BJJ Executive Podcast - Episode 23 - Open Mat

The BJJ Executive Podcast, hosted by Dave Kroll, discusses nutrition and diet for jiu-jitsu practitioners. They talk about the importance of supplements and other topics related to jiu-jitsu wellness and longevity. They encourage listeners to support the podcast by liking and sharing their content on social media. The podcast is partnered with The Mat Mission, a nonprofit organization that spreads jiu-jitsu through communities in need. The host also shares his personal diet, including a frittata made with chicken, eggs, and vegetables, and occasional indulgences like milkshakes and pie. Another guest discusses his diet, which includes breakfast cereal, fast food, and late-night snacks. They discuss the importance of caffeine and different approaches to diet. Welcome to the BJJ Executive Podcast, Episode 23. I'm your host, Dave Kroll. In today's episode of Open Mat, I'm joined once again by Academy owner, Zach Paul, as we exchange ideas on nutrition and diet. We talk a little bit about supplements and then a host of other topics geared towards your jiu-jitsu wellness and your jiu-jitsu longevity. If you enjoy the podcast and wish to support us, please do so by liking and sharing our content on social media. Interact with us, help spread the word and leave a review on whichever platform you're listening from. The BJJ Executive Podcast is proudly partnered with The Mat Mission, a nonprofit organization, 501c3, charged with spreading jiu-jitsu through communities in need and providing mentorship and leadership to the youth within those communities. If you'd like to get involved in The Mat Mission, please follow our Instagram page, follow us on our website, thematmission.org, or message me directly. As always, thank you for listening and making this a part of your jiu-jitsu journey. And as I always say, welcome to mine. Enjoy the episode. What are you eating now? What am I eating now? Yeah, what are you eating, Mike? Because you're coming off competition, right? Like you're not, you're doing... Well, first of all... What's your non-fight camp food look like? Non-fight camp food? So when I am getting ready for a competition, right? Like meaning that I need to control my weight to stay within heavy. I've never gone below that. I've never gone down to medium heavy, which is 195 with the gi. Then, I mean, I cut out everything that's bad. Like, I mean, I can be super disciplined if I want to be a psychopath. I mean, I eat good food. It's not like I'm having... I'm nibbling on, you know, bone broth and freaking chicken bones, but I'm, I don't eat cake, you know, whereas as you know, I know you are. I'm out. I'm out. You've already lost me. You're already an anomaly. But like normally what I do, like Sunday is my routine. I missed it this Sunday, so I did it yesterday. I did all my food prep and that is I'll do four huge chicken breasts. I will do probably 12, 16 chicken thighs and I make a 20 egg frittata. Yeah, you told me about the frittata. The frittata is legit, dude. Like so the routine for the frittata is really simple. It's, it's, I will put a, I got two skillets. One's cast iron. I will start grilling up some, a thing of breakfast sausage in the cast iron and then I take mushrooms, onions, and then whatever like crip crap is in the fridge, you know, that I want to get rid of. So like yesterday I had some extra red onion that Nalco had chopped up and I had a couple other like little like salad peppers that we had on there that we had. I get those kind of reduced down. I combine them. I put 20 eggs in there. I let the sides crisp up a little bit and I put it in the oven for 15 minutes and then boom, every single morning I can have a slice of that. I got three to four eggs plus a little bit of protein and veg and stuff like that and I am full. Um, and that is like my 80% diet right there. Then I have friends like Zach that are like, dude, let's go get a milkshake. Don't you? Don't you? You're not fat. That's the thing. It doesn't make sense. It's like, it's like it doesn't make any sense. I saw you at barbecue the other day. You had a good time at barbecue the other day. So let me just lay this out, right? Here was barbecue. You and I go, we have some cool lunches, right? Where we, you know, solve all the world problems over, you know, some random place in Roanoke and in this particular case it was, let's go get some barbecue. Who can go wrong? What kind of communist doesn't like that? So our plates were essentially similar, right? We had, I think, what was a half a chicken? I added some jalapeno sausage because, you know, I'm cool like that. Some bread, right? Good call. Got to have some white bread and it was straight white bread, heavy yeasty, you know, like you'd literally like move a scale. And then the, and then the kicker was the piece of pie. We both had pie. So here you have an interesting tactic because I noticed that you don't have a particular order that you eat your food. In fact, it's even a little like traditionally, it's atraditional. Whereas you eat your pie first. Shame me. I'm not shaming you, dude. I'm observing this unusual, this methodology that you've got in order to- Food is food. It's all good. I guess, dude. But I mean, would you at least acknowledge that most people would, you know, you have your protein, you have your starches and the dessert is traditionally reserved for- According to what rule set? According to tradition. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe like every single person I know is just, you know, has statistically picked a certain path. I guess. I mean, you know, whatever. Most people don't eat at 10 o'clock at night. I do. So what's your diet like? Oh, it's awful. Dude, it's like- I mean, I know what Thursday dinners are. That's what, yeah. So here's the thing. I do want to preface this. Every time I go to the doctor, I love the doctor saying to me, you're healthier than most college kids that come through here. Yeah. I mean, you look like you're in shape. Low blood pressure, no cholesterol, super good sitting heart rate. You know, like all my vitals are great. Right. So the medical side of that is on my side. I start my day with like a mix of like fruity pebbles and like fudge sticks. Right. Yeah. So I keep the fudge sticks. I love keep the fudge sticks. So like, you know, I get my sugars out on my way to work or the gym. I'll stop McDonald's, get a schmuffin because I love my schmuffin. Right. And hash brown. McDonald's is in your parking lot? Because it's in my parking lot. Yeah. You know, they see me every day. I just grab a schmuffin on my way in. What is a schmuffin? The sausage egg, sausage egg muffin. Okay. I've never heard of that. It's a Pittsburgh thing, I guess. We call them schmuffins. But they're probably like, why does he order a sausage egg? I just don't know. I go through and I want a number two of a sweet tea. Okay. Number two of a sweet tea comes with hash brown, right? Okay. Now, what is this? Before nine o'clock. So you've already consumed fruity pebbles, kibble or fudge sticks. And then schmuffin and sweet tea. Yeah. Hash brown. Right. I might grab a donut because that donut shop's next to me. So I'll stop and get a donut, right? Okay. That'll do me till lunch. I'll grab a lunch for a friend or you or whatever. We'll go to Heart Aid or Tacos. I'll go with Chris down to the taco truck, right? I'll usually have some other snack throughout the day before three o'clock because I got to stop eating at three because I got to fight. Yeah. So I can't eat and roll. Yeah. I'm the same way. So that's my big fast. I hate it. From three to eight, I'm just starving. I'm just hungry the whole time. Then as soon as class, I go home and I eat dinner, whatever dinner is. And then usually I have my 10 o'clock meal, which usually consists of a milkshake, an ice cream milkshake. And I throw a cupcake in there or a slice of- Why, man? Why not a scoop of whey or something? Oh, I don't need whey. Or a slice of pound cake. So Walmart has a birthday cake pound cake. I'll take a slice of that, throw that in my milkshake. I like the texture. Yeah, I know. I'm sure it adds a little grit. And then Thursday nights, obviously, we do In-N-Out every Thursday night. Oh my God, man. I didn't know it was this bad. It's not bad. I am a healthy individual. I know. Honestly, I would put you, you're 40? 41. Almost 42. I would put you at 32. Thank you. That's lovely. I mean, seriously. I mean, with the exception of the shade of your hair, I mean, I would easily. When you do your freaking bald man look, your clean-shaven look, I'm like, probably early 30s. When you let it go, like a little puffy, I'm like, well, 42. It's the CRT. It's the CRT. I don't know. That's a whole different topic. That's a whole different ballgame. I had this conversation in depth with a buddy of mine, Joe. And he's got a different approach. We're all the same age. And I would say Joe's diet is probably closer to mine, which we might, let's just call traditional, but finish yours up. So you've got, let me just summarize here. A day in the life. Fruity pebbles, cuplifostix, schmuffin, sweet tea, pre nine o'clock. You don't drink caffeine. I don't drink caffeine. Which is, that might be the savor. So this, I mean, we might be able to start finding some of the outliers here. That might be it. Note. Okay. Caffeine. Caffeine might be the, I don't know, the straw that breaks the back, right? I don't like the taste of coffee and I don't like hot drinks. I don't drink anything hot. Like soups, the only hot fluid I drink, right? I don't drink anything hot. I drink a lot of iced tea. I drink water. I don't even like Gatorade. I don't drink soda. I don't like fizzy. But I do like sweet tea. I don't drink, you know, Yankee tea. I drink sweet tea. That's cool, man. Straight up Southerner. Okay. So that's, you, you, you fit in some form of takeout food around traditional lunchtime. You have some other form of sustenance around three o'clock so that that will push you through essentially running four hours of classes. