Escaping the Comfort Crisis: Eric Hinman on Endurance, Recovery, and Community

In my 20s, I definitely was the victim of marketing. I thought success was working hard, making a bunch of money, and then partying hard on the weekends, having a nice car, having a nice house. I just got to a place where I didn't feel all that fulfilled anymore. I felt like I was just going through the motions of life. And so when I hired a personal trainer in my late 20s and got into triathlon, that's really when I started to shift my life to be based more around things that I felt were very fulfilling for me rather than trying to fulfill societal norms.

Welcome to Everyday Ancestral. I am so excited for our next guest, Eric Hinman. He is a friend of mine. I met him earlier in 2024. He's one of those people that truly walks his talk. He's very authentic and lives the life that he portrays on Instagram. There's kind of nothing secret about him. Eric is a 5-time Ironman finisher, has qualified twice for the Ironman Championship in Kona, Hawaii. He's a CrossFit competitor. He's done many triathlons. He's an avid bike rider. He also gets involved with investments and he really helps to build brands. He mentions some of them on the podcast, but in general, he's someone that not only is creating content showcasing his daily routines and his recovery, but he's, he's really trying to build community and bring people together. When we worked with Eric, he would have these kind of founder retreats where he would bring all the founders of the companies he was repping together and try to help them build their communities or to learn from each other. And I really respected that about him, that he's not just about, okay, show me the money and I'm gonna talk about your product, but no, I wanna believe in what you're doing and I wanna amplify it. So he is a true creator and conspirator with the brands that he represents. Welcome to Everyday Ancestral. Here's Eric Hinman. Eric, I'm really honored you agreed to come on the show. I highly respect what you are doing and what you've done. Your list of accomplishments. I mean, yes, we can focus on your athletic accomplishments, but you have so much more than that from Your entrepreneurial ventures, of course, your CrossFit competition. You're an angel investor in things, your content creation, your daily routines, your recovery advocacy. Can you just share 3 of, you know, your athletic accomplishments, some of the brands that you're investing in and behind, and just in general, some of the things that you're focusing on that helped get you here where you are now?

Some of my athletic achievements would be Ironman, doing 5 Ironmans, getting to the Ironman World Championships in Kona twice in 2013 and 2014, going 9:38, I think was my best time at Kona. So sub-10 hours. And then I've done Leadville 100 mountain bike race 3 times. I've been competitive at HYROX, both in the open division and in my age group. Kind of new functional fitness race that launched about 5 or 6 years ago. That's becoming really popular. And then getting really close to getting into the CrossFit Games in my age group. I age up to 45 to 49 this year. I'm 44 right now. So hoping to be at the CrossFit Games this year. But ultimately, I mean, I realized during my triathlon years back in like 2010, 2011, how exercise was affecting my energy levels, mental clarity and my wellbeing. And that's ultimately why I do it today. And I've been able to build businesses around that of content creation for various brands, investing in early-stage wellness brands, helping early-stage wellness brands build their ambassador programs and build community. Some of the brands that I'm an investor in and work with and have for a while are 10,000, the men's apparel brand, Ice Barrel, Create creatine gummies, Cane Footwear, Masa Chips, better-for-you chips made with Beef Tallow, Slate Milk, Ketone IQ. I'm an investor in about 15 of these earlier-stage wellness companies and have just really enjoyed putting my money where my mouth is and doing business with people who are living a really similar life to me and trying to solve a major problem that we've got ourselves into of basically a comfort crisis and creating a lot of processed things and modern things that I think are detracting from our health.

Comfort Crisis. That is a great title in many ways for what we are in and what I really believe you do model. You used to be in a comfort situation, right? Can you talk a bit about where you came from and what that process was like just getting out of that for you?

So in my 20s, I definitely was the victim of marketing. I thought success was working hard, making a bunch of money, and then partying hard on the weekends, having a nice car, having a nice house, doing lots of indoor entertainment things, showing off these nice material things. And I just got to a place where I didn't feel all that fulfilled anymore. I felt like I was just going through the motions of life and kind of living life based on someone else's terms and based on just the public perception of success. So when I hired a personal trainer in my late 20s and got into triathlon, that's really when I started to shift my life to be based more around things that I felt were very fulfilling for me rather than trying to fulfill societal norms. But yeah, I mean, during that time period, it was eating to excess of pasta and pizza and, you know, just like comforting foods that taste damn good in the moment. And that's And just like lay you flat on your back afterwards for several hours because, you know, they're so carb heavy or they're processed. I was sitting a lot. I was working in an office or I was driving in a car selling insurance during that time period to campgrounds and marinas. And I just didn't have any education around healthy eating, functional fitness, and the effects that that would have on energy levels, mental clarity. And also just like compounding, how different things compound over time. Take for example, eating unhealthy, getting shitty sleep, having a highly stressful job, having bad relationships, how that compounds over 5 or 6 years versus exercising every single day, eating single ingredient foods sourced from nature, getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep, eliminating a lot of stress from my life, like over a 6-year period where that gets you. So I think a lot about that now where various decisions compounded over time, they lead you on 2 very different journeys and they lead to 2 very different outcomes.

