63 - EP 63 with Noah Ryan: Health for the People, Elite Supplementation and Intuitive Biohacking for Vitality

Yo yo, my man, what's going on?

Hey dude, how you doing? Oh nice, outside. Beautiful.

Yeah, dude, always.

I've got the outside setup going.

It's perfect.

Is that where you're staying?

Yeah, I'm in Mexico City right now. Um, I live here for the most part, but I do travel a lot. Um, this is just a spot that I've been staying in for a while now.

Awesome. How's Mexico City? I've heard good things, man.

It's great. You know, I came here for like back in January. I was only planning on staying here for like a month and then going down to South America. But, uh, it's a great city. Like, I'm not a guy for cities at all, but out of all the cities, it's pretty incredible. Like, super green, um, definitely some pollution because it's so high up in elevation and it's in a valley. But, uh, all things considered, it's definitely the favorite city I've been to. Um, I travel a lot still, but I always end up back here, and I'm working on some projects here as well, so it's more reason to come back.

Sweet. Yeah. Are you treated well as a gringo there?

I am, but that's because I really focus on assimilating with the culture and embracing it. There's a lot of people that come here and they kind of just do it because it's like a cheap city and they can take advantage of it. And that pisses off a lot of locals. But, you know, I speak fluent Spanish and I'm like, out of my Mexican friends, like, I like Mexican culture more than they do. So that helps.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice, that's great. What are you sipping on there? Looks like a lemon water. I'm sure you got extra stuff in there as well.

Dude, you'd love it. It's, uh, lemon, magnesium, and then taurine. I'm like a huge taurine fan. It's probably one of my favorite supplements. I really got into it after getting a few concussions and looking into like the neuroinflammatory and neuroregenerative benefits of it. So yeah, dude, I'm drink maxing. I've got the, uh, electrolyte mix and then I've got the homemade cold brew with raw cream, and then I put some lion's mane and reishi in there as well.

Wow, full stack. Respect, respect. Let's always do taurine. That's, um, pretty topical topic, shall we say, especially for me because we're coming out with a taurine supplement of our own through Sol Supplements. So everyone can look forward to that. That'll probably be early next year, but Why do you like taurine?

Man, you know, I started looking into it. It, it's one of those things where it's like you get ahold of a supplement and then you're like, oh, well like this is cool. Like I might as well start researching it. And I dug really deep into the research on it. And you know, my biggest thing is focusing on cognitive enhancement and like neurogenerative improvement from like those aforementioned things in terms of getting concussions and like the constant toxicity that we experience from our environment. And I was looking into taurine and out of like a lot of the neuroenhancing supplements, it seemed to have the lowest risk profile and just incredible benefits across the board. And, you know, looking into it in terms of dosage and the ability to take for an extended period of time without having to worry about those adverse effects, I was just super into it. And then, you know, obviously you buy— like, I bought a kilogram of taurine and I'm like, okay, cool. Like, I better become very knowledgeable in taurine if I'm gonna have literally 1,000 servings of it. So I'm a big fan of it. I'm curious why you decided to go out and, you know, bring it to market, because I'm always intrigued why people choose specific supplements.

Yeah, so the— with taurine, uh, just reading about it, so like, I like simple stuff. What we've released so far is simple single ingredient stuff. The glycine, the salts is like two different types of salts and some magnesium. Um, bison liver, it's just bison liver. So none of the filler stuff. And what are the core ingredients, the core building blocks that people need for optimal health? Let's make a version of that that's, you know, super pure, super free of everything else. And that's why, you know, taurine was just one of the obvious ones. It's very simple amino acid, just like glycine. And, uh, yeah, also it helps that it's, it's been getting a bit of a traction, bit of traction online as well. So it made sense to do.

That makes total sense. And yeah, you know, I'm glad that that sentiment, that anti-taurine sentiment from energy drinks has kind of gone away. You know, there's always that thing where it's like there's an ingredient that is so powerful. Yeah, yeah, potent and effective, and then there'll be some mainstream product that completely bastardizes it. But I like the approach in terms of focusing on single ingredient products. You know, when I see a lot of these blends, the first question that I ask is like, what is the sourcing quality of every single one of these ingredients? Yep. Because with every single ingredient, sourcing is so important. You know, you don't know where contamination could occur. You don't know the quality. You don't know like the standardization process. So for me, the simpler the better. You know, I make all my own blends and I do a lot of research before I buy any product.

The blends is an interesting thing. They have a thing called a proprietary blend that they can stick in each supplement. So it's like a, I guess, a copyrighted or something like, this is our specific blend and we'll call it Super Test Boost or something like that. If you advertise as a proprietary blend, you don't have to actually mention where each one comes from, or like there's some other different labeling kind of workarounds where you really don't know what you're putting in. Like there could be fillers that they don't mention, but because it's this blend and they have, yeah, there's 400 milligrams of this blend, these are the ingredients, but you don't know how much you're getting of each. So it's a very sneaky way for manufacturers to get around letting you know like what's in there. And even if you are having any eff— like, what is the efficacious doses of these things? You don't know what you're getting. So it's unfortunately one of the things in the supplement industry where they can say, yeah, this test boosting blend, and just full of a bunch of shit. Like, maybe they just boost the really cheap stuff, the stuff that doesn't really do much, but they can just say, yeah, this is in this.

So Yeah, I mean, the supplement industry is just full of charlatans, right? That's why so many people flock to it, is because there's high margins, there's no FDA regulation. And I tell everyone, you know, avoid proprietary blends because oftentimes what they do is, like you said, they'll have a filler ingredient, they'll have 3 grams of their proprietary blend, and sure, it may have like Fadogia Agrestis, Tongkat Ali, um, all of these, you know, effective supplements, but then out of those 3 grams 2,750 milligrams will just be creatine or some cheap filler. So yeah, I think just like going and getting single ingredient supplements and really knowing what you're consuming is more important than any, you know, one-size-fits-all blend.