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's four hours. We're cleaning it. Sometimes that's five. Okay. You close the night off with a milkshake supplement. I have dinner first. You have dinner. Yeah. I have dinner when I get home. Okay. Like a normal dinner. Like a normal dinner. Yeah. Your wife cooks normal food. Yeah. Or I cook or whatever, you know. Okay. Fried rice or she'll make a casserole, whatever she's- Okay, cool. Awesome. So I have like a normal dinner. And then you close it off with a, with a pound cake supplement. If I don't have that milkshake or some snack, I won't make it through the night. I'll wake up in the middle of the night hungry. Really? I can't make it through the night, dude. I will not. I will wake up at like two in the morning and like my stomach will be gnawing me awake and I have to go eat something. I need a nightcap. I need like a shot of calories to make it through the night. Now you're not one to be considered like lethargic or, I mean, quite the opposite. No, I'm not. I mean, people would typically consider you energetic, engaged, enthusiastic. I mean, like, you know, all of those types of, you know, descriptors for your personality type. So it's hard to be critical about this, but have you ever considered the amount of sugar that you're intaking to be something of concern or danger? So this is just like- So whatever. I'm on my own here. I saw a Wim Hof video and, you know, I'm off to the races. I have two points to that. One, my wife is convinced that somewhere in my genetics lies the cure for diabetes because how much I love sugar. Yeah, I can, I mean, she brings up a really good point. She's clearly had time to study this and probably wonder about it. And my wife can bake. She makes, I've got to have her make you the Zach cookies. You'll understand. What are Zach cookies? Oh, they're cookies with like butterfingers and marshmallows. Whoa. I'll make, I'll have her make you a batch. You'll understand. I mean, there's a weakness of mine, dude. Like if I, I mean, my wife will tell you, if she buys, she kills me, she calls me the pie killer. Yeah, pie killer. She'll go buy apple pie. And I mean, as good as I want to be, dude, I will freaking demolish. You shouldn't feel bad about it. I don't feel bad about it. It's in the house, you know? I mean, I have to work it off. The thing is, I can't do that every day. I can do that once a week. I can have an off-the-rails adventure, which like, for example, like that barbecued lunch that we had the other day, that was my off-the-rails adventure. No, that's a standard. That's how we should eat. That's how we should live it. It was worth it, man. First of all, we had a fun time. We had a good conversation. That was a great time. It was good food. But like pie at lunch for me is an extravagant, you know, that's, that is way out of the ordinary. You almost needed to fireman's carry me out. We should have the milkshake. I tried to talk you to the milkshake. You turned me down. I was like, there's a sweet, hey, sugar's right there. We should get a milkshake. They have a cookie dough and it's great. Oh my gosh, dude. I mean, it sounds fantastic. Like I'm not beyond that at all. I just don't think I could actually handle it. But then there's fight camp. So when I'm in fight camp, I am a horrible, I like, my wife hates it. Like I'm horrible to deal with. So there's a fridge in my garage and it becomes Zach's fridge, right? It's eggs, chicken, tuna, salmon, raw tuna, raw salmon, you know, broccoli, cheese, milk. It's like, and so then fight camp, I eat like not like me at all. I eat super clean and I get in really good shape. Like in six weeks, I told my body goes, I get the sugar flu. I get sick. Yeah. I get the sugar flu in like week two. That's real, man. It is. Oh, it is. Really, especially given that, I mean, you, you would experience severe withdrawals. I do. Anybody would. If you were a heavy protein, you took it all away. I mean, you would probably have a similar reaction. Yeah. Week two, I get sick, like straight up sugar flu. And then things start turning around. I start getting like, I mean, I get really in fight shape, but I also am so angry. Like I hate life, right? I just hate life. And I, for me, I think I said it best. I heard him talk about when he's like, when he's dieting for like cutting for fight camp. Yeah. He's like, every time he eats out, he's thinking about his opponent, right? Yeah. He said that to me too. And it's true, man. When I get on the mat, all I'm looking at that guy, I'm like, you're the reason I didn't have a milkshake for six weeks. Like you're going to pay. I'm going to make you pay. I know, man. You know, like I love my milkshakes and you took them from me for six weeks. You're going to pay. He convinced me. I was, I've, I've like, first of all, when I compete, like I'm in a thin division, you know, cause I'm in my last year in master's three next year, it's not going to be any better, you know? And so sometimes it's me. I'm one of the guys, sometimes there's four or five people, you know what I mean? It's not thick brackets. Right. And so, um, I haven't talked to you that much about this, but like, um, I've talked to other people, especially that know me from, um, like my kids wrestling and whatnot. I was on the booster club and I used to be really vocal about, um, not weight cutting. And so I kind of, I kind of took it as a, uh, a flag to carry. Like, I'm not going to cut weight. In fact, I'm going to go up, you know, cause I would, I would tell my kids, I'm like, dude, I have to hear one more thing about you, you know, losing weight today. I'm going to literally stuff a box of Warios down your throat. It's not good for you. Right. I'm a whole different subject. Right. But I remember, um, for a while, like my, um, a year ago I competed in Waco at ultra, you know, not because I wanted to compete at ultra, but because that way I could get a match. And that way, like, I'm just like, non-factor, like, I don't care. You know, um, I want to prove a point. And so I played around at super heavy for a while. And I remember