The other schools is 50-60.

Roosevelt School is opposite. It's 30% adults and 70% kids. And we still have a lot of support. It's really hard to get support for the parents now because the parents, they dare focus on the financial part, focus on how they're going to provide for the family. But even then, they still have a really good turnout in terms of they still be able to support the school.

We know we prepare. All of us should be prepared in terms of... Right now, it's still too soon. I thought it was going to be too much already one week out, but we don't know. It seems like every day, every hour changed the outcome of this. We expect to open the school in a week. It's not going to happen. But, yes, we got a good response for the students, good support, right?

But, yes, we don't know until when in terms of, yeah, what star finish going down south for them. Yes, we're going to have to know how to deal with, you know. Like I said, in 2008 when the economy crashed, we had a lot of students that went under. No work, but we supported them back then. We will be able to still open the school

and support them. Hurt us too, of course, but we will be able to support each other. As a community, right? As a society, that's what we're going to do. I'm pretty sure we're going to be okay. How is Brazil? Have you checked in on some – I'm sure you have some family there still.

How are they doing? Yeah, that's my – that's another concern, right, that feels like here. I'm worried about my people here, my loved ones here. But in Brazil, if you hit hard here, imagine what they're going to do in Brazil. The way it is in China or Italy right now, in Brazil, it's going to be way worse. I still have my parents. They're over 80. uh i still have my parents they over 80s and uh my mom she need a full-time assistant for her and have a person that goes there to help my my sisters there live with them help my parents

but they need help and uh i'm afraid those helps come outside right it was that uh the nurses are there yeah because they have families should have to take care of themselves but uh yeah it's uh it's not i would say that they're kind of the same level of us you know the the time frame of this uh yeah probably two weeks behind uh illy maybe one week behind us but looks like it's going to be kind of the same in terms of the numbers of action. When you were growing up, did you play soccer? Because soccer is huge there. So was it like either kids played soccer or they did jiu-jitsu?

Or did you do like a mix of things? Jiu-jitsu wasn't there for us back then. Jiu-jitsu, I would say the same time that Jiu-Jitsu got introduced here in the U.S. and people didn't notice when the UFC came, was pretty much the same thing in my city, too. I'm from the capital, Brasília. It was the same thing, too. Like early 90s, we didn't hear much about Jiu-Jitsu.

It was more Jiu-Jitsu for kids. I did, I played soccer too as a kid. I still love soccer, but just watching, right? I still follow my teams and watch games. But I did capoeira. It's another martial art they have in Brazil. It's more like kicking, not much punching,

but more kicking and dance. It's a different martial art. But I did capoeira when I was a kid. When I was 11 years old, I didn't do my 15. I took a little bit of a break and I did a little more, but I started jiu it started just when I was 17 judo 17 jiu-jitsu when I was 18 years old but I was probably I'm

probably the first innovation of jiu-jitsu that came from Brazil I'm the first one we see like I was showing them or i sent them the video of you with helio gracie that's on youtube so like first off that's really crazy because helio like like they they started all of that but when you started training like how did you end up training with him was that something you did often or was it on and off no no it The thing with Filipe was, going back to what I just mentioned about Brazil and my city don't have much Jiu-Jitsu back then,

was we didn't have much Jiu-Jitsu instructors. Full-time Jiu-Jitsu instructors didn't exist back then. It was a guy that had done Jiu-Jitsu a little bit a long time ago, a doctor who was a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu, but he didn't have much time to teach. Chief of police, the guy that first time I got introduced to Jiu-Jitsu,

but he was a retired police. And he showed up at the school, a Jiu-Jitsu school, to help a little bit in the ground game. But my relation with Hildilo Grace was my dad he see how much that I was into Jiu Jitsu

and how much that I liked Jiu Jitsu and he start he knew about the Grace when he was

younger in his teenagers and he heard the stories about the Hilo Grace

and Carlos Grace and he used to travel a lot and working and he went he heard all the stories about Helio Gracie, Carlos Gracie and he used to travel a lot working and he went to Rio and he just got the idea, you know what, why I'm not going there, introduced

myself and said that Brazil needed a jiu-jitsu instructor and maybe help to bring some instructor to teach in Brazil. And when he went to the Gracie school, Gracie Maitá,

that has, that where Hickson Gracie came from, Hoyer Gracie, Hoyer Gracie came from the same place. When he got there, the first person

that he met was Hildo Gracie. Got in the morning class. And it's funny because Hildo, he was, he lives in Taipava grace got in the morning class here and it's funny because he was he lives in a in taipava it's a city like he would be the same that are here to lake town goes to the mount was like two hours drive to get there he just once a week he was going to the the city to to rio to teach a couple private last to go back to his house. It was the day

my dad went there. It was to see him. When he got there, they started talking. My dad is really good to talk. He knew the stories about Gracie. He started talking with Helio about all the

old stories. Helio said, you know all the stories about it. And he says, my son now is completely hooked about jiu-jitsu. And he asked, why don't you bring your son here? And the week after, I went up there. It was a great experience. We had different plans back then to the meeting that we had, but it never came to

more than that day that you saw on YouTube. But it was a great experience. I spent the day there. Went to his house on the mountain for the whole day. Had a breakfast, lunch, left there late afternoon.

But it was a great experience for sure. And that day was important too because that shows my afternoon. But it was a great experience for sure. And that day was important too because that shows my I was having my support of my parents for the things that I choose to do. That was a good stuff. Yeah, the

Gracies are infamous. I mean, back in the day, they would put out advertisements of you put up your amount of money and we'll put up our amount of money and we'll go at it. And I don't think at that time there was anything like that. And I think you can maybe even trace them back and kind of say that they're partially responsible for MMA in some weird way, because people would go, my understanding is people would go to the Gracie Academy and they would go there with a boxing skill or kung fu or taekwondo. And more times than not, the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu practices, people weren't up to date with what they were doing and people would get choked out. And it's my understanding they put an advertisement in like a penny saver or something like that and it said, want a broken arm?

And then people would put up their amount of money, you know, and they would go in there and fight. So they must have been super famous in your area when you were growing up, right? That's how my dad knew them. dad knew them. For the same stories that we heard that they did here in the early 90s in LA, all the newspaper stuff, exactly what Hildo Gracie did back then when he

came from Belém, North Brazil, when he moved to Rio. He wasn't original for Rio. He moved to Rio to introduce for a large city, right? To have more partitions. that's how he left his own hometown and uh nearby amazons and i went to rio to and that's how it started using uh challenging

people to challenge people from capoeira challenging people from judo uh from karate, from everywhere. This was like the early, I would say the 1950s. And Harden Grace, the guy that invented the UFC, the first UFC, that's what he did when he moved here. Just challenging people.

The whole idea of the UFC was built on challenges, different martial arts and the cage. They have a lot of different ways to, a lot of different ideas to how they would have put this in the first show. They change a lot the rules at that time limit,

but what the Gracie wants is just to prove the Jets was a it's a for a 1-1 for a real fight would it be the more of the best self defense you can have and they did right now they super famous there works there the dresses history did you have a plan? I don't know if you got your black belt in six years or seven years, but I think I heard that you first came to the U.S. in 1996 or 1997. I'm not sure. But did you have a plan to build schools here and move forward?

Because it must have been crazy to think about all of that. Yeah. Yes, I had a plan. Yeah. Yeah. I had a plan. I would say that I had a plan. I remember in 94, I was still a blue belt. I met a guy from Michigan. And the first one I met him, he barely could speak Portuguese. I wouldn't speak any English back then. Can you imagine this?

Wow. But I was talking with him. I brought the conversation. What about the U.S.? You guys have jiu-jitsu there. I know you guys love Bruce Lee, love martial arts, love Chuck Norris. You think America would have liked this? And he said, oh, this is awesome.

They like to wrestle. They're going to like this. And that's when it came to mind the first time and my brother moved here in 95 my brother his he applied for college and he applied for a lot of different places i remember it was like a near place a place nearby new york uh mi.A., a few places that he knew. And he had Stockton. For some reason, he picked Stockton. He has all different places to go, even Hawaii. But he said, no, I don't want to be a student because I want to focus in college.

He regrets so bad that he chooses Stockton. Not against Stockton, but he has a different... For him, a young guy come here that I'll, you know, much Brazilians around him makes things even tougher for him. But it was good for me, right?

