Spartan Races, Fitness Goals, and Small Victories | Ep. 4

This is The Rising Tribe, a podcast about leveling up our faith, families, health, and business. We're your hosts, Jared and Austin Maser, and we're so glad you're here. Welcome to the tribe. And some people might say like, well, if you're only going to do whatever routine you're going to have for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, a month, why do it at all if you can't do it for the whole year or longer? And I think that's kind of a dumb way to look at it. Welcome to The Rising Tribe. I'm Jared.

I'm Austin.

And our goal is to inspire young men to build strong families and discover their potential as men, husbands, and fathers.

And we do this by having authentic conversations about faith, family, health, and business as we strive to level up our lives and the lives around us. Welcome to the show today, everybody. Uh, we are really, really stoked to have you guys on here and huge thank you to the listeners that have reached out to Jared and I both individually with feedback. We're grateful for you guys sharing the podcast, and we are hoping that it's already making an impact, whether it be on one person or on 100 people. We're just really, really excited to share what we're learning as we strive to grow.

So yeah, I've had a, I've had a couple friends reach out and let me know that they've Um, really been enjoying our, our conversations. And one buddy of mine even said that, uh, some of the stuff we talked about made it into his journal. So that was cool. That was a big compliment, um, since, you know, stuff like things that Jordan Peterson talk about, like, those go into the journal. So yeah, um, totally. It's important. We just really want to have, like, we want to have conversations about, like, real life and real stuff and, um, things that we don't often— like, conversations we don't often have with people on a day-to-day basis.

Yeah, I, um, this, this week's topic is probably like my favorite of the things that get me the most excited. That didn't take a ton of like preparation to, to talk about these topics we're going to talk about. And it's fitness, it's health, it's, um, working out, nutrition, which is what I studied at BYU. Um, just a quick little backstory, I think I've mentioned before in this podcast that I was a cheerleader at BYU. Um, when when I got accepted to college, I got accepted to University of Arizona, and I also got accepted to Brigham Young University. But had I not made the BYU cheer team, I would have gone to University of Arizona because I was so fixed on just cheering. That's all I wanted to do. I didn't really care about the degree.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I— my priorities weren't necessarily— looking back, like, I made it, I did just fine. But my priorities were not education. They were, I want to be a Division I college cheerleader. That's, that's it. So, uh, that being said, my degree of choice was the easiest degree I could find, uh, which was exercise and wellness at BYU, which also happened to be the funnest degree and also happened to be where I met my wife. So to say that my priorities weren't in line would not be correct. They were exactly where they needed to be, but I just did what I loved and cheerleading was such a cool thing to do because we were basically just circus people throwing people in the air and they were doing double backflips and twists and it was just so cool. Right. But the— we want to talk today about some of our goals that we have for exercise and wellness. And I have some pretty set-in-stone goals because my life is about to enter a very stable season, about to start work.. And we're gonna get to hear from Jared who's gonna be moving to all over the place and excited to hear, uh, about that today. So I guess, um, before we go into kind of our individual scenarios, Jared, I think it's really important. I'm sure you'd probably agree on this is in order to make a roadmap for what you want for your health or your fitness, you kind of have to have an idea of like, okay, what's the desired result, right? Every time you sit down with a personal trainer, they're like, okay, what do you want out of this? Yeah.

And well, when you, when you hear people talk about, um, like dieting or yeah, starting a diet or whatnot, well, it's just that it's like I'm starting a diet or I'm on this diet. And when, when we frame dieting that way, we're setting ourselves up for failure because what we're saying is I'm gonna start doing this thing that's, um, that's gonna be pretty hard inherently because otherwise I would've already done it and I'm going to stick to it for some period of time. Like, I'm starting this thing, and that kind of implies that there might be an end date to it as well. And you'll see, like, a lot of— we talk— I mean, the— I think the term people use is like yo-yo diets, you know, where you, you— the goal is to lose a bunch of weight, and then you lose the weight, and then you, you put it back on when you stop the diet, when whatever challenge or thing it was that you were doing is over. And no, and there's like a time and place for kind of like kickstarting changes in your life that you're trying to make, because it, it does, you know, it gets you excited and it's something like new that you're doing. And there's, there is that element of motivation that comes with doing something new. But the goals, I think, are misaligned if we're viewing our goals as I want to lose a certain amount of weight and that's the end of the story. There are definitely great milestone goals. If I want to put on weight, I want to lose weight, I want to hit these numbers, you know, there's all these things and those are like great milestones. But when we're looking at the concept of fitness and health in general, like, the objective should be that you want to live a certain lifestyle forever. Like, you want to be doing something that you could continue doing forever. Now, it may not mean that the exact form of exercise you're doing is something you want to be able to do forever, because you're probably not going to be able to clean and jerk when you're, you know, 95. But like, you want to live a life— like, the goals you might want to have are to be you know, to be able to get up off the ground all the time, like to be able to jump, to be able to run, to be able to, um, like play games and sports and activities with your friends, kind of no matter how old you're getting. You want to have that, a certain level of just activity in general that you want in your life. And once you've kind of specified that objective or that vision that you might have for your life, then you can work backwards and figure out what it is that you want to be doing specifically to move yourself in that direction.

