Mark Bell's Power Project - James Pieratt - Balancing Ultra Marathons, Jiu Jitsu, and Hunting || MBPP Ep. 796

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

In this Podcast Episode, James Pieratt, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about James' come back from drugs and alcohol to becoming a marathon runner and running 50 miles and deadlifti...ng 520lbs in the same day! Follow James: https://www.instagram.com/wildhuntconditioning/  Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the new Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw Special perks for our listeners below! ➢https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!! ➢Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject Code POWERPROJECT20 for 20% off Vivo Barefoot shoes! ➢https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off site wide including Within You supplements! ➢https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://eatlegendary.com Use Code POWERPROJECT for 20% off! ➢https://bubsnaturals.com Use code POWERPROJECT for 20% of your next order! ➢https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori! ➢https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep! ➢https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS at Marek Health! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ 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 ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en  Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Power Project Family, how's it going? Now, a lot of you guys are lifters, athletes. You're serious about the gym, and we are too. And that's why we've been using Slingshot products for years. All right? You have the original Slingshot, obviously the glittery pink hip circle, which is my personal favorite. But if you don't like that, then you have the normal hip circle
Starting point is 00:00:15 that's used to warm up the hips. But on the website, they have tons of equipment, knee sleeves, elbow sleeves, the gangster wraps right there. So you need to go check them out. And Andrew, can you tell them more about it? Yes, that's over at markbellslingshot.com and at checkout, enter promo code POWERPROJECT10 to save 10% off your entire order.
Starting point is 00:00:32 Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. So is there another ball inside of the little black ball too? It's like those Russian nesting dolls. There's a little person in there. So let me out. Bitch, no. There's a little person in there he said let me out bitch no there's a whole galaxy in there
Starting point is 00:00:48 dude so what the fuck what's it like to bow hunt a bear and like just yeah I don't know it sounds terrifying it's uh
Starting point is 00:01:00 yeah well so I grew up hunting bear my dad's a bear hunter he comes from bear hunters back in Kentucky. Let's try to stay on the microphone a little bit more. That's all right.
Starting point is 00:01:08 You can move the whole base that way. We can go where we got to go. Second generation bear hunter. Yeah, yeah. My dad does fucking taxes. My dad's a fucking nerd. And my dad wasn't there. And he's like 5'2".
Starting point is 00:01:27 But yeah, at least he was there, right? I don't know. Hey, it's true, buddy. It's whatever. Dad was a bear hunter. Yeah, we grew up hunting them with hounds, blue tick, red tick, plot hounds. And so that's, we always joke, that's where I get my cardio, cardio chasing bear you got to keep up with the dogs in the mountains but um the bow hunting i i like i got into archery pretty recently i think about two years ago wow and uh so that's we want to choke up on this even sorry to bug you but um
Starting point is 00:01:58 there we go i'm sure i can hear you yeah but uh so yeah the archery part is relatively new i've been doing that my whole life but the bear yeah bear has always been the focus i mean we'll hunt deer and elk and whatever else but when you were young did you hunt with your dad you and your did you have other siblings i know we know your brother because he used to work here yeah just me and jeff um so him he didn't get in on as much as because he was younger at the time but he was a little pussy it's okay you can say it i mean mean, yeah. You could kick your face off, Mark.
Starting point is 00:02:27 You better be careful. I know. Yes, I'm a boy. You and me both. So, yeah, we got out there a lot. But I was a little older, so I followed my dad around a bit more. And I puked more times than I can count, just keeping up with them. But I remember, too, when I was six or seven,
Starting point is 00:02:45 when I started going out with him, and I remember for a year or two, I'd been asking and he warned me, he's like, look, it's not, it's not going to be what you think it is. And he's right. Cause when you go bear hunting, it's you're cold, you're miserable. You're up at 3am and you're just the whole time, just trying to keep up with the dogs, trying to find the dogs, trying to get them back on ascent, whatever it is. And you're pretty much miserable the whole time. And it's a strange thing because it's like the second you get back, especially if you bring something home, the second you get back and get a meal in you and get a shower,
Starting point is 00:03:13 maybe a little nap, you're just like, all right, when are we going back? How long does this take, man? Depends. I mean, I've been on hunts that lasted a day. Like you go out at 3, 4 in the morning, they get on something, they hit on and off, and you're in a whole different part of the country the next night you know and uh and then also depends where you killed the bear so that was the thing like the old timers they'd say like if a guy
Starting point is 00:03:34 was really tough and really stubborn they'd say like uh that guy'll kill a bear anywhere which means he's 20 miles away it's treated you know up a creek so like growing up we sometimes we'd have to float them out like on a creek so you'd have a big growing up, sometimes we'd have to float them out on a creek. So you'd have a big group of guys. You'd tie ropes to each leg and either drag and or carry it out best you could. And if you can get a creek going downstream, that's real nice. You can float it down and work it out from there. Personally, I'm more partial to just piecing it up and doing multiple trips.
Starting point is 00:04:00 But the old-fashioned style was the saying was you leave only a gut pile behind. So everything else you carry out in one piece. How would you piece it up? Because wouldn't other animals come to it or something like that? You do your best. You've got to be quick, too. I mean, if it's hot, bear meat will go bad quick. But you just work quarters.
Starting point is 00:04:15 You generally take the cut you want most first. Try to put it in the shade and cover it and whatever you can, I guess. Yeah, and if you can hang it or whatever. The game bags help, too, because they let the air kind of circulate a bit without letting anything get into it. But you take your back straps and whatever your cuts of choice are first, and you go back and hope you get the rest. What kind of bear are we talking about?
Starting point is 00:04:34 Black bear. And then how big are those? They get up. I mean, the further north you get, they'll get up to 700, 800 pounds. But around here, you're looking at more 2 to 4, somewhere you know by this i'm going let's see my birthday is september 9th so i'm going up to oregon for a bear hunt yeah coming up your birthday's coming up too right yes the seven seven oh man all the handsome guys right there clustered up all equally jacked too uh-huh but we could we could both wrap these guys up so that's true please don't
Starting point is 00:05:05 start with mark first so you get tired and then you know congrats on the brown by the way i saw that post that's awesome man i appreciate that thank you and technically we are uh jujitsu cousins of i i started training under one of uh cassio's other black belts so originally i'm over at areas now now in Roseville. Okay, yeah, yeah. And then I do the strength conditioning for 10th Planet Sacramento as well. That's awesome. So I'm mostly trained at Aries. But anyway, getting back to it, sorry, what was the question?
Starting point is 00:05:34 Oh, we were just talking about the different kinds of bears. Oh, yeah. Is there a black bear, a brown bear? A brown bear, is that bigger? Yeah. So the brown bear is bigger, and that's the one, like, the stereotype. Like a grizzly bear? Yeah. And that would be the stereotype
Starting point is 00:05:48 of, like, stumbling across a bear cub and then getting torn up, revenant style by the mom. That's a brown bear. So, when they, you know, with black bears, if they attack, they're more predatory so, like, if a black bear attacks you, you don't want to play dead like you hear play dead if a bear attacks you. If it's a black bear, it's the opposite. If it's attacking you, it's gonna kill
Starting point is 00:06:04 you and eat you. It's not just gonna wound you and leave you mangled so you're not a threat anymore. So with them, you know, but, and then the scariest of all is the polar bear because they'll actively hunt. You get in their zone, they smell you, like they can smell you from miles away and they will actively hunt you. Like they'll follow you, you know? So, and I don't know anything about polar bears. I've never hunted brown bear uh just black bear
Starting point is 00:06:25 but that's uh in california there's there's quite a bit of bears right yeah and uh is there are brown bears prevalent uh no no i mean which is funny because we got one on the flag but they used to be and i believe don't quote me on this but i believe the city of baker's field is named for the last man in california to be killed by a bear maybe a brown bear but uh yeah not so much anymore you guys see this on uh rogan's i just watched that i just watched that yeah what's i don't even know what's going on here but wait what the fuck that's uh so if i'm not mistaken that's a male probably a little male bear during mating season he's probably smelling the estrogen and being like all right this isn't what I expected to find when I found estrogen,
Starting point is 00:07:07 but I'm not sure. That's just me guessing. She has her phone out recording it the whole time. Yeah. I wouldn't, I wouldn't be so comfortable. Why are they so comfortable is the question though? Cause these are frozen,
Starting point is 00:07:18 but they're in an area where the bear are clearly well fed and used to humans. So they're not. Oh yeah. Look at that. He's a teenager. I'd be definitely scared of a dog that humans. So they're not. Oh yeah. Look at that. He's a teenager. I'd be definitely scared of a dog that big. You and me both. So you had this goal recently and we'll circle back to some of the hunting stuff.
Starting point is 00:07:36 What's up? What's up? Ankle pick. She's like, all right, I'm good. Yeah. Now she's not having fun. That probably kind of hurt. Fuck yeah. That thing probably doesn't really know how to play all that nice so funny side note
Starting point is 00:07:50 some biologists saw a 120 pound female black bear just casually scrounging for food she flipped over a large flat rock with her left what they thought was her weaker paw just very effortlessly went over after and weighed it 350 pounds a large flat rock with her left, what they thought was her weaker paw, just very effortlessly.
Starting point is 00:08:06 Went over after and weighed it, 350 pounds. 120 pound female and casual, not fight or flight, not just looking for grubs and whatever on the ground. And they weighed it,
Starting point is 00:08:14 it was 350 pounds. Another one, right before that was 300 and something. Man, we're weak. So someone's like, I could take that. Nah, bro, you can't.
Starting point is 00:08:22 No, yeah, yeah. Just those powerlifting chicks. Right? Yeah, another thing, for sure bro, you can't. No, yeah, yeah. No. It's those powerlifting chicks. Right? Yeah, another thing for sure. So you set out to do this goal more recently to do a 50-mile run and a 500-pound deadlift on the same day. Like, where did this – I know that you do some shit like this. Something I find amazing about you is the fact that you go and do like an ultra marathon,
Starting point is 00:08:47 but you're not even in a race. You just go and do it on your own. I like the solos, yeah. That's very random and amazing. But an ultra, just to be clear, is just anything over what, 30 miles? Anything over marathon basically is an ultra, right? Yeah, the shortest one I've done is 50.
Starting point is 00:09:02 Right. So I think sometimes people just automatically think it's 100 miles. No, no, I've only done one of those. But you said the shortest one I've done is 50. Right. So I think sometimes people just automatically think it's 100 miles. No, no, I've only done one of those. But you said the shortest one you've done is 50. Yeah, technically I've never even run a marathon. The first one I ever ran without training was 55. And that, I mean, it was brutal on the body of the feet particularly,
Starting point is 00:09:20 and I didn't know anything about shoes or anything. At the time I just wore some Nike cross trainers. But decades of pretty intense hikes and hunting bears and things. Early, early, you know, in my 20s, like from 17 to 31, I was just a drug addict that did nothing physically stimulating at all. So in some ways, I guess maybe my body's a little more preserved than if I had been playing NFL football through my 20s. But, yeah, I grew up athletic. I was born just really fast as far as, like, sprinting stuff. But just kind of like Jeff's, weirdly flexible.
Starting point is 00:09:54 We just got our own superpower. But I wrestled early. I played soccer up into a highly competitive and a little ODP, Olympic Development Program. But other than that, just normal kid stuff. We ran around. I mean, we were country kids. We ran around barefoot.
Starting point is 00:10:09 We ate raccoon meat and rattlesnake and bear, you know, all that stuff, organs before it was fashionable. So other than that, but yeah. And then, you know, 17 or so, I mean, I dabbled with drugs, and the Oxycontin was blowing up right about that time. So when I was 17, I got hooked and then that became heroin and then years as a methadone zombie as well. So I went through the whole spectrum of that, uh, experience. And then at 31, I got, uh, yeah, a little bit in 31. I'm just coming up on four years now,
Starting point is 00:10:42 be four years at the end of September. I quit methadone cold turkey. What's methadone? Methadone is the, it's actually a more powerful, longer lasting opiate. It's the bridge, the gap, right? Yeah. So they give it to you because it's powerful and longer lasting. So they'll medically, they'll give it to you. They can give it to you once a day. And it's so powerful that it blocks out other opiates that you would try to ingest. So if you were on methadone, you went and shot heroin or whatever, you would get very little actual feedback from that heroin. The trade-off is it's really bad for your organs in the longterm. At least it seems to be for a lot of people. And you're just, you're as long, I mean, you're just still on a high dose of opiates. Um, so you're stable,
Starting point is 00:11:22 you're not on the street. You might hold down a job at McDonald's or whatever you're doing, but you're not anywhere near, you're a shadow of yourself. At least that was my experience with it. How old are you now, by the way?
Starting point is 00:11:35 I'll be 35 on September 9th. Okay, okay. Yeah. So, yeah, so, yeah,
Starting point is 00:11:42 31, I quit cold turkey, which was brutal. You're not supposed to do that, especially with methadone because it's a so powerful and long lasting that the withdrawals last a lot longer than heroin or other opiates. Um, and then after that you have months or even, you know, a couple of years of kind of made you decide like, this isn't for me anymore. You know, it's weird. People ask that question a lot and there was no i don't know i literally i woke up one morning and i had uh 40 bucks in my pocket i had a bag full of dope so they're like the basic immediate needs were covered and i you know it's
Starting point is 00:12:18 i think maybe that was just i had that enough breathing room to think and something just i remember i remember distinctly just sitting there was probably six something in the morning. I'm sitting on the couch and I just realized that like where I am now is the result of a series of bad decisions. And like that I took. Your own decisions. Yeah. And so like, ironically, like that wasn't, it ended up being a positive thing. So I realized like, okay, well if a series of bad decisions got me here,
Starting point is 00:12:42 then a series of better decisions could take me somewhere else. And that was the first time I realized that I had the power. I wasn't a leaf in the wind. I wasn't a victim of fate. I was the one that controlled my own life and my own direction. And so from there, I just started meditating a little bit. I watched the same Sam Harris YouTube clip just on repeat over and over every day and tried to learn how to meditate. Would eventually try my first jiu-jitsu class and then start just trying to do basic strength conditioning stuff to stay healthy.