In terms of... But he was here in 95 in Stockton in school. He was a Blue Bell in Jiu-Jitsu. He came to, he started visiting schools in San Francisco

back then. They had a, I forgot the name of the gentleman that is teaching there as a Gracie too. He's a father of Carly,

I forgot, my gosh, Carly Gracie. He's a father of the Carly Gracie. He's a father of Clark Gracie. It's an unknown partition now that competes in tournaments. But my brother trained there for a little bit, San Francisco. And he decided to come here to Sacramento. It's on the yellow book yellow pages right

yeah uh a school uh jiu-jitsu school he went there and he trained with those uh the guys that were there they liked him why don't train here sometimes and he started training at this this school and they they were uh blackburn jiu-jitsujitsu no jujitsu there was a japanese just they were trained but they they were following the the the vcrs from graces they would teach just the things that uh the grace was teaching vcrs they would grab the tapes and teaching classes and they never saw a guy like my brother rolling and but but again he was a college kid, blue belt, a good blue belt, but not a competitive blue belt. And they liked him, and they started talking.

They said, if you guys think I'm good, you need to see my young brother. It was me. Why don't you bring him here, you know, to do a seminar for us. That was the first time that I came here. It was 96, right? But yes,

it was. In 96, I did this seminar there. But Finns didn't, I was supposed to stay there for a month. It wasn't a seminar. I stayed a month teaching at this school. and but things didn't i was supposed to stay there for months it was the same now i was a stay a month teaching at this school and but things didn't go well for us they the instructors they i don't know what's going on back then but i think it was an intimidate but by us afraid that we would take the students away from them.

Yeah, they were always a purple belt. They were a black belt. Why pay this purple belt to come and teach you if you have a black belt? Shock. And the first day that I teach this class, I think I've told the team about this, but the first day they teach there, people kind of hesitate to learn with me, not showing much respect for this young kid

that loves to roll. I told my brother, you said those people here are nice. They don't seem too friendly with me. I think I need to show to them they respect me. I put everyone in the line like this and i wrote everyone and after that day or i got them i got respect because the next day a few guys show up the rest

didn't show up to the class but yeah it must have been you're gonna say it must have been exciting teaching people back then when they didn't know anything about jiu-jitsu. It must have been really eye-opening for a lot of people that were first exposed to it. It was because we just mentioned about the challenges, right? They come back then, the people that were doing jiu-jitsu, they came from different martial arts too. They heard a little bit here, the stories about the UFC. They watched the first ones and they know it's like a style against style.

Or they heard the stories from down south in SoCal, what they were doing there. But yes, it feels like every role was a little bit challenging. I never got through a fight

like, okay, yeah, we'll start rolling, the guy gets frustrated, said, can I throw punches? But I have a few cases of guys getting super frustrated, and it feels like we're going to get in a fight. But you can imagine a 22-year-old kid

that will train twice a day in Brazil, train for competitions, get here. You don't see guys that you can roll with. Every roll for me would be a challenge. And they came with the mentality of this. Let me challenge this guy, see what he can do. Yes, we have rolls that feels like a challenge.

The days that I teach back in 1996, but fast forward a little bit. After that, I done the seminar. A few students from this place, they said that we don't need to come anymore. After, like, say, three sections, they said, you know what? You guys don't need to come here anymore. You guys can leave. We left, and I have a few guys that follow us from this place. You know what? They were super.

One of the guys was Terry Maxwell. He's one of my black girls at the school in South Sac. He said, no, you need to do something with this. What do you, the things that you, I never saw what you done in terms of martial arts. You need to open a school here.

You need to do something. But I said, look, I'm not going to live here illegal. We need to open a school here. We need to do something. But I said, look, I'm not going to live here legal. My brother here is just in school. If you find a place that we can roll, we can train, yes. But I'm not pretending. I'm not staying here if it's not with a paper, legal. We don't know how to do those things back then. We have no idea how it would be possible for us. But he found a warehouse where we can train.

That's how he started the first, I would say, was the seat for the Rang Jiu-Jitsu was built on this place in South Sac in 1996. But he opened. He just opened the doors and put the mats on the floor. Water Mouse started talking to people to show up. And like I said, most of the people

had experienced different martial arts. And they walk in and they, hey, what is this? And I had a little bit of my side of the Gracie Challenge. Yes, we can start a role. And we sometimes what is this? And I had a little bit my side of the Gracie challenges and I was like, yes, we can start a role.

And we sometimes start with stand-up and we take downs and sometimes it's just starting on the ground. Yes, that's how we brought some students,

but we lost a lot of students too because a lot of guys was frustrated for their heart hurt and more unconscious and things like this. Oh, man.

But that was the beginning. Is that school still around, or did that just turn into your school now? Just turned into my school. It was there until, I would say, early 2000, if I'm not wrong. But my brother and I went back. In 1996, I spent most of the year here. I came here in the first semester for like three months. I went back to Brazil, and I came back here.

They had the Pan Ams in 1996, right? Yes, and I stayed with my brother for another three, four back here. They had the Pan Ams in 96, right? Yes. And I stayed with my brother for another three, four months here. Trained here, competed in local tournaments, Sambo tournaments. Had a few Jiu-Jitsu tournaments too that I, in SoCal, that already exist, I was going there. But when I left, my brother was running the class that we had there. It was an official class. It was a get-together

on the evenings. They were there only for a couple hours. My brother was here until 1998. He moved to Las Vegas. He got married and moved to Las Vegas. But they kept the place until, I would say say 2000, 2001.

If everybody learns the same moves and understands the same execution, how does somebody beat somebody else? Is it like a physical game of chess you know obviously your genetics will play into it your your speed your strength your endurance but i find it really fascinating that you know you could have you know two two white belts or two black belts and they learn the same stuff from the same school uh but yet one guy is able to kind of come out on top because he can kind of figure out you know maybe where the other guy has a weakness or something like what have you noticed has been you know the the key contributing factor to somebody continuing to make progress

because you've been doing it for so long but you can still work on mastering this trade, right? Yeah, it's an interesting question because first it's who's more dedicated, right? Who's going to spend time more training? If you learn the same thing, but you have more dedication than the other person, this is going to count in your favor. They say that talent, no, excuse me, hard work beat talent. But if the guy has talent, it's going to be tough to beat him.

But in Jiu-Jitsu, I think it's because so many different outcomes can happen, right, in terms of a guard, develop guard, develop takedowns, develop guard passing, guard develop guard develop take downs develop guard passing develop a game that uh that uh uh leg leg games attack a lot of legs nowadays have a lot of people like to attack legs but uh it's a combination of uh dedication 100 stylo they say the style make fights, right? Sometimes you have a style that, like here, training, we say this, 99% of your training is going to be with your people, your guys, right? Like you said, you're going to learn the same techniques in the same room, and you're going to roll with the same people. You're going to roll with the same people.

You're going to spar with the same people. It's you to adapt your game, the things that you're good at, in a different type of games, guys with different games. For your game, your jiu-jitsu style gets exposed for different styles. One thing that we have here, because we have a lot of different styles, which is good, but it's a style to make fights. They say there's a lot of MMA.

It can be translated for jiu-jitsu, too. But in different sports like this, if you take two guys that come together, but one, sports like this, right, if you take two guys that they come together, but one, for some reason, learn faster or get better in the tournaments, it's how much you expose yourself,

how much you want this. I think that's how it comes down to, but style, it happens a lot too. The guys with a particular style that always give you trouble. It's a pain in the butt because everything that you do, he has an answer for those movements. But that style is going to help you to improve for your jiu-jitsu to deal with different scenarios.

What about body size like if somebody you know if some if two two students are on the same pace but one just happens to be real tall and lengthy and the other one's real stocky and short have you noticed that one benefits better than the other oh yeah this is huge if you If you – Jiu-Jitsu, I think, is built for all different type of bodies, for the athletic, for the your your body for for what for the style that fits better for you it's going to help you help you a lot and what i see a lot is the guys that have let's say they have this super tall uh lanky but they use the kind of stocky type of game this is it's it's really bad for him because it's not adopted for what it can take the best for him.

But the guys that know how to use this in their favor, that makes them way better than the others, 100%. We have guys here that are

stocky, short, but they know how to use the hooks, the leverage in their favor how to to to bring this the the opponent to their game they're really good at attracting to their game and yes that helps a lot for sure i think that's why i think is it important but i think it's what like i hear a lot of people that uh they're like i don't want to start jujitsu until I get in a little bit better shape or until I do something else.

But jujitsu is so awesome because like you said, like if you have a belly, there are guys that have certain games working with their belly, you know, and utilizing that. So it's like you can come in whenever you don't need to get into better shape. You can just start and start improving immediately. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's there. We hear a lot, right? You're going to get in better shape to start training jiu-jitsu.