I love that. I— and I'll just pick up right where you left off with, you need to find out what type of lifestyle you want, and then you've got to set in stone the systems that will get you there. Now, I've got nothing against doing challenges, right? I've done several in my life. I did 75 Hard once. I did it like legit. And then the second time around, I had zero diet. I just did the stuff, right? So I did not do 75 Hard twice, basically. But I have nothing— I have nothing against these programs. I think that the 75 Hard program's awesome. Everybody ought to try it once in their life, learn discipline. A lot of people have gone, you know, full bore into all that and do it year-round. However, what I found when I was doing some of those things is that they didn't necessarily— didn't necessarily align with what I wanted to have in the end. Right? So, um, working out twice on Sunday didn't align with some of the goals I had for my family. Um, or when I'm on vacation with my wife on a cruise boat, it didn't necessarily align to go on 2 workouts, 1 outdoors while walking around this cruise boat. And just for a little bit of background on, uh, if you've never heard of 75 Hard, guy named Andy Frisella started it. Really great program for people who need that kickstart and need to learn that discipline. It includes drinking, drinking a gallon of water, reading 10 pages a day, going for 2, doing 2 workouts a day for 45 minutes, one of which is outside, taking progress pictures. So really solid way to learn accountability. But what I want to really touch on, Jared, is what you said about creating sustainable, like creating a sustainable lifestyle for health and wellness. And that's what I actually studied at BYU. It wasn't all weightlifting. It wasn't all muscle building. We actually had classes, and this is why I love the degree so much. I hate to say that it was easy. There were some hard classes I took, like physiology, but it was, it was nowhere near as difficult as an engineering degree or a chemistry degree. Now I say that, but maybe I just did really well because I love the subject. And for somebody who doing chem— who did chemistry or engineering or law at BYU, my degree could have been more difficult for them. Who's to say that? But I think that the biggest thing I took from my degree is that fitness is a— it is more than just your muscles. It is more than just your heart health. It has to do with your mental health, the words you say to yourself. So we talk about psychoneuroimmunology, and literally the way we think actually has an effect on how our bodies heal and how they react to viruses and, and sicknesses. So, um, fitness is just such a broad scope. I, I feel like today we're going to talk a lot about the working outside and, and maybe even some nutrition, and we'll get into more of how a positive attitude can have an impact on your health. But yeah, uh, I'll, I'll share a little bit about some of the goals I have for myself right now, and then I want to hear about your situation right now with you moving and how you're going to work through that. But yeah, um, currently my goals, um, I love doing CrossFit. I love doing things that are just crazy. I've always been fascinated with the people that just do incredible things. James Lawrence is somebody I just think the world of, you know, pushing his body to the limit. Now it goes completely against what we're talking about here with sustainability, But, um, I'm inspired by that. I'm amazed by it. We just went back— we just came back from the Arnold in Columbus, Ohio. My wife competed there for weightlifting, and she had a great meet, by the way. She took bronze.

Can you, can you just explain what the Arnold was? Because I didn't even know what it was until you— yeah, you explained it to me.

So Arnold Schwarzenegger, during his bodybuilding career, he had a really key victory in Columbus, Ohio. A lot of people are like, what is— why is there a bodybuilding convention up in Ohio? Well, there's not much in Columbus, Ohio except for The Ohio State University, which, you know, University of Georgia had a good game against them last New Year's Eve. Sorry if that was too soon. But, but other than that, I mean, there's not a whole lot up there other than Ohio State University, right? But there's a bodybuilding competition up there, probably the most famous that they have every year. And back when Arnold was bodybuilding, he had a key victory over a really, really tough opponent. And it was that, at that moment where he made an agreement with the mayor of Columbus to hold bodybuilding competitions there on a, on an annual basis. So, uh, this is probably after Mr. Olympia. This is probably one of the biggest bodybuilding competitions, and it started as a bodybuilding competition, and now it's called a sports festival. And so that is why my wife was doing a weightlifting competition there with USAW, right? USA Weightlifting. There was— my goodness, there was medieval fighting, there was Ninja Warrior, there was strongman. And oh, the medieval fighting— these guys are dressed in full-blown medieval suits and they're just knocking the crap out of each other, just swinging swords.

No, they're sword—

they have swords and axes and shields And the goal of the competition, they're in this little wooden pen, and the goal of the competition is to knock down the other team. Once everybody has hit the ground, they're, you know, that team loses. So it's like they're judo throwing people onto the floor in these— they've got to be 100 pounds or more.

Oh my God, like chainmail, like helmets.

And it is nuts. And all these big dudes with big old bellies and beards. So I was like, that's a cool sport. I may want to try that one day. But not really. But so many cool sports there. They had physique, bodybuilding, you know, women doing their bikini contests, anything fitness related, that was all there. So where I'm going with this is I've always just been inspired by some of the things that people have been able to achieve. I met Phil Heath at that conference. And, uh, really, really cool to hear him talk about hitting goals, like having a winning mindset. But this— these people have done things that nobody do, that nobody else does, right? But, uh, to talk a little bit, like, I've always been inspired by that. There's not a lot of sustainability in taking steroids and getting huge and, yeah, and all that, but it's really cool to see what these people have been able to do. Um, that being said, Uh, I just thought I'd give you a little bit of background of what my wife and I just did a couple weeks ago. Um, but my goals for this year are that my process-oriented goal is to attend my CrossFit gym 6 days a week. Um, 2, 2 to 3 of those days will be with a strength coach I'm working with. And then the other days will be at a class session at 6:30 in the morning. Um, that is the— we talk about process-oriented goals. That's not a result-oriented goal. I can hit that goal 100% at the end of the year. Um, second, compete in the CrossFit Open for 2023. I actually already accomplished that goal. And, uh, you know, we talk about, we talk about work, working on like ourselves. However, it's really cool to see, okay, where do I stand in comparison to the rest of the world? And I think at, after my workouts came in, I was in the 67th or 68th percentile. It was kind of cool. I thought, well, that's, that's great. I mean, I just started CrossFit seriously this last year and I'm already doing pretty well. So my goal next year is to—

More than two-thirds of everyone who competes in this CrossFit Open.