Starting point is 00:13:13 And I hopped on the keto diet at first and eventually would try every nutritional thing that we've all heard come and go in the last few years. You know, we've all heard come and go in the last few years. And I guess eventually I just kind of found my current training style, which is, you know, balanced and well-rounded, or at least attempting to be. But, yeah, I'll never be a champion powerlifter or a champion ultramarathon runner, but I think I can manage to do both for quite some time, and that's kind of more my speed.
Starting point is 00:13:41 Did you get overweight when you were doing the drugs, or were you underweight? Both. I'd seen both. So when I was using, I got down, I was 160 pounds, 155 pounds. And then when I was on methadone, you get a lot of people who gain weight. They get fat. You crave sugar and your whole hormone and body system is out of balance.
Starting point is 00:13:59 So I was like a 200 pound, I don't want to say skinny fat, but just soft. And like I said, doing absolutely nothing physical. I was like a 200 pound, I don't want to say skinny fat, but just soft, you know? And, uh, I guess I'm doing absolutely nothing physical. But during that time, like 17 to 31, cause you, you work with people on SNC, you're now a black belt. You're 35. Still a blue belt. Oh, you're still a blue. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, you're a blue belt. Um, so what I'm, what I'm curious is like, what were you doing at that time? Because like with where you are right now, you must have been doing something, you know, something learning or. In the last four years?
Starting point is 00:14:35 From this, in the period of 17 to 31 years old. You were literally doing nothing? No, no, no, nothing. I mean, well, small asterisk. I was locked up a bunch of times earlier on. And so I would just read and do push-ups and basic stuff there. Okay. And I learned something called the dub method. I released a program recently, not as a plug,
Starting point is 00:14:54 but the reason I bring it up is because I learned it from a guy who had been in Pelican Bay for many years, and it was just a super high-volume brute force bodyweight program. Yeah. And he was giant. He was very similar to Francis Ngannou in height, build, stature. He was lean. He was athletic.
Starting point is 00:15:10 He could do like burpees for literally an hour without stopping. Uh-huh. And we were different races. So as far as the association goes, it had to be more kind of indirect. Like we'd work out in adjacent areas and he'd be like, hey, all right, you know what I mean? But we could never like. But you guys were like homies from afar.
Starting point is 00:15:26 Yeah, yeah. And so it was cool. He was a really cool dude and I learned a lot from him. All sorts of towel pull-ups and different rows and dips and other stuff that you wouldn't, you know,
Starting point is 00:15:35 be on just your basic sit-ups. Gas station strong. That's what we're talking about. Some Josh Bryant type shit, right? Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, Josh is a good dude. But, so I did that. But again, that last time, you know, I've been locked up since I was 19.
Starting point is 00:15:49 So there was, you know, still 12, 13 years with nothing. And I mean, I read, you know, my mind always looked for ways to escape and find solace from the thing, you know, just like any human, you know, going through something. Did you have some relapses in that time? Like, you know, you set out to, you're like, I can make better decisions. I'm in control of this. And did you have some moments where you were maybe still kind of falling back into similar patterns
Starting point is 00:16:15 or were you able to kind of- In the last four years? Take that day and just go completely different direction. Oh, in the last, no, I haven't. And then that's the other thing too. You would like, one of the daunting factors to me and getting clean for those years was like not just the getting clean but the staying clean you know like i'm going to think about it it's going to dog me and i'm not you know it's going to be this demon that's on my back forever but i can honestly i
Starting point is 00:16:37 haven't had a single urge to use since that day do you view yourself as an addict because some people will say like uh that that it's there forever. No, I don't. I can drink alcohol if I want. I choose not to just because it tends to not really do much for me other than slow down my recovery. And when I watch other people drink, I've never seen someone drink and become a better person,
Starting point is 00:16:59 more desirable to be around. I also don't really go out. Like my fiance and I, we're homebodies. We have extra time. We travel. We go to dinner. We do stuff just to us. And we train together.
Starting point is 00:17:10 You know, coming here is our weekly big social outing, you know, on the weekends. And we like that. So I don't feel like I'm missing out or being deprived, but I could. And what about other drugs? Are there some things where you're like, I don't mind still doing that? like i smoke i'm fine with you know cannabis like cbd seltzer or whatever i'll occasionally dabble with like therapeutic doses of mushrooms um not super often but i think it's important i think for people to kind of distinguish like this stuff over here that didn't serve me well so i'm cutting out that category of stuff. But maybe these other things over here, maybe they can serve me.
Starting point is 00:17:48 Maybe they can be part of my life. Yeah. I think it's good just to think about it logically too because in all of human evolution and existence, we know for thousands of years or more we've been having healthy relationships with cannabis and mushrooms. But like anything else, food, porn, whatever people are into, cannabis and mushrooms and but like anything else again people food porn whatever people are into like i can take over the mind to become you know a piece you know you can try to fill holes with anything out there so do as far as like do i notice smoking adversely affecting me smoking marijuana not really i mean i don't like to smoke say in the morning or whatever something like that
Starting point is 00:18:20 but it's late in the afternoon or in the evening, I'm fine with it. I do psychedelics a couple times a year, maybe on a trip or something like that. A literal trip to nature. But I like to be outside and doing something. And the introspection I like. I like that separation, a little bit of ego death that comes along with it. Yeah. That objectivity that I think we all need from time to time. Things get emotional.
Starting point is 00:18:47 We get triggered. We have all these buttons. Yeah. I wanted to ask you about your mood and stuff because some people that did go down that path, they have to keep going that way because that's the only time they can kind of almost feel numb at times. But now today, do you have to keep going that way because that's the only time they can kind of almost feel numb at times. But now today, do you have to not rely, but do you have your things that actually,
Starting point is 00:19:10 if you are kind of feeling like a dark cloud come, that you can kind of rely on to help you not want to go back to some of these drugs? I train. Even independent of the drugs I've always had, I think the Irish call them black dogs. Just sometimes it kind of runs in the family, a little cloud. You wake up with a little cloud over you and your mood's a little dark. But I know that it comes and it goes from experience. I don't need an immediate fix for everything.
Starting point is 00:19:37 Life is meant to hurt. It's meant to be, you know, like sunshine means nothing without darkness and vice versa. So you just kind of realize that there's going to be ups and downs and days are going to come that you don't like and the thing is not to really try to pass judgment on everything just be there for the experience and the ride it's not an emergency not an emergency to like figure out a way to be like super happy most things aren't you know i mean like your family good but you know what i mean you guys have food shelter are you happy are you intact the people you, you know what I mean? Are you guys at food, shelter? Are you happy? Are you intact? The people you love, you know, connected with you?
Starting point is 00:20:07 And if the answer to that is yes, then you're probably not quite as bad off as you think you are. Yeah, no, that's a huge thing right there. Just like number one, being present and being okay with not feeling amazing. Because like, I think, especially when it comes to this, we talk a lot about self-improvement stuff, right?
Starting point is 00:20:23 And some people, when they start delving on that, they're like, oh, I'm not feeling okay right now. Something's wrong. It won't always hit you the right way for whatever reason, like you're trying to look for it, but it's just not there for a particular day. Yeah. And that's all right. That's fine. You know, like, and the thing I think that was so awesome about what you mentioned is like, is, is life good? Like, is all the basic needs met being grateful for that i mean i'm lucky enough that i was able to go to africa nigeria and meet some family over there but i have i can literally think of a different perspective of living where i wasn't sharing with hot water for two months right i'm just like i'm good i'm fucking good yeah you can just like here
Starting point is 00:21:02 you just go up that's plenty warm that's enough. Or I want it to be warmer. Right? You complain that it's too hot. Or like, oh, that's too hot. I could fucking go into some cold today. My Wi-Fi is not working.
Starting point is 00:21:13 It's slow today. Right? I think if you're in a place where you have to stimulate, you know, hardship, then you're probably in a good place.
Starting point is 00:21:21 Whether it's cold plunges or run, like all the stuff we do, it's because the modern life we live doesn't provide it for, we're not hunting, we're not gathering, we're not doing this stuff all day. We have to seek it.
Starting point is 00:21:30 And the body, look how the body and the mind respond when you do, you know? Absolutely. I got nothing to do. I got to make shit up all day. What you just said though. So like,
Starting point is 00:21:40 that was one of the, like the coolest things I've actually heard on this podcast, because we talk about, um, like when, when it comes to hunger. We're just like, hey, don't freak out if you get hungry. It's going to pass. You don't have to just drop everything and start eating right now.
Starting point is 00:21:53 And we said life is meant to be hard. I've heard similar things. But when you're like, it's going to pass, you'll be fine. I think that's very powerful. Yeah, my mom always said, this too shall pass. And whatever it is. be fine. I think that's very powerful. Yeah. My mom always said this too shall pass, you know, and whatever it is. So it's, and I think it's, it's good to remember that because it makes it easier to stick to the fiber of who you are. You don't start freaking out and compromising and making decisions that aren't good for you in the long run. You know, you remember,
Starting point is 00:22:18 and it's going to be fine. And I can hold to who I am and what I am and not have to step outside of that to find fulfillment or safety, you know. I was talking to you one day in the gym and you were like, you just came back from somewhere. And you were like, and I just went on a hike in Tahoe and I was out for, I don't know, 12 hours or something. And I didn't really know how to get, or yeah, it was kind of a long day. I didn't know how to get or yeah it was a long it was kind of a long day I didn't know how to get back I got like semi lost for a moment but I was with some friends and it wasn't a huge deal but you went out by yourself and you were gone for like two weeks and you like had no cell service and like like man that's got to be like does that
Starting point is 00:22:59 does that threaten you in some way or or you you're you must be pretty comfortable in nature I guess I mean I would be pretty comfortable in nature, I guess. I mean, I would be pretty scared cause I wouldn't know what to do or where to go. Or like, I mean, I'm sure you, you have stuff with you so that you can like,
Starting point is 00:23:14 you know, set up shop and kind of get a tent or get somewhere where it's not cold and windy and so forth. I'm sorry. I don't want to cut. I remember what you're about to say, but have you seen that Jordan Peele movie? Nope.
Starting point is 00:23:24 Have you seen that movie? Nope. That shit is what goes in my head. Like I hear all that. don't want to cut. I remember what you're about to say, but have you seen that Jordan Peele movie? Nope. Have you seen that movie? Nope. That shit just goes in my head. I hear all that. You're like, nope. Y'all should watch that movie. You got to watch it. Go ahead, bro.
Starting point is 00:23:36 Yeah. What's involved in stuff like that that you're doing? So this was the one you're referencing was the spring bear hunt this year and did not bring anything back um so i went up there i thought i was pretty well prepared and i mean i prepared enough but it was mid or late april and we got hit with just a massive spring snow storm out of nowhere so i i got up there got scouted everything was you know feeling real good found some some good sign and next morning i woke up and i was just covered in 14 inches of snow and i had just a pop-up tent you know and so it's like uh fortunately i always went i never go out without extra meat extra firewood and extra clean water so those were fine but everything else was pretty inadequate i ended up being all right with the warmth because moving
Starting point is 00:24:20 or you know i wear like good high quality gear always and lots of wool. I don't, you know, no cotton, anything like that. So I stayed moving during the day. You don't really notice it. And then it's, you know, you're at the fire cooking during night and then you're in your bedroll. So it's like it's little transitions in between. Having quality equipment is really important. Like if your feet get wet or some shit like that, like the smallest thing can really fuck you up because then your feet get compromised. Once your feet get compromised or once you're slowing down in the way that you're walking
Starting point is 00:24:48 and moving and if you're in pain like that would just be fucking miserable yeah i would advise anyone who's getting into hunting or outdoorsmanship to buy quality first doesn't have to do the best thing but buy like mid to upper quality from the get-go. Any brands you'd suggest? I wear Kuyu stuff. They're actually from here, Dixon, but all the guys up north wear them religiously, and I've seen, watched their stuff hold up to the elements year after year, and then I wear Danner boots primarily. For summer, I wear some that have a Vibram sole.
Starting point is 00:25:21 For winter, it's like a more traditional leather boot. But yeah, those are my go-tos uh but i think yeah just get quality you don't want to buy the same thing three times anyway that costs at least as much you know three cheapies and then when you're out there it's not like you might not notice it every trip when everything's fine but if you get caught out there if something happens it doesn't go to plan you're gonna you're not gonna worry about the extra 19 you spent on an underlayer you know so, quality gear is super important, but as far as being out there alone, it's, yeah, I mean, I go through the same little
Starting point is 00:25:49 kind of loop every, uh, every time I'm there. And it's like the first night you get out there and you kind of just remember how vulnerable we are, like no teeth, no claws, no fangs. I'm the slowest and weakest thing out there. So it, uh, I, uh, I think it's it's i mean it's also humbling to remember that because uh do you have a routine that you settle into because you're like i should keep active and that way you're not kind of like sitting around how you haven't talked to anybody in two weeks so i hunt constantly or scout i'm always out with my bow looking for sign or on a mountain glassing or something i uh the main thing is i'm very sleep deprived most of the time. I try to sleep as much as I can, but it's like you got to be up early.