Yeah. It's never going to happen. The way you're going to lose – it's like you try to do diet, just diet, not exercising. If you don't have a different goal to do it, you're never going to do it, right? You need to put two, three things together to make your goals to go true. If it's not, it's not going to work. Yes, you have first things to start with stand jiu-jitsu.

You know, try because it's hard. For the beginning protections, it's hard for, for the beginning partitions, it's really hard to, to understand the, the game, you know,

play chess. And once, as soon as you start adapting your, what you have, your tools to, to start, to put in your game,

things that you can be good at, your, it's incredible how much you can, you can improve. Just to start understanding a little bit more about your body, your movements, hooks, like we mentioned before, grips,

the idea to be on the bottle, why you're doing guard, why you pass someone's guard, why you're defending this, how you're attacking. This makes a huge difference for you to start learning, progressing in jiu-jitsu. Is it an important factor to be aggressive and to not lose sight of the fact that it's kind of a fight? Or is that a disadvantage?

Are you better off being more calm and just thinking of it as a sport? That goes, as we just mentioned, that goes above style. This means style for me. It's not just your type of body, right? A lot of times they ask me, hey, Cass, what should I do next to improve my game? What am I missing in my game? And the first thing that comes to mind is this. Oh, you're too passive.

Or you're too aggressive. You don't see things coming out present for you because you already moved the pieces already. You already moved in the wrong direction because you just answer with your instinct, your aggressive instinct. But it's good to manage to have both. You know, just for example, one of the guys that I have here

probably was the most technical guy here. That's the – he seemed the best. Julian. Julian. He used to be super mellow. His nickname is Flow because he's just – he flows like water. Every move that he does, it doesn't change his face. It doesn't change

the way they approach Jiu-Jitsu. It's beautiful. It's flawless, the way they describe his Jiu-Jitsu. There's no effort at all to use energy. It's just if you get the best out of him and a good technique, he accepts that. He

finds a way out, but he never fights hard to avoid those. But he likes to compete too. And this goes against the competition that he signed up for. With a rule set, with time, with a point system. The way that he plays his jiu-jitsu is not good for tournaments. That's why in the last two years say, the last two, three years, last two years, I stopped pushing him to be more aggressive. No, no, no, you cannot accept this.

Fight hard. Don't get swept. You know, try past the guard. Don't accept that he recovers his guard. Keep the pressure on. And I think that having seen him as a trained partner forced him to do more like this and forced him to be more smooth, more flawless, more see things before react with his muscle, with his athletic ability.

That's why one helps each other. They want to be more aggressive. They don't want to be more nice, smooth, see the things coming before react. But yes, aggressive can hurt you. And passive can hurt you too, both ways. It's how to manage when to bring the best out of your aggressive hand to be the breakthrough. Come down slow

like Toby. Toby, one of the students I have here too, the black belt, super methodical game. He doesn't move. If he's 100% sure this is going to work for him, he doesn't expose much himself. Sometimes, the same thing, you need to force him to be more aggressive, 100% sure this is going to work for him. He doesn't expose much himself. And sometimes the same thing, you need to force him

to be more aggressive, to push harder sometimes. When Encima came through the doors, were you guys pretty excited? You're like, hey, we got a big bodybuilder to beat up. Yeah, it's funny because he said he was a soccer player. First thing, before I mentioned

that, before I knew it, but it's pretty humbling. He didn't he said he was a soccer player. Now, first thing, before I mentioned that, before I knew it. Yeah, right. But it's pretty humbling. He didn't say who he was. He just walked here and said, I want to train at this. I said, yeah, no problem. He said, I done different things. I play soccer.

Look, man, he's so big for soccer. How'd that happen? Yeah, but we found out more about him as he started training, but he never came here. I'm about to build and raise this much of deadlift, doing bench press this way, win this, win that. No, he just came here for me to tell that I want to do a competitive martial arts.

That's one thing that he said. I said, okay, good. You're young, athletic. You should put your time, you know, keep your, for right now, keep your strength, your size outside the mat. Right now, you're just focused on the technique. And, but

he's a good listener, man, because everyone that sign up here, the first thing that I tell them, look, you're going to see a lot of upper belts here rolling 45 minutes. Don't try being one of those guys. Every time they roll, take as a private lesson for you. The rounds are six minutes. Every guy that rolls, you cannot roll without the white belt. It doesn't matter if it's a blue belt.

Later, you're going to learn the ones that are going to help you the most. The ones that are going to be more, they're going to help, they're going to be more a side coach and they're going to talk as they roll. You're going to learn more. But try to take every role that you have as a private lesson for you.

And they say, okay, okay, I'm going to do that. But when they start a role, it feels like they need to bring the best of them pushing against the upper belts. The upper belts, they're not there to push them for them. They're there to help you, right?

If they want to roll a tough round, they're going to ask the upper belts. They're going to ask the wide belt. The moment is just to help the beginners to get better. It's not to get better, to understand the game, you know, what they can do, what is right, what is wrong. Once they start learning, when they get the blue belt, they're going to free to roll. But spend the first year just learning as much as they can is very important.

Simo already does that. Every time they roll, sometimes he rolls for six, whatever time it is, for six minutes, he spends at least one, two minutes asking what he needs to do to improve. What do you do here? How can I do this? And the finish class

spent time to fix the things that he saw the open they saw he was rolling when he was sparring. But yes, it's very important. That makes a difference too, for sure. Yeah, we see that a lot with lifting. You know, when people are lifting in other sports or people are sprinting,

you know, you're going against other people. You always compete against other people. That's part of sport. In the case of like powerlifting, you're just going against the weights, but you can't go beyond what you're capable of doing. You have to stay in your lane. And if you can use two plates on each side for squats and move it comfortably and move the weight well and execute, then you can progress, but you can't progress and try to do two plates and two, you know, a 10 on each side with your knees caving in your back rounding. You're not going

to learn the technique. You're not going to, it doesn't really teach your body to get any better. So I'd imagine you see a lot of that jujitsu where people are straining so hard and working. It's great that they're working hard. It's great. They got some of that aggression, but they probably need to kind of chill out a little bit more so they can relax so they can learn and absorb what you're trying to teach right yeah and that student see everywhere everything that you do it's a science behind it's a technique behind right you cannot just go expecting. And a lot of guys, I understand they come here because they need, it's a layout for them.

They need to release the stress. And it feels like the way to do Jiu-Jitsu is not punching bags. We don't punch bags. We don't do katas. The way to release your stress, it's rolling, right? As you put yourself there, you're going to feel exhausted. tired gonna boom and but it's a it's a call for losing students because they they super we all of when we started to super spazzy we yeah you're gonna hurt the reason that i put the hit them against the with the upper belt is because the upper belt is going to see coming before happen most of the time you're going to see an elbow come

they're going to defend the elbow you know we're not we're not throwing punches the knee is going to come in your face and you're going to have you're going to find a way to block before another another white belt can do it they're going to hurt each other because it's not because they want because it's elbows going to fly knees going to to come, the head is going to hit you, but if your upper belt knows how to hold them. But if you let go, you're going to lose the students most of the time, or because they get hurt or because they get frustrated with the learning process.

they get hurt or because they get frustrated with the learning process. But the ones that stick with the things that we say during class, when they sign up here, they have a way longer role on jiu-jitsu. They stick longer. Do you do anything else for any newcomers as far as like, you know you they're not allowed to roll with other white belts uh do you do anything else to help kind of ease them into the culture and kind of make sure that they stick around longer just show up to class you know show up to class yeah we, we talk a lot. You know, we have so many, they have so many, what do you call this,

mentors here, right? I'm teaching, but as I'm preparing, they're going to prepare up too. 90% of the class, sometimes I split the class when it feels like I need to spend more time for them to develop a base technique and I want to push for the upper belts. A technique is hard to understand, right?

It needs more time to develop, to explain for the upper belts. I spend more time. I split the class. But most of the time, we're together. We do the same technique. And they're always going to prepare for another upper belt. It's the same thing too. They are the mentor of the day.

From there, they get guys that are going to be with them more. The guys, the upper belts in the class, they come. be with them more. The guys, the upper belts in the class, they come. That's the ones going to help them to through the time they're going to spend here. But it's come and enjoyed the culture.

Like we said, enjoyed the techniques. Had feedback from me for the upper belts, like I said. But I believe it's just come and absorb the technique as they practice. I'm actually really curious about this because I mean, when I first started at the school, um, I was pretty nervous, you know, I was like, this is a martial art. I'm a big guy.