You mentioned that you hired a personal trainer at this junction, you know, of change in your life. How did you know to do that? I mean, so many people these days are DIYing it. They're almost trying to figure it out themselves when so many have gone before them. And so I find that's almost a distinguisher right there is that you almost like instinctively knew like, no, no, I, I need help.

I mean, some of it was certainly aesthetic based. I was up over 200 pounds. I had, you know, a little gut and I played sports in high school. I played one year of basketball in college and was weightlifting in college. So up until my early 20s, you know, I was an athlete and had a good aesthetic. And, you know, in my mid-20s, just from partying hard and sitting a lot and not eating correctly, I put on a little weight and I had a gut and I certainly didn't look like an athlete anymore. So I had some friends who was training with this personal trainer in Syracuse, New York, and they encouraged me to go and do some sessions with him to see how I liked it. And the first few I hated, but you know, it was like a love-hate relationship where it was a challenge. It's like, oh, this is hard. I am really out of shape and I don't want to feel like this anymore. I want to get back into shape. I really like the idea of surrounding yourself with people who've gotten where you want to go, or Hiring someone who you're gonna be accountable to. And that's what that personal trainer was for me. You know, he had the knowledge that I didn't have, and he was my accountability partner. I was paying to train with him 5 days a week for 30 minutes at 6:00 AM. And, you know, I needed that structure in my life and I needed that accountability and I needed someone to show me the way, like show me squatting and thrusters and anaerobic training. I just had never done any of that before. I had always thought that exercise was either for an aesthetic or for performance. I didn't, again, associate it with like the energy levels I would have from spiking my heart rate or the energy levels I would have from doing back squats and deadlifts, complex lifts. So he led me down this journey of wellness and through him, so many other behaviors changed. I stopped going out as late at night. I didn't drink as much. My friend group changed to friends who were in fitness and also at the gym. And then when I found triathlon, everything changed for me because now my weekends were based around long bike rides and long runs, and I wasn't able to stay out late at night anymore if I wanted to hit that 6:00 AM, 3-hour group ride with the crew that I committed to. It's just amazing how one behavior change leads to a bunch of other behavior changes. And then ultimately it leads to new friends. And then ultimately it led me to Colorado where I live now, because I wanted an environment change where the outdoors just begs you to be outside playing in nature.

What I find fascinating though, is like when I see photos of you with your mates, you almost have similar body types, you know what I mean? And so that idea of like, you're surrounding yourself with these people that kind of follow maybe a similar philosophy, follow a similar lifestyle. It's almost like you are the best of who you surround yourself by. Do you find that?

100%. I had 15 friends who did the Leadville 100 this year, and I was the anomaly back in Syracuse, New York doing Ironmans. I was the freak. I was the one who was just doing the crazy endurance feats. And now my friends here in Colorado, they're doing things that I would've thought were very extreme when I was competing in Ironman, but it's been normalized. Now I plan on doing the whole Leadville race series in 2026 because most of my friends here have done it. So yeah, your friends are gonna really heavily dictate your floor and your ceiling. They're either gonna lower your floor or they're gonna raise your ceiling. And I've been fortunate to surround myself with people who raise my ceiling and make the abnormal seem normal.

What is it that's kind of keeping you grounded as you pursue these very I think some people say high-risk ventures. It's even in investing in startups or it's in doing the, these extreme sports. And then of course, you're also, your influencer is rising as well with followers and more people kind of looking at you through a specific lens. Like, how are you keeping yourself grounded through all that?

Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it is just sets and reps of, I've taken a lot of calculated risks and I kind of know what risks to take now to limit the downside and increase the upside, whether it's the angel investing or the endurance stuff that I'm doing. You know, I'm not doing stuff that isn't calculated. I'm not signing up for a cross-country ski adventure in Antarctica when I've never cross-country skied before. You know, I'm signing up for a mountain bike race that is hard, but I mountain bike every day. So I have that skill. I've put in the reps and sets to be able to achieve that if I want to do it. And, you know, I've done Ironman, so I know that I can run long distances. So doing the Leadville 100, while it's extreme, I've put in enough sets and reps to make it a limited risk. Granted, it's gonna hurt in the moment and it's definitely an obstacle and I'm gonna have to train for it, but I've done enough of these hard things to understand the process and the time and the purposeful practice you have to put in in order to accomplish it. And then on the investing side, same thing. You know, my first angel investment was basically blind. I had no idea if it would work. It would, it was basically like going to a casino and just putting some chips down on the table. And now, you know, that I've invested in quite a few different brands, there's still risk involved for sure, but I know how to limit some of that risk. I understand the metrics to look at. I understand the characteristics of the founder. I understand what markets I can aid in and help increase value for the brand. I understand what companies are looking to acquire certain companies. So I think some things in life again are just sets and reps. You have to do it a bunch of times in order to really learn from failures and then not make those same mistakes again, or surround yourself with people who've done these things and they've already made a lot of the mistakes that you can avoid.