Starting point is 00:26:29 You might be out late. And then, you know, so you try to keep up with it the best you can. Your body does work. Like hunting is the hardest thing I do as far as on my body because it's just a lot of elevation and it's 20 miles a day over rough ground and then four hours of sleep. Very rarely. Occasionally I'll see houndsmen on like the logging trails where they're going in with
Starting point is 00:26:48 their dog boxes and their trucks and all that. Every now and then I'll hear hounds on a bear if it's hound season wherever I'm hunting, but I generally know. And if you do get something, you're by yourself. You gotta lug this 600 pound bear out of the woods. That's why I do all the weighted carries, the rucking. And then the main, the biggest thing though is the elevation because there's why I do all the weighted carries, the rucking, and then the biggest thing, though, is the elevation because there's just no way to – I live in Sacramento.
Starting point is 00:27:09 There's no way to replace that, which is a big part of running the ultras, running that level of volume is just you can't adapt for the elevation, but you can make your aerobic base so big that even when it takes a massive hit, you can still keep going, keep performing, and more importantly, making clear decisions because we see like do you guys see the uh i think it was the last ufc card the main uh the edwards knockout yeah see what's crazy so you should watch what the elevation did to a lot of the athletes on that card and they were all a lot of them went and got acclimated several days or a week or two ahead of time still trained uh usman trains that
Starting point is 00:27:44 he lives in trains at like 6,000 feet or above in Colorado, so he wasn't fazed by everyone else, and you could see it. And even Edwards talking about it after, he was like, look, my cardio was fine, like we had planned for that, we'd built for this, but what I didn't count on was my decision-making. Everything was slower, foggier. My brain wasn't fluid like normal, and that's part of it. Yeah, you go out on a run, like I've been talking about running in the hottest part of the day, and I've had a bunch of people DM me, like, you know, it wasn't fluid like normal. And that's part of it. Yeah, you go out on a run. Like, you know, I've been talking about like running in the hottest part of the day.
Starting point is 00:28:07 And I've had a bunch of people DM me like, you shouldn't do that. It slows you down a lot. And they send me these charts. I'm like, fuck your chart, man. I don't care. Like, so what? I'm running slower. What's the big, like, I don't care.
Starting point is 00:28:16 So I think that it's a challenge, you know. I think it also has its own benefits, specifically running. This year, I did not. I've been just my schedule. I've been running mornings. And I'm way, I can tell the with how my well my body tolerates the heat and uh you know just my overall car so i think that that it does i mean be careful don't be an idiot have your water your time whatever you know don't take that as you know a green light to do
Starting point is 00:28:38 something stupid but yeah where i run there's like water fountains and shit i know where i can get water yeah so i think that's emergency yeah yeah Yeah. And so I think that has its own benefits. But yeah, and the thing is too, the main thing that's different if I was training for like back when I was competing in BJJ or whatever, all the other things have been is the stakes are higher. That's the main thing. Like if I fuck up out there alone, even if it's just, hey, I sprained my ankle, you might be dead now.
Starting point is 00:29:03 You know what I mean? Like I try, you know, I'm GPS. You know, you try to plan for as many of these. And, hey, if I'm not back at this, if I don't rendezvous with you at this point on this day. That must play into your head, right? So when you look at certain terrain, you might say, nope. You might look at something and say, like, if I was with some friends,
Starting point is 00:29:21 maybe I would think about doing that because we could figure out a way to negotiate that together and we could kind of help each other but you're like mmm that's not worth the risk I'm gonna go around even though it's gonna take a lot longer yeah if there's that choice sometimes there's not sometimes there's this is the way forward this is where the tracks lead and this is the sky right here so just again go slow be smart don't be an idiot you know like there there's no there's no benefit to that anyway and just like with the
Starting point is 00:29:47 way I train and everything else, quality beats quantity, at least in the long term. When you're doing this, by the way, because it just seems like when I'm thinking about it, I'm just like, there's good aspects of taking risks with things, but you have to be computing chances of death 10%. Because I feel like if it ever got up to 30, you'd be like, nope. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, okay, okay. Because it is absolutely risky, and I wouldn't fuck with it unless I had 10 other girls like you with me.
Starting point is 00:30:22 But God damn. Solo hunting in general, a lot of people just don't advise it in general but i the same thing with running solo ultras without you know support structures is that it's that's why i'm there i'm not like i'm not you know it's not not for anything or anyone else and that that's the point you know like i'm there to seek that freedom and that liberty and that's was the thing that drew me to running in the first place was not that I thought it would do anything for my life or my specific fitness.
Starting point is 00:30:51 I mean, well, that's not true. I had done some road work for MMA and jiu-jitsu and stuff and had always kind of the old-school mindset that you need to do that. And then the more I did that, the more I saw it carry over. So I like having that cardio reserve. The way I roll is dynamic, high energy, a lot of transitions and constant movement. So it was nice to have that extra energy reserve. But that wasn't what drew me.
Starting point is 00:31:15 I wasn't out there running just to have more cardio on the mat or, you know. It makes your hunts more pleasurable too. You're not tired and exhausted. Puking less is nice. But no, it's just the liberty. What makes you puke? The altitude and just the duration. Just cardio.
Starting point is 00:31:30 Yeah, right? Yeah. It doesn't happen to me so much anymore, but it did a lot as a kid. But it was the same thing in wrestling practice. There were more than one, you know, at 11, 12 years old, more than one occasion where you had to run outside and puke in the rain. Lactic acid buildup or whatever it might be. Yeah, and especially if you don't eat intelligently.
Starting point is 00:31:50 So, you know, everyone's different. Yeah, you know a lot about training and talking with you in the gym and stuff and what you're kind of stumbling upon now with the system that you've been working on for a long time, kind of experimenting with yourself. And I'm sure you have a lot of conversations with your brother and stuff like that too, where you guys are talking all kinds of different game plans. When you did this 500 plus pound deadlift and this 50 miles in one day, I saw the video that Ryan Soper edited together. It was really cool, inspiring.
Starting point is 00:32:26 But I heard you kind of consistently, rather than just saying, like, I set up this program, you said we. So are you communicating with some other people and taking other people's ideas as well and kind of bringing it into your training for this particular thing? Or was it stuff? More than anyone, probably you.
Starting point is 00:32:44 I mean, the stuff we talk about here. I mean mean you helped me with the strength side of like I had no strength yeah I know we did talk about it but I'm like I never done that well no you you were the one the first time I ever sumo deadlifted which apparently was my preferred I mean I deadlift both ways but as my preferred style was you were the one who's like hey you know you should try it out and I did and it clicked and yeah I mean Andre definitely helped me work with it you know but I say we like Wild Hunt it's mostly just me as far as the like the business stuff but I have a lot of good people friends you know that help or contribute something to it and so it just doesn't seem right to be like all right guys so I went out there and I did this
Starting point is 00:33:18 when I mean there's people you know the guy who printed this shirt for me and then there's you know what I mean there's the friends who advise me on how to run a social media account until you tag the relevant accounts and do your hashtag. You know, all that stuff that I would have, I had no idea. Like I'm not tech savvy at all. Like all this stuff in the beginning.
Starting point is 00:33:33 So it just seems disingenuous to talk about the things I've done when I've had so many good people along the way. Yeah, we were trying to talk strategy of like how to do like 500 poundpound deadlift in a 50-mile. It just seemed like you would be dead to try to like deadlift 500 pounds afterwards. Oh, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't.
Starting point is 00:33:54 Well, just the injury risk alone would not. I wouldn't. Yeah. So the choice to do it beforehand seems like fairly obvious. But like fuel, you know, like fueling up and eating. And we discussed some of that. And I think one, one big mistake people make with competition a lot of times is they think they need to do something in particular on the day. Uh, that's like different than what they're used to. And that's probably the biggest mistake on a run or jujitsu. I can't imagine in jujitsu, like eating something that's just't agree with you. That's got to be a disaster.
Starting point is 00:34:26 You see that with runners who try to do all these gels and stuff, you know what I mean, that their stomachs aren't used to it. They're in the bathroom the whole time. Oh, yeah, if they're lucky enough to have a bathroom nearby. I've seen some things go another way on that. But, you know, they're ducking off trails, and it just, you know, I do the same thing I always do. Same thing, you know, competing in jiu-jitsu and anything, you know, it's i do the same thing i always do uh same thing you know competing in jujitsu and anything i'm you know anything i do the same thing i bring some extra
Starting point is 00:34:49 electrolytes extra food whatever i'm going to need to replace what i use um i figured out a pretty decent way to kind of calculate oh this might be useful to you uh for running if you run when your runs go well i can't take entire credit for this. There's a rugby coach named Jack Taylor out of Britain who he's, I've actually learned a lot of good stuff from him. He's a really good dude. And he was one of the first to, for no benefit of his own, support me when I was starting out. Oh, cool. But it is essentially after the first hour, if your run goes longer than one hour, for every hour after that that you'll want to have about two to three hundred calories eight to ten grams of protein 16 ounces of water and some electrolytes so that kind of
Starting point is 00:35:30 helps you give you an idea about how much you're going to need you know carry with you is there a body weight component i'm it so i'm using i'm using the range to kind of compensate for most of that so it's like you know eight to ten two hundred to three hundred you know what i mean but yeah so like if you yeah if you're going to get into it, we'd talk, I might have you bring a little extra with you. It is interesting. Cause like, it doesn't matter how much fuel you have in your body. Once you have put an output out there, um, regardless of your conditioning, because if you're conditioned well, that will probably mean your output will be higher and you'll probably be moving faster. So you'll be similarly fatigued as somebody that is maybe heavier and slower yeah because the effort is
Starting point is 00:36:11 still yeah no i mean yeah things do scale for sure yeah the effort is still high so it's like you at some point you kind of do need fuel i went out and run the other day and it took me like around two hours and um as soon as i got to like that two hour mark, like my legs started to, I was like, Oh God damn. Well, there's also, how about the quality of your run? Like if you stop and you get down an Aussie bite in a little way or whatever, you know what I mean? At after an hour, that second hour, you know, I mean, let it digest, do whatever you got to do, but that second hour, the quality of that second hour of training is going to be higher too. And your experience with it is probably going to be higher too.
Starting point is 00:36:43 What type of stuff do you carry with you? Like specifically to meet those needs of the electrolytes of protein, what do you take? Um, I, uh, actually I use a lot of the electrolytes from here or just the element or whatever. Um, those are the two brands I like. The liquid IVs are fine, but the two that I like are the within you and the element. Um, I do Aussie bites or a piece of fruit. Aussie bites? Yeah. They're just these little, I get them at costco they're these little bites um it's like a dried dates and dried seeds and you know what i mean stuff like that coconut and uh i just like they're tasty they're easy to get down it's clean energy they're pretty dense and so i'll throw a couple of those in or just like a plum or something like that because i like uh peaches and plums on on the hot runs. Yeah, those taste so good.
Starting point is 00:37:25 So good. So good. Why do you like those versus the gels? Because runners love gels, right? And they have calories. So why do you like those more? I don't know. I like real food in general.
Starting point is 00:37:35 Most of my protein of the day comes from actual food. I do do. I mean, I drink whey and stuff. People are obsessed with those gels. Those goo packs. Yep, that's them right there. Well, I've had those before. Those are dangerous, bro.
Starting point is 00:37:46 And Steven didn't know those were for running. Those are supposed to be for running. Yeah, no. And one box is in a serving. I fucked up one of my friends. Like, she had that, and I just, like, ate, like, almost the whole thing. I went through a phase where I was taking those. I was drizzling MCT oil on the top and then sprinkling that cinnamon roll flavor god.
Starting point is 00:38:03 Oh, my gosh. And they make them individually packaged, too, so I'll throw a couple in there. Each one's like 600 calories. Yeah, like 150, but yeah, pretty good, pretty good. They're so good. You're supposed to swim to Australia to earn the right to eat some of these. So unrelated, I just bought a share in Aussie Bites. No, they're just uh but yeah they're
Starting point is 00:38:26 good piece of fruit's fine too yeah most of what i eat is pretty heavily on the fruit and meat and uh veggies seafood stuff you know what i mean so i stick with them i'm not like uh no restrictive dieting but uh i just find my body likes kind of the realer more primitive foods better in general you still have time for jjitsu? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'm training right now probably more than I have in a while. Last few months since I did the deadlift ultra, I just kind of took some time to get back into grappling since I hadn't been able to, I mean, through the prep for the deadlift ultra,
Starting point is 00:38:56 I'd been grappling like twice a week or something, you know, but I kind of missed it and wanted to make it more of a priority. And then I took the time to do some prehab. Like I have a shoulder, a hip thing. My hips are a little crooked. So just, you know know little things that kind of i'd been ignoring for a while they're starting to pile up but um feeling good now so probably gonna start lifting lifting heavier again and uh but yeah jujitsu has finally been more of a priority been kind of diving into some of the leg lock game in ways before that i'd you know i've always been pretty good at defending them but now i'm trying to understand the Craig Jones speak of it all. No, that's good. Cause that
Starting point is 00:39:29 shit's come. That's, that's just, we're all competitions going anyway. It's fucking annoying cause it's annoying to watch. Yeah. It's not fun to watch people just fucking sit in 50, 50. Yeah, no, no, no, no. But that's where it's going. Um, but I, I did want to ask you about the 50 miles. where it's going. Um, but I, I did want to ask you about the 50 miles, how long did that take? I was like 1347, something like that, which I run in for 13 hours. I mean, you stopped like once or twice, right? Yeah. So I gave myself exactly a five minute window to resupply twice at 15 and 38 miles. And that was just that, that was calculated exactly how long it would take to have Janae change my socks, uh, refill my camelback, you know, all that. And then that's the second one where I sat down, which I knew better too.