People are going to want to kick my ass. People can kick my ass. But the big thing that I noticed was that everyone was extremely welcoming. Like everyone, like you said, like immediately people would want to show me things. They would teach me things. They would be super open. And when I was talking to some of the students that used to be at other schools in the past, or they come from somewhere else, one of the biggest things that stood out to them was just how, I guess, how nice everybody was, even though things can get competitive at times. You hear at other schools, you hear some horror stories about how dog-eat-dog other schools are and how the culture isn't good. like how just dog-eat-dog other schools are and how the culture isn't good.

So I'm curious, how did you have in mind trying to build a culture like this? Because I noticed this with like Waza too. Since that's a stem from yourself, it's very similar to you. How did you do that? As a combination of a bunch of things. a bunch of things. Me, teach for 25 years, right?

That helps you to understand a little more what is the needs of the student. Have guys up to 30 years, 40 years old that is not much competitive.

They train hard, you know, but they can be very kind with you, can help you understand how to build the culture of a good... Because one of the things important in Jiu-Jitsu, you need to trust your physical integrity for your training partner, right?

Because you literally, I'm going to put my neck for you. I have to trust you're going to let it go. Can you imagine this? It's not even the competitive side, which is important too, right? Sometimes if you go to a place, has the the the the coach the the voice go go go go push it this can develop some more competitive that you need to have when you sparring right right one of the things that i don't like much you don't have much music when you when you roll first because music it's, it's everyone have your, right?

The things that the music that I like, probably it's not the ones that you like, and it's not the ones that Mark likes, it's not the ones that, I mean, like, we have different tastes of music too, but to don't excite much at the moment that you're rolling.

One of the things. The second thing is integrate the class like we do. White belt, don't roll with the... You cannot roll with another white belt, but you can roll with a sema. When I say that, I want

to bring responsibility for you. You know what? Yes. I have to take care of my little brother here right now. Those things that I say, no, no, no, no. Oh, Rolf, Julian, go ahead.

The group is going to show this for you. That's forcing you, oh, I have the responsibility to take care of this guy right now. I think giving responsibility for the upper belts

helped me a lot to develop this class that we have guys like you that are competitive athletes, they compete, they're doing this, but at the same time, you know that you need those, you need Joe, you need Big Jack, you need

John Garcia, you need Julian, you need all those guys to make you better. If you don't have those guys, you need Neho, you need Cesar, you need those guys. Because without them, how are you going to get better? And it's good to develop

your jiu-jitsu because when they go with you right now, they say, look, I need to give my best for him because he's getting ready for competition. But the same thing, when they finish you, they can call another white belt. It'd be a completely different person if they're white belt. Because the white belt belt the needs that he has right now is different than yours does make sense yeah that's i think that helped me to build a place that i can build

athletes like you but the same time i still can develop guys just come here just to to train for as a hobby guys in the 50s they would just want to roll to to get in better shape to be in part of the culture to lose weight to to maybe someday guys in my like in the 40s compete they look up to me nowadays does make sense i think that i help give responsibility for for the upper belts that i have you know knows that i want to finish class they're gonna be i say on the evening class I live here and people see you for another 30 40 minutes just exchange technique they don't need me anymore and a lot of times you see it become for they ask me stuff you say you know what goes to to that guy there the guy knows better than me do the technique that

arrest for when I say that when you walk to A, please, Joe, Cassio, just told me to walk to you, ask about this close guard that you do well. Man, means the world for the guy, because he knows how important it is for the team. Those are part of the things that I have can help me, can help

the school, can help the students to get better. Yeah, you're empowering the other guys in the school can help the students to get better yeah you're empowering the other guys in the uh in the school um with you know kind words like they're getting excited because you said that they're better at something than you are even if it's not true but that that helps their helps their ego and then also just uh you're empowering a lot of creativity by saying hey you know in sima go work with Andrew. And in SEMA might be the first time you ever told him that.

And but now he's got to go off on his own and teach this technique. And you're not hovering over and you're not saying, no, no, that's not the right way. Let me show. Let me get in there and show you. You're kind of giving them the reins and they get to be creative with it, which I think is brilliant. Yeah, yeah. And that's why they create this environment here, you know, be a little bit more experienced teaching, knows the needs of the students.

When I came in 96, for me, it was all you compete, all you train hard, you're not part of this. To know that it's not true, you're not part of this, to know that it's not true. You know, so another thing that helped me is just have the feedback with the student. Say, hey, how was your day? Oh, yeah, it was good. You know, I woke up four in the morning. I work in construction all day. Went back home, kissed my wife, my kids, showered, and came back to here.

When I see things like this, oh, my gosh, man. Oh, the guy come here's a nurse like i said before oh i work they shift the whole night seven in the morning uh seven night to seven this morning i held all my my sleep until 11 in the morning to come into training for what man you spent you didn't sleep at all work all night and you're here you know you you have more appreciation for those guys you know this guy to get here. And sometimes I make as I'm teaching,

sometimes I spend my time talking for the technique and see the student like this almost, they cannot keep their eyes open because they're so tired. Instead of being pissed with, it's an honor for me. The guy is there falling asleep instead of being in bed, not asleep. They're there. They're here training with me. I's an honor for me. The guys there falling asleep instead of being in bed, not asleep,

they're there. They're here training with me. I said, hey, Matt, hold on. Hold your eyes open, please. I'm about to finish this and you can have fun. Let me finish my sentence here. Please keep your eyes open. But yes, it's true.

They work all day. They go to school. They have their own lives. And they still have to spend at least two hours, right? An hour and a half class plus the time they drive here, the time to drive until the body calms down, shower. It takes a lot of the day to be here. And some students, like I see a lot of guys, they do every day, right? They take their time to be here. It's two hours, half an hour a day they're doing here.

It's a lot. When you did open up a school, I would imagine that, you know, after the UFC started to really take off in, you know, late 90s, early 2000, your classes probably started filling up pretty good, right? Is that around the time that your school started to grow and then you were thinking about the possibility of opening up multiple schools? Yeah. Going back there, 96 came, 97, I came here to spend time with my brother

to train at the self-sacred school and competing. And from there, I got a job in Brazil that I teach in Jiu-Jitsu that required my time to be there. I was there more. And I teach. I was teaching, competing teaching. But I still come here once in a while to seminars, to competing. And in 2001,

I came here to do a seminar and I got invited to teach here and I saw the opportunity to, okay, you know what? I think now it's time to think about it because the dreams start getting bigger, right?

And I was my 27, 28 years old. I said, you know what? Or I'm going to take this serious to another level where I can get married. I wasn't married already, sorry. I can have kids and provide full time of my time in jiu-jitsu because the way that I was there, I was in Brazil in the late 90s.

I was married. No, I got married in 2001, sorry. But late 90s I had my girlfriend it just turned to be my wife and my girlfriend

but I was a single guy that had no family you know and I lived with my parents still that I was making money enough

to to join my life as a competitor paying my tournaments competing and make some money to teach but I was already looking,

no, I cannot make my living like this. I know when it turns to be adult, right? A real adult, to have a family, raise kids, pay my bills,

I'm going to need more. That's when I started thinking about moving down here. Or move here, or use jiu-jitsu in Brazil as a second job, as a hobby, right? And I came here to a seminar in 2001. And in 2002, I came back here. Bazut was the same person, Dave Covers, from the Covers Karate School.

He invited me to teach at one of his schools. I said, look, I'm not going to move here. I'm married right now. I'm not going to move here. Illegal. He said, no, I cannot even let you teach illegal here. And Derek Germano for Waza, he was the guy that said, you know what? Let's try to make this legal. Let's start looking for lawyers and see the possibility to have you teach here, you teach here, move here for work visa. But it was in 2002. Imagine right after September 11, how bad it was to get immigrants to get a visa to move here, right, to teach.

But he applied for lawyers. I think he has a cousin. She's a lawyer. And she said, Derek, don't waste your time. This is not going to happen. After September 11th, they're not going to give a visa for immigrants. And he said, I'm going to try. And he did all the paperwork.

He applied. He got it. He's not a lawyer, but he put everything together for me. I got the visa. And when I came here in 2003, it was a different story. See guys enjoy more the culture of Jiu-Jitsu. They embrace more. They are more, they like tournaments.

They like stylists of Jiu-Jitsu. You know, they like the way we we see things is not there's not much traditional martial arts not much that have the the culture of uh japan can be relate more with the socal type approach you know uh surf styles skateboard guys that i was doing jiu-jitsu back then they i think the cultural guy involved more. But this helps in the tournaments. And, of course, the UFC, but the UFC would have bring you, would have bring the students here, right, to do it.