Outperformed them, right? So, but, you know, not, but there wasn't an ego thing. It was more of like, wow, like I'm doing better than I think I can. Um, another thing that I wanna do this year is to compete in the WODapalooza. It's another CrossFit competition. Um, down in Miami. So that's one of, one of the things I'll do. Uh, then we're gonna compete. I'm gonna do all 3 Spartan races. So it'll be the Ultra Beast, the Super, and the Ultra. We're completing the Super this weekend with my family. They're coming into town. Really?

Already?

Mm-hmm. Yep. So that'll be the first one. The Ultra Beast I signed up for kind of, uh, just spontaneously with my uncle and, uh, We're going to do that out in New Jersey. It's a 30-mile run, um, coupled with tons and tons of obstacle courses. So that ought to be fun. Um, yeah.

So can you, can you explain the difference between the Ultra Super and the Ultra Beast?

Cause I'm not sure. Yeah. So, and I'm so, I'm super new to all this too. Um, so the Ultra Beast is a 50K. The Super is a, sorry, the Ultra is a 25K. And then the Super is a 10K, and that's the one that we're doing this weekend. Okay.

So the Super is a 10K with obstacles. The Ultra is a 30K?

Is it 20? Ultra is a 25, and then Ultra Beast is a 50K, which would be the most I've ever run in my life. I've done 2 marathons up to this point in my life. Mm-hmm. Um, both of them, by the way, you don't need to be in super tip-top shape to run a marathon. You can just go do it. I pre-worked.

No, you really can.

Yeah, I pre-ordered a burrito. Uh, quick, you know, quick story real quick. I pre-ordered a burrito at Cafe Rio in Utah, 26 miles away from my house, and I just ran to get my burrito. That's how I did it. So if— don't overcomplicate it, just go run.

So, um, dude, schedule pickup for like 2-3 hours later.

It was like a 6-hour thing, but I could have just ran to the store, but I felt like ordering the burrito kind of made me like, oh, I can't lose $8. Yeah, I'll go get it.

So, um, but yeah, someone pick you up afterwards, or—

my wife, she was my care station, kind of checked in with me. Yeah. And, uh, really cool memory there. Like, the whole thing was like going back to, I want to do hard things. Yeah. Because we go to— we talk about fitness and how it's not just a physical thing. We are— I, I really do believe that we're training our minds, uh, yeah, to overcome obstacles. Last couple goals I have are to clean 315 pounds. I want— I'm going to squat 500 pounds, and my goal for bench press is 405 pounds. We may have to reevaluate this one though, because during my strength training last week, I'm gonna get this checked out. I'm not severely injured, but as I was bringing the weight down. I had 335 loaded on the bar. As I was bringing the weight down, I was doing it too slowly, added a lot of time, a lot of time under tension on that bicep tendon, and I literally heard it snap over the pec muscle. So luckily it did not snap, but it, it slipped over my pec muscle. The bicep tendon goes over the pec. Um, I did, I did my warm-ups and everything. It just It just was scary, right?

Yeah.

Um, but it still is very tender. I'm gonna get it worked out. I'm gonna get it worked on by a physical therapist and, uh, we'll get it worked out. So that is still on my horizon. I've always dreamt of hitting that goal. And, uh, when you have big goals, there's gonna be things that come up. That's just life. Yeah. Um, and then while I'm hitting all these goals, my last goal is to, and these are annual goals, so by the end of 2023, is to maintain a weight of no more than 230 pounds, which is heavier than usual for me. Um, but I have no desire to get heavier than that. Uh, sometimes I'll tell you Austin Maser. 5'11". So yeah, that's, um, 230 is a pretty heavy, pretty, it, it, it is the biggest I'll ever want to get. Um, and it's me kind of taking a gamble a little bit.

Like that's, that's usually what do you say right now if you don't mind me asking?

About 225 last I weighed in.

So, uh, just gotta get myself back in there while getting, while, um, while working on all of these, um, exercise goals, right? Obviously you're gonna be putting on some muscle. So the goal is to be able to be a, a, a much more muscular, like sub-230. Yes.

Um, Taking creatine, a lot of like creatine every single day, just 5 grams of creatine really has helped me gain some weight, uh, yeah, and stamina in that weightlifting, right? So it's just a super important thing for weightlifters to take. Yeah, uh, protein every single day, and you know, pre-workout, there's only supplements that I'll take. But yeah, it's a— it's been an exciting thing. Now we talk a lot about like men have their career goals And it's fun to have fitness goals because then you can have something to work towards every single day. But I know I've talked a lot. Thanks for listening all the way up to this point. Um, I, I, I, those are some of the things I, I'm striving to work towards. Now you're right, they're not all like super sustainable things. I don't desire to bench 405 the rest of my life. Yeah. Um, but it's like one of those things that excites me and as long as it's not detrimental to my health. I'm gonna go for it. If I find out that, yeah, the, the, the bicep is, um, messed up, then we're just gonna focus on my legs. So, yeah. Yeah. I'd love to hear, I'd, I'd love to hear, just kind of, okay. I'm excited to talk about kind of what you have going on because you, you, you told me that you're moving to Africa, right?

Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm not moving there, but I'm gonna be there for, um, for a few weeks and then, um, and then I'll head home back to Italy. So, Um, and this is kind of where, uh, this is where I thought we could have a cool conversation about this, because one of the biggest things that, uh, people will— or one of the fastest ways people will stop going to the gym or start going to the gym or exercise in general— I know we talk a lot about going to the gym because that is something we both love, is lifting. Yeah, different forms. But exercise in general is if you move somewhere, like if you like physically move to another city, state or you go to college and you like just get back to school where like you were home for vacation and you just moved back to school. That's like, they're kind of like natural refresh points for a lot of people. And they will find that it's, uh, people often find that it's easier to, uh, start exercising when you have some sort of natural refresh because all of your environment has changed.

Yeah.

And when your environment changes, you kind of get this reset of all the anchors and triggers that you have in your life. So, um, your routine's gonna have to shift, uh, if you move to a new place. Like, I mean, just imagine, like, we'll talk about going to college, right? So if you, uh, you've been on— you've been home for your break, whatever, probably not exercising too much, eating lots of sweets, you know, if it's like the holiday vacation or whatever, you go back to school and you're, you're presented with a new routine, a new schedule of classes, and you've probably got classes, maybe work, or whatever else, whatever else you have going on. Sports, hobbies, et cetera. And so then with that kind of framework of the time that you have, you then build in your, your workout routine of how you're gonna exercise. Or you're like, okay, I have classes Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and they're at these times. So that means I've gotta, I'm gonna work out on, on these days, it's at this time, and on these days at a different time. And that makes it very easy for people to get going because their entire structure of both their physical space and their time has been shifted, and now they can— now they can go. And with that, it becomes very easy to also stop exercising and stop doing whatever it is you're doing if you had some sort of routine in place and then you moved. Like when you go back home, you go back home and now it's a different gym. If you go— so we'll keep talking about going to the gym— it's a different gym, the layout of the gym is different, you're probably not using the exact same program you were using before. Maybe you don't have all the supplements that you usually take, maybe you don't have exercise partner. If you, you know, lift with any of your roommates or a friend of yours or something like that, and it just becomes very easy to just not go anymore. And that, that's, it's been a big, that's kind of been an important thing for me and my wife that we've been working on, um, circa like 12 months ago, a year ago.

So, uh, you guys had a solid routine, right? When you guys were in California, you guys like had it down, right? From what I remember from our other phone calls.

Yeah, well, we had— the thing is, we had several different routines, and that's because several things were changed. You know, I was in school, I was in graduate school at the time, and so when I had a class, a certain class schedule for 2-3 months, because we had quarter, so it was shorter, um, then Marisha and I would build our, our exercise routine around when I was going to be in class. If I had to be at school at 9 o'clock in the morning, well, if we wanted to ride our bike to the pool, we'd have to leave earlier, so maybe we chose not to do that. But when I had evening classes, then we had the morning to— we have a tandem bike, old tandem bike, um, and so we'd like ride that bike to the, to the pool, and then we'd swim, and then they had weights there by the pool. And so then we could like lift weights and then come home. And so like we kind of had routines, uh, that we, that we locked in place, but we locked them in place for, you know, 2, 2, 3 months at a time because of the, the changes that we had. And some people might say like, well, if you're only gonna do whatever routine you're gonna have for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, a month, 3 months, or something like that. Why do it all if you can't— if you can't do it for the whole year or longer? And I think that's kind of a— kind of a dumb way to look at it, because like, it is— if you exercise for 2 weeks, you're better off than you— than you would be if you hadn't exercised for 2 weeks, even if you don't exercise after those 2 weeks.

Like, all-or-nothing mentality right there, right? Yeah.

And so like I, I'm all for it. Like, if you've got a month, like, figure out what you can do for this month to exercise. And then if everything's going to change after that, well, then figure something else out for that time too. But like, you know, if you've got some time now, figure out a way to do it right now. And so Marisha and I had several different routines, but then we— about a year ago, we were getting ready to move to Italy, and we knew that we were going— that they were going to come pack up our house and that we were going to be without all of our stuff for a couple of weeks. It ended up being almost 2 months that we were without all of our stuff. And then we were going to be moving to my mom's house for a couple of weeks, and then we were going to be moving to Italy. When we'd get to Italy, we'd live on base in this like kind of like apartment hotel sort of building, and we were going to live in that for about a month. And then we'd actually move to our real house, and then we'd be at the house for the rest of the time in Italy. And so we knew there were going to be several blocks of time where things were going to be changing, we were going to be super transitory, and like, we didn't know how we were going to keep any sort of exercise routine. And we were kind of sad about it at first because we were like, we've had such great routines and we don't want to just lose them all and then just be deteriorating for the next 6 months because it was going to be a 4 to 6 month ordeal of all of the changes. And so, um, Marisha and I decided to just do Navy SEALs every day. So Navy SEAL is kind of like a burpee Um, like you're standing up, you drop to the ground, you do a push-up, and then when you come up, you bring your right leg to your chest. Then you put your leg back down, and then you do another push-up. When you come back up, you bring your left leg up to your chest, then you put it back, you go back down, and then you get back up and you stand back up. So it's kind of like a burpee with 3 push-ups and, uh, one like knee to chest.

But you're not jumping. You're not jumping here.

I mean, you can jump if you want to.

We were not jumping.