Yeah, that's a good point. I feel like as a father, one thing I'm always trying to mirror and support my kids with is like, you can do hard things like that. There seems to be, when they do face opposition, that resistance, you know, and you talked about that a moment ago, but can we dive a little bit deeper into that? Like, are you at the point now where you've just done so many hard things that it's effortless? And, or do you have kind of a formula you find like, okay, when I do something new, I know that the first 3 days are going to be resistance, but then thereafter I'll get over the hump. Is there anything you can impart around how to help someone feel and trust that they can do these hard things?

Yeah. I mean, I honestly just look at others that have done hard things. Like if I have friends who've done Leadville and there's no genetic gift, you know, that you need to do Leadville, you don't have to be 6'9 like in NBA basketball. Like there's no genetics involved jumping in cold water, getting in a hot sauna. Like these things, there's not genetics involved. It's just mindset. You know, my CrossFit workout that I did this morning, my heart rate was at 162. That hurts, but I have the mental ability now to understand that feeling. And I'm not afraid of that feeling. It hurts just as much as it does for the person who's not used to getting it, their heart rate in the 160s, 170s, 180s. But I just have more mental tolerance around the discomfort and I think there's science involved with this in that there's a part of your brain that as you do hard things, it becomes more accepting of hard things. It kind of gets stronger. So I think that's a component of it. And I just think like anything in life, the more you do something, the less you fear doing it. I think getting in cold water is one of the best mental things you can do to improve your mental tolerance. You know, it's something that anyone can do and we all get cold. We all feel that discomfort, but It's going to train your body to adapt to stress. And, you know, when unintended bad things come, it's going to help with that too. A family member gets sick, you get fired at work. You know, these are all really stressful situations. And the more good stressors you subject yourself to from hard workouts to getting in cold streams, the better you're going to handle those bad stressors when they come up in life.

I imagine when, you know, before you went down this path, when you were talking about being overweight and kind of a couch potato, Did you find your depression levels were higher then? And I'm assuming you feel differently now, but does anxiety, depression, or any of these kind of things that probably the majority of people are experiencing, do those kind of still rear their heads for you, or is the lifestyle just trumping all of that?

They still rear their heads for sure. You know, I think everyone is exposed to anxiety and stress and depression at various times in life. They're fewer and farther between now for sure, because my life is so much based around things that put me in flow state, that put me in a good mood, that provide emotional wellbeing. And, you know, also in my 20s, like I was using alcohol as an enhancement tool, but then also there would be a down from it every single time. Whereas with exercise, like I get that high, but with no consequences, getting in a sauna, getting in a cold stream. I get that same high with no consequences. So I look at a lot of the things I do now as, will I get a state change? Will I get, you know, a dopamine hit that I enjoy, but with no consequences associated with it? And I also know what to do now if I am feeling down. You know, whenever I hit a hard workout, I feel great afterwards. Whenever I get into a cold stream, I feel great afterwards. So it's one of the reasons why I live my life the way I do is because I know it makes me just really even-keeled. You know, I have a positive outlook on life generally, but yeah, I mean, a bunch of negative comments on social media, uh, you know, someone getting mad at me for something. All of these things are gonna affect my emotional wellbeing just like it would affect anyone else. I just feel like I can get over that speed bump much faster now because of a lot of these wellness practices I've adopted.

You bring something up that I've been wanting to talk to someone about this, cuz as I kind of put myself out there more and I guess for lack of better words, my star is rising. Like I noticed comments sometimes get directed at me socially and they're interpreting what I said in a way that wasn't intended. How are you navigating that stuff? Are you just trying to answer everything or are you just kind of more like, okay, there's no way for me to please everyone. Do you have a philosophy or a practice around that? Yeah.

I mean, it's changed over time. I've developed a tolerance to it to some degree, but I mean, the way our mind is wired, I feel like one negative outweighs 100 positives. You have to recondition your mind to not let that occur. So that's one thing that I've done just, you know, over time I've developed a tolerance to it of like, I know that there's people out there that resonate with my message and whose lives I'm improving, and I'm not gonna please everyone. There's always gonna be people out there that judge you. And you know, when you read articles on the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, like there's always negative comments in there, and you just kind of have to accept over time that you're no longer treated as a human and you're treated as a public figure. And that's just how public figures get treated, you know, with tremendous judgment. You know, I just think of it like that. You know, just like if I was reading a New York Times article and I saw all the comments on there, and I'm like, wow, society hates this article and this person. But they're just treating it like a public figure and they're not treating it with any empathy or emotion. So, I mean, that's how you get treated as your star rises and you become more and more of a, of a public figure. I use an app called Opal that could be helpful to many where it just limits my social media use. It blocks it out during my work times. And if I want to go in, I can set like a 3-minute window to go in because, you know, social media is part of my career. And I have to post things throughout the day, but I'll just go in there for 3 minutes. I'll get my posting done and then I'm blocked back out of it so I can't go back in. So I use that a lot. I don't read comments for the most part anymore. If someone really wants to get in touch with me, they'll email me, they'll DM me, and those are generally much more thoughtful. I have a newsletter that a lot of people reply to. Those are generally thoughtful. Unfortunately, it doesn't allow me to get back to the people that I used to. I used to answer every comment, but Now it's just like so many comments and so many negative comments. If someone is running like sponsored content on you, that it's just a rabbit hole you don't want to go down. I think Joe Rogan said it, he posts and he ghosts. So as you become more of a public figure, unfortunately you have to consider that more and more for your own mental wellbeing.