But they, or they would have be hooked about the rolling part, or they would have, you know what, this is not for me. This is not striking. This is not for me it's not striking it's not for me but i saw a lot of guys embrace the culture and because the tournaments because watching the techniques of course the chess game but it was introduced way better than when i came here 96 96 was super disappointed for me but when in 2003 things things got better. And it was with the years, early 2000s to late 2008,

2009, things started getting even bigger. Did winning Worlds in 2003 help with your growth? Like after people, like after that happened, did that really spur things forward at all or did it just add to your accolades?

If I was a good marketing i would be incredible you know but i'm really bad on market probably know that uh should have helped me a lot back then but didn't at all i feels like it was but you know the funny thing about the 2003, the roads, of course the biggest term that I ever won was I felt like I was chasing that dream so hard that I want to keep for myself. It's almost like if you like me before I win the roads, you have to like the same after winning the Worlds. I don't want the guys that are with me just because I won the Worlds.

It's kind of a narcissist mentality. I don't know how to say this, but I felt like I didn't want to expose the World title as a way for me to gain the like of people. It's like when people walk in, hey, who are you under with? Say, what I mean? Where does Jiu-Jitsu come from? Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Somebody asks, but who's your – They want to label you from the things that come before you, right?

And it feels like I should have taken more advantage of when I won the road. But the media wasn't that the way it is right now, right? I remember I went to do a seminar at Lloyd Irving in Washington, D.C. I said, Cassio, you know that you are the only, right now, you are the only road title, 2003 road title that lives in the U.S. And you have guys that come to the U.S., they do tours here. You see the posters of tours for East Coast tour

and West Coast tour I don't see enough about you doing those things why I said yeah I answered him

the same way right now I'm not good at marketing I felt I didn't want to take advantage of the dearly my baby title

does it make sense it's kind of weird, but I didn't take advantage of that, but the girl came organic for me. It wasn't because I want a road title or because not. I don't know. Maybe

nowadays would have helped me or still help. I'm pretty sure help when they say, oh, you want whoever understands what the meaning of Mundial is, the road, black belt, adult. When they know this, they give credit. Oh, you want this?

But a lot of times they walk in, they don't even know this. Oh, he's just a master, the old man, the visions. They never know the things that I achieved before. When they find out, oh, you won the Rhodes? Oh, well, you talk about the master Rhodes, right? Say, yeah, I won the master Rhodes too. But no, in 2003, you were a master.

Say, no, I wasn't a master. But how did you win the Rhodes? Yeah, I won the Rhodes, the adult Rhodes. But you're a black belt in today they know that it means means therefore what a second does make sense but it's my fault to not not bring this more up and still still still be but that's okay I understand yeah I understand what you're saying though it's something that you did and it's not necessarily defining exactly who you are.

So you're kind of like, hey, F you if you don't know that I know what's up. Like, I know what's up. I don't need the world title to show that. Yes, exactly. I don't want them to get to this place here, first look at the wall in my curriculum, to know how good we are. Does it make sense? How good this place here first look in the wall in my curriculum to know how good we are does it make sense how good this place is how safe it is for you and a lot of times

they see about the term probably they just have a bunch of badass guys there that just throw hard and tough no no come here you're going to see a lot of guys here that are super kind super nice and really good Jiu Jitsu and that it's not just uh in seaman's and uh and uh me or or julian's or you know i mean like it's not just world champions here it's not guy no no no we have a guys here that uh they're going to

treat you really well they're going to be really good in jiu-jitsu you're going to have a lot you have a lot a lot to learn with them. You don't need the road titles. It's good to be labeled with those things. It'll make you proud. But the same thing is not the main reason for this. Maybe answer the question that we've done before, why this place people treat people nice. Maybe because that.

The achievement is good. Raise our ego, but I don't think it helped much as a business. Do you tell some of your fat guys to go talk to Nsema? They

bought Nsema a lot with that. I've done my part too apart if i took i took him to to help me for sure too yep 100 but it's a different levels right when you see it's like we just said right now when you see uh the world, maybe start with this guy here before I get to there. When you see Simba in really good shape, say, man, how am I going to talk? They almost feel like, you know, I still have to go through levels before I talk with Simba.

I said, no, no, no. Get there. He knows the things. He knows how to deal with guys that are out of shape or guys in shape too, for sure. I'm curious about this because, you know, like I started jujitsu like late for, for what most people would say. I think I started when I was 20, 27. I started when I was like 23. And when a lot of like,

cause a lot of athletes listen to this podcast and I feel like there are going to be some guys that are going to want to start jujitsu now. And they're going to want to try to get to the they're going to want to try and compete at a very high level so from your perspective having being someone who's won worlds multiple times what does it take for someone to get there especially if they didn't they haven't been doing jujitsu since they were seven years old, like a lot of the crazy kids you see nowadays. Time. It's time. When I say time, it's not because they need more time.

You can't respect the time, right? You can push the time faster, but you need time. You're going to need time. Sometimes you rush into things. Nowadays, we want fast results, right? And jiu-jitsu is not a seasoned sport. People here, because they want to do this for the rest of their lives. They want this and a jiu-jitsu black belt to win a

title in the black belt, you don't come for season. Or, I've done this in college, now it's time to move on. No, you need time. The time is going to be three, four years, yes. Four, five, six, whatever time it is.

You need time. And if you take a guy like you, you asked me this a while back. You know, you see that a guy with my age, the time that I have in Jiu-Jitsu, when I started, it was too late for me to achieve the highest goals on this. I said, no, you just need time. And the time, again, the time can be fast. I can push, train harder, and get better.

But a lot of times we want this goal, oh, I want to do this. In four years, I'm going to be a world champion. I heard guys that are from the white to black belt, four years in a road champion. But when I get to the first year, I'm going to be a road champion triathlon right now. No, if you stick with the goals, if you stick with the things that you want to do it for a little longer than you expected,

you're going to achieve. It's not a reason for not to achieve. It's a combination of your physical attributes, your technique, your prime is going to achieve. It's not a reason for not to achieve. It's a combination of your physical attributes, your technique, your prime is going to come together, right? When the stars align, that's right, they say. It's a combination of technique, maturity, mental, and physical. The physical attributes are already there for you. Now is to put the techniques together,

put the mentality together, understand the game, the point system, whatever rules that you sign up for to be a world champion, right? And the biggest is the IBJJF. You want to be a world champion in Jiu-Jitsu, in a Gi,

you have to win roles. You want to be a world champion, no Gi, you have to win roles. You want to be a role champion, no gi, you have to win the ADCC. Simple as that. There's two biggest, the Olympics of our sport. I beat Jeff Gi and no gi for ADCC. That's it, right? And you have to train for those roles. You have to train for that specific tournament.

And I stick with it. I don't see not why. It can be when you turn. I was 29. I got my black belts at 24. 24, 25, my first year as a black belt. Lost my first match. 26, I was probably the best shape

maybe more than better shape on a on a in a 2003 lost my first match went completely over training

it looks like a zombie walked to the mat I didn't know something's wrong with me something's wrong with me because a week before two weeks before I was already over training

but the things that I was doing good wasn't working for me, but I kept pushing. No, no, this has to work. I'm going to train even harder. When I got to look like a zombie, lost my first match, like, easy. When I got to 2003, that I have my years of frustration

for my different prospect of what, how to look of the tournament, you know, that control a little bit better. My nerves know what I want. Things I have to go. The path was different because I deal with the frustration and some succeed in terms of the other terms,

national penams. I won't pronounce you. But when I got there, I was meant to as a combination of a bunch of things, right? But it took me time. You know, it was 10 years since I

was 10 years of the day they started, the day I met Hilo Gracie, a little before they started, a little after I started, to the day I won Rhodes. It was 10 years. But it took five years as a black belt, four years as a black belt, five years as a black belt to win. But for me, it was a combination of persistence,

know what to do with your frustration, and stay in the path. That's what I want. When I moved here, I was 29. Everyone thought they would never heard about me competing anymore now he went there with his wife

he's gonna get the school build the school start raising kids and not gonna do this I was quiet here for six months trained my

my butt off quiet when I get to Brazil it was a surprise for everyone nobody knew they were gonna get not even my parents

knew it they were going to Brazil because. Not even my parents knew that I was going to Brazil. Because why? I left my wife here. Another thing that forced me to do better. I'm not coming here to visit my parents. I'm not here to see my students have fun, to enjoy the beach,

to enjoy partying with them. No, I came here for the reason. I'm going to be very frustrated if I don't follow my dreams here right now, if I don't do everything right. It was an experience, maturity, technique, all aligned in that day that I won, the year after 2004.