Yeah, and I think we would both agree on the fact that you need to get most of your nutrients from not supplements at the end of the day first before you even look into supplementation. And that's another mistake people make is like 'Oh wow, like, what supplement should I take?' But the food that they're eating is really low quality, they're still drinking alcohol, their water quality is not good. Like, those are the core things that probably impact health the most, and then supplements are the icing on top. And supplements can help, uh, some key nutritional benefits that you're missing out, which can be hard to get from diet. But water especially is something that needs to be considered for first before all these other things. And I say that as someone that sells supplements and want you guys to buy my supplements, so, you know.

Yeah, hey man, I'm in the same boat. I've been in the supplement space for almost 2 years now, and it's, you know, it's just the way that humans think and the way that humans operate. First and foremost, it's very difficult to monetize a balanced lifestyle. Nobody's getting rich telling you to get more sun and drink water and avoid pesticides. Yeah, and people always want quick fix, right? Like, that is the core fundamental of marketing. It's like, hey, listen, we will give you all of those desires and benefits and values you're looking for in one pill. You know, that's why the pharmaceutical industry is so effective, and that's why the supplement industry is so enticing. The way that I see supplements is that it is a Trojan horse to get into the mind of the consumer. And then once you're in there and you're saying, hey, listen, we're benefiting you with this supplement, here are some other things that you can implement that will increase, you know, those benefits that you're looking for. So I think that's the most conscious way of going about the supplement realm. I love supplements. I love them from a market standpoint. I love them from an actual product standpoint. And I think they're a great way to start building trust with the consumer to then help educate them on more holistic lifestyle approaches.

Yeah, for sure. It's, uh, it's also fun. Like, it's also super fun to kind of play biochemistry, uh, professor with your body and figure out what helps and like feel the different effects of things. Like, oh, this this South American root, like, what's this gonna do, like, supercharge my testosterone or something? And sometimes you swing and a miss, sometimes, you know, you get something that really makes a difference. But what are you taking, um, right now that's kind of top of, top of funnel for your supplement game?

Yeah, so, you know, I'm in the same boat as you. A lot of the reason why I do it is because I think it's fun. It feels like wizardry to me. And also the control that you have, it's like, wow, I'm able to manipulate Not in a bad way, but I'm, I'm able to influence my biology through what I'm consuming is incredibly empowering. And currently what I'm on, um, I'm always experimenting. Like I'm not aiming for optimization at any given point. I'm more driven by curiosity of, you know, what kind of, you know, levers can I pull in my biology to elicit certain effects? I'm currently on a pretty heavy neurogen— neurogenesis protocol because I got a concussion a few weeks ago. So, uh, a lot of that—

doing what?

Uh, sparring, the usual.

All right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, I'm really just focusing on that. It's like, how can I reduce brain inflammation and how can I increase neurogenesis to a certain extent? So, um, lion's mane has been a big core fundamental of mine. I usually avoid it, uh, and the reason is because any really powerful mushroom and fungus in particular, uh, it's super powerful and we just don't know all of the the like other biological effects that it may have long term. So taurine's really important for me.

Yeah.

Uh, I'm using a little bit of reishi. I keep the reishi dosage minimum because it's a really potent, uh, 5-alpha reductase inhibitor. So it's gonna inhibit the metabolization of testosterone into DHT. And I like my DHT. Obviously taurine. Um, I've been really focusing on detox and like improving my detox pathways. So that comes with liposomal glutathione and N-acetyl L-cysteine. Um, I actually went on like a pretty heavy gut detox as well, so I was doing a lot of kind of those remediation things like oregano oil. Um, but you know, a lot of it—

I'd love to talk about the gut as well a bit later.

Very important. A lot of it stayed the same. I think those are like the biggest add-ons with the NAC, glutathione, and then, uh, neuro— neurogenetic, like neurogenesis-inducing substances.

Awesome. What minerals are you taking? Are you into remineralization and heavy metal detox at all?

Yeah, that's really big. You know, I've been talking to Ben, Ben Wiener. He's really big on that stuff and he was kind of selling me on the mineralization aspect of detox. So a lot of binding agents. I've been really into silica recently for binding mercury, but as well as like the endogenous collagen production. Iodine and boron, I found a lot of interest intrigue and interest in those, especially considering, you know, I assume that I'm not getting all the minerals that I should be not living like on the beach. So those are the primary 3. Um, I'm always looking to jump into more, but you know, I'm trying to do it like one at a time.

Yeah, fair enough. For me, I like, uh, what am I taking each day really? I did a video in Soul Club about this, but In the morning is shilajit. Have you used that?

I have. I'm a big fan of shilajit.

Yeah, so I see that as like a just a big nice mineral boost, uh, in the morning, which I'll have with hot water. Uh, sole salts of course, so sodium, potassium, magnesium in that electrolyte mix. Um, taurine in the morning I have because that helps with the electrolyte balance as well. Uh, liver in the freeze-dried capsules. Um, iodine in water every kind of second day or so. And I personally eat a lot of chocolate or cacao. So if you're doing that, you need to make sure that you're having appropriate zinc uptake as well, or intake, because— is it cadmium that depletes zinc? Or calcium? Uh, calcium depletes zinc.

So yeah, yeah, there's calcium, and I believe there's also like some trace cadmium in cacao. And that's kind of what I— because I'm also a huge cacao guy. There's a lot of cacao here in Mexico, so that's been a big thing for me. Um, oysters have been always like priority number one, at least once a week, at least 7 to 12.

Yeah, 12, that's rookie numbers.

Uh, yeah, yeah, I, I honestly— well, here's the deal, last week I did like 42. Um, I just, I felt horrible, just too many. They were all raw and I ended up getting food poisoning from one of them because like I'm in the ponds. So, um, I'm trying to taper it down to 12, but yeah, I'm usually doing like 24 to 36 a week.

True. No, that's, uh, if you're not by the coast, I don't think I would really have oysters fresh raw, to be honest.