talking to for me about it. He's like, no, it's great that you can kind of just walk on. You don't need to worry about your weight. And most of the time I would weigh under. Um, but he's like, when I diet, like you said, it just keeps me mentally in the game. And it makes me think about the reasons that I'm doing it. And I tend to think more about the competition than I would otherwise. Right. It just, you always have a mental. And you don't have to diet to lose weight. You diet just to be healthy. Yeah, exactly. Like I eat like shit. Like you do. I take that out. Well, I mean, like according to who, I mean, exactly. There we go. That's the philosophy, right? There's no IGF rules. YouTube video you're watching, you know, so like, but I, I, I fight better when I'm healthy when I'm eating, you know, chicken, tuna, salmon, you're eating, you're leaving clues in these statements, you know, like quote unquote, when I'm healthy. Yeah. So, I mean, I, I will first use for, so I don't eat healthy now. Okay. You know, like I know what, I know what my body looks like when I'm in fight camp and I'm a monster. Like I can go round after round. I have more energy than I have now. Yeah. You know, I know body composition changes as well. Oh yeah. Surprisingly so. Yeah. My weight doesn't fluctuate too much, but I mean, I just become toner. Like I look better. Right. Um, but I'm not happy and I won't go through life like that. I won't. I'm not going to go through life like it's fight camp. I will be miserable. First of all, my wife might leave me. I would have no students because no one would want to roll with me. Right. No one wants to deal with me when I'm on fight camp, because if I'm going to eat like that, oh, we're going to fight like it's real roles. So my roles are much more intense because I'm eating to train or I'm preparing. Right. I mean, that's another element of it, I suppose. If I want to cost you my milkshakes, I want to, I want to make sure my mat time is now it's, it's hard rules right now. We're rolling like comp rounds and no one wants to deal with that guy. I don't like that guy. No one likes that guy. I would not be able to maintain relationships if I was that guy for long periods of time. People forgive me for the six weeks when I'm like barking at everyone, you know, and like going nuts on everyone and kneeling, everyone's sculling. So a couple of follow-ups. Number one, have you thought about just balancing this a little bit? Like as opposed to having, I'm going to nibble on sprouts and eggs and raw tuna, or I'm going to have fruity pebbles, Keebler elves and freaking schmuffins. Have you thought about just balancing that out a little bit? No, no. I love my life. Like if, if I was overweight, if I was unhealthy, if I could not get up and down off the mat with the kids, I would do the things necessary, but I am one, I, doing what I do, I am more capable than most of the guys in my age group. Yeah. So kick rocks. I want to keep doing it. I guess that's true. I mean, I see a lot of guys that are my age and I see them at our community pool all the time. They're like 35 year old, 40 year old dads. They're a mess. Yeah. And I know my diet's worse than theirs. Yeah. Like I know it is. It can't be, it can't be better than yours. Yeah. I know my diet's worse and they're a mess. So whatever. I'm not worried about it. What changes in you when you go through your fight camp and you actually do what, what I think people would traditionally consider to be healthy. You might not consider it to be healthy, but it's healthy. Your sprouts, your raw tuna, your et cetera. What changes do you, do you, aside from your mood being horrible, aside from this, the sugar flu and losing all of your friends, I don't get tired. Like I can go round stamina. Yeah. I can go round the cardio confidence skyrocket. Is that right? Yeah. So like round after round, I just don't care. You sleep better. I sleep fine now. Yeah. Yeah. I sleep fine now. Um, actually if anything, I sleep worse because I'm hydrating so much. So I'm waking up to pee because I'm drinking a lot of water. Right. This is either the worst or the best example that I can give here. I mean, I'm starting to think like, man, did I pick the right guy or the wrong guy to ask these questions? I told you it was the wrong. I told you I was the wrong guy. We talked about this. I'm like, it's an anomaly though. So I, uh, um, yeah, I might be unleashing something into the world that has unintended consequences. But like you said, I mean, like it works. I don't, I don't, I talked to guys like Spencer who like, well, you know, I'm going to get 10,000 steps a day and he's deliberate, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Craziness, man. What else do you do? I mean, like you've, we were talking a while ago about the, first of all, you've always been a matter of, right. I mean, like, you know, even before you opened your school, you spent a ton of time on the math. I mean, that was sort of the predecessor to like, why not open a school? You've got to play in this with a long view. This is not a full-time job, but it's a full-time responsibility, right? Like it's a passion project to a certain degree, but it's also like you, you got to be there because people are counting on you. Yeah. I've got commitments. So what else do you do? I mean, you've got, you train for four, like for hobbies. No, no, not