But it was more stick with the things that I believe. And time. I, and time. I respect the time. I stick longer to respect the time. Some guys, it's more talent than me. They still have the hard work. The time is going to come faster for them. For me, it came a little bit later.

And see guys, it's going to come even later than them. It's going to take more than three or four years. But again, respect time. How about this? I'm curious in terms of jiu-jitsu, how has it affected you as a person? Because I know from when I started jiu-jitsu to even now, having that feeling of failing every single day

gave me a new appreciation for doing new things and just being really, really bad at them. So how has jiu-jitsu kind of like, I guess, changed you or helped you as a man?

For me, it was incredible, right? Because i was looking for something i was like i was kind of like you i was when i would start doing jiu-jitsu i was uh just just doing weights and if you don't know i won a bench press competition when I was 16 years old. It's crazy, right? I did the bench press, deadlift, and squats. I was 16, competing for adults. And I was doing just weights. I stopped doing capoeira because I wasn't good at capoeira at all. And capoeira wasn't fun for me anymore.

And I was horrible at capoeira. Not horrible. I was bad. I wouldn't say that I was horrible at capoeira, but I was horrible in Capoeira. Not horrible, I was bad. I wouldn't say that I was horrible in Capoeira, but I was bad in Capoeira. And I was looking for something competitive to do it, that I challenged myself. One thing that I learned from me, I wasn't good

much in the team sports because I would hate to blame my teammates for their mistakes. And I would have the responsibility to my mistake to affect them. And I realized that I didn't like much team sport because of that. That's why I stopped soccer. Even the things that we play in Brazil, I wasn't doing anymore

because it frustrated me much. The only fights that I got as a kid was in a soccer field. It was because of things like this. Because I was selfish with the ball, because the guy do some stupid stuff and I went there to yell at him and got in a fight. But most

of my fights came from a soccer field. It's crazy. But for me, when I started doing Jiu-Jitsu, I felt something that I felt passionate about it. And I'm the youngest of four, right? And I was the worst in school for all my – my brother wasn't good at all too, but I was even worse than them. It's because I was going to school and I never saw something there that would have helped me in my future.

It's crazy to say this. It's just completely stupid. Sorry, kids. Don't do what I did. But I felt like I was sitting there. Nothing took my attention. If you ask my parents, the only problem Castro gave to me was school. He wouldn't attract me to school because my school, I was in a private school.

In Brazil, most parents sacrifice to do a private school for a few middle class, right? They're going to sacrifice to give a private school for you. And it wasn't any sports related. I would say that if you have a sport related,

it would force me to be better in school, but nothing. They have a treatment for me. If you do good in school, you can play soccer. If you do good in school, but nothing. They didn't have a treatment for me. If you do good in school, you can play soccer. If you do good in school, you're going to wrestle. If you're good in school, you're going to play judo. They didn't

have anything, those things for me. And I was there in school. I barely finished my high school and my parents, okay, I have to do college right now. I said, no. I want to do jiu-Jitsu. They would do what? I said, yes, I'm going to make my living Jiu-Jitsu.

I have idea how, you know, but I want to do this. I want to compete Jiu-Jitsu. I love this. I want to compete. And for parents that thought they would have the kids, like I said, come from private school, pay a lot of money to put them in school, to be a Jiu-Jitsu instructor in Brazil, they said, are you crazy? I expect you to be a doctor, to work in the office, work for the government because I was in the capital, living in the

capital. I said, no, I want to do this. That's when my parents, my dad said, you know what? The grace is the best. Why not? That's when I saw my parents, my dad say, you know what? This kid knows what he wants. He's 19 years old. I already said what he wants. We were, two years ago, oh my gosh, what am I going to do with this kid?

He doesn't like school. How's it going to be his future? But out of my brothers, my sisters, I was the first one to choose what I want to do. That goes to stay in the path. If you like this, stick with it.

It's going to come. And for me, it was like this. I feel like I can be good at this but for you to answer your question Encima was way beyond just build my character

right, it's to find out something, oh I can be good at this what I mean can be good this is not just be good at choking people and and onboard people. No, it's to have

something to give. It's something that I can teach. It's something that someone's going to look up to me. Right? When I was 21, I was already teaching. A lot of young kids in my back. I had a lot of teenagers

that I was trained with me, you know, all guys older than me, guys in the turds, the four to look up to a 21 years old kid, right? I have to be the responsible guy to my, my,

my young guys, guys, little younger than me, but at the same time, I have to show, have the right attitude to the older guys, because they look up to, okay, my kids, I want to one day my kids start training with you.

But for me, it's build who I am, 100%. Maybe this was, since I was born, has this thing on me that have helped me, this competitive side of related martial arts. I don't know, related to my name name my name came up by castles clay caches the muhammad ali that's why my dad gave my name i don't know something was there that uh that i discovered when i was 18 years old 17 years old watching uh jiu-Jitsu on TV. Awesome, man. Hey, thank you so much for your time. We'll

let you get back to your life and we wish you the best and hopefully things get back to normal so you can get that school back up and running since it means so much to people. To all of us. Yeah. Hope the same for you too, Mark. Thank you very much. I know that you're supposed to do last year. It. Hope the same for you too, Mark. Thank you very much.

I know that it's supposed to do last year. It didn't work out, but thank you to have me. Unfortunately, it's not in person, but it's still good. It's still good talk. Sorry that I talk too much. Isima knows that.

No, it was great. Thank you so much. Where can people find you? They can find me here. No, they can find me. Yes, the school, you can find me everywhere, you know, because if you go to 80% of the martial arts school here in Sacramento,

it's going to come from one of my black belts. And if you tell that you know me, you're my friend, online friend, they're going to treat you well. But we have a school here. You can find me at castewarrior.com. Have a school. This one here, the Auburn location, one in Roseville. Have an affiliate school in Rockland, too. Rockland, no.

What do you call that? Loomis. Mad Time Jiu-Jitsu. But again, we have Waza. We have Mixed Grappling with Mike and Lena. We have Synergy with Nate and Jeff. We have Infinite Jiu-Jitsu. Brett Sandoval in downtown.

Terry Maxwell. Sorry, guys. Let me just put there because I don't want to miss my guys. Brett Sandoval, Dustin Acabari, Elias Place. Devin Maxwell opened his school now at Fulton. Sorry, Molly Isak, my boy Q in Auburn. Morgan in oh my gosh

I forgot the city he's up here up to the mountains what do you call Grass Valley sorry Morgan's Grass Valley who else anyways I have a lot of guys if you reach out for me you can

online you know one of my students they have the Instagram Anyways, I have a lot of guys. If you reach out for me, you can online. One of my students, they have the Instagram. I don't know how that works. Cassio Wernick Jiu-Jitsu on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, thank you very much. But you can use the old style.

If people don't know, we have this thing called Telephone Stupid Call. 916-482-2505. You can find it. You'll find us everywhere. Awesome. Thanks again for your time. If you decide to do Jiu-Jitsu, you relate with me. I appreciate that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Isima. Thank you, Andrew. Sorry that I talked too much, guys. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Thanks again. I appreciate it. Thank you, Sima. Thank you, Andrew. Sorry that I talked too much, guys. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Thanks again, Cassio. Appreciate it. Thank you. Bye. Bye. That was awesome. Man.

Yeah. Cassio was awesome. He's super humble, too. There's a lot of stuff he didn't mention. I don't think he's there's a lot of stuff he didn't mention like i don't i don't think he would even mention winning worlds if i didn't mention it you know what i mean so like he yeah the dude's still a beast like an absolute beast and when he says like he won a bench press competition like if you see pictures of him when he was like younger

like seriously his arms were probably like the size of mine and his chest like his chest was super massive it's not it it's no games like that dude that dude was a a bulldog straight up yeah i was super cool man it was great hearing uh some of his stories and some of the stuff he talked about i mean how relatable was it you know we were just talking about school the other day and how we don't like the way that schools run and then he talks about how he runs his school and he talked about how uh you know the success of the school and you talked about how kind a lot of the people are and he talked about empowering other students and letting them be creative and you know we were just talking about this yesterday. So I don't know why that happens on this podcast every time. But like, how is it that we talked about that yesterday? And he talked about the exact same thing today.

It seems like I know sometimes we're getting people that are justifying some of the things that we say, you know, like, we might talk about red meat, and then we might have Sean Baker on, but this is not related. We weren't trying to do anything like that. And I just find it really interesting how these same things kind of keep circulating around. Yeah, and then also about him knowing that school wasn't going to help his future. It had nothing for him.