But, um, so it— that, that, that is, um, that's a Navy SEAL is what they call them. And we were like, okay, well, we can do that. We don't have to change clothes. We could be doing them in our pajamas, and we can do that anywhere with no equipment whatsoever. And we can just do that together, and we can do it at the same time. We can do it when we first get up, just before we go to bed, whatever. We can just do that. And so we're like, okay, and we'll set the bar low. James Clear, he talks about it in Atomic Habits. Yeah, of setting the— like, of making the goals that are the the behavior is so small that you can't say no, so small that you do it. And so we're like, okay, we'll do 5 of these every day. We'll just do it, and that way we can do them every day no matter what. We'll always do them. And that—

you guys do it or win.

And we did. I think there were a couple days where we forgot, where we just got to my mom's house and we had like woken up early to try— like, I'm sure there were days that we missed, but that was our goal. And that was also what we considered a victory, was if we did our burp you know, we did our Navy SEALs every day.

We weren't doing more than 5.

Sometimes we would. The first, the first couple times we do it, we just hit our 5 and then we'd go, and we were like, this is a win. And sometimes we do more. I don't ever remember doing more than like 10.

Okay.

But that was what we considered a win, and we took it as a win. And then when we got to Italy, we, you know, we, we were still able to do them, but then when we got out there, we were actually by a gym. And so then we started, we changed our routine. We're like, okay, now we're gonna go to the gym. And we were going to the gym for a little while, and then we moved into our house. Moved into our house, and I started going to the gym because I would drive up to base to work, and the gym was right there on base. So then I'd go to the gym after— or after work. But base is like a half-hour drive from home, and at the time we only had one car, so I was taking the car to work and Marisha was stuck at home. And so, um, she didn't even tell me, but she kept doing her Navy SEALs, um, basically every day. I'm sure she probably missed a couple days too, but she was doing her Navy SEALs. And to this day, she still does her exercises every day, and that has been a way for her to maintain, um, like to maintain victories in the world of fitness and also to just like to keep moving her body a little bit more than she would otherwise. So Marisha and I had— we had a kind of a new routine put in place before I came out here to Texas, and we were working through that for like 2-3 months, and then I came out here to Texas. Now I have a totally new schedule, totally new routine. I don't have my family with me. And so like obligations, responsibility structures, everything's changed. So it's given me a chance to like pick a new workout routine. So I've set some goals, um, like, like I didn't set any goals in terms of, um, hitting any numbers or, um, like lifting any, you know, any specific weight. But my goal was to get back into, um, like into a physical shape um, aesthetically that I liked. Um, not that, not that I have like serious like body image issues or anything like that, but I had— I've looked better before in my life, and I wanted to work in that direction. Um, and so some big things I knew were like, you know, I have neglected strengthening my core, um, and my abs for a while, and so that's something I wanted to work on. Um, as well as I feel like I've just, uh I've kind of— my, my body fat percentage has gone up. I don't know exactly what it is, but I can tell like visually that it's, it's gone up from, from where it has been. So there were some, uh, there were some things that I wanted to do. So I set, uh, I, I found a workout routine that I really liked, and it's changed a little bit as I've— as time has gone on. I've been here, you know, almost 4 months, and when our class schedule would change a little bit, then I'd have to change if I was lifting in the morning or lifting during lunchtime or lifting after work and trying to find like a sweet spot that would work for a couple weeks until things at school changed and, you know, our lunch breaks changed or our start time or end time changed and whatnot. So definitely made a lot of audibles along the way, but, um, I've, you know, I'm really happy with where I've gotten. And it's interesting, we, we talked a little bit about this, um, a while back, but you were talking about the, the, the physique that you have that you feel like that you like the best? You, like, you say you look— I think you said you look— you, you feel like you look the best when you are bigger, right?

Yeah, yeah, I love being a little bit, a little bit bigger, right? And I think ideally have that same, like, muscular build with lower body fat percentage. But I've always just felt, like, way confident being able to lift more. And yeah, what I found is that You know, not, you could say have no excuses because my wife weighs like a buck 30 when she competes and she outlifts me, right? So it's not a weight thing, but I've always liked, you know, being in cheerleading, being a little bit bigger because then I can have, I have way more leverage to kind of throw these people up in the air. And I want to get back to like throwing my wife up in there and, and, you know, getting my lifts back up and being strong. And my wife's hitting, you know, my wife's hitting her weight. Lifting stuff, and she's back at competition weight. So I'm like, hey, like, I can, I can probably throw my wife back up in the air with cheerleading stuff. But, but yeah, I mean, and even we did country dancing stuff, but I like being strong, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Um, when we were at the Arnold, I saw people doing like the strongman stuff, and my wife was like, you'd probably like that. Like, maybe I'll give it a shot one day. But yeah, um, but yeah, no, I, I think there's always a— there's a, there's a weight, or there's like a physique that we feel the most confident in when we're there.