I feel like that can apply to anything that doesn't really serve us, right? That's not contributing to the betterment of ourselves or the, the world around us. I notice that in many ways, I think ancestrally, we were not designed to be exposed to so many different people's thoughts and opinions, right? It's just like, it makes zero sense that you should have access to hundreds of thousands of people's perspectives.

I feel my best when I have 4 friends over and we're having an awesome conversation in the sauna, and then You know, we barbecue afterwards. That's when I feel my best. I don't feel my best when I have 200 people text message me in a day with all of these different things to do in Austin, Texas. Like I feel loved, but I'm like, oh my God, there's too many options, too much FOMO, too many fun things going on I'm missing out on. And then it's just like decision-making fatigue. We weren't designed to make all of these decisions every single day. I think apps like Opal are good to just like refocus you, like what's really important, who's really important. I had a founders event this past week in Palm Springs, and I had one of my buddies, Mike Idala, come and, and speak at it. And he has a coaching group called The Offense, Living Life on the Offense. And one of the things he does is at the end of each day, he writes down what went well and why. And I think that's a great way to design your day around the things that really, really matter. Just end of each day, write that down, what went well and why, and then Over time, start replicating that.

It seems to me almost like, to a degree, within the circles of these people that care about their food sourcing and what they're eating, how they spend their time outdoors, how they take care of their body, that there is almost this evolved way of even looking at their partnerships with the person they choose to be around. Would you say that's true? Like, compared to what you were modeled maybe growing up in terms of what a man and woman relationship look like? What a partnership look like in that sense that you've evolved in that way? And if so, how are you kind of managing, you know, your own interests, but then also time with your loved one?

For all relationships, is the sum greater than the parts is the question that you should ask yourself, whether it's friends, whether it's, you know, your romantic partner. And as we age, we realize that partnerships are what are really important. Someone where you just really complement each other really well and you just enjoy being with them and spending time with them. Lust is obviously great, but the lust part probably becomes less and less significant as you get older and you realize that partnerships are what really matters and is the sum greater than the part is what really matters. You don't want like massive friction all the time. The rollercoaster ride relationships. Whether it's friends or significant others, even though the highs may be really high, I don't think the lows are worth the extreme highs. So finding relationships where that's much more regulated. And then how do I balance everything? I mean, Sarah and I are both in the wellness space, so, you know, our lives collide in many ways. She runs events for Ice Barrel. We're able to collaborate on a lot of work things together. We have a lot of people who come to the house. That's probably the biggest friction point that I would have in most relationships, but she knows how much that fuels my energy and fuels opportunities and how much I enjoy just having people over and, you know, having great relationships with friends. So if there's a night where she doesn't want to partake in the mix of 6 guys in the sauna doing contrast therapy, then, you know, she'll just hang out inside and not join in. But You know, she's always been so kind to me and understanding how important that is to me, how important getting outside and biking each day is, how important getting my gym session is. Like, she's just very understanding and I'm understanding of her, of her needing her downtime and her needing space and her wanting to go shopping, her wanting to just tune out and, and consume TV for a bit. Just get away from everything. So I think it's being understanding of each other and understanding What allows each person to thrive and be their, their best self.

Yeah. What I almost hear you saying too is that part of this evolved way of looking at health and relationship is to not try to change the other person, but respect, you know, the differences or respect who they are.

100%.

If you guys were to have a kid, what things that you've learned in these years, in this time on earth for you, would you immediately want to impart to that child? And if you already have ideas of how you would impart it, please share that too.

Friendship, social capital, like just making sure that your child is putting themselves out there to be able to attract opportunities and surrounding themselves with the right people that are going to help shape their development and again, help shape what the floor is and what the ceiling is. Definitely wellness-based practices. I mean, I love my parents and I had an incredible upbringing, but you know, wellness was not taught to me from the standpoint of it's going to help with emotional well-being. It's going to help with mental clarity. It's going to help with your vulnerability. It's going to help you be the best version of yourself. So I think definitely instilling that exercise isn't just to achieve a certain physical aesthetic. It isn't just to perform in basketball or football or You know, to be fast in cross-country or track. It also is going to just help you develop into the best version of yourself because we were designed to move. We were designed to be outside. We were designed to eat single ingredient foods sourced from nature. And our lives obviously look very different from the caveman lives, but ultimately, like, that's our DNA, that's our genetics. That's why we are the human species. And We've gotta make sure that we think back to how we evolved. And, you know, while now I know that we need to make money and we, you know, we need homes to provide shelter and a car to get around, and there's a lot of cool things we've invented so that, you know, if I wanna go visit you today, I can just hop on a plane and go see you. But at the same time, like getting back to some of the basics that really, really allow us to thrive from our ancestral upbringing.