He said, he said he knew it had nothing for him. I was like, that was great. That's a funny way to put it. But you know, I think sometimes when you speak a different language, sometimes people will be really blunt and they get right to the point.

And that's a good way of putting it. It just had nothing for him. I think it it's like i find it so wild how like before the time of like social media and all of this stuff right he he barely spoke english he comes here and he opens up a school learns english um opens up multiple schools like he he an immigrant business owner, and he's been able to build something in the United States here that has, honestly, all of the schools here stem from him. But when you also think about it, those instructors are able to teach jiu-jitsu, provide for their families,

provide for their communities, the people that go there, all because of him starting these schools here like just the community that stems from what he started it's it's the impact is crazy i think that's huge what you just said is uh community you know i think people don't think as much about community anymore um they think about followers you know i think about how many instagram followers you have and youtube followers but how much more impactful is it to have, you know, in real life, people that are like following you, supporting you, assisting you, you know, with the schools and the different people that he has connections to within a community itself, he could get just about anything done. Like, you know, God forbid, this area gets hit with like an earthquake or something, but he could have a call to action to all of his practitioners, all the people have been following his school, and they can go out and they can physically like help people, you know, and whereas, you know, if you try to do

that via social media, even myself with the with the amount of people that I have, you know, luckily, we have super training, but if I didn't have super training, I could put out something via social media and not have any response locally or hardly any. Whereas somebody like him, who's got these roots deeply etched in our society and deeply etched in our local community, he's going to have more power. And I hope that we see more people try to figure out ways of coming together, which it's complicated at the moment because of the virus. But I hope that we see more of that and a little, you know,

a little less emphasis on what's going on in social media. And also, like, if anyone here is, like, listening from the school, I mean, we talked a little bit about it before. And, Andrew, I'm really happy that you brought up in terms of everything that's happening and supporting the school. If you're able to, we should just do our best to support the school

because we want to be able to have that to come back to. If you're able, of course, because this is a hard time for everybody. Everybody has different situations. But that place, I know not just for myself, but for so many people there, that place is just like a place where you had a really tough day,

things are rough, but jujitsu is that place where you can let it all out. Just like, you know, we've got some, we have lifting, but jujitsu is a place where like, you don't even think about that. You just roll, you have that community,

you have those people you can talk and you can laugh with. And we want that place to be there when we get back so do our best i really i really feel what he's saying when he's talking about um not caring that much about like the world championship because i'm sure people go in there and they're like well who are your black your black belts? You know, and, and, and we're, you know, how many black belts do you have? And, and, uh, how many championships do you have? And they're like looking for belts and you're looking for gold medals on the wall. And they're looking for all that stuff.

And those are all great things to be proud of. But when you think about how much progress people make as individuals in their life, you're kind of like, are you fucking kidding me? Like you're looking for a world championship. Like who gives a shit about that? You know, this guy over here is bipolar and he would have killed himself, you know, four years ago if it wasn't for jujitsu. And this guy over here, you know, was broke and he was an alcoholic and now he's, you know, married and he's got kids and he's doing great. And he's been coming here like no one, you know, that other stuff washes away and it pales in comparison to the growth that people experience from stuff like that. And we've seen a lot of that firsthand at super training as well, where you're like, yeah, it's great that we've had some people lift some big weights.

And that's some of the cool stuff that's happened in super training. But the strongest things I've ever seen, you know, in super training, and I'm sure Cassie would probably say the same thing, has nothing to do with actual performance, like on the platform. You know, it has to do with people's individual lives and the growth that I've seen people experience from the actual gym itself. Yeah, it's like somebody coming in saying, hey, Mark, what are you benching these days

like oh because i it better be a lot or else i'm not buying an elbow sleeve you know like so yeah it's silly right no but jujitsu like i was curious about um asking him the effect that he sees it has on kids because like you you hear there's so many kids in terms of their self-confidence and it's just it's just massive the effect that it has just like you know playing sports does too but i feel like it's a little bit different just because you know like i mentioned the uh getting getting that dose of really really tough failure like physical you know trust that your partner's not going to make you pass out. Getting that dose of that every day as a kid, I feel like that, that might

be something different, you know, I don't know. It's, it's definitely different because, you know, it's so, it's so physical, like physical one-on-one with somebody else. You know, if you, if you play basketball or if you play football or something like that, a lot of times people will say, oh, you're in a fight. You're in a one-on-one fight with the guy in front of you. And you only kind of are. You're not really in a one-on-one fight. You might be kind of wrestling around with the guy in front of you if you're a lineman or something like that.

But it's just way different. You're utilizing football techniques or utilizing basketball techniques you're not really trying to uh like physically dominate the other person um making them surrender making them tap out you know they don't even have the option to do that you could just kind of whoop their ass all game and they don't have they don't have an opportunity to ever admit like hey man you you killed me the entire game. Sometimes after the game, but jiu-jitsu is way different. And even getting comfortable with wrestling or any of that stuff, getting super close quarters with another person. And as he was saying, trusting in your partner that you're training with because this is not you're not really fighting every day you're practicing uh a martial art you know you're practicing something and in order to practice

that properly it's a two-way street you need to learn from each other you can't just be out there annihilating each other every single time so i think you know if you could imagine if every kid just had to go through that, whether it be wrestling or jujitsu, I actually think it would be really, really valuable to all, anyone, you know, not even just Americans, but I think it would be a really valuable thing to go through in school. school and you know when it comes to like physical education it's like oh you know so and so he can't run because he's got knee you know these knee issues he's out of shape but everyone everyone can grapple everyone can you know wrestle around with each other and i actually think it would be i actually think it would be great if that was taught in school why not andrew does this make you feel uh because know, you were talking to me about wanting to head in and, uh, get started with it. Feel dude. Yeah, absolutely. It, it only made it worse. And then especially him kind of giving a Waza, which is like, it's probably 10 minutes away from where

I'm at right now, given the stamp of approval on that. I'm just like, Oh my gosh, dude. Um, Given the stamp of approval on that, I'm just like, oh, my gosh, dude. Yeah, there's the big hurdle of what Mark was just saying, like to be like wrapped around somebody or have them wrapped around me and then like we're sweating and then it's like, you know, I got weird stomach issues. I'll probably be the guy that's like farting in the corner. So it's like small things like that. But then also hearing what you're saying, how when you got there, everyone was just extremely nice.

And that culture that he was able to build at his place, but also that same thing kind of feeding into everywhere else that he's been associated with. Yeah, it absolutely made everything even worse. You know, it's like, like, like, damn it. Like, I just need to I just need I just need to walk in there and just, you know, see what it's like and damn it. Like, I just need to, I just need, I just need to walk in there and just, you know, see what it's like and experience it. Um, there is the financial side of things that is also a huge hurdle, but I mean, I don't know. It's, it's, I'll figure out a way, right? Like it won't be, you know, like the end of the world if I add another bill to the month, hopefully, of the world if I add another bill to the month, hopefully, as I look over at my fiance. But yeah, no, dude, it was very motivating to have him on. And that's why I kept asking him questions about like, oh, so what happens when a new guy comes in? So yeah, I like your questions

about like, oh, say there's a guy that says he wants to do jiu-jitsu but he wants to work on it and get in shape and i can see mark smiling down on the bottom just like yeah i think he's talking about me no it's not just mark yeah we have that happen yeah we have it happen a lot of super training too you know where people are like oh i gotta go train in a different gym before i start power lifting you know yeah we see it a lot. The only way to do it is to get into it, right? Yeah.

That's it. It's going to hurt either way. Yeah. And what's really cool is he kind of got into it when, and Seema, you were asking him about, like, what has it done for him? But, like, in the, like, we'll just say, like in bodybuilding, like every, everybody on the outside thinks like, Oh, the, the best benefit is going to be, you're going to look super jacked and you'll be in great shape. But at the end it's sort of like, Oh wait, no, now I have this discipline to have this mindset. I have all these other things that came from it. So in SEMA, what

do you think is the, the the best benefit you've gotten from jujitsu thus far um being okay with like being okay with like being really bad and not necessarily being okay with it but understanding that i can just, I continue tackling the problem, continue tackling the problem, no matter how many times I fail at it. Because, I mean, alluded to it before, like in the beginning, I was getting my ass tossed to me in so many different ways, like so many different ways people were demolishing me. And it didn't help that I was big because then it was more so like, okay, I really want to demolish that guy. Not demolishing like they would try and hurt me or whatever, but they would be like, you know,

to beat up a guy that looks so large. It is like, yeah, like your muscle doesn't matter and it doesn't, but learning that I can just keep tackling something and get good at it um was was really good because like i said i mean it's really rare that you come across something in adulthood that's totally new and totally foreign you know i don't have never had grappling experience um never did in a sport like jujitsu so it's not like i was coming from a wrestling background and being totally fresh. I think it gave me a lot to utilize in just my day-to-day, what I do and learning.