Frozen maybe, but yeah, yeah, you're rolling the dice there, but that's the game we play.

A little food poisoning every now and then, clear the system, you know. It's probably beneficial in some regard.

Dude, it's a great way to get shredded in like 46 hours. It's crazy. I think I lost like 10 pounds. It was actually ridiculous.

Yeah, yeah. Um, esoteric cutting secrets there. Just get food poisoning.

Just get a parasite, man. You're eating for two.

Oh shit, parasites. That's something I hadn't considered. Um. Yeah, let's, let's talk about the gut and then let's talk about parasites. So gut health, obviously, I feel like, you know, everyone mentions it. It's a bit of a broken record at this point. Your gut influences the brain health, how you feel, how you look, your skin health, everything really. What did you go through in terms of your gut cleanse?

Yeah, so my gut's always been messed up and I acknowledge that and I know that. Um, I've had a lot of experiences where, you know, you're kind of introspective and, you know, in whatever sense you're thinking about it and you're like, wow, okay, cool. Like, it seems that a lot of issues are arising from my gut, energy, focus, mood, even socialization. Right. And like looking back at it and kind of corresponding with like my parents and stuff, I'm like, okay, cool. Like I was given antibiotics as a kid. You know, I was exposed to maybe some form of mold when I was younger, exposed to a lot of heavy metals, which then accumulate in the biofilm. So like, Looking more into that and just realizing how much of an effect your gut has on overall health, it's apparent. And you know, it's a broken record here, but we really need to understand that, you know, our gut is our first brain, right? It evolved before our brain and our frontal cortex did. So it's so important in like all of our biological and psychological activities. So the biggest thing for me was like, okay, cool, I'm gonna try to identify what is wrong with my gut first because there's so many factors, right? It could be SIBO, so small intestinal bacterial, uh, intestine bacterial overgrowth. It could be, you know, a fungal thing. So Candida or yeast, or it could be parasitic, or it could be a mixture of all of the above. So kind of looking into that, you can discern like, what do I think the issues are here? So you go through the list of side effects of any given particular gut issue, and then you make a hypothesis. You say, okay, I hypothesize that this is the problem and here's what I'm gonna do to fix it. I'm gonna spend this many weeks doing it, and here's the desired outcome. For me, Um, I kind of honed in on all of the above, right? And I was like, okay, cool. I think there is Candida involved. I know that there is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. And it started once again when I got a strain of food poisoning and I started going downhill since then. And then also looking into like the potential for parasites. Uh, unfortunately, whether we like it or not, we all have parasites. 97% of us have parasites and all animals have a natural, like like deparasiting process. And a lot of cultures outside of the United States have like a biannual deparasite cleanse, right? That's why ivermectin's one of the best sold drugs in the world. We don't have that. So, you know, I'd like to do that just as a biannual ritual. But in terms of the gut, I went full force with it. I accepted the fact that I was gonna feel like shit for a week to 14 days. And I kind of just nuked my microbiome. And I did that primarily with your natural antimicrobials, but natural, right? I'm not gonna be using like, you know, using antibiotics is like using a nuclear warhead to blow up a village. I was using like cluster bombs in the form of oregano oil. So really focusing on two things, breaking down the biofilm in my gut, right? The biofilm's like that cluster of bacteria, both dead and alive, that like clings to your gut lining and is really hard to break down. So trying to break that down because that holds a lot of the heavy metals and toxins that are in your body. So breaking that down with, as I mentioned, oregano oil primarily, um, bromelain, a lot of enzymes because enzymes break down everything. So doing that for a period of time, and then once I felt that I effectively did that— and you feel like dog shit, you really do, because all those toxins that are being stored in that bacteria and biofilm are now being released into your system— I really focused on optimizing my my detox pathways. And that's where the NAC and glutathione came in. The niacin and sauna combo was super critical to this entire detox process. And then once I was there, it was about rebuilding, right? So first of all, mitigating some of that structural damage that's caused to your gut by absolutely nuking it. Bone broth is like my favorite. You're probably a big fan as well, right? It's got the glycine, it's got the glutamine, it's got the collagen. So doing that in conjunction with a lot of probiotics. Kefir, I found to be my personal favorite. Some people maybe not be able to handle the dairy, but you can get kefir water. Focusing on that, kombucha, obviously using my own SCOBY, and then apple cider vinegar, which actually helps with killing some of that bad bacteria as well. So yeah, it's pretty much that 3-step process. Kill whatever's in there, optimize your detox pathways, and then rebuild effectively. And the entire time I was following a low FODMAP diet. So that's just avoiding things that could potentially feed the bacteria, bad bacteria in your gut.

So what were you avoiding there? I know coffee is a big one. Processed sugar, probably gluten in all of its forms. Yeah, so the big ones, right?

All the fun stuff, pretty much. So coffee, dried fruit, like oligosaccharides, obviously grain. I was avoiding grain a lot. I was really just eating— I was pretty much just like a vertical diet. I was eating small amounts of rice and meat and that was about it. Yeah, coffee was the hardest thing to avoid. I did yerba mate instead. So honestly, that gives you just as much of a punch without the gut issues. But I'm still recovering. You get worse before you get better. But I definitely noticed the chronic fatigue has been a big one that I've noticed more or less mitigated after this big redox and detox. And I think a lot of that is just, you know, the liposomal glutathione and optimizing those detox pathways.

So when you say chronic fatigue, what metrics are you feeling or like judging that by to say, hey, like, I have some level of fatigue that is not normal?