Some people would be like, well, he doesn't have kids yet. He doesn't know how he's gonna be, right? So let's just hypothesize. And maybe you guys have talked about this. I know that when I first met my now wife, like we immediately started talking about, okay, how are we gonna, like, if we have a kid, how are we gonna deal with food? 'Cause we were both so into food, right? I don't know if you guys have already had these discussions, if you thought about it, but how would you inspire your 3 to 6-year-old to like be outside more? Is it something you would just model and you're like, hey, we're going to go for a hike? How do you anticipate motivating a kid who doesn't want to leave their current moment?

Yeah. Again, I'm not speaking from experience, but I would again say like environment is so important in what your behaviors are going to be. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York and my dad took me fishing. I grew up snowmobiling. I grew up, my dad built me a basketball court. So I was playing basketball every single evening and I had friends over playing basketball with me, playing ping pong in my basement. So, you know, I think environment is so important, whether that is like where you're based. Colorado kind of begs you to be outside in the mountains. That's a lot of the lifestyle here is outdoor recreation or designing wherever you are to allow easy decisions around the things that you want to help shape your kids to do. Building a fun playroom so that, you know, they're encouraged to invite friends over and develop social interactions early in life, building a nice outdoor playground or a basketball court, things again that just shape what decisions they have around them. Because I think more than ever when you're a kid, like your environment is massively gonna shape your reality. And, you know, even as an adult, my environment certainly shapes my reality every single day.

I know that I used to talk a lot to parents where I was saying like, create the environment where you don't have to say no, whether that's kidproofing the room. So it's just done and you don't have to think about it. Or if you want them to be outdoors and active, then don't surround them with screens and all the materials that are going to uninspire them from getting outside. So that's really good. I'm very aware that we're all human. If anything, the thing that is most consistent about being a human is our inconsistency. So is there something that you still struggle with that you're inconsistent with that you're still working towards overcoming that maybe you don't talk about as much?

The social media usage is something that I'm just starting to really corral in because, you know, I'm on social media a lot with posting and I just found myself endlessly scrolling. You know, if I have a 5-minute break, I'm on Instagram, I'm looking at stuff and I think it was starting to train my mind to be distracted and it was massively affecting my ability to focus. I feel like social media is such a blessing and a curse, and a lot of times you might not know what it's affecting because it's not like drinking where you have a hangover, but what are the ancillary things it's affecting? Is it affecting how present I am with my friends? Is it affecting how present I am with my significant other? And I think all of these things were becoming yes for me because I was on it so much and it was just distracting my mind. That's something that I am consciously trying to corral and massively limit my use on so that it's not affecting my ability to focus on one thing at a time that I think as a society we're losing.

Yeah.

Everything is designed for quick dopamine hits and That's just not life. Life is generally like compounding consistencies over time, focusing on one thing at a time, becoming a master at that. And then all of a sudden, 10 years later, you become very successful. You know, the overnight success story. So, I mean, that's something I'm working on. The wellness side of it, I've been doing it for so long that it's very consistent. I'm flying out tonight. I purposely don't book flights until later in the day to make sure I get at least one workout in, generally a sauna session and cold exposure. I get outside for 60 minutes every single day combined with aerobic activity, usually mountain biking. Sleep is pretty dialed in, although travel definitely affects sleep. If I'm traveling a lot, my sleep will get disrupted, but diet is pretty dialed in for the most part up until the evening. Evening, sometimes I can go off course. And if I'm traveling, that's when it'll really go off course. If I don't have easy access to all of my staples. If I have too many options of like great restaurants around, then I'm going to indulge in that. I have it pretty controlled when I'm home, but travel definitely can affect some of those consistencies.

What is your indulgence like? So when you say you indulge, what is your kind of go-to or do you have one?

Yeah, I definitely do. I'll tell you a funny story actually. So I get blood work from Blokes, one of my friend's companies in Nashville, and About a year and a half ago, I had blood work come back and it showed that I was pre-diabetic. That was pretty concerning. We kind of dove into why that could be. And I told Josh and the doctor who was reading off all my biomarkers that I had gotten into this pretty bad habit of drinking maple syrup at night. And it started really innocent. It started with, you know, just like some frozen fruit and maybe a little granola and a little maple syrup. on that. And then it was a little more maple syrup. And then I realized like what I really like about this every night is the maple syrup. So why not just drink the maple syrup? And it got to the point where I was drinking quite a bit of maple syrup every single night. So I had to cut that out because it was way too much sugar before going to sleep. So yeah, my bad habit is generally in the evenings over-consuming things. And I mean, it dates back to my Ironman years where I was training 3 to 4 hours every single day and I just couldn't get enough calories in. And I was eating a jar of almond butter or peanut butter pretty much every single night before bed, 1,500, 1,600 calories. But I could get away with it because I was burning 5,000 calories a day. But it got me into this bad habit of every single night before bed snacking on something just kind of mindlessly. And you know, that led to drinking maple syrup.