for hobbies, but just like to maintain fitness. Dude, nothing. You're looking at it. You don't lift weights. You don't, you don't, you don't do every now and then. I lift three times a week. Plant fitness is right next door to the gym. Yeah. So three times a week I do weight training, but that's more so because at 40 you have to, you lose like, yeah, you lose a lot of muscle mass. You lose a lot of muscle mass, like a percent a year. What's the weight program look like? I actually didn't know that. I had no idea that you lifted weights. It's not a program. I just thought that the fact that the, you know, a huge fitness chain is right next door to you just happened to be more of a student convenience than it was a... No, no. So I go next door. I use that red light sign because it's, you know, maybe it does something. I don't know. Okay. But it's not a regimen. I just go and I work, you know, jujitsu like, like rows and like, you know, like certain things like benches, like whatever I think will help me with my jujitsu, like the motions we need. Yeah. I do maybe like two dozen moves and I'll do three sets and it's nothing. It's not even a regimen. It's just, I go and I lift as much as I, I don't even like have a PR. I lift as much as I feel like lifting that day. Right. Just to lift some heavy objects. Sometimes it's heavier. Sometimes it's lighter. It's literally what I will do to like, I feel happy doing. If I want, sometimes I get a hair up my ass. I'm going to lift a little heavy. I do a little heavy. Sometimes I feel lazy. I'll lift light, but I go through times a week and it's not even that serious. Like I spend an hour and a half there and I'm done. I go back next door. Do you, do you know what you're going to do before you go in? Um, I think about what I did last time and I just do something different. So I pull, I like, I randomly pull from the list of like 12, you know, exercise that I want. It's never cardio. It's always, it's always free weights. Yeah. So I don't use like the Smith machine or anything like that. I use, I use like only free weights. Right. Cause it's, you know, no Smith machines, the one with the poles, right. They don't have it. They don't have universal machines. They don't have the free bench. Right. Like, like, so I only lift free weights because that's what a human body is. Right. And all I'm doing is I'm training. Like when I do like, you know, a row or something, I'm dreaming. I'm pulling up someone's collar, my knees on their belly. Right. Yeah. So I just, I do all the most, like, I mean, I put my knee on the bench. I imagine that's a person. I lift the weight. That's a knee on belly with a collar pull. Like I do the motions that I wouldn't usually do. It's just to move weight. It's nothing serious. And then jujitsu, man, I don't even run anymore. Yeah. Like I have a gym. I, that's my, that is my, were you a runner? Why are you in the army? Yeah. I'm a big runner. I'm a really, really strong runner. No kidding. I can see that. I mean, you're built like a runner. I doubt the fruity pebbles held, but you'd be surprised. I'm a, I'm a good runner. Yeah. Yeah. I do. I mean, regular 14 minute, two mile. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's legit. Seven minute mile. Yeah. I can move. Do you run still? No. No. When was the last time you ran? God, I don't even know. Like, like after my dog, I don't know, man. Like I get all the cardio I need. I get all the cardio I need. You know, I get a little weight lifting. I'm good. I'm, I have my, I am happy with my health, dude. I wish I could, I wish I could pull that off. The problem is I could become a disgusting fat body like really quickly. Like it won't, it does not take long for me to be off the rails. And I'll have these moments where I'll go through like, I'll just do more jujitsu. I do. I mean, like to the extent that I can train every day, I do, you know, and that makes up for the problem is that actually like hides a lot of like discrepancies. Now, typically if I train a lot and if I'm in my everyday of the week mode, then I almost like, if I were to eat what you're describing, I think I would freaking fall apart. I don't know if I could even make it. Well, you try it. It might be fun. I doubt it. I seriously doubt it. I feel inflamed. Like I actually like that stuff affects my body. There's an injection that helps that. Dude. It's, it's, it's a prescription. The doctor will issue you every man after 35, I think should take it's TRT. I could be a commercial for that stuff. I don't. Yeah, you could be. I mean, and the thing is like, as it relates to a walking example, I should be listening to you because you're in better shape than I am. You function better. Typically you have a energy level that I would look to emulate and you live like a 10 year old and people are elves and freaking my 10 year old. You'd have the same diet. I didn't have that bad of a diet when I was a kid and I would eat like Eggos and free pancakes. I have a very high childhood. You see me at, have you been in and out with us? I'm a mess. Every Thursday the team goes in and out. Everyone's invited. Yeah. And we have burgers after our last class. I don't know if they're invited as much as they're required. I remember one night teaching at your class, teaching at your place on a Thursday night and I didn't know about in and out night. You might not have been