Yeah, so it's different for everyone, but for me, the two factors I was looking at is like, what is my ability to exert effort over a period of time, right? Where am I at? Because when I'm on, like, I'm able to just push and push and push and push. I'm able to go from like working on like my service-based model agency stuff to working on brands, then I'm working on like my personal brand and creating content, no problem whatsoever. And then I can go out and socialize. When I have that chronic fatigue, like, I do one thing and it knocks me out. Um, I'm unable to like actually consume food properly, so I'll eat and it'll knock me out. And the most important thing is like how How able am I to operate at like peak cognitive function for extended periods of time? You know, when I was dealing with chronic fatigue, one conversation would completely fry my brain. I wouldn't be able to make a coherent sentence after that. Uh, when I'm in my zone and when I know I'm optimizing at proper levels, you know, I'm able to have conversations all day.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's, that's an interesting one. I think most people just don't have an idea of what their top potential is, maybe. And I always say this about health in general, is like, once you taste how it feels to have good, well-rested sleep and wake up in the morning and be able to be productive— not that you need or should be productive all day, but being able to, uh, just kind of power through the day without needing naps, without, um, brain fog and things like that— is That's the default, and that's what it should be like. But we are so separate from that that it's kind of accepted that most people are covering up that innate energy well with stimulants, coffee, nicotine, you know, some of the harder things, pharmaceutical stuff. So they don't really know. And I think a period of sobriety is, is important to kind of dive deep into what actually your potential is. But yeah, I mean, all of this stuff can be a several-year process really of learning everything, implementing everything, experimenting. And it can seem like a lot, but if you're taking notes, then just work through one thing at a time.

Yeah, man, it's a commitment for sure. And that goes back to what we were talking about. Everybody wants the easy out. Everybody wants a pill that'll solve all their problems, you know, the modafinil, the Adderall. But like, if you can commit to actually understanding your like biology at a mechanistic level, you're able to manipulate it. And it's a skill that you can carry with you the rest of your life. You know, it's going to make you more money, it's going to make you happier, it's going to enable you to take full advantage of the opportunities in front of you. And a lot of people like, you know, I do fine on 6 hours of sleep, I do fine eating dog shit food. Well, you don't know how good you could B, like you said, until you actually get there. You know, a Toyota Camry gets you from point A to point B just fine until you start driving a Porsche, and then you can't go back, right? Like, you can't switch back to 87 after running 92 octane for an extended period of time. And yeah, unfortunately, a lot of people are running off of adrenaline and cortisol, and, uh, you know, when they go and they focus on that sobriety, they're like, man, I feel like dog shit. It's like, well, that's because you gotta reset, right? Like your body has extreme adrenal fatigue. You know, you've been running on stress hormones for the last 12 months, and sure, it's gotten you great places, but like, is this going to be sustainable is the real question.

Yeah, um, I forget the name of it. Is it the Herxheimer reaction or something? That it's basically the name given to when you're doing something good for your body but you feel worse initially, as you were saying, uh, that initial detox of whatever it is. Whether it's like dislodging heavy metals, and then it's in your bloodstream for a bit, the gut thing, it's the reaction where you feel worse before you get better. And that's something to be aware of because if people are implementing new health regime things, then they feel worse and then they're like, oh, well, this isn't working, I feel worse, and then they go back to it. But it's kind of one of those things where you have to stick with it and understand that your body is dislodging these things and there will be a dip before the peak and rise.

Yeah, man, that's like a universal common with anything health-related. Uh, most of the times when something feels really great right away and has a strong acute effect, like, okay, cool, like maybe this isn't good for me in the long term, you know? That's why I call it like the vegan trap, right? When people go into veganism, they're like, man, I feel great right away, I feel great right away after cutting out meat. And then like 3 weeks down the road, 3 months down the road, they're like, man, I feel like dog shit now. And they're like, because they have that like recency bias where they're like, Well, it made me feel great in the beginning, so I better stick with it. But yeah, I mean, the way that I see it, it's like any time I'm implementing a new, like, I call it the biological regime, I know that like there is going to be a reset somewhere. And like to reset means you're starting from scratch, starting from ground zero. It's probably not going to feel great, you know, but that's why I think it's so important to really dig in and do the research and understand what does this look like from an actual timeline standpoint and like what are the objectives and what is my hypothesis here? So really, I guess applying the scientific method, as nerdy as that sounds, is one of the most effective things you can do in terms of health optimization.

Yeah, well, it doesn't have to be nerdy. It's just understanding, like, you should approach everything like that with some sort of— it doesn't even have to be rigorous. It just has to be, hey, is this thing, you know, control all the other variables. Is this thing— is it making me feel better? Am I recovering better in the gym? Am I getting better digestion? Um, try the experiment, uh, whatever it is, and then figure out the results and compare it to what you thought would happen or what you researched should happen. And that can work in relationships, it can work in business stuff. It's like, is, is this objectively helping me achieve my goals or is it not? And I think that's a good framework to kind of dive into anything with.

Yeah, it is quite universal. You know, I come from a growth marketing background And that's like the entire process there. It's really just the scientific method. You're like identifying objectives and key results and making hypotheses. So carrying that over, um, I really see just so much crossover in, in all aspects. It's the same exact process. Yeah.

Uh, what, what was that marketing background like? Was that initially your career kind of going out and you transitioned into more health stuff or What was that journey like?

Yeah, so I'm still in marketing, right? You know, I run a marketing agency. I focus on building brands. I found marketing to be the most direct application of human behavior into the real world. You know, I started out in finance and I'm like, okay, this sucks. Like, I don't want to be counting beans. This is so abstract to me. Like, I wanted to focus on like the human condition and find a way to leverage that in the real world. Obviously, you know, I went traditional route, went to college. You know, I was originally in tech. So, you know, focusing actually in cybersecurity among all things, 'cause I thought it was cool and I thought that was what I had to do. You know, you're given this idea that you need to take advantage of like the trends and ride those coattails. Yeah.

Yeah.