Starting point is 00:40:10 It's like 13 hours. I knew better. Yeah. And so the thing was I wanted to break 12. In the back of my mind, it wasn't like an established goal, but I was hoping to break 12. Oh, I will. But I wanted to break 12 because they say, like,
Starting point is 00:40:24 if you can run 100 miles in 24 hours, you're doing all right as far as pace. And I'm like, well, if I can hang with that pace, that'd be nice. And I was killing it. I was on track to smash that until I sat down. And then that last 12 was, I feel like it took about as long as the 38 before it. Some real fuckery with that, you know? 38 before it's some real fuckery with that you know like you you uh i've been out on a bunch of runs recently where i just kind of start out i usually start out the same way i usually just kind of like go and then i'm like let me see what's available for today yeah and then i start
Starting point is 00:40:55 to kind of get into it more i try not to obsess over like times or anything like that but that's good sometimes you're just moving and you're like oh moving pretty good today and you pick up the pace and i'm like man i'm fucking kicking ass today and're like, oh, I'm moving pretty good today. And you pick up the pace and I'm like, man, I'm fucking kicking ass today. And then like 20 minutes later, I'm like, I'm not doing so great. There's waves. You ride the wave. And your brain too. Your brain is all like on fire.
Starting point is 00:41:17 It's like I chugged a mind bullet or something it feels like. Everything's just fire and fire and fire. And it's like, this isn't a good idea anymore you should fucking go home so that's that's its own thing but for sure the longer you run the more pronounced that gets the ups and the downs yeah but the thing is just like we're talking like this is gonna pass yeah you find you when you're at the bottom and it sucks and you know you know you're gonna be back at the top before long it might be an hour it might you know might be three minutes but you're gonna be back you'll be right. But that, admittedly, sometimes once you get closer to your actual limits as far as just what your body can do, the mind really starts to try to save itself.
Starting point is 00:41:54 And I've noticed this is a good idea or why I'm a big proponent of trying to run in a lot of different areas. And I think it's important because when you see that you're getting close to the finish, that's when the pain will come in a little of different areas. And I think it's important because when you see like that you're getting close to the finish, that's when the pain will come in a little bit more. You know, you're like, oh man, I'm close. And whether it's like a let up or whether you're just like excited because you're about to finish, even if you're thinking like I'm going to finish strong, I think you're better off being like oblivious. Sometimes, not for all your training, but sometimes.
Starting point is 00:42:24 I mean, I set my biggest PRs in the gym when i'm not paying attention to the weight right so i'd say the same thing if you know i hit the flow like i'm a jujitsu lifting running i love the flow state i try to find that and just ride it i ride that wave and but uh you know like i said it come you know there's ups and there's downs and eventually sometimes you do have to you know do some powerful self-talk or some imagery or whatever, and anything, not just running or training. Goggins talks about the Rocky movies being the piece of imagery that he uses. I think for everyone it's different.
Starting point is 00:42:57 I think once you find yours, even if you're not a runner, that that's a powerful tool. With me, it was more I've always kind of admired feats of will as much as strength or endurance or anything else, and sacrifice. Like the story of the 300, that's always just made my skin stand on end. Or there's stories of Native American warriors when the cavalrymen were coming on the village and they needed to buy time for the women and children to escape. They'd drive a line of them them would line up and drive a stake into the ground
Starting point is 00:43:27 in between them and the village and the cavalrymen and each would tie a rope to one end of the stake and tie the other end to himself and just swear to die on that ground you know and he'd fight to the last and so stuff like that has always been something that moved me yeah you're like somebody's done shit way harder yeah well that's what i'm, you know, I can run for a day or, you know, until things stop working if they did that. And so sometimes it helps whatever your thing is. And for me, it's just when I feel that, when I know it's not just riding the wave anymore,
Starting point is 00:43:56 when I know things are starting to shut down and, you know, parts of my body kind of stop working, that's the time when I, you know, I just, I mentally, I draw a line in the sand and I picture everything that I love and care about and everything that I could be, everything that I am on one side of the line and everything that wants to take that away or compromise that on the other. And I just make the decision to die on that line and hold that line no matter what. And more often than not, once you do that, you get, I mean, if you're truly, truly willing to make that sacrifice, it's liberating.
Starting point is 00:44:26 And after that, you know, you hold, you hold, you hold and you do whatever it takes. And if you fail, that's fine. But at least die like a man on your feet, you know. So, but like I said, different for everyone. Yeah, no, but again, like what you just did there, it's another aspect of like literally being grateful for the what you're doing at that moment in time and also like number one what you're doing is fucking it's amazing and it is badass but you your mind goes to literal people sacrificing themselves and then just being like this shit ain't so bad fucking be a man and run through it it's that it's your ability to change your perspective
Starting point is 00:45:05 out of what you're doing. I think that's like the big talent at all because we're always zoned in on us, us, us. But you constantly take yourself out of it and just be like, ah, that's way better or that's so much, or that's what we need to get better at because we're always focused on what we're doing,
Starting point is 00:45:21 focused on ourselves, focused on our actions. But you have an amazing skill of removing yourself and thinking about different perspectives that makes you grateful. I mean, I agree and I appreciate that. I never really thought of that as a skill, but I think you might be right. That's a skill. Yeah. It's definitely a skill because you can also listen to Rocky or do something like that
Starting point is 00:45:42 and you can get fired up and you can be like, I'm going to go harder. I'm going to try harder. And that can work sometimes, but a lot of times that'll also kind of stress the body a bit. Sometimes you're opening yourself up to an injury or just get overheated or whatever the fucking case may be. So it's like, man, it's a super power.
Starting point is 00:46:01 Use it when you should. If you're super strength and you're running around trying to pick stuff up all the time, you're going to, you know. But if you're utilizing it for that, so it's a superpower. Use it when you should. You know, if you're going, if you're super, super strength and you're running around trying to pick stuff up all the time, you're going to, you know, but if you're utilizing it for that. So it's like, I, I mean, I wake up every day. I come in here to lift. I go to Jits. I run. I box, do whatever I'm doing.
Starting point is 00:46:13 And I, I don't hype myself. Like this is exactly who I am and where I'm supposed to be. It requires no hype and no nothing. I can come and do this with, you know, I don't take pre-workout. I don't listen to heavy metal in the parking lot. I just come and do what I'm meant to do. with, you know, I don't take pre-workout. I don't listen to heavy metal in the parking lot. I just come and do what I'm meant to do. Having said that, if you do that and you push yourself and you're truly, truly finding the edge of your comfort zone and going beyond what is safe,
Starting point is 00:46:32 you're going to find some times where you have to call on those, you know, those extra resources. But yeah, I'm not waking up every day and like, all right, you know what I mean? I'm Ragnar Lothbrok and this is the last stand of the, you know what I mean? Like, no, I'm just, I'm just a guy. I'm, I'm just a dude, you know, most of the time, but occasionally. How did you learn about, like, the history of strength? Because I've been in some conversations with you before, and you've mentioned, like, even earlier today, you were like, oh, they used to do these six-day races where they would just, like,
Starting point is 00:47:00 run for six days straight. Like, how did you kind of stumble upon some of this stuff? It seems like you're, like, very fond of those things. Like, how did you discover some of upon some of this stuff? It seems like you're like very fond of those things. Like, how did you discover some of that? I mean, that's a big part of my page originally before even there was even a business aspect.
Starting point is 00:47:12 That was just me. Just some guy randomly posting on old, you know, yeah. It's all over your Instagram. Yeah. Really cool. But I,
Starting point is 00:47:18 Oh yeah. Blink in there. He was a dope wrestler and MMA fighter. If you didn't know. Um, but, uh, you know, I've always been interested in history,
Starting point is 00:47:27 and I've always been interested in training, and so it just seemed like a natural combination of the two. You hear just some cool stories here and there, anecdotes, and you kind of want to know if they're true, or you want to know if the Spartans really did eat two meals a day instead of the four that was conventional in ancient Greece at the time. And, you know, Hicks in there. Look at that one in his prime.
Starting point is 00:47:49 What a man. Dude, your page is such a good reference for education, though, man. Yeah, people should know these names and know these people, yeah. Everyone needs to go follow because there's so much shit that I don't know that's just here, you know? This is dope. Oh, I appreciate it. But, yeah, it's the stuff that you find.
Starting point is 00:48:06 Oh, that's the longest boxing match in history. That's another one. How long did that go? It was like eight hours or something. It was 108 rounds. One of the guys had broken every bone in both hands. Just sitting there punching each other the whole time. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:48:19 You going to give up? Nope. I'm not going to give up either. Just keep fucking punching each other. Yeah, I'm good on that. Shit. So yeah, just the stuff fascinates me and interests me. And also from a training aspect, I think people get, we tend to get kind of myopic.
Starting point is 00:48:39 We focus on when we want to learn training data, when we want to, you know, find facts and stats, we look at the most recent study. And I think that, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that for sure. It can be exciting sometimes. Yeah, it is. But I think we have thousands of years of data. I mean, from the Greeks and the Romans to before that, you know what I mean? We understand how people react to certain diets. We understand how people train certain ways. And, you know, like the, this, none of this is new. It's not lack of knowledge. Why, you know, the reason why we're fat is not lack of knowledge. No, I mean, even like literally none of this is new it's not lack of knowledge what you know the reason why we're fat is not lack of knowledge no i mean even like literally none of this is new too like the vegan versus carnivore debate that was going on in ancient greece like and one year if a olympic
Starting point is 00:49:14 champion was a carnivore half agree you know half the athletes in greece would follow the next year would be a vegetarian the same thing would happen you know what i mean like this is not sick this is not new literally and And they're like, oh dude, that pancreas, that Spartan guy who won the pancreas last year only eats meat and dairy.
Starting point is 00:49:29 It's like, all right, you know, so it's, and we're, you know, nothing under the sun is new as they say.
Starting point is 00:49:35 The, this whole leg lock game we're talking about, that's not new either. I have a post on my, about the history of the heel hook. That's ancient Greece. Some guy was doing it
Starting point is 00:49:42 because he was smaller than everyone. He kept getting trampled in pancreas fights. Really? He learned how to catch a heel hook from underneath he saw an oracle who uh he asked an oracle like hey i'm getting fight there's no weight limits by the way he's like i'm getting fucked up how do i how do i fight these bigger guys and the oracle told him by being trampled upon and he didn't really know what they were talking about and then in one fight he was getting trampled upon he caught little oshie or some sort of entanglement from the bottom and lifted that heel. Probably high on some mushrooms.
Starting point is 00:50:08 Probably. But went on to be undefeated, by the way, too. Oh, shit. Yeah, just catching Heelys on everyone. Actually, what you're talking about is really cool because I didn't know that people actually knew much about pancreation. Every time I've heard about pancreation, it's like people are like, oh, well, we don't know much about it.
Starting point is 00:50:27 So I've actually had a good conversation with John Donaher about this. And we both kind of settled into the conclusion that we can't really be sure what the level of their skill was, but that most likely it was very high because we're talking about centuries of evolution here. We're talking about massive resources in time, energy, food. You know, we know like their strength conditioning stuff, their nutrition was on par with our own outside of the cutting edge science for measuring a lot of the specifics, you know. So it was probably pretty high. Do we know, you know, like reconstructing a lot of the holds and stuff?
Starting point is 00:50:59 We know there was punches, you know, it was MMA. We also knew that you could grab someone's balls and twist. You could do a lot, you know what I mean? Like it was a different level. It's a problem of someone's balls and twist. You could do a lot. You know what I mean? It was a different level. It's the problem of golf. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But very dusty.
Starting point is 00:51:14 So yeah, we can't be sure on some of it, but you can tell. You know what I mean? Especially when you see a picture of some guy heel hooking a centaur. You're like, oh, well, okay. Toes in the armpit, lift the heel heel and we know what happens then god damn but what was going on with these uh six day races you were talking about so that was a trip i haven't done too much of a deep dive but yeah so this is uh eight uh you know 1800s or the late 1800s it was kind of a fad yeah six day races and uh so people would get real kind of shady with these they were peds were a
Starting point is 00:51:46 huge thing nitroglycerin and cocaine particularly and uh just to keep them awake and stimulated uh there were also a lot of the races you'd see going on from there and later too it's like they would uh they didn't really understand how respiratory systems reacted to like car exhaust especially primitive engines of the day so you'd be running for a day or six days, and there'd just be a car shadowing you the whole time that's just putting out black smoke. And they're like, all right, so, you know, how do you feel? So, you know, some journalist.
Starting point is 00:52:13 You're just, like, dying. And then, you know, sniffing poppers and cocaine. Guy with a curly mustache. Yeah, yeah. Hey, son, hey. Flipping a coin under a street lamp. But, yeah, so they got squirrely. And then if I'm, I believe that there was also a big thing
Starting point is 00:52:33 at the first attempted female six-day race because everyone thought it was inappropriate. And so people were just the whole time just mobbing it and messing with them. But the crazy thing was these people back then, they ran in, like, dandy clothes. Like, there's guys, like pictures of guys running with like a cane and like hats and you know what I mean? It's like, and then they'd talk about how like mile 60, their feet were bleeding over the track.