there. That might've been why I was teaching. That's why you were teaching. Yeah. And, uh, and they're like, we're going in and out. I'm like, Oh good. Go. You know? And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're all going to, I'm like, Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that. I have to go home and go to sleep. It's like eight 30. Yeah. We'll rock out there to like nine 30. That's a trip. That's cool. I mean, I can smash them in and out. There's no question. It's good for the thing. Like I do have a, I do have a, uh, a, uh, I guess you could call it dark side as it relates to my diet. I can seriously fall off the rails quick. Yeah. Well, but it's good for the team. Like I think it's really good for the entire school. And as we grow, I want us to take over that in and out on Thursday night. I want to roll in like 15 dudes in there, you know, and just like we, I mean, we, we come like five, six at a time now. Sometimes we get 10 guys in I'm sure they're, they're used to seeing you guys. Argyle guys go to, don't they? They do. Yeah. That's, we originally started at Argyle, but since I'm not there to like bark at everyone to go to, you know, Mark will still come. He'll, you know, some people Mark did some legal workforce for one of these businesses we started and, and, uh, we were just kind of catching up. And if one thing Mark isn't is, is like, he's got it. He will, he will fill your head full of random bits of knowledge. He's got so much information inside him. And we were chatting and, and, uh, um, I don't know how the in and out thing came up, but like, yeah, he seemed really enthusiastic about it. Kind of like, yeah. How can you not be? Yeah, dude. I mean, freaking, I don't know. It's good. Um, so what about mobility? I mean, you have been, you've, you've last time I saw you, you were in the Sambo world where you would, you would wear shorts and I was doing that because I had to wear a knee brace. Right. I don't normally do that. I, you know, I mean, I like it, dude. I did it because I had to wear that bulky knee brace. I didn't want to wear a pants on top of it. That's the only reason I was doing it. Um, I don't know, mobility, you know, like you do more mobility stuff than I do. You do yoga. I do a ton of mobility. That's my point is that we have these, we just live in these like different extremes. Now your wife is yoga instructor, right? She is. Yeah. And you guys have a yoga class in school. I know that it's been kind of real popular. Yeah. We don't really, we don't really think you've sold it enough. You know, like people love yoga. That's the thing. I don't understand why everybody doesn't do yoga every single day. I prioritize it over jujitsu, honestly. And I would have been at yoga this morning if you and I didn't have our, you know, early morning studio sesh. Yeah. So, you know, my wife did it while it wasn't real popular. So we just kind of stopped doing it. Yeah. We just kind of let it fade off. Does she like doing the classes? I mean, teaching. Yeah, she does. More to fill in your schedule. There's more to fill in the schedule. And she does it with the kids. Yeah. We always wanted to make it kind of like a homeschool yoga type thing, like mommy and me yoga. Right. Um, I mean, I don't even do that. Like I barely stretch. So like, I don't do warmups at the school very much. Right. I'm like, you guys, you're adults. You're not paying me to, you're not paying me to teach you how to do jumping jacks. Yeah. Right. Like there's, there's 10 minutes before class starts. You guys figure out what you want to do for warmups. I'll do some, um, like movement drills for stuff that like, we need to learn how to, we need to learn how to shrimp. Right. We need to learn how to like, good for you. Yeah. When you learn how to do like kickouts, like mobility, like hip outs, stuff that movements that you wouldn't normally do outside jujitsu, just teaching you how to like bipod and shift weight, drop your hip. Yeah. Little things like that. We'll do as a warmup, but that really, what that is, is it's mobility training for dynamic motion. Right. But I don't like, like, I don't like the whole, like, Oh, we're going to shrimp across the mat. Like I'm not a big fan of that. Right. I'm not a big fan of like, okay, pushups and jumping. You'll never see me do jumping jacks at gym. Yeah. That's exercise. Right. I mean, we never run. Yeah. Like we are never going to run before you get here. I will never swear to Christ. I will never run at my gym. I'm with you on that, man. Like, I don't like, I don't, I mean, there are some classes that that's, that's like that. Right. I mean, you should expect it. Right. If you're going to go to a guest instructor comes in, like if you come in and do that and you want to run, have that. It's your class. I will never run at my class. Yeah. Let's say that you did. And I was teaching. I don't like that. Like, I don't want to work people out. Like I'm not a personal trainer. So that's just not my thing. Nothing against it. Like some people like that, you know, but that's just not my thing. My, my warmups, I think people kind of freak out about them a little bit, or maybe people hate them. Maybe they love them. I don't know, but I do like a yoga flow for the warmup because I feel like it's like the right flow in order to kind of get into the motions of jujitsu, open your hips up, open your