But like obviously got kind of miserable with that. You know, it was cool when you're in college and like, yeah, I'm building threat intelligence, but then you get out of college and you're just like in a basement building threat intelligence with a bunch of engineers. Like, this isn't me. Health has always been like a focus and a priority. You know, ever since I was a little kid. So my big thing was like, cool, we know that the health space is massive. It's only continuing to grow and it'll never go away because there'll always be a subset of people that care and prioritize their health because it's the most core fundamental aspect of being a human. So, you know, over the last few years, I've really just been focusing on aligning more and more of that marketing background, the ability to portray ideas, and most importantly from my end, portray complex features and technology in a way that's understandable and digestible and most importantly, interesting to the end consumer. So obviously went from like the hacking world or like the cybersecurity world and like the tech world to the health world. It's the same exact process. Like, how can I take all of these nerdy and like what some people would say uninteresting health topics and convert them in a way that's interesting to the end consumer? Because I think that's where the real problem is, is that health education is boring because all the people that are incredibly knowledgeable about this stuff unfortunately have spent most of their life in a lab. They only know how to interact with other people in that lab. They can't take what they know and express it to the general population. And unfortunately, the world that we live in, whether we like it or not, is hyperstimulated. You know, we're getting exposed to thousands and thousands of videos, you know, every single day, uh, on short-form content platforms like TikTok. So the real challenge is finding a way to make this health education more interesting than the girls dancing on Twitter, more interesting than, you know, beheading videos on LiveLeak. And I think that to be a very, uh, exciting challenge. And I do genuinely believe that is going to be what leads this health revolution, is making health education interesting to the masses.

Yep. Very, very good goal. Uh, it's aligned similarly to what I do, and I see it as well. Um, yeah, well, I think, uh, the first video that I saw of you was the hip mobility one, which was really cool. Um, I am delving into fixing my hip mobility, a bit of sciatic pain, uh, at the moment that I'm dealing with and have been dealing with for a while. Slowly making progress, but your video, you've got your single leg squats with weight, you know, deep squat both sides, really impressive. Has that always been something that you have been into? Is that something that you've trained for a while, or how did you get that kind of, I would say, top percentile hip mobility really?

Yeah, you know, it's so funny because I don't. Train hip mobility directly, uh, very rarely. That was just me messing around at the gym on one of my off days. Um, I originally got into mobility because I was always injured. I was always the guy that was injured, and so much of my athletic potential I felt was mitigated by just always being in a cast, um, particularly from skiing, but really from like anything I did. I was— I just, you know, was told that I was a fragile— like, I, I had fragile bones, I had fragile ligaments and shit like that. And once again, it goes back to that thing where it's like, well, you're told something from the experts and you're like, well, that's bullshit. I'm gonna do something about it. Um, and it was actually when I tore my calf, uh, skiing. I tore my calf skiing, uh, and I, during the beginning of COVID actually right before COVID started, I couldn't do any actual lifting. So I was like, all right, well, I guess I'll just get super flexible. And that was when I was in tech. So I was at a desk all day. So what I did was I just created a standing desk and, you know, I just spend like all day stretching. Uh, well, in my meetings and doing Pomodoro sessions and spending 5 minutes every 30 minutes just doing some sort of stretching. And that also coincided with me getting really big into martial arts. So doing jiu-jitsu and doing Muay Thai, you're going to a gym every day. And you know, I would always get there 20 minutes early and I'd have 20 minutes on the mat to just completely explore my mobility and stretching. And you know, with any new physical endeavor, the learning curve's really quick to begin with. So I just like committed to it for like maybe 6 months or so, and at the end of that 6 months, I just had like really good mobility out of the sudden, and, uh, it kind of just stuck. So now I just will— I'll stretch, you know, like in between sets while I'm working out. I'll stretch in the morning. Um, I'll stretch while like I'm making my coffee and cooking, but that's about it.

Yeah, that's nice, man. It's— I think with stretching, it's about frequency more than anything. If you have 5 minutes, 10 minutes every day, like, yes, you'll, you'll have some benefit. But if you can block out like an hour of your day, and everyone can, maybe on the weekend if you're really slammed, and really explore the body, I think, um, like, learning the body's intuitive built-in wisdom on how to move and making sure that, you know, it's not just following a stretching routine on YouTube. That can be a good base if you— it can show you movements, but everybody is going to be different. Everyone has their own innate tensions that need to be released and their own kind of lack of mind-muscle connection that they need to find and access that isn't necessarily going to come from a YouTube stretching routine. And it may, it may. I don't want to put that you know, either way. But just having time where you're not taking anyone's instruction and just what feels good, what feels good to my body, what movement is gonna reduce any pain that I may feel. And yeah, it's, it's even within the stretches themselves. I learned this from my friend Bam, um, like we're, we're not robots, so holding one stretch in one position, um, it's not necessarily not realistic to just stay 3 minutes, 4 minutes in one position, and there's this one point where, oh, this is the stretch and this is going to increase my mobility. You may have to shift around a little bit. Also, that your left side is different from your right side. We would all love for it to be perfectly symmetrical. That's what we aim for in bodybuilding and all the rest of it, but our left side has gone through different experiences than our right side. And we use the left side for different things to the right side. If you're right-footed, then you'll kick all the time. And for me, if you're spending years kicking a soccer ball with your right for the majority of time, or throwing, or whatever it is, your chosen sport, you're going to develop an imbalance. And imbalances can be corrected, but you're never going to be totally one-to-one. Um, so yeah, stretching frequency, in-depth, and learning to your own kind of intuitive knowledge and feeling how your body feels is really the path that's going to make you the most gains with that.

Yeah, that's spot on. I really couldn't have said it better myself. You know, a lot of people ask me, what are some good stretching routines that I can do? What are the stretching routines that you do? And I'm candid and I say I don't have any. I do think it's important to build that repertoire and portfolio of knowledge just to have that foundation that will then allow you to explore intuitively, because that's what it is to me, and that's what fitness is in general to me. It's an intuitive process, it's an exploration process. I don't have strength goals, I don't have size goals, you know, I haven't weighed myself in like 6 months. Um, it's about exploring what your body can do, and everyone's different. And once you feel it, like, you feel it, you notice like, wow, this feels like a very intuitive movement pattern that I should really explore. And in terms of mobility versus flexibility, those are very different things, right? Flexibility is the ability to get your body into certain positions, but for me, mobility is, am I able to generate force from that position? Because I'm approaching a lot of this mobility stuff from the standpoint of getting better at grappling, getting better at striking. So it's like, that's great that I can get my, like, foot above my head, but can I generate force with my foot above my head from that full stretch? And really just exploring, you know, your anatomy in terms of like, I have these joints, here are the movement patterns of these joints, like how can I operate them fully effectively? Because the modern lifestyle is completely making, you know, these very complex joints like our hips and our shoulders, you know, void of movement. And with every biological function, if you don't use it, you'll lose it.