Well, you're a really good athlete, you know, and, and there's probably not a lot of things that people can figure out how to beat you at. So, you know, they have the opportunity when you're new to get you, you know, in the opportunity when you're new to get you you know in the beginning and they probably feel like hey like this is my this is my kind of this is my opportunity you're going to get to get one over on you and after a while i'm sure all that wears off and no one cares but you could kind of point out you could say hey you see that guy over there i choked that guy out people like that guy over there I don't think so I don't think you really did that I'm like nope I did oh they did

and just by the way I want to say there's never any malice at Casio's when they were beating my ass like they were beating me up but it was in a very it was yeah there's never

like ah got you bitch you know so no one did a victory dance no no one did a victory dance that's awesome I was gonna ask so thanks for clarifying that that's pretty good that's cool yeah

cool man I'm gonna get some training later today how about you guys yep I'm gonna come in later and get some training in later today. How about you guys? Yep. I'm going to come in later and get some training in. Already did it. Go in and get some squats. Yeah. There you go, Andrew. Yeah, I did a markbell.com workout this morning, and then I finished it off with some more lunges.

I was just curious. I'm like, let me see how long it takes me to do this. So I did 10 laps. I don't know what that see how long it takes me to do this. So I did 10 laps. I don't know what that equates to as far as like meters or anything, but I did that and it took me like right at 15 minutes. So yeah, so that's, you know, it's lunging and then like a maybe like 30 to 45 second break in between, you know, going down the stretch of the turf.

So yeah, starting tomorrow, it's going to step up a little bit more to being more consistent with less breaks. But it's been fun, man. I haven't felt my legs feel this juicy in a really long time, and it feels great.

I'm getting beat up, but not to the point where i can't wake up and do it again tomorrow you build up some good resilience to it like uh when you squat really often or you train your legs really often it like it doesn't take long you know it takes just a couple of days really it feels like and then i start feeling better and better yeah well like day one like after the third lap i'm like oh shit like i don't think i'm gonna be able to get five laps in today and then now like i don't really start getting too tired until like the fifth time up and down so i'm like all right

this is working this is very this is really cool and then another um side effect is i've been freaking starving lately. I've been really, really hungry. Like fasting is like I'm going to have to open up that feeding window because like my metabolism, I don't know what's going on. I'm assuming it's because of the lunges because as soon as I started, that's when like my hunger level went like through the roof. So that's been a really cool side effect and I'm pretty excited about that. Yeah, it burns a lot of calories, that's's for sure and your body keeps track of that shit your body's like hey dude what are you doing up there you know yeah yeah definitely oh also um there's this guy named gill shout out

to gill he uh he's not a client of mine or anything but he listened to the podcast he actually trained a bit at super training you guys might have probably seen him around and then he started doing jujitsu too he's uh he's lost a lot of weight on carnivore um he's a white but i think he's in his late 40s or early 50s but he's i i when i when we were having jujitsu before this whole quarantine happened, man, I saw him in there quite a bit, learning it, going at it, doing carnivore training. And he's just like, he's been killing it. So, man, I know you're listening. Just during this whole quarantine, man, keep your training going, dude.

Don't stop now. I'll see you back on the mats. Yeah, we've seen him in a bunch of times at Super Training. He comes in on the weekends. He also follows a bunch of stuff on markbell.com. Um, he's, he's spoken to both of us.

Yeah. He, he was been pretty consistent. So that's really cool to hear that he's, he's jumped on the jujitsu train. The jujitsu is going in. Hmm. Speaking of,

uh, markbell.com, we mapped out eight weeks of home workouts. And in addition to the home workouts, that's kind of assuming that you have a little bit of equipment. We did eight weeks of just body weight stuff. So all that's available. And I made it free because I just understand, you know,

this rough time everyone's going through. In order to get free access, you do need to type in your email and stuff like that. And then, you know, after the month is over, after it runs through four weeks, you would get charged. But if you don't want to get charged, you can just sign on out of it. I got no problem with that. So it's just the way the site works. It's the way that it's set up. There's not another way to really do it. What we're going to additionally do is I'm going to present you guys with some free content on my YouTube channel. In addition to that, when you go to the website,

which is not set up quite yet, there'll be a free video there that changes like weekly. So over the course of the eight weeks, you're still going to be able to see that without even entering anything in because I just know that you guys are getting stir crazy and I know that everyone wants to keep moving. And so I thought this would be a good way to, uh, you know, help, help encourage you to keep moving around. Andrew, take us on out of here, buddy. Dope. Thanks Mark. Uh, yeah. Shout out to Pete Montes for sponsoring this episode. Um,

all links, everything will be in the, description and itunes show notes along with all our social media stuff but if you guys want to hit me up it's at i am andrew z please make sure you're following the podcast at mark bells power project at mb power project on tiktok and twitter um facebook youtube in the what's linkedin we're all over the dang place um yeah if you guys wherever you're listening to this, go ahead and do a little screenshot, tag any one of us. It's really cool.

I really like seeing like, especially if you guys are on a 10 minute walk and whatnot. It's just awesome to see. So thank you guys that have done that. Thank you everybody that's been rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes. That is such a huge help. We'll never be able to thank you enough,

but we'll do our absolute best. And Seema, where are you at never be able to thank you enough, but we'll do our absolute best. Uh, and SEMA, where are you at? Um, real quickly, as you said, keep doing those 10 minute walks.

And then after that, head into a little bit of a squat. If you want to make a 10 minutes, like a 10 minute squat, go ahead, go ahead and do it. Um, you can find me at and SEMA in Yang on Instagram and YouTube and SEMA

Yin Yang on Tik TOK and Twitter. Mark. Hell yeah. That was a lot of fun uh with uh cassio he was uh he was fantastic and we've been hearing so much good uh information about him what a great mentor he is what a great leader and coach that he is so uh i can't wait to meet him one day in person haven't had the opportunity to do that yet but we'll get that uh squared away when all this virus stuff passes us by um lastly i just want to thank my friend jesse burdick he's the one that helped put together a lot of the programming that you're going to see on markbell.com the body weight stuff and the uh

the home workouts and things like that and then also i have a little announcement to make here. Congratulations to Jesse and his wife, Katie Hogan. They have a baby on the way. So that's really exciting. You know, some of you that know Jesse, he has twin girls. And those girls couldn't be more excited and more pumped. And, you know, kind of a scary time to have something like that happening, but hopefully the baby won't be born until, you know, hopefully this mess gets a little bit more cleared up. But just something I want to encourage you all to do is this is, we're using Zoom right here, but there's other things like this where you get to see people face to face. And I encourage you to call your parents.

I encourage you to call your aunts, your uncles, the different people in your life. Maybe pick one person every day and just give them a shout. Say hello. Make sure you can see their face. It's just way different. If all you can do is make a phone call, then that will have to work as well. But if you have the option to see their face,

I think you can do stuff on Facebook. I think FaceTime. I think there's Zoom. I think there's Skype. I think there's plenty of options that you can look into. This is super simple. This is just an app on your phone and you send somebody the link, they click on the link. I think both parties have to have the app. I think it's the only kind of thing, but the app's free, right? It doesn't cost you anything. Just type in some information and you're set and you're good to go and you get to see the face of your loved ones.

Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch you all later. Power Project crew, thank you for checking out this episode with our boy, Casio Wernick. I am extremely interested in jujitsu now. Real quick, thank you, everybody, for rating and reviewing the podcast on iTunes. It helps us out a ton. Right now, we want to give a shout out to Logo17. Logo says, amazing show. Quote, for the listener that is addicted to creating their future,

for the listener that knows they are destined for greatness but didn't believe they could actually make a living doing what they love, this podcast is for you. Mark asks very candid and heart-opening questions. It would be a crime not to listen. This podcast is for you. Mark asks very candid and heart-opening questions. It would be a crime not to listen to this podcast and take notes. Exactly. Our thoughts exactly. Thank you, Logo17, for that review. You just hooked us up with one of the biggest, best thank yous that we could ever receive. So, thank you so much. If you're listening right now, if you would like to hear your name and your review read on air, please head over to iTunes right now, drop us a rating and a review,

and you could hear your name on air just like our boy Logo17. We'll catch you guys on the next one. Peace.