Starting point is 00:52:53 And it's like, yeah, you think? You're wearing, you know, you're wearing high heels and a powdered wig now. Oh my God. But yeah, and it, there was also, again, just did a post on this by coincidence, but the British were, they called them pedestrians. Ultra marathon runners at the time were called pedestrians.
Starting point is 00:53:11 Okay. And the British initially were the leaders in that field. Like they were putting out the best athletes. And they started hearing kind of weird troubling reports coming from America of guys doing hundreds of miles. You know, this guy ran 200 miles, this, and they're like, no, no way, no way, son. First of all, this is our game. Second of all, that's just not possible.
Starting point is 00:53:30 It's crazy. So there was kind of like a PR, you know, about a trash-talking by telegram or ship-mailed, you know, for a while going back and forth. And eventually they set up a duel. America's top guy, or second top guy, I think, was going to come duel the British guy, and they were just going to be a track. It was like a horse racing spectators with umbrellas and refreshments the whole thing what year was this late 1870s something it's on it's on the post but i can't
Starting point is 00:53:54 remember how far down or how recent was the post it's the one with that kind of psychedelic picture i put on there i just did it like the other day or last night maybe um so i've said somewhere in there yeah 1876 there you go um and these two guys just went around this track over and over and over again and the american guy ended up winning by the other guy his that the wooden track was just messing their feet up so the other guy like mile 60 something to tap out his feet were just like literally socks were soaked with blood and this whole thing and then the american guy hit 100 miles or whatever because i think it was just gonna they're gonna see who could do the most in 24 or something like that a lot of time limit but they had some some crazy stuff like that and then the drugs in general led
Starting point is 00:54:37 to a lot of like hallucinations and other weird stuff in a lot of these competitions what's up paraproject family it's time to stop dressing like you're a fucking preschooler and step your game up by checking out viore clothing now i'm not one to talk i wear a fucking pink hat that has a dog on it but at the end of the day at least my shirt and shorts are popping so head to viore because they have great stuff for your top and your bottom andrew how can they get it yes you guys got to head over to viore.com slash power project that's v-u-o-r-i.com slash power project. And you guys will automatically receive 20% off your order. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Let's get back to the podcast.
Starting point is 00:55:10 You know what's really cool about this, though? I honestly can think this about modern day lifting specifically. When people look at the research and they talk about how much you should be doing and fatigue, I get it. And I'm not in the camp of thinking that people should be unsafe or do too much. But a lot of the history kind of shows like people were doing a lot and getting by just fine. And the cool thing I think is that it shows that you can do much more than you think you're doing. And I think when people focus in too much on research, it kind of stifles them in their progress because they're like, this is optimal. And once I go over
Starting point is 00:55:50 this, I can't do anymore. And then they have something in their head that's telling them, don't do more. You know? I agree. And also look at these guys. You can't cry PEDs. PEDs weren't even invented. I mean like testosterone, like you can't be like, oh, well, that guy was juicing. So, okay. They didn't exist, you know? So I would agree. Um, and I think it's just, I mean, of course people are capable more than they're thinking than more than they think they are. But a lot of it is just, uh, how you organize your stuff to, you know, like if, you know, if you're going to go squat every day, like, yeah, you're probably going to be pretty limited in some of the things you can do. But if you find a way to organize that training, diversify and, you know, get your body acclimated to it, like you can do a lot. And that's kind of the whole principle of,
Starting point is 00:56:32 you know, the, like the wild hunt stuff we do is finding a way, a symbiotic way to fit together, lifting, running, and athleticism. There's also one other big factor in all of this. Lifestyles were much different. People were using their bodies more. Kids, adults were not sitting for hours and hours and hours and then just going to it. Like people used their bodies more. So they probably just had a better awareness of doing more and an ability to do more because they weren't sedentary all the time. I mean, personally, I think they were hunting bear in the mountains with hounds.
Starting point is 00:57:05 But yeah, I think so. But, yeah, I think so. Oh, yeah, Chinese strength training. That was some interesting stuff. You can see a stone. Look at the stone barbells. Do you run? It's pretty sick. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:14 It's kind of almost like kettlebells. Yeah, they called them stone locks, and they were used pretty similarly. Do you run weighted sometimes, like weighted vests and things like that? No, I run, and then I ruck separately. Ruck is just like a walk, hike with weight. Yeah, literally find a good pack, preferably one with one or two cross straps. Any good brand? Because people are going to want to.
Starting point is 00:57:36 No, not one that I'd ruck. If you're going to be hunting and you're willing to drop a bunch of money, then the Kufaru International packs are the way to go. But as far as rucking, I mean, I wouldn't be rucking in mine anyway. But I just, I think I have like an Osprey hiking pack. I put a towel in it and a 62-pound kettlebell, and I go for a walk. I mean, I built up to that. So if you're looking to start rucking, for women, 15% of body weight.
Starting point is 00:58:03 Men, 20% is a good starting point. Scale from there. Start with a mile. If that feels okay, go a little longer. Never add weight and distance or incline at the same time. So it's like if you were looking to progress in one session, go a little heavier. The next, go a little longer. And then the next, add a little incline, you know.
Starting point is 00:58:18 So you want to vary that. But overall, I mean, I think rucking is great, especially because a lot of people have joint issues that prevent them from running effectively or for long periods of time, or maybe they're just turned off by the idea. But a ruck is just a hike or a walk with a little weight in the back.
Starting point is 00:58:32 Maybe it's just a baby in the back, you know, baby in a pack on your back or whatever it is. Do you ever mess with moving it around, like putting it on the front or anything like that? Yeah, like how would a good-weighted vest count as rucking or that's not? No, it would, yeah. And I have some of my athletes that use them just for expediency or for whatever reason,
Starting point is 00:58:50 but you just can't load them quite as heavy. So there is that limitation after 50 pounds or whatever. Maybe a little safer on the body just because you're not leaning forward as much or whatever it might be. It is. I don't move the pack around to the front much, but I train like a big staple of our training is doing everything in four directions so you know I do my weighted carries forward backwards even even move to the
Starting point is 00:59:13 side same thing with sleds same thing with everything else and because of something I picked up from judo training they do a lot of carries partner carries on the back on the front moving forward moving backwards and so I do a lot of carries, partner carries on the back, on the front, moving forward, moving backwards. And so I do a lot of that stuff. I'm also really big on Zurcher carries and Zurcher marching. So front loading is there. And then front squatting as well. I have a saying that the extensors are the tibialis muscles of the forearm or of the arms. And I think they're frequently under trained. Yeah, the opening of the hand. Yeah the arms. And I think they're frequently under trained. Yeah. The opening of the hand. Yeah, exactly.
Starting point is 00:59:46 So I think the front properly, you know, full range of motion, the front squat is one of the best things you can do for that. Can you do that again real quick? Like there's a, there's some definition in your forearms, man,
Starting point is 00:59:56 that you don't typically see in people. Look at the top part of his head. Like that area. Like you don't see that on people. Yeah. You can just tell you do some, you should do some different type of training yeah fingertip push-ups chin-ups which you know everyone i mean everyone's pull-ups
Starting point is 01:00:09 better than the chin i mean it's like anything else change your grip vary it up front squats i do a lot of stuff with my hands clubs and i did a lot of years of manual labor but i found that by uh training the extensors jujitsu specifically your grip stronger but more than that the fingers just do a lot better they're not so torn up your hand like anything you connect your hand to works better whether it's bench press so you get the same just like you know doing your tip raises for your lower body you get your you know increased strength and stability through the knee and ankle less injury you get all that all the same benefits training your extensors and your arms with the added benefit of grip. And then a Zurcher, like, do you advise people
Starting point is 01:00:49 to use like med balls and sandbags or you want them to use a barbell or? I use a barbell, use that as a baseline. But I think like anything else, you should change, you should change the load. Like, I'm sure you get, you know, some people say like deadlifting is bad or good. I don't understand the argument for that because there's four basic human movement patterns.
Starting point is 01:01:09 There's push, pull, hinge, and squat. I think to be a healthy human being, even if you're not an athlete, you should be able to do all of them, at least with body weight or some minor load. It doesn't mean your grandma has to deadlift a heavy barbell, but she should be able to pick up the laundry without pain. I think the best way to do that is to vary the load. Um, I tend to focus more on the heavier stuff just because I prefer that. And, uh, the way we train is kind of by taking the minimum effective dose of the maximum effective methodologies from each different thing and combining them into a more well-rounded template. I think most things get a bad reputation from all the same spot, you know,
Starting point is 01:01:46 like whether it be CrossFit or deadlifting or squatting, it's usually a case of somebody doing something they're not currently prepared for. So it's just people just overdoing it. Like, you know, of course if you did a five by five and you jumped into powerlifting and you never had any experience, God bless you. Thank you. You never had any experience with that and you got yourself hurt. Of course you're going to be like, well well i don't think that that's a great movement
Starting point is 01:02:07 and there's some people that have tried to utilize something like deadlifts for their sport and they're like oh it really slowed me down or but it's like well how long did you try to use it for how did you utilize it how did you load volume etc maybe you were trying to do it in season and maybe you were trying to lift heavy to or like there's a lot of different ways you can do it well things get demonized movements in particular which is weird the bent more nothing more than the bent press you know like that's an old-fashioned strong we never know bent press and by the way i think i have a i haven't confirmed this but i have a theory that it might be the best upper body pressing movement for judo athletes and therefore have good cardio it's kind of the origin of a bench press, really. I didn't know that.
Starting point is 01:02:46 So I do a lot of one-arm barbell pressing. The bent press is going to be more, you're adding some rotation to it so you're not pressing up, you're pressing yourself down here and you're coming inward and then lifting the weight by corkscrewing up. I love doing that with kettlebells, but I've never done that with a barbell.
Starting point is 01:03:02 That requires so much more stabilizing. So I love one-arm barbell presses. It's a staple of all my programming, even if you're just doing a straight press. I believe it used to be called a bent press too, to do both, right? That used to be like an Olympic lift, I believe. No, I know there was an old time. A continental lift. I didn't know that. Ended up being like
Starting point is 01:03:18 a bent press, because I think that's what people were calling it, because they would take the weight and they would hike it up onto their belt, and then they would take the weight and they would hike it up onto their hork it up onto their belt and then they would lean back and then they got rid of it eventually because people there were some people that were like our guests that we just had here recently that could literally bend over backwards so well that they could kind of like cheat the weight up i've never heard that that's cool i've seen what you're talking about and on like some old school like there was a wider stance.
Starting point is 01:03:46 I was like, yeah, yeah. Like that. That's how they would do that. It might have even been part of powerlifting now that I'm thinking about it. There might have been an extra lift in there somewhere, which I think might have got replaced with a bench press. That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:58 Oh, yeah. Is that Pablo? Observe. Comrade. He's the one to watch. Look at this mobility. I can't do anything like that. That's bizarre.
Starting point is 01:04:13 Yeah, he's insane the way that he can move. Oh, yeah. I'm a fan for sure. Yeah. But this is something, like, I do this with kettlebells a lot, but doing it with a barbell, how do you get the barbell up? I just use a squat rack. I come under it. I find my hand grip like my shoulder.
Starting point is 01:04:27 I step out and then press from there. Gotcha. Okay. Wow. So in terms of what you're thinking in terms of the best, I guess, pressing movement for grapplers, et cetera, why do you believe that's the case? It was more of an intuition initially,
Starting point is 01:04:43 but then I started seeing some of the benefits of just one-arm barbell pressing in general from my own training. And then the... Shit. Wow. Look at that. The rotational aspect.
Starting point is 01:04:56 God, yeah, I'd like to... That's a goal of mine. Blades. That's 135. Yeah, so that's my goal. That's one of the next things I'm going after. I have to get into it. Oh, he just had it on the side.
Starting point is 01:05:05 And, Seema, watch mechanically. Watch the lift. The whole body's getting it. Yeah, the hip engagement, the core, the pressing, and the stability through the shoulder and upper back. It's a little sketchy on the way up. Or actually, maybe not. It's not sketchy.
Starting point is 01:05:20 Like, with his form, it's not. Yeah. And they say, like, I can't verify this, but they say it's pretty easy to bail on, you know, like an unsuccessful. Chuck it forward probably. Probably, yeah. Chuck it backward, you're getting Camorra'd. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:34 By a barbell. I've had a Camorra turned all the way around. That was actually how I set the 500, or the goal to deadlift 550 miles in the same day, was I just had, it wasn't even like, I didn't even get caught. I was passing a guard, and a guy desperately threw a Kimura up and was trying to hold it back. It was my bad shoulder. This was before I did any PT or anything at all, and I was just like, nah, I'll be good. I just passed his guard anyway, and I didn't know. I was fine. Everything went, you know, passed the
Starting point is 01:06:03 guard. Everything went fine after that, and then afterward, I was like cleaning up the mats. And I went to that. And I was like, oh, that's worse than usual, you know. And then it was New Year's Eve. So me and Janae and a couple of our friends headed up to a cabin. And it was kind of like talking to me. And by the nighttime, I was like, okay, that's bad enough. Like I don't take ibuprofen normally for anything.
Starting point is 01:06:22 And so I was like, that's bad enough. I'm going to take two. And then I woke up in the middle of the night and it was just on fire. And Janae took a look and the whole side of the back was swollen up in here. And it turned out that the rotator cuff and bicep tendon had both gone, not completely, but like, you know,
Starting point is 01:06:35 grade two, I think they said tears and both. And, and so that, anyway, that weekend we had just been eating some, a buddy of mine had been eating some venison. We were hanging out at the cabin and just talking about how you didn't really see much with athletes who could do both.