Yeah, and I think that's so interesting that we, we derive a level of confidence from the way that we look. And, and I don't think that's a bad thing because we dress up, we do our best to like take care of ourselves, to put forth, you know, to show up to the world on our best foot. Um, and whether we like it or not, we make judgments of people all the time just based on looks, and there's, there's nothing we can do to change that. So, um But it's interesting that you say that because I actually don't care how much weight I lift. I, yeah, like I don't derive any real like sense of satisfaction from lifting a certain amount of weight. And I think maybe that's because I also don't lift a lot of weight. Like I struggled to squat, you know, more than 225. And when I'm going through like sets of, I don't know, sets of 10, sets of 12, and I'm squatting, like I'm definitely not even anywhere near 225. Um, and when it comes to like benching, like you said, your goal is to bench 405. Like, I've never hit— I've never hit over 300. I think like my— I think my one rep max is maybe 285, and I don't think I could do that right now. Like, you know, I— but I've— and I've never had— well, I take that back. There have been times where I've like— I've wanted to increase a weight kind of on a smaller scale. Like, I was really happy a while back, um, when we were still in San Diego, I did hit a 405 deadlift, which I was like really, really proud of. Um, I definitely can't deadlift that. I was deadlifting today and it was, it was not a lot of weight relatively speaking. But what I do get a lot of like joy and satisfaction from— I don't know if joy is the right word, but I feel the best when I look the best, or when I'm, when I'm happy with the way that I look. Um, and that's you know, that's getting strong. That's, uh, well, maybe that's not even it. I don't know if it's actually getting strong because it's not like a matter of numbers, but like, I do like knowing that my numbers are increasing, whatever they are, you know. Like, if I'm doing hammer curls and I used to do 40s and now I'm doing 45s and now I'm doing 50s, like, I'm seeing that progression. And that's something I'm constantly working on, is increasing the weight on everything I'm doing. But I don't have these desires to hit like really big numbers compared to, you know, what my brother lifts or what my friends lift or anything like that. It's all, I don't really even know how to like explain it, but it's like, I want to look good and I think I look good when my body fat percentage is down and my muscles are getting bigger, which, I mean, I guess that's like the foundation of like everyone looking good. I, but, but for me that's like a, that's like sitting in the— I, I weigh right now like 206, 208, like right around there. And yeah, I'd like to put on a little bit more weight. I'd like to probably sit around like 215. Um, but that's where— this is where I am right now. And I'm like, just over 200 is, is like a great weight for me. Um, and so that's— yeah, those are, those are just kind of like things that I like going to the gym for, is, you know, my arms looking good, my back looking good, my chest looking good, my abs starting to show, like That's all. Well, and that's all things that motivate me.

There's not a destination for any of those, right? And I think that's the key here is that like for anything fitness related, if you're in it for the long haul, it's not a destination. I hit it and I'm done. Or it's not the, I'm gonna do this diet for 90 days and then I'm done. Um, I think something really key here to bring up is like that we are so results oriented all the time that sometimes we get down on ourselves if we're not hitting results. Whereas really, you've got to be confident and happy with where you're at right now. One of my favorite quotes is, "Where you go, you also have to take yourself." So if you're unhappy, the whole— where you go, you go also, right? It's like, whenever you hit a goal like this, you have to take that unhappy self that you've been that entire time. Whereas if you look at it from a different perspective, where you're not so fixated on a result, and you're just enjoying the process of being healthy, being in shape, pushing yourself. That's what I find joy in, is pushing myself. And, um, quite frankly, in the CrossFit gym, you know, you can run around without a shirt on, scream. So it's like this place where you can just be a savage for like an hour and nobody cares, and then you go back to real life. But, um, I really find a lot of— I like doing that a lot, but I think it's important that you brought up that yes, we have these ideal ideals, right? But while we have these systems in place, be proud of yourself for just showing up. And I liked what you had talked about with Marisha with doing, you know, these 5 Navy SEALs a day. I struggle with the all-or-nothing mindset where if I don't get to go to the CrossFit gym, then okay, the whole day's toast. I, I missed it. And so my wife will be like, well, just go for a walk or just do 100 burpees. Or, and she's really good about that. She'll, you know, she'll pop open the garage and knock out 100 burpees and that's her workout for the day if, if we had some crazy scheduling. And so that's really cool on her that she does that. It, it's a good way to win still if you don't have your, you know, your picture perfect morning routine, which is something I'm big on. You know, I wanna wake up, I wanna hit my 6:30 AM CrossFit class. If I do those things, I feel great, right? But, um, key thing here is make it simple. If you're, if you're listening to this podcast and you don't have a system in place, make it simple to start out. I mean, maybe you don't, maybe you don't, uh, go to the gym for 2 hours a day because you've never even gone to the gym for 10 minutes a day. What makes you think that you're gonna go for 2 hours a day? Let's be real. Yeah.

So, or if you've been if you've been out of the game for a minute, I think this is also a really common thing, is that people who used to be— whether they used to play sports competitively or they used to be avid gym goers and they've fallen off the train for a year, 6 months, 2 years, whatever it is— then when they feel like— they feel like the only way that they can get back into it is 2 hours a day, all the supplements, I gotta buy me some new shoes, I gotta get all— like, I've gotta get all the gear again. Yeah. And then the bar just becomes, it gets so high for you to even do that. Like the activation energy is so high that it doesn't happen or you do it for a couple of days and then you're so sore. You're just like beat the crap up and then you stop going because life gets hard again.

Yeah. My, I got to, I've gotten to see my wife, well, my wife, you know, before we had Georgia, she still, still was competing at a really high level. And so It's been really cool to see her. That's a real thing when you go from being like an elite athlete to falling out of that system. Um, I experienced it when I was at BYU. I was very athletic, very cut, very thin, very strong. And then I went on a mission for 2 years and me and you both know how that is with the panamasalo.