Yep. Yeah, I think that's a good distinction to make. And I've kind of figured this out just my own experimentation is that we think a muscle is tight and therefore, okay, it's, it's tight, it's wound up, uh, I need to stretch and relax it. And that's true to a point. If you're doing things like yin yoga, then that fascial release is good. But if you get into those end ranges, then you need to, like you said, be able to actually produce force and become strong in those end ranges. And that is I guess, um, real flexibility, and it's about strengthening the weak muscles and activating the muscles that are there, uh, that have just been lying dormant because you haven't been accessing that range of motion. That is the true flexibility that enables like a ballet dancer to do a split midair. If it was just loose muscle, then their legs would just kind of flap around if they did that, rather than actually, you know, becoming tight taut and, uh, you know, that active kind of straight split midair. So I think part of it is the releasing in the, in the longer stretches, but actively like drawing yourself down into those positions, uh, pulling with the hamstrings and the glutes in order to get down something like a pancake straddle, um, is like a different way of thinking about these things, which has helped me for sure.

Yeah, that's a really great way to think about about it. And in terms of tightness, you know, a lot of times when your muscle is tight, it's not because you need to stretch it. It's because there is some sort of imbalance, there's some sort of weakness in that area, and your body's compensating by making the surrounding muscles tight. You know, that's why a lot of times people will get like back cramps and back tightness when they have a spine issue, because their body's like, oh shit, you know, my spine's compromised, let me just tighten up all the muscles. I am going to lose function there, but at least I'm to support it structurally. So I found like a lot of my flexibility and mobility has not come from the stretching aspect, it's come from making certain muscles stronger. And also in terms of just training frequency with mobility, we have to understand that unlike hypertrophy, a lot of mobility improvements are neural, right? It's not as much about like strengthening that muscle or stretching that muscle, it's telling your nervous system that, hey listen, it's okay for this muscle to go into this range of motion. And for that reason, you know, 5 minutes every day is effective, you know, as opposed to doing like 5 minutes of curls every day. It might not be as effective because you have to take into account the actual like muscle recovery and muscle synthesis, muscle protein synthesis that goes into that. I'm not saying there isn't a muscle recovery aspect, because there is. Like, if you stretch really hard, you will be sore the next day. Yeah, but it's not nearly like the, the development path are not nearly as correlated.

Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. Um, the— again, that mind-muscle connection, the neural pathway of being able to activate that, um, muscle in particular is the root cause of inflexibility. And I'm finding that myself, um, figuring out, uh, that journey. But it's, uh, it's a learning curve, and I'm always happy to learn stuff. So There we are.

Yeah, honestly, I think the biggest thing— a lot of people are like, you know, what's the best way to start? For me, it's like, do jiu-jitsu. Like, because if you do jiu-jitsu, you have fundamental reason to want to become more flexible and become more mobile because it makes you more effective. Not to mention, it's a dedicated time, you know, 3 times a week, 4 times a week, where you go in and you will be stretching. Like, that's part of jiu-jitsu. Like, getting into a triangle is a, like, intrinsic hip stretch. You have warm-ups, you have in-between like sessions and rolls, and then you also have after. So honestly, that's like the biggest cheat code in terms of just getting better mobility.

Cool, I'm gonna start jiu-jitsu then. I've seen some people be so flexible that they, they just don't tap to submissions because their joints can actually just move that way.

Yeah dude, that's, that's like where I'm at in a lot of aspects. Like people will try to wrist lock me and like they just You know, can't wristlock me. Or they'll try to get me in a kimura and they're like, dude, what the hell? And I didn't realize, I'm like, wow, this is actually a huge competitive advantage. And the moves that you're able to pull off when you're really flexible, like the 10th Planet, I know you're probably familiar with Eddie Bravo. They're really big on flexibility just in that sense. And they're able to do crazy submissions that no one else would expect. I didn't know that your body could get into those positions. So it's fun. A lot of people make fun of flexibility and mobility. Like when I posted that video, there were so many anons in my comments being like, yo, like this is so soft. Like this is soy. Like what? No man should be moving like that. I know. I'm like, okay, first of all, that's crazy. You know, you're, you're anonymous. Uh, second of all, it's like, this is like directly advantageous towards like, you know, not only grappling, everything, also striking. Yeah. Like everything. Like, you know? Yeah. So it's, it's super effective to tool. I like it. And it also improves the actual, like, typical strength and hypertrophy processes, because when your joints are operating the way they should be, like, you're able to do movements better, you're able to get full ranges of motion, which equals more muscle stimulation. So I find them all to be, you know, heavily contributory to one another, and none of them are mutually exclusive. I think people fall into this idealism where they get stuck in one training style for the rest of their life I really think that's only important if you're trying to compete at the highest level. Otherwise, it's just going to lead to what you said— muscle imbalances and burnout and potentially injury.

Yeah, massive key. Um, what about the spiritual side of things? Have you— I have— I know in Mexico they have, um, what is it, the DMT camps and things like that. Have you partaken in that?