Isn't that funny? It's like most people are drinking 6-packs and all that. You're like, Yeah, I down some maple syrup. That's my problem.

Yeah. I mean, it doesn't sound bad, but it is bad.

But it is, it is. Yeah.

I was drinking a lot.

No, and definitely doing it right before, you know, at night too. Once you stopped, did your markers change?

Yeah, it's changed. Yeah.

It's— oh, that's good.

Yep. It was 100% directly linked to that.

So on that note, besides drinking maple syrup, is there any hidden passion or hobby that you have that you don't really share on, uh, social media?

Man, no, I share most of what my passions are on social media. I'm trying to think of anything.

Clearly it's clothes and hats. Like, that's a really cool hat you're wearing.

So yeah, that's, that is something I don't share much on social media, like vintage clothes shopping. And I do like fashion and fashion doesn't come across much on social media.

Well, particularly when you're not wearing a shirt, right?

Athletic shorts, sweaty, not wearing a shirt on most of my posts. So. Yeah, fashion is one of them for sure. I love like trendy places. I love decor. I like going to trendy hotels, trendy cafes, trendy restaurants. From the experience standpoint, I just like curated environments where someone put a lot of thought and attention into making you feel a certain way in their space. So, you know, whether it's a really cool decorated house or a restaurant. I really like that.

That's cool. That makes me kind of think, well, that's kind of how you are with your body, you know, and your lifestyle, right? You're curating it.

Definitely. I like branding. I like identity. And that's a lot of why I really enjoy where I am now. I get to, I get to help build brands. I get to be involved in what I enjoy most in business, which is Branding, making people feel like they're part of something, making people feel something when they experience a product or an event that a brand is putting on.

What does success mean to you now at this stage? I imagine when you first started down this path, you saw it as one thing, and has it exceeded your expectations? And maybe what were those expectations and how have they changed?

Yeah, I would say now, and I have been probably for the last 5 or 6 years, I'm in The perfect days chapter of just replicating perfect days, understanding who I want to be around, what I want to be doing, how I want to be adding value, how I want to be giving back, how I want to be hosting, how I want to make people feel. And those all come first before making any kind of money off of it. Prior to this chapter in my 20s, it was very based around Capital success, the public perception of success, having nice things. And I just don't care as much about that anymore. I get more stoked from a 60-minute mountain bike ride with a buddy or a sauna session with 4 friends, or, you know, meeting someone new that reached out to me on Instagram that came over and got to experience our house here in Colorado. I just get way more joy from that than like closing another deal and making more money. So I'd say that's how my perception of success and happiness has massively changed from my 20s into my 40s.

Let's get a little granular before we get off, like about some of the things people listening or watching can incorporate in their lives. So pick 3 of the health modalities that you currently do daily that you think everyone should benefit from.

Depending on your age, get your heart rate into like zone 4, zone 5, 3 to 4 times per week. Meaning, you know, assault bike intervals, fast burpees, sprint up a hill, fast clip on a bike ride, just spiking your heart rate. You know, that, that's really where I think you get the most bang for your buck mentally, physically, and emotionally. Lifting something heavy several times per week, complex lifts ideally. So back squat, deadlift. And then I would say the other thing would be pick one of these Recovery modalities blended with a stressor, whether it's sauna, yoga, cold exposure, just something that's going to help both with recovery, going to help your mind be in the present moment. And there's going to be some stress adaption to it. I would say those 3 things. Diet obviously is super important too.

Do they have to go do a VO2 max to discover what their thresholds are, or how do you advise someone to discover what the different zones are for them?

Yeah. I mean, you should be pretty uncomfortable for 30 seconds after whatever it is. That's the barometer of feeling. You know, if I do a 20-calorie assault bike sprint on an assault bike or an Echo Bike, you know, I'm generally wanting to lay on the floor for a good 30 seconds afterwards. So just an effort where you are very out of breath after. You don't need a VO2 max test. Getting a heart rate monitor or measuring it on most of these watches. Now they have a heart rate monitor built into it, so you can see it. A general rule of thumb is take your age and subtract it from 180, and that's going to be about what your aerobic heart rate is. Your aerobic heart rate is probably going to be about 80% of whatever your max heart rate is.

So you mentioned when you travel, sometimes things get thrown off. So what I love about how you talk about yourself and health is You know, you really are learning, you're using your emotional intelligence. You're like, okay, I've learned that this works or doesn't work. And so now I do what works. What are you learning for when you travel is working? You mentioned you leave a little later so you can get a sauna in or a cold plunge or some kind of exercise in before you do it. Do you fast when you travel or do you bring only specific types of food?