Oh dude, it was some sopapillas and some—

Yeah, like we got— we were gorditos out there, man. Like We got pretty big. And so you come back home— when I was on the cheer team, I couldn't even do a backflip anymore. And it was, it was really— I was really frustrated with myself, but I just had to take it bit by bit, and eventually I got back in shape. And it's kind of cool to see my wife do that recently too. She's had to start small, and now she, you know, she just competed at the, at the Arnold and did awesome. So what's cool with her is that I feel like she's done a really good job recently about like, yeah, who cares what I was lifting beforehand? She's like, she's constantly tracking her progress now. It's not like, oh, that used to be a PR, but it, that, that was my PR back in the day. And the lift I just hit, even though it's the best I've done postpartum, is like, it's not a PR though, because I, because I hit it back in the day. Right. If you're following me, I, I didn't say that right. Yeah. But basically she's doing, she's doing a good job at realizing that she had a reset. She had a baby. And now she had a baby, dude. That's— yeah, and she's lifting more than I can right now.

If anybody doesn't know, uh, or isn't around people who have babies very often, dude, like, it is— women's bodies take a beating in so many ways. And like, you know, a lot of ways, like, their bodies go through this, like, fundamental change in that— that I don't think men will ever be able to understand. Um, and so to have a baby and then to get back into exercising. Well, first of all, that is a feat in and of itself. Like, you know, the fact that my wife decided to start exercising again to, to get her body back into shape, and your wife now competing, you know, very different. But now she's, she's putting up— I guess you could look at them as kind of like new, you know, new postpartum PRs, you know, like, yeah, yeah, new beginnings. Like, this is— I've undergone a lot of changes, and now This is like, this is like a new me and I'm going to compete with that new me because old me didn't have a baby back then, you know? Yeah.

It's like, you're, it's not an even playing field if you compare yourself to like the old you that was never had a baby. And now it's like, well, now it, you know, you had a baby and now you're still doing this amazing thing. So this, this can happen with, with guys too. Not, not babies, right? Like, but you know, not to that extent, but basically if you're a dude and you're like, well, I got out of shape. Well, just know that there are women that have babies, get out of shape, and still get back into shape. You can do it.

Yeah, well, and look at like Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about the Arnold contest, like, or Arnold Sports Festival. The dude does not look like he did when he was competing, obviously.

How old is he?

Like, he's in his late 60s, early 70s. Like, Arnold Schwarzenegger is super old, but if you listen to him talk about like exercise. He— I mean, just this year he like revamped his, um, his like exercise and fitness, uh, I don't know if it's a company or—

75.

He's 75. He's 75. His biceps are bigger than most people still, like to this day. But that's not because he's like focused on any goals. But if you, if you watch any interviews with Arnold, he just said— he says that lifting weights or exercise, I think he says specifically lifting weights, is is like breathing. Like, you just can't stop because it has become part of life. Not, not just a part of, uh, my routine, but it's a part of his life. And I believe, I believe that about myself as well. Like, weightlifting is a part of my life, and I, like, I will always be weightlifting.

Always.

Now, yeah, sure, maybe someday I decide to give up weightlifting to do other forms of exercise or something, but As of right now, that doesn't, that doesn't seem like in the realm of possibility because I love weightlifting and it's become part of who I am. Arnold Schwarzenegger obviously is not competing in Mr. Olympia, but he loves exercising and he still does. And that's why, if you've seen, if anyone's seen any pictures of Arnold's biceps in the last like year, they are still these like massive softballs, dude. Like, it, I mean, dude, he just, it is a part of who he is. And, and that's That, I think, is the core of all of this, is that even if you're like, your, your schedules, your routines, your life is changing. Like, I'm going to Africa in 2 weeks. I'm going to Africa for the next, uh, month, and then I'm going back to Italy. Like, all these structures are going to change, but in the process, I'm going to figure out ways to exercise and to like, to make exercise or to continue exercising, because that's just a part of life. That's just a part of what we do. We go to places, things change, and then we figure out how to continue exercising. In the new environment. And so whatever exercise looks like for you, you've got to, you've got to latch on to it and just make it a part of who you are and, and prioritize that over some other things that you might be doing, because it, it is— your health is the most important thing that there is.

Yeah, how you show up in— Nick, how you show up as a person to your job and You basically give off this aura of confident, whether you're confident or not. And one of the best ways to boost confidence is by just taking care of your body. Um, if you are sleeping in and not moving your body, you don't have as much dopamine going through. You're not gonna have as high levels of energy and, uh, you, you just won't present yourself as sharp as you would as if you got up or got up a little bit earlier, got a workout in. The common excuse out here is, hey, I don't have enough energy in the morning to work out. I always have found, you know, we talk about sustainability, take a scoop of— this isn't the best advice for here, but just take a scoop of pre-workout and get your butt to the gym, right? Because, because you're gonna have a better day if you start your day off moving and you boost your confidence, you do something difficult. But I wanted to touch on— me and you both have read Atomic Habits, and without diving into like every topic of the book. Some of the things I took was just make it very simple and start small. And also make it something that you— so make it simple. And then also make it something that you like. So if you're a runner, don't decide to go lift weights and go squat every day, just go for a run, do something that's already easy for you to do. So, and make it simple. Do it like 20 minutes a day. Go for a walk, you know. If you're not doing anything right now in your life, start by going for a walk every day for 20 minutes. That, I mean, that has huge returns if you're not doing anything right now.

Yeah, especially if you, if you go and take that walk obviously outside, out in the sunshine, there's, there are enormous benefits. But, you know, to be, to be, I don't know, rather straightforward, there are there are plenty of reasons to not be exercising, and yet there are no reasons that anyone should not be exercising. Like, we should all be exercising in whatever form is best for us that we like the most. I 100% agree. I should not go out and just start running because I really don't like running all that much.