Yeah, so, you know, I don't talk about it much, but, you know, Obviously a lot of those traditional ceremonies have been a pretty big factor in my personal development and like my life path for all intents and purposes. You know, that was the thing that really got me locked in on health was going down and spending, you know, 2 weeks in the Amazon in Peru and doing, you know, an ayahuasca ceremony. It didn't like make me say, wow, I didn't care about health before and now I care about it. But I always had these ideas of like, this is what's important with health. This is the way that I need to live to be most aligned with my biology and my— the way that I'm evolutionarily adapted to live. And it just reaffirmed all of those decisions. So I'm really big into it. I'm very big into anthropology and evolutionary biology. So looking at, you know, like, what were the rituals, what were the ceremonies, and what were the rites of passages of our ancestors that are intrinsically hardwired in our DNA through epigenetics. So there's a lot of great stuff to explore in Central and South America. Um, here, the Mayan and Aztec culture with their temazcales and like these really incredible processes and like cacao ceremonies, they've been really impactful to me. Uh, so, you know, I don't, I don't talk about it a lot. I don't share it a lot because I do think it's like a deeply personal experience. But yeah, definitely would not be where I am without that spiritual side of things.

Yeah, I think in terms of what we see in cultures across the world that is stuck around— traditions, shall we say— they are biologically evolutionarily useful. Because if they weren't, if they, you know, didn't help people to succeed in life and therefore improve their reproductive or civilizational capacities, then that behavior just kind of drops away. And all societies really, um, that have any kind of developed history have these. Even if it's not active psychedelics, it's a ritual of some kind that um, either signifies a rite of passage, a changing of your role in life. Like, becoming a man is one of them. Um, and that really has to lend itself to like being significant and being taken advantage of and kind of see there's something there that I think in the Western world it's just zero. There's nothing really unless you have some, you know, family culture that kind of considers that. And I think definitely there's— not all psychedelics are for everyone, and I haven't done any in a long time, but there's definitely, at least in terms of ritual and all the rest of it, is tapping into the spiritual side of you that can— like you said, like, some of our health problems are purely spiritual, purely mental beliefs that are limiting us, or things that we haven't let go of that are just stuck around in our psyche and then manifesting as some sort of biological illness or problem. And rituals and other things where you kind of get out of your own head, um, substance use or not, are one of the tools to access that higher level of existence for our health.

Yeah, I agree 100%. I don't think psychedelics are for everyone. I don't recommend them willy-nilly. I do believe that that experience like that spiritual pursuit can be achieved, you know, without the use of substances, right? Go in the jungle for like 3 days by yourself. Don't talk to anyone and see how you feel coming out, right? Like, seriously, like, you know, go like do one of these silent retreats where you just sit by yourself for 10 days and look how crazy you go. Like, you, you'll be tripping for all intents and purposes. And yeah, you know, man, that's something that I've really been into recently is the complete void of cultural significance in the Western world. You know, like these strong familial ties, like these rites of passages, and like the way that humans were meant to be reared and brought up into adulthood for eternity are now completely gone. You know, the best thing that we have are— is what, like high school graduation, college graduation, which no one takes seriously. I graduated during COVID you know, I didn't even have a graduation ceremony. I didn't go. I just went straight to the real world. And then, you know, a year later it's like, man, I never had that next step that's supposed to ritualize you. You know, I was never thrown in the woods and told to come back like with a, like, bear hide or something of that sort. So I do believe that men, and anyone really, they have to take it upon themselves now because our culture has failed us. For me, that was moving to a foreign country and figuring it out, right? Just going, figuring it out all by myself. And like seeing where I end up. You gotta do something like that. You gotta do something crazy. You gotta go push yourself out of your comfort zone and you will come out, if you make it out the other end, you will come out a better person, more mature. You know, you really, you just have to take it upon yourself and, you know, research, research what the rites of passages were. You know, what were these ritualization ceremonies throughout history, throughout these cultures? And, you know, even the ones that still exist today in some of the more traditional cultures, like the ones you see in the Middle East.

Yeah, it's definitely a massive key that's missing. Um, man, a lot to cover there, a lot for people to take in. Uh, is there any other topics that you wanted to cover today or questions you want to ask me?

Um, yeah, I mean, one thing that I think we're both on the same page on, and we were discussing this before we cut out, but it's like, how do you make health education interesting to the masses, right? Like, how can you make it more interesting for people to be interested in their health than to, you know, just consume cheap dopamine? Um, I think a lot of that is like taking it one step higher than just like the science, and you definitely do that. You know, I think the glorification of a lot of these processes and like the correlation with like traditionalism, you know, like the whole Atlantis thing and everything like that, I find that interesting. Was that, was that like an intention of yours, or like are you just extremely interested in some of those more esoteric topics, and that's just what you like to talk about?

Well, it's both. And I think because, you know, how much you understand of these ancient cultures or the mythology of them— some go as far to say that, you know, we have had— some of us have had past lives existing in these societies, so our interests in them are somewhat hardwired into our Soul, and maybe we've had experiences there before. For me, the ancient societies like Hyperborea, Atlantis, they have these ideals. And from the myths that we have about them, some evidence, uh, there's always these like threads of ascending to a higher level of existence or becoming the best version of yourself in order to support your community, defend your people. And I think that that's a a very beautiful and noble ideal to emulate. And I think it's like a— it provides an aesthetic standpoint for people to motivate themselves, uh, and make gains in their increase in strength, um, in their health. And not to mention, like, my interests are kind of, you know, ancient Greek mythology uh, ancient warriors of old, Odysseus, um, all these things that point to a certain human ideal that is common to everyone, that people just kind of feel in their soul. And, uh, the aesthetics of it all kind of blends together, uh, to the point where you can inspire people. And if you can kind of blend that high level of existence, that overman, kind of aspirational ideal with like, hey, stop eating garbage. Like, otherwise you'll never be able to kind of be the best version of yourself, and you're not going to have people rely on you or be strong for them. And if the time ever comes, we need to fight— things like that, which I think that breaks down the barrier between like, oh yeah, here's 5 sleep tips so that you feel more well-rested, so you're more productive at your work job, you know, that that's something that is definitely good and is definitely achievable and beneficial, but it doesn't quite hit the same as seeing or thinking about, um, ancient warriors of old and like, man, how can I get that strong? Or, and all the rest of it.