Starting point is 01:06:49 Like we were aware of a couple like – I think they had backgrounds in football or rugby, but guys that did some impressive like squat totals and then would run a sub-five mile. Yeah. So like that was kind of cool, but it didn't really interest me too much. And then I had no – at the time, no real lifting background. I had done kettlebells stuff mostly for grappling and some basic athletic strength conditioning but like my deadlift form was terrible I didn't I wasn't a technical lifter I'd never even tried to I had no idea what my max was
Starting point is 01:07:15 um so it just seemed like a cool way to learn new things challenge myself and then become well rounded because you know I mean the idea of being a fighter, that's going to be strong, you know, at 180 pounds, I'm going to be stronger than ever, mostly than everyone that I compete against. And I just don't get tired now because I'm right. You know what I mean? My aerobic base is so deep that, you know, even like after sustained explosive action, I'll still recover quicker than the next guy. You know, you know, what's really cool really cool though too like after you had that injury um uh you know we've talked about how people deal with injuries on the podcast quite a bit a lot of people when something happens they you know they'll do their rehab and shit but it'll really maybe take some people they end up quitting or it takes them out
Starting point is 01:07:59 of the thing that they really like or they fall into a massive depression because they can't do that thing but you have so many modalities of things that you do that if something happens to the jujitsu, you can just turn and fucking go take a run for a few days. Oh, I ran a marathon the next day after the show. What? Yeah. No, no.
Starting point is 01:08:15 Sorry, I take that back. A buddy of mine had wanted to set a distance goal for some time. His goal had been 10, and then I took him out on a run, and then I think i went on another run myself in the evening yeah but so yeah i was i mean yes you just just run and i mean you know i wasn't super super into archery yet so that that didn't feel like a you know something missing but i and i got back to jiu-jitsu pretty quickly with just drilling i'd even go and just watch guys roll you know and just try to understand uh things because it's it's just the academic
Starting point is 01:08:44 study is something i think people overlook a lot with grappling. Well, with everything, but with grappling in general. But yeah, I mean, it sucks, man. You want to roll and then it's like your friends are getting ready for Master World or something. Or you know what I mean? Or you go and you visit another city with a cool jiu-jitsu place and you want to go in and train and you can't. So I mean, it sucks. But it's
Starting point is 01:09:05 you know it's not forever it uses an opportunity to learn everything i could about shoulders and shoulder health and i think uh stuff like that it it mostly pisses me off like you know like the set obstacles mostly you know i don't they don't really discourage me i mostly feel kind of like slighted or insulted that's not you know like oh you think you can actually stop me from doing this like you know okay i'm turning it up now so i i never i mean injuries that's a jordan move that's that's that reminded me of the last dance where he's like he he did you ever watch the last dance i haven't yet but i intend to you have i've heard it's amazing there's a funny fucking part where uh he talks about like there's multiple references to how like he would make up foes and make up narratives to piss him off before like even if an opponent didn't do shit he'll be like i remember when that guy said this shit to be i'm gonna fuck
Starting point is 01:09:54 you up this game and then there was a there was a player who's like i never did anything to him i didn't insult your wife like what's going on, man? Just calls him the wrong name. But yeah, that's exactly what I do. With me, it's not so much people as, you know, your demons, your mistakes, these things that, I mean, we're humans. We anthropomorphize everything and emotionalize things anyway. So maybe it's not that surprising. But yeah, and it's me. And it goes back to drawing the line.
Starting point is 01:10:24 You know, sometimes it's a line you draw on the sand, and other times it just draws a circle, and you just swear that nothing, not even me, is going to leave this alive until the job's done. And it's really sometimes as simple as committing like that, and everyone's got to find their cue, whatever it is. Are you very particular with how you train on certain days, or do you kind of just go out and like, let me kind of see how the body's feeling? Because you train so often.
Starting point is 01:10:49 Both. Yeah, I train every day. I mean, not, and it's not like, I'm not, I train seven days a week, and some of those are multiple times a day, but it's not like I'm going out and just, you know, like it's a bit of both, to answer your question. So I think you got to self-regulate. I think that's a huge part of training in general,
Starting point is 01:11:03 because you're 85% on a day when you just got over the flu is going to be different than an 85% when you ate, showered, you woke up, and your girl told you whatever and got you going. And you're going to feel different, 85% relative to the day, which is also where I try to do most of my heavy compound movements. So three sets of three at 85 is a really good baseline because I can still do that i can go grapple i can run i'm still getting strong like progressive overload still works at lower volumes at 85 it doesn't have to be 24 heavy singles to get stronger um so i i try to self-regulate but i have a framework it varies a little bit season
Starting point is 01:11:40 to season right now we're going into bear season so there's going to be more archery and more running but archery and more running. But archery I just plug in as an active recovery session for upper body and two birds with one stone, which is, again, a big part of what I always try to do. Same thing with the extra rucking I'm doing will be more recovery for lower body lifts. But mostly just with small variations. But the template stays pretty much the same. I lift, I run, I grapple, um, you know, some sort of other skills training on the
Starting point is 01:12:10 side, usually archery and do some functional stuff and some active recovery stuff. And that's about it. I mean, you actively mess with, uh, like mobility stuff, like stretching and things. Yeah. So I stretch a little bit usually after grappling, but I, um, I find that just the basic mobility stuff is, is just great. Just getting your body to move and break. A lot of these patterns were stuck in every day. Uh, you don't have to be Ido Portal or anything crazy, but just, just move. You get on the ground and move like an animal, you know, pick a different animal every 30 seconds for a couple of minutes, maybe do a little stretch, work anything that feels tight. But ironically, the best thing I've found for improving your range of motion
Starting point is 01:12:48 and joint health is lifting weights through a full range of motion with a moderate load consistently. And I just haven't found, I've done everything. Yoga, stretching, mobility, those are all parts of my routine in small doses. But like, yeah, I mean, nothing's gonna get your lower back
Starting point is 01:13:05 and your hips to feel better than just getting really good at a deep Bulgarian split squat or, you know what I mean, a lot of these things. Yeah, you think about like what's the advantage of having somebody assist you, you know, an assisted stretch. Well, it's just pressure, you know, and then can you get the same pressure from doing a squat? And then can you start to look at your squat as if it is stretching and
Starting point is 01:13:26 then maybe your interpretation of the way that your squat looks is different right uh maybe you're doing a staggered stance uh maybe you're um you know i you can just you can just choose like so many different ways you don't have to like i think we're always thinking like okay both feet are going to like be facing that wall and i'm going to be moving this way and you could have you know just like a offensive tackle or something you could have one foot slightly back one foot slightly in front of the other and you can squat that way and you can go wide stance close stance and you can really have a variation of the way that you're moving and if you think about it that way then it's probably going to help increase your mobility i think it will i think it'll help increase the support structures in general And even if you were a competition power lifter who was going to squat,
Starting point is 01:14:07 bench, and deadlift in the same hand position, you know, every time, I still think it's good to train outside those ranges of motion. I've known, I mean, you got to find proper dose and not spend all your time doing that as opposed to, you know, doing your prime training. But I've only had good results with introducing small doses of alternate training that address the same issue from a different angle. There's a trend with the type of people that we've had come in, and one of those things is just exploring new things. There's Adriel Mays, every goddamn day, who does a lot of kettlebell movements that you see that are very unconventional. But those things work for him, and they allow him to find new ranges and new things to work on.
Starting point is 01:14:43 We just had this human garage people come in and a big aspect of what they do. They do a lot of body work and they have people do body work on themselves. But one of the biggest concepts within that is like when you do some of the things that these guys talk about, and you guys may have already seen the podcast or some of the videos is your, you're putting your bodies in positions that you probably have never put yourself in. Maybe the last time you did was since you were a kid you probably have never put yourself in. Maybe the last time you did was since you were a kid.
Starting point is 01:15:08 Yeah, I frequently see that, yeah. And then you're like, oh, wow, I feel this. And the same thing with what you're talking about here. It's like work some different shit, move in different ways, which is why jujitsu is really cool because, I mean, I know that before I did jujitsu, I wasn't moving and putting my body in any of those types of positions. But it, but it allowed me to find places where I was like, Ooh, that is really tight. That is really deconditioned. And it allowed me to, I think that was the first thing that I did in my
Starting point is 01:15:36 adult years. Cause I started when I was like 23, that was like, Oh, my body is, there's so much fuckery going on that I never knew about. Well, just basic lateral movement. How many people move side to side or under resistance? Yeah. And then go try knee cutting side to side on, you know what I mean, over again and see how your glutes hold up to that and your hips and, you know. So, but with jujitsu, yeah, I'd expose that.
Starting point is 01:15:58 The one thing is that we're humans and we have habits, so you're probably going to be passing to the same side with that knee cut a lot of the time. You know, so it's good to, and it's also train your weak side in everything you do because it's going to make your strong side better. You know what I mean? And, uh, it'll balance your body out in the process. And your strong side has weaknesses to it that you're unaware of. Right. The foot that you're jumping off of, um, your hip flexor on that side might not be as strong as hip flexor on the opposite side because you drive up the other leg when you go to jump.
Starting point is 01:16:27 Things like that that you just don't even think about. I would agree. That makes a lot of sense. The cool thing also is you mentioned you work out every day. And we do – all of us here do some form of working out every day despite if it's in the morning or we do something little in the afternoon. We do some type of working out every single day, right? if it's in the morning or we do something little in the afternoon, we do some type of working out every single day. Right. But I, I knew, I know that there's some people that were listening and there's like, how does he split up his jujitsu and his lifting or whatever? And your answer is
Starting point is 01:16:52 infuriating probably to most because it's like, there's no really exact answer. There's, there's something though, you, you are experienced as a lifter, you are experienced as a jujitsu practitioner and you're, you're experienced as a jujitsu practitioner, and you're experienced as a runner. So you know how to feel when you should not go so far, and you know how to feel where you can push it, right? So if someone wants to know, how can I get to that place where I can just kind of audible things, what would your suggestion to them be? I'd say start with small doses, obviously. The other thing is finding the symbiosis. Like I said, let's say you want to squat, deadlift, and bench in the same week. You also want to run twice, go to jiu-jitsu twice.
Starting point is 01:17:35 So if you're going to do squat Monday, you're going to do deadlift Tuesday, and you're going to do bench Wednesday, probably not the best way to organize that week, symbiotically speaking. Whereas if Monday you go out and you squat heavy and then Tuesday you go for a light run or a ruck or whatever you think. And then maybe Wednesday you hit that upper body. And then on Thursday you're hitting jits.
Starting point is 01:17:55 And on Friday you're doing your squats. I'm sorry, your deadlift day. And then the day after that you go and you flow roll for a bit in the morning. And then maybe you go back. Flow roll means light roll, guys. Yeah. And it means actual flow rolling, not let's flow yeah yeah exactly um so uh and then you know and then on sunday you know you go for another light run or maybe you're
Starting point is 01:18:18 feeling a little better so you feel you push it and you go longer run maybe you feel like shit go on a walk yeah there you go and uh so it's finding something um and it's not like a point of pride to train every day or anything i just feel better when i do something and i there's not that many days in the week uh the way my training structures is generally like kind of a an eight day week because i can't fit everything into seven but it still comes out to training every day um and it you know the dosages might not be what you think like once you i built a pretty decent aerobic base my joints and muscles are pretty good it, you know, the dosages might not be what you think. Like once you, I built a pretty decent aerobic base, my joints and muscles are pretty good at clear, you know, lactate clearance into absorbing impacts.
Starting point is 01:18:49 So running my body's pretty used to, so I'm fine. If I want to run, do, you know, run once a week for 10 or 20 or 30 miles and just have that be it, then I can do that. You know, when you do those runs, by the way, are you, um, are you careful about your terrain? Like some people, if they start running on concrete their joints feel like shit right so do you do you can you now just run on anything for distance or are you careful about that i can now for the most part but i in the beginning i plan our fasciitis knees you know just all i mean it was rough because i was just running in nike cross trainers on flat cement you figure out pretty quick that adding in some trail and some hills
Starting point is 01:19:24 is a good idea plus it's also just nicer to look at, more enjoyable. You hear birds, you smell fresh air. We, you know, we're Northern California here, so we've got a lot of good places to run. But anyway, just getting outside, plus you get the sunlight. I like to run with my shirt off, not, you know, just to absorb and kind of feel freer and feel everything. And then if I get somewhere, I might take my shoes off and just jump in a river or a creek and then dry out in the sun a bit and run back. I just, you know, I like that way of training as opposed to just circles on the block. But sometimes you can't drive out to a trail or get any space,
Starting point is 01:19:58 so you just got to circle the block, you know, as many times as you can in an hour or whatever, you know, whatever it comes out to. Yeah. That gets to be really boring. It does, but that – I mean, and I would say – Sometimes you got to do it. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:20:09 And sometimes you should do – I mean, I don't want to say should, but sometimes there's a lot of benefit from dosing yourself with that monotony regularly. Do you listen to music or anything, or you just kind of go? Both. I mean, I like music, but sometimes I just get tired of hearing it, and I'll take them off and just want to hear the air. Also, my hearing's not great, so I have to crank my headphones all the way up to just kind of get a normal level, and it's probably not too great for my brain,
Starting point is 01:20:34 so I try not to do that too much. Podcasts, stuff like that? Podcasts, yeah. Yeah, something usually— Podcasts is nice. It really distracts you, and you're like, oh, I'm a lot further in my run than I thought. Yeah. The educational stuff I like.