knees, spine up, get your back warmed up, get your, you know, all of your upper extremities kind of moving as opposed to doing these just like boring static stretches. And then, you know, off to the races, whether or not you're warm or not. Well, it's stretching of muscle tension, right? It's stretching moving. Like, I think it's great. Yeah. You just don't do it. I just don't do it. I just don't do it. Yeah. Crazy dude. I don't have anything wrong with it. Like, you know, some people like strawberry ice cream, like I said, right? Like I have no problem. It's just not my, not my flavor. People like birthday cake, pound cake, and they're roasting. I do. Those people are right. That's crazy. Nope. What about supplements? I take a collagen. Aside from your, you know, my serum of youth, my serum of youth, let's call it what it is, right? So I do fish oil. I do a collagen supplement because my joints are, I'm sore. Like a collagen powder or? No, I do a pill. You do a pill. I do a pill. Yeah. I do NMN, which is recently I've got on that. I researched it after you sent me that information. I love it. I love it. Yeah. What kind of benefits does NMN provide for you? Energy, like it's energy. It doesn't, I feel it does make me a little sharper, right? It does give me a little bit of recovery. I think my recovery is a little better, especially if I weightlift and train at the same day. So I do that one. I do a multivitamin, like a men's multivitamin. Okay. I do maca root for my digestion. I just like, they're just tablets. I just can't help but find some of the irony in all this. You've got this stuff that's like, you need to be a scientist just to pronounce to supplement your fruity pebbles. Yeah, I do maca root, man. Those pills. Oh my God. Real quick. And I just, I, you know, divvy them out and I just, and I think that's it. Yeah. I mean, yeah, that's it. I love it. Yeah. They're all, I mean, pills are easy, right? They go down real easy. It's true. As long as I don't have to like taste it. Like I won't mix like a powder in this. I can't do that. If you give me a pill, I'll take anything in a pill. Yeah, no, I mean, that's fine. I'll, I take a bunch of pills every day, you know, joint supplementation. Yeah. It's the collagen. Okay. The collagen. Yeah. You got to take a joint. My joints are so arthritic. Yeah, man. I am too. My hands especially. But honestly, the TRTs help that. Yeah. I'm tempted, man. Don't get me wrong. Like it does feel like something that like I should, I should experiment with. Your life will change. I just don't like, I'm, first of all, I'm afraid of the side effects and also I'm afraid- Of being awesome? The side effects are being awesome. It seems like it's a very tempting, I don't know what the word would be, short-term fix. It's not a short-term fix. This is permanent. What if you, what if you stopped taking TRTs? I will never stop. But what if you stopped? I would probably die. Like I would, I'm not going to stop taking it. I can't now. My body isn't producing. I'm not going to stop taking it. Yeah. You know, like, like they didn't warn you. Like, hey, you know, once you start this, you kind of got to stay on it. I'm like, I'm not coming off this. If you were to stop taking it, would your body step back up? I mean- I don't think it does. Obviously you, you, you know, this enhances your performance. It allows a lot of different things to occur. You heal better. You're less inflamed. I mean, all of the things that you've described as a benefit clearly were you to stop and you didn't have that benefit before. You would go back to at a minimum baseline, but can you get back to your original baseline? No, I don't think you can. I think it stops your body from producing. That's just, that's the number one concern for me. Why? Your body's not producing what you need now. Well, it's not producing what I need right now because I trained like, like a 25 year old. No, it's because you're 40. It's because it's not producing what you need because you're 40. Right? That's the only reason. Even if you didn't train, it wouldn't be producing what you need. Right? So it's not doing it now. And so what's the big deal if you start doing this supplement and it goes back, it gets even worse. So what? You're not getting what you need now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? You, you've, you have, you've made a compelling case and we've had this conversation. I am the compelling case. Look at me. I am the compelling case. TRT is not the reason you could have Gila or Elvis for breakfast. You just have something weird in your DNA that allows you to do that. Maybe it is. You don't know that. How long have you been on TRT? Uh, like two years now. Two years. I mean, something tells me that this, like your fetish with milkshakes and milkshakes is not, is not a two year phenomenon. I've always enjoyed it. But I mean, I'm telling you, dude, it's, it's life changing, man. Like you can keep up with the 20 year olds, you know, you got the energy. I mean, like the parents say to me all the time, like, you know, how are you up, getting up and down? Cause I get on, I get down on the floor of the kids, right? I'm not, I'm not the old standing. I'm on the floor. You're active. I mean, you are straight up active. You're a really good example of a good instructor. I'm on the floor with them. Right. And they're like, how'd you get up and