Yeah, you know, and I think that's such an important factor is like the storytelling aspect of it, right? Because we're naturally like storytelling oriented, right? Like All like, we aren't getting, you know, like 5 sleep tips from like the ancient Greeks. We're getting the stories of Odysseus, of Achilles. Like it's all story-based. So I'm in the same boat with that. It's like, you know, how can you tell a convincing story and an aspirational story? And it's so pervasive across a lot of ancient cultures, that idea of like achieving self-actualization and like pushing yourself to be, you know, above for all intents and purposes, like what the status quo could be. You know, for you it sounds like a lot of that's in like ancient Greece. For me, a lot of that was like the Renaissance Man idea, and most importantly like ancient Eastern culture. So I was always obsessed with samurais, you know, like I just love that idea, right, of like the warrior poet, like someone who can be diplomatic, can be skilled fighter, can be mindful, and like all the above. And yeah, dude, I really think there is pressure by the modern world for people to specialize and to stay in their lane lane, because that's what's most effective for like a community and a society as a whole. If you're just like a cog in a machine. But in reality, we all have this intrinsic nature to be, you know, the jack of all trades, to really like chase greatness and like pursue mastery in multiple fields, because that's what yielded the highest chance of survival. Right. You know, we haven't really had any significant biological adaptations for the last 50,000 years. 50,000 years ago, there was no hierarchical corporate structure. There was like, you need to survive. You have a small tribe that you may be able to split responsibilities with, but if you don't know how to like cook for yourself, how to eat for yourself, how to defend yourself, how to articulate yourself, how to connect, how to do all of these things that are so intrinsic to human nature, you probably won't pass on your genetics.

Yeah, I think— I forget who says it, but there was a quote that I really like: specialization is for insects.

Yeah, and, um, that's one of my favorite.

Yeah, it's, it's kind of just saying that yes, you need to have something that is your kind of core skill, that you— that is going to be something that you're the best at, that you're most interested in, and develop that. But if you ignore your weaknesses, then eventually they become the chinks in your armor that lead to issues. If you neglect your flexibility like I have, then you're going to lead to some mobility issues, and that then and impacts like even me working at my desk to do the thing that I'm, you know, let's say called to do in terms of putting out content and researching and what all the rest of it. It's like because I've neglected my flexibility somewhat, then that becomes an issue that impacts into other areas of my life. So, the pure specialisation of the academic who, "Lifting weights isn't good for me," or "I don't need to be a bro and all that," but then you can't do the research that you need to because your body is breaking down. Then it's, it's not that you need to be an expert in everything, although I think for the most part if you read 3 books on any subject you're going to become a relative expert. Like, that's just the way that it is. So it's really not that much of a time investment to be pretty well learned and knowledgeable about these things in a couple weeks or even a few hours of intensive internet research. So don't let that become like a a wall that you think it's intimidating, that I can't— like, I don't— I'm not flexible naturally, like, why should I even do that? Or like, whatever it is, um, I think the bar is a lot lower than people think in order to become— it's like you're saying, uh, the first gains into anything come very, very quickly because that's how humans work. Uh, the noob gains of weightlifting, you're gonna put on weight like mad and muscle researching something, then being knowledgeable about nutrition even through a couple of hours research is going to be better than being so many leagues better than, um, zero knowledge. And then you don't necessarily have to dive into that last 20%. Uh, the Pareto principle— 80% of your gains is coming from the first, uh, 20% of knowledge, I think, um, something like that. But the thing being A lot of the benefits come from the marginal first efforts and things, to which point that going on a hunting trip, even though you've never done it, now you have some at least core knowledge of what to do in those situations. And that can go for anything.

Yeah. And you know, the scariest thing about specialization, it is enticing, right? It's like, wow, I could focus on this one thing and experience outsourced returns. So a lot of people do, like, they'll throw all of their identity and all of their life into like one avenue, but you're highly dependent then and you're stuck in that realm no matter what, you know, what happens when that skill no longer is necessary or becomes outsourced to technology. You know, for me, the biggest thing was I know that I'm obsessed with a bunch of different things. I know that my real skill is like that initial skill acquisition. So I'm going to focus on meta skills that apply to any endeavor that I want to go on. That means like when I get bored or when I figure out that the thing that I'm pursuing is no longer what I want to pursue, I'm not losing like a lot of fixed costs and deadweight. I have all these skills that I acquired I can take somewhere else. And, you know, I think the best thing to do is just to fall in love with the process of learning new things and getting good at things. Like, that's really what I find the most intrinsic enjoyment in, is that initial growth curve, because it's like starting something new. It's like I learn it so quickly. If I'm doing the same thing I did, you know, every single day for the last, you know, 4 years, incremental growth is a lot slower and a lot smaller. So it definitely helps, I think, especially in the world that we're living in where everything is getting outsourced. Specialization has become more and more easy to be automated. You know, we're seeing that now with like copywriting, we're seeing it with design, we're seeing with all these things that people spent their entire life specializing in. It's terrifying. I think it should scare anybody into becoming more of a generalist and more importantly, focus on being T-shaped. Sure, be in the top 1% of one category and have a lot of depth, but try to aim to be in the top 5% of at least like 5 other categories. And it's a lot easier to get into the top 5% than it is to be in the top 1%.

Yeah, beautiful stuff, man. Well, Noah Ryan, what are you working on? Where can people reach you?

Twitter's the best. I tweet a lot on there. My DMs are always open. In terms of what I'm working on, you know, growing health brands and really big focus now is like helping people with of like lifestyle optimization in terms of like lab tests and addressing like major low-hanging fruits in terms of health, whether it be heavy metal toxicity or gut issues. But, uh, yeah, I'm on Twitter. DMs are always open.

Beautiful, man. Well, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for your knowledge. Thank you for joining me on the Soulcast. And, uh, thank you all for listening at home.

Thanks for having me, man. I really appreciate it. I enjoyed our talk.

My pleasure. See you later.

Have a good one.