Starting point is 01:20:49 I'll listen to something on Ancient Rome or Greece or something or just – or whatever the latest thing comes up. Highly intellectual shows like The Power Project, for example. Yeah, exactly. The Power Project. Oh, yeah. Nietzsche, you know. A bunch of stuff like that. But no, so that's the other thing too
Starting point is 01:21:05 for a while I was like there were books you know there's always that list of books that everyone's like you gotta read
Starting point is 01:21:10 you know it's the art of war and it's you know the book of five rings so there was a while where I just 12 rules for life I just put them
Starting point is 01:21:17 on the list bought them on and I was like alright you're just gonna get through all of these and then it's like alright once
Starting point is 01:21:22 you know you can get music in your last half hour but the first three hours you're gonna be just you and Musashi. Yeah. So are you petting cats? Uh, never disturbed kids when they're skateboarding and, uh, I'm still, I'm cleaning my room. We'll say, but yeah. You know, one thing that I was, uh, you, you kind of said it and we went to something else is, um, cause I think Andrew asked, is there anything that like pulls you back to wanting to do any of that? And you were like, as in like drugs that
Starting point is 01:21:49 you used to do. Right. And then you, you just mentioned, well, I'm kind of, uh, I just do so much that I don't even think about it. And there's, it's funny. Uh, when I was younger, I had a porn addiction, right. And one of the things that actually helped me out was just being busy as fuck and tiring myself out because when you're so tired at the end of the night you're like my shit i don't i just want to fucking sleep bro and i think honestly that's that's that that could be something that helps so many people out because you myself and, myself and yourself and Mar, all of us, we use our bodies so much that like, it's just like, you just want to chill. Like you're, you're so busy. You don't want to do anything else really, you know? No, I think it's good. I think that is very much part of it. I also
Starting point is 01:22:35 think that's, uh, the desire for any addiction, drugs, porn, whatever you're, you're looking to fill an empty piece of you. And I think if you start running, lifting, doing jits, bear hunting, whatever your thing is, it's going to fill a big piece. So I don't, I don't feel, I just, I don't feel the need. I don't feel the pull. I don't also like what, like what am I going to do? Shoot heroin? Is that, how is, how in any way is that going to eclipse deadlifting 500 and running 50 miles? You think that's more psychedelic or more intoxicating? No, it's not, you know, it doesn't even come close. So maybe, maybe I just traded out my drugs, you know, but yeah. And those, the thing is, is like the things that you're progressing at are so much more exciting.
Starting point is 01:23:16 Like I'm so much more excited at going and progressing at jujitsu or doing certain things in the gym. Like these are real things that you can see progress. And you know that every time you train, you feel good afterwards. So you're getting all this continuous positive reinforcement and you're just like, I don't want to do anything that derails me off of this thing that feels so good already. Right. Right. No, exactly. The things you got to earn. Yeah. Yeah. No, I would agree with that a hundred percent. What has it done for your mental health as well? Cause that's a huge component, right? Yeah. I mean, the confidence is huge. I mean, that's not the only thing. It affects your well-being, your clarity, your perspective.
Starting point is 01:23:50 Some of the greatest insights I've had about who I am or what I want out of life have come on a long run or after a hard training session. But the confidence is – it can't be understated, especially for someone like me who had never been a part of normal society. You know what I mean? Like I'd worked manual labor jobs with, you know, migrants and, you know, people were, you know, didn't even speak the same language. So I didn't have to talk or interact much. I could just kind of stay in my lane and use the shovel and, you know, whatever else. And so I'd never really integrated to society at any level, you know? And so it was just basic social interactions were strange. You'd get to, you know, a club or, you know, bar or whatever, and not really know what the etiquette was for how to do this or how to interact with people or, you know, like it was just so, I had a lot
Starting point is 01:24:35 of anxiety and struggle with the confidence a lot, you know? Jiu-Jitsu must've helped a lot with that, especially like being in close quarters with people, like, you know, uh, cause I think life is kind of like a combat and there's conflict. And that's the ultimate combat and conflict is to pair up against somebody and kind of see how you do. I think Nthima might agree when I say
Starting point is 01:24:55 when you first join jiu-jitsu, confidence is not what you feel. No, no, no, no. That takes a little bit. But yeah, no, it did. And even something simple, guys might not like to admit it but most guys walk around pretty afraid inside of you know being physically dominated or someone
Starting point is 01:25:14 asserting themselves physically over them and that's why you get the big reactions and the blusters and the guys that see red and bodies hit the floor you know that that type so when you have the actual ability to take, you know, most people and not even hurt them, but just restrain them, make them not a threat anymore. Sure. You're going to get a lot more comfortable just living day to day. You're going to feel better walking around, safer walking around. And in the back of your mind, you know, you can defend most likely your loved ones, you know, so that helps. I've always been good with weapons. I started early with my brother in a boat.
Starting point is 01:25:47 You know how to use weapons, though. Yeah, not that, and I, like, I would, I'm not a fan of, you know, of that. A lot of the, you know, a lot of the mindsets that come with using weapons on other human beings. I think, I mean, war is one thing, but as far as day-to-day, I don't understand why so many people are so eager to, you know, use a gun or knife or pepper spray on another person. You know, I've also just kind of realized as I've gotten older that I don't really have the stomach to hurt people anymore. I've hurt a lot of people physically and in other ways. And it's not, it's not something I have in me. I love training.
Starting point is 01:26:20 I love fighting. I just don't like hurting. You know, I think the more you understand what it does to another human being when you, you know, put a bullet in them or a knife in them or you set them on fire or any of the things I've seen or been through, it changes the way that you think about stuff like that. But having said that, the ability to hurt someone harmlessly, we'll say, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm all for it. You know, if you're, if you're a problem and you become a physical problem, and I think it's great to have the ability to hip throw someone to the ground and mount them and have that be the end of it. Yeah. Andrew, I know you're talking trash over there. No, I'm not. Take him out. That's not how it works. What'd you got over there, Andrew? Cooking up anything? A little bit. Yeah. Earlier we were talking about your back injury and stuff, and you gave me a quick 30-second version of it. But can you explain in a little bit more detail what was going on there?
Starting point is 01:27:13 Yeah, I mean, I'm not even sure if injury is the right word. I found out last year, and I don't put too much stock in the terms, but the doctor told me I have scoliosis. By this time, i had already started dead lifting doing single legs you know training and all this ways and so when i asked him like oh so what does that mean what do i do he's like you're doing everything perfect like you're literally you're doing better than what i would have prescribed you with physical therapy but what it is is my spine they didn't detect it when i was a kid because it's not like curved but it curves a little to the side which leaves my pelvis tilted left legs a little longer than the right which means that i live most of my life with my glute
Starting point is 01:27:50 meat on my left side pretty turned off you know like the outer glute yeah and very underdeveloped so uh even after running ultras like i would just get savage back pain which in the beginning was the other than my feet was the main you know what i mean and not just like running the ultra but getting up day to day to train and especially when you're hitting 20 miles a day you know later on and but i just i just figured that was part of it you know and tried to get better shoes tried to address my mechanics a little bit but it never really did much and then ironically when i started adding deadlifting to the uh you know i'm like the goal became not to run ultras but to deadlift and run an ultra in the same day my back got a lot better and then i
Starting point is 01:28:29 started noticing that feedback and started addressing like seeking it out and i like i maintain that for most lower back issues and again everyone's different this could make things worse for some people but the bulgarian split squat you know the goblet side lunge and some basic dead lifting and hip mobility is you'd be i think most people would be amazed if they did those things with any regularity even in rotation what would happen to their back issues because i mean my spine is literally crooked and all and it's it's enough to tighten everything and pull it where it should be and yeah the only downside of that is i i pay a bigger faster price if i skip accessories and i
Starting point is 01:29:03 have made that mistake before too so have you you helped anybody through back pain with some of those methods? Oh yeah, oh yeah. The reverse hyper is also, you know, obviously developed by Westside when Louis broke his back, so that's not a surprise that that helps a lot, but that was a huge game changer. There's also some ways to improvise that. I also, the other thing I like doing is belt squat marching, so to put on a belt squat, and instead of squatting, just marching in place. You can play with different knee heights. Actually, a lower step isolates the glutes a little more. Have you ever used the one here, that squat max?
Starting point is 01:29:35 Yeah. How do you like that for squat marching? Different stimuli for sure. With that, I like the other one for marching marching more i like that one for squatting more particularly like a wider stance squat you know okay yeah cool yeah um there's there's one thing i want oh yes okay so you run hundreds of miles but people can look at you and like you hold muscle one thing that people think is like if you are going to do a lot of this running stuff, especially the ultras, that there's like one build, right? But you're jacked.
Starting point is 01:30:09 You lift heavy. You do jujitsu. And you run ultras. What has been the big aspect of you being able to maintain the size you have? Because you do miles and miles and miles. And people have in their heads that I'm just going to get small. And you're not. No, no.
Starting point is 01:30:23 I'm definitely atypical when I line up next to other ultra runners. I noticed this weird pattern. A lot of them tend to be my height, 5'11", and like 138 to 140. So, yeah. I walk around most of the time at about 180, low 180s. Right now I'm about 190 just because I finished putting on a little exercise. But, yeah, so like definitely significantly larger um i think there's benefits to that by the way as far as your joints and you know just being more armored and being able to take more damage because running
Starting point is 01:30:53 is kicking against impact you know you know it's a hundred thousand steps over and over again but um as far as secrets there are little things like uh the way you structure your your lifting and your training you know it's like uh so the ampk mtor relationship which is mtor you know as you guys know it's released you know in response to resistance training stimulates hypertrophy whereas the ampk is released after you know high intensity or long duration cardio exercise so like uh generally what you would want to do with something like that is get up early and run because the AMPK will override the mTOR, but it has a shorter half-life.
Starting point is 01:31:31 It's only in your system for three or four hours, specifically if you have a full meal with a good glycogen source in it. Okay. Whereas the mTOR is more like 18 hours, so it kind of stays there longer. So if you were to just get up and go lift and get that mTOR flooded and then go right after and do a long run and flood your system with AMPK, the AMPK is going to override that. It's going to make the hypertrophy response less. So you generally do your runs early.
Starting point is 01:31:54 If you're going to double day, run first, lift later. Assuming my schedule allows it. But that's like a little hack. It's not going to make the difference between night and day being jacked and not jacked. Essentially, it's the overall training structure of the volume. If you're running every single day and lifting once a week, you're going to look like you run every single day and lift once a week. I do track my macros as well as my micros and fiber and stuff like that just to make sure the energy balance is where it needs to be, especially because it varies pretty widely.
Starting point is 01:32:24 If I run 20 miles in one day, that's an extra 2000 calories. Whereas if I come in and I do a lift here, it's four or five, six, you know, something like that. So that's significant difference. Um, so it's, it's, you know, finding out where you're at with that. But, uh, a big part of it also is I'm, I'm pretty responsive to hypertrophy and I haven't done a ton of hypertrophy training in my life. So I do buy, you know, my tries maybe twice, you know, four sets of four sets twice a week. And my buys three to four sets once a week and a shoulder. But other than that, it's just the basic compound lifts and, uh, you know, finding the right balance. I think it's also, we can't, we couldn't, we shouldn't underestimate
Starting point is 01:33:02 the amount of resistance that comes from doing jujitsu. Even though it's cardio-based, you are pushing and pulling and holding against another person. So there's a lot of stuff going on with your muscles within that. If you're mixing it with some lifting, there's a lot of benefit that can go there too. Yeah. I mean, if you get off a few rounds of hard rolling, you're going to experience significant muscular fatigue, especially in your hands and the tibs of the arms. But the main thing with that is to balance it out
Starting point is 01:33:31 because in jiu-jitsu you do a lot more pulling than pushing. And like I said, you're going to be favoring one side generally for attacking and defending. But I agree. Yeah, it's definitely. I mean, if you do jiu-jitsu, you're going to get your hands. The things you're using are going to get stronger. What are you setting your sights on next?
Starting point is 01:33:47 I don't know. Nothing's jumped out quite yet. Nothing's bit me with the same force that the 500 deadlift and the 50 miles did. But I've kicked around some ideas. I might want to try, I've been considering trying a strongman competition or something like that. The lightest weight class that I've seen is 19 pounds above my weight, so the guys would be a lot bigger.
Starting point is 01:34:10 But it'd be fun, you know, just to challenge myself in training in a new direction, something like that. But bear hunting is my main focus, so just getting you guys as many claws as I can. Yeah, tell us about these claws. Honey badger. Oh, yeah, those are bad. claws uh so honey badger yeah oh yeah those those yeah those are bad that's an idaho badger um i didn't kill him or trap him i found him in uh with a broken leg and some internal bleeding and it recently passed away it was still warm and in the middle of a
Starting point is 01:34:38 snowstorm and so i peeled him and took some claws and stuff brought it back because i wanted to teach myself how to work pelts and make like an actual, it seemed like a good skill and just kind of was fun. And it ended up being a lot more time consuming than I realized with the pelt of that size and thickness. Cause badger skin, I mean, it's, it's like crazy thick. How big is a badger? It was, you know, it was a bit, I got a pretty big one.