So generally fly out later in the day just to make sure I can get some wellness practices in earlier. Cause I know when I land, it's usually going to zap my energy quite a bit. I do try to move that evening or like schedule a sauna session or even a hot Epsom salt bath wherever I'm going. Once I land, I generally am not eating heavy the day I'm flying. I'm eating my meals prior. I might bring, you know, a Chomps beef stick or, you know, some kind of protein eggs. That's a great option that you can find in airports are hard-boiled eggs, fruit, eating again, just like simple single ingredient foods that I can find at the airport. I'm not taking any of the food that they would give out on an airplane. And then I do some homework before I go anywhere. A lot of cities I already have built-in routines. I have gym connections, I have recovery studio connections, I have friends' houses I can stay at where they have saunas and cold plunges. But you know, if I'm going to a place I've never been to before, I'll message a gym prior to see if they have open gym hours, if I can pop in when I typically train. I'll see if I can find a recovery studio. I'll see if I can book an Airbnb or a hotel room with a bathtub so I can at least take a hot Epsom salt bath for recovery. I'll look at various restaurants. If I'm in a running phase, I'll try and find a place near running trails. So I'll just put in some effort prior to travel to make the trip as normal to my daily life here at home base as it is where that new place is I'm going to be.

So if you're in a situation where you kind of have to pick one, which sometimes we are, you know, where you, you only have a certain amount of time, I can either pick connection, food, or fitness focus. How do you prioritize those? Maybe there's other things too. I'm just mentioning 3, but—

Yeah, I would say fitness is going to be the primary one that is the top of my food pyramid. If I get a morning workout in, everything else seems to really fall in place pretty well. So that would be the top priority for me is making sure I can get in a morning workout.

What is a good workout for people to start doing? If they were, you know, to start going down the path and getting uncomfortable, what's a good way for someone to start? What you would recommend if you were their personal trainer?

First, have some accountability, whether that's signing up for a boutique fitness class, that's hiring a personal trainer, joining a CrossFit gym. I think the accountability aspect is crucial in You know, starting your journey and, and getting you to commit. I mean, I think the best way for a busy person with a family to be fit physically, mentally, and emotionally is kind of varying your training between one day doing 30 to 40 minutes of strength training, followed by some short high-intensity interval training, maybe 10 minutes of that high-intensity interval training. So we're talking 50-minute workout. And then the next day, 45 minutes, something aerobic, ideally outside, whether it's a hike, a run, a bike ride, just getting outside in nature and doing something aerobic and just going back and forth between those 2 for as many days each week that you can do it with your schedule. That's what I would recommend. And, you know, if you can do that 5 days outta 7 days each week, you're gonna feel damn good. My routine is, is different than that cuz I'm training for various things, so My volume is going to be much higher. But if I was just going for, I want to feel good, I want to look good. I want to be the best dad, the best husband, the best employee, the best business owner, that, that's the format I would use.

And do you find discipline around food or fitness that moves the needle the most for you? Now, I know we've put in a lot of emphasis on environment and on fitness, but is that the one that moves the needle the most for you, or is it more Food.

For me, discipline around fitness moves the needle the most. I'm going to make better food decisions if, you know, I know I have to go for a morning run. You know, I'm not gonna eat like shit that day before, cuz I don't wanna have to pull off on the trail and shit in the woods. Fitness massively affects my food decisions where my food decisions wouldn't affect my fitness decisions as much. Is food important? 100%. But I mean, with my training volume of, you know, 3 hours per day, I can get away with eating pretty much what I want and it's not gonna change my physical aesthetic a ton, but it will change my energy levels. It will change my mental clarity. It will change my emotional wellbeing quite a bit based on what I'm deciding to eat. But yeah, fitness for me comes first and then food decisions a pretty close second, and sleep and recovery are a pretty close third. I mean, they all really do go hand in hand. And, you know, you dial one in, the others are all going to benefit regardless of which order you choose to do them in.

We're talking about getting out of comfort zones, but in many ways you've been doing these things that you've been doing for so long that they are becoming your comfort zones. Do you challenge yourself within that? Can you share a moment in your current life where you felt completely out of your depth and then how you navigated it? Or do you never get out of your depth at this point?

So there is variety within all of it with the CrossFit training. That's the beauty of CrossFit, you know, constantly varied motions at a high intensity. So the workout I did today was different than a workout I've ever done before. The workout I did yesterday was different than a workout I've ever done before. Are they movements that I've done before? Sure. Are they rep ranges I've done before? Sure. But I mean, that's really the beauty of CrossFit is There's always different things that are going to challenge your nervous system, challenge your muscle endurance. That's why I enjoy CrossFit so much. But yeah, with that said, you know, am I used to the muscle burn? Am I used to my heart rate being at that elevated heart rate? Yeah, I definitely am. Things that I would not be used to are sitting on a plane for 8 hours and not having internet. And is that uncomfortable? Definitely. But I just kind of think back to like, I did an Ironman for 10 hours. Like, why can't I just sit here and be with me for 10 hours? So I just kind of think back to some of those other hard things I've done. One of the hardest things for me is not accomplishing things throughout the day, like being okay with just being. That's probably one of the hardest things for me. So I've never done this, but like, let's say a 5-day darkness retreat, that would be so hard for me. Because I wouldn't feel like I was accomplishing anything over that 5-day period. But that's, you know, sometimes where you have to back out and be like, maybe that's what I need because I'm not comfortable with that.