down off the floor so much? And I don't, I'm not embarrassed. I'm like, dude, I'm on TRT. Like I feel like a 20 year old. Yeah. You know, I plopped down on the floor. I'm on my belly with them. Like I'm on my butt. Like, man, I get up with them. Like if you can't get up and down off the floor of the kids, that's, that's a good indicator. You probably need to get some supplements in there. Yeah. Yeah. It's no fun to feel old either. And when I'm on the mats, man, I feel energized. Like the mats are my energy. And like a kid's class, for example, I mean, like just being around, like just this curiosity. I mean, like it feeds you in a different way, way more than a freaking board meeting or cubicle or anything like that, where I have sat and like wondered where did I go wrong in life? Like, you can look at your bank account all day, but dude, if you're not happy, I'm so happy. Yeah. A hundred percent. I see it, you know, and I feel that way too. Like when I'm there, dude, four or five hours goes by in the blink of an eye. But I have, I've told the story before, but I had this one, um, this one little kid that was at, um, in Highland village and we were, we were warming up and chatting and, you know, we'll, we'll just kind of talk to the kids a little bit. Like, how was your day? I mean, what was the best part? Who has a pet? I mean, just random things, right. Just to get the, the, the, the, the, the vibe going. And this kid just looks at me, he's like, how old are you? And I'm like, I'm like, your hands are old. I'm like, I'm like, Oh God. And then I looked at the guy next to me, he's like 30. I'm like, Oh man, I wish I was 30. Yeah. I don't want to be that guy. Cause I remember seeing people that were like, I remember when I was in the Marine Corps, I would see guys that were like 25 and I'm like, dude, salty free dog. You know, this guy's old, you know, he's got like a car payment thing. All these responsible things, you know, are probably irresponsible things. It was just funny. I liked how life goes. No, I'm definitely not in my prime. Um, like, so Chris, one of my guys, he comes to this pool today and I give him really, he's 31. Oh, he's 30. Sorry. He's 30. He's going to be 30 Friday. Actually bastard. I know. But here's the thing, right? I give him a hard time. Like we've got a, we've got a lap pool at the community and I live in the same area. No, but he comes up with his kids and we swim. I've got kids like to swim, but I can cross the lap pool underwater. Right. And the first time he did it, he couldn't make it. And it took him like 30 tries for you to do it. And I just pressed it. He tried. I mean, I'm impressed that he said, Hey, look, that's a target to go chase. I'm not impressed. You should be able to do it. You know why? He's in the prime. He's in the prime of his life. Right. And I said, I joke with him all the time. Like, I'm like, dude, it's okay, man. It's not like this is the most powerful you ever be. And it's all downhill from here. I mean, I'm, I'm 10 years past my prime and you know, I can do it, but it's okay. You're, you're obviously learning how to swim still. And he's 29. That's what that means. Damn dude. The prime of his life. What's crazy is when I'm thinking about this, right. I think I was 28 when I started. Yeah. And I remember I was in my thirties when I started. So I remember, um, doing competitions back then and like everybody's like, that's why I never want to talk about it right now. Like I, I try not to let it be a subject. Like we made a joke last night. Cause there was three of us, 45, 46, 47. And this guy is a financial planner. He's like, Oh, I need to have a session on social security management. I was like, no, I don't want to hear it. You know? And, uh, but I remember I started, I was a white belt. I started competing and I was like, dude, I can't wait. Cause in like two years I'm going to be in masters. You know, everything's going to be better. Like it makes a big difference. You know what I mean? It's, it's that freaking number, man. I mean like when you're, when I was 30, I don't like fighting an adult. I like fighting a masters. Well, of course, you know, but I mean, my point is it becomes this crutch, you know, like you're 28, like you're 29 or whatever. And you're going to get somebody that's 24 or in college or whatnot. Yeah. I mean, of course it's a little bit different and it changes when you're going against somebody when they're, when they're 30, but anytime you can lean on something, human nature, you're going to lean on it. And I hear like when I was, I'm 45, Oh man, back in the day, like when I was 44, you should, you know, you should have seen me, you know, like I felt different. I felt better. And now it's, I don't know, man, I just don't buy any of that stuff. You know, there's always something you can trim up. You've got a whole menu of things you could trim up. You expect, you know, like shit, dude, like take one thing away. It's not going to, it's fine. Get your calories at night with your pound cake milkshake, but like take away the Fruity Pebbles, which is the brand. Dude, could change your life. Life's too short. I love my life anyway, dude. Well, anyway, it was good chatting with you on it. And, um, I don't know if we've helped the world or hurt the world here, but it's interesting to hear how, how we've got two different extremes and, and, and, and can roll on.