Starting point is 01:35:01 He was pretty big. I didn't know they were that big. They are. And the thing is when you're cleaning them, like And the thing is, when you're cleaning them, like even having clean bears, when you're cleaning them, you realize like it's made of something different. Like the density of everything,
Starting point is 01:35:11 the difficulty it is to separate. Even when you have like the skin, it's coming like you're peeling the actual hide off the muscle and everything's separated. You're still like, I'm using significant force. I'm stepping on the tail and, you know,
Starting point is 01:35:20 like dead lifting the weight up. Like it's a deceptively durable. Is this the honey badger video? It's not the honey badger don't care. It's a deceptively durable... Is this the honey badger video? It's not the honey badger don't care. It's a different one, but that shit's hilarious. It's the last animal you want to confront at close quarters because they're more savage and more durable
Starting point is 01:35:37 than the bear, just the size adapted. Oh my god. Like I said, strongest animal I know of. Where does it come from? What areas? Just like in general. How do I avoid it? Yeah, that too.
Starting point is 01:35:50 But we know dogs eventually came from wolves and shit. But honey badger. I believe they come from the same line as bears. It's so cute too, actually. Oh, what was it? Honey badger.
Starting point is 01:36:01 It's like, not a mustelid, but it's something like that. Muskrat. Yeah, it's something. But I think it's like a not a mustelid but it's something something like that muskrat yeah it's something I think it's bear family looks like a fucking sloth on steroids
Starting point is 01:36:11 or something and the way it runs is like yeah it's all fast and shit yeah but kind of partially moves like a lizard too
Starting point is 01:36:17 right like a monitor lizard yeah yeah I remember watching a video where like it went up against like a rattlesnake
Starting point is 01:36:23 and it like the venom got into him and then he kind of passed out and then he got up again and he started fighting him again and then he got bit again and he passed out and he got up and he ended up winning. But he just, yeah. The frat boy defense? Dude, yeah.
Starting point is 01:36:41 I was just going to say, yeah, it reminds me of people I know that would just get drunk and just keep going and going and going. I think one of to say, yeah, it reminds me of people I know that would just get drunk and just keep going and going and going. I think one of the scariest things is that Komodo dragon. Yeah, those little fuckers, too. I'm not trying to take a bite from one of those, that's for sure. I hear they can break a human leg with their tail, too. I wouldn't be surprised.
Starting point is 01:36:56 Oh, shit. I have heard that. I cannot confirm. Have you hunted a badger before? No, they usually trap them. I mean, I've shot them before growing up badgers you know pretty much everything but not i've never gone out of my way for it so you said this is a claw yeah wow dude yeah they look gnarly you definitely don't want your dog running into
Starting point is 01:37:18 one oh fuck yeah no no no my dogs would get fucked up and it has been uh traditionally a symbol of strength in many cultures too so the badger claw badger in general badger in general i need to make this a necklace and say i hunted no i won't say i won't say i hunted it they'll be like what gun do you use you'd be like uh my hands yeah i stuck my fingers in its nostrils. Oh, man. But you know a cool thing, actually? You could tell, like, when it comes to something like this, some people would be like, yeah, yeah, I hunted it. But you're like, I found that shit dead.
Starting point is 01:37:55 Oh, no, I didn't. I've hunted many things, but that was not one of them. Are you allowed to hunt them? Yeah, they trap them up there. Okay. Yeah. When it comes to uh conditioning um do you like prescribe to like uh you know you mentioned like rucking so i'd imagine that's like longer duration sometimes when you run i'd imagine like uh in the video i saw you were doing sprints
Starting point is 01:38:18 on the beach so you probably really mix it up you probably do sprints long duration stuff that's less intense and then uh there's probably just some room for you just to smash yourself here and there too, right? I keep to a pretty fixed schedule. It's not absolute, but lift three days a week, run once, sprint once, rock once. It could be you could add your sprints to the end of a lifting session. I like to sprint barefoot. I always have beach, turf, whatever. Same thing with my lifts and carries. I spent most of my sprint barefoot always have beach turf whatever same thing with my lifts and
Starting point is 01:38:45 carries just I spent most of my childhood barefoot and I just I just always had an intuition that it was you know better for your feet and mechanics um the running yeah uh generally and I also sometimes I go through periods where I just kind of really like running and I'll want to sneak another session or two in you know in the week the week. But yeah, generally, uh, uh, upper body day, a hinge, you know, a deadlift day, a squat day. And, uh, I sprint once, I ruck once, and then I run once. And then I do jujitsu probably three days a week. So it feels like I haven't added up, but it feels like I'm usually about 10 session, 10 training sessions per week. And when you run, are you paying attention to anything in particular or just kind of like going. So no,
Starting point is 01:39:25 I'm, I'm, I actually side with you in the camp or I take the same approach you do. And I think it's excellent for big people who looking to get into running early on. Don't worry about the pace. Don't worry about the splits. Don't worry about the time or the,
Starting point is 01:39:38 you know, the selfies, whatever it is, just learn to enjoy the actual thing. And it could be, you could be running a half mile. You could be running 40 miles, whatever it is, but get out there. No expectations, no pressure, no nothing. Just get, find an area that you like to, that, you know, you don't want to be running laps around the parking lot behind Walmart, you know, or whatever. And just learn to enjoy the
Starting point is 01:39:59 process. And if, if, if it takes you half a mile and you turn around and come back, that's fine. And if it takes you a hundred miles, that's great too come back, that's fine. And if it takes you 100 miles, that's great too. But the first time I tried to run, I made it 100, exactly 100 yards. I was going to try to run to the end of the block and back, which is a full round trip of half a mile, and I made it 100 yards and could not. I just started coughing up cigarettes, you know what I mean, and my body was just overweight, and that was less than four years ago. Wow.
Starting point is 01:40:25 overweight again just not you know and that was less than four years ago wow so it's you know it didn't take that long really to get to my first ultra or my first time you know it's that little bit do you care about the way you breathe when you run so my nose works about 40 if you can tell it's been broken and might yeah but bad i'm actually trying to get that surgery before too long so here it's just life-changing when you can breathe through your nose again. But I do, I'm aware of it. And there are runs, like a shorter run, sometimes two, three, four, five miles, where I'll just nasal breathing only. I won't tape the mouth or anything, but I just resolve not to,
Starting point is 01:40:56 and it takes mental attention to maintain that as well, which I like. But generally, I just breathe. You'll hear, I've heard contradicting things. I've talked to Dean Karnasas and Zach Vitter, you know, these guys that I've tried to learn from as far as stuff like that, and you hear different things. Some guys say it's really important to do it this way. Some guys say get the air in any way you can.
Starting point is 01:41:16 I'm mostly out of necessity in that second camp because if I just genuinely restricted myself to nasal breathing, my air would be very restricted. But I try, I mean, I don't neglect it. I try to keep it in the mix. Yeah, I think Zach, he pretty much just says, like, breathe whatever way you can. Yeah, Dean says the same thing.
Starting point is 01:41:31 But he's also, like, you know, he runs, like, 100 miles, and, like, every mile is, like, a six-minute pace or something disgusting like that. He's genuinely, like, impressive to me. Like, he can run 100 miles in literally half the time I can. You know what I mean? That's the equivalent of being able to lift twice as much as someone. Like the mountain, that guy can deadlift just over twice what I can,
Starting point is 01:41:56 like literally twice. Oh, yeah. Like that's a considerable margin. So the fact that he can do something in half the time. Yeah, it's not like you're not trying. No, no. You know what I mean? I know. i've done this a time or two yeah you know like when you're a kid you can be like well i wasn't trying anyway remember that excuse like oh you know if when i try you're
Starting point is 01:42:13 gonna be in trouble but just wait yeah luckily i don't care yeah yeah i don't care there's another good one yeah uh really quick before we move on um the outsiders. What's that all about? You got to tell us about that. So my family, my mom's Japanese or Japanese and Celtic. My dad comes from a small clan of Appalachian people in eastern Kentucky that lived in the hills. in eastern Kentucky that lived in the hills. And so they left the colonies, the British colonies, before America was America and just decided they were going to go out and do their own thing. And they essentially just have lived,
Starting point is 01:42:55 they're just hill people that live somewhat disconnected, well, pretty much completely disconnected from society. There's a lot of stuff going on there now because there's valuable coal in those hills. So a lot of corporations and people are coming in and there's a lot of stuff going on there now because there's like there there's valuable coal in those hills so a lot of corporations and people are coming in and there's a lot of stuff going on um but yeah we come from this very very small little isolated mountain clan that's been pretty distinct for the last few i mean well since they came to america and that's where the bear hunting comes from originally i'm told my great-grandfather who who I'm told I have a lot in common with or favor,
Starting point is 01:43:28 he was the one that brought the family out here from Kentucky, and he had a lot of the same issues that I did, which is kind of like living life, missing something, and had struggled with substance abuse stuff. He went to World War I and got shot. He got hit with mustard gas and shot a bunch of times. And they left him to die. And then this nurse found him kind of just sitting there in the hallway. And it turned out she was from a similar area in Kentucky and took pity on him
Starting point is 01:43:55 and nursed him back to health. So he ended up surviving and coming back. But the drinking and violent behavior got worse. And the story for how we came to California was he got arrested one time and brought down into town. They put him in jail, and he apparently didn't like it very much, so he beat up the jailer, burned down the jail, and then fled and was like, all right, I've got to get out of here. I'm heading west. So he makes it all the way out here, arrives in Marysville, California.
Starting point is 01:44:26 First day he's there, two men try to rob him in broad daylight. He shoots them both. One dies. One does not. Walks off. Eventually gets acquitted or slapped on the wrist or whatever. And after that, lived a pretty quiet life here. He spawned, you know, brought the parrots out here.
Starting point is 01:44:41 And then his son went hard in the opposite direction and became a sack pd motorcycle police officer so that was my grandfather yeah my dad was a law career law enforcement officer as well and uh so i guess and then the white trash saga i guess you'd call it would caught up with me someone tried to murder my mom right before i was born and my dad ended up shooting it out with him and arresting him and he had gone murder my mom right before I was born. And my dad ended up shooting it out with him and arresting him. And he had gone after my mom because my dad had killed his dad in a gunfight. And so it's, yeah, it's, it's a, this is a fucking like this soap opera, not a soap. This is like a fucking multi-series TV show. Yeah. But so I guess I, you know,
Starting point is 01:45:22 it's like, but it was, it it's funny because i i learned some of these details later in life and uh it made me feel better like i don't know i always i'd felt like a black sheep or like a you know i don't know just different and it's like oh no there's been you know there's there's there's history with this and you have family that experienced similar things overcame things and still did something with their life you know even if it's just burning down jails or whatever. So I found it comforting. What's your brother up to?
Starting point is 01:45:50 He's roaming the northern mountains. I think I'll see him. Like Portland or something like that? No, no. You won't catch him anywhere outside of any city that I know of. He stays in Medford, but he's mostly up at our cabin, which is just in the middle of central Oregon wilderness. I mean, it's off the grid.
Starting point is 01:46:06 We're on solar. But he's doing good, man. He's running around the mountains. He's shooting guns. He's doing all the stuff that he's meant to be doing. Why is he so flexible again? What martial art did he do? I don't know.
Starting point is 01:46:21 We both have been doing martial arts our whole life, and I don't have it. I was born with like, I have speed, like weird speed, but he, he has flexibility. Yeah. I can't, I can't, I have no idea. He's been able to do it
Starting point is 01:46:29 ever since we were kids, you know? Oh yeah. Wow. Yeah. And I used to try to like, he'd bust out the splits and everyone would be like,
Starting point is 01:46:35 ooh, and I'd try to like, you know, get in on that attention and yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's,
Starting point is 01:46:41 his mobility is insane. Yeah. He's a impressive athlete for sure. Thanks for coming on the show today. Appreciate your time. I appreciate you guys having me on. I had a great time. Andrew, take us on out of here, buddy.
Starting point is 01:46:51 Sure thing. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Please drop some comments down below. We'd appreciate it. Let us know if you guys have seen The Outsiders because I want to check this out. On your post, it said it was on Hulu, so I want to watch that. Yeah, it's a good show. So let us know if you guys have been watching that or if you're going to watch that. Hit the like button and subscribe
Starting point is 01:47:07 if you guys are not subscribed already. And please follow the podcast at MB Power Project on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. My Instagram, TikTok and Twitter is at I am Andrew Z in SEMA. Where can people find you? And see me on Instagram, YouTube and see me on TikTok and Twitter. Make sure to go to the discord because we've had a lot of really good episodes, including this one. So check that out and rate and review on Spotify and Apple, please. James, where can people find you? Wild Hunt Conditioning on Instagram,
Starting point is 01:47:31 YouTube, and pretty much all social media. And if people want to work with you, do you like, because you do conditioning at 10th Planet, but like, do you do things with I think you put out a book recently, right? No. Oh, I'm putting out the – oh, yeah, my program. Like an e-book or something.
Starting point is 01:47:46 It's the program for how I ran – or how I trained to do the deadlift 520 pounds and run 50 miles in a day. I'm just calling it The Blueprint. It comes out – oh, actually, tomorrow. I probably should remember to plug that. Sick. But, yeah, and it's just basically the overall strength and endurance matrix. As far as I know, there's nothing that compares available for purchase and it's just how to be well-rounded. If it's not a specific
Starting point is 01:48:10 deadlifting or ultra marathon program, it's just, how do I be strong and well-rounded enough in all these areas to where on a given day at the drop of a hat, I can go pick up triple my body weight and run an ultra marathon. Where can people find that also? That will be, I'll link it on my page and on my posts, but yeah, it'll be on be on our on our website which is always linked on our instagram sorry on my our shopify page gotcha i'm at mark smelly bell strength is never weakness weakness never strength catch you guys later bye

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