Sounds like we just identified goal for 2025.

Yeah, let's do it. We'll do one together.

So you'll have to talk to Aubrey. I think Aubrey Marcus did that, right? He's done it a few times now.

I think he has.

I so appreciate you sharing and talking to the audience today about Your lifestyle and how you got here and really in a sense where you're going. You mentioned you're going to do the CrossFit Games 2025. Is that the big goal for 2025 or do you have others?

Yeah, it's 2 big ones for 2025. They would be HYROX in February, winning my age group and qualifying for the championships in June. I would love to win my age group at HYROX in Chicago in June. And then qualifying for the CrossFit Games in my age group, which is in August. And then each year I more do this for fun, but also just kind of an endurance challenge. I like doing Leadville mountain bike race every year, but if I do make the CrossFit Games, the timing could be too close where I wouldn't be able to do both. So it would be CrossFit Games and, and HYROX next year.

And when we talk about triathlon, go from strongest to least strong.

Yeah, the strongest is probably the bike, second strongest run, and then way back down is, would be the swim. I used to always come out of the water, like middle of the pack. And then it was fun because I would pass everybody on the bike and the run the rest of the day. So I guess if you're going to pick a weak link, swimming is the best one to pick. So you're not getting passed all day long.

How can we support to amplify your message? How can people find you? Anything that people should be looking at that you're working on right now, please share.

Best place to find me is on Instagram, Eric Hinman, just my name, website, erichinman.com. I have a newsletter that you can sign up for. Right through my website, which we send out twice a week. And I've really enjoyed the newsletter. That's longer form content, lessons I've learned, business things. Instagram, it's tough to really go in depth about anything because the algorithm favors like quick 10 seconds, something highly viral. So it's really difficult to share a lot of what I really enjoy sharing in person with people. So The newsletter and, and YouTube actually has become that outlet for longer form content. So YouTube is also, you could just search for my name and find the YouTube channel, but appreciate everything you've done too. Your spices are incredible. I am so into grilling right now. And, you know, a lot of that was inspired by you and just having great things to add onto my, my meat. But I'm now up to 3 grills here, have a, a Big Green Egg. Have a Yoder smoker and just got a Schwenk infrared grill that gets up to 1,500 degrees. So I am just becoming a grilling aficionado. I love it.

How do you like the Big Green Egg? So I used to have their competitor and it's a learning curve, right? Yes. And you have to learn how to finesse those devices. A, have you already figured it out? And B, how do you like that?

I mean, kind of like an espresso machine. Have I figured it out? Yes. But will I continue to improve? Yes. And that's why I like it. Just like mountain biking. You know, I continue to improve from the skill-based side of it. So I think that's what I'm really enjoying about the Big Green Egg is there is some skill involved with it. The only thing I don't like about the Big Green Egg is I usually smell like a wood stove after.

Yes.

Because of lighting the charcoals in it. But man, the food comes out so good. You can get such a good sear on things. I haven't done anything like long and slow on the Big Green Egg yet. I'm still using the Yoder for that, but I plan to do a Friendsgiving and we're gonna do turkeys on the Yoder and on the Big Green Egg. So that'll be my test.

Oh yeah. able to compare, compare and contrast.

Yeah.

Anyone that thinks Eric's crazy for having so many devices, like he's not. It really is true that each one has their purpose. So when I had my version of the Green Egg, I would get frustrated sometimes because I'm like, I just want a quick sear. I just want to, you know, I just want to do it quick. And there's nothing quick about the Green Egg. Yeah.

10 minutes to get it lit.

Totally. Right. So it's like, ah, man.

But it's nice. You know, I mean, it forces you to just like be present with the fire. And I do really enjoy that. Sometimes I think we get going too fast and we need these practices that just like slow us down and allow us to be present with one thing.

Do you have any, um, spiritual practices? Because in many ways when we talk about, you know, presence and stuff that sometimes those go hand in hand, but does it for you?

I don't outside of wellness, you know, I consider mountain biking every day, my moving meditation, and I haven't gotten into breathwork. I think there's tremendous benefit in it. So no, I don't have a lot outside of wellness activities that I would do.

You still have a beautiful grounding and what I would say a spirituality about you. You know, I mean, we've met in person. You're a beautiful amalgamation of someone who walks their talk, but you also, you come off as just so authentic. Nothing about you feels put on, trying to fit a certain image, you know, that kind of thing. Like you just feel so authentic and I, I very much honor and appreciate you for that.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you everyone for listening or watching The Everyday Ancestral. Follow us. That tells us that you like what we're doing. Reach out, let us know who else you'd like us to talk to. Erik, thank you again for joining us.

Thanks, James.

Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links, and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's eatpluck.com. And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.