Yeah, don't do it.

I do love weightlifting, so I'm going to do that. And I actually also should be running for cardio reasons, and so I'll build that into my routine. But if you are not doing anything right now you need to be exercising 100%.

Yeah.

And you've got to find a way that is sustainable and that you enjoy doing. Because if it's, if it's something you enjoy doing and you can do it repeatedly over time with, you know, several iterations, that is where you're going to be winning because that is building it into your life. You don't, you don't want to build something you hate into your life. That doesn't make any sense. You want to build something into your life. I see that.

And then in my job, like, we got the sales reps are like I hate cold water, therefore I will do cold plunges, like, because I hate it. Or I'm like, well, like, the whole David Goggins concept is great and all, but there are, there are better ways to like push yourself mentally, like have fun. Um, you know, the ice water stuff is cool, like I'd like to get into that stuff, but for different reasons other than the fact that I would hate it. I would just like the benefits from it and the challenge from it, right? Yeah. Um, But yeah, I, where was I going with this? I, I cut you off. I'm sorry.

But yeah, it's okay.

Make it, make it something that, that's, that's easy for you to do. Um, one thing I will add too is accountability, right? So, or find other people to hold you accountable. One of the reasons I like CrossFit is because I can, I can show up to a class where people are counting on me when I'm working with Tommy, like my strength coach from, from, uh, CrossFit Faded Glory, like I have gotta show up to that class, otherwise I leave him hanging. Like I cannot not show up. Mm-hmm. Um, but what I would say is accountability is really, really important. Find somebody that's gonna hold you to your word. So quick example, yes, the classes do help, but what I was finding is I was still kind of sleeping in in the mornings and I was struggling to get to the 6:30 AM class. One of the guys in the class named Louie texted me. He's like, hey, we got this chat with dads that come to the 6:30 class. Do you want to get— you want to meet— you want me to add you to it? And I said, yeah, sure. Well, I just text the night before and I say, hey, I'm going to show up at the 6:30 class. And my conversion rate on actually showing up to class has gone up so much because now I have a group of people that are holding me accountable. The group chat's called Make 6:30 Great Again. So it's kind of fun.

I love that. I love that. Um, yeah, and I, I don't really have anything to add to that. Um, and I know we got to wrap up here, uh, we got things to do and places to be, but, um, yeah, so I guess the challenge for this month is to go exercise, to find exercise, some form of exercise for you that is sustainable and that is enjoyable. And that, I think doing those two things, finding those, finding the answers to that is 80, 85% of all the work. And then once you can find a way to do— way to exercise and a way to exercise on a repeated sustainable basis, then you will exercise. Like, it is, it is building that system into your life. Um, well, that's all I've got. Austin, you got what? Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, I— the only thing I would add to that is make sure you can track it too. So like, yeah, literally get a piece of paper and me— you've, um, we can talk about habit tracking apps next time, but Um, and I'll have you say it over the podcast now, but there's, there's a couple that you've recommended. But if you're tracking it, you don't need to be perfect. Just don't miss 2 days in a row.

Um, one day is an exception, 2 days is not.

2 days is perfect. But you know, you need an 80%, you need to be successful in your, in your new systems about 80% of the time when you're first starting out. You do not need to be perfect. Um, so if you miss a day, great, do it tomorrow. Don't beat yourself up, do something else instead. Like, avoid the all-or-nothing mentality and just do something mentality, right? Yeah, that's all I would add there.

Yeah, um, with that challenge, yeah, that the app that I, that I found the easiest— it, it's by no means like the sexiest habit app out there, um, but it's called HabitShare, um, and it's like a It's like a bluish icon with a circle and a check mark in it. Um, and I, I think it's just extremely simple, and you can share your habits with somebody else. Um, you can share that same habit with lots of people, but you, you can't form like habit groups. There are other apps that will do that. Um, but this one you can just share it with like one other, uh, person, or rather you can see the individual habits that someone else shares with you. Um, but it's not like a whole group can get together to share it. It's called HabitShare.

Okay.

Um, and I really like it. It's just very simple the way that they lay out. Like, they have little circles for every day of the week, um, and you just— like, you just mark if it was green, red, or gray. You know, green meaning you did it, red meaning you didn't, and gray meaning like you're not— you're not trying to do it that day, like you're not supposed to. If it's something you're trying to do 3 times a week or whatever, or you don't do it on weekends, only weekdays, that kind of thing. But I think it's the simplest like the, the simplest app out there for, for habit tracking, um, and it's free. So, okay, if you download that app, um, and you want to get in touch with us because you want an accountability partner and you don't know who to go to, I would love to be an accountability partner for people.

Same here, same here, 100%. Like, um, you can message us on Instagram and be more than happy to connect with you on this habit tracking thing because our whole goal is to be better as individuals and also to inspire a, you know, a tribe to better themselves. So yeah, please, please, you know, reach out to us if you do need help in staying accountable to these exercising habits that you guys will put in place. We look forward to hearing how it goes. Feel free to reach out to us and, and give us feedback on the episodes, but also give us feedback on how this is all going for you. And yeah, grateful, grateful for you guys listening. Please, please, please share with anybody you think could benefit from this.

And, uh, yeah, if you're in, uh, if you're listening in Spotify, please, uh, go ahead and leave a 5-star review for us, um, or a review and a rating in Apple Podcasts.

There we go. We'll see you guys next time.